HANDLER'S OVERVIEW
Work group GAUSSIAN has gone missing from SMALL TOWN, USA. At last report they had uncovered a possible incursion and were investigating further. No additional details were provided. When GAUSSIAN failed to check in for 48 hours, Delta Green tasked the Agents to follow up.
WORK GROUP GAUSSIAN
Composed of four veterans of the conspiracy (they remember the old days before the schism). Other than very low Sanity and a host of disorders GAUSSIAN’s details are not relevant to the scenario and the Agents will never meet them, thus the Handler may feel free to invent names, personality traits and backgrounds as needed.
WHAT'S REALLY GOING ON
There is no mythos event. GAUSSIAN found things that seem suspicious or resemble clues from known operations, but are mundane and coincidental. They convinced themselves there was something nefarious, worked themselves into a panic, and, driving late at night in a heavy storm, crashed their car. A hiker will discover their wreck at the bottom of a ravine in three days if the Agents don't find them first.
INITIAL CLUES
After arriving in town, GAUSSIAN set up base at the SLEEP INN MOTEL. Agents can map their movements through town by visiting local businesses and talking to residents. Each interaction can yield one of three clues, any of which could be used to locate and gain access to GUASSIAN’s motel room.
- False Names - GAUSSIAN checked in under an alias; their real names return no leads but locals recognize GAUSSIAN by their descriptions and provide the names they used
- Dropped Key - A room key for the SLEEP INN MOTEL. The number is faded and unreadable
- Vehicle - GAUSSIAN arrived with two vehicles. The one that didn’t crash is still parked outside their room. Locals might remember the license plate.
FAS GAS
The T fell from the sign some time ago. Two gas pumps in poor repair (and without modern card readers) sit outside. Inside, CLAIRE listens to Phenom-X or InfoWars or similar conspiracy podcasts. She distinctly remembers the G-Men who stopped to fill up and asked about anything suspicious in town. If the Agents befriend her she’ll talk at length about chemtrails and UFOs and lights in the sky at the old farmhouse by the reservoir, and that the strangers who stopped by are Men In Black.
CARL’S DINER
Friendly old man who knows everybody and remembers everything. Repeats innocuous details the Agents told him in subsequent meetings. Remembers GAUSSIAN, thought they were very nice folk who asked a lot of odd questions. CARL can provide any rumor or lead mentioned anywhere else in this text. He occasionally shares profound-sounding words of advice (which he gets from a desk calendar in the back).
At or after suppertime, SAMUEL GREENE is there. A portly man with a bad combover and moustache reminiscent of a walrus. Samuel is in the middle of a bitter divorce and is hiding assets from his wife - he thought GAUSSIAN were private detectives hired to spy on him. He will share none of this with the Agents unless cornered and threatened - he will avoid the Agents’ gaze and leave abruptly if they try to speak to him. If pursued he will make the quickest escape he can back to his house, where he will lock the door and threaten to call the sheriff.
PRODUCE STAND
Wood and canvas produce stand at the end of a dirt road that leads to a farm. SAWYER and LLEWELLYN sit in rocking chairs drinking beers. Fresh fruit and vegetables are delicious and reasonably priced. SAWYER and LLEWELLYN don’t initiate conversation and give one-word answers whenever possible. With a great deal of effort, Agents can wring from them that GAUSSIAN asked about the old farmhouse by the reservoir(it’s been abandoned since LLEWELLYN was a kid), and the Satanists in the woods(SAWYER fired a shotgun at a pair of them when they crossed onto the property). They also mention that one or two of their cattle were killed and viciously mutilated(SAWYER thinks it’s aliens, LLEWELLYN argues and insists it’s the Satanists).
There is nothing but hay, farm equipment and rat traps in their barn.
The SLEEP INN MOTEL
The motel is clean but run down. Air conditioning is broken or nonexistent, wallpaper peels in the corners from heat. The front desk is manned by CHAZ, no more than 16, friendly and eager to please but with a habit of repeating himself. CHAZ won’t just let anybody into GAUSSIAN’s suite, but can be persuaded with some effort. GAUSSIAN paid in advance till the end of the week.
