LogAWBO Smoke On The Water-Jason-11

Game log for the 2023/02/12 session of Apocalypse World Burned Over - Smoke On The Water, as taken by Jason

Live day to day rolls:

• Jacob finds skilled labor is easy and hard analysis is free
• Churban needs health but can't get it
• JP finds that labor is easy and shelter is free
• Finch finds know-how easy but raw materials hard
• Crill finds security easy and status free

JP's at Momma June's when Bantam shows up, wanting to get to the hospital and make sure things are copacetic. The hospital is closed. The elevator isn't working. JP tells him he's going to go to the market, since he's got no intention of breaking into the hospital. Bantam does not like that answer. He accuses JP of welshing on their deal to kill Lily. He wants JP to talk Jacob into letting them up. Bantam talks to a few of his minions, and they decide they're going to climb up a few floors, then try to get to the stairs. Maybe the stairs are only blocked at the ground floor. JP tries the intercom buzzer a few more times, but nobody answers.

Bantam finally says that JP can go to the market, but if he sees a green flare, he needs to come back right away. Sure thing. Of course. Absolutely.

Jacob and Finch start trying to air the place out, triage the wounded, collect the dead, etc. Poor Shoeshine is still trying to heal up from his dog bites. Anyway. Lilly is dead, Sorenson is dead, the two military-seeming guys who came in are dead, and some dude keeps pressing the intercom buzzer. There's a pause and then some dude keeps pressing the intercom buzzer in the specific pattern that shows it's Stempler. Of course, they let Stempler in.

Stempler reminds Jacob that he wants the facility kept open, and that there are customers waiting downstairs. If the hospital guard can't keep the place open and secure, maybe the Grey Cutters need to take over. Jacob seizes the opportunity to show him the bodies of the two intruders, and suggests that the Upwell guards should be on the lookout. The hardholder agrees that having people importing their drama into the hospital is unacceptable. Jacob tries to protest that his new hired security is able to handle the situation, but the boss man doesn't agree. He's going to station some of his men until things clear up. Jacob decides to deflect some attention by letting Stempler know that Crill is still alive. Stempler mentions that things a little confused. Jacob tries to draw a parallel between that and the problems in the hospital, but Stempler isn't impressed by comparisons.

JP's only halfway to the market when the flare goes up, so he turns around and comes back.

Churban asks Finch to keep an eye / ear / whatever out for Dr Dafoe. Finch then leaves with Stempler and his men, while JP comes up with Bantam and crew.

Jacob has Eloise assign someone to keep an eye on the people Stempler left behind, at all times.

JP can tell immediately that the hospital is a very tense place right now, and if Bantam goes wild here, the consequences will be extreme. He senses that Guidry might share his desire to keep everything real cool right now. He asks Jacob after Lilly. Jacob is only interested in treating patients. Bantom promptly declares that he's checking on a patient. Jacob assures him that Lilly's dead, and lets him see the body. That satisfies Bantam, so they leave.

Eloise then pulls Jacob aside, and says that if Stempler's men are going to stay, her rates have to go up. They talk about the last attackers, and Jacob explains his theory that the attackers came from some undersea facility, where they give people brain powers for fighting the mer-people. Eloise offers to have her people assist with any necessary vivisections. Jacob will settle for disections. He also gets Eloise's consent for harvesting Sorenson's organs.

Jacob opens his brain and wonders when the next crisis is coming. He can sense a storm brewing on the horizon. He thinks he sees the beacon of the Hoddard's Rock lighthouse.

Jacob goes to see Churban. He takes his blood to see if he might be able to tolerate Sorenson's lung. His blood makes no sense. There are factors associated with A positive, but he tests as O negative. He starts prepping Churban for surgery. This will be risky to Churban, Jacob will need a trustworthy steady-handed assistant, and also, Jacob warns Eloise to keep all her people away from the operating theater, unless things go real bad, in which case she needs to take care of things.

Bantam goes his own way, and JP finds Finch making dive bags. They trade tales of recent events. They sit down for a beer, and JP lends a hand with the bags.

JP heads off to the market, and finds Crill there. Crill's bleeding under his wet suit, and is kind of sitting in a puddle of (diluted) blood. Jacob is really the only game in town for wound care, unless you count the witch doctor in the Shambles, and it's not clear when the hospital will reopen. Nobody's real excited about that witch doctor option, or about trying to get to Hoddard's Rock before Crill bleeds out, so they head to Jacob's. As they do, JP notices that there's a bit of a crowd watching, including one of the Grey Cutters. Nobody interferes, though, so they take the Betty Jo back to the hospital and press the call button. JP heads back to Momma June's rather than going into the hospital.

Around that time, Eloise comes down and tells Finch that Jacob needs his help. Crill and Finch ride up together, and Crill explains why he felt the need to leap out an eighth story window. Jacob is happy to see Finch and a little appalled by the shape Crill's in. He lays his hands on and stops Crill's bleeding, knits his bones back together, and eases his pain. He does some proper medical treatment, sedates Crill, and sends someone to tell Stempler that Crill's at the hospital.

