AP: My first campaign in AW

So this campaign started slow but we adapted pretty quick so far and I think it's going much better so I might keep up with posting these logs here as it progresses.  I'm going to paste the first two session logs that I posted in the help thread here first and then continue from there.

 I'd like to note that if any of my players are reading this, WHAT THE FUCK! I told you not to touch the forum.  Stop right now. Spoiler alert

So I allowed my players to choose one thing about their character that they keep secret from everyone.  I thought this would be a good way to let everyone have their own little "Oh shit!" moment to surprise everyone else with.

So our characters are:

Terry
-14 year old street urchin
-Solace
-Wolves look like angels, don't touch the ground, and come and go impossibly
      -I took the player's reference concepts and modified them a bit to fit my purposes
      -result is mutated "men" and "women" with torsos that end with 4 wings protruding at the waist
      -the wings flap like hummingbirds to keep them a float, they are also transparent and virtually invisible while flapping
      -they wear black cloaks with slits for the wings and white masks each with a different colored pattern
      -the disguise hides their appearance but the dull thrum of the wings can be hear and they move too smoothly
      -I've given each a unique psychic ability to make them unique and threatening
      -The player who plays this character doesn't know anything but the first line about them to enhance the discovery process
Secret: Everything about the wolves


Bristol
-middle-aged british ex-military who now works as a mercenary(I guess they still had military in Britain after the apocalypse)
-Gunlugger
-has a magnum with a mounted grenade launcher on it (It's crazy but whatever.)
-Also regular grenades
-Also a fucking Guass cannon (I wrote custom rules for it. We agreed that it would be ammo scarce.)
-His 1-barter is 1/2 the blueprints for the thing
Secret: The Gauss Cannon (This will be a fun reveal)


Elana
-late 20's?  ringleader of the travelling In Fine Mundi Circus
-Maestro'D
-Not much more to easily mention about the Circus
Secret: The entire cast and crew of the circus is packing heat. Even the dancers in the skimpy dresses somehow. (We had a fun moment where I one sided takeover was suddenly and even stand-off due to this last session.)


The Dragon (Self proclaimed) (Missing this session)
-middle-aged owner of the local Orphanage
-Hoarder
-Hoard contains armor, armaments and ammunition, books, maps, drawings & photographs, and Children aged 0-14 (they leave when they get too old)
-hits on all the women at Elana's circus(is her worst regular)
-hoard is beautiful and Conscious  (It speaks in his head as radio ads for the thing it wants)
-Decided not to have a secret (That's ok I have a huge twist planned related to him)


Combotron   (Also missing this session)
-Mostly robotic cyborg built to try and make the world a better place, creator messed up and he's a bit dopey
-Synthetic ( I know I was probably over ambitious letting a non standard playbook into our first time playing but it's done now.)
-Programs: Serve the Hardhold, protect the innocent and uphold the law, and Destroy or dispose of sadness
-Also decided not to have a secret.


They live a the remnants of a city that the apocalypse survivors have dubbed Wildscrapers.  Most of the city with smaller buildings was somehow previously decimated leaving mostly the central downtown section with many skyscrapers.  Much of the city is more terrain than settlement now that it's empty and ruined.  There are 5 major settlements in the area most of which we did the world building for today. We probably went overboard.  They all have separate systems of governing and are focused on different things. Some of this we created together and some I added on myself for them to discover later. 

The characters have started the story in Barrelsbottom the business  town of the area.  The town is protected by guardsmen at various points around it with no central government organizing it. Each set of guards is in the pocket of a different major businessman.

Nearby is Pleasantville.  Pleasantville is a city of builders and creators.  The city came into existence when builders gradually coalesced in this location to be close to the local slavers named the Four Horsemen.  The builders needed the slave labour to power their generators and mix the mortar and such that is so important to their work.  The city is just reaching a point where it may need to have a leader to govern it.  Some of the slavers are trying to position themselves to take this position.

