As I've stated before my major intention with this game 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:
- Billie Ray Tallahassee "BRT" (the Ruin Runner) is a bastard seeking revenge on the man who killed his mother. Of mixed Asian-American heritage, this young man has a narrow frame and nimble fingers. He keeps his beard and hair short, and he wears armor/clothing derived from protective motorcycle gear and hunting clothing. This is his last regular session.
- 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.
- 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 is in Stumpland to spend the summer with her Aunt and Uncle.
Start of Session
As last session was short, we kept the same attributes highlighted.- BRT has Cool and Sharp highlighted.
- Gator has Hard and Sharp highlighted.
- November has Hot and Sharp highlighted.
- Violet has Hard and Hot highlighted.
November quips “He’s fed up with us. Five years is too much!”
But we all know how much he likes playing with us. He will be back once things settle down.
With BRT leaving the group, we began casting around for a new player. I had a perfect match, a long time Apocalypse World player but he had commitments for our usual time slot. Several other options were put forward. We'll see which ones work out.
I decided to start the game with some love letters, both because BRT missed the previous session and because we had a month-long break between sessions.
I use Obsidian Portal to keep track of my games. for the love letters, I added them as player secrets under the log for the current session. It worked pretty well and I'll probably do it again.
Gator
So with payment in hand (2-barter worth of canned goods) and Hurricane scared off from any direct confrontation, Gator is ready to hunt down Dustwich for Jackbird. But perhaps now isn’t the time to leave. Night is falling and the swamps can be dangerous in the dark. Plus the Gathering has free food.What is Gator working towards? If he had a shit-ton of barter what would he do with it?
Gator says those are good questions. Ultimately he's just getting by at the moment, looking to get better equipment and keeping his head above water. But eventually? He doesn't see it in him to be a hardholder. In the end, Gator is just looking for a reason to stop somewhere.
Violet
It’s amazing anyone is still alive. Two fights in one day. Jackbird is dead and so are those two goons. What do the people of this town do with the dead? Does it differ if they are members of the community or not?Bowdy’s offer makes you think about how you will achieve your goal of a restored United States of America. What do you need to start making your vision a reality?
"Now that we have corpses in town what do people do with the dead?" I ask.
Violet points out that they don’t want to keep them that close to the settlement in case they had the climbers.
I ask if they burn the dead or dump them in the swamp?
They burn the dead, Violet tells me. They are not that barbarous plus they don’t want the gators to get infected.
So we'll have a funeral pyre going on later. What about the bigger question about your vision?
After some thought she says she needs to find people who feel the same way. Perhaps start study groups wherever she goes. I point out that sounds like followers. Gator suggests a gang. Violet thinks followers makes sense.
She also suggests it might be possible to get Bowdy properly convinced far down the line.
BRT
"I gave you a really interesting letter there," I tell him.After that thing with the glowing man, you decided to make yourself scarce. Matilda sought you out afterwards to let you know things died down. She also found out what you needed to know: a man with a sword and American flag tattoo lived in Stumpland. His name is Buck.
You scouted out his place on the edge of town. When all the excitement was happening in town he didn't move, just polished his shotgun. Roll + sharp. On a 10 + choose 2. On a 7-9 choose 1.
- You've scouted the area around his house and know he is alone.
- You've watched him closely and confirmed he only has a shotgun, a machete, and several knives.
- You know a couple of people who owe you enough to help you. Choose two: Lizard, your local competitor; Jess, a nice woman with a crippled brother; Kal, Hurricane’s nephew; or Dice, one of Hurricane’s goons. How do they owe you?
Also Bowdy is in town and she brought Corbett.
I point out that if this is going to be your last regular session it should be exciting.
BRT rolls a 9 which plus his sharp of +2 gives him an 11. As he debates his options, we turn to the final character.
November
Finally the excitement has died down. With the return of Dustwich/Silver, old memories have been dredged up. What luxury does November want that she once had?Hurricane tells you he needs to chat with you after your first dance of the evening. But first roll Artful & Gracious and tell us what happens.
