LogAWBO Smoke On The Water-Jason-10

Game log for the 2023/01/29 session of Apocalypse World Burned Over - Smoke On The Water, as taken by Jason

Live day to day rolls:

• Churban: living space is easy, fresh food is hard
• Jacob: Skilled labor is easy, consensus is hard
• Finch: News is free, information is easy
• Crill: Acclaim is free, luxury goods are easy
• JP: staple foods are free, raw materials are easy

We pick up with Bantam and JP still talking about Bantam's deep desire to kill all Lily's fish eggs. Bantam wanted to break in, but JP talks him down to hiring Crill to destroy the eggs with his flamethrower and somehow convincing Jacob to go along with it.

Crill asks around for Benson, and finds people other than cooperative. Crill's reputation may be inhibiting his progress in this matter, since the captain is not generally known as someone who needs killing urgently. Crill eats some food, and ponders why he's not making progress. He identifies Kodiak the bouncer as one major issue. Leroy doesn't like murder on the permises, and that sort of includes murder obviously planned on the premises. Also, since Crill has been asking around, it's possible word will get back to Benson that he's a target, and he'll leave Upwell before Crill even gets to him. Crill decides to cut to the chase and go talk to Leroy. He comes right out and asks Leroy to put him in touch with Benson to talk busines, and for the right price, Leroy tells him where to look.

Crill gets halfway across the room before everyone at Benson's table begins eyeballing him. Crill approaches hands open, and starts talking about Jax. Turns out that Benson thinks Jax lets Wendigo run Finnegan's Shoal, and he doesn't like it. Crill tells him that Jax really wants Benson's trade back, and if he got in touch with her, it would be worth his while. Word is out that Crill has done work for Wendigo too, so Benson is pretty hostile to him too. Benson makes it clear that he will not visit the Shoal again as long as the Tuscany is welcome there. Crill tries to sell him on a visit to the Shoal, with Crill as escort, so he wouldn't have to worry about Wendigo. Benson is not interested in that deal, and is not interested in going anywhere with the man who sank the Tarawa. Crill gives it up for the moment, but tries to shadow Benson when he leaves.

Benson meets with several other captains, and several of them go out and come back. He does a lot of business and talks to a lot of people. Eventually he and his crew return to the Kite. Crill tries to have another conversation as the crew of the Kite untie, but Benson is firm. He will not return to Finnegan's Shoal while the Tuscany is there.

Crill decides he's done talking, and shoots the deck hand untying the Kite's lines, blowing off half his arm. People on the deck grab for spears and harpoon guns. Benson jumps out, yelling that he will skullfuck Crill for his, and grabs a fire axe, which he takes to the mooring line. Crill shoots again, and someone shoots back, blasting him right in the head. By the time he wakes up, the Kite is gone, and a bunch of Grey Cutters are standing over him. He says, "Yeah, no problems here, I just got into an altercation, and I need to see Jacob about it." Torren is not so sure they can just let Crill go. They think this needs to come to Stempler's attention. They put Crill in a boat with them and start to head over to Greywall. Crill pulls a gun and tells them to take him to Jacob's. The Grey Cutters have no interest in that deal, and Torren goes to take his pistol away. Crill backhands Torren, for which the gang shoot him several times, strip him clean, dump him overboard, and motors away.

Finch is hanging out on the Kayak, ruminating about how crazy shit has gotten recently, and hears a barrage of gunfire, followed by a short, sharp, flurry of gunfire. Some minutes after that, he notices a body floating toward them in the water. Shoeshine asks if that's what he thinks it is, and shortly thereafter, they realize it's Crill. Pickles immediately jumps into the water and drags Crill back to the boat. "Look what the dog dragged in," Shoeshine says.

They drag Crill to the hospital, where Jacob is started by how severely messed up Crill is. He's got a head wound, a couple through and throughs, and a ton of deep tissue bruising where his armor took the impact. It's such a disaster that all he can think to do is hook up some fluids, so Crill won't bleed out, and walks away.

Tim's OOC contribution:
Here lies Crill, he won't be missed
He thought he was cheddar, found out he was Swiss

Finch then suggests they need to talk about the next job. He's heard about a section of ocean where there have been sudden fogs, and now people report seeing things in the fog. One includes the claim that they saw the Tarawa in the fog. Finch assumes it's the volcano. There's also word of a kerfuffle and possibly regime change at Hoddard's Rock. Anyway, he's planning on heading back to that spot in Hooligan's Grotto where they found working power. Finch wants to set up a staging area in the elevator shaft, so they can dive deeper and make decompression stops. Jacob figures Shoeshine could help with that, but it will take time to accumulate the stuff they need. Oh, and Jacob finds out that the prisoner formerly known as Black has escaped, though vegetable-Lily and the fish eggs are still there. Of course, it's hard to be sure all the fish eggs are still there.

