Interlude and Task Force HOLIDAY - Sun, Oct 8, 2017

Opening Summary of Operation NIMBUS PIPE

• Luke recounts that the team, known as “Masticate,” caught Anthony Cooper and handed him over to the Program.
• Cooper’s ritual was left unfinished, but its components were defused, and the drones involved were grounded due to security issues at Persistent Vigil.
• The Program now has the key engineer Kim Boyer, and Cooper’s hired killers seem to have fled.
• Luke confirms that Operation NIMBUS PIPE is officially over.

Agents Return Home and Perform Bookkeeping

• With the operation ended, the agents go back to their everyday lives until Delta Green (the Program) calls again.
• Luke instructs everyone to restore any lost health and Willpower Points to full.
• The group is told to apply skill improvements for what they learned during the mission. Each agent rolls to see if they improved certain skills.

Home Scenes and Personal Lives

• Luke mentions each agent may take a “home scene,” focusing on how the recent operation affected their personal lives or bonds.

1. Graham Miles Drummond (Chris)

   • Drummond returns home with a gunshot wound.
   • At home, his wife Ellie notices his injury and worries deeply about his ongoing dangerous missions.
   • Ellie pleads with Graham to consider quitting or taking less hazardous assignments, worried that one day he might not return.
   • Graham promises to take better precautions, including better protective gear. They discuss taking a vacation together to get away. Ellie remains concerned but trusts his judgment for now.

2. Cole Parker (Mark)

   • Cole comes home to find that his wife, Emily, has already packed and is leaving for a trip with friends; she had been waiting for him to return so she could depart.
   • Emily complains that Cole’s job consistently disrupts their plans. She leaves quickly for a two-week vacation, indicating a distant relationship (her bond with Cole is notably low).
   • Cole’s teenage daughter is around the house, but there is little communication. She returns home late, and neither of them feels comfortable talking about daily life. Their interactions are brief and awkward.

3. Franklin (Frank) Booth (Brian)

   • Frank meets his CIA protégé James at a bar near the office. Frank seems distracted, having trouble readjusting after the Reno operation.
   • James complains about office bureaucracy and frustrations with “Carol from Compliance.”
   • Frank, still haunted by recent violent encounters, speaks darkly about “getting rid of” obstacles, startling James.
   • Later, Frank meets with Antonia Pitzerelli. She asks questions about the details in Reno, particularly how McCarter managed to “bring Frank back” from the strange events.
   • Frank says he does not remember the specifics, and Pitzerelli warns that if he recalls anything else about McCarter’s abilities, he should inform her.
   • Despite the stress, Frank appears to miss being in the field rather than working in an office.

Agents’ Personal Pursuits

• Each agent picks a personal pursuit to handle during their downtime:

1. Graham Drummond

   • He chooses to fulfill responsibilities to repair his bond with his brother Danforth, who has been concerned about Graham’s dangerous assignments.
   • Graham and Danforth travel together, trying to reconnect. This partially restores their relationship, though only slightly.

2. Cole Parker

   • Cole studies the unnatural by reviewing a “field manual” he discreetly copied from Anthony Cooper’s documents.
   • The manual, titled A Field Manual for Higher Dimensional Reconnaissance, contains modernized instructions based on an old text.
   • While studying, Cole gains some Unnatural skill but suffers significant Sanity loss, and his family bond takes a hit.
   • The manual discusses drone surveillance and a ritual meant to connect with a “Watcher on High,” involving complex methods that required multiple murders in Reno.
   • Cole is disturbed by these revelations and the violent ritual aspects tied to “patterns” and “harmonizing” with an otherworldly entity.

3. Frank Booth

   • Frank tries to improve two attributes: his Charisma and his Power (POW).
   • He fails to raise Charisma but does succeed in increasing his Power slightly, reflecting deeper mental resilience through meditation.
   • This extra time spent on personal development strains one of his work bonds, creating more distance in the office.

Strange Events and Omens

1. Frank’s Daughter and the Wasp-Filled Car

   • Frank receives a frantic call from his daughter, Nadia, claiming her car is inexplicably filled with wasps overnight.
   • Frank arrives to find the windows of her BMW dark with a writhing mass of wasps. A pest-control worker also finds it bizarre, noting the car’s internal temperature should have killed them.
   • Later, Frank notices news of a deadly traffic accident at a time Nadia would have been on the road if not for the wasps. He sees this as a strange, possibly fortuitous event that kept her away from danger.

2. Graham Drummond’s Vivid Nightmare

   • Drummond experiences a terrifying dream of walking barefoot through a rotting, lung-like field. Bones and skin form plant-like shapes, and rotten fruit smells fill the air.
   • He sees human-like faces blooming in unison, silent but moving their lips.
   • Upon waking, he is shaken by how real and horrifying the dream felt.

3. Cole Parker and the Incident with Checkers

   • Cole is at the dog park with his beloved dog, Checkers. While playing fetch, Checkers suddenly attacks Cole’s face without warning, foaming at the mouth and convulsing.
   • Checkers collapses and dies in Cole’s arms as other dogs circle around in eerie silence.
   • The vet later says it appears to be a cardiac event, though the attack’s cause is mysterious and unexplainable.
   • Cole is left injured and stunned, returning home with the loss of his dog.

Summons from Delta Green (The Program)

• Late that night, each agent receives a cryptic text that contains instructions for a flight from Ronald Reagan International Airport the next morning.
• Everyone prepares within the short 12-hour window, packing gear and telling loved ones they must leave for work again.

New Operation Briefing for Task Force “HOLIDAY”

• At the airport, they pick up envelopes from a FedEx station. Each envelope has:
  • An encrypted phone, pre-loaded with minimal contact numbers.
  • A DEA identification card listing the agent under a newly formed task force.
  • Instructions to meet at a DEA office in Denver.
• Frank finds an extra memo for “Task Force HOLIDAY,” supposedly an interstate narcotics trafficking investigation in Colorado. In reality, it is a cover story.
• Frank calls Antonia Pitzerelli, who explains the real reason for the Denver assignment:
  • A U.S. Marshal named Malcolm Coleman witnessed an inmate, “Radomir Reznik,” vomit up what appeared to be a worm-like entity.
  • A conflict ensued with concussion grenades, and a fire ignited (“contraband accelerant”). The “alien worm” was reportedly neutralized, but the details are unclear.
  • The name “Radomir Reznik” is on Delta Green’s watch list, tied to the old Cornucopia House case.
  • The team’s mission is to confirm if this is the same Reznik connected to Cornucopia House and to investigate the unnatural threat in the Denver County Jail.
  • Standard Delta Green protocol applies: identify any unnatural vector, neutralize it, protect civilian lives, and keep it out of public knowledge.

Session Ends

• The agents, operating under their DEA cover as Task Force HOLIDAY, are set to fly to Denver to investigate Radomir Reznik and the bizarre incident in the jail.