Briefing
Three days ago the “company” stuck you in an old garage on the eastern outskirts of NYC. Your only instructions were to not leave until instructed and to be ready at a moment's notice. You’ve sat around trying your best to stay sane when suddenly, in the early hours of the morning, the burner begins to ring. The man on the phone shouts that the package is coming in hot and you need to be ready to start that car that’s in there with you and be ready to go.
Leaving the garage, you are greeted by the smell of ozone as a burnt black suv skids to a stop. Two equally charred men in suits step out and practically hurl a terrified preteen boy into the backseat. One of them leans into the driver's window and screams “get the kid to All-Hazards JetSki School in LA within 36 hours or Katrina is gonna look like a playful spring shower.” The agent then sprints back to his car and unloads a lightning rod as the other agents draw weapons and set up for a fight as indistinct figures begin to coalesce in the sky.
The Kid
Unbeknownst to Perry Johnson he is the child of an eldritch storm, one solidly on the Program’s hit list. Delta Green has uncovered that a ritual performed at a sacred site outside LA may ascend the child, destroying his parent, and ideally leaving a human weather weapon in the Program’s hands. Unfortunately this god is more of an attentive parent than most. All Perry knows is that he’s been kidnapped by scary men in suits and that everyone keeps telling him the weather is his fault. He may mention “the cloud monsters”. He is of course terrified and unless convinced that he is safe or that the Agents are acting in his interest he will attempt to escape if given the car is stopped for an extended period such as at a gas station or going slow and there are either lots of people around or somewhere like a forest he can flee into. Restraining him will also work but lead to its own problems if anyone sees, such as an Amber Alert.
| Action | San Loss |
| Forcibly Restraining Perry | 0/1 Violence |
| Accidentally Harming Perry | 1/1d4 Violence |
| Intentionally Harming Perry | 1d4/1d6 |
| Killing Perry | 1d4/1d10 |
Should the Agents attempt to take an aircraft, Perry begins sobbing and screaming, saying that the Clouds will kill them all if they fly. If Agents take off anyway, Riders on the Storm swarm the craft until it crashes.
The Weather and Driving
Implement progress and time remaining clocks, each with 8 segments. Increase the progress clock for completing road encounters such as Law Enforcement or Refueling, for a critical success on a driving check, or narrative action.
Implement a time counter for every 2 progress counters, as an optional penalty for critical failure, a narrative penalty for an encounter, or other penalty.
As the mission continues and the Agents near their target the weather will worsen significantly. The storm will start as a light rain but over the day worsen into a hurricane, one localized perpetually around the Agents.
As the weather worsens, implement penalties to driving, shooting, alertness, etc. These penalties should increase for driving, starting at -5 and increasing by 5 at a time to -40. Non-driving skills should only be implemented at and to -20 and -40. Conditions should worsen every tick of the time clock, starting at tick 2. At tick 6, 3 Riders on the Storm attack the car. Once the time clock is filled, tell the Agents that the storm is reaching nigh apocalyptic levels and that they have very little time remaining. Another tick means failure.
The Car
An eggshell 2022 Audi A6. Anyone with any knowledge of cards or electronics notice that all non-essential systems have been stripped out, including most alarms, the ac and heating units, any screens and electronics, etc. The exceptions to this are a mounting for what looks to be a laptop or similar device and a CB radio. Several full cans of fuel are loaded in the trunk. The fuel provided combined with a larger internal tank will cover around 1/4 of the journey. The Agents will need to find ways to refuel.
RefuelingEach stop for Gas should take around 5 minutes in an ideal world. Get out, refuel, get back in. Each stop can be complicated in a number of ways. If the Agents have attracted police attention, it is a perfect place for them to get caught with their pants down. Additionally, as the weather worsens, gas stations may close or turn off the pumps for safety. Agents may need to convince the staff to reactivate pumps or break into the gas station which may or may not have civilians inside, and turn the pumps on themselves.
Driving and Navigation
The record for driving from NYC to LA is 25 hrs 39 minutes. This was set during the COVID-19 pandemic with reduced traffic by a prepared team with a planned route and no supernatural opposition. The Agents have none of these luxuries. To make their destination on time they will need to drive over 100 mph on average.
