[Scenario Seed] The Letter

[Catsmate]

This is a quite idea that struck me this morning, while visiting a post office. It's intended for UNIT or the Misfit Mob in more-ore-less modern day Britain but could be adapted easily enough for a travelling group or a different setting.


The Letter.
One morning in 2022 someone gets a notification from the Royal Mail. It could be a text message or email but is probably a simple card through their letterbox (known as a 'Fee to Pay' notice). There's an item of post waiting to be collected,with insufficient postage. They need to pay the sum outstanding (Stg£4.80), either online via the number on the card, or in person at an indicated postal centre. If they pay online the item will be delivered on the Next Working Day, if they attend in person they can collect it once it's paid for.

If the recipient phones the post office they get no-where, payment is not accepted and the staffer has no information to give.
Hopefully they pay and get the letter. If not the scenario ends. And perhaps also the Earth.

• From now on I'll be assuming the recipient goes to collect the letter in person. It doesn't actually make much difference, other than giving the team one less day to save the planet.
  

The letter.
Actually it's technically a small parcel, a 22 x 30cm padded manila envelope of the type made by the million.
It's rather well taped, but worn, scraped and dirty. Assuming the recipient takes it home, or to work before opening it (it's take some effort with a blade or scissors due to the amount of yellowing sellotape.

• The envelope is, as mentioned, rather battered. It looks old, is dirty and has some of the padding visible due to scraping.
  
• It's addressed in block capitals, with a dark pen, to the recipient using their full name and address.
• The recipient may notice oddities in the lettering peculiar to their own style of writing.
• There's a return address on the back; it's also that of the recipient.
  
• There are three stamps on the parcel, rather old ones. In fact they're from the 2010 'Royal Society' commemorative issue (Robert Boyle, Sir Isaac Newton and Edward Jenner). They're also rather yellowed and their adhesive isn't holding well. There may well have been more (five would have sufficed for the postage) but they fell off.
• If they bother to ask the hatch clerk (possibly flashing some ID) the letter was posted in a box near Liverpool Street station about three days earlier.
  

Inside the envelope is another envelope (a 15 x 25 manilla if anyone asks). Inside that is:

• A piece of brownish, leather-like, material.
• A set of Euro banknotes, from €10 t0 €1,000, five in total.
  
• Two blank sheets of A4 paper
  

More to come, I hope. Feel free to speculate and suggest ideas.

[grinch]

Hmm. Curiouser and curiouser...

Obviously, the letter has been sent by someone. Considering the rather haphazard packing of the letter I'd almost suggest it was sent back in time by a future version of one of the PCs in order to better assist them in tackling some threat. Or even to change the past in some way and prevent some horrific timeline from coming to pass. Maybe a future where the Earth was destroyed? But somehow that seems too obvious.

I almost wonder if the letter is some form of test held by some greater alien race/force in order to test the human race or act as an examination of human nature. (The Players or a group akin to them might be a good fit.) Of course, your PCs will be unaware of such a fact until much later.

Maybe you could even combine the two ideas? And the letter has been sent back in time by your Future PCs who now inhabit a desolate Earth. With the twist being, that this future came to pass not because they failed the test. But because they passed. Now, your PCs have to face off against enemies who know them better than themselves.

I don't know. All just frenetic speculation on my part.

[Catsmate]

Thanks @grinch, you have come up with better ideas than I have.


Part 2
OK, someone working for UNIT (Sarah Connolly of theMisfit Mob would be ideal) has received an odd letter. Presumably they examine the letter and it's contents, hopefully in conjunction with the resources of UNIT.

Things to be noted.
1. The outer envelope is dirty and obviously old and battered.

2. The stamps are equally old, older than one would expect from the time that's elapsed since they were on sale (perhaps ten years).

• If someone, presumably Captain Sandford, authorises a DNA test of the saliva of the stamps (they're the old fashioned kind) this can be done (though it'll need to go a UNIT lab, the Mob don't have the equipment or skills themselves). The results will take about a day.
  

3. The scrap of brown leather is interesting; if it's shown to someone with medical experience it'll be identified as a very thin skin that has been tanned. It's not cow, pig or any of the usual animals and a microscopic examination will show it's human. Depending on who they've had examine the leather this may cause some questions¹....
The skin has been recently tanned. Further examination will show two new facts.

• It was removed while the donor was alive.
  
• There is a symbol tattooed on the skin, a twelve pointed star in s dull blue ink. Curiously the ink glows.
  

One assumes the Mob will have a DNA sample taken for analysis.

4. The currency is weird. Not only are the sizes, colours and designs on the banknotes decidedly odd, even the denominations are strange; ten, thirty, one hundred, three hundred and one thousand Euro². They're dated 2055 and include a design resembling a QR code and an EU flag with three concentric rows of twelve stars.
The notes are made of some extremely tough polymer material; it doesn't tear, is very difficult to cut and not easily burned.

