We Mad Few Who Persist (Apocalypse World 2e) IC

[Benthesquid]

Bang Bang:

Things are fairly subdued in the Four Hands. Folks are drinking like they can imagine the liquor will wash away a lifetime of hard days and bloody nights. Every once in a while the booze will take someone the wrong way, and the Forty-Fours will step in to guide them, with more emphasis than subtlety, out the door, but no one's drawn iron or blood yet.

When your patrons come up to the bar to settle the tab, what will you accept as payment?

A big part of the appeal of the place, besides the plentiful food and potent liquor, is showing that you've got the wealth to spare on a luxurious meal. Which is nice, because it means that by and large, folks won't dicker too hard over the bill. There's always one, though...

Blissgirl leaves off flirting with the barflies to sidle up to you, and she's looking worried. "It's Harle, boss. He asked for a bottle of the good stuff, and he said to put it on your tab."

Harle, a ferret lean ****** grins at you with a mouth full of filed sharp teeth, and calls out, "Fitz sends his love."

What do you do?
***
Wrench

You wake up from what passes for sleep with a head full of cotton wool and an image dancing in your retinas. The Cutting Blade... It's doable, definitely. But it's going to be dangerous and expensive, and before you can even get started, you're going to need to work out how to build a device that can generate a psychic field.

In the meantime, you've got more immediate needs- food, for starters, and ethanol to run the cobbled together machines of your workshop. Spend one or two barter, or tell me you won't.

There's someone hanging around the edge of your quarry, too, which you might want to look into. Whether out of politeness or caution, they're not venturing down into it, but they're taking no particular care not to be seen.

Are you expecting callers? What do you do?
***
Preacher

The sky is heavy and gunmetal gray today, which makes a nice change from the dull flickering gray of the past week or so. Might be it'll rain. Might be it'll even be water that falls. Stranger mercies have happened. For now it's dry, unless you're right down on the lake edge. Market's busy anyhow- food, filtered water if you're brave, small beer if your smart, fuel, weapons and ammo, a thousand odds and ends useless, dangerous, sinful or some combination of the above are on sale.

Spend one or two barter on your lifestyle, or tell me you won't.

A little ways off the market square, not so central that Mekhong'll send her boys to clear them out of the way of barter, not so far off that anyone coming to buy or to sell today can avoid seeing their display, Watt the would be prophet is initiating another convert. It's a newcomer to the settlement, best you can tell, all wild eyed and xylophoned ribs.

He's pretty well focused on the brand Watt's heating over a trash fire, and he looks like he might be starting to regret his conversion, but the metal x he's tied to doesn't leave an awful lot of room for second thoughts. Watt's all ranting about the coming scourge, and how only those who bear his mark will be passed over. Most people are walking by without sparing more than a glance, but there are a few, curious, intrigued, or just sick enough to enjoy a good branding, who are stopping to watch.

Have you crossed paths with Watt before? What do you do?
***
Thorn

Holly lets out with a string of curses that'd take paint off the walls, if anyone had bothered to paint them in the first place. Benj snickers and sweeps up his dice, carved from the bones of... well, best not to ask. Nobody misses 'em, anyways. He sweeps up the casings they've been using to keep score, as well.

"I swear, I catch you cheating again, Benj, I'll nail you to the wall," Holly grumbles, but there ain't- much- heat in it.

"Locals are getting restless," says Mabel. Might be good to have some action soon. Just a thought." She doesn't give you much time to chew on that before adding, "Heading into town, gonna get that spook in the graveyard to take a look at my bike. You need anything from market?"

Spend one or two barter, or tell me you won't.

About that time, Mean Maya stumbles in, bruised and battered, cursing hard enough to make even Holly take notice. Between the invective, you can gradually work out that some huge ****ing truck damn near ran her bike down, and she went ass over teakettle getting out of the way.

What do you do?

[Blackhawk748]

"Ya, pick me up some food when you head in" *spending one Barter*

Once Maya comes in: "Where's that sonova bitch heading? We'll hunt that bastard down and show them what happens when someone ****s with a Knight of Thorn!"

