Key Our Cars

Bad Moon

They load and lock and pick up a couple of Companions, two guys that do work for Tom’s agency, Craig and Frank (last names not revealed for safety reasons).  With Craig driving the company sedan and Tom bringing his own personal car they head over to Chinatown where the O’Toole’s are hiding out.

They arrive and send John Redman on a scouting mission.  He circles the block and spots four sedans parked in front of the building with a driver in front of each one.  In addition there is someone parked by the back door to the building they’re interested in.

This puts the kaibosh on their thought to hijack a single vehicle filled with hookers and they’re forced to improvise.  Leaving Craig parked in an alley way across from the sedans with orders to disable the cars at an opportune time and otherwise divert the bad guys, they enter a building on the same block and terrorize the owner of the flooring establishment and head up to the roof leaving the poor guy locked up in a closet on the top floor.

They cross the roof and enter the target building heading down to the 10th floor where they’ve been told the gang is hiding out.   Tom tries to stealthily peek down the hall but is spotted by a thug sitting outside a closed set of doors at the far end.

As the guy grabs for the sawed off next to him, Tom puts two .45 calibre slugs through his chest.  The double boom of the heavy pistol tears the quiet evening air and the group makes a break for it as commotion starts up inside the room.

On fleet feet John and Frank hit the double doors at the same time and with barely slowing a beat John yoinked them open and dove inside across the room slamming to a halt on the far wall near a large receptionist desk.  And directly between two thugs.  He unloaded a Colt Peacemaker on the one in the corner hoping someone would take care of the other.

Without much luck as the nearest thug shot him up with another double barreled shotgun.

Helena and Tom showed up as Frank put two barrels into one thug and the room quickly filled with gunsmoke and muzzle flashes.

When the last of the brass tinkled to a stop, John Redman was pretty seriously hurt but the others had emerged victorious.

From ahead a voice was screaming out that he was going to ‘kill the women if you don’t let me go!’ and then the lights went out.

From inside the room the voice died in gurgle and a thud and behind them in the hall came the ding of the elevator as more thugs showed up.

Tom kicked the door in and he and John looked into the darkness, John spotting a shape fleeing by the window and put two rounds into it’s center of mass, blasting it out the window even as a strange dagger flashed past his head to bury itself in the wall behind him.

In the hallway Helena and Frank disposed of two of the three thugs but the third got away fleeing in the elevator.

Using their lighters they discovered a gangster inside the room, his head all but severed and three hysterical women tied up.

Working quickly they freed the girls and as a party swept back up to the roof through the fireescapes, there was no sign of whoever it was that John had shot in the window.   They also learned on the roof that there was a fourth woman in the room with them before the lights went out.

Hearing gunfire from the front of the building Tom lumbered that way and capped two thugs from the rooftop that were engaged in fire with Craig in the alley across the street.

Fleeing to safety back across the roofs and down into the street they went back to their vehicles with the three women in tow back to headquarters in the two cars.  Helena worked on John’s wounds, plucking a couple of pellets of buckshot out of his shoulder and stitching him up.

[On the last possible attempt of 5 tries she finally managed to heal him up.]

Questioning the women they learned that one had overheard that they were going to be delivered to ‘the nuthouse’.

Tom started making calls and arranged for each of the women to be hauled to the train station and put on a train by Craig and shipped off with a couple of bucks and a new dress.

Tom learned from his police contacts that there was a sanitarium about an hour outside of town and the three of them and Frank headed that way.

The sanitarium was off the main road in a secluded forested area and there they found a massive steel gate and stone wall topped with spikes.  The metal all rusted from neglect, the place having been closed for several years.  The big chain and fancy european lock on the gate though was quite shiny.

The sophisticated lock proved no barrier to John and he had it open in a flash and they moved in on foot, leaving their car near the gate.

John, out in front of the group by 30 yards was accosted from the darkness by a thug and forced to lay on the ground as the guy had the drop on him.

Tom though, by some miracle was able to sneak his big ass up and get the drop on the thug and the tables were turned.

They questioned him, learning that he didn’t know much but that there were several more guards and dogs at the asylum and he was local talent.  They left him tied up off the side of the road.

They proceeded on a little closer together this time and a good thing as a pack of silent hounds burst forward from the underbrush and after John.  He was savaged a bit by the dogs and then even worse by the misdirected fire of Frank who was still armed with the shotgun and accidently shot at John during the confusion.  With the same shotgun that he’d been shot with a few hours earlier.

Swearing they advanced swiftly to the sanitarium and up inside where they get attacked by bad guys wearing all black and wielding automatic weapons of an unknown nature.

They downed the guys but not without John getting shot up even more.

A search of the sanitarium found several dead women, all blondes and by all signs pregnant when they were shot, once to the head.  They also found a surgery with the body of a woman on it and the room all bloody.  In the corner a man in scrubs was muttering “What have I done?” over and over.  When approached by John he whispred, “Please forgive me.” then slashed his own throat with a scalpel he’d been holding.

Etched in the floor of the surgery they spotted symbols much like those that had been on the body of the woman they’d seen at the city morgue a few days earlier.

Hearing engines they spotted a large truck fleeing the area around the side of the sanitarium.  Although they shot at it, it escaped although the license plate was noted.

Fleeing in a car parked in front of the sanitarium they made it to the front gate but not in time to see which way the truck had turned.

Their own car had been raked down one side with gun fire leaving both tires flat.  Leaving Frank behind to change the tires they headed back to Chicago.  Once again Helena tended to John’s wounds and got him in a working state again.

[And again she managed to fully recover him with the absolute last roll.]

A little bit later Frank showed up with their car and they split up to get some well deserved rest.

Bad Moon

We’ve tentitively started the Dark Pulp game this last Saturday.  The setting is a ‘romantacized’ version of 1920′s Chicago.  We’ll focus our viewpoint on the Gilhooly Detective Agency, founded by Tom “Fat Tom” Gilhooley (PC) and Stella Proschenko (Allied NPC) who brings contacts with the darker side of the town to the table.  On their payroll is Candance Proschenko (Allied NPC) who acts as the Agency’s Secretary and Girl Friday and Q, a white South African who works as mechanic, inventor, gunsmith and the like.

In addition Tom has John Redman (aka Billy Tiger) a full blood Cherokee from Oklahoma (PC) on full time retainer for when he needs a little backup or some clandestine searching.  John had some troubles in Oklahoma, something about making late night withdrawals from various finanical institutions and is in Chicago enjoying the lack of heat in the great Fall weather. So to speak…  He plays the part of the Sneak.

Helena Chernisova (PC) is a Russian immigrant to Chicago, an ex-nurse and medical researcher she had to leave the business after she was let go to make way for a relative of the hospital administrator.  Her response to the termination has made her less than welcome at other hospitals after the administrator made a few spiteful phone calls.  To make ends meet she’s applying her research skills at Tom’s bequest.  She plays the part of the Thinker.

And of course there’s Tom himself.  An honest cop in a corrupt town he had no future in the Chicago Police Department and left the force days ahead of an ‘accident’ that would have probably proven fatal.  He keeps a ready hand with a $10 in it for those he knows on the force and everyone knows Tom’s both generous and a man of his word.

We join our heroes with Tom at the office…

Tom was kicked back and eating some cake and having coffee when Candace popped in and informed him that someone was downstairs to see her mother Stella and did he want to take it since Stella was currently in New York attending the wedding of a relative.

Tom, having nothing else on his plate other than cake, had the woman sent up.  She turned out to be a street walker by the name of Missy and an old employee of Stella’s back when Stella was in the ‘life’. She had a story about some of her friends disappearing and stories of others.  The cops so far had been of no help, “So a whore has moved on, so what?” and Missy in desperation decided to look up her old boss.

Missy spins a story of overhearing a conversation between a friend of hers and the woman’s boyfriend.  The boyfriend is an O’Toole, an Irish gang that runs girls in a section of town near Chinatown.   The man was scared and from what little she could make out she thinks the O’Toole’s are involved in the missing girls.  The next morning both of them were packed and gone.  It was then that she decided to come see Stella.

Tom hears her out and decides to look into it.  Tom does have a bit of a White Knight complex and women in distress, even prostitutes warrant his concern.

He sends Helena and John out to investigate.  They go and talk to a few of the girls and get not much for their trouble.  [DM's Note: Remember these girls understand money or intimidation and aren't likely to spill their guts to strangers without one or the other...]

They stop off at a diner to grab a cup of coffee and try and squeeze some information out of counter man and waitress and enter separately with John going to the counter for coffee and Helena a booth where she orders coffee and apple pie.

They pick up a description of both of Missy’s missing friends and they’re both tall blondes.  Coincidence or the start of a theme?

While Helena is sitting there a man sits down at her booth and offers to hook her up with some action.  Helena says she’s looking for her boss, not herself and doesn’t get much information from the man.  John notices when he sits that he’s packing heat and keeps an eye on him.

They leave and head back to the office and tell Tom what they found out.

Spending the next few days they investigate the morgue where Helena finds out that there’s a Jane Doe that fits the general Tall Blonde description and manages to see the body claiming her cousin is missing.   She notes that the body seems to have a void in the chest/abdomen area under the sheet.   She arranges to have a date with the Assistant Medical Examiner to try and get more information out of him where she finds out the body is being handled by the senior M.E.  Helena learns the hard way that people don’t like questions and perhaps the honest direct approach might not be the best approach.

