Frosty Oaks Investigation - Fri, Oct 25, 2019

The session opens with the Handler recapping the previous session in detail.

• MASTICATE had confronted “a world that shouldn’t exist.”
• Justin had stepped out of an elevator and into a museum-like alternate reality in which Delta Green was public history, the Deep Ones had risen, and humanity had defeated them.
• In that reality, displays and plaques commemorated the war, battlefields, and the heroes who fought in it.
• At the same time, in the normal office space, Special Agent Fallon Taylor had continued briefing the team as though nothing unusual was happening.
• Taylor had shown authenticated footage of American, British, and Russian forces assaulting a village called Dabiq.
• In the footage, the defenders prepared to die, but the invading soldiers and their machines turned into pillars of salt.
• Frank had pressed Taylor about Working Group Narnia, and the false normality of the office had started to break down.
• Matthew and Philomena had left to find Justin.
• Frank had told Taylor the truth: there was no evidence that a team had actually been present in the office for some time.
• Taylor had broken down under that pressure.
• In the museum reality, Justin had found an exhibit dedicated to Audra Powell, identified there as the first director of Delta Green.
• Inside the preserved office exhibit, one thing had not fit the museum display: a powered-on desktop computer.
• Picky Eater had been running on that computer.
• Security in that reality had seized Justin, called a “code green,” and moved to perform immediate genetic screening.
• Matthew had returned to the sixth floor and slipped sideways into Justin’s reality, where he was zip-tied and processed beside him.
• Back in the law office, Frank and Philomena had found one computer still active: Audra Powell’s machine, which was managing Narnia’s VPN through Picky Eater.
• Frank had pulled the plug on that computer.
• Reality had immediately snapped back into place.
• Justin and Matthew had reappeared in the hallway, bound and kneeling.
• A fire alarm had begun sounding.
• Audra Powell, decades older than she should have been, had come through the lobby screaming that they had undone everything she had built.
• Audra had shot and killed several people in the lobby.
• Frank had shot Audra and ended the threat.
• Justin had been medicated during the tail end of these events and remembered little from the point he saw Matthew in the museum hallway until the team was outside on the Manhattan sidewalk.

After the recap, the Handler establishes the immediate present situation.

• The team is outside on the sidewalk in Manhattan.
• First responders are on scene.
• Special Agent Taylor is handling contact with the authorities as best he can.
• Because bystanders saw Frank take the shot, Frank has to give an official statement to the police.
• The building is a crime scene and the team cannot immediately return upstairs.
• The Handler advances time to later that day, after the scene has been processed and released.

Justin comes out of the lingering effects of the drugs.

• He remembers nothing from the point he saw Matthew in the museum hallway until he is suddenly outside among police, ambulances, and fire trucks.
• Justin immediately asks what year it is, showing how disorienting the experience has been.
• The team confirms that they are in the normal present reality.

The group regathers and begins discussing what happened while the office is still being processed.

• They confirm that Taylor is still around and can be questioned.
• The team begins focusing on the computers, the Picky Eater chip, and the link between realities.
• Justin wants to know whether the computer he saw in Audra’s alternate reality corresponds to anything from Taylor’s investigation.
• The Handler clarifies that Justin did at least see the case of Audra’s machine, and it looked like the same computer Frank later unplugged in the real office.

Around 6:00 p.m., the police release the scene and the group returns upstairs.

• Taylor is still present and wants to inspect the office as well.
• The team starts developing and discussing theories about how Picky Eater functions.
• They suspect the chip is an “anchor” that transports a person into an alternate reality and keeps that reality running as long as the relevant machine remains active.
• They theorize that if the machine stops running, the alternate reality collapses and those affected snap back to the baseline reality.

The team questions Taylor about Audra Powell.

• Taylor identifies Audra as the group’s computer expert.
• He says he knew she was investigating the software, but he did not know she had put it on her own machine.
• He explains that he does not understand the technical details because that was Audra’s expertise.
• When asked whether Audra seemed different this time, Taylor says no.
• He says he had worked with her off and on for about four years.
• When asked whether Audra had conflicts with the others, Taylor says there had been some friction with a teammate named Bill Franco, but nothing like open enmity.

The team presses Taylor on his memory and on what he now understands about his missing coworkers.

