Emfs At Higher Frequencies

Briefing:

A news article was published last year about the passage of a local ordinance banning the extension of 5G networks into the tiny, isolated town of Crawford in northern California. This scuttled a plan by a telecoms company to secure some sweet state government funding to “close the digital divide”, but an attempt by an over-eager marketeer to win hearts and minds at a council meeting led to a near riot. The company is pursuing a legal challenge, but what interests Delta Green is the image of a man sitting toward the back of the council meeting in the few photos published in the media. He’s been identified as Dr. Jiminy Rust, a former Majestic-12 scientist who has been on the lam for two decades, long sought out for apprehension for the crime of knowing too much.

Truth:

Dr. Rust has been conducting an experiment on this mountain community for years, installing odd devices on power line transformers that can convert any device emitting an electromagnetic signal into a low powered Tillinghast resonator, though not the time traveling kind. This has had the effect of creating a permanently heightened sense of paranoia within the town of Crawford, as those within the county limits constantly sense entities From Beyond just out of their line of sight. This has encouraged the spread of popular conspiracy theories throughout the community, particularly those related to 5G.

The Town:

Once the site of a 19th century hydraulic mining settlement, Crawford is only accessible through a nominally paved former wagon trail, lined with angry placards denouncing 5G, woke media, and the 2020 election results. Cut off from the main grid, most of the town is powered by aging solar panels, with a mini hydro plant built as a boondoggle back in the 80s serving as a backup.

There is no phone landline connection to the outside world, although there is an old-school party line set up so people can call each other because cell phone coverage here is terrible and no one seems to carry one. A surprising number of people are open-carrying handguns, which is technically illegal in the state of California but almost everyone is carrying an exemption permit issued by the Sheriff, for “hunting”. The average resident’s age skews toward the boomer, mostly resentfully retired folk.

The town center is arranged around a public square of dying grass and crumbling walkways. Arranged around the square are the town’s few shops and conveniences: a post office with limited opening hours, a general store with low stock, a padlocked and dusty Sheriff’s department, and a combined gun shop and metaphysical store which appears to be the center of community life. There’s a shuttered Chinese restaurant with graffiti, broken windows, and signs of mild arson.

The townsfolk are constantly in a mild state of fight/flight/freeze, especially where outsiders are concerned. They will either act overly friendly in a threatening manner, or stare like deer in headlights, or make a quick getaway. It takes a combination of HUMINT, Persuade and Psychotherapy to get through to anyone, which just encourages them to go on a long and rambling tangent about the Deep State, or Q, or the hollow earth. Questions about Dr. Rust are directed to either Sheriff Freeman or Lynda Huckleberry at the metaphysical shop.

Sheriff Freeman doesn’t use the Sheriff’s office at all, preferring to work out of his vintage cruiser. He prioritizes local ordinances over state law, and claims Federal laws don’t apply to his community. He describes Dr. Rust as “a community-minded living in his own private domicile who will not be harassed, but may boast about how Rust was able to boost the local grid so the town wouldn’t be reliant on outside help. Freeman sees himself as a guard dog keeping threats of the outside world at bay, obsessed with “keeping out them BLM and antifa rioters”.

Lynda Huckleberry works out of Lynda’s Spiritual Gifts and Armor, which sells expensive locally grown organic produce, alternative medicine, and a variety of second hand and/or vanity press tests on conspiracy theory, spiritualism, and woo. She also sells a lot of guns, though she claims almost every weapon displayed is paid for and reserved. Lynda is insane, a megalomaniac, who was sleeping with Dr. Rust until he got too wrapped up in his experiments and she with converting the town to her conspiracy church. She is convinced the Deep State is going to put microchips in everyone’s brains, force everyone to have gender reassignment, and grind up children into a nutrient paste.

If the Agents come in flashing badges, she’ll be theatrically welcoming and friendly, promising to help them with whatever they need, then make some calls on the party line to organize a lynch mob using patently obvious code phrases. If any Agents insult her beliefs, she will fly into a rage. However, she is extremely gullible if the Agents validate her beliefs and portray themselves as secret patriots. She knows where Dr. Rust’s laboratory is.

Paranoia:

Exposure to low frequency Tillinghast radiation has taken a gradual toll on the sanity of the townsfolk, most of whom now harbor some form of Permanent Insanity, usually delusions or a phobia. All SAN tests within the town for any reason have a +1 to SAN loss. The locals are extra suspicious of any Agent who uses a cell phone in public, who flashes government credentials around, or is of Asian descent, who suffer a -20% to social rolls cumulative up to -40%. A HUMINT check can reveal the barely concealed simmering hatred in the locals.

Cell Phone Usage:

The coverage in town is minimal, when there is a connection, calls drop out after a few seconds, text messages send late or not at all, and you can forget about the internet. Anyone who tries to use a cell phone makes an Alertness roll to catch a glimpse of something with tendrils or spines floating just out of their field of vision (SAN 0/1).

Power

The hydro plant northeast of town is a red herring, it is a perfectly normal if aging 300 kW hydroelectric generator fed through a small reservoir at a local mountain stream. What’s more interesting are the dead birds piled up underneath the power lines extending from the plant to the town. The birds appear to have been drained of blood and are sporting bizarre bite wounds, especially near their legs and the lower half of their body. Basically, any poor bird sitting on the power lines were exposed to enough Tillinghast radiation to become partially visible to predators From Beyond.

Anyone who climbs up to check out the power lines, especially near the converters, is exposed to Tillinghast radiation and makes Notice checks while they’re up there. Unless they’re actually touching the wire, the predators from Beyond won’t be able to actually attack, though they might try (SAN 0/1d4). Agents with Craft: Electrician or Mechanic can spot a weird gadget wired up to the transformers, though the power should be cut before it can be removed. Cursory study shows the device should be non-functional or useless, further study is best left for a Study the Unnatural Home Scene.

Dr. Rust’s Laboratory

is northwest of town up the mountain. As the Agents approach the lab, their cell coverage begins to improve, but their cell phones also start to emit Tillinghast radiation. Within 100 feet of the lab, every cell phone is emitting about a foot of From Beyond visibility, allowing Agents to catch glimpses of extradimensional horrors while also allowing said horrors to take a bite out of whatever part of an Agent’s body is closest to their cell phone. Within 10 feet of the lab, this sphere of visibility extends to six feet in every direction, making the extradimensional horrors much clearer but also vice-versa.

Inside the lab itself, Dr. Rust is protected by a Faraday cage, surrounded by control equipment and documentation. He is engrossed in working on a piece of equipment and will pay little attention to entering Agents except to bark at them to move if they stand in his light. He will offer no resistance if attacked or apprehended, though the same cannot be said of Lynda, who will send armed aged hippies after anyone who kills or arrests her Jiminy.

Optional Other Guys:

Whether the Agents are Outlaws or with the Program, an additional complication could be some of the other Delta Green coming into town in search of Dr. Rust as well. Outlaws potentially have an advantage here since they may be less likely to flash badges, but having two groups of strangers asking questions is going to increase the paranoia even more than it already is. Whichever group can convince Lynda that the other guys are working for the Deep State is going to have an advantage, but if things go wrong the two groups might be forced to cooperate to fend off their armed and righteous locals.

Credits

EMFs At Higher Frequencies was written by David Tormsen (with thanks to Frahnk and less thanks but still some thanks to Top Hat) for the 2022 Shotgun Scenario contest.
Source: https://docs.google.com/