Project Paper Tiger

You have all been gathered in a small town in the pacific northwest for a briefing.

When you all sit down and the briefer nods and puts on a video. [https://archive.org/details/gov.archives.arc.13084]

Over top of the old training film, the briefer speaks.

Five days ago word was received that some foresters found something odd deep in the woods of some mountains nearby. After taking a few pictures they came back into town to report in to the local police. The initial findings were that a balloon bomb payload dating from the second world war had been found. Not particularly dangerous if you avoid triggering the high explosives or incendiaries. The local bomb squad dealt with it and everything should have been normal. Even made for a bit of a human interest story.

Three days later the two foresters were admitted to hospital with a high fever. They passed on within 24 hours. Yesterday the members of the bomb squad that detonated the device were also admitted. They passed this morning. Since then the CDC has swooped in and quarantined the town and the site. They are trying to keep a tight wrap on the news but they are talking of an unknown biological or chemical payload from the war. You have been pulled here because we have reason to believe differently.

The briefer has very little information regarding the suspicions of the higher cells on this, but suggests that something like it has been seen before. They will mention that the Delta green archives has virtually nothing left on the Japanese projects of WW2, as most records were destroyed during the archive incident of 1955 or further lost since then. They do mention that they do know that Majestic 12 did swoop in on a crash site where a number of ranch animals were dieing in the late 1950's thinking that it was related to their primary focus. They don't have much else to offer, but the name of a former delta green turned majestic 12 agent who is in a care home nearby and had access to that project.

The town is a typical small pacific northwest town tucked inland in the forest. The CDC has quarantined the town but using their cover identities the team can gain entry to the town and site. Little can be found in the town, but a careful search of the site will show sections of ring of metal carved deep with fragments of symbols. The bomb squad has badly damaged the ring, so it will take a luck check to find enough to indicate that the symbols are Buddhist in nature.

If the players spend time in smaller groups (2 or fewer) then they run an escalating chance of coming face to face with the creature causing the illness. For every hour spent near the site, or every day in town add 10% to the chances of encountering the creature. Double that at night.

The creature in question is an Onryo, a Japanese vengeful spirit that longs to cause harm to the world of the living. It seeks to cause natural disasters and to kill men. It is a pale/ghostly figure, dressed in a kimono. Wild black hair.

The Onryo will attempt to kill any person/group of people that it encounters. It tries to suck out their soul (game wise a drain of magic and then pow), rendering them into a fevered coma. It fed well on the finders and bomb squad members and has gained enough power to affect creatures by touch now.

A day after the party has been sent on the task a hiker is found on a nearby trail, his head ripped clean from his shoulders with no other mark on his body. The longer the creature has to gather power from the spirits of those it kills, the more powerful it will become. If not stopped, it will set fire to the forest, that will defy any attempts to extinguish it.

Strangely the easiest way for the team to defeat the creature is via a ceremony of the Buddhist rights to pay respect. The creature will naturally be drawn to any ceremony that starts in the vicinity of the bomb location. Ten rounds to complete the ceremony. The creature will appear after one round, and be hostile for 1d6+3 rounds thereafter. It will calm if the ritual remains unbroken, and disperse if the ritual is completed.

If encountered, the creature can not be damaged by normal means. Buddhist prayers while attacking would work.

If the party goes to the care home and manages to sweet talk their way in, they will meet Jonas Mynatt, a frail looking man in his late 80's, who's mind is failing him. He had been institutionalized after seeing one two many things that man was not meant to see. Eventually he was transfered to an elder care facility where he now molders.

His ramblings might seem like those of any old man going senile, but if prompted by the right topic he will be a wealth of information. They had gone to a ranch to investigate the death of cattle thinking it might be related to the grays. They instead had to deal with "something like a living ball of fire". They retreated, and he is not quite sure what happened next as he was stricken by a fever and was almost killed by it. If pressed he manages to dreg up two things from his memory. The first was that he remember seeing some weird symbols carved into a ring of metal that lay broken near the bomb casing. The second if that his buddy said something about having to drop off stuff at the cold storage.

He doesn't remember anything else about the symbols, but gives a location of a now reservist air base, several hours drive away.

The cold storage is located in a small bunker off to the side of the air base. While at one time this would have been in a high security area, the field now serves mostly reservists and the air national guard. The agents can either bluff their way onto the field with a good enough excuse if their cover identities allow for it, or several sneak checks to get over to the bunker. As long as nothing is botched horribly they will likely have enough time to scour the bunker for what they need. If the party likes combat, you can always drop a few reservists on them that happen to notice lights were they should not be any.

This is this branch of Majestic 12's answer to a green box, containing items not directly related to their quest for the grays, but not wanting to get rid of. Feel free to give your players whatever strange, yet mostly harmless or outdated information you want to feed them.

The goal of the search is a small crate with the words "Project Paper: Tiger" stamped onto it. Spot or luck to find it,and luck or idea checks to remember that the balloon bombs were project Paper. Inside are the notes on the recovery of the device, and a small brass lantern covered over by Buddhist symbols, plus a fragment of an aluminum ring carved with similar symbols.

The papers reflect research that indicates that in the later stages of the war during the Fu-Go project (balloon bomb) they were concerned that no information of success was getting back to them. In the hopes of making the devices more powerful and successful, occultists were recruited to bind spirits into the devices. They were kept bound by Buddhist symbols until the device was broken or disturbed.

The notes reflects that there were several types of evil spirits bound into these devices with a mix of Shinto and Buddhist spells. The lantern is the result of capturing the spirit that plagued the ranch by a Buddhist priest. The idea that Buddhism is one of the ways to stop or bind these spirits is strongly mentioned. Notes mention several types including Onibi, Onryo, Kechibi, Chochinbi and Koemonbi.

Inside the lantern there is one of these spirits. If player curiosity has them open the lantern, give them a san check of 1/1d4 to see a living ball of blue flame that manifests an eye to stare at them curiously. Depending on their reactions you might want to give them a luck check to see if the lantern is dropped or not. On a botch you might want to break the lantern letting the spirit free. (If so use a fire vampire as the stats for this spirit). Otherwise if the lantern is kept open give the closest player a slow drain on their magic points. Loss of all magic points will cause the player to break out into a fever in 1d6 days and eventual coma and death until the spirit is contained once more or killed.

*Ornyo*

**STR** 16 **CON** 12 **SIZ** 16

**INT** 6 **POW** 7 **DEX** 16

**APP** 1 **Move** 12 **HP** 14

**Db** +1D4

**Fire Vampire:** Con 6, Siz 1, Int 8, Pow 11, Dex 15. Move 11 flying, HP 4. Weapons: touch 85% damage 2d6 burn + magic point drain. Armor: most material weapons cannot harm them, vulnerable to water and the like.

## Credits

Project Paper Tiger was written by Jarad Obermeyer for the 2014  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 © Jarad Obermeyer, excepting those elements that are components of the Delta Green intellectual property.

Project Paper Tiger is not available here under CC-BY-SA.