Glass Hound in a Glass House for a Glass Hound in a Glass House for a Glass Hound in a Glass House for a Glass Hound in a Glass House for a Glass Hound in a Glass House for a Glass Hound in a
Summary
The Agents were seen unleashing havoc last night, when they were actually celebrating New Year’s Eve. They must investigate their doppelgangers, then become them.
Background
March Technologies has discovered that, by operating in areas devoid of sharp angles, they can time travel without summoning a hound. However, this merely delays the inevitable, as time travellers are essentially marinating in whatever draws the hound’s lethal attention. Once someone slips up and summons a hound, it will catch the scent and hunt down every repeated time traveller across any time or space. If March Technologies isn’t stopped, this tech will spread widely, creating a powder keg that will decimate the population in 2030.
The most efficient solution is to destroy the lab with the first working prototype on New Year’s Eve 2024, thus delaying research and alerting Delta Green. The Agents went back in time to do this, creating a time loop. Now, they must always go back in time, stop March Technologies, get their ‘next’ selves to repeat the cycle, and assume their ‘new’ identities in the ‘next’ timeline.
Time Travel for Dummies
Imagine time travel as jumping to a new timeline. Each loop will be different. As long as March Technologies is stopped and the loop is restarted, the mission is a success.
Briefing
At 10am on January 1st, 2025, the handler furiously shows the Agents security footage from the local March Technologies laboratory last night.
The Footage
At exactly midnight last night, (# of Agents) armed intruders appeared from nowhere outside the break area and threw an egg-shaped device at the celebrating scientists. It produced smoke for 10 confusing seconds until a cloud of glittering ‘glass shards’ emerged, swirled around the egg-shaped device, and disappeared. It reappeared seconds later, instantly reducing the nearest scientist to a bloody pulp, and disappearing with the body. This process repeated itself, one fleeing scientist at a time (1/1D4 SAN to the unnatural).
Meanwhile, the intruders ran the other direction to gun down security, seamlessly intercepting all except one guard, who landed a single non-lethal shot. They used a keycard they already had to enter a secured rounded chamber and steal an identical egg-shaped device.
The intruders removed their ski masks and looked directly into a camera. They look exactly like the Agents (0/1D6 SAN to helplessness). Then they left in a white truck with a crate in the bed. They already had the keys.
Instructions
The handler has digitally proven that the Agents were celebrating New Year’s Eve at midnight yesterday, which is why they’ve been protected so far. They must lead this investigation, and take the fall if they can’t pin the blame elsewhere.
Every scientist is missing, even those that weren’t at the office party. A lone surviving security guard is hospitalized in critical condition. Delta Green has wiped the footage and stalled the official response in interagency confusion.
Interruption
Near the end of the briefing, a local bond calls an Agent. Apparently, the Agent just parked a white truck without plates at the bond’s house, with instructions to call the Agent for an explanation now, at 10:15am (0/1 SAN to helplessness for that Agent). They were frantic, wearing only their underwear, and left in a waiting taxi. They left the truck’s keys in the ignition. The bond is confused, worried, and wants the suspicious truck removed right away.
Special Delivery
The bond has a million unanswerable questions for the Agent, and quickly notices their outfit change, missing limp, and improved demeanour. If the Agent doesn’t placate them, reduce their bond rating by 1. If the Agents wait too long, the bond opens the package and has far more troubling questions.
The Package
A 4’ cubed wooden crate which contains:
- One bloodstained, patchy, but clean outfit for each Agent, including gloves and a ski mask.
- Several sticky, well-used firearms. Each Agent chooses a shotgun or automatic rifle. Everyone gets a security guard’s Glock 22. Any Agents currently carrying firearms recognize dirty duplicates in the crate (0/1 SAN to helplessness).
- Two ratty kevlar vests. One is shot through (only provides 2 Armor).
- Thousand in soiled wads of cash.
- A keycard for Dr. Louis Ramsey, Head of Research, with a sticky note that says “Password: sBHde3osH2fzt9Ld4a”
- The SIT Alpha.
- A Hand-Drawn Map.