John Redman sneaks into the morgue and steals the last years ledgers to see if there are other mentions of Jane Doe’s that fit this description.  Unfortunately he’s unable to get the current ledger which is kept in the recieving area where there is always someone on duty.   Later he sneaks back into the morgue and steals the case files on Jane Doe and replaces the stolen ledgers.   He also learns through an acquaintance the O’Tooles are selling women overseas or that’s a story that’s circulating about the gang.

They find out information on the O’Tooles through Tom’s contacts and learn they’ve ‘gone to the mattresses’ in an old office building in Chinatown.  THey cruise by in their sedan and find a car full of thugs parked outside.  John reconoiters the back alleys and finds another guy guarding the back door.  Rather than risk a confrontation they retreat to plan their next moves.

Unfortunately all their nosing about has attracted attention and Mick O’Toole the leader of the O’Toole gang shows and tells them in no uncertain terms to back the hell off.   He offers to hire them to take a vacation and when Tom doesn’t go for it makes some fairly (un)veiled threats that bad things might happen if they don’t.  John with uncanny insight picks up that Mick is scared pantsless which might make him a dangerous man, even more so than he might otherwise be.

The doorman to the building, being on Tom’s secret payroll to pass along information, sends up word that two of the O’Toole’s head off down the  street from the sedan loaded with them that Mick arrived in.  Tom calls down to the diner on the corner and finds out they’re holed up there.

He and John go have a talk with them.  A slight altercation takes place and one of them makes his escape after shoving Fat Tom halfway across the room out of the booth and bolting like a rabbit out the door.

The other one isn’t quite so awesome and they learn that the O’Tooles are in fact acquiring women for a buyer and that they missed a delivery and the buyer is very very upset about that and now a bunch of their boys have vanished.   They’re collecting girls now to try and make up their delivery schedule.   He was a little confused about Tom’s insinuations that the same buyer had hired Tom but he was scared enough that he just didn’t quite get it.

After thoroughly scaring the thug more, Tom lets him go and they head back to the office where he deposited the two 38′s they took off the thugs.

Aftermath:

All in all this is the first RPG session in going on 30+ years of playing that I’ve ever had where there wasn’t a fight of any kind.  Not a single punch was thrown or a cartridge fired although guns were brandished at times.  Part of this could I’m sure be laid at the feet that the first part of the session was character building and during the session one of my son’s got sick and spewed all over himself and the couch which neccesitated a time out for clean up.

I’ll get the podcast out as I can this week, I go on call tomorrow for the next week so time might be at a premium for me.

Dennis

It started off as one those days that made a man glad to be alive.  Hot water for a change from the shower and fresh coffee and a fat maple bear-claw from Priscilla’s little push cart on the corner of 7th and Vine.  The air was crisp and clean in the early fall, summer’s heat was fading and winter’s bitter chill hadn’t shown up.  Yes it started out the kind of day to make angels weep for joy.

Looking back, I should have known it wouldn’t last.

Even though we’d been in the new digs for three months I still got a bit of a chuckle walking down the hall toward our offices.  The rich walnut paneling and supposed fine art on the walls and the thick soft carpeting under foot was still cause for a little bit of reveling at my good fortune. Or rather our good fortune; it wasn’t a one man show any more.  Hadn’t been for a good long while truth be told although the days of scraping by to make ends meet by myself after getting kicked off the force were still a pretty strong memory.   Standard crap back then, catching errant spouses, tracking down bail jumpers, living hand to mouth.  Not a great period for Mama Gilhooey’s son, too stupid to look the other way in corrupt system, too proud to ask for help.

And then a sea change, a right time right place kind of event that I still had trouble believing.  Edward Durant and his little girl Persephone getting nabbed by that psycho Uri Rasmuzi.  The father a bonus for the killer and the girl just another child in a string of them that last I heard they’re still trying to get a accurate count on.  Pursuing the sick bastard through three states, finding the father or what was left of him in that dirty warehouse in Indianapolis.  I still wake up at times in a cold sweat from what that psychopath left of the man to cool on the stained concrete.

And then the race through Indianapolis and then Ohio, always one step behind the bastard but somehow always catching a break to keep from losing him.  Tracking him to Columbus and then to abandoned row housing.

Then by some freak of chance, fate or maybe just the girl’s guardian angel looking out for her, hearing that single terror filled scream before the bastard got the gag back in place as I walked past a building no different than the rest.  Of that desperate struggle to move fast and quiet through the building before spotting the door with a finger of light coming from under it.  The smells of dankness and mildew mixed with the heavy musk of the candles flickering around the room as the door gave wave under a heavy shoulder and stumbling into the room.

The look of surprise and disbelief in the killer’s eyes as he turned to stare, crazy eyes, soul-less, dead eyes if truth be told.  And then that faint flicker of relief that still puzzled me even as I put two heavy 45’s through his nasal cavities and the back of his head exploded spraying gore across the girl strapped to the heavy wooden table.   Before the black knife in his hand hit the floor I emptied the remaining five rounds into his center of mass, a cluster of holes over his heart you could have covered with a small book.   It was the best shooting I’d ever done in my life, another sign that the Fates really wanted that little girl to live.

The girl was blindfolded and saved from the sight of the almost headless body, yet another small favor I added to my karmic debt.  I gathered her up, reassuring her she was safe now and getting nothing but little whimpers from her that near broke my heart.  I bundled her up in my overcoat, she was such a small little thing that she just disappeared into it, a golden mop of hair the only sign of her.

Leaving the body in a spreading pool of dark crimson I carried her downstairs and placed her in the car, handing her off to Stella where she immediately dove into her arms sobbing.

Stella, my sometimes partner, sometimes breakfast companion met my eyes with a question and I nodded.  She mouthed the word “Good!” to me and continued to stroke the little girl’s hair.  Slipping behind the wheel I pulled the car into the empty dark street, stopping only once at a payphone to let the girl’s mother know we had her safe and sound and would be back as soon as humanely possible.  A second call as a concerned citizen to the Columbus PD to let them know where they could find Uri aka the Pied Piper.  I hung up as the questions started, I had precious cargo to deliver and no time to talk.

The girl had fallen asleep before I got back to the car and slept the entire way back to Chicago in Stella’s arms.  The woman was a trooper, held the child without shifting or complaint during the long ride home. We rode in silence, we’d known each other since the early days when I was just another honest flatfoot on patrol and she was a unwed mother trying to make ends meet. Neither of us the type to need to fill empty spaces for the sake of noise.

Lois Durant was more than happy to get her child back.  And expressed her happiness in ways that had lead me to where I was now.  Walking down this richly appointed hall toward the heavy oak doors with my name in gold lettering on it.  Rescuing the only child of one of the wealthiest families in Chicago from a child killer had had its rewards.  Although I’d have done it for nothing more than the satisfaction of seeing the bastard’s brains paint the wall.

As I stepped through the doors to Gilhooey’s Private Investigations I was nodding in satisfaction at a future that looked rosy indeed.

And then I saw her, a raven haired beauty with skin like white silk and amethyst eyes to get lost in for days.  She rose from one of the heavy leather couches in our outer room as Candace, Stella’s niece, called out from behind the outer desk, “Boss, Sabrina De La Cote would like to talk with you.  She was referred by Mrs. Durant.”

I nodded, trying to keep my jaw from dropping to the floor and only partially succeeding.  That marble was genuine Italian and I’d hate to break it.  The woman was spellbinding, the knee high skirt she wore revealing legs that would have given Michelangelo trouble capturing their perfect curves.  Assuming the sissy had actually like dames.And those curves didn’t stop there but continued all the way up.

She held out her hand and from somewhere I managed to nod, bringing it up to brush my lips, bringing with it a faint musky floral scent I immediately fell in love with.

“Mrs. De La Cote?  Please, my office is this way.” Taking her gently by the elbow I pointed her toward the door marked Boss.

“Thank you Mr. Gilhooey.” she replied in a soft contralto that whispered things that would get a man arrested for.  And then she said something that near threatened to have me babbling like an idiot.  ”And it’s Miss.”

I turned my head to look back and my secretary and having nothing to do with me trying to get some faint grip on composure, “Candace, give Sargent Roberts a call and tell him to come by this afternoon, would you?”

“Sure thing boss.  Remember you have a ten o’clock with Fiduchi.”

“Right, thanks. Get Jocko over in case that conversation turns interesting?”

“Already taken care of, Jocko and Sully both should be here by nine.”

“Good girl.”

Candace had proven to be a life saver, smart way beyond her eighteen years, talented at making the office run smoothly and although I’d never say it in front of Stella, quite a stunner in her own right.  And her ditsy blond act had worked on more than one occasion to pick up information a prospective client perhaps hadn’t intended on telling us.  At least not immediately.

Door safely closed behind us I eased her into one of the two armchairs positioned in front of the big teak desk I used, mostly to impress clients if one was being completely honest.  Plopping down into my own seat, looking at the vision of lovliness sitting across from me I couldn’t help but think, “Tom old boy, this day just keeps getting better and better.”

Which just goes to show you, you can always trust Fate to build you up only to kick you in the nuts when you least expect it…

Zombie Run

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It's a gas gas gas....

