Operation Canuck
Written by: philliefan
Submitted for the 2025 Shotgun Scenario Contest
Many thanks to Vythan, BritishNecktie, and many friends/roommates for helping me refine this scenario.
Briefing
Agents meet their case officer, Agent Glasgow, at Malmstrom AFB in Great Falls, MT. She informs them that Monica Marseilles, a local musician and known former fiancé of a long-deceased DG Agent, has been accruing occult tomes lately. The Agents are to investigate Monica and make sure that nothing truly Unnatural is going on. She also advises the Agents to take extra caution, as Monica is a Canadian citizen currently in the naturalization process. She gives them Monica’s address in Great Falls, and her place of work, Annie’s Tap House. Their goals are:
- Monitor Monica for truly unnatural activity, and neutralize her if necessary
- Determine if she knows the truth of her old fiance, and ensure her cooperation if she does
The Truth
Monica was engaged to Wayne Fletcher (Agent Gauss) 15 years ago, when he died in a DG operation in the woods outside Portland, Maine. Monica was told it was a workplace accident, and split her time between her music career in Canada and caring for Gauss’ aging parents back in Montana. She inherited their house after they died last year and has lived there ever since, working as a musician at a local pub.
Fletcher didn’t truly die, but became a multi-dimensional monstrosity. Agent Glasgow and his old Cell tried to hunt him, but he evaded them by traveling through the subsurface like groundwater. Six months ago, he slipped into Monica’s pipes and began psychically revealing his past to her. After two months, Fletcher physically revealed itself to her, and Monica went mad searching for a cure to Fletcher’s “condition”. She began mass-ordering occult books off Amazon, and finally stumbled upon a truly unnatural tome, Chœur d’Abîme. After one of its rituals granted her the power to communicate with Fletcher, she set her sights on a ritual that might cure him.
Hunting Fletcher
Fletcher was transposed across higher-dimensional space, changing his physical appearance from a man into a fluid mass of muscle and sinew which he can sharpen and extend into a lance. Fletcher’s presence produces three main phenomena:
- Trace elements in the water
- Water will begin to flow along magnetic field lines (i.e. circularly around wires)
- Buildings that he’s in for over 30min become a faraday cage to all wavelengths, including phone signal and unwired internet connection.
Clues
Annie’s Tap House, which overlooks the Missouri River, is a family business and local favorite. Monica is their in-house musician and sound tech, and she books their live music gigs. The proprietor, Annie Henderson, talks about Monica like a daughter, and Agents with enough HUMINT can tell from her demeanor that she’s concerned about her. She knows that Monica recently quit grief counseling, and started taking home a guy/gal at least once a week ever since. Agents that trail Monica taking someone home see it happen under the pretense of friendship and needing someone to vent to, with them eventually staying the night at Monica’s. The victim leaves Monica’s house in a depressed haze, and a handful of similar victims haunt the streets of Great Falls and Great Falls Clinic Hospital.
At Gibson Park along the south bank of the Missouri River, a joint research team from the EPA and USGS can be seen taking water samples and towing portable spectrometers. Agents can learn that, over the last six months, the river running through Great Falls has had heightened levels of iron, nickel, and rare earth metals like neodymium and ytterbium. Agents with a relevant Science can tell these metals are all highly magnetic. Unbeknownst to them, these are markers of Gauss’ presence in the subsurface.
Monica’s therapist, Dr. Mallory Lewis, is located just outside Malmstrom AFB. Speaking with her (and bypassing HIPAA protocols) or (illegally) accessing her patient records indicate a spike in depression cases in the last 4 months, and Monica’s mental state deteriorating in her last 2 months until she jubilantly walked out 5 minutes into their last session. Her diagnoses include schizophrenia, depression, and an unidentified sleep disorder.
