Showing posts with label The Abyss Group. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Abyss Group. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 23, 2022

The Apartment

You become worried you have not heard from a good friend for more than a week. You go to the apartment building where the friend lives. It’s not in a great part of town, but it’s not the projects, either. Weird smells and odd things left in the hallways, or worse, the staircases is not uncommon.

You knock on the door. Call out to their friend. The door is locked. You bang on other doors. You yell throughout the hallway. No one answers. So, you leave.


You come back with a crowbar. You pry and bash at the door. No one objects. Eventually, the door cracks open, but a security bar blocks the door from opening. More banging. More prying. Still, no objections. Enough of the door finally gives up the ghost and you crawl under the security bar to get into the apartment. 


Your friend is dead. The body is green and bloated. Foamy blood leaks from orifices. 


You back away from the body. You call the police. They are sending someone. You collapse. 


You wake up to an ambulance technician looking down at you. Their eyes are dead. Slowly, you sit up with their help. You were lying on your friend’s floor. You snap your head around, looking for your friend.


They are not in the apartment. The police are here. So is another ambulance technician. This one’s cute. Neighbors you recognize are trying to peek through the doorway.  


Everything of personal value to your friend is gone. Only furniture and spoiled food remain, according to the police. They ask you why you broke into the apartment and don’t believe you when you tell them. 


As the dead eyed ambulance technician is checking your vitals, the property manager and head of maintenance arrive. They give you a weird look and walk through the apartment. They talk to the police in the kitchen. They leave, ignoring you on the way out. 


The cute ambulance technician helps you stand. You feel a little light headed, but are stable on your feet. 


The police tell you that you are free to go. The property manager will not be pressing charges for breaking down the door. Apparently, there is an extra door in the basement and they were planning to remodel this particular apartment next week. You don’t see the security bar anywhere. 


You leave. 


You come back the next day. The door is replaced with another door that looks exactly the same. There are no noises in the building. You yell. No one answers. You bang on doors. None of them open.


It is a good thing you brought your crowbar with you.


Text copyright Derek A. Stoelting 2022

Tuesday, November 9, 2021

The Abyss Group: Enemy Faction

The Abyss Group: Enemy Faction

The Abyss Group is a collection of vigilantes who believe it is their right to kill the supernatural and anyone they deem “evil.” 

The group started as individuals hunting down specific supernatural creatures for revenge. However, they each continued to hunt and kill monsters after completing their initial goals. As they continued on their individual journeys, they eventually met each other and formed a collective. They still operate more like a group of individuals than a team, but they all realize the importance of working together when hunting a foe.

The Abyss Group are not good people. At best, one might consider them anti-heroes, since they fight supernatural creatures and have tragic backgrounds. They are driven by emotions related to anger, hate, and revenge. Their goal is to put a stop to the supernatural creatures in the world and they are willing to use innocents as bait to achieve that goal.     

The Abyss Group takes its time investigating potential targets. They know they are only human and the supernatural creatures they are hunting are far from it. They follow, they stake out, they do their research, and when it is time for a showdown, they do everything they can to exploit their opponents’ weaknesses. 

No tactic is too cruel, no technique is off limits for this group of vigilantes. They have burnt down buildings, exploded gas mains, and flooded cellars to achieve their goals. Their planned attacks use a high amount of lethality to ensure a successful mission. While they do their best to not harm innocents, anyone in the wrong place at the wrong time has a higher than average chance of dying. 

The group survives by taking everything they can use from their targets: money, weapons, food, and even shelter by living in their victims’ homes.

Members

Darren Overmeyer knew his fiance was cheating on him with his best friend, Andrew. One night when Darren was supposed to be at work, he drove by Andrew’s apartment to see if she was there. She was and Darren decided to wait outside the friend's apartment to confront her. 

As Sarah left the apartment, Andrew walked her to the car. A long kiss goodnight drove Darren over the edge. He exited his car, retrieved a replica sword from the trunk, and rushed up on the couple. Sarah heard him and screamed. Andrew turned around just as Darren swung his cheap replica sword. Andrew threw his arms up to protect himself from the sword. The force of the blow knocked Andrew to the ground. As Darren prepared to take another swing at Andrew, Sarah screamed for him to stop. Darren flicked his sword in Sarah’s direction in an attempt to force her back. Instead, the sword slipped from his hand and penetrated one of Sarah’s carotid arteries. 

