Vacation In Shades of Gray & Green

## Overview

One Delta Green agent comes home after weeks on assignment to find that their spouse or sibling has been taken over mentally by a Yithian guard to acquire an item from a Delta Green hidden green box of assorted items. Much of this is pretty open to adjustment in spots. Time to gather the team of agents for conspiracy & madness

## Act 1 prelude

The Keeper picks one agent to act as one referred here as the leader PC. Beforehand grab an existing NPC out of the core book matching close to what the character’s spouse or sibling, I went with the sample character out of the Delta Green sample postal inspector (further labeled Agent Janus) & if making your own Janus, add +5 to INT & EDU as well as +60% on various weapon skills as the Yithian has been training while the leader PC was gone. Also for the Keeper, choose the green box locations with somewhere where 3 cities are fairly close by, i.e. Tacoma to Seattle to Victoria, Akron to Cleveland to Toledo, Raleigh to Durham to Greensboro.

The leader PC comes home after a few weeks away to find Agent Janus at home somewhat out of breath with a small package. Looking around there are a few pieces of furniture moved around like someone has been adjusting furniture while the leader PC was away on assignment for weeks. The small package might be wrapped but it’s something small as a welcome home gift with the innocent small talk of what’s been going on while the leader PC has been away. Agent Janus is out of breath from running from rooms, saying that they went to surprise the PC but was actually in another room.

After a brief exchange with the gift & talk, Janus goes into the kitchen to get some food & the leader PC gets a LISTEN roll at +10 to hear something fall in the attic, basement or nearby storage room. If the roll is a success, he/she finds that there is a mannequin wearing the spouse/sibling’s favorite outfit with multiple gunshots and knife marks in it. If the roll is failed, after a slight delay, Janus will return with some drinks & a silenced pistol hidden away at the small of his/her back. Depending on the dialogue, Janus will either point the gun at the leader PC or the Janus body as it’s just a vessel & negotiating tool plus the host was the closest to the general area for the green boxes.

The leader PC finds out that their spouse/sibling is safe but the only way for he/she will be able to return is for the leader PC to cooperate. Janus states that they know of Delta Green’s organization although not able to get specifics on what’s needed for this collection trip. They’ve dealt with them before to help them out and now it’s time for Delta Green to help them out, be as vague as possible on who has taken over the Janus host. There are a few nearby green box locations that might have a few particular items, the sooner the items are acquired by Janus, the sooner the leader PC can get his/her spouse/sibling back. Otherwise Janus might try to contact other nearby Delta Green agents to get the items however the body of Janus & his/her safety might not be certain as if the leader PC was there. As for finding the green box locations, the closest one is somewhere in the same city with the leader PC though he/she might need backup as no telling who else might be watching the area or threats inside the green boxes. The other two locations are somewhere in the region & the PCs will need tradecraft or favors to track them down.

## Act 1

At this point let the leader PC gather the other PCs & make up whatever cover they need to join in for some simple gathering assignments & including Agent Janus (who prefers to wear more practical outfits & some weapons). First trip goes to green box location #1 in a warehouse on the far side of town. Location #1 Notable Items with simple skill tests to get inside. The rest of the green box will be a storeroom of common & military items (maps, business files, supplies or more military items like simple uniforms & empty magazines or hard cases packed with foam to carry things). Nothing here is useful to Agent Janus.

## Act 2.1

For green box #2, some slight complications nearby before the PCs get to the green box.

As the players are driving up in the general area & getting out of the vehicle(s) for getting intel on where the green box is at or some other kind of break, there’s a nearby news crew doing interviews for some recent UFO or cryptid monster sightings. However this is a crew from Phenomen-X. The PC with the lowest LUCK roll will be seen by them for whatever the Keeper picks as the most crazy tabloid headline & that someone looking like that player character was spotted in same time/area as the tabloid headline. Now the PCs can brush off Phenomen-X but now they’ve possibly got recordings of the group of PCs plus Agent Janus, which can be going to future calamities from any direction the Keeper wants both to the PCs as well as the host body Janus inhabits. Also is a problem of leading Phenomen-X to the green box area a few blocks away as well as why the PCs there in the first place.