• Taylor says he now remembers that he had been sitting alone in that office for about a week, possibly a little longer.
• He describes the period as fuzzy.
• He says he kept making excuses for not seeing other people or believing he had just seen them, but now recognizes that those perceptions were not real.
• He says he called his handler and verified the list of people he believed he had worked with.
• His handler confirmed that those were real members of his working group.
• His handler wants him to come in.
• Taylor says he needs to pack up the office and hoped the team would help him do it that night.
• When pressed on where the others are now, Taylor becomes agitated and admits he does not know.
• He speculates that maybe they got stuck wherever Audra was, or that something about Audra’s machine made the situation different.

The group discusses whether to power Audra’s server back on.

• Philomena argues that they should get as much information as possible from the machine before doing anything irreversible.
• Justin points out that the machine must be connected to the chip to access any of the encrypted data.
• Frank is uneasy about turning it on again and thinks that if they do, they should take it somewhere else first rather than reactivate it in the same office.
• The group recognizes that this is their best chance to learn more about Picky Eater.

The team asks Taylor whether the desktop truly was Audra’s machine.

• Frank specifically questions why Audra would have a desktop rather than a laptop.
• Taylor explains that it was effectively a server she had built to run the VPN and handle heavier processing tasks, while there was also a separate laptop in the office.
• That explanation satisfies the immediate concern that the machine itself might have been inexplicably out of place.

The players and characters review how many alternate realities they have now encountered.

• They identify the Muslim Brotherhood / Dabiq reality as one case connected to Working Group Narnia’s active investigation.
• They identify the manosphere reality associated with Bradley McKay.
• They identify the reality involving the professor and the normalization of pedophilia.
• They identify Audra’s victorious Delta Green / Deep Ones war reality.
• They note that these are four known alternate realities, plus their own baseline world.
• They discuss that Picky Eater seems to generate realities tied to the desires, beliefs, or obsessions of the user.
• Audra appears to have wanted Delta Green to save the world under her leadership.
• Bradley McKay wanted a world where he was vindicated as a heroic defender against murderous women.
• The others likely reflect the user’s desires in similarly distorted ways.
• Taylor, overhearing them, becomes more visibly shaken as the scale of the phenomenon sinks in.

The team reasons through the earlier cases to compare them with Audra’s.

• They recall that Bradley McKay’s laptop failed because the power supply burned out and the BIOS needed to be reflashed.
• They conclude that McKay snapped back into baseline reality when his machine failed while he was out walking.
• From that, they infer that a user does not need to remain physically beside the machine for the alternate reality to persist.
• They conclude that if Audra’s machine had kept running, her reality might have continued indefinitely.
• They also conclude that Audra probably snapped back into baseline reality somewhere else in the building when Frank unplugged the machine, which would explain her sudden appearance in the lobby.

Frank raises a major unresolved point about the missing members of Taylor’s team.

• He worries that the others may have disappeared into Audra’s reality and not returned.
• He asks whether they might have been killed there or otherwise trapped in some way.
• This intensifies the debate about whether turning the server back on is worth the risk.

Justin checks the screenshots he took inside Audra’s alternate reality.

• He makes a successful luck roll.
• Among the screenshots is a commemorative wall image showing Bill Franco receiving some kind of medal in the year 2031 or thereabouts.
• This indicates that in Audra’s reality, Bill survived the war against the Deep Ones and remained active for years afterward.
• The Handler expands the result further: the screenshot appears to include the whole team, including Audra and an older Fallon Taylor, all receiving medals.
• Taylor appears about 10–15 years older in that image.
• This confirms that counterparts of the Narnia team existed in Audra’s alternate reality.

The team begins a physical examination of Audra’s machine rather than immediately powering it on.

• Justin opens the server and inspects the Picky Eater installation.
• The chip appears professionally manufactured and well integrated into the board, unlike the crude and improvised construction of Bradley McKay’s earlier chip.
• Justin uses proper tools and close inspection to look for identifying marks.
• He discovers a manufacturer’s mark etched on the chip.
• The mark reads: “Department of Defense, 2021,” with the code “PE-003.”
• This is a major discovery.
• The group immediately interprets this to mean the chip is from two years in the future relative to their 2019 timeline.
• They also note that it is apparently the third such chip or version (“PE-003”).

The group compares this future Department of Defense chip to the earlier Picky Eater device.

• Justin confirms that the chip from McKay’s laptop did not look anything like this.
• That earlier version appeared cobbled together in a way that was barely understandable.
• The new chip looks like a mature, professionally manufactured version of the same technology.
• This suggests either technological development across timelines or that Audra had somehow obtained a later iteration of the hardware.

The team discusses what the Department of Defense marking might imply.