November wants a light moped. She used to have use of one in Turquoise.
I have to remember to ask where that is and what happened.
She rolls a 12 for Artful & Gracious. She chooses that Bowdy admires her patron (i.e. Hurricane), Rabbit loves her, and Hurricane must give her a gift.
The Gathering
As night falls the people of Stumpland turn to their festivities. They light a towering bonfire and beside it construct a low funeral pyre for the blond giant killed earlier that day. November begins the Gathering with a beautiful and elegant dance, her thick necklace of coins shining in the firelight and jingling with every movement.What is Gator doing during the gathering?
Hanging out relaxing, he tells me. “As much as he can relax. He’s not trying to ruffle any feathers.”
More than he already has, I point out, since he threatened to kill Hurricane only a half hour ago.
What is Violet doing?
She is talking to people about her vision of the future.
I turn to BRT. He asks, “do I know any of them as being stealthy?”
They are all fairly competent. Lizard is the stealthy one. She’s another scavenger so she needs to know how to tread lightly. She also has a slave so she has a little extra man power to bring to bear. To the extent you actually like that.
BRT doesn't really like that but he’s willing to work with it. He chooses to know Buck is alone and that he has allies.
“So you’ve scouted the area and found him home alone.” I make a Macaulay Culkin face. “Who are you choosing to help you? Lizard I am assuming.”
“Lizard and Kal.”
“How do they owe you?”
I found Lizard out in the ruins in a bad spot and helped her out of it. And Kal, I helped him cover up a murder.
“Who did Kal murder?”
“His brother.”
“So Hurricane has lost two nephews. One due to fratricide.”
“Dang,” Violet says. “Who is alive in Hurricane’s family?”.
I list off his niece Matilda, nephew Kal, and Smoky who is his brother-in-law. There are probably more but we haven’t named them yet.
Far on the edge of town, BRT hunkers down with Kal, Lizard, and Sway. He looks over at the hut just beyond the gator pits. A single light illuminates the interior. According to Matilda, the man he seeks, the man who murdered his mother, is in there. Buck.
He turns to Lizard, instructing the scavenger to sneak into the house and steal Buck’s weapons.
“This is pretty crazy,” she says nervously. “But I owe you. I’ll see what I can do.”
As she and Sway disappear into the darkness, Kal casts a nervous eye back at the Gathering.
The sound of propeller blades can dimly be heard as November finishes up her last dance. Gator recognizes the distinctive sound of Gunge’s airboat. A few minutes later the lanky supplier appears out of the gloom and wanders over to him.
“Did I miss it?” the one-eyed man asks. “Is she done with her set?”
“Yeah she just finished,” Gator tells him. “Too late.”
Gunge frowns and scratches his arm. “I was really looking forward to that.”
“You snooze you lose.” Gator turns to him, the firelight casting horrid shadows across his mangled face. “Why are you late?”
“Just avoiding the pythons,” he says. “It’s mating season. I don’t want to get mixed up in a tangle.”
“Got anything new?”
“I got some stuff I found. Here and there,” the thin man says looking over the heavily armed warrior. “How are you doing for supplies?”
“I’m doing pretty good. I could use a bullet.” Gator adds, “you missed all the excitement.”
“What happened?”
“Jackbird’s dead,” Gator says. He fills him in on the day’s events: the arrival of Dustwich, the murder of Jackbird, and the fight that nearly broke out with Hurricane.
Gunge sighs. “I guess this town is going to be a mite bit dry.”
Gator nods. “Yeah some people are starting to freak out already.”
Gunge looks over the crowd scratching at the vacant hole where his right eye should be. “Maybe next time I’ll unload some of my moonshine.”
The warrior agrees that there would be a ready market in a couple of weeks.
