Home For The Holidays

Home For The Holidays

Killing ghouls? Easy. Killing ghoul families? Now that’s much harder, no matter what those freaks at Delta Green think. Flesh is flesh, and blood is blood. We take care of our own — even if our own is one of those freaks. Agent Nancy is a DeMonte by flesh and by right, and it’s only proper we bring her home for the holidays.

Driving Aunt Nancy is a shotgun scenario about young ghoul hybrids stealing a famous former Agent from her prison during a Delta Green Christmas party — partly to prove themselves, and partly so she can have a proper holiday feast. Whether or not they return her is up to the players.

This scenario places a major remnant of the DeMonte ghoul family in Grand Island, Michigan, though they could be moved at the Handler’s discretion.

Sealed Room In The Middle of Nowhere

Nancy is being held by the Program — not that Delta Green subcategories necessarily matter to ghouls or their kin — in the “Pyramid”. Properly known as the Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard Complex, or the SRMSC, this massive decommissioned Cold War facility in North Dakota is currently under contested ownership between a Hutterite colony, a Bitcoin firm, and the Cavalier County Job Development Authority (CCJDA).

Nancy’s “apartment” is a former bunker in the central pyramid structure of the SRMSC. A series of locks, steel doors, and a Hypergeometic sign keeps the former operator in her decrepit chambers. While the bunker is warm and dry, the electricity is spotty at best, and she has limited access to the internet via her work phone. She’s put up a sad little Christmas tree that someone gave her out of pity decades ago, and her TV is barely functional.

Local Factions

(Bureaucracy 30%, HUMINT 30%)

The CCJDA contains a small core of Program members whose only job is making sure Nancy stays entombed in her “apartment” in the Pyramid’s sub-basements — their offices are on the ground floor. Of the dozens of CCJDA employees, 5-7 are Program members, headed by retired Army Colonel and March Technologies contractor Constance McCullough.

The Bitcoin firm has not yet installed their server farm, and their faces are not familiar to the Hutterites or the CCJDA. They have only communicated via phone, text, or Zoom with the Hutterites and CCJDA, including the Program members. No Bitcoiners live or work on site, but visit occasionally and stick out like sore thumbs.

The Spring Creek Hutterite Colony of plain people live and work communally in limestone and salvaged concrete houses between and around decommissioned anti-ballistic missile launchers. They own the parts of the complex not actively given over to the Bitcoin firm or the CCJDA and use the flatlands to ranch and farm. Unlike the Amish, Hutterites do not shun technology, and farm at a much larger scale. Spring Creek processes about 100k orders for holiday turkeys alone every year through their website. There are 100 Hutterite adults and 75 children in the Spring Creek Colony, as well as dozens of non-Hutterite seasonal workers.

The Party

To get to Nancy, the PCs will need to disguise themselves and attend the office Christmas party at the Pyramid. Changeling Feast is the obvious route, but simple disguise, bluster, and some clever forgeries may accomplish something similar and with less blood spilled. Allow them to get creative.

For an office party, the SRMSC holiday party is surprisingly cozy. Vintage Christmas tunes play from an ancient reel-to-reel tape deck someone dug out from storage. A real Douglas fir and an antique aluminum Christmas tree someone dug up war for space and number of ornaments. A portable electric fireplace hangs on the wall, and several enthusiastically decorated folding tables groan under the weight of Hutterite catering and various alcohols.

The aluminum Christmas tree has been placed in front of the door to the service corridor leading down into the sub-basements. It is both top-heavy and fragile, with slightly sharp needles that easily catch on clothing. It also imposes a -20% penalty on any attempts to move it or sneak around it. The door is locked with a Yale keypad; the code is 6900 and can be guessed without a roll if the character’s combined Computer Science and SIGINT % is higher than 60.

The Program Agents desperately want to have a good time, a visiting Bitcoiner is trying to get drunk to escape the fact that he’s in North Dakota for a visit and the Hutterites are catering. Distracting them for long enough to get into the tunnels should not be impossible.

The Pyramid

The tunnels leading down to Nancy’s “apartment” are monitored by a hybrid analog/network IP video surveillance system that records to a series of redundant DVRs within the SRMSC, as well as a silent alarm system that notifies on-site staff of intrusions. While the silent alarm may not be as effective as usual due to the party, the PCs will absolutely be recorded unless they deal with the surveillance system. Christmas music filters through the basement, even though it probably shouldn’t.

The size and shape of the Pyramid’s basements is up to the Handler, but the following three doors are mandatory.

Door One: Locked with an S&G Model 951 padlock, Navy surplus. The control key is kept in the Hutterite butcher shop under the register. Attempts to pick, drill, or saw the lock suffer a -40% penalty.

Door Two: Locked with a secondhand digital TMi AEGIS 114E, set to be locked from 00:00 to 12:00 then from 13:00 to 23:59. Attempting to pick or drill this lock is at a -50% penalty. Cutting fails. The emergency release can be tampered with by hitting the release pin to the right of the display and either using the winding key (in an office in the Pyramid) or faking it by inserting a long, thin object 7mm in diameter into the winding arbor and turning clockwise.Door Three: Locked with a biometric Model 74-E from March Technologies. McCullough’s prints are the control for the system, though getting her down here without bloodshed or a good lie is basically impossible. Her small posse of Program members also have their prints in the system, however, so Changeling Feast or subterfuge could still get the door open. In addition, this door is warded by a Hypergeometric barrier that acts as the inscribed Elder Sign (Handler’s Guide, pg 178) but specifically keyed into ghouls. This is to keep Nancy in and family members out. Additionally, all actions taken within 10m of this door are at -20% for ghouls and -10% for ghoul hybrids as long as the barrier remains.