[Mr. E]

Wrench, the Savvyhead
Barter: 5
Highlighted Stats: Weird, Hard
Bonefeel Hold: 1

The clouds in the dawn light are the colour of fading embers. Wrench shivers, pulling on her jacket and leaning out to sniff the air. She pads out slowly, stops, crouches down, running her fingers through the gravel, pulling out a handful and letting it slip through her fingers. Nose crinkling, she takes another experimental sniff, and looks up abruptly. Her eyes flicker rapidly over the treeline, inspecting the stranger.

She slips back inside, picking the 9mm off the bench, dropping it inside a pocket, 'cause she might be mad, but she's not stupid, see. Noting the lack of supplies on the bench, Wrench nods to herself, then walks slowly across the gravel pit, towards the figure in the treeline.

Someone ought to be coming this morning, so the wind tells her, but its motive is opaque. She shrugs, stops a relatively safe distance away, half-hidden by a mound of gravel.

"What do you want?"

Nearly forgot to add this, but I spend one barter on my lifestyle.

[DyerMaker]

Bang Bang (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22996804&postcount=6)

People of all shapes, sizes, and stature venture into the Four Hands. Booze is high on the list. Food and the Scene follow suit. Drink. Eat. Be Seen. Everyone is holding onto something and that thing is what you part with before leaving the Four Hands. The world's currency is barter. That means something different to each individual. If you're holding too tight, you'll go hungry, you'll stay thirsty and the people you need to see or that want to see you, they all go wanting. Bang Bang has her own table. Back of the house with a solid view of the bar and main dining area. People are happy. The clink of glass, the straight pour, the gastro-orgasmo, and all of the pomp. That's church for Bang Bang.

Blissgirl brings her ginger ass on over and gives the what now on Harle. This cat isn't right in the head. Bang Bang doesn't want to let top shelf booze go to waste but, putting Harle down inside the Four Hands is never an option. The customer is mostly right. When they're not, they can die later. Bang Bang delivers the bottle herself. The Belvedere bottle is frosted with a gold and blue label. Bang Bang never loses eye contact with Harle as she breaks the seal and untwists the bottle. Harle reaches forward only to have Bang Bang land a boot within inches of his crotch. "Oh no, baby. The lady pours." She fills his shot glass. His grin is gnarled with teeth filed like some long-gone loser. She sets the bottle on the table. "Tell Fitz to be here tomorrow. In person. People don't send love. They show it. No second chances Harle... None." Bang Bang was firm yet open-minded. Let the boys have their fun. She'll cash in on the far side.

[thenewflesh]

Preacher (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22999282&postcount=13)

I'll spend a barter on lifestyle.

Into the market Preacher goes, weaving his way through the stalls, buying a bit of food here, some ammo there. He's chewing on something one might generously refer to as "bread" when he runs into Watt. Again.

Last time, Watt was heating up the Four Hands, proclaiming the postapocalyptic-apocalypse to anyone that cared to listen (no one). When Preacher walked in, Watt turned his attention to him. "The Great Gods are coming back," he'd explained, "and they will be hungry." Blasphemy. There's something admirable about a man with true conviction, but this kind of heresy cannot be allowed to continue. Preacher tried to show the man his own folly, but then Watt got defensive and angry and Bang Bang had to ask them to leave. Some men there is no reasoning with.

Preacher finishes chewing up his bite of bread as he walks towards the scene. "Brother," he says calmly, "I am surprised to see you still here." His shotgun's still strapped to his back, and his voice is soft, but the implication is clear. "May I ask what you're doing to this man?"

[Benthesquid]

Thorn,

The truck, as it turns out, was tearing ass East, away from town. There's not much out that way except ruined villages and the occasional band of raiders gone too ****ing far to meet even the drastically lowered standards of society.

Maya also mentions that it seemed like it was coming from town.

What do you do?

***

Wrench

He's called Skitter, maybe because of the little sideways steps he tends to move with. The right side of his face was ruined in one of the pointless but bloody little wars of the past decade, but he's got Mekhong's trust, a rare commodity indeed.

