As in my earlier actual play reports, indented 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 warned him of danger from the psychic maelstrom. Now Gator wants him to build a weapon to kill 'the gods' that live there.
- 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.
- Hot for November.
- Weird for Jarhead.
- Sharp for Violet.
- Hard for Gator.
Kill White, Part II
We jump ahead. November has used the last of her cosmetics to give +1 hot to everyone.The Big Ship looms just offshore, tilted slightly and wedged in the sand. Gator pushes through the last of the overgrowth between them and the beach. Allison looks across the 200 feet of water to rusty hull, broken in places and covered in barnacles. Gremlin then takes the lead down to the rowboats as November and Jarhead scan the perimeter.
Slowly a pair of large guns on the top deck swivel in their direction.
November reads a charged sitch, Jarhead helps and marks experience. Jarhead gets a 11 which pushes November to 10.
What should I be on the look out for? and What’s my best way in? are her initial questions.
“Are they going to shoot us?” Jarhead wonders.
“Not until we get out there,” she says pointing to the middle of the open water. “We’d better have a good story by then.
“Well we are a repair crew,” he says looking up the rusty hull.
She glances at the others. “A touch of weakness wouldn’t hurt. We’ll say we are refugees from the Music Bowl, surrendering and offering our services.”
The others nod. Gator and Gremlin get the boat off the sands and begin to row the others across. Gator lets his shoulders sag. He forces his gaze to the bottom of the boat. One of his paddles only lightly dips into the water as he feigns stiffness in that arm. Gremlin struggles to make up for the lack of balance.
A hundred feet out a loudspeaker blares, “What is your business?”
The paddling stops and November stands up carefully, her diaphanous scarves barely hiding her sensuous chocolate body.
“Please,” she cries. “We surrender to the mercy of White. We have skilled mechanics on board. We can not withstand White’s power. We offer our skills to help him build his empire.”
Gator makes a Hx roll to help (getting a 12 and experience) by looking broken and pathetic. Jarhead does less well, getting a 4 plus the experience. With her earlier bonus from reading a sitch plus perfect instincts, this gives November a +6 (+3 hot, +1 help, +2 from read a sitch) to manipulate a person. She gets a 13 and makes Lion (the guy behind the speaker) her Ally (representative) (since all Manipulate a Person rolls are Advanced). She marks experience.
“Continue to paddle. Dock at the hole beneath the anchor chain.”
As the tin boat comes alongside the rusty hull, a pair of burlap clad men rush forward to hold it steady. The gash in the side opens into a large chamber decorated with rusty cages filled with weapons of various sorts. Gingerly November and the others climb out. They are greeted by four men training rifles on them.
“I’m feeling safer already,” the dancer says.
An old woman with an eye patch steps out from a dumbwaiter the size of a car on the far side of the room. “One at a time! Give up your guns. No fast movements. Got to check you and make sure there’s nothing fishy here.”
Two of the men move forward to confiscate their weapons. The taller one gives November a slow pat down while the other checks out Gator. He grabs her shotgun and hands it to one of his comrades.
“You’ll get that back after White clears you,” the woman says as they put it into one of the many cages.
“I guess I understand.” She looks at the storing area. “Oh wow! How many weapons do you have in there? Is that a cattle prod? I bet Jarhead could use that to make something really cool. For White.”
The man checking Gator turns his head. “That’s White’s call. These belong to somebody.”
The men grab Gator’s pistols as well as Allison’s worn 9mm. One of them pulls out Jarhead’s taser. “This is weird,” he says holding it with just his thumb and forefinger. “I’ve never seen one of these. I’m just going to put this down carefully and hope it doesn’t explode.”
“Damn right you are going to handle it carefully,” Jarhead mutters.
The old woman waves them to the elevator. Gator picks up his box of tools and follows the others on.
Gator rolls acting under fire to sneak his sniper rifle on. November rolls Hx to help distract the guards. She asks first who is most vulnerable to her (charms) and with that bonus gets a 13. She also marks experience. Gator gets a 10 on his roll and sneaks it past. I decided they were not looking close enough to get any knives or daggers.
The orange light of sunset strikes them as they reach the deck. In front of them a massive machine gun emplacement watches the shore. Behind tin roofed stalls cover the top deck, home to a bustling crowd.
