Wednesday, April 25, 2018

Space World 5: Bad Dreams, Part I

In session 5 of our co-MC'd Apocalypse World game, "Bad Dreams", we explored Megaton, a massive outpost of humanity hidden within a long wrecked megahauler. Run by a psychic and mystic named White and his guardians, the White Guard, it should have been safe. Instead the PCs were stalked by its defenders, hunted by their pasts and encountered pirates.

The cast:
  • Brace (Brainer): the ship's pilot and also a spook, that despised part of humanity touched by the weird. He has extensive psychic powers. Shiv hates him.
  • Midnight Storm (Skinner): teenage post apocalyptic rockstar who wants to help people.
  • Nightingale (a.k.a. "Gale") (Angel): the ship's doctor hunting her brother Bluejay.
  • Vivek (Savvyhead): drug dealer/maker who experiments with his own product. He skipped out on his last employers.
While at Megaton I didn't have many threats. My main one revolved around Gale:

The Nevermore
Kind: Brutes: Hunting pack
Impulse: To victimize anyone vulnerable

Description: A damaged ship of injured crewmen. The Nevermore is a scavenger, attacking weaker looking ships and abandoned hulks. They picked on the wrong ship last time and they suffered a hull breach. Of 35 crew members only 16 survived. Most have suffered some level of injury.

The ship is a sleek black dart, much smaller than the Starlight. Its weapons appear nonfunctional. The crew does have personal weapons which they keep on board. A few have slipped knives into Megaton.

Cast: Cipher (acting captain, lean woman), Bug (snapped spine), Cage (broken arm), Pin (severe internal trauma), Crypt (woman with a broken jaw and very pregnant)

Gang (Medium 3-harm 1-armor on board; Small 2-harm 1-armor on Megaton); suffering at least 1 harm. They are armed with smgs, 9mms, big knives, and many knives. They were armored space suits (black and brown).

Bad Dreams


We picked up right after the crew was released from quarantine.

The quarantine doors slid open letting the rumble of humanity to filter in. The crew of the Starlight pushed quickly out from their comfortable if tight quarters and into Megaton's marketplace.

"You want to help me?' Gale asked Brace.

"Sure," he said trailing along behind her. "With what?"

"I need to make some jingle and replace lost stock. Let's set up a stall and offer medical assistance."

"Sounds lucrative."

The pair found an empty spot in the market, large enough for a stretcher and some medical supplies. Brace crafted a crude sign while Gale prepared for their customers.

Brace scanned the crowd for wounded and ill. "Hey, do you need medical assistance? Our medic can help."

A lean woman in a space suit looked down at Brace. "Are they any good?"

"She's the best. What do you need?"

"I have an injured crew." She gestured behind her where a half-dozen men and women stood. Some nursed broken arms, other burns. One lay on a stretcher. "I'm Cipher, the new captain of the Nevermore. We suffered an...asteroid impact. It killed the captain and some of my crew."

Gale makes her Read a Person roll. Cipher is lying about the asteroid.

Gale watched from the stall. The Nevermore's crew bore wounds more consistent with a firefight than impact and decompression.

"Well we can patch you up," Brace offered.

"Good, let's start with Pin," Cipher said. Her crew pulled the stretcher into the stall.

Gale got to work, replacing bandages and stabilizing the wounded woman. "She has some internal bleeding. I'll need to cut her open to seal it up."

"Just do it."

An hour later, Gale stood up blood stained but confident. "She needs bed rest but she should make a full recovery."

"Great," the captain said, handing some barter to Brace. "I've already worked out payment with your assistant. I have more wounded back at my ship. There is more jingle if you come back with me."

Gale split the fee with Brace and then headed to the Nevermore. As she walked away, Brace opened his mind, hoping to see what this crew is like. He sensed a carrion bird flying across the cosmos, feasting on dying animals.

Brace successfully opens his brain.
The captain and Ula waited by the lifter just outside the Starlight's dock.

"Back already?" Farley asked as Brace returned with Gale's equipment.

"Gale is finished at the market for now. She's got a job patching up the crew of the Nevermore. What are you two doing?"

"Ula and I are waiting for Main Stream. We are heading to the market with the lifter to get some food supplies. Preferably not cat food this time."

Brace shrugged. "I thought I saw Main Stream in the market already."

"What? She said she was going to wait for us." Farley frowned and looked at Ula. "Fine, let's get going then. Brace come and help us. We might need extra hands to load the food."

Brace tagged along. Farley quickly haggled with the merchants, securing a supply of edible if not delicious canned goods.

Once he loaded up the lifter, Brace decided to find some work of his own. He spent the next few hours trading sex for jingle.

And apparently we chose not to record the specifics of that Seduce a Person roll.
Gale stopped at a makeshift pharmacy on the way to the Nevermore. "How much for chillstabs and chemostabs?"

"Oh, sorry, we are all out of chemostabs," the old woman said from behind a wall of bottles and jars. "I can sell you biostabs instead."

"Alright how much do you have?"

Gale procured some more stock but not nearly enough to fill her pack. "Do you think you'll have more of this soon? I've been burning through my supply lately."

"I should have more in a week. Less if a factory ship comes in."

Gale made the rest of the journey to the Nevermore. She found the ship on the farthest berth from the Starlight. The small black vessel resembled the fast attack craft her old home the Centurion used to travel with. She noted that the impact damage included scorch marks like those of a plasma weapon.

