Operation Lost Herald: Chapter One

Spring Surprises 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.

Thumbnail Photo by Curtis Adams: https://www.pexels.com/photo/brick-house-with-grass-lawn-5502221/

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Great Falls, Montana, May 21st, 2006 10AM.

I received the message on the way back to my hotel room in Portland after wrapping up a missing persons case that had taken up most of my May. I had put enough overtime in the last week just from travelling that I was entitled to a few extra days off, but alas, the green triangle on my hotel room key card let me know that PTO is for other people. On my hotel bed was a plane ticket for that evening to Great Falls Montana as well as a ticket to a day spa, Great Falls Rapids Relaxation, with a massage booked for 10AM the following day. At least now I knew why Baker had looked so sheepish when I had been talking to him earlier that day. Bastard. I had gotten my hopes up that I might actually have some time to myself.

---

The flight was cramped, but it was hard to tell how much of that feeling was internal, and how much of it was the shitty seat I was stuck with between two linebackers with body odor. When I landed in Great Falls, there was no fancy SUV waiting for me, so I had to take a cab and pay out of pocket to get to the damn meeting point, and when I arrived I was bustled into a small, cramped room in the basement by a woman who looked like she had never relaxed in her life, let alone encouraged the behavior in others. A couple of familiar faces greeted me, Montford and Tracy, both dressed business casual and sat in comfortable silence. Montford nodded to me as I sat down between them.¹ I wondered briefly if Palmer would be joining us, like old times, but Landry arrived a moment later, his face a cold mask instead of his usual affable one, and I had a sudden foreboding feeling in the pit of my stomach. A stern faced woman followed him in, a folder tucked under her arm as she firmly closed the sliding door behind her. She was tall and well built with a face made of sharp line and eyes that took in the whole room in one, disinterested sweep. She smelt like gun smoke, hastily covered with antiperspirant, and everything in her posture and mannerisms indicated a trained killer.²

“Ah shit.” Montford said softly. The woman gave him a tight smile, one that I would rate highly in a list of things I never wanted to see again.

“Good to see you again, Andy.” The woman said dryly. “Agent Jones. Miss Castor.” She nodded at each of us in turn. “I’ll be running this mission. Nolan here will continue as your primary source of contact, but final authority comes from me.” Tracy raised her hand nervously, and the woman gave that same tight smile before nodding at her.

“Who are you?” She asked. Her voice had a slight, almost imperceptible quaver, but her eyes and body language were suspicious.

“You can call me Director Oakes.” The woman said with that same tight smile. “I’m the Director of Security for the Program.”³ I felt a chill go up my spine. A director? That couldn’t be good. Montford was shaking his head, his arms crossed, but he kept his mouth shut, which could only be a bad sign, considering his tendency to mouth off at literally anyone within heckling distance.

“You’ve all worked with Agent Palmer.” Oakes said, reaching into the folder and pulling out a few photos that she pinned to the board on the far side of the room. Both were of Palmer, the first one looked like it was from a few years ago, less wrinkles, that familiar, slightly absent smile, her eyes slightly unfocused and dreamy behind her thick rimmed glasses. The second one was more recent and also familiar. Glasses askew, hair tangled, a wild but focused look in her eyes. The time stamp was from an ATM here in Montana, dated about a month ago. “I believe all of you have had a run in with her in the last few months, correct?” I nodded an affirmative, as did Montford and Tracy. “We’ve been keeping tabs on her. She’s been acting increasingly erratic, and is currently on an extended administrative leave from her job at Washington State University.” That explained why she wasn’t here. But why was Oakes telling us all of this?

“Has something happened to her?” I asked cautiously.

“Something like that.” Landry said with a sigh.

“She’s disappeared.” Oakes said bluntly. “Something that should not have been possible with her skillset, and the level of observation her home has been under. With her knowledge of the occult, and her proximity to a few cases of concern, we have a few working theories on how. But the key is in her home. Here’s the mission.” She passed me the folder, and I flipped it open. “That’s mostly background information, I doubt any of it will be useful, but you never know.” Oakes said. “Nolan here will drive you to her home, about an hour outside of town. Go in, and find out how, or where, Palmer has off run to. If you can find out why, that could also be useful information, but it isn’t a required part of this mission.”

“And if she’s still there?” Montford asked softly. “You expect us to deal with her?” Their was a cold intensity to his voice, and I shared a worried look with Tracy. Oakes, however, seemed unperturbed.

