My First Time as an Editor in Chief!

damn!

that sounds like a hell of a game session

well done

Alright. Week Two!

So, Blackout and Exclusive escaped the zombie filled base. The players debated trying to clear the base and using as their base of operations, but a well timed gas leak convinced them that the base was beyond repair. So, they left.

I did a bit of a time jump here so I could introduce them to their new team member. Two weeks had gone by and the two of them were starting to run out of food and bullets. Not only that, but their vehicle had been completely trashed by a Super Z. As they were trying to make hasty repairs, they heard a Semi approaching. The two opted to hide under their truck as the Semi came to a stop.

They heard a group of people disembark from the semi. Apparently the people were following a distress beacon… which was now coming from under the truck. Blackout and Exclusive were ordered out from under the truck by the group’s leader. The two of them came out ready to fight but they discovered a friendly face trying to keep them calm.

The man was named Carl Hanks. When Blackout introduced herself, he immediately recognized her as a hero… though, he seemed more knowledgeable about the previous Blackout than her. The man explained that they were tracking a distress beacon. That’s when my newest player introduced himself. He was the once sidekick cybernetic boy named Byte. He told Blackout that she was producing a distress call.

That’s when Blackout realized that some of the stuff she took off the old tech hero from the previous game must have activated and one of them must have been a distress call. Byte helped her turn it off and Carl asked if they needed a ride. They asked why he was so helpful and Carl explained that he was once part of the Guardian League. He was the Alpha known as Symbious.

He used to have a symbiotic relationship with his suit which he found when he was deep sea diving in the Navy. When Z-Day hit, he was one of the first infected. However, his suit was the only thing that got infected. It spat him out, told him to run, and he escaped… yet somewhere, there is a zombified suit hunting for him.

Anyways, Blackout and Exclusive opt for a ride to the nearest enclave.

Another time jump – two months. Blackout and Exclusive actually join up with Carl Hanks’ group. Carl doesn’t have any super powers anymore but he does have some knowledge where some hero’s secret hideouts are. So, they raid super hide outs, find weapons and materials, and then supply enclaves.

On their way to deliver a package, they get a distress call from an isolationist group. It’s short but it sounds like the group is in trouble. Carl decides they should check it out. The isolationist group is a band of twenty people who follow the former hero Banshee. Banshee was mostly a rocker who could scream at incredibly deadly volume, but he side lined as a hero to help his career prior to Z-Day. The group worries that Banshee might have turned into a Super Z but they decide it is worth the risk to help a group in need.

Blackout, Exclusive, and Byte leave the group to investigate the enclave. It’s in an old diner surrounded by makeshift walls. The gates are all locked, but they are able to scale the fence. Inside they find… nobody. No zombies. No bodies. It looks like the people were living in filth. They also find manacles behind the bar. Apparently, someone didn’t want the bartender to escape… though, again, no bodies.

They make their way to the back of the diner and hear music coming from the manager’s office. When they open it, they find it has been turned into a dressing room. Where the enclave is gross and poor, this is extravagant. And sitting in the seat in Banshee himself – dolled up for a show. He also is covered in blood. He explains that the group must have left before the show. He then dismisses the group cause he ‘needs to get ready’.

The group try to talk to the hero but he seems to far gone with trying to prepare for the ‘show’. He asks them to get him a drink, and the group actually opts to do so because it gives them time to talk. When they get the drink, they decide they need to interrogate him on where the blood came from. That’s when they hear Banshee’s voice coming from speakers. Speakers outside the walls of the Diner.

“Darlings, the show is ready to go on!”

And suddenly an explosion occurs. The gates explode outward and David Bowie begins to play loudly. Clearly, Banshee is trying to bring in an audience of undead! As the group stumbles out of the diner, the garage behind the diner begins to open. Suddenly, zombies pour out of it. They spot the heroes and begin slowly moving towards them. SLOWLY. Way too slowly. The heroes realize the zombies are chained up and are dragging something behind them.

