Fall of Delta Green
Operation MURAMASA Part 1
By Jason Kraus
Historically significant personalities, events, and locations in bold. Japanese names are written in the Western convention.
Premise
Two Delta Green-connected ONI (Office of Naval Intelligence) officers went missing in Tokyo while investigating heroin smuggling out of Vietnam with possible supernatural ties. The agents, tasked with finding them, uncover a tangled web of yakuza, Black Ocean Society remnants, and Deep One Hybrids. The agents trace the ONI officers’ last known movements through Tokyo’s shadowy underworld, from military-friendly nightclubs to yakuza bars and defaced temples, and finally to the Deep Ones themselves.
Historic Environment
During 1968-69, Tokyo is wracked by massive student riots, based on college administrators defrauding billions of yen from their universities and the common practice of forcing students to work as unpaid interns. This might have been understandable if that’s all it was but the riots were quickly infiltrated by leftists, communists, anarchists, Emperor worshippers, and perhaps other forces as well. Agents are ordered to steer clear of the riots and don’t advertise their presence. They don’t want to get wrapped up in that and it doesn’t seem pertinent to their investigation.
Briefing
The body of a DG-affiliated ONI officer (LtCDR Joseph Gardner) has been found in Tokyo and is being held by the Japanese Self-Defense Forces (JSDF). His partner has disappeared (Petty Officer 2nd Class Samantha “Sam” Anderson). This was her first opera. Based on the condition of Gardner’s body when it was found in a Roppongi alley, foul play is suspected.
Act 1: Welcome to Tokyo
Setting
The agents taxi to Camp Ichigaya, a military base in central Tokyo and the headquarters of the Eastern Command of the JSDF. It is here, in November 1970, where an artful coup d’etat and seppuku takes place. The kaleidoscopic drive through Tokyo at night is almost too much to handle. Like Las Vegas only dialed to eleven and filled with more people than you can count at every hour of the evening. Large mobs of student protesters, wearing helmets and carrying truncheons and banners march toward nearby universities to ready themselves for tomorrow’s round of riots.
In Camp Ichigaya’s basement morgue, the JSDF medical examiner Obata only speaks Japanese which proves a bit bothersome until Japanese Karate Association Headmaster Masatoshi Nakayama [Ability Pool: Unarmed Combat (Karate) 7, Occult 1] arrives with his student and renowned writer Yukio Mishima [Ability Pool: Interpersonal (Yakuza 3), Melee Combat (Katana) 1]. Both men speak some English, have limited experience with the supernatural, and serve as liaisons during the Tokyo portion of the investigation. Since the Japanese government cannot take an official position on this investigation, they have sent the pair in an unofficial capacity. The less the government knows and can acknowledge, the better.
Objectives
1. Positively identify body.
2. Identify a starting point for the investigation.
Clues
• FORENSICS (CORE): Bruises and cuts on hands and arms indicate defensive wounds, bloody knuckles indicate he didn’t go without a fight. A gummy substance on his wrists and ankles as well as on his cheeks and hair indicate restraint, probably duct tape. Intravenous injection track marks on both arms.
• MELEE WEAPONS: The knife cuts on his thigh and arm are unusual looking. A cut that wide usually shows greater serrations. These are perfectly clean, perhaps made with a fine katana.
• PHARMACY/CHEMISTRY: The heroin in his blood is clearly the more potent South Asian make, and not the lower-grade Middle Eastern shipped out of Marseille.
• MEDICINE: The recent track marks on the arms are completely superficial, except for one.
• CRIMINOLOGY: Drug overdose is a good way to complicate a murder investigation.
• Pocket litter (CORE): Matchbook for ‘March’ stuffed into the small pocket of his Levi’s. Receipt for 3 pork buns, a can of Asahi Super Dry beer, a pack of Mild Sevens and a Fanta at a Lawson convenience store (admittedly a few years early but hey, it’s Lawson).
Act 2: Nightclubs of Roppongi
Setting
Roppongi’s nightclubs, frequented by US army personnel and local patrons, exude an atmosphere of Vietnam-era frivolity. Here, soldiers on shore leave from Vietnam do their best to drown the horrors of war in wine, women, and song. Everyone wants to forget war in this sexually charged nightlife setting where Western music and culture and Tokyo’s avant-garde collide.
While exploring the streets of the Roppongi district, agents can use skills to drum up their own leads, but ultimately find the bar ‘March,’ which is full of Japanese party people and US servicemen dancing it up in nighttime Tokyo. The music is loud, the lights disorienting, and the drinks pricey. Across the street from March is a Lawson convenience store, which matches the missing agent’s receipt.
Objectives
1. Identify the ONI officers’ last known contacts at the ‘March’ bar.
2. Uncover any suspicious activity tied to their disappearance.
Clues
• CRIMINOLOGY (FLOATING): Japanese criminal networks are usually highly ordered, so it’s a matter of identifying the right person to leverage to get further into the network.