- Scattered Notes.
Scattered Notes
Dozens of pages have been typed, stained, written over, laminated, reprinted, and summarized an unknowable number of times. Some passages written in the same Agent’s handwriting are mutually contradictory. They communicate everything in the Background section, and the following instructions:
- Take everything from the crate.
- Put everything on your person in the crate, including clothes, keys, phones, and weapons. Leave it at (a specific Agent)’s home.
- Drive the white truck to the laboratory. Park a couple blocks away. Bypass police.
- Use the device outside Dr. Ramsey’s office. Aim for midnight. Expel breath before activating.
- Kill security. The hound should prioritize scientists over you. AVOID THE HOUND. The insulated storage room is safe, but don’t let security trap you in there.
- Take the device from the insulated storage room using Dr. Ramsey’s keycard.
- Show your faces to the camera.
- Leave within 10 minutes in the white truck by the door. Same key works. Remove plates later.
- Clean up and put everything on your person in the crate.
- Park the white truck at (bond from Special Delivery)’s house. Tell them to call at 10:15am. Go alone. Call a taxi ahead. Leave quickly.
- Hide near (specific Agent from step 2)’s home. Wait for the next loop to drop off the crate. AVOID YOURSELVES.
- Cover up the mess.
SAN loss: 1/1D6 to the unnatural.
Under Pressure
The Agents could theoretically wait years before going back and still fulfill the time loop, but the world won’t let them wait that long.
Their ‘prior’ selves have all the Agents’ knowledge and abilities and are suicidally desperate to assume their new identities. They avoid direct interactions if possible, preferring to threaten bonds or leak secrets.
Delta Green, if informed, decides that restarting the loop is the least risky option, and needs to get on with the coverup. If the Agents resist, they’ll first be blackmailed with security footage, then ordered at gunpoint.
The Laboratory
The modern building is lousy with tinted glass walls and located in a busy commercial area. While investigations are stalled, emergency responders have already removed the bodies, and local police are controlling traffic within a block of the lab. Agents must sneak or talk their way in with one skill roll, as befits their approach. On a failure, they’re forced to rush, leaving a sticky situation for their ‘prior’ selves to solve.
The Raid
Assuming the Agents use the device anywhere except the insulated storage room, a Hound of the Angles appears at the start of the next round from the SIT Alpha, which it consumes. It then targets lab technicians, killing one every two rounds. Anyone who attacks it or approaches within 3m must roll Luck or the hound targets them instead next round.
The 6 security guards cautiously approach as indicated on the map. Generally speaking, they fire at the first Agent they see, avoid walking where other guards died, and panic if they see the hound.
The 17 lab technicians panic and scatter.
The insulated storage room’s door is magnetically sealed, and the walls and windows are bulletproof. Dr. Ramsey’s keycard unlocks the door. Otherwise, it takes five minutes and a successful STR*5 roll with crowbars to pry open. Inside, the SIT Alpha is freely displayed in an all-white room, like an Apple ad.
The fire exits are locked from the outside, but open to any keycard.
Surprise Attacks
Agents who predict where and when they’ll encounter a security guard get a free attack against them with a +20% bonus before combat starts. They only need to roll Stealth if they’re moving at the time, or if the guard might see them.
SAN Losses
- Seeing the hound: 1D6/1D20 to the unnatural, or 1/1D6 for anyone who avoids seeing it.
- After the first kill, or at the end of combat: 1/8 to violence.
Complications
- Dr. Ramsey’s keycard or the key to the white truck don’t work in this timeline.
- Dr. Ramsey locks himself in the insulated storage room, driving the hound berserk.
- A security guard starts in the bathroom instead.
Conclusion
If the Agents successfully restart the loop, they regain 1D6 SAN and are free to resume their ‘next’ selves’ identities, starting with covering up this operation. If they stray from the intended path, roll with it.
Anything they did to annoy their ‘prior’ selves, they must now endure from their ‘next’ selves. Additionally, introduce some incongruities to remind them that this world is not their own:
- An Agent is stiffed by their ‘next’ self, who kept their phone, keys, clothes, or weapon.
