LogApocalypse World: Black Rain-Jason-13

Game log for the 2021/07/04 session of AW: Black Rain, as taken by Jason

Xander, Fisher, and the gang String loaned the savvyhead head out in the short bus that Captain Maxwell loaned him. Fisher's guiding the driver, and as the bus heads down into a canyon, he tells the driver to stop and let him go scope the exit. Sure enough, the exit's camped, and there's gonna be an ambush. He looks around and sees some guys near the barricade, and also figures there's pretty much go to be a person right around the next bend. Fisher climbs up to the rim, aiming to outflank the ambush.

Sure, he's looking down on some guys waiting at the turn, and an observer on the opposite rim, using a spyglass to look around the curve. He snipes the observer without anyone detecting. He then opens fire on the gang below, killing a couple and terrifying the rest into relocating. The survivors leave on motorcycles. Fisher runs back to the bus and tells them to be ready for battle as they exit the convoy. The barricade's not manned anymore, so they clear it without much effort. The rain picks up not long after that, and it's nearly sunset before they get to the lantern deep.

Since it's going to be dark inside anyway, Fisher gets everyone going. He knows what room they need to go to, but the roof collapse means it might be hard to get there. Xander asks the maelstrom what the best way in would be, and he feels like he hears a whole group of people walking in the same direction, then the sound of people wading through water. He asks Fisher, who confirms there's a flooded area, from which he, String, and Sybil had backtracked on their last trip. Xander checks it out before putting a foot into the water, and sees a spot with light reflecting off it, percolating through or off the water. Somewhere a couple hundred yards yonder, there's a passage up. He also sees ripples in the pool, which he points out to a very disappointed Fisher. He decides that if he needs to beat a retreat, he's going to stay very close to the gunlugger.

The cultistReebok tries the water. Xander starts arguing with her about it, and then Fisher yells at them to focus. As they move, there's a loud sloshing noise from one side. Several people immediately pivot that way, waving torches and Xander's lantern. Then Fisher disapears under the water. Xander tries to reach for him, but he's gone. There's a lot of splashing, yelling, and people shooting into the water. Xander decides to go after Fisher and dives in. He gets hold of some nasty rubbery thing, and bites it hard. It explodes in his mouth, filling it with the pustulent essence of nast. The beast responds by raking his face with something. He feels Fisher kick him, and latches onto the boot.

Fisher, for his part, goes for a knife, but as he does so, something rips his gun away. Xander gets his head above water and takes a gulp of air, then calls for help. He keeps hold of the boot and pulls hard, and gets Fisher's boot firmly locked in his arms. In the chaos, someone steps on Xander's light, and now it's darker. The gang comes over the whales away on the monster until it lets go, and then Fisher takes a gasping breath of actual air.

Fisher ignores Xander's instructions and tries to dive for his rifle. Xander goes running toward the light. The gang doesn't follow his orders. Most of them are pulling back to get out of the water. Fisher gives up and chases after Xander, except the water is still full of monster, so he's also blasting his pistol. He occasionally sees a nasty purple arm come out of the water, and when he does, he blows it apart. It's ricochet city out there, but the monster or monsters decide that they've had enough of this treatment. This display of firepower gets the gang moving again.

They end up at a spot where the roof fell in, and they can crawl up to open sky. Over on this end of the flooded area, the water feels a lot warmer.

Luna arrives in Running Rock and starts looking for a place to stay. She and Boon, who came into town with her, go to the first tavern she sees, and find a back table where she can have a drink ad get her bearings. Boon knows she's trying to avoid Dyke, and tells her what he knows about Running Rock, which isn't a whole lot. Then he warns her that he'll make no effort to resist interrogation if Dyke catches him, and she leaves. She checks out the cult in town, bumping into Prentiss.

Luna tells her new friend that she needs help, and Prentiss is all about helping her. The cultist puts her cloak around Luna, hood up, and leads her to the grotto. String's there, laying her hand on someone, and recognizes Luna right away. Prentiss tells her that Luna's a seeker there to learn. Luna explains that she's trying to hide from someone, and he'd never think to look for her with the cult. When String asks, she identifies Dyke as her stalker, and tells her that he'd be alone.

String heads into town. It's night by now. She goes to the tavern nearest the gate, gets people's attention, and puts the word out that Dyke is not welcome in Running Rock, that he's a slaver and a criminal. Kruger asks how she came by the information, and thanks her when she explains she heard it from someone else at the Grotto. He then buys her a drink and asks her if he should trust Captain Maxwell. She tells him that Maxwell's priorities are the town first, himself second, and the people who works for him somewhere in between. He won't turn his back on Kruger if Kruger's loyal to him, and Kruger should keep his nose clean. He asks what he should be worried about, and she tells him it's not the Captain he should worry about, it's the castle. She gets Kruger to take her hand while she opens her brain and asks the maelstrom about the voids in the keep. In the process, she learns about the oddity of the door in the #4 cistern. Kruger pays her for the information and seems a little nervous about her brain powers. He leaves, but she hangs around to see if Dyke is going to show up. Aster turns up in the tavern as well.