We open this session with the group recovering after getting the power plant shutdown and everyone giving Bubba the big eye or at least the teeth marks on his shoulder from his being bitten by one of the undead they ran into in the cooling tower of the plant.

Everyone’s a little twitchy, keeping an eye on Bubba as Melissa heals his wounds when two mil-spec humvees come roaring into the compound both with a M249 MG blazing away on the top.   As 7.62 rounds chew up their own hummers and the walls of the cooling tower building the group dives into cover behind and under the cars with Sonny sprinting off to the side toward the edge of another building.

Roj pops up from behind cover and sprays full auto mini-uzi’s into the raiders bailing out of the two hum vees and sends them diving for their cover and the leadstorm of bullets catch three of the raiders in vital parts sending them crashing to the ground to bleed out.  He drops back down as the rain of brass tinkles across the concrete parking lot.

Bubba unlimbers his modified Remington 700 sniper rifle and one of the gunners on the humvees head explodes in a spray of red and pinkish gray.   Sonny opens up from the cover of his wall and puts a three round burst into the other gunner.  The sharp bark of the raider’s M-16′s echoes from the walls as they fill the air with messenger’s of copper jacketed death and although they graze our heroes at times they’re unable to zero in as the group continues to keep them back behind their cover.

The firefight while intense is over very quickly as the group riddles the raiders with slugs and take little to no damage other than to their own vehicles.  But they now possess two military hummers to replace them complete with mounted machine guns.

Bubba looks down at the two rounds he had to fire, two shots, two kills and then at the flood of brass scattered around Roj and shakes his dead, “Wasteful…”

WIth guns casually aimed at Bubba they head back to Phoenix to report their success at getting the plant shut down.  Bubba is quarantined for 24 hours in a cargo container but once it appears he’s not going to turn he’s let free.

They move back into the Phoenix society for a couple of weeks.  Over this time the number of refugees fleeing from Flagstaff picks up and these newcomers are debriefed and engaged into the workings of the city…

One of them has a chilling story, that the Flags have uncovered something in an abandoned military base, something that gives them evil chuckles.

Our group is dispatched along with four combat grade citizens of Phoenix to intercept and destroy the raiders that are reported to be at the military base and acquire whatever they’ve found.

The trip is a long one and takes them almost to the former border between Arizona and Mexico before they come to the base.  Melissa spots tracks that several vehicles have recently moved along the road into the base and they do a little recon spying on the base from the top of a nearby rise.  They spot 4 or 5 raiders moving boxes onto a flatbed truck, the numbers far too few for the vehicles they can see, two jeeps and two flatbeds.   In the distance behind the base smoke starts to spew up and they’re not sure what to make of that.

They enter base, the raider vehicles they’re driving, the same military hummers they captured at the nuclear power plant,  they figure will give them the time they need to unload on the raiders in the camp.   With Bubba and Roj manning the MG’s they unload on the raiders they can see easily getting the drop on them and blast them into the next life, Roj taking one out with a leg shot from his MG that amputates the raider’s leg from the knee down.

As it turns out that raider is the only survivor and they slap a tourniquit on him to keep him from bleeding out while they question him.  They learn the raiders have uncovered a cache of nerve gas and have loaded it on a train.  The same train that they see leaving in the distance by the smoke from its locomotive.

A sharp knife takes care of the survivor and they roar off in pursuit of the train.

Catching up to it they send one of their allies over who misjudges the jump and goes down in a tangle of broken legs and arms to be left behind…  A second ally is sent across who makes it, their plan to be to turn on the brakes on the caboose of the train to slow it down.   Then they crest a rise to see a canyon sprawled out in front of them and the train will cross over it on a narrow trestle.

With little time to consider they start to bail out and cross over to the train, our heroes making, Bubba even able to detach his MG and toss it over to Roj who catches it handily.    Leaving two of the Phoenix allies at the wheel.  One of them tries to follow the train across the trestle bridge only to lurch off it and go crashing down into the jagged rocks below.

With our four heroes and one ally they move through the caboose finding no one.  Ahead lies a flatbed loaded with military cargo and beyond that a sealed passenger car.  They continue to move forward and Bubba snatches open the door and heaves a grenade through as Roj smashes down on the trigger of his MG.    Chaos ensues as they blast their way through the occupants of the passenger car using grenades and automatic fire to kill the raiders who were enjoying a nice sandwich and glasses of lemonade after a hard day of loading nerve gas on a train.

Our heroes didn’t get off scott free this time with Roj and Bubba getting chewed up a bit from the raider’s fire.  As they stood in the aftermath the far door on the passenger car opened and another raider enters and unloads on them with an MP5 and they hear footsteps on top of the car heading to the back door.

The Sarge although tough is killed in time for Sonny to race out of the forward door and up a ladder to see four more raiders, one stretched flat about to throw a grenade inside.   The grenade goes awry and does little damage as Sonny peppers the guy.  Roj limps outside and up and joins Sonny spraying the others with machine gun fire and again proving that his heavy training on the gun range is paying off and suppresses or kills most of them.   As the last raider falls down to tumble onto the flatbed below they both turn and see the tunnel about to sweep them off the top of the train and drop down.  Sonny spots the milling throngs of undead using the tunnel to escape the heat of the sun and screams over the radio to the others who immediately slam the doors to the passenger car closed.

With the gushy crackling noise of the undead being battered by the roaring locomotive they hunch down on top of the car hoping there’s no low hanging sign about to sweep them off.

The train exits the tunnel and ahead lies a small community, it’s purpose unknown but the throngs of undead surrounding a train station by the tracks and the muzzle flashes coming from people atop the station tell yet another chapter in the undead’s burgeoning dominance in this scary new world.

Grenades arch out from the top of the station, one of them blowing apart the tracks ahead.   Sonny and Roj bail off the train, trying to tuck and roll in the sands along the tracks, SOnny taking the time to use his walkie talking to warn the others who also bail off the train, tucking and rolling as best they can.   Surprisingly all of the emerge unscathed even as the locomotive hits the warped tracks and derails.  The noise is amazing as the 9 cars of the train tumble and crash about.  One of the tanker cars slams into the edge of the station sending the room collapsing forming a ramp as the undead that survive impact with the smashing cars use to swarm up and over the figures on the roof.

Battered, bruised and limping our group swings wide of the wreckage for the far side of the area hoping for vehicles that they can use to get away.  As the seconds tick by, more and more of the undead catch wind of them and start to shamble their way.  Soon they have 10′s of them then 50 of them stumbling after our living heroes.

As they round the wreckage they spot raider vehicles and they sprint toward them, diving into a humvee mere seconds ahead of the hordes after them.  As Roj presses the start button the first meaty impacts of fists on the window occur and then the engine kicks over and the vehicle starts to move.

On the way back to phoenix they run into a phoenix patrol heading toward them as support.  They explain about the gas and the leader of the convey, the security leader of the town Sasha Green, her eyes light up and she determines to recover the gas.

As our heroes trade glances they all without discussion decided that perhaps somewhere else might be better suited for them.  They head back to town and load up their supplies, a few checking their former allies to see if they want to go and then quietly slip out of town, leaving the two towns of Phoenix and Flagstaff to sort out their differences without them.

And thus ends our view into the lives of several strangers of New York thrown together by the unlikely event of the end of the world as we know it.

Perhaps we’ll pick up their story at a later time and see how well they fared in their trip across this once great country but now the home to atomic craters and shambling dead.

Aftermath –

All in all the module as decent.  A little railroady but sometimes that’s necessary for a canned module like this to keep things moving toward the conclusion.   The great train robbery was something I threw in there ad libbed as I thought it would be a cool fight sequence and it was I believe pretty enjoyable.   Rather than continue the main storyline where the characters become arbitrators in the upcoming confrontation between the two cities they made the obvoius decision and headed out.  Who wants to be anywhere near a malfunctioning nuclear plant between two warring cities armed with nerve gas, nuclear mines and nuclear warheads (something they didn’t uncover but were in the module to be found).

Due to life’s obligations we’re going to taking roughly a month hiatus from RP’ing before we reconvene and see how the 1920′s work out for our group in a dark pulp noir kind of setting.

Hope to see you there, at least vicariously.

Image Credits

Zombie Run

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Zombear

[Sonny had an Action Card called Stool Pigeon that let him get all the information that an extra has.]

While this was going on the other leaders of the group were arranging for inventory of the gear and damage assessment to be performed.   The unknown help from higher on the mountain remains a mystery.  As Bubba is talking with two others of the group there’s a sudden susseration of snow falling and a loud meaty thud as 1000 pounds of undead brown bear lands on the road way next to him falling from above.  The bear stands leaving chunks of itself on the roadway and swipes at Bubba as Bubba turns and runs away screaming like a girl.   It rips three furrows through his ass cheeks as he flees but the damage is minimal.

Sonny, Roj and Melissa open up on the beast at close range, choosing to stand their ground even as the putrefied creature of darkness roars the sound broken by the holes in its throat and charges after Roj after he puts two loads of buckshot into it from his sawed off 12 gauge.

[My son Ryan was running the bear and chose to go after the players rather than the closer NPC's... ]

Roj narrowly avoids taking a huge smash from the bear’s foul claws and stumbles back reloading his shotgun.  Bubba after doing a baseball slide under the bus rolls around and opens fire with his hunting rifle nailing the beast in the skull the hard thick bone causing the bullet to ricochet.

