Operation MORPHEUS for Delta Green (And Sunsetter Play Report for Session 10)

11 Oct, 2025

Today I ran my players through this operation. They didn't manage to get very far and were stumped on how to get from one area to the next one as they didn't think of touching the letter (and I failed to introduce that element properly), but overall I think it was a success. The players called it Operation MANHATTAN but I had on my notes Operation MORPHEUS.

These are my notes and not really meant to be read by others, so forgive any unclear wording or strangeness. The situation itself is a dream dungeon in the mind of William Nakamura, an old man of immigrant background who got experimented with during MK Ultra and found himself in possession of Substance K, a vial which can turn one into a conduit for the Unnatural (call it Carcosa, if you must).

The other agents were Cowboys (something from DG lore) who were following the trail they had acquired from MK Ultra docs and intended on investigating William just to check if he actually had the substance, they didn't expect to be drawn into the dream.

As to the resolution, my agents got stuck in the Vietnam memory, Hughes ended up almost being shanked in the moist ground while Biancardi dragged Welling away and found a way to die. When they came back to themselves, they burned the house down and drove away. There was no coverup as there was no actual evidence of either Delta Green or the Unnatural.

• Content Warning: Discussion of concentration camps, suicide, the 80's AIDS Crisis, implied racial violence, losing a baby.

Preamble

Around 22:00 they're contacted directly by an agent who identifies herself as Agent Roma, from a different team, calling from a payphone. She sounds extremely agitated but barely keeping it together, requests immediate backup, says something has gone wrong and that she needs help. One man is down and she worries the other is compromised, mutters "guns will do no good, we need to make it right", and repeats the exact address twice. After that she says "did you get it?" and, on a yes with no follow up question, she says she's going back in and hangs up.

The cabin is around Lake Wallenpaupack, in Pennsylvania. They NEED to get there before 6 AM. It is about 3 hours out from New York City and it looks really nice.

There's a vague "neighbourhood" around the lake.

In the bedroom, the old Asian man is laying on his bed, a little syringe in his arm with a label saying "Substance K". His wife isn't here (she's in NYC, visiting her parents).

Three older people, all in dark clothes, are sleeping on the ground around him. Approaching him sucks you into the dream dungeon, starting in the Parent's House.

• Note: I also ruled that people could call others who weren't in the immediate area by their unconscious reaching out in case they were in contact, as the players left people outside and just sent two of them inside the house.

The Dream Dungeon

The Life and Times of William Nakamura

• Note: This is a vague outline of William's - the host - life that I used to make the rooms of the dungeon. Not all of the info here is relevant, for instance I had intended him to be a gay man who had been affected by the AIDS Pandemic, but I ended up deciding against it.

Born on 1935. Dad was 23, mom was 22 (born 1912 and 1913 respectively). Grandparents got to America in 1907, both parents were born in California.

1. 7 to 11 by the time of the concentration camp in 1942 to 1946

2. 15 in 1950, went to high school

3. 16 in 1951

4. 18 in 1953, prom! bittersweet memory, dancing with high school sweetheart - she's faceless, he doesn't remember her face. Jimmy is dead in the background.

5. 19 in 1954, attended Columbia in NYC, moved out in terrible terms with his parents

6. 20 in 1955, met wife in a class

7. 23 in 1958, around this time should have been MKULTRA'd, maybe during Operation Midnight Climax

8. Got married in 1959, 24

9. Wife had a miscarriage in 1961, when he was 26

10. Landed a great promotion in 1966 at 31 at an ad agency

11. Wife finally had a son in 1967, when he was 32. They had a terrible relationship.

12. In his mid 40's during the 80's Aids pandemic

13. Dad died in 1986, when he was 51

14. Son killed himself in 1987, because he had AIDS and didn't want to go slow, when he was 52 and the son 20.

15. Took his mom to Japan in 1990, at 55, finally mended relations, she stayed there with relatives

16. Managed to buy a cabin next to a lake in upstate NY in 1993, at 58, looking towards his and his wife's retirement

17. Retired at 65 in 2000

18. Mom died in 2001, when he was 66

19. Happy memory in 2007, at 72, finally at peace with son's death

20. Dream of travelling to Japan as a young guy

21. An imagined conversation between him and his dad, reflecting on how he was also a bad parent

• Note: This one didn't make it into the adventure as I didn't know how to make it without turning it into a DM monologue.

