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 runs a gang of mercenaries and was hired to kill White, the warlord of Miami. He always completes a job.
- Jarhead (the Savvyhead) is a thin 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 as well as a little girl named Memo. His old mentor Sir Fredricks wants to talk with him. Too bad Jarhead left his mind in the psychic maelstrom.
- 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. Oh and now she works for the "gods".
- 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 to liberate Miami from a tyrant. November blew off half her face recently.
While we wait, we review people’s experience totals as I just finished writing up the previous session (in other words I caught up, finally). We determine Violet is missing a move. After much debate, she takes +1 hot to patch up her disability.
November comments however, “You could retire your character to safety and say ‘good job guys! You’ve got this democracy thing. Violet out.’”
We also discuss Violet’s impending playbook change. She intends to take Scholar and after some examination, I tell her that she would not lose any of her moves for that change.
We also discuss how much more of the game remains. At this point (the beginning of this session), it looks like 4 or so sessions. Enough time to resolve who takes over Miami, deal with Gator’s past, and cover the gods.
“I’d like to see the gods resolved,” I mention.
”He just wants to resolve theology that’s all,” November says. “No big. Like two sessions?”
“I think that’s what I said. Easy.”
Start of Session
Next we do highlighting. After all the talk last session about highlighting Hx, I decide to deliver. So we get lots of helping/hindering this session.”I didn’t know you could highlight Hx,” Jarhead comments.
”I’m the MC I can do what I want.”
In addition to Hx people highlight:
- Hot for November by Jarhead
”No, no. He said hot.”
- Jarhead marks Weird by Violet.
- Violet gets Sharp by November.
”Yes I do,” November says. “She’s the kind of girl who shoots first and asks questions never.”
- When Gator arrives he marks Hard from Violet.
Gator laughs and when I return says, ”but I still need something highlighted.”
“Hx is a real thing,” I tell him.
We begin with the love letters replicated below.
For Everyone
Last time we played a Tomahawk missile hit the Music Bowl in an event that the locals will recall as “the Night of Fire”.Many people died during that event including:
- Amber: crushed to death in a stampede.
- Pandora: killed by falling debris.
- Pellet: died holding up a doorway so the Council of Elders could escape.
”So they were all connected me?” November asks.
“I rolled the dice randomly,” I say.
”Whatever ‘gods’.”
”The Council of Elders survived,” I mention. “Those jerks made it through.”
Name one true thing about White as a person. What does he look like? how does he act? What are his likes and dislikes?
I run over what is already known about him, ending with his now deceased freaky minions.
“We’ve cornered the market on freaky minions,” Violet says.
After some joke answers like being him being immortal, November states, “he’s 12 years old.”
”That would be surprising,” I say.
“I’m going with that,” she decides.
“He fought and killed an alligator when he was 7,” Jarhead says next. “He still bears the scars to this day.”
”So some sort of feral child or something?” I say.
”Why weren’t we playing with him earlier?” November jokes.
Violet considers it for a while. “He’s probably pretty fast in combat.”
”He could be a ninja,” I suggest. “A ninja with the soul of a demon inside him. Some sort of nine tailed beast. No. Wait. That’s Naruto.”
“He fights in close range,” she states. “He’s very fond of daggers.”
”I could get in a knife fight with him,” November comments.
“Totally!” I comment. “A knife fight in the interior radioactive parts of the ship.”
Violet adds, ”he also likes to use shrapnel.”
Later when he arrives, Gator adds that he hates spiders.
“I think you are projecting,” I comment knowing Gator’s real world feelings about arachnids.
Jarhead
You acquired a gang last session. What are they like? Do they follow you because they are attracted to your weirdness or because they think you can solve their problems?Don’t forget Sir Fredricks wants to talk to you.
I also included the rules for creating a new gang but I’ll omit those here.
In the end Jarhead says, ”they are just as enthralled with technology as I am but not as good at making it. So I’m like a god to them.” He calls them technologically inept technophiles.
Mechanically he goes with well armed and self-sufficient, and ultimately (after playing with choosing loose-knit) savage as their downside. I helped his decision by comparing them to the war boys of Mad Max: Fury Road.
”That would actually be funny,” Jarhead says. “They love the technology but they are meat heads.”
Violet
You still have the climbers. The device Memo made you is still doing whatever it does but roll +hard anyway.You find yourself outside the burning ruins with Jarhead and his people (which is growing fast as survivors flock to him). Lily, Joshua and Starbuck catch up to you. They demand to know who hurt you and want to bring them down. What do you do?
Violet makes her hard roll with a 11.
This is her second success which means by the rules I wrote for the climbers that she’s fought off the infection. Not that she knows that.
She also rolls Fortunes and gets a 9. As usual she chooses +judgemental.
“No plague option, how sad,” I comment.
”I did the plague once, it sucked,” she tells me.
What do you do?
I’ll save her response for the session proper.
You get some rest before dawn but you wake up feeling your wife’s cold dead hands on you. She keeps whispering that Gabi hates you.
As you break camp, some of the men question assaulting the Big Ship. What do you do?
“Kill him,” they hiss. “He hurt us. Eliminate him. Murder. Pain.”
She concentrates for a moment, projecting her thoughts. He hurt us? What do you mean?
“Fire. Fire, pain,” they whisper. “Murder him for us. Murder the child.”
She glances to the man beside her. “Can you see if Amber and Sharp made it out? I’ll meet you over there,” she points, “it looks like the survivors are gathering there.”
Wisher nods and heads off. Once he is out of sight, she races for the wastes and performs a ritual to the gods.
Calmer but with voices of hate, they tell her, “White, he has hurt us, he must be destroyed.”
November tries to decides who to go to move on White. I tell her that the forces are in disarray without Violet. “She was one of the heads of this until you shot her. In the head.”
The dancer orients herself by the fires and the growing light to the east. She heads for Gator’s camp.
