LogAWBO Smoke On The Water-Jason-5

Game log for the 2022/12/04 session of Apocalypse World Burned Over - Smoke On The Water, as taken by Jason

Start of session rolls:

• JP finds that fuel is free and luxury goods are easy. Someone just came in with many crates of oranges. Those will trade very nicely.
• Jacob finds that security is hard
• Churban finds staple foods are easy but drugs are hard.
• Crill prepares for the worst.
• Finch finds information is free and connections are easy. Everyone loves Frank the dog.

It's evening. Crill is trying to mind his own business when business finds him. He's crossing a section of pontoons when some little kid tries to pick his pocket. Someone elsewhere docks a little hard, the wave forces people to move around to regain their footing (except for the poor sucker who ends up in the water), and then Crill sees someone aiming a bluderbuss-looking shotgun at him. He goes for his magnum and finds someone else's hand already on it. Firsr thing he does is try to swat that hand away. He's busy with that when the guy with the shotgun goes loud. The impact knocks him into the water, and his foot gets caught.

JP is still on his feet after the big thump, and in a position to see what's happening after the shooting starts. He notices that several other people are moving toward Crill, and the shotgunner is reloading. The crew of the Tuscany has decided not to wait for Crill to come to them. He tries to go to Crill's aid, pressing the pontoons apart to Crill can free his foot, but it turns out the two pontoon sections are hard joined, and pulling them apart where JP is actually levers them closed tighter on Crill.

Two of the Tuscany crew run up on Crill, weapons drawn. Others go after JP, shouting, "Hands where we can see 'em!" They haul JP to his feet and tie him up. He tries to play innocent bystander, which they refute by punching him in the face and hog-tying him. Another catches Crill in a shark catcher, which also makes for a plausible man catcher. Crill also ends up hog tied.

After dark, Jacob is hanging out on Kayak's catamaran, waiting. He's below decks, examining his recent purchases, and hears someone walking on the deck above. He goes to see if it's Kayak coming back, and is heading for the stern ladder when someone in black sharkskin drops through the hatch into a three-point superhero landing. Jacob asks who he is, but the man just runs straight at him. He tries to dodge, but the man hits him and knocks him ass over teakettle. The man steps on him as he goes past, grabs the milk carton full of those market purchases, and starts to leave. Jacob yells, "Finch, help"!

Finch sees a shape come out of the back of the left hull of the catamaran. He orders the dogs to attack. Pickles bolts at him, and Frank starts barking. The shadowy figure sees them coming, gets to the other hull of the cst, and has to double back. The dogs can keep the man from crossing to the Betty Jo, but can't corner him on the Kayak. The Kayak is moored to the Betty Jo, so if the intruder can't cross, he's trapped. Jacob draws his stun gun, pokes his head up the stairs, sees the intruder, and fires. Only one taser dart hits the man, so it doesn't complete the circuit, but the man feels the hit. The man takes something out of the milk crate and jumps overboard. Jacob throws the other barb into the water and pulls the trigger, but nothing happens. Finch also runs over, but can't see the bad guy. He looks around and spots the swimming man going under the hull. If he crosses over and catches the guy after he's gone under the hull, he should have a shot. The guy gets farther underwater than Finch expects, but he does get near enough for Finch to think he has a shot, and he pulls that trigger. The spear hits him, and now the thief is on the end of a line anchored somewhere in his flesh. Jacob runs over to help him reel the bad guy in.

The guy lets go of whatever he stole, pulls a dive knife, and starts cutting himself free. Jacob takes another shot with his stun gun, but misses, and the bad guy swims away. Now there's blood in the water. Finch reloads his spear gun. He and Jacob ponder the identity of the thief, and how he knew Jacob had the goodies. Jacob uses the boat's search light and sees the neural grenade he bought yesterday, about twelve feet down in the water. He uses the searchlight to try to check for sharks, sees none, jumps in, and retrieves the grenades.

Finch puts the dogs on guard and figures he'll be ready for anyone else who tries to sneak aboard.

