Zombies D20 Modern (Updated 8-12-05)

johndaw16

Explorer
Friday, September 29th

The laptop screen flickered faintly as its batteries slowly died. The fading electric light gave the abandoned Jeep's windshield an eerie glow. In the pulsing orange of the hazard lights the words College Creek could barely be read off a roadside sign.

This is what the Jeep's driver was reading before he abandoned it...

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Email sent on 9/15/2005 (approx. 7:30 PM)

Hi AJ,

Julie Stey, one of the members from this area has relayed some info to me on a possible case.

Apparently one of her friends has some "guests" that like to turn on a music box late at night in her 3 yr old daughter’s room. It scares the heck out of the little girl. They also make other audible noises throughout the house. I told Julie that instead of writing everything to me in IM, I would call her this evening to get all the details. I will let you know what I find out.

Take care,
Steve

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Email sent on 9/15/2005 (approx. 11:20 PM)

Hi AJ,

Update on the house...I just got off the phone with Julie, I believe this house bears looking into. Here is what I know:

Amanda (a single mom) and Susan (daughter) have been living in the house about 2 months. Almost immediately, Amanda noticed Susan would no longer sleep through the night and would come into her room saying she’s scared. There is an old fashioned music box melody that "plays" faithfully every night from 12 mid - 3am. There is no music box in the house. When Amanda or Susan is upset the music will get progressively louder. Julie says she has heard the music too. Unattended objects have a tendency to disappear or move on their own. There is a smell as if "an old person" is sometimes in Susan's room. Amanda’s seen the outline of a male in her bedroom. The garage door sometimes opens by itself. Lights go on and off in sequence by themselves. Apparently just a few nights ago Amanda told Julie that objects were flying around her room by themselves. Amanda’s cats will hiss at "things" that aren't there. And starting just this past week... Susan's voice is deeper at times; she is cruel and uses language not associated with a little 3 yr girl. One night Susan was being extremely difficult as most 3 yr olds can be at times but Amanda asked her why....Susan said "because I like to see you cry". This all definitely sounds like something we’d want to look into.

Some history on the house....built in the late 20's or early 30's. A man hung himself in the garage back in the 50's and an older woman died in what is now Susan's room. The previous owner's fled suddenly in the middle of the night according to the neighbors who now own the home. Currently Julie is trying to gather some more background.

Getting back to the “man” this is what Julie’s discovered in her research....according to those who knew him he wasn't a nice man. He was by all accounts one of those treat women like crap kind of guys, probably thought he was hot stuff or something. Amanda describes him as: James Dean or Billy Zane looking, not thin but not built, 28-32, 5'11"-6'1", very dark hair in a T-shirt and black or very dark blue pants probably jeans. That is at least the guise he’s chosen when he appears in front Amanda. Susan’s description is much simpler; “he’s simply the monster that lives in the garage”.

Julie is going to call Amanda and set up an initial visit. I probably won't talk to Amanda until we get over there....hopefully on a Monday so i can stay there till after midnight to hear the music. I will let you know as I gather more info.

Take care,
Steve

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Email sent on 9/20/2005

Hey AJ (this is a long one),

I received an emergency IM from Julie regarding Amanda and her daughter....things were really heating up, especially with Susan and the "music". Apparently Susan has been ill lately and the doctors have no idea why she is sick. She will run these very high temperature spikes that appear within minutes for no explanation, stay elevated for awhile and then dissipate just as rapidly. Luckily I was able to setup an initial this past Monday, combine what happened there with Susan’s illness and I’m starting to get worried. Here’s what happened…

I arrived at about 9pm. It is an older home as I said before...one level. The garage (where the man hung himself) is a detached unit that used to be a beauty salon.

Walking into the house you enter the living room....Amanda’s room is just to the left....Susan's room is the next door on the left just inside the combination Dining Room/Kitchen area. The laundry room is in an addition at the back of the house. A bathroom is shared between Amanda’s and Susan's room. As I walked into the house and met Amanda Susan emerged from Amanda’s room...she won't sleep in her own room and I can't blame her.

I introduced myself to Susan...she was shy at first but warmed up to me fairly quickly. I moved into the Dining Room/Kitchen and heard the "Music" for the first time. As soon as this started, Susan started "laughing"...not a little girl laugh but a sort of maniacal laughing with a deep tone. She was staring at us with her head tilted down and looking up at the same time and doing a ring around the rosy around her mom. The music and Susan’s behavior lasted a handle of seconds before they both stopped. Susan immediately began crying and was nearly hysterical with fright. This was about 9:15pm. I attempted to locate the source of the "music" which to me appeared to be coming from the vicinity of the refrigerator in the laundry room. I spent the next 15mins taking pictures.

