For this scenario our players (Chris, Sam, Boris and Martin) have gone to do an escape room at a disused prison. This was the 1st time Chris, Sam and Boris had every played a RPG game. I used the "Under the Skin" scenario from the rulebook.
The Yard
Our game starts as the group enter the yard of the prison. There are a number of people waiting around and they know that there is a ghost tour that takes place as well as the escape rooms so some people are obviously here for that as well.
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| Photo of the Prison Layout given to the players |
After a few minutes of a wait someone comes out who is clearly a member of staff and calls everyone over. He introduces himself as Bobby and tells everyone to follow him to a cell block where the escape rooms are located. The group follow Bobby and see everyone else that is going for the escape rooms. They see they are with David and Barry, a mother and her young daughter (about 10 years old), an older man, a group of 3 teenagers (2 boys and 1 girl) and a lone man in his early 30's. While walking to the cell block (which is the L shaped building in the left of the photo) they see that there is obvious construction work happening in the far left corner of the compound. Chris is watching the other people while they are walking and notices that the lone male seems to be checking out the mother quite a bit while they are walking.
The Cell Block
As they enter the cell block building they walk down what is a long corridor that is just painted concrete, past 2 toilet rooms. They come through a door into the escape room area.
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| Photo of the Cell Block given to the players. There are 5 Cells on the top floor and 5 on the ground floor The Door to the left leads to a staff room and has stairs to a control room (window upstairs) The door at the bottom of the stairs leads to the corridor. |
They are split into 2 groups and the Players are joined by David and Barry who they meet earlier. The other group are shown into their cell first so the players group stay sitting at the tables while Bobby and Warden Philips show the others into the cell and get them settled. Again they notice the lone man looking at the mother as she walks in.
It gets to their turn to be shown into the cells and they head over and go in. Warden Philips points out the emergency key and tells them they have 45mins to work out the code and that will let them out. Sam (who was worried about the guy and mother) asked about whether the staff kept an eye on what went on inside the cells, Warden Philips points out a camera in the corner and tells them that she can watch everything from the control room and if they need help and bang on the door they can come and let them out. She also mentions their are speakers and if they need help they can give them clues to help out.
The door closes and the players get started trying to find the first clue. In the room there is graffiti on the walls, a set of bunks, a small steel toilet and a desk. Sam started looking at the graffiti which is a set of tally marks (52 of them). Martin starts flipping the mattresses to look under them and finds a playing card and some notes. Chris is looking at the toilet and is trying to remove the panel hiding the plumbing but can't. David is standing staring at the blank wall and Barry is getting really excited running around everywhere. Boris tries to calm Barry down and gets him to help him look under the bunks for clues. After some time one of the players decides to ask David if he is OK. He takes a while to answer but tells them he OK before going back to just staring.
While they are trying to solve the clues they hear the young girl crying from the next cell. Sam is worried about her and looks out the window to sees that the Warden and Bobby are already heading over and opening the door to the other cell for them. Bobby then comes over and tells the group that they are just letting her out because she got scared and upset being locked in there. It will take a few minutes but they will carry on as normal in a bit. While they are waiting the players ask Barry if David is OK. Barry walks over and goes to check on him. As his hand touches David's shoulder David swings around and bites Barry's forearm. Sam quickly runs for the door and starts shouting for help and uses the emergency key to open the door. Chris and Boris both go for David and try and fight him off while Martin tries to pull Barry out the cell door. Chris and Boris manage to floor David, but Boris hurt his knuckles in the process. As they have him down they get out the room and Sam closes the door behind them locking David in the cell. Sam kept the key with her.
As everyone is outside trying to sort out what to do Bobby takes Barry into the staff room to get a first aid kit and sort out his wound. Boris calls the police but is told that there have been a number of calls recently so the response time might be slower than normal. Sam has decided that she wants to leave but Warden Philips says she wants everyone to stay put so they can talk to the police when they arrive. Sam isn't happy about it but the group decide to stay. The whole group move into the staff room and wait in there. Before going in Chris goes to look at David in the cell and notices something black in his mouth where he was punched during the fight, he also seems to be sweating and pale.
In the staff room the group get to know everyone. It turns out that the Warden's first name is Julie, the mother is Sally and her daughter is Yasmin. The lone male is Alec and the older man is Albert. The 3 teenagers are Chris, Katie and Ollie.
The players notice the Albert is withdrawn and quiet. When they speak to him they notice that his answers seem delayed and they get worried. They share their concerns with Julie and say that he seems to be showing the same symptoms as David did right before he attacked Barry. They tell Julie and Bobby that they need to put him somewhere away from the rest of the group in case he has the same thing David did. Julie and Bobby take him up to a cell of the top floor and lock him in there, taking the emergency key out the room when they do. He goes in quietly and just does what he is asked.
