The Tales Dead Men Tell

## Introduction

In the small town of Pátzcuaro, located just a few hours out of Mexico City, something has happened. In the sealed basement of an abandoned school, the thing that was thought to be dead has been re-awakened and escaped its bonds. Delta Green is called in to investigate after the citizens of Pátzcuaro begin bringing their dead children to hospitals in pieces. The local police have set up a neighborhood watch, but that won't stop the killings from continuing.

## History of the town:

Pátzcuaro is a town that is secluded high up in the mountains of state Michoacán and surrounded on all sides by enormous pine trees. The town is large and houses nearly 45,000 people even though it has become lost to the modern world. One story adobes and plaster-over-brick homes line the dusty streets that are used by horses and cars alike. English speakers can be found, but are uncommon. Cell phone reception is practically impossible unless one heads down the mountain past the curtain of trees and rocks. Lodging is easily obtainable all over the city and decent nights of sleep are common due to the relative silence at night.

Depending on the year that the scenario is played in, stat Michoacán is in a state of either high drug smuggling or a full out drug war. If the setting in the nineties, drugs flow through the state unopposed and investigators should watch what alleys they duck into on the way to a more sheltered Pátzcuaro. Thousands died every year in the drug trafficking related violence so that in 2006 the military put a naval blockade on the state and military personal flooded the streets in an effort to combat the smugglers.

High in the mountains and disconnected from every surrounding area, Pátzcuaro is practically untouched by the smuggling and the violence, but getting there can be difficult through the war-torn streets in 2006. Gangs rule the streets and Police themselves have killed more people here than anywhere else in Mexico.

## Setup:

The time for this scenario is late October. The reason for this is that the climax takes place in the middle of the Mexican day of the dead in the small town of Pátzcuaro. The investigators should get a call from Cell A and have a flight booked to Mexico city where they have a bus schedualed to take them to Michoacán. From there, it's up to them to get to Pátzcuaro. They should arrive in Mexico by October 29th, and travel to Pátzcuaro and arrive on Oct.31 barring any holdups (Harassed by police, getting attacked by drug smugglers, Gangs, etc).

Try to throw a few hold ups along their way, but make sure that they only turn serious if the players make it that way. There should always be a non-violent way out. Regardless of what may happen along the way, it is imperative that they arrive in Pátzcuaro by the last day in

October.

Firearms are difficult to smuggle in, but easily acquired while in Michoacán through the black market. The town is a buzz of activity due to the coming celebration of the day of the dead tomorrow. Decorations of skulls line windows and drape over balconies, candy skulls sit in window sills, hand-carved wooden skeletons sit in chairs and hand from light posts and everyone is busy rushing about getting things ready. In the neighborhood where the killings transpired, there are roadblocks that consist of one or two officers standing behind a wooden barrier. They let anyone they know through, but stop strangers and non-locals to ask their business in the district. Any reasonable excuse will let investigators past.

### Talking to the Locals

If they act as F.B.I. Agents in to help the local Police and provide the proper identification (fake or otherwise. No one runs the numbers), the Police can tell them the following:

* Six Children have been killed in horrible ways over the past week and no one is sure how.
* Autopsy reports are available, but the police will frown upon the viewing of the bodies themselves without a good fast-talk roll.
* The children are kept in deep storage in the morgue of the local hospital, but are ready to be transferred into caskets for being buried during tomorrow's day of the dead.
* All children appear to have been torn apart by something strong and lack all the usual bite-marks and lacerations that come with typical mythos killings.
* All the Children were all killed at night in their homes and the general feeling is that it will happen again every night until the town is empty. Some folks even talk about a curse. The police will not give out the parent's information without some serious bribes. They don't like outsiders upsetting their friends and townsfolk.

If the investigators are able to do their own autopsy (this is where fast-talk to convince them to let you in or Credit rating for a good bribe comes into play), they need to pass a Sanity Check of 1d4\1 when the mortician pours out a pile of body parts that used to belong to children onto the operating slab.

On a successful roll, they can find skin under the finger nails of three of the severed hands. If the DNA is run in time, it can match at least five children from the class of '83 (more on them later), but there's no match until the creature at the school has been found and investigated.

The same information can be gained by parents and police alike:

* The sounds of a struggle were heard on the nights of the murder, but upon rushing to the children's room, only the bloody mess of a child remained.
* A window or door that had been smashed open always accompanies the murder but no finger prints have been found.
* The police have no real leads other than Earl McCallum, but some suspect that the murderer is hiding in the abandoned school.

No police officer or local will go to the abandoned school without some severe convincing. Back in 1982, there was a fire and the government shut the whole school down after the fire ravaged the inside and caught a hold of some strange mold. The mold enters the lungs and causes fatal cancer within a year or so, and the only casualties were the entire first grade class. They were having a tour of some back-end part of the school when the fire broke out and got trapped and burned to death. Police claim that they have searched the school, but in reality haven't ventured very far inside for fear of a biohazard spore infection.

A stranger was picked up a few nights ago acting suspicious near the abandoned school and the police have him locked up ‘just in case’. Investigators should get the feeling that it might happen to them if they are not careful. Earl McCallum is a tourist in town who got a bit too close to the school for the cops liking.

## What's really going on:

Back in 1982, Principle Ramiro found a spell book that taught him a spell called, "Sea of flesh" that he sought to create a horrible beast made of skin and bone under his control. He brought the first graders into the boiler room in the school and cast the spell on the unsuspecting children. They fused together into a big, sloppy pile of flesh and of course, freaked out.

