SUICIDE WATCH
Due to a secret Program project, a group of office workers do what others have only dreamed of.
Briefing
Erin Pridgen, Program friendly, is the COO of EPEYE, a heavily funded startup. She syphens company resources to enact a project for the Program codenamed ANTHODITE.
Two days ago, a janitor attempting to destroy project-crucial servers was killed by an unseen force. Fearing more unnatural attacks, Pridgen asked the Program to assign security until ANTHODITE's completion in two days.
Enter the Agents, armed with badges for “Redwood Security,” and a van with remote access to the office's cameras. Agents are to protect Pridgen and ensure the completion of ANTHODITE. They are not cleared for any information about the project.
The Truth
ANTHODITE is an attempt to weaponize the effects of Ghatanothoa by creating an image of it based on documents and drawings. Innumerable images are created each day, each closer to “true.”
Unbeknownst to Pridgen or the Program, the images generate Lloigor energy exponentially as they come closer to reality. This radiation emits from all devices connected to EPEYE's servers. It caused the incident, and as the project nears completion causes more with increasing frequency. The creation of the true image becomes an explosion of Lloigor and a bloodbath. This impromptu mass-sacrifice births a new digital god into our world.
EPEYE Offices
EPEYE is held in a three story building, plain except for the logo on the glass doors. The first two floors contain open-floor offices with sleek furnishings. The decor is minimalist excepting tacky wall art reading obnoxious slogans. The employee lounge on the first floor has no chairs, just bean bags and unused vintage arcade cabinets.
The majority of EPEYE's 33 employees sit at long rows of connected tables and identical monitors in an attempt to relieve the claustrophobia of a cubicle farm. All it does is foster arguments about where one employee's space ends and another begins.
The third floor contains executive offices. It's decorated with plastic plants and framed motivational posters.
The basement mainly contains a large server farm. Despite the amount of computing power, employees are plagued by constant issues. The rest is maintenance rooms and a janitor's closet.
Erin Pridgen
Pridgen is a short woman dressed in calculated business casual. She speaks entirely in techbro slang. If asked what her business actually does she responds, “It's not a business, it's a family.” HUMINT reveals tired but paranoid eyes.
Pridgen greets the Agents outside, and speaks to them as if they are new employees until they get to her office. She gives a brief tour of the building. Once at her office, she drops the act and can give further information about the incident.
If asked about ANTHODITE, she states that she isn't supposed to talk about it to anyone. With a Persuade roll, she can be pressured into giving a redacted description.
“ANTHODITE is a system which extracts information from objects collected by the organization. All I know about the information is that it's dangerous to people.”
A successful HUMINT roll reveals that she is leaving much out, but cannot be convinced to fully explain ANTHODITE unless threatened or shit has truly hit the fan. As more violent events occur, she can be convinced that ANTHODITE is the source, not an outside attacker.
The Incident
Philip Lynnwood, EPEYE's janitor, attempted to take a claw hammer to the servers. Pridgen by sheer luck was in the basement at the time, and wrestled him to the ground, disarming him. Pridgen watched in shock as the hammer lifted off the ground and smashed the clawed end of itself into the janitor's eye, killing him instantly.
Watching this event on security footage costs 0/1D4 SAN from violence. Agents who do this notice swirling distortion akin to a heat mirage. Computer Science doesn’t reveal its source, but the distortion can be seen following Pridgen as she robotically walks from her office straight to the basement as Lynnwood is preparing his assault. She cannot remember how she got to the basement if pushed, causing her to freak out.
Employees
The following are example EPEYE employees.
Maxwell Shubert, CEO
Shubert is an egomaniac who runs his business like a cult. He dresses like he's about to give an E3 presentation. Mandatory late night meetings he is consistently late to and unpaid team building exercises feed his desperate search for approval. He could not tell you the first thing about his business.
Joyce Hill, HR
Hill is a true believer in Shubert's vision of company as family. Her body is swathed in obnoxious technicolor scarves. Filed complaints are all just misunderstandings. She'll gladly talk about her spirituality and collection of healing crystals.
Bryan Parkins, Bully
Parkins considers himself top dog. He's gonna run this place one day. He's an alpha, despite his slim 5’0” frame and sweating through his black turtleneck.
Server Room
The server room is where the building Lloigor energy is concentrated. Agents who enter make a POW roll, those who fail are filled with a palpable dread. Agents with a WP of 9 or lower vividly experience a random violent fantasy, costing 0/1D3 SAN.
ANTHODITE
Should Agents hack into EPEYE's servers, an opposed Computer Science roll vs Pridgen's can get them into the ANTHODITE files. Pridgen reports those that fail to the Program if caught.
The documents are excerpts from occult texts, burned drawings, and shards of clay combined to describe a terrible entity from ancient times. To behold it turns one to stone. It is tended to by “demons” which cause people to act on their worst impulses. They cost 1/1D4 SAN to read, and the Agent gains 1% Unnatural. A failed Sanity roll induces a vision like that in the Server Room, without further SAN loss. From now on, that Agent is more susceptible to Lloigor influence. Active manifestations against them cost the Lloigor 1D4 WP instead of 5, and a grey rash develops in a visible place costing 0/1 SAN to notice.
Agents with Computer Science who search for actively running files recognize multiple programs creating images and iterating upon them, thousands every second. ANTHODITE can be shut down from Pridgen's computer, but attempting to do so causes the Lloigor to trigger the birthing ritual early (see Climax). This halves the number of dangerous employees, and the image cannot manifest.
