The Changeling
by James Haughton
A Classic Coke, straight-to-VHS shotgun scenario for beginner Agents in the 1990s Delta Green Conspiracy, inspired by The Whisperer in Darkness and The Silver Key.
Hook
Bennington, Vermont, 1995. Precocious 11 year old Rosemary Wilcox is kidnapped by “a flying saucer”. 24 hours later, Rosemary returns. She doesn’t remember anything. She speaks and acts oddly. Everything is normal.
Handler’s Overview
Rosemary Wilcox is a powerful psychic Dreamer. The MiGo noticed, and sent a Grey to take her to their Little Pond Mountain Complex, intending to remove her brain to Yuggoth. They initially overlook her Nokia 2190 phone.
Rosemary’s powers hinder the attempt. When humans begin searching while Rosemary resists, the MiGo have a problem. They don’t want to call in MAJESTIC until Rosemary is off-planet.
They send a Grey Changeling with a protomatter outer skin mimicking Rosemary, and a Hypnotic Resonator disguised as her phone. Unless resisted, the Resonator causes everyone (except the dog) to accept the Changeling as Rosemary.
Agents can rescue Rosemary by:
- tracing her mobile phone signal, finding the Complex, and defeating a Proto-Shoggoth; or
- using Rosemary’s Silver Key to enter the Dreamlands, defend her psychic fortress against the Dream Mecha, and re-emerge at her location.
After 72 hours, Rosemary’s brain is stolen. 12 hours later, MAJESTIC arrives.
Timeline
Handout A is a player-facing version of this timeline.
1974 - Deborah Sloan (later Wilcox) manifests uncontrolled psychokinetic ‘poltergeist’ powers at puberty. Terrified, she represses.
29 February 1984: Rosemary Wilcox born.
July 1994 - Rosemary manifests psychokinesis, witnessed by Deborah.
August 1994 - Rosemary’s parents consult child psychiatrist Dr Andrew Jellinek about her “overactive imagination”. They enrol her in the private Acorn Arts Academy.
Friday April 7 1995:
~7:45 pm Rosemary is playing with friends in White Rocks park. Shortly after sunset, a “big silver flying saucer” [MiGo Gate, Eyes Only p 27] appeared and “lifted Rosemary up in the air”.
~8 pm: children alert Rosemary’s parents.
8:05 pm: Charles phones Rosemary, “out of range” error.
~8:10-8:30 pm: Charles and Deborah search the park.
8:33 pm: Charles calls 911.
8:50 pm: local police arrive.
9:00-12:00 pm: unsuccessful police dog search. Journalist Eleanor Marton overhears police radio about the “flying saucer”.
10:05 pm: Sheriff calls Albany FBI office to report a child abduction.
10:05 pm-6 am: FBI assembles a team. [Delta Green inserts Agents].
Saturday April 8, 7 am: Scenario commences with police briefing. At Deborah’s insistence, Dr Jellinek is included.
April 8, 8 am: Police brief media, including Eleanor Marton.
April 8, ~5 pm: Changeling leaves MiGo Complex on foot.
April 8, ~6 pm: Changeling found by hikers on the Appalachian trail, heading towards Bennington.
April 8, 7:30 pm: Hikers bring Changeling to local police, who ‘return’ it to Rosemary’s parents. The Resonator causes them to not consciously question its strange behaviour.
Monday April 10, 8 pm: MiGo extract Rosemary’s brain, transport it off-planet, then order Majestic to cover their tracks. The Changeling flees or self-destructs. Rosemary’s decerebrated body remains in the Complex.
Tuesday April 11, 8 am: An ‘FBI Child Abduction Task Force’ (Majestic Project GARNET) arrives. They attempt to drug everyone into believing that Rosemary was abducted by a ‘satanic ritual abuser’, producing a dead bikie with satanic tattoos, photos of an occult crime scene, and badly burned child remains. If Rosemary was rescued, GARNET attempt to drug everyone into believing that she was rescued from the satanist. Rosemary can warn Agents of GARNET’s bad intentions.
