Full Scale

## Overview

GRU SV-8 must contend with an Unnatural incarnation of a dangerous street drug.

## Prologue

Saint Petersburg rots. A blight infects the city, worse than any disease: *krokodil*, a street variant of the painkiller desomorphine.

Compared to morphine, desomorphine is 8 times more effective and addictive. In the late 90s, Russian gangsters found that the drug could be cheaply synthesized by combining ubiquitous over-the-counter codeine with gasoline, red phosphorus, and hydrochloric acid. This new, impure desomorphine causes tissue necrosis when injected. The greenish, scaly appearance of decomposing skin inspired its street name: *krokodil*.

*Krokodil* use peaked in 2011 at an estimated million users, prompting the Russian government to ban codeine and begin a crackdown. Russian media reported that the anti-*krokodil* campaign was a success, but the reality is more complicated. With codeine outlawed, *krokodil* manufacturing now lies in the hands of the *mafiyas* that can smuggle its precursors past authorities. Russia’s harsh drug policies are punitive, not rehabilitative, and in effect *krokodil* and its countless addicts have merely been pushed further underground.

## Briefing

Over the last few weeks, violent incidents involving “junkies” have rocked St. Petersburg. These spree crimes usually take the form of the addict murdering a friend or neighbor in explosive rage. In all cases, the addict has gone on to fearlessly attack the responding police and been killed.

Two details have been covered up by the police, and it is these that have attracted the attention of GRU SV-8. Firstly, each “incident” has involved cannibalism. Secondly, each “addict” absorbed police firepower beyond what the *krokodil* should numb, still continuing to attack after the dismantling of limbs or obliteration of vital organs. Only a headshot seems to put an “addict” down for good. The Saint Petersburg Police have already started murmuring the “Z-word” in private, a superstition reinforced by *krokodil’s* “zombie drug” notoriety.

## Keeper’s Information

Following the death of Joseph Stalin in 1946, Delta Green launched Operation SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS. A commando raid destroyed the laboratory in which former Karotechia scientist Erwin Peis planned to resurrect Stalin as an immortal undead dictator. Delta Green were secretly supported by GRU SV-8, as part of an ongoing feud with rival agency Smersh.

To the chagrin of both agencies, Erwin Peis did not work alone. His methods were the culmination of years of collaboration on the Nazi “resuscitated casualties” project derived from the studies of Dr. Herbert West. The resuscitated casualties, or *poyavlyatsya* in Russian, were rudimentary flesh-eating “slow zombies,” usable only as terror troops. Doktor Peis made no serious breakthroughs on advanced undead until Smersh extracted him to Russia and merged his studies with their data on another immortal necrophage: ghouls. At the height of his research in 1946, Peis had dozens of disciples, both German and Russian, building a better zombie.

Recently, a 4-man “brigade” of the *Grekov Mafiya* discovered the laboratory of one such disciple, following tips from local *gopniki* about a stash of chemistry equipment. They found a facility capable of producing pharmaceuticals on an industrial scale. The mishmash of Nazi, Soviet, and occult iconography on the equipment did give the more superstitious among the *vory* pause, but nihilistic bravado was sufficient reason to bring in a chemist and start cooking.

For three months, the laboratory has been outputting a steady stream of *krokodil* to St. Petersburg’s gangs. What the vory don’t know is that the tainted cookware of the lab has infused their product with the 1946 *poyavlyatsya* serum, causing deceased users to rise again as undead terrors. As the lifespan of a *krokodil* user is about 1 to 2 years, this zombie outbreak is only the tip of the iceberg. Everyone who dies under the influence of the “**zombi-k**” is a dormant disaster.

Even if the *vory* did know the details, they wouldn’t care. Money is money.

## Getting Started

The Agents are a task group organized by GRU SV-8.

The investigation could begin with the Agents intercepting a “*krokodil* addict” (really a **K-Zombi**) on a bust, or with the Agents sitting in on an autopsy-cum-vivisection. In either case, the zombie is disturbingly cognizant, at least enough to plead for painkillers in between attempts to bite for the jugular. The zombie can vocally indicate or be carrying a message about the “party house,” a gang hideout.

## The Party House

The “party house” is a *Khruschoba*, a cramped 5-story prefab built in the 1960s and intended to last for only 25 years. The upper three stories are barren and crumbling, whereas the first two show signs of habitation. Downbeat electronic dance music thrums from the center of the building, rattling windows and railings. The doors are barred from the inside and must be bashed open.

