This week we return to my continuing
Apocalypse World game, the Climbers. Gator, November, and Violet continue to their planned ambush and assassination of Dustwich. Jarhead meanwhile toils on Dustwich's device.
For this campaign my major intention is to follow the development of a single Apocalypse World setting and set of characters over the course 20+ sessions. I want to see how the world fills in with terminology, history, and peoples.
As in my earlier actual play reports, small green text indicates out of character talk, mechanics and other game aspects outside of the fiction.
Our main characters are:
- Gator (the Gunlugger) is an assassin and part-time bodyguard who wears customized scrounged armor made from Kevlar and ceramic inserts. Camouflaged for the jungle, his face was ruined in a fight with an alligator. His eyes are always sizing things up and his brutal life has left his body a hard sheet of muscle.
- Jarhead (the Savvyhead) is a thing African-American man with a short goatee, long dreads, and clothes covered in pockets and gear. Travelling around in a old news van, he repairs items for a living. Recently he was captured and forced to work on a strange device for a man named Dustwich. Essentially he is now a slave.
- November Orleans (the Skinner) is descended from a family which left New Orleans before it sank. She is a beautiful woman of mixed heritage with dark eyes and skin, a sweet face and lush body. She dresses herself in a mix of scavenged clothing that somehow works together and wears a necklace made from rows of antique coins which jingle and shine as she moves. Her main profession is as a dancer, especially belly dancing, but she has a sideline business in cooking.
- Violet Jefferson (the Touchstone) is descended by survivalists and her clothing and gear reflects her origins. Plain looking but fit, she carries a pocket copy of the Federalist papers and founding documents of the United States of America, an idea she hopes to revive. She was in Stumpland to spend the summer with her Aunt Julia and Uncle Buck. Now her uncle is dead and she is moving on.
The current stat highlighting is:
- November has Weird and Cool.
- Violet has Hard and Sharp.
- Jarhead has Sharp and Weird
- Gator has Hard and Sharp.
Finally Violet blew her Fortunes roll and so her followers are judgmental, diseased and deserting her.
Killing Dustwich
We left off with the crew at Gunge’s hut. Gunge is dead, a victim of the climbers. Jarhead meanwhile is a prisoner of Dustwich and is focused on figuring out how the strange device Dustwich gave him works.
Standing under the camo netting of Gunge’s hut, Gator, November and Violet discuss their next step. Gunge’s map details the coast and some possible structures along it. From their experience that part of the wetlands should be fairly flat, a good spot for sniping.
November and Violet set fire to Gunge’s to destroy the spores while Gator picks out a marked spot on the map. He has no idea what’s there but they will soon find out.
Then we cut back to Jarhead.
The inhabitants of Cottage huddle in the dark while Jarhead puzzles over the device.
From his earlier experiment Jarhead realizes he needs a stable power source. “Where could I get one?” he asks.
”There are none around here. You could build one though. It would need to be something like a big generator or a power plant.”
”And a power plant would be at?”
”You don’t know. Epcot maybe?”
Setting down a voltmeter, he gets up. The guard outside slumps against the wall, half asleep. “Get me Dustwich,” he tells him. He jerks awake and fearfully wanders into the darkness.
A few minutes later his well dressed “employer” enters the workshop.
“This is going to need 240 volts at 40 amps of current,” he says handing Dustwich a list. “To build a generator I’ll need these items. I could either build this or we could all relocate to Epcot Center. It has the best power source around.”
I decide the generator will take a few days and shit ton of jingle in parts for him to build.
“I’m not going back to that place,” Dustwich says defensively.
“Well they used to call it happy, the happiest place,” Jarhead says. Dustwich continues to frown. “Okay so then option B, the more fun option to me.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
Cut back to the others after a bit of baby crying and soothing.
The airboat cuts across the swamp, leaving behind the flames and smoke of Gunge’s hut. Up ahead, two buildings stand out in the moonlight. A tall ruined hotel and a shorter squatter structure beside it.
As they close, they see the ocean waves battering at the far side of the crumbling edifices. A raised road winds its way down the coast, cutting them off from the buildings. But even now the tide is coming in, slowly submerging the coastal route.
November rolls Lost. She gets a hard hit and earns experience. She also earns an advancement and gets +1 sharp. Dustwich will come.
Gator meanwhile contemplates the improvement he just earned. He chooses Easy to trust.
“It could be helpful,” I tell him. “You have not been a very personable person.”
They tie the boat to a patch of trees near the road. Gator walks over to the buildings alone. He only glances at the hotel for a moment, settling on the smaller building for his sniper’s nest. A rusted sign advertises that this was once a gas station.
