Some Changes For Last Things Last - Part 2

In my last post I gave some examples of (hopefully) fun, minimalistic additions to make to Baughman's apartment in Last Things Last. In this post, I'll be expanding on an oft-given piece of advice for LTL - to use the contents of the locker in Baughman's Cabin as an opportunity to seed future scenarios.

To this end, I put together the "Baughman Locker Jam" on the N@TO Discord to create a sizeable numbers of items that connect in some way to a published scenario/faction. Whilst we didn't quite approach a wholistic list, I'm still very pleased with how this Jam turned out. Many thanks for those who took part, and contributed a total of 11 submissions! I'll be displaying all of them here for posterity, and putting all of your preferred online handles next to your entries.

Now, I certainly wouldn't recommend dumping all of these in Baughman's poor little locker - just the ones for scenarios you want to run in the future. But for those you don't use, they can always make good entries to pad out any Green Box the Agents might stumble across in the future!

(Of note, whether examining these entries grants skill percentages and/or costs SAN, like a true Unnatural Tome does, is up to the Handler's discretion. If you were to do so, I'd limit the SAN loss to between 1 - 1D4 and cap skill percentages at 1 - 3%. And I wouldn't add any Rituals.)

Baughman's Locker Contents

1) Sentinels Of Twilight - By Dragoleaf

A thin manilla folder containing a series of files. The first are numerous missing person reports for children (between the ages of 3-14) lodged with the National Parks Service, Federal Bureau of Investigation and numerous local law enforcement agencies. There's a great deal of crossover between this list and cases reported in the Missing 411 conspiracy theory - especially as the files are focused around disappearances in the United States' national parks.

Someone has exhaustively plotted out the last known locations of these missing people, and then superimposed that data over maps of American cave systems. While there is a disturbing correlation arising from this statistical comparison, it's nothing definitive. Additionally attached are diagrams of the internal structure of Earth - with the mantle scribbled out and annotated with: "ALL A LIE. N'KAI LIES BENEATH. WHAT DO THEY WANT WITH THE CHILDREN?". 

The final file is a crude sketch of a towering stick figure snatching up smaller figures - children.

2) Presence - By Dragoleaf

An intercepted communication from a Canadian non-profit, the Paragon Foundation, to an unknown recipient - dated 26/01/2000. It's a report on the "suspected presence of a sizeable population of Talents located in the CONUS. Intelligence suggests a potential psychic hot-spot within the state of Vermont. Our assets are not permitted to investigate south of the border, as Embassy Row has the Gods recalcitrant to authorize it. Stand by for further instructions".

The paper has been annotated with several scribbled writings in red pen - "What is a ‘Talent'?", "Gods = P.I.S.C.E.S?", "Must watch out for infestations.", "Fucking head-lice better stay out."

3) Hourglass - By Dragoleaf

A 1987 case file from the police department of Hourglass, Oregon. Its subject, Joseph Owens, claimed that a "little boy with the eyes of Lucifer", whom Joseph was unable to accurately identify, magically swapped bodies with him. Joseph testified that in the hour-long period that he was trapped in the young boy's body, he was sexually abused by laughing, masked men who spoke in bizarrely antiquated New England accents.

It was this story that Joseph used to explain why he had a total lack of knowledge regarding him raping, murdering and dismembering his wife of seven years, Candice Owens, and their four-year-old daughter, Jessica Owens. The case file states that an attached videotape, which Joseph had recorded himself, shows the man gleefully committing the inhumanly sadistic deed. Thankfully, the tape itself isn't present within Baughman's locker.

Joseph was successful in an insanity plea, with numerous psychologists attesting that he must have suffered a catastrophic mental break. Further research reveals the man later committed suicide in the Oregon State Hospital in 1993. A brief inquiry was held into how staff enabled him in taking his own life, but no findings were ever officially reported.

4) Kali-Ghati - By Dragoleaf

A very recent CIA intelligence report by clandestine service officer Timothy Ellis. It's entirely unclear how Baughman managed to get his hands on such restricted information.

The report regards Officer Ellis' preliminary investigation into "unexplained electromagnetic interference" in the southern Hindu Kush mountains of Afghanistan, near the Durand Line (the Afghanistan-Pakistan border). Ellis was stationed out of Forward Operating Base Turner, in the Sar Hawza district of Afghanistan's Paktika province - under the cover of being a Major in the United State Army Signals Corps. Despite being ostensibly benign, Officer Ellis' report is still classified "TOP SECRET//SPECIAL ACCESS REQUIRED-SECURITY STUDIES GROUP".

