Mission 1 - Not So Fresh Meat

• Mission 1, Part 1 - A Glimpse of the Shadows.  The team investigates a Trailer Park and finds hints of a conspiracy and dozens of zombies.
• Combat 1 - Good Samaritans, Evil Zombies
• Combat 2 - Living Here Will Cost You an Arm and a Leg, and a Brain, and...
• Epilogue 
• Mission 1, Part 2 - The Face of Evil.  The team investigates a Trailer Park and finds hints of a conspiracy and dozens of zombies.
• Combat 3 - That's no cop!
• Combat 4 - Raiders of the Lost Parts
• Combat 5 - Welcome to My Den (Narrative overview)
• Epilogue.
• Debriefing
• Bud's Interview 
• Bic's Interview 
• John's Interview 
• Sarah's Interview 
• Team Debriefing 
• CIP Awards 

Mission 1, Part 1 - A Glimpse of the Shadows

PCs: John Brockway, Sarah Doherty, "Bud" Johnson, "Bic" Raker

08JUN2000 (R)

2130 - Showed up to safe house, in conference room. 
2140 - Steven Pendergrass briefs team: 

• Location: McKinney, about 30 minutes drive from safe house
• Recent history of reports of disturbing the peace from neighbors of a trailer park, police investigations turned up nothing.
• At 2000 tonight a woman reports having been attacked.  She stopped to investigate a body in the road and when she got out of the car “people that appeared to be horribly diseased” attacked her.  She made it back to her car, fled the scene, and called the police.  The police reported finding nothing.
• The Society suspects something is going on in the trailer park.
• The team is to assume that the police are at least not friendly, if not hostile.
• The mission is to investigate and act accordingly.

2225 - Party spots Frank's Equipment en route.  Security lighting, some visible heavy equipment inside a security fence.  Compound 
2230 - drive a quarter mile past trailer park 
2240 - Bud and John drive into trailer park; Bic monitoring radio transmissions; Sarah at van looking around with night goggles. 
2245 - John spots a body in front of the pickup, Bud stops 

Steven Pendergrass - director of Plano Safe house. 

John and Bud came across body and stopped to investigate.  Ambushed as they went back into the pickup truck. 

Combat 1 - Good Samaritans, Evil Zombies 

2310 Called safe house and reported to Joe Sommers that they found Zombies.  He had little information, but they did convey/confirm that they are "North American Zombies" and that shooting them in the head is how to stop them. 
2330 Head back to the trailer park and try to find the junction box. 
2335 Establish encryption 
2345 Find seven numbers in trailer park
2350 Drive back towards highway. 
2355 Telephone junction near factory 

09JUN2000 (F)

0015 Bud gets some hot dogs.  Bic checks numbers, no answer x ten rings.  Discuss x 15 minutes. 
0030 John goes into convenience store and talks to Indian clerk, Patel.  Bud goes with him.  John fails Persuasion and Bud fails Intimidation.  Patel gets angry, but still polite. 
0040 Cop shows up, named Morrison.  John plants tracker on cop car.  Bic plants bug under register.  Conversation is uninformative and Patel says as little as possible. 
0045 Cop leaves, heading towards trailer park (east). 
0050 Party back to store. 
0055 Patel falls, Sarah tends to him.  Patel enters the van.  Bitten three nights ago by horribly injured dog.  One night ago, talked to clerk, police showed up soon and warned him not to talk, that "they were watching him." 
0105 Police car signal lost. 
0110 Helped Patel back into store.  Headed back towards trailer park to pick up signal 
0112 Picked up signal, Bic determines that Police car is within 0.5 miles of trailer park.  Continue on until ten halfway point, ten miles from highway, ten miles from trailer park, and five miles from factory.
0120 Hit halfway point, all in van. 
0121 Police radio: "Hank, I found a gun at the trailer park."  Answer: "Mmm hmm, I'll tell him." 
0125 Signal moving away from Trailer park (in direction of log ambush site).  Party drives towards signal. 
0126 Signal stops, party stops. 
0130 Radio "Ernie called from the factory, I think they're wandering again."  "I'll go check it out." 
0131 Party heads to factory, Bic hears faint gunshots as they approach.  Party heads out at 90 mph towards Frank's Equipment. 
0134 Bud pulls off of the road about 0.5 miles away from factory.  Spots Ernie. 
0140 Radio: "Hank, I'm at the factory, I don't see Ernie or anything." 
0141 Radio: "Hank, scratch that, I found Chuck, he's pretty messed.  Need to come out and clean this up.  We need to find that Ernie too." 
0145 Radio: "Hank, I'm looking around.  I can't find Ernie."  "All right, I'll tell him." 
0150 Arrive at Turnstile Stop (the truck stop where Bud works).  Bud arranges ride for Ernie out of town.  Ernie mentioned Fort Worth. 

0152 Party stops to discuss options. 

0205 Bic gets a call from Joe (Sommers) at the Society.  Five days ago, five bodies went missing from the McKinney morgue. 

0210 Party discusses more options 

• Investigate Medical Center nearby.  Theory: Diseased dog escaped from Medical Center and moved toward the trailer park.  Patel's attack by the "wounded dog" was between the Medical Center and the trailer park.
• Bud goes in as legitimate patient, Sarah as girlfriend.
• John as wandering confused person.
• Bic will rig two bugs, one on Bud and one on John.  He will stay in the van.
• Tap into a phone line to learn info.  Police?  Trailer Park?  Factory?

• Drive to hospital with Bud and Sarah in pickup, John and Bic in Van.
• Van parked away from other cars.  Bic monitoring commo.  Pickup parks normally.  Bud and Sarah admit Bud to ER.
• After Bud and Sarah inside, John will enter hospital behind them and head straight for elevators and head to morgue.

• Lesser Zombie Master - one other case.  Animated by some force, force of will?  Some other Creature of the Unknown?  LZM animated other bodies in Morgue and left.

0247 John at elevators.  Avoids guard leaving elevator car.  Goes down to outer morgue doors.  Two pairs of doors before a desk, inner morgue doors beyond desk.  Enters left near door - equipment, right near door junk storage. 

0255 Billy calls Bud back for treatment.  Nurse Wilson takes report and has Billy calls the police. Sarah slips away to elevator. 

Bud talks to Nurse Peters, a male nurse from the 82nd Airborne, told him of supervisor Susan McCormick disregarding his suggestion to call the CDC.

0300 John reports to Bic, plans to get past kid into morgue. 

Sarah goes down to morgue, asks Wallace about a bathroom.  He is short with her and directs her upstairs.  She goes back to the lobby and then the bathroom. 

0305 John sneaks to left door near desk - changing room, then moves over to right door near desk - records room. 

Sarah in bathroom, calls Bic and checks in. 

0310 John finds record from five days ago: John Doe checked in Saturday night with head and hands missing.

Bic finds on his computer that obituaries occurred about one or two per day until about five days ago. 

Sarah asks Billy about vending machines. 

0315 Bud seen by Dr. Anderson, a male Caucasian 38 year old. 

Police radio - Hank on radio, "Someone was attacked.  You need to head over to the hospital and take a report." "Not done rounding them up yet."  OK, call back at 0330.  If you're not done yet.  I'll have to figure something out." 

0320 Bud gets blood drawn. 

Log entry from early morning Sunday, 05JUN2000 - "0300 Made rounds, found door ajar.  Inspected other chambers and found other six bodies on record were also missing.  Reported to supervisor."  John figures out that the door ajar was the chamber that John Doe was in.  John reported to Bic. 

0323 'All right Hank, I think I got things under control here. I'm heading over to the hospital."  "All right." 

0325 Sarah goes back to bathroom. 

0330 Sarah returns to Bud and reports to Bud what she learned from Bic.  Sarah wants to leave, but Bud wants to stay, worried that if he leaves prematurely, he will raise suspicion.

0335 Nurse Wilson checks back with them. 

0339 Bud and Sarah arguing about what to do. 

0343 Sarah walks out to Bud's pickup and gets inside.  Morrison pulls into ER driveway. 

0345 Morrison arrives at ER.  Sarah reports to Bic. 

John finds no records of bodies being checked in or out in the last five days.  He reports to Bic. 

Morrison takes report: 

• "Homeless" guy
• Flat tire, attacked after tire changed
• Attacked by him with a pipe or bottle
• Glistening sores on face
• Asked about woman
• Time of attack? Answer: 0130?
• Morrison mentions, "Well, we only have two cops."

0420 At Sleep Inn room.  Discussion ensues: 

• Lesser Zombie Master raised zombies near it.
• Bic - thinks cops have brought any bodies to the LZM.
• John - John Doe body brought in with parts missing.
• How did the Zombies get out?  Another elevator?
• Who was the supervisor of the morgue on the night the LZM arose?
• Bic sets up police radio to record throughout night.

0900 John has a nightmare.  He is in a trailer park and he hears his dog barking outside.  He checks on it and his dog is gone.  He grabs his shotgun and goes looking after it.  He finds a man eating his dog.  The man attacks him.  His shotgun has little effect.  Wakes up and recovers CWPR to full. 

0915 Bic checks tape - hears of police checking out sight of Bud's "attack."  Bic can't get back to sleep.  He kills time buying stuff for a shotgun microphone and gets some breakfast. 

1315 Sarah wakes up. 

1320 Bud woken up by Sarah.  Back to full CWPR. 

1400 Teams meets in one of the rooms.  Brainstorming: 

• Snoop around factory?
• Snoop around trailer park?

1555 Team arrives at Factory.  En route, they take note that the convenience store is open.  Stop at factory, Frank's Equipment.  John tries door.  No sounds.  Returns to van.  Bud and John sneak around back.  John picks lock to rear door.  Bud and John search for ten minutes, Bud finds remaining bloodstain.  Investigation (John) - no invoices for the past week.  John searches five more minutes, owner - Frank Masterson. 

1615 Team at Trailer Park.  John's Police Procedures, probably 6-10 cops in McKinney. 

Sarah uses Leave the Body, loses 12 CWPR (63 CWPR).  Searches down left side, gets through first 8 trailers.  Down to 31 CWPR [making the next Fear check will really suck].  Team moves through a little too fast.  Bud's shotgun goes off, temporarily partially deafening the team.  Bic smashes his face on the radio. 

Bud gets out and starts to track around east edge of trailer park with John following about ten meters behind, while Sarah turns the van around on the central drive and awaits word.  Bic is in the passenger seat.  As Bud and John reach the middle of the line of trailers, their hearing returns and they notice creaking and motion from the trailers.  Bud pins his body up against one and starts moving down the side of it.  A pair of hands bursts out from underneath the trailer and grabs his ankles.  He pulls away and sticks his shotgun underneath the trailer, between the hands, firing a shot off.  Luckily, he manages to shoot the zombie in the head.  Did I say zombie?  Make that a lot of zombies, 31 in fact.  And so the fun begins.

Combat 2 - Living Here Will Cost You an Arm and a Leg, and a Brain, and...

Police Radio:  "Jimmy, there's reports of gunfire at the park, check it out."
 