A man with an arm in a sling approached her. "Are you the doctor?"

"Yes."

"I'm Cage. Cipher said to show you to the wounded."

"What happened?"

"It was an accident."

Cage led her the rest of the way in silence. They soon arrived at a makeshift infirmary. A gray-haired man lay on the floor watched over by another man whose face was half covered in scar tissue.

"Can you help him?" Cage asked. "Bug here had a brace fall on him."

"I can't move my legs," the old man said.

"I think so with some time."

Cage grunted and left the three of them alone.

"Who are you?" Gale asked the scarred man.

"Hurt."

"Uh Hurt, get me some water."

Once Hurt was out of sight, Gale told Bug, "Hold still."

She injected his with a sedative and reached out with her mind. His spinal cord stitched together under her hand. Bug gasped in his slumber at the return of sensation and a flash of his memories leapt into her mind. Bug led the assault, armored in a military space suit. The suit stopped the burns and shrapnel of a grenade blast but not the concussive force.

Successful healing touch!

As the memory faded, Bug's breathing became shallow. Gale checked his vitals. Satisfied she tried to wake him. As Hurt returned, she said, "Call Cage."

Cipher entered instead. "How is he?"

"He is in a light coma. He should make a full recovery but the next day or so are critical. I need to keep watch over him to ensure there are no complications."

"I'll make arrangements for your stay."

Gale nodded but wondered if she made the right choice.
Midnight wandered the vast market of Megaton. As he moved through a thinly populated set of stalls, he spotted Main Stream escorted by a quartet of White Guard.

He moved to follow through the maze of stalls. The armored figures led Main Stream further away and through a secret panel in the outer wall. One guard remained outside as the door closed.

He cautiously approached the blank wall.

"Nothing to see here," the guard said.

"I thought I saw my friend around here," he said.

"There's no one here."

Midnight walked off and considered his options. He looked for his crew, eventually finding Brace in Megaton's Red Light District.

"Brace, we need your help. Main Stream was abducted by the White Guard."

"Didn't she say she was a passenger? I'm not sure it is our problem."

"She's a part of the Starlight. And anyway she's a paying passenger. We don't have many of those."

"Fine, I'll help you." Brace closes his eyes. "Main Stream come here."

He uses Lost successfully.

"What did you do?"

"I called her. She come here, eventually."

Only a few minutes later, a White Guard ran up to them with three more chasing after them.

"They're after me," Main Stream said from behind the featureless helmet. "We've got to run."

Brace turned to Midnight. "Run, I'll stall them."

As the two fled into a mess of tents and stalls, Brace faced the guards. "You don't want them."

Slowly he began to strip his clothes. The guards stared in wonder and unnatural lust as he performed. A small crowd of onlookers gathered transfixed.

Yes, he took that move: Arresting Skinner.

In a nearby tent, Main Stream removed her disguise. Midnight tossed her his coat and escorted her quickly back to the Starlight, glancing over his shoulder the whole way.

Meanwhile Brace reveled in the attention. "You know the four of us could go somewhere more private. For a more intimate performance?"

"That sounds good," one of the helmeted figures said.

Successful Seduce a Person?

The others nodded and they led Brace out of the market. Passing through a secret door, they headed deeper into Megaton.
Vivek sold another pouch of his special stash. The third this hour, he mused. Business was good.

A figured watched from the far end of the stalls. They ran the moment Vivek spotted them. The drug dealer chased after them, keeping them in sight through the busy market.

The shops and stalls gave way to the dockyards. Vivek skidded to a stop in Bay 3. People moved about on their day-to-day activities. No one matched the outline of the man he just saw.

Vivek checked the dockyard logs. The Good Trip was berthed in Bay 5. Vivek decided to check in on an old friend.

The small ship smelled of grease and salt. A few tables and chairs were scattered around it. A makeshift kitchen filled the main cargo bay. Lunch worked the grill as Vivek approached.
"You!" Lunch said, waving a metal spatula at him.

"Hey, it is good to see you too."

"Good to see," he mumbled. "You left me holding the bag when you ran out!"

Vivek held up his hands. "Sorry. But I needed to get away from Mech and Boss. You know how they were. You don't look too bad off."

"Too bad off? I had a diner last time you were here. A real sit down place. I had to hock it because I helped you."

"I said I was sorry. I just wondered if you had something of mine."

"What? I tossed all your smelly clothes."

"No I mean my protection, you know the nine mil."

"Oh that." Lunch turns back to his grill. "Yeah I guess I still have that."

"Can I have it back?"

"What do you want it for?"

"Like I said, protection."

"This is Megaton. You don't need that kind of protection."

"Lunch I need it."

Lunch served up a stack of burgers. "Okay. But I'll get some heat if they find you with it. I need you to do something for me first."

"What?"

"Thanks to you I'm still tied into this underworld crap. There's a job the powers that be want done. Do the job and I'll get your stuff."

"What's the job?"

Lunch leaned over to Vivek. "The White Guard want a woman named Main Stream eliminated. She's held in the inner sections of Megaton."

"Fine."

Lunch slid a watch over to him. "Use this to get inside. It has the map to where she's being held."
Vivek followed the path on the watch through a grid of corridors. After ten minutes he reached an interrogation room.

The door slid open. Instead of Main Stream, Brace stood cuffed to a wall. Three White Guard surrounded him. One of the guards, a woman, faced away from him. She must be the target.

