[WOTD] Season 2, Session #6: Welcome to Sanctuary
War of the Dead Season 2, Session #6 -- Loosely Based on WOTD Chapter 2, Week 7
Overview: What's left of the survivor convoy makes it to the UNIMED facility inside Sanctuary, undergoes "processing" to check for infection, and has a chance to settle in after a hard journey. Of course, not all the locals are friendly, and the peace isn't without its interruptions.
The Cast:
- Ashley J. Williams (JZ): S-Mart sports-goods salesman and all-around handyman, armed with a "boomstick," a modified chainsaw, and a big mouth.
- Sabrina Ford (HZ): 14-year-old high-school athlete, survivor of the SS Pinnacle, with a horribly disfigured right arm hidden in a large costume "cat-paw" glove/sleeve.
- Gary (SV): A huge man and Renaissance-fair enthusiast who fancies himself a knight, insulated from the horror of the Apocalypse by his unshakeably naive and child-like outlook.
- Fletch (R): An able and stealthy bowhunter who hunts game and zombies with equal ease. (Player and character absent this session.)
- Father O'Shaughnessy (Digital_Rampage): Roman Catholic priest with experience in animal handling and medicine; he believes he has received visions warning of incursions by the undead.
- Elise Anya (Digital_Rampage): Direct-to-video horror/action movie actress who now believes that she IS the "Chosen One" from her own movies, fighting a vampire conspiracy. (Stand-in character for player while Father O'Shaughnessy was "off-stage" for much of the session.)
- Sabrina's Dog (Digital_Rampage): (During one of the scenarios, since Elise got left behind, Digital_Rampage ended up taking over the DOG instead as a temporary PC.)
- Daniel "DJ" McCoy (CH): Mountain man, trapper, and hunter, acting as a scout and anti-zombie sniper for the group. (Player and character absent for part of this session.)
Welcome to Sanctuary:
The survivors are escorted into the fortified downtown area of Sanctuary immediately around UNIMED headquarters, where a contingent of soldiers, security guards, policemen and militia volunteers keeps the peace. Everyone undergoes tests to check for infection; Sabrina's misshapen right arm draws extra scrutiny, and she's held for extra examination, but she tests as clear of any contagion. Some of the results raise the eyebrows of the UNIMED researchers, though, and they advise her that they might call her back in for some further examination, once they put her blood through some tests; in the meantime, they advise her to keep her arm covered, as the survivor population as a whole is on edge; just because Sabrina got a clear bill of health doesn't mean that people won't react hastily toward anyone who seems different and who hence might be a "mutant" or "carrier."
Gore-spattered clothes are sent in for cleaning, or else just burned and replaced from collected stores, as per the survivors' wishes. Gary returns the .50 caliber rifle he'd been carrying from the soldiers' vehicle, but he's given a reward in UNIMED scrip for retrieving it, as well as the .50 caliber ammunition belt he scavenged from the flipped raider vehicle. (UNIMED scrip is used for purchasing non-essential items from the "commissary," while basic food rations are provided for free until they run out; as a result, the "scrip" has become a de-facto currency in the city, as conventional cash has lost most of its value.) Sabrina keeps her costume "paw" to cover up her misshapen arm, but it goes through decontamination and extensive cleaning (and bleaching) before she gets it back.
Father O'Shaughnessy is shuttled off to the main UNIMED facility, while the others are given a quick overview of UNIMED's operation here by Ms. Waller, partly via a promotional video. They learn that UNIMED's CEO, Shane Williams, has flown off to the Citizen Relocation Zone in Colorado, to assist President Obama in finding a way to "reclaim America for the living." In his stead, the town of Sanctuary is ruled by a coalition of civic leaders, local businessmen, and UNIMED representatives, with a Commander Morrison being in charge of the city's defenses. Commander Morrison meets with the survivors briefly, welcoming them and personally thanking them for the risks they went through to get here. He queries them about their plans, offering either to let them stay, or else if they have plans to return to their settlement in North Carolina, he will begin arrangements to get them situated with an escort team and some supplies. His guards have been developing some new methods of dispersing the zombies clustering at the gates, so with any luck a return trip won't require a journey through the sewers this time around. The group is a bit indecisive -- nothing had really been decided about what they were going to do after getting Father O'Shaughnessy here -- but for the time being they intend to stay in Sanctuary and to find ways to make themselves useful to help deal with the zombie "siege."