To Violet and Jarhead.
Jarhead’s van bounces along the fire lit parking lot of the Music Bowl. Violet glances in driver’s side mirror. Lily’s motorcycle keeps pace, silhouetted by the raging fires. Jarhead pushes through the cramped confines of the back, crawling over his helpers and guards to peer over Violet’s shoulder.
“Eyes up!” He says pointing to a group of heavily armed men and women moving to intercept them. “Shit, shit, shit.”
Violet picks out their blue circuit board tattoos in her headlights, their chromed weapons, and recycled bits of armor and clothing. Tech worshippers.
“Don’t look at them, just keep driving,” Jarhead says. “We don’t know them. Maybe they’ll leave us alone.”
Violet swerves away. As they leave the strangers behind, Lily pulls alongside Violet. “Alright we got that taken care of,” she shouts. “Now are you going to tell what happened to you!”
Given Violet’s head injury, she acts under fire to recall all details. She gets a 12! and recalls all details plus some stuff she missed the first time.
Violet thinks back. To the fungus infested tunnels. Chasing Cougar. The ceremony. Blood. The pieces of the puzzle fall together with crystal clarity. November lured Cougar to a ritually prepared chamber. There she slit the giant’s throat, bleeding her onto a pattern in the soft earth. Strands of mycelium swelled with each drop, a throbbing pulse of mental energy reaching her weakly as it grew. November unlike Cougar or herself was maskless, unaffected by the plague. November worked for the enemy, a force working against her and her aims. She felt she had no other option and shot first. November returned fire and everything went black.
“I guess I found the Messenger,” Jarhead mutters as she recounts the events.
“But what is she the messenger of?” Violet says.
Jarhead twists his head to look at her. “Come on really? They never said they were looking for the good side of life.”
Lily gets shakes her head. “What!! November sent Boo and the others to the Autodoc! And she shot you in the face.”
Violet nods.
“You got the jump on her and she shot you in the face?” Jarhead comments.
The gang cracks up.
“I’m about as confused about that as you are,” Violet says sourly.
Allison calls out from the back. “Well she does have that really big shotgun.”
“You’re clearly not a war leader,” Jarhead tells Violet. “Stick with motivational speaking.”
“And didn’t she also capture Cougar?” The young woman shouts forward as she pushes up to the front. “November sounds pretty dangerous.”
Violet looks back through the rearview mirror. “You’ve seen what happens when she has her way.”
“You’ve seen what happens when she dances?” Jarhead says.
Memo suddenly climbs on top of the pile of junk on the front passenger seat. “Maybe we should talk to someone who can handle her? Like Gator.”
“Gator can handle her?” Jarhead says.
“If he can’t handle her then who?” the little girl asks. “Maybe White, I heard he took a gator once.”
“They have things in common, wonderful.”
Violet muses. “That’s not a bad idea.”
To Gator as he arrives! I explain Jarhead is scared of his own gang.
”And you call me out for not being leader material,” Violet says.
Gator wakes with a start. Rubbing the feel of sharp cold fingers from his skin, he gets up and surveys his team. Already the mercenary company is readying to move on. The growing light to the east begins to overtake the blaze behind them.
As he gathers his gear, he listens as the men discuss their task.
“Do we really want to take the Big Ship?” One of them questions. “That place is a fortress.”
Gator’s eyes size up the dissenter. Crudehammer shifts uneasily in his swat gear under his gaze.
Gator tells him, “we don’t need to take the Big Ship, we just have to kill White.”
We also decide Crudehammer favors grenades.
The balding man turns to him. “Okay we kill White, how do we do that? That scrawny little kid’s not going to show himself. Not off the ship.”
“So we either find a vantage point to snipe from, we lure him out somehow or we sneak in.”
Crudehammer frowns. “I don’t how good your rifle is, but you’ll have be pretty far out to have height on the Big Ship.”
Gator nods grimly. “I know.”
“I know he was looking for help at one point,” the younger man offers. “He needed somebody to fix things.”
Gator grins. “I know somebody who can fix things. We could pose as his guard.”
Crudehammer shrugs.
“Either way we are not going to attack it by force,” Gator reassures him. “If we can’t get height or get him out, then we’ll sneak in. I’m working on a plan. Everybody just be ready.”
Morgana glances only for a moment as Jarhead’s van approaches. As she turns to direct the last of the breaking of camp, Gator strides forward. Lily’s motorcycle continues to shadow the van.
He notes Violet in the driver’s seat with a frown. A raw wound covers the left side of her face. The scoring and charring tells him what did the damage. But not why.
Gator says, “Lily found Violet. That’s good. Her face is fucked up. That’s not good.”
As Violet pulls the vehicle to a stop, Gator heads for the driver’s side window. “What the fuck happened to you?”
“I got shot in the face, what does it look like?” she says loudly.
“Kinda of looks like you got shot in the face,” he says. “With a shotgun or something.”
Lily stops behind him. “You’ve got to hear the whole story though.”
He glances back at her. “Looks like she took a shotgun to the face.”
“Yes we have established this,” Violet says with a scowl.
“You’re looking pretty good for taking a shotgun to the face.”
“But it’s the who that’s important!” Lily interrupts.
“So who shot you?” Gator asks.
Violet fills him in, holding back none of the details.
Gator runs over the story. “So November shot you. And you shot November because she was killing Cougar. Cougar was a waste anyway. Why keep her around?”
“I thought I could get some intel from her,” she explains.
Gator look into the van. “Okay, hey Jarhead are you in there?”
Jarhead squirms out of the back. “Hey how’s it going?”
Gator turns to him. “Remember that thing about Sir Fredricks? About November doing something dangerous. Could you find out about that? Now?”
“About Sir Fredrick's?” the tinkerer says.
“Fucking talk to Sir Fredricks,” Gator orders.