He enters the decaying interior. Useless junk litters the floor. A big rusty generator catches his eye for a moment. It is too big for him to move himself but could be worth something. Checking the map, he realizes the symbol for this spot is a poorly written G. He notes it mentally and heads upstairs.
We cut back.
Jarhead puts the device down on a stand. He turns off the LEDs in his workshop one by one. As he makes for the rough bed of thatch, his guard Farley walks in.
“Pack up. Boss says we are moving on.”
“Wait, we are moving?” he ask. “I thought we were going to build it not move to it.”
”He says he knows where we can get a generator.”
“Oh,” he says dropping his head. “All right.”
a few minutes later Jarhead quickly packs up the van in the cool night air. As he loads the last of the machining tools, Dustwich walks up to him. He takes the device from him and places it in his jacket pocket.
“But,” the technician protests.
“You can have it after we talk to these salvagers,” he says before leaving.
“Salvagers? Okay,” Jarhead says.
A few minutes later Jarhead finishes packing. Dustwich’s driver brings the jeep around and two of the strongest warriors in Cottage get on board along with Dustwich.
Several others, including Farley, climb into Jarhead’s van. The technician gets into the driver seat and turns to them, “Don’t break anything. Don’t touch that. Or that. Or that.”
Then he starts the van and follows the jeep into the night.
Back to the ambush.
Gator settles into position. Deep cracks expose rusted steel in the concrete walls beside him. His eye to the scope, he scans the road and inland swamp. The worn structure shivers with every crashing wave.
A pair of headlights flash across the road to the north. Gator watches as a bright yellow SUV pushes through the low waves engulfing the street, racing the tide.
November Opens her brain to them. She gets a 9.
From their hideout amid a clump of mangroves, Violet and November also watch the new arrivals. The gentle lapping of wave hypnotizes November’s senses as she reaches out with her thoughts. The yellow paint and sharp lights jump out at her against the dim glow of the stars above and greenery about her. Her mind smells the fresh paint, the careful repairs, the hard work that went into it.
My question to November is “What counts as civilization to you? Is it just art? Or does technology or law count?”
”Civilization is enough order that people can take time out to appreciate beauty.”
The truck pulls up in front of the old gas station. Two men disembark along with a woman and small child. None of them are Dustwich.
Cautiously they enter the building. Gator hears them moving around below from his hideout. They don’t explore upstairs.
He settles in for a long wait.
I have Gator roll Acting under fire to hide. He gets an 8 and I say he remains hidden but the awkward position will give him -1 forward from stiffness. He sucks it up.
We cut back to Jarhead.
Hours later the sun rises over the sparsely forested swamp. The tide recedes, revealing crumbling asphalt littered with horseshoe crabs. A pair of vehicles race up the road toward a pair of ruined structures on the edge of the sea.
Jarhead yawns, following the red tail lights of the jeep ahead of him. With a sickening crunch the smaller automotive crushes one of the arthropods.
As he swerves around the mess, the tinkerer spies one of the tribesmen of Cottage poking at his electronics in the rearview mirror.
“You see that copper wire there,” he calls back. “You should touch it. Trust me. Nothing bad will happen.”
The bark clad warrior squints at him and touches the wire.
“Agh!” he cries, grasping his finger.
“Now quit poking things,” Jarhead says.
The man frowns and snatches up the device. Jarhead hits the brakes hard. Everyone slams forward. Jarhead adjusts his seatbelt while the primitives shake off the shock.
No one else was wearing a seatbelt.
“Safety first,” he says.
From his perch, Gator spies the approaching vehicles. One, a van covered in solar panels, skids to halt suddenly.
The other is a jeep, Dustwich’s jeep.
Gator looks closer at the van. The side is covered with the logo of News 12.
“Ah great,” the assassin says, frowning with recognition.
The jeep slows to a stop. A blonde man with a headdress of leaves sticks his head out.
“What’s the hold up?” he shouts.
”No problem,” Jarhead calls back. He turns to the others in the van. “Put it back.”
Jarhead says he’s intimidating him.
Are you threatening to hurt him or convincing him?
We settle he isn't promising violence, not really. Jarhead rolls Manipulate a person with the leverage of no more sudden stops. He gets a 7.
“Fine but I get that seat,” the angry thug says, pointing to the passenger side seat, the one with a seatbelt. The man in the seat widens his eyes.
“How about you get it on the way back?” Jarhead suggests. “It looks like we are already there.”
Jarhead starts the van again and follows the jeep to the shorter of the two structures. He relaxes his grip on the wheel as he spots a familiar yellow SUV parked outside.
