The Stars Are Right for Pizza

## **Introduction**

Yog So Sauce (YSS), a new Pizza Place owned by Charles Harrin of Providence, RI, has a cult-like following. Reports of strange smells, chanting, and blood leaking from under the basement door from the corner shop have made their way up to Delta Green. Due to New England’s dark history with the occult, Delta Green is taking no chances - assigning a team of local agents to an immediate off-books night-time break-in.

Much of the decision on what is divulged, what requires a roll, and what impacts SAN has been left up to the Handler, so as to best cultivate your particular agents’ growing paranoia. Any phone calls to DG should emphasize that growing paranoia - reminding agents it’s “their call” but re-emphasizing the need to contain vectors. Handlers should not discourage agents from “going well supplied.”

## **Investigation**

The YSS building is owned by Charles Harrin via loan from Bank of America. His payments have been on time since the loan was approved 1.5 years ago. Some start-up money came from his extended family. Some family are Indian nationals, but that’s not unusual. YSS is incorporated in Delaware for tax and protection purposes.

Charles Harrin is a natural-born US citizen, second generation on his mother’s side. Originally from Cleveland, he moved to Providence 2 years ago. He received a Masters in anthropology from Ohio State, his thesis on the murderous Thuggee cult of India. The paper contains nothing outwardly suspicious, save the unsettling topic. He traveled to Indian government archives at least twice and to the UK once during his studies. Social media history indicates this is the time his interest in starting a business began.

Local police have had no issue with YSS, save the rare late-night noise complaints. Health inspectors have followed up on the blood drain and found nothing.

Online reviews are religious in their tone. An agent under 25 with CHA < 10 will recognize this is potentially a gag, like parody Amazon reviews, but there ARE an unusual number of reviews.

Local security cameras show at least once a month, but not on a fixed day, hooded figures enter YSS late at night. No cameras show faces.

Interviewing neighbors reveals respect for the successful business and the friendly Charles Harrin. However, frustration remains at the occasional late-night carousing and odd smells.

## **The Break-In**

There are Four entrances - front/back door, basement door, and 2nd floor fire escape. All doors are safety bolted and padlocked, and all windows have roll-down protective screens on the ground floor. The fire-escape door is the easiest to enter, but is in view of 2nd floor apartments across the alley.

All throughout the house, agents will notice odd creaking sounds in the walls.

### **Basement:**

Slick red stain, pooling around drain, coming two large brass tanks (recognizable to brewers as fermenting tanks). Agents can verify stain is blood. A bleached skull with elaborate patterned carvings sits on a metal workbench loaded with butcher’s tools - a swastika is etched inside the skull.

Inside the view-port for the brass tanks, agents will occasionally see a bone float by.

Walk-in freezer is next to the gas lines. Nothing suspicious upon rigorous inspection. Pizza sauces, assorted meats, cheeses, balls of dough, etc…

### **Main Floor:**

Four points of entry - back and front door, stairwells from basement and second floor.

Pizza Kitchen shows signs of after-hours personal use. Main counter with cash register - money from day’s sales still inside. Receipts stuck on a spike under the counter. The gas lines are exposed next to the ovens.

Soda cooler labeled “Bepis” filled with old Sierra Mist and Tab. Agents can discover that Bepis is a weird internet meme about mis-labeling food brands.

Stairwell leads upstairs.

### **Second Floor:**

Carpeted hallway contains a window to the fire escape and two doors. First door leads to the bedroom.

Bedroom is nondescript, save for the tantric books underneath the bed-table and a framed deguerotype reproduction of a thuggee group from 1894. Closet contains a suit, some casual clothes, cookware, and an odd looking cowel with yellow filigree around the edges. Bed is neatly made with blue sheets.

Bedroom contains a bathroom - shower-tub combo, sink with normal sanitation accoutrements.

Doorway at end of hallway leads to a velvet-lined room with dark colored, mellow lighting. The room’s air is heavy, and agents will immediately feel dizziness. Any agents with DEA or similar background will recognize a vaporizer in the room contains a light narcotic, but has been left running to hot-box this unventilated room.

If agents enter the door in the meditation room, they’ll enter a lounge. A TV with Xbox sits in front of a yellow fold-out couch. Over a bookshelf filled with old textbooks hangs a prominently framed Club Apocalypse poster from the early 2000’s. Agents may know this was the front for an adversary organization - if they make a call to the organization, they’ll be informed of as much. Upon close inspection, the bookshelf also contains one or two RPG books, but that’s it.

## **Final Confrontation/ Exiting the Building:**

As your agents complete their investigation, or around the time they begin discussing departure, they may hear the loud chants of “Yog! Yog! Yog!” as five hooded figures approach the pizzeria through the alley. Coincidentally, wherever the agents are in the house is where the hooded figures intend to proceed to.

If detected, the figures shout and pursue the intruders on sight if found within the pizzeria building. If agents are outside the building, but the pizzeria has been sufficiently wrecked, hooded figures will pursue. Figures will fight tooth-and-nail, all armed with mace and knives. They will chase the agents at least a few blocks if they attempt to make a run for it. They will yell strange olde english phrases about “casting a curse upon the enemy” or “staving in the intruder’s skull” as well as some conventional cursing. An appropriate line of inquiry, if explicitly pursued, may reveal that these men are inebriated.

If agents attempt to identify themselves as law enforcement, hooded figures will claim “that’s bullshit,” and also call the police. The Agents will be arrested without a strong smoke screen.

