Mall-O-Ween Manhunt (Kill theM ALL) [HH Winner 2022]

[MadMario]

Prologue



It was October 13... err 31st in B.R. 2,022, and it was a quiet and normal day at the fields near the mall.





People walked slowly, browsing shop windows. It was unusually warm that day.





"13 Bucks for a large coffee? That´s quite a steal!"





A bunch of costumed people headed to the grass field to take photos with the old graveyard as backdrop.





The graveyard itself is a small and quite graveyard. Nothing special. There are not even zombies to be seen. It´s zombie-free. Really. No Zombies at all. Sorry.





Mall Santa™ already had a pop-up-stage in front of the mall, and kids already gathered to hand him their lists of required presents.





In short: All was nice and well at the 'Virtual Eden Mall'.





Until... *SWOOOOOSSSHHHHH!* ...a friggin` large fireball speeded up to the grass fields!





*KER-BLAMMMM!*
The big burning bullet made impact on the field! Some poor kiddies standing too near were instantly incinerated. One guy just got barbecued. Medium rare.





The window fronts of all the stores were broken, and the big sign fell down. All the shop owners came out to look what had happened.





Out of the crater, after the smoke dispersed, the Pumpking himself and his henchmen - the Calabashers - emerged!
"Where is he? I can smell the skeevy scents of cinnamon. SANTA!"





"Right here, Pumpking. What is it this time?"





"I`ve had it, Santa! I´ve told you at least thirteen times you keep the f*ck outta town before my very special holiday is over. Your mere presence ruins all the mood! And I´m sick of telling you all over again. Now there´s consequences."





"Consequences you want? So be it. Just keep these people out of it. This is between you and me."




"OHHHH, I´m sooo sorry old man! If I cared about people´s existence I´d have come with an Uber. Where´s the fun without some collateral damage? Guys, he belongs to me. You go out and have some fun killing people!"






"Not on my watch!" *rrrrrip!*




*cling!*"Someone`s been very naughty. And I´m all out of coal."





"Out of coal? I don´t get it. But that´s gonna be a good fight." *sip*




overview pics








Factions - primary objectives, secondary objectives:

Pumpking - kill Mall Santa™, kill people.

Mall Santa™ - kill Pumpking, defend people.

Calabashers - kill people, kill more people.

People - don´t get killed, run around scared while doing crazy brikwarsy things.

Zombies - do not exist, no really.

Shopowners/Retail workers - defend the mall, kill Pumpking and Calabashers.




*LET´S GO TO THE MALL*

[Cybrandir]

This is going to be epic! A wonderful mall and a zombie free (no guys really) graveyard is all you need

[MadMario]

Turn One



One of the remaining kids charges at the nearest Calabasher, armed with the arms of a fallen fellow.





Unfortunately, the kid can not keep up with the Calabashers` reflexes, and is easily decapitated.





The costumed gang is shocked, and all agree that someone must stop these pumpkin people!





They run to the gun shop, planning to arm themselves for the upcoming battle.





Shark suit guy is the first to arrive...





"Aaaw, Crap!" ...just to notice that he can´t even hold a gun with these fins!





Mall Santa™ also charges onto a Calabasher immediately...





...slashing his arms off in a smooth superhero landing pose.





Thomas Müller: "Well, maybe it´s time for some dribbling action. If I can get behind these pumpkin guys fast enough, they won´t even notice what took them down!"





No sooner said than done.





*swoooosh!*





Turning corners and avoiding obstacles super quickly, Müller manages to get behind the Pumpking in no time...





...but he is so fast that he can´t brake soon enough. He just keeps on speeding onto the graveyard. "Oh, shiiiii..."





*SPLURCH* Oh, man. His run is abruptly stopped by the statue in his way... (feat. critfail)
At least he dribbles his blood on the statue, so dribbling action indeed it was. Man, hopefully a bloody statue on a graveyard doesn´t activate some unholy spirits or something. Good that this graveyard is Zombie-free!





The Calabashers have the mission to kill people...





...so they use their teleporting abilities to get nearer to possible victims.





