Actual Play - Delta Green - Operation Fulminate EP 1

[00:00:00] Hello, welcome to Roleplaying Exchange. This is Adam and today I am going to be running Delta Green for my good friends here. We're going to be doing Operation Fulminate. This is a tried and true scenario in the Delta Green world. In fact, it is part of the Handler's Guide and it is a Dennis Dettler's scenario. And without further ado, I'd like my players to introduce themselves in alphabetical order and tell me who you're playing.

[00:00:25] Oh no, what have I done? I'm first on the list. Hi, I'm Brownie. Today I am playing Davis Crumble, a college student who's staying the summer with his uncle. Hi, this is Jeremy. Oh, shit, I don't know my alphabet. Oh no! Discord alpha, Discord alpha. You go ahead. I give up!

[00:00:50] Okay, this is Jeremy. I forgot my alphabet, but here we go. I will be playing Davin Kirchner. He's a criminal pregen from the millions of pregens that come with Delta Green, which is awesome if you haven't checked them out. Please check them out.

[00:01:07] He is... I played him once before in an earlier scenario that Adam ran, and he... his backstory is that he smoked a piece of a mythos tomb and has been a part of Delta Green ever since. They didn't know if they were going to kill him or make him a friendly, or just to keep him at arm's length in case he became a potential vector. So, we'll see what happens.

[00:01:33] Now I've got Cheech and Chong in my head. I have Up in Smoke, that's where the mythos tomes go. But anyway... And last, but certainly not least... Oh, this is going to go so well. Hi everybody, I am your FBI agent for this scenario. This is David, and I am playing Roger Crumble. And I think we know how he is going to end.

[00:01:58] So, explain... gentlemen, before we get into this, and I'll... actually, no. We'll get into this in play here. So I want to kind of go over a brief little bit of an overview here. The reason I really enjoy this is it's kind of based on the missing 411, if you ever saw that on YouTube. Like, Mr. B. Allen does a bunch of those and whatnot. There's several books. It's just...

[00:02:19] Well, to read from the text, something has taken people from national parks that may not be precisely human. Since the inception of the national park system, 1,100 people have been reported missing inside the confines, many of them children. And then, oftentimes, some children are found far from where they vanished. Sometimes they're found without shoes or clothing, and sometimes they're found dead, and then sometimes they're, like, not found at all.

[00:02:47] I remember seeing... I think it was in one of... That where it was Patreon posts where he was talking about, all you have to do is just look at the news. He looked at... I did a quick Google search, found this... that missing 411 thing, and then just kind of wrote this as an answer of it. So, we're going to set this on... Hmm. I think July... Are you guys okay with 2015?

[00:03:13] Because, I mean, things get a little dicey around 2016 going forward. Are you guys... Do you have fond memories of 2015? I won't after tonight. That'll work for me. It's all a blur to me, so it's just trying to remember what technology is still around. I made a massive move in 2016, so yeah, 2015 works. Okay. Looks like... Looks like this is a good time for us to go back. I'm going to take you all back to July 4th, which would have been Saturday of 2015.

[00:03:43] That's when, through the various means that you got... You can describe this yourself. You were contacted by the program, and depending on where you're located, we're told to hop on an airplane and go to a particular location. So, we'll get into that location in a moment, but let's go ahead and start with... What about you? God, I had the characters right here.

[00:04:12] Mr. Davin Kirchner. I'll get this figured out in a moment. What were you doing when you got the phone call? He was probably just asleep in his car. He's kind of a transient, very gypsy-like, where he just kind of drives around. He's a career criminal that has a bit of a drug addiction,

[00:04:37] so he just kind of drives around and does things so he can get money to do other things. So, he was probably just asleep in his car. Got a call on the cell phone. Said, hey, I need you here to do a thing. Head there now. There will be people waiting for you. Okay. And for narrative's sake, let's say that you were on the West Coast. That would probably make... I think the last time I saw this character, it was in Ohio. Yeah.

[00:05:07] There's been years in between. I can't remember when that was set. All righty. So, yeah. What about you, Roger Crumble? How was your weekend going? Well, it was going good. My nephew is in for the summer, which is great. We're going... I and the ex-wife have just finished a rather messy divorce. So, this is my first major holiday, and I'm trying to do the best that I can with what I've got.

[00:05:37] So, we're grilling burgers and hot dogs and watching the public fireworks. I was like, all right. Slice of normality. We're having a nice little slice of normality. Nothing bad is going to happen. We've got burgers. We've got chips. And I've got a phone call. And so, yeah. I can't exactly just drop everything and leave.

[00:06:04] Because I've got a college student here, and I can't leave him in the house. Bring him with. Did it have anything to do with the fact that you probably couldn't have drove to the airport? Probably, yeah. Let's be fair. At this point, I am at least seven Budweiser's in. That's not going to blow up in any of our faces. What about you, Davis? How did you take all this?

[00:06:33] Your uncle, what did he say to you? How did you convince him that you were, you know, you could perfectly help him out? What was that process? Well, I'm staying with him this summer because my parents decided to travel abroad. And for whatever reason, they decided to spend a month in Belize. I don't know. But, you know, I'm old enough to live on my own. But they still think of me as a kid. So they wanted to put me with my uncle. You know, I had a lot of good memories growing up with him. But I haven't seen much of him lately.

[00:07:02] So we're hoping to reconnect and have a good family. You know, summer, like you said, hot dogs, hamburgers, fireworks, all the above. He just told me that he got a call and he has to go on a trip. And, you know, since I'm with him, I got to go too. And it's good too because we got to go tonight and he's drunk and I have my driver's license. You know, if you play your cards right, the government will never know, guys. They'll never know. It's fine. We're not flying.

[00:07:31] It's just a really, really long road trip. But that's why we've got the camper. Oh, good. My car wouldn't make it. How do you feel about a nice little... We're going camping. I think the kids call it glamping now because we're actually not going to be using tents. So if you'll grab the supplies from the garage, I will grab a bag. Go bag, go bag. Where's my go bag?

[00:07:58] Hey, so long as wherever we stay has Wi-Fi, I'm fine. Oh, there's a hotspot in the back of the camper. Oh, okay. Now, it's government issued, so it will work great. So don't go looking at too much porn on that thing. Okay. And I will say for, you know, how a lot of these operations are, we just call who's available and whatnot. This is, everything's taking place in California.

[00:08:23] So would it be safe to say that you were pretty close to California, if not in California, when you got the phone call? Well, I go to UC Santa Cruz, you know, go banana slugs. So yeah, I mean... Sweet. So you all arrive at the airport. Everybody does.

[00:08:43] And you were, you know, maybe not at the same time and whatnot, but you've been directed to go to, like, it's like a little office in this airport. Nothing big. It's just like more or less just a secure meeting room. You see that it's the name on it as you follow the directions of where to go. It says classic apparel. And it looks like a business kind of office that they have in there.

[00:09:13] Nothing much. You walk into it, you know, from... Well, Brownie, you wouldn't know. But I would say that, Roger, you're aware that this is kind of goes with Delta Green Protocol here. This is probably a CIA or FBI, like, location that they use. It's just that's a front that you're going into. All I know is there aren't very many customers, and it smells like an old Macy's. And nobody looks at you twice, any of you, when you walk into that room.

[00:09:44] Like, whatsoever. No one looks at you. You go through the reception area, your way through. You go back to the actual conference area, and you see a middle-aged woman sitting at the head of a table. She looks like, well, judging from the two empty coffee cups, styrofoam coffee cups in front of her and the bags under her eyes, it looks like it's been a long day for her. And this is Sunday morning of July 5th now, by the time that you all arrive there.

[00:10:13] So she kind of looks a little haggard. And how do you how do you make it in there, Davin? Oh, he just kind of walks in. He just pulls his hoodie up, tries to look as indistinct as possible. He walks in there. He looks at her. He's like, ma'am, good to see you. You got one of those for me. Some coffee would be super nice. You want a cigarette? And he pulls out a pack of cigarettes. She scales the cigarettes away from you. It just knocks her head.

