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[Introduction] [History] [Location] [Game
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The
estate is located in an isolated rural area, a good three hours drive
from the nearest large town. From Belburg, it is half an hour's drive
over winding, unmarked roads, and one and a half cutting across the
fields on foot.
If the campaign is set in Germany,
certain alterations obviously need to be made.
The
estate forms a rectangle, roughly 420 by 550 yards for a total of 24
acres. It is flat except for the hillock on which the manor stands
and the undulating wooded area behind it. The entire estate is ringed
by a pair of ten-foot high, mesh wire fences topped with razor wire.
The mesh continues three feet below ground level. The 18-foot space
between the fences is kept totally clear, even when it passes through
the woods, because this is the route taken by the patrols. Looking
through the mesh at a suitable point reveals the redbrick manor and
brewery across fields dotted with wellheads.
Take note of the season. There is
a lot of difference cover-wise between fully-grown barley and fallow,
between thickly leafed hops trestles and bare wire. During the day,
six zombies work in the fields. From a distance and even through
binoculars, they appear to be normal humans. If observed for a time,
they are never seen to pause, even for so much as a moment. These
zombies attack intruders on sight. An intruder is any living thing
that Elsa has not told them is supposed to be there. A stray dog is
as much a "threat" as a human being.
The road leads to the only gate
through the outer perimeter. Really two gates, each is a frame of
mesh wire on wheels. An intercom and two security cameras feed to
security headquarters in the brewery. Operation is by remote control,
and the two gates can if necessary be operated separately to trap
anything the size of a normal car between them.
In the inner fence of the outer
perimeter, two, small gates give access to the no-man's-land. These
gates are quite well concealed, but known to all occupants of the
estate including the zombies.
The buildings of the estate-the
manor, brewery and workers' quarters-and the Schreibach family plot
are contained in a rough square. This inner perimeter is fenced by
seven-foot high wire mesh, along the top of which runs an alarm
system triggered by blocking an invisible, infrared beam. The beam is
generated in 18-foot segments, each of which is powered independently
via underground cables running along the inner side of the fence. The
alarm sounds at security headquarters, which is the only place from
which the entire system can be shut down. Cutting the power to any
individual segment also triggers the alarm.
There are two gates in the inner
perimeter. The gate on the road is a quite impressive affair of
seven-foot high steel bars; it too opens remotely, operated from
security headquarters, and is also covered by security cameras. The
other gate gives the zombies passage to and from the fields. It is seven-foot
high steel mesh with an electronic lock. This lock is on an
automatic timer for the zombies' dawn and sunset processions. It can
be overridden from security headquarters.
Local
tree varieties grow in wild array, but there are signs of
maintenance. Branches that grew out over the no-man's-land have been
hacked off. There is no undergrowth, climbing vines or large
deadfalls. Walking in this park-like setting might be pleasant were
there birdsong, or any other sign of wildlife.
The inner perimeter is as
described above. Trees growing close to the fence are pruned or
felled. Leaves and falling sticks still set off the alarm on
occasion. For that reason, security cameras are concealed at 20-yard
intervals while the cover lasts.
All the Schreibachs save one lie
in a gully plot close to the back of the house. Simple, weathered
stones rise from the mown grass. This place is very well kept. Many
of the graves are adorned with fresh flowers. A worn, earth path
leads up to the manor.
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The
brewery is a large, two-story building of red brick with a roof of
wooden shingles. From the southwest corner of the roof rises a series
of large, circular chimneys, with another huge chimney towards the
back. At the southeast corner is a small satellite dish. Winches and
barn doors mark the second floor, and deep-set windows can be seen at
ground level. If the Cast Members are downwind, they can smell the
yeast and malt. Close up, it is almost intoxicating. Inside the
building, sun slants through the swirling chaff and steam. Brass
fittings glitter. The slow steps of the workers make faint creaks on
the wooden floorboards. Unfortunately, this is close enough to
realize they are all corpses.
Only certain areas of the brewery
are active at any one time; production occurs in stages. During the
day, six zombies are in the brewery, their distribution depending on
the stage. Some are always be scattered about cleaning, and
maintaining. Like their brethren in the fields, they attack intruders
on sight.
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The
steeping tanks are large, stone vats that are filled from the well
beside them. The barley is chuted into the tanks from the stores
above and left to steep. Next to the tanks, the malting floor is
where the steeped grain is raked out across mats and left to sprout.