• They speculate that time may move differently in some alternate realities.
• They also speculate that computational speed or the power of the hardware might affect how a reality unfolds.
• Audra’s use of a desktop or server is thought to be partly explained by the immense power demands of running Picky Eater.
• Justin confirms that the power usage involved would dramatically shorten the hardware’s lifespan.
• The group concludes that even if Frank had not unplugged the system, the hardware may eventually have failed on its own.

The team continues theorizing about where the missing members of Narnia may have gone.

• Frank suggests they might simply have appeared elsewhere in the world when the alternate reality ended.
• Justin points out that multiple people can be drawn into a reality, as Matthew was pulled into Audra’s world even though Audra was its apparent source.
• The group also contemplates whether the missing Narnia members might have wound up in their own separate Picky Eater realities.
• The screenshot evidence from Audra’s world strongly suggests that at least some version of those missing people existed in her alternate timeline.

The group revisits how Picky Eater affects people left behind in baseline reality.

• Frank realizes they do not fully understand what bystanders experience when someone has gone into a Picky Eater reality.
• The team recalls the earlier case involving McKay’s parents, who had memory gaps and did not know what he was doing.
• They conclude that people in baseline reality tend to “forget around” the absence, rationalizing it instead of consciously noticing it.
• This explains why Taylor had been so confused: the others may have been gone the whole time, while his mind kept smoothing over their absence.

The team asks how Justin and Matthew were both pulled into Audra’s reality.

• It is noted that Justin had McKay’s repaired laptop with him in a bag at the time, though it was powered off.
• That provides a possible but incomplete explanation for Justin’s susceptibility.
• It does not explain why Matthew was also pulled in.
• The group has no definitive answer.

The group identifies their active lead: Robert Wallace in Bangor, Maine.

• They recall that McKay’s data had pointed them to Wallace.
• They have Wallace’s age, employment history, and address in Frosty Oaks trailer park from records obtained through Pitzerelli.
• Pitzerelli had indicated that the name Robert Wallace meant nothing to the Program and that he appeared to be nobody of known significance.
• Despite that, the team agrees that Maine is the only concrete lead they have.

Before departing, the team debates whether to alert Pitzerelli about the possible link between this case and earlier Department of Defense / Program-adjacent unnatural technology.

• Philomena is alarmed by the discovery that the chip is DoD-marked and from the future.
• She connects this with the earlier God’s Eye case, which also involved Department of Defense research.
• Frank agrees that the connection exists, but argues they do not yet have enough actionable information.
• He prefers to gather more evidence before drawing broader conclusions.
• The group also reflects that Graham had previously feared that Delta Green or its successors would try to exploit unnatural technology for their own ends.
• The discovery of a future DoD Picky Eater chip makes that concern feel much more plausible.

The team decides they should secure Audra’s server rather than leave it with Taylor.

• Taylor’s orders are to turn over all of the hardware and records from the office to his superiors.
• Frank first tries to persuade Taylor that the team should retain the machine because it is their best lead.
• Frank fails the persuade roll with an 87.
• Taylor says he understands the argument but refuses, stating that the machine is dangerous and contains information about his team’s operation that should not be shared with them.
• Justin then makes a second attempt using a different argument.
• He suggests that the Program itself may be developing this technology and that turning the server over may ensure it disappears into the system.
• Justin succeeds on his persuade roll with a 17 against a 20%.
• That argument gets through to Taylor.
• Taylor admits that if the Program is involved, the machine will likely vanish forever the moment he hands it over.
• He says that if someone is behind what happened, he wants that person to pay.
• He believes he will probably never see his team again.
• He asks the agents to promise that they will find out who or what is responsible and “fuck it up” for him and for his team.
• The team agrees.
• Taylor tells them a retrieval crew is coming in about an hour and that they should take the server and go before then.
• The team takes the tower and carries it out to their rental vehicle.

The scene shifts to late night in Manhattan, around 1:00 a.m.

• The group discusses food and where to stop.

• They settle in to eat and regroup.

• During this downtime, they review their information on Robert Wallace:

  • He is 19 years old.
  • His address is in Frosty Oaks trailer park in Bangor, Maine.
  • They have some employment history and tax records for him.
  • The lead originated on McKay’s computer, and they expanded it through Pitzerelli’s access.

The team decides to sleep before driving to Maine.

• The Handler explicitly lets them rest so they do not have to make fatigue checks.
• In the morning, around 9:00 a.m., they head out.
• The drive to Bangor is estimated at roughly six hours.
• It is October, and the route is scenic with fall foliage.
• They are expected to arrive around 3:00 p.m.