The Mechanics

Getting in: William draws people in, he's become a conduit for dreams.

Getting out: You need to either fall from a high distance inside the dream, or be killed by something in the dream, but not by another psychonaut. Them and their guns are still real.

• Doing this inflicts equal damage as you'd normally take from the event but it is dealt to Willpower instead.

People inside the dungeon: Aren't actual peoples. They don't have memories, they're basically different facets of how William perceived them in that moment, and they're either static or operate in a loop. Touching them allows them to interact with you for a brief moment.

• Killing someone in there means erasing them from that moment. William's mind will try to reinterpret the scene and make sense of it. Thus a "background character" can be killed with relative impunity, as William simply forgets the person was ever there, but if the person is the lynchpin of the memory, the memory itself is deleted and the people inside it are ejected to the outside.

• Either way, getting out through any means other than through restoring William's memory depletes one's Willpower the first time. The second time you have a 50% chance of dying, and the third time kills you. You also lose SAN equal to your Willpower from the Unnatural shock of dying without dying.

The Nightmare: A strange smoke inside the dream. Can absorb anyone and kill them. The real William can simply blink it out of existence, as he doesn't know that it exists, but if he does that he'll wake up and see the characters around.

• This was dreamed into existence by the 3 agents who got involved here (more on them at the bottom). It isn't actually real; it's a monster that they fought once but never knew how to defeat it, so it has no flaws. A character who deduces that it isn't real and is imagined by the agents would be able to banish it with the flick of a wrist. William understands this intuitively due to his conduit status.

The Actual Rooms

The Concentration Camp (1942 to 1946)

A series of scenes: Keiko (William's mother) looking for her child, yelling "Billy?" every so often in the middle of a sea of faceless people who keep coming and going, ignoring her.

• This should be notable as Billy is missing. My players clocked that immediately because they're smart as hell. He is inside a memory in a photo far away from here, in the Better NYC Apartment.

Inside a long collective house is a young boy of 9, Keiko is here again, as is Hideo. The two adults are discussing the war in hushed tones as the young boy pretends to sleep.

Behind the house is a long field, the sky is entirely white. 11 year old Billy, shirtless and tanned, works the ground with a hoe; a trail of blood drips from his hand and there are tears in his eyes. Up ahead, his father and mother till the ground as Hideo yells for him to go faster and that they'll be left behind.

• Going ahead, where the walls of the camp end, takes you to inside of the Parent's House.

The High School (1949 to 1953)

Billy hanging out with the white-ish kids in the hallway of a high school, another Asian kid observes from the crowd

Inside a classroom, Billy's conversation with his white friends is interrupted by the Asian kid, who's mid-introduction with an exaggerated bow, saying "I am Jimmy Wong, pleasure to meet you!"

In an empty bathroom, Billy corners Jimmy menacingly and tells him he's too fresh off the boat, and that they can't hang out in school... but that he can come home.

Outside of the school, Billy and Jimmy walk in the same direction together, as Jimmy talks in broken English and Billy mostly stares straight ahead.

• Following them in the direction the sun is setting takes you to Parent's house.

• The other direction, where it's already night, takes you to the Prom.

Parent's House (1949 to 1953)

• Note: This is where I started my plpayers off, as it has the most connections.

Home scene. A cramped house in San Francisco, many doors lead to many scenes just like these. The first one is a silent, tense dinner scene. Billy stares right past his dad, at the crucifix on the wall behind him.

