PCs' car radios suddenly switch to a brief passage from Aida. On the street, TVs in electronics shops suddenly switch to the same section of Opera. Depending on era, cell phones suddenly ring the same passage.

An SMS/DJ/TV presenter then identifies the interruption as having been a gift of 'Friends of the Preservation of The Westmoreland County Courthouse.' This is… overt. Things are clearly developing rapidly, and a rather wide net is being cast.

Arrest and Arraignment

Arriving at the location – a County Seat Courthouse – the police cordon starts two blocks out, is mobbed with reporters and civilian onlookers. The official story seems to be a terrorist/hostage situation.

The Handler, highly placed in federal law enforcement, is found near a police communications van and calls the players in. In the corner is a uniformed comms officer, bleeding from the ears, face covered in scratches, hands cuffed behind him, catatonic and weeping. A nearby pencil is covered in blood to a disturbing depth.

The Handler explains something went very, VERY wrong in that court this morning. A DG subroutine piggybacking on a warrantless roving tap luckily picked up a few forbidden syllables on outgoing phone calls, and they were able to cut off (cell)phone communication from the courthouse, meanwhile those contacted are being traced and rounded up.

Several police and a SWAT team have already been lost inside. The catatonic officer managed comms for SWAT; the van has recordings of courthouse CCTV & the SWAT team's breach attempt, but Handler stresses video ONLY can be reviewed.

Peremptory Pleas

COURT CCTV FEED:

0800: The Witness arrives.

0930: Witness takes stand, is sworn in.

0931: Witness goes rigid and begins talking without pause

0934: Courtroom erupts. Bailiff pulls his weapon. Judge leaps in front of the bullet, mob from gallery tears bailiff apart.

0945: Survivors surround Witness in attitudes of worship.

1000: Police and onlookers entering the courtroom join the mob or are torn apart.

Alertness check (30%): Court Reporter and Court Artist have not moved, the one taking notes, the other sketching, both inhumanly fast, eyes rolled back in their heads.

1020: Members of the mob use available phones to place calls – DG alerted.

1030: Mob scatters throughout courtroom, returns with tools & wires, and anyone they could catch. Witness stand microphone is patched to PA.

1040: Civilians sheltering in place clutch ears. Many commit suicide, others join mob.

Forensics/Alertness/HUMINT (30% for either) a clerk goes rigid, starts automatic writing across a legal pad on his desk.
Bureaucracy (15%) to confirm this is The Prothonotary's Office.

1100: Police cordon is established. Based on escapee testimony, 911 calls, and backup requests from police inside, it’s assumed a terrorist group is reading a manifesto. Feds are alerted.

1200: Police Hostage Negotiator enters building through a shattered glass door. Walks calmly and directly to Witness, kneels at their feet. Points to CCTV cameras, mob gathers Steno machine tape from Court Reporter and bear it towards the screen.

END OF CCTV FEED.

1210: SWAT Team dispatched simultaneously with Hostage Negotiator. Approaches, covertly breaches the building. Immediately charged by mob of mostly unarmed Civilian Cultists. SWAT inflicts high casualties, at first. They soon turn on one another and are swarmed.

SWAT FEED

Alertness/Forensics check (30%) one worshipper comes into gun camera frame, and drags a SWAT member out of frame, from a direction that is impossible (see Courtroom Artist)
Alertness (20%) A team member is stabbed in the neck by a thin, pink object that extends out of frame. Veins in the neck swell and pulse before they begin firing on teammates.
Medicine (30%) these are recognized to be not veins but major motor nerve bundles. (see the Court Reporter)
Athletics (40%), Melee (40%), Unarmed (60%) Civilian cultists seem to have no special physical abilities or disabilities, other than total disregard for their own safety. SWAT members fight with same precision and speed whether or not they are turned.
Military Science (25%) Armed police cultists engage SWAT using cover, suppressing fire, and flanking maneuvers. No indication insanity degrades combat effectiveness.

END OF SWAT FEED.