Investigation
Cellphone
1995 cellphone tracking requires triangulating signal strength data from cellphone towers. No warrant is needed. Accessing records uses Law/Bureaucracy, or Computer Science if Agents visit towers directly. Interpreting them uses SIGINT or Navigate. It all takes 6 hours, +2 hours per failed roll. Rosemary’s phone is apparently near Little Pond Mountain. There are no calls or texts with unknown numbers.
The FBI have a car-mounted proto-Stingray device, which can directly locate nearby cellphones.
Aerospace
Military (Military Science) and civilian (Law) radar recorded nothing. SIGINT spots that the records are unusually noise-free (MAJESTIC computer viruses censor Grey craft).
Local amateur observatories, including Bennington College, observed unusual lights. They suspect a micro-meteorite impact.
History, Anthropology, Occult
Research requires visiting libraries and newspapers, taking 4 hours per roll, plus travel.
Researching historical missing persons finds stories of the 1945-50 ‘Bennington Triangle’ deaths, and public details of ‘Modern Rip Van Winkle’ Joseph Childers (1919-1934) and the 1974 ‘Elysian Fields’ hippie commune deaths (Delta Green: The Conspiracy, p. 147).
Researching Native American beliefs finds Penacook legends of “Winged ones from the Stars” - See Eyes Only, pp. 185-186, 191-192, 194-195
Researching Everett Cave uncovers local folklore (Handout C)
Locations
White Rocks park
Police dog searchers found no sign of Rosemary beyond where she was “lifted up”, nor any unknown adult tracks. Search or Survival spots broken branches twisted upwards.
Wilcox Home
A 2-story heritage mansion, 35 * 60 feet area, with a stone cellar, close to White Rocks. Rosemary’s room is on the second story at the rear corner; the cellar, the library, sitting room, and entrance hall are out of Resonator range if the Changeling is in Rosemary’s room. The Library holds a complete Thousand Nights and a Night, with bookmark (Handout D).
The Wilcox’s labrador Rufus is unaffected by the Resonator. He is fearful and hostile to the Changeling.
Rosemary’s room contains her unusually well-executed, fantastically-themed art including:
- Rosemary in knight’s armour, standing on a battlement
- A cave mouth, recognisable as local attraction Everett Cave, closed by a crystal gate.
A box under her bed contains an 8 inch long tarnished silver Key and a note, “Only those pledging fealty to Princess Rosemary can turn her key!” (Handout B). Rosemary’s parents cannot identify the Key. The Changeling cannot perceive it.
An Agent who pledges fealty to “Princess Rosemary” becomes Pledged and tests SAN (0/1 Unnatural).
Success: They gain a Motivation, “Princess Rosemary’s Champion”, regaining WP from chivalrous acts.
Failure: They acquire a Disorder, “Princess Rosemary’s Honor”, causing 0/1d3 Helplessness whenever committing a ‘dishonorable’ act.
Everatt Cave
A multi-chambered limestone cave. Map and photos. A Pledged or Key-carrying Agent sees a glowing crystal gate. A Pledged Agent can open the gate with the Key. An unPledged Key-carrying Agent can open the gate with a Ritual Activation roll, costing 1d4 SAN, 1d4 WP per attempt.
Rosemary’s Dreamlands
On the other side of the gate, Everatt Cave is inhabited by passive, blind, silver snakes. When they emerge, Agents wear Bronze Age warrior gear. They see a Tower resembling a Chess Rook, under attack by the Dream Mecha.
Once the Dream Mecha is defeated, the Tower gate opens. Agents see Rosemary, wearing medieval armor. Passing through transports them to the MiGo Complex hive chamber with their real-world equipment, costing 1d4 WP.
MiGo Complex
An overgrown track leads to Little Pond. An extremely narrow cave in Little Pond Mountain requires Search or Survival to find. Using a proto-Stingray to trace the phone signal gives +40% to find the entrance.
Adult entry requires Athletics or STR for hours of jackhammer and pickaxe, or Demolitions to blast the entrance open, which will collapse the cave on a fumble. After crawling several metres the cave becomes a large limestone space with a shallow pool. There is an artificial archway at one end. Approaching the archway triggers the Guardian Proto-Shoggoth within the pool to attack.
