Jail. The big house. The hoosegow. El slammeroonie. All these names and more are graffitied on the cinderblock walls of the Cryoliteville Police Department’s drunk tank. The Alaska State Police shove you in there, along with a visibly intoxicated moose they picked up, and read you your rights. You’re charged with assault, armed robbery, theft of services, evading arrest and vagrancy.
“When do we get our phone call?” asks Bill Moneysales.
“You don’t,” says Police Chief Louise Henderson. She smokes a pipe; it’s intimidating. “That’s only in movies.”
“She’s right,” says Nicholas Angel.
“We did find your laundry, though,” says Chief Henderson. “I’ll pass it out when you get your bathroom breaks.”
“We get a lawyer, though, right?”
“Goodness, yes. But the public defender is upstate at a cribbage tournament, and won’t be in until tomorrow.”
“But the world ends tomorrow!”
Puff, puff. “Does it, now?”
“Can we at least have our Ouiji board?”
She lets you have your Ouiji board. You spend some quality time communing with the spirits. After 10 minutes of tentatively watching the pointer float around, you have the message IEOKHRTYHEXZTBHKZTGCSUKLZSTFRNTMNECRNRUZPTOKIFPMOAITOHPRZDLFR.
“These are some bullshit spirits,” says Lazer Floyd, throwing down his cootie catcher in frustration.
Night falls. You don’t realize you’ve fallen asleep until a hissing whisper wakes you back up. The sun is up, but since the days seem to be about 20 hours long right now, that doesn’t mean much.
“Oh, here we go,” mutters Rum Tum Tugger as the figure of Clive Gumm/Gerry Wayne scuttles around the corner.
“Shhh,” he says, pulling a paperclip and a flathead screwdriver out of his pocket. “I’m on your side! I fell through the geode, too.”
All of you stand up – except for one. Betty Grof remains flat on the floor.
Betty Grof (Grumproro) has died. In her pockets, you find a crumpled paper bag that says DR. NILES CRANE and a copy of the DSM-5. She was the PSYCHIATRIST and a SCIENTIST.
“Phooey,” says Clive/Gerry. He finishes picking the lock and opens the gate. “Hurry, we can still fix-”
You never find out what he was going to fix. A wave suddenly washes through the room, oily and undulating, made of nothing and yet greasy to the touch. The last thing you see before it hits you is Clive, or possibly Gerry, a hopeful look on his face as reality collapses.
You are in a large room.
The far wall is made of floor-to-ceiling glass panels, and outside the sky is blood red. Silhouetted against the dusk is a man behind a desk. You can’t see him clearly.
“WHAT THE FUCK?” yells NorahThief, looking around. “HOW DO WE KEEP GETTING IN HERE?”
“Why are there still so many of you alive?” asks the man, and of course it’s Clive’s voice. “Second thoughts about murder?”
“Kind of!” says PTA Sharon. “I mean, for me, personally. But also people won’t stay dead or something? What year is this?”
“It’s been five days since you left,” says Clive, and he walks out from behind the desk. He looks tired. “Tomorrow, they’re turning off the power.” He gestures around the room, which you realize is full of moving boxes. “A year ago, I beat the forces of so-called Deep North by sending them out to the Zone. But even if the government agents among you die, the power is still getting turned off. I hope you enjoy telling your superiors how much money you saved by defunding this place.”
“Are we dead?” asks Sharon. “Are you Satan? Hail, by the way.”
Clive stares at her. “God, is that really what I seem like?” He rubs his face. “It might be better to think of me as the manager of the unmanageable.” He reaches under his desk, and comes up with a box labeled GUNS. “There isn’t much time to wrap this experiment up, so I need you all to move things along.” He starts throwing guns into the crowd. “YOU get a gun, and YOU get a gun, and YOU and YOU and YOU. There. That should accelerate things quite nicely.”
“What if we hadn’t killed each other?” asks Moss.
“Oh, but you did,” says Clive, tossing the empty box on the worn carpet. “And once you start, it’s hard to stop. Are you ready to see where that path goes?
“Absolutely not,” says Sharon, as Clive claps his hands.
You are falling through the geode again. It’s still terrifying. You hang on to each other.
