We are now over a third of the way through my planned 20+ session run for this campaign. The world is getting more developed but major questions remain about the psychic maelstrom, the 'gods', the Militia and other forces working towards remaking this world.
As in my earlier actual play reports, small green text indicates out of character talk, mechanics and other game aspects outside of the fiction.
Our main characters are:
- Gator (the Gunlugger) is an assassin and part-time bodyguard who wears customized scrounged armor made from Kevlar and ceramic inserts. Camouflaged for the jungle, his face was ruined in a fight with an alligator. His eyes are always sizing things up and his brutal life has left his body a hard sheet of muscle. He recently save a little girl named Memo and obtained a gang of mercenaries.
- Jarhead (the Savvyhead) is a thing African-American man with a short goatee, long dreads, and clothes covered in pockets and gear. Travelling around in an old news van, he repairs items for a living. He is investigating a device that can bend space and time. He has also obtained employees in the form of a young woman Allison and her brother Waters.
- November Orleans (the Skinner) is descended from a family which left New Orleans before it sank. She is a beautiful woman of mixed heritage with dark eyes and skin, a sweet face and lush body. She dresses herself in a mix of scavenged clothing that somehow works together and wears a necklace made from rows of antique coins which jingle and shine as she moves. Her main profession is as a dancer, especially belly dancing, but she has a sideline business in cooking and animal training.
- Violet Jefferson (the Touchstone) is descended by survivalists and her clothing and gear reflects her origins. Plain looking but fit, she carries a pocket copy of the Federalist papers and founding documents of the United States of America, an idea she hopes to revive. Her followers are demanding her help putting on a mission to liberate Miami from a tyrant.
- Gator (Cool, Hard).
- Jarhead (Hot, Weird).
- November (Cool, Sharp).
- Violet (Hard, Sharp).
Lockdown, Part II
I recap for Gator then. “Unfortunately we’ve just discovered the traitors are infected with the climbers and are about to poison the air supply. They are not plants, they are fungi.”The group groans.
I also relay the information on the whine from Jarhead's Augury.
"It turned November onto Joshua," Violet says. "So there were some good things that came out of it. Well not so good for Joshua."
Finally I remind him he still has 1 harm from last session.
We start in Gator's room in the main wing because as he says, "I don't trust the East Wing yet."
Gator shakes his head as the pain of the mental screech fades. A single fluorescent light illuminates his small fortified room.
The scarred man’s eyes dart to the door as clomping foot steps approach. He pulls his submachine gun as a heavy fist pounds on the single entrance.
Gator opens the door with the barrel of his gun. Through the slit he sees a huge black man in faded fatigues. The giant's left hand grips a pistol absently as he says, “Gator, November sent me.”
"Yeah," Gator replies relaxing his grip minutely.
“We got problems,” Mox says.
"Problems?"
“We have one of those climbers about to pop in the air vents,” the soldier says, reaching into his pack.
Gator pulls the door open and steps into the hall. "Do we know where it is?"
“No,” he says pulling out his gas mask.
"Alright," the mercenary replies, grabbing his own gas mask. "Just get to shutting vents."
“Yeah I’m going to talk to Barnum now,” Mox says before running on down the hall.
Gator finds his gang's bunkroom. “Everybody up.”
Morgana pops open an eye a second before bolting upright. "Wake up!" she shouts.
As the mercs get out of bed and ready themselves, Gator tells them, “we’ve got a climber in the vents.” He pulls on his gas mask. “Get hunting.”
"Okay split into teams of two," Morgana instructs them.
Gator grabs Road. "You're coming with me."
He wants to keep an eye on him.
The gang disperses through the hospital. In the lobby Violet looks up as Morgana and another merc moves through the area, popping open air vents.
“What’s going on?” Violet asks.
"We've got a guy about to pop in the air vents," Morgana says through her gas mask. "We've got to find him."
"Need some help?” she asks, grabbing her gear.
"Yeah, there’s lot of vents here."