Green box #2 is in a boarded up shoe shop in an outdoor line of connected shops. Inside are dozens of fiberglass full size clown statues in assorted states of destruction from fire or sledgehammer plus assorted common items similar to green box #1. Inside the green box, Janus comments that he/she was sure it would be there but then they see on a wall nearby some ordinary x-rays of a human skeleton & gets an idea on where to go next.

## Act 2.2

One group nearby might have the answers Janus needs, a local ghoul pack. The PCs will need to get from a nearby morgue some body parts. Janus will put these in a foam cooler along with some copies of some paperwork in the morgue. Janus will get the PCs help in case Phenomen-X or others are nearby but warns them to keep calm & not attack the ghouls, the meeting might take a few hours. The PCs can wait around or join the meeting with the ghouls in the alleys of a broken part of town & Janus doing the talking in strange languages. He/she offers the cooler as well as throws out some bits to get their attention. After some nebulous talk of what Janus is looking for and payment, one ghoul will leave to return in about an hour. It consulted with a pack elder stating that the items are in green box location #3. Janus hands over copies of time/date for morgue deliveries to a nearby medical university for student classes, the ghouls will distract the drivers & steal the human remains inside the truck in the near future. As nothing was in location #2, it’s off to #3.

## Act 3

For act 3 green box location nearby, it’s Keeper’s choice on stakeout agents are Delta Green, mobsters, local cops, FBI, KGB or Majestic 12 (3 sitting in a water utility van just watching the general area & not well equipped but it’s an obvious stakeout of something). The keeper can make these more of a threat or just an annoyance as combat isn’t necessary. In a nearby closed down small airport hangar of a rundown private airfield is green box location #3. Inside the hangar with the common items are a few clothing racks of moth-eaten theatrical costumes from the 1970s from a wide variety of sources. The two items below in bold of Location #3 Notable Items are what Janus was looking for & will find suitable containers nearby for transport.

## Ending

If the PCs got Janus to the location #3 green box and the bold contents safely, he/she will call on a phone to a contact that will arrive in about 30 minutes in an unmarked van to pick up him/her with the two bold items from Location #3 Notable Items. The leader PC will get information then that Janus will leave in a week’s time & contact the leader PC on where to find the returned family member. In a week’s time, the host for Janus will be delivered to a nearby city to the upstairs of a small used bookstore with receipts or notes of being on vacation for the leader PC to explain things true or false on the vacation, the mannequin at home as well as what to tell the other PCs/Delta Green.

\*Green box contents randomly generated so if you don’t like these you can get your own, just pick something interesting non-obvious weapon for Agent Janus that might work for some obscure intelligence or bargaining item.

Thanks to the Green Box Generator site for the more interesting ideas for the green boxes (some edited down) http://www.palinola.com/projects/lab/greenbox/

## CHARACTERS:

### Agent Janus

(using Delta Green sample character - U.S. Postal Inspector with adjusted INT/EDU to higher Yithian intelligence)

**STR** 11, **CON** 16, **SIZ** 13, **INT** 18, **POW** 10, **DEX** 13, **APP** 18, **EDU** 20, **SAN** 50, **HP** 15

**Damage Bonus**: +1D4

**Education**: A.S. Accounting

**Occupation**: Postal Inspector

**Skills**: Accounting 62%, Bargain 66%, Computer Use 12%, Drive Auto 58%, Fast Talk 72%, Hide 29%, Law 32%, Listen 53%, Psychology 52%, Sneak 26%, Spot Hidden 77%

**Languages**: English 79%

**Combat**: add 60% to split among many skills while Janus has been training in basic 9mm silenced pistol, KA-BAR knife & martial arts

