Foxed and Hounded

> "I have called up, in all the years of my sorcery, no god or devil, no demon or lich or shadow, which I could not control and dismiss at will."
>
> - Clark Ashton Smith

## Handler’s Information

Daniel Idalgo was formerly a minor member of the Fate, one of the few survivors of its collapse. More cunning than supernaturally skilled, he managed to loot the broken remnants of the organization. Since then, Idalgo has been slowly mining his stock of Mythos tomes to enrich himself, imagining he can create a new occult syndicate. Unfortunately for Idalgo he recently inadvertently summoned forth a nameless but profoundly dangerous being will have dubbed ‘The Entity’. Idalgo has attempted all manner of rituals and enchantments in an attempt to save himself to no avail. Running out of options and time, he has decided upon one last gambit – offer himself up to Delta Green in the hope that they might be able to do what he cannot.

Unfortunately, the Entity cannot be stopped, at least by Delta Green. Idalgo is doomed.

## Involving the Agents

11 hours ago, Daniel Idalgo sent a series of SMS message and photos to a telephone number formerly associated with a (now deceased) Delta Green agent, stating that he had information of use to them and was willing to exchange it for “protection”. After some deliberation, it was decided to send a team to evaluate his offer.

Official Delta Green wishes to evaluate Idalgo’s offer and the Agents are the first phase of that negotiation. Members of the unofficial conspiracy hope to pre-empt official Delta Green, obtain whatever materials Idalgo possesses, destroy them, and locate any other members of the Fate, and eliminate them. Either way, the Agents are supplied with an address and instructions to engage Idalgo as per their version of Delta Green’s goals.

## The Loft

Idalgo is currently holed-up in a loft be owns in a mostly industrial district of a large city. The building is isolated and his loft is currently the only one occupied in the mostly unfinished building. The loft takes up an entire floor of the building, more than 3000 square feet of spare Modernism. Idalgo has hired a team of muscled thugs (1 more than the number of Agents) to provide security; they wrongly assume this is some sort of drug deal. They have no loyalty to Idalgo, and will flee upon witnessing the supernatural or if their lives are endangered. The goons are armed with pistols and have a cache of shotguns and automatic rifles in a duffle bag.

Scattered about the loft are a grab-bag of occult symbols – anyone with a skill above base in OCCULT will recognize them as have some supernatural import, while a successful roll indicates that they are all protective in nature. An UNNATURAL roll will recognize a several wards of varying potency including the Pnakotic Pentagram, the Sign of Koth, and even the obscure and dread Signs of Oumor.

## DANIEL IDALGO

One of the last Adepts to join the Fate before that groups destruction, recruited by Roger Yul in a failed attempt to take over the group after Alzis vanished. His knowledge of the Fate is, in truth, quite limited. Due to recent events, he is unshaven, eyes bloodshot, exhausted. He’s wearing a threadbare Charnel House records shirt, sweatpants, and sandals. Agents may observe the following about Idalgo:

* HUMINT – He is suffering from extreme stress and attempting to conceal his panic
* MEDICINE – Idalgo is suffering from sleep deprivation, and is mildly dehydrated. He may have had recently suffered some sort of injury to his chest.
* FORENSICS – There is dried blood under Idalgo’s nails.
* ALERTNESS – There is something odd about the air around Idalgo, like a mirage… almost. 0/1d2 points of Sanity.

While his goons wait conspicuously out of earshot, he opens negotiations.

## The Deal

Idalgo offers the Agents the following as a show of good faith, falsely promising additional books and artifacts recovered from archives of the Fate once his safety is guaranteed. He presents the following items, about which he has a general, sometimes very incomplete, understanding:

