Barf Forth Apocalyptica
barf forth apocalyptica => Apocalypse World => Topic started by: Arvid on August 13, 2010, 04:37:33 PM
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Setting:
A blasted postapocalyptic California wasteland, with it's biggest hardhold New Jerk in it's center. New Jerk is a an old military fortress, surrounded by the settlements of 300-something souls. Roads are crap, gas is extremely rare, everybody rides horses. "Welcome, New Jerk" is what the welcome sign says.
Characters:
Daimyo, a 20-something hardholder, who rules the unruly pack of savage warriors inside the fortress with an iron hand. Seem to have some fascination for militaria and culture. Always wears a gas mask out in the hardhold to protect himself from the filthy citizens. Hates and fears the maelstrom.
Nero, a 20-something operator working security and raiding for Daimyo. A rather kind man in a jacket suit (probably the only guy wearing a jacket post apoc.) who seeks to learn what the maelstrom is all about.
Canaveral, battlebabe in her early 20:s. Rode into town and hung around. Got a reputation for being the knight of New Jerk. Carries an ornate gun and spear. She and Daimyo have heard each others names in their dreams, so they've decided to hang around and find out what that is about.
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Introducing:
Two Moons, the leader of a cult of peace and water, opposed to the decadence of New Jerk and the violent rule of Daimyo.
Barker, beardy asocial techhead on the outskirts of town. Usually double bent over a pile of technical components. Has a kid assistant by the name Balls.
Kettle, a skinny pissed-off guy.
Daff, a scavenger with keyring piercings in his face. Always grand plans, but with a poor attention span.
Matilda, mayor of Bricktown. Supplies New Jerk with clay.
The Pit. A breeding pit of evolution gone wrong. A huge maze of wild dogs, eating, fighting and fucking.
First session
We kicked of with a meeting, Daimyo, Matilda, Daff. Daimyo needs clay for his hardhold, to repair a brewery some teenagers smashed last night. (want: savagery) Daff has already bought everything from Matilda for "a new genious plan". I just described how Daff looked and asked why Daimyo hates him, and went from there, establishing everyday routine and that Daff is stupid.
Nero has apprehended the rapscallions, so they're thrown in the fighting pit for the peoples amusement. As his reward, Daimyo secretely plans to have the winner executed to send the message across. The winner climbs up to Daimyo and starts demanding his reward. Before things get messy, he is shot in back by Canaveral. Two Moons and her cultists turn up and starts yapping and stirring up the populace on how they're savage and violent, led by a prophet of violence. Canaveral and Daimyo has her back off.
Canaveral goes to visit Barker for armor maintance. Kettle turns up with two goons, pissed as hell since a clock he got from Barker blew up (Man, I don't know) in his sisters face. Cannie stares him down and sends him off.
The party prepares for a raid on an outskirt hardhold called Rustbelt. They have a new leader, religious woman, and are refusing to trade/pay tribute with New Jerk.
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Introducing:
The Hyenas, a 60-something pack of savage warriors loyal to Daimyo. Some of them, and some of the people living outside the fort, has started getting unhealthy fascinated by the Pit, going there and fighting and hunting with the wild dogs. Those who gets something bitten off are called blessed.
Land Eater (http://www.michaelgriswold.com/Pictures/ALL/bagger/bagger.html). Check the second pic from the bottom, that's a bulldozer.
The Scarlands, a tectonic mess of broken land, high plateaus, deep chasms. Cliffs all around!
Rustbelt, a hardhold built on an plateau in the Scarlands, where the only travellable road goes. Very well fortified.
Dust Witch, a psycho warrior bitch with a habit of collecting (adopting) little kids. (What the hell? This surprised me to no end. In a good way! Yeah, it was supposed to be Dustwich. My players first misheard, and then demanded the name stays)
Scream, a warrior-guy who is good at screaming.
A grotesque dog-freak.
Fox, a woman working for Nero.
James, a man working for Nero.
Enough-to-eat, middle-aged woman who runs an eating place where the rule is, everybody eats.
III, some broad who wants to beat up Nero. He once did a job for her. (Yeah, a woman named III wants to beat you up, I took it straight outta the book. Brilliant.)
Second session
In the home base, Nero finds a blue metal flower as a gift from Fox. Why does Fox keep giving him gifts? Apparently because he saved her life once.
What does Daimyo do on his time off? Apparently gets massage and writes poetry. Dust Witch comes in (So, what's she like?) and starts fingering his books and stuff, asking if she can take some of the men out to the pits, she's heard there are good stuff to scavenge there. Daimyo says no. Dust Witch leaves satisfied with the answer, but she acts playful, like she's in charge.
Nero goes to wildest place in town to relax before tomorrows attack. He's hanging out with James, a real trustworthy guy from his crew, who can always get him calmer. On the way to the men's room, he is assaulted by III, who babbles profetic stuff and beats it when James tear her from Nero. Nero is confused.
Canaveral is hanging out at ol' Land Eater outside New Jerk, apparently she just likes it there. She spots Dust Witch riding out at night towards the pit, with a wagon full of her adopted kids. Cannie rides up to Dust Witch, asks her what she's doing, fails a read a person check. Dust Witch shines up like she just got a really great idea, like, they're going to be pals or something. (Dust Witch doesn't come off as very smart. Cunning and savage, yes. Smart, no.) She wants to show Canaveral something.
They ride into The Pit. It's hot here, even at night, dogs are eyeing them. Suddenly some motherfucker clad in dog skins and with dog ears stapled to where his own should be turns up, he and Dust Witch captures Cannie with a net and bring her to a den. They're dancing and howling all night, Dust Witch is totally doin' it with one of the dogs, and dog-freak is cracking one of the puppies right open, smearing himself and Cannie with it's blood, declaring her to be one of them. And no telling!
They let her go at dawn, she heads back. Everybody's been waiting for like two hours, ready to go raid Rustbelt. She doesn't feel like talking about it right now, but she promises to tell later. Dust Witch is eyeballing her.
At Rustbelt, Cannie and Nero and his team are sneaking through the cliffs to infiltrate the place, while Daimyo and his hyenas are drawing the attention to the front gates. Daimyo's player rolls to retro-actively buy a megaphone, and misses. Turns out he's spent a barter for crap, and he adds the merchant to his list.
Nero and Cannie have no problem with killing a little girl to sneak in, and starts to spread panic and confusion inside the walls. Fox takes a bullet in her leg, and Nero digs in to protect her. (That's two times now, Fox!) Eventually the towns defense line breaks, the hyenas swarm them with minimal losses and the leader of the hold is stringed up, Daimyos warriors doesn't kill/rape too many of Rustbelts people. Some kid gets curb stomped, that's when Daimyo break up the party. Daimyo makes it clear that if Rustbelt doesn't start trading in New Jerk, next time there won't be anything left.
When making camp for the night, Canaveral tells Daimyo what happened out in The Pit. Daimyo sure as hell doesn't need any dog worshippers in his pack, so he orders one of his warriors loyal to Dust Witch's to strip her down, and shoots him when he doesn't dare. Daimyo strips Dust Witch, takes away her weapons and orders her on all four, barking. She howls instead, to the full moon.
This all happens in the quiet of the night, with only the campfire lighting the scene. The scene wasn't that long really, but to me as a GM, it felt like every moment of tension and humiliation was drawn out into infinity. Good, good stuff.
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I didn't really felt 100% finished with "first session" so the second session was kind of a 1.5st session. :)
We had a great flow all through the session, I even forgot to take breaks even though I had intended to. I felt confident that this would be a very good and accepting (in the improv sense) group with a very good and accepting game. 100% correct, at least so far.
In fact, I had probably a bit too high expectations, I wanted everything to be perfect from the start!
The players felt satuated in Apocalyptica, and I was asking questions like crazy. Huge success!
I was a little overwhelmed by trying to figure out exactly how harm and gangs work, I think the players got away a little bit cheaper than they otherwise would with taking a heavily fortified hardhold. Oh well, that one is on me!
Oh yeah, and we really went into adult territory with our game, and Dust Witch's two scenes. We've never really done that, but it worked exhiliratingly well. Awesome.
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That all looks solid. Glad you are having so much fun with it! I like the close feel of Damiyo's hold - he's tough, but some kids bashed a hole in the pub! And how it all seems to spin out of his control all the time - this feels very familiar to me.
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That all looks solid. Glad you are having so much fun with it! I like the close feel of Damiyo's hold - he's tough, but some kids bashed a hole in the pub! And how it all seems to spin out of his control all the time - this feels very familiar to me.
It works great. I have experience in improv theatre, and it feels like there's finally a game that works just the way I like it. Yeah, I love how he's not really in control, it's like he is trapped inside a fortress with these scary vicious murderers, but he can't leave, because then they'd do whatever the hell they felt like.
That all changed in session three, though.
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There's a session three already? Do tell! Also,yeah, it's clear his choices are either teach folks a serious lesson to get them in line, or find his allies and dig in. Which was it?
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Introducing:
Dubs has a big gun, Nail is a shifty fellow, Topple is the kid. Together with James and Nero, they make up Neros team.
Rose has an establishment outside of New Jerk, an old roadside restaurant remade into a classy and private restaurant where you can get real meat.
Jackabacka has an old trailer outside of New Jerk where he distills liquir. He keeps to himself.
Bill, a lonely disease vector.
Session three:
When the PC's come back to New Jerk, the holds want is disease, and Neros crew has botched both compound defenses (these would turn out to be related) and finding out about the Maelstrom. They're riding right in, dragging Dust Witch behind them. Exit, the medic, is pleading for more medicine, which s/he gets. Rustbelt medicine.
Oh, and when in Apocalypse World, even having a cup of freshly raided tea can end in total catastrophy. The PC's are having their well-earned tea in the fortress when Daimyo just, sort of, zones out. He just stops in the middle of conversation and his head drops. The first Open your brain-move!
Which he fails miserably.
I ask him about the Maelstrom, and the player describes a flat and barren landscape of black, cracked ground (asphalt?) from which a great tower rises, built from stone, and then metal, and then alien metal, and then flesh, and then metal again. It rises into a dark cloudy sky, and the clouds turn electroblue around it.
From this landscape, part huge Hyena and part Land eater races towards him. It stops in front of him, inquiring whether he wishes to ride it. It sees his hesitation and laughs - No, I'll ride YOU! it decides, and scoops him into it's belly with it's rolling and roaring bucket wheel mouth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bucket_wheel_excavator_in_Ferropolis.jpg). I tell the player that Daimyo comes to after doing something totally savage he will totally regret. So he goes to get Dust Witch.
Followed by the first PC sex, followed by physical abuse, and then he starts shooting at her kids for sport. She's howling. Nero and Canaveral doesn't really feel like finding out whats going on. (I wonder if our game is a tad bit misogynic?)
Canaveral rides out with Dubs and Topple. James has found a lead for Nero, some outsider who wants to talk to him, and Nail has gotten an audience with Two Moon for him later that night. Nero goes to see the outsider at The Grill, the place he met III. At daytime it's all empty, but all of a sudden this freak in rags and boils, Bill, attack him, trying to embrace him, kiss him... Nero tries to avoid violence, but it ends with him putting a knife in Bill and Bill putting a needle in him. Just as Nero's trying to open the door, the sleepy medicine overcomes him.
When he comes to that night, he's bound to a chair, and the wounded Bill wants him to sing a lullaby, at which he performs admirably. He gets out of the chair, wakes Bill up, finds an exit, and then Fox and James burst in, securing Nero and executing Bill. Poor guy. (No plan behind this, just a desperately lonely person)
Daimyo sends Dust Witch to Exit for spaying. Scream takes Daimyo to Rose's place to cheer him up.
Canaveral rides through The Pit safely, but is spotted by the dog freak before she spots him, with Dubs and Topple spread out. He's even uglier in daylight, and he takes her horse out. They have proper staredown, and then they fight, a fight which Cannie wins. She takes his dog ears away from him, and hangs Dust Witch's severed ears around his neck, and drag him into town.
Nero goes to see Two Moon. She and her followers have a temple in one of the caves just outside town, where New Jerk gets it's water. It quickly becomes clear that Nail has joined the cult and is really happy about it. He's looking forward for when Nero will join too!
Two Moon blesses his eyelids with water, and asks him to look into the underground lake. He sees the maelstrom in the water, a swirling black water, in which he sees III wandering around, looking for something missing from her. Birds with locks of her hair in their beaks are tied to her with fine bands, but all the bands burst as the birds fly away from her.
I get to ask Nero a question as well, so I ask if he's happy. He says it's hard to tell, he wouldn't know. He has nothing to compare to, but he supposes things could have been in another way. Aw man, I can't really capture it, but it was brilliant. Poor Nero. Jonatan, you're welcome to re-tell it here.
Nero is welcome back later.
When Daimyo comes back, dog freak is tied up in the courtyard and Canaveral is guarding him. All of Daimyo's people are eyeballing her, in this weird "bid for alpha of the pack" kind of way (which she don't like at all) and looking at the chained up dog freak in this "oh shit" kind of way. Yeah, they're his boys.
Daimyo fails to read the sitch. I tell him one of his men can tell that he just doesn't know what's going on anymore. That guy is giving him a look that just says that he is going to be trouble.
Daimyo has him brought forward and orders him killed.
