Z-Day - 4:13 PM Central Time - Brooks High School, Omaha, Nebraska In the rear parking lot-
The parking lot behind Brooks High had few vehicles. Chuck Lubachek's tow truck was parked here, and so was an old broken-down school bus, which Becky Clarke was currently working on. The fire exit at the back wall of the school was propped open so that anyone on the outside could come in if they needed to do so. In the opposite direction was the football field, where they could see Officer Kate Wheeler patrolling in the distance. Just beyond the bleachers was the electrified chain link fence that kept them all safe.
Emily Lubachek watched the obese bus driver work, a calculating glint in her eye. She glanced at her son Chuck, and he returned a knowing nod. Emilio Montoya stood behind them, familiar with the mercenary attitude of his bosses. Neither of them was one to miss an opportunity to make a profit. Chuck's Rottweiler, Tiny, strained at his short leash, but his master kept a firm grip. "Need some help there?" Emily asked Becky.
"Yeah, Emilio and I could give you a hand there," said Chuck. "We can get that bus working a lot faster than you could by yourself...if the price is right."
"I´ll have a look over your shoulder...we might work the problem with combined effort!"Emilio waits for a reply from Becky to assist.
Spoiler:
The +10 assist is on by default,I guess. No rolls needed?
Montoya watch through the fence for any incoming visitors. "We better get this heap going fast, guys. Profit or not, let´s do this!"Emilio checks the problem area to analyse the trouble.
OOC,+10 to assist? Is that a standard rule in the book? I've never heard of it. What I've been doing when multiple people are working on the same task is to have each of them roll. The speed at which the task is accomplished depends on how many people succeed and how well they succeed.
In the rear parking lot-
"Hold your horses, kid," said Chuck, putting a hand on Emilio's shoulder. "Let's close the deal before we get started working. So, Becky, how about it?"
"How much do you want?" Becky Clarke asked, frowning.
"Well, money ain't worth what it used to be. I don't think you've got enough cash to make it worth our while, but we can negotiate alternate means of payment. What goods or services of value in these circumstances have you got to offer?"
"What, do you wanna sleep with me?"
"Yuck! God, no!"
"Well, you're no spring chicken yourself. I ain't exactly rich, you know. Maybe the school will be willing to offer you something to get the bus fixed. You might want to talk to the principal."
"You've got the bus," pointed out Emily.
"Ain't mine. Why would I just give it away anyway?"
The +10 was due to Montoya´s aptitude to teaching and mechanics mentioned in the secrets... To add to someone else mech skill. Then he can try himself too, the usual way.
Emilio keeps a keen eye at the discussion and the fence...
Emilio Montoya,Oh, I see where the misunderstanding is. [b]Emilio[/b]'s ability is even better than that. He gives someone else a [i]permanent[/i] +10 to their skill, up to a maximum of his own skill level. However, it takes both of you a whole day for you to teach someone. I'll let you know what you saw when I do the next major update.
In the rear parking lot- Emilio's attention turned to the north, where he saw Alvin Drummond and the mutt named Murray that always followed him around crossing the football field in his direction. They stopped at the bleachers on the south side of the field, where Alvin poked around beneath them and picked up a bottle. On the north side of the field, Officer Kate Wheeler was continuing her rounds. As he looked to the west, he saw a pack of ghouls some twenty strong lumbering close to the northwest corner of the fence. They were heading for her, and she glanced back and saw them, but they couldn't get to her with the fence in their path. The leading ones bumped into the fence and fell in a twitching heap outside it, but the rest of them kept coming. Several more touched the fence in their vain effort to reach the pretty policewoman. A few more fell, but then he noticed that the others, some ten in number, remained on their feet and started clawing at the fence. Could the generator have gone out? When he looked back at the school building, he saw that there were no lights on in the windows.
Becky Clarke continued talking, oblivious to what was going on around her. "You must take me for a fool if you think I'd agree to that," she scowled. "You want to get paid to help fix the bus, see the principal and work something out with him."
Emily Lubachekalso did not notice. "All right, come on, son," she said. "Let's go back inside and find him."
Chuck nodded, equally unaware. "Come on, kid," he said to Emilio. "Tiny! Back inside!" He yanked on the leash.
