The Belly of the Beast

Previous Session: Bloody Handed

Wire the Chopper comes to Dusk the Skinner & Kim the Savvyhead pitching a deal for her to take Purity over. Pierre has gone mad (apparently), pushing up prices and running the whole operation into the ground. That poses a real threat to life in the Valley, and no one can afford to stand idly by.

TumTum & company are busy with the clean-up of the bar. Mopping up blood and carting bodies out is grisly work. They notice a dead but unwounded Partridge - she has a huge bloody wart on her back. And then out bursts a silvery centipede; there's panic in the bar and Kim captures it in a bucket.

She does a hasty autopsy on Partridge, discovering that the lurgy has another stage - it incubates the physical manifestation of the weirdness inside the host, to emerge once the host is dead.

Well, they need to do a delivery to Purity for the Valley's water-purification requirements, so they're going to have to deal with it one way or the other...

Before all that, if you recall, Fox the Operator has been missing for ages.

She was dragged away from Brother's bedside by Johnson's people while he was unconscious. She gets treated to the same ass-kicking as Wire got. But this time, they know they've got the right person in revenge for Mad Bill's injuries. So she gets it much worse than the Chopper did.
After a round of beatings, they brings in the tools. Hammers, pliers and needle files. Amongst the lowlights, they cut off a couple of her fingers, and sew her eyelids and mouth shut. After what seems like months, the door is opened by strangers (or at least what passes for strangers after weeks of intimate agony). An voice from her past tells her that Mr. Lopez has been looking for her for ages, and they're getting her out of there.

On the road to Purity, the convoy comes across D & Martinez carrying a barely recognisable Fox to their car. Kim takes her to her van and removes the stitches, taking away the worst of the pain with her healing touch. The sunlight appears to do wonders for her. Dusk is aghast at the state of Fox, and feels guilty (should she have guessed Johnson would go after her?) D relates that they've been hunting for her for some time now, and had to kill a few of the hacienda's people to get her out.

When Kim wonders about her solar panels, they shrug. She'll swing by later and pick them up. When Dusk gathers that D & Martinez intend to bring Fox straight back to Lopez, she asks if they could go back in and get the solar panels - maybe head up to Purity with them and then they can all go back to Lopez together? They're ok with that, and come back an hour later, with fresh cordite coming off the barrels of their weapons.

**

With Kim stopping for her usual repairs for the hill marauders, the other push on to Purity. When they get there the place is quiet and deathly quiet. There's no response on the radio, and Dusk suggests that they wait a while; someone must be up there. Wire takes some of her crew inside, infiltrating the dark pipes at the base of the cliff. The gungy mess in there is an assault on their senses, but this is their best way inside.


Back outside, suddenly the quiet is shattered by screeching and clanking as the bus descends - but there doesn't appear to be anyone inside. Kim is overwhelmed by a sense that everything is hunky dory and rushes to get in the bus when it reaches the bottom - dumping her phazer into her van before she locks up.

Fox is in for some ass-kicking, at least for not sticking around and waiting to see what happens. She draws her 9mm and joins Kim in the bus. Dusk obviously feels like this is crazy - whatever's inside Purity is going to try to kill them, one way or the other! But she grabs a pump-action from Navarre's buggy and climbs in as well.

Kim is scanning the place as they ascend, she can't spot anything living, but it looks like there's something blocking her scan of the insides somehow. At the top of the ascent, they can spot a couple of blackened corpses on the gantry connecting the bus to the main entrance. Just behind the controls lies an almost dead Ulla - there are lumps on her body (though they're not quite 'ripe' yet). She groans to Kim as the Savvyhead examines her
-All gone to shit. It spread too fast

Dusk eyes up the darkness within Purity, and calls to Pierre, but there's no connection. Anything she felt the last time is just flapping lifelessly in the maelstrom.


Below, deep below, Wire is going deeper and deeper inside the bowels of Purity. She's nervous, but Gritch is sure they entered through the right pipe. The slope on the pipe is going down, and not upwards and even Gritch's optimism starts to decline after a while. But then, they reach a hatch high up in the ceiling - they have to wrench hard to open the wheel (it makes quite a racket). There's a ladder inside the tight shaft leading upwards, and they all get onto it. They take care not to put too much weight on any section of the ladder; it's a little old and rusty.

*

Wire reaches the top of the climb, and in the dark room, lit only by the torch strapped to her head, she spots her (long dead) parents. She freaks out and loses her grip on the ladder, smashing into Gritch behind her and causing mayhem below.


Entering Purity, the noise of the maelstrom has faded, only noticeable in its absence. The loss of connection is freaking Dusk out a little - it remind her of the feeling she had crossing the wastelands on her long trip to Lopez years ago.

There are lots of shadows flitting out of sight, and they are wrong turns aplenty. Kim sees her dead brother, terribly wounded beckoning to her. There's a cave in the other way, with an open access panel inviting them in. Graffiti above promises "As Above, So Below". Dusk is not going in there for love nor jingle and Fox stays with her. Kim goes down, and in the deep sand below she finds the feet sticking out.

She meets up with Wire & crew. With extra lights, they see blood spray and demented graffiti on the walls. Behind a closed door, Kim finds a handful of people chanting in a circle around Pierre; they wear dirty robes and she spies a dread portal behind them.

Wire kicks in the door and opens fire on the assembled cult. Kim directs her brain's aggression on Pierre to stop him from chanting and with a frightening look on his face, Pierre's stomach explodes, his guts writhing on the ground. Kim is grabbed back by Wire, and the Chopper chucks a WP grenade inside closing the door just in time for it to be crumpled by the terrible explosion which drowns the sounds of the screaming.


The way out to the bus is elusive and then they spot wires leading to explosive along the top corners of the corridors.

Bloody Handed

Previous Session: Burning

Kim the Savvyhead is expecting her long-awaited delivery of fine sand, and will arrange to sell it onwards to Sanders (for his continuing production of solar panels) in return for as large a stash of tinfoil as he can lay his hands on. She'll need that for her lurgy cure.

Dusk the Skinner talks with Midnight through the night about home. She finds out that the Mirror-Faced Queen has gone mad and is waging war against the Wolflands. Midnight wants to save Dusk: he's heard the anguish of her soul in her darkest moment. He wants to move forward with her under his protection, leaving broken things behind (he's referring to those who live in the Valley). She's unconvinced by his world view; she thinks what she's doing here is important.

She retires back to Dremmer's room - he's trying to make her feel safe after the attempted lynching/burning earlier. He's concerned and listful.

Market Day comes around, and everyone has an early start. Things are shaping up to be even busier than last month, despite (or maybe because of) the chaos which erupted with the Circus' arrival.