"Die," he thought at her.

He picked up the move Direct Brain Whisperer. Vivek goes aggro and inflicts damage. He also had some harm boosting moves. She dies quick.

She gasped and collapsed. Vivek quickly backed out of the room.

As the other guards rushed to her aid, Brace strained at his bonds. He slipped his hands free in time to grip his side in agony. Blood spilled from his old wounds.

Soft success on acting under fire.

Brace straightened and pushed past the pain. Shaking in anger, he shouted, "Now you are both going to die."

The men drew their weapons but Brace jumped between them. He pushed one guard's sword into his friend before hurling the survivor into the mirrored glass.

I think we handled this with a seize by force.

Brace moved over the wounded man. "Please leave me alone. Just go. Please just go."

Brace shook from the adrenaline and pain. He pulled the man over the shackles on the wall. "No. You need to answer some questions."
"It's done." Vivek sat down next to the sizzling meat.

Lunch reached under the grill and pulled something small but heavy from under it. "Careful it's a bit warm."

Vivek stowed his gun and walked off. Once out of sight, he popped open the clip. The key was still there in the bottom.

Vivek looked back at the Good Trip. A few men watched from the edges of the dock. The drug dealer slipped the key out and heads to a messenger station.

"I need a package delivered."

"What and where," asked the kid sitting by the station.

He grabbed an empty bag and dropped the key inside. "This. Take it to Gale at the Starlight."

Vivek quickly paid and hurried elsewhere.

I forget if Jordan introduced the key as part of a Threat or if someone else collaborated with him. Either way we never saw it pay off.

He spent the next few hours at one of Megaton's night clubs. Then together with a blond named Dez, he purchased a sleep cycle at a high-end hotel.
The guard gasped in pain as blood streamed from his eyes and ear. "No, please stop."

Brace uses liberal use of In-Brain puppet strings.

"Not until you tell me what is going on. What has become of the White Guard? Why are you after Main Stream?"

"I don't know. I don't know what's happening to us. The dreams, the nightmares, they just keep coming. I see myself doing horrible, even inhuman things. Sometimes I don't know if I'm awake or asleep. The others, they said it was tied to White. Something happened to him. And now it is happening to us too. That's all I know."

"Thanks," Brace said, sliding his hands around the man's neck.

The guard's eyes bulged. He opened and closed his mouth soundlessly as Brace tightened his grip. His struggles slowly weakened and then stopped. Brace held on until the life left his eyes.

Brace took a guard's gun and blasted the surveillance cameras. Donning some White Guard armor, he made his way back out into the markets. Quietly he slipped onto the Starlight.

He entered his quarters and grabbed some fresh clothes. On his bed was his violation glove and a note. Carefully he picked up and read it.

"Beware the dreams of madness. If you want to know more meet at Bay 33 at 5 AM."

Bay 33, that was far into the abandoned end of Megaton.
I think this scene was the result of a combination of several shorter episodes interspaced with the events above.

Midnight Storm adjusted his duster. He looked in the mirror one last time and ran a hand through his long dark hair. He pulled his guitar out of its case, checked the tuning again, and then packed it up for the concert.

On his way out of the docks, the musician passed some fliers he and Snaz put up earlier in the evening. The eager fan had been happy to spread the word. Snail, the club owner would be grateful. More people meant more money spent on drinks. For Midnight that meant a larger take as well.

He arrived early and smiled at the White Guard watching the entrance. Wrench nodded back at him. Even Megaton's guardians enjoyed his music.

A small crowd waited for him inside. Snaz pushed up to the front dragging a red-headed woman behind him.

"Hey Midnight!" He turned to the beauty beside him. "Molly, this is Midnight Storm!"

"Hey," she said, trying to wrench her arm free.

"Hi," Midnight said. "Looks like we have a good crowd already."

"This is nothing," Snaz said. "Just wait until the show. Molly go get us some drinks. Hurry now."

Midnight watches her go. "Molly is your girlfriend?"

"Yes, the old ball and chain. Hey, I can't wait to see you play."

Midnight stepped away. "Well I need to go back stage and get ready."

Later the club walls vibrated to his songs and the thrum of a sea of humanity. Midnight saw Molly and Snaz right in front. Snaz cheered him on while Molly's gaze took on a look he'd seen many times before. That could be trouble.

A successful Artful and Gracious move. Molly is in love with Midnight. Or at least his music.

As the concert wound down however Midnight saw something worse. Snaz became abusive, drunk on music and booze. When Molly tried to leave the crowd (for the restroom or some quiet, Midnight couldn't tell) Snaz smacked her. More than once.

After the show, Midnight peeled Snaz away from the rest of his fans. "Snaz, you seem like you have a good thing with Molly. But you can't treat her like that."

"What do you mean?"

"I can tell Molly cares about you but need to treat her nice in return. She's not your servant or your toy."

"Hey don't butt into my relationship."

"If you want to hang with me, I don't want to see you hurting women."

I'm not sure if there was a Manipulate a Person roll here but there should have been.
"I need an assistant if I'm going to handle all these wounded," Gale told Cipher.

The captain looked down at her and stroked her chin. "Okay. Rat! Come in here."

A man entered the infirmary, the first Gale saw out of the ship's black and brown uniforms. "What do you need me to do, Captain?"

"This is Rat, our nurse," Cipher said. "Rat assist Nightingale. Keep an eye on the injured and make sure she's comfortable."

