Operation Winter Strain: Chapter Three
Smelling trouble ahead 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 Veronica Basso: https://www.pexels.com/photo/black-and-white-photo-of-a-warehouse-11027888/
Abandoned Warehouse, Arizona - 5:15PM
“Something attacked the CDC cabin.” I told Joe and Jasper as I crouched down in the bushes.
“Something?” Joe asked.
“Unclear if it was a person, a group or something else, but Landry was worried. They are relocating. Assuming they can get past whatever’s out there.” I said.
“Both of them used to be field agents.” Jasper said, more nonchalant than I would have liked. “They should be able to lose whatever’s got 'em boxed in.” I didn’t share Jasper’s certainty, but left it for now, turning my attention back to the warehouse.
“What’s our play here?” I asked.
“Let’s get in there and find out what the hell is going on.” Jasper said. Joe seemed less keen, but when Jasper broke into a crouched jog, he followed along, leaving me to kick my heels or go along with them.
“Ah fuck it.” I muttered to myself, before following along.1 We made our way stealthily to the stairs, but while Jasper was able to glide up it with the padding light step of a trained thief, Joe and I were less subtle. The CDC agent's heavy frame and my own plodding step were loud on the rusty, rickety, twisted metal of the fire escape. Jasper shot us a series of increasingly irritated looks as we reached the door on the landing, a strip of light peeking through the crack in the bottom.2 I activated the laser sight on my MP5 and nodded at Jasper, who checked the door and swore softly, dropping to a knee and fiddling with the handle.3 He froze a moment later, and took a hurried step from the door. The light underneath the door flickered as a figure moved on the other side.4 There was a click, and the door began to open revealing a tall, imposing woman in shabby clothing, backlit by the dim light from within the warehouse. She blinked once, slowly, when she saw the barrels of three guns pointed at her, the red dot of my laser sight hovering just above her heart. She slowly raised her hands, a sign of surrender, and took a step back. Her eyes were calculating and wide as we moved inside the room, but after a moment, her face split in a crooked, black toothed grin.
“The hunt comes.” She crooned.5 The hem of a short sleeve shirt had fallen back, showing her arm was a mess of track marks and the interior of the warehouse stank of smoke and a vague, chemical smell. My nostrils flared as the scent became unbearable, but it wasn’t the crack den smell that bothered me. There was something below the smell of the warehouse, a powerful scent that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. The woman smelled like mold, and images of an old, decaying house left to rot in the desert sun flashed in my mind as the woman slowly smiled at each of us in turn. I kept my gun trained on her as Joe closed the door quietly behind me and Jasper padded deeper into the warehouse.
“How many of your friends are there?” I asked.6 Her grin widened.
“Enough.” She said. Her eyes darted from to the side, but she remained still. I flicked the safety off and traced the laser sight to her head, but she just kept smiling.
“Where are the CDC team?” I asked as I glanced off to the side. Jasper had disappeared around the bend, and Joe was watching on with tense attention.7
“Sleeping below.” She said, flexing her fingers and laughing. “Waiting for the dream to end.”8 Jasper moved back into the room, his face a set of grim lines.
“We need to move quickly,” he said.9 “I can see people downstairs. Alive, judging by the moaning.” He looked at the woman in front of me with open dislike. “More like her are down there, chanting, candles, the whole nine yards.” I nodded, and moved towards the woman. She hadn’t moved since we had followed her inside, so I made to pin her hands behind her back10, but she moved like a whipcord and lashed out.11 I had felt on edge since seeing her, the smell of mold a persistent irritant, so I caught her arm easily and folded her over, throwing a punch in her stomach for good measure, and slapping my hand cuffs around her wrists.12 She let out a scream of frustration, and I swore softly as I heard shuffling downstairs.
“Keep your gun on her Joe.” Jasper ordered, glancing towards the door. “Jones, leave her and lets get moving.” I nodded, rubbing at my nose to try to shake out the smell as we moved through the warehouse, leaving the woman staring balefully at Joe as he trained his shotgun on her.
Jasper and I moved quietly up the hallway.13 We entered a large room with ratty beds and a staircase leading down on the far side.