“She isn’t there.” Oakes said dismissively. “My men have performed a cursory sweep.” Montford snorted at that, and she gave him a dark look. “You all know her, and there’s a lot of paperwork and scribblings to sort through. You, more than anyone else, have the best chance of figuring out how and where she’s gone. Once you figure it out, report it to me, and my men will take care of the rest.” That familiar chill returned as she said ‘Take Care of’, leaving little doubt in my mind the exact type of care being offered here.

“Is there something Palmer’s done, to earn this treatment?” I asked, trying to reign in a rising peak of anger. “If she’s missing, shouldn’t the focus be on rescuing her?”⁴ It wasn’t the director who answered me, however. It was Montford.

“If Oakes is here, Jones, then it means Palmer has fucked up one too many times.” He said bluntly. “Sounds like she knows it, and is on the run. Don’t let the overwhelming subtlety of our director here confuse you. Palmer just became the mission.”⁵

---

On the Road, Montana - 11AM

The drive out of Great Falls was conducted in silence, with Landry behind the wheel and the three agents looking through the sparse folder for background information. Director Oakes followed in a large, black windowless van and I didn’t need Montford to tell me that the men in the back were not to be fucked around with.⁶ Included in the folder was a basic floor plan, Landry’s notes on Palmer, most of which were surface level observations or redacted mission notes, and a log of her movement leading up to her disappearance.⁷ She had only been to one location, an abandoned building on the edge of the suburbs.

“Landry, what’s this building at 9054 Tower Avenue?” I asked, giving the folder a shake in the dim hope something useful would fall out.

“There was an old Sheriff's station there, about 10 years ago. It shut down as most of the local policing was centralized.”

“Any idea why she went there?”

“None that I’ve been made aware.” Landry said. “It was part of the initial sweep, but Director Oakes Agents aren’t investigators.”

“What are they then?” Tracy asked quietly. Landry didn’t answer, so Montford gave the obvious answer.

“They’re a kill team, Trace.” He said blandly. “To put it bluntly, seeing as no other fucker will, Oakes only gets involved in a mission when one of our own becomes a problem. You better hope this is the only contact you have with her. The only thing worse than being her target is getting roped into being one of her assets.”⁸

Sorting through the folder took less time than it took to arrive, and so Montford’s foreboding words occupied more of my attention than the mission did. I tried to distract myself by probing Landry with more questions, and extending them to the group as a whole. I was hoping we could piece together what had Palmer so frenetic when she had made contact with each of us.⁹ The only consistency was the mention of Clyde Baughman, and that lead us back to the clean up job back in the Summer of 2005.¹⁰ Tracy hadn’t been with us then, so I gave her a brief overview; he was a former agent, with a horde of documents he should have destroyed and an animated corpse in his septic tank.

“More walking corpses, yay.” Tracy said without enthusiasm. Other than that, there was little Palmer seemed to have shared.

“Curiosity was always Helena’s weak point.” Landry said with a sigh. “Its always been the problem with the studious types. They want to understand.” The last word was said gravely, and with open disapproval. I understood what he was getting at. Trying to understand things that were objectively nonsensical, or alien, hadn’t seemed to have done anyone, anywhere, any good, at least that I had seen.

“If we don’t find what we need in the house, we should prepare to search this place on Tower Avenue.” I said, rereading the file for the 3rd time.

“Oakes is sure whatever you need to find, its in that house. But I’ll let her know your professional opinion.” Landry said. The view outside had transitioned from endless woodland to a quaint rural residential area, white picket fences and well manicured lawns galore.¹¹

“Palmer had 4 neighbors. All have been encouraged to stay elsewhere for the next few days, so there shouldn’t be any issues if things get loud.”

“Are things likely to?” I asked, surprised.

“Honestly, Katherine, I have no idea. I monitored Dr. Palmer heavily for the months before the Program took over, and I didn’t like what I saw. She was dabbling. I can say that for certain. And dabbling never ends well.”

---

We pulled up a long driveway a short while later. Palmer’s Montana residence was a 2 story building with a wide structural footprint and a few acres of well cared for lawn. A garden bloomed in the front, and I could see the fence of a vegetable patch off to the side. It looked the very picture of a rural getaway, and I had to wonder how Palmer could afford all this land. I wasn’t under the impression teachers earned enough to warrant all this.

“Here.” Landry passed us all a small pouch that felt like it was filled with sand. “Don’t open it.” He snapped at Montford, who shrugged, and pulled his fingers away from the drawstrings. “If you see anything overtly unnatural, and it isn’t actively trying to kill you, throw that on it.” He said, tapping the pouch.

