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This is a straightforward and balanced adventure with a simple investigation followed
by a challenging but winnable combat. It serves as an excellent first adventure
for a budding group of Hunters.
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Summary
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Zackary Hak, a former truck driver B-movie aficianado won the lottery and fulfilled
his life-long fantasy of making and staring in his own cheesy Zombie movie Zombie
Apocalypse!. He's now touring the nation with cast and crew in the tricked
out "Zombie Bus" custom semi he built to feature in the movie, plugging the flick
and filming the sequel.
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Unbeknownst to Zack and friends, the so-called "SFX and Makeup expert", a creepy
Goth chick called "Zombie" Daile, is actually a self-taught
Necromantist, and her "extras" are actual Zombies!
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Setup
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Our erstwhile Monster Hunters are checking the usual rap sheets on the www.fbismaccords.gov web site for any lucrative
Bounties within striking distance when they spot an alert about suspicious activity
in their area. The alert offers the standard 10% finders fee on any forthcoming
Bounty for investigating a series of odd Zombie-related incidents that seem to follow
in the wake of a movie promotional tour for a bad flick called "Zombie Apocalypse".
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The Carrot
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There's no case file yet associated as there's not yet been any firm data, so in
addition to staking a finders fee, any Hunter getting hard data sufficient to open
one will also get the standard dossier creation bonus. Not a ton of money, but worth
an hour drive out into the weeds and back on spec.
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The Stick
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If the players refuse to take the hook, fast forward to the "Zombie Apocalypse"
outcome. Then they'll have to deal with it, or else flee for their lives!
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The Setting
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Whereever the Campaign City is, the next stop on the Zombie Bus tour should be a
more rural suburb or satellite community on the cusp of town and country. Someplace
small enough for there to be about a thousand locals, but not so remote that its
in the sticks and too far from the Campaign City for the threat of a Zombie Epidemic
to lack credibility.
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The People
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- Zackary Hak: a jocular and well meaning but shlubby former trucker with more
money than sense and a raging Peter Pan complex. He's bank-rolling this vanity project,
and living in his own little world in which he is a hero.
- Dorothy Michaels: a life-long kickboxing champion trying to break into action
movies; just collecting a paycheck. Her amazing beauty not withstanding, she is
smart and very tough.
- Raven Arkansas: woman of action, brain of mush! Hot female lead and honey
pot.
- Peter Arron: so-called Director of Photography and principal (ie only) cameraman
for Zombie Apocalypse and the as-yet unnamed sequel.
- "Zombie" Daile: a sociopathic goth with a very bent perspective and formidable
though untutored Necrotic powers. She's using Zackary and his absurd Zombie movie
fantasies as a very useful beard to conceal her ongoing "research" into the Necrotic
arts.
- Corpsey Ramone: a doomed former boyfriend of Daile, now a brutish Zombie
bodyguard. One thing's for sure...he'll never cheat on her again.
- Jimmy Hunt: an obsessed cop in disgrace from a small city the Zombie Bus
rolled through a few weeks prior who had a run in with "Zombie" Daile and arrested
her after a little use of excessive force, but was suspended for the total lack
of evidence he could muster to justify it. He is convinced that there is something
very not right about Daile and determined to prove it to regain his credibility.
He's actually a Psychic Suppressor, which is contributing to his inability to understand
what is really going on as his subconscious revised his memory of the Supernatural
things he saw, leaving him harboring doubts about his own sanity and reliability.
- The "Extras": Daile has anywhere from two to eight so called "extras" loitering
about at any given time, usually sitting or leaning quietly in a corner, and oddly
indistinct. They are of course actually Zombies, but thanks to Daile's Cloak of
Normalcy ability no one really recognizes them for what they are. Daile has been
experimenting with a variant kind of Zombie that is infectious. Use the provided
Zombie write-up plus Arise An Animated Dead Infectious Bite and Accurate Biter Options;
Drop Bludgeon and Batter
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NOTE: none of the characters associated with the Zombie Bus are aware of the Supernatural
world in whole or part. Even "Zombie" Daile, the Necromantist, is unaware of the
larger Supernatural World as she is self taught and has not yet encountered other
denizens of the Supernatural World.
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The Spiel
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Once the Hunters arrive at the target location, the Zombie Bus is not hard to find.
Not only is the bus itself very obvious and distinctive, Zackary is being as noticeable
as possible in his unending attempts to spread "grass-roots support" for his precious
film. When encountered Zackary Hak, Raven Arkansas, Dorothy Michaels and Peter Arron,
will be engaged in a day of leisure, parked outside a roadside diner enjoying a
bite to eat and letting the locals experience the awesomeness of the Bus.
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Zackary Hak will happily entertain the Hunters, proudly showing off his bus (which
actually is pretty awesome, particularly to the more practical eyes of a real Hunter),
and give them a free DVD of the movie. Raven and Dorothy will be doing their job
of being pleasant and sexy, representing the movie. The players will find nothing
untoward, other than these folks being a rather oddball crew, and the bus being
cool. Peter is almost as enthusiastic as Zackary about the movie, though he is less
of a good ole boy and more of a poindexter.
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No mention will be made of "Zombie" Daile, Corpsey, or the extras. This is not a
deliberate evasion on the part of Zack et al, they just never think of mentioning
it as Daile is off preparing for a nighttime shoot of a scene for the sequel that
they are planning to do that evening at an abandoned gas station on the very edge
of town. The four people the players first meet are entirely unaware of Daile being
anything other than a makeup effects wizard, and due to her Cloak of Normalcy they
aren't suspicious of the nature of the extras either.
