Friday, May 23, 2014

Starting West (part 2)

"I'll take a look behind the wrecks!"  Mark yelled as he ran towards the bridge.  Rounding the back of a blue car, he ran into a pack of zombies.  "Zeds!  Coming across the bridge!"
The rest of the group spread out behind Mark, bringing their guns to bear.
Zombies!
Picking up where I left off, Mark moved up towards the car wrecks, triggering the final PEF.  It turned out to be 7 zombies lurking behind the cars.  Luckily I had won initiative, and the rest of the group moved up behind Mark.
Firepower thins the zombies out.

Gunfire echoed across the river as the decayed zombies lurched forward.  The bullets shredded them, bone and rotting flesh spilling onto the gray pavement.  One zombie, shot through at the shoulder, stumbled through the storm of bullets and grappled with Mark.
"Great shooting!"  He yelled at the group.  "One of these should be no problem!"  Mark kicked the zombie in the left knee, crashing it to the ground.  Smashing down with the bat, he ended the threat.  "Looks like a couple more coming!"
Mr. Zed attacks Mark
Two more zombies approach
Mark charges the newest zombies
Allen steps up to finish off the last zombie
So I did handle the zombies a bit wrong, they acted after I revealed them from the PEF.  The last zombie shouldn't have moved until the next turn.  Minor point, and one I didn't pay much attention to until I was writing this up.  It didn't really change anything, so no big deal.

With no more zombies appearing, the table was again clear.  The groups spent two turns with the wrecks (I ruled a chance for a zombie in each on a 5-6, but they were empty) and managed to get the red car to a point it could be pushed out of the way.
Searching the wrecks
"Well, the wrecks are clear.  It's pretty quiet."  Horace said as he climbed out of the ruined Subaru.  "Nothing in these but bad memories."
"That looks like a car repair shop on the corner.  Maybe we should look through there and see if there is anything useful."  Dawn suggested.  "Those other folks looked like they had grabbed stuff from the drug store, I wonder if they hit the other places earlier."
"We are going to need gas, and who knows, maybe there is something else we can use."  Allen added.
Stretching out with the bat, Mark simply said "Let's check it out."

Ignoring good advice to just pack it up and get across the bridge, I decided to have the group check out the service station.  Any loot and occupants would be random, but the group does need fuel, and they are not going to find it without searching various places...
Approaching the service center
Two zombies!
The door opened with a creek, and a ringing bell.  Mark led the way into the darkened interior of the shop, dusty light filtered from the open door and front window.  Dawn and Horace followed close behind, weapons at the ready.  Allen held the door with his hip, holding his pistol with both hands.
"Maybe its empty."  Horace barely whispered.
A heavy sliding sound startled the group and two human forms lurched from behind a display of wiper blades and car cleaning accessories.  Gray hands stretched out and the jaws of the zombies chomped in anticipation.
"No luck there!"  Mark shouted.  "Shoot 'em!"

The zombie surprise roll goes very well, and Horace and Dawn each shoot and kill a zombie each before they can act.  Hey, that was easy!  The group proceeded to loot the store, coming up with two luxury items and one unit of food.
Looting the store
Let's check the garage!
Seems quiet
The group entered the garage in the same way as the store, but spread out a bit more.  Four zombies were inside, and the surprise roll went better for the zeds.  Horace couldn't fire, Dawn did manage to kill two, but Allen just knocked down one with his BAP.  Mark elected to go straight to melee with the last zombie.  He only managed to reach an evenly matched. 
This could be a problem
Mark wrestled with the zombie, barely avoiding the bloody jaws as they snapped at his face.  "Crap!  This one seems strong!"  
As the echos of the gunfire died away in the bloody smelling garage Mark continued to fight the zombie.  A second zombie staggered back to its feet, its lifeless eyes staring down the barrel of Allen's pistol.  "Boom."  Allen said as he pulled the trigger, shattering the zombies head.  Headless, the zombie fell to the floor like an empty sack.
A sickening crack came from where Mark finally completed a full swing of his bat.  The zombie he had been fighting crashed to the floor, its head caved in.  "Finally.  I thought that thing was going to rip me apart."
Time to search the garage
Looting the garage gave me 2 units of fuel, a machete and a grenade.  What the...?  What an odd mix of stuff to find together.  This gave me a bit of an idea for the campaign...

"Look at these two corpses, they are in fatigues.  They don't have regular markings though - where are the name tags?"  Mark asked as he looked at a couple of the bodies.  "Something bad happened here."
"You got that right brotha."  Horace said coldly, hefting the grenade he found duct taped to a can of fuel.  "Did you see the remains of this zombie?  Its hands are duct taped behind it's back, and the legs are covered in bites and cuts."
"Who would do this?"  Dawn barely breathed out.  "Did these two let the other get bitten?"
"This is some messed up shit, man.  Are they related to that other group we saw?"  cleaning off the machete Allen asked Mark.  "I say we get our truck and get the hell outta here."
"I think that might be a good idea..."
Get to the truck
Hey this might have fuel
Mark and Dawn grab fuel from the dead SUV
Allen gets the truck into position
The group ran out of the garage, and I decided to to check the SUV I had parked near.  I rolled, and it had 2 units of fuel but no keys.  Mark and Dawn spent a turn gathering the fuel and Allen started moving their SUV into position to push their way through the wreck.  With the SUV running, zombies started appearing...
Zombies approach the wrecks
Finally the wreck moves