Boo and his clan are pretty trustworthy as scavengers go, he thinks to himself. He pulls up beside it and the jeep.
A low hum emerges from the jeep, a moment before Dustwich steps out. A gentle green glow envelopes him.
Jarhead leans out of the van. “Is this it? Is this where the generator is?”
“That’s what they say,” Dustwich says, shifting the device to a more comfortable position in his pocket. The warriors from Cottage slowly assemble around him.
Gator chooses to Read a sitch. He rolls with the -1 forward and gets 6.
Gator stretches slightly to get a better view of situation. The wall beside him groans and cracks, sliding away to the ground below. Everyone’s attention is drawn to the thunderous crash.
Basically everyone within a half mile probably heard this.
Exposed Gator fires at Dustwich and ducks behind a broken chunk of wall.
Gator rolls Seize by force and gets a hard hit. He inflicts terrible harm, scares those below and suffers little harm. Dustwich thus takes 3-harm from the rifle +1 for terrible harm +1 blood crazed. His device provides 1-armor (which works against the ap ammo) due to the device. So he is dying.
The sniper round hits Dustwich in the gut, shattering his spine and cracking out of his back. The man falls back into the jeep, gasping in agony.
Or as Jarhead says, ”the device is okay!”
Several of the men around Dustwich break and run. A few fire back with their ancient guns, pock-marking the concrete around Gator.
So half of the gang flees. The rest (who I choose not to run as a gang) deal 2-harm from the 9mms -1 for little harm and -2 from his armor. He’s fine.
With bullets flying fast in the air, Jarhead ducks behind his van alongside two of the leaf clad warriors.
“It’s the best cover for miles around,” I point out.
I turn to Violet and November. What do you do?
Violet Reads a sitch.
“It can only make things worse,” I say cheerfully.
November chooses to wait and see what happens. Violet earns experience and gets a 10.
“I look forward to answering in disturbing ways.”
”Which enemy is the biggest threat?” she asks.
”Dustwich.”
”Still?” Gator says.
”He’s still the biggest threat.”
”Oh no,” he says.
”What should I be on the look out for?” Violet asks.
Violet scans the battlefield from the relative safety of the swamp. She watches as Dustwich goes down and his gang begins to disintegrate.
Then the weird glow pulses about the dying man. Dustwich reverses his writhing. His blood flows back into him. Faster and faster he rewinds until a split-second later he is standing back up, whole and unharmed. Gator’s bullet bounces away from him.
Note this comes from a custom move of the device. It has limits. This used up much of its charge.
Dustwich’s resurrection is predictably followed by exclamations of dismay from the group.
Mostly.
”That was cool!” Jarhead mutters to himself, peering from behind the headlight of his van.
”Which enemy is most vulnerable to me?” she asks.
His goons are squishy. “They are not even wearing real armor. It looks like it’s made of twigs and bark. They would be easy pickings.”
Violets gasps and hunkers down in the airboat. November slips away into the brush.
What does Gator do?
“I’m going to fucking shoot him again.”
Gator curses from his nest. He pops the spent shell casing and draws a bead on the Dustwich. He aims higher this time, for the heart. He fires.
”Is the device over the heart?” Jarhead asks.
“Yes,” Gator and I say in unison.
Another Seize by force roll and another hard hit. He takes definite hold (i.e. Dustwich stays dead), little harm, and deals terrible harm.
The bullet strikes with a flash of fire as the depleted uranium round digs into something metallic. Dustwich’s ribs cave and shatter. The would-be warlord crumples again, spitting up blood.
The aurora about him collapses into a wild arc of electricity. The bolt flies in Gator’s direction, striking him with a mixture of pain and mental incoherence. His fingers go numb for a second and his sniper rifle tumbles from his useless hands down to the rocky street below.
Waste not want not. With Dustwich dead, I unleash the last of the charge to deal 1-harm ap plus psi-harm. Gator rolls a soft hit on his psi-harm roll so I choose to have him lose something: his sniper rifle.
November is partly responsible for suggesting this next bit.
Jarhead runs from cover, shouting, “No!”
He dives for Dustwich, digging into his wound. With a triumphant grin he pulls free the now broken device. Beside him, Dustwich chokes out some unheard whispers. Then he dies.
Jarhead examines the wreckage. While the controls remain intact, Gator’s bullet punched a hole in one side of the sphere before settling into the core. Only something denser than lead would cause such damage.
“It had to be a special bullet didn't it!” Jarhead says.
Violet watches as the three remaining warriors take cover behind the jeep. They fire wildly at the sniper, ignoring the technician and their former employer on the ground behind them.
Gator, What do you want to do about them?
