Overshadowed

A call goes up the chain from a Walter Higgins (black male, 62, pathologist) who is employed by a local hospital. He found that the heart of a car crash victim was not only made of stone, but also caused him to lose consciousness for a few seconds after looking directly at it.

Via their usual channels, the Agents are invited to a Night at the Opera.

Their orders are to debrief the Friendly and interrogate the lone surviving passenger.

## At the Hospital

Agents arrive and make their way to the morgue. Inside Walter is waiting for them. Agents should make an Alertness check to see the edges of surgical tape peaking from Walter's collar. Critical Successes should then make a DEX x3 check to not linger on the reflection of the heart from an angled mirror across the room. Failure means a 0/1 SAN check for the Unnatural as the Agent(s) feel themselves pulled under as they gaze into the shadow and lose consciousness for 1d4 rounds. Should any of the Agents collapse he will curse and turn around to face the opaque container he put the heart in. Not seeing anything disturbed on the examining table he will continue to watch it as he asks Agents if it jumped out. The use of HUMINT will show that Walter is not deceiving the Agents.

Walter gives the following information:

* The victim's vitreo (liquid inside the eyeball) and retina had specks similar to the heart.
* There were pieces of sunglasses embedded into the victim's face.
* Other than the eyes and heart the autopsy revealed no other abnormalities.
* The victim, Carl Plat(white male,26), is a member of the Fire Boys street gang.
* He was unconscious for less than a minute after he looked at the heart.
* The wound on his chest is from falling onto his examining tools.

After this Walter tells the Agents he will follow them upstairs and act as a distraction and lookout.

Inside the room is Charlie Miller (white male, 23, member of the fire boys street gang) sleeping off two broken legs and a fractured arm. His unlocked phone sits just out of reach from the bed, taken from him by a nurse.

Useful information will be difficult to get out of Charlie. He is condescending to the Agents and insults them based on their fashion sense when awoken.

Should persuasion fail the Agents acquire the following from his phone:

* The Howling Coyotes crashed a drug deal for the Fire Boys with automatic weapons and Kevlar vests.
* Carl killed the leader of the Howling Coyotes yesterday.
* The Fire Boys are going to transport their remaining meth to a last minute deal and everyone is at the safe house.

Bribery or threats of harm will open Charlie up to a persuade roll. If the Agent succeeds he tells them that when he went to Carl's apartment it was dark with stuff covering the windows and that when they left he was driving with sunglasses on at night.

## How This Happened

Richard Tennyson(white male, 17, Howling Coyotes gang member) was not a smart young man, but he wanted some spending money. Walking into Sam's Suplex Storage was no challenge at all. He had bolt cutters and fantasies of what he would find in unit 316. Those fantasies were in fact grounded in reality as inside were lots of drug and guns.

Acting with more wisdom than normal Richard called in some help. In the span of an hour unit 316 was empty and a stolen van was full. Once divided the haul of unit 316 gave every member of the Howling Coyotes a sidearm, a few kevlar vests, and 3 M16s. The leader of the Howling Coyotes, Jared Foley(white male, 25), picked through the other contents of the Green Box to find a necklace with an anatomically correct heart he fancied.

While celebrating at The Den, a night club that the Howling Coyotes do business out of, Jared cracked the necklace.

The necklace was recovered by U cell in an operation in North Dakota. It was in the possession of a cult of that did not understand it's true purpose. It imprisons a sorcerer, Robert Sudbury(white male, N/A), from the late 1700s that was put there by his rival Ralph Hotham. Ralph discovered how he had survived so many assassins and used Robert's own method of immortality against him. Sudbury took over the body of whomever killed him over one day as his spirit was anchored with his stone heart. Ralph commissioned a necklace with a heart of silver and wore it as he killed Sudbury. With Robert imprisoned inside it the necklace gave Ralph all of Robert's power.

Over 300 years the necklace had many owners before it arrived at unit 316. Jared being the last as the crack let Robert subsume him. Once aware of the world around him Robert had an idea.. He would prepare The Den for a ritual to increase his power at the expense of everyone in it.

In the haze of narcotics ìJaredî left the VIP room and took a knife to the supporting beams of the building and carved symbols of arcane power. Long after the rest of the Howling Coyotes retired he left. On his way home he made an untimely end as he was first hit by a car driven by Carl Plat and was then decapitated by Clarence Thompson's fire axe(white male, 22, Fire Boys gang member). The body was thrown in a nearby alley where it still remains. Clarence and Carl then left the head at The Den for the Coyotes to find.

