Try Not to Die


Campaign Journals

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As has been mentioned in a few other threads in addition to the Pathfinder game I run on Saturdays, I am also currently running a game using the Anima system on Tuesdays. That will soon be coming to an end. Not that I will cease running on Tuesdays, but I've done as much with the Anima game as I feel I want to.

So this thread will be dedicated to the new campaign I am working on for Tuesdays. I will be using the GURPS system, current looking at 200 point characters, 50 points of disadvantages and 5 poins of quirks. Each character must be human and must be from Earth. They can be from past, present or future. It can be an earth with magic or an earth with psychics.

The characters will all wake up togather with only the cloths on their backs and no idea how they got there. "There" will prove to be a landscape completely barren of life with a modern day town in the distance. From there survival will be up to their skills and luck.

The inspiration for this game will be taken from many places, virtually all of which fall into the horror or post-apocalyptic categories. Some of the main inspirations are 28 Day Later, Zombieland, Resident Evil, Biomeet-Necter (manga) and the horror manga of Junji Ito. It's going to be gruesome.

Currently there are 12 players expected to be in the game. It was 11 but Tanis expressed an interest in joining, and is one of the only players I would allow to do so. I am encouraging the players to post journals using this thread. Audience participation would be most welcome. If you have suggestions for horrible things for them to come across in their journey through a destroyed world please feel free, just put in a spoiler tag. Any of my players who read spoiler tags will be docked exp. Also if you have any suggestions for the players go ahead and make them. They will need the help.

I expect a character death or two in the first session. While I’ll do my best to not try and trick the characters into getting killed, it will still be a dangerous world. One wrong move could kill you and anyone nearby.


Shi-it. This foo is gonna get us dead. Can't trust no one but yoself. Where's my scotch? I'm gonna need a drink while I can get it.


Survival Horror 101

__________or__________

Why I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Zombies

Be wary of dawgs, booby traps, dawgs, diseases, dawgs, many and varied shades of the undead, dawgs, bad ammunition, dawgs, bad food, dawgs, velociraptors escaped from the new world's version of Umbrella Corp ... and feral persons. Did I forget to mention dawgs? House cats too, they'll snack on your freshly decapitated neck stump.

Melee combat is Bad. Hamstringing the gimp to delay the escaped zoo critters is a survival tool. Having everyone with doctors' educations will be a Good Thing - a Very Good Thing.

Don't wear "shoot me signs", especially ones off of department stores.

Don't be afraid of having some kind of "occult", "psychic" or "magical" edge. That and solid martial arts combat training - and survivalist training - will make the difference between eating and starving to death. Or dying from intestinal parasites.

If you bring in a used hubcap salesman, make him the baddest motherf*cker with any hubcab. Able to use them as armor and shield (to block attacks and soak up gnawing damage), fling them in decapitating fashion (like lethal frisbees) ...


Turin the Mad wrote:


If you bring in a used hubcap salesman, make him the baddest motherf*cker with any hubcab. Able to use them as armor and shield (to block attacks and soak up gnawing damage), fling them in decapitating fashion (like lethal frisbees) ...

And now I am picturing OddJob of James Bond fame...Razor hats!


Ahhhh dawgs. I'm having flashbacks to a certain martial artist's unfortunate run in with a pack of them.


Well, the characters are coming along nicely and we've already heard from two of our toe-tags-to-be. I'm expecting the game to start in about 3 weeks. Unfortunately I'll be going on Vacation for a week just afters. Still thems the breaks.

One player has expressed the opinion that he wants his character to follow the maxim of "better lucky than good". I expect to see him take luck, serendipity and maybe even a little wild talent. Could be very useful to the party.


Hehehe, they're all gonna dieeee.....


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Last Tuesday saw the party in the Anima game managing to complete their final mission and actually all sort of survive to get away.

Next Tuesday will be the epilogue to the Anima game and character creation for GURPS. There is a very, very tiny chance of actual game play, but I doubt it. The following week is when the fun really begins.


Hair color: Black With red streaks.

Eye color: brown.

Casual ware: black hoodie with a emblem of a a black tiger with white stripes and a white stripes with black stripes , blue jeans with with a hole in the right nee, biker cloves, sunglasses, and a skull with in the middle of a cross earring in his left ear.


Alright, character creations is (almost) done. Time to introduce the dramatis persona for this little play. As a nod to all you killer GMs out there, and others who howl for the player’s blood, every week I will putting up my death forecast. It is my estimate of how likely that particular character is to survive. Hopefully none of the players who read this thread will take it personally. I do hope some of them will take it to heart though and do their utmost to prove me wrong. Organization for this is player name, character name, chance of survival and description/words of wisdom. I may be being over generous on these estimates, but time will tell.

Ray – Malcom Phillips Jr. – 30%
Ah, mister “most likely to die”. In the previous Tuesday campaign he almost died three times and actually died twice thanks to going off on his own. Pretty bad results considering he only went off on his own 6 or 7 times in total. This character received a 30% instead of a 5% because he is less of a loner. Still experience shows that he is likely to rack up the largest number of character deaths.

Josh – TBD – 70%
While the name may not be ready yet, the personality is. He is a medieval knight who says modern insult in ancient speech. Such as “Who ist thine sire” or “Proclaim to thy fathers-brother”. Should be fun. Originally he was thinking of going with the “better lucky than good” concept. After taking down his starting age a peg and reducing the luck slightly he went with “better lucky AND good”. Low techlevel and severe motion sickness could hurt him, but overall a solid character.

David – Lilly aka “Scary Little Girl” – 80%
This is a character brought in from a Hero System game I ran a while back. She is tough, combat experienced and the player already has practice in playing her. Most of the time the player is a excellent one. He is in my PF game under the name Jayce, at least at the point it was last updated.

Garland – Damien Parker – 70%
A character from the same game as Lilly, and he also plays in my PF game as Xenos. A quiet player with a character who will stay back a bit. The character was most of the way through a PhD in medicine when he got sucked into the Hero game. There he picked up a little combat experience and the ability to heal others, a VERY handy character to have. He has the advantages to heal most wounds and disease and even the surgery skill (a 17) to reattach limbs.

Brandon G – Von Ramias Jaggermeister – 60%
A former Russian Sniper who was discharged due to “problems”. He took bloodlust as his excuse for having being discharged, and nightmares and post combat shakes to represent the fact that he feels guilty over his actions. Danger Sense, Night Vision and Acute Vision means he will see a lot of danger coming and might save more than his own skin. Still the player has a habit of being over the top which lowers the character’s life expectancy a little. He is in PF as Luna.

Dave – Lady O-Bai – 50%
A female samuri from just before the opening of Japan. Interesting character concept. It will be really interesting to see how lecherous plays out. The low survival chance comes from two factors. First is that the player has previously played a character who stayed at the back and mostly out of combat. This is outside what I’ve seen him play before, so I’m not sure how well he will do. Secondly he took unlucky, which does NOT help your life expectancy in this game.


Continuing the introductions:

Sean – Loriannasha Boling – 40%
The character has been presented to me as a tough biker chick who is a bit off her rocker. The character has the Curious disadvantage, not a good one to have here. That combined with the fact that the player tends to be distracted and a bit spastic in his player doesn’t help. Oh, and she hears Phantom Voices, YAY. He plays Lialda in the PF game.

Laura – TBD – 60%
The face of the party, and a spell caster. The player is a very good player and the character is a solid character. Her problems are twofold. First she took some disadvantages that mean she may put herself in harm’s way for other characters. This is balanced against her being a Coward (she does have the disadvantage) it will be interesting to see how the disadvantages play against one another.
The second problem comes from some of the rules I will be enforcing. With this large a table I will need to keep things like volume and respecting other players turns in care check. So I instituted the rule that to speak out of character you have to make certain hand gestures. Also regardless of whether it is in or out of character if you are being loud, your character is being loud. She has a very nice set of lungs which may end up attracting unwonted attention. Of course this doesn’t take into account her spell selection. If she takes the right ones and uses them well her forecast could go up, way up.

Amber –TBD – 80%
My girlfriend, who will be playing a druid, unfortunately one of the unfinished characters. She wants the ability to cast spells, as well as shape changing. She will probably start off being able to change into a falcon and a wolf. She tends to stay in the back of the part, that combined with the speed and meanuverability of the two alternate forms could easily make her the only one get to away from a potential TPK if the players do something especially dumb.

Syth – Ryuu Kin – 50%
A Japanese lad from a manga series called Air Gear. If you haven’t read it, think rollerblades with rockets meets softcore porn. This character is almost finished, but still needs a little work. The player is shows the potential to be an excellent RPer once he gets more experiences. The problem is that as many on these boards can tell you the road to gaining that experience is a rocky one. Plus the character won’t have the neat rocket skates when he shows up. He’ll have to build them himself, which is why he is taking gadgeteer. That will be VERY handy for the party to have if he lives. He playes Thairnos in my PF game.

Mara – Jojo – 80%
A completed character, but not one of the ones I helped to make, still from what I know a very solid build. Also the player is one of the better players I know, and a fan of this type of setting. Hopefully she’ll do well and have advice for her fellow survivors. She plays Tanis in PF and assures me that her thread will be up to date very soon.

Brandon – TBD (Maybe) - ?
A player in the Anima game who just started a new job. He may or may not be able to play and so far I have no idea what he is playing. He tends to be quiet, but his characters generally find themselves in the front line. He has learned to start building very tough characters. Unfortunately “tough” and “tough enough” aren’t quite the same thing here.

We are on schedule to start next Tuesday. At which time the characters will wake up in a landscape completely devoid of life a few hundred feet from a decently sized modern city. A city that looks uninhabited even from a distance….

Liberty's Edge

Dotting.


The deadliest disadvantage to have by far is On The Edge. Hopefully none of your group's characters are so foolish ...

Curiosity is bad enough of course, but On The Edge is some nasty business.

Your druid could buy an Extra Life or two, to represent "reincarnation" of a sort / the character's bond with Mamma Nature.


Turin the Mad wrote:

The deadliest disadvantage to have by far is On The Edge. Hopefully none of your group's characters are so foolish ...

Curiosity is bad enough of course, but On The Edge is some nasty business.

Your druid could buy an Extra Life or two, to represent "reincarnation" of a sort / the character's bond with Mamma Nature.

Nope, no extra lives here. This game the character gets one shot. There will be no resurrection of any kind at all.

And thankfully no one was dumb enough to take On The Edge, or a few others. I did point out the ones I considered death sentences.


Character Journal Prologue:
"Police!"

The yell came from the other side of the garage. Nice of the pigs to use the front entrance. The boys took off at a sprint. We knew this bust wasn't going down our style. Someone had ratted. Someone had snitched. The pigs knew just where to be and when.

I dropped the shot glass and grabbed the stack of bills before I bolted. Sometimes, you just gotta' let the money go. This was one of those times. I took just time enough for some porky f*cker in a uniform to burst through the door.

He saw me. I knew he saw me. That stare the cops give ya' when they wanna' remember you. Shi-it. I'm not clean-up crew, but this pig was gonna' need a mop.

Usually, them pigs give you a warning or something. Waste of time for them, and a good thing for me. Let them spend their breath instead of chasing us. But, this one was too hefty for chasing... and too f*cking fat to get the breath to yell. He just aimed. I guess that's how you keep on the beat at his weight.

Pig pointed that heavy lead-launcher he was packing right for me, but I was already moving. I just had to get to the rear door. I could lose them in the alleys, no prob. But, we left such a gawddamned mess all over that I was practically dancing across the room. Here's hoping that pig was an awful shot.

Two shots boomed like thunder. I don't know where that first bullet went, but I felt that second one graze my left thigh. The sudden shock of it all distracted me and sure enough – just my luck to trip on a f*cking tire! I'm gonna kill Jugs if I ever see his greasy hind-end ever again.

Yeah, just a bunch of gawddamned bad karma cashing in, I guess. That POS tire sent me to the floor, my right shoulder slamming hard into the concrete underneath of me. And wouldn't you know that f*cking pig came over to gloat? Yeah, I could've put up a fight, but I didn't need that expletive deleted getting me point blank. Some people are just too damned trigger-happy.

Shi-it, Officer Baconator was even nice enough to pack my pockets with a couple grams of snow and then even let me hold a pretty switchblade while he made sure my prints were on them good and thick. Of course, the f*cker could have given me the knife without cuffs on, but that'd be too much like a sporting chance. So, there I sat on the cold concrete with my hands behind me and some CPD blue boy on the take doing his business behind me.

F*cking set-up! I'm really, REALLY gonna' kill Jugs if I see his face just one more time...

Baconator called his buddies and some nice tart looking to prove she had the balls to play with the big boys decided that rough was how I liked it. Yeah, I've done this dance before. Sometimes, you just gotta' suck up the humiliation... The expletive deleted with the badge got tired quick, and the rest of the pigs had to escort me to a seat. They weren't letting me out of here till the real detectives got on scene. So, the only seat left for me was behind the wheel of a carved-up Shelby GT500. I was barely in that bucket for 5 seconds till...

Well, that's just it. The last thing I remembered was Eleanor.


Well, first session down and it was fairly gruesome. Only one character death though, which is slightly disappointing, but of course the danger is far from over.

The players got a feel for how bad things would be when I introduced them to the setting. They woke up in an area utterly devoid of life. Not blades of grass or buzzing fly anywhere to be seen. The sun had not hit noon yet and the temperature was already climbing from the 80’s towards the 90’s rapidly. The air was still and without the slightest breeze, making the heat that much worse.

After some introductions the group eventually headed south, where they could see a large town/small city of modern manufacture. There were a few NPCs that showed up with them, a slightly overweight man in a 1920s style business suite, an airline stewardess and a girl in jeans and T-shirt whose long black hair completely covers her face. “Laura” managed to get the NPCs to follow along pretty easily as the part headed towards the town to the south.

