The God Who Drags Himself - an Abortive Attempt at the Spanish Civil War in Delta Green

I ran the famous Lamentations scenario The God That Crawls in Delta Green, set during the Spanish Civil War.

The year: 1937. The place: Spain, near the Ebro. The war still looks winnable for the forces of liberty. The May events have not yet shattered the fragile alliance between the Communists, Anarchists and Republicans.

But all is not well. Fearing a fascist uprising in the mountains, the Brigade commander has sent a handpicked group of loyal freedom fighters to a village in the Pàndols range. Its mission: to clear out the ancient church there, rumored to be a wellspring of nationalist sentiment.

It was easy to transfer most of the details from the scenario over to the Catalan setting. Augustine is Augusti. Father Bacon is Father Cansalada. The townsfolk will die to protect the secret of the church, but now they're armed with a handful of old Remington Rolling Block rifles and hunting shotguns in addition to their sharp agricultural tools.

The above ground section of the adventure went great. The players stormed the church, roughed up the priest, and were duly informed the "fascists" had hidden in the mysterious pit beneath the church. They got besieged by the townsfolk, broke the siege with a well timed grenade, and descended into the hole to root out the Nationalist insurgents.

I think most people have seen Jason Thompson's illustration based on the scenario, which makes The God That Crawls look like a whole lot of fun.

It turns out, the dungeon itself is pretty boring.

The eponymous God That Crawls is cool, at first. Once the players realize they can just run away, it stops being interesting, unless it manages to corner them. There are lots of rooms that interact with the God in cool ways. Bells that attract it, or crystals that make you sing hymns to attract it, or healing slime that make you attract it. But encounters with the God itself are just... dull. There aren't any other monsters in the dungeon. There are a whole suite of cool "treasures" with laughably horrific effects, but they're all hidden in a secret area at the center of the maze. Huge sections of the dungeon are just loops of empty hallways.

Eventually, after hours of wandering, the players found their way out of the hell of empty circular corridors. They went back to the pit at the start, realized the "directions" they'd found scrawled on the wall were bullshit, followed a different set of directions scrawled on the wall, and immediately found the secret exit to the church's bible storage room. They shot their way out through the townsfolk guarding the church and ran for home.

The player feedback was unanimous: the pregens and the Spanish Civil War setting were great, the dungeon sucked. If I run more scenarios in this time period, I'm going to have to write them myself, instead of cribbing from other people.

The pregens on offer:

Commissar Luisa Alvarez, Popular Front
You were raised in a religious orphanage. You hate nuns and priests with all your heart, and hurting them makes you very happy.
STR 10, CON 11, DEX 11, INT 11, POW 12, CHA 13
HP 11, WP 11, SAN 55, BP 48
NATIVE LANGUAGE: Spanish
SKILLS: Alertness 60%, Athletics 50% Bureaucracy 40%, Craft (Tailor) 40%, Criminology 40%, Domestic Language (Catalan 40%), Drive 50%, Firearms 40%, First Aid 30%, HUMINT 50%, Law 30%, Melee Weapons 50%, Military Science (Land) 40%, Navigate 40%, Ride 60%, Persuade 60%, Search 40%, Unarmed Combat 60%
ATTACKS: Spanish Mauser (40%, D12+2, 5 AP) and 20 rounds of 7mm ammunition
Bayonet (50%, D8, 3 AP)
BONDS: Surviving Children From Orphanage 7
Adopted War Orphan 7
Secret Crush in the Worker’s Council 7
Choose a Comrade 7

Pvt Tommy O’Connelly, International Brigades (Northern Ireland)
A taig shot your brother during the rising, while you were fighting in the trenches for Queen and Country. You never miss an opportunity to hit back at the bloody papists.
STR 13, CON 11, DEX 12, INT 10, POW 11, CHA 11
HP 12, WP 11, SAN 50, BP 44
NATIVE LANGUAGE: English
SKILLS: Alertness 50%, Athletics 50%, Art (Engraving 40%), Artillery 40%, Bureaucracy 30%, Demolitions 40%, Drive 40%, Firearms 40%, First Aid 40%, Foreign Language (Spanish) 40%, Heavy Weapons 40%, Melee Weapons 50%, Military Science (Land) 60%, Navigate 40%, Persuade 30%, Stealth 50%, Unarmed Combat 50%
ATTACKS: Lebel Rifle (40%, D12+2, 5 AP) and 20 rounds of 8mm ammunition
Bayonet (50%, D8+1, 3 AP)
2 Universal Grenades (70%, 15% Lethality) or (60%, 15% Lethality) if fired from rifle grenade adapter
BONDS: Ma and Da 6
Mates From 36th (Ulster) Division 6
Brothers in International Brigades 6
Choose a Comrade 6