“I’m not here for you!” Gator shouts from his hideout. ”You walk and leave. I’m done.”
Gator rolls Go aggro and gets a 6. At least he gets experience.
Time to escalate.
The woman behind the wheel of the jeep shouts, “Open the box in the back!”
One of the warriors pulls a long green box out. He pops the clips holding it shut and pulls out a tubular weapon.
“Oh fuck!” Gator says spying the rocket launcher.
Then November puts a knife to the warrior’s throat. “I think y’all better just leave.”
November uses her Devil with a blade move to Go aggro with hot. With her +1 forward from Lost (which I generously let her use) she gets a 7.
“Oh oh alright. We’ll just go,” the man chokes out, letting the tube drop. He looks to Dustwich’s corpse. ”He’s dead anyway.”
November nods to the others. “You guys first.”
As the two warriors flee, the dancer takes the rocket launcher from the leader and lets him run as well. Her knife vanishes into her outfit as Violet races up to join her.
And now they have a rocket launcher. Sigh.
The jeep peels out and makes a tight turn back down the road it came, blowing past the tribesmen of Cottage.
Leaving poor Dustwich lying in the road dead.
”No,”Jarhead corrects me. “Leaving poor Jarhead with broken equipment. Fuck Dustwich.”
Gator collects himself and descends to the ground floor. He stumbles into the family of scavengers. The patriarch trains a shotgun on him.
Gator tips his hat with his MP5. “Howdy folks.”
“What do you mean to do?” the man asks.
“You don’t work for Dustwich do you?” he asks the shorter man.
“We were making a deal,” he says evenly.
“Well I think that deal is done. But I don’t want anything here so it is all yours.”
“Alright,” the man says letting Gator pass. He lowers his shotgun.
“You have a nice day,” Gator says on his way.
Once outside he picks up his dinged up sniper rifle and hurries over to the others. He looks at the broken corpse between them. “Well that’s something you don’t see everyday.”
“What a dead guy?” Jarhead says, turning over the broken sphere.
“No a guy that un-deads himself. “
“That was pretty cool,” Jarhead laughs. “Hi Gator. How are you doing?”
Gator brings him up to speed. “Damn it I’m down another two bullets,” the assassin realizes.
”You had to shoot him the heart didn't you,” Jarhead says without sympathy.
“Actually one of the bullets is lying on the ground there. Because it never actually hit him.”
Gator spies one of the rounds almost pristine on the ground nearby. He picks it up and turns to November. “Thanks for the assist.”
“Sure,” she says, standing over the rocket launcher. “This seems dangerous.”
“I’ll take that,” he says with a smile.
“What are you doing around here, Jarhead?” Gator asks.
“Oh this,” he says holding up the device.
“I was working with that guy,” he adds pointing to the corpse. “He wanted me to fix this. That’s why we were going here. But now it is even more broken! But I think I can still fix it.”
He mutters to himself, “I can make it better.”
Gator nods and turns to looting Dustwich. He pulls a nickel-plated 9mm from his belt. Gator offers it to November, “Here’s a pretty gun for a pretty lady.”
“Thanks but I think I’ll stick with my knives,” she says.
“Alright. Violet? Want it?”
“I’ll take it,” the survivalist says pocketing the gun.
November joins Gator and dividing up Dustwich’s silk suit. She grabs his relatively undamaged pants and jacket. Gator takes his underwear.
”Aren't we going a little bit far here?” Violet asks, turning away.
“He doesn't need it anymore,” the assassin says.
November looks at the corpse. “Do we need to cut his head off or something? He seems pretty spooky.”
After a short discussion they agree to burn him.
“I don’t want him coming back again,” Gator adds.
“I don’t care what you want from him, the device is mine,” Jarhead says. He starts walking back to his vehicle.
“Jarhead is it?” November says. “That’s an interesting van you've got.”
“It’s a van.”
“Why does it say it’s new?” she asks, stowing the clothes in her pack.
“I don’t know,” Jarhead says stroking his chin. “I think it was a custom of the people from before. They called a lot of things new. Like New York.”
“Yeah my family is from New Orleans.”
“Is that really new?” he asks.
“Maybe your van belongs to me,” she jokes.
“No, it doesn't work that way,” he says quickly.
“Why were you traveling with Dustwich?” she asks.
“It’s kind of hard to say no when someone holds a gun to you,” he explains. “Plus I got to play with this cool toy here.” He looks past her. “Oh is Boo here?”
Boo pokes head out the door.
“Hey Boo?” Jarhead calls out.
Boo relaxes. “Hey Jarhead.”
“Oh you were the one I was getting parts from,” the scavenger says walking over to meet him.
