Thursday, January 1, 2015

Welcome!

Our D&D group has branched out a bit into a new (to us) genre of Modern Zombie Survival. I figured I'd set up a blog to keep track of the adventures we have. It should hopefully help us to remember what was going on the last time we played and to keep anyone who misses a gaming session informed.

The campaign took a lot of inspiration from the AMC TV series "The Walking Dead". As such, the story starts in a hotel just west of Atlanta, Georgia. Although some similarities will most likely show through as far as how things have unfolded, most events will be much different so the players who have seen the series won't have the game spoiled and vice versa. Some of the characters are nearly cloned from their series counterparts, but how they behave and grow will be entirely up to the player.

Although I did take it upon myself to write my own set of rules, I decided that basing everything off the 'real' world would be most accurate and least time consuming. We will therefore be making heavy use of Google Maps. We will be able to get grand overviews and zoom in to get plenty of detail on individual buildings. Even cars parked in the lots will be used as potential 'cover' (or transportation) for the party.

All characters were picked at random by the players. The option of the players picking their characters or coming up with their own was offered as well, but the players felt random was the way to go.

Most posts on this blog are the adventure logs/synopsis/summaries of each of our gaming sessions.  One purpose of posting these synopsis is to give an example of the type of game that can be run with the RPG rule set featured on this site.

The rules and supporting materials are available for download and linked in the upper-right of this web site. All may be reproduced for your personal use. If you have rules questions or comments, please let me know and I'd be happy to help out.

One additional thing - obviously since the maps come from satellite images, the places in the maps used are real.  The locations referred to in the synopsis were simply used as a starting point for adventure ideas and no offense is intended to the actual people or places.  Neither I nor the players in the campaign are racist or have any ill will against peoples of different areas of the country or the world.  Any stereotypes, situations, or descriptions of people/places/things that does come across as offensive is certainly not intentional.

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Session 13 Outline

Real Date: March 31, 2014
In-Game Date: December 24, 2011
Session Title: 

Trying out a new (more lazy) format of session recap.  Perhaps it will be better way to keep track of what happened each session...it will certainly be less time consuming, but if the longer format is better we can switch back...assuming anyone reads any of these. ;)

Session Outline

Saturday December 24, 2011 - 12PM

Started in the townhouse with the rescued UNA (United New America) group.
1 - Townhouse    2 - Humvees

Ken sent a scout (Derek) to verify that their Humvees were still where they left them.

Steve returned and confirmed they had a ride.

Ken decided it would be better to recover their vehicle assets and get back to base before the chopper was deployed.

The group wanted to stick with the previous air lift plan, but were convinced to take the land option.

Everyone towards the Humvees meeting a few Zombies on the way which turned out to be a growing number.

Quickly mounted the Humvees and got all three started.

A - Radio Station    B - Peachtree Airport
Headed Northeast following one of the UNA drivers.

Came to a partially blocked road and got stuck between some cars.

Dispatched several Zombies approaching from the surrounding buildings.

Big Kenny ran a few rounds through his SAW taking out several Zombies.











Made it back to the Peachtree airport.




1 - UNA Peachtree Base
Guards at the gate moved back a modified truck serving as a gate to the base and the caravan pulled into their now familiar base next to the Blackhawk they recently helped liberate.

Dean (Leader of the Peachtree contingent) greeted them and welcomed everyone into the now familiar airport building.

Had a Christmas party of fresh ham and several fixin's.

A couple hours later, found the guards who were in charge of the prisoners in a nearby room - one dead and one unconscious - the prisoners were nowhere to be seen.

Searched around and found a few Zombies wandering around the confides of the airfield fence.

Found that the truck that was being used as the mobile gate had gone missing leaving the gate wide open.

Closed up the gate and took the rest of the night off.

Began a full sweep of the airfield to cleanse it from any Zombies that wandered in while the gate was open.

UNA pilot flew the group back to Dobbins AFB in the Blackhawk.

Several Zombies around the plane, but most were distracted by the Blackhawk after dropping off the group.

Greg got the Cessna started up and began taking off and barely avoided taking a Zombie into the propeller.

Flew in the Cessna back to the Fulton airport.

Pulled up to their pimped out semi cab only to find it torched.

Rich showed up and explained that one of their guys was going to move the semi and it burst into flames with his guy inside...apparently Chet's security system worked a little too well...

Decided to fly out of Fulton in the Cessna to go visit the Home Depot survivors.

Found an open stretch of road a few blocks from the Home Depot and skillfully landed the Cessna.

1 - Cement Crazies    2 - Wheeled Cessna into fenced storage area     3 - Met survivors of Home Depot
Walked down the street a bit and noticed some cement pump trucks which Chet wanted to investigate (1).

Got to the fence before being warded off by some highly protective residents of the building next to the trucks.

Wheeled the Cessna down the road and found a nice fenced in area of a storage facility in which to secure it (2).

Walked around between the buildings towards what appeared to be the office (3).

Once again warded off by a resident who turned out to be one of the survivors from the Home Depot.

Frank, Yvonne (the lady Greg repaired the ankle of), and George took refuge in the storage facility after the Home Depot was overrun by Zombies.

Hanging out inside the office and thinking about what to do next...




Zombie Destruction Totals
CharacterSessionAll Time
Colton19489
Greg6311
Chet18527
Kim8262
Total511589


Human Interaction Totals

RescuedKilled
Session121
Total356
(The semi security system accounts for the human interaction kill...a gray area perhaps, but still...)


Saturday, March 1, 2014

Session 12 Synopsis

Real Date: January 24, 2014
In-Game Date: December 24, 2011
Session Title: Out of the frying pan, into the fire.
Memorable Quote
  Chet: "Hey look - there's Zombies!"

























After a brief rest in the townhouse (1), the group moved out the back door and across to another townhouse (2) which they hoped would provide a better view of the radio tower.  The back door was ajar and looking in revealed a corpse well on its decomposition journey laying on the kitchen floor.  A creaking sound emanated from the second floor and after clearing the rooms of the first floor the group went up to investigate.   Additional creaks were heard as they crept down the upstairs hallway.  Heading into one of the bedrooms, a bed with bloody linens was lightly investigated.  A louder creek was heard as the origin was narrowed down to be from behind what was suspected to be a bathroom door.

