Game summary for May 17, 2008; present players included Casey S., Colby W., John O., and Shane B. We played a custom-written adventure I designed for All Flesh Must Be Eaten set in the Weird West called Diablo Gulch. We spent 5 hours playing and successfully concluded the adventure.
The characters, Brock Hollis, Jed Pinard, Jose Cortes, and Wyatt Wells rode into Diablo Gulch, New Mexico Territory after riding for over a day to escape a Ute war party. Exhausted, out of supplies, and low on ammunition, they sought a shot of whiskey and a night’s sleep. Entering the town, they spotted a man tottering around with his pants down around his ankles. As they approached, the man turned around and revealed a bloody torso, buzzing flies, and swarming maggots all over his body. He waddled toward them hungrily. A young woman shouted at them from the upper floor of the undertaker’s office to get their horses safe into the stable; she said it was vital the horses survive so they could escape.
The group hurried into the stables and found a body lying face down with a shovel rammed through the spine. They quickly searched the stable and found a pair of zombies within. Jose shot the walking corpses through the head, but it kept coming. Brock began beating the creature with his axe handle, while Wyatt knee-capped the shuffling, pants-down zombie and locked it in a stall. The group discovered that the spinal column must be severed to kill the creatures, and the zombies could function fine without a brain. During the scuffle, Brock took a nasty bite as the creature gnawed through his boot and nibbled his big toe.
With the creatures dispatched, the four crept (in broad daylight) across the street and over to the undertaker. Several climbed upstairs and in through a window to talk to the woman, Marley. She revealed that the creatures appeared close to a week ago, and she had not seen a living human in a couple days now. Marley told them the creatures seemed to sense living people and could find you even when they cannot see you. Meanwhile, Brock stirred up a bunch of zombies around back and came running around to climb up the front of the building. From the upper floor, the group shot the zombies dead and looted the bodies.
In the marshal’s office, the group found the zombie of the deputy marshal and a prostitute. Jed lost an ear to a munching zombie and was deafened when Wyatt put a gun in the zombie’s face and shot it while it chewed on Jed. Next door, in the grocery, Jed discovered the zombies can spit some kind of acidic spray that dissolves flesh. A face-first dunking in a water trough got it off of him.
Later, in the dry goods store, two zombies were killed, and lots of ammunition and dynamite was discovered. Grinning, the group ran over to the bank. Within, they discovered the mutilated corpse of the bank manager, along with the vault key. Opening the vault revealed five zombies, one of which sprayed acid into Brock’s eyes. Wyatt and Jose slammed the door shut and locked it, but not before they noticed money bags and a golden amulet on one of the zombies. Leaving for a time, they explored the saloon and found a shotgun.
With only the brothel left to explore, the men went in and cleared the building. Within, they found a journal that described a prospector’s finding of an Indian burial mound, which he pillaged. Included was a golden amulet, which sounded suspiciously like the one in the bank vault. The group went back to the bank, setup in strategic locations and let the zombies out. Using superior position, the men destroyed the zombies with ease. They took all the gold in the vault but left the amulet. A cluster of dynamite brought the bank down and destroyed the amulet, which de-animated all the remaining zombies.
With bags laden with golden coins, and sporting some interesting new scars, the four men led their horses out of Diablo Gulch without once looking back.
