LogApocalypse World: Black Rain-Jason-10

Game log for the 2021/05/24 session of AW: Black Rain, as taken by Jason

Xander's attempt to convince the water cult to go after the source having turned into a disastrous civil war in Running Rock, everyone's feeling a little uneasy these days. Slingshot has brought String up to the keep, while Sybil stays in the grotto to keep the hand safe. The courtyard's full of dead or injured people. Slingshot brings her to Captain Maxwell, who's helping to loot the bodies and triage the wounded. Triage is mostly happening in the great hall. The structural damage done by Fisher's grenade has created another portal to the abyss right next to the hall, which is a, um, not ideal. The Captain asks String to help the injured, but she actually thinks the yawning void is a bigger problem. He insists, and she defers, but warns him to look out for twins. She gets to work laying hands on people.

One of her patients is Xander, who's being kept in a cell, watched by Bento. It's Bento who gets to explain to String that Xander was part of the attack, though she's entirely taken aback by the news. He explains that he meant to be setting Cabot up, failed, and then Cabot shot him. String lays her hands on despite his crimes, and eases his pain slightly. His external blood loss pretty much stops, but he's got internal injuries, and String makes that clear to Bento. Without professional help, Xander probably won't make it. She doesn't stay to chat, but she does try to read him, and to verify that he's telling the truth. She thinks he is. For his part, he figures he can count on her help making his case to Captain Maxwell.

She finds him and Fisher heading upstairs from the great hall, and tries to explain to them that Xander's less culpable than it appears. Fisher's skeptical and recommends that even if he was totally innocent, Xander ought to be made to live in the keep, where he's protected. The Captain thanks String and dismisses her, but she wants to stick around. He tells her to go check on everyone else, or else, and she unhappily accepts.

Captain Maxwell and Fisher visit Xander, who tells his story. Nobody likes the story. Nobody can quite fathom how incredibly out of hand his one ill-conceived notion got, and so Captain Maxwell's convinced there must be something going on that he's not talking about. Xander then asks for his sonic screwdriver to summon the Old Doctor, and Fisher jumps in and squashes that idea so fucking hard that there's a small booming noise. Instead, Maxwell needs to send to Pullo and see if the Cattle Clan vet is in town. That means someone has to go through town, and that should probably be someone not aligned with the keep. Maxwell immediately thinks of String.

She's busy preaching in the great hall, and Depthcharge gets extremely upset that after everything the Captain did for her, she's hitting them all up for gifts and favors. The mob is angry. Paradox tells her she should leave before it gets worse, and she does. No love for ol' String in the keep no more.

Meanwhile, back in the grotto, someone seems to have left Sybil unsupervised. She opens her brain to it, hoping to understand its agenda. It whispers to her, but its whispers are a sermon, like it had a whole crowd listening to it. She can't quite make out what it's preaching, but the phrase "carry the word" comes throgh repeatedly, and the voice sounds just like String's. When she's done listening, the covers it up, hoping to keep other people from hearing the message.

String returns, looking unhappy, and tells Sybil it was a bloodbath and that Maxwell's losing the plot. She wants the cult to steer clear of him and the keep for a while. Sybil, of course, does not want to stay away, she wants to research the voids. String tells her about the void in the great hall and about Xander being under arrest. Sybil wants to go loot Xander's trailer.

Captain Maxwell's not happy to hear what happened to String. Paradox points out that we can't have Pullo sending bodyguards for the vet into the keep, so Fisher suggests putting a treatment tent outside the keep where they can allow Cattle Clan guards there. The Captain orders his guards to put together several dufflebags full of guns used by the intruders, to use as barter. Also, they're going to have to make their way through the city, which might be a treat.

They leave via the back door, climbing down a rope. Fisher goes first to provide overwatch. Captain Maxwell gets most of the way down when the rope breaks. Fisher takes the silencer off his AR, which is still loaded with looted non-AP rounds. They make their way into town, and into a warren of alleys. Light are on, chatter is hushed, but the streets are deserted. They make their way to an alley and find a vehicle rushing down the street, catching them both totally by surprise. Both go flying. Brakes screech, someone curses, and then someone else says "Leave 'em, we gotta go." They throw the truck into reverse, Fisher and Maxwell open fire, and then they change their mind and drive away, pieces falling off their vehicle. After about 30 ft, the truck crashes into a building and catches fire. The two try to stagger their way to the Cattle Clan.

They're in the fields, surrounded by tall prairie grass, and see another three-vehicle convoy head out. In the distance, they see the Goat Clan making their way out of town. The Cattle Clan's on the other side of town. Captain Maxwell tries to help Fisher patch himself up, and it goes really badly. Fisher nearly dies, but survives, though disfigured.

The Cattle Clan sentries aren't excited to have visitors, but once they realize it really is Captain Maxwell, Pullo's willing to do business. He's pondering whether he maybe ought to make the Captain pay them for some mercenary services, even. Maxwell tries to point out that Cattle Clan mercenaries will not be welcome in the keep, but the Clan mostly senses weakness and an opportunity to profit from it. Pullo offers to send the vet and a guard back with Fisher, with Maxwell as hostage, and that's going to be that. They bring forth Tanis the vet and Tyrant the bodyguard, and they head back to the keep with Fisher.

Fisher figures the best way is to avoid the traffic leaving down and sneak in some other way, using alleys and back ways, and he's got to be wary of Tyrant the whole time, because they guy is serious business. It's a long trip, because they're constantly stopping to hole up or hide out. Eventually they need to hole up at the grotto.

