Eat, Pray, Love

## **The Truth**

A Y’Golonac worshipping sorcerer is turning people into ghouls via inadvertent cannibalism. The influx of new ghouls is brought to Delta Green’s attention by LYDIA, a ghoul who ate a retired agent (DG doesn’t know this) who occasionally provides actionable intelligence.

## **The Briefing**

LYDIA checks the Agents out disguised as a child and returns in adult form to lead them to the basement where she keeps her “kittens.” **HUMINT** realizes she has the exact same mannerisms as the child. She explains that “the treaty” forbids her kind from eating the living. She found these ones because they were being very sloppy and attacking people. Someone is making new ghouls and she wants it to stop. LYDIA is friendly but off-putting; give her a weird voice and an unidentifiable accent.

## **The “Kittens”**

LYDIA hasn’t fed them recently because *“They haven’t been behaving.”* Their minds are addled by hunger and a newfound taste for flesh**.** The original personalities favored the same McDonald’s, but their victims’ minds might surface and confuse things.

**Jacqueline Brooks:** Ate compulsively until LYDIA pulled her from a dumpster behind the McDonald’s. **Medicine** shows signs of eating non-consumables. New canines are fine.

**Ryan Reilley:** Worked the late shift at McDonald’s. Always had a burger and fries before heading to class because it was convenient.

**Thomas O'Saille:** Pudgy, worked at a translation firm as a baker on the catering staff. He went to the local McDonald’s during every break.

It costs 0/1D4 **SAN** from Unnatural to watch the Kittens try to use *Charnel Visage* as they switch between personalities and 0/1D4 **SAN** from Helplessness to realize you’re talking to cannibals.

### **Other Personalities**

* Dockhand: *“I’ve seen some weird shit under the docks, but this was different.”*
* Cheerleader: *“I could hear it following me. Where am I?”*
* Beat cop: *“She was crouched over him, just ripping away...I think she was eating him”*
* Sanitation worker: “*Looks like another dumpster diver’s been here.”*
* Uber driver: *“They just started growling after they got in.”*
* Homeless vet: *“Something came at me, like those things in the tunnels in ‘Nam.”*
* Assorted Feral Cats (only Thomas): “*MEOW!”*

LYDIA is hesitant to eat a wizard for clues, *“You never know what nasty shit’s in their heads.”*

## **The McDonald’s**

If the Agents eat the burgers, make secret **Alertness** rolls at -40% to see if they notice that the meat tastes strange, like greasy pork. The Agents can use **Alertness** or **Search** unpenalized if specifically looking for weird burgers. **Accounting** or **Bureaucracy** gets their records: they use the same meat supplier as all the other franchises. At night, Travis replaces some patties in the freezer with long pork from a cooler in his trunk. Players with the records can see the McDonalds is serving more patties than they should have, possibly laundering money.

Agents only turn into ghouls if they eat *lots* of the cursed burgers. However, if they’ve eaten *any*, LYDIA may offer to help them through their transformation. Mechanics for turning into a ghoul are outside the scope of this scenario and up to the Handler.

## **Who’s Travis?**

A 28 year old assistant manager at McDonalds and a bored and empty burnout ever since he dropped out of college. He seeks satisfaction in chasing the experiences he felt he missed as a teenager. He runs a nightly circuit around all the cheapest nightclubs and prostitutes in town, cramming as many acts of depravity as he can into a few hours. His coworkers didn’t notice and wouldn't even have cared. Travis was just the weird guy who only got promoted because he’d been there so long. For a while he felt full of life, but no one liked him in the clubs once the novelty wore off.

## **Investigating Travis**

Most of his coworkers don't give Travis a second thought. They just don't like him very much, *"It’s a shitty job, what do you expect?”* The female employees have more to say, *"Yeah, he's a creep and was always checking us out but that’s what you get in a fucking job like this.”* All this stopped a month ago, just after the murders started, Victoria, the only hire since, thinks Travis is just kinda quiet. The other women will confirm the harassment has since stopped.

A month ago, Travis found a pamphlet at a rave, “*Anything that would disgust these freaks is my scene*.” Fellow ravers said the author was a complete creep, but that only made Travis *more* interested. After calling the number, Travis met the Fat Man and discovered the horrific wonders of worshiping Y’Golonac. Since then, he’s been “renting” prostitutes, taking them to the warehouse for sex, killing them when he’s done, and giving their corpses to the Fat Man to turn into burger patties. While no criminal mastermind, he tries to visit different pickup spots each time and limit his kills to once per week.

Travis is turned on by violence, even just the threat of it. If confronted or caught, he’ll try to lead the Agents into an ambush at the warehouse. On the way there, Travis is obviously aroused, thinking about hanging the Agents on a hook and cutting them up. If asked why he's excited, he says he's excited for them to meet "the Master,” who he will attempt to alert. Travis will only betray the Fat Man if he thinks it’d be funny.

