This is my first attempt at writing such material so apologise in advance for any poor quality work.
SLA Industries and all inherent material is the property of Nightfall Games 1991 onwards.
The Virus, the zombies, Dr Brunswick and the Awakened are property of Andrew Elliott.
Now the apology and legal bit are out of the way let’s get on with it.
New Home is a small planet tucked away in the galaxy that readily accepted the 3 P’s Contract offer from SLA Industries, and as a rule have never looked back. That was until just a year ago. Over the period of nine months more than four thousand civilians and employees have disappeared, twenty eight bombings have occurred and generally grief has befell New Home, especially their capital Hope. Everything came to a head just seven days ago when an explosion at a supposed warehouse spread a vast chemical/biological cloud into the atmosphere. Just days later the effects of the cloud were apparent for all to see.
The once healthy population have degenerated into rotting, shambling corpses with a lust for flesh of the living. Captured specimens have confirmed that the once peaceful populace are now dead and as such beyond the aid of SLA Industries. Grace, the new capital of New Home, has asked for help, and SLA Industries has answered.
This is where your squad comes in.
Any Operatives will be appropriate for this scenario, though at least one I&I Operative (Or similar skilled) is suggested for gathering data. It is suggested though that all Operatives have some form of combat training, they will need it.
Combat orientated squads will be able to complete the BPN but won’t find it as easy to find the answers and piece together the truth of the situation.
Certain races and equipment are suggested for this scenario, reasoning later, though this is not compulsory.
This scenario is not suggested for SCL 10 Operative squads, unless the dangers are downgraded.
Because of the biological matter in the air certain precautions are recommended.
These races should make it immediate practice to acquire some form of sealed life support for whatever form of armour they have. Those that have fully sealed armour, but no oxygen supply, need to have their armour’s air filter upgraded to deal with any potential contamination. Also under no circumstances should they remove their armour, or break the seal, as the contaminants can be absorbed via the eyes or mucus membranes of the nose, facemasks can negate this risk though.
These races have a slightly reduced risk as their more alien constitutions can combat the contaminants. It is still suggested that they follow the precautions stated earlier.
Necanthropes are immune to the effects of the contaminants and as such don’t need to worry.
Xeno characters are almost immune because of their very alien constitutions, but also because they don’t have the same genetic structure as other races. They still need to be careful though.
There are no restrictions with equipment and most won’t be more preferable than others. The only real suggestion is that, as stated earlier, those races at risk acquire some form of life-support or heavy duty filters so that they do not get infected.
I also suggest that all players try and avoid having their armour damaged but if the seal is ever broken to have the break sealed as soon as possible.
There are several methods of drawing the squad into the scenario. There follows a few suggestions.
Paranoia
“I KNEW they were out to get us. Didn’t I say so? They don’t like us. But you had to go on anyway…”
- John Reddy, Human
Either someone in the squad, or the entire squad, have an enemy within SLA Industries who thought that this little White BPN a perfect way of removing the squad/offending Operative. They still receive payment for the BPN if they do manage to complete it.
Fame
“I hate being famous.”
-Romeo McMerson, Frother
Alternatively the squad may have been doing well recently, or have a fairly high SCL and as such are considered the crème-de-la-crème, and in generally are thought well of. And to prove that fame has its downsides they receive this little White BPN that they can easily complete as they are such good people…
Basically they are getting it in the neck, but will receive payment on completion.
Friendship
“Well of course I got this call. ‘Hey Karl. I have a favour to ask of you…’ Of course I turned round and told him to frack off. Then he asked if liked the cushy numbers I usually got. When I get out of decontamination, I’m going to skin the fracker alive.”
- Karl “Ghost” Pherson, Brain Waster
As everyone knows having friends and connections is a good thing, especially in a game. But such things come with a cost. Favours need to be repaid.
In this case one of the PC’s allies has called in a favour owed. In this case the PC has a choice, accept or refuse.
If the BPN is accepted then they immediately go for briefing, and will get paid.