- An Agent’s phone has a different password.
- Their ‘next’ selves fired at police before time travelling.
Stat Blocks
Hound of the Angles
A thousand rending shards of glittering, razor-sharp spacetime
| STR 25 | CON 25 | DEX 20 | INT 15 | POW 20 |
| HP 25 | WP 20 |
ARMOR: See INCONSTANT FORM
SKILLS: Alertness 90%, Angular Apport 75%, Stealth 50%, Track (via extradimensional means) 95%, Unnatural 50%.
ATTACKS: Shard Sweep 65%, damage 2D6 (see SHARD SWEEP).
Shard Swarm 70%, Lethality 10% (see SHARD SWARM).
ANGULAR APPORT: On a successful Angular Apport skill roll, a Hound of the Angles can leap into or emerge from any sharp, physical angle – a corner of a room, the lip of a table, or even the hinge on a pair of glasses – effectively teleporting between those two points instantly no matter the distance. In this manner it pursues its prey, so outrunning one is unlikely, no matter the method or speed of escape.
CURVED SPACE: Exposure to large areas composed of curves, spheres, or circular surfaces causes the hound’s “swarm” of shards to lose coherency. The hound is well aware of this weakness, and does its best to avoid and flee such areas. Each turn of exposure to such a space causes the hound 1D6 damage. If reduced to 0 HP from exposure to curves, the hound disintegrates and seems to fold out of three-dimensional space (likely returning it to its place of origin).
INCONSTANT FORM: The hound can fold, change, stretch, extend and warp its form in amazing ways, altering its size as needed from moment to moment. It can effectively attack anyone within 10 meters by directing its form to a new location. Because it has no “body” and is instead composed of a thousand swirling, reflective shards of spacetime, the hound is immune to all attacks except hypergeometry.
INHUMAN STATS: A test of a stat with a score of 20 or higher is a critical success on any roll up to the stat’s score, and on any roll of matching digits except 100, which fumbles.
SHARD SWEEP: The hound unleashes two “limbs” composed of shards, peppering a target with 2D6 damage. It ignores body armor but can be blocked by cover.
SHARD SWARM: The hound engulfs the victim in a swirling mass of shards, rendering the target down to a bloody mess with a Lethality attack of 10%. It ignores body armor but can be blocked by cover.
SAN LOSS: 1D6/1D20.
Security Guard
A veteran in their 40s living the easy life
| STR 13 | CON 13 | DEX 13 | INT 10 | POW 10 | CHA 7 |
| HP 13 | WP 10 | SAN 42 | Breaking Point 40 |
DISORDERS AND ADAPTATIONS: Adapted to violence.
SKILLS: Alertness 60%, Athletics 50%, Dodge 40%, Drive 40%, Firearms 60%, HUMINT 40%, LAW 30%, Melee Weapons 60%, Persuade 40%, Search 50%, Unarmed Combat 60%.
ATTACKS: Glock 22 pistol 60%, damage 1D10.
Night Stick 60%, damage 1D6+1.
Unarmed 60%, damage 1D4.
Scientist
A bright mind wholly unaware of the danger they’ve created
| STR 10 | CON 10 | DEX 10 | INT 16 | POW 13 | CHA 10 |
| HP 10 | WP 13 | SAN 65 | Breaking Point 52 |
SKILLS: Bureaucracy 40%, Science (Many) 60%
ATTACKS: Unarmed 40%, damage 1D4-1.
Items
SIT (Spacetime Insulated Transporter) Alpha
Simple artifact. Activation: minutes; 1D4 WP, 1D4 SAN.
An oblong, egg-shaped device with a creamy silicone shell and a curved touchscreen. Once the 18-character password is inputted, users must input the desired date and time. A solid grey fabric akin to a parachute emerges, which must be wrapped around everything to be transported, including the device. It’s large enough to encompass an SUV.
