This topic is locked
The Dark and the Dead
There is no sound but the drip-dripping of broken pipes matching the thump-thump of your heartlight. All around you old machines reveal their wires and other technological viscera, rust crawling over them like gangrene on a wound. One of them spits intermittent sparks, the last pumps from its electronic heart, casting smatterings of vivid light around this dank hole. You crawl deeper into the shadows to avoid being caught in the glow, knowing it will reveal you and rob you of your night vision. Down here the light is not your friend. Finally the machine exhausts itself with its own death throes, and those little sparks cool to embers before fading away entirely. And with them goes the last of your hope.
Because now you are surrounded by dead things.
You can hear them shuffling and shambling, groaning and gurgling, a mass of putrescence driven by their dark hunger. You cower in the blackness praying to Mata Nui, to Makuta, to Karzahni himself, praying that they'll pass you by.
But your heart, beating ever faster, knows they won't.
The Facts
It is the dying days of the Toa/Dark Hunter war, The Shadowed One's latest vainglorious attempt to wrest control of Metru Nui. Thanks to Toa Naho and her reinforcements his army is being routed, much to his chagrin. Losing both warriors and ground he decides to employ a weapon he recently acquired from the Brotherhood of Makuta; an artificial plague designed to turn your enemies own bodies against them. Assuming it to be some form of mind-control agent he has several Dark Hunters release the virus high above the city so it can spread across the entire island.
Its worked a little differently than he expected.
Those affected by the plague die swiftly, but that doesn't stop them. They continue to walk, continue to hunt, despite their armour corroding and organics rotting. Worse still, they acted as incubators for the contagion, passing it on to others. With thousands infected by the initial attack, neither side was safe from the swarms of rotters, until the Dark Hunters agreed to withdraw from the island to let the Toa take care of the problem.
Toa on the ground forced the rotters into a location that could be easily locked down; the Coliseum. It had been used to keep the Dark Hunters out for so long that it was easy enough to keep the rotters in using the same defences. Any remounts of the plague in the air were swept up by wind Toa and blown into the Coliseum's arena, where it still hangs in a concentrated mist, a beige haze blanketing the building which unfortunately made it difficult for the Toa to just rain destruction down upon their new enemy. So a stalemate of sorts was reached, the Toa pinning the rotters inside the Coliseum but unable to finish them off. But the problem is contained, and for most Matoran the rebuilding can begin.
You are not one of these Matoran.
You are rather regrettably trapped within the lower levels of the Coliseum. Whether you were barricaded in their during the war or acting as bait to lure the rotters in, you ended up stuck in there when the quarantine fell in place. Your supplies and allies are few, and your enemy is both numerous and very very hungry…
The Location
Ah the under-levels of the Coliseum, the unseen tangle of industry that keeps everything above it running smoothly. Or did, at any rate. Now anything above basement height has become infested with rotters and infused with the airborne contagion. You will die if you go there. Either the rotters will devour you or the fumes will make you one of them. In such a concentrated form it only requires skin contact to begin the process, and no protective suit lasts long when under attack from a ravenous horde of walking corpses. Only the levels deep under the ground are remotely safe.
Prime Access Shaft
A vast series of elevators and stairways running through the centre of the under-levels that allowed the workers to get from top to bottom swiftly and efficiently. When the rotters became pinned in the Coliseum it allowed them to do the same. The survivors were forced to sabotage the access ways to prevent the rotters easily spreading. Since this also keep them trapped they have to find or create temporary routes to higher levels.
As a general rule of thumb it is unwise to go above level M as the rotters infest those levels heavily, and downright suicidal to venture to the top five levels as the fumes will get you.
Station
There used to be a feeding station-smaller versions of the one in Ga-Metru-on every floor of the under-levels but the battle to contain the rotters damaged most of them. The one on floor U is one of the last remaining and acts as a gathering point and meeting place for the surviving Matoran. The problem is thats its beginning to fail, succumbing to the damage. A charge that should last for a year now only lasts for a few days, meaning regular trips have become a necessity. And since frequent gatherings of Matoran mean regular attacks from the rotters, the whole station has been fortified as best it can be. Station U is one of the few places that could be considered safe, even if thats a relative term these days.
