The Situation:
Several strange animal attacks in downtown Atlanta have attracted the attention of the official Special Access Program. The Agents can soon find a connection between the victims but are almost immediately pulled from the case. Will they continue to investigate on their own, or will they accept that the deaths are just The Cost of Doing Business?
The Setup:
It is an early morning–the Agents may not even be awake yet–when a call comes in asking them to immediately report to the FBI Field Office in downtown Atlanta for “A Night at the Opera.”
On arrival, they will be ushered into a conference room to meet an older, heavyset woman who introduces herself as Special Agent Elsa Hargrove. She will thank them for coming in so early then immediately jump into the briefing.
Briefing Document (To be shared with the players)
As you may have heard on the news by now, at approximately three this morning, two students at the Georgia Technology Institute were killed in their dormitory room. Other residents heard screams and “animal growls,” but by the time anyone could force their way into the room, both occupants were dead. Both of them were severely bitten and lacerated, as if by an animal attack.
There was no sign of any animal.
The victims were Ervin Dunn, a Junior in Electrical Engineering, and Lewis Seber, a Sophomore in Chemistry. The names have not yet been officially made public as the authorities are still attempting to notify next-of-kin, though other students in the dorm know who was involved and what has happened.
This incident is of interest to The Program for two reasons. First, Dunn and Seber’s room is located on the third floor of their dorm, and the door and window were closed and latched from the inside.
Second, this is not the first such attack in the area. Twenty-seven days ago, Douglas Graves, a resident at a homeless camp near the Institute, was killed by an animal in a similar fashion. The other residents reported being awakened by the sound and seeing a “large shape” near the victim, but there was no trace of an animal in the area.
Then, 57 days ago, a family was killed in the Techbrush subsidized housing project just south of campus. An animal of some kind also killed Dale Richardson, his wife Erna, and their three children. The sounds of the fight were reported, as well as multiple gunshots, but when the authorities arrived, all five were dead, and there was no sign of an animal. The attack was blamed on a pair of dogs belonging to one of the neighbors, Concepcion Mendoza; the dogs were put down, and Mendoza was arrested, though he insists that the dogs were with him in his unit that night and had nothing to do with the attack. He is being held for harboring dangerous animals and possession of an unregistered firearm pending trial.
While no one else seems to have made the connection between these cases, it is only a matter of time before someone does, especially if these attacks continue. We need to determine if there is a mundane explanation for these attacks. If not, we need to learn the source, eliminate it, and come up with some cover story to keep others from investigating further.
You are being designated as Working Group “Phoenix.” Your assignment is to determine the cause of these attacks and respond accordingly.
Be aware that there is no reason for Federal involvement in these cases, so you have no official cover story for looking into this. How you approach this is left to your own discretion.
Please report any progress or discoveries to Special Agent Hargrove.
Hargrove has no other information to give them at this time; this is the beginning of the investigation. The Agents will be the first on the scene. That is why she needs them to keep her informed as to what they find. Be sure to mention needing to keep Hargrove updated from time to time, but try not to make it obvious.
What is Really Going On:
Celephaïs Investments, a financial services and venture capital firm, have become incredibly successful over the last year. They claim that their success is due to their proprietary market research program. They bring in “ordinary people” to answer sets of “significant questions,” which allows them to “detect the ‘next big thing’ before anyone even realizes that it is something they want.” Their slogan is “A financial lighthouse revealing the safe path ahead.”
Because of this, Celephaïs is somewhat of a celebrity in financial circles, with members of their Board regularly appearing in financial news and articles and receiving endorsements from multiple celebrities and politicians.
In reality, Celephaïs Investments is using a device created using hypergeometric principles to see into the future. This lets them literally see trends before they occur and invest in them, guaranteeing maximum return.
However, interfering with time has attracted the attention of the Hounds of the Angles. That is the purpose of the “market research program.” They put the participants in very angular “testing rooms” to attract the Hounds’ attention while they are doing their scrying. They also use their scrying to make sure that the Hounds attack victims are people that no one cares about what happens to them.
They have started taking these precautions because the original founder of Celephaïs Investments, one Eldon Barsk, was killed by one of the Hounds about two years ago.
This time, they failed to see the result that brought them to Delta Green’s attention. But, as soon as the people behind Delta Green know where the investigation is going, they will call it off. The people see the deaths of any number of homeless and near-homeless in charge as just the Cost of Doing Business. The question is, will the Agents follow their orders? Or will they what they think is right?
Whatever that happens to be.
Some Notes on this Scenario
This scenario proceeds in two sections. The first part is the Agents investigating the killings. Then, shortly after they find and report on the connection to Celephaïs Investments, they will be abruptly called off the case. Too many members of the Government, and too many business leaders who are their supporters, will object violently to the thought of investigating Celephaïs. Even if what they are doing is causing people to die, that is just the Cost of Doing Business. At that point, they will be contacted by a member of the Outlaw Delta Green.
That person will tell them the full history of Delta Green and ask if they want just to let this go. Or, do they want to “eliminate the vector.”
If they say they want nothing more to do with this, have them make five or six sanity rolls, all for helplessness. All of them represent times in the future that they hear about someone, usually someone homeless or in subsidized housing, being killed by some kind of animal. In all cases, it will be blamed on a wild animal, an uncontrolled pet, or some other person who gets arrested for a killing that the Agents know they weren’t responsible for.
And Celephaïs Investments will continue to grow.
If they do decide to stay on the case, then it will be up to the Agents to end Celephaïs Investments’ plan. And they must do it without official support. Their careers and maybe even their lives are on the line.
Because that is the Cost of Doing Business when you work for Delta Green.
