The Klickitat County Fire

Overview

The PCs are wildland firefighters working for the US Forest service, who respond to a small flareup call in southern Washington. The fire is close to the town of Glenwood, so they are sent to quickly contain it before it grows much larger.

The firefighters are ordinary people, without any knowledge of the conspiracy or the supernatural, though they are unwittingly put into contact with both.

The Truth

Last night in the early morning, members of the outlaw Delta Green L-Cell advanced on a den of ghoul serial killers that they had tracked to a series of tunnels beneath an abandoned barn in the woods west of Glenwood. They brought a flamethrower and improvised explosive and incendiary devices - intending to wipe out the entire den. The op went wrong after L-Cell discovered they underestimated how many ghouls were living in the den. Two members of the cell were killed during the raid and the last surviving member just barely escaped after an aborted attempt to cave in the tunnels. In the process the barn was burned down and the fire quickly spread out of control, expanding beyond the boundaries of the abandoned farmstead over the dry early summer.

One agitated ghoul survived, managing to dig his way out of the den as the rest of his kin burned in the tunnels. He now seeks revenge on the people who destroyed his den and killed his kin, and human flesh to eat and revitalize him before he can escape and find somewhere to start over.

The Fire

The fire, triggered in the early morning, quickly spread across the dry grass and collected debris on the farmstead. The fire isn’t proceeding at an extreme rate, however it’s expanded beyond the farmstead and is moving in the direction of Glenwood, and as such firefighters are precautionarily deployed to slow its growth and let it burn out before it grows too much.

Orders

The firefighters are tasked with containing the flareup before it gains momentum by performing a depletion of fuels between the town and the fire. The ideal location to perform the break is closer to the edge of the fire, a bit over two miles off the road from where they end up parking their trucks.

• There are 5 trucks parked at the road, and around 20 or so firefighters divided over smaller squads of around 4 or 5 people working as initial attack teams.

Evacuation

If the PCs decide to flee from the fire, they’ve already traveled around a mile and a half from where their vehicles were parked on the road. If they attempt to evacuate after making contact with Agent Frank, the Ghoul will stalk them as they evacuate, trying to strike at separated or spread out firefighters. Unless they’ve wounded the ghoul or are evacuating with Agent Frank, the ghoul will only try to pick off one of them to eat and leave the rest alone. However the ghoul will not allow them to escape with agent Frank or after it has been wounded by any of them.

The Wounded Man

As they grow closer to the burn, the firefighters will eventually sight a wounded man stumbling his way away from the burn site. He is wearing jeans, a gas mask and a camouflage fatigue jacket, and carries a bulky flamethrower with fuel tanks strapped to his back. He appears to be bleeding heavily from a chest wound, and collapses moments after visual contact is made with PCs.

If searched he’s carrying the flamethrower, a gas mask, a holstered Colt 1911 medium pistol with 3 rounds remaining in the magazine, and a spare 7 round mag in his coat pocket, as well as a combat knife in his boot. He carries no wallet or form of identification.

A first aid check at -20% could slow the bleeding and bring the man to a more responsive state, though he will certainly still die if not brought to a hospital within a few hours.

• If interviewed, the man is delirious and largely incomprehensible, but will remain resistant to questioning. He will frequently insist that the firefighters have to get out and let the fire keep burning.
  • If asked for a name he’ll identify himself as Frank, which is not his name.
    • He has mostly resigned himself to death and doesn’t care if he’s brought to a hospital or not, only that the ghouls are wiped out and information of his cell dies with him.
• If not treated the man dies within minutes of being found.

The Flamethrower

• The flamethrower carried by the man is a WW2 era US M2 flamethrower.
• The tank is about ¼ full with an improvised jellied fuel mixture (effectively 2 uses), however the igniter cap on the flamethrower has burned out, and the man has no spares on his person.
  • Characters who take time to inspect the weapon with 50% or more in Heavy Weapons, Craft [Mechanical], or History will recognize the missing cap.
• The flamethrower will still throw the fuel out to a range of 10m, covering a radius of 2m.
  • It will adhere to its target, however it requires a separate flame source to ignite it. Igniting the fuel induces lethality 10%.

