The sudden and inexplicable reappearance of a missing woman sets a mystery in motion…

The Circumstances of the Past Year:
Almost one year ago to the date, Cecily Wendt got up at 6:00 in the morning and went about her day as if it were any other. Prior to the day’s events, very little would make one view this young woman, or her circumstances, as unique. She was a junior at the local Film and Fine Arts University, she was helping pay her way by working at a museum of natural sciences not far from her school, she had friends, and she had a hard time growing up without a mother. Then one day she got up, went to work, grabbed some dinner, and attended night class. She never came home that night. 24 hours later she was declared missing. One week later, her car was found stripped and chopped out on the city’s limits. A lowlife street criminal named Rico McDonald took the fall for moving the hot car parts, but could not be linked to the “jacking.” McDonald claims he got a “tip,” but what little info he offered was way too vague, and besides which, Rico’s no rat. Three days later, the case was declared open but inactive. It seems car-jackings and missing persons happen all the time in the big city, and sometimes the crimes are not solved. Cecily’s father, Roger Wendt, had a hard time living with that “answer” and hired a PI to search further where the police would not. Another week passed, and the PI called Roger and told him to look no further; his daughter was gone and he should accept that. The PI then left town, never to be heard from again. Roger entered counseling at the urging of friends and loved ones. There he learned about acceptance, the stages of mourning, and what it was like to be a parent who outlived his child. Last week, clear as day, Cecily Wendt walked into the museum she used to work at, logged in with an ID that was never deactivated, and took several items from the museum’s storage vaults. She left fingerprints on the things she touched, and her countenance on the security cameras that filmed her. The items she took were so obtuse it took the museum two days to identify what was missing. Seemingly, she snagged several urns and vases that had to do with Egyptian mummification rituals. They were of little or no historical or material value. A second police investigation regarding this young woman turned up as little as the first.

Upon Closer Inspection…
A follow up inspection will reveal the following:
· Although not enough to be alarming, Cecily’s grades and attendance at work faltered slightly before her original disappearance. This is of particular note because she was working on projects at both the museum and school that she was very excited about, and would describe to anyone who would listen. At the museum, she was aiding in the acquisition of a new exhibit involving Egyptian culture. It was of particular interest, because it went beyond the simple “mummy craze” that gets stirred up from time to time; it included birthing and child rearing aspects, as well as celebratory practices. At school, she was beginning to take electives, and her first choice was a course in “Intimacy and Erotica in Film Studies” – despite her father’s mild objection. It was the last class she ever attended…
· The investigating officer for both aspects of her case is one Det. Doug Conrad. At the time of Cecily’s initial disappearance, he had just made detective. It was his third case.
· The PI hired by Mr. Wendt, a Tom Manning is gone… Seemingly never to be heard from again.

What’s Really Going On…
A rather simple conspiracy is responsible for the disappearance of Ms. Wendt. Three men, brought together in the occult underground via common interests and frightingly similar dispositions befriended Cecily, eventually abducted her, and performed a most heinous ritual upon her that left her body dead and her soul trapped. Here are the players; here is how it happened…
· Simon: Small time porn producer, scumbag, psychopath, and skilled thaumaturgist (Hush, Hush, pg. 82). He got his hands on a book of Necromantic Rituals two years ago and has been hell on wheels ever since. So much so, between the porn and thaumaturgy, he’s accumulated a few followers…
· Professor Marc Rubin, Ph.D.: On the surface, professor of film studies, in actuality, an extremely resentful misogynist, rife with fetishes and perversions… and searching for power to dominate women. He found his niche in the world of Simon. He also “discovered” Cecily, befriended her, and led her into the clutches of Simon.
· Det. Doug Conrad: See Rubin. Additionally, a bully who likes the power a badge has to offer. Covered up some evidence, but basically made his impact by hastening the closing of the book on the Wendt case.