• Touching the crucifix takes one to Billy's dream of Japan. A beautiful, shimmering land with a deep blue sky, golden fountains, cherry blossoms full of cherries, a beautiful castle towering over it all, and pretty people dressed in good clothing praising and feeding a young Billy, who is dressed in a pinstripe suit like the president of the USA.

In the bathroom is another dinner scene, Jimmy is here and Dad is talking to him; the two of them are bonding over how life is in Asia and figuring out their differences. Billy sits there, staring at them in envy.

Outside, a quiet, late afternoon scene of Jimmy and Billy playing baseball in the street. Jimmy is saying "don't worry about it, just tell them I did it! It's fine!"

Inside Billy's room: he looks older, perhaps 19, and is preparing a backpack while his dad thumps on the door relentlessly, alternating between sternly saying "you're not going anywhere!" and pleading "Billy, come on, think about this!" A letter of acceptance from Columbia University sits open on his desk next to a Greyhound ticket to New York.

• Touching the letter takes one to College Dorm.

• In the parent's bedroom, one goes back to the internment camp.

Prom (1953)

In the school gym. The main floor is a spiral of students in suits and elegant dresses dancing in a circle. At the very centre, with a spotlight shining on them, is Billy with a faceless girl - she has dirty blonde hair however. Some black people here and there, the school was recently desegregated.

A featureless corridor at the back takes one to a scene with an ambulance stopped by Jimmy, who looks like he was severely beat up and is bleeding profusely. Billy cradles his head in his arms, hiding his own face, his chest moving in heaving sobs. A small faceless crowd of onlookers gathers around. Someone says something to the effect of "Were you friends?"

College Dorm (1954 to 1957)

A college dorm room facing a park. Really small and cramped: a desk on one corner, a pile of drawers to one side, a reclining chair, a sink, and a single person bed. It is night, Billy is hunched over his desk with the lamp on, reading something for university. The words are all unintelligible.

• His acceptance letter is still on his desk, touching it brings one back to the Parent's house.

Leaving through the door: The dorm room is very messy now, there's books all over the place, university pennants, an open newspaper gives the date as after finals in 1956. Billy putting on a coat and leaving through the door, his friends await in the hallway, saying it's "the best spot in NYC" and asking if they think they'll have any Russian gals there.

• The dorm goes to a stairway and the boys are going down, but you can go up too. It gets increasingly darker here until it reaches a single door, which looks like a brothel's (has posters and such). Opening it leads you to a dark bedroom with something writhing underneath a bedsheet. Taking it off reveals a single mass of hands and legs mixed in together, as if two people have been mixed together. Billy is sweating here and stares at an empty syringe right next to the bed. An unseen hand with a white glove puts another syringe - exactly like the one right next to him - on his coat pocket.

Outside of the dorm, Billy has a determined face and is marching towards a lady on a bench, a drop of sweat runs down his face and his knuckles are white. His friends observe from nearby. The woman is a white brunette, currently reading a book on Chemistry.

• Approaching her takes you to Shitty NYC Apartment.

Shitty NYC Apartment (1959 to 1966)

(1959) Billy, still very youthful, arriving at a cramped downtown apartment with wife in arms. She clearly seems playfully upset that he swept her up from her feet. The apartment is lived-in, they seemingly have been living there for a while. A slightly old newspaper is talking about Hawai'i being admitted to the Union as a state.

(1961) In a separate bedroom, painted to look like a girl's, multiple scenes of pregnancy. Billy is finishing painting the wall while the wife is knitting socks, observing a cradle, counting the diapers inside the wardrobe, etc. It's multiples of the same person.

(1961) In their bedroom, the wife sits at the edge of the bed, covering her face with her hands, not pregnant anymore. Billy is sitting by her side, in silence, holding a doctor's note. All of the words have since faded from the paper, only "miscarriage" remains in a poor handwriting, written in blue ink.