4) Music From A Darkened Room - By Dragoleaf

A poor-quality tape showing a trio of masked urban explorers performing a nighttime exploration through an abandoned suburban home. The atmosphere is oppressive, with the men complaining about hearing strange noises that the camcorder never picks up. Two explorers, including the cameraman, claim to hear a piano playing in the next room and move to investigate.

They become visibly disturbed upon realizing there's no one in the room, especially as both men are obviously able to hear the piano still playing in front of them.

When the explorers return to find the third explorer, they discover him standing in front of a mirror in the house's bathroom, smiling at them through the reflection. Without turning around, he calmly slits his own throat with a shard of glass. The man doesn't move, continuing to smile widely as blood gushes from his ruined throat - even as his face goes pale from exsanguination. The other two explorers scream and the camcorder is dropped - abruptly ending the footage.

Reviewing the footage in post and cleaning it up reveals an easily missed detail - at several points in the video the diminutive form of a wrinkled old woman (always completely naked) can be seen in the periphery of the frame. The explorers never notice her. She's always smiling widely - revealing something stuck between her teeth. It looks like hair.

6) Meridian - By Dragoleaf

An audio surveillance tape with an evidence tag identifying it being from 1998's New York FBI field office. It holds a recording of two unidentified female voices in muted conversation. 

VOICE ONE - “You can’t die, Kattie, you can count your cars forever. You’re gonna say thanks, aren’t you, Kattie?”

VOICE TWO - (Coughing.) "Th- thank you my Lady."

VOICE ONE - "Don't waste your gift Kattie. Your's is an eternal work."

VOICE TWO - (Continued coughing.) "Y- y- yes my Lady."

VOICE ONE - "Very good. As you were Kattie."

VOICE TWO - (Begins listing the make, model, license plate, occupants and approximate speed of cars. This continues for ~4 hours without any breaks, until the tape runs out.)

7) Observer Effect - By Tairbaz

A hastily written list of times (22:03:37, 18:46:16, 20:57:50) written on a piece of paper. 

The crumpled paper is stained with flecks of dried blood and has obviously been torn from a larger sheet. Agents with Science (Physics) 40%, or who succeed on a roll, note that the paper comes from the printout of a powerful supercomputer - the sort that processes complex physics and mathematical data. Unfortunately, the paper's origins are impossible to investigate further.

The first Agent to interact with the paper who succeeds an INTx5 roll realises the scribbled list is transcribed their own handwriting (0/1 SAN to the Unnatural). If the blood stain is examined forensically, it is found to be an exact match to that same Agent (0/1 SAN to the Unnatural).

8) CONTROL COPY - By Gravityspiker

A single manila folder with two files inside. The first file is a blurry copy of an arrest warrant for one “Jan Weever”, dated 06 February 1997. The listed crime is delinquent tax evasion, and the issuance court is located in Newark, New Jersey.

The second file is a death certificate for this “Jan Weever”, dated 17 November 1997 and issued by a county coroner in New Mexico. Weever's cause of death is listed as multiple gunshot wounds sustained during a shootout with state troopers and federal agents. No irregularities, notes, or other indications of unnatural incursions are present in the documents.

8) The Good Life - By Fee Fi Fo Fin

A ring-binder labeled “RHIZOME ‘87”. Inside are plastic sleeves, containing old newspaper clippings describing the ritual held by the Ku Klux Klan atop Stone Mountain in 1915. 

Other sleeves contain old, stained photographs of Ku Klux Klan rituals, including grainy photocopies of the Stone Mountain rituals. Notes in the margins, and upon torn pieces of paper, link these rituals to European occultism, particularly of the Salem witch trials and various witch trials in Spain and France. A hand-written note in the back of the binder reads as follows:

“Jean, 

This is all I was able to find, couldn’t tell ya what came of the rest of it. Send this along to Uncle Joe and see what he can tell you. It’s a far cry from what you were telling me, about your ‘friend’ Teddy, but maybe something will turn up. Ask him about Chile too, if any of those old files are kicking around. Best of luck.

Be Seeing You,

C.B.”

9) The Labyrinth: The Lonely - By Ceurelian

A sheaf of papers printed in the default layout of a Microsoft 7 Word document. The papers detail a fictional story about “Marcus”, a dark fantasy wizard that the audience seems to be expected to know, committing violent genocide against various Tolkien-style settlements. 

According to the story, each use of his magic spells rot Marcus’ body further until he degenerates into a skeleton animated solely by hateful magic. Amidst this stack of papers is a newspaper clipping outlining a 2011 mass shooting and suicide bombing of a rural Michigan police station, perpetrated by Marcus Wallace, social malcontent and member of a play-by-post D&D forum.

