LogAWBO Smoke On The Water-Jason-2

Game log for the 2022/10/30 session of Apocalypse World Burned Over - Smoke On The Water, as taken by Jason

Start of session:

• Churban finds that shelter is easy but companionship. He's treated like an outsider everywhere he goes.
• Finch: trade is free, information is easy
• Krill: Work is easy, trust is hard.
• John Paul Jones: Gas is free, work is easy

Churban has another vision. He's in a medical bay, along with many other people. It feels like it was after the last vision, and he's recovering from whatever happened in that vision. Doctor Defoe is the sort of doctor who goes out of his way to highlight the failings of the patients as he treats their physical injuries. Everyone gets pill medications, except the guy who hates needles. That sort of doctor. It feels like Churban has been there for a very long time, and he wakes up screaming.

JPJ needs to get his boat fixed, after last session. He's at Guy's Gearbox and they're looking things over. Most of the damage is cosmetic, but there is a leak that's going to need to be seen to. Guy has a sort of almost-floating-drydock thing that they can use to jack the leak out of the water and get to welding on. For the right amount of copper and gas, and in a couple days time, Guy (prodigous beard, jovial, jocular, shifty) and his merry man can get things working. Guy needs someone to do some diving, because there's a building 60-70 feet down in the Shambles that nobody has been able to get into. Guy has a key. People on tanks could go down there, get in, and come out with some good stuff, probably maybe. Guy gets the first third of the loot, and he gets to pick the third. In exchange, he'll put up the dive gear.

JPJ of course knows that Churban is a hard luck case who will do anything for jingle, and he's totally good to dive. Totally. No question. The Operator then goes to see Finch and see if he's in. For some reason, Finch's dog Frank is totally fixated on JP's pocket. Finch has more questions about the deal than Churban did, unsurprisingly, but he's not opposed to get involved, if he gets half of the 2/3 cut promised to JPJ's crew. Crill is also in, and will provide surface overwatch. JP offers him a much smaller share, since he won't be diving, and might just have to spend some time being a threatening presence. JP ends up getting some sums wrong and comes away frustrated at how small his personal share has gotten.

The Shambles, as previously mentioned, is a big anarchic mess of cantilevers and bad structural ideas, but it also plays host to the Bloodpool, which is a sort of aquatic gladiator arena, usually made more interesting by chumming the water for sharks. Some of the lowest floors have intact windows, and people have (to date) been unable to break them.

Jenny, a market trader, has an old-style life vest with the CO2 auto-inflator for sale, and Finch is flush, so that's easy. She honestly warns him that since it's old, long submergence in rough water will eventually pop seems, and also that unless he's heavily laden when he pulls it, that jacket will pull him to the surface like a rocket.

Leaving, he thinks maybe he's being followed. Two members of the Gray Cutters seem to always be nearby when he's in the market. Frank keeps checking out an old bouy line, and Pickles just stays close to Finch. He decides to try to elude the Grey Cutters. He manages to dump one of them, but the other manages to stay within observation distance.

Finch makes his way to the Shambles, last to arrive on the scene. The team is going to stage through an elevator shaft. He warns Crill that he's been followed; Crill has not noticed any ongoing surveillance. There's a guy fishing down the shaft, who reports no great luck. The team gets ready, with Frank the dog nosing in everywhere and Pickles keeping watch. JP, Finch, and Churban go into the water.

Finch, having reviewed JP's map, calculates the best way in, and keeps a weather eye on the sharks. They're mostly blacktips, but the occasional Great White does swing by. He's also thinking in terms of where he could hide out, if worst comes to worst. JP worries about the best way out, which is straight down the hall underwater to the Bloodpool and then straight up. He's a little concerned that maybe other salvagers might be on the case, and that someone is always checking six. He knows warm water is coming in, which will bring more sharks. Churban focuses on keeping his act together and not freaking out / having a vision. He's looking out for guys trying to steal the score. He also knows that since he has no friends here, JP and Finch could decide to cut him out real simple.

So, down the water column, Finch using the shared dive light to help count floors and doors. Sharks make their way through the corridors. The target, room 305, is a steel fire door, and the key goes into the lock, but it doesn't want to open. He tries the next door, and the key opens that one, 306. The hallway has gotten silted up, and all this activity is stirring up silt. Behind the door, though, the only silt comes from the disintegrated acoustic roof tile.

The room turns out to be a lab. Microscopes are everywhere. Lab equipment is there for the taking. Lots of stuff is still in cardboard boxes, which would fall apart if anyone touched them. Furthermore, it looks to be a suite. Churban watches the door while the other two split up to search the adjacent rooms.

Churban's trying real hard to make sure that nothing comes to get them that he fails to spot a stonefish on the floor until he trods on it. Ouch, motherfucker, that hurts. He's incapacited by the pain for some amount of time. He feels like he's felt this pain before.

Another vison strikes. He's in a labyrinth of arched corridors and chambers, lit from below even though no lights are visible, and he's moving fast, like he's running from something. He's with someone. They were going to escape together or die trying. They made it to the stairs, which only lead up. He takes a last-second look back to make sure they've evaded pursuit, she tells him "come on, let's do," and when her foot touches the step, a hydaulic door starts to close, separating them. He can't hold it open and shouts for her help. She looks at him, hesitates, and leaves without him, preventing him from escaping with her. He sees lights and hears voices from the corridor.

Finch is organizing stuff into batches, which stirs up silt. He realizes that Churban is floating on the ceiling clutching his leg and that John Paul Jones is on the other side of a closed door. It shouldn't be closed. He goes to check on Churban, who tries to fight him off. All Churban manages to do is cut himself on the door. Churban and Finch both end up in the water. Once Churban's lucid, he points out the stonefish. They move back into 307 and close the door behind them, and Churban gestures that they should lock it. JP, meanwhile, is searching the other suite, which is mostly computer crap, useless except for wiring and metal scrapings. As he searches, he swears he sees someone walk between offices, and close one of the doors.