**Truth:** *There is nothing wrong with Yog So Sauce!*

YSS is named after Yog Patel, Charles’ much beloved but long-dead grandfather who encouraged his interest in Anthropology. It is not a reference to Yog Sothoth.

Charles’ interest in the Thuggee cult is out of honest academic curiosity, with the added benefit of seeing his extended family during grant-funded research in India. His interest in starting a business during his studies was driven by the realization paychecks were rare for anthropologists outside training more anthropologists. He also loves Pizza, so why not?

The strange smells are the special blend fermentation process from his yet-to-be-announced beer business - along with night-time smells of “special” but decriminalized incense - the same incense that caused agent hallucinations in the meditation room. The strange sounds are an old house settling.

The skull in the basement is a highly unusual family heirloom, a totem of several hundred years age, likely from a Buddhist relative who modified the Kapala (skull bowl) tradition. The swastika carved inside is a Hindi good-luck symbol added later.

Though he respects his family’s heritage, Charles is not a Hindu and does not observe Hindu dietary practices. The bones and blood are from cows, trying experimental bone-broth brews for his new beer - figures it might be something the crossfit folks across the street might get into.

In the bedroom, the tantric books are something you’d pick up at a Barnes and Noble for a gag or ideas. The Thuggee poster is for Charles’ nostalgia - since he did enjoy working on his thesis.

The Club Apocalypse poster, for anyone outside The Fate or Delta Green, is a cool artifact of a popular music venue with a sordid history. Club Apocalypse produced fascinating stylized graphics to advertise their business, and some hipper types have an interest.

The hooded figures are Charles and his best friends and sparring buddies from the ju jitsu dojo where they all met. They have a monthly cheat-day tradition of getting drunk, playing D&D in cowels, and returning to YSS for pizza and more beer - and perhaps something decriminalized in the $4.20 price range. So, naturally, the enthusiasm for chanting “Yog!” on the way back to HQ.

The strange language is because they’re all drunk and goofing around after a fun game of D&D - and it sticks for a bit with the righteous indignation of attacking intruders. If you were with four of your boys, and some guys just busted out of your home/business late at night - you’d probably want to whoop some ass as well.

There shouldn’t be enough time to dig to this level of detail the day of the raid, but handlers may give some trickle of information to help their agents, who - if not completely wiped out by drunken MMA enthusiasts, will feel like assholes for pointlessly destroying YSS.

## **NPC STATS**

### **Charles Harrin’s Friends (x4) AKA “The Party” - scalable to working group size**

**STR** 16 **CON** 16 **DEX** 14 **INT** 12 **POW** 15 **CHA** 12

**HP** 16 **WP** 15 **SAN** 75

**SKILLS:** Accounting 50%, Actually playing their alignment as PC’s 20%, Melee 70%,

Unarmed 75%, Athletics 60%, Dodge 60%, Persuade 40%

**GEAR:** Knife (D4, 2AP), Mace x1 (failed PWRx2 roll halves attack skills for 1 round), “These Hands” (D6)

**DESCRIPTION:** Just returned from cracking open a cold one with the boys while playing “choatic stupid” in a castle. Some dudes breaking into their bro’s business is a great opportunity to go live with “these hands” after years of sparring. If subdued out of combat, will give answers to questions out of “the Truth” section of the booklet.

**ABILITIES:**

**DRUNK & ANGRY -** Inebriation and ride-or-die instinct for their boy Charles has increased the tolerance to pain. Character has DR2. Will only run away ONLY once outnumbered AND the majority are neutralized.

**GRAPPLE -** grabs the agent and wrestles to the ground. A successful unarmed roll that is not dodged results in D4 damage and immobilization. A successful DEX rolls is needed to escape.

**HEAD-KICK -** On a successful unarmed attack roll paired with a DEX x5 and STR x5 roll, agent is kicked in the head causing D8 damage and a 1-turn blackout.

### **Charles Harrin AKA “The Living Dungeon”**

**STR** 15 **CON** 15 **DEX** 16 **INT** 13 **POW** 15 **CHA** 13

**HP** 15 **WP** 15 **SAN** 75

**SKILLS:** Pizza Making 80%, Accounting 50%, Marketing 70%, Anthropology 50%, Athletics 70%, Dungeon Mastering 70%, Melee 75%, Unarmed 80%, Dodge 70%, Persuade 40%

**GEAR:** Knife (D4, 2AP), “These Hands” (D6+1)

**DESCRIPTION:** Small business owner, fitness nut, and lover of all things RPG - great night ruined by an immediate flood thoughts related to all the worst possible things the thieves could have done to his home and business. This is followed by the dread of all the paperwork necessary to rebuild, if the claims even go through. Charles is ready to play Bop-It™ with somebody’s limbs. If subdued out of combat, will give answers to questions out of “the Truth” section of the booklet.

**ABILITIES:**

**DRUNK & EXTRA ANGRY -** Inebriation and rage at his business bring robbed has increased Charles’ tolerance to pain. Character has DR3. Will only run away ONLY once outnumbered AND the majority are neutralized.

**GRAPPLE II -** grabs the agent and wrestles to the ground. A successful unarmed roll that is not dodged results in D4+1 damage and immobilization. A successful DEX rolls is needed to escape.

**HEAD-KICK** - On a successful unarmed attack roll paired with a DEX x5 and STR x5 roll, agent is kicked in the head causing D8 damage and a 1-turn blackout.

## Credits

The Stars Are Right for Pizza was written by Matthew Hipple 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 © Matthew Hipple, excepting those elements that are components of the Delta Green intellectual property.

The Stars Are Right for Pizza is not available here under CC-BY-SA.