His apartment is a trash-heap filled with fast-food wrappers, crusty socks, and porno mags. The *Greasy Collection of Pamphlets* can be found scattered around.

## **The Warehouse**

Is located wherever the bad part of town intersects with the local warehouse district. A cheap company car is parked outside. **Bureaucracy**, **Criminology**, or **Law** suggest it belongs to a cheap and discreet security company. Travis’ hatchback sedan is parked outside if he’s around. The loading bay holds a van that Travis sometimes uses to transport the Fat Man.

A security guard can be seen outside and inside, doing patrols at all hours. **Criminology** or **Law** suggest the guy’s not an average rent-a-cop, but a real, albeit off-duty, police officer.

* He’s armed
* He’s wearing a vest
* He “blades off” from characters who try to get close to him
* His uniform fits well and is more professional than most low paid security guards

If approached by law enforcement or convinced there is something more illegal going on in the warehouse than the low-level prostitution he already suspects, he rapidly cooperates. He has no loyalty to the Fat Man or Travis.

The warehouse is unusually hot. Agents who step inside start sweating immediately, especially those wearing ballistic protection. Upon examination, the surfaces sweat beads of oil. The whole experience costs 0/1D4 **SAN** from Unnatural. Agents with Addictions feel the cravings stronger than ever. The penalty from a day’s abstinence activates if they don’t indulge quickly. Agents can repress this urge (AH:75). If already suffering from withdrawal, they lose 1D6 WP.

The warehouse is mostly empty, save for some shelves holding spare parts for industrial machines. **Craft (Mechanic)** or **Heavy Machinery** recognize them as belonging to a printing press and various meat processing devices. Other shelves hold folded cardboard boxes that are typically used to transport frozen burger patties.

In the center lies the office, blinds pulled shut. There’s a desk with an old computer, a coffee machine, scrub sink, and a large couch smelling of sweat and sex. The floor has scuff marks and faint, scrubbed-out bloodstains. **Forensics** or good **INT** interpret these as signs of a struggle. Their number and distribution suggest multiple events.

A large trapdoor covers a roughly-cut hole in the floor of the bathroom. Grease and clanking noises emanate from below. Opening it reveals sturdy iron rungs leading to...

## **The Fat Man’s Domain**

The stench of grease and ink is overpowering and the thumping printing press nearly drowns out all sound as it slowly churns out greasy pamphlets. There’s a hook in the ceiling, a drainage grate caked with blood, and a sturdy table covered in sharp and pointy implements (1D6, 3 AP). **Survival** recognizes them as tools used to skin and butcher animals. The Fat Man spends most of his time down here, worshipping Y’Golonac, working the printing press, and keeping the freezer stocked with meat. Breathe heavily and talk in the back of your mouth, like a baritone Gollum.

## **The Hole in the Wall**

The basement’s brick wall has a massive hole smashed into it. Shining a flashlight through does not illuminate the darkness, 0/1 **SAN**. Beyond is Y’Golonac, still trapped within his vast prison, the walls oozing with bodily secretions. The gate can be sealed by *the Elder Sign*, *Pentagram of Power*, and *The* *Closing of the Breach* or destroyed with a 30% Lethality explosion.

## **SAN Rewards and Penalties**

+1D4 **SAN** for stopping the long pork operation

+1D6 **SAN** for closing the gate

+1 **SAN** if they just get the warehouse condemned instead

-0/1D6 **SAN** from Helplessness if they don’t deal with the gate or ask DG to handle it

## **NPCs**

### **The Fat Man**

*Glutton of Depravity*

**STR** 17, **CON** 17, **DEX** 10, **INT** 15, **POW** 16, **CHA** 8

**HP** 17, **WP** 16, **SAN** 30, Obsession (Y’Golonac)

**ARMOR:** 4 points of flabby corpulence

**SKILLS:** Alertness 40%, Athletics 20%, Craft (Mechanic) 30%, Heavy Machinery 40%, History 50%, Occult 60%, Melee Weapons 50%, Unarmed Combat 60%, Unnatural 30%

**ATTACKS:** Grab and Choke (60%, 1D4+1)

Meat Cleaver (50%, 1D6+2)

**LOVE BITE:** After succeeding with a Grab and Choke attack, the slavering mouths in the Fat Man’s palms lick and bite their victim for 1D4 damage on following turns, healing the Fat Man for that much HP. He can maintain the hold in subsequent turns, sacrificing his use of that hand. The victim can break free and prevent the automatic damage with a successful opposed STR or Unarmed Combat test.

**RESILIENT:** Successful Lethality rolls do not destroy the Fat Man and instead deal damage equal to the Lethality rating. Failed rolls do damage as normal.