And that's one drop too many for the dog worshipping warriors. Suddenly someone goes "Fuck yoooooouuuuuu" and flings a bottle his way. Daimyo draws a gun and starts shooting, and all hell breaks loose on the courtyard. Some of his men are shooting at him, some are rushing to defend him, some just doesn't know what to do, people are coming out of the fortress... Daimyos player declares that he doesn't care how much Harm he takes, he's going to exterminate every freaking one of those filthy dog worshippers who's tainted his fortress. He just stands straight up in the crossfire, sending bullets into their flesh and fear into their hearts. Dog freak is executed in the process.
A pocket of loyal soldiers starts forming around Daimyo, the dog worshipping ones are getting pinned down and decimated. Dust Witch has come running from Exits tent, she drops down from the wall, with her fingers around Daimyo's neck. Canaveral disarms her and Nero, Fox and James catches her when she's trying to escape. The surviving dog worshippers surrenders in exchange for Daimyo sparing their life. When the firing stops, Daimyo gets a feel for how hurt he is (10 o'clock) and is rushed into his fortress, with Exit working like an animal to keep him alive and well.
"Did you have to go and almost die the same day we got an epidemic on our hands?!"
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This session wasn't exhilirating in the way session two was, but I really liked it anyway. The tempo is settling nicely. The game is starting to feel long term - Not as explosive as in session two, but it sets your appetite for a long series of sessions. Daimyo's player has already started planning for uniting California as a proper kingdom. That's fascinating! If they succceed, a whole new scale opens up. I'm going to have to draw a map of the whole west coast.
When Daimyo wanted a man executed just for looking at him funny, I felt I had to have them take action. I took a really hard move when I had a proper rebellion on his courtyard, so I'm quite happy that Daimyo's player shared the same expectations on Apocalypse World as me, so to speak. I really like how I'm instructed to clarify consequences and then ask for confirmation of the PCs actions.
But he swore to never open his brain again.
I really like Nero's maelstrom scene. There is a tender side to this character, and his player too, I daresay.
Maybe the player's beat one of my fronts today, I'm not sure.
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Blood and screams. One covering the courtyard of Fort Daimyo, the other bouncing off the concrete walls and echoing down towards New Jerk.
The townspeople were slowly getting out of cover, curiously egding closer to the aftermaths of carnage. Canaveral could see their bloodthirst faltering at the sight of the mutilated bodies in the yard. Maybe this day could still be considered a victory for decency if it finally made the Jerkers flinch away from the needless brutality that had been the hardhold´s trademark for so many years.
Daimyo had been playing along for too long. His pack of hyenas had been allowed too much freedom. But they had paid the price from out of their own flesh now, and with No-Ears dead ans Dustwitch captive once again the dog-cult would not rear it´s ugly head in New Jerk again anytime soon. It was a good thing, Daimyo would have more time to actually build his little piece of the world to a safer place now that he didn´t have to keep his dogs in check. Hopefully Scream and the other survivors would prove loyal to the Hardholder now, even though they probably never would be to Daimyo what Fox and James was to Nero. Well. May be that Scream had the potential, Canaveral had seen him survive the fight even before it started, the loud man had important things to solve with Daimyo before he went.
Canaveral slowly moved over the blood-and-worse-splattered courtyard, her seemingly indifferent gaze picking up the details. No-Ears corpse still chained to the whippingpole, the bloated hulk of a body shot to rags by Daimyos more loyal subjects, Dustwitch´s severed ears on their string still visible against the massive chest.
Against the walls of the inner fort a pile of Dustwitch´s mad whelps lay dead, their eyes open, their maws frozen in snarls and howls. They had blood on their little hands, blood in their young faces.
What turns the children to such savagery? What turns the men and women of this land to celebration of the ripped flesh of other people? A bad taste in the back of Canaverals mouth at the thought of Rustbelt. They had not been soldiers, they just tried to protect what was theirs. But too late now to dwell on that day. To late to re-light the fire in the dead Rustbelters eyes. One could only hope that Daimyos next step would be a better one, built on true good intentions instead of the lies the Hardholder had told so often that he had started to believe them himself.
Out of the corner of her eye Canaveral spotted Nero as the man was making his way from the inner fort towards the open gates. His worn red jacket had splotches of darker red now, but none of it seemed to be his own. His right-hand man James was beside him, as was Dubs with the heavy gun and the young Topple. They all shared some kind of comforting aura in the middle of this slaughterhouse, relying on each other to stay on top of every situation. For a moment, Canaveral had thought to adress the freelancer concerning Nero, but she hesitated. That community was not for her.
Maybe the best thing to do was wait now, for a couple of days, and see what would emerge from this bloodbath. She let Nero and her men keep to themselves, scanned the compound one more time and then returned inside the fort to keep her eyes at Daimyo.
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I get to ask Nero a question as well, so I ask if he's happy. He says it's hard to tell, he wouldn't know. He has nothing to compare to, but he supposes things could have been in another way. Aw man, I can't really capture it, but it was brilliant. Poor Nero. Jonatan, you're welcome to re-tell it here.
I think what I said was essentially that I didn't know what happiness is in the context of Apocalypse World, so Nero wouldn't either. Of course the word and concept of happiness exist, but noone save characters content with a very simple life on a farm (a group which really doesn't include many PCs) would experience "a life in happiness". I took the question as being about Nero's life right now, so I was all "I think this could be happiness, maybe, but I'd thought it'd be more, well, happy." It feels like he's trying to reach something more, but doesn't know what. Which actually stems from me not knowing exactly what to do with the character... But I still very much enjoy playing.
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Martina's piece makes me want to play more... now!
Jonatan, don't worry about not knowing where you're going. Play to find out what happens! Cultivate a curiosity towards your character and let him surprise you. :)
When doing improv scenes, if you can't come up with a scene, you can start by just move your foot, or your arm, and then figuring out why you're doing that, act on the impulses. What I think I see, is you acting on your impulse of feeling slightly lost, giving Nero a feeling of being lost himself - Was life really supposed to be this way?
I like that.
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Oh man, two more days until session four...!
*skips around in anticipation*
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Well, seems like Arvid hasn´t had the time to update on last session. I figure I leave that bit to him, though, and just give you the very last scene...
There were too many of them for Canaveral to handle by herself. Surrounded by grave men and women just a few steps down the street from The Oystercatcher, and both Nero and Fox gone as if swept away by the salty wind. Brace, Newtons rugged second-in-command, reached for her weapons, but she locked eyes with him (or at least fixed her eyes to his single one) to keep him at bay until the warlord himself reached the centre of the crowd. The red button sewn to the lieutenants empty eye-socket reflected the sharp coastal sun.
A few of the soldiers scattered at a short command, went in search of the other two Jerkers.
Newton shifted his attention to Canaveral, her own gaze still focused at Brace.
"You realize we can´t let you return to the holder at New Jerk." The voice was calm, matter-of-factly, as the warlord went on. "I think he´s not a good man, this Daimyo."
Canaveral answered him without looking away from the one-eyed lieutenant.
"Your information might be outdated. Daimyo is changing."
Even as she spoke the words she found herself doubting them. Was Daimyo really so much different now from when she first heard about him, or was it just her wishful thinking? She bore hope for the man she had seen through her dreams before they met, and she had this feeling she was supposed to stay in his service until something happened to point her to new horizons, but she was still not sure about his true intentions.
"Maybe so." Newton replied, "But i still can´t send you back to him yet. You will have to come with me, with us, for the time being. Please surrender your weapons."
"You would not take my oath not to harm anyone or try to escape, was I to keep them?" was Canaverals immediate answer.
Newton gave a quick chuckle, maybe a bit startled to find that kind of chivalry in someone working for Daimyo.
"I´m sorry, but I do not know you enough to take that kind of promise from you."
Canavereal shrugged, it had been a shot in the dark. Newton obviously was no fool, but he also had seemed like a man who stood by his word and could trust others to do the same.
The soldiers who had been searching for Nero and Fox reappeared, out of breath and with slightly baffled looks on their faces. A short report of failure to their warlord. Apparently Nero had been to fast and sly for them, invisible to their eyes even in his red jacket.
When Newton motioned for his second lieutenant to take her weapons, Canaveral broke her contact with Brace and offered them to the large woman voluntarily. There was no need to fight someone who was not your enemy, and Nero would be more than able to report back to Daimyo. Yet still she felt a sting of loss when she handed her spear and gun to another´s grip.
With a melancholic smile she turned to Newton. "Shall we?"
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Oooh, I love your texts. I can hear the seagulls! (Are there seagulls in Apocalypse World? We never touched if the sea is still pure, or a festering black liquid, or something in between)
I also love how you guys find interest and nuance in the relationships to each other and NPCs, making it Apocalypse World feel like a real and living place, and very lovely to build PC-NPC triangles from. (=An NPC which two PCs have different relations to, basically)
Well, seems like Arvid hasn´t had the time to update on last session. I figure I leave that bit to him, though, and just give you the very last scene...
That I shall!
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Introducing:
Rolfball, the scourge of California. A biker who somehow has acess to gas, which is super-rare. Leads his gang, Rolfball's rollers, on hit and run raids of hardholds. Already a legend among the players (Due to him somehow getting to all the 7-9 barter roll stuff in the rulebook) even though he hasn't had any screentime yet.
Mimi, one of Rolfball's lieutenants. Bald woman wearing leather. (I'll have to propose a name change to "Helga")
Black Kitchen, one of Rolfball's rollers. Big guy, swastika on his forehead, native american. (For a while he was going to be an afroamerican, but the players felt that wasn't incongruent enough, what with him being called Black Kitchen and all)
Joe's Girl, a medical doctor currently roaming the wastes with Rolfball's rollers in his cosy ambulance. A stern face furrowed with lines and pock-marks, but with sad eyes. He owes a great debt to Canaveral.
Mudkips, a fish and clay-hardhold on the west coast.
Millions, the hardholder of Mudkips. Big, strong guy with a big strong heart.
Newton, a warlord gathering allies and soldiers. Asian guy with Fu Manchu-moustaches (Why did I do that? One of the players called "Genghis Khan!!" right away) in jeans and a white shirt. Wears three plasting ring piercing in his eyebrow: Red, green, blue. Also the colours of his banner and the hardholds which have joined him.
Brace, an underling of Newton. He is just as dirty and worn as his leather coat, and he wears a red button sown on where his eye is missing.
Fuse, another underling of Newton. Big woman, big gun, skanky clothes.
Putrid, Mudkips' young doctor.
Session four
In the night, a tired and sweaty Exit approaches Canaveral. S/he is working hir ass off stitching together Daimyos gang and tending to the disease outbreak. Exit asks Canaveral to go find another doctor to help out in New Jerk. There is one in Rustbelt, one in Mudkips called Putrid that Exit helped educate, and then there's Joe's Girl, an experienced guy who would surely help, only problem is no-one knows where he is.
Daimyo is sick of Exit bossing him around, so he orders her out and asks Canaveral to go get him a representative from Mudkips. He has decided to unify California to a proper kingdom. Canaveral agrees, and goes to find Nero.
Nero is kind of taking care of the whole situation, recieving New Jerkers who are curious and concerned of the bloodbath in Fort Daimyo, telling them what to do, etc. Canaveral asks him to tag along to Mudkips tomorrow.
As she goes to bed, Canaveral get's into the mood and focus on Joe's Girl, and opens her brain. She's in the gray-black torn up landscape from Daimyos visions, the sky is gray and red, and the tower is there. She finds Joe's Girl, she's sitting behind him as he's racing through the darkness in his ambulance, and she can see his eyes through the rear-view mirror. She can see other dots of light around them, Rolfball's rollers. She can sense the big familiar presence of Land Eater in relation to them, and figures out that they're heading into The Pit.
Joe's Girl carries a great debt to Cannie, from when she was just a little girl. We don't really now what, though. Not yet.
The next morning, Canaveral takes Nero and some of his men into The Pit with her to find Joe's Girl. She doesn't tell Daimyo. They catch up with a retinue of the rollers, a wagon, a tanker car, and Joe's Girl's ambulance, on this weird sand-bridge over a dried out riverbed. The Pit is a weird and changing landscape, all naked, made out of sand and rock. Black Kitchen is up front, toting a gun and demanding answers from the Jerkers, but the real boss is Mimi, hanging back in the background and reading the situation. Joe's Girl silently appears, and declares he wishes to come with them. Mimi thinks about it real hard and decides to let the situation go. Joe's Girl can catch up with them later.
Joe's Girl give Cannie a ride. He doesn't say much. He's trying to figure out if he can trust the grown-up Canevarel, a gun-toting woman. Back at New Jerk, he listens silently to Daimyo, and gets to work.
Canaveral, Nero and Fox head for Mudkips to get that representative. During night camp, we learn that Fox isn't that keen on Canaveral, they're basically opposites. Canaveral is from Mudkips, she tagged along to work for Nero when he saved her from a storm at sea. Their relation is very unspoken, it just sort of happened. What is it about, really?
Daimyo (even though he is badly hurt) holds audience with Rose, she is to be a lieutenant in his new kingdom, with Enough-to-eat below her. He also meets for a peace dinner with Two Moon. They sit at a big table at the entrance to the courtyard. Everybody sits, everybody eats. Two Moon is willing to work with Daimyo if he renounces his wicked ways. When she says her farewells to Daimyo, she is standing next to him and holding him to her (He is sitting down). On a whim, I play some agressive Woven Hand music, describing how Two Moon stirs up something which is impossible to defend oneself against. Daimyo starts crying, but hides it.
In Mudkips, there's a big army camp outside town. Newton is meeting Millions in the old factory, redecorated into town hall. Newton greets Nero and Cannie politely, and has Brace take them a place where you can get drinks. Cannie tries to be subtle, but fails. The mood gets colder. She is telling him about New Jerk and Rustbelt.
