Email from Agent JACK to Delta Green secure server sent 07:38 Thurs Dec 18, 2008 Subject: White Town Anomaly Event Report

The assault on White Town did not proceed quite as envisaged. Hamblin, Purcel, Wilmot, Bradley, Frost, and I approached from the river. We left Purcel and Hamblin behind as our surprise reserve, to intervene as they saw fit, but mostly to ensure that we had a clear avenue of retreat. Our primary goal was to liberate Sommers, our secondary goal was to terminate, with extreme prejudice, Angell, Bryce, and Dupont. Dupont's demise is essential to our overall objective of weakening Stenneau. The latter depends on Dupont, as well as up to two others, for part of his power.

White Town was under the spell (no pun intended) of what I suspect to be a reality-changing magic. The town was surrounded by an uninterrupted line of torches put ten-foot high poles. Inside the torch perimeter, reality held sway for part of the town, whereas a shimmering curtain (showing up on regular visual, infrared, and low intensity night vision) covered part of the town inside the torch perimeter. I'll be happy to provide exact measurements as soon as I can get an overhead view from Google Earth.

Once we passed the curtain, White Town appeared to be an active settlement, as opposed to its current-day status as a ruin. Communications with Purcel and Hamblin were cut off. IR scope was non-functional. As soon as we arrived, we were spotted by persons identified as Bryce and Angell. We came under fire, and when attempting to return fire, we found that our twenty-first century weapons did not function. We withdrew in haste, then returned to the settlement, as we could see a posse being rounded up. I decided that our chances would be better in street fighting, where the effectiveness of ranged weapons would be reduced. The opposition was wielding what looked liked post-Civil War weaponry (lever-action carbines, revolvers, double-barreled shotguns). The town was inhabited, and we were facing opposition from locals led by our adversaries. I drew fire for the others, and was hit in the right leg - the Shield of Isis stopped most of the force. It is an extremely useful spell, in the right circumstances. Frost managed to scare of Bryce's horse (which took Bryce with it) by hitting it with his silver javelin. We attempted to concentrate our forces, and I managed to make contact with Wilmot. We entered a building, and commandeered an axe. Wilmot was armed with the crossbow, which, together with Wilmot's javelin talisman, seems to be our only ranged weapon. At this point, we were challenged by Dupont, who threatened Sommers with serious harm. At this point, we had managed to collect Frost, who attempted to restrain Wilmot as he stormed out to come to the aid of Sommers. Wilmot is emotionally involved with Sommers, this much is for certain. Frost attempted to stop him, but in his weakened state (still suffering from the effects of the wounds suffered at the hands of the tree-like monster, even though Bradley seems to have healed his wounds through his talisman), he failed. I followed Wilmot out, and Frost followed me.

We found Sommers suspended over the well in the center of White Town. She was being held in the coils of a non-terrestrial entity, an enormous ropy, black serpent or worm with bat-like or umbrella-like wings. Its form seemed to continually shift and change, twitching and writhing, so that it was hard to view it. It was taking a bite out of Sommers. We were under fire from the roofs of three high buildings surrounding the well. Frost, through a combination of extreme skill and a lot of luck managed to bring down the horror with one strike of his javelin, but the monster collapsed on top of Sommers. Wilmot charged off to rescue her, oblivious to the crossfire, while I heard gunfire from the western end of the town, where I suspected Chief to be. I took up the axe I had commandeered earlier, and saw him in a struggle with Angell - he had already sustained several gunshot wounds (including one through the cheek), but was physically overpowering Angell. I rushed in to finish off Angell and acquire our first firearm.

I failed to injure Angell, as the latter twisted aside and touched a stone worn at his belt. The stone was a spindle, around 4 inches long, and one inch thick at its widest point, green in color, with coppery metal wires attached to both ends. Angell simply vanished. At this time, Dupont charged out of the mists on horseback, and injured me on the shoulder with a saber. I lost consciousness.

The following is drawn only in part from my personal observations, as I was wounded and unconscious at several points during the ensuing events.

Chief confronted Dupont, armed with Angell's handgun, but Dupont managed to twist out of the way, in a manner not consistent with the laws of physics, to avoid being hit by one of his shots. Chief brought down Dupont's horse, which drove Dupont into a rage, during which Chief was brought down himself.

