HONEYCOMB

## Briefing

Home Safety inspector hospitalized for a “**severe allergic reaction**” to bee stings. After owners noticed “**Honey**” leaking from the home’s light fixtures, inspector Hal Lewis, 54, removed the fixtures to discover the attic loft of newly purchased 1930s home **contaminated** by a massive bee’s nest. Renovations have been put on hold pending Environmental Review and Relocation.

“Officially you’re investigating under the auspices of the EPA to relocate the aforementioned bee’s nest. Unofficially, there are no bees. Witnesses describe a honeycomb-like-structure in the loft after removing a light fixture leaking a sweet smelling slime. After the victim took a crowbar to it, he was exposed to the slime which caused a piercing injury and injected an unknown biotoxin. The medical report says bee-sting. Exposure caused paralysis and shock. The victim may lose the arm. This all points to a possible Unnatural Contamination.”

“Your assignment. Collect samples, make an analysis and get out. We’re outfitting you with a mobile-lab including standard biohazard protection, cleaning, and collection. The Program wants to study this. Demolition, termination is not operable. Do not to Cross the Border on this one, capiche? As always, maintain anonymity, conceal the nature of the operation, and keep the public safe from and ignorant of the threat.”

## The Truth

Until recently, the home was owned by **Ms. Lillian Delores**, an elderly shut-in suffering paranoia and malaise. She had no family except a divorced husband. She managed to live off inheritance, disability and social security. The home was a hoarder’s paradise or hell, depending on your point of view. This wasn’t always the case.

In her youth she worked for an undersea survey company. Unbeknownst, a **yithian Stranger** replaced her and used her to gain access to something her company found. It placed a **Metal Box** with strange markings on a top shelf in the closet. Its work done, it departed, a now deranged Lillian returned to her correct time and body.

Inside that box sleeps an ancient shoggoth slave called “**The Builder**” used in the construction of the underwater ruins it was unknowingly found in. The box was safe for years, but the Stranger did not count on Lillian shoving it into the loft to make room for more christmas tchotchkes. Over the years, exposure to heat and moisture damaged the seals. It leaked. Fortunately, the sedate shoggoth followed its programmed build command. Slowly, it began reconstructing the lost **Elder Thing** city in Lilian’s ceiling.

When Lillian was institutionalized the house was put up for auction. The new owners began renovating. The rest you know.

## Opera

### Setting the scene

Agents arrive. The house is an old style, one story rambler with basement and attic loft. A large metal trash container sits in the yard full of hoarder detritus.

Inside smells acrid and moldy. The trash in the dumpster isn’t even half of what still litters the home. Carpets have been stripped from the floor like a lizard shedding its skin, wires exposed, floorboards cracked, loose tiles, holes in the drywall; in short, it's a wreck.

The agents are to do a thorough search for contaminants throughout the home, then collect and catalog what they find.

## Contamination

### Kitchen

A filthy skeleton of a kitchen. Appliances ripped out and cupboard doors removed. Ceiling light fixture hangs open. Every few minutes a drip of slime can be heard falling. A small, 4 inch hole melted through the kitchen floor lies below it. Collecting slime samples requires a Craft: Electronics or similar skill, but is fairly straightforward. However, you’d swear it was crawling away when being collected (SAN 0/1). This is **Sample A**. Scraping the honeycomb yields a sample that reveals an impossible level of construction under a microscope. (SAN 0/1). Hitting or breaking off a piece incites the same attack that Hal Lewis suffered. (SAN 1/1d8)

### Bathroom

The bathroom stinks, not having been cleaned in years. Paint peels everywhere. There is mold collecting in the corners and in the bathtub.

**Sample B** oozes from the shower head. Collecting requires Craft: Plumbing. If successful they observe samples hanging or oozing like an inert slimy tentacle. (SAN 0/1) If it touches or falls on an agent they are **Grappled**. If they manage to safely collect samples or observe it for a long time, the limp slime begins to animate and grow organs to react to its observers/collectors. (SAN 0/1)

### Basement

Fluid dripping down from the kitchen has pooled on the cement floor of the basement laundry room forming **Sample C**. If approached, small sensory organs like tendril feelers form, similarly reacting to light. (SAN 0/1) If observed longer it will start to form sensory organs (SAN 0/1)

This sample becomes hostile before others and will resist collection. (SAN 1/1d8 if attacked). If it reunites with the core mass, the shoggoth wakes from its dormant state much faster.

