An Interlude - Fighting Deep Ones underneath Portland

Summer, 1970, Portland, Oregon. Government anti-occult task force Delta Green calls for a crack team of agents to eradicate an infestation of deadly crypto-amphibian creatures infesting the decrepit tunnels beneath downtown. However, they’re in a hurry, so what they get is Kirin (an all-American straight-arrow FBI agent, Max (a German-emigree Reed College Professor and occult expert) and Jason (a 6’3” Navy Seal whose hobbies include psychedelics, blowing stuff up and blowing stuff up while on psychedelics).


After a briefing at the jankiest dive bar in Chinatown, Kirin and Max investigate the fish-monster corpse (rubbery, diseased arm), while Jason holes up in his hotel room perfecting his demolition kit. The next day, Max and Kirin interview the psychologically broken agent who led the previous expedition into the tunnels while Jason wanders downtown to score a handful of assorted recreational pharmaceuticals.

Descending into the old19th-century cargo tunnels they poke around until they find (or, actually, almost fall into) a connection to a stranger, roughly burrowed passage. The smell of decay becomes strong in this tunnel, but Jason’s Navy Seal (who’s taking the rear guard) is tripping balls by this point and doesn’t notice the feral canine ghoul-creature that’s been stalking them. It pounces on him, rending with its terrible claws and jaws! After the gang dispatches the creature with some deafening shotgun blasts, the wounded-but-still-game Jason lays a grenade trap to cover their rear and they proceed. Oh yeah, and now Max’s professor has taken a handful of benzos for the stress and Kirin’s FBI guy indulges in a soupçon of amphetamines to stay sharp.


Connecting to the area beneath Chinatown they proceed through abandoned basements and passageway to find an apparently natural tunnel system running deeper into the earth. Around a corner they run into a pair of the fish-monsters! But… they’re both dead, one clearly by its own hands, and both sport diseased tentacle-like limbs. Detecting light and noises ahead, they ninja-creep to an opening to a larger, vaulted natural cave with offshoot passages, pools of water and a central dais with a jade wheel in the center. A pair of biker-gang types stand over 4 unconscious figures on the floor. A wave of black despair washes over our heros, Kirin fights it off but Jason allows it in and sees the true nature of things: unearthly bleak malevolence in he jade artifact held in check by gold bands around it. It controls the bikers and is draining energy from the sleeping figures on the floor.


A flashbang disorients the bikers while Max and Kirin knock them out. Max starts randomly shotgunning the standing pools of water while Kirin inspects. The gold bands around the jade wheel are holding the evil in, but one is loosened and decayed. There’s a century-old corpse in ornate Chinese garb on the floor, with a hole in his chest cavity about the size of the jade artifact. His bony hand is clutching a gold triangular amulet that, hey whaddya know!, seems to fit an indentation in the loose gold band. Kirin inserts the amulet and senses he can use it to tighten the band at which point the jade malevolence infects Jason’s mind, causing him to toss his shotgun aside and smash and tear at his teammate Max. A fish-monster with a horrible tentacle arm burst from one of the pools of water and leaps for Kirin. Kirin’s guy channels his will with thoughts of baseball and apple pie and manages to turn the amulet despite the impending fishy death bearing down on him.


Oh, and meanwhile, he can sense each gold band contains the soul of a sorcerer who is trapped for eternity in a never-ending struggle to contain the evil within the jade artifact. They’re all screaming in unimaginable agony, and will be forever. Tough luck, guys! The amulet turns, the malevolence is trapped within the jade again. Jason comes to his senses (kind of), however the killer frog still leaps on Kirin. Max deftly puts a shotgun blast into the creature. Jason, frightened, enraged and still tripping balls, leaps on it with his knife. Slipping the blade into its gills he guts it like… well, like a fish. He stands there, freaked out and panting, covered in fish guts and bloody ichor.


They retire and hand over the artifact over to be destroyed (or possibly shipped to that warehouse of boxes in Washington next to the Arc of the Covenant). Kirin’s FBI guy is more convinced than ever of American exceptionalism. Max’s Prof. delivers a series of mind-bendingly weird lectures at his college. Jason’s guy recovers from his shock and wounds, but develops an acute case of hydrophobia, which is awkward for a Navy Seal (but of course does nothing to dampen his enthusiasm for psychedelics).