Sarah brings up the van, Bud limps in, and Bic and Sarah drag John's unconscious form in. 

In the end, John dropped 9, Bic dropped 11, Sarah dropped 5, and Bud dropped 6, for a grand total of 31 zombies. 

All zombies appeared to be dead humans.  No abnormal signs of disease, most had at least one obvious wound.  Some had bites taken out of them. 

Mission 1, Part 1 Epilogue

"Huh?"  After a short pause, and with an unusual lack of emotion, Jimmy continues, "That's good, cause it's a real mess here. <Heavy breathing> It looks like some sort of suicide cult or something. <Faint thud> Looks like they got all lined up in a trailer <creaking in the background> and shot themselves in the head.  I think maybe they musta had two ringleaders though, cause there's only two guns, one empty revolver <click> <jingling of metal that Bud recognizes as a handful of bullets falling a short distance (into something soft?)> <click> <thud> and one <click> empty automatic <John recognizes the sound of slide being pulled back on an automatic pistol>.  <thud, sigh> The automatic looks like the same model that we use, so maybe this was the one stolen from that one guy's patrol car that day." 

"Oh yeah?  Well, that sounds tragic.  Those poor people.  I'll call the meat wagon boys and get them out there." 

<Bic recognizes the sound of the striker wheel on a lighter? > "And the whole place is burning down around me. <Bic hears the whoosh of flames erupting near Jimmy's position>  "I am going to have to get out of this trailer before the whole thing comes down on me.  I can't quite get to the guns, we're gonna have to get them when the flames die down." 

"I'll call the fire department." 

"Oh yeah, good thinking Bill.  I'll wait out here for the Dallas boys to show up.  There's not much to do out here but stand back and watch.  Perhaps those Dallas boys can bring along some marshmallows?"  Laughter can be heard over the radio, the kind you might hear if you wandered into the wrong bar at the wrong time, alone.

Within fifteen minutes the radio chatter starts to include Dallas police responding to the scene.  Their reports are more consistent with what Bic is used to hearing, but the information they relay paints a picture of a suicide cult.  As the group reaches the cabin, they hear reports on the radio of reporters arriving. 

Bud is helped into bed and Bic heads off to a phone and contacts the Society.  Malcolm [Boyles] answers and takes his report.  Malcolm gets general directions from Bic and asks him to turn on a tracking signal for the healer to zero in on.  During the next hour, the team sits more or less quietly, their minds processing the day’s events.  Every major channel interrupts its programming to announce the story with various titles such as McKinney Suicide Cult, Trailer Park Terror, and 31 Dead in Mysterious Blaze.  Allusions are made to the cult incident in Waco as well as the Heaven's Gate cult.  The police officers seem to look genuinely concerned when the reporters interview them, but they tell a tale of a seemingly open and shut case as far as criminal responsibility is concerned.  References are made to future investigations as to the cause. 

As the reports begin to repeat themselves and useful information becomes scarcer, a soft knock is heard on the door.  A pair of men displays a small icon with an "S" at the peephole, signifying the Society and the team lets them in.  The first man that walks in is Caucasian and dressed like he is ready for a business meeting to start, except for the slight bulge under his jacket.  He seems slight of build and moves gracefully into the room, pushing the door fully open until he is rewarded by the sound of it striking the wall softly.  He scans the rooms, his eyes concealed behind dark glasses, and his face has a very superficial expression of friendliness as if he placed a smile on his face and forgot about it.  He stands off to the side of the door and grunts out a single syllable that is unintelligible to the party.  The second man strolls in slowly and his presence is almost tangible.  He is middle-aged and long black hair falls about his shoulders onto his tan sport jacket.  A bolo tie is pulled tightly around the collar of his sky blue shirt, held in place by a silver and turquoise clasp.  His black jeans are pulled down over rattlesnake boots.  A large black bear skin is rolled under his arm.  He looks at the team and walks over to the listless, bloody form of Bud.  He says just loud enough for everyone to hear " I am Longwalker, he is Jeff.  Malcolm sent us.  We are here to help."  He ignores any questions asked of him as he rolls out a bearskin and removes small ceramic and glass jars, feathers, and pouches.  Jeff steps back outside, closing the door behind him. 

Longwalker paints complex mystic runes on Bud's body.  Each character recognizes a few symbols, whether from a horror movie, a TV show, or their own training in magic or the arts.  The symbols seem to come from a variety of cultures and religions. He scatters scented herbs on Bud's broken and bloody form and anoints him with amber oil.  After about twenty minutes of this, he pulls a large bearskin over Bud and settles down cross-legged on the floor.  He begins humming and chanting in a low, bass voice.  The sounds he makes vary.  Some sound like traditional Indian chanting that one might expect, yet every now and then a sentence in Latin or Greek escapes.  After ten or fifteen minutes he stops and pulls back the bearskin.  Bud is noticeably better, the grievous wound from the machete-wielding zombie all but a pink mark on his flesh. [Healed for 14]  Longwalker conducts the same ritual with John with similar results. [Healed for 8]  John's wounds are almost completely gone.  A little weary, he then tends to Bic, continuing to ignore any questions asked of him.  When he is finished, Bic is healed completely, with no trace of the wounds he sustained just hours ago. [Healed 8] 

It's a little after eight when Longwalker places his talismans, salves, and herbs back into his bearskin and rolls it up.  He looks more than a little tired.  "I will return tomorrow evening.  If you move to a new location, notify Steven.  Until then, rest."  He steps outside and the pair of them leaves in a nondescript black Saturn sedan.

Mission 1, Part 2 - The Face of Evil

09JUN2000 (F)

Bud's poor memory of a few events is nagging at the back of Bic's mind.  Under the glass eyes of a mounted trophy buck's head, the team rests in a dusty lodge, the false warmth of a television keeping them company.  They are variously frightened, bewildered, and excited by the day's supernatural events.  The battle they have spoken of rages about them and they search within themselves as they contemplate their next actions. 

2030: Bic and Sarah go off to contact the Society.  Bud and John stay in the lodge.  Bic called the Society and discussed various topics, including how to proceed.  Malcolm said, "we pursue the Unknown as far as we can," and "if it gets too dangerous, pull out."  Bic arranges with Malcolm for Sarah to go in to the safe house. 

2200: Sarah dropped off at Taco Bell, going to safe house to do research. 

2230: Bic back at safe house.  Bud is out cold, John and Bic chat about Bud.  Bud has nightmares - Bic and John trying to get him fired from the truck stop when his rent is due; Morrison has him in jail; Patel's wound explosively spreads over his body and he turns into a zombie and attacks Bud; and finally he is tied up in a small room, sweating, with Morrison pointing a gun at his head saying "What's one more member of a suicide cult?" 

2300: John goes to sleep.  Bic standing guard. 

Sarah goes to sleep. 

10JUN2000 (S)

0900: Bic woken up by John.  Bud awakes; he has recovered to full CWPR, and recovered one Wound. 
 

Stat	John	Sarah	Bud	Bic
Luck	50 (50)	50 (50)	50 (50)	70 (70)
Stamina	55 (51)	70 (70)	65 (37)	55 (55)
WPR	60 (60)	75 (62)	50 (50)	65 (65)
Wounds	27 (25)	25 (25)	32 (18)	23 (23)

1200: John drives Bud to his truck. 

1215: Bud and John get to Sleep Inn.  Bud calls and asks for an arsenal: 

• One heavy revolver
• Two heavy automatics
• One light automatic (Glock 17)
• Combat shotgun
• Fragmentation grenades
• One clip of solid slug shotgun rounds
• AR-15

1330: Sarah finishes her research: 

• Theory: LZM can alter his physical form, otherwise it would not be able to walk into and out of buildings and negotiate similarly mundane obstacles. 
• Theory: Whoever controls the head and hands controls the LZM and thus the head and hands are probably needed to destroy an LZM; the method of destruction is uncertain. 
• Known: LZM animate dead creatures.
• Known: LZM can animate body parts. 
• Known: "North American Zombie" is just an animated corpse.  Shoot it in the head to kill it.  Body parts will keep fighting if separated from body.  Direct line-of-sight is required to control them. 
• Can an LZM influence living people?  Uncertain.  No clear-cut recorded cases that Sarah could find. 
• Theory: It is believed that a second party performs a ritual to create one since decapitation is required. 
• Does a person need to be evil to be an LZM?  Not enough information. 
• What about information on the other team that fought an LZM?  Team lost and trail of LZM lost.

• One heavy revolver w/ two speed loaders 
• Two heavy automatics with two clips each 
• One light automatic (Glock 17) with two clips 
• Combat shotgun w/ laser sight and two clips 
• Six Fragmentation grenades 
• One clip of solid slug shotgun rounds 
• AR-15 with two clips 
• One box of 100 rounds for each clip 
• Four extra speed loaders 

1430: Bic, Sarah, and John arrive at the 1400 meeting at Denny's.  The team eats some food.  Bud mentions that the phone number was disconnected.  Sarah and Bic discuss a generic "security issue." 

1500: Team heads out to van and talks. 

1520: John goes off to the bathroom and does secret stuff.  He sees an unfamiliar Caucasian watching Bud's pickup truck.  From his experience as a spy he is very certain that the man is with the "bad guys" back in McKinney.  He figures that they have all been made but he does not see any communications gear.  He sneaks up on the guy and kills him with two shots to the head. 

1550: Team decides to head over to McKinney Hall of Records.  The Hall is closing.  The team asks about owner of Trailer Park, in guise of Undercover reporters. 

1600: Guy has not come back.  Woman locks the door.

1605: Guy - Frank Masterson owns the trailer park, he's rich, and he owns Frank's Equipment.  Guy shows them out. 

1615: Sarah remembers dinner engagement.  She gets a hold of the colleague and cancels, so much for tenure... 

Party tries to find number and address for Frank Masterson. 

1630: No phone number or address.  Bic searches computer. 

1645: Bic determines that a lot of the land between the trailer park and factory and thereabouts are owned by Frank Masterson. 

1700: Bic is certain the cop car should be in the Medical Center parking lot, but the team does not see one in there.  Team starts driving towards trailer park.  Bic looks up Morrison's address and number and finds it.  Morrison lives near the downtown area. 

1720: Team pulls into random house driveway and John and Bic masquerade as reporter and cameraman.  Not a happy person. 

1730: Next guy is friendlier.  Invites them in and gives them a drink each.  Wife tells of Mrs. Masterson being neglected and possibly taking her own life a few years back.  Mr. Masterson was too busy for her, always making money.  Knows roughly where Frank lives, but not address; the house has a big "beautiful" red door.  Tells them next-door neighbor is a "right bastard." 

1745: Team heads back to lodge. 

1815: Team at lodge.  Bud cooks some sausage and ham. 

1845: John rents an SUV in his name with his credit card. 

1930: Bic and John make it back. 

1945: News story, "Mystery slaying at Denny's."  Police suspect it is drug-related.  They are following up leads, they have a description of the man, and they are performing ballistics tests on the bullets. 