Bubba continues to nail the beast again and again as it keeps it’s attention focused on Roj who jukes and jives narrowly avoiding damage again and again.

[Just some notes about this combat.  I had to burn no less than 4 Bennies, Zombear's 2 for being a wild card and 2 of my GP bennies just to keep the thing alive for the first two rounds alone.  The thing had a toughness of FOURTEEN and the player's kept acing their damage rolls forcing me to soak wounds like a mother.  This costs me later during another fight burning so many here.  I was a little concerned with the bear's high toughness value going into this fight but the opening shotgun blast, both barrels each doing 14 or more damage had me leaving it alone.   The bear did manage to hit a few times with his claws d12+4 damage but the players were able to soak out of them each time.  I was kind of hoping its infected ridden claws might nail someone for 2 wounds and kick off the paranoia as they wait to see if the damaged person turns but alas it wasn't to be.  But the session does end on a high note, see further down...]

Finally Bubba puts the a round through the beasts eye socket blowing the creatures brains to mush and it falls motionless.  Bubba and Roj compared the rents in their clothing, roj’s on the front from where he faced the beast, Bubba’s on his ass as he ran away.  The sikh is walking around a little puff chested now.

Continuing their talks with the prisoners they find out that two cities, Flagstaff and Phoenix have power supplied by a nuclear reactor.  From their talking with the guy who’s trying to save his life by supplying everything he knows, futilely as it turns out, they decide Phoenix is the place they want to go.   Flagstaff sounds a little lawless and the whole they confiscate your goods when you enter leaves a bad taste in their mouth.  Not to mention that’s where the raiders are from so showing up in their vehicles with their goods might not be the best impression to make.

They load up the working vehicles, one of the humvees and the bus are toast, no way to get them working again without a full garage and spare parts supply.  They decide to tow the busted hummer with the working one to keep everyone inside a vehicle as they descend the cold mountains.  With the truck breaking a path, loaded down with supplies they leave the site of the battle.  Though not before stripping both the captured raiders and then tossing them down the cliff side alive to fall flailing to their probably immediate deaths.

[When the thin veneer of civilization breaks revealing the ME ME ME beast we're born with underneath you can expect to see such scenes played out over and over.  Make sure you have friends near by when it happens.]

They make their way down out of the mountains without further issue and the warmth is welcome for awhile.  Spotting lights as they slowly maneuver the highways over the arid lands of Arizona they pull up and send Sonny ahead to scout.   Luckily for Sonny the people with the lights, coleman lanterns, are a little toasted from a cache of liquor they’d found.

They discover another set of Flagstaff raiders holed up in two of the motel rooms.  They maneuver into position and Bubba tosses in a flashbang that Melissa’s been carrying since New York into the room holding the bulk of the raiders and succeeds in shaking them all leaving them dizzy and disoriented.  Bubba and Sonny proceed to lay waste to these raiders as they stumble about.

The other pair, Melissa and Roj don’t have it as easy running into the raider’s leaders.  Both Roj and Melissa catch a lot of buckshot of their own as the raider leader blasts away at the pair.

As the two watchers on the roof wake up from the gunfire and rush over and drop down behind Sonny and Bubba they unload full auto on our two heroes and somehow manage to miss completely. Bubba and Sonny both look at each other and then they and the two gunmen share a glance of incredulous disbelief that they’re untouched.   Bubba swivels at the hip and sprays his autofire across both, killing one and rattling the other and Sonny rushes forward to help the other two heroes as the shot gun blasts are a bit worrying especially when Melissa staggers backwards through the door, blood streaming from pellet holes over her torso and Roj is in there screaming “Holy Cow this hurts!”.

He arrives in time to finish off the leader and Bubba takes out the last guy on the stairs.  Inside the rooms they find three more woman captured but unlike the earlier ones they managed to kill these raiders without collateral damage and they’re all still alive.

They recover quite a bit of gear, they’ve amassed quite a collection of weapons by now and continue on to Phoenix.

They go through the interrogation process and are then allowed to join the city and are allowed to keep all their gear, a bit surprising.  They integrate themselves into the city, electing to join the guards on the walls as their daily duties.

A few weeks later they’re brought to a meeting and are given a mission to escort an engineer from the Palo Verde power plant to the plant to shut it down.  Even though the plant is fully automated they really don’t want it going Chernobyl and have decided to shut it down gracefully.

The next morning they head out and are ambushed by two snipers on the road.  They kill one and drive off the other but not before Joesph is wounded.

They continue on to the power plant to find undead all over the compound.  They whip and attract the undead and then lead them off down the road for several minutes and then return.  As they’re leaving they spot several flagstaff vehicles parked next to the control room.

They roll out and Roj moves up to the building to disable their vehicles.  Someone meanders out of the control room, drops his doughnut as he sees the group and runs back in and slams the door.  The group has a few seconds to get into position when all three doors to the control room open up and raiders show up.  Two are immediately blasted back into the room and the third seeing the way the wind’s blowing ducks back inside and closes the door.

The group moves up to the two open doors and proceeds to destroy the raiders inside in spite of their cover and grenade throwing.  The raiders are slaughtered to a man and the group isn’t even scratched.

Joseph moves forward as the room is cleared and starts the shutdown procedures noting that one of the coolant towers is showing an alarm.  They’re going to have to open the coolant flow using bypass procedures.  Using the security cams they spot four undead technicians wandering in the cooling tower.  There are only four protective suits and Sonny is elected to stand guard outside as Melissa, Bubba, Roj escort Joseph inside to open the coolant.

They open the doors and move deeper inside and encounter the undead.  Three shots ring out and three undead go down but the last latches on to Bubba and rips through his suit and deep into his shoulder, its infection laden bite going deep into his flesh.

Outside the sniper that fled the ambush shows up and misses Sonny who turns and rips a three round burst through the snipers chest killing him instantly.

As they rush Bubba out of the coolant tower while Joseph starts the coolant procedures the blood running out of the deep bite marks is on everyone’s mind.

[Aftermath - You never saw such a bunch of acing, exploding dice rolling in your life on the part of the players.  My poor NPC's never stood a chance in any of it.  Even when I did manage to wound them they soaked the damage away or healed it all right up in the after battle procedures.  They've essentially at this point got an unlimited supply of guns and ammo with everything they've recovered from their attackers.  There's perhaps one more session's worth of adventures left in this module.  It might be eked out to two but I'm going to make it one.  I'm interested in starting the Roaring 20's Supernatural Detective Noir Black Comedy campaign and I think the players have a good enough grasp of the basics of Savage Worlds that they can now make a semi-informed decision as to their characters when they build them. ]

Zombie Run

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Road Trip

The highway runs through the middle of the town if town you can call it.  There’s a mall filled with the usual suspects, Starbucks, Orange Julius, Starbucks (yes coffee is just that popular among the highway trade) a Cinn-A-Bonn and various clothing and shoe stores.  A few dash and grab style grocery stores, a bakery and a slew of souvenir shops line the sides of the highway.  Off the south side of the highway is a sprawled collection of houses and a large stone church.

Our heroes looking for a place to hole up as nightfall approaches and with it the infected will start stirring again as the heat of the day fades spot the church and pull the bus around and head that way.   The roads are far from straight once they leave the highway and it takes a few minutes to wind through them to reach the church.

There they find it surrounded by rings of cars, barricaded as best as is possible under the circumstances.  Bodies all containing bullet holes are sprawled everywhere and the windows and doors are barricaded tightly.  Leaving Bubba with Roj’s binoculars and a walkie talkie atop the bus the others, Alice, Melissa, Roj and Sonny inspect the church.  There are no sounds even when they knock, the sounds oddly loud in the still quiet air.  Everyone’s a little spooked by just how quiet things are in the world now with the absence of traffic, tv’s, radios, the almost imperceptible background hum of electrical and gasoline devices and the electricity itself that has denoted humanity for the entirety of their lives up till now.

They find the back door of the church open, obviously smashed in from the outside and of course more bodies.  Inside the church it’s a grisly scene, blood, bullets and bits and pieces of bodies scattered everywhere along with hundreds of empty shell cases.  It was obvious what had happened, a group of survivors had tried to hold up in the church, much like our group had decided to do and had been swarmed and then overwhelmed.  Images of the desperate defenders blasting the infected as they clustered around the church windows and doors, the fear as their supply of ammo steadily dwindled.  They could almost here the echoes of “Reloading!” and “I’m out!” still, picturing the men and women who’s bodies they could see rushing from one location to another trying to push back the inevitable ending with anything they could.

Keeping in touch with Bubba via walkie talkie they, with stomachs churning and minds trying to avoid thinking of their own fates, searched the building uncovering several weapons, all empty, slides locked back, most with blood on them where the defenders in the end tried to use them as clubs in futile effort to stay alive.

Downstairs in a basement under the church they found water along with several melee weapons where the last few survivors had fled the upstairs apparently.  As they worked their way through the… best to think of it simply as debris… they could piece together the events that must have happened.  Here lay a man, possibly a trucker one might think, a broken fire axe next to him, his throat almost gone and his legs missing large chunks of flesh.  Here a woman lay next to a fallen bookcase, the book case itself fallen over in the struggle, her ribs now visible and a empty void where her organs once lay.