The Details
The Agents have several investigative options open to them at the start.
Locations: Georgia Technology Institute, Techbrush Housing Project, Homeless Camp
Leads: Ervin Dunn, Lewis Seber, Douglas Graves, Dale and Erna Richardson and family, Concepcion Mendoza
Georgia Technology Institute
The Dorm Room
If the Agents proceed here first, then a local police Crime Scene team will still be working the room. There will be several uniformed officers around and a detective. The building is still under lockdown, and none of the students have been allowed to leave. The Agents will not be allowed to enter unless they show their official credentials, at which point they will be waved on in.
If the Agents go somewhere else first, then they will find that the investigation in the room has ended and the dorm has re-opened. There is a cleanup crew in the room, and none of the evidence there will remain. They will still be able to talk to the other students and will be able to notice the bulletin board on the way out. (See below for details.)
If the Agents arrive while the investigation is ongoing, they will find one wing of the third floor blocked off by a uniformed officer while a cluster of students stands curiously around. The officer will not let them down the hall unless they show their credentials. At that point, the officer will call back to the detective in charge, Tamara Winder.
Detective Winder is an easy-going, black woman who will express surprise that there is Federal interest in this case but will accept almost any reasonable excuse as to why the Agents are there. She works in the campus area because it usually doesn’t have anything too bad happen, and she is more than happy to have someone else look into it.
She doesn’t know much more than what the official report has said. About 3 in the morning, everyone was awakened by screams and what several people said: “sounded like a bear.” There was a pounding on the door, but it stopped, followed almost immediately by the cessation of the screams and growls. The door was unlocked, but a deadbolt was still engaged, and no one could get in. They waited for campus security to arrive before breaking the door down.
The first of the security to go in immediately came back out and vomited on the floor outside. The stain is still there. The other guard looked inside long enough to see what had happened and immediately called the city police.
The bodies have been removed and transported to the coroner’s office for an autopsy. The Crime Scene Unit (CSU) is currently in the room.
If the Agents try to enter the room, the two CSU members inside, wearing full hazmat gear, will ask them to wait outside. Flashing credentials will get them admittance, but one of the CSU will file a complaint against the Agents. (The results of which are left to the Handler; this may cause the Agents future difficulties.)
If they wait, the CSU team will promise to send the Agents everything they find and let them into the room. Detective Winder is happy to continue having her people secure the hallway while they do.
To say that the room is covered in blood is an understatement. The walls, floor, and ceiling are covered with sticky, still-drying blood. Seeing the extent of the violence is a 0/1 SAN (violence) check.
Anyone with Forensics or Criminology will be able to determine that one victim was killed in bed and didn’t even have time to get up. The other apparently tried to exit the room and had unlocked the door but failed to open the deadbolt. They were killed after being slammed against the door. Their outline is visible.
What they can find only corroborates what they have already heard. The windows are closed and sealed with paint; they obviously weren’t opened. The deadbolt is ripped from the doorframe, making it obvious it was locked when the door was forced open. Two people were violently killed inside a locked room, with no way for an attacker to enter or exit. Have the Agents make a 0/1 SAN (unnatural) check.
Have the Agents make Forensics or Criminology checks. Make two.
With a successful first check, they will find a slip of paper stuck on the side of a trash can. It has an address near downtown and a time of 10 am on the previous Saturday. “Lighthouse Test!” is written on it, along with a phone number.
The other discovery is in one corner, near the floor. The entire corner, floor, and walls are covered with a greasy, smoky film. There is enough residue that the Agents can obtain a sample of the “grease” if they desire.
New Location: Coronor’s office
New Leads: The “Lighthouse Test” number, a Greasy Residude.
Other Students
There are several students around. A few may leave if the Agents introduce themselves as such, but if they act as interested parties, then most of them will stay and talk.
One laughing student tries to tell the story of the campus security officer who got sick, but the others somewhat angrily ask him to shut up.
The info they get from the students otherwise matches what they have already heard. The only addition being that Dunn and Seber pretty much kept to themselves and didn’t interact with the rest of the students in the dorm that much. Both of them seemed to spend more time studying than partying, and they appeared to be happy with each other as roommates for that reason.
If any of the Agents succeed in a Persuasion or HUMINT check, they will also be told that, on the previous Saturday, Dunn and Seber came in with a bunch of pizzas, enough for the entire wing. They said they wanted to show that they appreciated everyone else even though they didn’t spend that much time with them. It was the only time that they had done anything like that. (This is an indication that they had acquired some money. Note that the day is the same as the “Lighthouse Test.”)
Elsewhere in the DormAs the Agents are leaving the dorm, allow one of them to notice a flyer on the bulletin board at the entrance saying, “Need extra cash for ‘campus essentials’?” There are several tear-off strips with a phone number on them. The number is the same as on the “Lighthouse Test” paper.
There is a very good chance that the Agents will try to track down the number, or just call it. If they do, they discover it belongs to Lighthouse Consumer Research, which is a part of Celephaïs Investments. The address on the “Lighthouse Test!” paper also corresponds to Celephaïs Investments.
New Leads: Lighthouse Consumer Research, Celephaïs Investments.
Techbrush Housing Project
Techbrush is a subsidized housing community just south of the Georgia Technology Institute campus. Even the local police only go there when investigating something, so it is not a particularly inviting area of town. But the people who are forced to live there are doing the best they can and trying to create a safe place for themselves; it isn’t as dangerous as rumors they may hear tell them.
Any Agents entering and throwing their authority around will find the locals avoiding them and being as terse as possible when answering any questions. However, if they approach it as if they are sincerely trying to find out what happened to the Richardsons, they may get some help.
