Sag River Extreme Cold Research Facility, Alaska

General Conversion Notes: On a whole the adventure works as is for Liminal Horror. There should be a shift in framing (as addressed below) and a swapping out of Delta Green for The Bureau (see faction notes here).

Framing

The largest shift for this adventure is having a reason for the Investigators to go to the Sag River Extreme Cold Research Facility, Alaska. In the original adventure the Delta Green handler (Mr. Green) gives them a mission (“determine the nature of the facility and why they purchased this object. If there is anything anomalous, you are to capture or destroy it”) and that is enough framing. Since Liminal Horror differs from Delta Green in its context and framing, for the sake of this conversion I will be presenting some options. These are potential reasons you can use for getting the party together and sending them. Mix, match, and adjust as needed (it may be that you take bits from each framing to make your own). Some of these setups will require adjusting the initial message from Mr. Green to better align with the decided framing.

  • A Patron: Replace Mr. Green with a patron who hires the Investigators to track down Resonant Artifacts. This framing assumes that the Investigators have done at least one job prior and have met with the weird and dreadful things that happen in Liminal Horror. In terms of having a patron, figuring out the type of relationship they have to the Investigators (is it mutually beneficial, is it one sided, does it come with pay, reward, obligation, or an incurred debt)
  • Contract from a faction: Another possible (and related) framing is having the Investigators “hired” by a faction to see what is going on at the facility. This would either require the Investigators to be in some sort of employment that they take contracts out from these types of organizations, or they are a group of Investigators who are entangled in this world.
    • Does the person/organization contracting the work out own the facility, or is it a competitor that they are trying to figure out what is going on there? How forthcoming are they with this information to the Investigators.
    • Some organizations that may offer contracts (either to clean up the mess they are responsible for, or to look into their competitor while keeping their hands clean)
      • Panopticon - an evil mega-corp that easily would own something like this, or a competitor would, or its warring departments that don’t know specifics about each other.
      • The Bureau - the shadowy government agency that has their hands in all things weird and would either be wanting to stop/gather what is happening here without being involved or its a satellite office that has gone rogue, or they don’t have the capacity to look into it themselves.
    • Contract for the Bureau (most direct framing): The easiest framing would be that The Bureau “hires” the Investigators into going here and retrieving whatever is going on. Making Mr. Green a Bureau contact that has leverage over the Investigators. Establishing why they would be obligated to work with an agency like the Bureau is important. What does the agency have over them.
    • Relief research team: The Investigators are a research team that is the next shift at the facility. They are in the dark as to the true nature of what is going on there, they just know that they’ll be onboarded once they get there.
    • Investigation: The Investigators are looking into an organization (Panopticon as owners of the facility, looking into the cult The Barron’s and their shipping improprieties, looking into The Church of Celestial Science, or some other org) and it showcases the shipping improprieties. Maybe you are tracking down the Resonant Artifact and the obfuscation led you to this facility. Mr. Green is one of your contacts/researchers and has helped set you up to get to the facility so you can bust the story wide open.
    • Connected to a previous case: This stuff is connected to a previous session, either the Resonant Artifact (the “mellified man”), or perhaps your search for the Black Ocean (witnessed through the Voors Head Device at Haystack, OR) has lead to this facility. Mr. Green has come through with lining up information and transportation to the facility.
    • The Flesh Hive: Connect this adventure to The Parthenogenesis of Hungry Hollow. The insectoids who populate the Dream/Black Ocean/The Other Facility can be related to Trigona and the Flesh Hive. Having clues connect the rituals going on within this facility, the study, the Resonant Artifacts, to what occurred in Hungry Hollow will allow you to seed the connection. The Fragment in Hungry Hollow had to come from somewhere, and if it is being tracked back you can have it align to this adventure with minimal shifting. They don’t need to be the same beings, just related across space/time.

Extra Context: The isolated location and difficulty in communications means once you get the Investigators there they’re in a sense stuck. This constraint helps answer the question “why don’t they just leave” in addition to any other provided by the framing.

Mechanics

Checks

Any time the text calls for a check (Strength Check, etc) using the Liminal Horror Save mechanics. You can have it be a comprable Save to the Isle’s attributes (Strength = STR) or have it be whatever makes sense for the narrative and not dictated by the text.