Violet pulls on her own mask and joins the search.
Gator and Violet both Read a sitch. Gator gets a 10 and Violet gets an 11. Violet marks experience.
Violet starts with "What should I be on the lookout for?"
"Other than the climber? The emergency protocols. The AI might initiate lockdown and trap you inside."
"What’s my enemy's true position?"
"The best way to spread the plague would be through the central ventilation area in the loading dock."
"Well I assume I can find my way there pretty easy," she says.
"Yeah Jarhead has his van set up there. So yes."
"Wait, what?" Jarhead exclaims.
Violet then asks, "What’s the best escape route?"
"Assuming you mean from loading dock, you could smash through the door with a vehicle, which will wreck it, but let the others escape."
Violet pulls on her own mask. Her eyes flick to the security camera. We'd better find the climber before the computer does. I'd don't want to be trapped here. She glances at the vents above. These all lead to that mass of tubing near Jarhead's van, she thinks. Violet starts running for the loading dock.
We turn to Gator. "What’s my enemy's true position?" he ask.
I decide to give him a slightly different answer.
Gator and Road case the second floor main hall room by room. Road looks in the left door. "Hey I found something."
Gator pokes his head inside. The vent grate hangs open over a toppled chair. The warrior quickly rights it and in one fluid motion pulls himself into the duct. In the darkness a banging echoes down the metal tube.
He drops back down into the room. His eyes settle on a tank of oxygen.
"Which enemy is most vulnerable to me?" he asks.
"There is only one enemy and she is definitely vulnerable."
“Tell everybody close all the vents," he says to Road. "It may get a little hot.”
Gator grabs the canister, hefting it and himself into the air duct. As he clambers after the threat, he hears Road shout, "Seal the vents!”
Elsewhere...
Joshua holds his bulging forehead. November tugs him the final few steps to the isolation room. “Get in there,” she says before pushing him.
She turns to the controls. Ignoring the intercom, she tries to trigger the seal manually.
I inform her she could tell the hospital computer to contain him.
"The computer is enough of an AI to have psychoses and I’m good enough with people to know I don’t want to involve it," she tells me.
November rolls Acting under fire and gets a soft hit. She also marks experience.
The main door slides shut. But the inner hermetic door remains stubbornly open. Grumbling, she presses the intercom button.
Cut to the loading dock.
Shadow stops pacing between a dusty palettes and a rusty jeep. He turns to Jarhead. “How can we find the Messenger out of the hundred people in this building?”
“I don’t know," the tinkerer says polishing another bit of chrome. "More time scrying will be needed.”
A loud banging pulls everyone’s attention to the two-story mass of air ducts in the corner.
“What is that?” Shadow asks, bringing his twin pronged spear to bear.
"I don’t know," Jarhead says. "You've got the weapon."
”Do you think it is hostile?” the savage asks as he steps closer to the source of the noise.
Jarhead readies his pistol. "There shouldn't be anything in there making that noise. Get it out of there."
Violet bursts inside as Shadow twists something on the handle of his spear. The prongs give off a strange hum.
In the ducts, Gator spies someone crawling in the darkness ahead.
“Hold up," Violet warns. "There’s a climber in there.”
Shadow steps back.
“A climber? Why?” Jarhead asks.
"Someone’s trying to sabotage the air system,” Violet explains, stepping toward the ductworks herself.
"Shit, shit, double shit," Jarhead says backing up to van. He reaches behind him for his handmade gas mask.
Gator rolls Acting under fire to grab the climber. Though he is 'seizing' her, he isn't trying to kill her and neither side is resorting to out and out violence. Hence Acting under fire. He gets a hard hit and marks experience.
The figure tries to scramble away. Gator pulls his muscular form through the tight duct. He crashes into a woman, pinning her to metal floor before he recognizes the long red dreadlocks.
Scarlet's glazed eyes look off the left as she continues to thrash. Her forehead bulges in rhythm to her pained breathing.