[00:10:43] When he shakes her head, no. Uh, Team Crumble. Uh, anything particular about your entrance? No, I'm just following my uncle. All right. How are you doing right now, Roger? Like, are you starting to sober up, regret anything? Regrets? I have a few, but then again, too few to mention. Uh. Yeah. Suit is on.

[00:11:06] Uh, as I am walking in, I have one of those Norelco shavers and just getting the worst of the five o'clock shadow away. Uh, and I am already pounding my own coffee to hide the taste of the, well, you know, the hangover. She, uh, the lady looks up at you, questioning as you see somebody else follow you in. Uh.

[00:11:32] Somebody who's dressed in jeans and a t-shirt and flannel with rolled up sleeves and has earbuds in and isn't paying attention to anything? Uh, she stands up for a moment and just kind of steps into joining William and, come here, Roger. Or, I guess she'd call you Mr. Kremble. And I'm not really paying too much attention. Again, I have the earbuds in, so I'm still just kind of following my uncle unless someone stops me. Yeah, I'm just going to wave him over to the table. Just, uh, it's a holiday weekend.

[00:12:02] What did you expect? I can't get away entirely. I'm going to leave him in the camper for the entire time. It'll be fine. I'm going to pull out a cigarette and hang it in my mouth and hold the pack over to the young man that just walked in. Mm-hmm. She stares at you hard. Very hard. Like, this isn't how we do stuff here. David, would it be out of question for me to ask you for a sand check? Like, what are you doing here? What are you doing?

[00:12:32] Like, this is your... That's actually not too far out of it, yeah. It seemed like a good idea, you know, if you had a road beer or two while you were on your way down, but... I do love road beer. Doesn't like a roadie for the go. What did we get here, David? I didn't even see the dice. How do we... 20 underneath my current 70. It's fine. It's fine. You know what?

[00:12:54] If you could pull it, if you could pull this off, you see that after she looks at you hard for a moment, she just goes ahead and takes her seat. So, either they're... Actually, I know exactly how I'm going to justify this. Okay. Like, first of all, he is majoring in criminology. So, he's actually very, very good. He's a potential recruit already. Based on his skill set, he would be a valuable asset.

[00:13:24] And he has access to one thing that I do not, which is current medical training. The last first aid course I had was how to set a bandage back in field training. Very, very long time ago. He is currently CPR certified. Okay. So, we have a medic. And I said, to be fair, how many people do we have available for this?

[00:13:54] There's two friendlies in this room and one potential. How many bodies do we need to throw at this problem? I'll tell you what. I'll meet you halfway here. I find it amazing that you would wish him into this particular line of work, but he can't be here for the briefing. So, give him some money. Have him go get some food for you all. And then, you often drive to wherever you're going. You're going to Yosemite.

[00:14:22] He can hang out at the ranger station or something. And then, boom, that's it. Like, we better hope that this is something that's easily explained away, which it can't be because that's why we're doing this right this second here. But he's going to have to leave the room right now. So, go ahead. Send him out. We'll go ahead and have our conversation. And let's pray nothing comes of this.

[00:14:47] It's either going to be a perfectly normal milk run or it won't. So, let's just hope for the former. Yeah. And, hey, Davis. Wave. Can you... It takes a minute. You get my attention. Yeah. Um... Here. Here's some money. Why don't you go down to the store and pack us up some sandwiches? Um... We're going to be in here for a little bit.

[00:15:16] So, let's grab some good road food. You know. Get the decent sandwiches from the deli. You know, the pre-made ones they've already got just in the chill case. That'll be fine. We'll just grab a bunch of those. Because we may be busy for a little while. All right. I'll... I'll pack like we're camping. Good idea. I would have totally had you do some kind of skills test after... It occurred to me that I probably should have had you do some type of persuade, David.

[00:15:43] But the fact that you said, like, who else are you going to get to do this here? I think that kind of trumps that there. So, you... You hit for that and that worked out great. If you want to roll, Adam, I can roll when I get back on Criminology to see if I can get them to sell me beer. If you want to do that, that's totally fine with me. Like... Because I can get smokes when I'm underage to buy beer. It's the only thing. Oh, okay. I'd hand him some smokes if he wanted one. Wrinkled my nose at that.

[00:16:13] I know my uncle's brand. What is your brand, David? Or... Roger? For cigarettes, it's Paul Malls. I only got the GT1s. I go for the real horse sweepings. And for the beers, it is whatever is on sale. The white can that says beer. Bushlight. So, I rolled a 65 over 60 on Criminology. They wouldn't sell me the beer. I do have your smokes, though. Afterward.

[00:16:43] Ah, good times. So, after Davis steps out, she sits at the table. Well, you're still getting some side stink out of there, Roger. Gentlemen, we're going to have to send you off to Yosemite National Park. Yesterday... Let's see. Hold on a second. Yesterday, one of the rangers at the Ranchera Falls Trailhead Station, while doing a patrol,

[00:17:11] came across a naked six-year-old child just wandering around in a field. The child, when spoken to, identified himself as Brandon McGill of Tobeka, Kansas, and he asked for his parents. Ranger, when the ranger takes the child back to the ranger station, dials the number, puts Brandon on the telephone with him.

[00:17:40] A bit of excitement and confusion proceeds to happen. Upon the phone call, well, after the ranger spoke with them, the parents hopped in a car. And, well, not hopped in a car. We have records that they already booked a flight to California. And they're on their way right now.

[00:18:03] And the problem is, after we sent this up, after the ranger took photos and sent it up to FBI, we did have a record of Brandon McGill disappearing. Unfortunately, the photos we have are much older, say, 1980. So Brandon McGill disappeared from the Hetchy area of Yosemite over 40 years ago.

[00:18:34] I got to call. I mean, as they kicked it up, they alerted us. We've done everything that we can to delay. We've got a little bit of a governmental pissing contest going on here that's holding up the FBI for a little bit. But we are messing with the parents' flight information, trying to get them derailed and all that stuff that would typically be classified as incompetence on our end to try to buy us

[00:19:03] a little bit of time. But you guys are going to have to go ahead and head on up to the Rancho Falls Trailhead. And I need you to assess the situation. You need to locate the child, identify the child, determine whether there's an unnatural threat. If there is, you need to do what you can to remove it. And we need to make this look normal. Do any of y'all have any questions?

[00:19:30] Can I roll in a cult to see if I know anything over the last, or disappearances over the last 40 years in that area? Yeah. I mean, I would take that. I mean, you kind of, you follow the weird and the odd anyway. So yeah, go ahead. 64 under 70. All right. Now this is, by the way, folks listen home. I am using, I am using, shoot, Foundry. So I'm kind of learning my way through this stuff as I go to.

[00:20:01] So, yeah. In particular, you do, let's see, hold on. Give me one moment. I'm going to be quiet for a second. I'll go through this, see what I've got. Do you have your smartphone, like, do you have your smartphone or anything with you as you're kind of doing through this? It does ring. I will say this. It does ring a bell. Like you've heard of people disappearing in the Yosemite area. Yeah.

[00:20:26] I'll say that as the stuff's going on here, I can give you a bit more here in a moment. I'll just, it's going to take you while you're basically, are you fair if like EBSCO or any of those online search engines, like college academic shoes and shit like that? I'm on whatever, whatever they had back then or research. Okay. But yeah, he's a, he's a, he's a complete screw up, but he's really good at a cult. You know that, you know, there's been other disappearances.

[00:20:55] And I'll say that, you know, in a bit here, I'll pass, I'll pass on the information to you. Let me see. Actually, I'm trying to find, trying to find this. I'm going to try this. Good figure ownership. Will you do me a favor? Click on the journal section here. I'll make this, I want to see if, hold on.