“Who is Sir Fredricks?” Violet asks as she gets out of the van as well.
“He’s a dead guy who knows Jarhead.”
“He’s not technically dead,’ Jarhead corrects. “His body is still alive.”
“Jarhead! Do it now. This is not a request.”
Violet stands beside Gator. ”You know what Jarhead, just do it!”
Violet helps Gator’s manipulate a person and gets a 11. She marks experience. Gator then gets a 12.
After some deliberations, Jarhead takes the experience.
“Alright,” Jarhead says. “You know what? Sure, I’ll do it!”
The smaller man pulls the Tesla sphere out of the back and then grabs Gator’s hand.
He gets an 8 on his augury roll and marks experience. Gator helps rolling Hx to get an 8. November slips in to help as well with a 11. Both mark experience.
“Awesome,” Violet says. “Wait! What?”
As the pair concentrate on the humming device, November slips through the growing crowd donning an extra scarf across her face as she spots Violet. Sensing what Jarhead’s purpose she grabs the scrawny inventor’s shoulder and gives a mental push.
Jarhead reaches through the psychic maelstrom to Sir Fredricks, reaching deep and broad.
I give November the option of being bound up with the augury (since she rolls high enough not to be exposed). She opts to stay out of it.
Instantly Gator and Jarhead feel a presence in their minds. The smell of dust thickens the air as the pair's thoughts intermingle. A roiling hot intensity settles on them.
“Gator meet Sir Fredricks,” Jarhead says within this Maelstrom space.
"It’s about time Jarhead!" Fredricks shouts. "What took you so long!”
"I’ve been busy."
”I’ve been trapped in here for five years!” the professor cries.
"Really? Has it been that long? But look I’m almost there."
“My body wastes away and I am but a ghost in these realms," the presence laments. "I will choke the life from you yet!”
"Can you hold off on the choking?" Gator interrupts. "What’s going on with November?"
“November is involved with the Others." The professor switches focus. "Jarhead I need you to build me a device. A device to allow me to escape from this realm.”
"Yeah I’m trying."
“Try harder!”
"Working on it," Jarhead says. "It's taken me five years to get this far. At least I’ve got helpers now who are competent."
“If only I had a helper who had been competent.”
"Are you trying to ask for my help or not?" Jarhead asks, the cheer dropping from his voice.
“What Others?” Gator asks.
"The Others," Sir Fredricks says. "The ones who have been in this realm far longer than me. Other minds, the ones that don’t sleep."
"What does that mean?”
"The old ones, the ones from the Golden Age. They are still here. All of the infected, all of them. They linger in this realm. They live, dream, mumble, rave and scream. It's horrible! Five years!"
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Jarhead says.
"The infected? All of them?" Gator asks. "I’m confused."
"He’s talking about the old gods who control the infection," Jarhead explains.
“The infection, they are the infection!” Fredricks raves.
"So they are the infection," Jarhead says. "Climbers are gods. Wow, that’s not scary at all."
The professor harrumphs. “You have no idea what you are talking about.”
"Why don’t you enlighten him?" Gator says.
“I could explain it...but you didn’t even put the safety protocols on that device!” Suddenly Jarhead is struck by Sir Fredricks's rage. His limbs twitch out of his control for a moment before Jarhead thrusts the mad professor from his body.
Jarhead has to roll acting under fire as the psychic entity attempts to possess him. Luckily he gets a 11.
“Let me out of here Jarhead! Let me out!” the professor rails.
"We are working on it," Gator says calmly. "So what do you mean by ‘she’s working with the infected'? Is she infecting people? She’s helping the climbers?"
Sir Fredericks lowers his voice. “I told you she’s working with the old minds. They’re crazy. They’ve been here fifty years! Can you imagine what that would feel like? Fifty years without a body, without sensation. Hungering for the world.”
"But if they are the climbers then they are in the world."
“Yes as a mindless fungus.”
"Then what is November doing?"
“She’s satisfying their base interests,” Fredricks says.
"Base interests of murder and death?" Violet asks.
“They are crazy, they think they can get stronger by drinking blood. They are lost, hopelessly deranged.”
"How do we stop them?" Gator asks.
“Stop them?”
"You’ve been here five years. Have you been doing nothing in that whole time?" he admonishes.
“I’ve been trying to keep sane!" he exclaims. "Maybe we could build a weapon or doorway to attack them. But I need to get out of here. Jarhead you must help me.”
"Do you really have a body to go back to?" Jarhead says.
“I can still feel it faintly. Growing weaker and weaker by the day.“
"Who kept you alive?" the inventor asks. "It was Trista wasn’t it."
“She loves me!” he cries.
"She’s just using you. That’s besides the point though."
Gator puzzles over the information. "So we need to find someway to stop the gods. By building a door, which sounds like a bad idea. Or a weapon, which sounds like a good idea."
Jarhead adds, "with a door...doors are not necessarily selective. I suggest a weapon."
"Can you do that Jarhead?"
"I can when I’ve got some time."
"What do you know about White Sir Fredricks?" Gator asks.
“He has unique abilities. He’s a freak! A prodigy,” the old man says. “Something about him is unnatural.”
"They say that about me too," Jarhead says.
The professor addresses the mercenary. “Not unnatural like Jarhead’s unhinged mind or your scars. He was born different. His mother died of the climbers while he was in her womb.”
"So he’s infected and not infected?" Gator says.
“Something happened to his chromosomes, no one's really sure. He projects into the maelstrom while remaining connected to the real world. It's something none of the old minds understand so they fear him.”
"So the old gods fear him," Jarhead puzzles. "November works for the old gods, and the old gods are bad, so does that mean November is bad?"
Gator stays silent, keeping his thoughts and November's secrets to himself.
By which I mean I recap last session for him. It has been two months in real life.
Violet starts the next scene by reading a charged sitch. She fails, helped by November interfering. For her part November gets a 12 on her Hx roll, marks experience, and gains an advancement. She increases her Weird by 1. Violet also marks experience.
