Memetic Murder Mystery

Memetic Murder Mystery - When target extraction goes awry, lies can bring working groups together and tear them apart.

Setup

The below is setup for the scenario, continuing until called to begin play.

The Agents have been charged with extracting a target, a mid 30’s white male, from his apartment in a seedy complex to a nearby safehouse. As this target is high value and considered dangerous, all Agents have been supplied with unregistered weapons via a dead drop. Handlers, make sure at least one of the weapons is a different caliber from the rest. Post kidnapping, the Agents are to secure the target, and await a secondary working group to arrive at 0015 and transfer the target to an undisclosed third location.

There have been explicit orders given that the target is not to be killed as he is extremely important to The Program. If the target is killed, the perpetrator of the murder is to be executed. If no perpetrator can be found, the entire cell will be executed for treason.

The extraction, beginning at 2100, was painless. The target, when threatened with weapons, came without a fuss. The Agent with the highest occult score hastily grabbed several journals from the apartment. Part of the working group rode with the suspect in his own car to the safehouse, buried deep in the forest, while the rest followed in the Agent’s car. The drive took approximately 2 hours. Once the target was secured to a chair in the safehouse, and the only exit locked, chanting began pouring from the walls as the lights went out. Agents and the sparse furniture began to be thrown around the room. A single gunshot was heard, the lights resumed, and all anomalous activity stopped.

The target is facedown on the floor, with a rapidly growing bloodstain coming from his head, the chair he was bound in tipped over next to him. Who killed him, and can the Agents find the traitor among themselves before they are all executed for treason?

The Handler should ask players in front of each other for their POW, and then one by one make a hidden roll for each player. Throw away the result, it will not matter.

The Handler will separate every player one by one, and instruct every player with the same thing. “YOU killed the target. In the chanting, you saw visions of your bonds dying and the end of the world. He was too dangerous to let live. You know you made the correct decision, The Program and your fellow Agents will not agree.” Remind them that their weapon will have one round less. While they may be able to bargain with their fellow Agents, The Program does not have such feelings.

Most of the above is a lie. In reality, the suspect is a powerful wizard skilled in hypergeometric memory manipulation. He is using a powerful spell to buy himself time to escape, return to his apartment, and clear it out. The body rotting on the floor is an illusion, albeit a good one. Maybe his plan will even get an Agent or two killed, he hopes. Additionally, there is no incoming secondary team. The Agents' standing orders were to take the suspect to the safehouse, and murder him away from prying eyes. However, his spell is not completely foolproof. There are several clues hinting to the Agents that all is not right.

The scenario begins here.

The Murder Scene

• The body is on the floor, and the straps that held the target to the chair have been unfastened, not broken.
• The safehouse, which is a small 3 room cabin deep on Government forest property, has only one door to outside and no openable windows. This door is now unlocked.
• If bullets are removed and counted from firearms, everyone has a full ammo count. No shots have been fired.
• Parked in the underbrush out of sight from the cabin and dirt road in, there is only one car left, the Agent’s vehicle. The target has taken back his own vehicle.
• If the bullet hole on the face of the body is examined, it matches the size of the Agent’s firearm who is looking at the wound. This is why at least one Agent needs a different caliber weapon, as there will be a discrepancy from Agent to Agent if they choose to corroborate.
• If parsed for 30 minutes, the books hastily grabbed on the initial extraction reveal a worship of Yog-Sothoth, some spells outlining memory manipulation and dream projection, and unhinged rants. (SAN 1/1D4 and +3% Occult)
• If discussed, no gunshot flash was seen in the commotion.
• The time of arrival at the safehouse was approximately 2300. There are no clocks inside the safehouse, but if time is checked in some manner (~0200) more time has passed than naturally possible, implying missing time (SAN 0/1). The backup team expected at 0015 should have arrived by now.
• If the body is cut into or dissected in any way, the interior is a void. (SAN 1/1D4)
• There is no smell of gunpowder in the room, and actually smells slightly of singed hair.

The Escape

The target is driving to his apartment, following the speed limit to avoid any local authorities. Once he arrives, he begins the process of carefully boxing up all of his occult materials and loading them into his car. Just after 04:00, he will leave. If the Agent’s collaborate and figure out the ruse, they lose (SAN 1/1D4) at the knowledge that their memories have been manipulated, and the masquerade drops. The body disappears from the floor, and the true mission of the Agents is revealed to them. With a successful drive roll, the Agents can reduce the time back to the apartment by about 30 minutes. On failure, increase by the same as they get pulled over for speeding.

If the Agents make it in time, the target will be loading his car, coming to and from his apartment. If the Agents are spotted, the target knows of spells to defend himself, see his stat block below. He will attempt to get to his car and flee above all else. Even with the apartment not being on the best side of town, open gunfire will attract unwanted attention.

NPC

The Target

Out of sight, out of mind.

STR 11 CON 17 DEX 7 INT 13 POW 19 CHA 12

HP 14 WP 11 SAN 10

SKILLS: First Aid 53%, HUMINT 87%, Law 33%,

Medicine 27%, Melee Weapons 55%, Occult 51%,

Persuade 88%, Pharmacy 62%, Science (Botany) 62%,

Unnatural 53%.

ATTACKS: Ceremonial knife 55%, damage 1D6, Armor

Piercing 3.

RITUALS: Obscure Memory, Exchange Personalities, Infallible Suggestion, Withering, any desired by the Handler.

The target appeared on The Program’s hit list when the cult he was a part of years ago was targeted and destroyed. Its members, having been carefully documented by the cult itself, have been deemed too dangerous to let mix back into society. Shame he was just using his powers to trick his apartment manager into thinking he had been paying rent.

Credits

Memetic Murder Mystery was written by PrinceDabsALot for the 2024 Shotgun Scenario contest.
Source: https://docs.google.com/document/d/184wErSq_WsrE-IKeJd_-XU8AGlx1l7bK2Ks32UwiHpg/edit