LogApocalypse World: Black Rain-Jason-17

Game log for the 2021/08/01 session of AW: Black Rain, as taken by Jason

Someone's put a bad over Luna's head, so she whispers Captain Maxwell's name into the maelstrom, hoping for help.

A messenger has asked Captain Maxwell to come to a meeting with the Syndics, so he's walking down the street with Slingshot when he hears a scream. Someone leans out from the alley and shoots Slingshot. He hurriedly drags her out of the line of fire, catching a round himself in the process. The damage on that one is worse than it looks, too; his thigh is bleeding a whole lot.

Luna hears someone say, "Shit, it's the Captain! Get him get him get him! If he catches us, we're toast." Gunfire breaks out. She thinks there's just one person holding her now. She tries to pull a knife, and one of them sees it, but not in time to stop her. Someone hits her on the hand with a club of some sort, and the pain is so bad she loses concsiousness.

Captain Maxwell hears muffled yelling and recognizes Luna's voice. He drags Slingshot back toward the keep, chock full of the better part of valor. He decides to stop at the Grotto to get treatment for Slingshot. String isn't there, but one of the denizens of the place goes to fetch her at the boss's request.

String and Xander are in the Airstream, working on the hand, when she notices that Reebok talking to Depthcharge and overhears something about someone being wounded. She sidles over, and when Reebok sees her, she fills the hocus in on the situation. Some of the keep guards go with her. String gets to the grotto and treats Slingshot and then Maxwell. String's healing touch will keep the guard from dying right away, but she's got major internal bleeding and may need a new liver to save her life long term. String then puts her hands on the boss's thigh and makes the bleeding stop. The Captain tells the guards who came with String about Luna's kidnapping, and one of them goes to find Kruger and tell him to take care of it. String tells the Captain that keeping Slingshot alive, pending the new liver, will cost some jingle.

Fisher returns home, uneventfully.

Time passes. One of the Captain's guards knows where he can get a liver, and shows up in the Grotto with a liver in it. String doesn't ask questions. She does a liver transplant on Slingshot, and then it's just a matter of time for her to heal up.

Luna wakes up, to the sound of chanting. She's tied to something, and she's looking up at the ceiling. She makes out five voices in the singing, and tries singing along. One of the voices in Xander. What now?

That's right! During our time skip, a kid came to visit Xander and told him that the Seekers request his presence. The savvyhead went with it, and as they went, the kid taught Xander the chant. When they arrive, the kid opens the door for him, lets him into a house that seems to have just one smoky room, with a stout table in the middle, Luna strapped to it, a bunch of candles arranged around it, and some guys chanting. The chanters all seem to be human - no silvered masks or anything like that. Luna puzzles out that one of the voices, identified as bass #1, is in charge. Since one of the voices is Xander's, he's the best way out. One of the alto voices seems to be closer than the others, making it the most vulnerable. Xander looks around and figures that his best way out of here is to keep chanting and slowly back out the way he came. These people seem to be waiting for something, and when it happens, things are gonna change. His real enemy in this situation is probably bass #1, standing across from him. Listening to her sing, bass #1 must have Luna's services, the alto near her must give her a gift, and one of the baritones admires her patron.

The chanting continues for a little while. Luna asks if that's Xander she hears. A woman carrying a goblet and a couple grapes some forward, gives her a drink, and feeds her a few bites, very carefully. Xander doesn't answer but he squeezes her hand in acknowledgement, and when he's close enough, she can see him. She asks him to get her out of there. He keeps chanting. The woman who fed her puts her fingers over Luna's mouth to shush her. Luna asks what they're going to do to her. Xander hears a door open, but it's dark and smoky, so he can't see it. He does see a reflection of candles, and then a tall robed figure with a mirrored mask approaches. The figure looks straight at Xander, then walks over to the table and leans over Luna's head. She finds herself staring straight up at a mirrored version of her own face, just like the vision she once had. The figures straightens up and stands back, and the chanting continues.

