Welcome to the eighteenth instalment of the column "Winging It", a column discussing the promises and pitfalls of a more improvisational approach to GM’ing.

Every so often, something so strange happens in real life that you wonder if you have stepped into some sort of Stephen King or H.P. Lovecraft story. Fortunately, if you survive the experience, you can end up turning that experience into an interesting game session, in this case using it to explore one of the contradictions in the backstory of a particular game system.

About ten years ago, I was travelling through Western Canada, along the Trans-Canada Highway. At one point, I was getting a bit concerned about how close I was to the next gas station (this was in Western Saskatchewan, where signs of life can be few and far between). So, spotting a small town just off the highway, I pulled in.

There was no gas station. In fact, beyond a whole lot of boarded-up, abandoned buildings, there really wasn't a whole lot of anything, except one convenience store and an antique shop (!). Overall, the place had the look of something out of one of those nastier chainsaw-based films that used to be all the rage.

It didn't end there. I decided to go into the convenience store, to ask how close I was to a gas station. My travelling companion, who was much smarter than I, elected to remain in the car.

Walking inside, it was as though the store were inhabited entirely by zombies. Old, tattered people, very dusty, shuffled along with their purchases. Not wanting to be impolite, I bought a carton of chocolate milk and inquired of the ancient storekeeper (who I believe to have been pushing three hundred) as to the nearest gas station.

I have never left a town so fast before or since in my entire life. And I'm pretty sure neither of us mustered the nerve to actually drink the milk.

Since then, I've been wanting to incorporate this particular setting into ... something. A story, a game, something.

Now, in the past few months, I had been thinking about a particular piece of the backstory to the Hunter: the Reckoning game wherein one of the Imbued entered a place where the land of the living had been infected (overrun, displaced, however you want to term it) by the land of the dead.

One part of that story that had never sat particularily well with me was the fact that it contradicted one of the more interesting facets of the Imbued – the idea that they were entirely of the "real" world, and could in no way interact (or be particularily effected by) any other reality, dimension, what have you. I suppose I felt there was some sort of missed opportunity there.

With these two ideas in mind, I began playing around with a story idea for my current Hunter campaign.

Now, in a previous session, two Vampire allies of the characters had been forced to flee (by a combination of Vampire Nation politics and the efforts of agents of the Church – in fact, it was quite probable that the two parties had a certain connection regarding these two Vampires), and, while remaining in touch with the player characters, were not permitting their location to be known for the time being.

One of these Vampires, Freeman, had been suffering bizarre compulsions, writing out formulae over stacks and stacks of paper for months now, all in Enochian script (unreadable to the player characters, but somewhat readable to another of their allies), all dealing with crossing over from one "dimension" to another. All this had been a plot created (and encouraged) by a Demon and two of its' Vampire followers, two of the Baali.

Thus, I came up with the idea that Freeman would eventually create some sort of portal, some place to allow the land of the dead to cross over into the land of the living. A place where I could find out what would really happen if any of the Imbued were to walk in an area so mixed-up, and how they could, perhaps by their very existance, stop this portal from spreading.

I began with Izzy and Daniella both having to remain in their shared apartment for a few weeks, as they were both recovering from wounds received in different adventures. Even though they had quite excellent healing abilities, those wounds were so greivous as to require several weeks of recuperation.

During this time, they checked into the status of several other ongoing sub-plots (the continuing story of what was happening with the young boy, Michael, and the attempts by the Government to deal with his past crimes; the shadowy dealings of Devon; and a variety of other small sub-plots I could introduce randomly through hunter.net). I also figured that the two best ways to introduce the new Freeman plot was via phonecalls (Viv, the other Vampire, calling them periodically to let them know that they were alright) and the prophetic dreams the Imbued suffer from (which dealt with Viv suffering a great deal, plus visions of swarms of shuffling corpses in a dried-up Midwestern town).

The dreams they were sent (by the Messengers, or Heralds – the shadowy, unknowable, and quite often mutually-contradicting "Powers that Be" of the setting) were increasingly disturbing, but still maddeningly vague – eventually, the only clue as to where these event could possibly be taking place were a few sketches they drew while dreaming and the image of highway signs indicating someplace just off the Trans-Canada Highway. In Saskatchewan.

