30-50 Feral Deer in 3-5 Minutes

Secrets

In 1994, DG destroyed the town of Elton after they were exposed to an artifact of Shub-Niggurath. DG erased record of the town and road, hiding a potential weapon from their enemies. Erased records like these raise alarm bells when discovered..

Elton Road

A 100 mile lumber road through a dark forest. The Welles, an overlooked elderly pair of friendlies, operate two gas stations at either end of Elton Road. They called the police. Any cell phones on the road require a -20% luck check to connect.

Disappearance

The Peckmins, George [46], Allie [32] and Christopher [9] went on a roadtrip across America in their RV. 43 miles down Elton road, zombies of the HERD leapt in front of the RV. George was able to stop in time, but the deer didn't move. George exited and fired his shotgun. MORRIGAN charged, and put a hole into George's head, making his corpse useless. MORRIGAN entered the RV, destroying the door, windows and cabinets. It charged, killing Allie but leaving Christopher alive, putting ten holes in the back wall. MORRIGAN animated Allie's corpse, and they lead a compliant Christopher to one of the Elton houses and made Allie wander the woods. The police removed George's body and will remove the RV in two hours.

Briefing:

At 3pm, Agents are gathered by a Case Officer in a nearby motel room at short notice. Photos of the scene are provided. They are directed to lead the search party, which begins at 4pm. A child's missing. If agents require a cover, they're provided identities as consultants for ArgosK9 and will lead the search party. The CO doesn't volunteer that DG has any intelligence on this road but will share the absence of information if pressed. A cougar corpse in a vacuum sealed bag is provided to the Agents to create a plausible cover story.

Agents aren't there to solve the case. Their only mission is to protect the civilians.

Players determine which searchers in addition to ArgosK9 are friendlies. There are eight total conspirators including the agents.

Other Incidents

-a year ago, two hikers vanished

-five months ago, a cattle truck was found torn apart and bloody. Driver and cattle were never found.

Searchers

Each of the 30 searchers is given a flashlight, whistle, radio, first aid kit, map, and plastic ribbons used to mark points of interest. Agents divide the searchers into four groups.

ArgosK9

Two friendlies and four dogs were hired from a DG shell company called ArgosK9, which provides search dogs for disaster relief and missing persons cases. The dogs are on edge. They dislike the smell of the unnatural, but are well trained. If they smell inanimate corpses, they get focused. They whine following tracks. Ride can be used to handle the dogs.

Fulgenzio Vanderlaw, Wina Alexanderson

Hp 9 will 14 sanity 50 breaking point 42

Ride 50% Humint 30% Forensics 40% 20% alertness (+20% to alertness with dogs) survival 30% search 40%

Naturalists:

shotgun, binoculars. Good trackers. Nervous.

Yolanda Macdonald, Isidore Merritt, Sung-So Pek

HP 11, Will 12 Sanity 57 breaking point 48

SKILLS: alertness 40%, forensics 20%, first aid 50% Navigate 50% Survival 50% ride 30% science [biology] 20% Shotgun [20% 2d10]

Police officers:

Overconfident. try to stay together and take Q3. Prolonged searching will hit them hard.

Damian Bonfils, Olivera Longo, Ibrahim Tritten, Yardena O'Neal, Terrence Stefanov, Denver Roig, Konrad Roza, Jirina Linton

Hp 13 Will 10 sanity 44 breaking point 40 adapted to violence

SKILLS: Firearms 40% [pistol, 1d10] Alertness 40% Search 40% Forensics 20% criminology 20% first aid 30% HUMINT 30%

Forensic Specialist

Elderly, hasn't seen anything like this case. Driven to find Christopher.

Dr Liam Alonte

hp 8 will 17 sanity 30 breaking point 17 adapted to helplessness

SKILLS: Forensics 70% Alertness 40% Navigate 40% psychotherapy 30% surgery 20% criminology 50% science [biology] 40%

Hunters

It's bow hunting season. They try to bag deer, returning to their vehicles alone. Split up willingly and wear HiViz vests, handing them out to searchers in their quadrants.

Hanna Vivas, Walter Janzen, Carlton Starrett, Joseph Coburn, Rian Hersch

SKILLS: firearms 60% [bow training, composite bow 1d10, crossbow 1d8+1] Survival 50%, Navigate 40%, Forensics 20%, Ride 30%

Locals

Diverse group of people trying to help.

Marcus Lindholm, Nichole Lindholm, Adam Shea, Laura Shea, Hollis Shea, Ernie Riber, Olaf Rafferty, Fredrick Bosko, Quinn Brody, Natalie Vida, Mordicai Simpson, Lindsey McCune

SKILLS: First aid 30%, Navigate 30%, +20% to 4 skills to represent profession

Family

At 8am, the Peckmin-Rosses, along with Carrie's extended family arrive. They're tech professionals who've never had a kid.