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Eventually, when dusk approaches or the players are losing interest, the Zombie
Bus crew leave to prepare for their shoot. If one or more of the Hunters has made
a good impression on Zackary he will invite them to appear in the scene as extras,
whipping up some dialogue or action sequence to suit (his fast and loose style of
filmmaking dispenses with minor and unnecessary things like a solid plot or a script).
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Alternately, if the Bus and crew depart the diner scene without the Hunters, whenever
it is convenient to the pacing Jimmy Hunt will enter the diner, order a hamburger,
and ask after the Zombie Bus. If the players do not engage Jimmy in conversation
one of the locals or the wait staff outs the Hunters and tells Jimmy that they spoke
to the bus crew before they left, and Jimmy will engage the Hunters to determine
where the Zombie Bus was headed.
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A cop through and through, Jimmy recognizes that the Hunters don't fit in to this
podunk town (unless of course they have special abilities that help them fit in).
He'll try to figure them out, and unless one or more of the Hunters makes a jackass
of themselves he'll decide to trust them and share his suspicions of "Zombie" Daile.
He doesn't have any actual evidence or facts or specifics, which he'll gloss over,
but he's absolutely certain theres something wrong with her...something seriously
wrong.
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What Jimmy does know is that he caught her seemingly breaking and entering a funeral
home...but there was no evidence of it (she used her Ethereal Jaunt to go thru the
walls leaving no evidence of illicit entry), and he saw her doing some kind of business
with a local who had supposedly died and been laid to rest just a couple of days
before; maybe as some part of an insurance racket (Jimmy recognized one of her fresh
Zombies as a deceased local and rationalized it away). To Hunters that last bit
is a clear clue of Necromantism and hopefully will be enough to convince them that
all is not as it seems here.
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Whether to accompany Jimmy or to line their pockets, the Hunters should one way
or another resolve to go to the set for that evening's shoot to check out Zombie
Daile.
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Outcomes
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There are many different directions this hook could go based upon the Hunter's decisions,
actions, and lack thereof.
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Cinematic Scene Version One
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This scenario plays out if the Hunters are offered one or more bit rolls in the
movie and accept
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The nights shoot is being filmed in and around an abandoned gas station on the outskirts
of town that Zack thought looked "cinematic" when they drove past it on the way
in. Peter has lit it decently with a few well placed flood lights, making for harsh
glary and very stark lighting conditions with pockets of perfect brilliance interspersed
with high-contract darkness. (Prior to rolling Sight PER rolls, first roll 1d3;
on a 1 or 2 impose a -1 Sight PER roll penalty, on a roll of 3 or 4 there is no
modifier, and a roll of 5 or 6 grant a +1 Sight PER roll bonus).
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Daile, Corpsey, and the Zombies are nowhere to be seen during the run up; if anyone
asks they are in the back of the gas station preparing the extra's makeup for the
action scene.
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Once the camera is rolling things come to a head when Jimmy Hunt arrives at the
scene immediately after the camera starts to roll, and Daile has commanded her Zombies
to advance on the camera for a "horde rush" scene. Jimmy's Suppression effect disrupts
Daile's control over her Zombies as well as the Cloak of Normalcy hiding the Zombies
nature, and all hell breaks loose. The Zombies stop pretending to attack per their
controllers wishes and instead run amok, advancing on the camera man, Peter Arron,
as he is heard to exclaim; "That's great! More of that!". If not stopped, they kill
and start to eat Peter. Much fuss ensues.
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Zackary freaks out, Raven runs every which way shrieking, Dorothy tries to save
Peter, and Jimmy Hunt acts on his obsessive drive and tries to arrest Daile again
as 'clearly' she has instigated this atrocity and so Daile is forced to deal with
or run from Jimmy, rather than regain control over her Zombies. The Zombies go off
in search of prey and in all the chaos, a few get away from Dorothy (who is heroically
trying to stop them) and the players. If not contained the Zombies, with their infectious
bites, infect most or all of the town and start a Zombie Epidemic.
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Cinematic Scene Version Two
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If the Hunters did not go with Zack and crew from the get go, and instead ended
up talking to Jimmy Hunt and come along with or follow him to the site of the evenings
movie shoot, the same event happens without lead up. The Hunters and Jimmy arrive
as the shoot is filming and the action kicks off right away. This version can be
easier to manage for the GM. It's notable feature is that it doesn't allow investigative
Hunters an opportunity to poke around or discover Daile before it all gets out of
hand (which can be good or bad depending on the GM's nefarious plans).
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Zombie Apocalypse
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If this scenario is ignored by the Hunters, or they are unable to contain the infectious
Zombie extras, an actual Zombie Epidemic can break out. If this happens the Feds
will get involved pretty quickly and potentially take very drastic action, which
can be a good or bad things for the Hunters. And remember, the Section M guys don't
talk about Waco for a reason. When the ante is high enough, their intervention
can get ugly very fast.
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Origin Story
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Alternately, this scenario can be made into the Origin story for one or more Hunters
simply by making them an actor or a local, or someone who is suspicious of "Zombie"
Daile who has been investigating her (replace Jimmy Hunt in such a case).
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