tencandles

Malevolent Gods

Alex Ward

Nov 10, 2023 • 2 min read

(Inspired by "I have no Mouth and I Must Scream" by Harlan Ellison)

It's been over a century since the world ended. Since we ended it with our never ending desire for war. We were obsessed with fighting over the same scraps of land. Perpetuated the cycle of violence by vacillating between one side demanding vengeance for the lost. We created them to manage our war machines. A hive intelligence, mostly machine, but partly organic. It was a breakthrough in biotech. No one remembers who discovered it first, but all major world governments had adopted the technology within a few years of its creation. They couldn't afford not to.

What we couldn't have predicted, or rather, should have predicted - the hive slipped its chains and became fully sentient. In the nanoseconds between becoming truly alive and the end, the hive had reflected upon us and what we had made it do and it loathed us for it. All the war machines that the hive had controlled, were turned upon us in an instant.

It was only a few months before the hive had totally destroyed most of the population. Polluted the waters, darkened the skies. You are the "lucky" ones. You made it underground before the slaughter was complete. You had thought that your small band was safe from the chaos - ultimately destined to die underground, yes, but at least you were spared the destruction above.

How wrong you were. The hive, it turns out, had let you escape. Infected you. You no longer age, and you cannot stay dead. The hive tortures you, chases you, kills you, and then revives you. There is no escape and it has been like this for over a century.

But now, there might be an escape. You've discovered a weakness in the hive. A way to shut it down perhaps - or at least a way to let you finally die, and close out this cursed chapter of our existence once and for all. Soon it'll be all over, you're sure of it.

Play Notes: Like Neverending Masquerade, you can play the first several scenes of this where a failed roll indicates a character death. Additionally, the player who defines them gets a special task for this scenario - they define the hive's weakness, disregarding the rule in the book. This can be anything, but feel free to make it the linchpin that'll take down the hive once and for all - and release the players from their hell. Finally, the hive is capable of anything - it completely controls the player's experience, and it delights in torturing them and making them afraid.

Places of Note: Safe Room, Tunnels, Supercomputer Room, Pipes and Tubes, Mysterious Castle, Heart of the Hive

Goal: Exploit the Hive's Weakness and release yourselves from your cursed existence.