We are now over a third of the way through my planned 20+ session run for this campaign. The world is getting more developed but major questions remain about the psychic maelstrom, the 'gods', the Militia and other forces working towards remaking this world.
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. He recently save a little girl named Memo and obtained a gang of mercenaries.
- 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 an old news van, he repairs items for a living. He is investigating a device that can bend space and time. He has also obtained employees in the form of a young woman Allison and her brother Waters.
- 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 and animal training.
- 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. Her followers are demanding her help putting on a mission to liberate Miami from a tyrant.
As we begin I point out that November is playing with a lot of hearts.
“That’s not how I see it,” she says.
"How do you see it?"
"I’m convincing people to do the right thing."
Start of Session Moves
We start with highlighting:- Jarhead gets Hot (by November since Gator is late) and Weird highlighted.
- Violet gets Hard (by November) and Sharp highlighted.
- November gets Sharp (by Violet) and Cool highlighted.
- When Gator arrives much later in the game, he gets Hard (by November) and Cool highlighted.
Next Violet rolls Fortunes roll (at +1) and gets an 8. For her want, she picks +diseased rather than +judgmental.
“They are not blaming me that way,” she explains.
So the flu spreads but she gets 2-barter and +insight.
Lockdown
The clouds begin to break as Lily and Starbuck return from their recruitment mission. On top of coming back alone, Violet grimly notes their sniffles and coughs. Lily approaches her."My family isn't going to help," the slender woman says. "They want to be seen getting involved." She pulls her thin lips into a scowl. "Plus none of them want to risk their own skins." Lily coughs and digs into the leather sack slung over her shoulder. "However even they see the trouble White is bringing. They gave me some funds to pay for some mercs."
We review Violet's plan to contact her friend Kim on the Big Ship and use her to find out who she can trust once White is taken out of the picture. "The only question is who gets sent there?" I ask.
"Probably someone they don’t know," she tells me.
Shelving that for a moment, I say, "here's another question, what are you going to do about the potential traitors?"
“The less White knows I know the better. Have we confirmed that they have turned traitor?”
"There’s no hard evidence. But they haven’t been forthcoming about dealing with White’s agent."
Violet then decides to use the Insight move for the first time.
Violet takes the barter as Starbuck joins them. She tells them, "Boo and the others are resting by the back corner. I'll bring some herbal tea over in moment."
Starbuck smiles wanly and guides Lily over there.
A few minutes later Violet joins the majority of her followers with a hot pot of tea. Joshua and Scarlet, the healthy ones remain absent. As the others sip their tea, Violet clears her throat, “we have a couple of people in the movement that I’m a little concerned about. I have evidence that casts doubt on their allegiances. I have an idea to ensure their loyalty and I would like your opinion on it."
Boo looks up from his cup of tea and looks where Joshua and Scarlet were sitting earlier. The older man shivers under his blanket. “Okay what’s the idea?” he asks.
“It's not fair to assume someone is guilty without due process," she explains. "But we are war and we need find out. My idea is we send them on a mission to test their loyalty.”
The gathering falls into an agitated discussion of how best to test them. Amid the coughs and sniffles, AOL's voice says, “If they are agents of White, we want to make sure whatever they let slip won’t harm our side.”
"We don’t want it to be an obvious trap either,” Violet adds.
A few mummer about sending them to the Big Ship. Boo coughs and shoots it down. "Besides if they make contact, we need to have someone to watch them do so.”
AOL sniffles. “The best way to handle it? There’s no place we can send them where they actually can hurt White. So we should give them a way to seemingly betray us that doesn’t actually harm us. You’ve got a deal going with A.T. right?”
"Yes," Violet says. "He’ll hold back and let us do our thing."
“So what do we know about what A.T. is bringing in? We can send them to a holding, not too far away, telling them to scout it out cause A.T. is going to move his men in there. Then we see what happens. If White’s forces scatter or mass for a counter attack, then we know that the information is not secure.”
"I like it. If we are watching, then we can also get a count of what their forces are like."
AOL sips more tea. “Of course we’ll need somebody to go scout it.”
Violet strokes her chin. "Perhaps somebody who is well."
"Yeah that seems to be in short supply at the moment. I mean you seem to be in good health. And it’s not like you’d have to get very close.”
"Alright," Violet says.
She now has +1 ongoing to follow the plan. I tell her, “and if it goes badly you earn experience.”
We cut to November
“What are you up do what are you doing with your time?” I ask.