A hairy man dressed in just a pair of jeans walks up. “I’m Lion,” he says, one hand wiping the sweat from his bald head. “I’m going to talk to White about you guys. I think he’ll want to put you to work pretty soon. So if you want to get some grub I suggest you get it now. Shouldn’t be hard to find you afterwards but I’ll send Cass here to be your guide just in case.”
We also determine where Kim has her shop of scavenged goods.
A scrawny 10 year old hurries over. As he skids to a halt in front of them, he pulls off his hat made from melted plastic bottles revealing a third nostril on his face.
November steps forward and grabs the deformed child’s hand. “Why don’t Cass and I get some food for us and I’ll be back.”
In other words, she distracts him. In real life, my wife also takes the baby up to bed.
“Yeah there’s a guy who makes great fried shrimp over this way,” Cass says leading her away.
November’s disguise work melts beneath Gator’s mask in the muggy air. He checks the crowd but no one spares him a second glance.
He doesn’t want to be recognized and is disguised as even uglier underneath the gas mask.
Allison speaks first. “So should we go meet with Violet’s friend or wait for Lion?”
“Kim could be useful,” Gator says.
“I think Violet said she was this way.” The blond woman stops after a couple steps. “Though I’ve never been here before.”
“I have. It’s a good place to get anything you need.”
Gator leads them quickly to the front of an empty shop. A woman a bit older than Violet lounges on the front step, smoking something fragrant.
We establish she inherited the shop from her dad.
“He’s gone to that great cancer farm in the sky,” I say.
The emaciated woman looks up as they approach. “Strangers! I haven’t seen too many of those recently. Any word from the outside?”
“Some,” Gator says peering past her at the empty shelves. “We know Violet.”
The woman’s eyes narrow and she straightens up. “Maybe we should talk inside.”
They nod and Kim leads them into the back of the shop. Empty shelves and few crude baskets decorate the interior.
“You’re friends of Violet?” she asks.
“Yes, we are here on her behalf,” Gator says.
A fly buzzes past Kim in the hot still air. “I haven’t heard anything from her since that fellow came by with a letter.”
“That fellow was one of my gang.”
“OK. So how’s she doing?”
Gator looks away. “She’s been better.”
“Slight understatement,” Jarhead mumbles.
“Her mission is the same,” he says.
Kim looks at their boots. “So you came from the city. What happened with that missile?”
“The Music Bowl is pretty much gone.”
“Damn,” she says sliding up against a wall.
“So here’s the deal,” Gator says. “We need to know what you know about White and his movements.”
“Sure, sure,” she says as she runs a hand through her black hair. “Last week or so, he’s been really busy with things. He’s grabbed people, people who couldn’t do anything else. We haven’t seen them. I’ve heard stories though. He’s been looking for a way to get the missiles working. Obviously it works. They said he needed people to do the navigation.”
Violet finds a new reason to hate White.
“OK, does he ever leave his.” Gator searches for a word. “Stronghold.”
“He used to spend a lot of time up in the tower,” she says, one slender figure pointing up and to the left. “But the last day or so, he’s been down below. His men came back with thirty or so people, marched them all down below. Men. Women. Children. I think they came from 711.”
“I heard about that.”
“Anyway, he took them downstairs. He came up to give some orders and scare some people but hasn’t been up since. He’s a creepy kid.”
“Wait a kid?” Jarhead asks.
“Yes. White’s like five foot. He’s twelve or something. Horribly scarred too.”
As the information sinks in, she continues, “he doesn’t show himself too much but he’s had to since his henchmen left. I don’t know what happened to them but he got really mad so I assume something bad.”
“That could be a good assumption,” Gator says. “So if something happened up on deck, he would have to handle it personally?”
“Yeah if his men couldn’t deal with it immediately. He used to have Cougar to knock sense into people. Now he just has a couple people that he’s done stuff to,” she says shaking slightly. “You know what I mean. The ones that he’s dosed. That’s what I think he’s doing to those people. He’s dosing all of them. I don’t know why he needs so many of them though.”
Gator looks out a window, scanning the crowd. “We are looking to cause a ruckus. What’s our best shot?”
