Made in partnership with Hand on the Door.

Patrick G - Handler and co-writer

Damnatio Memoriae Written by Hank Belanger

Music by Sam Winham - Listen to more of his jams.

Cast

Sam as Mull

Jimmy as Moorison

Jordan as Magpie

Nick as Miles

The air in Washington was not moving. It was August 2020, a time of stagnant trades and empty streets, where the only thing spreading faster than the contagion was the quiet rot of isolation. Behind the closed curtains of their respective legends, the agents of the cell were busy sharpening their knives.

They call it downtime in the handbooks, but for men like these, there is no such thing as rest, only the recalibration of one’s neuroses.

Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/576NbWAEm1uOBDxlW1F4Os?si=c7228e49ddb94035

Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dead-letter-bureau-delta-green/id1826992923

Find us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@deadletterbureau

Find transcripts: https://dead-letter-bureau.captivate.fm/

Talk to us on Discord: https://discord.gg/2RFYaWHm33

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 podcast are ©Nick Sayers, excepting those elements that are components of the Delta Green intellectual property.

So, uh we finished our last scenario, which was the first scenario of the Demnatio

Memoriale fan campaign by Hank Bellinger.

2

uh I did some editing of it.

3

uh I'm Patrick.

4

uh The scenario we just wrapped up was called Dead Man's Switch.

5

We are starting the second scenario whose name I'll tell you at the end.

6

Shocker.

7

So let's get the ball rolling on that.

8

Let me just pull something up super quick.

9

Yeah, it is mid-August 2020.

10

COVID-19 lockdowns have been in effect since March.

11

1,000 people die from the disease every day.

12

Social distancing and masking are still heavily socially enforced in Washington.

13

Unemployment is the highest since the Great Depression, and Americans are still cooped up

at home.

14

Black Lives Matter protests continue across the country.

15

Jimmy, how is Morrison spending his lockdown?

16

you know, so I think because he lives in a small town, uh, kind of North East of Seattle,

he can probably still get out and go on trails, uh, cause he's not around anyone.

17

Uh, but beyond that, he wanted to work on some of his skills specifically cause he's a

biathlon guy and a coach.

18

He wanted to work on his motivational speaking, which I put down as like persuade.

19

So I imagine he's probably like,

20

watching a lot of videos on like how to motivate people maybe like networking with other

coaches.

21

Yeah, talking with other coaches about how do you you know, get your people motivated and

then he's doing a lot of like talking to himself in the mirror.

22

You can do it.

23

You can do it.

24

You can do it.

25

You can do it.

26

No, no, that not that last one.

27

I love it.

28

um

29

And then the other skill he wanted to work on ah was uh military science C.

30

This didn't really come up before, but he wasn't a military ah and he has quite a bit of

skill in land military science, but he's like, I live near the coast.

31

This should probably brush up on some of the C stuff too.

32

Yeah, don't forget you can also improve your core stats, strength, dex, con, int, power,

charisma.

33

That's that is also on the table.

34

I thought about Charisma, but his isn't that good and I didn't know it was one more point

in Charisma, assuming I even pass would be worth it.

35

So although I guess it would be a 50 or 60 instead, because you increased the bass, right?

36

So instead of an 11, it would be, yeah, that's all right.

37

What I don't know is if increasing your base stats increases your calculated stats.

38

So would that improve all of your bonds by one?

39

I'd say, yeah.

40

Same with improving your constitution would improve your maximum HP.

41

Improving your power would improve your maximum sanity.

42

That sort of thing.

43

So.

44

sense.

45

That's on the table.

46

How are you improving your military science?

47

See.

48

Uh, probably just reading a whole lot, like a lot of just like books about historical sea

battles, looking up stuff about like tactics, things like that.

49

Uh, probably not necessarily like swimming skills and stuff like that.

50

Although I guess, you know, he could, but.

51

a lot of um United States Navy handbooks and training guides available on just .gov sites.

52

can get field manuals.

53

Yeah.

54

What is your uh military science see at right now?

55

it's zero.

56

I have 60 in land.

57

Yes.

58

Is that different?

59

Okay.

60

I love that you're doing military science, the most useful skill in Delta Green.

61

Well, so what I had originally proposed was like, can I stay on the case for this

operation we're going to do and look into things and be like, what's the layout of this

62

island?

63

Like if we know that we're going to prepare for this thing, like what's the history of the

place?

64

What's, you know, there look at like, if there's any kind of tourism board stuff, what

kind of industry they have and then like geographic layouts.

65

But it sounds like that was, yeah, go ahead.

66

that and I want you to do that.

67

You haven't got the mission yet.

68

Do it on mission time.

69

um Yeah, sure.

70

You can learn military science C, get ready to get.

71

Not much points.

72

3D6 percentage points to that skill.

73

uh Before you roll this, uh we never really discussed on Mike who Morrison is, what he

used to do, what he does do outside of Delta Green.

74

What is your background?

75

so essentially he, uh, was in, I don't think I've really specified, but, uh, yeah, just

put former military, but I'm going to say army, you know, did maybe like six years did

76

some kind of like, uh, essentially I based them on like the special operator class.

77

So essentially like special operations stuff did a six years got out when he was still

relatively young.

78

he got really into skiing and with his background in like special operations and firearms,

he was really drawn to biathlons.

79

So he got really into biathlons.