With a proper approach, they will be told that no one in authority seemed to care about the Richardsons. The police didn’t even show up until after daylight the next morning. By then, even if any of the family could have been saved, it would have been too late.
The residents think Mendoza had nothing to do with it. The sounds certainly didn’t sound like his dogs. The police just asked who had dogs, kicked in his door, shot the dogs, and arrested him. Yes, he had a gun he shouldn’t have, but he was an independent contractor who had had some of his tools stolen previously (a crime that was reported but never investigated), and he needed to protect them as they represented his livelihood. HUMINT will tell agents Agents that have taken a sincere approach that the locals are telling the truth.
Some of the residents will also express unhappiness. Richardson had just gotten a bunch of new toys for his children and the children of a few of his neighbors. He seemed to have had a windfall of some kind, and, sadly, he hadn’t gotten a chance to further benefit from it.
With a Persuade check, the Agents can get access to the Richardsons’ former unit. It has been cleaned (badly, there are still brown discolorations visible here and there). However, a successful Forensics check in the master bedroom will reveal a smoky, greasy patch in the upper corner of the room, between two walls and a ceiling. The Agents can take a sample of this if they wish.
New Lead: A Greasy Residue
As they leave the project, allow the Agents to see a flyer reading “Need Extra Cash?” stapled to a telephone pole. Most of the paper strips at the bottom have been torn off, but one remains. If the Agents try to track down the number or just call it, they discover it belongs to Lighthouse Consumer Research, a part of Celephaïs Investments.
New Leads: Lighthouse Consumer Research, Celephaïs Investments.
The Homeless Camp
About a dozen people call the Interstate underpass near the entrance to the Institute campus home. Most of them will try to avoid any Agents who identify themselves as such. Offering money will bring everyone around, but HUMINT will quickly reveal that they are willing to say anything they think the Agents want to hear as long as they get more money.
Bringing food and/or water will give a bonus (+20%) on Persuasion checks, which will be required to get any information out of the inhabitants.
Many of the former inhabitants have moved on, but a few remember Graves. He kept to himself most of the time, and no one was sure where he went during the day. He stayed up under the beams of the bridge, near the end of the area.
No one remembers much about the night of the attack, only that they hear a “coughing roar like a lion” and Graves screams. When the police showed up, they simply took the body and left without really asking any questions. Other camp members took his remaining possessions by the end of the day, and most of them have since moved on.
The only thing of note anyone has is that Graves had gotten a new jacket and sleeping bag from somewhere a few days before he was killed. Not something from a charity either. It looked like something he had bought. No one knew where they had come from, and he wouldn’t say. No one knows where the jacket or sleeping bag are now.
Any Agent going to Graves’ campsite and getting a successful Forensics roll will find a strange, greasy residue in the corner between an I-Beam and the bridge support. Enough is remaining that they can collect a sample.
New Lead: A Greasy Residue
Other people have long since taken anything else that might have been left behind at the site.
Ervin Dunn and Lewis Seber
A check on the background of Dunn and Serber will find nothing. They are both decent but not exceptional students. Their professors will describe them as consistent students and note that they took many classes together. Other students will describe them as friendly but quiet, not being involved with many student activities. If Agents use HUMINT, they will not find any evidence of anything being held back or covered up, only people who are shaken by what has happened.
The bodies have been taken to Coronor’s office. Their families have been notified but have not yet arrived. (Dunn is from southern Georgia, Serber is from Tennessee.) Waiting to speak to the families will reveal that they are very distraught over what has happened. Neither had told either of their families anything out of the ordinary, and they cannot think of anything they may have been involved with. Neither Dunn nor Serber had said anything about Lighthouse Research or Celephaïs Investments to them. The family will have no idea how the two may have come into some extra cash.
Dale and Erna Richardson and family
The Richardson’s remains were claimed by members of Dale’s family, who took them to Alabama for burial. The official report on the bodies shows that they were given a cursory medical exam. The cause of death was put down as an “animal attack.”
The police found a revolver with two shots fired when they entered the unit. The gun was registered to Dale Richardson. It is still in the police locker if the Agents want to see it for some reason.
Contacting Richardson’s family in Alabama will meet with a surly response; the family is unhappy that it has been almost two months before anyone even tried to talk to them.
It will require a Persuasion roll to get anything out of the family. The only thing they know that is relevant is that Dale called them about two months ago saying he had found a way to get some extra money (he had worked as a waiter, but that wasn’t bringing in as much money as he would have liked) and could finally get toys for his children and “something nice” for Erna. All they can tell the Agents is that it had something to do with a Lighthouse.
There is no evidence that the Richardsons were involved in any Unnatural activity of any kind. The family will become angry at any questioning in that direction. HUMINT will show that they don’t seem to be hiding anything and are merely unhappy at what they feel is a lack of interest in what happened to their son and his family.
Douglas Graves
There was no autopsy performed on Graves. After sitting in the morgue for two weeks, he was cremated and buried in a public plot. There is no more information available.
The Coronor’s Office/Morgue
If the Agents go to the morgue, they will find that the autopsies on Ervin Dunn and Lewis Seber have yet to be started. If they ask and produce appropriate credentials, they will be allowed to speak with Manish Ramson, the coroner who will be performing the autopsy.
Ramson will greet the Agents and offer what help he can. He is a bit curious about why they are here and will openly question why Federal Agents are involved in this case, but any reasonable excuse will satisfy him. He is overworked and doesn’t have time to worry too much about what is going on beyond his immediate job.
He will allow any Agents with Medicine or Forensics experience to assist him in the autopsies if they desire.