Gunge wipes his forehead with a dirty sleeve. “So a bullet? That’s not much. I’ll throw it in for free if you can get me an introduction.” He looks meaningfully in November’s direction.
“Sure.”
On the other side of the Theater, Violet has found someone receptive to her philosophy. Hammer, Rover’s grandson, grew up on stories about the Golden Age and is easily convinced that trying to rebuild the once great nation is a worthwhile endeavor.
“Yeah, we should restore democracy,” he tells her.
“Not a democracy,” she corrects him. “A constitutional republic."
“Oh yeah, that’s what the other guy said too.” Hammer fills her in on the visit by a member of the Militia last spring. They seem to be also recruiting and are imposing a rough sort of justice throughout the region.
So the Militia are an outfit still flying the American flag. Why don’t you and the leader of the Militia get along?
Violet considers it and says, “because he’s a lot more willing to use force and violence to get what he wants.
I give this guy a name, A.T. and ask, “is his whole gang like that or just him?”
There may be a few I could convince if I could get them to listen long enough. There are also a few diehards who are in it for the violence and power.
BRT and Kal listen to the alligators move in the muddy pools behind them, waiting for Lizard to return. Kal checks his pistol for the tenth time. The scavenger tells Kal that the two of them will confront Buck once he has been disarmed.
A shout comes from inside the house.
“Okay, not good,” says BRT. “Kal, let’s move.”
The pair quickly run up to the hut as two or three voices shout back and forth from within. BRT goes on ahead and peers through an open doorway.
I ask BRT roll Read a sitch after debating calling for Acting under fire instead. BRT apologizes for not asking to make that move, but I point out it is my job to take care of the mechanical bits. He gets a 9 on his roll and asks a single question: what should I be on the lookout for?
Inside he sees Sway knocked to the ground, trying to crawl away. Lizard faces Buck, her arms raised, pleading for mercy. Buck not has only his shotgun out but also a grenade, with his finger ready to pull the pin.
He has a grenade. Look out.
As November steps away from the Gathering, she finds Hurricane waiting for her. The big man smiles, “That was good. I think we needed something a little bit more civilized after today’s events.”
“I’m always happy to bring some lightness,” she says, wiping her brow.
“I should also thank you for smoothing things over with Bowdy for me.” He reaches into an alligator skin bag. “I don’t have much at the moment but here. It doesn’t have a charge but it still works.”
November takes the cold metallic device. The book sized screen is smooth and black, while the scoured silver back still shows a partially eaten apple. “Oh wow! I haven’t see one of these in ages.”
“So I got another thing to ask you,” he says. He stops, his eyes drawn to approaching silhouette of Gator. “I’ll ask you about it later,” Hurricane tells her as he heads off.
Gator walks up to her trailed by a tall thin man with a single eye.
“Evening, November,” Gator says.
“Evening, did you enjoy the show?” she asks.
“Yes, a nice performance. A good counterpoint to today’s events.”
“Yeah, it’s good to lighten things.” She glances as the man standing behind Gator. “Are you going to introduce me to your friend?”
“Yes, this is my buddy Gunge. Gunge, November.”
Gunge steps forward and extends a shaky hand. “It-it’s nice to finally meet you.”
“Finally?” she asks.
“Well in person. I’ve seen you before,” he explains. “Seen you perform that is.”
“Nice to meet you too Gunge,” she says and listens to him stumble over his words as he lists off the various places he has seen her dance.
“I’m sad I missed your show tonight,” he finishes.
“Oh,” she says softly. “I don’t know if I’ll be doing another one soon. Things are little bit crazy around here and I am going to be moving on. I’ve been here for three weeks already.”
“Where to?” he asks.
“I don’t know yet. I need to see who is traveling in the near term.”
“I’m planning on leaving town soon myself,” Gator says.
“Maybe we can go together,” November suggests.
“I’ve got a boat,” Gunge points out.
“That would be nice,” says Gator nodding. “November, you knew that guy Dustwich?”