“I have an idea!” yells Dr. Liv. “Trust me!” And she gives the group a shove. You break apart, flailing in the crystalline chasm, falling into different tunnels filled with pink fire.
“This was a mistake!” yells Moss into his walkie-talkie, as he emerges in a tropical hothouse, cycads looming against the orange sky.
“Okay, maybe,” replies Liv, flying across an ice sheet that stretches from horizon to horizon.
“I dunno, this is pretty solid,” says NorahThief, sailing above the smoking mount of a volcano.
You see civilizations rise in the Zone, and northern lights play across their ruins in ages still more distant. You retreat backwards in time and watch woolly mammoths graze on the thin grasses of the Pleistocene. You see a tropical ocean and an empty desert. You see 1981 for like two seconds. You see everything.
You wake up in the parking lot of the mine. Zap Rowsdower reaches into his jacket for a beer, and discovers he has none. He begins to cry.
You stand up, unsteadily, using the rusted cars as supports. Before you, you see the main building, with the observation deck projecting out into the unearthly light from the pit. You see yourselves, standing out there. You see yourselves fall.
“I don’t know how much more of this I can take,” says Elaine Stritch, softly.
Please check your QTs to see if you got a gun.
[spoiler title=PLAYERS]
E-Dog – Evan/ Bonephoner and STATE AGENT- Spookyfriend – PTA Sharon
Ralph Waldo Wiggum – Peggy Hill/ Implosionist and STATE AGENT- Jake – Nick Furry
- Louie Blue – Oliver Bunny
- Sister Jude – Elaine Stritch
- April LKD – A voice on the wind, Li’l Rex / Resurrected
- The Hayes Code – Dr. Olivia Octavius
- Mayelbridwen – A swarm of undead undead flies
- Hohopossum – Astral HOWEIRD Possum
Goat –Gort v4.0/ Radar and scientist
- Owen – Big Dawg
- InDEEEED – Nicholas Angel
MacCrocodile –The Ball Fondlers/ Devolutionist and STATE AGENT
- Lindsay – Rum Tum Tugger
- Wasp – Big Jim / Resurrected
Grumproro – Betty Grof/ Psychiatrist and scientist- Mr. I’m My Own Grandfather – Zap Rowsdower
- BannerThief – NorahThief Schuhart
- DemyxDancer – Bill Moneysales, Senior Director of Marketing for Windmill Real Estate, Inc., Ltd.
- Mr. Plow – Moss / Resurrected
- Lamb Dance – Duo the Owl
- Lovely Bones – E.B. Farnum
- Mr. Glitch – Lazer Floyd, Hyperphysicist and Supergalactic Man of Action / Resurrected
BACKUPS
- Josephus Brown
- DW
- Flubba
[/spoiler]
[spoiler title=STARTING ROLES]
- 18 Scientists (TOWN)
- 5 Government Agents (WOLVES)
- 1 Unaligned (SERIAL KILLER)
This count will NOT be updated as the game goes on.
[/spoiler]
[spoiler title=RULES]
- Everybody has a role. Roles can change. All roles will initially be secret.
- There isn’t a hard order that night actions occur in. This is to allow as many of them to go through as possible.
- This game, like the original Zone Z and the House of Wimbiscus, will feature Events. Events are real-time opportunities for the characters to change the story. They tend to be chaotic, so I went to reassure everyone that they won’t affect the basic werewolf mechanics of voting and night kills. They’re in a class by themselves.
- Death in this game is not necessarily permanent. Check your QTs daily. However, there will be a total of five resurrectees, after which no one else will come back.
- Town wins when all the wolves and the serial killer are defeated.
- The wolves win when they are equal to the number of town-aligned players left.
- Serial killer wins when it comes down to just them and one other person.
- Additional win conditions may become available as the game progresses.
- A tie at the end of day results in No Kill. A majority of living players voting for any one person (or No Kill) ends the day early.
- No editing posts.
- No quoting or screencapping from your QTs.
- If you have any other questions about rules, please ask in QT, and I will answer publicly here.
- Last, and most importantly: Anything I (as moderator) say, from Day 1 onward, could be a lie. Use your best judgments to find the truths of Zone Z.[/spoiler]
Day 5 ends Friday, August 16, at 9 p.m. EDT.