[00:21:22] No, I'm, I'm afraid I'm, no, that looks right. Perfect. So I'm guessing it probably has a thing where you can target, do targeted journal entries. Yeah. Which I would go ahead and open it up to each one of you here. That's neat. For those at home, Foundry has been impressive so far. It is very cool. It just basically is going to boil down to the user, me, figuring out how to run all this stuff here. So I, if you go ahead and click on journals, you should see academic articles and mythology.

[00:21:51] I do, I do not. Click off. Oh, there it is. There it is. Got it. Okay. So what you got here is, it mentioned Yosemite, the disappearances and all that. You do get a nice little, or you got two little documents here. The first one, which I found this on another website. I'd have to look out, but somebody else, I'll put it in the show notes here, made some resources to kind of supplement this game and they're really awesome.

[00:22:20] So the thing I just sent to you was someone else made up here. But the article is called The Jaws, The Awani, an analysis of 40 years of child disappearances in the Yosemite National Park. And the abstract says, we offer evidence of trends associated with disappearances of children in the Yosemite National Park. Analysis of 24 comprehensive child disappearance cases between 1970 to 2010 shows a gender bias

[00:22:48] towards males between the ages of four to 10 years old based upon linked data from the national park. Sudden changes in weather, disappearances occurring in late afternoon or early dusk, and an ambience of huckleberry bushes. Did I say it right? Abundance. Abundance. Ambience is a totally different word. An abundance of huckleberry bushes are trends that predicate child disappearance.

[00:23:18] Post-disappearance and discovery of child show trends of high body temperature, disorientation, missing clothing, significant distance covered between child's last sighting. And I'm just going to kind of stick with the abstract here. There's a bit more here. It's really nice. It's a nice APA style document here. You probably have that. I'd be like, ma'am, did this child happen to appear outside or around some huckleberry bushes by chance?

[00:23:46] I really don't know. You would have to kind of ask the park rangers when you get up there where exactly it was. They didn't actually take pictures at the site. Oh, okay. All right. All right. He actually lights his cigarette at that point, and he's like, we may have a case on our hands here. Well, I figured we probably had a case once we found out that the boy in question has been missing for 40 years and is still described as a boy. Yeah.

[00:24:16] But if what I'm remembering comes up true, we're going to have about 24 more of them that we might be running into eventually. Roger, how about yourself? Do you have any questions or anything you want to look up or whatnot? Well, I think I'd like to make an occult roll. Well, I've got an occult of 10, so I am probably going to miss this one. But it's like, all right, what historically takes people away and then returns them much,

[00:24:45] much later? Do we have any idea of what this could possibly be? Oh, hey, that is a 51 over my 10. So that is a fail. That's a fail. So I have maybe we can discuss on the way, figure it out between the two of us. Well, I do have a picture here for you all. This is the original photo that was released in July of 1980.

[00:25:14] So I'm going to try to get this one here. What does the see if that like I hit save? So she passes this flyer out to you. Is it on the journal? Yeah. You may have to click off of it. You see, it should maybe show up as Brandon McGill's dossier. I just see academic articles and mythology under supplemental. Okay. Well, let's just click the top one here then. I'm learning. I should have did separate ones for each one of these.

[00:25:43] Okay. So now it should. Hey, there it is. It just actually, we will go ahead and sign and pass this out to you. She was to say she slides a middle envelope of middle of voters over to you all. This is everything we have on McGill at the moment. His parents, you know, they were with him when he disappeared from Hetch Hetchy. They were just, they were walking around. They said he was there one minute. They were gone. Whenever.

[00:26:13] This is cool. These are really nice. I do enjoy these. The problem was there was over a hundred people that looked for him, but pretty much immediately after the occurrence happened, a large storm blew into the region and it stayed there for quite some time. It hampered a search and rescue efforts and then eventually it was called off. They felt no one found any trace.

[00:26:40] We did pull up some records on the father and it's, he was a suspect for a bit because he had an issue with violence back in 1979 over infidelity. But the charges were later dropped by his wife when they managed to get back together. That was really the only lead. We had nothing.

[00:27:03] And eventually by 1987, all hope was given up and Brandon McGill was declared dead. So what I passed out to you guys is a newspaper article about it, an obituary and then a photo and then yeah, the case record. So Brandy, would you care to do me a favor? Sure. Would you, would you care to read? Because there's a lot of work that went into this and they're probably doing quite a bit

[00:27:33] better than I have in this brief description. Would you care to click on the McGill's newspaper article and read that real quick for us? Sure. Let me just expand it so I can see the whole thing. Oh no, that's not what I should do. I can't. No, I see it. It's not supposed to be full width. Okay. I got it. Yeah. I was confused by that too. Yes. Sunday, June 27th, 1980. National Park mobilizes to find missing boy.

[00:28:02] Yosemite National Park. Helicopters fly over the dense woodlands and lakes around the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir Reservoir, north of State Route 120 and Forresta. The reservoir is filled to the brim with county, federal, and national park police and volunteers who are combining, combing the area in search of a missing six-year-old boy, Brandon McGill of Topeka, Kansas. Outside the Yosemite National Park, residents in Priest and Mariposa have put up posters

[00:28:31] all over their towns with the Federal Bureau of Investigations offering a $1,000 reward for finding the child. Despite all this, nobody has reported seeing or has found the child last seen on the previous Sunday, June 22nd. He was accompanied by his parents, Ian and Ann McGill, who have claimed the child was right there with them before vanishing near the popular Devil's Chair national formation at the Hetchy Hetchy Reservoir.

[00:28:56] After fruitless preliminary searches by the parents and park rangers, the FBI became involved following eyewitness reports that suggest the missing child case could be an abduction. An eyewitness told FBI agents and some members of the press that the McGills were followed by a man in black clothing along the hiking trails near the Hetchy Hetchy Trailhead Station. Two witnesses had volunteered this information, one describing the man as tall and pale and the

[00:29:25] other describing him as wearing American Indian jewelry. Residents of the Big Sandy Rancheria in Fresno County were questioned by federal agents, but the description of the man did not match any of the denizens living in the area. Even though 100 deputies, rangers, and volunteers are combing the 1,200 acres of the Hetchy Hetchy, the situation is appearing grim for the grieving parents.

[00:29:52] Ann McGill urges everyone to refer to a Brandon McGill hotline if they have any questions on his whereabouts, which is at 212-374-6913. And there's a picture of a helicopter probably doing a search. It's very well done. It's pretty nice. The old bitch. Go ahead. I'm sorry, Brandon. I just love the typos. That's all. And I probably, like I said, going back, I forgot I had all these things here too.

[00:30:22] So with the obituary, like I said, it was declared in 1987, July 8th, 1987. So nearly seven years after that. And it says, Pauline, Brandon Frederick McGill, an obituary. There's Pauline, which is a town. Brandon Frederick McGill of 1911 Evergrove Place. I thought that was going to be the Simpsons address for a moment. A six-year-old child declared missing June 1980.

[00:30:50] It now pronounced dead on his birthday, which is Wednesday, July 8th. Brandon was a bright boy with an infectious sense of enthusiasm that radiated in those around him. His parents, Anne and Anne McGill, adored their son and his curious nature of the world. It is with regret that the parents announced that their child was dead seven years following the disappearance in the Yosemite National Park.

[00:31:16] He was last seen by his parents before disappearing into thin air by Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. Despite numerous searches by volunteers and authorities, there has been no suggestion as to what has happened to Brandon McGill on that day. A funeral service will be held for Brandon at Our Lady of Sorrow's Catholic Church, followed by an empty casket burial and a vigil at the Topeka Cemetery.

[00:31:41] All manners of guests and mourners are invited to share their remembrances of this poor child surviving as a father and a mother in an Anne McGill of 1911 Evergrove Place, Pauline. I found it interesting that they say his birthday is July 8th, but on the missing poster, his birthday is actually April 10th. Yeah. Well, I saw Brandon read through a typo there, too.