The fallen bookcase, containing hymn books and sheet music had fallen in such a way that it blocked another door marked storage.   Roj after listening and hearing nothing muscled the bookcase up away from the door and then yelled in fear as it the door slammed open stopping against the bookcase he held, the opening only a scant few inches.  Through the gap he saw savage faces, mouths twisted in hunger and eyes lit by fury, faces smaller than they should be was his first thought before panic crashed down on him. Screaming in inarticulate fear and emotion he slammed the bookcase back down against the door hearing the snap of small fragile bone and high pitched howls as the creatures, once children, now merely snarling beasts after his flesh yanked their arms back through the gap.

With a thud the door slammed shut and Roj lunged forward to press against it, breath rasping harshly through his mouth as he shouted for the others to help him hold it closed.  Melissa rushed forward to help him hold the door shut shouting for the other two to grab anything they could find to put in front of the door.   A mad scramble ensued as tiny fists beat on the door, each blow echoing through the stone basement.

Gallon containers of water were swiftly piled high on the bookcase weighing it down, the four not stopping until the pile was too high to allow any more to be placed without rolling down and across the floor.

Roj went back upstairs to radio Bubba after the walkie talkies failed to work in the basement. To his relief they worked fine once he’d left the basement.   Bubba, glasses sweeping over the mall in the distance, eyed the sinking sun.  It wouldn’t be long before the Infected rose and started moving.  He swung down after telling Roj to get the others and meet him in back of the church.

The survivors under the leadership of the others worked feverishly to hook up the bus to some of the cars in the ring and pull them out of the way while others hauled bodies outside.  The ghastly sounds from the locked storage compartment were ignored for the moment although Melissa  stood guard in the basement while Tony and Chuk stood ready in case the door started to move.  It was better to think of them merely as creatures, as Infected or monsters rather than children.  It made it easier to deal with the scratching noises coming from the other side of the heavy oak door.

As the sun continued its descent the church was cleaned up and the barricades reinforced as best as they could.  The bus was backed up against the broken door and the bus’s doors were locked and tied down preventing opening from the outside.

As the shadows grew longer outside they retreated to the basement hoping the earth and stone would shelter them from the Infected’s uncanny ability to sense them.

Finally though there was no putting it off any longer and the infected in the store room had to be dealt with.  Roj, pouring a little gasoline from a molotov into a chainsaw that was lying upstairs, got it started and then carved a small hole in the top of the door.  The noise inside sound more like a pack of wild dogs haring after prey and for most that was what they pretended it was as Roj threw in a molotov and after hearing it break inside lit a second one and tossed it after the first.   A gout of flame blasted through the opening and under the door and the sounds from inside grew even more frantic but within less than a minute a ghastly silence broken only by the heavy breathing of those watching was all that filled the room.  The scent of cooked meats sent more than one of the survivors stumbling upstairs where they lost what little food they’d consumed over the day.

The hole and gaps were stuffed with spare cloth and the survivors huddle together near the front of the basement, as far from the storage room as they could get as outside the sun fell and the Infected rose from their torpor.

The group huddled together, sparing a precious half gallon for each person to wash as best as they could from the supply they’d found in the basement as the night passed slowly but uneventfully.  The looming threat of the radio broadcast, telling them to get as far as possible from the city before it was cleansed in a bath of nuclear fire shrouded the dawning of the new day in fear.

As the morning hours crept ever so slowly they passed the time as best as they could until at 11:34 by Bubba’s watch a tremor started to run through the building shaking it as the ground wave reached outwards.  Minutes later another tremor shook the building even as the first was dying out.

“There goes New York and Philly.” Roj said as the rumbling earth subsided and everyone looked around at each other eyes wide.

They remain in the basement throughout the remainder of the day taking inventory and stock, handing out weapons to each survivor even if they don’t have ammo to give them yet.   They find a journal that indicates one of the previous occupants was in radio contact with a group out of Phoenix that was setting up a safe haven for survivors.   Later that night they  are forced to go upstairs as Infected start banging on the buildings.  There they find to their utter horror that the infected now running around the building already bear wounds that should have killed them and in fact appear to be true undead as a light gray radioactive ash lays upon everything.

Alice, a long time Romero fan, steps up and explains the proper way to kill a true zombie and the group uses makeshift spears and crowbars, hammered out through the gaps in the boards over the windows to plunge them into the eyes and heads of the zombies outside after other wounds fail to do any significant damage.

[Dennis: I wanted to ramp up the scary bits here.  Now they have both Infected (still living creatures) and true Undead to worry about.  Like all Undead the cause is pretty much way out there but in this case the Infected were caused by a fungal virus that ate away their rational thought centers leaving only the beast like monkey/lizard brain which created the raging creatures known as Infected.   But when subjected to radiation this mutates the fungus and gives it the ability to stimulate nerve pulses and the body resumes motion and activity and continues its last imprinted activity.  Which unfortunately for the living is to seek out and destroy those creatures that it senses are not part of its hive mind.  In essence the government did what it always seems to do, screw things up more. ]

The group defeats the risen undead around the church, all the bodies they’d pulled out that didn’t have head wounds rose up and sought out the church again.  Luckily for the survivors they’d emptied the church of the bodies and for the most part the last defenders had killed most of the infected with head wounds.

As the day dawned and the Infected went back to their torpor state, a state the Undead were not subject to, they devised a plan.  They need to refuel the bus. To do that they needed a way to pump diesel out of the tanks below the truck stop.  Bubba, while standing watch the day before made note of the stores listed on the Mall marquees and one of them was a hardware store.

Our heroes elect to try to sneak through town to the mall, not wanting to risk the bus running out of fuel in an attempt to get it there.  They reach the mall only to find it filled with infected or undead or both.  They move around to the back side and break into a receiving room next to the loading docks.   Bubba heads up a ladder to the front to drop a concussion grenade to draw the creatures toward the front while the rest try to get into the building.  Melissa is almost grabbed as she pries the door open Roj is there to blow the creature away that’s reaching through it.

The room inside is empty of other creatures even as the concussion grenade goes off out front blowing out the glass and attracting creatures.  Bubba high tails it across the roof to the back and spots undead moving across the parking lot toward him.  He slides down the ladder and hammers on the door to get in, making it inside seconds ahead of the infected after him.  They bar the door on the inside, now that the lock is broken its not going to be much deterrent to the creatures although luck is on their side and the door opens outwards and the creatures aren’t the brightest bulbs on the tree and primarily are pushing against it.

The receiving room opens into the loading dock and after Sonny hears movement inside, his years of living on the streets have honed his survival senses and give him an edge in this scary new world.   A cheap desk is carefully lifted and placed in front of the door blocking it.  When everyone is set, Sonny yanks open the door and the rest start firing, killing the infected creatures that swarm toward them, blocked by the desk.  Bubba is forced to drop down and brace it from being pressed in while the rest kill the creatures.   Everything is going well when the side door is open as one of the creatures outside finally, accidentally pulls the knob sharply and a creature reaches through and tries to grab Sonny.  Bubba shoves a hand through Sonny’s legs, MP5 in hand and unleashes a burst that rips up the creature’s body shoving it back into the others.  Sonny turns and unloads his shotgun on the other two while Roj and Alice finish off the ones in the loading room.

They slam the door to the outside shut and refasten it and check out the loading dock finding a miscellaneous of items, including a H&K G3 still in its shipping create.   Sadly no ammo though.

Using a map on the wall they discover the hardware store shares a wall with the receiving room office.  A fire axe takes care of that and they bust a hole into the hardware store and start moving precious items into the office.  A hand pump, duct tape, flashlights, tools, everything they think they can use is grabbed in swift silence.

Piling their booty near the exit they discuss the gun shop which is across and just down the main hallway outside the loading dock area.  Roj is for retreating outside and then slowly but safely hammering through the roof to drop down into the shop.

Unfortunately fate steps in as Vlad radios in and informs them the bus is getting swarmed with undead, screams echo over the walkie talkie.  Vlad is ordered to head the bus to the mall and the group gets ready and charges into the hall, guns and bolt cutters ready.  They slide to a halt in front of the gun store and snap the lock off the sliding security gate and slam it down behind them even as undead swarm toward them.

They find a treasure trove of guns and ammo inside and load up, ignoring the undead trying to reach through the gate after them.  As Vlad reaches the mall he drives in a huge circle around it in the parking lot as the ones inside carefully kill the 40+ creatures outside.  With those dead they struggle to get the gate back up and their loot outside.   As the bus swings in to pick them up they throw their gear on board even as a huge swarm of undead come around the corner.  The bus pulls away just ahead of the creature’s grasping hands.

They head down the highway trying to cut line of sight with the creatures and apparently it worked as they reach the truck stop and after a few minutes of anxious waiting there are no undead in sight.   Roj and Alice step outside, Roj to pump and Alice to stand guard and the diesel starts to slowly flow into the bus.  The seconds tick away, each minute allowing more precious fuel to enter the bus.  As the tank reaches half full though zombies start to appear from a new direction, drawn by the feel of the bus full of people and they have to abandon the pump and flee down the highway away from the huge swarm and the new swarm.

About this time they realize a bus makes a pretty good weapon and after stringing out the 20 or so new infected they reverse course and smash them flat and return to finish fueling.

