Microbunker - Skirmish and Tactical Ruleset
Official Anthology 10 Narrative Missions

The 10-Scenario Anthology

Every scenario is mathematically calibrated to deliver a 65%–75% survival sweet spot, complete with rich narrative prologues, environmental sensory reconnaissance, and high-friction objective mechanics.

# Scenario Title Difficulty Setting / Board Doom Pacing Playtime
01 Last Stop Gas 7.5 / 10 4' x 4' Table (Crossroads, Gas Station, Clinic, Mechanic Garage) 10 Rounds 75 – 90 minutes
02 The Rooftop Signal 6.5 / 10 4' x 4' Table (Urban Avenue, Side Alleys, Med-Tower Lobby & Rooftop) 10 Rounds 75 – 90 minutes
03 Blackout at St. Jude's 7.0 / 10 4' x 4' Table (Hospital Corridors, ICU Lab, Maintenance Yard, Generator Room) 10 Rounds 75 – 90 minutes
04 Run the Gauntlet: Trainyard Escape 6.0 / 10 4' x 4' Table (Industrial Freight Rail Yard) 10 Rounds 75 – 90 minutes
05 Highway 9 Deadlock 5.0 / 10 4' x 4' Table (Multi-lane Interstate Highway & Overpass) 9 Rounds 75 – 90 minutes
06 The Gun Store Barricade 6.5 / 10 4' x 4' Table (Gun Store Interior, Front Sidewalk, Back Service Alley) 9 Rounds 75 – 90 minutes
07 The Church Bells of Mercy 6.0 / 10 4' x 4' Table (Stone Church, Belfry, Graveyard, Ancestral Crypt) 9 Rounds 75 – 90 minutes
08 The Bridge at Twilight 6.5 / 10 4' x 4' Table (Steel Truss Bridge, Toll Plaza, Churning River) 9 Rounds 75 – 90 minutes
09 Camp Whispering Pines 6.0 / 10 4' x 4' Table (Wilderness Summer Camp, Cabins, Wooded Shoreline, Boat Dock) 9 Rounds 75 – 90 minutes
10 The Bunker Door 7.5 / 10 4' x 4' Table (Military Quarantine Checkpoint, Pillbox, Tent, Hillside Bunker Door) 10 Rounds 75 – 90 minutes
Scenario 01 Difficulty: 7.5 / 10 Doom Max: 10 Rounds

Last Stop Gas

Format: 4' x 4' Table (Crossroads, Gas Station, Clinic, Mechanic Garage)
Playtime: 75 – 90 minutes
⚠️ Mission Hazard Warning

High Lethality! Forcing the squad to split across a 40" board to fetch two independent supplies through a central crossroads makes this an intense survival challenge. Expect downings and heroic sacrifices in late rounds if squad coordination and hand-off chains break down.

Prologue: How We Got Here

Two days ago, the regional evacuation corridor along County Route 9 collapsed under a human stampede. Our squad—exhausted, carrying two wounded civilians, and running low on ammunition—managed to commandeer an abandoned municipal ambulance from a pileup outside the county line. The heavy steel chassis and sirens gave us a momentary lifeline, but the retreat was brutal. Every highway exit was barricaded by jackknifed tractor-trailers or burning roadblocks. When the primary fuel tank began sputtering, Officer Ramirez steered the vibrating vehicle into the overgrown industrial outskirts of Oakhaven. We coasted downhill with the engine killed, gliding silently into the dark service bay of an abandoned auto repair shop just off the town square. The engine block gave one last metallic wheeze and died cold. We are stranded forty miles from the state border crossing, trapped inside a hostile urban pocket where every shadow groans with the hungry dead.

Mission Rationale & Operational Goal

  • The Operational Imperative: The ambulance is completely out of fuel. Without at least five gallons of clean gasoline, the vehicle is an immovable two-ton paperweight. Furthermore, our onboard medical stores were stripped bare during the initial escape; our squad cannot survive another day on foot through the pine barrens without industrial antibiotics, trauma dressings, and coagulant from the clinic dispensary.
  • The Strategic Destination: Securing fuel and medical stores allows the ambulance to hit State Route 4 North—the only mountain highway not yet closed by military barricades. This road leads directly to the Fort Baxter Federal Quarantine Redoubt, fifty miles north into the Appalachian foothills, where radio broadcasts confirm an active civilian reception center is still operating.
  • The Stakes of Inaction: If we stay hidden in the garage, the ambient horde circling the town will inevitably sniff out our warm bodies as night falls. When the Doom Tracker runs out, the surrounding horde consolidates, cutting off all avenues of escape and tearing through the corrugated garage doors.

Sensory Reconnaissance & Environmental Profile

  • Visual Profile: A suffocating twilight settles over the crossroads. A fractured neon Sunoco sign flickers erratically in pale yellow, casting rhythmic, strobe-like shadows across the cracked tarmac. Four-foot-tall weeds poke through the concrete. Three civilian sedans are crumpled in the intersection, their shattered windshields glittering like crushed ice under the dim sky.
  • Acoustic Profile: A steady, mournful autumn wind rattles the overhead sheet metal of the garage bay. In the distance, every few seconds, the metallic tink-tink-tink of cooling automobile steel cuts through the silence, accompanied by the wet, rhythmic dragging of boots across loose gravel. Somewhere nearby, an open screen door on the pharmacy slaps lazily against its frame: creak... slap... creak... slap.
  • Olfactory Profile: The sharp stench of sour rot and old motor oil hangs thick in the humid air, mingled with the nauseating, sweet stench of decomposing flesh coming from a pile of trash bags stacked against the clinic dumpster.
  • Tactical Assessment & Choke Points: The crossroads forms a fatal 40-inch kill zone. The central intersection is flanked by narrow alleyways that funnel movement, but crossing between the garage, clinic, and gas pumps exposes survivors to open sightlines from four distinct sewer grates and alley mouths. The gas pumps themselves are heavily cracked and sweating volatile fumes—a single stray bullet or grenade will ignite a catastrophic fireball.

Primary Objectives

Survivor Objective: "The Escape Plan" Survivors must complete the following four operational steps in any order: 1. Siphon the Gas Can: A Survivor in base contact with the Gas Pumps spends 1 AP and passes a Wits test to claim the Gas Can card from the Objective Cache. The Gas Can is Heavy / Encumbered (-1" Move, cannot take double-move sprint actions while carrying). 2. Secure the Medkit: A Survivor inside the Clinic spends 1 AP and passes a Wits test to claim the Medkit card from the Objective Cache. 3. Load the Ambulance: Survivors carrying the Gas Can and Medkit move to the rear of the Ambulance and spend 1 AP each in base contact to load them inside. 4. Hit the Road (Escape!): Once both supplies are loaded, Survivor victory is achieved at the end of any round where all living Survivors are within 2" of the Ambulance. Victory & Defeat Survivor Victory: Successfully complete "The Escape Plan" before or during the Doom Finale. Director Victory: Three or more Survivors are eliminated. Survivors fail to escape during the Doom Finale. --- 6. Special Scenario Rules "Highly Flammable!" (Exploding Pumps) The gas pumps are volatile. If an explosive detonates within 3" of the pumps, OR if a Survivor deliberately shoots the pumps from range (scoring at least one 4+ on a Shoot attack), the pumps detonate! Every figure (Survivor or Zombie) within 6" of the pumps immediately takes 3 Wounds. Detonating the pumps adds +5 Heat to the Heat Track immediately. Fuel Can Relay (Tactical Teamwork) Survivors carrying the Heavy Gas Can may use the Quick Hand-Off rule (0 AP, once per round between adjacent base-contact allies) or a Full Gear Exchange (1 AP) to pass the can along a human chain, mitigating the movement penalty across the 40" board. --- 7. Doom Clock & Climax Trigger In the End Phase of Round 10, if the Survivors have not yet escaped, do not end in quiet defeat! Immediately trigger Doom Finale #8: Desperate Gambit ("The Ambulance Stalls!"): The engine turns over, sputters, and dies! A Survivor must reach the vehicle and spend AP making a Wits test (needing 2 total team successes) to hotwire the starter motor while teammates form a firing ring to hold off closing hordes!*

Special Tactical Rules

Scenario 02 Difficulty: 6.5 / 10 Doom Max: 10 Rounds

The Rooftop Signal

Format: 4' x 4' Table (Urban Avenue, Side Alleys, Med-Tower Lobby & Rooftop)
Playtime: 75 – 90 minutes
⚠️ Mission Hazard Warning

Vertical Siege! Once the flare is fired, the rooftop transforms from high ground into an inescapable trap. Expect rapid horde escalation via the stairwell and sheer building walls.

