Gaming Life: Return to War of the Dead Campaign Session 3 – Bennies A’Burning

Having survived a helicopter crash, escaped Augusta, Georgia in an SUV, and successfully fought off a biker gang attack, we find the loved ones of our main heroes continuing on the road to Atlanta, Georgia, and the main HQ of the CDC.

You can find Session 1 here and Session 2 here.

Tonight’s session begins with our group finding a pile up blocking the highway. They decide prudently to slow down and a few of them get out to check things out. They discover a few of the walking dead wandering around the scene.

The bennies start flying right off the bat as they leap onto cars to get a better view of what the situation is and to try to find a way through it. The zombies manages to team up on one of the women and bites her. The bennies don’t save her from suffering a wound and… possibly infection. The shots begin to fly and they decide they need to get out of here.

The herbalist notices a path through the wrecks and the rest of the group piles into the SUV as they drive through it, running over several of the zombies on their way. As they leave the area, the burglar notices that the grass is all trampled down around them and realizes it’s been like that since they left Augusta. No one says it, but everyone has a bad feeling about it.

Their concerns are soon confirmed as a dust cloud is sighted on the horizon and looking through the binoculars they can see the walking dead filling the horizon to either side of them, hundreds and thousands of them, all moving toward Atlanta. There’s a brief discussion of running through them, but they realize this would be suicide and, looking at the map, decide to backtrack and take an alternate route through a park to the north.

Just outside the park, one of the players asks if there’s an information station. Sure, I say. He goes up to it, knocks on the door and sure enough a moan comes from inside. He opens the door and quickly knocks the living dead attendant down and dispatches her. He loots the station (not finding much), but does get what he was looking for – a map of the park. He locates the camp ranger’s station and they take a back road to it.

They arrive to find the station is a house, a barn and a small tower over looking the main road (they entered from the bottom of the map, the top of the map is the main road).

This was a real advantage to them, as I had a group of cannibals holed up here. They had a whole ambush planned for the main road, including ropes across the highway to catch motorcyclists and tire spikes. Unfortunately, they rode their motorcycles into the area, spoiling any surprise. And further bad luck, one of them decided to ride around the barn on the main road and rolled a double 1s as she went around, which I determined meant she hit the rope and was knocked off her bike and unconscious for a few seconds.

Meanwhile, the herbalist checked out the barn and noticed a car and fresh tracks showing it had been recently used. As the kid and burglar walked up to the house, she walked across the grounds and then – a shot. A deadly three wound sniper shot hit her hard, knocking her to the ground, but her last benny managed to reduce it to one wound.

Bursting out the front door is a madman wielding two machetes. He attacks the burglar ferociously, and the kid sneaks up along the house to get a peek at the sniper.

The unconscious woman wakes to find herself on the ground with a very sore neck,  her motorcycle running nearby and a man with a rifle peeking around the barn at the rest of her friends. With quick thinking, she drew a flare from her pack and pressed it against him and pressed the trigger. Flares launched into his body, bursting inside him and killing him instantly.

The kid opened up with his pistol on the sniper and the herbalist on the ground recovered enough to get her carbine up and unloaded a 3-round burst into him, dropping him from his perch.

Meanwhile, back at the house, a raging fight between the madman with machetes finished with him escaping into the house and being gunned down by the FBI agent as he failed to ambush them on the second floor. 

The group searched the premises and found a store of bodies in the barn in various states of carving. They realized that the meat in the fridges wasn’t from hunting, at least not in the traditional sense. Nevertheless, they looted what they could and holed up there for the night, getting some much-needed rest and recuperation.

One of the women decided to take watch in the tower and late at night, she heard motorcycles coming. She watched as they passed, headed toward Atlanta.

The next day, they loaded up their SUV, ditched their motorcycles and took the car from the barn and headed out toward Atlanta.

They found a couple on the side of the road a few hours later stranded. After a tense, but brief exchange, they decided to barter trade and gave them some gas for a kevlar vest. The couple warn them that Atlanta is overrun and that they should avoid the relocation camps. And yes, they did see a couple motorcyclists go by.

The next stop was the CDC HQ in Atlanta. They arrive late that evening to find a very fortified compound with soldiers and humvees guarding the gate (we failed to get a picture of this!).

The FBI agent approaches and explains who she is and they let the group enter. Once inside, they stop them and order them to leave their vehicles. Once outside, they order them to drop all their weapons (they all keep some hidden) and then begin handcuffing them all and explain to the FBI agent that she is under arrest. In the distance, they can see fence lines and tents and hear people’s voices.

And, the session ended here. Next session starts with them in the relocation camp controlled by the CDC. What could possibly go wrong with that?