Eric Peckmin-Ross, Carrie Peckmin-Ross, Alice Ross, Matthew Ross

SKILLS: Persuade 50%, Pilot (drone) 30%, SIGINT 20%

Into The Woods

Searchers make checks once per hour. Successes provide clues, failures trigger SAN vs helplessness 0/1. If no Agents are in a quadrant, make a Luck check, with -20 after dark. When in abstract, civilians always fail sanity rolls. Seven searchers take each quadrant.

ENCOUNTERS:

Roll for each hour and each quadrant. MORRIGAN uses zombies like part of its body, baiting, isolating targets and generating more zombies.

1-25: 1 deer

26-55: 2d4+1 deer

56-70: 1d6 deer, 1d3 zombie deer

71-80: 1d6 zombie deer

81-94 roll twice

95+: MORRIGAN or Allie

Add +5 for each hour spent searching

+5 at night

+10 beyond Elton Fence

*2 searching alone

if +30 < , roll twice

when the woods are empty, the counter resets.

CLUES: zombie animal remnants impaled on tree branches while they rot, deer spoor, MORRIGAN's 10" hoofprint, trees torn and healed

Quarter 1: eastern forest divided by road. Most clues are related to the town of Elton.

CLUES: bullet casings, destroyed mutated human skeleton, obscured road, abandoned truck, concrete graffiti bridge over stream

Quarter 2: southen forest. After 500', the Allie ran out of blood. Her footprints drag. Seven successful checks follow the trail leads to the hole in the fence in q1. Stream confuses dog's trail.

CLUES: Allie's boot, fabric, dead skin, dropped objects

Quarter 3: western forest, divided by road.

CLUES: graveyard dug up bones eaten, evidence of missing hikers

Quarter 4: northern woods. Edge of the Stone's influence, piles of bones, spoor after 3 hours

CLUES: cave filled with cattle and human bones. The groaning sounds 40' deep into the cave are a trapped cattle zombie which MORRIGAN can't reach.

Allie

Allie's in bad shape. Aside from being a zombie, she's in shock. When searchers are near and she's alone, MORRIGAN may make her inanimate. She spends time pinning birds to tree branches. She can't speak or write, but knows where Christopher is and tries to communicate. MORRIGAN will use her to lead agents away from Elton, which distresses her.

Elton

The 20' fence tipped with razor wire is encountered 6 hours into Q1. There's no gate. There's a massive gap in the fence. By daylight, the remaining houses are visible. By night, Christopher's flashlight's visible through a window. He has a survival kit, including food, water, flashlight, dinosaur toy. He waits patiently for his parents to come back until dawn, when he begins wandering through Elton and shouting. GRENDEL will try to sacrifice him.

Beyond the small cluster of houses, there's a 20' crater. In the crater is an unnaturally old forest. Testing reveals the trees are among the oldest living trees on earth. Removing the stone kills these trees.

The Stone (10 Hardness, 2 hp.)

This palm-sized artifact of Shub-Niggurath has been placed in the center of a 20' diameter nest of tree branches. Close examination finds the stone isn't mineral, but an unknown fungus. Touching the stone heals all wounds or diseases on the holder's turn, but replaces the biomass with strange eyes, cillia, etc [San 1d6/1d20]. Gaining a disorder from this causes obsession with perfection through self harm. Other abilities are beyond the scope of this scenario. Removing or destroying the stone causes the zombies to cease functioning, and removes MORRIGAN's special abilities. If GRENDEL has been born, removing the stone doesn't destroy it. MORRIGAN arrives 1d4 rounds after the agents because of Omniscience. GRENDEL will try to claim the stone for itself and summon Shub-Niggurath.

Conclusion:

Christopher can make a full recovery, depending what he sees.

GRENDEL's primary goal is life, and will do whatever it can to survive.

If agents called for help, searchers may find themselves in quarantine, or worse.

Rewards:

recovering missing persons: 1d4 each

Killing MORRIGAN: +1d8

Killing GRENDEL: +1d12

letting GRENDEL escape: -2d6

Destroying the stone: +1d20

HERD

MORRIGAN is the Avatar of Shub-Niggurath, a hermaphroditic, 6' at the shoulder, pregnant black buck . Its omniscience extends ten miles around the Stone. It is not more intelligent than an average deer. The antlers seem to bend in the wind, like a psychedelic experience. The antlers are made of the same fungal substance the Stone is. The antlers encounter no resistance from material substances, and retain their properties if removed. Holes made by the antlers are 1" in diameter, and are perfectly smooth. MORRIGAN is primarily carnivorous.