"Not much. I do realize I’ve got three guys kind of on strings. That takes some juggling. So I’m juggling. I don’t want them to get too upset or possessive."
"Okay. A.T. is pretty busy with his men so it's not hard to keep him distracted. So you have Shadow who is spending more time at the Hospital, Wisher who hasn’t been around but you suspect is up to something with Jarhead, and then there is Mox. Mox has been sending a lot of glances your way."
"I'll spend some time with him."
I have her roll Acting under fire for her balancing act. She gets a 7.
November slips out of another Militia planning session when she spots Mox giving her another glance. The big man's eyes flick back toward the meeting room.
"Hey Mox what's wrong?" she asks with a sweet smile.
“Nothing," the soldier says. "It's just I was hoping you’d spend more time with me than with the boss. That’s all.”
"We’re together now," she explains, her lithe form drawing close to his. "What were you expecting?"
“I don’t know," he says letting his massive shoulders relax. "I got a nice allotment from the ration cards. Maybe we can have dinner together?”
"Sure." Her smile flattens slightly. "You know me from before Mox. You know I’m pretty open about things. I don’t want you to feel bad but I also don’t want you to feel possessive.”
"Yeah, I know you are your own woman." Mox points with one brown figure outside. "But what about that other guy?”
"Shadow?"
Mox nods. “I know don’t be possessive but he’s been throwing a lot of glances at me lately.”
November pauses a moment. "I can talk to him. He’s concerned that we’ve got somebody betraying us," she explains. "He doesn’t know you like I do. I’ll talk to him about it.”
"Alright," he says. "A lot of people have got that possessive thing. I’ll try to keep it down. I’ll see you for dinner."
As November seeks out Shadow, I turn to Jarhead. "You have a nice crew going. What do you put your emphasis on?"
Jarhead says he is working on the motorcycle for November. Waters is on the night vision goggles, Allison on the taser.
"The taser will take a week, the goggles will take longer. Waters is still healing and you still need parts for it. Oh and we'll be doing a time skip soon so you'll need to pay for food."
Jarhead decides to use Wasteland Survival to obtain food. He gets an 11 on his roll. He chooses that it is accomplished quickly, is good quality and can supply up to a small gang (i.e. his followers). The downside is it is perishable.
"I didn’t can it or anything," he explains. "I just want to feed my workers, keep them hardy and healthy."
Jarhead checks his traps in the drizzling rain. He pulls a cage from the collapsed sewer line. Inside he finds a massive rat, still twitching from the spike thrust through its head.
The tinkerer finishes it off.
Shadow helps him carry the haul back to the Autodoc. On the way his guardian says, “have you made any progress on your mission?”
"Yes," the wiry man says. "I do have one or two leads that the child has helped me look into.”
"Good. The village is looking forward to the message," savage replies.
As the pair return to the Autodoc, November intercepts them. “Looks like you guys did well.”
"It's not a bad haul," Jarhead says.
Shadow's mohawk glistens in the lobby's lights. "We caught what we were after."
"Want rat?" Jarhead asks hefting a five-pound beast.
"No thank you," she says.
"Suit yourself," the tinkerer says continuing to his workshop. He stops. "I seem to remember you had an Epad? Ipad?"
"A tablet, yes."
"If you want, for a barter I can charge it up and keep it charged for a week."
Shadow waits impatiently by the door into the loading dock.
"Are you going to have time to work on it now?" November asks.
"I think I can fit it in," he says.
"I don’t know what's on it because I can’t charge it up." She opens a flap on her pack. "But I can give you this music box in trade."
"Alright sure," he says taking a wooden box from her hand. As he cracks it open, a porcelain figurine turns in time with a piece of classical music. "That’s pretty neat. You hand over the tablet and I’ll get it charged up. Is tomorrow night alright?”
November gently takes the box back and hands him the tablet. "Okay I’ll give you the music box then."
We then suffer a slight slow down as I deal with the fact that Jarhead lost his character sheet. I keep records of everything so I fill him in.
November decides to Read a person on Jarhead and fails. She earns an experience.
“What are you intending to do with it?" she asks him as they enter the loading dock. "Why are you building up barter?”
Jarhead ignores her prying tone. “I don't know. Listen to it? Maybe I can hook it up some speakers, make it worth a little bit more. Do you think that would work?”
Shadow steps between them. "He has a mission to do. He doesn’t have time to deal with your trivialities.”
"What do you mean?" November says. "He asked me.”
"The mission costs money,” Jarhead tells the warrior.
