Join as Evilive liveplay’s @Eden Studios’ Army of Darkness roleplaying game, in this one-off episode called Don’t Lose Your Head. You can learn more about the Army of Darkness roleplaying game corebook and buy a copy here: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/2486/Army-of-Darkness-Corebook?affiliate_id=50797
Cast:
- Bethany Williams – Police Officer
- Kirk ‘Steel’ Miller – Welder
- Liam Davis – English Professor
- Jenna Brown – Tattoo Artist
Cast Backstory
You are all friends from high school. You used to hang out daily, party and get into mischief together. You stayed in contact and every year you would get together and do some new activity over a weekend (travel, camp, etc.). Last year Jen’s mother passed away, and she skipped the get together. No one could make it to her funeral, and Jen’s been taking it pretty hard. You all planned to go camping this year to get Jen out of her head, dragging her up into the Rocky Mountains.
Game Setup
Hello, I am the director of this episode. Our cast members Steel, Beth, and Liam are taking their friend Jen on a camping trip to get her mind off the loss of her mother. They are traveling a less than well known backroad to a little known trailhead deep in the Rocky Mountains. Spirits are as high as can be expected. They have all been friends since high school, some fifteen years ago, but have grown apart as their lives have turned in different directions. Can the cast please introduce themselves?
As they arrive at the trailhead and begin gathering their equipment and putting on their packs for their long weekend trip, they notice two other vehicles parked at this supposedly secret trail. One, a station wagon with a crucifix hanging from the rear view mirror in addition to rainbow and Jesus bumper stickers on the back. The other vehicle, a jeep that is in desperate need of a wash with a license plate saying ‘FLY F15H’. The only sounds, besides themselves, are the calls of the region’s birds, and what sounds like squirrels warning the rest of the forest of your presence. You all take a deep breath and revel in the smell of fresh mountain air, damp vegetation & soil, and the ligering exhaust of Steel’s Land Rover.
You begin your six mile hike into the mountains as clouds begin to gather. This creates a premature dimness to the day. It’s only four in the afternoon but it looks like it could be eight pm. As this overgrown trail is difficult to follow, can I get an (Intelligence + Science) check by the hero who organized this trip?
Supporting Cast
- Chet Smith – Chosen One (jersey)
- Brent Garrett – Fly Fisherman (Kiwi)
- Felicity Baas – Fly Fisherman Partner (Kiwi)
- Jerry Johnson – Religious Father (happy cheese)
- Justine Johnson – Religious Mother (reserved cheese)
- Judith Johnson – Religious Daughter (dark)
Story Beats
Act One – The Setup
Heroes are taking their friend Jen out to the Rocky Mountains to distract her from the death of her mother. They survive a massive storm which precipitates being attacked by a deadite, and they are rescued by a Promised One.
Meet the Johnsons
VISION: Blood covers a woman lying on her back in the forest. She lifts her heat and makes eye contact with you as she begins laughing hysterically. Her eyes roll up into her head as her laugh begins to change into sighs of desire.
(Perception + Notice check) A little girl asks the cast about death and if they are looking forward to meeting Jesus. The parents come to retrieve her as they are camping on the opposite side of the lake than the cast.
Set up camp
(Intelligence + Knowledge/Science check) You find a great campsite and set it up with enough firewood and water. You can even go fishing at the lake.
VISION: You see an angler wading in the lake up to his thighs. His pants are around his ankles as he turns to you. You see tears streaming down his face as he baits his hook with his severed, flaccid penis. His screams reach you and acho in your head. Join Us!
Explore the area
(perception + Notice check) You see a fly fisherman in the distance. Upon investigation, you see he has an ice fishing shack on wheels in the treeline, and a female exits their tent nearby, shaking out their sleeping bags.
SIGHT: You see a human form standing in the distance between the shadows of trees. As you try to focus on it, the form seems to dissipate as you seem to hear a scream in the wind.
Storm sets in
(perception + Notice check) The weather is getting bad, fast. Rain and sleet is pounding the ground. This is unusual weather for August. It looks like some kind of vortex could be forming overhead, but then, mountain weather is unpredictable.