Prologue: How We Got Here

Our squad was trapped in the subterranean subway concourses when the downtown river bridges were detonated to contain the outbreak. For thirty-six agonizing hours, we navigated the dripping rail tunnels in knee-deep contaminated water, dodging packs of subterranean Lurkers and following the hum of emergency electrical conduits. When our last flare burned out, we breached a rusted storm grate and hauled ourselves up into the back alleys of the high-rise commercial district. The streets above are worse than the tunnels. Abandoned armored personnel carriers and incinerated public buses choke the six-lane boulevard. A military broadcast tower on the radio frequency confirmed that ground evacuation has been abandoned entirely. The only surviving extraction asset in the city is a single National Guard utility helicopter conducting search-and-rescue overflights before the military carpet-bombs the district with white phosphorus. The nearest high-rise with a certified reinforced helipad is St. Matthew's Medical Tower, looming four hundred feet above the street canyon at the far end of the avenue.

Mission Rationale & Operational Goal

  • The Operational Imperative: Ground travel out of the metropolitan core is physically impossible; every river bridge has been dropped and the highway exits are ringed with razor wire, minefields, and automated defense sentries. Ascending the Med-Tower to fire an aviation flare from the helipad is the single viable vector of escape left in the entire downtown grid.
  • The Strategic Destination: The incoming National Guard helicopter is evacuating high-priority personnel and civilian survivors directly to USS Deliverance, an amphibious assault carrier anchored fifteen miles offshore in deep coastal waters. Once aboard, survivors receive quarantine screening, warm rations, surgical triage, and transit away from the contaminated mainland.
  • The Stakes of Inaction: The pilot's instructions were absolute: no signal, no landing. If the rooftop flare is not burning when Lima-Two makes its final sweep at daybreak, the helicopter will abort extraction and return to base. Within minutes of sunrise, tactical air wings will begin saturation incendiary strikes across the downtown grid, incinerating everything left on the ground.

Sensory Reconnaissance & Environmental Profile

  • Visual Profile: The city is gripped by the eerie gloom of false dawn. Thick, greasy plumes of black smoke drift lazily between the steel-and-glass skyscrapers, blotting out the stars. On the streets below, hundreds of silhouettes mill aimlessly around shattered storefronts. High above, the green perimeter clearance lights on the Med-Tower's rooftop helipad blink steadily through the rising thermal haze.
  • Acoustic Profile: A deep, reverberating rumble rolls through the concrete canyons—the distant thudding of rotor blades circling miles away on the city perimeter. Closer to the ground, the soundscape is dominated by the terrifying wet slap of decaying soles on asphalt, the frantic chatter of startled crows, and the shrieking scrape of metal road signs swaying in the morning updrafts.
  • Olfactory Profile: Cold morning air carries the bitter bite of diesel exhaust, scorched electrical wiring, and the overwhelming, sour ammonia stench of thousands of stagnant corpses trapped in the urban heat sink.
  • Tactical Assessment & Choke Points: The avenue is a 40-inch gauntlet littered with civilian wrecks that provide both cover and deadly blind corners. The primary bottleneck is the ground-floor reinforced glass lobby of the Med-Tower, which has been barricaded with overturned triage beds and heavy chains. Once inside, the interior stairwell acts as a high-speed chimney for the infected: every gunshot fired on the street will pull the dead straight toward the vertical stairwell shaft. On the rooftop, there is zero room for retreat—the waist-high safety railings are the only thing separating survivors from a four-hundred-foot plunge.

Primary Objectives

Survivor Objective: "Signal for Rescue" Survivors must execute the following tactical sequence: 1. Breach the Tower: Reach the Med-Tower ground entrance and spend 2 AP (or 1 AP if equipped with a Crowbar or Fire Axe) to smash through the chained lobby doors. 2. Ascend to the Roof: Move through the stairwell access point to reach the rooftop. Transitioning between the ground lobby and the rooftop costs 2 Move actions (or 2 AP). 3. Launch the Signal Flare: A Survivor on the rooftop in base contact with Objective Marker 2 spends 1 AP to fire the emergency flare. Firing the flare immediately adds +5 Heat to the Heat Track! 4. Hold the Helipad: Once the flare is fired, Survivors must defend the rooftop perimeter for 2 full game rounds. If any living Survivors remain on the rooftop when the helicopter touches down at the end of the second holdout round, the Survivors win immediately! Victory & Defeat Survivor Victory: At least one Survivor successfully boards the helicopter at the end of the holdout, or escapes via a Doom Finale. Director Victory: More than half the starting Survivors are eliminated, or Survivors fail to escape before the Doom Tracker reaches maximum. --- 6. Special Scenario Rules Stairwell Infiltration & Door Breach (Updated Holdout Pressure) The moment the flare illuminates the sky, the acoustic echo pulls every zombie in the lower floors up the stairwell shaft: At the start of each Director Phase during the two-round holdout, roll 1D3: that many Shamblers immediately emerge from the rooftop stairwell doorway. Door Breach: If a Survivor is positioned within 2" of the stairwell doorway to hold the line, the first emerging Shambler is immediately placed in base-to-base melee contact with that Survivor! Rotor-Wash & Flare Turbulence (Shooting Penalty) During the two-round holdout, the descending helicopter's twin turbine rotors kick up violent downdrafts of blinding grit, hot exhaust, and billowing green phosphorus smoke: All Shoot actions targeting enemies beyond 6" suffer a -1 Die penalty. Point-blank shots (within 6") and melee attacks are unaffected. "Crumbling Facade" (Climbing the Walls) The Director may spend 2 Heat as a special Director Action to order an unengaged zombie on the street to scale the exterior window ledges and fire escape pipes: The zombie is removed from the street. At the start of the next Director Phase, roll 1D6: on a 4+, it successfully climbs onto the roof and is placed at the nearest outer parapet edge! On a 1–3, it loses its grip, plunges to the asphalt below, and takes 1 Wound. --- 7. Doom Clock & Climax Trigger If the Doom Tracker reaches space 10 before the helicopter touches down, immediately trigger Doom Finale #4: Delayed Evac ("Hold the Perimeter!"): The pilot's voice crackles over the radio: "LZ is hot! We've got crosswinds and a wave of runners swarming the landing gear! Clear the deck!" Survivors must form a back-to-back firing ring and eliminate all zombies on the helipad before the chopper can set its skids down!

Special Tactical Rules

Scenario 03 Difficulty: 7.0 / 10 Doom Max: 10 Rounds

Blackout at St. Jude's

Format: 4' x 4' Table (Hospital Corridors, ICU Lab, Maintenance Yard, Generator Room)
Playtime: 75 – 90 minutes
⚠️ Mission Hazard Warning

Pitch Blackness & Volatile Bloater! Navigating darkened corridors without flashlights severely hampers shooting and wits rolls. A detonation from the Bloater inside the narrow hallways will inflict catastrophic splash damage.

Prologue: How We Got Here

When the military cordon around the eastern metropolitan zone broke, Dr. Anya Sharma and our survivors retreated into the sealed quarantine wing of St. Jude’s Memorial Hospital. For weeks, the hospital's bio-containment research team had been working in secret under federal orders, sequencing the mutation profiles of patients admitted during the first twenty-four hours of the outbreak. But forty-eight hours ago, an infected orderly broke protocol, biting three surgeons in the trauma bay. The outbreak tore through the wards in hours. Dr. Sharma managed to herd our survivors into the reinforced loading dock airlock, but the research staff was slaughtered. Before the head virologist died, he transmitted an encrypted alert to our comms: the isolated viral culture in the sub-zero ICU vault remains intact, but the municipal power grid is dead. The facility had been running on automated diesel generators, which have just sputtered dry. Without power, the electronic magnetic seals on the ICU vault cannot be cycled, and the refrigeration coils will fail within forty-five minutes, turning the invaluable serum into worthless organic sludge.

