Chapter 1 - The City

Kel:
Among the debris you find a pretty basic metal rail. It's about an inch in diameter and maybe a foot and a half long. It broke off of something but you can't really tell what. Either way it should help hit whatever you need to hit.

Howard suddenly remembers the place of something that would do the trick. He walks over to the copy room on the floor, he has to push a desk out of the way to get to it but a few minutes later he emerges with an entire paper cutter with a blade arm. He tugs on the arm and with enough effort is able to pry it loose. It may not be great for leverage, but it will certainly hit things well.

Unfortunately you remember that you parked across the street because you were using the building after hours. There are no cameras that face that way, but you do see the one for the front parking lot. It was knocked sideways by the shockwave that came through but it still shows an empty parking lot. You see shapes that, on the low res monitors, are hard to make out but it looks like a few people running this way and that further out by the street.

As you leave the security office with Tim and John you make your way back to the south stairwell and down to the first floor. Jacob and Andrew are able to find small metal club-like instruments like Kel. Howard has his cutter blade that is also about a foot and a half long.

Getting down to the first floor it looks like this floor is actually a little more intact and most cubicles are in place.

Immediately to your left as you exit the stairwell you see down one hallway that leads down towards the lobby. It turns so there is no direct door to the lobby, but the entire lobby is surrounded with glass walls that allow you to see into it. All of the glass walls still seem well intact, though you can see some scattered glass from the front windows of the building itself. You don't see the dogs.

In front of you is a wide hall that runs between two rows of cubicles. There doesn't seem to be anything around and a few cubicles down you see a busted out window. This would allow you to hop out onto the side of the building that has the street that you parked across from, so it should be a fairly easy jog over to the cars. The broken window is about 5 feet up off the ground, you should be able to climb over the cubicle and out the window.

As the stairwell door shuts behind you you hear a clicking sound from the hallway that would lead you out to the lobby. It's an evenly paced clicking sound. John quiets everyone with a hush and in another few seconds you see a golden retriever, man's best friend, round the corner, his nails clack on the tile floor. It stops to look at you, and is about 40 feet down this hallway. It doesn't growl or bark, but from here you can see it baring it's teeth.

[ GM: We will enter structured time now. Your team heard the dog first so you will all go first, taking one combat turn (moving, and then doing some sort of action, usually requiring a check), once you have all gone once the dog will go. You can choose whatever order you want to go on your team, so unless something is really timing sensitive you can just post your turn whenever. So far without any equipment or situation modifying dice you are at 1 positive and 1 negative for a dexterity test to try climbing out the window. ]

Kel runs up and swings at the dog. It barely responds physically to the attempt. At this distance Kel is the first one to notice the appearance of this golden retriever. Unlike most dogs who have hair and skin that covers their entire frame this one has loose flayed skin hanging off of it's sides and face. You actually see a large piece of flesh is gone from it's face. It has one missing eye at the top of the hole, and you can see down to it's skull along the side of it's face. It's teeth showing even when it is not baring it's teeth. At this distance it is hard to rationalize this as any normal form of rabies. This dog should not be living. It's golden fur is just spotted and caked with blood.

[ GM: Sorry, typed that wrong. You run up and miss the swing at the dog, and still take a point of physical stress. You still see the horrific thing and need to make a test with Willpower with 1 positive and 1 negative dice. ]

As Jacob runs up he manages to get a hit on the dog. He scores a good thud against it's side but it doesn't yelp, move, or howl from the hit. He finally sees the state of this dog as well and tries to fight his every instinct to let out a shrill scream.

[ GM: Jacob hit the dog for 1 physical stress (the amount of successes after canceling) and gets an extra 1 stress against it for using his blunt weapon. He takes 1 stress from the engagement in his physical category and now has to as well make a Willpower saving throw of 1 negative and 1 positive to withstand the horror of this thing. ]

Kel manages to keep his outward composure, but mentally this image will haunt him.

[ GM: One mental stress, but you succeed at not showing your horror.