Well today I start this new blog, with the good intention (and we know what they're good for ... ) of updating it at least once a week.
I've closed - and deleted most of the posts - on my other blogs - Projects Galore and Down Among the Zed Med - but have reporduced here my zed-fiction post and the four ATZ campaign related posts from 'Zed Men' - feel free to comment on them as you wish ...
Anyway, here's hoping a new home leads to a new regularity as the doctor said to the constipated man!
Friday 29 July 2011
ATZ Campaign - Batrep 02
This post was originally published on my zed-gaming blog 'Down Among the Zed Men' on 04-Apr-2011 and is reproduced here as I've closed that blog.
I reached my 'had-enough-of-preparing-now-I-need-to-game' limit yesterday and did location 2 of day 1. Turned out to be quite a short game at 11 turns, but it was enjoyable and certainly taught me a few things that I need to include on the ATZ quick ref sheet I intend to put together. Anyway, the batrep starts soon, but first a note: rules comments are in italics in the rep, and a photo of the target of this location, the newest franchise in the UK's most famous gun-shop chain as it was being built ...ATZ Campaign, Day One, Location Two; Andy's Gun Works
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| The Osterhagens, all Rep3 unarmed (at start) Civilians |
It took the Osterhagen family nearly half-an-hour to get from the kids school to the closest they could get to their destination - a journey that would normally take 10 minutes! 2 successes on the get there test! Their hometown was becoming a vision of hell that Winston tried to keep Alyx, and especially Katie, from thinking about as they drove through it ...
To the left is the table I set up for the location, and below are some close ups of particular bits of scenery ...
My latest FPF, two pairs of semi-detached townhouses ... as you can see they aren't quite finished beinge held together by elastic bands!
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| The Graveyard |
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| Patch of waste ground |
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| The news crew on top of the Crossroads Mall |
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| PEFs generated |
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| PEFs placed; Cemetery, behind ambulance and centre left of pic (sectors 1, 2 and 4) |
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| The way is blocked! |
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| We have to walk!?! |
Getting out of their vehicle, the Osterhagen's looked around cautiously ... whoever had left that council truck loaded with police barriers blocking the road had definitely made things difficult for them.
Turn 2, B3 Y6
As it looked like the way to Andy's was clear, Winston hurried everyone along, heading towards the front of the shop.
Turn 3, B5 Y4
Turn 4, B4 Y2
The rep4 PEF moved towards the family, was determined to be 1 more ganger; I used the Meet & Greet table from ATZ not the one from IZed as it seemed more appropriate. Gangers won by 1d6.
As they moved toward the shop, a gang came out of an alley ahead of them."Uh-oh!" thought Winston, but keeping quiet and not looking them in the eyes seemed to do the trick, as the gangers ignored the Osterhagens, seemingly more intent on the car behind them.
As the Osterhagens stood their ground, doing nothing threatening, the gang moved straight past them towards the garages.
I couldn't see that the gang had any reason to intefere with the family at this point of the zed-alypse, so they ignored each other. Both remaining PEFs passed 0d6 on their movement rolls.
Turn 5, B1 Y5
With the gang ignoring them, Winston again chivvied his family on their way and they reached the entrance to the shop without further incident, although the crying girl in the middle of the street was damn annoying ...
Another fast move - again Winston passed his leader dice, so all had 2d6 pass, except slowcoach Jenny with 1d6
Turn 6, B5 Y5
Total of 11 - Cop appears; given the 2 cop cars and police tow-truck I'd put in front of the Mall, I decided he was headed that way to join his buddies.
Just as they were about to enter Andy's shop a policeman in SWAT gear came running down the street yelling "GET OFF THE STREET!" Not one to look for trouble, Winston started pushing at the shop door which was either stuck or had something heavy right behind it ...
Turn 7, B3 Y5
OK, 2 things here, first as you can see to the right, my cunning plan for buildings is revealed. Inspired by Whitewash City, I've decided to make the buildings lift-off to reveal a floorplan of the building, thus removeing the 'peer-over/round-the-wall' problem. Second, I had decided to let Andy's fate be decided by the ATZ cards I was using for the first time; any survivors and Andy would be one, none and he was dead ... as you can 3 zeds and 0 survivors is bad news for Andy ...
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| Close-up of zeds and card; zed on right has head hanging on down her back |
Finally pushing the door in, Winston found that a cabinet had fallen behind it, but as he looked up, he saw three of those ... 'things' he had seen eating people outside the kids' school!
They were chewing on Andy's unmoving form! With a howl of rage, he leapt across the shop and opened a can of whup-ass on two of the zeds, but the third stumbled straight at Jenny!I made no surprise rolls as at this point no-one had a firearm. Winston engaged 2 zeds with 2vs0 on the first and 1v0 on the 2nd - woo-hoo! Jenny, though ... well with 4 dice (rep3 + brawler) got 1v1 (oops!) followed by 0v0!!
Turn 8, B4 Y4
Winston could only watch in horror as Jenny ineffectively battered at the creature attacking her, but then her inner strength came to the fore and, remembering the longs hours spent at 'Boxercise', a swift right smashed the zombie into a cabinet where a piece of broken glass speared clean through it's head!
No activation this turn so Winston couldn't help! Jenny got 2v1 and then 1v0 - woo-hoo!
