Prerequisite
This mission requires at least one Agent either possesses a magical artifact, tome, or knows one hypergeometry ritual.
No Small Task
Agents must break the bad news of another agent’s death due to supernatural causes to his family. And they must lie about it.
John K. Bailey (b. 1978), Opera codename “Sully”, served with distinction in the United States Army for twenty years, achieving the rank of First Lieutenant. He joined Delta Green six years ago and survived seven successful missions that caused PTSD and a totemic compulsion to a 3D-printed heart his son made for him in school. John never took it off his neck. He was a good soldier, respected by his teammates.
Details on Bailey’s last opera are classified, but our Agents’ Case Operator confirms that the team was on a black ops mission, and although successful, Bailey did not survive. His body and belongings no longer exist on this plane. Bailey’s teammates cannot deliver the death notification, and regular Army ask too many questions. PCs get the call.
As far as Delta Green knows, Bailey’s family doesn’t know a thing about the Conspiracy nor the supernatural, and they want to keep it that way. If you are a cruel Handler, the orders include sanitizing the house, like in Last Things Last (it’s clean).
The Case Operator provides this information to the Agents:
Bailey married his longtime boyfriend, Dusty Baker (age 32, an IRS accountant), in September 2015. They soon adopted a brother and sister from Iraq, Sami (age 7, loves stage magic tricks and racing video games) and Lana (age 9, loves Iron Man and Arduinos). The kids are darling, well-behaved and avid soccer fans, though bullied at school due to their heritage and two daddies. They live in a manicured three-bedroom ranch house in a sedate, liberal neighborhood.
The CO insists Agents handle this with efficiency, respect, and sensitivity. “Treat them well. This will happen to your loved ones someday.”
For more information on death notification: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_notification
and https://tinyurl.com/yd9tjrj7
Family Reaction
Role-playing this scene works best, but if players balk at emotional heft, they can retreat to HUMINT, Persuade, and Psychotherapy checks. But it shouldn't be easy. According to Dr. Nancy Davis, former chief of counseling services for the FBI, "You can’t make it better. But you can definitely make it worse." (Wikipedia entry on death notification retrieved 12/8/2018)
Unless Agents are idiotic louts, they will come up with a cover story beforehand. Bailey was on active duty, so KIA on a classified mission is not unusual.
Agents arrive at the house just as the kids bound from the minivan after soccer practice. Dusty does his best to maintain dignity and composure, even offering the Agents water, coffee, fresh zucchini bread or orange slices from their tree, but anyone with HUMINT or Psychotherapy above 30% knows he’s in denial. Moreover, he’s smart and will ask pointed questions: How did he die? Where? When will the body be returned? Will he be buried at Arlington? Is he being posthumously awarded a medal, etc.? If Agents make a verbal mistake or get their stories crossed, he grows incensed and starts demanding answers. He views flaccid explanations with severe skepticism, formulating his own conspiracy theory that he’ll investigate from the Internal Revenue Service. Wise agents remain behind a “that’s classified” bulwark. Anyone with Military Science or Bureaucracy over 20% can legitimately explain that Bailey will receive full honors and a 21-gun salute, but the details of his death can’t be released.
Dusty will call the children over, and characters will have to relate the narrative to their cherubic faces. Both burst out crying; Sami is scared bad men are coming for him next, and Lana demands details, security clearances be damned. She will become hysterical if she does not get answers, calling the Agents liars despite Dusty doing his level best to console her. Both kids want to know if their Father (Dusty is “dad”) stopped the evil men, who they were, what he did to them, and if they’re safe here. They don’t really have anyone in America besides their parents. Will the terror(ists) come for them next?
Milk the pathos of this scene; it should be clear Bailey had strong Bonds with all three, so all family members lose 1/1d6 Sanity right in front of agents, which may provoke a Helpless 0/1 Sanity check. This tight-knit family reminds PCs about their own Bonds and how much they mean to them, even former connections now broken.