The Ghoul

The ghoul will begin to stalk the firefighters following their contact with Agent Frank. It mostly employs hit and run tactics, stalking the firefighters from the trees or underground.

It will attempt to isolate its prey, avoiding direct confrontation and instead grappling (using Worry and Rip) and carrying away victims before finishing them off.

There are some scattered tunnels and burrows throughout the woods, which the ghoul may use to escape, ambush, hide, or stalk the PCs as necessary.

The Wilkinson Cabin

Whether by phone, radio, or shortly before they’re driven out to the edge of the road (depending on technology level of the time period or GM preference), the PC crew of firefighters are informed that a cabin nearby their section of the fire’s edge is housing the elderly Wilkenson couple who are not accounted for elsewhere and may not have been informed of evacuation orders. The PC fire crew is instructed to redirect their original route to check the house for the couple and evacuate them if they’re there.

The Wilkinson family are an elderly couple that weekends at a cabin some distance away from the road. Why they are unresponsive to evacuation calls is up to the GM, whether they lack a radio or similar means, or were previous victims of the expanding ghoul attacks.

No matter their state, when the PCs reach the cabin, the ghoul - likely following them by this point if there hasn’t already been a confrontation, will attempt to reach them inside the house.

The cabin likely has token resources for PCs to defend themselves with:

• Axes or fire pokers if they’ve previously lost their fire fighting equipment
• There is likely a double barrel shotgun or 22. rifle Above the mantle, with some small amount of ammunition.
  • If you feel PCs are too armed at this point feel free to nerf the shotgun (ex. making it a single shot or only providing birdshot: 2d8-2 damage) or removing it entirely if necessary.

Siege

If the ghoul tracks the firefighters back to the cabin, it will not pursue them inside unless it thinks they are unarmed or manageable. It will attempt to flush them out by bringing burning tinder from the fireline and setting it to the cabin, or throwing burning debris through the window.

Allow the ghoul to probe defenses, but the advancing fire doesn’t favor the firefighters holing up and the ghoul knows this. It won’t make rash actions if it doesn’t see the need or hasn’t been goaded into them.

• If the ghoul does enter it may do so through the doors or windows or by digging up through the floorboards.

If it manages to sneak up on the cabin it may try to grab at PCs near windows or by the door, picking off the more vulnerable or unaware people first.

Aftermath

Reward san if ghoul is destroyed as normal. If Agent Frank survives and is evacuated, he may recruit the PCs into L-Cell, or if he doesn’t A-Cell may follow up on L-Cell’s destruction.

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Stat Blocks

Ghoul (Modified)

STR 24 DEX 15 CON 24
INT 12 POW 13
HP 24 (max 30) WP 13
Armor: 3 points of resilient hide
Skills: Alertness 70%, Athletics 85%, Foreign Language [English] 30%, Stealth 90%, Track [by scent] 65%, Unnatural 40%
Attacks : Bony claws 50%, damage 1d8, Bite 40%, damage 1d10+2 (See Worry and Rip)
Gift of the Grave : Consuming human flesh restores 1d8hp to an injured ghoul. This may only be done once every 24 hours.
Inhuman Agility : With a successful Athletics roll, the ghoul can leap up to 5 meters in any direction from a standing position, scale any vertical surface, or drop up to 15 meters without damage. At top speed, a ghoul can run nearly 60kph.
Life Underground : A ghoul can burrow through earth at up to 3 meters per minute. Ghouls thrive underground. They prefer to breathe air, and may go into a sort of topor if suffocated for long enough, but can survive indefinitely without it. A ghoul can see in absolute darkness, identify things by smell, and hear a human heartbeat at a distance of 15 meters.
Worry and Rip : After succeeding a bit attack a ghoul may inflict 1d6 damage on the same target each turn, without requiring an attack roll. The ghoul can take other actions while holding and worrying the victim (including carrying them off). If the bite attack pierced the victim’s armor, the worry and rip damage ignores armor. The victim can attempt an opposed STR test as their action each turn to break free.
San Loss: 0/1d6

The Firefighters

Equipment

Each firefighter is equipped with a hardhat and fire resistant Nomex clothing (armor 1 against fire and blunt force injury)

