Project Nemesis is a fan driven website for games that use the One-Roll Engine (like Nemesis, Wild Talents, Reign and Monsters) or Chaosium's Basic Roleplay System (BRP) (like Call of Cthulhu) and the Delta Green setting.
"...Daniels was drained of much of his body's moisture. An examination at the chemical level will reveal that the strong and weak nuclear forces holding Daniels' molecules together seem to be falling apart. The forensics people have no clue how this could happen."
Er, that doesn't work; a brief semi-accurate and hopefully painless bit of particle physics explains why. Consult Yahoo and Wikipedia for more detail; Google can suck my nads. A detailed sequence of events follows, with some math and chemistry to show how I reached my conclusions. Last is the quick & dirty non-technical version with some plot seeds.
The physics bit:
There are four forces that shape the universe: strong interaction, weak interaction, electromagnetism and gravity. The Standard Model of particle physics covers all of these forces except gravity. Note that the strong and weak interactions have historically been known as the strong and weak forces or the strong and weak nuclear forces, just to confuse matters.
The term "nuclear" in "strong and weak nuclear forces" indicates a short-range force dealing with atomic nuclei, which are roughly 1/10,000th to 1/100,000th the diameter of an individual atom. Electromagnetism and gravity are both infinite in range.
The phrase "strong nuclear force" predates the discovery of quarks in the 1970s; it originally referred to the interactions between protons and neutrons in atomic nuclei, as protons and neutrons were thought to be fundamental particles. Then quantum chromodynamics came along as physicists realized that protons and neutrons were in fact composed of varieties of quarks. The strong nuclear force was actually a manifestation of the "strong interaction" or "strong force", which governs the interactions between quarks and their force mediators, gluons. The term "nuclear force" is now used to describe neutron/proton interactions in atomic nuclei.
The "weak nuclear force" (aka - "weak interaction") deals with radioactivity mainly associated with beta decay, and works on a scale about 1/1000th the diameter of an atomic nucleus. Weak interaction field strength is about 10^13th less powerful than that of strong interaction, hence the "weak" name. Note that weak interaction is the only force besides gravity that affects neutrinos; see the Domain Science Letters and Eyes Only Volume Three: Project RAINBOW for some further ideas.
Atomic binding in molecules, ie - chemistry, is the domain of the electromagnetic force; chemical properties of an atom are mostly determined by outermost, or "valence", electron shell though admittedly atomic mass and radius also have an effect on an element's chemical properties as atomic size increases. Most of the atoms in Daniels' body are at the lower end of the periodic table, though.
We won't worry about gravity in this part of the game scenario.
ObDG:
So, the molecules in what is left Daniels' body are "falling apart". Presumably this is not due to normal chemical processes. To me, this seems to indicate that the electromagnetic force holding the matter in Daniels' body together is somehow decaying, thus the chemical bonds are breaking and the body is decomposing into the various atomic elements that make up the human body. Oh yes, and releasing energy in the process; more on that shortly.
The corpse, pg207: "...[Daniels' body is] less than one half its original weight, the tissues are flaky and dusty, and the bones brittle as twigs. [snip] Blood has dried to powder in the veins. Daniels' USAF ring is still on his finger and was unharmed by whatever force mummified him. An autopsy will reveal Daniels is consistently desiccated through and through. Even the internal organs and bone marrow are delicate and powdery. All the internal organs are shrunken too, perhaps one third of their original size. The only explanation the forensics people can come up with is that Daniels was drained of much of his body's moisture."
More than half of the human body is made up of water. In adults, it tends to be ~55% for women and ~60% for men. Fat people have less water than thin people, as a percentage, while babies and kids have more. Water is composed of two hydrogen (H) atoms and one oxygen (O) atom, and the mass ratio of H:O is 1:16, so water is 11% H and 89% O (2H:1O = a 2:16 or 1:8 mass ratio).
Even though Daniels was a desk jockey in the Air Force (due to poor eyesight) and a corporate exec, the DG book states that he had usable gym facilities in his mansion, rejuvenated sexual stamina from Enolsis crystal meditation and a coke habit thanks to Valient (pgs 198-199, 202). Assume he was in decent shape, or at least not fat, and 180 lbs; 60% of 180lbs in water would yield ~12 lbs H and ~96 lbs O.