Ripper wonders with Kim how big the problem is going to be to get their tinfoil-related cure out to everyone who's affected. With Wire's gang driving up and down the Valley and beyond it's going to be an enormous challenge. Ripper wonders if they could just kill them off...

Dusk and TumTum catch up when he walks in; he's just checking with her that they're still on for their plan?
-Yep, and I need to square with you for your best bottle of whiskey.
Nodding at where his prized bottle was til now. He raises an eyebrow, but smiles when she puts her nice silver bracer on his arm
-If you need a taste of it, you'll find the rest of the bottle beside Dremmer's bed
His other eyebrow shoots up

Kim has set up at her usual spot. But with her mangled hand she can't really fix things for people - instead she's directing them how to do it themselves. It's a little bit frustrating/amusing for everyone involved.

Reginald shows up with a trailer full of sand for Kim. It's full to the brim of just the best quality sand she's ever seen in bulk, but she's got nowhere to store it. She gets him to give her a loan of it for a day, and Brother'll deliver it to Lopez while she stays here.

The usual excitement of Market Day is going on:
Mr. Tambourine Man is reading fortunes; is this just diversion. or are people getting real insight from him?
A rival eatery has set up opposite Chubby's - an artic truck by the name of 'Hammertime Chow Down'; is the food really better, or are people just a bit leery of Chubby's since the gruesome cannibalism of the Circus' driven madness?
Arnold's Pot-Luck Fuck Truck sets up; it's surprisingly popular, maybe it's just the novelty, or maybe the bout of sickness at Madame Cho's leaves people with little choice

D & Martinez show up with a couple of trucks selling and a handful or well armed guards. They're both in gas masks and are actively trading for liquid soap, sugar and ammo.

Sanders is with them selling solar panels! Kim's surprised to see him there, but brings him back around to her shack so she can show him the sand. He's wondering where she's been for the last month, and then asks after Fox. She usually pops up like clockwork, but she's been MIA as well.

He's impressed by the sand though, and she gives him the list of medicines (and tin foil) she'll need.
-That's a monster list of some specific shit! I can't guarantee that I can get it, least not in these volumes
-I need it, else you might want to be sure no one every enters Lopez ever again!


East Harlow is announcing his new show. 'FISTICUFFS!'
Volunteers duke it out in the pit and after a few rounds of fighting (and betting) the onlookers start throwing in weapons to cut things short.

Dusk stops by to chat to Martinez. He complains that now Lopez wants his own tattoo; reckons Martinez thinks he's a leading light now that he has a serious tattoo and no one else does. Small problem to be honest. Dusk might have to visit soon.

**

The summit gathers. Dusk, as a hacienda owner, can formally attend with a heavy, and she brings Killer. There's the usual tiresome display as each of the other arrive, showing off their latest accoutrement. Johnson is sitting pretty in his limo (mounted on the chassis of  a monster-truck. He's dressed up to the nines, with a top hat and fancy coat on.

Ollie-Boy, a no-shit badass arrives with people (so-called scum) nailed to crosses on the front of his humvee. Dusk takes a deep breath, and is beckoned to come inside by an young runner - sent by TumTum now that it's time.

Dusk turns back to Killer; wondering where he was last night while she was about to get burnt at the stake. He look guilty and can't explain how he slept through that. She goes inside, but nods for Killer to stay alongside Kim and Johnson as they discuss terms.

Kim wants Killer to work permanently for her; maybe as payment for the Phazer. She's buying out his contract. Johnson protests that Killer works for Dusk now. But they all understand that he controls Killer's services and will trade him. Killer's been primed by Kim and Dusk to recognise that this means there's no real loyalty in Johnson.


Inside the usual order of business takes over. Found isn't at the summit, and Partridge is there in her stead (though she doesn't look well). Kobe isn't there either, (Wire has sent Red as her lieutenant, with T-Bone as a bodyguard).

Max Headroom rants about Kobe's murder but he's shouted down by Red; it was a fair reprisal and Kobe chose to go out the way she did.

Dusk takes the floor. Getting a few irate glances - the others aren't quite used to her as one of them, and anyway, taking the floor like this is a TumTum device. She calls Johnson up to join her
-We've got an announcement to make...
She tells them what she's doing at the hacienda with free labour, and the place erupts. Some are on their feet and screaming bloody murder and others are looking around in bewilderment and/or consternation.
Johnson shoots her a glance, as if to say 'WTF!'
Dusk pulls out her double-barrelled sawn-off shotgun and let's one round loose in the ceiling. Everyone quietens down, in shock, none of them are supposed to have guns in here!
-If anyone wants to join me in changing this Valley, then raise your hand!
None do, and the shouting starts up again...

Until, Dusk takes off Johnson's top hat. Everyone stops what they're doing, enthralled by the exhibition that's only beginning. Red, T-Bone, Killer, TumTum and Dremmer are all excluded from the effects of the display, and as she strips Johnson, they begin the bloody murder.

Caught a little by surprise, Red grabs Dusk's shotgun and after killing Max with the second round proceed to beat people to a pulp with it. The others join in with whatever's handy, but the true carnage is unleashed by Dremmer's shotgun. Dusk is splattered by gore and struggles to keep her shit together, all the while stripping his clothes off. Despite her power over them all, she's a little unsure whether his tattoo would still make him dangerous.

When everyone else is dead, and she's shrugged off her long coat. She grabs his chin, still standing behind him and whispers in his ear
-You know, for a psychotic bastard, you had your charms
and then she cuts through his throat with one of her razor sharp knives

*

After their ears stop ringing, Kim comes in the back and can give Dusk some warning as she tries to shoo away the guards from outside (hacienda soldiers, not TumTum's people). Dusk and Killer combine to take them out.

Quickly, Dusk and TumTum identify the main lynchpin who would lead the hacienda's resistance against them. The main counter-revolutionary is likely to be Monsoon, Ollie-Boy's gang boss. They send out runners to bring in the hacienda lieutenants, but in strict order. Monsoon will be first, and then they'll build up momentum with the rest.

Monsoon is shocked by the bloody bar, and even more when TumTum responds to the suggestion that Dusk is crazy with laughter. He's sitting in his chair at the back of the room with his feet up. The bottom of them are splattered with blood, but it's obvious that he spent the entire thing in that position.

He's in, but with some serious doubts. He tells them that they're crazy and that the Valley is going to burn. His presence helps bring all the others onside. When Dusk takes the floor to tell them about what's going to happen with free labour, they all raise their hands. TumTum restarts the summit with the usual business.


Kim looks to get her solar panels back off Churchhead, who's now running Johnson's hacienda. He's not sure he wants the same deal as his previous master, but Dusk convinces him and he definitely comes around to seeing that he can prosper if he takes care of the Skinner and does her friend the Savvyhead a fair deal. The main reason he's reticent is that those solar panels run the machines that are keeping Mad Bill alive.