• STREETWISE/HUMINT/REASSURANCE/INTIMIDATION: On the street, a chinpira (low-level yakuza) recalls the two “CIA-looking” Americans talking with American soldiers and bothering yakuza types while walking from bar to bar.
• STREETWISE: Those serious looking fellows in nice suits and dark sunglasses seem to be keeping a good eye on things, very much like cops would.
• HUMINT (CORE): One bartender (a young Haruki Murakami) shows discomfort when questioned about the missing officers. With some gentle persuasion (REASSURANCE) or threats (INTIMIDATION), he reveals that the officers were asking about “unusual shipments” tied to a nightclub frequented by yakuza. Murakami quietly reveals that the “Gold Cup” bar in Shinjuku is the place for that kind of thing.
Act 3: Gold Cup Shinjuku
Setting
Hidden in the backstreets of Shinjuku district, this yakuza-run club is frequented by Tokyo’s criminal underworld, hangers-on, and starlets. Gold Cup Shinjuku is also where zainichi criminals (Korean-Japanese syndicates) intersect with the local yakuza. At this point in history, Yukio Mishima had starred in the popular yakuza film “Afraid to Die” and is still recognized and respected in that culture for glorifying the yakuza lifestyle. If the agents don’t have a better method (posing as Hollywood executive producers, for instance) then Mishima’s cachet can get the agents in the door. How long they are permitted to stay is up to their behavior.
The agents feel watched as they step inside. It’s a darkened high end jazz club, walls lined with crimson flock wallpaper with intricate swirling designs. At center stage, beautiful singers belt out a mix of Japanese traditional enka and Detroit soul classics.
This is a dangerous place for outsiders to pry. The protection afforded by Mishima’s presence only lasts so long. If the agents’ questioning is too overt or disruptive, they are forcibly ejected out the back door where a group of chinpira (low-level yakuza) toughs await them, karate master or no. This scene should lean into danger, pressure, and growing nervousness as the assembled drunken yakuza slowly learn of the presence of unwelcome American investigators.
Objectives
1. Track down any yakuza associates connected to the missing officers.
2. Uncover leads tying the yakuza to occult activities or the Black Ocean Society.
Clues
• INTIMIDATION/MONEY: Ito, mid-level yakuza, reveals that the missing officers inquired about “strange shipments” to the Shin-Okubo neighborhood. After a bribe, he pointed the ONI officers to Shirai Hachiman jinja (shrine). He then telephoned an acquaintance connected to the remnants of the Black Ocean Society. Ito knows where the jinja is but won’t go voluntarily.
• OCCULT/ART: Subtle decorations in the club suggest occult symbols connected to the Black Ocean Society, hinting at an alliance between these yakuza members and their sorcerous affiliates.
• OCCULT/HISTORY: The magical archives and artifacts the Black Ocean Society gathered during the Japanese occupations of Korea, Manchuria, and China were stored in Nagasaki. It is possible that affected the city’s selection for targeting by the Fat Man atomic bomb.
• CHARM/REASSURANCE/MONEY: Tami, one of the singers, remembers the Americans and reveals they were asking around about someone who regularly received shipments of large amounts of South Asian heroin out of Saigon. ‘This was not wise,” she emphasizes. She suggests they might find more answers at an old Shinto temple associated with those kinds of exchanges, the Shirai Hachiman jinja. She refuses to accompany the group. She’s got another two sets to perform.
Act 4: Shirai Hachiman Jinja Ambush
Setting
This clandestine gathering place on the outskirts of Tokyo, disguised as a disused Shinto jinja, is where the few remaining members of the Black Ocean Society occasionally meet to exchange drugs, firearms, and illegal merchandise with other criminal elements. Though abandoned, the faint scent of incense lingers, suggesting recent attentions. Inside the jinja, the seated Hachiman statue’s head is covered by a very expensive, indigo hood. Beneath the hood, the head of the wooden figure is burned black, scorched with a blowtorch. The rest of the statue is seamed with deep gouges, reminiscent of water flowing down the body.
If the agents’ investigation at Gold Cup Shinjuku was exceptionally subtle, they find P+1 Black Ocean Society drinking beer and sake, lamenting their lost authority, and discussing the recent delivery of the ONI officers to the weird zainichi. The Black Ocean Society members have not been alerted to the investigators’ interest. Otherwise, go to “Ambush” below.
Objectives
1. Discover the Black Ocean Society’s ties to the missing officers.
2. Retrieve any information about the officers’ fate and the supernatural threats involved.
Clues
• OCCULT: The mask over the Hachiman face has a definite deep sea octopus vibe. The ruination of the statue is a profound defacement of a religious object.
• HISTORY: Shrines to Hachiman are everywhere in Japan and the deity was very popular with samurai, but he was never depicted like this.
• NOTICE (CORE): Crushed into the mud around the temple grounds, agents find the ONI LtCDR Joseph Gardner’s dog tags.