“Laura” has yet to provide me with a name for her character, same with “Josh”. They may have picked ones already and simply forgotten to let me know. To avoid confusion player names will go in “”.

Once they reached the city they noticed a few things, besides the complete and utter lack of people. First was that there were curious volleyball sized creatures curled up in the road. There were quite a few of them scattered around. The players wisely decided not to touch any of them. The second, much to Jojo’s dismay, was that ALL the cars, be they parked or crashed, had no tires. In fact looking into the cars showed that the seating, and in some cases some of the paneling was missing as well.

Thirsty, hungry and hot, a few of the more intrepid adventurers decided to check out the interiors of some of the houses. Jojo went into one house, with a horny Malcom following behind her. Ramias went into a different house with a curious Ryuu following him. After finishing the character Ryuu has ended up with the Mute disadvantage, a psychological block in his case rather than a short circuit of the brain. So although Ryuu realized that the name plates on some of the house were in Japanese, he was not able to share this information. Lilly decided she wanted a weapon, so she found herself a garage to check.

The four who entered houses found that either these things were still under construction, or something had ripped out most of the walls, floors and even the front door. Concrete, metal piping and ceramic tiles were still there, but very little else. The kitchens, which they could easily see still contained sinks and refrigerators, and in the case of Jojo and Malcom’s house even metal cabinets. Ramias could see that the fridge in his had fallen over and was although still plugged in was not running. Still they all hoped the water might be working.

After proceeding into the kitchen they realized they were not alone. In each house there were five strange creatures. The creatures had a rounded body with 4 flipper like appendages that they slowly flopped around on. Two more small appendages went where a head and tail might go, but were pretty featureless. There were multiple bulges along the backs of the creatures, whose purpose the party would late discover to their horror. The creatures looked fairly harmless, but Ryuu and Jojo were not taking any chances. Both jumped over the creatures that were in the doorway an ran outside. 2 followed Ryuu and 1 followed Jojo. Ramias and Malcom were more looking defend themselves. Ramias ripped up a pipe he later dropped, while Malcom ripped one of the cabinet doors off it’s hinges.

Lilly faired a little better. There turned out to only be 3 in the garage, which she didn’t see until after grabbing a pair of hedge clippers. She also wisely bolted. She took minor damage to her leg, but between her, “Laura” and O-Bai they were able to hold the three at bay. “Laura” did lose her dress when half of one, which Lilly had cut in half with the hedge clippers, started gnawing on the crotch of it. Lilly also got her crotch mangled by one before cutting it in half.

After Jojo bolted deeper into the city the one following her turned it’s attention towards Damien. “Josh” came to his rescue by grabbing a trashcan lid and using it as a shield to bat the thing away, and then cover and hold it down.

Malcom decided to stand and fight, and did not fare so well. He batted one away, but another bit him in the side and started chewing. He pried it off and ran for the door, but not fast enough. He discovered that GURPS is not kind to characters who get attacked from behind. Two of them grabbed his leg and chewed it into a useless bloody ruin. The third grabbed his crotch and proceeded to consume the lecherous SOB’s reason to live. This was cause for the first fright checks of the night, as the party watched him get slowly consumed. Luckily for the players there is a +5 bonus for being in the heat of battle, but a -3 for the very messy way he was consumed. Unfortunately for me the only people to fail were the NPCs, who were more than a little shocked at this turn of events.

Ramias faired only slightly better than Malcom. He eventually had two of them grab his torso and start chewing. He grabbed these two and pulled them off just in time to have the third go for his Johnson and chew it down to a nub. He had the smart idea of slamming one of the ones he was holding into the one on his crotch in a effort to get the two of them to fight each other. It actually worked and he threw the other one far enough away to make an adrenaline soaked dash for the door. He managed to hang onto consciousness long enough to get away from it. The party learned very quickly that these buggers can really move if they want to, only by using the extra effort rules were they able to actually outrun the things.

Ryuu was a little slower to run than Jojo, but he eventually followed her deeper into the city. She was NOT happy to see that he was not only running after her, but that two of the things were running after him as well. She managed to stay well ahead as they moved deeper into the city.

Everyone was quite surprised that after a little while the things simply curled up into balls and stopped moving. The ones after Ramias curled up and stopped shortly afterwards. He was only barely able to hang onto consciousness long enough to outlast them, he promptly collapsed from exhaustion, blood loss and pain afterwards.

Everyone was a whole lot less pleased as the ones eating Malcom finished their grizzly meal. The strange bulges on their backs swelled and then seemed to pop off like popcorn. When they landed there were about 40 slightly smaller ones scattered across the ground. At this point the Airline Stewardess fainted. “Josh”, true to his Chivalrous nature, was able to scoop her up in a fireman’s carry and barely stay ahead of the swarm as everyone ran out the city as fast as they possibly could. They were of course running directly away from Jojo and Ryuu who are now stranded by themselves much deeper than intended in the city.

Jojo and Ryuu did have one piece of luck that when they stopped running it was outside a sporting goods store. They found several aluminum baseball bats and several golf clubs just in reach of the broken storefront window. Ryuu wants to go further into to grab things like hockey masks, but Jojo can see several of the creatures moving around further in the store.

After escaping with their lives Damien was able to use his healing power to fix some of the damage done to Ramias and Lilly. It cost him quite a bit of fatigue, but the two are going concerns once again and Ramias even regrew enough of his stump to put any lecherous thoughts he might have to use.

This session was a great start to the game. Only one character died, but between the missing hp and lost fatigue the group may be in a little trouble. Especially since I get to look up the dehydration and heat exhaustion rules for next session. It is almost 100 degrees where they are, and bone dry. For some reason on the random hit location table it came up with a LOT of crotch shots, much to the party’s amusement.


Survival Forecast:

Mara – Jojo – 75%
Syth - Ryuu – 45%
They are now armed and uninjured, which is good. Of course they are also tired, alone and in the middle of the city, which is not so good. Their next move will be a make or break point for them in many ways, and there are so many ways they could get broken.

Josh – TBD – 70%
Only character whose survival chance stayed the same. That trashcan lid will come in very handy, especially if he can find a fireman’s axe or equivalent thereof.
David – Lilly – 75%
She’s injured and tired, but she took the screws out of the hinge of the hedge clippers to get a pair of improvised knives. She also now actually has points in knife, an oversight on the part of the player.
Garland – Damien Parker – 65%
He may not be injured, but he spend a lot of fatigue to heal Lilly and Ramias. Here’s hoping he doesn’t run out of steam right when he needs it most.
Brandon G – Ramias Von Jaggermeister – 50%
He’s still pretty injured, despite Damin’s help, and he tired. Here’s hoping he get a little more careful about where he tries to loot.
Dave – Lady O-Bei – 55%
Only character whose survival chances actually went up. The character and player showed some smart thinking and calm decision making. Plus she picked up the metal rebar that is useful for holding things at bay. I probably underestimated the player a little.
Laura – TBD – 55%
She may not be injured, but she only has one dress to lose. Her spell selections will not be as helpful as they could have been around here, but with wild talent that could change quickly.

Ray – Ogg the Caveman – 30%
The new character will be a cave man from the time when the most awesome tools they had were flint. At TL 1 he’s way back there, but his skill in the outdoors could help a lot. Still his survival chances are hurt by whose playing him. The player tends to be reckless, loud and really good at being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Amber and Sean were not able to attend. Amber due to a kidney infection, and no idea with Sean. The second Brandon has decided to drop due to work. At 11 players remaining I think the game will survive. Specially since I’ve got people on a waiting list for it.

The next session will be in two week, since I’m going on vacation next week, and I don’t think the players want to drive to the outer banks just for the game.

Spoiler:
For those who want to see what the players are up against go to www.onemanga.com and then look for the series BioMeat - Necter. An excellent horror series. Also what the players have yet to realize is that there will be other areas with stuff drawn from different horror concepts. For instance if they go far enough West they will meet zombies, far enough East and they will meet magically created zombies.


Character Journal Entry 1:
DISCLAIMER: JoJo doesn’t care much for your rules of civility and society. She doesn’t give a expletive deleted damn about what you think is inappropriate language or what 5-year old she says it around. Soap isn’t going to do any good around here. If you’re sensitive, that’s your problem. Get the stick out your expletive deleted ass and wake up to reality. The rules don’t really apply, anymore, do they? - - - P.S. And this is all in jest, anyway. :)

I woke up when I felt my skin melting and my face burning. I was lying in sand and drowning in daylight. I don’t sleep this good on a good day, so this wasn’t right. I don’t know how long I was out, but I had ta’ been out for days! I actually got my ass up in minutes. (Pretty f*cking fast for me.) When I got to my feet, I stripped off my lambskin jacket and shook it clean.

It was when I was brushing the sand off me that I noticed the cut in the back of my thigh through my jeans. That porky bastard that shot at me… I could feel the skin and it didn’t hurt. I could twist and see that the cut had halfway healed. Just some light pink skin caked with dried blood and a healthy scab. I ain’t dumb or nothin’, but that sh*t wasn’t right, either. Maybe I had been out for days?

When I finally looked around me, I wasn’t alone. There were a lot of people just lying in the sand. Over a dozen of ‘em. Dry earth, people, and more f*cking sand! We were all curled up and laying in these circles that were scorched into the ground. And there wasn’t much else to see. No grass. No water. No animals or bugs. No cops and no jail! And no gawddamned Eleanor! Those expletive deleted PIGS!

I ain’t ever seen a lock-up like this. I didn’t remember a damn thing. I don’t know how I got wherever here was. But, I wasn’t alone. I didn’t like that. And I didn’t like that there was some naked f*cker in the circle next to mine.

I started to think they were dead. Maybe I was dead. Maybe this was hell…? Then, the naked body started twitching. They all were twitching, moving, and just getting up. And I was next to the ass that I bet was here for something perverted.

People kinda’ mumbled and bumbled about. Naked-ass started talking to me like I knew what was doing and he wanted me to share all. Sick f*ck. Said some other crap about baseball, knowing Babe Ruth (Shi-it, he was a expletive deleted loon!), and some BS about the Yankees. Suckass Yanks… White Sox to the end! Weren’t many introductions. Just people stepping outta’ their circles and looking ‘round.

I didn’t trust those circles. What the f*ck burns circles into the ground? That’s some trippy UFO sh*t, there! I got outta’ mine, but only after I touched the sand a few times with the tip of my sh*tkickers. I didn’t trust this sh*t. Like I said – things weren’t right.

It was kinda’ funny, but the second I got outta’ that damn circle, my head was all clear. I could breathe, again. I was in some desert-looking place, the sun was rising and getting hotter than hell, and I had dry-throat like sandpaper. And looking around, I could actually notice a town or something off in the distance. As soon as I thought it, I heard some little kid to my right say it, “Water.”

Shi-it. A damn kid… What the hell was going on? I’m REALLY gonna’ kill Jugs when I find him.

I wanted away from that babbling naked tweak, so I started towards the town. Must’ve been a good idea, cuz’ the little girl was coming, too. Unfortunately, the Yanks tweak was following behind me. Some Asian pretty boy was coming along for the ride, cuz’ it sure as f*ck wasn’t for the company, along with the rest of them, I guess. I didn’t care much for socializing just then.

One track mind – Thirsty. That means ‘get water’. I didn’t even notice the time slip by as we approached the town. When we got close, we found what looked like an SUV. Thing had been stripped down, tires and all. Not much left but wreckage.

We kept walking and came up on the edge of what looked like a little suburban neighborhood. The houses were modest, nearly identical, and close together. The houses were close enough they didn’t have yards, so much as alleys between ‘em. There were number plates mounted on the fronts of the houses by the doors, but it wasn’t any language I knew. Shi-it, I just speak American. But, the writing made me think of those Japanese tattoos people get – “dream” and “strength” and gay sh*t like that. The few cars and bikes spaced about were all missing their tires – just like the SUV we saw outside the town.

And scattered in the streets and the fronts of the houses were these pod things. There were soccer ball-sized brownish-grey pods just everywhere. It was kinda’ creepy. Made me think of that movie, Gremlins. The kid fed the freaky Chinese fur-balls after midnight and they turned into those giant pods. Yeah, pods… just before they turned into monsters. The pods even looked like they had arms, or limbs, or something – all wrapped up into pods... But, it was noon, and the monsters can’t get ya’ in the daytime.

We all kinda’ spread out when we got into the neighborhood. I wasn’t paying attention cuz’ the first house on the left we came to, I went for. And damn if Yankee boy didn’t follow me in. There wasn’t even a door on the front of the house, so I didn’t feel bad just barging in. I wouldn’t have felt bad anyways. Seemed quiet out here and like something just wasn’t right. Cars, pods, circles, and expletive deleted naked Yankees who were friends with Babe Ruth.

The house was small and opened up immediately on a little foyer area next to the kitchen and a hallway. The walls were missing their drywall and you could see the guts of the place like they hadn’t even finished building the sh*t. But, I could see a fridge turned on its side and a sink. I think I sighed out loud, “Water.”

Y’know that moment when ya’ think everything’s gonna’ be just fine? When you’re finally safe and sh*t? Then, f*cking Freddy jumps out and guts you? Yeah. It was kinda’ like that.

Above the fridge, on the wall, was this brownish-grey starfishy slug-thing. It was just creeping along the wall and it seemed to be coming our way. It wasn’t alone, cuz’ I saw another one on the floor just outside the kitchen. I felt my heart beat.

Now, in this moment, this dumb DD-cup blonde runs upstairs and locks herself in the bathroom or a closet or some BS. I wasn’t some dumb big-tittied blonde.

