Here’s a look at an unusual place in Amrica for the GM to use as an adventure seed (if you’re a player, please stop reading here). The GM determines its exact location and how the PCs first come to encounter it.
HISTORY
In the days before the Collapse, a group of survivalists, fearing the worst, built themselves a safe haven: a wilderness bunker of the latest modern design, filled with supplies and provisions and sealed against whatever nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons might come their way. It even had its own power source to recirculate and cleanse the air and provide for other necessities.
What it didn’t have was truly smart users. The Collapse came, and everything went well for the survivalists at first. They congratulated them- selves on their foresight and planning... and some even looked forward to the prospect of using their resources to conquer the surrounding countryside when it became safe enough to go outside. But then one of them left accidentally opened a seal. Unnoticed, the open seal let in first radiation, and later biowarfare agents. Already weakened by an unsuspected exposure to unhealthy levels of rads, the survivalists were easy prey for the viruses. They realized what happened, and the last few survivors tried to flee what had become a deathtrap, but it was too late — they only made it a few miles down the road before collapsing and dying.
And so things remained for hundreds of years. Trees and shrubs grew over most of the survivalists’ compound, and the bunker itself was somewhat exposed to the elements. But then a strange family, whose name has long since been forgotten, stum- bled upon the place. The man, his wife, and their two sons had been exiled from their community partly for general disagreeability and partly because they were suspected of several crimes, including theft of food and the killing of a small girl. By sheer luck they recognized the ruined buildings as part of a former compound of some sort... and then they found the bunker, which was still filled with plenty of preserved food, weapons, fuel, and other necessi- ties. It was the lucky break of a lifetime.
The family settled down there, putting in long hours of work to clean the compound, rebuild the house, and learn to use what they’d found. They dis- covered that the generator and ventilation system in the bunker had broken down beyond their abil- ity to repair (since weathering and insects had long ago destroyed the manuals), and some supplies had rotted or spoiled, but for the most part the bunker and its contents were intact. In particular the machine shop, a treasure beyond price, still mostly worked, as did many of the guns they found.
Since that time, the family has grown and expanded, renaming itself Gorren after a weath- ered poster found in one of the bunker’s rooms. With no neighbors nearby and no desire to
102 ■ After The Apocalypse: A Post-Apocalyptic Hero Sourcebook Hero System 5th Edition Revised
mingle with the outside world, it preys on travel- ers, whom is uses as mates for its children and slave labor in its fields. Eventually a victim not broken and “adopted” into the family ends up dead, his body used for fertilizer. At least partly inbred and totally selfish and cruel, the Gorrens are a threat to anyone who comes near them.
LOCATION
The GM can locate the Double-S Ranch wher- ever it suits his campaign. The only requirement is that it’s in a mostly wilderness area, off a secondary road that itself runs off a larger thoroughfare, and that it be fairly near some ruins the Gorrens can scavenge from time to time. It cannot be near any other human habitations; that spoils the isolation (and thus horror) associated with it as an adventure setting.
Structures
Since the early days, the Gorrens have turned the simple survivalist compound around the bunker into a large ranch with several buildings — a main house, a “hands’ quarters” (where slaves are kept chained up at night), a barn, an icehouse (that also conceals the entrance to the bunker), and various other small util- ity structures. The bunker remains the secret heart of the place, known only to the Gorrens themselves (most of their slaves and victims don’t know about it, or know very little). The bunker is their last-ditch refuge and the place they store their most important supplies and treasures.
THE RANCH HOUSE
Although it’s only one story tall, the ranch house is the centerpiece of the ranch, and by far the nicest building in the place — thanks to having the machine shop to work with, the Gorrens have over the years decorated it with carved wooden scroll- work and other touches that make it seem homey and inviting (which it is, to them... and to any PCs who haven’t learned the truth about the place). A broad set of back stairs leads to a covered verandah designed to catch the local breezes; family members often sit and relax there after dinner. The kitchen and dining room are located off the verandah to the right and left, respectively, separate from the house proper to minimize the risk of fire damage.
The double doors on the back of the house open into a hallway that runs the length of the building to the front door, which has two sets of steps leading to a small uncovered porch. Off one side of the main hall is a small hallway with five bedrooms opening off it. Currently only some of the bedrooms are occupied; the others are closed up pending future need. On the other side of the main hall are three rooms: a parlor, a library, and a study. The parlor sees frequent use, but the library has few books and the study is dusty and mostly unused — no one in the current generation of Gorrens is of scholarly bent.
All of the furniture in the house is sturdy. Most of it has been handmade, but well made, by the Gorrens over the years; a few pieces, all obviously having undergone repairs at some point, are origi- nals taken from the bunker.