Mission Rationale & Operational Goal

  • The Operational Imperative: The electronic blast doors locking the third-floor ICU laboratory are fail-secure; without electrical current from the basement diesel generator, they are impenetrable three-inch solid steel slabs. We cannot simply bypass the hospital either: Dr. Sharma's field medical supplies are exhausted, and our group cannot travel through the infested city outskirts without securing the specialized antiviral inoculations stored in the pharmacy vault.
  • The Strategic Destination: Securing the frozen viral sample and medical cache gives us the ultimate leverage. Three miles west lies the Blue Ridge Research Outpost—a fortified civilian CDC redoubt that is strictly refusing entry to unvetted refugees. Their open radio broadcast confirmed that any survivor group bringing intact Phase-1 viral cultures will be granted immediate asylum, medical care, and permanent residency within their electrified perimeter.
  • The Stakes of Inaction: If the generator is not restarted before the Doom Tracker runs out, the cryo-vault core temperature reaches ambient room levels, denaturing the viral proteins and destroying humanity's only hope for a synthesized cure. Simultaneously, the hospital morgue sub-levels will vent, releasing an endless tide of decaying corpses that will seal the loading dock exit forever.

Sensory Reconnaissance & Environmental Profile

  • Visual Profile: Suffocating, heavy blackness. The few emergency backup lights that still have battery flicker in dying crimson pulses every fifteen seconds, casting grotesque, elongated shadows across walls smeared with handprints of dried black bile. Broken ceiling tiles hang like stalactites.
  • Acoustic Profile: An unnatural, echoey silence broken only by the rhythmic drip... drip... drip of a punctured saline bag onto a linoleum floor. Through the central air conditioning ducts, a wet, guttural breathing travels from room to room. Every scuff of a survivor's boot against broken glass sounds like an explosion in the dead stillness.
  • Olfactory Profile: Stale, chemical antiseptic masks a deeper, sickening stench: the foul sweetness of gangrenous flesh, ruptured bowel tissue, and the greasy, chemical odor of spilled motor oil from the mechanical room.
  • Tactical Assessment & Choke Points: Hospital hallways are 6-foot-wide claustrophobic death traps choked with overturned gurneys, fallen IV poles, and plastic quarantine curtains that completely obstruct visibility. The central junction outside the pathology lab is commanded by a swollen, necrotic Bloater whose fungal tissue is primed to explode if ruptured in close quarters. Without active flashlights, survivors cannot spot ambushes beyond point-blank range.

Primary Objectives

Survivor Objective: "Restore Power & Retrieve the Strain" Survivors must complete the following steps in sequence: 1. Scavenge the Diesel Can: Move to the Maintenance Yard and spend 1 AP to claim the Diesel Fuel Can from Objective Marker 1. (The fuel can is Heavy: -1" Move). 2. Refuel and Crank the Generator: Carry the Diesel Fuel Can to the Generator Room (Objective Marker 2). Spend 1 AP and pass a Wits test (4+) to pour the fuel and pull the starter cord. When the generator roars to life, lights illuminate the hospital and electronic door locks disengage! Ambient Heat increases from +2 to +4 per round. 3. Retrieve the Viral Sample: Enter the ICU Lab (Objective Marker 3) and spend 1 AP to open the powered freezer vault and retrieve the Viral Sample card. 4. Extract via the Loading Dock: All surviving team members carrying the Viral Sample must return to the Loading Dock (Survivor Start Zone). Victory & Defeat Survivor Victory: Escape through the Loading Dock with the Viral Sample before the Doom Tracker reaches 10. Director Victory: The Viral Sample is destroyed, all Survivors carrying the sample are killed, or the Doom Tracker runs out. --- 6. Special Scenario Rules Pitch Blackness (Until Power Restored) Until the generator is running, the interior of the hospital is shrouded in absolute pitch darkness: Line of sight is limited to 6 inches. All Shoot actions suffer a -1 Die penalty unless the shooting survivor (or an adjacent ally) has an active Flashlight pointed at the target. Ranged attacks cannot target enemies beyond 12" under any circumstances while the power is off. Volatile Bloater Detonation The Bloater lurking near the pathology annex is packed with pressurized biological gas: When killed, the Bloater violently explodes: all figures within 3 inches take 2 Wounds and are coated in caustic bile (imposing a -1 penalty on their next action). --- 7. Doom Clock & Climax Trigger If the Doom Tracker reaches space 10 before the survivors reach the loading dock, immediately trigger Doom Finale #2: Swarm Incursion ("The Morgue Gates Collapse!"): The heavy steel security gates sealing the sub-basement morgue buckle with a deafening screech! Dozens of bloated cadavers flood the main corridor, creating a running wall of rotting teeth. Survivors must fight a fighting retreat toward the daylight of the loading dock!

Special Tactical Rules

Scenario 04 Difficulty: 6.0 / 10 Doom Max: 10 Rounds

Run the Gauntlet: Trainyard Escape

Format: 4' x 4' Table (Industrial Freight Rail Yard)
Playtime: 75 – 90 minutes
⚠️ Mission Hazard Warning

Dual-Flank Objective! The squad must conquer the Switch Tower on the North flank to secure the Master Key and align the points, while clearing the heavy flatcar on the central line. Splitting resources or moving with disciplined covering fire is essential.

Prologue: How We Got Here

Following the disastrous breach of the downtown district, our squad fled eastward along the abandoned industrial rail spurs. With roads impassable due to military blast craters and burned-out convoy wreckage, the rail corridors were our only navigable path. We spent twelve brutal hours hiking along the wooden ties, dragging our packs while surviving on muddy ditch water and stale rations. As twilight fell, the tracks opened up into the massive freight switching yard at Blackwood Junction. Half a dozen tracks diverge here into classification yards, grain silos, and maintenance barns. Through our binoculars, we spotted an incredible sight: Freight Engine #802—a heavy GE AC4400 diesel locomotive—sitting on the outbound main line with its running lights glowing amber and exhaust stacks vibrating. The rail crew must have abandoned it in a panic when the perimeter sirens sounded, leaving the auxiliary diesel generator idling. We scaled the western chainlink fence and took cover behind the railbed embankment.

Mission Rationale & Operational Goal

  • The Operational Imperative: Continuing on foot through the Appalachian rail gap is suicide: the tracks run through narrow mountain cuts where packs of infected have created impassable bottleneck nests. The locomotive is our only armored battering ram; its solid steel plow and two-hundred-ton mass can easily smash through civilian vehicles, fallen trees, and zombie swarms at sixty miles per hour.
  • The Strategic Destination: Track 4 connects directly to the regional high-speed rail line heading east across the state border to Port Mercer—a deepwater commercial harbor under naval lockdown. Radio transmissions from the harbor master indicate that civilian refugee container ships are departing every twelve hours for offshore isolation stations.
  • The Stakes of Inaction: The locomotive’s fuel tanks are already low from idling for two days straight; if we don't start the prime mover and open the throttle within the hour, the diesel will exhaust its fuel injectors, leaving the locomotive stone dead. Furthermore, the relentless rumble of the engine is drawing an unstoppable horde from the nearby metropolitan suburbs.

