"Heartbreak Hotel" is the eleventh mission of Season 9.
Skull Kicker has a special way of collecting debts.
Cast[]
Plot[]
Time is of the Essence[]
You've been sent on a mission from Skull Kicker to repay your debt, and she's keeping Janine and Maryam as her 'guests' in the meantime. Skull Kicker wants you to kill the chief of a nearby ksar and bring back a pendant as proof. Veronica is working on a way to retrieve the pendant without killing anyone, but you'll have to move fast.
Up the Stairs[]
You take a look over the ksar from the ramparts, and Mo points out that it must have been a fancy resort hotel at one point. You hear a zombie scream from within. Peter suggests just telling Skull-Kicker that everyone is now a zombie, but Mo insists that won't work and will get Janine and Maryam killed.
Not So Lucky[]
You make it into the hotel, and realise that the zombie noises you heard are actually goats, just in time to be surrounded by people carrying guns, including the person you were sent to kill. This isn't part of the plan. Run!
Letter to the Brain[]
The guards are chasing you and they know the area better. Also, they have guns. Frances saw the pendant; it looks like a hotel keycard. Veronica drops a plan into Sam's head. Follow him!
No Objections[]
Veronica tells you that Zidane is going to show up alone in the next fifteen seconds, and when she does, you need to grab her. You manage to capture her, and Veronica points out that despite knowing the place well, none of her people shot them. They don't have any ammo. Zidane tells you to take what you want and leave her people alone. However, she can't give up her pendant; it's the master key to the hotel. There was another key, but the owner became a zombie and is locked in the underground suites. Still, no-one is put off by a little danger!
Unbroken Ladder[]
The roof of the underground suites collapsed, so now it's open to the sky, and only good for a zombie prison. Sam and Frances will keep watch from above while you and Peter head down. The ladder breaks partway down, but Peter's scream attracted the zombies, including the one you want! Frances tells you to lure the zombie over and then she'll drop a statue on top of it. You manage to grab the keycard necklace, but there are more zoms after you. Lots more zoms.
Silver Sands[]
You make it up the ladder with seconds to spare, and the zombies are still trapped underground. Zidane tells you that the keycard opens a lot of doors in Tunisia; the hotel was part of a chain. No wonder Skull Kicker wants it! Veronica says it would be useful to you to keep the key, so maybe there's a way to win it back from Skull Kicker.
S09E11 // Rofflenet[]
Discussion regarding this mission can be found on Rofflenet
Transcript[]
[crickets chirp]
PETER LYNNE: [sighs] You see, this is majestic. It’s the moon rising and the velvet blue of dusk, the sand dunes rippled like… Well, I guess actually a bit like the muscles of the horrifying beef jerky zombies underneath it.
SAM YAO: Yeah, and I’d rather not be looking at it while we’re chasing down an innocent woman for Skull-Kicker.
PETER LYNNE: Well, you know the old saying. If you don’t want to chase down an innocent woman in order to appease a violent crime boss, don’t let Janine get off her face and burn the boss’s home to the ground!
FRANCES DEMPSEY: Is that a saying? No, right. Sorry. Obviously. Last time I drink delicious, head-spinning tea. Anyway, are we sure this is what Skull-Kicker wanted? We haven’t even met her, we just got passed the message by one of her hench-people. This could be someone else’s vendetta.
MOHAMMED BOUJETTIF: Very few have met Skull-Kicker. She operates from the shadows, but her decrees are not to be taken lightly.
PETER LYNNE: Besides, she’s letting us off easy, considering the damage we caused.
MOHAMMED BOUJETTIF: You are aware when she says she’s holding Janine and Maryam as her guests, they’re not actually guests?
SAM YAO: Yeah, we know.
MOHAMMED BOUJETTIF: Skull-Kicker has sent us after the chief of the ksar at the top of the next hill. That walled sandstone city, castle of the desert guarding the sky.
FRANCES DEMPSEY: Right. Skull-Kicker sent us to kill her and take the pendant from her neck as evidence or she’ll kill Janine or Maryam. But we’re not really going to do that, are we?