5. The paper is bog-standard A4, of the usual 80gsm³ type used on a vast scale. There are no visible markings, though examination with a good lens will show a smudged fingerprint on one sheet, made in blood from the discoloration.
The paper is of poor quality, with visible pulp residue, and smells slightly of bleach.

• Checking the fingerprint will be quick and the team can manage it. Sampling the blood for analysis is also possible but will take (like the others) about a day to get the results.
• The fingerprint belongs, of course, to the recipient of the letter, right forefinger. However there are two scars on the print that are not on record, meaning the match is imperfect. The recipient has no such scarring.
  

Hopefully more tomorrow, xmas prep permitting.Feel free to speculate.





NOTES
1. Under the Human Tissue Act 2004 for a start. While there are books bound in human skill (known in the trade as 'Anthropodermic bibliopegy')they are rare.

2. This has been proposed and 1/3.10 is actually a more logical scheme of denominations than the usual 1/2/5/10 one.

3. Eighty grammes per square metre, the usual grade of what was 'typing paper' and is now standard for printers.

[grinch]

The tattoo is what immediately stands out to me.

Could mean a few things. A symbol belonging to a religious order? Or possibly a branding of some form? Perhaps it’s owner was a prisoner (political or otherwise) who was given said mark in life to indicate their criminal status? Something that would be instantly recognisable to the society they originate from. Would certain explain why it’s still ‘active’ even after the owner was parted from it.

Then again, it could have a completely different meaning considering it’s no longer attached to the wearer.

[Catsmate]

Dec 24, 2021 10:33:57 GMT grinch said:

The tattoo is what immediately stands out to me.

Could mean a few things. A symbol belonging to a religious order? Or possibly a branding of some form? Perhaps it’s owner was a prisoner (political or otherwise) who was given said mark in life to indicate their criminal status? Something that would be instantly recognisable to the society they originate from. Would certain explain why it’s still ‘active’ even after the owner was parted from it.

Then again, it could have a completely different meaning considering it’s no longer attached to the wearer.

Excellent ideas.
Hopefully I'll post part 3 today, as the feast preparations are under control. So far anyway.....

[tampahawke]

looking forward to seeing how this "plays out" so to speak.
I do belive we are looking at an event (or series of mini events) that would form what the doctor would (has) refered to as a "self creating/fulfilling Paradox".
i like it!~

[Catsmate]

The somewhat delayed part three, more of an interlude with data and paranoia.

Part Three.
Time has passed. Sufficient time for various analyses to be performed. And the results are......interesting.

1. The DNA retrieved from the saliva on the stamps is that of the letter's recipient. There's insufficient material to do more testing, for example looking for disease antibodies.

2. The scrap of tanned human skin is indeed human, and female. The genetic profile isn't in any system to which UNIT has access (which is pretty much all of them: medical, criminal, missing persons and ancestry). Nor is there any close familial match. Genetic markers indicate the source of the skin was female and strongly indicate an Indian sub-continent origin. There are also oddities, suggesting that the donor had undergone genetic alteration, though the exact nature cannot be determined due to the current lack of detailed knowledge about the human genome. There are indications (and the report is circumspect) of enhancements to lung capacity, tissue repair speed and similar effects.

3. The twelve pointed star symbol of the tattoo is not in any current database, it's pretty generic really.

4. The ink used in the tattoo is weird. Utterly unlike standard inks, it's some sort of biologically inert, complex, organo-metallic compound. It strongly fluoresces under ultraviolet. The lab tech is fascinated by it.

5. The banknotes appear genuine, for certain values of genuine. Certainly if they were faked it was a difficult and expensive process. They contain a number of current anti-counterfeiting marks (colour shifting ink, micro-printing, watermark, fluorescent fibres, et cetera) plus some new ones. There is what appears to be a thread like RFID transmitter, though no-one can get much out of it. The serial number is a twelve digit hexadecimal code.

What's weirder still is the nature of the material; it's not paper, or even the usual polymers, and most of it hasn't been printed in the usual sense; it appears to have been sliced from a block of polymer, one that contained a mix of carbon compounds, including metal doped fullerene chains. This is theoretically possible to manufacture today, but extremely difficult.

6. The fingerprint on the paper is indeed that of the latter's recipient. However the paper's surface was too rough to carry great detail, beyond the scars. The DNA is also that of the recipient.
Examination under UV showed the reason for the slight smell of bleach; a message has been written using a soft pen or other object using bleach as a crude 'invisible ink'.

Photographs of the message are included in the report. Unfortunately it seems to be in some sort of cipher, groups of five character alpha-numberic blocks, about five hundred in today. It's been submitted for cryptographic analysis.


Assuming this is being handled by the Misfit Mob then Captain Sandford escalates the matter up the chain of command.
The evidence suggests a message from the (or at least a) future has been sent.
Sarah is sat down with a copy of the cipher, tea and paper and asked to look it over. It was sent to her, by her, and she probably knows how to decipher the message.