[DELTA GREEN] - Four More PISCES Pre-gens

 

 

> Tonya Hackett, 29YOA, Ex-RAF Search & Rescue Force
STR 11, CON 11, DEX 14, INT 12, POW 13, CHA 11
HP 11, WP 13, SAN 60, BP 54
Bonds: Ex-RAF colleagues 11
Michael Mulwray, BFF accountant in Birmingham 11
Mum and Dad 11
Motivations: Save people's lives
Get back in the air as much as possible
Do your duty
Find out why you were recruited
Skills: Alertness 60%, Bureaucracy 40%, Craft (Mechanic) 40%, Firearms 60%, First Aid 60%, Heavy Machinery 40%, HUMINT 40%, Medicine 40%, Navigate 50%, Occult 20%, Persuade 50%, Pilot (Helicopter) 60%, Psychotherapy 40%, Military Science (Air) 30%, Search 60%, Survival 40%
Attacks: Unarmed 50%, 1D4-1
ASP baton 30%, 1D4
PAVA spray 70%, special
Glock Pistol 60%, 1D10
Description: Of British-Trinidadian descent, you grew up in a middle-class family outside London and, after school, sought the excitement of the Royal Air Force. Standing 5'10", with a penchant for t-shirts and combat pants, you carry yourself well. Your voice is soft and calm even in the most terrifying situations.
Background: Until closed down in 2016, the Royal Air Force's yellow-painted Westland Sea King helicopters served as the main search-and-rescue organization in the UK, rescuing mountain-climbers, sailors and even acting as a rapid reaction to major accidents or other situations. Tonya was both an RAF pilot and a paramedic, working diligently in the role until suddenly transferred into PISCES.

The reason for your recruitment into the intelligence services is as mysterious as it is sudden. Sat in a briefing room in London, you were shown shocking photographs, asked questions about your psychology and past. It's almost like there's something in your past - something that you've seen and forgotten, or maybe didn't even realize you've seen - that made PISCES take interest.
Playing Hackett: You're ex-military but not a soldier - and your life has been spent helping people, often in some of the UK's the most desolate mountains or raging oceans. You are moral but pragmatic, ready to make life-or-death decisions based on a "triage" of possibilities. When things look bleak, it's better to fall back and regroup than go in guns blazing.

If the mission calls for it, like requiring rapid travel outside London, on a successful Bureaucracy roll you can requisition one of PISCES' Bell 230 helicopters (Pilot+one in front, six in the rear). These are civilian helicopters, officially owned by Severn Aerospace. If they crash or explode or are seen doing illegal things, don't expect to be given another.

[DELTA GREEN] - Eight PISCES Pre-gens

 

 

> BRUNO DVORACK, 29YOA, ex-Immigration Enforcement Officer
STR 13, CON 13, DEX 12, INT 12, POW 11, CHA 11
HP 13, WP 11, SAN 55, BP 44
Bonds: Parents 11
Football buddies 11
Arsenal Football Club 11
Ex-Wife 11
Motivations: Help people, particularly the underdog
Protect Britain
Be English
Don't be foreign
"No, I'm not bloody Polish!"
Skills: Anthropology 40%, Alertness 60%, Bureaucracy 40%, Criminology 40%, Drive 50%, First Aid 30%, Foreign Language (Czech) 40%, Foreign Language 40% (Player’s Choice) 40%, History 30%, HUMINT 50%, Law 30%, Melee Weapons 50%, Navigate 40%, Occult 30%, Persuade 40%, Search 60%, Unarmed 60%
Attacks: Unarmed 60%, 1D4
ASP baton 50%, 1D6+1
PAVA spray 55%, special
Firearms 20%, varies
Description: You’re big and bulky and have a beard that doesn’t suit you. Out in the field you wear leather jackets and baseball caps. You used to work out, lift weights. Now you just drink beer and play five-a-side football with the lads. You are truly English.
Background: Your parents escaped Czechoslovakia, got to England as refugees. Yet they wanted to keep their old culture, their own traditions. You grew up despising it. They thought you were Czech. You knew you were English. You did a few wage-slave jobs before joining Border Force, got a job as an Immigration Enforcement officer, tracking down and arresting illegals.
It wasn’t a nice job. Made you sad. The day you were going to hand in your notice one of the Central Asian guys you picked up at an illegal sweatshop in Surrey suddenly coughed up a worm – a 6’ worm with teeth. You beat it to death with a nearby fire extinguisher. PISCES were impressed.