Ramiro had no means of control (the book had create, but not ‘bind’. Ramiro isn't the smartest wizard of them all), so after being thrown across the room by the beast's tremendous strength, he ran upstairs into the gymnasium and barred the doors. The beast followed after him full of

crying children's faces and wailing noises and proceeded to pound the door out of shape with its new-found strength. Ramiro started a fire in hopes that it would contain the creature, and he was right. The heat drove the child-beast back into the boiler room, and allowed Ramiro to build a greater fire. Soon others took notice of the fire and the school was evacuated. Ramiro made up the story about the mold and bribed the inspector when he arrived to confirm it. So, the school closed and nothing ever happened with it.

Until Earl McCallum came to town. Earl had been tracking the book that Ramiro used to summon up the flesh beast from the day he heard of it's existence. He managed to find the spine of the book replacing a missing part of a different book, and tracked it to Pátzcuaro. There, he uncovered what lay beneath the school in his searching and didn't seal the door properly after he fled screaming. Now the beast is on the prowl at night and returns home after killing.

He soon tracked down the grave of Ramiro (the only survivor of the fire itself) and spoke to his spirit. He promised to resurrect the dead man in exchange for the book, but Ramiro had burnt it long ago. McCallum settled on the ritual to create another beast of his own. Ramiro gave it to him and warned him about the binding spell, but Earl doesn't need one. He plans to conjure up a beast using everyone in town as they march in a procession towards the graveyard on the Day of the dead (Nov.1). Then, as it rampages through town, he will attempt to summon up Yog-Sothoth in the guise of Tawil at'Umr and trade the sacrifice of the town for eternal life. The summoning won't work, but Earl doesn't know that and at least it's worth a try. Earl was picked up for ‘being a stranger’ and now sits in a jail cell awaiting proof that he's not murdering children although he has a good idea what is.

## The School:

Saint Severinus elementary school is frozen in time. Leaves and dirt line the long-abandoned floors and the boards creak with every step. The bustle of the festival is lost inside and the only sounds that can be heard are the ones the investigators are making. The air is full of dust and Agents might find themselves worrying about fake mold after a bout of coughing or two. Papers billow across the floor when doors are opened and desk lie in perfect rows still full of pencils and notepads. Tension runs high in the school, and the keepers should feel free to keep the investigators jumpy. Investigation of the school reveals the following: Someone was screwing around in the gym not long ago. There are the footprints of a few police officers, but they barely go past the entrance. The other set of footprints go into nearly every door until the gym. The doors into the boiler room can be seen barely closed and dented outwards after the beast's many escape attempts. The floor of the gym is charred and blackened all around the boiler room door. The beast lies downstairs and will stir into a ‘playful’ mood when it hears the creaking of the metal doors opening. The best bet the investigators have is to run and return with a makeshift flame thrower or just burning the whole place to the ground.

### Earl McCallum:

Earl is trying for eternal life and screwing everyone who's in his way. That includes everyone in Pátzcuaro and the PCs. The police will release him from jail the night of Nov.1 in time for the procession, but he can be released earlier if the pc's convince the police of his innocence. If investigators talk to him about the school, he claims he was just looking around and didn't know about the mold. Something in the basement scared him and he ran. Then the cops picked him up. That's about it. He's antsy to get out, and let's the players know that he'll help them out if they can spring him (he doesn't know he's going to be released the next day). He pays any investigator 100$ if they help him get out of jail.

If the Pc's are present when he checks out of the dingy jail cell, they will note that as he picks up his possessions is a notebook and the spine to the ancient tome of Principle Ramiro. If called on it, he'll deny all knowledge and claim it was just a bookmark.

He won't do anything suspicious until the night of Nov.1. Then he will leave his hotel room and head to the graveyard where the procession will end. He starts a chant and if he's not being specifically watched, it's hard to pick him out from all the other singing and chanting in foreign languages. If not stopped for six rounds, the hundred or so townsfolk turn into a massive conglomerate that destroy the town and all who live in it.

Investigators should make dodge rolls + Athletics to avoid being twisted to death in the birth-throes of the new spawn. Fighting it is something best left for a jet laden down with napalm.

## Principle Ramiros:

Having been dead for a few years, it's hard to track down any real information on him, but the only good lead that can be found is that someone else has been poking about asking the same questions. It's not hard to find out that Earl has visited the grave and been looking for information on Ramiro. That should be enough to keep tabs on him.

### The Class of 82':

Treat as a formless spawn on page 141 of the main CoC book with the following exceptions: No bite attacks, no shape changing, and damage from physical weapons is halved, not ignored. The

class also knows no spells, and shares the mentality of an insane child. They do not need to feed, but merely prowl the streets at night looking for playmates their age and do not know how to play and not tear their new friends apart. Fire is a good idea. The class is a collection of flesh and muscle that screams and cries with child-like voices in combat. Little faces emerge from the mass twisted in pain only to disappear again. Reasoning with the class is impossible. They only exist to ‘play’.

## Wrapping it up:

Cell A will want the pc's to burn the remains of Ramiro and McCallum to prevent a further outbreak if all goes as planned, and will pay for their tickets home.

Rewards:

* 1d4 sanity if the players destroyed the class of 82
* +1d6 if they stopped Earl.

Massive san loss may occur if the town is enveloped.

## Credits

The Tales Dead Men Tell was written by Evil Brennan for the 2006 shotgun scenario contest.