Contact Precautions

Contact Precautions

"Players are Miskatonic students dragged into a dying Agent’s last stand as zombies overrun campus and they fight to survive the night."

A Scenario for the 2025 Delta Green Shotgun Scenario Contest

By R. Shuemaker

Background         RABIDEX was meant to save lives: an attenuated rabies virus carrying a synthetic “neural quiescence” compound based on Herbert West’s work. Briefly shut down the brain, clear the infection, restart it. In animal trials, every subject died, then got back up. The reanimated dogs and monkeys stayed eerily calm until provoked, then went straight for living flesh. A bitten tech received standard post-exposure prophylaxis and RABIDEX; she died convulsing and then began moving again in the body bag.

A Delta Green friendly in Orne flagged West’s name in the grant proposal. Operation JACKDAW went in to quietly shut the project down, but they failed. Two Agents died in the biomedical wing. Agent Ruiz escaped, mauled and infected, and ran for the most defensible building nearby: Orne Library. He burst in, bleeding and screaming for help from whoever was there studying or working late.

After getting the front doors barricaded, Ruiz gives the players his pistol and keys, telling them to grab the weapons and medical bag from his sedan in the parking lot. He says to a hold-up here, the rescue team is inbound and collapses. Adrenaline’s gone; blood loss and injuries catch up. His breathing turns shallow and ragged.

Orne Library, Miskatonic University, Arkham, MA         Orne Library is a four-story campus library. The foyer opens from the quad into a broad lobby with the main desk, card catalogs, reading tables, and general-interest shelves, plus a few side rooms for classes, offices, and storage. The second floor is mostly science and technical stacks in narrow aisles wrapped around an open central well. The top floor mirrors that layout but has small offices, a law corner, document storage, and locked rooms for rare and restricted books. Two stairwells and a pair of elevators connect all levels. Below ground, the basement is tighter, with long rows of older books and boxed archives, plus a boiler area full of pipes and machinery.

The Restricted Section is a locked, windowless room inside the rare book room. Shelves hold handwritten manuscripts and boxed “special files.” A few texts aren’t ordinary, containing fragmentary rituals. Players can try to learn one fast if they’re desperate. Treat them as excerpts, ignore normal study times and offer only one Ritual from each text you decide is available.

Campus        Orne sits on the eastern side of the oldest, walled-in part of campus, in the heart of the old college town of Arkham, MA. Brick walls and wrought-iron fences ring this original quad, with a main gate on the northern side.

A parking lot lies between Orne and the eastern dormitory: a low residence hall with lit windows and scattered cars. The lot’s access lane curves toward the fence and northern facing main gate; police cruisers and barricades outside throw red-blue flashes across the bars.

In the center of the old campus sit the School of Medicine and School of Law, facing each other across the quad. The School of Medicine has all sorts of pharmaceutical production equipment for students. If they want to find a way  to stop the infection this is where to do it, but it’s overrun and the epicenter of the infection. Getting to the labs where any meaningful work can be done should be a relentless gauntlet. PCs can’t fix the dead; once someone dies and reanimates, the change is locked in. But if they start experimenting while a victim is still alive, make Pharmacy/Medicine rolls, altering the original RABIDEX might slow progression, reduce aggression, or cut transmission, buying hours or a “managed” carrier.

On the far western edge, beyond the central green, stand the west dorms. Past the walls, the rest of Miskatonic and Arkham sprawls into the dark, but play is focused inside the brick perimeter.

Other uninfected NPCs around campus, should tie directly to the players’ Bonds, stranded in the same nightmare. Use them for escalation.

Parking Lot        An emergency side door on the north side of Orne opens into this lot. If the Players don’t stop and disable the alarm, the siren blares and draws infected toward their position.

Between the cars, a lab dog prowls the rows, muzzle torn, jaw wet and foaming. A macaque in a shredded restraint vest clings to a roof rack, head twitching, teeth chattering at movement.

Three students lie on the asphalt, limbs at broken angles, just starting to wake. One tries to stand on a shattered ankle, another mouths soundless words, the third slowly turns their head toward the library doors as the Players step out.

In Ruiz’s trunk: a huge red medical bag (field surgical kit, blood bags, IV gear); a sawn-off pump shotgun; a battered assault rifle; metal ammo boxes with limited 12-gauge shells and 5.56 rounds; a few extra pistol mags; a baseball bat; and one incendiary grenade.

Taking the Car        If the PCs try to drive off campus, treat the gate as a hard perimeter. The old brick walls are the only thing containing the infection from greater Arkham.

The road narrows into a lane of cones and cruisers parked nose-to-nose, doors open, lightbars flashing. Rifles are braced behind engine blocks, tracking the car. A spotlight hits the windshield, and a loudspeaker orders them to stop and stay in the vehicle. If they creep forward, drop warning shots into the pavement in front of the tires.