Manifestations
The Lloigor causes the following manifestations instead of using its normal statblock. The Lloigor has a WP of 25 for each day, and may spend 5 to target an Agent with an active manifestation.
First Day
Passive
- Agents who succeed an Alertness roll notice strange grey hardened rashes on multiple employees.
- Arguments break out amongst workers over minor issues. Agents who intervene notice swirling mirages in the air where tempers are high.
Active
- Phone batteries are quickly drained, computers crash, and other electronics malfunction.
- Agents experience missing time if alone or engrossed in an activity. Costs 0/1D3 SAN to realize hours have passed in the blink of an eye.
Second Day
Passive
- An employee attempts suicide by hanging in the basement.
- A furious employee reveals a gun and attempts to kill another. When dealt with, everyone goes back to work as if nothing happened.
Active
- Failing a POW roll, Agents and employees suddenly become ill, sweating and vomiting for 1D6 rounds.
- Small objects fly at the Agents from nowhere, costing 0/1 SAN and 1D3 damage if hit.
Temporary Insanity
Due to the Lloigor's influence, any temporary insanity manifests as characters lashing out violently for perceived slights.
Evacuation
Once things get violent, Agents may try to evacuate employees. A Persuade roll secretly opposing the Lloigor's POW of 25 is made. On a success, most employees pack up, leaving only 7 dangerous employees in the Climax. On a failure, employees refuse with increasingly ridiculous justifications. Any forceful attempts to evacuate are met with violence.
Climax
At 8:14 PM on the second day, the office explodes into a sudden bloodbath. Employees enact random acts of violence on themselves and each other. Pridgen attempts to dive from her third story office window. A Lloigor Semi-dinosaurian Construct manifests in the basement and attempts to kill anyone who enters to ensure the image's creation. 14 employees throughout the building become violent towards the Agents.
Thirty minutes after, ANTHODITE reaches completion. A true image of Ghatanothoa is shown on every screen in the building. Those still alive turn into cancerous living statues. The weapon is collected by the Program in the aftermath, and the building is detonated in a “terrorist attack.”
Solutions
Agents may either shut down ANTHODITE, or survive through its completion. The processes that it would take to convince the Program of its danger are too slow. They must destroy it themselves. The Lloigor does anything it can to protect it.
To stop the madness, Agents must either physically destroy every server, or break into Pridgen's computer and wipe ANTHODITE with a Computer Science roll, opposed by Pridgen's. If they wish to avoid consequences from the Program for destroying the project, they must cover their tracks.
Agents gain 1D10 SAN for destroying ANTHODITE.
Erin Pridgen
STR 10 CON 10 DEX 14 INT 17 POW 8 CHA 12
HP 10 WP 8 SAN 32 BREAKING POINT 26
SKILLS: Accounting 60%, Bureaucracy 50%, Computer Science 70%, HUMINT 50%
ATTACKS: Unarmed Combat 40%, damage 1D4-1
FRENZY: When under Lloigor influence, Pridgen gains +20% to her Unarmed Combat, and her damage is doubled.
Employees
Use the following statistics for any employee besides Pridgen. Only one has a firearm (see Manifestations).
STR 10 CON 9 DEX 12 INT 12 POW 8 CHA 9
HP 10 WP 8 SAN 40 BREAKING POINT 32
SKILLS: Accounting 50%, Bureaucracy 40%, Computer Science 40%, HUMINT 30%
ATTACKS: Unarmed Combat 40%, damage 1D4-1, 1D4+1 if using an improvised weapon such as a stapler, paper cutter, coffee mug, etc.
Smith & Wesson M&P 2.0 20%, damage 1D10.
FRENZY: When under Lloigor influence, employees gain +20% to their Unarmed Combat, and their damage is doubled.
Lloigor Controlled Quasi-Dinosaurian Construct
A scaled, centipedal, twisted physical manifestation of Lloigor power.
STR 41 CON 41 DEX 11 INT 29 POW 25
HP 41 WP 25
ARMOR: 8 points of scaly integument (see RESILIENT).
SKILLS: Alertness 30%, Surgery 90%.
ATTACKS: Huge, boney talons 70%, Lethality 20%, Armor Piercing 5.
Savage bite 50%, Lethality 30%, Armor Piercing 10.
Tail sweep 50% (see TAIL SWEEP).
RESILIENT: A successful Lethality roll does not destroy the construct, but inflicts HP damage equal to the Lethality rating.
TAIL SWEEP: The construct can sweep all characters in a broad arc behind it. On a successful attack, roll 2D10. If the total is higher than a swept character's DEX, the character is knocked prone. Apply the higher of the two dice as damage to all characters hit. Attempts to Dodge the sweep are at -20%.
TELEKINESIS: Within 10 meters of the construct, it can move or manipulate matter. It costs 5 WP for 1 STR; for each additional 5 WP, the STR of the force doubles.
UNNATURAL BIOLOGY: The construct’s physiology would baffle any biologist
Making a called shot for “vitals” or any other apparently vulnerable area inflicts normal damage, with no special game effect.
SAN LOSS: 0/1D6.
Credits
Suicide Watch was written by Zander Ford for the 2024 Shotgun Scenario contest.
Source: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ILb7yloKOprQYKLd0lAgkIhLZBDCuJJfF1NqhzhZKVg/edit