Violet watches Gator and Jarhead carefully as they mumble into thin air. The roar of engines pulls her gaze to the south.
A pair of motorcycles flank the Militia jeep as it pulls up to the gathering. While A.T. and Mox carefully climb out, Fire pulls her bike right next to them and dismounts.
“You made it out, good,” Fire says. “We need to act on this now. What’s Gator doing? Gator?”
While the teen waves a gauntleted hand in front of Gator’s face, Violet explains. “They are looking for information.”
“Now!?” Fire says, turning to face her. “We have more important things to be doing than looking into the freaking maelstrom. There’s bound to be another missile any time now.”
“True. Did you make it to the ship? Did you find out anything about the situation there?”
A.T. and Mox catch up to gathering as Fire fills her in. “I got to the holding nearest the ship. 711. The whole place was cleared out. Recently too. White must have grabbed the entire holding. I don’t know what happened to them but I expect we’ll be seeing them soon.”
November slips through the growing crowd of mercenaries, technicians and Militia. She whispers, “we’ve got to take White down.”
The topic threads through the crowd. “We need to move now,” Wire says.
“We need every man,” a soldier mutters.
“Somebody better wake up Gator,” Allison says.
I quickly outline for Violet how bad a frontal assault would be. They would need to slog through waist deep water and radioactive mud or paddle a boat across the 200 foot gap. All while exposed to 50 caliber machine gun fire. Or they could try to scale the rusty wet anchor chain while exposed to pot shots from the deck.
“We don’t have time for this,” Fire says as she moves to shove Gator.
Violet shouts, “a full out assault is going to get everyone killed! We need to find a way to get on that ship without getting turned into swiss cheese by those machine guns. Give them some time.”
Violet rolls towering presence and gets a 12, gaining +1 forward against Fire.
”I probably look pretty intimidating right now,” she says. “I did survive getting shot in the face.”
”See I did you a favor,” November says.
After some debate, I decide Fire chooses to attack Violet.
Fire glares at her. “Why don’t you shut up.”
Fire moves quickly, arm stretching out for a punch. November interposes herself, knocking the thuggish woman off-balance. As the hot-headed teen struggles to regain her footing, Violet rushes in and grapples her.
November helps Violet gets a 7, which exposes her. At least she marks experience. Violet then rolls acting under fire to dodge Fire and grapple her.
“I’m trying to get her to use her head,” she says.
”Good luck with that.”
Violet gets a 9 which with the +1 makes it 10.
“Use your brain for once,” Violet says as she pulls fire’s arms behind her back. “You can’t stop White if you are dead.”
Caught in a bodylock, Fire fumes and struggles. “If you don’t fight you are useless anyway.”
“Shut the fuck up kid,” November says, her scarf knocked askew. “Listen to your betters.”
November rolls to manipulate and Violet chooses not to help or interfere.
Violet looks up. “Hi there traitor. I deal with you in a second.”
November gets a 10 and marks experience.
As Fire quiets down, November tells Violet. “If you want to get on that ship, we have to get across the water and past the guns without being shot. We need a way to incapacitate the guns or make sure they don’t feel like they have to use them.”
We quickly review intel they logically would have from Taters about how White runs his remote holdings. He would send a few men to keep an eye on it along with a few people infected with the climbers as an insurance policy. The rest was coordinated via radio. He didn’t seem to have a forward base for aiming his airstrikes.
Violet considers the options. “We pretend we are a delegation from the arena offering surrender. Then we get on board with concealed weapons.”
The Tesla sphere stops humming. Gator and Jarhead blink to awareness.
“Welcome back boys,” November says, her eyes on Gator. A.T. slips next to the scarred mercenary.
“This is unexpected,” Jarhead says watching as Fire fumes in Violet’s bear hug.
November reads a person on Gator. He chooses to help her. He gets an 11 and an experience. November gets an 11 total.
A.T. speaks up. “We were just discussing our options for getting onto the Big Ship.”
“Okay,” Gator says. “We have two options. One, we try to sneak on board. White is looking for a mechanic, a fix it person. So we could use Jarhead.” Jarhead sighs as he continues. “Some of us could get on board with him.”
As Gator considers the team roster, November offers, “I’m good with costumes.”
November uses her hold to ask, “what is Gator feeling (about me being there)?”
He answers surprised that you popped out of nowhere. “I don’t want to shoot you,” he offers.
”That’s one party member that doesn’t want to shoot me,” she says.
“And Jarhead has never shot anybody,” I mention.
Gator gauges her warily but nods. “The other option is we sneak in under cover of darkness, which is going to be freaking hard.”
“We could always mount two prongs,” she suggests.
A.T. says, “we should send your team in first and have a second team to sneak in that night if you need backup.”
“I don’t know if you like me or dislike me the way you volunteer me for all sorts of things,” Jarhead mutters.
“You just have to look pretty,” Gator tells him. “You don’t have to do anything. Except build that weapon.”
“It’s not as simple as banging two rocks together,” he protests.
Gator eyes him. “Are you saying you can’t do it?”
“I can do it. It’s just going to take me some time.”
“You might notice we don’t have a whole lot of time right now,” Gator says forcefully. “White has missiles. And he knows how to aim them now.”
“Okay but how far can they reach?”
“Pretty fucking far.”
“And how well can he aim them?” the inventor asks looking to his van.
“Pretty fucking well.” Gator points at the smoke clad ruins behind them. “Can you see the Music Bowl?”
“Can we drive away fast enough?” Jarhead says.
“Probably not fast enough.”
There’s a lot more of this but I’m cutting a lot of extraneous dialog out.
Eventually Jarhead uses his workshop to figure out what he needs to shoot the gods. He’ll need to disassemble the augury, a large power source, November or other psychic for targeting purposes, and he will be exposed to danger.
