Outside in the Cold Distance

> Prepare the table, watch in the watch-tower, eat, drink: arise ye princes and anoint the shields. For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth.
>
> Isaiah 21, verses 5-6

## There Must Be Some Kind of Way Out of Here

A smokey voice speaks on the other line, “All the dogs are in the garden now. The Windigo calls your name… Will you answer?” After saying the agent’s name, the phone hangs up. The number is untraceable. No sooner has the agent hung up, then a second call rings. Their handler has activated them. They must fly to Minneapolis and meet with a friendly, Josef “Littlejohn” Trumbull. Bring two sticks of peeled sumac as long as your arms, and 3 pounds of tallow. He’ll elaborate further.

## There Are Many Here Among Us

The sun has vanished behind gray cloud banks. This autumn is an unnaturally cold one. Ice flows already drift down the Mississippi. The lakes freeze. *The wind begins to howl* your name.

Trumbull is an aged Ojibwe man. Anishinabe he calls himself. He is a native community organizer. Agents catch a glimpse of him, clipboard in one hand cell-phone in the other, as he moves among the tents of a large homeless camp formed along a major Minneapolis Highway. The residence, mostly natives, eye the agents with suspicion.

Police and paramedics pronounce time of death of a young man, an apparent opiates overdose. Suddenly, the wind picks up, ropes come loose, a kettle clatters to the ground and in the distance, a dogs are heard barking. Trumbull looks into the middle distance. “Do you have the sticks and tallow?”

## Let Us Not Talk Falsely Now

This mission sees agents unwittingly pulled into a spiritual battle, with very real consequences, against an unholy creature of greed and insatiable hunger. A **Windigo**. Trumbull was taught the way of a **Midewiwin**, a medicine man. He has seen the signs that it is near. He heard the Windigo call the agent’s name. It will hunt and devour you those it calls, but it is never satisfied.

Josef will be terse and light on details. He is used to skeptical white men. He will insist they trust him, if not call their handler. The handler will in no uncertain terms tell them to “do exactly as the old indian says.” If he has to explain, or they earn his trust, he will say the following: *“There is a spirit killing, devouring the people of this city and spreading its taint. It hides in the skin of a man. A Windigo. I heard it call your name last night. It means to come for you like it came for Wilson. But Wilson did as I said and he killed the last one.”*

The Windigo is immortal, but Trumbull knows how to kill it, another Windigo. He heard it call the name of the agent. He asked Delta Green to send him. He plans to perform **The Ritual** to transform the agent. The taskforce must follow the trail of clues, both mystical and mundane, to the Windigo’s lair, fight off its **Manitou Dogs** (“**Wargs**” as Wilson called them), and face the creature itself.

## The Hour is Getting Late

*“Wilson was full of questions, like you. All in due time. There are things you need to see, first.”*

The ritual takes place at Prospect Park. It begins at midnight. They converge at the Witch Hat Water Tower. Trumbull will lead the “**Chosen**” up the tower while the others remain at the bottom. These agents are instructed to “**Watch**” the tower. They must face the tower, at all times. Keep the sticks at their sides, clack them sticks together, ONLY if they hear dogs. Never look behind you. Never move. No matter what you hear.

The Chosen is stripped to their underwear. Trumbull paints burning hot tallow on their body while holding the sticks straight out. (Burned 0/1d4) They must stand through the pain cold and wind and keep the view. (Freezing 0/1d6) If they endure, they see the sky open up in a great aurora. Two burning red stars blaze; they see a shape in the sky and hear their name howled on the wind calling. As the last bit of heat is stripped from their body, they black out. They awake with a terrible hunger, the hunger of a **Windigo**. (Transformation 1d6/1d20, Increase Unnatural by same value)

Trumbull at some point, either before or when he is leaving instructs one Watchman on how to reverse the process: “*collect the tallow. When the deed is done, pour it on him. He must kill no one but the Windigo. Protect him, especially from himself.*” He leaves, clacking the sticks every few steps to his car.

During the ritual and the long hour of transformation, **Watchmen** hear their comrade’s blood curdling screams three times. (Helplessness 0/1, 0/2, 0/1d4) They are haunted by voices of dead loved ones, bonds crying out in pain, heavy stale breathing on the neck, and dogs howling. Each is an attack on their sanity by unseen forces. They cannot witness, only listen. If they look behind they will see their worst fears be found wanting, forever haunted and marked for the Hunt by the children of Itla-Shua. Interruption has the same affect.

If the any agent interrupts the rite, it is incomplete. The transformation takes place over a longer time, feeling colder and colder, and hungrier. Each time it tests their sanity, widdling them down until they break or feed. Worse still he is revealed to the Windigo. The Wargs pick up his scent and begin to hunt. He, and the rest of the agents may not survive the night.

