The Crabby Old Lady from the end of the block
After the third call in as many nights from Old Lady Ketchum, the precinct captain finally dispatched a car out to her place. Despite her previous complaints to the police about neighbors who were holding gatherings of a “lascivious nature;” the O’Malley twins and their numerous attempts to terrorize her many cats; and her general griping about “how the neighborhood was going down the crapper” to anyone who would listen, Mrs. Ketchum still had some clout over the town and its officials. One call placed to City Hall and one long and drawn out conversation with the Mayor–who happened to be her grandson–and the police precinct could become a very uncomfortable place to work. The Captain was then left with the decision as to who would be the unfortunate soul who would have to drive out to the edge of town and invariably have to listen to protestations of an 83-year-old bitty for an hour and a half. Surprisingly, the decision resolved itself fairly quickly as the Captain reviewed the nightly roll call. Detective Sullivan was on duty, and after the fiasco last month, the Detective was the man for the job.
Detective Sullivan
Sullivan then had the unsavory job of selecting a few constables to ride along to give the response some weight–to give the old lady the appearance that precinct actually cared. Knowing that it was a lost cause, and Sullivan would invariably make foes of yet more of the local police force, he closed his eyes, ran down the duty roster and selected four names: Constables Elmer “Lucky” Nickels, Milton Matchinski, Buck Collins, and Wallace O’Neil. It was a long and painfully silent ride out to the Ketchum Place.
“Finally, you’ve come! You know the mayor is my grandson. One call to him and I could have the whole police force out on their ears. In my day…” Mrs Ketchum continued on her rant for five more minutes. Nobody could get a word in edgewise. When she finally got to the point, Sullivan was only half listening. “There’s hootin’ and hollerin’ and all sorts of strange sounds going on at the bone yard. I’ve seen all sorts of lights and a mist coming from up the hill. I called about it three nights ago and it is still going on! I think its those onesdown the street having another one of their lurid gatherings. I tell you, the outfits these girls wear. I can see their knees!”
The unfortunate constables.
Eventually, Sullivan was able to quell Mrs. Ketchum’s tirade with an assurance that the police did take these complaints seriously from “concerned citizens” and would investigate further. Expecting to find some teenage punks or on the off-chance some bootleggers–always a lucrative collar–the small posse drove up the hill to the oldest graveyard in South Moormount.
A bird’s eye view of the terrain. Recreated at home under different lighting conditions…
I attempted to run the scenario a little bit differently as I had six players I wanted to try this game out with; each person would play either a constable or Sullivan–none of whom I wanted to be Threshold agent, just some unlucky fellows at the wrong place at the wrong time. The setup was fairly simple, a low brick wall surrounded the cemetery on three sides and a dense forest ran along the back behind the main crypt. The police would enter through the gates and advance towards a strange and glowing mist. I added a little flare, as the characters moved past a certain point on the board, they began rolling, on the roll of a one someone would invariably trip/bump into something/make a loud and clumsy mistake, which would alert the zombies recently risen from the grave and send a shadowy figure bolting into the woods.
Bootleggers?
“In my day…”
Light effect achieved by simple dollar store multicolour LED and sheep fleece.
Not bootleggers!
Constable Nickels drops one zombie and is quickly confronted with another.
With inhuman moans and gasps the undead shamble towards their first meal.
The sight and smell of the unholy monstrosities cause Constables Collins and Matchinski to flee
Detective Sullivan unwisely decides to stay and meet Morty and his little friend “Chuckles.” He quickly receives a minor wound and is removed from the game
Initially to add a little intrigue to the story as the scenario ended, a black coupe was going to slow down, observe the happenings and then speed away. However with the injury of the Detective, the police needed a little help to move the game along, so the coupe stops and an unknown man jumps out and starts yelling at the officers to get out of there–the thought being that there were more Threshold agents going to arrive and mop up the situation and the fewer the witnesses the better.
Despite repeated calls to back off, the cops blazed away…
Strange Aeons zombie priest and bride. Rather unexpectedly we are waiting for the groom, who stopped off for a quick bite to eat..
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