I hauled ass back out of the kitchen and through the doorway where another of those creatures was waiting. Shi-it, I don’t stick around for the pigs, so I’m sure as sh*t not sticking around here. I jumped over the starfishy slug-thing and felt it touch the edge of my foot when I landed. I didn’t stop to look. I kept running down the street, dodging sh*t, and further into town.

I know I did something right when I heard screaming behind me. I didn’t look back, I just kept moving. I guess I could have said something when I passed by everyone, but I wasn’t really thinking about slowing down for them to hear me. And I’d swear that one thing was behind me. I could just feel those shivers, that cold feeling ya’ get when someone’s watching ya’.

The further I ran, the more I noticed things, things that crawled in the shadows in the alleys. I just ran straight. After making a good distance, I could feel those shivers were gone. I slowed and turned back to see the things had stopped following me. I could still hear screaming coming from down the other end of the street. And then, my eyes locked onto the Asian pretty boy running towards me – with those damn things following behind him! I didn’t give him a chance to catch up.

I got enough ahead of him to feel safe, then I saw a trashcan lying on its side in the street. I ran to grab it. I guess I thought I could capture the monster and be safe, but when I grabbed the can, I saw one of those things inside it. I flipped the can upside-down and left it trapped underneath. Again, I ran.

Maybe a couple seconds of mad dashing, I turned behind me and saw the Asian guy had slowed. The creatures had stopped chasing us, and curled up into those expletive deleted pods. We had run deeper into the town, towards the end of the street where a sports store was. I couldn’t hear any shouting or screaming, anymore, so we must have gotten too far away – or worse.

We two stood there for a second and took in the sight of the store. The pretty boy turned and gazed at me. He seemed like he wanted me to read his mind or something. He pointed to the tattoos running down my arms and then showed me his own sleeves – Yakuza sleeves. So, the guy was Japanese, then. He tried to draw pictures or something in the sand on the street, but I just didn’t understand him. He tried to talk, but he more of just made noises.

“You mute?” He nodded.

He pointed at the store. We walked closer to the window display and just on the inside of the glass doors were golf clubs and baseball bats. F*cking Yankee pervert… Wonder what’s happening back there? But, further back, in the dark parts of the store, I could see things moving. Things. We grabbed a couple bats each and I pulled out the biggest club I could find.

So, how far down the rabbit hole do we go?


I want to apologize to all the readers for the lack of updates. Of course I’m like apologizing to thin air, but a guy can hope. Last week the game was canceled due to real life problems on many people’s parts, but the week before that did happen. I swear the game wasn’t intended to be every other week. There was almost a post about it the week before, but the computer ate the word document I was typing it in.

So last session no character deaths, but a good maiming did happen. Think I’m going too easy on them?

At this point the heat is beating down, and I’ve looked up the rules for exhaustion, dehydration and heat. Unfortunately for me everyone has a high HT score and pretty much all of them make their roles to not lose fatigue.

When last we left off Ryuu and Jojo had been separated from the rest of the party. It took the entirety of the session for them finally rejoin the group. I switched between the two groups as the game went on, but for ease of explaining I’ll recount all of Ryuu and Jojo’s adventures first.

Unfortunately Ryuu wasn’t there, but he had left his character sheet with me (a standard police with him as he has shown a tendency to lose them). I’ve decided that will the policy for everyone. After all one of the things I told them is that not being here does NOT keep your character alive. If you aren’t here they are effectively an NPC for the session.

Even more unfortunately before the end of last session Ryuu’s player had made abundantly clear he wanted to try and raid the sporting goods store for protective gear and Jojo saw no reason to talk him out of it. So as he began sneaking in Jojo stuck her head in enough to take a good look around. This is when Jojo saw something that she couldn’t from the street. There were 6 more of the critters on the ceiling. Jojo quickly but quietly grabbed Ryuu and pulled him back.

At this point Jojo decide to use Ryuu to her advantage. Instead of telling him what she had seen, she asked him to sneak back in and go for the drink cooler she could see. Its back was to them, but what they could see of it was intact, and even plugged in, although the rubber covering the metal wires was damaged.

So back in went Ryuu sneaking quietly over to the cooler. He actually made it all the way there and had started taking out some heavenly looking one liter water bottles before our friends on the ceiling spotted him. Thanks to Jojo keep an eye out and shouting “RUN!” when they dropped Ryu was barely able to avoid the attack.

At this point the two book it away from the shop with all the little nasties inside it chasing them. I had Jojo roll for Ryuu’s extra effort check to outrun what was chasing him. Needing 7 or less on 3d6 is not good odds, but Jojo roll just low enough to pull it off. So the two of them managed to escape.

At this point Jojo looked around and saw two interesting things. First was that off to the West was what might have been a thin plume of smoke, or it might have been her imagination. To the East there was a dump truck with missing wheels. Since the dump truck was much closer and possibly a safe place to rest Jojo and Ryuu headed east.

As they climbed in the cap of the dump truck to rest and drink some of the precious water they had acquired Jojo noticed that further East there was a gap in the buildings that her urban survival instincts told her was likely to be a construction site.

As their break ended Jojo was just about to head for the plume of smoke she might have seen when a sudden geyser of water from the North East caught her attention. Jojo figured that it might have been caused by the other people she had met, and of course water is water. Plus the construction site was on the way.

The construction site proved to be a treasure trove of goodies. The first thing that caught Jojo’s eye was the Bulldozer. Now unlike everything they’ve come across so far the bulldozer has metal treads, not rubber tires. So from what she could see it was intact.

The first thing Ryuu naked (and rather hairy) man laying there inside a perfect circle burnt into the dirt. When woken up this would prove to be Og, the new character brought in to replace our first fatality. Jojo left him to Ryuu to deal with while she inspected the bulldozer. I must say that leaving the Mute NPC to deal with introducing the new character was an inspired choice.

When Jojo checked the underside of the bulldozer she did see one of the critters under there, but backed off before it could return the favor. Still she was willing to cautiously and quietly climb into the cab, which had apparently been sealed and so it still had seats, a very good sign. The roar as she fired it up was an even better sign to her, but so much to Og who freaked out. He might have calmed down better if someone who could talk to him was there, but Ryuu did the best he could.

There was some excitement as the critter that had been under the bulldozer climbed onto the tread and tried to eat it. At this point Ryuu tried desperately to get Jojo to drive backwards and crush it with the tread, a task at which he failed mightily. Og slowly calmed down and then noticed the creature on the tread. In true caveman fashion he promptly grabbed a club (the extra bat Ryuu carried) smash it into a bloody pulp. Which amusingly enough is right when Jojo finally understood what Ryuu had been trying to tell her.

There were also a few lockers set up on one side of the construction site. These proved to be treasure trove as they produced a couple hard hats, a maglight with extra batteries, a smaller flashlight and a rather tattered pair of pants. Jojo tried to have Og put on the pants, but discovered the inherent problem of trying to have a large cave man wear the pants from a small Japanese man. The pants were hastily converted to a loin cloth. Then the group headed out to find out what caused the continuing jet of water.


Interesting read so far, Admiral. I was wondering what had happened...


The single most disruptive element was the fact that I moved last Saturday. That plus a lot going on at work has eaten up my time. Thankfully things are smoothing out.


Admiral Jose Monkamuck wrote:
The single most disruptive element was the fact that I moved last Saturday. That plus a lot going on at work has eaten up my time. Thankfully things are smoothing out.

Moving can be brutal. Glad to hear things are getting back to relative normalcy.


So now the question is what was the rest of the group doing all this time?

Well first they took some time to try and rest and do a head count. They realized that Ryuu, Jojo and the Buisiness Man were all missing. They didn’t even bring up trying to go look for them, something to bear in mind.

Then they started planning what to do next. Hot, tired and thirsty they had to go back to the city, but they wanted to spend some time circling it first. After half an hour heading east around the city they finally spotted something interesting. Lying on its side was what several of the characters recognized as a fire truck. This seemed a good reason to go back into the city. Unfortunately at the mention of walking back in the airline stewardess panicked. She did NOT want to go near those things again. Luckily Damien was able to calm her down, at which point she started following him closely.

As they got closer they could see a woman lying in the road with yet another perfect circle burnt into the ground around her. This is would be Loriannasha who wasn’t introduced during the first game. Damien and a few others took the time to check on her while others went and raided the fire truck. They quickly located 4 axes, many of the fireproof coats and a couple of fire extinguishers.

More importantly they found the tools to take off the top of the nearby fire hydrant which produced the water geyser Jojo saw. Ah water, it doesn’t seem like much, but just wait until you don’t have it. Lilly made an improvised canteen by taking one of the fire extinguishers, emptying it out, ripping the top off and then washing it out a little. She then took one of the fireproof coats cut some strips to make a carrying strap and used one of the buttons and some cloth to make a cap for it. Obai followed Lilly’s example and made another one.

It was now that Damien made a rather costly mistake. He saw that the airline stewardess was quickly wilting in the heat and so he decided to escort her into an alley where she could get some shade. It’s too bad for them that the alley was inhabited by 3 of the critters. As they turned to run the three critters sprang at them. One of the missed entirely, the second got the airline stewardess in the butt (I rolled groin AGAIN) and the last one got a hold of Damien’s right leg. This proved disastrous as it took it only a couple of second for it to chew all the way through his leg and start working its way up his hip. A moment later the other one got his left leg and did the same.

The first to react was Richard James (“Josh”) who in true knightly fashion rushed to the aid of the damsel in distress. He pulled it off her and became the first person to get a really good look at the underside of one. The underside is just a mouth running lengthwise with dozens of little spindly pincher arms to push food into it. In a flash of insight he realized if he cut it in half length wise it wouldn’t be dangerous anymore as it is really hard to chew with only one jaw.

The fight descended into chaos as the players tried to save Damien and cut the little buggers in half with improvised weaponry. While they weren’t fast enough to save Damien’s legs, they did save his life. Unfortunately his healing power only works on others. They had almost finished off the three critters when two more rushed out of a nearby alleyway attracted by the noise. One of them started chewing on Obai while another went for Ramias who was barely saved by his danger sense.

Once everything was over Ramias provided first aid for Damien and the stewardess. This made her very grateful and being the lecherous b@stard he is, he took advantage of it to get closer to her.

Once the party had soaked up their losses they could hear what might have been the sound of an engine from further down the street. They started heading that way and met up with Jojo, Ryuu and Og in their nice spiffy bulldozer, which they were using to knock over and look vending machines.


Now for the survival forecast:

Mara – Jojo – 80%
Fed, rested and sitting the cab of an air-conditioned bulldozer that I know she is not getting out of if she can help it.

Syth - Ryuu – 50%
The player promised to be there next week, he only missed because of a miss understanding.

Josh – Richard James – 75%
He's got an axe and a shield, which is the combination he specializes in.

David – Lilly – 75%
Laura – TBD – 55%
Not much change from last week.

Ray – Ogg the Caveman – 35%
This one may be saner than most of his characters. Still.....

Brandon G – Ramias Von Jaggermeister – 55%
He wised up a bit recently. Of course depending on how loyal he is to his lady friend he might be in for some hard times.

Dave – Lady O-Bei – 60%
I continue to realize I underestimate this player and character. We'll see what happens.

Garland – Damien Parker – 35%
He has gamely decided to continue playing a character with no legs. Will it's an interesting RP decision, not being able to run away is dangerous here. Very dangerous.
Sean – Loriannasha Boling – 40%
She has better survival skills than I thought and the player was more focused than usual. Let’s wait and see if this trend continues.

Amber unfortunately won’t be able to start next week either as work scheduled her until 9:30, but she will eventually.

I need to start doing up character sheets for the NPCs and give them exp too as we go along.

Spoiler:
There is no way O-bei or Lilly could wash those fire extinguishers out well enough, so I will have to look up what exactly is in them and what the symptoms of that type of poisoning are.

Also while things might seems to look good for the group the day is wearing on. If they're still here when night falls.....


They need to go back to that sporting goods store. There are going to be metal water bottles in piles all over the place. I suggest taking a good look around a D*ck's - the biggest such stores in the area we live in that I am aware of - and seeing what all would be lying around.

And of course, all the lovely improvised weaponry ...


Character Journal Entry 2:
REMINDER: JoJo doesn't care much for your rules of civility and society. She doesn't give a expletive deleted damn about what you think is inappropriate language or what 5-year old she says it around. Soap isn't going to do any good around here. If you're sensitive, that's your problem. Get the stick out your expletive deleted ass and wake up to reality. The rules don't really apply, anymore, do they? - - - P.S. And this is all in jest, anyway. :)

Things looked tempting from where we stood. I wasn't crazy about the extra weight of the gear with a heavy jacket already tied about my waist, but these things meant survival – at least for a little while longer. I tucked the golf club into my belt. Yakuza made some gestures towards the store and then made some hand motions over his body, especially around his chest and head. I looked around him and could still see the shadows, just barely alive with movement. I didn't wanna' risk it. I wasn't giving myself over to them creatures. But, it wasn't exactly Chicago out here – no breeze and too gawddamned hot for my coat. I wasn't gonna' make it without something to drink.

"You wanna' go inside and grab yo'self a helmet and some pads? Shi-it, I'll keep watch, but I ain't moving."

He gave me an exasperated look. I sighed and waved him on.

"Fine – but you go first."

Usually, I don't give in to people or their expletive deleted dumb ideas. A store like this, though, had to have some Gatorade, energy bars, water, or something! It was worth the risk, well, worth risking Yakuza to get us an edge for surviving against this f*cked up creep-town.

