Belli Occulta Season 1
This is a timeline detailing some major developments and scenarios I've ran for Belli Occulta since I began this campaign.
Belli Occulta is a Delta Green campaign I began running around May 2023 starting with a 90s rendition of my scenario "Widowmakers" and things went from there. The campaign meets mainly on Sundays, with a second player group that occasionally convenes on Wednesdays.
The Sunday group have played as three different cells of Delta Green: we started with Cell 'M', who conducted operations across New England and beyond against Majestic-12 and occasionally the Dorian Grey Society led by their driven but unstable cell leader, MONTY. Cell 'I' fought a prolonged war of espionage and sabotage against the Skoptsi, a Russian castration cult devoted to a twisted fertility deity. Cell 'V' has crossed the country fighting the Karotechia and its cronies, as well as trying to escape the orbit of the ineffable power known as the King in Yellow.
The Wednesday group have primarily played Cell 'Y'. In this game, I allowed the players to play out their own rendition of 'Operation EARL GREY' from Delta Green: Countdown, and for better or for worse: they succeeded. Communications were regained with PISCES, and for the Summer of 1999, they worked as partners... Until that Christmas when Y-Cell came to the horrific discovers that the brain-infesting bugs the Army of the Third Eye were hunting had been real the entire time, and that PISCES had been compromised. PISCES is unaware that they know, and so Delta Green has entered into a contentious "cold-war" with its war-time ally, looking for a way of purging the Shan pest from an organization that dwarfs them in size and resources.
July 20th, 1995. A team of federal agents attached to PATCON, a task-force investigating the militia movements and other far-right organizations, investigate the Knights of Mu, a group that espouses the racial pseudoscience and esotericism of the Nazis. They are brought to a meeting with Spencer Wainwood, who reveals himself to be a sorcerer in league with a hideous race of aquatic beings. They narrowly escape Wainwood’s home before they are apprehended by agents of Delta Green. Months later they are briefed and brought in as V-Cell.
October 12th, 1995. The newly formed Q-Cell investigates a rash of murders across San Jose, California. They identify Yun Sopath, a cultist of the Black Buddha acting under the protection / direction of Nori Onishi, a remnant of the Kokuryukai, an arm of the Gen’Yosha, a WW2-era secret society and old enemy of Delta Green.
April 1996. Karotechia Bischofe Werner Linz is sent to investigate a mutiny at a rural facility in Chihuahua, Mexico. He recovers what remains of the Karotechia’s “Aktion HARUSPEX”.August 1996. M-Cell executes Operation AHAB, during which they encounter the alien Greys and creatures they will later know as the Mi-Go / “Whisperers”. MUNROE is killed. MONTY is promoted to Cell Leader. Adrian Walck and Luke Harrison are read-in as Agents MARCUS and MERLIN.
29 March 1997. I-Cell performs Operation THROWING DISTANCE. They investigate the discovery of strange gold coins recovered during a police raid in Corpus Christi, Texas. They end up encountering the remnants of a colony of deep one hybrids. IMOGEN suspects their parentage to be connected to the Exalted Circle.
2 June 1997. I-Cell investigates the death of IRS Investigator Wayne Klinger in Operation BROKERAGE. They discover that Klinger had been psychically harassed and driven to suicide by sorcerous human traffickers known as the “Tadjbegskaya Bratva”. They bust its operation in Coney Island and assassinate Kostya Bekhterev, a “Thief in Law” of the Bratva. Contact is made with a group of Russian operatives pursuing the Bratva in the parallel plane known as “The Dreamlands”. INDIGO steals an antique sword that was in the possession of Bekhterev. Later research identifies it as “The Black Blade of Dza-Ngar Phan”.