The situation is obviously fucked when the Agents arrive. A half-eaten gangster is splayed across the lobby, his blood rippling to the thump of the music. Though all *Khruschoba* were built on templates, this one is labyrinthine. The occupying gang demolished and re-erected the standardized walls as it suited them, creating double-backs, murder holes, and large spaces including a dormitory and armory. The Handler should play up the lurid nature of the *Khruschoba*. It is filled with drug and sex trade paraphernalia.

A small cohort of **K-Zombis** roam the halls, around twice as many as the Agents. They only attack piecemeal as the Agents traverse the building. Use these encounters to play up the claustrophobia of the *Khruschoba* and the tortured existence of the zombies, not to kill the Agents.

Two locations bear special interest. One is the dance floor at the center of the building, still blasting EDM. This was the epicenter of an ill-fated *krokodil* party. After a few youths overdosed and transformed into **K-Zombis**, they began to murder other users, causing a rapid chain reaction that turned the entire party into undead monstrosities. The dance floor is slick with fresh blood and chunks of *gopnik*. A few zombies that are too damaged to fight writhe spasmodically in the strobe lights.

The second location is the drug lab, where the gang held out but were overwhelmed. This repurposed public bath is filled with *gopnik* and zombie corpses. A half-dozen zombies are in fighting shape, but are currently preoccupied with shooting up the contents of the lab. They will not attack the Agents unless aggravated.

This lab is not the primary source of the *krokodil*. There is no serious chemistry equipment, just a pantry full of common kitchen powders to cut the drug. A pair of ammo boxes filled with “pure” **zombi-k** can be traced to an abandoned military laboratory outside the city.

## The Lab

On the outside, the lab is a moldering aviation warehouse. Two concrete staircases descend into a sprawling underground chemical factory. Most of the factory is abandoned and lightless, with the vory only controlling a small portion with a generator, floodlights, and ventilation units. This is the *krokodil* cookhouse, where the chemist **Anton Chernov** produces the necromantic narcotic. The ***vory*** are heavily armed and busy pillaging the factory for scrap, but they’ve left a guard in the cookhouse: an immense postwar-era zombie they found in a tube and nicknamed *Cобака*: “**Dog**.” Unbeknownst to them, Dog is not mindless and is conspiring with Chernov to escape.

## Resolution

The lab is an affront to humanity. Common decency insists that it be destroyed. However, “common decency” is no longer SV-8’s pursuit. SV-8’s opportunistic commander, Colonel Vladimir Arbatov, will almost certainly want to “rediscover” the *poyavlyatsya* formula for the benefit of Russia’s oligarchs. If the Agents don’t like the idea of immortal cannibal oligarchs, then they’ll need to bury the lab from their own *organizatsya*.

## Statistics

**Zombi-K (Poison)**

**Entry Route** Injection

**Speed** 2d6 Turns

Lethality 5%

**Symptoms:** Nausea, Numbness, Sedation

**Antidote?** No

**Additional Effects:** The user does not take dice penalties related to suffering physical pain. The user must make a successful **LUCK** roll when injecting the drug or be exposed to **Gangrene** (*Delta Green: Agent’s Handbook p.61*). All users who die within a week of injecting the drug reanimate in 2d6 rounds as a **K-Zombi**.

### K-Zombis

These unfortunates are created when a user of Zombi-K dies under the influence. The intelligence they retain varies, but their unholy cravings for both drugs and flesh drive them violently insane.

***K-ZOMBI***

**STR 15**, **CON** 15, **DEX** 10,

**INT** 1d4, **POW** 1, **CHA** 1

**HP** 15, **WP** 1

**ARMOR**: See **ROTTING RESILIENCE**

**SKILLS**: Alertness 30%, Melee Weapons 40%, Unarmed Combat 40%

**ATTACKS**: Bite 40%, damage 1D4+1 (see WORRY AND RIP)

Improvised Melee Weapon 40% (damage 1d4+1 for small blades, 1d6+1 for large knives or clubs, 1d8+1 for large blades or bludgeons)

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

**FILTHY BITE**: The K-Zombi’s immune system was compromised by *krokodil* as a human, and its rotting body is a cesspool of bacteria. Each time it deals damage from a bite, the victim must roll a successful **LUCK** or contract **Gangrene** (*Delta Green: Agent’s Handbook p.61*)

**RAGING ADDICTION**: K-Zombis retain enough intelligence after reanimation that they recall their burning addiction to *krokodil* and all the impulses associated with it. Though the pain and relief they feel is entirely psychosomatic, they still prioritize the drug over human flesh. When given painkillers, either injected or ingested, they instinctively consume the drug, placated for the duration of a phantom “high.”

