The moon ain’t gonna rise in the sky… (Part II)

Day 21 - late evening

This is the second part of my yesterday batrep. Team Whiteface has only one building with two floors left and there isn’t any opposition on the board. Peace everywhere.

Turn 36 cont.:

(3 / 2) Team Whiteface is active and is now standing in a dark corridor, ready to open an apartment door.

They encounter one National Guard soldier (NG #4, Rep 4, assault rifle, protected). I use a table from “I, Zombie” (Havasu People Lists) to improvise a check if he is one of those guys from earlier today. I am lucky, he isn’t.

Nevertheless I lose the NPC Interaction with minus three successes and have a serious run in. Did I tell you that Mrs. Whiteface had been the one doing all the talking? She was a BORN LEADER after all. This guy plots revenge, but without this being Havasu or any similar settlement I ignore this again, but keep it in my memory.

He wants me to leave this apartment and Whiteface doesn’t really want to know what this guy had been doing here.

Turn 37:

(6 / 2) No one is active, as there are no zeds around. Whiteface is still evaluating this situation.

Turn 38:

(4 / 3) Team Whiteface is active. This soldier is well armed, protected and in cover. As much as he’d like to loot him, Whiteface thinks the risk is way too high. Team Whiteface exits the apartment and walks up to the upper floor.

Here they discover another solitary human. He is armed with an assault rifle and wears a protective vest. Whiteface hasn’t met this man before, but he recognizes the uniform (NG #5, Rep 4, assault rifle, protected). There must have been a major base of the National Guard in this area.

Whiteface is ready for some NPC Interaction. With minus three successes and a result of [8] he gets more interaction than he’s wished for. All go for a Draw Down.

Mr. Whiteface wins the Draw Down versus NG #5 by two successes and scores a result of OOF. This damage is changed into a result of knocked down because of the soldier being protected. Could have been better.

Now the National Guard activates. NG #5 recovers from knock down. Remembering the bad tempered soldier NG #4 from downstairs I check his possible action on the NPC Action & Movement table from IZ. NG #4 runs up the stairs triggering an In Sight test by Mr. Whiteface.

Gritting his teeth Whiteface sends a burst of bullets in his direction. One round vanishes with an ominous *clank*, but the other bullets hit and score a true OD on his target.

With NG #5 having recovered, everything will depend on the next activation. Seven shots fired generate two zombies outside the building.

 

Turn 38: 
Comment: Yeah, I know. I am not good at counting.

(6 / 5 / 6) No one activates, but wait, there’s a random occurrence! A nearby building catches fire. This event was triggered by the activation dice of Team W and the National Guard, so I had to look for a building close to them.

Guess what, fortunately they are in a building right now! What an easy decision.

The camera switches to the source of the *clank* sound last turn. There is a pipe, a bullet hole and a spark…

Comment: OK, suddenly I was in need of rules for a burning building in addition to attracting zeds. I had to create something and this is what I came up with:

1.) A fire starts in one floor. In the actual situation it’s the ground floor.

2.) Every fire starts with a random fire rating of d6.

3.) Every turn I will roll a d6. If the die score is lower than the current rating, than the rating is raised by one. If the die score equals the current rating, then the rating is raised by two. You can estimate, but you won’t be sure.

4.) A floor is uninhabitable if the fire in a floor has reached a rating of 6. It’s an instant OD barbecue. This will cause the adjacent floors to burst into flames in the following turn.

The burning building attracts the attention of seven zombies. All I had to do now was to roll a d6 to determine the fire rating of the ground floor.

*Boom!*…no wait, make that *BOOM!!!*

The whole building trembles in a fiery explosion. I rolled a “6”, so the whole ground floor is engulfed in flames.

Turn 39:

The second floor starts with a fire rating of 3. As long as I roll higher than 3 nothing won’t happen, in a worst case scenario Team Whiteface will be dead in turn 41.

(1 / 3 / 5) The zeds activate first, followed by Team Whiteface.

The zeds activate and move closer.

Team Whiteface activates and fires burst at NG #5. Most shots miss their target, but Lynn scores a knock down with her last bullet.

Six shots create four more zombies, two of them in the nearby trailer park. Those civilians will probably see some action soon.

 

Turn 40:

I roll a five, so the fire rating will stay at three.

(4 / 6 / 3) All humans are active, Team Whiteface acts first.