“Kind of,” she says. “I knew him by a different name, when he was running a town up north. He seems to have changed a lot though.”
“Know where I might find him? As you know, I kind of have a little score to settle with him. Plus it’s not right what he did to Jackbird.”
“No but I have a way of calling people to me,” November confides. “But I don’t necessarily want to bring him to me now. It wouldn’t be right to the people here.”
“You’re saying you can get him to come to us?” Gator says surprised.
“Yes. He’d come to me,” she says, “so I’d want to make sure things were right and tight before that.”
“That’s understandable,” says the scarred warrior. “So where did you meet him?”
“The Lucky Palms up north. He was trying to build it up as a gambling establishment. He went by Silver back then.”
“If you can bring him to us I don’t care where we go,” Gator says.
Gunge interjects. “I know a place. I know a good ambush point.”
The three quickly agree to the plan of leading Dustwich to Gunge’s ambush point where Gator can kill him.
“How are you going to deal with him?” November asks.
“I’m going to shoot him and hope bullets work,” Gator says. “Get him before he does the whole lightning aura.” He lets them know that Dustwich dropped the glowing field when he left town.
November decides to Open her brain to the psychic maelstrom. Specifically she wants to know if bullets will work. She fails her roll. We start with a question.
When you wandered in the wastes with BRT what were you looking for or where were you going?
She explains she was not looking for something but kept nearby him because she saw he could take care of himself. She was looking for threads of civilization. They met in Mudpatch, which was not a civilized place.
Next a hard move.
Suddenly the crackle of the bonfire roars in November's ears merging with the murmur of the crowds and the cool breeze of the night air into a cacophony of sensation. In the psychic maelstrom, she feels the presence of another mind. There is contact. Then only pain.
On the far side of the bonfire, Julia interrupts Violet's talk with Hammer. She greets her niece and asks, “how are you doing after all of this excitement?”
“It was definitely not what I had hoped would happen,” Violet admits.
“Thankfully everything worked out,” the older woman says glancing toward the edge of town. “Where is your uncle? I was expecting him by now. He’s been busy all day with the gators. They have been demanding extra feedings.”
“Why is that?” Violet asks.
“They have been hungrier than normal,” Julia explains. “Buck says they might lay eggs soon. I suppose that will mean more meat for next harvest. Assuming Hurricane can get the truck running and deliver the tribute up to Deg. You are going out tomorrow to look for that axle right?”
I decide at this point that Deg’s hardhold is called Steelside. It has a working factory.
Violet nods.
“Well hurry,” her aunt says. “Hurricane hasn’t told many people this, but we were supposed to get the shipment out yesterday. Deg will be sending someone to check on us in a day or so when it doesn’t show up.”
Violet raises her voice a bit. “Why didn’t he say something?”
“He wants to seem like he has things under control I guess,” she shrugs. “He’s a man.”
Violet shakes her head. “But if we had known about it sooner, we could have taken care of it earlier.”
“You tell him that. Well anyway, I am going to check on your uncle.” With that, Julia begins to walk to Buck’s hut.
We then cut straight to Uncle Buck. I point out to BRT he outnumbers him 4 to 1. What do you do?
BRT says, “I think he goes aggro?”
”How do you go aggro? What are you doing to threaten him?”
BRT pulls out a gun and reveals himself. He rolls a 9.
Back at the hut, BRT decides to end the standoff between Buck and Lizard. He busts in through the doorway and points a gun at Buck. “Drop your weapons or I’ll fucking kill you.”
The older man backs off calmly, raising his hands and pointing the shotgun at the ceiling. He keeps one hand on the grenade. “Hey what’s going on?” he asks.
BRT shouts out to the others. “Hey Lizard, why don’t you get out of here? I’ll handle this.”
As the two women quickly vacate the house, Buck focuses on Billie Ray. “What are you doing breaking into a man’s home?”
“Can we sit?” BRT asks calmly.
