[PF] Halloween Zombiepocalypse

[Kazemi]

So the party I'm DMing has decided to take up a side-quest to try and level up before trying to continue the main plot (they're all relatively new and I'm not sure they realize I base the difficulty of stuff on their level...). I gave them 3 options of generic quests that they picked up in the local Flower & Compass tavern and they chose one to deal with some undead found in the slums of their current city.

The city they're in is walled on three sides and oceaned on the other, with a river running through it. It has a couple of mid level wizards (8th and 9th level). It's about a week away from the capitol, so it'll take that long for the royal guard to come and start clearing everything out. It's up to the city to quarantine and survive until then.

Since Halloween is coming up, I was figuring on giving them a nice little zombie invasion. The players are trying to hunt down the necromancer, a worshiper of Fenris Khul (https://sites.google.com/site/pathfinderogc/classes/core-classes/cleric/gods-3rd-party-publishers/gods-of-porphyra-pdg/fenris-kul). The necromancer has been perfecting his undead and is trying to End the World through undead of the spawning nature. As the players arrive, he's finishing up his ritual for raising them under his control (actual ritual magic, so he's got a small cabal). I'm expecting them to interrupt and that's going to free all the soon-to-be undead from the necromancer's control, leaving them to rampage and escape into the city.

The players are currently 5th level and as follows:

Dwarf Druid 5 (Medium Sabre-tooth Tiger Companion)
Human Ranger 3/Wizard 2 (going Arcane Archer; red panda animal companion)
Human Wizard 5 (Evocation specialist, guaranteed to pick Fly; has a bonded ring rather than a familiar)
Human Fighter 2/Paladin 3
Human Barbarian 2/Rogue 3 (with a medium bear animal companion; don't ask :smallsigh:)
Human Monk 5 (with Throw Anything and a stone chair that's seen some use)


Now, my first idea was to use wights as written, but with INT 0. I figure they are 5th level and can tank well enough, but if/when they can't stop all the wights from getting out then waves of them would cause problems.

Then I noticed that wights inflict negative levels...:smalleek:

Would a swarm of energy-draining zombies be a bit too much? I've never ran anything like this before, so I'm not sure how much would be overkill. The party nearly TPK'd against 6 ghasts, which is one reason I'm a bit hesitant (filth fever's actually going to set in on 4 of the players in a couple of days, by the way). Then again, half the fun of the game is the risk and getting their negative levels cured could be their next quest.

TLDR: Does anybody have any suggestions on what to use for zombies in a zombie invasion? I'd like to get a few alternatives to consider (and any recommendations from those of you who may have run this sort of thing before).

[Baron Malkar]

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/undead/zombie/zombie-apocalypse

:smallbiggrin:

[BWR]

If they don't have protection from draining and get into melee a lot the PCs are going to suffer horribly if they meet wights in any significant number (and a wightpocalypse counts as a significant number). If they are allowed to play it smart (shack up somewhere defensible with lots of food, let the blaster fly 'n' fry), wights won't be a problem. But that's boring.

How tough do you want the zombies to be? Resident Evil or Braindead?
Traditional or fast?
Do you want the PCs to fight one or two tough ones at a time or wade through bodies like stalks of grass? If you want somewhat tougher you could also just use normal zombies with more HD. Or Use wight stats without the level draining (lower CR by a bit). If you want hordes of normal zombies, allow them to use Aid Another on attacks to slowly but surely whittle away the party's hp.

[AzureKnight]

Since one side of the city is ocean, why not add a nasty reef maze there where many a ship met their untimely end. Lots of raw materials there to allow a necromancer a buffet of raw materials for summoning and creating undead.

To add a little flavor to it, take a page from more modern visions of undead, aka zombies, and let then have a greater than normal movement, and some sort of inteligence. After all whats more frightening, a group of slow moving undead whom march like cows to a slaughter, or fast moving man eaters that have a taste for their flesh and enough smarts not to lcause the players to strategize and plan out their next move?

Also sewers make a fun way to flank the pcs. Always keep them on their toes.

[BWR]

r fast moving man eaters that have a taste for their flesh and enough smarts not to lcause the players to strategize and plan out their next move?
.

So, bascially ghouls?

The modern pop media version of 'zombie' is rather annoying; they're ghouls. Smart or not, they're ghouls. The mindless shambling horde that kills but doesn't eat is a zombie apocalypse. Zombies need to be ordered around because otherwise they will just stand there looking stupid. Ghouls eat flesh and can do stuff without being commanded. You want mindless flesheaters? Take the ghoul, remove Intelligence.

[Kazemi]

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/undead/zombie/zombie-apocalypse

:smallbiggrin:
...climb speed?:smalleek:

I like the disease as an alternative to Energy Drain, though it's a bit too slow. I think I'm going to make the save ever hour, and stick it to 2 CHA and CON damage until the character makes two saves. Money says the wizard gets bit immediately (he's got notoriously low HP). This also gives the chance for rescued civilians to be infected. Also, there's no way I'm allowing the players to Coup-de-Grace the injured. Bodies yes, since they've been doing that for a while to every corpse they make. This'll drive them nuts :smallbiggrin:



How tough do you want the zombies to be? Resident Evil or Braindead?
Traditional or fast?
I'm thinking the waves of zombies (though not as bad as World War Z) version. They're going to get a taste of a handful of the zombies when they interrupt the ritual to raise them, so when they see 3 times as many roaming the streets they're going to have to fall back. Of course, the zombies are going to be between them and the nearest gate; they're not getting out of it that easily :smalltongue:.


...To add a little flavor to it, take a page from more modern visions of undead, aka zombies, and let then have a greater than normal movement, and some sort of inteligence...

Also sewers make a fun way to flank the pcs. Always keep them on their toes.
I'm planning to make the zombies smart enough not to forget the players and persistant enough to not leave the players alone. As for speed, I like 30ft-40ft movespeed with staggered.

The PCs are about to enter a part of the sewers (that's where the necromancer's physical escape route is). I'm expecting the PCs to either return undergound to hide and travel under the streets, take to the rooftops and abandoned building that they're currently in, or try to make it back to the inn that they have been staying at. To make the decision harder, the necromancer may or may not have gathered quite a few riches :smallamused:



The modern pop media version of 'zombie' is rather annoying; they're ghouls. Smart or not, they're ghouls. The mindless shambling horde that kills but doesn't eat is a zombie apocalypse. Zombies need to be ordered around because otherwise they will just stand there looking stupid. Ghouls eat flesh and can do stuff without being commanded. You want mindless flesheaters? Take the ghoul, remove Intelligence.
Though I see where you're coming from, ghoulism is much less contagious than zombieism. Also, I disagree that mindless things need to be ordered around. They still have instincts to end life or spread the disease.

Normally, I don't imagine ghouls as rotting while zombies can. That's about the only real difference in my mind (url=http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurZombiesAreDifferent]well, the biggest one[/url])

EDIT: How large across to cities of population ~15,000 tend to be? I can't just use today's standards, since we kind of have massive piles of people in towering buildings that this campaign doesn't have :smallannoyed: