Call of Cthulhu: Delta Green – Lover in the Ice

To: Cell Q
From: Andrea
Subject: A Night at the Opera (attachment: Cyrano de Bergerac)

STATUS: PARROT reports breach of GREEN BOX 224, hereafter DESIGNATE as PACKAGE at 0246 hours Jan 4th.  DESIGNATE “Zookeeper” CONFIRMS at 0815 Jan. 5th. A-Cell BLIND on the ground due to weather.  Q-cell ABORT current OBJECTIVE. New mission LOAD-OUT found in TRANSPORT with one FRIENDLY Pvt. W.

MISSION PRIORITIES: CONTAINMENT of PACKAGE is highest priority.  Agents should take all care to maintain OPERATIONAL SECURITY.

TARGET ONE: Establish CONTACT with “Zookeeper.”

CHALLENGE: “Would you like to go to the zoo?”
AUTHENTICATE: “Yes, but only if I can stay outside.”

TARGET TWO: Establish HOME PLATE at “Zookeeper’s” office and move to ASSESS PACKAGE.

TARGET THREE: TRANSPORT PACKAGE to HOME PLATE.

TARGET FOUR: Split into two units

UNIT ALPHA: PLAY ZEPPO.  GO SECURE using hardline modem at HOME PLATE and INVENTORY PACKAGE.  Warning: minimum intelligence encouraged.  Beware TOME ROT

UNIT BETA: INVESTIGATE surrounding area for signs of NORWEIGIAN contamination.

TARGET FIVE: A-Cell will DECLARE THREATS from BOX 224.  Units REGROUP and REASSESS with new intelligence.

TARGET SIX: If HOSTILES present, Q-Cell CLEARED HOT for 48 hours until ALPHABET SOUP DEPLOYMENT.  ELIMINATE THE VECTOR

MISSION SUCCESS:  PACKAGE SECURED and OPERATIONAL SECURITY maintained until DUCK SOUP specialist arrives.

MISSION FAILURE: If no NEW PICTURE established via HOME PLATE hardline by 0500 Jan. 8th, CYCLOPS will place BLUE/BLUE BIRDS in the air and SEPPPUKU PROTOCOL will be in effect for Q-cell and all relatives.

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51 Comments

  1. Well… that was an absolutely fantastic pair of sessions. I loved the process of opening of the greenboxes, the big bad and the showdown. You guys did pretty amazing.

    One thing I have to ask, though. Why was “Norwegian” the codeword for ‘someone who knows too much to live’? Is it a reference to the Norwegian fisherman from ‘Call of Cthlulhu’ by good ol’ H.P?

  2. Awesome, more CoC action an a long one at that! I’m saving these up for vacation travel – this promises to be good!

  3. Oh man, halfway through this one already. DAMN, CALEB. DAMN.

  4. god I love Caleb as a GM. as a player, too, but having so much airtime and churning out so many personae so quickly he just goddamn shines. kinda sad this one lacked the abject zaniness of Bryson Springs and Andrew’s Fortune, but even so. Amante’s wild.

    love love love the author/triptacular reams of paper exposition technique (wth Man Jesus with the Golden Arm is such a terrifying title for any damn thing). I did the same random choose-your-own-horror thing in a D&D game a while back–hallway with a bunch of mounted masks, rest your chin in one and roll a d10, receive the corresponding nightmare vision and punishment or reward from a chart.

    just awesome, basically. we need more Caleb. oh, and good job not being soppy, Aaron! “Serrated for her pleasure” and the penetration-themed Tourette’s were stellar.

  5. I too am impressed again and again by Caleb’s GM style and creativity. Excellent scenario! 🙂

  6. Caleb’s preparation and presentation don’t fail to impress. Gotta love the Lover!

  7. I love this session, and this scenario. And I am totally stealing this idea for my Eclipse Phase campaign.

  8. Thanks for the kind words everybody!

    Scribbleykins–I don’t know about the Norwegian thing: I got it off the Delta Green wiki’s list of code words. Everything else is a bastardized version of Air Force radio code.


  9. “My Granny, what big teeth you have.”

    I hooted down the street at that. The unboxing was awesome.

  10. Another great game. Well done, Caleb. I would give my left nut to play in one of your games.

    I suspect the “Norwegian” reference refers to John Carpenter’s The Thing.

  11. That was an amazing game! Anywhere we can download some adventure notes or anything?

  12. Wow, that was deliciously messed up!

  13. Yeah, Caleb never, ever disappoints. Such a great scenario. I can tell that Caleb really enjoys writing these scenarios.

    What a great game and instant RPPR classic…

  14. Really enjoys writing the SexDeath? Hmm, interesting… 😉

  15. I enjoyed listening to this today. I particularly enjoyed the investigations in the first session when it was still relatively low key. I was amused by the references to ‘doing this Trail of Cthulhu’, nice to see the influence spreading.