80

Uh, I looked this up at some point, but I forgot now he would be like a little bit on the

older side, but still within the age range to be like Olympic level biathlete.

81

Got really into that.

82

Uh, I had put Olympic biathlete in my history, so I didn't expound upon that much.

83

Um, and I didn't.

84

are you famous?

85

No, I don't think I mean, can anyone here name a single by athlete?

86

Yeah, famous or otherwise?

87

Yeah.

88

Yeah.

89

sought out for tutelage.

90

In the biathlete community, you are perhaps a household name, or at least, like, even odds

of knowing, right?

91

Yeah, you know, I imagine it's uh it's one of those communities that like viewed from the

outside.

92

You're like, I don't really know much about this, but probably within it, it's probably

pretty small and probably any like big biathlete thing.

93

You're going to know 70 percent of the people there by name, if not like personally.

94

Sure.

95

Yeah.

96

Awesome.

97

Yeah.

98

Roll those, roll those bones.

99

Let's start with your persuade.

100

I have stay on because actually I have other...

101

listeners following along at home, we're doing personal pursuits straight from the agent's

handbook of the game.

102

uh In downtime between scenarios, uh home scenes, little vignettes get played out uh in

Delta Green games where you show the everyday reality of these people.

103

um What Agent Morrison is doing is taking the improved skills or stats

104

uh personal pursuit by training or studying extensively the agent can try to boost two

separate skills or stats uh by attempting to roll under their stat.

105

If they fail a check, he gets to add 3d6 percentile to the skill.

106

If he passes, he gets nothing.

107

So did you pass?

108

Persuade.

109

rolled a 29 on a 24.

110

So I did not pass.

111

I failed.

112

Yes.

113

Yes.

114

Yep.

115

3D6, roll it.

116

uh that is 16 right yeah 16 which is pretty good two sixes and a four so i'll uh i have so

that would put me up to 40 from a 24 so yeah i'll take it

117

Now, give me that, yeah, me, yeah, Rolled Military Science C for me.

118

I rolled 88 on a zero, so...

119

Yeah.

120

You get 3D6, you don't get the max.

121

That'd be really funny though.

122

It would be funny.

123

I got four.

124

Four.

125

That makes sense to me, frankly, given that you're starting at zero and you're doing this

at home during lockdown alone.

126

Or, or, art?

127

Yeah.

128

Yeah.

129

actually, who are you spending lockdown with?

130

ah So that would basically just be my wife, Sarah Brown.

131

Awesome, yeah.

132

Yeah.

133

So each increase to a stat or skill reduces one bond by one as you let other

responsibilities lapse.

134

Who are you neglecting to learn four points of military science?

135

C.

136

Um, you know, so I, as far as bonds, have my wife who I'm mainly spending lockdown with

and then also my brother Charlie.

137

ah

138

Maybe you're not calling Charlie as much as you could be?

139

or not like hanging out with him since like I'm technically not supposed to like go out

and be with him So I I would lose two from him like one for each skill

140

could pick one from your wife, you could pick two from Charlie, you can split it up

however you like.

141

Okay, I'll say two from Charlie.

142

Sounds good.

143

Hey Nick, I'm getting like a ton of like hissing or static or something from I think your

mic.

144

It's gone.

145

Fixed it.

146

Yeah, I think it's just picking up the environment.

147

yeah, it's, yeah.

148

Is it showing anything when you're not talking on your little bar?

149

looks like it.

150

Let me see.

151

It's unusual.

152

Seems like the gain's just maybe really high.

153

You might have just been a little louder than you should.

154

Hot mic.

155

I mean, it's glowing orange, so that should have been our first hint.

156

Weird am I loud enough or okay?

157

Yeah?

158

exactly as loud as you used to.

159

It's just the ambient is gone.

160

Yeah, that's really interesting.

161

Uh, yeah.

162

So Agent Morrison is neglecting his relationship with his brother to, uh, read up on

naval, military history and, uh, to take self-help courses in motivational speaking.

163

What a way to spend lockdown.

164

Nick, what is Miles?

165

up to.

166

And again, I don't think we really talked too much about who Miles is or was before

becoming an agent, so let's talk a little bit about that too.

167

Yeah, Miles is an associate laboratory director for national security at the Pacific

Northwest Laboratory.

168

And he spends most of his time in Seattle, but also goes to Richmond, Washington for some

nuclear facilities.

169

His education is in chemical physics.

170

So he oversees a lot of the field operations and foreign intelligence analysis of things

like nuclear, chemical, and biological technologies.

171

more, excuse me, more recently he's been getting into things about HABs, so harmful algae

in the Pacific Northwest.

172

Awesome, yeah.

173

So it sounds like he's not just a suit in a administrative role.

174

He is somebody with doctoral degrees in this field um doing stuff at a technical level.

175

Yeah, he got his PhD at UW for chemical physics and before that he was in chemical

engineering at Stanford.

176

And he spends his lockdown, I mean, mostly doing what he always did before.

177

He's working remotely now, but his morning runs are less about fitness during the lockdown

and more about calibration.

178

They're still five miles long around Seward Park and he kind of uses that.

179

that run to disperse the ideas and the stress of being locked in his house.

180

ah Sometimes he takes his son, whose name is Wintow, in a stroller and pushes him in front

of him as a little passenger in his orbit.

181

But the whole time he's calculating like what six feet is as he's running by people and

sticks to the strict guidelines.