Finch hits the docks, and finds that with all the salvage coming from the Tarawa, lots of the equipment he needs is abudantly available. He moves a lot of it to his bolthole. As he does so, he discovers refugees are crowding the Shambles. Finch puts it out to the information brokers that Finnegan's Shoal is on the rebound and might be a good place for refugees to go. He bumps into Headley, who passes on that "they" are back. He saw them. Two nights ago, swimming around the Shambles. Finch tells him the mer-men reproduce with fish brides. Anyway. Headley wants to dive on a door someone broke open, and Finch agrees to watch his back. They're going to meet in the Shambles.

JP goes to Dixie Rose Deluxe Emporium & Bait Shack, which is the sort of place that sells everything as long as it's crap, and which is adjacent to Leroy's, to ask what they know about fish people. Dixie Rose refuses to believe John Paul saw fish people. He tells her about the girl who gave birth to the fish eggs. Dixie Rose assumes it's just kink, and tells him the real experience is to shove baby live eels up there. Clearly, she's not picking up the truth of what he is putting down, but she's also not laughing at him. He realizes that if he really wants to get through to her, he needs to talk to her when she isn't working. He'll return after closing.

After hours, Dixie lets him in and slams him up against the wall before he registers that he's not in drag now. Dixie tells him to stop, because these rumors are going to get them killed. There are always rumors, and he's seen stuff he doesn't understand, like people he saw drown just walking around, or people coming through Upwell, asking questions like JPs, and then people getting killed. Dixie, in short, thinks asking questions about fish people attracts entirely the wrong sort of people, and also, he warns JP that Bantam feels at home in the water, and never to get into a breath-holding contest with him. Anyway, Dixie tells JP to warn Jacob, and then to drop it.

Black turns up in Momma June's, looking bedraggled, possibly doped, babbling. Momma June's people let him in, and then Churban has a vision. He's in the cafeteria, where all the children take their meals together. Older children serve the food, dressed differently to signify their role. Churban's cadre eats together, separated from other children. When Merody moves to sit next to him, her elbow bumps an apple off his tray, and it rolls across the floor to the group of children from which he came. One of them picks it up and returns it to him. One of the guards sees the apple change hands, whistles blow, and that entire other group of kids get the crap beaten out of them, while Churban's group are told to continue eating. He comes to and finds someone putting wedges of apple into Black's mouth.

Churban warns them that Black is an escapee from the infirmary and that the guards will be looking for him. Churban tries to explain to Momma June's people that this guy needs to go, but Momma June never turns anyone away, and they tell Churnan to be helpful instead. Churban and Black have a brief interchange in which Black admits that he suspects that Churban is "a weapon" and he doesn't know where the weapons come from. As Churban brings Black a sleeping bag and sits down next to him, he has another vision. There's a machine, a huge whirring contraption full of blades and saws and things that cut and stitch, a multi-limbed monstrosity built over a table. A child is on the table, covered up to his nose. The machine has removed the top of his skull, and the machine is exhuming his brain. Dr Dafoe says, "Observe, class, the effects of Churban's training." The child's brain has been liquified.

Anyway, Black sleeps, and Churban reads him. He realizes that if he really wants to get information, he needs to build some trust with this guy. On the other hand, if he just wants to use leverage, there's always the eggs. Most likely, the guy just wants to go home. Churban also recollects Dr Defoe's training on how to vivisect mer-men to find out where they came from.

Churban gives Tan antidotes to his drugs and prepares to set him free. As he wakes up, he asks about Lily, and then the children. Jacob tells him the fish eggs for scattered all over the floor, stepped on, chemically clean, and otherwise destroyed. He can tell Tan doesn't believe him, but is going along with the story. He also tells Tan he has no reason to keep him and that he's free to go.

JP gets to Jacob just in time to see the guards setting Tan free. Tan sits down at the edge of the dock and tells them he'll go when he's ready. So that's that then. JP asks to talk to Jacob in private, and though Jacob tries to demur, the captain persists. JP joins Jacob and Eloise in private. He can tell that the doctor just wants this trouble to be over, and wants JP to take up as little of his time as possible. JP explains that one shouldn't ask about fish people, and leaves. Eloise gives Jacob a look, just to see if JP maybe needs to be crossed out. Jacob does not want that. JP, meanwhile, heads back to Momma June's.

JP is quite surprised to see Churban and Black hanging out. He gives them some space while he checks on Momma June. Churban then tells both of them that he was being made into weapon against the fish people, but he isn't sure he wants to do that anymore.

Finch sees two men and a woman come in, in a boat with a silent motor. One man has his arm in a sling. They walk to the door of the infirmary, and Shoeshine says, "Oh shit. Check it out. They're in step." That means training. Finch is confused and asks what they're going to do about it. Shoeshine has this great idea to punch Finch in the nose and then take him to the doc, but he's forgotten than Frank and Pickles are trained to fight. Pickles jumps on him and knocks him down, while Frank starts tearing into him. Now it's Shoeshine who really needs to see the doctor.