“What is it?” I asked.

“It’s a nullification powder.” He said confidently, although his eyes darted to the side evasively as he spoke. “Hypothetically, anyway. I can’t speak for how it would affect an entity, but I’ve seen it deactivate unnatural effects. It’s experimental.” He warned. “But Oakes kill team was kind enough to lend me some, and I’m trusting you with it.”¹²

“What about weapons?” Montford said. “You said this might get loud.”¹³

“Check the trunk.” Landry said. “If there’s something you want specifically, you can always ask Oakes.”

“Not fucking likely” Montford muttered, exiting the vehicle. I shared another look with Tracy, who shrugged and smiled weakly and we left.¹⁴ The trunk of the SUV was kitted out with a full armed response set of tactical gear, and I let out a whistle of appreciation. 4 bump stock SMG’s, two shotguns with spare rounds of buckshot, slugs and non lethal rounds as well as 3 full sets of body armor, complete with riot helms, knee guards and tactical webbing.

“These guys aren’t fucking around.” I said, feeling another twinge of unease. Montford looked over his shoulder at Oakes’ black van and grimaced. It took an effort of will to wrestle down my curiosity. Montford had clearly worked with Director Oakes before, and knowing his skill set I could imagine only one role he would have been conducting; an executioner. I decided against asking for now.¹⁵ Montford held out an earpiece, and I raised an eyebrow.

“Multi channel.’ He said. “Me and Trace will take the single channel ones.” I rolled my eyes, and put it in, getting it set up.

“Agent Jones, we are reading you.” Oakes' voice said, a trace of amusement in her voice.

“All clear.”

“Director, can you read?” She said, and I felt a moment of confusion before a third voice, a cold one that I didn’t recognize, spoke calmly over the channel. “Affirmative. Keep me apprised Oakes.”¹⁶

“10-4” She said, all professional. The dark feeling I had received earlier seemed to intensify, but I pushed it down and donned the SWAT gear. The best thing to do was find the answers as quickly as possible, and hand this back to Oakes’ team. I felt a pang of guilt for Palmer, who I still considered a friend, but I tried to compartmentalize it.¹⁷ There was still a chance she was alive, as slim as that was. I tried not to think about what would happen to her if she was.¹⁸

---

Welcome to Operation Lost Herald. I had a clock going since the end of the Prologue for if Palmer would start look into something best left unexplored - but I realized if I was only rolling a d100 after every mission, chances were nothing would ever happen, so I decided to just go with it. I’ll save more of the ‘hows and whys’ for the Post script, but right now, I’m excited to get into it. I did a few different things for the scene set up that I’ll cover next chapter, setting up a compelling hook is still the hardest part of all this I think! Thanks for reading!

1. Oracle: Is Landry the lead? 50/50 - 53 No. Director of Security? 50/50 - 47 Yes.

2. Oracle: Does Montford recognize? Unlikely - 15 Yes.

3. Katherine Oakes, Director of Security can be found on page 284 of the Handler’s Guide. Thought I would get a another big player from the book, and Oakes made the most sense.

4. Oracle: Does Montford answer for Oakes? 50/50 - 50 Yes

5. End scene. Chaos Factor 5 Test Scene - 5 Altered Scene - Add an Object and Increase and Activity. (Activity = Drive to Palmer’s) (Object = Item - Special Item)

6. Oracle: Anything of note in the folder? 50/50 38 Yes.

7. Oracle: Had she been anywhere apart from her home? Unlikely - 26 Yes. Where? Old DG safehouse? Likely - 76 No. Army? 50/50 - No. Sherriff? Likely - 53 I need a good modern location table

8. Oracle: Any indication on what Palmer was studying? Unlikely - 43 No.

9. Oracle: Did she mention anything other than Baughman? 50/50 - 65 No.

10. See The Prologue

11. Oracle: Locals been cleared out? Likely - 53 Yes.

12. This is the a version of the Dust of Ibn Ghazi, which features in a few stories. Maybe we will see what it does later

13. Oracle: Any Weapons? 50/50 49 Yes.

14. Oracle: Armor? Unlikely - 01 Extreme yes. Random Event. Shotguns and submachines? 50/50 48 Yes.

15. Random Event - Remote Event - Arrive Personnel.

16. This is the random event, tying in another NPC from the book.

17. Sanity: (Helplessness) 15/48 0 San Loss

18. End Scene. Chaos Factor 4. Test Scene = 5 - Scene as Expected.