Introduction
Sometimes a N@TO goes bad. Bullets fly, blood is spilt, good people die, shit goes FUBAR. This Shotgun Scenario is for one such occasion. It can be used by the Handler in lieu of a TPK or as a stand-alone oneshot. A pregenerated Outlaw Cell can be found in Statblocks. The Agent begin badly injured, having been detained by local authorities and handcuffed to their hospital beds. Additionally, during their botched N@TO, they were infected with an Unnatural vector which now burns its way through their bloodstreams.
Rude Awakening
Play begins with a seemingly normal Home Scene for the Agents, a brutally fleeting time for recuperation before their next N@TO. However, cracks in reality begin to show. An Agent’s burner phone licks their ear, a Bond gleefully crunches away at a cereal bowl filled with torn fingernails and faecal matter, a pet animal smiles with human teeth at them from the corner of a darkened room.
At the height of this waking nightmare, a glisteningly maw bursts from the Agent’s sternum with a horrific tearing sensation. Relishing every word, it speaks in the Agent’s own voice; “SWEET. THING. BEAUTIFUL. THING. BLESSED. COMMUNION. SOON. SOON. FEAST. INDULGE. FEED. ME.” This costs SAN 1/1D6 to the Unnatural.
The Agent then awakes at 1/2 HP. Their bodies are soaked in sweat and mouth tasting of bile, handcuffed to a hospital bed. The quiet beeping of a heart rate monitor runs parallel to the pounding in their ears. The nearby red-fluorescent glow of a digital clock reads 3:00 am. INTx5 or Navigate can reveal the Agent is either on the fifth or sixth floor.
Agents can attempt to escape their bindings via various means. Criminology or DEXx5 allows for the Agent to dislocate their own thumbs to slip their cuffs for the cost of 1 HP. Special Training (Lockpicks) or Craft (Locksmith) can compromise the simple locks.
Conversely, an Agent can roll STRx5 at the cost of 1D4 HP, defying logic by tearing the handrail from the bed as their blood pumps and their mouth tastes of ash. Realising the anatomical impossibility of this feat costs 0/1D4 SAN to the Unnatural.
Other clever plans, like faking a medical emergency with Medicine or utilising any hypergeometry the Agent may have, can also work.
Tweedledee And Tweedledum
After the hospital entered the details of the Agents’ bizarre affliction into their databases, Program data-trawling software was immediately alerted to a potential incursion. Mr. WEST and Mr. EAST, impersonating CDC personnel, were dispatched to investigate.
The pair are dressed in dark suits, with CDC IDs and concealed Medium Pistols (requires an Alertness roll to notice). They will enter one of the Agents’ hospital rooms to interrogate them. Ideally, this should be an Agent who has failed to escape so far. Mr. WEST throws his coat over the CCTV camera, as Mr. EAST withdraws a syringe of insulin menacingly.
The pair will play Good Cop/Bad Cop, trying to elicit information from the Agent as to their prior N@TO, their contacts within the Outlaws and the nature of their disease. Despite being completely in the dark, they pretend to know far more about the Agent’s affliction than they actually do. HUMINT can identify their doubletalk; promising treatments whilst simultaneously demanding explanations.
However, during this interaction, the Agent’s heart-rate begins to erratically climb as their interrogators’ words become indistinct and garbled. They can smell the sweat in their pores and the blood in their veins, filling their nostrils in a rich, buttery aroma. A perverse hunger yearns for satiation, to sup upon the viscousness of sweet blood. This urge costs 0/1 SAN to the Unnatural.
Let’s Get This Party Started
Unfortunately the Program are not the only ones who took note of the Agents’ affliction. A sect of cultists, perhaps related to the Agents’ botched N@TO, have been alerted to the Agents’ blessed blood. The cultists, referred to herein as The Pack, arrive at the hospital armed to the teeth, wired on drugs and disguised in various Halloween masks, immediately beginning an all-out assault.
The Pack intend on capturing the Agents and ritualistically removing their hearts so that they too may commune with the entity in their blood. They’ll prefer to chase down the injured Agents and beat them into submission, but will result to making “ Flesh Wound ” Called Shots if the Agents put up any armed resistance.
Anyone else, the hospital staff, any first responders and especially the Program operatives, are irrelevant to The Pack’s plans. The mad cultists have no qualms slaughtering them all.
Getting Out Alive
Once The Pack cuts the power, kicks down the front doors and guns down the receptionist all hell breaks loose inside the hospital. Mr. WEST and Mr. EAST exchange panicked glances, draw their handguns, call for backup on their burners and abandon the restrained Agents to their rooms. Meanwhile gunshots echo throughout the building, as late-night staff desperately flee the violence and patients cower inside their rooms.