Whiteface drags the NG #4’s corpse from the corridor to the balcony of the second floor. No way he is going to leave all that useful stuff behind him. Little Dotty is under shock, but still follows her daddy closely.

Lynn walks up to the still knocked down NG #5 and hissing something like “Goodbye, mustard!” she places a single bullet in his cranium. She has most of her movement left, so he drags NG #5 to the balcony too.

One shot creates one zed. Doesn’t really make a difference now…

Turn 41:

I roll a six, the fire rating will stay at three for this turn. No worst case happening.

(6 / 5) Whiteface, Dotty and Lynn don’t activate. There is so much heat and smoke, they just don’t know what to do next. Uh, hello?!

Turn 42:

I roll a three. This is equal to the current fire rating, so the new rating is five. There is a chance of more than 80 percent, that this building will be completely aflame next turn.

(4 / 6) Whiteface and Lynn activate and drop both soldiers from the balcony.

Mr. Whiteface scores two successes on a challenge roll, so he jumps down to the backyard without problems.

Lynn helps little Dotty over the balustrade and drops her into her father’s arms. Whiteface has to do another challenge roll to catch the falling Dotty and rolls fabulous boxcars.

Comment: Zero successes with the worst possible die score when trying to catch a falling four to five year old girl. Ugly.

I had to pause the game for some minutes. Wandering around my gaming room, pondering on the situation until I made a decision. No way, not two Whitefaces in one scenario!

It was his challenge roll, not Dotty’s, so he used his LUCKY attribute to roll again and caught his daughter without problems.

Lynn jumped behind them, scored one success and hurt her leg. Her movement is now reduced to 4”.

At this time most of the zombies are in front of the building or on the highway, but one puzzled zombie is just one step away from Team Whiteface. Another one isn’t far away.

Turn 43:

I roll a four, so the fire rating of the second floor is increased to six and explodes. This was a close one.

(6 / 3) Only the zombie horde activates and moves.

One zombie enters the trailer where the two civilians are hiding. After rolling an In Sight test both snap fire at him. The walking dead is hit by a shotgun blast. The woman with the AK hits him too, but her AK runs out of ammo after that burst. The zombie is killed.

Two zombies in the backyard move forward and start to feast on both National Guard corpses. These feasts will end in turn 44 and turn 45. Lynn passes a See The Feast test with two successes and carries on.

Team Whiteface is inactive to scan the area. They plan to kill some zombies in melee next turn.

The shots fired this turn – including a shotgun – create four new zeds. The trailer where the shots have been fired is close to the burning apartment block, so yes, two of those new zeds spawn right next to Team Whiteface. So much for planning the next turn in advance.

 

Turn 44:

(1 / 1) All are cancelled and the feast ends.

 

Turn 45:

(3 / 2) All are active, Team Whiteface acts first.

Whiteface walks one inch toward Lynn, grabs her and carries her away. Dotty follows him, dodging around all those scary zombies. Team Whiteface leaves the table without having more than half an inch movement allowance left. This scenario ends.

 

Final comment (Part II): Everyone found loot and everyone killed zombies. This mission was a success. Yes, Mrs. Whiteface is gone, but Team Whiteface had already lost the previous scenario because of this. The “Harry, are you OK?” roll didn’t win or lose this mission.

Mr. Whiteface wasn’t able to raise his Reputation, but Lynn was. She is now a Rep 5 survivor and will be the leader of Team Whiteface next time. Reaching Rep 5 I let her check on the Quirks & Phobias table from “I, Zombie”. Now she is Animal Friendly…not including cats. She really, really hates cats.

I checked for her recovery after a mission and scored one success. I ruled that she isn’t fully cured yet and her movement allowance is increased to 6” plus one d6 for fast moving.

Playing this mission was great. I felt pretty safe most of the time and after I left the diner I thought this wouldn’t be much of a batrep. Suddenly my story was taken over by Hollywood. I still can’t believe, that everything happened because of random die rolls, but it did. The timing was just perfect, although I really would have liked to loot the rogue National Guardsmen. Next time.

Don’t let the horde catch you.