On the other hand if they refuse the NPC calls in favours elsewhere and the squad receives a call from Cloak. This becomes a variant of the previous option but there is a chance the squad won’t get paid (GM’s discretion).
Personal
“I don’t know who did it or why. But when I get to the bottom of this there is going to be several hells to pay. She didn’t deserve to go through that. I’m just glad she didn’t suffer.”
- Jarrad Earl, Human
This is a variation of the previous except it’s the PC calling in the favour. A relative or good friend of the PC was in Hope when the explosion occurred. The PC is contacted and informed that they have just received confirmation that so-and-so was in Hope when the explosion occurred and was killed. Basically the PC will drag the rest of the squad with them and will find it easy to acquire the BPN. In this case they would get paid.
Test
“There is nothing scarier then being called in, or even stopped, by a Cloak Op for a little conversation. Why they think they need to call this a ‘Test of Loyalty’ I’ll never know. Whatever the case, I’m worried.”
- R’lth B’rk, Shaktar
Somehow, and the squad won’t know how or why, the squad has been brought to the attention of Cloak Division. In any case one of the Cloak Operatives has decided that the squad’s loyalty is in question.
The squad will be called in and interviewed, which will be nerve racking for the innocent but especially so for anyone with a guilty conscience. In the end they will be offered the BPN to prove their loyalty. If the GM is feeling particularly cruel the Cloak Op will go with them. In this case the BPN will be a Grey, of course, and the payment is the stay of termination for the squad.
If any of the squad is chipped they will be taken to one side and told that the others in the squad are under suspicion and they, the Ops, are fine but will still need to perform the BPN, and won’t be paid as they will be doing the BPN to affirm their loyalty.
Ignoring the contamination for a moment the risks of the BPN are quite low as they will be up against sub-human opponents. As a rule. This should be emphasised no matter the method used to get the squad onto the BPN.
Now the contamination. This is the biggest threat of the BPN. If a squad member is infected they have only a short period of time to get the contamination out of their system before it kills them. This should be down-played as much as possible without actually out-right lying. If they ask directly give them the truth, but by this point they won’t be able to back down as the briefing will be off-Mort.
BPN#: RCVB6726872/DZ
BPN: Grey or White
SCL Requirement: 9
BPN Created: 9:44 am. August 15th, 902 SD.
Contact Dept.of: Cloak Division
Training Package recommended: Investigation/Any
Description: Operatives required to investigate explosion and release of chemical agents into the atmosphere in the city of Hope, capital of New Home. If possible the perpetrators need to be brought to justice. Termination warrants available. No media coverage.
Payment: 400c per operative. +0.5 SCL Increase.
Very little information will be available. What information is known will be from witness reports, those the survived to make reports anyway, and remote probes. The following data is readily available though.
On the 8th August, 902SD the city of Hope, capital city of the planet New Home witnessed the explosion of a supposed warehouse. The explosion released a large cloud of matter into the atmosphere. The contents of the cloud are as yet unknown but what can be gathered is that it is a mixture of chemical and biological agents. One of the reports that have left the city are that the cloud affects the motor, and higher functions and quickly kills the sufferer, within a matter of hours. Unfortunately there were no other reports beyond an initial count of the dead.
Hope has been placed under quarantine, while the surrounding locale is being evacuated.
The squad needs to discover what happened within the city of Hope and what the status of the survivors is.
Here’s the actual information on the biological component of the cloud. The players will later discover this information for themselves.
The biological component in the cloud released on the 8th August is a parasitical life form of a similar size to bacteria.
On entry into a living body, often through inhalation or absorption through the mucus membranes of the nose or the liquid screen of the eyes, the parasite will latch onto the first nerve bundle encountered and immediately begins replication.
As the parasite grows it spreads along the nerve bundles until such a time as the entire nervous system has been infected. At this point the parasite stops replication and begins subsuming the host’s motor functions. The first target is the automatic functions, breathing and the beating of the heart, so that the host may quickly die through cardiac arrest or asphyxiation. This allows the parasite to complete the subsuming of the body and begin its final step. The repairing of damage and renewal of functions. The parasite brings the body back to life.
