An Apple a Day
INTRODUCTION
The Northern Maine Clinic was established in 1911, and for several decades it remained a mundane and uneventful hospital like all else. Sick people came in, some left healthy, some left sick, and some did not leave at all.
This changed in the years after the turn of the millennium. New machinery and new medicine arrived in the clinic one day, without so much as an explanation of where it came from. And as soon as virtually all patients started getting healed, and no one ever bothered asking how. For the local media, the Northern Maine Clinic is simply “the Miracle Clinic”, and anyone who has any claims to the contrary is quickly silenced by its fervent supporters.
Delta Green has had its eyes on the clinic for several years now, and following a tip from a Friendly who lives nearby, has decided to finally act.
AGENT BRIEFING
Agents are brought into a warehouse that is close to the clinic for their briefing. The civilian Friendly reports a lot of strange comings and goings in the hospital during the last few weeks. Ambulances coming to the hospital empty yet leaving with several people in them. Strange lights coming from the top floor. Shadow figures stalking the hospital 24/7.
It all sounds like the ramblings of a mad man, but the Case Officer insists that the Friendly is trustworthy.
Agents are instructed to enter the hospital in any way they deem necessary, be it as potential patients, visitors or caretakers, and see if there is any merit to the Friendly’s claim, or whether the “miraculous” clinic has anything to hide, especially something about its cure success rate. Thus, Operation OUTCAST begins.
THE TRUTH
The clinic’s Director, Henry Borg, is a former, low-ranking, Majestic-12 member. After the fall of M12, he stole alien medicinal equipment and drugs, moved to his hometown, and found a job thanks to his family’s ties with the Northern Maine Clinic. The clinic’s success is secretly owed to this alien technology.
However, people talk, and knowledge of this use of alien technology has reached the ears of a rogue Cowboys Cell named Omicron. They are the ones who have been silently stalking the clinic the last few weeks, and they have found a way to take out the clinic while making it look like an accident in what they call Operation CLEVELAND. The film used for X-Rays is stored at the top floor of the clinic, and Cell Omicron has been working diligently to compromise the storage area, so it catches fire, releasing huge quantities of deadly gas, thus looking like an accident of oversight, while also destroy any alien equipment.
THE TIME LIMIT
The catch here is that Cell Omicron is just about ready to complete their plan as the Agents enter the clinic, and there might not be enough time for the agents to stop them. The way to go about this can and should differ depending on your players, but the recommended process is to have them take an Alertness test every ten real-life minutes, or when they enter a big area or an office. If they are successful, gradually let them know what is happening.
At first they will see people rushing to and fro, to seemingly random locations. On the second success, they will start feeling that some people are talking about them, maybe even stalking them, ramping up their paranoia. On the third success, they will notice that some people are wearing strange clothes underneath their scrubs, maybe resembling body armor. On the fourth success, they will notice that a lot of commotion has to do with a specific room on the top floor. One the fifth success they realize that a lot of people coming from the top floor are actively fleeing the scene, so it’s clear something is happening.
If they fail all five tests, they die alongside everyone else in the clinic. If they succeed in all five, they figure out what is happening and can successfully evacuate most of the patients and staff, maybe even recover an alien relic or two. Two to four successes should be enough to give them a heads up to evacuate, but they may run into a goons/Omicron gunfight.
RESOLUTION
Step 1: Recon
The clinic is likely doomed, as the procedure that Cell Omicron has initiated cannot be easily stopped in time. What the agents can do is try to talk to the people in charge, and try to gauge some information out of them.
Step 2: Interrogation
Should one of the people the agents talk to slip, they can try to isolate and interrogate them (0/1 if they torture them) for more information on the clinic. If the agents are not careful, some of the goons might see them.
Step 3: Closure
After three successful Alertness rolls, the agents realize what is happening and will have to make a decision. Do they leave the innocent civilians to die or try and fight the goons and rogue agents? How will they cover a firefight taking place in a big downtown clinic?
ITEMS OF INTEREST
Spread across different offices and rooms of the clinic, you can have your agents find them as you see fit. The letter should always be in either Henry Borg’s office or on him.
- Box of syringes filled with a blue liquid. Their content is unknown, but it doesn’t look like anything known to man. Agents with Medicine > 40% roll for sanity (0/1). If used, +1 all stats for 1d20 hours, +5 unnatural.
- X-Rays of people with unnatural growths in their stomachs. There’s several of these, and a nearby Post-It states that all patients are healthy despite the growths (0/1)
- A letter from an unknown sender, congratulating Henry Borg on how he has run his clinic, the letter ends with the words “Hope to see you soon, Stephen."
