Zombie Cure
Description
The Council of Loathing has somehow created A Temporal Rift that will send you 28 days into the future where the entire population of the Kingdom has been transformed into zombies by The Gray Plague. They want you to return with a zombie pineal gland so they can create a vaccine for The Gray Plague once and for all. See Doc Galaktik's Quest for a Cure for more details.
Tasks
Collect one or more Zombie Pineal Gland from any 28 Days Later monster and bring it to Doc Galaktik. He will create a loaded serum blowgun, which can be used to cure you or someone else. After that, you will have an empty blowgun.
Rewards
Text
On initial visit and subsequent visits:
Ah, good, just the Adventurer we wanted to see. We expect that, by now, you've noticed all the temporal rifts popping up around the Kingdom. Well, in our historical archive, we found an old medical journal dating back to the Cola Wars. Apparently, many soldiers on both sides of the war were infected by a mysterious plague, contracted from some of the many unexpected reinforcements that joined the two armies during the battle for the Nearby Plains. The symptoms described sound eerily similar to the plague that's been infecting our population in the present time.
The bad news is: the journal says that, left uncured, the Gray Plague turns those infected with it into mindless, slavering zombies. The good news is: the military doctors were able to formulate a vaccine for the Gray Plague. The other bad news is: the primary ingredient for the cure is a certain gland found in the heads of the aforementioned zombies.
However, we've been able to come up with a solution. Don't ask how, but we've managed to create a rift that leads to a temporal location of our choosing, to wit: the Seaside Town, 28 days from now, after the entire population of the Kingdom has transformed into zombies. We need you to travel there and collect the ingredients for the cure, and then bring them back to the current time so that we can figure out how to immunize the citizens of Loathing against the infection.
Oh, and don't try to leave the town while you're in the future, as the rest of the Kingdom is highly radioactive. Apparently, one of us decided -- um, decides? Will be going to decide? -- that nuking the Kingdom from orbit would be the only way to be sure. It probably will have sounded like a good idea at the time.
Notes
- This quest was made available to everyone on 1st November 2005 by The Council of Loathing.
- The zombie pineal glands can be given to Doc Galaktik to get a loaded serum blowgun.
- This quest was closed, unannounced, on 7th November 2005 (about 1:35 AM EST). As of that time, the Council's temporal rift was the only one that closed; the four other rifts remained open.
- This quest is a "parent" quest of Doc Galaktik's Quest for a Cure, which concerns itself more closely with the details of curing the Gray Plague.
- The 'many unexpected reinforcements that joined the two armies during the battle' who infected the soldiers are the adventurers who went through the rift in the plains during the quest looking for the cure. Therefore it is technically the same infection.
- Many years later, the origin of the medical journal itself was discovered.
References
- The Seaside Town, 28 Days Later refers to the movie 28 Days Later in which the main character awakes in a hospital in London after being in a coma for 28 days only to find that he is alone and everybody else seems to have been transformed into "zombies" by a blood-borne virus.
- The comment that "nuking the Kingdom from orbit would be the only way to be sure" refers to the movie Aliens. Cpl. Hicks, who is in command of the mission to the infested planet after everyone above him in rank is killed or incapacitated, agrees with Ripley's suggestion: "I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."
- The "decided -- um, decides? Will be going to decide?" is based on a quote from the Red Dwarf episode "Future Echoes", and possibly the book The Restaurant at the End of the Universe as well.
