LogApocalypse World: Black Rain-Jason-4

Game log for the 2021/04/04 session of AW: Black Rain, as taken by Jason

Captain Maxwell, concerned about the ongoing food crisis, decides to send two people from his gang out in a vehicle to try to find and bargain for food. They're basically just advertising that the hold will buy what they'll sell. They're a little irate to be sent forth when it's just the townies who are starving, but the Captain reminds them that if revolt breaks out due to the famine, the guards will be heavily outnumbered and probably killed.

Xander's been working on a rain collection and purification system. It's a lot more effective and efficient than just leaving a container out and then putting it in a pan for the water to evaporate, but it hasn't solved the health problem. He's also sealed off the keep doors that open into the abyss. He hasn't made any progress on alternate fuels, but the settlement currently has a couple weeks worth of fuel.

Sybil goes to her room and tries to convince the maelstrom to provide her with a path to her brain relay. She notices that some people walk past the relay more often than others, Fisher being the most frequent. Maybe she could get Fisher to bring it to her, for the right price.

Xander asks String what she thinks of the match between the hand that punched its way into the basement and her hand. She declines to tell him where her hand came from. Xander worries that if he doesn't about what broke out, the problem might recur. String disagrees, since whatever it was is already here. She opines that where it came from is a lot less relevant than what it's trying to do now, and that the Captain needs to lock things down. Xander tells Maxwell that he needs more help to get the new hole in the larder wall bricked up. He brings the entire gang to bear, adding his own labor as well, so that the wall can be sealed as quickly as possible.

String spends her time in the grotto, and opens her brain to try to figure out where her hand's counterpart is. She can't be sure where it is, but she can feel it's clenched around someone's throat. She can also feel that the person it's killing is Sleaze. Since the keep's on lockdown, Sleaze must be in the keep somewhere, ergo, that's where the hand-thing is. Sleaze, Bento, and Deadeye are the ones who most often get roof duty, so the roof would be one obvious place to look.

She goes right to the keep, but Depthcharge won't let her in. String explains that she thinks Sleaze is being murdered on the roof, right now, and that she and Depthcharge should do do something rather than wait for her to make sense of it all. She barely has the chance to say ".. stop a murder," before Sleaze's body lands on the ground behind her. Depthcharge freaks out, pulls a gun on her, yells for help, and generally gets a little crazy.

Captain Maxwell's hauling bricks when the guards tell him about the problem at the front gate, though thanks to the usual game of telephone, they actually tell him that String killed Sleaze. He goes to investigate, as does Fisher, who also heard the shouting.

String's trying to look at Sleaze's neck for signs and can definitely tell he was grabbed around the neck, though she couldn't prove it was the hand. Depthcharge doesn't like her messing with the body, and she backs down. When the Captain arrives, the guard briefs him on what he saw. As the boss starts interrogating String, Depthcharge starts acting like his hype man, and also interjects periodically to accuse String of things. Maxwell and Fisher go to look at the roof, but he won't let String in.

As they move up to the roof, the Captain recruits other members of the gang, ensuring that he's got strong security with him. They get to the wardroom right below the roof, and see a chair tipped over, but no other signs of struggle. Fisher heads right to the roof, and sees blood, which he tries to investigate. It looks pretty clear that someone's head got smacked into the rock, but not enough to make it clear that this was the killing blow. Fisher consults the maelstrom for ideas about what might have happened. When Captain Maxwell and his gang emerge onto the roof, Fisher's staggering across the roof, looking like he's fighting an invisible foe, and very soon he's leaning backward over the parapet, choking. The Captain pulls him away from the parapet.

Fisher's vision is of something far stronger and faster than he is. It's almost like a nightmare where his body just refuses to act the way he wants it to. He thinks his attacker is familiar... and then Maxwell yanks him away from the edge. When he explains what happened, the boss reminds the gunlugger that they don't pay him to think. Just then, there's a peal of thunder. Everyone goes back inside, and the boss sends Fisher to collect String and bring her to the wardroom.

As he's waiting, Cadbury comes up and asks if String found him. She was looking for him ten minutes ago. Maxwell points out that she's at the front gate, so how was she looking for him? Just then Fisher and String arrive, allowing String to confirm that she was not the one Cadbury passed in the stairway. Fisher asks if he could see which of "String"'s hands was artificial, but he couldn't. Fisher and String agree it was probably a mirror image, and String assures the boss that he has a big problem on his hands.