Rat nodded.

After Cipher left the room, Gale asked, "why don't you have a uniform?"

"I'm uh new here." He started checking supplies. "I guess they didn't have a spare."

"They must not trust you much then. I know some of the crew died. They should have a spare now."

"I guess."

"Look I know something fishy is up with this crew. You don't look happy here. Let me in on what's going on and I'll take you with me when I leave."

I'm pretty sure Gale succeeds on a Manipulate a Person roll.

Rat glanced around. The wounded were all asleep. "I didn't realize it until it was too late but the Nevermore is a pirate ship. The crew hide their weapons when they come to port. The ship's weapons are shielded even from Megaton."

"How did you join them?"

"I was just looking for a new crew to join. My old one disbanded when the captain lost our ship in a game of cards. I didn't realize they were pirates until their next raid. By then it was too late."

"Okay, my offer still stands. Until then just keep an eye on me while I sleep and wake me if Cipher returns."

Rat nodded.

"I'm going to wash up first,' Gale said.

As she splashed water in her face, she noticed some shell casings on the bathroom floor. She reached out with her mind. She saw images of men and women on their knees followed by the sound of distant gun shots.

A successful opening of her brain.

That's it until next time.

Wednesday, April 18, 2018

Space World 4: Taking Care of Business, Part 2

In the second half of Taking Care of Business, session 4 of our co-MC'd Apocalypse World game, the player characters the snowballing stops. With the cast, beaten, burned, and shot it is time to rest and recover. Instead we learn some secrets and then introduce some new ones as we approach Megaton.

The cast:
  • Brace (Brainer): the ship's pilot and also a spook, that despised part of humanity touched by the weird. He has extensive psychic powers. Shiv hates him.
  • Midnight Storm (Skinner): teenage post apocalyptic rockstar who has been sleeping around without understanding the consequences.
  • Nightingale (a.k.a. "Gale") (Angel): the ship's doctor hunting her brother Bluejay.
  • Vivek (Savvyhead): drug dealer/maker who experiments with his own product.

Taking Care of Business, Part 2

We pick up with the awkward recap for the captain.

"Okay, I want an explanation," Farley said.

The assembled crew looked around and shuffled their feet for a minute before Midnight and Brace began to explain things.

"Stop!" The Captain ordered. "Gale, you give me the rundown."

Gale stepped forward and relayed the events, especially the deaths and woundings, as she understood them. Brace, Midnight, and Vivek in turn added their details of the stowaways and sabotage.

"Okay, Bigs, Brace, and Midnight. Do a sweep of the ship from top to bottom. Make sure we've found everyone and everything. Ula, you are ship's cook for now. I'm sure Bullet left some recipes on the ship's computer."

"Farley!" Ula protested. "You know I'm a terrible cook."

The captain rubbed his brow. "Main Stream, you've been known to brew some great stews. Will you take over?"

The ashen haired merchant looked up. "May I remind you that while you are Captain, I am a paying passenger. You can't assign me a job. I've got my own business, my own contacts, and means of my own."

She is kind of a book dealing version of Inara.

"Ula, you are cook," the Captain concluded.
"Why don't you come over tonight?" Tally asked.

Midnight Storm finished putting away his guitar. "Sure. What brings this on?"

"I think you deserve a nice home cooked meal for keeping our spirits up with your music." She leaned in close. "Also I think we could both enjoy something other than the sludge Ula has been serving up."

"Sound good."

Later after Tally's son goes to sleep, the musician considered putting the moves on her. As he leaned towards her his side and neck ached. "Tally, I think might go get some rest. I'm still pretty banged up."
Nightingale woke up, cleaned up and dressed like any other morning. She jogged down to the medbay, snagging some food and water from the mess hall along the way.

She opened the medbay door. The contents of her medbag lay strewn across the floor. Her vials of drugs were gone.

Gale stumbled back. She glanced around the room, hoping that some of her supplies were left behind.

She has no stock.

The doctor collected her things and locked up the medbay. Grimly she headed for the drive chamber to find Brace and share her frustrations.

As the door slid open to the drive chamber, the sounds of heavy breathing and Sun's passionate cries hit Gale. Gale briefly glimpsed Brace and Sun before stammering out "Sorry" and closing the door.

Gale hurried down the corridor away from the drive room for a minute before pacing back hesitantly. She shuffled and fidgeted for over a quarter-hour until Sun exited the room.

Sun tries not to look at Gale as she heads past her.

"Sun, I uh, need your help," Gale said.

"With what?"

"Someone broke into the medbay. Could you check that it is securely locked?"

"Someone went through your stuff?" Sun looked directly at Gale her eyes narrowing. "We have a thief?"

"Maybe, I guess. I just want to make sure it doesn't happen again."

"Theft is wrong. I'll make sure no one else can open that door. Any idea who it was?"

"No," Gale said. "But Sparky might have seen them."

The women walked over the med bay. As Sun examined the door itself, Gale brought up the video footage.

Sun wandered over. "It wasn't exactly forced but someone hacked it. Only someone with technical expertise could pull it off. I know I didn't do it which means Vivek, Bigs, and Shiv are our suspects."

Gale points to the robot's monitor. "Sparky was in sleep mode so we only have a low resolution video."

The screen showed a blurry figure moving about the room.