Jacob then explains to Finch that he needs his help with a lung transplant. The assistant's job may include holding things, washing things, and doing something violent to stop Churban from destroying things. As compensation, the doc offers up half his share of the next dive. That motivates Finch sufficiently.

Churban starts reviewing his lessons in control, vaguely recollected from childhood. It goes poorly. He flashes back instead. He's escaped, hiding in the clinic from the guards, and just in the first room he can find. It turns out that the body of one of his classmates is sitting right there. He's too young to know what it is, but he's in the morgue. Every place he looks to hide has a dead body in it. De Defoe eventually finds him, and tells him it will be OK, Churban can just come out with him. When he eventually coaxes Churban out of his drawer, a guard hiding just out of sight grabs in and injects him with something. He comes to in Jacob's operating room, hyperventilating, freaking out, and the lights start to flicker.

Jacob tries to talk him down. Churban's not feeling it. No matter what Jacob says, Churban can't look away from the syringe. He's hyperventilating and staring and gasps out "Hand the syringe and a bag." Jacob has Eloise cover Churban as he hands over the syringe. Churban takes a deep breath and injects himself, at which point the lights stop flickering. They get to work. With Finch's help, the operation seems to go pretty well. Jacob uses healing touch to knit his bones back together for him.

Crill, meanwhile, wakes up to find Stempler in his room. He wants to know why Crill is leaning on Captain Benson. Or, more to the point, he wants Crill to stop bothering Benson and let him keep selling his catch at Upwell. He'd also like to know who Crill is working for. Crill lies and says he will back down. Crill figures maybe his temporary popularity in Upwell might be making Stempler a little reluctant to have him bumped off.

JP goes back to Momma June's and discovers that Black came for Tan, and they left together. He asks what Momma needs at the market. She actually needs some people conveyed quietly to Hoddard's Rock. A guy and his kid have run afoul of Stempler and need to be elsewhere. At dark, he sets sail. He quickly notices that there seem to be more boats around than usual. He's going to need to time things carefully to avoid being noticed. We shall designate these passengers as Yogi and Booboo. He gets them to the Rock OK, and learns absolutely nothing about them during the voyage. While's he's refueling, he notices the hand working the fuel system acting funny. He's looking around a lot more than usual. The captain thinks maybe he's considering stowing away. They exchange small talk, and the hand assures him that he's not in any trouble at Hoddard's Rock. That isn't to say he's not wanted elsewhere... but he's OK with making a trip to Upwell.

Later on, a squall blows up. He comes in, towels off his head, watching the sea roll by, and JP notices that he has the same scars as Churban. This new guy, Fillmore, clearly has a backstory.

Jacob autopsies the two military-seeming guys. It's going to take him some time to figure out what those bumps in their heads are. There are tons of incredibly fine filaments there, and they're absurdly delicate. Mapping them without destroying them won't be easy. Maybe this is an antenna system, for communication? But then there are also lines that go to the motor control center, so it might be a control device. He then autopsies Lily and verifies that she was born with her gills. There are no signs of anything being implanted. He can find evidence of gene splicing, and also cancerous tumors all over the place. In fact, she has cancer in an organ he's never seen before, hanging off one of her lungs. It seems to work like a swim bladder.

Time passes.

Finch and Jacob are ready for their next dive. Despite the doc's worries, Stempler's men make no objection to him departing, accompanied by Shoeshine. They arrive back at Hooligan's Grotto, and find evidence that other crews have been here to pick things over. Finch hopes that the other team didn't get as deep as they plan to go, with their improvised diving bell and all that. They discover the level they previously explored, which they thought was deeper than anyone else ever got, was only halfway to the true bottom. They get about 3/4 of the way to that true bottom, and begin to hear a strange hum in the water, and a giant vault door. There's a panel next to the door, which doesn't appear to have power. He opens the panel, and discovers it has power, but the connections to the buttons are all corroded and wrecked. He starts working on a bypass, and eventually comes up with a plan that should work, at the expense of grounding through him. It's a painful moment, but the door begins to open.

The other side turns out to have been flooded already, which is one danger averted, and a body floats out immediately. The door and elevator near it are sized for vehicles, and they see a couple. The sea water has rusted them to shit. The vault door itself looks to be in decent shape. Off that main tunnel, there are many rooms, which seem to be barracks, control rooms, etc. The control room has power and tons of things with fancy glowing lights. They have labels with words like "containment field" and "tokamak." It's a fusion reactor in maintenance mode, making just enough power (and burning just enough fuel) to keep itself contained. It has about 40% fuel remaining. The other rooms mostly contain garbage, stuff that might have been useful once but has since rusted through. Jacob begins carrying stuff up to the diving bell, while Finch grabs a few last things. He begins to get an overwhelming feeling of being watched. This time, since they can decompress more readily, they don't have any trouble with the bends. Finch asks, but Jacob says he never saw anyone or any sign of people, and there was no sign of anything being disturbed. Finch tries to sell Jacob on his theory, but gets no traction.