By Charles W. Plemons III (nosferatu@premiernet.net). Edited by Betty D. Plemons. Produced by the Crypt of Nosferatu
This is part of the Zombies! series of supplements that seeks to incorporate various ideas of the walking dead into a form usable in the World of Darkness. Each individual supplement can be used by itself or in conjunction with the rest of the series.
Please visit my web page (http://www.wku.edu/~charles/) for updates of this and other World of Darkness projects.
This may be freely distributed by anyone in any format as long as credit is given to the author but cannot be distributed for profit for any reason.
Herbert convinced his roommate, Dan Cain, to assist him in his work, and they succeedfully brought a corpse back to life. Unfortunately, this creature was insane and attacked the young scientists. During the fray, the dean was killed by the monster. Taking advantage of the opportunity to experiment on a fresh body, Mr. West injected his serum into the corpse of Dean Halsey. Once again, the injection worked, and the dean came back from the dead but was soon locked away by the police, who thought him a lunatic. His colleague, Dr. Hill, examined him and realized that West's theories were true. Dr. Hill decided that he would steal Mr. West's work and take credit for it himself. Outraged, West murdered Dr. Hill by decapitating him with a shovel. After this heinous crime, he injected Dr. Hill's head and torso with his serum. Dr. Hill returned to life, attacked Mr. West, and stole the serum. Dr. Hill planned to create an army of the living dead, as he had discovered a method of controlling the re-animated.
Realizing the threat that Dr. Hill posed, Mr. West tried to stop him. They fought and Mr. West succeeded in injecting Dr. Hill's body with a massive dose of the serum. This overdose caused the body to destroy itself as it violently reacted to all of the fluids. Even without a body, Dr. Hill's head was still conscious; however, the re-animated Dean Halsey caved in the side of the skull, apparently killing Dr. Hill. Unfortunately for Mr. West, he was caught in the death throes of Dr. Hill's body, and he seemed to be killed as well.
By the time the police arrived, many people had died, and a number of the re-animated were roaming around. They were gathered up and were assumed to be insane. The disaster became known as the Miskatonic Massacre.
Dr. West discovered that by lashing, sewing, or otherwise connecting dead body parts, he could create re-animated beings other than full bodied humans. Dr. West began to steal body parts from the hospital where he worked, and his research led him to assemble many bizarre beings. After he would make such a creature, he would bury it in an old crypt to dispose of it.
In short time, Dr. West came up with a plan for designing a superior human being. For this task, he gathered "choice" body parts from the hospital and morgue and assembled them into his idea of a perfect woman. Much like Frankenstein, Dr. West became obsessed with his creation and was determined to complete it at any cost.
Dr. West had entered Dr. Hill's head into a circus sideshow, but unknown to him the head had been found by the police and returned to storage with the rest of the evidence at the Miskatonic Massacre. Still able to control his re-animated fellows, Dr. Hill escaped and brought his zombies to Dr. West's home to seek revenge upon West for turning him into a creature.
Dr. West succeeded in animating his "bride", but she was far from a perfect creature: assembled from dead tissue, she was a hideous mockery of life. After being rejected, she went crazy and attacked everyone in West's laboratory. Finally, in rage, she ripped out her own heart and slowly fell apart. During her rampage, Dr. Hill's minions had invaded West's home and broke into his lab.
Left with a single avenue of escape, West fled to the crypt he had buried his creations in, and they turned upon him. The commotion caused the barrow to collapse. Dr. Cain survived and pulled himself from the rubble along with his girlfriend. However, Hill and West remained trapped. Dr. West is assumed to have perished in the cave-in, while the head of Dr. Hill, still animated, is trapped below the earth.
When injected with the serum, a corpse will re-animate within a few minutes. The corpse ceases to rot and appears to be a functioning human being. The behavior of a re-animated person is largly determined by the amount of time the corpse has been dead. Once a body dies, the brain deteriorates quickly. The sooner a person is revived soon after death, the less the damage.
In general, after four minutes of death, the brain begins to suffer permanent damage. A person brought back from death within four to twelve minutes will suffer the loss of a point in one of his or her mental abilities (randomly determined loss from Perception, Intelligence, or Wits). For each additional minute after 12, another point is randomly lost among mental faculties. No attribute can drop below one point, so if the attribute randomly chosen is already at one, choose again. It is possible for re-animated to be brought back with only one point in all mental attributes.