A lime green sticky note is stuck to the clipping, reading: “Jay Sanders”, “Ann Scottsdale,”, “Dan Portman”, “All ours. How did he know? Call Phone 3.”

10) The Labyrinth: Agent Renko - By Max/Owlbear

A manila folder containing a dossier with documents from both the CIA and NSA about suspected male and female Russian spies operating on U.S. soil from the period of 2006-2012. There are photographs of numerous suspected spies, with one particular collection featuring a handsome, slender man in sunglasses and a dark suit meeting with an individual who appears to be a male escort. Agents can later learn that this is Agent Renko of GRU-SV8 if they meet him. 

Several handwritten notes, varying calligraphy implying several authors, exist in the dossier’s margin: "potential unnatural connection?", "does MI6 know?", "not this one”, "would fuck", "why always carrying salt?", "Dagestani mountains?", and anything else the Handler desires.

10) Impossible Landscapes - By Idas

A small brass gear which, if incorporated into a clockwork device, never needs to be wound up. Agents who thoroughly inspect this anomaly lose 1/1D4 SAN to Unnatural.

A map of the Trivelino Mall, an abandoned property in western Massachusetts. Every word and symbol present has been redacted, except the pictograms of fire identifying the emergency exits.

“I Wear No Mask: The Shadowed Face of Gods, by Arthur Logan” - a book on syncretic religion which cherrypicks stories from different cultures into the story of the King In Yellow: a stranger who comes to town and is revealed to be the most high divinity in disguise. The writer, getting high on his own sociological supply, asserts this is the most important connection between faiths. Agents who study this book and fail a POWx5 roll, lose -5% from Anthropology and History, but gain +15% in Occult as they begin to believe the book’s ridiculous and ahistorical “truths”.

A partly melted video tape of an interrogation within a dingy cellar. Baughman sits opposite a subject who’s probably a Caucasian man in his 30s-40s. It’s hard to tell with the burlap sack covering their face. Baugman asks them to “start at the beginning”. The subject only gets to say “along the shore, the cloud waves break-” before the screen fills with static. Despite this, the garbled video tape proceeds for another hour, until the camera suddenly clears and reveals a single, still shot of a raging fire. The video then abruptly ends.

11) The Labyrinth: CMC / Sentinels of Twilight - By Salazaar

A waterlogged dossier from the Centre for the Missing Child consisting of papers, dating from 1982 to 2010, that pertain to the disappearance of Brandon McGill and other children of similar ages in the Hetch Hetchy area. The files include photos of the Devil’s Chair as well as interview transcripts from the missing childrens’ parents. 

The files include  notes in messy handwriting, growing increasingly distressed with the lack of solid leads for the case. The files appear to have been collected by Donna Stibbert of the CMC, in her mid-thirties at the time and now buried in Oak Woods Cemetery.

This was among the first cases the CMC investigated, already cold when they picked it up. Donna maintained a lifelong obsession with the McGill case, and briefed Joe Dawant on it when he joined the CMC in 2007. Neither ever came close to solving it.

Dawant’s knowledge of the McGill case can be used to insert him into Operation FULMINATE:

• Stage One Dawant is a helpful consultant, only getting involved if the Agents ask. Getting trapped in the station can be a good first exposure to the Unnatural for him. 

• Stage Two Dawant will go to the ranger station of his own volition, and will act irrationally and violently to protect and “rescue” (read: kidnap) McGill. 

• Stage Three Dawant is the most dangerous, as he will insist on bringing Mudede and possibly DePasqua as a field team to help solve the case, exposing them to the Unnatural.

12) Reverberations - By AstroCat

A heavy book with a dark green cover, and no author, titled "Space-Time: Perception or Law?". It argues that time is a manifestation that humans place upon themselves and it can, in theory, can be moved through by freeing the mind from the “shackles of Euclid”. 

Annotations in an unusual Southeast Asian dialect (that Agents with Anthropology 70% can identify as the native tongue of the Tcho-Tcho) criticize the book’s thesis. They state that while the mind can move through time, movement through space is only achievable by higher entities.

A newspaper clipping from the Chicago Times' cultural section discussing renovations of the Chauchua-American Advocacy Alliance HQ in Chicago after a racially motivated arson attack. An improvised incendiary was thrown through the street-facing window of the CAAA building by Anna McCallan, 54. McCallan was reported to have been shouting slurs and blaming the group for the death of her son, Charlie, in a botched drug deal last Saturday night. 

Officials have stated “no known connections between the CAAA and organized crime”. The letters “R. E. V. E. R. B.” have been circled in red ink and the words "no known" are crossed out.

