The players' previous experiences with the doctor should have allowed them to recognise his amazing knack for recognising and manufacturing chemicals that can be used to stabalise the typical 'disintegration process' often associated with the Mythos. In this regard the doctor has proved invaluable in securing forensics evidence. However, these 'treatments' are assessed as and when - there are currently no pre-packed problem-solvers that the characters can pick up in his absense.

Those who get to know the doctor a little better learn that he came to Delta Green's attention during a rare sighting of a Deep One at New York Harbour, where agents had to step in when it attacked him.


***Starting Up***

Regardless of what individual agents are planning, their evening will be interrupted by a phone call. They'll be asked to meet outside the St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan - anyone who stated previously that they're watching TV or are out on the streets of New York can make a Luck Roll to have learnt about the Midnight Mass at the maginificent Cathedral, due to be televised on a local network.

The senior agent will also be told the nature of the assignment. There has been a security breach - someone matching the decription of Dr Martin Dowe has emptied a little-used Green Box in New York of its contents.These items are an old tome (its exact nature is not important) and a Mask (photos of which can be supplied if the character is near a computer or fax). The doctor entered St Patrick's at around eight this evening, confirmed by a police officer. He was carrying a briefcase that contained an old book, though the policeman didn't search him beyond that. 

The agents have been secured entry, the police warned of an FBI operation concerning the 'dangerous fugitive' Martin Dowe. The most important thing is to get him out of the Cathedral without alerting the public, and to secure the stolen items.


***St. Patrick's Cathedral***

It's an hour or so before midnight when the characters arrive. There seems to be a small police and media presence outside, a van with a local TV network's logo on the side parked just outside. Within the van are a few monitors showing the camera angles within the Cathedral, as well as an external shot, although at the moment none of this is going out live. The main entrance to the Cathedral is secured by a policewoman, who'll let them in once they reveal their operative names. They will be ushered in quietly, and asked not to interrupt the service. The Cathedral is impressive, the massive main hall an awesome sight, especially with a full house. The Archbishop of New York is most likely leading the service. A number of cameras have been set up at the back, plus a number in higher
galleries.

The agents are free to explore, but it turns out that Dr Dowe is sitting in an aisle seat a couple of rows
from the front. You can play this out as long as you want, but even once the doctor is spotted it should
still be hard to get to him. He hasn't actually got any plans until midnight, when the cameras will go live, but if the agents act too hastily, however, he will act ahead of schedule.


***What's Going On***

For one reason or another, the Dr Martin Dowe has snapped. His exposure to the Mythos has simply made him have to face up to some dark truths. With his world falling apart, he plans to expose the Christian teachings that he held so dear as illusions that hide the horrible truth. He plans to hold the Archbishop and congregation at gunpoint and recite from the stolen tome. If the cameras are running he'll address them (and the Delta Green conspiracy), demanding that they tell the world the truth. In reality whilst the cameras are still running, the live link will be cut at the first sign of any trouble. That doesn't make it any less terrifying for those present.

Dr Dowe doesn't really plan to use the gun - he wants the threat of violence to buy him enough time to tell the world the truth. However, should the agents use guns of their own, he'll retaliate, even if they're standing near innocent by-standers. He's not violent, but neither is he completely sane. Essentially, however, he's here to deliver a message, and there's more than one way to do that. If subdued but still conscious he'll be able to play his trump card. He'll bend his head down, hiding his face momentarily, before suddenly tensing up. Then, in a matter of seconds, his clothes will shred as his skin bursts open, falling apart as the slick red muscles beneath expand, bubble, and turn dark, warping him into a horrific monster. Anyone making a Spot Hidden roll sees his human face falling away like a perfectly intact mask. The transformation costs all those who see it 1/1D10 SAN. This includes the whole congregation and anyone watching on camera. Anyone right next to the doctor when he changes is covered in blood and ruptured skin, making a further SAN roll or else losing a further 1D6 SAN. In any case, the agents need to deal with both the monster and the panicking crowd.

If killed or knocked out before he changed it becomes apparent that he wears a mask, not disimiliar to the one they've been asked to collect, but undoubtedly featuring the face of Dr Dowe, and solid despite the fact the agents have all seen the face talking and blinking mere moments before. SAN cost 1/1D6.


***Retrieving the Stolen Items***

Anyone who picks up the Mask is subject to a vivid vision that no-one else sees. The agent must make a SAN roll as they pick up the almost perfect replica of the doctor's face with its eyes closed, cast in what appears to be porcelain. Failing costs the character another 1 SAN. As they study the Mask, they become aware that the Cathedral has become silent. Turning to look around them they see the congregation are, once more, seated, their faces all hidden behind white masks, eyes closed. The agent's companions sit in the front row, wearing the same masks. The character must make a further SAN roll or lose 1D6 SAN. Whatever the result of this roll, the character hears someone clapping, slow but constant, with obvious sarcastic. It takes little time to locate the source, a finely dressed gentleman without a mask seated near the back of the assembled church-goers. He offers a smug smileseconds before the vision ends, and the agent finds himself staring once more towards a panicking crowd, his hand holding thin air where it previously held the Mask.