Darren stood in shock as his fiance began to bleed out in front of him. Andrew yelled for Darren to help him try to save Sarah. Darren, however, was in shock. He realized what he had done. He knew she would not survive. Darren chose to save himself and ran. 

He drove home as quickly as he could manage. He packed everything he could not live without into two backpacks and left town. He eventually ditched the car in a very bad neighborhood of the City.  

The following night, Sarah visited Darren in his dreams. The night after, she began to haunt him. He read everything he could find on ghosts. He networked with ghost hunters. He eventually met Casey Nottingham, a theosophist and learned there may not be an answer for how to drive away the ghost. However, Ryan did introduce him to the rest of the supernatural world. A world that Darren would pillage in his attempt to discover the knowledge needed to rid himself of Sarah’s ghost. He has yet to banish her from the mortal realm. 

Darren is of the opinion that all supernatural creatures are evil and should be destroyed. Since forming the Abyss Group with the others, he has learned how to use firearms and fight with real swords. He should be used as a 10-15 level Survivor. His preferred weapons are heavy caliber pistols, shotguns, and real swords, but is proficient in all civilian firearms. 

Image: approximately 28 years old, stocky male, wire rimmed glasses with small, round lenses, blonde hair, moustache and goatee, blue eyes, 5’10” and 190 pounds, black pants, military boots, and black, long sleeve  shirts. At the time of the death of his fiance, he had long hair in a pony tail and no facial hair. 

Casey Nottingham is mentally not well. He was on several antidepressants before his wife and kid left him. This began a long slide to desperation and degeneration. He immediately switched his prescribed medications to illicit drugs and alcohol. He became violent when out drinking. He lost his driver’s license when he drove his truck into a pond while driving under the influence. He beat to death several drug dealers who were, according to him, “charging too much” for their product. 

It didn’t take long for him to lose his job. His drug use, bad behavior, and finally, fighting on the job helped promote him to customer. He would return to the chemical plant to exact revenge on his employers after closing. He beat and placed two of his superiors in vats of acid. While doing so, a splash of sulfuric acid hit him in the face. He now wears clothing and masks to cover the disfigured half of his face.

Soon after he received the scarring, he began to see dead people. He cranked up his drug use to try and shut them out. When that didn’t work, he changed drugs. When that didn’t work, he tried using drugs to gain a better understanding of his newfound necromantic ability. He eventually reached out to other necromancers and dark warlocks he found online and through bookstores. He learned more about his abilities, himself, and how to grow his power. 

Casey rose in power and fame quickly. He embraced his new life as a Theosophist, or as he prefers to be called, a necromancer. He killed several of the people he trained under in an effort to gain their power, control their souls, or because they owned something he wanted. Along the way, he met Peter Nixon and Darren Overmeyer. They helped him focus his learning on hunting evil creatures for power and artifacts, more so than evil people. When not using his powers to kill, his preferred weapons are a heavy pistol and a dagger with a wavy blade. He knows it is a stereotype and he leans into it.

Casey should be used as a 12-15 level Theosophist. 

Casey’s wife has since divorced him and the legal system has removed all parental rights from him. 

Image: approximately 32 years old, long, blue hair, no facial hair, many body piercings, 6’2” and 160 pounds, black or blue jeans, black high-top shoes, black metal band t-shirts, and aviator sunglasses. 

Peter Nixon’s parents died in a car accident when he was a baby. His paternal grandparents took him and tried to raise them as their own. Before the boy turned three, his grandparents died in an airplane crash. This brought the young man to his maternal grandmother. 

Mamaw Amthor’s husband had died years prior and she lived off his meager pension and governmental aid. While the state did provide her with additional benefits for taking the boy in, their life together was not one of luxury. The electricity was not always on and the water was not always hot. However, they got by and Peter knew no better until he started school. He quickly learned about money and social cliques, being poor and having very few friends.

When Peter started puberty, he also started developing psychic powers. Unbeknownst to Peter, Mamaw Amthor was a psychic, as was her daughter, Peter’s mother. Mamaw was not a strong psychic, but she knew enough to recognize the signs as Peter developed. By his senior year of high school, Peter was a functioning empath and had started down the path of an esper.

