TW: Sexual Abuse, Self Harm
MADISON LYLES (14) is found dead in her room inside of a protective circle, holding her father’s handgun. In the hallway outside her room is her brother Shaun (12), killed by two shots from said handgun. Her parents return late to find both their children dead.
Madison is anorexic, so she is pale and weak. The coroner will rule COD as heart attack (unofficially: complications from alcohol, and weakened state because of malnourishment). Actual COD is POW-drain but this can’t be proven.
Forensics from the hallway will show that the children fought. Madison arrived home psychotic from POW-loss, screaming and searching for the gun. When moving to draw the circle Shaun tried to disarm her.
The circle is poorly drawn but has some mythos insight (it’s copied from some papers Madison glimpsed at Temple of Wellness).
In Madison's room there are user amounts of cannabis (sold by A-R); Juice, bottles and such for a juice purge from Raw Life; crystals, basic ritual tools and light new age and yoga literature.
On her computer she’s surfed Pro-Ana forums and recently also light occult sites (always in safe mode and with strong passwords on forums).
Madison’s parents knows little of substance. Madison is well-mannered, socially conscious, on her computer a lot. She’s “picky about her food” (vegan). If specifically asked they’ll have noticed, but not recognized, symptoms of anorexia. They know Madison’s acquaintance Emily died, and that Madison was upset about it. They will point to Rebecca, Alice, and Tess as Madison's best friends (as will a Facebook search).
Earlier the night of her death Madison was at the psychiatric emergency room. She was aggressive and obviously drunk, and wanted to be hospitalized. She raved deliriously about being followed by someone who was “destroying [her] thoughts”. She was asked to wait and forgotten about until she started screaming at another patient and broke a bottle at which point she was forcibly removed by a nurse since no doctor was available at the time. The hospital staff will cooperate as long as they don’t risk blame for the death.
Searching PUBLIC RECORDS will turn up a higher than average death rate among teen girls especially the last six months. Health care professionals will point to: Lack of resources for psychiatry and school counseling, high teen homelessness and a cold winter, easy access to drugs and alcohol, and suicide chain reactions. While these factors contribute, the fact is that many of these girls have suffered some degree of POW-drain.
The PRO-ANA CIRCLE is a tightly knit group of girls around the ages 11 to 16 who have found each other through school or internet message boards. They provide each other emotional support and discuss strategies to avoid intervention in their anorexia but parentents, schools, mental health professionals, etc. They believe that anorexia is a legitimate lifestyle choice and that they’re a persecuted minority. Because of this they trust no one outside the circle, especially not adults. While all of these girls know at least rumors of what is going on, making them flip will take intense time and effort by a trained professional. The best friends are all in the circle.
TESS (16) is something of a mentor figure. She’s been trusted with a key to Temple of Wellness by Masha.
ALICE (14) is currently in a “relationship” with Sam to avoid an ongoing conflict with her parents over general mental health problems that she refuses help for.
REBECCA (13) is the only one Madison told about being stalked by a “vampire”. She dreads becoming its next victim, but is afraid her parents will force her into therapy if she talks.
A-R (18) is a high school dropout who sells drugs around the school. He know Madison’s face, a rumor that Alice is hooking, and that Erica is a pretty chill lesbian who used to smoke but has probably skipped town.
THE HOMELESS know that Erica is sometimes creeps about, and that Sam hits on teenagers.
RAW LIFE is a mid price health store and vegan establishment owned by Masha Tergen and run by Dave Logan. Neither of them are there regularly except when deliveries come in, when Dave does the inventory. Local anorexics shop here because juice cleanses and vegan food provides good opportunities for safe food. The members of the circle also like teas and spices and such that are also sold here. On a typical day Matt Burnell, a health bro, is minding the store. Matt recognizes Madison by face. In conversation Matt will give reasonable health tips and recommend Temple of Wellness, if he likes someone he’ll tell them to have his bro Sam hook the up with a discount.
TEMPLE OF WELLNESS is a yoga studio founded three years ago by Masha Tergen. They offer expensive classes on yoga techniques, health and spirituality; run a spa; and sell new age literature and materials. Their teen health program has affordable classes for youths 22 and younger on wednesdays and sundays. Some advanced classes include magic lessons.
MARSHA TERGEN is the owner, spiritual leader and head instructor. She is a licenced yoga instructor and has a BA in business economics. She was trained in yoga and the occult in Ajmer, India by crazy wisdom teacher, rapist and cultist Tertön Binoy Sharma.