Buck gestures at the round table in the room. Three rough wooden chairs surround it. BRT slowly walks over and sits down. He places the gun on the table between them, his hand on top of it.
In the doorway Kal's eyes flicks between Buck and the grenade. Buck calmly walks over, carefully leaning the shotgun against the wall before settling into the opposite chair. He keeps a firm grip on the grenade and pin.
BRT looks into Buck’s dark eyes. “I wanted to disarm you before we had this conversation.”
“That ain’t happening,” the rough skinned man replies.
“I’m aware of that now.” BRT takes a deep breath. “Buck you have a tattoo.”
“What about it?”
“A man with that tattoo killed my mother,” BRT pauses, “I need to know if you are that man Buck.”
“I killed a lot of people,” he says stroking his graying beard with his free hand.
Slowly BRT describes how his mother died. The name of the holding, the layout of the house, what his mother looked like the day she died. The man who killed her wasn’t looking for her, he wanted what she had: four healthy goats. The man killed her anyway, while BRT watched from under the floorboards.
The goats came out of a bit of back and forth. BRT originally suggested a bolt of cloth but it felt off. I had been using a random generator to come up with ideas for gifts for November (though they were not really appropriate for this game). One of the ideas was “four goats”.
BRT agreed, “four goats is a big deal! Milk, more goats.”
November added, “meat if things go bad.”
As BRT finishes his story, Buck licks his lips. “Those were some mighty tasty goats.”
BRT decides this is a sufficient confession. We go with Seize by force, specifically seizing the grenade.
Gator points out that even if the grenade goes off, BRT won’t die. He’ll just get maimed.
BRT gets a total of 7, and chooses to suffer little harm and get definite hold. So the grenade is out of play.
Shocked, BRT decides to end this. He rises, firing at the grenade and knocking it out of Buck’s hand. As it bounces across the room, the grizzled biker thrusts his uninjured hand at the scavenger and kicks up the table. A knife hidden up his sleeve flies to connect with BRT’s pistol sending it also skittering about the room. By the time BRT regains his bearings, he finds himself alone in the house with Kal scanning the darkness from the doorway.
So with no grenade, I use another of Buck's weapons, a knife. He deals 2-harm from the knife -1 from BRT's armor -1 from little harm. This means BRT takes 0-harm. I have him roll a harm move. He rolls 11 and I choose the options: lose grip on what you were holding and lose track of someone you’re attending to.
For Buck, he also has 1-armor from his gator hide coat. This reduces the 2-harm from BRT's 9mm down to 1-harm. He's hurt but not out of the fight.
BRT shouts at Kal to grab Buck’s shotgun. As the teen scrambles for it, BRT snatches up his gun and the grenade. Then the pair head after their quarry.
November's choked off scream disrupts the Gathering as she collapses into a twitching heap. As she writhes on the ground Gator thrusts his hand inside her mouth to stop November from swallowing her own tongue.
Gator Reads a sitch to figure out what is going on. November aids him and gets a hard hit. With the +1 Gator gets a 7. He asks, what should I be on the lookout for? I tell him she is having an epileptic fit but should be fine assuming she doesn’t swallow her own tongue.
Violet moves with the crowd to see what is the matter.
Then a shot rings out from her uncle’s house, in the same direction as where her aunt just went. Violet runs to find out what is going on.
Gator asks, “only one gun shot?”
”Yes.”
”Then he doesn’t feel he needs to arm himself. It’s just one shot and it didn’t even sound like that big of a bullet.”
In the darkness outside Buck’s hut, BRT tells Kal, “that didn’t go as planned.”
“Yeah that’s for hella sure,” the shaking teenager says.
We take a short break here when I realize I might be burning dinner. The players discuss whether my dinner will/can burn as well as commenting how I never curse (though apparently they are ignoring the foul language of this game).
Dinner didn’t burn.
“It’s kind of crazy that he just admitted to it outright,” BRT says in disbelief.
