The Skoptsi: An Expansion, Part Two: Scenarios

 A common complaint with the Skoptsi, and other similar cults (we'll touch on that in a minute) is that it might seem to some handlers that the Skoptsi are an exceptionally easy cult to destroy. They're small, they operate in one area, in one town. An investigation into them would expose all three of its leaders and then would kill all three and boom, no more cult. 

This is a complaint that I have also seen for the Prana Sodality, also one of my favorite factions in the Labyrinth, with it being said for both by their detractors that they would serve better as "Faction-as-Scenario" modules rather than factions. This complaint has always struck me as odd and not very compelling, frankly, although I know I at once point also believed it, hearing it now, I can only believe that it comes from a lack of experience and imagination in how to make a faction long-lasting and interesting, and as the Skoptsi have quickly become one of my favorite factions, I decided I would use this opportunity to talk about how the Skoptsi can be made into so much more than a "Faction as Scenario" and made into long-lasting, persistent villains. 

Investigating the Skoptsi

In an earlier post detailing the scenarios detailing the scenarios i've ran in Belli Occulta, my Delta Green home game, I refrained from writing any sort of skeleton or scenario for the main investigation of the Skoptsi, as I stated that the faction's chapter from the Countdown spoke for itself. I would, however, like to clarify a few things with regards to that, and to explain a bit more about how I actually represent the Skoptsi in game. 

The Countdown sourcebook comes loaded with two hooks for the Skoptsi. One is that a runaway from Families Without Frontiers gets noticed by a Delta Green friendly, who gets some seriously weird vibes from the lifeless and fugue-like CPS workers that come to collect the horrified child, the second involves the agents picking up on the buglaries of private collections and museums being perpetrated by the Spetsnaz burglars whom the Skoptsi have hired to collect the Black Icons. These are both very strong, though the latter would be my preference of the two. 

This brings to the first mission: the initial investigation.

The Initial Investigation

At the beginning of the initial investigation, the agents begin with few facts and nothing from which to draw any conclusions. The initial investigation exists to introduce them to the Skoptsi, potentially letting them learn the rough outline of the cult's structure, and / or its goals.

In Belli Occulta, this was played almost as a straight conspiracy thriller without really much that would qualify as overt cosmic horror; a dark young never came lurching out of the woods, and the agents were never the victim of any foul sorcery, though they certainly saw its traces (especially when they went to visit Kerry Houghton at the Maryland CPS). They had an encounter with the Skoptsi in a prior scenario, as they had encountered a delegation sent by the Skoptsi to treat with another sorcerous criminal syndicate (the Tadjbegskaya Bratva). After that operation resolved, they found some noteworthy strangeness with the delegation, namely that several from the ones who died in the gunfight were adorned with occult-y Russian prison-style tattoos, and that they had all, men and women, been surgically castrated, and that according to the federal prosecutor handling the case, they were told by some people in the CIA, to drop the charges against Vasili Karpov, the man at the head of the delegation. These incidents were reported to A-Cell, who gave the agents the green light to do some further digging. 

The scenario mainly focused on tracing the interconnected web of small-town business relations and personalities all revolving around the Basilica of the Holy Virgin mother and the community of Moscow-on-the-Chesapeake, while other agents did some diving into history, discovering the Skoptsi's spooky past. It ended with them identifying three primary pieces of the Skoptsi's network, 1. The Basilica of the Virgin Mother and Jermija Bogdashkavich, the Skoptsi's "Patriarch" and spiritual leader. 2. Families Without Frontiers, which they quickly realized was likely the Skoptsi's recruitment drive, and 3. "Vasili Karpov" aka Fedor Berezhkov, the Ex-SMERSH agent and the Skoptsi's chief troubleshooter and contact with the Russian mafia, specifically Natalia Chermeninko and her crew of Ex-Spetsnaz burglars. 