Miguel Zapata, Photojournalist for Spain and the World.
The pillage of the church will be a feast for the eyes, if you can just get the right shots. Your camera will tell a grim and beautiful story of the sacrifice of the old to bring forth the new.
STR 10, CON 10, DEX 13, INT 12, POW 11, CHA 12
HP 10, WP 11, SAN 50, BP 44
NATIVE LANGUAGE: Spanish
SKILLS: Alertness 60%, Anthropology 40%, Art (Photojournalism) 60%, Firearms 40%, Foreign Language (English) 60%, History 40%, HUMINT 60%, Military Science (Land) 40%, Occult 50%, Persuade 50%, Science (Chemistry) 40%, Search 60%, Unarmed Combat 60%
ATTACKS: Remington Rifle (40%, D12+2, 5 AP, single shot) and 10 rounds of 11mm ammunition
Sap (60%, D4)
BONDS: Futurist Artist You’re Trying to Impress 6
Surrealist Artist You’re Trying to Impress 6
Avant Garde Artist You’re Trying to Impress 6
Choose a Comrade 6

Cpl Santiago Sandoval, Spanish Republican Army
These churches are always full of money. Silver, holy artifacts, you name it. With two kids and a third on the way, you need every peseta you can scrounge.
STR 13, CON 12, DEX 10, INT 10, POW 10, CHA 13
HP 13, WP 10, SAN 45, BP 40
NATIVE LANGUAGE: Spanish
SKILLS: Accounting 50%, Alertness 50%, Athletics 50%, Craft (Locksmithing) 40%, Criminology 60%, Dodge 60%, Domestic Language (Catalan) 40%, Drive 50%, Firearms 40%, HUMINT 50%, Law 40%, Melee Weapons 40%, Military Science (Land) 40%, Persuade 50%, Stealth 50%, Unarmed Combat 50%
ATTACKS: Astra Model 901 (40%, D8 or 10% lethality) and two 10 round clips of 7.62mm ammunition
Ruby Pistol (40%, D8) and one 9 round box magazine of .32 ACP
Trench Club (40%, D6+1)
Knuckle Knife (50%, D4+1, 3 AP)
BONDS: First Mistress 7
Two Children by First Mistress 7
Second, Pregnant Mistress 7
Choose a Comrade 7

Dr Sergei Sudayev, Soviet State Academy for the History of Material Culture (GAIMK)
The advance of scientific socialism requires the treasures of the old order be dragged into the light of reason. Relics and artifacts belong in a museum, not the hoard of a self righteous cleric
STR 12, CON 12, DEX 9, INT 13, POW 11, CHA 11
HP 12, WP 11, SAN 50, BP 44
NATIVE LANGUAGE: Russian
SKILLS: Archeology 50%, Athletics 50%, Bureaucracy 40%, Firearms 40%, Foreign Languages (Catalan 40%, Spanish 50%, Latin 40%), History 60%, Military Science (Land) 20%, Occult 60%, Persuade 60%, Ride 50%, Search 60%, Survival 50%
ATTACKS: M1895 Nagant (40%, D10) and 13 rounds of 7.62mm Nagant ammunition
BONDS: Fellow (Russian) Civil War Veterans 6
Dean at GAIMK 6
Wife Back East 6
Choose a Comrade 6

Jose Esquella, Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT)
The poor priests and nuns of this place are workers and peasants like you. You must shock them out of their stupor, show them there’s more to life than meaningless toil before false idols.
STR 13, CON 10, DEX 10, INT 11, POW 13, CHA 11
HP 12, WP 13, SAN 60, BP 52
NATIVE LANGUAGE: Catalan
SKILLS: Alertness 50%, Athletics 60%, Craft (Electrician 40%, Mechanic 40%), Demolitions 50%, Domestic Language (Spanish 40%), Drive 50%, Firearms 40%, First Aid 50%, Forensics 40%, Heavy Machinery 50%, Military Science (Land) 40%, Melee Weapons 50%, Navigate 50%, Persuade 60%, Search 40%
ATTACKS: Short Spanish Mauser (40%, D12+2, 5 AP) and 15 rounds of 7mm ammunition
Rifle Butt (50%, D6)
Plastic Explosives (4 charges with 15% lethality each, or 20% if two are bundled together)
BONDS: Mechanics and Technicians Local 6
Brother Who Joined the Clergy 6
Choose a Comrade 6

And the monster:

THE GOD WHO DRAGS HIMSELF
STR 100, CON 50, DEX 10, INT 8, POW 12
HP 75, WP 12
ARMOR: See ENDURANCE
ATTACKS: Club 55%, D6 (see CLUB)
Engulf (see ENGULF)
CLUB: The God can form its pseudopods into clubs, spending a single action to swing at each target within reach, inflicting D6 damage on a hit.
ENGULF: Instead of clubbing everything in reach, the God may engulf a single target. The victim gets a DEX test to avoid being swallowed by its biomass. On a failure, they are engulfed and digested for D8 damage each turn until they pass a STR test, with the God gaining the equivalent amount of HP.
ENDURANCE: The God heals 1D10 HP, up to its maximum, every turn. Reducing it to 0 HP sends it into a state of torpor, but it cannot be killed by weapons.
LOCOMOTION: The God’s sticky mass cannot move faster than a human being at a brisk walk.
SAN LOSS: 1/D10