Kim taps her chin. “We are isolated here. Unless it comes in by boat we don’t get food or supplies. There’s a lot of sick people, a lot of hungry people. There’s a gang that call themselves the Deadlights that got stranded here. They’ve got some weird creepy cult thing going. They’re particularly unhappy. Cougar put the fear in them before he left but they are spoiling for a fight.”
“Good to know,” the big mercenary says. He looks at Jarhead. “I think we need to get November to talk to them.”
Jarhead nods. “I agree with you.”
Gator turns back to Kim. “Thanks, I suggest you hole up.”
“If you guys are going to cause trouble I’ll make myself scarce.”
To Violet and the Autodoc.
Lily and Violet shoot pass a slow stream of people on their way north. Men on foot, children in chugging carts, several women on rusty motorcycles. They find the Autodoc already clogged with arrivals. A team of nurses readies gurneys in the atrium for the coming crush.
Violet tromps past the empty beds to the front desk, taking a place behind a man with a broken arm and a woman bleeding from her eye.
I point out that Violet is worse off than most but she waits. I probably should have snowballed here.
After a half hour, she manages to talk to a familiar nurse in denim patched scrubs.
“I know you don’t I?” the older woman says.
Violet places the face. Madame from the Music Bowl. “It may be hard to tell but it’s Violet.”
“What happened?”
Violet runs over the recent events. As she reaches her trip into the tunnels beneath the arena, the nurse pales slightly. She waves over an orderly. “Okay move her to quarantine.”
Three hours later, Violet rubs her arm from the blood sampling, inoculations, and other tests. Memo’s device almost subsides into silence as she stares at the same four walls.
The door opens.
Madame walks in with an easy smile. “We did the tests and looks like your immune system managed to fight off the fungus. Other than the hole in your head you are fine.” The levity drops from her voice. “We could take care of your face but it will take time. We do have the AI up and running, under control. If you want faster treatment that is an option.”
“I think I’ll take the slower route,” Violet says.
Despite my cajoling, she decides to wait until clear Jarhead is available.
“Alright I’ll send someone to start treatment once we are able. A lot of the wounded won’t make the night without help.”
We return to Jarhead (and his missed move) as the group looks for November and grub.
Jarhead slows to a crawl as the bustling crowd fills up the space between him and the others. He shifts and jumps around looking for a way past the woman with no ears or perhaps around the old men haggling over a spent artillery shell.
A shadow falls over him.
Jarhead finds himself face down on the ground. He looks up. The monstrous figure’s wide brim hat blots out the dying sun. From the seven foot freak’s headgear, a dozen light bulbs hang.
“Hey watch where you are going?” the willowy giant says.
“I was standing here not moving,” he protests. “Specifically not moving,”
“So you saying you got in my way on purpose.” Two smaller men come up behind the giant. A necklace of LEDs adorns the younger one’s neck, while the eye of the other, a pasty pig of man, glows a creepy electric purple.
Jarhead spots Gator behind him. He whispers, “I think this guy is going to want to hurt me.”
“Lafferty, are they are causing problems for you,” the one eyed man asks the giant.
Gator moves in front of Jarhead as the crowd begins to make room for the large dangerous figures. “Move along.”
Gator rolls manipulate a person and gets a 9. Jarhead decides to help, rolls Hx, and gets a 9 plus experience. This gives Gator a final total of 10.
Lafferty eyes this new figure, trying to spot his eyes behind the glass of his gasmask.
“Alright.” He points at Jarhead. “You know your place. Give tribute to the Deadlights.”
“Deadlights!” the goons at his back cheer. Lafferty turns and they start to move off.
“Dead bulbs more like it,” Jarhead mutters in a low voice.
I ask Jarhead to roll acting under fire to not have them hear that (he explicitly said he was saying it however). He gets a 11 since he gets to roll Weird since he is spooky intense. He marks experience.
Allison helps Jarhead up. “Aren’t those the guys you wanted to cause trouble with?” she asks Gator.
Gator nods. “You the deadlights?” he calls out.
The men stop. Laffert turns. “Yes.”
Gator approaches hands out as the crowd gives them even more space. Lafferty looks down on the mercenary.
“I hear you don’t like the way things are going,” Gator says.