Monica’s house is a modest abode with far too much space for one person. It’s 15 minutes by bus from Annie’s Tap House. Most of the house is dusty with abandonment except the kitchen, living room, and Monica’s room. The house is kept locked while Monica is at work (16:00 — ~00:00), and she won’t let Agents in without a good reason. The living room bookshelves are full of neatly arranged musical notebooks, and the walls are lined with instruments in cases. Agents with Art (Music) notice some notebooks contain musical gibberish, which can be decoded (using SIGINT or a similar skill) over a few hours, revealing a diary of Monica’s descent into madness (0/1D4 SAN). Monica’s room holds a cipher for the notebooks.
The basement door has a heavy padlock on it, which Monica carries the key for. The basement is unfinished, with beams and pipes partially obscured by a maze of bookshelves. Monica’s copy of Chœur d’Abîme can be found here, alongside a manhole cover underneath one of the bookshelves. It’s extraordinarily heavy to lift on its own, but it’s possible with a combined effort with Agents’ Strength totalling 28 or more, or half that if using a specially designed manhole lifting key. Beyond the manhole cover is a ladder that descends into a decaying, dry cistern. The walls show bare earth in places (allowing Fletcher to freely come and go) and the far side has a ritual circle carved into the concrete.
Escalation
Monica intends to gather as much vitality (in game: Power) as possible to perform a ritual to cure Fletcher. She usually does this by luring a patron of Annie’s or some other venue to her house, waiting for them to fall asleep, and sapping them during a joint ritual with Fletcher that takes 4hr. Afterward, victims are dumped into a gutter or on a park bench. Monica doesn’t want to sap enough to kill anyone, but desperation or Fletcher’s whisperings may drive her to do so in extreme circumstances. At the rate she’s currently going, she’ll finish in 4 days, but killing victims will shorten that. If Monica fears the Agents are on to her, or if her life is in danger, she’ll try to lure her victims (preferably an Agent) into a secluded spot and sic Fletcher on them. These victims are likely to perish on the spot, but those that live are taken back to Monica’s and drained to death.
Fletcher isn’t staying inactive either: the monster is flowing through the ground and into pipes while psychically probing potential victims. Fletcher’s transformation and the subsequent manhunt lead it to resent DG; if Fletcher gets wind that the Agents are DG, and especially of Agent Glasgow’s involvement, it will put Monica on high-alert and Fletcher will start ruthlessly hunting the Agents through psychic assaults and ambushes from sinks, showers, toilets, etc.
If Glasgow learns of Fletcher’s involvement, she’ll tighten up on information and advise a scorched earth policy towards anything and anyone involved. If ignored, she’ll take matters into her own hands and hunt Monica/Fletcher herself. If they follow her lead, she’ll bolster the group’s cover stories (+20% to any checks made to verify a cover-up)
Potential Resolutions
Monica is neutralized, Gauss escapes:
Agents lose (0/1D4 SAN) knowing something horrid evaded their search. If Glasgow knows Fletcher is involved, she starts another search and destroy op.
Fletcher is cured with the Agents’ help:
Agents gain (1D4 SAN) as Fletcher is re-transposed to humanity, if 10 years younger than he should be. If Glasgow knows Fletcher was involved, she tries to needle them with any charges she can get evidence for, making their lives a living hell.
Fletcher is cured despite the Agents’ actions:
Agents lose (1/1D8 SAN) as their struggle proves fruitless. If Agent Jane knows Fletcher was behind it, she gets revenge on the Agents by constantly assigning them highly lethal missions.
Monica and Gauss are eliminated:
Agents gain (1D8 SAN) from destroying the threat. If Glasgow knows Fletcher was involved, she helps with any remaining cover-up.