Sun leans in. "He's too small to be Bigs or Shiv."
"Vivek where are you?" Gale blared over the comms. She banged on the door outside his sleeping quarter and grow room again.

The comms crackled to life. "Do you want me to call him?" Brace asked.

Gale sighed. "Sure."

A half hour alter Vivek crawled into the drive chamber. He moaned and curled into a ball.

"Vivek get up," Brace said.

"No."

"I need you to answer questions."

"Everything hurts. Go away."

"This is my station!"

"Hey what's going on down there," Farley shouted from above. "Is that Vivek? Call Gale. She's been looking for him."

Gale entered the bridge a few minutes later and climbed down to the drive chamber. After shining a light in the drug makers eyes and taking his pulse, she announced, 'I thinking he is withdrawal. Vivek you need help. Let me take you to the infirmary so we can handle this properly."

Vivek nods weakly.

As she helps him up, she finds her missing stock in his satchel. She stows it and guides him to med bay to detox.

Brace trails along. "If you don't mind I think I might join Vivek. These burns from Bullet are taking forever to heal."

"Fine. But you are both going to spend time resting and not getting yourself even more damaged."
"Come in, come in," Tia said. "I hope you are feeling better."

"Much better. Better than Vivek and Brace. Gale tells me they have another week of bed rest." Midnight Storm grinned. "So what is it you wanted to talk to me about?"

Tia's husband Morrel led him to the back of their spartan cabin. "We have a request. But first let me explain this."

He pulled a tarp off a large boxy device. A long metal antenna emerged from its top and a strange tapping noise emerged from a grill on its front. Midnight felt a pattern to the noise, a message perhaps.

"What is that?"

"That," Tia explained, is a long-range receiver. It is picking up a message in an old code. It could be from a Golden Age ship or space station!"

Morrel continued. "We want to find the source of the signal. And we need to stay on the Starlight to do so. But we've already spent most of our funds getting this far. Can you help us?"

"I think so," the young man said. "I think I can convince Farley to let you stay on."

Later he convinced Farley to let him try a hand as cook in exchange to for letting the passengers stay another leg.

Farley told him, "if you're better than Ula, I'll do it as a favor. Give it a try tomorrow night."

Ula happily took the night off and Midnight set to work.

And failed to Act under Fire...

The next day after an even more disgusting meal than Ula's typical serving, Midnight admitted defeat to Farley. "I'm not ready to be a cook. But I promised Tia and Morrel I'd help them on their trip. Here's some of my savings. I'll pay for their passage."
But in the end I guess Gale and Brace's vision didn't amount to anything. Or maybe with people not failing enough rolls (and coincidentally nacrostabbed) artificially making things worse wouldn't be fun.

Two weeks later the Starlight entered the debris field of an ancient war zone. They carefully relayed their authorization and list of tradeable goods to hidden satellites amid the wreckage.

The reply pings followed the old pattern, designed decades ago to protect Megaton from reaver threats.

Then a laser communication came through. "This is the White Guard. Prepare to be boarded."

Farley ordered the ship to a stop. A small craft approached them from behind the blasted hull of an old troop transport. Expertly piloted it gently docks with the Starlight.

The crew meet the White Guard in the main cargo bay. Three people in white armor emerge.

The leader doffs his helmet. "Commander Kriss. We will search your ship for contraband."

As the other soldiers quickly search the ship, Farley asks, "What's going on? We've never been searched out here before."

"New protocol by White," Kriss answers. "It shouldn't be very long. I recommend you resume your usual activities. I will alert you when we are done."

The White Guard joined the crew for dinner that evening. Most people chose to remain quiet. Krill questioned Farley about their recent activities until satisfied, then he too lapsed into silence. Brace however attempted to draw the attentions of the female guard beside him.

"So what is a capable woman like yourself do her spare time," he said sliding a hand closer to hers.

She remained stone faced.

Brace persisted with complements while trying to make physical contact.

Rather reply, she stuck a fork into his thigh.

As he bit down on the pain, Brace opened his mind. What were they hiding? Instead of a vision, useful or otherwise, he saw nothing.

The White Guard have a custom move with respect to Open Your Brain.
Slipping through a gap in the hull of a Golden Age cargo ship, Starlight passed batteries of automated weapons and reached Megaton's docks.

Brace slipped them into their birth. Linkages with the larger "ship" took over. Computer systems and power became reliant on Megaton. Without proper authorization from inside they were now part of the base.

The crew entered the docking bay and passed through the weapon detection system. Only Vivek experienced any trouble. He had to try seven times until he finally disposed of all of his weapons.

On the other side Commander Kriss sent them through a decontamination shower due to Midnight's comment about the Krypton Dioxide poisoning the previous night.

After that they moved to their assigned quarters.

"Hey where's my glove," Brace asked, towelling himself off.

"Why are we not being allowed onto Megaton already?" Vivek added.

The White Guard were gone however.

Midnight Storm activated a communication terminal. "We are missing a glove and want to know when we can get out of here."

The voice on the comm answers, "You must stay in quarantine for a full day until you are clear of possible biological contaminants. The glove is an unauthorized device. You can talk to security when you are ready to leave about its return."

Dinner that evening was good at least.
During the night, fierce nightmares torn through Brace’s dreams. He felt the need to eat and rip into flesh. At times he felt like he himself was a reaver. He woke clawing at the air with Vivek staring at him.

"Bad dreams?"

"Yes, You too?"