Finch and JP get to the door at the same time and both try to open it, which prevents it from opening. They end up jump-scaring one another. JP tries to sign that there may be other people here. By the dive light, Finch also thinks he sees the reflection of eyes at the end of the corridor. JP's next gesture is to take their loot and go. Finch thinks whatever is out there is avoiding the light. It can clearly manipulate doors. The group organizes loot into bags and prepares to exfiltrate. Churban takes a moment to try to turn a labcoat into a bandage, but it's been under water too long. Eventually he finds some plastic wrap and tries to use that to wrap his wound. As they're gathering stuff up, Finch notices a hole in the floor, leading to ... whatever is down there. Churban takes a moment to just generally get his shit together and try not to prove that he's a total fuckup. A few minutes later, Finch sees something moving in the water under the hole, stirring up more sediment.

Back up top, Crill notices an increasing number of people milling around, which is annoying him and Pickles. He backs off one gang of assholes, but He hears banging in the shaft above, meaning someone is coming down that way. He looks up and sees someone hanging upside down from an elevator cable, aiming a blowgun at him. Crill's blade thrower makes meat out of that guy, but it went p'twang and can't be quicky fired again. The dead guy's blow dart embeds itself harmlessly in his flak vest.

Down below, time for the divers to move out. Finch opens the door and sets the lock again, then checks the hall. It's filling up with blacktips. The dead body Crill dropped down the shaft also attracts a significant quantity of sharks. Given the number of sharks in the shaft, he motions the others to take the Bloodpool route. JP moves along swiftly, but Churban can't keep up or outrun a shark, and the shark eats a big ol' chunk of his leg. Finch has to tug Churban along as deadweight, but Churban's still got a literal deathgrip on his loot bad.

They make their way to the Bloodpool, racing for the surface, and make it. They cry out for a rope, and someone shouts back, "What's it worth to you?" Pickles immediately bolts for the Bloodpool, followed by Crill and Frank. Sprinting, Crill falls through a hole in the floor. Pickles gets to the edge of the water, pressed up against the fencing, barking his head off. Crill tries to jump for something with which to pull himself up, but the weight of the harness is pulling him down. The thing is going to drown him at this rate. He breathes some water while he wriggles out of the blade thrower harness, but he's able to pull himself up now.

Over in the Bloodpool, Finch and JP spy someone from Momma June's, and call on him by name to toss a line. They get by with a little help from their friends. They go right to Pickles. JP hides the key to room 305 inside Churban's bandage. This puts them a level up from where Crill is.

Crill's made land and hears the dog barking again, but Frank is still there with him. He coughs up some water and makes his way to the Bloodpool, where Pickles is going nuts. With Crill back there, Pickles quiets down and shifts to growling. Crill tells the crowd to back the hell off.

A level up, Bandito, from Momma June's gang, has gotten hold of Churban's almost dead body. Bandito is heavily tattoed, Hispanic, and long-haired. He looks scary but he's very loyal. It takes some time to meet up with Crill, but Pickles helps them find one other. Their catching up is cut short when Bandito points out they're drawing a crowd and need to relocate directly. They get to their dinghy and row for Guy's.

Guy takes his third of the loot, including microscopes, saran wrap, memory sticks, and waterproof notebooks, and then asks for the key back. JP tells him he doesn't have it. Guy doesn't believe that JP lost track of it, and won't release the other 2/3 of the loot until he gets it back. Luckily, he can get the key off of Churban without anyone noticing, and things end ... as agreed, if not downright happy. Then they need to deliver Churban to Jacob. John Paul Jones gives his personal share of the loot to Momma June.

Finch leaves his loot with Guy as collateral and hangs on to his scuba gear, so he can go dive for the blade thrower. The dive light reveals it's already gone. Finch goes to the market to see who's selling the information. Safford, an obseqious rumor monger, hunched and whiny, hears what Finch is looking for, and comes to give Finch the info, as a favor. Finch thinks this guy is honestly trying to earn himself a favor here, which seems like a fair trade. He flags Crill and they both come along, though Crill is much more suspicious than Finch. Safford reports that some guy named Fish-eyed Kevin had the blade thrower out of the water just minutes after it fell in. Above surface, with all the insane efforts people have made to modify the space to suit their needs over the decades, the Shambles is a maze, a warren, a disaster, and the difficulty of getting somewhere has almost no relation to its distance as the crow flies. Safford takes them on a merry journey and eventually points out a guy, who does indeed have a messed up eye, all bulgy and not tracking with his good eye.

Crill walks in and Torren, another Grey Cutter, sees Crill enter the bar, and almost immediately gets up and leaves. (Torren is missing his bottom lip, and is a member of Stempler's crew. He hates Crill because Crill embarassed him once.) He walks right over to Fish-eyed Kevin and says, "I hear you're the one to see about things recovered from the depths around here." FeK is willing to sell it back for a fair price and have someone bring it for her. As they wait, Crill tells FeK that Guy is the one who commissioned the job. FeK seems upset that Guy didn't pay any salvage tax. Eventually the blade thrower turns up, and Crill and Finch depart directly. FeK has made it very clear to Crill that Guy is in trouble for not paying his protection money. A bunch of Grey Cutters show up at the docks at the last minute and watch Crill and Finch leave. Crill does not bother to pass the message for Guy on to Finch.

Churban, unconscious, remembers that the girl in the vision was named Merody.