Harrowed Halls

GM: Evil Mike McNeal
Ben (Hernandez. No Dependents.)
Owen (Zach Turner. Has sister-in-law as dependents.)
Mike (Mark Kale. Has one son as a dependent.)
Steve (Shane Hensley. No dependents.)
Alex (Joe Reynolds. His brother is his dependent.)

We make it to Dallas. We find a shopping mall that we think would be a great place to hole up. The door’s locked, so we go next door to the theater instead. I think “Dawn of the Dead” is playing on the marquee. (What really happened: I was supposed to bring a shopping mall map, but couldn’t fine it. We already have a great theater map, so we used it instead.)

The theater was already home to a group of rather tense survivors. Some were even in tattered Banal corporation clothing. We offered them some ammo to let us in. They let us in and we find about 12 guns pointing at us. I try to calm the situation with some witty banter. It goes poorly and opposing group looks ready to mow us down. Then Ben tries to rescue us with some rhetoric in his poor, heavily accented, broken English. The opposing group takes aim…<BLAM> The doors behind us burst open as a vexation of walkers rush into the room. The opposing group opens fires, but on the walkers, not on us. These new walkers are different. Faster. Edgier. We eventually take them all down, but not before Ben and Mike are wounded. (I’m keeping a close eye on Mike.)

Since we fought so well against the walkers, the group of survivors offer us their own version of a cure developed by Dr. Quinn, an older, but attractive scientist. Their solution either cures you or kills you. We have Ben try it. He survives. Unfortunately that’s the only one they had. When we mention we’re going to the Banal Corporation, Dr. Quinn wants to come along to get more supplies to make more serum.

While a plan is being created for getting inside the Banal building, a few of us take to the sewers and travel to the mall. We scavenge, fight walkers, and find a bedroll and some ammo. Not a stellar day at the mall.

After some preparation we bluff our way into the banal corp. Once inside we realize we need to get a key card for the lab. I critically fail my roll to persuade a pretty technician to help get inside the lab. Things go to crap after that, although we do get inside the lab. Dr. Quinn points out needed supplies while others of us work at the computer stations. Then the alarms start blaring. The monitors inside the lab show us that the building is being evacuated and large looming shapes are prowling the hallways. Could it get any worse? Evil Mike is the GM. It’ll get worse.

Chaos Steve

GM: Evil Mike McNeal
Ben (Hernandez. No Dependents.)
Owen (Zach Turner. Has sister-in-law as dependents.)
Mike (Mark Kale. Has one son as a dependent.)
Steve (Shane Hensley. No dependents.)
Alex (Joe Reynolds. His brother is his dependent.)

We find ourselves in a natural cave system. Mike scouts ahead and finds some women tied and gagged lying on the cave floor. Mike is able to untie and un-gag one woman before some uniformed men arrive. Mike shoots them—as he does everyone. A gun battle ensues. Several try to escape the battle to bring back reinforcements, but we mow them down. (I think Mike killed them.) One of the men does survive our hail of bullets and Owen mercilessly interrogates him.

We discover that the women are part of some human testing going on here by the Banal Corporation. The women gladly join us and Ben immediately starts trying to impress one—he needs a dependent.

Above ground we find a warehouse. It’s strangely empty. Ben works on getting a vehicle running while Owen looks over the place. Mike cleans his shotgun.

(Now my notes get sketchy. Meaning I have no notes.)

Ben does get a vehicle running and we make our escape from the warehouse. I seem to remember us (or someone else) blowing up the warehouse and the testing facility.

Now we’re getting even closer to the Banal Corporations headquarters in Dallas.

Ben and I do get new dependents. I’ll cherish what’s-her-name right up until I lose her to the walkers.

Chaos Steve

GM: Evil Mike McNeal  Ben (Hernandez. His parents are his dependents.)
Owen (Zach Turner. Has sister and sister-in-law as dependents.)
Mike (Mark Kale. Has one son as a dependent.)
Steve (Shane Hensley. Wife Michelle as a dependent.)
Alex (Joe Reynolds. His brother is his dependent.)

