The Harvest

## The Briefing

Three days ago (October 28) a semi truck collided with a pickup truck a few kilometres outside of the small farming town of Predannost (Russian for “devotion”). The driver of the pickup was killed instantly, while the passenger, an elderly woman, was transported to hospital in serious condition. Once there, it quickly became clear that she was suffering from dementia. When she realized that she was going to need to stay in the hospital for an extended time she became extremely agitated, and began to ramble incoherently in a mixture of Russian and English. Her son arrived soon after, and she died that night.

Delta Green was contacted by a Friendly nurse in the hospital who overheard the old woman repeat the words “ceremony,” “Halloween,” and “Zelenyy Chelovek,” and thought that it might be worth investigating. After some research, Delta Green identified Zelenyy Chelovek as the Russian name for the Green Man, a figure of folk lore known to be a pagan god of fertility and the harvest, often worshipped in dark ceremonies.

It is the morning of October 31, and the agents are tasked with investigating the town of Predannost and rooting out any unnatural forces that they find there.

## What’s Going On

Predannost was founded in the 1920s by a group of Russian immigrants who fled the aftermath of the Russian Revolution. The town was prosperous until the coming of the Great Depression, when the Dustbowl devastated its harvests and threatened its future.

In 1935 after a particularly bleak harvest, one of the town elders, a man named Vladislav Mikhailovich, proposed attempting an ancient pagan ritual to ask the god Veles (god of wildlife and agriculture) for help. The town agreed, but the ritual went awry and gained the attention of the Green Man (one of the thousand avatars of the outer god Nyarlathotep) instead. Desperate, the townsfolk agreed to its price: an annual human sacrifice in exchange for good harvests and bountiful luck for the residents. The next day the people of Predannost awoke to find their formerly barren fields thick with wheat and their starving livestock plump and healthy.

Vladislav was made the Green Man’s Hand and granted an unnaturally long life in exchange for ensuring that the sacrifices were carried out each year. He has taken on the guise of the local priest, ostensibly of a Christian church.

## The Town

Predannost is a town of about 300 residents including the surrounding farmers. It has remained extremely insular: most residents marry within the town and very few ever leave. New residents are almost never admitted, as houses do not go up for sale and new development is only permitted for residents. All of this is done to keep the town’s worship of the Green Man a secret.

The town has a small K-12 school with approximately 50 students, a medical clinic, grocery store, post office, pharmacy, and any other amenities that allow the residents to leave as seldom as possible. It does not have a hotel or any type of tourist attractions. Those who wish to stay overnight in the area must do so in the town 50 kilometers away; Predannost does not want visitors and does its best to discourage them. Those who do visit are greeted by a sign just outside of town that reads “Predannost: Prosperity Through Faith.”

Central to the town is the Predannost Prayer Home. Ostensibly a Christian church, it is where the residents go to worship the Green Man each Sunday. Deep in a subbasement below is the ritual chamber where the sacrifices are made each Halloween. That chamber is ringed with dozens of incredibly realistic wooden statues (the remains of the sacrificed victims), with a wooden altar at the centre. The altar is covered with intricate carvings of vines, flowers, and other plants. It is large enough for an adult to lie down on.

## Investigating Predannost

Agents should arrive sometime in the morning of October 31. They find an apparently normal small town, with people at work and children in school. Agents might notice that the townsfolk are not happy to see them. They are not overtly unfriendly, but they have very little time for the agents and seem distracted. The agents might also notice that there are no Halloween decorations anywhere in town. If they ask about this, residents tell them that Halloween is an evil holiday, and that the town holds a church service in the evening instead.

If the agents ask about the deceased woman, townsfolk say that it is a shame that Mrs Danilovna and her son Alexei died so tragically. Questioned about her ramblings, they say that she had been suffering from dementia for several years and was often confused. They say nothing more on the subject. If the agents are foolish enough to ask about the Green Man directly the townsfolk feign ignorance but report them to Vladislav as soon as possible. They are watched for the remainder of their time in Predannost, and if they try to leave town a resident in a grain truck attempts to run them off the road and kill them.