Peter moved to the City to attend a liberal arts college with high hopes of earning a teaching degree. He met other psychics at the college, including the woman he would later marry, Dawn Carlyle. His new friends and acquaintances introduced him to more of the supernatural world. He danced at clubs that catered to creatures of the night and made friends with Sages and Theosophists. 

Peter and Dawn volunteered at a soup kitchen near campus. It was there that he met Jacinto Garcia, a psychic gunslinger. Jacinto was living on the street, on the run from Sinaloa Cartel assassins. Peter’s easy going nature and Jacinto’s sarcastic side made the two fast friends. The two began spending time together outside of the soup kitchen, whether sharing information on their supernatural abilities, sharing a meal, or Peter and Dawn buying Jacinto new clothing. Eventually, Jacinto would move into their home. 

Jacinto’s past eventually caught up to him in the City. The assassins found him and the Nixons. They came at night, blasting their way through the home with semi-automatic rifles and grenades. The Nixons and Jacinto were caught unawares, but managed to survive the attack. All three were severely injured, but Dawn’s ability with Bio-Feedback made short work of the injuries.

Jacinto disappeared into the night. The police would have questions and he had zero interest in being deported to Mexico. The Nixons told the police that the hitmen broke into their house to try and kill Jacinto. They didn’t deny the fact that Jacinto shot and killed the assassins. Nor did they deny that they had met him via the soup kitchen and were trying to help him improve his life. They cooperated insofar as they could, without discussing the supernatural aspects of the case or the fact that they knew he was wanted by the Sinaloa Cartel. 

Six months later, Jacinto returned and asked Peter to help with a child trafficking ring that was kidnapping children who ate at the soup kitchen. Soon after, Peter and Dawn disappeared off the grid. 

The Nixons joined the rest of the Abyss Group after busting the child trafficking ring. In addition to their psychic abilities, both of the Nixons typically go armed with medium caliber pistols. After a run in with a pack of werewolves last year, Peter carries a semi-automatic shotgun in the trunk of his sedan. It is loaded with silver flechette rounds. Peter should be used as a 10-15 level Psychic and Dawn as a 8-12 level Psychic.

Dawn does not participate in their activities, but does provide healing when needed. Dawn spends most of her days picking up after the guys, cooking meals, and looking for new places to live. This isn’t the life she wants, but law enforcement officials want her just as much as they want the men. She simply sees no way out of her current life. If there is a weak link in the Abyss Group, it is her.

Image:  Peter is a stocky male with short cropped brown hair, thick glasses or contacts, green eyes, blue jeans, t-shirts, work boots with steel toes, and a beard-moustache combo that would make Dusty Hill proud. He is 5’10” and 210 pounds. Dawn goes about in simple clothes like blue jeans, t-shirts, and tennis shoes. She has short-cropped, black hair, blue eyes, and tattoos. She doesn’t care for Peter’s beard. She stands 5’3” and weighs in at 120 pounds.

Jacinto Francisco Vargas Garcia is an illegal immigrant from Ciudad Juarez. He developed his Psychic Gunslinger abilities in his late teens. At 19, he stood up to the cartel’s local henchmen, refusing to pay them insurance money for his aunt and uncle’s safety. Naturally, this didn’t sit well and Jacinto needed to learn a lesson. The cartel leader sent a posse over to rough him up. Jacinto shot and killed each member of that posse. 

The cartel leader and fifty men came looking for Jacinto. Killing the posse was an affront that could not go unpunished. Jacinto had gone into hiding and when they couldn’t find him, they visited his aunt and uncle. The couple had no idea where their nephew had gone or how he managed to kill the well-armed posse with just a single action revolver. After torturing them for several hours, the leader had them hanged and left as an example.  

Jacinto came out of hiding for revenge. He snuck into the cartel’s local complex and murdered every single person he found on the premises. The next day, he used their fake USA passports to cross the border into the United States. He took one of their cars, brought along their money, and enough bullets to last for some time. Recognizing the vehicle and his fake passport, the corrupt border guards let him into the country without so much as a glance.

Jacinto wandered north, trying to put distance between himself and the hunters he knew would be coming. By the time Jacinto reached the City, he had spent all of the money, shot most of his bullets, and was driving his fourth car since arriving in the country. He eventually found a shelter and soup kitchen. The same one where he would meet John and Dawn Nixon. The same one that brought Jonathan James into his life. 

