Operation: Final Spiral - Chapter Seven

Seeing Specters in the Delta Green RPG, using Mythic 2e

Published by arrangement with the Delta Green Partnership. The intellectual property known as Delta Green is a trademark and copyright owned by the Delta Green Partnership, who has licensed its use here. The contents of this document are ©SolumProtocol, excepting those elements that are components of the Delta Green intellectual property.

Photo by Rajitha Fernando: https://www.pexels.com/photo/photo-of-twining-tendrils-on-stem-1259786/

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Shard of Leng - 3PM

We moved into the jungle and padded softly though the humid, moist air, trying to navigate the tangle of roots and vines that littered the path.

“What are we looking for Kat?” Tracy whispered.¹

“A trail.” I said. There was one, not on the ground, at least, not one I could make out. But I could smell something on the air. Leng smelled different from when I was last here, weaker somehow, as though there was something undefinable just, missing, from the place. But over top of it was something putrid and foul, something otherworldly. I upped my pace, searching for any sign of it’s cause.² We moved through the seemingly endless jungle for what must have been an hour, maybe two.

“We’re going in circles.” Tracy said, crouching down to look at the ground. “Look. That’s my boot print in the mud.” She placed her foot next to it, and created an identical boot print and sighed. “We need to be more mindful. This is a literal jungle. We can’t just run around blindly or we are going to die.” She glanced over her shoulder and shuddered. “I can still see the door, at least, so we have an out.”³

“The scent is getting stronger when we move forward.” I said, looking out into the jungle, towards the smell.

“Yes well, I don’t want to say it’s all in your head….” Tracy said before trailing off without finishing.

“We should call Nate and see if they can get an incendiary device.” Jasper said gruffly. He was hunched over and looking slightly feral but his eyes were clear when they met mine. “This place is unnatural. I don’t like how it makes me feel. We should leave and burn it.”

“How will we know that’s good enough?” I said, crouching down. There had to be a way forward, didn’t there? Why else would I be here?⁴ I wracked my brain, trying to draw on everything I knew about this place, about the unnatural and felt a sudden, sharp pain in the back of my skull.

“This way.” A trio of voices said, and I looked up, even though every instinct within me told me not to.

“Can you see that?” I asked the others, my voice raw.

“See what, Kat? What’s going on?” Tracy, or maybe Jasper said. I wasn’t sure. I could see them. Mom. Dad. Markus. They were standing in the shadows of the leaves of a tree a dozen or so feet away from me. Markus smiled gently, a trickle of blood escaping his mouth as his ruined throat pulsed as though the wound was fresh. Mom’s eyes were bright and full of life while the top of her head was open like a flower, the bone of her skull covered in sinew and hair. Dad extended a hand, gesturing for me to follow him while my knife, which I know was tucked in under my arm, jutted form his throat.

“This isn't possible.” I said, numbly.⁵

“Kat, seriously, what’s happening?” The voices said, but I walked away from them and extended a hand out to my family, the three people that shouldn’t be here before I broke into a run.

“Kat!”

I ran towards them, although even as I bounded through the jungle, I didn’t know if It was to embrace them or plunge my knife into them. They couldn’t be real, I knew that, but they looked so solid.⁶ They drifted ahead of me. I never saw their legs move, but every time I got close, they were suddenly further away, out of reach. I snarled and kept moving as they whispered to me.⁷

“Fight it Kat.” Markus whispered, blood bulbbing at his lips.

‘You’re human, Sweetie, start acting like it.” Mom said, in that slightly bitchy way she had when I had done something monumentally stupid.

“I’m proud of you, kid. But my heart breaks when I see what you’re caught up in.” Dad said, an echo of his words form a few years ago, when we had first reunited.

“Mind your fucking business!” I spat leaping forward as they shimmered in and out of existence.⁸ I was so pissed off I almost didn’t see the vines swirling around my feet, trying to tangle an ankle.⁹ I tried to leap over them but they extended quickly and wrapped my leg and pulled me down. Another vine shot out around my other leg and they lifted me from the ground. I felt so jarred, my body so numb that I fumbled clumsily for my knife. By the time I drew it I was being dragged deeper into the jungle.¹⁰

“Shit, somethings got her! Quickly!” Tracy called running forward. I had my knife in my hand and tried to slash at one of the vines as my teammates started to draw level with me. More vines appeared, swatting away any attempts to saw myself free, but Jasper swept forward and slashed one of the vines with a quick, expert cut.¹¹ Both vines released my legs and I fell the short distance to the ground.¹² I fell heavily and gasped, the pain sudden and shocking, jarring me back into my body like a bucket of cold water.

“What the fuck was that?” Tracy said, her knife sheathed and her gun raised as she panned around the jungle.

“I don’t want to be repetitive, but it’s something we should fucking burn.” Jasper said. He looked around before crouching down and helping me to my feet. His hand was steady on my shoulder as he looked into my eyes. “Kat, what just happened?”

“I saw Markus.” I mumbled, still feeling spaced.