“Is there a way to stop her from popping?" he asks. "If I kill her right now while she just stop?”
"Maybe."
Gator rolls Go Aggro as he decides to try it. Despite his Hard +3 and a +1 for his earlier roll, he fails. Cue groans from everyone involved. He does advance however.
Gator pulls a knife and slides it swiftly between her ribs. As he bisects her heart, she twitches a final time. Her eyes go still.
Then a pale fibrous stalk cracks through her forehead, spraying spores everywhere.
I turn to the others. "The banging sounds like two people wrestling, then it stops. What is your instant reaction?"
Violet pushes Shadow away. Jarhead stays away.
The noise gets louder in the ductwork. As a larger angrier source collides with the first. Violet shouts, “get as far away from the duct as possible.” She turns to the lowest vent. “Who is in there?”
“Get back!” Gator growls. Then he pulls the oxygen canister over his head and fires his gun straight into it. Hell envelopes him.
Gator chooses to advance the moves Acting under fire, Go aggro, and Seize by force as his improvement. Then he roll Acting under fire where the fire is literal fire. He rolls a 6. At least he marks experience.
The explosion I decide deals 4-harm though I allow his armor reduce that to 2-harm. He is now at 3-harm or 9 o’clock.
I then have him roll Acting under fire again due to a custom move from the spores. He gets a 7 as his system fights off the spores. He now has -1 forward to his next exposure to infection. He again marks experience.
Violet rolls Acting under fire to avoid the blast. She rolls snake eyes, taking 3-harm which her armor reduces to 2-harm.
”Good thing I’m at the Autodoc,” she says.
The blast wave continues down the ducts carrying thousands of spores ahead of the blaze. Throughout the hospital, vent panels are blown open. In the loading dock, Violet steps back just as the grate smacks into her, sending her flying.
Violet rolls Acting under fire against the spores (normally a gas mask is enough to block them but getting hit by a blast wave negates that). She gets a 7 and takes -1 forward against the spores.
Jarhead and the others are unaffected for now.
November speaks into the metal panel, “deadly contagion in containment room A3, please seal tight.”
With mechanical speed, the inner doors slide shut. A moment later a flash of light fills the hall and isolation chamber.
I have November roll +weird (i.e. luck). She gets a hard hit.
A female voice assembled from strips of tape emerges from the intercom. ”Analyzing contagion. Contagion identified. Status. Advanced. Emergency measures. Implemented. Please stand back.”
November quickly steps back as jets of liquid spray into the isolation room. Ice crystals spread up the walls as the contents are cryogenically frozen.
“Activating. Internal Scanners,” the computer announces. “Scanning. For. Further. Contaminant.”
November looks to the 3-D floor plan on the display.
Then a rumble echoes through the hospital. Above the sealed vents shake.
November rolls Read a sitch and gets a soft hit. “What’s my best escape route?” She marks experience.
”Run to the lobby now and then if necessary bash your way through a window,” I advise her.
“Ventilation System. Compromised,” the hospital PA system says as November dashes down the hall. “Contagion. Detected. Contagion. Detected.”
Jarhead looks from the loudspeaker to his workshop. Allison and Waters crouch by the van with Memo glancing out from behind them.
“Okay, time to go,” the tinkerer says, gesturing them inside the van. “Get what you can and get in. No need to be nice, we’ll fix it up later.”
The loud-speaker continues, “Emergency Protocols. Implemented. Locking down. Locking down. Please stay clear of the doors. Locking down. Locking down.”
I inform Jarhead there is no way to load all of his stuff into the van before doors close. He chooses the abandon the machining tools and the work on the motorcycle.
”Question,” November asks, “is my tablet in the van?”
”Yes,” Jarhead says.
Allison helps her brother into the van with the goggles and taser before pulling Memo inside as well. Jarhead looks over the machining tools one last time before hopping in with Shadow.
