The Brock's Rest part 1(?) - ATZ an English Adventure

Peering into the gloomy interior, Bobby edged into the Brock's Rest Tavern with April just behind him, her assault rifle up and tracking left to right. Weak daylight poured through ancient leaded windows, illuminating a bar area that belonged in a different era. Flagstones clad the floor and huge oak beams lined the walls and low ceiling. Wall mounted torches flickered as small gusts took the flames, causing them to dance. Across the massive open room stood an enormous wooden bar, complete with barrels atop the surfaces and more in place of bar stools, with 'old world' style glasses, mugs and tankards scattered across it.  It all had a very cozy feel to it, that was if you could ignore the zombies - oh and the human that was fighting them...

our heroes walk into a fight!

as per my rules for this game, walking into the tavern will reveal 6 cards
at suburban level - 7 x zeds and my special character (not Carolee...)

"Howay, my friends" a cheery voice shouted from behind the bar, his northern drawl marking him as a Geordie. "Have you come to join this little party?" He punctuated his remark by lifting an assault rifle of his own and shooting a zombie in the head and dropping it to the flagstones. "I'm Bryan, by the way" he added with a cheeky grin toward April.

Bryan shoots a zed from behind the bar

April gawked at the man behind the bar, not tall, running to fat and dressed in a T shirt decorated with a veluptuous female vampire, the man did not seem very imposing. The cheeky grin and soft geordie accent completed the picture of what, in different times might have been considered a bit of a geek. However, the competent handling of the firearm and accuracy of the shot, as well as the long katana strapped to his waist hinted at someone to whom the apocalypse had seen them flourish!

"Hi Bryan" she managed after a second or two, returning his grin with her 1000w smile. "I'm April" punctuating he reply with a burst of gunfire of her own, with similar results. "and this is Bobby" indicating the camera man as he followed suit.

The zombies close in on the humans as they 'meet and greet'

unbeknown to them, the gunfire has drawn zeds from upstairs down
into the common room

Pulling his katana, Bryan hurried toward the two infected that were heading toward the bar and in a flurry of strokes cut them down. April stood open mouthed watching the geeky geordie, mesmerised by the almost graceful movements, totally at odds with the portly nature of the man. So distracted by this display was she, that she accidentally discharged her weapon into the ancient stone floor.

Bobby sighed as he picked off an approaching zed, April always did this. Whenever a fat, nerdy guy was about the beautiful red-head became infatuated. It was astonishing and also funny to watch - normally, as a succession of buff, male model types threw themselves at her just to be rebuffed and sent away with a scathing put down. Only to see her fluttering her long lashes at a completely oblivious, Dungeons and Dragons loving super virgin... Even the zeds seemed to pause to watch the burgeoning crush 

meanwhile in the common room more zeds join the growing horde

Bryan scuttled over to join them, oblivious to the long looks coming from the infatuated reporter, shooting from the hip nonchalantly at the zed behind the bar and dropping it, much to April's delight. Not to be outdone, Bobby shot the last D-sub in the bar area and shook his head as his colleague stood dumbstruck.

the bar area is clear

but more zeds gather in the gloom of the common room

10 of the undead monsters stand swaying in the darkened room.

Bryan took a cautious step into the common room, wincing as his foot thumped down on the floor which had changed from stone to oak planking. The low light of the fire he had lit earlier, cast a flickering gloom across the massive open area, revealing the tables and upturned stools that had in better times no doubt been laden with scrumptious pub food and filled with laughing patrons. A low groan coming from all sides of the room, caused him to pause and raise his rifle.

the former residents of the tavern are revealed in the dim light of the fire

and there are lots of them

lots and lots

Bryan stepped backward, his feet shuffling back onto the flagstones and his rifle barking as he triggered a burst at the approaching horde. "Watch out" he managed to gasp as the wave of infected humans fell over the journalists. Bobby fired a long burst of his own, taking down a zed, before smashing the butt of the rifle into the face of another, causing it to fall over. April, overwhelmed by the ferocity of the attack barely had time to raise her weapon before her attacker was on her. She shrieked in pain as filthy nails were dragged across her cheek, laying it down to the bone. Swinging wildly with the rifle and half blinded by blood from her gruesome wound, she missed and dropped to a knee as she overbalanced. The zombie snapped its teeth mere inches from her throat as it's clawed hands drew more ragged wounds down her shoulders and arms. A thumping blow from the zed as they clashed heads stunned her and she fell fully to the floor, the darkness rising up to meet her.

