Introduction[]
Despite the lion’s share of its activity centering on the quiet Severn Valley in England, Glaaki has manifested and sprouted cults around the globe, from the Swiss alps to the rain forests of Africa. This scenario deals with a follower of Glaaki from one such locale. This “scenario” is intended to be tacked onto an existing scenario; the agents reporting a recovered tome or artifact that they are instructed to present to Agent ANTON to inspect.
Schalk Van Der Merwe[]
a Rhodesian expatriate and veteran of the bush war, Schalk Van Der Merwe. Schalk was born to an Afrikaner family living in Rhodesia in 1951. After his 18th birthday, Schalk dropped out of school to join the Rhodesian military. Schalk proved his mettle in the Rhodesian Bush War. While on a scouting mission in 1976, he encountered a village which wasn’t on any of the charts he’d been given of the area near a lake. The village was largely abandoned, though after exploring it further, he encountered two of the “villagers”, horribly mutilated and impaled through their chests with massive, strange spines. They brutally attacked Schalk, though he was able to eventually overpower them both. He took two of their spines, drawn towards their beautiful, but brutal, and wholly alien form. (see “THE SPINES” in Entities and Artifacts).
From that point on, Schalk became a (at first, unwitting) servant of Glaaki. He eventually fled Rhodesia in 1978 and began traveling, from South Africa to India, Hong Kong, and Australia. Guided by dreams to people, book stores, docks, and elsewhere; he has thrived in such places as a private security contractor.
His dreams lately have been guiding him towards the United States, to a dark-skinned man in possession of another book, one that he knew would reveal the truth of the spines and his dreams, a book he knew he must have. Each dream gave him further insight - eventually he found a nametag on the man’s military uniform: “LT. COL. E. FURST”, and he knows the man’s alias. Agent ANTON. To this end, Merwe has been cultivating resources in the states - a small group of white supremacists who respect him for fighting for the apartheid in Rhodesia - contractors who he has the connections and resources to buy off - and most importantly, other followers of Glaaki. He intends to use his resources to locate Lt. Col. Furst and commandeer The First Secret off him.
Insertion[]
As stated above, this scenario is to be inserted at the tail end of an ongoing scenario when the agents have recovered a tome or artifact or hypergeometric significance and report to their case officer. One of Schalk’s followers are tailing the PCs, reporting on their movements for Schalk. Their case officer, reporting this to A-Cell, returns to the agents with orders to report to Agent ANTON with the tome or artifact for him to inspect. The meetup location can be anywhere the handler decides - a truck stop off the highway, a remote cabin, a motel, whatever. Schalk has hired a private investigator to monitor the agents and their communications, upon learning of the meeting, he dispatches a group to ambush them.
Ambush[]
Schalk activates a cultist in the area who then activates a group of Shooters to go and ambush the agents, the handlers are invited to alter the encounter to their liking, but an example encounter here would be three Shooters for a party of four agents plus ANTON. They attack with intention to subdue ANTON, Schalk will want him to interrogate, in the event that he does not have the First Secret on his person. Depending on the group, handlers may also want to dispatch a cultist of Glaaki to accompany the shooters, hanging back with a sniper rifle ready to pick off the agents. (See “SHOOTER” and “CULTIST” in Entities and Artifacts).
Investigation[]
With their ambushers dead or subdued, the agents have an opportunity to get some answers. The shooters are not adamant professionals, most of them are from neo-nazi biker gangs or other such sources. One of them will have their personal cell phone on them which besides containing their personal information can also show them where they’ve been prior to the attack as well as messages that will hint at the location of their weapons cache, which they can use to find other clues that tie them to the cultist in charge, as they gathered at his compound before their mission. It can also be discovered that they are part of a right-wing militia called the New Federalists, investigating them can reveal that it is led by a shut-in named Foster Wade, who lives on a compound in the woods. Investigating former members will reveal that since Wade took power, things took a weird, pseudo-pagan bent that a lot of members found unnerving, prompting them to leave. Alternatively, if one is alive, with adequate “persuasion”, one would give the agents all the info they want on the cultist.
