Operation Lost Herald: Chapter Two
Finding more Questions 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 腾云 孙 on Unsplash, with edits.
Palmer Residence - 12PM
Montford led the way, directing us to breach the front as though we were a hostage rescue team, not a trio of mismatched investigative agents. The whole op had a bad air to it, so I let him lead.1 The front door had clearly been knocked of its hinges and placed delicately back in place, so as to seem normal from a distance. Montford pushed it over, and we breached.2 The house was messy, but it was clear after the first room that the initial sweep had left things largely intact, and the mess was all Palmer. I could smell a heady mix of scents, but they were all vague, as though washed out. This was normal for me now, I was learning. Anyone related to the Program who has brushed up with the unnatural more than a handful of times had a vague, background mix of scents. I had to shower a few times a day unless I was busy, otherwise I felt as though I was being chased by a bad case of body odor. There was, however, a single scent that stuck out throughout the house, a smell that reminded me of my mother’s boyfriend when he leaned close and laughed, and you got a waft of breath plagued by years of poor dental hygiene and over indulgence in cheap scotch. I had never had cause to doubt Palmer’s dental hygiene though, and this wasn’t a smell I associated with her.3 The house was filled with a strange collection of books and tomes. It was hard to tell what she had collected in the course of her career as an anthropologist, and what she had acquired in support of her work with the Program. The sitting room was cluttered and the main table was filled with old paper and folders. Looking closely, I saw the stamp of the Montana State Sheriff's office, the most recent of which was over a decade old. Sifting through them, they were all from the local office at Tower Avenue. A small pile of papers was on the chair, different from the police reports, but also dated from the last few decades. They were color photocopies of passports.4 They were from a variety of countries, none of which were here in the USA. One of them I recognized, to my surprise. Sylvester Hastings, a British Entrepreneur and one of the most well documented missing persons cases of the 90s. It was used as a case study at Quantico for “how NOT to run a missing persons investigation” as nearly every step of his case had been mismanaged, from the initial response, to the search and even the reporting to the press. He had never been found, and still had an open file in the FBI records. He was last seen in Montana, that much I remembered, but I would have to dig into the file to know the details.5 A quick look over the police reports supported my suspicion. They were all missing person reports and investigations. I found matches for the names in the photocopied passports in the reports, although it would likely take a few hours to investigate fully. The earliest police report dated all the way back to 1933.
“Landry?” I said into the mic.
“What is it Katherine?” He asked, his voice distracted.
“I’ve got a pile of police reports here dating back to the 30s, all seemingly from the local area, and all taken from the abandoned sheriff’s station.”
“That isn’t what I was expecting.” Landry mused.
“Can I give you a list of names? Do we have someone who can run background checks on some of them?”6
“Focus on the mission, Agent Jones.” Oakes' voice came in. “Don’t be distracted by the first thing you stumble across. Your mission is to find out where Dr. Palmer went, not what she was investigating.”
“Copy that Director.’ I said. I piled the sheets up, and placed them down. I had a feeling that wherever Palmer was, following her thoughts and process as closely as possible was our best bet, but we would see.7
Tracy was in the first floor bathroom, puzzling over an intricate box laid out in the bath.8 It was small, about the size of a bankers box and intricately carved with dragons, the long kind, like at a Chinese new year. 9
“Weird place to keep a box.” Tracy said nervously. She had her shotgun held in a relaxed grip, but I could see the tense set of her shoulders.
“It is a little strange.” I said, walking forward cautiously. The bathroom was largely free of smell, apart from the background scents that infused the house. I walked forward and made to lift the box cautiously, but I grunted in surprise as the thing didn’t move. “Shit, that’s heavy.” I said, crouching down to take a closer look.10 I put my SMG on my back, and clapped my hands together before wrenching the box out of the bath with a heave. I waddled out of the room, breathing heavily and put it on the ground as carefully as I could. The thud it made as it hit the ground was loud, louder than it should be, unless the box was a cunningly disguised brick of lead.
“The fuck was that?” Montford asked from the doorway. I gestured to the box and he sneered.
“It’s heavier than it looks.” I snapped at him.
“Should we open it?” Tracy asked.11 Looking over the box, it seems mundane, just ludicrously heavy. There’s no writing in any language that I recognized, just the intricate carvings of dragons along the side and top.12 A lock sat in the dragon's mouth, at the latch.
“Unless we find a key, we won’t be able to open it anyway.” I said, stretching my back. I gave a cursory glance around the bathroom, but found no key, so we left it on the bathroom floor, and I mentally filed it away as ‘not my problem’.13 I suspected it wasn’t relevant to Palmer’s disappearance, but I was curious. Why was it so heavy?