Newton comes in and talks to Nero and Cannie as Brace leaves. He is travelling the wasteland, trying to bring peace and freedom in the land. Right afterwards, Brace show up with reinforcements from the camp. Newton tells Canaveral she will remain with them, so she won't tell Daimyo that there is an army gathering by the coast. Newton needs more time to make allies of the hardholds, and then he is marching to New Jerk, toppling Daimyo's evil rule. Nero and Fox makes it out of the situation and into hiding.
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I've noticed that there hasn't been much meaningless violence lately! Apocalypse World feels like a little safer place, where the threats are very... large scale. Armies, raiders, supply lines, rather than drunk, vengeful or jelous assholes out to kick your ass or steal your stuff. I suppose this is an effect of having a hardhold player with a big hardhold, and two characters working tightly with said hardholder.
Perhaps that will change if Canaveral follows an army around for a while? Hmm. If she does, I'll want to enable the other players to get secondary characters as their improvement right now, even though they only have 3 and 4 improvements so far. I don't want to get too solo with Canaveral.
I went into this session with nothing else than Exit wanting to send the players to find another doctor, and a good song to play. Oh, and I wanted to introduce Newton as well. I really liked Joe's Girl and how he turned out though, and man, do I want to find out what he owes Canaveral!
I have images for next session, lots of them. Scenes, one might even say! Oh, I'm a bad, bad MC! Ah well, I can drop them if they don't work out. It'll be awesome one way or another. Looking forward to monday!
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New session today. Arvid can do the full write-up if he wants to. The summary, from Nero's perspective, goes like this:
He snuck back into the army camp to rescue Canaveral, who didn't want to/need to be rescued, at least not without her weapons. Fox was very annoyed by this whole notion that Canny was important, and despite being sent back to warn Daimyo she returned to pull Nero out. Their relationship was not very good, as Nero consistently ignores her or just doesn't give her any affection back.
Back by the hardhold they get the chance to intercept Rolfball as he's approaching the fort. Nero figures he's the one responsible for Rolfball not getting paid for the doctor, so he sends Fox to get all barter the crew can muster. Rolfball takes this and is appeased, and thus content with raiding just the tech guy in the house outside the settlement. During this time Daimyo has talked to Fox, who told him that Canaveral has joined Newton's army. Daimyo gets an improvement from threatining the people not to desert the city and discoveres a last-ditch reserve of old-time weaponry under the fort to give his gang "armory".
Nero, tired from riding all the way from Mudkips just to end up in the middle of a biker gang, is immediately questioned by Daimyo who asks him to open his brain and find out what the deal with this Newton is. Despite a 12 on Daimyo's manipulation roll, Nero refuses, reminding him that he's no goddamn slave. At least let me have some sleep, dammit. The next day, however, Nero opens his brain in some kind of séance with Two Moon to guide him, but screws up anyway. A short vision of a decrepit woman and a shadow silhouette of Canaveral, as well as imagery from Sunken City, ends the session. Last I checked, Daimyo was planning to gather up his newly-armed, 4-harm large gang and go help the Sunken City hardholder fend of Newton. I guess he prefers other ruthless hardholders to potentially violent freedom fighters. The former can be traded with.
This session had three particularly interesting moments for me, and I think I finally got a glimpse into what Nero's up to. The first was when he could hear Fox sobbing in her bedroll when camping on the way back to New Jerk. A perfect opportunity to show her that the hard talk really was just from pressed situations and things that had to be done whether we liked it or not. An opportunity to finally hold her and tell her everything's all right and he actually does like her, and always has. Except he didn't.
Second was when Nero decided to face Rolfball, even if it was just to hold him there until the crew got all the treasure out to bribe him with. Still, Nero is like me in that he prefers waiting and checking and examining possibilities, but that's so boring after a while. And riding up to a biker gang and stand there coolly while they started circling reminded me why the PCs have a "cool" stat - or rather, why we're playing the guys with a "cool" stat.
Third was when Daimyo wanted me to open my brain, right here, right now, 'll give you one barter. I didn't think that much of it until Arvid started whispering "whore, whore" from the other end of the table. Then I realised opening your brain really isn't something you just do because someone tells you to, least of all when you're someone like Nero. He wants to know the whole picture, to be in some degree of control. He was tired, and a bit confused. And in hindsight, probably a bit upset over the whole Fox situation.
I'd been thinking before about why Nero even stayed around at this place, and realised it'd had to be that he'd grown tired of moving around and thought that a powerful hardholder should be a good main employer. But there's still freedom for him and his crew, and even when they'd spent all their private barter they kept their horses, so if Daimyo had pressed on that I should obey, I'd packed and left. Possibly just to join Newton instead just to make it more interesting as I'd stayed where the other PCs were.
So yeah, Nero'll stay around as long as he can see the benefits of working with Daimyo. Not that he's on the verge of turning against him and try to usurp or overthrow him, just that he remembers the life on the road and how that, too, was a passable existence.
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New session today. Arvid can do the full write-up if he wants to. The summary, from Nero's perspective, goes like this:
Yaay
I'm just going to supplement your summary.
Introducing:
Sunken City - A community of skyscrapers partially under water by the coast in the west. No-one seems to know much about it except that it sounds scary, and Newton is heading there to check it out if there is tyranny that needs overthrowing.
??? - A naked mummified woman in a dark room, with light mots dancing around her, associated with Sunken City.
Johnstone - Home town of Newton. They had some pretty good ideas on how to live life, but it became more and more controlled by their local warlord, until Newton rose up against him/her.
Rolfball - The leader of Rolfball's Rollers. He is a grizzled old man, (Strong inspiration from the playbook picture here) and old-fashioned collector of things from he golden age, riding atop a juggernaut of a motorcycle. His eyes see beyond the blasted wasteland, it does not concern him, and neither does the lives of it's inhabitants. He is a creature of a time long past, a tyrannosaurus rex on wheels.
Session five:
I gave Martina a start of session letter Caneveral first hours in the camp. She rolled +Hot, and Newton has started trusting her, Brace (or Fuse) isn't jelous of her, and no-one stole anything from her pack while it was taken care of.
Later that night, Canaveral is spending some time talking to Newton. He is a softly spoken man with a strong conviction against opressors. Canaveral is trying to set him straight about Daimyo, even though she isn't so sure of him, herself. The conversation is civil at least. Then Canaveral scouts Newton's camp out, which pisses Fuse off. Canavarel stares her down though. (Dangerous & Sexy probably sees use every session)
So, Nero scouts out Mudkips and the military camp, but blows his roll when trying to convince Fox to ride out to New Jerk without waiting for him. Fox is all like "Yeah. Sure.", but once he's sneaked into the camp to free Cannie, she's sneaking in too, stealing a horse, shooting some guard from it's back and busting them out. She gives Cannie a second to jump up on the horseback, but she doesn't (Cannie wants to see what comes of this), so she rides Nero out, and they head for New Jerk.
I think what makes Fox so upset is that Nero is so distant, intellectualizing and careful. She's always trying to reach him with no success, and now he's talking about this new girl, Cannie, all the god damn time. I was a little bit concerned that I was making Fox is such a girl (Servile and quiet, her life was saved, jelous and emotional) but she is probably an exception rather than the rule, which makes that interesting too.
Anyway, Daimyo is meeting with Enough-to-eat, and makes a good impression on her (I offered him a custom move: +hot, 7-9: Pick an impression to make, 10+, pick a strong impression or two minor impressions. He picked "kind guy"), and she's interested in joining his kingdom, taking care for the hungry. She doesn't accept having Rose as her boss, though. Daimyo says she wont be, even though he promised Rose that.
Nero and Fox is coming back the next day, just as Rolfball strikes New Jerk. Daimyos player was like "Make something happeeeeen" so like a good MC I turned to my fronts. :)
Back by the hardhold they get the chance to intercept Rolfball as he's approaching the fort. Nero figures he's the one responsible for Rolfball not getting paid for the doctor, so he sends Fox to get all barter the crew can muster. Rolfball takes this and is appeased, and thus content with raiding just the tech guy in the house outside the settlement. During this time Daimyo has talked to Fox, who told him that Canaveral has joined Newton's army. Daimyo gets an improvement from threatining the people not to desert the city and discoveres a last-ditch reserve of old-time weaponry under the fort to give his gang "armory".
Rolfball has never raided New Jerk before, and the New Jerkers are at the forts walls, begging to be let in. Daimyo rolls to manipulate: "Everyone go back to your houses and dig in" he says "We're going to beat Rolfball off..." he fails his roll so people are yelling and panicking, getting ready to evacuate their hold. Daimyo has one of the more outspoken ones shot and shouts to them to get the f back or he's going to shoot every last one of them.
I love that! He fails his manipulation roll, so he immidiatly goes aggro instead, without even flinching. The mark of a true hardholder. :D
I also loooove how Fox is all like "Canaveral is working for Newton now!"
So yeah, they gather up the old armory of weapons in the water supply-bunker that the peacewater cult has taken hold of (10+ manipulation) and Nero appeases Rolfball, who only raids Barker for collector's items, tearing down his whole house and taking everything.
Daimyo has a brand new megaphone, so he shouts to Rolfball he wants to talk. Rolfball leaves him some tech text message machine.
Nero, tired from riding all the way from Mudkips just to end up in the middle of a biker gang, is immediately questioned by Daimyo who asks him to open his brain and find out what the deal with this Newton is. Despite a 12 on Daimyo's manipulation roll, Nero refuses, reminding him that he's no goddamn slave. At least let me have some sleep, dammit. The next day, however, Nero opens his brain in some kind of séance with Two Moon to guide him, but screws up anyway. A short vision of a decrepit woman and a shadow silhouette of Canaveral, as well as imagery from Sunken City, ends the session. Last I checked, Daimyo was planning to gather up his newly-armed, 4-harm large gang and go help the Sunken City hardholder fend of Newton. I guess he prefers other ruthless hardholders to potentially violent freedom fighters. The former can be traded with.
This set the game up great as well. I got to barf some apocalyptica I was really happy with, and things really set themselves up for a great next session. I love it how I just need to dangle my fronts in front of you, and Daimyos immidiate reaction is go over there and kick it's ass! You should see Daimyos sheet, his gang is large, well-disciplined, with an extensive armory and a mighty compound. And he's basically abandoning the hardhold so he can crush Newton.
So, Sunken City, Newton and Canaveral, Daimyo and his army and Nero are all coming together in some glorious hot spot. Awesome!
Third was when Daimyo wanted me to open my brain, right here, right now, 'll give you one barter. I didn't think that much of it until Arvid started whispering "whore, whore" from the other end of the table. Then I realised opening your brain really isn't something you just do because someone tells you to, least of all when you're someone like Nero. He wants to know the whole picture, to be in some degree of control. He was tired, and a bit confused. And in hindsight, probably a bit upset over the whole Fox situation.
Um yeah, maybe my MC'ing is a little bit unconventional. :D
Nero gave +1 Hx to Canaveral, and Canaveral and Daimyo gave each other -1. Heh. And Newton and Fox are super-wedges, which is great fun.
Afterwards, I and Daimyo's player sat and babbled on about Apocalypse World. Everybody is looking forward to their ungiven future and future campaigns.
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I just love the way Fox is turning out, and I don´t really see the "weak girl"-part Arvid worry about... I see a strong (if just a wee bit crazy) woman who has chosen her man, only to be totally ignored by him romantically. She´s not a nice girl, not at all (just watch her malign Canaveral to Daimyo), but she is true in her feelings towards Nero (at least for a while longer, but if it goes on like this I can totally see her in bed with Daimyo when she gives up on Nero).
"Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned
Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned"
Sometimes I see Fox as the only true woman in the campaign, and she is also one of the few npc:s who has a strong relation to all the pc:s.
Anyways, I´m still very much in love with our post-apocalyptic California. Looking forward to next session!
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I just love the way Fox is turning out, and I don´t really see the "weak girl"-part Arvid worry about... I see a strong (if just a wee bit crazy) woman who has chosen her man, only to be totally ignored by him romantically. She´s not a nice girl, not at all (just watch her malign Canaveral to Daimyo), but she is true in her feelings towards Nero (at least for a while longer, but if it goes on like this I can totally see her in bed with Daimyo when she gives up on Nero).
"Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned
Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned"
Sometimes I see Fox as the only true woman in the campaign, and she is also one of the few npc:s who has a strong relation to all the pc:s.
Anyways, I´m still very much in love with our post-apocalyptic California. Looking forward to next session!
Thing is, all those quotes burnt in the apocalypse along with all the other stuff we took for granted in society. Gender is dead, or rather, there's five of them to choose from.
I really like how Apocalypse World is so queer, so it's a little uncomfortable for me to see the girl turn out, well, girly. Not necessarily weak girly, just girly. It reminds me of my own subconcious gender stereotypes.
No big deal, though. Gender issues can hold a lot of guilt if you try to be perfectly enlightened about it - Because you will fail, almost certainly. :-)
Hell yes, next session will be dyn-o-mite. I've written "start of session MC love letters" (Thusly named because by tradition, they end with "Love and kisses, your MC") for all of you, and they are delicious!
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(...) but if it goes on like this I can totally see her in bed with Daimyo when she gives up on Nero).
Gaah! Why'd you have to say that? I was gonna not care, but now I have to ensure that doesn't happen...
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Man dont be a male gender blocker :P (I dont wanna write the C word in my first post :))
Thanks for the support Margolotte! I love this campaign and I gona conquer Newtown or blow him out my state. Get off my lawn!