Hive Chamber
The archway leads to a Gigeresque nightmare of naked young adults embedded in the walls (‘survivors’ of Elysian Fields). Their bodies live, but their skulls are opened and their braincases empty (Unnatural 1/1d6). If Agents are too late, Rosemary’s body is also embedded in the wall (1/1d6 Helplessness). Removal kills her.
Rosemary is lying on a stone slab. Her head is anchored and partly covered by a black mass resembling a solidified oil-slick (a MiGo Surgical Tool). She clutches her phone. A Grey’s hands are embedded in the mass.
If Agents cut all Dream Mecha strings, the Grey is inert. Otherwise, it commands Agents to leave. “You Must Obey The Raygun [Reagan] Accord”. The Grey can easily be killed and removed, but the killer must roll Luck; failure means the Surgical Tool malfunctions, damaging Rosemary’s brain for 1d6 INT and CON.
This Surgical Tool is somewhat human-compatible. Inserting hands costs 0/1 Unnatural. Activating it requires a Ritual Activation Roll costing 1d4 SAN and 1d4 WP per attempt. Once activated, a successful Medicine, Surgery, Science (Biology), Psychotherapy, First Aid -20% or INT -40% roll withdraws it without harming Rosemary. Failure causes (further) brain damage. Fumbling triggers brain damage and a stroke, requiring hospitalisation ASAP.
Aftermath
After removing the Tool, Agents have 90 seconds before the MiGo disintegrate the hive chamber. A Pledged Agent or Rosemary can use the Key to open a gate to Everatt Cave.
Agents gain (2d6 - any brain damage roll) SAN if Rosemary is rescued, losing half if unable to evade GARNET’s mind-wipe. They gain 1 SAN for returning Rosemary’s body.
1498 words
Stats
Allies
FBI Special Agent and technical specialist Erik Baetz, Journalist and Saucerwatch researcher Eleanor Marton, and child psychiatrist Dr Andrew Jellinek, can be used as NPCs or pregenerated Agents.
Bennington Police
Sheriff Bob Dunstan, Deputy Sheriff Jake Hallett, other officers: Generic Ordinary Police Officer, Handler’s Guide p. 354
Special Agent Reuben Schnitlich
Stats/skills as Expert Federal Agent, Handler’s Guide p 354, + “Things man was not meant to know” veteran package.
Special Agent Schnitlich, Agent Baetz’ mentor in the FBI, is secretly Agent Ivan, head of Delta Green’s I Cell. He has arranged for Special Agent Baetz (and other Player Agents) to be assigned to this case in part to assess their suitability for Delta Green; also, as “new faces” they will be unknown to Majestic, who he suspects will interfere.
Canonically, Agent Ivan will meet his fate a few years from now, investigating disappearances on Owlshead Mountain.
FBI Special Agent Erik Baetz
https://tinyurl.com/ErikBaetz - online DG character generator link
STR 11 CON 12 DEX 12 INT 13 POW 13 CHA 11
HP 12 WP 13 SAN 60. Break point 52. Hard Experience.
Bonds: Special Agent Reuben Schnitlich, my FBI mentor: 11; My platoon from Iraq: 11; Mom and Dad
Motivations: Show you've got what it takes to lead an FBI investigation; Take down abusive scumbags; Serve your country and community, but not mindlessly; Become the FBI's lead expert on technological crime; Be kind to dogs and other domestic animals
Skills: Alertness: 60%, Athletics: 50%, Bureaucracy: 40%, Computer Science: 40%, Criminology: 50% Dodge: 30%, Drive: 50%, Firearms: 60%, First Aid: 40%, Forensics: 30%, Heavy Weapons: 50%, HUMINT: 60%, Law: 30%, Melee Weapons: 30%, Military Science (Land): 40%, Occult: 50%, Persuade: 50%, Psychotherapy: 10%, Search: 50%, SIGINT: 40%, Stealth: 20%, Unarmed Combat: 60%, Unnatural: 1% All others at base.
