The Story So Far - Part 9 - "Vermin & Vitality"

"The Story So Far" is an ongoing series recanting the details of a Dungeons & Dragons campaign that I've been running since 2002. Links to the previous entries can be found here:  

Prologue    Part I    Part II    Part III    Part IV    Part V    Part VI    Part VII  Part VIII

I've "fictionalized" the session reports in a likely-vain attempt to make them more "entertaining."   

And now, our story continues...

Reacting to Bria’s warning, Pol hit the dirt just as a massive guillotine-like blade stabbed down from above. Even though this prevented the fighter from getting waaaay too much taken off the top, she still felt the blade bite into her armored shoulder. Wounded but unbowed, she then used her impressive strength to woman-handle the razor-sharp blade out of the path of her peers.

The way now clear, the explorers pressed on into the vault. At first glance, the chambers appeared to be nothing more than a storage room with three chests sitting along the far wall. Contrary to the sparse decor, Elster seemed to be relieved by the state of the place.

"The hobgoblins must not have gotten this far...nothing looks disturbed. That's  good...most of our wealth is contained within these four chests."

"It doesn’t look like much," Bria sniffed, clearly disappointed that they weren't about to take a dip in a swimmable level of gold coins.

"Despite tall tales of great dwarven riches, there is relatively little treasure here at any one time.” Elster explained. “Much of our gold is actually kept outside the stronghold, buried deep in the vaults of Deepdelve or in the possession of traveling merchants. In fact, several shipments of dwarven weapons and armor have yet to be paid for, and likely never will be, unless we recapture the fortress."

Sensing the proximity of more treasure than she’d ever encountered in her hard-scrabble life, Bria made the snap decision to start multi-classing as a rogue / accountant. Before Elster could warn her that the chests were likely trapped, she’d already disabled the device protecting the smaller, iron-bound box and thrown it open. As soon as everyone was assured that nothing would explode, they clustered around, peeking inside to find a “Potion of Haste” and three-hundred glittering gold Crowns.

The second chest was slightly larger, about two feet long, eighteen inches wide and one foot deep. This time the thief was reckless in her haste and a poisoned needle sprang from the case and penetrated her armor. Fortunately, Roman had been anticipating just such an occurrence, and he was quick to rush in and batter the rogue with a flurry of cure spells. After a few tense moments, the crisis was averted.

Inside, the Fellowship discovered a veritable mother-lode: five-hundred gold Crowns, a small cloth pouch holding four small sapphires and a “Cure Moderate Wounds” scroll, which Roman quickly confiscated.

"Good things come in small packages," Lorelei said, eyeing the final chest and rubbing her hands together.

Undaunted by her near-death experience mere moments ago, Bria threw herself into the task, but was immediately flummoxed when she failed to crack the lock on this chest. After much hand-wringing and debate, the group concluded that this was a sign to move along. Begrudgingly, they doubled back out the same way they'd come, completely oblivious to the catastrophe they'd just unwittingly avoided.

After guiding everyone back outside, Elster led them down to the end of the hall and into the now-ironically-named “living quarters.” This large chamber was lined with ten dwarf-sized bunks, most of which were pulled apart and destroyed. As the Fellowship crept inside, they took note of a door leading out of the right hand side of the chamber and the nearly-ceiling-high pile of dirt, smashed furniture and torn fabric piled up in the south-west corner.

"The dragon attack caused a foundation crack, which breached the wall in here," Elster narrated for his team-mates.  

As the group approached the mound of refuse in the corner, they noticed two dead hobgoblins, their faces fearful and rigor-set. That’s when Roman was alarmed to notice that the creatures looked as if they’ve been "gnawed upon.”

Before he could shout a warning, Rincewind and Bria dove into the pile, rooting around for anything of value. The thief recovered a small lock box, but before she could open it, the disturbed trash exploded outwards as two giant, vile centipedes wriggled out of the filth.

The group reflexively launched into frantic action, as if the vermin had fallen down from the ceiling and onto their shoulders. The manic beating and smashing with a chorus of deadly weapons only let up after the screaming died down. Rincewind was the last one to fall silent.

"Let’s not do that again," he muttered, as Bria cracked open the lock box and started to distribute the one-hundred-and-fifteen gold pieces contained therein.

"Pffft, it was worth it," the thief shrugged dismissively.

Elster then escorted his allies into the second living quarters, located in the northeast corner of the complex. This room was lined with eighteen bunks and, once again, most of them had been pulled apart, as if someone or something had diligently searched the room for treasure and / or hidden dwarves. One other door led out of the room.

Finding precious little of value, the Fellowship moved on into the dining hall. As expected, this chamber was dominated by a long table flanked by a pair of benches. Twelve place settings, including plates, cups and silverware, were all still laid out on the table, completely undisturbed. As our heroes explored the room, they couldn’t help but notice a conspicuous-looking one-foot-wide hole chewed through the bottom of the southern door, as well as the powdery-white, dog-sized paw prints tracked all around the hole.

Despite these omens, the group proceeded to move into the kitchen, finding it in borderline-unsalvageable state. A worn table stood in the center of the room, with pots and pans strewn about, utensils scattered across the floor and a dusting of white powder all over the floor.

After determining that the white powder was actually flour and not evidence of a recent goblin executive power meeting, the heroes followed the tracks to the southwest corner of the room. As they ventured inside, four dire rats concealed within the debris scrabbled out into the dim light to strike out at the interlopers.

Like a coiled spring, Bria launched herself at the lead rat, nearly crippling the creature with a strike from her battlestaff. Elster surged around the table, but his subsequent hammer fall only stirred up a puff of flour on the floor. Lorelei let loose with a crossbow bolt, hoping to skewer the rat that danced away from Elster’s attack, but the creature instinctively twisted out of the way. The dwarf priest suddenly cried out in pain as that same rodent viciously bit him back.

Another rat latched onto Pol’s leg and immediately started to gnaw and tear away. With a well-measured, potent swing, she caught her assailant with the tip of her sword, cleaving it in two with an abbreviated squeak. Meanwhile, Roman ran around the room like a decapitated chicken, striking out at anything hairy and fleeting underfoot, his armor giving him a distinct disadvantage in this deadly game of "whack-a-rat.”

