BEWILDERMENT
FBI Special Agent Lance Sugimoto (Agent WASHINGTON of the Delta Green
Program) has been tracking human collaborators serving the alien
intelligences known as the Yith, or Great Race. His meddling with this
conspiracy, known as The Motion, resulted in the recovery of an alien
device capable of powerful and dangerous telepathic effects.
Unfortunately, this device has begun to slowly erase Sugimoto's brain,
an inevitable process that will leave him a mindless, drooling, and
helpless vegetable.
The scenario begins when Sugimoto contacts the Agents, he either knows
one or more of them from previous operations or has somehow obtained
their contact information. He is desperate and shaken to the core,
begging them for help. He has forgotten how to contact A-Cell. Soon,
he will entirely forget the existence of A-Cell. His current location
can be determined through a cell phone trace or by talking Sugimoto
through giving directions. Sugimoto is using his personal mobile
phone.
His location is a small trailer home on a remote private lot. This
used to be W-Cell's Green Box and was recently evacuated by some very
thorough Agents. It is entirely empty except for Sugimoto and his
device. Even the carpeting has been ripped up. Sugimoto can be found
curled up in a fetal position on the floor.
Sugimoto used to have a 17 INT. So far, the device has drained 1 INT
from him. Over the next 16 days, the Agents may witness Sugimoto's
rapid degeneration from a brilliant FBI Agent specialized in
electrical and mechanical engineering into a literally brainless
moron. His most recent memories are being devoured first. By the third
day of the mission Sugimoto will be unable to recall any information
about his investigation into the Motion. He has already forgotten how
he came into possession of the device. No means available to the
Agents can effect a cure or stop the process of the device.
SUGIMOTO'S DEVICE
This mysterious device is believed to be of Yithian manufacture,
possibly through some sort of psychic manifestation of matter. It is a
tall octagonal black prism constructed of polished black stone marbled
with red veins. The top is inset with a large five pointed red crystal
(this functions as a version of the Pnakotic Pentagram with an
effective radius of 10 meters). The crystal also glows in the presence
of telepathy or temporal anomalies. Viewing the stone for long
durations, one can see odd alien shapes moving within the blackness
that resemble reflections in the polished surface. It is capable of
many telepathic effects that bypass the normal protections of the
Pnakotic Pentagram. Inadequate human minds are unlikely to be able to
control these effects in any meaningful way.
Sugimoto's obtrusions with the device has activated a failsafe that
drains 1 INT per day from anyone touching the device. While being
drained of Intelligence, the most simple thoughts become difficult and
memories often slip away, erased forever. Those being drained are
somehow “stuck” to the device, and no force can sever this bond. The
victim is free to move about as long as some part of them is touching
the device, and they can detach portions of their anatomy so long as
some part of them remains in contact. Even amputation of limbs results
in a bizarre warp that reunites the device and victim. However, death
releases the victim, and the device “lets go” when the victim reaches
0 INT. The loss of Intelligence is permanent.
This horrific process costs the victim 1d3 SAN per INT lost. Witnesses
who become aware of this process lose 1/1d3 SAN.
DIRECTIVES FROM A-CELL
If contacted, A-Cell requests that the investigating Cell confirm that
Sugimoto's brain is “physically present”. They ask if any other odd
technology such as metallic cylinders, hyperdimensional surgical
tools, or biomechanical devices have been observed or recovered.
A-Cell also requests that the Agents keep an eye out for strange
lights in the sky, unusual fungal growths or any giant flying
crab-like creatures with bioluminescent heads.
FAMILY ISSUES
On the second day of the mission, Sugimoto's estranged daughter Laura
files a missing person's report with the local police. Laura came out
as a lesbian to her father several years ago, and Lance did not take
it well. Recently they have been having dinner every week in an
attempt to rebuild their failed father-daughter relationship and try
to deal with the loss of Sarah, Lance's ex-wife who died of cancer
before Laura came out.
Lance missed the dinner, and when Laura was not able to contact him,
she began looking for her father. On the fifth day of the mission,
Laura will dip into her life savings and hire a private investigator
named Danielle Mullen of Core Investigations to locate Lance. Ms.
Mullen is a happily married former state trooper with three children
in college. She has a couple of bounty hunting, ex-marine tough guys
on staff that she uses as muscle, and rarely operates alone.
Unless the Agents dealt with Sugimoto's personal mobile phone, Ms.
Mullen will track the GPS on the device to the Green Box or wherever
Sugimoto's phone has ended up. She will drive close, but if she sees a
bunch of vehicles other than Sugimoto's she will conduct surveillance;
setting up a camera after dark, tracing license plates, taking
pictures of those coming and going and so forth. Depending on the
results of her investigation, she may contact local or even federal
law enforcement.
Should Ms. Mullen and her staff mysteriously disappear, second
generation FBI Special Agent Laura Sugimoto will take a leave of
absence, withdraw $20,000 from her 401k, and begin an intensive
investigation into the disappearance of her father. This exciting
process will turn up many interesting things concerning the PROGRAM
and The Motion. Unless they resolve Lance's situation and vacate the
area, Laura will show up on the Agent's doorstep four days after
beginning her personal investigation. She is very likely to try and
free her father from the device, touching it and sharing his fate.
CONCLUSION
Sugimoto will write a letter to his daughter, and will also prepare a
last will and testament and ask that the Agents deliver these
documents to his daughter and his lawyer. Once his INT drops into
single digits, Sugimoto will begin to discuss suicide, and ask that
the agents kill him once he is unable to speak coherently. Eleven days
into the mission, Lance, now at 5 INT, will attempt to leave the
Agents to find his daughter and tell her that he loves her. He will
somehow be able to speed dial her number if he still has his phone.
All pretense at OPSEC will be discarded by the severely retarded
Sugimoto at this point. If Sugimoto reaches 1 INT, he will retain just
enough thought process to attempt suicide by grabbing at the nearest
firearm and shoving it into his mouth.
ENJOIN PNAKOTIC PENTAGRAM
Simple Ritual. Study Time: Hours; 1d3 SAN. Activation: Two Hours, 2 POW, 1d4 SAN
The Pnakotic Pentagram, sometimes called the Pnakotic Pentagon, is a
mystical sigil very similar to the Elder Sign and sharing some of same
drawbacks. It must be inscribed with a Craft skill of 20% or greater
at a cost of 2 POW and 1d4 SAN. Once complete, the pentagram is
actually creates a complex, continuing hypergeometrical operation that
disjoins the spacetime within, constantly shifting a portion of
reality out of sync with the angles and curves of the flow of time.
Hounds of the Angles cannot sense the minds of those within the warp.
Thus, remaining within the pentagram allows the use the Liao drug and
the safe performance of the Leaves of Time Ritual (Handler's Guide
p181). Furthermore, those within cannot have their minds switched by
members of the Great Race or through other means, as no Telepathy
functions within the Pentagram. Finally, the risen dead are warded
against. Zombies, incorporeal ghosts, the Resurrected, and so forth
cannot enter within the boundaries of the Pnakotic Pentagram. In
ancient times, this ritual was used to seal the tombs and thresholds
of dead wizards and sorcerers to prevent any unnatural re-emergences.
Credits
This was an entry to the 2017 Delta Green shotgun scenario contest, written by The Man in Black.