Jacinto has made it his purpose to pick fights with bad people. Since arriving in the City, he has killed every member of the L Street Bloods, put several prostitution rings out of business, and dusted a master vampire. His bravado will eventually catch up to him. Jacinto should be used as a 10-15 level Pscychic Gunslinger.

Image: approximately 26 years old, 6’1” and 200 pounds, long, black hair pulled back in a pony-tail, black dress pants, white, wrinkled dress shirt, dress shoes, and black trench coat. 

Jonathan James’ wife was killed by a religious fanatic possessed by a djinn. The fanatic targeted a shopping mall in the suburbs where Jonathan’s wife happened to be with friends. More than 30 people, including Jonathan’s wife, were killed in the mass killing. The fanatic was stopped by an off-duty police officer who shot and killed him. 

Jonathan believes he can see the djinn leaving the body of the fanatic in close captioned tv and recorded video from cell phones. Casey Nottingham has stated he sees the soul of the fanatic leave. No one else will confirm they can see the djinn leave the body. 

Jonathan was serving as the leader of a local coven of witches and warlocks when his wife was murdered. Following her death, he took a step back from the leadership role to try and heal from his loss. Her loss proved to be too great and Jonathan turned from a path of light and helpfulness to a path of darkness and selfishness.   

Jonathan has since dedicated his life to exposing the evil side of religious fanaticism. He has ousted money launderers, exposed rapists and drug dealers, and used his spellcasting abilities to destroy those who traffick children. His work requires knowledge not only surrounding the evils of man, but also those creatures who would help man do his worst to others. His favorite targets to hunt are people within religious organizations who hurt children and the demons who benefit from the suffering.

Jonathan met Jacinto Garcia, a Psychic Gunslinger, while investigating the goings on at a soup kitchen. Jacinto was a regular at the kitchen. Teaming up with Jacinto, they were able to identify the local leaders of a child trafficking organization. The organization was kidnapping children who frequented the soup kitchen and trading them to evil creatures for power, money, and supernatural artifacts. The organization was not only active in the City, but also several other metropolitan areas across the country. They had ties to politicians, megachurches, crime syndicates, and social organizations like QANON. Clues found in cell phones and laptop computers suggest they have ties to other countries.

Realizing they would need more firepower, Jacinto brought in Peter and Dawn Nixon to assist them. Jonathan contacted Casey Nottingham for assistance, who then brought Darren Overmeyer. Their combined effort destroyed the trafficking organization, destroyed the careers of several religious leaders, and exposed child exploitation groups. They fought their way through class I and II demons, banishing several class III demons before they were done.  

Prior to this case, Jonathan had stayed out of the sight of law enforcement. He turned over the cell phones and laptops of criminals. He sent in anonymous tips. He worked through social services. He banished demons. This case revealed the true depth to which other men will go for power. He bore witness to acts unimaginable and crimes so heinous, no jail sentence would be enough punishment. He broke during this case. No actions were off the table. He baited criminals, murdered rapists, blatantly stole from the rich, and mentally justified it all. 

His fingerprints were found by the police and there is now an active warrant for his arrest. The others were already sought by the law for their crimes. When he isn’t using magic to stop his enemies, Jonathan has found he likes using a medium submachine gun with silencer (use stats for medium caliber pistol) to encourage people and creatures to change their ways. He isn’t too good with the gun and tends to use too many bullets to accomplish his goals. 

Image: approximately 30 years old, average build, 5’10” and 180 pounds, black eyes, brown hair, beard, and moustache, and wears boring clothes that help him blend in with society




Legal
The Abyss Group: Enemy Faction is copyright 2021 Derek Stoelting

Night Shift: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars is copyright Jason Vey and Elf Lair, LLC 2020 and is used without express permission.

No challenge to the copyright owners' rights is meant or implied.

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

The Large Farm: a location for survival horror roleplaying games

Large Farm

This farmhouse was old before the apocalypse. The American Prairie Foursquare style suggests early twentieth century, but the add-ons suggest well used through the century. A covered porch lines the outside of the house. The front and a side door both stand open, welcoming all visitors – even the raccoons and squirrels who have claimed squatters’ rights. One or two windows are broken or missing, but the outside of the house is in good, overall condition.