I finished my picture taking and I went into Susan's room to place a VOX recorder. While in there... I felt a presence...something to do with under the house or outside of it. Then I went outside to check out the garage while Amanda and Susan stayed inside.

As I rounded the front of the house...I saw "him" go into the garage. He looked just like he was described to me before. I ran to catch up and rushed into the garage...nothing....I noted a ladder leading to a space above the garage. At 1010, I entered what used to be the old laundry room before the addition...nothing really eventful there. I then entered what used to the beauty shop....again nothing eventful there. Lastly, I climbed the ladder going upstairs...It was freezing up there; I took a bunch of pictures but didn’t see anything. I sat there for a few minutes to see what would happen all I noticed was a cobweb toward the right middle, stretching from the rafters, going straight down just a few feet in front of us. I sat there a few minutes more then climbed back down and left the garage.

I sat with Amanda and Susan in the living room and got out my notebook. I asked Susan to tell me about the monster she saw. Susan said he was unhappy that he didn't have a home...and we needed to take him to Chucky Cheese's (yes...we laughed at that one :)). I asked her if there was anyone else who talked to her...Susan said yes...I asked how many...Susan counted on her fingers 1, 2, 3, 4. Susan said they were all lost and needed help. Am I freaking you out yet?

The rest is pretty uneventful expect for some points. We gave Susan my small blue flashlight to play with because she liked it....it worked for about 15 mins and then the brand new batteries went dead Also when I was leaving and I went to get the VOX from Susan's room.....it's batteries were dead too. These batteries did not come from the same package, were different brands, bought at different stores, all new. A bit more disturbing was when Susan began playing with the organ that is in the living room...and I swear AJ...she played the first 3 or 4 notes of the music I heard earlier that night.

Anyway...I’ve rambled enough...and I am sure I missed something to tell you...but I left at around 1245am. I feel...no I know that something is going on there...and it is messing with this little girl, who ....and I am stating the obvious...is very gifted. Let me know your thoughts....we really need to do something soon. Oh...btw....no fever on Susan the whole time we were there...she fell asleep about 12:15am

Take care,
Steve
 
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johndaw16

Explorer
Ghosts of the Past: Prelude

Tuesday, Sept. 19th

Early afternoon, at a private residence in Newport News

Mark McDaniel sat in the house's dining room idly drumming his fingertips on the glass table top. He made sure to be off work early today, he wanted to be sure that he got back before Amanda did with Susan. Mark glanced at the digital clock on the stove, 5:23 PM, almost time. He stood up put a stern frown on his face and started to rehearse what he was going to say one more time...

5:34 PM

Amanda cursed one more time under her breath as she caught the fifth light on Warwick Blvd. on her way home. She originally planned on being home a little early so she could have a hot dinner and a cold one waiting for her new boyfriend Mark. He’d been so understanding lately, accepting Susan’s odd behavior and even agreeing to sleep in her room for the entire two weeks he’d stayed with them.

Maybe this weekend I can get Julie to watch Susan for a bit and I can make it up to him.

The thought of Julie brought a frown to her face. Her best friend hadn’t approved of Mark, their relationship, or the fact that he’d moved in with her in such a short time. Julie kept telling her that she had enough problems to handle without adding the complexity of a boyfriend into the mix. She’d even had the gall to tell Amanda that her time might be better spent paying attention to Susan...

5:56 PM

As soon as Amanda walked through the door she knew something was wrong. Mark was standing in middle of the living room, arms crossed and frowning.

“Where’ve you been?” Mark stepped forward uncrossing his arms and taking a seat on the couch. “You think you have time to sit down and have a talk?”

“Oh uhhh sure baby, I’m real sorry we’re so late. Traffic was killer.” Amanda rushed into the kitchen grabbed a juice and a Fruit by the Foot for Susan. “Honey here you go why don’t you go play in Mommy’s room? Ok.”

Good she’s already worried; this is going to be easier than I thought. I’ll finally be getting laid and have that brat kid sleeping in her bed. Mark got up for a beer and leaned against the kitchen wall. “Don’t you think it’s a little strange for your boyfriend to be sleeping in your child’s room for two weeks straight?”