Vivek nodded. Neither of them slept the rest of the night.
Grumpy and frustrated, the crew emerged into the Megaton marketplace.

Wednesday, April 11, 2018

Space World 4: Taking Care of Business, Part 1

In Taking Care of Business, session 4 of our co-MC'd Apocalypse World game, the player characters hit critical snowballing in a confined space. People are shot, punched, beaten, mind stabbed and blown up. Gale, the Angel, gets stuck in the infirmary treating the many wounded. Not everyone makes it.

The cast:
  • Brace (Brainer): the ship's pilot and also a spook, that despised part of humanity touched by the weird. He has extensive psychic powers. Shiv hates him.
  • Midnight Storm (Skinner): teenage post apocalyptic rockstar who has been sleeping around without understanding the consequences.
  • Nightingale (a.k.a. "Gale") (Angel): the ship's doctor who had a crush on Midnight Storm. After a one night stand, she realizes he doesn't love her back. She is also hunting her brother Bluejay.
  • Vivek (Savvyhead): drug dealer/maker who experiments with his own product. He bought a woman on the last stop named Donna.

Taking Care of Business, Part 1

I think Brace followed up a second try at calling Bluejay. At least our notes say he did. I'm going to airbrush this into one scene since we never saw any fallout from his previous failure.

Brace turned to Gale. "He's coming."

"Really?"

Brace felt a ghost of memory: a man on the bridge of a ship looking out at the void. "It might take a while, but Bluejay is coming to us. If he still survives that is."

"Thank you," Nightingale said, a tempest of emotions welling inside her. Could it really be happening? Would she see her brother again?
"So what do you think Sun?" Vivek said.

The electrical engineer examined the schematics for the aft landing gear, the one he didn't trap.

"I suppose someone could get into there." She zoomed in. "Especially since these plans don't match what's there. That wall for instance. It doesn't exist and Bigs sealed off those vents months ago." She scowled. "And there. That spot is infested with rats. I hate rats."

"But is there a way to the landing gear from the inside?"

"I think so. Cargo Bay 2 has a hole in it. Someone crashed a forklift into it five years ago. That might intersect this line here." Her finger pressed the screen, distorting the image. "You could crawl right to the landing gear casing."

"Let's have a look."
"I can't believe he shot you," Ula said. "Didn't his cult want you to play for them?"

Midnight Storm nodded. "It's been a crazy few days. Cults, toxic dust, shootings."

"Don't forget the stowaways. Have they found the the last one yet?'

"Net yet," he said.

"How is Tatters?" she said softly.

Midnight looked down. "Not good. I should keep searching from him or her. I'll see if Bullet is engineering."

After a short walk and a climb down a rusty ladder, Midnight entered the dim confines of the engine room. Shiv stood by a control panel alone, scanning the room and rubbing a large wrench.

"Everything okay?" the musician asked.

"All quiet," Shiv grunted. "You alone?"

"I was looking for Bullet."

Suddenly Midnight heard a clatter from nearby.

"What's that?" he said as he ran out of the room. The sound echoed from the far end of the corridor. Midnight hurried over and looked into the vent above him.
Gale paused her work on the crews' medical records. "Hungry again?" she asked Rum.

The boy looked up from his third can of cat food. It was not a happy face.

"You want to talk about it?"

He shook his head.

Gale leaned back in her chair next to the medbay computer. As Rum chowed down, she decided to use her gifts a different way. She stretched out her mind to the void.

Sensations flooded her mind. Beatings, deprivation, verbal abuse. Bob and Bob were horrible to this child. Rum learned to snatch food quick when it was available, which it rarely was.

She gets a hard hit on her roll to open her brain.

"I have something to show you," she said walking over to a dusty corner of the medbay. She lifted some plastic sheeting off an old medical android. "Sparky."

Gale has an "assistant" in her workshop.

The robot's eyes glowed and it lifted to a standing position. Its legs were welded to the floor. "How may I assist?"

"Show Rum here Tetris."

A screen on the robot's body glowed and revealed a series of falling blocks.

"It's a game Vivek installed on Sparky," Gale explained. "You touch the screen to spin and move the pieces. Try it."

Farley burst into the room. "Gale, I need you in the brig."

"Rum wait here."

Nightingale and the Captain hurried to Donna's cell. Blood splattered the walls and floors of her bathroom. More blood pooled in the bathtub.

"Donna is missing," Farley said.

"With this much blood loss," Gale said slowly, "if she didn't die, she is very close to doing so."
Vivek and Sun tried to pushed the crate out of the way. The aged wood refused to budge. Behind the crate Vivek could see jagged metal and a gap big enough for a person.

"We need a cargo loader," Vivek said.

"There's one in the other bay, I'll get it."

Vivek watched Sun run next door. A minute later Bullet wandered in from the other direction, carrying an emergency axe.

"Have you seen the rats?" he asked.

"Er, no."

"Have you noticed how Brace is always so eager to leave?"

"Not really."

"He's hiding something. Him and those rats."

Vivek watched him leave, muttering to himself.

Sun returned in the cargo loader. Vivek relaxed and helped load the crate. The hole exposed, he took out his tools. After a few minutes and some welding, the landing gear was again inaccessible.

Vivek began to pack his tools. Something smacked him in the back of his head. He stumbled forward and rolled around.

A stranger, a thin bald-headed man, stood over him. His ragged cloak resembled those of the Family.

