SUZERAIN OF THE EARTH PART THREE

This part deals with the involvement of GRU SV-8, some events that you can use to punctuate the scenario, how Coney Island Carpets and Bekhterev respond to the player's actions and escalate the scenario themselves, and lastly some tips on resolving the scenario and statblocks. You can find parts one and two here. 

GRU SV-8

The Tadjbegskaya Bratva are not without their rivals however, and one of its most persistent enemies is the secret Russian counter-mythos agency, GRU SV-8. Besides SV-8's mandate to protect the Russian states and her peoples from unnatural terror, its leader, General Alexandr Zimyanin, has a personal vendetta against the Men of Leng and those who make deals with them - a grudge he owes to the three years of slavery and torture he endured while in the Men of Leng's captivity. Zimyanin has dedicated considerable attention and resources to pursuing and violently exterminating the Men of Leng and their collaborators on earth. 

SV-8 knows about the New York plan, and wishes to intervene, though this will need to delicately done. Their connections in America and few and far between, so as things pan out, they may need to turn to unlikely allies - They may need to turn to Delta Green.

In Delta Green: Countdown, SV-8 has yet to make formal contact with Delta Green, and treating this as their default state in the 90s, this would make this contact in New York the first contact SV-8 has ever actually had with the new Delta Green. Of course, this might not be the case in your game for one reason or another, so adjust to your preference.

 SV-8 Assets

SV-8 suffers from a huge manpower deficit, and so sending over a Spetsnaz hit-team to New York to sniff out and murder Konstantin Bekhterev is too high-risk a move for SV-8's tastes. They have resorted to other, subtler methods. Depending on how you want the scenario to pan out, you can pick and choose what resources SV-8 brings to bear to try to help out Delta Green in resolving this issue.

The first are its Sleeper Agents. So-called because while they spend their waking hours training, studying, and protecting the SV-8 headquarters, these former Spetsnaz operators do their real duty for SV-8 in their sleep. SV-8 has specially trained two men to enter the Plateau of Leng in their dreams in order to spy on the Men of Leng and their minions in their native plane. These two operatives, Vasili and Fadey, have been running a spy-ring in the Plateau of Leng for over five years, and they have considerable intelligence. Vasili and Fadey cannot materialize in New York (unless the agents activate the dream-gate), and therefore cannot provide help in that way, but they are more than willing to feed agents information in their dreams, including warnings, intelligence, and other information to help them. Vasili and Fadey may be able to kill Bekhterev if they're able to convince the agents into forcing him through the dream-gate in the basement of the Nedelko House (he would appear in the Plateau of Leng on the other side, where Vasili and Fadey would ambush and kill him). 

The second option is Neil and Francis Cooper. Detailed in Delta Green: Countdown, these two actual sleeper agents were activated by SV-8 to operate in the United States after a prolonged period of inactivity. The Coopers are two very elderly spies, and although their tradecraft skills haven't diminished, their physical fitness has, and they're no longer the able-bodied badass soviet spies they once were. They rely primarily on their tradecraft skills and pre-planning to keep an edge against the competition. They're highly observant, cautious, and plan every action in great detail to avoid trouble. In a fight, they'll opt not to fight at all, either they'll use suppressing fire, distractions, or other methods to throw up a "smokescreen" and ditch the fight entirely, or (if they know its coming), they'll orchestrate it meticulously so that what happens is not really much of a fight at all, just a sudden rash of gunfire and then silence. The Coopers have been activated by SV-8 after a period of prolonged dormancy and have been tasked with tracking down the Black Icons. If you don't want to include the Skoptsi, then this assignment is a small deviation from their original assignment they've been asked to cover last-minute. 

The main benefit the Coopers can offer is intelligence. They have been watching Bekhterev for weeks and, once they realize the agents can be directed to "eliminate" Bekhterev, they'll share what they've learned. They never volunteer that they are secretly Russian spies, never share their names, and never let them be ambushed or cornered. If asked, they declare themselves "concerned citizens" and stonewall further questions, claiming they are "unimportant to your real problem". They'll offer what they know pro bono, as a "demonstration of what we can do to help". 

Bekhterev Settles Business

Kostya Bekhterev is in New York to break ground for a new Operation for the Bratva. To do this, he has to see that the Nedelko House Gate is activated, and that the operation is given the blessing of The Fate. These events can be used to punctuate the scenario. 

The Skoptsi Delegation

The Skoptsi are an ancient castration cult that fled the crumbling Russian Empire for the United States in the 1920s. They are described in greater detail in "Delta Green: Countdown" and in the upcoming "Delta Green: The Millennium". What's important is that they're a small, tightly-knit cult of Shub-Niggurath that resides along the Eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland.

