The current scenario I am running will finish roughly a third of the way through our next session and I intend to run it straight into a short action scenario based around the Vile Savants of DOTDG. I am looking for two pieces of advice.

1)The short scenario is going to be a very cliched zombie survivor story

• The ship they are travelling on rersponds to a distress signal from a Promethian Ore mining and processing facility/colony. The PC's investigate
• The landing bay is deserted. Some signs of violence encountered accompanied by the subtle drone of flies
• The PC's are ambushed and then saved by the few survivors
• The survivors take the PC's to their 'safehouse' to explain what happened. Forty three hours ago a miner by the name of Lancer, in a fit of depression murdered his wife and then tried to kill himself. Although he was saved, for unknown reasons, perhaps linked to the moons location, this dark act opened a link to the warp and infected Lancer with the Fydae Strain. Currently 95% of the 310 population are dead or infected. The survivors have a capture zombie and Lancer in seperate isolation cells. Two hours ago a Vile Savant appeared. When the PC's arrived the Savant was in the medicae facility preparing transport vessels. When the plague is played out he intends on launching contaminated samples at the neighbouring planet. The final piece of information the survivors will impart is showing the PC's a vid feed of the docking bay, now surrounded by zombies and the Savant
• Ammo and food is low

The advice I am looking for is any zombie cliches you think of that I could incorporate. Any ideas?

2) The second problem is a bit more serious. If ran to the letter of the law, the virus could lead to a lott of dead PC's, or worse.

1. Anyone used fate points burning to save a PC from the virus? How did you play it out?
2. Has anyone used the zombies/virus and been able to threaten the PC's with contamination without making it too obvious that they are being protected?

Thanks in advance. Antony

If there is a cleric or a sororitas character in your group you could drop them hints of the daemonic nature of the plague they could 'bless' the group, effectively protecting them for a random time limit (for added effect roll secretly). If a player says or does anything blasphemous you could take the protection away Mwahahaha!

Remember certain skills & talents make a character immune or resistent to the fydae strain.

Of course if you don't have these characters or anyone with these skills & talents this advice is useless, sorry

Cliches:

An npc is infected with the virus but does not let anyone know - he is important to their escape plan and will turn at the most inopportune moment.

The zombies, naturally, can only be killed by a shot to the head.

The zombies may act out the roles they had in life, poor mockeries of who they once were.

The zombies tend to moan and stumble about, but when necessary they seemingly move in absolute silence.

A gun jams when the character is surrounded and he must find a way out quickly.

The character is trapped in a room alone and isn't certain if anyone else still lives, he has one bullet left and the zombies are knocking down the door.

One of the survivors has control of the last stores, but will not give them up and has one of the only good weapons to defend himself.

Zombies always attack en mass if they can.

There is, of course, always one zombie left at the end, in the cockpit of the ship, the generator room, whathaveyou, who sneaks up on the player when he thinks himself safe.

The survivors are extremely paranoid, willing to toss anyone out to the zombies if given the slightest reason.

Tricks:

The zombies shuffle most of the time, but can sprint up to fifteen feet at incredible speeds, this should be a surprise for pcs expecting the usual cliches.

The zombies can jump great distances, or climb near shear surfaces.

The zombies may bury themselves under the ground and spring up when they sense someone near.

The zombies explode when killed. (possibly infecting those within ten feet)

The vulnerable spot is not the head but the heart, or they must be dismembered to be stopped.

There is a cleric in the mine, but he is secretly a heretic who can control a few of the zombies ... at first he makes them go away, but keeps them in reserve for later.

The constant moaning may make it difficult for a psyker to focus her powers - perhaps they behave as untouchables.

As for the rest, I would allow the burning of a fate point to survive the disease, though I'd have the pcs become ill, get the shakes, and suffer an insatiable hunger for a number of hours ... perhaps even have him occasionally hear intelligable words in the zombie moans ... as if their were still some vestige of their humanity left.

Next, make them feel as though they are absolutely not being protected. Have the creatures move slowly at a distance, so they can evade them for awhile, but when it comes time for combat, make it feel serious, stress the danger of even a scratch and have the pcs make rolls to avoid contracting the virus. Anyone who is struck, despite their rolls, becomes ill and feels sluggish ... they may begin walking in their sleep, having nightmares and even attacking others while asleep. (this, of course, assumes you give them some time to sleep and suffer those effects while on planet ... though having one of them suffer the effects once they've left could be fun) Make the creatures seem inhumanly strong, stress the point that they can push their bodies beyond mortal limits because they don't recognize pain. (severe damage means nothing, they'll beat their fists into pulp against body armor, they can lift extreme weights, etc.) If they are protected, the protection is subtle - keeping them from contracting the full disease, but allowing them to suffer the initial onset symptoms.

I'm not completely familiar with the Fydae Strain, but I ran a one off plague zombie type game with a squad of Imperial Guard. By the end of it five of the six players had turned, with the remaing guardsman (Who'd some how managed to miss the 95% chance of infection each turn) performing a last stand atop a burn out Rhino, surrounded by several had stacks worth of zombies. So in my experience unless the group are very well prepared, cautious and have the right equipment with them, I'd expect at least one fatality... Also, because it was just a one off when a player did die and become zombified I allowed them to keep playing; most of the got into the role of being one of the living dead pretty easy (appart from the psyker who turned mid-Wall Walk and fell to his death)

Erm, also remeber that gunshots and other loud noises could possibly attract more zombies:

"Whats that? The only way out of this place is to get these mining valut doors open? But doesn't that mean we'll need to get this extreamly noisey generator working?"

Another idea might be for the Acolytes to enter into a large pitch-black cargo-hold, only to find that when they turn the lights on there are several of the infected standing in the room with them.

You could try to lull them into a false sence of security. ie The group hear strange noises for a room, build up the tension until they open the door, at which point a small cat or something jumps out and runs off down the hallway. Give the PCs a few moments of peace before having a zombie swing round from the side of the door and grapple the nearest player?

As for fate points, I'd definatly allow them to be burn/spent to avoid catching the virus, I'd even be tempted to give the survivors a Fate point after the mission and maybe even an elite advance of Resitance or something, then again I don't know much about the Fydae Strain to know if that would work or not.

I hope some of these ideas can help you out a little