LogAWBO Smoke On The Water-Jason-4

Game log for the 2022/11/13 session of Apocalypse World Burned Over - Smoke On The Water, as taken by Jason

JP has been lying low, trying to stay out of trouble at Momma June's. Brick, the head welder at Guy's, a quiet and competent fellow, comes to visit. Momma June's is a very open space, just a couple levels above the water, and it's easy for Brick to draw him aside for a private conversation. The welder explains that the Grey Cutters aren't happy about the trouble JP and his people started, and he's going to have to either spend some time out of Upwell, or be ready to answer some questions that he won't like answering. JP asks if Brick has any ideas, but Brick isn't aware of anything. Guy and his crew might be able to offer a little assistance, as long as it couldn't be traced to them.

Churban has another vision. He's climbing a seemingly endless stairway when he comes to a hatch. He goes through, and discovers it's an airlock. He deciphers the controls, but then the compartment begins to fill with stinking, oily, foul water. He begins to panic. He has no breathing gear, and there is none in the airlock chamber. He holds is breath, keeping his eyes open and on the machinery even though the tainted water burns them. He enters the next room and desperately swims toward light, trying to ignore the revolting contamination. He breaks through into fresher water and eventually, just before he blacks out, into air. He finds the energy to make his way to a ramp out of the water and pulls himself up, collapsing onto the ramp. Then he does black out (in the vision). When he wakes up, a small child in a hoodie and flip-flops was poking him with a stick. That was the first time Churban ever saw the sun, on the ramp of the dock at Upwell.

Start of session live day to day rolls -

• Jacob: connections are easy, loyalty is hard. People don't like the trouble Churban started.
• Churban: health is easy, acceptance is hard.
• Finch: liberty is easy, connection is hard. People are nervous after what Pickles did.
• Crill: Machinery is free (Guy has fixed his blade thrower) and ammo is cheap.
• JP: Preserved foods are free, security is easy.

Jacob calls his people together and updates them on what's up. He assures them that as soon as Churban is well, he's out the door. Jacob doesn't like Churban getting into his mind either, and encourages people to avoid being alone with him. However, they run a hospital, and whenever possible, they don't kill people, they help him. The message doesn't land the way he hoped. Jacob can tell that people in that audience plan to kill Churban.

Jacob immediately goes to look in on the patient. Churban is parked next to the window, muttering, "it's real, it's real" under his breath. Jacob breaks the news, and Churban doesn't make a fuss, but he does mutter, "I'll be gone, but you'll still know." Churban goes to find his crap from whereever he stashed it, and seeks JP. He finds JP's boat (the Betty Jo)... with Bantam's crew on it. He freezes and tries to back out, but now he's being followed.

He runs for it, hoping to lose them in the crowd, weaving in and out of stalls and other obstacles. Bantam's people - now three of them - are going through like wrecking balls. Finch just happens to be in the market at the same time, looking for a harpoon gun, and finding that people who have them for sale don't want to sell them to him. Frank the dog makes a little yip noise, and Churban goes dashing through, with Frank in pursuit, followed by the three thugs from Bantam's gang. Pickles growls. Finch whistles for Frank to come back, and Frank does. One of Bantam's guys hears the whistle, sees Finch, and hollers to the others. Now only one is chasing Churban, one is after Finch (carying a club), and one can't decide which way to go. Finch puts a hand on his big knife, a hand on Pickles' collar, waiting to see how this is going to develop. The club-carrying thug realizes he isn't the clear winner of this fight and pauses a moment. Finch says, "You start it, I finish it." The thug backs up, and when he's out of easy dog reach, he says, "One of these days, we're going to get you and your fucking dog. Dogs!" Frank runs by just then to rejoin Finch.

JP sees that only two guys remain on the boat. If he moves in hard, he might just retake the boat. With Crill's help, that would be a lock. Crill's at Leroy's Fish Shack, eating some stew. JP sidles up to him, explains that Bantam's guys have been causing problems but now they're distracted, and this would be a good time to take the boat. If Crill were to deal with the two thugs while JP drove it out of the dock, it'd be a pretty smooth caper.

Crill steps out to look around the market and concludes that, being notoriously dangerous, he can just saunter on through the market.

Finch looks around to see if he's really in the clear. Frank's looking in the direction Churban went, and Pickles is looking around and being jittery. Lots of other people are keeping an eye on those dogs. It feels like public opinion is running against him right now. He sees Crill walking tall through the market, blade thrower displayed, and JP making himself small behind. Finch decides to observe this from a distance, giving the dogs a snack to keep them calm.

Once Crill is in plain view, the two guys on the boat open fire. Bullets fill the market space. Crill goes for cover behind a stall, pops up to return fire, and doesn't see the bad guys. Finch goes to try to get a look at the boat, and sees a guy sneaking along the gunwale. He stands up and yells, "Stop shooting into the market, asshole!" The guy on the boat fires in Finch's direction, but misses. Crill tries to use that as a distraction, moving into a better position with his magnum, and discovers that one of the guys on the boat has relocated, and he shoots Crill with his shotgun. Crill slips on fish guts as he tries to dodge, drops his pistol in the water, and ends up on his ass. Holy crap, Crill just went down.