Whiteface

The moon ain’t gonna rise in the sky… (Part I)

Day 21 - Late evening

Cast: Mr. Whiteface, Mrs. Whiteface (OOF), Dotty Whiteface and Lynn

Objective: Discover

Area: suburban Whiteville

Special: still Day 21, late evening with a LOS of only 18”

It’s a beautiful, warm summer evening in the southern US. Nothing disturbs the peaceful silence outside. No traffic noises, no church bells or even sirens can be heard. The girl – Lynn - has been observing the area through the sun-blinds for more than two hours now. Without saying a word.

You may not see it on her face, but the sound coming from the inside of the trailer is wearing her down. A long moan, not loud, but with a hollow, unearthly voice. Hushed words behind a closed bathroom door and the soft sobbing of a little girl having run out of tears many hours ago.

Lynn glances over her shoulder at the door of the bathroom. This wasn’t going to end well. She knew the signs.

Setup: It’s the same 4’ x 4’ setup as in my previous batrep The sun ain't gonna shine anymore. All zombies have been removed from the table and the little group of survivors is still hiding in a sun bleached trailer in section nine. The is one PEF in section two, inside the diner, another one behind the Humvee, in section four and a third PEF in the supermarket in section 6.

Turn 1:

(6 / 3) Only the PEFs activate. The PEFs move.

Turn 2:

(4 / 4) All are cancelled.

Turn 3:

(4 / 3) All are active, Team Whiteface activates first.

Team Whiteface activates and Mrs. Whiteface rolls a d6 to check for “Harry, are you OK?”. As a Rep 3 Survivor she needs a 6. Unfortunately it’s just a 4. Not enough to survive in a desirable condition. Her husband opens the door. Without talking everything is understood and Lynn calls for Dotty to join her in the living room and takes the little girl in her arms.

After a short moment a single shot breaks the painful silence.

The PEFs move closer toward the white pick-up in the trailer park.

The single shot doesn’t create any zeds.

Turn 4:

(4 / 2) All are active, Team Whiteface acts first.

“Hush, I think I’ve heard something!”

Team Whiteface moves to the window to get a better LOS to the PEFs. The first PEF (REP 5) turns out to be a false alarm.

“Prob’ly just a cat.” Whiteface says under his breath.

The second PEF (Rep 3) is a false alarm as well.

“These days it’s never just ‘a cat’...” Lynn whispers without looking at him “and by the way I really, really hate cats.”

The third PEF (Rep 2) exits the supermarket and moves until it is only 18” away and therefore in LOS. It resolves to be the third false alarm. Being on the bright side of life, eh?

 

Turn 5:

(6 / 4) Team Whiteface doesn’t activate and there isn’t anyone else to play. I do roll for activation, because it is possible to have a random occurrence by rolling a double six.

Turn 6:

(6 / 4) Team Whiteface isn’t in the mood to activate. They still continue to observe the area.

Turn 7:

(4 / 5) Team Whiteface activates.

Mr. Whiteface grabs his sports bag, his BA Pistol and Dotty, who’s still staring at the bathroom door. Lynn puts on her baseball cap, grabs her new assault rifle and follows them outside. All move to another trailer, home of Darlene and Billy, as a colourful sign next to the door announces.

Turn 8:

(5 / 2) Hesitating. Listening. Breathing. No one activates.

Turn 9:

(1 / 2) Team Whiteface activates.

They enter the other trailer to find Darlene and Billy in full zombie mode. Having expected trouble Team Whiteface wins the zombie surprise test.

Whiteface fires two shots with his BAP at Billy and knocks him down.

Lynn fires a single shot with her assault rifle, but misses. Despite of having the RUNT attribute she kills Darlene in the ensuing close combat.

Three shots draw the attention of granny zed from the nearby supermarket.

Turn 10:

(4 / 3) All are active, Team Whiteface acts first.

Whiteface walks up to the knocked down Billy finishes him.

Granny Zed shuffles closer.

No new zombies are created.

Turn 11:

(2 / 3) All are active, but Granny moves first.

The elder zombie lady walks enters the trailer park.

Whiteface activates and exits the mobile home. He charges the zombie and kills her.

 

Turn 12:

(6 / 4) All are inactive. No one to play.

Turn 13:

(1 / 5) Team Whiteface activates.

Whiteface walks back into the trailer while absently removing blood from his large BA Pistol.

Turn 14:

(5 / 2) All are inactive. No one to play.

Turn 15:

(6 / 2) All are inactive. No one to play.

Turn 16:

(4 / 2) Team Whiteface activates.