Tiny growled, his attention elsewhere. He sniffed the air and tried to wander off around the east side of the building, towards the construction area where an expansion to the school was being built. Only the foundation was there, and it had just been laid a couple of days ago. Chuck pulled him back into line, and he obediently followed back toward the rear door that was propped open.
Emilio Montoya,Make a Sanity roll for seeing the zombies. Sanity loss is 0/1d10, so if you succeed, you lose no Sanity. If you fail, you lose 1d10. If you lose 5 or more Sanity, roll Idea. Failing that means you may act freely. If you succeed, then you will go temporarily insane and I'll let you know how it affects you.
Rolls,Here we go: SAN [url=http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1887159/]82[/url]
Fried SANITY points = [url=http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1887166/]1[/url]
Emilio took in the scene and half bewildered gasped, "Gah! Guys, the power is off! The ghouls are tearing down the fence!"
In the rear parking lot-
"What?!" spluttered Becky, hastily gathering her tools. "Screw the bus, we need to fix that generator! The fence won't last long without juice!" She waddled as fast as she could to the propped-open door leading into the gym. Emily, Chuck, and Tiny hurried in right behind her. "Come on, Emilo, follow us quick!" shouted Chuck as he disappeared inside. "If we don't get that generator working it's all our asses!"
Donald pushed his wheelbarrow around the northeast corner of the school building, past the edge of the construction area, just in time to hear this exchange. Alvin Drummond ran into the parking lot from the north, and the stray mutt Murray followed close on his heels.
Donald Woodridge,You know that the generator is in the basement, and the quickest way to reach it is through another fire door further west of the open one. It leads directly to the north stairwell. You have the key, and you can get inside either fire exit this round. Give me another set of Spot Hidden and Listen rolls as well.
Murray,The weaker source of the stench of death and decay is coming from the construction site, but you still can't see what's causing it. Roll Spot Hidden and Listen.
ooc,[url=http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1894839/]Listen (25%) (1d100=43)[/url] - Fail. [url=http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1894840/]Spot Hidden (25%) (1d100=71)[/url] - Fail. If this rolling slump keeps up, Donald will be dead within the hour. BTW... I'm thinking the generator probably takes special fuel... oil or desil. But if the gas in the gas can I have in the wheelbarrel is the right stuff, I'll take it with me.
Donald calls over to the others that he sees, "There's a quicker way to the generator, follow me." He passes by the propped open door heading further west while digging for his key ring and thumbing out the right key. Stopping right at the next emergency exit, he unlocks the door with his key and ran inside.
Donald responded, "I grabbed an axe, a machette, a chainsaw, and some other tools. Didn't figure I'd have to use them on anybody though... just figured we'd need to board up the windows and doors a little better."
"Well Donald sir, can I use that ax please? It may come in handy after all and you will not be able to take the wheelbarrow down into the basement anyway so I think we should take as many weapons as possible."
"You're right. The wheelbarrel won't go down stairs so well. But so long as we get it inside the closed doors, we can come back for whatever we need. However, if it makes you feel better, help yourself. Just remember where you got it from," Donald responds. He is carrying a gas can in his left hand, and left the wheelbarrel behind.
ooc,I still don't know if this generator uses regular gas, or oil or something else. Hell, I don't even know what gas is in the gas can. Might have been primed for a single cyllindar engine with some oil - like for the chainsaw for example.
OOC,I already decided before the chapter started what the problem with the generator is and how it can be resolved. That won't be changed.
There is no machete. There is a chainsaw (20% base skill), an axe (20% base skill), a hatchet (20% base skill), and a hammer (25% base skill). Both the axe and the hatchet use the same skill, but the hatchet is one-handed and does less damage. The chainsaw requires both hands to use and has its own skill. The hammer counts as a small club. Note that [b]Donald[/b] actually has skill in both axe and chainsaw.
OOC,You've got a double post, so you should remove one of them.
The weapons and their damage are listed in the Locations and Weapons thread, under [b]Donald[/b]'s entry. The hammer does 1d6+db, the hatchet does 1d6+1+db, the axe does 1d8+2+db, and the chainsaw does 2d8+db. You can't carry them all. The hammer could be carried in a belt loop or a pocket, but not the hatchet. You can carry one weapon in each hand, but if you take two weapons you can't use a two-handed weapon unless you drop what's in your other hand.
oops: Machette,Yeah. Sorry about that. No machette, but a hatchet in its place. Brain fart.
