Lights of Hoover 5: The Chemist's Den

They spent the night in a converted executive office of some kind, now outfitted with military cots and tin tubs for bathing.  The bathroom worked.  This was some luxe shit, going on here.

Harlan went for a drive in the Chevy Interceptor, made by the GM.  I wish I could duplicate the speech he gave to Pima, who road shotgun.  Cubic inches, zero-to-sixty, make, model, how the frame ripples like water to keep bullets off...it was inspiring shit.  St. Dale, who died so the roads could remain open after the apocalypse, works his will through Harlan and he did again today.  Harlan spray-painted 3's on the doors of the Interceptor.

They road down the crotch-rocket bikes that were careening down the highway with stolen drugs and when a semi-truck hit the highway from the off-ramp, Harlan just drove the Interceptor right up into the truck's loading dock.  When it was over, they had a semi, had the stolen drugs and had their enemies dead.

Pima was shocked that everything went so smooth.  Harlan seemed unsurprised, having always put his faith in Dale and his holy number of three.

We did some rolling under fire, some seize by force and all was well, Pete rolled high and killed this mission.  It was nice to see the Driver be awesome.

Other things to write about:

Cybelle's new job
Doc's politics
Hum's stupid
Harlan's new ride
Desert Junkies Attack

"Pima, this is a late model, Chevrolet Interceptor.  It has a 5 point 5 liter V6 engine.  Which means it can crank out 600 horse-power.  It goes from 0 to 60 in 3 point 6 seconds.  It has steel breaks, rather than ceramic, which were popular in late model Chevrolet's.  That means it can go from 120 to 0 in 4.7 seconds.  That generates enough force, that you'd throw up.  Its got a reinforced suspension, which means I can take corners at 72 miles an hour, 12 miles an hour faster than other muscle cars. 

"Its got a carbon-poly-mimetic skin over a titanium alloy frame.  That means when impacts occur at ninety degrees to the skin, it ripples like throwing a pebble on a lake.  The front and rear fenders are designed to crumple and fall off if impacted.  The wheels are a solid carbon, rather than inflated - to resist punctures.

"And it was made by the all-mighty GM, so it'll last us.

"So, when I'm behind the wheel, you have to follow some simple rules.  You don't question what I'm doing and I can guarantee you as long as I am behind this wheel, I will get you in and out alive."

Judd, great stuff.  I love the attention to detail.  We need images of this bad boy! :). My apologies if this is a bit drifty but I love a Drivers AP full of car porn :D
-Don

I need two custom moves for upcoming sessions:

When you teach your apprentice a philosophical principle, roll + Sharp:

You get three rolls with each student and at the end, they will have 3 philosophical concepts that will guide them in their pursuit of this trade.  You might be teaching them something technical but what you are instilling is philosophical.  You might be teaching an apprentice driver how to do a hand-break turn but what you are teaching is how to drive the car rather than steer it.  You might be teaching an angel how to remove a bullet but what you are doing is showing how to care for every patient no matter who they are.  Got it?

12+ Shit, not only do they comprehend but they synthesize it and build something even better out of your lesson.

10+ They comprehend and you have instilled a philosophical foundation upon which they will pursue this trade.

7-9, either they are going to fuck up this up unless you do something a bit crazy to drive the notion you are teaching home...if you don't, this principle will go into their head fucked and side-ways.

Miss, Your apprentice doesn't grok your crazy fucking mouth-music and the principle you are instilling goes through their filter and comes out a mess.

When you read SPEC OPS MANUAL 053: Psychic Warfare, roll + Sharp:

"It reads like stereo instructions but the stereo is your mind and the music it plays is the act of killing people."

On a 10+, you can take 1 of the following 3:

+1 forward with any Weird based roll used to hurt or infiltrate someone/something.
Take an XP in order to buy up your Weird stat or buy a Weird-based move (custom or from another playbook)
The next time you are in deep shit, you can roll Weird for the Seize by Force move.

On 7-9, you can take any one of the above but the MC can ask you to Roll Under Fire when you are doing something perfectly normal.  The book is training you to see people's minds as nothing but pieces in a wargame.

On a miss, this fucking book doesn't make any kind of fucking sense.  Fuck this.  And you also get the consequences of the 7-9 but with no good stuff to go with it.

Cybelle's New Job

Yeah, Cybelle took the job.  She spit in her hand and he shook it and it was her Violation Glove hand.  Dammit.  She found out on her 7-9 roll that Graham craved forgiveness from his children, whom he feels he dragged into a dangerous situation in an effort to keep them safe.

Sidenote: The pre-game banter is always interesting too while folks get their shit together and ducks in a row so that we can game.  Found out that because of near-starvation, Cybelle doesn't menstruate.  *shrug*

The deal is she will work for Graham for a month and at the end of that month, she'll get to read the SPEC OPS MANUAL on Psychic Warfare. 

"Why do you want me to work for you?"

"Because your skills are valuable.  A Brainer can head off trouble before it happens."

"You want me for your own purposes..."

"That is like saying I want a gun only because it shoots bullets.  I'm hiring you for what you can do."

Doc's politics

Anthony picked up Reputation for the Doc and rolled shite in trying to see if the Chemist had heard of him.  Yeah, he'd heard ,he'd heard that there was this doctor on the Rim, sniffing around Hoover, looking for the best, safest deal he could find.

Doc spent a whole lotta time sniffing around, seeing how many armed folks the Chemist had (around 40) and how things worked.  He asked lots of questions of both the Chemist and Saint John about the Engineer-in-Chief.

Saint John said something like, "There are nomad-cults that believe souls actually move toward Hoover when they die...do you believe that shit?"