Turn 9 B3 Y6
The creatures down, the Osterhagens quickly looked around for weapons and ammo, but the misplaced cabinets and broken glass showed that the store had already been looted! But knowing Andy as he had, Winston found Andy's just arrived stock that hadn't been put on display yet. Opening it and sharing it out, the Osterhagens found half-a-dozen pistols, a pair of sub-machine-guns and enough ammo to last a while! He also found that Andy had just stocked up on his cigarettes, so seeing that his buddy had no need of them anymore, Winston took those as well ... he felt like a ghoul for doing it, but reasoned that his need was greater than Andy's - not that that helped much ...
Although the card said Food, I figured that it made no sense for Winston to be looking for that right now, so substituted it for luxuries instead. Rather than roll, or only have one gun between them, the Osterhagens found enough guns to equip them as per the figures, which makes sense to me!
Turn 10, B1 Y3
Having found what they came for, it was time to leave - Winston took the lead with Jenny as tailgunner and they headed back to their vehicle ...Fast move again; Winston failed the leader die (!) all got 1d6 tho, except Jenny (again ... )
Turn 11, B2, Y1
Relieved by their own survival, but saddened by Andy's death, the Osterhagens made it back to their vehicle; next stop home - what would they find there?!
ATZ Campaign - the Family
This post was originally published on my zed-gaming blog 'Down Among the Zed Men' on 13-Dec-2010 and is reproduced here as I've closed that blog.
Well, I went through all my unpainted Survivor figures yesterday, as well as all my painted Near-Future stuff and managed to find a couple of figures for the main campaign characters!
I managed to get them painted yesterday (and named!) and have reconstituted the family in my campaign as a result as well as shamelessly ripping-off the family name!
So without further ado, I give you:
I changed Peter for Alyx because I think the Alyx figure is so much cooler! Mum and Dad are both from Copplestone's Citizen Militia 2 pack (the one with Vampifan in it) while the kids are both Hasslefree miniatures. I'm going to change the gun that Katie has as I think if she fired the double-barrel it would probably knock her off her feet! I might change Alyx's as well not sure yet ...
Well, I went through all my unpainted Survivor figures yesterday, as well as all my painted Near-Future stuff and managed to find a couple of figures for the main campaign characters!
I managed to get them painted yesterday (and named!) and have reconstituted the family in my campaign as a result as well as shamelessly ripping-off the family name!
So without further ado, I give you:
The Osterhagen Family
Dad (Winston), Mum (Jenny), Big Sis (Alyx) and Little Sis (Katie)
I changed Peter for Alyx because I think the Alyx figure is so much cooler! Mum and Dad are both from Copplestone's Citizen Militia 2 pack (the one with Vampifan in it) while the kids are both Hasslefree miniatures. I'm going to change the gun that Katie has as I think if she fired the double-barrel it would probably knock her off her feet! I might change Alyx's as well not sure yet ...
ATZ Campaign - Batrep 01 (pt2/2)
This post was originally published on my zed-gaming blog 'Down Among the Zed Men' on 12-Dec-2010 and is reproduced here as I've closed that blog.
Note: the family pic above has a pair of imposters for the parents ... (i.e. I have decided what figs to use for them and those are not them!)
Time for part two of the batrep of Day One, Location One: School. Thanks to all for the kind words on the first part! Since writing part one, inspiration has struck and I have a figure and name to use for the main character. However, to not disrupt the flow of the batrep, I'm staying with 'Sean' for part two, although his wife does have a new name - Jenny. Anyway, on with the batrep!
Day One - Location One, School, Part Two
At the end of part one the zombies had just arrived and launched their initial attacks upon the (rather static) civilians spread across the board. Our hero was inside the school having been re-united with his kids. This pic shows the board at that point. Another inspirational moment led me to use the PEFs I had created to record the number of turns a feast would last, which is why you can see them on the board
Here is more detail of the situation right outisde the school; As you can see, the zombies seem to have done pretty well against the civ's. In most cases this was due to them being able to double-team the civ's, although the 'Out of Fight' counter toward the top left of the picture does show where one civ almost managed to escape!
Just to give a bit more flavour, here is a close-up of two zed-chicks stalking an unspecting civ:
He did manage to put one of them down, but the other did the same to him ... poor fella
Turn 7 - Humans 6, Zeds 5 (an 11 indicates a cop turns up)
Another policeman arrives on the board. I'm not sure where they should be placed according to the rules, but it made sense to me that he would help his buddy now that people seemed to have started eating each other ... so the 2 cops made their way toward the nearest 'disturbance'. This meant that they should take 'Zed or No Zed' tests which gave rise to a couple of questions, that I would appreciate input on:
- What do police take tests as? I couldn't find it in the rules, so I settled on Survivors, although perhaps it should have been Military?
- The results for Zed or No Zed tests indicate that the Zed is moving toward you - i.e. the zed can charge without you being able to shoot - but in this case the police were advancing toward the Zeds. So, should the test still be taken? in this case I decided no, as the Zeds were feasting, and the 'See the Feast' test was applicable
So, based on my answers to those questions, the police took a 'See the Feast' test. Officer 'Newly-Arrived' passed with 2d6 and failed to see what all the fuss was about - "Sure it's gruesome, but I've seen worse at the movies", whereas Officer 'Helpful' from part one failed to pass with any d6 at all and ran away screaming!
