Mayday Plays - How to run Meridian | The Dead Drop | September 2026

Episode Date: September 25, 2026

Two investigators drive into Joplin Missouri, on a case that looks like a waste of time and resources: to investigate the finances of a rural shelter for homeless youth. It looks like poison to careers that are already on life support. Unless there’s more to it. Unless the ghostly lights of tall tales really do rise over the black woods. Unless the leaves whisper with memories beyond life and death. In this episode, I'm joined by Maia from Looking For Mom. We go deep into the Ozarks and discuss the latest Delta Green scenario, Meridian by Shane Ivey. For the full version with over an hour of ad-free unedited discussion plus show notes (a detailed breakdown of the scenario) join our Patreon at any level: https://patreon.com/maydayrp You can view Maia's run of Meridian here: https://youtu.be/ZTBueqtywrI?si=XDODQKlbe-FHXSjk Meridian is part of the Black Sites collection and can be purchased here: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/335869/delta-green-black-sites Published by arrangement with the Delta Green Partnership. The intellectual property known as Delta Green is a trademark and copyright owned by the Delta Green Partnership, who has licensed its use here. The contents of this podcast are © Mayday Roleplay, excepting those elements that are components of the Delta Green intellectual property. -- 👕 MERCH: http://ko-fi.com/maydayrp & https://mayday-merch.printify.me/products 💵 Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/maydayrp 📰 Join our newsletter: eepurl.com/iIVUjo 🌟 Other Socials 🌟 🐦 Twitter: http://twitter.com/maydayroleplay 📸 Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/mdrp.gram/ 🔴 Website: http://maydayroleplay.com/ 🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@maydayroleplay 👾 Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/maydayroleplay Thanks for your support!

Hello and welcome to the Dead Drop, where I invite a different handler each month to discuss Delta Green's most quietly unsettling scenarios. And I ask the only question that matters, is there actually an agency in Washington scarier than the IRS? Well, in this episode, we are covering a scenario design to introduce brand new Delta Green agents to the program that is somehow both the most gentle and. and most horrifying thing, Shane Ivy has possibly ever written. Well, here's hoping the new agents survive long enough to get recruited because you have found the dead drop.

Maya, I have invited you to the dead drop, not just because you are an awesome game master, but because I think you hold the title of being one of the first actual play channels on YouTube to run today's scenario, which is called Meridian. I wanted to get your thoughts on this relatively new entry, to Delta Green, which is part of the Dead Drops collection, and learn how you ran it at your table. But first, let's get the plugs out of the way.

Where can people find your run of Meridian? Well, I ran Meridian on my actual play channel called Looking for Mom, so you can find it there. And I believe you can find a link to the playlist in the description below as well here. And then you can also find my work just in general at Maia's Game Room on Blue Sky. And that is the name of my podcast. So you can look that up on Spotify and everywhere. wherever you get your podcast. A quick note for our listeners.

This public episode has been edited down for time, but if you subscribe to our Patreon at any level, you can get access to the full, uncut version of this and every episode of the Dead Drop with over an hour of extra discussion and tips. As always, a heavy spoiler warning for Meridian ahead. Players, if you don't want the scenario spoiled, you should make like the kids of Joplin, Missouri, and get lost.

All right, Maia. Now that the coast is clear, please explain to us what is Meridian. Okay, okay. So basically, Meridian is a very short form investigation. It's made for two agents. I guess maybe you can have more, but it's specifically made for two. And it follows them. We follow a fairly mundane fraud case.

Then it starts to slowly but surely spiral into a psychological and cosmic horror in rule, Missouri. So you can expect different types of clue chains and bureaucracy and escalating. Something is very wrong here moments throughout the story. It's a kind of, it's, it's, it's more something is wrong here uncanny rather than your Monster of the Week type hunt here. Let's go to the beginning here. In the beginning of the scenario, we talk about kind of the fundamental elements of the scenario, including the Holy Light Church and Daniel Keeler, the man behind the wheel here at Holy Light. So we learned that Holy Light is his ministry, I guess.