I left Montford and Tracy to check the kitchen and storage area on the ground floor, heading up the stairs. The floorplan had indicated that there were two bedrooms, an office and another storage room on this floor. I turned into the first bedroom, pointing the nose of my SMG around the room half heartedly. I was sure the house was empty, but I could almost feel the presence of Oakes and her director on the other end of the line. I had been reporting the check of each room, and largely received silence in turn. They were clearly happy to let us investigate at our own pace, but I was uneasy with how long that patience would last.14 The guest bedroom was as messy as the rest of the house, and it was clear Palmer had been using it as a storage space, given the quantity of half packed boxes and bric-a-brac that filled the room. One thing stood out though. A small statue, about a half a meter tall, sat perfectly in the center of the bed.15 A faint glimmer in the statues eyes made my limbs feel heavy16, but I shook it off and reached into my pocket for the pouch of powder.17 The statue was more tentacle than anything else, a large, single eye that glimmered with ill intent surrounded by a frond of plant like vines and tentacles. I could only imagine where Palmer had picked up something like this, and I desperately hoped I would never meet the individual who sculpted it.18 It smelled like flowers, almost overpowering in its sudden intensity, and my body tensed. I took a pinch of the powder and threw it at the statue. The powder splayed out, but stopped before reaching the idol. I had a moment of confusion before the powder sparked, and a form slowly congealed into matter before me. The dust shimmered and coalesced into a shape, vaguely human, with two featureless legs and two arms. It was about my height, maybe a bit shorter and bulkier. It twitched and jerked as it became visible, as though it was being wrenched from whatever-between-place it had been lurking. Twisted vines, like on the idol, snarled and snagged the body of the creature, leading up to a head that had more in common with a Venus fly trap than a face. Tine spores were present along its fanged maw, and its head opened into three parts, revealing a bushel of tendrils that writhed and vibrated as it let out a horrendous, otherworldly screech.19 I swore, and flicked on the underslung red dot sight as I let out a short bust from the hip, taking a few steps backwards out of the door.20 The bullets smacked into it with a dull thud-thud-thud, and it faltered, dropping to all fours to leap at me as I yelled over my shoulder for back up. A voice called to me on the comms but I ignored it, switching channel to shout at the other two agents in the house.21 The creature leapt at me, but I ducked behind the wall and tried to back up down the hallway, putting the creature between me and the stairs. Not a great tactical move, considering my only choice of egress was now the window at the end of the hall, or the door right next to it, but I had to trust the other two would arrive in time to help.22 Footsteps echoed down the hallway, and I saw the other two arrive on the landing, their riot helmets pulled low, and guns raised. I glanced over my shoulder.23 The other bedroom door was down the other end of the hallway, I would have to turn my back and run if I had any chance of getting there before the creature got into striking distance. It was crawling along the wall like a spider, the flaps of its jaws open as the tendrils within writhed.24 I swore, turned my back and ran to the other door, praying that it wasn’t locked.25 I heard the creature let out another screech behind me as I threw myself into the doorway, and tried to slam it shut.26 It jammed a thick, mostly shapeless arm in the door, keeping it open as I leant my weight on it.27 I heard the bark of the other agents' guns, and the arm went limp in the doorway as the pressure suddenly stopped. I poked my head out, slightly breathless. Oakes was talking in a cold, dispassionate voice over my comm, but I ignored her for now as I looked down at the creature.28 The body still shimmered slightly and its form looked more like absence of space, rather than anything solid. I knelt by it and sniffed. The smell was faint, but present, a slightly acrid floral smell, like one of those detergent cleaners, but spoiled somehow. The others rushed over, their guns pointing at the mangled shape on the ground.
“The fuck is that?” Montford said with disgust.
“I’m not sure.” I said. “Keep an eye on it.” I finally answered Oakes. “Encountered something hostile.” I said briefly. “Unnatural.” I filled her in on the details, and she listened in silence. “Should we secure the Idol?” I asked. “It’s too similar to the body not to be connected.”29
“There are some lead lined storage containers in the van. Secure it, and bring it out.” She said. For the first time she sounded unsure. “Keep investigating for now. If this idol is relevant, you’ll know as soon as I do.”30
Palmer Residence - 2PM
I worked with Montford to secure the Idol in a secure crate and carried it out to the truck, where a pair of strong armed, square headed individuals in balaclavas and SWAT gear loaded it in.
“Do you guys want the body as well?” I asked, half jokingly.31 The shared a blank look, and closed the doors in my face. Oakes answered for them over the mic.
“Body bags in the other truck.” She suggested, and we stomped back into the house.32 The body was still there, shimmering and blank, but it started to fade as we loaded it into the body bag, causing Montford to swear and drop the legs with a thud.33 I frowned down at the body, which was still solid in my hands, even if my other senses were no longer picking it up.