Special Training: Grenades; Stingray IMEI interception.
Attacks: Medium Pistol 60% 1d12; Unarmed 60% 1d4-1; Automatic rifle 60% 10% lethality (not currently in his possession)
Erik Baetz was born poor but bright and ambitious. He joined the US Army out of high school and became the radio technician for his platoon. He was promoted to Corporal after leading his squad to safety and calling in an airstrike on “a whirlwind with eyes of fire” which ate his Sergeant and a nearby tank during the Iraq War. His war experience left him alienated from his parents’ rah-rah patriotism but still wanting to ‘serve and protect’. After leaving the army he joined the police, studied at night school, and passed the FBI entrance exam in late 1993.
With his technical background he has come to specialise in the rapidly evolving area of “cyber crime”, including hacking, software piracy, and criminal networks’ use of encrypted BBSs to traffic in child pornography and drugs. He has only recently been made a full Special Agent and is keen to show he has the right stuff. He has not been a lead agent on a kidnapping case before, although he has worked with kidnapping specialists on child porn cases. His mentor, FBI Special Agent Reuben Schnitlich, assures him he has the ‘right skills’ for this case.
Dr Andrew Jellinek MD, Child Psychiatrist
https://tinyurl.com/DrJellinek online DG character generator link
STR 10 CON 12 DEX 11 INT 15 POW 10 CHA 14
HP 11 WP 10 SAN 50. Break Point 40
Bonds: Wife, Alexandra: 14; Son, David: 14; Medical practice partner Dr Chen: 14
Motivations: Understand and document unusual psychology; Help children get their lives back on track; Help people overcome their problems; Enjoy the Great Outdoors; Hunting, fishing and birdwatching
Skills: Accounting 30%; Athletics 50%, Bureaucracy 30%, Criminology 30%, Dodge 30%, Drive 20%, Firearms: 40%, First Aid: 60%, Forensics: 40%, HUMINT: 50%, Medicine: 60%, Navigate 30%, Occult: 10%, Persuade: 40%, Pharmacy 50%, Psychotherapy: 60%, Science (Biology) 60%, Search: 50%, Survival 50%, All others at base.
Special training: Hypnosis
Attacks: Hunting Rifle 40% 1d12; Unarmed 40% 1d4-1
Dr Jellinek has a private practice in Bennington. He is a qualified general MD but specialises in child psychiatry. He is experienced at dealing with troubled and delinquent juveniles and has sometimes been an expert witness in criminal cases involving children and teens.
As well as his medical practice, Dr Jellinek is a keen woodsman and hunter. The great outdoors restores a sense of “normalcy” after dealing with psychiatric problems. He also finds that some patients, particularly teenage boys, respond better to sessions outdoors than in a doctor’s chambers.
Dr Jellinek saw Rosemary Wilcox for several sessions in 1994 after his mother Deborah brought her to see him, complaining of “excessive daydreaming” and “disruptive behaviour” at home and school. Dr Jellinek consulted Rosemary’s school teachers and found she was inattentive rather than disruptive. He identified her nascent artistic talents and suggested that Rosemary’s parents enrol her in a local private school, Acorn Academy which emphasised the arts. In Dr Jellinek’s judgement, Rosemary appears to be thriving in the new environment. Dr Jellinek privately thought that Deborah Wilcox’s concerns were excessive and suspects that Mrs Wilcox may have some suppressed traumas of her own, which she is projecting on her daughter.
Dr Jellinek hopes that his knowledge of the countryside, and of abnormal and child psychology, may help in recovering Rosemary, or helping her recover. He knows that children who have had traumatic experiences may repress the memories, develop mental disorders or even “multiple personalities” as a coping mechanism.
Dr Jellinek is a skilled hypnotist. He knows that hypnotism can be used to uncover repressed memories, but also that it is easy for a hypnotised subject to confabulate false memories, especially if asked leading questions. He is very skeptical of the extravagant claims of satanic abuse, alien abductions, rape by Bigfoot, and other such ‘repressed memories’ which sometimes feature in the media, believing they are produced by unethical therapists.