After Bria made short work of her maimed victim, Elster managed hold off the rats  long enough to heal up his own nasty wound with a spell. Rincewind snuck up behind the same critter and smashed him across the spine with a quick strike. Lorelei cursed under her breath as she missed her intended target, breaking an urn half-filled with beer (?) instead. She did succeed in driving the rodent right into Pol’s range of attack and the warrior's subsequent sword strike rang true. Almost too true, since Pol was now forced to pry her sword free of a crack in the flagstone floor. Finally, Roman was rewarded for his diligence by liquefying one of his more agile quarry.

Bria continued to be a whirling dervish, felling another rat with her staff. Completely on the defensive now, Elster could only shoo the biggest rodent back with some wild hammer swings, while Rincewind telegraphed a strike on the same determined creature. Reacting to the crush of humanity converging on it, the rat flew right into Elster’s bearded face. After ripping her greatsword free, Pol swore audibly when she saw that she was standing too far away to help her dwarven compatriot.

Running on pure instinct, Elster dropped his hammer, brought his arms up to guard his throat, seized his ratty assailant and then hurled it into a pile of debris in the corner of the room. Bria, Rincewind, and Roman all converged on the spot where it landed, but only succeeded in subduing a pile of pots, pans and other refuse. After vainly rooting through the trash for some conclusive signs of a kill, the Fellowship concluded that the final rat had likely retreated through a hole in the wall.

Hoping to justify their choice to enter this grief-stricken room, our heroes proceeded to tear the chamber apart looking for anything of value. But, after spending a good fifteen minutes searching high and low, they were crestfallen to discover that all they’d found was a fresh coat of flour on their hair, clothes and armor. The one encouraging discovery was that the small chamber to the south east, the entrance to the Spirit Well according to Elster, was still locked up tight as a drum.

"Thank Moradin, but it looks like the invaders didn’t find the key to the Well," Elster observed, dusting his cloak off and checking for residual wounds. "Had it been defiled like the shrine, it would have signaled the death knell for our people."

"Wait!" Bria blurted out. "Did you say ‘key’? I actually found this back in the practice area, where we fought the ghoul."

The adventurers gathered around Bria as she produced a large iron key from one of her numerous belt pouches.

"Okay, when the hell were you going to tell us about that?!" Lorelei snapped, snatching the key away and turning towards Elster.

"When the time was right," muttered the thief, crossing her arms and pouting.

His eyes alight, Elster accepted the item as if it were part of some elaborate religious ceremony. He then beetled his way over to the portal, put the key in the lock, opened the door and then ventured into the Spirit Well, with the rest of the Fellowship trailing after him. 

Even though, by now, the group was acutely aware of the dwarves' penchant for modest wonders, they still couldn’t help but feel a bit underwhelmed by the sight just inside the door. At the end of this tiny alcove was a nondescript well standing about two feet high, with a bucket and a rope sitting nearby.

"I don’t know if it was random good fortune or the favor of Moradin himself, but we discovered this magical spring while tunneling out these corridors. Anyone who partakes of the well will be refreshed. Come, have a drink!"

After everyone bathed their wounds and indulged in a quick sip, they were stunned by the water’s healing properties.

"Amazing!" Rincewind sputtered. "I’m gonna lug off as much of this stuff as I can carry. Quick. everyone give me their waterskins! Uh...Lorelei, little help?"

Elster smiled as the elf mage leveled a withering glare at her human counterpart.

"I’m afraid the healing properties can only be used daily...and the water seems to lose its magical influence whenever it’s taken too far away from the well." 

"What!? Really? Stupid conditional magic water!" Rincewind muttered. He then sprung up, dropped the bucket, kicked it into the corner and then wandered off.

Laughing in spite of himself, Roman got to his feet and tried to dust himself off.

"Well, we’ve been through everything, haven’t we? Looks like the place is secured."

This time it was the dwarf’s turn to laugh, but the sound was conspicuously devoid of any mirth. If anything, it was a nervous reaction, pregnant with fear.

"If only that were true, my friend. I’m afraid that our greatest challenge still lies ahead of us."

"What do you mean?" Pol demanded, palming the hilt of her sword anxiously.

Elster looked around the chamber as if his thoughts were suddenly very far away.

"Well, in case you haven’t noticed, there are a lot of dead goblins and hobgoblins in here...and they didn’t meet their end at the hands of dwarves."

"Then what was it?" Roman asked, unable to prevent his voice from wavering.

"The sentries at the door told me something in dwarven before we left. They said that something was trapped in the sergeant-at-arms’ quarters...something vicious, something magical..."

"Vicious and magical," Roman muttered. "Wonderful."

"I suspect that, before we’re done, we’ll be needing even greater magiks than the Spirit Well can provide," the dwarf sighed.

Elster heaved himself to his feet, slung his hammer over his shoulder, gestured for the other to follow and started to shuffle down the hall. Unbowed, but still burdened by a fear of the unknown, the group reluctantly fell into formation, unwilling to let their guide stray too far away into the stifling murk of the once-great dwarven hall.

Next up: the Fellowship is forced to confront its greatest challenge yet...and one member of the group will fall!

To be continued...

IMAGE CREDITS:

Treasure chest: https://forgedgaming.com/products/mimic-chest-dice-storage-box-container?variant=31196150497411

Centipede: https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=77

Dire Rat: http://www.electric-rain.net/2015/03/10/menace-manual-dire-rat/

Spirit Well: https://www.kindpng.com/imgv/TJwoTh_fountain-old-stone-wall-old-well-water-pick/

The Story So Far - Part 8 - "Darkness and Defilement"

"The Story So Far" is an ongoing series recanting the details of a Dungeons & Dragons campaign that I've been running since 2002.  Links to the previous entries can be found here:  

Prologue     Part I     Part II     Part III     Part IV     Part V     Part VI       Part VII

I've "fictionalized" the session reports in a likely-vain attempt to make them more "entertaining."   

And now, our story continues...

Just seconds before the last vestiges of Pol’s life slipped away, Roman and Bria stopped trying to spring the ghoul’s vice-like grip on her neck and switched to delivering measured blows to the creature’s head. With one mighty, double-handed swing of his mace, Roman smashed the fiend’s cranium open like an over-ripe melon, showering everyone standing nearby with bits of rotting flesh, fragments of skull and putrid brain matter.

The two priests immediately went to work, battering the mortally-wounded fighter with cure spells in an effort to bring her back from the brink. Hearing a collective sigh of relief from her allies, the warrior woman’s eyes fluttered open and she slowly came to. As her peers helped her to her feet, the fighter expressed gratitude to her saviors and relief to be still counted among the living. 