One appears at the malls` first floor...





...and manages to slay the surprised shopper nearby.





The other appears in the antiques shop...





But bad attack rolls lead to no damage at all.
Shop owner: "May I interest you in something... sharper than this weapon? We have this fine halberd in stock..."





The Pumpking swings his large weapon right at Mall Santa™´s head...





*CLINK!* Mall Santa™ is barely able to parry...





...and has to deal with the knockback.





The sandwich guy suddenly has a brainfartstorm. He runs also in the gun store...





...pulls a sandwich out of the backpack...





...and stuffs it into the nearby rocket launcher.





Well, at least he has some kind of loaded weapon now. So what.


end of turn one

The other civilians / shop owners have not been close enough to trigger the "programs" I´ve scripted.
fleeing, attacking etc. will occur with enemies in range, or as seems fitting.
If you have any special idea what a faction or character should do, let me know. I´ll see what I can do in the few days left.


Overwatch

[MadMario]

Turn Two



Something moves under the grass of the graveyard, near the place where Thomas Müller´s blood soaked the ground.
Must be a mole or something. For it can´t be Zombies. This graveyard is Zombie-free since 1968.





That must be some huge moles there. Mutant moles, propably. Or rats. Lots of rats. Because Zombies it can´t be.





*crackle* Well... forget it.
Zombies: "Graaaah!"





Yeah, okay! It´s Zombies! Loads of them! ARE YOU HAPPY NOW?





Meanwhile, the calabashers continue their manhunt. One charges forward and cuts the last remaining kid in half...





The other moves forward and goes for the Snackbar waiter. Yonder is not amused...





With quick reflexes, he grabs the condiment bottles and spatters the surprised calabasher with mustard and ketchup!





Totally blindsided by this attack, the calabasher trips and falls backwards into the subjacent perfume store.
His fall is dampened by the shop owner whose back he lands on, but several bottles and flasks fall down and break...





...and in no time the whole shop is filled with a mixture of several cross-reacting chemicals, which create an acid foam.





Soon the two poor souls are dissolved to the bones, and the shop becomes an inhabitable nightmare foam party!





Before the last calabasher gets down to another strike, the antiques shop owner grabs one of the artifact masks and puts it on his head...





He is immediately possessed by the spirit of ' MAHTLACTL1-OM3I ' , granting him superhuman strenght and skills.





*SKRONTSCH* - And he tries out his new powers by ripping the calabasher in half easily with bare hands.





Mall Santa™ recovers from the clash and changes strategies.
"Assuming from how you arrived here, you like impacts of large objects, don´t you?"





"Well, maybe I have a present for you after all..."





"Ho, Ho, Throw!"
"Well, sh.."





*BARDONKLES!* - The wingchair hits the Pumpking and breaks into smithereens, under which the Pumpking is buried.
He still has lots of HP, but is disrupted.





The costumed gang is all armed up, and now they head for the newly arrived zombies at the graveyard to take pictures and the lives of the undead. The BrikToks of this year´s party will surely go viral!





The Zombies also catched the eye of sandwich rocket launcher guy. (Wow, this must be the weirdest rhyme I ever made. For now.)





"...eat THIS!"





*pfffffrrrthhthhhhssshhh* *bonk*
"aw crap. a dud sub..."


end of turn two


Overwatch

[MadMario]

Turn Three



Security Chief: "All units, we have a code thirteen at the mall main entrance. Repeat, a code thirteen! Request immediate backup!"





Moments later, several armored police cars turn the corner with skidding wheels and howling sirens! (feat. critical success)





Police Chief: "Okay everyone, I´m only going to say this once: All weapons down, and seize all actions! We will use all force neccessary to repacify the situation. And with 'everyone' I MEAN everyone! You have been warned!"





The police troopers spread out on the road, watching for troublemakers. They all have nervous trigger fingers.





The Pumpking picks himself up, but notices his weapon is broken from the impact.
"Nevermind, I know how to get a new one..."





He uses his dark magic on the remains of the poor children...





