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/Hardholder) is former assassin and who wears customized scrounged armor made from Kevlar and ceramic inserts. 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. His gang of mercenaries now run White's former holding: the Big Ship.
- 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. He built a weapon to kill 'the gods' and is working for a ghost in the maelstrom.
- November Orleans (the Skinner/Battlebabe) 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. She works for the "gods" but hopes to betray them.
- Violet Jefferson (the Touchstone/Scholar) is descended from survivalists and her clothing and gear reflects her origins. Plain looking but fit, she carries a pocket copy of the Federalist papers and founding documents of the United States of America, an idea she hopes to revive. She recovered from the wound November inflicted but they have not reconciled.
The highlighted stats are:
- Gator: Hard, Sharp.
- Jarhead: Hard, Weird.
- November: Hot, Sharp.
- Violet: Cool, Sharp.
The God Smiter, Part II
Gator quickly dons his night vision goggles as everyone else stumbles around in the pitch blackness.Violet and Jarhead both read a sitch again. Violet gets 13 while Jarhead rolls a soft hit. She marks experience.
”Are any of my followers not infected?” Violet asks.
”Boo has definitely been itchy as has his son. Starbuck though has not scratched himself.”
”Are the infected actively being controlled?” she asks.
”As of this current moment as they are confused as you are, so no.”
”How much time do they have?”
”This is progressing way faster than you would expect so the normal rules don’t apply here. The gods are fast tracking the disease. You don’t think they are going to burst soon but they might sleepwalk at any moment.”
Violet thinks back on who seemed itchy. Around her everyone voices their surprise and concern. “Jarhead, How many car batteries do you have?”
“Uh two or three,” he says feeling for a flashlight.
“You know that thing Memo rigged? We need three of them now. ASAP. Gator, do you have another room that’s not ventilated?”
Gator reads a sitch and gets a 10. He also marks experience.
Jarhead asks his question first. “What should I be on the lookout for?”
”This is a coordinated attack. A power outage will only slow you down. So look out for the next wave of attackers.”
”At least my gang got bigger,” Gator says. “What’s my enemy’s true position?”
Gator finishes scanning the room. A couple of the Republicans scratch their arms but no one looks ready to cause trouble right now. His mind goes the gap, a chasm in the ship that leads to the reactor. They probably cut the lines there.
”What is my best way in?”
The gap rips through several decks of the ship. The only ways down are a crumbling staircase down or rappelling straight down. Unless one wanted to spend an hour snaking through blackened corridors. The most direct route, he decides.
”What should I be on the lookout for?”
”The gods are trying to stay one step ahead of you, so your usual tricks won’t work. I will try to surprise you, no guarantees though.”
“Boo, Garber. Out of here,” he barks.
“What’s going on?” Boo says.
“I think you know what’s going on.”
“Listen to him,” Violet says. “You are showing signs. We don’t want to take any risks.”
Gator turns to his man. “Gremlin, we need to get these guys locked up and quarantined. Sorry Boo and Garber you guys are infected.”
Garber stammers, “maybe we are infected but you don’t need to lock us up someplace.”
“Yeah we do. Either that or there is one other option.”
”Do you want to go aggro?” I ask. “I’d say manipulate but I don’t think you’re bluffing.”
Gator goes aggro and gets a 10. He also marks experience.
Cowed Boo and his son let Gremlin leads them outside to another room and seals them in.
Outside.
The speed boat shoots across bay, skidding to a halt in the jury rigged harbor at the base of the Big Ship. Morgana helps them out and leads them to the elevator.
Then the electric lights go out.
”What the hell?” Morgana says looking up the shaft at the distant square of light.
“Did you guys just lose all power?” November asks.
“Yeah. Jack! Jill!” she shouts, rousing a pair of muscular twins. “You are on manual.”
Tern and November quickly grab a pair of large handheld flashlights from the boat and jump on the lift as the twins slowly pull it up.
“Where’s your main power?” November asks, checking that the lights work.
“The reactor? It’s down below by the south end.”
“Let’s go.”
Five feet below them, Jonker calls out. “I’ll stay here.”
In the workshop.
Jarhead connects a pair of wires and a string of christmas lights illuminate the workshop.
Gator peels off his goggles. “We’ve got a couple of options. I could go to the reactor or Violet you could go.”
“I’ll go,” she says, shaking off the last of Jarhead’s drugs.
“Gremlin knows the layout a little bit so take him with you,” he adds.
”What should I do?” Starbucks asks, looking around the room. “Should I stay here or come with you?”
”Come with me,” she says leading the pair of men off toward the far end of the ship.
Back to November.
Morgana leads the others across the deck of the ship. Around them, confused citizens of the Big Ship complain about the loss of power.
“Tell me the lay of the land,” November says.