At last, the survivor group (minus the two soldiers, who return to their regular posts, and Father O'Shaughnessy, who heads straight to the research facility) is resettled in an old church building within the "reclaimed" zone. Once they are outside the UNIMED compound, they get their weapons back, except for an improvised explosive device in Ash's possession (which is disarmed and kept in storage, as he can reclaim it whenever he leaves the city -- but no explosives are allowed within the safe zone). There's currently one other occupant in the church: Elise Anya, an eccentric individual who they quickly learn believes herself to be a "vampire hunter," semi-secretly waging a war against the "vampire overlords" who are trying to take over the world with their "army of ghouls." She warns the others of the "vampires" that come out at night to feast upon the living, which she reasons is justification for the nighttime curfew (everyone is warned to stay inside after nightfall, and no exit or entry is allowed through the city gates at night).
For the next few days, the survivors get settled in, get acquainted with their surroundings, and try to gather information they can on the strange zombie behavior. Ash makes an attempt to introduce himself to the neighbors; he befriends a former construction worker, Earl Joneston, trading tips, and securing promises for some help in shoring up the defenses of the church in exchange for taking a look at some recalcitrant machinery. He doesn't hit it off so well with Brian Humber, a divorcee and former salesman who seems to think that his kids are perfectly fine off with their mother in California "away from all this trouble"; Ash, being the sort of loudmouth who doesn't give a thought as to the tender mental condition of anyone he's dealing with, flippantly remarks that the guy's family is probably "deadite chow" by now, and the conversation goes rapidly downhill from there. In the midst of the resulting shouting match, however, he attracts the attention of Amy Stiller, a college student (psychology major) from New York. She is fascinated with Ash's claims about the Deadites and the Necronomicon being behind all of this, and starts taking notes furiously, asking him plenty of questions. Since right up there in the Top 10 things Ash likes to do is to talk about himself in the company of a pretty girl who seems to be interested in him, he's pleased to oblige.
Meeting the Neighbors:
Sabrina takes her dog for a walk, with the intention of scouting for alternate escape routes from the city, in case of its "inevitable" fall (or in case the population turns out to consist of cannibals -- it never hurts to be prepared!). Across the street, she runs into a young man who shares a hovel with several others, and after showing interest in his claims to have a map of a network of secret tunnels under the city, she soon finds herself in a dark room with some very unsavory persons who do not have her best interests at heart. They attempt to act on this. They have chosen the wrong victim, however.
After a brief interlude of shots in the dark, screams, blood painting the windows, dying gurgles, and then the dog helping out by meticulously going around and making sure that none of the newly-dead thugs rises again as a zombie, Sabrina proceeds to loot their guns (bullets are better than cash, she's found) and anything else of apparent value that she can quickly pocket -- but the biggest prize would be their map, with its mysterious markings.
The hatch in their hovel leading below ground opens up, but it's not another thug or a monster emerging: It's DJ! To Sabrina's surprise, he has Melissa Fimori in tow -- a little girl that Sabrina had thought lost to the zombie horde outside the city when Mrs. Fimori panicked and dragged her kids into the night. Sabrina warns DJ to shield Melissa's eyes -- but by this point, Melissa's seen far worse. DJ explains that he heard the gunshots and screams, and came to help.
GM Note: Yes, this falls squarely into amazing coincidence territory, but DJ's player showed up, and it seemed like a good idea to get him on into things.
Before they can find an alternative way to sneak out, the local militiamen arrive. Gary is with them, and as Sabrina tries to sneak off, he loudly calls out her name.
GM Note: Gary has "Big Mouth" and "Clueless."
As Sabrina tries to tell her story in such a way that doesn't implicate herself (e.g., mentioning that they drew guns on her wouldn't do much good, since those guns certainly aren't there anymore), she struggles as she tries to suggest she fought them off, inspiring incredulity from her questioners. DJ steps in, explaining that he just arrived when he heard the noises of a fight -- strongly implying that he helped fight them off, but without actually lying about it. The trouble here is that in the process of doing so, DJ tips the guards off that he arrived in here by a means other than the proper channels. Soon, he's off to Processing, along with Melissa, Sabrina, and even Gary (who has inserted himself strongly enough into this that he gets swept along), and undergoing blood tests.
Gary blabs that Melissa isn't actually DJ's kid, and confuses things when he states that Melissa and her mom got eaten by zombies (the supposition everyone had been going by since making it into Sanctuary). DJ is told that he did a very brave thing by rescuing Melissa, but it's soon made clear that she's going to be turned over to the city's version of "social services" for family placement, rather than being entrusted to him. DJ feels a very strong responsibility for Melissa, especially upon seeing her break down in tears as she's being led away. Despite his usual attempts to be truthful about all things (even if it takes a little bending of the truth at times, or just selective leaving-out of unpleasant details), he loudly insists that she's his kin and that he's responsible for her. He still feels sick about having to leave 5-year-old Sharlene in the rotted hands of her zombified mother, and isn't about to abandon this child to strangers; he makes such a compelling argument that he actually gives the social worker pause. In the end, they turn Melissa over to his care. As they head off, he promises that he'll look after her, and even teach her how to shoot properly.