The agent's companions all see their friend bending down, then turning to face the crowd, the blood draining from his face as if he's seen a ghost. His hand holds out slightly, as if reaching for something no-one else can see. It requires a Spot Hidden roll to notice the Mask disappear almost the second the character touches it.

The tome can be retrieved from the stand, where the doctor was reading from it.


***Wrapping up***

The agents must, of course, arrange for the dead or unconscious doctor to be removed from the premises. They must also tend to the bystanders. The whole episode will have to be kept under wraps by Delta Green for fear of exposing one of the world's most terrible secrets. The characters should also confiscate any recordings of the event.

Finally, if the agents search the Cathedral at any point later, they will find a box wrapped in glittery green paper, sitting on the pew where the unmasked gentleman appeared. A tag addresses the gift to the agents by their code-names, with the message 'Many Happy Returns'. Unwrapping it reveals the mask, now reverted to its original more sculpted appearance, a faint smile upon its lips.

STATS

***Dr Martin Dowe***
STR: 10
CON: 12
SIZ: 12
DEX: 10
APP: 10
INT: 12
POW:9
EDU: 15

HP: 14

Skills: Key forensics/biochemical skills at 65% Key combat skills at 35% (except where default is higher)

ORIGINAL CONCEPT: Martin Dowe is an apparently unremarkable thirty something doctor, who first came to Delta Green's attention when he was an innocent bystander to a Deep One attack during a standard investigation. This is rare, of course, since the Deep Ones tend to keep to themselves nowadays. Martin, however, doesn't believe that he was a random bystander - he believes the Deep One had come for him. Martin never knew his dad, who disappeared from the scene a long time ago, but always suspected that he had inherited some sort of gentic flaw from him, pieced together from his mother's stories and some old photographs. Still, the flaw was one that he was able to successfully keep at bay in himself through the use of drugs he developed.

In short, he has been able to keep the physical 'disfigurements' of the Innsmouth look from taking hold through pharmaceuticals.

Since then he's been able to help out in other cases - in particular he seems to have had limited but significant success in finding stabalising treatments for some of the more volatile chemical reactions to the Mythos. In this way it is sometimes possible for him to collect forensic evidence where it might otherwise have dissolved away, although this does require him and/or his solutions to be present almost immediately.

The change, of course, is not purely physical, and the dreams that Martin had, combined with exposure to other elements of the Mythos through his work with Delta Green, revealled something was very wrong. Gradually he was able to put the pieces together, but through his dependancy on his manufactured drugs he had not developed any great longer or attraction to the sea or the things that dwelt beneath it's surface - instead he had an increasing sense of revulsion about what he must be. Martin, a devout Roman Catholic, sought to find some sort of way to rid himself of the curse. And so, following dealings with Delta Green, Martin is able to gain unauthorised access to a Green Box and the items within, a tome (of your choice - it's not majorly important to the story) and a Mask, a white porcelain mask depicting a face with eyes closed, a faint smile on its lips, with black ribbon threaded through holes either side, at a point just above where the ear would be. He steals these items, the first in order to learn more about the enemy, the last simply because it's there.

Part of his plan to expose the Mythos has included stopping his drug treatment. When he concentrates (or rather relaxes the instinct to supress the dark tide) he explodes forth into a full Deep One, enraged and out of control, warped beyond a typical Deep One through corruption from the Mask. It's instincts will then teach it to flee, which may mean straight out and into the streets. This would serve Martin's agenda perfectly.

At the moment, through the sheer dynamic thrust of the change, from warm-blooded creature to cold, it will take the monster a while to revert to a green\grey skinned beast.

Supplies of his Deep Gene Stabalising Drugs will be found at his apartment and lab.


ALTERNATIVE 1 (the 'Hulk' version):
Martin Doweis basically an ordinary human being, but his past experience with a Deep One left him marvelling the abilities of a creature that quite simply should not exist. Increasingly inquisitive about the nature of the best, he decided to use himself as a guinea pig in some experiments, to see whether any of the properties of the strange creatures can be contained within human flesh. Due to secrets he has discovered aboout the Deep Ones and Ghouls he believes that these two creatures hold the most promise for remaining stable within the human form.

Martin steals the items from the Green Box believing he has already been found out. When he changes, he channels the energies contained within himself, little knowing the strength or having the barriers in place to prevent a completely ireversable and explosive change!