Sensory Reconnaissance & Environmental Profile

  • Visual Profile: A vast, industrial graveyard of red oxide and peeling paint. Weathered boxcars loom eight feet tall on either side, casting long blind alleys between the rails. Rain puddles in the gravel reflect the halogen floodlights mounted on the distant switch tower. Steam gently vents from the locomotive's exhaust hood at the far eastern end of the yard.
  • Acoustic Profile: The deep, rhythmic, bass-heavy vibration of the diesel locomotive's engine dominates everything: chug-chug-chug-chug. It rattles the loose stones in the ballast beneath our boots. Beneath the mechanical rumble comes the distinct, terrifying scrape of rusted metal—a massive infected Brute in a railworker's canvas jacket is dragging an iron coupling knuckle across the concrete apron beneath the switch tower.
  • Olfactory Profile: Heavy industrial diesel exhaust, wet coal dust, Creosote-soaked railroad ties, and the sharp, coppery stink of coagulated blood smeared across the rail car wheels.
  • Tactical Assessment & Choke Points: The rail yard is a maze of parallel lanes flanked by climbable boxcars. Walking along the open tracks leaves survivors completely exposed to flanking lunges from the gaps between train cars. The two-story Switch Tower controls the electrical track points, but its exterior spiral iron staircase is guarded by the Brute. Further down the line, a rusted flatcar has jumped the frogs and sits wedged diagonally across Track 4, completely blocking the locomotive's outbound path.

Primary Objectives

Survivor Objective: "Clear the Line & Highball" Survivors must complete the following operational steps: 1. Infiltrate the Switch Tower & Claim the Key: Ascend the Switch Tower's exterior staircase to the upper console. Spend 1 AP and pass a Wits or Fight test (4+) to pry open the yardmaster's lockbox and claim the Locomotive Master Key Card. 2. Align Track 4: A Survivor in the Switch Tower spends 1 AP to pull the heavy iron switch lever, aligning Track 4 with the main line. 3. Clear the Jammed Flatcar: A Survivor in base contact with the blocked flatcar (Objective Marker 2) spends 2 AP (or 1 AP and passes a Fight test 4+, or uses a Crowbar) to release the rusted mechanical handbrake and heave the car onto the dead spur. 4. Throttle Up the Locomotive: A Survivor carrying the Locomotive Master Key enters the Locomotive Cab (Objective Marker 3) and spends 1 AP to unlock the master throttle and open the injectors. 5. Escape the Yard: Survivor victory is achieved at the end of any round where all living Survivors are aboard the Locomotive (on the cab or ladder footholds) and the track has been aligned and cleared! Victory & Defeat Survivor Victory: Board the train and throttle up before the Doom Tracker reaches 10. Director Victory: More than half the starting Survivors are eliminated, or Survivors fail to escape during the Doom Finale. --- 6. Special Scenario Rules High Ground Advantage (Boxcar Roofs) Survivors perched atop boxcar roofs gain elevated line of sight over the rail yard: Attacks made from a boxcar roof gain +1 Die on Shoot actions against ground targets. Climbing up or down a boxcar ladder costs 2 inches of Movement. Iron Knuckle Brute The Brute guarding the Switch Tower is wielding a heavy cast-iron train coupler: Its melee attacks inflict Critical Knockback: on any hit, the defender is pushed 2" directly backward. If pushed off the Switch Tower staircase or a boxcar, the defender takes 1 additional fall wound! --- 7. Doom Clock & Climax Trigger If the Doom Tracker reaches space 10 before the train departs, immediately trigger Doom Finale #3: Horde Convergence ("The Rails Scream!"): The idling engine finally draws the massive metropolitan horde down the track bed! A wall of hundreds of infected pours through the western cut. The Survivors must scramble onto the locomotive engine deck as the first claws rip through the catwalk grates!

Special Tactical Rules

Scenario 05 Difficulty: 5.0 / 10 Doom Max: 9 Rounds

Highway 9 Deadlock

Format: 4' x 4' Table (Multi-lane Interstate Highway & Overpass)
Playtime: 75 – 90 minutes
⚠️ Mission Hazard Warning

Sensitive Car Alarms & Screamer Threat! Triggering car alarms generates massive spikes of Heat and alerts the perched Screamer. Precision leaping and stealth scavenge are critical to avoid summoning a horde into the narrow car lanes.

Prologue: How We Got Here

When the suburban defense lines in the valley collapsed three days ago, thousands of panicked families piled into their cars and surged onto Interstate 9. The evacuation turned into an instantaneous catastrophe: a tanker truck flipped across all three outbound lanes, sparking an eighty-vehicle pileup that trapped thousands of people in their seats as the infected swept down the embankment from the tree line. Our squad navigated the drainage ditches on foot for nearly ten miles before climbing up onto the raised interstate roadbed. Behind us, the highway is a smoldering inferno of twisted metal and walking dead. Ahead, the road is completely choked by three lanes of bumper-to-bumper wrecks. Through our spotting scope, we identified the FEMA command motorhome parked at the eastern military checkpoint. If we can power it up and start the diesel engine, its heavy reinforced chassis can punch right through the concrete barriers and open the route west.

Mission Rationale & Operational Goal

  • The Operational Imperative: Turning back or descending the highway embankment into the marshy drainage lowlands is fatal—the marshes are infested with submerged Lurkers and quick-mud bogs. The highway roadbed is the only high ground that traverses the valley. The armored motorhome is our only mechanical battering ram capable of demolishing the military concertina wire and concrete k-rail barricades without flipping over.
  • The Strategic Destination: Once through the Highway 9 military roadblock, the road opens onto the Blue Ridge Mountain Parkway—an elevated, unpopulated scenic bypass that leads directly to the mountain agricultural valleys, where self-sufficient farming communes and civilian survival enclaves are maintaining armed perimeters.
  • The Stakes of Inaction: The sun is beating down relentlessly, our water canteens are dry, and the massive metropolitan herd behind us is migrating along the highway corridor. When the Doom Tracker expires, the vanguard of the primary city horde arrives, sweeping across the gridlock like a tidal wave and crushing anything trapped between the cars.

Sensory Reconnaissance & Environmental Profile

  • Visual Profile: A blinding, glaring midday heat shimmers off miles of sunbaked car roofs. Glass from shattered headlights sparkles across the asphalt like spilled diamonds. Inside dozens of vehicles, desiccated corpses sit strapped into their seatbelts, their dry gray faces pressed against tinted windows.
  • Acoustic Profile: An eerie, metallic breeze whistles through open car doors and cracked sunroofs. Overhead, high-voltage power lines buzz softly. Farther down the lanes, a high-pitched, warbling car alarm chirps erratically: chirp... chirp... honk-honk-honk. Perched atop a crushed SUV near the concrete overpass, an infected Screamer tilts its head, twitching in the hot wind, waiting for any loud metallic bang to unleash its ear-shattering screech.
  • Olfactory Profile: Suffocating heat cooks the smells of scorched motor oil, melting radial tire rubber, rotten upholstery, and the sickeningly sweet, thick odor of hundreds of decomposing bodies baking inside glass greenhouses.
  • Tactical Assessment & Choke Points: Moving along the ground between the cars is slow and dangerous: narrow 18-inch gaps between bumpers force survivors into single file, where zombies trapped inside or under vehicles can grab ankles with parting swipes. Leaping across car hoods and roofs allows rapid movement, but any failed Agility/Wits check or reckless jump will trigger sensitive vehicle anti-theft alarms, sending acoustic shockwaves across the highway.

Primary Objectives

Survivor Objective: "Power Up & Ram the Roadblock" Survivors must complete the following steps in sequence: 1. Scavenge the Heavy Battery: A Survivor in base contact with Objective Marker 1 spends 1 AP and passes a Wits test (4+) to unhook and claim the Heavy Car Battery from the SUV. (The battery is Heavy: -1" Move). 2. Retrieve the Ignition Keys: A Survivor in base contact with Objective Marker 2 spends 1 AP to search the visor and ignition of the patrol cruiser and claim the Patrol Cruiser Key Card. 3. Install & Hotwire the Motorhome: Move both the Battery and Keys to the Armored Motorhome (Objective Marker 3). A Survivor spends 1 AP in base contact to connect the battery terminals and turn the key. 4. Ram the Roadblock: With the engine running, all remaining living Survivors must board the Motorhome (within 2" of the vehicle). The driver spends 1 AP to slam into gear and smash through the barricade to victory! Victory & Defeat Survivor Victory: Escape in the Motorhome before the Doom Tracker reaches space 9. Director Victory: More than half the starting Survivors are eliminated, or Survivors fail to escape before the Doom Tracker reaches maximum. --- 6. Special Scenario Rules "Car-Hopping" (Rooftop Traversal) Survivors may hop from the roof of one car to an adjacent car (within 2") without touching the asphalt by spending 1 AP: The Survivor must roll a D6: on a 1, the Survivor slips, triggers a car alarm, and falls prone into the lane below! On a 2+, the leap succeeds smoothly. "Sensitive Car Alarms" (Noise Hazard) Whenever a natural 1 is rolled on a Search test, Car-Hop test, or when a firearm is discharged within 1" of a civilian sedan: The car alarm triggers immediately: add +3 Heat to the Heat Track, and the perched Screamer immediately activates and screeches, drawing all unengaged Shamblers 3" toward that vehicle! --- 7. Doom Clock & Climax Trigger If the Doom Tracker reaches space 9 before the motorhome engine starts, immediately trigger Doom Finale #5: Overwhelmed ("The Wave Hits the Gridlock!"): The highway vibrates as tens of thousands of infected surge over the western horizon! The sea of dead rolls across car roofs like an avalanche. Survivors have one desperate turn to crank the starter motor and floor the accelerator!*