The Skoptsi are looking for some holy artifacts called the Black Icons which are essential to "revitalizing" their cult. They're quest for the Icons has mostly been done through contacts in the Russian Mafia, one of their contacts eventually pointed them to the Tadjbegskaya Bratva. 

At a time that feels appropriate for you while the agents are surveilling Kostya Bekhterev, he takes a cab to the Red Star Lounge, a Russian bar in Brighton Beach. He takes with him a large dufflebag. At the Red Star, he meets with delegates from the Skoptsi - Natalia Chermeninko, flanked by two jacked Georgian bruisers. Chermeninko isn't a cult member but has been on retainer as their delegate to the mob, and to steal back the Icons. Agents surveilling the meeting will watch Bekhterev and Chermeninko meet at a booth at the Red Star Lounge, talk for about 30 minutes before they get up and leave and head around back to a parked car. Bekhterev opens the bag and removes something wrapped in bubblewrap about the size of a restaurant menu, made from wood. Agents will "occult" or a suitable background would recognize it as a Russian orthodox icon, though they likely won't see its details. Chermeninko then leads Bekhterev to a parked car and opens the trunk. Observant agents will see the bound and gagged man squirming in the backseat. Satisfied, Bekhterev closes the trunk and shakes hands with the Skoptsi. Chermeninko gives him the keys to the car and gets into another car driven by one of her Georgian gangsters and drives off. Bekhterev gets in the car and drives to the construction site. He parks it in an area hidden from the street and takes the man downstairs and sacrifices him in front of the gate - a measure taken to keep it "fed" and activated. 

If agents follow him into the building, he engages in a brief firefight until he can reach one of the Gates, where he then leaves, closing the Gate behind him 1D3 rounds later. The kidnapped man can be identified as Jay Lloyd, a convicted sex offender and pedophile who had gone missing in March of last year. If the agents take Lloyd into questioning, he can offer them answers to 1D3 meaningful questions before he is Silenced (See "SILENCED" under Stimulation and Response). His answers can inform the agents on the Skoptsi or the Bratva's activities in New York. Lloyd will claim he was hired by some Russians to produce illegal child abuse material somewhere in Maryland. He knows another guy he was hired with was murdered by the Russians as part of a ritual wherein he was castrated and fed to a monster. He doesn't remember any names of the Skoptsi's leadership, but knows he worked for a "Babushka" that could "fuck with his mind", and that Chermeninko answered to a "bald old Russian guy that smoked a bunch". 

Agents can disrupt the meeting, but will find that Chermeninko and her men are no chumps. The two that accompany her into the Red Star have beretta handguns, and if there's trouble, she has two more goons waiting in a car nearby with Mac-10s who will try to run up on the agents from behind. She isn't interested in fighting through a shootout though, and it'll be a running gun-battle to the exits, and then to her getaway car. 

Club Apocalypse

One "T" that needs to be crossed before the Bratva can get down to business is dealing with the rulers of New York City - The Network. Nobody can do business in New York without the Network's knowing, certainly not without their consent, and so before the Bratva can begin moving human cargo through the Nedelko House Gate, they need to clear it with The Network. At a time that feels appropriate to the Handler (after the Skoptsi delegation, if you included it), Bekhterev drives from Coney Island to Alphabet City in Manhattan and goes partying at Club Apocalypse. 

His night at Club Apocalypse can be a moment for the agents to try some social infiltration to get close to him, that being said Bekhterev is brusque and all business and doesn't bother with any dancing while there. He waits at the bar for a few hours until someone from security comes out and tells him that "Mr. Alzis will see you now". He is then led across the dancefloor to the Green Bar, where he is seated across from Stephen Alzis. Agents can attempt to sweet-talk, seduce, or bribe their way into the Green Bar to eavesdrop on the conversation, or can try the same tactics to get the details from someone else after the fact. If they do, they learn that Alzis' condition for the Bratva to do its business in New York is for a cut of the profits, non-interference with the Network and its enterprises, and that he attend and participate in the Network's Summer Solstice Rituals on the 21st of June. If Bekhterev knows that Delta Green are onto him, he will request the Network take care of them for him. If you feel the need to amp up the tension for your scenario, Alzis says he'll "see what he can do", and musters a small hit-team of Neophytes to knock over the Agents, but normally he brushes it offer, telling Bekhterev that if he can't deal with delta green, then maybe this line of work isn't cut out from him. He then quickly grows bored of their conversation and dismisses Bekhterev. 

