Redwood AP

Been a while since I hade an AW game going, but now I´ll be doing my second run as MC.

Me and my group found our apocalyptic home in a neverending, gargantuan redwood forest. The main power players of the world we found out to be; The Queen of Fortress, a ruler with spies everywhere and a great dislike for the Deep (a tunnel system below the rocky hills that never quite break through the canopy), The New Marquise of Great Oak (the grandest tree in all the forest, home to hundreds), Rolfball and his gang who rule the Dead City and control the Highway (does it really lead out of the forest?) and Elder Hoyt of Marshtown (a floating village in a swamp).
Fortress, Great Oak and Marshtown are joined by rough roads (often bothered by The Jiggys Brigands) and lots of politics.

The group I´ll be playing with are:

Tai Cullen the Savvyhead, a stumpy, practical young woman with her workspace in an old truck. She´s more fond of the technology of THIS age, rather than the so called "Golden Age" trinkets. Cullen is from Fortress, but moves around quite a bit, fixing stuff up and trying to create plants more edible than the mushrooms and mostly-poisonous roots that make up most of the diet in the woods. She dreams of the unseen lands outside the forest, and is planning to spend some time stocking up on resources for the trip out.

Cat Cherokee the Driver, a tall, thin boy who just got his wheels (a loud Cherokee Jeep called Jonesy) as some sort of adulthood marker. Cat is from a nomadic family that travels the "known forest" in a yearly loop, but Cat himself longs for wider horizons.

Brace the Brainer, a small person always dressed in a green raincoat with the hood up. The violation glove always visible, and a laquered pistol hidden. Perhaps they got something to do with the mutant cult on the island in the river, or with the Staring People. It´s hard to know Braces motivations, I´m looking forward to asking their player a lot of questions.


We start off in the bustle surrounding Great Oak - it´s time for the summer market (the river close by has a ford that´s passable when it´s dry). Cat Cherokee and his family is there, selling trinkets from the trunks of their vehicles. Fauna, one of Cats younger cousins, tells him that rumor has it that Cullen has a plan - she´s leaving the forest, and Fauna is very much inclined on joining the adventure! Cat´s not gonna have any of that, so he tells his uncle (Faunas father) Boo about it all and promptly decides that he himself is going to talk to Cullen about it.

A few nights ago, on the road between Dead City and Great Oak, Brace is staying the night in one of many man-made hollows in the trees along the roads (high enough that no non-climbing forest beasts will reach it). As they climb into the hollow they find the chewed-on corpse of Twice (a marshdweller). Brace, spooked, hides in the shadows as they hear engines outside and then somone climbing the tree. The Brainer scares the living shit out of Cullen (that was her truck), but then both of them turn to the partially eaten body on the floor. A quick search brings out a pack of matches and an amulet made of a nut. Cullen lets the things speak to her, and the last feeling around the matches is fear - someone was desperate to get a fire going.
Brace and Cullen pushes the body out of the hollow. The next morning Brace opens their brain and learns that Twice walked away.

Brace hitches a ride with Cullen to Great Oak. Cullen usually sleeps in her truck, but Brace offers her to stay in the room that old Janice always keeps for Brace.

Cat is searching the market for Cullen, but is found by Teller (also a nomad, around the same age as Cat but not yet given a car) who tells him that the Marquis is up and about in the marketplace. The Marquis is a short, slim, stylish man with skin the color of a polished hazelnut and his dark hair in a tight horsetail. He´s flanked by short, brutish Fifi and the tall, graying woman called Partridge. Both are the Marquis personal guards. Both sport the mark of the last Marquis on the side of their necks (this mark was put on criminals and outcasts, showing them as persona non gratas in Great Oak, but when the new Marquis beat the old in a duel not long ago he pardoned all bearers of the mark). Partridge seems to be looking for someone, and reading her Cat realizes she wants the nomads for something to do with keeping the Marquis safe.

By now we had run out of time, so we called it a night. Next time a new player will join the group, hopefully eager to be a part of our apocalypse.

Nice actual play! ;-)

Second game

Introducing Key the Angel, a soft-spoken, clean idealist of a country boy from The Farm. He got a ride to Great Oak and the summer market with Cat and his family, and he´s here to make a living for himself now that he´s been kicked out of The Farm for patching up the wrong person. He starts looking for work, but Cat is a bit paranoid about Partridge and wants him to stay hidden.
 
We keep the low pace of last meeting, and learn that Brace always can get a free room at Janice´s place. The elderly woman runs some sort of hostel inside the massive trunk of Great Oak, and she feels she owes Brace. The Brainer outed her husband as a cheater a few years back, and promises and oaths are very powerful in Great Oak. Brace invites Cullen to stay with them, and seeing as this is possibly the only room left in Great Oak during the market, she accepts (though she´s wary of Brace).

Down in the large marketplace Key wants to buy a tent for his business, and is offered to rent one from cloth-salesman Momo if Key helps his childless sister Elo. Elos arm is covered by hardened tissue, like bark, and the growth seems to be parasitic since she´s very tired and pale. Key takes a sample to analyze further.

Brace decides that the coming expedition to leave the forest needs a medic, so they approache Key to recruit him.

Cat spots his spunky cousin Fauna in conversation with Partridge, and the Marquise is not to be seen even though it is known that Partridge hardly ever leaves his side. Cat reads the sitch, finds out that Partridge is the one in control here - not the Marquise. The bodyguard is up to something...

Cullen keeps herself busy. Fixes the boiler in Janice´s hostel, and then tinkers with Cat´s jeep for a while, managing to break something in the process. Cat is not happy at all, and refuses to let Cullen look at it any further. But Fauna shows up again and wants to travel with Cullen to Fortress, offering payment in the form of protection - if Cullen gets her a gun she´s a competent shot. Cullen accepts, and even buys that gun!

Somewhere around here Brace´s player goes out on a limb and lets Brace stare into the distance for a while. "There´s a swarm coming..." (the player does that kind of thing, so far it´s not a problem so I let him introduce stuff into the world)

I answer this with letting Rolfball and his gang come. People immediately scramble to the trunk of Great Oak (Cats family drives away, leaving Cat and his broken jeep behind), and the Marquise´s guards steps forward to meet Rolfball, who stays at shouting distance. The biker demands something from the Marquise, something about a list. He says he and his gang will stay in sight until sunrise, the threat of violence if his demand is not met is obvious.

Brace soon realizes that one of the things on the list is themself, since Partridge (always Partridge, I´m getting fond of her) is stalking them, trying to get a word. In front of a stall selling knives made out of griffon-claws (griffons are large, carnivorous, four-legged, wingless birdmonsters haunting the forest) Brace lets her get close, and makes a deal to come to the Treehouse (the Marquises palace) at first light to make some kind of deal.

After this we had to call it a night, I wasn´t too sure where I was headed and frankly need to read up on the Fronts rules. Next time I´ll start them off with love letters, forcing them a bit up along the road and away from Great Oak.