Officer 'Newly', attempting to 'Serve and Protect' drew his Big-Ass-Pistol and gave the nearest zombie a third eye right in the centre of his forehead (rolled a 6 to hit, followed by a 1!) most impressive!
The sole remaining civilian on their feet - in the middle of the 3 cars outside the school - ran screaming as well, straight towards the small cemetary, which depending upon the 'method' of the zeds, might be the worst place possible to go!
But enough about the extras! I can tell you are all demanding to know what happened to our heroes! Still inside the school, and having heard screams and gunfire, Sean decides to get the hell out of dodge! Grabbing Katie's and Peter's hands, Sean cries "Run as fast you can, but hold onto me!" and they all high-tail it out the front door. I completely forgot about the 'Leader dice' but even so, all three managed to pass 2d6 on their Fast Move test - wooh-hoo!! Not that it made any difference ...
Coming out of the front door of the school put our Heroes within 6 inches of the nearest zombie-chow-down event, so a 'Seeing the Feast' test was required. Sean, motivated by the safety of his kids, passed easily with 2d6, but, as might be expected, Peter and Katie didn't do quite so well .. passing 1d6 and 0d6 respectively requiring that Peter 'Duck Back' and Katie 'Retire'.
I decided that in these circumstances, this meant that the kids had got to the doorway, seen what was going on, and whilst dear-old-dad wasn't phased, they sure as hell weren't going out there!!
Then the Sanity tests demanded by failing the 'See the Feast' tests ... I was so surprised - pleasantly, I might add! - when both passed 2d6! I had convinced myself that one of kids was going to go ga-ga (technical medical term, BTW) there and then, so Stunned was great result!
I decided that in these circumstances, this meant that the kids had got to the doorway, seen what was going on, and whilst dear-old-dad wasn't phased, they sure as hell weren't going out there!!
Then the Sanity tests demanded by failing the 'See the Feast' tests ... I was so surprised - pleasantly, I might add! - when both passed 2d6! I had convinced myself that one of kids was going to go ga-ga (technical medical term, BTW) there and then, so Stunned was great result!
I think that I should mention that both Katie and Peter are Rep 3 cvilians. I had thought about making them Rep 2 as kids are given as an example for that that level of Rep, but decided against it as a) I wanted them to last longer than about 90 seconds and b) I'm not a masochistWith the kids not moving and Sean not about to leave them, I decided that he would spend this activation picking them both up intending to move again next turn (but as carrying 2 kids, I decided he would be unable to Fast Move).
The zombies spent the turn either moving toward the nearest chow-down or chowing-down. I changed the feast counter die down by one number and the one shot fired this turn generated no new zeds.
I was unsure what Officer Newly would do this turn. He was on his own, he'd just shot someone eating a human being and could clearly see several other people doing exactly the same who had in no way reacted to one of their number having the back of his head blown away ...
I mean, what would you do in this situation?
In the end I decided, that he'd go to the cop car - as it was within one move of him - and try and get:
- Help from other cops
- Instructions from the bosses
- Sheet Metal and Toughened Glass between him and the crazy cannibals infesting the streets
Three birds with one stone sounded like a pretty good result to me!
Meanwhile, Sean moved out of the school carrying Katie and Peter. As I said previously, he couldn't Fast Move (however much I wanted him to!) All the zombies within sight (more than three, so the Rep-upping requirement was met) were feasting, so none of them were an issue (for now anyway!). At the end of his move, Sean put Katie and Peter down as they had rounded the corner and were out of LoS of the chow-downs. All 3 of them were mightily relieved to see Jenny come running up to the roadblock, but much less happy to see the one non-feasting Zombie on the board right in front of them!
Note that Jenny's arrival was purely a plot device and she has no impact on the game - see the start of the previous post for details
The zombies didn't activate this turn, not having a high enough activation roll - but much gore was swallowed and spilt! and all the feast counters went down by one ...
Turn 9 - humans 5, zombies 4
Officer Newly jumped into the car, locked all the doors and start fumbling with the radio!
Meanwhile, Sean charged the zombie that stood between his kids and safety. Whilst this was the 'right' thing for him to do, I thought, I feel honour-bound to admit that I also had an eye on the rep-upping requirement of a zombie kill. As he did this, he shouted to the kids to run to Jenny, which they attempted to do with a Fast Move, Katie passing 1d6 and Peter none :( Nevertheless, Jenny was able to move up to them.
Back to Sean and the Zombie ... I was confident of winning this combat, but that evaporated very quickly when despite rolling 4 dice (Rep of 3, +1 for Brawler) against the zombie's 1 dice, Sean only managed one success to the zombie's 1! Uh-oh!
Re-roll One: Sean one success ... zombie one success! getting (More!) nervous now
Re-roll Two: Again, Sean manages one success - hoorah! But so does the zombie! Again! Even nervouser now!
Re-roll Three: Sean gets a success! How long can he keep this up?! Surely the zombie will go down now?! No - another zombie success!! Oh dear! Where's the toilet!?
Re-roll Four: HOO-RAH!! a success for Sean!! DOUBLE HOO-RAH!! THE ZOMBIE FAILS!!! OMG Thank F*ck for that!!