Deer, Avatar of Shub-Niggurath

Abilities: Str 18 Dex 14 Con 18 Pow 30

HP 18 [See Perfect Form and Rebirth] Will 29

SKILLS: Stealth +40% (80% among trees) Athletics 40% Alertness 99% [see Omniscience]

ATTACKS: IMPOSSIBLE ANTLERS 40% 2d4+3 AP 10 HOOF 60% 1d8+3

IMPOSSIBLE ANTLERS: The antlers of MORRIGAN claw into higher dimensions. They have armor piercing 10 and count as hypergeometric objects for the purpose of attacks. If detached, the antlers can be used as a weapon [2d4, ap 6]. After attacking with the antlers, MORRIGAN may use its hoof attack

OMNISCIENCE: MORRIGAN can observe everything within their forest with perfect detail. However, they are only a deer. They think of everything in terms of predator/prey, and though they are the apex predator of the woods, react as prey often. If their intelligence were raised to 7 or beyond, they could see the past and future but as a deer they can only percieve the present.

REALITY WARPING: Anything within the forest which acts against MORRIGAN will suffers a -20% penalty. This only applies to actions which MORRIGAN can understand. For example, Alertness through a sniper rifle suffers, because MORRIGAN does not want to be seen. However, demolitions does not suffer a penalty, nor does survival, computers, Navigate, Persuade or any knowledge skill.

The wind always blows towards MORRIGAN to hide their scent. It costs one Will power a day to control the weather like this.

LORD OF THE WOOD: MORRIGAN can create several hypergeometric effects while in their forest

-Heal 1d6 any organic material, living or dead 1 WP

-Zombie 2 WP zombies created this way retain their intelligence from life, but must obey MORRIGAN's every wish. Zombie's act on MORRIGAN's turn and not the one indicated by their dexterity score.

-Fascinate By spending 1 WP, MORRIGAN can force one target who can see it to make a contested power test. On a failure, the target is immobilized for 1d4 rounds, like a deer in the headlights. 1/1d4 SAN helplessness.

-Brambles and Thickets If MORRIGAN spends one 1 WP, the forest, which breathes with Shub-Niggurath, closes behind it for one minute. Checks to follow get a -20% penalty. This stacks with the penalty from REALITY WARPING. Failed checks to chase MORRIGAN inflict 1 point of damage, as branches swing in the wind to hit agents. MORRIGAN's zombies can be a point of origin for LORD OF THE WOOD abilities.

PERFECT FORM: As long as MORRIGAN remains conscious, at the begining of their turn they reset their health 18. Wounds vanish as if they were never there. Seeing this is 1/1d4 SAN. Hypergeometric wounds do not reset.

REBIRTH: Further, the haedi nigrati (GRENDEL) in MORRIGAN's womb knits together MORRIGAN's wounds, even after they drop below 0 HP. While MORRIGAN is alive and unconscious, they heal 1 hit point per round, until they regain consciousness and reset with PERFECT FORM. Wounds from hypergeometric weapons do not heal in this way

Additionally, if MORRIGAN dies fully, GRENDEL inside begins cannabalizing its parent.

SAN 1d4/1d10

GRENDEL

When MORRIGAN dies, the fetus within converts biomass quickly. Every minute which passes GRENDEL grows. After 6 minutes, GRENDEL will be as strong as it can get without drinking blood and will summon zombies to distract Agents. Burning MORRIGAN won't destroy GRENDEL, but deprives it of biomass. Tendrils emerge from the belly like long black flowers with hookworm mouths. Four more legs emerge. Checks on MORRIGAN's corpse are opposed by GRENDEL's stealth checks. When GRENDEL's active, the antlers wave like cillia, and fully enter hypergeometric space and emerge anywhere GRENDEL can see. If it acquires the Stone, a human sacrifice and a successful power test will summon Shub-Niggurath.

Infant Haedi Nigrati

Str 19 (maximum 24) Dex 12 Con 19 (maximum 24) Int 10 Pow 16

HP 1 (max 24, see REBIRTH, See FEEDING) Will 16

SKILLS: Alertness 60% Stealth 60% (80% in forests) Unnatural 50%

ATTACKS: HYPERGEOMETRIC ANTLERS 40%, 15% Lethality, Armor Piercing 10 and PIN range 20/100 TENDRILS 60% 1d8+1 and PIN

REBIRTH: One minute after MORRIGAN drops to zero hit points, GRENDEL awakens and begins its foul work converting its parents biomass. The stats here represent GRENDEL after 1 minute of recovery, which is when it can begin to act. Every subsequent minute, MORRIGAN's body's Strength and Constitution increase by one, increasing GRENDEL'S hit points an equal number. GRENDEL is extremely vulnerable in this state, and an act as simple as stabbing into MORRIGAN's belly with a knife would end the Dark Young.

