Chaosium Digest Volume 9, Number 6 Date: Wednesday, December 21, 1994 Number: 3 of 3 Contents: Deadwave, Part Three (Mark Morrison) CALL OF CTHULHU -------------------- From: Mark Morrison Subject: Deadwave, Part Three System: CALL OF CTHULHU DEADWAVE, PART THREE by Mark Morrison Copyright (c) 1994 [Continued from V9.4] THE THIRD AND FINAL BAD DREAM The Investigator may well have given up sleeping at night now; if so, they must roll CON x3 to avoid nodding off in the long watches of the night. If they manage to stay awake, proceed to the section below, when the Ex-Investigator drops in. In the final dream, the Investigator wanders in a dark place. There is a warm and fetid smell of blood and death. In the darkness they can hear the ponderous shuffle of beasts, they can hear heavy things swinging slowly on chains, they can hear the weighty meaty thunks of heavy objects squarely striking unyielding flesh. Suddenly an overhead light swings across, a naked bulb dangling from a hanging wire. They are in a large concrete room. The floor is swept but bloodstained. Drifts of reddish dust congeal in the corners. The roof overhead is corrugated iron. There seems to be someone standing by a table off to the left-hand side. As they approach, they see the figure is wearing a bloody apron, and holds a meat cleaver. The light never swings high enough to show the face. On the table lies the Dead Relative. The figure gestures to it, rasping "Which portion would you like?" And it lifts the chopper and swings it downwards... The Ex-Investigator Arrives ...Thunk. The Investigator wakes. SAN loss for this dream is 0/1D2. Thunk. The sound echoes again. It is someone knocking slowly and heavily on the back door. It is the Ex-Investigator, who probably hasn't aged well. It is probably green and grey, with parts of its dead flesh hanging limply from its rotted torso. It croaks the Investigator's name. "Let me in." SAN loss is 1/1D6, or 1D3/1D8 for those who knew the person in life. The Ex-Investigator was exhumed by the Fiend. The corpse was retrieved from wherever it lay, with the aid of Nyarlathotep, and brought to this town. The Fiend animated it, and kept it imprisoned at the abattoir. During the frenetic activity at the Fiend's base leading up to the coming attack (see below), it slipped away, and has shambled across town to warn the Investigator. The Ex-Investigator is desperate to get inside, and pushes past if necessary. Three things drive it: terror at the fact that the Fiend is probably after it; the urgency to tell the Investigator of the imminent attack; and a mixture of self-pity and self-disgust at finding itself alive again. These conflicting desires make its speech garbled. It also has the less-than-endearing habit of clutching the Investigator with both hands and staring them in the face. It is likely that the Investigator finds this gesture abhorrent (SAN roll for 0/1), so the conversation probably unfolds as the Ex-Investigator shambles after them from room to room. Reddish dust drifts from its soiled clothing in small crimson puffs. Smaller quantities of sawdust trickle from cuffs and wounds. This is the information it imparts. This speech is hacked out in great gobs, gasps of pain which spit particles of grey matter out onto the floor. "[Investigator's Name] - we always knew that it might lead to death - but not beyond - I am awful - it is him - he is back - he was dead too - no longer - he wants you - he wants you to break - then he will kill you - and worse - this night - he is coming for me - for you - they are all coming - here - he hides by day - not far - in an ab - an ab - aba - ABABABAB-" This last is stuttered as it starts to heave to and fro. Its agony is obvious, and intense. The Fiend has ordered the black blood to quit the cadaver, and it pitches around the room, smashing glass and gouging wallpaper and toppling furniture. Its scream gapes wider as its mouth rips and tears, and in a torrent the blood sprays out, spewing the investigator with an acidic gout. Lifeless again, the Ex-Investigator slumps to the floor. SAN roll for this end is 0/1D4. In the sudden silence, a Listen roll detects the sound of a large vehicle idling out front. DEADWAVE The Fiend decides it's time for a direct approach: zombie apocalypse. It has driven up to the house in the bus. The bus is full of passengers, and they all start to alight. They're all dead. Moaning and grunting, they reel and stagger across the neat suburban lawns like drunkards. Most flood towards the Investigator's house, but a few lurch off for other, softer prey. Anyone stationed on guard while the Ex-Investigator was breaking down sees the bus pull up. A Spot Hidden realizes that it's no ordinary bus, and they can get off two rounds' gunfire as the passengers file out. There are forty zombies. They knock down fences, trample gardens, batter down doors, smash through windows, rip and rend and tear their way in. They do not stop until obliterated. These are the missing corpses, plus extras not reported yet, plus others who perhaps weren't dead when they went missing. They are mostly robust specimens, chosen for build and strength. Their number includes (Spot Hidden) the bus driver William Marsh, and the missing dead girl Dianne Castille; but not the Dead Relative or the undertaker Clem Baker. The Investigator and friends can barricade themselves in, or they can flee out the back door and over the back fence. Hunkering down probably gets them killed, as by weight of numbers and sheer unstoppability the dead will get them. The zombies come faster than it takes