Who Would Talk to Delta Green?

- you mask ask. The answer is, lots of people for lots of reasons. Those reasons might not be immediately obvious to players - something the players can ponder over and slowly discover the more they interact with The Fate. Some reasons could be:

Alzis or Belial might want to see the Bratva's operation go belly-up without being seen to sabotage them directly. Alzis' plans are occult and ineffable, but are likely part of a longer play. Belial is a long-term planner too, though he might be motivated by a simple distrust for the Russian mafia... or a disdain for Russians. Old prejudices die hard. 

Anton Merriweather might be motivated to throw a monkey-wrench in the plan if he thinks Belial stands to lose. He's itching to get out from under his thumb and would relish the opportunity to confound Club Apocalypse's manager.

The agents may be approached by The Keepers of The Fate. They could be approached directly by a Ghoul swaddled in a heavy, musty cloak who speaks to them from a shadowed alcove, or perhaps they're confronted during the day by one of their human servitors, a dirty hobo with a glassy, distant stare, who offers them a letter - written on the back of an oil-stained New York Metro memo in fine-looking calligraphy and sealed with wax, beckoning them for a meeting in New York. The agents that agree to the meeting are directed to the mouth of a storm drain - and the next thing they know they're at a bodega with coffee and a meal in front of them, they have no memory of the meeting, but they're notepad contains key pieces on information from the meeting written in their handwriting. Small SAN hit to realize they've had their memories wiped. The Keeper's motivations are... difficult to gauge, but if pressed for answers they might claim that the Bratva's activities stand to confound their plans, or bolster their enemies. They may be doing this as a favor for Agramant Page, a leader among Long Island's ghoul clans who has had difficulty resisting the Bratva, but whose religious doctrine forbids from calling on the aid of humans. 

The Solstice Ritual

On the 21st of June, Bekhterev drives out to the Moritaum Estate, a sprawling mansion in the South Hamptons owned by the senior leadership of The Fate, to attend The Fate's summer solstice rituals. The estate is detailed in Delta Green: Eyes Only, but in essence: it's an enourmous mansion stocked with occult texts and artifacts of every variety. The mansion is staffed by gardeners, security guards, cooking and cleaning staff, and butlers - all of whom are Egyptian cultists of the Black Pharaoh brough to work for the mansion by Emir Agdesh, a venerated priest-sorcerer of Nyarlathotep and a leader of The Fate. 

Numerous Lords are in attendance, and at sundown, the rituals begins. These are obscene and unsettling ablutions to Yog-Sothoth, Nyarlathotep, and Azathoth that include chanting, dancing, flagellation, animal and human sacrifice, it's all extremely distressing to witness with major SAN hits all around. Agents that decide to interrupt the ritual... don't get very far. One Lord on their own is enough to put a cell of agents through their paces. The agents would suddenly be dealing with a congregation of about 15-20 of them, plus Belial, plus Alzis, plus Bekhterev, plus Agdesh's security, plus whatever horrific monster the Lords deign to summon to brutalize the agents. It's my opinion that you shouldn't 'punish' your players for bad luck, but you should punish them for bad decisions. This is one of those decisions. If you're feeling merciful, or don't want to play out the slaughter beat by beat, simply cut away to the agents driving away frantically. One player is missing half their SAN, the other is missing a limb, all others died in ways that will haunt their cohorts until the day they die. 

But that isn't to say the Solstice Ritual is just a cutscene for the agents to see some fucked up stuff and then go home. There's room for creativity. The occasion does offer something the agents don't have a lot of in NYC, privacy. Canny agents might think to prepare an ambush for Bekhterev on his way home from the ritual in the wee hours of the morning. He'll be exhausted and driving alone, perfect place to drive him off the road, or lay a spike trip for him, or to blow his tires with a sniper shot. If they know about it in advance, they might even be able to catch him before he arrives at the ritual. Alternatively, delaying or disallowing him from participating in the ritual will bode poorly for him. Regardless of what excuses he gives, The Fate will take his lack of punctuality as a grave insult and will issue a direct ultimatum: get out of New York, or pay for the indiscretion either with money... or by killing the Delta Green agents that delayed him. 

Allowing Bekhterev to complete the ritual is not good. It isn't a fail state, but the scenario gets notably more difficult. The primary thing is that he'll be fed information through The Fate that's been collected by their Adepts. Almost everything the agents do will be known to him, and ambushing him will be almost impossible, not only that, but if he goes to Alzis and asks for help dealing with Delta Green, Alzis accepts and will send a bigger cadre of Neophytes to dispose of the Agents. 