**WOUNDS THAT NEVER HEAL:** Bites from the Mouths of Y’Golonac do not heal naturally, leaving painful open wounds. The Fat Man is not a full avatar but his god’s puissance is still present. If the Fat Man reduces an Agent to 2 HP or lower, they receive a -40% penalty to their CONx5 test to avoid a permanent injury.

**Y’GOLONAC’S BARGAIN:** Any Agent who suffers a permanent injury at the hands of the Fat Man is approached by an Y’Golonac cultist or hears the god’s whispers in the dream and is given an offer: they can be healed if they become an eternal consort of the depraved god. If they accept, they learn the ritual, *The Paramour’s Pledge*. Those who accept this offer tend to involuntarily recite passages from the 12th volume of *The Revelations of Glaaki* during moments of extreme pleasure, costing their sexual partners 1/1D4 SAN.

**Spells:** Create Gate, Whispers of the Dead (Y’Golonac)

**SAN Loss:** 0/1

### **Travis Daniels**

*The Apprentice*

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

**HP** 11, **WP** 12, **SAN** 36, Addictions (Sex and Murder)

**SKILLS:** Accounting 50%, Alertness 40%, Athletics 40%, Bureaucracy 50%, Criminology 40%, HUMINT 40%, Melee Weapons 40%, Unarmed Combat 60%, Unnatural 5%

**SPELLS:** Imitate the Corpulence of the Master

**SAN Loss:** 0/1D4 to see him inflate with protective fat

### **The Security Guard**

*Off Duty Police Officer*

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

**HP** 12, **WP** 10, **SAN** 49

**ARMOR:** 3 points of soft kevlar

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

**ATTACKS:** Glock 19 (40%, 1D10)

Heavy Flashlight (60%, 1D4)

OC Spray (50%, Stun and Action Penalty)

Unarmed Combat (60%, Pin or Disarm)

## **New Spells**

### **Imitate the Corpulence of the Master**

Study: *simple, hours, 1D8 SAN.* Time: *1 round.* Cost: *9 WP, 1D4 SAN*

This chanted invocation to Y’golonac causes the caster’s fat deposits to swell and bubble. Over the course of 1D6 rounds, they gain 100 lbs and 1D6 HP per round as their skin is filled to bursting with rolls of fat. When healed over maximum HP, Lethality rolls against the caster automatically fail. After 24 hours, or if reduced to a normal amount of HP, this protection fades and the caster’s skin sags as if they had lost 100 lbs, which they just did.

### **The Paramour’s Pledge**

Study: *instant, 1D8 SAN.* Time: *an hour.* Cost: *1 POW, 1D8 SAN*

By pledging yourself to Y’Golonac one of the injuries inflicted by a manifestation of the god is healed. At any point, the caster can assume their true form: a rotting, eyeless corpse, covered in bite marks. This transformation costs 1/1D6 SAN for onlookers and an automatic 1D10 SAN for the Paramour. The transformation lasts for twice as many minutes as the SAN loss rolled. They gain a +20% bonus to all STR, DEX, and Unarmed Combat tests and count as 4 points higher in the DEX order. Additionally, they take half damage from all non-magical attacks and gain a 1D6 damage attack as mouths open on their hands. This attack restores 1 HP for each point of damage inflicted after Armor as they moan and writhe in passion. If taken to 0 HP in this form, the caster is unrecoverable.

### **Whispers of the Dead (Y’Golonac)**

Study: *complex, days, 1D8 SAN.* Time: *an hour.* Cost: *1 POW, 1D8 SAN*

The caster becomes a Chosen of Y’Golonac. At the cost of 4 WP, they can tap into their primal attractiveness to charm those around them. This gives them a +20% to their Persuade skill (or CHAx5) or allows them a roll in situations where the target would not normally even entertain the idea. However, interactions using this power always carry sensual undertones.

## **New Tome**

### **Greasy Collection of Pamphlets**

Language: *English*. Skills: *+2% Unnatural.* Cost: *hours, 1D4 SAN.*

The pamphlets contain excerpts from the twelfth volume of *The Revelations of Glaaki*, short stories of sex and violence, and meditations on the nature of depravity. Reading them instills a sense of unease and disgust. If an Agent pushes past these feelings, they gain the listed Unnatural and must make a POWx5 test. If successful, a seed of corruption is planted deep within their minds.

**Spells:** Imitate the Corpulence of the Master, Whispers of the Dead (Y’Golonac)

## Credits

Eat, Pray, Love was written by magnificentophat and Lithobraker 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 © magnificentophat and Lithobraker, excepting those elements that are components of the Delta Green intellectual property.

Eat, Pray, Love is not available here under CC-BY-SA.