One of the bulbs on the giant’s hat clinks against another. “I don’t like being stuck on a hot. Tin. Boat.”
“You going to do something about it?”
Lafferty searches through Gator’s lenses. “You know something I don’t?”
“I hear you caused some trouble before,” he says calmly.
“Yes, they’ll come up here plenty quick,” the cultist says as a frown curls across his face.
“But I also know he doesn’t have anybody to back him up anymore. Think, you could be taking a kid.”
Gator rolls to manipulate a person. He rolls cool since he is easy to trust. Jarhead helps. Both of them get a 6. Time for hard moves. Jarhead marks experience.
”I think you are going to get your fight,” I tell them.
”Just not the way we wanted,” Jarhead says.
Lafferty looks out to horizon and back to Gator. “I think it might be worth more handing troublemakers over to him than starting trouble myself.” In the fading light he finally finds something within the darkness of Gator’s mask. “I know who you are.”
Lafferty shouts out, “we’ve got intruders! Gator’s here!”
Gator chooses to Fuck This Shit! and gets a 9. Jarhead helps with a 13, pushing Gator into the 10+ range. Gator marks experience as does Jarhead.
Jarhead quickly pulls a pouch from his belt. He drops it, spilling screws, nuts and bolts in all directions. “You guys like technology? Whoops!”
For his successful roll, he is not immediately punched.
In the chaos, Gator disappears into the crowd. Gremlin struggles to follow his boss but runs into the crowd. They push him back. As he topples onto his butt, Jarhead crawls out of the ring of onlookers, squeezing past their legs.
Jarhead acts under fire to escape and gets a 10. He marks experience.
November returns after putting our son to sleep.
The jeers of the crowd get November’s attention. With the crowds of the market and the promise of food, she’d easily lost Cass. But this new noise could be trouble. Craning her neck she sees a huge man shouting.
“We’ve got intruders! Gator’s here!”
November reads a charged sitch and gets a 9. What my best route to where everyone can see me?
The dancer’s eyes flick to the roofs of the shacks that line the market. With a quick jump, she grabs the warm metal roof and hoists herself up on top. She pulls some extra scarves from her pouch wrapping them around her body as she makes her way to the edge.
Elsewhere Gator pulls out his box of parts. He snaps his sniper rifle together as he hops from crate to roof to a higher roof, grabbing a poncho as he goes.
Gator rolls acting under fire to reach high ground unseen and gets a 13. I let him do a few other things as well along the way in his moment of awesomeness.
At the edge, November sees into the ring the spectators have made around the three light bulb adorned men. The one with a fake eye pulls Allison off her feet, kicking and screaming. Gremlin circles the second figure warily while Lafferty looks on. Gremlin produces a punch dagger with an odd bulge in the blade and barbed edges. His foe waves a serrated knife menacingly.
November begins to sing loudly. As eyes draw toward her, she dances, slowly pulling her scarves off one by one. Soon the crowd and combatants are focused on her and not her allies.
“I don’t have a lot of clothes on,” she warns. “It’s going to be a short performance.”
Gator meanwhile brings his rifle to bear on the elevator hatch into the depths of the ship. Luckily someone left it open. He lines up a shot and bullseyes a sign partway down the shaft. That should bring them running up here.
Back in the circle, Gremlin uses the distraction to plant his dagger into his opponent. He tumbles away as November reveals one leg.
The explosion from his weapon barely causes the crowd to flinch from November’s performance as she reveals first one arm and then another.
Gremlin grabs the serrated knife and stabs it into the other goon’s face. As he goes gurgling down, Allison runs for it.
November pulls the final scarf from her midriff, leaving her with only the circuit board bikini to work with as Gremlin struggles to wrench the knife free from the dead man’s skull. She fixes her eyes on Lafferty’s and winks.
Basically Gremlin is doomed. We discuss options.
November invokes Artful and Gracious and gets a 9. Now Lafferty must meet her (though not necessarily right now).
Gator meanwhile waits for his chance and gets an 11 on his Go Aggro to kill White. He asks for Jarhead to help. He comes up with an idea, gets a 7 on his roll, meaning White no longer has any options. He’s taking a bullet to something critical. Gator marks experience.
