Impossible Landscapes Play Report, Part 2 - A Volume Of Secret Faces

This is the second part of my Impossible Landscapes play report. Go here for the first part.

The player playing Agent KELLER dropped out of the campaign after Night Floors, so our remaining Agents are the following:

• Agent KATE, FBI agent. She is adapted to violence, has the lowest SAN and the second-highest Corruption.
• Agent KIERAN, author and occult expert. He is the only one that has read The King In Yellow. He has the highest Corruption.
• Agent KRATOS, a diplomat working at the UN. He is the most cautious of the Agents and therefore has the lowest Corruption.
• Agent KONSTANTIN, former US Army physician. He now has his own doctor's office in a New York suburb.

Because our group does not play very often I decided against running another scenario in the 20 year time gap between Night Floors and A Volume Of Secret Faces. My players also do not know about the schism in Delta Green, between the Program and the Outlaws. I simply told them that after the events in Night Floors they were never again approached by Delta Green to go on another operation. Until now.

A Volume Of Secret Faces

The Agents have not heard a word from Delta Green for 20 years, so they are understandably suspicious when they receive their invitations. Before they all leave for Boston I made the players describe a short scene between their Agent and one of their bonds.

Agent KIERAN says goodbye to his girlfriend Henriette and tells her he has to go to Boston for an occult investigation, but he can't tell her anything about it. As an author by trade he does not have the best OPSEC.

We also learn a little about Agent KONSTANTIN's family, his wife Molly and his daughter Lily. They will become important later on.

The Agents meet up in Boston a day before their meeting with EXETER and check out the restaurant ahead of time. Since this is such a public place they feel quite save going into the meeting. During the briefing they get all the important information from EXETER and ask a few follow-up question. They are disturbed to hear the name Abigail Wright again, after all this time. But even more disturbing is EXETER'S strange behavior. The Agenda decide to follow him home after the briefing is done.

They surveil EXETER'S home for a while and find out that his true name is Barbas. After seeing him in his red robe and hearing suspicious noises they decide to break in and confront Barbas. Agent KRATOS is careless and almost gets killed by the Lion. In the last moment he manages to get behind Barbas and use him as a kind of shield. Barbas orders the Lion to stop to not get killed by his own creation. Barbas is strangely unconcerned that the Agents broke into his house. He tells them to leave him alone and to investigate Dorchester House. The Agents are baffled and and Barbas uses their confusion to escape through the door in his closet.

The Agents search the house and find several clues, like the Scribe, Michael Witwer's phone and the Ars Goetia. Afterwards, they retreat to their hotel and go to sleep.

The next morning the Agents discuss what to do next. Agent KRATOS uses the satellite phone they received from Barbas to call A-Cell, or at least that's what he assumes. The voice on the other end of the line tells him that Barbas is not their problem and that they should focus on Dallan and Dorchester House. None of the Agents is suspicious of those orders and so they decide to head to Dorchester House.

There they meet Esther Samigina and Dr. Dallan. Samigina gives them a tour of the facility and explains how Dorchester House functions. Dr. Dallan tells them about the escaped patients (T. Hou, Cal Diassa, Lila Mac, Kim Plaslad) and gives them their patient records. The Agents ask to talk to some of the patients and so they make the acquaintance of Ed Miler Wist and Timothy Bael. They witness Bael drawing demonic seals into his notebook, some of which they have seen before. They also think that there might be clues in Wist's notebook and plan to take it from him somehow or offer him a trade. But without any concrete plan in mind they head back to their hotel before nightfall. On their way out of the facility they find an Encounter Group flyer and take it with them.

Back at the hotel they take a closer look at Michael Witwer's phone, which they found in Barbas' house. Through this phone they find out about the Boxer Hotel and Ophelia Sitri.

The next day the Agents go back to Dorchester House. They ask Samigina some questions about Bael and Wist, she tells them they don't like each other and that Wist is incredibly rich. Samigina leaves them for a while, the Agents use this opportunity to search her small office. They find more Encounter Group flyers and the Cloak of Truth, but they put everything back before Samigina returns.

They talk to Wist again and get some information from him, e.g. that Dallan never leaves the facility, not even at night. They notice some other strange events, like the orderly Richard Brice talking to his gym back and someone vomiting up tiny gold figurines in the women's bathroom. They suspect that something happens in Dorchester House at night, just like it did in the Macallistar building. They decide to follow Brice when his shift ends, to maybe confront him alone. They follow him to the gym and to his home, but notice that someone is following them as well, a white van with "Palatial Cleaning Services" written on the sides. Agent KATE checks the license plate and finds out that the van belongs to a private security company called "Palace Guard Inc.". This company was founded just a day ago, on behalf of K.N.I.G.

They confront the man driving the van, who turns out to be former cop turned private detective. They successfully threaten him to leave them alone. Afterwards, they return to Brice's home. They talk to him, but he doesn't turn out to be very helpful, though he does act strange. They decide to leave him alone and go check out the Boxer Hotel.