November 1997. M-Cell executes Operation BRONZE VESSEL. They investigate Universal Alignment and uncover the existence of Project COMBO, a secret research program led by March Technologies, a front company run by Majestic. Their investigation is aided by a double-agent of NRO DELTA who they only know as “STINGRAY”. Universal Alignment violently dissolves, though its leader, Noah Burke is unaccounted for. He is later spotted in New York City and is believed to be under the protection of The Fate. Shortly after this, Agent MERLIN is transferred to O-Cell as Agent OAKESFebruary 2nd, 1998. M-Cell executes Operation RED PLOWMAN. They investigate the strange death of a sex worker in Boston. They discover the culprit to be Percival Bristow, a rogue British intelligence agent and sorcerer of “The Headless Corpse God”, living in Boston and acting as a Fixer for The Dorian Grey Society, an international human trafficking network that caters to the ultra-wealthy. Their investigation brings them into contact with an Ex-Stasi Officer, Oberstleutnant Anton Gehrke, the occult con-artist Bernice Cartfield, and Ginette Wirtz, a Lady of The Fate.
February 10th, 1998. I-Cell investigates the Skoptsi during Operation BLUE ISTHMUS. They learn of the Skoptsi’s criminal connections to the Russian mob and to a shipping firm known as “Tiger Transit”. Agents INDIGO and IMOGEN are narrowly able to thwart an attempted kidnapping by the Skoptsi, during which INDIGO murders two Skoptsi cultists with the Blade of Dza-Ngar Phan, revealing its supernatural power. They choose not to disclose this to the rest of their cell, or their cell leader.
March 1998. MONTY resigns from the National Guard and founds Minuteman Guns and Ammunition LLC., a mail-order firearms dealership. He begins a publication that caters to UFO conspiracy theorists, arch-conservatives, and right-wing militias. He uses it primarily to gather information and to fund his cell’s activities. Illicit gun shipments and embezzlement are covered-up with the help of ATF Agent Luke Harrison.
April-May 1998. Operations FLUNG CROWN and ARIADNE. M-Cell investigates Operation CATAPULT, a MAJESTIC operation investigating a ruined alien outpost in the hills of Vermont. M-Cell performs an independent investigation and retrieves evidence that suggests the Mi-Go, who were previously believed to be some manner of biological weapon or slave-race to the Greys, are actually controlling the Greys. They unsuccessfully attempt to apprehend a servant of the Mi-Go who uses magic to summon an enormous horror that destroys a dam and floods several towns along the West River in Vermont.
May, 1998. I-Cell executes Operation HOLLOW HILL, intending to enter the home of an artifact smuggler named Tomas Drennon under false identities as agents of the US Customs Service serving a search warrant. They intend to seize an antique “black bronze” bowl with known hypergeometric providence in Drennon’s possession, and to question Drennon on his dealings with the Skoptsi. They arrive to find Drennon dead, and spend the next three days frantically chasing Halimah Jassim, a girl possessed by an otherworldly power. Narrowly avoiding MAJESTIC-12’s own investigators.
June 4, 1998. Delta Green undertakes Operation RED PLOWMAN II, which seeks to uproot additional conspiracies connected to the Dorian Grey Society’s Boston chapter. M-Cell ends up encountering and pursuing a proto-avatar of the Headless Corpse God (who they end up killing in a nature preserve near the mouth of the Chesapeake). They also locate “The Sugar Farm”, a facility in the Panamanian jungle used by the Dorian Grey Society in a bizarre human experiment. The Society’s leader is murdered with hypergeometry by a mute, naked man referred to in documents as “The Innocent”, who promptly leaves.
August, 1998. M-Cell takes part in Operation CALUMNY, investigating an outbreak of an alien virus in Brattleboro, Vermont. They spy on the control efforts of Majestic, and later are able to locate a nearby Mi-Go base and raid it with help from Operation BLUE FLY.
September, 1998. I-Cell approaches Taras Dzubenko, a criminal cleaner affiliated with Coney Island Carpets, and offers him freedom in exchange for his services. They are also given a last-minute assignment by IAGO to “resolve an anomaly” in Manhattan’s Wallace Hotel - the disposal of a seemingly immortal man bound and gagged in a bathtub. They learn the man is a “Cuckoo”, a species that is not human but appears as one. They resolve the anomaly, but at a high personal cost.
