Briefing
Yesterday there was a worldwide limited nuclear exchange, triggered by another Delta Green cell's actions, a catastrophic failure to contain a Lloigor plot that resulted in the accidental energetic destruction of Lisbon from low earth orbit. Technically, that cell is not a total loss (yet) but we have no idea how we're going to recover Agent Romeo, who has already tumbled beyond the reach of any of our space-based assets. But that's the gig, and not your job today.
So. Weird thing is, none of those nukes landed, and at the same time, the Moon moved a bit closer to the Earth. Cherenkov streaking is visible on the Moon's dark side. Our occult equipment was able to trace something interesting back from all the points of disappearance. Those lines all converge on an interesting parabolic dish above a fourth-floor office in Wales.
The Truth
The Welsh are all Yithians and have been throughout most of their history. "Going Welsh" is a reward that each Yith may enjoy once in their vast lifetime, living through a Cambrian's entire span on Earth as both a vacation and training for occupying other humans. The Welsh language still remains a close approximation of the Yith's third language, from the first species they possessed with lungs.
In the laboratory under his home, a Yithman named Bendigeidfran Llŷr has employed fellow Yith as batteries to power the equipment necessary to displace all those missiles to the dark side of Earth's Moon. The trail leading to him is not accidental, and other mythos-adjacent parties may also follow it. His own organization is trying to secure an ally for the troubles to come.
The Office
The office occupies the entire fourth floor. It's filled with a variety of understated designs of energy-transmission equipment from every decade since mankind harnessed whale oil, mostly draped with dust sheets. Cabling slithers out of the ceiling to a modern workstation. There's a small kitchenette, a cot, and a trashcan with debris from both MREs and lavish foodstuffs. A footlocker concealed under the cot contains a variety of odd objects that might be found in a Green Box.
The clues:
- the building is owned by a Mr. Bendigeidfran Llŷr
- the workstation is remotely operated
- the glistening cables from the workstation are visible on the poles outside, running down the alley
These clues point to Mr. Llŷr's nearby suburban Welsh home. It looks spotlessly normal from a distance, but weird around the edges up close, as though a sharpening filter has been applied to a photograph of the place.
A hatch in the kitchen floor leads to a short section of pipe with a ladder, a second hatch, and a possibly-vast subterranean laboratory that human characters cannot perceive with their naked senses. Instead, the lab appears to them to be a cartoon like Sealab or Dexter's Lab or the Professor's lab from Powerpuff Girls, all flat colors and hard angles and no sense of parallax. This effect is called Ellogram Echosis (see below) and may cause unexpected combat results.
The person running the facility, Mr. Llŷr, is initially quite welcoming, although confused about why the Agents are there, with commentary like "this is a bit too soon," or "your arrival was not documented today," or "social media got this one real wrong."
Are the Agents friendly?
If the Agents are friendly, they get a tour of the facility. This tour is mostly rooms that don't visually match the super science explanations given for them; "this is the computational engine that powers the facility" but the room looks like three restaurant kitchens superimposed over each other with different degrees of rotation for each, or "these banks store accumulated mathematical aggregates in a theobromide solution" but the room is two stories tall and filled with shelving loaded with a mix of old books and cereal boxes.
The final point on the tour is the Displacement machinery, but right as that explanation starts, another unpredicted problem pops up in the form of an alert about a GRU SV8 team approaching the house, which the Yithian asks the Agents to deal with, and displaces them up into the house.
This situation can be dealt with a multitude of different ways depending on the skills that the Agents have brought and their attitudes. Perhaps, they will fight it out with the opposing team. Perhaps, they will attempt to befriend them or deflect them with persuasion or capture them or even invite them in to see the lab. When this is resolved, the team is called back down to the displacement chamber.
Are the Agents unfriendly?
Alternatively, if the Agents take an unfriendly tack with the Yithian in the first place, he will retreat to a safe room via displacement and speak to them through intercom, trying to talk them round to a more friendly aspect while they explore and/or ransack the laboratories. In that case, the Russians will probably arrive in the lab as hostiles while the Agents are exploring. For flavor, consider significantly increasing the size of the Russian team in this instance to make cannon fodder for the Yithian to engage in a horrifying remote defense of its domain. While this is happening, Mr. Llŷr will be frustratedly muttering to himself about how "it doesn't matter what the predictions were, we have chosen -these- tools and the group will brook no interference from anyone else's catspaws."
Friendly or not:
After the Russian situation is resolved, the full scope of the displacement room is revealed. Incomprehensible machinery, all powered by banks of Welsh children in Matrix-style crackling electrical pods that smell like delicious but indefinable roasting meat, children whose identities check out but have not been reported missing to any legal agency. These all appear to be normal kids, as they slowly pop out of the pods one by one, assembling in an orderly semicircle and answering basic questions.
When the last child is released from the machinery, the entire structure rumbles and grinds. Rooms begin collapsing slowly at the end of the hall, twisting and skewing, advancing towards the Agents and the children, and then the hall itself begins to collapse like some massive peristaltic action.
Just before impact, the Agents and children (and perhaps the Russians) all find themselves on the main floor of the house above. The hatch to the lab reveals nothing but a shallow well of churned dirt. The bodies of anyone who died in the lab are found in this well. The bodies of any GRU who waited in the house are also found smashed into the well. On the inside of the hatch, a handwritten note says "Don't worry about it."
Most of the children simply leave or are collected by parents who refuse to talk to the Agents beyond thanking them politely. But one child, a young woman named Blodeuwedd Eurddolen, peels off and gives each Agent a contact card, telling them in adult tones to look to the Llewellyn Group for answers to unusual questions. Roll SAN, 1/1d4 Unnatural.
All Agents involved in the operation gain a Bond with this child (or the Llewellyn Group, player's choice), who can be leaned on in the traditional manner for cryptic answers to interesting questions, whatever a Handler thinks a Yithian might be willing to reveal, conceal, or obfuscate about the greater Mythos.
The minor local earthquake is brushed off by the media as a small aquifer cave in, and the town is told not to drink the water for 2 weeks.
Bendigeidfran Llŷr: A Welshman possessed for his entire life by a Yith on vacation, like all his countrymen. The role he's volunteered for this year is the monitoring of the local nuclear environment, and ensuring that the universe unfolds as it should. He's visibly excited about having been able to intervene on such a large scale, upset that he'll need to relocate, and upbeat about the opportunity to bring the Agents on-board with his organization.
All stats: 12
Dodge: 95%
Displace: prior to the resolution of any action, Bendigeidfran may teleport to his safe room, an otherwise unreachable location
Ellogram Echosis: Only higher-order beings such as the Yith (and perhaps Shan, or Mi-Go) can truly perceive existence in the laboratory space, and all human Firearms rolls are affected thus:
A critical hit is just a success and a celebration of how difficult it is to aim.
A success hits the wrong target for half damage (roll a percentile to pick a target from all present, including the shooter).
On a failure or fumble the weapon never existed at all.
Melee and Unarmed rolls are unaffected.
Thrown weapons (and jumping) may be problematic.
The Llewellyn Group: This is a Yith volunteer organization that functions like a temporal Neighborhood Watch. They tend the local timeline like a community garden, weeding and clearing vermin, inoculating against pests, and encouraging a wealth of beautiful blossoms along the chosen path.
Credits
EX LIBRIS BERMUDA CARDIFF was written by Splizwarf for the 2024 Shotgun Scenario contest.
Source: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Mozm5-6q1yqH4YaU9KvrnLcKv7-N0omxGlUiDLuerSI/edit