Cruel and Unusual
Summary
On July 17, 2017, three refugees from the 51st century materialized in Hollenbeck Canyon Wildlife Area, a dozen miles away from the US-Mexican border, thanks to the help of a stolen time machine. Malnourished and confused, they quickly got themselves arrested and drew the attention of March Technologies. In short order, March Tech activated a cell of Delta Green agents under their influence, seized the time machine and are presently on the way to have the detainees ‘transferred’ to a facility of their own. On top of this, authorities from their cruel future have discovered their escape attempt and are themselves approaching to take back what’s theirs.
Briefing
Early this morning a group of 3 men were found parched and malnourished in the Californian national parks a few dozen miles away from the Mexican border. After being brought into custody and detained at the Otay Mesa Detention Facility, CBP officers found that they had no apparent country of origin and spoke no known language. The Agents were quickly alerted and have arrived at Otay Mesa to determine if the strange detainees may be tied to the unnatural.
Events at Otay Mesa
CBP
The refugees are currently being held by Customs and Border Patrol in the Otay Mesa Detention Center. When the Agents arrive, they are resting in a cell made to house 4 alongside 7 other hispanic men from various Latin American countries. None of the additional detainees speak English.
The CBP officers present at the facility are generally deferential to authority figures. There is an interrogation room in the building, but the agents must pass a Bureaucracy or Persuade check to take advantage of it.
The Refugees
The three men each have buzzed-short hair, leathery skin, and scars of many types of injury everywhere across their bodies. On a closer look one will find that they are each missing at least two fingers and are missing several teeth. Only one of them is able to speak a presently existing language, some poorly-remembered chunks of Latin from their studies as a youth (This education gives them Foreign Language (Latin) 10%). The other two are only able to speak in the common language of their home, a collection of tones and clicks that does not resemble anything from the 21st century.
If any agents can speak Latin, the Latin-speaking man can relate (with extreme difficulty) that their world is a land of pain and torment from which there was no escape. Without any other options, they fled across time, hoping to settle in edenic precolonial California but instead landed in the present day due to a fault with the (now unusable) time machine.
If the refugee is unable to make himself understood, neither the agents nor the other refugees will be able to convey much valuable information save for a pleading look in their eyes.
The Rival Agents
As the investigation begins to slow down, three rival Delta Green agents arrive at Otay Mesa and make their way towards the refugees. They do not immediately recognize the Agents as Delta Green, but with some discussion a suspicion should form, which may grow into a mutual understanding. The rival agents are sympathetic to the cause, but have a hidden allegiance– Once in a while, they are blackmailed into serving an anonymous patron that forces them to make off-the-books operations and deliver unnatural persons and objects to dead drops. They fear that ignoring these demands or retaliating threatens not only their own lives, but the continued existence of Delta Green itself.
This incident is one such operation for them. Their goal is to transfer the refugees, dead or alive, to their patron’s custody. They are willing to deceive the Agents to achieve this and should attempt to build a rapport with the Agents by assisting with the investigation before trying to claim the refugees for themselves. One of the rival agents has Foreign Language (Latin) 30% if none of the Agents can speak latin.
The Future Men
The refugees did not arrive in the 21st century on their own. Interrupting the agents is a squad of four darkly-dressed men who appear by folding themselves out of 90॰ angles in the room, provoking a 0/1D4 SAN check. One will pull out a phrase book and recite “Drop any weapons and put your hands on the wall! This property is ours!” while the others keep their weapons drawn on both the Agents and the refugees. If the agents do not comply, the one with the phrase book thumbs through to another page and reads “This property has a purpose to fulfill! It is not meant to be here! Comply or lethal force is authorized”. If the refugees have managed to communicate through Latin, they will plead for the Agents’ protection and refuse to clarify what the Future Men mean by ‘purpose’. The goal of the Future Men is to recover the refugees– alive– and repatriate them while causing minimal harm to the past. While the sadistic Future Men personally wish to cause maximal harm and will find any excuse to begin fighting, they have orders, under any circumstance, not to kill certain people of interest who are significant to the time stream. Every person involved in the encounter has a 10% chance of being one such person of interest.
Conclusion
If the refugees die, the Future Men will curse in their language and leave the same way they arrived. After the Future Men have been dealt with, the rival agents will attempt to claim anything leftover (the Future Men or the Refugees). They are hesitant to enter conflict with their comrades and, if they know the Agents are Delta Green, will reveal to them the threat posed to the agency as a last-ditch attempt to resolve the custody dispute diplomatically. As the rival agents have already taken the time machine, they have already achieved half of their goal, and can be negotiated into turning custody over to sufficiently persuasive Agents.
Stat Blocks
Future Men
STR 14 CON 14 DEX 10 INT 11 POW 12 CHA 6
HP 14 WP 10
ARMOR: Grafted metal plates (Armour 3).
SKILLS: Archaeology 30%, Alertness 50%, Athletics 50%, Extraplanar Movement 50%, Firearms 60%, Foreign Language (Tsan-Chani) 60%, Melee Weapons 50%, Search 50%, Science (Quantum Physics) 80%, Unarmed Combat 45%, Unnatural 15%
ATTACKS: Grafted hand-gun 60%, damage 2D6.
Unarmed 45%, damage 1D10.
EXTRAPLANAR MOVEMENT: On a successful Extraplanar Movement skill roll, a Future Man is able to ‘fold’ themselves into any physical 90॰angle– The lip of a table, a corner of a room, etc.– within which they can travel through dimensions beyond the conventional three. In this ‘folded’ state, they can emerge from another angle or travel through time to their home century.
FROM THE CRUEL FUTURE: The Future Men have an alien culture. To understand 21st century customs and general goings-on, they need to make an Archaeology check.
Refugees
STR 5 CON 6 DEX 10 INT 14 POW 14 CHA 8
HP 5 WP 14 SAN 35 BP 33
DISORDERS: Anxiety Disorder, Depression, Paranoia, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Adapted to the Unnatural.
SKILLS: Alertness 40%, Archaeology 15%, Foreign Language (Tsan-Chani) 60%, Science (Quantum Physics) 70%, Unnatural 10%
FROM THE CRUEL FUTURE: The Refugees have an alien culture. To understand 21st century customs and general goings-on, they need to make an Archaeology check.
Rival Agents
STR 10 CON 12 DEX 10 INT 10 POW 12 CHA 12
HP 11 WP 12 SAN 55 BP 48
SKILLS: Alertness 40%, Athletics 50%, Firearms 60%
ATTACKS: SIG Sauer P229 60%, damage 1D10.
Credits
Cruel and Unusual was written by Parker Nasbruk for the 2025 Shotgun Scenario contest.
Source: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vkP2_p6SeVo_KJpLko2gQ5aUV5Qhce_fzSBPbsVV-9I/edit