Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="talien" data-source="post: 6285185" data-attributes="member: 3285">Chapter 71: Brood of the BeetleIntroductionYou can read more about Delta Green at <a href="http://www.delta-green.com" target="_blank">http://www.delta-green.com</a>. Please note: This story hour contains spoilers!Our cast of characters includes:•    Game Master: Michael Tresca (<a href="http://michael.tresca.net" target="_blank">http://michael.tresca.net</a>)•    Joseph “Archive” Fontaine (Dedicated Hero/Acolyte) played by Joe Lalumia•    Jim “Jim-Bean” Baxter (Charismatic Hero) played by Jeremy Ortiz (<a href="http://jeremyrobertortiz.blogspot.com" target="_blank">http://jeremyrobertortiz.blogspot.com</a>)•    Hank “Guppy” Gupta (Smart Hero/Field Scientist) played by Joseph Tresca (<a href="http://www.eyeballistic.com" target="_blank">http://www.eyeballistic.com</a>) •    Kurtis “Hammer” Grange (Fast/Dedicated Hero/Gunslinger) played by George Webster<img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/cthulhu.jpg"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":cth:" title="Call of Cthulhu    :cth:" data-shortname=":cth:" /> ProloguePAGAMOS— The small Mediterranean island of Pagamos was hilly, almost mountainous, and everything seemed to be covered with thick endless woods through which the roads cut narrow trails. There were very few clearings in the woods, but the views from the hills were very good.  They caught an impressive sight of wooded slopes snuggling together all around, between sometimes gentle, sometimes deeply cut valleys through which narrow brooks rushed.  It was summery warm, with bees and other insects humming around everywhere. There was an intense feeling of nature.  Everything pulsed with a vitality that was lacking in the big cities.  The animals were big and well-nourished, the plants tall and intensely green.They passed a sign that indicated a town known as Stantonville was three miles off the main road.  It was in an enclosed hollow, surrounded by thick green woods that stretched out over the high hills that loomed above the town and surround it.  A little river flowed through the town, which apparently made its living from forestry.  Slightly outside the town proper, directly along the river sat a sawmill, the largest building in town, with "ATKINS LUMBER, STANTONVILLE, PAGAMOS" painted on its side. “Why would he send us here?” asked Archive.“We’re looking for Guppy,” said Fiona.  “Sexwax – I mean Tim – wouldn’t have sent us here if he otherwise.  He must have discovered his location.”“In brain spider central?” Jim-Bean shuddered. “Looks like the Shan civil war has reached Stantonville,” said Hammer.  He pointed in the direction of the town. It was on fire. <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/cthulhu.jpg"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":cth:" title="Call of Cthulhu    :cth:" data-shortname=":cth:" /> Part 1 – Into the WoodsThe woods north of Stantonville were healthy and streaming with vitality.  The vegetation was very robust, with plentiful green foliage.  Birds could be heard, but there didn’t seem to be many other animals.  The varieties of plants were barely recognizable.  The condition of extreme growth was inexplicable.  Leaves were of an almost black-green color, gleaming like polished wax in the sunlight that dropped sparsely through the branches.  Barely a single beam of light could penetrate the thick branches.  The ground seemed to be moist and a bit squishy.  It smelled strongly of earth, but also of something else that wasn’t easy to place.  It was almost like a prehistoric primeval rainforest.A clearing reveals two high stone crags that rose up over the treetops.  They forrned a sort of natural entrance.  There was a green tent set up, just big enough for one person.  In a ring of stones, someone set a campfire some time ago. “You sure this is the place?” asked Hammer.Jim-Bean nodded.  “Yep, he was here.”Hammer sifted through the ashes.  “The ashes are old.” “What was he doing out here?” asked Archive.“He must have escaped,” said Fiona.  “Looks like he was trying to survive out here in the wilderness on his own.”Hammer frowned.  “If the tent’s any indication, they caught up with him.”In the tent itself, chaos reigned.  Even the canned food was partially opened by deft mandibles.  “Look at this drawing,” said Archive.  He held it up for the others to see.  “Guppy took notes.  Called this thing a scorpiopede.” Jim-Bean glanced over at the drawing.  “Looks big.”“He didn’t draw it to scale,” said Archive, staring down at the drawing.  