2000: Longwalker arrives and heals Bud with the Art [heals 10 Wounds]. 
 

Stat	Bud
Luck	50 (50)
Stamina	65 (57)
WPR	50 (50)
Wounds	32 (28)

2045: Longwalker leaves. 

2100: The team talks about things. 

• Investigate Masterson's home/grounds?
• Tap phone junction box for Masterson's home?
• Stakeout? No.
• Blah, blah, blah

11JUN2000 (U)

0330: John and Sarah take guard, Bud and Bic go to sleep. 

0830: Bud and Bic awakened by John and Sarah.  Bud refuses to get up.  Rest of team talks. 

1030: Team wakes up Bud and he gets up. 

1130: Team arrives at Masterson Home? 

• Bic: has heavy automatic in camera bag, with two clips; listening device
• John: good old Glock in small of back and two clips
• Bud: two pistols in the small of his back (pretty obvious)
• Sarah in van

1150: Check out nearby homes.  All houses within 1/2 mile of Masterson home are vacant except for one, the one with the excess mail above.  The vacant homes have scarce furniture and no drapes or curtains. 

1230: Cop car shows up and drives past area.  Team hides van behind ranch house.  Cop does not stop.  Team waits. 

1500: Team picks up Bud and they head to Masterson house. 

1510: Team at house.  Bud moves up to house and positions van such that the side door opens towards a window. 

1515: John bypasses window alarm. 

1520: John unlocks window and enters the house. 

1530: Frank Masterson is fishing in the Gulf of Mexico, he'll be back tonight.  He left two weeks ago.  Cop car drives by again.  Pictures in his study show him with various fishing trophies. 

1535: John finds no doggie doors. 

1545: Upstairs, clothes missing are consistent with a long trip. 

1555: John gets Bic and then checks out basement. 

1600: They discover wine cellar. 

1605: Team leaves house.  Bic does reverse search and determines that the neighbor at the address with all of the mail is William Foster.  Post stamps on mail are 10 or more days old. 

1610: Bud will stake out house.  Team waits 2 miles away.  Bud is behind a rusty tilling trailer, amidst overgrown grass.  He is about 500 m from Masterson's House. 

2100: Lincoln Town Car pulls in, dog friendly. 

2200: Reporters interview Frank, he seem surprised. 

2215: Reporters leave. 

Current Situation: The team will wait until midnight to see if Frank goes anywhere.  That puts Bud about one minute away from the ranch if he runs.  John, Sarah, and Bic are inside the van, which is about half a mile away, hidden behind an uninhabited ranch house.  Bud has binoculars, night vision goggles, and two heavy automatic pistols in the small of his back, but *not* his cool new shotgun. 

The Scene, 11JUN2000 (U)

About 300 meters farther from the ranch sits the rest of the team, fighting unconsciousness in the dark interior of their van.  The powerfully soporific white noise of the police band scanner entices them all to doze off, if only for a minute.  Bic tries to help his companions remain alert with various games on his computer.

2220: Cellar lights are turned on.

2230: Cellar light turned off and the shadow of a man, presumably Frank's, moves quickly through the house to the study.  He appears to be standing up, leaning over his desk.  From the motions of his shadow, it almost looks like he is organizing his desk or perhaps searching hard for something (Note: Bic and John don't remember there being any clutter on the desk when they searched the building earlier).  After a few minutes he sits down and his shadow on the curtain is a little crisper.  It looks like he is using a phone at the desk.  He leans forward after a few minutes, from what Bud can see, he is either taking notes or calling another person, perhaps both.  He then reclines in the chair, apparently still on the phone.

2233: Another call?

2237: Another call?

2300: Bud needs to use the bathroom and starts to wonder if he's going to get chiggers. 

2310: Bud sees an SUV pulls up to Masterson's ranch.  Frank steps outside as they arrive.  Two men get out of the SUV.  They are dresses casually, wearing sport jackets.  As they get out, they appear to be holstering weapons under their jackets, but they look a little large for pistols; they could be SMGs.  He greets them and they step into the house.

2320: Bud sees a sturdy-looking but modest pickup pull up to the ranch.  A man and woman get out and head into the ranch.  They open the door and walk in without knocking.

2325: Bud hunkers down instinctively as he hears motion nearby.  A horse with a rider canters across the field from the north; the rider holds a shotgun, casually pointed at the sky.  Bud sees no one else.  He rides up to the ranch, dismounts, and enters the ranch.

2330: Bud's urge to use the bathroom grows.  Bud nips off to a nearby tree to relieve himself.

12JUN2000 (M)

0015: A police car is seen coming down the road toward the ranch.  The car slows when it approaches the ranch and cruises by at a walking speed.  Bud sees a driver and a passenger, but little else.  The car continues past the ranch.  Party continues to discuss plans over the radio.

0020: The police car pulls up to the front porch of the ranch and the officer gets out of the car.  Bud identifies him as Morrison.  Morrison walks up to the door and knocks.

0030: Party still talking about plans and suspicions over radio.  John goes to scout vehicles via the road.

0050: John at cars, starts looking in them.  Nothing nifty. Pickup is a working truck with Texas plates.  SUV is remarkably clean inside and out, plates are Texas truck plates.  Lincoln Town Car is clean and in good shape, not heavily worn, Texas plates.

0055: John makes a slight noise and startles the horse slightly.  The horse rider walks out onto the porch and approaches the horse, "Everything all right boy?"  He looks into the horse's eyes intently for a brief instant and then says to himself, "All right then."  He turns to the house and says loudly to the people inside, "Hey Frank, I'm gonna stay out here and watch for a while."  The man grabs his shotgun from inside the front door and settles down in a rocking chair on the porch.

0110: John still frozen in crouch, he's getting uncomfortable.

0120: Head to Foster's home.  Makes a little noise, man gets up and walks over to the end of the porch and watches for a couple of minutes.  John freezes in place until the man sits back down.

0130: John heads over to Foster's house.

0135: John at Foster's home.  Starts briefing team.  He detects a faint smell of death and decay.

0140: Smell fades.  John sneaks over to Bud. It begins to rain.  He notices a fly buzzing around occasionally.

0200: Horse rider goes back inside the house.

0245: John arrives at Bud's position.  He heads off to the van.

0300: John back at van. Bud is soaking wet; he sneaks back to van.

0310: Sarah Senses the Unknown.  It's very powerful as if a creature is sitting next to her.

0315: Bud back at van.  Bud notices a huge fly leaving the van as he wrings out his shirt.  Bic and Sarah clue in to the fly possibly being the LZM or an agent of it and John mentions the fly buzzing around on his way here.

0323: Bud and Sarah do not Sense Unknown.

0325: Bud examines house with binoculars and verifies that the people inside are not doing anything.

0330: Team heads back to cabin.  Bic uses Mental Shield (Costs 8 WPR, CWPR 57).  Bud drives without headlights.  Cop car coming back.  Bud drives without lights to city and on to the cabin.

0400: At cabin.  Bud takes a shower.  The players decide to sleep now.

0415: Bud out of shower.  Watches are set.  Bic (3 hrs.), Sarah (3 hrs.), then Bud (3 hrs.).

1030: Bic recovers to full CWPR.  John wakes up from CPD (loses 17 CWPR) and relates it:

• Having an argument with my wife over some man that she felt was scamming him.
• Then there were these two dogs, but I know I also have two dogs.
• Cryptic conversation about power.  I got the feeling I was this miserable man.
• He asked me to kill my own wife with a chainsaw and I did.
• He was happy and then laid me down on a slab and I had this sensation on my neck and a sense of warmth on my neck.
• Then I was in this morgue locker.  I realize that I have no hands or head.  I got out of the locker.
• A voice in my head told me to change my form and I did.
• The same voice told me to awaken the others and I did.  I raised the other bodies and they were all standing there with me, including the mutilated body of my wife.
• My wife's name was Marlene.

• Masterson's wife died months ago.
• No mention of Marlene in the obituaries for the few weeks before the LZM was raised.
• Bic looks on computer - Marlene was married to William Foster.

1400: Bic and Sarah wake up.

Team thinks more

• Marlene married to William Foster
• Masterson went on vacation two weeks ago
• Will admitted to Morgue one week ago
• No mail collected from Will's house for at least one week.
• Article reported five bodies missing, but John found records of seven bodies missing.  The attendant from that night gave the information in the article.
• Apparent Collaborators
• Officer J. Morrison
• Officer Hank ?
• LZM must have LOS on zombies, else they do nothing.
• LZM can change form.

1500: Sarah sneaks off to the side to call the Society.  S is sending out another person, Lionel White, to back them up.

1500-2100: UTD Research

• McKinney PD
• Roster
• William Foster lost bid for chief three times.
• Frank Masterson
• Was married.  Wife deceased by overdose.
• Has son Daniel.  He should be about 31 years old now.  He looks like the man from John's CPD that made William a LZM.
• Wealthy
• Active in community
• William Foster - Almost nothing, but he lost a handful of other bids for office.
• Med. Center - It's big and cool; some bodies went missing about one week ago.

1630: Drive by Morrison's home, car outside.

1700: Drive by Masterson's home, only his car outside.  At Foster's home, no cars.

Bic and Bud approach.  Smell of death, hissing sound under house, Bic Senses the Unknown successfully.  They decide to leave for now.

1715: Bic decides to take some time for occult research.  He finds some hidden symbols that suggest a group of magic people are operating in the McKinney area.  The books are not very useful.

1730: Bud at Turnstile Stop.  One of the waitresses there knew of Masterson.  She likes him, worries that he is lonely with no one to keep him company.  She mentions that Frank built an orphanage and helped raise funding for a local church.

1830: Bic at UTD doing more occult research.    He finds some hidden symbols that suggest a group of magic people are operating in the McKinney area.  The books here are also not very useful.  He finishes at about 2100.

2100: Bic runs into Sarah and John, leaving the UTD library.

2200: Team at Cabin.  Lionel shows up.  He is a six foot tall black man, slim of build with a medium length afro.  He struts a little.  He describes himself as a paramedic and ex-combat medic with the 101st airborne.  The team collates info and decides what to do.  They decide to head over to Foster's home and investigate.