The gang discusses how cold that was and whether there is any real law in this world to stop people like Buck.
Violet says, "It makes me wonder what kind of relationship I have with my Uncle Buck. I might be a little bit afraid of him. Why did my parents send me out here again?"
Gator meat, I point out. "They wanted to eat something that wasn’t contaminated with mercury."
Violet says Buck is the black sheep of her family.
With BRT figuring out his next step, we switch back to the others.
By the Theater, November becomes aware that she is lying in the mud with Gator’s hand in her mouth.
November asks, "what does that taste like exactly?"
"He uses a fine lotion," I quip.
Gator reveals that he is not totally unwashed. He doesn’t have any fancy soaps though.
November pushes him away gentle and props herself up.
“What happened?” she asks as the pain recedes.
"You had a fit," he explains, "and started trying to eat your own tongue."
In the flickering light she makes out a knot of people around her and a slowly moving crowd peering past the gator pits.
Hurricane looms over her. “Is she okay?”
November smiles and slowly but gracefully stands up. She apologizes to Hurricane and the others for worrying them.
“You gave me a scare,” Hurricane says.
"I must have overexerted myself," she says, dusty off some of the wet dirt.
"May have," Gator says. He turns toward the gator pits. "Where did that shot come from?"
"Shot?" she asks.
"It sounded like it came from Buck and Julia’s house," Hurricane says.
"So Violet’s camp," Gator says.
Hurricane looks around at the crowd. "She’s not here. She must have headed over there."
"Dice," he calls out. "Where is Kal? Dice, let’s go make sure there is no trouble."
"I hope she’s okay," November says.
"Want me to come along?" Gator asks.
"You can come if you want," the big man tells him.
"Just saying. no charge."
Hurricane nods and they head off into the darkness.
BRT asks, "what direction did he go?"
"You don’t know you lost track of him."
BRT scans the darkness. “Okay Kal tell your uncle that I confronted Buck and that he threatened to blow us up.”
"Okay," the teen nods eagerly and turns to leave.
The scavenger grabs him by the shoulder. “And that he admitted to killing my mother.”
“Yeah I’ll tell him,” Kal says before bolting off.
Kal is a coward.
Violet says, "takes all kinds."
BRT starts walking away from town, keep his eyes open but with his mind on his hidden bolthole. With Buck on the loose, Billie Ray would need to lay low for a bit. But now at least he knew who killed his mother.
So you are actually leaving? Not searching? I ask.
BRT replies that he’s searching but not being quiet.
I offer him the option to roll Read a sitch. He gets an 11.
His first question is what is my enemy’s true position?
The shed near the edge of swamp.
What should I be on the lookout for?
You didn't take too close of a look at the shed but...
As the scavenger makes his way into the swamp, he notes the wooden shed on the edge of Buck's plot of land. It was empty when he scouted it earlier but a faint light glimmers from under the door.
An engine revs inside the shed moments before he hears the sound of wheels scraping against mud and gravel. Without thinking, BRT pulls the pin on the grenade and rolls it toward the structure.
BRT rolls Seize by force and gets a 9. He chooses to inflict terrible harm and suffer little harm.
The grenade does 4-harm -1 for Buck's armor +1 for terrible harm. He dies quickly.
Violet catches up to her aunt as it detonates. The darkness before them lights up as a burning motorcycle flies from the explosion, colliding with BRT and knocking him to the ground. The debris, including the smoking remains of her uncle, skid to a halt in front of them.
We establish Buck never let Violet into the shed. It was his place.
The motorcycle deals 3-harm -1 from BRT's armor -1 little harm. So BRT is injured for 1-harm.
Violet blinks and looks over the devastation. Where the shed stood is a smoking crater. A short distance away BRT slowly rises to his feet.
“What the hell just happened?!” she shouts at BRT.
Her aunt sinks to her knees and screams, “You killed him!”
"He deserved to die," the scavenger says. "He killed my mother."