This is an excuse to roll read a charged sitch. November gets a hard hit. She also marks experience.
What is my enemy’s true position?
Which enemy is most vulnerable to me?
What’s my best way past to the reactor?
“There’s a gap, a chasm that cuts through the bowels of the ship,” Morgana says grabbing a few men to follow them. “You can drop straight down to the reactor level. Next to the gap and hanging into it in places is a metal staircase. Those are the fastest ways down. Otherwise you need to take the back way through miles of pitch black tunnels.”
“Sounds like a good ambush spot,” the dancer says.
“I had thought of that.” Morgana grabs another armored figure to join their growing force.
“Who do you have who is a good shot?”
Morgana points to pair of tall men following them as they near the end of the market. “Pin and Tail are both good shots. And myself.”
As they head down some stairs into the ship, November doffs her coat and strips to her chain mail bikini. “So here’s the plan. You guys watch the top and keep them pinned down. They are not fighters, so they shouldn’t be armored or well equipped. I’ll lead the rest of the men down the stairs to take them out.”
Then I decide Violet’s group arrives. She hears November outlining her plan as she arrives.
Violet leads Gremlin and Starbuck out of the darkness.
“Any of you guys good snipers?” November asks as they approach.
“I can do very well in a pinch,” Violet says.
November explains, “OK, some of us are drawing fire up here while the rest of us make our way down the staircase.”
Violet interrupts. “By the way, weren’t you supposed to find Gator?”
“Yes but he needs power right?”
“As much as I hate to say this, they need you alive. Go, we’ll take care of this,” Violet orders.
Violet uses towering presence and gets a 13, November interferes but only gets a 5. She chooses to back away hands where Violet can see them.
November backs away and puts up her hand. “Alright, I just cased out the whole place,” she says sourly.
“We appreciate it.”
“You are going to fuck this whole thing up!” she says and walks away.
Morgana turns to Violet. “We’ve got this covered up here, you and the others sneak down the stairs.”
“Got it.”
Violet acts under fire to sneak and gets an 8. She marks experience.
Violet hurries down the metal stairs trailed by Gremlin and a few other soldiers. Gunshots echo in from the gap, as Morgana’s sharpshooters pin down the infected.
As she rounds the last loop, she can see the shadows of the climbers moving along the bottom of the gap. Then a figure peels from the shadows beneath the stairs, gun raised.
Lily.
Violet rolls indomitable and gets a 10. She marks experience and uses two of her three hold.
She sees Lily in front of her and with no cover, decides to ignore all harm and disable/maim/kill her.
”That’s your choice,” Gator tells me of the last item.
”MY choice, yes,” I say with some evil laughter.
Violet moves before her former friend can pull the trigger, knocking the gun into the wall beside them and then delivering a quick crack to the side of her head. Lily falls flat on the floor.
Workshop update.
Gator paces within Jarhead’s workshop. The air grows thicker as they consume what little fresh air remains.
Something shuffles outside the door. Then the banging begins.
“No business except on party business!” Jarhead shouts as fists slam again and again against the steel door.
To November.
November and Tern move quickly and quietly through the darkened corridors, back toward Jarhead’s workshop.
Several different growls come from up ahead.
November keeps her flashlight down low. “Tern, any idea of what that might be?”
“Sounds like dogs,” she says readying her gun. “There were some dogs on the ship.”
November reads a charged sitch and gets a 7. What’s my enemy’s true position? She also marks experience.
November shines the light forward. A half-dozen feral green eyes reflect in the darkness.
”The gods have anticipated your attack and deployed dogs,” I say, thinking of her arresting skinner move.
She counters that she is already practically naked.
November moves to seize by force, specifically the hall, using her shotgun. She gets a 13 and chooses not to dismay. She deals 4-harm (3-harm from the shotgun +1 merciless +1 for terrible harm - 1 for a small gang of dogs).
Her first blast tears through the lead hound as it leaps forward. Tern unloads next to her, automatic fire ripping through most of them.
November suffers 3-harm from the dogs -2 for her armor -1 for little harm. I have her make a harm move and gets a 4. So she’s fine.
As the echoes of gunshots die down, all that can be heard is a solitary dog, limping away into a corner. November kicks aside the leader and tries to wipe its blood from her skin. She and Tern continue forward, following the trail of blood. By the time they get there Exit, Lily’s dog, is already dead, its blood growing sticky.
They continue on.
Back to the workshop.
“We do need to get November in here,” Gator says shouting over the banging.
“We could open up one of the side vents,” Jarhead suggests, grabbing an acetylene torch.
”But I’ve done that before,” Gator says,”they might anticipate that.”
”How did that turn out for you?” Jarhead asks.
”Not very well.”
”Well then they probably won’t think you’re dumb enough to try it again.”