The Scene

• William Foster’s wife is Marlene, like the woman in John’s CPD.
• Chronology
• 28MAY2000 (U): Masterson went on vacation.
• ~02JUN2000 (S): Mail starts to accumulate in William Foster’s mailbox.
• 03JUN2000 (U): William Foster admitted to Morgue at 0130.
• Physical record of William Foster’s admission in Tom Brandt’s notes.
• Tom Brandt’s interview in the following day’s newspaper does not mention it.
• 03JUN2000(U): William arises and escapes with animated bodies between 0130 and 0300
• Tom Brandt’s notes show a record of seven bodies, but in his interview he only refers to five bodies.
• Further investigation shows that the two bodies not mentioned in the interview are William and Marlene Foster (John and Jane Doe).
• 04JUN2000 (M): Date of article reporting five bodies missing from morgue.
• Apparent Collaborators
• Officer Jim Morrison (The worst example of the stereotypical sweaty fat ignorant bastard rural bad cop)
• Officer Hank Peters (Jim coordinated efforts with Hank over the police radio)
• Officer Jimmy Stills (day shift, set up “suicide cult” cover up)
• The LZM
• An LZM must have LOS on zombies else they do nothing.
• An LZM can change form.  This is a theory but the party seems to be confident that it is true.
• (Theory) Whoever controls the head and hands controls the LZM and thus the head and hands are probably needed to destroy an LZM; the method of destruction is uncertain. 
• An LZM can animate dead creatures.
• An LZM can animate body parts. 
• A "North American Zombie" is just an animated corpse.  Shoot it in the head to kill it.  Its body parts will keep fighting if separated from body.
• Can an LZM influence living people?  Uncertain.  No clear-cut recorded cases that Sarah could find.
• (Theory) It is believed that a second party performs a ritual to create one since decapitation is required.  If John’s dream is accurate, then this second party would a person that appears to be Daniel Masterson, Frank Masterson’s son.
• Does a person need to be evil to be an LZM?  Sarah could not find enough information to make a conclusion.
• The other team that fought an LZM?  Team and the trail of the LZM lost.
• McKinney PD
• Roster
• William Foster lost bid for chief three times.
• Current Chief is Bill Higgins.
• Frank Masterson
• Was married.  Wife deceased by overdose.
• Has son Daniel.  He should be about 31 years old now.  He looks like the man from John's CPD that made William a LZM.
• Wealthy
• Active in the community.  Bud hears from a waitress about an orphanage that Frank built and a church he helped raise money for.
• William Foster - Almost nothing, but he lost a handful of other bids for office.
• Med. Center – Aside from the morgue disappearance, the Med. Center seems to be a very nice, well equipped, and popular addition to the area.

Lionel claims to be a paramedic with decent driving skills and pretty good with a gun.  He says he is a veteran of the US Army, an airborne combat medic in the 101st Airborne division, to be exact.

It's still late Monday night.

2200: The team discusses stuff.

2230: John calls his contact and asks him to run down the license plates.  He will check them out tomorrow.

Lionel goes to sleep.

John is staying at the cabin with Lionel.  Sarah and Bic head home to sleep.  Bud heads to Rudy's (bar).

2300: Bud at Rudy's

13JUN2000 (T)

0600: Sarah gets up, goes to school and teaches.

0800: Bud at work.

0900: John at Turnstile Stop.

0915: Tom and John sneak out of truck stop.

Combat 3 - That's no cop!

0925: John calls Bud and tells Bud to get out now.  Bud sneaks out of Turnstile (uses Luck to get M result, 0 LP spent)

0945: Tom and John show up at Bic's place (Las Colinas).

1015: Bud returns.

1045: Everyone meets at Taco Bell between Dallas and Las Colinas.

1115: Group goes to a motel near Dallas.  John calls his informant and he has no information on the license plates.

1130: John's informant calls and tells him that there is a flag on the plates and he's not able or willing to look further.  John will need to get more clearance to access the data.

1200: Get basic recon gear

1215: John's informant tells John that people are asking why John wanted information on the license plates.

1220: Company calls John on scrambled connection.  Agent Dunvall calls him in.

The plan

• John goes in.
• The van with everyone else will go to the morgue and stake out the back entrance.

1230: John heads in to the company.

1250: John talks to Dunvall and Langford.

1300: Dunvall and Langford take John to Frank Masterson.

• John told Frank about LZM, ritual, head and hands, and zombies.
• Frank made references to himself and his wife having gifts; Daniel did not have gifts.
• Frank mentions that Jimmy Stills left the department two years ago.
• Frank does not know Morrison.
• Frank showed John the cellar and ritual room; remnants of blood stains; Frank looks uneasy near the stains.
• John and Frank agreed to join forces.
• John saw a funky lantern that Frank had that gave him a sense of well-being.
• Frank gives him a small wooden medallion in the shape of a Celtic cross, suspended on a leather thong necklace.  He says it will help protect John.
• The man that John killed at Denny's was working for the same people Morrison was.

1400: John back at company; he calls the team together.

John relates the info.  Bic identifies lantern as a powerful magic item that produces protective magic similar to his Art.

The plan

• Tom and John go in first
• Simultaneously Sarah and Bud wait in stairwell
• Lionel and Bic in van

14JUN2000(R)

Combat 4 - Raiders of the Lost Parts

Tom recovers his wits, resists the urge to run (uses Luck, ?? LP spent), and begins exchanging blows with Morrison.  He gets clawed again (27 STA, 3 Wounds), but manages to stay up and keep fighting.  He dishes a lot of damage to Morrison and knocks him down.  John reels from the damage, fights the urge to flee (uses Luck, ?? LP spent), backs up and shoots the man.  The man says to him in a commanding voice "Help me."  John feels a supernatural force pull at his mind, but fade away somehow in spite of his weakened mental state.  Hank Peters bursts through the doors and attacks Tom as well, but Tom's skills in the Martial Arts shine as he dodges and blocks blow after blow.

Morrison tries to get to his feet, but Tom knocks him back down, turns, and starts laying into Peters.  Bud and Sarah get to the fight and Bud hammers Peters in the back with the butt of his shotgun.  John moves around to take cover behind a metal autopsy table and shoots the man again.  The man slumps to the floor behind the table.

Tom gets the jump on Peters and hammers him into unconsciousness.  Tom and Bud blow away the unconscious forms of Peters and Morrison and their bodies evaporate in a putrid cloud.  John backs up farther towards the rest of the team and the exit.  Bud and Sarah move forward to engage the man, but find nothing.  Bud moves over to the locker and rips the metal door out of its mount, sending bits of metal and bolts flying.  Sarah grabs the chest, John confirms that it looks like William's and the team move to the stairs.  They bolt up to the first floor and Bud blows out the cameras covering the back entrance while Lionel brings the van around.  The team jumps in the van and they head off to the cabin.

En route, Bud figures out that Tom's wounds are horribly diseased.  Bud takes over driving and Lionel has a look at Tom.  He tells them that without proper treatment, Tom might die of the disease.

Electronic Advance - Some E-mail Resolution

Player's Addendum: "Bud will just spend the hours watching TV with the volume turned really low. He'll pace about, wandering to the windows all around the house, still psyched with combat energy. The combat shotgun will be within arms reach at all times and in his hands when pacing around."

0300: Bud goes to sleep and Lionel takes over watch.

0500: Sarah relieves Lionel.

0700: Bic relieves Sarah.

Sarah tells Bic that she is going to contact the Society and report in.  She tells Bic to tell John not to contact Masterson until she talks to the Society first. 

Sarah reports in.  The Society will only let her come in with Lionel, and only Lionel, escorting her.  Lionel drives around for a long time.  He stops for gas at a convenience store, gets some breakfast at a drive through, and finally takes the van through a car wash.  Then they go to meet Malcolm.

0800: Sarah's topics of discussion

• Update them on all that has happened
• Tell them about Tom and his medical condition and try to get a healer of some sort
• Portray how Tom's forgetfulness is reminiscent of Bud's
• Basically, tell them everything, including checking up on Frank Masterson and his Magic group to see if we can trust him or not.

• A Healer will be sent out immediately.
• The team can tell Tom of the Society as they see fit, but keep it on a "need to know" basis until this mission is over.
• Advice for the LZM: put everything together and destroy it with something permanent, like fire or acid.
• Regarding the stench near the Foster home, the other team did not note any stench given off by the LZM and the way in which it is described suggests they would have noticed it.  Maybe they forgot.  [Malcolm looks this up from a case file he has brought with him.]
• The creatures with the fangs and red eyes are Ghouls.
• Much faster than normal humans
• Eat dead people
• Carry fatal diseases
• Evaporate in a cloud when killed
• Start out looking human, get progressively more feral and unnatural in appearance over time
• Society Policy: Kill Ghouls on site
• Some rare Ghouls have exhibited special powers of higher creatures.  Examples include appearing healthy and human in spite of actual appearance, and the animation and control of the dead.
• There is a possibility that the person that accompanied Morrison is not dead.  If it was a normal Ghoul, it would have manifested flashing red eyes and used its claws and teeth to attack Agent Brockway.
• Masterson
• The Society  knows of his group, but we just found out about it, apparently because of Agent Brockway's inquiries.
• They appear to be a harmless group of low powered magicians.
• They do some work for the government.
• His company watchdogs are employed by a Society supporter
• He is aware of the Society's existence but has not yet been formally contacted by us
• Your team is cleared to contact him, but give him the least information necessary to gain his assistance.  We will handle further interactions after the mission is over.
• Good job.  Be careful.
• Based upon the information about Tom's encounters, the partial amnesia that Bud and Tom have suffered are consistent with a power of the Evil Way.

  Gaming Session 6 [July 23, 2000]  

0900: John relieves Bic.  Bic passes on Sarah's comments.

1000: Sarah and Lionel return to the cabin.  They both go to bed after warning John that a healer is coming to the cabin.

1015: Longwalker shows up with Jeff.

• Tom is healed completely.
• Jeff is healed; he recovers 5 Wound boxes.
• Bud is healed completely.
• Longwalker abates the symptoms of the disease for the day.

1145: Sarah briefs the team.

1210: John calls Frank and 

1215: Bic's computer search routines finds that a rash of grave robberies and vandalism occurred last night.

1230: Party still thinking and talking.

1245: The Scooby Gang Musters

• Get four 2-oz. glass containers of holy water (Sarah, Bud, Bic, Tom)
• Two cans of gas (leave in the van with Lionel)
• Two flare guns (John and Tom)
• Six road flares (two each for Bud, Bic, and Sarah)
• Bucket (with lid) with head and hands and soaking in gasoline (Sarah)
• Bud gets a set of load-bearing equipment to carry his grenades and ammo clips
• Want to try and find a gas sprayer

1430: No sprayer found.

Party drives over to Foster's home in van and John's SUV.

Combat 5 - Welcome to My Den

No one surprised - 5 Zombies manifest.

Round 1

	John	Sarah	Bud	Bic	Tom
Declaration	Kick down door	Shoot Zombie in head	Move toward dining room	Step away and shoot Zombie	Opportunity fire?
Initiative	15	9	7	5	11
CWPR & LP		-10 CWPR	Out of Luck
Hits taken				10/1, 9/2
Results	Cower x 2		Cower x 8		Cower x 3

6 zombies manifest.

Round 2

	John	Sarah	Bud	Bic	Tom
Declaration	Withdraw	Shoot	Shoot	Raise SoP	Back through door
Initiative	9	9	14	9	12
CWPR & LP		-14 CWPR
Hits taken		10/1,	0/0
Results	Falls down		Shotgun jams, cleared by end of round

17 Zombies manifest.

Round 3

	John	Sarah	Bud	Bic	Tom	Lionel
Declaration	Shoot	Shoot	Scream, Shoot	Fleeing house	Get out now!	Shoot!
Initiative	15	13	9	10	17	14
Hits taken		5/0	7/1
Results	Recover				Recovers

Round 4

	John	Sarah	Bud	Bic	Tom	Lionel
Declaration	Shoot	Shoot	Shoot	Shoot	Fight!
Initiative	12	12	6	12	10	11
Hits taken			11/1	21/3	14/1, 5/1

As Bud starts to have a real effect with his shotgun and the zombies' numbers begin to noticeably drop, he rallies and recovers from the fear.