Further away the crowd draws a collective gasp as the boom of the explosion reaches them. Gator draws his submachine gun and continues toward the flames.
November Reads a charged sitch, and gets a hard hit.
Who’s in control here? She asks.
"Not Buck," I say. It's not clear who is in charge here. Things remain unsettled.
What’s my enemy’s true position?
This gives me a hard time but I settle on the following: "You didn’t see it the first time. He is just on the cusp and he only has one eye but there are flecks of green in Gunge’s eye. He has the Climbers."
What’s my best escape route from him?
He is a diehard fan. You can either move inland so he can’t follow you on his boat or shoot him in the leg or something.
As the crowd surges forward, November notices the glint of green in Gunge's eye. She tenses as she recognizes 'the spots'. She forces herself to calm down, biding her time to get away from the infected man.
Violet meanwhile feels very conflicted. On one hand she is not very fond of her Uncle Buck. But murder goes against everything she believes in.
I point out that her goal of an orderly society is not being served here. This is vigilante justice at best.
Violet confronts her uncle's killer. "You thought killing him would solve your problem?"
“He murdered my mother," BRT says calmly. "There was no problem this would solve. This was justice.”
"You killed him!" Julia shouts, rising to her feet.
As her aunt pulls a knife from her boot, Violet says, "listen to that. You know what happens you kill for revenge?"
The scavenger dusts himself off and steps away from the still smoldering shed. “Not for anything Violet, but she’s benefited from everything he’s ever done.”
"You bastard!" Julia screams, stalking closer. "How could you kill him!"
"The more you kill the more you have to look over your own shoulder," Violet says calmly. "My uncle was no saint. I know that. But that doesn’t make what you did right."
BRT stretches his shoulder wincing at the pain. "Violet that’s the only person I’ve killed not in self-defense."
"But you killed for revenge and that begets only more revenge."
Aunt Julia moves in front of Violet, her dress dirtied with mud and Buck's blood. As she points her knife at BRT, she says, “you are going to regret this. I will see you suffer. You will beg for your life. You have no idea, no idea who you just killed.”
"Stop," Violet says moving forward. "Wait until the others get here."
As Violet trains her gun on BRT to dissuade any escape, her aunt continues, “Billie Ray Tallahasee. I hope Hurricane doesn’t kill you. I’m going to make sure whatever happens, you survive.” She spits at him.
Gator says, "you need to kill her now, you’ll have to kill her eventually."
Violet adds, “Mom always said Uncle Buck would come to a bad end if he didn’t change his ways.”
BRT stands his ground as the crowd approaches. He spots Kal babbling out the story to Hurricane. “Like I said BRT went to confront Buck. He said that Buck murdered his mother. And he admitted it too. I don’t know what happened next. I left before whatever happened. But they were trying to kill each other."
Gator chooses to Read a person and gets a 7. Is he telling the truth? Yes.
“Seems legit,” Gator says. “He’s too freaked out to tell a lie.”
"You are probably right," Hurricane sighs. "People and their vendettas. Let's go see what happened, who is alive and who is dead. I want no one else dying in town. At least for a day."
The crowd finds Violet with the situation well under control.
"What’s going on here?" Hurricane says. "Okay I see what’s going on here. So did he do it?”
BRT nods. "I did it."
"He threw a grenade at him," Violet explains.
"It was his grenade. It was that or get run down by his bike."
"Did you have to take it into your own hands though?" she asks.
"Where you going to do it for me?"
"You could have brought it up with Hurricane," she tells him.
BRT turns the town's leader. "Hurricane this man killed my mother while I was 9 while I watched in some hole you’ve never heard of. Do you want to do something about this?" The scavenger turns to Violet. "That’s not his place, this is his place."
”In retrospect more than I want to deal with this,” Hurricane says rubbing his brow.
"Well maybe we need a system," he says.
“Well you are looking at it," Hurricane says. "Lucky for you Kal has confirmed your story or at least Buck's admission of guilt.”
