From publisher blurb:
“there are non-human creatures watching us all the time; with spies among us gathering information”
In the early 1950s the world lay in the grip of a Cold War between Western countries and the post-war Soviet republics. A key prize sought by both sides was mastery of bigger and more destructive Atomic Bombs, weapons which had proven decisive in concluding WW2. And while both sides had scientists working around the clock, each was also actively working to steal the secrets that had been learned by their opponents. Espionage and convoluted acts of deception and counter-deception became commonplace parts of world geopolitics. Nowhere were entirely untouched by these grand games of spy-vs-spy ... not even far-flung corners of the world like Australia. For the desert wastelands at the heard of that remote continent became the preferred site where Britain tested its latest Atomic weapons. And wherever there are tests, there are spies trying to steal information.
When a strangely anonymous corpse is found one morning on a suburban beach in Adelaide, suspicions quickly turn towards an espionage angle. After all, why were all the identifying marks cut from the man's clothing? Why did he carry no wallet or identity papers? And why was the only thing found on the corpse a scrap of paper with the cryptic phrase "Taman Shud" (Arabic for "finished" or "concluded"). The initial police case quickly became transferred to an investigation by Australia's newly-founded domestic intelligence agency, A.S.I.O. But despite the predominent Australian mindset leaps quickly towards "The Reds" as the obvious origins for this possible spy, some things seem ... inexplicable. Investigations soon take on a wholly unorthodox flavour when everyday Tradecraft takes a back seat to hints of the otherworldly. But can the Protagonists figure out how to decode all the cryptic information at their fingertips ... in time to avoid a terrible plot coming to fruition?
"Known Unknown" is a substantial supernatural espionage investigation scenario set in 1951 in South Australia (both the city of Adelaide and the desert wastes of central Australia). Players take on the roles of spies -- members of the newly-formed Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (A.S.I.O) charged with looking into the strange discovery on the beach. But what begins as a procedural sifting through scant clues morphs into something infinitely more terrifying ... and unless the Protagonists have sorted out the true explanation for events, mushroom clouds and radiation might be the least of their nightmares.
Note: the events in this scenario are inspired by a real-life weird discovery (a case known as the Somerton Man), but beyond the basic circumstances and contemporary theories surrounding this odd event, all events in the adventure are fictional.
The scenario can be played with access to just the open-source Cthulhu Eternal Cold War SRD, which (for your convenience) we've bundled with the scenario. The adventure also comes with isolated digital versions of all props and maps, to make it easier to run on a VTT of your preference.
This is the fourth in our "Australian Aeons" line of self-contained scenarios set in different eras of Australian history, each infused with Lovecraftian hints of cosmic horror.