Morning Star Over Arizona

Background

On a mesa near Chilchinbito, AZ in the Navajo Nation, a local hunter discovered ancient pottery/bones? as he rested. The University of Arizona has been given permission to conduct an archeological survey on the site. The survey, led by Dr. Burke, professor of archaeology at UA, set up shop a week ago. The nearest settlements (Chilchinbito and Rough Rock) support around 1000 people, split between the two towns. The site is a half-hour drive over uneven prairie from Rough Rock plus an hour and a half hike to the top of the mesa range. There is no wireless or cell signal on the site and the towns have no places for out of towners to stay. The team camps on the mesa and only goes back for water and supplies. The dig itself is of public record, covered in both Arizona and Tribal newspapers, and approved by both governments. The team applied yesterday to the Nation and US for permission to conduct a full dig, alerting Delta Green watchers. The Program is currently burying the request in backlog requests and red tape.

The Archeologists

  • Dr. Amelia Burke (lead) and Dr. Ronald Clark, both from UA. Close friends but often at odds.
  • A local expert: Dr. Winona Nez, an expert in Navajo history and nation resident.
  • One local police officer for security, Sgt. Charles Etsiddty.

What They Found

Along with a number of simple relics found near the surface, the researchers found a tunnel carved into the rock, spiraling down into the mesa. The tunnel is big enough for the average person to traverse at a crouch. At the end of the tunnel, maybe 15 meters down, the passage opens up into a room big enough for six individuals to stand in comfortably. The researchers found in here a number of prayer items, a simple shrine, and embedded into the wall, a seamless metal canister and a nine foot tall winged human skeleton.

The team has so far kept most of their discovery a secret, electing to collect as much information as they can to release a full report. Dr. Burke believes that this might be her ticket to a nobel prize, Clark is excited but more realistic. Clark doubts that the bones are real but still believes that they hold anthropological significance. The information has been saved on shielded hard-drives. Photos, measurements, initial impressions, and sampling have all been recorded and saved across four drives.

If the team believes that the Agents are trying to shut them down or censor them, they will do everything they can to hide the drives and leak the info as soon as the Agents aren’t looking. Roll Luck, on a failure, the news goes viral and religious people and news teams begin to swarm the area, Navajo law be damned.

The Briefing

The team is summoned to Flagstaff, AZ, with instructions to arrive at a certain parking garage at 22:00 hours. The handler relays that a University of Arizona team has found inhuman remains and a possible artifact, they don't know the specifics of either. Finally the handler reminds the team that they will be operating on an native american reservation and that they are technically acting within a sovereign nation. While Agent’s with federal law enforcement powers will still be

within their jurisdiction, their powers and authority are reduced. All requisition rolls requesting reinforcements, item delivery, etc. to the Navajo Nation are made at -20%.

The Handler provides agents with the site location and covers as Bureau of Indian Affairs representatives from the Social Service or Tribal Government Liaison groups. These identities have been put together quickly and will not hold up to real scrutiny. The ID’s could allow the team to present themselves as outreach workers, ensuring the tribe's legal rights and hoping to advise or inspect the work.

Local Law

The Navajo Nation is protected by ~200 tribal policemen. The nation is a dry county and firearms are illegal for non-residents. Non-peace officers will find their firearms confiscated (and likely never returned), on even minor provocations.

The Shrine

The shrine is a simple affair, a stone altar with a circle seemingly engulfing its surroundings carved into it. On the altar are a number of pots containing what appear to be the remains of offerings. Asking Dr. Nez, Art: Pottery 40%, or History 60% reveals that the pots are not Native American in origin. Paintings of winged figures line the walls, some stealing people away, others simply being worshiped San 0/1.

Skeleton

The fossilized Skeleton stands between 3-4m tall, embedded into the wall of the shrine above a small altar. Seeing the Skeleton costs San 0/1. Analysis of the bones shows that they are in fact real, but any recovered DNA is utterly incomprehensible with no similarity to any life on Earth, San 0/1d4. The team has taken initial photos, measurements, and a small sample.

The Beacon

The cylinder found within the shrine is approximately 2 ft tall with an 8 in diameter, weighing nearly 50 lbs. The researchers have managed to extract the device from the wall by the time the team has arrived, but have not yet moved it above ground. The researchers have wiped down the grime and attempted a basic material analysis with no conclusive results. A proper analysis requires a lab and reveals that the material is an alloy unknown to modern science, 0/1 San Unnatural. Should the cylinder be moved to the surface it will make connections with unknown entities and begin transmitting, unless it is contained in a lead lined case. Without interference, the team will move it to the surface at 10 pm on the day after the briefing.

While transmitting, the cylinder will transmit its location along with a massive stream of information. Every hour it will send an electromagnetic pulse, temporarily knocking out all non-shielded electronics within a 10 mile radius San 0/1 Helplessness. After 2 hours, the pulses transmit every 30 minutes, after 4 hours, they fire every 15 minutes. (See Contact). Returning the cylinder to the shrine or encasing it in lead blocks the transmissions.