That's what he's calling it. And so, like, in terms of like the IRS, and if anybody's tracking it, on the books, it is like a religious Christian, I believe it's Christian. a sect or a group that he has gotten started. And it's somewhere out in the woods. Like it's it's kind of hard to find too, which is like another thing of like what's going on here? This is weird.

Yeah, I would argue the main challenge is the players, the agents have to figure out how the heck to get to Holy Light and find out. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, there's like, I think there's a couple ways to get there. But the most easy is just following a, a group who already knows where they're going. And I think that's how we did it.

Because I was like, I don't know if I want us to run through, like, trying to find clues and stuff. Like, just follow those people. Right. And, you know, Daniel's whole secret is that he is, he goes and he visits someone called the preacher that is in the grove near Holy Light. What do we know about the preacher? Yes, he visits the preacher because he, She came to him, I believe in a moment when he was like, because he used to be like addicted to drugs, he used to be really bad. And she came to him during a time of need and then kind of changed his life around.

He got sober and then he started running this church. And then now he brings other people to meet this preacher. She's now basically like a fungal creature growing in the floor of the woods here in the in the ghostlike grove. Yeah. She's in the ground and like giving people these very like psychedelic, like visions. I think the point of this scenario is to make it clear to the agents that they aren't always going to be able to solve things or make sense of everything. This is a very convoluted strange background that ultimately doesn't mean anything in the grand scheme of things. And it's on purpose.

It's by design. Yeah. I would love to ask Shane about that. Like just to get the confirmation to be like, it's this because because it doesn't, we don't really need to know about her. I think it's just to service like,

hey, here's a new lighter case. And here are some common themes that you'll see in other cases. So maybe that's the reasoning where it's just like, we just want to show you like, there's some freaky stuff

in Delta Green scenario sometimes. And it's your job to cover it up. So once we understand the background, everything that's happening, we start getting into the actual stuff that involves the agent. and there is the section talking about the task force and how the agents are assigned to this federal task force

called the Religious Crimes Task Force. It's very real and it's a very boring job. It's kind of like a dead end job for a lot of folks. How did you approach bringing these agents that are not meant to be Delta Green agents? How did you brief them and how did you bring them into the start of the story? So we, there was one person who had never played Delta Green.

there's one person who runs Delta Green all the time. So those are my two agents. And we decided to just use the pregens that are included in Meridian, but like make tweaks and make it our own. And so we, you'll see that we followed along. We just like to make tweaks of some names and things like that. But whatever the background said,

we still followed along with that very much. And then I just made sure that they internalized it. Like if it said you played basketball or like if you have a sister or if you're like a little bit bitter. or if it is if it doesn't tell you that way we kind of made assertations that like oh you did this in the past and now you're going to um kind of like a career killing task force that everybody knows this is what they're sending you to missouri and that's how i kind of played it where it's like the NPCs were like where are you even going what what is in what's in joplin missouri you know that kind of thing of like you're just going into literally the middle of nowhere uh your career is obviously they're obviously like tanking your career and so just kind of getting that in there, that little, you know, why are they a little bit bitter? Because they did awesome stuff before. Now they're here, you know, into kind of getting that backstory and all that. When the agents are briefed or if they're briefed, they're told basically

there's a couple of red flags regarding this investigation they're going on. There is a church that is inviting or sheltering youth on property, but there are no tax records. They're not getting income, it's all anonymous donations, and the task force basically wants you to investigate. Yes, yes. I brief them at

the airport, because there's a whole bunch of stuff that the scenario doesn't say, like, that I did specifically. Like, it doesn't say, like, have a vignette before. It's just like an actual play thing where I was like, let's do this. It's more, like, this is interesting to, so we know who these people are. So I, they