VERONICA MCSHELL: I am working on a way to retrieve the pendant without killing its current owner.
PETER LYNNE: Oh! Hello, Veronica. I do keep forgetting you’re in Sam’s head. How’s the voice synthesizer working out? Worth us cannibalizing that boom box for?
FRANCES DEMPSEY: What’s a boom box?
PETER LYNNE: Oh hush, you.
VERONICA MCSHELL: I no longer need to devote processing power to manipulating Sam’s vocal cords, but I’d work faster still if he’d stop devoting so much of his neural cortex to worrying about our friends or remembering obscure Star Wars references. For now, all I’ve been able to compute is that time is of the essence. We must run.
~
FRANCES DEMPSEY: Wow, the view from the ramparts of this ksar is incredible. The interiors of all the courtyards are covered in gorgeous blue-green tiles.
MOHAMMED BOUJETTIF: It is magnificent, but I think this is not a normal ksar. Look, there is a sign on the wall. Silver Sands Retreat. This must have been a hotel once.
FRANCES DEMPSEY: Wow. Yeah, a posh one. Look, there’s a huge abandoned swimming pool half-filled with sand.
[zombies growl and scream]
PETER LYNNE: Oh, great. That’s definitely not someone trying to call room service. Look, if we’re trying to find the chief of this place and it’s full of zombies, can’t we just, I don’t know, go back? You know, tell Skull-Kicker her rival or whatever is dead? I mean, she probably is dead, right? You all heard the horrific zombie screams.
MOHAMMED BOUJETTIF: Skull-Kicker was very clear. She wants the pendant from around the chief’s neck, “or your friends will sleep the sleep of stone and flame.”
SAM YAO: We did try explaining that Maryam wasn’t really anything to do with us, just got caught up in it all, but Skull-Kicker wasn’t having it. Poor Maryam. Bet she’s sorry she ever took Amelia’s call.
VERONICA MCSHELL: Shh, everyone. If you’re all quiet and I boost Sam’s auditory capacity just a little, I can find out how many people are here and whether anyone is still alive. We need to head west now, up those stairs.
~
[zombies growl and scream]
PETER LYNNE: All right, Sam-ronica, we’ve reached another great view. Desert dunes, cold unforgiving starry desert sky, etc etc. But we are also further into this death hotel full of zombies.
SAM YAO: No no, listen. Oh wow, Veronica’s done something to my ears that’s, well… can’t you hear, now we’re up here?
MOHAMMED BOUJETTIF: Yes, I know those screams. Those aren’t zombies, they’re goats. [goats bleat] I see them tethered next to the old tennis courts. Someone has used them to make it seem this place is filled with zombies.
PETER LYNNE: That’s what goats sound like? All my picture books lied to me.
ZIDANE: Apparently so.
PETER LYNNE: Oh. Um… Hi, 15 people holding guns who stepped from the shadows and now are surrounding us. You’re probably friendly, right? Veronica? V? Veron-inator? Tell me this bit is part of the plan.
VERONICA MCSHELL: I… Who are you?
ZIDANE: I am Chief Concierge Zidane.
FRANCES DEMPSEY: Chief Concierge? Right.
ZIDANE: These are my staff members and honored guests. Skull-Kicker sent you to kill me.
FRANCES DEMPSEY: Is this one of those situations where honesty is the best policy?
ZIDANE: She has sent so many people. Most of them were scared off by the screams. They were lucky; they survived. You will not be so lucky.
VERONICA MCSHELL: This isn’t part of the plan. Down the stairs. Run!
STAFF MEMBER 1: Stop them!
STAFF MEMBER 2: Don’t let them get away!
~
[hotel staff members shout commands]
FRANCES DEMPSEY: All right, they know this place better than we do. They have guns. They have… goats. Okay, that’s not their major advantage. But I saw the pendant around Zidane’s neck. It looked kind of like a fancy hotel key card. We’re not going to be able to get it without killing her.
