Introduction
The Agents find themselves in a hospital room. They were sent here to investigate a patient, Mitchell Parker, after reports of an unusual sickness reached Delta Green. The Agents were given no further details.
Before they have a chance to interrogate Parker, he tries to grab the service weapon of one of the Agents. If the Agents are unable to prevent it, he kills himself right in front of their eyes (SAN 1/1D4 from violence).
Whether Parker lives or not, the Agents discover that Parker's whole body is overgrown with pulsating tumorous growths (SAN 0/1 from the Unnatural).
Background
Parker's condition is caused by the consumption of particles that once belonged to a Lloigor stone. Parker grows his own vegetables in a community garden. His carrots got contaminated when the owner of the neighboring garden patch, Sebastian Köhler, treated his own plants with horn silica, a mixture of water and pulverized quartz crystal. Köhler did not know that the quartz crystal he used was once part of a Lloigor stone.
Sebastian treated his vegetables this way, because he and his wife Daniela are anthroposophists and practitioners of biodynamic agriculture. They believe that horn silica supports plant growth.
The cancer-inducing powers of the remnant Lloigor energy do indeed cause unusual growth in the plants. But everyone consuming the plants opens themselves up to the influence of the Lloigor. By now Sebastian Köhler has eaten so much of the contaminated crops that the Lloigor is possessing his body. Though the creature is still weak, it uses Sebastian to regain its old strength. It plans a ritual involving human sacrifices to transfer its energy into a new stone, at which point it can once again access its full powers. The Agents have to stop it before it is too late.
Investigating Mitchell Parker
Parker has told the doctors that the tumors on his body developed overnight. The doctors or Agents with Medicine are unable to explain the rapidity and severity with which the cancer developed.
If the Agents stopped Parker from committing suicide, they can attempt to talk to him. However, Parker is suffering from a Lloigor-induced depression. Psychotherapy or Persuade is necessary to get anything other than a nihilistic rant out of him.
Alternatively, the Agents can talk to Parker's family or friends to learn the following:
- His depression is atypical, he always had an outgoing and friendly personality.
- He is a health and fitness freak. He does Yoga everyday, is a vegan, and grows his own vegetables.
- He was feeling fine yesterday, when he went to go harvesting in his garden.
Parker’s apartment provides additional clues:
- A calendar in the kitchen, the optimal times to sow and harvest different types of vegetables are marked.
- A book on his nightstand: An Introduction to Biodynamic Farming.The name “Daniela Köhler” is written inside the cover.
- A basket full of recently harvested vegetables, with unusually large carrots.
- The fridge contains leftover carrot soup.
All evidence leads the Agents to either the community garden or the Köhlers. If the Agents are stuck the Handler can add additional clues, e.g. another participant of the community garden or a friend of the Köhlers is taken to the hospital, after developing the same symptoms as Parker.
If, for some reason, an Agent eats any of the contaminated food, they might become infected as well (see Unnatural Cancer stat block).
The Garden
The Agents can encounter Daniela Köhler at the community garden. She is doing strange dance-like motions in front of her garden patch, right next to Mitchell Parker’s patch. When asked about what she is doing, she tells the Agents that she is performing eurythmy to transfer some of her “life force” to the plants. Agents with Occult know that eurythmy is a movement art performed by some anthroposophists.
The vegetables in Parker’s garden plot are all very ordinary, except for the carrots. Similar to the carrots in Parker’s apartment, they are all unnaturally large. The carrot patch is right next to the Köhler garden plot. The Köhler vegetables show the same signs of unusual growth.
The Köhlers
Daniela Köhler is eager to tell others about her anthroposophical beliefs and biodynamic agriculture. If the Agents show even the slightest hint of interest she tells them all about biodynamic agriculture and its principles:
- Biodynamic agriculture was invented by Rudolf Steiner in the 1920s. It was the first organic farming movement.
- Biodynamic agriculture is popular in Germany, where Daniela and her husband are from. Almost every supermarket in Germany sells vegetables that were grown following biodynamic principles.
- One principle is that crops should only be sown or harvested during certain phases of the moon.
- Another principle is that only cow manure is permitted as fertilizer.
- Horn silica is made of powdered quartz that is “energized” by putting it inside a cow horn and then burying it in the soil for a summer.
- Spraying a mixture of horn silica and water over the crops is supposed to have the same effect as sunshine.
Daniela has not yet eaten any of the contaminated vegetables, because she is currently fasting. The Agents notice that she looks exhausted. This is caused by the Lloigor inside her husband, which is draining energy from her every night. Daniela does not know this, she blames her tiredness on the fasting. Additionally, she is worried about her husband, because he has become distant and cold toward her in the last few days.
Daniela liked Mitchell Parker. She lent him a book on biodynamic agriculture. She is shocked when she hears about his condition, but asserts that cancer can be cured with mistletoe extract.
Daniela’s husband, Sebastian Köhler, is filled with an unnatural hate against all living things ever since he became host to the Lloigor. But the creature is smart and so far has stopped Sebastian from acting on his violent urges. If the Agents talk to Sebastian he is unhelpful and unfriendly, bordering on antagonistic.
The Lloigor has lost most of its powers, but it still has a few possibilities to influence Sebastian and improve his chances of fulfilling his mission: enact a ritual to transfer the Lloigor back into a stone to restore its power. If Sebastian is ever in danger of bodily harm it uses its ability to induce cancer to turn his body into a monstrous mass of tumorous muscle and bone. In this form he is less vulnerable and extremely dangerous (see Walking Tumor stat block).
