LogWanderers-Jason-7

Game log for the 2017/01/15 session of Wanderers, as taken by Jason

Ace and Spoonman quickly compare notes on how bad this situation has gotten. Spoonman starts work on Bass Cannon II: The Bassening. He'll need exacting specifications for the ship, extensive manpower throughout the ship, and unfettered access to the reactor. The Savvyhead tries to use augury to uncover the ship specifications, but he trusts Randy a little too far. She grabs a couple wires, and there's a brief moment when she suddenly begins spouting ship specifications, and then she starts talking faster and faster until she's basically just vibrating. Spoonman has to club her to break the circuit, and that leaves her unconscious and bleeding our several orifices. He can fix her, but it will take time and Grey Rat's help. Until then, she's catatonic. Spoonman then sends Ace to go get Major Tom.

Tom's looking for one of the ultrasound machines they used to inspect welds. Sure enough, one of the gang has something that could do the job. He's at work on inspections when Ace finds him, and they go to see Spoonman. Spoonman puts Satan's Prom Date to work planting sonic agitator modules throughout the ship.

Ace gets the Superbird ready for a trip and then does a "test drive", which is really an excuse to snoop around. He finds that the carrier's CIWS still work, but there's a wadi maybe half a mile out that can provide some cover. If he sets up right, he can go from carrier to wadi pretty fast, and the wadi can carry them out of range. If Spoonman's plan works, anybody on deck is going to be screwed. He and his friends need to be on the lookout for the aircraft on the flight deck catapult, in case it's operational.

The Spoonster goes looking for Pips. Upon finding him, he begins casual technical conversation, while helping Pips with repairs. Just when all looks good for his plan to get the ship's specifications, Pips gets concerned, and orders Clutch to come and sit on Spoonman, while Pips goes off to consult with Captain Savage. Spoonman puts on his shock gloves, and begins explaining some details of current flow to Clutch, hoping to sucker him into range. Sure enough, Clutch comes close to look at the conduit Spoonman points to, and Spoonman zaps him. "What's in there will kill you dead. That's because of amperage. This is voltage!"

Fifi tries to check out the psychic maelstrom, but her jungle has been caged in. She's not in a jungle! She's in a zoo! She also hears heavy breathing, then a shriek, and suddenly a silverback gorilla charges out of the undergrowth and tries to reach through the cage to get her. As she snaps back to reality, she realizes that the gorilla is actually the Crusher. They put him in the cell next to her, just to energize things. He can't get through the bars, but having him right there, pacing his cage like a wild animal, doesn't make Fifi any more comfortable. She realizes that she can see the arena from her cell, so she starts planning her battle strategy. Unfortunately, she can't see any way to win.

Ace reads the psychic maelstrom to try to get ideas for how to rescue Fifi. He sees the action movie scene clearly: get to an elevated position in the chain lcoker, be ready, and when it happens, swing down on the chain, grab Fifi, and ride the chain down to ground level and the Superbird.

Spoonman gets to Pips' office and starts memorizing the ship's plans, photographing key pages for future use. Then he starts figuring out how he's going to get to the reactor room. It's going to be guarded, obviously, so he needs an unusual way in. He could try to go through the vents, or the coolant. He can come in through a sea water inlet and use one of the emergency crossover valves to get into the reactor cooling system. That will exit inside the reactor room, which itself is probably considered secure, with the guards on the perimeter. He can then rig power distribution.

Satan's Prom Date has been working on installing their widgets, which means they aren't overtly doing security anymore. Getting the fukken' woofer units into position will still be a bit of a challenge. Major Tom reads the situation and determines that their best way in is to claim that they're setting up for fight broadcast. One of the security guys gets skeptical but they bluff their way through.

