Operation Parachute

A scenario hook for The Fall of Delta Green

Any time after the resolution of the Gary Powers U-2 shootdown crisis in February of 1962, your DELTA GREEN agents are drawn into a shadow version of that incident that starts over the skies of Mongolia.

During this period Mongolia is an independent, Soviet-aligned communist state. Though not of compelling strategic interest to the US, the CIA does send the occasional spy plane over its rugged terrain, to be sure they don’t get caught out if something does happen here. With the Sino-Soviet split, it is possible that a border incident involving China might flare up here, requiring Langley to have information at the ready when the President demands it.

The only interesting thing that has ever happened during these flights occurs when pilot Gerard Dwight Walton is shot down over the Mongolian stretch of the Gobi Desert. His last radio communication with base is as follows: “Well I’m looking at something peculiar way down there, like an archaeological site of—” Then the audio cuts out.

Instead of parading Walton before the cameras like the Soviets did, Mongolian head of state Jamsrangiin Sambuu sends word to Washington that a quiet negotiation may be possible. The combination of the words “peculiar” and “archaeological” sets wheels in motion: the Agents receive assignments to join the secret diplomatic mission as special attaches.

Accompanying stuffy, out-of-it State Department negotiator Winston Oliver to Ulaanbaatar, the agents discover that their opposite numbers were hoping to lure DELTA GREEN operatives. “If they sent Majestics we would have had to shoot them,” chortles Col. Lotte Rozov, the gruff Russo-German GRU SV-8 officer secretly in command of the matter.

Walton did see a strange excavation. Deep in the bowels of the Gobi, local archaeologists uncovered massive monumental relics from an impossibly old civilization. They had to have confused the dating, they concluded. Anthropomorphic statuary can’t date from the Jurassic period! When word of an entire underground temple complex filtered back to Moscow, SV-8 got its hooks into the project, sending Rozov down to wrest it from the eggheads.

Obviously Rozov intends to blow the entire complex to hell. Can’t have the known timeline thrown utterly into doubt, sending scholars poking into who knows what cosmic corners. But before that happens she wants extensive documentation. And none of the three local teams she’s sent in have emerged from its depths. Already on site when Walton dropped into her lap, she’s been hoping his compatriots would send her some “stupid Americans” with the right skill set and perspective on suppressing the Mythos to do the expendable part of her work for her.

If they go down there and come back with a full account, they can have Walton back. They can even keep copies of the documentation.

The complex contains the remains of a civilization of human survivors plucked from the future to work for a mi-go resource extraction outfit. After generations they rose up against their fungal masters, creating a distinctive material culture complete with gigantic statuary, before succumbing to the inevitable catastrophic downfall. Danger still lurks in their tunnels and temples, as the quasi-corporeal sentries placed on duty to react with lethal force to any returning mi-go won’t distinguish between the spawn of Yuggoth and an American deep cover team working in tandem with the Soviets.

The Fall of DELTA GREEN adapts DELTA GREEN: THE ROLE-PLAYING GAME to the GUMSHOE investigative roleplaying system, opening the files on a lost decade of anti-Mythos operations: the 1960s. Players take on the role of DELTA GREEN operatives, assets, and friendlies. Hunt Deep Ones beneath the Atlantic, shut down dangerous artists in San Francisco, and delve into the heart of Vietnam’s darkness. Purchase The Fall of DELTA GREEN in print and PDF at the Pelgrane Shop.