Operation: MPET

## Hook

A video message was sent to a Maine congressional delegate from their son, Joseph McKinnon one day prior at the McKinnon family cabin. The Program intercepted the message due to the keyword “**Nodens**” being uttered. McKinnon continues to speak, but translators have only been able to identify it as Old Norse while being unable to translate it yet. McKinnon has had no history of learning Old Norse. McKinnon’s parent has waffled in their support of the Program in the past, and their cabin in unincorporated Maine would have some dirt they could use against McKinnon’s parent, as well as saving their son.

## Set up

Everyone gathers at Millinocket Municipal Airport around noon early January. The temperature is -10°F/-23°C and slowly dropping. Forecast has a stormfront moving in late tomorrow. Agents are given winter hiking gear, a first aid kit, two vehicles with All Wheel Drive and GPS coordinates to the nearest park point for the trail to the cabin. Directions show a two hour drive with road conditions to the park point. Upon arrival there are three large sized SUV’s, two with trailers that are covered with snowfall at the entrance to the hiking trail.

## Where it goes wrong

The storm moves in sooner than expected, and temperatures begin to drop rapidly as snow begins to heavily fall. The snowmobiles at the cabin were sabotaged by McKinnon after he picked up the axe. Any character with a **Survival** of 20% or higher has chopped wood before and can use the axe as such.

## Cabin in the Woods

An hour-long hike takes at least two hours to make it to the cabin due to uneven terrain and heavy snowfall making hiking progress slow. **1d4 Willpower lost each**. Smell of lingering burned trash is what the players first detect before they see the cabin. The cabin itself is made of timber with a stone foundation, it has only one floor but stands roughly fifteen to twenty feet/five to seven meters tall. No lights appear to be on and no sounds can be heard from the cabin or the surroundings.

The cabin has a four foot tall wooden fence surrounding it with a large double gate opening out onto the trail. The yard has six snowmobiles parked close to the front door in disarray. There’s a collection of long logs in the corner of the yard with a stump that has a one-handed axe with an old leather handle embedded in it.

### Entryway

The entryway is spacious, but cluttered as suitcases, food and winter gear litter the floor. Air blows through from further in, and the smell of burning wood and garbage is detected. A large fireplace appears to have logs, but the fire has gone out, and there is enough fuel by the fireplace to last a couple hours at best. Two bodies are found frozen solid with numerous wounds on them **SAN 0/1d4 Violence**.
A GoPro has just enough battery life to watch the last recording, in which eight people mount up on snowmobiles and head on the trail toward the nearest mountain. One falls in a hole while going to the bathroom, and finds a cave filled with bones. Shouts can be heard “Get him out of here!” and “Oh god what is happening?” The camera dies shortly after.

### First Room

First door in the hallway opens to a bedroom where frozen and shredded bloodsoaked blankets cocoon a frozen body with injuries similar to the others. **SAN 0/1D4 Violence**.

### Second Room

The second door opens into a gust of cold wind as the smell of burnt hair, plastic, and wood wafts out. A hole burnt through the wall originates where the bed should be, and all that can be seen is bones and ash left. **SAN 0/1D4 Helplessness.**

### Third Room

The last room at the end of the hall is the largest. Signs of a struggle can be seen all around here, but three frozen bodies can be seen with similar matching wounds. **SAN 0/1D4 Violence.**

**The axe: The axe is the triggering event of the scenario. If any player grabs the axe, SAN check 1d4/1d10. The player goes catatonic for a moment as a vision of fur and leather clad grim people fled their home on a wooden boat due to deadly cold. Many days go by, more die on the journey, they find land untouched by frost until it begins to snow. The leader cries to the heavens and is answered by a lightning strike in a snowstorm. In the crater is the axe. The leader picks it up and looks in horror at his people before leading them to a cave in the mountain. He looks sad but determined as he steps from the mouth of the cave letting the “cold” in, and when it is entirely in the cave and his people are nearly frozen to death he begins to swing the axe.**

***When the axe is grabbed, there is the sound of popping and snapping as the bodies in the cabin explode from the inside out. SAN 1/1d6***

***Only the axe wielder can now see what causes the deadly cold, an icy white bloated segmented leech (SAN 1/1d6 one time) attaches itself to people and radiates it. They are unaffected by the deadly chill, they cannot let go of the axe, and when they speak it comes out only in Old Norse. The leeches die when the axe hits them.***

***Each player has three leeches attach to them, which accelerates the cold listed below. They cannot be pried off.***

***For every fifteen minutes the leeches are present on the players they lose 1d4 WP.***

***-After 25% WP lost, players begin to shiver.***

***-After 50% WP lost, players stop shivering but must make INT X3 checks to be able to make skill checks. CON X3 checks or suffer 1d4 damage as frostbite sets in.***

***-After 75% WP lost, players fall unconscious regardless of their remaining Willpower. CON at Base or suffer 1d6 damage as frostbite worsens.***

***-100% WP lost the players are dead.***

### How it ends

It ends with either the players killing the axe wielder, or the axe wielder killing all of the leeches. If the axe wielder kills the leeches their body is absorbed into the axe and long hands of shadow can be seen holding the bodies attacked by the leeches. If the axe wielder is killed and the axe is picked up, the cycle begins again with leeches erupting from the bodies of those that were touched.

## Credits

Operation: MPET was written by Tyler F for the 2022  Shotgun Scenario contest. Source: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1q2F3gHkyWSbSWc2cptveF96YqMMBdn3BNBMlKKVH0qw/edit.

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

Operation: MPET is not available here under CC-BY-SA.

For preservation purposes, an exported PDF of the original submission can be found here.