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This is really rolling. I totally loved Canaveral's battle of eyes, and also that she gave her weapons over so easily. And when Nero didn't go to Fox. That was excellent.
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Okay, so some game-changing stuff happened in today's session. This time I'm really gonna go to bed instead of writing it all up like last time, but whoever gets here first of me and Arvid will. Or Martina will write some in-game story of it. Or all of the above.
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Okay, so some game-changing stuff happened in today's session. This time I'm really gonna go to bed instead of writing it all up like last time, but whoever gets here first of me and Arvid will. Or Martina will write some in-game story of it. Or all of the above.
Game, roll +Hot. On a 10+ all three. :)
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Wow. It was awesome.
Writing an in-game story now, will take place maybe a week or two after this session´s end...
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This is a long one!
Introducing:
Brine - A naked dead and gray husk of a woman, hanging suspended from a pillar made of metal and mold. She rules Sunken City from her chamber, a dark tomb with seawater up to your ankles and glowing spores in the air. Her voice is a whine from a loudspeaker, her arm is a robotic needle sticky with blood, hanging over a slab.
Sunken City - Turns out to be a sort of neo-aztec tribal fishing/diving community with their ziggurat or monolith-like skyscrapers sticking up through the water. Everything is gray concrete or dark halls and dark water. There's a lot of fear in this place. Fear and zeal and mysticism.
Dog Head - A feylike officer in Daimyo's army.
Razor - Daimyo's personal masseur. She has steady hands.
Session six:
--Pre-play--
We started out with Daimyo drilling together his army to go crush Newton's, Nero researching Sunken City through the maelstrom, and Canaveral as a guest/captive of Newton. Here are their love letters: Nero (http://apocalypse-world.com/forums/index.php?topic=374.msg3452#msg3452), Canaveral and Daimyo. (http://apocalypse-world.com/forums/index.php?topic=374.msg3595#msg3595)
Daimyo payed some men to fill up his army, got a mortar and sent out a good scout, but his little Rolfball text machine got stolen in the process somehow. He also trades his complete loyalty to Rose's little family for a silenced rifle.
Nero found out that Sunken City is kind of like a cult, there is a lot of fear in that place. Brine (Though he doesn't know her name yet) has been watching him from the maelstrom and clawing secrets from him. He's been staying at Two Moon and gotten assistance from her, while Fox has been staying in their headquarters.
Newton has started to take a liking to Canaveral. Fuse is pissed off and has her beat up, but she wears her bruises proudly. She gets her horse back, riding next to Newton, and has attracted the admiration of a few of the soldiers.
--Play--
When Newton arrives at Sunken City, he has a meeting with the ruling council, but Canaveral is approached by a little girl and gets to meet with the true ruler of Sunken City, Brine. She is hidden in a boarded up chamber below water level, the whole floor is empty and quiet, until you recognize the two large indescript shapes outside her door as men sitting wrapped up in blankets.
Brine is an immobile corpse, but she speaks through a loudspeaker and Canaveral can feel her poking in her brain, looking for secrets. Brine surprises Canaveral this way, and gains a hold on her. (Failed read a sitch) Brine is eager to show Canaveral something, which is an old nuke chained down in the corner of the chamber, rusting away. Cue a weak and whiney laughter through the loudspeakers. Euuuugh.
Canaveral meets up with Newton, and has him promise to negotiate with Daimyo before fighting him, and in return she will try to take out Brine, and liberate this place. Newton sends out a messenger to set up a meeting with Daimyo, whom Daimyo captures and tortures for information, leaving the corpse in the desert as he pushes on. What a dick.
--The final night--
Canaveral befriends a local Sunkener, gathering information from him, and then suggests a trade - He gets to borrow her if he can lend her an air tank (To sneak into Brine's place) This goes terribly wrong, as the guy's attempt to get an airtank is discovered, and Canaveral finds him dead in their meeting spot that night. She nevertheless walks up to him, takes his barbed spear, and an ambush is sprung. Men-mold-machine-creatures (or MMM's for short) tries to drag her down the water (No-one can swim in apocalypse world, unless you live by the coast!) and she flees towards Brines chamber.
The two shapes outside Brine takes her and puts her on Brines slab. She tries to resist, but Brine uses her hold to force her. Brine takes hold of Canaveral and digs up all her old secrets, with great delight. As Brine breaks Canaverals walls, mingling her memories with those of the maelstrom, Canaveral understands her past, how her parents had to leave the ruins, how her the man she thought was her father is not, it is Joe's Girl, and that is why he feels guilt towards her.
Canaveral musters her inner defenses to understand and fight Brine, she sees that Brine is falling through the maelstrom, how vertigo turns to hunger, how Brine is greedily grabbing on to secrets and high technology to survive. She fights this, brings Brine to her own maelstrom, the cracked asphalt rather than the water whirlwind. Brine is lost and confused, and Canaveral confidently tries to take Brines maelstrom away from her, but blows it. Brine is shrieking, grabbing hold of Canaveral not to be left in this desert, and Canaveral wakes up on the slab with Brine still holding on to her.
Daimyo arrives, gets the intel from his scout, learns about Canaveral, sends out Nero to get her back. Fox is pissed since Nero is going to save Cannie, again, and because he is too stubborn to take her with him. She is the one who can swim, after all.
The two men finally meet: Daimyo and Newton. Daimyo argues that he has a plan, and that his citizens are suffering because Newton is forcing his hand, forcing him to gather up an army. Classic "I'm beating you for your own good"-father retorics according to Newton, who is growing more and more hateful. How can he negotiate with a man who kills his messengers? Daimyo suggests that they go out and fight, man to man, to the death. The winner takes command of the losers army, no more lives needs to be spilled. Newtons eyes are growing more and more intense, and he accepts: He feels confident that the intense hate he is feeling will be enough to carry him to victory.
They both step out of the tent, but Newton hasn't taken more than a few steps before Razor blows his brains out with the silenced rifle.
Meanwhile, Newton and his crew has infiltrated the sunken ruins, and runs into Brine/Canaveral, just as Canaveral is going aggro on Brine: "Get out of my head, or I'll drown us both!". Brine is trying to lure Nero to her chambers, but Canaveral resists. Newton opens his brain and sees Brine riding atop of Canaveral with her fingers in Cannies brain. He beats Brine up, sending her away from Canaveral, but takes a psychic clawing in the process, and falls unconcious.
Daimyo has scrambled back to his army and is completely crushing Newton's army who are falling back to the coast, trying to escape into Sunken City, complete chaos. A mortar strikes the city as Canaveral takes the walkie-talkie and asks Daimyo what the fuck he is doing. Daimyo says he had Newton assasinated, Canaveral stares at the walkie-talkie in disbelief and wonders how the hell she could have followed this man. Canaveral finds a few survivors of her gang from Newtons army, and together with Nero's crew, they're pushing towards Brines chamber to end Brine, in case she gets the idea to blow off the nuke. They're ambushed by MMM's hiding in dark water, and everything goes terribly wrong.
They are taking a serious beating, and at this point the players have started considering what debilities to take for their characters, but instead ends up spending advances to to survive. (Combat reflexes and Insano like Drano) This is still going complete shit, so eventually they pull out, Newton uses his Eye on the door to escape to roof level, leaving his trusty man James behind, and then again to escape the entire city in a prepared boat. This time he brings something with him: Brine has her eyes on them.
Daimyo has completely annihilated Newton's army, and right there, as Sunken City starts pulling out their ancient artifacts of destruction, Glenn retires Daimyo to safety for his sixth advancement. He's pulling the fuck out. Canaveral and Nero are dying in a boat, with just Nail left, and Canavarel calls Daimyo up and demands he send Joe's Girl to pick them up.
We end the session with the flashlights of Joe's Girl's ambulance appearing in the night, on the cliff ahead of them. Canaveral is stroking the hair of the unconcious Nero, and Nail is rowing. As he helps them up, Canaveral tells Joe's Girl she knows he his her dad, and a weight lifts from him. They embrace, and he helps them into his ambulance.
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I caught a cold the day before play, so I wasn't feeling too sharp. Nevertheless, I couldn't wait to MC, so we ran with it anyway. It started out a little bit slow, and I actually kind of rail-roaded Cannie to Brine so I could give Brine the grand introduction I had planned. Describing Sunken City was basically just me talking, so I let it slip that I regretted not having thought some interesting NPCs out. My regret for not preparing better was resoundedly rebuked with "You're making Vincent Baker cry!"
Things really picked up eventually though. I had highlighted Daimyos Hard because Glenn told me he would try to negotiate with Newton. Sh'yeah, right. Daimyo got TWO advances this session, that's how much Hard he rolled! I was surprised by his decision to retire Daimyo as his sixth advance. Surprised and delighted! I felt that I had given Daimyo all the trouble he could ask for already, so this was a real good point to finish Daimyo's story. Glenn is making a brainer, Nero has lost all of his crew and gigs and gets to pick new ones (Obligation gig: Avoid Daimyo/Fox/Brine!) and Canaveral is walking her fathers footstep and becoming an Angel. That's awesome! I was really feeling like making some simple relationships, threats and fronts instead of the huuuge ones I had for New Jerk. Everything kind of revolved around Daimyo, as Canaveral and Nero was working for him.
We're advancing the apocalypse clock one year, with Nero juggling jobs for himself, Canaveral and Sin the Brainer, travelling from place to place in the Kingdom of California. Helping people out, avoiding the intrigues of the new kingdom, meeting ordinary people.... Which means more MC letters! Nice.
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--The final night--
Canaveral befriends a local Sunkener, gathering information from him, and then suggests a trade - He gets to borrow her if he can lend her an air tank.
Borrow her BINOCULARS, that is. Sorry, Cannie!
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And you also keep confusing Nero and Newton... *grin*
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I started writing some kind of introduction to this one, but decided against it. It is what it is.
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The sun was setting behind brush-covered hills. A metallic ticking could be heard from Joe´s Girl´s ambulance as the car cooled down, and from the small cook-fire sparks were flying towards the evening sky.
Canaveral leaned forward, turned the spit over to let the surprisingly fat groundhog grill evenly and stirred the bubbling chili. Joe´s Girl returned from the hidden wateringhole with a large plastic canister filled with the brownish water of the californian plains. New Jerk might not have been the most pleasant place to live, but the town was blessed with amazingly clean water. What they had to content with here had a sharp and bitter taste.
Canaveral made an effort not to dwell on the subject of Daimyos holding. That short time of her life was gone now, new possibilities were surfacing. Actually, one of them was on his way back to the camp from a short walk this very moment, bruised arms full of twigs for the fire. Nero was a whole different man now, somehow. Not as fundamentally changed as Canaveral herself without the gun, the spear, the shining armor, but still different.
It had been four days since the battle between Daimyo´s army and Newton´s on the shores of Sunken City. Wounds were slowly healing (it felt good to have a father again, and a competent medic at that). Survivors from the battle had been spotted. Someone had to gather them up, give them a chance to reach some relative civilization and find out for themselves what they were to do now the war was over. Canaveral knew that her father wanted to help those lost souls, and she heartilly agreed with him.
Nero put down his burden, sat himself down by the fire and poked the embers with a stick. Joe´s Girl handed out bowls filled with the steaming chili. Canaveral started to carve pieces of the grilled groundhog, dishing out long strips of meat. They ate in a more or less comfortable silence. Nail trudged down from the hill where he and Dandelion were keeping watch, picked upp two of the bowls and returned to the sunkie and the game of cards.
A quick glance towards Nero. Canaveral could almost see his longing for the rest of his gang, or at least for Dubs and Topple. James was dead somewhere below the surface of Sunken City, and from what she had understood Fox was unlikely to return to her former employer this time even if she had survived the battle.
Carefully chewing a mouthful of meat and chili Canaveral pondered her own part in the war. Was Newton dead because of her, because she had persuaded him to meet with Daimyo before the battle? She had hoped for the men to see each others strenghts and back down from the unnessecary bloodshed, but she finally felt that she knew the true Daimyo now. Treacherous, self-righteous, bloodthirsty bastard, not one bit better than his mad hyenas. She felt ashamed of herself for believing in the hardholder for too long, but could not dwell on that now. There was a future to take care of, one that hopefully would not include Daimyo.
First step would be to search the surrounding area one more time, gather up the people, horses and supplies that still lay scattered after the battle. After that, they had to choose their new course. She would prefer north, but would probably leave the final desicion to Nero. She hoped Joe´s Girl would join as well, at least for a while. They had things to talk about.
By now, the sun was but a sliver of blood red light in the west. It was getting chilly. Canaveral buttoned the checkered shirt up and rose to get a blanket from the ambulance. The broken ribs smarted as she pushed herself off the ground, but it was the dull pain of a healing injury. The bones would knit back just fine. She was alive, and happy to be.
Somewhere to the east a cackling howl shattered the evening. A reminder that there were things to be done.
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And you also keep confusing Nero and Newton... *grin*
Fnaaaarg >_< Oh well, it's only the paragraph right after Newton's death where I refer to Nero as Newton, so it's pretty clear I'm refering to Nero.
Your in-game text is great. I thought it was a little cheesy of me to suggest Joe's Girl as Canaverals dad, but as improv tells us: Be obvious! I like how you turned that into something genuine, that I can believe in, in your text.
It was really cool to see Jonatan and Martina spend improvements in that terrible fight: When everything turns desperate, Canaveral (not wearing her armour) unleashes Impossible Reflexes, and Nero becomes Insano Like Drano. It was cool to see what desperate moments did to your characters.
