The Liberty Artifact
“Good morning, Agents. Yesterday afternoon this item was brought in voluntarily by a movie memorabilia collector who purchased it on e-Bay, under the mistaken belief that he was bidding on a prop from the film Cloverfield:
“John Foster is a twenty-seven year old computer programmer, self-described ‘science fiction geek,’ and mild conspiracy enthusiast; he purchased this item in an online auction, from an account that has since been suspended. Mr. Foster noted certain oddities of the paper and ink, to say nothing of the actual message on it, and decided to bring it into a local branch of the FBI; while he did not expect them to care, he hoped – successfully, as it turned out – that we would notice, and smoothly intercept him in order to confiscate the artifact.
“The artifact itself is a poster two feet wide and three feet long: the paper is of a kind widely used in the 1990s to print posters designed for outside use. There are discolorations, minor tears, and foreign matter on the back consistent with a poster dabbed hastily with adhesive and fixed to a brick outer wall. The poster itself was apparently printed using the rotogravure method, again assuming a technological style of the mid-1990s. Much more importantly: the poster is faintly radioactive. Not enough to be dangerous, but also much higher than background radiation. Swathes of the surface of the poster also reveal trace remains of a variety of pollutants and residues consistent with building fires.
“In other words, this item trips enough of the flags on the Suspected Chronological / Dimensional Anomaly Checklist that it warrants further investigation. Your duties will be to track down the origins of this item. If it turns out to be of esoteric origin, you will assess the local threat matrix and act accordingly. As always, if you encounter a stable dimensional or chronic portal you will immediately contact HQ and secure the site.
“Good luck – and before you go? Let me introduce you to Provisional Adjunct Trainee John Foster. He will be assisting you with locating the original seller, and whatever other computational needs you require. I’m sure that all of you will also take this opportunity to provide appropriate mentoring for our latest recruit; he is quite keen to learn from the best of the best, after all.”
Oh my. An amateur conspiracy theorist, 90% of what he knows is utter bull, but occasionally knows something that the agents know is true. And who rarely believes stuff, that the agents didn’t know, but turns out to be true. And is now the focus of an escort mission. In a setting like DELTA GREEN, where the agents know they don’t know everything, that would be pure evil to spring on the players.
I was pleased with the wrinkle – which works even if the NPC turns out to be a value-add for the party. I mean, clearly the guy’s *instincts* are spot-on, yes? You don’t even have to make him obnoxious: he can complicate everybody’s life just fine without that personality flaw.
Yup. When I think about this, the image I have in my mind is a minor character from Angel. A dot-com millionaire, who enjoyed playing D&D with his buddies, who ended up in a spot of trouble after visiting a rather exotic bordello. Not genre savvy, but knows the world isn’t exactly like what the masses believe.
And then the question becomes, how does he react to further weirdness? “This is so cool!” like Halo in Grrl Power? “Ho hum, it’s another werewolf, get the silver knives” like a lot of PCs? Gets tired of it all, and wants to go back to being ignorant? Turns into a stereotypical heavily armed Hunter? Ideally, he would help the PCs reflect on why the heck they’re doing what they do.