The Freeze and The HordesYou stayed indoors during the frozen weather - but you could hear the zed outside, far more numerous than you'd ever seen them before. Now, you hear something different than the shambling moans - you hear a radio playing, and the sound of sobbing.
[[You investigate]]
[[You keep hiding]]The attempt to visit the Grift regardless of the cold was noble, but ultimately futile. You found yourself on the road one moment, passing by an old building, then sliding off the ice the next, tumbling into the road-side ditch. As you lay there, a bit dazed, you start to hear the sound of a radio nearby.
[[Hide in the building]]
[[Investigate the Radio Static]] As you travel back in the direction of the Grift, your path suddenly begins to get foggy. You look to the fields on the left and right of you, but it seems to stretch on for a long time. You grumble about traveling alone as you start to step in, but as if by some divine providence, you suddenly realize you are not. Off to the left, you can see a blue glow - an unstable, perhaps, maybe one of the Disquisition Review Board out sampling the fog. Then you hear the sobbing from your right, and your heart drops when you realized you might not be as safe as you think.
Which one are you investigating?
[[Investigating The Blue Glow]]
[[Investigate The Sobbing]] The hordes were already bad last month when the Grift froze over, and trade being delayed seems to have made them worse. Now, it's almost time to go again. What were you doing when the Grift was frozen?
[[You stayed safe and warm inside]]
[[You traveled elsewhere, you're only just coming to the Grift.]]
[[You tried to travel, but were stopped by the cold]] It's a tense moment as the sounds get closer to you - the crooning of the powerful Radio Silence rattles the windows and pound on the door in the dreadful way zed do, fog and noise dribbling in through the cracks of the door.
But you barricaded the door well. The zed get bored, chase another target. And you are left alone in the building.
[[Take a breather, you've earned it.]]
As you work your way through the chill and fog, you realize the static and the sobbing are coming from two separate directions. Which do you investigate?
[[Investigate the Radio Static]]
[[Investigate The Sobbing]]You walk towards the blue glow, wondering what kind of unstable would be out in this weather... it's not until you get closer that you can hear the rattle of chains and the way it shuffles.
You recognize the zed immediately - an anti-aberrant zed called a Shade. Do you really want to go up to that thing?
[[Keep following the Zed]]
[[Run Away]] You follow the sound of the radio, a soft crooning of a song you've always enjoyed. You start to sing along when you suddenly find yourself coughing, voice lost to something in the fog - no, not fog, //smoke//. You see shambling figures ahead, one with wires and radio bits sticking out of it, the other seething smoke out of its melted mouth. Radio Silence and Seethers, both powerful zed. Glancing around, you realize you could run back inside, or you could try to get closer.
[[Hide in the building]]
[[Keep following the Zed]] You follow the sounds of sobbing, concerned someone may be hurt. As you get closer, however, you remember a type of zed called Weepers - powerfully psionic zed that may have been attracted by the high psionic use two months ago by the Proude. You start to second guess if you should be pursuing this.
[[Run Away]]
[[Keep Following the Sobbing]]You take off running, away from the signs of zed. You're not going to get caught as a casualty in this weather! You find yourself disoriented in the fog, however, unable to find where you started from. Just as you're beginning to get worried, you hear a voice call out, "You there! What's your favorite color?!"
[[You Answer]]
Despite the threat of Weepers, you press on. You call out to the crying figure, and hear a weak response, "please! My friend, my friend won't get up and there are zed nearby!"
As you get closer, you find yourself caught in a bubble of anti-zed psionics. When you pass in, the fog lifts, and you can see two season on the ground next to some tools. One looks gravely injured.
[[So you help how you can]]
The building is run down, and the door seems locked at first, but a few good shoves push through the ice keeping it closed. You quickly close it behind you, barricading it shut and hiding behind the barricade. You hear the radio get louder as it approaches the building, and you wonder if your barricade will hold, or if you should run out the back window you can see on the other side of the room.
[[You keep hiding]]
[[Run Away]]As you sit in the quiet, you finally decide to get things together to leave for the Grift safely. You find a set of tacks in the closet, attaching them to your shoes. Shoe tacks... that sounded like something you'd overheard in a conversation the other day, someone talking about runoff causing the hoards. You'd been busy, and hadn't paid much attention, but chuckle at the thought that your makeshift snowshoes would attract zed. Now safely set to head out into the weather, you pull your coat a little tighter and get one your way.
[[To the Grift and Grave Consequences]]
Thank you for checking out our adventure! Feel free to use this story for your own character, or try again to find other stories. We look forward to seeing you March 3-5 for DR:OK's "Grave Consequences"!You shout out your favorite color in response, the voice calling back out to you, "Well, you aren't a lost boy! Come on, follow my voice to the caravan!"
Soon, you're tucked unto the back of a rover caravan, nestled among bundles of M4 Munitions boxes. When you ask about them, the rover responds, "Seems like soveriegnty is trying to get their own weapon to sell these days. M4's paying good money to transport them too, given how hordes keep swarming their factories. Wouldn't be surprised if they were pulling a Vulteer and not paying attention to the health hazards - damn embarassment to the O'she-a, I say..."
As the rover keeps chattering, you find yourself dozing off. Other travelers get picked up on the way, but the lull of the chatter and rocking of the caravan mean you don't really notice until you reach the Grift.
[[To the Grift and Grave Consequences]] You keep chasing the shambling undead, ready to take a swing. Perhaps you're a bit ambitious about that, but hey, everyone needs to do the dumb sometimes! You're almost upon them when you hear a whistle as something passes through the air, a flash of light as the zed in front of you explodes in a wash of gore and flames.
What was //that//?
[[Was that a mortar?]]You chase back towards where the mortar came from, hearing a few more whistle and explosions as you do. In the middle of everything, you find yourself face to face with an SWPC missile launcher and three ragged Portah's Patrol.
"I think we got them all!" The youngest of the three says, noticing you. "Sorry they got so close! The zed attractant pulled together shades, weepers, seethers, and radio silence - and that got ugly fast. Need help moving somewhere?"
The SWPC load back up their launcher, giving you a ride in their vehicle. They chatter about trying to keep hoards apart, how hard that is when they just keep growing, and how they just managed to get a little too close to settlements this time. You don't really fell secure about the situation or the future, but you still ride with them all the way to the Grift.
[[To the Grift and Grave Consequences]] Be it brew, doctoring, or aberrancy, you patch up the downed Seasons, the other explaining what had happened.
"We're from the Cabal... we were working here in the fields, getting some of the infectious material, but suddenly a bunch of zed showed up and started attacking us! I managed to get up the bubble to keep them away, but they were wounded really bad, and I'm tapped from farming... I thought we were going to die..."
Well, you were ready to go fight Weepers anyway... what's helping a few folks travel? You take the Seasons back to their farmhouse, and they offer to help you on your way to the Grift as payment for the help. So, you settle into the back of their wagon, and off you go. Hopefully, trade will help handle these hordes...
[[To the Grift and Grave Consequences]]