For Agents who have not yet escaped their bindings, it’s likely some hospital staff may take refuge inside their room. Persuade or CHRx5 can be used to convince them to let the Agent out. Conversely, the staff member could be the Weasel, the member of The Pack who works as a hospital administrator and alerted them of the Agents’ condition. The Weasel will quickly drop their facade of sanity, perhaps after slitting the throat of another staff member. They gleefully rant about the Agents’ “sanctified blood”, jealously proclaiming that they “keep the Mother’s sweet love all to themselves”.
If not stopped, the Weasel will clumsily straddle the Agent and attempt to stab open their chest. The Agent can oppose the Weasel’s efforts with Unarmed rolls, either ramming the cultist’s scalpel in his own neck or kicking him into a heart rate monitor in a shower of sparks.
Meanwhile, the other Agents will be hunted throughout the hospital by members of The Pack, in blood-soaked hospital corridors lit only by crimson red emergency lighting.
Agents can arm themselves with all manner of improvised weapons, like scalpels, isopropyl alcohol molotov cocktails, wire garrotes, motorised bonesaws or syringes filled with bleach. They must avoid shattered glass on the ground (deals 1 DMG and inflicts -20% on relevant rolls until the shard is removed with First Aid) or even various hunting snares scattered around the hospital by The Pack (1D6 DMG, immobilises victim until a STRx5 -40% roll is made).
Power In The Blood
The Unnatural disease afflicting the Agents fills them with a dark hunger for human blood. Indulging in this primal desire does have its advantages, especially to the injured Agents in their desperate fight for survival.
Any SAN lost to this indulgence regenerates an equal amount of HP. However, this is not without its risks. If an Agent reaches a Breaking Point during this scenario, they begin to degenerate into a more savage form. They gain +20% to all physical rolls and deal +2 Unarmed/Melee damage.
If an Agent reaches a second Breaking Point, they succumb even more to the madness in their bloodstream. They gain +40% to all physical rolls, deal double Unarmed/Melee damage and take half damage from any physical attacks (aside from fire).
The consequences for further indulgence is left up to the Handler’s discretion. Maybe the Agent mutates into a Liveliest Awfulness or a Haedus Nigritia.
Devouring an IV bag filled with universal donor blood (easily found with Search within the hospital) is 1D4 SAN/HP.
Lapping up the blood of a deceased individual is 1D6 + 1 SAN/HP.
Ripping the throat out of a living person and supping deeply from the arterial spray is 1D8 + 2 SAN/HP.
Dead Flesh, Fresh Meat
In the event that an Agent is killed, completely disabled, overcome by their affliction or escapes the hospital early in the scenario, their player can take control of Mr. EAST or Mr. WEST, if the pair of Program operatives are still alive.
Conversely, particularly devious Handlers could even allow the player to take control of a member of The Pack, as they hunt down the other Agents in the name of blessed communion.
Resolution
Agents can escape the hospital via sneaking or fighting their way down through the hospital towards the ground floor entrances or sub-basement’s carpark. Conversely, they can risk a multiple storey fall by climbing down from a window or elevator shaft.
Agents who do not escape cleanly may be pursued on foot or via car by any remaining members of The Pack, or even operatives from the Program.
Agents who manage to gain access to a cellular device can call A-Cell for assistance. Whether A-Cell helps the infected Agents is up to the Handler, as is whether they can even be cured in the first place. Although it wouldn't be the first time the Outlaws exploited an Agent corrupted by the Unnatural.
Regardless, escaping the hospital alive grants +1D4 SAN.
Final Word Count: 1498 Words.
Statblocks - NPCs
MR. WEST - CIA Political Action Group
STR 10, CON 12, DEX 10, INT 14, POW 12, CHA 14
HP 11, WP 12, SAN 55, BP 48
SKILLS: Alertness 60%, Athletics 40%, Drive 40%, Firearms 40%, HUMINT 70%, Persuade 70%, Search 50%, Stealth 70%, Unarmed Combat 60%.
ARMOUR: Concealed Kevlar (3 Armour)
ATTACKS: Medium Pistol (40%, 1D10)
Unarmed Attack (60%, 1D4-1)
MR. EAST - U.S Navy Hospital Corpsman
STR 13, CON 13, DEX 12, INT 13, POW 11, CHA 10
HP 11, WP 12, SAN 50, BP 44, Adjusted To Violence
SKILLS: Alertness 50%, Athletics 70%, Firearms 50%, First Aid 60%, HUMINT 40%, Melee Weapons 50%, Medicine 50%, Persuade 50%, Search 60%, Unarmed Combat 50%.