Suddenly they realize that the zombies are dragging a stage out of the garage. Pyrotechniques begin and suddenly Banshee appears on the stage! Tied up to the stage our four Bystanders. Banshee forces one of them to sit at the drum set. Another to stand near the keyboard. Another is forced to hold a guitar and another holds a keytar. Then the show begins! Banshee is crazed as zombies poor in towards the stage! He thinks that he’s performing for a sold out show!

The heroes try to stop the show by shutting off the power but Banshee kills one of the Bystanders as a warning. So the heroes opt to get on stage and fight the former hero! Blackout tries to use her shadow powers against the man but realizes that the heavy stage lights is completely negating her powers! Exclusive doesn’t have a lot of room on the stage to use his hyper speed! Byte does his best to shut down the music that’s attracting the zombies but to no avail! So a close quarter combat occurs.

After a long fight, Banshee decides he wasn’t going to die by these amateurs’ hands! So he stage dives into the zombies below to crowd surf! He sings as the zombies rip him apart.

The zombies are briefly distracted but they begin to swarm the stage. The group frees the bystanders and begin to climb ontop of the garage. Then they hop over to the diner’s roof. As they debate how to get over the fence and away from the giant crowd of zombies below, one of the bystanders screams behind them. They turn in time to see her clutching her torn out throat. On the edge of the diner is now the Super Z Banshee. He looks like he’s in bad shape, but the heroes aren’t doing so hot either.

They fight the Super Z Banshee for a second time and finally kill him with a well placed headshot. Then they use some nearby wires to climb out of the enclave and to the streets. They all take off with the remaining bystanders and make it back to the truck.

They find out that Banshee had been slowly starving the group since day one. When the group decided to fight back, he killed most of them and then decided that he wanted to go out with a ‘bang’.

The group hops back into the Semi and they drive off to the nearest enclave in order to drop off their supplies and the remaining survivors from the isolationist group. Carl turns on the radio as they drive, puts on a CD, and David Bowie begins to sing.

Exclusive opts to reach out, eject the CD, and then toss it out the window.

And that was it!

Fun times!

Keep ’em coming! Loving your arc so far

I second that!

Thank you for sharing!

And remember – it’s your ame – there are no messups, only “features”.

Enjoy!

Here is the second game featuring me in the Editor in Chief Chair!

http://www.fandible.com/rotted-capes-ep … er-zs-1-2/

Sam in our comment section wrote this:

(This turned into a very long answer to a very short question but seeing everyone else comments made me want to post my answer as well)

When Alya Najar was a kid she wanted to grow up to be a superhero; unfortunately the only power she ever seemed to have was to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

When she was 6 that meant that she got blamed when her brother accidentally broke the TV.

When she was 12 that meant that she was the one holding the bag when her friends got caught shoplifting.

When she was 19 that meant that she was in the army recruitment office when the apocalypse started.

When she was 24 that meant that she had just stepped into the elevator with a few other soldiers when the Patrition arrived and started slaughtering people.

The ground shook below them and there was screaming and gunfire above them. There was not a man nor woman in that elevator who was prepared for the juggernaut that would doubtlessly rain down death and destruction upon them. A few soldiers kept their guns trained on the ceiling in some futile hope to defend themselves, more just stood mortified at the thought of being bitten and turned. One soldier was even eyeing the barrel of their gun, presumably to get it over with.

Alya on the other hand, did the only things she could; she closed her eyes and cursed her terrible, horrid luck. She took a deep breath and felt a surge go through her. She was weightless and timeless for a moment then it all came crashing down. There was a flash and the ground shifted under her. The elevator dropped to the ground, but only a few feet, landing in a thud on soft dirt ground. There was silence broken by a soft “Ding” of the doors opening. It was night out now. Looking out the door they could see the base as a spec in the distance, with smoke rising from fires that had long since burned themselves out.