Greg opened the door and dispatched a Zombie which attempted to rush out at the sign of fresh meat.  Nothing of much interest was found in the bathroom and the group finished clearing out the rest of the second floor.  Now turning their attention to the windows facing the tower, several hundred Zombies could be seen milling about the radio station grounds.

Thinking for only a moment, everyone agreed that they needed to set up a diversion to draw some attention away from their target.  The group headed Southwest and came to a parking lot infested wtih 30 or so Zombies (3).   Not wanting to stir up any problems quite yet, the group quietly moved further west and encountered two Zombies on top of a parking ramp.  This way seemed to offer less resistance so Colton took aim with the crossbow and cleared the way without much issue.

The group found a stairwell leading down (4), put down one Zombie waiting within and then quietly dealt with another couple Zombies on the first floor of the ramp.  With the ramp seemingly cleared out, progress continued to the West with only a chain link fence slowing things down until Greg clipped through it with his bolt cutter.

(5) Road after coming down from parking ramp
The group now found themselves on a road with a few Zombies to the North and fairly clear to the South (5).  It was decided to just leave the Zombies to the North alone and continue South.  Unfortunately, a few Zombies hanging out in another parking ramp above the road level spotted the group and alerted the Zombies to the north of the group's presence by some ghastly howls.   A few silenced MP5 rounds later and the group continued Southward.

(6) Intersection
As they neared a major intersection (6), Colton spotted a couple Zombies standing around and took them out after an initial miss which fortunately didn't draw any attention.  Now at the major intersection, a few scattered Zombies could be seen up and down the cross street.  Colton went out to fetch his bolts and unknowingly drew the attention of a few Zombies from the Western stretch of road.  Chet was on top of things and took out the threat with his MP5 before any major issues arose.

Now heading Eastward, the group walked past a car with a Zombie strapped in the front seat.  It began to howl until Greg punched a hole in its head with his crowbar.  Nothing of interest was found in the car and the group continued through the graveyard of parked cars with the thunk of Chet's crossbow occasionally taking out a head bobbing among the cars.

Ahead a tall church bell tower stretched up in the shadows of the large corporate buildings.  Ringing bells could possibly provide the diversion they needed...  Moving to the church (7), Greg peeked inside doors held partially open by the corpses that littered the ground.  Lots of motion could be seen inside and he doubted it was a friendly congregation.

Moving around the side of the church in search for easier entry, the group walked up to what looked like the a side entrance to the bell tower itself (8).  The door was locked and Greg began prying at it with his crowbar.  As he began to crack off bits of wood, a book landed on the walkway behind the group with a thud. Looking up, no sign of life could be seen.

Bell tower entrance
Surprised that anything alive could still be holed up in the church, a different approach was taken.  Greg knocked with the familiar "knock-knock-knock-knock-knock" and quickly heard the responding "knock-kock".  Greg loudly whispered "let us in" and was quickly answered with a loudly whispered "no way!".


Backing up a bit and looking around, someone with a rifle trained on the group could be seen taking cover behind a pillar on the roof of the church.  Not wanting to risk a confrontation with both the living and the dead, the group decided to just move on and find a different distraction.

Transport van diversion
The group looped around to the back side of the church and looked through several vehicles only to find they lacked batteries.  Continuing on, several other vehicles were searched until they came upon a transport van (9) which seemed to have power.  Greg used his window opener (crowbar) and granted Chet access to the inside of the vehicle.  In a few minutes, Chet wired the horn to an always-on state and the group high-tailed it it to the church and hid next to some air conditioning units (10).



Hiding spot behind the church
After a minute or two, a few Zombies appeared at the far side of the parking lot and moved towards the source of the sound.  A few minutes later, several more Zombies headed the same route.  Oddly, a couple of them stopped dead in their tracks in the middle of the parking lot and seemed to sense something.  Chet and Colton didn't wait around to get spotted and quickly put them down from the safety of their hiding spot.

Crossing the road to the radio station
As the stream of Zombies flowing towards the honking horn began to slow, the group moved cautiously up the side of the church and back to the main road.  Greg led the way down the road towards the radio tower and staged in a patio area between two buildings to cross the final road to the station.


It had appeared as though a good portion of the wandering walkers had been successfully drawn away from the radio station property, however the bulk of the herd still remained within the confines of fenced in area surrounding the buildings they hoped to investigate.  The group made their move and crossed the street, silently dispatching a handful of Zombies between them and the side of the building.

(11) windows along station building
Quickly, yet cautiously, the group maneuvered along the side of the building and occasionally peeked in the windows lining the wall.  One of the windows (11) provided a bit of a surprise as some hungry faces of Zombies pressed against the glass followed by the beating of their clenched fists.  The group noted the window and continued moving on and around the corner of the building.

(12) - locked doors with scraping and bumping
Colton and Greg moved in to take a closer look at a pair of doors (12).  The first door looked like a small garage door and the second, positioned a few feet from the first, was a metal keypad locked door.  Scraping and bumping could be heard behind both doors and the group decided to move on and up the next side of the building.

The East side of the building appeared to be a driveway leading North flanked by a small woods.  As the driveway entered what appeared to be a parking garage, the group cautiously looked in to see a large group of Zombies that appeared to have some interest in a metal door (13) inside the garage on the North side.  The group withdrew quietly and headed back to the pair of doors they saw earlier.

After briefly trying to gain entry via the doors, they decided to go back and create another diversion to try to draw the Zombies away.  They headed back along side the building and across the street.  Moving a bit further away from the radio station, the group found themselves in the parking lot they saw several Zombies in soon after leaving the townhouse.  No Zombies remained in the lot - likely drawn to their first truck horn diversion.  A quick search through the cars revealed one with a working battery as the alarm went off in response to the group's entry attempt.

With the second diversion in play, the group hustled back their now well-worn path along side the building to the Zombies behind the window.  With a couple swift hits with Greg's crowbar, the window broke open and the Zombies within finished the job of clearing out the broken shards of glass before being brained as they got half way out the window (11).

