ZombieHammer - The Beginning of the End

Long time no see... but here's the report on our first ZombieHammer Session we had some weeks ago. Finally...


All have been right on time and first thing we did was opening up some bottles of beer and ordering pizza.

The players did quite well, even those who never played a roleplay before. It was a pretty good time, all of us had fun and afterwards we went to a metal club where we got pretty drunk.
I was pretty impressed how SWMBO did durign the game as I was worried about her the most with digging into such nerdy stuff. But yeah she showed the guys how to handle those brainless buggers. I will first give you some background on the setting (the same I gave the players) and then sum up how the session went.

13th July 2014
The media reports of a new disease which has broken out in the region of Zaire in Africa, and spreads like wildfire. The symptoms are fever, headache and hallucinations which, if left untreated, can lead to death. Many consider it the annual panic as with SARS, avian flu or mad cow disease.

17th July 2014
The reports keep on coming. Meanwhile it’s supposed there are hundreds sick. The military and local agencies build a total of six aid camps to stop the spreading and help the sick. Many still believe in a high game of the media.

19th July 2014
Three aid camps report attacks shortly before the contact to them drops.

20th July 2014
Contact with the remaining three aid camps also drops. Meanwhile, no one believes in a high game of the media anymore. Investigation convoys of the local military are sent.

21st July 2014
According to reports, the convoys are attacked by people with bare hands. The convoys withdraw, the local government assumes a civil uprising. They start large-scale military relief missions to the prior aid camps.

23rd July 2014
The United Nations are sending drones to get an overview of the situation.

28th July 2014
The military units beat down the insurgencies in all six former aid camps with all the force of arms.
The United Nations decide to send support units to Africa to defuse the situation there.

30th July 2014
The units of African military and the United Nations have the situation under control and everything seems relaxed again. According to an official statement, the incident is traded for an uprising of the population of panic over the disease. The disease gets, thanks to the media nicknamed the "Zaire-fever"

2nd August 2014
There are no new cases of Zaire-fever.

6th August 2014
A video that was filmed by a soldier with his helmet camera makes the rounds on the Internet. On the video you can see that he is not only attacked from civilians but also by aid workers and soldiers of the former aid camps. The attackers are covered in blood and attack the soldiers with their bare hands and teeth. Their eyes seem glassy and full of hatred. The authorities do not comment the video.

10th August 2014
Once again, hospitals report cases of Zaire-fever, now also in states next to Zaire. In addition, riots rise again. This time also against the population. Amateur videos of the attacks appear and show again the attacker with glassy eyes as they attack people and tear them to pieces with their bare hands and eat them apparently.

13th August 2014
The United Nations give a global statement on the situation in Africa which states that an international team of researchers studied the disease, which was previously called "Zaire-fever" and have results that concern the whole world population. The official name of the disease now is "Zairian Epidemic Degeneration" and it consists of two stages. The first stage is manifested by symptoms of fever, headache and hallucinations which increase so long until the patient finally lapses into a comatose state. The second stage occurs after an indefinite time the patient fell into coma. He wakes up and shows the loss of cognitive abilities and memories, and an unbridled aggression.
The disease is highly contagious and is spread by droplets. So far, no cure is known.
Parallel to the press conference, the first air strikes are flown against targets on which to reside exclusively infected in the second stage. Smaller villages get evacuated and barricades and blockades are built around large cities.

17th August 2014
Many people flee by plane from Africa and thus from ZED. The governments calls the population to calm.
Meanwhile there are reports of increased sick of ZED in Ethiopia, Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique, Kenya, Somalia and Sudan.
Air strikes against disease herds are flown around the clock. The local military forces are in constant combat and bring more refugees to the cities.

20th August 2014
The refugees keep on coming. Each aircraft and each ship is fully booked. Tug boats demand exorbitant sums to bring people out from Africa.
The ZED disease widens out to Algeria, Libya and Egypt.
The United Nations report that they work under high pressure on a vaccine.

23rd August 2014
ZED is spread all over Africa. The first cases in the cities are known. Riots rage the cities. People attack hospitals and kill all the patients for fear of further infections. All African governments desperately asking for international help.

25th August 2014
All countries evacuate their nationals from Africa.
The country is quarantined. All refugees are housed in refugee camps.
Israel closes the border to Egypt and leaves no one out of the pure. Researchers find out that animals can be infected with ZED.

30th August 2014
The first cases of ZED in North and South America, Spain, France, Israel and Turkey.
All sick are immediately put in quarantine camps.
African governments still ask for help. In all major cities fights are held.
According to the United Nations there is still no vaccine.
Religious fanatics describe the events as the Apocalypse and the wrath of God.

