Game summary for October 27, 2018, Splinter campaign, Dread Roleplaying Game, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Amanda Raine Johnson (Human played by Casey Scruggs as secondary), Aspen Morning Joy (Human played by Kaliegh Averdick), Dale Danger Dickerson (Human played by Taylor Averdick), Franklin Wilson Horner (Human played by Shane Bradley as secondary), Gary Dean McDonald (Human played by Shane Bradley), Kenneth Lamont Digby (Human played by Andrew Renfrow), Monty Harold Inigo (Human played by Casey Scruggs), and Moose Jamison (Human played by Shane Bradley as secondary). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.
A flash of light illuminated more trees. Miles and miles of trees. The occasional raindrop splattered upon the van’s windshield, one of the few sounds other than the infrequent rattle of handcuff chains. It was late, close to midnight, and there were still many miles to go on this prisoner transport. The police escort pulled off several miles back with a flat tire. A sheriff’s deputy was supposed to meet up with the van a few miles up ahead until the escort could catch back up. Boredom set in, and several of the inmates were talking to fill the time. Gary and Ken made it pretty clear they were planning to run a tight, and maybe somewhat abusive, ship on this run. Dale and Monty were handcuffed together, and Aspen was handcuffed to herself.
Distant thunder rumbled again. As the vehicle crested a hill, the lights of a service station came into view. It appeared to have four pumps, and the interior looked like it may include some kind of small grocery or gift shop.
Suddenly, an injured deer hurtled into the road. It moved awkwardly, and there was blood on its fur. It appeared to move directly toward the van, and there was no time to avoid it! The van smashed into the animal as the driver swerved drastically. Glass shattered, the van fish tailed, and on this hill, the vehicle flipped and rolled sending people bouncing all around!
Bits of splattered deer gore rained across one of the pumps, and the van skidded to a stop with a crash up against the curb by the pumps. Another ten feet or so, and it would have slammed into them!
Gary went into the service station to call for help while Ken helped the prisoners out of the wreckage. There did not appear to be an attendant, so Gary used the phone behind the counter and spoke with a 911 dispatcher who said a sheriff’s deputy should be there soon. He came back out, and they took the prisoners into the station.
This was a small and modern-ish service station. You would guess it was built within the last 30 years or so. Moths flit about old fluorescent lights in the overhang covering four pumps. At some point, this station installed modern pumps with credit card readers. It appeared two of the pumps also had diesel options. A big ice cooler sat outside the doors alongside a cage containing five propane tanks for grills. The front and side of the building were mostly glass windows, and it appeared there was currently a sale on Mudlight beer. The front door was a swinging glass door with a metal push bar on the back side. Through the windows you could see a fairly average store filled with coolers for drinks, chips and other junk food, and the penguin logo for the Chillee frozen drink line. Looked like they have cherry and cola. Cigarettes were in a glass case behind the register, but they do not see an attendant.
Inside, the inmates begged to be uncuffed, especially Aspen who complained she could not pee while cuffed. They refused, so Aspen squatted at Gary’s feet and peed everywhere! He shoved her over. She then opened the bathroom door. Something terrible had happened in this tiny restroom. Droplets of blood spattered the mirror, sink, urinal, and toilet. The torn body of a young man lay in a heap before the toilet. He wore a smock or vest with the gas station logo on it. Some kind of black fuzz or hair covered his skin, and it twitched as if blown by a breeze. With a sickening sound, the man’s body lurched upward and scuttled toward the door awkwardly, using a leg, an arm, and its head as limbs. The other arm and leg reached out eagerly!
They slammed the door shut and fell back. They ran toward the front of the store, and the head of the deer they hit along with one leg had crawled up the door and was trying to get through! It too was covered in strange spikey black spines and thrashed against the door as the group locked it. Gary and Ken found flashlights and batteries, but they were in blister packs. They went to the office and found a box knife and razor blades, one of which Aspen stole. Ken then began flashing the inmates in the eyes with his flashlight as some kind of intimidation tactic.
The group decided to go through the storeroom and out the back. There, they found a very small German Smart car. Ken uncuffed Dale and Monty so Monty could try and hotwire the car. The used a flashlight to shatter the window. A grunt, a roar, perhaps a shriek? Some terrible sound rent the night air, and the bushes along the woods rattled and crashed. A black-furred creature, a bear, emerged from the tree line and emitted that same sound. The bear seemed worse for wear. Its fur was matted and bloody, and it spasmed and jerked as it moved. Black spines or quills quivered in the air poking out from open wounds. Its gait was strange and alien, and it lurched forward quickly, the sound of bones grinding the wrong directions crackling with each movement.
Dale, Gary, and Ken climbed the ladder on the back of the building to the roof while Aspen and Monty fled back into the station. Inside, Monty picked the locks on Aspen’s handcuffs. Somehow, this strange bear beast climbed the ladder to the roof! Gary and Ken tried to throw Dale to it but failed. A scuffle ensued, and the bear caught Gary and ripped him in half! It threw his upper torso off the building, and it seemed to merge with his legs as tendrils burst out of its flesh and tissue to plunge into Gary’s. Ken did a fireman’s drop down the ladder and found a mountain of a man, Moose, down at the bottom. Dale quickly joined them. In a panic, they burst through the door which slammed into Monty and caused him to fall forward and impale himself upon a piece of rebar she had picked up. Suddenly, a female hiker came running out of the woods as well. The group gathered back inside the station.
They tried to get the keys from the body in the restroom and were attacked. The hand got severed and scuttled about until the group could catch it in a giant cheese puffs container. Out front, the sheriff’s deputy arrived and was brutally killed by the bear thing which then incorporated her body as well. As if that were not enough, the top half of Gary animated with the same black infestation! It began pounding on the windows. The group made a run for the deputy’s car, got in, but the bear landed on it, damaging it badly, and then the team managed to get out and back into the station before an explosion rocked the outside.
Next, the group used fire to keep the one in the bathroom at bay long enough to steal the keys to the Smart car. They sent Amanda and Aspen for help. Meanwhile, Ken, Moose, and Dale went into the station and went to hide in the office until they smelled smoke. They opened the back door and were attacked by the bear creature, and Moose was bitten on the ankle. Then, with an ambulance they had found at a crash site overrun with these monsters, Aspen and Amanda returned, driving backwards trying to avoid the bear. The group was able to get into the ambulance, and they sped off into the night back toward the prison.
Inside the ambulance, they learned Moose’s leg as infected, so Dale amputated. Then, a storm came upon them causing a tree to block the road. Dale decided to inject himself with adrenaline and rushed out to move the tree. In the attempt, he was struck dead by lightning! The group carefully took the ambulance off road and went around the fallen tree. The spoke with the prison with the radio, but by the time they got there, things look suspicious, so they by-passed and drove to What, Oklahoma.
There, they found a hospital and went inside. Moose was taken immediately to the ER. Ken, Aspen, and Amanda were questioned by an officer, and they learned a teenager may be infected in the E.R. Investigating, they learned he was and had infected numerous doctors. It then infected the questioning officer! Aspen used hairspray and a lighter to burn him and the body of the teen. He opened fire and shot and killed Moose as he hobbled around the corner on his crutches.
The team ran out as chaos descended upon the hospital. They jumped in the ambulance alongside a man named Franklin. He instantly started hitting on Aspen and Amanda. They all agreed to go to his house for guns. Once there, they learned he didn’t have many useful things there, and they were attacked by his infected cat! In the scuffle, Amanda sacrificed herself to save the rest. Aspen accidentally discovered hairspray kills the black stuff. A call to the CDC later, and the team became the heroes of the country and their cure was spread in usage across the nation!
