SPECIAL PROVENANCE
PREMISE
A rare bottle of wine with unnatural properties catches the eye of a wealthy collector, a band of criminals, and The Program.
INTRODUCTION
Six years ago, Martina Derby (Agent PENINSULA) quarantined a collector of unnatural relics. She stored one item in her Green Box for later examination: an antique bottle of wine. If she discovered anything about it, she did not report it to her handler. Martina Derby died two years ago.
The bottle contains an alien bacterium. If exposed to air, the bacterium will call to its kind over any distance. Nobody knows this. In less than one week, unless someone intervenes, this lost vintage will be uncorked.
THE BRIEF
In an interview with Wine Spectator magazine, hedge fund principal Vitaly Bourdillon expresses interest in locating a bottle of the 1902 Vincente Noguera Gran Reserva. Delta Green is aware that Agent PENINSULA was investigating this vintage before her death.
The agents are tasked to:
- Determine whether Bourdillon is aware the wine may have unnatural properties.
- If so, determine whether Bourdillon has any other unnatural relics, samples, or texts.
- Prevent Bourdillon or anyone in his employ from acquiring the wine.
- Follow standing orders as usual.
The Handler can provide the agents with the following:
- A Customs and Border Patrol ID. This will pass as legitimate, but will get flagged by any official inquiries, "expiring" 1d6 days afterward.
- A private investigator license and an agreement affirming that the named PI is on retainer pursuant to a client investigation. The agreement is on a real law firm's letterhead; the client is anonymous.
VITALY BOURDILLON
CIO of Dominion Capital. 61 years old, reasonable health, multi-millionaire, three children from a prior marriage. Has just recently started collecting wine.
Bourdillon is unaware of the wine's unnatural properties. However, his wealth and connections make him very difficult to deceive, rob, or threaten. He will not meet anyone acting in a legal capacity, such as a CBP agent or a PI, without an attorney present. He will not meet anyone at all without his office manager and head of security, Stefanie Halle, in the room.
STEFANIE HALLE
Former captain in the U.S. Army's 16th Sustainment Brigade. 38 years old, excellent health. Currently head of security for Dominion Capital.
Close reading of her deployment history (Military Science 60% or a Bureaucracy check) suggests she was an intelligence officer who specialized in interrogation and recruiting assets.
Halle supplements her Dominion Capital salary by fencing military weapons to street dealers. She also occasionally acts as muscle for organized crime and recruits other veterans to do the same. She is always armed and is hardened to violence.
Halle's first exposure to the unnatural came while supporting a Special Forces deployment in Somalia. She knows no rituals and possesses no relics or texts. But she knows such things exist and she is eager to acquire them.
Halle knows that the wine has unnatural properties, but not what they are. Bourdillon is completely unaware. Bourdillon overheard Halle discussing the wine on a phone call. He seeks to acquire the wine as a present for her.
THE WINE
Purportedly a 1902 Vicente Noguera Gran Reserva, a Carignan from the Priorat region. Most of the 1902 crop was wiped out due to a phyloxerra epidemic. The Spanish Civil War destroyed many of the remaining private collections.
The wine is stored in a heavy green bottle caked with dust. "1902 V.N. Priorat" is written on the bottle in faded yellow chalk. An experienced appraiser (Art: Collectibles at 40%, a History check at -20%, or a relevant Bond or Motivation) will be able to identify it as a fake without even opening it.
Delta Green knows Martina was investigating the wine and knows the location of Martina's Green Box. They do not know for certain that the wine is in the Green Box.
THE INCIPIENT
The bottle contains iodine, not wine. Suspended in the iodine is a single cell of an alien bacterium.
Sleeping or reaching an altered state of consciousness (intoxicated, high) within thirty feet of the bottle, even if sealed, exposes one to the bacterium. Subjects who fail a POW check have visions. Filtered through human perceptions, these visions will appear surreal and disturbing:
- Fields of fingers waving like tall grass beneath a sickly yellow sky
- City streets lined with skyscrapers, every window a mouth making soft chewing sounds
- Standing on the shore of a dark purple ocean as the tide crashes and recedes, leaving piles of eyeballs instead of foam
- etc
Opening the bottle and exposing the bacterium to air puts anyone nearby at risk. Subjects who fail a CON check suffer hallucinations. These visions will persist while the subject and the bottle share an enclosed space and then for 2d6x10 minutes afterward. Exposure to these hallucinations prompts a SAN check (1/1d4).