Observation of such persons, or zombies to point to such phenomena only found within fiction until now, has garnered several facts. Though once again ‘alive’, in a purely physical sense, the body, and the parasite within, is in no sense intelligent for the ‘zombie’ will only look for the flesh of the still living to feed the processes that allow dead cells to be replaced and other body functions that is taken for granted by other creatures.
There have been no recordings of higher functions being apparent, so clinically the ‘zombies’ are brain dead, if not biologically. Monitored development of several ‘zombies’ has shown that over time, as the parasite starts developing again, the body attains a very much hunched posture as a swelling at the base of the skull causes the spine to curve under the strain.
It has also been discovered that the ‘zombie’ develops an acute form of photophobia and will try and hide away from most light sources.
Observations of the parasite has confirmed that humans are the most susceptible to infection of the parasite with more than 98% of the surviving human population have been witnessed to follow the course of the parasite. Of the non-human races the following breakdown of susceptibility follows.
Ebons and Brain Wasters – 97%
Shaktar – 92%
Wraith Raider – 89%
Stormer Variants (303, 711, 714) – 86%
Vevaphone – 21%
Necanthropes – Unknown but speculated to be 0%
It has been noted that Ebb using hosts fail to show Ebb abilities after death and rebirth, and the Wraith Raider ‘zombies’ show a marked indifference to the surrounding temperature.
Of the Stormer hosts approximately 12% of those infected actually recover as their bodies seem to be able to recognise the parasite for what it is and discard infected cells through the regeneration process, and from that point on have shown a greater chance of avoiding re-infection at only 18% of survivors being re-infected and dieing.
From orbit New Home will look like most other human-habitable planets; Green/brown landmasses and blue bodies of water.
Hope is not visible from orbit though its location, almost centred on the largest landmass, can be quickly pointed out.
As they approach Hope, either by land or air, the initial view will be of a city with graceful architecture, which reflects the name of the city, Hope. But further and closer inspection will show that much of the architecture is now covered in soot from smoke, and some small wisps will still be visible. Also it will become apparent that several of the taller buildings have collapsed, at this point the cause will be unknown. Basically the initial impression of hope and general gladness will be replaced with one of despair.
If by air the squad will be dropped off at the small shuttle port, after they have kitted up and generally readied themselves.
As the exit the aircraft they will notice that most of the lighting is broken or only nominally functional. And the city is eerily silent.
If by land the squad will be dropped off at the outskirts of the city, just past the quarantine cordon. The approaches will show the occasional corpse on the ground, some are whole, but the majority will be bullet ridden and dismembered. If queried the explanation is that the bodies are those who lurched from the city and didn’t identify themselves. After the initial attempts to recover the people, and the attacks by the ‘people’ on the militia, it has been made standard procedure that those who do not identify themselves on leaving the city were to be gunned down.
The squad will over hear muttering about zombies and the ‘living dead’ from the militia, while they ready themselves before passing the cordon. If any of the squad ask a militia-man questions they will be told that the first ‘zombies’ picked up had attacked those who’d got them and had tried to eat their flesh. They were quickly gunned down but the ‘zombies’ kept getting back up and only stayed down if they were dismembered to such a degree, as can be seen beyond the cordon.
On entry to the city the squad will discover how dark the city has become, and how eerily silent it is. Occasionally they may catch movement out of the corner of their eyes but never catch anything head on. At least not yet.
However the squad enters the city they will get the impression that the city is dead, a Necropolis, or City of the Dead. This impression will be emphasised by the rubbish strewn across the streets, the burned remains of huge bonfires, burning the dead, or not so dead, as the occasional burnt corpse will be discovered bound in shackles. Very little lighting works anywhere, as the power generators run down through lack of maintenance, and shadows will be everywhere. Occasionally an un-burnt corpse will be discovered lying in the streets, any kind of investigation, and knowledge in post-mortems, will ascertain that the corpse has been dead less than a week. And the person died from trauma, which will be evident, as most of the corpses discovered will be missing limbs and other chunks of flesh, the occasional bite wound will be discovered.
