Operation Angled Chalice

Initial Hook: A "terrorist chemical attack" has occurred on Johns Island, SC. Its epicenter appears to be a privately-owned gallery called Rane Fine Art. Multiple 911 calls of a riot are troubling. First responders, even those in hazmat gear, report suffering from hallucinations.

What Happened: Artist Alexandra Carmen explored fringe belief systems in her work. Her latest installation, a series of abstract sculptures, accompanied by audio/visual elements, used The Case for UFOs and several misclassified MJ-12 documents as source material. This included part of the mathematical formulas used for the Consciousness Expansion and Contact rituals. She gained access to some of this information through a brief tryst from Bonner, and the rest through her association with current "muse", Dr. Horace Welkes.

Carmen became obsessed and created a basilisk hazard: a series of abstract sculptures with A/V elements. Multiple guests at the reception became Gravitic Vectors. They have since converted more victims and killed others.

Anyone who remains within line of sight of the work for more than 30 minutes must roll SAN for 1/1d100. This time is shortened to 10 minutes if the audiovisual elements remain on. Turning the power off to the block will turn the A/V off. Anyone who loses all of their SAN becomes a Gravitic Vector.

En Route Briefing: The first 911 calls all originated within a block of the Rane Fine Art, a prestigious gallery, currently hosting a reception for its new exhibit. Several guests began to attack each other. The first police on the scene described the gallery as a riot in progress. The chaos spread throughout the block. It is hard to know much more about the situation because everyone who has gone in has either gone silent or has suffered from hallucinations. Descriptions of the nature of the hallucinations are not available.

A cordon has been established around the island. So far no known chemical or biological agent has been detected. Victims of the attack are being quarantined but one first responder is available for interview, Karen Nielsen, a paramedic who has remained responsive. She claims she is not hallucinating but her testimony is consistent with the more hysterical victims of the attack.

Bonner provides pictures of surveillance of the island, before the drone lost telemetry over the art gallery and crashed. The program is unable to risk other drones for further surveillance at this time, though they do have a helicopter on standby for extraction, if necessary.

Bonners offers agents a choice of their cover:

-EMT: Medkit (which can be easily used to smuggle other things). Can choose to take an ambulance.
- SCDPS: South Carolina Department of Public Safety officers are equpped with a service weapon, badge, taser, handcuffs and mace. Can choose to take a police cruiser.
- SWAT Officer: Given a badge, their choice of a submachine gun or a shotgun, sidearm, body armor. Bonner unfortunately cannot provide you with an MRAP or other SWAT assault vehicle - they're too closely tracked.
- National Guard: Given a uniform, assault rifle with a spare clip, sidearm.

Bonner stresses that their mission is present this anomaly, whatever it is, from spreading beyond the island.

Gravitic Vector: An entity, no longer human, but remains trapped in a human body. It is incomplete and wishes to finish its ascension. It believes observing humans transforming into Gravitic Vectors will provide the insight it needs to ascend. Every Vector wishes to force all humans in its vicinity to perceive Carmen’s sculpture until they become Vectors as well. It will not hunt for humans outside of its local area.

Each Vector retains human weaknesses but can rewrite the laws of physics. They can redirect gravity to walk on any surface at any angle. They cannot fly. They can also alter gravity to redirect threats. Bullets become harmless as gravity pulls them away. A firearm pressed directly against the flesh of a Vector would still work. A Vector’s ability to manipulate gravity is limited, but grows stronger with proximity and over time. Many vectors lingering in an area for a few hours can create localized distortions, stacked cars, twisted lamposts, etc. They cannot manipulate gravity enough to affect electricity although objects channeling electricity can be manipulated.

They can affect local curvature of spacetime. Time can be sped up or slowed down. Lengths, distances, and angles can also be changed. This affects all characters in the vicinity, costing 1/1d10 unnatural SAN loss. All perception-based skills are halved when affected by this ability. This ability does not permanently affect reality and things revert to normal when the Vector ends the ability or dies.

Vectors use gravity to enhance their close combat ability –giving them a STR of 24 and an unarmed skill of 80%. Vectors will seek to grapple and drag their opponents to Rane Fine Art. If a grappled character harms the Vector but does not kill it, the Vector responds by crushing them with gravity, Lethality 30% and then drops them, whether they are alive or dead. 1/1d6 SAN to view a Vector and 1/1d10 SAN to survive a gravity attack.

GRAVITIC VECTOR
STR 24, DEX 10, HP 10, POW 12
Gravitic Dodge 80%, Unarmed 80%, Alertness 20%, HUMINT 5%
Attacks: 1d4 (Heavy Punch)
Grapple
Gravity Crush (grappled target only) 30% Lethality
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:18, Sun 10 May 2020.

Alexandra Carmen
STR 10 CON 10 DEX 12 INT 12 POW 16
SAN 0
Disorders: Addiction (Opiates), Narcissistic Personality Disorder
Knows the Spells: Contact, Infallible Suggestion

Alexandra's purse contains:
- 50 mg of pure Fentanyl. Anyone searching the purse needs to make a Luck check or make contact with the powder. Con x 5 or fall unconscious for 6 hours. Take 2d6 damage in addition on a fumble.
- A snub-nose revolver of some appropriate make and model, fully loaded.
- Numerous opiates, both legally and illegally obtained.
- In additional to the small pharmacy, a bottle of rohypnol

Dr. Horace Welkes
STR 10 CON 10 DEX 10 INT 16 POW 15
SAN 10
Disorders: Depression, Addiction (Opiates)
Knows the Spells: Consciousness Expansion


- His wallet and passport
- A briefcase, containing:
- A crumpled mess of papers, covered in complex math equations. These are copies of the Cortis Paper.
- A packet of papers labelled "THE CASE FOR THE UFO c. 1955". It addition to ramblings about Roswell and first contact reports, it has the spells Contact and Consciousness Expansion on it.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:54, Mon 25 May 2020.

Possible Outcomes:

- Dr. Welkes completes the equation and disappears. This will cause 1/1d6 Sanity loss to anyone who witnesses it, but will effectively end the danger. All possessed human beings will be released, with unclear memories of the event. The clean-up will be a monumental headache for the program, but this is possibly a happy ending with minimal loss of human life. 1d4 SAN reward for saving lives.

- Dr. Welkes dies, which kills all infected individuals. Tragic, but good opsec.

- Someone (either the players or Alexandra) manages to cast Contact, and the greys clean everything up. No SAN reward for saving lives.

- Dr. Welkes and Alexandra either escape the island by yacht, wait things out with no intervention from the players, or the players capture Dr. Welkes and decide to continue Alexandra's treatment of him. In any three of these cases, a Hound of Tindalos eventually arrives to kill Dr. Welkes, sick of his space-time fuckery. If this occurs on the yacht, it will be within view of the shore, creating an even bigger information quarantine problem for the program.