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Cthulhu Meets Dogma In A D20 Role-playing System

PART ONE: EPIDEADIC


Background
Strathclyde Police knows Julius Townsend for being part of the criminal underworld
of Glasgow for many years, becoming something of a major figure in the past six
months. The exact circumstances for this escalation in his power are still unknown,
but it seems quite clear that he has been receiving outside help from some other
group, providing him with lots of muscle.
The exact nature of this help is unknown to the police, as is the exact circumstances of
the attack which took place at 22 University Gardens, Glasgow an attack which has
left the administrator of the building critical and three people dead: including the
attacker. His body appears to be in very bad condition
Public Facts
The following information is public knowledge, and is either widely known or readily
accessible.
Jamie Wakefield is the President of the Queen Margaret Union, the younger of the
two student unions at Glasgow University. It was originally a women-only
organization, created at the end of the 19th Century when women in Britain were first
allowed to attend Universities, but in 1979 become open to all people. Its many
years older and more conservative cousin, the Glasgow University Union, was still all
male until 1981 and thusly was one of the last student unions in the world to become
open to all members. Even then, until several years ago women were only allowed in
the GUU as honorary men.
Julius Townsend is only ever heard of to the common person as the head of several
small companies, all of them situated in either Glasgow or Edinburgh. Archimedez
Web Design is the one he actually spends some time in, situated in St Vincents Place.
His more nefarious side has occasionally cropped up in the papers, but there has never
been any evidence against him. The occasional person who squeals on him has
always met with bad ends very shortly after going public.
Opening Scene

The players are all in some way associated with Glasgow University, and are play in
or are friends with people who play in Glasgow Universitys Gaming Society. The
GUGS Annual General Meeting was today, and the elections were reasonably
uneventful: only one person stood for each post, with the new President taking over
from Omar Koojeh (a 3rd Year Computing Science student, often referred to as
Ohmz or The Arab) to Jamie Wakefield, the outgoing President of the QMU. His
duty on the sabbatical post stops on the 1st of July and he has made much about
looking forward to having a break from the job and the vomit. Every-one has met up
at Jims Bar (the bar on the first floor of the QMU, recently renovated and seen as
quite a trendy place) for a drink. Other friends of theirs might be there as well, to help
stress the real-life nature of this meeting: no one is suspecting anything odd is going
to happen, except perhaps the occasional drunken mistake with a random woman.
Jamie and Omar are here, as is anyone else dramatically required to be.
At around 11pm, Jamie tells everyone that he fancies an early night, he didnt have
any proper sleep last night and he needs to be alert tomorrow when hes on duty at the
QM. He says his farewells and leaves. A few minutes later, there are screams and all
hell breaks loose in the lobby. Cries can be heard from the front to call the police and
an ambulance. People start to drift down and when the players inevitably join them
and they squeeze through the crowd they will see a fight has taken place. Jamie is
lying face down, bleeding on the floor. Two bouncers are also injured; one slumped
against the doors in and the other lying on the floor in the shop. Three other bouncers
have jumped and restrained someone and have blood splattered across them, as it
everywhere else in the room. Seeing all this violence, gore and their own friend
involved has a bad effect on the players who must take a San Check 0/1d4.
Very shortly, the bouncers stop holding whoever it is they are holding and shout to the
staff member on the phone to tell the police that the attacker is dead now, and they
seem very confused about it: We were just holding him down, he just died, we were
just trying to restrain him. The body seems a lot greyer and lifeless than the others,
with ragged clothes and his hair slightly balding despite looking as if he isnt much
over 20.
Interview Witnesses At The Scene Of The Crime
The players can ask around to try and find out what happened, but people are a bit
confused and so might not give very exact answers. A Diplomacy check (DC 15) is
required to calm down the onlookers enough to get them to explain events to you,
while the staff, board members and bouncers are too busy doing official business to
talk to anyone: even if they know the PCs, they will tell everyone (including the PCs)
to back off and give the injured room to breathe.
If the players get someone to speak, they will explain that the pale gent barged in,
forcing his way through the bouncers that tried to grab him, and struck Jamie in the
stomach as he was trying to leave. The man didnt enter until Jamie was coming
down the stairs, and after hitting him he tried to get rid of the bouncers on top of him.
After tossing the two injured ones off him, more came in and wrestled him to the
ground.