"He killed her for goats Hurricane. For fucking food."
"So he committed a crime against you and the facts, such as they are, support you. You did blow up part of my town though. And murdered one of my wranglers.”
I ask BRT to roll Manipulate a person to get a good judgement from Hurricane. He gets an 8.
Hurricane moves to address the crowd as well. “So here’s where we are at. This is a lost property issue as far as I am concerned. I can say nobody is going to inflict violence on you in this town. At least to the limits that I can control. But you owe Stumpland and therefore you owe me. You already have a job you are going to do for me and that’s going to be for free. And you are going to owe me another scavenging run. That’s the price.”
“No suicide runs though," BRT says.
"Of course not. How you choose to obtain an item is your own affair. I’m not going to ask for something like that. Alright everybody, hear that judgement has been done, the law’s been laid down. I expect no reprisals."
Hurricane surveys the crowd but Julia is absent. "There will be no violence against this person in Stumpland. And we’ve all had plenty of excitement tonight so let's all just tidy up and get some sleep. Some of us have business to take care of in the morning.”
As the crowd disperses, Violet disappears in search of her aunt.
Hurricane hesitantly approaches Gator and November. “I have a proposition.”
"I'm listening," Gator says.
“I have a pair of short-term gigs for the two of you," he says. "As you might have heard the food delivery for Steelside is late. Deg’s boys will be here before that axle does. I need someone to deal with them, with whoever they send down. Ideally that will be peaceful. We will send them back on their way with the food and everything will be good. November would you be willing to do the negotiations for me?"
As she nods, he continues, "Gator, they might not agree to negotiate. I have a bit more manpower now but I know Deg, we will still be outnumbered. Would you be willing to bodyguard Stumpland for a couple of days?”
"I’m amenable. It will cost a little bit though."
"Right," Hurricane says tiredly.
"I could use some gator jerky."
"I could spare a bit." With his piece said, he adds, “let’s all get a good night sleep and see what comes in the morning.”
Hurricane offers 1-barter worth of gator meat. Gator is all about the food.
Gator and November walk with the big man back to the center of town.
"Just to be clear you want as little blood as possible?" Gator asks.
“Ideally no one gets killed but," Hurricane trails off. "If you can send them on their way with Deg none the wiser that’s great. Otherwise I don’t want to see any of them to make it back.”
"They disappeared in the swamp. I get it," Gator says with a smile. "You sure you don’t want me to send them running?"
“If that’s what has to happen then that’s what has to happen. I mostly don’t want anyone in Stumpland to get killed. No one else.”
"I get you." He looks to the dancer. "November you are plan A."
As the Stumpland uneasily settles down for the night. Violet creeps through her aunt and uncle's disheveled home. A strange crackle emanates from behind a closed door. Pressing her ear to the rough wood, she hears her aunt saying, "-killed him. Crimson, they murdered him. Billie Ray Tallahasee.”
A faint distorted voice replies amid a hiss of static. Violet pushes the door open a crack. She sees her aunt crouched over an old bulky radio.
"He’s one of those half slant-eyed kids,” she says as Violet walks in on her. “I've got to go. I’ll talk to you later."
Julia stands up and asks, "What is it Violet?”
"Who was that?" the survivalist asks.
"An old friend."
"Who is Crimson?"
Violet decides to Read a person. She rolls a 4.
"I am an open book," she says. "Whatever it is she doesn’t tell me."
Not necessarily.
"Crimson is the leader of the Wild Eyes, the meanest biker gang this side of the Mississippi," julia says with a hint of pride.
"You’re not asking-"
"It's already done," Julia says. "That man will be running in fear for the rest of his short miserable life."
"I can’t say I didn’t warn him," Violet says.
Gator agrees. "That’s why he should have killed her too."
"One day I hope you’ll understand," Violet says with a sigh. She turns and slams the door behind her.
That's it for now. Come back in 2 weeks when we finish off this session!
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