Boo gestures back into the building. “Yeah, we hoping to sell this old generator.”
“Generator?” the tinkerer says excitedly before running inside.
He finds the giant rusty machine in the backroom.
It will need a lot of work, he thinks to himself.
Boo walks up behind him.
“What would you want for this?” Jarhead asks. The two men quickly haggle.
”It’s going to need a lot of work,” Jarhead points out before closing on a price. “Toss it in the back of the van.”
We settle for 2-barter.
As Boo and his son Garbar wrestle the mass of steel and rust into the van, Jarhead joins the others.
“How have you been traveling around?” he asks.
“First,” November quips.
“Why?” November asks. “Would you like us to transport your generator someplace? We could be hired.”
“No, I am just curious about what you were doing. I didn't expect to run into many people here.”
Gator and others fill him in on their purpose.
“So you came here to kill Dustwich?” Jarhead asks.
“He killed a friend of ours,” November explains.
Jarhead looks at the burning body. “He seemed like that kind of person.”
“He had it coming to him in more than one way than one,” Gator says.
“I’m not too upset about that.”
“I’m done,” Gator says adjusting various his weapons and gear. “So where to? After we bring the boat back?”
November looks on as Boo and his son finish loading the van. “I’d ask where you were going Jarhead but your van looks pretty full.”
“Where are you headed?” Gator asks.
“I don’t know,” the tinkerer says.
“How are you doing for food?” November says.
Jarhead’s stomach growls. “I wasn't really thinking about that. I was kind of mooching off the dead guy but that is sort of over.”
November says, ”You eat dead people?”
”Not munching, mooching and before he was dead.”
“Well we are headed to a gator farm if you are looking for food,” the dancer suggests. “It’s good meat.”
November hands him a sample of jerky. He bites into the tough flavorful meat. “That is really good,” he says.
She smiles. “I was trying a new recipe with that. I like how it turned out.”
“I guess I could visit there.”
“You need protection out there?” Gator asks.
As he tries to get hired as bodyguard.
As Jarhead shakes his head, Gator says, “Okay good luck.”
At this point I note that I haven’t addressed Violet’s followers. I decide to draft the scavengers as members.
Boo spies Violet as she gets the airboat ready. He grabs his burly son Garber, young wife Lauren, and small child Gina. They walk over and accost her.
Violet recognizes the stout man and his son as fellow believers in the United States of America.
“Oh hi there,” she says.
“Hi," Boo says as the little girl coughs with a bad case of the swine flu. “Violet, did you hear what happened down in Miami?”
”Are there any remedies I know of?” Violet asks.
”No really, just bed rest, keep warm, and chicken soup. You wish you knew what you knew what chickens were.”
“No, what happened?” the survivalist replies.
“The hardholder down there got himself killed in a raid,” the man complains. “We were all agitating for an election like you keep saying but then nobody was there to back us up on that. White’s boys came in and took over.”
“That’s terrible.”
“They killed my brother just to make an example of him,” he grumbles. “To stop this democracy talk. Burned our flags, kicked us out.”
“Well there’s going to be people like that,” she explains. “Those that like being in power and the status that comes with it.”
Violet is not a smooth talker.
“We've got to make changes!” he shouts. “We have to fight for our beliefs! You've got to back us up on this!”
“Thing is we are not going to win this by fighting,” she says. “We've got to win the hearts and minds.”
“Yes and we've got to drive the British out,” he retorts.
“Of course we've got to do that but-” she stammers.
“People will join us once we get these thugs out of there,” Boo argues. “You've got to help us take care of that if you really believe what you are spouting. I support the return of law and order and look what it has got me: my brother’s dead, flags are burned, Gina got the flu. I’m still willing to fight for it but you've got to help us.”
”Ah the joy of followers.”
”He who has cows has care of cows,” Violet says.
Violet sighs. “That’s not cool at all.”
“Exactly! We've got to free the holding so they can make their own choices, elect their own leaders.”
Violet nods.
”I think I have a quest,” she says.
End Of Session
And that’s it.
Finally we do Hx improvements.
- Violet gains +1 Hx from BRT as part of his parting action (since he wasn't there for the last session but owed an improvement for the session and a half).
- November gives +1 Hx to Jarhead since they finally met.
- Violet gives +1 Hx to November which earns November an experience. We discuss the optional rule to divulge a secret whenever Hx resets but Violet isn't a secretive character.
- Jarhead gives +1 Hx to Gator since he now sees how much he will risk for weird technology.
- Gator gives +1 Hx to Jarhead as he got to see him in action.
Gator gets a second advancement and raises his cool.