DAVE LOGAN keeps the books, does logistics and orders materials. He’s Marsha’s husband and lacks formal qualifications. He was briefly jailed five years ago when police busted the Church of New Revelations for trafficking. He was the cults librarian and liaison to the occult underworld, and strings were pulled by the Fate to bail him out.
SAM ZYMANSKI is the yet-to-be-licensed instructor who has the youth group on wednesdays. There he makes contact with girls in trouble and risking homelessness. Later, never at work, he’ll sometimes help them out and sometimes let them live in his apartment in exchange for sex. Alice currently lives with him.
LAUREN Rawls AND INGRID Newman are licensed yoga instructors. Lauren runs the advanced groups that Marsha doesn’t have time for. She’s ignorant of any mythos significance to what she teaches. Ingrid is a licenced massage therapist and runs the spa.
THE TERGEN/LOGAN HOME is a rather large apartment on the third (top) floor. The walls are thick and the neighbours keep to themselves.
The front door is magically trapped by etchings on the doorframe and must be deactivated by Marsha or Dave's will or removed, if the trap is activated the victim loses 3d6 magic points and the trap is inactive for one minute.
The foyer, kitchen and living room form a loop that Marsha and Dave will use to flank the investigators.
The library is locked by a key Dave carries and houses a serious mythos library. Coded notes contain spells for summoning, binding, and banishing a Color out of Space (among others).
The ritual room is a large locked closet. A mattress on the floor is surrounded by a circle in chalk, occult symbols and small strange idols.
THE ORACLE lives in Erica Hollis’ (17) body. Her parents threw her out when she came out as gay. Already suffering from anxiety issues she was pushed into drugs and prostitution. Sam took her of the street, got her clean, and handed her to Dave for a ritual that made her the host of a Color out of Space.
The ritual has the following effects:
- The Color is in nearly full control of Erica’s actions.
- Erica has prophetic dreams that she can partially control.
- As long as Erica spends 12 hours per day in the protective circle the Color doesn’t hurt her. It must challenge the POW of the circle maker to enter and exit. If the maker is unconscious, it has a +10 bonus.
- The Color can leave Erica's body for up to one hour each day. During this time it can possess someone from whom it has already drain one or more POW from. This requires a POW-challenge.
- The Color can use all it’s normal abilities without leaving Erica’s body.
Unless the Oracle returns to the circle in time, Erica will be POW-drained to death in approximately 24 hours. If Erica is killed, the Color is released and attempts to kill anyone nearby before fleeting back into space.
Dave has realized that he can’t keep the Oracle contained and has cut a deal with it: He’ll groom people for it to feed on, it’ll aid in his and Marsha’s studies. He hasn’t told Marsha about his failure. He let’s it watch during the youth group and let’s it out to feed at night but only on the feeble and downtrodden. Since to symptoms of anorexia and the various problems the homeless face overlap strongly with those of the colors attacks (fatigue, paleness, anxiety, depersonalization) he hopes this won’t be detected.
If it thinks It’s at risk, the color may stalk and try to kill the investigators.
STATS:
Marsha Tergen
STR 13 CON 17 DEX 16
INT 10 POW 16 CHA 17
San 0
SKILLS Athletics 75, Business Economy 35, Dodge 60, Melee Weapons (dagger) 60, Occult 50, Persuade 60, Stealth 45, Unnatural 20
SPELLS Exaltation of the flesh, Dread Curse of Azathoth, The Voorish sign, Soothing Song, Withering, Several Contact spells, More as Handler sees fit
Dave Logan
STR 6 CON 9 DEX 10
INT 16 POW 17 CHA 12
San 0
SKILLS Accounting 40, Firearms (shotgun) 40, Law 40, Occult 85, Pharmacy 35, Unnatural 50
SPELLS Brew Dream Drug, Immortal Messenger, Summon Color out of Space, Bind Color out of Space in Oracle, Banish Color out of Space, Exorcism, More as Handler sees fit
Erica Hollis AKA the Oracle
STR 11 CON 7 DEX 11
INT 13 POW 10 CHA 12
San 3
SKILLS Alertness 75, Athletics 50, Dodge 50, Stealth 50
Special abilities as noted above.
Credits
This is an entry to the 2018 Delta Green shotgun scenario contest, written by Frans Witting.