Telling the Bees
Three days ago the Sussex County Emergency Operations Center received a panicked 911 call from a young man speaking a foreign language. After a bit, the man became agitated and lapsed into a second more guttural tongue before dropping the phone with a loud thud. County paramedics were dispatched to address. There they found Bruno Novak, 23 year old employee of Clarksville Clean Out, in mid-seizure on the floor of his home. Novak was transported to Atlantic General Hospital, but remains comatose.
A Program friendly caught wind of the call and passed it up the chain a day later. The Agents' handler should brief them on the known facts and provide them with cover as investigators working for Delaware's Environmental Health Toxicology Office.
What's Going On
In the late 18th Century a Welsh sorcerer, Morgan Hopkins, immigrated to Delaware and made contact with a collective alien consciousness inhabiting swarms of bee-like creatures. He made a pact with the creatures that he and his descendants would allow them to use their bodies to reproduce so long as they preserved his mind throughout the ages. This continued for over 200 years, creating a gestalt consciousness of all generations of Hopkins that would extend its mind, alongside the “bees” into each new member of the family. Unfortunately, there has been some generation loss. The last Hopkins, beset by dementia and insanity, died a mundane death a few weeks ago. The “bees,” unable to understand the concept of an individual or death, are unaware of the end of their pact.
The 911 Call
With their cover the agents should be able to easily obtain a recording of the 911 call. With History 50% or the Welsh language, an Agent can identify the first language spoken as Old Welsh. If an agent has a History skill of 50% and speaks Welsh, then allow them to translate the first part of the call with a few minutes of work. Otherwise a couple of hours, internet access, and a History roll can obtain a rough idea of the content. The man does not appear to respond to the operator's questions and only says the following: “He is here, sneaking about when I'm not looking, moving things. He's left notes. I don't understand the words but I know their meaning. I don't know why. I can't remember. Please, help me. It's under my skin. It's in my skull. I can hear him now. Please…” The second part of the call is in a guttural, unintelligible language. Agents with previous exposure may identify it as a debased form of Aklo.
Bruno Novak
The physicians at Atlantic General are currently stumped as to the cause of Bruno's episode and comatose state. EEG and MRI results are available which show clear abnormalities. An agent who makes a Medicine roll or has the skill at 60%, may identify the results as somewhat suggestive of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (caused by Mad Cow). This is difficult to confirm without a brain biopsy and the hospital is not equipped for such a procedure. An agent with Medicine of 60% may recall an experimental blood test for the prions. With sufficient prodding and medical credentials the hospital may be persuaded to perform such a test. The results will indicate the presence of an previously unidentified infectious protein that, like a prion, seems to collapse nearby proteins by virtue of its physical structure.
An examination of Bruno's body reveals a small, inflamed puncture wound consistent with an insect sting. Taking the time to carefully examine the wound can allow an agent to discover a stinger still embedded in it. At first glance the stinger seems consistent with that of an European dark honeybee; but, with the aid of a microscope, they may identify certain discrepancies. The internal structure of the stinger appears to be designed to draw blood into a small sack and then expel it back into the wound. The sack itself contains a larval creature similar in appearance to a winged tardigrade, whose translucent body squirms in a small bit of fluid (SAN 0/1d4). The creature is unable to defend itself and is easily destroyed. An analysis of the material inside the stinger will reveal a high concentration of the same anomalous infectious protein present in Bruno's blood.
Novak's Home
Bruno Novak rents a small house on the outskirts of Clarksville, Delaware. It is cluttered with a week's worth of garbage but not terribly remarkable for the home of a young bachelor. Searching the house reveals a number of post-it notes written in a blocky, unsteady hand. Some are in barely legible English. These are generally antagonistic questions: “WHO ARE YOU?” “WHERE ARE YOU?” “DO THEY KNOW?” Others are in poorly-formed Aklo lettering. None of these notes match examples of Bruno's handwriting.
Clarksville Clean Out
Bruno's employer has not seen or heard of him for a week. Bruno's last job was the cleaning out of the Hopkins Farm a couple miles south of Clarksville. The manager, Mandy Davis, has a strong libertarian streak and will not surrender any more information willingly unless the agents impress upon her the importance of the situation using Persuade or Law. The paperwork related to Bruno's last job indicates that most of the contents of the farm were sent to a nearby dump (nothing of worth is retrievable) and a bee hive on the premises was sold to a local apiarist, Samantha Brookes.