The smaller man sighs. “If he can hit a moving target, I need to find out what he has. Anyway I need a big power source. Like a nuclear reactor.
“And I’m going to need her,” he says pointing at November. “We’ll need a lot of protection. The gods are not going to be happy about this killing the gods thing, they are going to try to stop it. And should we be talking about this in front of her?”
November shakes her head.
“I’m just going to go somewhere...else,” Jarhead says backpedaling toward his van.
November uses up another hold. “What does Gator wish I would do?”
”I want you on the mission to keep an eye on you,” he says.
A.T. looks at Jarhead’s helpers as they look on from the back of the van. “Do we want to bring more actual repair people beyond Jarhead?”
Jarhead turns and says, “Memo you are staying here. Stay put. Stay.”
As she nods, he continues, “Let’s go Allison.”
“Okay,” she says. She follows him haltingly.
Gator glances at Morgana. “I need you watch over the others. Gremlin, you are also coming.”
Gremlin is Gator’s demolitions and sabotage expert.
The balding man stows his gear and joins the rest of the team: November, Gator, Jarhead, and Allison.
“A five man crew seems about right,” A.T. says. “More than that would seem suspicious.”
“I agree,” Violet says.
“That leaves the roles,” Gator says donning a gasmask. “I’m the muscle.”
“And I’m in training,’ November says.
A.T. and the Militia help them switch out their weapons and heavy armor. Gator leaves his MP5 behind and swaps his armor for something homemade. He carefully dissembles his sniper rifle and with Jarhead’s help disguises the pieces as repair equipment. November simply leaves her armor behind. She buys a bikini made of circuit boards from one of the refugees, a woman named Mercy. Clad in that and some scarves, she joins the others as they take the Militia’s jeep to the coast.
Mercy has an axe and will be one of Jarhead’s gang.
“You can keep your knives,” I tell them. “They are like jello, there’s always room for knives, both hiding them and putting them into people.”
Violet jumps in Lily’s sidecar and the pair race north to the Autodoc.
And that's it for two weeks! Next week assassinations, bad encounters, and zombies!
She also rolls Fortunes and gets a 9. As usual she chooses +judgemental.
“No plague option, how sad,” I comment.
”I did the plague once, it sucked,” she tells me.
November
You and Wisher got out just in time but you can feel the angry buzzing of the gods in the back of your mind. Wisher doesn’t seem to want to leave your presence and the gods keep whispering “Kill him. He hurt us. Eliminate him. Murder. Pain.”What do you do?
I’ll save her response for the session proper.
Gator
Your men got out fine. You still have to deal with the revelation that November is working for the gods and wants your help (and they are always watching her).You get some rest before dawn but you wake up feeling your wife’s cold dead hands on you. She keeps whispering that Gabi hates you.
As you break camp, some of the men question assaulting the Big Ship. What do you do?
Kill White
The gods buzz angrily in the back of November’s mind as she and Wisher climb through the burning wreckage of the Music Bowl.“Kill him,” they hiss. “He hurt us. Eliminate him. Murder. Pain.”
She concentrates for a moment, projecting her thoughts. He hurt us? What do you mean?
“Fire. Fire, pain,” they whisper. “Murder him for us. Murder the child.”
She glances to the man beside her. “Can you see if Amber and Sharp made it out? I’ll meet you over there,” she points, “it looks like the survivors are gathering there.”
Wisher nods and heads off. Once he is out of sight, she races for the wastes and performs a ritual to the gods.
Calmer but with voices of hate, they tell her, “White, he has hurt us, he must be destroyed.”
November tries to decides who to go to move on White. I tell her that the forces are in disarray without Violet. “She was one of the heads of this until you shot her. In the head.”
The dancer orients herself by the fires and the growing light to the east. She heads for Gator’s camp.
To Violet and Jarhead.
Jarhead’s van bounces along the fire lit parking lot of the Music Bowl. Violet glances in driver’s side mirror. Lily’s motorcycle keeps pace, silhouetted by the raging fires. Jarhead pushes through the cramped confines of the back, crawling over his helpers and guards to peer over Violet’s shoulder.
“Eyes up!” He says pointing to a group of heavily armed men and women moving to intercept them. “Shit, shit, shit.”
Violet picks out their blue circuit board tattoos in her headlights, their chromed weapons, and recycled bits of armor and clothing. Tech worshippers.
“Don’t look at them, just keep driving,” Jarhead says. “We don’t know them. Maybe they’ll leave us alone.”
Violet swerves away. As they leave the strangers behind, Lily pulls alongside Violet. “Alright we got that taken care of,” she shouts. “Now are you going to tell what happened to you!”
Given Violet’s head injury, she acts under fire to recall all details. She gets a 12! and recalls all details plus some stuff she missed the first time.
Violet thinks back. To the fungus infested tunnels. Chasing Cougar. The ceremony. Blood. The pieces of the puzzle fall together with crystal clarity. November lured Cougar to a ritually prepared chamber. There she slit the giant’s throat, bleeding her onto a pattern in the soft earth. Strands of mycelium swelled with each drop, a throbbing pulse of mental energy reaching her weakly as it grew. November unlike Cougar or herself was maskless, unaffected by the plague. November worked for the enemy, a force working against her and her aims. She felt she had no other option and shot first. November returned fire and everything went black.
“I guess I found the Messenger,” Jarhead mutters as she recounts the events.
“But what is she the messenger of?” Violet says.
Jarhead twists his head to look at her. “Come on really? They never said they were looking for the good side of life.”
Lily gets shakes her head. “What!! November sent Boo and the others to the Autodoc! And she shot you in the face.”
Violet nods.
“You got the jump on her and she shot you in the face?” Jarhead comments.
The gang cracks up.
“I’m about as confused about that as you are,” Violet says sourly.
Allison calls out from the back. “Well she does have that really big shotgun.”
