The Preface:
This game had me buzzing so much, I dreamt about Apocalypse World last night. Congrats to the MC, Chris, and the other players, Phillip, Lindsay and Tom, for making the game come to life and be awesome. Tom and Phillip had characters from a previous session and Lindsay and I came after about an hour or so into the session. Lindsay had written up some notes for her Angel and I chose a class at random from the leftovers.
This will be from my point of view, one of the players. Any of the other players and MC (Chris) are welcome to chime in on missing tidbits or gaps, because I'm sure there will be plenty since there were times when I was pissing or daydreaming about my next plan of action.
The Setting:
A small collection of buildings surrounding a bunker, where a woman named Colt hides away, run by a guy named Newton and his family. The hold, if you could call it that, is situated between a poisoned river and the ruins of a larger city. There's a drive-in theater (only sound, no visual), a bar, and a couple other notable places, like a quarry where there's some water being harvested somehow. The sky is all red and scary and these clouds come down sometimes in huge pillars and do crazy badness.
The PCs:
Satan, a Chopper leading a gang called the Angel's (Satan's Angels). He's got a machete and sawed-off crisscrossing on his back, a chainmail shirt under his leather jacket, grimy black fingernails and a rugged, bushy face. His bike is rugged, muscular - a straight gas guzzling, roaring nightmare that spits fire from it's exhaust. Satan was played by yours truly.
Chair Man (yeah, two words), a Maestro D' that runs a dive called The Office. It's not the place to go for rowdy, raucous boozing and fighting. It's more for shady dealings and low-key conversations. He's got a small gang that provides security for him and has recently taken out the woman controlling the water supply in the area. He's a tall, bald older man that wears an old World War II flight suit. Chair Man's voice is like... lemme see if I can remember how Chris put it... John Wayne mixed with ... Chris? Chair Main was played by Phillip.
Hotrod (just one word...), a Battlebabe is quite the ambiguous sexual idol. To men, Hotrod seems to be effeminate; to women, masculine. Hotrod has a badass machete that is situated at the end of a chain that can slice and dice a whole area. That's nothing compared to Goliath though, the 6-harm shotty that Hotrod uses to transform people into tiny particles of their former self. Hotrod is known to get around and works odd jobs for Chair Man and Newton from time to time. Hotrod was played by Tom.
Poppy, an Angel who lives in a log cabin, with an infirmary, that is set near the bunker. She talks to Colt sometimes through the speaker box, trading stuff for her angel kit's stock, although talking ain't her best skill - she has Tourette's syndrome, becoming twitchy and cussing up a storm when she's nervous. She has a couple assistants, her nieces, Shamrock and Tutu. Poppy is the go-to girl when it comes to putting guts back inside your belly. Poppy was played by Lindsay.
The Game:
I don't recall exactly how we started off. I remember hearing about Chair Man lopping off his cook's hand and something about a person named Amy who used to control the water supply... used to. There was a battle going on when we showed up. Straight into the action. So, we half-heartedly listened in while we were filling in our tri-folds. Lindsay had her heart set on an Angel, and I chose one of the playbooks at random - Chopper. So, off we went, filling out our stats and looks and all that.
Chris starts us off immediately by introducing our characters and doing Hx. We go around the circle:
Poppy thinks Satan is doomed to destruction, but Poppy stood up to Satan's gang, so we say Poppy was helping heal up one of Satan's Angels when something happened and Poppy came right out and told Satan what she thought of him - gang and all. Chair Man put a hand in and helped Poppy save a life once. It was one of Chair Man's gang and since then they've been working together, with Chair Man providing her supplies of alcohol for sterilization and whatnot. Hotrod has been close to Poppy before, seeing everything she's seen. We don't go into much more detail, but Hotrod doesn't trust Poppy at all. One time when she was fixing up Hotrod's leg, she pulled his pant leg up too far and Hotrod got all sensitive, thinking she was trying to find out the truth about his ambiguous sexuality. Chair Man goes next. He says Poppy is definitely the most attractive as one of the few women in town. He's got his eye on her. Hotrod and Satan are both simple - Hotrod is out in the public view, and Satan, well, he's just not that complicated, but he also doesn't give much of a shit about people in general.