met up at an airport, and then I think they were briefed over the phone. The scenario might brief them in person. Actually, what I was going to say is that the scenario, like you're saying, doesn't really give any clear scene. Usually, they don't do any scenarios say like, hey, you meet at an airport or you meet it in an office and your handler talks about things. This does not. So it makes sense to me that you had to create a scene. Yeah, yeah. And I would say I GM a lot, so it wasn't hard to be like, Yeah, we'll just have it here. But if you're a new GM and not sure where, because it's a little bit vague, like,

asking the Discord. The Delta Green Discord is super, super helpful. Like everybody, or even the Reddit. So I would say ask there. But I just had it over the phone. And then once again, once they landed, they have a contact who is a social worker. And then she once again goes over everything, a little bit more personally. Right.

and their instructions are basically find and meet Daniel Keeler try to review Holy Light's activities and figure out if there's anything weird going on locate the Ghostlight Bridge and investigate what Holy Light members are doing there determine whether any criminal prosecution or civil action is warranted

and then you know kind of send daily updates to your IRS analyst Rick Corcoran or Corcoran Yeah I said Corcoran Corkrin makes sense I think that's the proper pronunciation I've heard a couple people. I've heard a couple of people mess it up.

I've also changed a couple names. There's like there, there's one 16 year old girl who is, I believe is a drug addict, like down on her luck. And her name was gay Gottlieb. And I was like, I'm going to change it.

I don't like, I didn't like her name. So I changed it to Miranda Green. So if you see Miranda Green in our actual play, it's gay Gottlieb in that. That's gay Gottlieb, yeah. And the kind of the secret is that Rick Corcoran is part of Delta Green. And this whole operation is a little bit of a setup to see how the agents

handle this. Oh yeah. It's a little bit of a test. Yeah. And that's the way I played it in the end. And I was hoping that they passed because the player who had never played before, she was about to say, she was about to tell it all. And I was like, oh, no, you're going to fail. I knew in my head, like, Rick's not going to like this. And you're just going to go back to your desk job and hated it. But yeah, it's a little bit of a test. That's why I like this scenario too, because it's like it's an intro scenario to see if they'll tattle, you know, they'll say anything. Right. So once they've been briefed, they are sent to Joplin, Missouri.

The scenario goes into detail about the time frame, how long it takes to get there from D.C. And the roads they take, they talk about Joplin in terms of its population and all the things you can see in it. So the agents get eventually to the local FBI office there, talks about what time they arrive and whatnot, and there they meet Jennifer Johnson, who works for the Department of Social Services. How did you handle Jennifer? I handle Jennifer as someone who is very caring because I've had a friend who was a social services worker, and they have such a heavy workload, and they really do, I mean, at least the good ones really do care about. their case, like all the kids in their caseload. So I just tried to play her as someone who was deeply caring of like every, every person who was in their case.

And so I knew that going in. And I wanted her to play that way because the next day they go to like a McDonald's to talk to gay Gottlieb in the module. And I wanted her to be very caring and sympathetic. And so that's how I approach it. someone who's like worried and wants help, but also kind of, um,

uh, pragmatic is the word as well. She's like, yeah, but this is like, the kids are like this. This town is like this. I care about these kids,

but also I'm going to be real with you. Like that kind of personality. Yeah. And she also has a couple of clues, uh, at least to, to start the agents off because you know they're going to ask, uh,

about holy light and what she knows, etc. And she doesn't really know much. It's, it's kind of just the start. It seems like the main thing is she has the contact of Gay Gottlieb. Yeah, that's, yeah, that's her big thing is, that's her big hook in is that she has the info on Gay Gottlieb. And then there's a moment where she's like, the module's like, yeah, have a little fun tonight, get to know, joppling a little bit.

She'll take you out to eat. And it's her way of like trying to test you. You know, see how the agents are. Are they cool people? Do they actually care? So actually I really like that Where I was like have a little test With this MPC

And I think between her and the officer Potts that she introduces you to You really need to hammer home Check out Ghostlight Bridge And you know This whole idea of holy light Whether it's Whether it's an official religious organization

On the books or not You're going to have a hard time prosecuting it I think it's important That the players understand that they're in a place where religion matters and you going around pushing religious people is not going to come off well to the locals. So they have to be delicate. Yeah, yeah. It's because like the community wants to like vet them in a sense.