By the time the two characters were healed enough to actually attempt any sort of real journeying, the dreams were intense enough that they felt they had to intervene somehow – they found that it was getting harder and harder to reach Viv (her cell phone signal was increasingly weaker as the weeks went by, and she refused to let the player characters know where she was).

With the third player character unavailable for this journey (as that player was not at this session), Izzy attempted to contact her newest ally, Adam (a Corax, or were-raven), hoping that he may be able to assist them in some manner.

Because of this (and my decision to allow him to accompany them, even though I had a particular idea in mind as to why he wouldn’t be able to actually affect the outcome of the session), the three characters ended up having a rather spirited discussion over the course of the drive into Saskatchewan as to the untrustworthy nature of Vampires, and why he felt that the two of them should not regard any of the Undead as allies. It was an interesting (and off-the-cuff) way to introduce a small portion of the Corax world-view (and religious philosophy) into the game, without getting bogged down in the minutae of politics of different game systems. For over forty minutes of real time, the two players and I (all in character) debated the value of animal-spirits in human form (seeing themselves as protectors of the real world in a way similar to the Imbued, if going about it in a different manner) versus the animated dead (regarded by most shape-changing cultures as entirely anathema to the "way things should be"), and why one supernatural group could be percieved, at least by its’ own members, as being "better" than another. In many ways, this unintended debate became the highlight of the entire session (probably because all the players were really into it, none of them being bored by the clash of philosophies – in much the same manner as the discussion between Izzy and Adam had been in the previous session, discussed in my previous column).

After two days of travel (remaining overnight at a motel, where they talked briefly with truck drivers about how the weather was consistantly overcast and stormy further into Saskatchewan), they came to the spot on the highway that they recognized from their dreams. The sky was filled (to the eyes of the imbued and the heightened senses of the Corax) with the spirits of the dead, all caught in some sort of storm that centred itself in a town just off the highway.

Adam, however, recognized the way that the lands of the living and the dead were overlapping within the town itself, and that, being an animal-spirit made flesh, he would not be able to approach. At the very least, he would be ripped apart by the competing forces – at the worst, the walls between all realities may collapse at an even more alarming rate.

Leaving their companion on the side of the road, Izzy and Daniella drove down to the town. Their Second Sight revealed not only the presence of countless ghosts and spirits of the dead flowing and rushing around, but also dozens of zombies shuffling about, all seemingly going about everyday duties. Some appeared to be purchasing goods in a convenience store, some were working in their gardens, others were looking at antiques, all fairly mundane activities. They also saw, however, what looked to them (and their enhanced senses) to be a Vampire sitting in a second-story window of a run down hotel. This seems incredibly odd, as it is the middle of the day – however, the unnatural storm seems to be keeping the sun away.

Driving around, they recognized one particular machine shed that had featured prominently in their dreams, where scenes of torture (in particular, that of Viv being tortured) had taken place. Stopping, they stepped out of the car.

Immediately, they both noticed that, wherever they stood, they seemed to leave footprints. Indeed, it became obvious that most of the colour of the town had been leeched out due to the overlapping of realities, but where they stood, the colour returned. They could even feel that the steady rain (a greasy, viscous fluid that seemed to have flakes of human skin imbedded in it) that fell did not actually touch them, but seemed to evaporate all around them.

Entering the shed, they recognized that several zombies had been torn apart and were hanging from the rafters, all still animate. The walls and floor were covered in the same sort of Enochian symbols that they had seen in much of Freeman's writing, as well as in the blood spatters of a previous adventure (involving a Mummy being tortured by a group of Hunters).

Investigating further, they could hear shuffling and moaning from behind some farm machinery. Here, more zombies came lurching out toward them.

Exiting the shed, they discovered that all the zombies in the town (about two hundred or so) were now pursuing them, albeit rather slowly. Between the crushing hordes of the animated corpses, they both ran toward the hotel where they had seen the Vampire, even though they began to be fired upon by a sniper rifle.