”That’s a good point. Let’s try it.”
Jarhead begins cutting. The air fouls but after a few minutes fresh air moves into the chamber.
Gator climbs in. “Seal this up after I’ve gone.”
“No! No!” Jarhead says stepping between his gang and the vent. “We’re going to leave this open so we have some fresh air.”
Gator hoists himself up. “Well I wouldn’t call this air fresh, make sure you wear a mask.”
The ex-mercenary looks back down. “When I get to the door, I’ll give this knock.” He raps against the metal duct. Then he shimmies around and disappears.
Back to Violet.
Violet steps out into the open space beneath the gap. A pair of men lie bleeding out on the rough ground. She swivels her rifle to fire on one of the three left standing.
Violet seizes by force and gets a 13. She marks experience and takes all options, doubling downs on little harm. So no harm for her.
She blasts him before he realizes she is there. As the others turn their attention from above, she fires again, dropping a second. Gremlin backs her up downing the third. Quickly they check the casualties. Two dead and one crippled. Violet kicks away his weapon and ties his hands.
Violet advances and takes Intellectual for +1 sharp. She now is at +3 sharp.
“There it is,” Gremlin shouts, pointing to a sparking bundle of wires. “I need some sort of insulator and then I can get these lines together.”
Violet uses Archaeologist to find something in this Golden Age ruin. She gets a 10, choosing to do it quickly and without any trouble. She also marks experience.
Violet scans the wreckage. She spots some tire scraps among the debris. She tosses the insulator to Gremlin who goes to work on reconnecting the mains.
Back to November.
November and Tern slowly creep up the hallway. A dozen men and women block their path to the workshop, pounding their fists bloody trying to get in.
November reads a charged sitch and gets a 10. She also marks experience.
What is my best way past to a position where I can snipe them?
Arresting skinner is my answer.
What should I be on the lookout for?
As she considers her options, she notices a rustling in the vents.The sound of a heavy but very quiet man grows closer, making its way from the workshop and down the hall.
Reinforcements are coming and you don’t get caught in crossfire.
What is my biggest threat? is her last question.
The gods.
November motions Tern to follow her and they back track to a side room where the ducts open. As they wait, November borrows and dons some extra clothing.
Gator pulls himself the last few inches and looks down into the side room, spotting November and her friend.
“Hey. This way,” he whispers. He slides the grate out of the way and slips down without a sound.
November nods to him. “The people in the hall, they are just people, I can distract them while you two take them out. There are about twelve of them now but there may be more if we wait. You know your situation, what’s best?”
“We’re just waiting for power,” he explains. “Violet’s working on that.”
Fastening on a jacket, she says, “I figure that the best plan would be to keep the entrance clear until the power comes on.”
Gator considers the lighting situation to which I reply, ”We don’t need eyes, we are guided the gods.”
Suddenly the lights turn on one by one.
“Never mind. Let’s go this way,” Gator says, grabbing the edges of the vent.
“Shall I go first?” November asks.
“Sure.” He begins to drop down when he says, “Actually when you get near there, you just knock this on the grate. Don’t stick your head out.”
“Okay, just let me know when we are getting close, you know the lay of the land here.”
He pulls himself up. “You know what I’ll lead the way.”
As Violet gets the power up and running, I look through my notes for radiation poisoning but it turns out I have nothing prepared. Oh well.
Jarhead watches as his crew begin to relax a little. Even as the climbers bang uselessly against the door, his gang lower their weapons and relax their guard.
Someone gives a distinctive knock in the air ducts.
Shazah bolts upright. “He could be infected! They are still out by the door.”
“No I’m not,” Gator says. “I’m coming through.”
”Just wait,” Jarhead says moving to the duct. “What’s the password?”
“I just gave the password,” the ex-mercenary says through his teeth.
“Sh-should we just shoot him?” Shazah stammer aiming his sword gun at the vent.
”If you shoot me I will be really angry.”
Jarhead shakes his head. “Let’s not shoot him. Come on through.”
Gator slides down into the room. “I’ve got November. Let’s get this thing done.”
Jarhead nods. “Yes, let’s do this before anymore shit happens.”
The pounding gets louder as November slips down.
“I thought you took care of the problem,” Jarhead says to Gator.
“If we take care of this,” Gator says pointing to the device, “it takes care of all of the problems.”
“Okay,’ he sighs, turning to his gang, “Make sure we are not disturbed at all.”
As most of the crowd focus on the door, Jarhead directs November and Gator to their places. Shazah keeps an eye on Gator as the muscular man squeezes into the device’s main seat. He grips the trigger and watches as Jarhead puts a metal colander on November's head. The dancer tries to remain still as he screws the electrodes into place.