Climbing in revealed a small office with several Zombies coming towards the open door from a larger room within.  Kim's ax and Greg's crowbar both got a workout allowing the group to move into the large room that connected several offices similar to the one they entered (14).  Desks, chairs, and sections of office cube walls barricaded the hallways leading Northeast.  Several Zombies could be heard shuffling around behind the obstacles.

Heading Southwest, the group traveled through a hallway and to a door leading into a conference room.  Slight motion caught the eye of Greg as their flashlight scanned around the room.  Moving in closer, a Zombified head attached to what looked like a mostly eaten body rocked back and forth as the eyes frantically searched for prey.  With a quick stab with the crowbar, Greg put the beast down and the group moved out of the room.

The hallway opened up again to a large room filled with cubicles.  A few Zombie heads could be seen bobbing above the cube walls, but were quickly put down with Colton's crossbow.  A stairwell drew the group's attention and they took it up to the 3rd floor.  The halls and rooms to the Northeast were open and after taking care of a few more cube walkers, the group exited into a breezeway (15) leading to the attached parking ramp.  The group headed through the ramp and found another stairwell leading down.  Exiting cautiously, the group found themselves behind the group of Zombies that were still crowding around the metal door they had seen earlier.  A few of the Zombies caught wind of the group and with a loud howl, moved towards them.

With several Zombies in tow, the group headed back into the stairwell and back up to the 3rd floor.  Taking up position several yards away from the door, Colton readied his crossbow and took out the first to emerge from the stairwell.  Several MP5 rounds later, the stream of Zombies seemed to be increasing and the group decided to run down the stairwell next to the office.

A single Zombie was at the ground floor of the stairs and was quickly shot down by Chet's MP5.  The group exited the stairwell and ran across the ramp back towards the metal door.  Cautiously peeking around the corner again, the group was pleased to see that the bulk of the Zombie herd had disappeared - probably directly above them on the third floor.  A half dozen Zombies still remained in the vicinity of the door which were quickly put down.

Greg knocked on the door (13) and waited for a few seconds.  Hearing no answer, he knocked again which was met with an almost immediate opening of the door.  A large man with a proportionally large beard greeted them with a hearty "Who are you??".  After a brief explanation that they were here to see what happened at the station, the bearded man signaled them all in and down a metal staircase.  What appeared to be a generator maintenance room looked to be home to several of the team sent to silence the broadcast advertising the Chinese-run refugee camp and to capture those who started it.  The captives could be seen tied and gagged in a corners of the room.

A man with an injured ankle approached the group and introduced himself as Ken.  He explained that they were able to capture most of the Chinese group and that they had taken a couple casualties.  Greg offered to take a look at Ken's ankle, but he wasn't very interested.  Colton and Chet, both running a little low on 9mm ammo to feed their MP5s, asked Ken if they had any extra ammo.  Ken called over Anthony, who looked to be barely a teenager, and told him to give all his ammo to Chet.  Anthony complied and gave Chet three spare magazines and with an extra prod from Ken, the mag from his handgun.   Ken explained that it is probably better that Anthony stick to hand weapons only, but didn't elaborate much more.

The group helped gather up the equipment and prepared to head back out the metal door before another undead crowd gathered.  Ken was able to walk at a decent pace, but it was obvious he would be running very far on his ankle.  A couple Zombies were found to be hanging around outside the door and were quickly axed.  The now much larger group headed out of the garage and walked along the driveway back the way the group originally traveled.

As the group headed across the radio station property they saw a still very large group of Zombies to the North.  Greg noticed Anthony nervously fingering the trigger of a rifle from one of the Chinese captives and with a bit of leadership skill was able to calm him down a bit.  The group snaked their way back to the townhouse and met only minor resistance.  They were able to deal with in a quiet manner and amazingly enough drew very little attention to themselves as they filtered the last of those rescued into the townhouse (1) and shut the door.

Now it was just a matter of 5.5 hours until sundown and the helicopter's scheduled arrival...




Zombie Destruction Totals
CharacterSessionAll Time
Colton58470
Greg20305
Chet61509
Kim37254
Total1761538


Human Interaction Totals

RescuedKilled
Session00
Total235

Monday, January 20, 2014

Session 11 Synopsis

Real Date: December 30, 2013
In-Game Date: December 23-24, 2011
Session Title: Out of the frying pan, into the fire.
Memorable Quote
  Colton: "Fire in the hole!"


The group looked around at the various buildings surrounding them trying to figure out where the keys to the choppers could be.  Within a couple minutes several more Zombies could be seen making their way directly to their location.  Chet and Colton prepared the MP5s and waited for the growing number of targets to move into range.  As the two took aim, a pair of Zombies fell to the ground before either of their triggers were pulled - what sounded like suppressed gunfire could be made out from somewhere in the area.  Several additional Zombies flowed into the road joining the rest as they closed in on the group (1).

Now within MP5 range, Chet and Colton began taking shots and Greg tightened his grip on his trusty crowbar.  The group held position around the choppers and mystery shots continued to rain down on the attackers, but soon the group was engaged in close combat.  As Greg was hacking away at the nearest Zombie, he felt a sting on his right arm.  Looking down quick, it appeared as though a bullet had grazed him leaving a small tear in his shirt that was slowly turning red from the bleeding underneath.

The current group of Zombies were getting under control, but more could be seen approaching from around the various buildings.  Greg scanned the buildings and saw someone signaling from the third floor for the group to go to the east side of the building (2).  The group hustled around the building and were met with a locked metal door.  After a tension filled 30 seconds of waiting, the door clicked open and the group filed inside.

A man in a military uniform ushered them inside and locked the door behind them.  He then led them up the stairwell with a very noticeable limp.  After traversing a hallway littered with empty cans and bottles, Martínez (or “Martini” as his friends used to call him) introduced himself as he opened the door to a room laid out like an apartment.  Martínez quickly grabbed a remote and clicked off the TV and DVD player which he had left on in after rushing out to open the door.

The group looked at him kind of funny and made an inquiry about the power.  Martínez explained that there are some big gennies in the basement with plenty of fuel to feed them.  He then casually mentioned that if anyone wanted to take a hot shower that the water heater was powered as well.  Martínez said everyone could help themselves to the food as long as military rations were palatable - he had eaten plenty of them and could hardly stand to look at them anymore.  He quickly asked everyone if they happened to have anything to 'drink' as he had run out a week or so ago.