JP makes a rush for the boat. He tries to time his jump onto the boat in stride, but gets it wrong and bounces off the gunwale instead. He knows not to be between boat and dock, so he tries to swim under the boat and come up the other side. He gets cut all to hell from the barnacles on the hull, but he's able to make the swim and come up on the other side.

Crill knows where his opponent is now and fires the blade thrower. The blades go right through the Pelican cases the thug was using for cover and rip the guy to bloody shreds. The other bad guy, shooting from the prow of the boat, sees what just happened and nopes out. He dives into the water and leaves the scene. JP and Crill have control of the boat now.

Churban, meanwhile, is still running. He's doubled back, so the fighting is in front of him, but he's up a level now. He looks down and sees a bloodied JP untying the boat. He tries to dive over the boat and land in the water on the disengaged side, but bounces off the boat and lands in the water, much the worst for wear. JP calls out, "Quit fucking around and get in the boat." Crill goes to throw him a rope.

Finch leaves, so quickly and adroitly that nobody even notices where he went, or when. He returns to his van unobserved.

Jacob goes up to the roof with binoculars to see if this portends imminent business. He sees that someone in the market got dismembered, and the folks on JP's boat do look the worse for wear.

With Crill having gotten Churban on board, JP motors the hell out of there.

Jacob visits Guy, asking for information on ancient implants. Guy isn't familar, but knows a guy, Prentiss, who might. Prentiss lives in a different settlement, Finnegan's Shoal. Guy expects compensation for this information, though Jacob thought they were still haggling. Oops. There's some tension. He puts out word that he has work for Finch.

Shoeshine tracks Finch down and asks him to come see Jacob. Finch is happy to. He knows about Prentiss, and that it's just a couple days travel. The Shoal is a mess of boats anchored close to one another, with no above-ground features. Jacob wants to go there, and wants Finch to be his guide and to make introductions. Finch stops to think about whether this gig is on the level, but Jacob seems to be truthful, the dogs don't seem stressed, and the doc mostly just seems anxious.

Finch goes looking around for a potential ride. Kayak has transported Finch before. He can go days on end without speaking, and when he looks at people, he seems to be looking through them. He's too good at reading people, but is very hard to read in return. Finch tries to negotiate the rate with Kayak down, and while he can't get the price down, Kayak agrees to provide hot food.

Jacob goes to visit Stempler at Greywall. Stempler looks sort of like Lance Henriksen, has very close-cropped hair, and never smiles. Greywall used to be a psychiatric institution and has windows sized to the legal minimum. Its four stories above water make for an imposing location for the local boss. Stempler receives Jacob in his office. He sits behind a very large desk that looks to have come from somewhere else, with mismatched carpets on the floor. It's a demonstration of his power to extract tribute. There are no chairs for guests, and two Grey Cutters flank the door. Stempler asks what he can do for Jacob, and the doc explains about the tech in Churban's head, and his plan to go looking for answers. When asked, he says he's travelling with Finch and Bulldog, and that he'll have people watching the water source while he's out. Stempler promises extra security patrols by the hospital while Jacob's away.

Finch, Jacob, and Bulldog board Kayak's catamaran (which is also called Kayak) and take off. Jacob brings a cooler full of lettuce for trade. The catamaran is a sailboat, so their journey duration will depend on the weather.

JP thinks he's gotten away clean, since there's no sign of anyone following. He tries to remember where he dropped Lilly, and thinks it was Finnegan's Shoal. Crill is OK with heading to the Shoal.

After mopping the blood off the deck, Churban has a vision. The door just slammed, Merody is gone, they have found him, and a vicious beating ensues. Eventually, an older woman, grey-haired and severe, dressed in the uniform of the Enforcers, commands them to stop. She offers Churban water, strokes his face, and says (to the guards), "No, no, let us take care of this one. Bring him back to Doctor Defoe." He wakes up and tries to take a step down the deck, and his leg gives way under him, and he remembers the rock fish sting, the garden in the hospital, and suddenly he remembers something similar, plants growing under lamps, growing wonderfully... and he was never allowed to go there. He was fed gruel.

Churban then lies down under the sun on the prow of the boat and opens his brain to the maelstrom. For him, the sky instantly clouds over, rain sting his face, and he hears voices in the howling. He wants to understand why he was given this power to pluck people's memories out of their head. The voices count down, asking questions, thunder claps, and a voice says, "Again," over and over again. It feels like he was being trained for something. In the afterimages of the lightning, he sees shapes of letters, which he recognizes as ESP testing flash cards.

The Betty Jo arrives at Finnegan's Shoal a couple days later. JP did some fishing on the way in and has some catch to sell. JP goes to look for healing, Churban in tow. Unfortunatly, the state of Churban's ankle tells them that they can charge some high prices for healing. McQuade is the local "healer" and will happily clean out JP's wounds and set Churban's leg, but he gives them both morphine. Churban promptly has another vision. He has an immediate feeling of calm. He last felt that way as a young child, in the garden (so called because there were flowers painted on the wall), full of toys, other children, etc, and periodically visited by creatures. These creatures, with their barrel-like bodies with tentacles top and bottom, sometimes play with the children, and never scared Churban or fade him uneasy. He feels that these things choose the children, and he was one of the chosen.