Lynn and Whiteface take their time to investigate this mobile home. Lynn finds a .45 BA Pistol and Whiteface puts a smaller Pistol in his bag. He would have preferred something to eat, but you take what you can get.

Turn 17:

(2 / 4) Team Whiteface activates and leaves the trailer.

 

Turn 18:

(6 / 6) See, I told you! A random occurrence!

“Over there!” Lynn shouts and fires a single bullet through the sun-blinds of the third trailer, because she thought she saw some moving shadows. Dangerous shadows.

This shot creates one zombie.

“Calm down, Lynn, there’s nothing to be afraid of. It’s just shadows.”

Turn 19:

(2 / 3) All activate, the newly created zombie acts first.

He shambles closer between the trailers.

Whiteface puts away his large revolver and prepares his assault rifle. Lynn fires a single shot at the zed. A well placed bullet kills the zombie.

This shot doesn’t attract any zombies.

Turn 20:

(3 / 4) Team Whiteface activates and enters the last trailer. They find two civilians inside. A girl…boy…well, who knows what may be hidden under that haircut…with a SPAS-12 (Rep 3 civilian) and a woman with an assault rifle. Whiteface isn’t sure what irritates him more: the barrel of her AK following every movement of his head or the Eagle, Globe and Anchor on her shirt. (Rep 5 civilian).

He loses the NPC Interaction by minus two successes and has a serious run in. I ignored the part about “plotting revenge” for this time, but it was pretty obvious that she wasn’t in the mood for small talk. Maybe Lynn shouldn’t have shot a bullet into their home?

The woman orders Team Whiteface to leave her mobile home and no, they can’t have any of the MRE packs piled up in the kitchen. Whiteface hesitates, but eventually concludes that the odds aren’t in his favour.

They would have been a great addition to Team Whiteface.

Turn 21:

(3 / 2) Team Whiteface activates and leaves the trailer.

 

Turn 22:

(5 / 1) All are inactive and scanning the surrounding.

“Just shadows, eh?”

"Oh, shut up, Lynn..."

Turn 23:

(6 / 1) All are inactive while making some new plans.

Turn 24:

(5 / 6) All are inactive. There is a hushed voice coming from the trailer:

“If those bozos outside aren’t gone in ten seconds I’ll kill them…”

Comment: I am not adding an activation dice for the civilians, because they won’t do anything but barricade themselves in the trailer.

Turn 25:

(4 / 5) Team Whiteface is active.

They fast move across the road and enter the super market. This building is occupied by a single zombie, but win the zombie surprise test. Both fire single shots and Lynn kills their target. Whiteface loots a combat knife from the corpse and puts it into his sports bag. The knife, not the corpse.

Two shots generate two zombies.

 

Turn 26:

(4 / 1) All are active.

Team Whiteface leaves the store to fire at the new zombies. Both fire single shots and miss.

The zombies move closer.

No new zeds are created.

Turn 27:

(2 / 6) Only Team Whiteface is active and both charge one zed, with Whiteface scoring another zombie kill. It’s something personal.

 

Turn 28:

(1 / 1) All are inactive.

Turn 29:

(2 / 4) All are active, the zombie acts first.

The shuffler moves closer.

Team Whiteface activates and charges the lone zombie. They kill him violently.

Turn 30:

(6 / 5) All are inactive to catch their breath.

Turn 31:

(4 / 6) Team Whiteface is active and walks to the diner.

 

Turn 32:

(3 / 1) Team Whiteface is active again and enters the diner. The building isn’t occupied.

 

Turn 33:

(3 / 1) Team Whiteface is active. There isn’t anything to eat, but Whiteface finds a machine pistol and some ammunition in the microwave oven.

Turn 34:

(4 / 6) Team Whiteface is active. The exit the diner and move towards the brown apartment block. They stop at the lawn where the Whiteface’s had met the rogue National Guard soldiers some hours before.

 

Turn 35:

(2 / 6) Team Whiteface activates and moves closer to the brown apartment building.

 

Turn 36:

(3 / 2) Team Whiteface activates and enters the ground floor.

The camera lingers outside for some time, slowly beginning to zoom out until a sudden black screen ends Part I.

Final comment (Part I): This is the last building (two floors) to check and this has been a very sedate scenario so far. The civilians in the trailer don’t cause any trouble and there isn’t a single zombie on the board. What can probably go wrong?

