Open [Horror/Adventure] The Dead West

Sharkyshark

Just chillin'
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Fortune! Glory! Adventure! The western territories promise all these things and more to the intrepid adventurers and settlers who choose to take the risk to move out to seek their fortune. Families build homesteads, cowboys wrangle their herds, and lone gunslingers drift from town to town, collecting bounties and toeing the line of the law. However, the western territories are not without their risks. Drought, bandits, native attacks...all of these risks weigh heavily on the minds of anybody brave enough to uproot their lives and move out west. However, all of these threats pale in comparison to the tales of the Walking Fever.

Indian Rabies, Walking Fever, Flesh-rot: every other person seems to have their own name for this affliction, but everyone can agree on its deadliness. Officially named Mortui ambulantes by researchers in prestigious east-coast universities, this disease infects the flesh and mind like no other. Transmitted primarily through a bite, the illness manifests as a burning fever that kills patients within days. Within several hours of the victim’s demise, the body begins to move, despite a total lack of respiration or heartbeat. The corpse rises, not as a man, but as a horrible ghoul. These shambling corpses, nicknamed ramblers, seem to be driven solely by a ravenous, overpowering hunger for flesh. They shuffle and stumble after humans and animals, deaf to pleas for mercy and oblivious to any pain or injury. While not fast or agile, they are incessant hunters, and can only be stopped via the destruction of the brain.

Outbreaks of the Walking Fever can wipe out whole regions, leaving empty husks of hastily-evacuated towns in their wake. These abandoned areas are heavily infested by ramblers, which tend to either wander off onto the desert or laze about until they detect a living being. Because of this threat, the US Army has developed a training program for Vulture units, cavalry specializing in exterminating ramblers from settled areas. While the sight of these Vultures with their leather armor, repeating carbines, and long sabers can be a great comfort to settlers and frontiersmen, they are still few and far between, leaving great swaths of heavily-infested land uninhabitable.

In nature, no niche is ever left unexploited for long. These abandoned towns smelled of opportunity for some enterprising daredevils, who sought to liberate them of their abandoned valuables before the Vultures rode through. These looters gather together into Slither Gangs, so called for the stealth in which they sneak past ramblers to seek out their treasures. Of course, this choice of occupation comes with its fair share of hazards, and many Slither Gangs end up either being torn apart and devoured or wandering the very towns they tried to loot, their glassy stares searching for anything with a pulse. Only people with a death wish join a Slither Gang, or so they say.

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Hi! I’m looking for 2-3 players to join a Slither Gang and venture forth out into the infested territories. Heavy horror/adventure themes, so if you like spooky stuff this is the way to go. Looking for excellent writers, I want this to be collaborative storytelling over "text-based D&D" if you get the meaning. If you’re interested in a western zombie adventure, let me know! If I know you on the discord, extra points. Happy hunting!

Logistics:

Third person, past tense

I can be reached most easily via the discord server

Potentially R-rated? Up for debate. 18+, in any case.
 
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