"Are you okay Shadow?" the dancer asks.
"He will take care of it," Shadow tells her. "You don’t need to question him about it.”
November Reads a person on Shadow as does Jarhead. November gets a 10 and experience and Jarhead gets an 8.
November starts with how are you really feeling?
“Are you okay Shadow?” she repeats.
The hide-clad man frowns and grips his spear. "It's just that we’ve been spending so long here rather than on the mission.”
He’s frustrated.
November slowly says, “my friend Mox says you’ve been looking at him oddly. I know you see things that I miss sometimes as far as dangers.”
"I don’t trust him," the warrior admits, loosening his posture.
“Why not?”
"I don’t know these strangers, these Militia," he says as Jarhead puts the rats and traps into their respective places. Memo gets to work on gutting the food. "I don’t know this tribe."
“But he’s my friend, you know me,” she says softly.
How is he really feeling? she asks.
"That maybe he doesn’t know you."
"I suppose," he sighs.
“What do you want me to do?" she says, stepping closer to him. "I’m not part your mission but I haven’t been trying to hurt it.”
"I need to help your mystic to complete his mission," he says quickly, turning to Jarhead. "The safety of my tribe depends on it."
"I see what’s the next step?”
"We must find the messenger," he says.
Behind them Jarhead loses himself in repairing an engine.
“And where’s the messenger?” she asks, taking another step.
"Somewhere here I presume," he says with a shrug.
November turns to Jarhead. “Jarhead? Who’s the Messenger Jarhead?”
Jarhead looks up from his work. "What? Oh the Messenger."
The player also snaps out of a fugue.
November comments that Shadow wants the time jump too.
"Yes all the MC characters want the time jump," I say.
Jarhead uses his question. How could I get Shadow to be satisfied by our progress?
“If we at least had some sort of lead on where the Messenger was,” Shadow says as he stomps over to Memo and slashes open a rat.
November says, "lie to him, say you had a vision."
"Yes, he wants some sort of hope," I say. "There may be a hot roll in that though."
Then I get dinner.
Jarhead rolls Manipulate a person helped by November. November gets a soft hit giving him a +1 to Jarhead's roll but exposing herself to fall out. Jarhead gets an 8 and earns experience. He suggests telling Shadow he will use his Augury. November adds that he should invite Shadow when he uses it.
I return.
“I’m going to scry on the matter tonight," Jarhead tells Shadow. "If you to come around here at 8 o’clock tonight you can be a part of it.”
Shadow slows his cutting, turns and nods.
We switch to Violet.
Violet wanders the halls of the Autodoc, searching for Joshua and Scarlet. After an hour, she finds the traitorous pair in a recently cleaned room in the East Wing.
“What is up?” Joshua asks.
“I have a mission for you,” she says.
“A mission?”
“How much do you know about A.T.?” Violet asks watching them carefully.
Joshua looks to Scarlet. The woman scratches her dreadlocks. “Well there’s been talk about that bunch of Militia guys that came in this morning. He’s not going to cause trouble is he?”
“He’s moving in on Taters,” she tells them. “He’s going to try to secure it.”
We decided that Taters is the nearest holding with few civilians: consisting of potato patches atop a strip mall.
”It would also be the easier one to watch,” Violet says.
“I didn't realize we were working with him,” Joshua says slowly.
Violet continues, “we need you to watch what they do.”
I debate having her make a roll and decide against it. Mainly because none of the failure options are interesting.
“So we need to keep an eye on them.” he says. “When do we need to be out there?”
“First thing tomorrow. We don’t know exactly when they are moving.”
Joshua and Scarlet glance at each other for a moment. “Alright first light then.”
“Thank you.”
Then after that meeting:
A woman with an automatic rifle accosts Violet on her way into the lobby. “So you are friends with Gator right?”
Violet recalls the tough looking figure. Relaxing her shoulders, the survivalist nods to Gator’s lieutenant.
“I get the sense that you and Gator have some sort of gig going," the woman continues. "My name’s Morgana by the way.”
"Nice to meet you," Violet says.
“Yeah same here," she says, her eyes flicking to the exits. "So I don’t know what your deal is but I figure you must have some sort of work you need doing. The boss is busy with something or another but I was wondering if maybe I could take care of something for you." Morgana focuses her attention on Violet’s posture. "We've got a nice little Free Company that can take care of general violence needs, bodyguarding, security" Violet shifts. "Recon?"
"How about courier work?" Violet offers.