And they and it's just also like highly religious. Even when they go talk to Daniel's mother who's also religious still. And she's like, no, he's fine. The Lord has saved him. Like like why would you want to, why would you want to like remove him? he's been called by God. Like that's a, and so they'll start to get defensive if you,

you're like trying to take a man of God out of his position after he's been through so much. So, yeah, they're not, the whole town is like, if we're worried about him, we'll say something. If you're trying to go against our own, we're not going to help you. The next day, like you mentioned,

they go and talk to the witness, this girl named Gay Gottlieb and her caseworker. and they're at a McDonald's, and she basically explains that she did have an interaction at Holy Light. Yes, she did have an interaction, and it's important to

play her very respectfully too, and I wanted to, like one of the lines, because we go over like lines and veils and things like that, one of them was like harmed to children or something. They're like, it's a line or veil,

something like that where it's like, yeah, I'm like, it's there, but I'm not. not going to be super graphic about it. And we're going to be careful about it. And so when I was, because I have to embody this character too,

who is like a young girl who is, you know, possibly like selling her body to get things that she needs and drug addicted to substances. Yeah. Yeah. So you have to be very kind of sensitive there. So you could play it.

I want to, don't play it for jokes or anything like that. I think it's very serious whether this is just a home game or actual play. Like that should be respected. And so that's the first. thing going in when you're playing her. And then it says, like, she'll answer more if you give her money.

So, like, yeah, play that too. Like, that's just her personality. And it's true for a lot of people who are addicted to substances. Like, yeah, if you give them more money, they, their lips are more, they're moving, their lips a little bit more and giving you more information. So she opens up, whether it be being paid or persuaded, but it's kind of a mixed message because she explains that, you know, she met with the Holy Light folks kind of looking for drugs, but didn't really find drugs. She found people who were in kind of euphoric states and enjoying themselves.

And it was a very unusual kind of situation. No obvious signs of abuse or mistreatment. Yeah, yeah. So whenever we, whenever they asked her, she was like, no, I didn't see them do. Like she didn't physically or visually see them do anything. But there was a moment where she was like, this is like. like the purest high I've ever had. And then after that, I believe she said she felt very sad.

There was something where it was like once the, when she came down, it was a very sad feeling or bad. But it was nothing that she, she didn't take, she didn't take anything. But as we learn later, it's like it's, it's in the ground coming from, from Katie. Yeah, that's where there's kind of the, the, maybe one of the most important clues, which is, uh, the scenario suggests that you have Gottlieb mentioned. that she no longer needs as much meth

or that a smaller amount has kind of the same effect as like a normal amount, which is kind of the first clue. Yes, yes. And so, I mean, just like any Delta Greener call of a call of Cthulu scenario, you got to pay attention. Mm-hmm. Every little thing is a clue.

Pay attention to what people say. So that's a good one where she's like, I don't feel like I need as much. Once you speak to Gottlieb, another person you can speak to is Daniel Keeler's mother, Caroline. The scenario explains where you can find her in Joplin and she has probably the first kind of creepy moment for the agents when they're speaking to her. Yeah. I wanted to keep her creepy and I like leaning into stuff personally. I like to lean into the uncanny a little bit more.

But the module does give you good things that she can do that's just a little bit off. You know, So I kept that in and then maybe even like drove home a little bit more. But she, she will say things like, it's like she says like, say thanks, Katie, you know, went into the light where every light is wrong or strong or something like that. And you're like, you can't die, Caddy, that kind of stuff. Yeah. Yeah. And you're like, what does Caroline Keeler have to do with the lady in the ground?

