Copy Link
Add to Bookmark
Report
Chaosium Digest Volume 05 Number 12
Chaosium Digest Volume 5, Number 12
Date: Sunday, March 6, 1994
Number: 1 of 1
Contents:
A Delta Green Adventure (Matthew J. Ruane) CTHULHU NOW
Editor's Note:
Some more fun stuff has been uploaded to the chaosium archive on
soda.berkeley.edu in the last week. Thanks to everyone who has
contributed to it.
In the directory /pub/chaosium/paganpub, issues two and three of the
Annotated Unspeakable Oath are now available. These files include
electronic reprints of the majority of the articles from issues two
and three of the Unspeakable Oath, annotated by editor, John Tynes.
Also available for CoC players is a new 1920s postscript character
sheet. It's in the directory /pub/chaosium/cthulhu/character-sheets.
In response to last issue's questions on BRP traveller, Alistair
Langsford (langsl@cbr.hhcs.gov.au) said that he is starting a
Traveller 2300 campaign, using BRP mechanics. If you'd be interested
in seeing rules for a 2300 setting or 2300 BRP scenerios in the
Digest, or have any questions on using BRP for 2300 or Traveller: The
New Era, drop Alistair a line and let him know. (I for one would be
interested in seeing Traveller: The New Era ideas, since I feel that
the great background has always been encumbered by weak rules.)
Shannon
Recent Sightings:
Here's some more French Sightings, sent by Frederic Moll.
* HAWKMOON - "La Cite de Venise", an eight page article on the city
of Venice, Tatou #17 [January/February, 1994]
* PENDRAGON - "L'Heraldique", a four page article on Heraldry, Tatou
#17 [January/February, 1994]; "La Vengeance du Bastard", an eight page
scenerio, Tatou #17 [January/February 1994]
--------------------
From: Matthew J Ruane <ruane@brahms.udel.edu>
Subject: A Delta Green Adventure
System: Call of Cthulhu
It's Little, It's Yellow, It's Courses Through My Veins: A Scenario
for Cthulhu NOW!
INTRODUCTION
A few issues back, John Tynes and the The Unspeakable Oath crowd came
up with the idea of Delta Green missions for Cthulhu Now (see
"Convergence" in The Unspeakable Oath #7). What are Delta Green
missions? Within the vast maze of the Federal Government are several
individuals who investigate alleged paranormal and unexplainable
phenomena. No organized group exists, just a group of potential
recruits assembled by someone with the power to do so. Each of the
members of a Delta Green team has a special mark on their files; an
assembled team can have members from any and all branches of the
government. They have no legal sanction for their investigations
other than those granted by their positions and no one will back them
up should they get in trouble. Nevertheless, the massive bureaucracy
can swallow requests for information and equipment, files can get lost
and information can be dug up and provided. Each investigator has
some previous knowledge of the mythos (Keeper's should limit such
knowledge to a 1d6% or a 1d6-1% chance for mythos knowledge) and that
is why they are chosen to undertake such investigations.
One morning, the investigators receive an e-mail message on their
computer terminals when they log on in the morning. The message can
be read once before it disappears. They are to meet at a local
restaurant for dinner that evening. When they arrive at the
restaurant, the six members of the team should get acquainted with
each other before their "controller" arrives, twenty minutes later.
The team can include the following members: a Center for Disease
Control chemist, an FBI forsenics specialist, a National Security
Agency electronics and communications specialist, a National
Institutes for Health physician, a civilian Pentagon specialist in
chemical warfare agents, a Drug Enforcement Agency field operative,
and, if more investigators are necessary, one or more FBI special
agents, a Public Health Service psychiatrist, a Defense Intelligence
Agency analyst, and a NASA astronomical specialist. Prepared
character sheets should be provided by the Keeper, allowing the
players to spend their non-career (INT x 10) points on skills as they
wish.
The "controller" introduces himself to the group as Doctor James
Crisp, a scientist with the National Institutes for Health in
Bethesda. He has assembled the group to look into a a strange illness
on the West Coast which is apparently not what the press is reporting
it to be. Crisp believes that someone is deliberately covering up the
incident and providing "official lies" to the press.
THE OFFICIAL STORY
The first case occured a week ago when a woman entered into a
hospital, apparently suffering from respiratory distress and possible
heart failure. When an emergency room nurse begins to fit an airway
tube into the unconscious woman, the nurse noticed a chemical like
smell which caused her to faint. A doctor was called in, and when she
tried to insert a tube into the woman's arm she heard a brief hissing
sound before a yellowish fluid seeped from the patient's arm. The
curious doctor, stupidly violating safety precautions, sniffed the
fluid and was quickly overcome as were the four other emergency room
personnel on hand. The hospital called in the local hazardous
substances team, who declared the emergency room off limits and began
procedures to decontaminate the emergency room and to seal off the now
dead patient.
The report of the incident made the local evening news and was picked
up by CNN before it disappeared from the air. Within days, a second
incident similar to the first occurred, with similar results. The
second woman is alleged to have consumed an unknown chemical pesticide
in an attempt to commit suicide. Reports began to circulate that the
first victim also swallowed some unknown pesticide before being sent
to the hospital. The national news networks carried the story and
news of the subsequent autopsy of the first patient, which offered no
concrete results. The officials are remarkable close lipped as if
pressure is coming from somewhere. The tabloids even seem to accept
this "official" decision.