Donald nodded, "Yeah, sure... but we aren't fighting anything just yet. Let's see if we can avoid it first." He didn't take the chainsaw or axe with him, knowing it would just slow him down. Rather, he left it behind within the doors that they came in at the stair landing. He knew he could go back and get it later... provided they could get the power back up in time.
Alvin grabbed the hammer which he put on his belt loop and the hatchet which he held in his left hand shfiting the bottle to his right. He figured that if it came to it he could always throw the glass bottle at something as well. He followed Donald.
In the rear parking lot-
Two gunshots rang out in the distance to the northwest as Donald, Alvin, and Murray ran inside. Emilio ran in through the door to the gym.
Murray,[b]Murray[/b] heard a kind of muffled scrabbling sound coming from the north side of the construction area, just east of the school. It was from the same location where he smelled the weaker scent of death and decay.
OOC,I haven't had a post for [b]Emilio[/b], so I'm going to assume he follows his boss. [b]Donald[/b], [b]Alvin[/b], and [b]Murray[/b] are moving to the thread linked below. Please stop reading the current thread at this point. Everyone else remains in the current thread.
In the gym-
As soon as Emilio entered the gym, Chuck kicked the chock out from the propped door and let it lock shut.
"Hey, that cop's still out there!" called Becky Clarke. "How's she s'posed to get in?"
"Not my problem," said Chuck, "but I don't want those things getting in here with us. Come on, let's get that generator operational." He led the way across the gym, most of which was taken up by a basketball court. On the east side was an athletic supply closet, and next to it was a set of stairs leading down into darkness, presumably to the locker rooms. On the west side of the gym was a set of double doors, where he was heading.
Emilioglanced at the stairs and followed towards the double doors. Something definitely wasn´t all right here... He adjusted the his utility belt with screwdrivers. He selected the largest and flipped it around in his hand and listened to their steps echo in the court.
In the gym- Emilio noticed that the door to the atheletic supply closet was slightly ajar, and the padlock had been placed on the floor beside it. Inside he caught a glimpse of something shiny. Peering more intently, he could tell it was a fencing sword. He also caught sight of baseball bats through the crack.
In the gym-
"Hey, can I get one of those?" Becky asked, glancing back.
When Emilio opened the closet doors to retrieve the bats, he saw all sorts of atheltic gear inside. There were balls of every shape and size: footballs, basketballs, volleyballs, soccer balls, and tennis balls. Oddly, there were no baseballs. Perhaps they had already been removed. There were tennis racquets, hockey sticks, hockey pucks, a net that could be used for tennis or volleyball, and a couple of hockey goals. There were also four baseball bats, one aluminum and three wooden, including the two that he took. A rack contained various swords used by the fencing team: one saber, one foil, and two epees. Finally there were archery targets, two bows, and two dozen arrows in two large quivers.
Emilio turned and flung one of the two bats towards Becks, "Here, catch!" Then he evaluated the sports gear, and grabbed the bows and quivers and hurried over to the doors to the generator room.
OOC,You can't carry that much. You can carry one bow and one quiver on your back (or two of either, but one's no good without the other). Additionally, the base skill for using a bow is only 1%, so you might not want them after all. The baseball bat you've already taken is a two-handed weapon, but you can carry it in one hand. However, if you want to use it, you'd have to drop what's in your other hand. You cannot leave the gym this turn, as you spent it collecting equipment. There are two ways to get to the generator. The stairs go down to the locker rooms, and while you can get to the rest of the basement from there, it's dark and you'd need a light source to see. The double doors, where the others are heading, lead to the north hallway. From there you can get to the north stairwell, which goes down to the basement. The generator room is near the stairs.
In the gym-
"Come on!" shouted Becky as she hurried to the double doors leading into the hall. "That generator won't fix itself!" Emily and Chuck followed, pulling Tiny after them.
OOC,Everyone is moving to the thread below. [b]Emilio[/b], do not read the posts above the one that's linked. You can reach the north hall this round, but you won't be able to move beyond it yet. You'll enter the hall in your next post.