Stimulation and Response

A big part of this scenario is investigation and intelligence gathering. Agents that want to stake out a location or tail a person-of-interest will need succeed Stealth and Alertness rolls. The Stealth roll is to stop them from giving themselves away. The Alertness roll is to see whether or not they know they've been made or not. Agents can try to ditch the operation with another Stealth roll at -20%. A success means they break off without being noticed, and their target is less likely to believe they were really being followed. A failure confirms the targets suspicions that they're under surveillance, and that provokes a reaction. 

I can't right an exhaustive "if X happens, do Y". What I can tell you is to consider what the bad guys know, and what they can intuit. Once the bad guys know they're under surveillance, based on what they've seen so far, do they assume its the police? A rival criminal outfit or sorcerer? The Fate? Consider how they would react based on that info. 

For example, most career criminals (such as Coney Island Carpets) won't put out a hit on an FBI agent if they know they're under surveillance. They're more likely to just go about their business, refraining from any incriminating activity, and laying low until the heat dies down. But if they think the people following them are agents of La Cosa Nostra or something, then some calls are made, favours exchanged, and a hitman is solicited to find and kill the offending party. Of course, that hitman is gonna be really pissed when he finds out he was hired to kill an FBI agent. 

Bekhterev, of course, is an exception to this. He isn't afraid of American police, and if he learns he's under investigation, he believes his technique of magically driving agents to suicide is investigation-proof, and he'll start making arrangements to cast the spell on the agents. He'll still avoid doing anything incriminating, and won't pull a gun on an agent and kill them that way - because that's a crime that he can get pinned for. 

Counter-Surveillance

As above, if Coney Island Carpets realizes they're under scrutiny, they report it to Taras Dzubenko, who notifies Kostya Bekhterev. Their blanket assumption is that they're under watch by the FBI. CIC has a meeting in their breakroom the next morning where Taras tells them this, and gives marching orders: It's business as usual. They continue the remodelling of the Nedelko House and go about their business as per usual, but all illicit activities are off. No soliciting hookers, no illegal gambling on the weekends, no drugs, don't go around carrying a piece, if anyone in the mafia tries to talk to you, just say you'll "Talk to them after dinner" (code for "I'm being watched right now, fuck off"). 

Kostya has suspicions though, and makes discrete inquiries either for CIC to watch their watchers. While risky, they agree to it. It's not illegal to notice you're under surveillance. A few CIC workers are called up and asked to keep an eye out. A few of them lounge outside the Nedelko house on lawn chairs listening to sports radio, eating submarine sandwiches and drinking coke. They keep an eye out for anyone watching, and if they spot one (that is, they defeat the agents' stealth roll with their alertness), they get up to "go to the store" and try to make a discrete pass by the agents and get a good look at them. The agents can make a stealth or diguise check to disguise that they're federal agents, if that's what they want. The Cleaner should make his own test to see if he can spot anything "tells" that they're feds. A success means he goes back and tells his friends they're under surveillance, a failure means he's still unsure. 

The Hit

If CIC believes the agents aren't police or federal agents, they arrange for them to be killed. The agents are followed to their hotel rooms and their movements are watched by off-the-clock CIC Cleaners. When the moment feels right, they make their move. If they think they can take them, then two gunmen armed with handguns ambush the agents, either at a restaurant or at their motel, or during a surveillance shift. If not, then at night CIC will try to plant a bomb on an Agent's car. 

CIC might incorrectly deduce this if the agents do something that is blatantly illegal, like assassinate or torture someone connected to the operation, or behave more like criminals than cops.  

The Doll and the Torturer

The story changes if CIC or Bekhterev learn the agents are feds. CIC doesn't do anything aggressive and goes about their business, but Bekhterev hatches a plan. Based on findings from the counter-surveillance op, he'll do his best to gather a piece of DNA from the agents (a hair from their motel pillow, saliva from cups and plates from take-out, finger nail clippings). He'll resort to burglarizing their motel room and car if he thinks he can, but otherwise will pay a crack addict to do it for cash and rock. 

He then holes himself away and creates a Nightmare Doll of the agent and begins torturing them psychically in their sleep. His goal is to wear down their WP until it's low enough that they can be possessed by a Moon Beast, who will delight in torturing their body to death. If he learns somewhere along the line that the agents are part of an illegal conspiracy (which he might, if he's rattling around in their heads while they sleep), then he arranges for a meeting where he gives his ultimatum: He destroys the doll if all the agents give him a DNA sample and promise to stay out of his business. He arranges to meet publically at a diner. If the agents haven't already tried to kill him, he comes without any bodyguards. 