Special Tactical Rules

Scenario 06 Difficulty: 6.5 / 10 Doom Max: 9 Rounds

The Gun Store Barricade

Format: 4' x 4' Table (Gun Store Interior, Front Sidewalk, Back Service Alley)
Playtime: 75 – 90 minutes
⚠️ Mission Hazard Warning

Timed Structural Collapse! The storefront windows have finite Hit Points. Managing your time between reinforcing barricades, cracking the safe, and breaching the rear exit is the difference between life and death.

Prologue: How We Got Here

Our squad was ambushed while scouting the suburban retail strips along the outer ring road. Running dangerously low on ammunition and chased by an aggressive street pack, Grizz spotted the reinforced security bars and metal awning of Big Al’s Guns & Ammo. We ducked through the heavy glass entrance and threw the deadbolts just as the vanguard of the horde slammed into the doors. The initial safety was an illusion. Big Al was an apocalyptic prepper who sold civilian defense gear, but he died behind his own counter when the infection hit his staff. While the exterior doors held, the front facade is dominated by three massive commercial display windows. When the surrounding infected saw our flashlight beams through the glass, they began massing against the storefront. The tempered glass is vibrating violently. We are trapped in a fishbowl with only one rear fire exit leading into the service alley—and that door has been chain-locked from the inside.

Mission Rationale & Operational Goal

  • The Operational Imperative: Our squad is down to its last handful of loose cartridges; without cracking Big Al's vault to secure tactical longarms and military-grade ammunition, we will be completely defenseless during the open-country trek ahead. Furthermore, the front parking lot is entirely swarmed; the rear service alley is our sole physical vector of egress.
  • The Strategic Destination: Parked at the far end of the service alley sits Big Al’s customized 4x4 turbo-diesel cargo delivery van—a vehicle built for rural gun shows, equipped with reinforced run-flat tires and a heavy front winch. This van can navigate the rugged logging roads across Blackwood Ridge, bypassing all major highway checkpoints.
  • The Stakes of Inaction: If the front glass shatters before the rear door is breached and the safe is cracked, the showroom will be instantly inundated by over thirty infected, pinning the squad in the back office and guaranteeing a bloody feeding frenzy.

Sensory Reconnaissance & Environmental Profile

  • Visual Profile: Harsh, strobing green fluorescent neon illuminates the showroom floor. Dust motes dance in the air over racks of empty holsters, spilled boxes of cleaning patches, and shattered display cases. Outside, through the spiderwebbed glass, dozens of pale, rotted faces stare blankly inside, their open mouths smeared with dark fluid.
  • Acoustic Profile: A deafening, continuous cacophony: the wet, rhythmic slapping and banging of rotting palms against tempered glass: THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-CRACK. High-pitched stress squeals radiate from the aluminum window frames. Through the rear wall, the heavy, dragging footsteps of an infected Brute reverberate from the concrete service alley.
  • Olfactory Profile: The sharp, pleasant smell of Hoppe’s No. 9 gun solvent, gun oil, and dried nitrocellulose gunpowder clashes violently with the humid, fecal stench of the horde pressing against the window seals.
  • Tactical Assessment & Choke Points: The store showroom is a death trap if the windows give way: an open 20-foot perimeter with zero interior walls. Survivors must use action points to construct makeshift barricades from heavy display counters to slow the breach. The rear fire exit is a narrow bottleneck leading into a 6-foot-wide service alley where a Bloater and an armored Brute are lurking among commercial trash dumpsters.

Primary Objectives

Survivor Objective: "Crack the Safe & Punch Out the Back" Survivors must complete the following steps in sequence: 1. Reinforce or Defend the Glass: The three Front Display Windows have 4 HP each. At the end of every Director Phase, each window engaged by at least one zombie takes 1 Damage. Survivors in base contact with a window may spend 1 AP to fortify it with display counters, restoring +2 HP (max 6 HP). 2. Crack Big Al’s Gun Vault: A Survivor in base contact with the vault (Objective Marker 1) spends 1 AP and passes a Wits test (4+) to dial the combination and claim the Tactical Arms Cache Card and the Van Keys Card. (Each survivor immediately receives +1 Ammo reload!). 3. Breach the Rear Fire Exit: A Survivor in base contact with the locked rear steel door (Objective Marker 2) spends 2 AP (or 1 AP with a Crowbar or Shotgun blast) to force the deadbolt. 4. Clear the Alley & Escape: Fight down the back alley, board the Delivery Van (Objective Marker 3), and spend 1 AP with the keys to start the engine and drive away to safety! Victory & Defeat Survivor Victory: Escape in the Delivery Van before the Doom Tracker reaches space 9. Director Victory: More than half the starting Survivors are eliminated, or Survivors fail to escape before the Doom Tracker reaches maximum. --- 6. Special Scenario Rules Shattered Glass Breach When any Front Window's HP drops to 0, it shatters in a hail of glass: The window becomes open terrain. All zombies on the front sidewalk immediately surge 3" into the showroom. The noise adds +3 Heat to the Heat Track immediately. Display Case Shrapnel Shooting a firearm into or across the glass display cases inside the store risks collateral blast damage: on a natural roll of 1 on any Shoot action, a display case shatters, inflicting 1 Wound on the shooter or the nearest figure within 2"! --- 7. Doom Clock & Climax Trigger If the Doom Tracker reaches space 9 before the van escapes, immediately trigger Doom Finale #6: Structural Collapse ("The Roof Caves In!"): The structural beams supporting the store's air conditioning unit give way under the weight of hundreds of rooftop zombies! Concrete slabs crush the front showroom, cutting off all retreat and trapping the survivors in a choking cloud of pulverized plaster!

Special Tactical Rules

Scenario 07 Difficulty: 6.0 / 10 Doom Max: 9 Rounds

The Church Bells of Mercy

Format: 4' x 4' Table (Stone Church, Belfry, Graveyard, Ancestral Crypt)
Playtime: 75 – 90 minutes
⚠️ Mission Hazard Warning

Acoustic Decoy & Subterranean Surge! Tolling the church bell draws surface zombies away toward the front courtyard, but the seismic vibration erupts fresh graves right in the path of the crypt!

Prologue: How We Got Here

After our harrowing escape from the suburban retail zones, our squad followed the winding rural backroads into the Blackwood lowlands. As night fell, our vehicle gave out on the muddy river road. Pursued by an aggressive pack of fast-moving infected, Father Michael guided our exhausted group toward the high stone walls of St. Jude-in-the-Mire—a century-old gothic stone church where he had served his early ministry. We slipped through the iron cemetery gates just as the pursuit reached the perimeter. The heavy stone masonry of the church offers solid cover, but the graveyard itself is an active hazard: recent burials and unsealed crypts have become nests for the infected. The parish's deep, forgotten history is our salvation: the church sits atop a network of pre-Prohibition smuggling tunnels designed to move contraband from the river bluffs into the church cellar. If we can reach the tunnel entrance beneath the family crypt, we can bypass the entire military lockdown above ground.

