Agent Purple's Green Box Blues
A snarks and shotguns scenario for Delta Green by James Haughton. A revised and extended version of this scenario has been published in The Unspeakable Oath 24.
The Mission: the cell is contacted by A cell according to their usual protocol. They are ordered to assist Agent Purple of P cell, from the FBI office of [a nearby very large city], investigate a possible breach of Delta Green security.
An artefact of paranormal significance, which was believed to have been secured in a Green Box, was found by P cell when they infiltrated the headquarters of a gang with potential occult connections. P cell was discovered, and in the ensuing fire fight, Partridge and Peter were killed. Purple thus needs assistance to investigate, and to do legwork so that he can spend time in the office ensuring the connection to Delta Green is not uncovered in the investigation of Partridge and Peter's deaths.
A cell will further inform the cell that Purple is a highly experienced agent who has cracked several difficult cases, but due to the death of his cellmates and his own knowledge of the occult, they should be alert for any signs of mental instability on Purple's part. The cell are given Purple's secure phone number and told to contact him to arrange a rendezvous. A cell will not give details of any of Purple's former cases, but if they are specifically asked and the agent contacting makes a Luck roll, A cell will admit that this is the second time Purple has been the sole survivor of P cell.
Agent Purple's real name is Erik Baetz, though he will want to keep things on a code-names-only basis. He comes across as cold and implies, without saying so openly, that he could finish this case without the Agents' help, if it wasn't for the necessity of preserving his legitimate FBI job. He doesn't show much emotion when talking about his cellmates' deaths - Psychology rolls suggest that he may be suffering from some dissociative disorder. He eases up slightly if asked about some of his previous cases and will, over drinks, become quite garrolous with the usual stories of ghosts, monsters, aliens, sorcerers and other weird shit.
Purple explains that the gang in question, the White Snakes, were running drugs and artefacts for "a bigger outfit" (if your Campaign features one of The Fate, The Disciples of the Worm, Tiger Transit or the Karotechia, all of whom are involved in the drug trade, you should drop in some details suggesting their involvement). The Artefact in question is a dagger made of some form of mashed together, razer-edged wire - if watched for a few minutes, the agents will observe that the wire is slowly, constantly, reweaving itself into subtly different blade shapes (0/1 SAN). The dagger is a magic weapon that does normal knife damage to supernatural creatures (it is actually a Migo appliance retroenginered into a dagger by a long forgotten cult). It was placed in the Green box by F cell, who, if contacted, can tell a harrowing story about its discovery, which unfortunately has no relevance to the case at hand. If asked, F cell will confirm that they told A cell what they had placed in the Green Box ("Don't you?") and list some of its other contents (use the Green Box Generator).
Agent Purple suggests that the cell get hold of one of the gang members and "extract" some information from them about their contacts, then wash, rinse and repeat. "Eventually we'll either find the leak, or the clueless burglar who opened the Box". The box does indeed show signs of having been broken into.
It may occur to Agents to check other Green Boxes in the region to see if any other Artefacts are missing - as this is a metropolis, there are a few scattered around it and the satellite cities. Purple thinks this is a waste of time as "A cell never knows what people have stashed in those things anyway". Indeed, whoever contacts A cell needs to succeed at a halved luck roll to get accurate information about any paranormal Box contents. However, if they do succeed, this hunch pays off - the artefacts are missing from other boxes too, suggesting that there is a leak. These artefacts are likely to turn up as the agents track down members, contacts, etc of the White Snakes - see below.
What's really going on:
Agent Purple has been somewhat insane since the first P Cell were eaten by Byakhee in front of him. He is pathologically (healthily?) afraid of the supernatural forces of the Mythos, and, more than anything else, never wants to go on a Delta Green mission again. If Purple loses any SAN to a supernatural-experience-induced SAN check, even if the check is passed, he will either flee screaming or curl up in a fetal ball. He has also become the kind of pathological liar who believes his own stories.
Purple found a novel way to get out of Delta Green duty. Knowing DG's recordkeeping is extremely spotty, Purple has been raiding Green boxes for occult artefacts. He then informs (or anonymously tips off) Delta Green of fictitious leads on supernatural activity, which are actually on mundane but criminal activities. Purple then salts the scene with the artefacts so they can be "discovered" when DG arrives with guns blazing, resulting in him being credited with a successful Opera. When a real Opera is called in, Purple, on behalf of the newly constituted P cell, is able to plead the need for recuperation or other priorities, point to P-cell's busy achievement record, and get the call rotated to some other cell. A Cell have noted that P cell often "calls in sick", but have put it down to stress rather than active deception. Purple used to feel bad about this, but has long since convinced himself that he really is busting dangerous supernatural cults. The White Snakes are a completely mundane, just violent, drug gang, whose crack house Purple salted with the dagger. It was all going swimmingly until DG's records actually worked and showed that the dagger had been found before.
Purple's plan: Purple knows that under sufficient questioning or torture, people will tell you anything you want to hear. He is therefore confident that with a few hints and his "assistance" in interrogations, the PCs can be persuaded to follow a chain of meaningless confessions and planted artefacts up the garden path, until either someone "confesses" to robbing the Green Box, or the furious White Snakes take the agents out, or the agents head out of town on a wild Alzis chase.
The agents' best chance of figuring out the truth is to covertly surveil Purple until they catch him either going to his own unrecorded Green Box, where he keeps the stolen artefacts, or salting a site. If Purple's scheme seems likely to fool the agents, or just to have some fun, the Keeper may want to make one of the artefacts Purple plants something from the cell's own previous investigations.
If agents simply report their suspicions to A cell, they will be ordered to withdraw and Purple will be turned over to Andrea's tender mercies. If they directly confront him with his delusions and deceptions, Purple is likely to turn either homicidal or catatonic.
There are no SAN rewards for this scenario. Killing Purple costs 1d4 SAN.
Agent Purple
Valued Member of Delta Green, Age 43
Str 10 Siz 11 Dex 12 App 10 Int 14 Pow 13 Edu 16 SAN 28
Skills: Handgun 63% Martial Arts 45% Spot Hidden 70% Stealth 85% Sleight of Hand 70% Bald-faced lying 98% (he believes everything he says) Locksmith 60% Occult 35% Cthulhu Mythos 10% Generic FBI skills 60%.
Indefinite insanities: Xenophobia; paranoid delusions.
Typical White Snake
Put A Cap In Your Ass, age 21
Str 13 Siz 12 Dex 14 App 9 Int 9 Pow 10 Edu 6
Skills: Handgun 30% Fist 70% Talk Trash 80% Sell Crack 65% Smoke Crack 40% Drive 70%