Somewhat anticlimatically, the other zombies keep chowing, not that I was complaining mind you!
Turn 10
As the family was within Fast Move distance of the table edge, and all the zomies were chowing still (although it was the last turn for some of them, none of them would have reached our heroes), I decided that was happened; besides, I needed to calm down a bit!
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| The Family united! |
ATZ Campaign - Batrep 01 (pt1/2)
This post was originally published on my zed-gaming blog 'Down Among the Zed Men' on 11-Dec-2010 and is reproduced here as I've closed that blog.
Well, I've just played my first complete game of ATZ and it was a blast! I haven't made enough card buildings yet for a set-up, and still have a load of unpainted figures, but I got fed up with not actually playing the game, so I thought I'd try Day One from the ATZ rule book.
So to answer the questions in the book (I'm basing my character on myself, but with a few major differences!):
Anyway, where to go on Day One? Well Sean and Jenny are both heading for the kids school first to collect them. Then, once they are united, it's on to Sean's friend Andy's gun-shop to stock up on ammo and weapons, then home to barricade themselves in for a couple of days to see how bad things get. So ...
Day One - Location One, School
I decided that I didn't want to just drive on to the table, stop outside the school, pick up the kids and drive off again, so I determined that there would be a police roadblock preventing Sean's vehicular access to the school. The pic below shows the table laid out; Sean's entry point is the red car in the top left and the school is the big cork-tile building (thanks to Matakishi for the method!). After collecting the kids from there, he has to exit the table via the roadblock next to the police car on the small road that exits the table on the right hand side.
And here is a close-up of the barricade at the exit point. At some point in the game, Jenny would enter the table at this point having left her car off table.
Copying another idea from VtG, I rolled 2d6 to see how many civilians were on-table at the start of the game and placed them as you see in the pic below. Not having any civilian (unarmed that is!) figs, I decided to use my undercoated plastic zeds as civilians (if it's good enough for Whiteface, it's good enough for me!)
Here's a close-up of the 3 outside the 'school' - waiting for their kids perhaps?
Turn 1
Sean arrives (having passed 1d6 for his 'Getting There' test) and finds the police's roadblock sections across the street with a police car behind it, but no sign of the police themselves anywhere. He gets out of the car, intending to get the kids and come back for the car later.
Turn 2 - Sean 5, Zeds 6 (an 11 indicates a cop turns up)
A Cop arrives just as Sean was considering searching the apparently abandoned cop-car for weapons - bummer ... seeing that Sean is unarmed, he politely orders Sean to leave the area.
"Not without my kids!" is Sean's determined reply.
"Be quick!" replies the obviously sympathetic cop "But I never saw you, right?!"
"You got it!" Sean replies as he hurries past
Hurrying to a) get to the kids and b) get away from the cop before he changed his mind! Sean decides to 'Fast Move' (passing 1d6 on the test) towards the school. Here's a close up of him
Turn 4 - Sean 5, Zeds 5 (doubles! indicates 1d6 terrified civilians appear - in this case 3)
3 terrified civilians appear running from the school straight towards Sean! In the ensuing struggle to fight his way through the group to get to his kids, Sean discovered he had a talent for this kind of thing that he'd never known he had! (Sean's starting 'Attribute' is 'Brawler'; +1d6 in melee. As a Star, Sean should have 2 chosen attributes, but in common with other campaigns I've read on blogs, I decided to start him with 1 and gain the second later.) Despite this natural talent, it was still a close-run-thing, with the second guy nearly putting Sean down!
Turn 5 - Sean 4, Zeds 4 - (another double! 6 terrified civies this time!)
It must have been kicking out time or something! As Sean got closer to the school, another group of people came running out and tried to go straight over him!
Fresh from his first ruckus since the schoolyard, Sean waded into the group, desperately trying to reach the school - and managed to reach it!
As this was the first location he had been to, the kids were still there! A very happy Sean was re-united with Peter and Katie!
Turn 6 - Sean 1, Zeds 6 (7 indicates Zeds! appear)
And now the bad news! Zombies appear! As this is a suburban area on Day One it counts as a rural area for determining the number of zombies that appear. A there are eight humans on the board (7 civs, 1 cop - I didn't count Sean and the kids as they were in the school), so 8 times 1/2d6 resulted in 16 zombies! I used a d12 to determine their direction from and the school front door as the point for distance from.
As per p30 of ATZ, the zombies appeared facing the nearest human, and then they moved! After this first attack the score was, zombies 6, civilians 2!
That's enough for now, more to follow later! Time for an english intermission ...
Well, I've just played my first complete game of ATZ and it was a blast! I haven't made enough card buildings yet for a set-up, and still have a load of unpainted figures, but I got fed up with not actually playing the game, so I thought I'd try Day One from the ATZ rule book.
So to answer the questions in the book (I'm basing my character on myself, but with a few major differences!):
- Where are you? Although actually at home, I decided to be at work when the Zed-storm began - after all I am there 5 days out of 7!
- Who are you? So, he is 35, married (to Jenny), has 2 kids - Katie and Peter; Jenny is at work and the kids at school
- Occupation? Business Analyst - works with spreadsheets all day :( rep 3 civilian
- Experience? No military or law enforcement experience; being an American he has fired a gun!