Yakuza popped his neck and stepped carefully into the shadows beyond the doors. I glanced around, then started slowly behind him. When he gave me enough room, I leaned in and looked up at the ceiling. Just like in the monster movies, you gotta' look up. Expletive deleted!!! There were half a dozen of those pod-slugs chilling on the ceiling and a few more on the wall above the doors. I reached for Yakuza and yanked him back.

I took a second to catch my breath and I knew he was looking at me like I was batsh*t crazy. When I looked back up, I noticed something – something I hadn't seen the first look-around. Maybe 50 feet in, near the furthest register, was a metal cooler. A gawddamned cooler! I could see the back and side of the thing and didn't know how I coulda' missed it. The wires were sticking out of the cord, but it looked like the cord was still connected to the power outlet.

I jerked Yakuza around and pointed him to the cooler. He saw it, too, and gave me the thumbs up. Back he went into the building, but he must've been more excited than before cuz' he seemed a lot less cautious. From the looks of it, Yakuza hadn't even noticed that the critters were everywhere. Hmmm. Maybe, next time I should say something? I leaned in towards the doorway, again, and watched for the creatures to move.

Yakuza made it to the cooler and I eased some. A few of the pod-slugs on the ceiling twitched. Yakuza opened the glass door and I could actually see it was fogged up. My heart sped up. One of the pod-slugs above the door began to stir. Then, Yakuza pulled out 3 bottles of what had to be water from what had to be a working cooler. I sucked in a breath. The creatures began to move.

"RUN!!!"

I screamed it. Probably not the best of ideas.

The creatures began to drop from the ceiling around Yakuza. He didn't look like much (and a ninja he wasn't), but after some deft maneuvering he broke clear and we ran for it – ran deeper into the city and further from the desert, the houses, and the assured massacre of the crowd we came with. There were 9 of those expletive deleted pod-slugs chasing us. It was like running from the pigs all over again, only these expletive deleted were fast! We hauled ass.

It's always afterwards that I think about this stuff. Yeah, I was running for my life with no intentions of going back, but it was worth noting. A store like that probably had things we could use – backpacks, camping gear, first aid supplies, helmets, face-masks, padding, shoes & socks, energy bars & drinks, weapons (hunting knives, rackets, mallets, more bats & clubs), and lots more goodies. My mind couldn't stop racing with the realization of everything we left behind. Of course, if these pod-slugs were eating up the tires and everything else rubber, I couldn't count on much of that sh*t being left. Here was hoping the f*ckers choked on the cleats.

After a bit, the pod-slugs slowed and then stopped chasing us altogether. They just curled up into those pods. Nasty little sh*ts. So we braked and decided to look around us. Yakuza was still clutching the 3 large bottles and you could see the condensation beading on the sides. It was sexy, I'm telling ya'.

The desert was behind us to the south. And I said we were already running further into this damned hell-hole. That was north. I just spun slowly in a circle and stared about. In the west, I could see – OK, I might've seen – what looked like smoke. A thin plume of the stuff was rising over the building tops. I was straining my eyes, but it really looked like smoke. Smoke comes from fire. Fires don't happen spontaneously. Something had to cause the fire, or someone. Shi-it, there might be people surviving out here! Behind us, to the east, was a business district. The road was mostly empty except for those pods (they were everywhere, though) and a single dump truck. Sans tires, of course.

I was starting to feel the sun on my skin and we both needed a quiet minute in the shade to rest and figure sh*t out. The dump truck was closer. We padded over to the truck avoiding the pods, gave it a good inspection, and opened the doors. The passenger window was busted and the cushions were missing. Damn, they ate the [i]expletive deleted seats!?[/i] I hopped up onto the metal coils that were left and stretched out. Yakuza handed me a bottle, then got in himself.

We opened a bottle and split it, half a liter each. The water was cold, refreshing, and f*cking wonderful, but the relief didn't last long. We had our shade, but we were sitting in an oven. Our asses burned with the hot coils beneath, The cab being mostly metal just kept the heat in and we were sweating. We were gonna' have to leave and find other shelter.

Looking around, I caught a gap in the row of buildings. You live in Chicago, or any damn city, and you see that sh*t all the time. Probably a construction site cuz' it was too gawddamned pretty an area for a parking lot. Still, nothing else caught my eye more than the smoke. I thought I could still make it out. It was gonna' be a long walk and we had to get going before things got dark. I didn't wanna' be here in the dark.

Yakuza and I got out, stretched, and were starting to turn west when I caught something out of the corner of my eye. There was a geyser of water shooting above the building tops a few blocks beyond the construction area. Like the fire, that sh*t just doesn't f*cking spontaneously happen. Not without help. I just looked at Yakuza and he nodded. Ain't neither of us wanted to walk miles for fire when we coulda' walked blocks for water. Lazy, but true.

We kinda' jogged down the road dodging pods. I got to the construction site before Yakuza and paused. The back of the lot had been cleared out and the first level of scaffolding had been laid. In the middle of the open lot was a dozer. Dozers have treads! It just got better and better. I almost screamed I was so f*cking happy.

Yakuza grabbed my wrist and pointed towards the back west wall. There was a circle burned into the clearing. And inside the circle was another naked man. Really!? What the f*ck? I told Yakuza to check on him while I ran to the bulldozer to see if it worked.

I had to stop myself from just hopping onto the dozer. I didn't think absent-mindedly jumping into the cab with a pod-slug was how I wanted this day to end. I pulled out the golf club from my belt and checked around it. Underneath, between the treads, was one of the pod-slugs. Just one. It didn't even see me. I climbed up the tread and pulled the door open. The glass, seats, everything was intact. Halle-f*cking-lujah!!!

It took a minute to check the cab. Weren't no keys, so I pulled loose the panel and hotwired the sh*t. The engine roared and I climbed in and closed the door. I checked the gauges and dash and found we were full on gas, good on oil, and best of all – I had A/C! I might not have had formal training, but we were gonna' drive this expletive deleted outta' here one way or another.

I sat up, looked out the window, and saw the naked man pointing and shouting at me. He looked scared. Yakuza was flailing his arms about. Then, the man grabbed one of Yakuza's bats and was coming towards me. I couldn't hear much over the engine and no one was yelling anymore. Suddenly, the naked man struck the treads with the bat and screamed. He bashed the bulldozer a couple more times and when he pulled back, I saw the pod-slug that had been under the cab was crushed into the treads. I got out and the naked man screamed at me. Something about "inside the monster" or some bullsh*t.

Once we got the guy calmed down, he introduced himself as Og, son of Ug. He talked like a f*cking retard and kept calling the baseball bat a club. He could talk some, more than Yakuza, and was just confused by everything. It kinda' clicked then that he might actually be from a different time. Maybe Yankee really was from the 1920s. And come to think of it, wasn't there a dude in that earlier group dressed like a musketeer or Robin Hood or some sh*t? Something was rotten in the state of Denmark, or whatever.

We did one last search around the site and noticed a couple lockers near the east wall. Things weren't even locked. We ended up finding a bunch of hard hats, enough for each of us and 5 left over, a pair of ragged old jeans, and 10 1-gallon jugs of water. I also scored a maglite with some extra batteries and found a plastic flashlight which went to Yakuza. Didn't trust Og to not throw the thing at some monster or a mailbox.

Yakuza tried to get Og to show some modesty and put on the jeans we found, but one size doesn't fit all. I ended up turning Og around and placing the crotch of the jeans in front of...yeah. Then, I tied the legs around his waist. Sh*t, it wasn't Calvin Klein, but it'd make my eyes happier.

We piled our happy asses onto the dozer. The cab just wasn't going to fit all of us. Og couldn't ride outside alone cuz' he didn't understand anything around us. Couldn't make Yakuza ride alone cuz' he couldn't shout if we needed a quick warning. So, I made them both ride on the front of the dozer on the U-blade. More weapons outside the cab, more eyes to see, and 1 voice to yell. We were off.

We got a couple blocks down and I noticed against the alleys and inside a couple buildings were vending machines. One last godsend, I guess. We managed to break a few and looted 'em. The cab was getting crowded with bottled water, hardhats stuffed with munchies like it was Halloween, and energy drinks. And basking in the A/C, however weak, it was just fine with me.

We were piling back up, heading for the water when shapes appeared. We rumbled forward and wouldn't you know it? Those chickensh*t bastards that not only lived, but abandoned me and Yakuza, were strolling down the road our way.

Great. The cavalry arrives just in time to share my munchies, the mooching bastards.

CURRENT GEAR:
  • basic clothing (sleeveless tee, sports bra, carpenter-style jeans, leather belt w/ steel buckle, socks, sh*tkickers)
  • 1 hard hat
  • 1 lambskin jacket (tied around waist)
  • 1 bat
  • 1-liter bottle of water
  • 1 maglite
  • spare maglite batteries
  • 2 energy drinks
  • 6 vending machine munchies

CURRENT COMMUNAL GOODS:
  • 1 bulldozer (fully fueled & functional)
  • 7 hard hats (including Og's & Yakuza's)
  • 1 bat
  • 1 golf club
  • 1 plastic flashlight
  • 10 gallons water
  • 1-liter bottle of water
  • 10 energy drinks
  • 1 vending machine worth of snacks


Well session 3 down and the players are really getting somewhere. They are quickly becoming more canny about avoiding danger, but not enough to avoid a decent mauling of some of the characters.

Well as the two groups reunited there was a long and lengthy discussion of what to do next. Jojo’s main concern was getting to the gushing water and getting a shower, but eventually she was talked into other plans. The party eventually decided to head back to the sports store. One point of confusion that came up was that when I said sports store I meant sports like soccer, football and weight training. The player’s thought I meant more like a hunting store with knives, camping gear, etc.

As they moved on Ryuu kept his eyes out for an electronics store and eventually he did spot one. However the store was not completely deserted. As they approached the store they could see a wolf laying in a perfect circle burnt into the ground in front of it. The circle looked the same as the ones they themselves woke up in.

The wolf was in the process of coming around when they found it, lucky for it. Og saw an opportunity to get new clothing so he promptly rushed over to it baseball bat raised in club fashion to brain the poor creature. The wolf barely dodged the club and then Og recoiled in fear as the wolf shape shifted into a human. Amber was actually able make it to the game and finally introduce her character Crystal. Crystal quickly introduced herself to the group and certainly ingratiated herself with several of the male (and maybe female) characters by showing no interest in clothing.

As most of the rest of the party got ready to move on Ryuu got ready to try and raid the electronic store. He could see a bunch of wires that were all that was left of the electronics on the front shelves of the store. He decided to go in anyway and managed to convince Ramias and Og to back him. He did take the time to stop in the doorway and look carefully for more of the critters, even on the ceiling, before he moved in towards the first set of shelves.

Spoiler:
Ryuu never realized that the lap-tops and other goodies that were completely inedible were located on shelves further towards the back of the store. He seems to be assuming he can see everything important from the doorway

It’s too bad he didn’t crouch down and look under the shelves where he would have seen the 3 critters on the lower shelves further back. They certainly saw him when he walked up to the shelves. Now the critters are exactly the most stealth of beasties and a well rolled perception check let him hear two of them in time to try and dodge. Unfortunately the one he didn’t hear grabbed his toes and started eating it’s way up his left foot. One of the ones he did hear coming grabbed his left leg and started chewing.

He of course went stumbling back towards the shattered main window that Og had been about to climb through until Ramias stopped him. This gave them a chance to help him out. Ogg used the baseball bat to send the one on his foot flying way while Ramias pulled the one off his leg. Unfortunately it turn around in his hand and bit his arm while the one Og hit got him in the other arm.

Obai, Crystal and “Laura” had been hanging back a bit and they rushed to the boys’ aid. Seeing this Richard ran after them as his chivalry wouldn’t let him leave the ladies in danger. This was very helpful as she threw her Phantasmal Flame spell at the one Ramias had pulled off his arm and threw our first crit of the game. This meant that instead of setting it on pretend fire she set it on actual fire, a much more effective tactic. Obai did her usual trick of pinning one to the ground with her rebar, making it 1 critter vs 7 players. Not good odds for the critter.

Still it was apparently game to try and it did manage to get a nice snack in the form of Og’s leg. As Og pulled it off him “Laura” set it on pretend fire. Og had to make a will roll to not drop the thing and the 3 he rolled on 3d6 meant he didn’t care that much. He held the creature against the wall, picked up a piece of glass and tried to stab it. What he actually stabbed was his own hand. Despite that the creature was quickly beaten into a sidewalk stain.

Ryuu had made a run in to grab some random wires while the creatures were munching on his back, but the party made no further attempts to loot the place. Og however was not one to let cooked food go to waste. He picked up the critter that “Laura” had flambed and took a big bite. Then he took quite a few more as it proved pretty tasty.

Once they made it to the sports store they got ready to cautiously explore it. Of course Jojo’s scream of “RUN” when she and Ryuu was first here had already lured all the creatures outside. Quite a lot of stuff had been eaten, but here was still more water in the cooler. They pulled a total of 5 extra gallons of water out of it. This gave them enough water for everyone without having to dip in to Jojo’s stash.

Ryuu also got himself a staff by taking the weights off a barbell. Ramias grabbed some some weights to club critters unconscious with. Plus a few other items were found. There was a metal door leading into a bad area that Ramias really wanted to try, but he couldn’t talk anyone into helping.

Spoiler:
That is lucky for Ramias as there were 15 critters behind the door that would have buried him under a toothy avalanche. I secretly rolled ahead of time for his danger sense and he does NOT have a 16 IQ. He seems to be starting to count on that danger sense a little too much.

At this point the party decided not to press their luck any further and instead start trying to find a camping place. The debate was between the roof

Spoiler:
death sentence
and head back outside of town
Spoiler:
much safer
. Eventually the outside of town group won the discussion, especially after Og managed to find many traces of the critters on the roof.