Brothers and the Hound

Once the portal is active, and Bekhterev knows he's under threat by an enemy that's looking to kill him rather than arrest and try him, he calls for backup. Two more fixers from the Bratva arrive to help him. They try to protect and subvert the agents however they can. Once the next New Moon arrives, the three convene in the basement of the Nedelko House and conduct a ritual to summon a Charnel Hound (See "Agent RENKO" in The Labyrinth) and sic it on the Agents. 

Silenced

If Dzubenko, Bekhterev, or any of the other CIC Cleaners or Bratva fixers are captured and interrogated, there's a response. Agents that resort to conventional interrogation can win about 1D4 meaningful answers out of their prisoner, while agents that resort to torture (and succeed the associated rolls, and take the SAN loss for doing that) can win 1D4+1 answers. Don't tell them this before the interrogation starts, because the reason they only get that many answers if because after the final answer is given, the Bratva makes their move, and an extradimensional horror manifests into the room and destorys their prisoner before their very eyes. 

The horror in question is up to you, but I present two options. The Charnel Hound is tried and true and makes for a neat encounter, in which case the agents sense it bursting into the room invisibly before de-cloaking long enough to brutalize its screaming victim. 

An alternative is "The Flautist". The Flautist is an eight-foot tall abomination will a long, ant-eater-like snout whose flesh appears to be made from black marble, though it moves like any other living creature. The flautist plays a long, alien looking flute that it immediately blows upon materializing. All agents in its vicinity take 1D3 Damage from the jarring, alien cacophony that comes out, and they witness their prisoner immediately burst into flames. The fire deals 1D6 damage each round and will not go out no matter what until the prisoner is dead. A round after the prisoner is dead, all flammable materials within reach of the Flautist ignite, and the turn after that everything in the room bursts into flame. The agents cannot damage the flautist at all, and each turn spent in an enclosed space with it provokes a CONx5 roll to resist being temporarily deafened for 1D6 hours. The flautist does not pursue them beyond the bounds of the interrogation area if the agents flee, and dematerializes a few rounds after setting its surroundings on fire. 

Resolutions

The scenario has no strict order of events, just a list of things locations and peoples of interest, and some events that unfold as the scenario escalates, namely the Skoptsi delegation and the human sacrifice to activate the Gate, and then later the Solstice Ritual and the pact with The Fate. The agents have a problem they need to deal with and should be free to explore options for doing so. Here are a few ideas for how to wrap up the scenario if you're curious.

Assassination

Perhaps the easiest way to solve the scenario is to locate and assassinate Kostya Bekhterev. Kostya is a sorcerer but he's not invincible super-soldier. Agents that carefully plan and execute the hit should be rewarded for their diligence with a quick and dirty sniper shot or drive-by killing. It might feel anti-climactic, but in my experience agents like to have their hard work pay off with good results. That isn't to say go easy on them, no at all, consider the flaws in their plan and if anything is left unchecked, throw in a monkey wrench and watch the whole thing devolve into a bloody, fucked up brawl.

Just killing Bekhterev, however, does not actually solve the scenario. If the Gate under the Nedelko House hasn't been compromised, then the Bratva sends another fixer to oversee its activation. Perhaps let your agents rest for a week before A-Cell reactivates them and tells them their work isn't done, or perhaps A-Cell lets them rest and musters another cell to clean it up.  

Search Warrant

Raiding the Nedelko House will require the agents to contrive a good story to justify it. NYPD SWAT can be mustered and will break in the doors and arrest anyone there. The raid can be triggered to paralyze CIC while the agents assassinate Bekhterev, or it can be used to give a cover for the agents to blow up the gate (and later claim their were illegal explosives in the basement that randomly went off during the fighting). The Agents might even prompt the raid to get CIC out of the Nedelko House, so they can go in the next night and blow up the gate. 

If Bekhterev is caught up in the raid, then he'll try to activate through the Gate (if it's activated). If not, he gives up without a fight and demands a lawyer. Killing Bekhterev extrajudicially during the raid is possible, but needs to be done without NYPD SWAT seeing it. The shooting will go before a board, and any witnesses from the NYPD won't think twice to testify that a federal agent gunned down a man who was complying with an arrest. Bekhterev will wait until a mob lawyer comes to help him out, and if the case presented against him is flimsy, then he stands a good chance of getting off. Killing him now will provoke even more suspicion if the agents can't provide watertight alibis. If the charges stick and he's convincted, he's unbothered. He allows himself to be taken to prison where he resides for about a month until he's discovered missing one morning with no evidence of how he escaped.