Zombies move in closer
Allen gave the SUV a bit more gas, the engine revving up with a dull rumble.  The sports car wreck finally moved back, thumping into the bride rail.  "Looks like that's all the farther it will go."
"We've attracted some attention!"  Horace said, looking out the windows "I think the gap is big enough, swing onto the bridge and let's go!"
Allen twisted the steering wheel, gunning the powerful V-8 and shifting into high gear.  The plastic front of the car shredded as the SUV clipped it with its grill bars, scattering debris onto the bridge.  Allen drove down the middle of the bridge, avoiding a zombie swaying along the right side.
Dawn stuck her SMG out her open window,  firing a long burst that splattered the zombie, tossing it into the river.  "Looks clear now!"
Almost across the bridge
The zombies fall behind
The group got across the bridge, and on their way towards Allen's family.  They didn't get a ton of loot, but have enough fuel to cover two areas of travel now.  After finishing this, I made rolls for keeping it together, and everyone is going to stay for at least two more scenarios!  Mark rolled 4 successes, and doubled up everyone else.

When the group looted the garage, they found an odd assortment of gear, and it got me thinking how could this have all come together?  Finding a grenade meant a military (or para-military) group, and the fuel and machete?  I have been watching too many 'evil government agency' shows for my own good.  I very quickly thought of a cover up for a botched operation of some kind.  Looks like I need to paint some "evil" soldier/contractor figures...

Now, is the group moving away from this sinister group, or further into their territory?

26 comments:

  1. Great stuff again dude.
    These little episodes are enthralling, this has become my favourite show.
    Keep up the fine work.

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    1. Glad you continue to enjoy it. Hopefully the bat reps keep the story moving along well.

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  2. Great read as usual - to a point where it became spine chilling. When I read the "what the?" part at the loot the first thing that came to my mind was this:
    http://www.dramabutton.com/

    :D

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    1. LOL! Drama! :) perfect.

      Like I said, I have been seeing too many 'evil government' shows on TV, and reading Deadline by Mira Grant. Maybe that is making me see things...

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  3. Great batrep and you have to love an evil government conspiracy. The team did well and I hope their good luck continues.

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    1. With the group heading towards the 16th largest metropolitan area of the US during a zombie apocalypse, they are going to need all the luck they can get.

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  4. Neat and full of suspense. I thought Mark had bought the farm. Well done. Looking forward to more.

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    1. When 7 zombies popped out, I thought it was game over. Luckily, the rest of team has gotten better - rep 4 makes a big difference. They really shot up the zombies. Their success is making me overconfident though...

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  5. Nice ending. A potential big nemesis, a looting that may have gone wring and the discovery of an ultimate evil survivor team. A need to follow

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    1. I am not sure how to use the evil team/contractors. I think i will add them as a random event, and that may 'change' whatever scenario I am playing.

      Ella and Gene are still on the farm, very close to where the team found these guys...

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    2. true. you may run a parallel campaign with the farm. gosh, it is getting very exciting.
      btw, no news of the politician that was in Chicago?

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    3. You bring up an excellent point. I think I see a way to tie in the politician (and maybe even the plucky news reporter...)

      I am going to need a database just to keep the plot lines straight!

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  6. Excellent part 2. Perhaps if you have some guys in suits with guns they'd do for some military contractor types.

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    1. I have a few guys in suits, I will use them for some encounters (one was in the last bat rep.) I am considering converting some old WH40K Imperial Guard with different weapons and using those for 'grunts'.

      If I can find some more clix to convert, there are some cool figs out there as well. Ahh, well, another project!

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  7. It's all going very well, isn't it :-) ? I have a bad feeling about this...

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    1. Too well, for certain. I know I have become overconfident while playing, it is going to cost me one of these times...

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  8. A very satisfying conclusion to this scenario; I just knew that the buildings would be to big a temptation not to loot and with the unusual 'finds' it's provided some food for thought for a future scenario too - score !

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    1. I could have gone after the other buildings, but I didn't want things to get bad inside again. In the garage, it was actually a bit close, luckily there were not more zombies. Still, at least it seems to have added to the campaign story.

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  9. Great stuff mate, the story is ticking along nice, I love the pacing of your batreps, they never get slow.The best campaign around, more soon please

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    1. I am happy to hear you are enjoying the campaign so far. I will try and keep the batreps coming, as long as work and the summer honeydew list doesn't keep me too busy!

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  10. Great story and i cant wait for the next one.

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    1. The holiday weekend (and summer fun in general) may slow down my progress, but believe me, I want to keep these coming as fast as possible as well!

      Thanks for dropping by!

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  11. Great Batrep as usual and cool to see where this is going now

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    1. Cedric above gave me some other ideas as well. Damn! Too many things to possibly work into a campaign...

      Its been fun, we'll see what happens next!

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  12. I've nominated you for a Liebster award dude. Details on my blog.

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    1. Thank you for the nomination, however, I will pass on the honor for now. I may follow the example of lord Siwoc and do a Q&A post, as they seem to be a popular distraction these days.

      I do appreciate the recognition, Thanks!

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