Finding a route from NYC to LA is as simple as plugging it into Google Maps, which will take them on Route 80 to Route 70 to Route 15 on the shortest path. The longer route will take them along Route 81 to Knoxville to Route 40 and then a number of shorter routes. Neither path avoids major population centers and uses popular roads.
Law Enforcement and Encounters
Cops will attempt to pull over and ticket or arrest speeding Agents, implement a heat counter, ticking up as Agents violate the law, draw attention, or as an alternative penalty for failing driving rolls. Heat can be lowered as a reward for creative action or successful chase rolls.
| Heat | Action |
| 0 | N/A |
| 1 | Cops follow at low speed with sirens |
| 2 | High speed chase |
| 3 | Local news sends out crews. |
| 4 | Roadblocks, PIT maneuvers, and spike traps. |
| 5 | Police |
| 6 | State news alerted |
Implement encounters as optional delays or challenges
| Bridge Collapse | Requires alternate route or careful crossing |
| Heavy Traffic | Traffic is backed up on this road, Agents find themselves trapped in it. |
| Street Racers | Racers see the Agents speed as a challenge and interfere |
| Tornado | A tornado seems to pursue the team costing 1/1d4 SAN from unnatural and requiring shelter or increased speed. |
LAArriving in LA, the weather is near unnavigable. The Jet-Ski school is a few miles north of the city, but by this point emergency services are likely too distracted to focus on the Agents unless they have somehow brought a national manhunt upon themselves. Six armed individuals will greet the Agents at the school, they are all clearly relieved to see the Agents. They will rush Perry to an excavation site on the beach. In a pit, only barely protected from the waves by a make-shift barrier, is a strange altar covered in barnacles and living seaweed (realizing that these things are attached and should not be alive costs 0/1 San). The other agents will tie Perry to the altar with seaweed, gather around, and commence a ritual. Each stretches out their arms and a strange energy seems to pass between them, the one closest to the water begins chanting in a language which can be recognized by an Agent with ANTHROPOLOGY, HISTORY, or OCCULT at 50% as Summerian. Over the course of the next 5 minutes, the storm will slowly be dragged downwards, seemingly being forced into Perry until with a final blast of force, it is entirely pulled in, the air ringing with a silent scream of rage and fear. This final event requires a CON roll to avoid being sent flying, taking 1 damage or 1d6 on a critical fail.
2 minutes into the ritual two Riders on the Storm will descend, with another arriving every minute. They attempt to interrupt the ritual, attacking the participants who are unable to defend themselves beyond dodging. If a participant is killed or disabled an Agent will have to take their place. Doing so means a strange energy nearly paralyzes the agent as the power of a god is channeled through them. The Riders disappear when the ritual ends.
Witnessing the ritual costs 1/1d4 from unnatural, the “scream” costs another 0/1d4 from unnatural. Participating costs an additional 1d4/1d6.
Should Perry die or the ritual fail, an apocalyptic storm system ravages the nearby region. All services are cut off, bodies of water flood, infrastructure collapses, countless die. It is significantly worse if the ritual fails but Perry lives and focuses on his location. All storms end with the ritual succeeding and the other team thank the Agents and take Perry, now crackling with energy, away. Surviving Agents gain 1d6 sanity.
STATS
Riders on the Storm
An ethereal cloud figure, racing through the skies after the enemies of their dark god.
STR 20 CON 20 DEX 20 INT 10 POW 15
HP 20 WP 15
Semi-Coporeal The Riders spend most of their time in the form of a cloud of vaporous fog, manifesting only long enough to cast furious bolts of lightning or interact with the environment. While in this fog-form they can not be harmed by most physical attacks with exception of energy weapons such as flamethrowers and stun guns (cause damage like a light pistol). A readied action is needed to damage it when it becomes solid but before it dissolves.Made of Wind Riders move by flying and can fit through spaces only passable by gasses. They are unaffected by storm conditions. God’s Bolt (40%) The Rider hurls a bolt of lightning at its target. This bolt deals 1d6 damage ignoring armor. The target must pass a CON save or be stunned as if hit with a stun gun. These attacks may transmit through metal and are attracted to it.
San Loss: 1/1d6
Credits
Operation Cannonball was written by AstroCat for the 2024 Shotgun Scenario contest.
Source: https://docs.google.com/document/d/16HFW1QtJO0jGUZd1hMCCCSvvSHdzZNp4hLDDg0IYEkY/edit