[DELTA GREEN] - Some British Agencies and Professions

A tentative and far from perfect selection of fan-made British professions for PISCES games. Technically all PISCES officers are part of PISCES no matter what skillset they have - so it's perfectly acceptable for a player to pick any of the professions from the Agents Handbook, slap down the points and then say "Fuck off, Filth - I'm with Section" when someone queries what they're playing as. It's a hell of a lot easier than faffing about with what your PC's previous life was before they got black-bagged by the Gods. But RPG'ers gonna RPG, I guess...

> BRITISH ARMY
While British Army's role in the War on Terror has increased the number of soldiers stumbling onto the Unnatural - something that should provide PISCES with the pick of the crop - the sweeping range of cuts and regimental amalgamations introduced into the military over the last decade has made it somewhat harder to pull in those people they actually want. 

When they do get the opportunity, Section goes for intelligence officers (particularly interrogators and members of the military police), sappers from the Royal Corps of Signals or Royal Engineers, and soldiers from the Brigade of Gurkhas. The hardy psychology and toughness of the latter are particularly appealing, Gurkhas having been used on numerous operations against the occult since 1968.

Brigade of Gurkhas Soldier: 
Alertness 50%, Athletics 50%, Bureaucracy 30%, Drive 40%, Firearms 40%, First Aid 40%, Foreign Language (English) 40%, Heavy Weapons 40%, Melee Weapons 60% Military Science (Land) 40%, Navigate 40%, Persuade 30%, Unarmed Combat 50%.
Pick any four from:
Artillery 20%
Demolitions 20%
Heavy Machinery 30%
Occult 30%
Search 40%
SIGINT 20%
Swim 40%
Bonds: 3
Special: All Gurkhas carry a kukri in a sheath hidden in the small of their back. It deals 1D8 damage. Their native language is Nepali.

Military Policeman (Provost)
Alertness 60%, Bureaucracy 40%, Criminology 40%, Drive 50%, Firearms 40%, First Aid 30%, Forensics 50%, HUMINT 50%, Law 20%, Melee Weapons 50%, Navigate 40%, Persuade 40%, Search 50%, Unarmed Combat 60%
Bonds: 3

Royal Engineer Sapper
Alertness 50%, Athletics 50%, Bureaucracy 30%, Craft (Military Engineering) 40%, Demolitions 20%, Drive 40%, Firearms 40%, First Aid 40%, Heavy Machinery 50%, Military Science (Land) 40%, Navigate 40%, Persuade 30%, Science (Player Choice) 30%, Science (Physics) 40%, Unarmed Combat 40%
Bonds: 4

77th Brigade Interrogation Specialist
Alertness 50%, Bureaucracy 40%, Criminology 40%, Drive 40%, Firearms 40%, First Aid 40%, Foreign Language 50%, Foreign Language 40%, HUMINT 60%, Persuade 60%, Pharmacy 40%, Psychotherapy 40%, SIGINT 40%, Unarmed Combat 50%
Bonds: 2

Army Air Corps Helicopter Pilot
As Pilot.

PISCES Campaign - WONDER WALL - Session Three (After-Action Report)

Operation Roster (linked to After-Action Reports):

+ Ronald "Al" Frost - previously AFO with the Met's Diplomatic Protection Service
+ Chloe Thornes - ex-MI6 case officer with overseas experience in Russia
+ George Crackanthorpe - old-hand MI6 secondee
+ Holly Walker - a PISCES shrink and professional skeptic
+ Simon Spencer - millennial bad-boy computer hacker given another chance at life

WONDER WALL: SESSION THREE

"Forget it. This stinks. The whole operation stinks. And I'm gonna find out why..."

Leaving Hatton Garden Police Station, officers Frost, Thornes and a bandaged-handed Spencer pondered what they should do next. The had more than enough clues to go around - the dead shoot-out suspects and its injured survivor (still in ICU), the Kacey woman, the blue stone - but nothing they felt was concrete just yet. Phoning Control, Frost gave a brief and deliberately imprecise run-down on what they'd learned and informed his superiors the team would join up with their colleagues in Team Wenseclas and help with their "rat problem."

At the same time Crackanthorpe and Walker were having their own desires for aid. Drenched by rain, standing in a graveyard full of names, lost out of time, they sneaked out as swiftly as possible. Again they patched their wounds back in their car, Crackanthorpe applying bandages to his blood-soaked belly and switching to a spare shirt. Walker called the other team, requesting they meet up at Brixton Police Station to assist, as Crackanthorpe started the car and headed for an unannounced meeting with Det. Sgt. Styles...

