“And I learned that His song has been flowing to the Earth for millions of years. Before, you had to concentrate really hard to receive it. Now he has many ways to enter, but he does not rush. He has been waiting long enough and now enjoys the worship.”
— from an agent’s debrief at the Newcastle hospital, Delaware.
This scenario takes place in a city with a TV studio. Pick any decade: 80s, 90s, 00s. Playing characters can be Delta Green agents invited by the security service, However this scenario is mainly aimed at TV studio staff and guests—PR managers, program hosts, cameramen, criminology consultants, engineers, etc..
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Table of Contents
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Backstory
For eons a cosmic horror from other dimensions has been tapping the shell of our reality. The entity rarely shows itself, therefore little is known about it, and there is barely a trace of it in the cultural heritage of humanity. Tiny bits of knowledge that exist are unreliable: they originate from Greek oracle’s pythia, indian coca leaf rituals and other shady practices that allow summoning White Noise—a servant of Nyarlathotep.
It is both a particle and a wave, and the simplicity of this structure alongside the path of human evolution created the conditions for complete destruction of humanity. Someone has carved that path and has a clear idea where it leads.
White Noise can manifest at any moment, at any time of day. But it requires an elaborate sequence of triggers, which makes it untraceable.
First, there must be a repeater to retransmit the signal—a TV serves this purpose well. The victim must have a particular state of mind: conscious and depressed (grieving, stressed, traumatized). Then, a victim must stay until late and see what happens on the screen when supposedly there is no signal (a player must also fail a POW test). A White Noise N-gram gets written in any person’s brain alongside an emotional trauma at any age, and it can’t disappear or get erased. It is a slowly ticking time bomb.
The N-gram does not affect daily life. A person can grow up with it, live a long life and die peacefully of old age. However, if a traumatizing event repeats while the person is on the low and there’s a snowfall outside…
The rise of cinema and television in the 20th century has become a rich soil for summoning White Noise. In the early 00s TV seemed to have lost its influence to the Internet, but soon regained it in the video streaming format. White Noise has acquired a new channel to infect even more minds; and the number is already critical.
Players most probably grew up with a television in their house, so the Handler can insert the time bomb into the brain of any character, or choose someone who seems most sensitive to the events of this oneshot.
What happened
There has been a murder in the TV studio. The employees are gathered in a conference room, where they are told the news. It is announced that Dominik Szpikowski, Doctor of History, was killed. He was a guest of the "American Mystery" program, which was being recorded in Studio #2. Everyone is asked to keep working but not move around the office unless necessary, and cooperate with the security. The security service runs a swift internal investigation eliminating reputational risks, and in a few hours they call the police or contact Delta Green.
Characters’ motivation to investigate the crime may be fear of getting fired, aim to save the studio, personal or professional goals—for example, promotion; or they are fans of “American Mystery” or “Crime News”.
Those present at the program shooting know that Dr. Szpikowski had an argument with another guest—Aaron Goldlight, who poses as a follower of a neo-Zoroastrian cult. There is a recording of this dispute that shows a malfunction of the equipment, due to which the recording was paused. During this interruption, Dr. Szpikowski was found in the hall—or rather what was left of him.
There are three studios on the same floor (#1—"Crime News" (pre-recorded), #2—"American Mystery" (pre-recorded), #3—"Weather" (live broadcast)), several offices, technical rooms for video and sound editing, and the security office.
Informants
Tim Pratt, head of security (owns the murder footage and gives access to the crime scene),
Eugene Malkovich, producer of the “American Mystery” show (owns the recording of the conflict, gives access to the studio),
Barbara Heart, studio engineer responsible for recording and editing (has the recording of the glitch, logs of equipment operation, copies of recordings from studio cameras and security cameras footage),
Aaron Goldlight, suspect, follower of a neo-Zoroastrian cult (either stole the Dr. Szpikowski’s notebook, or it was left in the studio).
Clues
The murder footage, grainy and scratched: White Noise engulfs the shaking figure of the victim; blood is spraying in all directions. Tiny drops of blood seem to be staying in the air like mist, covering everything, including Doctor’s clothes and personal items, in a crimson pattern. The footage appears to be cut on one side, allowing multiple interpretations of the murder and its weapon.
Video of the dispute shows that Goldlight corrects Dr. Szpikowski as he talks about the interpretation of the Zoroastrian mystery text, he sharply lashes out in response. The argument escalates, and they start yelling at each other. Szpikowski is shoving his notebook with alleged proof of his words into the opponent’s face. All witnesses tell more or less the same story.
