Ring of Steel

A PISCES scenario for Delta Green.

## The Hook:

London, 2016. Something is targeting Central London’s population of rough sleepers. A number have gone missing, others display inexplicable, violent changes in personality. An asset embedded in Social Services has alerted the Section to possible Unnatural activity.

## What is really going on:

The newly-elected Conservative government has outsourced the CCTV network to a suspicious tech startup who are using Big Data to create Digital Voodoo Dolls to edit and overwrite rough sleepers' personalities.

## Briefing:

**Fatima Akhtar** is a long-term PISCES asset, she is unaware of the Section’s history or of their complete role, but she knows that they are the people to call when the Unnatural is involved. She is efficient, stressed-out and extremely busy. She does not have time for more of this “weird shit” to interfere with her work. Fatima believes very strongly that her job is to help people, and if the Agents appear to be jeopardizing that she will take action.

She will be able to tell the Agents about two recent cases:

## The Victims:

**Muhammad Salim:** 48. Rough sleeper. Disappeared for 3 weeks. Found non-responsive under a street lamp, taken to A&E. Awoke speaking fluent Polish and appearing disoriented. Medicated and released into care in the community.

Muhammad can be found in a tent under a local overpass across from **The Winston Sugar Warehouse**, or begging outside of a local supermarket. If the Agents approach in an official capacity he will present as helpless and afraid, flinching as they get close. If they approach as private citizens he will be obsequiously deferential.

Muhammad will be able to tell the agents the following about the incident: he remembers a disturbing dream where he suddenly “felt like two people”, or “felt like someone was pushing me out of my head”. Persuade or psychotherapy at an appropriate level, or a successful skill check, will cause him to divulge that he can still speak Polish, and that he has confused memories of a family that’s not his own. Agents who have pushed him far enough to witness this breakdown must make a **SAN test for helplessness (0/1).**

Interviewing Muhammad’s regular contacts - shopkeepers, charity workers, police etc will reveal that he is much the same as he’s always been, albeit shaken.

**[Muhammad is a failed experiment at a personality overwrite]**

**Peter Butler:** 52. Homeless, frequented local hostels, did odd jobs and unskilled construction work. Found unconscious in a public bathroom. Awoke confused but functional. Released without further intervention.

Peter can be found either on **The Winston Sugar Warehouse** renovation site, or bedded down for the night in a local hostel. He presents as angry and confused. He will only insist that he just “had a funny turn” and he’s completely fine now. Persuade or psychotherapy at an appropriate level, or a successful skill check, will cause him to reveal that he felt a terrible pressure in his mind and started seeing double, but he “pushed back against it” and passed out.

Interviewing Peter’s contacts - employers, hostel staff etc will reveal subtle changes in his personality - he’s more driven and focused on his work, his employer is considering a promotion. One of his colleagues at the construction site tells a distressing story: Peter dropped a brick on his finger, obviously breaking it and just kept going, not seeming to notice the pain at all. **[the handler should describe this incident as gruesomely as is appropriate].**

**[Peter’s personality has been successfully edited]**

## The Winston Sugar Warehouse:

The Winston Sugar Warehouse is a 3 storey Victorian warehouse conversion just off Silicon Roundabout, it has recently been purchased by tech startup Envision. They’ve completed basic renovations and moved in a skeleton staff and servers, however the building’s facade is still being worked on and it is covered in scaffolding. This is where **Peter Butler** works.

The Warehouse has been fully converted into an office building. There are large, ornate glass doors at the front and a loading dock at the back of the building, it is a solid shutter door kept locked and covered by CCTV.. The offices are largely empty apart from the skeleton staff described in the **Envision** section. The rooms of interest are:

**Foyer (ground):** A marble-tiled, glass-fronted foyer with access control gates requiring fobs. There is a security desk manned by a contracted security guard. There are obvious security cameras.

**The Loading dock (ground):** There is parking for 3 or 4 vehicles and a single-vehicle shutter door, which is kept locked. There are obvious CCTV cameras.

**General Offices (first):** These are generic offices, currently unoccupied apart from the sysadmins. There are also bathrooms and a startup-style recreation area/canteen with beanbag chairs and a foosball table.

**Longbridge’s office (second):** There is an outer office where Longbridge’s PA can be found. Longbridge has designed his office to impress. A heavy mahogany desk dominates the room, with a bulging bookcase (containing his book) and panoramic windows also in evidence. Unusually, there is also a fingerprint-locked security door which provides access to the server room.

**Server room (second):** This takes up fully half of the second floor. It is accessed through a pair of heavy steel doors which require a fingerprint scan to unlock, or through Longbridge’s private access door. Inside there are several racks of very expensive servers, **Computer Science** will reveal that there is an unusually high amount of storage hardware, suggesting absolutely massive quantities of data being stored. The temperature is kept very low, and there are banks of ventilation equipment in the ceiling, clearly venting out onto the roof.

**[While in the vicinity of the warehouse, Agents with Alertness of 40% or more, or who make successful rolls will notice that the local CCTV cameras follow them, especially when talking to the two victims. This is very unusual for London CCTV cameras which are usually static].**

## Envision:

Simple research into Envision will reveal that they offer image processing and facial recognition algorithms, and are beginning to make headway in the social media space. They claim to be able to overcome the common issues that facial recognition software has with people of colour. Researchers will also discover that concerns have been raised by tech reporters about the incoming GDPR regulations and the way they aggregate data.