“You can just see downstairs if you go part way down.” Jasper said. “But I wouldn’t be able to get a good shot, there isn’t a clear path through to the main room.” I nodded, and me moved quickly, taking the steps two at a time to reach the ground floor.14 The stairs led to a large, cluttered room containing the source of the light we had seen outside. 3 figures in office clothes and the tattered remains of hazmat suits were strapped to flat, broken bed frames.15 Even in the dim light I could see that their skin had turned a vibrant shade of blue, although they were still alive, judging from the occasional moan or sob one of them would would let out.16 The room was filthy, and the scent of mold and mildew was almost offensive. It didn’t take long to find the source. The far wall was covered in mushrooms and fungi, pulsing with a soft blue light. While we watched from the bottom of the stairs, a figure in tattered rags sliced a mushroom from the wall with the long, thin knife and advanced on one of the sleeping figures.17 The other 3 moved to hold the figure down, and one held its jaws open. I wasn’t sure how I knew, but the smell seemed to center on the mushroom, and I knew that the CDC agent wouldn’t be long for this world if that mushroom went into its mouth.18 I moved up and raised my gun.
“On the ground!” I yelled out as Jasper joined me at my shoulder, shotgun moving jerkily between the cultists and the wall of mushrooms.19 The figures froze, releasing the CDC agent, who continued to moan in pain.
“The hunters come.” The lead figure said. He was an older man, in his late 50s if I had to guess, and he clutched the knife and mushroom in gnarled hands.20 “We must feed those the Lie Below”” He said solemnly.
‘“Step away from the agents.” He said in a clear voice. “I won't ask you again.” He added.21
“You can’t take them.” The man said firmly. “They are not finished. Our master must feed. His meals must be prepared.” The man’s voice was rising as he spoke, and the other cultists were moving around us, thin knives raised.22 They were clearly moving to surround us. They had spaced themselves out, blocking our entrance into the room, and more importantly, were moving much closer.
“Fuck it.” I said. I spun to the ragged figure on my left and let out a 3 shot burst.23 The suppressed SMG made a muted bark and the figure in front of me crumpled in a spray of blood. Jasper swore, and turned to the one moving to the right, who let out a screech and began to advance.24 The slug hit the cultist in the chest with a dull thump and it knocked him off his feet. He didn’t rise again.25 The old man let out a rapturous yell as he leapt upon the CDC agent in front of him, prying open his jaws with his hand. The agent began to scream as a mushroom was forced into his mouth.26 The last of the ragged cultists threw himself in front of them, blocking them with his body and plunging his knife into his own hand, spraying thick congealing blood across the floor as he pointed at the closest figure with a bloody index finger. The sounds he made hurt my brain.27 The smell of mold intensified as a pulse of something radiated out from the bleeding man, and the bodies on the floors began to twitch and writhe. The corpses began to glow a blue light that flickered and pulsed in time with mushrooms on the wall. A cacophonous moan echoed through the room as the corpses slowly hobbled to their feet.28 The agent bound to the bed frame writhed and screamed and the blue tinge of their skin pulsed with a growing light as its eyes burst open. The ragged man next to him screamed, in delight, fear or ecstasy I had no idea.29 I flicked my MP5 onto full auto and let out a stream of bullets into the living cultists. The CDC agent had stopped screaming and was letting out a string of horrifying, inhuman gurgles, and I had no intention of taking any risks now that the monsters were coming out to play.30 Both men were thrown to the ground in a spray of blood, unmoving and blessedly silent, but the CDC agent still pulsed and roared. The blue glow surged as the colors on its skin swirled and deepened. Mushrooms began to burst from the skin, spraying flecks of blue tinged blood around as the monster tore itself free of its bonds.31 Jasper glanced from the mushroom horror to the twitching, animated corpses and racked the shotgun again.32 The blast tore the head off the nearest corpse, but the other one shambled forward with a moan. It lurched in front of Jasper as the mushroom creature wrenched itself free of its bindings and broke into a lurching run. I glared at the creature as it bore down on us feeling an irrational surge of anger and raised my SMG, firing a tight 3 round burst at its’s swollen midsection.33 The bullets tore chunks off the creatures as it stomped inexorably towards me, but the third round blew off a chunk of fungi infected skull and the creature slumped heavily to the ground, unmoving and silent. Jasper spun on the last walking dead man as it moved towards him.34 The head blew off in a cloud of flesh and brain matter, and the body was thrown to the ground. I slid the magazine out and loaded in a fresh clip before moving through the room, poking each corpse with the toe of my boot.