Most attentive characters may notice a change in the emotional state of the studio staff during the conflict (in fact, caused by the technical glitch).
Equipment malfunction—the manifestation of White Noise—starts as a glitch and transitions into white noise on all studio monitors, even the prompter. White Noise breached the day before through the trauma of Barbara Heart and changed the settings of the studio equipment, which allows it to feed through this channel every two or three hours. Everyone who sees the noise on the screen must take a POW test (not being stressed due to a personal matter or current events gives +20 to it). Error logs are stored on Barbara’s computer, and they seem to have a pattern. Babara’s computer also contains a change log of equipment settings.
Doc’s notebook—an A5-format notebook in a soft leather binding, scribbled in a neat handwriting. It contains many incoherent notes and drawings about the Zoroastrian mysteries, including inaccurate descriptions of White Noise and ways to summon it for sending a message to Greater Gods, assembled from books and articles of fellow historians. They look like practical notes that are easy to follow. For example, the line saying that two sacrifices and ritual chants are enough for success is circled three times.
Players may encounter White Noise itself if they happen to be in the right place at the right time (the Handler should mark the periods of hunger of White Noise): in the studio, when the technical glitch reoccurs, they may feel the terror of the unnatural, or maybe witness the murder of Eugene Malkovich, the producer of “American Mystery”—or learn about it from other people.
In the latter case, suspicion may fall on Goldlight (similar nature of the murder, but lack of motive) or the weather presenter Shelly Taval, who, according to the rumors, had an affair with the producer. During the investigation Shelly, emotionally distressed, would actively defend Aaron Goldlight. At the moment of murder she was on air in her studio.
The sequence of murders is random—White Noise kills any victim it can reach among those infected and emotionally weakened. For example, Eugene Malkovich was afraid of being fired due to the disappearance of Szpikowski and ruined studio equipment and felt guilty for planning a breakup with Shelly Taval, so during another glitch his N-gram and childhood trauma let White Noise break through into our world.
When the players start to think those were the only two murders, head of security should show them something—or the characters may get that information using their skills to gain his trust. The night before a security guard watching the security cameras was killed in the same manner—no body, just the spray of blood. Obviously, this information was withheld from everyone but his superiors. Now we have three murders.
The security service has a record of Barbara Heart entering the office an hour before the security guard’s murder. She spent two hours at her desk, not seeing the guard. Her memory of the event and the changed settings is blocked (though it can be restored with a successful Psychotherapy test during 2d20 minutes), so she acts just like other studio staff—worried about what happened and generally trying to help. The Handler may give her some motivation to sabotage, but she is mostly a tool and possibly the next meal of White Noise.
The Unnatural cannot be killed, but can be dismissed and locked out. This scenario follows the same principle of players’ “victory”: restoring old settings on the equipment, replacing the equipment (with default settings), reinforcing IT security, or closing the studio would block the entrance for White Noise. The dismissal ritual sends White Noise away from our reality. Power outage or evacuation are temporary measures that may lead to new victims. In this case Delta Green will intervene, called by an associate at the security service.
Stat block: White Noise effects and abilities
Summoning: It is still possible to encounter rituals and texts with His invocation. They certainly do not include television, but there will be many mourners, vibrating musical instruments, drugs, and the right words. He is summoned to cause chaos, make a person disappear without a trace, or leave a message to Nyarlathotep. An operator loses 1d6 POW for interaction with White Noise, and everyone who witnesses its manifestation loses 1d10 SAN.
Helplessness: The victim cannot dodge the attack, going into a torpor while White Noise devours the flesh. This takes 1d10 minutes (divide the remaining HP of the victim by this result to calculate the damage) and happens almost silently, only the scratching of particles against our reality can be heard. Noise only targets the victim, doing no physical harm to those who happen to be near.
Psychotherapy: White Noise cannot be removed from one's mind, but its link to a trauma makes it vulnerable. Therapy gives a victim bonus points for test rolls, and for some it can be lifesaving. If a witness of the White Noise attack has a skill of Psychotherapy, talking to a victim may give them a chance for another POW test. However, White Noise may try to get back at the one who helped the victim through the conscience of an assistant (see Zombie).
Zombie: White Noise can intercept mind control, if the victim fails the POW test and has an N-gram. Obtaining a physical body causes discomfort for White Noise, so it only lasts 1d10 minutes, but what this unnatural creature will do during this time, nobody can tell.
SAN loss: 1d6/1d10.
Credits
Redial Call was written by Magnum Spiritus for the 2022 Shotgun Scenario contest.
Source: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hkFqsaPoz473tHvCXRjw62PcV7bLI4RS8hxesgeI350/edit.