PETER LYNNE: And we’re not going to be able to kill her. Which we don’t want to do anyway, obviously.
MOHAMMED BOUJETTIF: And yet if we don’t bring Skull-Kicker that pendant, she’ll murder our friends and then us.
SAM YAO: Oh! Wow. I’ve got a plan. Was that you, Veronica? Oh, that feels really weird, like someone just posted a letter into my brain. Right, we need to go left, right, then second left. Fast as we can, come on.
~
FRANCES DEMPSEY: Are you sure this is right, Sam? We’re just next to the hotel outdoor grill, and -
SAM YAO: Yeah. Chief Concierge Zidane is going to come this way alone in the next 15 seconds. Peter, Five, when she comes along that passage, grab her. Take her gun.
PETER LYNNE: But Five -
VERONICA MCSHELL: Just do it. Now!
ZIDANE: Let me go! At one call from me, all my people will attack and kill you.
VERONICA MCSHELL: Except they won’t. Your guns have no rounds. Five, check the chamber.
MOHAMMED BOUJETTIF: She’s right. My God.
VERONICA MCSHELL: If you could have killed us, you would have done it without confronting us. Frances is right, you know this place like the backs of your hands. You could have sniped us easily.
ZIDANE: Whatever it is you want, take it and go. Leave my staff and my guests and I in peace. We have had enough from Skull-Kicker.
SAM YAO: We-we are sorry. We didn’t mean to scare you. We’re not going to harm you. All we need from you is that ceremonial pendant around your neck and we’ll be on our way.
ZIDANE: There’s nothing ceremonial about it. It’s the master key. I can’t give it to you. It operates every door and system on this property. It’s the only way we can all come and go freely without becoming easy prey.
PETER LYNNE: There’s no copy anywhere?
ZIDANE: Not anymore. The general manager Zaynab and I both had one, but -
PETER LYNNE: Let me guess, she’s a zombie now.
ZIDANE: It was horrible. We had to trap her with some other zombies in the underground suites on the other side of the property.
MOHAMMED BOUJETTIF: So we could go there and take her key. What is she wearing?
ZIDANE: Tan suit with pink handkerchief. But it’s too dangerous!
FRANCES DEMPSEY: Anyone here put off by a bit of danger?
PETER LYNNE: No objection, even from the people who can’t regrow their limbs. Right. Come on, Five, into the breach. Quicker we’re there, quicker it’s done.
~
FRANCES DEMPSEY: Wow, underground suites! It’s a whole ‘nother world down there.
ZIDANE: Or at least, it was until the cavern roof collapsed. Now the complex is open to the sky. A zombie prison is all it’s good for now.
SAM YAO: Shame. It looks like it was nice. Houses carved right out of the rock, like a human-sized honeycomb.
PETER LYNNE: Complete with human-sized zombies, and no way out except some rickety ladders. No way to see around those tight corners, either.
VERONICA MCSHELL: I’ll have to direct you from above. Frances and Mo, keep watch from up here for the zombie in the tan suit. Peter and Five, down the hole.
PETER LYNNE: Yeah… think we both saw that coming. Five, would you care to join me on a trip down the incredibly rickety ladder? [ladder creaks] Honestly, not even made it to Red Scorpion base yet and look how much trouble we’re in. I can’t wait until we actually find Van Ark! I’m sure he’ll have no end of treats in store for us.
Look, we’re halfway down and I can already hear zombies around us. Plus, must say that the manufacture of this ladder doesn’t – Oh, no no no no no no no no! [ladder cracks, PETER screams and groans] Okay, so the ladder collapsed. Don’t worry, Five, I broke your fall with my collarbone.
SAM YAO: Peter, do that again!
PETER LYNNE: What, complain?
SAM YAO: No, scream! Some of the zombies started to head towards you when they heard it. Try it again!
[PETER screams]
FRANCES DEMPSEY: It worked! A zombie in a tan suit and a pink bandana is coming out of that house. Peter, Five, it’s headed your way.