I was like, so much. So I'm guessing the mother went out to the forest at one point and was. Yeah, I think the scenario suggests also that the people of the. area, pretty much all of them are affected now by her spores. And so everyone is experiencing some level of like psychic connection to Katie. To Katie at some point. At least that's my interpretation of it. Yeah, yeah, exactly. They're eating or drinking the water, that kind of stuff. Or I mean, it is his mother. So maybe he brought something back from the area, you know? Or maybe it's just like it's on his clothes and they hug or something and she inhales it. So they're

connected in some way. And then you find some clues at her house too. Like some regarding like the IRS and his mail gets, his mail still goes to his mother's house. So yeah. I think there is mentioned as well that you can find an invitation from the

Seneca Gospel Church in Seneca, Missouri that that is a possible lead to find out where Holy Light is. But you know, the problem is that she suffers from dementia. So anything she's mumbling and saying could be easily dismissed, but it should feel creepy when she's doing it. Yeah, yeah. There's also that thing or it's like, oh, but then it's dementia, but she's saying specific

names that like, we as the GM know it's connected to the lady in the ground. But to them it could be like, oh, maybe she knew a Katie in her past. That could be a thing. But we know what the truth is. And when the agents ask, who's Katie? She's like, I don't know what you're talking about. Yeah. She's like, huh?

My name is Caroline. You're like, oh, no, this isn't good. So another person that you can talk to besides the mother is Deputy Potts, the local law enforcement. He's a Jasper County Sheriff named Horace Potts. Jennifer Johnson can introduce you if you decide to do that. And he gives you a couple of clues, including the fact that Keeler was once a troublemaker. He was a drug addict, a seller of drugs. always in and out of jail.

They called him Devil Dan because of his bad temper. And so the kind of the big clue there is that he's changed his ways because even his parole officer is saying that he's no longer as much of a problem. He's completely flipped. Yeah, yeah. But then ultimately, I think even the sheriff will kind of has his back too. Like everybody in the town is a little bit like on his side ever since he got better because they knew him as devil Dan.

Right. Yeah, so I think a big challenge of the scenario, continuing challenge that handlers should think about is you need to convince people to talk to you, whether it be nice to them, do them a favor, give them some money, whatever, you know, whatever's appropriate for the NPC, they're not going to open up immediately to you. Yeah, or they'll get very closed off and defensive if you're obviously like trying to take him down or get him thrown in prison or something like that. or if I was a player I would be like get a little religious with them just be like you know I don't know starts doing some Bible talk Jesus speak I'll get them to open up

I think that's a great tactic that I think even the scenario suggests another clue that Potts kind of explains in his own way is that there is a little bit of a noticeable decline in drug use crystal meth and prescription opiates are very common but there is about a 10% drop in the last five years of overall drug use,

which is worth noting, especially in that area where these kinds of drugs are so prevalent. Yeah, to the average eye, it's like just 10%. But then I guess we learn why after a while. But then people are also like, people are running away from home too. There are kids who have like ran away who have gone missing. So I think there's like a girl from a town over who, who has gone missing that we see and she has gone to Holy Light

but had a troubled past, I believe. So a lot of troubled kids. And then we get to kind of the meat and potatoes of the scenario. They need to find this church. They need to find Daniel Keeler. And one of the first options is trying to find these girls, guys,

whoever they might be that hang around it goes like bridge. There's Jessica with a Y and Pachy Barrows and Julie Comsilk. Yeah, they're at the bridge. Well, I guess what's important to ask you is where did you go? From Jennifer, did you go straight to Ghostlight Bridge or what did the players do? Oh, we went straight to Ghostlight Bridge.

And I know that there's like a few, like you said, there's a lot of locations that you can go to. And then some of them need certain incentives first. So I mean, I'm always thinking about pacing. So I'm like, is this going to slow down the game? Like I'm always thinking about do we need to go to these places? Like, does the story not make sense if we don't go there? And a lot of them are no. Like, the story still makes sense.

