OPERATION BLACK CUPID
(Delta Green Shotgun Scenario by Dregarexter, Ennji and Bellucci)
Background
Lyra Vega, a country singer from Bayonne of very limited talent, buys from a Tcho-Tcho merchant a “miraculous” larva for her vocal cords, sealed in a small jar with a lid engraved with a strange hypergeometric sigil. The price? 300 dollars. Two years later, Lyra is a national star. Her voice has a supernatural smoothness and she writes songs that would make Freddie Mercury disappear in blush. Her fame leads her to become the partner of the Director of the FBI. Lyra does not know she is possessed by a creature which, through successive adjustments, has fine-tuned her voice to influence human minds.
One day, during a massage, she survives an assassination attempt. A man with a strange weapon resembling a “space pistol” is gunned down by her bodyguards.
Briefing
The characters are gathered in a post office by an operative disguised as a postal worker, who explains that:
- Someone tried to kill Lyra Vega. According to the Program, the toy-like weapon might actually be a special device emitting radiation and pulsed light.
- The assassin was identified as Rigoberto R. Young, former DEA agent. This baffled the FBI, which is unaware that Rigoberto was an agent of the Outlaws’ F-Cell, codename Fawks.
The fact that F-Cell attempted something against Lyra Vega is enough to require a Program intervention.
The postal worker has brought all items found on Rigoberto, except the weapon, which the Delta Green contact inside the FBI already destroyed before the federal lab could begin studying it.
Fawks had on him:
ID card, $28, CVS and Dunkin’ cards, one week of supermarket receipts, three unstamped train tickets, a crumpled photo of a woman and a child (on the photo is written “Lauren and Sylvie”), a half-empty packet of antihistamines. Attached to the photo is the main clue: a broken token with one hole and the inscription 44–NWDR.
Finally, there is a photo of Fawks’ naked corpse. He has a tattoo depicting a hooked bar inscribed in a circle (it looks like the symbol of some archaic cult), both in turn inscribed in a larger green triangle (a Delta Green).
The token is the key piece of evidence. In Outlaw code:
- one hole = “green box”
- two holes = weapons cache
- three holes = hostile retrieval box
NWDR stands for Northwest District Railway Station, today called Patterson Station.
Patterson Station Green Box
The Green Box of Patterson Station is located in the oldest part of the station, which has 3 tracks. Track 3 has been closed for maintenance… for 20 years!Entering the tunnel of Track 3, there are mud traces leading to a very complex but unpowered electrical panel. The electrical panel is the actual door of the Green Box, but to open it one must understand its mechanism.
Quick Puzzle:
In the center of the panel are three small wheels, apparently potentiometers. To open the door, the sliders of the wheels must be aligned with barely visible raised marks. When overlapped, these marks resemble the tattoo on Fawks’ corpse: a hooked rod, a circle, a triangle.These symbols appear around all three wheels, but the correct sequence is the one matching the proportions of the tattoo (hook, circle, triangle).
If the combination is wrong or the panel is forced, an industrial electric discharge fires through the panel, stunning anyone touching the door and potentially killing them (attack lethality 20%).
Green Box Arsenal:
Inside the Green Box there is an automaton made of scrap metal and VHS tape. At first it does not move. It has a slot where the Token can be inserted to activate it. A metallic voice asks for the control name (Sylvie). After three wrong answers, it attacks the characters.
The Green Box is a tight, damp room, with a work table and filled with objects. Against the wall, hidden under a cloth, is a weapon: a Remington 870, modified with a short barrel, badly sawed.
On the highest shelf the PCs find clues about the Burrowers:– autopsy photos with chitinous insects extracted from the skull– a faded dossier explaining how these beings can control other minds by modulating the host’s voice– a plastic bag containing a transparent shell the size of a fingernail, hard as glass, and some apparently magnetic dust (it is simply metal; these are components for a ritual)Somewhere there is a note saying that when the Burrower is agitated, it forces the host to bite human flesh.
The Hypervibromanometer:
On the table there is a Blueprint of Fawks’ weapon, that looks similar to the dentist’s tool that hardens filling resin. In the hypergeometric variant, pulses of light and radiation phase-lock with the Burrower and, with prolonged exposure, expel it.
Used briefly, it irritates the creature: for a week, the insect induces escalating crises in the host, who may eventually expel it naturally.
Excessive use, however, can kill the host.
The Diary:
Hidden behind a box of cartridges, cover damaged by moisture. It explains that the host can be induced to expel the parasite by creating a hostile environment with massive doses of LSD.Death always works. Deep coma, maybe.
The last pages, dense and hastily written, reveal that the Burrower wants to use Lyra’s voice during the globally broadcast concert of December 20 in Los Angeles to emit a hypnotic sound pattern imperceptible to humans: it would eliminate free will, creating millions of potential victims for other Burrowers.The Outlaws have already stopped similar attempts; this is why the Burrower manipulated the FBI Director, so as to shield itself from Delta Green.
The diary also contains details of a ritual.
The Concert
The characters should be able to reach the Kia Forum in Los Angeles, the concert location, only on the same day of the event, in the afternoon, two or three hours before the beginning.
Meanwhile, the FBI Director has already sent a squad from the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team – HRT from headquarters in Quantico.
The Program’s operatives may have access to a Law Enforcement SUV to reach the parking lot of the Forum and pass through the first security checkpoint
The Kia Forum
The stadium is brightly lit, warm late-summer evening. The event’s security teams have been reinforced by dozens of HRT agents. Lyra Vega is in a backstage dressing room.An HRT officer (Agent Whittaker) is massaging his arm outside her dressing room. He is with a colleague; both wear civilian clothes but have a thigh-holstered handgun, ballistic vest, and assault rifle.
