Wednesday, June 20, 2018

The Traci Situation (Part 3 Conclusion)

Traci stood in shock and horror, watching Kevin slump to the ground.  Alone she faced two zombies, which turned to face their final prey.  Their ragged pallid hands reached out for her, and Traci could imagine the horror of them grabbing her.
Finally snapping out of her shock, she fired her SMG, pulling loose her machete to face the undead...
Traci shoots the first zombie
Traci stands alone, Chad has died (and will rise as a zombie in 3 turns if Traci doesn't kill him) Kevin has been knocked OOF (I need to check for infection yet) and she still hasn't managed to enter the building of the RV dealer.  She manages to shoot the two zombies, killing one and knocking one down.  She follows this up by charging the zombie on the ground - easily finishing it off.
Traci kills the last zombie
Chad's body spasmed, arms and legs flopping on the road.  Traci saw the movement, knowing what it meant - Chad was nearing reanimation.  Slinging her SMG, Traci stepped over to Chad, pausing to consider this man she barely knew.
"Sorry."  She said, plunging her machete through his head, killing him before he could rise again and attack.  Looking around, Traci realized the area was quiet.  The midday sun was hot and the still air was making the day uncomfortably warm.  
Traci stood for a moment and looked back up the road she and Chad had walked down, what felt like a lifetime ago now.  She considered walking back, Jack would be happy to see her.  Dawn...would welcome her back, probably with a lecture.  Kevin coughed from where he lay, not getting up, but clearly injured.
Snapping out her daydream, Traci moved to check the car and get Kevin off the street...
Traci says goodbye to Chad
Traci is persistent at least.  She kills Chad before he turns and the table is empty of zombies.  Time to make the best of things.  I check the car - I give the same chance for a spare tire as the check for if it has gas.  It does and Traci will need to pass a simple 2d savvy check to change the tire.  The car has 1 unit of fuel and luckily has the keys in it!  Finally a break goes her way.

