Full Blue Moon

or
What Time is it? It’s Tooth Hurty

Word Count: 1389

BRIEFING

At 0059 hours, Agents arrive in an SUV in the Patriot Crossing parking deck. Their Case Officer is waiting for them. He suffers a heart attack (0/1 Helplessness) and drops Linus Hanks’ dossier.

It contains screenshots of tweets, including a picture of a circled retro-futuristic gun-like object in Hank’s hands, and a Patriot Crossing MAP, with indications that Hanks owns all properties here.

The only other objects of note: keys to a Ford Taurus (parked near where he fell), a medium pistol.

SAVE THE CASE OFFICER

Appropriate skill revitalizes the Case Officer, an AED adds +20%.
If saved, the Case Officer suffers from muteness but can otherwise assist. Communication may take longer because of this.

HANDLER’S SUMMARY

Case Officer’s original intent is recovering the stolen lightning gun reverse-engineered by Hanks.

Linus Hanks is an esoteric enthusiast, and has collected a few pieces of Unnatural tomes and tech over the years, and reverse-engineered a few.

His latest discovery: an AI-generated book that tells of a way to reverse entropy. This “AI” is actually Niquamps, the herald of Yeggothuloth, lying to Hanks to have his master summoned. Niquamps warns Hanks that resistance will be likely, allowing him to prepare some defenses.

Yeggothuloth is a black hole made physical, It That Spreads. When it appears, it begins to grow until it has enveloped everything into nothingness.

The summoning ritual consists of

• The Herald: Niquamps comes from the mouth of the victim (West Wing Dental)
• The Sacrifice: a dozen victims fuels the summoning (Gratton Brothers Insurance)
• The Gate: computer program running in Aklo (Paradigm)

All of these must be stopped in order to stop Yeggothuloth. If they fail to stop the coming of Yeggothuloth, Kolarnur-Faug aids them.

Kolarnur-Faug appears whenever his former master Yeggothuloth is summoned, dutifully coming along to undo its existence by crashing the summoning party unfashionably early. It never makes a physical appearance, and is more of a feeling, an idea, or a thought, occasionally a glimpse of something in your eye.

Sec TIMELINE for how things go down if Agents don't intervene.

RESET

Agents feel the pull of darkness being combated by a benevolent force, shortly before the atomic tickling of their bodies being rebuilt.

When the timeline resets, Agents return to the anchor point. Then resolve A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIEND by Kolarnur-Faug

Agents are also able to make contact and requests from Kolarnur-Faug in the void. If the Agents don't ask for help or are unable to communicate, by the third iteration, Kolarnur-Faug can place helpful items (Handler divine intervention) in their trunk.

HANKS

Hanks is a Musk-like figure (but don’t call him that!), throwing money into unnecessary tech. Past “flagship” products: flamethrowers, self-driving cars, consumer grade drones, some cybernetics (especially orthodontics and dentistry, including his cybernetic mouth).

More “online” Agents may be aware of the cult-like “Liners”, adoring fanboys of Hanks and the strange conspiracies pushed by Hanks on Twitter.

Hanks is live-tweeting tonight, including links to the Liners’ stream and reactions to what Agents do. His megalomania worsens as the hour draws to a close.

KOLARNUR-FAUG AND THE CRYPTIC CLUES

Agents with Foreign Language: Aklo can understand Kolarnur’s messages.

Otherwise, Kolarnur conveys intent through telepathic feelings, important moments of history, or beaming holographic-like images of objects into Agents’ eyes like a television montage.

CALLING 911

Emergency services are currently swamped with the full blue moon. If 911 is called, the first responder will arrive 1d10+5 minutes later, then backup arrives 1d6 minutes later. Half the time if it sounds like terrorism.

TIMELINE

It is important to account for every minute of the hour, including travel time across the office park. As a rule of thumb, it’s three minutes to run to adjacent locations (Athletics), or 5 to walk.
(Parenthesis) denote MAP location.
Agents only have 3 “resets” to work with. Once the ordered solution to one of the core ritual pieces has been completed, this becomes a new Anchor Point, unless otherwise specified to Kolarnur.
HANDLER’S NOTE: Consider giving bonuse % 's or no-roll-completions for actions Agents previously completed. Also consider adjusting the number of resets for player count: less Agents mean more resets.