He's still hanging back, towards the edge of the quarry, and he calls out, "Tinker-girl!" in that weird slurred snarly of his, then, very clearly speaking from memory, "Mekhong requests the pleasure of your presence, with regards to a possible commission."

What do you do?

***

Bang-Bang

Harle smiles for all the world like the booze was his only concern in the matter. "'Ta," he says, sipping. "He'll be here. With rings on his fingers and bells on his ****."

Blissgirl and Hoodoo circulate by not long after that. They wants to know what sort welcoming spread to put up for Fitz tomorrow- Scotch or shotguns, that sort of etiquette question.

Meanwhile, Harle buttonholes Juno, talking to her animatedly but in a low voice. Juno nods knowingly and smiles and gives exactly nothing away.

What do you do?

***

Preacher

Watt turns that wide-eyed gaze on you. He's grinning like a man whose seen the light and hasn't yet realized that it's from his own burning house. "Why, brother!" He cries. "I'm delighted you ask. What I am engaged in is no less than the salvation of this poor brother of ours. The mortification of his flesh, yes, but the salvation of his very mind and spirit."

He lifts the brand- a sort of branching W, and half turns towards the man on the rack, without quite turning his back on you.

What do you do?

[Blackhawk748]

"**** it, i dont care if that ******* is driving into the ocean, we'll pull his ass out and beat the **** outta him. so everybody get saddled up, we got a target"

[Mr. E]

Well, you certainly don't f*** with Mekhong. Wrench nods to herself, then moves out across the ground, to hold the conversation at a more pleasant distance. She dances across the ground, her movements eccentric, yet rythmic, the better to dodge the mines scattered around. Stepping over a hidden tripwire, she sidles up the slope, coming to within a few metres of Skitter.

"What kind of work? Shall I bring tools, or can it be bought back to here, scuttling-boy?"

She smiles suddenly and abruptly at her own poor attempt at humour, revealing rows of sharp teeth, before her face closes back down.

[thenewflesh]

Preacher smoothly removes the shotgun from his back, and without actually pointing it directly at Watt, shakes his head. "I think you'd better step away from this here man, friend. You and I both know that this is an ungodly way to purify a man's soul."

The correct way to purify a man's soul is, first, with wisdom and kindness, and failing that, with a shotgun blast to the face. Issued with a prayer, of course.

Nervously, the crowd begins to dissipate. Watching a ritual torture is all well and good until your head gets blown off in the crossfire. It had happened before in these parts and nobody was keen on repeating history.

[Benthesquid]

Thorn,

Looking for action, and having been disrespected, the knights are only too happy to mount up. Out East, the half-maintained roads give way to out and out rough country. There's no problem following the tracks, and then you spot a fair sized camp, all barbed wire and canvas, and the truck itself looming out of the fog like some prehistoric beast.

Couple of heavy weapons mounted on the truck, besides which, it's getting perilous close to sundown, and none of the Knights seem eager to be caught out in the dark this far east.

Holly suggests maybe it's better to arm up and come back break of day tomorrow.

What do you do?

***

Wrench

Skitter looks considering. "The thing now is just a dine 'n court," he says. "Sit down with the queen, tell her what she wants can be done. You'll have plenty of time to come back and pick up what you need before you actually get put to work proper, yeah?"

He pauses, scratching absently at a scab on his wrist. "Unless you got anything special you'd rather keep on you."

What do you do?

***

Priest

Watt stares at you, unblinking, for a long moment. Then, consideringly, that wide eyed gaze flicks from your shotgun to the branding iron he has clenched in his own fist. Evidently, the shotgun makes a more compelling argument, because he throws the branding iron down in the dust.

"It's a poor trade you make on another man's behalf, to save his skin and damn his soul," he calls over his shoulder as he turns to stalk off.

What do you do?

[Blackhawk748]

Thorn nods at Holly's suggestion "Ya, we'll head back, get some stuff and head back in the morning." An idea was forming in Thorn's mind, but itd take a bit of set up.

[Mr. E]

"Nothing yet, I should think." Wrench turns back to look over her lair, slips a hand into one pocket to feel the keys for the machinery jangle, then nods. Walking over a nearby, half dead tree, she reaches up to unhook the sign that hangs from its lowest branch. Turning it around, she hangs it so that "closed" sign faces the dirt track, then nods to herself again.