Ervin Dunn
Dunn barely had time to wake up if he wasn’t still asleep when he was attacked. Any Agent viewing the body must make a 1/1d6 SAN check (violence). His abdominal cavity has been scooped out and his internal organs, those still attached, are simply dangling from the opening.
Dunn also has some strange greasy substance under his fingernails, as if he had clawed at the thing that attacked him. The Agents can collect a sample of this if they wish.
New Lead: Greasy Substance
Lewis Seber
Seber was trying to get out of the door when he was killed. His injuries are similar to those of Dunn, except that he was awake and trying to escape. The attack ripped his lower ribs out, as well as his kidneys, intestines, and lower organs. Any Agents participating need to make a 1/1d6 SAN check (violence), even if they have already seen Dunn, due to the severity of the attack.
Other
A few things will become apparent after examining the bodies, which will be realized with anyone having Medicine or any kind of Science related to Biology or Zoology. The wounds do not match anything that could have been a mammal. It wasn’t a dog, wolf, or even a bear. They look like the bites and claws of a reptile. Or maybe a strangely huge bird. Something grabbed and/or bit them around the neck and shoulders, then it raised its hind claws and raked downward. It was a single, brutal attack.
Also, with a relevant roll, they will note that none of the body parts are missing. Whatever attacked the two didn’t feed on them. It merely killed, then left. Ramson can point this out if no Agent detects it.
The Greasy Residue
This is easily examined under a microscope. It seems organic, and any successful Science roll in any related field will determine that it is a mucus-like substance extruded by a living thing, probably to protect it from the surrounding environment. The odd thing about it is that, while it contains cells, none of them have a nucleus. There are mitochondria and the like, but no nucleus. This is unheard of in biology. Anyone with Medicine or Science: Biology must make a 0/1 SAN (unnatural) roll upon realizing this.
Lighthouse Consumer Research
Lighthouse Consumer Research is easily researched. They are a wholly-owned subsidiary of Celephaïs Investments. Currently, they have a testing facility in Atlanta but are planning to expand to other cities soon.
Information on Lighthouse can be found on-line in numerous places, from news articles to Facebook groups. Most of the pieces are quoting press releases and talk about how the “proprietary algorithms” used by their research allows them to forecast the trends that drive their investment strategies. No one seems to have a good idea of how these algorithms work, but they seem to work very well.
On other, more social, forums people are raving over the “free money” that Lighthouse seems to be “giving away.” Every Saturday, they take volunteers and have them answer about 50 questions on a computer. The test takes less than an hour, and everyone is paid $20 in cash at the end. They seem to test about a hundred people per week.
Further research will reveal that Lighthouse takes no personal information at all. Participants are given a number and asked to use it again if they return, but there seems to be no enforcement on its use. Lighthouse says this is deliberate so that knowledge of who took the test or their likely background will not affect their analysis of the answers.
The Agents can call Lighthouse themselves and either pose as interested participants or identify themselves as Agents and get the information above if they do not find it on-line. The person they talk to will happily describe the testing process to them if they ask.
If the Agents identify themselves as such or indicate why they are interested in Lighthouse, then the person they are talking to will indicate that they can’t talk about anything like that but will take a number and promise to have someone call them. This will trigger the Interlude below.
If the Agents ask to participate in the tests, they will be told to show up at the Celephaïs Investments building on Saturday and let the receptionist know that they are there for the test. Celephaïs occupies an entire building in an office park in an upscale area of Atlanta, a bit north of downtown. It can be reached with relative ease from downtown via bus or rail.
If the Agents show up, they will find a few dozen other people waiting, mostly seeming to be homeless or unemployed, with a few random students and other individuals. After a while, they will be led to a computer and asked to answer the questions. These are strangely random, things like “How often do you think about toothpaste?” and “If grass wasn’t green, what color would you prefer it to be?”
At the end of the test, the Agents will return to the receptionist, who gives them $20 in cash and a card with a number on it. The receptionist will ask them to bring the card back with them if they decide to retake the test.
If the Agents ask about the number, they will be told that Lighthouse sometimes calls participants in for “advanced testing,” depending on how useful they found the participant’s answers on the standard test. All they will be able to find out is that advanced testing takes several hours and pays out more.
No one at Lighthouse will say more about the advanced testing (claiming proprietary information), but a successful Computer Science check will find a few people talking about it. The advanced testing takes place in a different room, described as being “hot and cramped,” and takes several hours. It is not simple questions but involves watching many videos and giving reactions, and solving simple puzzles involving geometric shapes. If they complete the test, the participant gets a much larger payout, usually $200-500 in cash.
They cannot find any information on what triggers being invited to participate in the advanced test.
Celephaïs Investments
Celephaïs Investments is a current darling of Wall Street, having some of the highest return rates ever seen by an investment firm. It was founded by Eldon Barsk, an investment banker and mathematician formerly with the Sandhouser/Price Financial Group. He had been with them for over two decades before suddenly leaving to set up his own company. That was about three years ago.
Celephaïs started off well but hit a significant downturn about a year later when Barsk was killed in a hunting accident. The company went through a period of “restructuring” that it emerged from about six months later. Since then, the company has seen only success and now has offices in Chicago and Dallas, as well as in Atlanta.
Research into Celephaïs finds nothing unusual besides Barsk’s death. That and their incredible success. The company is privately held, so there is no public information on its financials, but all indications are that it is doing exceptionally well.
Currently, Celephaïs is being run by its Board of Directors.
New Leads: Eldon Barsk, Celephais Board of Directors: Beckett Hinton, Dale Sandoval, Helen Peterson, Brayan Hood
Eldon Barsk
Originally from Boston, Barsk received a Masters Degree in Mathematics and Statistics from the Massachusetts Technology Institute in 1972. He worked for several years doing consulting, including time with FEMA and the EPA, before discovering a knack for finance and transferring to the private sector. He worked for several firms before arriving at Sandhouser/Price in the late 1990s.
