The Parlor

## INTRODUCTION & BACKGROUND

A hideous ritual murder has been committed, and the three perpetrators all claim they were hired and blackmailed into performing the human sacrifice over the dark web. The victim was Yayeh Jammah, a Gambian lawyer and activist who worked against the trans-African Anzique crime syndicate. Ms. Jammah was kidnapped by Andrew Sugimoto, a computer science student at Scottsdale Community College in Arizona. Following instructions from “Ezdagor”, a dark web contact who had been providing Sugimoto with gory and violent child pornography, Sugimoto broke into Ms. Jammah's hotel room, drugged her and transported her to a specially prepared remote rural crossroads. He then drove away.

Prior to the kidnapping, Katherine Crawford, an African-American nurse and practitioner of Obeah, had prepared the crossroads with sigils dedicated to Anansi, a West African Spider Trickster God. This was done at the behest of a dark web contact called “Ezdagor”, who provided Crawford (an addict) with illegal opioids. She prepared the ritual site and left several hours before Sugimoto dropped off Ms. Jammah.

The actual murder was performed by Jesus Mercado, an ex-Mexican police officer arrested in 2008 for the murder of Cassilda Dabara, a NYC fortune-teller and occult bookstore owner. He performed the murder in exchange for freedom from prison, having somehow made contact with “Ezdagor” over the dark web.

Ezdagor directed Mercado towards an Assassination Crowdfunding site run out of Japan. The site ostensibly operates like a deadpool. Anyone can list a target. People contribute money, which is held in escrow, and other people can attempt to predict the time and circumstances of the target's death. The person who accurately predicts the target's time of death is awarded the money. It is presumed only the murderer could know that information in advance. This could be discovered by a forensic examination of Mercado's smartphone.

Mercado staked out the crime scene and obtained video evidence of both Crawford and Sugimoto. He then performed a series of ritual cuts on Ms. Jammah leaving her to bleed out into the veves prepared by Crawford. He then left the scene and holed up in a nearby motel, where he was arrested by the FBI.

An anonymous caller which can be traced back to Star Holdings in China informed the FBI of Mercado's location, and identified him as the murderer. Examination of Mercado's phone camera quickly led to the arrest of his co-conspirators. Mercado's arrest also attracted the attention of Delta Green.

The Agents are contacted, briefed and must take over the investigation. These details are left to the Keeper. However, DG likely wants Mercado dead.

## INTERROGATION

These scenes rely upon the Keeper to roleplay the three NPC's extensively. The objective should be to build tension and foreshadow the horror of Ezdagor. Each subject has a tattoo of the Nasca Spider somewhere on their person. Getting the subjects to reveal the existence of Ezdagor is difficult, as they are justifiably terrified. However, levers into their psyche exist that can be manipulated by clever agents. None of the subjects has been connected to the others prior to the Jammah murder.

**Sugimoto**: the easiest way to secure this subject's cooperation is to offer to show, or actually show him the gory crime scene photos. He is not a pleasant person, although he takes great pains to appear normal.

**Crawford**: her cooperation can be obtained by assurances that her two children are being well taken care of. Managing to regularly supply her with opioids could also do it, but would take much longer.

**Mercado**: He knows a great deal about the FATE, the Disciples of the Worm, the Spinoza Cartel, and probably Delta Green. How the Agents kill him and get away with it should be quite a challenge. He will never cooperate with law enforcement.

**Hypersphere**: This device is a white pearlescent sphere 1” in diameter. It was found in Mercado's possession, and he may try to use it as leverage against the Agents. At first he tries to get the Agents to “activate” the sphere by connecting it to a source of electricity, threatening dire consequences to the world if the sphere is not fed. If so powered, the sphere contains near limitless silk webs which expand to huge dimensions —filling any available space. The webs are conductive and will connect to and influence digital devices. Ezdagor will immediately notice this and know that it's schemes are compromised. The webs do burn nicely, but could precipitate a building fire. Witnessing the sphere activate is a 0/1d3 Unnatural SAN test.

Alternately, Mercado will lie and offer to show the Agents a huge cache of hyperspheres, which he will call “eggs”. He claims that he cannot give directions, but must lead them there. This is a total fabrication. Mercado is hoping to escape from custody through this ruse.

## EZDAGOR

This Dark Web entity is difficult to track through social or technical means. It seems to have vast mastery over computer technology and can bind fractal entities to do it's bidding. Treat these as Those Beyond (Handler's Guide p227) except they manifest from fractal patterns on digital video displays. It can also summon the Heralds of Tleche-Naka (see the DG Patreon) to harass and harry those it dislikes.

However, Ezdagor does not wish to use hypergeometrical means to kill it's Delta Green foes. Instead, it is working towards building a network of humans who do it's bidding through the Dark Web. In other words, it desires to corrupt the Agents, and will thus be motivated to communicate with them.

At first it will imply that it is a human power broker or fixer, and offer up Anzique crime bosses in exchange for whatever Unnatural artifacts and services Delta Green may have to offer. Ezdagor may eventually admit that it is a creature of the Great Abyss (true) and claim that it is trying to devour all traces of the Unnatural from the human world, therefore Delta Green should give it all the Unnatural resources it can (utterly false).

If somehow tracked to a physical location, perhaps by Chun-te Wu's Tiger Teams or some Majestic-era Crystal Matrix AI such as SYRINX, Ezdagor will be found in a bitcoin mining town near a hydroelectric dam in Valerie Falls, NY. An old warehouse refitted with banks of servers adding to the worldwide supply of blockchain conceals the entity within a basement level packed with servers entirely devoted to Dark Web activity.

Here Ezdagor sits, a gigantic bloated purple spider the size of an elephant. Thousands of network cables twisted together form a web to support it. Many cables plug directly into the spider's flesh. It's mouth is filled with these cables, as if it were constantly sucking the lifeblood out of the internet. It is a 1d3/1d10 Unnatural SAN Test to encounter Ezdagor.

When confronted, Ezdagor the Gray Weaver instantly retreats, extruding backwards into a weblike warp which then collapses towards a black vanishing point. Agents who attempt to follow find that the linoleum floor tiles fall away beneath them, and they plunge forever into the Great Abyss. If they stay in the facility, Ezdagor sends fractal entities to slay the Agents. It is likely that small purple spiders will begin to turn up in the Agent's Home scenes.

The corporate web that owns the Bitcoin mining concern is intricate, but may ultimately lead back towards a concern called Groupe Clarimonde in France. What Delta Green does with the lair is up to the Agents and Handler, but it's likely that all files would be thoroughly deleted upon Ezdagor's retreat.

Finally, the corpse of Ms. Yayeh Jammah rests in an Arizona morgue. If not taken care of by the Delta Green Agents, it will rupture and split open. Hundreds of purple spiders will pour out of her corpse and burrow into any nearby corpses or living personnel.

## Credits

The Parlor was written by the Man in Black for the 2018  shotgun scenario contest.

Published by arrangement with the Delta Green Partnership. The intellectual property known as Delta Green is a trademark and copyright owned by the Delta Green Partnership, who has licensed its use here. The contents of this document are © the Man in Black, excepting those elements that are components of the Delta Green intellectual property.

The Parlor is not available here under CC-BY-SA.