I had four players sign up. One had to leave shortly before the game began, one never showed up, and two arrived ready to play. Both had enough experience with Delta Green that we were able to jump right into the briefing and character selection.
- Agent SHALIMAR, FBI, master of disguise
- Agent SELLERS, mob doctor and grifter
After depositing their luggage (filled with guns and other trinkets) in their berth, the pair of Agents went looking for Valentine.
The first thing they noticed was that the high roller deck was off limits. All the top level suites, but also the sun deck, top level pool and bar. They noted the irregularity, and split up to search for clues.
Shalimar convinced a midshipman to let her up onto the bridge, thinking that the ONI officer might have invited himself up there. She didn't spot him, but she did learn that the entire sun deck and high roller suite had been booked by a single family. From her elevated position, she was able to actually see down on the deck, where a single figure rested in the shade by the pool.
Sellers went to the casino. She didn't find Valentine, but she met a strange Tlingit woman named Kat, who was absolutely cleaning up at the baccarat table. She struck up a conversation, and learned that the wide-bodied Alaskan was part of the group that had booked the entire sun deck. She accidentally spilled her dink on the mysterious lady, who laughed it off, but left for her cabin soon after.
The pair of Agents met up to discuss what they'd discovered. Both had learned that the off limits decks were occupied by a single family.
Sellers stole an access keycard off a maid's lanyard, and Shalimar used it to sneak into the Laundry area of the ship. They grabbed maid uniforms to sneak into the off-limits deck. As they were preparing to go into the high roller suite, Colonel Robard came out the door and got into an elevator. They decided this was an opportune moment to toss the place, since he wasn't home.
Inside the luxury deck, there were five suites arranged around a sumptuous common area with a full kitchen. There was a strange tablet on the table in the common room, and the Agents could hear and smell someone cooking in the dining room. Shalimar examined the tablet, and for a moment was
transported
beneath the waves, to the drowned ruins of the world
to hear the words of the lord
in the sunken city where she could not live but would never die
And then she was back, staring at the slab.
(Shalimar had amnesia on her character sheet, from the time she was "killed" while infiltrating a Cthulhu cult in San Francisco)
With Shalimar returned to awareness of her surroundings, Sellers decided to confiscate the tablet as evidence. She hefted the slab of pelagic clay, while Shalimar continued searching the penthouse.
Shalimar listened to the mysterious cook in the kitchen, two rooms away, who was singing a song in Tlingit. Shalimar recognized the lyrics: it was an old song about a long suffering woman who patiently waited for the opportunity to kill (and often eat) people who annoyed her.
(The player decided to spend Shalimar's free language slot on Tlingit)
The FBI Agent went into the dining room and snatched a mysterious keycard from the table, without alerting the chef in the kitchen. Then she began searching the rooms.
- The first room belonged to Kihikihi Robard. It was filled with giant articles polynesian clothing, weight training equipment, and shed shark teeth
- The next room belonged to Schlomtzion Robard. It was filled with conservative Orthodox Jewish clothing, along with books in Yiddish
- The room after that was empty. As she was tossing it, Shalimar heard the mysterious cook walk past outside, headed for the stairs up to the sun deck
- The room after that belonged to Kaatkwaaxsnei Robard. There was a book chronicling her grudges against different passengers, along with a mysterious woodcarving of an unfinished nautilus
As Shalimar left Kat's room, Kat came back down from the Sun Deck. Without her shirt on, letting Shalimar get a good look at all her crustacean part. Kat was not happy that Shalimar had "snuck in". Shalimar was disguised as a maid, and said she was here to replace the towels. Kat believed her story, and let her off with a warning. Shalimar got the hell out, before Kat could notice that the keycard and tablet were gone.
Back in the berth, the pair of Agents debated their next move. Shalimar noticed that the card she swiped from the dining room table had a deck and room number on it. The pair of Agents piled into the same elevator that Robard descended when they first saw him, swiped the card, and punched in the deck number written on it.
The doors opened into a cargo hold, lit by dim red bulbs. They could smell seawater and hear splashing somewhere ahead. The hallway led into a big pool, where Colonel Valentine Robard, ONI, was making furious love to his anglerfish wife. Sellers wanted to wait and snatch Robard once he left the pool, but Shalimar freaked out and opened fire with her sidearm (she took a temporary insanity from the tableau). The shot went wide, and battle was joined. Sellers snatched Robard's clothes from where they lay on the deck. The angler woman dumped her husband in the pool and flashed the Agents with her lure, stunning and blinding them. She lurched forward and sank her giant fangs into Shalimar, who fell to the ground in shock. Sellers dragged Shalimar away from the edge of the pool, before the angler-woman could flop out onto dry land. They made it into the elevator right before she caught them.
On the elevator ride back up, the captain came on the intercom to announce that the Venezuelan Coast Guard was boarding the vessel for an inspection, and all passengers should return to their cabins. The Agents were on the way there anyway, and stumbled back to their berth. They opened the door to find a seven foot tall shark woman climbing through their open window. They slammed the door and ran, and she chased them down the hall. They ran into a couple of Venezuelan coasties in the stairwell, carrying AKs and shouting in Spanish. The Agents played the scared tourists and slipped past them, putting the armed officers between them and the shark. The sound of gunfire and gnashing teeth were deafening as they climbed the stairs.
The Agents decided it was now or never, they needed to grab Robard before things got worse. They climbed back into the elevator and returned to the red-lit pool room. They found it empty, with a slime trail indicating its fishy occupant had left the salt waters to crawl around on land. The Agents took the elevator to the top deck, where the slime trail led back to the high roller suite. There was a dead coastie on the deck. The anglerfish woman was pushing forward into the penthouse, accompanied by Colonel Robard, clad in a stolen pair of Venezuelan Coast Guard trousers and carrying the dead man's rifle.
Now was their time to strike. They rushed in and grabbed Valentine from behind, yanking his rifle away. The angler woman turned to protect her husband, but couldn't bite the Agents without also biting him. They dragged him away, using him as a human shield, and called in the extract. The helicopter would be there soon, if they just held on. They noticed that Robard was wearing a strange amulet with an image of interlocking hagfish, and ripped it off him. This was the wrong choice, as damaging it caused a layer of protective mucous to form around his body, squirting him out of their grasp. The angler woman rushed to protect him, but was engaged by more Venezuelans firing down from the sun deck above.
Valentine slid to a halt at the railing. Three Deep One assault troopers climbed over. They were here to rescue the Robard family, and they offered the players a deal: let Valentine go, and the deep ones wouldn't kill them. The Agents thought about it, for a moment. Then they opened fire. They stunned one of the Deep Ones with a couple well placed pistol shots, shooting around their living-crustacean plate carriers. Then one of the fish people tossed a mysterious statue like a grenade, which imprisoned the Agents in a sphere of water. Sellers swam out of the sphere to continue the fight. The Deep Ones shot and killed her with their amphibious rifles.
The fish people extracted Robard and his wives, leaping over the side into the ocean to board the enormous Nautilus that had surfaced alongside the cruise ship. Shalimar took a couple parting shots at them with her handgun, but didn't achieve any hits. The helicopter arrived and she got the hell off the ship, before things could get worse.
I had trepidation about Gencon Online. The real life convention is fun because you know your players are going to be excited and engaged. You don't always get the same thing in online play. I was blown away during all three games by how good my players were. They had a range of experience with Delta Green, from a lot to none at all, but they were all lots of fun to play with.
Two more game writeups coming soon.
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