The Four Horsemen have an abandoned jail that they are based in.  The Horsemen each handle a different type of slaves and are named Carver, Meals, Rape, and Burden after what their slaves are used for.  Carver and Rape have an uneasy truce about dividing the slaves between them because both of their customers often want the attractive ones.  Burden and Meals on the other hand are less civilized and butt heads trying to compete for the best musculature.

Those are the important locations so far but I'd briefly mention that we have a cannibal village built across and onto a half collapsed highway that use the mono-rail to ambush prey, a religious settlement built entirely in the tops of skyscrapers with zip-lines between them, and a town in the middle of section of the city that is overgrown with toxic plants such that your only entrance and exit is hopping from ruined car to ruined car down the highway that we haven't even seen at all yet. (again we probably went overboard but even if we don't need them they are there just in case.)




As you can probably already see we have a pretty crazy set up.

First session Bristol took a job from the local slavers to deal with the cloaked figure that kept managing to get in and out of their jail somehow. (little did they or the PC's know it was because Terry was scavenging the dead in the area.)  Combotron went with his travelling buddy Bristol to check it out and they ran into Terry as he was being harassed by some of Meals men.  This resulted in a tense stand off with Bristol explaining his job and questioning why they were bothering the kid.  Just before he was about to reach an understanding with them the first Wolf showed up behind Bristol.  With a touch on the shoulder it froze Bristol in place as it worked on forcing him to sleep psychically.  The gang of Meals men lost their shit at the sight of this mysterious phantom that they had gotten superstitious about by now and half fled while the other half open fired.  In their panic they didn't even think to aim around Bristol so Combotron burst from his hiding place to dive and knock him out of the way since he couldn't move.  Now able to move again Bristol fired a grenade seriously wounding the wolf into retreating and blowing the remaining gang guys to smithereens. (I noted that Meals might be pissed for later.)  Terry joins them because he's seen this weird cloaked figure near him twice before and it scares him.  The players took the wolves power and his miraculous escape to be the work of talent and psychic powers.  Cut to Elana.

Elana has a tense stand off with her rival circus owner, previous employer, and ex Rolfball when her cast surprises him with their hidden weapons. The Dragon assists due to his crush on her. Or all women for that matter.  It is resolved with Elana promising to move her circus around such that it is never in the same place as Rolfball.  In this conflict The Dragon sees her knife hidden in her ringleaders baton and must have it.  He spends a long time trying to persuade her to part with it but it's just too important to her so all he achieves is making her feel self conscious about it.  Cut to Bristol etc.

Bristol and friends meet up with Carver who provides them with his sniper Wilhelm to assist them but wants Bristol to do a second job.  Bristol manages to postpone the decision until later and leaves to figure out a way to find that mysterious cloaked guy.  Cut to Elana.

Elana has trouble with her only horn player getting skittish and scared as a result of the Rolfball conflict.  Long story short sleeps with him to comfort him and settle him for a while.  Bristol arrives and asks her to use her connections to find someone who can help.  This takes some coaxing but eventually they have her think of a psychic she knows to help them and they leave to find her.  Cut to The Dragon.

The Dragon sees a group in the distance carrying a child away and must have it.  He goes to his hoard and pulls out his eldest Wendy(takes a similar role as the peter pan wendy does with the lost boys), a weapon, and pushes it a bit too far and tries for a second weapon for Wendy ending up with a max hunger hoard.

End session.  Obviously the first one was a little clunky but I won't list all the problems we already talked about that.

 

2nd Session

Combotron and The Dragon disappear off screen and I'll talk to the players about what they were doing during that time for next session.