If pushed to reveal what he knows, he will say that Lyra is very nervous, calling repeatedly to ask when the Director will arrive—who is not answering his phone.In a nervous outburst, she bit the agent’s arm, after earlier biting the makeup artist, who now wants to press charges.
Dressing Room: 
The dressing room has a large illuminated mirror, clothes racks, and scattered cosmetics. Lyra keeps her head lowered and is photophobic.
A MEDICINE/BIOLOGY check may reveal micro-movement behind the left ear, like a small tentacle under the skin.
Searching the room:• Trash bin: cotton swab with dark blood-black fluid• Table: blank master CD, Track 7 – “hiss mix” (listening: SAN 0/1, disturbing ultrasounds)• Mirror frame: thin translucent chitin filaments
If the Agents hesitate to use the reconstructed pistol from the Green Box or the ritual, Lyra tries to bite someone and then continues attacking them.
Successful extraction: The Burrower emerges from the left ear in a jet of blood (SAN 1/1D12), scans the room, and attempts to capture a new host.
Noise and combat (after 3 rounds): HRT intervenes.If the Burrower has been expelled but not killed, the FBI may consider the PCs aggressors.Fifteen minutes after the PCs arrive, the Director of the FBI arrives anyway.
In every situation, seeing Lyra injured triggers retaliation from the FBI against the PCs.If the insect is still alive when the Director arrives, it attempts to possess him as well.
STAT BLOCKS
The Burrowers
Extradimensional insectoid parasiteSTR 2, CON 6, DEX 16, INT 12, POW 15, CHA —HP 4, WP 15, MOV 10
Skills:Stealth 70%Climb 80%Jump 60%
AttacksCranial perforation (automatic on incapacitated):• Success: possession in 1 round• SAN 1/1D6• Victim becomes “Burrowed Host”
Leap onto skull: 50%• On hit: target CON×5 roll– failure = parasite enters the ear
Chitin bite: 35%• 1D3 damage
Defenses• Takes half damage from firearms (reflective chitin)• Vulnerable to fire and intense lights (+1D6 damage)
LYRA VEGA – Possessed
Partial Burrowed Host (day 4)
STR 11, CON 12, DEX 15, INT 10, POW 7, CHA 16HP 12, WP 7, SAN 34
Skills altered by the parasite:Persuasion 75% (emotional influence)Dodge 55%Alertness 60%
Unared Strike 60% (1d4 damage)Acting / Performance 80%
Behaviors under possession:• jerky, unnatural movements• avoids contact with left ear• unclear pain response• may enter pseudo-trance and emit ultrasounds (SAN 0/1D4)
Bite: 60%• 1D4 damage
GREEN BOX GUARDIAN
Anomalous automaton of the Outloaws (1994).
STR 18, CON 14, DEX 9, INT 4, POW 6, HP 16, WP — (not applicable)
ARMOR: 4 points (scrap metal and coils).Cuts and small bullets reduced; blunt weapons more effective.
AttacksTape Wrap — 50%Damage: 1D6 + partial immobilizationIf it hits the head: CON×5 roll or stunned 1 round.If it hits two consecutive turns: risk of suffocation (CON×3).
Rigid Strike (metal arm) — 40%Damage: 1D8 blunt
Special AbilitiesSound detectionHears any noise within 15 meters.If PCs remain motionless and silent: –40% to locate them.Metallic noises or screams attract it automatically.
Tape FragmentsWhen it suffers more than 6 damage in a single hit, it releases a magnetic fragment that “replays” confused voices of former agents.All within 5 meters: SAN 0/1.
Weak Point: ReVox MotorA called shot to the torso (–20%) deals double damage.
SAN LossSeeing the Custodian in action: 1/1D4
FBI AGENT – HRT (Hostage Rescue Team)
Highly trained assault operator
STR 15, CON 14, DEX 16, INT 12, POW 11, CHA 10, HP 15, WP 11, SAN 60ARMOR 3 (HRT ballistic vest)
SkillsFirearms 70%, Athletics 65%, Unarmed Combat 60%, Alertness 70%, Stealth 55%, Demo. 40%, First Aid 50%, Navigate 40%, Drive 50%, Persuade (command tone) 45%, Tactics 60%.
WeaponsHK416 Carbine – Firearms 70%Damage: 1D10+2, ROF 3, 30 rounds
Glock 19 – Firearms 70%Damage: 1D10, 15 rounds
Unarmed Strike – 60%Damage: 1D4+1
Ritual “Entomologist’s Eye”
O occhio che fruga ne le tenebre del cranio,squarcia ‘l velo e mostra la bestia che rode l’anima,ché sua forma vile tremi nuda sotto ‘l mio sguardo.”
Difficulty: Occult 30% or Unnatural 20%Time: 10 secondsMaterials: Green lens + iron powder
Effects:• lens becomes yellow: subject clean (ritual succeeds but subject is not infected)• lens becomes black: subject possessed (SAN 0/1) (ritual fails but subject is infected)• light burst from the lens: parasite in the exit phase (SAN 1/1D4) (subject infected, ritual succeeds)
Critical Failure:The lens shatters: 1 damage + powder in the eyes (–20% penalty for 10 minutes).
Credits
Operation Black Cupid was written by Dregarexter for the 2025 Shotgun Scenario contest.
Source: https://docs.google.com/document/d/17Y-AxSR_RDZ1s5D6pu3TgjwK-iYveHkpg4Ds9HZLa-8/edit