...and forms a giant war club out of their bones. a solid children´s tear sits at its top as a gem to focus dark magic. (feat. critical success)





"Bwahahaahaa! Time for PUNISHMENT!"





Despite the warnings of the police force, the armed costume gang heads up to the graveyard and opens fire on the zombies immediately.





But apart from a few good attack rolls on the nearest zombie, most of the gunfire deals no serious damage.





Mall Santa™ picks up his weapons and tries to combine them with some of the barrier chains.





It works quite fine. (feat. success)





*SLASH!* And the first to find out how good these newly forged weapons work is the last of the calabashers, who happened to stand nearby.





The zombies relentlessly move towards the nearest targets, longing for brains, of course.





Two of the costume gang don´t stand a chance and get instantly gnawed on. The others mostly get engaged in close combats with the zombies.





First signs of despair and panic show up, and one of the costume gang decides to drop his weapon and flee!


end of turn three


Overwatch

[MadMario]

Turn Four



"Fire at will!" The police chief doesn´t shilly-shally, and all policemen open fire at the nearest threats.





Most of them hit, some more successfully than others. (here we see the attack rolls of all cops, after failed use rolls were removed, and with added overskill dice)





Shopowners, civilians, zombies... the cops don´t make any difference and shoot at everyone in sight!





Even civilians on the higher floor and MAHTLACTL1-OM3I are targeted by the cops.





And also the costumed gang is not spared. At least they didn´t listen to the warnings...





While all shopowners and civilians are petrified with horror of the police brutality, Shimpū Tokkōtai - the sushi bar owner - comes to a decision. He jumps to the weapon store right beneath...





"Mind if I borrow this, Armsdealer-san? Well, 'borrow' is maybe an exaggeration. It will not come back..."





"...and neither will I. GLORY TO THE MALL! YAAAAAAARGH!"





*KA-BOOM!* Shimpū Tokkōtai jumps down to the road and detonates the high explosive rocket projectile combined with himself. The detonation takes 4 policemen off their feet. Those who survived the explosion are sent flying and killed at impact.





The Pumpking is crazy about testing his new weapon. He charges for an energy blast, aiming at Mall Santa™...





But not only does Mall Santa™ bail out of the fireline, the totally overpowered energy blast also sweeps away a bunch of cops and civilians, and disintegrates a whole store, leaving a burning trail on the field.





The zombies continue their unholy crusade relentlessly and gnaw at everyone in reach. Currently that applies mostly to the armed costume gang, who can do little to nothing against it.





While being 'disarmed' (heh-heh) by a zombie, Pizza-slice-suit-guy goes down heroically by taking a zombie down with him in a final volley.





The acid foam store gets another customer satisfied, after the mullet man falls in there because of knockback.





MAHTLACTL1-OM3I develops some lovecraftian tentacle features, how one would totally expect it from a possessed body. He gives the two cops nearby some high-fivesones in the face, which they surprisingly don´t survive.


end of turn four


Overwatch

[MadMario]

Turn Five



The zombies are done with feasting on the costume gang, and now swarm out in search of more braiiins...





Meanwhile, all the remaining shopkeepers and civilians are in a swivet, with everyone now grabbing weapons or other objects to arm themselves. They all have had it with zombies, pumpkins and police suppression!





"...because if we can't protect the mall, you can be damn well sure we'll avenge it!"





The remaining cops, who have been quickly decimated in numbers, gather around the personnel carrier to form up new.
MAHTLACTL1-OM3I lurks in the back, zombies approach from the side and a mob of armed civilians is up to no good. Things look bad for the peacekeepers.





Instead of firing at him, one cop throws his rifle towards a zombie, leaving the latter visibly confused.





Another cop fires at a zombie, but deals not enough damage.





Yet another cop receives a free body piercing through his lungs. His surprise is great. His pain, too.





The Pumpking notices the zombies approaching his position.
"Aaw, cute. Nice try. But I SAW you guys. hehe"





He swiftly swings the heavy warclub around, slashing all three zombies in half! (feat. critical success)





Mall Santa™ sees his chance, and while the Pumpking is distracted and standing with the back at him, he soars and jumps right at the Pumpking with upraised weapons...