“You’re clearly not a war leader,” Jarhead tells Violet. “Stick with motivational speaking.”
“And didn’t she also capture Cougar?” The young woman shouts forward as she pushes up to the front. “November sounds pretty dangerous.”
Violet looks back through the rearview mirror. “You’ve seen what happens when she has her way.”
“You’ve seen what happens when she dances?” Jarhead says.
Memo suddenly climbs on top of the pile of junk on the front passenger seat. “Maybe we should talk to someone who can handle her? Like Gator.”
“Gator can handle her?” Jarhead says.
“If he can’t handle her then who?” the little girl asks. “Maybe White, I heard he took a gator once.”
“They have things in common, wonderful.”
Violet muses. “That’s not a bad idea.”
To Gator as he arrives! I explain Jarhead is scared of his own gang.
”And you call me out for not being leader material,” Violet says.
Gator wakes with a start. Rubbing the feel of sharp cold fingers from his skin, he gets up and surveys his team. Already the mercenary company is readying to move on. The growing light to the east begins to overtake the blaze behind them.
As he gathers his gear, he listens as the men discuss their task.
“Do we really want to take the Big Ship?” One of them questions. “That place is a fortress.”
Gator’s eyes size up the dissenter. Crudehammer shifts uneasily in his swat gear under his gaze.
Gator tells him, “we don’t need to take the Big Ship, we just have to kill White.”
We also decide Crudehammer favors grenades.
The balding man turns to him. “Okay we kill White, how do we do that? That scrawny little kid’s not going to show himself. Not off the ship.”
“So we either find a vantage point to snipe from, we lure him out somehow or we sneak in.”
Crudehammer frowns. “I don’t how good your rifle is, but you’ll have be pretty far out to have height on the Big Ship.”
Gator nods grimly. “I know.”
“I know he was looking for help at one point,” the younger man offers. “He needed somebody to fix things.”
Gator grins. “I know somebody who can fix things. We could pose as his guard.”
Crudehammer shrugs.
“Either way we are not going to attack it by force,” Gator reassures him. “If we can’t get height or get him out, then we’ll sneak in. I’m working on a plan. Everybody just be ready.”
Morgana glances only for a moment as Jarhead’s van approaches. As she turns to direct the last of the breaking of camp, Gator strides forward. Lily’s motorcycle continues to shadow the van.
He notes Violet in the driver’s seat with a frown. A raw wound covers the left side of her face. The scoring and charring tells him what did the damage. But not why.
Gator says, “Lily found Violet. That’s good. Her face is fucked up. That’s not good.”
As Violet pulls the vehicle to a stop, Gator heads for the driver’s side window. “What the fuck happened to you?”
“I got shot in the face, what does it look like?” she says loudly.
“Kinda of looks like you got shot in the face,” he says. “With a shotgun or something.”
Lily stops behind him. “You’ve got to hear the whole story though.”
He glances back at her. “Looks like she took a shotgun to the face.”
“Yes we have established this,” Violet says with a scowl.
“You’re looking pretty good for taking a shotgun to the face.”
“But it’s the who that’s important!” Lily interrupts.
“So who shot you?” Gator asks.
Violet fills him in, holding back none of the details.
Gator runs over the story. “So November shot you. And you shot November because she was killing Cougar. Cougar was a waste anyway. Why keep her around?”
“I thought I could get some intel from her,” she explains.
Gator look into the van. “Okay, hey Jarhead are you in there?”
Jarhead squirms out of the back. “Hey how’s it going?”
Gator turns to him. “Remember that thing about Sir Fredricks? About November doing something dangerous. Could you find out about that? Now?”
“About Sir Fredrick's?” the tinkerer says.
“Fucking talk to Sir Fredricks,” Gator orders.
“Who is Sir Fredricks?” Violet asks as she gets out of the van as well.
“He’s a dead guy who knows Jarhead.”
“He’s not technically dead,’ Jarhead corrects. “His body is still alive.”
“Jarhead! Do it now. This is not a request.”
Violet stands beside Gator. ”You know what Jarhead, just do it!”
Violet helps Gator’s manipulate a person and gets a 11. She marks experience. Gator then gets a 12.
After some deliberations, Jarhead takes the experience.
“Alright,” Jarhead says. “You know what? Sure, I’ll do it!”
The smaller man pulls the Tesla sphere out of the back and then grabs Gator’s hand.
He gets an 8 on his augury roll and marks experience. Gator helps rolling Hx to get an 8. November slips in to help as well with a 11. Both mark experience.
“Awesome,” Violet says. “Wait! What?”
As the pair concentrate on the humming device, November slips through the growing crowd donning an extra scarf across her face as she spots Violet. Sensing what Jarhead’s purpose she grabs the scrawny inventor’s shoulder and gives a mental push.
Jarhead reaches through the psychic maelstrom to Sir Fredricks, reaching deep and broad.
I give November the option of being bound up with the augury (since she rolls high enough not to be exposed). She opts to stay out of it.
Instantly Gator and Jarhead feel a presence in their minds. The smell of dust thickens the air as the pair's thoughts intermingle. A roiling hot intensity settles on them.
“Gator meet Sir Fredricks,” Jarhead says within this Maelstrom space.
"It’s about time Jarhead!" Fredricks shouts. "What took you so long!”
"I’ve been busy."
”I’ve been trapped in here for five years!” the professor cries.
"Really? Has it been that long? But look I’m almost there."
“My body wastes away and I am but a ghost in these realms," the presence laments. "I will choke the life from you yet!”
"Can you hold off on the choking?" Gator interrupts. "What’s going on with November?"
“November is involved with the Others." The professor switches focus. "Jarhead I need you to build me a device. A device to allow me to escape from this realm.”
"Yeah I’m trying."
“Try harder!”
"Working on it," Jarhead says. "It's taken me five years to get this far. At least I’ve got helpers now who are competent."