7th September 2014
ZED diseased in any part of the world. All states call emergency and set up aid camps and security bastion.
Meanwhile no one is speaking of refugees anymore. Now they’re talking about survivors.

9th September 2014 - 7.00 AM - today

Since the first ZED cases in the city at the beginning of September, the situation has worsened dramatically. Nowadays there is a state of emergency and everyone is trying to get away from here. They set up a meeting place on the Palace Square where the refugees are evacuated in a convoy to a relief camp in the south of the city. Everybody wants to go there now. Also our four main protagonists. So then each of them packed up everything he has deemed necessary and is now here on the Palace Square, waiting to be on a evacuation convoy to get out of here. There is panic in the air that passes through flesh and bones of the hundreds of people around. The wailing of children and the expressionless faces of the refugees emphasize the hopeless atmosphere. Between refugees there are policemen, soldiers, firefighters and paramedics to keep the situation under control and to give the people a sense of security. In the distance the noise of battle can be heard, and clouds of smoke are rising towards the sky.
Meanwhile, it's noon and the evacuation goes slow. The dull and worn refugees are shuffling along the barricades and get directed into the proper channels to ensure a more efficient loading of the trucks.
Suddenly a man shouts " FOR THE DEAD THERE IS NO MORE PLACE IN THE AFTERLIFE AND SO THEY RETURN BACK TO EARTH TO BE SENT TO JUDGE US ALL!"