(1966) Entering the bathroom leads to another, mirrored living room. Billy looks older and is wearing a suit and tie. He's arriving home with a big smile, hanging his hat next to the door and "hiding" behind his back a fat pay check. His wife sits at the couch, also older and thinner, a pile of student exams being graded in the coffee table in front of her.

• Leaving the apartment here leads you through the front door of the Better NYC apartment.

Better NYC Apartment (1967 to 1993)

Bigger, but the memories here are more compressed.

(1967) They're both in the living room. They're hugging each other with tears in their eyes. The wife holds a positive pregnancy test. There is a long corridor to the side of the expansive living room. A kitchenette is to the other side, a child's scribbled drawings cover the refrigerator. The hallway has one door to the left, two to the right, and one at the end.

• (1967) Door to the left, son's bedroom. A baby on the cradle with Billy and wife overlooking him. Right to the side, the wife incentivizes the son to crawl and then stand up and walk on his own. And at the end of the room, the son is now already a young child, with an older looking Billy crouching by his side and explaining school work to him.

• (1979) First door to the right leads into another corridor that ends in another living / dining room and kitchenette, Billy looks older with quite a few grey hairs and a moustache, inspecting a straight A's school report with an emotionless face. His son, now an adolescent (about 12), looks up at him with fear from under his eyebrows, sitting at the table. The wife is talking at the phone, saying "He's busy right now but he'll call you back. Is it serious? Oh, well, we'll visit him in the hospital then, oba-chan"

• (1984) Second door to the right, Billy is banging on the door himself, saying "you won't go to that party! Son of mine is not gonna walk around dressed like that!"

At the end of the hallway is another door which opens out into a mirrored corridor: two doors on the left and one on the right, ending in a living room.

• First door to the left is the son's bedroom. It's empty of people. There's a Madonna poster on the wall, and inside the wardrobe one finds - badly hidden - crop tops and short shorts, mesh tank tops, among other very clearly homosexual couture. On the desk is a zine mid production, the pages have words in them but they're all smudged (Billy never paid attention to it).

• (1986) Second door to the left is Billy, looking even older, perhaps in his 50's, sitting alone in his office, a cigarette in his hand with a great many of them on an ashtray in his desk. The walls are mostly a library with a loooot of art reference, particularly advertisements. There's a telephone to one side of his desk with the red voicemail light on. It's the fragile voice of an old woman who has been crying a lot saying "William... He is gone. Please call me." And when the message ends, it starts over again. The clock on the desk says it's 3 AM.

• (1987) Door to the right is the bathroom. The wife is on her knees on the floor next to the bathtub filled with blood. A single arm drips blood from beneath the curtain. Her wailing echoes and reverberates through one's own soul, and it's the only sound one hears. Billy himself is sitting with one hand on his forehead and the other holding a note. The note says, in so many words, "I have found out I am HIV positive. I'm going with grandpa. Sorry mom and dad, I don't want to become a picture. Please forgive me." If someone peeks behind the curtain, they see the son with slashed wrists.

• (2000) In the living room, it's a different living room. The living room of the cabin on the lake. The wife observes the beautiful cabin as Billy shakes the hand of the mover with a smile. They both look appreciably older. On the coffee table is a magazine talking about the dot-com bubble collapse, and right next to it a series of typed letters to lawyers, all about retirement.

(1990) Actual Japan. Billy smiles for a photograph while kissing his elderly mother on the forehead. Other people stand around them, and they vaguely resemble him and his mom. They're inside a very clearly Japanese apartment. His wife takes the photo with a little Kodak camera.

• Whimpering, hidden inside one of the cabinets is Billy, as a child.

Cabin on the lake (2000 on)

In the living room, the same as above.

(2001) A different corridor leads off to a different set of rooms, but they're all very prosaic and things the players have already seen. A train set, a regular bathroom, etc. In what should be the bedroom, however, Billy is standing by the window. He looks fragile and holds a photograph of himself with his mom in Japan, dated to 1990. His other hand is resting on the telephone, centimetres away from putting it back.