I guess you know the answer.

Check in tomorrow to see if you are right.

Whiteface

The sun ain’t gonna shine anymore…

Day 21

Cast: The Whiteface Family

Objective: Discover

Area: suburban Whiteville

It had been rather quiet for the last two days. It seemed there weren’t any soldiers around anymore. The Whitefaces had seen the National Guard being replaced by the US Army several days before, but even these well trained and heavily equipped soldiers weren’t able to control the situation. Mr. Whiteface didn’t believe in the rumour about a cure having been developed, so they had left Camp Camelot and tried to find a better location to hide. Now they have been walking down the Highway along those endless lines of cars since the early morning without seeing a living human being.

Setup: It’s my standard 4’ x 4’ setup. There is a big four lane highway running through sections one, four and seven. The two lanes leaving Whiteville are crowded with abandoned vehicles. Three PEFs have been placed on the board. One (Rep 1) in section five and two (Rep 1 + 2) in section two on the parking lot in front of the diner. The Whitefaces start on the highway in section seven.

The following buildings are on the board:

- a diner in section 2

- a supermarket in section 6

- an apartment block in section 8

- a small trailer park (3) in section 9

Comment: As mentioned before my PC is currently OOF. I had intended to upload some pictures of my december battlefield layout from my wife's PC, but I couldn't connect it to the camera. My second possibility was to upload some pictures from my office PC which has a card slot. It wasn't a big surprise, that these card slots are deactivated. So for this batrep you have to live without pictures. Shame, as I really liked the terrain. I hope to add some pictures for the next batrep (same layout).
Comment (Edit): I have added five pictures now.

Turn 1:

(4 / 1) All are active, the Whitefaces move first.

The family moves forward between the lines of cars and stop next to a blue Subaru.

All PEFs are active, but stay where they are.

Turn 2:

(4 / 6) Only the Whitefaces activate.

They move forward to take a look at a red Ford Mustang, taking them into LOS of the PEF in section five. It turns out to be a group of three shuffling undead.

The Whitefaces win the Encounter Awareness test with 2 successes and are allowed an In Sight test although they are active. Mr. Whiteface snap fires one shot and misses, while Mrs. Whiteface – as a trained survivor – holds her fire.

No new zeds are created.

Turn 3:

(5 / 4) Only the zombies activate. All three zeds shuffle closer.

Turn 4:

(4 / 6) The Whitefaces activate as a group, the zombies stop and stare.

Dotty watches her parents switch their assault rifles to burst fire mode and firing at the zeds. Mr. Whiteface scores two OD results on one zombie, but misses his second target. Mrs. Whiteface hits twice and scores an OD result on a zombie girl, but misses the lucky zombie mechanic too. This bugger is too damn fast!

Six shots fired create one undead lady of negotiable virtue further along the highway.

Turn 5:

(3 / 1) All are active, Whiteface family goes first.

Mr. Whiteface fires a single shot at the lady of the night, but misses. His missus fires another burst at the mechanic, hitting him twice and killing him. The zombie on the highway moves closer.

The Rep 2 PEF moves from the parking lot in section two on to the lawn in section five into LOS. It’s an equal sized (a little bit unfair because of Dotty being no real fighting character) group of hostile National Guard soldiers (Rep 4, 3 and 3). I roll minus 3 successes for the Encounter Awareness test and decide to use Mr. Whiteface’s LUCKY attribute. Minus one success. Not good.

The hostile NG roll for In Sight:

NG #1 snap fires a single shot at Mr. Whiteface, but only manages to shatter a window of the red Mustang. If he hadn’t been snap firing…

NG #2 scans the area for more targets.

NG #3 fires a burst, but misses Mr. W. due to him being in cover and Mrs. W. because she is the second target and in cover.

The Whitefaces choose a result from the Received Fire test (see, I remembered!):

Mr. Whiteface snap fires a burst (he is still a civilian) at NG #1, but misses every time. Twice because of snap firing.

Mrs. Whiteface fires a burst a NG #1, scores a result of OOF, that is turned into a result of Stunned because he’s protected.

NG #2 and NG #3 roll check for Received Fire and both score a duck back. One moves behind tree to his right, the other moves forward to hide behind an abandoned Army Humvee.