September 1998. V-Cell executes Operation DEAD LETTER. They track a grisly parcel to a chemical production facility on the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana, where they discover the plant’s experiments in a reanimating chemical, produced for an anonymous, South American customer. Representatives of the South American corporation, “Nuevas Fronteras”, arrive and destroy the chemical production plant in a plan to cover up any evidence of the leak but are stopped by V-Cell. Intelligence gathered afterwards points to the operation being the work of a revived Karotechia.
7 January, 1999. I-Cell returns to Maryland to continue its work against the Skoptsi. They discover a clandestine meeting between the Skoptsi and a third party they learn is their old allies in the Tadjbegskaya Bratva. Information gleaned from an intercepted parcel exchanged at this meeting drives I-Cell to plan and execute a raid on the Cornucopia House, the orphanage run by the Skoptsi’s front company, Families Without Frontiers. They kill the staff on-site and assassinate Yelena Kalamatiano, a senior cultist of the Skoptsi.
1 February, 1999. V-Cell conducts Operation TENNESSEE WALTZ, inserting themselves into an FBI surveillance operation against members of a Neo-Nazi holocaust denial publication called “The Review” in the week leading up to a conference led by The Review in Houston, Texas.
10 March, 1999. I-Cell is activated to investigate the death of Father Casimir Szary, a Polish-American Catholic Priest who reanimated on the autopsy table. They discover that Szary was murdered at the hands of a cabal of Catholic Priests who had turned to the worship of an alien power known as “Nyogtha”. Cooperating with N-Cell, they eliminate the cult, masking their deaths with a gas leak and explosion at the rectory where they convened. They also put Father Szary to rest after he reanimates fully as a Thrall of Nyogtha.
14 March, 1999: Coney Island Carpets is contracted to seal over a “plug” in the floor leading to Nyogtha’s subterranean realm. Three contractors, Rodya Proskurkin, Luchok Banin, and Leonid Ubysh, are sent to do the job, which takes nearly a week of work. Ubysh is ambushed by Ginette Wirtz, A Lady of The Fate, who compels him to hurl the corpses of Father Yohn and the priests into Nyogtha’s maw. Wirtz later alludes to having raped Ubysh while under her influence.
17 April, 1999:. I-Cell performs a favour for The Fate. Their mission leads to strange complications and a baffling climax, during which Agent Irena witnesses visions of a strange city in the jungle and is “briefed” by men in black, who indicate that she, and I-Cell, has become an important piece in a strange conflict between two equally esoteric enemies, one of whom being “Pnakotus”. They give their photos to The Fate who accept them, offering a small bribe as “compensation”.
19 April, 1999. M-Cell begins Operation SIAM SAM and oversees the trade of top secret intelligence between Delta Green and the rogue element within Majestic. The Cell is confronted by Agent IRENA of I-Cell, who appears to be under the control of an alien intelligence with knowledge of future events, which explains Majestic’s work in the region, claiming it pertains to an aberrant form of electromagnetism known as “T-Radiation”. M-Cell narrowly avoids a disaster caused by items smuggled out of the Majestic facility that weren’t properly “degaussed” of T-Radiation, causing a chain reaction that kills dozens of innocent people before evading capture by Majestic.
10 May 1999. V-Cell conducts Operation ALICE in New Orleans, investigating the disappearance of local artist Abigail Wright, possibly in connection to harassment by Neo-Nazi thugs on orders from the Karotechia.
15 May, 1999. Agent IAGO and MONTY meet in Buffalo, New York. IAGO shares the findings of Pontecorvo’s report on the Exalted Circle’s connections with Admiral Janeway and the ONI with MONTY. They speculate on the scope and power of the Circle, and its relationship to the Dorian Grey Society and the Lamplighters. IAGO convinces MONTY to seek out Yair Teixeira and flip him so he can be used to infiltrate the Exalted Circle.