Martin spends some time talking to Sally and Yasmin to find out what happened in the other cell and check they are OK. It turns out the Yasmin just got scared and started to cry. Sally thought maybe it was a bit much to bring her to something like this are her age and should have waited until she was older. Alec is helping look after Barry and the teenagers are just over by themselves in the corner.
Chris spent some time upstairs watching the monitors in the control room watching the cells with David and Albert in to see what they are doing. Albert is just sitting on the bed and David is standing in the middle of his room and looking at the door.
Sam has taken the first aid kit and is looking at Boris's hand. His hand is fine but she really wanted to just take a few of the supplies and keep them for herself in case they needed it later. She has tried to get Julie to let them leave again but Julie is determined that everyone stay put until the police arrive.
Later Barry starts to show some of the symptoms that David was showing, the players notice that he is sweating and pale but doesn't seem dizzy or tired like he would if he was in shock. Chris also see that their seems to be something black in the wound in his arm, like David had in his mouth.
They quickly decide that he needs to be put in a cell as well. Boris goes with Julie to put in into the cell next to the one that David is in. As they are walking over they almost reach the door. Martin and Chris are upstairs watching the CCTV and Sam is at the door to the staff room watching Boris and Julie take Barry to a cell. When they reach the door, just as they are trying to get him into the cell he suddenly tries to attack Boris. Boris dodges the attack and him and Julie start trying to force him into the cell while he is trying to attack them. Sam shouts and runs over to help trying to kick at Barry's legs from behind Boris hoping to knock him off balance to make it easier for Boris and Julie to push him inside but fails. Chris runs down from upstairs and Barry knocks Boris down. Chris reaches the group and him and Boris both grab an arm each and manage to push Barry back into the cell. Sam grabs the key from inside and Chris slams the door shut. As he does he catches Barry's arm in the cell door and severs it clean off. The hand lands on the floor outside the door and they can see inside Barry seems unbothered, they can see black slime, like tentacles coming out from the stump of the arm. Sam quickly kicks the hand into the cell next door disgusted but it (but does not lock the cell door). Again Sam keeps the key of the cell that Barry is locked in.
Some time passes and the whole group just kept waiting in the staff room. Sam still wanted to leave but Julie seems even more determined that no-one can leave until the police arrive. A second call to the police doesn't work, the phone rings but there is no reply. Something is clearly up and Julie thinks it is safer staying inside than leaving since they can lock themselves in if they need it. Chris has spent a lot of time checking on Albert to make sure he is OK and the same with Barry and David. He has noticed that Barry and David seem to be getting worse. The skin on their faces is starting to dry and crack, it also seems to drooping like it doesn't fit him anymore. Albert doesn't look like he is showing any changes.
Yasmin tells Sally she needs to go to toilet and the players start discussing the safest way to do it. Alec tells them he wants to go as well and they want to make sure that a couple of the players and a member of staff go as well. Martin and Sam decide to go with Sally, Yasmin and Alec to the toilets and Bobby goes with them. Walking down the corridor to the toilets Bobby stops Sam and Martin and talks to them about Sam wanting to leave. He seems scared and wants reassurance that staying put is the safest bet. Sam uses the opportunity to ask him about Julie's key so they can get out the cell block since she has taken the emergency key off the external door so they can't leave. While they are talking there hear a scream coming from further down the corridor where the toilets are.
While they are gone Chris is watching the CCTV again and notices the hand in the cell has started to move. It has dragged itself out and is almost by the tables in the main waiting room. The same black ooze that they have seem on the other infected is coming out of where the wound is. Julie gives Chris a bin and he runs out and traps the hand underneath. He feels the hand trying to get out the bin and slides it inside the bin into a cell. He takes the key and locks it in the room. As he is walking back he hears the bin fall and the hand gets out from under it.
Back in the corridor Martin and Sam run towards the scream and into the woman's toilets. Inside they find Alec on the floor, clearly dead with his head smashed in, a broken sink and blood on it show that he probably had his had knocked into it hard enough to break his skull. Sally is sitting on the floor by the body and they can hear Yasmin crying in a cubical. They quickly get Sally and Yasmin out the room and lock the toilets from the outside.
The Night
Back together the players fill each other in on what happened while they were apart. They realise it is getting late and after sorting out what food they have they decide to try and get some sleep. They pull mattresses out of the cells that are free and bring them to the staff room. Chris wants to take some food to Albert, but others refuse to let him open the door to give it to him. The players decide to take it in turns staying awake while the others sleep.