0059	Agents arrive. CO Johnson dies from an apparent heart attack.
0100	West Wing Dental (5) Automated Tooth Machine (ATM) begins extracting teeth from the patient, 1 per minute. The victim is strapped to the chair, crying painfully every time a piece of them is taken. ATM doesn’t tolerate interruptions.
0102	Hanks tweets a video of himself with his legs kicked up on a desk, “I’m feeling real presidential.” A desperate, pained scream is heard in the background, as well as a robot whirring. (West Wing Dental)
0105	A black Dodge Charger drifts down the spiral parking garage exit (1), engine roaring as the escaped victim drives like hell to get away from the cultists. If caught, the victim is a naked man who cries and tells Agents a little about his captors and how he escaped from the Gratton Brothers Insurance building, which he says is rigged with explosives.
0109	Five of the Liners break away from the parking garage (1) to start diversionary tactics, including smashing and burning other buildings in the office park (2/7/8). One remains to keep the livestream going.
0111	Hanks leaves WWD and heads to GBI.
0121	Hanks tweets a picture of a cubicle farm, “I couldn’t stand working an office job, it was never for me.” Hanks flees to his office immediately
0127	An explosion tears through Gratton Brothers Insurance (3) as the candle burns through the rope holding it aloft and it falls into the ANFO barrel, killing the dozen trapped hostages (1/1d6 Helplessness). Amazon workers call 911.
0132	(5) The ATM pulls the last tooth and Niquamps crawls forward, devouring and growing as it unfolds and writhes outward from the victim’s mouth until it replaces them. Niquamps eats everything and grows, and ushers forth a herald in Aklo, “It comes at last, the beautiful thing that awaits us all to send us forth to oblivion”
0143	Unchecked, the Niquamps devours the building and turns its attention to the Amazon warehouse (7)
0159	The computer finishes casting the runes, its circuits fueled by the herald and the sacrifice. The summoning ritual comes to a completion. Yeggothuloth is unleashed.
0100	Time is reset by Kolarnur-Faug as the clock falls back an hour.

MAP

(click to view)
1. Parking Garage
3rd level: Liners gather with video equipment pointing at the West Wing Dental building on a livestream to several thousand other Liners. If Agents have been running across the open area, there’s HD video of them zoomed in. If questioned, they’ll attempt to hold out and say, “Just wait, you’ll see.”

2. American Mental Health Services
Private rooms and couches, a reception and waiting area.

3. Gratton Brothers Insurance
A cubicle farm, desks pushed in a barricade. Hostages are tied-up, handcuffed, and gagged.
A single Liner, armed with a flamethrower, idly watches the livestream from the garage.

Hanging from the ceiling is a candle burning away at a string holding it aloft. When the candle falls, it will ignite the ANFO explosive in a barrel in the center of the room (Lethality 30%, 20m kill radius).

4. Paradigm Cybersecurity Solutions
A large, open space with a few small offices in the rear.

The office of Hanks is here. A dry erase board lists current and future projects. Strange symbols (Aklo) adorn the edges, the plan to summon Yeggothuloth.

5. West Wing Dental
A lobby, reception desk, and private rooms. Themed like the White House, with ATM operating in the Oval Office at the end of a long hallway with smaller dentists’ rooms on both sides

6. Amazon Warehouse
Trucks coming and going from the docks, workers loading and unloading pallets, searching the long rows of tall shelves.

7. Wixler Paper Company
Cardboard boxes of various papers, a printing press, various chemicals and acids.

8. Donatello Art Supply
Canvases, paints, prints and artwork for sale in a gallery. One piece on prominent display was painted by Hanks and includes an inky black maw.

9. Empty Office building
Nothing at all to see here, but it’s probably a safe hiding place.

SAN REWARD

Gain 1d20 SAN for stopping the summoning of Yeggothuloth, although the memory of its existence still haunts them.

Gain 1d6 SAN for saving the office workers.

STAT BLOCKS

ATM

(Automatic Tooth Machine)
Dental surgeon nightmare robot
Heavy and stout blocky body housing internal circuits and protecting four rubber wheels. Four robotic arms extend, two of which have padded restraints and two have a suite of surgical tools.
STR 25 CON 25 DEX 10 INT 16 POW 12 CHA 8 HP 25 WP 12
SKILLS: Alertness 40%, Athletics 20%, Unarmed Combat 30%, Surgery 70%
ARMOR: 5 points of carbon polymer, see ABLATIVE ARMOR
ATTACKS **
Grapple/Pin: 50%
Tooth Extraction: 70%, damage 1d6 (same amount of teeth lost)
Anesthetic: 70% (and penalty), damage: see **ANESTHETIC
Ram: 50%, damage 1d8 see RAM
ABLATIVE ARMOR: Each attack on ATM reduces its armor points by 1
SOFT PADDED RESTRAINTS: ATM’s claws are made for holding down resisting patients. Grapple and Pin actions are made at +20%
SURGICAL PRECISION: ATM can use its Surgery skill against a grappled or pinned opponent to extract teeth, or to apply localized anesthetic
RAM: As a last resort, ATM charges at a target to strike them with blunt force. When it does so, it does damage to itself as well.
ANESTHETIC: ATM makes a called shot to apply localized anesthetic to target body part(s), rendering that part numb and somewhat useless.
The target must make a CON x 5 roll. On a failure, they fall unconscious for 1d4 hours. On a success, they suffer the effect as below for 1d4-1 hours (minimum 0).