Only to go bad when I find out Kevin is infected...
Traci decides to check the building
Traci dragged Kevin to the relative safety of the car, pulling him into the back seat.  As she climbed out, Traci noticed blood on his jacket.  Pulling aside his coat and shirt, she found the bite mark.  Already the skin was darkening, black tendrils of corruption were tracing his veins and spreading like the roots of a weed across his chest.
Traci closed the car door, nearly in tears at loosing another companion so quickly.  Looking at the door to the RV Office, Traci unslung her SMG, making sure it was ready.
Traci enters the office
Traci enters the building and finds 2 zombies.  She isn't surprised, but the zombies manage to charge her before she gets a shot off.  Luckily she is protected and armed with a machete.  She makes short work the two zombies and moves upstairs.
Another zombie!
Traci wiped her machete blade on the tattered pants of the last zombie.  She glanced around the office and decided to check the rest of the building before trying to search for anything useful.  Walking up the stairs, she reslung her SMG, the close quarters would make it difficult to use.
At the top of the stairs, she glanced at the mess of boxes and folding chairs, just catching the motion from the open doorway as a teenage zombie lurched at her.  Traci reacted with a swift swing, killing the zombie with a solid blow to the head.  The rotten corpse slumped to the floor, dead.
Traci saw filthy sleeping bags and boxes of a small camp in the room.  Looking at the debris in the room, she found personal items of a family.  She nearly broke down realizing the zombies she just finished off had been a family that ended up turned here together.
Time to change the flat tire
Traci searches the building and finds a luxury item.  She heads back outside and fixes the flat tire, passing a 2d savvy check.  The car has 1 unit of fuel, so now she has wheels and can leave.  Of course, she has to do something about Kevin (somewhere double came up and the morning became daytime and Kevin went to level 2 infection) plus she was actually here for an RV.  There are no zombies on the board, so Traci drags Kevin away from the car, and moves to check the first RV.
Traci moves Kevin out of the car
Traci left Kevin laying in the road.  She felt bad, but she knew he was already dead.  As she walked back to the car, Traci could see the fence was down to the RV lot.  Looking from the plain small sedan to the new red and white RV, she knew what she would rather try sleeping in.
Walking across the the road, the day's heat was starting to wear on her.  The humidity made the June day feel like the dead of summer.  After all the gunfire earlier, the quiet made her a a little nervous, she readied her SMG for action, just in case.  She hoped her decision to check the RVs wasn't a bad idea... 
Traci checks the first RV
 Traci opened the side door on the RV, Just stepping inside, she was shocked to see several boxes stacked around the interior, it looked like someone had started stocking the RV for a trip.  She took one more step when she heard the sound of a rifle being cocked.  From the back of the camper, she saw the barrel of a rifle pointed at her and a ragged man behind it.  "This is mine!  Git yo ass outta here and find your own!"
"Whoa!"  Traci said "I'm just looking for help."  She gave a cute smirk.
"You mean like with that other guy!"  The ganger replied, jerking his head towards the road and Kevin.  "Hell no!" 
Traci runs into a ganger
Well, that's what you get for exploring when you could just take the win and end the game...  Traci checks the inside of the first RV and finds a ganger inside.  The meet and greet goes poorly, and the ganger chooses to walk the walk.
In sight checks are tied
Both Traci and the ganger score two successes on the in sight check.  They will react at the same time, we'll see who hits the hardest...
Wow, not good
Traci heard the rifle fire, and the dull thud of the bullet slamming into the side of the RV next to her.  At the same time she was squeezing her SMG, which barked twice and clicked empty.  Time seemed to stand still as the ganger and Traci locked eyes, neither hit by the other's shots.
The ganger started to cock his rifle again, a grin spreading across his face as he realized Traci's SMG was empty.
A zombie approaches the gun fight
Traci goes out of ammo and the ganger misses his one shot.  Technically Traci should be outgunned, but I am treating her like a star, so she can't be outgunned.  Everyone passes 2d on the received fire check, the ganger rushes a shot and misses Traci, who has her machete out and charges.
Traci charges
Traci closed the distance to the ganger, who looked surprised that she didn't run away.  His rushed shot went into the roof of the RV and Traci swung her machete right for his head.  Catching the rifle just in front of the trigger, her swing sent the rifle flying back into the ganger's forehead and he slumped to the floor, knocked cold.
Traci kicked the rifle away and drew back the machete, ready to finish off the ganger.  She paused, looking out the nearby window and seeing a zombie shambling towards the RV.  She shook her head, and reloaded her SMG, drawing aim on the zed.
Traci and a lone zombie
So Traci wins the melee, easily winning in hand to hand versus the ganger.  She only manages to get an OOF result, and I choose not to finish off the ganger.  I know survivors and gangers don't usually show any mercy, but it just didn't feel right.  Traci reloads her SMG and kills the zombie approaching.  Searching the RV yields a unit of food, the bolt action rifle from the ganger, plus the RV has 7 units of fuel, but no keys!  She dumps the ganger out of the RV and works to hotwire it.  She manages to get it started, but the car alarm goes off, and zombies start showing up!
Traci lines up on the gate
It takes a couple of turns of driving and reversing to get the RV positioned to try and get out.  During that time doubles come up again (but no event) and Kevin passes away, he will rise as a zombie after 5 turns.  Traci guns the RV and rams the gate, which was a lot more dicey than I had thought.  The RV bash value of 8 versus the DV of 3 for the gate (reinforced door) and Traci gets some good luck, smashing it in one go!

Traci smashes the gate and a zombie!
Bouncing in the driver's seat Traci steered towards the zombie standing in the road as the chain link gate folded away in front of the RV.  With a gratifying crunch the zombie went under the front wheels.  Traci could see Kevin shuddering in the road, as well as Chad's pack in the backseat of the car she had considered taking earlier.
Slamming the brakes, Traci stopped the RV, determined to grab the pack and supplies before she left...
Traci stops in the road
Yeah, yeah, I know better.  All Traci has to do is drive away.  She is active in a running vehicle, has two units of food, plenty of fuel, no reason to stop.  However, Chad's pack is RIGHT THERE!  She can run, grab it, hop back in and speed away.  Easy-Peasy.