- Where He Lives? Have a house in the 'burbs
- Supplies? Not a big family for stores, there are 4 units of food at the house
- Weapons? There is a pistol at the house, with other assorted improvised weapons plus an hereditary cavalry sabre and a couple of axes
- Vehicles? A 'sporty' 3-door hatchback for him and an SUV for Jenny
- Luxury Items? At home there's enough booze to count as 1 unit, and as he smokes, another unit's worth of cigarettes, plus assorted jewelry, other goods, etc., for one more unit
Anyway, where to go on Day One? Well Sean and Jenny are both heading for the kids school first to collect them. Then, once they are united, it's on to Sean's friend Andy's gun-shop to stock up on ammo and weapons, then home to barricade themselves in for a couple of days to see how bad things get. So ...
Day One - Location One, School
I decided that I didn't want to just drive on to the table, stop outside the school, pick up the kids and drive off again, so I determined that there would be a police roadblock preventing Sean's vehicular access to the school. The pic below shows the table laid out; Sean's entry point is the red car in the top left and the school is the big cork-tile building (thanks to Matakishi for the method!). After collecting the kids from there, he has to exit the table via the roadblock next to the police car on the small road that exits the table on the right hand side.
And here is a close-up of the barricade at the exit point. At some point in the game, Jenny would enter the table at this point having left her car off table.
Copying another idea from VtG, I rolled 2d6 to see how many civilians were on-table at the start of the game and placed them as you see in the pic below. Not having any civilian (unarmed that is!) figs, I decided to use my undercoated plastic zeds as civilians (if it's good enough for Whiteface, it's good enough for me!)
Here's a close-up of the 3 outside the 'school' - waiting for their kids perhaps?
Turn 1
Sean arrives (having passed 1d6 for his 'Getting There' test) and finds the police's roadblock sections across the street with a police car behind it, but no sign of the police themselves anywhere. He gets out of the car, intending to get the kids and come back for the car later.
Turn 2 - Sean 5, Zeds 6 (an 11 indicates a cop turns up)
A Cop arrives just as Sean was considering searching the apparently abandoned cop-car for weapons - bummer ... seeing that Sean is unarmed, he politely orders Sean to leave the area.
"Not without my kids!" is Sean's determined reply.
"Be quick!" replies the obviously sympathetic cop "But I never saw you, right?!"
"You got it!" Sean replies as he hurries past
Turn 3 - Sean 4, Zeds 6
Hurrying to a) get to the kids and b) get away from the cop before he changed his mind! Sean decides to 'Fast Move' (passing 1d6 on the test) towards the school. Here's a close up of him
Turn 4 - Sean 5, Zeds 5 (doubles! indicates 1d6 terrified civilians appear - in this case 3)
3 terrified civilians appear running from the school straight towards Sean! In the ensuing struggle to fight his way through the group to get to his kids, Sean discovered he had a talent for this kind of thing that he'd never known he had! (Sean's starting 'Attribute' is 'Brawler'; +1d6 in melee. As a Star, Sean should have 2 chosen attributes, but in common with other campaigns I've read on blogs, I decided to start him with 1 and gain the second later.) Despite this natural talent, it was still a close-run-thing, with the second guy nearly putting Sean down!
Turn 5 - Sean 4, Zeds 4 - (another double! 6 terrified civies this time!)
It must have been kicking out time or something! As Sean got closer to the school, another group of people came running out and tried to go straight over him!
Fresh from his first ruckus since the schoolyard, Sean waded into the group, desperately trying to reach the school - and managed to reach it!
As this was the first location he had been to, the kids were still there! A very happy Sean was re-united with Peter and Katie!
Turn 6 - Sean 1, Zeds 6 (7 indicates Zeds! appear)
And now the bad news! Zombies appear! As this is a suburban area on Day One it counts as a rural area for determining the number of zombies that appear. A there are eight humans on the board (7 civs, 1 cop - I didn't count Sean and the kids as they were in the school), so 8 times 1/2d6 resulted in 16 zombies! I used a d12 to determine their direction from and the school front door as the point for distance from.
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| The Zombies appear!! |
As per p30 of ATZ, the zombies appeared facing the nearest human, and then they moved! After this first attack the score was, zombies 6, civilians 2!
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| Sean and the kids survey the impending carnage ... |
That's enough for now, more to follow later! Time for an english intermission ...
Edited: Inspiration has struck! I have a figure and name for 'him' and have changed his wife's name in the above as a result, but left his name as is, as changing that would have been too much of a change IMO
Uncontrolled Archangel Incident ...
This post was originally published on my zed-gaming blog 'Down Among the Zed Men' on 18-Nov-2010 and is reproduced here as I've closed that blog, and I like it!
Transcript of audio file recovered from Base Michael, West of Erie, Pennsylvania; author verified by voice pattern and testimony as Sgt Raymond Wilkins, US Army (retd) employed as security guard at base; dated 28-Apr-2022. Throughout the recording there is the sound of a low repeated noise in the background; analysis has revealed it is likely to be a metal door being repeatedly struck
If you’da betted on what profession would cause the end of the world, what would you've picked? Virologist? Them Scientists at CERN? Or maybe a safe choice like politician?
I know I wouldn’t have picked archaeologist ... but it will be down to them if those things get out ...
I'm telling the end before the beginning though; guess I better get this sorted out ...
