AP: Welcome, New Jerk

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.

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!

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.

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.

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!

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!

(...) 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...

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!

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.

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.

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. :)

Wow. It was awesome.
Writing an in-game story now, will take place maybe a week or two after this session´s end...

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, Canaveral and Daimyo.

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.

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.

--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!