Stress

Encountering otherworldly things for the first time, dangerous traps, and other gross things will result in Investigators taking Stress. While not indicated in the text, use the judgment as a Facilitator as to when to doll out that tension.

  • 1 Stress: Witnessing something horrid.
  • 1d4 Stress: Particularly horrific scenes or the abilities of minor horrors.
  • 1d6 Stress: Abilities of major horrors.
  • 1d8+ Stress: Abilities of particularly monstrous entities or witnessing events not meant for human eyes.

Fallout

Fallout is a pivotal addition to adventures using Liminal Horror. It shows how the Investigators become weird and changed. It also can be used to reinforce the themes of the adventure. You can use the many generic Fallouts already released from Liminal Horror on the website. You can also create Custom Fallout (there is advice on how to do so here). For this adventure, using the themes of inter-dimensional shifting, entropy and time warping. Look specifically at the different monster entries and the location of the Lake of Seasons to draw inspiration.

Reactions

Unless it’s otherwise obvious, roll to determine an enemy’s Reaction when they encounter the party for the first time.

2d6 Reaction
2-4. Violent
5-6. Hostile
7. Neutral
8-9. Friendly
10-12. Helpful

The Facility

Encounter Procedure (Encounter Die from Liminal Horror)

EXPLORATION TURN

Exploration Turn to aid in tracking time and maintaining tension, representing the amount of time it takes to complete a significant action. These include actions such as:

  • moving between spaces
  • searching or exploring a space (10 minutes in game time)
  • taking a break to regain HP in an unsecured location
  • when 20-30 minutes pass in real time when the Investigators are otherwise not engaged in a conflict.

ENCOUNTER DIE

Each time an Exploration Turn passes or the party does something that would attract the attention of the horrors, roll a d6.

  • 1-2: The Chimpanzees have found the group.
  • 3: There are signs of an encounter, or an omen or clue. These are not immediate encounters, but may become one depending on the actions of the Investigators.
  • 4-6: Nothing happens.

The Chimpanzees

“Haunting the building are six chimpanzees. Each was cryogenically frozen and now walks despite the delicate structures of their brains being near-entire destroyed by the freezing process. Physical trauma is minimally effective - they simply pick themselves back up. They hunt their erstwhile captors, but are unable to distinguish between humans. Those they kill they do not eat - instead, they are dragged towards the basement. They cannot be distracted, but they can be tricked.”

STR: 15 DEX: 10 CTRL: 8
HP: 3
Fists (1d6)

  • The Dead: Death does not come readily for the chimpanzees. When a Chimpanzee takes Critical Damage describe how their body is mutilated.
  • Ambush Tactics: Despite their degraded cognitive abilities, the chimpanzees will use cover and set up ambushes.
  • Harm: Every time a Chimpanzee takes Critical Damage, have them go down and roll 1d6 on the table. Each time you roll on this table add an additional 1d6 (e.g. Rolling on the table 3 times would be 3d6).
xd6 Result
1-17 The Chimpanzee rises once again.
18+ The Chimpanzee is destroyed beyond recognition.

Resonant Artifacts

Voor’s Head Device, a thick black hood word over the head that grants mystical insight and can potentially allow one to view the Black Ocean. There is one located in the Residential Room (13 Frang & Olga) as well as in the adventure Haystack, Oregon

The Other Facility

Resonant Artifacts

Crystal Knife: A part of the ritual that open the portal to the Lake of Seasons. The knife can be used to cut a hole in the water of The Lake of Season, opening back to the material plane (exterior of Sag River Extreme Cold Research Facility).

  • Opening a hole in time will attract 12 Black Hounds in 15 minutes. To seal the opening between dimensions requires the death of the Black Hounds or the death of their prey.Their destruction, or the death of their prey, seals the wound shut once more.
  • There are three crystal knives, one in the Ritual Space in the Facility, one in the possession of Gurat in the Other Facility, and one at the end of the Traveller’s spear in The Caves.