Fiona looked up at the huge stinger that loomed out of the muck. “Uh…Archive? I think it’s bigger than we thought.”Archive was snatched up by the pincers of a scorpion-0like stinger.  Claws snapped at Hammer and Fiona.The tail explodes in a spatter of black ichor from a grenade blast.  Archive fell to the ground.  The thing squealed, the stump of its tail flailing, and then it burrowed back down into the muck beneath the tent. Jim-Bean cocked the grenade launcher attachment.  “We really don’t have time for this.”Archive stood up, glaring.  “You could have killed me!”Jim-Bean shrugged.  “But I didn’t.  Let’s go, Guppy’s close.”Archive wiped off globs of the Scorpiopede’s ichor off his shoulder and followed after him in disgust.<img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/cthulhu.jpg"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":cth:" title="Call of Cthulhu    :cth:" data-shortname=":cth:" /> Part 2 – Carson’s CreekThey reached Carson's Creek, a crevice cut into the Black Hills by a brook, with steep cliffs on the sides.  The valley around the creek itself was washed out flat, covered with grass and bushes.  Further back at the northern end of the ravine, it was apparent that a piece of a cliff had fallen off from the cliff foot right into the creek in a sort of frozen avalanche of rubble.The ground in the valley next to the creek was soft and swampy. It stank, although less of decomposition than of something rotting.  A sweet stink filled the whole valley and seemed to affect the senses.  There was a sort of black, jelly-like mass mixed in with the riverbank mud and drifting clotted clumps in standing water, a bit like oil washed up on land after a tanker accident. “This runoff is teeming with life!” exclaimed Archive.  A fly lay her eggs on one clump, while unbelievably fat, white maggots were crawling around in another. A little bit further off, one of the clumps burst open and a mature beetle of astonishing size crawled out.  “Gross,” said Fiona. As they got closer it was clear the entire cliff wall collapsed near the northern entrance to the ravine and an avalanche of rubble covered half the valley.  Plants had already grown up through the rubble.  The collapse was obviously some time ago. “The psychic trail leads here,” said Jim-bean.  He had discovered an opening quite high up on the rubble heap. It opened into a cave.At the far end of the cave was a metallic wall. Archive touched the wall. “I’ve never seen this before.” The metal, of an unknown composition, felt unsettlingly warm and had a dull gray sheen. The round hatch, about 30 inches in diameter, admitted entry into a metal wall that extended down below the rubble.  The hatch was unadorned, made of the same metal as the wall, and was open. “I’ll sniff Guppy out, give me a tick.” Jim-Bean laid both hands flat on the wall, closed his eyes, and…He woke up to Hammer, Fiona, and Archive staring worriedly down at him.“What happened?”“You went into convulsions.” Jim-Bean felt something wet on his lip. He wiped blood from his nose. “Wow, that’s some bad mojo.”“Did you get anything?” asked Hammer. “Nothing but buzzing.”  Jim-Bean slowly got to his feet.  “And one mother of a hangover.” Hammer frowned.  “We’re going in blind, then.”“Or what normal people call every day.” Fiona checked her pistols.  “Or what normal people call every day.”<img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/cthulhu.jpg"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":cth:" title="Call of Cthulhu    :cth:" data-shortname=":cth:" /> Part 3 – The Pyramid ShipThey entered a tube-like hallway with a quite low clearance.  It went up and down. They followed tube down, and it branched out into a hall.  After a whole series of twists in the hall, they reached the next branching off.  The tube that branched off the descending tunnel was a short passage that ended in a large portal.  The entire arch around the portal was decorated with intertwined maws, tentacles, and ugly heads, all of the same gray metal.  In the middle of the door was a triangular slab of green stone, the borders of which were engraved with artistic carvings. They showed an unknown species of insects flying along the sides of the slab in tiny, stylized form. “Shan,” said Archive. “Brain-spiders,” grunted Hammer.Archive touched the middle slab and the whole portal slid silently into the floor, opening the way to the Temple Hall. Their lights illuminated the enormous hall behind it insufficiently.  It was at least twenty feet high.  In the background, the metal wall was dented inward and ruptured, with some rocks lying on the smooth metal floor.  