Envision’s Founder is **Michael Longbridge III**. Michael is the 26-year old scion of the rich American Longbridge family. He dropped out of Yale to found Envision.

Longbridge will not want to meet with the Agents, offering them appointment dates weeks in the future. Should they force a meeting he will claim ignorance and attempt to hide behind government confidentiality. If confronted with evidence of the Unnatural, or attacked he will fight back. If he is able to reach his desk he will attempt to use the Envision software to affect the Agents, if restrained or otherwise prevented from doing this he will summon his employees in the puppet state.

The rest of the staff consists of:

**System administrators: 2 day, 1 night.**

**Longbridge’s PA.**

**Front desk security.**

The Envision staff themselves are fanatically loyal to Longbridge and while being outwardly cooperative with Agents, will not say anything to incriminate him. **Humint** will reveal that they’re Unnaturally close-mouthed.

The front desk security staff are provided by an agency. They have only professional loyalty to the company, but know very little of use.

Deeper research with various skills will reveal the following:

**Accounting/Bureaucracy:** Envision’s Government contracts, they’ve been hired to modernise the CCTV network in Central London with their facial recognition technology and Shoreditch is their pilot area.

**Law/Computer Science:** further information on the GDPR concerns - researchers are deeply concerned about how Envision is building “complete models” of people based on an aggregation of face capture, social media, voter rolls, police records, credit histories and other data the handler feels is appropriate.

**Occult:** Longbridge dabbled in secret societies at Yale and is believed in some circles to have co-authored the obscure self-published text titled: **As Above, So Below**: **A Computational Implementation of the Ancient Laws of Sympathy.**

## Progression:

Longbridge will take steps to disrupt the investigation:

At an appropriate point during the investigation **Fatima Akhtar** will contact the Agents begging for urgent help. Either **Peter Butler** or **Muhammad Salim** is in the puppet state and is attempting to break her door down.

If the scenario drags on too long, **Fatima Akhtar** will be found unconscious near the Envision offices. The handler should inflict on her whichever of the personality edits feels most appropriate.

## Resolution:

The Agents must eliminate Envision. They can do this temporarily by destroying or sabotaging the Warehouse. They can do this permanently by eliminating Longbridge, but will need to make significant efforts to cover it up if they do.

Agents can also manufacture evidence of corruption and mismanagement and use that to bring down the company.. I would recommend having them defend a Section Lawyer and his witnesses as Longbridge acts to disrupt the case. The specifics of this are out of scope of this document.

## Stat blocks:

All stats 10 unless stated otherwise.

**Fatima Akhtar:** Social worker and PISCES asset.

**INT: 14**

**Skills: Bureaucracy, HUMINT, Persuade, Psychotherapy: 60%, Unnatural 2%**

**SAN: 50**

**Muhammad Salim:** Rough sleeper and failed personality overwrite experiment.

**Polish: 60%**

**Peter Butler:** Construction worker with an edited personality.

**STR: 14**

**CON: 14**

**Characters in the Puppet State:**

**STR: 18**

Agents witnessing the behaviour of puppets must make a **SAN test (1/1d4) or (1d4/1d6)** if witnessing them destroying their bodies to achieve an objective.

**Michael Longbridge III:** Computational Sorcerer.

**INT: 16**

**CHA: 14**

**SAN: 25**

**Disorders: Megalomania, Addiction (Hypergeometry)**

**Computer Science, Craft(Microelectronics): 80%**

**Unnatural: 15%**

With access to his laptop, office computer, or the servers at Envision Michael can activate one of the following effects:

**Stasis:** The subject must make an **opposed POWx5 test vs 50%. +20% if prepared.** Subjects who fail fall catatonic and are vulnerable to the following effects: The subject may make **opposed WPx5 tests vs 50%** every combat round, or at appropriate intervals if out of combat to attempt to break free. However each failure drains **1d4 WP** and the subject must then use the new value for the test.

**Personality Edit:**

**Immediate change (trigger a disorder, intensify existing feelings or traits):** Seconds, one combat round.

**Intermediate change (alter a belief, increase loyalty):** Hours.

**Prepare for puppet state (subject becomes a pain-immune zombie):** Hours

**Significant change (alter a core belief, change a major personality trait):** Days.

**Personality Overwrite:** Replace the subject’s personality with someone else’s. This takes weeks.

## Tome: As Above, So Below: A Computational Implementation of the Ancient Laws of Sympathy.

**Language:** English.

**Study time:** days.

**Skim:** Hours.

**Skill gains:** Computer Science: 5%, Occult: 5%, Unnatural 2%

**SAN Loss:** 1d4

**Rituals:** Fascination, Infallible Suggestion.

This book details Longbridge and his collaborator’s theories on the laws of Sympathy, and their intersection with big data. It theorises that a sufficiently-complete collection of data on a subject is sufficiently similar to the subject that it can be used as a “Digital Voodoo Doll” in order to affect changes upon the subject.

## Credits

Ring of Steel was written by Fuzzy 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 © Fuzzy, excepting those elements that are components of the Delta Green intellectual property.

Ring of Steel is not available here under CC-BY-SA.