The kiln is the base of the huge,
single chimney carrying smoke away from the brick-lined fireplaces in
the walls. The fires dry the sprouted (malted) grain that is spread
on perforated wooden racks in the area. Once dry, the malted grain is
winched upstairs to be aged. Any one fireplace is large enough to
accommodate an adult human and the single chimney could conceivably
be climbed. The wall isolating this section is double brick and the
door has an ordinary lock that is seldom used. The key is hanging in
the office.
The roller mills are also set
below chutes, from which the aged, malted grain is released into
huge, hand-operated wooden grinders. The resultant mash is caught in
wheeled trolleys, which are run across to the mash kettles. This can
be a very dangerous area. Here the mash is boiled in huge, brass
kettles in another set of massive fireplaces; the base of the other
chimneys. These chimneys are also possibly climbable by someone thin.
The "wort," the liquid resulting from the boiling is
strained out into hop kettles where more boiling takes place. Any of
these kettles are large enough to accommodate an adult human. Pipes
from the kettles run down into the brewing tanks in the cellar, but
these are not large enough for anything over the size of a cat to
climb down, even if the filtration grids are removed.
In the loading area, stairs run up
and down to the second floor and the cellar. A floor trapdoor and a
winch are used to raise the kegs up from storage. The trapdoor works,
as do all winches and chutes in the building, by hauling very hard on
a couple of ropes. The two, huge doors stand open during the day, but
are barred and padlocked at night after the zombies have left.
The office is completely sectioned
off by thick, wooden walls. The door is electronically locked with a
keypad on both sides; only Josephine knows the key code. The office
contains an old key rack, a small motorcycle and fuel tins, and a
large metal pipe against one wall that is the cable conduit. The
motorcycle is Josephine's, for use in case of emergency, and she has
the only key. Stairs lead upwards to security
headquarters/Josephine's quarters. At the base of the stairs is an
infrared alarm that sounds above. The stairs are covered by a
concealed security camera.
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The
door to the largest room on the floor, the grain store, has an
ordinary lock that is seldom used. The key is hanging in the office.
The harvested grain and dried hops are brought here via the winches
and kept in bins. Same for the malted grain, brought up from the
kiln. Neat cords of timber, delivered from outside rather than taken
from the estate woods, fill the rest of this area.
The stairs from the office come up
into a small, empty landing. In the wall between it and security
headquarters is a gun slot that can be used to riddle the entire
landing with bullets. The door to security headquarters is deadlocked.
This room is the nerve center for
the entire security operation. Its most notable feature is the
two-wall desk containing the computer system and the monitors for the
security cameras. It also contains monitors for the generator, and a
map of the estate. Josephine keeps a loaded handgun taped to the
underside of the desk. The windows are treated to be one-way,
appearing black from the outside.
Josephine's quarters lead off
security headquarters. They consist of bedroom, sitting room,
kitchen, bathroom and gym, and all stink of cigarettes. She has every
modern convenience, including hot, running water and satellite TV.
All the windows are one-way. The decor tends to bright-three walls of
the sitting room are hot pink, the fourth bright yellow. A board
covered with bloodstained camouflage material hangs on the yellow
wall above a bookshelf, forming a kind of altar. On it is mounted her
military badges, including the insignia of the Duvalier secret
police, and a machete. On the bookshelf, a skull sits cushioned by a
black felt beret. The cammo and blood are hers. The skull is that of
her first kill.
There is a large amount of salt in
Josephine's kitchen and bathroom, most of it in brittle, glass
containers. Most of the guns are in the bedroom.
Also in the bedroom is a secret
door that leads out into the grain store. It is a lightly latched
panel covered by a poster, and Josephine can fling herself through
extremely fast. The door of the bedroom has an ordinary lock.
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The
door to the cellar has an ordinary lock that is seldom used. The key
is hanging in the office. The cellar is lit by electric lights.
The brass brewing tanks dominate
the vaulted hall, dimly lit by ground-level windows. Vats set to the
side contain the yeast plant. Once brewing is complete, the beer is
barreled and placed in the storage area. In the far northeast of the
hallway, next to the brick shaft of the well, is a wooden door that
has been locked from the outside (no keyhole apparent in the cellar).
This is an entrance to the passage leading to the true spring. Elsa
reserves it for her exclusive use.
The generator that supplies
electricity for the security system and Josephine's lifestyle sits
behind a steel door with an electronic lock. The key code is known to
Josephine and a live handyman/electrician (he came to help install
the network and never left). In the further room, behind another,
padlocked steel door are the drums of fuel.
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A
one-story brick building with a shingled roof, it is completely
empty. The zombies return here every evening, which is when and where
Elsa and Josephine inspect them and take them off for either ritual
maintenance or patrol duty. That there is a building at all is simply
pandering to Elsa's delusion.
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