If a person is revived quickly enough, most mental damage can be avoided. These beings, while technically zombies, are not much different than the people they were in life, but those brought back with significant brain damage are often mindless killing machines. However, becoming a re-animated is an extremely traumatic experience, which often drives those going through it insane. When anyone, no matter how much time has passed, becomes a re-animated, he must roll his Willpower vs. a difficulty of 8. Success prevents the development of a derangement due to the experience. Failure results in a random derangement determined by the Storyteller. If a re-animated botches this roll, he gains a permanent derangement and loses one point from all mental attributes (minimum score of one).
Immortality: Dr. West's serum prevents any further rot from affecting the body. Thus, unless destroyed, anything re-animated will exist forever. They do not require food, air, water, or anything else.
Strength: Unlike a typical zombie, a re-animated has greater strength than a normal human because the serum greatly enhances the physical power of those injected with it. Consider a re-animated being to have an additional point of strength than in life.
When consciousness is revived in body parts, they are able to function with other revived parts attached to them. However, this is rudimentary intelligence at best, and without a brain, such a collection of parts would have only one point in Intelligence, Wits, and Perception. A creature assembled with a brain would be controlled by that brain and have the surviving mental faculties of it (see above).
It is entirely possible that someone could create a zombie re-animated with multiple heads. If this is done, then only one brain will be in control of the rest of the body. The brain of the being with the highest Willpower will be the dominant entity, but any other re-animated brains may spend a point of Willpower to obtain dominance for a scene. Likewise, the controlling brain could spend a point to prevent this.
In theory, there is no limit to the amount of body parts that could be assembled, but they must all be animated at the same time for them to work together. Thus, finding enough fresh tissue for massive creatures may present a problem. In any case, the head should be as fresh as possible to minimize brain damage. These creatures have Health Levels determined by the amount of tissue in their bodies. Use the following table as a guideline for determining how much total Health a re-animated has. This table accounts for the double Health Levels of the re-animated, do not double this total at the end.
| Body Part | Additional Health Levels |
| Arm | 2 |
| Head | 2 |
| Leg | 2 |
| Torso | 4 |
| Parts of Parts* | |
| Foot | 1 |
| Hand | 1 |
* Not cumulative with Arms and Legs.
Kindred: Vampires cannot feed upon the re-animated; the blood is foul and provides no value to the Kindred. If injected with the serum, all of the vampire's physical attributes are cut in half until he or she can purge all the contaminated blood from his system. The blood can still be used to power vampiric abilities, but consider a contaminated blood pool to only contain half the number of points as it should.
A deceased ghoul can be brought back as a re-animated zombie. Unfortunately, all ghoul powers are lost, as they stem from the interaction of vampire blood and living tissue. A dead body will no longer sustain these heightened powers.
Changing Breeds: Any of the Bete can be brought back to life by the serum just like any other living being. This will sever all ties to Gaia and the Umbra, thus all special powers are lost. Re-animated shapeshifters are stuck in breed form, do not regenerate, cannot step sideways, and they do not have access to Gifts. Most Bete will find a way to destroy themselves if they become a zombie.
Mages: A dead mage can be re-animated, but he loses the power of the Awakened. No re-animated can learn or manipulate True Magick. In theory, a re-animated which retains enough mental capacities could learn and use Hedge Magick. It is highly possible that Technomancers or Sons of Ether discover the serum and start making re-animated. In fact, it may be that Dr. Herbert West was one of the Sons of Ether himself.
Wraiths: Of course, wraiths cannot become one of the re-animated. However, once a re-animated truly dies, it is possible for him to become a ghost.
Changelings: If a changeling becomes a re-animated, he is flooded with Banality and forgets his faerie nature. No re-animated can retain changeling powers. Once the re-animated is destroyed, it is possible for the fey nature to be reborn like a normal changeling.
Mummies: A mummy is almost the exact opposite of a re-animated. A mummy cannot become one of these zombies, and a re-animated corpse will not become a mummy if it receives the Spell of Life.
Gypsies: A gypsy is basically a normal human being. If a gypsy becomes one of the re-animated, all powers of gypsy blood are lost.
Fomori: In some cases, it would be difficult to tell a re-animated and a fomor apart. If a fomor becomes re-animated, all physical disabilities remain, but the powers of the possessing Bane are lost. The result is most likely some very disgusting re-animated corpses. Re-animated cannot be possessed by Banes.
Immortals: This is an interesting situation. The only way to kill an Immortal is to decapitate him. As Dr. West has proven, a head and body can be re-animated seperately. There is no reason to assume that a dead Immortal could not be re-animated. However, all powers of the Immortal are lost. Imagine the surprise an Immortal would have when one of his slain foes comes shambling back from the grave for him!