Operation BUSCEMI SKATEBOARD

## SUMMARY

Lydia Mundegarde has been in foster care since her parents went to Federal Prison for drug crimes. It gave her a thick skin. It didn’t prepare her for what’s happening now. She’s getting into fights for no reason. She’s sick all the time. Her foster mom tells her it’s just growing pains.

Lydia comes from a cursed lineage. Her people forged a covenant with a God in ancient times. In exchange for sacrifices, they gained magnificent powers. Today, the God is dead, but the cult’s descendents don’t know that. As far as they know, they still owe it.

Fresh out of prison, Lydia’s birth parents are here to help. Harris and Rita Mundegarde are grooming their daughter. They know the old ways, rites of blood and terror their parents taught them to placate God. They’ve taught Lydia rituals to help her control the people around her. They’re coaching her through her first sacrifice. They earnestly believe she’ll die if she doesn’t listen.

Lydia has entranced School Resource Officer Eric Patton, the best source of protection she could find. He’s helping her commit the crimes her birth parents demand. He also knocked her up.

## THE BRIEFING

Occult symbols from ritual murders in two Federal Prisons have appeared at Redwood High School, Minnesota. Evaluate the threat and prevent a repeat incident.

We can provide cover for several ingress methods: social worker, substitute teacher, FBI Junior Special Agent community outreach, or even student, if you can pass for one.

### THE SYMBOL

The symbol is from a student’s social media photo of graffiti in the girls’ bathroom: a split eye.

### THE PRISON MURDERS

The unsolved murders occurred in Stillwater and Shakopee. In both, the victim’s eyes were removed. A split eye was scrawled at the scene. Investigators wrote the killings off as gang related, though in Shakopee they briefly suspected a guard. Prison staff recall violent incidents were on the rise the month before the killings. The eye appeared as graffiti around the same time.

## REDWOOD HIGH

A high school in the rough part of town, though its AP program attracts wealthy students from better neighborhoods. The building is a handsome old structure, under renovation to securitize it against school shooters.

### THE STUDENTS

Leon the Jock is inexplicably terrified of Lydia, ever since he slipped in the gym shower and hit his head. He has nightmares about her watching him with split eyes, as a faceless man breaks his bones.

Sandy the Nerd is Lydia’s only friend, a doormat so starved for friendship that she weathers Lydia’s abuse. Lydia told her about the Drinking Eye once, while they ate lunch in the art room.

Lawrence the Stoner saw Lydia leaving the men’s room as he was going in. Inside, Officer Patton was helping a kid who’d caught a serious beating. There was a split eye drawn on the wall.

Jenifer the Mean Girl was minding her business when Lydia hit her for no reason. She hit back and had the “pyscho bitch” on the ropes. Next thing she knew, she was nursing a black eye, Lydia nowhere to be found. She’s now circulating a rumor that Lydia’s a lesbian, fucking “that dyke janitor”.

Lyle the Weeb told told his friends he saw Lydia and Officer Patton fucking under the bleachers. This rumor has not spread because the weebs rarely talk with anyone else.

### THE STAFF

Principal McGilp is cheerful, close to retirement, and terrified of being fired. Principals aren’t union, he could be downsized for test scores, too many suspensions, or any other reason. He gratefully accepts any help Agents offer with the school’s violence problem, provided they keep quiet.

Mr. Daniel “Call me Dan” Nicholas, the well-meaning and presumptuous counselor, has had Lydia in his office multiple times for fighting. His early notes speculate someone is abusing her. The later ones are just the words “DRINKING EYE?” and blank pages. He doesn’t remember this.

Officer Patton is the School Resource Office. If asked about the split eye graffiti, he says it’s gang related. He hasn’t reported it because more police around the school will make things worse. The last thing vulnerable children need is to be labelled security risks by the criminal justice system. At one point during the conversation he slips up, calling the symbol the “Drinking Eye”.

Nurse Lanh is treating more students for increasingly serious injuries. She doesn’t buy Patton’s gang violence story. Someone is stalking students, probably an adult. She’s the only one who knows Lydia is pregnant.

Mr. Mundegarde is the new substitute teacher, with a rough, roguish charm that helps him keep order in class. The school didn’t do a background check, he just got out of Stillwater. If you look carefully, you can spot his tattoos.

Rita is the new custodian. A tough, weathered woman who enjoys leering at students, unzipping her boiler suit to flaunt tattoos and scars underneath. The school didn’t do a background check, she just got out of Shakopee.

## RESEARCH

Agents with Anthropology or Archaeology can research the split eye symbol. “New Religious Movements of the Third Great Awakening” mentions that the Face of Christ Movement painted it on the barn where they sacrificed animals (and supposedly people) to receive the Lord’s wisdom. The cult broke up when they found they could no longer hear the Savior’s voice.

With the name “Drinking Eye”, Agents can find more. The Orne Collection at Miskatonic has a copy of the widely censored “My Year With the Drinking Eye”, which Head Librarian Melissa Redding can scan and send. It chronicles a dilettante’s descent into depravity with a mystery cult, which taught him to commune with the Eye. It granted power and knowledge in exchange for increasingly costly sacrifices. The book teaches a ritual.

### GAZE UPON THE DRINKING EYE

Complex Ritual. D4 SAN to learn, 1 SAN and D4 WP to activate

According to the text, this meditative spell should bring the operator into the Drinking Eye’s baleful gaze, allowing them to bargain arcane knowledge and power for hideous ritual offerings. When actually cast, it does nothing. The user’s mind is plugged into a howling emptiness, like a cosmic dial tone.