We enter a cave system hoping to cross under the Rio Grande and under the vexation of walkers. Along the way Alex, our tracker, sets off a trap that closes the tunnel behind us. (And he’s the best of the best.) We also find that the drug smugglers who used these caves in the past left behind enough explosions, rigged along the tunnels, to bring the whole thing down on our heads. With no other way to go, we continue onward.

We’re attacked by walkers. I can’t remember who, possible Alex or Ben, poked one good with a knife or shot it. The walker exploded. Something about having its DNA being saturated with the explosives we found down here in the tunnel. I watch the Sci-Fi channel, so I know exactly how this works.

I successfully escape two walkers dragging my wife, Michele, along too. I fire two shots into one of the exploding walkers behind me. The resulting chain reaction of explosions kills five walkers. Not a bad use of ammo.

We lost one of the Banal Corporation nurses in the fight. Ben immediately starts hitting on the other one. (He needs a dependent.) I think he then spends all of his bennies on his persuasion roll. We discover a cache of cash and cocaine. The cash is worthless and we burn it. The cocaine we take with us. For medicinal purposes only. Or for trading. Or for using if we beat this walker infection.

We find an underground river that exits into a wall. It appears to be our only way out. Mike finds some drift wood and we fashion a boat. Into the darkness we go…

…and over a waterfall.

Alex and mike jump off the raft before the waterfall. Ben and Owen hold on for dear life. I jump from the boat after the waterfall.

My wife dies. Ben’s newly acquired dependent, nurse #2, dies as well. Owen loses Cindy. It’s a sad day for us all.

Next week it’s payback time! And this time…it’s personal!

Chaos Steve

GM: Evil Mike McNeal
Ben (Hernandez. His parents are his dependents.)
Owen (Zach Turner. Has sister and sister-in-law as dependents.)
Mike (Mark Kale. Has one son as a dependent.)
Steve (Shane Hensley. Wife Michelle as a dependent.)
Alex (Joe Reynolds. His brother is his dependent.)

(This is a placeholder. I’ve misplaced the write up from 8/7. I blame Mike.)

[I had thought I posted this a couple of weeks ago. Uh, I was wrong.]

Walkers GM: Evil Mike McNeal
Ben (Unknown name. Unknown dependents.)
Owen (Zach Turner. Has sister and sister-in-law as dependents.)
Mike (Mark Kale. Has one son as a dependent.)
Steve (Shane Hensley. Wife Michelle as a dependent.)

Those no longer with us…
Mike Brady (Ben) Turned.
Carol Brady (Ben) DOA.
Mike McNeal and his kids (Steve) Turned. Killed by Mark Kale (Mike),

This was a particularly brutal session with three player characters either dying or turning into walkers. Evil Mike couldn’t be happier.

We were still on the cruise ship, but it was time to make a run for the lifeboat. With a few thousand walkers on board, this was not going to be easy. Mike used the Chase rules to simulate our mad dash. It lasted five rounds. We rolled Agility to get cards during the chase. Obstacles are walkers who attack us. As an extra incentive, we get to scavenge any walker we kill. Let the mayhem begin!

First round, first roll, Owen critically fails his Agility roll. Bad things happen to him. Second round Mike critically fails his Agility roll. Bad things happen to him. Third round is uneventful. On the fourth round the walkers get a joker and attack us all. Owen is surrounded by walkers and takes five wounds! He soaks them all! Ben gets bit and (because of the poor card he drew) immediately turns into a walker. He attacks Owen, but misses. I also get bit, but it will take a while for me to turn. (I hoped no one noticed.) The fifth round comes and goes and we make it to the lifeboat!

We cast off with everyone breathing a sigh of relief. Then I turn into a walker and attack my kids. Fortunately Mike saw me get bit and was waiting patiently. He puts a shotgun blast square in my chest, knocking me and the kids overboard.

The survivors spend several grueling days at sea fighting hunger and thirst. Meanwhile Ben and I quickly roll up new characters. I’m now Shane Hensley and Ben is Carol Brady (the wife of his previous character.)