to reload. Use the map you've prepared of the Investigator's house to show where they start getting in. Give them a couple of early chances to escape, but if they stay put, they're finished. If they flee immediately, they can probably get away easily. The shrieks and screams are just starting up and down the street as the zombies fan out and start to feast. There is no effective way to save everybody. There are too many zombies. Some citizens do their best to defend their families and their homes; some manage to hide. Most die. Eventually the first emergency vehicle arrives. Not trained or equipped to deal with this, they die as well. But more and more police units are called in, and after bitter and desperate fighting they eventually exterminate the last of the monsters. The entire area is cordoned off. The official story is hooligan attack. People try to forget what they see. Many survivors go mad, or suicide not long after. After an initial reporting frenzy, the more the papers learn of the MURDEROUS RAMPAGE IN CITY STREETS the less they have to say about it. SAN loss for when the bus pulls up is 1/6 points (there are lots of them). SAN loss for fighting them is 0/1 each combat round. SAN loss for fleeing is 1D3/1D10 as the carnage starts behind them (all their fault, after all). If they stayed to take a few shots, and called the police, in other words if they did what they could, SAN loss is 0/1D6 instead. Some Zombies #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 STR 21 11 16 18 21 18 15 16 18 24 CON 20 15 29 11 18 15 12 21 09 21 SIZ 10 14 16 15 09 13 11 17 09 15 DEX 03 05 04 06 08 07 06 07 05 04 Attk 15 25 20 30 40 35 30 35 25 20 Claw D4 D4 D4 D6 D4 D4 D4 D6 D4 D6 Bite D2 D2 D2 D3 D2 D2 D2 D3 D2 D3 HP 15 15 23 13 14 14 12 19 09 18 The Escape of the Fiend Once everyone is off the bus, the Fiend drives away. If someone is quick they could pile into a car and give chase, but it's likely that they'll have to mow down some zombies to get out. The Fiend drives for half a mile to where the hearse is waiting. It gets in. The undertaker is waiting at the wheel. They drive off. Bus Number B-0309 is left for the Company to reclaim. The upholstery is in need of work, though. The undertaker drives like a madman (which he is), and three Drive rolls are needed to stay on the tail. The hearse returns to the abattoir. On a Luck roll from the Investigator, a police car joins the chase. TRACKING DOWN THE FIEND The Investigator should now be able to find the Fiend. They know that its lair is in the southern suburbs, presumably on an industrial site; and the combination of the dream and the Ex-Investigator's warning should suggest an abattoir. All they have to do is get out and go looking for it. The search takes 1D4 hours. Whether the slaughterhouses are operating or not depends on what time they undertake their search. Finally they find one which has CONDEMNED slapped over the business sign. Another sign proclaims SOLD. It is apparently closed up and locked. The Fiend is waiting for them, of course. It is confident that the toll on their sanity has already been extreme, and feels the satisfaction of a job well done. As the car pulls up, the Fiend kills the undertaker, and reanimates him so fast he doesn't even know he's dead. The Abattoir Yard A leaning wooden fence surrounds the yard, with a coiled wreath of old barbed wire. A wire gate is padlocked, although a Tracking roll notes recent use. Looking into the yard, the lot is very dusty - the prodigious red dust. There is one large main cement and tin building, with a few sagging annexes. There are a few outbuildings, one large enough to take vehicles. Empty pens stretch to the left and around behind the great shed. Getting through the fence is no great problem. The lesser sheds contain nothing of interest, except the largest one has the hearse and a delivery van parked in it. It is big enough to park a bus in. Entry into the Main Building There are three points of entry into the main building, but two are blocked. To the left, enormous double doors give access from the cattle pens, but these are seriously padlocked. A back door looks good, but heavy equipment has been piled up against it. The front door is the way in. It leads into the annex to the right of the building. It is unlocked. The Office The front door opens into the office. It is a crude and dusty affair, a sordid room of fading calendars and crooked filing cabinets. On the wall a large map of the city is tacked up. Someone has marked all the graveyards with red crosses. Colored pins further define the ones that have been raided so far. The undertaker sits at the desk nonchalantly reading the paper, garbed in stiff and crusted black clothing. His eyes are shot through with red. A Psychology roll detects his absolute madness. He inquires politely as to their business. Whatever it is, he thinks they should see the manager. "Walk this way" he invites, and shuffles to the door that opens onto the main building. Blood courses slowly down his legs from inside his trousers, pooling into his shoes and overflowing, leaving red smears as he walks. A SAN roll for this, 0/1D6. A Spot Hidden confirms that this man does not breathe: he is dead. A Psychology roll hints that he doesn't know it (another SAN roll for 0/1D3). Slaughterhouse The main shed is huge, and badly lit. The Investigator recognizes it from their dream, although it is not exactly as they dreamt it. It stinks, abominably (CON x3 to stifle a gag). It may once have been organized, but now it's in chaos. The more they see of it, the less they like