The day after, I was like "Heh heh, an angel, a brainer and an operator, they'll totally suck at siezing by force", but then I discovered that Nero now has +2 Hard. +2!! Now, consider that he is now the leader of a group of vagabonds, dodging Daimyo's goons and doing honest work instead of organising compound defenses. That fits so well! I can't wait to see the new Nero.
Oh, and I loved your exposé on the maelstrom of Sunken City and Brine! If anyone would like to describe it here it would be grand, because I can't remember the details.
Oh, and Brine, Sunken City and the wording in the MC letter to Canaveral where all heavily influenced from other MC's great ideas. Cheers, guys!
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Now, consider that he is now the leader of a group of vagabonds, dodging Daimyo's goons and doing honest work instead of organising compound defenses. That fits so well! I can't wait to see the new Nero.
I don't know if you remember this, but when I'd just chosen the Operator and we were talking about our characters, I said that I was trying to build on the intro on the back of the playbook, the one going "You, all you want is a little freedom. But this is what you got to work with."
I feel like Nero's just discovered, or maybe rediscovered, that that's the thing he cares most about. Doing Daimyo's work was okay, and for a while he was curious to see if the guy was onto something with his kingdom idea, but after last session he remembered why he'd been travelling for so long before he came to New Jerk.
I'm not quite sure yet just how hard he is in his daily life nowadays. If it really is just building barns and helping with the harvest or if he's still taking anything that needs doing, just that he doesn't stay in the same place. I think that depends on how peaceful Canaveral has become. It's clear that she'd rather help people than shoot them herself, but does that extend to the rest of the group too? If it does, Nero's +2 hard is something he's not that proud of, but reveals when shit hits a nearby fan.
On the dodging Daimyo's goons thing, you and Daimyo's former player should probably talk about how much he cares about Nero. I like the obligation gig of avoiding the past, but in the end I think Brine is the one that's actually looking for Nero the most, more than Daimyo and definitely more than Fox. Not that he'd rather bump into any of them, just that it's often enough just staying out of their town with the other two.
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Jonatan: Yeah, I remember how we talked about both those things! (Finding a little freedom, and staying with Daimyo for a while)
I like that Nero can do hard things, whether or not he likes it, and I probably like it even more if he's avoiding it. It's like, you need all the five stats to survive in Apocalypse World, whether you like it or not. The fact that your character is hard, is the hardest of the group, and maybe tries to avoid it, all sound like interesting dynamics to me.
Hey wow, that's what highlighting is for!
Glenn has made pretty sure that he is expecting Daimyo to be a Threat now, heh heh. Now, I prefer not to show my fronts, I think it can take away the magic to show the magician's nuts and bolts behind the scene, (In line with the books advice: Make your move, but don't call it a move, for chrissakes) and I also would like to play a new session of everyday-platform-building with your new lives before making new fronts...
...but nevertheless, I'm going to tell you right now that I want to make a "Past catching up with you" front. The Kingdom of California is coming together, but Daimyo doesn't want to rule everything - He just wants a piece of the cake and stay safe in his fortress. Who will take what slices of the new California? Who can grab to most power? It's still very much in the air, so power players like Rose, Two Moon, Daimyo, Greentown maybe, are all playing their games, and they wouldn't like anything better than to own you as their pawns.
Moahahahaha!
So, it's not necessarily Daimyos bloodlust that you should fear, but what he represents, something you were involved before, but now threatens your freedom and independence. It's like freaking Firefly. Nero can be Mal, Canaveral can be Dr. Simon Tam, and Sin is going to be River Tam!
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Daimyo is not my character anymore, his Arvids toy for now :).
Since I played a bloodthirsty hate machine I will now play a happy open minded person. Where Daimyo were bestial and cold, Sin will will be queer and cuddly!
As I feel right now with Sin I want to play a very, -very- good gal. Using her brainer powers to help people and doesnt really know what she is capable of yet. But the basic point with her is gona be to play you guys up, shes gona be the fangirl of Canevaral and Nero, with goals that I know will make you two cringe and glare at me for! :)
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I figure Canaveral is still a cool girl, and still a warrior at heart. She will probably excel at being a combat-medic, and she has always had a soft spot for the down-and-out and the weak.
With the change to Angel she finally can let that "weakness" show, as a Battlebabe she had indifferent eyes, but now those eyes are caring...
So, to answer Jonatans question about how "peaceful" Canaveral has become: She is still prepared to fight for the ones needing her help, and she will not show her throat to the bullies.
I´m really looking forward to the next part of this campaign, this is Neros time to shine! We just have to pick up the pieces of the armies, build a new gang, and start the operating!
Also looking forward to making the acquaintance of Sin!
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We just have to pick up the pieces of the armies, build a new gang, and start the operating!
Ah, but will Nero have a crew, or contacts, or a combination? I can totally see a network of contacts if you're travelling.
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Nero will start out with an even smaller crew than hi original one, this time consisting of only Canaveral and a few of the old ones. James is dead and Fox isn't coming, and I'm thinking maybe Nail decides to stay with Two Moon. Dubbs and Topple don't have that much personality yet, but I guess they're both loyal enough to stick with Nero rather than hang around New Jerk. So two of the old ones are gone, and Canny has joined. I don't think I want the crew bigger than that, especially if Sin "officially" joins. At most one new can join (or have joined after the timeskip) before it starts feeling too big.
I am going to start writing down contacts though, now that we're travelling. I can think of Two Moon through Nail in NJ and Joe's Girl wherever he goes. It would also make sense for Nero to have made some new contacts after a one-year time skip.
Martina: if that's the case, then Nero and the others are used to sometimes violent gigs, so they're pretty good at it. I'm thinking helping otherwise helpless villagers to defend themselves from raiders. Maybe even secretly helping against Daimyo's raiders? I don't know, but helping when there's fighting involved appeals more than helping with the harvest.
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Of course we should take on the violent gigs as well! I mean, that´s what we´re good at...
I´m thinking caravan guarding, a bit of spying on the bad guys (acting under fire is something both Canaveral and Nero are good at), training the youngsters of towns and holds so that they can take care of themselves when Daimyo comes around, that kind of things.
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Nero is Jim Raynor, Daimyo is Mengsk, Canaveral is Kerrigan. Thats a bit of fun, I wonder who Sin will be...
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Nero is Jim Raynor, Daimyo is Mengsk, Canaveral is Kerrigan. Thats a bit of fun, I wonder who Sin will be...
Brine can be The Overmind.
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Brine is more like Arcturus. The overmind is to cool to be compared to that robot chick!
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Oooooogamesnight tonight!
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Yeah, we played last night, and it was great. Here's what happened (apologies if it's too much from Nero's perspective):
We started out about a year after the battle of Sunken City, from which Nero, Canaveral, Joe's Girl and Topple had taken off and kept moving, just getting as far as possible from New Jerk for starters. We meet the PCs in the small village of Crimson, north of the Pit. Here's stuff that's happened in between:
- Canaveral has taken to the role of the Angel, and much of what we've been doing has involved helping people who need protection, healing or both.
- We've kept in the trail of Rolfball for some time, always reaching the places he's just raided, offering our help. Once we actually helped protecting a hold that had barricaded itself in a bunker from him. Around here somewhere Joe's Girl decides to go back to Rolfball - someone has to keep an eye on him, or something.
- We spent some time with Beastie's gang, an unruly lot that we didn't really establish much what they did. We picked up Beasties girl (at the time), Sin the Skinner (played by Daimyo's former player). She's pretty much an adventurer, spreads trouble without really thinking about it, wields a katana and is very hot. Anyway, she came with Nero and Canny when they decided Beastie wasn't their cup of tea.
- We traveled for a bit with a caravan-style nomad people led by Crin. Most notably helped them out of a real spot when crossing a dangerous mountain pass.
- Somewhere in there Topple left us, leaving only the three PCs travelling together. We never decided where he went, but I'd say either home, back to New Jerk (where Nail and Dubbs hang out) or he stayed with Beastie.
- Somewhere we also met Brace again, Newton's right-hand man. He'd gotten away from the battle with, surprisingly, Razor (Daimyo's masseuse and sniper) and was now just a gun-for-hire. Sin had sex with him way back, before he lost his eye, and he still protected her where he could.
So, we've been in Crimson for a few days and things aren't looking good. People are catching this weird strain of something, and Canaveral has tried all her stuffs to no avail. The town elders are putting together a team to go negotiate with the river people. They're wierdos who live downstream and are covered in that filth that floats on the river. However they might know something about the affliction.
That night Sin lures some innocent teenagers out by the river, they don't know if thy should expect a fivesome, for Sin to choose someone or just hanging out drinkin'. She ends up daring the tough guy, Levis, to jump over the river the poles that are to be the foundation for a bridge. It all ends, of course, with one girl falling in the river and being swept away. The mood is somewhat killed and they go back to the inn where Sin does not sleep with Levis, who was expecting to get some.
The next day a small team of the PCs, Levis and a few unnamed villagers set out to meet with the riverfolk. Halfway there we see a man on a raft, who says he'll take us to the leader. However Sin engages in innocent banter resulting in John (that's his name) coming ashore trying too get a kiss. That was Sin's first snake eyes on manipulate, but it wouldn't be her last one this session. Nero and Canny sigh and hopes Sin won't kill him (bad for negotiations) and eventually defuse the situation. John gets the idea that the River has chosen Sin, and that she should come to their place. When we near the collection of rafts that is the riverfolk camp, John says that he'll want Sin hostage if Glendower (the leader) is to come ashore. Sin agrees, and rolls for going aggro to ensure he doesn't touch her. She fails again and he starts blabbering about the River again. Things heat up, Nero's rifle is drawn and both Sin and John end up in the water, which gets into Sin's brain and is generally creepy. John gets her to the raft camp where where Glendower is very interested in what John has brought.
Sin tries to get across that that guy on the riverbank, Nero, is the one who actually wants to see you. Just when Nero tries to get their attention, however, a real downpour starts and they're effectively cutoff since they can't be heard and rifles can't be aimed.
Gledower then unleashes Diesel, the girl who fell in the water last night, who they've kinda converted. She rushes at Sin just to get sliced by a katana. The seize by force roll missed, though, so the katana gets stuck in Diesel's spine, Sin is surrounded and put in a small raft tied to the fleet, with John for company. They start moving the whole fleet downstream, and tell her they're going to the River's temple. Sin gets her sword back by baring some midriff, but is still stuck on a raft without even an oar. She calls for Brace, yelling straight out into the rain but also into the maelstrom.
Nero and Canaveral leaves their gear with the kids in a stranded boat they find, and take off to follow the rafts in the rain. Levis isn't that happy about it, but Canny goes aggro and makes them promise to stay.
Further down the river, the fleet enters a great old dam as the rain clears up. They're headed for the dam, where the riverfolk have made openings into the turbine halls from waterlevel. Atop the dam, however, Brace, Razor and Canaveral (now with extra Bonefeel) await them. They open fire with a sniper rifle and something automated, and the riverfolk respond with arrows. The rope that holds Sin's boat is severed by a well-aimed shot, and John is summarily executed. Sin cuts a log free, gets on it and starts to paddle with her feet. It doesn't go well because a), the maelstrom is in the water and the slime and it's creepy, and b), there's a strong current towards the whirlpool in the middle where water is let out of the dam.
Canaveral sees this and goes down into the structure to try to close the dam. She takes out a slime-head from the river people, but doesn't understand the levers and stuffs so she opens her brain for assistance. And there's Brine. She's like lying under the whole dam, or maybe in the lake, I'm not sure. Canny quickly closes her brain, and instead tries to resurrect the riverguy to help her. She fails her weirdo healing ability and the one who wakes up sin't the guy, it's Brine. Canny begs for help to close the dam and promises to come back to Brine if she does. To all the player's delight, she rolls 10 on that manipulation, meaning she won't have to keep the promise. The dam is closed.
About now is when Nero, tired and stressed out by gunfire, arrives by the side of the lake. How Canny got so far ahead of him he doesn't really know, it just happened. He notices that someone on a raft is preparing a glowing orb of some kind, and fires without getting a closer look. Luckily, it was a plasma grenade, so the end result was that the fleet exploded instead of Brazor. Sin looses grip of her log and is pulled underwater by the weirdness. She finally succeeds with "open your brain" and gets it to release her, at least temporarily. She is pushed towards the shore by a pillar of water, which really impresses those of the riverfolk who happen to be watching. Nero pulls her out of the water (opening his brain to help release the water's grip on her was also involved somehow) and she stays in his embrace for as long as it takes to realise that she's covered in slime! She immediately starts undressing and scrubbing herself, and Nero cannot do anything but watch. As soon as she's done, though, it's time to get away from the arrows. I roll acting under fire, which I've advanced, and roll 14.
Nero snaps out of it, pulls out the katana he was holding for her, and cleaves an arrow mid-flight. He then gets his rifle up, takes out the ones that were shooting their way, sweeps a blanket around Sin and walks away.
Canny, Brace and Razor join them by the lakeside where they round up survivors. The one's who are prepared to denounce the River and come to Crimson are promised help with their wounded. We wrap up and finish the session, with the PCs largely successful for a change.
I write uneven and incoherent session reports, someone else do it next time.
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Introducing:
"Brazor" - After Brace's warlord, Newton, was killed, Brace grabbed his weapon and went looking for the assassin. He found Razor hidden away with her long range rifle, one thing led to another, and now they're fucking.
Crimson - A small hold with decent people who retains a semblance of tradition, and a small library of books.