We start with Bristol and Terry approaching the door to the building where the psychic Grace is supposed to be.  The door is flanked by two armed guards who don't let them in and give them next to no information because they obviously have no fucking clue what they're talking about and ask if this is Grace's house when it's actually a drug den.  They get nowhere so they give up and go knock on the door across the street and are greeted by a ragged exhausted fellow who just wants to go to sleep.  Eventually they convince him that they'll be out of his hair and Terry promises that no shit will go down(Doesn't have to keep) and he tells them that it's den for those kinds of people and that you gotta know whats going on to get.  Terry and Bristol assume this means psychics and that the entire building is filled with them and that the guards are also psychic.  Thus because they don't think they can fake being psychic and terry failed his psychic Maelstrom check Terry tells Bristol that he can get them in but only if he pays him.  Bristol hands Terry a grenade as payment and then Terry strolls up to the guards not realizing that the guards just watched Bristol hand him a grenade on the street in front of them. (I love when my players do this shit.)  Eventually Terry manages to calm them and get them amicable to allowing them in by bribing them with his gold watch he found on the street. (I made my players decide what their barter was.)  This replaces it with a new problem as the guards argue over the watch.  They convince them to let them in so that they can decide who gets the watch while he's in there and he'll give it to them then but they have to leave their weapons outside. Wilhelm waits outside. They have a long extended exchange with the deskman inside who insists that they buy some product before entering the rest of the building.  They of course misunderstand and think he is offering information on Grace for payment but really he is just offering information only if they buy product leading to a funny confused exchange in vague shady speak.  The result is that the deskman finally just gives them what Grace got because they are obviously total noobies.  In return he takes a vague promise of a favour.  Now he demands that they "take" the product before entering so Bristol does so and makes Terry wait in the lobby so he doesn't have to.  Cut to Elana

Elana finds that Jeff is feeling better but still worried and realizes unless there is a big change he will eventually leave meaning she will have no horn player(This is somewhat misdirection on my part).  The show starts so they get busy.  Halfway through the show during a dance routine that Elana actually performs in she hears the horn stop abruptly. Peering through the mist and lights while she dances she just makes out his outline staring into a section of the stands.  She scans the stands and identifies someone who is looking at the band rather than the performance but can't tell who it is.  Jeff stands up and the person does too but she is in the middle of a performance and can't stop.  Jeff starts hurrying around the outside of the tent behind the stands towards the employee exit.  The person slowly moves to intercept him but is closer to the employee exit.  Elana subtly signals to the performers waiting to come on next that something is wrong but they misunderstand and think it's just jeff freaking out.  Jeff reaches the exit and rushes in. The next act starts coming on and the stranger slips in while they block her view.  She offloads the job of introducing the next act to a dancer and rushes after them.  The back tent is empty but she sees they entrance to one of the change rooms fluttering and rushes in to see the blood pouring out of the hole in jeffs head and a slit in the back of the tent.  She rushes out asking nearby employees if they saw anything but they were busy and don't remember.  She accesses the psychic maelstrom. (I reminded them so much that it existed. Finally!)  She sees herself in a big top performing with a section of the crowd vicious and hostile and as she returns to reality realizes that there is a group of employee tents where that section of stands was.  She guesses that its the middle of the 3 tents and enters the quarters of one of her top acts and friends Lady Slither. (She wears her 7 snakes and does a combo stripping and animal taming act.)  She finds inside her polite, formal, arts appreciator customer Lamprey inside holding Lady Slither hostage by using one of her snakes a noose while he aims a silenced pistol at Elana with the other hand.  Lamprey ignores the snake he's using as he bites at his arm through the leather vest. Cut to Bristol.  Dun dun DUUUN! (I love incorporating cliffhangers into these transitions way too much)


Bristol suffers slight effects from the drug and dips to a little more severe for a little bit but he's a pretty robust man so nothing major. He spends time trying to locate grace with the out of their mind druggies not being helpful.  Cut to Terry.

The deskman tries to persuade Terry to try the drug by telling him that it gets him ladies and muscles but Terry is having none of that shit.  In response Terry starts wheeling and dealing to get a job selling their product.  The deskman eventually sends his friend to go check with the boss.  Cut to Bristol.

