[Agent’s Name Here]–Reanimator

This made picking the tags tricky

INVESTIGATING HERBERT WEST

A basic look into Dr. West uncovers the tale of a man obsessed with defeating death. Instead of any explanation of his research, Agents only find reports of strange deaths and crimes like arson and grave-robbing that seem to follow West like a cloud of flies. A successful Bureaucracy, Criminology, or INT test suggests that there have been repeated attempts throughout history to suppress knowledge of his work. Books that mention him are checked out and never returned. His papers are damaged by mold and humidity in poorly kept archives, rarely digitized, lost in mysterious fires, and locked behind defunct security clearances that have yet to be declassified.

Agents must use a Home scene to compile the scattered remnants of West’s notes. Fragments exist in Miskatonic University file storage, the US Naval Archives, former Soviet archives, and military libraries of Canada. Locating and correlating the disparate contents requires a suitable skill test depending on the Agent’s approach, likely Bureaucracy, History, Medicine, or Military Science. No matter the result, the Agent assembles West’s notes and can at least skim them during this Home scene. With a successful skill test, it counts as Stay on the Case, as the Agent completes their research without thinking too deeply about it. They reduce a non-Delta Green Bond by one point and gain/lose 1D6–3 SAN. If the skill test fails, the Agent’s initial search yields nothing and they obsessively dive even deeper into the records. The vignette counts as Study the Unnatural, reducing any Bond by 1D4.

The Notes of Dr. Herbert West

Language: English. Skills: Medicine +1%, Pharmacy +1%, Science (Biology and Chemistry) +2%, Unnatural +2%. Cost: 8 weeks, 1 SAN
“Yet it was not fresh enough. I am sure I have the biomass to brain ratio correct. Perhaps a more unstable chemical fuel is needed, so the body’s dying remnants can easily metabolize it.”
The notes contain instructions for synthesizing Dr. West’s infamous ‘reanimation formula,’ but also a remarkably effective embalming fluid derived from cell cultures from rare tropical species. The author clearly paid little heed to the latter discovery. If the reader succeeds on a Medicine or Science (Biology) test, the skill increases from study are doubled, but the SAN loss rises to 1D4 as it all makes too much sense.
Rituals: Preserve Corpse, Reanimation Formula

The Rituals

Each ritual takes 2 weeks to study and increases the operator’s Unnatural skill by +1% once learned. Preserve Corpse costs 1D4 SAN to learn; Reanimation Formula costs 1D10 SAN. If the Handler says the Home scene takes place over 8 weeks or more, Agents can read all of West’s notes. Otherwise, they’re just limited to skimming. Agents who only had time to skim Dr. West’s notes in their Home scene can try to fail a SAN test to learn one of the rituals. If they had the time and chose to study West’s ‘tome’ in full during their Home scene, they can automatically learn one, or both with a failed SAN test.

   

THE REANIMATION FORMULA

CREATING THE FORMULA

Creating the formula should feel suitably grandiose. Gaining access to the supplies and facilities needed could be the subject of a short scenario (possibly a solo scenario). Alternatively, the process could take place during a Home scene where all the time and effort is abstracted. With the latter option, Handlers need to make sure it still feels impactful. Play up any Bond loss that occurs and ask the player to narrate how they feel about the success of their experiment. Allowing for the creation of the formula mid-scenario may seem counterintuitive, but the inter-party tension (and drama of whatever is prompting the need for Dr. West's formula) should make the moment suitably interesting. In these circumstances, acquiring the components is an Unusual Expense unless the players simply steal the supplies or break into a lab.

Synthesizing a batch of the formula takes a day of work, though not all of it need be spent in the lab, as most of the process is purification. Agents can carefully follow Dr. West’s instructions without really understanding how they work, or they can embrace their inner mad scientist. Though ‘alchemist’ or ‘wizard’ might be a more appropriate moniker. The Agent must have learned the Reanimation Formula ritual before they can attempt the second method.