Hopkins Farm
The Hopkins farm has stood largely decaying for over 200 years. Much of the land is overgrown and a small farmhouse is the only remaining intact structure. The house's bones date back to the late 18th Century but it has been patched, expanded, and rebuilt enough times that it bears little resemblance to the original building. The interior, once filled with decades of detritus, has been picked clean by Bruno and bears no substantial clues. Examining the grounds, agents can discover a small clearing near the house with a rectangular patch of dirt about 22 inches by 16 inches (the original location of the beehive). If the Handler feels the need to inject some danger or the agents begin tearing up the floorboards looking for any leads, one or more agents may have an encounter with a few lone members of the hive (See Lone “Bee” stat block). They will desperately seek to sting one of the agents before falling down dead (See Effects of the Sting). In motion, they appear to be fairly standard honeybees. Once trapped or dead, they are clearly soft-tissued rather than chitinous and have an eyeless head with a round tubular mouth, ringed by needle-like mandibles (SAN 0/1d4).
Effects of the Sting
The sting feels much like a normal bee sting. If the agents have made the connection between the sting and the infectious protein, the stung agent takes an immediate SAN check due to helplessness (0/1). Roll 1d4 for the immediate effect:
- The agent experiences a random mundane memory of one of the Hopkins' lives over the past 200 years (SAN Helplessness 0/1).
- The agent learns a skill possessed by one of the Hopkins (Craft: Beekeeping, Occult, Ride, or Survival), adding 1d10% to it (SAN Helplessness 0/1d6).
- The agent experiences a memory of Theodore Hopkins' death (SAN Violence 0/1d6).
- The agent gains a portion of the unnatural knowledge held by the Hopkins gestalt consciousness. They gain 1d6% Unnatural (SAN 1/1d8). Should an agent gain 4% or more Unnatural from the stingers, they learn the words in Aklo needed to tell the “Bees” to leave.
This roll is repeated every day until the stinger is removed or the agent reaches 0 SAN. As the agent loses SAN, they begin to experience more hallucinations, confusion, and moments of lost time. At 0 SAN, the agent's personality is subsumed by the Hopkins gestalt consciousness.
Samantha Brookes
Brookes lives on a small honey farm about a mile west of Clarksville that she owns and operates with her husband, Allen. Both have been heavily stung by the “bees.” Allen is comatose and slumped into a deck chair on the house's porch. Should agents approach his body, the swollen marks on his body will begin to bloom open like flowers, releasing a swarm of “bees” that act to defend the body (SAN 0/1d6). Samantha is at 0 SAN fully under the influence of the Hopkins. After noon, she dodders about aimlessly, distracted and senile. In the morning, she is fully alert. The Hopkins are aware of their condition and despair at their fate. They will attempt to fool any visitors rather than kill them except in self-defense.
Telling the “Bees”
The “Bees” intend to strictly abide by their agreement with the Hopkins. The bees cannot distinguish between individual humans (it is an alien concept to them); but, if the death of the Hopkins line is somehow made apparent to them (possibly through Aklo), the “bees” will immediately leave, continuing their journey through the cosmos.
STAT BLOCKS
Lone “Bee”
STR 1, CON 1, DEX 20, INT 2, POW 20
HP 1
SKILLS: Dodge 80%
ATTACKS: Sting 80% (see Effects of the Sting)
NON-TERRENE: “Bees” are immune to the hazards one might encounter in deep space (radiation, extreme temperatures, vacuum, etc.).
SAN LOSS: 0/1d4 (if examined closely)
“Bee” Swarm
STR 10, CON 10, DEX 20, INT 20, POW 20
HP 10
SKILLS: Dodge 50%, Aklo 90%.
ATTACKS: Sting 80% (see Effects of the Sting), may attack a number of targets equal to remaining HP
SWARM: Attacks that do not damage an area, may only deal a maximum of 1 point of damage to the swarm per attack.
NON-TERRENE: “Bees” are immune to the hazards one might encounter in deep space (radiation, extreme temperatures, vacuum, etc.).
SAN LOSS: 0/1d6
Samantha Brookes (controlled by the Hopkins)
STR 12, CON 11, DEX 13, INT 18, POW 20
HP 12, WP 20, SAN 0
SKILLS: Alertness 40%, Athletics 30%, Craft: Beekeeping 80%, Dodge 30%, History 70%, HUMINT 60%, Occult 80%, Persuade 60%, Ride 70%, Stealth 40%, Survival 70%, Unnatural 30% Old Welsh 60%, Aklo 30%.
ATTACKS: Lumber Axe 30%, damage 1d8.
SUNDOWNING: After noon, reduce all skills and statistics by half.
SPELLS: Call forth those from the Outside (“Bees”), Exaltation of the Flesh, Petrification, Speech of Birds and Beasts, Swarm, Withering.
SAN LOSS: 0/1d6 (to see the newborn “bees” bloom out of her skin)
Credits
Telling the Bees was written by Charles Perryman for the 2021 Shotgun Scenario contest.
Source: https://docs.google.com/document/d/14pLZdqYZk8YBc_Uaxf07IJwxuK2w3dgwYPlcbfq_vxc/edit