The survivors find land and dock at a small town in Mexico. Right away a couple of dependents wander off into the water to clean up. Meanwhile Ben and I are holed up in a building in town. Our building and the church are surrounded by walkers—they know dinner is inside. Someone comes into town to look it over, but before they can do anything, there’s shouts and screams from the water. This gets the walker’s attention and they begin heading to the beach.

One of the items Ben’s new character had scavenged was a dirt bike. My new character had found some gas and an empty rocket launcher. Ben takes advantage of the distraction and moves the dirt bike outside. He fights off some walkers, but eventually heads out on the bike. The walkers are drawn to the noise and start following Ben as if he’s the walker pied piper.

Meanwhile Owen is busy saving his dependents that wandered out into the water. There are some tense moments, but everyone survives.

Ben makes a fatal mistake. He decides NOT to move his full Pace of 15 on the dirt bike and is caught by 3 walkers. Ben ditches the bike and RUNS! I run to the bike and rev the engine in an attempt to distract the walkers. It doesn’t work. The walkers catch Ben. Carol Brady goes to meet her husband in Brady heaven.

I now have the bike and lead the zombies out of town and lose them somewhere out there. I return to town and we go to the church. Inside we find many people.

Evil mike had a detailed family tree of everyone inside the church, along with relationships and blood types.

Now we have a ton of people to keep safe. We’re doomed.

Chaos Steve as Shane Hensley

Walkers Gm: Evil Mike McNeal

Ben (Mike Bradley. Has four kids as dependents.)
Owen (Zach Turner. Has sister and sister-in-law as dependents.)
Mike (Mark Kale. Has one son as a dependent.)
Steve (Mike McNeal. Has twin kids as dependents.)

This week (uh, last week really) we started a Savage Worlds campaign in a new setting Evil Mike developed called, Walkers. It’s a zombie apocalypse setting with a twist—you must have dependents. The setting has various rules for these dependents, plus a few new edges and hindrances. We all start the game with five draws from the Hell on Earth scavenging table. The end result is that we find lots of various ammo, but only a few firearms and none of them use the ammo that we scrounged. Evil Mike makes a rule that you can spend a Benny to change one type of ammo to another type of ammo. Maybe now we’ll have a fighting chance? (I doubt it.)

Our adventure starts with us and our families having a great time on a Carnival line cruise ship. (Right there we should have known we were in trouble.) While on the ship we began hearing news about a virus ravaging the land around us. We were not too concerned. We’re on a ship with tons of food and fun. We’ll wait out the breakout until the authorities get it taken care of.

Six months later…

It turns out that one of the passengers was infected with the virus. We are the last survivors on the ship. Now the entire ship is filled with the walking dead or “walkers”. Many of our family members have died or have turned. For the last few days…weeks, it’s hard to tell which, we’ve been barricaded in the ship’s ballroom.

Our food is running low. It’s time to make a break for the lifeboats. But first we decide to head up to the bridge to see if we can get anything useful like maps or navigation equipment. We quietly remove the barricade from the window of the ball room and sneak out. I fail my Stealth roll. Owen fails his Stealth roll. Mike critically fails his Stealth roll and falls flat on his face in the hallway. The heck with sneaking. Next round we open fire.

Mike takes the brunt of the walkers’ attack. He uses up all of his bennies to soak his wounds. We fight to staircase which is bi-step-ual—meaning the stairs go up and down. (Evil Mike’s joke, not mine.)

I and my dependents make it to the bridge level. The walkers catch the rest of the group on the stairs. We can hear their near-hysterical screams. We quietly move down the empty hall towards the door to the bridge—away from our noisy ex-companions. The rest of the group make it to the top of the stairs. There are more screams and gunfire. Oh well…might as well let them come along.

The door to the bridge is locked. I use my lock picking skill to open it. I fail on my first attempt. I try it again and get it open. We all rush inside and close the door. Inside we find a thin, foul-smelling crew member. For a ride on our life boat, he’ll show us where all the things we’re interested in are. We agree.

Next time: Man the Life Boat!

Chaos Steve