*SKLUNTSH*...just to get stabbed by the Pumpkings´ weapon moments later.
"You fool! I always hold back a response action for that. Didn´t see that coming, huh?"
"This... is... not... over..."





"Oh yeah? But it surely is over your head! Bwahahahaa!"


end of turn five


Overwatch

[MadMario]

Turn Six



Yet another poor civilian gets eaten by a zombie, although he tried hiding behind a tiny tree...





The other zombies take on the remaining cops. One cop gets his head ripped off...





The other gets his rifle kindly returned by the other zombie. But maybe a little too peppy.





The security guard gets attacked from above, but with his excellent response action roll manages to kill snack bar guy mid-air.





He then is knocked out by the mustard bottle hitting him.





On the civilians turn, the toolshop owner leaps onto the police car and swiftly slays the surprised cop standing there.





The last remaining cop panickly drops his weapon and legs it. He gets definitely not paid enough for this.





The remaining people cheer and revel. With the calabashers and the cops gone the mall is safe again. The Pumpking is not interested in them. He got what he wanted.





The Pumpking mounts a chain on Mall Santa™s remains and drags the corpse across the battlefield.
"Move your ass, old man! We`ll see if there´s a nice spot above the chimney for your trophy head."





The barista has a final risky idea. He grabs a full fresh cup and runs straight to the Pumpking.





With a daring leap, barista jumps and pours the hot liquid right into Pumpkings face!
"AAARGH! NOOOO! NOT COFFEE! MY ONLY WEAKNESS!"





The Pumpking slumps down to the ground.
"how... did you... know..."
The Barista is more astonished than relieved and searches for words.
"Umm, it was... just a guess. But I´m glad it wor..."





*SMACK* The Pumpking swiftly grabs the chain from the ground and smashes Mall Santa™s corpse at the barista with might and main. The poor guy never knew what was hitting him.
"Bwahaha! Just kidding, douchebag! I HAVE no weakness!"





"Dammit, you made me break my trophy..."





Meanwhile, with the mall saved, MAHTLACTL1-OM3I takes off the mask, and instantly reconverts into the antiques shopkeeper.
"Did I miss somethi... oh.... What a mess. I´m not going to clean that up for sure!"





Then it gets silent on the battlefield. Only the calming sound of dripping blood sometimes fills the air. And maybe the smell of acid fumes, a little.



The End



final Overwatch of the mess...

[MadMario]

[Scribonius]

Epic.

Gameplay: 5

Photos: 5

Violence: 5 (if I could give this a 6 I would)

Writing: 5

Overall Appeal: 5 Seriously, this was a great entry. Violence all over the place, weird special effects, and a classic holiday throw-down mixed in. 5/5 would read again, and did.

[The PumpKing]

GLORY TO THE PUMPKING!

Gameplay: 4 A great mix of melee and ranged combat. The different stores providing different things for the factions is a super fun mechanic.

Photography: 4 A battle as high quality and well put together as this one is gonna get some more extreme-y judgement when it comes to the photography, in which case it's mostly pretty solid!

VIolence: 5 This is an easy perfect score. Perfect amount of bloodshed, explosions, and mutilation. Almost all the Brikwars staples are present!

Writing: 5 Love the dialogue and funny narration along the way.

Overall Appeal: 5 The Number 13 was cleverly put into the battle in various ways, adding to the mistique of the battle kind of like an urban legend was taking life. Good shit!

[Gorvoslov]

Gameplay: 5
Photography: 5
Violence: 5
Writing: 4.5
Overthirteen Appeal: 4.5

I DID NOT EXPECT ZOMBIES IN THAT GRAVEYARD! WAIT, DOESN'T THAT MAKE A PLOT HOLE FOR EPISODE THIRTEEN OF SEASON THIRTEEN?? Ah well, at least we finally got the true epic confrontation involving a mall and a meteor as we always knew it was going towards.