Next Session: The Belly of the Beast

Burning

Previous Session: Rolling Thunder

So, what exactly happened between Kobe and Wire the Chopper?
Well, her plan was to out-manoeuvre and surprise the hacienda owner, intimidate Kobe and her gang and give her own new members a taste of action without a trial by fire. Wire directs her lot to infiltrate slowly, but they bump into a few of Kobe's pickets and there's a small skirmish. Wire, along with Bull, Scabs and Ted roll over the two sentries, and when sounds of their shots carry, Red leads the rest of the gang to press the threat.

Kobe comes out of the main house, fully strapped and packed to the gills. Red has pretty much all of Kobe's gang lined up - her infiltration was so effective that the enemy are all dead to rights.

The maize fields erupt in a roar of over-revved engine and guzzling diesel smoke! Kobe's guntruck comes straight for them. Red pulls the trigger and the rest of Wire's gang follow suit, wiping Kobe's gang out. Kobe screams and goes for Wire, but she is gunned down, the magnum round making a serious mess of her skull. The windscreen of the gun-truck is shattered in a red mist as Red turns her guns on it, taking out the driver and sending the vehicle off crashing through the fields.

Wire has the sniffles as they take control of Kobe's hacienda - this place'll serve as a base while they head out raiding. Plus now they have Kobe's two gun-trucks as muscle and transportation.

They head out towards Logger; there's a small hold at a crossroads outside of the Valley that has plenty of tech and bikes. Red had scoped out another few places for TumTum's shopping list; and they virtually clean them out. When they get back, Wire is feeling sick.

So, if you remember, that angry torch-wielding mob had grabbed Dusk the Skinner out of her bed in the middle of the night.

Wire has brought about half her gang into Watering Hole for market day in the morning, they're outside the hold after visiting Ripper for some doctoring advice.

Kim the Savvyhead is in her shed and she's the quickest to come out into the chaotic space behind TumTum's bar; in her Hello Kitty PJs and gas mask.

Dusk has just escaped the grasp of the two guys holding her and she sprints, taking a route that'll bring her around to the front door of the bar where she's hoping Dremmer will be awake. She sees Kim raising her phazer at the chasing thugs behind her, and ducks. Behind her Kim sees Sundown, who she reckons is the biggest danger and she aims straight at the woman.
*PHAGOOM*
The phazer explodes in Kim's hand and the savvyhead falls to the ground, in obvious discomfort, but somehow not screaming in agony at the wretched mess of her right hand. Dusk is momentarily stunned and is caught again as she struggled to get back to her feet.

She whisper Dremmer's name directly through the Psychic Maelstrom. He's better get here soon. But she doesn't lie down for these fuckers. Again, somehow she struggles free and runs. She doesn't run for Kim, their eyes meet for a single moment; maybe the savvyhead won't be able to help her, or maybe Kim's better off with Dusk going the other direction.

She runs the other way, and that's when she sees the stake set deep with combustibles all round it.

***

Wire wakes up to the gunfire that broke out when Dusk first escaped, and while she's gathering her gang to go investigate, rushes to the scene when Kim's phazer explodes. They're armed with their pistols and knives.

Kim is hauled aside by Ripper and is getting medical attention to her ruined hand.

Dusk muscles her way through the few people in between her and Wire's arriving gang.

As the two armed groups square off against each other, Wire yells out across the divide
-What the hell is going on?
-She's an agent of Hell and must burn!
comes the reply

A bedraggled Dremmer arrives on the scene behind the mob. He has the punk-hammer but can't see Dusk through the crowd - she's behind Wire pointing out Sundown, who seems to have been the one who stirred up all this trouble.

But Dusk's attention is no longer on the escalating face-down. Further out, in the darkness untouched by the mob's torches, a thin cordon of figures appears out of the dust.

Wire strides through the mob towards Sundown - the erstwhile member of the gang is behind others, as if she's afraid of attracting Wire's attention. The mob parts initially, but one right in front of Sundown fights for her, maybe in panic, but effectively as he shoots Wire in the leg. She spins out to the ground and then the mob close in on the prone Chopper.
She's comes back to her feet, laying around with her machete to make room for herself and then decapitating her opponent. She leaves the blade stuck in his neck and is still in the middle of the mob.

**

Dusk wonders who these strangers are. The thick valley mud falls off their inhuman looking bodies. But she sense a familiarity, her dream-catchers had reached out to call Dremmer and they feel familiar somehow to her tattoos. One steps forward into the moonlight and she knows the tall gaunt silhouette in her deep memory. It's Midnight, her mentor from the Witchlands. His face is intimidating and menacing.

Wire's gang moves in to break their way through the mob to her. There's arterial blood sprayed on her face from her previous victim and she calls Sundown out
-Ladies and gentlemen, excuse me! Sundown, you bitch! Stop hiding!
Sundown panics and reaches out (maybe guiltily), but it's the last thing she does. Wire's magnum rings out and Sundown's dead, shot in the face.

With medical attention out of the way, Kim still wants Ripper. She suggests they get high on some narcostab together. She pushes Ripper a little by whispering that they're going to heal the world together. That's enough for Ripper, though even to Kim, the sex seems mechanical and detached.


Dusk remembers the last time she saw Midnight. The Mirror-Faced Queen had decided that Dusk needed to die, and Midnight exiled her from the Witchlands instead of carrying out the sentence. What lies he told the Queen, she's not sure.
-Glad to see you child.
-Surprised to see you at all. I'm not really dressed for the occasion.
He looks at her almost naked body and wraps her up with his cloak.
-You've grown. In confidence and the way you affect people.

Wire's crew lays into the mob as soon as she shoots Sundown. She turns to get them to stop, but it's too late and she's never had to rein in her gang like that before so she hesitates and the moment is lost. There's some return fire, before the fight stops, Bull takes a round to his kneecap. He howls with the pain, and in the aftermath, Wire kisses him to calm him down.

Kim regards Ripper on the bed. She can sense truths about the doctor as if she were a thing to be worked on: Dremmer touched her last - she's hopelessly addicted to opiates - her parents were no one of consequence.

*

Dusk catches up with Midnight.
-Let's cut to the chase. What the hell are you doing here?
-I knew I was needed. We have been walking the world for some years
The coven congregate behind them.
-The Mirror-Faced Queen loves yesterday, but we seek tomorrow. I heard you. You learnt the Call?
Dusk nods, she's had some success with it so far. Though it may have made people nervous and uncomfortable.