In the stunned confusion of the soldiers all Alya could think that was after all these years she really should have known; the only power she ever had was to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I added more to it with THIS (which is now canon) :

Alya Najar pressed herself against the corner of the elevator, her arms wrapped around her knees. It was cold in the elevator – the door was open and she didn’t know how far they were up in the air. At one point, they had been flown through a minor rain storm which drenched the inside of the elevator and the occupants huddled inside.

The elevator had started with six people – including herself. Five soldiers who at first aimed their rifles up towards the ceiling as the elevator grew higher and higher. In the last two hours of the flight, that number had dropped. One soldier had opted to press the muzzle of his pistol against the side of his head and pull the trigger – too bad a slight jostle from wind screwed up his aim and it didn’t kill him. Alya had tried her best to stop the bleeding, and when that didn’t matter, she just tried to be there for the boy wailing for his mother. That had been a horrible ten minutes – one of the soldiers opting to rid himself of the noise and fear by jumping from the open doorway.

When the boy finally succumbed to his head wound, the remaining three soldiers pushed his body out of the elevator and Alya just found her corner. The soldiers each found their own corner. And they all sat there, awaiting their death.

The Patrician had devoured the world. He had taken on the Guardian League and turned them into something twisted and… wrong. Alya had the worst luck of being stuck away from her family when the End came. She had followed a friend to a recruitment drive for the army and from there, she had been conscripted. Field Tech – whatever that meant. She hadn’t had to leave the base since they were brought there – not with the Metas that had been leashed by the General.

Alya felt a twinge of guilt try to knot its way into her stomach.

Alya never liked how they treated the Metas. She remembered seeing Blackout once when Alya had been tasked with reinforcing the mesh wiring in front of the lights in the woman’s cell. The girl looked… well, she looked like someone Alya would have gone to the mall with and complained about boys too. She looked like someone she would have gotten along with before Z-Day. Or maybe she did before the General locked her away. The girl was… broken. Counting. Steps, breaths, heartbeats. She had been stuck in the cell for god knows how long with only the buzzing of the lights and the deep bright…

And Alya had gone along with it because at least she could hide away from the monsters above ground. Away from the dead, away from the death, and away from the Patrician.

Alya wasn’t a bad person. She knew this. But she also knew she deserved to be here in this elevator for what she ignored in that base.

The elevator’s ceiling squealed as a hand punched through it. Strong. Powerful. Rotted. Decayed. Fingers coiled around the metal above them before giving a hard yank, ripping the elevator open as if it was the top of a sardine can. Alya heard screaming – and then realized it was coming from her. The soldiers were standing at their feet, rifles aimed as they fired through the newly created hole.

Alya used to have a poster of the Patrician – he had been her schoolgirl crush. She had fallen for his refined features and strong jawline the instance she saw him on the News fighting the Terror Twins when she was eight. She had secretly even written fanfiction about the two of them meeting, falling in love, and making passionate love on top of Century Tower in Arrant City .

This was not the man who was the star of her fanfiction. His skin was stretched taut over his cheeks, his teeth clicking in excitement as he stared down at the trapped occupants with cold, dead eyes. The bullets striking him did nothing – he didn’t even seem to notice them. Instead, he bore his gaze down through the hole, stripping away every hope and dream that Alya had that maybe there was still good in the man.

Alya had always been a magnet for bad luck. If there was going to be a bone broken on the playground, it would be her’s. If a car was going to run out of gas or a person was going to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, it was always, always, ALWAYS her. Alya was a creature that attracted bad luck. She was a magnet and she attracted it like bees to pollen. And when the Patrician dropped the elevator and it came crashing down on some random building, Alya body felt like it was swarming with every possible bad outcome in the entire city. Every stray bullet wanted to go to her. Every missed zombie yearned to sneak up on her. Every crumbling infrastructure wanted to bury her alive…

The Patrician crashed down in front of the elevator door.

