Double Dog Dare

## Operation: Double Dog Dare

This scenario takes place after a successful op. Perhaps this previous operation was just checking on something, or maybe the cell spotted the monster early and capped him. In any case, they aren't running out of a town on fire, with a bunch of police cars after them. They can sit back, tell war stories, and drink scotch; tomorrow they have to go back to work.

It would be slightly better if one of the agents was new to Delta Green, such that after a few drinks, the other agents might want to have some fun at his expense.

## Double Dog Dare

You are all just relaxing in the hotel room. The operation went unexpectedly smooth, and now the bunch of you are kicking back, drinking, and telling old stories to the new guy. Give all the characters -5% to all rolls if you are cruel.

One of you gets the idea of sending the new pup to a local Green Box. These boxes aren't usually that dangerous; more often than not they have just spent ammo and some stuff that DG would rather the police never found. Who knows, they might have some more good scotch, that has been aging nicely in the dark.

A quick check through channels reveals that there is one, in a u-store-it facility at the edge of town, in the industrial sector. This Box was established by Cell D 16 years ago; The only operational note is that they were dealing with an entity possibly known as Yah'kwi'aa. It also states that this is an older u-store place, Pine Forest Storage, and they have an unusual system, which is better for long-term storage, though it is a pain in the ass for people who like ready access to their stuff. This place rents you a wooden box on a palette that is 8 by 8 by 8. Then it is lifted into its designated place by a forklift. The facility is closed after regular business hours; the units are inaccessible then. The information supplied by Delta Green states the coordinates of the Green Box as 6-15-3. Presumably this will make sense when the layout of the facility is observed.

## Pine Forest Storage

The industrial park is on the very edge of town, one side having gasoline storage tanks, and the other leading into undeveloped scrubland that stretches for many miles. Pine Forest Storage is minimally protected with an 8 foot chain link fence and spotty exterior lighting. The place in run-down and deserted for the night. There aren't any cars parked inside the gates (which are locked with a regular padlock) and there aren't any lights within the rental office. There seem to be six smallish warehouses, each covered in aluminum siding, and having a large roll-up door. The office is attached to one.

Getting in is very easy for the agents; the fence offers little challenge, the padlock none at all if the agents have boltcutters. The office has a burglar alarm, a metallic strip on the glass, and leads on the door and the jamb. A simple success of either Electronic Repair or Tradecraft will reveal it, normal measures will circumvent it. If the alarm even does sound, the owner of the facility is out of town, and no one will come to investigate.

The records are not well kept, certainly not back 16 years. It is possible to find with a successful Library Use (one per hour per agent) that unit 6-15-3 is paid for by a blandly named corporation, clearly a dummy. A critical success will reveal that the unit was rented by Donald Green, on June 3, 1997. The paper contract seems very old and tattered though, more than twelve years; more like forty.

The six warehouses are numbered; within each are between 12 and 25 stacks, and they can be as many as 4 units high. This yields the unit number 6-15-3. You can either have you players figure this out by exploring a couple of ware houses and observing that the stacks are numbered, as are the units in them, within each warehouse. Or they can find a slip of paper in the office that explains the scheme. Once figured out, the Green Box is easy to locate.

6-15-3 is located seventeen feet above the warehouse floor. The units form a even wall of splintery plywood, all closed with normal hasps and padlocks. The agents can either figure out how to use the forklifts, or use ladders or some such to get up to the unit itself. The padlock is a 5 space combination lock; GREEN is the combination. If they can't figure it out, the boltcutters will have to be put to use again.