The squad will find it quite easy to find the ‘warehouse’ that had exploded, as maps would have been issued and the location marked down. Via the shuttle port the warehouse is a simple half hour walk away, from the city outskirts though it would be a gruelling four-hour march. Whatever the case the squad will arrive at the scene of the explosion with maybe an hour or so of daylight left.
Initial investigations will indicate that the site was that of a simple warehouse, though what was stored is unknown. Further digging around though will reveal the remains of a lift shaft, which will go down approximately 100 metres. Depending how thorough the squad was, and how fast, there will be about half an hour of light, at most, or it just getting dark. Either way the sharper eared of the squad will start picking up slight noises, moans and groans, the shuffling of feet through rubbish. Around the corner will lurch several ‘zombies’.
At this time the zombies would have started suffering from cellular degradation through lack of food, and general un-cleanliness.
This will be apparent in a gaunt appearance and the occasional open, but un-bleeding wound. The zombies will also have much greyer, and often slightly green, coloration than is normal in a human, or other races.
The stats for the various zombies will be found at the end of this sourcebook.
Anyway. The squad will have the only option of fight or flight, though they won’t be expecting zombies, so hint to the players that they should call out, ask questions, basically anything that will delay the operatives until the zombies get close enough to strike.
However you and the players go about it they will discover that the zombies are immune to pain and will only stop attacking when totally destroyed. Decapitation will hinder the zombies but not kill them, a decapitated zombie will start thrashing about until it comes in contact with something then it will do it’s level best to rip it’s target apart. Zombies without arms will still try and bite, while those without legs will crawl towards their target. An inventive player may remove both arms and legs, this will neutralise the zombie.
When the first group of zombies are dealt with the squad will come face to face with another, larger group. If they fight, let them do so, but when they finish have another, even larger, group of zombies appear. Impress on them the fact that unless they get out of the area quickly, they will eventually be overwhelmed and killed.
When the squad eventually do escape let them run any direction they like, it doesn’t matter. Eventually they will come upon a building they will be able to secure so that they can rest for the night and continue their investigation again in the morning.
If the squad are quiet the occasional zombie may lurch past but otherwise the area will be empty and silent.
If the squad are not silent have them come under attack in the same way as the warehouse.
The squad will need to return to the warehouse the next morning to discover where the lift shaft goes. The city will be silent, though any excess noise will call out small groups of zombies.
When the players decide to go down the lift shaft, ensure they have enough rope. If they do a search of the locality they will discover a Shiver Station.
Shiver Station 12 is a mess. Blood and body parts will litter most of the building, the lighting working only occasionally. A casual search will discover the stores where enough rope will be found for the lift shaft.
If the squad decide to do a more thorough investigation of the building, including the computers, they will pick up some important facts.
On the computer system will be the station commander’s daily reports. The ones of importance are dated from the 8th, while the last report is dated the 13th and is signed by a sergeant.
Whoever reads the reports will pick up the following facts:
That was two days previously. An autopsy report can also be found, depending on how long the squad spends searching the data systems, and several skill checks, the GM can release as much or as little of the report he has on the actual biological part of the cloud. Any critically failed rolls (natural double 1) and the remaining power cuts out, the backup generators has died, the system crashes and the squad are plunged into darkness unless they were already using their own light.
Depending on how long the squad took they may decide to hold up in the Shiver station until the next day, a thorough search will have took half the day. If they only went for the rope then they can go back to the warehouse.
Once the squad have enough rope they will find it a simple matter to secure the rope well enough to take the weight of any squad member. Let them go down the shaft.
The elevator shaft will have very small lights every five metres. Most will either be broken or work only fitfully, giving a very dim glow. At the very bottom of the shaft will be the elevator itself. The elevator will be partially crumpled as the lifting mechanism will have dropped and caved the roof in. It will be a simple matter to either widen or slip through the gaps into the elevator car proper and from there through the jammed open doors.