He was instrumental in improving much of S/P’s investment software, using what he called “disaster mapping” as a forecasting tool. Most of the time, his forecasts barely broke even, but the occasional successes were profitable enough that they allowed him to keep working on it. He made slow improvements on the software over the years until he decided to strike out independently. The reason given was that the executives at Sandhouser/Price were nervous about his model’s volatility and didn’t want to trust the more advanced version he had developed. He then founded Celephaïs Investments.
The initial success of Celephaïs seemed to prove his new model to be accurate, but he was tragically killed in a freak hunting accident less than a year after its founding. He had been hunting deer, but he and his partner startled a wild boar which attacked and gored Barsk. Aid was unable to reach him in time.
If any Agent thinks to look at the medical report on Barsk’s death, they will note that his injuries were described as being “severe” and “more extensive than would have been expected for a boar to produce.” It quickly becomes evident that whatever caused the deaths they are investigating also killed Barsk.
Barsk had been married, but the marriage ended several years before the founding of Celephaïs. Contacting his ex or his children will find little information beyond what they already know. Whatever he was involved with, he had not shared it with any of them.
They will find out one odd thing. The day his wife presented him with her request for a divorce, he simply nodded and said, “I know.” He then produced an already-packed bag and left.
Beckett Hinton
Hinton worked with Barsk at Sandhouser/Price for several years and left at the same time Barsk did. He is likely to be the most knowledgable of anyone at Celephaïs as to how Barsk’s model works.
Originally from Vancouver, Hinton graduated with an MBA from Harvard University in 1990. Sandhouser/Price was his first job. He has been married to Elena Hinton for over 20 years, and they have two children. Anderson and Belenda. Both are currently at Harvard themselves.
Dale Sandoval
Sandoval is originally from San Diego and has a Master’s Degree in Economics from the Southern California University. After graduation he worked for some time in the government where he worked with the Treasurary Department in Foreign Investment Relations. He is well known on the lecture circuit, where he first met Eldon Barsk. When Barsk founded Celephaïs, he reached out to Sandoval and invited him to join.
Sandoval is single and has a reputation for enjoying to party. He is well known in the Atlanta music scene and, through him, Celephaïs has helped sponsor several music events in the city, which have brought him friendships with a large number of industry contacts and city and state government officials. He is currently rumored to be involved with the local rap singer K-T.
Helen Peterson
Peterson is the only “local” member of the board, having been born and raised in Atlanta. She graduated in International Finance from Ememry University in 1997 and worked for a while with StateTrust Bank before moving to a position with the Federal Reserve in 2005. She remained there for ten years before leaving to start her own investments company, Petersen Financial Advisors, in 2015. PFA was acquired by Celephaïs Investments two years ago and she became part of the Board as part of the acquision agreement.
She is married to Donald Peterson, but the two are estranged. He has lived in their home in Miami for the past three years. They have no children and she does not seem to have any involvements with anyone at this time.
Brayan Hood
Hood is the youngest member of the Board, having only graduated from the Georgia Technology Institute three years ago with a degree in Engineering. He was recruited directly by Barsk when he graduated and apparently given an amazing offer. He was named to the Board less than a year later.
Hood is still in his 20s and has been enjoying his newly-rich lifestyle to the fullest. He is often flying off to the furtherest corners of the globe with his latest girlfriend with him. He seems to rarely be at Celephaïs, or even in Atlanta.
(Hinton was hired by Barsk specifically to write the program that controls the Scrying Lens. Barsk selected Hinton because he had seen him through an early, prototype version of the Lens and knew that he was capable and would be willing to do it.)
Interlude
This will occur a few hours after the Agents first report any connection to Celephaïs Investments to Hargrove or after they contact Celephaïs or Lighthouse directly and officially identify themselves. They will receive a call/text telling them to report to the local FBI Field Office immediately.
There they will meet Hargrove, who is quite upset. She tells them that the investigation is officially over. Her superiors have told her to pull the Agents off the case and that a new team will be assigned to handle it. They are to stop all investigations immediately and return to their regular duties. Everything will be handled by someone else.
Anyone with HUMINT or Psychology above base will know that she is lying about something. Questioning her will get her to reveal that she isn’t happy about it but that she has been told to drop the case and that ignoring the request would be a “career-limiting decision.” She will implore the Agents to forget about the subject and go back to their everyday lives. She will not provide anything beyond that. Successful HUMINT or Psychology rolls will reveal that she is unhappy and scared but feels that she has no other choice.
As the Agents are leaving, one of them (have everyone make a POWx5 roll and either take whoever had the highest without going over or the one who failed by the least) will receive a text from an unknown number saying, “Are you going to just walk away from this?”
If the Agents decide to “just walk away,” then apply the SAN losses described earlier. If they respond to the text with any kind of positive answer, they will be asked to go to the North Georgia Fairgrounds this evening (the fairgrounds are closed) and to go to the building with the lights on. That is all the direction they will receive.
New Location: North Georgia Fairgrounds
If the Agents relay this to Hargrove, she will be startled but then look away. She will tell the Agents that they can do whatever they want, but to just think about their careers. She won’t say more. (She knows what the Outlaw organization is, by reputation, but is too dedicated to her career to consider them. A fact that haunts her.)
North Georgia Fairgrounds
The Agents can take whatever precautions they want. When they get to the fairgrounds, they find that the main gate is unlatched, with a padlock hanging from its chain. The area is hardly secure, but this lets them drive in if they wish.