Mission Rationale & Operational Goal

  • The Operational Imperative: The roads around Oakhaven County are locked down by razor wire and automated military minefields; staying above ground means certain starvation or slaughter when the main horde sweeps through the valley. The church catacomb is the only underground corridor that passes cleanly underneath the military quarantine wire.
  • The Strategic Destination: The brick tunnel exits into a hidden boat landing along the banks of the Black River. Stashed in the old stone boathouse is an emergency cache of dry rations, cold-weather gear, and an intact wooden skiff capable of floating downstream toward the coastal delta sanctuaries.
  • The Stakes of Inaction: Tolling the bells is a double-edged sword: it clears the cemetery path temporarily by pulling the infected toward the bell tower, but within minutes, every zombie in the entire valley will converge on the church courtyard. If the crypt slab is not pried open before the bell's echo fades, the squad will be surrounded by hundreds of frenzied undead with zero escape route.

Sensory Reconnaissance & Environmental Profile

  • Visual Profile: A thick, chilling ground fog clings to the cemetery turf, rising waist-high around moss-covered slate headstones and wrought-iron family plots. Moonlight filters through the fractured stained glass of the cathedral windows, splashing fractured crimson, sapphire, and violet light across the flagstone paths.
  • Acoustic Profile: A terrifying, solemn quiet hangs over the graveyard. The wind moans softly through the weeping willow branches. From inside the darkened sanctuary, a horrifying sound echoes through the nave: an infected Screamer, draped in the shredded black vestments of a former priest, is kneeling before the high altar, issuing a continuous, rhythmic, wet guttural wheeze like a broken pipe organ.
  • Olfactory Profile: Cold wet grass, decomposing leaves, ancient lime mortar, and the sweet, resinous aroma of centuries of burned frankincense and beeswax candles masking the foul stench of unburied dead.
  • Tactical Assessment & Choke Points: The cemetery is a labyrinth of Difficult Terrain: sunken graves, crumbling brick tombs, and wrought-iron fences force survivors to zigzag. The graveyard mist restricts visibility beyond 12". The church belfry offers an acoustic vantage point, but the climb up the narrow wooden ladder leaves a survivor completely isolated. Prying open the Ancestral Crypt requires brute physical leverage while holding off the converging undead.

Primary Objectives

Survivor Objective: "Toll the Bells & Open the Crypt" Survivors must complete the following steps in sequence: 1. Infiltrate the Belfry & Toll the Bells: Ascend the wooden ladder to the Church Belfry (costs 2" Move). Spend 2 AP (or 1 AP if Grizz or Father Michael) to haul on the stiff counterweighted hemp rope and toll the great brass bell. The deafening chime echoes across the valley! Add +5 Heat to the Heat Track immediately. Acoustic Decoy: All unengaged zombies on the board immediately turn and move 4" toward the church courtyard for 1 round. Subterranean Awakening: Roll 1D3: that many fresh Shamblers burst out of the open grave trenches in Graveyard East and North, clawing up directly around the Ancestral Crypt! 2. Pry Open the Ancestral Crypt: Reach the granite slab (Objective Marker 2). The five-hundred-pound slab requires a cumulative total of 3 Fight test successes (4+) (or spending 2 AP if equipped with an Iron Crowbar) to heave aside. Multiple survivors may contribute successes across their activations. 3. Descend into the Catacombs: Once the slab is open, any Survivor spending 1 AP in base contact descends into the safe underground tunnel. 4. Escape the Graveyard: Survivor victory is achieved when all living Survivors have descended into the crypt! Victory & Defeat Survivor Victory: All living Survivors enter the crypt before the Doom Tracker reaches space 9. Director Victory: More than half the starting Survivors are eliminated, or Survivors fail to escape before the Doom Tracker reaches maximum. --- 6. Special Scenario Rules Graveyard Mist (Limited Visibility) A dense ground fog rolls across the graveyard terrain: Line of sight across the outdoor cemetery is limited to 12 inches. Ranged attacks made against targets in the mist suffer a -1 Die penalty unless the shooter is on the elevated Bell Tower balcony. Subterranean Awakening (Grave Resurgence) Whenever the church bells toll or an explosive detonates in the graveyard: The violent vibrations crack open the saturated clay of recent graves. At the start of the next Director Phase, place 1D3 Shamblers adjacent to the nearest open grave marker! Hallowed Ground Father Michael's presence inspires faith in the face of terror: While Father Michael is alive and inside the church sanctuary, all allies within 6" gain +1 Die to all Morale and Horror defense tests. --- 7. Doom Clock & Climax Trigger If the Doom Tracker reaches space 9 before the crypt is sealed from below, immediately trigger Doom Finale #7: Unholy Resurgence ("The Dead Rise from the Clay!"): The soil throughout the cemetery erupts as dozens of desiccated hands burst through the turf! Every open grave spawns an immediate Shambler, and the main doors of the church buckle under the weight of the outer horde!

Special Tactical Rules

Scenario 08 Difficulty: 6.5 / 10 Doom Max: 9 Rounds

The Bridge at Twilight

Format: 4' x 4' Table (Steel Truss Bridge, Toll Plaza, Churning River)
Playtime: 75 – 90 minutes
⚠️ Mission Hazard Warning

Strict Keycard Prerequisite & Catwalk Swarm! The operator cabin is electronically locked and strictly requires the Foreman's Keycard from the Brute. Slaying the Brute is mandatory before the span can be lowered, and the groaning hydraulics draw climbers up the pylon catwalks!

Prologue: How We Got Here

For three days, our survivors navigated the dense river bluffs after emerging from the church catacombs. We hoped to find civilian ferry boats or barges along the landing docks, but every wooden skiff had been burned to the waterline or carried away by the spring floods. As we scouted northward through the riverside woods, we reached the southern approach of the Black River Memorial Bridge—a massive dual-lane steel truss span carrying State Highway 12. The south bank is a disaster zone. The toll plaza is choked with abandoned vehicles, military concertina wire, and hundreds of roaming infected trapped against the river cliffs. Through our binoculars, we saw the truth: the town engineers had successfully raised the central balance-beam drawbridge before being overrun, severing the highway. But the machinery is intact. The emergency hydraulic controls and manual gear winch inside the bridge tender's cabin can still lower the deck. If we can reach that cabin and drop the span, we can cross to the northern shore, where the forest gives way to the uninfected agricultural plateau.

Mission Rationale & Operational Goal

  • The Operational Imperative: The river is fifty yards wide, freezing cold, and flanked by vertical stone cliffs; swimming or rafting across with our equipment is impossible. The steel drawbridge is our only gateway across the natural geological barrier that isolates the southern outbreak zone from the northern counties.
  • The Strategic Destination: The northern riverbank connects to State Route 12 North, which climbs directly toward the High Country Safe Zone—a protected agricultural region where the State Police and local militia have fortified the mountain passes, established solar microgrids, and built permanent refugee camps.
  • The Stakes of Inaction: The bridge is our last chance to cross the river. The noise of our arrival at the tollbooth has alerted the southern town horde, which is currently spilling onto the highway behind us. If we fail to lower the span and cross before the Doom Tracker expires, the southern horde will pin us against the 60-foot drop, forcing a fatal leap into the rapids.

Sensory Reconnaissance & Environmental Profile

  • Visual Profile: The setting sun casts a blood-orange glare across the churning black water below. Long, skeletal shadows of steel truss girders stripe the cracked two-lane concrete roadway. The center drawbridge span tilts upward at a 45-degree angle, exposing massive counterweights and dangling electrical conduits. Across the gap on the northern bank, a dozen silhouettes wander along the guardrails.
  • Acoustic Profile: The deafening, relentless roar of rushing whitewater echoes up from the river gorge sixty feet below, muffling gunfire and groans alike. Above the water's roar comes the deep, shuddering thump of an infected Brute—formerly a bridge maintenance foreman—pounding an eight-foot steel crowbar against the concrete divider in the center lane.
  • Olfactory Profile: Chilling river spray, cold damp iron rust, decaying wet algae, and the pungent smell of spilled hydraulic fluid leaking from the severed bridge hoses.
  • Tactical Assessment & Choke Points: The bridge is a brutal 10-inch-wide physical bottleneck with zero flanking routes. Concrete waist-high railings prevent survivors from dodging sideways without falling into the deadly river gorge. The southern tollbooths are cluttered with wrecked cars that provide initial cover, but once survivors advance onto the bridge deck, they are funneled into a straight kill zone directly toward the Brute. Raising or lowering the bridge requires holding the central cabin while waves converge from behind.