Back at the church, they get acquainted, and Elise Anya fills in the others on some research she did about the zombie hordes, and the changes in their behavior over the past several days. Normally, the zombies have no sense of self-preservation, and quite often might bumble right into an open manhole or blaze; at the very least, they certainly won't bother to dive for cover if a hand grenade is tossed into their midst. However, that behavior seems to have changed: Although there are too many around the city to hope to simply shoot them all, some of the guards have found that if they throw Molotov cocktails, the zombies slowly move away from the flaming area, temporarily creating a gap in the ranks until it seems that "smarter" zombies herd them into closing the hole further back (but out of the fire's reach); the security forces have started to exploit this to create a "window" to get vehicles into and out of the city -- though it's a very risky one, since it involves driving through open flames and most likely crashing into a few flaming zombies on the way.
DJ finally realizes why Elise looks so familiar to him; his niece has a collection of Elise's direct-to-DVD movies. He stammeringly introduces himself and explains that his niece is a fan, but then he becomes a little less enthusiastic when it dawns on him that Elise thinks she actually IS the character she plays in her movies, and that there's a "vampire conspiracy" behind all this simply because those are the adversaries of her fictitious alter-ego. Still, he manages to bring the others up to speed on his misadventures in the sewer (inquiring about Fletch but finding out that the archer hasn't shown up yet), including his encounter with the cannibals, flight from the "albino ape men," capture by zombies, rescue of Melissa, and encounter with "Uncle Critter." He makes particular emphasis on the idea of this kid and this "General Russo," being convinced that one or the other was commanding these zombie hordes (and he wasn't sure). He also explains how Melissa told him that the zombies can "talk" to each other, and that somehow when someone becomes a zombies, his memories get passed along to the other zombies.
In particular, the zombies seem to KNOW about Father O'Shaughnessy, and consider his immunity to the infection to be a threat.
Settling In, Take Two:
Sabrina investigates some cryptic marks made on the maps, and when Gary checks in on her, she drafts him to help out. They find what appears to be a stash hidden in an alleyway, but of what, they're not sure. Rather than taking her chances tearing open what appears to be a heavy bundle wrapped inside multiple layers of garbage bags, she opts to report it to the local militia. The trouble is, in her explanation to Gary about why they weren't opening it themselves, she rattled off various things that it COULD be (a bomb, a biohazard, etc.), and so when the militiamen ask what it is, Gary loudly proclaims that it IS all those things. Sabrina tries to explain, but in the confusion, they both end up getting taken into custody while a hazard team is dispatched to deal with the potentially hazardous item.
Ash gets on much better, getting some help on the church and doing some odd jobs in the neighborhood, and spending some time with Amy Stiller (who's still fascinated with his delusions), but he gets a lead that some scouts have spotted the ambulance (and other abandoned vehicles) outside the scrap yard and are looking for volunteers to go retrieve it. Interested at the prospect of getting paid (in a fashion) for something he was already inclined to do (recover his vehicle), he volunteers -- and once he's down at the station, he vouches for Gary and Sabrina (the bag turned out to be a stash of drugs, not explosives or bioweapons), and with a bit of finagling manages to get them shuffled over to the group of volunteers heading out for the recovery mission. They are all outfitted with Kevlar vests and other protective gear, and get the chance to check weapons out of the lockers (under the understanding that these are to be returned).
Ash manages to get word to DJ to come along, but not Elise: She is out on another one of her fact-finding missions, trying to find dirt on the "real truth" behind UNIMED's operations and its connections to the Apocalypse (she has an inherent distrust of powerful megacorporations, as they're always evil enterprises secretly controlled by vampires in her movies).
Recovery Mission:
The team retraces its steps through the sewers to get to the scrap yard. There are no more mutant dogs there, but it has been overrun by shamblers. Ash, acting as a forward scout, spies some creatures scurrying about. Of course, he just identifies them to the others as more types of "Deadites," but Sabrina observes that these creatures bear some superficial similarities to the "demon baby" she saw back in a church months ago, and the creatures that seemed to "lead" the assault on Jacksonville: Perhaps, she reasons, this is what these things grow up to be, after they've had a steady diet of flesh to dine on. Panicking at the sight of one of these things, she sics her dog on the first one she sees, before everyone else is entirely into position.
