The Inevitable

The Madison Office Building sits off to the side of a small shopping plaza called the Northwest Jefferson Plaza in a greater metropolitan area. This morning, Charles Watkins, employed by Angitia Medical Solutions on the fourth floor, entered the building at 08:12 and opened fire with a Glock 17 and a Remington Model 11-87. Charles killed 6 people and wounded 13 before turning his shotgun on himself at 08:18.

Naturally, the national media is already heavily involved with this story and had reporters from local affiliates on scene within 20 minutes. What the media hasn’t caught wind of (yet) is that four days ago, a man named Ron Sims was pulled over for running the red light on his way into the Plaza. When he approached, the arresting officer noticed that Ron had blood on his shirt as well as a Glock 17 and spare magazines on the seat of his car. Ron now sits in county jail.

Ideally, at least one player character works for the FBI and will be the lead agent on this case. A member of the state police is a Friendly and contacted Cell A when they realized that two seemingly unrelated individuals attempted to shoot up the same building in under one week - especially when the second succeeded - they called it in. Cell A routes the case appropriately and makes sure that it comes across the FBI PC’s desk. The scenario should start with the agent getting the request and allowing them to gather the rest of the team and any supplies they may want prior to leaving for the Plaza on the day of Charles’ shooting spree.

## Northwest Jefferson Plaza

The plaza is small, consumed mostly by a supermarket and parking area. A strip mall and a few chain restaurants are also scattered about with the Madison Office Building set along the eastern side of the plaza. The entire plaza has been vacated and only authorized law enforcement is being allowed on scene with the press pushed to the other side of the road.

## Madison Office Building

Most of the victim’s bodies have been documented by the time the players arrive and the bodies are already on their way to the coroner.

Officials on scene are not likely to interfere with the players investigating as long as they do so “by the book.” Many of the officers seem to be in a bit of a haze - they had trained for such a scenario, but nothing could have prepared them for the reality of a mass shooting.

Charles’ body is still at the scene as most of the officers are not yet sure what to make of it. The local detectives have been taking their time in hopes that the feds would show.

Charles’ body lies in a reception area on the second floor of the building, slumped over sideways against a wall. His Glock lies several feet away on the floor, empty and the shotgun sits empty resting between his knees. It’s very clear how he died.

What is strange is that Charles had also slit his wrists, opening his veins from his wrists nearly up to each elbow. The cuts are clean, indicating a quality cutting instrument. Witnesses will confirm that Charles was bleeding even before the shooting started.

## Charles and Ron

Friends claim that Charles was happy and at ease. No one remembers him being connected to a Ron. The same holds true for any friends of Ron that the PCs manage to track down.

Ron had also slit his wrists before his botched attempt to make his way into the Madison Office Building for his own spree shooting. He was taken to the hospital prior to booking and they managed to save his life. He openly confessed his intentions and rambles about “accelerating the Inevitable” to any interrogators. He can be used to provide clues to the investigators as to what’s going on (see following two sections), but his answers will be rambling.

## What’s Really Happening

Charles and Ron do know each other, but only as acquaintances. They found each other via a local chat room called The Inevitable Watchers. NSA and FBI had flagged the message board as a potential domestic threat, though it slipped by close scrutiny by being “too esoteric.”

It turns out that a small group of The Inevitable Watchers had realized they were all local and began to meet in person. A man named Franklin Gray took lead of this local chapter and began teaching from some vague occult works he’d picked up on the deep web and combining it with the “mainstream” stuff on the forums for The Inevitable Watchers.

Working alongside Franklin, the group managed to contact an Unnatural being they began referring to as The Inevitable. The Inevitable haunts the group’s dreams and has begun teaching them how to bring it to Earth.

The core belief of the Watchers is that the end of the world and in fact the universe, is inevitable and that seeking the way to bring the end about quickly and painlessly is the only true peace that humanity can achieve. The Inevitable has sensed this and has promised to come and painlessly absorb all that exists into its being, quietly ending the universe without a fuss and carrying humanity’s knowledge within itself as a reward.

The Inevitable is nowhere near that powerful - instead it seeks to take corporeal form in this new realm and devour all knowledge it can attain. The Watchers have been instructed to kill 10 people while uttering a chant in order to bring The Inevitable into our world.