Sam and Chris are the first to stay awake and are upstairs watching the CCTV. They decide to come downstairs and see that Julie is just sitting up awake. Sam quietly wakes Martin and Boris while Chris talks to Julie. He sees that she is sweating and looks pale and stressed. He is starting to get suspicious that she might be infected but before he says anything an alarm sounds and red light goes off as all the cell doors swing open. Coming down from the control room they see Sally. They can see the hand, Barry and David all leaving the cells and heading towards them. The black ooze from the three of them seems to be trying to join together with each other.
The players decide they have to get out now. Sam and Boris attack Julie and Boris manages to rip the keys from her belt hoop. Martin has punched Sally as she comes down the stairs and the group run out the door and down the corridor. They get out the cell block and start to run for the gate.
Outside
The players run through the night towards the gate. They reach it and find the emergency key is missing. Julies doesn't have the key of the gate on her bunch. Looking around they can see that they can't climb over the walls or the gate to leave. They decide to head back to where the construction work was taking place to try and get out that way.
Walking back towards the cell block they hear crying from down a dark alley way. Boris decides to stop and investigate, he walks towards it picking up a stone to throw if he needs to. He sees Yasmin standing down there, no longer wearing the jacket she had been all day. She comes out and follows the group towards the construction site. When they reach it they see a gate has been put in to let the construction equipment in and out, there are also a few vans, lorries and JCB's around and a large hole dug in the ground. However they see 10 or so people around that are clearly infected, skin hanging off them or long trails of black hanging off them. Some seem to be the workers for the site, others look like members of the tour group. They are all walking towards each other and it looks like they are meeting at the hole in the ground. The black tentacles from each of them seem to reaching out and joining together.
The infected are joining together, massing into a giant abomination. A huge ball of black tentacles and body parts. The group has noticed that now Yasmin has her jacket off she has dry and cracked skin on her arms and suspect she might be infected herself. They call her over to see if what will happen if another infected is near the abomination. As soon as she sees the abomination she screams and busts into tears. The abomination starts dragging itself towards her and the group run towards the gate. As it reaches Yasmin it grabs her and pulls her in half before absorbing her into it's mass.
Escape
The group reach the gate and manage to get it open. They run outside and start running, in the dark, around the outside of the wall back towards the car. With the abomination still chasing them and no light or path to run on Sam, Martin and Boris all trip at some point and only just manage to get back up just before the thing reaches them. Chris is out in front and reaches the car before any of them but Martin has the keys on him. While running Martin manages to find the key and uses the remote to unlock the doors. Chris opens all the doors ready for everyone and gets in the far side. The rest of the guys manage to jump into the car just in time. As the doors slam shut a tentacle from the thing slams into the side of the car and dents the passenger side. Martin drives away as fast as he can.
Down the road with the abomination getting further away they see a large group of people in the road heading towards them. They stop and open the sunroof. Boris stands up and sticks his head up through the sunroof. They group tell him they are heading towards the prison to lock themselves in there and wait for help. When Boris tells them the prison isn't safe they just look behind them and see 3 abominations heading down the road from behind the group and the 1 still heading towards them from the prison...The End.
What was Happening
So the Players in this missed a few things or were never really going to find out during the game.
David was infected from the start but he infected Sally while they were outside waiting to go in without anyone noticing. During the early stages of infection, before it is clear they are infected they will try and infect people without them noticing.
Julie was infected by Barry while trying to force him into the cell when he was locked up.
Alec was never infected, he didn't attack Sally in the toilet. He had run in when he heard the same scream that the players heard but was closer so got in there faster and saw Sally trying to infect Yasmin. Sally had attacked him in there. Assuming he was a creep the players ignored the fact their was no black slime in his blood when they went into the room.
Julie always wanted to stay put and wait for the police, but after she was infected she would never let anyone leave because she want to keep people as close as possible to infect until they had infected enough to form their own abomination. It was after she was infected that she removed all the keys from the cell block and at night she slipped out and got the one from the main gate. Julie infected the teenagers during the night while Chris and Sam were upstairs and that gave them enough so they had to join together.
Sally used the control panel upstairs to open all the cells at once.
Albert had Alzheimer's which was why he was slow or forgetful at times. He was never infected (at least not until the players ran out and left him in a room full of infected).
Yasmin had eczema which was why she had the dry and cracked skin on her arms the players assumed was a sign of infect, she had always had it they just never saw with her jacket on. She ran out and left after the players and got out before the door to the cell block was closed. Again she was never infected.
The infection had been released when it was dug up as part of the construction in the prison (the hole in the ground). While players were waiting it had spread to the nearby town and that was why people were heading to the prison from the town where more people meant that abominations were created faster.
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