“Get it in the bag Montford, once its out of the building its not our problem anymore.”
Landry signaled me over before I returned to the house. He had a small laptop with tricky bit of tech plugged into it, and his expression told me that whatever he saw there wasn’t good.
“We have a problem.” Landry said.
“Apart from the obvious?” I said, gesturing vaguely at the house and other van.
“Apart from the obvious.” Landry confirmed. His face looked drawn and his whole body was tense.
“What’s going on?” I asked, trying to peer at the laptop.
“CIA.” He said. “Whatever Palmer was up to, she got on their radar, and they’ve sent someone to investigate.”
“That’s good isn’t it?” I said. “If it was the FBI, it would be a good opportunity to put one of ours on the inside and control the investigation.”
“We don’t have the same hold on the Agency as we have elsewhere. Not since the late 90s, anyway.” Landry answered, his voice absent and despondent.
“So what happens when they get here?” I said, I prompted when he didn’t continue.
“They find an empty house, with nothing unnatural or related to the Program in it.” he said, fixing me with a look.34 “They haven’t left Langley yet. I’ve exerted a small amount of influence clogging their wheels, but they’ll be in Montana before the morning.”
“Shouldn’t we let Oakes and her team know?” I asked. “I imagine they have a bit more sway than you, given their status, no?” He grimaced.
“Not yet.” He said, turning back to the laptop. He glanced back at me when I didn’t leave. “Trust me Katherine, anything Oakes does to impact this, or any, situation will have ramifications neither of us want to deal with. I have their flight details. I’ll see If I can get their flight delayed, but the best thing you can do is get in there, clean the place out and find out where Palmer went. Copy?”
“Copy.”
Palmer’s room was not what I was expecting. Kitsch little paintings and décor that didn’t really blend with the the rest of the house, as well as a blanket of epic proportions made of patchwork that I suspected was handmade, judging by the poor quality of the stitching. There was a lot of things, but little that I could identify as pertinent to the investigation, unless the ragdolls on the bed were cursed, which wouldn’t have surprised me. Underneath the bed was were things got interesting.35 There was a small footlocker with a busted lock. Opening it up, it had a few sheaf’s of paper and a several rolled up pieces of canvas. Unrolling them on the bed, it became clear that they were old-school style blueprints, white lines on a blue background.36 It seemed to be the blueprint of a building, floor plans and electrical systems as well as a detailed and annotated copy of the security plans.37 I couldn’t see an address or title block, but they were dated to the late 90s, so it was a relatively modern drawing. Without something to cross reference, I wouldn’t be able to find much out about this building without an address, and it just looked like lines on paper to me, so I wasn’t even sure what type of building it was. One with high security, judging by the details of the wirework and the amount of cameras.38 I put the blueprints back inside the box and flipped it shut. The lock flitted down, revealing a name.
‘Katherine Oakes, Director of Security’.
Shit.
I placed the footlocker delicately in the living room, gesturing the other two over. Montford took one look at the nameplate on the footlocker and grunted.39 He seemed largely unfazed.
“I had a feeling it was something like this.” He said grimly.
“Something like what?” Tracy said nervously. Montford flipped the footlocker open and retrieved the blueprints.
“Something bad.” He said.
“Be less vague.” I said sharply.40 He shot me a joyless smile, and then placed a floor plan on the table in front of me.41
“These are plans for the Ice Cave.” He said. There was a weighty pause, while Tracy and I looked at him expectantly, before he sighed. “Fuck you two are green.” He muttered. “This is one of the most secure facilities in the United States. Palmer signed her death warrant just for handling these, let alone fucking annotating them.”
“How do you know?” I asked. I glanced at the blueprint in front of me, double checking that there was no name or title block.
“I’ve been there.” He said stiffly. “Before. That’s all you need to know.”
“Montford. If Palmer’s dead because she had these, what’s Oakes going to to do us when we march out there and hand these over.”
“You know the answer to that.” He said. He sat on the sofa and pulled out a cigarette. “This is the last mission any of us are going to be on.” He said, taking a drag.42 I wanted to slap the cigarette out of his stupid mouth, but I dragged my anger back and tried to focus.
“They obviously know where she’s going.” I said angrily, pointing at the blueprints. “But they don’t know where she is.” I slammed the footlocker shut. “Keep looking. Finding Palmer just became the only way I can see us getting out of this alive.”43
This is running a little long, so I’ll go into detail for the clues in the Post Script. Lots of Extreme Yes and No’s these last couple of scenes, it’s keeping me on my toes and for sure sending the story in an unexpected direction. The required Solum Protocol Creepy Monster Random Event has been gotten out of the way with, and now we can resume trying to survive other threats, like our new scary boss. The CIA was an interesting twist, I had decided someone was coming as part of the ambiguous event, to add a sense of urgency, and then the PC negative Random Event added more context to it. I don’t really know what Landry means about not having as much pull with the CIA, I just wrote it and liked it, so I’ve kept it in. We will see how things progress. Thanks for reading!