"I know Mark, I'm real sorry 'bout all that. It's just that she's still really young, afraid of monsters. You know." Amanda tried to lay a soothing hand on Mark's chest, but he just took a step back and turned away.

"C'mon Amanda she's almost four now she's got to learn to sleep on her own sometime. It's a bit ridiculous."

"She's not that old Mark, don't you try to tell me how to raise my child"

"I'm not saying that baby. It's just that...I'm really trying here, trying to get to know you two. And its not easy."

Amanda's head fell at those words. She had heard the same thing before, and everytime it still hurt. "I know its tough, and I know you're trying. I'm...I'm sorry."

Amanda cursed to herself, she could hear her voice quivering and feel the tears coming. No not now if you cry again you'll scare him off for sure. Stop it!! But it was too late and the tears started to come, silent ones slowly leaving a hot wet trail on her cheeks, ruining her makeup.

Mark turned around when he knew Amanda was crying, he had to remember to wipe the smirk off his face. She was so easy to play. That was when he saw Susan in the doorway. He took a step towards her and knelt down. "Hey sweetie, do you want another juice?"

But something was wrong with Susan, very wrong. Her face was screwed painfully into the parody of smug grin. Her eyes glowed with a sickly yellow color. And then she began to laugh, a deep bass laugh, rich and echoing.

"What the ****!!!" Mark stumbled back nearly knocking Amanda over, dropping his beer with a crash of shattering glass.

Susan looked up at Mark still chuckling slightly. "Awww...Don't stop now...I like to see her cry."
 
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Post characters!

I know you said it's fiction, but you also mentioned D20 Modern, so I guess you have game stats for the PCs. (And if not, please remove the D20 from the title.)

I'm a sucker for any modern adventure, so expect lots of page views. :)
 



johndaw16

Explorer
First off, thanks for the praise thatdarncat, its my first attempt at a SH or any actual writing, so bear with me.

Second, sorry about the lack of zombies guys. Thats what my players dubbed the game after the first week of playing. The name stuck so I titled the SH Zombies for the benefit of my players (however I think if threw anymore zombies at my group they might try and hurt me :) ).

SeveredHead I can't promise character stats soon, but as soon as I get enough time on my hands I'll post them. The first two post are fiction and don't actually feature any of the PCs. Future posts will involve the PCs and leave the realm of fiction and move into actual gameplay, and as soon as that happens I'll try to follow it up with some stats.

John
 

johndaw16

Explorer
Ghosts of the Past: Episode I...AJ's Letter

This is a transcription of the letter that A.J. Morton left wedged into the gate at the Scufflefield House, addressed to Rich, Jessica, and Meredith.

Guys,

I'm not one to ask for help but in this case my mere journalism isn't enough. I'm worried so I'll be brief. A little more than two weeks ago a friend and subscriber to the Red Herring emailed me a story and possible scoop. His name's Steve, he's an important local organizer of the VaGHRS, so he's got a lot of experiance with the paranormal under his belt. He got involved in what I think is a pretty intense haunting at a N. N. residence. Lately though, as I'm sure you already know, the local paranormal environment is in some sort of turmoil. A lot of reports have come across my laptop and I'm worried that something went wrong with Steve and his work. Since his last contact on the 20th, he's been MIA. He's unreachable by any means, even my Ouija board and 8-ball are coming up blank!!! I'm working a case out in Williamsburg and the counties, but you should call my cell so we can set up a meeting.

c-757-269-5508

AJ
 
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johndaw16

Explorer
All right so I'm about to jump into the actual events and action that involves my PCs, so I figure I should give a little bit of background on the game for anyone thats interested. The campaign began as a one-shot horror game using the at the time "new" d20 Modern rules. The one-shot scarred the heck out of my players and they were itching for more and begged me to make it an actual game of it, so Zombies was born and has been running strong for nearly a year and a half.

Zombies has really only been my second full-fledged campaign as a GM, and overall I've been really happy with the results. I've been lucky enough to have three extremely talented players that have been able to really get into and bring to life their respective characters. The cast of characters currently is:

Richard "Rich" Fiorella - PC
Jessica Baker - PC
Meredith Gray - PC
Portia "Po" Santiago - GM NPC

This story hour starts in the middle of the current campaign and doesn't contain any account of the characters past adventures. I'm just not prepared to start at the beginning of the campaign. I'm too far past it to remember what happened with much accuracy and my game notes are pretty abyssmal. Anyways the SH is stepping in at the beginning of the next and what could be the final big story arc for the game. It revovles primarily around an old enemy of the party, a demon by the name of Dantalion. The party ran into him early early on and hes been a constant problem for the PCs ever since. Dantalion particularly hates Rich and does everything within his power to frustrate, taunt, and generally terrorize him.