30 May 1999. Sylvia Pontecorvo is attacked at her home in Washington D.C. in an attempted hit by the Russian mafia. Mary Bryant is indirectly targeted as well, as her partner is beaten to the point where he is put into a medically-induced coma. A note stuffed into the pocket of Bryant’s husband alludes to the attacks being retaliatory for the attack against Families Without Frontiers.
5 June 1999. Having identified the “Black Icons”, a series of twelve obscene Russian Orthodox icons, as highly important to reviving the Skoptsi cult, I-Cell activates Operation PLATEBREAKER to deny them to their enemy. They subvert an attempt by the Tadjbegskaya Bratva to subvert Esmerelda Sharansky into killing her husband, Earl Asa Sharansky, the present owner of the Icons.
9 June 1999. I-Cell subverts a Skoptsi plan to kidnap Sharansky’s mistress as a hostage and manages to seize the Black Icons. The Skoptsi begin using brainwashing to compel civilians in the Chesapeake Bay area area to commit suicide.
16 June 1999. I-Cell and the Skoptsi meet at Club Apocalypse for the handoff. They forfeit the Black Icons on the condition that the Skoptsi stop the suicides and stop harassing their families. The Black Icons are really booby-trapped with C4 explosive that detonates once brought into the Basilica of the Holy Virgin Mother. I-Cell, with cover by SV-8-affiliated Ukrainian mobsters, infiltrate the community and kill Fedor Berezhkov before Agent IRENA is nearly killed and they withdraw. Agent ISAAC uses hypergeometry to resuscitate IRENA.
17 June 1999. I-Cell investigates the sinkhole that formed under the Basilica of Our Holy Virgin Mother. They locate the corpse of Jermija Bogdashkavich in a mausoleum, having been dragged there by a single Skoptsi child, Artur Oborin.
20 July 1999. Adrian Walck, Agent MARCUS, is diagnosed with Leukemia. He withdraws from Delta Green while in recovery.
25 July, 1999. Y-Cell travels to the United Kingdom on a mission to re-establish communication with PISCES, a wartime ally of Delta Green, with the goal of eventually brokering an alliance. Y-Cell successfully attracts the attention of PISCES and establishes communication.
1 August 1999. Tom Murphy, Agent MONTY, is kidnapped by Majestic-12 operatives from his hideout in Buffalo, New York, and taken to the OUTLOOK Group in Maryland for questioning. He uses an occult ritual to contact Agent MARCUS and Agent OAKES telepathically, then STINGRAY the next night.
3 August 1999. L, M, N, and O-Cell collaborate in Operation ANGRBODA to attempt to free Agent MONTY from Majestic-12 captivity. In their efforts to infiltrate the facility and plan for the jailbreak, they learn that MONTY had unleashed an unnatural horror on the facility, spreading through the personnel.
9 August 1999. L, M, N, and O-Cell conduct a raid on OUTLOOK Facility A in Bountin, Maryland. Senior researcher and site director Dr. Armand Perov is murdered by MONTY, who had allowed himself to become an avatar of Y’Golonac. N-Cell and O-Cell attempt to kill MONTY but fail and retreat. MONTY is kidnapped by The Fate.
- I-Cell attends a concert at Club Apocalypse as part of their payment for the Skoptsi’s information, during which they are accosted by NRO DELTA’s Chief, Adolph Lepus, and are introduced to “Galt”, an associate of Belial. They witness The Fate conduct a ritual that “summons” Tom Murphy, Agent MONTY, naked, covered in blood, and obviously insane. After a brief celebration, he is led to the pits underneath Club Apocalypse and dumped into an oubliette. He is kept in the oubliette for four months, intermittently tortured and pampered by his caretakers.
17 November 1999. Reinhard Galt, one of the leaders of the Karotechia, executes a plot to kidnap a schoolbus of children in El Paso and demand the petrified remains of Karotechia sorcerer Immanuel Toth for their safe return. V-Cell is narrowly able to outsmart the Karotechia and save the children while denying Toth to their enemy.
