Promises

## Background

James David Wayne is a 73 year old convict imprisoned for the murder of Wisconsin Governor William Kovitch, his wife Jennifer, and their sons, Felix and Forrest, in the early morning hours of May 9, 1966. Each victim was stabbed in the heart with a kitchen butcher knife while they slept; death was instantaneous. Each of the victim’s heads where removed post-mortem. Wayne was discovered by authorities on the morning of May 9th sitting in the living room, alone. He was holding the knife, covered in the blood, with strange blood-drawn glyphs on the walls. The heads were never found. Wayne had access to the home and murder weapon because he was Jennifer Kovitch’s brother, and had been visiting the Kovitch family for the weekend.

## Opening Scene

This scenario is designed for up to three players, with at least one active Delta Green agent. The other players may be Federal or Wisconsin State agents. It opens with the agents in an armored FBI-issued GMC Yukon driving north on Highway 51 as they escort Wayne to the Wisconsin Northwoods location he says the heads of Kovitch family have been stored since 1966. Wayne has been a model prisoner for over fifty years, but he’s never revealed the location of the heads. It was presumed that the heads were destroyed, but recently Wayne announced that he was willing to lead authorities to the heads in exchange for immunity to any additional crimes that may be discovered.

James David Wayne, inmate 119001701, has been incarcerated in the U.S. Penitentiary, Leavenworth, KS, for fifty-two years. Once Wayne decided to cooperate, he was flown to Madison, Wisconsin, where Justice Katherine McClure signed the Chain of Custody order that transferred the inmate to the agents. The assembled team, with Wayne in leg irons and shackles, then began the nearly four-hour drive to the Wisconsin Northwoods.

## What Does Delta Green Already Know?

The archived Delta Green case file contains a copy of all of the forensic evidence collected at the scene of the crime, a psychiatric profile on Wayne, and a supposition of possible ties to The Unnatural written by Delta Green Agent Michaels (FBI) in July 1966. Only active Delta Green agents have been briefed ahead of this operation; they all know the follow information from the case file.

* The glyphs are in a language known as Aklo.
* Delta Green cryptologists have only been able to decipher less than 10% of the glyphs. They read as, “*In service to The Gulf of Time*,” and, “*Solemn promises made and a pact sealed in blood*.”
* When Wayne was discovered he was in a catatonic state. A recording of his mumblings confirm that Wayne was speaking Aklo, and it is believed that he was reciting what was written on the walls.

## Individual Flashbacks

During the drive from Madison to the Northwoods, the Handler should play-out individual flashback scenes with each agent. One scene is for an active Delta Green agent; the other two scenes are for any agent.

**Flashback #1 (Delta Green Agent Only)** - While waiting for Chain of Custody paperwork to be signed, you run into the Leavenworth corrections officers that transported Wayne to Madison. One of the officers is a seasoned sergeant, the other a younger rookie. With a successful **HUMINT** roll, the Delta Green agent gets a profound sense that the sergeant is afraid of Wayne. The Delta Green agent remembers that he has some interrogation video on his laptop taken right after Wayne’s arrest in 1966.

On the video are a couple of Madison PD officers talking to Wayne in an interrogation room. There is what appears to be a brief flaw in the video, and the officers then seem uncomfortable and exit the room. In the video flaw, for an instant, it seemed like Wayne’s head turned backwards with some kind of inhuman face on the back of his head. But, with a successful **Computer Science** roll, the Delta Green agent is unable to find a flaw or the odd view of Wayne’s head on the video. This results in a **Sanity** roll, (0/1D2 loss). On subsequent views of the video, the inhuman face cannot be found. If the video is shown to other people, they too, (for an instant), see the disturbing flaw and suffer the sanity loss, but not on any other viewings.

**Flashback #2** - This agent checked Wayne’s recent visitor records, and discovered that he had only one visitor last week in Leavenworth. According to sign-in records, the visitor was a Mr. John Smith. Mr. Smith checked in with a Kansas driver's license, but the photo didn’t copy well making it impossible to get a clear look at his face.

