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Table of Contents
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Setting
Four to five Agents have been dispatched to investigate a building on 5th avenue, 52nd street. 1385 Broadway #23rd, New York, NY 10018 on April 7th, 2020.
Manhattan is just starting to feel the effects of the oncoming Coronavirus lockdown. Many businesses are closed. companies are just starting to send almost all of their employees home as mandated lockdowns bring the city that never sleeps to a grinding halt.
Skeleton crews of IT managers and technology workers are the only ones seen going in and out of certain buildings. With companies working remotely, entire buildings are being shut down. Manhattan real estate magnates, foreseeing a bleak economic downturn due to the shutdown, have decided to put some of the cleared out buildings up for sale.
GAIA: Global Alliance of Infernal Alternatives
When your Agent is asked to report. They are given a small, white business card with the word GAIA written on the front. Both of the A’s are changed to resemble green triangles framed in black. This gives you the feeling that The Program has outsourced you to another company.
On the back of the card is the address for the Liz Claiborne building, 7PM EST SHARP! When you show up you will see a white truck with the words: GAIA printed on the side, same as the card. Under that you will see a very flourished script: Alternatives for a safer Earth.
The van
If approached the agents will see a person at the wheel, this will be a young man with almost white hair and piercing blue eyes. The driver will smile and ask them to come in. Walking to the back of the truck through a small passage behind the driver cab, he will open the back doors to let them in. There will be two benches with leather seating and a small table in the middle, between the two. This van was not set up for any transport of any kind. It looks like a mobile meeting center on wheels. The walls are steel, no signal can enter or exit.
Ambriel
This is a finely dressed person to be driving a delivery truck. Blonde hair, almost white is pinned back in a ponytail. Impeccable white skin, teeth and eyes resembling a peaceful summer sky. As he greets you all with a firm handshake, you feel as if you know him for a long time, just can’t seem to place him.
Briefing
Ambiel tells you that his agency's benefactors have reached out to your employers to hire what they are told “the best for the job.” What you are asked to do is go inside the building to investigate the workers conditions. He hands you a silver metal folding case with documents inside. Inside the case is a list of all of the workers who have answered an ad for construction work in New York City leading to this address on April 1st, 2020. There are 30 names.
If the names are investigated, they all turn up to be laid off union workers that have responded to the ad. Each of them are reported to be living here, away from their families. Each of them have been getting regular paychecks or direct deposits paid for by the same real estate consortium that has bought the building. There is no known due date as to when the job is expected to end.
A very wealthy and mysterious real estate consortium called The White Eagle Conglomerate has bought the Liz Claiborne building and has aggressively started renovations. The sudden investment and expansion, seeming very odd at first, was scrutinized even closer when the real estate company said they were going to employ all their own construction crews. The WEC as they are described in the report is an offshore corporate entity with no known benefactors or board members. All transactions are from offshore accounts. A successful alertness roll will tell the agents that the last known transaction was an insurance payment made from the Island of Zug in Detroit, MI. While not illegal, there are no known financial entities or banks on the Island of Zug. Further investigation tells the agents that the payment was only good until April 8th, which is when the policy ends.
Union Delegates going to the worksite to harass the job foremen have been noticed to have no reaction to any outside interference. No matter how loudly they were yelled at, they never paid attention. They have noticed that all of them work very hard, very quickly and all have the same vacant look in their eyes. As if working on autopilot. They don’t take any “union breaks.” Some are even observed to not take any lunch break or eat, they just work throughout the day, mindlessly; only to stop when a loud foghorn is sounded from the top of the building. At that point all of the workmen put down their tools wherever they are working, climb down the scaffolding and walk into the building until the next morning. When another loud foghorn is sounded, they return to their previous places and begin working. To the NYPD, this seems all business as usual. They weren’t taking anything that the union delegates told them, only thought that they were “being salty” because they weren’t on this job.
The incident that started to raise suspicions was one worker was seen falling off the scaffolding, three floors from the street, just to get up and walk away. Also, women, passing the same workmen on a regular basis have reported that some work crews were acting very strange. They were not whistling, cat-calling or trying to get their attention. When Ambriel is asked for certain supplies, he will tell the agents that there is a leather bag under their seat containing ANYTHING THEY REQUEST, up to and including explosives. Any long arms or rifles will be found on a rack above their head that wasn’t noticed before. If they find any of this odd they have to take their first KEEP IT TOGETHER CHECK. See table.
Your mission
To go inside and discover what's going on inside this building. OPSEC is of utmost importance. There is no key and code for the front door. Glass is unbreakable and the adjoining businesses are all closed. More or less the whole block is closed apart from the activity within this building. All of the workers have gone inside for the day. The end of day horn blew while you were in the van.
With a successful Search roll, the agents will see a slightly open window on the third floor. With a successful alertness roll the agents will see only light on the eighth floor, left side. The scaffolding is rickety but stable. A successful athletics roll under 40% will enable the agents to quickly scale the scaffold and reach the window. From there they reach office 312 on the third floor of the building.
Room 312
The room is dark apart from the glow of the huge moon outside and the streetlamps below. What used to be a beautiful office of cherrywood, chrome and glass is now a gutted out room full of broken glass. Papers and wires are strewn on the floor and all of the office furniture has been haphazardly pushed up against the windows. The window you crawled into was opened just a crack by a desk jutting up under the windowsill.