PISCES Campaign - WONDER WALL - Session Two (After-Action Report)

Operation Roster (linked to After-Action Reports):

+ Ronald "Al" Frost - previously AFO with the Met's Diplomatic Protection Service
+ Chloe Thornes - ex-MI6 case officer with overseas experience in Russia
+ George Crackanthorpe - old-hand MI6 secondee
+ Holly Walker - a PISCES shrink and professional skeptic
+ Simon Spencer - millennial bad-boy computer hacker given another chance at life

WONDER WALL: SESSION TWO

"From mice to men
And then to rats
But only snakes behave like that..."

Last time we left the PISCES lads and ladettes, Team Wenceslas (Officers Walker and Crackanthorpe) had set up a surveillance post in one of the abandoned flats at the top of the Wyndham Court estate. Hoping to catch a snifter of Old Scratch's existence beyond second-hand stories, they tossed their bedrolls on the dirty, beer-can-and-tin-foil strewn floor and readied for the long haul.

Night falls, electric lights come on. Across the estate people return home to the warmth of their apartments. A bored Crackanthorpe saunters outside to poke his head around the estate after dark. He takes the stairs down to the fifth floor walkway, and as he rounds the corner spots one of those greasy "rat-prints" on a flat window. Inside, the sound of a TV buzzes.

Then something fat and heavy ran across his foot. A black rat. Behind him - tired of waiting, having come down to find him - Walker watched the creature rush past her.

Ahead on the balcony, the electric lights flickered out one by one. A solid darkness advanced...

Swallowing the two PISCES agents in impenetrable gloom.

PISCES Campaign - WONDER WALL - Session Two Prep

NEWS AND PUBLIC SOURCE INFO

BNC 24: Police are appealing for anyone with footage of the gun-battle and car-chase in central London yesterday to come forward. The incident, which left a tourist and two alleged attackers dead, saw Waterloo Station and surrounding roads closed. Four men, including two police officers, are being treated in hospital for injuries.

Star News: At a presser this evening, Commander Harry Singh of London Counter-terrorism Command stated that the Strand shoot-out was not a "terror incident" but organized crime, with investigations remaining under the Metropolitan Police's Organized Crime Division. Information on those killed and injured will be released at "an appropriate time, when families have been informed" he added.

The Daily Crucible: English police forces' heavy-handed tactics in breaking up "rave culture" are damaging public trust, say community figures. Last month's dispersal of crowds at an illegal rave in Essex, which left six officers injured and led to the arrest of thirty-four people, has come under scrutiny following evidence that officers failed to present noise abatement writs to the rave's organizers prior to sending in riot police.

London Mail: Three boats carrying 43 migrants were caught in the English Channel yesterday, bringing this month's tally to more than 500. Numbers have surged since the bulldozing of the "Amazon" refugee camp outside Calais, a popular congregating site for those looking to escape to Britain. While Minister for Immigration Jason Woolpit-Coates has vowed to dismantle the organized smuggling gangs that prey on such individuals, the London Mail can report none of those who made it to the UK in the last year have yet been deported...

WATERCOOLER TALK

Gary in D-Section says the chiefs are in a flap over yesterday's debacle - and our friends in SIS have been on the phone, shouting all night. Everyone involved, and I mean everyone who breathed the same air, is being called to the carpet for a 2pm debrief and wall-to-wall bollocking. Do NOT be late.

Rumor from the armorers is pistols will be signed-out on a "will permit" basis. Still no license-to-kill with it though, so unless you found a 00 designation in your cornflakes this morning, weigh your options before taking it up. You pays your money, you takes your chances, as my old man used to say.

Our lad in the Met says someone's pushing hard - really hard - to make sure this doesn't get marked as a terror incident. According to them, Organized Crime's been told to back off too, which means someone's running interference. As to why, who knows? You didn't hear it from me, mind.

PISCES Campaign - WONDER WALL - Session One (After-Action Report)

Operation Roster (linked to After-Action Reports):

+ Ronald "Al" Frost - previously AFO with the Met's Diplomatic Protection Service
+ Chloe Thornes - ex-MI6 case officer with overseas experience in Russia
+ George Crackanthorpe - old-hand MI6 secondee
+ Holly Walker - a PISCES shrink and professional skeptic
+ Simon Spencer - millennial bad-boy computer hacker given another chance at life

WONDER WALL: SESSION ONE

A drab gray day in London. From the 23rd floor of the Severn Aerospace Building it was hard to tell if the Thames reflected the gunbolt hue of the sky or vice-versa. Sipping coffee, doodling on notepads, chit-chatting about the Gunners, the officers waited for today's Control - a middle-aged, tweed-jacketed type with a personality far too hip for his years - to brief them. "The Gods have spoken," he said. "The Sorting Hat chosen its candidates." He pinned photographs and papers to the whiteboard on the wall. Two issues had come up requiring the Section's involvement...