    I was a bit nonplussed by the epilogue. I don’t peg DG as wasting assets unless they are blown.

  16. Bam! I loved this game. If Pagan were to publish it, I would buy it.

  17. Awesome! Listening to Caleb’s CoC sessions always makes me wish I could play in one

  18. Another fine, fine adventure by Caleb. Pay attention, Tom and Ross, this guy is stealing your thunder!

  19. Classic line: “If somebody looks at you lovingly while you’re pointing a gun at them, you shoot them in the head!”

  20. This was my first introduction to Delta Green setting. Outstanding game, although I didn’t get what green box actually was. Oh well, time to read freshly acquired Delta Green book. 🙂
    Keep up a great job!

  21. A green box is a storage container rented by the higher-ups in Delta green for stuff acquired during missions that can’t be moved safely, or without suspicion. They tend to collect crazy things as each team in the area gets access to it, takes what they need (like, camping supplies, a weapon, notes) and drops off what they don’t want (like, BIG weapons, artifacts, drugs, rotting corpses). A team is supposed to inform the higher ups of any inventory changes, but often that doesn’t happen.

    Andrea had alarms and an inventory of the box in this adventure, so she likely had a recent update of how bad it could be.

  22. Great Recording and a great adventure as well.
    I’m planning to run it for my group actually.

  23. Is this adventure something that Caleb wrote himself, or is it available somewhere.

    If it’s not a published adventure, it really needs to be. I’d Love to run this one for my group.

  24. I wrote it myself. Ross, Ean, and I are working on a ransom to release it as a high quality PDF. I’m going to try and have it up sometime in May. Thanks for the interest!

  25. Please do Caleb, I’d gladly pay a ransom for this scenario. I’m a gm who is just getting started, and listening to rppr is one of the reason’s I got into the hobby.

  26. What was the “attachment: Cyrano de Bergerac”?

  27. The typical Delta Green code for going on a mission is “You’ve been invited to a Night at the Opera.” I figured the email, even though it was encrypted, would be more covert if tickets to an opera were actually attached.

  28. Ah I see. Very cool. Great job on the adventure. I loved listening to it. I’m gonna try to run something similar for my group but with Savage Worlds. Thanks!


  29. Excellent session; one of the best on the site.

    Was this played with the classic CoC rules?

  30. Author

    @C.R. this was run with 6th ed Call of Cthulhu rules.

  31. Excellent.

    Thanks, Ross.

  32. Caleb,

    Will there be a reappearance of Schrödinger’s Parrot?

  33. Fantastic! Ordered my copy of Call of Cthulhu 6ed bc of this podcast! Thanks all!

  34. I really liked how this scenario was put together, though I question the ending a bit, considering how hard it seemed to contain the Vector. Well written, well run, and well played.

  35. I really wish I knew about the kick starter campaign last year, I would have loved to had a PDF of this adventure.

  36. Scratch that, bless google and rpg drivethru.

  37. This was honestly the best Delta Green scenario I’ve ever heard in my entire life. Is there any way at all I could get the original DG-optimized scenario from you, Caleb? I bought the generic one from the link above, but I’m just worried I might miss out on some of the nuances you put into it.

  38. I just finally caught the Agent Fillagrie reference from Bryson Springs. Totes going to get this adventure and run it for my friends.


  39. I absolutely love Caleb’s scenarios, but man, Tom’s non-stop BS rolls are such a buzzkill for this stuff.

  40. I just got my hands on this scenario as the DELTA GREEN conversion. But one question: how many inhabitants is Lafontaine supposed to have? Or is this information included in the system-free-version?

  41. five years later, this is still amazing. good luck with Red Markets, K’Lob. you’re what the industry needs.


  42. 0:05:30 – “An apocalyptic ice storm strikes the midwest on January 2nd, 2005. […] Hit hardest by this atmospheric anomaly is the plains city of Lafontaine, Missouri.”

    0:14:55 – “What’s the population?” “Roughly the size of Springfield.” “151,000?”

    0:19:30 – Jason: “Do we have the iPhone app [before it was invented]?”

    0:20:40 – Tom: “Are there any Street Views [the Google Maps feature launched in 2007]?” Caleb: “Uh, yes. It’s an idyllic town. Brick sidewalks. Lovely maple and oak trees overhanging the roadways. It’d be a nice place to settle down.”

    4:20:00 – “Someone’s made a banner that says ‘Ice Storm 2011.'”

    Left uncommented on is the monster’s ability to warp everyone’s perception of time to the point of forgetting what year it is. (You’re a monster, Caleb.)

    Since it’s a fictional ice storm emergency and a fictional city, was there a particular reason for setting the scenario in 2005? Limiting the smartphone technology that’d be available several years later in the present day? (All the PCs mentioned they had smartphones at 2:35:55, but they’d have to be mid-00s smartphones like BlackBerry and Nokia.)


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