Left Undone
By A Clown
——+++++
What the Agents Know
April 30th, 2:23 AM outside Morninghurst Cemetery in Maine. A corpse walks into the headlights of a passing semi-truck.
Richard Braskon, a Friendly coroner, alerts Delta Green.
Morninghurst Cemetery:
Agents arrive 8am.
Across from a Library, the somber graveyard is surrounded by a 2 meter tall fence.
On the property is a small single floor Groundskeeper's house with four windows and two doors, formerly used by the groundskeeper, who quit on the 29th, complaining of voices in the pipes. It contains a crematory, and a basement with yard-work tools.
The Agents’ only contact is Braskon, the county coroner. Braskon is in his mid 50s, short, and makes bad puns.
- Almost 30 years ago, he assisted G-Cell in investigating a series of grave robbings elsewhere in the state. He remembers them dropping someone off at the Storage Warrior.
A large hill near the middle of the cemetery features a willow tree, beneath which are the crumpled remains of a crypt entrance. Its steps descend several feet into the ground, ending in a collapsed entryway sunken into the ground and beyond it, a collapsed tunnel blocked by dirt.
The Symbol
Atop the remaining archway, below the family crest, an occult symbol has been carved into the stone.[[| [1]]] On moonlit nights, a pale blue glow spills from it, the same shade in the eyes of the Risen dead.
40% ≥ Occult (or four hours study) recognizes the sign as a protective ward.
10% ≥ Unnatural recognizes the symbol as The Elder Sign, a powerful ward used to hold back Unnatural entities & disrupt Hypergeometric rituals.
11% ≥ Unnatural knows the sign is a pact with unknown entities, a tear in the world used to weaken or block the summoning of gods.
Digging into the blockage, a few inches under the dirt is a receipt dated 1997, proof of purchase for Storage Warrior & a handful of spent casings.
Clearing the rubble requires 16 hours of digging, divisible by the number of participants. Beyond the blockage is the Crypt Tunnels.
The truth
In 1997 G-Cell encountered a Nyogtha cult using a crypt in the cemetery to enter subterranean tunnels used for worship and sacrifice. G-Cell entered, interrupting a summoning ritual. After a brief gunfight, G-Cell collapsed the entryway tunnel with explosives, sealing the archway with the Elder Sign. G-Cell captured a Tome called “Lightless Hunger”.
Often forgotten, casting The Elder Sign has always been a pact with nameless lunar gods. Thirty years of moonlight & wear have charged the cemetery sign, creating a hole in our world to vast gulfs populated by bodiless intelligences… right above a pile of empty vessels. Approximately 4,000 5,432 bodies are interred at Morninghurst Cemetery.
Good Luck.
Worse, the summoning of Nyogtha in 1997 succeeded. The ritual requires a direct tunnel of any size from the depths to the surface, however, the Elder Sign is blocking that route. Once removed, Nyogtha will hear the call and rise.
Research: (time required)
The corpse (1 hour) is Thomas Kaine (1922-1974). It shows signs of advanced decomposition. The hands are broken, fingerless and caked with dirt, embedded with splinters. Any Forensics: His grave, lacking a cement liner, was opened from the inside. (0/1 Sanity Loss)
Talking to Braskon:
“3 of its limbs were severed on impact, with the remaining arm experiencing a compound fracture.”
Researching Kaine’s family (1 day) discovers an ancestor who participated in the Salem witch trials, but nothing else.
Morninghurst (2 hours) The land plot was bought by the wealthy Beaughford family in 1857. Charity graves were given to those who couldn't afford proper burial elsewhere. The family crypt was built into the plot’s large hill.
- In 1997, the cemetery suffered an underground gas explosion which collapsed the entrance to the family crypt. No investigation was made.
A Museum & Foundation for the family has since been run out of their 1843 home. (20 minutes away by car).
The Beaughford family
(1 day of work): Digging through photo albums and records at the Beaughford Museum uncovers a singular, unchanging figure: the Butler. William Scott first appears in 1884, disappears, and reappears in 1905 under a new name, bald. He changes identity twice more before 1994 wherein he vanishes.
- 3 family members disappeared between 1995 and 1998. No known heirs remain.
- The Beaughford estate is interested in excavating the crypt. Utilizing volunteers Kathy and Agnes halves the time required to remove the blockage.
Storage Warrior: Greenbox
Storage Warrior is an outdoor facility 45 minutes away from the Cemetery. Only a flimsy padlock and a half awake attendant stand between the Agents and the Green Box.
Inside the Unit is:
- Two shotguns & 34 shells.
- A gummed up Chainsaw (“hose it off, it’ll work”)
- Box of Financial reports detailing the web of finances used to obfuscate and fund G-Cell & the greenbox.
- A day and a half of tracing bank accounts (Or 6 hours with Accounting 20% or Higher) discovers the names & current whereabouts of the members of G-Cell.
- Three Dog Tags: GERRY, GEORGIA and GRAYSON.