Violet picks herself up the floor. Wobbling she looks on as the van pulls away from the other vehicles. Her gaze focuses on Boo’s yellow SUV. A moment later she jumps into the driver’s seat and turns the key.
”He might appreciate it if he makes it out,” she says.
A crash comes from the back of the room as Gator topples out of the air duct. Shielding his eyes with a blackened hand, he spies a rusty van and jeep nearby. Jarhead’s van slips out the darkened exit as the door begins to descend. Then the SUV roars to life.
He uses his last question. “Whats’ my best escape route?”
”Jump on the back of the SUV and ride it out of here.”
He rolls Acting on fire. With the +1 for Reading a sitch he gets an 11. He also marks experience.
Something heavy slams onto the back of Boo’s vehicle as Violet pulls forward. Glancing at the rearview mirror she spies a horribly burned man clinging to the back.
”Do I recognize him?” she asks.
”No he’s horribly burned.”
With no time to think, she guns the engine and scrapes out of the Autodoc before the main door falls shut.
November then makes her own Acting under fire to escape. With the +1 her Read a sitch she gets an 8 and marks experience.
As the alarms go off, November scrambles through the halls, sliding between panicking nurses and patients. A knot of people crash through the door to the lobby as she approaches, leaving a gap. As she runs over, she spots Mox picking himself up from a tumble and Boo crawling along feebly.
”You could try to take one of them with you.”
Straining with all of her might, the lithe woman pulls Mox’s brutish form through the plexiglass doors before they slam shut.
Boo and the others left behind press up against the glass, banging futilely.
A crash comes from the left as someone tosses a chair through the more fragile lobby glass. November and Mox head that way.
”Well I got you out of the Autodoc,” I comment. “That didn't go as planned.”
”It escalated,” November says. “It’s what the system is built for.”
A crowd of people mill around outside the Autodoc while inside red lights flash. The two vehicles that escaped park near the edge of the crowd.
November looks for Rue, White’s emissary and architecture of the disaster. Assured he isn't present, she wanders over to her companions.
“I know who did this,” she tells the battered and burned group.
“Who,” growls a charred Gator.
November rolls Lost and gets a 9.
“Rue Wakeman,” she intones. Everyone glances her way. “The man with the top hat that works for White.”
“That man over there?” Jarhead says pointing behind her.
I had to riff off that statement. It was too perfect.
November turns. The dark-skinned man slowly walks toward her out of the darkness, his white face paint gleaming in the flashing red lights.
The dancer approaches him, slowly moving off to the right so they come face to face with his back to the others.
”I want to seize him by force so badly” Gator says.
”Do you shoot him before he talks?” I ask.
”Him I don’t shoot. I’m going to cut him up from behind.”
Jarhead chooses to interfere. He gets a 9. Gator then Seizes by force and fails. He does mark experience.
“You sacrificed two people to kill hundreds,” she says scowling at him.
”Tens,” I correct.
”No. Hundreds, I’m dramatic.”
Gator’s good eye seizes on Rue’s back and he silently slides out a knife. As he moves forward, Jarhead says, “hold on. Wait a minute.”
I decide to turn Gator’s move around on him. Rue suffers little harm, is scary doing so, and takes definite hold.
Gator deals 3-harm -1 for little harm plus a further -1 due hidden chainmail armor under Rue’s clothing. So he takes 1-harm.
Rue turns as Gator stabs, sliding out of the way just as Gator commits to his attack. The knife still makes a gash in his side sparking off metal links under his ragged suit. Ignoring the pain, Rue continues his turn, gripping Gator’s knife hand and toppling the big man to the ground. The mercenary looks up to his own knife to his throat.
“I only serve the gods,” he answers November. He turns toward Jarhead. “As do you.”
Then November and Jarhead decide to counterattack. We decide this does not count as a battle since it is with just one person. I decide to combine the action into one roll. November rolls Seize by force using hot since she’s A devil with a blade. Jarhead rolls to help and gets a 7. With the bonus November gets a 14!! She chooses to suffer little harm, deals terrible harm, and takes definite hold of the situation.