Floor One
The lift opens out onto a floor set out as a reception, though wreckage is spread everywhere and the place is very gloomy as only an occasional light works.
The reception area is roughly square with two doors on either wall to the left and right while the facing wall has a desk with the following emblazoned across the wall behind; “LifeTech. Designing a better future.” That wall is actually broken by a corridor on either side, where the corners would be.
A search of the floor will reveal the odd ruined office and an elevator at the very back of the floor, beyond a security point.
The security point will be an easy matter to bypass. The lift is actually still working; it’s on an independent power supply.
A note on the elevators
From the first floor downwards the elevators will be on opposite sides of each floor, this is to stop unauthorised persons, having gained access to one lift, being able to ride down to the bottom of the complex.
Floor Two
The second floor will comprise of more offices though a search on any working computers, there will only be one or two on the floor still working, will reveal that LifeTech was working on biological agents that could interact with more than one physiology. Anyone with the Computer subterfuge skill will on a successful roll (-5 mod) will discover that the most recent project was a form of biological weapon. The operative will also have the relevant codes for all the following floors.
Otherwise the floor is empty. Access to the elevator will be much harder on this floor if they do not have the computer codes. If they do not consider going back to the computers and seeing if the codes are on the system they will need to crack open the elevator doors and cut through the floor and rope down to the next floor.
Floor Three
The third floor is different from the previous two, as it is a large dormitory. Most of the floor is made up of two large rooms lined with beds, the two rooms are separated by a thin, but long, room that has multiple toilets and shower units. At the far end is another security station, except this also has a decontamination station adjoining. A search of the floor will reveal disarrayed clothing, beds, furniture, etc plus the occasional bloodstain and bullet scar on the walls. If the small lockers are broken open, they are all locked, stashes of Uni’s and CAF weapons can be found. The GM may wish to upgrade the weapons if they wish.
In the decontamination chamber the squad will see a body crumpled on the floor. If they enter the chamber and approach the body, hopefully with caution, they will discover that the corpse is actually dead, most of it’s face ripped away and the chest cavity caved in. A search of the corpse will turn up an identification badge, for a Dr. Marco Strand, plus several keys and a data pad.
The data pad is an important find, as when it’s turned on a document will automatically load and read;
To whoever finds this data pad.
By this time you will have discovered, if only partially, what we at LifeTech were doing. We were creating a biological weapon for an outside contractor, I don’t know who but suspect it might be DarkNight. Anyway we went too far. Instead of a simple biological weapon that would destroy most of what it encountered we created some form of monstrous virus, I think Dr. Brunswick planned this, that hijacked it’s infected host and tried to live!
The experiments, some of the younger staff call them zombies, managed to break free from their containment chambers and caused some sort of explosion. The explosion has released most of the experimental agents into the local atmosphere. Those of us who have survived are trying to fight back against the zombies, but they are immune to pain.
I hope that you can find it in yourselves to forgive us. And catch that traitorous bastard Brunswick.
The document ends on that plea. Further work on the pad will yield nothing else.
If the squad doesn’t have the access codes they will be able to use Dr. Strand’s ID to access the elevator and go down to the next floor.
Floor Four
The elevator to the fourth floor will open onto another security station, and decontamination station. But these are covered in blood and body parts, most of the windows are broken and the area is generally wrecked. Looking through the broken windows the squad will see a large, open floor space littered with over turned workstations, and the occasional corpse. It’s fairly obvious that this was the main work section for LifeTech. A search will yield nothing. The corpses were either killed in the explosion, or were brutally killed by the zombies. At this point they will discover their first guard. His uniform, what can be seen, is a plain black with a ‘LT’ stitched over the left breast pocket. The metal clip for an ID badge is still clipped to the right breast pocket, but the rest of the ID badge is missing. On the right hip will be a small metal plate strapped to the leg, this is a maghold for a pistol, but the weapon is missing. A search will reveal one clip of 10mm STD pistol ammunition and a basic wooden baton.