Ms Eleanor Marton, Journalist
https://tinyurl.com/EleanorMarton online DG character generator link
STR 10 CON 10 DEX 11 INT 12 POW 14 CHA 15
HP 10 WP 14 SAN 70 Break Point 56
Bonds: Franklin Wood, Boyfriend: 15; Sheridan Dunwoody-Smith, College friend: 15; Jake Hallett, Bennington Deputy Sheriff: 15; [Add your own]: 15
Motivations: Uncover deceit, incompetence and corruption; Find out what really happened to Sheridan; Break a big story to get into the national papers; Get Franklin to propose; [Add your own]
Skills: Accounting: 20%, Alertness: 30%, Anthropology: 30%, Art (Journalism): 60%, Art (Photography): 40%; Athletics: 50%, Bureaucracy: 30%, Criminology: 30%, Disguise: 30%, Dodge: 50%, History: 40%, HUMINT: 50%, Law: 20%, Occult: 40%, Persuade: 50%, Science (Astronomy): 40%, Search: 50%, Stealth: 50%, Unnatural: 2%; all others at base.
Attacks: Unarmed 40% 1d4-1; pocket Mace 55% stuns and blinds.
Eleanor Marton, a Vermont local, was a sorority sister of Sheridan Dunwoody-Smith at college. Sheridan was a bright, outgoing girl who, not long after turning 19, became a haunted recluse, then dropped out and cut ties with her friends. She returned to school a year later, but did not return to her previous social circles, and Eleanor was by then finishing her Journalism degree and occupied with student journalism. After graduating, Eleanor sought Sheridan out, and learned Sheridan believed she had been abducted by aliens while camping in Vermont! She was supported by a Dr Schaeffer, a psychiatrist with a tarnished reputation, who worked for a UFO-spotting organisation called Saucerwatch.
Eleanor thought that her friend was being exploited. She did her own digging and discovered that the sexual misconduct accusations against Schaeffer were fraudulent. Furthermore, much of what Saucerwatch claims about the Vermont mountains checks out - there is an unusually high rate of unexplained disappearances, often associated with strange lights in the sky. Eleanor has a job with local newspaper The Bennington Banner and has broken a significant story on corruption in local government, but wants to work on more than local news. She knows that a verifiable, evidence-backed story of alien abduction could be the story of the century. While still somewhat skeptical, Eleanor now volunteers for Saucerwatch as a local ‘spotter’, keeping an eye out for ‘incidents’. She has joined some local astronomy clubs.
Saucerwatch has shown Eleanor evidence of some strange cases in the area, which she has independently cross-checked:
- Mike Childers vanished in 1919 and reappeared in 1934, with no memory of his absence, briefly becoming a local nine-day-wonder. Before his death in 1994, Dr Schaeffer hypnotised him and discovered memories of being subject to strange surgeries by glowing beasts; he also showed physical evidence of cranial surgery. Eleanor suspects he was simply hospitalised and lobotomised, but has not found any corresponding mental patient records.
- In the winter of 1972, 34 members of the ‘Elysian Fields’ hippy commune vanished, without any adequate investigation by the hostile local sheriffs. The only remaining member, Janet Chappell, now regularly appears on the conspiracy theory circuit claiming that her friends were abducted and experimented on by the CIA.
Eleanor overheard police-band chatter about Rosemary being taken by a ‘flying saucer’ and thinks this could be the case which breaks open the whole story.
Victims
Rosemary Wilcox
Nascent Kuranes-class Dream Princess
White Female, DOB 29th February 1984, 11 Years Old, Yr 6 at private primary school Acorn Arts Academy in Bennington Vermont, parents Charles Wilcox (Marketing Executive, Nokia America) and Deborah Wilcox nee Sloan (Homemaker). Dressed in brown overalls, sandals, and a pink blouse. Owns a mobile phone, a Nokia 2190.
STR 8 CON 8 DEX 10 INT 13 POW 18 CHA 14
HP 8 WP 18 SAN 85 (pre-kidnap).