The elemental breakdown of a human body is below; the first number shows how much of the body is composed of a particular element (as a percentage), the next number shows how many pounds that works out to (given Daniels assumed starting weight of 180 lbs), followed by the name of the element(s).
Figure 95% of Daniels' body water was sucked out; the corpse then weighs 77.4 lbs and the end result of the electromagnetic decay will leave just under 26 lbs oxygen, 6.5 lbs hydrogen and the rest of the elements and weights listed above.
We're told that "The crystal sucked Daniels dry of his MP and POW. Then the energy exploded out of Daniels, hurling the party-goers away and shattering the furniture and fixtures. The energy released also caused that part of the building to blink out of existence for a split second." [pg 199]
My proposal for exactly what happened, and what happens next:
Flubbing the meditation exercise (and who wouldn't while on a coke high and receiving a blowjob?), Daniels' unstable crystal abruptly drained all of his MP and POW per the DG sourcebook. He also lost 57% (102.6 lbs) of his body mass in water, which both triggered and fueled a complicated series of unnatural and magically based fusion, fission and total conversion mass-to-energy reactions that briefly tore spacetime with the following results:
- Part of the mansion doesn't simply "blink out of existence for a split second", it shifts into and almost immediately back out of N-Space [DG Eyes Only vol03: Project Rainbow, pgs 56-57]; note that N-Space is vacuum "spiked here and there with what would be near fatal doses of gamma radiation emitted from unknown sources," breaches into other dimensions, and strange creatures. [ibid, pgs 55-57] What comes back with the portion of the mansion that rematerializes? Is anything or anyone infected with Tillinghast radiation? If so, can MJ12 detect it (ie - are they scanning for something like this as we approach the 2012 mission date for Project WELLS)? Is anything or anyone dosed with normal radiation (x-ray, gamma, etc)?
- This brief N-Space transition was powered by the ~100 lbs of missing water, which was used in a total conversion mass-to-energy reaction roughly equivalent to a 1000 megaton H-bomb, or 66666.666 Hiroshimas (I didn't make that number up; do the math, assuming Hiroshima = 15kt); good thing all that energy was used in the N-Space shift, eh? See http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Russia/TsarBomba.html for the effects of a 50Mt yield, the most powerful bomb detonated thus far. If the total conversion reaction is too big a bang for you, steal neutrons from the oxygen nuclei in the missing water & add them to the hydrogen atoms, creating deuterium. A pound of pure deuterium yields about 37 kilotons of energy in a fusion reaction, so 11.5 lbs = a bit over 28 Hiroshimas. Actually, it would probably be less due to the leftover oxygen atoms plus whatever the neutron-robbed oxygen atoms decayed to (carbon & helium?) polluting and dampening the fusion reaction.
- In a much smaller nuclear reaction, all of the elements in Daniels' body heavier than iron fission into lighter elements; instead of vaporising Daniels, part of the energy is rechanneled as the explosion in the party room. There is no cobalt, copper, zinc, selenium, molybdenum, iodine, arsenic, bromine or any other heavy trace element present in Daniels' corpse; there are probably very unusual amounts of lighter fission end-products in the form of elements like manganese, chromium, vanadium, titanium, scandium, and argon, as well as possibly unstable (radioactive?) isotopes of these and other lighter-than-iron elements. I'm not terribly familiar with fission by-products, so can any nuclear chemists help me out here? Note that splitting iron nuclei and lighter elements would cost energy instead of generating it (IIRC), so the lighter elements are mostly unaffected.
- A little of the missing water's hydrogen and oxygen were involved in fusion reactions that left abnormal proportions of lighter elements throughout the corpse, mainly iron, followed by sulfur, silicon (unusual), magnesium, neon and helium (the last two being very unusual in humans). Follow the hydrogen burning chain in massive stars for more details on this process.
- An autopsy probably wouldn't determine the odd elemental composition of the corpse, though I'm reasonably sure it would indicate that chemically something was very wrong. A mass spectrometer would probably be needed to discover exactly what elements are missing, what percentages are off, and what elements are present that shouldn't be.
- The normal electromagnetic field holding the molecules in Daniels' corpse together continues to decay. The decay process is exponential in nature. As chemical bonds break, electrons in the atoms drop to their lowest energy states, emitting increasingly energetic photons. The electrical potential of the corpse also alters in relation to its surroundings. We're pretty deep into handwavium pseudoscience territory by now, but the final results from following this chain of thought are fun.