• Touching it takes you to Japan.

(2007) Going outside, Billy seems thinner but more vigorous, with a proud smile on his face. He's on his hands and knees, dressed in gardening clothes along with his wife, both are admiring a very tiny little flower which has blossomed. It is a bright and sunny day.

Vietnam

Not actually Billy's memories, but rather the memory of one of the agents who's here. It bridges the college dorm and the good NYC apartment (coming in through the window).

It is deadly silence until Marco shoots first - he'll aim to get +20% on his roll. After that, bombs fall, Napalm burns the trees, and the whole place turns into a raging inferno. Marco's subconscious controls this, so it will return to normal if the agents ever leave it and find their way back here.

The cell was 3 people. Agents , Clover, and Roma. Agent Roma has been killed by the Nightmare in this jungle, and Agent Marco has gone insane, believing that the only way to finish the Nightmare is by killing everyone off. These are the only people Roma has left so she's sticking with them to the end.

• Note: In my game, the Nightmare was in the Shitty NYC Apartment and moved towards the College Dorm just as they were leaving for the Jungle (more on that below). This forced a fight with Marco, who was hidden in the woods, but Roma killed him and then killed herself for what she had done.

• This bit should actually be more detailed, but I left it vague so I could wing it with pungee pits, burnt down villages, abandoned trenches, etc.

Random Encounters (Roll once per move, 1d6)

The random encounters were made similarly to Marmoris Carcerem, since I was only tracking the movements of the Nightmare, of Roma, and of any memory traps that might activate. This means I kept track of where the Nightmare was and where it moved, as well as Roma. If the Nightmare found Roma or went to Vietnam, the agents there would be killed. If it found the player agents... I'm not sure.

1 - The Nightmare moves

2 - Wife's wailing is heard coming from somewhere

3 - Agent Roma moves.

4 - Memory trap. Don't use the same one twice. For this, I used a traumatic memory of an agent such as this one: The location is John Royce's (father of one of the agents) ranch in Arizona, except he himself is there. He has a benign smile and says "You finally visited. Who's your dashing friend?" And tries to converse with Johanna. And then, mid-sentence, he's just not there anymore. Gone. 0/1d6 Helplessness for Johanna.

5 - Billy's mom's voice calling for him comes from somewhere

6 - A strange man in a dark suit will be present in this location, but only once. (I know who this man is in my game, it's up to you to decide who he is in your game. If you already got this encounter, treat it as the wailing of the wife.)

Where is the nightmare going? (1d6)

1 / 2 - Party location

3 / 4 - Older memory

5 / 6 - Newer memory

Where is Agent Roma going? (1d6)

1 / 3 - Away from the nightmare (all things equal, move towards the past)

4 - Back to the Jungle

5 - Newer memory

6 - Older memory

Other Agents

Agent Roma - Special Agent Deborah Wu

• Asian woman, mid 50's
• DEA - Special Operations Division (Intelligence Analyst)
• Knows the mechanics of the dreams, how to get in or out, and about the Nightmare, but extremely reluctant to divulge any details of the operation that led them here unless they already know one another.
• If she makes it out of the dream, there's a 50% chance of her not surviving the process. If she survives, she is extremely fragile and is in no position of making any decisions, or driving.

Agent Marco - Major Harry Black

• White man, Early 60's
• Vietnam vet
• U.S. Army - 10th Mountain Division
• Shooting 80%
• Deranged, will try to kill everyone
• If he is somehow forced out of the dream, he is still paranoid and says they ought to kill William and burn the house down.

Agent Clover (Dead) - Special Agent Larry Sharp

• White man, late 50's
• DEA - Operations Division (Police Officer)

They're cowboys, and they've been with Delta Green since the 70's and 80's. They've been through the restructuring and they don't trust the Program, which they know very little about but basically still believe to be MAJESTIC.

#delta green #play reports #the sunsetter campaign