Dremmer rocks up, he's really apologetic about taking so long to get here.
-Sorry I wasn't there for you
-Hey, you came as fast as you could.
She steps in close, and holds his hand
-Move in with me
He's surprised, overwhelmed even, but he suggests she move into his quarters in the bar; it'll be much safer and she nods in agreement.

In the bar, Dusk grabs a good bottle of whiskey to share with Midnight. Dremmer is noisily moving her stuff into his room.

In the middle of ecstatic throes with Ripper, Kim had a bit of a breakthrough in her thinking on the lurgy. Seems like she was thinking of it all wrong. Those who open their brain to the Psychic Maelstrom aren't more susceptible. They've mistaken cause and effect. The increased connection to the Maelstrom happens after infection, which is what kills them in a process entirely separate from any brain openings.

Next Session: Bloody-Handed

Rolling Thunder

Previous Session: Bigger Ambitions

With Fox nowhere to be found, Brother joins up with Wire's crew, making his van available for their raiding/resupply trip.

Kim the Savvyhead is burning the midnight oil on her cure for the affliction that is now spreading beyond Purity. She is wearing her gas mask at all times (apart from inside her shed in Watering Hole). She's a hermetically sealed...well, hermit. Hearing rumours, she visits Madame Cho about her girls being sick and briefs Ripper before heading over. Ripper takes out this marvellous fully enclosed rebreather helmet - it makes Kim quiver.

Dusk the Skinner takes in the hacienda she's now responsible for. Johnson is fiercely proud of his work in taking it from Chum - he tells her how the old guy couldn't keep order and his labour force revolted against him. It was best for everyone that Johnson invaded when he did.

Johnson leaves Dusk to take stock and she calls in the whole gang (it's about half and half Chum's and Johnson's). She stares at the dozen tough nuts in front of her, mulling her options over.
-No matter what you thought til now, you work for me now, and you all work together. If anyone thinks they can't leave their old loyalties behind they'd better walk now...
There are a few glances and awkward shifts
-If I find out anyone's been talking to people off this hacienda about our business, I'll have their hide. I mean, say for instance, someone was letting Johnson know what I'm up to. The rest of you are going to beat the living shit out of that poor bastard.
Killer is boring a hole in the floor with his eyes.
-Who knows this place best?
A young, scrawny thing sticks up her hand. Haystack is her name. Dusk addresses the rest of Chum's old crew.
-You happy with her being in charge of the gang for a while?
There are a few ribald snickers, but no actual dissent (tacit or explicit).
-Well, ok then. When you're out there, you have to mix it up, no sticking to old cliques. Set up shop and send in the workers.

About 40 tired and hungry workers shuffle in. They're not meeting her gaze and don't volunteer anything when she introduces herself and tells them that she's going to change the way things work around here. She's not used to talking to a crowd of people, usually she's most effective one-on-one or with small groups.
-You're going to work for a wage. And once things stabilise we're all going to share whatever profits this place can make.
There's a bit of murmuring after that, and the couple of guards who stuck around with Pinky to oversee this meeting exchange glances.
-After a few months if anyone wants to leave, they're welcome to. I'll tattoo any extra bands you need on your arm to walk out of here. Just remember in the meantime, as far as any hacienda owners outside are concerned you're still just slaves.

She spots a familiar face in the back, a guy called Lang who used to trade trinkets throughout the Valley. He's used to be able to take care of himself, mostly by talking his way out of any trouble. She remembers he was one of her first customers when she set up her place behind TumTum's a few years ago. She reckons he'd be a good person to pick to be a temporary leader, like Haystack.

Damn it if that doesn't touch a raw nerve with the rest of them for some reason. They hurl abuse at him, (calling him 'Stinky') and when she pushes him aside to call the loudest of loudmouths forward she finds herself standing toe to toe with a hard nut called Marlo. She turns defence into attack, telling him he'd better not fuck up if he's going to be the foreman, he stalls and then she turns him around, back towards the others.
-Who pretty much ran the farming here, regardless of what Chum said? Who will run things best?
He points at Pinky, who confidently walks forward and accepts the job. She leaves him and Haystack hash out a plan for the hacienda to present to her later, and she grabs Killer to go upstairs.

***

Kim and Ripper take a look at Sister Assumpta and Scarlet. They give them the prototype anti-lurgy fetishes and then they make up another few to run a controlled test on 10 subjects. Kim gets some extra insight from Ripper, who's been putting together a cocktail of drugs to help people who don't have the full-blown version get over it while the fetish does its work.
Between this and Ripper's fantastic piece of breathing tech, Kim is more than a little turned on, but Ripper turns her down, and doesn't even give her the inside track on the helmet.


Dusk leads Killer into the main bedroom. When she takes off her coat, he looks like a deer in headlights. So she tells him to close the door; he can choose which side he wants to be on. He's a little anxious and after they have sex, He just doesn't know what to do now. So she wonders if he thinks it could be because he's just slept with his boss's girlfriend? She pushes, and he knows that Johnson values utmost loyalty above all things. That sends him into a tailspin, and then she tells him that this means that he really works for her now, he can't risk going to Johnson with any of what she's doing here or he'll find out. He freaks out and leaves.


Kim goes off to Serenity, but Wire's gone from there with her gang. There are tattered tents arrayed near the old hacienda. Sick people lie within, and there's a small group of Found's cult huddled around a fire in the ruins. As she pokes around, her tricorder gets another ping from Johnson's phazer. There were no guards at the gate into the hacienda and there's no look-outs here. Apparently Wire told them they'd be fine, Kobe wouldn't be causing any more trouble. 6 are okay, there are 12 with the lurgy - Goldman is the sickest and most of the rest got sick after Wire's gang arrived. But now they're driving around out beyond the Valley.

She examines Goldman more closely. Opening her brain to the psychic maelstrom, the monster are no longer cute, they're truly monstrous and the usual relaxing bubble bath has been replaced with sulphurous hot springs. Goldman is glowing in a two-way stream of phosphorescence; between him and a nearby monster which is similarly iridescent. A tentacle licks Goldman's upturned eyeball and at Kim's behest it claims the rest of Goldman's mind. He ceases glowing. Later on, during the night, his heart stops and Kim takes a blood sample. Some new information.

And then another ding! from Johnson - he's going to owe her big time!

**

Over the next few days, Dusk is making inroads into running the hacienda. But she needs to get back to Watering Hole - market day is coming and she needs to line things up with TumTum. She gets Killer to drive her back in, but they haven't even pulled away when Johnson drives up in his jeep. There's  big flatbed behind him and Dusk climbs out of Killer's battered sedan to see what the hell is up.

He's excited to show her what he's got, but she cuts him off. He really needs to follow the usual hacienda-visiting protocols. You know, like he'd do if he were visiting anyone else. He shrugs that off, surely that can't apply to him here!