If the bacterium remains exposed to air for more than 24 hours, it will attract other such bacteria from around the planet and, given time, from space. The reach and intensity of exposure to hallucinations will increase as more bacteria gather. Within 30 days of the bacterium's exposure to air, every creature on the planet capable of dreaming will descend into madness.
Consuming the bottle means taking your character sheet and putting it in that special folder.
KENT DERBY
Martina Derby's son. College dropout, heroin addict. Kent is not aware of the nature of Martina's work for Delta Green, but he knows she did illegal things for a shadowy employer. He also knows the location and contents of her Green Box.
Kent has told his dealer, Fulton Ventura, that he can hook him up with the contents of the box, including an "ancient" bottle of wine.
FULTON VENTURA
Drug dealer and criminal fixer. He relies on Stefanie Halle for occasional armed backup. Ventura called Halle when Kent told him about the wine. Knowing of her connections and money, Ventura figured she might be interested. Bourdillon accidentally overheard Halle's end of this call, which prompted his interest in the wine.
THE GREEN BOX
The fallout shelter beneath P.S. 788, a closed elementary school. The basement entrance to the fallout shelter is locked with a padlock. Kent Derby has the key; otherwise, a strong pair of bolt cutters will get it off.
The shelter: sealed barrels of water, boxes of MREs ruined by vermin, a pervasive scent of mildew. Three filing cabinets make a cubicle around a cot in the back. The wine is in the bottom drawer of one of the filing cabinets. The others contain weapons, ammunition, first aid supplies, and any other relics or texts the Handler cares to insert. All the filing cabinets are locked.
FERMENTATION
Unless interrupted by the agents, events will proceed as follows:
- Ventura will press Kent Derby to sell him the wine.
- Kent will go to his mother's Green Box to retrieve the wine, bringing it home. Ventura will tail him during this process.
- Ventura will contact Halle again, proposing that they take the wine from Kent.
- Halle and Ventura will go to Kent's apartment late at night to intimidate him into handing over the wine. Kent will make a break for it; Halle will kill him.
- Halle brings the wine back to her home.
- Halle opens the wine.
STATS
Stefanie Halle
STR 12, CON 15, POW 14, DEX 11, INT 10, CHA 10
HP 14, WP 14, SAN 70, Adapted to Violence
Alertness 70%, Athletics 50%, Firearms 60%, Military Science (Land) 50%, HUMINT 60%, Stealth 50%, Criminology 40%, Occult 30%, Unnatural 10%, Special Training: grenades
Always carries a Beretta M9 (1d10 dmg). Has access to an AR-15 (1d12, 10% Lethality if firing bursts), a Kevlar vest (Armor 3), and flash-bangs.
Vitaly Bourdillon
STR 10, CON 10, POW 14, DEX 11, INT 15, CHA 12
HP 10, WP 14, SAN 70
Accounting 70%, Bureaucracy 50%, Persuade 50%, Law 40%, HUMINT 40%, Art (Antiques & Collectibles) 40%,
Bourdillon is extremely wealthy and very well connected. Any major expense is available to him, given time. Many extreme expenses, so long as they're legal, are available to him as well.
Fulton Ventura
STR 12, CON 13, POW 13, DEX 12, INT 11, CHA 10
HP 13, WP 13, SAN 65
Criminology 50%, Firearms 50%, Alertness 40%, Drive 40%, Pharmacy 40%
Always carries a Glock 19 (1d10 dmg). Has access to a pump-action Mossberg shotgun (2d8).
Kent Derby
STR 10, CON 10, POW 11, DEX 11, INT 12, CHA 13
HP 10, WP 11, SAN 55
Criminology 50%, Pharmacy 40%, Art 40%, History 40%, Special Training: lockpicking
Attacks: Unarmed (30%)
Credits
Strange Provenance was written by John Perich for the 2024 Shotgun Scenario contest.
Source: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IvKYpiJfPok-YmQ2e7dNRvOlfZBPQl31y_rIakLeMJQ/edit