During a lull between sobs, Sami asks what happened to the heart he made for his father? The one he printed at school, adding layer after layer of plastic to a symbol of love for his adopted parent. If they provide a satisfactory answer (or cop out and roll-play it), Sami opens up to Agents: he recently dreamt about his father trying to reach him through a thick glass window, but he can’t. The window turns dark or shatters, and he wakes up scared.
Agents can refer everyone to military counseling and support groups. Dusty and the children might try to bond with the team—inviting them over for dinner or asking for their contact info to send them an e-card.
When nothing more can be said, it is time for Agents to depart.
Getting Worse
As they pull away, all agents with an Alertness skill over base (20%) spots a glistening whirlwind spin out under the home’s eaves, like a glittering glass swarm. The shards violate the laws of nature and possess a coherency of purpose—a vague dog-shape stalking the bereaved.
Witnessing Agents must make an Unnatural Sanity check at 1d6/1d20. If an Agent has seen one before, or still goes on missions sporting Unnatural over 40%, they identify a Hound of the Angles (p.205, Handler’s Guide) measuring the home.
If the Agents do not circle back immediately, the Hound shreds all three family members in a manner that leaves no evidence beyond the echoes of screaming.
Whenever the Agent holding the magical item or knowledge of a hypergeometry ritual gets within 100m of the Hound, it stops, swirls its semblance of a head in their direction and withdraws itself into the fold on a blade of grass. Only precision-sliced lawn shavings linger behind.
The Slow Hunt
After Bailey died helping his team accomplish their mission objectives, the Other-Worldly Being they temporarily trammeled retaliates. It released a Hound of Angles to remove the family of John Bailey. This assassin is deadly, intelligent, and infinitely patient. Knowing it can be hurt by hypergeometry, it avoids any instance of “magick” the Agents have, electing to wait and watch from just outside our reality.
The Hound will not attack the family if something cut from hypergeometry is within 100 meters; it won’t even appear. However, the Hound senses all three family members, and if any one leaves the area of protection, it immediately pounces out of an angle. Trapping or ambushing it is nearly impossible—it refuses to manifest or evacuates quickly if it senses any kind of magic or an area of spheres. It goes back to waiting, with the patience of an immortal.
Research and Aid
Agents searching for accounts of the Hound of Angles or who have Unnatural 40% realize the predator exists outside time and space, appears through corners, and cannot be harmed but by hypergeometry.
Reporting the new development to their superior elicits the above information 24 hours later, but don’t tell Agents the wait time. The intel comes through encrypted text from Bailey’s cell leader, “Simone,” who adds that their previous mission diverted a manifestation of Pure Chaos attempted by vengeful mind parasites (Insects from Shaggai).
Nether Simone nor the Case Operator suggests a plan. Agents have to improvise.
Ugly Options
Unless the players concoct a better solution, their choices seem to be:
- Let the family die – inflicts a 1/1d8 (Helpless) Sanity loss for each family member when they find out, more if they witness the butchery of innocents (Violence & Unnatural).
- Always monitoring – Someone stays near the family 24/7/365 until the last one (Lana) dies of natural causes at age 97. The Agents’ regular lives call on day two.
- Give the family the hypergeometry item, don’t tell them what it means, yet insist they keep it with them at all times, forever. Each person needs an object, or they all have to stay within 100 meters of it. The latter isn’t sustainable, and eventually results in the death of two with attendant SAN loss. Elder Signs cost 2 POW per creation. Anyone willing to give up six Power for someone else’s Bonds?
- Teach them Hypergeometry – Exposing Baker to Delta Green should not be easy nor swift, and the kids’ curiosity will have to be leashed unless Agents recklessly reveal Secrets Man Was Not Meant to Know to children. This punts the story further down the field, to be solved later.
Credits
This is an entry to the 2018 Delta Green shotgun scenario contest, written by Aaron Vanek.