It is easy to find where they are supposed to go. One building has its exterior lights on; North Georgia Funnel Cakes.
Any Agents who enter will find a lone, older man, probably in his 70s, standing there. He will tell them to close the door and to put their phone or any other electronics they have in an ice cream freezer. If the Agents refuse, he will shrug and say, “You’ll learn soon enough.”
He will then introduce himself as “Elijah Greene” and freely admit that it isn’t his real name. “You just get used to the lies, after a while,” is all that he says.
He will tell them that he knows about what they have found. He’s seen their reports. Unfortunately, too many people in Washington, and too many of their friends, are now investors with Celephaïs. No one wants to see their new opportunity go away. That’s why the Agents got pulled off the case.
“That’s why some of stayed out in the cold when we all got called in,” he tells them. “We knew this would happen.”
He will then explain the history of Delta Green to them if the Agents do not already know it. From Innsmouth, through Roswell, the collapse in the late 1960s, the outlaw years, and finally the “rebirth” of the Special Access Program after the takeover of Majestic.
“But,” he tells them, “some of us realized that by becoming ‘official,’ we were putting ourselves under the control of people who put power over people. They would be more than happy to let people be used or die, as long as they benefited. That’s what has happened to you. Too many people are making money off of whatever Celephaïs is doing, and they don’t want that gravy train to end, even if it means that people die. As long as the people who die are people they don’t care about.”
He holds up a manilla folder and drops it on a table. “Here’s everything we have on Celephaïs. There aren’t many of us left outside. I’m not sure we’re going to be able to solve it on our own. But, all of you are part of this now. I can’t force you to do anything or take any action, but… you know that this shit is real. You know that they are doing something. You just need to ask, can you live with yourself if you do nothing.”
At this point, he will leave. The Agents can attempt to intercept him or even arrest him, and he won’t resist. They will find that they can’t charge him with anything other than trespassing, and he will continually deny anything he said to them. He will eventually be released, and the Agents will deal with the fallout at some future date (the details are left to the Handler.)
The folder he left contains all the information they already know, plus some more details. There have been several other deaths that they haven’t heard about, going back about a year and a half. Most of them have been from the cities’ homeless or unemployed residents. In all cases, the cause of death has been put down to animal attack or occasionally assault.
There are also floor plans for the Celephaïs Investments building. There was a significant construction project on the upper floors about eighteen months ago, and the plans do not have notes on what may have changed since then. There are also files on Eldon Barsk and the other members of the Celephaïs Board of Directors if the Agents have not already found them.
Next Steps
By this point, it should be evident that Celephaïs Investments is doing something that is killing people and that people within the Government are more than happy to cover it up to protect their own financial interests. If the Agents decide to walk away, let them, but apply the SAN losses described previously. They knew what was happening but chose to do nothing.
Otherwise, let them continue. Remember, as of this point, they are part of the Outlaw Delta Green and do not have any official support. They are entirely on their own.
The Agents may try to talk to the members of the Board of Directors or sneak into their homes, but anything significant is only going to be found in the Celephaïs Investments building. All of them are smart enough to “not take work home.”
If the Agents capture and question any of the Board (or anyone else), remind them that they are on their own. Resolve their actions as you see fit.
Celephaïs Investments
Celephaïs Investments is a 9-story concrete and glass office building in an office park with five other nearly-identical buildings (from the outside anyway), all surrounding a shared parking garage. Maps are below.
Only the Board knows for sure what is going on. Some employees have suspicions that something isn’t right, but none of them have yet tried to stick their heads out enough to ask openly. Resolve questioning of any of them according to the information below. None of them will willingly disclose anything that is going on (they have employment contracts and future job opportunities to worry about), but if they are presented with enough evidence, then they may reveal what they know, which isn’t much.
The building’s first floor has a waiting area, a small newsstand/deli, a coffee shop, the security office, and a welcome area where prospective clients first meet. There is also a reception station which is staffed by a pair of receptionists during regular business hours and a security guard at other times. The building is closed from 7 pm until 7 am, but determined Agents should find a way inside. (The deli and coffee shop are independent of Celephaïs; they just lease the space. No one at either of them knows anything about Celephaïs other than what is general public knowledge.)
Anyone approaching the desk will be directed to the client welcome area (if they present themselves as such) or the waiting area (if they present themselves as test participants, available only on Saturdays.) No one will question anyone going to the coffee shop or deli, both of which close at 6:45.
The elevators and stairwells are only accessible with an employee keycard. Most employees only have access to floors two through four. Floors five, six, eight, and nine are blocked off (except for the testing rooms on six, to which a keycard on the reception desk will give access. See below.) Not even security has access to floor seven. There is no access to floors five, eight, or nine at all. (See below.)
The second and third floors have shared cubicles in the center with private senior brokers’ offices around the outside. There is also a large conference room. (Test subjects meet with one of the Board in the conference room before being shown to a cubicle on the second floor on Saturdays.)
The fourth floor contains the executive offices, which consist of private offices for each of the board members and a few other senior executives. There are a pair of conference rooms and several private meeting rooms for significant clients.
There is also a small server room which contains the only on-site system. Strangely, it is not accessible from the outside or even from anywhere else in the building. It only connects to the seventh floor.
The fifth floor is blocked off. The elevators do not stop there, and the stairwell doors are chained off and alarmed, with “No Access” signs on them. Forcing the doors open will reveal that the floor is literally sealed; it has been filled with fireproof foam. There is nothing there.
The sixth floor has two advanced testing rooms, accessible from the elevators or stairwells. The rooms themselves are small and hexagonal, with V-shaped cubicles holding computers. The walls and ceiling are covered with angular noise-canceling tiles. (Actually, there to produce more angles, the noise-canceling is just a side effect.) The rooms are sweltering and stuffy due to the rest of the floor being filled with fireproof foam.