The Cultist[]
The Cultist that Schalk has activated is Foster Wade, a shut-in who long ago moved out of the city and onto a private stretch of land in the country. Wade is the grandson of an English cultist of Glaaki who fled to America after being ousted from the cult that operated at Brichester Lake. His home in the country is a compound that he is equipped to defend against the Agents. It includes a high cyclone fence around the perimeter topped with barbed wire. If the agents give themselves away ahead of time (arriving in broad daylight or ordering a SWAT raid), he will boobytrap his front and back doors with claymore mines and will post up in one of the upstairs rooms and use it as a gunner’s nest. The compound gets water from a well and he raises chickens in a large coup in the back. In his basement, he keeps an undead victim of his father - a Glaakeen. He knows only two rituals, which he performs by luring the Glaakeen to the door to the basement and praying before it. The compound is a treasure trove of clues that the handlers can use to point to Schalk, including communications on the cultists’ computer (which will require a very high computer science roll to extract, seeing that the cultist will likely try to destroy the computer before the agents can access it), letters and notes taken in his many, many journals scattered about the house, or other means.
Pursuing Schalk[]
When it comes to pursuing and persecuting Schalk, two routes are possible, depending on the Handlers’ tastes.
Swift Resolution[]
The agents arrive just as, or right after, the cultist has been killed and his compound burned to the ground by Schalk and a small team of mercenaries - an attempt to cut loose ends. He and his mercenaries will attempt to lose the agents, a firefight may ensue and Schalk’s primary goal will be to escape, trying to escape to a safehouse where he can enact a ritual that will transport him back to his South African compound.
The Campaign[]
Another option, for handlers wishing to take this beyond a simple one-shot, is to allow this to unfurl into a campaign of its own. An investigation looking into the Rhodesian will take some time and will incur a great deal of intrigue and espionage. It may take a follow-up investigation or two to discover, but Schalk is not in the United States. His main stronghold is in a remote region of South Africa, a large compound surrounded by a lemon orchard - a piece of property which Schalk inherited from another cultist of Glaaki, Leeto De Wet, the compound is guarded by a small group of professional contractors, as well as a small clutch of cultists that come in and out of the compound via a gate in the basement that connects to other safehouses in Amsterdam, Sarajevo, Sydney, and Hong Kong; and is guarded by a small clutch of Glaakeen. He has an international network of people who are willing to commit vile acts for him - cultists and professionals alike. The agents should never feel safe once they’ve made an enemy of him. He has a wide variety of resources he can and will pull on to make their lives a living hell, from blackhat hackers to professional mercenaries, white supremacists, biker gangs, and cultists.
Entities and Artifacts[]
Artifacts[]
THE SPINES OF GLAAKI[]
The Spines of Glaaki were pulled from the carcasses of two Glaakeen that were slain by Schalk in the Zimbabwean jungle in the 70s. They look like oversized sea-urchin needles made from black keratin, though they are much, much more durable They are roughly 3ft long, and Schalk has trained himself to use them in combat in a similar fashion to an Assegai used by Zulu warriors. He has two in his possession, one that he carries on his person, and another that he keeps in a lead-lined steel case in his home in South Africa.
- The spine is best used as a piercing / thrusting weapon and can be utilized with the Melee Weapons skill and deals 1d8 Damage
- The spine is unnatural and infused with the anomalous biology and chemistry of Glaaki’s material form. It deals full damage to entities that would otherwise be resistant to conventional melee weapons.
- When a killing blow is dealt with the weapon, the user regains HP equal to the dmg of the killing blow.
- Every time a human being is killed with the Spine, the user gains 1d6 WP and loses that much SAN on top of the usual SAN costs of murder.
- Every night that someone sleeps with it in their possession, they lose 1/1d6 SAN as they experience horrific dreams of drowning in an immense lake before being impaled by a similar spine. If / when its owner hits their breaking point while in possession of the Spine, they become marked by Glaaki and begin receiving directions and visions from the Great Old One. They also must choose Totemic Compulsion (Spine of Glaaki) as their disorder.
- As long as at least one person is killed by the Spine, the user stops aging.
Entities[]
SHOOTERS[]
These are low-level goons employed by Schalk Van Der Merwe. They’re a mix of street criminals, neo-nazis, perhaps even low-level cultists. The ones presented in this scenario are members of a right-wing militia called the New Federalists. They have no standard equipment; most carry revolvers and machetes, one might have a shotgun.
