Odysseus

Keepers note: This story is adapted for the DG setting from the Classic Cthulhu campaign book The Great Old Ones. In this, the very first story, the PCs are not members of Delta Green and know nothing about anything paranormal, Mythos or otherwise.

Special Agents Anna-Lena Harris, profiler specializing on serial killers, Miles O’Byrne, ex-ranger, and Florian Atzmüller, anthropologist from the arts theft department, were summoned for an early morning briefing on January 26, 1996 in NYC. It was the first time the three had ever met and they spent some few moments getting familiar with each other before their supervisor arrived.

When the Special-Agent-in-Charge arrived, he informed them that the FBI had been asked for help by the local police in the small town of Davies Landing, Mississippi [There is some "artistic license" here in sending agents from a NY office to Mississippi]. Three days ago, Raymond and Adele Brown were found murdered by Claude Laureen, a local, and Dean Scott, a visitor. The victim couple worked as chef and butler for Victor and Philippa Davies, both now missing. Victor and Philippa are collectors of rare books and evidence indicates that one of those is missing, too. The local sheriff, Morgan, seems to believe that Victor and Philippa killed the two and then staged a breaking and entering before fleeing from the scene with the item. The Special Agents are to assist the local police in securing evidence to either corroborate the theory or dismiss it, each drawing upon their expertise: Dr Atzmüller doing an inventory on the books, Dr Harris compiling a profile and Agent O'Byrne acting as supervisor, and working with evidence collection and co-ordination with the local police. They'd be moving out the same afternoon. They all retired to prepare for the trip.

Anna-Lena, aka Allie, went home to pack and chatted quickly with one of her roomies, Laurie Burnsby, 29 and trauma psychologist, before leaving. She also called her would-be boyfriend, Kevin Stark, 34, chaos theoretician, to tell him she was going out of town for a while. Miles and Florian, living alone, packed slightly quicker. Florian found himself at the airport first and was approached by a slender man of Middle Eastern features, dressed in an expensive Armani suit, expressing his admiration for the Dr Atzmüller’s scholarly achievements, but had to leave when he received a call on his cell phone.

The group met up and looked at the crime scene pictures provided in the file during the flight. Raymond lay on his back, head propped against a wall, throat slit, a shotgun next to him. Fear was on his face. Adele lay on her back in a different room, her abdominal cavity opened up, internal organs arranged neatly on the floor next to her. Allies first thought was that it was interestingly similar to the legendary Jack the Ripper, but also interestingly different since one of the victims was male.

Arriving in Biloxi, Mississippi, the closests major city, in the late afternoon, they were met by Sheriff Morgan, a round fellow in his upper middle age with a thick moustache and chewing a hefty cigarr. He escorted them to the coroner. The baffled Dr Cross showed them the corpses and speculated that the murder weapon probably was some sort of gardening tool, though most likely a very blunt one, because the wounds were quite jagged, not at all what you’d expect from a sharp knife. Moreover, the organs had been torn out, not cut out, and there were small puncture wounds, like from spikes, symmetrical, on both the inside of Adele Browns body, and some of the organs. Only Adele had defensive wounds.

Afterwards, the team travelled to the crime scene, passing through Davies Landing on the way. The community sits on the Gulf Coast on the mouth of the Chickasway. This not being season, the fishing fleet was in port, with a lone yacht, the Nathaly at anchor. The whole community consisted of two main streets united in a T-intersection. In about 5 minutes, the car had passed through it and towards the Sunset Hall, the manor of the Davies’.

They finally arrived at the crime scene and started their first look through. The three investigators found several interesting clues at the scenes. The bodies were found in the mostly unused dining room (furniture covered by muslin) and the kitchen, respectively. Judging by the blood spatters, both had been killed at the scene. Agent O’Byrne noted that the French doors had been pushed open with great force from the outside, the floor covered in glass and the broken doors hanging on their lower hinges. He also found some interesting parallel indents on the left door. Being the hunter, his first thought was bear claws, but then he realized the absurdity of a bear in this area. The heavy table also seemed to have been pushed aside during the attack, which suggested an attacker of considerable strength and weight.

Allie went through the upstairs bedrooms and found no signs that either Philippa or Victor Davies had planned to leave the manor permanently: their closets were well-packed with clothes, the bathroom was stocked with toiletries. She also found a letter from Mr. Scott to Philippa Davies. Meanwhile, Florian poured over the private library, occupying a room devoted specifically for the purpose. It even had a home-made climate control system for the class cases containing the books, powered by an in-house generator. He discovered that the books covered many different topics and were all quite rare and expensive ranging from values of $ 200 to $ 20 000. Some titles concerned anthropology, but many rare items were on more esoteric subjects, including Tarot and even witchcraft. He also found that someone had removed the hard-drive from the computer sitting at the desk in the room.

At this time, it was getting late, and stomachs were growling after a long day with little to eat. The sheriff brought them down to the motel by the harbour, where he had arranged rooms and tables for them. They ate and made some lightheared small talk, primarily driven by Allie who was her usual cheerful self and wanted to know more about what the other two did during their free time. Florian was sternly withdrawn and said very little, and Miles found it difficult to break away from his professional role and thus made some cautious comments about his Ranger years and tour in Desert Storm, so Allie found herself gayly filling out the silence with some chatting about her opera interests.

Then they noticed that Mr Dean Scott, who found the body together with Mr. Lareen, was there as well, the only stranger in town. They interviewed him after dinner, finding out that he deals with rare books and antiquities and had dealings with Philippa. He was to collect an ancient book, the Vishnakapatram Fragment, for a client in Boston, and was still around hoping to collect information on this artifact from the investigators, seeing as Sunset hall was a crime scene. He told the agents about his experiences finding the bodies and claimed that he had not been back later, which Allie believed to be a lie.

Edit: When asked about his activities of late, he replied that he had been going around town to ask a little about the Davies', and heard local folklore about an old, supposedly giant, alligator called "Old Bill", which some locals apparently believe was behind the killings. Scott also asked the investigators if they knew anything about the Fragment he was looking for, but was, predictably stonewalled. /Edit.

When he left, Florian could tell the others that the book in question is a series of brass plates inscribed with erotic literature from before the birth of Christ, prompting a wry reply from O’Byrne: "So you're telling me that we are looking for a 70 pound, brass-plated, 2000 year old porno mag?", to which Florian, very dryly, had to reply: "yes". They asked the sheriff to tell the stranger to not leave town, and then asked for assistance in securing the crime scene immediately, the late hour notwithstanding, which seemed a necessity given the suspicion of Scott’s incursion.

To be continued…