Primary Objectives

Survivor Objective: "Lower the Span & Cross the River" Survivors must complete the following steps in sequence: 1. Neutralize the Foreman & Claim the Keycard: Defeat the Brute on the bridge roadway to recover the Foreman's Bridge Keycard Card from its tool belt. (Mandatory: The Operator Cabin door lock cannot be bypassed without this keycard!) 2. Access the Operator Cabin: Climb the pylon ladder and enter the Operator Cabin (Objective Marker 1) by swiping the Keycard (1 AP). 3. Engage the Hydraulic Lowering Levers: A Survivor inside the cabin spends 1 AP to engage the hydraulic windlass. The hydraulic pumps whine loudly with groaning steel! Add +4 Heat immediately. The massive steel span takes 1 full round to descend into place. Catwalk Infiltration: At the start of the next Director Phase while the bridge lowers, roll 1D3: that many Shamblers immediately scale the pylon maintenance ladders and emerge onto the bridge roadway adjacent to the cabin! At the start of the following round, the 6" gap closes completely and becomes open roadway! 4. Cross to the Northern Abutment: Fight through any waiting infected across the bridge and reach the Northern Abutment (Objective Marker 2). 5. Extract to Safety: Survivor victory is achieved when all living Survivors reach the Northern Abutment across the river. Victory & Defeat Survivor Victory: All living Survivors cross onto the Northern Abutment before the Doom Tracker reaches space 9. Director Victory: More than half the starting Survivors are eliminated, or Survivors fail to cross before the Doom Tracker reaches maximum. --- 6. Special Scenario Rules "The Abyss Below" (Fatal Falls) The concrete bridge roadway is lined with waist-high parapets: Any figure that is pushed, knocked back, or driven off the edge of the bridge roadway falls sixty feet into the raging river rapids and is immediately eliminated! Catwalk Infiltration (Climbing the Pylons) The bridge pylons are fitted with vertical iron inspection ladders leading down to the river waterline: When the hydraulic levers are engaged or during high-heat Director phases, zombies use these ladders to climb directly onto the roadway, bypassing the southern barricades. Narrow Bottleneck (The Rule of 2) Because the bridge roadway is constricted by wreckage and narrow lanes: No more than two figures (Survivors or Zombies) may stand abreast in any 1"-wide slice of the bridge roadway, creating tight, visceral shield-wall engagements! --- 7. Doom Clock & Climax Trigger If the Doom Tracker reaches space 9 before the survivors cross the bridge, immediately trigger Doom Finale #1: Structural Collapse ("The Cable Snaps!"): A critical suspension cable snaps with the force of an artillery shell! The bridge deck violently lurches and tilts into the abyss. Survivors must make a desperate sprint across the falling roadway as concrete slabs plummet into the river below!

Special Tactical Rules

Scenario 09 Difficulty: 6.0 / 10 Doom Max: 9 Rounds

Camp Whispering Pines

Format: 4' x 4' Table (Wilderness Summer Camp, Cabins, Wooded Shoreline, Boat Dock)
Playtime: 75 – 90 minutes
⚠️ Mission Hazard Warning

Prowling Hunter & Exposed Boat Dock! The 12" wooden dock is an inescapable bottleneck. The Hunter stalks anyone carrying fuel, and lighting the bonfire only buys a single round of distraction while drawing shoreline lurkers from the reeds!

Prologue: How We Got Here

After breaking across the river bridge, our squad was pursued into the deep northern wilderness by an aggressive hunting pack. With our vehicle abandoned on a washed-out logging road, we had to travel on foot through rugged pine ridges for nearly twelve hours. As hypothermia and exhaustion set in, Leo spotted the faded wooden directional signs pointing toward Camp Whispering Pines—a secluded youth summer camp situated on the southern shore of Lake Eerie. The camp was abandoned during the first days of the panic. Counselor cabins, the mess hall, and craft pavilions sit frozen in time, their screen doors swinging open to the elements. The lake itself is twenty miles wide, separating this infested wilderness from the northern peninsula. Through our night-vision optics, we confirmed that the warden's heavy-duty aluminum outboard motorboat is still moored at the main dock, its hull undamaged. But the motor’s fuel tank was emptied for the camp's emergency water pumps. We must find fuel to cross the water.

Mission Rationale & Operational Goal

  • The Operational Imperative: Attempting to hike around the eastern or western perimeter of Lake Eerie requires trekking thirty miles through treacherous peat bogs infested with submerged Lurkers. Without cold-weather survival gear and with our rations exhausted, the squad would freeze or drown in the swamps. The motorized skiff is our only viable vector of transit across the natural water boundary.
  • The Strategic Destination: The northern shore of Lake Eerie is home to Camp Perry—a fortified National Guard weapons depot and coastal enclave protected by steep limestone cliffs and electrified perimeter fencing. Emergency broadcasts confirm that naval supply tenders are actively ferrying civilians from Camp Perry across the open water to safety.
  • The Stakes of Inaction: The mountain night is bringing freezing temperatures, and the agile Hunter in the branches is biding its time until we let our guard down. If we do not fuel the boat, start the outboard motor, and push off before the Doom Tracker expires, the creature will strike from the dark, systematically picking off our survivors one by one.

Sensory Reconnaissance & Environmental Profile

  • Visual Profile: The woods are submerged in deep, suffocating gloom. The dense pine canopy blocks out almost all moonlight, leaving only narrow slivers of pale silver illuminating the forest floor. The lake surface is like black glass, perfectly reflecting the silhouettes of the dead trees lining the shore.
  • Acoustic Profile: The gentle, rhythmic slap-slap of dark water against the wooden dock pilings mingles with the eerie whispering of the wind through high pine needles. But from thirty feet up in the trees above the central cabins comes a terrifying, unnatural sound: the sharp, sudden snap of green pine branches and the light, agile scuttling of claws across asphalt shingles. A Hunter is tracking us from the high branches.
  • Olfactory Profile: Pungent crushed pine needles, damp moss, rich forest peat, and the sweet, decaying stench of rotting food left behind in the open dining hall bins.
  • Tactical Assessment & Choke Points: The dense woods on the camp perimeter are classified as Difficult Terrain and restrict Line of Sight to a mere 8 inches. The open central camp green between the cabins is a dangerous clearing where an elevated Hunter can pounce without warning. The wooden dock extends 12 inches out into deep, freezing lake water, creating a single-file corridor where survivors can easily be cornered against the deep water.

Primary Objectives

Survivor Objective: "Fuel the Outboard & Launch" Survivors must complete the following steps in sequence: 1. Siphon the Camp Tractor: The tractor fuel petcock is gummed with old varnish. A Survivor in base contact with the tractor (Objective Marker 1) spends 1 AP and must accumulate 2 team successes on Wits tests (4+) (or 1 success with a Mechanic tool or Sparky) to fill the Gas Can cleanly. (The can is Heavy: -1" Move). 2. Ignite the Bonfire Decoy (Optional Tactical Action): A Survivor in base contact with the Central Campfire Pit (Objective Marker 2) spends 1 AP to ignite the dry pine logs (using a Lighter, Flare, or Matchbox). The bonfire erupts into towering flames! Add +4 Heat immediately. For the next 1 round, all unengaged Shamblers move directly toward the fire pit instead of pursuing Survivors. Shoreline Surge: Crackling embers alert creatures submerged in the shoreline marsh; place 1D3 Shamblers in the shoreline reed beds! 3. Carry Fuel to the Boat Dock: Transport the Gas Can to the end of the wooden dock (Objective Marker 3). Spend 1 AP to pour the fuel into the outboard motor's tank. 4. Rip the Starter Cord: A Survivor at the motorboat spends 1 AP and passes a Fight or Wits test (4+) to pull the starter cord and fire up the two-stroke engine. 5. Escape Across the Lake: Once the engine is purring, all living Survivors must be aboard the boat (or on the dock within 2" of the boat) to win! Victory & Defeat Survivor Victory: Start the boat and escape before the Doom Tracker reaches space 9. Director Victory: More than half the starting Survivors are eliminated, or Survivors fail to launch before the Doom Tracker reaches maximum. --- 6. Special Scenario Rules Prowling Hunter (Dock Ambush) The Hunter begins the scenario perched on the roof of the Central Mess Hall: When activating, the Hunter can leap up to 8 inches, ignoring all intervening terrain and models. If a Survivor enters the wooden boat dock carrying the Gas Can or is isolated (no ally within 3"), the Hunter immediately pounces: its initial melee attack gains +2 Fight dice! Frigid Water (Lake Hazard) The dark waters of Lake Eerie are bone-chilling: Any Survivor who enters or is knocked into the lake water suffers 1 Wound immediately from hypothermic shock and must spend 2" of movement to climb back onto the wooden dock. --- 7. Doom Clock & Climax Trigger If the Doom Tracker reaches space 9 before the boat launches, immediately trigger Doom Finale #3: Horde Convergence ("The Forest Stirs!"): The entire mountain forest comes alive with horrifying shrieks as an enormous migratory horde crashes through the pine timber! Survivors must scramble frantically onto the motorboat as decaying bodies plunge off the dock into the dark water all around them!*