The first method requires a Pharmacy or Science (Chemistry) test. Outside of a laboratory setting, the roll is at a -20% penalty. If it succeeds, one dose is created, two doses with a critical success. If the roll fails, the formula just isn’t ready yet and the Agent can reattempt the skill test the next day. A fumble means the ingredients are wasted and the Agent has to start over. This requires procuring an additional Unusual Expense of supplies. Though this might be lowered to a Standard Expense if the Agent is operating in a well-stocked lab.

The second method is taxing but requires little to no technical knowledge. The Agent just has to make a Ritual Activation roll. The cost of 9 WP and 1D4 SAN may be shared with an assistant who knows the ritual. If the activation roll succeeds, the operator creates a single dose, or two with a critical success. A failure means the operator can try again the next day with a +10% bonus, while a fumble might incur additional WP loss or exhaustion. They can still force a failed activation roll to succeed (Handler’s Guide p. 166-7), just like any regular activation roll.

ADMINISTERING THE “TREATMENT”

To work, the formula must be injected after the patient is dead. And to work properly, it has to be injected shortly after death. Too late and they risk returning as a mindless shell or something worse. Conversely, a living human injected with the formula will simply die and never rise again. Timing is key. This isn’t clear from just skimming West’s notes for the reanimation formula, but it’s obvious to anyone who’s studied them or researched the man who wrote them.

The window for resuscitation after death by mundane means is a mere CON minutes. The West formula expands this timeframe to POWx5 minutes.

If the West formula is in play, an Agent’s HP should be hidden from the rest of the party, though not their player. Death occurs at 0 HP, so if injected into someone with 1 or more hit points, the formula acts as a Poison with 30% Lethality and a speed of 1D6 turns. If this kills the patient, they’re dead forever. No amount of the West formula or medical science can bring them back.

Surviving with 1 or 2 HP but failing the CONx5 roll might not incur a traditional permanent injury. Instead, the character might suffer from lifelong biochemical abnormalities that impose a -20% penalty to all First Aid and Medicine tests to restore their HP and treat them.

Agents with Medicine 50% can determine a patient’s HP after a short (less than a minute) examination. Less skilled Agents must commit to a detailed examination. They can roll First Aid, Medicine, or Science (Biology). On a critical success, it only takes 1D4 minutes, or 1D8 minutes for a regular success. Failure takes 2D10 minutes, or twice as long for a fumble.

The patient has a POWx5 percent chance of returning as their former self. For every minute since death (zero hit points), this chance is lowered by 1%. When an Agent has finished examining their patient, they can inject the formula. Then the patient rolls a ‘recovery test’ against their recovery score (POWx5 – minutes elapsed). If it succeeds, the patient rises from the dead with full HP. They can heal from any permanent injury short of dismemberment, but if the CONx5 roll fails, they suffer from the aforementioned biochemical abnormalities as the West formula compensates for their body’s inability to repair its own tissues.

The patient’s new POW is one fifth of their recovery score, rounded up. They lose 1D4 points of INT unless the recovery test critically succeeded. For every point of INT lost, each skill is lowered by 1D4 points to a minimum of the base rating. Returning from the dead costs 1/1D6 SAN from unnatural. Witnesses lose 0/1D4 or 0/1D6 SAN from unnatural depending on how dramatic the resurrection is.

COMING BACK WRONG

If the recovery test fails, the patient loses 1D6 INT (to a minimum of 1) and returns as a West zombie. They may initially mimic their former selves, but ultimately they are NPCs under the Handler’s control. Mechanically, they regain HP like normal humans, but do not have to rest in a safe place with proper food and water. If deprived of the West formula for long periods of time, they may be unable to heal, lose INT and skill points, or in severe cases, start to decay.

West zombies have the same DEX as in life but only 1 POW. All skills are reduced by 10% to a minimum of the base score but their STR and CON scores are raised by 50%. Above 18 STR, they deal 2D4 damage with unarmed attacks and add +1D6 to damage rolls with melee weapons.