• Single Arm or Leg: 20% penalty to all checks using this limb
• Head/Face: 20% penalty to all tests, coupled with a foggy feeling, slurred speech
• Torso: sluggish feeling, reduced DEX score by 1d4 points temporarily

A proper skill check and treatment with medicine/chemicals can change the effects of the failed CON roll up a tier, from a failure to a success, and from a success to being unaffected.
PROGRAMMABLE: ATM can be overcome by attacking its control center on a nearby computer. A Computer Science check can be made to disable, but an attempt to reprogram it is made at -20% normally or a -40% under extreme pressure.
WEAK POINTS: Called shots to ATM’s arms can disable them (each limb has 5 HP).
Called shots to the visible censors can instill a 20% penalty to the rest of ATM’s actions
SAN LOSS: 0/1d4

CASE OFFICER JOHNSON

Old-Timer
STR 10 CON 7 DEX 8 INT 12 POW 13 CHA 9 HP * WP 13 SAN 45 BP 36
*equal to Agent’s First Aid results
SKILLS: Athletics 20%, Firearms 50%, Unarmed Combat 40%,
DISORDERS: Conversion Disorder (Muteness), Depression
MUTE: Johnson’s newfound mutenes makes his communications take longer, either having to write them or pantomime.
YOU’RE UNDER CARDIAC ARREST: Must make a CON x 5 roll to take actions stressful to his bad heart. Fumbling this or taking SAN damage may trigger another heart attack.
ATTACKS:
Medium Pistol: 50%, damage 1d10
Unarmed Combat: 40%, damage 1d4-2

LINUS HANKS

STR 12 CON 12 DEX 12 INT 12 POW 15 CHA 14 HP 12 WP 15 SAN 32 BP 30
SKILLS: Alertness 40%, Computer Science 60%, » Bureaucracy 50% History 40%, HUMINT 40%, Law 40%, Occult 50%, Persuade 50%, Science (Engineering) 40%
ATTACKS:
Lightning Gun: 40%, damage: 1d6/2d6/10% lethality, ignores armor but not cover
Cybernetic Bite: 40%, damage: 1d6 w/ 3 AP
Unarmed: 40%, damage: 1d4-1
DISORDERS:
Obsession: Eldritch Power
Megalomania
RITUALS: Special: If a Liner is with him, they can pay the costs for rituals; must fail a SAN test to cast.
Exaltation of the Flesh: 1d6 SAN, Trade 9 WP for 4 Armor, Armor is ablative
Adoring Fan (Fascination alternative): costs 1 WP to make a Liner do whatever he wants

LINERS (6)

Tech cultists and adoring fanboys
All stats are 12
Skills at 30%: Alertness, Unarmed, Firearms, Law
Skills at 40%: Persuade, Drive, Dodge, Athletics
Skills at 60%: Computer Science
ATTACKS:
Medium Pistol: 30%, damage 1d10
or
Hanks Not a Flamethrower: 50%, damage 2d6, ignores armor, 1m range
fumble results in 10% lethality damage to 1m bubble as tank explodes

• 4 of them drive the Hanks brand cybertruck (1) or electric car (3):
• * Cybertruck: 30 HP, 10 Armor, Speed is Average
• * Electric Car: 25 HP, 3 Armor, Speed is Average

KOLARNUR-FAUG

THE MENDER OF THE TEARING

MENDING
Kolarnur-Faug can send objects and beings backwards in time, seemingly undoing any damage done to them. For every HP loss that is undone by Kolarnur-Faug, a human target adds +1% Unnatural.
LIMITED RESET
Kolarnur-Faug only has enough power to send Agents back in time 3 times, but this may be extended if an Agent wants to sacrifice themselves to power the entity for one more jump. This Agent will die.
A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIEND
Every time beings are sent back in time, Kolarnur-Faug aids them. Resolve the following in order