From that point on, her friends noticed a bit of a sea change in Pol. Instead of charging head-first into battle at the first sign of trouble, she now paused, as if conflicted. Was her reckless rage now tempered with thoughts of her own mortality? Had she finally come to the realization that it was impossible to single-handedly shield all of her team-mates from harm? Or had her self-confidence in battle been irreparably shaken? 

Although the Fellowship found no treasure in the room, they did manage to salvage a nice collection of weapons and armor. Burdened by every miserable second spent inside that horrible abattoir, the group quickly pressed on. Not long after, they stumbled upon a door resembling a hinged grate in the north-east section of the fortress. Feeling a slight breeze coming through the bars, Elster explained that this was a fresh air vent leading to the surface.

The explorers passed through the grate, finding themselves at the bottom of a ten-foot-wide shaft with a well of impenetrable darkness overhead. After expertly finding some hand and foot holds, Bria quickly scampered up the wall, which soon narrowed into a claustrophobic, three-foot-wide vent. Detecting looks of concern coming from down below, the rogue climbed thirty more feet until the passage vomited her out onto a hillside. Another grate lay near the opening, clearly ripped from its hinges. After taking note of the scene, and savoring a few heady gulps of fresh air, Bria carefully descended back down the shaft and reported her findings to the group.

"So, that’s how they got into the fort," Elster surmised. "While the dragon distracted us with its attack on the tower, the goblins broke in through the vent and took us all by surprise!"

With a major piece of the puzzle now in place, the group sought out a reasonably-secure part of the maze to pause and plot their next moves. During this cold, dark,  fitful rest, every guard tasked to keep watch over the camp couldn’t shake the unmistakable feeling that a dozen set of eyes were trained on them the entire night.

Sunday, Solstice 26'th, 1492

That "morning", the heroes gathered up their gear and continued to venture deeper into the fortress. Elster led his allies to a shrine dedicated to the glory of the Forge-Father, all the while expressing concerns that, most likely, the site had already been defiled by the invaders.

His prediction proved to be all-too-accurate. The Fellowship soon found itself peeking into a large, T-shaped chamber, dimly lit by a pair of flickering black candles half-melted onto the corners of a stone dais at the far end of the room. Lying on the ground in front of the platform was a golden chalice, with two motionless dwarves standing on either side.

As Bria made a motion to hail the sentries, Roman and Elster quickly stopped her. Just as soon as everyone was inside the room, the two dwarves started shuffling towards them, arms outstretched, their breathing sounding like a chorus of death-rattles. Two more unseen figures emerged from the darkened corners of the chamber, effectively boxing our heroes in. 

Brandishing the sun sigil of Pelor, Roman tried to drive the undead horde back, only to sense that some malevolent force was impeding his efforts. As the Fellowship recoiled from the exploratory pawing of the zombie dwarves, their initial strikes were tentative at best. Roman stumbled into one of the fiends approaching from the corner and got clawed for his clumsiness. Pol simultaneously stabbed the priest's assailant and then pulled him away from a storm of grasping, filthy claws. Now steadied, Roman tried to follow up with his own strike, but it failed to deter the creature’s unrelenting advance.

After deftly warding away one of his tainted brethren, Elster cast a protective circle around his peers just as an epiphany dawned on him.

"The candles!" he shouted. "They aren’t ours! They must be the source of the evil influence in this room. We have to put them out!"

Reacting quickly to this, Lorelei summoned a hawk from out of thin air and dispatched the creature to snuff out the flames. Bria boldly stepped up and delivered an impressive battle-staff hit to one of the zombies, but it was largely unfazed. Almost immediately, the thief found herself overwhelmed by the creature. 

Rincewind sprang to her aid, landing two successive blows with his own staff, finally felling the abomination. Unfortunately, in doing so, he inadvertently broke the seal on the zombie’s putrefying skull. Immediately the entire chamber was flooded by a vile miasma, promptly incapacitating the “WIZZARD” as he struggled to retain the contents of his own stomach.

Her confidence still shaken by their last encounter with the undead, Pol once again found herself locked in another death-grip, but this time she had the presence of mind to start sawing away at the arm holding her fast with her sword. As the walking corpse stumbled backward from this impromptu surgery, the fighter was repulsed to see that the disembodied hand was continuing to claw its way across her shoulder to her exposed throat. 

Noticing this, Roman viciously beat down one of the ghouls intent on stalking them, but his concerns were unfounded as Pol calmly plucked the vile appendage from her neck like a pesky bug and hurled it across the chamber.

Like a house ablaze, Elster healed Pol in one moment and then dispatched another zombie in the next. Rincewind managed to compose himself just in time to brain the final shambling horror reaching out for him, resulting in yet another self-inflicted shower of oxidized blood and rancid ichor.  

"I have no idea where those candles came from," Elster said, panting for breath in the fetid chamber. "As for the chalice, it’s always supposed to be on the altar, filled with water from the Spirit Well."

After the dwarven priest thanked Lorelei and her familiar for extinguishing the flames, he retrieved the chalice and it back in its rightful place.

"What’s the Spirit Well?" asked the mage in return.

"A naturally-occurring holy spring of water," he replied, surveying the room for additional signs of tampering. "The water that springs from it heals wounds both spiritual and physical. As our quest nears its end, I’ll bring you there. Given what we’ve faced thus far, we’ll most certainly need its aid."

As the group left the Shrine and headed back out into the pitch-black corridor, Elster’s demeanor seemed to darken considerably. They headed south, towards what the dwarven cleric described as the quarters he once shared with his fellow clerics. As they crept inside, the group noticed that the narrow room was furnished with three modest bunks, all of which were now pulled apart. Various broken items of religious significance were scattered about the floor.

"Parn was the head chaplain of the Great Hall for the past forty-four years, while Girsta and I served as his acolytes for the past ten,” Elster lamented. “You could never find two souls so well-forged and true; they’ll be sorely missed."

Elster made his way over to an open closet, its ornate doors ripped from their hinges. He flipped through several torn robes hanging inside to retrieve one particular garment that, at face value, looked identical to all of the rest. As he brought the robe back to them, the explorers all noticed black bands along the hem and lines of ancient runes. Amidst a crossfire of inquiring eyes, the priest proceeded to answer the unspoken question.

"The runes tell the tale of Moradin’s first words to our people. This particular robe belonged to Parn. It’s especially precious, since it safeguards the wearer from dark magiks."