Skills: Art 75%; Imaginative Play 95%; Psychometry 65%; Dreaming 80%; Dodge 40%
Attacks: Piercing Girlish Scream 70% stuns; Claw/Claw/Bite 23%, 1d2 damage; Psychokinetic Blast 60%, 1d4+WP expended damage; Passive-Aggressive Text Message 65% causes 0/1 SAN Helplessness test
Rosemary’s Psychometry skill lets her see people’s auras and accurately gauge their personality, honesty, and whether they have good or bad intentions.
Rosemary’s Psychokinetic Blast attack is an involuntary attack costing her 1d4 WP which occurs against anything which makes her take a SAN test. The Migo surgical tool which has infiltrated her brain prevents her from using it against her captors.
As long as Rosemary has WP, attempts to remove her phone are opposed by a magnet-like psychokinetic force, making it impossible to touch (0/1 Unnatural).
Every 4 hours after she is kidnapped, Rosemary loses 1 WP and 1d4 SAN from the strain of resisting the Migo’s attempt to separate her brain/mind from her body. If either hits 0, she can no longer resist.
Deborah Wilcox nee Sloan
Terrified Repressed Mother, 34
STR 10 CON 10 DEX 10 INT 11 POW 14 CHA 13
HP 10 WP 10 SAN 50 (her WP and SAN are reduced by her unconscious repression of her own psychic abilities).
Skills: Homemaker 70%; Write Bad Erotica 45%
Attacks: Lash out incoherently 25%, 1d4-1; Tongue-lashing 65% causes 0/1 SAN Helplessness test; Psychokinetic Blast 40%, 1d4+WP expended damage
Deborah’s Psychokinetic Blast attack is an involuntary attack costing her 1d4 WP which may occur against anything which makes her fail a SAN test. If the attack roll is failed, there is no obvious effect other than a sense of danger.
Deborah has repressed her memories of manifesting psychic powers when she first experienced puberty. She is subconsciously terrified that Rosemary has the same “demonic” influence and that her disappearance is an act of the Devil or punishment from God. This fear caused her to send Rosemary to child psychologist Dr Jellinek after Rosemary also manifested psychokinesis (another memory she has repressed). Dr Jellinek reassured her that there was nothing abnormal about Rosemary’s “overactive imagination” and encouraged Deborah and Charles to send her to a school specialising in art so as to channel and develop her creativity.
Deborah secretly wishes that Charles would be much more sexually dominant and uninhibited. On weekdays, she spends part of her day reading and writing erotic fiction in Usenet groups.
Charles Wilcox
Frightened Classic Chad, 35
STR 13 CON 12 DEX 11 INT 11 POW 11 CHA 13
HP 13 WP 11 SAN 55
Skills: Athletics 50%; Marketing 60%; Persuade 60%; Stealth 35%; SIGINT 30%
Attacks: College Boxing 45%, 1d4;
Charles works for Nokia America and actually understands the new mobile technology quite well, as well as being an effective salesman. He is unconditionally devoted to Rosemary.
Charles adores Deborah but secretly finds her too sexually repressed and prudish, leading to him having an ongoing lust-driven affair with his boss’s secretary (not his secretary. That would be sexual harassment, and as a modern 90s guy, he is 100% against that.)
Extended exposure to the Hypnotic Resonator causes increasingly uninhibited and irrational behaviour as the person loses the ability to analyse and perceive cause and effect. As Charles and Deborah will not voluntarily leave “Rosemary”’s vicinity once she is found, they are likely to be the first victims of this effect.
Antagonists
The Changeling
I Am Rosemary Wilcox, Aged Eleven, Who Lives In Bennington Vermont In The United States Of America. I Do Not Remember Anything Else.
STR 8 CON 8 DEX 10 INT 23 POW 13 CHA 4
HP 8 WP 13
ARMOR: 2 points of Protomatter shell.
SKILLS: Alertness 40%, Dodge 25%; Persuade 20%; Science (all) 100%.
ATTACKS: Pinch 25%, damage 1D4–1 - only attacks if the Resonator has been resisted or disabled.
SAN 0/1d4: SAN loss only occurs if the Hypnotic Resonator is resisted or disabled and the Changeling’s non-human nature becomes apparent.