“Isn’t he back in Seattle?” Jasper said, squeezing my shoulder.
“He’s dead.” I said. “Just like Mom and Dad. I saw them too. All of them are dead and they shouldn’t be here.” I felt the numbness in my spine and finger tips begin to recede. Jasper’s hand was warm, the heat passing through my jacket and I tried to hold onto it, to center myself with it.

“Shit, Kat, I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

“I know.” I said, my mouth suddenly dry. “It’s because of her. Violet McCown. The trap she set me last year killed Markus.” I let the anger come back and rise up, preferring it to the numbness that had preceded it. What I was saying wasn’t entirely true. Markus had died because he was so shit scared of me, of what I was and what I did, that he risked being out at night rather than stay with me. McCown killed him, but I could have saved him. If I was stronger. If I was more human. I shook my head. “Now isn’t the time.” I said, taking a step away.¹³ I followed the vines that had grabbed me, which were now shriveled as though all of the moisture had been seeped from them into the ground below. Moving through the trees, the foul smell intensified to the point that it was hard not to gag.

“What the fuck?” Tracy said as she joined me in the clearing. There were 7 bodies, lying on their backs and staring upwards, towards the sky.¹⁴ Four looked like townsfolk wearing simple working class attire, spattered with blood and torn apart, but it was the other three that jarred me. Three figures, bodies limp and broken, in very familiar segmented armor. March Tech armor. I moved quickly to their sides and checked them over.

“They’re dead.” I said as I lifted the helmet off of one.¹⁵ I dropped the helmet in surprise. The eyes were glassy in death, but something about them didn’t look right. Their faces were laced with pulsing, electric blue lines. I had no idea if these were the same crew I had met yesterday, but I doubted it.

“How did they get here?” Jasper said, poking one with the toe of his boot. The blue veins shimmered slightly from the motion and we all had to suppress a shudder.(19)

“It’s probably an earlier retrieval team.” I said. “We should salvage their gear. This body armor looks similar to the stuff I used in the TAG Teams and that shit was military grade.” Tracy gave me a slightly judgmental look but before she could say anything, there was a rustle of leaves as something opened up. The bottom of a large, jagged branched tree had unraveled one of its roots to reveal and eighth body. Even with the effects of severe exposure, I recognized the aquiline features and haughty expression of Violet McCown. Even if it was missing some skin and the features were sunken in a few days or weeks worth of atrophy.

“No. Fucking No!” I said, stumbling forward. She looked dead. No heartbeat, no pulse, nothing to grip onto, just a pile of dead meat.¹⁶ I didn’t know what to do, and I was about to put a round in her head to vent the boiling pot of frustration when McCown’s head tilted, and her eyes flickered open. Her eyes glowed with Eldritch light as she began to laugh.¹⁷

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Country Road 956 - 8PM

“We’ll call this one a favor owed, Scion.” Cecil Bargain said. The scene was frozen before me, but he moved with an oddly languid grace as he walked towards me and tapped me in the forehead. “Best for you, I think, If you don’t remember the next few hours. Trust me, this is a favor, and I will expect it to be repaid. But I’d be lying if I were to say I don’t get anything out of it.” The man smiled, and he showed far, far too many teeth. “See you soon, Agent Jones.”

---

My hands were on the driving wheel of my shitty Volkswagen Jetta. My cheap Navigation GPS was suction cupped to the windshield and said I was an hour or so out of Iuka, driving towards somewhere called ‘Maple Grove, Mississippi’. It was dark outside and I felt like I had been driving for hours. I felt a strong sense of vertigo, my head swam, and a small hand steadied me on the steering wheel. I glanced to the passenger seat and saw Jo’s small frame patting me on the shoulder.

“What?” I said, my mouth thick.¹⁸ A thick bead of blood dribbled down my chin and my mouth tasted like iron. I turned my gaze back to the road and noticed my hands were coated in mud and a thick, bloody ooze. A small part of my brain registered that it wasn’t fresh blood, the muck more akin to the congealed blood of a several days old corpse. “How did I get here?” I asked thickly.

“You dragged your two friends from the facility.” Jo said softly. “They are sleeping. You should let them rest.”¹⁹ I glanced in the rearview, and saw that Tracy and Jasper were curled up unconscious and filthy in the back seat.

“What are you doing here?” I asked thickly.

“It doesn’t matter.” Jo said dismissively.

“It matters.” I felt sick. I remembered Violet McCown’s dead, glowing eyes regarding me, her spidery, echoing laugh and then….Cecil Bargain talking to me. Telling me I owed him a favor. I pulled the car over, although the road was empty. I turned to Jo. “Why did you tell me to go in there?”²⁰ The alien child shrugged awkwardly, a shockingly human gesture from her.

“My calculations were off.” Jo said apologetically. “I still don’t really understand human calendars. I had hoped if you found McCown’s body soon enough, you could take care if it before she gestated.”

“Gestated?” I repeated, disgusted. “What the fuck did she gestate into?”

“Something very bad.” Jo said primly. “There is a hotel in this location.” Jo said, tapping the GPS.

‘There’s a hotel in Iuka and it’s closer.” I said, pulling back onto the road.

“We do not want to go to Iuka. The construct has only a 87% chance of coming to fruition of you go to Iuka. If we go to this Maple Grove, then there is an 89% chance.”