182

Most of the time he'll wear a mask on his runs as well if it's a little busy.

183

If it's not and it's early morning, he takes it off.

184

yeah, the returning home for him

185

is almost like an airlock procedure.

186

He'll strip off like some of his clothes, wash his hands immediately.

187

He usually tosses away the N95 mask.

188

He doesn't wear the washable ones.

189

And ah he greets his wife, Mei, and she usually has a coffee and a tired smile for him.

190

And they don't.

191

necessarily talk a lot about the pandemic itself.

192

They're just kind of managing themselves and the chaos in a controlled environment.

193

So they have this like bubble of logic that they've built and they're trying to keep the

outdoors out.

194

Yeah.

195

No, I love it.

196

That all makes sense.

197

Is it one of those like jogging strollers?

198

Oh yeah, Bob.

199

So, it's a Bob, yeah.

200

very good.

201

All right, so what is your personal pursuit for these couple of months?

202

Yeah, it's really just fulfill responsibilities.

203

So just honing in on the new parenthood and then the relationship with his wife as she's

still recovering from her C-section.

204

Yeah, for sure.

205

Okay.

206

Give me a sand check.

207

okay.

208

85 over 67.

209

All right.

210

Failure on this check adds one to your bond with your wife.

211

um A success would have improved it by one D6.

212

A critical success would have also given you a point of sanity and a fumble would have

meant some disastrous conflict reducing your bond by a D4.

213

uh

214

Great, yeah, I'll take the one.

215

yep, beats the alternatives.

216

Jordan, what is, who is and was Magpie?

217

Yeah, Magpie m was, well, a bit of a gifted lad.

218

He was at home a lot, while his foreign, dignitary parents were abroad.

219

m his kind of measure was academic and uh athletic and em about his ability to perform

against his parents' expectations.

220

And so

221

When they said reach for the stars, he took them pretty literally and he was on a

trajectory towards working for NASA trying to get a position on a space shuttle.

222

And so he enrolled in the Navy and working on a naval vessel.

223

He took his GI Bill and went to college and getting into the medical field and going to

medical school.

224

goes back into rotation on the Navy, does a second tour uh in the medical facility there.

225

um And as he is starting to apply for flight school to earn his pilot's license, he learns

that he is absolutely motion sick when it comes to flying.

226

And his dreams are kind of shattered where he stands.

227

And that's about where we find him at the beginning of the 2020 lockdown, where he's

really trying to figure out how he can pivot his career choices and his frustrations into

228

something more profitable.

229

And so he's looking to kind of specialize em into em like private security for people who

are medically compromised, especially.

230

um I think that might be why Madison and or Morrison may have sought him out in

particular.

231

seems like Mole and some of the other boys, but Mole in particular is maybe a little

unstable and might need a little more looking after than your average bear.

232

so, um to, over the course of this lockdown,

233

I'm trying to look the part, put some things on my resume, some certifications in firearms

and more in pharmaceuticals.

234

Awesome, yeah.

235

How are you practicing uh pharmaceuticals and firearms during the lockdown?

236

Because I believe we discussed your living situation.

237

You live on a uh floating house on the lake, floating home.

238

uh just a scooter's ride away from where we uh met at the original meet point.

239

Yeah, I stay there with my sister, uh which has been a couple years in the making.

240

uh And by the end of this, it's a couple years into breaking.

241

And we'll see how breaky it gets as I kind of try to turn our place into like a Navy SEALs

training ground, right?

242

I got a VR.

243

um headset taking up like the biggest room at a house and I like threatened to break

through the glass door every single day in that one and I'm dry fire practice with a laser

244

training trigger I got you know we're running drills malfunctions and maintenance there's

a little RC boat that one of the kids likes to drive around and I'm popping shots at it

245

with uh a airsoft pellet on the on the lake um it hasn't sunk yet so we got an LK thing

going um

246

And then on account that I was causing so much of a stir up in his living situation,

driving my sister mad.

247

And she actually put my email address in on all the mailing editors on all the

pharmaceuticals.

248

And so I started getting all the promotional materials and I got uh free sample packets of

SSRIs and you know, uh little trifold booklets out the ass.

249

And so I do go ahead and get to reading on some of those.

250

And I start, you know, contacting some of the people who would author them and

251

the people that co-peer review studies and things like that and building a little

community in there.

252

new guidelines, new drugs, just keeping yourself up to date.

253

Yeah, as bleedin' edge as you can get from a paper cut on one of these things.

254

Yeah, awesome.

255

Yeah, that sounds good.

256

ah Give me a check on firearms and then give me a check on pharmacy.

257

Okay, yeah, so neither of these is a sure thing.

258

Firearms, we're looking for a 60 and a 95 will do just about anything for us.

259

Do you wanna see that 3D6 then?

260

All right, 3D6 coming at ya.

261

14, we take those.

262

So that's a 60 up to 74.

263

Jesus Christ, that you get real familiar with that airsoft pistol.

264

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

265

Yeah, it's one of those things where I'm doing the in and out of the magazine so many

times.

266

Right, and I'm only discharging one pellet every time, and my neighbor comes out and he's

like, you're gonna clean those up, right?

267

Because there's just a pool of 700 of them that have pebbled up in a little nook there.

268

Yeah.

269

Awesome.

270

Yeah.

271

Okay.

272

uh Give me that pharmacy.

273

pharmacy.