Levis, Diesel, Sammy, X - Some teenagers from Crimson. Levis is big and strong but a bit uncertain, Diesel is a pouty girl that's supposed to marry him (Yes, they do that), Sammy is awesome because she has a bike. The last guy, I don't remember what his name was, except that it wasn't Fifi. He's the dark brooding type.
The river people - The river is Bad, so Crimsoners stay away from it. There is some greenish algea goop on the water that sticks to you. The river people have embraced the river and it's goop, they live on inter-connected rafts, drifting up and down the river. They constantly have a small amount of goop on them.
John - One of the river people.
Glendower - The leader of the river people, an ancient man in a wheelchair. The folds and furrows of his face are green with ingrained algea, and his long beard has a bright greenish hue. I picked the name from the top of my head, only later realising it wasn't from an Apocalypse World namelist, but rather the name of our friend Glendower, here on the forum! Funny. :D
Beastie - Baddest ass in gang of no-gooders
Fianelly - Leads a hold centered in an old bunker
Crin - Leads a nomad hold
Introducing Sin
This session also saw the appearence of Sin the Skinner, the new player character. Glenn describing his character went something like this: "She is of latino descent..." "YEAH!" "...imagine Michelle Rodriguez..." "HOT!"
We're so eurocentric (We live in Europe, even), so playing new ethnic groups gets us excited. Canaveral is afro-american, so that is awesome too. Of course, in Apocalypse World, gender, ethnicity and sexuality doesn't really seem to mean anything, so that makes it easier, there is a lot less fear of "doing it wrong"; I think. Sin has a lot of pre-apocalypse concepts on her: Glasses, pink tank top, jeans, rockabilly tattoos, katana.... and good looks. I also like the fact that Glenn choose latino looks, because otherwise, a girl with glasses and katana would just make me think manga.
In case you didn't realise it from the session report, Sin has the move "an arresting skinner".
Session seven:
Jonatan summed it up pretty well, I'm basically just going to add some complements, emphases and thoughts.
I went in with zero prep except for the MC love letters I wrote for everyone. I just threw out some random ideas on Nero's paper, (http://apocalypse-world.com/forums/index.php?topic=374.msg4095#msg4095) but he put it together to a real coherent story, which was also connected to Brine as it turned out in the end - So we ended up doing high octane action & adventure after all. :) Even though you broke some kind of record of rolling snake eyes, this is probably the session where your characters kicked the most ass. I think both Sin and Nero got two advances during the session, continuing the experience madness from last session. (Sin's hot was highlighted, and she picked A devil with a blade at the start of the session, as a result of her introductionary letter.)
It started out kind of slow and uncertain, the first few minutes was just me getting a feel for Sin, but then it kicked off in style. Once again I realised that, hey, it's ten PM, and I forgot to take breaks again. That's the loss of time conception of a strong flow state! My particular favourite scene was Sin threatening John to have him let her go, or Brace would kill him. "Who's Brace?" he says, and then the rain clears up, and Brace and Razor are standing on top of the approaching dam, readying their weapons (Sin used her move Lost), with Canaveral beside them. (Canaveral used her move Bonefeel.)
With you constantly failing your rolls, I got a lot of practice in snowballing moves, which was nice. I think separate them is my favorite move right now...
There was a lot of Weird stuff going on. It turned out that Sin's maelstrom took the image of an old water energy plant or purification plant (I don't quite remember, actually), and as John was preaching veneration for the river from his li'l raft, she decided to open her brain and take a look, failed her weird roll, and came to after she had smeared some green on her face, which is when Johns fascination with Sin started.
When John pushes Sin down into the water (I love how you can't swim, and I'm pushing you down water all the time. Water = Scary!) she manages an Open your brain roll, and finds out that the river is full of nano-machinery bacterium (But I didn't call it that) which have lost their purpose, only seeking to absorbing matter and reproduce.
(Which I illustrated by manically grabbing everything in reach, crying "More! More! More! MOAR!". This upset my players a lot more than I had expected.)
That pillar that thrust Sin out of the water was some kind of silicon-like material, which then dissolved into water again.
Nitpick: Diesel wasn't swept away by the water, but rather covered in goop. This is a taboo in Crimson, so she had a bit of a life crisis, howling and running away from the others, seeking out the river people as it turned out.
And I think I know what the maelstrom is now.
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I think you did Jonathan, was intressting read for me at least :).
I love to play Sin, I cant wait to spill more beans, cause more trouble and solve trouble. Loved the "one year older" Nero and Canaveral, its gona be so much fun to learn more about them.
Loved Nero's ninja move! :)
And I picked latino mostly because... I never played one seriously, and well, hot and California made me think "Latino".
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Arvid: I was thinking, now that I've advanced "Open your brain", that I should come up with some fantastic idea about what the maelstrom really was, because otherwise I wouldn't be able to describe it if I should roll 12+. But if you, who have been into it the most since you've been into five different maelstroms (the characters' and Brine's), have a good idea I'll roll with that. If that's okay with you. I mean, when you open your brain the first time you get to describe it yourself, but at this point I'd prefer something thought-through to something personal.
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Arvid: I was thinking, now that I've advanced "Open your brain", that I should come up with some fantastic idea about what the maelstrom really was, because otherwise I wouldn't be able to describe it if I should roll 12+. But if you, who have been into it the most since you've been into five different maelstroms (the characters' and Brine's), have a good idea I'll roll with that. If that's okay with you. I mean, when you open your brain the first time you get to describe it yourself, but at this point I'd prefer something thought-through to something personal.
When you roll a 12+ on opening your brain, I'll ask you if you wanna tell me what you see, or if I should tell you. Then, we'll see what happens.
Play to find out what happens. (Not plan)
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Here's the people Sin slept with for her MC letter:
Barker, who gave her a gift, her pretty glasses - That's cool! Barker has always been this asocial guy who just want to stay in his shed and Work With Things. Who would've thought he could be gentle?
Daimyo, who will give her shelter - Oh, this is just rich, the other two PC's doesn't want to come within a mile radius of Daimyo.
Brace, who will help her out with something useful, killing people - EVERYBODY loves Brace.
III, who wants to please her, like so bad - Man, III is turning into a borderline case. I'll have to do some gender anti-stereotyping here.
Beastie, who must have her and won't let go - As of yet unintroduced
Rose, who scares her like hell - Rose, Daimyo and Sin. Great triangle.
Razor, who Sin still has feelings for, but she wishes she didn't - And Razor is fucking Brace. Awesome. Guess Razor is okay with that, but Sin feels it's complicated.
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All in all, good stuff indeed for a little paper.
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New gamesnight, new story. I´ll try to summarize.
A short jump back to Crimson, accompanied by some 20-odd survivors from the Riverpeople. They see Sin as a prophet and Nero as some kind of invincible hero (cutting their arrows in half mid-flight does that, i presume).
Brace and Razor also keeps hanging around, catching up on the last couple of months.
Canaveral occupies herself with Corbet, the Crimson child ridden with the mystical disease that was the reason for confronting the Riverpeople at all. Red blisters, cold and clammy skin, that kind of thing.
While Sin chats the evening away with Brace and Razor (who keeps hoping for a threesome, but Sin would rather just have Brace), Nero and Canaveral speaks to the Riverpeople about a cure for the disease. One of their young guns, Abraham (?), chucks a spear at Nero, who catches it and snaps it in half, winning even more of a hero status. The crowd calms down, and offers to bring them both to a place where the cure might be found. Having no other leads they accept, agreeing to leave Crimson the next morning.
Back in the tavern where they are lodged they meet up with Sin, Brace and Razor again, and relaxes together for a while. Sin whines a bit about her (mostly self-inflicted) wounds from the "Great Dam Battle", and Canaveral helps her weird-style with Healing Touch, letting her warm and dry interpretation of the maelstrom take the edge of the near-drowning damage Sin has suffered.
Suddenly a buzzing is heard from Neros luggage. The old walkie-talkie comes crackling to life! Daimyos voice carries over the room, and Sin picks up the call, acting secretary for Nero. Daimyo don´t recognice her voice, but he wants to talk to Canaveral. Canaveral lets him spill his beans - there seems to be quite a lot of people in New Jerk struck by the very same disease they are already trying to find a cure for. The team reluctantly promises to see what can be done, and agrees to head down to New Jerk after the expected cure has been tried out on Corbet.
Sin ends up in bed with Brace and Razor, snuggling rather than fucking, somewhat unpredictedly sharing secrets with Razor after Brace falls asleep. Razor learns that Sin is born and raised in New Jerk, and she is in fact the daughter of restaurant-owner Rose.
The next day Nero, Canaveral and the Riverpeople head upstreams, towards the source of the River. The Mother.
The trip is unexpectedly simple, the only issues being Moses (a Riverchild covered in so much algea and goo we started thinking of him/her as Cousin It) and Rachel (Nero´s very own fanboy, he badly wants to be close to The Hero).
Anyways, the expedition arrives at this great structure up in the mountains, like a giant spear cleaving the rock. The Riverpeople seem to hold some kind of reverence for this place, and motions Canaveral and Nero to carry their quest inside.
Stalking the interior of the place, they notice something stirring in the shadows. Nero opens his brain to it, reassuring the being of his good intentions and arranging for some kind of meeting. Following the soft noices it makes they finally come to a large room with high ceiling, all filled with old computers and screens. And in the middle of this the very same man Canaveral knocked out cold inside the Great Dam. He certainly must have moved fast to get here on his own... We learn his name is Reckoning, and he really wants to join us with the equipment that should be the cure for the disease. Some kind of advanced dialysis, we decided. The needle reminds Canaveral of Brine a little to much for comfort, but if this is the cure so be it.
On the trip back to Crimson Rachel warns Nero about Reckoning, whispering about how he carries death and that one should not let him touch you. Oblivious to this little chat, Canaveral spends most of the raftride keeping close to Reckoning an trying to get him to talk about how the machine works.
Meanwhile, in Crimson. Sin is spending time with Brace and Razor in the fields surrounding the village when Levis finally gets around to asking her about Diesel (his betrothed, the girl who fell in the river and later was chopped up by Sin). She lets him know that Diesel is dead, and when he whines about it Razor steps up and shoot him, just like that! "What, he seemed to annoy you, and it´s not like we´re staying here much longer." Sin and Razor argues a bit about this, but Brace herds Razor away and leaves Sin with the dying Levis. At first she tried to drag him back to Crimson, but she finds he´s to heavy for her. In the end, she just sits there and lets the young man die listening to her MP3-player in the middle of the field.
The River-expedition returns to Crimson. Canaveral and Reckoning immediately hooks Corben up to the dialys, with Nero and Sin as on-lookers. They keep at it for hours, Nero and Sin heading back to the tavern. Canaveral falls asleep in the sick-room, dreams of a deep-frozen girlchild in a cold room smelling of salt... She is woken up in the dawn by the touch of Reckoning, who tells her the process is done. Corben seems a little warmer now, breathing with a bit more ease. Success!
Soon enough the team is ready for the journey to New Jerk, and Reckoning is coming as well. Brace and Razor heads off to other horizons, making this weird promise about burying us if we die before the next time they see us. We immediately establish this as one of the more common leave-takings in California. Noone in Crimson knows about Levis´ death as of yet.
Failing all the rolls to travel safely over the wastelands our heroes find themselves lost in The Pit, the very place the were trying to avoid on the way to New Jerk. Sun is setting, supplies have been out for a while, and both Reckoning and Canaveral have disappeared...
Nero starts to open his brain (getting more and more common) to locate them, but Sin stops him and shows him her "Lost" move instead, whispering Reckonings name to the maelstrom.
Canaveral finds herself waking up from briefly passing out stuck in some kind of forgotten Dog-cult-trap (courtesy of a failed Bonefeel-roll at the start of the session). Reckoning is gleefully giggling, having hooked her up to the dialys (blood out only). Canaveral stares him down, forcing him to back of, and then he just walks away (drawn back to the camp by Sins maelstrom-call). Keeping her cools, Canaveral manages to get the needle out and proceeds to free herself from the trap.
In the camp, Sin easily spots Reckoning´s lies as he tells her and Nero he has not seen Canaveral. Sin goes aggro on him, but he forces her hand, stating he is invincible. Sin promptly runs him trough with her sword, and then she and Nero tries to backtrack him. They find Canaveral just out of the trap, packing the dialys together. She tells them about Reckoning, and learns that he´s dead as a doornail.
As they get back to the camp, a couple of the Pit-dogs are fighting for the last scrap of Reckoning, nothing else is to be seen of the body (dun-dun-duuuuun).
Night falls. An argument breaks out regarding the fact that the party is out of food, ending with Canaveral accusing Sin of being a spoiled brat, telling her to stop her whining. Sin takes the first watch (you don´t sleep without in The Pit). Tired of being hungry and lost she calls for backup through the maelstrom, pulling on Rolfballs strings, hoping for a savior before dawn.
Then the dogs attack, a whole pack of them. They start chewing on Sin, who (mostly) takes care of herself until Nero jumps into the fray to scare the bastards away. Canaveral is still half-asleep, dreaming about Brine, sensing her out in the wastland night. As a result, Canaveral misses out on the fight, but at least tries to help the wounded Sin. Sadly, she fails and opens her brain and Sin´s up to The Pit and the everpresent Brine...
By now, Arvid was out of ideas and we agreed to leave the results of this roll to the next session.
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Nero got an advancement back at the beginning of this session, I think when opening his brain to find Reckoning, and still hasn't used it. I have an idea of a second character though, so yeah.