WHAT DR. CURTIS KNOWS
What the networks do not know is that the first patient worked for the
federal government, preparing chemcial weapons for shipment to Johnson
Atoll (in the Pacific). There, they are to be disposed of in a
multi-billion dollar state of the art incinerator. Dr. Curtis
provides the investigators with a copy of the woman's employment file
and asks the investigators to try and find out what is going on and
who is issuing the cover story to the press. He believes that someone
has altered the chemical weapon manifests, in order to slip in
substances to be destroyed that the government doesn't want anyone to
know about. He also includes the address of the Pentagon's civilian
contractor where the first patient worked and the home address of the
patient.
Dr Curtis will answer any of the investigators' questions, but he
really doesn't know anything more than the above. If asked who he
thinks is behind the cover-up, he will admit it could be anyone, "The
CIA, Army Intelligence, the Federal Communications Commission, hell,
even the NIH or CDC could be behind the cover-up. All on the grounds
of national security, threatening long prison terms to anyone who
reveals the truth. I warn you that such an outcome could face those
who cross the wrong people in this investigation". Dr Curtis will
excuse himself without touching more than the cup of coffee he ordered
and a napkin.
THE REAL STORY
The rest of the adventure is up to you to plot out, especially the
exact sequence of events. But, the Keeper should know what is really
going on. Here's the truth. Some three weeks ago, a shipment arrived
at the company owned by the contractor. Shipped across country by a
private firm, the three tractor trailers arrived with a shipment of
1950s era chemical weapons to be disposed of. Most of the shipment
was made up of dozens of drums of liquid chemicals that were part of a
binary weapons system. In the midst of the shipment were three drums
coloured differently from the rest. Not only were there hazardous
chemical weapons labels on the drums, but biohazard warnings were also
posted all over the drums. The workers, already in full
decontamination equipment treated them like any other shipment of
weapons to be prepared for disposal. However, one of the workers had
a small tear in her suit, and when the drum ruptured, the chemicals
leaked inside her suit. Within twenty four hours, she was dead.
What were the chemicals and where did they come from? In 1947, a
flying saucer crashed in the deserts of the American Southwest. The
wreckage of the saucer and the dead alien crewmembers were taken to a
hangar at a remote airbase in the California desert. The findings
were highly classified and hidden under the Air Force's Project
Bluebook investigations. Since the ship was found in the midst of the
Cold War, the Army demanded access to the ship and the findings so
that it could possibly discover some kind of new technology to combat
the Soviet threat.
What the Army's scientists discovered was that the fuel from the ship
was actually a living organism, similar to that found in the blood
streams of the dead aliens. The aliens had died from the impact of
the crash, but they seemed able to survive with the organisms in their
bloodstreams. The fuel proved extremely toxic to humans, resulting in
respiratory distress and heart failure within twenty four hours. More
importantly, the organisms could survive in the human host for up to
forty-eight hours beyond the host's death. Medical treatment would
simply infect more individuals and the cycle would be repeated. The
government tried for nearly twenty years to recreate the fuel, but
they were not successful. However, the Army did use some of the fuel
to create several chemical weapons that would have been used in the
case of a nuclear war.
With the end of the Cold War, however, those in the government decided
that it would be best to get rid of these dangerous chemical weapons
and these three drums were intentionally shipped with a normal
shipment due for disposal. No one would have been the wiser if the
woman had not become infected, but since the women did become infected
with the alien fuel virus, the Army launched a massive cover-up,
including intentionally poisoning another, but untraceable, government
employee.
RUNNING THE ADVENTURE
The investigator's snooping should be hampered at all levels. Local
officials have been cowed by the vast federal power being brought to
bear (any community officials who spoke out would find their
communities declared infected with a deadly virus and thus
uninhabitable by the CDC), and those at the hospital are too concerned
about their odd and uncomfortable working conditions to have time for
the investigators, unless they are able to use their positions
effectively. The infected doctor should be willing to talk to the
appropriate investigators, as should a few of the hospital personnel
not directly related to the case.
The Pentagon sub-contractor's facilities will be overrun with
government officials looking for clues. If the investigator's show
up, they will be questioned by Army Intelligence field agents and may
be held by Army Military Police guarding the facility. They should
find themselves being shadowed in their subsequent investigations
after visiting the hospital or the chemical company. If they get too
close, have the government do something to scare the investigators
off.
CONCLUSIONS
Eventually everything should trace back to the flying saucer crash in
1947 and the airbase in the desert. Does the government have more of
the chemicals? What happened to the two other barrels? That's up to
you to decide. Have the dead aliens be from any of the likely Cthulhu
races: Mi-Go, Shaggai or Yithians. Will the investigators be allowed
to expose the cover-up or will their findings be buried or dismissed
by a skeptical press?
Note: I would like to hear from anyone who successfully runs this
scenario. Contact me via e-mail at ruane@brahms.udel.edu.
--------------------
The Chaosium Digest is an unofficial discussion forum for Chaosium's
Games. To submit an article, mail to: appel@erzo.berkeley.edu. The
old digests are archived on soda.berkeley.edu in the directory
/pub/chaosium, and may be retrieved via FTP.