So, establishing all these things, we get straight into the action. The battle that was going on while we were writing up our characters had some serious casualties. Hotrod and Chair Man, gang in tow, has a guy bleeding to death and they go straight to Poppy's place. They bring him in and lie him on a cot. His guts are hanging out and blood is everywhere. Poppy starts on him immediately, but then realizes that she might need to get paid for this shit, because it's going to take some serious reserves of medical supplies to get this guy stabilized. Chair Man promises to pay her, just save the guy. So, Poppy goes in and starts her work, doing that kind of thing the Angel does, using all kinds of supplies in the process. Only, Hotrod, who's holding down this guy, I think his name was Vincent [it was actually Mustang - the guy later helping Hotrod at the quarry is Vincent] or something, starts mucking about in the guy's internal bits. Shit goes haywire, the guy about to be stabilized flatlines and Poppy goes nuts. She shoves Hotrod back away and starts pulling out the good stuff to get this guy back. She does, barely. But, she seriously just blew through most of her stock.
Meanwhile, Satan is rolling into town. He and his gang go straight for The Office. They're looking to drink. When they arrive, no one's there except a red-haired woman, a Asian man and the bartender. Satan goes straight for the bartender, pulls him over the bar and digs his machete into the meaty part of the guy's shoulder. He wants drinks for his boys and no qualms about it. It works. They even give him "the good stuff". The Asian man starts to run, but Satan points his machete at him and orders him to stop. He does and two of the Angels, Jimbo and Slug, snatch him up and Satan has them start pouring vodka down into his gullet. The red-haired girl runs out the back and Satan chases her, but loses her in some other building. Satan comes back in and gets the bartender to come help him find her. He brings Randy and Wraith along to back him up. They get to the other building, a living quarters with bunks, and Satan opens his brain to see where the red-haired girl is... He sees the building pried apart but held aloft in the air, like some kind of instructions to put together a TV stand or something. Through the bits and pieces of the building, he sees the red-haired girl hauling ass through the ruined city, being chased by these crazy ass hounds.
"Eh, fuckher." Satan let's her go, but he's let his guard down and the bartender found himself a pistol from one of the pillows on the bunks, and blasts Satan right in the back. Satan's knocked down and has the wind sucked out of him. Randy and Wraith immediately blow the bartender the fuck away.
Back in the bar, the boys are getting rowdy, drinking, tearing up the place. Only, the "good stuff" seems to be affecting some of the boys and Randy pukes up some blood and nastiness. Even Satan is starting to feel woozy and not good.
But, Chair Man is coming back and he ain't too pleased to see the bikes out front, the place getting wrecked and sucked dry. He walks in and Satan tells his dumbass to get over and have a seat. No dice. Chair Man and his gang just light the place up. Only problem is, Chair Man's gang is about nine guys. Satan's, well, it's about 30. The fight doesn't go well and before long Chair Man's gang is all down and he's a lone taking cover behind a table firing off pot shots. Satan tells Chair Man to get his pussy ass out from behind the table or he'll rip his balls off. He has a proposition for him. It doesn't sound too threatening though and Jimbo tells everyone in the room Satan sounds like a pussy... Satan has to make an example of him. He cuts him from his balls to his throat. Everyone gets back in line.
Chair Man comes out after the display and they agree to do something about this water hole, Satan's gang will work for Chair Man to protect his place and they reap the benefits of the water hole together. Also, Satan finds out "the good stuff" is poison or something and demands the antidote for he and his men. It happens.
Chair Man hops on Wraith's bike and rides bitch. Satan orders half the gang to stay and look after the place, clean it up. The rest come with them.
Sure, let's go.
There's a gravel road leading up to the quarry. Hotrod is waiting in the bushes on one of the bluffs. He reads Chair Man and can tell Chair Man wants to kill Satan for trashing his place. So, sure enough, Hotrod aims his sniper rifle and shreds Satan's head, knocking him off his bike and unconscious. Then, machinegun fire erupts from Hotrod's position (one of Chair Man's last living gang members holed up there with him) and they rain down fire on the Angels. Bikes are exploding, Chair Man even gets hurt, and Hotrod is picking people off with his sniper rifle. Everyone is disoriented, so the gang flees. Slug rides by and snatches up Satan, throwing him on the bike and riding off, but Hotrod hits Slug in the head with a sniper round and the bike goes off on its own into a wooded area nearby, Satan in tow.
A guy shows up at Poppy's and he's got weird-ass tricky eyes, likely on drugs. He tells Poppy he needs help and so Poppy treats him. She asks him if he's on drugs and he says he got some shit from some guy named Exit. She goes to talk with Newton. Newton says he knows of Exit and tells Poppy how to find him, down by the river. She finds the place, listens in on a radio convo and finds out Exit is stashing drugs are the Chair Man's warehouse.
So, heading back from the river, Poppy goes by quarry and she hears the gunfire going down. The battle's pretty much over at this point. As Poppy approaches, one of Satan's Angels comes crawling toward her, his name is Orlando. He's pleading with her for medical attention. Poppy is out of stock at this point, so she runs back down to the bunker and pleads with Colt to trade her some stock. Colt agrees, so long as Poppy brings her some water. Poppy takes the medicines and supplies and heads back up to the battlefield and begins working on Orlando.