1. Improve failed skills, recover 1d6 WP.
2. Wounded/dead Agents gain Unnatural equal to the amount of HP restored from MENDING.
3. SAN loss for dying and living again is 1d4/1d10 the first time, 0/1d4 on repeats, all from Unnatural and Helplessness; also add equal points lost to their Unnatural score.
4. Make an INT x roll. The results of this INT x 5 roll are used for other functions, detailed below
5. If the results of the INT x 5 roll are also underneath the target's Unnatural score, the target may make a SAN test. On a failure, the target gains Foreign Language: Aklo at a rating equal to their Unnatural score.
6. A successful INT x 5 and Foreign Language: Aklo roll means that the target may make a request of Kolarnur-Faug for information or items to be sent back with them as they fly through the temporal portal. A -20% penalty may apply for items of Unusual category, and -40% for Major or Extreme.
7. A fumbled INT x 5 roll means that the target catches a brief glimpse of their former self or selves as an abandoned husk floating outside of time and space, triggering a 1/1d4 SAN test from Unnatural (add equal points lost to their Unnatural score).

NIQUAMPS

THE FIRST ECHO OF THE SUMMONED
Niquamps is a faithful servant and herald of Yeggothuloth. It announces the coming of Yeggothuloth by feeding and crying a call to the faithful in Aklo.
It appears as teeth of all kinds stretched over a voidmouth.
STR 20 CON 20 DEX 10 INT 12 POW 20 HP 20* WP 20
*see BEHEMOTH
Defense: See ALL CONSUMING
Attacks:
Bite and Hold: 50%, 10% lethality, ignores body armor, see VOIDMOUTH
Devour: 30%, 15% lethality, ignores armor
ALL CONSUMING: Niquamps eats ballistic attacks, such as bullets or blades. Lethality attacks from these weapons fail, and it takes only 1 HP damage per attack from attacks with a Lethality rating of less than 30%.
BITE AND HOLD: A bite attack versus a specific point target that rolls an odd number for damage also pins the target inside of Niquamps’ maw.
DEVOUR: With a successful attack roll, Niquamps inhales objects that are smaller than half of its size, crunching them within its rows of teeth.
VOIDMOUTH: An Agent reduced to 0 HP after being eaten is reduced to an immaterial state, barely clinging on to consciousness. (Kolarnur-Faug can rescue them, but being dragged back to reality from the peace of nothingness costs 1d4/1d8 SAN).
BEHEMOTH: As Niquamps eats, it grows, no matter what material it consumes. Its STR and CON both increase by 1 for every minute it eats. The average of its STR and CON can be used as a scale here.
20: Gorilla sized
40: Elephant sized
50: Small house sized
60: Large house sized
SAN LOSS: 1d4/1d10

YEGGOTHULOTH

It That Spreads
AURA OF DISMAY: Any human present when Yeggothuloth manifests is automatically at −40% on all rolls (except SAN). A character that fails the SAN roll for encountering Yeggothuloth cannot act for 1D10+2 turns, instead finding themselves overtaken by the dark, foreboding feeling of nothingness.
CONSUMPTION: Yeggothuloth emerges on Earth from the summoning area and drowns all in an inky blackness. On the first turn, Yeggothuloth consumes a five-meter radius with Lethality 10%. On the second, its radius grows 10 more meters with Lethality 20%. On the third, it grows 15 meters with Lethality 30%, and so on. If its Lethality rating exceeds 99%, it simply consumes anything in its path with no roll required or allowed. This consuming energy cannot be Dodged.
DISMISSAL: Certain hypergeometric principles are known to cause Yeggothuloth to cease manifesting in a summoning, utilizing ancient forces to restrain and re-trap its power at the center of the universe. That requires access to or knowledge of a ritual that dismisses Yeggothuloth, a successful activation roll, and the permanent expenditure of 7 POW.
HALLOWED BE THY NAME: The coming of Yeggothuloth is announced by its herald.
TRANSCENDENT: Yeggothuloth is beyond Earthly science and all hypergeometry except those rituals which affect its arrival and dismissal. All attacks against Yeggothuloth fail. It is useless to fight a black hole.
SAN LOSS:
Based on how many ritual components have been stopped.
None: 1d20/2d20
One: 1d10/1d20
Two: 1d6/1d10
Three: The day is saved.

Credits

This was an entry to the 2020 shotgun scenario contest. Written by Jake “ChiefMcClane” Cook