If the recovery test fumbles, the patient loses 1D8 INT (to a minimum of 1) and rises as a regular zombie (Handler’s Guide p. 232). They have increased STR and CON scores as above, but half their living DEX score. Their Worry and Rip ability does the same damage as their unarmed attack. They slowly decay and fall apart over time. Recovery tests against a score of zero (eg: when the formula is injected POWx5 minutes after the patient’s death) automatically fumble.

RULES FOR THE REANIMATED

ALIEN MIND: Reanimated subjects who cross Breaking Points might gain Intermittent Explosive Disorder, Addiction (Reanimation Formula), or Obsession (Eating Raw Flesh). They’re also more likely to Struggle than Flee or Submit when suffering temporary insanity.

IMMORTAL: The metabolic processes of the Reanimated are super-efficient, thus, they will never die of old age (or rather the associated diseases that are the actual cause of death, like cancer). Violence is still perfectly capable of cutting their new lives short. At the Handler’s discretion, they can last longer than usual without food, air, water, or sleep.
DEPENDENT: The Reanimated require continual injections of Dr. West’s formula (one dose at the beginning of each Home scene), lest they devolve into mindless killers. The cravings cost 0/1D6 SAN from helplessness. If this SAN test fails, all future treatments require an additional dose. A fumble costs 1 INT, reducing all their skills by 1D4 to a minimum of the base rating. Every missed dose for the treatment costs 1 SAN from unnatural. If they don’t have access to any during their Home scene, they can make more for later, but the damage is already done. Taking an extra dose replaces the 0/1D6 helplessness SAN loss with 0/1 SAN from unnatural.
ROBUST: All HP damage is halved. Successful Lethality rolls still reduce them to 0 HP, but they can be revived. The ‘corpses’ of the Reanimated still remain somewhat active, and dismembered limbs may attempt to escape or kill any living thing nearby. It costs 0/1 SAN to see them twitch unnaturally after death or 0/1D4 SAN to see their body parts attack people.
SEAT OF REASON: Called shots to the head do regular damage. If such an attack kills a Reanimated, they can only be brought back as a mindless zombie. Players lose control of reanimated Agents whose INT scores are reduced below 3 by permanent injury or withdrawal.

For the most part, bodies reanimated with the West formula abide by the laws of biomechanics. But sometimes there are things that simply cannot be explained. Severed heads may whisper or shout without lungs, or crudely control their own decapitated bodies. Feral West zombies who managed to hang onto more of their intellect may wordlessly direct mindless ‘tomb legions.’ Severed limbs and hands may crawl across the floor, possessed by a mind of their own and exerting far more leverage than they should.

MASS-PRODUCING THE REANIMATION FORMULA

An Agent must use their Home scene to Study the Unnatural. The vignette’s Bond point cost represents the secrecy and alienation involved, but also the financial investment, so no acquisition rolls are needed for the ingredients. They can either roll Pharmacy or Science (Chemistry), or make a Ritual Activation roll. The number of doses created depends on the D4’s result for Bond point loss, what rating the Agent rolled against, and the result of that roll.

Successful Pharmacy or Science (Chemistry) tests create 3 doses for every Bond point lost. Critical successes create 3D4 doses and make the Home scene only cost 1 from a non-Delta Green Bond. Failure creates 2 doses for every Bond point lost, or only 1 dose per point for a fumble. If the Agent does not have extended access to a laboratory, the test is at a -20% penalty.

For every Bond point lost, Ritual Activation rolls create one dose for every point of SAN lost before projection. Successful activation rolls cost 1D6 SAN and only 1D4 SAN for a failed roll. Operators take a -40% penalty to the activation roll if they have 8 or less POW, but can spend 1 permanent point of POW to turn a failure into a success. A fumble means they start the next session exhausted and/or with 1D6 less WP than their max. Critical successes cost 6 SAN, but create 24 doses of the West formula no matter what the D4 rolled for Bond point loss.

Building your own lab is an Unusual Expense. However, in places where biotech research is common, Agents can rent one for a Standard Expense. Otherwise they’ll have to borrow one with Bureaucracy (for official requisition), Criminology (Breaking Bad-style), or CHAx5 (to ask a favor from a Bond). At the Handler’s discretion, Agents can use a Science skill instead.