Team Shadwell: Heathrow Airport flagged Chuck Hauser (or rather his passport, AKA Milton Waters), an American citizen, entering the country via Schiphol, Amsterdam. He's booked into the Strand Hotel near Covent Garden. The Gods want him surveilled. No reasons given.

Team Wenceslas: One of PISCES' prognosticators dreamed a dream of doom. Onto the board goes his child-like etching of a ziggurat and stick-figures, drowning in a river of blood, overlooked by the lidless eye of the moon. The actuaries often send in their nightmares, scrawled in crayon; like Nostradamus they think they have meaning.

Sometimes - as in this case - they do.

[DELTA GREEN] - PISCES - A Fictive Background (Locales and Factions)

Another chapter in my unofficial and non-canonical take on modern-day PISCES, Delta Green RPG's British anti-occult agency. A bunch of fractitious groups and locales, with potential seeds and ideas.

PISCES LOCATIONS

+ Severn Aerospace Building, London: in use since the late-1980s, most of this 25-storey office-block in Southwark, south of the Thames, is rented to multinational corporations. Only the top six floors (and roof helicopter pad) are still retained by PISCES, whose somewhat dilapidated collection of open-plan offices, private rooms and operation centers oversee British occult security. New recruits are often surprised by its lack of windows. There is no office for “R.” 

+ Regional Divisionals: the Section operates six regional offices (RDs) in key cities outside London, specifically Belfast, Cardiff, Manchester, Birmingham, York and Edinburgh. Listed as on-the-books  MI5 or National Crime Agency buildings, RDs have offices, vehicles, equipment and materiel for work across the country. RD-Belfast is unique, being located aboard the leaky, decommissioned submarine-tender HMS Celene, currently laid-up on the city’s waterfront.

[DELTA GREEN] - PISCES - A Fictive Background

This is a non-canonical, unofficial interpretation of 21st century PISCES, the British intelligence agency that polices the Empire of ghosties, ghoulies and non-Euclidean beasties in Delta Green the RPG. Thanks must go to mellonbread, whose scenarios focused on the group's collapse into factions has served as the grist for my own setting's somewhat different mill. Which produces Obtusebread.

If you don't know the secret history of PISCES and actually care, you probably shouldn't read this...

PISCES – the Paranormal Intelligence Section for Counter-Intelligence, Espionage and Sabotage – was born in the dark days of 1940, when the German juggernaut seemed all-powerful. Nicknamed the Section and disguised as a division of MI5, PISCES has continued to protect Britain and (unofficially) the Commonwealth from occult threats, be they foreign, alien and domestic.

But there is another more terrible truth. In 1968 an apparently successful operation to clear out the depraved village of Goatswood opened PISCES to alien infiltration. Parasitic alien puritans, trapped on Earth and known as the Shan, subverted PISCES command structure, turning the agency into a tool to destroy worshipers of other gods and find some means of escape from our dying world.

This remained the case until three years ago, when PISCES rank-and-file finally uncovered the rot within their organization. A new conspiracy grew, as field-officers and support staff slowly banded together in readiness for a civil-war. Whoever green-lit what would later become known as the “Unpleasantness” is either dead or extraordinarily tight-lipped, but on a brisk Summer day, as PISCES’ department heads met in supposed secrecy and security, someone gave the order for action.

Many Shan died that day. No few humans too. And as the purge swept through PISCES offices and safe-houses, men and women held down their screaming, begging colleagues, as power-tools bit into their skulls to let the sunlight in. No few old grudges or personal hatreds ended that day too, with a trepanation or a bullet, followed by the claim the unfortunate victim wasn’t truly human.

Having seized power and shown their fellows what lingered in the shadows, over the next few weeks the Section's non-Shan hosts led a great witch-hunt - a period of detentions, interrogations and arbitrary arrests. With the power of the state behind it, PISCES had little to fear from the public finding out. Those who did thought it was an intelligence shake-up, a mole-hunt like back in the 1980s.

No Shan is believed to have survived the purge.

PISCES did survive.

Barely.