Vivek scrambled away and to his feet as his attacker paused to grab a length of loose pipe. The drug maker noticed Sun just standing there. He grabbed her hand and they ran.

The pair made some rapid turns and soon lost the stranger.

A successful acting under fire.
"That's assuming it is her blood," Farley said. "See if you can tell. And find out what happened here."

"I'll need some equipment," Gale said.

"Go get it."

As Gale returned with her gear, she spotted Tia exiting the communication room.

"What's going on?" she asked the passenger.

Tia gnaws her lip. "I was looking for Morrel. I haven't seen him for a few hours. Have you seen him?"

"No. You should go back to your room until we have this situation taken care of."

Tia nodded and hurried down the corridor. Gale returned to the brig and began to empty her box of testing equipment.

Then the lights went out.
Midnight crawled through the air ducts. The twisting metal tunnel led to a cargo bay. The room was strangely dark. He pointed flashlight into the large chamber.

Someone moaned.

Midnight wriggled into the room and followed the sound to the far corner. Donna lay on her side, alternating wheezing and moaning. Midnight gently rolled her over. The woman's jaw swung at an odd angle, unhinged from her skull. Her left eyed struggled to focus on him. The swelling made her right a purple raisen of flesh.

Donna wheezed out a high pitch screech.

The musician set down his shotgun and reached to pick her up. Someone clipped his arm with a metal pipe.

Midnight whirled to face the bald-headed man. As the stowaway swung at him again, Midnight tried to grab his weapon. Instead he ended up knocked down and bruised.

A failed seize by force there.

The man brought the pipe down across Midnight Storm's throat with both hands, choking him. Midnight fumbled with his right hand. The gun sprang to his hand and he fired his sleeve pistol into the man's face. Blood and brains dribbled down from the ceiling.

And then Midnight succeeded at a seize by force roll.

Midnight gasped for breath. He stood up rubbing his throat. Then he picked up the half dead woman and headed for the infirmary.
Brace took the elevator down to the engine room. The door froze halfway open as the lights died.

The pilot pushed on the doors but they only budged an inch. He felt around for the emergency box. The axe inside was missing. Without a lever Brace wrestled with the door for a few minutes before he squeezed through the gap between the elevator doors.

Red emergency lighting flooded the engine room. A whistling noise emerged from the tangle of tubes and pipes on the far side of the room. A pair of lights approached from the hallway to his right. Sun and Vivek ran up to him.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"We just ran into the stowaway. He tried to get us with a pipe," Sun said quickly.

"I also saw Bullet babbling about rats and not trusting you," Vivek added. "He was carrying an axe."

"What killed the lights then?"

Vivek walked over the control panels. "It looks like the Theron reactor is over pressurized. Main power shut off automatically. Until we fix that we only have the emergency lighting. That noise is the release valve trying to equalize pressure. The good news is we won't explode. The bad news is that the exhaust will kill us in about an hour."

"Anything else?"

"Yes, someone locked the controls. I can override it but I'll need another set of hands."

"Sun, you and Vivek fix the engine. I'll go find Bullet. It sounds like he cracked."

Space madness strikes.
Brace positioned himself in an access port just behind a corner. Then he reached out with his mind and called to Bullet.

Using his move Lost.

As he waited, he spotted Shiv down the hall. He stayed perfectly still until Shiv moved out of sight.

This might or might not have been space madness preying on Brace's mind.

A few minutes later Bullet turned the corner. Brace leapt out behind him and tried to wrestle him to the ground. Bullet threw him off but not before the pilot made contact with his mind.

He failed Seize by Force but succeeded on In-Brain Pupper Strings.

Confess what you did to the Captain Brace imposed on Bullet.

But the man refused to head to the bridge. Instead Bullet turned to Brace, his right eye rapidly filling with blood. He pulled back his axe and swung down at Brace.

Bullet takes 1-harm ap.

As he roared at him, the pilot slipped under the swing and tried to overpower him. The axe lodged in a gas pipe. Bullet pulls it free, pouring the gas over both of them. Brace is knocked to the floor by Bullet's second swing and the axe crashes into a control panel.

Sparks leap from the damaged machinery and the corridor is rocked by an explosion.

Pain laces over Brace's body from burns and cuts. He blinks his eyes open in time to see the lower half of Bullet's body slide down the remaining wall.

Pretty sure that was a failed Seize by force roll.
Sun strained to hold the heavy wrench on the exhaust valve. "Do you have it yet?"

A squeek emerged from the tangle of pipes then Vivek called out. "Got it!"

Sun relaxed and Vivek squirmed out of the engine conduits. "Now we can reboot the computers without detonating the ship."

The room shuddered as the explosion rocked the Starlight.
Midnight changed course toward the blast. Donna breathed shallowly in his arms.

In a blacked section of the engineering deck, he found Brace crawling slowly towards the engine room. Vivek skid to a stop opposite him.

"Is she alive?" he asked.

"Barely. Brace can you speak?" Midnight said.

Brace coughed. "I'll live. Take care of her."

Vivek and Midnight carried Donna to the medbay. They passed an empty engine room along the way.
The medbay door slid open and Midnight and Vivek rushed Donna to closest bed.

"We need help here!" Midnight said.

"Over here!" Gale shouted. The men hustled Donna over to Sparky. The robot began monitoring Donna' s life signs in series of erratic beeps.

"I'm heading back for Brace," Vivek said as Midnight looked on at Gale's desperate efforts to save her patient.