WEST ZOMBIES AND THE ELDER SIGN

The West formula restarts the process of life by chemical means, but that’s not the whole story. Even accounting for increasingly efficient metabolisms, those reanimated by the West formula are too energetic. Between death and reanimation, something from Outside slips in and acts as a dynamo. In some cases, it behaves like an alien spirit that slowly assimilates its host until nothing remains. Other times, death awakens countless memories of past lives which fills the current incarnation with raging contempt. The longer they persist, the more of the unnatural truth of the universe is revealed to them.

The Elder Sign’s effect on a West zombie (or regular zombies still animated by the formula), is mostly psychological. It only affects them if they know it’s there and drains WP instead of POW. Physical contact (tracing the sign onto their flesh or hitting them with a sigil) drains HP in addition to WP. West zombies are instinctively aware of the most potent engraving of the Elder Sign, but can roll INT or POW to ignore it if it’s not visible. Rather than draining WP within 10 km, it just prevents them from regaining WP and HP.

Most West zombies only have 1 POW. However, the ones whose minds slowly decay after a successful reanimation can have more. Those with 3+ POW suffer from low WP just like Agents. Otherwise, they’re only affected at 0 WP, where they take a -20% penalty to all tests.

The Handler is also well within their rights to rule that corpses reanimated by the West formula are natural phenomena, albeit strange, and unaffected by the Elder Sign.

THE FORMULA AS A STIMULANT

The formula is a deadly poison, but it’s a life-giving elixir for reanimated Agents and West zombies. Injecting one dose cures exhaustion and costs 0/1 SAN from unnatural (taking three doses at once costs 0/3 SAN, etc). Each dose restores 1D10 WP with a cold euphoric rush. Any WP gained over max restores HP instead. If the West formula is taken again within 24 hours, the amount of WP it restores steps down one die size (D10→ D8 … D4 → 1). West zombies with zero SAN and Addiction (West Formula) will act self destructively to get more.

THE MINUTIAE OF DEATH

Calibrating the Formula

“The solution had to be differently compounded for different types—what would serve for guinea-pigs would not serve for human beings.”
If the formula for one species is injected into another while it’s still alive, the Lethality rating and HP damage are halved (15% Lethality, 2-10 damage on a failed roll). If it’s dead, the formula has no effect beyond making the corpse twitch unnervingly. If a West zombie takes the formula for the wrong species, it restores half as much WP and the SAN test is at a -20% penalty.

Cheating Death Twice (or Thrice, etc)

If a Reanimated character dies, they can still be revived with the West formula. But this time, it only costs 0/1D4 SAN from unnatural. If the SAN test fails and they’re not adapted to helplessness, all future treatments in their Home scenes require an additional dose to be effective.

Assisted Suicide

Some Agents may just want to skip straight to becoming West zombies, no near-death experience needed. Maybe they’re a megalomaniac, or maybe they’re slowly dying from an incurable disease. Like creating the formula, this could be the subject of a short (possibly solo) scenario or a Home scene. If the latter, it definitely counts as Study the Unnatural. It’s up to the Handler whether any other Agents who help them with the process also have to Study the Unnatural.

If the Agent is acting alone, they’ll need a suite of medical monitoring devices and an IV pump. Once the devices register the Agent’s death, they activate the pump, which administers the West formula. If the Agents don’t already have access to these and can’t steal them from a hospital, they count as a Standard Expense. If the Agent’s Craft (Electronics) and Medicine skills sum to 90%, the formula is infused via the IV right at the moment of death. Otherwise, they roll the higher skill to determine how many minutes have passed since death^↩. Agents can enlist someone else’s help, whether to set up the machines with Craft (Electronics) and Medicine or determine that the Agent is actually dead with First Aid or Science (Biology) and inject the formula.