The cylinder is perfectly smooth with no defects or seams. Small arms fire and melee attacks will do no more than scratch it. The town of Ridge Rock rents out back-hoes, but only to residents and only for burial services. Continuous trauma to the cylinder with construction grade equipment will crack it open. Inside are no electronics, but instead a strange mesh of thin white fibers, barely visible to the naked eye. 0/1 San Unnatural. Anyone touching this network has a pulse of information directly transmitted into their brain, dealing 1/1d8 San. The victim must also make a CONx5 roll. On a failure the user is sent catatonic for 1d4 hours, on a crit failure for 1d4 days.

Contact

4 hours after the cylinder is first activated, an unknown object appears in the sky, at first only visible with a telescope, but also to the naked eye within 20 minutes, landing at 6 hours after removal. The object appears as a spherical absence of light approximately 15 meters in diameter, approaching the site of the beacon's last pulse at inhuman speeds. Should the cylinder be moved or moving, it will follow. Witnessing the sphere from an extreme distance costs 0/1 San, observing it upclose costs 0/1d6 San. Projectiles fired at the sphere are simply absorbed into the darkness, not emerging from the otherside (0/1 San).

The sphere stops approximately 10m from the ground and three Outsiders emerge from it as if stepping through a curtain of water. The Outsiders are 3m tall creatures encased in strange seamless alabaster casings with great black wings.The creatures move on four limbs for speed when on the ground, but are able to invert their limb joints to move and interact like humans. All of their hands/feet are opposable. The Outsiders will move to recover the cylinder with the skeleton as a secondary recovery goal, ignoring any humans in the area or attempts to communicate unless attacked. If attacked they will remove the threat before continuing the search. Should the cylinder have been moved or hidden, they will attempt to extract information about it from the minds of humans in the area. (See Mind Leech)

Once the Outsiders have recovered the cylinder, they will return to their sphere which will return to the sky.

Outsider
STR 22 CON 22 DEX 14 INT 14 POW 14
HP 22 WP 14
ARMOR : 5 points of Anti-light Shielding, pure darkness dissipates force. SKILLS : Alertness 30%, Athletics 60%, Unnatural 70%.
ATTACKS : Anti-Light Ray: 50%, lethality 10% range 20m, Armor Piercing 4. Stunning Blow: 60%, damage 1D6, Armor Piercing 1, Stun
Mind Leech (60%): The Outsider grasps its target and forces its alien mind into its victims consciousness, probing the victims memory/thoughts for information. San 1/1d6 helplessness.
Flight: The Outsiders are able to fly at 45 kph.
All Fours: Outsiders can invert onto all fours for tight spaces, they can not use the Anti-Light Ray while on all fours.
Resilient : A successful Lethality roll does not destroy a Greater Deep One, but inflicts HP damage equal to the Lethality rating
San 1/1d8

Dr. Amelia Burke
STR 9 CON 12 DEX 10 INT 17 POW 14 CHA 10
HP 11 WP 14 San 70, BP 56
SKILLS : Alertness 50%, Athletics 30%, First Aid 50%, Anthropology: 70%, History: 50%, Search 50%, Survival 50%, Occult: 30%, Unarmed Combat 40%. ATTACKS : Unarmed 40%, damage 1D4−1. Pocket knife 30%, damage 1D4.

Dr. Ronald Clark
STR 12 CON 14 DEX 10 INT 15 POW 11 CHA 10
HP 13 WP 11 San 55, BP 44
SKILLS : Alertness 50%, Athletics 30%, First Aid 50%, Science: Archeology: 70%, Forensics 50%, Search 50%, HUMINT 50%, Art (Knitting): 30%, Unarmed Combat 40%.
ATTACKS : Unarmed 40%, damage 1D4−1. Pocket knife 30%, damage 1D4.

Dr. Winona Nez
STR 10 CON 11 DEX 10 INT 15 POW 12 CHA 14
HP 11 WP 12 San 60, BP 48
SKILLS : Alertness 50%, Athletics 30%, First Aid 50%, Foreign Language: English: 60%, Science: Botany 20%, History: 70%, Search 50%, Occult: 30%, Unarmed Combat 40%.
ATTACKS: Unarmed 40%, damage 1D4−1.

Sgt. Charles Etsiddty
STR 11 CON 13 DEX 10 INT 10 POW 12 CHA 10
HP 12 WP 12 SAN 60 BREAKING POINT 48
ARMOR : Light kevlar vest (Armor 3).
SKILLS : Alertness 50%, Athletics 40%, Firearms 50%,
First Aid 50%, Law 30%, Navigate 50%, Search 40%,
Survival 50%, Swim 40%, Unarmed Combat 50%.
ATTACKS : SIG Sauer P228 pistol 50%, damage 1D10. FN M16A2 rifle 50%, damage 1D12, Armor Piercing 3. Pepper spray 50%, stuns target.
Unarmed 50%, damage 1D4

Credits

Morning-Star Over Arizona was written by AstroCat for the 2023 Shotgun Scenario contest.
Source: https://docs.google.com/document/d/11FNbBRtRiWBT8ezDzBPcKpcE8o7_Mbvu7AE1jH4CLGo/edit

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.