**ROTTING RESILIENCE**: A Lethality roll automatically fails against a zombie, even an explosion; the only exception is a hypergeometric attack. A zombie takes half HP damage from all failed Lethality rolls, rounded up (so, a gunshot that rolls 7 damage would inflict 4 damage). A zombie reduced to 0 HP is not fully dead, only so badly mauled that it no longer poses a threat. The head retains animation if severed.

**STRIKING THE BRAIN**: The *krokodil*-addled brain is the control center of the K-Zombie. An Agent may make a Called Shot at a −20% penalty to hit the zombie’s head. If the Called Shot does more than 2 HP damage, it damages the brain and destroys the zombie.

**UNDEAD**: The K-Zombie is preserved against rigors that would harm or kill the living. Cold, suffocation, radiation, all 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 1D4+1 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.

**SAN LOSS**: 0/1D6.

### Vor

These are the four hardened gangsters that occupy the laboratory. Their motivations are unimportant; all are sadistic, effective killers.

***VORY V ZAKONE***

**STR** 16 **CON** 16 **DEX** 10

**INT** 10 **POW** 10 **CHA** 08

**HP** 16 **WP** 10 **SAN** 36 **Breaking Point** 32

**ARMOR**: Kevlar Vest (Armor 2)

**SKILLS**: Alertness 50%, Athletics 50%, Dodge 40%, Firearms 50%, Melee Combat 50%, Persuade 40%, Unarmed Combat 60%.

**DISORDERS AND ADAPTATIONS**:

Psychopathic

Sadistic

Adapted to Violence

**ATTACKS**: AKM 50% (Range 80m, Damage 1D12, Lethality 10%, Ammo 30, Armor Piercing 3)

Makarov 50%, (Range 20m, Damage 1D12, Ammo 6)

Combat Knife 50%, damage 1D6+1, Armor Piercing 3.

Unarmed 60%, damage 1D4.

### Dog

Dog is a large zombie created by Smersh from a captured scientist in 1945. Ever since the vory realized he couldn’t be killed when shot, they have tormented him like a fighting dog. He is covered in surface wounds, chained to the wall of the cookhouse, and wears a stylized muzzle. Though he maintains only a portion of his once-great intellect, it’s enough for him to appeal to Chernov to free him when he knows the vory aren’t listening. If he manages to escape, he won’t harm Chernov, but he will stalk the alleys of Saint Petersburg, devouring the homeless.

***DOG***

**STR** 16, **CON** 18, **DEX** 7,

**INT** 6, **POW** 8, **CHA** 4

**HP** 17, **WP** 8

**ARMOR**: See R**OTTING RESILIENCE**

**SKILLS**: Alertness 40%, Climb 40%, Firearms 30%, Persuade 30%, Melee Combat 50%, Science (Chemistry) 30%, Stealth 40%, Unarmed Combat 60%

**ATTACKS**: Bite 60%, damage 1D4+2 (see **WORRY AND RIP**)

**FEEDING**: As **K-Zombi**.

**ROTTING RESILIENCE**: As **K-Zombi**.

**STRIKING THE BRAIN**: As **K-Zombi**.

**UNDEAD**: As **K-Zombi**.

**WORRY AND RIP:** As **K-Zombi**, but 1d4+2 damage.

Dog does not possess **FILTHY BITE** and **RAGING ADDICTION**, as he is a *poyavlyatsya*, not a K-Zombi.

**SAN LOSS**: 0/1D6.

### The Chemist

Anton Chernov is a former chemistry professor from Chechnya who was trafficked out by the mafiya during the separatist conflicts. He is now desperate to escape their clutches. He has been conversing with the zombie leashed in his lab, “Dog,” and is weighing how much he trusts the Unnatural creature. If he feels he’s in danger, he will weaken Dog’s chains with hydrochloric acid so that the zombie can escape, then make for the surface.

***ANTON CHERNOV***

**STR** 8 **CON** 8 **DEX** 10

**INT** 17 **POW** 15 **CHA** 12

**HP** 8 **WP** 15 SAN 51 **Breaking Point** 48

**SKILLS**: Bureaucracy 50%, Computer Science 40%, Persuade 40%, Pharmacy 80%, Science (Chemistry) 70%, Stealth 40%, Unnatural 02%

**DISORDERS AND ADAPTATIONS**:

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Adapted to Helplessness

**ATTACKS**: Unarmed 40%, Damage 1D4-1

## Credits

Full Scale was written by Liam Allman for the 2018  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 © Liam Allman, excepting those elements that are components of the Delta Green intellectual property.

Full Scale is not available here under CC-BY-SA.