Iron Lung

Submission Draft

Iron Lung

A Delta Green Scenario for the 2025 Shotgun Scenario Contest

By Squillem

CW: Gore, Claustrophobia, Thalassophobia

Setup

In 1928, Deep One hybrid Vernon Cavanaugh was Albert Marsh’s rival. Cavanaugh failed a coup, Marsh hypergeometrically distributed Cavanaugh’s consciousness throughout his body, dismembered him, and canned the pieces in Cavanaugh’s own cannery. These cans rotted for decades.

Cavanaugh is regenerating himself using New York City’s pneumatic mail tubes. An infrastructure failure alerts DG. Agents must destroy Cavanaugh before he’s unleashed.

Clock

Track Agent’s activities in abstract time-units. Each day has four time-units, including one spent sleeping.

Time Passed Event
1 Plumbing mishaps: toilets clog, drains overflow.
2 Dead fish float on the East River, smell permeates NYC.
3 A canister emerges in [[[#h.mktkbestsay2 | Tuck-It-Away storage]]]’s basement, found by Doreen Rudaski.
4 A sinkhole wrecks a car near the Agents.
5 Subway tunnels flood. Agents lose 1 WP when traversing NYC.
6 News runs a story about Rudaski, opens canister on air.
7 Cavanaugh fully regenerated.
8 Cavanaugh calls his brethren. A storm strikes. Drive roll to drive. Failures are bumpy rides, crit fails are crashes.
9 Heavy flooding. Deep Ones emerge.
10 Dozens of New Yorkers disappear, blamed on looting. Cavanaugh goes home.

Briefing

Agents are called to the Brooklyn General Post Office. Their case officer plays CCTV footage of a pipe bursting through the street. A car flips, water sprays. They pause on a cylinder being ejected from the pipe. Inside are documents containing classified national security information. Agents are to secure the canister, find the information leak, and plug it.

Leads: [[[#h.nfr5fj1z1sft | Burst Tube]]]

Burst Tube

An NYPD friendly has cordoned off this intersection and secured the canister. A cast iron pneumatic tube has breached the asphalt. River water burbles out. From the tube’s mouth you can hear and feel cold, ragged breath (SAN 0/1).

The Canister

Steel cylinder, 24” long, 8” diameter. Formerly transported mail through pneumatic tubes.

Contents:

  • Dozens of old, rusty tuna cans. The lids are new, indicating re-sealing.
  • The fish is rancid and contains shriveled human body parts: teeth, gristle, bone, cartilage. SAN 0/1.
  • Testing indicates the tissue is alive and contains human and piscine DNA. SAN 1/1d4.
  • This is Cavanaugh’s flesh.
  • Old envelope
  • SPECIAL SUPPLY REQUISITION FORM
  • ONI P4 desk letterhead
  • TO: Rocketeer
  • FROM: U.S.S. Parma
  • Vietnam-era destroyer. Sank in the East River due to mechanical failure.
  • One time-unit searching online discovers James Vastagh, the ship’s only survivor and NYC resident, employed at Old Chelsea Post Office. Discharged after failed psych evaluation.
  • Stamped [POSTAGE APPROVED]
  • Bureaucracy/History: Modern postage stamp.
  • Lists the canned viscera and salt.
  • 3x Distal phalanx
  • 1x Tibialis Posterior
  • 1x Vomeronasal Cartilage
  • Etc.
  • Three gallons of salt.

Leads: [[[#h.9is2bu36n145 | Old Chelsea Post Office]]], [[[#h.9lawy0bytrxs | ONI P4 Desk]]], [[[#h.ei8gbt2d18e0 | Pneumatic Tubes]]]

ONI P4 Desk

The case officer is useless here, but two time-units researching in NYC’s libraries yields The Innsmouth Report (Handler’s Guide, p.159-160), excluding the first two paragraphs mentioning DG.

Key information:

  • The navy raided Innsmouth, MA in 1928.
  • This uncovered an intelligent amphibious race: “Deep Ones.”
  • Deep Ones interbred with Innsmouth residents.
  • Hybrid townsfolk were imprisoned in Arizona.

Leads: [[[#h.i2nuh9c0mmjr | Innsmouth]]]

Pneumatic Tubes

From 1897 to1953 NYC post offices transported mail with pneumatic tubes. Most of the 27 miles of tubing were left underground following the system’s decommissioning. The [[[#h.nfr5fj1z1sft | burst tube]]] from earlier is part of it, just north of Prince and south of Old Chelsea. The canister was heading south. A time-unit of research finds system maps online, and two places where pipes are accessible: [[[#h.9is2bu36n145 | Old Chelsea post office]]] and [[[#h.mktkbestsay2 | Tuck-It-Away Storage]]].