They leave the town, taking a bypass route around it and head south west toward Phoenix and this city of safety they’d read about.  Their route is convoluted as they try to steer clear of all major cities for fear of radiation and the light gray dust laying everywhere is an ever present reminder that perhaps it might be too late.

In a small strip town they run into two other survivors, Elijah and Mary, who offer to trade them fresh foods for any canned goods they have and invite them to their homestead.  Paranoid our group declines and gets back on their bus, guns ready and continue on their trip.

[Dennis: This was a canned encounter in the Zombie Run module and it went about like I figured it would knowing my players.  Although I think it would have been a pretty fun encounter to play out.]

After days of driving, siphoning fuel from abandoned semis and the like and many many  detours they reach the Rockies and head up them, running into snowfall on the narrow winding roads through the mountains.  With a cliff on both sides, one up and one down, they slowly navigate the roads and as they near the top they spot a convoy on the road behind them.  Suspicious as one might expect they try to increase their speed but after almost losing the bus over the edge are forced to slow down and the convoy catches up with them.

Gun fire erupts from the vehicles and one of the rear tires is blown out.  Realizing they’re not going to be able to get away  Bubba slams the bus to a halt angled across the road and they return fire.

The fight is intense as fully automatic weapons rip the back of the bus to shreds.  Vlad is downed, bullets smashing through his head as he leans out to fire his pistol back at the attackers and Susan dies a little later, bleeding out as a bullet pierces the veins in her neck.

With few long guns among them things look bleak but slowly the survivors whittle away their attackers in spite of the many automatic weapons they’re facing and unexpectedly shots ring out from the hillside above them creating confusion among the enemy.

As the raiders are down to two men they try to bargain their way out of their predicament and the group yells back that they’re free to go.  As the two men get back on their dirt bikes and head back the way they came, our survivors nail them both with grazing wounds.  Trapped away from the cover of their larger vehicles, taking fire from two directions the two men throw up their hands and kneel in the snow.

Stay tuned to find out what happens next….

Zombie Run

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Dark

A small introduction to your cast going clockwise.  The characters were picked at random by the players out of 8 total possibilities -

• Sonny Payne – A homeless man on the streets of NYC.  He knows this is the work of the aliens.  He’s a survivor first and foremost.  [and his friends who'll you'll see later.]
• Melissa Montenegro, the daughter of a retired Spanish ambassador, raised in England who is in NYC to visit the birthplace of her mother.  An older woman she is in her 40′s played by Laura.
• Travis “Bubba” Howell -A good ol’ boy with a truck and runs the Howell Feed and Seed back in Barnswallow Missouri where he has a large family.  He’s been a bit reluctant to say why he was in NYC when the event occurred.
• Alok “Roj” Persaud – Roj as he’s known to his friends is a political science major from India going to NYC.

Each of these two has taken a couple of others under their wing although their allies play only a small part so far and we’ll leave them nameless except of Crazy Mary who is another homeless person that’s came with Sonny.

These four and 16 others are holed up in the Baxter building.  It’s been a month since the first reports of the infected occurred, dismissed as rioters, crazies, terrorists.  But within days the ‘rioters’ had become a global phenomenon and things swiftly went to hell in a hand-basket.  The infected are crazed mindless killing machines fueled by a adrenaline rage that gives them great strength and speed although they’re a bit spastic.   Being bitten by the infected leads to the wounded ‘turning’ within hours and joining the mindless throngs.   There is no cure.  If you’re infected you will turn.  Not every bite infects but the odds are stacked against you if you are.

Two scavenging parties that went out over the two weeks prior to today have failed to return.  The parties were both 10 men and women strong against Roj’s recommendations.  He believes the ability of the creatures to sense the uninfected is strengthened the larger the group of non-infected there are.  It was his recommendations that put them on the sixth floor of the building as that seemed to be beyond the creature’s abilities to sense mass groups.

Just last night  another group a couple of blocks down the group that was holed up on the 3rd floor of a building was swarmed by infected and presumably destroyed.

With the loss of the two scavenging parties the group lost most of its youth and the majority of its firepower although Bubba retained a MP5 he picked up off a downed S.W.A.T. officer.

Now things are looking a bit grim.  They have enough food to feed the 20 remaining survivors for perhaps a week although water isn’t a problem thanks to Melissa’s pushing to fill everything that would hold water in the early days before the power went out.

They decide that the ability to protect themselves with something more than boards with nails in them is of higher importance and trek on foot during the hottest part of day 31 of the event to the police museum about a mile away which also included a small police force.  The infected tend to retreat into the cooler parts of the buildings out of the heat during the hottest parts of the day and aren’t nearly as active or present.

Bodies in front of the museum yielded some valuable finds, a police car with the keys in it, Roj, picked up an MP5 of his own, concealed under a body although they found few other items of real value, a couple of flashlights, some MRE’s and the like.  Good stuff to be sure but not the rocket launchers they were all secretly hoping for.

The sound of engines alerted them and they retreated into the police station to watch from concealment.  Two teens on scooters went by in the street, fairly harmless looking but the group decided to let them go by without flagging them down.

The noise though woke up four infected who were slumbering further back in the station who attacked. The battle was short although furious and the two sub machine guns proved to be pretty valuable.  Bubba and Roj gong full auto decimated the infected but not before Sonny Payne was seriously bitten.  Melissa heals his wounds, and her own, using up medical supplies brought by Roj. The three of them trade secret looks as she cleans the savage bite mark on his shoulder.

As the last of the infected dropped inside the police station the growing sound of a swarm of infected pursuing the scooters swelled and then receded outside the building.

[Game Mechanic - If a non-infected takes damage from an infected of more than 1 wound then at the end of the encounter I make a secret roll to see if they've been infected themselves.  The group doesn't know the result of this roll or of subsequent rolls to see when the bitten actually turn.  Typically a bitten turns withing a few hours, fewer more often than several.

In regards to the swarm outside if the fight inside was going on with gunfire when the swarm went by then portion of that herd would peel off and enter the building but the group managed to kill the initial group fast enough that it was all quiet by the time the swarm went by.]

They pile their haul into the police car and head back to their building without further incident.  There, guns leveled at Sonny Payne they take away his new found fireaxe and lock him in the back of the police car and retreat upstairs.  They do leave him a water bottle and a MRE.

It’s not long before a single infected, following the car randomly takes the right turns to end up in the parking garage and senses Sonny where he’s cowering in the floorboards in the back seat.  It starts beating on the glass but has trouble getting through.  Sonny does a Jedi mind trick on it and manages to retreat away by kicking out the glass on the opposite side and then carefully opening the door and slinking away leaving the infected still trying to get to him by going through the window.   Sonny carefully sneaks away down the line of the group’s parked vehicles and holes up in the stairwell and blocks the door using some of the furniture the group filled the stairwell up with.

After a night of trying out MRE’s and watching Little Mermaid for the 18th time on the single DVD/TV player combo unit they have that’s running off an inverter attached to a car battery, the group comes back downstairs to check on Sonny.

Since he’s still able to speak semi-coherently they quit aiming guns at him.  Directly anyway, they’re still pointed in his general direction and discuss their next step.  Sonny, having left his MRE in the car and spending the night hungry remembers where some restaurant supply houses are and the four of them head that way.

The first one they come to is barricaded from inside and when they knock a voice yells at them to go away. They spot another man on the roof who looks over real quick and then ducks back sporting a pistol.  They offer to trade but the group inside wants only ammo and our group has none to spare.   In spite of Sonny’s uncanny ability to come up with bullets by scavenging.

They leave and move on to another place.  There they find it open although not unoccupied, Sonny’s flashlight highlights 3 infected eating various glops smashed out of cans.  They charge but not before Roj and Bubba unleash bursts on two of them turning them into rag dolls.  The third makes it to Sonny who beans it with his fireaxe on the way in and one of the others puts a bullet into its skull.

The gun fire though has roused many infected who begin to move toward the sound.  The group hurriedly moves some furniture in front of the broken door and retreats further into the building.  There they find a cornucopia, coming up with all the food they could want short term and a panel truck to haul it in.  As the infected outside wander away unable to find the source of the noises they load the truck up with food, building a barricade in the back for Roj to hang out behind while the other three are up front.

They head back to their building but not before a bullet grazes Bubba’s shoulder, shot through the window glass. A burst of automatic fire, probably assault rifle calibre rips through the top of the truck and punches holes in various cans of peaches, tomato paste and corn but doesn’t do any damage and Bubba floors it.

They head straight back to their building and park the truck on the garage with back up against a wall and retreat upstairs to enjoy some of the fuits of their labor.

[Unbeknownst to them, they were followed and another group of survivors is deploying outside their building while they sleep.]

They’re shaken awake in the early hours of the next morning by Tony who likes to listen to the radio, there’s a 6 hour loop that’s still playing from a college station and Tony does like  his rap and hip hop, strangely enough for a middle aged electrician out of the Bronx.

There is now a looping EBS message, the voice male and somehow distinguished sounding that says all many major urban centers are going to be nuked in an effort to stem the infected before they start to spread further out into the country and if you can hear this you have 24 hours to get 150 miles distance.

That puts a crimp in their plans and they go into overdrive gathering gear and rushing it downstairs to the garage levels.