it. Nothing moves in the jumble of meat and equipment. Here are some of the sights: Great winches for suspending the animals; rusty tools, sledgehammers and axes; a forest of meat-hooks overhead, long lines of them dangling, with the occasional decayed human torso or miscellaneous body part swaying from it; slop buckets with offcuts and entrails; cutting tables smeared with congealed blood and gristle; clouds of black flies; an open mortician's bag from which stained and filthy instruments protrude; bottles and jars of embalming fluids, some tipped over and running together; bonesaws and sawed bones. SAN roll for just being in here is 1/1D4. The Fiend Speaks As they move around taking all this in, a voice quietly addresses them from one dark corner. They can stealthily approach, but the voice shows no concern, droning on. It is a rasping whispered voice, familiar to the Investigator from their dreams, but also familiar from somewhere else. "Welcome to my house. I have often visited yours, as you know. Is it not more peaceful here? A fit place for the dead. That reminds me, Clem, you're done here now. Thanks for everything." Suddenly lifeless, the undertaker folds to the floor, the same black blood they saw come from the Ex-Investigator crawling slowly and easily away from him. No SAN roll for this one; it has a macabre gentleness to it. The voice continues on. "I'm glad we meet again at last. You killed me once, so I have killed you in turn. We have killed each other. The difference between us is that you are dead in life, and I am alive in death. Come here. Let us be together, for the very last time." By now they will have moved through the jungle of hooks and equipment, and get their first close glimpse of it. FACE TO FACE WITH THE FIEND The Fiend stands easy beside a slab on which lies the Dead Relative. It holds a .45 revolver. (If the investigators open up on it, it fires back. It is far more bulletproof than they.) This is of course the full realization of who their tormentor is, not to mention its horrific appearance: the wasted body with old wounds still gaping, the leering dead expression of studied hatred and poised madness. Time for that SAN roll, costing the victimized Investigator 1D6/1D10. Others lose 1/1D8, or 1D4/1D8 if they knew it in life. The Fiend speaks to the corpse, "Don't just lie there [first name of Dead Relative], say hello to [first name of Investigator]." The Dead Relative slowly sits up. "Helllloooo dearrrr." This costs others 0/1 (they've seen many dead people by now, and this one is in relatively good shape), but the related Investigator loses 2/1D6. The Fiend Wins If the Investigator looks unhinged during this whole encounter, either in despair or anger, the Fiend feels it has achieved victory. It acts calmly. First it pulls a lever under the table. This causes a murderous flight of hooks suspended high above to fall on the area around it in a twenty feet radius, striking each character for 2D6 damage. Any character who makes a Listen roll hears it coming, and may attempt a Dodge. The hooks also smash down on the Dead Relative; headless, it falls back onto the slab. The Fiend then shoots the Investigator in the leg to bring them down. It then turns its attention to the others, carefully shooting to kill. If brought down in the ensuing combat, it is still assured of victory. "As I was then, as I am now, you are dead," it gurgles at the Investigator. If it wins the fight (and it may; bullets don't harm it, and its massive strength makes wrestling its gun away unlikely) then when the others are all downed, it goes to each one delivering the coup de grace. It then reanimates them all one by one. It walks away, bloody procession in tow, chuckling "See you in hospital". It telephones for an ambulance for the wounded Investigator on the way out. SAN loss for the sole survivor is 1D6/1D20. The Fiend Loses If the Investigator acts rationally and coolly through this encounter, the Fiend loses its composure. "Break, damn you, break! I have destroyed you, don't you see?" it rages, letting the gun fall, springing at them, "DON'T YOU SEE?", locking its hands around their throat. "Seeee whatttt, dearrrr?" inquires the Dead Relative muzzily. Without the revolver, having forgotten about the suspended hook trap, and not paying attention to anyone but its quarry, the others should be able to finish it off before it can throttle the Investigator. Its last words are incoherent blustering. THE END This scenario has been a long and vicious attrition to health and sanity. Stiff rewards are called for. Gauge player emotion. If they look wasted, drained and despondent, dejected in their victory and numbed by the overall horror, they gain 1D20. The Fiend has won. However, the Investigator should regain a minimum of 10 points from the roll, for sheer survival. If the players look confident, exuberant, flush with victory and ready to strive onwards, they gain 2D20. The Investigator should get back at least 20 points. Notwithstanding that, remember that their house has been wrecked, and the police may have them down as suspects in the suburb horror. Moving on to a new town could be part of the healing process. Before they go, reburying their Dead Relative or the Ex-Investigator gains them an extra 1D4 SAN per ceremony. -------------------- The Chaosium Digest is an unofficial discussion forum for Chaosium's Games. To submit an article, subscribe or unsubscribe, mail to: appel@erzo.berkeley.edu. The old digests are archived on ftp.csua.berkeley.edu in the directory /pub/chaosium, and may be retrieved via FTP.