In the Chain Locker, the announcer introduces Fifi to the crowd. They boo her. She tries to read the Crusher and calculates that there's no way to take him off his game, but she needs to avoid being grabbed, because (spoiler alert) he would then try to crush her, and his brute strength gives him an advantage. The arena is very Thunderdome - there are hanging chains, and weapons hanging on the arena cage walls, but climbing makes you vulnerable. A klaxon rings, the light goes off, and the cage doors open. The cage doors open toward one another, and Fifi feels sure she's faster than Crusher, so she tries to open some distance which she can trade for climbing time. He tries to swing at her but she ducks under and gets up the wall. The nearest weapon is a sort of homemade Final Fantasy-proportioned sword, which might be too slow to use, or she could pass it by for a baseball bat with nails in it. She gets the bat, while the Crusher goes up a different wall, onto the cage door, and then onto a chain. She gets the bat just in time to see Crusher swinging toward her, arm outstretched, and she jumps down to avoid him. She's just a hair too slow and he grabs her by the shirt, yanks her off the wall, and tucks her against his chest, trying to crush her with one arm. His other arm is holding them both up, dangling from the cage wall, fifteen feet up in the air. The force of his grip causes her to drop the bat. Things are not looking good.

Spoonman's infiltrating the coolant system. Just after he enters the cooling system, the pumps activate, and begin sucking him toward the cooling pool. If he doesn't get out of that pipe, he's going to end up in the containment pool, where the radioactivity will be certain death. He grabs a magnet from a pouch and stops his drift. He has one more try at the access hatches before the pipe necks down and becomes a lethal environment, and he decides to take his changes on catching it. He toggles his electromagnet at just the right time and anchors himself right next to the hatch. Once he opens it, it will fountain water into the reactor room, which will create a coolant breach alarm.

Satan's Prom Date have no plan, so they're just milling about, trying to be ready.

Fifi tries to jab Crusher in the eye, just as a distraction. It works, his grip slips, and she shimmies up the chain toward the bass cannon, pursued by an angry mutant.

Spoonman gets out of the coolant system, triggering the alarms. The reactor automatically lowers its power setting in response to the coolant problem. Spoonman has only minutes. He reads the situation and decides that his best way to escape that train wreck is to walk right out the front door. Awesome. He then gets to hooking wires up to power. The coupler he brought with him isn't working - the terminals are just too small for the wiring gauge in use here. He can hold it all together and trigger it, almost certainly shorting the current through his flesh.

Ace strips into his battle speedo and tries to rub up on the nearest chick, only to get punched by her boyfriend. As he tries to back away, he bumps into someone else, who joins in.

Fifi has a bare moment to grab the doof cannon before she gets caught. Satan's Prom Date start throwing their beers at Crusher to distract him. She gets to the weapon just in time and stuns Crusher with it. He doesn't get caught directly, but he gets knocked around. The detonation in a closed space means that everyone takes a bit of s-harm. Crusher falls almost to the bottom of the chain.

Ace tries to get away while everyone is stunned by the cannon. Someone grabs him by the pants, but he just runs right out of them. Ace is now naked except for his Chucks.

Fifi is lying on the ground, facing up at Crusher, and suddenly there's an astonishingly loud noise and we're seeing daylight through the ceiling. The cage has cracked open. The moment Ace sees his moment, he grabs a chain, swings down, collects Fifi under one arm, and forward momentum carries him throgh the emerging crack in the front of the hull, and as the windlass cuts loose, the chain lowers them both to the Superbird. FOR THE WIN.

Everyone runs for the hills. Phineas Phogg dies somewhere in Engineering. Flea gets caught by a power closing hatch. Chigger knows that Major Tom could have saved her, but didn't. Think that will come up again?

Spoonman, confident that his plan has worked, lets go of the current. The power has totally trashed his stun gloves. He SCRAMs the reactor, which on this ship culminates in ejecting the entire core. As he does so, Nutjob comes running in, and Spoonman tries to convince him that he needs to run for his life because the ship is going down. Nutjob agrees but tries to grab Spoonman. Spoonman swings at him, and Nutjob decides he doesn't want to fight because he'd rather leave now. Spoonman just can't leave the way Nutjob does. He decides to ride the reactor out of the ship.

Ace tries to kiss Fifi, she ducks and tries to punch him, and he ducks out of the way and into the driver's seat, and which point he puts his escape plan into action. Motion rate: rapid.

One of the members of Satan's Prom Date grabs Fifi's bike so that we don't lose her weapons. Spoonman staggers back to the taco truck.