Inside the cramped unit is filled with dust and shapeless mounds, at least initially to the eye. As the agents (or maybe one agent, of the newbie is made to look through it, while the rest of the cell is drinking and joking down below) pick through the junk, they find (everything is draped with it's own oilcloth):

* **A coat rack with two long trench coats hanging from it;** in the pockets of one there is some money. Close examination will reveal that there are coins from the year 2007 among the change.
* **Several mounds**, which investigation reveals were grocery sacks filled with food, once
* **A Chinese-English Dictionary,** and several other textbooks on Chinese history
* **The Epilogues of Tsun Dng, Volume 3.** The language is one known by one of the agents, Chinese or Asian if possible. It is a Mythos tome, 1d4 weeks to read, San -1d6, Cthulhu Mythos +1. The text is written in a spidery hand, and tells of the ebbs and flows of time, and how Yah'kwi'aa either manipulates them, swims through them, or is actually composed from the eddies of time. Quickly skimming the book gives the impression that moments in the reader's life were obliquely mentioned as examples of manipulated time. (SAN 1/1d4). Incomplete hints are also gleaned about how a simple levy against the tides of time could be built (this is the spell desribed below)
* **A crated 50 caliber bolt-action rifle**, with 15 rounds loose in the crate
* **45 Automatic, Gold Cup.** 3 empty clips, 2 unopened boxes of shells

Around them all, on the floor, are domino sized and shaped wooden bits resembling Mah Jongg tiles, but with different symbols. They were apparently set up in some sort of pattern for knocking over, as is done with dominoes. They will become somewhat scattered in the investigation unless the agents are VERY careful and specifically mentioning how they remove the oilcloths, etc.

Play this up for a thrill if you can. Perhaps the coat rack falls forward, appearing to be a man sized thing jumping for the hapless agent!

## Something Has Just Happened that the Agents Will Regret

During the last op of Cell D, they encountered a cult that was trying to manipulate time. They managed to stop it, but just barely. But opening the Green Box has started time spinning away from that point. From now on, every time the agents leave the vicinity of the Green Box, they will be in a different timeline. And every time they return to the Green Box, it will be closed, and locked, as if they have never been there.

So, when the agents leave the warehouse with the Green Box for the first time, they will discover that their car is missing. Let them panic for a bit, then let them notice that The Pine Forest Storage doesn't look nearly as dilapidated as it seemed to be. Point out other differences; perhaps the scrublands have a new yuppie development gleaming with vintage street lights. If they go further afield, just improvise a slightly different current history for them. Eventually, they will need to return to the Green Box.

Every time they return to the Green Box (with different challenges depending on the state of the storage facility), the contents will vary along normal lines, with two exceptions: There will always be a volume of the Epilogues of Tsun Dng, though the specific volume will vary; it might be an alternate V.2, or a V.3 or V.4. And there will always be a pattern of Mah Jhongg tiles on the floor.

If your players try to take advantage of the situation by stockpiling equipment from the Green Boxes (or just endlessly explore timelines), they have a shock in store for them, in two forms. With each iteration away from their original timeline, they get closer to primordial chaos. The realities will be more dangerous, darker, and more insidious than the last. The second risk in manipulating time if you don't know what you are doing is attracting the attention of The Hounds of Tindalos. Either of these options has to be done with an eye to your particular players; if they can take on a Hound, let them, but if not just have it chase them to the next reality.

Another excellent encounter is themselves, coming to see what is in the Green Box!

## A Possible Solution

The Epilogues of Tsun Dng paradoxically describe the actions of a wizard Tsun Dng as he manipulates time to unmake the original creation of humanity for the pleasures of the Old Gods. As there are multiple futures from every point in time, there are multiple volume 3's after each of the volume 2's. Once the agents get their hands on two different volumes, they can skim them to get the pattern of tiles needed to dynamically close the Green Box, and re-anchor time. This information could also be gotten from a careful observation of the tiles on the floor of the Green Box, going to more than one if necessary. What is not said, but they will have to experiment to find out, is that to make the spell work, they have to start the tiles falling, and get out of the Green Box, and out of the warehouse in less than 30 seconds in order to be back in anchored time. But, they have as many timelines as they can survive to figure this out!

## Credits

Double Dog Dare was written by Jeff Campbell for the 2005 shotgun scenario contest.