Wilmot had managed to extract Sommers's body from under the monster, despite being under constant fire. That marine would be up for a citation, if he were still in the force. Sommers acted in an anomalous manner - her speech patterns were different, she seemed to be able to cast spells using the blood of Wilmot (who resisted fiercely). It would seem that "Sommers", or at least the entity controlling Summer's body was not a vampire, but a sorcerer of some description, who relied on human blood to fuel her magic. As an interesting aside, she seemed to be able to use only Wilmot's blood for this purpose. She confronted Dupont, and managed to injure him, which prompted him to escape, touching a green stone similar to the one carried by Angell. It would seem that Dupont had the sorceress' original body under his control, and that he might inflict harm on her through it. "Sommers" used her magic to revive Chief and myself. We had now acquired a stock of arms (shotgun, Winchester, revolvers), which Frost and Wilmot had obtained by storming one of the buildings holding gunmen. We were instructed by "Sommers" to collect all the stones. We surmised that she referred to stones similar to the ones worn by Angell and Dupont. We further surmised that only adversaries from our reality might carry such stones.

We next proceeded to roll up the flanks, taking the saloon by storm (I was injured and lost consciousness again during this attack). It seems that the gunmen from the last building then entered the saloon, where they were caught by surprise and eliminated. We were then sent to the church by "Sommers", where we found a strange apparatus, resembling a metal cube on wheels, topped by a larger version of the green stone (about eight inches long, and three inches wide at its thickest point; we later acquired a second such item - digital photographs attached). We rushed out and secured a second contraption, bringing it back to the saloon. On our return, we found that the stone had been detached from the first apparatus. Sommers' body, still holding the stone, was lying unconscious on the floor. The stone seemed lifeless (it has pulsed with an inner light before). As we were supposed to gather all such stones, we proceeded out, taking the contraption and Sommers with us. According to Chief (BTW - we need to verify his medical credentials - he does not seems very competent as a physician), Sommers was comatose. We can presume only that the entity controlling her body had vacated it. In a nearby building, Wilmot and Frost came under attack - their adversary seemed to possess night vision, and may have been using semi-automatic weaponry. Ours was still non-functional. Faced with such odds, and noticing that a daylight-like glow had appeared on the Western edge of town, we retreated in haste. Once we crossed the torches perimeter, our equipment started functioning again. Daylight was fast approaching.

We re-established contact with Purcel and Hamblin, and were debating our next move - after some heated debate, we decided to return to the plantation, rather than to Dupont's house. This was a controversial decision. The debate was cut short when Hamblin was killed by what seems to be a sniper. I told Purcel to get us away as soon as possible.

Analysis: Initially, I had speculated that we had actually travelled to another era. Further observation led me to believe that we may never have left White Town, but that the area was under the influence of a reality-changing spell. First, there was the fact that our twenty-first century weapons did not work (it even proved impossible for us to break open our cartridges to obtain some gunpowder). Second, the gradual disappearance of the inhabitants - by the time we left the area, the  civilian population had all but vanished. For a moment, I considered the possibility that we were in the Dreamlands, but I rejected that idea as, based on my earlier visit, now almost a year ago, technology later than late medieval should not work on such a massive scale. Therefore, my interpretation is that we were affected by a reality-changing field, but the changes in reality being modular (probably tied to the stones), as at least one adversary (unidentified) used superior technology against us. I would also assume that daylight may be an element in breaking the spell - the glow affecting one end of the town might have been triggered by the advent of dawn.

The plantation was deserted, so we steered the boat to Hamblin's place, so that we could regain our vehicles and proceed to Dupont's house. I proposed a shoot on sight / shoot-to-kill policy, and was not contradicted. As we were preparing, Devlin contacted us through our portable radios. I will not go into detail as to the exact wording of our conversation, except to say that my animosity towards him is undiminished (and might be sated by my shoving an M203 currently in my possession up his rear passage and pulling the trigger). Devlin wanted us to come in, and informed us that he was sending a SWAT team to meet us. Confronted with my hostile attitude, he speculated that I was unstable or criminal, and was holding Wilmot, Bradley, and Frost hostage. At this point, I broke off communications. I now have to assume that Devlin, and all law enforcement personnel accountable to him will consider me suspect. We drove off, using Hamblin's car, sending Purcel off on his own. We have abandoned our official vehicles, as these might be traced. Attempts were made to contact us by cell phone.

As I am writing this E-mail, we are heading off, back to Mama's cabin, as we were contacted (through Sommers's cell phone, which I answered) by Janette LeFavre. It would seem that Deveraux might be with her. We need to go to ground quickly, as we are probably wanted by the FBI, with a SWAT team on the way, and we are driving in a dead man's vehicle, with said dead man in the trunk, and a whole range of military firearms of dubious origin in our possession, after an unexplained absence of what must now be five days.

I am not certain when I will be able to report in again - we will abandon use of our cell phones, and I am using Hamblin's laptop, linked to his satellite phone to send this report. We will use it only sparingly, to avoid it being traced. Please note that my earlier request (termination of agent Devlin, with extreme prejudice) still stands.

JACK