Vladislav Mikhailovich can be found at the Predannost Prayer Home. He appears to be a middle-aged man with tanned, almost leathery skin. He speaks with a faint Russian accent and is polite but uninterested in speaking to the agents any more than necessary. If they present themselves as law enforcement he cooperates as much as he is able to without revealing any secrets, as he desperately wants the town to avoid notice from the authorities. If Vladislav is attacked by surprise it takes him a round to transform into his Hand of the Green Man form, growing thick, bark-like skin and a multitude of grasping branch and vine limbs (SAN loss 1/1D4). If he knows that an attack is coming he transforms before combat.

Around 4:30 (about an hour before sunset) the agents notice that the town’s children are returning to the school carrying backpacks and sleeping bags. If anyone is asked about this, they are told that while the adults are at church the children attend an overnight “lock in” at the school. Agents looking for details might notice that the oldest children going to the school are about fourteen years old, and the people welcoming the children in are no more than fifteen. Everyone sixteen and up is going to church.

## The Ceremony

All residents of Predannost sixteen and older head to the Prayer Home shortly before sundown. The doors are locked once everyone has arrived, and the agents are not allowed in. If they break in, they find the sanctuary empty, but there are signs that people have recently gone down to the basement. That too is empty, but agents find evidence of a hidden door leading to stone steps winding down into the earth. Depending on when they arrive, they may see some or all of the ceremony.

The adult residents stand in the statue-ringed basement chamber facing the altar, where Vladislav is holding a large book. They begin to chant “vzyat u odnogo, chtoby vse protsvetali” while swaying back and forth. Agents who speak Russian understand the chant to mean “take from one so all may prosper”. This lasts for over an hour, and as it goes on the participants drop to their knees one by one, looking exhausted but still chanting until only one is left standing. That person slowly approaches the altar.

The sacrifice willingly lies down on the altar, which begins to writhe as the carvings come alive and bind the victim (SAN loss 1/1d6). The chanting continues as the sacrifice’s breathing slows and their skin drains of colour, eventually transformed into a wooden statue (SAN loss 1d4/1d8). Once that is done the chanters collapse, exhausted, and Vladislav picks up the new statue and places it alongside the others.

If the agents attempt to intervene once the chanting has begun, the chanters take no notice of them even if they are attacked. Vladislav transforms into his Hand of the Green Man form (SAN loss 1/1D4) and attacks. If he is killed during the ceremony the chanting stops and the townsfolk all turn their attention to the agents. They are exhausted, giving the agents time to flee, but they will be pursued out of town.

## Ending the Threat

In order to end the threat entirely, the agents must kill Vladislav and destroy the altar. If they only kill Vladislav, the Green Man will empower another resident as its Hand. If they only destroy the altar, Vladislav will carve another one.

Any agent who attempts to damage the altar must first succeed a Power check. Failure causes the agents to flee as they imagine themselves attacked by plants and wildlife (SAN loss 1/1d4).

Destroying the altar restores 1D4 sanity.

## Stats

### Vladislav Mikhailovich

**STR** 10 **CON** 11 **DEX** 10 **INT** 13 **POW** 17 **CHA** 15

**HP** 11 **WP** 17 **SAN** 0

**Skills:** Alertness 40%, HUMINT 65%, Occult 70%, Persuade 75%, Unarmed Combat 20%

### Hand of the Green Man

**STR** 17 **CON** 30 **DEX** 12 **INT** 13 **POW** 17

**HP** 24 **WP** 17

**Armour**: 2 points of bark-like skin

**Skills**: Alertness 60%, Athletics 80%, Dodge 20%

**Attacks**: Whipping Branches 60%, damage 1D6+2 (see **Draining Roots**)

**Draining Roots:** The Hand’s branches extend roots into the target (who can attempt a STR contest to escape) and inflict 1D4+1 damage per turn. Each turn that it is attached to a target the Hand gains 1 HP, up to its maximum. The Hand may use this ability on multiple targets at once. If the roots reduce the target to 0 HP, the target is transformed into a wooden statue.

## Credits

The Harvest was written by David Guenther for the 2021  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 © David Guenther, excepting those elements that are components of the Delta Green intellectual property.

The Harvest is not available here under CC-BY-SA.
Source: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZTDf3bWrilmaZ3rZPfA09bcXS1hLTQ8Y83lIbgtrxBA/edit