[PAUSE - SOUND OF CARBONATED DRINKS CAN OPENING]
That's better ...
I've been here since it was just another dig for Native American artifacts ... the first group from Miskatonic University had come here to try and find a burial ground mentioned in some accounts from the very first settler accounts and they hired me on as a guide to the area. Well, once we'd found the place they started paying me to look after it at night instead ... keepin the local kids and newshounds out ... easy work and good money, so why not? That was back in ... oh, oh-eight I reckon.
[SLURPING NOISES]
Anyways, things were going so well, they was still bringing stuff up after 6 months foolin' around in the mud, so they bring in this underground radar thingy - shows you what's down there without havin' to dig loads of pointless holes. I was there when they found it; they'd been radarin' the ground all day, and were just about to finish, when the kids runnin' this thing start shoutin' "No Way, Man!" 'n' "You gotta be kiddin' me!" 'n' all kindsa stuff like that ...
Anyways, seems they found some kind of metal dome 'bout 40 foot under the diggin's they'd already made an' if they hadn't of done those, they woulda never found it. Well, all the people here went absolutely apeshit with excitement, and then, within a week, men in black - federal types - are swarmin' all over the place like bugs on shit ... they kept me on, as they reckoned I was trustworthy havin' bin in the army, and made me shift supervisor for night security ... there was certainly more of us looking after the place after that, I can tell you!
So it stays mad here for a coupla years all told ... all the Miskatonic guys are kicked off site and the federal government builds an office block right on top of the place where the dome was and it gets chockful of lab geeks. I Googled a few of the names of the geeks who signed in day-after-day ... turns out they're nearly all archeologists, with a few physicists ... mosta them only had college entries - nothing later than that. That's when I got careful and stopped looking - people like that only have a worlda hurt attached them if you keep diggin' ...
While they was digging the basements for the block, they go down and dig right round this dome, but I never got to see it ... they kept it covered up the whole time - they had army engineers doin' the diggin' as well.
[SLURPING NOISES]
Anyways ... more and more people starting coming to work here as time passed. There was so many labcoats and soldiers I was startin' to think it was like that Stargate programme I watched when I was a kid ... but I never found out what the hell was goin' on down there, and I guess I never will now ...
So, I been here 14 years now ... been easy work and good money the whole time - until today that is ... tonight I arrived at twenty-hundred hours local, and Jim 'n' me do the handover as usual, then he buggered off home at twenty-fifteen. Seems a bunch of the geeks was still downstairs workin' on something - no change there, though.
[SLURPING NOISES]
That's better ... at twenty-three-oh-six, all hell breaks loose - sirens, red lights the works! I had to look at the procedures manual just to see what the fuck it all meant! Turns out there was a 'Code Alpha Security Breach' which the book said meant
So I got Bob to ring the boss, and called up the response team leader as I ran from the security office by the gate to the main building. I knew the shit musta really hit the fan, as us security grunts ain't normally allowed in the main building ... I get there and find the elevator is locked down and the fire stairs is all locked up ... bit of an anti-climax after all those lights 'n' sirens. Bob manages to get them all turned off after a coupla minutes and everythin' went back to the usual quiet.
Not for long though, I'm stood there for about fifteen or so, and then the response team come pilin' in the main doors, followed by the boss-man ... I dunno what branch those guys was from, but their eyes told me they'd seen some serious shit ... I'd served and I knew regular equipment when I saw it, and I kept up-to-date with what was bein' issued - professional curiousity - but I'd never seen what the stuff they was carryin' before ...
They takes a quick look round and head over to the stairs, and then open the door ... what a great dispersal! Never seen anythin' that good before - these guys 'n' gals were shit-hot. They start down the stairs and the boss follows them - 'Stay here' he says to me 'If anything apart from us comes up the stairs, get to the communications office, call this number and report an uncontrolled archangel incident' and he gives me a white card with a Washington DC number on it - that's it, just a number - no name ...
And I didn't realize it then, but he said anyTHING not anyONE ...
So I'm waiting there for them to come back - I'd heard the security door down at the bottom open so I knew they'd got in alright ... I'm getting bored, so me 'n' Bob start shootin' the shit on the walkie-talkie when I hear sounds of gunfire from down the stairs; I turned off the walkie so I could hear better and I could hear screams start mixin' in with the gunfire ... then there's breaking glass and the light at the bottom of the stairs goes out
Something made me start goin' down the stairs, like I was being pulled down, real slow, but definitely pulled ... next thing I realise is I'm halfway down the first flight of stairs and the gunfire and screams have stopped - it only lasted a coupla minutes, but it seemed like forever ...
[BACKGROUND THUMPING IS GETTING GRADUALLY LOUDER; SPEAKER INCREASES VOLUME TO TALK OVER IT]
Then I hear moaning coming up the stairs - I thought it might be part of the team tryin' to get out so I start down the stairs towards it, but as I go, I realise it sounds like twenty-or-so people down there ... so I stop and, I'm big enough to admit it, I was startin' to get scared ... edging back up the stairs, I was looking down the gap in the middle tryin' to see what's there, when I see a blood-covered hand on the rail ... shit, that made me jump and I missed the step behind me - bang! I fall right on my arse and the walkie-talkie bounces once and falls down the gap ...