NPC Groups

Salvko Group

  • Frang and Olga Slavko (STR: 8 DEX: 8 CTRL: 12 HP: 3). Sisters. Former Voor’s Head Device devotees. Their Dreams have shifted to inter-dimensional insects that wish to be free like their sibling Trigona, God-Queen of the Flesh Hive (from The Parthenogenesis of Hungry Hollow).
  • Devon (STR: 11 DEX: 12 CTRL: 12 HP: 5 - pistol 1d6) - security, extremely observant, very curious.
  • Marcus (STR: 13 DEX: 13 CTRL: 9 HP: 4 - rifle 1d8) - security, loves guns, former biker
  • Karsyn (STR: 4 DEX: 4 CTRL: 3 HP: 1) - near catatonic.

Louvoun Group

  • Piers Louvoun (STR: 11 DEX: 8 CTRL: 14 HP: 4). ritual leader, thirst for knowledge and understanding, knows the knife Gurat has can escape this place.
  • Jerred (STR: 10 DEX: 10 CTRL: 10 HP: 2) - regular guy, taking this very well.
  • Cletus (STR: 13 DEX: 11 CTRL: 7 HP: 4 - .44 revolver 1d6) - former marine, fretful/forgetful, at his limit
  • Laird (STR: 11 DEX: 9 CTRL: 8 HP: 4) - will latch on to any plan to escape.
  • Shiv (STR: 9 DEX: 7 CTRL: 12 HP: 3) - head of cryonics research, made peace with death but a way out will re-engage him.

Gurat Group

  • Gurat (STR: 12 DEX: 10 CTRL: 12 HP: 5 - crystal knife from Ritual Space 1d6) - professional skeptic, part of him is happy to die here instead of ruin his life’s work (having an existential crisis).
  • Stafford (STR: 11 DEX: 10 CTRL: 11 HP: 4 - knife 1d6) - wants romance with Gurat.

The Lake of Seasons

Journey into the lake has a 1d20 chance of an encounter with 1d6-4 Entropy Survivors

The Black Worms, The Coils of Consumption, The Eels of Season.

  • If more than one appear, they fight over prey.
  • The size of a small train.
  • Target must Dodge (choose relevant Save) or be consumed and destroyed utterly.
  • Attacking the Entropy Survivors is different. Each Investigator must make a Save in order to “Harm” the Entropy Survivor. Each time the Entropy Survivor is “Harmed” roll a d20, adding +1 for each prior roll this engagement. On a 20+, the Entropy Survivor is driven away for d8 hours.

The Teeming Augur

Siblings of Trigona, Queen of the Flesh Hive.

STR: 16 DEX: 16 CTRL: 16
HP: 5 Armor: Beyond Time
Fanged Proboscis (d10)

  • Beyond Time: Their ability to traverse time applies to their physical form as well. Critical Damage can be undone, with Ability Scores restored if the eb and flow decides it. If the Teeming Augur takes Critical Damage, roll d20 on the following table to resolve.
d20 Result
1-12 The damage reverses, stitching back up. The immediate source of damage is undone, with the Ability Score returning.
13-15 “The weapon used reverts to its base materials: metal to ore, wood to seed. God help those who attack unarmed.”
16+ The Teeming Augur falls out of combat.

The Caves

  • The Traveller: (STR: 13 DEX: 15 CTRL: 15 HP: 7 - spear with crystal knife 1d8)
  • 12 Neanderthals: (STR: 12 DEX: 11 CTRL: 10 HP: 4 - clubs/spears/hatchets/knives 1d6)
  • Surviving Crew of U-519: (STR: 12 DEX: 9 CTRL: 9 HP: 5 - SMG 1d6)

Black Hounds

The Peril, The Warden’s Dogs, Vanguards.

STR: 15 DEX: 14 CTRL: 10
HP: 8 Armor: 2

Rip and Tear (d8)

  • Projectile Weapons do not harm them. Melee weapons damage t hem, and explosions can destroy them utterly.
  • Critical Damage does not make them fall out of combat. They will go sprawling but continue to hunt.
  • Any who have breached time and space are marked for death (their bodies turned to dust as all moisture is removed).

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Liminal Horror is developed by Gobin Archives, Josh Domanski, and Zach Hazard Vaupen