After some searching they find the missing room 616. Inside they experience weird phenomena. Agent KATE's sanity takes a strong hit and results in a bout of paranoia, until KONSTANTIN can talk her down again. They do find some valuable clues, like the Deuxieme Bureau file and a key card for Dorchester House. They briefly debate staying in the room at night, but decide against it. Instead, they want to break into Dorchester House, using the key card.

The campaign book states that there is no dramatic transition from the Dorchester House at day and at night, and that the realization that the Agents are patients there comes very slowly. I decided to do it a little differently. When the Agents entered Dorchester House I turned to Agent KONSTANTIN's player and said: "You are sitting in Dr. Friends office. The doctor sits across from you at looks at you with an enigmatic expression on his face. He says: 'We are worried about you, Mr. Diassa. These "games" you play with your "friends", they are disconcerting the other patients. We really have to do something about that.'"

I found that this sudden scence change was really effective, you could see the shock in my player's faces. I continued describing a similar scene for Agent KATE. She suddenly finds herself in a rec room in the facility, together with other patients. In front of her are sheets of paper, filled with the Yellow Sign. The pen is still in her hand. Next to her is Debra Carver, drawing yellow bugs. She then begins talking to KATE and tells her about the bugs and Melonia. She promises KATE that she will get her some.

KRATOS and KIERAN are still together, exploring the hallways. They meet Sunshine, who unsuccessfully tries to communicate with them until an orderly takes Sunshine away and tells KRATOS and KIERAN that Dr. Friend wants them to attend group therapy.

Group therapy is where the Agents, now Patients, meet each other again. Other patients are also present, among them Leland Fuller and Mister Wilde. After Dr. Friend asks them his weird questions and ends the therapy session, KRATOS follows Friend to ask him some questions. In the meantime, Fuller approaches the remaining Agents and tells them that Friend is dangerous and cannot be trusted.

KRATOS soons learn the truth of that statement, when Friend orders Mr. Ed to subdue KRATOS so that he can extract his Patzu. KRATOS tries to resist, but Mr. Ed almost kills him.

Debra Carver approaches the other Agents and gives KATE some gold bugs and Melonia, before leaving again. KATE tells the other Agents what Carver has told her about the bugs and their effect when consumed. Agent KIERAN eats one the bugs, which helps them avoid the orderlies that are now looking for them.

KRATOS wakes up and goes looking for his fellow Agents. He sees an orderly putting Patzu canisters into a pneumatic tube in the walls before he finally finds his comrades.

Together, the Agents explore the hallway. They find that Bob, Agent KATE's ex-husband is apparently a patient here. KATE promises him to she will save him, but he has to wait in his room until she found a way out. She never returns to get him.

The Agents meet Mister Wilde again. He tells them that King Bael might know a way out. He can lead them to him, if they are willing to do him a favor. They agree and Wilde leads them into the basement, where Bael resides. They hear him talking to Asa Daribondi on his phone and how he orders him to kill children. When the Agents ask him why he is doing this he explains that they all have a role to play.

Bael leads the Agents deeper into the Dorchester House until they arrive in the theater. Agent KATE takes another hit to her sanity when she looks into the face of her dead grandmother in the audience. She has another paranoid attack, but this time KONSTANTIN can't help her.

During the dance of the child clown Bael explains to KIERAN the nature of the play and how it creates and devours reality.

After the dance is over, Bael leads the Agents onto the stage. He explains that they have to drink the Patzu to escape. The clown wakes up and the chase begins. Agent KATE is hesitant to drink the Patzu, due to her bout of paranoia. The other Agents are less concerned, KONSTANTIN is the first to successfully vanish, KIERAN vanishes shortly afterwards. KRATOS needs more attempts, but he is lucky that the clown never gets him. After several tries he vanishes as well. With all her comrades gone, KATE sees no other option and decides to drink the Patzu as well. She vanishes just before the clown was about to grab her.

The Agents wake up in an empty house in a Boston suburb. KIERAN sees the clockwork child and takes the message from Abigail Wright from it. They now know that they have to find Hotel Broadalbin next.

Thoughts about A Volume Of Secret Faces

This part of the campaign took us much longer than Night Floors, even though we didn't even get to all the content. It took us nine sessions to play through this part. I liked it a lot, because it is very open and less linear than Night Floors.

I was surprised about how well the clown chase worked. For my players it was a highlight, they found it really exciting. The imagery of the steadily growing clown and the different "revelations" that the Agents are seeing while running for their lives worked really well. I was worried that this scene might be too deadly, but I rolled terribly whenever the clown was trying to grab someone.

I am glad that my players never had the idea to contact Delta Green. I imagine that the Trivelino Mall ambush could be just as deadly as the clown, but much less fun.

You can find the next part of this series here.