Cybelle nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard that and Doc and Harlan exchanged knowing glances.  Only Cybelle knows that the Engineer-in-Chief can electromagnetically imprison souls/brains and she has her own parents and feels guilty-as-fuck about it.

Doc is weighing his options...hospital in Hoover?  Hospital on the Rim?  Set up shop in Vegas?  The Chemist let him know that if he sets up on the Rim, the Chemist will build him a joint.

"Why?"

"A strong Rim suits my needs..."

Harlan said, "A strong Rim means a healthy market; he's a business man."

Doc preached about how much folks will be needing medicine more than they'll need drugs but the Chemist seemed unconvinced.

Before the game started, we shifted Hx stats, everyone went up one with each other and we changed our highlighted stats. 

It seems like Cybelle has been raking in the XP while Doc and Harlan have been crawling along.  Perhaps a change to highlighting and keeping track of Hx better will help that XP flow.   

Desert Junkies Attack

Doc was looking over the Chemist's people and found Lander, an old hired gun with a bullet wound that had healed over but the bullet was right near his spine.  He had to go in before the damage grew worse and he was further paralyzed.  He called in Shigusa and Mox for the surgery.

He blew 6 units of meds because the Chemist pledged to replenish whatever he used.

"Lander was with me when this town was nothing but a Liger-infested ruin."

He rolled what would have been a failure but because of the +6 to the roll (did we do that wrong?) Lander pulled through.  I described it as an eleven hour surgery where everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong short of the patient dying.  No, he was fine and would pull through but would need medical care for 36 hours.  The Croaker's crew would be hanging around for a bit.

That night the Chemist's compound was attacked.  They heard small arms fire and heard the grenade that blew the perimeter wide open.  Cybelle was in her new room and she Read a Sitch.

"What's the best way outta here?"

"Harlan in the Interceptor is the best way outta here, without a doubt."

She found Harlan.  Doc refused to leave his patient and Shigusa and Mox refused to leave the Doc.  They stayed with Lander.  Harlan and Cybelle made for the basement parking lot.  The Chemist's wife and kids were already in the back of the Interceptor but the parking area was already infiltrated with desert junkies looking to score.  Sub-machine gun fire cut them off from the Interceptor, pinned behind the Croaker's engine compartment (both got 7-9 on Under Fire roll).

Harlan goes into the Croaker and hits the lights and sirens.  He Seizes by Force and drives them into the streets where Pima's soldiers cut them to ribbons.

Cybelle looks in the back seat and the kids are asleep and Mari looks calm and cool.

Doc is stubborn

Shigusa and Mox are having an amusing argument about who should hold their newly aquired AK-47.

"I should hold it."

"Honey, the safety's on."

"No, it isn't."

"Yes," Mox says, "It is."

That was about when a dirty kid with a pistol walked in, cut off from the rest of the desert junkies.  He had a pair of jeans wrapped around his head to keep the desert sun off of him.  He held a gun on the Doc and Shigusa pointed the AK at the interloper and just froze.

"Give me the drugs."

Doc starts sputtering, reaching for his tazer.  He rolls to use it but when I give him a tough choice, when I tell him that tazing the kid will mean his finger contracts and a bullet will be let loose in the room, he thinks again and doesn't do it.

He hands the kid some aspirin.

"What is this?"

"Its good, the best stuff...Purple Tarantula, its called.  New shit!"  and he jumped on the kid and took the gun away.

Right?  Is that how it happened?  Now I can't remember.  Shit.

The kid was sent away, knowing that if they kept him around, he'd be killed by the Chemist's troops.  Doc tried to hand the kid some food but the kid just cussed him out and left.

Purple Tarantula?

I love it.

Harlan's New Ride

After coming back from his mission in victory and with a semi-truck to boot, Harlan was a hot commodity.  The Chemist wanted to hire him on something ferocious.  A few delivery-runs back, Hum had run over a kid in RV and Pio wanted him to sit trial.

"It wasn't his fault, Pio."

"He should stand trial.  Its Rim Law, says so in the Charter."

"The Charter burned down with the Library."

The Chemist would love for Hum to retire from driving and have Harlan take over but Harlan's not having it.

But man...the Interceptor.

Hum is threatened, he takes his knife to the religious 3's Harlan painted on the Interceptor and crosses them out.  Harlan catches him and they face down.  Hum pulls a knife, Harlan pulls a gun.

Go Aggro.  Harlan wins.  Hum doesn't want a shotgun blast in the face at the moment.  He backs the fuck down.

"Tell you what, Graham, I just did you two solids.  If I hadn't driven the jackals out of your joint, things would have gotten worse.  I road out on a mission and came back with your stolen drugs and with a semi.  I want the Interceptor as a bonus."

I let him roll Manipulation and he get's a 7-9.  Graham is not convinced.

"Okay, I'll drive every other delivery run for ya."

But here's what I like about Harlan.  He goes to Hum and and explains that he is going to be driving some delivery runs to keep the heat off of him.  He explains that it isn't a smart move for Hum to be on the Rim right about now.

Its dawn, right after the raid and Hum starts crying, "Man, I killed a kid.  Didn't mean to.  Some jackals tried to take our shit and bullets were flying.  I heard a soft thump but I figured it was just a coy-dog or some shit.  What the hell was a kid doing in the middle of a firefight?"

"Listen, after things cool down, you'll come and I'll teach you how to drive, to really drive.  And the first lesson is that these aren't just ways of getting around, they are the most potent weapons we have and as you learned, they are deadly."

NOTE: This is a paraphrase of the first thing my father, a race car driver in his youth, taught me when I was 16 with a driver's permit.

And that was a night of gaming.  Fun.