He gestures to his guys and they pull off a big-ass tarpaulin off the back of the flatbed. On top is a long black limo - shiny and chrome. She rolls her eyes, and walk over to Killer. He'd better tell her what that is and where it came from, and he knows he has to.
It's Barker's car, but it doesn't even run, it's just something pretty to sit in and have parties.
When she points this out to Johnson he's nonplussed - of course! He just wants her to be happy, she'll get a smooth ride on top of the flat-bed truck. He storms off with his guys when she refuses, it takes an age to turn the truck around and Killer and Dusk share a silent half hour (apart from cursing from Johnson's crew).


In Watering Hoe Dusk shares whiskey on the porch with Kim and Killer (as Dremmer looks on). Kim studies him, he's a danger to Dusk and her. What she really wants to know is how they can get him to choose Dusk over Johnson. He obviously thinks she's fantastic, and will do just about anything for her. However, Johnson gave him real purpose  (a job and a roof over his head), and he feels like he owes Johnson for that. Sure, the boss is a violent guy but he takes loyalty seriously. So Kim will just have to show him that Johnson really only care about himself and not his people.

Across the alleyway, they can see some fresh graffiti: "The Whore of Babylon", "Burn the Witch!"
Dusk talks to Dremmer, she can see he's a bit hurt, but she reads him into the plan with TumTum - they're going to take these bastards down, any hacienda owner who won't play ball.

*

Night falls.
Dusk's door is kicked down and she's pulled, almost naked, from her bed by a couple of raging thugs. Outside there's a mob with torches and they hurl abuse at her. Dusk yells for Dremmer and Killer to help, but as they drag her away she struggles, elbowing one of her tormenters in the face and escaping.
One of the crowd shoots at her, but somehow misses and she runs past the snarling faces...

Next Session: Burning

Bigger Ambitions

Previous Session: Big Plans

Wire the Chopper wakes up groggily after a raucous party at Watering Hole. She's tied to a chair and surrounded by 4 tough guys with pipes. AT and Freddie come in with pliers and a hammer. This is Johnson's payback for that happened to Mad Bill (who Fox kicked in the back in that fight over the solar panels at the hacienda). He's wheeled in, he can't walk and it looks like he's had a stroke as well. Wire doesn't buy her way out of trouble, or promise Johnson anything so they take it out of her in blood and pain. They dump her on Ripper's doorstep when they're done.

Kim the Savvyhead is still holding her clinic at Purity. Word back is that no one's gotten sick and then gotten better again. So they start hunting for people who've been in contact with the sick, but never gotten ill at all.

Dusk the Skinner is making a list of those she thinks they can trust with their plans in the haciendas and checking it twice. She's not going to approach anyone now, can't risk word getting out so she relies and her and TumTum's knowledge of the people instead. She's so busy that she doesn't notice for a while that business is pretty quiet, she's not gotten any people looking for ink. Outside she gets a frosty look from Tinkerbell, who won't even talk to her when she calls out.

Then Dustwich's van pulls up and dumps Wire off. Dusk helps her to her feet and into Ripper for some medical attention. "Fucking Fox!" is all the Chopper says when Dusk wonders why the hell Johnson's guys beat her up like that.

While Ripper stitches Wire up, she tells Dusk that people around have been a bit weirded out by her lately. When Wire is kinda mobile again, Dusk tells her where she sent the gang, and they chat about Wire's plans to take Purity from Pierre's grasp.

In the bar, TumTum is looking antsy, he can't find Putrid anywhere and he's got places to be. Dusk offers to cover at the bar (she knows how things work in the bar).


Kim's investigations into how to fight the disease are going well, at least until the shooting begins. There's screaming from someone right outside her van and she climbs out in her full biohazard gear, annoyed at the interruption. The Purity people are scrambling to get on the bus while others shoot down from the gallery. There are raiders moving quickly from cover to cover along both sides of the road (ignoring Kim).

The raiders shoot and catch more than a few of those fleeing and ransack everything that's not nailed down. Kim comes across one badly wounded person; who she's sure she can save. Opening her brain she heals the woman with just a simple touch, and this freaks out the survivor as the gaping bullet wounds close seamlessly.

Rum's raider withdraw with plenty of booty (after Kim relays that the people of Purity are feeling poorly) and Jayne (the woman she saved) sits up from underneath the tarpaulin Kim dragged over her face. In payment Kim gets her ancient casio calculator watch,

**

Wire sits near bar chatting with Dusk, wondering where she's going to get a resupply of ammo, especially if her gang are getting involved in some counter-raiding over at Found's hacienda.

Two wiry toughs walk in, dusty from the road. Dusk recognises them after a moment; D and Martinez work as guns/messengers for Lopez. They're confused when she greets them by name, and it takes a whole lot of prompting for them to remember her (to be honest, that's off-putting for Dusk - surely no one could forget her!).

D notices Wire and sidles up to her, looking for a bit of attention. Dusk tells him to back off, raising her sawn-off from underneath the bar. That gets their attention and D walks back to the bar, trying to shrug it off, but it's clear neither of them expected to come within a hair trigger of death in here.

They're looking for Fox, have a message for her - she owes Lopez a load of jingle. The boss doesn't like leaving debts outstanding, no matter how dependable someone's been in the past. Dusk and Wire exchange glances, they can probably live with themselves pointing them in Fox's direction. Dusk tells them that she'll be back as some of her people are still here, so she'll hardly go too far for too long.

Anyway, they're wondering when market day is, they have a shopping list for Lopez - mostly ammo (high calibre stuff) and liquid soap (?). Wire is suspicious, she reckons they're just trying to find out who has ammo to trade and then they'll just ambush them to take whatever they've got.

Dusk calls in Dremmer to talk ammo-shop with them - they're a bit intimidated by his collection of weaponry (especially his lovely grenades!). She pours Martinez a drink and they start talking about tattoos - no one in Lopez really does them, it's a Valley thing. Dusk convinces him that if he returns to Lopez with some ace tattoos (the kind only she can give him) Lopez will be hella impressed.

He relents after a while, and in the back she gives him Lopez' tag (the symbol he puts on his stuff) on one shoulder and a white angel wing going all the way down his other arm. He's really impressed and promises to represent her interests in Lopez when he returns.


Kim asks Jayne to go get Pierre for her and the woman, incredibly impressed with the Savvyhead's abilities (weird or not) rushes off to Purity. She wants Pierre to get blood samples from everyone in Purity. This is going to require a full analysis of the entire population. Scanning sick and well and using the patient histories to create a full picture of the development of the lurgy.