April loses the melee against her opponent

as Bobby takes care of his...

more zeds are drawn in

"NOOOOO!" Bobby screamed as he saw the filthy zombie batter April to the ground. Drawing the combat knife that his colleague had scavenged for him, he slammed the blackened blade into the side of its head hilt deep.   A long burst of machine gun fire nearby indicated that Bryan, the mysterious northerner was still in the fight. 

With his original opponents still trying to get up and April's attacker down, Bobby heaved the bleeding reporter onto his muscular shoulder and retreated towards the oak door. With his free hand he reached for the walkie-talkie that he knew was linked to some new friends of the red-headed reporter and keyed the 'talk' button.

"MEDICS" he roared into the device, mimicking the soldiers he had toured with as a reporter in Afghanistan. "MEDICS" he repeated, as Bryan headed toward him, laying a stream of fire behind them, dropping more zeds as they stumbled towards the fleeing humans.

more and more zeds stream forward

Bryan reached passed him and opened the thick timbered doors to the Tavern and the pair stumbled out of the building into the daylight. Quickly, the stout geordie threw the door shut, and retreated back away as Bobby spat information into the radio. Bryan couldn't quite make out the words but he heard a male voice on the other end of the device replying to the frantic cameraman.

Looking around, the ex-graphic designer turned apocalypse survival expert spotted the eccentric looking building across the courtyard. Pulling on the young man's free shoulder, he dragged him and his unconscious burden toward the house.

With a grunt he pushed through the door and into an open plan ground floor. A tiled floor, once pristine showed some signs of a recent fight, with some bloodstains marking the spot. Bobby eased April onto the floor and stepped back, trying vainly to surpress a sob, and began to beg the voice on the radio for instructions. "What do I do? what do I do?" he repeated as the walkie-talkie burst back into life.

"We're on our way" came a new voice, softer, female, more soothing. "In the meantime you need to find some bits and help April until we get there"

Bobby and Bryan listened in awe at the competent sounding voice on the other end of the line, and let that professionalism calm their jangling nerves. Help was coming, they just needed to do their part and it would all be ok....wouldn't it?

Bryan "Vampifan" Scott

hope you enjoy

dGG

The Brock's Rest (intro) - ATZ an English Adventure

Hi y'all, 

So following on from the last ATZ post which you can find here and for those who haven't read any of the series so far please find the page to the campaign here, the MiB operatives that have been deployed to the stricken Isle of Thanet have been investigating the deaths of two of their men. April Neillson, our roving reporter, managed to beat the two mercs in close combat before fleeing the tiny hamlet in search of her colleague Bobby. The MiBs, not finding anyone in the vicinity have left the area, but not before deploying some surveillance gear to inform them if anyone was to come back.

April meeting up with Bobby, decides to return to the Brock's Rest - a tavern nestled in the tiny hamlet, in order to secure it as a base of operations for them, and possibly Gobbo and his kin. The thick walls and ancient oak doors look sturdy enough to defend and it should be relatively well stocked considering the remoteness of the location.

Since the last game, April has become a Star survivor and is now armed and protected thanks to her ransacking the bodies of the dead mercs. Bobby is similarly kitted out as she carried the heavy equipment with her when she escaped. This is in direct opposition to my English style ATZ campaign rules on restricted firearms but represents her incredible fortune at beating two fully kitted out soldiers in melee. Bobby is still a civilian and a Grunt at that, so will need to stick with April in order to more effective. His "lucky" skill I have invented as it is not in this edition of ATZ and reflects his considerable good fortune. This also explaind why his "Savvy" attribute is higher than one would have thought considering his relatively average intelligence, as he tends to "luck" his way through tech etc.

The initial layout is the same one I used for the last Batrep, with the exception that, once the characters enter the Brock's Rest, I will use the interior model I have built for the tavern. With regard to the tavern there are only two main rooms on the floor plan downstairs and each room will generate 6x risk/reward cards rather just one. Also gunfire will attract zeds as if they were outside, representing zeds being drawn from upstairs.  All activity in the tavern will operate as if in a Suburban setting with regard to zombie generation etc. There is a PEF is sector 2,4 and 6 and the same rules with the swift river apply as per the last batrep which you can read here. April and Bobby will enter from section 9 in the top right of the picture below.

I was going to leave it there for this week, but I'm too excited not to jump in straight away!