- A small device with a strange light on it, next to a laptop. Agents with CompSci > 50 can decrypt the data on the laptop to learn that this machine is of unknown origin but it can cure all sorts of cancer known to humans. If touched, the device lets out a loud screeching noise (1/1d4) which may alert some of the goons.
- A diary of the first director of the clinic after the alien technology was introduced. In it he states that there are no known side-effects to any of this, almost as if the human body evolved in accordance to the alien technology, something that deeply perplexed him (1/1d4).
IMPORTANT NPCs
Henry Borg - The Director
A man seemingly in his mid 40s, he is in fact in his late 60s. thanks to the alien drugs he has been using for decades now. He is the one that has single-handedly made this clinic the most successful one in the city’s history, and he does not want this to change. He knows that something wrong is happening in his clinic, and has his people looking into it.
Agent Stoyan - The Lead Agent of Cell Omicron
A hardened man in his early 50s, his eyes have the tell-tale look of a man who has seen too much. He has decided to lead Operation CLEVELAND himself since he trusts no one else to have the stomach to do what is necessary, knowing that many civilians will die here.
D’ Arcy Bishop - The Head Nurse
The head nurse of the clinic, and responsible for most of the work here. She is one of the few people who know about the true nature of the alien tech. Fiercely loyal to Dr. Borg ever since he saved her dying mother.
Clinic Nurses
Typical male and female nurses, they are friendly enough but too overworked to notice what is happening around them.
Clinic Goons
At first glance they might look like nurses, but these are actually hired muscle. If cornered physically or during a conversation, they will fight back and call for backup. There are at least 5 of them inside the clinic.
Cell Omicron Agents
Trained and with nothing left to lose, the agents of Cell Omicron have entered the clinic wanting to take the entire thing out, and damn the consequences. They have no qualms with taking out anyone who will endanger their mission. They are three in number.
Ropati Eneki - Delta Green Friendly
An unemployed man in his early 30s with keen observational skills, he spends his time inside his house, watching YouTube and keeping an eye on his neighborhood. He lives right across the clinic, a few years back he saw some things that he only shared in a private Internet forum, one monitored by Delta Green. After being contacted by an Agent, he has been a reliable Friendly since.
STATS
Henry Borg
STR 12, CON 10, DEX 11, INT 16, POW 12, CHA 16
HP 11, WP 12, SAN 50, BREAKING POINT 48
SKILLS: HUMINT 60%, Medicine 30%, Persuade 60%, Unnatural 10%
Agent Stoyan
STR 14, CON 12, DEX 11, INT 15, POW 16, CHA 14
HP 13, WP 16, SAN 60, BREAKING POINT 58
SKILLS: Alertness 50%, Explosives 45%, Firearms 50%, Persuasion 50%, HUMINT 60%
ATTACKS: Military-grade Knife 1d6 damage, Shotgun 2d10 damage
ARMOR: Kevlar Vest (3)
MENTAL DISORDER: Derealization
D’ Arcy Bishop
STR 7, CON 8, DEX 10, INT 14, POW 14, CHA 10
HP 8, WP 14, SAN 59, BREAKING POINT 56
Clinic Nurses
STR 7, CON 8, DEX 10, INT 14, POW 10, CHA 10
HP 8, WP 10, SAN 30, BREAKING POINT 20
SKILLS: Medicine 50%
Clinic Goons
STR 14 CON 15 DEX 12 INT 8 POW 13 CHA 7
HP 15, WP 13, SAN 45, BREAKING POINT 32
ARMOR: Kevlar Vest (3)
SKILLS: Alertness 35%, Firearms 35%, Unarmed 60%
ATTACKS: Pistol 1d6 damage
Cell Omicron Agents
STR 12, CON 14, DEX 12, INT 13, POW 10, CHA 10
HP 10, WP 10, SAN 35, BREAKING POINT 30
SKILLS: Alertness 45%, Explosives 40%, Firearms 40%, Persuasion 40%, HUMINT 50% Unarmed 50%
ATTACKS: Military-grade Knife 1d6 damage, Shotgun 2d10 damage
Ropati Eneki
STR 9, CON 7, DEX 9, INT 17, POW 12, CHA 12
HP 8, WP 14, SAN 40, BREAKING POINT 36
SKILLS: Alertness 60%, Computer Science 60%, HUMINT 55%, Occult 30%, SIGINT 45%, Stealth 40%, Unnatural 5%
MENTAL DISORDER: OCD
Credits
An Apple a Day was written by George Kavallos for the 2021 Shotgun Scenario contest.
Source: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qYU7Nd6CTYoqY527nc8bIISMJoU_co3x05Au9r5jmcI/edit