Morgana's dark eyes flash. “Not our usual thing but I’m going to guess there’s a bit of danger involved.”
"Something like that."
“Where to?” the mercenary asks.
"The ship," Violet says.
“Ah." Morgana nods. "I think I can find somebody to handle that for you. For a price. Who is the message for?”
"A lady by the name of Kim," Violet says evenly. "I’ll give the courier a description."
"Fair enough," she shrugs. Tapping her nose she says, "I’ll get Wire to do that for me. He’s a smart one. He’ll take care of it. So is this going to be a one time thing?”
"One time for now but with a possibility for more."
Morgana grins. “Here’s my offer, one barter for the job there and back, message delivered and if you do need a second message we’ll cover that. Beyond that we’ll have to talk again.”
"If she sends anything back will that also be covered?" Violet asks.
“Yeah, unless it's like a car or something.”
"Obviously."
“Okay I’ll send Wire along." She pauses. "Though because of the danger involved I’ll have to take payment upfront.”
"Understandable." Violet pulls out some barter.
“Well I’m a woman of my word, let’s shake on it, and get this job started.”
Violet takes Morgana's hand. "Okay we’ve got ourselves a deal."
Morgana takes the barter. "She’ll share some of it with Wire. She’s got to take some off the top because she’s wheeling and dealing on the side."
“Right," Violet says. "Well I think if he does a good job, I might give him a little bit of tip.”
A few minutes later a bushy haired man approaches Violet. The mercenary’s battered rifle clatters against the man’s banged up armor. Shots of gray pepper the man’s beard.
Jarhead comments, "that’s how you he’s good."
"Yes that's how you know he’s a good mercenary, he’s still alive and he’s like 30."
Violet adds, "and he’s not missing any limbs or anything."
“I'm Wire,"he says extending a calloused hand. "So Morgana says you’ve got a message to send to the Big Ship."
"Yes your contact is a lady by the name of Kim." Violet quickly describes her and where she can be found. Then she hands him a sealed envelope.
“So in case things go south,” Wire says.
"It is very possible," she comments.
The mercenary continues, “should I spend any time tossing this in the bay or something?”
"Just come back," she tells him.
Wire stows the letter under his battered armor. “Okay I like that, coming back alive. See you soon. I hope.”
Violet nods. "No one else can see that message so if you have to destroy it, destroy it."
Skip to that night.
A digital display on the wall ticks to 7:58. Jarhead points Shadow to a makeshift stool near the back of the van as he fiddles with the sphere, trying to zero in on the frequency of the Messenger. The savage sets his spear down and waits. With Jarhead's workers sent away, the hiss of Jarhead's screens compete with the sound of the vents for Shadow’s attention.
Jarhead rolls Augury and gets a 12. He chooses to reach through the psychic maelstrom to the Messenger both broadly and deeply. There will however be bleeding and it won't last long.
"What does bleeding mean?" Jarhead asks.
"Basically it means that it may do other things you didn't intend it to do. Like maybe other people start seeing your vision."
Jarhead scans the mental wavelengths, searching broadly for a signature that might be the Messenger. Then he gets a hit as he zeroes in a strange peak. The individual is nearby, inside the Autodoc!
The device vibrates in tune with this mental frequency. A horrible psychic whine echoes through the hospital. Jarhead feels it in his molars as a dull ache that grows as he moves away from the device. Shadow, ten feet away, grabs his ears.
"What is that noise?” the warrior cries.
"That’s what he gets for not trusting me," Jarhead says.
A moment later Jarhead turns the dial to the far end of the spectrum, killing the reverberations.
Elsewhere...
Violet checks her guns and gear one last time as she readies for her recon mission. A high pitch whine hits her out of nowhere, like a bee flying past her ear. A moment later it vanishes.
November bites into a bright red apple as it hits. The feedback whine turns the sweet smell of fruit into stabbing pain. Mox grips his head as the sound tears into his mind.
November Opens her brain but gets a 6.
I start with some questions. "Why did November leave home?"
"There were too many pressures on me to settle down. If I stayed much longer I’d never get to explore. There was a guy who wanted to marry me and people were assuming I would. My parents had pretty big ties to the community so I knew I just had to leave. I had a great opportunity when a travelling circus moved through the area. I left with them."
"Where was home?"
"My geography is not great, sort of on the eastern end of Oklahoma. New Orleans is where the family is from originally-"
"But it's under water," I interrupt.
“It's a middling sized holding called Tin Mountain,” she says.