- At first the corpse slowly leaks pure oxygen (and ozone?), hydrogen and nitrogen gas while the rest of the body collapses into the powdery solids listed in the chart above. It may start fuming slightly as accumulating alkali & alkaline earth metals react to the humidity in the air, and accumulating phosphorus reacts with oxygen. On-the-ball investigators, doctors and/or forensic specialists may realize that the corpse needs to be stored in a cool, dry and non-oxygen environment like a nitrogen/desiccator cabinet, and quickly.
- The outgassing gradually increases. Anyone touching or working on the corpse begins to experience minor shocks, like static electricity, as the electrical potential of the corpse alters in relation to its surroundings. Then painful jolts. Near the end of the process, the crumbling corpse (which by now barely looks human) becomes noticeably warmer than room temperature. It hisses from outgassing and beings to electrically arc like a broken power line; small arcs to nearby metal objects rapidly escalate to large, dangerous and life-threatening electrical bolts. The corpse also becomes hot. Burning hot. And it begins to glow - dull red quickly changes to orange, yellow and then glaring white as higher and higher energy photons geyser forth and the remains explode. Anyone staring at the corpse when it blows is blinded; exposed skin within 10' to 20' suffers first & second degree "sunburn" from the final UV flash. But that's not all!
- In the final moments of the decay reaction, we have a hot, bright and electrically arcing mound consisting of over thirty pounds of carbon and three pounds of calcium mixed with almost three pounds of highly combustible pure phosphorus, potassium, sodium and magnesium, all of which is interacting with over thirty pounds of gaseous and also highly combustible elemental oxygen and hydrogen. Boom (but how big?). At this point, the electromagnetic field decay is complete and the atoms will now react normally, which means the incredibly hot chemical fire that exploded outward from where the corpse used to be cannot be put out with water and is probably burning through the autopsy table or morgue cabinet, walls, the floor, agents, friendlies, innocent bystanders in adjacent rooms, the building foundation, etc. It's also incredibly bright due to the magnesium, and retchingly smelly due to the burning sulfur. Oh yeah, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_phosphorus for additional fun effects.
Made it this far? Cool, here's the quick and dirty non-tech summary:
- Part of the mansion flipped in and out of N-Space; it may have brought something(s) back with it.
- Parts of the mansion, guests both living and dead, the staff, Daniels' corpse, and various law enforcement investigators may have been exposed to Tillinghast radiation, in addition to normal radiation if anything was dosed while in N-Space.
- Daniels' corpse is missing all elements heavier than iron and has abnormal proportions of lighter elements and isotopes. It seems to be leaking oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen and traces of noble gases.
- Increasing amounts of potassium, sodium and magnesium are accumulating in the corpse; these metals will start fuming and may catch fire due to the humidity in the air, especially the potassium. Pure phosphorus is accumulating too; it catches fire spontaneously when exposed to oxygen.
- The corpse is disintegrating, slowly at first, then faster and faster (at a Keeper determined rate). It will emit heat and light as the process winds down, as well as increasingly dangerous electrical arcs. The process ends with the white-hot corpse exploding in a flash of ultraviolet light.
- The now normal elements that composed the corpse have been spread over a largish area. Several chemical fires involving phosphorus, potassium, sodium and magnesium are burning; these fires were initially fed by large amounts of gaseous oxygen and hydrogen. The fires are glaringly bright and hot due magnesium, and smell horrible due to the sulfur. Water will fuel them, not put them out. The phosphorus fire is potentially quite dangerous.
PS - Bonus round for especially sadistic Keepers:
"An examination at the chemical level will reveal that the strong and weak nuclear forces holding Daniels' molecules together seem to be falling apart."
OK, it's not the electromagnetic force causing molecular bonds to break; forget everything above. The actual atomic nuclei are fissioning. It doesn't stop there, though. Even the elemental particles are converting to energy with 100% efficiency at the end of the corpse's breakdown cycle. If we go with the 77.4 lbs I've listed for the corpse and again assume an exponential curve on decomposition (with most of the fun occurring at the very end of the cycle), we're looking at a detonation with a greater than 740 megaton yield (almost 50000 Hiroshimas). That's a lot of energy to release in downtown St. Louis.
Clever agents will toss the increasingly radioactive remains through the gate to Ghroth & let the inevitable explosion do the rest.
Delta Green 