Stat Blocks
Monica Marseille
STR 10, CON 8, DEX 13, INT 13, POW 19 (unnaturally boosted), CHA 16
HP 9, WP 19, SAN 20 (Adapted to Helplessness), BP 18
Disorders: Depression, Megalomania, Sleep Disorder
Armor: None
Skills: Art(Music) 60%, Foreign Language(French, Quebecois) 70%, HUMINT 50%, Occult 40%, Persuade 75%, Psychotherapy 30%, Stealth 50%, Unnatural 20%
Attacks
Pepper Spray Keychain: 65%, 1m, Stuns target & -20% penalty
Pocket Knife: 30%, 1D4, AP0
Unarmed: 40%, 1D4, AP0
Agent Glasgow
STR 13, CON 11, DEX 12, INT 15, POW 14, CHA 9
HP 12, WP 10, SAN 35 (Adapted to Violence and Helplessness), BP 28
Disorders: Totemic Compulsion (rifle), PTSD
Armor: Kevlar vest (under shirt and jacket) - 3 Armor
Skills: Alertness 50%, Athletics 50%, Bureaucracy 50%, Criminology 70%, Dodge 40%, Forensics 50%, Firearms 50%, Occult 50%, Law 50%, Military Science (Air) 30%, Search 40%, Unnatural 10%
Attacks
Winchester Model 1895 Rifle: 50%, 100m, 1D12+2, SEMIAUTO ONLY, AP5
Beretta M9 Pistol: 50%, 10m, 1D10, AP0
Unarmed: 40%, 1D4, AP0
Wayne Fletcher/Agent Gauss: The Monster
STR 22, CON 30, DEX 14, INT 17, POW 23, CHA 7
HP 30, WP 23
SAN Loss: 1/1D6
Armor: See Resilient and Unnatural Biology
Skills: Alertness 95%, Psychic Intrusion 60%, Stealth 60%, Swim 99%
Attacks
Absorption: Contested STR, 1D4 Stat or HP per hour and 0/1D4 SAN
Hypergeometric Lance: 70%, 15% Lethality, AP6
Hemometallic Assault: 50%, 20m, 1D20, AP0
Abilities:
Absorption/Redistribution: Fletcher can latch on to an organism and absorb 1D4 HP or stat points of its choice per hour. It can likewise give those stat points to another organism in a similar manner. Consuming HP, STR, or CON involves consuming the victim and adding their biomass to Fletcher’s. Unwilling hosts can attempt a contested STR check to escape and lose 0/1D4 SAN.
Current-Inert: Fletcher’s affinity for electromagnetism combined with its hyperfluid nature make it immune to drowning, intense pressure changes, and electrical currents.
Faraday Prison: Prolonged exposure to Fletcher’s presence (30 minutes or more) causes a building or area to act like a Faraday cage, preventing radio waves (including those used by cell phones and wifi signals) and strong magnetic fields from entering or exiting. These effects decay 30 minutes after Fletcher leaves.
Field Observation: Fletcher perceives the world through how objects manipulate electric and magnetic field lines, essentially turning its surroundings into a nervous system. This can be disrupted by surrounding Gauss with highly magnetic or magnetically conductive materials.
Hemometallic Assault: Fletcher leeches nearby matter, combines it with a small piece of its hypergeometric biomass, and ejects it at a target while oscillates it between dimensions.
Hyperfluid Corpus: Fletcher flows like a fluid, allowing it to propel itself through porous media and pipes as well as overland faster than most humans can run. Fletcher can also flow up, down, and across the outsides of walls and ceilings.
Hypergeometric Lance: Fletcher hardens or sharpens a portion of itself and strikes out with it, tearing whatever it hits into a dimensional shunt.
Psychic Intrusion: Fletcher can detect surface thoughts and recognize people by perceiving their brains’ electric activity. It can induce visions and “speak” to people by distorting those signals. Resisting the intrusion requires a contested POW roll, and failing costs 0/1D6 SAN. Particularly horrific visions may cost additional SAN.
Resilient: Due to its amorphous nature, Fletcher can withstand overwhelming force. A successful Lethality roll does not destroy it, but inflicts HP damage equal to the Lethality rating.
Unnatural Biology: Due to Fletcher’s hyperfluidity, Agents can’t discern what parts of it are vulnerable, and thus can’t attempt a called shot.
Credits
Operation CANUCK was written by Philliefan for the 2025 Shotgun Scenario contest.
Source: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vllKgoelL8BOC6Ae7EzEO3IcASVTX7YkHXBKr802Keg/edit