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Session 10 – Weds 16th Oct 2024
RECAP
Further into the Night Floors the Agents hear a muffled noise from a room that they pass. Investigating it Agents enter and begin to smell an odour a bit like something from a bakers oven, a slightly sweet biscuit/cookie wheat odour. The smell surrounds them….the air feels damp…splashes of some liquid here and there.
*
Agents see David Langford…..Disheveled, bruised, a bloodstained shirt with something that looks suspiciously like a bullet hole. They cannot understand why he is here, they rescued him on their first visit and left him at a Delta Green safe house. Along with Langford is a terrified looking young woman in a nurses uniform. He has an arm around her throat and a knife pressed against her neck. She identifies herself as 25 year old nurse Esther Samigina and pleads for their help. At Langford’s feet are three empty 25 litre pails – the ones from the basement and the agents immediately recognise the smell of Linseed oil.
*
In Langford’s left hand is a lit Molotov cocktail and he has the look of anger and madness in his eyes….
CONFRONTATION
- Langford Langford chastises the agents for leaving him at the secure site.
- The agents attempt to reason with him and let the nurse go – but without little success.
- Corruption and Sanity losses cloud the Agents mind and affect their movements – clear decision making is problematic.
- Even so – one or two of the agents recognise that Officer Wright is becoming ever more agitated as he tries to move nearer to Langford.
*
*
- Langford tells them; they kept me in a tiny room for 8 hours , I couldn’t breath, too confined”!….asked me what I knew about the building, I said I had an idea there were 7 floors……but they said that couldn’t be the case…….kept asking him if he had read the play ……..things turned south when he told them he had heard it while hiding on the 6th floor…… he tells the agents that he escaped 5 hours ago after taking the nurse who had been brought to tend him for his wounds …. But is being chased by a team of 3 agents……he heard the words ‘Static Team……just those two words….Static Team’. He tells the agents he has to end this, this is his one chance to rid the world of this insanity and to get rid of the building….
- Agent Militia senses that Langford has been putting a slight, almost imperceptible emphasis on certain words;
– 8 hours
– 7 floors
– 6th floor
– 5 hours ago
– for his wounds
– team of 3
– those two words
– this is his one chance
And realises that Langford has been counting down….
*
- A barely perceptible look between the Agents indicates that the time for discussion and valour is past – they need to get out…… and right now!
- Officer Wright ignores this and demands from Langford to know where his daughter is…….Langford simply says that all he knows is that she left some time ago. She will never return, he heard them say.
- At this Wright launches himself at Langford.
- As this happens Langford throws the Molotov cocktail to the floor – fire engulfs him and Wright……Nurse Samigina runs further into the room.
- The agents suddenly realise that now is the time to RUN!!!
- The horrifying burning screams of Langford & Wright fill the Night Floors…….
ESCAPE & TRAGEDY
Turn Effect
First
- The floor and walls immediately ignite, belching flame into the air, tracking up and downstairs in trails of fire.
- Agents had to make a Dodge or Athletics roll or suffer 1 HP burn damage as all walls ignite.
- The house instantly begins to burn, but Agent Militia succeeds in his roll and escapes the building.
- Agents Murdoch & Marvin fail their rolls.
Second
- The house is completely aflame.
- Any movement requires a Dodge or Athletics roll, failure equals 1D4-2 HP burn damage and an inability to move forward for that turn.
- A successful roll means that Agent Marvin escapes the building.
- Agent Murdoch fails his roll and also suffers maximum HP burn damage.
Third
- The stairs down are almost cut off, the entrance along the corridor is barely visible.
- The house is a fireball.
- Any movement requires a Search and a Dodge or Athletics roll at -20% from smoke, failure equals 1D4-1 HP burn and smoke damage, and an inability to move forward for that turn, success equals 1 HP burn and smoke damage.
- Moving towards an exit requires two successful Search and Dodge or DEXx5 rolls at -20%.
- Agent Murdoch fails his rolls and also suffers maximum HP burn damage.
Fourth
- Any movement requires a Search and a Dodge or DEXx5 roll at -40% (minimum 1%) from smoke and flame, failure equals 1D4 HP burn and smoke damage and an inability to move forward for that turn, success equals 1D4-2 HP burn and smoke damage.
- Agent Murdoch fails his roll and also suffers maximum HP burn damage.
- Smoke fills his lungs. Fire consumes his body.
- Agent Murdoch is consumed.
DECISIONS
- As the two surviving agents leave the burning building sirens can be heard and flashing lights can be seen just few blocks away.
- Should they try and find Agent Murdoch(‘s body)? – the scale of the fire in the Macallister building soon answers that.
*
- Agent Militia then notices that as soon as they exited the Macallister a plethora of text messages appeared on his battered phone…..they are all from Agent Marcus & are identical;
- “Static are on their way. Disperse. Disappear. Trust no-one except me. We have been compromised”
- They realise that this is the 2nd mention of this thing called ‘Static’……however, such considerations are swiftly put aside as the noises of emergency response vehicles get ever closer.
*
- The street outside the building is getting busy as people in the neighbourhood come to see the building now totally engulfed in flames.
- Agent Militia wants to head back to the car, get the money that is stashed there & collect their things to head immediately out of the city.
- Agent Marvin has reached his breaking point & is more compromised than ever – all HE wants to do is escape to read his red book…..he decides to go along with Militia – for now.
CLOWN/STATIC TEAM
- The agents make their way down a quieter off-street – Agent Militia catches sight of child sized figure in the darkened sidewalk. It is the clown.
- The clown covorts & dances in complete silence until it finally focuses its attention on the two surviving agents.
- The clown mimics shooters in various positions further along the street and flashes 3 fingers, pointing to the windows in a nearby building.
- It ends its dance by holding a finger to it’s lips and miming ‘shhhhhhhhh’
*
Stealth & luck rolls mean the agents run and eventually escape – but they separate and head in different directions to the nearest subway stations in an attempt to merge into the late Saturday New York masses. They disappear into the night.
EPILOGUE
- Some weeks after the incident the two surviving agents individually receive a visit from Agent Marcus
- Marcus offers his condolences to the loss of their buddy and presents them with an obituary. Officer Wright died from ‘natural causes’ a heart attack – though “obviously it was a closed casket”. Agent Murdoch ‘died in a fireball car accident’……
- There are numerous other bodies.
- The obituary makes no mention of Nurse Samigina. Marcus says ‘They tell me there was no trace.
- Marcus tells them that there were no other survivors…….and that they are now in danger.
*
Agent Militia
- Asks why they are in danger? “Because you saw things not meant to be seen.
- He asks who those guys were shooting at them outside the Macallister? “ They’re a faction in the intelligence community who’ve got more ambition than good sense”
- Are we in danger? Yes.
- What can we do? “Stay quiet. Stay safe. Don’t make waves. We may contact you again – but possibly not for some time.”
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Agent Marvin
- It’s a very different conversation that Marcus has with Agent Marvin. In fact little is discussed after the short de-brief similar to Militia’s.
- Marcus discovers Marvin at his home in his study – dishevelled and surrounded by books about various facets of the unnatural.
- The conversation is stilted, Marvin seems distant and potentially indicating the signs of PTSD.
- Marcus leaves him, failing to see the copy of the red book that Marvin carefully hid under his lap.
THE NIGHT FLOORS ENDETH…….. A NEW CHAPTER BEGINS NEXT TIME.
LEGAL NOTICE:
“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. Illustrations by Dennis Detwiller are reproduced by permission. The contents of this review are © Stuart Anderson excepting those elements that are components of the Delta Green intellectual property.”
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