[SLURPING NOISES]
I get off my arse quicker than I'd done in the last twenty years and get back to the top of the stairs, turnin' round when I get there to see what was down there ...
Jeeeesusss-Christ-on-a-bike if it weren't the boss man walkin' up the stairs with a bunch of the lab-geeks right behind him, only now, his entrails was hanging out of his guts and his face 'n' hands is covered in blood! all the labguys was just as bad, if not worse and it's all of them making the noises as they come trudging up the stairs ...
It'd be nice to say I did the sensible thing and closed the door, but the truth is I shat myself and ran for the front door ... but it was locked. I managed to find my key, but the bossman musta done somethin' to it, 'cos my key didn't work anymore ...
Shit - they found me ... I thought it'd only be a matter of time; best I get this finished, then. Thinking of the boss I remembered that card and the comms room and my duty came back to me like a stick to an old man. I pulled my pistol and headed off to the comms room; trouble was, I had to go back past the elevator and stairs ...
When I got there those ... things on the stairs had got to the top and seeing me was like a rabbit to a greyhound and they starts shufflin' toward me; BLAM! BLAM! I shoot the bossman twice and he goes down - but then starts gettin' up again!
[BACKGROUND THUMPING IS STILL INCREASING IN VOLUME; SPEAKER AGAIN INCREASES VOLUME TO TALK OVER IT]
That almost broke me right there, but I just kept it together and ran as fast as I could to this here comms room, where I managed to lock the door behind me thank christ, as those things were right behind me ...
[SPEAKER IS PRACTICALLY SHOUTING NOW]
They're batterin' on the door tryin' to get it an' I bet it ain't to say 'hello' neither ... I called the number on the card and this computer voice says 'Report' ... I lost it and shouted 'You gotta help me! There's these things trying to get me!' and the voice just says 'Report' again. 'FUCKIN' UNCONTROLLED ARCHANGEL INCIDENT YOU BASTARD!!' I shout into the thing and all it does is say 'Acknowledged' and the line goes fuckin' dead!
[CRASHING SOUND - ASSUMED TO BE DOOR COLLAPSING]
SHIT! They're in!!
[4 GUNSHOTS; LOUD MOANS; SCREAMS; THEN CONTINUOUS MOANING]
[TRANSCRIPT ENDS]
Transcript of audio file recovered from Base Michael, West of Erie, Pennsylvania; author verified by voice pattern and testimony as Sgt Raymond Wilkins, US Army (retd) employed as security guard at base; dated 28-Apr-2022. Throughout the recording there is the sound of a low repeated noise in the background; analysis has revealed it is likely to be a metal door being repeatedly struck
If you’da betted on what profession would cause the end of the world, what would you've picked? Virologist? Them Scientists at CERN? Or maybe a safe choice like politician?
I know I wouldn’t have picked archaeologist ... but it will be down to them if those things get out ...
I'm telling the end before the beginning though; guess I better get this sorted out ...
[PAUSE - SOUND OF CARBONATED DRINKS CAN OPENING]
That's better ...
I've been here since it was just another dig for Native American artifacts ... the first group from Miskatonic University had come here to try and find a burial ground mentioned in some accounts from the very first settler accounts and they hired me on as a guide to the area. Well, once we'd found the place they started paying me to look after it at night instead ... keepin the local kids and newshounds out ... easy work and good money, so why not? That was back in ... oh, oh-eight I reckon.
[SLURPING NOISES]
Anyways, things were going so well, they was still bringing stuff up after 6 months foolin' around in the mud, so they bring in this underground radar thingy - shows you what's down there without havin' to dig loads of pointless holes. I was there when they found it; they'd been radarin' the ground all day, and were just about to finish, when the kids runnin' this thing start shoutin' "No Way, Man!" 'n' "You gotta be kiddin' me!" 'n' all kindsa stuff like that ...
Anyways, seems they found some kind of metal dome 'bout 40 foot under the diggin's they'd already made an' if they hadn't of done those, they woulda never found it. Well, all the people here went absolutely apeshit with excitement, and then, within a week, men in black - federal types - are swarmin' all over the place like bugs on shit ... they kept me on, as they reckoned I was trustworthy havin' bin in the army, and made me shift supervisor for night security ... there was certainly more of us looking after the place after that, I can tell you!
So it stays mad here for a coupla years all told ... all the Miskatonic guys are kicked off site and the federal government builds an office block right on top of the place where the dome was and it gets chockful of lab geeks. I Googled a few of the names of the geeks who signed in day-after-day ... turns out they're nearly all archeologists, with a few physicists ... mosta them only had college entries - nothing later than that. That's when I got careful and stopped looking - people like that only have a worlda hurt attached them if you keep diggin' ...
While they was digging the basements for the block, they go down and dig right round this dome, but I never got to see it ... they kept it covered up the whole time - they had army engineers doin' the diggin' as well.
[SLURPING NOISES]
Anyways ... more and more people starting coming to work here as time passed. There was so many labcoats and soldiers I was startin' to think it was like that Stargate programme I watched when I was a kid ... but I never found out what the hell was goin' on down there, and I guess I never will now ...
So, I been here 14 years now ... been easy work and good money the whole time - until today that is ... tonight I arrived at twenty-hundred hours local, and Jim 'n' me do the handover as usual, then he buggered off home at twenty-fifteen. Seems a bunch of the geeks was still downstairs workin' on something - no change there, though.