By the back of the crowd, Jarhead stumbles out from under some legs. The holdings electric lights hold back the growing darkness for a moment before Jarhead conveniently snags a key power cable with his foot and shorts out the whole place.
Several people pull their gaze from November silhouetted form and catch a glimpse of him. Then the elevator rises from below. A mass of guards comes with it. The armed men press into the crowd, breaking it up with iron bars and leather clad bats.
In his snipers perch, Gator peers through his night optics. He waits as the gang spreads out, revealing their child dictator.
Then he fires.
The bullet takes White in the throat. The boy crumples, arterial blood splattering his men. As they move to protect him, Gator turns to face the other conflict.
White is in the crosshairs, oh well. He takes 4-harm (3 from the rifle +1 for blood crazed). He’s bleeding out. Not dead but close enough. He’ll be gone regardless in moments.
”It’s not a matter of how hurt he is, it’s how dead he is,” Violet sums up.
Then Gator rolls indomitable and gets a 11.
This forces me to retcon some earlier description about what happened to Gremlin. Originally I was going to have Lafferty bury an axe into his neck.
November’s final scarf floats to the market floor as Lafferty grabs Gremlin by the arm, wrenching the dagger from his hand. With his other arm, the towering man raises an blood stained axe.
Gator uses his hold to cross the distance to his opponent, knock Lafferty’s attack away and disable him.
Gator’s boots slam into the corrugated roof and move on before the bowed metal collapses. As Lafferty’s axe reaches its apex, Gator knocks Gremlin aside with one arm. The other deflects the axe into the top deck.
Gator pulls a knife from a wrist holster, jamming it into the giant’s arm with a sickening crack. Lafferty falls back on his ass, cursing through his teeth.
“There’s no need for this anymore,” Gator announces. “White’s dead.”
The guards slow their progress and glance back to their leader. A man in a bloody suit looks up and shakes his head slowly.
“I don’t know if I want to fight anymore,” one of them murmurs.
“I hear Gator can kill, like 12 of us alone, unarmed,” a youth offers.
As the opposition dissolves, November joins the others.
“Let’s get to the lift,” Gator says.
As they lower the lift the Militia and Gator’s gang emerges from the ruins to establish order on the Big Ship.
However I tell them that the people sent downstairs are not there.
And finally back to Violet.
Violet stares at the ceiling for the tenth hour. Relentless fluorescent light illuminates her windowless chamber in perpetual day. She stretches, fending off the stiffness in her limbs.
Someone screams.
Violet bolts upright. Without hesitation she enters the hall. Nurses rush past.
“It’s an attack from the Big Ship!” someone calls out.
“Climbers!” a woman shouts.
Violet turns her head. The exit light above the staircase glows green. She mounts the steps two at a time.
”Don’t you wish you let the hospital fix you up quick?” I ask. I also cross off the last item on White’s countdown clock. He almost got everything done. ”But instead he died.”
”Like a bitch,” Jarhead says.
”Take that 12 year old boy,” November adds.
”He took down one gator but not the next,” Jarhead concludes.
End of Session
Now for Hx!- Violet gives +1 Hx to Jarhead.
”Sure,” she says unconvinced.
“I talked more with him. We exchanged more words.”
”I do know you still hold a grudge against me,” November says.
”I’m still kinda less than happy about what happened.”
The Hx bump causes Jarhead’s Hx to reset. He earns an experience and learns a secret: Violet is skeptical about religion. “If there was a just god this world would not exist.” This causes some tension as her family is religious.
- Gator gives +1 Hx to Jarhead. “He saw I do not go straight to attacking.”
- November gives +1 Hx to Jarhead, since he finally learned about her shooting Violet.
- Jarhead gives +1 Hx to Gator since they went into the Maelstrom together.
“I didn’t kill White to advance democracy,” he says. “I killed him because I was paid to.”
Violet admits, “Out of character you would do a better job than White did.”
The others agree pointing out he has a code. Gator says, “break a deal, spin the wheel.”
“And Jarhead can be your master blaster,” I suggest.
As talk moves to mounting Jarhead atop Lafferty, Violet says, “I’m starting the question the wisdom of hiring you.”
“You’re saying starting democracy with an assassination is a bad idea?” November asks.
“You keep what you kill,” Jarhead ends with as Violet sighs.
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