Of course, I DO have to activate for that to work...
Traci faces the first zombie as she gets out
This turns into a good demonstration of why you don't leave a vehicle running during the zombie apocalypse.  6d for zombie spawning each turn, even looking for sixes, is tough to ignore for very long.  Add into that suddenly Traci doesn't activate every turn, and, Yikes!  We have problems.
Two zombies attack Traci as she stands still
Traci handles the first zombie easily, but doesn't activate the next turn.  Two zombies get to melee, and thankfully she is well armed and protected.  She wins the melee, and finally gets to act.  I left the RV running, so each turn it is rolling 6 dice for zombie spawns, and the dice are pretty hot, with one or two zombies appearing each turn it feels like!
Traci grabs the supplies from the car
Traci misses another turn, and Kevin reanimates and moves to attack.  The zombies are closing in, and the running RV keeps bringing more and more.  I just need a turn of activation and a clear path back to the RV...
Traci watches the zombies approach
Undead Kevin attacks with help!
Traci shouldered Chads pack and stood up from the car.  She looked at the gas cap, considering if she could get the fuel out and into the RV.  Scraping on the pavement behind her made Traci spin around, machete at the ready.
Shambling towards her was Kevin, looking nearly grey from the corruption that had turned him into a zombie.  Traci paused, but only to setup her attack...
Just need to get back to the RV!
Traci passes 2d on a zed or no zed check, apparently she really didn't care about Kevin.  Even facing 2 zombies charging from behind, she handles them in melee.  More zombies are moving up, but she should be able to get back to the RV, if she can activate!
Traci takes down the closest zombies
Traci ran to the RV, throwing the full pack into the back.  She could see more zombies moving towards her from the lot, stumbling through the smashed gate.  She was worried that the sides of the camper wouldn't stand up to the pounding of the zombies.  She stood her ground, waiting for the nearest to come close enough to kill...
Traci has an opening...
I decide to take one last chance - Traci stops short of the RV and lets the two nearest zombies charge her.  If she had gotten in the RV she couldn't have moved and would have had 5 zombies attack the RV, so I thought this made more sense,  Traci takes the two down, gets a turn with no zombie activation and starts driving away!
Almost gone!
Slamming the driver door closed, Traci gunned the RV into motion.  Rather ponderously the RV moved forward, building up speed.  Looking right, Traci considered driving back to Jack and Dawn.  It wouldn't take an hour, and they would be shocked at what she found.  After such a hard day, Jack holding her tonight would be wonderful.
Traci turned hard left, heading for the highway.  She had left and wasn't going back...
Traci makes her escape!
So Traci succeeds in getting an RV, has plenty of supplies (three units of food and a ton of guns!) and no strings attached.  I thought for certain she was done for when I tried for the supplies in the car.

I will continue with Dawn, maybe we will revisit Traci in the future...

14 comments:

  1. Wow! Way to go Traci :-)
    That was a real edge of the seat finale to the encounter - brilliant write up. As for showing the ganger mercy, I reckon he'll wish Traci had finished him off when he comes to out there in the lot, unarmed and surrounded by zeds :-)

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  2. Well, she got away all right - leaving a trail of bodies and destruction in her wake! Some of her decisions were definitely a bit...risky, I think.

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    1. She is a bit ore reckless. I tried to play her differently than Dawn. I'm surprised it worked out...

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  3. Traci turned out to be quite the Gambler!
    Greataar as ateacj oor decision (imo) I thought she had some sort of death wish and would be a gonner!

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    1. She is a risk taker. It was hard to play that way, I am way more cautious!

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  4. An absolutely super episode. Well done. Good narrative, nice photos.

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    1. Glad you enjoyed it! It was a fun change of pace.

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  5. Too sad she found out too late that Dawn was right all along.

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    1. So true. Risks are fun and all, but soooo dangerous.

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  6. Excellent tale. Go Traci! Would be great to see her continuing story in the future :)

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    1. I'm going to consider it. She was fun to play out, but I suspect she needs to change or won't last long.

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  7. Just read the three episodes of the Tracy story. Great work, edge of the seat stuff, typical ATZ you never know how it will end until it does.
    Some very questionable decisions but it turned out well I have say when she was getting out of the RV and left the engine running I was going Nooooo don't do it.
    All's well that ends well.

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    1. HAHAHA! Yeah, getting out of a running vehicle is usually the end of things. I was shocked it worked out, I thought that it was all over when she missed her first activation.

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  8. Well that was an entertaining read. Nice work. ;)

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