Round 5

	John	Sarah	Bud	Bic	Tom
Declaration	Shoot	Shoot	Shoot	Shoot	Fight	Shoot
Initiative	15	8	15	7	11	8
Hits taken			3/0

John hears gunshots over at Masterson's place

Round 6

	John	Sarah	Bud	Bic	Tom	Lionel
Declaration	Going outside	Move & shoot	Clear, reload, shoot	New pistol, move, shoot	Fight	Move & shoot
Initiative	12	6	11	14	14	8
Hits taken			9/2		4/1, 8/1, 3/0
Results	See nothing special	Gun blows up	Clears jam, reloading	Moves to Tom

Round 7

	John	Sarah	Bud	Bic	Tom	Lionel
Declaration	Back to front door	Grab pickaxe	Finish reload and shoot	shoot	fight	shoot
Initiative	6	14	14	8	13	12
Hits taken		5/2	12 STA	Knocked out
Results			Spider poison	Spider poison		Spider poison

At the end of Round 7, spiders pour into the house and rain down from the ceiling upon the party and start biting them.  BTW, Sarah is arachnophobic.

Round 8

	John	Sarah	Bud	Bic	Tom	Lionel
Declaration	Run in and help	Flees	Shoot & leave	*Out*	Fight	Get out with Bic
Initiative	6	9	13	--	12	16
CWPR & LP		LP -7-34
Hits taken		6/0, 14/1			3/0, 18/0

Round 9

	John	Sarah	Bud	Bic	Tom	Lionel
Declaration	Go to van	Flee to van	Grab bucket, withdraw, shoot	--	withdraw	GTFO
Initiative	8	7	11	--	18	12
Hits taken			9/0
Results				Ammonia -> awake

Round 10

	John	Sarah	Bud	Bic	Tom	Lionel
Declaration	Stay at van, in driver seat	Go to van	withdraw, shoot	stumble with Lionel	GTFO	Go to van
Initiative	12	10	12	9	17	8

Combat 5 Narrative Overview

Sarah continues to do well with her pistol, but zombies smack her occasionally.  Tom "retreats" into the kitchen, only to be surrounded by more Zombies.  Bic moves to leave and spots the large number of Zombies surrounding Bud and Sarah.  He begins laying into them with gunshots.  Bud manages to clear his mind enough to get off some shots at a group of Zombies with his shotgun.  After a couple of shots, he manages to drop a few.  A round in Sarah's gun explodes, damaging her hand, but not permanently crippling her; her gun is useless though.  Lionel and John rally and start blasting their way into the house, dropping at least a half dozen Zombies on the way.

With most of her Zombies downed, Bic stops worrying about Sarah and moves to the kitchen to help Tom out.  John and Lionel follow suit.  Bud regains his composure and starts dealing some serious damage with his shotgun.  Sarah tries to pick up a pick axe dropped by a Zombie (setting down the bucket containing Foster's head and hands) but gets smacked hard as she does.  As she stands up, ready to start wielding the ungainly weapon with her one good hand, spiders begin to pour out of every crack, opening, and shadow in the house.  Sarah is arachnophobic; she screams bloody murder and hastily retreats from the house.  Tom continues to be a whirlwind of feet and hands, having dropped three Zombies and survived dozens of attacks.

The spiders' bites take Bic down and Lionel throws him over his shoulder and runs out the back of the house.  Tom retreats to the front door through the hole made by Bic, John, and Lionel.  Everyone makes it to the van and Lionel brings Bic around with a smelling salt.

Post-Combat

Bud, Sarah, Bic, and Tom move back into the house.  Bud finds a trap door in the kitchen floor that opens onto a muddy tunnel dug in the earth.  Without warning, he drops a grenade into the tunnel and everyone takes cover.  Bud, Tom, and Sarah move into the tunnel and find a small room hewn from the earth.  The see a mound of corpses, some with no heads or hands.  They discuss what to do and some of the bodies start to move.  They systematically blow off the heads of the remaining corpses.  As they finish, a swarm of big, black, biting flies pours out of every orifice and wound of the corpses.  They retreat and wait for the swarm to go away.  Sarah is bit, but resists the diseased bite.

Bud, Tom, and Bic return down the tunnel, under the protection of Bud's Mental Shield.  They quickly determine that one of the decapitated corpses does not smell very strong.  As they  come to this conclusion, it starts to attack, smacking Bic with its stumps.  Bud and Tom knock it down quickly and blast away at it.  It stops moving and Bic dumps the contents of the bucket on the corpse, then lights it with a flare.

Uncertainty grips the party as the flames rise, but they are soon rewarded with confirmation as the body begins to writhe in the flames and reattach its head and hands.  Otherworldly moans of pain and horror emanate from its form as the flames consume its unholy form.  It collapses to the ground, a smoldering corpse.

Uncertain of the Creature's power, Tom dumps another gas can on the LZM and the flames roar back to life.  The team finally leaves, the Creature vanquished.  With their mission accomplished, their thoughts return to Masterson's house, where they hear two submachineguns firing on automatic.  When they get there, they find a middle-aged man and woman on the floor, bleeding.  They move to the cellar and meet the man that rode the horse the night before.  He tells the party that some strange man just walked right through them and they could not hurt him.  His shirt is bloody, but he waves away the team and directs Lionel to the couple in the living room who are nearly dead.

Lionel begins treating the couple and the team moves into the cellar.  They find the two CIA agents down and bleeding amidst a pile of spent cartridges and empty clips.  The cellar's wine racks are riddled with bullet holes, the bottles shattered.  A strong smell of wine wafts up at them.  The secret entrance to Frank's inner sanctum is open.  They move in and find Frank and the horse rider bleeding and unconscious on the floor.  They quickly realized the horse rider upstairs was an impostor, but by the time they return, there is no sign of him.

Lionel is able to save everyone (using Luck) and Frank recovers consciousness.  He quickly warns the party not to pursue the man.  Coughing and in pain, he explains that they could do nothing to stop it.  Frank was lured away from the lantern and the Creature took it.  When asked why it would want the lantern, Frank answers, "It amplifies the powers of whoever possesses it.

Mission 1, Part 2 Epilogue

Bud's Interview

Bud gets comfortable in his chair.

"You want me to tell ya what happened, huh? I don't really keep track of all the names and details, that's more Sarah or Bic's job, but here goes...

"Let's see, we got called in to McKinney to check out some missing bodies from the morgue. There had also been some reports of zombie attacks in the town. Well, not in so many words, but you get the idea.

"We cruised around the town, checking things out and ended up at the trailer park. John and I went in to investigate and got jumped by some zombies from outta nowhere. Not just stumbling ones, but fast weapon wielding bastards. There was even this fucked up dog that attacked John. We retreated out of there," Bud says poorly putting a spin on the situation. "And met up with the others. We got ourselves bandaged up and went to talk to this Arab at the kwikie mart. He ended up telling us that he got attacked by a zombie dog, but that the cops told him to keep it quiet."

"Somewhere around there we heard over the police scanner that zombies had gotten out of the trailer park and one of the cops, this fat slob Morrison who turned out to be a, whatchacallit? Ghoul, yeah. This Morrison went down there to round 'em up. We decided to head down the check things out and ran into this security guard guy, Ernie. He was running and screaming about his partner getting beat down by zombies over at the factory. We grabbed him and...took off. I think we dropped him off at the turnstile and..."

Bud pauses a second trying to remember.

"Yeah, so we decided to pretend like I had gotten attacked by a zombie and go to the hospital. I went there... and Sarah did too, I guess. And Morrison ended up interviewing me, but he bought the story and didn't do anything about, except give some good excuses and explanations."

"We had enough fuckin' around so, we grab our guns and rolled into the trailer park. Figured it was time to regulate. We didn't find anyone at first, but the mangy mugs were under the trailers. A big fight broke out and we must have blown away fifty of those crusty oozin' zombie heads. We got out of there barely, and made our way to my friend Daryl's place."

"Ya know, Daryl would be a good addition to the Society. His grandpa's always telling him about funky shit that happened around these parts. He's dead good with a hunting rifle and a damn trustworthy friend. I'll set up the meeting if you'd like?"

Bud sees the looks on his interviewers' faces and continues with the story somewhat discouraged.

"So your man Longwalker healed us up good and we decided to do some research. Not really my bag, so I kind of zoned out on the details of that. Somewhere around there we figured out we were dealing with A Lesser Zombie Master, or L Z M as we call it.

"We checked out the factory near that trailer park and that's how we got on the trail of Frank Masterson. Figured he had to be in on it somehow what with the factory being shut down and zombie shit happening in his backyard. Turns out it was his son, Danny-boy though. We broke into Frank's place and discovered he was on vacation. Also turned out that a bunch of the houses around there had been moved out of. Probably zombie food. Except this one, William Foster.

"I staked out the Masterson place until he got back. Didn't get much out of that, except some faces and vehicles. I think around here John discovered that Masterson worked for the CIA or something. Anyways, we tried checking out Foster's place, but got that wiggy vibe off of it. Ya know that feeling like a bunch cold spiders are running underneath your skin. We didn't want to get over our heads, so some more researchin' happened.

"We took a day off and went to work while stuff got ready, or something. That's when Tom got a hold of John and I. He was the morgue guard at the hospital and saw all those bodies leave."

Bud gets hit by an imaginary nerf bat, "Oh yeah, before this John had one of those funky dreams that tells him stuff. Turns out Frank's son, Daniel Masterson was the real baddie and he turned Foster into an LZM. That dude chain sawed his wife up in the Masterson home. Nasty shit."

"Back to the story. Tom tells us where the head and hands are and John talks to Masterson about hookin' up and bashing evil heads together. I wasn't so sure about them, but I guess they turned out OK. We break into the morgue and fought some of those ghouls and got the head and hands from this safe. It would have been tough," begins Bud looking to the interviewers to make sure they're paying attention, "but I was able to psyche myself up and I ripped off the door of the safe." Bud accompanies the description with a reenactment as if he's breaking open the safe right there.

"So we got the body parts and are ready for a show down. We get a bunch of stuff and head over to Foster's house. We didn't know if the head and hands should be burned or if the them and the body needed to be toasted together.

"Which is it, by the way? For future scraps," asks Bud.

He continues on with the story, "We kick down the door and roll in, but we didn't expect zombies to be appearing out of no where. There must have been thirty of them bastards right on us! It was lookin' bad, but we rallied and kicked their rotting asses old school. We found this underground room and the LZM. Torched him real good."

"While we were completing the mission, Danny-boy was attacking Fosters house. He fucked them up good and we could have had him when we showed up, but he pretended to be one of the good guys and then slipped away. He tried to kill everyone and stole some magic lamp. Sounds kind of lame, but everyone else thinks its big and important. I guess we'll just have to hunt him down and show him what happens to fuckers that mess with the Society, eh?"