## All Along the Watchtower

Forget everything you know about a Windigo. They are not huge lumbering ogres, but cunning shapeshifters. They are cannibals, but not always in the literal sense. They are creatures of Greed and gluttony, never satiated. This one feeds by addicting and overdosing victims on opiates. He has been operating in the shadows for sometime, but the native homeless camp is like a smorgasbord he can’t pass up. He’s “devoured” at least three residents already. Victims were found dead from an overdose, but two more have gone missing. Inspected bodies leach all heat around them and are hard as ice.

Locals in the camp point to a few pushers in the area. The Chosen is not the only one that can smell the rot on them, but will know by site the dealers are Warg. Others have sworn they’ve seen their dead friends, loved ones walking through camp at night. Some believe they’ve become Manitou themselves, crying out in the night, hoping someone will hear their cries. Perhaps that is why there are so many dogs barking in the night. Perhaps the Chosen can hear them, and know their anguish, if their heart hasn’t grown too cold.

They track back to the dealer. A lonely, greedy man that lives in a *lonely place*, his very own ice palace. Working girls go in and out like a turnstyle, a drained, fearful look on them. But they keep coming back, until they don’t. It is well guarded by Wargs, not that it needs to be. A single Windigo could slaughter a whole cell with unnatural strength and trickster magic.

## The Wind Began to Howl

Should they survive despite the odds, then they must melt the tallow, and restore their teammates humanity. The damage (disorders) to their psyche is never healed. Pouring burning hot liquid over your inhuman teammate provides little comfort. (1/1d4) The cure is a torture as bad as the disease. The agent must then Project that pain on the bond they love most, for only a loved one may melt the heart of a Windigo. Agents will walk away from this case deeply changed.

If they stopped the ritual, but still faced the windigo they will have to chop it to pieces and hide them in different greenboxes. The windigo still haunts them as they try to keep the creature dormant. If any of its wargs remain, they will hunt the agents and the pieces of their master for until they are destroyed or the windigo is restored.

Killing and putting down a Warg restores 1d6 Sanity

Killing the Windigo restores 1d8 Sanity.

Rescuing the missing victims restores 1d4 per victim, however witnessing their death at the hands of the Windigo or Warg costs 1/1d6.

*And, behold, here cometh a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground.* —Isaiah 21, verse 9

## STATS

### The Windigo

*Shapeshifting cannibal “Spirit of Lonely Places,” its greed and hunger, never satiated*

(The Windigo is a modified version of the same entity (Wendigowak) in the Handler’s Guide.)

(Human Form) **STR** 18 **CON** 18 **DEX** 9 **INT** 12 **POW** 16 **CHA** 8

**HP** 18 **WP** 16

(Ogre Form) **STR** 24 **CON** 25 **DEX** 9 **INT** 12 **POW** 16 **CHA** 8

**HP** 25 **WP** 16

**DISORDER:** Multiple Addictions (Drugs, Sex, Cigarettes, Hoarding, Gambling, etc.)

**ARMOR:** (Human) 2 Points of flesh Hardened by the cold, (Ogre Form) 4 points of thick and frozen hide (see ICY VITALITY).

**SKILLS:** Alertness 40%, Athletics 90%, Stealth 80% (90% in snow), Track Prey 99%.

**ATTACKS:** (Human Guise) Slam 60% 1d6 or grapple, (Windigo Form) Claw 80%, damage 1D10 or grapple. Bite 80%, damage 1D8

**DARK WINDS:** Windigo are creatures of the chilly Outer Dark, where the bleak winds of space blow. Four 2 WP they can command and use the wind in strange and powerful ways. They can command the winds to throw a target across a room or knock them prone. Targets make a STR×5 test against the windigo’s POW. If the Windigo succeeds, the target is knocked prone. For 1 WP they can create 1 audal illusion such as a scream, scratching, and whisperings. A windigo uses this to throw off its enemies and get into their prey’s head. It can mimic and mock Agents with a Bond’s voices for 1d4 WP. Agents roll Sanity (0/1) to defend, if they fail they MUST also Project onto the Bond they hear. A crit fail on the SAN roll stuns them or causes a temporary insanity of the Handler’s choice for 1 round. The Windigo’s heart is frozen ice, a selfish creature incapable of love. It knows that our human connections are what make us strong and strikes with jealousy using the Dark Wind.

**HOWL:** As its action, the Windigo can howl, spending 4 WP. Any present who fails a SAN test immediately suffers temporary insanity; those who succeed are stunned for one turn in shock and terror. The howl affects a given Agent no more than once in a day.

**ICY VITALITY:** Ordinary attacks inflict half HP damage against a Windigo. A successful Lethality roll does not destroy it, but inflicts HP damage equal to the Lethality rating. Hypergeometry inflicts full damage upon a Windigo. Fire ignores the Windigo’s armor and inflicts double damage.

