Operation BOLD MARINER

## Hook

“Drop what you’re doing, get your go bag, and go to the disused East wing of the Saint George’s hospital. There’s a storage room in the basement where we’ve been keeping some things. And the burglar alarm just went off. My local contact isn’t answering his phone either.” Probably because his ritually mutilated body is inside the ransacked Box.

## What’s Really Going On

Agent Renko and his acquisitive colleagues have jacked the more significant contents of the Green Box, after surveilling the Outlaws in Cell L. Frank Jonah was the local Friendly, an ex-cop and head of security at the hospital where the Box was kept. He made his way to the site immediately. He interrupted the Russians and was efficiently disposed of. When Cell L next responded, they found the body and used Hypergeometry to interrogate his spirit. Now they’re hunting the Russians.

The Case Officer knows of Cell L, and has tacitly allowed them to keep using the Green Box. They don’t know that Agent Lowell, aging veteran OG Cowboy badass, transferred his consciousness into his grand-niece by the usual horrible magical means and is now walking around as Agent Lisa. Since “transferring” five years ago, Lisa has acted as the intermediary with A Cell. They in turn believe they’re still talking to a Lowell who faked his own death. When it comes to Fighting the Good Fight, he’ll do whatever it takes. Or she will, now.

## Green Box

The former pharmacy storage is labelled “LOOSE ASBESTOS - DO NOT ENTER”, and was also solidly locked. Renko’s team easily broke in, but they didn’t spot a silent motion sensor, wired to power and phone lines. It was set up years ago by the Case Officer, although Jonah had also taught Cell L how to deactivate it on entering.

There’s not much left there now, but a few flavourful items without value were left behind.

Jonah’s body has been ritually mutilated, with various unknown runic markings carved into the skin, and has been positioned in the centre of a very Hollywood magic circle. There are also two small calibre bullet holes, chest and throat. Forensics or Medicine let the Agents learn the mutilation happened post-mortem, Occult or Unnatural that the markings are intended to help summon the soul of the deceased. A bodybag is tucked out of the way and the Box has been dusted for fingerprints already by Lachlan.

The Russians also trashed the security office and its server in the hospital. The hospital CCTV is currently not working and the police are keen to find Jonah.

The Case Officer expects the Agents to sanitize and clear out the Box. Smart Agents will realise there are medical incinerators nearby...

## Progression

The Agents will likely want to find out who’s responsible. Possible clues/leads:

* A night shift orderly saw the CCTV centre vandalism and heard Russian accents.
* The Agents might flip their own Case Officer to learn about L Cell. The Case Officer knew Agent Lowell, but not Lisa or most of the current L Cell, and turned a blind eye to their use of the Box.
* A witness saw a rental truck being loaded at the hospital. The hospital car park systems recorded the number plate. The rental agency can give Max’s ID.
* Loftstein missed a bloody fingerprint while sanitizing L Cell’s trace at the scene. He’s in various Federal databases.
* The Russians took Jonah’s smartphone, hoping for more leads to other caches.

Or they can wait until L Cell finds the Russians and the firefight draws attention.

## Unsafehouse

The Russians hole up in a rented townhouse not far from the harbour until their smuggling connection can get them and their haul out. Use another transport hub if you’re setting the scenario in a landlocked city. When Cell L comes knocking, they come with flashbangs, kevlar, and shotguns and the Russians are outgunned. Fortunately for Renko’s team, Cell L wants answers as well as blood and is taking prisoners today.

The three basic options are:

1. Agents get there first, like the Sherlocks they are. They can attack the townhouse, but then L Cell shows up. If either group make the Agents, they’ll spook and run.
2. L Cell shows up, and has almost finished pacifying the Russians when the Agents arrive.
3. Your Agents got distracted trying to prove it was all Deep Ones all along, and miss the party. Hopefully you can steer them to L Cell, who will be interrogating any captured Russians at their “black site” in a derelict wharf.

## Resolution

My initial playtest group followed the cell phone’s location to the block with the townhouse, only to run into Loftstein who was doing the same. Each made the other, and the Agents called local PD on Loftestein, who flashed his badge. At that point a Federal Agent PC engaged him in conversation and established they were both “friends of Johnny Green”. Meanwhile the sirens had spooked the Russians who headed to airport long term parking where they’d stashed the rental van full of loot.  L-Cell pulled back, content to let the PCs pursue. A car chase ensued until the Russians crashed the van, and the Agents split up to hurriedly offload the stolen Green Box contents and pursue the Russians. The first succeeded, the second did not.

This is a Scenario with only human monsters. Hopefully players will not be disappointed by this.

## Russians

Renko: per The Labyrinth. Handler’s call if he miraculously escapes the Safehouse shoot up to be used later or is captured too.

David Kuznetsov: FSB trained black bag man. He’s nervous around firearms, which he regards as a sure sign the mission has gone wrong.

Max Lebedev: He’s got the soul of a thug, the body of a gymnast, and the face of a male model. Despite his perfect cheekbones and winning smile, he’s mostly along for operational security.

Arina “Lebedev”: Not actually the other Lebedev’s sister, but adding a woman to such a large group of agents helps them stand out less. She’s an SV-8 agent who conceals how much art history and occult training she’s been given, here to check Renko’s operation. Has *Fascination*, and anything else fun.

## Cell L

Agent Lisa/Lowell: A grizzled Korea and Vietnam veteran, CIA spook, Delta Green Outlaw and Cowboy in the body of a co-ed. Lowell regrets that he had to use his grand-niece like this, but he couldn’t face stopping his work as his body failed him and the spell requires as close a relative as possible. He used the “Waite Method” of mind transfer to take over her young body, which he learned from a book captured in the Innsmouth raid, lost in P-Division archives and rediscovered by him in the 1970s.

Lisa dresses and acts much older and more competently than her frame suggests. Play up her Hitgirl-meets-Hannah “hardened pixie dream operator” character until characters earn the reveal of Lowell’s possession. She now lives for the mission, and in some ways views her new body as the ultimate cover. L Cell have been somewhat local and inactive since before the transfer, partly because of Lowell’s physical decline but also because “Lowell” increasingly refuses to coordinate with A Cell.

She used a variant on the “Waite Method” to pull Frank Jonah’s spirit into her body for interrogation in the Box.

Agent Loftstein: An ICE agent who’s normal work is in routine transfers of deportees, they don’t know the Program exists. Like the others, they believe Lowell trained Lisa to take over before his death.

Agent Louie: The most physically imposing of L Cell, they work as a US Marshall based out of the city. Their paranoia is clinical, and they’ll be suspicious anyone from the Program is here to take them in.

Agent Lachlan: An IT forensic analyst for the local police, they’re used to Lisa assuming they have impossible TV show superpowers when it comes to computers or science, and they revel in proving her right. They’re a little in love with her.

## Credits

Operation BOLD MARINER was written by PeterfromSurrey for the 2020  shotgun scenario contest.

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 © PeterfromSurrey, excepting those elements that are components of the Delta Green intellectual property.

Operation BOLD MARINER is not available here under CC-BY-SA.