EVENT: As you relieve yourself you feel the presence of someone else. Initially suspecting it’s one of your friends, you turn to shout them away and you see a human form standing in the distance between the shadows of trees. As you try to focus on it, you realize it’s more of a shadowy human form. Its body is like smoke, swirling and its eyes pierce right through you, it opens its mouth and black ooze spills out as you hear a deep whisper in the wind: You will all die tonight! The form disassembles and begins moving to you quickly, low close to the ground.
Disruption in the night
(perception + Notice check) A scream breaks through the night, and the sound of something hitting the ground rather hard. Perhaps a tree falling?The tent is approached by an angler looking for help! Upon investigation, the fisherman is possessed and they have to fight off both. They are saved by the promised one.
Act Two – Complications
The Promised one explains that he came back in a rush from Ancient Rome which was being overrun by Deadites, and needs to collect the pages of the Necronomicon (p166) to defeat the Watcher, but they are trapped in time. He is stabbed in the back with the Spear of Destiny (p168).
The Promised One comes
Chet stabs a deadite in the back, dressed as a roman legionnaire with a shotgun and satchel. Then as the sleet and rain are still pounding and the wind vortex spinning a spear impales chet from behind. The Spear of Destiny, p168. (Str x 2 but double willpower or possessed dc 12)
An explanation
Chet explains what is happening and how he came from around four hundred C.E. The Huns were pressing into the Goths’ land and it seems many were Deadites, demons from another realm of time and space, possessed by the powers of the necronomicon. Chet needs to travel to sumeria, find the missing pages, and stop the watcher to return history as we know it.
Evil Chet
The promised one dies of his wounds and is turned into evil chet, infecting a cast member before he dies.
Act Three – The Climax
Heroes fight off religious family, then face Evil Promised One. When all seems well, they are sucked up into the vortex storm and dropped into ancient Sumeria.
Enter religious family
Cast should try to flee and come across the religious family, or the family comes to them. The child is trying to reenter the mother to return to jesus. The father wants to purify the evil in the cast.
The trees and Vortex
After the defeat of the family, the heroes believe they are finally safe, then the trees attack, and they are sucked up into the vortex.
Ancient Sumeria
They land in a pond, in ancient Sumeria circa 3000 bce. Surrounded by fields of wheat, and they see natives scream and run away toward a giant pyramidal structure in the distance. The End.
About Army of Darkness Roleplaying Game
Alright, you primitive screwheads, listen up!
You’re in a strange land, with strange people, and you’re not thinking too clearly. The natives are suspicious, the leaders hostile, the priests cryptic, and no one’s bathed in months. Advanced tech is a hole in the ground filled with sewage. The basic food groups are roasted haunch, moldy bread, and watered-down wine.
Getting home ain’t going to happen anytime soon. First you need to find some stupid book, then recite some stupid phrase, then bring the stupid book back to the stupid castle. Heck, there’s probably a bunch of other stupid stuff you have to do. Just nobody’s told you about that yet.
Oh, and then there’s the army of undead just over the hill looking to gnaw on your soul!
Ash: That’s it. Go ahead and run. Run home and cry to mama. Me! I’m through runnin’. I say we stay here and fight it out!
Arthur: Are all men from the future loudmouth braggarts?
Ash: Nope. Just me baby . . . just me.
Inside this swank beauty, we’ll show you how to put the dead in deadite. Here, you will find:
- An introduction to roleplaying and the Army of Darkness story.
- A guide to character creation, including ready-to-play champions and companions, as well as specs on the Army of Darkness Cast, for your quick-play pleasure.
- The Army of Darkness Unisystem, streamlined for cinematic action and adventure.
- Guidelines for bringing the little people together, training them, and pitting them against the forces of evil.
- Blow-by-blow instructions for creating Army of Darkness roleplaying game sessions.
- A rundown on the Army of Darkness setting, places, people, events, including details on evil clones, demons, undead, and other critters.
- Fleshed-out new setting suggestions, taking your Army of Darkness game in freshly gruesome directions.
- A complete adventure to get the horror and hilarity under way right away.