* A metal ankh, about 18”, slightly bent and pitted in several places. It raises POW by 5 when held but causes 1 HP damage from burns each round when used.
* A photostat of volume 3 of The Revelations of Glaaki with Spanish annotations.
* A badly tarnished pure silver dagger with the symbol of the Karotechia stamped on the pommel.
* A framed engraving depicting an English manor house. When not observed the scene changes. Sometimes a nightmarish skeletal figure is seen in the act of kidnapping a child from the house. Idalgo proudly notes this once belonged to Stephen Alzis.
* A flawed and incomplete 18th century French handwritten manuscript of the Livre d’Ivon.
* A stack of twenty-two composition books filled with an unknown series of geometric symbols.
* High-resolution black and white photos of an Egyptian scroll containing prayers to “the Queen of that Which Cries in the Night”
* A macuahuitl (a wooden sword of Aztec design, edged with obsidian blades) of modern manufacture; 1d8+1 and is capable of harming non-terrene and incorporeal creatures, though not the Entity.
* A set of acupuncture needles made of an unknown coppery alloy, proper use of which is unknown to Idalgo.
* A plaster cast, marked Odysseus Maritime Recovery AM-1998-6-11/3.244. It is of an equilateral triangle, 19 ¾” on a side, ½” thick, faintly engraved with sinuous characters, partially embedded in some sort of barnacle-encrusted rock. An UNNATURAL roll recognizes the script as Aklo. Daniel Idalgo can explain that this is a summoning ritual for an unnamed entity of great power. When discussing this item, everyone may make an additional HUMINT roll to note Idalgo’s anxiety regarding this item.

Idalgo says these are only some of the many supernatural items he has access to, the rest being held elsewhere, including books and artifacts from the private libraries of the Fate’s leaders. This is a lie and he knows it.

## The Doom that Came for Daniel Idalgo

Allow the negotiations to play out for as long as you’d like. Idalgo attempts to remain calm but remains acutely aware of the impending arrival of the Entity. His primary goal is to secure an agreement to be taken to a secure government facility – he will bluff and bluster at first about the quality of his Mythos artifacts and information, but eventually he will be reduced to near-weeping mess, begging for salvation.

The Entity will arrive at a point of the Handler’s choosing – events should not progress far beyond the loft, even if a bargain is rapidly struck. Daniel Idalgo’s panic increases and he becomes visibly agitated, offering whatever the Agents might desire to leave immediately. Suddenly any electronic devices and lights within the loft begin to flicker – during a flash of sudden brightness anyone within sight of Daniel Idalgo will notice that his shadow has an unnatural form, with multiple writhing points of blue-black energy swelling and pulsing within. At this point Idalgo loses any composure, screaming “It’s here!! It’s here!!!” He will attempt to grab whatever weapon is handy – the macuahuitl if nothing else is handy – attacking wildly in the direction his shadow is being cast; on a fumble he might strike an Agent.

Suddenly Daniel Idalgo will shriek in unutterable horror, his face and body contorting in agony, his features warping and taking on a wholly unnatural quality. He tears open his shirt to reveal a still-bleeding tattoo covering his chest – UNNATURAL recognizes it as a version of the Elder Sign. The skin there sloughs off his chest in a bloody mess. After two turns, Idalgo’s flesh becomes infused with mottled patches of the blue and midnight black pulsating within his shadow, his head now flattening somewhat like snake, his face an agonized rictus with oozing cysts where his eyes once were, and arms and hands elongating into a mockery of the human form. Witnessing Idalgo’s death cost 1/1d6+1 points of Sanity.

At least one of the hired goons opens fire upon the thing that was once Idalgo. That unfortunate is engulfed in a flailing wave of black acid fire that whips up from the floor beneath him. The others flee or attack as the Handler wishes. The Agents are free to attack the thing – it is entirely immune to any physical or magical attack. It kills one attacker horrifically until it is left alone, so long as a target is in sight. It cannot be reasoned with and does not speak. Flight is the only option.

## Conclusion

Unless the handler wishes, the Entity does not pursue any of the Agents once they flee the loft. It has no interest in any of the tomes or artifacts Idalgo had gathered or in anything in the loft beyond Idalgo. The Entity’s arrival will cause fire in the loft; the whole building will burn down in a little over three hours, baring heroic intervention on the part of the Agents.

## Credits

Foxed and Hounded was written by William Schar for the 2016 shotgun scenario contest.