This can blossom into a whole new fucked up scenario, as Bekhterev will decide to return to NYC and hunt down the agents. He'll go after their friends and family, collecting DNA samples and furnishing Nightmare Dolls to torture them to death one-by-one until only the Agents are left. 

Demolition or Deactivation

The best way to permanently solve the scenario is render the Gate inoperable. This can be done by literally blowing it up or casting a Closing of the Breach (Gate) ritual. Dr. Jensen Wu has a tome in his collection that can do just the trick, and he'll be willing to make a brief trip out to Coney Island to cast it on the condition that he'll be kept safe. The ritual involves a brief invocation and the burning of incense, followed by the glyphs of the Gate being defaced with an enchanted hammer (this can literally be a store-bought sledgehammer). 

Important Characters

KOSTYA BEKHTEREV

Konstantin “Kostya” Bekhterev was a tanker, a gunner in a T-62 Main Battle Tank, who crossed over into Leng with the rest of his platoon. In the years since this incident he has spent three to four years in Leng, although he estimates that given the strange ways that time works (or doesn’t work) in Leng, he’s only really spent maybe two months absent from the “real world”. 

He’s grown “close” with several of the horrific beings of Leng, and frequently gambles with them, betting rubies and other strange artifacts with them on games of chance and the bloodsports in Sarkomand. His time spent in the dreamlands has earned him certain abilities that have earned him greater responsibility in the Bratva. He has become something of a burgeoning sorcerer, which, coupled with his grasp of Pashto and English, make him highly eligible to lead the expansion of the Bratva’s operations, both in the Middle East and English-speaking world. He has become a trusted Fixer for the Bratva, and is trusted with missions in America and the United Kingdom. He has encountered both agents of Delta Green, GRU SV-8, and PISCES. Whether he survives these encounters and for how long is for the Handlers and players to determine in their own game.

Bekhterev stands at 5’9”. He has short brown hair and a mustache, heavy eyes with dark circles under them. He often conceals his face tattoos with makeup. He is often dressed in leather jackets and cargo pants, with a few gold chains and rings on his fingers. He carries a Marakov with him in a concealed holster most of the time, and will only carry heavy weaponry if he feels he is under threat. Bekhterev is tormented by recurring nightmares that involve a city sunken beneath heavy waves and a wordless voice that seems to beckon him. 

KONSTANTIN “KOSTYA” BEKHTEREV

Vory v Zakone of the Tadjbegskye Bratva, Nightmare Artisan, Physically 29 (64 as of 2023)

STR 13 CON 14 DEX 13 INT 11 POW 12 CHA 7

HP 13 WP 14 SAN 24 BREAKING POINT 12

MOTIVATIONS AND DISORDERS Ascend in rank.

Unlock the higher mysteries.

Paranoia

Obsession (Deciphering his dreams).

PTSD

Adapted to Helplessness and Violence

LANGUAGES: Russian (Native), English 40%, Pashto 20%, Oeuth 25%

ARMOR Kevlar Vest, 3 (only if expecting an attack)

SKILLS Accounting 25%, Alertness 50%, Art (Dollmaking) 61%, Artillery 30%, Athletics 60%, Bureaucracy 28%, Craft (Mechanic) 55%, Criminology 58%, Disguise 60%, Drive 50%, Firearms 47%, Heavy Machinery 30%, Heavy Weapons 70%, Melee Weapons 34%, Military Science (Land) 50%, Occult 60%, Persuade 57%, Pilot (Tank) 45%, Psychotherapy 75%, Sigint 20%, Stealth 38%, Unarmed 40%, Unnatural 18%

ATTACKS Unarmed 40% 1d4+1

Makarov w/ Integral Suppressor 47% 1d8

Škorpion vz. 61 47% 1d10 or Lethality 10%

Chinese Type 56 47% 1d12+1 or Lethality 10%

SPELLS Create Nightmare Idol, Summonings of the Exalted Torturer, Speaking Dream, Open Gate, See the Other Side, Infallible Suggestion

AURA OF TERROR Those afflicted by Bekhterev’s nightmares, whether or not they actually recognize him, feel instinctually threatened by his presence. CHAx5 and Persuade rolls he makes at them are at +20%. They’re filled by a need to not anger Bekhterev and “go along” with whatever he says. This allows him to make otherwise outrageous demands of his victims, like making a concierge tell him the full legal name and room number of a hotel guest, or to allow him entry into a club for free. If Bekhterev attempts to use infallible suggestion on one of his victims, the opposed POW roll to cast it automatically succeeds. 