"Sounds like a big old pile of scrap."
“If that’s what you want to believe.”
We then discuss how many questions I can actually ask. The text says I can ask "a question or two" so I drop it.
November opens her mind to the sound. What is its source?
The sound floods into her mind, crashing against her thoughts before shattering something inside of her. She glances around in the ensuing silence. Mox continues to grab his head and she hears cries of pain throughout the hospital.
She also realizes she feels screaming and mumbling within the maelstrom. The voices seem close and anguished. November turns her head, seeking the source. A scream of I’m dying, dying echoes in her mind. Somewhere nearby two familiar voices babble to each other.
Then it all stops. The whine, the pain, the screams, and the voices.
November Reads a sitch and earns an experience. She gets an 8. What should I be on the lookout for?
"Me," Jarhead jokes.
"That would be an accurate answer," I add.
November looks at the clock on the wall. The display read 8:04.
There was a bit of back and forth here on how much information was enough to reveal.
Jarhead, she thinks with a spark of irritation. But what was the other thing? It felt like something beyond the psychic maelstrom, that whatever Jarhead did resonated with me and let me see past it.
"But what you need to on the lookout for is-" I start.
Then my infant son starts crying.
"-a crying baby," I finish.
"Found it," Jarhead chimes.
"Your character sheet?" I ask.
"A crying baby?" November asks.
"Both," he says.
Then she realizes something more pressing. Those voices belonged to Joshua and Scarlet. Voices that sounded like someone drugged or brainwashed.
Mox rights his chair. “What, what was that?”
"I don’t know," November says, steadying herself. "I think we've got to check out two people. You want to come with me?"
“Sure,” he says without hesitation.
November leads Mox to where Violet's followers have gathered. The two turncoats are absent. Heading down a hallway, she reaches out again with her mind and calls Joshua.
Since he is the most easily manipulated.
She uses Lost and gets a 12. This also grants her a +1 forward with him.
Three minutes later, Joshua stumbles down the hallway towards them.
“Why am I here?” he says sleepily.
"Did you sense anything weird recently, that weird noise?" November asks.
It is at this point I decide the bleeding from the augury has messed up Joshua and Scarlet more than the rest.
November rolls Read a person and gets a 10 thanks to the +1. She also earns an experience, gets an advancement and raises her Hot to +3.
“I felt something,” he says. His eyes slide off of hers.
"I’m sensing something really off about you," she says. "What’s going on?"
"Is that a question?" I ask.
"Nope."
"I don’t know what you mean," he says looking away. "I just felt really strange like I had to come here."
She gestures for him to move along.“Yeah, yeah, we’re getting past that. What do you intend to do tomorrow for Violet?"
That's a question.
"We have a mission we've got to do," he says glancing at Mox. "We have to go spy on some maneuver that A.T.’s going to do." Joshua's eyes glaze slightly and he mumbles, "but White will want us to tell him about that."
November looks at Mox and jerks her head at the corner. Mox nods pulling a pistol before moving out of sight.
The dancer turns back to Joshua. "How could I get you come clean to Violet about what’s happening?"
"I can’t," he mumbles, "can’t do that, no I can’t."
November continues to press him, drawing close to him and lightly touching his arm.
So she can use Hypnotic on him.
Gator arrives at this point and let him know I'll recap once we finish this tense scene of cornered betrayers and social mind raping.
"I can’t resist White," Joshua says as she gently removes the magnifying glasses from his helmet. "White’s control, White’s powers. Rue Wakeman, he infected us with something."
November stops for moment before pressing on.
She guesses that Rue is the emissary she dealt with before. Using An arresting skinner she paralyzes him by removing his clothes. Then she rolls Hypnotize and gets a hard hit (and 3 hold over him).
As she removes his helmet she asks, "What are your current orders?"
"That is really really helpful," I tell her.
Joshua stares at her entranced. "White wants us to infect the air supply. Scarlet and I were finding a way into the air system. Scarlet had just climbed in. Then I felt a need to come this way."
November calls to Mox, “there’s an infected person in the air supply. Go get Gator and alert security. I got this.”
As Mox's heavy footfalls fade down the hall, she turns to Joshua. “How can I defend against it?”
“You need to get away," he yawns. "Away from us. My head hurts.”
"Come with me," she says, leading him deeper into the Autodoc, following signs to the isolation ward.
She also looks for a gas mask in vain.
And that's it for this week. Come back in two weeks for the explosive finale.
No comments:
Post a Comment