She goes to the bunk bed in the wardroom, sits cross-legged on the bottom bunk, and access the maelstrom to see what's up with the other hand. She feels that it's wet, and it's running its fingers over bolts of fabric. The rain has started, so it could be outdoors. She also thinks of beads. She's muttering this stuff out loud for the room. As the speaks, other voices whisper it along with her. Fisher puts it together for the Captain and suggests asking the guards if anyone saw String leave. The description reminds Fisher of the market, and he shares that as well. Maxwell sends him, Slingshot, and Bento to check the marketplace. Fisher goes running out. String continues narrating, making it clearer and clearer that she's describing the marketplace, until another thunderclap breaks her reverie. She decides to head for the market. The Captain goes to check on Xander's progress.

When String leaves the keep, Depthcharge does a doubletake. Sure enough, he thinks she already left. She shows him her left hand, which takes him aback, and tries to make a point about which side her unusual hand is on. He has trouble getting it because he seems to struggle a bit with left and right.

The sellers in the market are packing up, since the rain can be relied upon to make the crowds dissipate. Fisher tries to find out whether anyone's seen String, but nobody really likes talking to him, so he gets nothing better than a finger pointed in a direction. He goes in that direction.

String takes the fastest route to the market and promptly gets shot at for her pains. She dives for cover and gets the hell out of the way. It's Slingshot shooting at her. Fisher asks if he saw the hand, and Slinghot hesitates and then claims it was the bad String. Fisher shouts out for her to show her hands, and she shows her left hand, at which point Fisher tells Slingshot to stop shooting because that's the real String, assuring Slingshot that she obviously isn't back at the keep. Just then, String pokes her head up to find the best way out, and the trigger-happy guard shoots her right in the grape, knocking her down and causing her to lose track of where Bento is. She does, however, envision a path that would get her the hell out of the market. She decides to scream for the guards to stop shooting instead.

Fisher sees that the two guards have gone full tactical, and calls out, "Hey fuckwits, the Captain sent you to help me, so quit fucking up." That buys him just a minute to stop the shooting, at which point he agrees to check her out and goes jogging over. He's counselling her about self-preservation and the wisdom of going to get patched up when Cabot yells out for everyone to drop their weapons. Fisher declines but assures him that things are going to be chill. Cabot yells that he's still waiting, so Fisher and friends stand down. Syndic security herds them all together and Cabot comes to talk. He tells the keep guards tto stand down because they're out their jurisdiction. Fisher counts to ten on his fingers and then cedes the field.

Sybil was in the marketplace and goes running to the sound of the guns. Thanks to her weird brainer powers, she's got a sense that someone got hurt over here. She also realizes that Cabot is a vindictive bastard, and he could go off for no obvious reason if he decides her needs to prove a point. This could still go horribly awry, and String would be in the crossfire. Sybil goes to insert herself into the situation. As she does so, one of Cabot's men points his gun at her and tells her not to come any closer. She says she just came to help and offers to escort String to a safe place. Cabot ignores that and just tells "you three" to go, meaning he's going to deal with String. Fisher clears that with String and then leaves, taking Slingshot and Bento with him.

Sybil helps String to her feet as Cabot asks them what the problem is. String tells him there's a supernatural serial killer loose in his marketplace. Cabot tells them he takes a dim view of people causing trouble in the market, and has one of his people follow them out. String and Sybil head to the grotto, where she looks for treatment for her head wound. Her flock want to pour rain water in the wound, and that's as good an idea as any. As she recovers, she fills Sybil in on what she knows.

Some time passes as Xander bricks up the hole in the wall and reinforces it. He and Captain Maxwell share knowledge about the situation, and the Captain tells his guards to detain anyone who looks like String.

String asks Sybil to try to find the killer thing loose in the town. Sybil's happy to but worries that she might need to get into the keep, which would be a problem. They're just about done when Aster tells String someone's here to see her, and brings Fisher in. He comes in and pitches the idea that the two of them together could hunt the killer down. String's not real enthusiastic about it, on account of having been shot in the head recently. Sybil, however, would love to help out. She offers to throw on a rain poncho and look around. Fisher takes her up on that, and agrees to wait just outside the market in case there's trouble. As they leave, Fisher notices that the half of the cult that aren't loaded are giving him very judgemental looks. He decides that they're looking but not talking because they're scared of what he'd do if they opened their mouths.