“You should check on Joe.” I said mutely once I was sure that none of the bodies were likely to get back up. “I’ll check on the CDC folks.”35
Abandoned Warehouse - 7PM
I went to check on the other CDC agents, the two that had not turned into horrifying mushroom monsters.36 They were blue and unconscious but breathing.37 With that confirmed, I took out my flashlight and swept the the room, giving the wall of mushrooms a wide berth. The stink of them was still overpowering. There wasn’t much in the room apart from the bodies and the CDC agents, but I did find a strang furrow in the ground at the back of the warehouse, leading towards the large double doors. Something big had been dragged that way if I had to guess.38 I looked over the furrow for any indication of what could have caused it and my nose picked it up before my eyes did. It smelt like the mushrooms, but concentrated and somehow worse. A trace amount of what I could only describe as slime coated the bottom of the furrow, a translucent ooze that I scooped into an evidence bag with a a lot more care and delicacy I would usually use. Jasper and Joe stomped down the stairs a moment later with the filthy woman in tow, her arms still cuffed behind her back.39 Joe was sporting a large red mark across the side of his face matched by the imprint of a gun butt over the prisoner’s eye. I sat her down firmly, drew my side arm, and placed it firmly under her chin. She spat blood on the ground and grinned.
“What the fuck is going on here?” I hissed.40
“He’s coming!!!” She said gleefully, leaning into the barrel of my pistol. “From the crypt, from below, all the way here, he can sense his feast is ready, hunter!” Her pupils were large and blood tricked from her lips as she bit down, almost playfully, on the edge of my gun barrel. I heard Jasper swear behind me, and I glanced over my shoulder before snapping to my feet and wrenching my pistol from the woman’s mouth. The double doors were open wide and standing there, wreathed in shadow, was a man in a tan jacket41.
The figure was tall, towering over everyone in the room, with its hat pulled low and collar popped so it’s face was concealed. I said it, because I knew it wasn’t human. Not just because of its massive frame, and predatory stance but because it stank like death. Jasper had his gun trained on the creature while Joe stood frozen a few steps behind us. It’s head moved from Jasper to Joe to me. It raised its arms, and dropped something onto the ground. My eyes flickered to it in surprise. It was a jerry can, and judging by the sloshing sound that echoed in the silence, it was full. The creature pointed to the wall of mushrooms, shook its head, and then waited. When we made no move, either towards it or away, it nodded once, and took a step backwards, out of the warehouse, the doors winging shut behind it as though caught on a non-existent breeze. I moved over and pushed the door open. I wasn’t surprised to see it was gone, although the scent of death still lingered.42
“What the fuck was that?” Joe asked, his voice tense.
“Is that gasoline?” Jasper said. His gun was still trained on the door. I tilted it with the toe of my boot and nodded. It was a big jerry can, enough to torch the whole warehouse and have enough to top up the SUV’s tank while we were at it. “So what, the stalking monster is giving us tips now?”
“Seems that way.” I turned back to our prisoner. Her eyes had rolled back into her head, a froth of foam at her lips.43 I didn’t have to check her pulse to see what had happened. “She’s dead.” I said dispassionately.
“Ah fuck.” Joe said. He sounded more exhausted than particularly bothered, which was a sentiment I agreed with completely.
“The CDC guys are still alive. Two of them are, at least. “ I filled them in on the slime, and the tracks and the creepy fucking mushrooms. “We should burn the place down. Those mushrooms are blue, and turned one of the CDC guys into a fucking monstrosity.”
“Isn’t that playing into Trench Coat’s hands?” Joe said.