"Hurry Bobby for goodness sake" April snapped as her more laid back colleague just ambled on. Seeing the D-Subs around them as she tried to hurry her cameraman forward. Bobby, who had not really seen much of the destruction of Thanet or it's effects on the local populace, shrugged unconcerned and waved at the two figures stumbling toward them. As far as he was concerned, if they weren't black clad mercenaries, then there was nothing to worry about...

As they move onto the board Bobby spots two figure stumbling toward them

and April spots 5 more over the other side of the river

Bobby fails to recognise the figures as zombies, so just waves!

April, seeing Bobby completely fail to react properly to the threat, raised her appropriated assault rifle to her shoulder and let out a quick burst. The bullets crashed into the heads of both of the approaching d-subs, dropping them to the ground in a shower of gore. 

"What the f*ck was that dude?" Bobby screeched as April swung the formidable weapon toward the group of infected she had seen across the river. With a snort of relief she saw the lead zombies fall into the swirling water of the river and get dragged away by the powerful current of the swollen waterway. 

A PEF across the water activates and reveals as nothing

April shoots the two zeds that Bobby had waved at and "kills" them both

and generates another zed behind the tavern

the last of the zeds across the river follow their friends into the river

With the rushing waters of the river at her back, April felt confident enough to face the next d-sub and let it get closer to them, so that Bobby could finally see what they were facing. 

 

only the zed activates

and again, although the PEF also activates and retreats away from the humans

and hides around the side of the building

April waited until the last moment, seeing the realisation hit Bobby - these 'things' were no longer people. Carefully she sighted down her firearm and squeezed the trigger, watching as the round crunched through the face of the infected and dropped it to the ground.

"Do you see now Bobby?" she said softly, "the world has changed - at least this part of it anyways"

Dragging him by the shoulder, she pulled him toward the front of the building.

April takes out the last zed on the board and does not generate anymore

The PEF comes forwards and is revealed to be nothing

"Can you get the door open?" she asked the cameraman. He nodded and stepped forward, lifting the cast iron latch easily. "Sure, no problem" he drawled, some of his confidence coming back as he pushed the heavy, wooden portal opened and stepped lightly inside the gloomy interior.

Further in the woods, the last PEF lurks undiscovered, waiting, watching...

hope you enjoy

dGG

Separate Ways (conclusion) - ATZ an English Adventure

 Hi y'all,

I'm back with the ATZ bug and I feel the need to flesh out this storyline... 

So we left our story with April scurrying out of the small hamlet to make her appointment with her cameraman "Booby" Bobby. 

With a dusty whoomph! the enormous helicopter drove the loose dirt out in a large circle, as it performed a landing not seen outside of a "hotzone" battlefield. Quickly, expertly, the black clad figure exited the aircraft and hurried out of the long reach of the blade-like rotors. In a crouch he ran over to a eccentric looking building that looked like it had been built on stilts and the two 'soldiers' standing to a loose attention. 

The man dressed in a long overcoat pointed at the larger of the two others, both clad in the more paramilitary style favoured by mercenaries - nondescript with no visible insignias or identifiable markings.

"Report Chamberlain, what do you know?" he bellowed in a loud voice in an effort to be heard over the noise of the chopper.

"Not much sir!" the large man shouted back. "We found our two men in the house behind us, dead sir!" 

"Killed by the D-Subs?" the MiB asked, more softly.

"No sir, looks like they were beaten to death sir, well one was. The other looks like he hit his neck and head on a piece of furniture and bled out, but there was definitely a fight of some kind..."

The grim faced operative's piercing stare, made the burly mercenary almost step back before he continued.

"They were stripped of their gear sir, body armour, weapons and ammo, as well as some rations..."

That stare seemed to somehow intensify as it noticed the slight hesitation, as the hulking soldier took a steadying breath. 

"They're also missing a map sir, you know with our deployments on it..." his voice wobbled but he hurried up in an effort to get an explanation out "But they can't possibly understand the significance of the symbols, surely?" more of a question than an explanation. A raised eyebrow from the MiB, forced the massive mercenary to come to a shuddering halt, and look down at his scuffed boots.

"The rest of the buildings?" The operative inquired.  

"Thermal imaging just shows the D-Subs sir, nothing so much as a cat sir" Chamberlain reported, glad to have moved on to something more positive. "We've set up the infra-red trips and surveillance gear sir, we'll know if anyone comes back nosing around."