On the walls you see some strange writing. Except not in paint or ink. This seems like blood and feces was used as pigment. Players take their next KIT check. Anyone with a successful Occult check will know that this form of language is nothing of this world. Or is it of this world, but not somewhere we can reach? Pictures from phones will enable an agent to learn unnatural in home scenes.
The key here is to have players reach the eighth floor for clues to lead them to the sub-basement. There they meet Bishop Thak!'tah, Herald of Nahemoth (A Razide)
It’s plan is to fire a tiny piece of a summoned Shuggoth through a massive laser built upwards through the sub-basement into the moon to destroy it; bringing on a cataclysm. Something it will call “piercing the veil.” This is during the Supermoon, when it was closest to the Earth. At defeat, it will also say that this wasn’t part of the deal with GAIA. If they succeed, the building collapses and is covered up as another terrorist attack. If the agents fail…the laser fires. Thak!’tah might be alone or be with two henchmen or five condemned workers.
Thak!’tah can’t speak, but uses an elaborate machine with a human head on top of a stenograph to use to communicate with the agents. He offers a PACT of the book in lieu of letting him “fire zeh layzor!” KIT roll required to observe the interpreter.
KEEP IT TOGETHER
An agent rolls 2d10 against their Willpower score. If succeeding in rolling on or under their Willpower score, then no events are taking place. If failed by rolling over their Willpower score, then see the following table.
When you exercise self-control to keep from succumbing to stress, traumatic experiences, psychic influence, or supernatural forces, roll Willpower:
(Success) You grit your teeth and stay the course.
Failure: The effort to resist instills a condition, which remains with you until you have had time to recuperate.
You get −1 in situations where this condition would be a hindrance to you.
Choose one:
First failure: You become angry (−1 Next KIT check).
Second failure: You become sad (−2 Next KIT check).
Third failure: You become scared (Roll 1d100 vs SANITY and roll 1d4-1 SAN on failure).
Fourth failure: You become guilt-ridden (−1 Willpower).
Fifth failure: You become obsessed (Form a +1 Bond to whatever caused the condition).
Sixth failure: You become distracted (−3 your next KIT roll and -1 Sanity).
Seventh failure: You are haunted by the experience. The strain is too much for your mind to handle. The PC rolls vs SAN and on failure rolls 1d10-1 SAN loss. If projected they can project onto Willpower and instead of using a Bond, the player can project onto their new Obsession as they are too terrified to continue its pursuit.
If the player fails their eighth Keep It Together Roll, then they gain one point adapted to Violence or adapted to Helplessness, whatever has caused the trauma. The player then starts at the first failure event on the list and becomes angry. After that they go down the list as they did the first time.
Bishop Thak!'tah, Herald of Nahemoth (Razide)
STR: 25
CON: 20
DEX: 13
INT: 13
POW: 14
HP: 25
WP: 16
ARMOR: 4 Metal
Skills: Alertness 40, Athletics 60, Unarmed 60, Dodge 50, Occult 50, Unnatural 20
Attacks: Claws 60, damage 1d6, CON save or suffer Necrosis. KIT check required.
Giant steps: leap 50 feet
Scream: Pass POW test or take KIT check, both fail then player is stunned for one round.
Magic: Death Magic: Shadow of Moil. Necrotic energy surrounds the caster for 5 feet range. Getting hit will cause 1d6 of Necrosis damage if the player fails a CON check. Also triggers a KIT check.
If brought to below 10 HP will attempt to cast “Gate to Inferno”. Successful cast requires a player KIT check. If they pass through the gate, they will lose 1d4 SAN on failure and be trapped in the Inferno if the gate closes.
Condemned Construction Worker
STR: 12
CON: 9
DEX: 13
INT: 8
POW: 8
HP: 10
WP: 16
ARMOR: none
Skills: Unarmed 40, Alertness 30, Dodge 30
Attacks: scratch 1d4, bite 1d4 and roll CON vs Necrosis, blunt weapon 1d6
Necrosis
Fast Acting Leprosy Disease: -1 CON per round, KIT check vs rotting flesh, SAN test every four rounds vs helplessness. Curable during HOME SCENE with Antibiotics.
Artefact: The Cube
A 6” glass cube with protective runes carved into it. A tiny, black, undulating speck is visible in the center. KIT checks upon examination of the speck. Successful unnatural roll reveals that this is shard of a SHOGGOTH. SAN roll if touched or carried without protection, players lose -1d4 SAN on fail. If players decide to break or crack the cube, please see SHOGGOTH in the Delta Green Handlers Guide, page 221.
Artefact: Translator
SAN check to use. Failure teaches 1% in Barazh!’dian as well as +1d8 Occult on pass.
Artefact: Thak!'tah’s Green book written in Barazh!’dian.
Two pages will fall out during combat. Reading pages will require a KIT check -3. Occult 40% to pass. Book will be chained to the body, players will have to sever chain to gain book or create a PACT. Studying the book: Players will learn 1d6 in Barazh!’dian on fail. On pass: 3% in language, 3 points of unnatural, 10 points in the occult.
Constant study: gain the Gate to Inferno spell.
Credits
This was an entry to the 2020 Delta Green shotgun scenario contest, written by Blak Kat.