Committing suicide via a lethal injection or just overdosing on pills requires Pharmacy 30% or a successful roll. Agents can also just shoot themselves in the heart or slice open an artery. This requires a successful test of Firearms or Melee Weapons. If the Agent fails one of these rolls, their death is slow and/or messy, costing 1/1D10 SAN from helplessness instead. If the Agent gets help, they can use someone else’s Pharmacy skill. The Agent counts as a helpless target, so no roll is needed to kill them cleanly, just a SAN test after they go through with it.

Agents with a morbid flair for the dramatic might opt for a noose. However, if the rope isn’t tied right, kicking the chair free won’t snap their neck and they’ll painfully suffocate to death instead. With special training, the Agent only loses 1/1D6 SAN from unnatural as they come back to life. Without it, they lose 1/1D10 SAN from helplessness. At the Handler’s discretion, Agents whose backgrounds have left them familiar with the art of tying knots could test DEX or INT at -40% or Survival at -20% to see if they can properly rig up an improvised gallows.

Killing a fellow Agent costs 1/1D8 SAN from violence and helplessness, or 1/1D10 SAN if they’re a Bond. If the killer is adapted to violence or helplessness, it only costs 0/1D6 or 1/1D8 SAN. Standing by while someone injects themselves with a lethal dose of a drug or hangs themselves costs 0/1D6 SAN from helplessness, 1/1D8 if they’re a Bond. Plus there’s the SAN loss from unnatural for when the Agent comes back from the dead: 0/1D4 for lethal injection or hanging, 0/1D6 if killed with a weapon.

THE ANTIDOTE

Agents working with the West formula might want a safety net in case of a needlestick. Maybe they’re up against an intelligent West zombie who uses the formula as a chemical weapon.

The West formula rips apart living cellular machinery in a manner reminiscent of a strong acid. What parts it doesn’t destroy, it inhibits, like how cyanide prevents cells from extracting oxygen from the blood and interferes with the proteins responsible for synthesizing ATP. Though West himself died a few decades before this mechanism of poisoning would be discovered.

Like cyanide and many other toxins, antidotes exist to smother the dangerous chemical components with antibodies, or draw the toxin itself out of cells where it harmlessly (relatively speaking) clumps together in the blood and interstitial spaces.

Antibody-based antidotes are expensive and time-consuming to make but can be safely used pre-exposure like a vaccine. In contrast, chemical antidotes are easy to manufacture, but pose more health risks to the patient by upsetting their metabolic homeostasis. If a dose of either type of antidote is active in the patient’s bloodstream, the Lethality rating and HP damage for West formula poisoning is halved. Then it’s used up, leaving their body defenseless. Multiple doses of an antidote can protect against multiple poisonings.

Creating doses of the antidote uses the same mechanics for producing the West formula, but Agents can only use their mundane skills and not their Ritual Activation rating.

Antibody-based Antidotes

This is a lengthy process that can only be attempted during a Home scene or a particularly long operation. It uses up one dose of the West formula. The Agent microdoses a large animal with the formula and extracts the antibodies it produces from its blood. This uses the Medicine skill instead of Pharmacy or Science (Chemistry), and the Agent gets a +10% bonus to the roll for every additional dose of the West formula they are willing to use up.

This version of the antidote must be refrigerated. Each additional dose protects the patient for the next 1D6 days and an additional poisoning. However, no matter how many doses taken, the patient cannot be protected for longer than the next 6 days.

Chemical Antidotes

This kind of antidote can be synthesized during a mission or mass-produced in a Home scene. However, it requires a Medicine or Pharmacy test to administer. If that fails, the dose is too high. The patient loses 1D4 WP and takes a -10% penalty to skill and stat tests for the next 20 – CON minutes. A fumble costs 1D6 WP. The antidote’s effective duration, 2D8 hours, is rolled for in secret unless the Agent critically succeeded on the Medicine or Pharmacy test. If the patient is injected with the chemical antidote while a dose is still active in their bloodstream, the skill test to administer it automatically fails. The antidote is active for another 1D8 hours after a second dose, an additional 1D4 hours for a third dose, and just +1 hour for a fourth dose.