On the way out of town Richard had a good idea on how to solve the food shortage. He found two of critters that had curled into a ball and chopped them in half. Later when they revived they were already unable to attack the party. Critter Sashimi proved to be fairly tasty, especially considering how hungry they were.

Spoiler:
While it’s tempting to have them get sick from the critter meat I will stay true to the source material. The creatures were genetically engineered to be nutritious and safe to eat.

A few of the party members who were paying attention were upset to see that despite it being a perfectly clear night only 3 stars could be seen and there was no moon. Since most of the nearby city was dark this was very worrying.

The night passed without danger, but it was an uneasy and uncomfortable rest.


Mara – Jojo – 80%
Still sitting pretty in her air conditioned cab. It’s nice and safe there, at least under the fuel runs out.
Syth - Ryuu – 45%
He’s going to get himself killed unless he starts being more careful.

Josh – Richard James – 75%
David – Lilly – 75%
Dave – Lady O-Bei – 60%
No changes here.

Laura – TBD – 55%
I still don’t know her name, but the player has established that the character is French.

Brandon G – Ramias Von Jaggermeister – 50%
Danger sense is nice…but…..

Ray – Og the Caveman – 30%
I was wrong, bad as usual.

Garland – Damien Parker – 35%
Still legless. He did miss this session.

Sean – Loriannasha Boling – 45%
The trend continues, the player did pretty good at staying out of danger this week.

And introducing:
Amber – Crystal – 60%
A good character with decent skills and spells. Her precognition will be helpful later. The shape shifting may save her butt, but it takes her 5 rounds to change so if combat catches her in the wrong form she is screwed.

A rule I instituted is that character sheets or at least a copy of them are to be left with me after the game. This is because when a player doesn’t show up their character is treated as an NPC. I want to keep up the feeling that characters are always at risk. That kind of breaks down if their character is safe when they aren’t here. The players are good sports about it, no complaints at all.

Spoiler:
It’s good for them to loot the city, but in the end it is a losing proposition. If they push their luck too far it will eat them alive. There is a LOT more to this campaign than one city. Still the supplies and resources they are gathering will be nice later on.

I look forward to what dawn will bring the characters.


Well session 4 down and some of the characters have now survived 24 hours in this new world. Of course some of them haven’t. It was certainly an exciting game.

The party found themselves greeting the morning well rested and fed. Of course they weren’t about to stay that way. The critter parts they had brought along were only enough for dinner, none left for breakfast, although Jojo had her candy bars. They are also running really low on water. So off they go back to the city and all that wonderful water flowing out of the fire hydrant.

When they get to the city they realized pretty quickly that early morning is a bad time. The shadows of the buildings were huge and most of the roads were covered by shadow. Luckily they couldn’t see any of the creatures immediately.

They checked the fire engine over once again, hoping to get some diesel fuel for the bulldozer. As Ryuu was going up to examine the side of the fire truck he though he heard the sound of something in the cab. This prompted him, Og and “Laura” to investigate. To make a long story short they did see that there were two more coats and two helmets in the cab, but couldn’t find whatever Ryuu heard.

At this point Lilly noticed that further into the city there was nearly a hundred of the creatures moving around in the long morning shadows. This prompted the group to clear out until later when they would have less shadows.

Coming back around 10am they could see that where Lily had been able to see almost one hundred of the critters they could now only see about a dozen curled up in pods. At this point Ryuu went back to the fire truck to retrieve one of the helmets. This unfortunately was the hiding place of the critter he had heard earlier. He managed to dodge it’s first attack and it was beaten down in fairly short order. A fun little booby trap.

The group spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to get to the gas in the fire truck’s tank. They really wanted some of the fire hoses to use, but those had long since been eaten. Eventually Jojo realized that if she used the bulldozer to flip the fire truck over they might be able to find something else on the other side. What they found was a fire hose and a small tool kit. Both of these were pretty useful and the bulldozer got a nice refill.

The party made a breakfast out of the pods curled up in the road. At about this point Jojo found the long haired girl who had been in the background and started demanding to know why she was worth keeping around. Instead of saying anything the girl handed Jojo a road map. Turns out the girl had spent her time searching the nearby cars to see if they held anything useful. Jojo was willing to trade some food for the hip flask of sake. Then the right to ride in the cab with Jojo was sold for a pair of smokes and a zippo.

The map showed that they were in a town somewhere in Hokkaido, less than useful information. It also showed the location of several shrines and a hospital, much more useful information. There was a request to raid a shrine since there might be a katana or other weapon kept there as a relic. Of course this meant going an hour and a half into the city, much deeper than they had ever been before.

As they traveled further into the city they could see that the density of the critters curled into pods increased, as did the number of them waiting in alleyways. Still they pressed on valiantly. Then as they were traveling between several apartment buildings Jojo got a very bad feeling.

Trusting her gut instinct she stopped the bulldozer and turned it off as she tried to look for what had tickled her danger sense. No explanation seemed to be forthcoming until Lily realized this was the city version of a boxed canyon. Too bad she was looking to high.

At this point Lilly and the long haired girl were in the cab of the bulldozer with Jojo. O-bai, “Laura”, Ryuu and what is left of Damien are in the scoop. Loriannasha is riding on top of the cab. The rest are stuck walking.

As no danger seemed to be present eventually the party decided to press on. Jojo had only barely turned on the bulldozer and started it moving again when the storm drains ahead began to vomit up swarms of the creatures. In a second they saw more than 60 swarm up out of the sewers.

As the fright checks started kicking in the airline stewardess fainted, not much of a surprise. Lilly’s brain also decided it had finally had enough and out she went, lucky for her she was in the cab of the truck. Even Og was in shock over what he was seeing.

It was lucky for everyone that Jojo was made of sterner stuff. She immediately hit the gas to try and simply crush them with the sheer weight of the bulldozer. This bought time for Ramias and Richard James to pick up the unconscious stewardess and book it. Crystal had been running along as a wolf, an excellent form to run away at top speed in. Even Og had a chance to shake himself out of shock and take to his heels.

Unfortunately Og didn’t have enough time or adrenaline to get away clean (a wonderfully failed extra effort check). He did have a head start so he was safe for the first three seconds, and the fact that he was running for all he was worth protected him for the next three. Then one of them got him in the side. This could have spelled doom on its own, although he might have been able to still survive, but in the next second one grabbed his leg and another grabbed the back of his head and bit through his skull. Yummy brain matter.

Richard James and Ramias had more of a head start then Og did and they managed to make it way unscathed. Unfortunately their burden was not so lucky. Just before they got clear one of the critters grabbed the stewardess’s arm and bit through it. Of course if her arm hadn’t been in the way that would have been Richard’s neck that got bitten.

Jojo’s full speed charge may have bought those walking some time by attracting attention to the noisy bulldozer, but it hadn’t helped her that much. If what they had seen swarming out of sewers in that first second had been the entire threat they would have run it over no problem. Unfortunately the initial swarm they saw in that first second was the tip of the iceberg and the bulldozer was about to emulate the Titanic.

As the seconds passed the swarm emerging from the sewers seemed inexhaustible. The numbers quickly rose from the dozens to the hundreds or possibly thousands. As the creatures swarmed out they formed a wall of flesh that even a bulldozer couldn’t knock down.

As the bulldozer started to slow “Laura” reached deep down and tried to use all her remaining energy create a huge imaginary fire to scatter the swarm and buy them time. She apparently reached even deeper inside herself than she though as her magic produce an enormous cylinder of real fire that blasted hundreds of critters into little charcoal briquettes and scattered the pieces across the city. The fire was so intense that for a second or two the creatures actually stopped swarming out of the sewers. (This was an epically timed crit.)

This bought Jojo time to try and salvage the situation. Say what you want about Jojo her job is driving and she is good at it. Bulldozers going at top speed aren’t really very maneuverable but she managed to actually hang a U-turn and not tip over. Then she once again floored it, but this time she was headed away from danger. She had even managed to not flinch from the giant cylinder of flame that appeared right in from of her. The lady does have nerves of steel.

Of course it’s not easy to hang onto the scoop or roof of a bulldozer that’s hanging a U-turn. Loriannasha had one of those legendary surges of adrenaline and actually left finger marks where she was holding on for dear life to the roof of the bulldozer. Ryuu was actually pretty good at gripping tightly and shifting weight carefully and so he came through okay. His improvised staff did whack him on the back of the noggin’, but the fireman’s helmet that he almost got his face eaten to retrieve kept his bell from getting more than a light ringing.

O-Bai and “Laura” tried to use their bodies keep poor legless Damian from flying out. Too bad O-Bai should have worried more about herself. She felt her grip slipping and started to go flying out of the scoop. Just as she started feel that wonderful weightless moment before gravity kicks in “Laura” and Damian both reached out to grab her arms and pull her back in. They were only barely strong enough to keep her from having a closer encounter with the ground, but they did save her. A few of the newly emerging critters managed to get nibbles on her legs and crotch, but nothing too serious. The healers can probably put her rights soon.

As the bulldozer sped away another wave of flesh emerged to chase it. Fast as the critters are the bulldozer is faster once it gets up to speed. A second or two before the wave would have started curling up in the sun most of the critters vanished into the shadows or the sewers. Apparently some of the creatures have learned just how much light they can stand.

So most of the party survived the biggest threat they have yet faced. Of course most of that threat is still waiting in the darkness……or raining down in burned little bits.


Alrighty for this week’s death forecast:

Mara – Jojo – 80%
A full tank of gas means she is good to go.

Syth - Ryuu – 45%
We’ll see if a very near death experience makes him more cautious. I kind of doubt it.

Josh – Richard James – 75%
David – Lilly – 75%
Dave – Lady O-Bei – 60%
No changes here. Although it will be interesting to see how Lilly reacts to her own fainting spell.

Laura – Wren – 55%
Finally a name! We’ll see how well this little bird fairs from here.

Amber – Crystal – 65%
If she makes good choices about what form to be in when it she will do well.

Sean – Loriannasha Boling – 45%
Hopefully she now realizes that the roof of the bulldozer is a bad place to be when the sh*t starts flying.

Ray – TBD – 30%
Let’s see what he comes up with this time.

Moving to NPC Status:
Damien – Has volunteer work during the game, hopefully it will help him move on to an actual job.
Ramias – Since we moved it to my house the trip is too far for a weekday for him. He will be missed, although the character probably won’t be, at least by the enemies.

Introducing:
Phil – TBD – 65%
I don’t yet know what he will bring in. We are supposed to be meeting before the game to work on it. The player has pretty good survival skills and a lot of experience gaming.

Spoiler:
Only 5 days until the rain comes.
Mwahahahaha


Scared out of my mind, i can't talk, can't find my storm rider team and I'm getting yelled at bye a insane biker chick. but the people I'm with are not half bad but i kinda feel bad about the deaths that happens a cave man who didn't know what tech is and a lech base ball player i will find a way out of here with my new team mates


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Alright. Recently RL has been kind of a b*tch. It’s kept me from playing or posting anything long, but thankfully it hasn’t kept me from running. So the last two game sessions have been pretty safe. The party has had a chance to catch their breath, regroup and plan ahead a bit. They’ve gotten very wary at this point. I’ll give the highlights.

“Phil” and “Ray”, whose actual names escape me at the moment, were found near a gas station. The gas station proved to a gold mine of resources, especially once the party found that there was a hidden shop were jeans were printed with fake labels. This yielded 30 pairs of jeans, some beer, a few porn mags, 1 roll of toilet paper and a half starved kitten. It also provided enough gas to refuel the bulldozer.

The party took a page out of the long haired girl’s book and started looting the cars near the gas station thoroughly. Eventually someone came up with the good idea of check trunks to see if there were any spare tires that had survived. This yielded them a working Camary, although not all the tires are the right size so the ride is pretty uncomfortable.

From a distance they finally spotted what they think is the source of the flame Jojo saw. About a mile down the street from the gas station was a very large crashed military helicopter. This looks a transport chopper and is huge even compared to the bulldozer. They have yet to attempt looting it, since every time they’ve been near it it’s been a time when the shadows were pretty long. It’s a fairly healthy dose of caution, but what sort of weapons might they have picked up from a military helicopter.

Lilly attempted to bargain with whatever is controlling events by scratching “what do I need to do to bribe you” into the dirt. Predictably she got no response.

Crystal had a nightmare where she was standing where the party is now. Several days seemed to pass then the sky clouded over with dark clouds. Rain began pouring from the sky and then slowly turned into a rain of creatures that covered everything in sight. She relayed this to O-Bai who brought to before the whole group. Crystal does have precognition, but she also has nightmares, so which this is is up for debate.

“Ray” made several attempts to figure out how he could create a safe path to the chopper in the morning. The result was an exhausted spellcaster who now has a better understand of how his spells work and on what scale.

The party eventually circled the city to the East and met up with the highway so they could attempt to reach the hospital. They took them time on the highway looking for any useful things that might be on the way, and they were not disappointed. They found a tire shipping truck that still had 10 tires in it. A large van that provided them a ladder and set of tools seemed like a good use for the tires, although they left the tires safe where they are for now.

Ryuu found the Japanese equivalent of a hostess truck. He was expecting all sorts of yummy goodness inside when he checked in the back. Too bad for him it was apparently post delivery rather than pre delivery. All that remained was an already opened pack of twinkies. So Ryuu was now the proud owner of 1 ½ twinkies. I’m a jerk sometimes.

Of course the twinkies weren’t just a joke. The more thoughtful party members decided to check the expiration date. This pair of twinkies was set to expire in 3/7/58. Several people immediately saw a problem with this number. Still it’s more information than they had before.