Two prongs fly from Jarhead’s taser, shocking the voodoo priest. Meanwhile November slices low from behind him, tearing out his tendons. As Rue wretches back in pain and disbelief, he swings wildly. Gator’s knife glances off her shoulder. She hisses in pain as he collapses into a heap.
He deals 2-harm -1 for little harm, taking 1-harm.
Rue takes 2-harm +1 terrible harm -1 for his armor plus s-harm from the taser. He’s unconscious and very hurt, possibly dying.
The others form a small circle around the critically wounded man.
Gator grunts as picks himself off the ground. “We need to end him.”
“Probably,” November says, pulling out some scarves.
“I think Gator you are thinking about this a little too immediate,” Jarhead says, retrieving the taser prongs. “Make him last.”
“We should burn him,” Shadow says, joining them.
November begins to bind her wound. “Probably.”
Gator retrieves his knife. “Yes.”
“This man has a devil in him,” the savage adds.
“I think we should give him to the hospital,” Jarhead comments.
November looks to the flashing red lights coming from the lobby. “I don’t think we’ll be getting in there right now. Also I don’t want him to wake up.”
“We should get as much info as possible out of him before we kill him,” Jarhead says, looking at the alien green of his half lidded eyes.
Violet declares an advancement she picked up: Know your enemy. So can now she can use hard instead of weird to open her brain. She then immediately uses it and gets a 9. She also marks experience.
Violet looks down on the bleeding man. She picks out the scratches under his white face paint, the pure green eyes, and tattered suit. His top hat rocks back and forth a few feet away. This man is infested. To be still alive, his body and the fungus must be working together somehow.
I use his custom move for the last time:
Receiver of the Loa: when you open your brain to him or contact his mind psychically, he gets to ask a single question from Read a person.
His voice emerges unbidden in her mind. What would you want me to do?
If I had my druthers, she responds. You would go far far away and never hurt anyone ever again.
Sadly that is not my fate, he replies.
I guess in that we have no choice, she concludes.
“We should move him farther away,” Violet tells the others.
“Can I take tissues samples or something?” Jarhead pleads.
“No,” Gator and November tell him.
As Gator and Shadow grab hold of him, Jarhead argues, “You guys don’t want to know why he’s still alive?”
“I don’t care,” Gator says, hefting him down the street.
“Nah,” November says. “He’s a voodoo priest.”
Shadow speaks through a thick scarf. “He has a devil inside him, he must be burned.”
“All of him,” Gator adds.
As they leave the crowd, Violet considers the idea. “Take a sample. We might encounter someone else like this.”
November Manipulates a person on Violet. Gator assists (and gets a 7 on his Hx roll). November gets a 12 (for which Radiant doesn’t apply).
“Violet no,” November says. “We shouldn't take samples because any chance of it getting loose is too dangerous for what we’d gain. If there is somebody like him, we’ll deal with it, just like we dealt with this guy.”
She offers experience vs. Acting under fire.
“There is no cure,” Gator adds.
After some debate Violet takes the experience bribe.
“You made a rational case,” she says.
A couple blocks away they find a shell of building. The pile fallen branches on top of him. Shadow starts a fire. Rue Wakeman’s thin body burns like kindling.
Time to take stock. Gator is at 9 o’clock and needs medical attention to get better, Violet is at 6 o’clock and needs lots of rest, November is at 3 o’clock and will be fine in a couple of weeks. Jarhead is unharmed.
The group returns to the crowd outside of the hospital. Morgana picks out Gator’s burned features and walks over.
“Ouch boss,” she says taking in his fresh wounds. “Well ten of us managed to get out in the end, not counting Wire. I sent him on a little job earlier.”
Gator nods, his eyes picking out Road among the escapees.
“The guys that didn't get out you don’t want in your gang, they are too slow,” November says.
”Exactly,” Gator replies.
”Do we have any idea how long the Autodoc is going to remained sealed?” Violet asks.
