“Nothing is impossible to kill. It's just that sometimes after you kill something you have to keep shooting it until it stops moving.” - Mira Grant, Feed
The Cabin, Z+51
Map: Loke Battlemats. Tokens: Fiery Dragon. Rules: ATZ, SWADE.
Fun though yomping through the countryside is, Morgan has been looking for some time for a place to hole up, and he thinks he may have found it; a small cabin in a lightly wooded area, not too obvious but with good sightlines, easy access to a road but not visible from it. Hopefully it will have some supplies, as what he has left will last 11 days at best; but if not, it will at least give him somewhere out of the rain. Before he can settle in, though, he'll need to flush out anyone - or anything - lurking in the woods.
Morgan walks quietly up the track to the cabin. He's fairly certain there is something in the woods off to his left front, but can't make out what or where. As he moves closer to the building, he sees a lone zombie to his left and readies his weapons; it charges at him, but can't quite get close enough to attack.
Morgan realises he should've opened fire earlier, but still has just enough time to do so now; one round of the three he squeezes off scores a hit, staggering the zed, as he moves up to the cabin; the door is stiff, but thankfully unlocked, and he shoulders his way inside, slamming the door behind him and leaning back on it for good measure. The zombie races after him and claws ineffectively at the door. Morgan is sure there is still something else in the woods, but his attention is more focused on the noise from the next room.
Outside, the zombie continues to batter at the door, but it doesn't seem as if it will break through any time soon. Checking the door is securely fastened, Morgan steps into the next room, rifle at the ready, but there's nothing there; the noise must have come from outside. Sure enough, there's a pair of zeds shambling around behind a low stone wall; they must've turned up recently, otherwise he would've seen them on his approach.
GM Note: There's always a Possible Enemy Force inside a building, but during its turn it moved one table section away, then Morgan moved up to get line of sight on both it and the remaining original PEF; I drew cards to resolve them as two zombies and nothing, respectively. Fortunately, the gunfire didn't draw any more.
Morgan steps to the window, opens it quietly, and lets off another short burst, dropping one of the brace of zeds outside. This time, the shots draw another zed from the southeast; it runs up to join its compatriot at the door, where they gouge at it without inflicting more than cosmetic damage. The survivor from the group Morgan fired on runs to his window and makes a wild attack at him through it, shaking him.
Quickly composing himself, Morgan realises he is too close and in too awkward a position to use the rifle, so draws his knife and hacks at the zombie, doing enough damage to kill it. Is that even the right word? he wonders. Maybe destroy it is better?
Something will have to be done about that persistent scraping at the door, though.
Morgan slides out of the window as quietly as he can manage, and pads carefully through the grass until he has a clear line of sight on the zombies. Unfortunately, they notice him, and charge. Morgan is far enough away to shoot before they can engage him in melee, and he cuts one down, with a round left over to hit the second and stagger it. It seems he has already drawn all the zeds nearby, as no more emerge.
As the closest one drops, he fires again, gunning down the last.
A search of the area reveals nothing else lurking, so Morgan drags the bodies away and moves in to his new home, where he finds some luxury goods, specifically a bottle of whiskey. He holds it up to the fading light, and debates whether to drink it, or keep it for antiseptic or trading purposes.
Bookkeeping
Episodes: 5. Bennies: 1. Ammo: High. Food: 11 days. Luxuries: 1.
I've started tracking supply levels for Morgan, so I set his ammo level to Very High at the start of the session and allowed him a Survival roll every game day since Z+39; although he is unskilled and thus has only a d4-2, the dice have been kind to him recently.
GM Notes
Here, I'm drifting back towards All Things Zombie. The campaign and scenario system for Grimdark Future Star Quest is pretty good, but requires more brainpower than I have available late in the evening when I usually play. The ATZ rules for PEFs, and the GFSQ NPC AI, are simple and familiar enough that I have them more or less memorised, although I should probably reread the rules at some point. I continue to use the ATZ R&R Deck to resolve PEFs as it's the fastest and easiest method I have to hand.
That combination was more enjoyable for me than the previous one, and that is after all the point.
Last time (Z+39) I interpreted the notation "Vampire (2)" to mean that each vampire on the card was actually a pair, but in hindsight that notation probably meant they were Stage 2 vampires, so there should only have been three of them. The difference is that Stage 1 have animal level intelligence (Smarts d8A), but Stage 2 have human level intelligence (Smarts d8) and can use firearms. Noted for next time we meet them.
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