“Does it matter? We can’t leave this shit for anyone to find.” Jasper said, picking up the jerry can.
“Let me grab a mushroom.” Joe said. He held up his hand defensively. “Those two people are going to die, probably soon, if we don’t figure out how to help them.” I glanced at Jasper and he shrugged. I walked to the wall, pulled out my kit and removed a single mushroom, placing it in an evidence bag and handing it to Joe.
“Fucking stinks.” I said with distaste.
“No more than any other crack den.” Joe said, looking at the mushroom with a critical eye.44
“This looks fucking weird.” He said after examining it for a solid minute.
“No shit.” I said, exasperated. “Lets get this over with.”
It took the best part of an hour to pile the bodies up and smother them with enough gasoline to ensure there wouldn’t be much left to find.
“That gun’s not traceable right?” I asked Jasper as we heaved the last body into place.
“Of course not.” He scoffed. “What do you take me for? FBI?”45 I was fairly sure that nobody in rural Arizona was going to care about the local crack den going up in smoke, certainly not enough to investigate the crime scene, but I made sure to stage it as innocuously as possible. The CDC agent was another story. We removed the teeth, and any other identifying features, and gave him an extra dose of the gasoline. Hopefully once all the horrifying mushroom shit burnt away, it looked like a regular corpse. It would have to do.46 Jasper seemed as bothered by the smell as I was, but Joe seemed blissfully unfazed, likely due to his experience working with unpleasant odors, fungi and bacteria. The most time consuming part was loading up the CDC agents into the back of the car. The man and woman were rag dolls, and nothing could wake them up.
“Are we already infected do you think?” Jasper asked as we hauled the woman outside towards the car.
“Working theory?” Joe grunted as he hauled the limp body into the back of the car. “If we aren’t showing symptoms now, we should be fine. Primary CDC paperwork suggested the onset was quick and the theory was ingesting something was a likely culprit, due to the damage to the mouth and throat of the bodies.”
“Then why were we wearing hazmat suits earlier?” I asked, trying and failing to hide my irritation.
“Because I’m not a fucking gun ho amateur.” Joe replied peevishly. “But we don’t have a choice right now. We need to get these two to the lab.”
“We can’t go to the lab. Landry said to hit the secondary rendezvous point.” I said, wiping sweat from my brow.
“For fuck sake.” Jasper muttered.
“Where is the secondary rendezvous point?” I asked.
“A CIA safehouse just outside of town.” He said. He looked annoyed. I looked at him and quirked an eyebrow and he sighed. “This was supposed to be a last resort. The agency is very protective of its assets. It's going to be a nightmare to clean that shit up. later” We loaded the other agent up, and then47Joe put the finishing touches on the accelerants and threw a match down. The warehouse went up in moments, and we left it behind in the rearview.48
I’m not sure what I was expecting in the warehouse, but it wasn’t any of that. It went surprisingly well due to Kat’s great capacity for violence. Still not sure what the Tan Jacket guy is about, but we’ll see as time moves on. See you next time!
Team Stealth Checks: Kat and Joe fail, Jasper passes.
Oracle: Does anything come to find us? 50/50 64 - Yes. Is the door open? 50/50 - No. Can Jasper pick it? 50/50 21 - Yes
Jasper Skill: Lockpicking (DEX X 5) 75/55
Oracle: Is it seemingly human? 50/50 40 - Yes. “Bold and Gentle”
Oracle: Drugs? Likely 55 - Yes (Random Event - Current Context - ‘Observe Physical’)
Oracle: Does she answer? 01 - Extreme Yes - (Random Event - NPC Action - ‘Imitate Elements’) I’m not sure if I actually did this Random Event.
Oracle: Does she know? 50/50 34 - Yes. Are they here? Unlikely 27 - Yes.
Oracle: Does Jasper find anything? 33 - Yes (Random Event - NPC Positive, ‘Punish Surprise’) One of us? 50/50 Yes.
Oracle: About to sacrifice the CDC team? Likely - 05 Extreme yes.
Oracle: Does she comply? Likely - 88 No
Opposed Check: Unarmed Kat 01 VS 40/??