[00:32:10] It said Manny, and instead of Manny, he switched that over pretty quick. And what day did they say that he—was it—what day did he pop out? Actually, today's the 5th. When he popped out on the 4th, if going by. So he popped out on the 4th, so today is the 5th. So theoretically, his birthday, depending on which one is correct,

[00:32:37] the missing person says April 10th versus July 8th. So I think we'll just have to ask Brandon, what's your birthday? And honestly, stuff's wrong in the real world. I mean, these are valid, real-world discrepancies. Yeah. Happens all the time. Along with the stuff that she hands you, and David, if you don't care to read this one for me, at the bottom is the T. Gallows report.

[00:33:04] This is the report turned in by the National Park Ranger. It's hot off the presses. So it gives—I mean, a lot of the stuff here is, you know, the location code and business stuff. But if you don't care to go over the details of the incident, the summary? Oh, yes. So, summary.

[00:33:26] On July 1st, 2017, at about—well, for the sake of ours, we'll change that to on July 4th, 2015, at about 0915 hours, Brandon Frederick McGill was found in a Huckleberry field near the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, about 500 meters south from Koalina Rock and 2,000 meters west from the Devil's Chair. In open wilderness.

[00:33:50] The child was found by NPS Ranger Tamika Gallegos, who was patrolling the area after a complaint for littering by park visitors in the nearby campground, approximately 3,500 meters east of the trailhead station. Gallegos observed B. McGill at approximately 150 yards, 450 feet. The child appeared coherent and was walking through the Huckleberry field when Gallegos approached him. She remarked that he was naked and covered in dirt.

[00:34:16] When asked if he needed assistance, B. McGill identified himself and admitted to having lost his parents. Gallegos accompanied B. McGill to the Rancheria Falls trailhead station, where his wounds were assessed. The child had minor cuts and bruises attributed to his exposure to the wilderness, but no further physical injuries. Gallegos also provided B. McGill her cell phone so he may contact his parents. Gallegos spoke to his parents. I. and A. McGill discovered they are not in Yosemite, but home in Topeka, Kansas.

[00:34:45] A child was reported missing by the name of Brandon F. McGill on July 22, 1980. Gallegos and her supervisor, D. Kina, were concerned that the child had misidentified himself and sought assistance with the Sacramento FBI office. Photos of the child were exchanged with a positive identification match made. B. McGill is also currently under the care of the Rancheria Falls trailhead station until his parents arrive tomorrow afternoon for another positive identification match.

[00:35:12] Federal agents will also be dispatched when available, which is us. I am curious. While we are driving, I am going to make a phone call to that office and find out how was the photo matched. Was that something where they did a computer match? Because I know that that is facial recognition, something that they can do. So, yeah, that's definitely something you can put a phone call in for later.

[00:35:41] Has anybody done a blood sample to confirm the child's identity? No, not according to the records that you have here. They just, they tended his wounds and that was it. But just cuts and scrapes and stuff. So, gentlemen, unless you have any other questions, we have a, you have a, god damn, I'm getting tongue tied. Unless you have any questions, gentlemen, you probably need to be getting, get going.

[00:36:06] If you need to rent a van or take a personal car, I don't know how you got here, but go ahead and make arrangements. Again, we'll check out the situation. You have hours to look into this. And, yeah, call if you need anything. She leaves a number to, a phone number to what you would assume is a burner, which is standard procedure. Mm-hmm. So, any, any further questions though, guys? Or are you all good?

[00:36:36] Where are we meeting up with this, uh, ranger and have they, do they, I'm assuming they don't know anything weird is going on. No. Besides the fact that the kid claims to be 40 years old. Yeah. Well, I don't think he was going to be 46 years old. Yeah. I don't think he actually claims to be 40. Um, from what we see here and from the photos, this looks like a kid. He doesn't look like a 46 year old man. Uh, one question.

[00:37:05] You said there was a storm that rolled through whenever the kid got taken. What kind of storm was it? Well, the records of it, the records of that occurrence here, as you kind of went through looking into it. Uh, well, it looks like it started storming afterwards. So, when the, when the child disappeared and when the search crews were going, it was torrential downpour, uh, to the point of like landslides.

[00:37:33] There was even a water spout, uh, noticed on the lake. So, I mean, the wind was picking up. It was enough to keep everybody hunkered down, limited to search and the visibility. Any trace evidence that would have existed after that kind of weather would have been hard or impossible to locate. I want to check the, uh, weather forecast for the next few days and see if there's another storm planning on popping up. Okay. You can do it easy enough on your phone.

[00:38:02] Clear and sunny. All right, then. And now Al Roker pops off. Al Roker signing off. Does he still do that or is he retired yet? I don't know if he's retired yet or not, but I can tell you that in 2015, he was also probably talking about the benefits of his bariatric surgery. Should we get the boy? I don't know where he went.

[00:38:31] I think he was trying to, trying to scam somebody out of something. By the time you come out, I'm just in the lobby. I've got a fresh, uh, uh, styrofoam cooler with me. Um, when I see you guys walk out, I say, Hey, uh, uh, I cleared out the cold case of sandwiches. Like you said, I thought about getting the veggies, but you didn't really look, uh, mister, like you, you would pass up bacon. So I didn't get a veggie.

[00:38:55] Um, I got, I got some, some Gatorade and some waters too, but, and some smokes for you, uncle, but, uh, they wouldn't, they wouldn't sell me any beer. That's okay. Look, we can, we can have fun camping without the beer this time. Big smile. Let's, uh. I just look at him like he's got a second head. Like camping without beer. Let's, let's just load up into the camper. Oh, I'm going to get my own car. I'll follow you. Yeah, that's a good idea. Yeah.

[00:39:24] So there's something that does kind of stick out to you as you're popping in a car to drive away. So, which you guys were just going to where that trailhead, that, uh, ranger station is that area of Yosemite. You've got the maps and all that. If you were going through the folder, you found that there's something you didn't find. There's no cover identities. You have no cover identities. This is how put together this was. You're just going in blind with, with whatever. If they called me, then. Yeah.

[00:39:54] Yeah. You probably, I mean, you've got criminality. I'd let you roll for something like that. If you've got a good fake ID and whatnot. I'll happily roll for that. Yeah. I'll make a, hell, I'll make a couple for the, a couple for the, for the, the young'un and the, the FBI guy too. Uh. That's a critical success. That's a crit. You know what? Make them up in a batch. Uh. I'm like flipping through a, flipping through a shoebox going, no, no. Well, that'll work. No, no. Do you have a laminator in your car?

[00:40:24] Maybe. You can have the hand crank ones. You know, if he doesn't, I've got one of the, I, I declared that we're using this camper as a command center, right? What are the odds that we've got a laminator already? You got to ask yourself, how crafty do you feel? Oh, pretty damn crafty. All right, guys. So, as you're making your way. You pulled up the map and whatnot that was provided in your folder where you were going with the directions and whatnot.

[00:40:53] And you're basically going to go, you know, take the road into the trailhead station. There, you'll notice that it's at the bottom of the image that I have here, the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, which is, you know, a huge one here. There's a dam on the side there that they do hydroelectric off of here. Other things that you're going to notice is, like, you know, beneath it, you're going to see the devil's chair.

[00:41:23] That's a rock formation that was discussed here. And depending, because I had two maps here for it, there is a backpackers campground. Actually, I've showed you all two maps. The second one does actually include the backpackers campground. So, as you all drive into the park and follow the trail there, there's a parking lot and then there's a camping area. If you've been to any national park camping area beforehand,

[00:41:51] it's kind of a lot of gravel in a lot of different places, you know what I mean? It's got the cast iron, or not cast iron, but the iron grills that are mounted into the ground that are dirtier than hell. And I would definitely use aluminum foil, or as Mamaw would call it, tin foil. David, is your mamaw? You've got to love those old words, man. Got the tin foil on that.

