Out of Character, Before Gameplay
Have players create characters. Then swap the character sheets among them at random…
Note: Only the Handler can know which sheet each player receives. Let the players figure out who has whose based on gameplay.
In Character
Each character wakes up at together at a wooden table. None has any memory of their name, age, background, skills, associates… even their appearance is unknown to them. They have no personal belongings, not even ID cards in their pockets. Cracks in the walls give way to warm summer air. It appears to the characters that they are in a one-room cabin; it’s been abandoned for some time, as the bookshelves, rusting bed frame, and kitchen cabinets are all empty and in obvious stages of decay. The corners of the room are cluttered with broken furniture and shards of mirror. Through the cracked and dusty window, the characters can see a dense deciduous forest sloping steeply downhill. A look at the topographical maps framed beside the mirror reveals that they are in the Blackwater Canyon region of West Virginia (location adjustable, provided it is a remote, wooded region). A red square has been drawn in the middle of the range, noting the cabin's location relative to the rest of the land. They are surrounded by uninhabited woodland.
On the wooden table before the agents are:
- a box of matches
- a compass
- enough light pistols, with ammo, for half of the total number of players
- and a single manila folder.
In the folder is a Polaroid picture clipped to a blank envelope. The Polaroid is of a thin, black, closed photo album. In the envelope is a slip of paper that reads in typed font:
“You messed up. We’re giving you one last shot to prove yourselves. Take the album from the camp and destroy it. Return here ONLY when you are finished.
And remember…
…your memories are in our hands.”
Should they look more closely, the maps will reveal a public campground marked several miles from the cabin. Further search of the cabin will reveal coat hooks with nondescript windbreakers of different sizes, along with a machete hanging from one of the pegs. Several empty mason jars a roll of duct tape sit covered in dust on the board's rim. A pink sticky note on the door reads “Good luck.”
Agents can choose to take the maps from the wall and use them and the compass to navigate the forest. Upon leaving the cabin, the door will lock from the inside.
The air feels sharp, almost prickly; anyone who passes an INT roll can tell that the feeling is caused by building static electricity. The darkening sky is clear of both clouds and planes. Pushing through thick summer undergrowth in lengthening shadows, agents who pass ALERTNESS rolls will find an unnatural number of deer, rabbit, and fox carcasses, some whole and others merely cracked bones. Examination will reveal claw slashes that go down to the bone.
As the agents continue for an hour, they will being to lose endurance and will need to roll CON. Interaction should be encouraged. They have no memory of themselves but apparently were once together in some kind of predicament, just as they are now. Players can discover and experiment with their characters' forgotten personalities, hinging on their stats. Every now and then, a strange screech will be emitted from the direction of the campground. These screeches grow perceptibly louder the longer the agents walk.
As the agents near the campground, things begin to turn stranger. An unshakable feeling of being watched threatens to overwhelm the agents. The hairs on the backs of their necks stand up. Their heartbeats pulse audibly in their eardrums, their muscles tense, pupils widen, and their senses become so heightened and strained that the world looks both clearer and shakier than it ever has before. Reaching the outskirts without any high ALERTNESS, STEALTH, or SEARCH rolls will cause the agents to literally stumble into the camp, their level of clumsiness and noise determined by how bad their score was. Night has fallen by now (unless agents have decided to stop for the night, in which case see “Left Turn” below). In the dark, a good ALERTNESS roll will allow them to make out ten twenty rough shelters made of what looks to be natural materials, with one actual tents, large. A very dim light from within illuminates its outline, but only indistinct figures inside. No fires are lit.
The Handler should know that the album is in the illuminated tent.
Unhappy Campers
An unidentifiable language spoken in low murmurs can be heard from outside the tents. If entered, the tent will reveal six humans of varying ages surrounding the photo album, looking over it by the light of a glowing orb hanging in the air. They are armed with nothing but ornate daggers on their persons. They are not open to negotiation (no CHA or PERSUADE will get the album without a struggle, but may stall for time). If provoked, they will call out. Outside, the agents will hear rustling. A hint of wind. A change in shadow. A pair of eyes blinks in the tent's light. Soon, dozens of others join it.
The Creatures
Tall, bipedal, flat-faced, and with opposable thumbs, these beings might be mistaken for humans – if the agents were blind. The newcomers have massive claws for nails, scraggly protofeathers running down their arms and legs, sunken skull features, and massive black eyes. Hints of bone glow through translucent skin, which is scabbed over with blisters and hardened masses of protofeather mutations. They appear to be controlled by the humans in the tent, but hover outside the tent flap until ordered forward.
Conflict and Caveats
- Fire and light in general both angers and alarms the creatures, which means that using firelight when entering the campsite will alert the creatures to the agents' presence. When faced with fire/light, the creatures' efforts to attack will increase but their coordination will lessen as they balk and flinch away.
- The creatures' claws inflict 1D6 Damage.
- The creatures have no armor class, but move with incredible speed and number several dozen.
- The foreign humans will not attempt to attack the agents with their daggers, but will try to flee deeper into the woods with the photo album.
- The forest is dry in the summer heat. Fire catches easily here. Flames are not discriminate: while starting a fire will topple any order the creatures may have had, it will also envelope the campsite and endanger the agents.
Don't Forget…
The agents' original mission was to destroy the photo album. If they look into it, agents will see photographs of themselves kneeling before an unspeakably horrific, tentacled figure that players (but not characters) might recognize as Lovecraftian. SAN will be rolled for, as the agents have just seen themselves facing death at the hands of a monster whose power goes beyond what they are able to comprehend.
If the agents fail and do not return to the cabin, they will not regain their memory. The operation ends there. The agents are never heard from again.
A group of people in heavy combat gear waits for them in the cabin. If the agents failed their mission, they will be shot immediately with no chance of escape.
If the mission is successful, each character, after seeing the group for a split second, will wake up at the table in the cabin together. The cabin is clean and well-kept. Their memory is seemingly clear: they are a group of old friends who have been hiking in the mountains to catch up after several years. They have no memory of anything involving Delta Green. This will effectively restore their SAN. The characters can part ways truly believing that they are normal people with long-standing friendships with each other.Their usual lives, as detailed in their backstories, can be returned to at any time.
They will also be marked, unbeknownst to them, as agents ready for re-recruitment the next time they are needed. The characters can be assumed to proceed with their old lives, albeit with some horrifying dreams every now and then, and act normally — for now.
Left Turn
Should players decide – maybe after losing too much willpower, injuring themselves, or in a brief moment of common sense – to hunker down for the night and lay low beneath the inhuman screeches ahead of them, there is an option for the plot.
- If a fire is lit, the screeches will grow louder and more frequent
- If characters sleep with no fire, loud footprints will wake anyone still awake or with the highest ALERTNESS score (without being rolled for). Investigation WILL lead to a fight with the (sole) individual creature from the camp.
Credits
This is an entry to the 2018 Delta Green shotgun scenario contest, written by Colleen Sellay.