PETER LYNNE: Oh, are we supposed to just ask it nicely for the key?
FRANCES DEMPSEY: Run right, then take the next left. You’ll be right underneath me. When it follows, I’ll drop one of these decorative statues on it. They’re pretty heavy, but if I just push -
PETER LYNNE: Try not to miss. See, I might be able to recover from being smushed by a statue, but Five can’t.
VERONICA MCSHELL: Yes. If Janine were here, she would tell you to be careful. I am 98.3% sure of that.
PETER LYNNE: [laughs] Oh, well, who am I to argue with those numbers? Here, zombie zombie zombie. Fine. [PETER screams]
[zombie splatters]
FRANCES DEMPSEY: Gotcha!
PETER LYNNE: Yes! Well done, Frances! And there is the key, right where Zidane said it would be. Oh, and here comes Zaynab’s friends. Her many, many friends.
MOHAMMED BOUJETTIF: Were there so many of them before?
VERONICA MCSHELL: I’m not sure where this influx of zoms is coming from. Five, Peter, you need to get back up here now. The nearest unbroken ladder is north of you.
FRANCES DEMPSEY: Hurry, run!
~
MOHAMMED BOUJETTIF: Well done. You made it with only seconds to spare, but the zombies will remain trapped in their underground kingdoms. Impressive.
ZIDANE: You were very impressive. You are a formidable team.
FRANCES DEMPSEY: Thank you. And I’m glad we didn’t have to… and you didn’t have to…
ZIDANE: As a token of my gratitude, I want you to know something about the key card you’re carrying.
PETER LYNNE: Go on.
ZIDANE: It controls more than just this hotel. Silver Sands is a Tunisia-wide chain and the card can open doors at any of our sister properties.
MOHAMMED BOUJETTIF: Ah! Refuges fully stocked with food and water.
FRANCES DEMPSEY: So that’s why Skull-Kicker wants the key.
VERONICA MCSHELL: Yes, although if we had it, it would improve our chances in this coming mission. There may be a way to win the key back from her…
SAM YAO: In the meantime, let’s focus on winning our friends back from her. We’re due at the base soon, and I’d rather not face whatever’s there without them.
Codex[]
Letter[]
Hey Five,
Skull Kicker’s henchpeople wouldn’t give me any paper, so I nabbed this from the Silver Sands Retreat. Fancy, right?
Anyway, it’s Sam. And, er, Veronica. Who can read my thoughts before I’ve written them down. Hi Veronica! Please don’t erase my memories of where my secret Abel chocolate stashes are. You know, the ones Amelia didn’t raid? Also, if you could let me keep Sara’s first steps, that would be great.
Five, I wanted to write because I’m worried having Veronica inside my head might change me. It’s not that I don’t trust her (I do, honestly, Veronica!), it’s that this is a pretty unusual situation, and I want to keep track of how I’m feeling. When you’ve got a moment, can we find that arcade game bar again, and chat about it over a game of Street Fighter? With Veronica’s help, I might actually beat you…
Sam

Supplies[]
The following supplies can be found in this mission.
(List may be incomplete.)
Bandages
Baseball Bat
Book
Box of Lightbulbs
DVD
Mobile Phone
Notebook
Playing cards
Sleeping bag
Trousers
Underwear
Base Unlocks[]
The following objects unlock for your Base upon completing this mission.
Recording Studio
- Description: Abel Township's recording studio may have started out in a shed with a couple of cheap microphones, a short-circuiting amp, and a mouse problem, but over time, it's become a proper studio. Eagle-eyed Runners have been able to salvage some pretty impressive equipment over the years, much to the delight of Abel's sound engineers - through there are elements of its humble beginnings that are hard to shake. Turns out, lining the walls with mattresses works a treat to block out the moans of the undead!
- Cost: 60 supplies, 2 materials (level 1); 150 supplies, 3 materials (level 2); 300 supplies, 4 materials (level 3)
- Effect: Increases morale (level 1); increases defence (level 2); increases defence and morale (level 3).
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