Bristol manages to find Grace and wake her up.  Grace dazedly communicates with Bristol in a total dude bro fashion but eventually he gets the point across. (I let them get her services without paying but she might end up being more of a hindrance. ;) )  Grace shakes her head vigorously becoming slightly more lucid and starts to head out with Bristol.  Cut to Terry.

Terry is leaning against the wall and staring at the floor occasionally looking up at the deskman.  He looks up one time to see the cloaked figure staring behind the deskman and loses his shit. He bolts out the door and as he does so a gunshot goes off.  The guards outside freak out and immediately start blaming Terry for the gunshot because when they open the door the desk dude is slumped on his desk dead and the room is empty.  Terry quickly tells them that it couldn't be him because he was exiting as the shot went off and one guard goes in to check while the other watches Terry.  Cut to Bristol.

Bristol is on the stairs with Grace when he hears the first shot. He tells Grace to duck and hide and tries to identify the location of the shot.  When he can't he tells Grace to stay here and heads to find out.  He rounds the corner just in time to see the cloaked figure shoot the second outside guard in the head as he bursts through the door.  Bristol raises his fist ready to fight the figure but they end up talking.  The figure honestly imparts that he doesn't have need to go near the slavers anymore so Bristol is fine to not fight since his job is completed then.  Cut to Terry.

The outside guard aiming his gun at Terry gets anxious and jittery.  Terry suggests they go inside but the guard refuses out fear.  Terry realizes that Wilhelm isn't around so he just yells his name out loud and the guards head explodes.  He gathers up Bristol's weapons and opens the door to head inside to see the cloaked figure heading towards him so he shoots it.  The cloaked figure speeds up towards him not firing back so Terry flees across the street into the tired guys house yelling Wilhelm as he does.  The phantom gets shot by Wilhelm and moves down the street away from Terry and Bristol.  Bristol lets it go and runs into the house to find the guy telling in Terry's face.  Cut to Elana

Lamprey calmly addresses Elana who he had developed a friendship with.  Elana is very confused but he fairly quickly explains that this is his job and Jeff was his target and now that she knows he sadly has to kill her.  Elana manages to convince him not to kill her because he can trust her and he doesn't want to in the first place. He turns the pistol towards Lady Slithers head and expresses that although he can trust Elana he can't trust her.  Elana starts to convince him but Lady Slither is pissed off and not having any of it so she starts a hidden countdown with her fingers for Elana.  Lady Slither elbows him in the stomach while her snake simultaneously bites his face putting him off balance and Elana goes for the gun not wanting to hurt him but misses and gets knocked to the floor.  Lamprey says, "You shouldn't have done that." and promptly shoots the Python Hal in the head.  Lady Slither slumps the fight gone out of her and wails in emotional agony.  Elana manages to convince Lamprey to let them both live by telling him their next scheduled destinations so that he can promptly kill them off if they talk.  Lamprey calmly lets Lady Slither go and pulls the snake off of his face.(It's been there for a while at this point.)  He returns to his usual cordial friendly self and strolls out as Elana comforts her now emotionally damaged friend. (I'll be sure to use that later.)

Bristol picks Terry up and slams him so that he's hanging over the windowsill and tells him not to pull that shit again. He told him to stay inside. He'd better stay inside. The tired guy shuts up.   As they turn to leave they find the cloaked figure in the doorway again.  After a lengthy discussion where Bristol tries to figure out if Terry wronged this guys somehow while Terry hides behind him Bristol eventually shoots the cloaked figure has it shoots him.  Bristol retrieves his gear and Terry hugs him for saving him and when they turn to leave they only find a cloak and mask where the body was.  Grace pokes her head into the house and says, "Dude, I dunno who that guy was but he was fucking crazy......I can find him."

End session.

I am super pleased with this. Little do they know that Rolfball recently took over the drug market in Barrelsbottom, or that Lamprey was hired by the mild mannered butler of the slavers.   I am also excited that for the slow reveal of the Wolves of the Maelstrom who so far have just been a mysterious figure to pop in and stir shit up before disappearing in.  I've got something that will be a major twist for them already.