The monster may very well revel in it's power, much in the way of a Mr Hyde. It would most likely seek to escape, though it might very well attempt to sneak over roof-tops and explore is new found abilities.


ALTERNATIVE 2 (the 'Mask Monster' option):
Simply put, the Mask has greater power than previously known (see below). In addition to anything else it may do, it taps into people's deep (and often dark) subconsious, twisting their darkest desires and manifesting them into physical form. An additional twist is that the Mask can be heard by those of a particularly unstable mind, whispering, drawing them in, leading the unwilling and already disturbed person to find it. Martin Dowe, increasingly disturbed by the events he saw, was a prime candidate.
There's every chance the monster created by his darker impulses will revel in blood-letting and slaughter, plus any thing else you feel comfortable role-playing..


THE THING THAT WAS MARTIN DOWE:
STR: 16
CON: 12
SIZ: 17
INT: 13
POW: 11
DEX: 10

HP: 14
Armor Points: 2 points
Damage Bonus: +1d6
Magic Points: 11
Weapons: claw 35% 2d6

Any Spells you feel applicable, though he'll probably be spending more time running and fighting.


***The White Mask***

ORIGINAL CONCEPT: This might be THE Pallid Mask, though more likely it is simply A pallid mask. Whatever the case, it IS a physical representative of one of Nyarlathotep's masks, however. To all intents and purposes it is porcelain, except it seems particularly damage resistant, and slightly warm to the touch.

It has three properties, three different 'visages' hat can be worn. Each can be activated by speaking the simple words of command, either whilst wearing it or by whispering as if into the Mask's ear, causeing an instant change. However, these command words are known by only to a few rare few, including Nyarlathotep, so the three different 'visages' tend to be activated through a default mechanism.

If worn whilst simply a white Mask, tied in place with the black ribbon, it blocks all sense of vision, as well as being air-tight (although somehow allowing the wearer to breathe). Whoever wears it is subject to strange visions and whispers that grow clearer and more vivid the longer the mask is worn, which are actually visual and aural representations of astral projections and eminations from certain Great Old Ones that broadcast dreams on a similar frequency.

If the Mask is handled without being worn it begins to adopt the features of the person who carries it. It then offers two alternative properties. If worn by someone else it perfectly mimics the face of the person it is attuned to, right down to facial tics and voice. If, however, someone volunteers to wear the Mask of their own face they have willingly chosen to BECOME the Mask, whilst the person behind it slowly corrupts, into a form more suitable... for an avatar of Nyarlathotep. Those that can control the Mask are able to assume any identity previously adopted by the Mask. In any case the Mask cannot be removed from the host whilst conscious, actually becoming the person's face, allowing them to feel any sensations it feels.

The Mask, once removed from a subdued or metamorphosised 'host' quickly returns to its master, Nyarlathotep (frequently with some sort of vision), who can then place it back into the world where-ever he pleases. Sometimes it's just amusing if it stays in the same circles, compelling and corrupting its 'guardians' all the more.

The man in the crowd is, of course, Nyarlathotep, though most likely wearing the more familiar face of Stephen Alzis.


ALTERNATIVE 1 (The 'Okay, it's the Pallid Mask' option):
With little adjustment, the Mask can be tied into the King In Yellow mythos. The visions a white Masks will be different, originally showing the view out of the Mask as if the eyes were open, but gradually building up layers of the King's mythos upon the real world, offering glimpses of Carcosa and Hali, beautiful and enticing though alien. Furthermore the Mask cannot create avatars of Nyarlathotep, though it can change the victim until their mind and personality is entirely that of one of the characters from the play.

The man in the crowd appears to be someone from this world rather than anyone from the world of carcosa. Anyone particular in touch with the mythos of the King might recognise the family resemblance to members of the Castaigne family.


ALTERNATIVE 2 (the 'Sorcerer's Apprentice' option):
The Mask is an artifact created by a powerful modern day sorcerer, perhaps one you've used previously, or attached to a cult that's been particularly bothersome in the past. Although Martin Dowe's reasons for taking the Mask are his own, the sorcerer was able to detect its movements, arranging to be here to collect it.

The abilities of the Mask are exactly as stated in the original, except that by wearing a Mask of your own face you become a puppet for the sorcerer, as has been the case with Martin tonight.

The gentleman in the crowd is, of course, the sorcerer. He maintains a mental link with the  Mask at all times. Why he has returned the Mask is up to you, though supposedly he has made a few 'adjustments' to it, allowing him to summon the Mask forth when needed. And potentially much worse.


***The Archbishop***

The Archbishop is a real person, and as such I haven't tried to generate stats for him. Additionally, if you're concerned about having a real world person being the hostage of a crazed maniac, replace him with a fictitious Archbishop or lesser priest.