The MiB nodded and headed back to the helicopter, the two mercs following behind to settle into the massive machine. With a roar of the powerful engines, the aircraft leapt into the sky and raced off toward the Coastline.

more soon, 

hope you enjoy

dGG

Separate Ways (part 4) - ATZ an English Adventure

"F*CK THIS" April screamed hoarsely, as she brought down the heavy police issued baton on the top of the nearest D-sub's head with as much power as she could, staving in the skull and dropping the infected being to the floor. This caused the zed following behind to trip over the prone body, and into the zombie that she had tripped earlier. The clumsy creatures became tangled and the red-haired reporter was able to take advantage of the mess to crack another skull before retreating a step and taking another wild swing at the pack of zeds that were desperately trying to drag her down. The swing caught the chin of the leading zed turning its head with such force as to snap it's neck. With that, April realised she was temporarily clear of the press and used that time to sprint backwards toward the woods where the phone was still issuing its strident call, that had already attracted way too much attention. 

thankfully the distance the zeds have to walk and the knocked down zed, 
keep the numbers that can attack April to a mere 3.
Still its a lot for a single citizen to fight

but she does amazingly well and clears those immediately facing her

its then her turn to activate and she decides that discretion is the better
form of valour and retreats to the woods to try to silence the cell phone

April reached the phone just as the gadget rang off, looking at the screen it showed the caller as 'The Boss'. The reporter snorted, that could mean anything from the phone owner's manager at the local Maccy Ds, to their tyrannical life partner, or to the chief bastard operative that were chasing after April! Throwing the phone back into the undergrowth, she ran along the light treeline at the back of the tavern toward the bridleway that would lead her in a northerly direct, and toward her colleague Bobby. Glancing wistfully at the tavern and what she hoped was a fully stocked bar, she sped on fully aware of the mob of zombies shuffling after her. While the thick walls of the medieval building might offer her good protection, it might be more prudent to come back with her camera man in tow, plus she was running behind schedule.

April sighs as she thinks of the soft beds, warm fires and soothing brandy within

but is reminded of the present threat

so she escapes off the board following a successful mission

So that ends my first foray back into the world of ATZ and it was a close run thing, although my narrative may not have conveyed that.  There was a massive amount of luck involved that helped April especially as she was still a citizen and had to take 'citizen brown pants' tests in order to be able to fight back against... well basically everybody! She only failed it twice and both times it didn't have a detrimental effect, just causing her to 'duck back' and away from danger. Thankfully the 'meet and greet' with Matilda and Max did not go badly, although they didn't join her they also didn't attack her with their superior weaponry. Her encounter with the MiBs could have gone hideously wrong with both scoring more successes when it went to 'insight' meaning that they both could act before her. Thankfully both soldiers were rep 3 only and had to roll high to even hit April with their tasers, which they did not. April punished them with higher melee rolls and despite being outnumbered knocked one down before killing the other and then 'popping the weasel' with the knocked down MiB. The triple event following this fight also could have done for her as well and by the end of it she had 13 zeds on the board. Thankfully she is now fully kitted out with the recovered tactical gear of the MiBs and has an interesting map. More importantly she has fulfilled all of the requirements for transitioning to a survivor and will no longer need to test for brown pants and she also gains an increase for a skill and I choose shoot - making it 4. Thematically it should be melee as she was quite the melee star but her rep 3 for shoot means it highly unlikely she ever hits a target so I wanted to change that and thematically she can always do a bit of target practice to improve - sorry. Anyhoo now she is racing toward her meeting with Bobby and the story will progress.

hope you enjoy

dGG 

Separate Ways (part 3) - ATZ an English Adventure

April cautiously swung open the heavy front door of the farmhouse and stepped out into the hazy daylight. Scanning left and right and seeing nothing in the immediate area, she rushed over to the bridge and sprinted across the ancient flagstones, too keyed up to even stop and admire the beautiful medieval structure. 

April darts across the stone bridge

Safely across the far side of the bridge and away from the obvious vulnerability of the exposed structure, she slowed and nipped under the boughs of a tree, just as a dark shadow sped across the ground. High above, an enormous helicopter buzzed in a lazy circle before accelerating off north, the weirdly muted blade sounds indicating the military nature of the dangerous machine. April pressed herself against the bark of the tree, trying her best to meld with the ancient trunk in an effort to hide. Her eyes scanned for any of the government operatives or MiBs, as she had taken to calling them. 

and passing under the boughs of the tree, heads around the eccentric building

Just as an enormous helicopter buzzes overhead

Satisfied that there weren't any of the black clad spec-ops heading in her direction, she broke into a sort of crouched run toward the stilted building in front of her in the hopes of getting undercover as quickly as possible. Following the events in the farmhouse, she clasped the rubberised handle of the ASP in her right hand and gingerly opened the heavy door with a slight creak and dashed through the opening in an effort to rush anything/body lurking in the shadowy depths.

opening the door she finds...