Pacing scenarios like this can be difficult, but in my experienec a very simple way to keep the pace and to slowly ramp up the tension is to use skill contest to determine whether the Skoptsi realize they're being spied on. When agents move to stake out locations or tail people of interest, have them roll stealth vs the alertness of the Skoptsi (either the person they're spying on, or the people coming in-and-out of the building they're staking out). After the Skoptsi succeed their first contest, they realize they're being watched, and will then move to learn who. From here on, have them roll stealth rolls to avoid detection by the Skoptsi, and alertness checks to see if they detect Skoptsi counter-surveillance (most likely being performed by Ex-Russian military and police on contract from Chermeninko). Let this escalate, let your agents get paranoid and let them get tense: if they feel the Skoptsi could kick the safehouse door in any minute, you're perfect. Your agents might take initiative and attempt to kidnap and question one of their tails, even better, not a terrible lead-in to your end game. The end game can be tough for this format of operation. It might feel awkward to your players to turn in their report and have A-Cell go "good for now, stand down and await further direction", so I would go for some sort of climax to lead to. You have options here. 

One you can use is for the agents to discover something that requires direct intervention, for the Skoptsi, you have some options. This could be that they discover the ungodly abuse the cult is doing at Families Without Frontiers in order to brainwash children into joining the cult, they could discover the the list of targets Natalia Chermeninko intends to send her Spetsnaz crew to knock over in their pursuit of the Black Icons (in which case, I would actually have the scenario "end", do home scenes, and then a month or two later the agents intervene in the operation, either trying to steal one of the black icons first, or attempting to sabotage their burglary as it is happening). In my campaign, the Skoptsi didn't believe the agents were working in an official capacity and, suspecting they were vigilantes or part of a rival criminal syndicate, set a plan to ambush, kidnap and question the agents for answers. The outcome of that ambush is detailed here. 

In the latter case, Delta Green ordered I-Cell to withdraw, as they knew they had been made and that the cell was in obvious danger. This is something you can use to control the pacing of a campaign and is generally something I try to keep in mind as a handler when I'm running. Although at the end of the day, A-Cell knowingly sends agents into potentially deadly scenarios (as is the nature of Delta Green's work) they aren't careless. If the agents have collected a satisfactory amount of intelligence and are in clear and present danger from their targets, A-Cell orders them to withdraw and "go to ground". 

Alternatives

Of course, this is how I did it, and my players and I found this to be suspenseful and fun to play through, but you as the handler will have to gauge how much weirdness to throw at your players to retain their engagement. It can be played both ways, ultimately, the end goal is not for the agents to burst in through the doors of the Basilica of the Virgin Mother and mow down the Skoptsi and its leaders, but to get an inkling of the larger threat. Let me show you what I mean by drafting up a very loose skeleton of how I would approach the "burglary" hook as a scenario. 

HOOK

• Augusuts Tailor, a rich antiquarian, was under surveillance by Delta Green. Two days ago, in the early morning, a group of men broke into Tailor's home, killed him, and stole some items. Police are involved, and Delta Green wants you to investigate. 

INVESTIGATION

• A vital asset in the investigation is the NSA listening devices that were planted in Tailor's home. But that asset may come around to bite us. The devices were installed without a warrant, and the Friendly that was paid to conduct the surveillance heard something when Tailor was killed that has made him bug out, meaning we don't have the audio from that night until we find him and get it from him. 
• If you want some supernatural weirdness, you have lots of options. Potentially Tailor used a spell to kill one of the burglars, or perhaps when Tailor was shot, his blood splattered across an ancient artifact in his collection and awoke it, prompting it to begin feeding. Whether it awakened then and there, or slowly rose from its torpor over hours, and left between the heist and when the police arrived, is up to you. 
• Clues gathered (the language of the men was heard on the surveillance tapes, the weapons or safe-cracking device deployed by the robbers, the corpse of one of the robbers dead on Tailor's floor, etc.) lead the investigators to the Russian mafia. 

THREATS

• The surveillance expert Friendly has no intention of handing over those tapes to Delta Green. Perhaps he suspects Delta Green will, or has been, using it to hurt innocent people, perhaps he's afraid of something he heard and believes its dangerous, perhaps he's just lost his mind a little bit. A-Cell will caution the agents the man may be retired, but he was a top-shelf FBI agent in the old days, and he's kept up with his firearms training.
• Whatever was released from Tailor's collection, it's alien and very, very dangerous, and the agents will need to destroy it quickly and discretely. There's lots of options as to what it could be. A spawn of Chaugnar-Faughn on the loose and intent on feeding. An invisible horror, bound to Augustus Tailor when his blood splattered across the circlet that binds it. It's "master" is dead and never issued any final directives, so it's taken to attacking what it deems to be a threat to Tailor, which happens to be anyone who touches Tailor with their skin, or gets his blood on them. Perhaps a centuries-old jade mask containing the mind of a K'n-Yani priest, who seizes on the hypergeometric energy released by Tailor's cooling corpse to possess one of the Ex-Spetsnaz burglars. 
• The burglars sent by the Skoptsi are former Spetsnaz, counted among the foremost special forces groups in the world. They might smoke and drink more than the Red Army would have permitted them when they were active service, but their abilities remain as sharp as ever. 