274

61 is more than 40 and 3D6 is looking like 12.

275

All right, that's pretty good, pretty good, pretty good.

276

All right.

277

Now, so we talked a little bit earlier today about how you don't have any firearms

actually listed on your sheet with a 60 firearms.

278

Did you want to go ahead and try to obtain a restricted weapon?

279

Yeah, yeah, we're doing a little time jump back in time to see uh how, if I was able to

like flesh out my personal uh armory with a little bit of the US national supply.

280

Yeah, do you want to have stolen a fully automatic submachine gun from the United States

Navy armory?

281

Why yes, Patrick, I do want that.

282

Okay, uh what skill are you going to try and do this with?

283

Yeah, so I understand, I don't really know how it works, but I do understand that at the

end of each spending period, they're looking to re-up budgets and so a bunch of inflated

284

spending comes through and they just slam yes, green, green, green on anything that comes

through.

285

And so I try, I understand where the cracks are.

286

I try and make an inflated order and I try and see that one of those kind of slips off

into the shadows.

287

uh, sounds good.

288

What skill?

289

Very good.

290

Uh, and what do you have in bureaucracy?

291

All right.

292

And if you fail this, this is like, this is like jail.

293

Yeah, no, I do.

294

I do understand that this is kind of the crash out period, I suppose.

295

Right.

296

So.

297

is right after you find out that you puke in planes and you're like, fuck, I'm out.

298

Better get while the getting's good.

299

Right, there's a bit of, you know, they would have spent it on something dumber than this

anyway, and you know, and I'm owed this, and you know, I've hit an unofficial breaking

300

point.

301

Yeah, all right, well, here we go.

302

31 is under 40.

303

That is good enough on your sheet.

304

So you have stolen a...

305

Yeah, you've stolen an unusual expense restricted weapon.

306

Good for you.

307

You've had it this whole time.

308

You've had it this whole time.

309

Yeah, I think put it on your sheet.

310

ah It's straight out of the book.

311

You have a...

312

You've got an MP9 fully automatic submachine gun.

313

The skill is your firearm skill.

314

It's got a base range of 50.

315

It does a D10 if you're firing it in single shot mode or 10 % lethality if firing bursts.

316

It has an ammo cap of 30.

317

It's also super illegal.

318

Do not get caught with this.

319

Hell yeah.

320

Yeah, well I do walk a little taller.

321

You keep talking about how you take Lyme scooters everywhere.

322

Do you have a car?

323

funny.

324

Yeah, we do.

325

We do.

326

Yeah, we share one.

327

She commutes in the normal time.

328

Okay, alright.

329

is it?

330

Golly.

331

Yeah, no, I can tell you're curious.

332

em Yeah, I think it was decidedly not my choice and so I really don't get along with it.

333

It's one of those two-seater hatchbacks.

334

One of those ones that makes you go like, now how on earth did somebody design a car like

that?

335

Who was this for?

336

Lo and behold, it's for me.

337

Apparently, yeah, right.

338

Awesome.

339

Where are you keeping your stolen United States Navy restricted SMG?

340

Is this uh just like normal everyday business or carrying?

341

Yeah, I mean...

342

you've got it in a, it's got a carrying kit, like a Pelican case, I'm sure.

343

Sure.

344

Yeah, it goes in a duffel, you know, so as to be inconspicuous as with most other things

when we're moving around.

345

em But as far as um day to day, I think it is just underneath the headboard.

346

There's a headboard that is not actually attached.

347

And so it's just able to be kind of like slipped up and you grab it out from under and

then set it back down.

348

Like you meant to screw it in, but now you're just kind of making it look like you never

meant to.

349

Sounds good.

350

What I was getting at was does this live in the trunk of your car if an incident turns up

where you're on site and you realize you need your gun, will you have it on you?

351

I guess it depends what I'm on site for.

352

It sounds to me like you have to plan to bring it along because it lives at home.

353

Yeah, yes, if I was being called out for uh to be prospected to, you know, or for for a

job, then it would certainly be.

354

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.

355

But for surprise like anything, no.

356

All right, that sounds excellent to me.

357

And I'll tell Jimmy when he gets back too.

358

uh But Nick, Sam, Jimmy, if you guys need any uh non-incidental gear, we can talk about

that now.

359

hey, Jimmy, can you hear us?

360

Yeah.

361

hey, head, Chordless, how nice.

362

Did any of you want any non-incidental and or restricted gear that makes sense for your

characters and backgrounds?

363

And again, there's a whole mechanic for obtaining it and if you fuck it up, it is bad.

364

Magpie rolled a 40 % or go to jail check.

365

Yeah, I probably would not try to obtain anything unauthorized.

366

I do have experience with heavy weapons uh and demolition, ah but I'm not going to try to

sneak any of that stuff home.

367

There are non-restricted heavy weapons.

368

Hmm.

369

Specifically, there's a handheld flamethrower that is an unusual expense.

370

It's like the one you can buy from what's his nuts, the shithead.

371

Who?

372

I dare say it is unusual.

373

Yeah, Elon.

374

It's a boring company.

375

you mean Leon Tusk?

376

God.

377

We're gonna get to that.

378

Yeah, no.

379

If you want to have...

380

Okay.

381

I am.

382

It is an unusual expense, which means there's a potential for it to damage your financials

or your relationships with the people you share financials with.

383

Hmm interesting, how does that work?

