BACKGROUND
Cell K has apprehended the prisoner. She has been placed in a black site for interrogation. Cell K is no longer associated with this case and is unavailable for contact by the active cell for any reason. Cell K has also acquired The Box. The Box is placed in a separate room in The Black site. The Prisoner is hooded, gagged and handcuffed. According to Cell K:s report she has displayed unnatural physical capabilities as well as extrasensory perception.
THE BOX
A small black safe of unknown make and model. The front of the safe has a hatch that seems to be able to be opened by pressing a code on the keypad found on the side of the safe. The Keypad has 12 buttons laid out in 4 rows with 3 buttons on each row like a standard keypad. The buttons on the keypad are blank, they seem to never have had any numbers or symbols printed on them.
The correct code to open the safe is 9 button presses long. Inputting the wrong code makes the keypad glow red but does nothing else. Breaching or breaking open The Box in any way destroys the content of the safe in a sudden flash of flame.
The content of the Box is a single page of paper covered in what looks like random numbers and letters. The coded page is useless and impossible to translate without context that the agents don’t have access to.
THE BLACK SITE
A makeshift prison in the basement under a shutdown factory. A man known only as Agent Frank waits outside the door into the Black site for the cell to finish their mission. The Black Site has 3 rooms.
* The first room has the only way in or out, a metal door that can be barred from the inside. Here there is a table and four chairs. The Box is currently on the table. In a corner there is a sink and a cheap coffee maker.
- The second room has a one-way mirror allowing a person in this room to look into the third room. The door from room 2 to room 3 is an ordinary door that can be locked from the room 2 side. The second room contains several instruments meant to be used in an enhanced interrogation situation. Equipment to perform waterboarding, a surgical kit, ordinary tools, first aid equipment, alcohol, restraints, tools for electrical torture, restraints and a blow torch.
- The third room is a concrete box with a drain in the middle of the floor. A metal chair is bolted to the floor. The Prisoner is secured to the chair with several pairs of handcuffs.
OBJECTIVE
A-Cell wants the Cell to get the code to open the box from The Prisoner within 8 hours. After this time is up the information becomes useless to them, this is why they can’t just brute force the code to open the Box. When they have gotten the Box open they are to hand over the contents to Agent Frank, execute the Prisoner and dispose of the body. They are free to use whatever means they choose to gain the information from the Prisoner. If they cannot accomplish the mission within the time limit they are to execute the Prisoner, dispose of the body and give the Box to Agent Frank.
THE PRISONER
The being known as Juliet McPherson looks like a caucasian woman in her forties with an average height and build. She has blond hair and brown eyes. She has a slightly faded tattoo of an owl on her left biceps and a scar that seems to be from an appendix surgery on her stomach. When she speaks she does so with an educated accent that is hard to place.
She is not what she seems.
Five years ago Juliet stopped existing as something from beyond the stars remade her brain. The physical structure of her brain is totally abnormal, smooth and purple instead of wrinkled and gray. It looks like a ball of breathing bubblegum more than anything that should be inside a living body. The thing inside Juliet's body started building machines. One of those machines is about to remake a lot of other brains, turning more people into whatever Juliet is now, unless it can be stopped. The only way for someone to stop it is to get the information hidden inside the Box. The Prisoner does not want that.
THE INTERROGATION
Torture does not work to gain reliable information. It works even worse on inhuman creatures unable to feel pain or fear. So all torture the agents perform during this operation is just a way for them to rend their own sanity. 1/1d4 sanity loss for each time they perform torture. During the interrogation, the Prisoner will use the fact that she has impossible knowledge about the investigators, the fact that she looks human, and the fact that she can simulate the effects of being tortured against the agents. If her blood is shed, she can take the form of another person. Witnessing this transformation causes 1/1d6 sanity loss. The transformation looks like the Prisoner is being turned inside out in an orgy of rippling and boiling flesh. She will then take the form of one of the agents' bonds and act just like that person, even knowing things only the bond could know. Torturing the prisoner while she looks like a bond causes 1/1d6 sanity loss each time.
If the Prisoner is let loose or escapes the chair, she will try to escape, stopping only to grab the contents of the Box. She will kill if she thinks she has to in order to escape, but she will not prioritize killing the agents and is not interested in human things like revenge.
If one of the Prisoner's hands is damaged during the interrogation, she will slip the handcuffs holding her bound to the chair and try to escape.
Using fire or acid on the Prisoner will not have any special effect. The Prisoner will, however, act like it does, playing on humanity's impulse to believe that such means have a greater effect on the unnatural. She will lead the agents along in an attempt to get them to use enough fire or acid so that it causes so much damage to her body that she can slip her bonds.
The Prisoner will describe what she will do to the agents' bonds and loved ones when she breaks out. She will imply that she has telepathic contact with other things like her that will hurt the agents and those close to the agents.
The Prisoner will act like she feels pain and terror from the torture. When she has taken the form of a bond, she will do the same. If she thinks that it will cause more distress, she will act like the torture is sexually exciting, especially if she has taken the form of a bond where this would be revolting, such as with a parent or a child.
The Prisoner will, if she has a chance to slip her bonds, give a false code to the Box in order to cause at least one fewer agent to be in room 3 during her escape attempt.
If the Prisoner is gagged again, she will throw up and pretend to choke to death on it in an attempt to escape.
The Prisoner will bite an agent if she is able to. She will then imply that this has infected them with the unnatural.
Accessing the Prisoner's mind with unnatural means to get the code is possible. This will, however, start the year-long process of remaking the agent's brain into something unnatural.
SOLVING THE SCENARIO
The Prisoner will not give up the code to the Box. She doesn't want to die but she would rather die than give up the code and she does not believe that talking will save her life. If she thinks that she can escape, and if she thinks that she has the time to, she will open the Box and bring the contents with her. The contents of the Box represents many years of work for her and she would prefer to not leave without it. Tricking her into doing this is the only way to get to the content of the Box in time.
THE PRISONER
STR 18, CON 20, DEX 10, INT 18, POW 20, CHA 15
HP 25, WP 20
SKILLS: Tell If You're Lying 60%, Pretend to Be a Person 75%, Know Exactly Where You Are Every Time You Are Alone 55%, Know Things About You She Shouldn't Be Able to Know 75%
ARMOR: The Prisoner regenerates 1d6 HP on her turn. She doesn't suffer unconsciousness or stun.
SHAPESHIFTING: If The Prisoner's blood is shed, she can morph her flesh and look like anybody else. She will take the form of one of the Agents' bonds.
ATTACKS:
Slam: (55%, 2d6 damage)
Bite: (60%, 1d4 damage)
Grapple (60%, pins target)
GRAPPLE: If The Prisoner grabs a target, she then automatically hits them with slam attacks each turn and deals maximum damage.
Credits
Pliers and their uses was written by Sebastian Lindeberg for the 2023 Shotgun Scenario contest.
Source: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tIMmYk1SFp4gNKnVbz7mf9-YLtDKw-cZhlSltMtD2Tk/edit