They all carry a hand tool of some kind, likely a shovel, or wildland firefighting classics like the Pulaski, MacLeod, or Hazel Hoe (all 1d10 damage, melee, two handed)

• The one of the firefighters may carry a chainsaw rather than a hand tool
  • Chainsaw (Melee - Lethality 10%)
  • Chainsaw chaps (optional)
    • Armor 2 against lacerating wounds, imposes 10% penalty on rolls requiring mobility
    • If hit with chainsaw the wearer only takes damage equal to half the lethality rating and the wearer is immobilized and the saw made useless by the chain is tangling in the kevlar garment
• Expected Equipment
  • Most firefighters carry folding saws and their choice of knives or multitools as well as controlled burn tools such as flare guns, drip torches, or ignition flares
    • Flare Gun (Firearms - range 5m, 1d4 damage, 30% chance to stick to and ignite target dealing 1d10 damage until extinguished)

Pregen Characters

Firefighter 1

STR 13 DEX 12 CON 13
INT 11 POW 12 CHA 11
HP 13 WP 13 SAN 60
Bonds: 3
Skills: Alertness 60%, Athletics 80%, Craft [Landscape] 70%, Craft [Mechanical] 30%, Demolitions 60%, Dodge 50%, Drive 40%, First Aid 50%, Heavy Machinery 40%, Melee Weapons 60%, Navigate 50%, Persuade 40%, Science [Forestry] 20%, Search 40%, Survival 50%, Swim 40%, Unarmed Combat 60%

Firefighter 2 (Chainsaw)

STR 15 DEX 12 CON 14
INT 11 POW 10 CHA 10
HP 15 WP 10 SAN 50
Bonds: 3
Skills: Alertness 60%, Athletics 70%, Craft [Mechanical] 50%, Craft [Landscape] 60%, Demolitions 40%, Drive 40%, First Aid 40%, Heavy Machinery 50%, Melee Weapons 50%, Navigate 60%, Ride 30%, Science [Forestry] 60%, Search 50%, Survival 60%
Special training:

• Chainsaw training : +20% to Craft [Mechanical] tests to repair the chainsaw or similar two-stroke engine designs. Fumbles with the chainsaw never result in self injury.

Firefighter 3 (Veteran)

STR 17 DEX 14 CON 12
INT 10 POW 9 CHA 10
HP 15 WP 9 SAN 45
Bonds: 3
Skills: Alertness 70%, Athletics 70%, Craft [Landscape] 40%, Craft [Mechanical] 30%, Demolitions 60%, Dodge 50%, Drive 50%, Firearms 40%, First Aid 50%, Heavy Machinery 40%, Heavy Weapons 50%, Melee Weapons 40%, Military Science (Land) 30%, Navigate 50%, Science [Forestry] 10%, Search 60%, Unarmed Combat 60%

Firefighter 4 (Command)

STR 10 DEX 14 CON 9
INT 10 POW 17 CHA 12
HP 10 WP 17 SAN 85
Bonds: 3
Skills: Alertness 50%, Athletics 60%, Bureaucracy 40%, Craft [Landscape] 40%, Craft [Mechanical] 30%, Demolitions 40%, Drive 50%, Firearms 60%, First Aid 50%, Heavy Machinery 40%, Heavy Weapons 20%,  Military Science (Land) 20%, Navigate 70%, Persuade 40%, Science [Forestry] 40%, Search 40%, Unarmed Combat 60%

Firefighter 5 (Medic)

STR 12 DEX 11 CON 10
INT 15 POW 14 CHA 10
HP 11 WP 14 SAN 70
Bonds: 3
Skills: Alertness 70%, Athletics 60%, Craft [Landscape] 40%, Demolitions 30%, Drive 40%, First Aid 70%, Forensics 40%, Heavy Machinery 20%, Medicine 40%, Melee Weapons 50%, Navigate 40%, Persuade 40%, Pharmacy 20%, Psychotherapy 50%, Science [Biology] 40%, Science [Forestry] 30%, Search 60%

Credits

The Klickitat County Fire was written by Pete K for the 2023 Shotgun Scenario contest.
Source: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ha98ONSdjl3S94pyL5z7uKPWV3uNG3HsIQLbN9gl4Xc/edit