OPERATION HEARTLAND
Anomalous signal patterns are spreading across the midwest corridor. Investigate the source before an entire region falls silent.
SEVERE
Midwest Corridor
2–5 Players
3–4 Sessions
// Mission Overview //
The Situation
Over the past six weeks, Signal Seven analysts have detected a spreading pattern of psychic harmonization events across a 400-mile stretch of the American midwest. Small towns are going quiet — not silent, but synchronized. Residents report feeling "connected," describing shared dreams and an absence of conflict.
Local authorities have noticed nothing unusual. The people seem happy. That's the problem.
// Intelligence Assessment //
What We Know
A decommissioned radio tower outside Millhaven, Iowa has been broadcasting on a frequency that doesn't exist.
Three residents have gone fully Harmonized — they no longer respond to their own names.
A local preacher named Elias Vorn has been delivering sermons that match Chorus harmonic patterns word-for-word.
The pattern is expanding at approximately 12 miles per week.
// Mission Objectives //
Operative Directives
Locate the Source
Identify and neutralize the Chorus relay node broadcasting from the Millhaven tower. The signal must be disrupted before it reaches the next population center.
Assess Elias Vorn
Determine whether Preacher Vorn is a willing Chorus agent, an unwitting amplifier, or a fully Harmonized relay. The answer changes everything about how to proceed.
Recover the Harmonized
If possible, attempt to restore the three fully Harmonized residents. Signal Seven has a protocol — but it has never been tested at this scale.
// Game Director Note //
Operation Heartland is designed as an introductory operation — a grounded, human-scale investigation before the cosmic horror fully reveals itself. The Chorus here is subtle: no monsters, no violence, just the creeping wrongness of people who are too happy, too agreeable, too unified.
The moral weight of the operation comes from Elias Vorn. He genuinely believes the Chorus is God. He is not wrong that the world he's creating is peaceful. The operatives must decide: is peace without choice still peace?