But it was impossible to look away from the statue that dominated the entire hall.  It was an idol at least fifteen feet high.  It looked like a slightly-opened clam resting on countless elastic legs.  Out of the opening, which was oriented towards the entrance, protruded a cylinder of sorts, on the end of which was a cluster of polyps.  It was made entirely of gray metal. At the foot of the idol sat several pointed metal rods about a foot long. “Xada-Hagla,” said Archive.  “If these rods are anything like what we saw at the Berkeley reactor, they might be useful.” He collected the graphite rods.“We’ve made his acquaintance,” said Fiona grimly. “What about these reliefs?” asked Hammer.   The walls were adorned with metal reliefs all around.“They depict the history of the Shan – the Insects of Shaggai.”  Archive pointed to each relief in turn.  At first they showed Shaggai with its countless temple-pyramids, scenes of the Insects' existence there, and their enormous ocean of primordial slime in which they developed.  There were bloated, beetle-like beings laying eggs in the slime.  Then these images were interrupted by the appearance of a one-eyed planet in the sky.  “Ghroth,” said Jim-Bean. The ocean of primordial slime began to boil and the Insects began to die off.  The Insects were forced to leave their uninhabitable home planet in their pyramids.  Scenes of space follow, depicting the countless planets to which the Insects scattered and encounters with extremely strange alien beings. “Come on, let’s go.”  Hammer led them on a tube wining downward. As they came around a corner something about the size of a pigeon came rushing at him.  It was an insect with pulsating feelers, ten tentacle-bedecked legs, scaly wings, and three mouths. Hammer fired two quick shots in succession, ready for anything.  The thing buzzed so quickly it was a blur, dodging the first bullet, but the second grazed it.  It spun crazily and Archive finished it off. It plopped to the ground, dissolving into goo. “Brain-spiders,” said Hammer.“Don’t let it go to your head,” said Jim-Bean. <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/cthulhu.jpg"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":cth:" title="Call of Cthulhu    :cth:" data-shortname=":cth:" /> Part 4 – The Breeding ChamberThe passageway kept twisting downward.  They faced a round door in which there were four small openings.  Archive nodded.  “The four rods need to be inserted.”  He handed out a graphite rod to Fiona, Hammer, and Jim-Bean.  “On my mark.  Ready?  One, two, three…go.”They all inserted the rods into the four holes simultaneously.   Once all the rods were in place the round door swung inward.  Immediately, they were struck by a monstrous stench.  The room they entered was the only one in the ship that was illuminated a little.  The light emanated from reddish panels in the ceiling, which glowed weakly and gave the whole room a bloody complexion.  Just a few steps into the room, the floor was covered with black slime.  It got deeper as they waded in further until were almost knee-deep in the disgusting broth.  By crossing through the nauseating slime it became clear that the rear wall of the chamber was buckled, torn open, and crushed inward.  Bare earth was visible behind it.  The stinking broth was up to their waists.  The view of the wall was partially obscured by a gigantic thing.  When standing upright, it was vaguely bipedal in form, with a skeletal, biomechanical appearance in muted shades of black. A segmented, blade-tipped tail twitched back and forth. It skulls was elongated and cylindrical, with no visible eyes. It stood nearly twenty-feet tall, with two pairs of arms, one larger and one smaller. The head is protected by a large, flat crest, like a crown. It rests upon an immense ovipositor beneath its lower torso, similar to a queen termite's. It was connected to an ovipositor and supported by what looked like a biomechanical throne made of a lattice of struts resembling massive insect legs.Standing in a row in front of the thing were ten people.  There were more of them collapsed, half-skeletonized, staring out of the nutrient liquid in various stages of decomposition.  The ten men were of different ages, who stood before the black thing facing you.  Some of them wore normal clothing, others wore shrouds.  In the middle stood Guppy. All their eyes were closed and their skin is drained of color.  Their hair hung flat and soaked with sweat over their heads.  