As for the general mechanics and style of the game itself. Like I said it uses the d20 Modern rules. Mind you there a quite a few house rules in play and I generally haven't stuck too closely to some elements of the rules. A few notable game system things going on are the magic system (a variant of the Medallions SH magic rules), WP/VP system, and the lack of a mechanic representing wealth. The style I try to get at is one thats gritty and real, with a very mysterious sort of horror. I've blended things like vampires, fey, Lovecraftian themes, demons, and of course TONS TONS TONS of zombies into the stories. I generally don't like to follow the typical preconcieved ideas that my players have concerning things like vampires or fey just to keep things new, fresh, and surprising (for example vampires have NO problem hanging out in full sunlight IMC).

Another note and a bit of thanks that I need to give. I've lurked here on the SH boards for some time now and I've read a lot of SH's and I've gotten a lot of ideas and inspiration from various stories. Just a short list off the top of my head includes, Sep's SH, Medallions, First Sight, and the Drunk Southern Girls SH. There have been many many more and I thank all the authors for their amazing work. That said I've yoinked some elements and put them in my game, I hope no one minds. It's just that some ideas are too good to pass up. I recommend all the mentioned SH's they're all great and whatever things I imitate in my game and post will definately not hold a candle to the original works.

That said we just all got back from spring break and tonight was our first game back. It was a short uneventful one that sets up a lot of the action to come. I'll hopefully have a full update and write up posted by Wed. or Thurs. I hope. Well that was way longer than I thought it'd be, oops. Later.

John
 

johndaw16

Explorer
Ghosts of the Past: Episode I...Good Morning, Sunshine.

Sunday, Oct. 1st

The house smelled like bacon and fresh brewed coffee. The kitchen curtains were drawn and mid-morning sun warmed the air. Bowls and spoons clattered, Amber happily slurped her OJ from her favorite Ghostbusters mug.

This idyllic domestic scene was however lost upon the likes of Rich, Jessica, Mer, and Po. They sat tightly huddled together, bent over something unseen upon the kitchen table.

Po passed the letter around to her friends, letting them each read it in turn. The letter (and the term’s application to this particular piece of paper is rather generous) circled the small group. It really was no more than a faded piece of legal pad paper, hurriedly torn from its bindings, stained from Doritos, missing a large corner, and crumpled from being stuffed into a pocket. She explained as they read, “Ander’s gave it to me this morning when I woke up, he found it wedged in the front gate.”

“I thought Rich and his uh…antics with his shotgun scarred this kid off? What’s he doing back?” Mer sat up and gave a jaw popping yawn, trying to summon up some sort of interest this early in the morning.

“I don’t know he seems to be asking us for some sort of help with his friend. But I don’t know what he expects us to do about it.” Jessica passed the letter on with a look that said her morning was ruined.

Po gave everyone seated a concerned look. “Well he seems to know something. And Rich, when you put this and your dream together it looks like there’s something going on.”

Jessica and Mer echoed one another, “What dream Rich?!?!”

Rich shrugged and handed the Sunday Daily Press towards the two ladies. “It was last night, in the middle of my…normal dreams; I got a visit…a visit from Dantalion.” Mer’s breath caught in a hiss, and Jessica’s coffee cup hit its saucer loudly, they both looked at Rich in surprise. “He said he left me a present in the morning paper today, Po and I read through it and the only thing we can find is this headline about Hilton Elementary. Sorry, I forgot to tell you guys when AJ’s letter came up.”

It took Jessica and Mer moments to skim the article and get the gist of what was happening.

Unknown Disturbances Close Local School
Newport News

Early morning church- goers were given an unpleasant surprise as they drove down River Rd. and by Hilton Elementary today. This small local elementary school is now the site of Newport News’ oddest unexplainable phenomenon. Early this morning books, chairs, desks, and whole lunch tables created a frightening racket as they crashed through windows and against school doors. Flashing lights and a flooded basement persist in defiance of city officials terminating power and water service. However, the most disturbing sight greeted locals at dawn, with the macabre sight of a young black man being hung on the school’s front steps. City officials assured residents that everything was under control, and that closing the school was to facilitate a proper cleanup. Local churches generously offered their facilities to accommodate the displaced…​

The article continued on to recount the local urban legends surrounding the school. And true to the Daily Press’s questionable and sensationalist reporting, claimed on good authority that the disturbances were all the result of unruly ghosts.