384

can you pony up five grand without your wife figuring out?

385

Hmm.

386

And the way you do that is either...

387

Well, so there's a couple ways you can do it.

388

You can use illicit cash.

389

You can use your own money.

390

You can try and requisition it from the government.

391

Or you could try and obtain something on the black market if you wanted a restricted item.

392

um The easiest and safest thing for you to do would be to spend your own money.

393

Which, all that happens is you say, I'm paying for an unusual expense.

394

The stress of spending this reduces one non-delta green bond by one.

395

um You can then make an accounting test to have done this without um hurting your

financials by cleverly taking out credit cards by hiding the trail.

396

Hmm.

397

That sounds like too much work.

398

I have like a story way, but it wouldn't be quick.

399

It'd be like, oh, well, you know, essentially I do a lot of shooting.

400

like just in my life, I have a pretty big budget for like ammunition anyway.

401

Maybe say over the course of a couple of years, instead of shooting like, you know, 500

rounds a week or whatever I normally do for practice, I just shoot 400.

402

And then after a couple of years, I set that money aside and then I'm like, boom,

flamethrower.

403

Yeah, so that's how you would get the unusual if you want you can roll that accounting and

then have that flamethrower

404

Yeah.

405

plan.

406

And hear me out.

407

If you succeed on it, canonically, you're like one of the guys from the station in the

thing, right?

408

Like you're the fucking ski master with the daddy beard and the flamethrower.

409

Now, I will put it out here.

410

If you're willing to risk restricted and a major expense, there is a general purpose

machine gun on the...

411

If you're a guns guy and you were in the military and you don't mind maybe retroactively

going to jail...

412

Yeah, I feel like jail is not something that he's willing to risk.

413

uh Ruining my finances, I don't know what that means in terms of the game, because we've

never actually done that.

414

Yeah.

415

broke, you're gonna have a really tough time later.

416

You can get fired from your job.

417

There's rules about being prosecuted, and there's rules about having Senate hearings.

418

like, uh-huh.

419

You're playing a game with a bureaucracy skill as its own line.

420

It does, yep.

421

My accounting's only 10.

422

I'm gonna...

423

I'm gonna have to let that dream of uh being one of the flamethrower guys from the thing

just remain a dream for now.

424

can have it.

425

You just damage your finances and your relationship with your wife.

426

Okay.

427

I love it.

428

That's, I think that's a great like character point is like, no, I could do this.

429

I won't.

430

Why would I do that?

431

And Magpie's like,

432

Yeah.

433

Chase really wants that flamethrower, but he's like, huh?

434

What am I going to do with it?

435

You know, ski behind my trainees and be like faster.

436

You

437

Ha ha ha ha.

438

Don't let the flames getcha!

439

So does anyone else need restricted gear?

440

Sounds like no.

441

I'm a wife guy, no thanks.

442

Yeah.

443

alright, okay.

444

Sounds like a plan.

445

Then, uh, yeah, Sam, what is...

446

Mull's deal?

447

Who is and was Agent Mull?

448

Yeah, so, uh Mole, or Leon Tusk, is a corporate director at BlackRock.

449

So he does like mergers and acquisitions.

450

So he's just like truly going in and doing corporate espionage.

451

uh He grew up in the Seattle area, went to Yale for undergrad, Harvard for law school, was

clerking with like a SCOTUS like track, because he was seen as smart and charismatic.

452

And then the minute he could, he got out of it and said,

453

and I'm gonna make money, enjoying a small corporate firm and then moved his way up to

corporate director at BlackRock.

454

In the pandemic time, Mole lives on, and let me know if this doesn't make sense, but lives

on Mercer Island, has a nice big house there.

455

Yeah, that's what I thought.

456

And he's got almost a little bit of a compound.

457

At this point in the pandemic, he's...

458

knee deep in his addiction uh that is going on like online forums, on eBay and

undercutting people for things he knows that they really love and like fucking buying it

459

out from underneath them.

460

ah So he's got in his like basement, this computer set up and then just all of these

fucking expensive tchotchkes.

461

And it's purely just like he's, you know, he like trolls forums for like

462

I don't know, Snow Globe collectors, and if he sees somebody who's really looking for this

one thing, he undercuts them and buys it out from underneath them all just to maintain

463

some amount of control.

464

Yeah, total freak, yeah.

465

would he buy uh like access to a large number of people's webcams on the dark web so that

he could watch their faces while he beat them to the buzzer?

466

Yeah.

467

minute he found out that he could do something like that, it was like sweetening the pot

that he could see.

468

Like when you didn't get the item that makes you think about your father that you've been

pining about on this online forum, he can watch it happen and he's like, fuck yeah.

469

I did that.

470

guy waltzed up, he's like, baby let me show you what I can do for you.

471

And the rest is history.

472

what is Leon Tusk's computer science?

473

Yeah, okay, fine.

474

Scum, what the hell?

475

Yeah, he's not great.

476

um

477

All right, horrendous.

478

What's your personal pursuit other than cruelty for cruelty's sake?

479

cruelty's for control sake.

480

uh He is forced to go to therapy, unfortunately.

481

um I think that he, uh what I had in my head, I don't think it's a court injunction,

because I think that Black Rock, yeah, is like, it tries to keep everything inside.