Meanwhile, Hotrod has run off into the wooded area to find Satan. Sure enough, he's there lying in the wood, but he's just waking up. Hotrod jumps onto Satan and they rumble and roll in the grass in some weird sexually-infused frenzy. They both open their brains to the psychic maelstrom. They're instantly transported to a home. Husband and wife. (This is where Tom and I hold hands in real life for a while.) It's early morning, the news is on. It's a cape cod house in Maine or something. We know it too. Somehow. We, as married couples, go ahead and start making love right there in our nice, cozy bed. When it's over, we're instantly sent back to the wooded area. Hotrod's pants are halfway down and Satan is on top of "her"... Only, Satan knows now. Hotrod has both a penis, and a vagina. Hotrod fights Satan off and goes running through the woods.
After Poppy stabilizes Orlando, she starts to head back to her cabin. But, she hears a gunshot ring throughout the quarry. She looks back to see Chair Man has executed Orlando. She comes running up and angrily screams and cusses at Chair Man for killing a man she just saved. She tells him he owes her double now and she wants water - four months worth.
Satan and his gang regroup back at The Office. And, Satan sends a couple guys to go get Poppy to tend to the wounded. He sends Diamond and Lightswitch. They arrive at Poppy's and blast open the door. Poppy immediately pulls out her .38 and demands to know what the fuck is going on. Lightswitch tells her Satan wants her, and they want her nieces. Poppy says, fuck that but Diamond ain't having it. He opens up on Shamrock. Then, Poppy dumps a vat of acid on the gang members, killing them. Shamrock is bad off. Poppy can't move her. About this time, Newton comes by her cabin and asks what the hell is going on. Poppy tells Newton to help her destroy Diamond and Lightswitch's bodies by carrying them into the tub and burning them up with acid. Newton says he'll go get a couple boys to keep an eye on the place.
Shamrock is too hurt to move, but Poppy wants to take Tutu down to the bunker, knowing Satan might show up. Poppy and Newton go down into the bunker to take Tutu to Colt. Colt agrees to take her in. Then, Poppy and Newton head back to the cabin.
Satan starts realizing his Angels haven't come back, so he rounds up the gang and rides down. He goes to Poppy's cabin, but some boys are there watching the place and demand Satan and his gang leave. Satan's gang laughs, tears them apart and barges in. Stationing half the gang outside, Satan decides to keep a few inside.
Newton and Poppy show back up to the cabin and find Satan and his gang there. Satan orders Poppy to come inside and drags the bed Shamrock is laid up in over to the door and puts his machete to her throat. It only infuriates Poppy and she goes apeshit and once again stands up to Satan. Satan, afraid, barricades himself in the cabin, but orders his gang to kill Newton and take Poppy. They do and bring her in. Now, with Poppy in the cabin with Satan, Chair Man approaches with the water he promised to deliver to Poppy. Satan's gangs are outside however and intercept him. They take the water and Chair Man leaves.
Hotrod sees Satan's gang surrounding Poppy's cabin and sneaks around to come through a back entrance - slitting the throat of any guards. When Hotrod gets inside, immediately the machete-on-a-leash comes out and blood, limbs and heads go flying everywhere. Hotrod grabs Poppy though, and Satan is taken down and he screams for his entire gang to come in and kill Hotrod. They do.
The gang members inside go balls on for Hotrod, and the ones outside starting firing in trying to kill everything. Hotrod pulls out Goliath and decides to take Satan with him and they both die out in a blaze of glory. The whole cabin is getting shot up to pieces, Shamrock is lying in a bed and bullets are just destroying it to the point where it collapses, yet somehow she lives.
After the dust settles, some of the gang is still there and all of a sudden this plume of red mist comes crashing down on the cabin. It's ripped apart and every piece is suspended in mid-air. Poppy feels a rage swell inside her and she grabs Hotrod's machete-on-a-leash and goes berserk on the rest of the gang. The gang empties their last remaining rounds into Poppy, but the shit doesn't do anything. No wounds, nothing. Poppy creates a bloodbath and no one is living besides her when it's over, except somehow Shamrock...
Then, the plume leaves, the cabin falls to pieces all around and Poppy collapses and her vision is hazy. She sees something stab into the floor in front of her, a cane. It's Colt's voice that says, "Girl, what have you been up to?"
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Tom and I high-five. We randomly choose two new books to play. He gets the Driver, and I get the Hocus. Next week!