Divergent Evolution
- A Delta Green Shotgun Scenario -
Overview
A paleontological dig has uncovered the fossilized remains of Deep Ones.
Handler’s Information
Millions of years ago:
The Western Interior Seaway (100 Ma - 66 Ma) was an inland sea that at its largest spread from the Rockies to the Appalachian Mountains. Areas around the modern day town of Rangely, CO resembled Louisiana with deltas, marshes, and swamps. An ancient Deep One known as Mother Hydra made its home in this area. Secretions from its body warped the local wildlife, creating more Deep Ones to worship it. Over millions of years the remains of some of these Deep Ones became fossilized, and absorbed some of the secretions.
1999:
Dr. Robert Karp and Dr. Lennon Moray discovered fossilized teeth of the Deep Ones. Both became obsessed and Karp killed his assistant when they tried to take a sample away for testing. Karp was sentenced to a psychiatric hospital and Moray became ostracised. Their research was shelved and left to gather dust.
2024:
Dr. Wald uncovered Karp/Moray’s work, including the fossilized teeth. He convinced Sanglier and Sacerdote to help with a dig to uncover more fossils like them. They and a team of students have been excavating the site for several weeks, and recently hit paydirt. Uncovering multiple Deep One skeletons of the same otherworldly material. Earlier this week one of the researchers, Gunther Heller, drowned while driving some of the fossils down to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science (DMNS).
The Fossils:
The fossilized remains are extraordinary in several respects:
1) they are of seemingly bipedal, large brained, fish creatures (Deep Ones)
2) they are made up of an unknown, otherworldly mineral and
3) direct exposure has deleterious effects on the human psyche. It starts with troubling dreams, then an obsession with Mother Hydra and the fossils, and finally leads to “hallucinations” of this ancient landscape that become more and more real.
Heller drowned because he was driven into the area of the Western Interior Seaway while experiencing the world as it was millions of years ago.
Directly touching the fossils leads to SAN loss 0/1D6 as visions of the landscape as it was during the Cretaceous Period flash across their eyes. A failure here also results in troubling dreams of the same landscape and shadowy inhuman forms. Reaching a breaking point from the fossils leads to an obsession with the fossils and Mother Hydra. A second breaking point means waking hallucinations as their consciousness becomes increasingly trapped in the past.
Primary researchers:
Dr. Jacqueline Sanglier - Analysis - Denver
- Jacqueline is focused on the potential impact of the findings, regardless of the strange occurrences happening around them. She is rushing an exhibition at the museum to secure additional funding to further their dig. SHe’s becoming more and more upset with the fossils missing from the museum.
Dr. Jesus Sacerdote - Fieldwork - Rangely
- Jesus is haunted by nightmares of an unimaginable entity in an ancient swamp. He often wakes up at the dig site, his hands raw and bloody from digging (he bandages them up and covers them with gloves during the day).
Dr. Hans Wald - Research - Naples, Utah
- Hans’ research into the work of Karp and Moray and exposure to the fossils has driven him mad. He sees Mother Hydra in his dreams and is fully lost to his hallucinations and believes he has captured one of the fish people (it’s actually his wife Silvia).
Assistants:
Silvia Wald - Naples, Utah
- Was driving Gunther and the specimens to Denver when Gunther died. In a fugue state after this traumatic experience, she forgot to bring the fossils to the museum and instead brought them back home to Utah. Exposure to the fossils was the breaking point for her husband Hans who imprisoned her after believing her to be a Deep One.
Gunther Heller - Morgue
- Was riding along with some of the specimens to the museum when he drowned in the van. He had become entranced by them and was having a “hallucination” while in the van which submerged him in the ancient sea.
Based on older work by two scholars that were driven mad:
Robert Karp - Atascadero State Hospital, California
- Killed his partner, claimed they were a fish person
- Atascadero State Hospital patient killed in attack - May 29, 2014
Lennon Moray - Rangely
- Recluse, paints images of a prehistoric landscape. He burns any in which ancient beings can be seen.
Timeline
Tuesday - Heller’s death
Wednesday- Heller’s Autopsy, Silvia released and drives home
Thursday - Heller test results processed, DG flagged
Friday - morning: Agents dispatched, evening: Sacerdote forces the students to dig
Saturday - afternoon: Wald kills Silvia, evening: museum fundraiser
Operational Briefing
A coroner has flagged a strange death. Gunther Heller, a scientist, drowned while driving through the rocky mountains with scientific specimens. DG is called in to investigate, determine if something supernatural occurred, if so identify the cause, eliminate/contain any threat, and deal with any exposed individuals.
The Coroner’s Office - Meeker, CO
The Rio Blanco Coroner’s Office is located an hour east of Rangely in Meeker, CO. Heller’s body has been autopsied but questions remain, hence the agents being called in. Coroner is Victoria Doe.