• FORENSICS: There are indications of many tracks in the mud and gravel, likely a fight, some dried blood on the gravel
• SENSE TROUBLE: The agents notice the not-so-stealthy approach of P+1 Black Ocean Society members armed with katanas and baseball bats. One carries an American revolver.
• INTERROGATION (CORE): Interrogating a defeated Black Ocean Society member reveals LtCDR Gardner was sold to zainichi in the Shin-Okubo district.
Ambush
Before the agents run out of clues to discover, P+1 Black Ocean Society sneer insults at the group and arrive looking for trouble. Mishima runs to the jinja and one round later reappears, makeshift bokken (d-1) in hand. Half of the BOS fight to the death before the others try to flee. Capturing and interrogating one reveals how the BOS members were only interested in the heroin but when they learned that the ONI officers were investigating them, they decided to capture the pair and sell them to another group and thus solve their problem. So they ambushed the officers and then sold them to the zainichi. The weird zainichi…
Act 5: Shin-Okubo’s Zainichi Deep One Underground
Setting
In Tokyo’s rundown Shin-Okubo neighborhood, the agents navigate through a crime-ridden and downtrodden area with a strong Korean-Japanese (zainichi) presence. No signs in English, only Korean and Japanese. Here, an underground network of zainichi criminals operates outside of yakuza and police control, with some members entangled with Deep One groups in the Kuril Islands north of Hokkaido.
Objectives
1. Uncover any connection between the Black Ocean Society and Deep One-affiliated zainichi.
2. Determine the ONI agent Sam Anderson’s fate and, if possible, rescue her.
Clues
• REASSURANCE/MONEY (CORE): Gain trust from a local zainichi child (Hiroyuki Jo) who reveals that some of the weird ones brought some writhing tatami rolls to a warehouse up the block.
• CRIMINOLOGY: Definitely a hostile neighborhood with deep roots into the world of crime.
• HISTORY: Both the Black Ocean Society and the standard yakuza have been using zainichi criminal organizations for the kind of work they don’t want to dirty their hands with. Disposal of bodies and extra muscle.
• ANTHROPOLOGY: Zainichi are marginalized in Japanese society due to their ethnicity and in spite of being citizens of Japan.
• STREETWISE/TRADECRAFT/SENSE TROUBLE: They’ll need to act fast before the “weird ones” learn of their presence. Information moves very fast in insular neighborhoods when outsiders show up.
Warehouse: Small and rundown industrial warehouse. Pallets of empty, plastic beer cases. A handful of zainichi here (P+1) have an odd look (bulging and wide eyes, flat smooth faces and tiny noses, wide mouths with too many tiny teeth) and move differently (plodding and hunched). Underneath those clothes, their skin is pocked with tufts of pointed callus similar to shell. These are Deep One-zainichi hybrids. They fight with claws and teeth and jump. When cornered, they resort to horrendous violence to solve their problems. They turn off the lights to operate in the dark, where they feel comfortable. One casts Voorish Sign when it suspects the PCs’ arrival.
Clues
• UNNATURAL: These people are not completely human. Their noses are small and angular, their features are taut, their narrow and wide mouths are filled with way too many tiny teeth. Their oddly shaped hands appear webbed. Like they were bred with something unnatural. If agents have experience with Deep Ones, they recognize the look.
• NOTICE: Nearby nautical charts of the disputed Kiril Islands, one in particular: Urup. Natali Bay is the only village on that island.
• NOTICE: A small instructional manual for butchering human meat most efficiently (Stability 2 (Violence), if they spend any time on it).
• BIOLOGY: Human blood on the filthy ground partially hidden by one of the crates. Most of it is human…
• UNARMED: One hybrid had part of its ear torn off. It’s been stitched up, sloppily. Another has fingernail scratch marks around its eyes. Going for ears and eyes is a very effective close-quarters fighting tactic.
• INTERROGATION: Their voices are more like croaks than speech, but they reveal that the ONI officers’ fate was sealed once they reached the Black Ocean Society, which the hybrids think little of. The one agent proved too aggressive and troublesome and had to be dealt with, with a staged overdose. The other one was moved “home”.
• NOTICE: In the stinking and disgusting bathroom trash is a small plastic baggy that contains remnants of heroin, the same SE Asian type that killed LtCDR Gardner.
If you want to close the scenario off here, the agents find a bruised and unconscious Petty Officer Anderson in the same disgusting bathroom where they find the remnants of the heroin used to kill LtCDR Gardner. She’s scared and relieved to be rescued but she’s Delta Green so she had the wherewithal to decipher that the hybrids intended to move her north to the “colony”. For what, even she shudders to think about.
If you want to continue the scenario, the Deep One Hybrids have already transferred PO2 Anderson to Urup Island in the USSR-Japan-disputed Kuril Islands chain north of Hokkaido. For the agents, it’s off to Yokosuka Naval Base where the USS Parsons awaits them to steam north. Remnants of a freezing typhoon, a Deep One colony, and perhaps a visit from the Soviet spetsnaz await the agents in Operation MURAMASA Part 2.
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.