### Act 3 stakeout agents (3)

Delta Green Sample Border Control Agent (escalate if needed to Majestic 12/FBI/KGB/Delta Green or go down to just security/new cops/mobsters, border patrol is somewhere in the middle if combat happens)

**STR** 10, **CON** 16, **SIZ** 9, **INT** 14, **POW** 18, **DEX** 15, **APP** 12, **EDU** 16, **SAN** 90, **HP** 13

**Occupation**: Border Patrol Agent

**Skills**: First Aid 51%, Hide 47%, Law 22%, Listen 83%, Natural History 26%, Sneak 57%, Spot Hidden 92%, Track 88%

**Languages**: English 87%, Spanish 42%

**Attacks**: Revolver or 9mm pistol

### Green Box Contents Notable items #1

* A paperback book: "Toxic People: 10 Ways Of Dealing With People Who Make Your Life Miserable". A post-it note has been pasted to the front of the book. It says:"#11 - Fully Automatic Weapons".
* Every issue of SaucerWatch's periodical "Semper Vigilus" published between 1992-1996.
* A plastic trashcan containing the broken up remains of an ancient Egyptian mummy. A note fastened to the lid says "Waste of time.".
* A large sealed jar containing a human heart preserved in formalin. A closer examination reveals that the arteries were torn off rather than cut. A handwritten note attached to the jar says: "Agent Victor".

### Green Box Contents Notable items #2

* A yellowed label that reads 'Triton' is hanging off a wooden case with an Enigma M4 WWII-era cipher machine inside.
* An remote controlled pick-up truck with about a baseball amount of C4 in the back
* Two plastic buckets with lids containing what first appears to be grayish confetti with some minor pieces of trash in it. On the lids are written "Agent Jonas" and "Agent Jay". A closer inspection reveals that the "confetti" is not made from paper but some other substance.
* A crudely made and heavy set of metal plate armor with an accompanying literal bucket helm. It would take a strong person to wear it, and it limits vision. Between the old bloodstains and numerous divots on its surface, the scratched letters "KELLY" can be made out.

### Green Box Contents Notable items #3

* Assorted rolled-up/folded maritime and aerial charts of Virginia.
* A cloth bag full of dozens of four-sided dice and tied with a leather cord. A note attached to the cord reads: "Step One: Throw in path of bad guys. Step Two: Run like hell. -S"
* A small film canister, containing what proves to be a Warner Bros. Road Runner cartoon. The colors are extremely faded, and noticeably pyramid-shaped rock formations can be seen in some of the backgrounds. Two and a half minutes into the cartoon, as Wile E. Coyote is chasing the Road Runner along a desert highway, he abruptly catches the bird by the neck. He comes to a stop and turns toward the viewer. The film stops at that point.
* A deep freezer, and in the deep freezer, underneath a pile of microwavable TV dinners whose freshness dates expired some time ago, is a very heavy glass jar with a heavy stainless steel lid screwed down tightly. Within the jar is a pinkish object covered with frost; whenever observed in a frozen state, it appears to be have the shape of one of the Platonic regular solids — a tetrahedron, cube, octahedron, dodecahedron, or icosahedron, different shapes on different occasions, though it never changes when viewed directly. A note taped to the lid says "DO NOT OPEN! DO NOT ALLOW TO THAW! NOT KIDDING!" It's up to the Keeper to decide what it actually is. It can't be a small shoggoth because those don't freeze, but beyond that, well, one supposes that if it were to thaw and escape it would be mobile, hostile, and very, very hungry — and possibly immune to mundane weapons.
* An iron cage, 2' high. Inside a ratlike creature squats and watches whoever opens the Green Box with malignant intelligence shining from the eyes in its shockingly human-like face. The cage and the area around it’s quite dusty, pointing to it having been there for months, if not years.

## Credits

Vacation In Shades of Gray & Green was written by Darren Priddy for the 2015  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 © Darren Priddy, excepting those elements that are components of the Delta Green intellectual property.

Vacation In Shades of Gray & Green is not available here under CC-BY-SA.