A Victim of the Art — Jan 2021
(Spoiler Warning For Delta Green Scenario A Victim of the Art)
This group just finished with a 1930’s P-Division era Delta Green / Pulp Call of Cthulhu mini campaign. I am hoping to use this first scenario as a good launching board to set up a series of modern scenarios in the greater New York area.
The Pitch
Three people in the quiet town of Glenridge, Long Island, are brutally murdered over the course of five weeks. The killer leaves no traces, except for the massive wounds he inflicts on his victims and a strange, organic matter under their fingernails. With nowhere else to go, Detective Hannah Gregson consults an acquaintance at the FBI — who happens to be a Delta Green friendly.
Players
Agent Blake — Intelligence Case Officer — CIA
Agent Abraham — Clinical Psychologist — Consultant
Agent Lance — Medical Examiner — FBI
Agent Jacob — Pilot — USAF retired
Session 1
The players had cover as an FBI task force assigned to assist with the serial killer.. The players were read into the situation by a mysterious voice on the phone. The voice on the phone gave the players the macro view of the situation and told them the basics about the three victims.
- Carl Maretti (45) A local dentist, was killed on Sept 15th.
- Vanessa Hatavan (41) A high school library, killed on October 7th.
- Laruen Harrogate (17) A high school student was abducted on October 21st and her body was found on October 22nd
The players next met a Delta Green friendly from the FBI, Special Agent Thomas Carson. Carson agreed to run things on the bureaucratic and research side of the opera while the players do the legwork.
Carson was able to give the players some insight into the murders and the gray polymer found under the fingernails of each victim. The killer removed the spine of each victim and the killings became more brutal over time. Agent Lance proposed a theory that maybe this was a group of killers working to overwhelm the victims. Agent Abraham made the point that the first victim seemed hidden from the public while the two women were killed and their bodies hung on display.
The gray polymer angle turned out to be a bit of dud. NPC Carson played cagey explaining it needed to be seen to be best understood. The early reports shown to the players determined it was a mix of noxious chemicals and the lab results from the CDC concluded them to be strange but nothing too exotic. The players speculated maybe this stuff was used to incapacitate the victims? Or maybe mark them?
Red flags went flying when the players asked “what type of town was Glenridge?” The response of “a third of the town works for the defense industry in some capacity” immediately prompted Agent Blake to tap his sources in the intelligence community and pull a list of names of contractors or Department of Defense officials living in Glenridge.
The players then decided to split the party into a pair of teams.
Green Team: Agent Lance and Agent Jacob — would go to the Suffolk County Medical Examiner and check out the three victims and the gray polymer.
Orange Team: Agent Abraham and Agent Blake — would head to the Swansea Psychiatric Institute and attempt to interview the only witness to the attacks, Sandra Harrogate, the third victim’s mother.
The Green Team talked to the NPC medical examiner Dr. Simpson. Simpson walked them through the crime scenes and showed them the remains of the latest victim. The players were told it looked like someone went at the bodies with a chainsaw and that the spines were ripped from the bodies. The most perplexing question was how the killer placed the bodies, the wires or on the beach. It appears they were just teleported….
Agent Jacob put his pilot skills to the test and noticed in the reports the bodies showed what looked like frostbite akin to exposure to high altitude. Agent Lance medically deduced that there was no sign of a harness or bruising on the bodies to move them
Dr. Simpson then went all mad scientist on the PCs and asked “if they wanted to see something really cool?” to which he produced a bowling ball sized sample of gray polymer. Asking Agent Jacob to dim the lights, Dr. Simpson explained that NPC FBI guy Carson convinced him to send a dummy sample to the CDC because this polymer was far too dangerous to expose to the public.
The good doctor then contradicted himself in terms of public safety because he dropped the polymer on his bare arm and gave a wild demonstration of how it could not be damaged by a blade nor burned by fire. This prompted Sanity Checks that Agent Lance failed and Agent Jacob passed.
The doctor showed off that light caused the polymer retract and sunlight causes the polymer to shrink and dissipate.
Orange Team, Agents Abraham and Blake had a bit of a better go at the Psychiatric Hospital, which they quickly deduced had some real Rehab for the Rich and Famous vibes. A sassy NPC receptionist said Mrs. Harrogate went crazy and asked if she could get hooked up with dreamy Special Agent NPC Carson. Which was deemed both unprofessional and fitting for some reason.
The players had some fun roleplay and discovered that the attending physician, Dr. Woo, was treating Mrs. Harrogate privately for years. Dr. Woo explained that Mrs. Harrogate was nearly cationic but would respond via sketches thanks to years of experience with art therapy. Agent Blake pressed hard to pry some information about Harrogate and her late husband. The armor of HIPAA protected her a bit but he was able to glean that hubby used to work for a defense firm as an accountant before succumbing from lung cancer last year.
Things took a strange turn when the players were given a handout of Mrs. Harrogate’s drawings depicting a Mothman type of creature.
NPC D. Woo laid some ground rules down for the interview, no touching and if she loses her cool then walk away. Agent Abraham had everyone sit on the floor and draw back and forth, which was a great idea but still led to Harrogate flipping her lid when pressed about the dark figure (Mothman) she saw in the sky. She began screaming and staring out the window into the bay, Agent Blake checked what she was fixating on and discovered she was hyper focused on Plum Island and Montauk Island.
Both players failed an Occult Roll and could not understand why the hell she cared so much about some damn islands.
The teams combined, traded information, leading to Agents Abraham and Lance agreeing they needed to get a Green Box and take possession of the gray polymer. A 30% Base Accounting from Abraham allowed him to rent an empty storage space. Agent Lance wanted to hire a welder to reinforce the storage unit and maybe create a safe room or a prison cell?
Agent Abraham failed the Accounting roll for home improvement, which reduced one of his bonds, some quick thinking from the players created an amazing cover story for the hapless contractor, they were just really into BDSM and wanted a “fun room”.
My Top Five favorite memes and moments of session
- Rich People Rehab
- Too many people with similar names for the GM.
- “Dude just put the ooze on his arm!” Get the phone out and record it.
- Agent Blake played NPC matchmaker spy with Carson and Wendy the Receptionist.
- At least I did not have to explain to my bond, the Catholic Church, I have to borrow money to build a sex dungeon.
GM Rating 7.5/10 — I need to play the NPCs much more broadly, as in conveying Agent Carson being super stressed out and frustrated or Dr. Simpson was overtly giddy about finding this creepy gray polymer. Too subtitle.
I also need to alter the module’s NPC names to those that are more distinct and I cannot confuse.