HYPERGEOMETRIC ANTLERS: The ends of the antlers fully extend into other dimensions, and the GRENDEL can utilize these as a ranged attack. On a success, a tine of the antler extends from empty space. A successful attack also pins the target and lifts them into the air, and can pull them with strength checks.

TENDRILS: GRENDEL makes two tendril attacks.

FEEDING: The turn after Grappling, the GRENDEL may suck blood from a pinned or dead target which still has blood. This reduces the victim's STR by 2d6 and adds the same amount to the monster's HP or WP, whichever it prefers.

NON-TERRENE: GRENDEL is at home in nearly any environment. Radiation, pressure, cold, vacuum and other inimical environments have no negative effects on them.

UNNATURAL FLESH: The Deer skin GRENDEL is beneath is but a cloak. GRENDEL takes only one HP damage from any unarmed attack, melee weapon, firearm, or explosive with a lethality rating lower than 40% [ a big car would be enough to overwhelm this], and no damage whatsoever from fire, corrosives, electricity, and toxins. It takes full damage from hypergeometry, including its own antlers.

RITUALS:

SAN 1d6/2d6

Deer

The 41 deer are omnivorous, chewing on bones for calcium, licking up blood for salt. They're eerily confident.

Str 11 Con 13 Dex 13 Pow 11

HP 12 will 11

SKILLS: Stealth 40% (60% in the forest), Alertness 60%, Athletics 40%

ATTACKS: Hooves 20% 1d4 antlers [If adult male] 20% 1d6+1

Zombies

animated by MORRIGAN are slaves to its will. There are 15 deer and Allie. They retain their intelligence. They occassionally set traps by lying down motionless and taking the Aim action. When GRENDEL's active, zombie humans can use tools and weapons. MORRIGAN can use abilities through zombies. Zombies die if the stone's influence is removed.

Human

STR 15 CON 15 DEX 5 INT as in life [See SLAVE OF THE BLACK GOAT] POW 1

HP 15 WP 1

[If MORRIGAN dies and the zombies fall under control of GRENDEL, the human zombies gain the ability to use tools. They can fire guns with the aim action, rolling at 20% success]

Deer

STR 16 CON 16 DEX 6 [See SLAVE OF THE BLACK GOAT] POW1

HP 16 wp 1

ATTACKS: Hooves 20% 1d4+2 antlers 20% 1d6+1 [plus BITE]

ZOMBIE SHARED ABILITIES

ARMOR: See ROTTING RESILIENCE.

SKILLS: Alertness 20%, Unarmed Combat 30%.

ATTACKS: Bite 30%, damage 1D6 (see WORRY AND RIP).

SLAVE TO THE BLACK GOAT: The zombies created by MORRIGAN are submissive to its will, and GRENDEL's. Their master can see through their eyes, which only comes into effect when GRENDEL is in control. They act on their master's turn, and have access to the following abilities from MORRIGAN.

-Reality Warping: The SLAVES TO THE BLACK GOAT recieve MORRIGAN's grace. While MORRIGAN is alive, skill checks against zombies suffer a -20% penalty..

-Lord of the Wood: The SLAVES TO THE BLACK GOAT are eligible targets points of origin for MORRIGAN's LORD OF THE WOOD abilities

FEEDING: Each time a human or animal victim takes damage from a zombie’s bite, the zombie regains 1 lost HP as it devours flesh and blood.

ROTTING RESILIENCE: A zombie takes half HP damage from all non-hypergeometric attacks. A zombie reduced to 0 HP (for example, by a successful Lethality roll) may still not be fully destroyed, only so badly mauled that it no longer poses a threat.

STRIKING THE BRAIN: These zombies need their brain to “survive,” an Agent may make a called shot at a −20% penalty to hit the zombie’s decomposing head. If the called shot does more than 2 hp damage, it damages the brain

UNDEAD: Whatever animates a zombie’s dead flesh sustains it against rigors that would harm or kill the living. Cold, suffocation and radiation seem to do no lasting harm unless the zombie’s body is physically destroyed.

WORRY AND RIP: After succeeding with a bite attack, a zombie uses its action each turn to inflict 1D6 damage on the same target, without having to make another attack roll. If the bite pierced the victim’s armor, the “worry and rip” damage ignores armor. The victim can attempt an opposed STR test as his or her action each turn to break free.

CLUMSY: When GRENDEL dies, a zombie cannot defend itself against attacks. Even a successful attack roll by a zombie does not oppose any attacks against it. In fact, all attacks against a zombie are at +20%. (See SLAVE TO THE BLACK GOAT.)

SAN LOSS: 0/1

Credits

This was an entry to the 2019 Delta Green shotgun scenario contest, written by IDAS.