A Timeline:
1. Rubin gets to know Cecily in class and identifies her as a potential target for abduction. Later, he discovers she works at a museum and has access to items that could be used in many of the rituals in Simon’s book. It’s decided she will be “The One”…
2. The weeks prior to the abduction, Rubin makes contact outside of class with Cecily and begins an inappropriate relationship. Not sexual, that would be too overt, but risqué, what with all the class material and his overtures. This sets the stage for his contact with her after class…
3. Rubin gets her into his car and it’s all over. With the help of her car keys, a detective, and a well-laid plan, everything goes smoothly. Conrad anonymously tips off a street level pissant with a petty record as to where the car is, and by the morning it is stripped and chopped. Conrad then goes and arrests him. Rico McDonald takes the fall.
4. The night of her abduction, a horrible ritual is performed on Cecily. It is successful. It went as follows:
a. Under a moonless sky…
b. The three men wearing specially prepared masks that depicted crustation-like features shaved her body…
c. Cecily’s skin was inscribed with runes and sigils with a coroner’s knife.
d. An Egyptian Ash Beetle (very rare and very toxic) was put in her mouth. Her mouth was then sewn shut. More sigils and runes were inscribed upon her during her death throws.
e. Post mortem, the skin of her face and hands were removed with a fine surgical blade. Her skin was prepared much like an animals hide into a pair of gloves and mask.
Anyone who wears the masks and gloves physically becomes the former person. In this case Cecily. In height, weight, appearance, and fingerprints… the whole deal.
5.The body was then chopped up and deposited in a shallow grave in a forest preserve not far from where the car was abandoned. This was to be used as a “backup plan” in case Conrad couldn’t cover everything up. It would have involved pinning everything on Rico.
6. A year later, Simon, in the guise of Cecily, enters the museum and steals several mummified components needed for another necromantic ritual.

Enter the Players:
No matter how low a profile the players are keeping, a woman approaches a couple of them in a public place – while dining, drinking, something social. The woman, a middle-aged blonde who looks both weary and slightly desperate, identifies herself as Deirdre Wendt and explains the facts from the “The Circumstances of the Past Year” year section, leaving out any specific mention of herself, but referring to “the family” and “Roger.” She says that she knows “people” and that they say the PCs can help. She writes her name and number on a napkin and says she will to do anything to solve the mystery of her daughter. At first, she offers the family nest egg, but if this does not entice the players, she offers to deliver a question and the response to the question “from beyond.” With haste, or amid timely confusion, she will leave. Any magical attempt to divine or understand Deirdre will offer faint but clear answers. Everything is as Deirdre says and /or appears. The only addition is that the adept or avatar will feel a “hollow” vibe from inspecting her – that is the only word they will be able to describe the feeling as, and they will feel somewhat melancholy for the next few hours.

Attempts to use the phone number will connect the players to Roger Wendt’s home. He is an accountant and works out of his house so he’s usually there. One problem. His wife died when Cecily was 4, a victim of a hit and run that was never solved. Role-playing this should be confusing and particularly charged for Roger. Unless the PCs are good, there will likely be some bridges that need to be mended with Roger after the initial confusion.

Solving the Case:
The savvy PC will start in one of five likely places: The Museum, the class and Dr. Rubin, Det. Conrad, A visit to see Rico or the crime scene. The Museum eventually leads to the death artifacts and can be most usefully employed for ominous foreshadowing. Play up the morbidity of the material. Rubin and Conrad eventually lead to Simon. Simon is the man behind the curtain and as such, should not be able to be directly “followed up on” from the get go. He can only be identified via his henchmen.

*Any attempts to magically understand what went on, to locate Cecily, or to communicate with her results in the same “hollow feeling” and maudlin hangover that happened when magik was attempted on Deirdre. Sorry, no shortcuts here.
** Folks extensively trained in premonitions or Death Magik will get the gist something terrible has happened here, and the “terribleness” is all that’s left now to sense.

The Museum: If the player’s can somehow swing it, once in the museum they can ascertain the following.
· Yep, that’s her on the videotape.
Yep, those are her fingerprints.
· Yep, that was her ID card that was used.
· She was a model employee (except the week before the disappearance).
· Dr. LeBeau, one of the curators, thought she was talented enough to go into curator-ship professionally.
· The few people she got to come into contact with being a part-time employee liked her.
· If the exhibit she was working on is inspected closer, lots of death is present. Mummification rituals, mummified people and animals, tools for the processes, components, garbs, masks, etc. Many of things “Cecily” took were from this exhibit; however, they were not on display as the public exhibits focused more on cultural celebration and the life cycle of the people.

The Class and Dr. Rubin:
· Computer hacking shows she was an “A” student, who was earning an “A” in the class when she disappeared.
· Dr. Rubin is an Associate Professor. He has tenure. Student evaluations are OK.
· He wrote a book on erotica in film studies entitled “Adult Audiences,” successful inspection of the book show lots of subtle undertones of abuse against women. Successful psychology rolls show a characterological triad of shame and anger versus women, feelings of inferiority, and overcompensation by control and domination of women.
· Confronting Rubin will result in a resuscitation of his statement to the police. If things get sticky, Rubin will back down, and tell the players a line he thinks they want to hear, anything to get him off the immediate hook he’s on. He will figure once he has them out of his school, he can send Conrad or Simon’s goons to take care of them.
· If physical harm, or worse, is used on Rubin, he will fold like a house of cards and tell the characters where to find Simon. However, unless somehow otherwise prevented, Rubin will immediately give the heads up to Simon and close ranks with his cronies.