[00:42:18] And Trailhead Station is adjoining to the parking lot area and whatnot. And there's a dam. And then there's a couple of the other ones that you want to talk about. And just for the fun of it, because I like the stuff that we have. And this is provided by Arc Dream with the resources I purchased for Foundry VTT. Boop. There you are.

[00:42:48] Going right through the gate. Do you guys look at that map where I can see it, out of curiosity? I did not see that other map, no. Oh, it's... Although I do have... I don't own any token with the... I've got the operations map and the park entrance. Right. So in Discord, there are two maps. The less detailed map is the one that you were given in your dossier from Delta Green. Yeah.

[00:43:17] Were you guys looking at the map that Delta Green gave you of the area when I was around? Question mark. You know, you're going to be riding in the same camper as me, so yes. Oh, hey. I actually got a better version of that map from the tourist spot with the brochures. Here. It looks a lot like the top map, the more detailed one.

[00:43:40] Before we pull off or pull into the ranger station, I want to basically pull off into a parking lot outside of it and be like, hey man, if you haven't noticed that they didn't give us any type of alternate identity going on, so I got y'all covered and I popped my trunk. I'm sitting there and I'm like, uh, rifling through a shoebox and I'm like, young man, come here. I'm just like holding them up. Is this how I can buy beer? I'm just like holding them up and just like comparing their face like, no.

[00:44:11] Nope, there you go. And I hand him one. It says whatever you want to say on it. But are you giving this to me so I can buy you beer? Uh, no. That's you now. Um, for the more stable future. I just look really confused at you like, uh, what? Yeah, that's you. You're in college. You'll enjoy it. Is it old enough to buy beer? Oh, yeah. Then I won't question it.

[00:44:38] Like, okay, the strange man we just met that my uncle knows is giving me a beer ID. Okay. I was like, uncle, come here. This is business. It's a business idea. We're, I hate to say it, but this is actually kind of a working vacation. But hey, after we get done with the job, we're going to get to take a look here at Yosemite. I just look at you and nod slowly. I pull out the other box and I'm like, FBI, DEA. Which one do you want to be?

[00:45:09] Um, whichever one is going to work for this. Probably need to stick with FBI. Uh, or, uh, or, uh, uh, what is it? DNF, maybe? The Department of Wildlife? To be fair, they did call FBI in, so they're expecting FBI. Oh, okay. I saw a handyman FBI badge with somebody else's name on it. Like, just don't ask. Starting to look a little cloudy.

[00:45:36] Occasional raindrop hitting the windshield as you all pull in. And I'm sure. Al Roker, that lion's son of a bitch. David, real quick. Uh, at the top of your screen, there should be different ones here. You're on operations map. Can you click, do you see one that says park entrance? I do. Just click at it to see if you can see it. I'm just curious. That one I can see. It's a very pretty picture of the park entrance. Complete with a keep right sign. And, uh, looks like it is sunny and clear.

[00:46:05] We are at, uh, station number 216. Now, uh, you guys pull into the parking lot again. To the right of it is where the camping area. And it's kind of sprawled out. You see several cars there. I mean, more than 20. It was a holiday weekend. A lot of people are about. You hear a little bit of grumbling. As I mentioned, it's starting to sprinkle a tad bit. And the cloud, the sky is darkening a bit.

[00:46:34] And, uh, boo. Yep. So like, here's a trail. Like, where do y'all want to go? Do you want to go around? Look at the area beforehand. Do you want to divide? Does everyone want to go into the trailhead? That's where, uh, Brandon is. Do you want your nephew involved in that search? Or do you want to tell him to go wander around? Or like, whatever you want to do. It's up to you. Where do you want me to park this thing, Uncle? Um, you know what? Let's, let's get a campsite.

[00:47:04] So I want to go if, if it's, um, potentially available to go to. I want to go to the site where they found him with all the huckleberry bushes. Okay. Do you want to put the party? Here's kind of what I want to do. Let's establish our, let's establish our base camp. Fortunately, that's what a camper is good for. Um, then we will spread out for the investigation.

[00:47:29] Um, I feel like, um, as much as I hate the idea of, hey, let's all split the party. Um, Davis, you go set up the campsite. Uh, fine. Or we're going to be at whichever camp number they assign us. Um, I'll question, I will question the boy. And why don't you, um, why don't you investigate the site where he was found? Devin? I'll get you covered, boss. All right. I'll get us a spot.

[00:47:59] Okay. So who wants to go first? Uh, I will. Nobody else will. Okay. So campers parked, being that you were using a camper RV kind of set up like that, you're pulling into like, you exit the parking lot and you could, there's a few areas for people with vehicles like that. And, you know, you pull that thing in there or I'd say it was already pulled in there beforehand,

[00:48:26] but you're, you go ahead and start dropping everything out and looking around. Um, and I'll tell you what, why don't you give me, uh, let's see, I'm looking at the character sheets. It's been a long time since I've run Delta Green. We got perception, don't we? We've got awareness. Alertness. Sorry. We've got search. Just depending on what you, well, why don't you give me an awareness? Alertness. Yes. And I'm going to do it at negative 20. We got spot four, by the way. Oh, we do have a spot?

[00:48:56] Yeah. We're camping spot four. Oh, okay. I thought you were talking about spot hidden. So at a negative 20? Yeah. So, you know, your, your threshold's lowered by 20. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, I did not. I'm trying to find a spot. I'm still cussing Al Roker for being wrong about the weather. Well, you already have a spot, but you ever try to drive anything like it? Do you have a CDLs? I don't know if you had to have a CDLs, but damn near a bus. You know.

[00:49:25] Oh, I'm driving my car. Oh, your car? I was trying to find a place to part it. Okay. So, you go around. You can see the woods. You know, beautiful, idyllic, even though it's starting to drizzle a little bit. Mm-hmm. Kicking in there. I'm getting hiccups. You see, you find your spot. That's not what the check was for, but yeah. You're there. You want to mingle, or what are you going to do?

[00:49:53] Uh, if I know where I'm going as far as where the thing is, I want to try and go out there without contaminating it more than what it already is. Oh, so you're going to the scene? Okay. Yeah, I was going to the scene. David was going to the, uh, to the station to talk to the boy. Yeah. Mm-hmm. And where was, uh, nephew going? Uh, nephew is parking the RV. Oh, okay. Getting the camp set up, getting, you know, the sewer hooked up, the water, the electric, getting the fridge turned on, you know.

[00:50:23] Oh, one second. My child was asking me how to spell something. I think she's talking shit to somebody on the, on the game, because she just said, how do you spell baby, dad? Running the mouth. Okay. So, while you're parking, why don't you go ahead, uh, Brownie, why don't you have Davis go ahead and give me a awareness check? Negative 20. Uh, hit it dead on. Uh, 50 out of 50 with the 20 penalty. Oh. Nice.

[00:50:54] Oh, shit. I wasn't expecting that. Hold on one second. So, I'm sorry I got the people's jobs going on different there. So, it's, you're trying to pull that thing in. You know, you pull, you pull in, but it's not a car, so you had to back up quite a bit and then swing a bit wider. And then there's this moment of Austin Powers, forward, back, forward, back, forward, back, forward, back.

[00:51:20] You're actually kind of attracting a bunch of people watching you. You see a bunch of, uh, men, middle-aged men. You know how middle-aged men are when they see somebody young trying to do something like that. It's not encouragement that you're getting, sir. You're getting ridiculed and knowing grins and whatnot. And you're looking at their faces. You're getting a little pissed off through the windshield of that big behemoth of a vehicle. And that's when you kind of glance up and you see the tree lines behind you.

[00:51:47] And, you know, have you ever been, has your character ever been deer hunting before, Davis? No, I just go to college. Okay. A lot of, you've got, the reason that you see this is, uh, everything in the forest grows up. So, like, trees are growing up, plants are growing up. Everything's, like, you see vertical lines, right, everywhere.