Following and observing Sebastian reveals his plan:
- Sebastian visits a shop for precious stones and buys a huge quartz crystal, worth at least $1000. The stone is going to be the new vessel for the Lloigor.
- Sebastian drives around the seedy parts of the town, observing the homeless, prostitutes and junkies. He is on the lookout for his next victim.
- At night, Sebastian viciously attacks his chosen victim, knocks them out and puts them into his trunk. Then he takes them to an abandoned warehouse and leaves them there.
- A victim could give Sebastian much more trouble than he expected, which triggers the Walking Tumor transformation. The Handler can use this option to foreshadow the danger that an attack on Sebastian could mean for the Agents.
The Ritual In The Warehouse
This run-down warehouse is located in an industrial area of town. Entering the property through the broken fence is trivial. The warehouse is no longer used for storage, but left-behind stacks of pallets provide cover.
Four kidnapped victims are handcuffed to a pallet rack in the middle of the storage area. They all are horribly abused: their tendons have been cut so they cannot run, their tongues have been removed so they cannot scream. Sebastian has provided a minimum amount of medical care so that they do not die of blood loss. A huge quartz crystal is carefully placed just out of reach of the victims.
To enable the transfer of the Lloigor into the crystal, Sebastian has to kill five people within minutes of each other and pour their blood over the stone. Then he has to cut himself and add his own blood to complete the ritual.
When the Agents interfere, Sebastian transforms into his Walking Tumor form. Depending on the circumstances, Sebastian might try to finish the ritual before attacking the Agents.
Resolution
To resolve the scenario the Agents have to prevent Sebastian Köhler from completing his ritual. Killing Sebastian deprives the Lloigor of energy that it needs to survive. However, the Lloigor is not fully dead until the patch in the community garden and the contaminated food are destroyed as well. If the Agents fail to do this, Daniela Köhler could become the next Lloigor.
The origin of the Lloigor quartz crystal and how the Köhlers came into its possession is out of scope for this scenario, but could be the hook for a follow-up scenario.
Stat Blocks
Mitchell Parker
Health nut turned suicidal cancer patient, age 26
STR 8 CON 8 DEX 10 INT 10 POW 10 CHA 10
HP 8 WP 10 SAN 35 BREAKING POINT 30
SKILLS: Alertness 20%, Athletics 60%, Dodge 40%, Unarmed Combat 40%
ATTACKS: Unarmed 40%, 1D4-1
DISORDERS: Depression
Daniela Köhler
Exhausted believer in anthroposophic pseudoscience, age 29
STR 10 CON 10 DEX 10 INT 8 POW 10 CHA 12
HP 10 WP 5 SAN 50 BREAKING POINT 40
SKILLS: Alertness 20%, Dodge 30%, Occult 40%, Unarmed Combat 40%
ATTACKS: Unarmed 40%, 1D4-1
Sebastian Köhler
Human host to a Lloigor, age 32
STR 12 CON 12 DEX 10 INT 25 POW 20 CHA 10
HP 12 WP 20 SAN 0 BREAKING POINT -
SKILLS: Alertness 50%, Athletics 50%, Dodge 30%, Firearms 20%, Melee Weapons 30%, Stealth 30%, Unarmed Combat 40%
ATTACKS: Unarmed 40%, 1D4; Large Knife 30%, 1D6
DRAIN ENERGY: The Lloigor can regenerate 1D6 WP by draining it from a sleeping victim. Sebastian has to touch the victim for this power to work. It works only once per night per victim.
FRENZY: The Lloigor possessing Sebastian induces a frenzy, which costs 2 WP. This gives Sebastian +20% in all melee attacks and doubles the damage of Unarmed attacks.
TRANSFORMATION: The Lloigor causes the immediate growth of muscles and a layer of protective tumors all over Sebastian's body. This costs 8 WP. See the Walking Tumor stat block.
Walking Tumor
The malignant kind
STR 25 CON 25 DEX 12 INT 25 POW 20 CHA -
HP 25 WP 20 SAN 0 BREAKING POINT -
SKILLS: Alertness 50%, Athletics 60%, Unarmed Combat 60%
ATTACKS: Rip and Tear 60%, 1D8
Osteosarcoma blade 60%, 1D6 Armor Piercing 3 (see OSTEOSARCOMA BLADE)
ARMOR: see NEOPLASM LAYERS
NEOPLASM LAYERS: Multiple layers of tumorous growths protect the vital organs of the creature. Successful Lethality rolls do not destroy the Walking Tumor, but inflict damage equal to the Lethality rating. Called shots to increase damage are impossible.
OSTEOSARCOMA BLADE: On a successful hit the creature impales the Agents with a long bone tumor growing from one of its appendages. The Agent has to make a CONx5 roll at -20%. On a failure, the Agent is infected with an unnatural oncovirus and develops symptoms of cancers within the next 1D4 days (see Unnatural Cancer).
SAN LOSS: 1/1D6
Lloigor
Use the stats in the Handler’s Guide (page 213), if the ritual to restore the Lloigors power should succeed.
Unnatural Cancer
ROUTE: Injection or contact with infected blood or flesh
SPEED: 1D4 days
CON TEST PENALTY: -20%
DAMAGE: 1D4
SYMPTOMS: Tumor growth, fatigue, weight loss
CURE: Chemo- or radiation therapy, surgery
SAN LOSS: 0/1D4 from helplessness when the first tumor is discovered
Credits
Biodynamics was written by Hendrik for the 2022 Shotgun Scenario contest. Source: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZWjuqR2VTjFkwF1izTXRZStHRMfUyDCxfs8yMAGksX4/edit#.