And then Alya didn’t feel unlucky anymore. Her fear – her soul crushing fear of death – suddenly pushed all that bad luck away. Every future mistake, every karmic realignment was off her shoulders. And she… she willed it towards the Super Z in front of her.

The Patrician opened his mouth – maybe to gloat, maybe to monologue – but he never got to start nor finish it. Instead, the Patrician just had what the world would call ‘bad luck’. The moment when he was stepping towards the elevator with his lips parting to speak, bad luck struck at that infinitesimal moment when his weight wasn’t one hundred percent ‘locked’. The nearby pigeon coup hadn’t been disturbed in years, and with the sudden appearance of a living monster, the birds all opted to find new living arrangements. A flock of pigeons took off and slammed into the side of the Patrician at possibly the only millisecond where it would have altered his step. He stumbled to the side, smashing a generator off the side of the building. And as he turned back towards the cowering occupants of the elevator, he only had time to utter the very beginning of her threat when suddenly a cord snapped around his ankle.

A cord that had probably been connected to the generator that was plummeting to the ground currently.

The Patrician was strong – hell, probably the strongest – but even he could be surprised. One minute he was standing there, ready to bath in their blood, and the next – he was crying out in surprise as he was dragged over the ledge, plummeting down to the street below.

The soldiers and Ayla stared in confused silence for a second before one reached out, grabbed her shoulder, and screamed for everyone to run.

This was the moment Ayla would remember when people would ask her what her origin story was. This was the moment she realized she actually had powers. This was the moment where Ayla was reborn as Miss Hap.

I was able to run a game for my group once more. Sadly, it didn’t go as well as the other games.

The first thing I needed to do is introduce a new character since we had a new player. The PCs ended up finding ‘New Ironsides’, a former boxer turned mob enforcer when it was revealed he could turn his skin into metal. They found him on the road, in front of a wreck. It wasn’t the most amazing introduction but I brought him in and then did a time jump by a month or two.

The group of heroes were travelling a crossed the Rockies in Idaho. Carl Hanks, former member of the Guardian League, was driving the semi while Exclusive sat shotgun, trying to navigate via a road map. Byte was in the back working on repairing weapons while Blackout sat in the perch, keeping an eye out for any signs of Super Zs. New Ironsides (or Tony, as I preferred to be called) just slept in the back of the trailer trying to sleep.

Carl Hanks was mid-argument with Exclusive as he rounded a turn on a mountain road when he spotted two people on horseback slowly dragging someone on a sleigh. The people waved down the truck to for help. The group hopped out of the semi and approached the two figures… who ended up being barely over eighteen years old. Apparently, the three of them were scavenging for supplies at an old water park in the valley when one of their people fell into one of the disgusting pools. They fished him out but he swallowed a lot of bad water and was pretty sick.

Carl Hanks had Exclusive look over the kid and Exclusive (with his one point in Medicine) was able to figure out he might have swallowed some harmful materials and was suffering from a mild poisoning. Carl Hanks offered to drive the three of them back to their village. One of the riders and the sick person took them up on the offer while the other rider said he’d followed behind on the horses.

Once the patient was loaded up, Carl Hanks was navigated to what looked to be an old summer camp called ‘Camp Crystal Peak’. There they were brought to meet the ‘Elder’ called Kora. Kora ended up being a 22 year old former camp councilor. As I described her, she looked to be a perfect victim in a camp slasher film. Apparently, two years ago when Z-day hit, a lot of the adults abandoned their posts. Those that stayed ended up dying along the way leaving the teenage camp counselors to watch over the 50 children that were at the camp during the time. At this point, they were down to 35 children, 8 camp counselors, and 5 teenagers that have aged up enough to be given responsibilities.

Pretty much, the ‘adults’ were hardly adults and they were out numbered by children. However, for the last two years, they made it work. Carl Hanks was inspired by the former councilors and asked if they needed any supplies. Kora stated they did need medical supplies now that one of her people were sick. She brought up that there was a vet clinic. It was too far by horse back but she bet they could make it down to it and back before sun fall. Carl Hanks agreed they’d head out in the morning.