## PROGRESSION

Lydia surreptitiously meets with her parents and Officer Patton during the school day, and the evenings after. Her parents to receive instructions, Patton to give them.

Patton is hunting kids for Lydia. He catches them alone, in bathrooms or blind corners, and attacks them. Lydia draws the split eye and casts Obscure Memory so the victim can’t identify the perpetrator. Patton uses police training to remove evidence that it was him.

The first attacks are kid stuff. Patton uses his fists and feet, raising bruises. Later he escalates to broken bones. Then superficial cuts with switchblade. Then not superficial ones. Finally a murder, the victim’s eyes removed.

When the damage gets too severe to cover up, Patton takes charge of the police investigation. He speculates the eye is a gang sign. When he kills a kid, he plants the murder weapon on a student.

Agents undercover as students who pester Lydia become targets of opportunity, if Patton can catch them alone. Agents undercover as staff may be framed.

Lydia can’t hide her pregnancy from her parents. When they learn a nonbeliever knocked her up, they offer him a chance to convert or die. A committed Christian, Patton’s faith is sorely tested. He ultimately relents, letting a piece of his soul go. This is a good time for Agents to push him to come clean.

Lydia’s parents can be convinced their God is dead. If Agents teach them the ritual to “contact” the Eye, they realize nobody’s going to hurt their daughter if she doesn’t kill people. The revelation almost destroys them. They keep it together, for their daughter. They tell her she can stop.

## NPCS

### LYDIA MUNDEGARDE - Ill Fated Foster Kid

**STR** 8, **CON** 11, **DEX** 12, **INT** 11, **POW** 12, **CHA** 11

**HP** 10, **WP** 11, **SAN** 40, Intermittent Explosive Disorder

**SKILLS**: Alertness 40%, Athletics 40%, Criminology 20%, Occult 30%, Stealth 40%, Unnatural 5%

**ATTACKS**: Unarmed Combat (40%, D4-1)

Concealed Pocket Knife (30%, D4, 3 AP)

**RITUALS**: Fascinate, Obscure Memory

**BLOOD TIES**: Lydia can activate rituals using her parents’ WP. This gives her 18 extra points for a total of 30 to spend.

Lydia’s irritable, easily provoked, hurts all the time, and regularly visits the bathroom to cry or puke. Normal signs of puberty, or abuse. She lashes out for no reason, striking without warning. She fights dirty and she fights to win. In a losing battle, she stuns her target with Fascinate and runs away. She’s not a popular kid. She spends a lot of time alone with the substitute teacher, janitor, or school resource officer. She’s pregnant, but not visibly so.

Lydia’s not a true believer. She sacrifices to the Drinking Eye because her parents say it will make the pain stop.

### HARRIS AND RITA MUNDEGARDE - Ex Cons and Cultists

**STR** 13, **CON** 12, **DEX** 11, **INT** 12, **POW** 9, **CHA** 7

**HP** 13, **WP** 9, **SAN** 30, OCD (Harris), Ligyrophobia (Rita), Adapted to Helplessness and Violence

**SKILLS**: Alertness 50%, Athletics 50%, Criminology 60%, Dodge 40%, Drive 50%, Firearms 40%, Foreign Language (Cambodian) 40%, Law 40%, Melee Weapons 40%, Occult 50%, Persuade 50%, Pharmacy 40%, Stealth 50%, Unarmed Combat 50%, Unnatural 15%

**ATTACKS**: Brass Knuckles (50%, D4+1)

Big Knife (40%, D6+1, 3 AP)

**RITUALS**: Fascinate, Obscure Memory, Soothing Song

Harris and Rita’s sanity is compromised from childhood abuse, hypergeometric ritual sacrifice, and a stretch in Federal prison. They use Soothing Song to suppress disorders and appear normal. They wear long sleeves to conceal scars and tattoos. Anthropology or Archaeology recognizes these as a sign of ownership. The wearer belongs to God - represented by a split eye.

They don’t want things to be this way. They’ve seen how normal people live, and wish Lydia could have that. But if they don’t teach her the rites, the Eye will punish her.

### ERIC PATTON - School Resource Officer and Pervert

**STR** 13, **CON** 12, **DEX** 11, **INT** 11, **POW** 10, **CHA** 12

**HP** 13, **WP** 10, **SAN** 43

**SKILLS**: Alertness 60%, Bureaucracy 40%, Criminology 40%, Drive 50%, Firearms 40%, First Aid 30%, Forensics 50%, HUMINT 50%, Law 30%, Melee Weapons 50%, Navigate 40%, Persuade 50%, Search 40%, Unarmed Combat 60%

**ARMOR**: 3 points of Kevlar

**ATTACKS**: Unarmed (60%, D4 or pin/disarm)

Baton (50%, D4)

Pepper Spray (55%, Skill Penalty)

Taser (55%, Stun)

Service Pistol (40%, D10)

Eric Patton is good at his job, good with kids. He’s also fucking one. He’s a weak willed man. Sex with a teenager is one of the few things police definitely go to prison for. Lydia uses this as blackmail when she wants him to do something horrible. He knows she’s scared that something worse will happen to her if he doesn’t. He doesn’t know she’s pregnant.

## Credits

Operation BUSCEMI SKATEBOARD was written by David Tormsen and mellonbread for the 2019  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 © David Tormsen and mellonbread, excepting those elements that are components of the Delta Green intellectual property.

Operation BUSCEMI SKATEBOARD is not available here under CC-BY-SA.