Sparky's beeps turned to a steady bleak tone as Vivek headed down the hall.

Gale had the move Touched by Death at this point. She didn't try very hard to save Donna. Instead she took the +1 Weird.

The doctor looked into Donna's glazed eyes. Suddenly she was pulled down into their dark depths.

The familiar church bell tolled. Donna and Gale stood outside the old wooden building. Around them lay the empty streets of some ruined city.

From every corner, building, and hole in the ground poured hungry reavers. They grabbed Donna, dragged her down and devoured her. Then their faceless gaze turned to Gale.

I think the Ruined City with its Church was one of Jamil's threats. We never really learned what was up with it.

"Are you okay?" Midnight asked again.

"I'm fine," Nightingale said stiffly. She turned from the dead woman. "Let me look at you."

She patched Midnight up and shoved a cold compress at him. "I'm going to help Brace now."

Shiv and Bigs stumbled in a few minutes after Gale left.

"What happened to you?" Midnight asked.

"I found him hurt near engineering," Bigs said.

"Someone clocked me in the back of the head," Shiv grumbled. "Knocked me over a railing into level C."

"Yeah, a lot of that going around. Did you see who did it?"

"No."
Gale reached the lift just as Brace and Vivek emerged.

"What happened to you?" Gale asked.

Vivek pressed Brace's violation glove into Gale's hands before sliding out from under the pilot. "I've got to get back down and fix this mess."

"I want that back," Brace said.

Gale ignored his request. "Brace, you are bleeding and burned. We need to get you patched up now. What happened?"

As they limp back to the medbay, Brace explained. "Bullet. He went mad. Tried to hack me up with an axe. Instead he blew a gas line."

"Bullet! But he was such a nice man."

"You spend too long in the void, it destroys you," he said, forcing his way out of Gale's grasp. He stripped off his burned and bloody clothes in the medbay.

Gale placed a hand on his pale sliced flesh, summoning energy to stitch his wounds closed. As he heals, the two shared visions of betrayal: Sun hitting Shiv from behind, Ula poisoning the crew’s food, Shiv talking with Bigs about getting the Spooks, and Farley loading his gun.

Soft hit on Healing touch.

"What? What was that?" Gale asked.

"I don't know. Can I have my glove back?"

Gale absently pulled the violation glove from her pocket. "How did you come by this anyway?"

Brace gently took it from her. "I made it from a standard issue Link-Flight suit. The principles are the same: interface the wearer's mind and something else. I just added IOs from the inside onto the finger tips. So mind to mind. Do you want to try it?"

Gale looked at the limp glove for a few seconds before she said, "No thank you."

Next time: Vivek suffers withdrawal, Midnight decides not to hit on people, and Gale reduces the chaos level.

Wednesday, April 4, 2018

Play By Chat: The Black Pyramid: Location

So after I pitched two games to my online group last time, they chose the Black Pyramid. The next step in the process of launching this game is to decide on where and when it begins. We'll be following the mummies and vampires across history from the early 19th century to modern day so the location had better be interesting.

Time & Place Options

London, 1840


Change is in the air. Mummies flock to London as the British Empire continues to dominate the world. Vampires swarm in numbers not seen since the fall of Rome. The millions of mortals pouring into the city represent both a resource to exploit and threat to control.

Characters: PC mummies might be new arrivals or long time residents. The same is true for vampires. There are many other competing immortals. As the population explodes the local Prince has his or her hands full.

This is the second time I've tried to pitch a game in London (the other being the last Changeling: the Lost game that became the Price). For some reason it doesn't resonate with my players. Of course given London's long history, the British Museum, one of Cleopatra's Needles and other artifacts in the area it would work great for a Mummy game. Plus I could have included Roman era vampires as locals.

Washington D.C., 1820


A powerful meret (group) of Mummies seeks to turn the capital into a new Irem. News of their goal and the cover given by the resconstruction after the War of 1812 lead other mummies to establish themselves in the city. Meanwhile opportunistic vampires seek to get in the ground floor of this young nation.

Characters: PC mummies represent the second wave in an effort to guide the destiny of the city. PC vampires meanwhile struggle with limited prey but few Kindred distractions in this Prince-less city (or subjectless Princedom). With few mortals (and fewer still that remain year round), everyone soon knows the other players in town.

This is the setting presented in Cursed Necropolis: D.C or at least the historic version of it. It was also my least favorite. My players of course liked it best. At least I have a lot of future historical details to include and the vampire situation will be interesting.

Another interesting element is that my first Chronicle of Darkness game was set near here in Norfolk. Some of the vampires from that game were old enough to make an appearance in this one.

New York City, 1845


Egyptian Revival Architecture has swept into the city in the past decade, concealing the tombs of a wave of mummies. Why are they here, now?

Characters: PCs are among the first wave of Mummies to reside in the city. Vampires have been here longer and may or may not be founding members of the well developed Princedom currently in place.

My favorite of the three. I keep pitching New York and keep losing the vote. Well until I didn't pitch it. I'll talk about that game (my new Mage: the Awakening game) in a few weeks.

This option included the other of Cleopatra's Needles, more museums, mobsters, and in the future a whole transported temple. I also planned to start off with the mummies being uncertain why they moved here (Memory is a tricky thing).

I originally planned to include Chicago as a potential location but on further examination I found that the Egyptian elements arrive far too late for my desired timeline.