Granny and Pops - Where are you

Betsie has to go and bury Pops - if he's still there and find out if Granny and the girls are dead or alive.

After what should have been a normal moonshine delivery trip into Horseman Flats had turned in to a nightmare for Pops, Granny and their 3 granddaughters the only one known to be still alive is Betsie May. (see the previous post for how they got into this state)

So a trip back into town to see if she can find out what's happened to Granny, Ellie May and Daisy May, and give Pops a decent burial.

She also needs to collect the pick up truck with the fuel, get the supplies, as well as find Tank, if he is still there. Molly, Wang Mei and the kid decide to go and help her. Betsie May and Mollie have smg’s, Wang Mei is armed with a wood chopping axe but she is also a master of Kung Fu, the Kid is just a liability.

Horseman Flats – looking very quiet and a little brooding.

There are a random number of zombies on the table (turned out to be 4) and 3 roving PEF’s (Possible Enemy Forces) also kicking about.

The white card squares are the encounter markers. I have lost the table that showed what they were, but they will become apparent as the story unfolds – I hope.

You can maybe just see Betsie May lurking in the bottom right corner of the board. The group have to cross the town to the corrugated iron building on the left side where they hope to find Pops and bury the old man, then go to the Deli, the building in the far left corner looking for Granny and the other two and then leave the table. Easy as that.

Straight away one of the PEF’s comes streaking out of the house and across the road straight at them. It's Lola chased by a Clutch of Zombies. Betsie's nerve fails her and she ducks back behind the shed. Molly opens fire with her smg and rolls 1,1,1, her gun jams irreparably.

Wang Mei charges out wielding the axe two handed like some desperate Viking and attacks 2 of the zeds, swiftly followed by Molly wielding the now useless smg as some kind of primitive club.

Herd of Cows, Murder of Crows, Clutch of Zombies – what do you think.

Lola encouraged by Wang Mei and Molly has turned around and also attacks the zeds. Betsie is nowhere to be seen. A desperate fight ensues, Wang Mei and Mollie are both victorious but Lola only manages to hold her zed to a close draw. Come on she is only using a wine goblet as a weapon, what do you expect. The odds are now stacked against the lone shambling creature, and it is beaten to the floor by Lola with help from the other two.

Just as Lola is kicking the zombie to death, James Lamour the National Guardsman comes round the corner of the row of terraces further up the street. James was one of the Guardsmen who had cornered Wang Mei in the shed in the last story. She recognises him straight away and sees red.

She charges up the street yelling words that are unprintable even on my blog, she's swinging the big axe, he gets the jitters, doesn’t fire - just stands there. This is not going to end well.

Fighting is done by throwing a number of D6 dice depending on how good you are, weapons etc. She has 6 dice to his 2, but he hold out 1, then 2 then 3 times before falling to the ground Out of the Fight (OOF) in the 4th round of melee. She takes his shotgun for Molly, and his pistol and truncheon for Lola.

Molly and Wang Mei decide to search the forge first, where they find a base ball bat and then the barn - where they find Tank.

“Hey Tank, Betsie is outside”, he sort of growls and then with out any warning attacks Molly and kills her before Wang Mei can help. She buries her axe in his head and he flops to the floor dead. Another zombie she exclaims disgustedly.

Well that didn't go as well as I hoped.

RIP Molly - dead on the floor - zed bodies (skulls) all around and in the distance another 4 shambling figures are slowly making their way down the street towards them. The girls rush across the street into the terrace of houses and find a small arms cache. Good news, they are going to need it.

You may be wondering why the little girl is so grey and looks zombieish. Simple really - she's the only little girl figure I had, I should have thought of that when I did the encounter table in the previous game.

They come out of the house on the far side, Wang Mei is 1st out and runs straight into a zed, she has 6 dice to it’s 1 and still takes 4 turns of melee to kill it. The fight with the Guardsman was brutal and she must be getting tired.

The girls form a conga line and set off for the corrugated building. Over to their right is another Clutch of Zombies who see them but …

They see James the guardsman and start to chew on him rather than chase after the girls. The die indicates how long he lasts before they are ready to feed again. Good die for the girls, not so good for James.