### Loft

Pulling down the trapdoor unleashes a waft of hot acrid air. Climbing up is easy. They see insulation lined between floor boards. A cursory glance reveals little. There is junk everywhere. Honeycomb however can be seen at extreme edges and corners. Stepping anywhere but over a cross beam alerts the Builder. It slime quickly wraps around their foot and starts building honeycomb as if making them part of the home itself (SAN 0/1D6). A critical failure to remove oneself results in a fall through honeycomb and ceiling. If they are lucky they will find the source located approximately above the bathroom.

Moving junk to carefully uncover the box does not draw attention. Disturbing the box alerts it, quickly building new walls or growing limbs to attack (Initially, SAN 1d6/1d20 as it reveals itself, and additional 1/1d8 if attacked directly). It determines the agents are a threat to its “City” and begins expanding its walls to trap them inside.

If the box is opened, (god help them) see **FUBAR**.

## Breadcrumbs

### Lillian Delores

According to Lillian’s file she “witnessed and survived” the fire that took her employer’s offices. Traumatised, she developed Obsessive Compulsion via hoarding and paranoia. She now wanders the halls and commons of an elder care center impulsively collecting anything not nailed down.

If interviewed she will ask to go home. Deeper interrogation reveals she knows nothing about the box, but she will say she wants to see Emmett, her ex-husband. “He’s waiting for me at the house.” If pressed about her trauma she describes a cold dark place, cyclopean spires, beetles and the phrase “not my skin.”

As the only “resident” it recognizes, the Builder pacifies if she is brought to the house. For years she spoke to “Emmet” as if he was in the room. It heard every word forming a strange symbiotic relationship. Agents can take advantage of this to effectively distract the Builder, if their sanity can handle using the old lady as bait.

### Victim

When Hall disturbed The **Builder’s Handiwork**, it animated a fishhook sized bone barb and stabbed his arm, sending him into shock. He is in the hospital barely conscious. His arm is covered in blisters and infected. No stinger was recovered. It is still inside him. Slowly killing him. If examined by agents or brought near samples, it will shoot out of the arm like a burst pimple. This can be **Sample D** (SAN 0/1D6, 1/1d8 if it attacks agents)

### New Owners

Two house-flippers were eager to renovate. They are concerned with a possible lawsuit by Lewis’ family or the city shutting them down. They are a potential complication when they show up unannounced.

## FUBAR

So they opened the box. Those poor bastards.

The builder is free. Its impossibly large mass slips out of the tiny space. All collected samples animate and move towards it. (SAN 0/1)

Curiously, it will attempt to communicate with unlucky agents. It perfectly mimics agents’ shape and vocal sounds. (SAN 1/1d8 for both effects) It repeats this for as many beings it is aware of inside the house. If it observes the renovations it will immediately begin to “fix them.” (SAN 0/1)

Things go pear shaped very fast if it is threatened, injured, or the home damaged.

## Survival

Chemical agents slow it down while firearms are useless. For the purposes of this scenario a gas explosion serves as a Lethality 50% attack. The Program however, will insist they continue their work and wait for backup.

## STATS

### The Builder

Stats for the Builder are the same as a Shoggoth in the Handler’s Guide with the following changes:

**HOMEBODY**: The Builder is locked in place by the box that still contains most of its bulk. It can stretch to fill the area of of a room, but not volume. It is limited to manifesting or extending into two spaces at a time inside the house and must be attached to some portion of the house. It has become part of the house in this manner. This effect ends if the box is opened and it is released.

**CONSTRUCT**: The Builder creates dense honeycomb structures. It can build new walls, patch a hole, or seal a doorway. It extends the attacks “Crush” and “Impale” through this effect, though it usually extends its slimy-plastic appendages for that. It repairs a wall faster than it builds them. Time and duration are entirely left to the Handler. If it is released it will begin rebuilding and “improving” every facet of the house, including some occupants.

## References

https://metro.co.uk/2017/08/24/family-discovers-massive-beehive-in-attic-after-honey-drips-from-ceiling-6876342/

## Credits

HONEYCOMB was written by William Schar for the 2017  shotgun scenario contest.

Published by arrangement with the Delta Green Partnership. The intellectual property known as Delta Green is a trademark and copyright owned by the Delta Green Partnership, who has licensed its use here. The contents of this document are © William Schar, excepting those elements that are components of the Delta Green intellectual property.

HONEYCOMB is not available here under CC-BY-SA.