AGELESS Kostya, like other members of the Tadjbegskye Bratva, is somehow unaffected by the passage of linear time and does not age.

TARAS DZUBENKO

Taras Dzubenko is the president of Coney Island Carpets. He says he left his native Ukraine after the fall of the Soviet Union, working for a cleaning company in New York City before setting out to start his own business. The truth is that before coming to America, he spent most of his life in Russian prisons, and his first job in this country was as muscle for mafia boss Vyacheslav Ivankov. He survived Ivankov’s downfall and leveraged his experience into founding Coney Island Carpets.

Today Dzubenko has a name among the criminal underworld. Other gangs pay to have his men clean up evidence of their crimes, and their speed and efficiency means they are always in demand. Crime is not a career path with good benefits, but Dzubenko has saved enough that he’s starting to think retirement is an option. That is his ultimate goal. He doesn’t want to be rich, he just wants enough money that he never has to stick his neck out again. The thought of going back to prison is so terrifying that when threatened with arrest or prison time, he must make a SAN roll. If he fails, he tries to kill the person issuing the threat, even if that means fighting to the death.

Dzubenko is 47 years old and, with knobby knuckles and cauliflower ears, he looks like he’s had to fight his way through every one of them. He also sports elaborate tattoos from his time in prison:

The Madonna and Child, covering his chest. It means he first went to prison at a young age.

A knife in his neck. It means he killed someone in prison and can be hired to kill others.

Eight-pointed stars on both knees. It means he kneels before no man and will never cooperate with authorities.

An Agent with Criminology 30% recognizes their significance. However, Taras also knows how suspicious they are and wears long clothing to hide them. Spotting his tattoos incidentally requires an Alertness roll with a -20% penalty. He’s not in the office during business hours unless Rogers has scheduled a meeting with legitimate customers: he typically joins the cleaners on their obs, though he never goes on “emergency cleanings,” another euphemism for illegal crime scene cleanup.

TARAS DZUBENKO

gangster looking to get out

STR 14 CON 13 DEX 13 INT 11 POW 11 CHA 7

HP 14 WP 11 SAN 41

MOTIVATIONS AND DISORDERS: Save up and retire, 

stay out of prison, 

post-traumatic stress disorder, 

adapted to violence

Skills: Alertness 50%, Athletics 50%, Criminology 80%, Disguise 50%, Dodge 40%, Drive 50%, Firearms 60%, Foreign Language (Russian) 99%, Forensics 70%, Law 40%, Melee Weapons 60%, Persuade 50%, Stealth 50%, Unarmed Combat 50%

Attacks: Mini Uzi SMG 60% (1D10 or Lethality 10%), Punch 50% (1D4)

CONEY ISLAND CARPETS "CLEANERS"

The cleaning staff consists of eight Russian gangsters loyal to Dzubenko. These men handle any off-the-books “emergency cleanings.” They know how to cover their tracks: following them to or from a crime scene may, at the Handler’s discretion, call for an opposed roll of the Agents’ Alertness against the cleaners’ Stealth. The cleaners are armed, but fighting draws unwanted attention, so they will first try to flee if their work is interrupted.

CONEY ISLAND CARPETS "CLEANERS",

making problems disappear

STR 12 CON 10 DEX 10 INT 9 POW 9 CHA 7

HP 11 WP 9
Motivations & Disorders: Do what Dzubenko says, don’t get caught, adapted to violence

Skills: Athletics 50%, Drive 50%, Firearms 40%, Foreign Language (Russian) 99%, Forensics 70%, Melee Weapons 40%, Stealth 50%, Unarmed Combat 50%

Attacks: Light pistol w/ silencer 40% (1D8), Box cutter 40% (1D4), Punch 50% (1D4-1)

Silenced Pistols: The cleaners use weapons that make little noise. It takes an Alertness roll at a -20% penalty to hear their gunfire.

MOON BEAST-POSSESSED HUMAN

The primary way that Kostya Bekhterev likes to punish people looking in on his affairs is through a ritual called Summons of the Exalted Torturer, which channels the mind of a Moon Beast (a particular one that actuallys pays Kostya for the pleasure) into a living human body, whereupon the Moon Beast takes it's pleasure by slowly, brutally, torturing the possessed human to death while it controls their body. 

THE EXALTED TORTURER

Human being under posssession of a Moon Beast.

