Post by Rip on Sept 7, 2010 18:18:13 GMT -5
Someone up there doesn't like the people of Halfmoon very much. First, a rampaging kelpie terrorizes the streets of Caedere, flooding the sewers and drawing passerby into the stinking drains. What's next? The undead?
Explorers and outcasts explore deeper and deeper into the Grey Wastes every expedition, and they bring back strange monsters each time they return. If they return. The survival rate of these trips plumped over the past few months, even though technology advanced far enough to ensure breathable air and ready medical aid. Some people stumbled back to civilization stark mad, foaming at the mouth and screaming to the wind. Some tried to babble nonsense at anyone who'd listen. They threw around 'zombie' and 'undead' long before anyone wanted to use the words seriously, and now that they do, no one knows how the hell to handle it.
Zombies are invading the wastes.
The Sideris government brought the first specimens back to the main land for study. Their team of scientists and researchers discovered the most improbable explainations, facts that went against their own damn beliefs, but it was staring them in the face and they couldn't look away.
What they found was this.
- The zombies are dead. They have no brain activity or pulse, and their bodies are rotting. Some of them had been dead for a very long time.
- What keeps them walking, walking and walking are detached souls. Perhaps they're the souls of the original bodies; perhaps they're hitchhikers. Researchers always knew that the Halfsun Bomb's residue, Ash, carries ancient, sour magic, but the extent of that magic was only thought to mutilate, as seen in the grotesque monsters. Researchers now know that Ash can block a soul from leaving earth. Trapped by the poison, the souls flee back inside human bodies and cause havoc. The zombies are, in a sense, possessed corpses.
- Not all zombies are aggressive at first, but as the soul exists in a fermenting body, it's form will fester as well. It catches the sickness of rotting flesh and turns insane. The most vicious of zombies are usually the ones closest to falling apart. However, this varies from soul to soul, as souls can start out plenty wicked, especially considering the type of death it's original body experienced.
- The souls can only exist within a movable corpse. If the corpse falls apart, whether through decay or dismemberment, the soul will be released. However, once it's out, all that rage is free, and the soul might try to possess nearby (living)humans.
- They cannot speak any comprehensible language; they cannot learn; they cannot preform any task except movement that a living body preforms.
- If you are bitten by a zombie, you will not turn into one. It's not a virus or bacteria.
- They still may bite you, though. Or try to eat you. They seem jealous of living beings, and some can exhibit extremely sadistic behavior.
- Their movement is limited to the abilities of the host body. If it's missing a leg or sporting a broken ankle, it cannot run. Likewise, if it's in fairly good condition, the zombie might chase you.
Sideris ordered the specimens destroyed. Since then, no known zombie has escaped from the Grey Wastes. But adventures and runaways beware. They're hiding in the dirty rubble with yellow fingers gnarled and teeth gnashing. They hate you and they'll kill you and they'll make you hurt before you die.
Explorers and outcasts explore deeper and deeper into the Grey Wastes every expedition, and they bring back strange monsters each time they return. If they return. The survival rate of these trips plumped over the past few months, even though technology advanced far enough to ensure breathable air and ready medical aid. Some people stumbled back to civilization stark mad, foaming at the mouth and screaming to the wind. Some tried to babble nonsense at anyone who'd listen. They threw around 'zombie' and 'undead' long before anyone wanted to use the words seriously, and now that they do, no one knows how the hell to handle it.
Zombies are invading the wastes.
The Sideris government brought the first specimens back to the main land for study. Their team of scientists and researchers discovered the most improbable explainations, facts that went against their own damn beliefs, but it was staring them in the face and they couldn't look away.
What they found was this.
- The zombies are dead. They have no brain activity or pulse, and their bodies are rotting. Some of them had been dead for a very long time.
- What keeps them walking, walking and walking are detached souls. Perhaps they're the souls of the original bodies; perhaps they're hitchhikers. Researchers always knew that the Halfsun Bomb's residue, Ash, carries ancient, sour magic, but the extent of that magic was only thought to mutilate, as seen in the grotesque monsters. Researchers now know that Ash can block a soul from leaving earth. Trapped by the poison, the souls flee back inside human bodies and cause havoc. The zombies are, in a sense, possessed corpses.
- Not all zombies are aggressive at first, but as the soul exists in a fermenting body, it's form will fester as well. It catches the sickness of rotting flesh and turns insane. The most vicious of zombies are usually the ones closest to falling apart. However, this varies from soul to soul, as souls can start out plenty wicked, especially considering the type of death it's original body experienced.
- The souls can only exist within a movable corpse. If the corpse falls apart, whether through decay or dismemberment, the soul will be released. However, once it's out, all that rage is free, and the soul might try to possess nearby (living)humans.
- They cannot speak any comprehensible language; they cannot learn; they cannot preform any task except movement that a living body preforms.
- If you are bitten by a zombie, you will not turn into one. It's not a virus or bacteria.
- They still may bite you, though. Or try to eat you. They seem jealous of living beings, and some can exhibit extremely sadistic behavior.
- Their movement is limited to the abilities of the host body. If it's missing a leg or sporting a broken ankle, it cannot run. Likewise, if it's in fairly good condition, the zombie might chase you.
Sideris ordered the specimens destroyed. Since then, no known zombie has escaped from the Grey Wastes. But adventures and runaways beware. They're hiding in the dirty rubble with yellow fingers gnarled and teeth gnashing. They hate you and they'll kill you and they'll make you hurt before you die.
