The Starkweather Foundation

The Starkweather Foundation was established in late 1934 by the survivors of the ill-fated Starkweather-Moore expedition that investigated the God Trap and the City in the range known as the Mountains of Madness.

Officially, it was established to assist disadvantaged and struggling students who wished to conduct studies in the Polar Regions. To this end, it granted scholarships, conducted field trips and funded scientific research in glaciology and related fields. It claimed to be funded by anonymous philanthropic benefactors.

Unofficially, the Foundation conducted all of the above activities, but also recruited postgraduate students and academics from appropriate fields (especially polar studies and biology) to transport brains, nervous systems and occasionally living subjects to be used in the Construct of the Elder Things. These secret acts revealed the resurgent Elder Things to the individuals that were being recruited, and once both sides worked out what was going on, a sort of silent truce was established - the humans delivered the 'supplies' and the Elder Things maintained the Construct. A few Foundation members stayed behind to assist in repair and maintenance, and became vital to translation and interaction with the Elder Things.

The singular forerunner to Delta Green, the Treasury Department's P Division, discovered the truth when an expedition member tried to publish his findings and discoveries on the ice. He was ridiculed and his academic career ruined, but P Division sat up and took notice. After being told the truth by Starkweather Foundation members 'in the know', P Division made the decision that the Antarctic Issue was vitally important and agreed to support the Foundation. The presence of Nazi scientists on the ice at the time of the Starkweather-Moore expedition was also of vital interest (most of these scientists, originally from the Barsmeier-Falken Expedition, went on to become part of the Karotechia). Secretly funding the Foundation, P Division managed to ensure the Starkweather Foundation's survival until 1942, when P Division was merged with the OSS.

After P Division's conversion to the DELTA GREEN clearance of the OSS, the discovery was made that the Nazis, namely their occult division known as the Karotechia, had been extensively exploring the ice and were dangerously close to disrupting the God Trap. The Nazi presence on the ice was known to the Germans as Aktion Eischloss Operation ICE PALACE), with their primary camp situated near a location known only as Point 103. Point 103, the Germans discovered, was one of the many geothermal tunnels built by the Elder Things. Karotechia expedition after expedition was sent down the tunnels, many never to return. Delta Green decided something had to be done. Operation VALHALLA was to take World War II to the ice. Guerilla warfare between the two sides raged for months, with both the Americans and the Germans secretly ferrying supplies to their men in the Antarctic. When Nazi Germany was shattered in 1945, many Karotechia researchers and SS personnel fled to the Antarctic, where the final, clandestine battle of World War II was desperately fought on the nights of the 3rd, 4th and 5th of January, 1946 - three months after the OSS and Delta Green were officially disbanded. Not all of the Nazi researchers and personnel were located and killed, and the exact location of Point 103 was never discovered. Speculation remains to this day.

The period of time between Delta Green's official reinstatement in 1947 and its deactivation in 1970 was a time of change and development for the organisation as a whole. The developments at Roswell in 1947 and the subsequent split between former OSS officers into Delta Green and MAJESTIC 12 camps meant that knowledge of the Construct filtered through to both organizations. For Delta Green's ties with the Starkweather Foundation, however, nothing much had changed. Old members left or died, and new ones came to fill their place. Soon enough, Delta Green was often recruiting from the Starkweather Foundation, and vice versa. The opening up of the Antarctic interior and developments in transport technology, most notably the helicopter, meant that the newfound accessibility to the Construct site was at once a blessing and a curse. Thankfully the Elder Things at this stage had managed to repair the Construct to such an extent that the Construct, their City and the mountain range could all be hidden from the eyes of man. Only those that had been to the site before and were known to the Elder Things could see through the veil that had been erected. As for MAJESTIC 12, knowledge of the Construct and all trace of the Elder Things was relegated to the YY-II facility in New Mexico, ironically better known as the ICE CAVE. No current member of the MAJESTIC 12 Steering Committee knows of the Construct or the Elder Things.