Shortly after the players arrive, the emergency services arrive and take Jamie away.
They check the other three bodies and just say, Nothing. They take them away as
well, while the Police start to take interviews and get people out while they examine
the scene.
The Night Passes
The players should be reminded they have been drinking for some time at the bar and
after all the shocks, probably could do with trying to get sleep. Certainly, everything
is too chaotic at the QM to do anything else there tonight, although the more
determined players could carry out some of the other research options below.
The players may have trouble sleeping or have somewhat disturbing nightmares,
using their sanity loss from the sight as a guide. Dreams will probably be along the
line of seeing Jamie getting stabbed, punched, run over or some such thing while they
just stand and watch. If any players have the Sensitive psionic feat, then that night
they have slightly more specific problems: they dream of Jamie lying in a hospital
bed, with many cuts and bruises, and they are visiting with the rest of the party. After
talking about how terrible it is to the rest of the group the player suddenly sees a glint
around Jamies neck and examines it to see a necklace, with what seems to be a silver
key around it. The player takes it off Jamie, and suddenly all his wounds start to heal
before the players very eyes. Then, suddenly, they feel an itching sensation in their
hand, then their arm, then all over. Their friends start to panic, so the player runs into
a toilet and looks in the mirror to see they are covered in sores, dripping green pus
from their wounds and with blood slowly trickling from their nostrils That player
must take a San check 0/1 from the vividness of the dream.
If no player has the Sensitive feat, then you may choose to randomly subject one
player to the dream anyway, if only to make it clear something very, very odd is going
on here.
After the players wake up, feeling somewhat fresher (if a little hung over) from the
night before, they can choose to do research on the event in various ways.
Interview People At The QM
The next day, the QM is open as per usual although everyone is a little shaken from
yesterdays events. Now the players might be able to interview the staff and the
board: depending on what time they go in, certain board members might not be in and
only later on will there be any bouncers in. The specific Diplomacy DC can vary, but
is around 15. After talking to people, they will start to pick up the specifics: that the
attacker was waiting outside for around twenty minutes, and looked just as ragged and
pale then. He didnt come in until Jamie came down the stairs to the lobby, and then
he moved straight to Jamie.
No one recognises the attacker, although they did see the police check his body for ID
and found something. They know that Jamie is currently at the Western Infirmary,
and that last they heard he was critical but stable. The two bouncers and the attackers
condition is less sure, but they dont seem very sure.

Most people in the building will say no variation of the above, except for a single
board member who can be found on the premises from 9:30am until around 5:30pm,
with a 15% chance hell be out if you go after 12pm and a 5% chance before: that
man is George Francis Ninian Quail, who no matter who the players are will no doubt
know them or be a friend of a friend. As well as the above, he knows that the two
bouncers and the attacker are dead and currently being held at Partick Station. An
additional Diplomacy check, DC 20 (with a +10 circumstance bonus to any female)
can get him to tell the players that he thinks he recognises the attacker: it looks an
awful like a man called Brian Sinclair who he used to know at Secondary School and
he last heard had joined the army. Despite looking older and paler, it was a pretty
clear likeness.
If they ask him about who would do such a thing, then he will respond, Unless
theres a really big cartel trying to keep their coffee profits up, I doubt it. Apparently,
Jamie has been looking into selling fair trade coffee at LARP events (Bekki gave him
the idea of calling it Fairs Fair At The Fair, which apparently is a French joke.) and
not much else of a truly epic nature. George mentions that its too crazy even for the
GUUers, they prefer throwing vomit than punches on our property.
If asked about the state of the surviving staff, George will comment that some of them
have phoned in and arent coming in today: interestingly, some of them arent doing
this out of shock but because they are genuinely feeling sick. George thinks this a
pretty big psychosomatic reaction, or some crazy psyche crap like that.
Enter The Executive Office
If the players want to get into Jamies Office in the QM, they will find this difficult.
Cracking the lock (a combination one with 16 buttons and many combinations, as no
player knows how many it should be) is incredibly complex, an Open Lock DC 30.
Diplomacy DC 30 will get the other members of the Executive (Katie McDonald, the
Honorary Assistant Secretary, and Mark Bryers, the Honorary Secretary.) to let you
into the office to have a look about. (A bonus of up to +5 can be gained if the player
has a good relationship with the Executive member or is well known as a friend of
Jamie.) Breaking down the door (a wooden effort) isnt too hard, but the room is
often occupied by at least one board member and the situation at the QM is so tense
that the response to such attack will be fierce.
It might be possible to get George (or another board member) to act as an
intermediary between the PCs and the Executive to get into the room, by official or
not so polite means. Improvise this as required: George is probably the best person to
help out in picking the lock or in accessing Jamies computer.
Inside, a Computer Use check DC 20 to get his password (masquerade) will allow
them to look around his files and notice hes been speaking to Archimedez Web
Design about helping with the QM web site: he has been emailing Alistair Hopkins,
who works for the company and is a former friend of Jamie from GUGS. Jamie has
also been investigating buying an ice-cream van, and talking to any board member
will let you know that this is because he is planning on running a fair trade coffee
stall at the Gathering. (A large LARP event in Britain.)

