Operation Winter Strain: Chapter Four

Facing a complication 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 Andreas Ebner: https://www.pexels.com/photo/road-between-houses-14840031/

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CIA Safehouse, Arizona - 10PM

We pulled up to a small townhouse a 20 minute drive outside Sagebrush. I recognized Landry’s rental in the driveway, and muscles relaxed that I hadn’t realized were tense. Landry had been in the game a lot longer than me, so I shouldn’t be surprised he got out, but still, it was a relief. We hauled the CDC agents through the side entrance, depositing them on the double bed in the back room, then reconvened with Landry and Nathan in the living room. The safe house looked inconspicuous from the outside, there had even been a greenhouse and active crop garden in the front yard. It was more conspicuous on the inside however, with blackout curtains, barred windows and a décor that went out of style in the late 50s. In short, it looked like every safehouse on cable television I had ever seen. Cigarette smoke filled the room as both Landry and Nate sat slumped in the sofa, a ceramic bowl heaped with ash and butts sitting between them.

“You look like shit.” Landry said languidly as he stretched out his legs.

“Right back at you boss.” I replied, kicking off my boots and making a beeline for the large, comfy armchair near the boxy old TV.

“The fuck happened to you?” Jasper asked curtly, kicking Nate’s outstretched legs so he could get past.¹

“Snuck out the back, and into the car.” Nate grunted.

“Just like old times.” Landry said in a monotone.² Nate grunted again.

“A bunch of hobos with big knives showed up and started screaming about food.” Nate said. “They started smashing the place up.”

“How many of them were there?” Jasper asked.

“4.” Landry said crisply. “None of you were kind enough to leave a firearm. And one of them kicked a locked door the wrong way off its hinges, so we opted for the better part of valor and regrouped.”³

“Did you bring any of the kit?” Joe asked with his eyes narrowed. “I have some samples that we need to process, or at least look at under a microscope.” Landry and Nate shared a look before answering.

“Nope.” They both said in unison.

“I liked you both better when you were screaming at each other.” I sighed.

“What samples did you get?” Landry asked. His posture shifted, his face lighting up with interest.

“Mushrooms. And some slime.” I said dejectedly.

“And two live CDC agents, currently sick with our mystery virus.” Joe chimed in.

“They’re alive?” Nate asked, spluttering over his cigarette.

“For now, at least.” Jasper said. “Any idea on how to keep them that way Joe?”

“I’m not a medical doctor.” Joe said defensively. “But anything that works to keep someone with Flu alive, should work to keep them alive. All of the data suggests the virus functions almost exactly like a violent strain of influenza.”

“We’ll need an IV for both of them, and something to keep their fever down.” Landry said idly.

“Are you a doctor?” I asked, bemused⁴

“Merely a man of a certain age.” He said loftily. “I can monitor the two agents along side Dr. Byrd here. I suggest the two of you,” He gestured to Jasper and me. “Head over to the CDC forward base and try to scavenge what we need. We aren't likely to get anything more from the CDC or the CIA.” Joe jotted down a short list of items to retrieve, including a few descriptions for anything that had more than 3 syllables.

“Try not to make a scene.” Landry said, stubbing out his cigarette. “Vandalism by vagrants can be explained easily. Bullet casings and corpses, less so.”⁵

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CDC Forward Base - 11PM

We parked a couple of blocks away and decided to take an indirect approach to the forward base, Jasper leading me through a series of side streets. We ducked down behind a large dumpster when we were close.⁶

“Look.” I said, pointing to the far cabin. “It’s been hours, but it looks like they’re still here.” A pair of shabby looking figures stood outside the cabin currently being used to store the bodies of Walker and the members of Jasper’s team. I knew it was psychological, but I almost felt like I could smell the putrid mold stink from the warehouse once I saw them. I pulled my MP5 out of the bag on my back, but Jasper laid a restraining hand on my wrist.

“Don’t make a scene.” Jasper said, in a commendable imitation of Landry. “Besides, they’ve been here for a few hours. There’s no guarantee there aren’t more of them in there.”

“This is suppressed.” I said, wiggling the gun under his nose, but he batted it away and gave me a serious look.

“It’s still loud, and messy. Put it away, we need to try and do this quietly.”

“Sneaking around isn’t my strong suit.” I muttered, but I stashed the gun away.⁷ He loped on ahead, moving effortlessly from cover to cover, until he reached the rear window of the main cabin. I glanced at the guards, who still stood by the door, hunched over and muttering something I couldn’t hear. I knew I could probably eliminate them both with a burst from my MP5, even at this range, but I sighed, and made to follow.⁸ I realized pretty quickly that I hadn’t planned my route well and suddenly found myself completely in the open in a tactical crouch, totally exposed if the two cultists by the door happened to move their heads.⁹ With a jerk, the one on the left looks up, the grizzled lines on his face furrowing in concentration as I abandoned my attempt at a stealthy shuffle and broke into a sprint.¹⁰ I put on a burst of speed, but the two cultists were moving already, and it was clear they would be between me and Jasper in moments.¹¹ I crouched lower, scooping a piece of debris and hurling it at the closest one.¹² It hit him in the arm and he yelled out in pain while the other continued to bear down, the dull sheen of a knife in his hand. I span on my heel and yelled a few curses at them, sprinting in the other direction, away from Jasper. Hopefully Jasper heard me, and I could lead them a merry chase long enough for him to find what we needed. Otherwise, I had the .22 in my shoulder holster and the MP5 bouncing in the duffel bag on my back.