Apart from the corpses littering the floor and the scattered workstations, the floor holds nothing else of interest.
Floor Five
The fifth floor opens into the usual security and decontamination chamber. The chamber is amazingly clear, even the windows are in one piece. But beyond the windows is a vast gaping hole, it’s evident that the floor had caved in after the explosion, presumably the supports had been taken out and the floor collapsed under it’s own weight. Along the walls is a thin rim of the floor, barely wide enough for a person to slide along sideways. The hole looks to be maybe another 15-20 metres deep before a visually solid floor can be seen, on what looks to be floor nine.
If the squad still has some rope, about five or more metres worth, they can try and rope down to the lift/security station beneath them, though this will take some skill as there is even less of the sixth floor security station. If the squad does decide to go via this way then a –4 penalty will be incurred for every floor (Cumulative) they descend via rope and attempt to land anywhere above the ninth floor.
If the squad edges their way round to the opposite elevator, needing a basic dexterity test to avoid slipping and plummeting to the bottom, they will discover the elevator car at the bottom of the shaft but the support cables still there. The squad will be able to climb down the cables with little difficulty and can continue round and down the ruined floors, performing a dexterity test every time the edge their way round the ruined floors, until they reach the ninth floor.
If at any point a squad member falls have them do a dexterity test at –8 to try and grab the floor/rope they just fell from. If they succeed they are fine, if they fail then they plummet to the ninth floor and take damage corresponding with the distance they fell. For every floor the operative falls multiply the number by five and that’s how much damage the operative takes on striking the floor. Any armour of PV 8+ will absorb a quarter of the damage otherwise dealt to the operative; this absorbed damage is dealt directly to the armour’s ID at every location.
Floor Nine
The ninth floor is just one huge pit of rubble and general detritus. The rubble is relatively stable, only shifting under the heaviest of operatives, so the squad should be fine walking atop it. The only problem is that there is so much rubble that the elevators on the floor are blocked off totally.
It will take the squad a while to clear away enough rubble to get to the lift shaft. I’ll leave it to the GM to decide how long it takes the squad to shift the rubble, but I’d suggest a minimum of an hour and have the squad unearth the occasional corpse.
The lift down to floor ten is at the bottom of it’s shaft, but again there is a cable still hanging down and it won’t take much for the squad to get down, but the bottom of the shaft will need to be cleared of debris, which will take quite a bit of skill to do in such cramped quarters.
Floor Ten
First have each squad member make a physique roll, explanation and modifiers third paragraph down.
The tenth floor is pitch black. There are no light sauces apart from any the squad have. UV vision options won’t work unless a squad member has a light source simply because there is no other source of light in the area. IR works fine though as there is enough residue heat and temperature differences to reveal a hazy image of the area.
If the squad has lights then they will see, with some swinging of the light source, that the area is split into multiple holding areas much like cells in the Shiver Station they visited earlier, if the squad had done so. What should immediately strike them is the sight of all those bodies. Every single cell has at least half-dozen bodies, some with as many as twenty. Each and every body is in a semi-decomposed state and exudes such an offensive odour that it makes its way past the filters. Have each squad member make a physique roll, unless they are using an independent air supply, at –4, anyone who fails will suffer from vomiting and other gagging reflexes, any botches rolls (Natural double one) means that the operative was struck so badly they fall unconscious.
If any of the squad are in a fit state, and have the inclination to look around closely, they will discover maybe 90% of the bodies have signs pointing towards having moved after decomposition had taken hold. It seems that this was the holding area for test subjects. Anyone with detect 6+, or Good Hearing 4+, will hear sounds of movement from the floor beneath.
If any operatives were knocked unconscious by the smell hint to any squad member who didn’t that it would be a smart idea to get the back up to the ninth floor and wait for them to regain consciousness before going down to the eleventh floor.
Floor Eleven
The moment the squad arrive on the eleventh floor they will be attacked by a monstrous creature.
This creature is Dr Brunswick, though the squad won’t know this, but instead will be fighting for their lives. His stats will be at the end of this source book. Any attempts by the squad to communicate with the creature will fail, it just wants to kill the squad.