“C’mon do you really believe all that bull**** in that letter? He’s just watched too much X-Files and Buffy.” Mer couldn’t believe they were actually bothering with this nonsense at this hour. She was rapidly losing her patience.

“Well it can’t hurt anything to just give him a call guys.” Po picked up the letter, looking at AJ’s hastily scrawled cell phone number at the bottom.

With minimal further debate, everyone agreed to give AJ a call. Reluctantly Jessica dialed the number, waiting through a half dozen rings before someone picked up. As Jessica spoke her expression went from confusion to concern. After a brief conversation she handed the phone to Rich.

“He wants to speak to you.”

“What’s the matter Jessica?” Rich gingerly took the cell phone, as if it were an adder ready to strike.

“I think it’s Dantalion on the line.”

Rich put the phone to his ear with a grim look of determination. “Hello?”

“Good morning Rich.” A silky smooth almost sultry voice answered Rich. “How are you, did you sleep well last night? Pleasant dreams maybe?”

“What do you want? Where’s AJ?”

“Ahhh...AJ is unavailable right now. I just love to hear your voice in the morning Rich that’s all. I don’t want anything.”

Rich laughed out loud, almost insanely. “What? You like to hear my voice in the morning? You're crazy you think I have anything to say to you. Goodbye.”

“Goodbye, Rich.”

CLICK

“So AJ's done for, Dantalion has him for sure if he’s answering his cell phone.” Rich dropped the phone in disgust.

“I wish he had talked to me more, I coulda thrown him off or something. Told him that we weren’t going to help AJ.”

“What do we do now?” Mer asked. “I don’t want anything to do with that demon anymore. Like we all said before this really doesn’t involve any of us.”

“We can stick our heads up our a**es again.” Rich ruefully suggested.

“And we all saw how well that worked out last time.” Po scowled at everyone else. “We have to do something; we can’t just leave AJ or anyone with Dantalion we all know what he’ll do.”

“We know that Po. God only knows what he’s done. I’m sure he’s already dead and disemboweled with his intestines tying him to a cross or something.” Rich surprised everyone, even himself with the vehemence in his voice. He paused to collect himself. “I’m…sorry Po. I’m just getting tired of everything Dantalion’s done.”

“Can’t you do something to him Rich, with your magic? Put him in some sorta demon box.” Jessica looked hopeful.

“Hell half the time I can’t throw a fireball when I want to, how am I gonna put a demon in a box?”

“Where do we start then?” Mer sighed.

“We got to find out where he’s at. Williamsburg and the counties are pretty damn big.” Po scanned the letter again looking for anything that’d help them. “We know he has that comic shop maybe someone will know more there. We should look up who the hell the VaGHRS are and the Red Herring too."

Shortly they had all piled into one of the house cars, planning to visit Main Street Library and maybe see just how bad things were at Hilton Elementary...





***So that took longer than I expected, writing up a relatively mundane bit of the story like that takes me a long time. The Red Herring is a e-zine that AJ runs in addition to his comic shop, its all about the occult, paranormal, conspiracy theories, and aliens. The VaGHRS stands for the Virginia Ghosts and Hauntings Research Society, and it actually exists but under a new name now. I attached two pictures of Hilton Elementary to the post. One is of the front facade of the building as seen from River Rd. the other is just a picture of one of the schools hallways. The urban legends about the school really are pretty ridiculous but the basement is really supposedly haunted. There should be more posts coming shortly, and I've got another session tonight. Later.

John
 

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Puppy Kicker

First Post
Dang it johndaw, you got me hooked already. I like the writing style (and of course the setting scores a bunch of extra points with me. ;) ) Keep it going. I fully expect a robust and thriving story hour to read in a few months!

PS - Any chance of getting some of the back story written in so we can see where the PCs are coming from, maybe little memory sequences or something?

PS version 2.0 - I like the included pictures. I think it adds a lot to the story when there's a visual element to aid in the description. pogre's SH cinched my loyalty that way. Keep it up!
 

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