## Clues

Leading the PCs to the final confrontation without railroading them could be a bit difficult, but there are plenty of avenues to pursue as the opsec of the Watchers is pretty poor.

* Charles and Ron both had Halloween masks (used to conceal identities at Franklin’s meetings) in their vehicles despite it being nowhere near Halloween.
* Charles’ computer gets confiscated the day of his shooting. Agents can easily get access to a clone of the machine. Perusing his history leads them to The Inevitable Watcher boards and a trove of favorited threads between Franklin and other local members. A private message to Charles from Franklin’s account has Franklin’s address. Charles’ account is Truthseeker119 and Franklin’s is W1tness.
* Charles’ phone, which was left in his car, stores his location history. Pulling this successfully would reveal that he frequents a suburban home (Franklin’s) that is not his own at the same time every week. This has been going on for five months.
* Ron tells the players of The Inevitable Watchers if interrogated, but hasn’t held up to the dreams very well. He is only semi-coherent. He only knows first names for his co-conspirators and will not reveal Franklin’s house without being pressed and possibly psychoanalyzed into a more lucid state. If pressured enough, he may reveal the Inevitable Watchers message boards and the usernames of his cohorts. Ron is likely to commit suicide in his cell if pressed hard and left alone for too long.
* Other members of The Inevitable Watchers boards may be able to share that Franklin attempted to recruit them, but they didn’t join because the board to them is just pretend.

## Final Confrontation

Franklin, and his final two members, Amelia Walker and Joseph McConnel, gather at his home the day following Charles’ shooting spree. They know that The Inevitable requires three more sacrifices to enter our world. Their plan is to kill themselves to conclude the ritual.

If Franklin has learned that Ron has killed himself in jail, he prefers to witness The Inevitable’s arrival and will attempt to persuade Amelia and Joseph into killing themselves first.

## Resolution

The agents may manage to take Franklin and/or the remaining Watchers into custody before they complete the ritual. If they can be held and prevented from killing anyone or themselves long enough, their dreams will drive them to permanent insanity and prevent them from being capable of completing the ritual.

If the ritual succeeds, The Inevitable appears to ooze from the final sacrifice’s body and begins to devour the knowledge of those closest at hand. The Inevitable is a black mass that appears to lack any definite facial structures (eyes, mouth, nose, etc) and constantly shifts between different animal and humanoid forms. It continues hunting until it is stopped.

## The Inevitable

It costs 1/1D8 SAN to see The Inevitable due to The Unnatural.

**STR** 20 **CON** 24 **DEX** 30

**INT** 15 **POW** 28 **CHA** 8

**HP** 22 **WP** 28

**SKILLS** Alertness 60%, Occult 75%, Stealth 45%, Unarmed Combat 50%, Unnatural 35%

**ATTACKS**

**Knowledge Theft**; 40% vs target’s POW × 5; 1/1D6 SAN from target as they feel their knowledge and memory being torn from their mind as if someone is rooting around in their mind.

**Pseudopod Strike**; 50% Unarmed Combat; 1D3+2

The Inevitable can use both attacks per turn.

**ARMOR**

4 points of supernaturally durable skin

## Franklin Gray

**STR** 10 **CON** 11 **DEX** 10

**INT** 12 **POW** 13 **CHA** 14

**HP** 11 **WP** 13 **SAN** 34

**SKILLS** Alertness 35%, Computer Science 40%, Firearms 35%, Occult 45%, Persuade 35%, Stealth 25%, Unnatural 8%

**ATTACKS**

**Glock 17**: 1D10 (10 rounds)

## The Watchers

Use the following statistics for the other Watchers.

**STR** 13 **CON** 13 **DEX** 13

**INT** 12 **POW** 11 **CHA** 10

**HP** 13 **WP** 11 **SAN** 21

**SKILLS** Alertness 35%, Firearms 30%, Occult 20%, Stealth 20%, Unnatural 2%

**ATTACKS**

**Glock 17**: 1D10 (10 rounds)

## Credits

The Inevitable was written by Kyle Thompson for the 2016  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 © Kyle Thompson, excepting those elements that are components of the Delta Green intellectual property.

The Inevitable is not available here under CC-BY-SA.