"So am I all done?"

Bic's Interview

It's been a rough week, so go easy on me, OK?  I mean, I've made movie zombies a lot, but until you've seen a corpse with a pickaxe coming for you... well, let's just say I'm glad the Society makes us learn how to use a gun.  Anyway, I guess you want to know what happened here, so I'll do the best I can.

We went out to the trailer park to look into an attack on a passing motorist by someone she described as being diseased.  Bud and John scoped the place out, and got into trouble with some zombies.  The details are a bit fuzzy right now, but as I remember it they went in while Sarah and I waited, and the next thing I know there's gunshots, and John comes tearing back up the road towards us.  Then I think we went back, and.... geez, this is going to take forever to go through day by day, and to tell you the truth I'm not sure I even remember exactly how it all went down.  I'll just hit the highlights.

At some point we found out that the police were in league with the zombies.  We listened in on their radio band, and it became obvious that the cops knew what was going on.  Plus, they said things about "telling him" when they discovered someone was looking into the park, whoever "him" was.  Probably the zombie master.  Anyway, we snooped around and found out a bunch of stuff.  There was this vicious dog, probably a zombie, who had attacked some people, including this guy who worked at a convenience store.  That's one of the ways we knew the cops were covering it up; they went and leaned on the store clerk to keep the attack quiet.  What else did we find out?  There is a factory nearby that belongs to Frank Masterson.  We were suspicious about that place for a while, but it turns out it was probably nothing.

So, we monkey around the park and the factory, and we try to find out what we can, but eventually we decide to just go in to the park and kill zombies.  And boy did we kill zombies.  There must have been like 30 zombies there.  One of them almost cut Bud a new one, but in the end we came out alive, and they ended up dead again.  John called a friend who brought the Dallas police into the case, which forced the local cops' hand.  They burned the place down and set up a "cult suicide" cover story, but they knew someone was out there causing trouble.

We also found out that a bunch of bodies had disappeared from the morgue in the local medical center.  That's where the zombie master got his first zombies; he turned up there in the morgue, and took the bodies that were there with him.  We suspected the people at the Med. Center for a while too, but in the end they were probably innocent too.  In fact, Tom, the kid who works the morgue desk, really helped us.  If it wasn't for him, we never would have gotten the head and hands and killed the LZM.  But that happened later.

So, where was I?  Oh yeah, we found out that the park and the factory were both owned by the same guy, Frank Masterson, so we check his place out and find out he's out of town on a fishing trip.  But we also check out the houses around his, and find out that one of them, Foster's place, is recently deserted, at least of living people.  We keep snooping around the cops and the Med. center and a bunch of other places, but we're sort of chasing our tails.  At some point we find out about the existence of the Lesser Zombie Master, and Sarah finds out what she can about that thing, but now I don't remember the order of things.  The important break happened when John had this dream.  In it, he sees Foster, or he is Foster, or something.  Anyway, it shows that Foster killed his wife and then Daniel Masterson, Frank's son who disappeared some years ago, made Foster into the Zombie Master.  So now we know that the LZM is Foster, although we still don't know why the cops are in on it, or where the head and hands are, or how to use them to kill the LZM.

Oh, and somewhere in there we didn't trust Bud anymore.  Right, it was after the guard form the factory was running away from the zombies in the trailer park, before we killed them.  We brought the guard to the truck stop and he caught a ride away, but then Bud didn't remember that happening, and he kept asking about the guy.  Now we know that some creature, maybe the LZM or maybe whatever created it, can make you forget stuff.  At least I think so, because Tom from the morgue said he forgot stuff from the night the LZM was brought in.

I know this is confusing, but it was confusing for us too.  Anyway, what else did we find out?  We learned that there was a group in town who was practicing magic.  I found that out when I saw some notes they had left each other in certain books in the library.  We tried spying on some of the cops we knew were in on it, but that got us nowhere.  We also tried going out to Foster's place, but both John and Bud and I smelled this weird smell of death there, and we thought we should find out more about the LZM before going in, in case it was there.   Truth is, we didn't know what the hell we were going to do until Tom showed up.  He found Bud and then Bud called John, and eventually we all got together.  Tom and Bud had run into one of the cops at the truck stop, and I guess Tom kicked its ass.  I say "it's" because apparently it was a ghoul.  I can't say for sure since I never saw it, but they told me it evaporated when they killed it.  Anyway, we felt like we were putting the pieces together.  Oh, damn, I forgot about Masterson.

We had staked out Masterson's house and saw him come back from his trip.  Some reporters talked to him, and he seemed surprised to hear what had happened.  He called some people over to his house, and we tried to spy on them, but they were hard to sneak up on.  It turns out they were the people leaving notes to each other about magic, but we didn't know that yet.  Anyway, we got their plate numbers, and John tried to trace them, but he got nailed because one of the plates belonged to a couple of CIA guys.  That's how we found out about Masterson practicing magic.  The CIA called John in and I guess John told them some of what we were doing.  Then he met Masterson, and we started to trust him a little more.  John told me about a magic lantern Masterson had, which sounded pretty cool to me.  I had no idea how cool it was, though.  Anyway, we talked to Masterson a little and he thought we should get the head and hands if we could.  That's when Tom came around, which brings me back to where I was before.

We had gone to the morgue to get the head and hands.  Tom told us he remembered there being a set of head and hands there, and we figured they had to be the right ones.  Anyway, I was out in the van with Lionel while the rest of the team went in.   I didn't think it was a good idea for any of us to be left alone, since we'd already seen that people were having some short-term memory problems, and I thought it might be some kind of Unknown creature using some power or another.  Anyway, they went in and got into a fight with what we later learned were ghouls, but they looked like the cops we knew were in on the whole zombie thing.  What?  Oh yeah, Sarah probably reported all this already.  OK, I'll skip to the part where we went to Foster's place, since I was outside anyway.  We told Masterson that we might have access to the head and hands, but for some reason none of us told him when we went in to Foster's.  I don't know if it's because we just didn't think of it, or if we didn't fully trust Masterson yet.

We got together a bunch of stuff we thought we might need, especially some gasoline and flares, stuff to light fires.  We were assuming that we needed to burn the head and hands along with the body of the LZM, so we soaked the head and hands ahead of time.  Bud thought we should try to burn them right away, but I wasn't sure if that would maybe screw us, in case the whole lot had to be burned at once.  We figured we had to go in as soon as possible, because we found out about a rash of grave robberies and figured the LZM was making more zombies to replace the ones we killed at the trailer park.  So, we got all the stuff we could get on short notice, and headed over to Foster's.

When we got there it looked deserted.  We looked around the outside and under the house some, but we didn't smell that strong death smell like Bud and John and I did before.  Anyway, we went in the front door, ready to start shooting zombies, but there didn't seem to be any around.  We went in slow and careful, checking the rooms out, and all of a sudden a bunch of zombies started appearing.  Not walking around corners or out of rooms nearby, but just appearing right next to us out of thin air.  And they were armed with axes and machetes and stuff, which almost killed Bud last time in the park.  We were already spread out around the house, so it was hard to coordinate, but we all started shooting zombies.  When more of them started appearing out of thin air again, I thought we should get out of the house while we still could.  I called for a retreat over the headset, and brought up a Sphere of Protection, which, by the way, worked really well.  I had never done that before so well.  Anyway, it drove some zombies away from me, but it took a while to bring up, and by the time it went into effect most of the others were too far away for it to help them.  In fact, I may have driven some of the zombies into the room where Sarah and Bud were, because when I started to run out of the house I saw that they were really surrounded in the den.  Bud was blasting away at zombies with his shotgun, and Sarah was shooting them with her pistol, but there were too many around for them to make a break for it, so instead of running out of the house I went in to help.  Between the three of us we were making headway.  Get it?  "Head"way?  Anyway, we could probably have all run out then, but just as we were almost done with the zombies in the den, we heard Tom call for help over the headset.  He was in the kitchen, and he was surrounded by zombies.  I mean, he's all bad-ass and stuff with that kung-fu, but there were just too many of them. 

Right around then, John and Lionel came in from outside.  I guess they heard Tom's call for help.  Lionel and I walked into the kitchen and started shooting zombies in the head.  I'm not sure where John went to.  Around that time, some of the zombies that had been lying motionless on the ground got up and started attacking again.  Even so, we probably would have been fine, except that all of a sudden the whole place was crawling with spiders.  They were everywhere, big ones, small ones, and I think a lot of them were poisonous.  I think I heard Sarah screaming in the other room, but then I felt a spider bite me and after that I don't remember anything.  I guess I must have passed out, because the next thing I know I'm outside in the rain, and Lionel is waving smelling salts under my nose.  He must have pulled me out of the house.  So, he helps me get to the van, and everyone else joins us there.

We're all just catching our breath, when suddenly we hear gunshots coming from the Masterson place.  We thought about going over to investigate and help out, but I figured it was probably just zombies, and it sounded to me like Masterson and his friends could handle zombies, especially the two guys from the CIA.  Plus, Lionel said that if we didn't go back in now, we might never get another good chance.  Oh, he also said that he'd seen stuff like those spiders before, and that they go away after a few minutes.  So, we waited until we couldn't see any more spiders around the house, then we went back in.

From there it was almost too easy.  The zombies were gone, at least they didn't seem to be around any more.  I thought they might appear again, but they didn't.  We went to the kitchen and Bud found a trapdoor leading down.  I stayed in the kitchen with the head and hands while some others went and checked it out.  It led under the house to a room with a pile of bodies.  I heard a bunch of gunfire, but I guess they had things under control.    Then they started talking about flies, and they came upstairs back into the kitchen.  They told us that a bunch of flies suddenly appeared.  I don't remember if we waited for the flies to go away, but they went back down and looked around again, specifically looking for a body with no head or hands.  There were several bodies without heads or hands, but one of them looked and smelled less decayed than the rest, which Sarah thought meant it was probably the LZM.  I brought the head and hands down, and tossed them onto the body, which started flailing around attacking me.  We poured more gas on the thing, and it looked like it had reattached its head and hands, but then we lit it on fire and Bud kept shooting it.  Eventually it stopped moving, but we kept burning it to be sure.

When we were pretty sure it was dead, we drove over to Masterson's place.  Everyone over there was in really bad shape, except for the cowboy-looking dude, who was also bleeding, but at least he was conscious.  At least, we thought it was the cowboy.  We asked him what happened and he told us to go into the house and ask Frank.  But when we got inside, we found Frank, AND the cowboy dude, both unconscious.  When we went back to the porch to find the cowboy we had seen earlier, he was gone.  I think Bud might have tried to track him, but he couldn't.

When Lionel brought Masterson around, we found out that whoever the cowboy really was, he had stolen the magic lamp and gotten away.  Which really sucks, because Masterson says the lamp amplifies magic powers, and if the fake cowboy was the same person, or thing or whatever, that created the LZM in the first place, and I think it probably was, this guy is already damn powerful.  I hate to think what he's gonna be able to do with that lamp.

