LogThe City Never Sleeps-Joe-1

Game log for the 2023/12/10 session of AW:The City Never Sleeps, as taken by Joe

Jones’ secret to Augustus - He’s not the only one of his creations, but he thinks that he’s the most stable.

Grandma passed her beginning of session move and got 2 barter and no wants.

The Maelstrom is other people’s dreams (you’re seeing some dream that you never had).

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==The Grocery Store

Murdoch is driving to the Grocery store with Frost in the Wizard van, with Twiggy and the Stooges following on their bikes. Murdoch pulls up to the loading dock. Frost looks at the wrecked dock and hears the beeping.

One aisle is still stocked with food on both sides, but there is evidence that someone has been here. Frost tells the Stooges to load up as she keeps watch. The scene keeps shifting at the periphery of her vision, tempting her to look away from the aisle.

• The city is in control here.
• Out the front door is the best way out, but it leads to the opposite side of the building from the loading dock.

Suddenly, the overhead lights start shutting off. Twiggy takes stock of the situation. He gets a light generating toy from one of his gang, tosses it toward the freezer section, and notices that the wall tiles shift intermittently in the dim light. He also sees someone running down the hall.

Twiggy sees one of the Stooges being taken away, as if the distance between people changed in the darkness every time he looked away. He can hear Frost cry out “It got Twiggy.”

Frost reenters the store an extension cord with a weight on the end. Twiggy grabs end and Frost immediately feels the space dilation effect. She discovers that she can get closer by running backward. The glowstick goes out and the Stooge with Twiggy, Bigger, is gone.

That’s enough for Frost. She heads for the van. The van is full and everyone left heads back to Grandma’s. Grandma is happy, everyone gets paid, and the neighborhood eats. Frost asks Grandma about the food, and she reassures her that food will be delivered to the people.

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== The Fight

There is an upcoming event at the Coliseum. Augustus visits Grimes in his box. Grimes has fixed the odds and set the bets. He wastes his time with idle threats but leaves.

The arena is prepared with all manner of weapons. Pressure plates will ignite fire traps. Augustus gives Jones the lay of the land. There’s a big gate, with Grandma, Twiggy and the Stooges, in the audience.

The fight is in rounds and a round when a new wound is inflicted. Weapons are confiscated at the end of each round, limiting the availability as the fight goes on. But tonight, the fight lasts until someone taps out.

Crusher enters his side of the arena. He quickly grabs a sledge hammer. Jones runs for a bill hook but Crusher throws the hammer at him and knocks him out. End of Round 1.

Bettors reevaluate and reset while Jones is dragged out and woken up. Meanwhile Grandma thinks the fix is in and sends a goon to check on Jones. Twiggy tries his hand at recruiting a Brainer named Goggles, painting the picture of the grocery store heist to entice Goggles to join. Goggles blinks rapidly behind thick glasses and offers Twiggy a lit pipe. Twiggy inhales and sees the weirdness all over again.

Augustus entertains everyone while Jones walks back in, a little woozy but ready to fight. Jones goes for a weapon but Crusher has a bat and heads him off. Jones dodges past and grabs a sickle. They enter into single combat and Augustus is sweating buckets as Jones scores a solid hit. The horn blows but Jones doesn’t stop. Augustus goes into crowd control as workers try to end the round.

Faced with a certain riot, Augustus says that Crusher will get a Tier 1 weapon (pitchfork) before Jones enters the arena. The rumbles continue but the fight goes on.

Jones bullrushes Crusher, impaling himself on the tines but beating him to the ground. The horn sounds again but Jones won’t stop pulverizing Crusher’s face. In the end, Augustus’ crew hoses him down but Crusher is dead.

Grandma is in her box. Snubnose, a local entrepreneur, owes Grandma rent for his warehouse. He refurbishes machinery and has refrigeration. He relies on the warehouse’s fairly consistent power. He’s keeping Grandma’s food in glass doored cold cases.

Unfortunately, he bet on Crusher and is pissed. He wants Jones disqualified and all bets called off. He thinks Augustus is fixing the match and wants Grandma to make it right. She demurs and has her guards try to escort him from the box.

Snubnose bows up and yells to the crowd that Grandma helped fix the fight. Now she resorts to violence and her gang takes him out of the Coliseum.

Augustus hears the hubbub. Grandma comes to his box and asks if there’s something Augustus knows about the fight that isn’t immediately obvious. Augustus disqualifies Jones and bans him for life. Half the crowd is angry and the other half are happy.

Frost goes to get her money back from one of Grimes’ bookies and there’s trouble. Spartacus reports that there’s some trouble. Grimes says that he’ll figure something out but he wishes that things would have been better “managed”.

Grimes agrees to take care of Frost. He offers to make Frost whole if she kills Jones. Frost isn’t warm on the idea, so mentions that the Coliseum could use “new management”. Frost is noncommittal, takes her money, and goes to find Augustus.

She finds Augustus with Kenworth and Spartacus in his box. She tells him that Grimes wants him dead. Augustus offers her a silent partnership once Grimes is out of the way. She isn’t convinced and the meeting breaks up without resolution.

At the same time, Twiggy takes a ride with Goggles. He wants to show Twiggy something cool and they go to an old, classical building. The engraving over the door says “Metropolitan Public Library “. Entering, they see an old fashioned library. Everything is covered in dust. Goggles says that it’s always here, but only to people who know about it. Twiggy riffles through the card catalog, finds some books, and they go into the depths to find them.

In the stacks, Goggles pulls a book off the shelf and opens a book. Every page is blank. Goggles says that the only books with writing are in the Law section. Maybe some of the periodicals, but things are stable. He wants to know why all the books are blank.

They slowly come down from their high and the world returns to focus. Twiggy keeps giving him the hard sell on joining the gang but he’s not a joiner.

Despondent Augustus seeks wisdom about making the Coliseum great again. He sees a big opulent table where he’s negotiating with powerful people. He’s done this before and is confident.