Post-mortem or Post-toxicity Treatment

When administering the antidote after Lethality has been rolled, someone can roll First Aid, Medicine, or Pharmacy at +20%. Success restores 1D4 HP to the victim, doubled for a critical success. This can even revive patients reduced to 0 HP by a successful Lethality roll.

Weaponizing the Antidote

If injected into a West zombie, it acts as a 30% Lethality poison with a speed of 1D6 turns. It can also be aerosolized, but this can be defeated if the West zombie is smart enough to hold its breath or wear a respirator. In this dispersed form, its Lethality rating and HP damage are halved.

THE WEST PRESERVATIVE

In his quest for fresher corpses, Herbert West created an ‘embalming fluid’ to preserve them without damaging their tissues and organs. This discovery is poorly documented, as Dr. West was clearly more interested in the process of reanimating the dead, rather than preserving their bodies. However, Agents can still cultivate something similar enough to duplicate his results.

The primary ingredients come from embryonic tropical reptiles and various amphibians. The result is a vat of pulpy biomass. Corpses immersed in it don’t decay. Mechanically, it pauses the time limit of CON or POWx5 minutes for resuscitation via First Aid or the West formula. Agents can also just slather the body with the West preservative. This method is less effective, but can still buy enough time to get the body into a vat for proper storage. For every INTx5 minutes that pass, the body only experiences one minute. This uses the INT of the character applying the preservative, though a relevant skill rating like Medicine or can be used instead.

Culturing the preservative uses the same mechanics for creating the West formula, only with Science (Biology) instead of Pharmacy or Science (Chemistry). One ‘dose’ is enough to temporarily preserve a body. It takes ten doses to fill a vat capable of storing a human corpse.

The puffy herpetological tissues are mostly self-sustaining. They only require air and an infusion of sugars and trace nutrients every fortnight. That includes water if the atmosphere is too arid. They could easily last unattended for months with a drip-feed system in a Green Box so long as the temperature didn’t drop too far below freezing too many times.

Releasing the preservative on the open market would be extremely lucrative. Funeral homes, forensics labs, and scientists would kill to get their hands on it, maybe literally. Neither side of the Delta Green schism will approve of this. It would draw so much attention to an Agent so as to make their clandestine actions in service of Delta Green very hard to hide. Never mind the possibility that someone might discover something they shouldn’t by researching the stuff. The Program would love to have exclusive control over a piece of ‘superscience’ and give March Technologies a taste of their own medicine. The Outlaws fear someone might connect the dots and discover the side of West’s research that’s less safe for public consumption.

Alternatively, Agents could greatly profit by catering to the ‘occult underground.’ There are plenty of sorcerers and inhuman entities with a need for fresh bodies or undying tissues. They might not all be able to pay in cash, but they can at least do the Agents a favor. Though, the Agents should be careful their customers don’t try to cut out the middleman and take the product for themselves. Unlike disgruntled drug users, they can make a lot more of a mess.

THE KAROTECHIA ANGLE

Dr. Gunter Frank studied and innovated upon the works of Herbert West and Dr. Muñoz (from Cool Air) for half a century. Thus, the Sapphire Compound from the scenario Dead Letter in Countdown uses different mechanics. Unlike the West formula, the compound works equally on all species, reanimates those it kills, and can even take effect if aerosolized and inhaled. It’s also optimized for creating mindless undead soldiers: ‘reanimated casualties.’ The dead only have a POW% chance to retain any intelligence, and even then, their INT score is equal to the D100 roll if it’s lower. Otherwise, they’re just a zombie (HG p. 232) with twice their living STR and CON, half their DEX, and 1 INT. Human-level intelligence is only possible with 3+ INT, and ‘waking up’ as a Sapphire zombie costs 1D6/1D20 SAN from unnatural. They don’t suffer from cold, radiation, or suffocation, but those that failed the POW% roll slowly rot and fall apart. Sapphire zombies with 30+ STR deal 2D6 damage with their Bite or Unarmed Combat attacks and their Worry and Rip ability.

As far as Delta Green knows, no one in the Karotechia seriously experimented with Herbert West’s unnatural embalming fluid or made use of it.