Spoiler:
Jojo also has herself a shiny new handgun. As a piece offering, or maybe a way to get into Jojo’s good graces the long haired girl presented her with a 9mil with a spare clip. So Jojo now has 30 bullets. And a couple million or so monsters nearby.

When they finally reached the hospital they found that it apparently had been the sight of a lot of confusion. Crash cars, overturned ambulances even a section of the hospital wall collapsed. One ambulance was still intact enough to provide a nice selection of medical supplies. While they were busy looting the van Ryuu found someone in one of the cars. This would be Ryuu’s replacement. The player decided that Ryuu wasn’t what he was hoping for. I think a lot of this comes from the fact that Ryuu is mute and the player is very vocal, just not a good fit for him. So the new character is an Umbrella Corp. Seems like except for that fact that he’s expecting Zombies and get critters instead he should do pretty well.

Of course while a section of the hospital collapsed, most of it did not and it is very impressive structure. It was more than 5 stories tall and covered a huge area. The party is all set to explore it’s dark depths in the hopes of something useful.


So ... how many of them are eaten alive - crotch first - when the lamp batteries run dry? ^_^


Well i have no idea were I'm at for all I know I was kidnapped or something like that but theirs no zombies. Wait a moment no zombies well form what these people told me its the same consent flesh eating creatures.Sadly it still feels like home fighting for survival, trying to find useful supplies is new, and sticking with these idiots is going to be a problem I mean that don't even have a gun, a simple fire arm, a stranded for survival. Well at least they have some weapons.


journal of a kitty:
i been real scared.all the big two legs aren't here,and all there are is all the big mean dogs.i have to run and hide in my special place all the time.but,wait,here come more big two legs!one of them is making nice purrs at me.maybe i should check it out.the big two leg picks me way up and purrs more at me,then it gives me to another big two leg.it purrs even more and calls me neko.it carries me all the rest of the day,and feeds me meat,warm meat!just little bits at a time,but lots!my tummy is full for first time since the other two legs left.we settle down to sleep,and i knead and knead the big two leg to make it comfy for me,and it meows and meows,but it lets me settle down to sleep and wraps a nice warm blanket around me.when i wake up,the big two leg starts carrying me again in the nice warm day.it gives me to another two leg,which purrs to me,too,but then takes me back after awhile.things are good,and i feel nice and safe.no big mean dogs are gonna get me now.time for a nice,long nap.


Sorry, for the super-mega-belated post from session 3. Only three sessions behind, now! LOL

Character Journal Entry 3:

Too many cooks in the f*cking kitchen – know what I mean? That’s the sh*t we’re dealing with. OK, that’s the bullsh*t I’m dealing with, anyway. I hate crowds. Who needs ‘em? It’s just more people to split the take, and I don’t share well as is. Not to mention, you get this many people and heads are gonna’ butt all the f*cking time!

Meeting up with the others is just another headache. You got this bunch that wants to go to a museum for bones or f*cking souvenirs from this hellhole, I guess. And, then, there’s another bunch that wanna’ find a hospital, food, or something. That much sounds reasonable. We’re gonna need the gear, soon. Then, there’s Yakuza. I don’t read his scribble sh*it. And he don’t speak American... or any gawddamned language. I think he’s still all gung ho over some football pads, but I ain’t f*cking going back in that sporting goods store. We barely got out with the water and our flesh in tack. I ain’t that eager to die.

So, we stood around and fussed for almost an hour before I lost. All I could do was stare at that pretty spray of water in the near distance. Damn, I wanted that shower so f*cking bad! To be this close, I was pissed. But I couldn’t just drop the expletive deleted and head off on my own. I need someone to get eaten in case we find more of them pod-slugs crawling about. Kinda’ like that whole bear scenario. You don’t have to outrun the bear, just everyone else.

Granted it hadn’t been but a few hours, but I didn’t give much attention to the group before we parted ways. So, I don’t really remember many of them, but I’m pretty f*ckin’ certain none of them were crippled before. Now, we have one stumpy-ass doctor with no legs, and a bunch of people with bites taken outta’ them. I’m so THRILLED to be on the Raiders-equivalent of the Apocalypse Survivors’ Squad. That’s A.S.S. Shi-it, fate better trade me out soon to a team with talent!

The afternoon was starting to wear on, so we packed up Stumpy and the Swiss-cheese crew and headed back west, back to the sporting goods store. The A.S.S. was in motion. I could hear the elevator music settle into the background as I just started to zone.

We weren’t driving for long when we passed by the hollow shell of what used to be some type of a store. Damned if I could read the signs. But, sleeping in the middle of the dusty floor was a expletive deleted wolf! You think if we had noticed that before, maybe we’d be having steaks instead of Snickers… And sure enough, a burnt-in circle around the thing.

Og must’ve thought the same as me, cuz’ he stalked over to that beast with his bat raised and I was none too upset to have him around, suddenly. But, when he went to swing, the beast woke, dodged, and then turned into a woman. A f*cking woman! The b*tch was a expletive deleted WEREWOLF!!! Now, leave it to Sir Dick James, the dude claiming to be a knight running around with a trashcan lid, to be Mr. Wonderful and insist we bring the skyclad vixen with us to protect her. Shi-it, ain’t we got enough dead weight in this group? I casually locked the doors and got a sideways glance from that creepy little girl – Lily, was it? – who I let ride in the cab with me.

“Safety, pumpkin. Safety.”

The dozer was loaded. People in the cab, on the cab, sitting in the scoop like it was some mobile Lazyboy, and hanging off every edge they could lay a foot. We even had some walking alongside. Like I said – A.S.S., the “special” division. Not exactly the people I’d have picked for ‘Survivor’ or to bunk with, let alone a job. I know someone’s having a good time at my expense.

I got a little bit of revenge, though. We made an unexpected stop at an electronics store as we were heading back to the sporting goods store. And you know who stopped us for the sh*t? That’s right! Yakuza! Good for nothin’, Yakuza. I think I’ll promote him to a Lieutenant of A.S.S. or something... On the other hand, how the f*ck did we miss the werewolf AND now an electronics store?

So, the boys went in. By boys, I mean Yakuza, Ramius (some Russian who’s been getting cozy with the banged-up stewardess), and Og. Not too many of the men folk in this group, actually, just the five. Damien, a.k.a. Stumpy, was chillin’ all legless-like in the scoop, and Sir expletive deleted Dick James was staying back to “protect” us. My hero.

I don’t know what happened after that. I heard a little bit of screaming, and people disappeared from around the dozer, but I was full on into my sugar rush.

The time kept passing and I kept laughing – laughing like a gawddamned loon. Louis Armstrong was in my head singing “What a Wonderful World” as I giggled away munching on my candy bars and sipping on my – whatever the hell these energy drinks are. And in my rearview were those d!@*&@&s struggling once more with them expletive deleted pod-slugs. They keep welcoming trouble and I’m letting them have it. Let ‘em drown in the sh*t storm. I know they’re all the people I might ever have here, but less mouths to feed – well, it all seems for the better. All that f@%&ing ‘survival of the fittest’ bullsh*t propaganda finally had a place.

Maybe it was the caffeine talking, but it seemed like a good idea to start thinking about who we’d eat first. Of course, some thoughts you just keep to yourself. Don’t want to scare the guys that’re supposed to be watching my back. Sometimes, the sanity can only last as long as the A/C. And with no shower, no meat, and limited supplies (and an army of thousands to eat it all), all I got’s my A/C.

Sadly, no one died. The A.S.S. was back in business. Sigh.

The drive was uneventful after that and we got to the sporting goods store with the same luck. I put up the scoop so people could crawl around on the roof and do whatever they did. Lily brought back the wire racks to that water fridge and the rest of the water. People grabbed a few things, but after it was all said and done, we left the sporting goods store with exactly what we came with, minus the hour wasted.

The sun was starting to set and with the shadows growing, the critters would be creeping about. So, off to safety for the night! An argument broke out over sleeping on the roof and I finally put my foot down. Shi-it, if we arrived in the desert, slept in the desert for f*cking days, we could certainly sleep there another night.

Parking it in the outskirts, a good several miles outside of town in case those pod-slugs decided to scent our trail like f*cking dogs, we settled in for the night. I nibbled on another candy bar, handed out a few, rationed the water, and then cried on the inside. I haven’t lost my humanity, yet. I need to work on that.

Someone started a campfire and it was about that time I finally noticed the sky. In all the darkness, with the sun set, the sky shoulda’ been brilliant. I went camping south of Peoria, once, when I was a kid and the night sky was blooming with stars. I could only count three. Three f*cking stars in all this black. Gawddamned strange, but what hasn’t been so far?

Then, Sir Dick James pulled out a few of those critters they had killed. My stomach sank as I watched them cook, then eat that nasty sh*t.

Note to self – future toxic-avenging mutants not allowed in the cab.

CAST OF TOONS:
According to Jojo...
  • me, myself, and I
  • Yakuza: fail yakuza, and mute to boot (so he can’t argue over the name)
  • Og: smarter than your average caveman
  • Lily: creepy little girl
  • Lori: Japanese, but into bikes, so we won’t hold it against her
  • Sir Richard “Dick” James: poser knight
  • Wren: pyro
  • Lady O’Bai: old school Japanese, like “samurai” old school
  • Damien: STUMPY! Although, I’ve been assured he’s a healer, and we ain’t just haulin’ his lame ass around for fun.
  • Ramius: Russian lech
  • Stewardess: OK, admittedly, I ain’t even bothered to find out her real name cuz’ I’m calling her the Sexy Stew from here on out.
  • Sawako: Wako, for short, like the Animaniac. She just seems... here. And in need of a haircut.
  • Crystal: WEREWOLF! KILL IT!


Turin the Mad wrote:
So ... how many of them are eaten alive - crotch first - when the lamp batteries run dry? ^_^

Well we had to stop in the middle of combat because it was getting late. Thank goodness for wet erase markers and maps. At present one of the characters is indeed getting eaten from the crotch up. Her situation is bad enough the other character are discussing throwing the molotov coctail at her as the way to take out the most opponents. More details will be forthcoming later.


journal of a kitty:
the two leg who been carrying me lifted me way up high and put me in a nice,cool place.this is nice.i wanna stay here a good long time.i can see if those bad dogs are coming,and they can't reach me up in here.time for a nice nap.


All righty then. It’s been a while since the last update. Sorry for the silence, but I’ve been busy and the Hospital exploration took two full game sessions. It was a blast. We had death, maiming and broken bones.

Well the exploration started out with the (should be) usual discussion of “is this really a good idea”? “Phil” solved this by the simple method of walking in the front door. Most of the party chose to follow.

The doors opened into a large waiting area. A passage to the left looked clear, but the one to the right was partially blocked by fallen rubble. Directly head was a reception area behind bullet proof glass. There was also a large automatic door made of bullet proof glass. It was the kind that you have to be buzzed in to get through. There were also several signs pointing out the various locations. It’s took some time to work out the translation, but eventually the meaning of the signs was related to the group. The left passage was labeled Maternity and Admin. The collapsed right passage was labeled Dining and Critical Care. The area behind the reception desk was labeled Emergency Care.

The whole place looked damaged and abandoned. The lighting was spotty at best. The ceiling of drop tiles was eaten away and missing. The damaged look was not helped by the fact that the first thing Arkelos (Ray’s character) did when walking in was throw a lightning bolt at the bullet proof glass. He was more than a little surprised when it had almost no effect.

After a little discussion and quite a bit of argument the group split up a bit. “Phil”, Richard James and Lady O-Bai went into the maternity ward to raid the electronics for as much wiring as they could get and some large metal panels. Not sure what “Phil” wants them for, but he is probably cooking up something.

Tenso was determined to get into the ER and he asked Arkelos’s help in doing so. He wanted Arkelos to throw a low powered lightning bolt at the locking mechanism. This was a good plan except for two problems: 1) Arkelos’s aim wasn’t that precise and 2) Arkelos didn’t seem to grasp the whole “low powered” concept. The bolt that struck the door frame fried both Tenso and the mechanism that allowed the door to open. Tenso eventually recovered, the door was not so lucky.

About this time Jojo and a few friends who had gone outside to look for a car battery as a safer and more controlled way to attempt what Tenso had came back. “Phil” and his crew started hauling their loot out to the vehicles as several people set to opening the door Arkelos has fried using pure brutel strength. They never really did explore the area, but they did take a look at the computer system. Tenso wanted to try and hack into the security system from the reception desk. Unfortunately for Tenso the people who made this place are not completely retarded and the two systems are separate. They were however able to determine that at least part of the security system is still up and running.

At this point Sawako (the npc previously referred to as the long haired girl, she finally got a name) emerged from under the rubble and announced that she had found a body. This definitely got people interested as it was the first body they had found since coming here.

At this point the party split up. Jojo’s group, which consisted of Jojo, Lorianasha, Lilly, Sawako, and Tenso decided to crawl through the rubble pile to look at the body Sawako found. “Phil”’s group consisted of “Phil”, Arkelos, Wren, Ryuu, Richard and Lady O-bai. The rest of the NPCs stayed outside, including Crystal who had wondered off at some point.


Well first let’s follow “Phil”’s group. They wanted to raid the Admin area, but that was on a different floor despite the signs. There was a elevator, which looked like it was still working. But when I suggested them taking it Phil gave me an “are you retarded?!” look. I guess he is catching on quick. Instead they took the stairs.

Instead they took the stairs. When they got to the landing of the third floor Ryuu grabbed “Phil”, pointed at the sign by the door and mimed firing a guy. This immediately caught “Phil”’s interest. The door was locked, but luckily it was a physical lock and not a keycard lock. “Phil” had kept some of the shorter wires form the earlier scrounging which let him pick the lock.