Xander finds Sybil's brain relay and takes it. Sybil's halfway to the market when she realizes what happened, so she detours by Xander's truck to see if he's in. They discuss a deal where she owes him a favor in exchange for the relay, but he wants to take the thing apart for some research. They settle on a barter and a favor and he hands it over right away.

Sybil then heads into the market. People are worried about food, and the population of Running Rock is way down because of all the people leaving town in search of food. Otherwise, her search turns up nothing.

That night, someone raps on Xander's door, and identifies themself as a representative of the Syndics. Xander dresses, grabs his shotgun, and opens the door. It's Cabot and three of his thugs, and they want to talk about why Sybil came to see him. They think she's trouble, and they're warning him to not be part of trouble, and asking him if he knows what sort of trouble String and Sybil are up to.

Captain Maxwell, having heard about what happened in the market, tells Bento and Slingshot not to be trigger happy in the market. He ignores their attempt to pin the blame on Fisher and focuses on the importance of not shooting up the marketplace.

The food scouting party comes back and reports that there's a group out there with food, headed by this guy Pullo. These guys have cattle and move with the weather, but they don't need to come to Running Rock, because they have water for a couple weeks. The settlement can't wait another week. He delays another day or two to see if something might break his way, and then there's a riot in town. He goes to check it out with a couple guards, and gets spit on for his pains by someone yelling about food hoarders. He's losing control of the town. Deadeye suggests that it's time to go back to the keep at that point, and Maxwell agrees. He orders the guard to keep two people at the gatehouse and get the rest together for work. He leaves Fisher on keep security.

Seeing Maxwell just makes the crowd angry, because they're convinced there's tons of food in the keep. He tries to address them and tell them there's no great amount of food in the keep. The mob isn't buying it and the situation gets tense. Deadeye recommends that he stop talking. He does so and they go to the Syndics. When he comes in, Cabot sneers at him, but the Syndics themselves are happy to talk. He says he's come to offer aid in restoring order, and finds that the Syndics are split. Some want to open fire on the rabble, some think they have a point. Maxwell asks if anyone has any leverage on the cattle clan, and hears only that the clan always needs salt. One of the traders in the Syndics has salt. Maxwell buys a sack and announces that he'll send his minions to try to lure the clan to come to town with salt. He asks the Syndics if any of them can help, but concludes that they're just too disorganized to get the group to commit to anything. As he returns to the keep, a few people throw things, but the gang doesn't respond.

Maxwell sends three people and a vehicle, with the salt, to see if they can do a deal. The salt they carry is just an inducement; he makes it clear that there's more salt to be purchased at Running Rock. That detachment returns looking shifty-eyed. The clan wouldn't accept the gift, so they used the salt to buy a calf, which they butchered and (though they won't admit it) partially ate. The Cattle Clan is not interested in leaving early for any small deal. A guaranteed low price on salt might do it, and they'd also be willing to exchange cattle for salt if someone brought it out to them.

Maxwell sends for Xander to discuss this with him, Paradox, Butters, and Cadbury. He explains the problem to all of them. They figure that just to last until the clan would normally arrive, the hold would need to purchase a couple hundred head of cattle. He can't possibly buy so many, so he'd need to get community buy-in. They'd need to make sure this cattle drive was secure, too, since hungry people might raid.

Maxwell brings some food to the grotto and asks if String and Sybil can provide any information he could use against the Syndics. String can tell the Captain's getting desperate. She's not real impressed by how little's on the table (literally and metaphorically) for her. Maxwell points out that if law and order break down, he'll be safe in the keep, but the grotto will be overrun. String thinks that the cult will just leave if the town gets ugly. When Maxwell tries to hold out clean water as his bargaining chip, String points out that clean water is one thing the cult doesn't need. What the cult does need is for Sybil to be allowed back into the keep so she can investigate the void. String and Sybil lay it on thick, and Captain Maxwell agrees that Sybil can have access to the keep again as long as someone from the staff supervises her.