Det. Conrad:
· Det. Conrad is one bad mother. Cunning, mean, smart, the works.
· If the players approach him on his turf, he will assess what’s going on, and if he feels threaten, he will let the player’s have it as soon as he gets an edge. “Letting them have it” could be done a lot of ways. Planting evidence and letting officers follow up, he’s a crooked cop so he could call in favors with the crime world. He could even go get Rubin and Simon and come at them at the PCs from all angles. He doesn’t like feeling powerless, and if he is, he will do everything in his power to rectify the situation.
· If taken down hard, Conrad will not talk. Nothing can make the man crack. That would be the ultimate in giving up power. Magikal interrogation will glean an image of where the car was found, and therefore where the body is as well. The image of a huge, black beetle and screams will also be present. These images are present because Conrad did the dirty work. Sewing the mouth and depositing the body.
· Ransacking his place will result in finding lots of “bad stuff” (guns, drugs, porn, etc.), but it’s in his car where directions to the “The Firehouse” are scribbled on a brown paper bag.

The Crime Scene:
· The actual place where the car was left is an abandoned parking lot to a burnt out factory.
· If players are unraveling the plot too quickly, they just like to fight, or you as the GM just want to screw with them, here is a good place to give them an ambush. It’s isolated and there are lots of hiding places. Conrad might want to stage something; random gang-bangers can try to pull off an armed robbery, whatever….
· Inspection of the official site offers little, but widening the search, even a little, leads to a forest preserve immediately buttressing the parking lot. The body is just over the fence and under decaying leaves. The body parts are too decomposed to offer much, but the head still has a 4-inch by 4-inch beetle lodged in the gullet. Violence checks all around folks.
· Following up on the beetle leads to Egypt and sweet rolls result in its historic connection to Egyptian Thantomology.

A Note Regarding Red Herrings:
· As always, feel free to mess with the players. Some aspects of this scenario have no “answer” – i.e. Deirdre, Deirdre’s hit and run, or a gang hit at the site of the car. It was David Lynch who said, “The more unknowable the mystery, the more beautiful it is.” Some Unknowable is good. It also leaves the possibility for future scenarios.

The Fire House/Simon:
· Simon is a bad man too. Not as overtly reflexive as Conrad, but many times more dangerous due to his collection of rituals and the following he now commands. The Fire House is his bar. Saying it is in a shitty neighborhood is the understatement of the year. He’s rarely there in person though. His buddies use the joint as a front for recruiting people for his porn, his small cult, and nowadays, for his ritual practices.
· Simon hangs out in the warehouse kiddy corner across the street. The two buildings are connected via a renovated storm sewer.
· If the players are too aggressive at the Fire House, they will draw Simon’s attention, if they haven’t yet. If they ask the right questions or use the right means (particularly questioning the waitress with the badly covered up black eye who was promised stardom and wound up in a skin flick and with a black eye for expressing second thoughts…) the players will learn Simon’s location.

The Warehouse:
· This is the endgame. This is Simon’s house, studio, and den of horrors. Stock it as you wish; defend it as you wish – gear it to your player’s talents and experience.
· When all is said and done, the mask and gloves are in a case in the building, as is a video of the whole terrible ritual, and the Tome. Not necessarily all together though. Add other niceties as you wish, but remember, the Tome corrupted this man with its power. If the player’s get the items make sure they realize it will happen to them too.
· Simon will not flee without the Tome. He has tasted power and can’t imagine life without it. He will betray his partners, abandon the warehouse and bar, and will even flee without the mask and gloves. He will not depart without the book. If the players go in after him, note where he is, note where the book is – that’s the name of the game.
Denouncement:
· Destruction of the mask and gloves results in haunting sobs, and it should be clear to the players Cecily was freed from whatever hell imprisoned her in the artifacts.
· Destruction of the Tome results in an eerie eldritch stench and glow.
· Using the Gloves and Mask combo results in self and/or unnatural checks. The more serious the longer the duration of use.
· Use of the book should be corrupting in ways not measurable by mere checks in a box. This is bad stuff and even the most minor ritual should result in exceptionally nefarious acts on the part of the adept.
· If Simon or Conrad gets away, they will lay low, regroup, and come back at the players hard.
· If or when the mask and gloves are destroyed, a letter with no return address will show up in a player’s mailbox, pocket, or glove compartment with the answer to there question from the “Other Side”, signed “Thank you, D. & C.”