Investigating the body:
Forensics 30% = He drowned, with no signs of force or foul play
Alertness 50% = fossil residue under fingernails,
Science (Biology) 40% = the water from his lungs contains ancient microorganisms.
Toxicology Report: adderall, caffeine
Diatom Test: no match for local water sources
Belongings: dead cell phone, DMNS badge, specimen bag with fossilized tooth, adderall bottle, sketchbook (Starts with sketches of dig site landscape and found fossils, some of classmates around a campfire, then there's pages of sketches of the tooth, then ancient landscapes with megaflora and a swampy terrain. His final, unfinished sketch shows fishlike beings bowing before something, the barest outline of a massive creature with multiple heads, lose SAN 0/1D4.
Silvia Wald’s Account:
The local sheriff will provide this to the agents. Silvia said that Heller was riding in the back with the specimens and drawing in his sketchbook as per usual. SHe was driving and started to hear a gurgling noise and things being knocked around. She looked back to see him flailing around, clawing at the roof of the van. She pulled over to help him, water started to pour from his mouth. He collapsed in a heap and she called 911 and tried CPR to no avail. The sheriff got her contact info (her phone is now dead) and sent her on her way after the autopsy showed no foul play.
The Dig Site - 30 minutes S/SW of Rangely, CO valley desertscape with scrub brush
Dr. Sacerdote is the lead at the site. He has become obsessed with finding more of the fossilized remains. The night the agents are dispatched he breaks and forces the students to dig through the night, attacking those that refuse or do not perform satisfactorily with a shovel.
Sacerdote’s Tent:
- Notebook: starts with notes from Wald about Karp/Moray findings, continues with basic dig information (GPS coordinates, daily weather, notation of each specimen found and references to pictures taken). After a strange fossil noted of unknown material is found the entries start becoming more haphazard and less detailed. Humint 30% he's becoming obsessed with the fossils.
- Pile of clothes covered in mud
- Sleeping bag has bloody handprints on the inside (caused by him digging his hands bloody at night)
Supply Tent: food, water, digging tools, flashlights, material for jacketing (used to prep fossils for transport): tissue paper, burlap sacks, plaster of paris.
Undergrads: Sacerdote has become more and more irritable, looks like he isn't sleeping well. Unusual high rainfall has halted digging the past few days, Sacerdote has rarely been seen, just angrily dismisses anyone who tried to disturb him in his tent.
Wald Residence - Naples, Utah
The house is locked up and all windows are covered by curtains. The ground floor is littered with cracked open fossil jackets, but no one is on that level. The house reeks as Hans has not cleaned up after himself or Silvia. Both Walds can be found in the basement.
Dr. Hans Wald: trapped in a hallucination of the ancient past, sees the world as it was during the Cretaceous Period and people as Deep Ones. He captured his wife Silvia and has her locked in a cage in the basement. The afternoon after the agents are dispatched he will kill her if not stopped.
Silvia Wald: locked in a cage and malnourished, dehydrated and unconscious. She needs medical attention urgently.
Karp’s/Wald’s Notes - Wald’s office is plastered with seemingly disconnected articles, books and printed out images and websites. Looking around agents can see pieces on: the Ute legend “Two Grandsons”, Vodyanoy, Nixies, Kappas,The fish-man of Liérganes, a short account of a ship called Ptarmigan by someone called Elstead, the Loveland Frogman, Innsmouth, Father Dagon, Mother Hydra, Y’un-Ila’ra (Occult 50% recognises this as an ancient Deep One city).
Anthropology 40% or higher recognize these as accounts of aquatic humanoids
.
Statblocks
Dr. Jesus Sacerdote
STR 14 CON 12 DEX 10 INT 15 POW 11 CHA 10
HP 13 WP 11 SAN 42 BREAKING POINT 33
SKILLS: Archaeology 40%, Bureaucracy 40%, Computer Science 40%, Forensics 40%, Melee Weapons 40%, Science (Paleontology) 60%, Science (Geology) 50%, Science (Biology) 50%, Survival 30%
ATTACKS: Shovel 40%, damage 1d6
Dr. Hans Wald
STR 9 CON 14 DEX 12 INT 16 POW 10 CHA 10
HP 11 WP 10 SAN 29 BREAKING POINT 20
SKILLS: Bureaucracy 40%, Computer Science 40%, Forensics 40%, Melee Weapons 50%, Science (Paleontology) 60%, Science (Geology) 50%
ATTACKS: Fossilized Femur 50%, damage 1d8
Credits
Divergent Evolution was written by Jacob Tomlinson Korst for the 2024 Shotgun Scenario contest.
Source: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CMxWDoO5s1re6jDry2QHQTduFo5UW3Gltryj_5vhU8c/edit