Once the group had cleaned up and eaten, Martínez mentioned that the huge building to the west was a Boeing plant and early in the outbreak was converted to be a shelter.  Thousands of refugees were moved in fairly quickly, but eventually things went bad and the refugee camp was overrun from the inside and outside.  The tanks stationed around the base eventually went silent and most of the military personnel were now walking dead.  Martínez continued by explaining his leg - in the first couple days of the event he was shooting from the roof of the building they were currently in, slipped, and fell three stories to the ground.  The rest of his group went out to bring back a doctor for his leg.  Greg took a professional look as Martínez pulled up his pant leg to reveal a poorly healed compound fracture.  His group left himself and one other soldier behind about three weeks ago and they hadn't returned yet.  The other soldier died only a day after the others went out...

The group noticed a small sniper nest built up in the corner of the room now holding a suppressed AR15 (not military issue) back from the window with a perfect view out onto the helicopters below.  Martínez asked why the group was interested in the choppers and if anyone was a pilot - he had enough rations and isolation (and lack of drinks) to drive him near crazy and couldn't wait to get out of there.

Greg and Chet explained their plan and included that they had a chopper pilot on-call.  Martínez then revealed from under his shirt a necklace with a key on it and exclaimed 'lets go!'.

After packing up some supplies and deciding on what to bring to the chopper, Greg and Colton prepared to head out to the radio to call in the pilot.  Only a few Zombies were around the door and a dozen or so around the chopper.  After making quick work of them Greg and Colton moved quietly towards the chopper while Chet and Martínez remained behind to get the supplies staged at the stairway door.

M134 Minigun
Greg successfully made contact with the pilot and informed him that the bird was fueled and ready to fly.  The pilot confirmed and said he would be on the ground in 20 minutes.

Colton went back to the building to relay the news and begin carrying supplies out to the chopper.  With a little time to spend, Colton checked out the Miniguns on each side of the chopper.  Unfortunately, both ammo bins were empty.  He decided to sneak over to the other chopper to do a quick search.  To his surprise, one of the guns seemed to have jammed leaving about 100 rounds left linked in the bin.  With some effort and help from Chet, the rounds were taken back to the other chopper.

A couple hundred rations, a can of 500 5.56 rounds, and another can of 500 rounds of 9mm later, everyone was at the chopper and ready to go.  A few Zombies began drawing near the chopper, but were held off by the group.  Greg fired up the engine a few minutes before the expected arrival of the pilot.  A larger set of Zombies began making their way towards the chopper.

As the larger wave began closing in, a small helicopter dropped down from the sky and a man fast-roped down next to the chopper.  After a quick check of the gauges, the pilot engaged the main rotor and the group was in the air out of the reach of the grasping claws below.

Greg pointed in the direction of where they parked the Cessna and the pilot moved the aircraft towards it with plans to get their supplies.  Unfortunately, it appeared as though the large herd had broken up and hundreds of Zombies now littered the runway searching for food.  The pilot suggested they try back later and pulled the chopper up to a fairly high altitude and headed east.

Peachtree
After a few minutes in the air the chopper made a quick vertical decent and landed at another airbase that the group did not recognize (1).  The chopper pilot, who didn't do a great job of introducing himself, told the group to sit tight and someone would be out here soon to get things sorted out.  Several individuals could be seen patrolling around the area.

A few minutes later, four guys came out from one of the buildings and asked the group to come inside.  He introduced himself as 'Dean' and welcomed them to "Peachtree".

The group headed into the large building to the south and then into a large conference room that had several mattress pads stacked up in one corner of the room.  Dean thanked the group for their part in acquiring the helicopter.  He arranged for some food to be brought in and then described what the next part of the plan was.  Dean explained that he and Rich (from the Fulton airport) were part of an organization called United New America (or UNA).  They believe the outbreak was somehow caused by China and Russia in a plot to take over the country.  A group was sent to silence the radio broadcast and retrieve the Chinese operatives at the radio station in hopes of gaining more information about their plans.  Only the first part of the plan was achieved - the radio broadcast summoning everyone to the Chinese camp had stopped.  There has been no communication from the group since the signal went off.  The group was sent in three Hummers - each equipped with a radio.

Chet inquired as to what proof the UNA had about their theory and Dean responded that it was pretty obvious given their quick set up of camps.  Getting their hands on the operatives would give them even more 'proof'.  After a few more questions and talking, it was decided that the Blackhawk would drop the group near the station in the morning and then return to pick them up in the same spot an hour before sundown.  With that, Dean left the group to get some rest for the night.

Dean had some food for breakfast brought in for the group and final arrangements were made before taking off.  One member of the UNA would go with the group and they would take off immediately.  Everyone gathered their gear and headed to the chopper.

In a matter of minutes the chopper was in the air and gained altitude.  The UNA individual introduced himself as Jimmy.  Not much for words, but he seemed sensible and fairly comfortable with the handling of his AR.  Several minutes later they were again on the way back down and landing on a four lane highway and exiting out onto the pavement (1).

Radio Station Overview






























End of Barrier (2 - above)
A few dispersed Zombies could be seen using binoculars meandering up and down the highway, but no immediate threats were seen.  Cautiously, the group headed along the noise barrier towards the radio station (blue line).  Soon, they came to where the barrier ended and decided to head into the woods.

A handful of Zombies were encountered and dispatched fairly quietly as the group headed up the hill to the station.

Back of building

Soon they arrived at the back side of a building.  Both the east and west sides of the building contained many Zombies making travel not advised.  A door in the center of the building then became the focus.  It was slightly ajar and shuffling around could be heard within.  Greg opened it up to reveal a few Zombies and allowed the MP5s to mow them down.  Several more Zombies began pouring out and as the moans rang out the floodgates opened and a dozen replaced each that was shot down.  Jimmy's trigger finger began getting a bit itchy, but Chet and Greg were able to convince him to stick with silent weapons for the time being and keep things as quiet as possible for as long as possible.