482

And so Black Rock is like,

483

He did something, said something off the wall, because he's already kind of like on the

edge there, did something on one of these like trip, business trips when he was like

484

trying to do mergers and acquisition shit and undercut somebody.

485

And boom, like he got in trouble.

486

They wanted to keep it in house.

487

So they hired some like therapists.

488

He refuses to go see anybody because A, it's the pandemic and B, it's mole.

489

And so they are doing it all over Zoom and he's taking it like not very seriously at all.

490

It's like clicking through.

491

He's on the forums.

492

Yeah, he's on forums hunting.

493

So, but I guess actually I say that, but I think there's probably a moment where he does

have to take it somewhat seriously, right?

494

And he reflects on something bad that's happened to them, to himself, I would say, eh

because he's doing it like, I think they make him do like six sessions or something like

495

that.

496

And so the first couple, he's not taking it seriously at all.

497

And then by the time, you know, rolls around to the sixth session, he's like,

498

in the pandemic like fully.

499

And so he's not been able to talk to anybody.

500

His normal, he's a people person, even if it's like a shitty being shitty to other people,

he's still a people person.

501

And so this has affected him in ways that he has no ability to figure out and like no

introspection to figure out why this is like causing him suffering.

502

And I think that like on that third or fourth session, something actually comes out about

like the violence he's seen.

503

Okay, do you think...

504

So I got a couple of questions for you.

505

Because Go To Therapy is like a whole ass half page in the rulebook.

506

It is by far the most complex and it is the only one that can actively damage NPCs and the

systems around them.

507

So here, yeah, it's wild.

508

I wondered about that because that's an interesting idea that the therapist takes on the

harm.

509

that you can damage your therapist's sanity if you choose to tell the truth.

510

Telling the truth to your therapist uh makes the therapy better for you at the risk of

your therapist, one, becoming harmed, two, not believing you, and three, becoming a threat

511

to Delta Green.

512

What?

513

are you doing?

514

First, are you truthfully telling your therapist the activities that caused you to lose

sanity?

515

You know, think that he, because, so, I'm just gonna be real with what I think Leon would

do, because I think that he is not meaning to do any of this stuff, and then the minute it

516

gets down this rabbit hole of talking about control, I even think it's probably because

they start talking about all the shit that he's got in his background as a way to get in

517

with him, and then they, yeah, and he's like, you know, this one, this was Paulson this is

his father, died with this, and I bought it, you know, right before.

518

You know, and he's like showing off all these different like tchotchkes.

519

I I think there's this moment, he has trophies, there's this moment where like his eyes

like almost glaze over and it becomes, he just starts like saying like the actual like

520

weird shit that he's seen.

521

um

522

So yeah, you're gonna tell the truth.

523

um Is...

524

Yeah, give me a s- what do you think?

525

Uh, are you paying for a high quality therapist?

526

Your teledoc?

527

Yeah, I, know, initially I had thought about like, was it like a better help kind of

thing?

528

You know, like, um, not to denigrate anybody, but like, you know, is it somebody that

you're paying for that you have no idea?

529

But my sense is, that if it's like HR and the corporate director uh position requiring

this, they have somebody on retainer who is probably used to hearing fucked up stuff,

530

right?

531

Very highly paid.

532

Maybe not the fucked up stuff that, you know, Leon's going to dump on them, but definitely

at least like, you know, bad stuff.

533

enough for him to be able to say, what am I paying you for?

534

Right?

535

Like, what are we really paying you for?

536

Yeah, so first give me Persuade.

537

That's a 21 on an 80.

538

Okay, ah yeah, the therapist believes you about the things you've seen and the things

you're telling her.

539

um

540

Yeah, give me a 75 % psychotherapy roll.

541

22 on a 75.

542

is that a critical success?

543

It is.

544

Yeah, wow.

545

Okay, you get six sand back up to your limit.

546

How far were you down?

547

Okay, so we discussed this and I don't know what you think about this and what everybody

else thinks about this.

548

My current was 37.

549

It says 40, but then in the rules it says the max is 99.

550

Do you guys play that you can go over the 40 or not?

551

I don't really care at all.

552

So I'm just happy to have some sanity back.

553

I don't know that the rules say the max is 99.

554

I either.

555

I thought I looked this up.

556

Well, it sounds like we also don't know that the rules say that the max is your starting

value.

557

Therapy cannot increase sanity beyond the agent's power times 5.

558

perfect, okay, cool, that sounds good.

559

Okay, cool.

560

That maximum sanity on the AutoCalc sheet trips me up because it's like your mythos, yeah,

because it's like your mythos minus your, or your 100 minus your mythos.

561

So, okay, cool.

562

Well, that's.

563

true.

564

Your max sanity can never be higher than 100 minus your unnatural skill, which is true,

but not helpful.

565

Okay, so I get three back.

566

Yes.

567

then, do you suffer from a disorder?

568

yeah, I did, didn't I?

569

Did you?

570

No, no, no, no, we yeah because every time I rolled I had that

571

It should be written on your sheet.

572

Yeah, Megalomania, that's right.

573

Yep.

574

Holy shit.

575

from a disorder or critical success on a therapy role, cures it.

576

My god.

577

Leon is healed.

578

This was a laying on hands.

579

is maybe not a good thing.

580

Your agent develops a bond with the therapist equal to half your agent's charisma.

581

Cool.

582

I love that.

583

Okay, do we wanna just make up a name for the therapist or should I just write therapist?

584

Okay.

