An old Opera, long thought dealt with, comes back to haunt the new generation.
WHAT HAPPENED LONG AGO
Crater Lake National park is so named after the lake it surrounds, which was created around 5,667BC after the eruption and collapse of Mount Mazama. Before it’s destruction, the stratovolcano was regarded by the local Klamanth Native American tribe to be the god of the underworld, known as Llao. The collapse of the mountain was witnessed by the Klamaths, who recorded it as a great battle between Llao and their sky god, Skell.
They may have got the names wrong, but there was definitely a battle. Deep within the volcano was trapped a number of Slimes of Tsathoggua, which ad laid in torpor for millennia and had formed into one large, rolling mass of eyes, jaws, tongues, and tentacle-like pseudopods. Even deeper below the volcano was a slumbering Elder Thing. Due to tectonic shifts, the two monstrous creatures came close enough to become aware of eachother, and their resulting combat destroyed the mountain and created Crater Lake. Whatever was left of them now remains below the crater itself.
WHAT HAPPENED SINCE
In 1989, campers started going missing in Crater Lake National Park. At first an animal was considered, as tents were found torn and bloody. But when the corpses were found mutilated and tied to trees where animals could feast on them, something more sinister was considered. It was believed a serial killer was operating within the famous national park.
When autopsies were performed, it was found that the stomach cavity and esophagus of each body were filled with undigested insects, as if having been forcefed.
This strangeness attracted the attention of Delta Green, and a cell was sent to handle it.
Information about the Opera is scant. Records were not kept back then. But what is known is that the murders stopped, a cover story of a transient having a psychotic break who was taken down by federal officers was fed to the local media, and life in the park returned to normal.
The remains of the Slimes and the Elder Thing have amalgamated into a slumbering darkness. Not truly dead, but not truly alive, they await a higher conscious than them to wake them and give them purpous. Until then, their fragmented psyche occasionally grasps hold of a human mind.
WHAT IS HAPPENING NOW
Wanda Banks, retired from the FBI for 5 years now, has gone missing. At her apartment, investigators found all manner of information regarding Crater Lake National Park; tourist maps, topographical maps, survey reports, bookmarked websites, subreddits, and books on the area.
It was known that she was an agent when Delta Green was underground, but as stated before, records were flimsy at best. So when she went missing and all of this strangeness was discovered, a team is scrambled.
Wanda has returned to Crater Lake, driven by dreams and nightmares. What she will do there is up to the Keeper. But even if she is stopped, the strange thing slumbering beneath the pristine lake will remain. Will it take hold of a new agent? Another serial killer? This is left up to the Keeper.
Credits
This was an entry to the 2020 shotgun scenario contest. Written by Lex.