If the players feel the urge to rifle through Jamies stuff, they will find nothing
incriminating: lots of physical correspondence between himself and the various
university groups, (especially the SRC and the University Court) some letters from
private companies asking about sponsorship and the like, the core rules and several
add-ons for Vampire; The Masquerade and a bag of a fine, black powder: analysis will
show it to be tea of some description.
Visit Jamie At Hospital
Almost all of the staff, board and such like at the QM know that Jamie is in Ward 7B
in the Western Infirmary, and although there is quite a lot of machinery around the
man he seems to be fine. He is completely unconscious, occasionally grumbling or
snoring, and the players are unable to get him to respond. There is a good chance
another friend or family member of his is by his side at all times.
Anyone who examines him (Spot DC 10) will see that his stomach wounds appear to
have been bleeding pretty heavily for a punch, and that it would seem more likely that
a sharp object of some sort was used. If you can get a hold of a doctor or nurse (or a
family member who has already asked about such things) they will confirm this: he
appears to have been stabbed by a knife of some sort, slightly curved and not at all
clean. Jamies wounds are therefore dirty and will take a while to heal, but will not
kill him.
On his bedside table there are already some flowers and cards on top. The cupboard
in the bedside table is open and inside is what appears to be what Jamie was wearing
when he came in: he is currently in a simple hospital gown. If the PCs rifle through it
(Search DC 10) then they will find some other things, including Jamies wallet (which
has little of interest unless the PCs really want to steal sixteen pounds and sixty-eight
pence) and a silver locket on a chain. The small latch that keeps it closed is very
fiddly (Dexterity DC 15) but once opens clearly has a picture of an man in a velvet
waistcoat on the right (looking very much like an English gentleman straight out of
Sense and Sensibility) and a very ornate carving of growing flowers on the left: a Spot
check DC 15 shows that there is very odd random pattern, almost like Arabic letters,
on the top of this carving. If they can be read (which will require examination under a
magnifying glass at least, a microscope to be more comfortable) and translated, they
read:
Sleep forever, Great (indecipherable), in the name of the might of Ishtar. Till all of the
Council of Five let their keys to your (indecipherable) burn to the (indecipherable,
you shall wait for all eternity in the Dreaming (indecipherable).
Arabic is a language that has changed little over the years, and so if the players can
find someone who understands the language (which should be every practising
Muslim) then they can read it, except for those words that are indecipherable due to
being scuffed or simply not making sense. No one will be able to shed any light on
the meaning of this, or its source: no one knows why Jamie would have it and have
never seen it on his person before. It will be relatively easy to pocket this small object
if the players want to take it away to study: certainly, if they ask any of Jamies
friends present, no one will object since they have no idea where its from. They are
welcome to try and sell it and will no doubt get several hundred for such an

interesting piece: it is, however, not in their best interests and hopefully the players
will instead take the hint.
Research Archimedez Web Design
DC 10: All the information about this place can easily be found at
www.archimedez.co.uk. Based in 130B St Vincents Place, very near King Tuts, this
small company has a small staff with only three programmers: Julius Townsend,
Alistair Hopkins and Katie Uxbridge. Julius has ran this small business since starting
it four years ago and currently lives in a flat in Bearsden with Katie, who he has been
engaged to for nine months. The company website itself has little incriminating on it,
just lots of quotes for expensive but very nice help in designing and running corporate
web sites.
Visit Archimedez Web Design
This building is exactly what it says on the tin, but Katie and Julius are hardly ever in.
When the PCs visit, only Alistair is there, but he is very helpful to them once he
realises this is to do with Jamies trouble. He doubts very much that his colleagues
have anything to do with this, since they seem pleasant enough. Extended enquiries
about Julius reveal he and Katie are taking a week off to celebrate the two-year
anniversary since they first met, which Alistair considers to be sweet. Alistair will
not give out personal details, saying that they should put all such matters through the
police and that it would be unfair to impinge on Julius privacy because of some odd
coincidences. This could become really weird porno sites if the printout of
Blackwells Site (below) is shown to him.
Research Julius Townsend
DC 10: Julius is 29, born in Edinburgh and brought up in a suitably posh background.
He has been dabbling in business for many years and is often behind something new.
He currently has a flat near Bearsden train station.
DC 15: Julius lives in 27 St Germains, Bearsden: a block of flats generally inhabited
by the elderly that borders St Germains loch. He has popped up in the tabloids every
so often when the police have tried and inevitably failed to pull him in for the many
crimes they believe him to be responsible for. He is thought to use many companies
as covers for his work: Blackwell Funeral Services and Sir Thomass Jewellers are
two groups that have been under investigation before.
Visit Julius Townsend
Julius is a busy man, and with his line of work keeps himself well defended. Not only
is his flat in a very secure place (covered in civilians and security cameras) but he
himself always has a thug or two on site and could easily call in more. Phoning or
visiting tends to lead to requests from burly gentlemen for the PCs to sling their
hook and they arent adverse to breaking some bones to emphasise this.
The neighbours wont say much about Julius, since he tends to stay buried away in his
flat or go out traipsing around the city, but they do acknowledge that he doesnt