After donning the garment, Elster led the pack onward. Back out in the hall, the heroes continued to inch their way through the crushing darkness, pausing occasionally to listen for competing footsteps. After passing by several semi-inviting doorways, Roman finally asked the dwarf where he was leading them.

"Before I left the Hall to seeks your help, the guard room was one of the last holdouts against the goblin tide. After seeing the state of priest’s chambers, I now fear the worst."

As if on cue, the adventures hung a sharp turn south and spied a smashed-in door just to their left. Elster surged ahead, stricken by a sudden panic for his brethren.

Inside, the heroes discovered yet another scene of absolute carnage. Two massive hobgoblins and four dwarf fighters were sprawled dead on the floor in pools of red ochre. An overturned table lay along one wall of the room, along with four dwarf-sized chairs and a scattering of what appeared to be playing cards. The door on the far wall was covered with scratches, as if repeatedly scored by a flurry of weapon blows.

"The Treasure Vault of Kiras Toth lies beyond,” Elster intoned, his voice echoing eerily in their stony womb. “It’s the culmination of all of our hard labors and, as such, Giran ordered four of his best men to guard it with their lives. It appears as if their sacrifice became necessary..."

To everyone’s surprise, Elster went on to point out that the damaged “doorway” was actually a clever fake, revealing it to be a solid granite wall magically enchanted to resemble a wooden portal. No matter how hard the hobgoblins pulled on it or tried to break it down, they could never breach it!

"Giran told me that there’s a secret door in here somewhere which leads to the vault," the cleric narrated as he started running his hands along the walls. "Unfortunately, he was quite cagey about exactly where it was. I think he only told  Parn and a few of his closest advisors..."

As if the gauntlet of challenge to solve this puzzle had just been thrown down, the members of the Fellowship made a beeline to the closest patch of wall and began to study it intently. Eight or ten minutes went by before the group collectively jumped in reaction to a shout of delight from Lorelei, who’s rummaging in an alcove in the south-east corner of the room yielded dividends.

"It’s here!" she cried. "I can’t believe it didn’t notice it right away; it’s so obvious!"

After the heroes clustered around her, Elster and Bria side-stepped to the forefront to inspect the secret portal.

"I can’t find a lock, catch or a trigger," the thief said, blowing an unruly wisp of red hair out of her eyes. "Which is weird, especially if there’s as much treasure behind this door as you say there is."

Ignoring the curious glint in the young rogue’s eye, Elster turned to address the group.

"I think it just needs to be pushed."

"Leave that to me," Pol announced, cracking her fingers dramatically.

At this proclamation, the Fellowship practically trampled over each other in their haste to get out of her way. Still wary, Bria kept close, keeping her eyes peeled for anything suspicious. 

In an impressive show of strength, the statuesque fighter managed to shove the massive stone block deep into the recessed wall. But, just as the space opened up, Bria spied something glint just above the warrior’s head.

“Look out!” she screamed, her clarion warning coming just a fraction too late.

To be continued...

IMAGE CREDITS:

Dwarf Zombies: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/mvE3v

Black Candles: https://witchcraft101.medium.com/candle-color-meaning-in-witchcraft-detail-guide-for-beginners-518ff881becf

Hobgoblin: https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Hobgoblin

The Story So Far - Part 7 - "Into the Abyss"

"The Story So Far" is an ongoing series recanting the details of a Dungeons & Dragons campaign that I've been running since 2002.  Links to the previous entries can be found here:  

Prologue          Part I          Part II          Part III          Part IV          Part V          Part VI

I've "fictionalized" the session reports in a likely-vain attempt to make them more "entertaining".   

And now, our story continues...

Like a calm before the storm, the trek north to Kiras Toth was largely uneventful and, even as the sun began to wane, the heroes had no trouble spotting the partially-destroyed Sentinel Tower in the distance. Upon arrival at the base of the structure, the Fellowship noticed charred stone rubble laying scattered all about, and pronounced scorch marks covering huge swaths of the surrounding area.

Elster led his allies over to a pile of debris and, after a hasty communal effort to clear it away, the Fellowship discovered a trap door leading underground. After bidding farewell to the dying sunlight, the group ventured into the stifling darkness. While stepping down the precarious stone ladder, the heroes couldn't help but note the a distinct smell of death in the air.

 

At the end of their descent, the Fellowship found themselves standing in an elaborately-carved entrance way, guarded by two dwarf survivors armed with crossbows. At the far end of the chamber, the two sentries had piled a table and four chairs up in front of the door leading from this room into the next. Giving a quick whistle of recognition so as not to alarm the guards, Elster rushed over and introduced the adventurers to the dwarven defenders: Angmarr Stonehaven and Klen Trollhammer. Both looked decidedly relieved to see the wayward priest in the company of some back-up.

 

"Kadre!" yelled Angmarr. "Good to see that you've brought some re-reinforcements. They may be a scrawny lot, but at least there's plenty of them!"

 

The two then hastily proceeded to recount what’s been happening since Elster left for Castebridge. They explained that this room, normally used to keep enemies out of the stronghold, was now being used to keep the goblin interlopers and their larger ilk from getting out! They went on the explain that the section of the fortress just beyond the door is now completely over-run with goblins.

 

After vanishing for a bit, Klen re-appeared with a clinking burlap sack, which he passed over to Elster.

"Grimm recovered these potions from the chapel, Kadre. Most of ‘em was smashed, but he managed to salvage three or four."

 

After passing out the healing potions to his new human allies, the priest helped his kin dismantle the barricade. After the two guards ushered the heroes into the corridor beyond, they wished them luck, warned them to stay alert and vowed to hold the line at all costs. As the Fellowship hunkered close together just beyond the threshold, the two sentries went back inside and closed the door. 

The sound of tables and chairs being piled up against the portal did little for the group's morale. One gruesome thought hung in the air like a bat threatening to take wing: how quickly could the guards get that barrier down if something huge and vicious suddenly started chasing them?

 

Unnerved by unbowed by this unspoken question, the adventurers began to inch their way down the passageway. Now deep underground and cloaked in stultifying darkness, the heroes cast nervous sidelong glances as their lamp-light cast eerie shadows on the walls and ceiling all around them.  

 

The adventurers eventually stumbled into a room with a few overturned benches scattered about. As warned, they also encountered four snarling goblins dressed in leather armor and wielding cruel-looking morningstars. For a moment the creatures looked disappointed - perhaps they were expecting more dwarves? - but they also seemed more than content with  murdering the Fellowship as a consolation prize! Alas, the over-confident goblins soon found themselves outmatched and, after a short and decisive scrap, the heroes pressed on to the next chamber.