This turn isn’t over yet. The second PEF (Rep 1) from section two moves from the parking lot to the lawn in section five as well, but with a little bit of luck turns out to be a false alarm.

Oh, 14 shots fired generate seven new zombies. It’s time for a plan. A good plan!

Turn 6:

(2 / 2 / 6) All are inactive. Team Whiteface and Zeds cancel each other.

Turn 7:

(5 / 4 / 6) Only the zombies activate. Btw, the activation dice read: (Whitefaces / Zombies / Other Humans).

They move. Three charge NG #2, two charge Mr. & Mrs. Whiteface.

Mr. Whiteface decides to burst fire & melee and kills his assailant.

Mrs. Whiteface decides to do the same and knocks down her personal undead.

NG#2 checks for Being Charged and retires.

Six shots fired create zero zeds.

Turn 8:

(6 / 5 / 4) Only NG #1 is able to activate. Before you ask: as a side effect of the duck back in turn five NG #3 is out of range for group activation. Not by much, but he is. And NG #2 is retiring. So it’s only NG #1 recovering from stun this turn.

Turn 9:

(5 / 5 / 3) Only the National Guard is active.

NG #3 moves toward his team leader. Both want to fire at zombies.

NG #1 fires a burst at a mob of zeds and knocks down one zombie.

NG #3 fires a burst at a zombie waitress from the diner behind them and kills her.

NG #2 being the smart one, retires with a fast move. He jumps over the hedge onto the parking lot.

Six shots create three more zeds.

Turn 10:

(5 / 6 / 5) All are inactive.

Turn 11:

(5 / 6 / 3) Only the National Guard activates. Just in case you forgot to count: this is the 6th inactive turn in a row for the Whiteface family. I would have moved out of this death trap between the cars if I could.

But I can’t! So both National Guard soldiers continue to fire bursts at the zombie mob in front of them. They score an impressive result of six misses.

The third soldier, NG #2 leaves the table. He doesn’t notice the single zombie created on the parking lot because of six shots having been fired this turn.

Turn 12:

(5 / 6 / 5) All are inactive.

Turn 13:

(5 / 4 / 2) The horde activates first, followed by the National Guard. The Whiteface family is still frozen in terror (8th turn of inactivity).

A lot of zombies move. One charges Dotty, three charge NG #3. Two zombies move into LOS of the Whiteface family triggering an In Sight test.

Both Whitefaces fire a burst at their fresh (well, not that fresh, at least not by the smell of them) targets killing one and knocking down the other.

Dotty uses the Bleen rule from BDTZ to escape her charger.

The NG check for being charged successfully using a leader die from NG #1.

NG #1 melees a zombie and kills him with +5 successes.

NG #3 burst fires & melees: he knocks down one with a bullet a kills another in melee.

The National Guard team activates and wants to charge the small zombie mob.

NG #1 charges and kills one zombie with +4 successes in melee. This guy is evil.

NG #3 comes to the conclusion that charging may not be the best idea. He halts in place.

Nine shots fired create 6 new zeds. The current status is: 16 zombies on the board, with two of them being knocked down.

Turn 14:

(5 / 4 / 3) Zeds first, followed by National Guard. Yes, 9th turn of inactivity for the family.

The Whitefaces are being charged by three zombies. Two for Mr. W. and one for Mrs. W. Both decide to fire a burst and melee, with Mr. Whiteface killing one of his decaying opponents with a well placed bullet. The other two zombies get killed in melee.

The soldiers are charged by one zombie each. NG #1 accepts the charge and kills the zed, NG #3 decides it’s time to retire.

National Guardian #1 is still in a fighting mood. He activates, charges another zombie and kills the foul creature.

Six shots fired create two more zeds for a total of thirteen zeds on the table.

Turn 15:

(6 / 4 / 5) Guess what, only the zeds activate.

One brain eater charges Mrs. W., two charge Mr. W. and five charge NG #1.

Both Whitefaces choose to burst fire and melee and both are able to knock down one zombie. Mr. Whitefaces melees his second target for a result of evenly matched. Did I mention that he did already spend his LUCKY attribute for this scenario?

NG #1 scores no success on the Being Charged test and finally decides to strategically relocate, i.e., retire.

Six shots generate four more zombies.

Turn 16:

(3 / 4 / 1) All activate. Yes, really, after ten turns of inactivity the Whiteface will move. Make that ‘may move’, after all the zombies activate before them. The retiring troopers activate last.