Xander approaches the Seeker and says they need to talk. It raises a hand in a "talk to the hand" gesture and then starts making weird gestures, which create a glowing point in the air, which grows bigger and brighter as it gestures. All Luna can see is the glow in the room, and she keeps telling Xander to get her out of there. Time goes by as the Seeker works in its glowy ball. Finally, Xander opens his brain to try to figure out what the Seeker is doing. The guy is somehow converting sound into something else. Xander blacks out.

In fact, everyone blacks out, and the changing stops. Luna screams, and the ligh just gets brighter. A voice says, "Careful, you do not want to overpower the process." Luna ignores these words of caution and demands to be let go. Over her screams, the Seeker explains that there is a song they wish to teach her.

Fisher's lying up in his doss, pissed about the noise, and then realizes Luna's in trouble. He's geared up and out the door right quick. He thinks the screaming was coming from the next door. The door is barred, but that doesn't stop a gunlugger who's been awakened by the sound of his true love screaming. Fisher sees the Seeker standing there and opens fire. His rounds pass right through it. It raises a hand toward Fisher and suddenly he's blown out the door and across the street. Ow. By the time he collects himself, he can no longer see the Seeker. He slings the rifle, pulls a knife, and goes back in. The thing seems to be gone at this point, and Fisher cuts Luna loose.

She gives Fisher a big hug, which is something novel for him. Luna wants to get right out, but Fisher stops and slaps Xander a couple times to wake him up, which works. The three of them depart. Fisher asks what all that was about, and Xander explains it was a Seeker and seems to have sound-powered mojo. Fisher kisses the handguard of his silenced weapon.

Captain Maxwell's been trying to deal with the fact that nobody knows where Luna went or how she got out without being seen.

Fisher, Luna, and Xander fetch up at the grotto. String's taking to her followers, explaining how she got all busted up, and how she plans to fit the other hand, and how she may need volunteers for hand testing. Some of them don't like the idea that the volunteers will end up mutilated, but there are others who would do just about anything for String. String thinks about looking for volunteers outside the flock, so as not to weaken them, and the idea that they come up with is that volunteering is a requirement for healing. She's not comfortable with that, not at all.

Xander tells String about the Seeker sonic mojo. String explains to Fisher that his bullets didn't do anything because Seekers are shadow demons, which leaves Fisher a lot confused. She also explains about her trip to the other side and what they found. She and Fisher are going to go to the market, while Xander and Luna head to the market.

Up at the keep, a runner tells Maxwell that Luna's back. He goes to see what's what, and Luna tells her story. The Captain asks her how Xander's involved, pointedly ignoring Xander standing right next to her. That doesn't stop Xander from explaining things to him. Xander goes back to the Airstream and Luna goes back to her room. She takes a bath, and when she opens her wardrobe after, the void is there.

String scopes out the market. The Quigley brothers are still in town, and some Delvers have come to town. String gets up on a crate and starts speaking truth to the mob about how good the medical care at the grotto is, and how people who can't afford care might benefit from their new payment program. Fisher watches her back. She gets a few volunteers with nasty chronic conditions, and one of the guys who String saved actually comes forth and volunteers to help out. String, Fisher, and the subjects go back to the grotto, where she sees who's who, makes sure people who need care get it, and takes the healthy testimonial guy up to the keep, and then the Airstream.

Xander straps down the volunteer and explains what they're doing to his arm. The guy's up for whatever, apparently. Xander starts with some easy measurements but eventually needs to do some cutting. String sits on the other side of the volunteer, trying to distract him. By the time he's done, Xander's pretty much ruined that guy's hand. String can close up the wounds, but the nerves are no good no more. Welp! String walks this guy out of the keep, goes to the grotto, and brings in the next volunteer. Xander barely misses a step. String feels pretty bad about all this. So does the volunteer, once he realizes what's involved. He does not want to be an experiment subject for a bunch of beeping machines. String lets him off the hook. Next subject!

This time Xander tries to be a calming influence. He seems to have figured out some sort of bedside manner, possibly by exhausting all the bad bedside manners already. Also, this guy got some laughing gas at the grotto for his dental procedure, and he's just up for all sorts of fun. Xander learns more about the nerve structure of the hand. This guy gets to keep limited functionality of his hand - progress! He goes through a few more volunteers, all of whom lose some use of their hand, before he thinks he knows the nerve map and might be able to make the graft onto String's hand.