Campus and city officers spread around the car, weapons up. Figures in full hazmat suits move behind the cruisers and signal the driver to crack the window. Their message is simple: possible biological agent, campus under quarantine, return to designated shelter areas until cleared by CDC.

While they talk, an “injured” figure staggers into the edge of the lights. An officer moves to help, gets grabbed, and the line erupts into shouting and gunfire as the infected close in on the barricade. More figures rush out of the dark.

In the chaos, no one is watching the car. There’s a brief window to act. If the Players smash through the barricade, have them make Drive checks to keep control. Arkham PD now has a breached quarantine and infected loose in town. Roadblocks spread outward. News fills with talk of “riots,” “drug incidents,” or “rabies scares” across the city. They escape only to watch a wider lockdown and rising body count they helped cause.

Helping Agent Ruiz        Ruiz is hanging on by stubbornness and training. Let Players attempt First Aid/Medicine to stabilize him and extend the time til death from infection for 1d4 hours: he stays conscious long enough to bark orders, answer questions, and maybe fire a few desperate shots from cover, but he can’t move unassisted. Bad rolls, or neglect, mean he eventually slips under.

When he flatlines, after about 15-minutes, his fingers twitch, his jaw gnashes, and then he sits up with a wet foamy gasp, eyes filmed and blank, wounds reopening as he moves. He lunges for the nearest warm body, biting and clawing.

Window Breaks        The pounding outside shifts and one of the ground-floor windows finally goes. A sharp crack, then the pane blows inward, spraying glass. Shapes push into the opening, jaws working, foam on their lips.

The first bodies are human. They haul themselves through the broken frame with no instinct for self-preservation, ripping hands and bellies on the glass. Some end up wedged half-in, half-out: still clawing and biting, slower but persistent, blocking the gap.

Lab monkeys hit next, using the jammed humans as a ramp. They scramble up backs and shoulders, barely touching the glass, then launch inside. They land on tables and shelves, skittering straight for faces and hands while the human infected keep forcing more bodies into the breach.

Rescue Team        Have the Players hear a single heavy blast from the main entrance, followed by short, controlled bursts from multiple weapons. The groans and pounding outside drop off. Floodlights rake any exposed windows.

Wherever the Players hunkered down, their barricade takes precise, powerful hits. The door fails cleanly. A stacked team in heavy armor and masks flows in, rifles and lights sweeping. They secure the room, restrain and disarm the PCs. Med/CBRN operators move along the line, checking for signs of infection while others cover.

Separate the obviously infected. March the “clean” group out toward a quarantine zone. As they go, have an operator check Ruiz. One muffled gunshot behind them closes his story.

Anyone with visible bites or a dirty test is tagged and moved into a floodlit quarantine pen watched by rifles and cameras.

The “clean” don’t walk free either. They’re moved to a holding area and kept under observation. Over the next several hours they cycle through vitals checks, more labs, and scripted interviews about “the attack.” The incident is framed as a rabies-variant bioweapon. They’re ordered not to talk to anyone “for the integrity of the investigation.” Eventually, some are released, slowly, conditionally, into a city that has already been given a different story than what they saw inside Orne.

STAT BLOCKS: Disease/Enemies

NPC

Agent Ruiz

Stuart Pyun, CDC field epidemiologist, jaded dying Delta Green agent, Age 39

STR 13 CON 13 DEX 12 INT 13 POW 12 CHA 11

HP 13 (at 2 when players meet him) WP 12 SAN 48 BREAKING POINT 36

MOTIVATIONS AND DISORDERS:Stopping outbreaks. Proving the bureaucracy wrong.Keeping his daughter’s world boring and safe. Insomnia and chronic pain (addiction: prescription painkillers). Adapted to violence and helplessness.

SKILLS:Alertness 60%, Athletics 60%, Bureaucracy 50%, Criminology 40%, Drive 50%, Firearms 60%, First Aid 60%, Forensics 30%, HUMINT 60%, Medicine 50%, Pharmacy 40%, Science (Biology) 60%, Science (Chemistry) 30%, Persuade 50%, Search 60%, Stealth 40%, Unarmed Combat 50%, Unnatural 18%.

ATTACKS:Medium pistol 60%, damage 1D10.Unarmed 50%, damage 1D4.

DISEASES AND INJURIES:

 RABIDEX, deep cuts and bite wounds.

RABIDEX (West-Variant Rabies)

Route	Speed	CON test	Damage	Symptoms	Cure
Bite, deep scratch, or injection of contaminated saliva/blood/brain	1 hour	-20	1D6 HP / failed test	Rapid-onset fever, headache, agitation, confusion, hydrophobia, seizures, respiratory failure	None Known; trying to use known rabies cures can delay infection death time or blunt some post death aggression.