Churban has all the symptoms he was warned about. He needs more morphine, and only McQuade can help! McQuade knows Churban has nothing to trade, so he takes a blood donation from the hapless addict in exchange for another dose. The stomach cramps ease, but he's not feeling a lot better, overall. As the needle goes in, he has another vision. It comes in flashes. He's in his child's uniform, kind of like pajamas. He's geting an IV, as are many other people around him. In the next flash, he's in a single file line, marching through a dark coridor. He sees a vault door opening, and then a massive underground chamber full of bodies. He sees himself and his cohort searching among the dead to find anyone alive, and the dead being covered with horrible yellow-purple bruisers, people with patches of hair missing, and survivors coughing so hard that they lose teeth. Everyone not in his cohort of children is in a MOP suit and breathing hear. He half expects to be freaking out and scaring people around him when it ends, but the morphine takes the edge off. The morphine also makes it last longer.

JP and Crill get disarmed and taken on board the Tuscany. It's a trawler with oversize engines. They're dumped in the fish hold. JP figures his best bet would be to offer these pirates some sort of better path to profit than hurting him, and that Crill might prove to be a threat. If they connect the two of them, if they thing JP is part of whatever Crill is up to, it will make his situation much worse. When he's taken before Wendigo, the boss, he tries to trade his freedom for his new stash of oranges. Wendigo is a really large man, looks exactly like a pirvate captain, and asks for the details of what JP's ship is and where it's tied. Once the crates are in the pirates' possession, they'll let him go. Wendigo wants some assurances that whoever's on the Betty Jo will not interfere in their looting, and John Paul Jones writes them a note. He continues to insist that he knows nothing about the other person captured with him.

Next, they ungag Crill, and ask why he's been asking questions about Tuscany's crew. Crill truthfully explains that someone offered him work taking out the crew. Wendigo asks who was offering that job, and Crill wants to bargain for that information. Wendigo doesn't think Crill is in a place to bargain, whereas Crill thinks they're going to torture him anyway, so he's not going to give them anything for nothing. Wendigo explains that he sees Crill as a potential asset, and wants to see if he can make use of him. In fact, Wendigo will hire Crill to bring him the head of the person who wanted to hire Crill to come after Tuscany. He'll pay Crill a couple crates of oranges to get the job done. After that, Crill can go free, or maybe join up, if he impresses them.

Finch is still keeping watch on the Betty Jo when four strangers start coming to the Betty Jo. He allows one to come aboard, and that guy hands him the note from JP. It looks fairly legit to Finch, so he lets them men take the fruit. They don't start any trouble. Those same men return to the Tuscany and complete the transaction.

Churban wakes up and finds himself strapped down. McQuade is right there, and Churban realizes that McQuade is motivated by greed, not concern.

JP returns to his boat, and tells Finch and Jacob what happened. They catch up on news, and Jacob treats JP's wounds. As that's wrapping up, Churban returns, looking like hammered shit. Jacob treats him and helps him with his addiction. Churban tries to express his gratitude, which Jacob deflects, asking Churban not to come around the hospital unless he's desperate. Churban, sadly, reminds Jacob that his life is always about a quarter inch from desperation.

Crill returns to Handy's place. Handy has security, but isn't immediately on guard, since they do have a busines relationship. His security guys just tell Crill to walk on in, unacompanied. Crill walks in, iaijutsu draws a machete, and decapitates Handy before he finishes saying hello. Crill makes a loud coughing noice to try to cover the sound of the body falling. He puts the head in a handy container and starts pondering his escape route. He decides to wipe his face off and walk out like it was a routine business transaction.

On the way out, one of the guards notices the blood and assumes Crill did a serious number on the Tuscany guards. He thinks it's awfully fresh. Crill explains that he came right from killing a lot of people to collecting his payment, so of course it was fresh. Unfortunately, the guy happens to look down just then, and sees all the blood in the hold. He says, "Oh shit," and Crill instantly cold-cocks him with Handy's head, knocking him overboard, and runs for it. There will be pursuit. It is time to depart this scene. Crill scrambles for the Tuscany as fast as his legs will carry him.

The pirate on guard is a little surprised to be confronted with an actual severed head in a bag, but Wendigo acknowledges that the deal has been completed to spec. Crill asks for the oranges to be delivered to the Betty Jo, which the pirates actually take with good grace. Crill asks for expedited departure.

JP and Crill maneuver the Betty Jo out of the way and head for fairer waters.