Storage
This storage room was never used, lying as it does right at the bottom of the building, and was empty when the survivors found it. Nowadays Storage Z is used to keep useful stuff the survivors manage to scavenge, so is littered with the broken carcasses of vehicles and machinery, crates of gathered lightstones, spare Kanohi and rusted up tools. It has become part machine shop and part infirmary.
Station
A terrible prophecy of what will eventually happen to Station U, this station failed not long after the initial swarming of the rotters. It is, however, the highest point the survivors managed to set up defences in, so Station S is a good resting place for those scavenging in the infested upper levels.
Abandoned Tunnel
On Level V an attempt was made to try and reach the outside world and escape the Coliseum by tunnelling through to the Archives. It was decided however, that breaching the quarantine might let both the rotters and the plague into the Archives were it could fester potentially forever. So all work on extended the tunnel was forcefully stopped. It almost drove a schism between the survivors then and continues to be divisive even now.
The Enemy
The creatures created by the plague have been dubbed 'rotters' by the survivors in the Coliseum. It makes them sound less of a person and slightly comical, which makes it easier to psychologically deal with when there a horde of them chasing you for your delicious flesh. They can be any species, but all share one thing: they're dead. So they don't feel pain. Or weariness. Or compassion. Just endless yearning hunger for living matter, armour or organics. It seems to sustain them and hold the rotting that gives them their name at bay.
After many attempts at finding weaknesses it has been concluded they don't seem to have one. They appear to hunt during smell and hearing so aren't hampered by their eyes rotting away, they can push their muscles beyond normal limits so they're far stronger than any Matoran, decapitation just annoys them…your best option is to run and hope you can stay ahead of something that can sniff you out of any hiding place and will never ever get tired.
Profiles
Name:
Tribe:
Gender:
Appearance:
Tools:
Personality:
History:
Name:- No canon names, please, and try to keep it Bionicle-y.
Tribe:- While you can't be anything but a Matoran, you can choose whichever kind of Matoran you like, from the classics like Fire to newer ones like Psionics or even a custom tribe not seen before. Oh, and no, I'm afraid you can't be one of the zombies.
Gender:- Kind of obvious. Swaying from canon though, you can be any gender from any tribe, so a female Ta-Matoran or male Ga-Matoran etc.
Appearance:- Include details like what shape Kanohi they wear, which Matoran body type they have, coloration and so on.
Tools:- Most equipment is scavenged and often run down. Try to keep it as stuff you would realistically find in what is essentially a giant janitor's closet, albeit a Matoran janitor
Personality:- Rather self-explanatory. Try to give a bit of detail not just a couple of words.
History:- Their backstory, what they did before being trapped, how they came to be there etc.
Note, there is currently no limit on how many characters you have, but try not to bite off more than you can chew
Rules
- Obviously regular BZP rules apply.
- Do not god-mode. This includes pulling super attacks from nowhere, killing enemy NPCs by the dozens, or going all deus ex machine. If you see someone god-mode just tell a staff, don't god-mode back at them.
- Do not control another player's character without their permission. Don't go killing them without permission either.
- This is a Text-Based RPG, so to join in you post what is basically a miniature story for what is currently happening to your character. You use IC to denote when you are posting In Character and OOC to denote when you're Out Of Character. For example:
- IC: NewMatoran placed his back against the door, wedging it shut against the horde on the other side.
- OOC: Could I get a little help here?
- Try to keep a fair standard of spelling and grammar, since other people need to understand what you're writing.
- Try to keep things as realistic as is possible in an RPG about biomechanical beings fighting zombies. No silliness like a guy tickling his enemies to death.
A Thanks
To you, the RPing community, who make it possible for me to foist these ideas of mine on you like the snake-oil salesman that I am.
Edited by Lord of Adders Black, Oct 05 2012 - 10:33 AM.