While driving, Frank calls Antonia Pitzerelli.

• He informs her that they are pursuing the Robert Wallace lead in Maine.
• He also tells her that they have commandeered Audra Powell’s server.
• Pitzerelli says this will likely anger some people, but she trusts Frank’s judgment if he thinks it is important.
• Frank then tells her that the hardware looks very similar in implication to what they dealt with in Reno and that the chip appears to be Department of Defense property from two years in the future.
• Pitzerelli immediately asks whether Frank thinks Kim Bowyer may be involved.
• Frank says that if Bowyer joined the Program and someone wanted to continue the relevant research, she would be an obvious person to involve.
• He also notes that Anthony Cooper had been part of that earlier line of work as well.
• Pitzerelli accepts the possible relevance and says she will try to pull on those threads, including trying to learn more about Bowyer and perhaps make contact.
• Frank tells her that talking to Bowyer, if possible, might be useful.
• Pitzerelli says she trusts Frank’s instincts and will see what she can do.

On arriving in Bangor, the team decides to go straight to Frosty Oaks trailer park.

• They discuss whether to case the area first or simply go in and speak to Robert Wallace.
• Because the trailer park has no through traffic, any drive through it will be obvious.
• They ultimately decide to enter and go directly to Wallace’s trailer.

The Handler describes Frosty Oaks trailer park as it appears to most of the group upon arrival.

• It sits off a two-lane highway near the edge of town.
• It is fairly rural and not especially developed.
• There are around 15–20 trailers scattered through the area.
• The park looks run down, even by trailer park standards.
• There are old and rusty vehicles around.
• The main “Frosty Oaks” sign is old and faded.
• There is a sign pointing toward the manager’s office.
• The specific trailer at Robert Wallace’s address is about halfway back into the park.
• Wallace’s trailer is old and worn.
• An old Chevy pickup truck is parked outside.
• There is a rusted-out grill and a simply built covered porch attached to the trailer.

As the SUV rolls into the trailer park, the Handler resolves an important split perception event.

• The team has an SUV, and Matthew is riding in it.
• Because Matthew had previously been injured, there is a brief rules check about healing and hit points.
• Matthew regains one hit point from rest after a successful Constitution check.

Then the reality shift occurs.

• As the SUV enters the trailer park, Matthew suddenly finds that the SUV is gone.
• He hits the ground, rolls, and comes to a rough stop.
• The three hit points previously referenced correspond to the damage from that sudden ejection.
• Matthew makes a critical success on an Int × 5 or Alertness-related roll and immediately recognizes that something is wrong.

Matthew’s perception of the trailer park is completely different from everyone else’s.

• The sign no longer says “Frosty Oaks.”
• It now says “Frosty Pines.”
• The sign is in much better repair, freshly painted, and professionally styled.
• The trailers are no longer run down and varied; instead they are all in good repair and identical.
• Each trailer has a green front yard enclosed by pristine white picket fencing that looks newly installed.
• The older, beat-up vehicles are gone.
• In their place are brand-new EVs and hybrid cars.
• Towering over the entire trailer park is a row of giant wind turbines.
• There is a constant humming sound from the spinning turbines.
• No people are visible anywhere.

At the same time, the rest of the team does not initially perceive Matthew’s disappearance clearly.

• They are described as arriving at Robert Wallace’s trailer more or less normally.
• Frank, however, is allowed an Int × 5 check because of his experience with prior reality distortions and because it feels wrong to have left Matthew behind.
• Frank succeeds with a 17 out of 70.
• As a result, Frank becomes uneasy and recognizes that their memories are being smoothed over in the same way they have seen before.
• The false memory forming in their minds is that Matthew stayed behind with local law enforcement to ask questions because, as their FBI liaison, he was deputized and useful in that role.
• Frank realizes that explanation feels wrong.
• He remembers his own reluctance to split the team and recognizes the same pattern of memory distortion they have already encountered with Picky Eater.
• This suggests that Matthew has been drawn into another alternate reality, even if the others are not yet fully conscious of it.

The session ends on that reveal.

• Matthew stands alone in an altered “Frosty Pines” version of the trailer park.
• The rest of the team is outside Robert Wallace’s rundown trailer in the baseline-seeming Frosty Oaks.
• The implication is that Robert Wallace has his own Picky Eater reality running, and Matthew has been pulled into it just as Justin and Matthew were previously pulled into Audra’s.