After much work, she notices a pattern. More evident in those that did get sick than those who did not. There's a phosphorescence deep in the blood of the infected - and they are the ones who are more connected with the world and more exposed to its weirdness. She peeks at her own blood and its phosphorescence is blinding.

*

Wire is still recovering but she straps up her leg and jury rigs her bike for the trip out to the rest of her gang in Serenity. See how they're coping under Red's leadership and come up with a plan to curtail Kobe's incursions.

Killer arrives at the bar looking for Dusk - Johnson has a pressie for her, and she'll need to go to the hacienda to get it. She can't leave while TumTum is away, so she gets him to seek out Putrid and bring her back - make her understand that TumTum needs her.


Pierre appears at Kim's van with ten or so well-armed bodyguards. He wonders what she needs from him and he's suspicious when she tells him it's his blood she's after. He baulks when she takes out a needle and when she insists that she needs it he takes out a knife and cuts his hand, pouring the blood into a vial.

She's uncovering more information with a complete picture of the genetic patterns of the Purity populations: newer people to Purity are less susceptible; those with a strong genetic connection to those who've lived in Purity for a long time are more susceptible; the lurgy itself causes damage through contact with the maelstrom. She starts creating a prototype to protect people's brain from infection and to draw out any existing lurgy. It's more like a psychic talisman than a device.


The Serenity Hacienda isn't looking great, a bit run down and no one at the gates. Red and the gang are there. They've got look-outs out and patrols and there's definite signs of some sporadic fighting against Kobe with casualties on both sides. Wire examines the landscape and starts to formulate a plan of attack to give Kobe a bloody nose that'll keep him in check.


D & Martinez have returned to Lopez (they'll be back in a week or so for the market). Killer arrives at the door of the bar and Dusk hears an angry face-off between him and Dremmer. She goes out to find a beaten Putrid under Killer's heel - apparently he doesn't understand the powers of persuasion. Dusk tells him to bring Putrid around to Rippers and that Johnson's good to pay the full charges. He's annoyed but accepts it, but before he goes she gets him to apologise to Dremmer. He bristles at this, but she insists - remember what Johnson told him?

Dremmer is worried about her; when she goes back to Johnson he'd hate if he did anything to her. She nudges him, acknowledging his concern, telling him that he'll have to sleep sometime if it comes to that. Dremmer looks away, like he's hurt that he's not the guy. Dusk doesn't have time to give him a serious sit down chat now; but thinks that his problem is that he thinks he's in the friend-zone.


They drive off to Johnson's hacienda in his battered sedan. It's pretty stifling in there - the air vents are all blocked up because they generate dust like the badlands. When they arrive there a bunch of Johnson's workers are taking down the solar panels. Johnson greets her and suggests that they'll have to get a new car for Killer - one more suitable for her.

He's obviously got something big planned - he looks like the cat who got the cream and he hopes that she'll be pleasantly surprised. They take his comfy car out of his hacienda. He talks about what she told him previously, about stopping the bloodshed. There's burnt corn and signs of fighting, but they drive right up to Chum's hacienda. He gifts her the hacienda - it's all hers now, along with some guards that she can trust...

Next Session: Rolling Thunder

Big Plans

Previous Session: Complications

Dusk the Skinner is on the look-out for Jackson. She wants to get Navarre's buggy back to him before she heads off anywhere else. Who though in Watering Hole would be able to point her in the right direction (apart from TumTum).

October is rolling in jingle, apparently he's working over at Madame Cho's now; but he's still got all the time in the world for Dusk. They're that good together.

Kim the Savvyhead is checking in with Ripper for their imminent trip to Purity. Ripper cries off though. She's taking care of the grievously wounded Brother and can't leave him alone for that long.
-Patients trump jobs

Looking around for Wire, the Chopper is nowhere to be found, even though the gang is still hanging around. Red and Sundown are drinking hooch on the bench outside TumTum's bar. Red is acting like the boss (and Sundown is totally into her!). Kim asks her for an escort up to Purity, so Red sends her over to OJ, Gaptooth and Tandem.

Over at the bikes, Marlin tells her that Goldman is sick. Kim is worried that it's the lurgy (since they're both part of the gang that recently joined from Purity). Goldman's been to Madame Cho's a bit (spending that hard-won jingle). She brings him inside her shack, and then sedates and cuffs him to the camp bed.

After having spoken to Kim about the problem, Dusk wanders out to see Red. Sundown talks trash and stares daggers at the Skinner, but Dusk just blanks her, giving her full attention to Red. She knows that Red is probably Wire's only rival in the gang. She's the most capable of leading it by herself and doesn't feel that Wire gives her enough respect.

Dusk convinces her that taking the gang to Found's place to protect it from raiders is the best way to prove that she's the second-in-command Wire needs. Dusk knows that she can count upon Red to intercept danger on her behalf in future.

In her workshop, Kim scans the bloods she took from Goldman, and it looks biological and neither trivial nor on file already.

Dusk reckons Balls might know where Jackson is hiding out. Balls is one of Watering Hole's security people, and to be honest it's not like he has any real talents for anything else. He lives next door to Madame Cho's in a brick shack. Dusk wakes him up by banging on the steel shutters it has for a door. He's surprised to see her, but she won't come inside, despite his kind offer of cheap ass rotgut. When he's sure that she's actually friendly with Jackson he tells her he'll send a message out to him; his camp is way out in the wastelands (well on the way to the Witchlands).

**

The trip to Purity is without incident. Though waiting at the ambush site for Rum's people to arrive, Kim has to convince her bodyguard that they'll be resisting the urge to shoot first if they get spooked by the Marauders. It's bad business and there'll be hell to pay if they kick off without a good reason.

OJ is eyeing up the dead cow in the ditch, wondering if they could eat it (or sell it). Kim is looking at the hideous facial scarring, and asks him straight out what happened (to sharp intakes of breath from the other two). He doesn't like to talk about it, even when she tells him more directly that she wants to know.

The Marauder appear without warning, the first one coming out of the undergrowth feet away from them, carrying a spear and a six-shooter. The rest of them bring a motorbike that needs repairing. While Kim can fix this one in a couple of hours, she knows she'll have to get her hands on more spare parts if this is the kind of thing she can expect from the repair visits.


As Dusk is walking back from Balls' place, Dremmer falls in beside her. He wants her to know that he's sorry about bringing her into dangerous fighting the Circus up at Purity. She winces, telling him that the night they chased the Circus out of Watering Hole was much, much more dangerous.
That stops him in his tracks - he feels even worse that he was bottled up protecting TumTum's place when that happened.
Dusk turns back towards him and takes his hand, telling him that his decision made sense and there's no shame in it. With a smile, she claims she's much tougher than he gives her credit for.
He takes a deep breath
-Hey Dusk. We're friends right?
-Yep
-Oh, the boss wants you
She laughs; giving him some grief about only coming to speak to her because he was on an errand from TumTum.