They decide to take three vehicles, Bubba will be driving his Surburban as the lead car along with Melissa and six of the other survivors.  Joe, a subway employee is going to drive the Voyager with 5 of the group and Sonny is going to drive the panel truck with Roj riding shotgun.

Surprised to find themselves under fire as they exit the building the surburban takes several hits, one almost taking Bubba out and another burst doing damage to the SUV.   Everyone ducks and the truck surges ahead although leaking steam to disappear down the street.

The minivan isn’t so lucky and takes a lot of damage from a burst of automatic fire that destroys the engine and steering and it continues across the street and smashes into a building. The passengers bail out and try to surrender although a couple are gunned down as they exit the vehicle.

This distraction though proved beneficial to the panel truck and it escapes relatively unharmed although it does take a couple of hits.

The group meets up and continues toward the Brooklyn Bridge only to find it choked with cars and impassible.  There’s some discussion and then the swarm of infected following the sound of the vehicles is sighted and they all make a break for the pedestrian walkway on foot.

They’re chased but with the use of gasoline, molotovs and suppressive fire from the MP5′s they manage to put enough distance between them and the pursuit to escape.

They start looking for transportation and come up with a single car even as the infected are closing back in.  They pile 14 people, somehow, onto and in and around this car, Bubba and Melissa inside and Roj and Sonny in the truck (hood open).   The car is barely able to move but move it does.  As the swarm of infected are working closer one of the people on the roof falls off  and Sonny spots a large wound on his leg.  Whaaaa?  He leans around the trunk lid and spots Crazy Mary concealing a bloody blade.  He takes a moment to consider the situation and then another person falls off the roof, this one also with a large slash on his leg.  Roj and Sonny both start yelling “Crazy bitch on the roof is knifing people.” even as the swarm chasing them is deflected by first the one and then other of the wounded people.

[Mary's bio explains she's a survivor and she failed her spirit/guts check and saw the best way to speed the car up was to lighten the load.  Which she did.]

Bubba aims his MP5 upwards and puts a hole through the car roof and through Mary and she loses her grip and slides backwards smashing the truck lid down onto the ones in the trunk.  They push it back and then reach around and haul her body sideways off the car where it tumbles to the street.

Down to eleven the car is able to go faster and they manage to leave the pursuit.

They continue their trek out of the city, cross two more bridges, swapping cars until they manage to hit the Jersey shore.   They find a city bus that’s still operable and head west, managing to get enough diesel to keep the bus moving for several hours although due to road jams and such they have to backtrack and detour in several places.

They arrive at a small wide spot in the road, a small mall, a truck stop and a handful of buildings. They spot a sign for a gun store in the mall.  Leaving one group to oversee the re-fueling and the two older people and the pregnant girl on the bus, another group is going to head to the mall to see what they can come up with.

What will our survivors find waiting for them at the mall?  A plethora of guns and ammo or empty shelves?  Will they have to fight their way through waves of Infected or will it be eerily quiet?  Tune in next time and see.

Photo Credits

Episode 17, part 3 of the Key Our Cars group’s 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons podcast gameplay session.

Subscribe to the feed – http://www.keyourcars.com/feed/podcast/

Also available through iTunes.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Episode 17, part 2 of the Key Our Cars group’s 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons podcast gameplay session.

Subscribe to the feed – http://www.keyourcars.com/feed/podcast/

Also available through iTunes.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Episode 17, part 1 of the Key Our Cars group’s 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons podcast gameplay session.

Subscribe to the feed – http://www.keyourcars.com/feed/podcast/

Also available through iTunes.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Sushanna Enjoying A Sunset

Everyone is present and accounted for in this session, Biminey, Stak, T’Balktu, Torel, Visra.  Our heroes have reached level 10 in the quest to end the dangers to their little corner of the world.

We join them in Aricee’s lair where the dragon, shifted into human female form, instructs them in their tasks, how they must defeat the Guardian of the Lance of Unmaking, recover the Lance and then go to Darkmith to destroy the Chaosborn.

T’Balktu and Aricee spend a few hours alone while the rest work on their gear and Biminey crafts magical items.  Aricee gifts T’Balktu for his performance with a matching set of axes, the greataxe known as Ghost Slayer and the throwing axe known as Splintertree.  He is pleased as was she.  And it’s not everyone who gets to lay with a dragon.  Which I’m sure will have no dire consequences…

They proceed toward the Guardian’s lair after Aricee assures them that she will help them return after they find out it’s a chute down into a room.  Biminey uses his Ladder ritual to make it easy to descend into the depths.

There they find a floorless room with flipping platforms on gears and pistons to stand on.  As the fourth one comes down the platform flips and almost tosses Biminey [I think] into the bottomless darkness but a quick grab by one of the other’s saves him from certain death. [Yes this was a return to the Save or Die of the old days but it is the season finale and the dangers are ramped up accordingly.]

They spread out and defeat the constructs that are attacking them for serious damage, inadvertently spreading out and reducing the risk of any particular platform flipping over. [A platform flipped on a roll of 15 or high, +2 for each person on the platform over 1.  By splitting up they made it a lot less likely that a platform would flip.  Purely unintentional on their part.]

They moved around the room, jumping from platform to platform with Biminey working his way closer to the central brain to shut it down but the amount of damage the party can pump out swiftly overwhelmed the mobile portions of the construct.  There was another bit of a hair raiser as T’Balktu jumped on the platform that Biminey was on and caused it to flip over sending T’Balktu plunging to his death only to be snagged at the last second by Bimney’s Acrobatics roll (which he has no skill in) saving T’Balktu’s player from having two deaths in the campaign.

Under the platforms they uncovered the Lance and retrieved with T’Balktu nimbly climbing the pistols and gears to get to it.  There was no sign of Aricee so they left the room of the guardian by T’Balktu using the lance to open a passage through the shielding magic.

Aricee was waiting at the top and she had a bit of an interlude with T’Balktu in a frozen moment of time where she gave him her True Name so he could destroy the crystal binding her to her service as the tunnel’s guardian.   When he destroyed the crystal embedded into her chest a two headed dragon shadow was cast from the explosion of light.  T’Balktu kept this bit of information to himself.

They talked with Aricee about what they were supposed to do, “Kill the chaosborn” and she was going to get them to their destination and bring their airship to them and support them in their battle.

[In an aside, with herself free from her captivity she didn't give a rat's ass about the chaosborn, a minor annoyance only to her and simply wanted the party out of her hair figuratively speaking.  When she didn't show up to help, when they had to walk back because there was no airship, and later on as Biminey figures out the whole 'explode the airship' was bullshit the light began to dawn on the group.  "Never trust a dragon." isn't a phrase that came about by whim and whimsy.]

The group found themselves in Darkmith where a war was going on.  They spotted the central power area and headed that way, failing their attempts to sneak through town and were surrounded by undead, summoned by Phy’el Fleshwalker for the battle.  They defeated a huge swarm of undead only to seem hundreds more running after them.  When the undead all stopped and Phy’el himself appeared.  “If you win, remember I did you no harm when I could have.” he says and all the undead drop motionless to the ground as the cut the strings binding them to him.  Phy’el has long held a grudge against Liloth and her King and like all good evil people is more than happy to screw them over for slights they have done him.  And he’s also hedging his bets, he senses the magic artifact the group possesses, trying to curry a little future favor perhaps.

They push on and reach the ziggurat of power where the Chaosborn is being reborn.  Liloth his lover is climbing the tower toward him.

T’Balktu kicks on his Ghost Slayer ability and charges the Creature, slaying it, at least it’s human form, releasing the chaosbeast within.  He continues to use the Lance of Unmaking against the creature, finally destroying it and the group turns its attention to Liloth who’s a little upset at the events.  But the group has grown too strong for this little regional hazard and mops up the floor with Liloth and the pet shadows.

They recover a Shadowblade, a dreadful greatsword from the shadowfey that was the Chaosborn’s weapon and very gingerly maneuver it into a bag of holding without touching it.

They help mop up the city, joining in with the hobgoblin tribes battling the minor darkness’s still released in the city alongside the strange eyeless, mouthless priests of the white king.

Leaving the city, on foot, they trudge through the swamps surrounding the city and stop off to spend a couple of days with the Soul Eaters in their home range, the tattoo’s on their arms are extended by the tattoo artists of the tribe, depicting their battles against the darkness in stylized abstracts.

They continue back to Larkson where they find Teagon working a power play to take over the city and remove the Council.  He’s hired more mercenaries from Anvil and after all the fighting his forces outnumber the Watch.    With the group informing him that the deed is done and the city is safe he bargains with them to join in.

The group does and become partners with Teagon.  They arrange for Garon and the just appointed Merchant faction Councilor Neev to be moved out of power gently as possible.  They work a deal to keep the Watch alive and in their control and direct all martial activities in the city, although everyone understands that with Teagon holding the purse strings that feeds the mercenairies that that control could be tenuous.  But Teagon is smart and wise and understands the power that the group presents so the deal is made and at this time both sides appear to be genuinely interested in keeping it.  The group will receive a 1000 golds a month each for their portion of the bargain, a fortune really for this town although Biminey is going to donate his income to the Watch to help train, equip and restore them.  The Watch lost most of their men, dead or injured beyond fighting ability, and what’s left are the lucky, green and inept without only a small cadre of veterans.