[SLURPING NOISES]
That's better ... at twenty-three-oh-six, all hell breaks loose - sirens, red lights the works! I had to look at the procedures manual just to see what the fuck it all meant! Turns out there was a 'Code Alpha Security Breach' which the book said meant
'contamination from Base Gabriel; inform site commandant
and response team immediately; security supervisor to ensure
ground level access to sub-ground secure'
and response team immediately; security supervisor to ensure
ground level access to sub-ground secure'
So I got Bob to ring the boss, and called up the response team leader as I ran from the security office by the gate to the main building. I knew the shit musta really hit the fan, as us security grunts ain't normally allowed in the main building ... I get there and find the elevator is locked down and the fire stairs is all locked up ... bit of an anti-climax after all those lights 'n' sirens. Bob manages to get them all turned off after a coupla minutes and everythin' went back to the usual quiet.
Not for long though, I'm stood there for about fifteen or so, and then the response team come pilin' in the main doors, followed by the boss-man ... I dunno what branch those guys was from, but their eyes told me they'd seen some serious shit ... I'd served and I knew regular equipment when I saw it, and I kept up-to-date with what was bein' issued - professional curiousity - but I'd never seen what the stuff they was carryin' before ...
They takes a quick look round and head over to the stairs, and then open the door ... what a great dispersal! Never seen anythin' that good before - these guys 'n' gals were shit-hot. They start down the stairs and the boss follows them - 'Stay here' he says to me 'If anything apart from us comes up the stairs, get to the communications office, call this number and report an uncontrolled archangel incident' and he gives me a white card with a Washington DC number on it - that's it, just a number - no name ...
And I didn't realize it then, but he said anyTHING not anyONE ...
So I'm waiting there for them to come back - I'd heard the security door down at the bottom open so I knew they'd got in alright ... I'm getting bored, so me 'n' Bob start shootin' the shit on the walkie-talkie when I hear sounds of gunfire from down the stairs; I turned off the walkie so I could hear better and I could hear screams start mixin' in with the gunfire ... then there's breaking glass and the light at the bottom of the stairs goes out
Something made me start goin' down the stairs, like I was being pulled down, real slow, but definitely pulled ... next thing I realise is I'm halfway down the first flight of stairs and the gunfire and screams have stopped - it only lasted a coupla minutes, but it seemed like forever ...
[BACKGROUND THUMPING IS GETTING GRADUALLY LOUDER; SPEAKER INCREASES VOLUME TO TALK OVER IT]
Then I hear moaning coming up the stairs - I thought it might be part of the team tryin' to get out so I start down the stairs towards it, but as I go, I realise it sounds like twenty-or-so people down there ... so I stop and, I'm big enough to admit it, I was startin' to get scared ... edging back up the stairs, I was looking down the gap in the middle tryin' to see what's there, when I see a blood-covered hand on the rail ... shit, that made me jump and I missed the step behind me - bang! I fall right on my arse and the walkie-talkie bounces once and falls down the gap ...
[SLURPING NOISES]
I get off my arse quicker than I'd done in the last twenty years and get back to the top of the stairs, turnin' round when I get there to see what was down there ...
Jeeeesusss-Christ-on-a-bike if it weren't the boss man walkin' up the stairs with a bunch of the lab-geeks right behind him, only now, his entrails was hanging out of his guts and his face 'n' hands is covered in blood! all the labguys was just as bad, if not worse and it's all of them making the noises as they come trudging up the stairs ...
It'd be nice to say I did the sensible thing and closed the door, but the truth is I shat myself and ran for the front door ... but it was locked. I managed to find my key, but the bossman musta done somethin' to it, 'cos my key didn't work anymore ...
Shit - they found me ... I thought it'd only be a matter of time; best I get this finished, then. Thinking of the boss I remembered that card and the comms room and my duty came back to me like a stick to an old man. I pulled my pistol and headed off to the comms room; trouble was, I had to go back past the elevator and stairs ...
When I got there those ... things on the stairs had got to the top and seeing me was like a rabbit to a greyhound and they starts shufflin' toward me; BLAM! BLAM! I shoot the bossman twice and he goes down - but then starts gettin' up again!
[BACKGROUND THUMPING IS STILL INCREASING IN VOLUME; SPEAKER AGAIN INCREASES VOLUME TO TALK OVER IT]
That almost broke me right there, but I just kept it together and ran as fast as I could to this here comms room, where I managed to lock the door behind me thank christ, as those things were right behind me ...
[SPEAKER IS PRACTICALLY SHOUTING NOW]
They're batterin' on the door tryin' to get it an' I bet it ain't to say 'hello' neither ... I called the number on the card and this computer voice says 'Report' ... I lost it and shouted 'You gotta help me! There's these things trying to get me!' and the voice just says 'Report' again. 'FUCKIN' UNCONTROLLED ARCHANGEL INCIDENT YOU BASTARD!!' I shout into the thing and all it does is say 'Acknowledged' and the line goes fuckin' dead!
[CRASHING SOUND - ASSUMED TO BE DOOR COLLAPSING]
SHIT! They're in!!
[4 GUNSHOTS; LOUD MOANS; SCREAMS; THEN CONTINUOUS MOANING]
[TRANSCRIPT ENDS]
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