Like, you could just go straight to Ghostlight Bridge. And that's fine. Or like you said, you can Google if you want to streamline some certain things. But yeah, we just went to, we went straight to Ghostlight with the help of, I think Jennifer guided them. So let's get to where your players ran to, which was the Ghostlight Bridge. It's about 40 minutes from Joplin. How did you kind of set the scene for Ghostlight? For Ghostlight, there was a girl on the outside who had like just got off of work, I think.

I think she had worked at a gas station. There's a lot of people there who's just chilling there. And the players were just really nice to her and courteous. She immediately clocked them as police, but they were nice. So she was open. And so they got a lot of information from her, actually. But as soon as they tried to get to like the kids who are like drinking beer, probably illegally, they're like, yeah, we're not talking to you. They're like, immediately they're like, hey, it's cops.

Like as soon as they started walking up, they knew immediately. So they tried to get information from the kids and like the teens there. But I played them as like super cautious. Like I think they're drinking to it. I don't think it's super legal. Sure, especially if they're underage. Yeah, I think there were, I think some of them are underage and some of them were acting a little strange and, yeah, just play in the NPCs. Like the module guides you really well in how to act as the NPCs here.

Yeah. Packy and Julie are two members of Holy Light that are meant to be here. Obviously, they're not going to talk to the agents, but they can be followed and there's a number of things you can do with them interacting with them here. But eventually the light appears of Ghost Light Bridge. Did you describe it in a certain way? Like, what did you reference as inspiration for what Ghost Light Bridge looks like? Or the lights themselves. Well, I just, I got in, well, I got, not inspiration, but the module explains it really well.

So I basically followed that. And then explain that, like, if you try to take a picture with your phone, you're not really going to catch anything. And I believe it explains like the. feeling that you get and then it's kind of this fleeting and then it passes and then uh you know explaining that people are going to this quick euphoric state and then they start to mutter and then they there's everybody's muttering this this weird phrase and then they're looking off and so just explaining that making it as creepy as possible um that is definitely the creepiest part is that they're all whispering again saying things maybe they even repeat some things that uh the

the woman with dementia, Daniel's father or mother said to kind of drive home that there's some kind of connection between all of this. That's a good idea. If you can remember to repeat what Caroline said, then they'll be like, what the hell? Caroline said that. That's a good idea. So going from Ghostlight Bridge, what happened next with your agents? They saw Paki and, is it Jessica?

Julie, I think. Julie, Julie. So because they're, the module like lets you know, they're like standing off and just staring and it's very weird. And I believe Gay Gottlieb lets them know like, hey, Packy look like this or something like that or something. So there's, so the agents know like, oh, those two kids are who we're looking for in terms of like, holy light. So I had them just stare at the agents and it looks really odd. and then they get in their car and they leave and it's like a little bit too fast.

And so I played it so that, okay, this is a little odd. Like, yeah, you should definitely go follow them. And so they're like immediately as soon as the kids got in the car, they followed them. They followed the Jeep too because you get clues about the Jeep and who owns it too. So, yeah, just had them follow. Makes sense. It makes sense that that's where it would go next. So, you know, eventually one way or another, the agents are going to get to the

abandoned Spring River Baptist Church, now the site of holy light where they're going to find Brother Dan and all of his flock. Yeah, it's a, it is an odd building as well. It's just like everything about this is strange. It's out in the middle of nowhere. It doesn't have any power. So you're wondering how they like eat and things like that, how he's taking care of people. So he lives there.

There's a basement with bunk beds and missing. like driver's license of missing kids and their cell phones. Yeah, that are just turned off. And then his, even his office is odd with like weird drawings. And I believe he has drawings of Katie or something. Like he has, he has odd,

there's odd stuff in his office. There's lots of clues to be had there as well. And he's very, he's very calm unless you like, talk about God and like, for sake, like, you know,

take the Lord's name in vain and stuff like that. He'll get, he'll start. fucking real, you know, tense and intense. But he's calm if you're calm with him. And like you said earlier, kind of playing up the religious angle will probably be the best way to confront him, you know, saying that you're interested in what he's selling. Absolutely.