[00:52:15] And even subconsciously, I mean, when you're looking, that's where you kind of differentiate. I'm speaking from experience here. What catches you as you are going up maybe, you know, halfway up one of the trees, which you can't really gauge how, like, how tall it is from the distance and all that. But you see a line that's jutting, not going up, but you notice a line that's kind of jutting out to the side almost, like, horizontally. And that's when you notice that it's not, that line is actually an arm.

[00:52:46] So, what you're seeing here is a person that's about half the size of one of these large trees. And you see their arm, it's stretched, like, their hands leaning against the other. You look, you see it, you're like, oh, fuck. And then you kind of look again, and you miss it. So, I'm going to have to ask you to give me a sanity check, because, like, that was a goddamn giant. You saw a goddamn giant. Can I add one thing to that? Yes, please.

[00:53:14] Just at the moment when I break eye contact, it's because I hit a branch. Oh. And one of the old men yells, it's a pull-through spot. Sorry. Just make it dead on with my sand, 85 out of 85. I still think she's up. You are sane. But, you know, at least take one. You're doubting yourself. You don't really, like, it's really the guy. The reason you're not losing more is because that,

[00:53:44] your mind just had to be playing tricks on you. That's what it is. But... And I got jarred by hitting the branch and getting yelled at. All this stuff happening at once. Yeah. No. Totally get it. So, go ahead and mark a little bit of sand loss there. Done and done. All right. So, let's see. We got... We got Davin going up to the field where they were picked up at. I'm trying to pull up my map here. It's in Discord. Do-do-do.

[00:54:14] Is it overgrown? Like... Or can you walk right through it? Because I want to try and stealth it if I can, just to see if anybody's out there. Because if it's certain... He's trying to make sure that nobody's messing with the crime scene, because that's where somebody popped out of that was lost 40 years ago. So, you do see a lot of mulberry bushes that are taken up around. It's one of these areas, like there's not...

[00:54:41] The trees aren't there, so the other foliage can kind of grow up and whatnot. So, it's like, as you're going through it, you see the area. If you want to... Yeah, you can give me a search. Check. See what you can find. I mean, you're kind of going with a large area. The ground... I mean, the activity happened yesterday. And that national park kind of set up... I've never been to Yosemite, but I'm basing it on Daniel Boone National Forest.

[00:55:11] It's more dirt with like the wooden posts every little bit. Like if there's a step up or a grade and whatnot, there's a board, a post that's kind of laying horizontally on it and whatnot. But, yeah, if you want to go by the closest of your records there, look forward to it. Just give me a search. That's a... I actually got it. That was a 7 under 20. Wow. Okay.

[00:55:38] Let me ask you for another one. Give me that awareness check. Give me that awareness check again. Alertness. Mm-hmm. Alertness. That's a 3 out of under 50. Okay. I am going to die. So, what you see is as you're going through out by the bushes, you see a little bit of where there's not grass. There's more soil there and whatnot. And you're kind of looking through there.

[00:56:06] And you see something that looks like a large human footprint. It's faint. I mean, it's not like they stepped in mud or anything. But you see the outline. You see the curvature of where an arch would be. But you see a gigantic footprint. A colt? Does it look like anything I know? Yeah. Go ahead. Give me that a colt. No. It's big. I got a 94 over 70. So, I snap a picture of it with my phone.

[00:56:37] While you got your phone up, you hear some rustling coming out from the mulberry bushes. And we're going to cut away to Roger. Roger, making your way up to the gate. I mean, up to the trail house. I can't even speak. I apologize. So, hold on. Let me get my shit together here. Okay. So, you can kind of, as you're making your way up here, you can kind of see off in the distance with the elevation.

[00:57:07] You can kind of see. Everything's kind of cleared out a bit. And you kind of see a path that leads up toward the dam and the reservoir of Hesheshie. You know, it was hot. It was a hot, dry summer beforehand, but the rain's starting to come down a bit more.

[00:57:26] You see a lot of ponderosa pines, cedar, white fair, maybe occasional sequoia going on here. The trailhead station, though, as you may walk up to it there, it looks like it's two stories. Going in, there's a couple of ranger vehicles parked out in the front. It's just a sprawling brown structure. It looks like it. You can tell a difference in the wood. A little bit of the age.

[00:57:56] Like, you know, it's that cabin, you kind of look to it, too. But there's, you can tell a difference between the stain. It's kind of like if you patch up a car and you don't blend the colors or whatnot. You can tell, like, where the new paint is not faded like the old paint. Oh, yeah. You notice a large, go ahead.

[00:58:15] I was going to say, considering that this is a ranger station, I am betting that it's a case of, this is where we had to replace part of this because we don't have enough government funding to replace the entire shed at once. So we ran a patch here and we ran a patch there. Yeah, it's a Winchester mansion of it all. So you do notice that there's a freestanding radio tower beside the building as well.

[00:58:43] And then as you make it up to the door, why don't you go ahead and just give me that awareness check where I've asked everybody else to do it. Do you? Oh, that is a 61. It is out of my base 70. But if we're at the same minus 20 as everybody else, I have a case of can't see or CRS or CSS. I mean, it's the rain's coming down a bit more. You're kind of glancing, but you make it up there.

[00:59:10] You walk by a proud little sign posted on the porch going up to the ranger station. It says, powered by hydroelectric energy. And then there's a nice little educational plaque beneath it that describes that the dam generates X amounts of kilowatts and, you know, everything in the area is being powered by hydroelectric. So, I guess, let yourself in. Absolutely.

[00:59:40] All right. So, it looks like a skeleton crew is going on. You see a – and let me see if I can open this up to you real quick here. I'm just sticking with what they're doing. So, kind of the area. So, you winded. I just posted there should be trail station, first floor, dropped in the foundry. So, you see the parking spots and the trees. And to place token – I'm not worried about tokens on this necessarily.

[01:00:09] So, if you guys can see it, it's good. So, you make it up to the little landing. You can kind of see – go up to the common room. And, yeah. There's a little reception desk there. You see a couple couches lounge around the television. You do see – I do hear cartoons playing. And you see a little boy with – you would think that there would be a blanket around him. You see where they try to put a blanket on him.

[01:00:37] But he's – thank God they've dressed him, at least. But there's a blanket laying beside him on a couch. There's a female parkuranger sitting beside him. And then there's a male one sitting up at the desk. You see radio equipment and whatnot there. So, yeah. What do you do? Well, start with a smile. Produce my badge and just kind of head over in that direction. Just, hi there. I'm Agent Crisp.

[01:01:06] FBI sent me. Is this our little foundling? What's your – the thing I like about Delta Green, and I never remember to do this, David, is if you have skills at a certain level, they – you know, you can pretty much hand wave stuff. So that would be like law enforcement or bureaucracy that you would have, and you have it at – I haven't looked at your character sheet here. I've got it at 40. 40? I mean, look, they're expecting you.

[01:01:36] Mm-hmm. You went in by procedure. They had no reason to doubt you. They go with that. Oh, well, you're here rather early. We didn't expect you all here until later this evening. Yeah. The little boy's over there. And I'm looking for a name because I had a whole bunch of names here. Are you, Guy Egos? No. I'm – Guy Egos is – he points over to the couch.

[01:02:05] Guy Egos is with little Brandon. I am – Okay. I'm Douglas Keeney. Well, nice to meet you, Keeney. I've got the reports. Oof. Heck of weather we're having here. I know. It's supposed to be clear. You know, that's what Al Roker said this morning. Shit, you know, I think they got a dartboard there, and they just throw darts, and that's the weather. You know, I wish I could be wrong 50% of the time and still keep my job.

[01:02:35] Knowing last. But let me just – I'm just going to sidle over and just – hey, Brandon. He looks up at you. The park ranger beside him stands up kind of protectively. And you are? Well, I'm Agent Crisp, and you're Miss Guy Egos, right? Ranger Guy Egos? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I found little Brandon here. Look.