Should the squad manage to kill the creature then give them the following:
The Eleventh Floor is much smaller then all the floors above. It contains just three rooms, a large open area that the lift opens into, a small bedroom/study and a bathroom. Much of the place is in ruins but beneath the damage there are signs of long occupancy by one or two people. Tucked in corners and under pieces of flung furniture will be data pads that are unlocked, there is also a small computer built into one of the walls of the study/bedroom. Enough remains to indicate that Dr Brunswick, the head scientist of LifeTech, occupied the floor. Also should someone check the corpse they will discover scraps of clothing and on one such scrap a small nametag labelled ‘Brunswick’. The squad had just fought and killed the head scientist for the company, and presumably the cause of all the trouble they have been through.
The computer and data pads will have enormous amounts of data but a quick, intensive search will reveal that the company had been hired to build a virus that affected most of the races that worked for SLA Industries. And the employers had indeed been DarkNight. At this point the squad will want to leave the complex and get back to civilisation for rest, healing and debriefing.
Having completed their BPN in spirit, and in letter, the squad now need to exit the complex and get out of the city. Anyone with punctured armour, or wounded by the Brunswick monster (later), will start to feel unwell in a matter of a couple of hours and will be in desperate need of medical attention.
Exiting the Complex
It is a simple matter to leave the complex; the squad just need to return by the route they entered, taking any physique/dexterity tests as required.
When they reach the first floor they will discover that several zombies have fell down the shaft and will pounce on the squad the moment they enter the floor.
The warehouse above will also be over run with zombies, so the squad will have to perform a fighting withdrawal. Anyone attempting to use their headsets will get static; they are out of range of any working relay stations.
Fleeing the City
The squad will have a fairly tough time fleeing the city as zombies are coming in from every direction, homing in on the warehouse.
Should the squad manage to fight their way through those immediately surrounding the warehouse they should at this point be low on ammunition, and be very tired. So the squad should consider fleeing as quickly as possible to either the shuttle port, which will have a high powered transmitter and a Dropship ready for extraction, or to the outskirts of the city where if they use their headsets an APC will quickly collect them and return them to the local HQ.
Anyone wounded, or with damaged armour, will immediately be whisked away by medical personnel for testing and/or healing. Any data pads with the squad, or other digital storage devices, will be taken from the squad and analysed.
The GM may wish to rule that one of the data pads/pieces of copied data, involves a counter-agent for the virus so any infected squad members will quickly be cured.
Let the squad rest and relax. They just had a gruelling two days.
The next day, once the squad are rested and recovered, any injured squad members will have been discharged with a clean bill of health, two Cloak Operatives take the squad to one side and begin debriefing.
The first part will cover the squad’s entry to the warehouse and travel down the floors of the complex. The squad will then be asked what they discovered and their thoughts on the matter. Finally they will be informed that everything they have done has been covered by a D-Notice and none of the squad will mention anything at all to anyone else about the BPN they had just completed.
The squad will have an uneventful trip back to Mort, with just one stop to Cloak Division on Mort to emphasise that everything they had seen, heard, read and encountered was not to be passed on to anyone else, or being discussed amongst each other without Cloak permission and inclusion.
The squad will get their SCL increase and payment, and will be sent on their way, if the route taken to get the squad included them getting paid at the end. Otherwise they will just be sent on their way.
The profiles for the various zombie types lurching around Hope;
Human/Wraith Raider/Ebon
STR 8
DEX 4
DIA 2
CONC 2
CHA 2
PHYS 12
KNOW 2
COOL – Unaffected by fear or other such Cool based problems.
Hits
Head 4
Torso 12
Arms 6
Legs 6
Skills
Unarmed 2
Climb 1
Sneaking 1
Detect 8
Tracking 6
Special Rules
Immune to Pain – Zombies are treated as having a PV of 3.
Relentless – Zombies will keep attacking until either entirely destroyed or rendered harmless.