”No.”
Violet looks for someone in charge of the crowd. She spots A.T. and his men dusting themselves off from their explosive escape from the West Wing. She doesn’t see Barnum.
Escape via grenade.
Then she spots Millions amid a knot of concerned nurses. She pushes through them to the plastic featured person.
“Millions, where is Barnum? How long can we expect the lockdown to last?” she asks.
The platinum blonde looks at the survivalist. “He’s still inside. I don’t know how long it will be in lockdown. The protocols are supposed to be that it will remain in lockdown until the infection is cured.”
Jarhead squirms next to them. “How is it cured?”
“They were just recently exposed so the treatment should be easy to do. There are a lot of people inside exposed but we would be able to treat each of them in a few days. So hopefully a few days.”
“How?” he presses.
“They have to take a regime of drugs and be put in isolation.”
November comes up behind them. “They’ve been able to cure phase one for about five years now.”
“Exactly,” Millions says. “And they should be at worse at phase one.”
“I think we should make camp nearby,” Violet opinions.
November looks around and spots Pandora leading the other cultists in a song of thanks. The elder priest, Heron, reclines a short distance away.
The dancer quickly walks up to them. “Are you returning the Music Bowl now?” she interrupts.
“Yes,” Pandora says.
“Thank you. We may accompany you.”
“You are welcome,” she replies, smiling.
November returns to the others. “Pandora and the others are returning to the Music Bowl. I think we should join them. We don’t want to be camping out in the Florida swamps or the Miami ruins. The Music Bowl is pretty nice. They appreciate the finer things.”
“That sounds like a good idea,” murmur several nurses.
“And we are all pretty banged up,” November continues, “so I don’t think we are ready to deal with White right now.”
Everyone nods.
”Let’s come back in a few days,” Violet says.
November shrugs. “Sure I guess we can talk about that.”
Garber taps Violet on the shoulder. Violet hands him the keys to the SUV. “Here, I rescued your father’s vehicle.”
“We’ve got to him out,” the youth pleads.
November puts a hand on his shoulder. “He’s being treated in there, he should be fine and Violet says she is going to come back in a couple of days. The best thing to do is to make sure you stay safe.” She watches his lip quiver. “Look there is window there, you could write a little note to him, hold up and let him know you are going to be okay.”
”He wouldn’t want you to get hurt,” Violet says.
November rolls Manipulate a person. Violet rolls to help and gets a 9. Only due to that +1 does November succeed.
Violet helps him write a message and paste it on the inner door of the lobby. On the way back, they run into the other escapees: Lily, Starbuck and AOL.
I point out that technically Joshua might survive.
“He might actually be cured,” Violet says.
”Yes, he was cryogenically frozen before he could burst.”
”He would be the one we could interrogate,” Gator says.
”I still have a hold on him too,” November adds.
End of Session
We end the session with a discussion on where November and Gator are going advancement wise. November is going to become a Battlebabe soon. Gator is also thinking of changing playbooks, possibly to Driver, and get My other car is a tank.Next we do Hx.
- November gives +1Hx to Violet (“since I did the whammy on her.”). This resets their Hx. Violet earns an experience and a secret from November. November explains that she has actually never been in love. Violet thinks that’s kind of sad.
- Violet gives +1Hx to November which also reset her Hx. November earns an experience and learns Violet’s secret: she was in love a long time ago when she was in her late teens. He died of the climbers.
- Gator gives +1Hx to Violet. This also resets his Hx.
”I think this is the first time anybody’s seen Gator not utterly dominate.” (also resets)
Gator reveals that earlier he asked Violet for advice on how to lead. “He doesn’t know what he’s doing with people. How do you do this?” he asked, revealing a weakness and a lack of confidence.
Violet gave him leadership advice. “Have a clear goal in mind. That’s the best way of keeping people together.”
- Jarhead gives +1Hx to Violet since they agreed initially on what to do with Rue. This brings him up to +0 for her.