- A used detonator (fingerprints, GERRY)
- Photographs. One during a Ritual with the yellowed book in the hands of a cultist. Another, the Tome on the storage unit’s floor, and another of the aftermath of the ritual site post-firefight in 1997, candles still lit.
- Pinned to the wall with a magnet, is a crayon map of the yard, to where GERRY’s Time Capsule is buried, signed by his kid.
What remains of G-Cell
— GEORGIA, age 63, is in a Hospice in Vermont. She is nearly senile and paranoid. Each Agent who meets her tests Charisma and on a failure, she clams up to them, believing them to be MAJESTIC or more likely, just jerks.
Braskon occasionally visits.
Information gleaned from talking to Georgia:
- “The Butler wouldn't die. GRAYSON hammered a wooden stake into his chest. I saw him fall.”
- “The cult followed the Dweller Beneath, a subterranean god last worshiped by a Salem witch cult in the 1600s. “
- Agent Gerry took the book retrieved from the cult.
- “Bet those candles are still burning, down there…”
— GERRY died of cancer in 2002.
“Lightless Hunger” is buried, shoved into an unopened "Time Capsule" at the edge of his former property. (8 hours drive to the property)
If you ask his son about the time capsule, he waxes nostalgic, and casually mentions that his dad put some strange yellow leather book in it.
- The property has already been sold to another family, who will be moving in the day after Agents discover this.
—GRAYSON died during the op, left no family or will. His body is still below.
Reading Lightless Hunger
Information gleamed:
- The summoning ritual from 1997 could still be active, stopped only by the Elder Sign. Only the Ending the Call ritual, or destroying the black candles below, ends the call.
- Once Called, Nyogtha is said to surface within a fortnight.
Asking Delta Green[[| [2]]]:
The Outlaws aren't supposed to keep records but there was an op in 97, involving a dead agent. If presented with the Elder Sign, they can identify it.
NIGHT SIEGE
Once the sun falls,the Elder Sign begins to glow, reflected moonlight reopening the hole, allowing the Risen in.
At midnight, the dead begin to reach the surface.
The intelligences inside the Risen dead seek a fresher host which could pass for human. They are clever, sadistic, and speak, possessing knowledge they should not. The Risen can reveal the secrets of a single agent, prompting a 0/1d4 Sanity loss.
Every night, 1d4-1 corpses rise from their graves. +1 for every Agent or NPC present in the cemetery that night as the Risen sense more vessels.
It takes two successful Athletics tests for a Risen to mount the cemetery gate and escape.
Leaving an NPC on watch at the cemetery gives them a 50% chance to be mauled and/or worse.
Potential Complications:
- Loved ones discovering disturbed graves.
- Disposing of mutilated corpses[[| [3]]].
- Cops Hearing Gunfire
- Risen Screaming for Help.
Crypt Tunnels
Past the blockage, down the tunnel, past the sarcophagi is an awe inspiring, seemingly endless system of underground canyons and tunnels in darkness.
The tunnels are Unnatural and only meant to be navigated by Thralls of Nyogtha through the hum of their god.
-40% to Navigate the tunnels trying to find the Ritual site or entrance, losing 2 hours with each failure. On a Success, you find the Ritual site, its candles still lit.
Critical Failure means encountering one of the many blind, shrivelled, ancient thralls[[| [4]]], who aimlessly wander this labyrinth.
Resolution:
If the Agents replace the Elder Sign, award no SAN.
If the Agents destroy/remove the Elder Sign without casting the banishment ritual, in 2d8 days Nyogtha arrives and surfaces, briefly. The final count is 752 Dead or missing, 1272 hospitalized, and a 2.5 mile wide sinkhole in the middle of Maine.
SAN LOSS 1d4+1/1d12 To Helplessness.
For Banishing Nyogtha.
+1d8 SAN
For closing the ritual site beneath
+1d10 SAN
EQUIPMENT (Not necessary for the scenario)
Chainsaw / Motorized Lawncare Equipment Skill (Melee Weapons) Damage: Lethality 10%
Capacity: Empty on a Critical Failure. If you Fumble (Roll 100) have everyone within sight Roll luck. The highest roll takes 1d8+2 damage as the chain breaks off and fires off like a railgun into their fleshy parts.
Wood Axe Skill: Melee weapons, 1d10 Damage
NPCs, Rituals and Tomes
Zombie, Risen Thing
STR 15 CON 15 DEX 7 INT 08 POW 1
HP 19 WP 1 ARMOR: See WORTHLESS FLESH
SKILLS: Alertness 25%, Athletics 40% Stealth 35% Melee Weapons 45% Dodge 40% Drive 15%
ATTACKS: Bite 30%, damage 1D6 (see PIN & TEAR).
Improvised Weapon 45% damage (1d4 to 1d8 depending on weapon)
Speak truths: 0/1d4 SAN to a single Agent.