Forensics (20%) piecing together the videos and accounting for casualties, estimate the mob at 30 civilians, 10 police officers and 5 SWAT members; Witness, Prothonotary Court Reporter and Court Artist excepted.

1310 Handler arrives, stands police down

1500 You arrived to receive this briefing.

Dossier is available on the Witness, but contains no actionable information. Witness is well known to the court. Middle-aged part time bartender, appearing in response to a bench warrant regarding roadworthiness of their vehicle. Long list of misdemeanors, no serious crimes. This person was totally unknown to DG until today.

——++++++ Discovery
What’s happening: At the swearing-in, a member of the Great Race Of Yith mentally transferred with The Witness, intent on studying this time period.

It is unfamiliar with the nature of the particular God before whom it found itself oathsworn, but the Yithians are of course aware of many Gods, all of them real, powerful, and not worth upsetting.

Its conservative decision was therefore to tell The Whole Truth, or at least the significant portion it personally knows, and nothing but, until it is safe to stop.

This has killed or driven insane anyone in earshot. A few, with resilient psyches from years of painstakingly recording awful facts, i.e. the Prothonotary, Court Reporter and Artist, are now powerful sorcerers, given the amount of Unnatural Knowledge they absorbed.

The Yithian is not a Hostile Witness. They simply have no context for what they were requested to do, or what has resulted from what they’ve done. To a Yithian, this could simply be a usual day in human traffic court.

Sentencing

The Handler explains, if it isn’t already obvious, that PCs need to go in deafened. Earplugs worn under construction earmuffs, no radios, no comms whatsoever to outside. Snipers are instructed that anyone signaling from inside is to be eliminated. It only took a few takedowns for those inside to stop trying, suggesting a worrying level of rationality.

Rescue anyone salvageable, leave no one contaminated alive, and leave no evidence of the contamination. Included in the kit will be incendiaries or high explosive (requires Demolitions >30%) and a map of the facility, with relevant locations circled. Any tactical gear PCs request will be made available.

The cover story is going to be a 'botched rescue'. Don't fuck up and forget to botch.

Appeals

If for any reason the incendiaries or explosives provided are unavailable (See Prothonotary), there are electric panels throughout, a diesel backup generator with 100 gallons of fuel, and a natural-gas-fed boiler in the basement of the courthouse

Execution

PCs are deaf (see The Witness for consequences of losing hearing protection). PCs cannot communicate verbally, are not aware of anything they have not personally seen, and cannot react to anything they are not aware of.

Players deciding where to go, what to do, how to approach a problem must communicate silently, through hand signs or any other method.

When the party believes it understands each other, each player writes down what they think everyone agreed on and their next action, and gives that to the GM. All actions will then be narrated as happening simultaneously by the GM.

GM should keep track of players position, orientation, and eyelines. They may share information via written note or DM with a player. This player should not tell anyone else until their PC has taken action to call attention to this information in-game.

Players can speak at table, ask questions of GM etc, but should not strategize actions as PCs, and should not discuss facts the entire party is not aware of.

For the sake of speed, combat can be communicated verbally at table, but again, no strategizing - if you couldn’t say it to someone in sign language while fistfighting a cop, you can’t communicate it.

Examples

✅ Player1: “I’m going to check the desk [in this empty quiet office], I motion to your character to guard the door”

🟥 Player1: “Keep holding back that mob breaking down the door you’re bracing until I can check this desk!”

🟥 Player1: “Look out PC2! I see a cultist running up from behind you!”

✅ Player1: <frantic hand signals at table>

🟥 Player1:“Don’t engage in melee, PC2, because I’m going full auto down this hallway on my turn”

✅ Player2: “I attack with my knife”

GM: “Ok, that's a kill PC2, however the other two cultists close and… [rolls] …the second has tackled you to the ground.”

Player1: “Shit. Ok, I guess I’m flashbanging the whole scrum.”