This turned out to be the reception hall. Once used by the dwarves to entertain visitors, this once-lavish chamber had been reduced to a depressing shadow of its former grandeur. Torn and filthy tapestries hung from the walls, which, in turn, were streaked with blood and filth. An overturned throne lay propped against one wall, it’s lavish cushions torn to pieces. Bookshelves were overturned everywhere, their ancient, priceless tomes scattered about and ripped to shreds.

 

But, by far, the room's most startling feature were the four hobgoblins lounging around the chamber, each clad in studded leather armor and equipped with a longsword and shield. As the door of the room swung inwards, the creatures looked up at the heroes and immediately raised their swords. Unfortunately, this aggressive posture was cut comically short when Rincewind knocked them all out with a well-timed "Sleep" spell!

 

Elster then directed his allies to a concealed door in the corner of the room, which led to what was clearly once a fine dwarven bedchamber. 

"This is the lord’s quarters," whispered the priest.

As expected, the chamber was a complete mess, with torn clothes and shredded books scattered all around the room. Even the bed was torn apart, reduced to little more than a large pile of broken wood and dirty fragments of cloth. Lounging atop these remnants was a huge, hairy creature, at least seven feet tall! Standing near this behemoth were two timid-looking goblins holding trays of raw meat, who immediately started to tremble and scream as soon as the heroes appeared in the doorway.

 

Undaunted by this odd sight, Bria immediately let a crossbow bolt fly, striking the massive creature in the shoulder even before it could get to its clawed feet. Pol followed this up with a savage charge, bull-rushing the beast head-over-heels back over its crushed bed. Now reeling, the bugbear swung wildly, but the amazon expertly parried the creature’s weapon and brought down the killing blow. By now, the two goblin servants were running around the room in a frenzied panic, forcing Roman and Elster to end their panicked riot as quickly and mercifully as possible. 

 

After this brief but vicious fracas, Elster encouraged his compatriots to gather up anything of value to use in the coming struggle. They quickly managed to locate a decent pile of gold crowns, a few pieces of topaz, Giran Oakenshield’s signet ring, a wizard's "Fireball" scroll and a "Potion of Fire Resistance." Flushed with this initial success, the heroes ventured onward.

 

Elster then led the group into what he called the "Meeting Room." In addition to a large table and several chairs pushed up against the far wall, several piles of shredded tapestries and clothing were scattered about the floor, being used as beds by four sleeping hobgoblins. Passed out after a long day of guarding and patrolling, they were still dressed in their armor, with their swords and shields lying nearby. Given the expected element of surprise, the group made short work of these intruders and, after the fight was over, they recovered  all of the dwarf's stolen topaz and gold.

 

The explorers then pressed on into the dining hall of Giran Oakenshield. Prior to the  hobgoblin invasion, it's quite evident that this would have been a finely-decorated hall, but now the tables were all shattered into pieces, garbage lay strewn about the floor and shredded tapestries were scattered about in thick piles. 

As the heroes slowly shuffled slowly about the room they began to realize, to their horror, that snoring noises were coming from underneath the piles of fabric! Upon closer examination, they discovered that each stack contained a sleeping goblin. After pausing for a second to observe how oddly endearing all of this was, the group then proceeded to slaughter the vile invaders wholesale!

 

Now moving with considerable swagger, the adventurers proceeded on to another large chamber which Elster explains was once used for sparring and military drills. But, as the Fellowship enters the room, it quickly becomes evident that it was recently the site of a very real and very major battle. The group's bold mood was instantly dampened when they saw at least two dozen bodies - dwarf, goblin and hobgoblin - strewn around the chamber, their weapons lying nearby. To Elster’s consternation, his two peers, Girsta Highhammer and Sonnlinor high priest Parn Golddelve were counted among the dead. 

 

That's when Bria noticed a human-sized figure crouched over a body in the middle of the chamber. Drawn by a macabre sense of curiosity to this odd sight, as well as the faint crunching sounds, the heroes were completely horrified when their lamp-light washed over the scene and to reveal the figure’s arms completely soaked in blood.

 

The Fellowship edged closer, intent on swarming the vile creature all at once, but Roman’s clanking armor gave them away. Reflexively, Bria landed a solid hit, driving their foe into a frenzy, while Lorelei summoned a mystical badger to assist in the imminent fracas. Committing to a risky, two-handed overhead swing, Pol underestimated the speed of the creature and her sword got lodged in a stout wooden weapon rack, throwing off her recovery time.

Seeing the amazon wounded and vulnerable, Elster took a moment to heal her. Taken aback by the agility of something supposedly half-dead, Rincewind completely telegraphed his swing, while Roman failed to drive the abomination back through sheer divine will.

 

Sensing an easy target, the ghoul lashed out, seizing Pol by the neck. Instantly paralyzed, the warrior dropped her sword and immediately started to black out. Seeing this, Roman and Rincewind rushed forward, but could do nothing to break the creature’s rigor-grip on her throat. At the same time, Lorelei’s mystical pet latched onto a decrepit leg and Elster’s panicked attempt to turn their enemy failed as badly as his human counterpart’s.

Like a statue made of flesh, Pol could only stand there and watch as that leering, decrepit visage drew closer, it's gaping maw about to bite down on her own face, frozen in a rigor mask of genuine terror. It was a terrible final thing to see before everything went completely dark.

To be continued...

 

IMAGE CREDITS

Ruined tower: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/295647/Fantasy-Art--Tower-Ruins

Klen: https://entropymag.org/dd-with-entropy-an-introduction

Goblin:  https://d-d-3-0-tales-from-mystara.obsidianportal.com/wikis/goblin-army

Bugbear: https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Bugbear

Ghoul: https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Ghoul

"They're Coming to Get You, _______!" - Night of the Living Dead: A Zombicide Game

The original Zombicide, which I reviewed here, sadly had some truly baffling design decisions that were impossible for me to reconcile. Namely:

1. It made zero sense that you were forced to damage your allies first whenever you fired a ranged weapon into a melee.
2. Not only do zombies automatically hit characters, they always steal an item away from them.
3. You have to add extra zombies to the board whenever you can't split packs of them  up evenly.  
4. If you run out of minis for a certain zombie type, you have to activate the matching zombies a second time! 
5. The "Manhole Cover" cards are fiddly, they slow the game down and they add a completely unnecessary extra level of difficulty to the game.
6. The sliding clips used for tracking Experience points damage the Survivor cards. 