STR as host CON as host DEX host +2 INT 10 POW 16

HP as host WP 16

ARMOR: see UNFORMED SPIRIT

SKILLS: Alertness 60%, Art (pick one) 40%, Athletics 40%, Craft (pick one) 50%, HUMINT 50%, Search 50%, Stealth 30%, Unnatural 20%

LANGUAGES: Moon Beast, Oeuth + host’s languages

RITUALS: Moonbeast priest in the service of Nyarlathotep often have access to the following rituals: Clairvoyance (Handler’s Guide, pg 176), Fascination (Handler’s Guide, pg 180), and Immortal Messenger (Handler’s Guide, pg 180).

ATTACKS: As host

PSYCHIC COMMUNICATION: Moonbeasts are able to communicate ideas telepathically, at a range of 80 meters. This communication allows for the sharing of abstract ideas, as well as anything the moonbeast has sensed or has memories of. Those who are communicated with in this fashion are unlikely to realize anything unnatural has occurred unless it is pointed out after the fact.

UNFORMED SPIRIT: A moonbeast that is possessing a person is not harmed by the death of their host under normal circumstances. Unless the host is slain with hypergeometry, the moonbeast returns to the Dreamlands unharmed. Rituals such as Exorcism can force a moonbeast out of the host's body, but as long as the host's dreamform remains imprisoned by moonbeasts, they risk repossession each time they sleep. If the moonbeast’s host is killed with hypergeometry, the moonbeast is destroyed as well.

SAN LOSS: none

Rituals

Create Nightmare Idol

Elaborate Ritual. Study Time: Days; 1d4. Activation Hours; 1d4 SAN; 6 WP; 1d3 HP; requires DNA sample

This spell, taught by the Men of Leng and traditionally used by the Tcho-Tcho, allows for the operator to inflict horrific nightmares on a victim of their choosing. The spell requires that a sample of the victim (blood, skin, hair, etc.) be incorporated into the making of a small doll, as well as the blood of the operator. The dolls are usually made to resemble the victim (for the sake of remembering which dolls afflicts which victim). Bekhterev’s dolls vaguely resemble Matryoshka Dolls, the DNA is kept in a bundle of fabric and straw in the doll’s center. Once the doll is complete, when its victim is asleep, the operator may utter a prayer to Yog-Sothoth over the idol and psychically control their dreams. Bekhterev uses this to harass and intimidate enemies of the Bratva in their dreams, typically by feeding them dreams of harming themselves or loved ones. Victims of the nightmare lose 1d6 SAN and that much WP. They do not regain any willpower from that night’s sleep. Victims that hit their breaking point due to the spell are liable to develop sleeping disorders, victims that reach 0 SAN because of the spell are no longer able to distinguish dream from reality, and may begin to act out on their harmful delusions. 

Summons of the Exalted Torturer (Call Forth Those From Outside: Moon Beast)

Elaborate Ritual. Study Time: Weeks; 1d6. Activation Hours; 1d6 SAN; 12 WP; non-Dreamlands casting requires a human host.

This spell beckons for Moon Beast to the operator either for its audience or to bargain for it to complete a task. If cast in the dreamlands, it only demands 1d3 SAN and 6 WP and does not require a human host. The Moon Beast will journey (or apparate) to the operator if the casting is successful. If it is cast in the material world, it demands the listed SAN and WP costs. Additionally, as Moon Beasts have no corporeal form in the material realm, a human host must be provided for the Moon Beast to inhabit. The operator must have a piece of the victim’s DNA (blood, hair, skin) or the victim themself present. The Moon Beast must then make a contested WPx5 roll against the victim. If the victim has no WP, or willingly accepts the Moon Beast, it will succeed by default. On a success, the Moon Beast inhabits the victim’s body. The victim’s dreaming mind dawdles about drunkenly in the dreamlands until they are returned to their body (what happens if the body dies while their minds are still in the dreamlands is up to the Handler’s discretion). The Moon Beast can inhabit the body for one hour per WPx5, or until it willingly leaves or the body dies. Attempting to bind the Moon Beast to complete a task is a POWx5 roll contest with the Moon Beast, or a Persuade roll if a suitable bargain is presented then and there (or beforehand, in the dreamlands). 

Afterword

Sorry that this last part took so long to come out. Between losing the drive to finish the writing and school it got put way back on the backburner, but I decided it would be best to just rip the band-aid off and get it out the door. I hope you enjoy it. If you have any feedback on it that you'd like to see, let me know. Same goes for if your players have an encounter or do something beyond what's detailed here. I had an idea for writing a section on what happens if the agents encounter a human possessed by a Moon Beast, but nothing that was particularly inspired came to mind, so I thought I'd just publish it as is. Maybe I'll add that later. 

Be Seeing you,

Fin.