Further Missions

This format of mission can be repeated. A year or a few months later, perhaps with a few missions in between. The agents are redeployed to take another shot at the Skoptsi, and to see how they've evolved from their last encounter. If you're really trying to blaze through them, you can do it in just three operations.

1. Scenario One: introduction, intelligence gathering. 
2. Scenario Two: reassess the cult, assassinate one of its leaders. 
3. Scenario Three: lead a coordinated assault by Delta Green to assassinate its remaining leadership. This is your opportunity for a big climax, Delta Green activating several cells to perform a coordinated attack, with the objective of destroying the Skoptsi's leadership and thereby, destroying the cult. 

But of course, there's more to the Skoptsi than the crazy wizards and ex-soviet spies running the cult. Scenarios can be made of their attempts to seize the black icons, their dealings with the Russian mafia or even other cults like The Fate or Tong Shukoran / Tiger Transit. Enter side missions. 

Side-Missions

A Campaign that consists only of the same mission format three times can go stale unless done very well, but why tempt it? Side missions remind players of the wider scope of Delta Green and help see how the cult's activities affect others. In my mind, there's three types of "side missions", tangential, separate, and internal.

Tangential

Tangential is just what it means, not directly pertaining to the cult's activities, but it's on the margins. You're investigating the Skoptsi's dealings with another group, either in an effort to learn more about them, or to sabotage their efforts. The aforementioned burlgary scenario could be an example of one, or perhaps you investigate a delegation of the Skoptsi's dealings with The Fate in New York City, or them attempting to broker a contract for illicit services with Tiger Transit. 

In Belli Occulta, this was Language of the Stars. The players discovered the Skoptsi's intentions regarding a man named Tomas Drennon. Drennon had a fixation on the occult lore of the "Keshite Empire" and the cult of the sun-god that was said to rule it. The Skoptsi, who had acquired an artifact related to Drennon's obsession, approached him for a trade, to which he agreed. The scenario began with the agents turning up to Drennon's house to question him and seize the bowl, only to find Drennon the victim of a strange fire and the bowl gone, leading them on a manhunt across the great plains. 

Although connected to the Skoptsi through its hook, this new version of Language of the Stars never actually featured them. Actually, it introduced I-Cell to the dangers of Majestic, as they had developed an interest in the strange storms and immolations that were spreading across the plains. This is what i mean by a tangential operation. You're seeing how the actions of the Skoptsi affect the world, and the agents wind up having to either contain whatever madness spills out of that, or intervene to sabotage the Skoptsi's efforts and nip potential disaster or escalation of the threat in the bud.

Separate

Called so because they are separate from the main campaign.Nothing new has happened with the Skoptsi and A-Cell is activating you to take care of a developing situation. 

This can be one-shot shotgun scenarios or full-length scenarios. The purpose of them is to break up the action so that your agents don't get burned out from dealing with the same faction after dealing with them for too long. 

I recommend making your scenario relatively self-contained and thematically similar to what's already going on. If you think you can handle it, this can also be a suitable way to have your agents encounter your campaign's secondary villains. 

For I-Cell, this is Bleeding Darkness, for M-Cell, this was Speak of the Devil and Taken by the Hand. 

Internal

I could also call this "intrigue". Internal scenarios are relatively small-scale and are something I like to run my players through to remind them that they're part of a vast, covert conspiracy, and are often, more or less, mundane. 

This could be anything from using your legal powers to release a person you encountered in a prior scenario from prison so they can act as an asset for your cell, or conducting an illicit business deal, say, for weapons or classified information from an informant in the U.S Government (or another government), or avoiding / derailing official investigation by the agent's parent agencies.