Amici Curiae

Civilian Cultist

Lawyers, Judges, Clerks, Defendants, Plaintiffs, all now are minor Witnesses to the Whole Truth

STR: 8

CON: 8

DEX: 10

INT: 9

POW: 6

CHA: 10

HP: 8 WP: 0 SAN: 0

SKILLS: Melee 30%, Unarmed 40% (Fists: 1d4)

Notes:

Except when unable (i.e. pinned by PCs), all NPCs' (Civilians, Police and SWAT) Unarmed combat is focused exclusively on removing ear-protection from PCs. A successful to-hit roll suffices to strip each layer in turn.
Attacks on a PCs earmuffs have +20%, representing the ease of knocking them off a PC's head.
Attacks on PCs ear plugs are made with -20%, due to the difficulty of this maneuver on a combatant.
If defending the Witness, all NPC’s will switch to lethal combat.

Civilians’ Melee weapons are all improvised (1d4) unless scavenged/stolen from an armed NPC/PC.

Police Officer

Bailffs, Local PD, Staties. Before, they were here to keep order, after, some tried to save the day. Now, they're here to spread The Whole Truth

STR: 12

CON: 12

DEX: 12

INT: 10

POW: 12

CHA: 9

HP: 12 WP: 0 SAN: 0

SKILLS: Firearms 45% (Revolver: 1d8, 6 shots, 1 reload, Taser: 3m, See below), Melee 40% (Nightstick: 1d6), Unarmed 50% (Fists: 1d4, Pepper Spray: 1m, see below)

Notes:

Prioritize incapacitating PCs, then removing ear-pro.
Lethal force will be used to protect The Witness.
A successful Taser attack on a PC requires a CON roll.
If successful, all that PC's actions roll at -20.
If unsuccessful, the PC is prone, fully incapacitated, and can take no actions. All attacks on the PC are made at +20% in addition to any other bonus/malus.
Pepper Spray only requires a successful to-hit roll. Affected PCs/NPCs actions roll at -20%
A gas mask provides total protection
Taser and Pepper Spray effects last for 3 rounds of combat
Taser Wires can be cut, or the Taser user can be killed, to interrupt the Taser effects early.

SWAT

Not many survived the mob, or the Truth. The survivors are crazy, but they remember their training.

STR: 16

CON: 14

DEX: 14

INT: 13

POW: 14

CHA: 10

HP: 15 WP: 0 SAN: 0

ARMOR 2 (Kevlar Vest, Helmet, Gas Mask)

SKILLS: Melee 50% (Knife: 1d6, Armor Piercing 3), Unarmed 60% (Fists: 1d4), Firearms 60% (MP5 2d10, Lethality 10%, 15 rounds, 3 reloads), Throw 55% (Flashbangs: 2, see below, Tear Gas: 2, see below)

Notes:

Prioritize incapacitating PCs as prelude to removing ear-pro.
Lethal force will be used to protect The Witness

Will fight tactically, suppressing PCs, covering NPC advances, set up killboxes in stairwells and the rotunda, etc.

Flashbangs blind and deafen PCs and NPCs
Anyone looking at the grenade will be blinded: -20% to all rolls for 3 turns.
PCs with any ear protection are not deafened by flashbangs
PCs without ear protection are fully deafened for 3 turns if the grenade explodes >1m from their head.
In extremis, flashbangs can be used to deafen permanently if the grenade is detonated <1m from unprotected ears. Permanent is permanent – surviving PCs will be deaf in later adventures.
Tear Gas blinds anyone caught in it without a gas mask, and obscures vision even for those with a mask.
All rolls are at -20% if in gas without a mask and for 3 turns after leaving gas.
Firing into or through gas clouds from outside or firing out of clouds from inside has a -10% modifier, unless shooter is already affected by gas or pepper spray (and therefore firing blind anyway).

The Prothonotary

Harry Truman once called this 'About the most impressive damn title I've ever heard'.

An unassuming nebbish of a county clerk, their power now matches their title. They no longer merely record pronouncements of Man, but enact their own proclamations, writing them into the record of Reality.

STR: 7 (35)

CON: 5 (25)

DEX: 14 (70)

INT: 16 (80)

POW: 14 (70)

CHA: 9 (45)

HP: 6 WP: 0 SAN: 0

SKILLS: Seal of Office

Seal of Office – Anything written down and Enacted by the Seal instantly becomes Law. See below for some potential examples.