NEW FEDERALIST SHOOTER, Believer of the Cause[]
STR 11 DEX 13 CON 13 INT 10 CHA 11 POW 10
HP 12 WP 10 SAN 50 BP 40
ADAPTATIONS AND MOTIVATIONS Various
SKILLS Alertness 50%, Athletics 50%, Bureaucracy 30%, Computer Science 40%, Criminology 40%, Demolitions 40%, Drive 40%, Firearms 45%, First Aid 40%, Melee Weapons 45%, Navigate 40%, Persuade 30%, Search 60%, SIGINT 40%, Swim 60%, Unarmed Combat 50%
ATTACKS Medium Pistol 45% (1d10)
Shotgun 65% (2d8 / 1d10 / 1d6)
Machete 45% (1d8)
Unarmed 50% (1d4)
PROFESSIONALS[]
The professionals are private security contractors that have either worked with Schalk in the past or have been hired through said connections. They’re serious shit.
PROFESSIONAL, Born to Kill[]
STR 15 DEX 14 CON 15 INT 12 CHA 10 POW 13
HP 15 WP 13 SAN 65 BP 52
ADAPTATIONS AND MOTIVATIONS Adapted to Violence
ARMOR Tactical body armor (armor 5)
SKILLS Alertness 50%, Athletics 60%, Firearms 65%, Heavy Weapons 55%, Melee Weapons 60%, Unarmed Combat 60%
ATTACKS Medium Pistol 65% (1d10)
H&K G3 65% (1d12+2, AP 5)
CULTISTS[]
FOSTER WADE, Militia Leader and Cultist of Glaaki[]
STR 11 DEX 10 CON 12 INT 10 CHA 11 POW 14
HP 11 WP 14 SAN 0 BP 0
ADAPTATIONS AND MOTIVATIONS Depersonalization Disorder, Antisocial Personality Disorder, Obsession (Glaaki)
SKILLS Alertness 50%, Athletics 40%, Criminology 40%, Firearms 50%, Melee Weapons 60%, Occult 50%, Unarmed Combat 45% Unnatural 20%
ATTACKS Machete 60% (1d8)
H&K MP5 (Civilian) 50% (1d10)
RITUALS KNOWN One Who Passes the Gateways, Exaltation of the Flesh
SCHALK VAN DER MERWE[]
The man himself. Schalk stands at roughly 6’2”, caucasian with blonde hair, with a wind-burnt face and squinty eyes. He is lean and muscular, and thanks to the powers of the Spines of Glaaki, he has been able to retain his youth. Though he is well into his 70s, his body remains as it was in his late-30s, when he first began to use the Spines’ life-draining powers.
SCHALK VAN DER MERWE, The Rhodesian[]
STR 14 DEX 14 CON 18 INT 14 CHA 13 POW 13
HP 16 WP 13 SAN 0 BP 0
ADAPTATIONS AND MOTIVATIONS Adapted to Violence, Antisocial Personality Disorder, Totemic Compulsion (Spine of Glaaki), Obsession (Glaaki).
ARMOR Kevlar Vest (Armor 3)
SKILLS Alertness 70%, Athletics 50%, Anthropology 30%, Craft (Explosive) 50%, Craft (Mechanic) 50%, Criminology 60%, Firearms 66% First Aid 50%, Melee Weapons 70%, Military Science (land) 50%, Persuade 55%, Stealth 82%, Survival 72%, Unarmed Combat 91%, Unnatural 21%
FOREIGN LANGUAGES Dutch 80%, Shona 60%, Xhosa 30%
ATTACKS Spine of Glaaki 70% (see “SPINE OF GLAAKI”)
HK33K G3 rifle 66%, (1D12+2, AP 3)
H&K MP5 submachine gun 66%, Lethality 10%.
RITUALS KNOWN One Who Passes the Gateways, Exaltation of the Flesh, Voorish Sign
Credits[]
The Rhodesian was written by Fin Deeley for the 2022 Shotgun Scenario contest. Source: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Q3JI44XPftN7oYM4btgUIKP4ZxwRgQ2mwtJL1cRRP3o/edit#.
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 © Fin Deeley, excepting those elements that are components of the Delta Green intellectual property.
The Rhodesian is not available here under CC-BY-SA.
For preservation, a PDF backup of the original submission can be found here.