And then if you're a GM and that's the NPC, like play up the religious angle there too. And I don't know, just like, I looked up like scripture and like end times phrases and stuff like that because I have like a religious background too and like can like pull on like oh yeah pastor would say this like a preacher who's like preaching the end times they they like to use a lot of like fear speak and try to scare you and so he to have like stuff ready for that because that's and I think the module has stuff that he he would say and feel yeah he says a couple important things basically revealing who Katie is talking about her her past as uh as the preacher, all of this, you know, layered in religious symbology and whatnot.

I think something very important that he mentions is that he tried to introduce a friend of his called Sadie to the preacher, and Sadie actually died running away from the site, and he never reported it. So that kind of law-wise, criminally wise, is a very important clue for the agents if they want to seek prosecution. Yeah, that's the biggest one right there. For sure. But yeah, he talks a lot about what his interpretation of all this is. And did you find that the agents were able to convince him to take them to the grove? Or was it something that they had to follow him secretly?

They were able to convince him. I need to watch it back. But I want to say that they were convincing enough. They weren't too intense about, and they weren't. hostile towards him. So, so he, uh, they followed him. And there was like another, there was a group that was going with him because it was like, it was time to go. So he, they just ended up following this group. Up until this point, like they're still freaked out, getting even more freaked out as because this is where it's starting to build. So you're like seeing the kids in the basement. You're seeing like the all

the painting or like the drawings in his room. And it's getting real bad. It's getting real bad. And so now we're following through, uh, the forest. And then. That's where Katie makes her introduction. That's right. Let's get right to it. The lights beyond the grove. There, the agents see what's happening. They finally start to understand who the preacher is.

There's a very interesting mechanic that happens regarding the sheltered, who are considered the people that are following Brother Dan, the young kids. And then there is the central mechanic regarding the blind and the scene. Was this easy for you to kind of figure out? Because I had kind of a hard time understanding at first how these mechanics work. I probably, I think I had to read it a couple times, but understood it. That was like one person's going to be like, if you are blind, you're not, you're seeing everybody normally. But if you're seeing, that means like you can see the truth or whatever.

You're like, it's the truth, man. And you could see like, you start to like, you're like, you're in a. psychosis now. You're like in some type of, but it's induced by and brought on by Katie in the ground. But there's an opportunity to to fight it and fight against it. But yeah, I understood it. I had to read it a couple times, though. It took me once or twice just because basically blind and seen are kind of have the opposite meaning. Like you just explained it, I mean, the scene are are seeing these people mad, crazy, trying to kill them, trying to bury them. It makes mention of there are graves at the site.

So lots of freaky stuff to see there. I forgot that they, yeah, yeah, I'm telling you the end is absolutely wild. Yes, there are mounds everywhere that are graves of the other people who have been there. That was traumatic. But yeah, if you're blind, it's like you're blind to their truth. And their truth is like, oh, this is all beautiful. This is great. So, yeah.

Yeah. And I think the scenario, what it wants to set up is a situation where if the agents fail their sanity roles, they have a kind of psychosis. And the scenario wants them to attack the members of the church because the more horrifying realization at the end is, oh, my God, I killed a bunch of innocent, basically, people in this moment. So I think that's what it's trying to do here. Oh, yeah.

And I love stories like that. Like Black Mirror has an episode that's like that where you're like, oh, you're killing monsters. And then once the blinders are off, you're like, and you're just surrounded by normal human bodies. And so it's that type of story. One of the players did fail. And then shot one of the, like a young girl in the shoulder.

He was able to snap out of it. And then when he did, he saw that she was like bleeding profusely. But she wasn't crying because she was still in like this euphoid. State. So, but she was just bleeding heavily. And they were, they were just freaking out. It was, it was a good ending. Where did you go from there?