Leads: [[[#h.9is2bu36n145 | Old Chelsea post office]]], [[[#h.mktkbestsay2 | Tuck-It-Away Storage]]]

Old Chelsea Post Office

James Vastagh, The Rocketeer

James Vastagh (82 y/o, he/him, white, bald, curt, Bass Pro Shop hat), a Vietnam veteran, was the U.S.S. Parma’s sole survivor. A strange call emerged from the sea one night. The sailors were entranced and began dismantling the ship. Vastagh, somehow unaffected,  jumped and swam ashore. His forthright answers in debriefing led to his discharge. He’s consumed with the delusion that he could have saved his fellows.

Vastagh sorts mail in the post office’s basement, close to the exposed pneumatic tubes. Cavanaugh hypergeometrically picks through Vastagh’s thoughts and manipulates him with his guilt, impersonating the Parma’s crew. Vastagh makes trips to and from Cavanaugh’s Cannery in Innsmouth to retrieve Cavanaugh’s possessions and body parts, sending them through the pneumatic tubes with whatever else Cavanaugh requisitions.

The Flood

If Vastagh thinks the Agents are investigating him or the tubes, he plays the fool, offering heaps of irrelevant files to search. At the first chance, he locks them in the basement and flees. Cavanaugh, sensing the Agents’ presence and Vastagh’s distress, floods it. Enter initiative and start a 12-minute timer visible to the players. Introduce these events as time passes. Tell Agents they need to succeed on eight rolls to escape. Let them pitch obstacles to overcome.

Time Event Consequence
Timer start Vastagh hits the lights, total darkness. Agents roll SAN 1/1d6.
3 minutes The basement is labyrinthine. They must find an exit. Agents roll POWx5 vs. 1/1d4 WP loss.
6 minutes Water sprays from sprinklers and faucets. The water is rising to the outlets. Agents touching water take 1d6 damage.
9 minutes Waist-high water hinders navigation. Agents lose 1d4 WP and roll SAN 1/1d6. Non-swim skills at -10%.
12 minutes Vastagh barricaded the door. Agents start drowning. Non-swim skills at -20%. Each turn, CONx5 against 1/1d6 damage.

Aftermath

Agents can catch Vastagh by rolling Drive. A crit catches him at his apartment, gathering cans. Success catches him as he arrives at Wall Street station, arms overflowing with cans. He rambles about his crewmates being trapped in “the Tubeworks”. He can guide the Agents. Failure means chasing him blindly into Brooklyn-Battery tunnel.

Leads: [[[#h.htgkvp38zqvj | Vastagh’s Apartment]]], [[[#h.6rba0bef0y8r | Tubeworks]]]

Tuck-It-Away Storage

In the pneumatic tube days, this was the H.W. Wilson Publishing Company’s HQ. More recently, it was a storage facility. Now, Doreen Rudaski (56 y/o, she/her, white, constant scowl, libertarian, huge glasses) owns this abandoned building.

Agents present before three time-units pass can break in and see the canister’s emergence. Rudaski shows up to inspect the premises minutes after. After three time-units pass, the canister is in Rudaski’s possession. She won’t hand it over without a warrant, but she’ll sell it as an Unusual expense, or Major if the Agents seem desperate. If the canister isn’t secured she opens it on the news.

Second Cannister

Similar to the last canister. Slimy. Testing identifies it as bronchial mucus with human and piscine DNA. SAN 1/1d4.

Contents

  • Tuna cans containing human bits.
  • One of the cans has opened, spilling rotten fish and a wriggling sliver of a human tongue. SAN 1/1d4.
  • Deed to Cavanaugh Fish Cannery in Innsmouth, MA.
  • Ragged 1920s knee-length navy overcoat.
  • SPECIAL SUPPLY REQUISITION FORM listing the contents.

Leads: [[[#h.hucpvsd1qth1 | Innsmouth]]]

Innsmouth

Online it’s a footnote, its abandonment blamed on a bootlegging ring’s arrest. A time-unit of research reveals that the Marshes were local tycoons who feuded with the Cavanaughs. Vernon Cavanaugh, the patriarch, disappeared not long before Innsmouth’s abandonment. Two time-units traveling to Innsmouth and searching local libraries uncovers the information from the [[[#h.9lawy0bytrxs | ONI P4 Desk]]] section.

Cavanaugh Cannery

A shambles of rotten wood and rusted iron. There are signs of recent activity: tire tracks in the mud outside, marks where furniture was moved, neatly stacked cans. A Luck roll means James Vastagh shows up while Agents are present.

Slimy trails on the ground converge on a drain. The trails form a diagram similar in shape to the NYC pneumatic tube system, with the drain located along the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel: the Tubeworks’ location.