“If only I had a helper who had been competent.”
"Are you trying to ask for my help or not?" Jarhead asks, the cheer dropping from his voice.
“What Others?” Gator asks.
"The Others," Sir Fredricks says. "The ones who have been in this realm far longer than me. Other minds, the ones that don’t sleep."
"What does that mean?”
"The old ones, the ones from the Golden Age. They are still here. All of the infected, all of them. They linger in this realm. They live, dream, mumble, rave and scream. It's horrible! Five years!"
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Jarhead says.
"The infected? All of them?" Gator asks. "I’m confused."
"He’s talking about the old gods who control the infection," Jarhead explains.
“The infection, they are the infection!” Fredricks raves.
"So they are the infection," Jarhead says. "Climbers are gods. Wow, that’s not scary at all."
The professor harrumphs. “You have no idea what you are talking about.”
"Why don’t you enlighten him?" Gator says.
“I could explain it...but you didn’t even put the safety protocols on that device!” Suddenly Jarhead is struck by Sir Fredricks's rage. His limbs twitch out of his control for a moment before Jarhead thrusts the mad professor from his body.
Jarhead has to roll acting under fire as the psychic entity attempts to possess him. Luckily he gets a 11.
“Let me out of here Jarhead! Let me out!” the professor rails.
"We are working on it," Gator says calmly. "So what do you mean by ‘she’s working with the infected'? Is she infecting people? She’s helping the climbers?"
Sir Fredericks lowers his voice. “I told you she’s working with the old minds. They’re crazy. They’ve been here fifty years! Can you imagine what that would feel like? Fifty years without a body, without sensation. Hungering for the world.”
"But if they are the climbers then they are in the world."
“Yes as a mindless fungus.”
"Then what is November doing?"
“She’s satisfying their base interests,” Fredricks says.
"Base interests of murder and death?" Violet asks.
“They are crazy, they think they can get stronger by drinking blood. They are lost, hopelessly deranged.”
"How do we stop them?" Gator asks.
“Stop them?”
"You’ve been here five years. Have you been doing nothing in that whole time?" he admonishes.
“I’ve been trying to keep sane!" he exclaims. "Maybe we could build a weapon or doorway to attack them. But I need to get out of here. Jarhead you must help me.”
"Do you really have a body to go back to?" Jarhead says.
“I can still feel it faintly. Growing weaker and weaker by the day.“
"Who kept you alive?" the inventor asks. "It was Trista wasn’t it."
“She loves me!” he cries.
"She’s just using you. That’s besides the point though."
Gator puzzles over the information. "So we need to find someway to stop the gods. By building a door, which sounds like a bad idea. Or a weapon, which sounds like a good idea."
Jarhead adds, "with a door...doors are not necessarily selective. I suggest a weapon."
"Can you do that Jarhead?"
"I can when I’ve got some time."
"What do you know about White Sir Fredricks?" Gator asks.
“He has unique abilities. He’s a freak! A prodigy,” the old man says. “Something about him is unnatural.”
"They say that about me too," Jarhead says.
The professor addresses the mercenary. “Not unnatural like Jarhead’s unhinged mind or your scars. He was born different. His mother died of the climbers while he was in her womb.”
"So he’s infected and not infected?" Gator says.
“Something happened to his chromosomes, no one's really sure. He projects into the maelstrom while remaining connected to the real world. It's something none of the old minds understand so they fear him.”
"So the old gods fear him," Jarhead puzzles. "November works for the old gods, and the old gods are bad, so does that mean November is bad?"
Gator stays silent, keeping his thoughts and November's secrets to himself.
By which I mean I recap last session for him. It has been two months in real life.
Violet starts the next scene by reading a charged sitch. She fails, helped by November interfering. For her part November gets a 12 on her Hx roll, marks experience, and gains an advancement. She increases her Weird by 1. Violet also marks experience.
Violet watches Gator and Jarhead carefully as they mumble into thin air. The roar of engines pulls her gaze to the south.
A pair of motorcycles flank the Militia jeep as it pulls up to the gathering. While A.T. and Mox carefully climb out, Fire pulls her bike right next to them and dismounts.
“You made it out, good,” Fire says. “We need to act on this now. What’s Gator doing? Gator?”
While the teen waves a gauntleted hand in front of Gator’s face, Violet explains. “They are looking for information.”
“Now!?” Fire says, turning to face her. “We have more important things to be doing than looking into the freaking maelstrom. There’s bound to be another missile any time now.”
“True. Did you make it to the ship? Did you find out anything about the situation there?”
A.T. and Mox catch up to gathering as Fire fills her in. “I got to the holding nearest the ship. 711. The whole place was cleared out. Recently too. White must have grabbed the entire holding. I don’t know what happened to them but I expect we’ll be seeing them soon.”
November slips through the growing crowd of mercenaries, technicians and Militia. She whispers, “we’ve got to take White down.”
The topic threads through the crowd. “We need to move now,” Wire says.
“We need every man,” a soldier mutters.
“Somebody better wake up Gator,” Allison says.
I quickly outline for Violet how bad a frontal assault would be. They would need to slog through waist deep water and radioactive mud or paddle a boat across the 200 foot gap. All while exposed to 50 caliber machine gun fire. Or they could try to scale the rusty wet anchor chain while exposed to pot shots from the deck.
“We don’t have time for this,” Fire says as she moves to shove Gator.
Violet shouts, “a full out assault is going to get everyone killed! We need to find a way to get on that ship without getting turned into swiss cheese by those machine guns. Give them some time.”
Violet rolls towering presence and gets a 12, gaining +1 forward against Fire.
”I probably look pretty intimidating right now,” she says. “I did survive getting shot in the face.”
”See I did you a favor,” November says.
After some debate, I decide Fire chooses to attack Violet.
Fire glares at her. “Why don’t you shut up.”