On discovery, The Prothonotary Enacts his first Proclamation within 1 combat turn, or 3 table minutes if combat is not immediately initiated. Each subsequent Enactment requires 3 combat turns (10 mins) to write and stamp.

The Prothonotary takes no notice of the real world. No physical harm short of death can stop their Proclamations.

Enacted Proclamations outlive the Prothonotary – they last until the module ends.

Examples (feel free to invent your own):

“For the safety of all, firearms are forbidden from the premises” - PCs' (and NPCs') guns instantly disappear.

“We are committed to ensuring a smoke-free workplace, as such all sources of ignition shall be barred within a 300m radius of this courthouse” - same, but for incendiaries/explosives.

“By order of the fire marshall, gatherings of 3 or more people within 10m in the hallways shall be disallowed” - PCs must travel between rooms in pairs or alone, maintaining the required distance. Swapping members is possible if distance is maintained. NPC swarms are likewise disallowed. Melee combat in halls is possible, but only one on one, and no pair of PCs or NPCs can be approached.

——Courtroom Artist

Draws photorealistic images, somehow, despite using pastel chalks. Things that were, things that will be, things that could never be are visible in them. They almost seem to move…

STR: 12 (60)

CON: 10 (50)

DEX: 26 (130)

INT: 11 (55)

POW: 18 (90)

CHA: 12 (60)

HP: 11 WP: 0 SAN: 0

SKILLS: The Realist School

The Realist School – Their drawings are all scenes of places and people within the courthouse, and all are real. Think “Valve’s ‘Portal’”.

The places and people in them can be interacted with, and can interact with the party.
Gunfire can be exchanged through them
NPCs can attempt to pull PCs (or their ear protection) through from the other side
PCs can climb through them to explore the courthouse or escape danger.
NPCs can exploit them in battle, as carrying them would allow deflecting/teleporting PC gunfire, permitting compatriots in other areas to shoot through them at PCs, or to pile through to create a scrum once inside melee range – get creative.
Drawings are sparsely littered throughout the courthouse building, on floors, walls and ceilings, one every 20m or so, at the outset.
All drawings become mundane chalk sketches if the Artist is killed.
The Artist takes no action to defend theirself, obsessively drawing sketch after sketch.

Court Reporter

The Whole Truth of the universe is being recited today, and they were unfortunately trained to capture the minutest detail of any testimony…

The nervous system of the Court Reporter wrenched itself free of their body, with a brain, spine, and two madly staring eyes nestled within a network of nerves, like a spider in its web.

The Court Reporter's old body dangles from its wrists' median nerves, still furiously typing the Witness' Testimony on its steno machine.

When threatened, the nerve network slithers with terrifying speed across floors, walls, and ceilings to fight and die for the Witness.

STR: 14 (70)

CON: 10 (50)

DEX: 16 (80)

INT: 30 (150)

POW: 18 (90)

CHA: 2 (10)

HP: 12 WP: 0 SAN: 0

SKILLS: Unarmed – 55% (Innervate: 1d4, range 3m), Habeas Corpus, Headshots Only

Innervate – The Court Reporter stabs out with a nerve ending, its point honed to needle sharpness. A PC pierced by a nerve can make a contested STR check to pull themselves free, unless subject to Habeas Corpus. Any number of PCs can be Innervated at once.

Habeas Corpus – The nerve ending in any Innervated PC snakes through the body to the spinal cord, initiating a contested POW roll. If successful, the PC's brain is overridden and the Court Reporter takes over their body.

Roll SAN (1/1d6) for a PC dealing with the horror of having their mind locked out of their own body.
PCs subject to Habeas Corpus follow initiative order as it was at the outset of combat. They are vulnerable to any status effects their equipment doesn't protect them from.
Cutting or otherwise removing the nerve frees the PC. While hard to hit in battle, it tears easily, even with bare hands. A successful called shot on the nerve (-20%) frees the PC. This doesn’t hurt the Court Reporter.
Tasing the PC forces retraction of the nerve, but does not otherwise affect the Court Reporter. PC suffers effects of tasing as usual.