13 December 1999. PISCES agents, including the elusive “Mr. Cotton”, arrive in America to exchange information gleaned about the activities of the Karotechia and the Army of the Third Eye. While en route to the meeting, an alien insect is mysteriously forced out of Mr. Cotton’s head and attempts to flee, causing a panic resulting in the crashing of their SUV. Y-Cell would only learn later this was the result of them driving through the area influenced by the Eye of Light and Darkness in the Library of Congress. Y-Cell arrives at the crash just in time to witness the horrific insect fly from the vehicle (which is immediately shot and killed by the agents). Mr. Cotton is then killed in a gun battle with agents, after attempting to silence them for witnessing the insect. In conference with A-Cell, Y-Cell deduces that PISCES had likely been compromised by the alien insects, and that the Army of the Third Eye had potentially learned of this and were being silenced by PISCES. To avoid further conflict, Delta Green construes a lie that Mr. Cotton aka Maj. Kenneth Codrington suffered a violent PTSD episode and shot his internal affairs retainers. PISCES seemingly believes it and the alliance is maintained.
31 December 1999. MONTY, now going under the moniker “Montgomery Thompson”, is freed from Club Apocalypse and turned loose. He is frequently accosted by agents of Belial.
2 January 2000. FBI Special Agent Ed Collins, who has been missing since mid-June, is found dead on Rockaway beach in Queens. Evidence indicates he had been attacked and had his throat cut with a razor or boxcutter.
23 January 2000. V-Cell investigates a botched raid on a Karotechia stronghold in rural Oklahoma. They end up pursuing Karotechia agent Wilhelm Lichter across the state. Lichter had fallen under the influence of “The Hunahpu Mask”, an artifact capable of manipulating others near it. They encounter “Icnoyotl, the Flenser” , one of the Aztec sorcerers resurrected by the Karotechia gone rogue.
March, 2000. Y-Cell investigates the vanishing of an American physicist in Malta. They discover it to be the work of ISAS, a Belgian cult obsessed with “Atlantology”.
April 2000. I-Cell intervenes in a Saucewatch investigation into some of the paranormal phenomena that occurred during Operation HOLLOW HILL.
10 June 2000. Delta Green agents intervene in a Karotechia plot to mail “manifestos” tied to a mass shooting at a Sacramento synagogue containing material from the King in Yellow as part of an unnatural “psychological warfare” strategy.
1 September 2000. Y-Cell investigates a claim by a confidential FBI informant in the Irish Mob of an upcoming guns-for-cash deal between the Mob and (allegedly) the Army of the Third Eye in Northern Ireland. The agents are able, over a matter of weeks, to use the deal to transmit a covert request for parley between Delta Green and the Army of the Third Eye. Eventually, a distant but amicable alliance is brokered.
14 September 2000. Intent on nesting the Army’s abilities in the field, and to potentially flip PISCES agent Robert Ogle, Y-Cell organizes the kidnapping and trepanning of PISCES internal affairs agent Waltar Wade.
29 October 2000. Agents VERDANCE and WAXER travel to the town of Crampton, New Mexico, pursuing leads related to the alleged shooting of Agent VICTOR. They quickly realize they’d been lured to the town by the King in Yellow, and that the shooting was a ruse meant to lure them into coming. They abandon the town and discover VICTOR alive and well, having apparently only suffered a heat stroke. Upon reviewing the after-action report, A-Cell strips Agent WAXER of her authority to activate the STATIC Protocol.
15 February 2001. I-Cell is sent to Macau to spy on a “summit” being held by the Exalted Circle between its Chinese and American members. They fail to learn the plans of the Exalted Circle, but uncover its alliances with The Fate and the Karotechia. They also learn that Agent MONTY is alive after having disappeared after Operation ANGRBODA, but is now in the employ of the Exalted Circle as a mercenary.
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