This was pretty much a lull session, we went along with stuff. Some interpersonal drama between Sin-Brazor and in the end the three of us, arguing about who didn't do any work and petty things like that. Otherwise not much action, but it was nice as a contrast to last session's ass-kicking.
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Thanks for the write-up!
When you write it up, it really shows just how bleak this session was, all my imagery was in grey and hueless beige. I imagined the river part as very clouded in damp and heavy grey clouds, and just look at poor Levis' pointless death.
It wasn't a very exciting or fast session, rather aimless even. A lot of time was spent giggling at sexual themes.
In a way, I liked that. It's so liberating to just sit down and see what happens, and having you say "You know, I don't think this disease is so interesting" at the end of the session, and me saying "Yeah, I think so too, let's focus on you going back to New Jerk".
It feels good to know that it's okay to be boring sometimes.
Anyway, I'd like to add the following:
- I nuanced Razor killing Diesel a bit by having Brace explain she had taken something. She promised not to while they where in town...
- Sin didn't tell anyone about Diesel, but when riding out the following day, she could swear she saw him waving them goodbye. Of course she doesn't explore this further, as his death is a secret.
- Canaveral catches a glimpse of someone or something moving far out in the darkness when waking up.
- The conversation with Daimyo was funny, pretty cute even. :)
- I had Canaveral roll weird EVERY TIME she went to sleep. The weird part of her is really waking up. This also helped set the tired, treadmill mood to the session, I think.
This very bleak and eerie session however, sets us up wonderfully for the next one. I have a wonderful idea of how to start it, and Jonatans new character will make a nice entrance as well. I've mailed with him, and it's a great concept who will take your group in an interesting direction, I think. Sin and Canaveral, lost in the maelstrom, a new person showing up... The timing is perfect. It's time for their vision quest. It's going to be sweet.
And then we'll see where things go from there.
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Dont forget that Sin also told people while they had drunken chat that she can play the guitar and sing.
And you mean Levis and not Diesel right Arvid?
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All these jeans-named people...
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We played today, and after some switching back and forth between Nero and my new character, Tai the Savvyhead, I retired the former to safety. Stuff happened before this, but I'm tired and just want to get this up. The gist is that we made it back to New Jerk with Rolfball's help, Sin got in some business with her mom and Canaveral set up her gear to fix the epidemic. Later that evening:
---
Nero was sitting in Exit's tent, minding the weirdo machine. Sure, it helped against the affliction, or seemed to at least, but it still wasn't natural, see what I mean? I mean ew, blood's supposed to stay inside the body.
How'd he ended up here again? Sure, he didn't mind helping people, but he wasn't needed here. Canaveral was, yes, but he started to feel more and more that he was following her around. And for what? The company. That was all it was, in the end. Roaming California trying to make your way together is better than doing it on your own. But getting tied down in New Jerk again, because that shitface Daimyo can't take care of his own hold, that sucks no matter who you got to do it with.
There were too many places to avoid here, and it wouldn't take long before someone would recognize him. Nero hadn't even visited anyone, but was already feeling like everyone wanted to keep him here. Daimyo of course, but there were others. Word was Nail was still in town. Two Moon would probably want to preach, but the way they tapped the maelstrom in the - oh god - water cult wasn't anything for him anymore. That girl III kept showing up, and she was doubtless around somewhere. And Barker. Rose. Scream. Fox. Oh man, Fox.
Canny and that mechanic guy, Tai, showed up. They wanted to go looking for Sin, round up the crew. Sure, as long as it could be done without too much of a fuss. Fat chance with that Sin, though, but anyway. Watching a machine suck out the blood of someone they were supposed to help wasn't very thrilling either.
Nero kept a low profile as they walked the streets. The place was bigger now, admitted, and there were a lot of people he didn't recognize. They kept drawing closer to the fort. Not that way. Tai seemed to try to talk Canny into seeing Daimyo. Don't. Please don't. He doesn't have to know we're here. Well, he knows we're here, but he doesn't have to notice, doesn't have to realize until we're gone. Poof.
Suddenly the megaphone crackled to noise again. It was Sin, surprisingly (or expected?). Something about a party in the fort, and someone's mother. Tai kept at it, now he wanted Canny to come to the party. Sensibly, she declined. Tai turned to Nero.
"What about you, Nero? A night at the fort?"
And then, he decided. He'd tried to hide, and been found. He'd tried to weasel, but was drawn here. It was time to get this shit over with.
"Sure."
"Yeah! Well, see you tomorrow, Cannie?"
They entered. Tai was filled with the rythm, but Nero was filled with resolve.
A number of people - I mean hyenas - met them in the entrance. They seemed to have a good time. Nero didn't mind them. New Jerkers, born and bred. They could stay here, 'cause he wouldn't. Then he saw III. Of course she was here, how else could she interfere with his plans again. And there was scream. He ignored them, and walked up to Daimyo.
Okay, so Nero had this all planned out in his head. Twenty variations of a scene all ending with him slamming the walkie-talkie down on the desk, saying something badass and walking coolly out the door. Of course it didn't work that way. It never does. Daimyo didn't even notice him. Seemed he was too busy making out with Sin. Fuck it. Nero left the walkie-talkie next to him on the desk. At least he still got to walk away on his owm terms.
Except on his way out he saw Fox. Cold eyes met. There was nothing of her friendliness left, at least not for him. He probably deserved that. There were no words from either of them. Nero's face was a sad excuse for an apology. He plucked the blue metal flower from its place in his jacket. It had been there all this time. Maybe she understood that, that she had never been completely forgot. Maybe she'd hoped all this time that he''d kept it, or maybe she'd hoped that he hadn't. More likely she didn't even care. What did he know. He threw her the flower, turned around, and left her standing. At last he was out.
Nero didn't turn around on his way back to the hospital. He slept in a corner, on his pack. Early the next day he said goodbye to Canaveral, got on his horse and rode out of town. She probably didn't get that he meant goodbye forever until the next day or something.
---
Retire to safety, where the safety is never having to do with Daimyo, Fox or (hopefully) Brine again. If Nero rides east, into the sun... rise I don't really care if he gets killed as soon as he reaches a new place. At least he'll spend the rest of his life free, albeit alone. In retrospect, he had a bit of the Driver in him. He almost had to prove Fox didn't own him, and they didn't even have sex.
I look forward to playing Tai. He ended up having a completely different relationship to Brine than all the others, which will probably shake things up.
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Nice text! And Tai seems like such a nice guy, full of energy and "active Hot" or what you would call it...
But I sure will miss Nero, as will Canaveral. I´ll probably write my own text about it sometime this week, something like a letter that never gets sent.
-
This is probably not a letter, more like some internal ramblings from Canaveral. I tried at first to get it to keep the tone of Arvids MC letters, but in the end Canaverals own way of communicating took over. She must be the only one in California who talks in this thoughtful, archaic way, using words like "discourteous"...
Also, I´m not sure about how long Nero has been gone at the time of these thoughts, but I figure it´s been at least a week, probably longer.
____________________________________________________________
Hey, Nero, cool man, lonely man, what you up to?
Have you found company who won´t tie you down? Friendship with no strings attached? Or are you finally learning there are no such things?
Life in New Jerk is pretty much the same as before the war, except maybe a little less risk of getting shot at random. Daimyo hardly ever leaves the Fort, and the day-to-day business is run by people like Rose (who, by the way, appears to be Sin´s mother. Some apples fall a long way from the tree). I still look forward to leaving this place, all the same. Most of the patients are clean now, but I can´t seem to get through to Two Moon about stopping the leakage from the Maelstrom. Maybe she would have listened if you had talked to her. I need to get her some kind of proof.
People seem kinda disappointed with me here. They remember the Knight of New Jerk, and can´t get their heads around the idea of me working round the clock patching people up instead of just walking around with spear and armor shining brightly. I´ve had a few young guns trying to prove themselves against "Daimyos Assassin", but so far I have managed to avoid bloodshed. I´m not interested in having to sew them up, and it would be discourteous of me to put more of a burden on Exit.
Sin is keeping herself busy fucking Daimyo and playing that guitar. I do listen in on the music every now and then, watching those slim fingers caressing the strings, seeing tears in the eyes of the audience. She works her magic, and everyone leaves longing to hear her play again. Soothing their minds but stirring something deeper in their souls.
Another one working magic is Tai. You never got to know him, and I suppose I can´t say anything on the theme of "You would like him" since I´m not sure you ever like people. He is a curious person, a lively fellow who asks a lot of questions and seems genuinely interested in the answers. Every piece of technology and machinery he gets his hands on runs smoother after he has worked them over, and I think he´s somehow related to Barker. He really want´s to get Balls back from Rolfball, too, but Rolfball wants a very special thing to let the boy go. I don´t know where he heard about Brine´s bomb, but he craves it. So far I seem to have pursuaded Tai to leave it alone, but sooner or later we will have to make sure neither Brine nor her bomb will pose a threath to these lands in the future.
But what about you, Nero? What about the man who is indeed an island?
Always the lone wolf, the wanderer of solitary roads. All these new horizons, and noone to share the sunrises with.
I´m sorry I couldn´t be the one you wanted. What went wrong? Should I have stayed a killer instead of becoming a healer, so that I had no reasons to hang around people other than you? Or let myself be saved from danger every now and then? What use is the knight in shining armor if the fair maiden slays her own dragons?
Am I thinking the same things Fox used to think now? Are we anything like each other, her and me? The difference being, perhaps, that she tried to get closer and I kept my distance, none of us ending up in the right zone.
Will you ever find someone who can find that zone and stay there? Giving you the space you need to feel free, unhindered, but at the same time managing to be close to you?
I hope you find that person out there, I hope you find something that at least feels like happiness.
But at the same time, I really hope you miss me like I miss you.
-
Introducing:
Bar and Rufo, two of Rose's workcrew. All of Rose's crew dress smart and bathe regularly. Bar is fit and looks good, a childhood friend a few years older than Sin, Rufo is a party guy.
Introducing Tai:
Our newest PC, Tai, is this inquisitve and soft-spoken, maybe even naive, Savvyhead that's been travelling with Rolfballs rollers.
Session nine:
Canaveral had just blown both her own and Sin's brain wide open to the Maelstrom, in the middle of The Pit, so we started the game with a vision quest-sequence for Sin and Canaveral.
All is darkness.
They see The Apocalypse, a great silvery snake of technology, sweeping faster and faster, out of control of the men of science, turning on itself and devouring itself, trashing the cities, the roads.
They see The Maelstrom, a great spiral of the silvery shreds of the snake, turning and turning, like a white eye with a black hypnotising pupil in it's middle.
Sin loses herself in the maelstrom eye, and loses her way back to reality. Canaveral tries to save her, but their both dragged deeper into the maelstrom. Brine shows up, huge and pale white, looking for them, grabbing them to eat them. Sin stabs her in her humongous eye. Hyena cackles in the distance. Nero opens his brain too, to try to bring the girls back.
Canaveral dives deep into the black void-water of the maelstrom to find answers about the disease, and finds III at the bottom. Small shards of the silver snake is burrowing under the skin of the fascinated III, her flesh is revolting and fighting it's influence.
Brine's arm is there, looking greedily for III. Canaveral finds the spear she left at Sunken City lodged in Brine's arm, and grabs it, and stabs her, frightening her, securing III from her influence.
Nero goes aggro on the Hyena to bring him and Sin back.
I had basically handed them a sheet with suggestions for things they could find answers to, and asked them questions back. I had them make rolls based on what felt apropriate, and the trip got better or worse, accordingly. I could tell it was a little hard to relate to, at least at first, and Martina wasn't entirely convinced, but I'm satisfied. It went something like this:
When they come to, all three are walking the wasteland, and it's dawn. There are motor sounds around them, Rolfball and his gang are all around them. Black Kitchen is coming to beat them up and take their stuff, but Sin uses her sword to sieze his hand by force. He's stumbling back, reaching for his gun with his left hand, but Canaveral gives him a hard look, and he just sits down on his ass. Canaveral is reunited with her dad, Joe's Girl, as they patch him up. Sin takes her jacket off, slings it over her shoulder and walks up to the great Rolfball, no-one can do anything but watch. Rolfball tells Sin her mother want's her to come home, and shows her the text message machine. Sin plays it sultry, which is met by silent sorrow from Rolfball, like she has wasted a wonderful potential of hers.
Tai makes his appearence.
Everyone go to New Jerk, with the dialysis machine.
The place has changed. It's definitly grown, the market is huge and bustling, there is an Peacewater orphanage/pickpocket orphan base in Nero's old house, run by Nail. Sin starts looking for a guitar, but blows her roll, and end up running into Rose, her mom. Rose asks her where the f she's been, (She ran away, like, 5 years ago) lectures her, and gets her bathed up. Rose really want nothing but the best for her daughter, but it is her who knows what's best for her. She want to give Sin her everything, her entire legacy, acquire Greentown and give it to her.
Fox is working for Rose now, and Rose send out Fox, Bar and Rufo with a bunch of Favors and Daim's, the new currency in town, to show her this is where she belongs, to party like in the old days. Sin and Fox learn that they both know Nero, and find a little bit of friendship in talking smack about him.
Tai wants to free Balls that Rolfball brought with him a year ago. Rolfball promised he would let Balls go with Tai if Tai would do something for him. Now, Rolfball doesn't really want to let Balls go, so he gives Tai a really hard task...
We started asking ourselves what this could be, and somehow we got the idea that Rolfball wanted to strap Brine's nuke to his bike, run into something and go out in a blaze of radioactive mushroom cloud glory. It was so over the top, we had to use it: Tai will get Balls if he gets Rolfball Brine's nuke.