“We don’t want to dig into the skull but we do want contact,” he explains. Finished he points her to the repurposed dentist’s chair rigged up to the God Smiter.
“I wrote up a custom rule for this device,” I explain.
”Nice,” Gator says.
“You are probably not going to like it.”
”Ah, not nice.”
Here is the move:
Custom Move: The God Smiter: When using the God Smiter roll +hard. On a hit you harm your target (which must be connected to the psychic maelstrom). Deal 2-harm (ap). On a 10+ choose 1, On a 7-9 choose 2. If you choose to attack a broad group choose an additional option.
- Those around you are exposed to Psi-harm equal to your hard.
- Those around the God Smiter suffer 1-harm (ap) from psychic bleed over.
- You deal collateral damage to the psychic maelstrom.
“I’m afraid to roll this,” Gator says.
”This is a weapon to kill the gods,” I say, “there are consequences.”
With all the bonuses, he gets a 10. He also marks experience.
He chooses 1-harm ap to everyone and Psi-harm. So basically he aimed well.
Jarhead powers up the device. A soft blue glow appears over the Tesla sphere filled with red triangles and odder icons. Gator takes careful aim, the machine guided by November’s mind. He pulls the trigger.
A piercing whine resounds inside everyone’s head. Blood leaks from Jarhead nose as November whimpers. Farther way Memo and Rox scream while Shazah bites down on the blade of his sword.
Then a wash of raw maelstrom energy flows from the display and collides with the inhabitants of the room.
November gets a 10 on her psi-harm roll while Jarhead gets a 13. Ouch.
November opens her eyes, the screams breaking through her unconsciousness. Jarhead curls in the corner of the room, quietly rocking back and forth. His crew, those not drooling on the floor, busy themselves welding the doors and vents shut, a mad gleam in their eyes.
Gator scans the display as lines of static crisscross it. The banging at the doors at least stopped.
”Hit them again,” November mumbles.
Gator reads a charged sitch and gets a 11. November helps with an 8 which brings it up to 13. He also marks experience.
”Did it work? Did we kill the gods?” he asks.
”You killed most of the gods. There is a survivor.”
”Who is the survivor?”
“Zio-Pentex-Rlyeh-Zach” I say squashing a bunch of random (mostly villain) names together.
The blue fog clears. A single red triangle appears. “There’s one more.”
The group gives some suggestions for final question.
”Can you kill it without firing the gun?” Jarhead says.
”What did November do?” November suggests.
”Can I kill it now without firing the gun?” he asks.
”Yes, but you’d have to kill November, because it is hiding in November’s head,” I tell him.
Gator squints at the target. “November stay very still. It’s inside you.”
He fires again.
This time he rolls a 9, November helps by staying very still and gets a 10 so no collateral damage for her. That bumps it to a 11. Gator chooses to deal psychic damage again. He also marks experience.
November gets a hard hit on psi-harm.
Jarhead gets a 6 so he is okay-ish.
Sucks for the NPCs though.
The blue mist washes over the room again as the final god explodes into a mess of memories and rage within November’s mind. Overwhelmed she faints.
“It’s good that Allison sleeps upstairs because she may be the sole survivor.”
In the days to come, most people resumed their normal lives. A med team came down from the Autodoc and treated the infected. With the gods gone, the disease seemed to spread slower.
I explain to the group that the gods are dead, dead dead. November loses her status as the Messenger. The climber victims became themselves again.
“Even Lily?” Violet asks.
”No Lily is dead, you are going have to explain that to Starbuck. You also find Exit, their dog, filled with bullets. You’ll need to explain that to Starbuck, too.”
Violet helped Gator with the clean up, patching up the wounded and avoiding Starbuck. The woman he loved was dead by her hands.
Jarhead meanwhile dealt with the real wreckage. Five souls, five people who worked for him, had lost their minds to the maelstrom. Shazah and Rox seemed different but he guessed they now fit in better with Memo and Waters. They seemed fine, he thinks, damaged. Like me. But fine.
“I have some ideas,” he says on the broken mind, “I have that bionic spine thing.”
”You do still need a brain,” I say.
”That’s horrible,” Violet says.
November found herself relieved. Tern seemed distant but the rest of her gang remained intact. Only Shadow was shaken by the loss of the gods.
“You were suppose to save us,” he said sorrowfully before focusing on saving his people.
End of Session
Onto Hx:- November gives -1 Hx to Violet. “We haven’t exactly been on good terms,” she says.
- Violet gives +1 Hx to Jarhead.
- Jarhead gives +1 to Violet. This resets her Hx with him and earns her an experience. He reveals his new secret: he is planning to install kill switches in the people under his care. Once he finds their minds that is.
- Gator gives +1 to Jarhead since they defended the room together (and he ordering Jarhead’s gang around for him).