585

McKinsey Stillwater.

586

to write therapist.

587

Yeah.

588

uh

589

What's her slogan?

590

Your mind will be still as well.

591

Yeah, there we go.

592

Still water, still mined.

593

Is that a half round up or down?

594

It sounds good, eight.

595

uh Write cured next to the disorder on your character sheet But do not erase it the next

time you gain a disorder you must roll another secondary sand test if that fails the cured

596

disorder returns in full force alongside the new one

597

Okay, cool.

598

m

599

uh Last but not least, can you make a sand check for Dr.

600

Stillwater for me?

601

That's going to be a 65%.

602

37 on a 65.

603

Fuck yes!

604

Holy shit.

605

Okay, yeah, no.

606

pretty good downtime.

607

Yeah, that's pretty good for Leon.

608

Downtime is really important for characters' survivability between missions.

609

Can Morrison maybe uh send a message to Mole or send him a link to a message board about

flamethrowers?

610

Antique flamethrowers.

611

Yeah.

612

Hey, you can really screw some guys on here.

613

Buy some of them flamethrowers with all your BlackRock money.

614

I'm kidding.

615

You don't have to.

616

You can say no.

617

Nick, your mic is doing that thing again.

618

Yeah, what the hell, Nick?

619

I don't know.

620

It's so strange because there's no ambient noise other than my PC, which is like uh far

away.

621

So I don't get it.

622

like room tone, quite honestly.

623

Like just the tone that you get in like a room.

624

And so I feel like it's maybe just gain.

625

It's like I'm on like one game right now.

626

wild, because I have to turn my gain all the way up for this.

627

And I feel like I may be quiet for you guys here talking you.

628

mean.

629

at like half and above and it's like, yeah, never been like this.

630

I don't know.

631

uh Jimmy, does Morrison want...

632

You can totally ask Mull to buy you an expensive gun.

633

And it's going to work exactly the same way, because if you piss off your teammate by

asking to borrow $5,000, go for it, man.

634

Yeah, totally, I'm here for that.

635

Absolutely send that text.

636

I'll just send him a link to uh, I'm not gonna ask.

637

I just know that this is Yeah, I just know that this is like a proclivity that he has and

I'm like, hey flamethrower message board

638

What are you gonna do with that, Sam?

639

think Mole is going to click it and then start browsing and if there is anything on there

that he seems like he can harm someone else with, um yeah, then he's gonna do it.

640

All right, Jimmy, roll straight luck.

641

oh, sorry.

642

You

643

ah No, that's a 63.

644

No, these are weirdos and they're all doing like weird kind of scammy things.

645

Yeah, soft sit people.

646

Not to say the soft sits weird, I am one, so.

647

I'm gonna let you guess which one if I'm the soft sitter mole is.

648

Yikes.

649

I don't know if a corporate lawyer could be as soft set.

650

That doesn't uh quite line up.

651

It might formal if he's like, yeah, he's like, he's like, I understand these laws and I

use them to harm people and better my situation, but they don't actually apply to me.

652

I maybe, kind of.

653

God, I'm playing a real piece of shit, I'm sorry guys.

654

It was like you gave me a chance to be a character and I just said fuck it, huh?

655

Yeah, we.

656

you.

657

And Jimmy's the best guy we've ever met.

658

Yeah, I guess that's true, right?

659

The yin and yang of hand on the door.

660

I do love at the top, I read when you get me your character, I read the name.

661

And I was like, please do not roleplay this.

662

I cannot handle it.

663

And so far you haven't.

664

okay, cool.

665

Just wait till I get my ketamine.

666

God.

667

Why do you think I'm working on pharmacy?

668

Yeah, fuck yeah

669

That's the end game here.

670

The end game is to get the ketamine.

671

Get the ketamine, get the girl.

672

Well, if can I'm gonna go get some water if that's okay Take a break.

673

Okay.

674

Oh He's back I'm still gonna get water if that's okay

675

We're going to grab a cup of water, but Nick, let me see if I can hear your.

676

Yeah, there's a little ambience.

677

Yeah.

678

I don't know what there is to do about it.

679

Like, you know, stay muted when you're not talking, I guess.

680

Yeah, sure, weird.

681

Sorry.

682

All right, I'll be right back.

683

and so I finished uh Buffalo Hunter Hunter yesterday is good yeah it's a book and it's

excellent

684

What's it about?

685

Uh, it's about this.

686

yes, I actually listened to the audio book for this one and they did some cool stuff with

it, but essentially it's a lady who gets contacted because somebody finds a journal from

687

her like great, great, great grandpa who was a pastor, uh, on like a frontier church in, I

think it was Wyoming or Montana.

688

I don't remember which, um, but, uh, she reads through this journal and it's his account

of like stuff that happened at the church.

689

and it's really good.

690

Cool, maybe I'll check it out.

691

Hey, Sam, I had a couple of questions about how Mull is spending his pandemic.

692

Do your wife and kids know you're down there in the therapy basement?

693

That's a good question.

694

Yeah, I think so.

695

um I think that probably in the first couple months, maybe the first couple months of the

pandemic, when flights and stuff were shut down, when I couldn't go anywhere, because

696

they're used to me being gone constantly, I would say, like in and out of their lives.

697

I think there was this period of time where we tried to pretend like we were like a family

that like knew each other and did stuff.

