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Skip Navigation LinksHere There Be Monsters>Vignettes>Zombie Apocalypse
Zombie Apocalypse
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.
Summary
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.
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!
Setup
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".
The Carrot
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.
The Stick
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!
The Setting
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.
The People
ZACKARY HAK
ZACKARY HAK
CHARACTER SHEET
HERO DESIGNER FILE
ZACKARY HAK Pic
Zackary Hak (HDC)
PETER ARRON
PETER ARRON
CHARACTER SHEET
HERO DESIGNER FILE
PETER ARRON Pic
Peter Arron (HDC)
RAVEN
RAVEN
CHARACTER SHEET
HERO DESIGNER FILE
RAVEN ARKANSAS Pic
Raven (HDC)
DOROTHY
DOROTHY
CHARACTER SHEET
HERO DESIGNER FILE
DOROTHY MICHAELS Pic
Dorothy (HDC)
JIMMY HUNT
JIMMY HUNT
CHARACTER SHEET
HERO DESIGNER FILE
JIMMY HUNT Pic
Jimmy Hunt (HDC)
ZOMBIE BUS
ZOMBIE BUS
CHARACTER SHEET
HERO DESIGNER FILE
ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE BUS Pic
Zombie Bus (HDC)
ZOMBIE DAILE
ZOMBIE DAILE
CHARACTER SHEET
HERO DESIGNER FILE
ZOMBIE DAILE Pic
Zombie Daile (HDC)
CORPSEY
CORPSEY
CHARACTER SHEET
HERO DESIGNER FILE
CORPSEY RAMONE Pic
Corpsey (HDC)
ZOMBIES
ZOMBIES
CHARACTER SHEET
HERO DESIGNER FILE
ANIMATED DEAD Pic
Zombies (HDC)
  • 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
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.
The Spiel
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
Outcomes
There are many different directions this hook could go based upon the Hunter's decisions, actions, and lack thereof.
Cinematic Scene Version One
This scenario plays out if the Hunters are offered one or more bit rolls in the movie and accept
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).
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.
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.
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.
Cinematic Scene Version Two
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).
Zombie Apocalypse
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.
Origin Story
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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The Morrigan
The Ancient Mariner
Tudor Brezak
Baraerazil
Cult Of The Red Hand
No Face Man
L'Éminence Nocturne
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Zombie Apocalypse
Bjorn To Ride Easy
Banshee Troubles
Tomorrows Passed
Venus Malefica
Tears of Tierrasola
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We Too Unto DarknessExpand We Too Unto Darkness
Be At Ease, Hunters
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Best Served Cold
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