Then settle down and try the graft at last, and when they're done, String wields the Right Hand of Darkness, and String needs a drink. She celebrates by opening her mind and asking how she bends the new hand to her will. The two hands start having a theological debate, not all of which she can hear. She's catching useful stuff here, stuff she can use to preach to people. She thinks she can find a syncretic path between the beliefs of the two hands. String also realizes she can use the hand to necrotize whatever it touches, if she wants to.

Back at the grotto, everyone's very excited! The future is now! String explains that this has revealed new mysteries to explore, but it's still time to get high on grey water and party.

Luna closes the door on her abyssal wardrobe and goes for help. She finds Cadbury in the hall and tells him about this new development. He takes her to see the boss. The Captain confirms her findings and sends for Xander. Xander looks the wardrobe over, opens the door a crack, and hears wingbeats. The abyss seems tied into the furniture, not the specific location. Then something starts pulling Xander into the wardrobe. Maxwell grabs him, with Luna helping, and keeps him from going any farther. Luna hears the chanting she heard earlier, though nobody else does. The Captain orders Cadbury to get help. People come rushing in, and they collectively pull Xander back into the world. Maxwell suggests throwing the wardrobe into the void. Unfortunately this wardrobe was built in this room and won't fit through the door. The Captain drinks heavily.

Fisher's drinking that evening, and Kruger comes to him, asking about Fisher's fight with a Seeker. Fisher tells him all about it. Kruger says that back in his bandit days, his gang thought about robbing Seekers a couple times, but they don't have much stuff, and there were always stories about Seekers never hurting anyone and not tolerating inteference, so they didn't. At his request, Fisher shows Kruger where it happened, and the bullet holes in the wall. There's no blood spatter, but there are bits of fabric that got shot out of the Seeker's robe. Fisher agrees to let Kruger know if he sees another Seeker, and promises that no, he will not shoot a bunch of AP ammo at an immaterial being and blow holes in all the bystanders.

Back in the keep, Captain Maxwell gives the order to block off the entire room. Xander tries prying the back panel off the wardrobe, and discovers that when he comes in that way, he can actually find Luna's robe. He thoughtfully removes a few items of clothing for her before he seals the wardrobe up. He then takes the front off of it, knocks a hole in the outer wall of the room, lowers the front panel up to the roof, over to the other side, down to the ground, moves it in the great hall, opens up the abyss portal there, and throws the wardrobe into the abyss. Only, as they move it across the roof, someone starts knocking on the other side, demanding to be let out. It's Fisher's voice. Xander anchors himself, opens the door, and finds the other Fisher there, clinging to the doorframe by his fingernails. They let him out. He crawls over to the corner of the roof, hugs himself, and starts mumbling. He sounds more like the real Fisher now.

Xander goes over and calms him down. Not-Fisher's very alarmed to learn that he's not home, he's on the wrong side. He has not seen Sybil. Cardstock runs in to the Captain's office to tell him what's what, and the boss arrives as Xander's still trying to coax not-Fisher into making sense. Maxwell tells Cardstock to lead not-Fisher to an apartment where he can rest, but Fisher won't have it. The boss ends up having to choke not-Fisher out to quiet him down so they can move him.

Maxwell then goes to the hallway outside his old office and calls out, letting the listeners on the other side know that someone found their Fisher. The voice on the other side says they'll let their Xander know.

Xander re-opens the void on the kitchen side, outside the great hall, and slides the wardrobe straight in. It starts pulling bricks and the wall in after it. There's a rumbling noise that the whole keep hears. The boss comes running and sees the keep getting sucked into the void. Everyone reads the situation! Xander figures his best way out is just to run away. The Captain realizes he needs to be on the lookout for falling masonry. Also the floor under him is disintegrating, and he's falling. Xander runs away. Luna reckons the biggest threat is being sucked into the void. Nobody's in control here. Her best way out is to follow Xander's lead. She tries to do just that, but the floor comes out from under her too.