AVL Scarefest Day 2: The Shambling Un-Dead And Unquenchable "Things"

Good evening everyone, and welcome to Day 2 of my blog reports from Scarefest here in North Carolina! Today started bright and early at 8 a.m. with wholesale slaughter in DCC RPG, with the carnage continuing in my early evening Cryptworld game. And here we go...

• Got up this morning, got ready, scampered down for breakfast, and headed over to the convention facility. Very uneventful, and nothing to report there. But the fact that I didn't have any problems of goofy stuff happen was noteworthy, so I shared it with you here.
• The Dead Character Graveyard had claimed another victim during last night's games, so there were about 7 or 8 character sheets posted in memorium of those who perished. We were about to shatter those figures... 
• My first game today started bright and early, with the DCC RPG game "The Shambling Un-Dead." In this tournament game, our village had been cut off from The Outside World by a series of ley lines. And the dead had crawled from the grave to attack the hapless villagers. We got our zero-level characters, and my PC had a single hit point. We rolled initiative. I was to go last. The judge rolled an attack, and got me for three points, killing my character. So I died without getting a chance to do ANYTHING. And that pretty much set the tone.
• By the time the game ended, we had fought an undead crocodile in the sewers, worm-gorged possessed priests, undead babies, and lots of lots of zombies. Each of us went through 5-6 characters, and the Dead Character Graveyard was a bright goldenrod in color by the time the game ended. Fantastic game and great fun!
• Walked back to the room to drop some stuff off. Again, nothing to report. Snapped a few photos of the surrounding mountainsides. Beautiful location!
• Needed to hurry back, as I had a group of Cryptworld investigators ready to brave the forests of Ohio to rescue some lost hunters in "Unquenchable." None of the players were familiar with the Pacesetter Action Table system, but they took right to it as we got started. I've run this scenario several times, so I won't recap the plot. But one of the more interesting events was when a player VOLUNTEERED to roll a fear check although it was unnecessary. Although he had encountered the thing before, he felt he was still shaken enough to merit the check. So I allowed it, he failed HORRIBLY, then ran screaming in a random direction, directly AT the thing that freaked him out. Another player opened fire on the thing to save his partner, and managed to accidentally SHOOT said partner in the leg, dropping him at the feet of the thing, which moved in to attack. Wow, THAT was an intense encounter. (They also learned that if you shoot a backpack filled with grenades, it'll make short work of everything without 100 feet.)
• When we ended the game, I had several new Action Table converts. One had won one of the Cryptworld game packages and was eager to learn how to play. He had a great time, in spite of being shot in the leg. (Yup, same guy.) The other players also enjoyed the game, with one wishing to know more about Majus. More Pacesetter converts join the fray!
• After the game ended, it was going on around 7 p.m. Stopped by the dining hall to grab a quick bite and came back to my room to relax for a bit and hammer out this blog post. I had plans to drop back and play a boardgame or something, but I think I'll hit the sheets early tonight to get up early tomorrow to prepare for the roadtrip back to Ohio. I'll stop by in the morning to say my goodbyes, play a quick game, and head out. So it's likely that this will be my final post direct from Scarefest. I'd like to thank the organizers for a great time, and I had an absolute blast gettin' my gaming scares going!

And here are a few final photos from Scarefest....

The board game selection was pretty amazing. No time to check it out today, but may find time tomorrow morning before heading out.

The Dead Character Graveyard, where players were encouraged to tack up the character sheets or a memorial page for the PC who died during the event. My Dread character from yesterday is in the upper left corner.

Our team of DCC players as we settle in to confront The Shambling Dead.

 By the time the game ended, we had FILLED that Dead Character Graveyard with more than 40 0-level funnel characters. It was a slaughter.

 And the winner of the tourney made it through four encounters without dying. Yes, living through four consecutive encounters was enough to take home the trophy!

Just thought this photo of the mountains from the inn was pretty amazing. Gorgeous location.