What was kind of the denouement after the climax here? What did the agents do? Oh, they rushed to the hospital because, uh, the agent had shot a girl. And they were like, so they rushed back to their car. And, um, uh, yeah, rush to the hospital. And then they try to cover up one player. they decided that, like they did it to themselves. They said, oh, I'm going to, I'm going to take like a condition because I don't want to

admit to the fact that I just shot someone because of what I saw in the forest. So they took on this condition where they suppressed that memory and then blamed Keeler, Daniel Keeler, that he's the one that did it. So that's their story of like, so someone had like a mental breakdown. And it was like, no, it wasn't me. I didn't shoot her. It was Daniel who did it. And then the other agent's like, no, you did it.

He's like, no, I don't think so. And it's like, so that was that. It was like coming to terms with what they saw and what they did in the forest. And then having that conversation of, okay, so what do we tell our bosses now? What are we going to tell the community? Like, what are the newspapers going to say? Because we can't tell them whatever the hell we just went through in the forest. So that was kind of the down as they were coming back down.

And the scenario does help a little bit to describe some of the options that the agents might have because they might choose to deal with this unnatural incursion in some way, one of the options being burning the grove down, which could end up causing a lot of problems. They could try to poison the grove with chemicals, which would get them into huge amounts of trouble, or at least it could, or they leave it alone and maybe even study it. Oh, yes, yes. I believe they went, I don't, I can't remember, but I believe that they went back to like finish off Katie. That was one option or they just got out of there.

Like, you know what? I think they just got out of it because it's so freaky and they're just regular people in Delta Green. Like you're just part of this like religious task force. you did not sign up for this and so I think they just ran away but I had I had written myself I said if they

because there's like two options if you tell the truth I had my end my epilogue written for that or if they kept it hidden I had the epilogue written for that right if they tell the truth they're probably buried in an even worse job than this

if they hide it the Corcoran and the other agents say hey good job we want to bring you on to a special task force. Yes. So in some words, I kind of, I had the epilogue. So because they hid the truth. They met with Corcoran.

He gives them a little card with the green triangle on it. He says, we'll call you when we need you. Welcome to the program. In the aftermath, there is a bit of a sand reward for doing something to deal with Katie or or Daniel Keeler. Although I think killing Keeler probably ultimately will cost sanity. as opposed to give you anything back because he's rather innocent in the end. I mean, yeah, probably.

I think the biggest villain is whoever changed Katie. Like, that's where it all started, I think. So, yeah, I think even Katie's an issue. Possible avenue for, you know, future campaign is figuring out how Katie came to be. So that's a, yeah, exactly. I think even she's innocent. Like, her backstory is pretty, it's crazy, but. it's sad too. So yeah. And that ultimately brings me back to kind of the the challenge with

this scenario is that no matter what way you cut it, this is not a satisfactory. We got the bad guys kind of ending. There's Katie, there's Daniel, there's all the children involved. There's there's the fact that there really isn't anything legally strong to hang on to. So there's no real sense of justice. It really is a strong introduction to the nihilism of Delta Green that you're not going to walk away happy from this. Yeah. And some stories end that way. And I like that.

I like the endings where you know, you're not always the hero in the end. And that's, and that's Delta Green. You're for the most part, you guys are regular people who are specialized in certain areas. But it's not D&Ds and you're not like these very super heroic type people. So you're just trying to do your best and you make your sand rolls. And this is like it opens up to a wider world for sure. Maya, I really appreciate you sitting down and talking with me about this. It's been a wonderful insight.

I really enjoyed your playthrough of it. So folks at home, make sure to check out Maya's channel. And anything else to plug? I say just keep an eye out. If you are on Blue Sky or Instagram, give me a follow and I will update you. Or you can follow me on Kofi too. I post like blog posts and stuff like that. yeah, and then you can see what's coming up or what I have done in the past.

So, yeah. A lot of fun stuff from Aea. So I appreciate you showing up. And, gang, we will see you all next time.