Fire moves quickly, arm stretching out for a punch. November interposes herself, knocking the thuggish woman off-balance. As the hot-headed teen struggles to regain her footing, Violet rushes in and grapples her.
November helps Violet gets a 7, which exposes her. At least she marks experience. Violet then rolls acting under fire to dodge Fire and grapple her.
“I’m trying to get her to use her head,” she says.
”Good luck with that.”
Violet gets a 9 which with the +1 makes it 10.
“Use your brain for once,” Violet says as she pulls fire’s arms behind her back. “You can’t stop White if you are dead.”
Caught in a bodylock, Fire fumes and struggles. “If you don’t fight you are useless anyway.”
“Shut the fuck up kid,” November says, her scarf knocked askew. “Listen to your betters.”
November rolls to manipulate and Violet chooses not to help or interfere.
Violet looks up. “Hi there traitor. I deal with you in a second.”
November gets a 10 and marks experience.
As Fire quiets down, November tells Violet. “If you want to get on that ship, we have to get across the water and past the guns without being shot. We need a way to incapacitate the guns or make sure they don’t feel like they have to use them.”
We quickly review intel they logically would have from Taters about how White runs his remote holdings. He would send a few men to keep an eye on it along with a few people infected with the climbers as an insurance policy. The rest was coordinated via radio. He didn’t seem to have a forward base for aiming his airstrikes.
Violet considers the options. “We pretend we are a delegation from the arena offering surrender. Then we get on board with concealed weapons.”
The Tesla sphere stops humming. Gator and Jarhead blink to awareness.
“Welcome back boys,” November says, her eyes on Gator. A.T. slips next to the scarred mercenary.
“This is unexpected,” Jarhead says watching as Fire fumes in Violet’s bear hug.
November reads a person on Gator. He chooses to help her. He gets an 11 and an experience. November gets an 11 total.
A.T. speaks up. “We were just discussing our options for getting onto the Big Ship.”
“Okay,” Gator says. “We have two options. One, we try to sneak on board. White is looking for a mechanic, a fix it person. So we could use Jarhead.” Jarhead sighs as he continues. “Some of us could get on board with him.”
As Gator considers the team roster, November offers, “I’m good with costumes.”
November uses her hold to ask, “what is Gator feeling (about me being there)?”
He answers surprised that you popped out of nowhere. “I don’t want to shoot you,” he offers.
”That’s one party member that doesn’t want to shoot me,” she says.
“And Jarhead has never shot anybody,” I mention.
Gator gauges her warily but nods. “The other option is we sneak in under cover of darkness, which is going to be freaking hard.”
“We could always mount two prongs,” she suggests.
A.T. says, “we should send your team in first and have a second team to sneak in that night if you need backup.”
“I don’t know if you like me or dislike me the way you volunteer me for all sorts of things,” Jarhead mutters.
“You just have to look pretty,” Gator tells him. “You don’t have to do anything. Except build that weapon.”
“It’s not as simple as banging two rocks together,” he protests.
Gator eyes him. “Are you saying you can’t do it?”
“I can do it. It’s just going to take me some time.”
“You might notice we don’t have a whole lot of time right now,” Gator says forcefully. “White has missiles. And he knows how to aim them now.”
“Okay but how far can they reach?”
“Pretty fucking far.”
“And how well can he aim them?” the inventor asks looking to his van.
“Pretty fucking well.” Gator points at the smoke clad ruins behind them. “Can you see the Music Bowl?”
“Can we drive away fast enough?” Jarhead says.
“Probably not fast enough.”
There’s a lot more of this but I’m cutting a lot of extraneous dialog out.
Eventually Jarhead uses his workshop to figure out what he needs to shoot the gods. He’ll need to disassemble the augury, a large power source, November or other psychic for targeting purposes, and he will be exposed to danger.
The smaller man sighs. “If he can hit a moving target, I need to find out what he has. Anyway I need a big power source. Like a nuclear reactor.
“And I’m going to need her,” he says pointing at November. “We’ll need a lot of protection. The gods are not going to be happy about this killing the gods thing, they are going to try to stop it. And should we be talking about this in front of her?”
November shakes her head.
“I’m just going to go somewhere...else,” Jarhead says backpedaling toward his van.
November uses up another hold. “What does Gator wish I would do?”
”I want you on the mission to keep an eye on you,” he says.
A.T. looks at Jarhead’s helpers as they look on from the back of the van. “Do we want to bring more actual repair people beyond Jarhead?”
Jarhead turns and says, “Memo you are staying here. Stay put. Stay.”
As she nods, he continues, “Let’s go Allison.”
“Okay,” she says. She follows him haltingly.
Gator glances at Morgana. “I need you watch over the others. Gremlin, you are also coming.”
Gremlin is Gator’s demolitions and sabotage expert.
The balding man stows his gear and joins the rest of the team: November, Gator, Jarhead, and Allison.
“A five man crew seems about right,” A.T. says. “More than that would seem suspicious.”
“I agree,” Violet says.
“That leaves the roles,” Gator says donning a gasmask. “I’m the muscle.”
“And I’m in training,’ November says.
A.T. and the Militia help them switch out their weapons and heavy armor. Gator leaves his MP5 behind and swaps his armor for something homemade. He carefully dissembles his sniper rifle and with Jarhead’s help disguises the pieces as repair equipment. November simply leaves her armor behind. She buys a bikini made of circuit boards from one of the refugees, a woman named Mercy. Clad in that and some scarves, she joins the others as they take the Militia’s jeep to the coast.
Mercy has an axe and will be one of Jarhead’s gang.
“You can keep your knives,” I tell them. “They are like jello, there’s always room for knives, both hiding them and putting them into people.”
Violet jumps in Lily’s sidecar and the pair race north to the Autodoc.
And that's it for two weeks! Next week assassinations, bad encounters, and zombies!
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