Running around inside, the place gets caught on fire (that's the Vampire trying to cover his tracks, but the players don’t know that), eventually, being continually pursued by zombies (some of them on fire), they wind up in the church in the centre of town.

Which, of course, is where all the cool stuff is really happening.

In the centre of the (now wrecked) church sits Freeman, naked and surrounded by blood and mystical energy symbols. He is chanting, writing more of these symbols, with the rift between worlds opening deeper and deeper.

Surrounding him are the wrecked remains of pews, altars, and any and all holy symbols, now desecrated and virtually unrecognizable. Sitting on one of the few intact pews, however, is a horrified-looking Viv...

...and Johnny, the Demon from several sessions ago.

Sara, Daniella's player, is extremely surprised at this, as she had thought she had killed or destroyed Johnny during her trip to Las Vegas. Of course, that had been a coma-induced dream...

Johnny, smiling, obviously feeling smug (apparently unconcerned about how badly things had gone for him during their last encounter), welcomes the Hunters in – not that the hordes of Zombies (and the Vampire with the sniper rifle) blocking the exit would allow them to leave anyway. He explains that the Baali Vampires were his agents, and had recognized that, by Embracing Freeman, they could harness the knowledge and exposure he had in investigating the realms of the dead for the past several decades (again, all from previous adventures the troupe had been on), ultimately leading to this experiment. This was all then the first part of his plan, something about bringing other Demons out of the Abyss or something, crashing two worlds together in a greater bid for power.

Izzy has other ideas. Using her Imbued abilities to sever Johnny’s access to his supernatural gifts (surprising and enraging him beyond all imagining), she allows Daniella the chance to move forward into the centre of the church (creating a very visible "wake" of reality as she moves toward all the mystical energy), where she is able to talk to Freeman. He barely recognizes her, and doesn’t seem to actually realize what it is that he is doing. Taking a wooden stake from her jacket, she plunges it into his heart.

Now, normally, staking a Vampire, in this game system, simply causes it to become paralyzed. This stake, however, had been dipped recently into holy water.

Again, not normally much of a problem for most Vampires. Freeman, however, had been Embraced by those Baali Vampires that were working with Johnny. And the Baali have big problems with holy symbols and artifacts of all types. And, well...

...Freeman explodes.

The church begins to crumble. The mystic energy changes texture, and all the zombies fall. The Baali flees, with Viv chasing it, trying to help her friends.

Unfortunately for the two of them, the change in the mystic energy, and the destruction of Freeman, closes the rift between worlds, and the skies open up, bathing the two battling Vampires in sunlight. They both fall to the ground, now just ashes floating in the wind.

Izzy and Daniella manage to get out of the church with only minor injuries, getting back into the car, and back to the highway. What they miss seeing is that, as the sun becomes brighter, the zombies begin to rot and vanish. Picking up Adam, they manage to return to Winnipeg, hoping (but not believing) that the destruction of the church killed the momentarily-unpowered Johnny and, hopefully, the second (unseen) Baali Vampire.

How much of this was determined by me beforehand? Well, the Shadowland-infected small town was the basis. Freeman creating this had only occurred to me earlier that day (even though I had been playing out his crazy writings for months, I actually didn’t have a plan in mind for what they were). In fact, although I knew that the Baali had Embraced him, I didn’t think about the Demon/Baali connection until a month or so before this game.

As to how the Troupe would win, I had no idea. I figured that, being clever, they would come up with something interesting (and not just an interesting use of their powers, but an interesting overall plan or last- minute decision), at the very least taking advantage of the fact that certain effects of the mystic symbols and energies wouldn’t do anything to them. Such as the fact that, anything living within the town borders would die and become reanimated, doing the bidding of Johnny when required, but otherwise attempting to re-live their previous life.

Part of the real fun, overall, was the descriptions of the town. A very hand thing about using a more-or-less real setting for a game is how easy it is to make the players believe they are really there, even if all the colour is gone and they are being pursued by zombies. And, even though I hadn’t been to this particular unnamed town in a decade, my memories of it were incredibly specific, and I played them up as much as possible.

And, no, I am not going to include the actual name of the town.