2 MiBs!! gulp... Insight goes badly for April and she goes last in the encounter

April heard the gasp as she dove through the door and rolled across the living room floor. Ahead of her a dark clad soldier reached for a bulky yellow taser, just as his colleague reached for his own weapon. Their intention to capture and presumably 'question' the reporter was obvious as they favoured the non-lethal weapons over the more dangerous assault rifles strapped over their backs. April ducked as the twin darts of the first MiB's taser flew a hair's breadth over her right shoulder, lodging into the ancient timbers of the door. His fellow soldier cursed as he too missed his mark when she used the momentum of her duck to tuck into a forward roll, coming out of the move with a can of pepper spray in her hand. Depressing the spray she released a stream of police issued PAVA full in the face of the surprised MiB. Flailing with his hands at his burning eyes, he caught his partner off guard and managed to trip him to the floor. With a hefty swing, April drove the ASP in her other hand into the jaw of the pepper-sprayed combatant with a loud crack denoting a possibly fatal head injury. With a look of sorrow at the necessity of her actions and the tragedy of lost life, she turned to face the soldier who had been tripped by his partner, only to find that he had hit his head and neck against a heavy oak coffee table, and was currently bleeding out from a torn carotid artery. April scanned the room for anything moving and when she realised she was alone in the dusty living room, she burst into tears at the reality of the situation. 'Killing' the D-Subs was one thing but this had been a living, breathing man, with hopes and dreams and all that came with it. He might have a family waiting for him on the mainland somewhere, praying for his safe return, and knowing that one day they will receive the awful news that their loved one had been taken from them in defence of the realm (or what other lie they had been told). Instead, here they were on home soil and bleeding out while trying to capture a fellow citizen of the United kingdom of Great Britain, in order to take her to some black site and torture her. "Well, when you look at it like that..." she said to herself, her eyes drying and feeling a little better about her actions. Looking around she found some more food and added it to her pack before stripping the kevlar vest off of the smallest soldier and trying it on for size. With a few adjustments of the straps to better distribute the surprisingly heavy armour, she reached for his rifle and ammo pouches slinging them over her shoulder and then hefting his partners weapon in her hands, feeling the weight and looking at the actions of the weapon with the eye of someone who knew their way around a firearm. Better than all of that though, she spotted a map pouch on the guy bleeding out on the floor and found a (now blood spattered) map of the local area and a compass with a few areas marked with circles and crosses... interesting, the red haired reporter thought to herself.

Checking the load out she had now burdened herself with, she headed back out of the building confident that she was on the right track to her RVP with Bobby. 

April leaves, heading for the RVP

Event 1 - Ahead the 'dead' zed in front of the tavern twitches...

and comes back to life!

Moving around the back of the stilted building, she began to make her way across the courtyard, wary of the helicopter that had to be in the area or anymore of the MiBs in the vicinity. A few metres in front of her, the face down 'remains' of a D-sub twitched and unexpectedly rose up to it's feet. April lifted the heavy assault rifle to her shoulder and snatched at the trigger, firing a single shot at the approaching nightmare. The bullet flew way too high and over the head of the zed and April was forced to fend off the creature with the butt of the weapon. With a thrust she managed to knock it off it's feet to land in a heap on the floor before her. Raising the heavy gun to perform the coup de grace, she was about to slam the butt into the forehead of the prone zombie, when all hell broke loose.

April stands over the prone figure of the zed...

With a loud bark, a big brown mastiff ran toward her with it's tongue lolling from it's jaws in obvious exhaustion. Trailing behind it, in pursuit was a group of four zeds with various bite marks - from the dog it would seem. Just as she was adjusting to this new information, the strident ringing of a mobile phone began, it's piercing ring tone drawing more of the infected from the nearby locale. 

event 2 - a big dog appears followed by zeds

and they appear in front of the tavern

immediately after, event 3 - a cell phone rings!

and draws 9 zeds from behind the eccentric building...

"Ahhh shit!" the young woman had just enough time to gasp, sling the clumsy rifle and draw the more familiar ASP, before the zeds rushed up to her their blood streaked arms outstretched...

last part coming soon

hope you enjoy

dGG