**IMMORTAL:** The Windigo is immortal and cannot be killed, except by the hand of one also afflicted as a Windigo. It matters not how, but the killing blow must be made by the Chosen to the frozen heart. If the windigo is brought down and cut apart, its body parts begin to re-attach. It is therefore possible to render the creature dormant by separating the pieces over a great distance. It continues to taunt and manipulate those near its body parts, until they are reunited. (see DARK WINDS).

**SHAPESHIFTER:** The Windigo is a shapeshifter, able to appear in the guise of a man, or as a frightening antlered ogre. This change takes 1+1d4 rounds, and always follows a HOWL. It costs 1 WP. It can speed up the transformation by spending additional will for every round it would take. It is nigh invulnerable during the transformation. Wounds knit back together each round, until it is healed to full, unless lit on Fire. Witnessing the shapeshift costs 1/1d6 SANITY.

**WINDIGO BITE:** After combat, bitten Agents must make SAN tests (at a −20% penalty if bitten more than once, or −40% if the Agent has ever eaten human flesh). The agent contracts the Warg taint and begins to change. Add 1d4 to both STR and CON. The Agent has a new disorder: an addiction to eating human flesh. Should they ever act on this urge, they become compelled to devour and kill their bonds. This act is the final step towards total transformation. Their body twists, and warps into a canine shape and they howl, calling to their master and their pack. This is only reversed if the windigo’s heart is destroyed.

**RITUALS:** Call Forth Those From Outside (Itla-Shua), Fascination,

**SAN LOSS:** 0/1D8 (1/1D10 if the Windigo was known to the witness when human).

### Manitou Dogs / Wargs

*The Windigo’s rabid pack of hunting dogs.*

(Human Form) **STR** 12 **CON** 13 **DEX** 12 **INT** 10 **POW** 10 **CHA**

**HP** 13 **WP** 10

**ARMOR:** 2 (See **COLD MANIFEST**)

(Dog Form) **STR** 15 **CON** 15 **DEX** 14 **INT** 10 **POW** 10

**HP** 15 **WP** 10

**ARMOR:** 3 Thick Fur (See **COLD MANIFEST**)

**SKILLS:** (Human Form) Alertness 80%, Firearms 40% Melee 50%, Unarmed Combat 60%. (Dog Form) Alertness 70%, Track by Smell 80%.

**ATTACKS:** (Human Form) melee and firearms of you choice; (Dog Form) Bite 30% damage 1d4 Knock Down 50%, damage special (see KNOCK DOWN).

**KNOCK DOWN:** If this attack hits, the dog attempts an opposed STR×5 test against the target. If the dog succeeds, the target is knocked prone.

**SHAPESHIFT:** Wargs can shapeshift from human to a large ghostly white furred dog and back again. The transformation takes 1d4 rounds. This costs 1 Willpower. They can speed up the transformation by spending additional will for every round their transformation would take. Their wounds knit back together during each round of transformation unless attacked with fire. Witnessing the shapeshift costs 1/1d6 SANITY.

**COLD MANIFEST:** Wargs are manifest out of the Winds of The Outer Dark. They are immune to cold and hardened against cold. When dropped to zero they seem to die. But may spend 1 WP to rise and continuing attacking at a -20%. They go down just as easily, but are not killed unless WP is reduced to 0, are hacked to icy pieces, burned by fire or destroyed with Hypergeometry.

**New Ritual:** Transcendence of the Dark Wind

**Complexity:** Elaborate

**Study time:** weeks; +1 Unnatural, 1D10 SAN.

**Activation:** an hour; costs vary.

The caster marks the target with hot melted tallow. The target must stand, through the pain, holding two sticks of peeled sumac with arms outstretched. The ritual must occur at a high altitude and place of power for Itla-Shua. The target’s screams summon the Wind Walker itself, who draws out all heat from him into the cooling tallow. Two to four Watchmen must stand guard facing the target, ideally at the base of a tower. They cannot witness, only hear. If they do not endure, try to help or flee they will be found wanting and marked for the Hunt by the children of Itla-Shua.

The Target gains +4 STR and +4 CON, adds 20% to his or her Unarmed Combat skill (up to 99%), and does 1D6 damage. The Agent gains a new disorder: Addiction. When they act on the addiction they are compelled to urge or bully others into the same addictive behavior. This is permanent if the agent reached their breaking point during the Ritual or “transcendence”, but goes away if they did not reach a breaking point. They become immune to the Windigo’s Dark Winds.

Should the agent ever feast on human flesh, she begins to smell of rot and her eyes change color; this can be noticed with an Alertness test. At the end of the operation (or later at the Handler’s discretion), the Agent transforms into a Windigo and flees civilized lands for “lonely places.”

——

## References

Bod Dylan’s All Along the Watchtower

Prospect Power Water Tower

William Kent Kruegar’s Novel, Iron Lake

The Hiawatha-Franklin Encampment

## Credits

Outside in the Cold Distance was written by William Schar 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 © William Schar, excepting those elements that are components of the Delta Green intellectual property.

Outside in the Cold Distance is not available here under CC-BY-SA.