But it wasn’t hair; just glistening black bundles of tiny tentacles draped over their heads like hair, linked back to the throne upon which the queen sat. With a giant slurp, the ancient Mother-Being monstrosity rose from the nutrient broth, and the red light clearly illuminated the steady flow of nutrient liquid from the egg sac through which shimmering eggs were visible.  “Light ‘em up!” shouted Hammer, pistols out.  A swarm of Shan phased out of the eggs and into the muck, followed a second later by biomechanical forms suited for combat to defend the queen. Hammer and Fiona picked their targets and started firing.  The drones were unhindered by the muck, advancing heedless of the withering gunfire.  Archive started to chant, holding the Elder Sign before him.  The Queen began keening loudly in response.Archive shook his head to clear the cowwebs. “There’s…some kind of disruption field…” He wiped his eyes and kept chanting. Hammer and Fiona split up, dodging gobs of acid spat by the drones.  “Do something Jimmy!”“I’m…” Jim-Bean was concentrating.  “…trying…”Guppy’s eyes fluttered.  Inside, his will had been hollowed out, replace by the Queen’s.  He was biomechanically hooked into a computer responsible for Pagamos, but connected much broader to a network of shan all across the globe.  Guppy was her hacker, getting the Shan into places they could never have reached before.  Jim-Bean could see, through a backdoor in Guppy’s psyche, the terror that gripped the Insects from Shaggai.  The Elders were doing their best to leave before Ghroth’s arrival and had bent all their resources to that end, infiltrating government and space agencies worldwide.  “Guppy,” Jim-Bean thought at his friend.  “It’s me man.  Snap out of it.”But there was nobody home.  “Fine, if you’re not going to help me you can at least be useful.” He tinkered in the cavernous space that was Guppy’s mind.  “Let’s send something back up the pipes to the Queen, shall we?”  Jim-Bean gave Guppy a mental shove.The Queen shrieked and the drones collapsed from the psychic feedback.  Rearing up, she detached herself from the ovipositor. “I think ye made her really angry!” said Fiona.Free of distraction, Archive completed his chant and flames blasted down upon the Queen.  She kept coming, tearing rubble out of her way to reach Hammer.The Queen lifted up Hammer with one of its smaller claws and Fiona with its other. The great mantled head swung close…“Go for the eggs!” shouted Jim-Bean.  He turned and fired his grenade launcher at a cluster of eggs on the far side of the room. With a shriek, the Queen dropped the two humans, shaking its head back and forth. Hammer and Fiona tore off in different directions, firing at eggs as they went. The Queen bellowed in inchoate rage.  “Don’t like that, hmm? We’ll how about this!” Jim-Bean telekinetically snatched the ovipositor and hurled it into the Queen’s face.Archive called down another gout of flames just as the eggs hit, igniting Queen and her brood in an unholy conflagration. The Queen lay in its last death throes, thrashing around, spraying its slime wildly. But then it was finally over. The moment the Queen breathed its last, the remaining men screamed, pressing hands to ears.  Guppy screamed and screamed and screamed and simply wouldn’t stop.  His eyes rolled back in his head so that only the whites were visible.  A semi-substantial, dead Insect from Shaggai emerged from his head, fell out, twitched once, and then dissolved into a puddle of green goo.<img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/cthulhu.jpg"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":cth:" title="Call of Cthulhu    :cth:" data-shortname=":cth:" /> ConclusionArchive stood up from Guppy’s corpse.  “He’s dead.”“Oh, no,” said Fiona.  “Poor Guppy.”Jim-Bean was solemn.  “He may have been a brain-spider slave in the end but he gave me some really useful info. I know the coordinates of their satellite station.  They’re planning to beam instructions using the Pagamos signal array. They’ve got some kind of device…it involves harmonics. It’s complicated.”Hammer reached down to pull Guppy’s corpse out of the muck.  “We should give him a proper burial.”Jim-Bean put one hand out.  “I’ve got a better idea.”  He loaded the grenade launcher and took aim at the buckled wall.  The explosion caused the wall to burst open like a fetid wound, gushing the vile liquid and corpses of drone and man alike.  Guppy’s body was unceremoniously dumped into the valley below. When they finally located his corpse, they created a small cairn of rocks over it. It was the best they could do on short notice.“For Guppy,” said Hammer, Fiona, and Jim-Bean.Jim-Bean’s jaw was set. “Now let’s go squash some brain-spiders.”</blockquote>

Verification