WORTHLESS FLESH: A Risen takes half HP damage from all non-ritual attacks. A Risen dropped to 0 HP is still not fully destroyed, only so badly damaged that it no longer poses an immediate threat, and becomes easy to dismember. If not fully dismembered, A Risen regains 1D6 HP the next night when the dead rise again.
BODILY DISMEMBERMENT: A Risen spirit is exorcised of their vessels when MOST of its limbs have been removed. It takes two combat rounds to dismember a body with all of its limbs.
To dismember, Agents can use sharp, destructive weapons such as an axe, a machete, a Chainsaw, a close range shotgun blast, or emptying a magazine of bullets. Called shots to limbs have no penalty to hit if the attacker is within 15m of the victim.
PIN & TEAR: After a bite successfully connects, the target is pinned, and the Risen can use each turn to inflict 2d4 damage without requiring another attack roll. If the bite attack overcomes the victim's armor, this damage ignores it. If the Risen has taken damage, it heals 1 HP for each HP that the pinned target loses, up to its maximum.The victim can attempt an opposed STR test as their action each turn to break free.
NOTHING BEHIND THE EYES: The Risen need their brain to connect to its spine to move. At any time, Agents may make a called shot at a −20% penalty to hit the zombie’s head. Called shots do no additional damage, but if the called shot (to the head) does more than 2 HP in damage, it damages the brain and STUNS the zombie. Stunned zombies play dead, until they choose to get up.
They are very good at this. At any time, if they're close to a fresher or more intact corpse, they will possess it instead.
SAN Loss: 1/1d6
“Lightless Hunger”
Archaic English, SAN 1d8 (Bound in the Skin) +5% Unnatural, Study time: Days
Recommended Rituals: The Elder Sign, Contact Nyogtha, Tunnels to Hell, Ending the Call, Closing of the Breach, Exorcism, Brimstone Heart[[| [5]]]
“And drawn forth, the Dweller Beneath will bring enlightenment and destruction in equal measure”.
The tome, a thin volume and bound in the skin of two stillborn infants (courtesy of the Salem coven), is a handwritten record cataloging the information gained by followers listening to the subterranean throbbing of Nyogtha across centuries.
Requires an INT of 13 or higher, or a History, Archaeology, Anthropology of 30% or higher to decipher the various 18th & 19th century spellings and methods of writing words. Otherwise, apply a -20% penalty to the ritual activation tests of any rituals learned from this book.
Ending the Call / Closing of the Breach (Nyogtha or Tunnel)
Complex ritual. Study Time: Hours, SAN Loss 1d4
ACTIVATION: 1 Hour ,1d6 SAN, 20 WP or 2 POW
Must be performed at night. Requires at least two participants chanting, and the use of seven white candles in an inverted pattern of the shape used in Tunnels to Hell. This ritual may also be used to close a “Tunnel to Hell”(seen below), but MUST be cast in the path that Nyogtha would take the surface.
Tunnels to Hell
Elaborate Ritual; Study Time: Months 1d20 SAN
Activation: 7 days; 12 SAN loss 40WP
Creates a Gateway from which Nyogtha may more easily be summoned to the surface at a cost of 10WP. Tunnels to Hell requires a set of complex geometric symbols to be drawn in chalk and then etched into stone, a series of black candles placed and seven sacrifices (lit one by one with each of the seven human sacrifices) onto the etchings to feed the symbology with their essence.
If the ritual succeeds, the black candles lit to begin the gateway will go out, and then burn, even in the absence of oxygen, until they are purposefully put out by a conscious being, at which point the gateway closes. Rituals have been found partially finished in buried Archaeological digs, dating back to the 4th Century, candles still lit. However, the unblocked tunnel from Nyogtha to the surface must be present for Nyogtha to surface in 2d8 Days AFTER the 10 WP (can be split among casters) has been spent to summon Nyogtha.
Think of it like a call on your answering machine. If someone is blocking the call, once the block is removed you will receive the call, and start driving toward the hospital where the call came from. At that point, nothing but someone removing the road, or planting a barrel of nuclear waste in your path (the elder sign) would stop you from getting there.
Map
Special thanks to TopHat for help with stats.
——[[| [1]]] Destroying the Elder Sign with any weapon requires no rolls. Any standing Zombies will collapse briefly, only to rise again, laughing at the Agents in unison.
[[| [2]]] The Program can identify two individuals: Jack, and Shit.
[[| [3]]] Remember kids, on average a human body takes 2-5 hours to burn!
[[| [4]]] For Stats of the Ancient Thralls, see page 54 of Delta Green: The Good Life by John Scott Tynes, sold by Arc Dream Publishing.
[[| [5]]] Page Locations: Elder Sign (HG p 178), Closing of the Breach (HG p 176), Exorcism (HG p 179), Brimstone Heart (Delta Green: The Good Life page 47)
Credits
Left Undone was written by Christopher DiBella for the 2024 Shotgun Scenario contest.
Source: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fIXAXgI6y9FcdYlJEgock-deYP5toh12d0kywirc1t4/edit