Quickly, the situation becomes restless, children begin to cry and scream, security forces rush to the man screaming at him. The voices build up to a crescendo until the situation explodes: "GOD IS DEAD AND I WILL FOLLOW HIM!" The man yells as he pulls out a gun and shoots himself in the head.
The security people get the crowd calmed down relatively quickly and the screaming ceased after a short time but the aura of panic seems to be now much harder on the court.
While all are still trying to understand what is happening right here and one or the other might think whether the man was right, the mass of refugee rolls a little further. A murmur runs through the refugees as the loading doors of the trucks close and the convoy sets in motion, but a voice over speaker system calms the masses, telling them that soon will another convoy will arrive. At the feet of the refugees who look at the fence to the street with desperate eyes there is a small river of blood flowing out from the crowd. The voice from the speakers gets lost in the sound of the convoy, the distance and the noise of battle ...
Of the sixteen occupants of the truck are four pretty quickly getting into talking. Their names are Galaxia, Voltron, Egon and Mauro. All are around 20 and talk about what they think what happened out there and what will happen to them now. The mood in the truck is irritated and Voltron is about to go to Egon's throats as one of the two soldiers that escort the truck finally engages and urges the two to remain calm. Egon then gets a bottle of champagne with a broad grin out of his luggage and decapitates it during Voltron continues talking to Galaxia where it comes out that she is a pharmacist, and Voltron is according as a "provider of goods".
Mauro takes a relatively restrained part in the conversation and tries to snap the stub of his cigarette into the lap of the soldier but in the last moment he doesn’t dare, and thus the stub falls quite inelegant out of his hand.
Suddenly, the driver moves the truck hardly to the left. With loud screeching tires, the vehicle skidded off the road and bumps down a gentle slope. Some passengers are thrown from their seats while others are able to cling to anything. A general panic breaks out and people are screaming. The ride takes an abrupt end when the truck is finally stopped by a hard impact. As the first of the passengers gets conscious again the noise of the accident has long faded away.
Voltron awakes a few meters behind the truck lying on the grass. Except for a few scratches and bruises he’s not injured. A few meters further to the left of him, he discovered one of the soldiers lying and goes towards him. The soldier is dead and Voltron doesn’t lose much time and takes the flak jacket, a pistol and spare magazines per se. He also finds tactical maps in his breast pocket. At the same time is in the interior of the truck Egon awakes and is satisfied that he has only a few bruises so he calms the little girl that is crying while buried under a pile of corpses. He carries the girl out of the truck to rest in the grass near to another passenger that also has been thrown out of the vehicle. In the truck Galaxia and Mauro awake, and also make sure that they aren’t injured while Galaxia looks for the other passengers, but only can confirm the death of all, so she takes some of the equipment of the second dead soldier. When she then left the truck to see the rest of the survivors Mauro begins to loot the bodies and luggage stowed in the truck. He finds a lot of money which he stuffs into his pockets, he leaves the luggage of which he thinks that they could possibly belong to the other survivors alone. When everyone finally gathered outside, they begin to speculate where they might be as a rustle sounds in the near distance from the forest, then a low groan and hiss. Before the four of them can be really clear about what it is happening a zombie stumbles out of between the trees and attacks the group of injured. Not able to escape they are helpless and the zombie rips a large pieces of meat from neck and arm of the man. If that was not enough another three zombies break out of the woods and fall on the little girl and the third injured person, too perplexed to react in time they have no chance and the zombies devour them as well.
Voltron is the first who overcomes his amazement and fires twice at teh zombie nearest to him with his assault rifle, which he found near the dead soldier. A shot hits but the zombie is only shaken briefly and then continues eating. Galaxia isn’t so squeamish and sets her assault rifle on full-automatic and fires ten shots into the zombie horde untargeted, knowing that the three injured people are not surviving anyway and so she shreddes the four zombies and the remains of the three survivors. Egon and Mauro can only watch as Voltron and especially Galaxia extinguish the threat. After the adrenaline level returns to normal and the weapons of the soldiers are evenly distributed (Galaxia and Voltron take the assault rifles and Mauro and Egon get the pistols), they decide to go to the nearby intersection to find out with the help of the maps that they found where the hell they are. At the junction fortunately is a sign with the street name and this is easily found on the map. They are in the middle of nowhere. The maps are also loaded with tactical symbols next to which are numbers. Mauro gets the idea that this could perhaps be the frequencies and they yould try it with the walkie-talkies of the soldiers. Gradually they try the numbers but there is only static noise coming through at all... all except of two. At one frequency a soldier reports to the group that they shouldn’t come to his position as a major attack takes place there. He recommends them to go the hospital or go to the relief camp at the airport. The second frequency where they receive anything is the frequency standing next to the hospital nearby, but there is only one message which is repeated constantly: "We need urgent help. Survivors have barricaded themselves." After a lengthy discussion, the four finally decide to walk towards the hospital to expand their supplies of bandages and any other useful things.
Thanks to the maps the four can orientate pretty good. Walking through the streets they realize for the first time what is actually happening here. They are in a city whose houses have been abandoned in a hurry. Cars are abandoned on the streets, garbage is everywhere, doors and windows are open and / or are broken. The silence is only occasionally broken by the crackle of some small fires, the rustling of leaves in the wind and their steps to the tarmac.
They arrive at a major intersection on which it apparently came to a pile-up. Several cars are driven into each other and behind the accident are dozens of cars that were not able to drive further. Some car doors are open and when the group looks around a little more they notice blood stains on the floor and some vehicles. As they look in amazement there appear ten zombies between the cars.
After a quick discussion the group decides to avoid the fight and flees into the streets of the suburb. The zombies follow them but they are not very fast, and once the group has brought a few meters between them and the zombies they choose to hide in a small apartment building whose front door is open to get a little rest and lay an an ambush for their followers. The appartment doors are locked and Voltron cracks one on the first Floor with the help of his picks. The appartement is deserted and has 3 rooms plus kitchen and bathroom. While Voltron keeps guard at the window, Galaxia and Mauro grab a kitchen knife each and help theirselves on the leftovers in the refrigerator. After half an hour still no zombie can be seen out there and they decide to bypass the intersection and to enter a different route to the hospital.
Arriving at the hospital, the group discoveres that the hospitalwas got fortified by military units. A fence with barbed wire was erected and the driveway gate is secured with a gate and various sandbag positions. The fact that the gate is open and there is no soldier around is a little worrying. The gun positions behind the sandbags are abandoned, and many dead bodies are lying around in various stages of decay. When they go up the driveway towards the entrance of the hospital, they see a few tattered tents and other military abandoned gun positions on the right. On the left dozens of black bags are stacked neatly on the floor, also a large hole in the ground where aprpably a fire has burned some time ago. At this point, the smell of decay is replaced by a smell of burnt flesh and fat. At the entrance of the hospital itself are still a few abandoned military vehicles and ambulances but that’s it.
Voltron gets a slight shine in his eyes when he sees the gun positions and immediately tries to grab one of the machineguns, but he quickly finds out that the guns are too heavy and bulky to carry, and the carriages on which they are mounted , are bolted into the floor. After having processed the little disappointment, he returns to the rest of the group. Voltron just shrugs his shoulders slightly and says "Too bad, who cares. Will you come along? " as he passes the others and marches towards the entrance of the hospital.
When the group is approaching the entrance of the hospital, the doors open automatically. They enter with their weapons ready throughout the foyer which offers a slightly chaotic view. There are stretchers standing in the middle of the room, papers are laying around on the ground and plant pots are shattered. Some of the lights flicker and after the sound of the closing door behind them died away, all that is left is silence...

Well that's how far they came during the first session. Next time they have to clean up the hospital. Let's see what's awaiting them there.

I hope you enjoyed the read and that there aren't too much grammar mistakes in there. I'm sure there are, because it was a big pain to translate everything to english.

Cheers!

Oli