More the pity, since there were a lot of things to like about the game. The components were amazing, the weapons and equipment options were myriad, turn-by-turn decisions were tense, co-operation was essential and the level-up process was fun. 

In fact, the game lingered with me long after I sold it, to the point where a trailer for the Second Edition really made me sit up and take notice:

Entranced by the dulcet tones of Machete himself, I immediately placed a pre-order for it. And then I waited. And I waited. And then I waited some more.

Thank the gaming gods for this self-inflicted patience, since it prevented me from making another "buyers remorse" misstep. My extended wait gave me the time to realize that something else about Zombicide really bugged me. Something more superficial, namely:

• The generic characters. As it turns out, I didn't want to Hobocop, some anime chick, a chainsaw-wielding (?) waitress on roller skates (!) or, um, Michael Douglas in Falling Down. Dafuq?
• The stylized, Kabuki-style art, which does nothing to set a spooky, atmospheric mood.
• The ridiculous, over-the-top carnage, which feels felt more like an action movie and less like a horror film.

What I really wanted was something darker and grittier, something more grounded and thematic. And, as it turned out, the solution to this was putrefying right under my nose the entire time.

Now, I'd seen Night of the Living Dead: A Zombicide Game lurking on store shelves plenty of times before but, for no logical reason whatsoever, I always wrote it off as some sort of dumbed-down knockoff of the original game. After seeing it on store shelves again recently, I finally took a closer look and, to my delight, it appeared to be the zombie game of my nightmares. 

First off, it's Night of the Living Dead; the first legit horror movie that scared the crap outta me as a kid and made me a life-long fan of Romero's zombie flicks. I'd much rather be Ben or Barbra than "Rick-Grimes-with-the-serial-number-filed-off." Plus, there are no "runners" or "abominations", just olde-skool, single-space-shufflin' zombies. And for all you slow-movin' zombie haterz out there: woe to you who underestimate them...they're still crazy-deadly when they attack in packs!

The NOTLD art style (by Karl Kopinski) is also ten times more appealing to me as well. It's the difference between this:

And this:

Yes, the original game's art is stylized, colorful and undeniably "bad-ass", but that painting of L'il Ghoul Karen is downright haunting to me. 

Side note: out of the following five options, what's your favorite description of Wanda, shown here on the cover of Zombicide?  

• She's got a face like a catcher's mitt. 
• She's got face like a half-chewed caramel. 
• She's got a face like a beat-up water bucket.
• They had to tie a pork chop around her neck to get the zombies to play with her.

Sorry, I digress.

So, aside from superficial aesthetics, what else is it about this itiration that inspired the cancellation of my eternal pre-order? Well, as it turns out, there's a pretty slick little promotional vid for this version as well. Here, have a look, if you dare...

Anyhoo, the bottom line is that I picked this one up and immediately got down to running the first scenario, appropriately titled "What's Happening?"

ROUND ONE

PLAYERS' PHASE

Ben uses his first Action to move into the house, his second to pick up the Barricade Token in the same room and his final Action to spend the Token to board up the southwest window. As per the scenario details, this immediately earns him five Experience Points.

Barbra moves into the same room, locking the door behind her for her second Action. She then picks up the Barricade Token in the northeast corner of the room.

Harry uses his first Action to open the basement door, then hustles through the living room and then into the kitchen.

Helen uses all of her Actions to move onto the Stairs Zone on tile 3R. Her shocking discovery of the "corpse lady" at the top of the landing would normally see all of the Survivors switching back to their default "Romero" Mode but, since no-one has progressed to "Zombicide" Mode yet, this effect is ignored.  

Tom uses two of his Actions to get into the stairwell hallway and then his final Action to pick up the Barricade Token located there.

Judy uses all three of her Action points to move into the living room.

GHOULS' PHASE

Step One - Activation: Attack or Move

Since there are no Ghoulies on the board yet, we immediately move to...

Step Two: Spawn

A single Breaker appears at the first Spawn point. An "Open Doors and Barricades" Card is drawn for the second Spawn point but, since everyone is still in the Blue level of Experience, nothing happens. Unfortunately, three Walkers spawn at the third entry point. Ruh-roh!

ROUND TWO

PLAYERS' PHASE

Barbra uses her first Action to build a Barricade across the window in the south west corner of the dining room, earning five Experience Points. She then Searches the room, coming up with a Flashlight. She opts not to take her final Action.

Harry uses his first Action to pick up the Barricade material in the north east corner of the kitchen. He then uses his second Action to Barricade the window next to the same spot, earning five Experience Points in the process. Finally, he Searches the kitchen, coming up with a "Plenty of Bullets" card.

Showing considerable fortitude, not to mention a strong stomach, Helen spends two of her Actions to dispose of the body on the upstairs landing. With this accomplished, the Zone beyond this point can now be searched by anyone in "Zombicide Mode"! She then uses her last Action to pick up the debris piled up in the east side of the stairway hall.

Tom moves one space into the northwest room of the house, presumably the rec room. He then spends an Action to Barricade the window to the north, earning five Experience Points. His final Action is spent Searching. Unfortunately, in a nasty twist, instead of finding a helpful item, a zombified Karen pops up from out of nowhere!

Hearing Tom scream like a little girl, Judy picks up the Winchester 94 for one Action and then immediately fires a shot into the rec room. She needs a 3+ and rolls a "3", which obliterates Karen and earns her an Experience Point! Spying an approaching pack of Ghouls through the window, she immediately pivots and fires towards them, rolling a "5" for another hit! This expert marksmanship earns her a second Experience Point!

Ben searches the dining room and finds a Mason Jar. With precious little time right now to indulge his beloved hobby of making preserves, he moves into the kitchen and opens the door to the attached pantry / shed.

GHOULS' PHASE

Step One - Activation: Attack or Move

The Breaker spends its entire turn ripping off the Barricade on the window and tearing open the adjacent door. The two Walkers on the east side of the house pile in through the window to menace Judy in the living room!

Step Two: Spawn

New Ghouls appear… including a Fatty at the first spawn point, one Walker at the north Spawn point and a Relative card is drawn for the third point. Since no one has progressed beyond the first level of Experience, this card is ignored.

ROUND THREE

PLAYERS' PHASE

Harry moves into the living room for one Action, gives Judy the "Plenty of Bullets" Card and then moves back into the kitchen. Damned sporting of him, don't ya think?