“I don’t know what the fuck your talking about Jo, but I don’t really give a shit about a 2% difference.”²¹

“One simple change having a 2% alteration to the Construct is extremely important.” Jo said seriously. “Besides which, you and your friend will probably die.”

---

She elaborated on her ominous statements. Eventually. We were most of the way to the motel and I had started to shout at her without realizing it when she eventually told me some more details.

‘Violet McCown has ascended. It was always the goal of her cult, I believe. But she is still bound here, rather than seeking the stars like she had planned. She is entrenched here, and must be gouged out, else she erodes this planet like a cancer.”

“Great.” I said. I recalled that her old village, the monsters in the town that I had killed one by one, had supposedly ‘ascended’ to send their consciousness flying through space, or some such bullshit. This sounded different.

“So was that her in the jungle? It was her body, I’m sure.”

“It was her former body, yes. It was the equivalent of a snakes shed skin, although with a trap for the unwary, if your friends babbling, incoherent ramblings are anything to go by.”

“Kid, your shitty attitude is starting to wear thin.” I grated, my knuckles going white on the steering wheel. “How do I fix this? How do I kill this thing?”²²

“Well, if you become what you are supposed to be, then you would already know.” She said with a smile. I barked a laugh that had a bit more hysteria than I intended

“What If I want to stay human?”

“Then you’ll die.” She said with a shrug. “Probably, anyway.”²³

“What If I can find her heart? Her new heart. If I find that, and destroy it, will that do?”

“I assume you mean her symbolic heart, as most creatures not native to this small section of the universe don’t have any anatomy that you would recognise.” Jo said.

“Obviously.” I said through gritted teeth.

“You or your Life-Mate would be able to do it.” Jo said. “This should not be some big revelation, you understand, it is your nature to kill. But you asked for a way to kill this and remain yourself, and I fear that following that path will not end well for you.”

“Then what the fuck am I supposed to do?” I said, my voice rising high.

“I don’t know.” Jo said with a shrug. “But I trust you’ll make the right choice.”²⁴

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My blood is pumping just from editing this chapter haha. I remember playing and being so unsure what was coming next, and Mythic delivered some truly great prompts. This would be the kind of mid-season finale I think, as now we are starting the Horror Track to try and take down whatever the heck McCown has become! I may have been a touch harsh on some of these sanity checks, but eh, its the finale! Thanks for reading!

1. Oracle: Any sign of a trail? 50/50 77 - No. A scent to follow? 50/50 38 Yes. Foul Lacking

2. Oracle: Townsfolk bodies? 50/50 82 No. Do we find anything soon? 50/50 85 No. Can we find our way back? 50/50 61 Yes. Are we going in circles? Unlikely - 51 Yes

3. Oracle: Is the smell getting stronger when I follow it? 50/50 24 Yes.

4. Oracle: Kat Unnatural - 77/14 - Critical Fail. Oh dear. What do I see? “You are Tormented by a Vision of your past”

5. Sanity - 42/19 - 1 SAN Lost

6. Oracle: Do they keep ahead of me? 50/50 37 Yes. Are they leading me somewhere? 50/50 72 No.

7. Oracle: What are they saying? Anything useful? 50/50 27 Yes. Resist Religion

8. Oracle: Am I going to be attacked? 50/50 - 36 Yes. Townsfolk? 79 No. Alertness - 27/60 Success (-20% for Acute Episode)

9. Skill: Dodge (+20% for Previous Success) - 70/43 Failure

10. Sanity 76/18 - 1 SAN. Has my rage overcome my acute episode? 50/50 78 No.

11. Skills: Melee Weapons (-20% for episode) 54 Failure Tracy - 49/30 Fail, Jasper - 44/50 Critical 12 DMG

12. Skill: DEX X 5 (-20% for episode) 87/55 - 2 DMG from gravity.

13. Oracle: Any sign of McCown? Likely - 32 Yes. Is it what I think? 50/50 24 Yes

14. Oracle: Violent death? 50/50 33 Yes - Random event. NPC Negative - March Tech Kill Team.

15. Oracle: Do they look overtly unnatural? 50/50 42 Yes

16. Oracle: Does she open her eyes? 50/50 69 Yes

17. End Scene - Chaos Factor 8. Random Event. Cecil Bargains Boon? 50/50 44 Yes - and second event - NPC Action - Jo - Guard Corruption (I have an idea for this, so bare with me)

18. Oracle: Blood? 50/50 61 Yes.

19. Tracy Sanity 70/49 5 DMG Jasper 71/43 10 DMG (This was a 1d10)

20. Oracle: Did she think I could kill it early? 50/50 35 yes.

21. Kat has clearly never played Delta Green.

22. Oracle: Does she elaborate on that? 5/50 47 Yes. What I think? 50/50 01 Extreme Yes.

23. Oracle: Does she have any clues? Very Unlikely - 53 Yes. ‘Untamed Threshold’

24. End Scene - Chaos Factor 7 - Test Scene - 8 Scene AS Expected. Horror Track Started (Violet McCown) I gave 1d4 San for escaping the facility and keeping her friends alive and it = 1 haha