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I ran down an alleyway towards Sagebrush proper. This close to the edge of town, there wasn’t a lot of side streets to work with, and the tall walls were steadily being replaced with manicured yards and white picket fences.¹³ Somehow, the vagrants keep pace with me, yelling and pointing their knives, causing lights to flicker on in the dark houses I ran past. I leapt over a few garbage cans and made to cross the road when a battered sedan revved its engine and nearly smashed into me.¹⁴ I failed to stop in time,¹⁵ and flipped over the bumper, landing heavily on my back.

“The master said one of you would come back.” A voice crooned from above me.¹⁶ A man in an off the rack business suit, frayed at the edges, and smart glasses was leaning on the passenger side door, looking down at me with a look of such self satisfied smugness that I was distracted from the pain in my lower back by a surge of immense dislike.¹⁷ Despite his more formal appearance, the same musty smell came off him in waves from him as from it did from the ragged cultists pursuing me. I was in a bad position. The guy with glasses had a pistol on his belt, and the vagrants all had their weird, mushroom harvesting knives. The two that had been chasing me had caught up, and stood huffing on the other side of the car.¹⁸ The driver sat nonchalantly behind the wheel, but even from my position on the ground, I could see the muscles on the guy, and the dented and well used brass knuckles around his neck.¹⁹ The houses around me had their lights off, but if a ruckus broke out it wouldn’t stay that way for long, and this was far too public a place for a shootout. Still, the fact that none of them had shot me yet was a good sign. Jasper had already climbed into the cabin, but between my yelling and the cultists loud pursuit, he should realize pretty quickly that I’m not there. Of course, the smart thing to do is to grab the shit and get out, my ass be damned. Still. My best bet was to buy time.

“Master eh?” I said, slightly breathless from the hard landing. “Is that like, a cult thing, or a sexual thing?”

“Oh, I’m going to have fun playing with you, little hunter.” The man said with a grin.²⁰ “Get in the car. Or would you prefer if we made you? Please say yes, I don’t know how much playtime I’ll get once we hand you over to the master.”²¹ He leant down towards me, clearly moving to grab be the throat.²² I took my chance. FBI hand to hand training covered a variety of scenarios and I knew my instructor well enough to know that his answer to “How do I get out of being pinned to the ground while outnumbered by lunatics” would likely be “You don’t” but I had to try. I grabbed his wrist and levered my body²³, but he slipped out my grip and took a skittering step back. He laughed.

“Bruno, get out here you dog.” He called cheerfully over his shoulder.²⁴ I leapt to my feet in the time it took the big guy to get out of the car, and I ran towards the suit.²⁵ His slender, too long fingers had gripped his sidearm, and he pointed it dispassionately at me²⁶, but I slammed my fist into his stomach before he could get a bead and snaked around him, grabbing him by the throat in a chokehold as the pistol fell limply from his hands.

“Back the fuck up.” I snarl at the big guy, who still lumbered towards me.²⁷ Bruno and the pair of cultists stop a few meters away, eyeing us warily. My blood pounded in my ears like a drum and this close to the guy all I could smell was the mixture of fungal mold and cheap cologne. “Don’t. Test. Me.” I whispered in his ear, tightening my grip around his throat. This was a stand off, and I had to hope that the nervous looking cultists and the muscle were too stupid to realize it. Snapping someone’s neck or knocking them out wasn’t as easy as the movies, and while I was sure I could choke the guy out easily enough, that would just leave me with three pissed off cultists and a dead weight. Don’t make a scene. Landry had said. What a stupid fucking thing to say. “You.” I say to the big guy. “Give me the keys to the car.”²⁸ Bruno the muscle looked at my prisoner, who nodded once and shrugged.

“Go ahead Bruno, do as she says. Let her play at delaying the inevitable a bit longer.” Bruno threw the keys towards me. I threw out a spare hand, but he threw them at my feet, and I gave up part way through the motion to retain my grip on the boss.

