Training Day

Keeper's information

This scenario is a baptism under fire for new recruits being evaluated for elevation to agent status with Delta Green. The agents should not have much experience with Delta Green operations or access to equipment beyond what is provided by their agency or personal resources. Each should have had an “unusual” experience which led them to suspect the truth as well as Delta Green. Afterwards an agent gave them a code phrase and promise “someone will be in touch”.

The players are being reviewed by Delta Green for elevation to agent status as a possible new cell. A senior agent was chosen to investigate, evaluate, and recommend candidates for approach by appropriate personnel. Unfortunately the agent's past caught up with him and has endangered the recruits as well as DG.

Involving the Agents

The agents receive an email with attachments indicating they have been selected to receive human resource training as part of a joint Office of Professional Responsibility/Office of the Inspector General pilot program. Embedded in the email is the code word given during their encounter with DG, Acel Inc. The attachments include a request letter to the agent's employer for training leave signed by OPR trainer Julian Whitney, a flier describing the human resource training provided, and an OPR reimbursement form. The training is scheduled for the day after next, in a populous city central to the agent's involved. A hotel recommendation is included in the email invitation. It is expected the agent will provide transportation and expenses to be reimbursed by OPR.

Background

Agent Baxter, aka Julian Whitney, had a long career with Delta Green that began during the Cowboy Days and ended under the Program. During his time he sacrificed much to the cause, two marriages, the love of his children, bouts of alcoholism, anger issues, and his career at the FBI. It was through the efforts of a fellow agent he landed a job with OPR as a field investigator. The job provided him a paycheck while awaiting retirement and gave the Program an asset in position to review recruits for DG.

Agent Baxter was provided a list of names and background materials on several prospective agents, with professions, contact info, and incident summaries for each. He was to investigate each and write a report for A Cell, then continue his normal duties under OPR/OIG, reviewing and retraining sexual harassment policy for government funded agencies. Unfortunately Baxter encountered a pair of ghouls he'd fought in New Orleans while a newly recruited agent.

The ghouls, Larry and Diesel, spotted Baxter at a truck stop diner and followed him to his hotel. They waited until later and surprised him, drunk in his hotel room. When it was over, Larry and Diesel had Baxter's besotted brain, laptop, and evaluation reports on the new recruits. The pair hatched a plan to lure the agents into a trap as payback for their dead brethren.

Investigation

The agents have numerous clues to warn the recruitment may not be as it seems. The Acel Inc. code was listed as a contact phrase, but Agent Baxter was not authorized to use it. It was offered to the prospective agents as a spoken code for a conversational approach, not an email.

The contact info offered is legit for an OPR/OIG program, but not for the agents nor their respective agencies. Pursuing those threads should hit a bureaucratic brick wall; no one has heard of the agents, knows why their agency would be included, nor seems willing to assist them further. The agents can verify Julian Whitney is with OPR, he is on assignment in the area indicated, and is part of the program cited in the materials. He was not authorized to expand the program to other agencies.

If the agents attempt to contact Whitney directly, his work phone gives a voice mail greeting he is currently out of the office on assignment until the following week and to leave a message. His mobile number indicates he is out of the roaming area and currently unavailable.

Onsite

When the agents arrive at the hotel the desk clerk indicates a package was delivered for them an hour prior, a maid left it in one of their rooms. The package is a manila envelope marked with a green triangle in permanent marker. Inside are car keys, a photo of a late model sedan, an index card with a street address, a map with a route to the address, and a heavy duty door key.

If the agents look in the hotel lot they spot the car near the end. The doors are unlocked, the tank is almost full, the interior is clean, and the driver's seat is moved back for a tall individual. The car is not a rental, the registration is missing, the plates were taken from a car in a neighboring city. It is not reported stolen.

The address leads to a car dealership, the lot empty save a small rental car parked by the garage doors in back and a refrigerated semitrailer parked at the far end of the lot. The showroom windows are papered over in for sale signs and contact info. All of the doors are locked; the key provided opens the employee entrance at the side of the showroom.

In the showroom a table is set up with chairs around it. A speaker phone is connected to the wall. An open box holds warm sugared pastries next to a pump carafe of coffee, packs of sugar and creamer, small foam plates and cups, and a fresh fruit tray. The pastries are as presented; the coffee and fruit has been dosed with a sedative that gives them a slightly sour taste. Anyone who continues consuming the drugged food must make a CON check -20% or become drowsy, suffering a -10% to skills and attributes for the next hour.

The phone will ring when the agents arrive, Agent Baxter saying he is delayed, but he and his partner will be with them shortly. He asks them to relax and enjoy the buffet. He answers questions with “I will explain everything shortly, be patient.”

After ten minutes agents may begin experiencing symptoms of the drugs. Larry and Diesel then enter from the doorway to the garage, in human guise. They introduce themselves as Agents Baxter and Whitney, greeting them as fellow agents. They make small talk for a few minutes to identify which agents are drugged then attack, teaming up on the strongest first, then so on until they have subdued the group, by wounds, unconsciousness or death as the Handler determines.

NPCs

Agent Baxter aka Julian Whitney was recruited to Delta Green during Katrina while assisting in recovery efforts. He joined the Cowboys first then later the Program. He had the laundry list of issues after his field career, alcoholism, contempt of authority, anger management and depression. He was fired from the FBI but another agent pushed for his installment with OPR, to give him a second chance and assist DG in a support role. Use the FBI template if a ghoul needs to access consumed skills.

Lawrence “Larry” Dixon was 37 years dead when war came to the DeMonte clan. He was a delivery driver, hauling coffins, supplies, and occasional bodies with his partner Diesel. They had been on the road during Katrina, unable to return until the worst was over. After a skirmish with Delta Green the pair fled New Orleans, assumed new identities, and lived as OTR drivers since. Larry was turned at 48, victim of the “wrong place at the right time” to hear him tell it. He is the brawn to Diesel's brain, and will follow his lead in all things. He knows the ritual Changeling Feast, otherwise use ghoul stats.

Dwayne “Diesel” Parker was second generation DeMonte, turned as a wiry 25 year old in 1902. Diesel is smart, powerful, and cunning, a dangerous combination. It was his idea to survive over the road, feeding off lost souls congregating truck stops, roadside flops, and deserted back roads. Their refrigerated truck business is perfect to keep them safe and moving, watchful of Delta Green catching them. The pair remain unaware the DeMonte clan war is over. Diesel knows the rituals Changeling Feast and Charnal Meditation, otherwise use ghoul stats.

Aftermath

Agent Baxter missed his check-in with Delta Green prior to the ghoul attack, a repeated problem due to his alcoholism. DG attempted to contact him on his Agency burner; the ghouls failed to find it in his shaving kit. As a result a cell is currently nearby tracking his rental vehicle. The Handler can introduce them at any point to save the recruits, distract the attackers into aborting their assault or witness the agents' victory. Depending upon their performance will decide how the Program proceeds with the recruits, as agents, friendlies, or liabilities.

Credits

This is an entry to the 2018 Delta Green shotgun scenario contest, written by Doug Armstead.

The intellectual property known as Delta Green is ™ and © the Delta Green Partnership. The contents of this document are © their respective authors, excepting those elements that are components of the Delta Green intellectual property.