"Shall we visit la reyna, then?" Turning back to Skitter, she lets the words hang, then starts down the road, assuming he will catch up.

[thenewflesh]

"It's you who's seekin' to make a poor trade, brother." Preacher says sadly, and goes to untie the terrified man. He finds out what happened to the man, offers him food and lodging at his own hut if he needs it, and then goes to fetch Thorn. A maniac like Watt cannot possibly be allowed to remain in this town unchecked, and while Preacher was loath to draw first blood, it would take more eyes than just his own in order to keep Watt in line. And Thorn was in command of a lot of eyes.

[Benthesquid]

Preacher

The Knights aren't necessarily much for visitors. Mabel eyes you warily out of her good eye, hand drumming her hip just above the holster. "Good afternoon, handsome," she says. "Don't remember ordering in entertainment."

A distant dust cloud suggests the rest of the Knights are on their way back.

What do you do?
***
ThornAC

As you draw near the hideout, you notice Mabel talking to someone outside the gate. Even from here, the tilt of her head and the angle she holds herself at tell you that she's setting her hat at someone. Subtle, Mabel isn't. A little closer and you recognize the grimly religious figure of Prreacher.

What do you do?
***

Wrench

An unobservant individual might think it odd that Mekhong holds court in an open air tent rather than behind solid walls. A more observant individual might have noticed the winding path you took here through tightly packed tents and carts, and the number of hard eyed men and women who subtly moved out of your way.

Mekhong's sitting with her hands folded in front of her, as a beautiful young man in a hobble skirt totters about pouring gin into teacups. One of Mekhong's Beauties- word is she has their tongues out so they can't repeat her business to outsiders- this fellow's mouth is shut too tight to be sure- but the perks must be worth it, because she never has a shortage of applicants.

Mekhong herself, is a little too old and a fraction too heavyset to be beautiful, but certainly striking in a bottle green silk scarf and a matching patch over her right eye. There's a chunk of diamond in her smile that would have been worth a fortune back when folks had fortunes to spare on that sort of nonsense. She gestures to the seat across from her.

What do you do?

[Blackhawk748]

Thorn drives into the base as loudly as possible, with an awful lot of engine revving and hooting. He gets off his bike and heads over to Mabel, "Hey Madel, who are we entertaining tonight?"

[Mr. E]

Wrench, the Savvyhead
Barter: 5
Highlighted Stats: Weird, Hard
Bonefeel Hold: 1

Wrench doesn't smile, because starting the meeting with a lie is rude, see. She takes the seat offered, 'cause it don't do to be impolite, neither. Lets her 9mm show a little, because that'd still be lying, but places her hands nice and wide, well away from the gun.

Then Wrench looks Mekhong in her one good eye, and smiles a little, 'cause its business now, and that ain't lying any more. Her mouth opens, and words come spilling out, letting herself roll into the flow of the deal.

"What can I do for you, m'lady?"

[thenewflesh]

Preacher shakes his head seriously at Mabel. "This ain't entertainment. I'm just here to speak with - ah, hello Thorn." He nods at the Knight with something like respect. "Somebody's been walkin' around torturing folks. Watts. Just caught him tyin' a man to a cross, about to stick a red-hot poker into his ribs. It's not right, you know. You got sway in these parts, power, respect. Could you and yer knights make sure he don't spread any more ungodly mischief?"

[Blackhawk748]

"Well isn't that nice and direct of you? However, i have trouble of my own to deal with, so im not gonna just drop that and deal with it for free. What do i get out of this?"

[thenewflesh]

Preacher frowns at Thorn, a little disappointed. "The peace and safety of this town, of course." He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small jangle of keys. "And keys to both trucks over by the junkyard past the canyon, if you can start them, and some other things besides."

[Blackhawk748]

"Well, i rather like all of these things, but i want one more thing." Thorn grins "I want your assistance on something after this"

[thenewflesh]

"I'll do this thing for you, if the Lord don't take no offense." Preacher vows.