“Make yourself scarce, or I’ll snap his neck.” I say with a glare.²⁹ The three of them stood there impassively, expressions blank. I glanced at the ground, and then grinned.³⁰ I kicked the keys with the toe of my boot and they skirted along the ground before falling into a sluice drain. “Fine.” I spat. “Stay there.” I dragged the guy with me around the car, back towards the vague direction I had come from. When the others made no move to follow, the man seemed to realize that he may have lost control of the situation. I planned to take him around the corner, put a few rounds in him and make a break for it, but my hopes disappeared as he began to struggle.³¹ With a string of curses, he lashed out with an elbow and by either luck or skill he sunk it deep into my stomach, knocking my breath from my lungs and causing my grip to loosen enough for him to break free. I wanted to pull out my 22 and shoot him a few times in the back of the head before high tailing it out of there³², but I could see lights turning on across the street and so I cut my loses, tucked down my head and ran. Navigating the garbage cans I had so effortlessly leapt over proved tricky without the run up, and it cost me precious seconds as I angled around them while the trio of thugs behind me broke into a run to chase me.³³ The man in the suit and glasses was yelling and pulling at the sluice grate, trying to go for the keys, so at least I didn’t have to deal with him. Once I hit the alleyways I manage to pull ahead, leaving the thugs and nosey neighbors behind me, but I could still hear them, and the deep breaths I took as I ran only emphasized the smell of must and mold that seemed to have seeped into my clothes. I needed a shower, and to launder or burn these fucking clothes or I the smell was going to keep me up at night. I had no idea where I was, which was not an ideal situation for a successful escape.³⁴ The alleyway came out in another unfamiliar suburb, but I kept running, bounding over the picket fences and trying to put as much of suburbia between me and the cultists as possible. Eventually, thankfully, I couldn’t see, hear or smell them anymore, and I let my self come to a stop, breathing hard. Looking around, it was clear that I was hopelessly lost.³⁵

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Well. That went well. The idea for the arrival of the car was a desperate attempt to work in the ‘altered scene’ prompt from the last scene. ‘Create Prison’ made me think of a trap, so I knew something was going to happen, I just wasn’t sure what. The whole scene was extremely tense, and I was one more failed check away form pulling out my gun and hoping for the best. The scene at the warehouse clearly went too well, sanity loses aside, so the dice decided to throw a few curve balls in. Hopefully she can get back on track next chapter. Thanks for reading!

1. Oracle: Did they sneak out? 50/50 20 - Yes

2. Oracle: Was it the cultists? Likely 54 - Yes. Lots of them? Likely 95 - Extreme no. Did Landry have any guns? Unlikely 59 - No

3. Oracle: Retrieve any science gear? 50/50 68 - No.

4. Oracle: Is Landry a doctor? 50/50 80 - No. Oracle: Is Landry’s medicine high enough to monitor CDC people without issues? Likely 43 - Yes.

5. End Scene Chaos Factor 6 Test Scene 3 - Altered Scene - Add an Object. Create Prison.

6. Oracle: Alertness - 68/80. All Clear? Likely 81 - No.

7. Jasper Skill: Stealth 8/70

8. Skill: Stealth 96/20 I need to stop trying to be sneaky with the girl, she is not designed for it.

9. Luck Roll: 80 damnit Kat

10. Skill: Athletics - 82/57 It’s going to be a long night at this rate

11. Oracle: Is there something to throw? 50/50 - 54 Yes.

12. Skill: DEX X 5 Throw 46/70 3 dmg (1d4). Oracle: Enough to stun him ? Impossible 49 - no.

13. Opposed Athletics roll: Kat 8/57 Vs 11/30. Come on, what is this????

14. Skill: Dodge - 72/31

15. Skill: Dex X 5 77/70 (1d4 Damage = 1HP lost) I am going to die if I keep rolling this high

16. Description: ‘Scholarly Average’ Male? Likely 59 - Yes armed? 50/50 59 - Yes.

17. Oracle: Does he smell like the others? Very Likely 80 - yes.

18. Oracle: Is the driver another hobo? 50/50 72 No. Bruiser? 50/50 27 - Yes.

19. Oracle: Lights off in the neighborhood? 50/50 50 - Yes

20. Oracle: Do they want to capture me? Likely - 05 Extreme yes.

21. Oracle: Does he make a move to grab me? 42 - yes.

22. Skill: Alertness - 27/80 Does anyone else have a firearm? Unlikely 60 - No.

23. Skill: Unarmed 97/66 VS 67/?? I’m going to roll up a new character quick, be back soon

24. Oracle: All DEX’s lower than mine? Likely - 18 Yes. Bruno highest? 97 Extreme no.

25. Oracle: Drawn his gun? 50/50 21 - Yes.

26. Skill: Unarmed - 24 VS 77. Enemy Fumble, now we are getting somewhere

27. Oracle: Does he stop? Likely 54 - Yes.

28. Oracle: Does he? Likely 19 - Yes. Is my hostage tense? 50/50 77- No.

29. Oracle: Do they move off? Unlikely 91 - No. A drain nearby? 50/50 05 - Extreme yes.

30. Skill: DEX X 5 38/70

31. Enemy Skill: Escape(Unarmed) 11/?? another enemy critical. (1d4-1 dmg = 0 dmg)

32. Oracle: Lights turning on? Likely 45 - Yes

33. A bunch of failed checks here that I’m too embarrassed to include. Fortunately the NPCs also failed

34. Skill: Navigate 38/13

35. End Scene. Chaos Factor 7. Test Scene - 10 Scene as expected