Oracle: Door intact? 50/50 56 No.
Oracle: Smells? 50/50 - 20 Yes. Rogue Handler: Bad Breath
I rolled a bunch of clues on several random tables here and put them in a side doc for reference, to try to ease into the scene. I’ll try to flag them at the end.
Oracle: All US citizens? 50/50 90 Extreme no.
Oracle: Police reports all Missing persons cases? Very Likely - 47 Yes.
Oracle: Do we? Likely - 84 No.
Oracle: Next clue in the bedroom? 50/50 - 96 Extreme no.
Oracle: is the box Large? 50/50 - 82 No.
Oracle: Scent? 50/50 71 No. Light? 50/50 - 92 Extreme no
Strength X 5 = 05/50
Oracle: Occult - 06/30. Any occult symbols on there 50/50 - 65 No.
Oracle: Is there a lock? 50/50 - 09 Yes.
Crit failed my search roll here. I don’t even want to type it out.
Oracle: Is this Palmers room? 50/50 48 - No. Messy? Likely - 22 Yes - Random Event.
Random Event - NPC Action - Misuse Distraction. Hostile? Likely - 05 Extreme yes. Unnatural? 27 Yes. And here readers, we see Solum’s knee jerk reaction yet again.
Skill: Power X 5 - 25/60
DESCRIPTION OF IDOL - OLD ONE? 50/50 89 No. Person? 50/50 98 Extreme no. Tentacles? Very Likely - 53 Yes. (Should have just rolled on the description tables, but I had a few ideas on what it could be, none of which panned out.)
Oracle: Smell = bad breath? 53 No. ‘Intoxicating Floral’
Sanity(Unnatural) 01/45 - Critical Success 0 Sanity Loss
Skill: Firearms(+20% Due to range) 18/96 DMG 11. Is the creature visibly shaken? Likely - 16 Yes
Creature Skill: Creature Athletics - 98/?? Fail. Stick to wall like spider? Likely - 43 Yes.
NPC Skills Montford Athletics - 45/60 Tracy Athletics - 43/50
Oracle: Is the door close enough for me to shoot and dive into? Very Unlikely - 30 No. Door down the hall? Very Likely - 88 No.
Oracle: Room to duck under with a dodge? Unlikely - 86 No
Skill: Athletics - 72/68 Yikes.
Oracle: Creature Athletics - 7 Success. Can it attack? 50/50 86 No.
Montford and Tracy shoot Total Damage 37. Dead? Likely - 06 Extreme Yes.
Oracle: Become solid in death? 50/50 64 No.
Oracle: Does Oakes want us to secure the body? 50/50 - 39
End Scene. Chaos Factor 6 Test Scene Interrupt - Fail Legal. Ambiguous Event.
Oracle: Do they want the body? 50/50 48 Yes.
Oracle: Body still there? 50/50 33 Yes. Random Event. PC Negative - Fail Investment
Sanity(Unnatural): 45/46 - 0 Sanity Loss
Oracle: Do we have less than a day? 50/50 99 Extreme no.
Oracle: Padlock broken? 50/50 32 Yes.
Oracle: Are they of a device? 50/50 94 Extreme no. A Spell? 50/50 78 - No. Building? Very Likely - 73 Yes. Security systems? Likely - 14 Yes.
Oracle: Address on the BP? Likely - 90 No. Modern building? Likely- 69 - Yes, Can I identify the type of building from these plans? 50/50 - 91 No.
Name on the footlocker? 50/50 - 03 Extreme yes. Who I expect? - 09 Extreme yes.
Oracle: Is he surprised? 50/50 - 83 No.
Oracle: Does he recognize the blueprints? 50/50 01 Random event (Move away from thread - dragon box.)
Oracle: Prisoner cell? Likely - 05 Extreme yes. With that extreme yes, I know exactly what this is.
Sanity(Helplessness) 100/46. ouch. 4 Sanity loss - Projected all 4 - Sorry Markus!
End Scene. Chaos Factor 7. Test Scene - 7 - altered - Add Character (New NPC)
Great entry! I got confused for a second because of the two Katherines, but I read your post on her character creation and it clicked hahah. I felt dumb for a second.
The race to find Palmer intensifies. Looking forward to it!
Really like the way this operation is shaping up - even if it’s not going how you anticipated.