[01:03:06] She kind of looks at her. I keep watching the show there. The Cartoon Network is great. And she kind of asks you to step aside. So going out of the common area to the left, there's more of a radio room area to the left. You go through that threshold, and she kind of closes the door. I kind of wanted to talk to you anyway, because there's a couple of things that aren't quite adding up.

[01:03:35] But I want to hear what you have to say first. Look, this is wild. I found this young man wandering around out in the – up toward the Hetch Hetchy. I took him in. I asked him if he – what his name was. He told me he had no problem, seemed very coherent and all. When we got here, he asked if he could call his parents.

[01:04:04] He said that he had lost his parents. I handed him my cell phone. He just looked at it. I had to unlock – I mean, I had it locked and all, but I went ahead and dialed it and spoke to him and handed the phone off to him and whatnot. And, I mean, I was expecting a joyous reunion. And then when I get back on the phone with them, they're completely hysterical.

[01:04:31] And they say that their son – this can't be right. They say that their son disappeared nearly 40 years ago. So, like, what? Like, did we call the wrong house? I mean, like, I don't understand what's going on here. There's no way that's possible. Well, let's start with the obvious. Sometimes we get some unexplained stuff.

[01:05:01] Tamika, can I call you, Tamika? Oh, please. I'm Randy. All right, Randy. And that's one of the reasons why they called us down here is because there are some of these things that just don't add up. And we're not supposed to try to understand all of the things. We're just supposed to check out all of the details. Now, at the end of the day, you found a little boy who was lost.

[01:05:28] And that's the most important thing from the day. You found a little boy who's been lost. Now, we need to find out which little boy it is because it seems that he thinks he is – and I'm just going to pull out the picture. Does he look like this? Yeah. I mean, a hair is a little different. But, I mean, it looks like him. But it can't be. I know. It can't be. But he thinks that he is Brandon McGill.

[01:05:55] So it's entirely possible that we've got a Brandon McGill. He says that he is Brandon McGill of Topeka, Kansas. But if he was Brandon McGill of Topeka, Kansas, he would be my age, not that age. So I think that he is probably just a little bit confused. And we'll figure that out. We're going to figure out just what exactly is going on. I am not necessarily a behavioral psychologist.

[01:06:22] But my specialty lies in interrogation and figuring out what people have to say. And so that's one of the reasons why they sent me up. They didn't exactly have a child psychologist to send on short notice on the 4th of July. But, you know, we're doing the best we can with what we've got.

[01:06:44] Now, I got right here as fast as possible so that we can hopefully figure out where does this child belong and get him to the right set of parents. Okay. That sounds like a road to me. I mean, you're trying to convince her. I will say that there's no negatives or anything with that. But if you can give some type of persuade role just to kind of sell this story that maybe you did get to Brandon McGill. I've got to persuade.

[01:07:14] So let's try that. Straight up persuade. That is 68 out of my 50. So no. 68 out of your 50. Well, she doesn't just outright reject you. You can tell that she wants to believe that. But, you know, she's the one who spoke with the parents and she heard the range of emotions. That was anguish to relief to confusion. And she knows that they're on her way now.

[01:07:41] She also is worried about the aftermath of that kind of going in. So you've got that. You're all talking there. What about Davis Crumble? Davis, you've already parked the vehicle. Yeah. If I heard they were going to be going over to the trailhead station, I'll kind of head over there just looking for my uncle now that we're all set up. Okay. Are you going to go into the common area? It looks like there's a raised kind of patio.

[01:08:10] I'd say that's outside like a porch area that you could sit on. Are you going to let yourself in or anything like that? Yeah. I mean, it's a ranger station. It's for visitors. I'll poke my head into the main room. Okay. All right. You walk in. You see a middle-aged man sitting at the counter. He looks up at you and kind of nods at you. You see a little boy sitting over on the couch wearing some clothes that looks a little big on him.

[01:08:38] But, you know, beggars can't be choosers. Yeah. I mean, you know, if you pee yourself somewhere, you've got to deal with whatever extra clothes they've got for you. If peeing yourself is cool. Call me Miles Davis. Do I see my uncle around in here at all? No. You don't see him. I'll just walk back out and, you know, wander around the campground to see if I can see him. I don't remember where he said he was going. Okay. Alrighty.

[01:09:08] Which could give you the opportunity to give me some more sanity checks. But, you know, that's up to you. Yeah. You're starting to hear thunder. And the rain is starting. It's went from a general prequel to a light shower at this point here. So, you know, I don't know. I've got to close the roof vents on the camper. Okay. So, you rush out there. Jeremy, I'm going to get to you in just a second here.

[01:09:33] I want to narratively cut back over to Roger here for a moment. Roger, she's like, well, I hope it's right. I'll feel a lot better when this is all over. So, do you need to see the boy? I do. And you know what? You can sit with me while I do. I can tell you're super protective of him, which is great, Tamika. Okay. Because I understand you've got a connection to him since you've already found him. Why don't you introduce me? Okay.

[01:10:04] So, as you walk back in, the other ranger looks to the left. Get one sitting at the door area. I had to change the channel for him. He wanted to watch Sesame Street. You can hear all those great little songs kind of playing from your childhood. Honey days, we're not clouds of rain. These are the people in your neighborhood.

[01:10:36] Oh, God. Do you hear glimpy music? Boop, boop, boop, boop. All right. So, you walk over to Brandon. He, hi. Do you know where my mom and dad are? Well, they should be on their way. You know, they couldn't find you, so they went home. And Kansas is a long way away from Yosemite. Okay. So, what do you want to ask him?

[01:11:06] Or what do you want to do? I'm just going to sit down kind of across from him. So, you're Brandon, right? Yeah. Okay. I just want to ask you a couple of questions. You know, see if we can figure out what happened. Brandon, what's your birthday? Oh, June 8th. 19, do the math real quick. 74. June 8th? Oh, July 8th. I'm sorry. He knows his birthday. I don't.

[01:11:37] I'm trying to remember that paper. See, that's why I was checking. It's like, all right. It could be literally any day. Oh, it's the third one. Jacuzzi. No. And so, what can you tell me about when you went, or what was the last thing you remember before Tamika found you? Okay. I want a judgment call on this one right here.

[01:12:03] I am looking at the character sheets and looking at your stats and skills here. I'm looking for something that would, I don't know if it actually would be psychotherapy. What would it be psychotherapy? If you're wanting to kind, well, you tell me. Do you want, how you want to go about this here? I'll say that. So, I'm going to go with human, is what I was thinking.

[01:12:29] Because I was, I'm leaning more towards trying to figure out, is he lying? And so, I'm going to ask a couple of leading questions where I know the answer based off of his dossier and get the answers that I'm expecting. But I also kind of want to see if I can figure out how he went from, boy, fully clothed, laughing, playing, disappeared. Boy, running naked through the huckleberry field.

[01:12:56] Like, there is a gap between those two things. And I want to see what he can fill in in that missing space between. You got anything that you would, what would you give to a kid? Is there anything that you would do in particular to a child if you were wanting to kind of ease them into this? Oh, yeah. I would, while I'm asking the questions, I would just reach into my pocket almost absently, pull out a sweet of some kind, eat one myself, and then just think better of it,

[01:13:26] and then offer him the same sweet. You know, like, if I pull out a lollipop for me, pull out a lollipop for him. Well, you know the Werther's Original Statement, just like in that old commercial. Oh, hey, this character? Splice out of your hand, because he's not an old man. This character may be 40. Hey, look for Valentine's Day. My mom bought me a bag of, no, Easter for Easter. My mom bought me a bag of Werther's Originals. Then again, I am 44. That's what I've kind of based it on.