This led into a hallway that ran the length of the building. Much further down they could see the open door to the main security station. Along the way were dozens of doors, most of which were locked, that either had once held or still held medical, cleaning and maintenance supplies.

Instead of rushing to the security room “Phil” elected to clear each and every room along the way. The slow and patient method is sometimes the best. At this point a few players heard some very faint sounds of movement. So they took the time to look inside the security room on the way past.

That is when they realized just how much trouble they were in.

On the few remaining cameras they could easily see the hospital was swarming with critters, and they were on their way. Even the stairs they had come up were being flooded with the creatures. The group downstairs was also in very big trouble. “Phil” ordered everyone into the room, slammed the door and tried to use the intercom to let the other group know how much trouble they were in.

It’s too bad that the security room had a drop ceiling as well, and the creatures could just get in that way. “Phil” definitely had a few words he wanted to say to the designers of this hospital. The group engaged in a rather hurried ransacking of the draws and found themselves quite a lot of tazers and four cans of pepper spray. “Josh”s comment upon find the pepper spray was “Oh sh*t, we found seasoning.”

At this point Arkelos created a cloud of gas to try and give the group some cover to make a run for it. “Phil” was the first one out the door and he ran for the stairs, despite the fact that there were dozens of critters there, and the rest followed after. At least until Wren and Arkelos started bringing up the rear. They noticed that there was more light the other direction. Wren called for them to follow her as she headed towards the light.

Remember how part of the wall had collapsed? Well I told the party that the pile of rubble went all the way up to the third floor. Well the light was coming in from a collapsed doorway. When the players finally remembered this it was mad dash for the escape route. Unfortunately some of the critters had been coming in from the other direction. As they emerged from the cloud they could see that the critters were closer to their escape route than they were.

As the faster characters moved up and got ready, Arkelos had a better idea. He used a spark cloud to block off the passage. The damage of it wasn’t much, but then again his opponents aren’t that smart and it did serve to keep them out. Too bad he put the spark cloud between the party and their exit.

Still Richard James is pretty quick thinking. He immediately turned and started hacking with his axe at the door to the room beside the one they had been headed for. He correctly figured that the damage would have opened up more than one room. As he hacked through the door Arkelos used the opportunity to turn himself into a bolt of lightning. It’s at this point that I realized that the “body” spells in GURPS are way too powerful for this campaign. I have since banned them, but since he tried it before I realized this he gets to enjoy this one use of it.

Arkelos used his lightning body to block the other doorway and keep the first group of critters off the party as they pondered what to do. Yes I did say first group for a reason, but we’ll get to that in a moment. The problem that now faced the party is that the rubble pile isn’t something they can climb all that quickly, since it is a VERY steep angle.

“Phil” and Ryuu tried to climb down. Emphasis on the “try”. As they fell they discovered that, unlike D&D, GURPS falling rules are NOT kind. “Phil” broke his right leg, while Ryuu broke his left leg. Ryuu managed to keep his staff which makes a bad but usable crutch in this case. He also overcame his continuing enmity with “Phil” long enough to for the two of them to do an awkward 3 legged hobble away from the hospital.

Richard James decided to try and imitate Legolas and sled down the rubble on the wok he’s been using as a shield. This worked about as well as you would expect. He managed to land a bit softer than the other two thanks to some sand in the rubble, but not soft enough to miss breaking his right leg.

Wren was the only lucky one, making a very soft and balanced landing that left her bruised but with nothing broken. She and Crystal, who had run up to help, worked together to get Richard clear of the building.

Lady O-bai was about ready to attempt her own retreat when 3 of the critters dropped from the ceiling behind her. Instead of running she turned to hold them off an buy her friends time to hobble away. Arkelos lend a hand by throwing a Walk On Air spell on her so that she might be able to get away once everyone was clear.

O-bai defended valiantly but two of the three critters grabbed her legs and started chewing. She tried desperately to grab them before they could chew her legs apart, but while she was able to grab a hold of them she was not able to rip them off. Arkelos once again lent a hand but jumping on top of O-bai and electrocuting her and the critters at the same time, which was enough to get them off her. After this she was able to defend herself pretty well.

About this time dozens of the creatures spilled forth from the windows of the hospital in pursuit, but the players had a big enough lead escape. Seeing this O-bai and Arkelos both took to the air to escape.

So the upper floors group got away with no fatalities, but a whole lot of casualties including 3 temporarily lamed characters.


Jojo’s group stayed on the ground floor, but weren’t noticeably safer. After crawling some distance through a tunnel in the rubble Sawako led the group in a locker room.

Here they found a VERY ripe body stuffed into one of the lockers. The lockers weren’t very big so either the person had been a child or a midget. For the sake of the reader’s lunches I won’t describe the corpse in detail, but the word “gooey” comes to mind….

They also found a few other interesting things in the room. In one locker Jojo found a very small mini-fridge that was still working. In it were several cans of redbull and a store bought sandwich that had gone very bad. The date on the sandwich was 1/13/58. Someone else found a joint.

Loriannasha found a pistol. Although for some reason the safety wouldn’t move, the clip wouldn’t eject and the barrel looked too small. She pocketed it for later use.

Tenso found a security card which he used to open the door. There he was able to locate a map of the place. Of course at this time danger sense kicked in for those who had it and a few of them heard very, very faint sounds of movement. A few second latter garbled words of warning could be heard over the PA.

Time to run.

The part was about to try and crawl back the way they had come, but Sawako turn and crawled as fast as she could further down the tunnel through the rubble. Turns out she had explored that way as well before returning and found that the tunnel was shorter in the opposite direction.

When they came up of the tunnel in the rubble they could see a pair of glass double doors leading outside. Too bad they could also seen several critters between them and the doors. Sawako was the first one out and she moved up a bit and grabbed something out of her back pack. Lilly moved up even more and got ready to hold off the creatures. Meanwhile Jojo and Tenso were still stuck in the tunnel. Loriannasha pulled out her new pistol and fired it, only to find it was a very realistic looking lighter. Oops.

The critters were far enough down the hall that they weren’t able to get to the party immediately. Loriannasha abandoned her fake pistol and moved up to whack one of the charging critters. Lilly moved up behind and a started to cut one in half. Sawako threw what she had pulled out of the pack at the critters. It was a molotov cocktail! Just the thing to fire the suckers, too bad they weren’t bunched up more. Jojo and Tenso finally got out of the tunnel and turned to kick at the rubble in an attempt to close the tunnel. It didn’t work.

This is where things got painful. Lilly and Sawako managed to defend themselves well enough, but Loriannasha was not so lucky. One of them got her by the crotch. Ouch.

Lilly kept attacking the one she had started on. Jojo and Tenso moved up, but not much. Sawako pulled out another Molotov cocktail and wisely stepped behind Tenso. Good move for her, not so much for Tenso. Loriannasha managed to knock the one on her crotch off, but it wasn’t alone.

This time around Loriannasha got hit by three of them. Two got her torso while one clamped onto her neck. Not a good location. The three that had been about to go for Sawako went for Tenso instead and one of them got his leg and started chewing.

As the remaining ones tried to dogpile Tenso and Loriannasha, Jojo and Lilly realized they had an open run at the doors and they took it. Not the bravest thing to do, but not a bad plan either. Sawako in the meantime finished lighting the fuse on her second and final Molotov cocktail. Loriannasha went down hard and Tenso failed to pull the one off his leg.

As Jojo and Lilly did a runner one of the ones that had been going for Tenso took the opportunity to pounce on Lilly. It got her by the back of the neck, which was covered by the fireman’s helmet she had on. She tossed it on the pile of what was left of Loriannasha as she kept running. Too bad three more critter spilled out from the ceiling between them and the doors. The one on Tenso’s leg also finished eating its way through the leg and started to work its way up as Loriannasha breathed her last.

This time around Tenso was able to rip the critter off his leg and reintroduce it to the other one attacking them. As the two critters set to eating each other Sawako threw her Molotov cocktail at the pile of critters on the corpse of Loriannasha. This meant that the only ones left were the three nearer the door.

A ray of hope kicked in when Ramias drove the Camry through the pair of glass doors and kicked the passenger side door open. Instead of leaving him to die, Sawako picked Tenso up and started hobbling with him towards the car. In a moment of bravery Jojo and Lilly also turned back and held the attention of the three remaining critters.

Sawako and Tenso were only half way there when the critters started to swarm up out of the tunnel in the rubble. In a heroic effort Sawako was just barely able to get Tenso to the car and shove both of them in. As Lilly and Jojo jumped in as well Ramias threw it into reverse and peeled out mere feet ahead of the swarm.

Thanks to some impressive bravery Loriannasha was the only one to lose their life. Still the whole party is quite a bit injured. It remains to be seen where they will go from here.


An importnat note. Sean will be taking over Sawako as his new character to replace Loriannasha.


journal of a kitty:
i was having my nice nap in the cool safe place when all the two legs came running up.the two leg who sits where i was lying picked me up and pushed me off my comfy spot,and the loud noise started and the cool safe place started shaking and moving.the nice two leg picked me up and started carrying me again.it didn't have the thick anymore,so when i kneaded it,it started meowing again,but it still carried me nicely.a lot of the other two legs were meowing,too,and i realized they all got bitten by the mean dogs.after a while,some of them stopped meowing,so i guess they weren't hurting any more.finally,it got dark again,and the two leg who carries me lay down on the ground with me.then another two leg came over,and pretty soon,it and my two leg were meowing again,only this time i realized that they were trying to make kittens.i wonder how many kittens my two leg is gonna have,and when.after they finished making the kittens,they both fell asleep,so i decided to take another nice nap.


Alright, time to get caught up here. To any readers that remain the reason for the lack of updates is 1)work and other RL problems and 2) my girlfriend bought me Civ 5 for our 1 year anniversary. So I’ve been a little distracted.

After the hospital debacle they were able to patch themselves back together using Damien’s healing abilities and Wren’s magic. So they headed back out of town.

They did manage some salvage on the way. This included an axle that was sharp on one end for O-Bai to use as a spear, the fuel tank off a large diesel truck, 2 large jugs that looked made out of plastic but hadn’t been eaten by the creatures and a pistol for Tenso which he kept to himself.

They also took the spare tires they found and put them on a van and thus acquired their third vehicle. They were able to pass the night without much incident.

Spoiler:
Lilly took the time to go back by where she had tried to start negotiations to bribe whatever god/alien was looking down on them. She found that the dirt had subsided where she wrote that. The caved in holes spelled out “Help me. Find me.” Creepy.

In the morning it seemed like a good plan to head back north to the gas station and finally have a go at the military helicopter. The plan was for Jojo, Sawako and Lilly would ride in the bulldozer. O-Bai, Arkelos and Tenso would ride in the scope. Once they got close the three in the scoop would get out to investigate as Jojo would use the bulldozer to tear wider a hole in the side.

A note about the scale of the helicopter. It was 12 hexes(yards) wide and more than 40 long as I drew it out. It was NOT a small craft.

The plan went smoothly at first. The bulldozer tore a bigger hole and the three went in. The first sight they had was awesome. An entire rack of flame throwers, ammo refills, NBC suites and some weapons they didn’t recognize. And no enemies in sight.

Too bad it didn’t stay that way. Apparently the ones inside here had learned a bit about how to ambush, unlike most of their brethren. Arkelos and Tenso had gone the furthest in, albeit in slightly different directions. So of course they were the ones attacked from surprise. Arkelos got lucky and saw them coming while Tenso got lucky and had them roll abysmally.

Arkelos got two on him, but got them off when he cast a spark cloud and then a resist lightening. He seemed to enjoy standing in the cloud and daring them to come after him. Suffice it to say he survived pretty handily.

Tenso was not so lucky. He fended off the few he saw coming, but the one he didn’t see ate the hand he was using to his knife. He responded by pulling out his new gun and shooting it. He hit which didn’t seem to do much besides knock it off what was left of his hand. Of course the shot did catch the attention of ALL the creatures, except the two on Arkelos.

Tenso did manage to step back and O-Bai stepped up, and the two were able to hold them off for a second or two before Tenso decided to sacrifice himself and throw O-Bai out of the helicopter just before one of them got him by the short and curlies. Man what is it with these critters and crotch shots? I swear we’re using a random table here.

Arkelos tried to buy Tenso some time by casting stench, which didn’t help. Jojo bought him quite a bit more time by slamming the bulldozer into the back end of helicopter. Most of the critters heard this pretty clearly and piled out to follow her. She played pied piper and led them out into the sunlight where they eventually curled up in pods.

Unfortunately that didn’t distract the ones still trying to get to Tenso and his tasty flesh. About this time Mark and Richard showed up, they had objected to being left back with the other vehicles (they had also missed the session this started in, it took two complete sessions).

Tenso eventually dropped unconscious and nearly died but Mark, Richard and O-Bai fought bravely to save him. They might not have been able to pull it off if not for the whirlwind that Arkelos summoned. It blew the surviving critters back into the helicopter and let the party retreat to where Damien could work on saving the badly mangled Tenso.

Spoiler:
During the fight Tenso in a last ditch effort to survived called on the healing powers grant him by the “T-virus”. This worked a bit and upped his regerenation to 1 per hour instead of 1 per 12 hours. Unfortuantely he also now has to each 6 times what a normal person does. This is a very dangerous thing for him to try.

Even worse he doesn’t have the T-virus. After doing some more research and discussing things with those who’ve played the game he has a version of the Progenator virus. In some ways much more dangerous. We’ll just have to see what happens.

After the party regrouped they decided that they really wanted the weapons inside the helicopter. Of course it wasn’t uninhabited. This time they thought it would be good to through the back hatch. Unfortunately none of them knew how to get to come down. Ryu tried for most of an hour and was able to get it to open a crack before he shorted it out. At which time Jojo finally lost it and attacked the control panel with a baseball bat.