They bring the airship into town and then fly out to the slaver stronghold searching for the two ships full of the town’s women and children, finding only a work crew lead by a slaver working on rebuilding the islands buildings.  They capture them all, interrogate them and then destroy the newly constructed works and building materials and fly back to their city.

Sushanna tells Biminey that one of the until now dead lights on the ship’s consoles lit green for a few hours one day while they were gone (during their walk back to Larkson).

When they get back to the city, there is talk of a flying creature spotted in the skies out to sea, seen more by it’s blocking out the stars than any direct visual.  It was assumed to be the group’s airship but when word got around that it wasn’t then other people stepped forth saying it was a vast flying creature, a dragon certainly.

What it was, what the green light means, where the slavers took the slaves, where did Phy’el wander off to, where the slavers main bases are and what they’re doing, the rebuilding of the city of Larkson and the outcome of the battle of Darkmith, these questions and more will have to wait till we pick up this campaign and enter the Tier of the Paragon’s…

Image Credits

Episode 16, part 3 of the Key Our Cars group’s 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons podcast gameplay session.

Subscribe to the feed – http://www.keyourcars.com/feed/podcast/

Also available through iTunes.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Episode 16, part 2 of the Key Our Cars group’s 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons podcast gameplay session.

Subscribe to the feed – http://www.keyourcars.com/feed/podcast/

Also available through iTunes.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Episode 16, part 1 of the Key Our Cars group’s 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons podcast gameplay session.

Subscribe to the feed – http://www.keyourcars.com/feed/podcast/

Also available through iTunes.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Interlude – Island Fortress….

The blind woman’s eyes blinked, the milky white hidden for an instant behind pale flesh.  The unseeing eyes turned to point to the back of the heavily robed figure standing at the window, looking out at the rolling waves of the seas below. 

“Yes I felt it, Lady, Bokka Jothan is no more.  It seems our lowest Captain has met something he couldn’t entice, enslave or destroy. Or bore to death with his petty scheming.” Lord Volk said without turning from the view. “His line has proven itself weak…” the high lord over the slavers mused. 

Around the room, shadows stirred where they lay in deep pools, spots darker somehow than the deepest of shadows flickered in each and they all seemed to turn toward the still form by the window.

“Yes my pets, the line of Jotham has failed us.”  At his words the shadows began writhing and swirling.  If one had to make an analogy then perhaps the closest would be a pack of puppies about to be given a treat.  If the puppies were comprised of the stuff of nightmares given substance. “Go, you have your freedom to seek out all of of the Jotham line until the sun falls and rises one time and teach them that failure is not an option.”

Before Volk’s words were finished the shadows began streaming out of the room flowing over the stone like night made liquid.  Soon the chamber was empty aside from Volk and the woman.

She spoke, “Is that wise love?”

Volk turned away from the window and approached her, the rich silks of his robes sliding across the pristine floor without a sound. He reached out and cupped the woman’s chin, tilting her head up to his. “Wise, Lady? Perhaps not but not terribly unwise.  And my irritation with Bokka’s losing of the airship is well known.  To ignore his failure would weaken my position.  Loosing the shades on his line will give the rest something to fear for awhile and perhaps put a stop to their plotting and planning my downfall.  What says the warp?”

The woman, Lady Sethra, stepped in toward Volk and put her arms around him, “The lines are… cloudy now love.  A Great One has become involved and its presence stirs and fragments the now and the future into so many strange shapes that it becomes impossible to make sense of them.”

“Truly…” Volk’s deep baritone rumbled in his chest against her cheek.  “What would have peaked the interest of the one of the ancient reptiles?”

“I know not love but its actions impact the lines of everything.  I would advise activities in the north, the warp and web there are convulated beyond all untangling at this time.  Perhaps in time its attention will focus elsewhere.”

“Perhaps. I’m reluctant to give up the quest for that ship.  If we can duplicate its craftings, imagine the power we could wield.  The very air would become our oceans and our raiders could go anywhere they wished, descending where they would, taking what is rightfully ours by our very predation.”

“I advise time love.  It changes all things and the situation to the north will change in time.”

“Perhaps you are right Lady, perhaps.”  Lord Volk absently stroked the inky black hair of the woman, eyes focused and at the same time not seeing the far wall of the chamber.  He snapped his fingers, the sound belling out, louder than such a slow gesture should generate.  Before the echoes stopped resonating around the chamber the gilded doors opened.

“Yes mi’lord?” questioned the man who stepped through.

“Summon the captains who first issued the reports of the airship. I wish to question them, personally.”

“So it will be mi’lord.” the man bowed, waiting to be dismissed.

Lord Volk brushed his hand over his neatly trimmed beard, “And bring up one of the virgins from the last ship.  I found another gray hair this morning Jovan. It is past time I renewed myself.  Now go.”

“As you command mi’lord.”

Dragon Lady

The priests of the temple of Eris were able to eventually sever the controlling strings of the undead and they all dropped to the ground motionless and the citizen rose up in arms to destroy those wandering the city streets.

As the group arrived back they found Captain Werrick missing one of his legs from the knee down and discovered that he led a force against three figures that seemed to be commanding the forces as well as breaching the walls, a female in white, a mostly nude man who’s flesh morphed and wavered and a dark shadow figure.

They also learned that ‘merchant ships from the south’ had arrived and were taking on women and children to sail them to safety.  Two of the three ships had already left filled to the brim with children and women and the third was still loading.

The group jumped to the conclusion that the ships were slavers picking up an easy profit and headed to the harbor.

They ran into a group of sailors and approached them.  A noble looking individual confirmed that what the group suspected and delivered an ultimatum, the group delivers the airship to the island and they give the women and children back.  If they don’t deliver the airship then they’re going to infect all the captives with the parasites and give them back.

The discussion rapidly went downhill.  The noble turned out to be a fake, while the real noble, a fire mage of some power was dressed as a sailor.  The sailors were quickly put down leaving the fire mage and the slaver lashmaster.  As things took a turn for the worse for the slavers the firemage made his escape using a contingency teleport ring to teleport back to the ship leaving the lashmaster who surrendered to the group.  As he made his getaway he told the group that they’d just doomed one ship full of children and if they wanted the others returned then bring the airship to him.

The gruop took a few minutes to recover, loot and discuss the thing and smoke started rising from the harbor.  They rushed to the harbor and found several of the small fishing ships on fire as well as the docks and warehouse. People  rushed in to quench the flames.  Once it was clear the flames were under control  the group got out their longboat and sailed out to the airship and set off after the fleeing slaver ship.

after an attempt to set the ship’s sails on fire failed, the firemage simply doused the flames, Stak shot a note down to the ship demanding the slavers debark in the ships boats and leave the captives onboard.   The slavers failed to listen so the group started riddleing it with ballista bolts.  The slavers quickly retaliated by lashing their captives to the sides of the ship.  This failed to deter the group and they continued to try and sink the ship.  And yes their ballista bolts hit more than one captive.

On board the ship the firemage weighed his options and found them wanting and performed a ritual that exploded the entire ship, killing everyone on board rather than see group rescue a single one.

The group turned the air ship around and headed back to its usual place with a rather somber atmosphere.   They re-entered the city.  Torel’s new found ability to see the lines of power protecting the city while holding the battle standard lead them to an old reading room now in use by the high priest as a bedroom as he didn’t feel comfortable taking the last high priest’s bedroom.

They found a mosaic in the floor and using the key they’ve been carrying for so long they triggered a lift, the entire floor of the room that dropped them down deep into the earth into a chamber.

There they were accosted by constructs demanding a pass phrase, when it wasn’t forthcoming they fought the constructs.  Torel in his infinite avenger wisdom opened a door and added in another set of constructs.   But with clever use of the Deamon Heart amulet and a failed reaction roll the new buzz saw construct fought with one of the other’s and the two ended up dealing something like 150+ points of damage to each other which was probably one of the few things that could have saved the group.   In total the encounter ended up a level 15 against a level 9 party which would typically result in someone or all someone’s dying.  But by setting two of them on each other they removed roughly 300 damage the group would have had to absorb and added 300 damage to the group’s output.   Call it luck if you will but it saved them.

Inside the second chamber they found the Book of All Things and Biminey was able to recover an ass load of residium from the cylidners powering the protections on the room as well as enough parts to make a new construct, a mobile buzzsaw that he can deploy in combat.

As they left the temple they were met by Aricee, a strange being in the form of a plain looking woman but with the eyes of a dragon.  She opened a portal leading them into her lair where they waded through piles of gold and jewels to a side chamber where they were fed a great meal.

Aricee told them that their best chance in the upcoming battle was to recover the Lance of Unmaking which is located deep in her lair guarded by a creature.  She tells them she guards the lair, the guardian guards the lance and she has a device embedded in her chest that protects the lance from her.

The group is located in an instant between the past and future and will have several days grace before the time in the world ticks over and the chaosborn is freed.   This gives them time to prepare, recover the lance and save the world.

She also tells them that the lance and the banner may not be enough and that it is possible to destroy the airship in a single cataclysmic event that will unmake everything in the blast radius.

We leave our group there as they prepare to descend into the tunnels after the Lance of Unmaking for their final climatic battle against the chaosborn and go down in a ball of flame or emerge victorious.

Image Credits