Task Force Beholder - It's not hard to be a god (Play Report)

27 Oct, 2026

Mary Land Manhattan's Report

Instead of the report requested of her, Mary Land handed in a bloodstained page torn from a 1933 book:

[...] Bring every man to the agony of life’s last moments by whip, fire, or injections, and through terrible torture he will undergo the great purification afforded by a vision of death. Then free him and let him run in a fright until he falls exhausted. I warrant you that the effect is incomparably greater than any obtained through normal means. IfI could, I would drive the entire world to agony to achieve a radical purification of life; I would set a fire burning insidiously at the roots of life, not to destroy them but to give them a new and different sap, a new heat. The fire I would set to the world would not bring ruin but cosmic transfiguration. In this way life would adjust to higher temperatures and would cease to be an environment propitious to mediocrity. And maybe in this dream, death too would cease to be immanent in life. [...] ¹

Melissa McMilitia's report

Classification: <><><>

Operation: 10/26 Ride of the Hellkyries

Handler: OldHawkeyes

Operatives: Mary Land Manhattan and Melissa McMilitia, Odyssia, Brick Schiddt, Mont Kaskad and Ogre Half Thumb.

Commands:

Establish contact with local faction ("small folk") and investigate opportunities for future logistics endeavors.

Action Protocol:

1. Mary Land Manhattan is seen filming a video on the USS Gerald Ford dancing the letters of NATO to the song Hot to Go.
2. TFB squad (MLM, Odyssia, Brick, Melissa) set off towards FOB at the feet of Westwall Mountains. A semi truck is requested and granted at Trollhättn Keep.
3. FOB in a delicate state, only 13 men. At 0230 the camp is visited by a hostile, large silver dragon (designated Arcturius). Mary Land parlays using the speech of chaos. An offer is made to appease the wyrm. Mary Land commands the 13 soldiers to present themselves unarmed in front of the dragon (Pvt. Brick objects strongly to this).
4. The winged lord accepts the gift and devours the marines. Mary Land is awarded with a blessing. TFB gifts firearms to the dragon and inquires about potential strategic interests: Gold Keep is to be erased.
5. TFB squad salvages FOB materials (20 grenades, 10 smoke grenades, and 2 anti-tank rocket launchers) and returns to Trollhättan HQ. NATO command commences air strikes on Westwall Mountains. Jets are interrupted by a bogey: a silver dragon wielding two assault rifles. No survivors.
6. Mont Kaskad and Half Thumb join the operation. TFB squad orders 2 vats of lysergic acid, an agricultural aircraft, a pilot, speakers, and a custom mix of Richard Wagner's Ritt der Walküren infused with violent screams and subliminal messages.
7. Brick defects due to moral objections and chooses to hijack one of the fighter jets flying another round of strikes against the sovereign nation of Arcturius. No survivors.
8. The remaining TFB squad drives through Hawksleigh, distributing MREs to peasants. Videos of this surface on social media platforms, primarily TikTok.
9. TFB sets up in the mountains south of Gold Keep. Large dog-faced creatures start an ambush in the dark. They are melted.
10. At sunrise the agricultural airplane is deployed. The keep's inhabitants spontaneously begin to murder. By noon there are no survivors left. The keep is sacked. Treasury yields 4000 gp and some jewelry. Confiscated documents indicate plans of war against "druids". The lord is missing. The lord's silken sheets are covered in red letters and hung from towers: "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!"
11. TFB returns to Solna but is interrupted by the great force that is Arcturius. The silver dragon feels great anger at the attempts on his life but is happy to settle in the abandoned Gold Keep. TFB is rewarded with 10'000 gp, a harp of viz, and a chaotic blade.
12. TFB returns. There is much to do.