Enemies

RABIDEX-INFECTED DOG

STR 15 |  CON 16 |  DEX 13 |  INT 3 | POW 1 HP 16 WP 1

ARMOR: 1 point of fur and thick skin (see ROBUST METABOLISM).

SKILLS: Alertness 60%, Track by Smell 80%, Unarmed Combat 50%.

ATTACKS: Bite 30%, damage 1D6 (see WORRY AND RIP, INFECTIOUS BITE). Knockdown 50%, damage special (see KNOCKDOWN).

KNOCKDOWN: If this attack hits, the dog attempts an opposed STR×5 test against the target. If the dog succeeds, the target is knocked prone.

ROBUST METABOLISM: All non-hypergeometric HP damage is halved (round down). A successful Lethality roll still drops it to 0 HP, but the body may twitch or crawl for a few rounds before going still.

CHEMICAL DRIVE: Does not tire, and ignores pain, cold, suffocation, and most environmental hazards until physically destroyed.

CLUMSY: Cannot defend itself against attacks. All attacks against it are at +20%.

UNDEAD: No need to breathe; immune to ordinary disease and suffocation.

WORRY AND RIP: After a successful bite, the dog may use its action each turn to inflict 1D6 damage on the same target without another attack roll. If the original bite penetrated armor, this damage ignores armor. The victim may use his or her action each turn to attempt an opposed STR test to break free.

INFECTIOUS BITE: Any human who takes bite damage must succeed at CON×5 or become infected (see RABIDEX above)

SAN LOSS: 0/1D6.

RABIDEX-INFECTED LAB MONKEY

STR 11 CON 13 DEX 16 INT 4 POW 1 HP 12 WP 1

ARMOR: None (see ROBUST METABOLISM).

SKILLS: Alertness 60%, Athletics (Climb) 80%, Stealth 50%, Unarmed Combat 40%.

ATTACKS: Bite 30%, damage 1D4 (see WORRY AND RIP, INFECTIOUS BITE). Claw 40%, damage 1D4 (see CLAW AND LATCH).

CLAW AND LATCH: On a successful claw attack, the monkey may immediately make a free Bite attack at +20% against the same target if in reach.

SMALL AND FAST: Handlers may apply −20% to ranged attacks against monkey zombies due to their small size and erratic movement, especially indoors.

ROBUST METABOLISM, CHEMICAL DRIVE, CLUMSY, UNDEAD, WORRY AND RIP, INFECTIOUS BITE (same as Rabidex-Infected Dog)

SAN LOSS: 0/1D6.

RABIDEX-INFECTED HUMAN

STR 16 CON 16 DEX 10 INT 5 POW 1 HP 16 WP 1

ARMOR: None (see ROBUST METABOLISM).

SKILLS: Alertness 30%, Athletics 50%, Unarmed Combat 40%.

ATTACKS: Bite 30%, damage 1D6 (see WORRY AND RIP, INFECTIOUS BITE). Grab/Claw 40%, damage 1D6 (see GRAB).

GRAB: A successful Grab/Claw gives the next Bite against that target +20%.

ROBUST METABOLISM, CHEMICAL DRIVE, CLUMSY, UNDEAD, WORRY AND RIP, INFECTIOUS BITE (same as Rabidex-Infected Dog)

SAN LOSS: 0/1D6.

STAT BLOCKS: Characters

Player Character Ideas

Maya Kim Med student and campus EMS volunteer at Miskatonic, age 22. STR 11 CON 12 DEX 13 INT 13 POW 11 CHA 12 HP 12 WP 11 SAN 55 BREAKING POINT 44

BONDS: Mother, Eun-Ji Kim (waitress, single parent), 12. Younger brother, Jae, 10. Roommate and best friend, Alexis “Lex” Carter, 10. Campus EMS crew chief, Dan “Duke” Harris, 8.

MOTIVATIONS:: Keeping people alive when it counts. Proving she deserves her spot in med school. Being the calm one in a crisis. Never letting family down.

SKILLS: Alertness 50%, Athletics 50%, Bureaucracy 30%, Drive 50%, Firearms 35%, First Aid 70%, Medicine 40%, Pharmacy 40%, HUMINT 40%, Persuade 40%, Search 50%, Unarmed Combat 40%.

ATTACKS: Unarmed 40%, damage 1D4; Large Flashlight 30%, damage 1D4

GEAR: Smartphone, First responder medical kit, Individual first aid kit, Large flashlight, student ID and keys, Sedan.