Special Tactical Rules

Scenario 10 Difficulty: 7.5 / 10 Doom Max: 10 Rounds

The Bunker Door

Format: 4' x 4' Table (Military Quarantine Checkpoint, Pillbox, Tent, Hillside Bunker Door)
Playtime: 75 – 90 minutes
⚠️ Mission Hazard Warning

Armored Undead & Blaring Siren Stand! Military undead possess Armor 1–2, shrugging off weak pistol fire. The final two rounds require defending an open concrete apron against surging waves of reinforcements.

Prologue: How We Got Here

For three weeks, as every civilian city, quarantine station, and refugee camp crumbled into anarchy, our squad clung to a single fragment of classified military intelligence recovered from a downed courier drone: coordinates for Site Bravo. Engineered during the Cold War and modernized during the early days of the contagion, Site Bravo was constructed as a long-term biosecurity fallout shelter equipped with independent geothermal power, subterranean deep-well water filtration, closed-loop hydroponics, and high-frequency military satellite comms. We followed abandoned logging tracks up the eastern shoulder of Mount Sentinel, avoiding the infested interstate corridors below. When we reached the outer security gate, our hopes were shattered: the surface garrison was ambushed from within. Infected soldiers, still equipped with body armor and ballistic helmets, wander the concrete apron. Yet the red status light on the hillside blast door remains lit—the subterranean shelter has not been breached. The automated fail-safe airlock locked down the moment the perimeter fell. We have reached the final sanctuary on the continent, but the door is locked from the outside.

Mission Rationale & Operational Goal

  • The Operational Imperative: There is nowhere left to run. Every civilian shelter within five hundred miles has been overrun, winter storms are descending on the mountains, and our squad is down to its final box of ammunition and medical bandages. Surviving on the surface through the coming winter is a mathematical impossibility. Site Bravo represents the only self-sustaining bio-secure refuge left on the eastern seaboard.
  • The Strategic Destination: Behind that ten-ton steel door lies an underground complex capable of housing two hundred personnel for up to five years. Deep inside, the facility's surviving automated command terminal will allow us to contact the Pacific Allied Fleet and establish our location for eventual naval extraction once the pandemic burns itself out.
  • The Stakes of Inaction: Once the two biometric keycards are swiped at the blast door console, the heavy hydraulic system triggers a blaring 120-decibel Klaxon horn and amber warning strobes that will alert every infected entity within five miles of Mount Sentinel. The airlock takes two full minutes (rounds) to equalize and cycle open. If we cannot hold the perimeter around the door during the cycle, the closing horde will butcher our squad right on the threshold of salvation.

Sensory Reconnaissance & Environmental Profile

  • Visual Profile: A bleak, rain-swept military compound surrounded by ten-foot cyclone fences topped with coiled concertina razor wire. Wrecked Humvees with shattered bulletproof glass litter the motor pool, their engine blocks scorched black. High up against the cliff face, the massive circular steel blast door glistens in the cold drizzle, its red hydraulic warning beacon pulsing rhythmically like an ominous heartbeat.
  • Acoustic Profile: An unnatural, military silence broken only by the steady drum of rain against steel vehicle hoods and the hum of an idling tactical generator. But patroling near the blast door console is a horrifying sight: an infected combat engineer encased in a 90-pound Kevlar EOD bomb disposal suit—an unstoppable Armored Brute dragging a heavy iron halligan bar across the tarmac: screeech... clank... screeech... clank.
  • Olfactory Profile: Heavy, acrid fumes of scorched JP-8 aviation kerosene, melted electrical insulation, sulfurous cordite residue, and the bitter, chemical stench of powdered decontamination bleach scattered across the muddy motor pool.
  • Tactical Assessment & Choke Points: The motor pool forms an open 40-inch kill zone crisscrossed by concertina wire obstacles that inflict wounds on anyone moving through them recklessly. To access the blast door console, survivors must split up to breach two fortified structures on opposite flanks: the concrete pillbox on the west and the canvas decontamination tent on the east. The undead here are combat-trained soldiers whose Kevlar vests and tactical armor soak up gunfire, making standard small-arms fire dangerously ineffective.

Primary Objectives

Survivor Objective: "Override the Blast Door & Seal the Vault" Survivors must complete the following operational steps: 1. Retrieve the Commander's Keycard: Infiltrate the Command Pillbox (Objective Marker 1). Spend 1 AP and pass a Wits test (4+) to search the Commander's corpse and claim the Commander Keycard Card. 2. Retrieve the Medical Keycard: Infiltrate the Quarantine Tent (Objective Marker 2). Spend 1 AP and pass a Wits test (4+) to search the Medical Officer and claim the Medical Keycard Card. 3. Swipe the Override Cards: Transport both Keycards to the Blast Door Console (Objective Marker 3). A Survivor spends 1 AP to swipe both cards and press the emergency purge button. A deafening 120-dB Klaxon horn shrieks to life and amber warning beacons rotate! Add +5 Heat immediately. Ambient Heat increases to +5 per round! 4. Survive the Hydraulic Cycle (The Final Stand): The massive 10-ton steel doors require 2 full game rounds to complete their hydraulic equalization sequence and swing open. Survivors must hold the apron around the door! 5. Enter the Airlock & Seal the Vault: At the end of the second holdout round, the blast door opens. All remaining living Survivors within 3" of the door enter the airlock and throw the manual locking dog to achieve ultimate victory! Victory & Defeat Survivor Victory: Seal the blast door before the Doom Tracker reaches space 10. Director Victory: More than half the starting Survivors are eliminated, or Survivors fail to enter the airlock before the Doom Tracker reaches maximum. --- 6. Special Scenario Rules Military Body Armor (Damage Reduction) The infected soldiers and EOD specialist on this compound are wearing combat gear: Military Shamblers (Armor 1): Reduce all incoming Fight and Shoot damage by 1 Wound (to a minimum of 0), unless hit by an attack with the Armor-Piercing or High-Impact weapon trait. EOD Armored Brute (Armor 2): Reduces all incoming Fight and Shoot damage by 2 Wounds (to a minimum of 0), unless hit by an attack with the Armor-Piercing trait. Concertina Razor Wire The motor pool is laced with military razor wire: Crossing a razor wire strip costs 2" of extra movement and requires a Wits or Agility test (4+). On a failure, the model takes 1 Wound from lacerations. --- 7. Doom Clock & Climax Trigger If the Doom Tracker reaches space 10 before the airlock seals, immediately trigger Doom Finale #8: Desperate Gambit ("The Last Dog Closes!"): The horde surges onto the concrete apron in a frenzied mass! As the massive door begins its automated closing cycle, one surviving hero must make a desperate holding action at the threshold to buy their teammates the final seconds needed to dog down the steel hatch from inside!*

Special Tactical Rules