A gravel drive leads from the country road to the front door and then on to the work yard where several out buildings await. Small trees dot the front lawn and large conifers line the drive, whereas maples line the country road. Two tractors sit next to a large barn. A baler is connected to one tractor and a cultivator is connected to the other. Inside the barn is equipment to work on the tractors and other equipment around the farm. There is also a broadcast seeder, row planter, harvester, a parts tractor similar to the two outside the barn, and a blue, 1973, Plymouth Fury.

A smaller barn sits off to the side of the larger barn. Dead bodies fill this smaller barn. The bodies contain sharp farming implements in their chests and skulls. The bodies were placed here a very long time ago. This barn was used as storage for hand-held equipment.

A curtain barn for pigs and a livestock barn for beeves are further back on the property. There are skeletons of animals here, but nothing living.

The fields for this farm once ranged over several hectares. Most of that land is gone to seed or taken over by trees and brush.

The Good:  the inside of the farmhouse is in good condition. Animals have come and gone, but nothing currently resides inside the building. At some point, a recent resident installed equipment to create a heated pool of water in the backyard, which feeds into the house to the shower. 

The basement contains food stores. Most of it is cans of soup no one likes. There are canned beans, mushrooms, carrots, peas, and pears lining one wall of the basement. There are many tables and chairs in the basement.

The upstairs of this farmhouse contains one full size bathroom, one master bedroom, and four smaller bedrooms. There is a set of stairs in the master bedroom leading to a finished attic. The finished attic contains boxes of memorabilia of several generations. This includes pictures, school jackets, wedding gowns, jewelry, and books. The bedrooms are all outfitted with clothing and bedding ruined by time and moths. It will take some work, but the bedrooms can be cleaned up and used properly. The bathroom on this level is not connected to the heated water source. However, it does contain several large mirrors and fine quality grooming tools.

The ground floor of the farmhouse contains a large kitchen, good sized dining room, smaller bathroom (which is connected to the heated water source), and a living room which extends across the front of the home. The kitchen is filled with pots, pans, plates, cups, silverware, spatulas, and even knives. The dining room has a table that will seat eight comfortably. The living room is large enough to entertain relatives for the afternoon. Poking around the closets on the ground floor, an old, small caliber, bolt-action rifle is found. It needs oil, cleaning, and bullets.

The Bad:  a pack of coyotes claims the property as their own and is sleeping throughout the house. They will fight player characters who attack with hand-to-hand weapons. They will flee from gunshots.

There is no canned food in the basement. There is no source for hot water. The utensils in the kitchen are mostly broken and the flatware is rusted. All of the knives are gone.

The bodies in the small barn are not all dead and begin moving about after the player characters walk away. Old, dried blood covers the farming equipment.

The Ugly:  the house is as described, but as the player characters move throughout the house, they get the sense someone else is living here. Water drips from a faucet. Fresh clothes lay out on well-kept beds. The kitchen floor is smeared with something wet. Maybe it is mud, maybe it is something else.

Once the player characters are fully convinced they need to leave, the residents of the property arrive.

The house is the base of operations for a group of cannibals referred to as, “The Animals.” They are named for the fact they all wear different animal masks. They do not use vehicles, preferring to hunt their prey on foot. They do not like to use firearms or blades when hunting or fighting, as they prefer their meat tenderized by blunt instruments. Additionally, if they capture their prey far from home, they would rather force the prey to walk home than carry it home.

The leader of the group is Pig Woman. She wears an old, rubber pig mask, and a pink wedding gown. Her preferred weapon is a rolling pin, but she also carries a machete and a medium caliber pistol. Pig Woman has seen too much to go about the world without a gun. Pig Woman is often seen with Rabbit Girl, Horse Head, and Unicorn Man. While there are others in the group, these are Pig Woman’s right hoofed partners.


Rabbit Girl is adept at using escrima sticks to stop her prey. She typically wears blue jeans, low-top shoes, and a faux fur jacket. It is impossible to tell Horse Head’s sex, but the body is built like a horse and the person not only likes to use a wooden axe handle, they are also very good at setting leg traps. They wear work boots, sweatshirts, and well-worn blue jeans. Unicorn Man was a martial artist before the fall and continues to hone his skills. When those skills fail him, he will resort to using an Intratec Tec 9. Unicorn Man wears loose fitting clothing that allows him fleet movement. The clothing is using of dark color, but he really does not care.