Telepathy: The Migo have outfitted the Changeling with a telepathic module for scanning human thoughts and sending messages. That telepathic invasion requires an opposed POW test between the Changeling and the target.
Protomatter Shell: The Changeling is a Grey covered with a Protomatter shell which mimics Rosemary’s appearance and clothing. The protomatter cannot be sampled or pierced with medical equipment.
The Changeling wanders around the Wilcox’s house, seemingly at random, but it tries to ensure that all humans within the house are within 24 feet of the Hypnotic Resonator, and to avoid the dog Rufus. The Migo controlling it is not an experienced human-actor and attempts to deflect all questions with variations on “I don’t know” or “I don’t remember”.
The Changeling does not eat, sleep, excrete, laugh, create art, or any other human behaviour, unless explicitly challenged or told that the behaviour is something humans/Rosemary should/would do, after which it will attempt to copy that behaviour in a literal manner. For example, if asked “Why don’t you create art like Rosemary did?” it will create a mechanically perfect reproduction of one of Rosemary’s art pieces. If told “you should change your dirty clothes” it will morph the protomatter shell to resemble different clothes. If asked “Why don’t you go to the toilet?” it will go to the toilet, and stay there.
If confronted by the real Rosemary, the Changeling dissolves into a puddle of grey slime as the protomatter shell self-destructs, briefly revealing the shape of the Grey within before it too melts, costing 1/1d4 SAN to witness unless under the effects of the Resonator.
Hypnotic Resonator
The Resonator is disguised as Rosemary’s mobile phone. It also works as a mobile phone, although it does not register on any cell tower, Stingray, or other phone detection equipment. If the “phone” is opened, a black sludge with a glowing quartz crystal floating within it is revealed. Removing the crystal disables the resonator. However, anyone under the Resonator’s influence will not want to touch or interfere with the “phone”.
The Resonator causes all humans within ~24 feet failing a POW-40% test to enter a dreamlike, unquestioning mental state, although they retain memory. The Changeling receives a +40% bonus to Persuade rolls to command anyone affected by the Resonator. The POW-40% test may be repeated after the person has spent at least an hour outside the Resonator’s sphere of influence, then re-enters it. Once the test is passed, the person is immune to the Resonator’s effects. Extended exposure to the Resonator causes increasingly uninhibited and irrational behaviour as the person loses the ability to analyse and perceive cause and effect. As Charles and Deborah will not leave “Rosemary”’s vicinity once she is found, they are likely to be the first victims of this effect.
Anyone under the Resonator’s influence can still attempt HUMINT, Persuade, and Psychotherapy rolls to detect unusual behaviour - however, no matter whether they succeed or fail, they perceive everything around them (including the Changeling) as perfectly normal.
On exiting the Resonator field, realising that they took part in or passively accepted bizarre or irrational behaviour and events triggers a 0/1 Helplessness SAN check.
If an Agent has been repeatedly exposed to the field and seen its effects on others, but failed 3 or more POW-40% tests, they can instead spend a permanent POW point to overcome the Resonator.
Dream Mecha
Rosemary’s representation of an alien techno-psychic attack
The attacker is a 30 foot tall robotic mecha from some Japanese anime, screamingly out-of-genre for the arabesque Dreamlands. It holds a battering ram, repeatedly slamming it against the tower gate. The mecha is puppeted by five strings descending from the sky. Once all strings are cut, the Mecha slumps. The cockpit opens, revealing an inert Grey.
The mecha is invulnerable to direct assault, but the strings can be cut by climbing it (Athletics or DEX-20%, failure causes 1d6 HP fall damage which can be healed by expending the same amount of WP). It ignores Agents until a string is cut, after which it drops the battering ram and tries to swat them with its hands. The mecha has an Unarmed Combat skill of 75%, doing 1d8 damage (healable by WP), which decreases by 15% for each string cut.
Guardian Proto-Shoggoth
Ullo Ullo Ullo
A self-assembling formless mass programmed to attack any non-Grey or non-Migo attempting to enter the Hive Chamber.