The next day the Coyotes attacked the deal the Fire Boys were making with an outside party in retaliation.

Clarence and Carl awoke with extreme light sensitivity.

Clarence went about his day drinking heavily in his apartment with the windows taped up. Carl did much the same until Charlie came by late at night for a ride. Carl lost his sight in the final stages of being devoured at high speeds, not for his body, but for a boost to Robert's power, . Clarence was then overtaken by Robert who then had to deal with the copious amounts of alcohol the former consumed.

Once sober Robert plans to lead a suicide attack on The Den using the authority granted to him by the deaths of his superiors at the deal, and in the confusion sacrifice everyone there.

## Actions

1. Closer examination of Charlie's phone reveals nothing more than evidence of criminal activity. Phone records shoe calls to prepaid burners every week.
2. Searches of Charlie's and/or Carl's apartments reveals no evidence of the Unnatural. Just weapons and drugs in the squalor.
3. Watching the Fire Boy's safe house results in a SAN check for Violence 0/1 as the safe house is besieged by Howling Coyotes, and members of both gangs start dropping like flies in the street. If the Agents inspect either the car or the safe house during or after the shootout they just find meth and weapons.
4. When trying to open the local Green Box the Agent's key doesn't work. Getting it open either by breaking in or calling management reveals an empty unit. When questioned the manager lies to the Agents that he accidentally cut off their lock and replaced it. He says that the unit was empty when he got there. HUMINT of 20 or more reveals he is afraid of drawing the police to his business. Handler's choice on the reason. Dog fights, marijuana farm, etc.

## The Den

Once the Agents have reason to go to The Den in search of the missing contents. Concurrent with Agents' entrance into the night club is the arrival of the last of the Fire Boys.

As the Agents are making guesses as to where the Coyotes stored the Green Box items in the club and how to get them out, the first shots are fired. Chanting louder than the thumping club music is heard. Black globs burst out of writing on the supporting walls, SAN check for the Unnatural 0/1d6. Club goers panic.

## Tactics

Globs will attack anyone close to the support beams.

The gangs will focus on each other but stray shots are a very real possibility.

Robert will make his way up the stairs to the VIP room chanting.

Gang members need to make SAN checks as well.

## Resolutions

Killing Robert in the crux of his ritual releases the arcane locks on the doors but does not remove the Globs.

Unless the Agents destroy Robert's heart they will be taken over should they kill him. Setting the club on fire will let the Agents make a Luck roll to see if his stone heart is shattered in the collapse. His heart is destroyed if the Agents explicitly move him near the gas line before leaving or similar.

## Statistics

### Robert Sudbury

**STR**:12 (60%) **DEX**:8 (40%) **CON**:10 (50%)

**INT**:17 (85%) **POW**:16 (80%) **CHA**:8 (40%)

**HP**:11 **WP**:16 **SAN**:0 **BP**:0

**Skills**: Alertness 33%, Dodge 48%, Drive 30%, Firearms 22%, Melee Weapons 56%, Stealth 40%, Unarmed Combat 62%

### Howling Coyote

**STR**:13 (65%) **DEX**:10 (50%) **CON**:12 (60%)

**INT**:10 (50%) **POW**:14 (70%) **CHA**:13 (65%)

**HP**:13 **WP**:14 **SAN**:70 **BP**:56

**Skills**: Alertness 35%, Dodge 60%, Drive 20%, Firearms 43%, Melee Weapons 40%, Stealth 30%, Unarmed Combat 50%

### Fire Boy

**STR**:9 (45%) **DEX**:15 (75%) **CON**:10 (50%)

**INT**:14 (70%) **POW**:13 (65%) **CHA**:11 (55%)

**HP**:10 **WP**:13 **SAN**:65 **BP**:52

**Skills**: Alertness 20%, Dodge 30%, Drive 20%, Firearms 21%, Melee Weapons 50%, Stealth 10%, Unarmed Combat 40%

### Globs

**DEX** 7(35%)

**HP** 17

**Devour** 43%

## Credits

Overshadowed was written by Eduardo Rojas for the 2016  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 © Eduardo Rojas, excepting those elements that are components of the Delta Green intellectual property.

Overshadowed is not available here under CC-BY-SA.