More and more Zombies poured out of the building and limply rolled down the hill after meeting crowbar, MP5 round, or Jimmy's hatchet.  Zombies from both sides of the building began closing in on the back door ruckus.  Eventually Colton decided it was time to make a move and yelled out 'Fire in the hole!!!' as he pulled the pin and pitched a grenade through a brief opening in the door.  The explosion was enough to blow a few zombies out the door and throw those inside down to the floor which allowed the group to at least make their way inside the building.

The group found themselves some type of elongated room resembling a wide hallway.  Dozens of Zombies engulfed the group and engaged in close (very close) combat.  After a few brushes with death, the group began pushing towards a door on the left side of the hallway.  With an exhausting effort, all party members were finally able to push their way to the door.  Greg checked the door and, as expected, found it to be locked.  The rest of the group covered him as he wedged his now messy crowbar into the door jam and popped the lock.  After another struggle to escape the grasp of the Zombies, everyone was able to regroup inside the room and hold the door shut long enough to catch their breath.

Greg drug over a desk to help Chet and Colton hold door shut from the Zombie onslaught.  In one corner of the room were the remains of two people who looked like they had been...carefully...eaten.   As Greg continued to assess the room, he heard a groan from one of the two couches.  Approaching with crowbar at hand, Greg found a severely dehydrated man on the couch.  If he could be hooked up to an IV and had proper care and a few weeks to recover he probably could be brought back to health, but out here it wasn't looking good.  Looking to a second couch, the remains of a lady lie motionless.  A quick look did not reveal any bite marks and Greg's professional opinion is that she died of dehydration as the guy was about to do.  A second door was noticed as well with heavy Zombie traffic easily audible through it.  Chet climbed up on the desk and investigated the drop ceiling as a means of exit, but unfortunately it was only dropped down a few inches and provided no way of escape.

Soon both doors were being pounded on and showed signs of giving out.  The group looked through the vertically narrow windows surrounding most of the room as their only way out.  Heads of Zombies bobbed past the windows as they made their way to the rear entrance of the building.  Greg and Jimmy managed to blow out part of the glass and Greg cleared out as much of the broken shards with his crowbar in preparation for a clean exit.  Several arms of Zombies reached into the now open window.  Greg switched to his shotgun and blew back enough of them for Colton to jump outside near the edge of the woods.  The others followed suit and all but Jimmy were able to make a clean exit.  Jimmy was tripped up on one of the Zombies at the window and ended up on the ground.  A a pair of Zombies were drug down on top of him and began gnashing their teeth as they attacked.  He cried out and Greg and Colton cleared the Zombies off of him while trying to fend off the now growing group around them.

The group fought their way back into the woods and retreated at full speed attempting to lead any followers to the north (green line on Radio Station Overview map).  After making a loop in the forest, the group made their way back to where the sound barrier ended and they first entered the woods (2).  The group moved further out into the road and began looping back into the woods.  Zombies could be heard crashing through the forest and the group continued their pace.  Jimmy fell down on the pavement, but quickly righted himself.  As the group looked back after a few more steps they saw Jimmy do an about-face and march back towards the sound barrier.  Several rounds of rifle fire could be heard, followed by another set of shots as Jimmy disappeared back into the woods.

The group continued without Jimmy back up the hill in a more grassy area and saw the three Humvees that Dean had mentioned down by some railroad tracks (4). One of them sported a .50 cal on top, but no rounds could be seen feeding it.  A few rounds of MP5 cleared out the hillside and the group was able to continue on and move in towards what looked to be a residential area (5).

Several more rifle shots rang out in the woods towards the direction that Jimmy went followed by a few seconds of silence, concluded by a single large caliber handgun shot.

At the top of the hill, a once quiet residential road meandered through the trees encircling a set of townhouses.   The first in the row appeared to have been gutted by a fire and the group didn't investigate any further given the lack of a front door.  The second looked to be fully intact and was found to be unlocked.  No Zombies turned up after a cursory look and the group took to the second floor overlooking a small open area enclosed by the set of townhouses.

A half dozen Zombies meandered around the open area and were quietly mopped up by MP5 fire from Chet and Colton.

The group all breathed a sigh of relief and tried to figure out a Plan B...


Zombie Destruction Totals
CharacterSessionAll Time
Colton41412
Greg29285
Chet79448
Kim0217
Total1491362


Human Interaction Totals

RescuedKilled
Session00
Total235

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Session 10 Synopsis


Real Date: November 22, 2013

In-Game Date: December 22-23, 2011
Session Title: Around in Circles


The group quickly made the rest of the way to the APC (1) and dumped the repair parts down next to the broken track.  Chet further assessed the damage and came to the realization that there is no way they were going to be able to fix the track before the oncoming hoard of Zombies was upon them.

After a brief deliberation, it was decided to retreat back to the C-130 (2) and see if the hoard would pass them by.  As they neared the plane, a few Zombies came out of the woods and followed the group to the aircraft.  Chet, with the help of Greg, figured out how to manually operate the rear lift where they previously drove out the APC.  Colton lent a hand and was able to get the gate lifted about half way before a couple sets of rotted arms came from below and tried in vein to climb up after their meal.  The group agreed to avoid any unpleasant accidents and just continue cranking up the gate and let the massive door clip off the one remaining arm at the elbow.  Black ooze drained out as the fingers twitched their last as Zombie groans resonated from behind the plane.

Light Blue - walking route     Dark Blue - driving route






































Greg kept an eye out for any Zombies which may have moved in as he moved towards the cockpit.  Sure enough, a Zombie lumbered out from behind a set of crates, but Greg dispatched it with his trusty crowbar before it could attack.  Chet also searched around, but missed noticing a legless Zombie which took the opportunity to bite at the meal passing by.  Fortunately Chet was able to dance out of the way and destroy the Zombie without further incident.  Greg knocked out the rest of one of the cockpit windows and drug out the two corpses from inside the plane and tossed them out.  Unfortunately, he and the cockpit windows still didn't get along and he cut a gash in his forearm on a remaining chunk of glass in the window frame.  He quickly patched himself back up and decided to just avoid the cockpit all together from then on.