698

And then that quickly unraveled the minute I was like exposed they were exposed to me and

I was exposed to them for like a continuous period of time You know what mean?

699

um So that probably took a couple weeks, maybe a month uh And then we went through the

stages of just fighting with each other constantly And then finally I kind of just retired

700

down to the basement where I've been pursuing stuff um So I think that they are like

nebulously aware

701

that I had to undergo some therapy for something that I did, you know, in the prior, right

before the pandemic started.

702

But I wouldn't say that they're like fully aware of what I'm doing down there.

703

And now at this point, it's like, em I'm imagining it's like we are doing the things that

polite society requires of us.

704

So we'll have like dinner together.

705

Maybe we have like our chef make dinner and do stuff, but otherwise we're not spending a

whole lot of time with each other.

706

With your megalomania cured, how does your behavior change?

707

that's a good point.

708

um think so.

709

So we'll say because we I said it was like a couple sessions in and we were doing like a

session maybe every week or something like that.

710

So we'll say that like two months into the pandemic, then I after we have this kind of

breakthrough, I start reevaluating other people, I guess in general, right, that people

711

exist outside of me.

712

I lose a little bit that solipsism.

713

um And that's when he

714

breaks from his cave and his cave is still like got a bed.

715

It's got like a shower.

716

It's got like its own like mini kitchen.

717

I mean, it's like a giant like, like area, like basement that he could basically live out

of, I think comes upstairs um and actually takes his Atticus and Tiffany out to like fish

718

for the first time, something that maybe they did years and years ago.

719

Cause Atticus is 15 and Tiffany's 13.

720

um So when they were younger, maybe four or five, he would take them out fishing.

721

he has this like spark of insight or this moment of like understanding that like these

people exist outside of him and are actually like beholden to him.

722

And it goes pretty awkwardly I'd imagine, cause you know, he's basically been gone for the

last like nine years of their life more or less.

723

um But it's that like maybe beginning I think of like a relationship sparking again

because he's able to talk to them about like school.

724

You know, he's like, well, how are you even going to school?

725

zooms, you know, a thing or whatever.

726

And he's finally learning some of these details.

727

And that's like maybe the first kind of spark we see.

728

em And then maybe there is like a small scene where his wife uh sees him bringing them

both in.

729

And there's like this moment of like maybe connection there.

730

I don't know how long lasting that's going to be given where he is.

731

But there is that kind of moment where she sees, you know, the guy that she married like

15 years ago.

732

Yeah, awesome, I love it.

733

That all sounds great to me.

734

So let's jump into the scenario itself.

735

It is the evening of August 15th, 2020.

736

You all receive a summons in your usual ways.

737

So Morrison finds rolled up instructions in a

738

the hollow of a tree on one of its roots after going through several trail closed signs.

739

um

740

Mull gets an encrypted email, if I recall correctly, and has to dial in from the red phone

in his basement.

741

uh Miles, how does Miles get contacted?

742

It's a dead drop, right?

743

it's a dead drop on his run route in Seward Park.

744

All right, he picks up his instructions and uh Magpie goes ahead and receives an encoded

Morse communication from the robotic baby robins that they installed uh in his, not his

745

backyard, he lives on a houseboat on his roof.

746

Yeah, it's not the most convenient, but it gets the job done.

747

At this point, how do you feel about the robotic bird's nest on your roof?

748

em Well, it's more about like fending off the questions from strangers about the

unseasonable times that they seem to be nesting, I suppose.

749

em But I'm not a what ornithologist.

750

em So I don't have to answer too many of them.

751

And it goes OK for me.

752

I don't feel like it's been going off too much.

753

Like when was the last time I even had to pay them any mind?

754

Yeah, sure.

755

All right.

756

You get a message, all of you, from Agent Madison.

757

She has called you to meet her at the Anacortes Ferry Terminal, 8 a.m., August 16th,

tomorrow.

758

It is 8 p.m., August 15th now.

759

What are you telling your families, if anything?

760

Yeah, I would say, hey, I gotta go do a nuclear inspection on site in out in Richmond.

761

So it might be a few days.

762

I'll call you as soon as I know, you know how these things go and give her a hug and a

kiss and kiss my son on his forehead and get on the road.

763

em I'll talk to my sister uh and tell her that her misdeeds actually landed me a spot uh

on a panel uh and I'm talking uh at a pharmaceuticals conference em over in such-and-such

764

and em I'll be back whenever I demo it please.

765

She's surprised, ah but is actually really supportive.

766

That's really cool to see you getting out there like that.

767

Yeah, well thanks.

768

It feels good to have something, you know, real going again.

769

Yeah.

770

Morrison tells his wife, uh, I forgot to mention this when I was kind of doing the

background on them, but I'd mentioned before he does do search and rescue as well.

771

Kind of like back, you know, back country search and rescue.

772

He tells his wife, you know, with COVID there's a lot of people interested in getting

outdoors.

773

We've got a lot of people don't really know what they're doing going out on the mountain

for the first time.

774

Somebody got lost.

775

I got to go look for them.

776

Hopefully be back in a couple of days, but you know, might be a little bit longer.

777

We'll see how it goes.

778

Sounds good.

779

I Mull tells his wife um that we're trying a new uh retreat, nature retreat, amongst all

the corporate directors.

780

I'll probably be gone a couple days at least.

781

So don't expect me to come back anytime soon and then kind of pieces out.

782

Alright.