Xander opens his mind, hoping to find a way he can do augury without his screwdriver. He can't, but he ends up with a strong certainty that the maelstrom and void are related somehow. They aren't the same, but there's some connection. Sound and light can propagate through the void - that's something he's experienced firsthand. He also figures that he could identify the thing in the screwdriver that makes it do augury and implant it in himself, or in a prosthetic.

String and Sybil go to Xander's trailer, and hear someone in his junkyard. Sybil calls out "there they are, get 'em", hoping whoever it is will leave to avoid conflict, but she can't sell it. Someone comes out of the Airstream with a machete in his hand and says, "Finders keepers! You ladies move along." They know he's not alone, but Sybil still throws a knife at him. The misses. Machete man screams and charges them. They run back to the grotto, trying to get around a crowd of armed people at the keep.

The cult has also joined the looting. A few don't come back. Some come back with stuff, like a roll of plastic. Aster comes up with a nice velvet-lined box full of scalpels. String and Sybil get back before Fisher brings Tanis and Tyrant by. String doesn't want to let them in, but Fisher offers a barter, and tells the Cattle Clan folk that this is just a place to lay up until dawn.

A couple hours later, they go out again, and determine that the people out front are all worried about the water. Some are cultists, some are not. Fisher comes out and tells Slingshot, who's on watch, that they need to bring out some water to show the crowd. Slingshot shouts back to ask why Captain Maxwell isn't with him, and when they hear that, the crowd goes apeshit. Fisher tries to get their attention and get the guards to bring out some water, but nobody wants to listen. He falls back to the grotto.

String's been showing Tanis all the cool features of ivory hands. Sybil reads Tyrant while all this happens, and figures he's absolutely a spy for Pullo, planning to report back on everything he sees. She figures that she can show him that the grey water cult is the coolest, most organized, best people in all of town. She suggests to String that extra hospitality would be well-received, and String ensures that she puts on a good spread for them, including some clean water. The feast impresses both the Cattle Clanners.

Fisher tries to figure out whether there's any way he can get String to help disperse the mob, but realizes that she'd only help if she thought Fisher was becoming loyal to her personally. She wants Xander brought to her personally, able to perform surgery. Fisher refuses the deal. String goes to address the crowd anyway, and Fisher follows.

She addresses the crowd, and tells them that all our current trouble is because of the Syndics, and calls upon the crowd to bring forth all the Syndics. The mob brings forth some Syndics, one of whom swears he had nothing to do with it. String tells Fisher the Syndics are his baggage. She then calls upon the crowd to come together as a group again and care for one another, and then to go quietly back to their lives. The mob accepts the idea that they need to take control of their town again, and start going around doing wellness checks. Tyrant sees the whole things.

The mob dispersed, Fisher can get into the keep. He talks to Paradox about a triage tent outside, but it's too late now. Some people can't be moved. Fisher accepts that there's no avoiding it and brings Tanis and Tyrant into the keep, where she gets to work. Xander's been brought out into the hall, since he needs to beobserved and treated or he might die. One prisoner and one civilian from the keep have died overnight. Tanis treats Xander and Fisher and gets them both to a point where they'll heal naturally.

Paradox is really unhappy about the Captain being gone. Fisher tries to tell him to be cool and project calm, and just wait for the Captain to return. Paradox hears that and decides that it's time for a show of authority, time to show the Cattle Clan what happens when they take people hostage. Fisher pulls a knife and tells him that if he tries that, Fisher will fuck him up. "The Captain made this deal. We're going to keep this deal." Paradox has no confidence in Fisher anymore, but for the next day or two, things are going to be on the level.

At one point, in Xander's hearing, Tyrant asks Fisher what's up with the hole inthe wall. Fisher lets Xander explain. Xander wants Tyrant to take his hands, and Fisher strongly advises against that, because Xander's not real clear, mentally. Tyrant says, "Alright, come with me," and has Xander stretchered over to the edge of the abyss. Tyrant conducts an experiment with a brick. Tyrant can't fathom this whole "brick never lands" thing. Fisher tries to cut Xander off, but that only makes Tyrant think Xander's saying something important. Xander gives him a spiel about how dangerous the abyss is, and how unwise it would be to consider taking ownership of the keep.

Eventually, Tanis finishes, and she and Tyrant are both ready to head back. They ask about the Source, and both Fisher and Paradox agree that there's no damn way that they're going to see that. Fisher doesn't want to leave Paradox alone while he escorts Tanis and Tyrant back to the clan, so he points out that Tyrant is a big strong man and doesn't need anyone. Tyrant agrees that he doesn't need Fisher's help but he wants someone with a gun lead them out of the town. Paradox doesn't think they can spare anyone. Fisher things they need to. Paradox suggests sending Depthcharge, but Xander realizes Depthcharge is going to have orders to fuck this up and get the Captain killed. Xander tries to distract Paradox by talking about the void in the wall, but Fisher chips in that Deptcharge is an inept bodyguard who couldn't keep Fisher from getting sniped. Paradox tries to signal Fisher to work with him, but Fisher very clearly says that the they're going to honor the deal and get the Captain back. Paradox asks what he's implying. Fisher says he's not implying shit, he's saying how it is.

Xander tries to ease his way out of the line of fire. Fisher tells him he's not leaving, and Hotdog puts a gun to his head and confirms that. Fisher suggests that he and Paradox should be friends, so that when the Captain comes back, he won't have to worry about dissession in the ranks. Paradox draws his gun. Fisher reaches for his.