One zombie charges Mrs. Whiteface, Mr. Whiteface continues his fight and NG #1 is attacked by two zombies.

NG # 1 melees both zeds and is put out of fight. Being protected this changes to a result of stunned.

Mr. Whiteface kills his opponent in melee, while Mrs. Whiteface wants to single shoot & melee her assailant. She misses, goes into close combat and runs out of luck. This ugly undead creep scored a result of OOF against the missus. Gnah!

Mr. Whiteface howls in furious rage, activates and charges his wife’s attacker.

NG #1 activates to recover from stun…right in front of a big zombie mob.

No new zeds are created, but with 15 zeds on the table there’s enough for everyone.

Turn 17:

(3 / 4 / 4) Only the Whitefaces activate. Zeds and National Guard cancel each other.

Mr. Whiteface retrieves his wounded wife and leaves the highway toward the humvee.

Turn 18:

(3 / 1 / 1) Again only Mr. Whiteface activates and everyone else is cancelled.

He carries his wife further down the small road, closely followed by little Dotty.

Turn 19:

(2 / 2 / 2) All are cancelled.

Turn 20:

(4 / 6 / 1) Mr. Whiteface activates first, followed by the retiring National Guard. This luck is desperately needed.

The Whitefaces move towards the small trailer park, out of sight of the still inactive zombie horde on the highway. Every other zombie has turned his attention on the soldiers.

NG #1 leaves the melee mob and fast moves away, following NG #3 who fast moves towards the outer corner of section three.

Turn 21:

(6 / 5 / 5) All are inactive.

Turn 22:

(4 / 4 / 4) All are cancelled.

Turn 23:

(6 / 4 / 4) All are inactive.

Turn 24:

(4 / 4 / 4) All are cancelled.

Turn 25:

(4 / 1 / 6) Whitefaces activate first, followed by the zombies.

Mr. Whiteface carries his wife over to the trailer’s door.

Some zeds follow the National Guard, some more move randomly around the table.

Turn 26:

(2 / 6 / 4) Whitefaces activate first, this time followed by the soldiers.

The family enters a trailer only to discover a female survivor (Rep 4) with a submachine gun pointed at them. Mr. Whiteface puts his wife down on the floor and stares at the armed woman. With despair in his voice he says

“Please help, my wife has been hurt…”

The stranger glances down at Mrs. Whiteface, then at little Dotty and finally back at Mr. Whiteface. With a short nod she orders them to stay with her and to close the door.

All roll on the NPC Interaction table and Mr. Whitefaces receives a positive result with +2 successes. With a final result of 8 he is able to recruit this survivor. Say hello to Lynn.

The soldiers activate and leave the table.

Comment: With no targets in LOS and me not being in the mood to leave the trailer it was time for a decision. To leave the table would take the Whitefaces about two activations, so I ruled that after two activations hiding in the trailer and without being detected by a wandering zed I would end this scenario. Some hordes would follow in the direction of the National Guards, other would leave the board in the hours to come. Still, I had to wait for this two activations.

Turn 27:

(4 / 2) All are active.

Team Whiteface hides, while the zombie shuffle around.

Turn 28:

(3 / 1) All are active again and after some more hiding and shuffling this scenario is over.

Final Comment: Wow, what a depressing game…in a good way. There was so much activity in my head cinema when this scenario ended. I just knew that the rogue National Guard soldiers had been looking for Lynn, but given the opportunity they didn’t hesitate a second to raid other survivors. What an ironic twist of fate. Eleven days before I had depended so much on the support of friendly National Guard soldiers, but these guys were pure evil. If I just had been able to retreat from my disadvantageous position. If…that’s the point I guess, “if” and zombie hunting get you Obviously Dead or at least Obviously Zed.

There is no doubt that this mission was an epic fail, but Mr. Whiteface’s Reputation stayed the same and he got promoted from a civilian to a survivor. His new team member Lynn, who is a 4 Survivor too, received the Runt attribute, because I hadn’t given her an attribute when I met her.

Concerning the fate of Mrs. Whiteface I decided to wait until the evening of Day 21. Yes, exactly, I will roll on the “Harry, are you OK?” table in the first turns of my next scenario. Everything is still possible.

Stay tuned for the next broadcast from the trailer park.

Whiteface