The Starkweather Foundation suffered greatly after the deactivation of Delta Green in 1970. Funding became almost non-existent and new members were not coming fast enough to replace those leaving the Foundation. Agents of the now-defunct Delta Green aided where they could, but for a dark time in the

mid-1970s, there was an underlying current of fear and despair as both Delta Green and the Starkweather Foundation felt that the Construct could not be supplied with fresh human tissue at the rate it was consuming it. Time was running out, and there was no solution. Things were looking bleak.

In 1977, the Starkweather Foundation gambled everything they had on one last roll of the dice. They knew that without monetary support, they could not assist the Elder Things and the Construct would fail. The consequences would be unimaginable. So, in June 1977, the Starkweather Foundation (now a respected and well-known institution), in an address to the United Nations, declared that unless the current level of funding was increased, the scientific fields of glaciology and polar studies would become extinct. A number of petrochemical companies were highly interested in theoretical prospecting for fossil fuels in the Antarctic at that stage, and a number of sponsorship contracts were signed, which sustained the Foundation for the next 20 years.

Throughout the 1980s, the Starkweather Foundation experienced a form of Renaissance. A surge of new members meant that the older ones could retire peacefully, and the Construct was saved from complete collapse. A number of Foundation members lost their lives in repairing the Construct, but overall the new burst of life was a step in the right direction. Things were looking good, but Delta Green and the Foundation knew that they could not be complacent. More funds than ever were secretly embezzled from government departments, and much of it was stashed away in offshore bank accounts to act as a backup in case the current monetary flow should slow or cease.

In 1994, following the assassination of Major General Reginald Fairfield and the reconstruction of Delta Green, the Starkweather Foundation petitioned the new Delta Green for a permanent liaison consisting of a Delta Green cell made up of Foundation Members, outside of the normal scheme of things. This cell would be comprised of five members, not three, and its main aim would be to assist in investigation of matters concerning the Construct and the Elder Things. Each member would be at least familiar with Elder Thing culture and the Construct itself, as well as the Karotechia. At least one member, often the cell leader, would be able to communicate with the Elder Things with confidence and accuracy. The clearance level for this new cell would be POLAR FROST.

POLAR FROST actively engaged in sixteen separate operations between 1994 and 2001, most of them investigating the Karotechia and Aktion Eischloss. Five Karotechia projects and 18 Karotechia researchers were terminated, signaling a return to the days of Operations LUNACY and SUMMER BREEZE of the World War 2 era. Action is ongoing.

The Starkweather Foundation maintains its headquarters in New York, NY. It has major field offices in Montreal, Geneva, Oslo, Moscow, Copenhagen, Reykjavik and Melbourne. It has schooling facilities and programs with host organisations in the United States, Canada, Switzerland, Germany, Norway, Finland, Russia, Greenland, Iceland and Australia. It is associated with a number of humanitarian organisations, and is one of the few organisations to be an honorary member of the United Nations.

## CoC 6e Occupational Templates

*Starkweather Foundation Academic:* Bargain, Credit Rating, Library Use, Other Language (likely to be French, German, Norwegian, Finnish, Russian, Danish or Icelandic), Persuade, Meteorology or Glaciology, and any one as a personal specialty: Anthropology, Archaeology, Biology, Chemistry, Geology, History, Medicine, Natural History or Polar Survival.

*Starkweather Foundation Field Agent:* Climb, First Aid, Meteorology, Natural History, Navigate (Land) or Navigate (Sea/Air), Persuade, Polar Survival, Spot Hidden, and any two as personal specialties: Anthropology, Archaeology, Biology, Chemistry, Geology, History, or Medicine.

*Starkweather Foundation Sponsored Student:* Bargain, Fast Talk, Library Use, Other Language, Polar Survival, and any three as specialties: Anthropology, Archaeology, Biology, Chemistry, Geology, History, Medicine or Natural History.

*Starkweather Foundation/Delta Green POLAR FROST Agent:* Climb, Dodge, Elder Thing Culture, First Aid, Hide, Navigate (Land) or Navigate (Sea/Air), Other Language (French, German, Norwegian, Finnish, Russian, Danish or Icelandic; cell leader has the option of choosing Elder Thing Cipher), Persuade, Polar Survival, Spot Hidden, Handgun, Submachine Gun or Rifle.

*Created by James Knevitt on Fairfield 1.*