When she gets to the bar, she challenges TumTum
-You don't need to send Dremmer to come get me, I'm always here
-Clearly he had his own stuff to say to you
-Well, he's a sensitive boy.
TumTum brings her into the backroom - somewhere she's never been before.
There's radio gear and loads of papers inside, some of it's old but some is definitely in use.

He wants to talk to her about the haciendas, and the cruelty that's becoming all too common in their operation. He shows her a hobbling boot, which turns her stomach with its viciousness. She's only been in the hold for 5 or 6 years (before that spending a couple in Lopez) but has always thought that TumTum could deal with everything this valley could throw at him.

He has a book, with the names of everyone in any position of influence in the haciendas of the valley. He wonders how to get them on side. Dusk reckons that convincing them will be slow and unreliable. She suggests that they wipe out the top echelon that they can't trust, and make every hacienda run cooperatively by those who live on it.
TumTum likes the idea of a commune, but wonders how they can cut the head off so many in one fell swoop. Dusk tells him to organise another summit, on the regular schedule, and make sure every boss, lieutenant and gang leader is there.

*

Kim arrives at Purity, and is left waiting for a while before a voice from up there wonders if she has the doctor. She waves to confirm, and after another while the bus descends from the hold with eight or nine aboard. Two of them are on stretchers and everyone else is wearing scarves across their faces and gloves. The two patients are definitely symptomatic.

She asks them for Doc Robinson's notes and after anyone who may have been in contact with the sick who didn't get the lurgy themselves, she doesn't want to have to go through everything from scratch. They head back to the bus, leaving the two patients with her. After an initial examination, she reckons there's no point in trying anything else (at least until she's got the notes and her cure ready to go).

She switches to fixing the creaky door on the bus and this really pisses them off. They try to get her on the bus to go back with them, but she resists. Force won't work, but she tells them that she had an agreement with Pierre and that they will, each and every one of them, die if she's forced onto the bus - she will refuse them treatment.
Fleece directly threatens her, but she holds steady with her cold threat and he backs down.

Next Session: Bigger Ambitions

Complications

Previous Session: Back to the Grind 

Fox the Operator has been trying to track down her missing solar panels, but in the meantime she's been having weird dreams about Dusk: in her dream she stole Dusk's new silver bracer, just to have something which has been touching her skin. When she wakes up she is actually wearing it!

Wire the Chopper is trying to get all of the new members of the gang on the same page. Mostly relaxing with a bit of light hazing. The new ones are getting some basic lessons on bike maintenance from Bull (Dask & Benny, T-Bone, Marlin, Sundown & Gritch). 

Fox goes to pick up those solar panels from TumTum's to deliver them to Purity. They're not there though, instead there's a note from Kim explaining that she's using them in Johnson's hacienda where she needs the spare power for her experiments. So Fox heads up there, with Brother (back to full health he reckons).

Kim the Savvyhead's new taser is progressing, and Johnson really wants to give it a real test. Kim explains that some restraint may be required (charge levels still not completely sorted), but it should be ready to go soon. Johnson finds Zero's situation and attitude hilarious.

Kim parks near the barn that's Kim's base of experimentation, and walks inside to speak to her. Dusk the Skinner spots them from the veranda of Johnson's house and wanders down (nursing her mojito) to have a quick chat with Brother, who's lounging by their truck. Brother is acting all awkward, who knows what Fox has been telling him.

Johnson comes out and shouts out to his crew that they're going on raiding. Dusk wonders where he's going and he laughs, telling her that he's going to rip Monk a new one. Monk is a nearby hacienda owner.
She tells him that's not going to happen, that he's not going to attack any haciendas and he looks confused, or maybe just incredulous. He rails against her, but when she quietly tells him
-I'm not telling you what to doo, you can make this decision all by yourself
He just replies curtly, like he's hurt and he doesn't understand what's happening
-Fine

His lieutenants are milling around, they haven't quite seen this kind of thing before. Johnson tries to regain his balance, telling them that they're heading south hunting scoundrels in the wastes (indicating up towards the foothills in Purity direction).


Wire is surprised when Red tells her that they're getting low on jingle; how fast can these bastards go through the jackpot they just had stripping the Circus bare! She looks at putting together a supply run for Watering Hole (specifically for the shopping list TumTum is working on for Purity). When Wire wonders where Dusk is, Sundown wonders who that is, and when Wire tells her she's like
-Oh, that skank-tacular girl?
There's obviously some twilight-related jealousy going on!
Wire take a few of her gang out to Johnson's.

***

Fox wanders over to Dusk, turning on the charm. Dusk is not impressed, to be honest she's moved on and is a bit tired of Fox's attitude towards her.
Dusk asks her about that shiny new silver bracer; it's disappeared and Fox admits that she took it. Dusk is even less impressed by her explanation of why, calling her a creep. Fox isn't giving it up, so Dusk grabs a nearby stave and climbs up to the rooftop of Kim's barn where the solar panels are. She raises it and threatens to smash them all.
Fox's solar panels are too precious to risk, she's got a lot of deals and pay-offs depending on them, so she dumps the bracer in the dust.

Wire arrives as Dusk climbs down from the barn. Wire recognises the dynamic from her past and intervenes to get in between the two, backing up Dusk. It looks like Fox is going to do something, but she hesitates and Brother drags her back to their truck.

Dusk and Wire talk about taking a trip, but Dusk isn't really interested in driving around with the gang on a raid, she reckons she'll head back to Watering Hole and get some work done. But looking at the nearby truck where Brother is talking Fox down she wonders
-Why do these assholes always act like they own you?
Dusk goes into the house to pack her stuff and Killer gives her a lift back to her place.


Kim is in one of Johnson's trucks, with Dustwich driving. There's very little small talk, but Dustwich is impressed by what he's seen of her new superweapon. They stop a little while later and Johnson tells them to stay put as he brings the rest of the gang off into the hills on foot.


Zero raises his eyes as Fox opens the door and enters the barn. He's aggravated and nervous as he asks her who's around. She tells him that no one else is, and he quickly realises that Kim has gone. He peers outside and then just walks away.

Fox and Brother are sticking around to keep an eye on the panels, but then they reckon they should just take them. As they move to disconnect the panels, a guard wanders over to them to wonder what the hell they're up to. Out of sight, Brother pulls out his pistol and screws the silencer onto it, holding it behind his back as he indicates to Fox that they should just kill this guy and get away.

