by David March

Also titled The Jade Statue?

A Piece of Jade

Introduction

Thomas Drogue was an occult scholar who ended up buying something he shouldn’t. He was a minor occultist who wanted a big break and his shelves are full of Crowley and Time Life Occult books.
One day he bought a real magic item and it was sent to him express post and he opened it up and grasped his real magic item in his hand.
Suddenly a ten foot tall demon appeared with him and attacked him.
Tom was not a total loser and emptied his revolver with ‘silver’ bullets into the Demon, but he was shortly there after cut to pieces.
The gunfire attracted the attention of the cops who arrived on the scene and found him in a locked room, with a revolver in one hand, though the arm was across the room, and his other hand holding the crystal in his left, clutched tightly to his chest. There is very little evidence of the creature that chopped him into pieces. The cops did find the silver bullet fragments and pieces of jade. The police processed the scene and took the body parts and the stone with them to the morgue. The lead investigator Det. Sergeant Max Wakelam had previously been involved in a Delta Green operation where he assisted in the investigation of a series of occult murders involving a Tcho Tcho sorcerer and a dimensional shambler, believing he was on to something similar he reported through his contacts the recent murder of Drogue, and the players have been called into investigate.

Middle
The gemstone bought through mail order by Drogue is a magical assassination device. The creature with only appears when it’s alone with whoever is currently holding it. The minute another person walks into the room, it disappears back in the stone.
Depending on the players group they have a number of plausible reasons for Federal agents to become involved in the case. They could be following up on drugs, or serial killers or terrorists. The fact that Drogue ordered his item online and out of state should be enough reason to get involved as it has crossed state lines and multiple jurisdictions. Whatever happens the players have a number of possible angles for starting their investigation.

Drouges Apartment
Drouge lives in a small house on a quiet street in whatever low rent part of town is appropriate to the Agents city. The house has two bedrooms, a kitchen, living room/dining room area and a single bathroom. The police have finished processing the scene and there is one cop on hand looking bored. Two cats occupy the house, Bast and Sheeba are their names.
Preceding to the scene, either with or without Det. Wakelam the players can confirm that all the windows are locked and the door had a latch as well, a complicated deadbolt that seemed to be a little bit much for the needs of a lonely shut in. The books on the walls are all well thumbed tombs including Aleister Crowley’s works as well as some works by Dennis Whately. There is also a cabinet that has various occult items including a stone block within a half an Elder sign carved into, various salts and occult chemicals and a box of silver bullets, the box is from Bullet Furnance, custom forged at www.bulletfurnace.com. Credit card checks can confirm that Drogue ordered them 9 months ago.
Players with a series of spot hidden/investigation rolls can discover a number of different clues. That indeed all the windows are locked from the inside, that though there is a closet, it was full of clothes and boxes, and no signs that anything was disturbed, other than when the police did their search. That the wall has two bullets holes in it (forensics removed the bullets), and the gun was missing 4 rounds.
The only thing else they can find is jade dust. Walkelam can confirm that forensics found several broken pieces of jade on the ground, and had been taken as evidence.

Evidence Locker
Proceeding to the police station and examining the evidence, players can find the bullets pulled out of the wall and little chunks of jade. The techs have just finished doing their initial examination and discover something unique, that one of the missing silver bullets is actually buried in the jade. Apparently Drouges had shot the jade itself. Ballistics will soon be able to confirm this. The players can also examine the gun used, and determine that Drouge had indeed fired silver tipped bullets. Once the Agents have finished processing this info they hear screams and the sounds of a fight coming from the direction of the Morgue.

The Morgue
Arriving in the Morgue the Agents will discover a scene of disarray, a table on its side with Drouges half open body on the floor guts spilled everywhere. They will find the Medical Examiner impaled on a broken chair, and medical instruments and various chemicals spilled over the floor (1/1D6 sanity loss for the whole scene). They will also see a small jade statue in the middle of the floor sitting on its side.
Players can find a small tape recorder in the corner of the room with a successful spot hidden roll. Playing the tape will reveal the following message.
“Date, 8:45 PM. Autopsy of Thomas Drouge. Middle aged man. Right arm detached. In the victims hand is a small jade statuette. Cutting fingers to release the statue, it seems to be very strongly held.
*sounds of saw cutting, background noise, ‘later Doc’*, that seems to get it. *ominous sounds*, What the heck is that? Oh MY GOD!
*screaming followed by crashing sounds and flesh being ripped apart*
then the tape ends.
The Medical orderly Bob Lightfoot can be found and he states that he just left the ME, to go get a coffee and had only been gone a couple of minutes. He definitely doesn’t report any mysterious strangers or anyone else hanging around that could have attacked the Doc.

Statue
The Jade Statue is about 3 inches tall and shows very little damage despite the fact that Drouge had it in a death clutch and it has been through two battles. It’s a jade statue of a 4 armed demon, and does show signs of scratches and one tiny hole and a chip off its arm.
Each one of the arms of the demon is a sharp looking sword or talon. If someone thinks about it, a half idea roll, they could examine the statue under a magnifying lens, and notice what looks like a bullet hole in the statue. Analysis will reveal there is traces of silver in the hole as well, and that the piece of jade in evidence roughly looks like a large scale chip of the jade statue.
Try as they might the players should not be able to easily destroy the statue in its miniaturized form, magic weapons should damage it, but most agents don’t have easy access to such items.
The real trick is whenever any single player is alone with the statue out in the open, (keeping it in a locked closed opaque container is fine, a glass container though won’t do). The Statue immediately grows to its ten foot high size and attacks the lone agent, if he can survive long enough for help to arrive the demon returns to statue size, otherwise it hunts the agent down and cuts them to pieces and then turns back. If the player can somehow defeat it (a shaped charge should do it), it shatters in a pile of jade, the enchantment broken.

Conclusion

The Agents will have to discover for themselves about the Statue, and depending on how they do they have a number of options at their disposal. They also have to figure out how they are going to explain this all to the local police, but that’s all in a day’s work.

They also have to figure out who created the statue and why? Who decided to send it through the mail, and was it intentional or not. All things to be explored by the particular keeper and his campaign.