The agent has a video clip of the visitation on his laptop he can check while waiting for the custody paperwork to be signed. In the video, Mr. Smith and Wayne are in a secure visitation room separated by glass. There is no audio because they did not pick-up the handsets to speak to each other. Mr. Smith placed his hand on the glass, and Wayne placed his to match. After a few moments, Wayne nods in ascent. A flaw in the video distorts Mr. Smith’s face, making it impossible to get a clear look at him. Moments after Mr. Smith leaves, Wayne tells the warden that he’s ready to lead authorities to the location of the heads.

If the agent places his hand on the laptop screen, at the same time as when Mr. Smith and Wayne match their hands to the glass, then the agent can hear a raspy voice say, “*Promises made. Promises kept. Show them where the heads have slept.*” **Sanity** roll, (1/1D3 loss). Anyone who touches the screen is able to hear the voice, but only lose sanity once.

**Flashback #3** - This agent was the first to accept custody of Wayne once the paperwork had been finalized. As this agent is counter-signing the Chain of Custody document he may attempt an **Alertness** roll. With a successful roll, the agent notices Wayne’s shadow swelling in size for no apparent reason. The shadow writhes as if it is covered in thousands of tiny tentacles. No one else in the room notices the shadow, and it diminishes back to normal immediately. **Sanity** roll, (1/1D3 loss). And as the agent begins to lead Wayne away he leans overs and says, “*I made a promise once, and now it’s time to keep it.*” Wayne can’t be persuaded to elaborate more.

## On The Road

The agents can use the time driving to share the information gathered in the flashbacks. And no matter what approach they take, Wayne won’t answer any questions.

## The Northwoods

Wayne guides the agents to a remote cabin near Stone Lake. The cabin is dark and abandoned. **Alertness** and **Search** checks do not reveal anything dangerous outside the cabin. Inside, the cabin is dark and empty. A successful **Search** roll reveals a false wall, and within the wall is a narrow ladder down to a cellar.

In the cellar are four strange cylinders contained within each is a severed head. Each head floats in a translucent blue fluid. At this point, Wayne protests that none of “*this*” is of his doing. He admits to killing the Kovitch family, but not to hiding their heads here. If asked about his “promise,” Wayne explains that he was approached by a dark stranger who compelled him to kill his sister’s family and sever their heads. He promised to keep silent about the missing heads until he was told not to. Wayne says that he could feel the dark stranger caressing his mind, whispering, and in return for Wayne’s service, he’d undo all of the pain and loss Wayne had ever experienced in his life. And Wayne believed him. With a successful **HUMINT** roll, the agent senses Wayne’s sincerity.

As soon as the agents interact with the cylinders, the eyes of the Kovitch family heads snap open and they all begin to scream in rage and pain. **Sanity** roll, (1/1D4+1 loss). At this point, Wayne falls to his knees begging to Heaven for the dark stranger’s promise to be fulfilled. With his prayers going unanswered, Wayne collapses into a blubbering and weeping heap. As the agents begin the work of securing the living and insane heads an echoing voice can be heard saying, “Now is the time.” And with that, Wayne’s body begins to seizure as Nyarlathotep transforms him into a Slime of Tsathoggua! **Sanity** roll, (1/1D6 loss).

## Slime of Tsathoggua

**STR:** 20 **CON:** 18 **DEX:** 15

**INT:** 8 **POW:** 8

**HP:** 19 **WP:** 8

**Skills:** Alertness 70%, Stealth 55%

**Attacks:** Grasp and absorb 65%, Lethality 10% (see full statistics on page 223 of the *Delta Green Handler’s Guide*).

**Sanity Loss:** 1/1D10

## Credits

Promises was written by Jon Hook for the 2018  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 © Jon Hook, excepting those elements that are components of the Delta Green intellectual property.

Promises is not available here under CC-BY-SA.