Ryan McHale Virology PhD candidate and overworked lab rat at Miskatonic, age 27. STR 8 CON 11 DEX 11 INT 16 POW 14 CHA 12 HP 10 WP 14 SAN 70 BREAKING POINT 56

BONDS: Younger sister Kelly (ER nurse), 12. Grad adviser, Dr. Roth, 10. Lab partner and only real friend, Dev Singh, 10. Elderly rescue cat "Pasteur," 8.

MOTIVATIONS: Understanding how viruses really work. Making sure his research never hurts people again. Getting out of grad school with his conscience intact. Avoiding attention from whoever really funds the lab.

SKILLS: Accounting 30%, Bureaucracy 40%, Computer Science 40%, First Aid 40%, Pharmacy 50%, Science (Biology) 70%, Science (Chemistry) 40%, HUMINT 30%, Occult 20%, Search 50%.

ATTACKS: Unarmed 30%, damage 1D4–1.

GEAR: Smartphone, Ordinary computer (lab workstation access), PPE (lab coat, goggles, gloves), lab keycard, external drive with research data, student ID.

Evelyn Ward Reference librarian at Orne Library and keeper of the stacks, age 39. STR 9 CON 12 DEX 10 INT 14 POW 13 CHA 14 HP 11 WP 13 SAN 65 BREAKING POINT 52

BONDS: Teenage son, Marcus, 14. Ex-Husband, Dan, 10. Elderly father in assisted living, 10. Orne student volunteers (collective Bond), 8.

MOTIVATIONS: Keeping Orne running smoothly. Protecting students from things they aren’t ready to know. Finding the truth buried in old records. Making sure her son has a better life.

SKILLS: Accounting 30%, Bureaucracy 60%, Computer Science 40%, History 60%, HUMINT 50%, Law 40%, Occult 30%, Persuade 60%, Search 60%, Stealth 30%, Unarmed Combat 30%.

ATTACKS: Unarmed 30%, damage 1D4, Stungun 50% damage (Special); Large Flashlight 30%, damage 1D4

GEAR: Smartphone, Ordinary computer (office workstation), Large flashlight, Orne Library staff ID, master key ring.

Luis Ortega Campus police officer and former Army MP, age 33. STR 13 CON 13 DEX 13 INT 11 POW 12 CHA 10 HP 13 WP 12 SAN 60 BREAKING POINT 48 ARMOR 3

BONDS: Younger sister, Marisol, 10. Army buddy “Gonzo” González, 8. Campus dispatch supervisor, Heather Klein, 8.

MOTIVATIONS AND DISORDERS: Keeping “his” campus safe. Never freezing up under fire again. Proving he’s more than a rent-a-cop. Watching out for his little sister. PTSD; Adapted to Violence

SKILLS: Alertness 60%, Athletics 50%, Criminology 50%, Drive 50%, Firearms 60%, First Aid 30%, HUMINT 40%, Law 30%, Melee Weapons 50%, Persuade 40%, Search 40%, Stealth 30%, Unarmed Combat 60%.

ATTACKS: Service pistol (9mm) 60%, damage 1D10. Baton 50%, damage 1D6. Unarmed 60%, damage 1D4.

GEAR: Medium pistol, spare magazines, Kevlar vest, Handcuffs, Pepper spray can, Short-range walkie-talkie(police radio), Large flashlight, bodycam.

Dr. Nadia Petrov Adjunct professor of religion and folklore at Miskatonic, quiet DG-friendly researcher, age 41.STR 8 CON 11 DEX 11 INT 15 POW 15 CHA 12HP 10 WP 15 SAN 75 BREAKING POINT 60

BONDS: Adult daughter in Boston, Katya Petrov, 11. Department chair, Professor Hargrave, 9. Arkham occult book club, 9. Anonymous “research patrons” who send her strange case files, 7

MOTIVATIONS: Understanding the patterns that link myth, crime, and history. Protecting her students from the things she’s seen. Making up for a past academic scandal. Proving the Unnatural can be resisted.

SKILLS: Anthropology 50%, History 60%, HUMINT 50%, Occult 70%, Persuade 50%, Search 50%, Stealth 30%, Foreign Language (Latin) 60%, Foreign Language (Greek) 40%, Unnatural 02%, Unarmed Combat 30%.

ATTACKS: Unarmed 30%, damage 1D4–1; Large Flashlight 30%, damage 1D4

GEAR: Smartphone, Ordinary computer (office workstation), satchel with notebooks and books, faculty ID and office keys, Restricted books access card, Large flashlight.

Credits

Contact Precautions was written by R. Shuemaker for the 2025 Shotgun Scenario contest.
Source: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1v9tA_-YnzUOLbH7RDg2vytAYCvn6mxlwHLxm1HdT1iM/edit