Headshots Only: The Court Reporter's 'body' consists of a dangling corpse, a huge, shifting and sparse network of narrow and redundant nerves, and the vulnerable, football sized brain. Given the smallness of the target as a function of total surface area, firing at it outside point-blank range incurs a -20% penalty. Melee attacks on it have no penalty.

As the Court Reporter is made exclusively of nerves and eyes it is vulnerable to tear gas, pepper spray, flashbangs and Tasers.

The Witness

Gert Stemprak, part time bartender at the Rusty Nail, current inhabitant of a Yithian mind prison. Her “guest” is busy reciting the Whole of the Truth.

Some things man was never meant to know. Some things man long ago chose to forget. Some things are just very surprising, maybe even useful. A few things are actually quite lovely. Mental stats are: Gert/Yithian

STR: 9 (45)

CON: 7 (35)

DEX: 9 (45)

INT: 6 (30)/33(165)

POW: 7 (35)/40(200)

CHA: 8 (40)/6(30)

HP: 8 WP: 0 SAN: 0

SKILLS: Without Malice Aforethought, The Whole Truth

Without Malice Aforethought:

Witness will stop testifying if any harm comes to their shell.

Witness will stop testifying if asked, or told.

If mortally wounded, Yithian shoves Gert's consciousness back into her dying shell and flees.
1/1d4 SAN loss to observe this

If the shell is not actively dying, the Yithian will explain itself, and leave. This transfer is less traumatic all around.
1d6 SAN bonus + 1d6 bonus to Unnatural

Gert is traumatized, but is still mostly sane.
If secured alive, DG can convince her to support an account of events that raise the minimum number of questions
2d6 SAN bonus for avoiding congressional testimony
1d10 Forensics or Bureaucracy -player’s choice- due to refining and rehearsing the cover story

The Whole Truth:

The witness is patched into the building’s PA system. Additionally, NPCs chant what they have learned of The Whole Truth, as such, it is audible constantly, from anywhere, as long as the Witness is reciting it.

PCs with one layer of ear protection must roll a d6 each turn. If the number is 3 or less, they hear A Truth.

PCs with no layers of ear protection must hear A Truth every turn.

If A Truth is heard, roll d12 and select the result from the Truth Table.

Losing SAN from A Truth 3 times drives the PC permanently mad.
Gaining SAN on learning A Truth does not reset this counter.
Temporary Madness from SAN loss has no effect on this counter.
PCs driven mad get one turn to say goodbye, kill themselves, or ask to be killed. Subsequently, they are now a hostile NPC with all their equipment and skills.

If the Witness stops their testimony, surviving cultists will become confused, depressed, and passive, and offer no further resistance.
Court Reporter, Courtroom Artist and Prothonotary excepted

TRUTH TABLE:

11, 12: SAN loss of 1d10. PC gains 1d10 Unnatural

8, 9, 10: SAN loss of 1d6. PC gains 1d10 Occult

5, 6, 7: SAN loss of 1d4. PC gains 1d10 Astronomy, Anthropology, Medicine, or HUMINT (GM's choice or roll for it)

2, 3, 4: No SAN loss. PC gains 1d10 History, random Language, Science or Craft. (GM's choice or roll for it)

1: SAN gain of 1d6

Jurisdiction & Venue

Westmoreland County Courthouse is a four story Beaux Arts an hour outside of Pittsburgh PA.

The main entrance, central stairway and rotunda provide limited cover and many covered firing locations for SWAT and police.

There are a variety of side elevators and stairwells, cultists can obstruct or destroy them at any point to obstruct progress and force the scouting of alternate routes.

If players attempt to travel through a Courtroom Artists drawings, roll a d6 (1 for basement, 2 for 1st floor, 3 for mezz, etc.) for which floor, and a D20 for which room (count rooms on the selected floor off from the top to bottom, left to right).

Locations of Big Bad NPCs given as a suggestion. Feel free to shuffle as you see fit.