That night, Blackout and Carl talked about his time in the Guardian League. He admitted he hated not being able to fight like he used to and how much he missed his Symbios suit. The others opted to spend their time watching old VHS tapes of camp slasher movies.

In the morning they made it down the mountain to the vet. The vet was a pretty standard adventure. A few zombies ambushes but nothing too much. They found a decent hault and brought it back. When they returned back to the camp, they were greeted with an impromptu celebration by the kids. During the festivities, Exclusive was asked to head out to check in on the sick patient.

As Exclusive was putting in the IV, the guy started to seize before dying. The guy’s girlfriend started weeping when the boy’s eyes open. Suddenly, his necked stretched out several feet and sunk its mouth into the girl’s neck. The dead boy was strapped to the table so at first he couldn’t move but then his legs and arms stretched out until they touched the floor. The creature then began spider walking as new tendrils erupted from its body to attack Exclusive.

The others heard the fighting and came in. After a short battle, the creature was killed but not before Carl Hanks came into the room. The dying creature spotted Carl and hissed ‘CARL HANKS! WE FOUND YOU’. And then it died.

Carl Hanks was freaked out. He admitted that while he was Symbios, he had an ability he never used which allowed him to put a bit of Symbios into a person’s body to control them. The problem was that Symbios didn’t understand biological limitation so the person’s body would be sort of manhandled poorly which is why he never did it. However, Carl Hanks believed that Z-Infected Symbios was sending out little bits of itself to look for him.

He also said it had a limited telepathic range. Most likely, the node that was controlling this bit of Symbios was nearby. The real Symbios wouldn’t know that Carl Hanks was at this summer camp until it came into contact with the node. This sent the PCs scrambling in trying to figure out where the node was.

They finally realized it was probably at the old water park that boy got sick at. They group packed up and headed out to destroy the node before Symbios could ‘download’ the information from it. As they drove, they asked Carl why Symbios was after him. He brought up that he was the first person Symbios ever linked too thus it required him or someone with his DNA in order to survive. Symbios could survive for a little while using ‘temporary’ hosts, but until it had him, it would be slowly dying the entire time.

As the group got to the water park, Carl asked Exclusive to stay behind for a moment. Carl told him to make sure the Node didn’t connect to Black Out. Exclusive kept prodding until Carl Hanks revealed that he had a very short affair with the original Black Out about 20 years ago before she asked him to never contact her again. Seeing that Black Out junior was 20, he was worried that she might share his DNA. Exclusive promised him not to tell Black Out and to keep her safe.

The crew (after a comedy of errors) finally snuck through the water park and found a ‘Node’. It was a creature built of decayed flesh from several zombies. They fought it, it took awhile, and it finally died.

The crew returned to the summer camp. Kora was very happy to hear that the Symbios wasn’t going to come to the camp looking for Carl Hanks. She also then said that in the morning, they need to leave since apparently Carl was a ‘wanted man’ by a Super Z. They agreed.

I did a short time jump into the future. Symbios – wearing a heavily decaying body – found the destroyed node at the water park. He began humming until a slither of the node squirmed to life. It snaked its way into the creature’s body. Symbios shivered before muttering, “They nearly destroyed everything. But you saved a memory… Carl Hanks… has a daughter?”

So that was the final adventure.

The problem I really ran into is… too many debuffs. I think it was just a bad design by me. I gave the creature ‘Poison’. I also gave him a weakness to Fire. So, people were getting stamina damage every couple demanding actions and the fire was doing damage every demanding action so… just a lot of math. In the end, my players didn’t seem to enjoy the fight with the Symbios node. Again, they loved the setting but I think they’re getting more and more frustrated with the rules.

I’m sort of worried because I’m going to be running Rotted Capes at a con in a few weeks (I’m basically running the first part of this adventure where the PCs are enslaved by the Government). Hopefully, I can make this run more smoother.