ARMOUR: Concealed Kevlar (3 Armour)
ATTACKS: Medium Pistol (50%, 1D10)
Sneaky Injection (50%, 10% Lethality)
Unarmed Attack (50%, 1D4)
THE PACK - Mask Wearing Lunatics
STR 13, CON 9, DEX varies, INT 8, POW 8, CHA 6
HP 11, WP 8, SAN 0
SKILLS: Chase You Down 50%, Swing Wildly 50%, Loudly Proclaim They’ve Spotted You 40%, Mow Down Innocent Bystander 70%, Shoot At You 40%.
ARMOUR: See HIGH ON LIFE.
ATTACKS: As follows.
TIGGER THE TIGER, DEX 13: 40%, Glock 22 w/ Shoulder Stock, 1D10.
HELLO KITTY, DEX 12: 40%, Bright Pink Tec-9, 1D10 or Lethality 10%.
PEPPA PIG, DEX 11: 60%, Replica Blunderbuss, 2D6, 1/2 AP.
MICKEY MOUSE, DEX 10: 40%, AR-15 w/ Bump Stock, 1D12, 3 AP.
THE WEASEL, DEX 10: 50%, Scalpel, 1D4+1, 3 AP.
THE CARE BEAR, DEX 9: 60%, Double Barrel Shotgun, 2D8 or 3D8, 1/2 AP.
THE BIG BAD WOLF, DEX 8: 40%, AK-47, 1D12+1, 3 AP or Lethality 10%.
UNIVERSAL ATTACKS: Big Knife, Machete or Hatchet (50%, 1D6+1, 3 AP)
Beat You Unconscious (50%, 1D4+1)
DON’T DAMAGE THE GOODS: When shooting at the Agents, The Pack make “Flesh Wound” Called Shots. They take a -20% to Hit, and deal half damage, but will cripple the Agents’ legs and arms to prevent them escaping (-20% on physical tests). Healing HP removes this penalty.
HIGH ON LIFE: The Pack are wired on methamphetamine when they assault the hospital. They have a +20% on CONx5 rolls to avoid being Stunned and do not fall unconscious at 1 or 2 HP. However, they do die as usual at 0 HP, and whilst they do not shirk at committing grievous acts of violence, they can still be Suppressed via gunfire.
Statblocks - Pregenerated Characters
AGENT YARA - Sarah Tillerman, Mob Doctor
STR 9, CON 12, DEX 13, INT 13, POW 10, CHA 12
HP 11, WP 10, SAN 45, BP 40
SKILLS: Alertness 50%, Athletics 30%, Bureaucracy 30%, Criminology 60%, Firearms 40%, First Aid 80%, Medicine 60%, Melee Weapons 50%, Persuade 50%, Pharmacy 70%, Search 70%, Unarmed Combat 60%.
BONDS: Marston Wells, Boyfriend - 12
Sammy Tillerman, Son From Prior Relationship - 12
Professional Contacts - 12
AGENT YOSEMITE - Brent Smith, US Army Ret.
STR 15, CON 13, DEX 13, INT 9, POW 12, CHA 7
HP 14, WP 12, SAN 55, BP 48, Adjusted to Violence
SKILLS: Alertness 80%, Athletics 80%, Demolitions 40%, Drive 60%, Firearms 60%, Heavy Weapons 50%, Melee Weapons 70%, Military Science (Land) 60%, Navigate 50%, Stealth 70%, Unarmed Combat 80%.
BONDS: Kimberly Banner, Ex-Wife - 7
Old Army Buddies - 7
AGENT YOKEL - Harrison Jenyns, Ex-NYPD Detective
STR 13, CON 10, DEX 11, INT 13, POW 9, CHA 14
HP 12, WP 12, SAN 55, BP 48, Adjusted to Helplessness
SKILLS: Alertness 60%, Athletics 50%, Bureaucracy 60%, Craft (Locksmith) 50%, Criminology 50%, Drive 50%, Firearms 50%, Forensics 60%, First Aid 50%, HUMINT 60%, Law 50%, Melee Weapons 50%, Navigate 40%, Persuade 50%, Search 40%, Stealth 40%, Unarmed Combat 60%.
BONDS: Josh Jenyns, Brother - 14
Barry White, Old Police Commissioner - 14
Criminal Contacts - 14
Credits
Bad Blood was written by Dragoleaf for the 2023 Shotgun Scenario contest.
Source: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iGt0a_ujAAO_K63g2wVePKM-hiDOw0otyjG5Tc654E4/edit