Helen spends two Actions to move into the dining room with Barbra, then uses an Action to Barricade the window, getting five Experience Points for her efforts.

Tom searches the room and finds some Boards, which he immediately discards for a Barricade Token. He then uses said Barricade Action to seal up the western window in the same room, gaining five Experience Points in the process. This moves him into the Yellow Experience level and unlocks the "Shove" special ability! He then moves into the dining room to help defend Helen and Barbra.

Judy attempts to club one of the Ghouls in her space with a table leg! She needs a 4+ in order to be successful and rolls a "5" - which is a hit, giving her a third Experience Point. She then moves into the kitchen and spends her final Action aiming at the Breaker who's now on the threshold of entering the house! She needs a 3+ to hit and rolls exactly "3"… success! This gains her her a fourth Experience Points for yet another zombie kill!

Ben decides to use his first Action to rush in and help Judy, taking a swing at one of the Ghouls with his Tire Iron. He needs a 4+ in order to hit and gets a “2”, a miss! His second swing, however, is a "5" which is a solid hit, giving him an Experience Point!

Frantically looking around for any useful items, Barbra uses her Flashlight to Search the room. She finds two sets of Boards, I.E. plenty of material to shore up the defense of the room! She immediately discards both of these cards, gains two Barricade Tokens and then invests both of them to block both off the southern windows in the dining room. This earns her a whopping ten experience points! Now in the Yellow Experience level, she unlocks the "Slippery" trait!

GHOULS' PHASE

Step One - Activation: Attack or Move

The Fatty lopes through the open door into the dining room, threatening Tom, Helen and Barbara! The Walkers to the north start scrambling around the house, looking for an open window or door. 

Step Two: Spawn

Since we're now in the Yellow Experience level, five (!) Walkers appear at the southwestern Spawn point! Five also appear in the northern entry area. Finally, a Relative, specifically Johnny (I guess?), appears in the easterly Spawn zone.

ROUND FOUR

PLAYERS' PHASE

Knowing that she has no weapon effective enough to take out the looming Fatty, Helen moves into the kitchen, spending an extra Action Point to do this. She then searches the kitchen and finds more Boards, which she immediately converts into a Barricade Token. 

Tom uses his freshly-unlocked (and free to use!) "Shove" ability to push the Fatty back outside! He then uses his first Action to shut and lock the door, his second to do a room Search (finding "Plenty of Shells") and then he exhausts his third Action to join the others in the kitchen.

Judy uses her first action to move into the living room and then she takes a pot-shot at Johnny, getting a “5”, which vaporizes his undead melon! She now has five Experience Points! Finally, in a moment of trust, she gives the Winchester 94 and bullets to Ben, which lets her transform into "Zombicide Mode"!

Ben uses his first Action to Search the room. Unfortunately, instead of finding anything practical, Karen pops up again! Ben then proceeds to use his two remaining Actions to try and cave the indomitable l'il scamp's skull in with a tire iron. He rolls a "1" on his first swing but "5" on the second, taking her out and gaining another Experience Point, which brings him up to six!

Barbra uses her Flashlight to Search the room and finds gas! She immediately moves two spaces to meet up with Ben, intending to give him this new-found fuel!

Harry uses his first Action to Search, finding Boards, which he immediately converts into a Barricade Token. He then spends an Action (and the Token) to seal up one of the windows in the kitchen. This gives him five more Experience Points, bringing him up to ten and unlocking the "Taunt" Skill. He then uses his final Action to move into the living room.

GHOULS' PHASE

Step One - Activation: Attack or Move

The lead Walker at the north side of the house shuffles a single space towards the open window, leading a pack of five more Ghouls shambling right behind him. Deterred by all of the restored Barricades in the south west corner of the house, the single Fatty and his entourage of five Walkers amble one space south, looking for a new way in.

Step Two: Spawn

Another "Relative" appears in the first Spawn space, yet another one appears in the north Spawn zone and one Breaker appears in the east.

ROUND FIVE

PLAYERS' PHASE

Tom spends his first Action searching the kitchen. He scrounges up some Boards, which he immediately converts into a Barricade Token. He then moves into the living room and uses his final Action to hastily Barricade the window that the Ghoul horde is approaching. This gives him five more experience points, putting him at 15!

Judy searches the living room and finds a rifle Scope, which she immediately hands off to Ben. She then chooses to ignore her final available Action.

On Ben’s turn, he uses a Re-organize / Trade Action to give Barbra the Mason Jar, forcing her to huck the "Plenty of Bullets" card to make room for this. Ben follows suit, discarding the Scope and the Winchester 94 to gain the Scoped Winchester. He then takes a shot at the Breaker who just appeared in the easterly Spawn point. Unfortunately, he rolls a "2" which is a miss but, thanks to "Plenty of Bullets", he re-rolls, this time getting a "4." It’s a hit, killing the Breaker, giving him his seventh Experience Point, putting him into the Yellow zone and unlocking his "Hawk-eye" Skill. For his third Action he Searches the room, getting another "Plenty of Bullets" card.

Barbra begins her turn by discarding the Mason Jar and Flammable Fluid to make a Molotov. She then discards the Molotov to do a one-space Ranged attack Action at the eastern Spawn point, which moves it over to the northern Spawn point. Now the Ghouls won’t be able to approach from the east! Barbra then uses her second Action to search with  her Flashlight, finding another Scope and more Flammable Fluid. She passes the latter off to Tom, giving him the ability to make a Torch out of his Table Leg if need be.

Harry Searches the living room and finds "Plenty of Shells." At a loss for what else to do, he exhausts the rest of his Actions.

Helen spends her first Action searching and finds a Flashlight. For her second Action, she places the Barricade Token that's in her supply on the remaining window in the kitchen. Beyond this, there’s little else she can do, so she exhausts her other two Actions.

GHOULS' PHASE

Step One - Activation: Attack or Move

The Walkers continue their inexorable march around the outside of the cabin. (NOTE: I think I'm doing their movement properly. The rules state that the Ghouls choose a Destination Zone based on two factors: the most visible group of Survivors in a single Zone or the Zone with the most unseen Survivors. They then "move 1 Zone towards their Destination Zone by taking the shortest available path." I can only assume that open doors and windows are an indispensable part of that "path.")

Step Two: Spawn

In an alarming twist, a new Breaker appears at the first Spawn point to the southwest. One of the northern Spawn points reveals another "Relatives" Card but, since both are already in play, there's no effect. The other northern Spawn point receives three Fatties. Yikes!