Cadbury comes to see Captain Maxwell and tells him that Fisher is a loose cannon. He can't get past his anger over the death of his son due to Fisher's grenade, and it wasn't until Fisher went off with Xander that poor Cadbury realized how much he wanted Fisher to stay gone. The boss explains that he keeps Fisher around because he gets results, and it's safer to keep him on their side. That notwithstanding, he's sympathetic to how someone might find the gunlugger a little disturbing. The best the Captain can offer is to keep Fisher far away from Cadbury. Cadbury appreciates the thought but he's going to quit if Fisher starts working in the Keep again.

In the lantern deep, the gang's made it up to a hallway that Fisher thinks looks familiar. He thinks he can navigate back to the big room with the catwalks, through the corridors and offices, and back to the control room. Because of Xander's wounds and everyone having gone through the water, their little group is leaving a real distinct trail. The stairwell that was fixed in Fisher's mind is partially collapsed, but Fisher and Xander between them find their way OK. (Fisher knows the way but Xander's more open to the maelstrom.) The gang rearranges desks and bookcases to barricade the door and works out a watch schedule while Fisher does some emergency treatment on Xander's wounds. He reminds Xander that the savvyhead owes him for treatment.

In the middle of the night, Reebok wakes Xander up again and asks him if he heards "that". Now that things are quiet, there's a weird clicking noise, once every couple seconds. He follows the sound and sees a thing built into one of the walls with a needle that twitches occasionally. It's labelled "Roentgen." He decides the group needs to move and move now, and they wake up the group. They backtrack, following the same path to the roof from Fisher's last trip, stopping to loot not-String's body. The cultists don't like seeing a dead copy of String. Fisher explains about how he and String came to kill not-String while Xander steals her napsack. As they make their way to edge, Xander falls through the roof. Fisher rushes over and grabs his arms before he can slip through. Xander's got some cuts and scrapes but he keeps all his good stuff. They make their way back to the bus and head out.

Dyke turns up in town that night. He tries to order a drink at the bar, and the bartender gives String a look and says, "Sorry friend, we can't help you here." Dyke KOs the bartender, then asks who else can't help him. A whole lot of people stand up, some of whom have weapons, and Dyke can see many of them are looking at String. Dyke looks at the Hocus, takes a couple of steps toward her, and then someone racks a shotgun. He asks if she's in charge, but then Kruger stands up and says he's in charge, actually. String says, "Sorry, friend, we're full. You gotta leave." Dyke quietly says, "That bitch," and then, more loudly, says that he'll move on, but they don't know what sort of trouble they've let into their house. He leaves, and String goes to help the bartender with her magic healing powers. She thanks Kruger for his assistance. He sends members of his gang to escort String home and also to make sure Dyke stays gone.

Aster comes to look in on Luna, and tells her that she owes String gratitude. He asks her what Dyke was referring to in his warning. She convinces him that the real issue is Dyke and his expectations, not anything she did wrong. He still warns her that if she becomes a threat to String, he'll see her gone. Then he offers her a bowl of rainwater. She tries to fake drinking it, but he's not fooled. He still shows her where she can lie down, and doesn't bother her much.

The moment String returns, Aster's in her ear, warning her that Luna didn't really drink the water. String isn't worried. She tells Luna she's welcome to stay, but probably doesn't have to, since Dyke's run off.

A couple days later, the short bus returns to town and drops some wounded cultists off. Fisher helps some people out of the bus, and notices that Luna, for whom he has some curiously romantic feelings, is in the grotto. He goes back into the bus. Since Xander's considerably the worse for wear, she puts her healing hand upon him, and gives him a nice little boost back to health. Luna and Xander see one another and renew their relationship, which kind of makes Xander feel bad. This gives Luna a chance to observe String's healing mojo in action.

Xander reviews the loot and finds a facility plan with a bunch of hand-written notes on it, and another one that's similar but opposite. It's clearly from the other side. Not-String's notes include a list of questions in Not-Xander's handwriting. One of them, underlined and circled, is "right-hand or left-hand spin?" He knows that on this side, we use the right-hand rule.

Captain Maxwell finds Fisher and asks for a mission report. Fisher misses his gun a lot, cares very little for the dead cultists, had no pretext for killing Xander, and is acting super weird because he's in love with Luna. Captain Maxwell finds this last piece of information extremely odd. He asks Fisher to talk to Kruger and see what's up with Dyke, and also to not be around Cadbury. Then they both go see Xander.

The Captain asks whether not-String's plan or not-Fisher's plan looks better. Xander figures the lantern deep is a strong source of energy that could be a bomb. The boss does not favor making huge bombs. He wants Xander to make a firm plan and then let him know. When they're done, Fisher pushes Xander to make him a new silencer. Xander agrees.