cause any trouble and so wont appreciate random insults about him being involved
in zombie cults of pestilence gods.
If the players are foolish enough to launch a full-on assault, they will have several
burly gentlemen armed with guns to deal with, as well as the police who will respond
very shortly to the totally unprovoked attack. Worst of all, if things get really bad,
Katie might make her presence felt: she is a FeyRi, a demon with some mortal blood
in her who is disguised as a human while she works for Julius in his evil contract with
Motarion. She and Julius alone could probably down several players, so if they try to
be heroes and do a full assault they will die horribly. This is the way of the world.
Research Blackwell Funeral Services
DC 12: With outlets in Maryhill, Hamilton, Clydebank and Edinburgh, Blackwell
Funeral Services is a very fast-growing business. If the players are looking for dirt on
Julius, they will not find his name mentioned her: instead the owner is referred to as
Antoine Berliner. If they are aware of the Arsenic Cakes and Antoine Quail, they
can make a Sense Motive check (adding their Speak Other Language (German) bonus
if appropriate) on a DC 20 to notice that Berliner is German for Cake and to notice
an odd connection.
Whammy: While researching this place, the player will probably visit the official
corporate website, http://www.bfs.co.uk. While browsing their, looking at the
somewhat low-class arrangement (the thought of having All You Need Is Love played
as you are cremated is an odd one to anyone who has seen The Prisoner) they stop as
they seem to come across an unlisted link, in a picture of Dr Grant Steel (who
apparently is the practical head of the group, using his expertise in medicine to help in
the day-to-day running of the place) posing with several men in suits at the opening of
the Maryhill branch. The player thinks it is just a biography page for Dr Steel or
some such and so clicks on it, but is taken instead to a page full of strange ASCII
characters arranged in what seems to be gibberish, perhaps machine code. (Computer
Use DC 10 identifies it as having a pattern enough to be code, but its totally
indecipherable to a man) One of those annoying MIDI files on some websites kicks
in: it is the Beatles All You Need Is Love. The player scrolls down, confused as to
what they have seen, and come across several rather graphic pictures of human bodies
in various stages of decomposition, except the ordering is reversed: the top one shows
the truly revolting site of green flesh barely hanging onto almost entirely exposed
skeleton, the bottom one looks like a human face that is pale, but still all together. As
the pictures show the reforming process, it becomes clear that the face is that of one
of the dead QM bouncers San check 0/1d4.
After that, the players computer crashes and they can never again get to that website:
the link is gone and even if they make a note of the full URL they cannot get to the
pictures. If they are smart enough to print out a copy, that is still intact, but there is
nothing to link it to the investigation
A Computer Use (DC 20) check will allow someone to check the web logs of the
computer and prove that it went to the URL listed and got the page down, although
even then that doesnt prove too much: it will get the police more interested, however.