[01:13:56] I told her, I'm like, I'm not that old, Mom. We're not that old yet, but... I'll give you a plus 10. Considering the time, I would say that it's most likely one of the Lifesavers Cream Savers. Ooh, those are good. We'll go with the Strawberry Swirl. Oh, you can't go wrong with that. Yeah, it's a nice, sweet piece of candy. But at the same time, yeah, let's be honest.

[01:14:26] It's something for a kid. Oh, by the way, if you guys have passed or failed stuff, I mean, if we ever decide to use these or do anything else with these characters too, you may want to mark when you... Is it you mark when you fail or pass? You mark when you fail because if you fail it, then you get to roll it later at the end of the session. And as long as you roll over your number at the end of session, it's either an over or under thing. You get to add a D10 to it for the next time.

[01:14:55] And you did Persuade or Bureaucracy on Tamika. So I did Persuade on Tamika and failed it. I did Alertness Outside and failed it. And I've already done Occult and failed that one at the very beginning. Okay, sweet. All right, so go ahead and if you want, go ahead and roll with Persuade. Give yourself a plus 10. Okay. And that is not high enough.

[01:15:22] Even with the plus 10, I am at 65 out of 60, which is less. Well, the plus 10 would be your threshold would be 70, wouldn't it? That would be 60. It would be 60. I'm looking at his human score right here is 60 for Roger. Oh, if we're trying... Oh, you hit Persuade. You said Persuade. Oh, I'm sorry. You said Persuade. Yeah, it's human. My apologies, sir. So for human, yeah, I get it. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I was with...

[01:15:52] I'm trying to remember how a five-year-old talks. I was with mom and dad. And then it's dark. And it's like, you know, a cave. There's blue light. I see people and they talk to me, but they're not moving their mouth.

[01:16:21] They're things that look like people, but they're not people. And they're kind of walking around like... And then he kind of like does this lurching kind of motion with his arms and shoulders, kind of like a shamble. They say Osadagua. I heard Osadagua.

[01:16:47] And they gave me this toothpaste-looking stuff. They fed me it. And what's your... Do you have a natural? Do... I do not. Is it even on there? It is, but it is grayed out for me because I have not had an occult experience yet. Ah. Okay. Or at least Crumble hasn't crumbled yet.

[01:17:16] On the way to that crack. Yeah. You're getting there. So, yeah. He remembers that. I'm trying to see... Looking for a name. I apologize. I usually write shit down, and I didn't. Are these canon names? Yeah.

[01:17:44] Well, they're names that are in here. Evelyn. And there was a Thomas. I met them. And then I was in the field again. And mom and dad were gone. And this nice lady... And you're kind of glanced to the side where Tamika is. And apparently she hasn't heard the story.

[01:18:12] And she kind of is just wide-eyed. Like, you don't expect that to come out of that six-year-old boy. Kind of story like that. Let me see. I need to pull up some stats here real quick. And you said Evelyn and Tom? Evelyn and Tom, yeah. Okay. Let me see. I need to roll. Hold on one second. I'm trying to figure out...

[01:18:41] I'm going to do a private roll. Private eyes, they're watching you. Hmm. You said you're human. You seem kind of... I need you... By the way, you're hearing these weird things. I need you to do me a sanity check. I mean, you have been in the business before. You have heard stuff. Well, that's a fail. Yeah. One D4 San. You may have to type those commands in. Okay. Where do I do that?

[01:19:09] Go to the chat window and just type in slash roll. I think that's the easiest way. That's one thing I'm actually kind of surprised about, that they don't have loose dice as an option. I think there is buttons and add-ons that I can do for this. Oh, I need to roll. So, you make a sanity roll. Hey! I just lost one. That's cool. All right. So, Brandon, remembering this, also has to make a roll.

[01:19:39] This is the part where he turns into a Shoggoth. And he took a little bit of damage here. So, you kind of see him... He kind of starts rocking in the chair a little bit, and he's putting his arms... I'm putting his arms up to him a little bit. And he starts, you know, Sesame Street's in the background, and he starts mimicking it. Sunny day. And I'm going to cut over to you, Jeremy.

[01:20:07] Rain is coming down a bit more. You hear a rustle in the woods, and out of the bushes steps a naked 16-year-old boy. It's Brandon. I'm like, are you fucking kidding me? I'm going to roll that sand now. Yeah, roll that sand. Oh, that is a definite no. That's 68 over 55. You just screamed at the child. He starts to flinch back a little bit.

[01:20:35] He starts to kind of step back into the huckleberries and whatnot. I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Sorry, sorry, sorry. You just startled me. I apologize. It's raining. I heard some rustling. Didn't expect anybody there. I apologize. And he just starts singing, sunny day. In fact, let me, I got something I am going to drop for you guys. Brownie, you're aware of this.

[01:21:01] I want each one of you, I'll make a note in there. But so as you kind of, it's kind of a weird moment. Like, how do you, I didn't know I'd have to say this. How do you restrain a naked child? But here you go. But like, you know, let's say you kind of like reach out to him or you kind of put a hand on his shoulder, standing far away because stranger danger. And he starts singing that. And if you could, and as the storm picks up, could you go ahead and click on that audio file? Future me edit this in.

[01:21:30] Guys, y'all want to listen to this. Sunny day is moving all the clouds away. On my way to the place of the glare is free. Can you tell me to get on Sesame Street?

[01:22:01] Okay. I don't know which of your kids you got to do that, but full marks on creepy. Damn. I've heard this before. I don't need goosebumps again. That was, so when I originally. I just had to check my nails to see if I actually got chills. This was recorded by my oldest. So, but that would have been two or at least two or maybe three years ago. It was after we came back from COVID.

[01:22:30] And I used to work Friday night school, which was like detention. And for, they would make extra money just by sitting there with kids. And I had enough time to prep for this Operation Fulminate game then. Or when I went home, I begged my child and bribed them. And they sat down and I got them to do the Sesame Street thing. And I went and downloaded sound files and edited it all up. But sorry to shoehorn you into that, but I was really proud of that. That was really cool.

[01:23:00] Wasn't creepy at all. Not at all. That was exceptionally creepy. Full marks. Oh, thank you. Also, damn. So, guys, that seems like a good place to stop. Questions, comments, suggestions? Incredibly creepy. Especially whenever the kids started singing at me when they were 16 years old. Came walking out of the woods, scared the shit out of me. And I feel like that's a really good spot.

[01:23:27] And it will be definitely really fun next time whenever we get on it and I stop having chills. It's creepy the way that singing carries even into the camper. So, I have to ask the question if I'm hearing right. Mine is 6. Jeremy's is 16? Or also 6? I think Jeremy's got it. They're identical age. They're 6. Okay.

[01:23:56] I thought you said 16. No. My apologies, sir. It's the same boy. He just popped up again. I was going to say it was going to be even creepier if he was like 16. Yeah. It definitely would be. One Brandon per year. Yeah. Well, guys, I look, I thank you all so much. And I appreciate y'all bearing with me. And for those of you listening home, I'm trying to learn this new program here.

[01:24:24] So, hopefully, future Adam will go ahead and edit out some of these little things. But if you catch anything, my apologies. But so far, I'm really enjoying Foundry. It's just learning. The Foundry is glorious. I do love it. It's a very nice virtual tabletop. The sheets are great. The handouts are amazing. And I do like the virtual dice. I'm using the Dice So Nice module, which is free. A lot of these things, like the content I'm using.

[01:24:53] I bought this particular set of the module for Operation Fulminate from DriveThruRPG. They've got it on there, folks, for five bucks. You can get it. But you can get Reverb. God, what was the other one? Convergence. They have several of them. And I think Art Dream is intended on putting more. So, I like these types of things.

[01:25:18] So, if we can encourage them to, you know, through sales that they see something like this happening, then I think it would be great. And maybe they'll keep doing more of them. But anyway, thank you all so much. And until next time, I'll see you guys in Yosemite. Bye-bye. Good night, internet. Bye, everybody.