Barclay the guard is from the old crew and recognizes Shoeshine, so the two of them are admitted directly, along with the newcomers. Jacob sends Finch and Shoeshine to room one. Shoeshine is in considerable pain, but tells Finch very clearly to tell Eloise that the newcomers are bad news. When Finch comes out, the uninjured male newcomer gives him a bit of the stinkeye, but Finch ignores him and goes to warn Eloise that the three new guests have military training. She tells him to keep Shoehine suppressed while she warns Jacob.

Jacob discovers that under the cast, the injured man does not have a broken bone. He sees the other man standing out in the hall, and that he has a lump in the same place that Churban does. He sees Finch in the hall and tries to give him a warning look. The woman moves to put her hand on Jacob's shoulder, and tells him that she thinks he has something they're interested in. Jacob is not feeling safe.

Finch, meanwhile, borrows Shoeshine's SMG and gets ready for violence. He can't see Eloise, but thinks she's covering the hallway.

The woman asks Jacob to assume they're family of Lily's. When he says she's brain-dead, the woman asks after the roe. The eggs. Jacob tries to bluff it out, but suddenly he finds himself reliving the whole experience, and then he loses consciousness. They catch him before he falls. She reports Lily's location to the others, and they go forth.

Finch can see the man isn't in a cast anymore, but since Jacob has healing powers, that might just mean he doesn't need it. As the military folks move out, Finch decides to go tell Jacob that Shoeshine needs help. Once he sees Jacob is down, Finch gets sort of excited. He shouts the alarm out. Eloise and the guards swing into action. They hear a muffled squelch from Lily's room, then a "tink" noise, followed by a smoke grenade tossed into the hallway.

Crill wakes up to shouting noises. She sees a woman looking down the hallway with an AK, and has a very brief window to figure out what's going on.

Churban was coming to see Jacob, and arrives into a cloud of smoke. He can see that shit is hitting the fan, so he's about to head right back down, but one of the guards locks the elevator in place, so he throws himself to the ground. He's got a feeling crawling in the back of his mind, which he hasn't felt since... I can't remember.

Finch tries to figure out how to get to the lab. He communicates his plan with Eloise and then moves while she delivers covering fire. He quickly crawls his way into the lab, under cover of the smoke they threw. He can see fire and feel the heat, and can vaguely make out human shapes moving around in the smoke. He opens fire. They had no idea he was even a threat, so the carnage is considerable. The man with the fake broken arm falls to the floor, and Finch grabs his knife.

In the entryway, Churban feels some kind of mental power gathering, and tries to lash out at it. For Finch, it briefly feels like touching fire coral, a pain so intense his vision starts to red out, but then he hears a man scream and fall to the ground. He crawls over and sees the man clutching his head. Finch knifes him a lot. Finch then screams, "Fire!!"

Churban hears Merody, clear as day, asking him to help her. He asks where she is, and she only says, "Come to me." He can sense that she's down the hall. He tells the guards that one of the bad guys is down the hall.

Crill wraps a sheet up as a makeshift toga.

Finch hears glass breaking, just out of hand range, and suspects it's the woman, who might be psychically aware of him. He can tell by the flow of air that the breaking glass was the glass section of the wall of the room, so he low-crawls back out of the room. It sounds like Eloise and her buddy are working their way up the hall. He gets to the doorway and calls out, "Fire in the lab!" Eloise moves to him, then shoots into the lab, and starts pulling him out.

JP can hear gunfire in the distance. He's at Frenchy's when he sees smoke billowing out of the hospital. He decides to head to Momma June's to get Churban. As he pulls out, he sees something human-shaped come out the hospital window and hit the water. He decides to let Stempler worry about it and continues to Momma June's.

Crill goes out her window. Sploonch!

Finch goes to grab Shoeshine next.

Jacob starts to come to. He's lying on the floor, his head hurts, and he's wondering why nobody is doing anything about the lab being on fire. Then he snaps back to reality (ope there goes gravity) and yells for Eloise. For her part, she's yelling "room 2," and the guards are dragging Jacob out. He asks for details on the fire and tells them to put it out. They ask Finch if the room is clear, and he says, "Yes" in a very uncertain tone. Jacob then makes his way over to Shoeshine and eases his pain. They hear the sounds of the room being cleared, then the fire extinguishers.

The fire extinguishers aren't working, so Jacob has to go and advise them. He breathes in some fumes but they get it under control. They find a guard dead, with his leaking out his ears.

Churban has another vision! The roaring machine is done, the vivisection of the dead fish-child complete, and the class being lead away. Churban stays behind a moment, looking at his victim, and Merody puts her arm through his and says, "I'm so proud of you. I knew you could do it." He comes to looking at Seversen, and knowing that he killed him. He approaches Finch and says, "There were my people, from where I come from." Finch just says, "Were, being the operative word." He returns Shoeshine's gun.

Jacob finds that Lily is dead and the eggs destroyed. One of the dead intruders has bullet wounds to the extremeties and a knife wound to the face, but his lungs are intact!

Crill comes ashore in the market, where someone recognizes him as one of the people who took out the Tarawa and offers to buy him a drink. Someone else gives him a wetsuit.