Infectious – Zombies are carriers of the virus that made them what they are.
No Ebb – The ebb does not work for zombies of Ebons or Brainwasters.
Stormers/Shaktar
STR 12
DEX 4
DIA 2
CONC 2
CHA 2
PHYS 12
KNOW 2
COOL – Unaffected by fear or other such Cool based problems.
Hits
Head 6
Torso 16
Arms 8
Legs 8
Skills
Unarmed 4
Climb 1
Sneaking 1
Detect 8
Tracking 6
Special Rules
Immune to Pain – Zombies are treated as having a PV of 3.
Relentless – Zombies will keep attacking until either entirely destroyed or rendered harmless.
Infectious – Zombies are carriers of the virus that made them what they are.
No Regeneration – A Stormers natural regeneration does not work for a zombie.
Dr Brunswick
The monstrous creature that was Dr Brunswick;
STR 12
DEX 7
DIA 2
CONC 4
CHA 2
PHYS 19
KNOW 2
COOL – Unaffected by fear or other such Cool based problems.
Hits
Head 9
Torso 19
Arms 9
Legs 10
Skills
Unarmed 7
Climb 3
Detect 10
Tracking 8
Special Rules
Immune to Pain – Dr Brunswick is treated as having a PV of 5.
Relentless – Dr Brunswick will only stop once he has suffered terminal damage, that is either a fully destroyed chest, or head.
Infectious – like the zombies Dr Brunswick is infectious.
Regeneration – Dr Brunswick has a form of active regeneration, he will repair 4 hits and a wound per phase until killed.
As a gift there is a new character type below;
Awakened
These are zombies whose virus has become sentient. The Awakened can be of almost any species, and will look identical to their host species.
STR – As host racial maximum +2
DEX – As host racial maximum –1
DIA – As host racial maximum +1
CONC – As host racial maximum +1
CHA – As host racial maximum –1
COOL – N/A
Strength, movement, height, weight – As host racial variations
Special
Fearless – Awakened are treated as having a COOL of 15 for any COOL roll required.
Tough – Like zombies Awakened have a ‘natural’ PV of 3.
Regeneration – With access to raw meat an Awakened can regenerate lost hits at 4 Hits per kilogram of raw meat eaten. Wounds are regenerated ‘naturally’ at 1 every two phases regardless.
Mimic – A skill available only to Awakened. Mimic allows the Awakened to live alongside their host race without revealing their true nature. This skill is never rolled with a negative modifier simply for the vast diversity of living styles.
Non-infectious – Awakened are not infectious; the virus that makes up their consciousness has given up its ability to infect others for sentience.
Notes.
1. Awakened cannot use any form of drugs. They just cannot metabolise the ingredients.
2. Ebb based Awakened MUST pretend to be human, they cannot mimic Ebb users, as they cannot use Ebb abilities.
3. If used SLA are aware of Awakened.
Starting skills
Awakened get the following skills before character creation;
Mimic 2
Literacy 1
Detect 3
Tracking 1
It’s kind of obvious at the end that the BPN gains a very ‘Resident Evil’ feel to it. Viruses that turn people into flesh eating zombies and the final ‘boss’ being a monstrous creature.
This was entirely accidental. The fact I have never played Resident Evil, seen any of the films means that any similarities beyond the above stated are accidental.
This was started not long after I had run a small BPN where a street in Downtown had been overrun by ‘zombies’ who had been turned by chemicals dumped in the water/food supply by DarkNight.
Written in pieces when the author could be bothered using MS Word 2000, on a PC that is more than 6yrs old, and in two separate cities.
Thanks go to all the people at Team 8 (www.team8.co.uk) who gave me such glowing praise for what little I had given them.
All the people at Nightfall Games for creating such a beautiful universe to game in and give my players the screaming heebie-jeebies.
And finally my brother for finding, and purchasing, a book that covered surviving Zombie attacks in almost any situation. And also the contagion that caused zombie-hood. It was an interesting read.
Andrew Elliott
4.40am 9th December 2004
Leicester, UK