A 2002 autopsy report of a woman struck by a car outside “Studio Underground”, a nightclub in downtown Chicago. The woman was under the influence of MDMA and an unknown alkaloid that toxicology could not identify. It appears that the autopsy report was seized by the DOJ and since classified as "TOP SECRET//SPECIAL ACCESS REQUIRED-YELLOW COMBINE".

13) VISCID - By Blaborb

A CD in a clear jewel case. The case does not have an insert, but someone wrote the word "RECOIL" on the CD in black marker. The reflective layer of the CD is slightly discolored and has small holes in some places, the first signs of disc rot.

The CD contains a few dozen image files in TIFF format. All of these images appear to be low-quality scans of files pertaining to soldiers that were employed by the US Air Force in the 1990s: personnel record files, medical records, security clearances, etc.

The onsetting disc rot has resulted in artifacts in many of the images, making the information in them difficult to read. One of the better preserved scans is that of the death certificate of First Lieutenant Daniel Ulee, who apparently died in a training exercise in 1992. Also listed is his spouse, Isabella Ulee, and their home address: 19099 Pulaski Street, Billings, Montana.

14) Iconoclasts - By Akai

A very old OSS mission report from the 1940s, describing an Iraqi Delta Green operation. 

The paper is yellowed detailing the activities of a team of OSS Agents, their names long blacked out permanently and their local contact, a Tariq Mohammed Rassam, a well educated Iraqi who taught the OSS Agents an “Action of Sealing”. This ritual was employed against a nest of  flesh-eating desert "djinn" found in a cave - fires that consumed consciousness and thought. 

It is mentioned that Rassam is considered a long term asset in the region. A search for a man by that name brings up an alumni of the University of Cambridge, a Professor of the University of Mosul specialized in Mesopotamian archaeology, folklore and history who retired in 1997.

15) Puppet Shows And Shadow Plays - By Orvikino

A cream-colored fabric wrapped around a hollow wooden dowel. A thin leather cord is threaded through, presumably in order to hang  on a wall. When unrolled, it reveals a cross-stitch of a long poem, bordered by a very stock southwestern-style pattern and fringed at the bottom with colored feathers. It has the sense of the most schlocky gas station souvenir sold to easily-bilked tourists in the American southwest to hang in their suburban bathrooms. The poem reads:

“one day, Coyote sees Duck walking her ducklings,

Coyote asks her how she keeps them in a straight line,

Duck says she sews them together

with white horsetail hair every morning

and tugs on the line gently,

until the horsehair disappears,

that is how she keeps her ducklings in a row”

“as usual, Coyote leaves smiling, she sees a white horse

grazing in a nearby field,

she plucks a few strands of tail hair

and returns to her burrow”

“the next morning, one by one

she begins to sew her pups together”

“when she finishes, she gently tugs on the horsehair

and drags their little bodies along the ground,

Coyote tilts her head in dismay and becomes distraught,

she realizes she has killed her little pups”

–Laughter, by Crisosto Apache

16) Impossible Landscapes - By Suda

Inside the trunk contains a small Super 8 canister. There is a label in permanent marker that says “Macallister Building”. Once watched it just shows a two minute film of the small apartment building, with people walking past it. The film appears to have been taken in the early 1970s. 

Taped inside the canister are a series of polaroids and an old business card. Each polaroid is of a different entrance into the Mcallister Building, with one even including the roof access door. The business card is for a clown rental company, decorated with a faded monogram of a clown in a style reminiscent of the 1930s.

17) Impossible Landscapes - By Suda

On Reconstructing Extinct Languages by Dr. Ein K. Nige (“Drinking Eye”)

Language: English. Read time: 1 Week, +5% Anthropology, +20% Foreign Language (Tartessian)

An introductory text from 1890 on the science of language reconstruction. It is thorough yet written in a way that even a novice can understand. The book’s tone takes a sharp turn with a section on Tartessian. It ostensibly begins as an example of reconstructing a pre-Roman Hispanic language. However, midway through the first section, the professor announces a startling discovery: he has found a native Tartessian speaker, a little girl staying at a nearby hotel.

The unlikelihood that Nige found a speaker of a language last spoken in the 7th century BCE grows when he gives example sentences in Tartessian: ordering food at a hotel, making plans for a night at the theater, informing gendarmes of suspicious activity. These aren’t concepts that a language that old would be likely to have. 

Eventually one of the professor’s colleagues writes an epilogue. Dr. Ein has had a psychotic break. He claims the young girl on which he has based his Tartessian research comes out of the lake and returns to the lake after their interviews. As such he’s been quietly institutionalized.

If the player realizes that the little girl Ein mentions matches the description of Maude from Maude Goes to the Masked Ball they lose 1/1d6 SAN from Unnatural and gain 1 Corruption.