Campaigns and adventure seeds for the Sleepwalkers setting
The PCs' team is going out on a normal recon patrol. Nearing the edge of their range and preparing to turn back, the PCs hear strange buzzing voices up ahead, on the other side of a large rock. Before they can do much else, something flashes quickly overhead and out of sight. Warily approching the rock, they find... three healthy human babies, apparently about 2 or 3 months old. Carved into the rock (on close inspection, it looks like it was burned in by acid) is the following message:
"you need young we need old you give us old we give you young you give one we give three leave at rock day get at rock night we have myraid young"
Take it from there. If the PCs take the children back to the base, all available tests show them to be completely healthy, untainted human children. The redoubt's healthy birth rate is well below the overall death rate; will the P/R/B decide to go along with this plot, sacrificing older members of the commuity to get a much-needed boost for the future? (I think the only answer is yes, hence the title of this section.) If so, perhaps the PCs are the ones who have to escort the first sacrifice back out to the rock (important question: is the sacrifice willing, restrained, or sedated?). Or perhaps the P/R/B wants to hedge its bets; while one team takes the first sacrifice, the PCs are supposed to shadow them and see who or what they're trading with, what is being done with the sacrifices, and where or how the unknowns are getting these babies. And why does the note say "myraid?" Do they mean "lots?" Or do they mean "Thousand?"
The PCs find a crudely camouflaged longhouse, guarded by a handful of feral fighters, and full of sleeping ferals of all ages. The guards say (and PC Dreamers can confirm) that the sleepers are drugged with an altered herb recently found in the area. They are Dreaming nonstop as a team, trying to create a safe haven in the Dreamworld for as many humans as possible to escape into, abandoning the horrors of the waking world. But something seems odd, both in the waking world and the Dreamworld... What is the nature of this altered plant, which appears to be a mutated foxglove? Is it corrupting the Dreamer's work? Making them more powerful (single use bonus die item)? Or just killing them? Are these Dreamers really as altruistic as they claim, or do they plan to build a Dream kingdom that they can people with human slaves? And this many Dreamers in one place must be a veritable psychic beacon; why are there no Mythos threats within 50 miles? These Dreamers might have a guardian angel they don't know about. Or maybe just the psychic equivalent of a sign saying "Private Property: no hunting without owner's permission."
The P/R/B has made a heart-stopping discovery in the aftermath of a moderate earthquake. An unused tunnel, dug during the first frantic days of the Great Retreat, has been breached. A segment has been cleanly burned out of one side of the tunnel, and it looks like the work of a young Cthonian. Probes sent down the new vertical shaft indicate a bewildering maze of small tunnels, none much larger than 10'-15' across (break out all your old dungeon maps!). Clearly the PCs have not been living right, because they are the team the P/R/B has chosen to explore this tunnel system. If there is just one young Cthonian, the PCs are ordered to kill it. But if they discover a nest of younglings, or a breeding triad of mature Cthonians, the next adventure your group runs might well be scouting for a new Redoubt location, or negotiating with Redoubts Charlie or Delta to move in there.
There is a large Ghoul nest living in the ruins of the nearest town. This is a well known fact; there have even been some inconclusive skirmishes between them and Redoubt forces, but neither side has the resources for all out war. However, while resting in the Waiting Room, the PCs are scrambled to go intercept a small group of Ghouls approaching the Redoubt. But when the PCs are spotted by the Ghouls, the Ghouls begin waving a white flag. What has driven the fatalistic and inhuman Ghouls to seek human assistance? And why does the P/R/B agree to help them so quickly?
These are just seeds or ideas that can be slipped into other adventures or expanded into full campaigns. On the other hand, they can also be used simply as odd or unnerving background.