The seventh floor contains the scrying lens, as described below.
The eighth and ninth floors are the same as the fifth. The elevators do not stop, and the stairwell doors are chained off and alarmed, with “No Access” signs on them. The floors are filled with fireproof foam.
The stairs and elevator go all the way to the roof. It has a helipad, antenna, and various vents and air conditioning/heating units.
What the People at Celephaïs Know
Soon after Barsk’s death, the remaining members of the Board realized what had happened. Instead of abandoning the scrying lens, they decided to set a trap for the Hounds to go after random people, those that society as a whole would ignore the deaths of, instead of abandoning their project. Everyone on the Board is technically insane. They can function in public because they can rationalize what they are doing as benefiting society and that the only people who are dying are worthless anyway, but any pressure on them will provoke an episode in which they defend themselves against the “parasites” who are trying to take advantage of their hard work. In any other context, they appear normal.
The $20 payment is deliberate. It is enough that someone in dire straits will be willing to continue to come in week after week to get paid, but not enough that anyone whose death would attract attention would continue to stick around. That way, they can see who comes in repeatedly and waits to see which of them will die via the scrying lens. If it is someone who will be unnoticed, then they invite them up for “advanced testing” to bait the Hounds.
None of the test results are used for anything.
Multiple employees realize that something strange is going on, but they are perfectly happy to take advantage of whatever it is. All of them are doing amazingly well, after all. None of them have connected any of the deaths to the Lighthouse program. (Test subjects are only in the building on Saturday when most employees are not in the office. The receptionist and security on Saturday are rotated, so no one is likely to become too familiar with the subjects. So far, this has worked.)
All of the employees know that Barsk had developed a model based on his tests’ results and that those tests are somehow used to determine where to invest. They know that most of the Board meets on Saturday on the 7th floor to monitor the tests and give instructions to the brokers on what to buy and sell based on them.
No one outside the Board has even been on the 7th floor or anything above the 4th. Well, not anymore. There used to be empty offices up there that were planned for expansion, but a construction project about 18 months ago stripped out the internals of the floors and left them vacant. They were then sealed off, supposedly so they could turn off those floors’ utilities for cost savings. The only thing left is the board room on seven and the advanced testing rooms on six.
What the Board Knows
Everyone remaining on the Board knows about the scrying lens and how to use it, but they only use it on Saturday so that the advanced testing subjects protect them. If the Agents start their independent investigation during the week, then they can proceed uninterrupted. But, if the investigation crosses a Saturday, then members of the Board (who are checking their own futures) will become aware of the investigation and move against the Agents. This will trigger the Interluse even if the Agents have never reported anything about Celephaïs. The Board will also increase security in the building.
Everything about the scrying lens is kept in the Celephaïs building. The lens can look into the present and the past as well as the future. All of the Board are paranoid and insane at this point, and they spend more and more of their scrying sessions checking on the other board members. They have mutually decided to keep everything to themselves and to keep all information about what they are doing at the office. A and B have X’s notes, while C and D have the software for the Scrying lens. All of these are kept in fireproof safes in their various offices.
If any of them has attempted to take information away, other board members have seen it and forced them to return it. Again, the entire Board is insane (paranoia) and will react accordingly if Agents question them. They will not hesitate to send lawyers or their own security after the Agents, and they will use their (multiple) contacts within the Government to destroy the Agent’s careers if they ask too many questions. Yes, they are insane, but also ruthlessly focused on protecting themselves.
Who knew that looking through time was dangerous to your sanity?
Further Activity
If the Agents have walked away, then there is nothing else they can do. There will be several more “animal killings” over the next few months, followed by a “brutal massacre” in which all four board members will be killed in their homes. This will result in a major news event that will consume media coverage over the next few days. The killings will eventually be blamed on “anti-capitalist terrorists.” Several people will be arrested but eventually released when no evidence can be presented against them.
The Agents will suffer SAN losses as described above for all of these things. They will also have to deal with the fact that, even though the Board is gone, the device and the information on how to create and use it is still out there, somewhere. This is a 1/1d6 SAN loss (helplessness).
If the Agents didn’t walk away, then they will need to stop Celephaïs’ activity. And, since everything is located at the Celephaïs building, they will have to go there.
Celephaïs has some warning that people are looking into them, so they have increased security slightly. They have two guards in the security room at all times (typically 2 in the day but only one at night) and two making regular patrols of all (accessible) floors. Even the security guards do not go to the seventh floor.
The guards do check the roof for anyone who thinks to hide out there.
If the Board has had the chance to see the Agents through the scrying lens, two additional guards will be in the building, and a guard will be assigned to each of the Board members when not in the building.
Remember, the elevator and stairwell doors require keycard access. Agents can acquire keycards through any means they wish. They can bypass the check with a successful Craft: Electronics or Craft: Locksmith roll.
All floors (except the seventh) are under constant camera surveillance. Successful Stealth checks will allow Agents to avoid the cameras. If they disable the cameras, then one of the guards from the security office will be sent to that location to monitor. Disabling multiple cameras will cause the guard to circulate between the disabled areas, and backup will immediately be called in.
What is in the Building?
The only significant information is on floors three, four, and seven. Looking anywhere else will only reveal that the Board issues buy and/or sell directives every Monday. The brokers are happy to go along with the directives because they are very rarely wrong. Everyone above base level gets a bonus based on how well the company is doing. It is doing very well, so they have little incentive to question things.