Several dozen Zombies could be seen approaching as Greg and Chet looked out from the cockpit.  Chet helped rig up one of the side doors of the plane so it would only open up enough for Colton to shoot out.  Colton began firing off rounds of one of the silenced MP5s while Chet did the same from the cockpit.  Most of the Zombies around the plane were put down, but a few remained under the plane and out of sight.  From the cockpit, a large section of the Zombie hoard could be seen coming around and through the treeline in the direction of the APC.  The group decided it was time to move out and all headed to the aft of the plane.

The group prepared their charge as the large end gate was lowered once again.  Greg began blasting with his shotgun as Chet and Colton blazed away with MP5 and .357 respectively.  Only the Zombies in their immediate escape round were targeted and the group quickly made it to the treeline.  A tiring run through the woods with Zombies in tow led them to a service runway which they headed northwest on until coming to a trio of fire trucks (3).  Chet and Colton both shouldered MP5s and began taking out some of the Zombies which were pursuing them.  Although finding it increasingly difficult to catch his breath, Chet was able to keep up fairly well with Colton in headshots on the ever increasing numbers of Zombies.



Greg went over to check out the fire trucks to find that two of them sustained significant fire damage while the third seemed mostly intact.  Investigating the inside of intact truck, a Zombie grabbed onto Greg from the back seat.  Due to Greg's awkward positioning or perhaps the Zombie's fire hat, Greg had to avoid several bite attempts until he finally made contact with his crowbar and ended the surprise attack.  Unfortunately, the intact fire truck's batteries seemed to be totally drained and it wasn't going anywhere...

Zombies continued to trickle out of the woods as the group made their way towards a building hoping to find temporary shelter (4).  Kim shined a flashlight into the already open (and broken) door and spotted movement.  A second later a dog bolted from the doorway and with a yelp, headed into the woods.  Chet went in the building with Kim only to find a couple vehicles in various states of repair.  Those outside engaged in melee combat with the Zombies, but with the increasing enemy numbers everyone decided it was time to run.

The group fought their way out of the clutches of the undead and once again ran into the woods.  Initially starting off at a quick pace, everyone could see that Chet was having a tough time keeping up and even Greg was getting a bit winded.  Everyone decided to go into stealth mode and slow their pace.  Unfortunately, the Zombies did not lose the trail and the group found themselves with Zombies on all sides (5).  A few grueling hand to hand combats later, the fast pace was once again picked up as the group headed east through the woods.   Chet managed to stick with the group after handing his pack over to Colton as his endurance began to dwindle.

The group eventually came back to the service runway (6) and saw a stream of Zombies flowing to the northwest of their position - apparently following their trail.  Sticking within the cover of the treeline, the group pushed on tot he south and eventually peeked out through a chain link fence into a clearing to the west.  A solid brick building (7) looked intriguing so Greg decided to get out the bold cutter and open up a hole in the fence for the group to crawl through.






The front doors were all found to be locked and before going around to the front, it was decided to have Kim climb up to the roof of the lower portion of the building to survey the area.  Only a few Zombies could be seen a hundred yards or so to the west so the group continued around the building.  The front windows had been broken out, but access was restricted due to piles of office furniture piled up from the inside.  Similar to the windows, the front door was broken out and barricaded.

Sliding along the west side of the building (7a), a large open door was found to reveal what looked to be a shop outfitted to repair military ATVs.  Greg decided to knock on a closed metal door leading further into the building.  Several seconds later, banging and scraping on the door replied.  Chet noticed a large floor jack and thought it would be a good alternative to hacking at the door with a fire ax or other noisy option.

A few minutes later, the door handle popped off and the door flew partially open as the undead from the other side pushed through.  The few Zombies which had significant burn damage were easily hacked down.  The room and its contents of ATVs were fairly burned up as well.  Nothing of value was revealed during a quick search.

The door leading into the office area (7b) was ajar and Greg decided to knock on it to see if any more crispy Zombies could be drawn out.  One lonely Zombie tripped on its way out of the door and then quickly put down.  More fire damage destroyed most of the office spaces and nothing of use could be found.  Two office doors leading to the barricaded window rooms, still fully intact, drew the group's interest.

Greg was able to pry open the door with his crowbar and two Zombies lunged out of the room.  These two, dressed in semi-formal military uniform, were put down and the group entered the office.  The wall between the two offices had a hole large enough for person to crawl through carved out of it.  One room seemed to be the sleeping and general living area and the other was the restroom and garbage area.  Neither room had any fire damage and it given the dozens of empty military MRE wrappers it looks as though the two survived in here for quite some time.  Searching around, the group found two .40 handguns, one with 4 rounds remaining.  Other than a keychain with several keys on it and a set of vehicle keys in a purse, nothing of much of use was found.

The group continued on to the east wing (7c) to find that it too had significant fire damage.  Only a single mostly intact ATV remained - all it needed were a few tires.  A second level storage and walkway - mostly free from fire damage - provided a view to the ground floor.  Two Zombies were silently put down by a couple bolts from Colton's crossbow.  With the building cleared, Chet suggested the group sleep until night before moving on.

Six hours later, everyone got their legs back under them and were ready to get moving.  The group headed out the back door under the cover of darkness and checked out a pickup truck in the parking lot.  Greg tried the keys and found that they fit.  He tried the aux position and it appeared as though the truck had fuel and a working battery.  A four person ATV, different than what was inside, was parked next to the truck along with a fork lift.  A trailer in the back of the lot was the only other thing parked in the mostly empty lot.

Using the keys found in the office, Greg was able to get into the trailer without any trouble.  It revealed an assortment of supplies and tools to maintain ATVs.  Most notable included a dozen batteries (of two different types), a small gas generator, and jumper cables.

After remembering what the group's mission was (clear the area so the chopper pilot could fly one of the Blackhawks out), a plan quickly came together.  Chet began working on hooking up a half-dozen of the batteries up in parallel and organized getting them mounted on the ATV.  The group then waited until morning and then set their plan into motion.

Kim drove the pickup and Colton manned the battery laden ATV.  Greg and Chet piled into the truck and they headed south out of the ATV area.  Their plan was slowed down a bit by the gate which was down and littered with dozens of corpses.  While two of the group worked on clearing the road, the other two pulled out MP5s and took out the Zombies they had spotted the day before which had now taken notice of them.