ROUND SIX

PLAYERS' PHASE

Judy does a search Action, picking up another Mason Jar, which she immediately passes over to Tom for an Action. She ops not to use her third Action for the round.

Paranoid that the Breaker may tear through the barriers at the southwestern corner of the house, Ben dashes off to the dining room. Thanks to his Hawk-eye ability, he can perform a Ranged attack Actions through Barricades, so he uses his last Action to fire his Scoped Winchester at the Breaker. He hits with a "6", giving him one more Experience Point and bringing him up to eight.

Barbra keeps scanning the house with her Flashlight, drawing two House Equipment Cards and revealing "Plenty of Shells" and friggin' Karen again, who pops up like an undead Mormon! Barbra uses her second Action to try and make the poor, innocent girl look like a rabbit, intent on driving her Claw Hammer up through the roof of her mouth. With a roll of "5" she succeeds, and Barb's Experience-O-Meter goes up to 16.

Harry Searches as well, drawing yet another "Karen, Poor Baby!" card, which translates to a "Johnny-on-the-spot." Harry instinctively swings his crowbar at Johnny's noggin', nicely ventilating it with a roll of "5" and getting him up to eleven Experience Points. He then ignores his final action.

On Helen‘s turn she uses her Flashlight to draw two Cards, gaining a Scope and Boards, the latter of which she immediately converts into a Barricade Token. She then moves one space into the living room and then uses her final Action to Barricade the remaining window in that room.

With all the windows blocked with Barricades and no Ghouls in the house, the Survivors win the Scene! 

***

REVIEW

PROS

• See previous comments RE: how amazing this thing looks and how it finally feels like a horror game to me.
• It's hard to believe, but the first Zombicide was released almost a decade ago and, since then, the designers have made a lot of evolutionary developments to the concept, the high water mark arguably being 2015's Black Plague. As a newer version of the game, released just last year, Night of the Living Dead incorporates many of these welcome improvements. Chief among these spruce-ups has to be the friggin' amazing Survivor Dashboard, which use tracked sliders to record Experience and pegs to keep a tally on damage and unlocked skills. Pure genius!
• The game does a great job simulating the action of the film. You actually feel a palpable sense of desperation  as you're running around the house, trying to bolster your defenses before endless waves of marauding undead start pounding on the doors and tearing at the shutters!
• As such, I think this version is even more reliant on co-operation. Sure, I kinda cruised through this scenario, but my dice luck was decent, I was playing all of the characters and I was optimizing their Actions. I can see this being a completely different experience with six players all controlling their own Survivors.
• Some of the dumber rules have been eliminated or refined. For example: if you shoot into a melee now, you only hit allies if you miss! Thanks, designers...gold stars all around! In other rule improvements: zombies don't steal shit from people, there are no stupid manhole covers and packs of Ghouls don't split up. Also the clever, but not-so-practical, concept of in-game "Noise" has been replaced by a much easier and intuitive A.I. system for the zombies.
• Combining items into Scoped Rifles and Molotov cocktails is just plain fun. Props for the nice variety of items and weapons!
• The Skills are well in-step with the film characters, I.E. Ben and Judy become better shots, Barbra turns into an escape artist, Tom transforms into a rugby player, Helen gets resourceful and Harry get, um...bossy. I also like that players evolve into their adrenaline-fueled "Zombicide" Mode when they work together and share key items. Mercifully, the Survivors feel unrealistic, even while sporting this upgrade.   
• The rule book alone is a work of art, with lots of amazing illustrations, examples, a glossary and * swoon * a phreakin' index!  

CONS

• I approve of the inclusion of Relatives, but the execution seems a bit off. In the movie, Barbra and Helen pretty much freeze up like headlight-stricken deer when cannibalistic Karen or undead Johnny show up. The game's rules simulate this by having a "Relative" pop up during a room Search or Spawn, which forces Survivors to drop from dynamic "Zombicide" Mode down to frightened rabbit "Romero" Mode. That's both shocking and on-point...the first two times it happens. Between Searches and Spawns, Relatives appear so frequently that unlocking "Zombicide" Mode is kind of a pain in the ass, since you're constantly flipping your Survivor Card over. Maybe there are four "Karen? Poor Baby" Cards in the House Equipment Deck to encourage folks to search in the other two decks, who knows? Whatever the reason, I can't square these corners off thematically. I mean, are Karen and Johnny just popping up over and over again or is Night of the Living Dead really the story of how a massive, organized, group Thanksgiving dinner at a quaint, isolated farmhouse went horribly awry? My solution: Karen and Johnny can only pop up once per Scene, permanently reducing folks to "Romero" Mode until (A) they're eliminated and (B) the Survivors perform the same the scenario-specific instruction to power back up again. 
• The rule book is great, but there are still a few times where the designers muddy the waters for no good reason. For example, Page 11 reads: "In exterior Zones, movement from one Zone to another has no restrictions. However, Actors must go through an open door (or opening) to move from an interior Zone to an exterior one and vice-versa. In interior Zones, Actors may move from one Zone to another as long as their Zones are linked by an opening (such as an open door or open window)." Why use  "opening" as your chosen verbiage? Why not just say "open door or window?" Oi.
• Although I really dig the idea of the game rewarding co-operation with the "Zombicide Mode", I really hafta ask: what's in it for the rat bastard around the table? In other words: the game gives you every reason in the world to co-operate, but zero incentive to look out for number one! My suggestion: regardless of a win or loss, give out an individual winner award to the player with the most Experience Points. If there's a tie, the person with the Rifle wins! With this house rule, you can use an Action to take the rifle away from someone by force. Roll a d6 and add +1 for every difference in Experience Level between the two. The high-roller takes the rifle and also has the option of inflicting a point of damage on the loser! If there's a tie, it turns into a good, old-fashioned tug-of-war! You can also flat-out attack another Survivor bare-handed, using the rules above (and inflicting a mandatory point of damage) or you can just snap and use a melee weapon! This might help replicate the open conflict between Ben and Harry at the end of the film!

***

All told, Night of the Living Dead: A Zombicide Game is a vast improvement over the original and avoids the stylistic personal objections I'd presumably have over the Second Edition. Even though there are still a few rules vagaries, and the execution of some of the new, thematically-relevant conditions left me scratching my head, the game itself does a fantastic job re-creating the tension, synergy and camaraderie of a real survival horror experience.

Night of the Living Dead: A Zombicide Game scores five pips out of six with a slight tilt down towards that deathtrap of a basement!