The girls see a zed and fail their bottle test and all run away from it, the zed gives chase. Slowly.

Bugger this running around thinks Betsie and she turns and attacks the zombie with the base ball bat and can only manage a draw. Damn these zombies are tough.

Next turn she kills it and moves off to the barn to see if she can find and bury Pops. The other two look in the pickup and luckily the keys are still in the ignition, I guess the zeds haven’t learned to drive yet.

They all enter the barn, Pops is there laying on the floor, but he is groaning and cussing in equal measure. A lucky dice roll and he is still alive, not happy but alive, Wang Mei and the kid stay to look after him.

Betsie and Lola go looking for Granny and the other two grand daughters last seen in the Deli. There is lots of blood but no sign of them, the blood trail goes out the back door.
Betsie follows the trail which leads to the road out of town, Lola checks out the E Type, plenty of gas but no keys and then she heads off to the right where there is another parked car.
This is all going quite easily.

This does have keys and she starts up and drives back to the barn. Not a clever move the noise generates 2 zeds and the ones eating James have finished the entrée and are now ready for the main course. They move towards the noise.

The next turn the girls fail to activate but the zeds do and so get closer. Next turn Lola runs into the barn to get Pops and Wang Mei but leaves the engine running, which attracts more zombies. And it was all going so well.

Betsie runs back but is cut off from the barn by zeds.

She can see others coming.

She attacks the nearest, killing it with the bat, and shouts to her mates that she will lead these zeds off and for them to meet her at the Pearson house outside of town.
So she sets off running in the opposite direction, she is the lone figure going down the road to the right, as fast as her little lead legs can carry her.

Followed by a large Clutch of Zombies. The car engine is still running, the noise generating still more zombies, but most of these follow down the road after Betsie and the rest of the zeds.

With most of the Zeds gone Wang Mei, Lola and Pops sneak out of the barn to the truck. There are only 2 zeds baring the way.

Wang Mei decides to attack them, leaving Lola to get Pops and the Kid away in the pickup truck, "I’ll get the car and follow you" she says optimistically. Pops is moving slowly due to his wounds and needs to be assisted. He does seem to be leaning very heavily on Lola but I guess we all would.

Wang Mei has killed the 2 zombies, Lola has got Pops and the kid in the truck, and only has to get in herself, start it up and they are out of here.

But it doesn’t start, not this go, not next go, meanwhile Wang Mei has got into the Audi, the engine is still running, she reverses into the group of zeds behind her and drives down the road towards the pickup. Lola finally gets the truck started and sets off.

They are driving down the road neck and neck and I’m feeling quite confident that they will get away when this yellow hated zombie jumps out right in their path.

Wang Mei hits it, killing it outright, but looses control of the car, runs into Lola who also looses control and…

They both crash into the walls by the side of the road and stop, there is a lot of noise, generating even more zombies. However they were both very lucky and didn’t stall the engines, they also passed their guts test and so remained calm. Note the yellow hated zed, regenerated immediately, I was running out of figures.

Here are the rest of them, shambling up the street looking for food.

Lola managed to reverse the truck out of the wall, but Wang Mei was inactive, I guess suffering from shock, problem is she is blocking the road. The zeds are getting closer.

And CLOSER.

Lola gets the truck moving forward but Wang Mei is still in shock, Zeds are banging on the roof and trying to tear the doors off, only a question of time before it gets really nasty.

But finally with a good dice roll Wang Mei got her act together and drove off like a bat out of hell, closely followed by Lola, with zeds trying to hang on but unable to do so.

Well another close call, what a game, I was sweating a bit at the end, it all seemed under control until that daft Lola left the car engine running, hasn’t she read the rules, that’s the worse thing she could have done to generate zombies.

Then to be driving down the road – home free and to lose control at the last minute, I thought – they are all going to die, what a bad way to end, but they didn’t die – big sigh of relief.

So - if they all meet up at the Pearson place will they decide to call it a day and go back to the cabin in the mountains or will they continue the search for Granny and the other two girls.

Another of my contributions to Zomtober ;)

If you are still here – thanks for reading.