Ash gets ambushed by one of the things as it scurries with frightening speed up the wall of the building where he'd just reached the rooftop and was about to set up a sniping position with his shotgun. He manages to blast the thing in the face, but it thrashes about and just won't die quickly enough; he has to blast it again and more-or-less obliterate its head before it finally stops. DJ gets into position and starts sniping "bloaters" among the horde: shamblers that have over-stuffed themselves with flesh, to the point of nearly bursting. He doesn't want to take the chance of any of them getting close enough to shower the group with gore.
Gary hurls himself into battle, making wide sweeps with his claymore, while Ash grabs onto a ladder with his gauntlet and does a ladder-slide all the way down, sending sparks flying, to give a zombie a head-kick at the bottom, then start his chainsaw and go to town. He's surprised by the emergence of a huge hairy dog-thing -- which DJ quickly explains is "Uncle Critter." The dog-thing practices the tactic of grabbing one zombie, then using it as a bludgeon to smash into ANOTHER zombie, and repeating the process with a "fresh" zombie in time.
Sabrina and the dog take on the last of the "demons," but Sabrina is perhaps just a little too cocky, rushing ahead without giving others a chance to assist her. The "demon" ends up surprising her with its resilience, as it doesn't go down in a single blow; it tears mercilessly into her, and she would have been dead if not for the kevlar vest someone had stuck on her back at the station before she went out on this mission. Gary rushes in to save her, cleaving the monster and repeating this until he's absolutely certain it's dead. The rest of the zombies, meanwhile, are noticeably less coordinated; where they were avoiding pitfalls before, one stumbles into an open hole, and others fall over themselves trying to climb down from a pile of debris. The tide turns against the shamblers, and soon it's just a matter of whittling them down, and then checking for salvage. His work done, "Uncle Critter" soon disappears, but only after claiming a large piece of scrap as a new weapon for smashing zombies (or maybe as a chew toy -- or both).
Return Trip:
Sabrina is very badly hurt, and she's the only one with any medical training. They argue over what vehicles to take back; surprisingly, all three of the vehicles they left are intact. The city leadership is looking for the ambulance (and offering a reward for it), and the other two vehicles would just seem to be a bonus (with all the supplies that were left on them). The trouble is, they aren't sure they've got enough qualified drivers, especially with Sabrina's condition (despite her repeated insistence that she can manage). In the end, they get Ash to drive the ambulance (as the most experienced driver of the group, and as the ambulance is hardest to maneuver and the object of their quest); DJ takes SUV, and Gary volunteers to give the pickup a try.
They radio in, rushing back to try to get Sabrina medical attention. The guards toss fire-bombs, and the zombies start to move out. Right away, they spy some of the faster zombies moving to try to cover the gap, but Gary barrels on through. Amazingly, he gets through without any trouble at all, despite some doubts about whether or not he's actually driven a real car (or truck) before. Ash fairly handily makes it right behind him, but DJ has the most of a challenge, as the sprinters start to close in -- and colliding with them would inevitably slow him down and likely kill his chances of making it through (at which point the gate would be closed and he'd be all alone with the horde -- not a fun prospect). A few bounce off his fenders, and he goes right over a few flaming bodies, losing speed, but he manages to get back on course, and rushes through the gate right as the guards start to roll it closed again.
The pay-off for the ambulance (largely intact and undamaged) is reasonably generous, and the recovered stashes of supplies (and booze) are soon effectively traded off for better things by Elise Anya (who seems to have a knack at making connections and haggling for a good price). Of course, though, everyone has to go through testing again to make sure they haven't been infected; Sabrina, at least, gets medical attention in time, and she's well enough to be sent back to her "home," though advised to get some rest for the next several days.
Prepping for the Apocalypse:
DJ works with Ash to rig a quick-draw sling arrangement for both his sawed-off shotgun and his chainsaw, including a clever arrangement whereby the chainsaw's handle is automatically pulled (and then released) as he pulls the chainsaw out. There's a chance it won't start on the first try, and it requires him to loop the handle back in place any time he puts the chainsaw away (or the "auto-pull" won't work the next time around), but it gives him a chance to leap into the action more effectively.
Sabrina is still aching from the fight, and finds that her appetite has only increased. She finds the free rations provided by Sanctuary are less than adequate for her metabolism. Rather than staying in bed, however, she is driven to go foraging and hunting in the less-secured areas, and in the process manages to befriend another dog.
Elise Anya, meanwhile, continues her research into UNIMED and into sightings of the various strange monsters rumored to lurk in the "unsecured" portions of the city. After seeing "Uncle Critter" in the flesh, and noting the heightened intelligence of dogs in the area, she has come to the logical conclusion that ... WEREWOLVES must be involved in this conspiracy as well! She just hasn't quite settled on whether they're for or against the vampires. That will take more research....