Going Home

Getting Nancy out may have been the easy part. While she recognizes the PCs as part of her family, she is unpredictable and a little unnerving even for children of the DeMontes. Her first request is that the PCs take her to the party so she can say her goodbyes and get something to drink before they hit the road. If allowed, the party turns into a bloodbath as the CCDJA Agents open fire on Nancy, she lashes out in rage and confusion, and everyone else runs for cover.

On the 12-hour drive back to the family manor/catacombs in Grand Island, Nancy carries on full conversations with herself (really her memories of Nolan) and occasionally shifts forms. She asks the PCs repeatedly if the base commander will come to “her party”, since McCullough hasn’t celebrated Christmas with her in years, and she wants to watch the Rankin/Bass Christmas specials in chronological order. If not supplied with corpse-meat, she will go hunting when the PCs stop for bathroom and stretch breaks. She will eat other food to please the PCs but lavishly vomits 1d4 hours after consumption.

Once on the ferry to Grand Island, Nancy calms down a bit. She seems to sense proximity to the Graveyard of the Great Lakes and the DeMonte clan. In fact, she fits in perfectly with the lower-energy members of the family…

(Christmas dinner is made from preserved corpses from the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Delicious!)

Optional Ambience

Appendix: NPCS

Agent Nancy

As per her writeup on pp. 296-298 of the Handler’s Guide.

Col. Constance McCullough

STR 14 CON 14 DEX 11 INT 16 POW 16 CHA 12

HP 14 WP 16 SAN 45 (claustrophobia, nightmares, insomnia)

Armor none (party), 3 points kevlar vest (otherwise)

Skills Alertness 50%, Artillery 25%, Athletics 10%, Bureaucracy 40%, Craft (metal, knitting) 30%, Drive 30%, Firearms 40%, HUMINT 50%, Languages (French 50%, Swahili 30%, Arabic 30%), Law 30%, Military Science 60%, Occult 45%, Persuade 40%, SIGINT 40%, Unarmed Combat 20%, Unnatural 10%

Attacks Grapple 20%, Service pistol 40% (1d10)

Rituals Known Dust of the Thresholds, Elder Sign (waved and inscribed), Ghoul Barrier (inscribed, see The Pyramid), Exorcism, Release Breath

Sample SCCJDA Program Agent

STR 15 CON 15 DEX 14 INT 14 POW 12 CHA 10

HP 15 WP 10 SAN 50 (religious obsessions)

Armor none (party), 3 points kevlar vest (otherwise)

Skills Alertness 40%, Athletics 30%, Bureaucracy 30%, Dodge 30%, Drive 25%, Firearms 35%, HUMINT 30%, Melee Weapons 30%, Persuade 20%, Unarmed Combat 40%, Unnatural 5%

Attacks Grapple 40%, Unarmed 40% (1d4-1), Service pistol 35% (1d10)

Rituals Known Elder Sign (waved), Exorcism OR Release Breath

Sample Hutterite Colonist

STR 17 CON 14 DEX 13 INT 10 POW 8 CHA 8

HP 15 WP 8 SAN 70

Armor none

Skills Accounting 20%, Alertness 30%, Athletics 40%, Craft 70%, Firearms 45%, First Aid 20%, Heavy Machinery 30%, Ride 40%, Science (agriculture) 45%, Survival 20%, Swim 20%, Unarmed Combat 40%

Attacks Grapple 40%, Unarmed 40% (1d4-1), Shotgun 45% (2d8, 2d6 beyond 75m)Hutterites and other plain people recover double SAN from spending time with their Bonds.

DeMonte Ghoul Hybrid PC Starter Pack

The DeMonte Ghoul Hybrid skills template functions as a profession from Need To Know and the Agent’s Handbook applied to a standard Agent sheet.

“Professional” Skills:

  • Alertness: 40%
  • Art (choose one): 30%
  • Athletics: 50%
  • Foreign Language (choose two): 50%, 30%
  • Stealth: 50%
  • Survival: 20%
  • Unarmed Combat: 40% (1d8 for bony claws)
  • Unnatural: 20%

Other Skills (pick two):

  • Disguise: 40%
  • Craft (choose one): 40%
  • Computer Science: 50%
  • Drive: 50%
  • History: 50%
  • HUMINT: 40%
  • Occult: 50%
  • Persuade: 40%
  • Science (pick one): 40%
  • Swim: 50%

DeMonte Ghoul Hybrids have a CHA score, but it cannot go over 11.

Hybrids age slowly but are not immortal unless turned into full Ghouls.

DeMonte Ghoul Hybrids all know Changeling Feast as a ritual. It takes them one day, and costs 1/1d6 SAN. They must consume the brain, the heart, and the liver. Hybrids also have a lesser version of Gift of the Grave, which heals 1d6 hit points immediately. Hybrids can eat things other than corpses.

DeMonte Ghoul Hybrids may take up to one other simple Ritual as a Known Ritual at character creation.

Every DeMonte Ghoul Hybrid has “Impress The Family” as at least one of their Motivations.

Every DeMonte Ghoul Hybrid must have at least one other member of the family as a Bond. This Bond can be another Hybrid or a full-fledged Ghoul.

DeMonte Ghoul Hybrids are Resilient and have Mephitic Memories (INT test required) as per pg. 200 of the Handler’s Guide.

Credits

Home For The Holidays was written by Jacqueline Bryk for the 2024 Shotgun Scenario contest.
Source: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Acae1-cIHKXy4VG-0ZsAxWTAjd_4bejYn2OqmYKzxJE/edit

page revision: 1, last edited: 03 Jan 2025 10:27
Edit Rate (0) Tags Discuss History Files Print Site tools + Options
The intellectual property known as Delta Green is ™ and © the Delta Green Partnership. The contents of this document are © their respective authors, excepting those elements that are components of the Delta Green intellectual property.