SUITE 109
Like a tornado ran through it. Couch overturned, dresser drawers and belongings scattered on the floor. Mattress bare, sheets crumpled in the corner. Bathtub full of dirty clothing. Wall opposite the bed covered in post-it notes and maps and photographs connected by string and pushpins. Some items of note on the “board”:
- A photo of Carl taken from outside the diner. Written on the back, “DON’T BELIEVE HIS LIES”
- A photo of SAMUEL GREEN sitting at a booth in Carl’s. On the back, “INTERFERENCE?”
- Connected by string to a clipped newspaper ad for the local STORE-N-SAVE with “0415” scribbled in the margin
- Several photos of a black sedan with tinted windows, taken from a distance. Dates and times are written on the back from throughout the week GAUSSIAN spent in town. Agents who examine the photos to determine where they were taken can find the car parked down the street from the motel
- Photos of SAWYER and LLEWELLYN entering and leaving their barn, together and separately. In some photos SAWYER is holding a shotgun.
- An old woman (AGNES) getting into a car, and another of her gardening
- Connected to both of the above photo sets: blurry photos of what look like a person in robes in the woods, taken from a great distance
- Photos of CLAIRE from the FAS GAS, reading the newspaper, looking at her phone. In one photo she is looking directly at the camera. Written on the back, “SHE KNOWS”
- A single photo of a dilapidated farmhouse behind a chain-link fence taken through trees. Next to it, a blurry photo of a night sky; on the back, “LIGHTS?”
- Attached by string to a clipped newspaper ad for a local plumbing company offering a deal on septic tank installation
- Another string goes from the farmhouse to the blurry robed figure
UNIT 0415
Not listed with Samuel’s name, but the unit is rented under Greene’s Antiques and the clerk knows who Samuel is. He won’t volunteer anything to strangers nor will he willingly let the Agents break into Samuel’s storage unit.
Inside the unit is (shockingly) a bunch of dusty old furniture, rugs, and assorted antiques. Little is of any value, but attentive Agents will note a fine oak table decorated with a triskelion motif. It has no secret compartment.
A banker’s box in the back has some actually valuable jewelry and at least $50,000 in cash.
PARKED CAR
Locked. It’s been there quite a while. It’s hard to see inside through the tinted windows, but up close (or from inside,) the Agents can see binoculars and a book of local birds. There is no one inside. If somehow started (dead battery, empty gas tank, dry oil pan) the engine seizes dramatically and smoke pours through the interior vents.
OLD AGNES
Churchgoer and widow. Dour disposition. Convinced that “those kids in the woods” are up to no good, that they’re probably sacrificing cats and praying to Satan and Lord knows what else at ungodly hours. They’ve even put a curse on her rhododendrons, see? (Agents with Biology, Chemistry, Pharmacy or Medicine can tell the soil pH isn’t right. Agnes has no idea what that means, her husband took care of the plants)
THE CULT?
A group of school-age youths who sneak out late at night to LARP Dungeons and Dragons or World of Darkness or some other appropriate RPG the Handler is familiar with. Will try to escape the Agents if discovered after dark (they don’t want their parents to find out). Since SAWYER nearly caught them in his barn a few weeks ago they’ve started having their sessions at the old farmhouse by the reservoir instead.
SEPTIC TANK
The company has never serviced the old farmhouse. They’ve never heard of GAUSSIAN or their aliases.
THE FARMHOUSE
Up a winding dirt road, still slick from heavy rain, atop a wooded hill with the town’s reservoir. Technically on the same property as the municipal water company, just not worth the time and money to tear down. A loose patch in the fence is just large enough to crawl through. The farmhouse has nothing inside but dust and debris. Careful examination of the road reveals tire marks where GAUSSIAN lost control in the rain and skidded into the ravine below.
Agents who pass an ALERTNESS test at night see, just for an instant, an odd pattern of blinking lights in the sky.
Credits
One Too Many Nights at the Opera, or Looking for Lovecraft in All the Wrong Places was written by Will Roy and Mr. Tex for the 2021 Shotgun Scenario contest.
Source: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZNzv_1kSlaEJokJaBl5Dpstp03ZN6uYcAWs0XFT_vWA/edit