Once the device is activated, the fabric seals and squeezes everything inside it closely together. Everyone is jostled around, can’t breathe, and can faintly see flashing lights in impossible colours outside the fabric. On top of losing 1D4 WP and 1D4 SAN, anyone who doesn’t fully breath out before takeoff takes 1D4 point of damage as the air is violently forced out of their lungs. This process only takes seconds, but feels like an eternity.
At the end, the fabric burns away completely, and everything inside lands in the exact same location on Earth at the specified time and date. This is likely lethal for anyone who arrives in an already-occupied space. If this device is used anywhere except the insulated storage room, a Hound of the Angles appears at the start of the next round.
Weapons
| Weapon | Base Range | Damage | Lethality | Ammo Capacity |
| Glock 22 Pistol | 15 m | 1D10 | N/A | 15 |
| Shotgun (firing shot)* | 75 m | 2D8 | N/A | 5 |
| Light Rifle (automatic) | 100 m | 1D12 | 10% | 30 |
*Half damage beyond base range. Grants +20% bonus to hit at all ranges: at point-blank due to the target being so close, and beyond that due to the spread of projectiles.
Handouts
The Package
A 4’ cubed wooden crate which contains:
- One bloodstained, patchy, but clean outfit for each Agent, including gloves and a ski mask.
- Several sticky, well-used firearms. Each Agent chooses a shotgun or automatic rifle. Everyone gets a security guard’s Glock 22. Any Agents currently carrying firearms recognize dirty duplicates in the crate.
- Two ratty kevlar vests. One is shot through (only provides 2 Armor).
- Thousand in soiled wads of cash.
- A keycard for Dr. Louis Ramsey, Head of Research, with a sticky note that says “Password: sBHde3osH2fzt9Ld4a”
- The SIT Alpha.
- Scattered Notes.
Scattered Notes
Dozens of pages have been typed, stained, written over, laminated, reprinted, and summarized an unknowable number of times. Some passages written in the same Agent’s handwriting are mutually contradictory. They communicate the following:
Background
March Technologies has discovered that, by operating in areas devoid of sharp angles, they can time travel without summoning a hound. However, this merely delays the inevitable, as time travellers are essentially marinating in whatever draws the hound’s lethal attention. Once someone slips up and summons a hound, it will catch the scent and hunt down every repeated time traveller across any time or space. If March Technologies isn’t stopped, this tech will spread widely, creating a powder keg that will decimate the population in 2030.
The most efficient solution is to destroy the lab with the first working prototype on New Year’s Eve 2024, thus delaying research and alerting Delta Green. The Agents went back in time to do this, creating a time loop. Now, they must always go back in time, stop March Technologies, get their ‘next’ selves to repeat the cycle, and assume their ‘new’ identities in the ‘next’ timeline.
Time Travel for Dummies
Imagine time travel as jumping to a new timeline. Each loop will be different. As long as March Technologies is stopped and the loop is restarted, the mission is a success.
Instructions
- Take everything from the crate.
- Put everything on your person in the crate, including clothes, keys, phones, and weapons. Leave it at (a specific Agent)’s home.
- Drive the white truck to the laboratory. Park a couple blocks away. Bypass police.
- Use the device outside Dr. Ramsey’s office. Aim for midnight. Expel breath before activating.
- Kill security. The hound should prioritize scientists over you. AVOID THE HOUND. The insulated storage room is safe, but don’t let security trap you in there.
- Take the device from the insulated storage room using Dr. Ramsey’s keycard.
- Show your faces to the camera.
- Leave within 10 minutes in the white truck by the door. Same key works. Remove plates later.
- Clean up and put everything on your person in the crate.
- Park the white truck at (bond from Special Delivery)’s house. Tell them to call at 10:15am. Go alone. Call a taxi ahead. Leave quickly.
- Hide near (specific Agent from step 2)’s home. Wait for the next loop to drop off the crate. AVOID YOURSELVES.
- Cover up the mess.
Hand-Drawn Map
Credits
Glass Hound in a Glass House for a… was written by NathanKlas for the 2024 Shotgun Scenario contest.
Source: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xGB5eqxeDw51-GATcWMgM5uh76azeeyYjzDnbKjH948/edit