St. Christopher's

Introduction

Sarah Anderson high school girl hiding a dark secret.  She is a sociopath who stumbled upon a doll, used in a binding ceremony ages ago to contain otherworldly trespassers.  Sarah has been using these shadow people to murder with increasing frequency, which has brought her actions to the Group’s attention.

Her latest victim was math professor Harold Jenkins, a Friendly who had gotten too close to figuring out what was happening.  The bizarre nature of his murder set off red flags that pulled the Group in.

The Body

Jenkins’ body has been cut into roughly 300 unequal portions.  All cuts were made in straight lines by the shadow people as they passed through him.  Half of a leg cube is in a pickle jar in Sarah’s bedroom closet, along with portions of the rest of her victims.  A brief examination of the body will locate the other piece, which was obviously cut in half with a knife, as it is bloody and not cauterized.

Students

Erica Hennessey is a recent transfer student who has made a few stoner friends, but she generally hasn’t gotten along well with either her classmates or the administration.

Erica’s dorm room is decorated with posters for a variety of heavy metal bands.  She and her friends are smart enough not to keep any drug paraphernalia in their rooms, opting instead to hide it in the drop ceiling of the science lab.  There is a bloodstain on her work desk from where Sarah left part of Jenkins after cutting it in half.  

Erica has been detained and questioned by the police.  Erica was actually behind the dorms smoking pot with her friends when the murder happened, but won’t come forward with this alibi unless convinced.

If questioned about the fight, Erica will tell the agents that she overheard Sarah threatening Zoey in the girls’ restroom.  When she confronted Sarah about it, Sarah started the fight.

Zoey is a self-proclaimed mystic and prophet.  Long before she got mixed up with Sarah, she was interested in magic and the occult.  She would perform tarot card readings with mixed accuracy for her friends, and claimed to be able to hex people.  Lately, she has claimed to be able to tell who has fallen under Slenderman’s eye, and to help move his gaze, for a fee.

When Sarah first approached Zoey with that idea, it seemed like a great way to get people's attention.  But when Todd disappeared, she began to get scared. Sarah cornered Zoey and had a shadow person cut off her finger when she told Sarah that she was going to stop.  Now she’s trying to put on a normal face while frightened to her core.

Sarah has one of her shades following Zoey around.  If Zoey tells anyone of what is happening,it will eventually kill Zoey, unless stopped, reduce her body to a fine dust, and then dissipate and return to Sarah.

Sarah’s current goal is damage control.  She is enjoying the fear that the disappearances and murder has caused, but she did not intend for this to blow up as quickly as it has.  She saw the opportunity to frame Erica, leaving the body to be found and placing half of the meat cube from Jenkins’ leg on Erica’s desk in the dorm room.  She plans on laying low and not drawing attention.

Sarah is worried about the renegade shades, but knows that they can’t harm her as long as she has the doll.  Once things calm down, she plans on subduing them one by one. Then she might just disappear herself and go on a cross-country killing spree.

Whether Zoey spills the beans or not, Sarah knows that she will have to die, preferably after things calm down.  

All of her victims so far have been reduced to dust, except for the portion that Sarah retains in her pickle jar as a trophy. She keeps this jar behind a section of wall that she had a shade cut open for her, behind the top shelf of her wardrobe.  When closed properly, it is almost impossible to see the cut in the wall.

Sarah controls the shades through verbal commands in Aklo.  She only knows the language through her experiences with the shadow people, though her grasp is becoming stronger and she is able to give them more complicated instructions.

If Sarah believes she has been found out, she will send shades to kill the agents while she takes the doll, the journal, and the pickle jar and makes her escape.

Charlie Stanhope  went to the public high school a few miles from St. Christopher's and lived 5 blocks away.  One of the rogue shades killed and disappeared his little sister Kylie in front of him. Charlie went insane when he saw this happen.

Charlie now believes that he is SunRisingWestward and his mandate is to hunt down the creatures haunting the woods behind St. Christopher’s.  Wearing an old mask and wielding an ancient dagger that he found in the old cathedral, he has had some success destroying the rogue shades. Each use of the dagger has driven him more insane.  He wanders the woods and campus at night, hunting down the shades. Glimpses of him has further fueled the Slenderman rumors. He views any Agents entering the woods as thralls of Slenderman.

The Old Cathedral

In the woods behind the school is the burnt ruins of the old cathedral.  Old beer cans, discarded syringes, and other refuse are piled throughout.

Currently, the cathedral is the home to Charlie Stanhope JR and the remaining 6 shades, who have learned to stay hidden and avoid Charlie.

Artifacts

A small porcelain doll that can be dated back to the 1600s.  Destroying the scroll within the doll will release the shadow people from the binding spell, whereupon they will turn upon any who give them orders.  Afterwards, they fizzle back to their own realm.

The journal is a small, leather notebook that details a ritual that was used to bind a shadow person ino the doll and make it the servant of doll’s owner.  It states that the shadow person had been summoned by a witch and has been bound as a method of containing it while the witch was executed.

Studying the journal is sufficient enough to repeat the ritual.  The journal also contains several command words in Aklo. While only simple commands can be given at first, the bizarre nature of the language allows for more nuanced instructions to be given after continued use, as more of the language manifests in the caster’s mind.

The Shadow People

The shadow people are not bound by physicality and can easily pass through the spaces between atoms.  They can use this same nature to cleanly slice through physical objects. This produces a large amount of heat and radiation in the process, generally cauterizing wounds instantaneously.   The presence of shadow people can be detected by the electromagnetic interference that they cause moving through objects. There is an audible hissing and crackling noise as they move. They are seen as an absence rather than a presence, as they interfere with light trying to pass through them.  They are vaguely humanoid in shape when viewed directly, but more angular and sharp. As two-dimensional creatures, they cannot be seen at all if viewed from the side.

They will make their presence known and hunt fleeing prey unless specifically ordered not to.  After killing a human, another shadow person may be born. This new shadow person is not immediately under Sarah’s control and will hunt her down, but the bindings within the doll prevent them from getting close to her.  Sarah is aware of this and currently has 4 shades. After a close call, Sarah keeps the doll with her at all times now.  

STR N/A  CON N/A DEX 12  INT 15 POW 18
HP 5  WP 18 SAN N/A 
Armor: see Incorporeal
Skills: Alertness 75% Stealth 90% Search 35% Unnatural 30%

Attacks: Slice 45% damage 2d6.

Incorporeal:  The Shadow people are not native to our physical existence, but seem to have some effect on the electromagnetic spectrum.  Regular attacks have no effect on the shadow people unless a critical hit is rolled. This armor can be negated by attacks that utilize the electromagnetic spectrum in some way, such as a cattle prod or magnetized bullets, or by attacks with an area of effect.  An EMP may also interfere with their unnatural physiology enough to send them back to where they came from.

Slice:  The Shadow People can utilize their unnatural geometry to separate organisms at an atomic level.  The attack deals 2d6 armor piercing damage and the Shadow Person separates bone and tissue. If the victim survives, the wound is cauterized by the intense energies released, but they must make a 1/1d8 SAN Check.  Witnessing this attack inflicts a 0/1d4 SAN check.

Credits

This was an entry to the 2019 Delta Green shotgun scenario contest, written by KushTheStampede.