STR 25 CON 13 DEX 19 INT 10 POW 10
HP 19 WP 10
ARMOR: no armor, but see characteristics
SKILLS: Alertness 80%, Stealth 75%.
ATTACKS: 55% grapple and crush, 1D8; Smash 35%, 2D6; Impaling Tendril 35% 1D6 (Armor Piercing 5).
Characteristics: Persistent; Resilient except fire, electricity, explosives; Unnatural Biology.
SAN cost 1/1d6 to be attacked by the proto-Shoggoth.
Grey
Utter Tool
As Handler’s Guide, p 204. The Grey in the Migo Complex prioritises removing Rosemary’s brain above all other issues, and therefore does not attack or move away from Rosemary unless Rosemary is dead.
Majestic Project Garnet Agent
Ultimate Sellout
As ‘Expert Psychotherapist’ (brainwashers) or ‘Expert Special Operator’ (security), Handler’s Guide p. 354
——+++++
Handouts
Handout A: Details and Timeline
Presumed Kidnapping Victim Rosemary Wilcox
White Female, DOB 29th February 1984, 11 Years Old, Yr 6 at private primary school Acorn Arts Academy in Bennington Vermont, parents Charles Wilcox (Marketing Executive, Nokia America) and Deborah Wilcox nee Sloan (Homemaker). Victim was dressed in brown overalls, sandals, and a pink blouse. Victim possessed a mobile phone, a Nokia 2190.
Timeline of known events
Yesterday, April 7 1995:
~7:45 pm Rosemary was playing with friends in White Rocks park. Shortly after sunset, according to other children, a “big silver flying saucer” appears and “lifts Rosemary up in the air”.
~8 pm: children alert Rosemary’s parents.
8:05 pm: Charles phones Rosemary, receives “out of range” error.
~8:10-8:30 pm: Charles and Deborah searches the park.
8:33 pm: Charles calls 911 to report Rosemary’s abduction.
8:50 pm: local Bennington police arrive and interview Charles and children.
9:00-12:00 pm: Local police search with sniffer dogs finds no trace of Rosemary.
10:05 pm: Sheriff Dunstan of Bennington Police calls Albany FBI field office to report a child abduction.
10:05 pm-6 am: FBI alerts and assembles a team of Agents [you]. Agents fly from their current location to the closest airport (Albany, NY), are collected by an Albany FBI Agent, then driven to Bennington. Accommodation has been arranged for you at the Holiday Inn.
Today, April 8 1995:
7 am: you will receive a briefing from local police. At the Wilcox’s request, the briefing will also be attended by local resident and child psychiatrist Dr Andrew Jellinek, who has previously seen Rosemary Wilcox as a patient. Please extend him every courtesy.
8 am: Bennington police will brief media and appeal for public assistance.
Some Important Background Knowledge for players
- The FBI has full jurisdiction over child kidnappings
- Most kidnappers are known to the victims.
- ‘Stranger’ kidnap victims not located within 48 hours are rarely found alive
- In 1995, accessing cellphone location records does not require a warrant, but cellphones do not include GPS or other precision location technology. Locating a phone requires triangulation of signal records from cell towers.
- Kidnapping victims are frequently traumatised, and may suppress memories of the events as a coping mechanism.
Handout B: Everett Cave Folklore
Burlington Free Press, November 1, 1934
Handout C: A Silver Key and a Note
Only those pledging fealty to Princess Rosemary can turn her key!
Handout D: Burton, The Thousand Nights and a Night
Burton, Sir Richard Francis. “Ma’aruf the Cobbler and His Wife Fatimah.” In The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night: A Plain and Literal Translation of The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Vol. 10. Burton Club, 1900.
“… each bazaar, in a large city like Damascus, has its tall and heavy wooden doors which are locked every evening and opened in the morning by the Ghafir or guard. The ‘‘silver key,” however, always lets one in…”
Credits
The Changeling was written by James Haughton for the 2025 Shotgun Scenario contest.
Source: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XIf9h0dVp8muK10YZZ_1k9xADNW9Lb2b9gGafIo5Ol4/edit