With the way cleared, the truck and ATV continued down the road and back to the mostly intact fire truck the group found previously.  Kim pulled up right next to the fire truck after successfully evading several Zombies which continued to flow around the runway.  After screeching to a halt, Greg, Kim, and Colton began taking down the closest Zombies as Chet wired up the batteries on the ATV to the fire truck using a pair of jumper cables.  In under a minute, Chet had things wired up and began searching for the correct switches to engage the lights and siren of the fire truck.

As the sirens blared and lights flashed, the foursome beat away the Zombies in the immediately vicinity of the truck and piled in.  Kim hit the gas and ran back down the runway and took a road around to the east side of the runway.  Another fence guarding the runway (8) slowed progress, but Greg was able to chop a hole with the bolt cutters large enough to fit the pickup through.

Looking down the runway, it appeared as though their plan was working.  Most of the Zombies were migrating towards the ruckus at fire truck and only a few were near the Cessna (9) which Greg had landed a few days back (which seemed like over a year ago...).  A few crossbow bolts later, the area was clear except for a growing population of Zombies which could be seen gathering on the main eastern fence of the air base.

Greg quickly hopped into the plane and got on the radio.  A few minutes of uncomfortable silence was broken with a reply on the other end from the small air field.  He proved to be not very helpful and finally was convinced to get Rich (the guy who initially gave them the idea to retrieve the helicopter).  After some unproductive back and forth conversation, Greg finally convinced Rich to get the Blackhawk pilot on the line to answer a few questions.  Unfortunately the pilot wasn't nearby and Rich said he would have the pilot radio them back in about 20 minutes.

The minutes ticked away slowly and the numbers of Zombies at the fence slowly increased.  Abruptly, the sirens from the fire truck died.  Chet and Colton theorized that the mob of Zombies around the fire truck must have yanked the jumper cables off...  A couple minutes later, the radio crackled on and a man's voice who claimed to be the pilot began talking with Greg.  He said to start the chopper they would need an the ignition key and, of course, make sure there was fuel.  If they had they key, verified there was fuel, and the area was clear, they could radio him back from the chopper and he could be there in 15-20 minutes.

With that, the group wasted no time and got back in the truck and drove to the northwest side of the runway towards where they had spotted the choppers from the air (10).  As they neared the choppers, forward progress was stopped by a barricade (yellow line) including razor wire, concrete barriers, and hedgehogs.  Dozens of Zombies could be seen caught in the wire and writhing around trying to free themselves all along barricade line.  Several Zombies could also be seen milling around both sides of the barricade - obviously it had been overran at some point.



Greg was able to cut away the wires with his bolt cutter and the group somehow managed to make a hole large enough to fit the truck through (10a).  The group then drove up to the choppers (10b) and immediately noticed that the one on the right had suffered fire from large caliber rounds.  Both choppers were searched, but no key could be found.

Blackhawk Helicopter

























The group pondered what to do next...



Zombie Destruction Totals
CharacterSessionAll Time
Colton68371
Greg30256
Chet43369
Kim15217
Total1561213


Human Interaction Totals

RescuedKilled
Session00
Total235

Monday, October 8, 2012

Stay tuned - Season 2 coming soon!

Chet, Colton, Kim, and Greg scramble to get the APC up and running
before a growing hoard of Zombies is upon them.  Will they be able to
get moving in the nick of time?  Will they run away and abandon the APC?
Find out sometime this Fall as the campaign continues in Season 2 of
Zombie Revelation!
 
[update - due to scheduling conflicts, Season 2 has been delayed...] 

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Session 9 Synopsis


Real Date: May 14, 2012
In-Game Date: December 21, 2011
Session Title: Arms & Armor


In the relative safety of the M113 APC within the C-130 transport plane, the group was finally able to get some rest.  Only the occasional scrape against the plane or dull thud at the side cargo door interrupted sleep.

After several hours of sleep, Greg and Chet awoke and went to the front of the plane to see what the new day had brought.  A large group of Zombies milled about on the tarmac a few hundred yards in front of the plane.  In their elevated position in the cockpit of the plane, Greg and Chet figured they could take out the 70-90 Zombies before them.  Greg went to the back of the plane and grabbed a sturdy metal bar and attempted to break out a couple windows to use as shooting ports.  The tough glass proved to be a worthy adversary for Greg as he managed to pull a muscle before succeeding in breaking out a pair of windows.

Chet started the combat with a volley of .308 rounds taking out a few Zombies and drawing the attention of the remainder.  As the hoard lumbered towards the plane, Chet switched to one of the recently found M16s loaded up with .223 ammo.  Greg ran a few rounds through the MP5 and was met with marginal success.  The exertion of knocking out the windows obviously had an effect on his shooting abilities.

A large portion of the original Zombie force remained as they arrived at the plane and disappeared out of sight under the fuselage.  Occasionally one popped out long enough for Greg or Chet to peel off a shot, but it was slow going and the shots were difficult to make.  Colton came up from the cargo hold about that time and took a few shots as well, but eventually they all gave up and left the cockpit in search of an alternative plan.

Chet hopped in the M113 and began familiarizing himself with the levers, switches, and various gauges in an effort to figure out how to start and drive the machine.  The Zombies pounding on the skin of the plane did not contribute to a quiet learning environment, but Chet was able to get to a point where he thought he could get the APC started up and moving.  Greg and Colton searched around for how to manually lower the cargo door and eventually figured it out.  In an effort to minimize the chances of something terrible happening during the pending chaotic moments after the doors opened, Greg hopped in the M113 and prepared to batten down the hatches.

With a few seconds of anxious anticipation as the engine cranked over, Chet successfully started up the M113.  The loud rumble of the diesel engine covered the pounding of the Zombies and the exhaust fumes began to cover the decomposition of the corpses still remaining within the plane.  Colton manipulated the cargo door and it began to slowly descend.  He joined the rest of the group in the M113 and the hatches were secured.

Chet carefully put their new ride into gear and with a sudden lurch the machine pulled out of the rear of the plane.  Several Zombies began attempting to climb and pound on the M113 as Chet cleared the cargo bay and sped out onto the tarmac. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMrBihciO7I  (reference material for how the M113 drives)

The tracks of the M113 proved to be quite well equipped to run down Zombies.  Chet motored in large circles around the tarmac running down the remainder of the Zombies from the large group.  Figuring that worked pretty good, Chet and crew decided to run the APC around the main part of the runway to help clear out any roaming Zombies they came across.  Every once in awhile a Zombie found a hand-hold and was able to begin climbing up on the APC, but were met with the business end of Greg's shotgun.