Oracle: Does she yell out? 50/50 - 14 Yes.
Oracle: Is there a balcony overlooking the ground floor of the warehouse? 50/50 - 99 Extreme no.
Description: ‘Utilitarian Cluttered’
Oracle: Are they blue: 50/50 - 58 Yes.
Oracle: Evil Mushrooms/Funghi? Likely - 10 Extreme Yes
D6 Cultists = 4
Sanity: (Unnatural) 34/50
Oracle: Do they attack? 50/50 - 88 No
Character Motivation: ‘Loss, Nature’
Oracle: Are they being prepared as food? 50/50 54 - yes
Skill : Alertness 28/80 Are they moving to attack? Likely -15 Yes. DEX worse than mine? - 30 Yes. Less than Jasper? - 12 Extreme yes
Skill: Firearms(+20% due to close range) Firearms 90/96 - 13 DMG. Does it kill him? Very Likely - 65 Yes.
Jasper: Firearm 12/60 8DMG. Kill? 50/50 63 - Yes.
Oracle: Do both enemies attack? 99 Extreme no. Can the mushrooms do anything? 50/50 - 96 Extreme no.
Oracle: Do they know any rituals? 50/50 - 31 Yes
Sanity:(Unnatural) 36/50 - do both bodies rise? 50/50- 06 Extreme yes.
Oracle: Does the CDC agent die? 50/50 - 67 No. Transform? 52 Ye This turn? Very Likely 72 Yes.
Sanity(Unnatural): 56/50 -2 Sanity (D6). Oracle: Does the mushroom man go last? 50/50 09 - Extreme Yes.
Oracle: Two Cultists close enough to get with a full auto burst? Likely - 18 Yes. Skill: Firearms 40/76 - 15 DMG.
Sanity:(Unnatural) 16/48. Jasper’s Sanity holding up ok? 50/50 05 Extreme yes.
Jasper: Firearm(+20% due to close range) 63/80Yes. Forgot to note the damage this one, but it was a lot.
Skill: Firearms 41/76 - 10. (This is the lethality rating for this weapon. Rolling equal to or under the Lethality rating when you roll damage results in an instant kill against human enemies. The mushroom creature is not human, so I’ll ask the oracle.) Does that kill it? Likely - 31 Yes.
Jasper Skill: Firearms(+20% Due to close range) 31/83 10 DMG
End Scene. Chaos Factor 7. Test Scene 10 - Scene as Expected
Oracle: Are they alive? 50/50 - 26 Yes.
Skill: Search 05/80. ‘Continue outside’ Tracks? 50/50 - 45 Yes.
Oracle: Anything else in the room? Unlikely 58 - Yes. Graffiti? 50/50 - 81 No. Skill: Forensics - 46/65. Something unnatural? 50/50 30 - Yes. Slime? Yes.
Oracle: She put up a fight? 50/50 01 - Extreme yes. (Random Event Move Towards a Thread - Man in the Tan Jacket) Does he arrive? 50/50 - 40 Yes.
Oracle: asked a lot of questions here, got a lot of No’s so will skip for brevity
Oracle: Is he on the side of the mushrooms? 50/50 90 - No.
Sanity:(Unnatural) 57/48 -1 Sanity
Oracle: Is she dead? Unlikely 50 - Yes.
NPC Skill: Science(Botany) 91/70
Skill: Criminology - 17/60
Skill: HUMINT - 32/80
NPC Skill: Joe Chemistry: 11/50 Critical
Sanity Reward = 1d4 for destroying warehouse and ‘rescuing’ CDC agents = 3. Sanity back up to 50. End Scene. Chaos Factor 6. Test Scene - 10. As expected.
I saw a bunch of Delta Green books at Origins last year and totally did not register it was a kind of CIA X-Files. I might have actually picked one up. Then again, it would just have been sitting on my shelf of shame with the rest. Much easier read your plays. :)
Wow! Your descriptions of the cultists, the environment around them and their behaviour is excellent - super creepy, unnatural and off-putting. Fantastic write up!