Her rage convinced the remaining creatures to come out and attack. The first one out got her by the face, which knocked her unconscious. Apparently her poor battered psyche had had enough.

The fight was short and not too dangerous once they got the two off Jojo that grabbed her.

Inside the first thing they grabbed was the 12 flame throws. These aren’t the modern ones. These are designed like a rifle with a small detachable drum of fuel. They’re somewhat short range, only about 5 yards. Still they might prove to be very effective. Each of the flame throwers had a full drum on it and a pallet held 48 more drums.

There were also a dozen NBC suites and two jeeps that had suffered the usual depredations by the critters. There was also a pallet with 15 canisters that looked something large oxygen tanks, gear to wear them backpack style and 12 of what looked like guns designed to be hooked up to the tanks. Eventually Ryu was able to hook one up and realize that they were design to spray liquid hydrogen.

Spoiler:
I realize that should be liquid nitrogen, but I screwed up. I’m just going to chalk this one up to advancing tech instead of doing a retcon.

The suites are actually pretty nice as they are cooled and have a water filtration and recycling system.

They also found the still functioning navigation system of the craft. Through that they were able to figure these things were pretty much everywhere, that they were somewhere in Japan, and that there were safe zones. On an important note the center of the city had the highest concentration of creatures they could see on the map.

The safe zone to the west was pretty close, but had a pretty heavy concentration of creatures along the way. The east safe zone was further way, but had a less populated route. They decided on the safer route.

Of greater concern was that the mountain range that could be barely glimpsed to the south was nowhere in evidence on the map.

This puts me only a week behind. Two weeks once tonight’s game finishes. I hope those will go up in a more timely fashion. A question for what readers I might have out there: Were you enjoying the “Death Forecast” and should I continue it?”


Death forecast was definitely interesting. And don't worry about the Real Life Monster - I'm hoping to get Civ 5 soon-ish as well.

Ah ... just ... one ... more ... turn ... nggrrkk ...

Liberty's Edge

The Admiral Jose Monkamuck wrote:
This puts me only a week behind. Two weeks once tonight’s game finishes. I hope those will go up in a more timely fashion. A question for what readers I might have out there: Were you enjoying the “Death Forecast” and should I continue it?”

Yes, please continue. I have your thread in my list so I can always see new posts. I'm loving it.


Well, time to finish getting caught up. The brand new flame throwers certainly got a work out tonight. Also starting last week Brandon has started showing up again and taken back over Ramias, we’ll see how long he keeps coming.

Well the part finally left the city and headed east. With the bulldozer leading the way the party made very good time. Still it was pretty late in the day when they finally came across something very surprising. At least surprising for most of them. Lilly seemed to have an idea about this ahead of time.

About 60 miles from the city they came across a chasm that ran north to south. On the far side of the chasm they could see grass and a few trees. Something they haven’t seen for several days. Of course now they have a ten foot wide gap and no road of any kind on the other side.

The chasm itself was a good 30 or so feet deep with water at the bottom. The more nature oriented could see that there was something drastically wrong with the strata. Particularly the one at the water level that seemed to be pure salt and the one a little further up that looked like pure silver. Definitely odd. Also the top layer of soil on each side did not look like the same kind.

Lilly guessed that the two sections were from different worlds. She’s a smart little girl.

Well they stopped at the edge to figure out what to do. Arkelos used this as a chance to try out a new spell, call rain. This handy little spell was able to make it rain for a while in a decently large area. Arkelos and several of the other characters, particularly the ladies, used this as a chance to FINALLY get a shower. Some of the less gentlemanly characters used this as a chance to ogle the ladies, not that I blame them given the dirth of entertainment available.

This was going well until a dozen of the critters unburried themselves and began attacking the yummy looking naked people.

Lady O’Bai didn’t fair too well until Richard came to her rescue. The two managed to hold off their share fairly well.

Ramias rushed over with him flame thrower and took on a few, including one that kept attacking Arkelos until Ramias was able to do something about it.

Tenso also stepped up and proved himself MUCH more competent this time around. He managed to hold off and eventually dice up 4 of them.

Arkelos tried to drop a storm of giant icesicles which didn’t do much more than keep Jojo pinned in place while one repeatedly tried to eat her. The ice storm would have maimed her if I hadn’t let Arkelos add a belated hole in it where she was standing. I did this only because he is still new to the magic system and it’s one of the few where you can put as many holes in an AoE effect as you’d life. Of course he got a little too attached to that fact tonight….

Wren also picked up her first AoE spell called firestorm. In fine style she critted it yet again and flambed a critter (despite not making it to the game and being in NPC mode).

Eventually the party decided to jump over the chasm (easy to do thanks to GURPS jumping rules) and spend the night on the other side. Apparently Jojo and Mark had intended to stay on the other side, which there was some confusion over. It’s lucky for them I didn’t realize that was their intention and they were lucky they didn’t insist on it when I offered to back track slightly.

About midnight the few people who had thought to stay up and be on watch noticed some large creatures across the way around where the vehicles were parked. Jojo fired off a flame thrower to try and see what was up. Between the better lighting and a crit on her perception she was able to see 3 or 4 much larger versions of the creatures they had met before. These were about the size of a pony and had much longer….feet….legs…flippers….not sure what to call them but let’s go with flippers. If they were more amorphous I’d go with pseudopod.

The critters quickly scattered and the party decide it would be best to wait for daylight before going to investigate.

That was where last week ended, on to this week.


This week started with some discussion as to how to get the vehicles across. Eventually Richard brought up that on the way he saw some large vehicles that seemed to be carrying other ones. They were sometimes long enough to make it across the gap. Richards player has been VERY good about trying to live with his tech difference. He has repeatedly asked for intelligence checks when he worries that an idea might be out of character because of it. I’ve been generous so far and encouraged him to just make the suggestion in most cases as few of them seem to me to be completely outlandish.

Of course first they had to go collect their vehicles. It was obvious that some of the large critters from last night were still around. Everyone except Richard could see that the back end of the van was a little higher than it should be and that flipper was sticking out the side of it. As it was pointed out it’s like a fat man trying to hide under the bed.

There was some discussion as to exactly how to handle this. Eventually all the current PCs (only Tenso’s player couldn’t make it) crossed over the chasm. There was some discussion of setting up a cross fire while someone went out as a decoy. The moment he heard the word decoy Mark got back across to the “safe” side of the chasm.

No crossfire was set up but Richard did volunteer to go ahead of the group banding on his shield to attract attention. At first it didn’t seem to work, but he did get close enough to see that there was a small mound of fresh dirt behind both the car and the van. As he started forward a bit more Jojo and O-Bai tried to sneak around towards the other side of the van.

Things got started when the one under the van launched itself at Richard and was stopped by his shield.

The fight quickly devolved into three separate fights. First up is the one under the van vs Richard and O-Bai. The one behind the van went for Jojo who did a damn good job of keeping it from getting her until it switched to Arkelos. Finally the one behind the car charged Ramias who was backed up by (eventually) Lilly and Wren. Mark took potshots from across the chasm. First with the pistol he took off Tenso and then more with the ranged taser which proved to be more accurate and effective. Sawako jumped back across the chasm and decided she was NOT armed for this fight and so sat it out.

A note about the tasers, they aren’t the traditional ones that launce some needles attached to wires. They actually fire what looks like electrified staples, they proved to be very effective last time.

The fight of Ramias, Lilly and Wren actually ended first. At first Ramias held out okay by himself. For a few rounds he was able to dodge it’s attacks and hose the thing down with his flame thrower. Unlike the little ones these tried, and fairly often did, dodge attacks sent at them. At least the attacks they saw coming. Ramias eventually got socked a few times. This things would attack with a flipper, and when then it would grip the poor victim. Then it would try to hit them with another flipper and latch that one on too. Only one person was so unfortunate as to find out first hand just what happens then.

Eventually Ramias found himself at negative hp thanks to a pair of torso hits from the monster’s flippers. At this point Lilly charged in with both of her daggers skewering it a little and Wren stepped in with a fireball (the non explosive kind). Ramis actually managed to shake of the critters grip and back away before the combined fire power crispified it to the point that it stopped moving. I think the final shot was delivered by Jojo who had managed to get hers off her, but not before it got a crit in on Lilly that broke her leg. She spent the rest of the fight on the ground.

Richard did not fare so well. He whacked it once, but on the second try it managed to hit and grab a hold of his weapon arm. He promptly dropped his shield, switched hands with his axe and tried to hack off the limb that had a hold of him. He nearly succeeded too. He only needed to do 1 more point of damage to have completely severed the limb.

This was where the tradition continued itself to everyone amusement. It’s follow up attack socked him in the nads, probably hard enough to have cracked his pelvis. He pulled himselve together thanks to his (very) high pain threshold and finished the job he started.

It may have only had one flipper on him, but it wasn’t out of the fight yet. It jumped up and bit down on his head. It managed to bite through his fireman’s helmet and skull to get at the gooey brain matter inside. Brain damage is not kind folks, there may be some after effects.

This might have been the end of poor Richard but Arkelos intervened, possibly in a helpful manor. Arkelos had spend the last 3 turns powering up a concussion spell. He aimed it right at the one sitting on Richards head. It blasted the critter off his head, but it also blasted him down into enough negatives that he had to roll to not die. Lucky for him he made the roll. Damn it.

Lady O-Bai stepped between the critter and Richard buying him time to recover. Of course she paid for her trouble when it bit down on her crotch (crotch shot 2 of 3 for the evening). She had been stabbing it for quite a while with her spear, but it still wasn’t going down. Richard rallied and eventually the two of them managed to literally chop it into small enough bits to not be a threat for at least a while.

Jojo had of course been busy all this time. She fought rather valiantly by herself for a while. Although like Ramias and Richard eventually it got two hands on her. Once it did she had the bright idea of putting the flame thrower actually in its mouth before pulling the trigger. This proved to be the last straw for the critter which dropped her and went for Arkelos.

Arkelos did not fare so well. The beast’s first attack managed to rip his right arm off at the shoulder. He tried to use a stench spell with a hole for him to scare it off. It simply ate the arm.

He then tried an ice storm to drive it away. It hit him in the torso. He tried yet another spell that failed. It punched him in the crotch (and that’s 3 out of 3 for the evening). He tried to use water jet to force it off and failed. It, having two flippers on him just pulled him close and started chewing.

This might have been it for Arkelos, but the rest of the part had finally finished their fights and started trying to help. After a pouring firepower on it for a round or two a final shot from Mark’s taser proved too much for whatever this thing used as a nervous system.

So the session ended with no death, but again lots of injury. The part is hurt and tired but the enemies are all piles of charred meat or little bits of twitching flesh. This was the parties first fight with something that had the ability to defend itself, stats in the same realm as their own and something that at least resembled intelligence. They went down, but not easy. Hopefully the party will have learned a lesson.

Or not. The body count has been a bit on the low side.


Well. Finally all caught up. So on to the death forecast.

Mara – Jojo – 75%
This could go down if they end up abandoning the vehicles, but for now she has her moving fortress.

Syth - Tenso – 40%
He’s cocky, angry and willing to rely in an experimental virus for his survival. I could see this biting him in the rear, can’t you?

Josh – Richard James – 70%
He has some serious combat chops, but he’s starting to get a little cocky.

David – Lilly – 75%
She is still upset she can’t find a katana, but she is doing okay otherwise.

Dave – Lady O-Bei – 60%
Doing pretty good, but that Bushido spirit may get her killed.

Laura – Wren – 60%
Fire rocks, but if she ever ends up in close it could be all over quickly.

Sean – Sawako – 65%
The player and character are both very good at staying in the background. As long as she keep her head she will do well.

Ray – Arkelos – 40%
The three weeks leading up to tonight showed him making some amazingly effective use of his spells to both his and the party’s advantage. Tonight he started backsliding. If he get back on track with his magic use this number could skyrocket.

Phil – Mark – 65%
Very confrontational with some of the other characters, but he does like to stay at range. I have yet to see how well he will do if the enemy closes with him. I know he is aiming for Gunslinger now.

Reintroducing:
Brandon – Ramias – 55%
Still good at combat, still probably too cocky for his own good. Maybe this will have taken out some of that confidence, but seeing as how getting his wang chewed off during the first session failed to do so I don’t have much hope.

Oh, and Tenso’s comment upon first waking up after the helicopter incident was “where is my dick?” He’s also been trying to convince a few people to let him infect them with what he is carrying. So far no takers.

Spoiler:
It’s less important now that they are leaving, but still only 3 days till the rains come. Brandon will realize what this means. Apparently after he dropped the game he started reading the Biomeat-Necter manga. So far he hasn’t used any in game knowledge.

The land across the chasm is only about 15 miles across. On the other side is part of a medieval kingdom. Guess what monster lives there. It’s what everyone has been waiting for. Zombies!!!

I’ve worked out exactly who is behind this, why and how. The trick will be integrating that and seeing what direction the game takes once the players find that out, without losing the survival horror feel. Or at least not disappointing people if we do stay from that feel.

Oh and you can give a -30% to the survival rating of whoever approaches the bulldozer first. There is a 4th one hiding underneath it. It’s a bit smarter and more patient than the others. Plus it made its stealth check by a whopping 8 points when it went to hide. This will not be good for whoever goes there first. I’m debating whether this one is smart and skilled enough to try called shots.


This has been a rather interesting read, fuzzy man eating crotch biting balls have torn down a city in japan, alien worlds are exhanging land mass with each other, and party of yahoo's continuosly lose thier unmentionables every session. How's the clothing situation looking for the party.

PS. What happened to your Pathfinder Game

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