John's Interview

We arrived in McKinney and began investigating the strange disturbances immediately, that night.  We drove the van and Bud's truck to the trailer park to do a reconnoiter around the trailer park.  Bic and Sarah remained in the van down the road and Bud and I took his truck to the park.

Upon arriving we were confronted by what we later learned were North American zombies.  After this incident we decided to gather intelligence on the disturbances in the area.  We were able to plant a tracking device on a local cop car and we later determined that the police department was involved in covering up the strange events.  We determined that the Med. center was a good place to find out information on the zombies.

Using injuries from our earlier confrontation with zombies as a cover, Bud entered the hospital with Sarah in the hopes of finding out any information from the staff.  He was interviewed by a cop, Morrison, who was a known collaborator with the zombies.  During this time I was able to sneak down to the hospital morgue and determine that the missing bodies had been covered up and that there was a discrepancy in the number of bodies that went missing.

We then found ourselves back at the trailer park in the daytime thinking we would be "safer" in daylight.  We were ambushed by a large hoard of zombies.  Bud and I took a lot of injuries, but we were able to destroy the zombies in the trailer park.  We later found out that the police covered the whole event up.

After this we decided to check out one Frank Masterson, the owner of the trailer park.  We found that during all the strangeness that was going on that Masterson was out of town and could not have been involved.  We observed Masterson at his home upon returning from his trip and witnessed a meeting between himself and a group of "friends", while trying to sneak in for a closer look I discovered that one of his friends has the capability to speak with his horse.  This led us to suspect Masterson of practicing magic or the Unknown.

While escaping from Masterson's house I  found myself at his neighbor's house, William Foster.  We had suspected that Foster was involved in some way after a dream that I had where I saw myself as him and witnessed Foster's conversion into a lesser zombie master.  While at Foster's house I smelled the Unknown and when I returned to the van Sarah had such a strong sense of the Unknown that we left immediately.  I tried calling the CIA for help in tracking the "friends" at Masterson's and found out that Masterson works for the CIA as a "resource".  We formed a loose alliance and our group decided to go and recover the hands and head of the lesser zombie master.

At this point we'd been joined by Tom Brandt, a worker at the Med. center who'd found Bud after hearing and witnessing some strange occurrences.  Tom accompanied us to the morgue where we were ambushed by some ghouls while trying to recover the heads/hands.  Tom and I sustained some serious wounds, but we were successful and the next day we returned to Foster's house to destroy him.

We made it into his house and were attacked by a mass of zombies.  We fought our way out and ultimately found our way back in to find the lesser zombie master.  We reunited the heads/hands/body and destroyed them with fire.  We then went over to Masterson's place where we heard gunfire.  Arriving there we found that a fight had taken place.  Masterson and his friends were injured and it appeared that the entity which created the lesser zombie master had in fact used that as a decoy to steal a magic item that Masterson had in his possession.  The item is a magic lantern which enhances the powers of those who use it.

Sarah's Interview

All right, I'll start at the beginning.  Our group was called by the society to investigate reports of suspicious disturbances at a trailer park in McKinney.  We were told of a woman who was attacked in a road near the trailer park by some sort of deformed or diseased looking men.   This attack led the society to suspect zombies attacked the woman.  Moreover, it seemed that the McKinney police did not investigate these occurrences, and might in fact be involved in what was happening. 

We went to investigate the trailer park and had fake press badges as a cover story in case we were caught snooping around (she takes another sip from her Irish whiskey).  Anyways, we headed out to McKinney and then John and Bud drove through the trailer park while Bic and I stayed put a little distance away.  Bud and John got ambushed by three zombies- two "men" and a dog- and barely escaped. 

We called the society from a phone outside a convenient store nearby.  At the convenient store we tried to see if the store clerk had any information about the disturbances in the trailer park.  After many failed attempts, Patel, the store clerk, gave us some information.  Apparently he was recently attacked by what looked like a very sick disgusting looking dog, which we suspected was the zombie dog.  Patel told another store clerk about the incident, and apparently a McKinney police officer "knew" he did that and warned Patel not to speak of the incident again; we think that the store might have been bugged.  Speaking of Patel, his leg was injured from the dog attack and the wound looked infected, I tried to patch it up as best I could but he refused to go to a hospital, something about immigration and lack of money.  Could the society check up on him to make sure he is all right?  Oh I forgot, a McKinney officer, Morrison, showed up at the store when we were there, we took this opportunity to place a tracking device on his car.

We left the store and followed Morrison's signal, and at the same time Bic was keeping an ear out on the police radio.  Morrison headed out in the direction of the trailer park and then reported that "they were roaming again, I will gather them up" or something to that effect.  Again we assumed he was talking about Zombies in the trailer park.  We also heard him say that they attacked a security guard at a factory near the trailer park and that Morrison was looking for the other guard, Ernie.  As we headed in the direction of the factory, Bud spotted the frantically terrified Ernie running away from the factory and picked him up.  We went to Bud's working place and Bud arranged a ride for Ernie to get him out of town.  We should also check up on Ernie and make sure he's safe.  Anyway, by now we were certain that some the McKinney police was intimately involved in this mess.  We talked to the society again and we were told that there was a report of 5 bodies missing from the morgue.  So we decided to go investigate the hospital.  Since the zombies hurt Bud earlier that evening, he went in for medical assistance with me by his side.  John sneaked in the hospital and headed to the morgue to search for clues.  John found out that the hospital record stated that there were seven bodies missing, as opposed to only five that were reported in the newspaper.  One of these bodies did not have a head and hands, this was important because the society hinted about the existence of a Lesser Zombie Master (LZM), which might have created the zombies, whose primary features are missing head and hands.  So our theory was that the LZM was brought in the morgue and then animated the dead bodies there then headed out to the trailer park.  Before Bud and I left the hospital, officer Morrison was on his way to take a report from Bud about his attacked.  I left before Morrison got there and got into Bud's truck.  Morrison took the report from Bud (Bud said that he was attacked by a diseased looking Bum, or something like that) then Bud left the hospital.

The next day we headed out to the trailer park in daylight to try and investigate a little more.  When we got there, I left my body and tried to quickly search the trailer park, so that we don't get ambushed again.  I did not realize how large the trailer park was, and by the time I had gone through a small section of the trailer park, I had to return to my body.  That was a bad move on my part; I was shaken up because I was out of my body for too long.  We should have left at this point to give me a chance to regain my wits, but I thought I could make it (she takes another sip of Irish whiskey).  We drove all the way to the end of the trailer park and could not spot a single zombie, which was fine by me because I had never seen one and I was already shaken up.  But Bud, oh that Bud, decided to take a closer look.  John followed him because he didn't want Bud to go out alone.  After a few minutes all hell broke loose.  Bud found out that the zombies were hiding under the trailers, and just like when Jesus was suddenly surrounded by Roman soldiers, zombies were coming out left and right and surrounded us.  My god! The sight of those creatures terrified me, I could barely hold on to my gun and my wits.  The battle looked grim, John and Bud were terribly injured, but we managed to destroy all the zombies, thank God.

We then drove to a cabin that Bud knew of to rest.  Bud and John were healed by Lone Walker (sp?), which was quite amazing, I had never seen anything like it, and I would love to learn how to do that in the future.  We then heard over the police radio and then on the news that there was a cult mass suicide at the trailer park, which was now in flames.  Basically the police burned the trailer park and concocted the cult suicide story to cover their tracks.  When Bud was conscience, he asked us about what happened to Ernie.  This worried us because it seemed that Bud completely forgot about arranging a ride to Ernie to get him out of town.  We were quite nervous that something happened to Bud, perhaps when he was interview by Morrison.  We contacted the society and they told us to keep an eye on Bud and try to figure out what happened to him.  I also met with Malcolm afterwards to do some research about zombies and LZMs.  My research showed that the LZM had to be within LOS of zombies to control them, which meant that he was probably at the trailer park when we were ambushed.  Also, the research showed that it is not known how to destroy the LZM, but that we probably would need to find his head and hands since they are needed to control him.  Bic found out that there were small notes with symbols (magical?) placed inside occult books almost as though it was a way for a group of some sort to communicate with each other.  I met with the rest of the group at Denny's to give them an update.  After eating we went in the van to talk.  Then John went out to go to the restroom for what seemed like a long time.  When he came back, he told us that Bud's truck was being watched, but he "took care" of the problem and that we need to leave immediately.  I like John, but I have a problem with his ease about killing a person.  Later on, Bic and I told him of our discomfort with his action, and he said next time he will keep us informed instead of going off and "taking care" of things.  Of course, he might have just said that to comfort us.  Anyways, we did some more research and found out the trailer park and factory, where the zombies were roaming around, were owned by Frank Masterson.  We found out where Masterson lived and went to his place.

We looked at the houses that surrounded Masterson's place and noticed that they were all basically abandoned/empty except for one house that belonged to a William Foster.  Foster's house had mail in his mailbox that had been accumulating for about a week.  We then went to Masterson's house.  There was no one there, so John broke in and did some investigating.  He found out that Masterson was on vacation and was supposed to return that evening.  As the evening approached we dropped Bud off near the house to keep a look out and we parked on the side of the house next door.  Masterson arrived, and then a news group came to his house to ask about the trailer park incident.  Masterson seemed surprised about what happened.  When the news reporters left, Masterson made some calls and a group of people came to his house for some sort of meeting.  John tried to sneak close to the house to try and hear the conversation.  He was only able to get the license plate numbers from the various cars. Then he headed back to the van.  Then Bud headed back to the van.  At that point I tried to sense the unknown; I felt the presence of a very powerful unknown.  At that point we went back to the cabin.  That evening John used the Art to have a dream that can lend us some insight into the situation. 

From his dream we learned that William Foster is the LZM and that a ritual that was performed by a man that looked like Daniel Masterson, Frank Masterson's son, created him.   William was apparently tempted by the power offered to him by Daniel; he killed his wife at Daniel's request, and then was made into the LZM.  At some point during that time the society sent in Lionel to help us in our mission.  Bud and Bic went by Foster's house and were able to feel the unknown there, so they left.  The next day, Bud and I went to work.  While I was teaching I was called by John to come and meet them immediately.  I had to cancel my classes and I left immediately.  When I got there I saw a new face, a muscular college student called Tom.  Apparently Tom worked in the morgue, he wrote the hospital report about the seven missing bodies, and was the same person who told the newspaper that five bodies were missing.  Apparently, the night that the headless and handless Foster and his mutilated wife were brought, Tom was there.  Morrison brought in the bodies with another man dressed in a suit.  A few hours later, all seven bodies got up and walked out, but instead of Foster, Tom saw a man that looked like the hospital guard.  We assumed that the LZM changed his appearance to look like the guard.  After this incident he heard Morrison talk to the man in the suit about killing Tom if they can't make him loose his memory.  Tom lost a few hours from his memory and what he could remember he pretended that he forgot so as to not get hurt.  So, it sounded like that what happened to Bud's memory is the same thing that happened to Tom's memory. 