Brine actually likes Tai, and has helped him before.
Daimyo wants to see Canaveral, so he sends out two men to find her. They tell her he said they'd be dead if they came back emptyhanded, (and he confirms from the fort, through his loudspeaker) but Canaveral convinces them to find Sin to distract him first. Canaveral is seeing Two Moon of the Peacewater Cult, who's gotten even older and blinder, and tries to convey how water has corrupted the people of California (Sunken City, Riverpeople). Of course, Two Moon is not ready for this, but Canaveral decides to try to convince her to stop charging the water with maelstrom.
The cult is now the church of California. Daff, from the very first session, is overseeing the building of their Cathedral, and Two Moon's right hand man Ik is this scary missionary-official guy, spreading the word throughout the wasteland.
Sin now finds the finest god-damn guitar ever in an exclusive relic store, but she cannot afford it. She plays it in the store, moving the shop owner so profoundly that he realizes it belongs with her. She promises to play every night there for a month if she can have it, so he agrees.
The guards catch up with Sin, Fox, Bar and Rufo and invites them to Fort Daimyo. Daimyo is delighted to see her. His new foot masseur is III, who is really into Sin. Tensioooooooooon! Daimyo throws a party for his now quite disciplined soldiers. Tai and Canaveral goes there, Sin borrows his loudspeaker and shouts "I'm fucking Daimyo, mom!" all over town. Daimyo and Sin sleeps with each other, Tai is making friends, and Nero comes over, leaves the walkie-talkie and the flower to Fox, and then leaves for ever.
For this, I can just refer you to Martina's and Jonatan's pieces.
-
I don't know where we'll start next session, but if it's not right there at the party I want to state to the record that Tai did his best to chat up someone to go to bed with him. If at all possible, maybe even III (that is, unless it was blatantly obvious that she could do nothing but pine for Sin). The thing is we broke the session right there, so I never got to make any kind of Hot roll or anything. Whether he succeeded or not isn't that important though, so if you got a great MC letter starting a few days after like we thought you should, then we can just leave that and push on.
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I don't know where we'll start next session, but if it's not right there at the party I want to state to the record that Tai did his best to chat up someone to go to bed with him. If at all possible, maybe even III (that is, unless it was blatantly obvious that she could do nothing but pine for Sin). The thing is we broke the session right there, so I never got to make any kind of Hot roll or anything. Whether he succeeded or not isn't that important though, so if you got a great MC letter starting a few days after like we thought you should, then we can just leave that and push on.
MC LETTERS ARE COMING!
-
I'm digging Sin's relationship with Rose. Rose just want to give and give to Sin, but on her terms. That makes Rose a wonderful threat. (Mob: Family)
I'm excited about Tai as well. I visualise him and grasp his personality and at once, and I think this will kick things up. Nero didn't really have much of a personality, di he? :) Except when fought to defend his independence, so I like the fact that you played that up in your parting scene.
It gives a bit of nostalgic shimmer to the character, did we really get to know him? Did he let us? There's some integrity there.
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Characters retired to safety should have a nostalgic shimmer...
Starting to think about retiring Canaveral as well, with everyone else running around in their spiffy new characters... But then again, would Batman ever quit?
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Characters retired to safety should have a nostalgic shimmer...
Starting to think about retiring Canaveral as well, with everyone else running around in their spiffy new characters... But then again, would Batman ever quit?
I really enjoy MC'ing the retired Daimyo as this over-the-top charicature, plotting and megaphoning from his fortress. :)
I think Canaveral plays great, and I'm still very interested in her story. Daimyo was retired when I couldn't think of any more challenges for him, and Nero was retired when Jonatan couldn't think of any direction to take him in. I think Canaveral still has a lot to give, and we're so hooked on her story! In a way, she is our heroine. :)
Also, when the other characters finished their tales in their ungiven future, Canaveral turned angel, and started a new chapter. I like that. There is definitly some closure there.
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Canaveral cant retire until she or Brime has won/lost/died. And yeah, if anyone is the main character in this story it sure is Canaveral for me at least :)
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It´s a bit sad, though. When we made one year pass I was kinda hoping for Nero to be the Hero (oh, my, it really was ment to be) in the following chapter of the story.
Oh well, let´s all go combat Brine instead.
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It´s a bit sad, though. When we made one year pass I was kinda hoping for Nero to be the Hero (oh, my, it really was ment to be) in the following chapter of the story.
Oh well, let´s all go combat Brine instead.
You certainly need not be anyone's Hero.
-
Introducing
Jackabacka - A huge hairy guy with only one eye. Lives in an old overcluttered trailer outside town. Makes booze. Cares for a daughter named Fleece.
Sun - High priest of Brine.
The tenth and final session
We started by highlighting, as usual. (We have been highlighting at the start of every session) and Glenn spent his improvement to advance Open your brain, Go aggro and Seduce/manipulate. A GOOD MOVE as it would turn out.
Right after the party in last session, Tai somehow got into bed with III. As he is the savvyhead, he learns who made III the way she is, and who handled her last. Turns out III got herself crazy by seeing beyond the maelstrom, and the last to handle her was Canaveral, protecting III from Brine's influence. Tai has also had a dream where he visited a place of strange and powerful technology hidden in The Pit.
Canaveral has gotten a gig travelling around with Ik, who is head missionary in the new Peacewater church. Most of the time they dig wells, bless people and teach religion, but sometimes they come back and need patching up. Only recently has Canaveral realised that they get hurt because sometimes they preach by violence.
Sin has been playing at the old store man's place for a week or so. People gather there, it's become a thing, and tonight someone gives her some water when she takes a break. While she has stepped away from the guitar, Rufo and Rose busts in. Sin is eyeing them making their way to the guitar, and Rose grabs it - Surely she won't harm it, Sin thinks - But yes, her mom grabs the antiquity and smashes it to cinders on the counter. Everybody falls quiet and watches. Rose throws a fit at Sin and asks her why the hell nothing is good enough for her, why she comes back to New Jerk not giving her a moment of attention, ignoring Rose's plans for her well-being and immediately signs up to play at some dudes place every night.
Sin bites back, but then apologises and tell her, in front of everybody, that she just needs some time to do what she wants, and then she'll do what her mom wants: "Kill Daimyo and take his place" Seduce/manipulate -> BAM! Sin's mom is an ally!
Sin gets a place to stay from her mom, which she shares with Tai. She plans to turn it into a proper bar (The Grill burnt down a few months back) and Tai is a-okay with that. Sin goes to see Jackabacka, and tells him she wants him to make booze for her bar. He doesn't really say anything, he just wants to make liquir, get payed and live alone. Fleece shows Sin her father's box of pre-apocalypse photographs, which makes Jackabacka pissed off. Sin promises to come back the next day, with sweets for Fleece.
Tai decides to try and bring electricity to their new shack, and he visits Daff, who is busy building a cathedral for the Peacewater Church. Daff trades some schematics for solar power in exchange for a glue gun. Poor Daff! Attention span of a puppy dog.
Caneveral gets back to town, and while me and Jonatan are playing this out, Cannie and Sin are talking. I didn't catch what the players were talking about, but Sin has spontaneously decided to open her brain on the way to Jackabacka the next day. BAM! She sees beyond the maelstrom!
What happens is, Sin is in her water purification plant, and realises there is an exit door. She opens it and steps out, and she is back in the desert. Now she sees not just through the maelstrom, but she sees the maelstrom itself - Strings and strands of tiny particles, going everywhere, carrying information and knowledge. A nanite bacterium that has devoured life, and now is omni-present. Think the final scene of The Matrix.
Sin and Cannie both know that Brine must die for this land to be safe. With her newfound powers, Sin seek out Brine, who is super-excited about someone else manipulating the strings of the maelstrom. Sin tells her that she holds Canaveral hostage, and promises to bring Cannie to her if Brine will let her, and grants them safe passage.
All Brine really wants is to know and have everything. If she can have Caneveral, and maybe even Sin and Tai, she must have them.
They decide to go to Sunken City.
Sin sleeps with Daimyo in a nazi uniform in exchange for guns and grenades. Sin whispers Brace name to the maelstrom.
On their way to Sunken City, they pass Freetown, where they make glass out of glass storm shards. There they come across - surprise! Brace and Razor! Sin aces another manipulation roll, and now Razor is her ally as well.
They pay "Brazor" handsomely to protect them in Sunken City. At night, Tai wakes up at Razor oogling his mechanical arm. I was going for a PC-NPC triangle/different relations, but it didn't really go anywhere, so whatever. :)
Something is following them, always. A deep motor sound, with vehicle itself staying just outside of sight.
They get to Sunken City, and EVERYONE is out greeting them, holding torches across the walkway out over the water. The sun is setting beyond the black ziggurat-like and broken skyscraper where Brine resides. Her mouthpiece, Sun is there. I describe him as James Earl Jones-like. Yes, I was totally ripping of Conan at this point.
The PC's + Brazor walks into Sunken City, with all of it's people surrounding them and making way for them. Canaveral plays her part as a hostage. (Brine has never met Sin, and she kind of likes Tai) The humvee-kinda vehicle that's been following them has caught up with them too, waiting on dry land. Sun demands that they hand over their weapons. Sin refuses. Things get a little hot, some people get stabbed, Sin aces another manipulation roll. BAM! Sun sees the same holiness in her as in Brine, so he decides to carry her sword for her, (but return it later)
They go into to the black skyscraper with Sun. Brace and Razor stay behind. They're walking in dark and watery corridors, with Brine's voice in the loudspeakers, eager with anticipation. The mold-machine-creatures are here, gathering in larger and larger numbers, watching them. They arrive at the gates to Brines chamber. James is there too. (One of the fallen a year back.) He is one of them now.
Canaveral rolls for Visions of Death. Brine will die now.
And now they flip their shit, Sin grabs her katana and slices James up, Canaveral throws a grenade, and misses her roll. She manages to take cover behind the gates, but Sin and Tai doesn't catch up with what's happening. Tai is wounded, Sin is out of the action, and permanently deaf on one ear. Tai drags Sin into Braces chamber, as the torn asunder mold-creatures throws themselves at them.
Canaveral faces Brine's suspended body and slits her throat. Sin screams through the loudspeakers and retreat deep into the maelstrom. Tai catches and isolates her in his augury bionic arm. He throws his grenade, misses too, and takes a torrent of shrapnel. The building moans and cringe. Mold-creatures die. Canaveral wakes Sin up with Healing Touch. Sin expands her other four moves (Hx from friendly fire!) and rolls a sieze by force of 13. She flips the fuck out and kiiiiiiiilllllls the rest of the mold creatures around.
Sin opens her brain, finds the strands Brine used to control the mold people and turn the remaining ones in Sunken City against the people of the city. Brine dissipates in Tai's hand, the maelstrom particles that made her turn into dust and wind and she is gone forever.
They get to the surface, where Brace and Razor are firing away. The humvee is racing across the bridge, with Brace shooting and shooting into the driver seat until it turns over and crashes. Reckoning was driving it, but now he is mangled. The car carries the dead. Levis is there, dragging a gun out of it before Razor picks him off.
They get a big mold-creature to flip it back up again and drive out of the calamity.
...
With Brine dead and gone, maybe this shithole of California can survive. It'll be miserable and violent at times... But everyone will have a chance to do their best, and no dead and crazy queen will drop a nuke on them or take over their minds and end it all.
-
This last session (because we've decided that it'll be the last session, at the very least the last one with these characters. I could keep playing in the same world if everyone else wanted too, but it seems that we will start over or even play another hack) was a bit disparate, and didn't really pick up until Sin's maelstrom revelation. I think I can finally be clear on the fact that I like this game best at high pace and action - I'm not one for complex relations and manipulation. I try my best to play like Glenn; talk to people, get them to do what you want and stuff, but it's so much eaiser - and more fun, to me - when the action is there, in your face, and the tough decisions are who to shoot first and what to do if you get hurt. I should probably play a gunlugger. I want a simpler apocalypse next time.
Also for the record, Glenn is such an xp whore. Sin had two (or three?) of the ungiven future advancements when Tai got his second advancement, total. They were both our second characters, and Nero got like one more advancement than Daimyo before retiring.
Hod lots of fun with this campaign though! Maybe the longest coherent campaign (for some definition of coherent) I've ever played, and without doubt the most exciting.
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I think I can finally be clear on the fact that I like this game best at high pace and action - I'm not one for complex relations and manipulation. I try my best to play like Glenn; talk to people, get them to do what you want and stuff, but it's so much eaiser - and more fun, to me - when the action is there, in your face, and the tough decisions are who to shoot first and what to do if you get hurt. I should probably play a gunlugger. I want a simpler apocalypse next time.
Go for it! It would be awesome with a more violent and scarce apocalypse, I think we set this one on a different scale by having both Canaveral and Nero work for Daimyo, ruler of a large hardhold. There's some stability in that.
Oh, the only thing holding me back from playing a gunlugger is that then you won't be able to go gunlugger later - It is such a beutiful thing to say "You know what, fuck it. Everybody dies." and switch to gunlugger after your life has been ravaged, pillaged and ruined by others.
Also for the record, Glenn is such an xp whore. Sin had two (or three?) of the ungiven future advancements when Tai got his second advancement, total. They were both our second characters, and Nero got like one more advancement than Daimyo before retiring.
Ain't that the truth!
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Hey what can I say? I roll alot? Its always good to ask with sharp and even better to do it when its exped... :P