To JP and the docs, it seems like Churban is convulsing and maybe crashing. Just as McQuade's about to apply the paddles, the nobody snaps out of it and relaxes. JP suggests that the morphine might have been a bad idea, but McQuade assures him it will be fine.

Crill, who does not need professional medical attention, goes looking for a new magnum. He finds a gun dealer named Handy. Handy's overweight and has bad teeth. His boat is an old tug, and he seems a little shifty. There's another customer there getting a rifle serviced, and when that guy leaves, Handy's whole vibe changes. He becomes more conspiratorial and asks if Crill has ammo for the revolver he wants, and if maybe Crill would like to test the weapon and ammo on a human being. There are people in the Shoal who treat Handy's business like a big gun dispenser, and he wants them to be dead. This is all making Crill nervous, but Handy seems honest enough. He wants Crill to "look into" the crew of the Tuscany. The work is the price for the gun, period.

Stuck in the infirmary together, Churban does a deep brain scan on JP. He could really get his hooks into the captain by getting Bantam off his back. His deepest secret feat is losing his boat.

While they're treating JP and Churban, Kayak ties his catamaran up to the Betty Jo. Man, Jacob just cannot elude these fuckers. As soon as they tie up, Pickles jumps over, runs to the pilot house, and gives his alert bark to greet Crill. Crill's quite surprised to see that Jacob left Upwell.

Churban and JP get discharged from McQuade's place. McQuade describes all the symptoms of morphine withdrawl and tells them to come back if they have any of them. Finch takes Jacob and Bulldog to see Prentiss. They see Churban along the way, who gives them a wide birth. Prentiss turns out to deal in special found items. He works off a cabin cruiser, which has a small bunk for him and all the remaining space devoted to random stuff. Prentiss is happy to see Finch, who makes the introduction. Prentiss and Jacob then discuss the subdermal implant Jacob found on "a patient". Prentiss shows a few pictures of implants, and some implants, and asks if it looked like any of those. Eventually Jacob sees something that looks right and points at it. Prentiss has no idea what it is, but can say that the guy who brought it in made him nervous. He was after something specific, an analyzer that didn't work, and traded that implant for it. He thinks the casing is precious metal, and tried to melt it into a tradeable ingot, but couldn't melt it. The guy came in on an an old PT boat. Prentiss will happily take lettuce for that implant. Jacob also buys "some kind of brain bomb". He can get what he needs to make a psi workshop here, but it's going to take a ton of jingle, and help moving stuff.

Jacob then tells Finch they're done. Finch tells Jacob to wait on the boat while he shops. Sure enough, here, he can buy a spear gun, which it turns out is what he really wanted.

JP is also cruising the market, Churban following behind. They end up on Tillman's boat, a cruiser which is now parked in. People come here to trade stuff, information, and news. JP has dealt with Tillman before, and introduces Churban as his deckhand. Tillman warns that Crill is already attracting notice from the wrong sort of person. Anyway, JP asks if Tillman knows where Lilly might be found today. They trade fuel for information. Churban finally comes in handy, helping to carry fuel. With his recall thus enhanced, Tillman remembers Lilly left a few days ago on the Dancer, probably headed to Hoddard's Rock. As they talk, Churban notices that one of Tillman's random trade goods is a stereo Daguerreotype with a picture of Merody on it. JP asks if Churban wants in, Churban asks what it is and where it came from, and Tillman explains it came off a fishing vessel that traded it for spark plugs. Churban finds himself thinking off the time he and Merody graduated from the white uniform kids clothes they had to wear and were allowed their own clothes, and how happy Merody was, how much she wanted Churban to compliment her on it. JP suddenly remembers it too, like it was yesterday.

Finch looks around the Betty Jo, sees nothing out of order, and then returns to the Kayak. Jacob tells Kayak that they're good to go, but he has business, and cannot leave until dawn. Finch grabs some gear and starts fishing off the side of the Betty Jo. When JP and Churban return, JP greets him, but Churban just sits there looking weirder than usual. Pickles keeps changing his mind about whether Churban is a threat, and Frank is acting like Churban doesn't exist. When JP tries to read him, Finch seems kind of bored, and maybe a little skeptical of JP's judgement. He thinks JP ought to just cut loose of Churban.

When he comes back, Crill asks JP what he knows about the crew of the Tuscany, and JP can assure him they are a gang of pirates, not to be trusted under any circumstances. Meanwhile, JP is kind of on the fence about whether he needs to go back to McQuade, but Churban can't take the withdrawl at all. He's gone back to the doc before JP even notices.

Crill goes looking for the Tuscany and gives it a once-over. They're a well-trained and coordinated group, close knit, but not so many that he can't imagine fighting them. He then goes to a bar and starts asking about the crew. The bartender goes away and never comes back.