Tom wanted to talk to someone about what had happened, so he went to Bud's work because Bud was reported to have been attacked by a "diseased man".  When Tom went to Bud's, Bud called John.  John got there and noticed that Morrison was on his was in to Bud's work.  John took Tom out through the back door and there a ghoul in officer's clothing attacked them.  Tom defended himself well and was able to kill the ghoul.  Then Tom, John and Bud came to the cabin.  We tried to calm Tom down without giving him too much information.  We asked John if he could use his connections to figure out whom the license plates at Masterson's house that evening belonged to.  Apparently when he did that it raised some flags and John was asked to report in his work.   When John came back he told us that he met with Frank Masterson.  Apparently Masterson has been working with John' s "company" for years.  The groups of people at his house were part of his magical group.  Masterson was apparently specialized in protective magic and used a lamp of some sort to enhance his ability.  John told Masterson about the zombies and LZM.  I asked the society to check Masterson out.  I was told that Masterson and his group were harmless and that we can contact Masterson to collaborate on this mission, but to keep it to a minimum.  Tom overheard that we were looking for a head and hands, and told us that they came in with the headless and handless body that night and are still at the morgue. 

We headed out to the morgue.  Tom and John went in first, followed by Bud and I.  Tom was attacked by two (maybe three) ghouls, while John was attacked by a "man" that tried to control his mind.  At the end of the fight the ghouls were dead and the "man" was gone.  We recovered the head and hands, but Tom and John were really hurt.  Lionel said that Tom needed serious healing.  I talked to the society and they sent in Long Walker to take care of Tom and John.  Bic reported that there was a cemetery robbery, which meant that the LZM was restocking on zombies; we had to move fast.  With the head and hands with us, we decided to go to Foster's house to possibly face the LZM.

When we went in to Foster's house, Zombies started appearing around us out of thin air.  With a few zombies left, spiders started appearing all over the house.  I hate spiders, and being surrounded by hundreds of spiders was more frightening to me than being surrounded by zombies.  So we all ran out of the house.  After a few minutes, the spiders disappeared and we went in again.  This time we found a small door in the floor of the kitchen.  We went in and found a pile of dead bodies.  The bodies started to move, so we shot them in the head, except for those that did not have a head.  Suddenly a swarm of flies came out of the dead heap.  We ran up, closed the door and waited for a few minutes until the flies disappeared like the spiders.  We went down again, grabbed the four headless bodies, one of them started moving and tried to attack us.  So Bic started to burn the body along with the head and hands.  We all heard an unearthly shriek as the LZM was destroyed, I believe.  When we were done, John said that he heard gunshots from Masterson's house.  We rushed there and saw Masterson's people bleeding on the ground.  One of his men was standing at the doorway bleeding.  We asked him about what happened, but he told us to talk to Masterson inside.  Once inside, we saw Masterson bleeding on the floor, and next to him was his bleeding compatriot that looked like the man we just saw at the doorway.  Bud tried to find the man at the doorway, but he was gone.  Obviously it was a creature that can change its form.  Masterson drank a potion that made him feel better.  He told us that a man attacked his home with his unearthly minions, who we think were ghouls, and then stole his magical lamp.  Masterson believed that the man was an old powerful evil creature that was seeking the lamp.  The lamp apparently magnifies the powers of its user.  In this case, the lamp will magnify this evil creature's powers. 

You know what's ironic?  It is very possible that the creation of the LZM and the mayhem created by him was just a "distraction" put forth by the head evil man to give him an opportunity to steal Masterson's lamp.  I am glad we destroyed the LZM and his hoard of Zombies, but I can't help but feel like we were pawns in much larger sinister plot.  Well, Masterson is going to Nepal, the last know location of his son, and I am thinking of going with him to help and to learn a little magic from him that might help us in the future.

Team Debriefing, 15JUN2000(F)

The team, minus Lionel but including Tom, is sitting in an unused classroom of a local public school.  The day's lesson, addition, is still on the chalk board.  The blinds are shut tight and the air filtration unit by the window has been strategically placed, according to John, to complicate the use of laser microphones to eavesdrop.

Steven walks into the room and sits down at the teacher's desk.  A strange feeling of nostalgia falls over the party.  Bud can't contain himself, "Uh, what's 2 + 2 again?"  He laughs hard at his own joke and the rest of the group finds it hard not to at least crack a smile.  Just hours ago, they almost died.  Here they were alive and well by the whim of fate and their combined effort.  They had succeeded where others had not and they crushed a powerful evil force living in there own backyard.  The escape of the mysterious being put a slight damper on the victory, but it was hard not to feel good about what they did accomplish.

Steve smiles.  "That's need to know information Bud."  He is rewarded with a few chuckles.  He organizes some papers and then begins, "Excellent job.  You have all performed better than I had hoped.  This mission turned worse every time I talked to Malcolm.  I was worried that even after bolstering your forces with Lionel that one or more of you might not make it back intact.  The being responsible for creating the LZM is remarkably powerful.  It seems to have a host of powerful abilities.  According to your reports, beyond being able to create an LZM, it can alter memories, change its form, is immune to normal weapons, and can command, perhaps even summon, Ghouls.  I fear his powers are even greater than that.  This Creature is remarkably subtle and resourceful for a Creature of the Unknown.  We are working with Masterson to decide on a course of action.  Daniel Masterson was last heard of heading to Nepal some ten years ago.  We are looking for promising routes of investigation.  For now, you all have earned some well-deserved rest and recuperation."

"Bud, you have a new job at a mechanic shop a few miles north and west in Carrolton, TX.  It's a higher end shop, so the pay is a lot better than most places.  The hours are considerably more flexible because most of the mechanics there can afford not to work a full week.  It's also easy to get mechanics to cover your shifts since the hourly pay is so high.  We'll discuss the details later."

"Yeah, well I was about tired of that place anyway.  They never hired any good looking women!"  Bud says with a mock look of irritation.

"Bic, a ghost producer is investing in your current project and is insistent that you be involved in the special effects.  Any complications arising from your erratic work schedule as of late should be smoothed over.  We are fortunately well entrenched in the studios, as that industry generates such easy prey for evil."

Bic nods.  Steve pauses for a moment and Bic realizes he is waiting for comment.  "Oh, um, cool."

Steve continues, "John, because of the people you aided in the last mission, your contacts should be more than sufficient to gloss over any lag in your case work."

John simply answers "Understood."

Steve hands a piece of paper to Sarah and says, "Sarah, your department has been sent a thank you note and a donation from an anonymous private source regarding your 'assistance' and the department's understanding in the matter.  The letter alludes to quote, 'private service in a community endeavor'."

Steve hands Tom a packet of papers and says, "Tom, you have been accepted to Baylor and qualified for a generous stipend.  You may live where you wish, but in light of your experiences and the fact that you were seen with the team by a Creature of the Unknown, you might want to stay out of McKinney to avoid accidentally running into further problems.  You can of course do as you wish.  Visits should be an acceptable risk, but living there could be dangerous.  Agents are sweeping the town quietly.  Within a few months, with the help of Masterson's friends, we should be able to identify any other Creatures present.  Until then, I recommend staying elsewhere."

Tom looks confused for a moment as he takes it all in.  Then answers, "Cool."

CIP Awards

• Everyone gets one free CIP worth of Willpower, so their WPR goes up by two points
• All of the PCs get one free CIP of skills
• John - Pistol
• Sarah - Pistol
• Bud - Brawling
• Bic - Pistol
• In addition, the PCs get a total of 10 more CIPs to spend
• The template costs fluctuated during character creation.  To account for the changes, Bud loses one CIP and John loses 2 CIPs.  They did nothing wrong, but they have been playing with "extra" CIP in effect and this simply balances things out.
• You have nine weeks until you are called again.  You can spend up to 5 CIPs in a given area (Attributes, Skills, Art), and up to 3 CIPs on any one Skill, Attribute, or Discipline of the Art.  Be sure to keep my house rules in mind.
• Please make sure the CIP expenditure has a decent in-character rationale.
• Tom's CIPs will be less and will be handled by me.
• Art: Heal Body - 1 earned; Student
• Luck - 3 earned; up from 40 to 46
• Willpower - 1 earned; up from 69 to 71
• Bud spent his CIPs as follows:
• Brawling - 1 free + 1 earned; now at Teacher+2 (Teacher +10% to TN)
• Willpower - 1 free + 2 earned; up from 50 to 56
• Wrestling - 1 earned; Student
• Pistol - 2 earned; up from Student to Teacher
• Dexterity - 1 earned; up from 50 to 52
• Art: Spiritual Healing - 1 earned; Student
• Art: Restore Stamina - 1 earned; Student
• Sarah spent her CIPs as follows:
• Willpower - 1 free; up from 75 to 77
• Art: Leave The Body - 2 earned; up from Student to Teacher
• Pistol - 1 free + 1 earned; up from Student to Teacher
• Strength - 1 earned; up from 30 to 32
• Agility - 1 earned; up from 40 to 42
• Information Source - 1 earned; laborer/guide friend in Israel, Mourad Bashir
• Art: Incorporeal Attack - 1 earned; Student
• First Aid - 2 earned; up from Student to Teacher
• Contemporary Language: Tibetan - 1 earned; Student
• John spent his CIPs as follows:
• Willpower - 1 free; up from 75 to 77
• Strength - 3 earned; up from 55 to 61
• Art: Spiritual Healing - 2 earned; Student
• Pistol - 1 free + 1 earned; up from Student to Teacher
• Contemporary Language: Tibetan - 1 earned; Student
• Contemporary Language: Mandarin - 1 earned; Student
• Bic spent his CIPs as follows:
• Willpower - 1 free; up from 65 to 67
• Pistol - 1 free + 1 earned; up from Student to Teacher
• Sphere of Protection - 2 earned; up from Student to Teacher
• Mental Shield - 2 earned; up from Student to Teacher level.
• Dexterity - 1 earned; up from 55 to 57
• Strength - 1 earned; up from 40 to 42
• Agility - 1 earned; up from 40 to 42
• Stamina - 1 earned; up from 55 to 57

The team parts ways with Tom and unanimously hits the gym. Having a horde of undead bodies pressed up against you and trying to tear your limbs off has a real motivating effect.  In anticipation of a trip to the Himalayan region to search for answers with Frank Masterson, Sarah and John learn Tibetan, and John goes on to learn Mandarin.  They are ushered into military language schools for the training.  No one asks where they come from and no one seems to care.  Randy, a jovial, stereotypical Rastafarian, trains Bud and John in the Restorative Art.  Bud and John run into a familiar classmate, Tom, who is also seeking training.  The team is also given access to a private range where they hone their pistol skills and become familiar with a wider variety of modern handguns.  A wizened old Native American, White Coyote, teaches Sarah more about the Incorporeal Arts.  They begin to accept the magnitude of their success as well as the magnitude of their secret mission.  The trivialities of their previous lives seem dull in comparison, but they soon remember how to enjoy themselves and begin to forget the more unpleasant memories of their experience with the Unknown.