1: C-130   2: Hanger/crater 3: Broken M113  4: Military Barricade


After several trips up and down the runway several Zombies were mashed into the cold cement.  As the number of visible targets dwindled, the group returned to the hanger with the grenade launcher Humvee they had spotted the previous day.

Investigation of the Humvee found it empty except for the mounted grenade launcher armed with two remaining grenades. Figuring that was better than the empty .50 cal currently mounted on the M113, the group was able to wrangle the grenade launcher off of Humvee, remove and store the .50 cal in the passenger compartment of the M113, and re-mount the grenade launcher.

The hanger contained a couple Zombies which had sustained significant trauma hindering their movement and senses.  After quickly dispatching them, the group then searched the otherwise uninteresting hanger.  Looking out the back door of the hanger, however, revealed a dark crater flanked by a couple heavily damaged buildings. 

Chet pulled around the M113 to get a better view of the crater as Colton and Kim went in to check it out.  Corpses were strewn all over the place - obviously caught in the blast.  As the pair investigated the carnage, a sound was heard from one of the damaged buildings.  Kim decided to investigate as Colton continued around the blast area searching for anything of use.  Chet and Greg looked on from 50 yards away from within the M113.

As Kim climbed over the remains of a broken wall, she was met with a pair of Zombies walking out of the rubble.  A quick hack with her axe took out one of the beasts and she moved back out into the crater area.  Several more Zombies shambled out of the ruined building and joined in a terrifying chorus of groans.  Colton joined Kim in close combat and Greg spotted more Zombies moving in from a treeline just south of his comrades.

Fearing damaging the M113 in all of the rubble, Chet and Greg disembarked and headed towards the combat.  The quickest Zombies from the new group viciously engaged Colton and Kim before they could finish off the Zombies which emerged from the building.  Several daring shots were taken by Chet and Greg as they fired into the melee in an effort to make a hole for the group to escape through.  A couple shots whizzed past Kim's head as she hacked away at the Zombie attackers. 


Chances of running back to the APC diminished as Chet and Greg were met with yet more Zombies coming from around the damaged building and cutting off the escape route.  Many close calls later, the group stood among a pile of Zombie corpses - each with one or more holes through the head.  Several one-eared Zombies were among the destroyed due to a few near-misses by Chet's .45. 
1:  Crashed Humvee with Grenade Launcher  2: Hanger  3: Crater next to office building (bottom) and steel door room (top)  4: Disabled Crawler
With all things quiet again, Kim headed back inside the building this time taking Colton with her.  Greg and Chet stood watch near the crater and did some digging around as they waited.  Most of the building was in shambles, but one room seemed to still be intact.  Colton checked the door and finding it locked, he knocked.  With no answer after a few seconds, Kim began hacking at the lock with her fire axe.  After a misplaced hack into the steel frame of the door, a chunk of the fire axe's cutting edge cracked off in a grand display of sparks.  The axe seemed to still be usable and she was able to finish off the doors locking mechanism allowing the door to swing open freely.

Chet and Kim opened the door the rest of the way and were surprised by a pair of Zombies springing out of the room at them.  A few hacks later, the pair beat down the Zombies and the dust began to settle.  Taking a closer look at the Zombies, Chet saw that they were in military dress and had a large amount of dried blood streaking down from their ears staining their shirt collars.  No wonder they couldn't hear the knocking...

Searching the room resulted in finding a few bottles of water as well as some food in the form of a MRE.  One of the corpses contained a M9 in holster complete with a few rounds of ammo.  Other than that, nothing much of interest was found in the room.

Another nearby damaged building appeared to be offices.  Going through it quick didn't turn up much except for a M1911 .45 handgun stored safely in a top desk drawer.  The firearm appeared to be quite old, but in mint condition.  A clip filled with 7 rounds sat neatly next to the weapon. 


Searching the remaining area behind the buildings turned up a single Zombie crawling along the fence line with its only appendage being a single arm - obviously a 'survivor' of what ever created the crater.  Kim quickly put the beast out of its misery and returned to the rest of the group.  Between the crater and the fence a motor pool was found containing several Humvees in various states of repair.  None of them contained any armaments so the group left them and returned to the M113.

Chet turned the APC around and headed back out onto the main runway.  A few more Zombies had made their way out onto the tarmac which Chet took a few sharp turns towards in an effort to run them down.  Eventually the APC approached a large barricaded area complete with the Abrams tanks as seen in their previous scouting fly over.  Zombies occupied both sides of the concrete and metal barricades and some of which were drawn towards the group.

Once again, Chet mowed down several Zombies as he steered the M113 around the tarmac.  After running down the last of a small group, Chet and Colton heard a 'ping' from one side of the APC accompanied by a small jerk of the steering mechanism in Chet's hands.  Chet immediately slowed down and began heading back to the C-130 to check out what happened.  Suddenly another 'ping' was heard followed by a series of 'clanks'.  Chet halted the APC and shut down the engine.  Popping out of the hatch, Colton did a quick scan around before climbing down.  Taking a quick look at the left side of the M113 instantly revealed that they had thrown a track.

The group took their essentials and headed on foot the rest of the way to the cargo plane in search of parts.  Without further incident, the group quickly moved out of the open tarmac to the warehouse area and finally back to the C-130.  After 15-20 minutes of looking through crates, the group had gathered up what they thought to be replacement pins & tread sections and headed back towards the M113.

As the group approached the APC, several Zombies - actually LOTS of Zombies - were spotted approaching from the trees on the north side of the runway.  Rushing back the remaining couple hundred yards to the APC, Chet and the group started to assess the situation and try to figure out how to repair the track before being overrun by the oncoming hoard...





Zombie Destruction Totals
CharacterSessionAll Time
Colton62303
Greg53226
Chet120326
Kim56202
Total
1057

Human Interaction Totals

RescuedKilled
Session00
Total235

(Miles on M113: 21)