Incidentally, in case it wasn't clear, I"m suggesting that the keys are worth one barter. (That little, because nobody says the vehicles have to be remotely in working order!)

[Blackhawk748]

"Alright, now that we got that out of the way, who's this Watt guy, where is he and what is he doing? Specifically."

[Benthesquid]

Thorn, Preacher-

The Knights shift uneasily at the prospect of taking on Watt, and a couple make the sign of the cross or the evil eye- culty hoodoo is far from appealing, as far as picking your enemies goes. On the other hand, rephrased as "Do violence in exchange for money..."

They're willing to hear Priest out, pending Thorn's approval.

Wrench

"The world is wounded," she says, her voice husky and musical. "I don't know if you saw the disturbance on the way in- those preachers and holy men fighting over the best bandage to wrap it in. I used to have a man working for me who thought differently. He wanted to pry the wound open and lap up the blood."

She pauses, eye glittering near as much as the rock in her mouth as she looks at you. "What're your thoughts on the matter?"

[Mr. E]

Wrench shifts slightly in her seat, contemplating, considering what will appeal to her audience, before letting the words fall like acid rain. "Watts, Preacher, they lack vision. They scurry and mutter and pray like the salvation of one man's soul means anything. They bandage the cut without seeing the truth." The savvyhead leans forward slightly, eyes wide and voice as fevered as a true prophet. "The world is dead. It burnt in the steel rain, screamed and reeled and danced in giddy agony as the flames consumed it. There is no deity or salvation or rapture coming for us, not unless we make them. The world must be forged anew in steel and iron and guns and walls and laws."

Abruptly she stops speaking, looking around her as the fire fades from her eyes. She drops her voice to an almost whisper, barely carrying across the space between them. "This you understand, I know. You are the Hardholder, so you know that there is no order, no discipline, except that which you enforce with your fist. You and I, we see the prophets as they truly are, men trying to raise the dead. Useful, but blinded by their own light."

[thenewflesh]

Preacher glances around at the audience, then turns his attention back to Thorn. "He's been around for 'bout a month. Believes in some heretical nonsense. I caught him about to brand some poor traveler with a hot piece of metal. As for where he is, well... I don't rightly know. Might not even be around anymore. I might just have given you these keys for free. Now, what's this job you want done?"

[Blackhawk748]

Thorn raises an eye at that, but just shrugs. "Simple. Some ******* nearly killed Maya over there by runnin her off the road, i want you to come along and distract them while we get behind them and show them not to **** with the Knights of Thorn!"

[thenewflesh]

Preacher frowns. "Just fer you, I'll do this favor, friend, although it seems real petty. But if I hear Watt hurt a single person in this town, I'm going to take it as a personal disrespect from you. Hear?"

[Benthesquid]

Thorn, Preacher

That sounds perilous like a threat, and the Knights mutter and shift their hands a little closer to their weapons. This is still Thorn's show, though, and it's him they look to see how he takes this.

Wrench

Another glittering smile. "Good. Then we are very well suited to work together."

She sets an object on the table, a book bound in leather and stained with blood and oil, the pages covered with dense collections of equations, schematics, and bizarre symbols. "This is the journal of my last engineer. Everything he was working on... before Preacher began interfering. I would be very interested to hear what you make of it."

[Blackhawk748]

Preacher frowns. "Just fer you, I'll do this favor, friend, although it seems real petty. But if I hear Watt hurt a single person in this town, I'm going to take it as a personal disrespect from you. Hear?"

"Now thats not very friendly. I said i was gonna deal with him, and when i say im gonna do something, i do it. Do you hear?"

[Mr. E]

Wrench, the Savvyhead
Barter: 5
Highlighted Stats: Weird, Hard
Bonefeel Hold: 1
XP: 1/5

Wrench takes the book in both hands, brushing its pages reverentially. She runs her thin pale hands along the cover, muttering to herself in a language no-one but her speaks. Sitting cross-legged on the crate, Wrench tips her head back, raising her eyes to the sky. Sniffing the wind, the Savvyhead waits to see what messages it will bring her.

Time to do something risky;

Opening my mind to the psychic maelstorm, rolling +weird. [roll0]