Leads: [[[#h.6rba0bef0y8r | Tubeworks]]], [[[#h.9lawy0bytrxs | ONI P4 Desk]]]

Vastagh’s Apartment

Rusty cans are piled everywhere, reeking of rotten fish. Another SPECIAL SUPPLY REQUISITION FORM on the table, surrounded by partially sorted viscera and blueprints of subways, sewers, and pneumatic tubes overlaying each other. Vastagh marked the location of the tubeworks on them.

Leads: [[[#h.6rba0bef0y8r | Tubeworks]]]

Tubeworks

Access tunnels lead to Cavanaugh’s lair. The tubes have become a tangled mass of century-old infrastructure, groaning under its own weight. The following arrive in a pneumatic canister as Agents delve. SAN 1/1d4 if opened.

  • Wax cylinder and phonograph. 1920s Music is faintly audible from within the canister. Cuts to the last 4 minutes of Agents speaking.
  • Requisition form listing “last breath,” stamped [DENIED].
  • Copies of Agents’ bonds’ documents, plus autopsy reports indicating painful deaths.

Confrontation

If partially regenerated, Cavanaugh’s head, arm, and torso are mounted on a tube. Hypergeometry lets him use rituals, conjure documents, and send canisters. He’s immobile. If fully regenerated, Cavanaugh ambushes Agents, Alertness vs. his Slither. Vastagh rolls SAN if present, realizing he’s been duped and cracking on success or joining Cavanaugh on failure.

Resolution

Killing Cavanaugh awards 1d6 SAN. He regenerates in another century.

Statblocks

James Vastagh

Repentant Rocketeer

STR 8 CON 10 DEX 7 INT 12 POW 6 CHA 10

HP 9 WP 6 SAN 22 BP 18

Motivations & Disorders:

  • Survivor’s Guilt
  • PTSD
  • Obsession with the U.S.S. Parma’s crew

Skills: Firearms 40%, First Aid 20%, HUMINT 40%, Melee Weapons 30%, Military Science (Sea) 40%, Navigate 20%, Search 60%, Stealth 30%, Survival 15%, Swim 30%, Unarmed Combat 40%.

Attacks:

  • Unarmed 40%, 1d4-1

Vernon Cavanaugh, Partially Regenerated

Dismembered Deep One Hybrid

STR 15 CON 10 DEX 12 INT 18 POW 15 CHA 9

HP 13 WP 18 Armor: 1 from scales

Motivations & Disorders:

  • Revenge against Albert Marsh
  • Become whole again

Skills: Writhe 25%, Alertness 45%, Occult 25%, Unnatural 35%, Suture Own Body 40%,

Conjure Mundane Object 45%, Hear Through the Pipes 35%

Attacks:

  • Needle-Like Teeth 50%, 1d8 damage, AP 3

Amphibious: Can submerge for days without surfacing.

Hypergeometric Plagiarism: Can create paper documents similar to what he’s seen before.

Tubes of the Mind: Can pick through the memories of those near the pneumatic tubes.

Rituals (Italicized = focused on in combat): Ageless Banquet, The Call of Dagon, Clairvoyance (only along the pneumatic tubes), Exaltation of the Flesh, Finding, Infallible Suggestion, Song of Power, Storm and Stillness, Withering

SAN loss: 1/1d6

Vernon Cavanaugh, Fully Regenerated

Self-Sutured Sorcerer

STR 17 CON 13 DEX 15 INT 18 POW 15 CHA 9

HP 23 WP 28 Armor: 3 from Exaltation of the Flesh

Motivations & Disorders:

  • Revenge against Albert Marsh
  • Return to the sea

Skills: Slither 70%, Alertness 45%, Occult 25%, Unnatural 35%, Suture Own Body 40%,

Conjure Mundane Object 45%, Hear Through the Pipes 35%

Attacks:

  • Needle-Like Teeth 50%, 1d8 damage, AP 3

Amphibious: Can submerge for days without surfacing.

Hypergeometric Plagiarism: Can create paper documents similar to what he’s seen before.

Tubes of the Mind: Can pick through the memories of those near the pneumatic tubes.

Rituals (Italicized = focused on in combat): Ageless Banquet, The Call of Dagon, Clairvoyance (only along the pneumatic tubes), Exaltation of the Flesh, Finding, Infallible Suggestion, Song of Power, Storm and Stillness, Withering

SAN loss: 1/1d8

Special thanks to my lovely playtesters:

  • Z. Frey
  • Luke Austen-Smith
  • Sweet T
  • GRACE
  • Dustin Wilen
  • Jaelin Henderson
  • Tusk
  • Rowan S.
  • Tony Passannante
  • Taylor W. Smith
  • Andrew Ostrom

Credits

Iron Lung was written by Squillem for the 2025 Shotgun Scenario contest.
Source: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1p4y7Ki3qbeuCHbmyv1k4c-SIYgxfeekMHUVIX0t1PRY/edit

page revision: 0, last edited: 29 Dec 2025 11:49
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