Visit Blackwell Funeral Services


If visited during the day, all four of the buildings in this chain appear to be somewhat
relaxed in their work. They will not entertain the requests of the players unless it is
clear they are here to enlist their services: Dr Grant Steel and his co-workers are busy
men. (Just not necessarily busy working as undertakers) Dr Steel tends to be at the
Clydebank branch most times, but gets about a bit and so can be located where
appropriate. However, he will not come out to see the players because his less
savoury duties take precedence. He is always indisposed or preoccupied if asked
for by name, and phone calls will always lead to messages being taken and never
direct speech.
Research Sir Thomas Jewellers
DC 15: One of many, many shops selling jewellery in the Argyle Arcade, Sir Thomas
Jewellers is a relatively new shop at only three decades old. Julius Townsend, who
brought the place out of an eight-year slump and attracted some attention when it was
claimed that it was part of a money-laundering scheme, bought it three years ago.
Visit Sir Thomas Jewellers
Nothing is blatantly wrong in this shop, except that it is a little empty of customers,
staff or produce. The two staff members on are both female students of Strathclyde
University who know nothing about the deeper issues of this plot and just man the
tills: they are here just to work and any attempt to hassle them will result in the police
getting called. Julius is never here, and this shop does not buy jewellery so the locket
cannot be given away here.
Speak To Police About The Incident
Visiting Partick Police about the incident might seem up the players alley, but the
police will not be very co-operative and certainly wont take any occult or random
evidence very seriously. They will, however, be suspicious of the players when they
come in, and try to find out if they know anything about the attacker. It might be
possible (Diplomacy DC 15) to get information from them that will turn up in the
Television shortly afterwards: the attackers body as well as both of the dead
bouncers, who were being stored in the station while the pathologists looked them
over, went missing overnight; worse, theres no sign of forced entry at the station,
which would imply this is an inside job. They do that the attackers name was Brian
Sinclair, a 19-year-old man who was AWOL for three months from the army and he
had nothing on him bar his clothes, his wallet (with just some loose change and his
drivers license in it) and a small, rusty switchblade. He had a criminal record before,
being involved in various nefarious schemes in the Gorbals under the head of
someone they call Big Antoine: if queried, this gents name was Antoine Quail.
If pressed hard enough, (Diplomacy DC 20) the police may reveal that they found a
coin-sized piece of metal, silvery in colour, located in the bottom of his left shoe. It
was covered in somewhat odd markings and the lab boys are examining it. Last he
heard, they knew it was platinum but still had no idea what the markings were.

Research Antoine Quail


DC 12: The following information can be found in various forms on different news
websites. Adapt as required (the Suns version should include a lot more sex, for
example): For a time in 1998, Antoine was number one on the Strathclyde Police
wanted list for the enormous amount of drug dealing he was believed to be behind.
His gang were the major players in the criminal underworld and his eventual ousting
was done not entirely by official means: he was arrested only after a full-on street war
left most of his men dead at the hands of the Arsenic Cakes. With no one left to
terrorise people into keeping him safe, people finally came forward and brought the
criminal empire down. Antoine Quail tried to plea bargain and some of his evidence
(along with that of several of his remaining aides, the names of whom are irrelevant
unless the players know to be looking for Brian Sinclair) was used in the trial of Julius
Townsend in 1999, who he claimed was the leader of the Arsenic Cakes, but this did
not lead to a conviction. He is currently still in prison, with seven years left to spend
of his sentence.
DC 20: Anyone really bored might try to plough through the records enough to dig
out information that Antoine Quail is 36 years old, and his father is called Archibald
Quail.
Pause For Breath: News Report
After the players have done most of the research or have settled down for the night,
then they can catch on the televised news or some such that:
The body of the Queen Margaret Union attacker vanished overnight from Partick
Station. The body had been identified as Brian Sinclair, 19, from Drumchapel who
had been missing for ten weeks. Brian was a member of the Royal Highlanders
regiment and had been arrested in the past for drug trafficking in Antoine Quails
drug cartel. He was a witness in the 1999 trial of Julius Townsend, who was
acquitted of laundering money. Brian attacked the Queen Margaret Union last night,
killing two bouncers and injuring the president, Jamie Wakefield, who is currently in
a critical condition at the Western Infirmary. Brians family have said that they are
deeply shocked by what happened. The bodies of the two bouncers who he killed are
also missing. Police are appealing for any help in their enquiries.
After everything they have heard so far, most players should be able to see where this
is going. If not, then let the next encounter make it clear the state of play.
Whammy: If the players are in a non-public place (I.E. Not Jims Bar, but perhaps
another persons house) for their meet up, or if one of them stayed at home, or
suchlike, they run the risk of being attacked. Preferably, if a player is carrying the
locket, or if they were seen to be hassling anyone in Julius posse for information,
then he will be attacked. (If an NPC is given locket, he will turn out rather dead and
be found the next day.)
In any case, the attack takes place when the player is near a radio or TV. While they
are minding their own business, feeling their eyes heavy from all their research and
the lack of sleep recently, they hear the proper transmission crackle and fade to
static. Suddenly, the sound changes to become like a vaguely squelching sound: as if

someone was walking across a mountain of faeces, with every single sound
excruciatingly exact in its epic vileness. A deep, monotone voice speaks over this:
I hate sound. I can hear so much now, since I got my money. I can hear rats
scurrying away as I approach their hidey-holes, every footstep and every nail
scratching against the floor. I can hear the sound of maggots nibbling through my
skin, as bruised flesh and empty arteries give way to their maws

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