Floors 3 and 4
Beckett Hinton and Dale Sndoval have offices on the third floor, while Helen Peterson and Brayan Hood have theirs on the fourth. Investigating their offices will reveal nothing important, except for the contents of a locked safe in each office.
Sandoval’s and Peterson’s office hold two documents. The first is called The Lighthouse Model. This is an economic forecasting model that seems to work by ignoring certain specific numbers. Weirdly, when those seemingly random numbers are ignored, the model is exact.
The second is titled Stable Mapping of Physical Constants to Other Reference Frames. It is a printout of what seems to be a copy of an old, hand-written document. Anyone who flips through it who makes an INTx5 check will understand that the document is examining about a dozen mathematical equations and attempting to find other geometries in which the majority, if not all, of those equations, are also valid.
Agents who have Science: Physics or Science: Mathematics (or Science: Astronomy if neither of the first two is available) will understand this without a check. However, if they succeed at a check of their own, they will realize that, if these equations are correct, then the space-time in which we live may not be the simple geometry that we believe. Instead, our actual universe may be one of several possible, more complex geometries. These geometries are “discontinuous” in that there are parts of them not connected to others. They have “fractures,” even though the pieces of the geometries are adjacent.
(As an example, there may be a reference frame where the number “3” does not exist. So 2 + 2 would be 4, but 1 + 2 would be undefined, the same as trying to divide by zero in our reference frame. The places where three should be in that frame would be a “Fracture.”)
The situation is analogous to how the crustal plates of Continental Drift move around on Earth’s surface, except that pieces of reality are drifting around on the surface of space-time.
Realizing this forces any of the scientifically-inclined agents to make a SAN check. If they succeed, they are fine. But, if they fail, they understand what the equations are saying and lose 1d6 (Unnatural).
Hinton’s and Hood’s safe holds a USB stick with a copy of a program on it. It is a control program for a mechanical device of some kind that directs a large number of parts to move in a pattern based on the date, time of day, location, and a large number of other seemingly random parameters connected to astronomic movements. Anyone with skill in Computer Science will think it looks almost random, unless they have also seen and understood The Lighthouse Model and/or Stable Mapping of Physical Constants to Other Reference Frames, at which point they will understand why it is producing the patterns it is.
By understanding the program and Stable Mapping of Physical Constants to Other Reference Frames they will realize that the program is controlling something that limits someone’s view to only see through the “fractures”; something that our brains would normally not let us notice as they flicked past it as being “unnatural”. By restricting the line-of-sight, this mechanism will allow someone to see “through” one of the fractures and into some other place in the past, present, or future.
This is a 1/1d4 SAN (Unnatural) loss for anyone who understands both.
Floor Seven
The Seventh floor is the heart of the operation. When the Agents arrive, show them the map below.
The room is difficult to move around in. Beyond the entryway, it is a perfect ovoid; an egg-shape with no angles anywhere. There is even a movable piece of carved foam that can be used to seal the entryway. Only the balcony on which the viewers stand contains angles, and even it is rounded, curved, and somewhat uneven to stand on. (The room actually takes up the sixth through eighth floors; this is what is inside all that foam.)
The majority of the room is filled with what at first glance seems to be a giant, moving, kinetic sculpture composed of thousands of thin wires. The wires are moving on complex tracks set all around the sides of the room.
Usually, the density of the wires is enough that any viewers cannot see much through the sculpture, but occasionally they move in such a way that a clear “tunnel” opens. When Agents look through those, they see something other than the far side of the room.
At first, what they see is random. An empty street. The ocean. A random building. But, as they keep watching, they start seeing more specific things. A store that they have never heard of before, with a sign saying “Grand Opening” and throngs of people in front of it. A burned out subdivision, obviously ravaged by a fire, with the name of the subdivision still visible. A TV broadcast saying “Pandemic Deaths top 100,000”.
The images become more and more frequent as the Agents remain in the room. If they try, they can start to focus the Lens themselves, simply desiring to see something (with a successful POW x 5 check) will present that to them.
Eventually they will find themselves fatigued and have to withdraw from the room. The Lens drains 1 point of POW every five minutes of use. Any Agent who drops to zero will no longer be able to see anything through the Lens and will barely be able to stand upright. They will be at a disadvantage on all rolls until they recover at least one point of POW.
Using the Lens at all (being in the room and looking at it) is a SAN test; 1/1d8 (Unnatural). Deliberately focusing on something and seeing it is 1d4/1d10 (Unnatural) per successful attempt. Looking through time and space is dangerous.
Additionally, have everyone who used the Lens needs to make a POW x 5 check (using their current POW). On a Critical Failure, they have been noticed by the Hounds of the Angles. A Hound will arrive in 3d6 days. The outcome of that encounter is left to the Handler.
Resolution:
In order to succeed, the Agents need to destroy the Lens, all notes on how to create the Lens, and eliminate anyone who knows how to create the Lens (in other words, the Board. Remember the Sanity rules for killing.) How they go about this is up to them. Remember, everything about the Lens was kept in the Celephaïs itself, but the Agents likely don’t know that. (Unless they used the Lens itself to check, though that option has it’s own problems.) Since plans to destroy the board can go in any number of directions, the actual resolution is up to the Handler.
Epilog:
If successful, the Agents will receive 1d10 SAN for destroying the Lens, 1d6 SAN for destroying the notes on its creation, and 1d10 for eliminating the Board. They will later receive an anonymous contact from someone calling themselves “A-Cell”. A-Cell will thank them for their actions, telling the Agents that they, at least, appreciate what the Agents did even if no one else can ever know. They then tell the Agents that they may be in touch with them in the future. Be on the lookout for an invitation to “A Night at the Opera.”
Be seeing you.