Fox shakes her head at him and tries to talk the guard around to her side of this. But her reputation isn't quite as strong as she thought; he has heard of her, but only that she's untrustworthy. She doubles down with him, telling him that she's already cleared this with Johnson and he wouldn't like it if he delayed her.
He calls bullshit on that, lifting his shotgun to bear and telling them to get off the property right now! Fox goes for her weapon and yells
-They're mine! Fuck with me on this and we'll finish you!

Wire was still around, tinkering with her bike and chatting with the few gang members who came along for the ride. She cocks her shotgun to help out, and the sound spooks the guard, who shoot Brother in the chest with his double-barrelled shotgun. Fox kicks him to the ground and smashes his head with the pommel of her gun and he crumples.

Wire shouts to her lot to check their saddlebags for an Angel-kit, but some bastard must've nicked it. Jack, Brickhouse and Lou are bereft of ideas, they'll remember who it was for sure. Fox runs to the truck, under the seat there's a kit (say what you like, but she's prepared for the inevitable). They stabilise Brother, but there's bloody bandages strewn all over the place.

Guards from nearby come running, and somehow they don't wade in guns blazing; their guy is out cold, so without any real evidence to hold them they let Fox drive out with Brother alive (though without those damned panels!).

**

In the truck Dustwich can't really deal with Kim's manner and when she insists that they should pay attention to the perimeter he gets out of the cab and sits looking backwards as she scans forward, After a few hours of waiting around doing nothing, they get a squawk over the radio to say the expedition are coming back.
Johnson's gang has lost one, but returns with four heads and a bag of booty.

Johnson is beaming, ear to ear. He give Kim a big hug, lifting her off her feet
-We are going to make beautiful music together, my dear Kim!
Kim eyes up the heads, taking one. They're not Rum's Marauders.


Dusk sits down opposite TumTum at the bar, and gets him to pour her a whiskey. She wonders when his goon squad will be arriving from Jackson, and he goes all conspiratorial. He'll talk to her later about that, still very hush-hush. He's worrying about the shopping list, and has sent off a few messengers to go looking for the list.


Kim drives back to Johnson's place with the exuberant hunting party. As they enter the hacienda grounds, it looks like everyone's on high alert. He's a bit freaked out when she tunes the long-dead radio to a music channel (blaring The Girl from Ipanema). Kim picks up the head from the floor and sings directly to it. That's the final straw for Dustwich and he just abandons the truck at the gate and wanders down. A.T. comes up to drive her down the rest of the way.
The head is on the floor and the radio silent once A.T. approached, so he has no idea what's spooked poor Dustwich.

When Kim says she needs to give the solar panels back to Fox soon, he offers to buy them. She explains that she can't just take them. He yells out to Freddie
-Hey Freddie! If you steal something, what is it?
-Yours!
-I need to stay on Fox's good side until I have all the pieces (people and materiel) to just make them from scratch herself. Fox has contacts in Lopez
-Just tell me about the source, and I'll make sure the panels get back to Fox. Then, world domination!

*

Kim notices that Zero is gone. She reaches out for him, but he's out of range. She needs to find him and Johnson offers to send out search parties and she tells him to shoot to kill, just not in the head.

Dusk and TumTum are going into more detail about his plan. He's acting like he doesn't need the deal with Purity and he tells her that if push came to shove they'll be alright. Dusk pushes him cause she doesn't like the sound of that at all, saying she'll probably pick up sticks and find somewhere else if he's really going to do something so foolish. So he tells her; Jackson has a clean source of water. They're drinking it and not getting sick. She wonders if those not already affected by dirty water can drink it as well as Jackson's people, and TumTum points at himself. He drank it for a few days and didn't feel anything.

She says they'd better play it safe for now; the cost of switching might be chaos in the Valley. He nods; he's on her side as a right hand now that he knows what her intentions are.

Kim wanders her to speak to Dusk. She wonders if Dusk can call Zero, who's lost. Dusk isn't quite sure about it, but does it anyway. With her brain almost inevitably open to the Psychic Maelstrom, Kim sees the dreamcatchers on Dusk's body spread out down her body and onto the floor. Other people in the bar are walking over it, and it's sticky and viscous as they step on it. She sees a pulse spread out along the strands and Dusk calls Zero.

Kim goes outside and hunkers down with a view on the bar's entrance to wait for Zero. In the morning, she's woken up by the beeping on her tricorder. Zero's approaching and after another hour of waiting she goes out on the road to see where he is.


Dusk is working on Jesus' terrible tattoo. Dusk starts working on a giant tsunami on one half of his chest, the chaotic churn obliterates the writing in the 'I ❤ Bulldog', leaving only the ❤ floating on the wave. Jesus is in Found's cult so he's happy to share some gossip with her. Kobel has annexed some of their land, so there could be trouble brewing. They have to provide some hard bastards to defend Watering Hole, and they're the only two hard bastards they really have. Dusk'll try to convince TumTum to excuse them for a bit.


Zero comes walking down the road. He's dog tired and collapses in despair when he sees Kim waiting for him. Kim kills him using the kill switch and kicks his body into the ditch.

Next Session: Big Plans

Back to the Grind

Previous Session: Not so Pure

Heading back towards Watering Hole, Kim the Savvyhead has asked Dusk the Skinner to stick around with her for a while. They stop in the foothills at the site of the ambush.

Kim taps into the Psychic Maelstrom to send an invitation out to Rum, the leader of the Marauders who raid any who travel on the road to Purity. Rum is addressing his warriors around the fire, when he becomes aware of her presence behind him. He hisses at her but then he hears something else...

...Dusk has just whispered his name into the Maelstrom and he feels the need to go to her. He brings the remaining half-dozen of his gang down to meet them and they appear over the hill in less than an hour. He's adopted his full regalia for this appearance, with leather armour, a large skull helmet and painted skin.

With Dusk nearby for support, and Dremmer up top in the gun-truck for backup, Kim negotiates a deal to allow her to pass up and down to Purity for her clinics there. She offers them repairs for their weapons and vehicles in return: proving she can do it when one of his gang hands over a shotgun that's badly jammed.

Dusk is eyeing them up, they're a rag-tag bunch, and despite some malnourishment they're obviously getting clean water. Looking at Rum cutting a deal with Kim, she reckons that he's probably going to gut her after a while; after he thinks he's gotten enough out of her, and just take her van.

When they get back to Watering Hole, TumTum is still not back. Wanger looks upset inside the bar, some of the furniture has been smashed up and he tells Dusk that Ollie's hacienda crew were responsible. Out back, Navarre's gone too, as are the pair of guards TumTum left to keep an eye on him.

Ripper and Kim work out a deal for her clinic up at Purity. Kim tells the doctor about this new lurgy and hires her to come and take a look, just in case it's really serious. She also lets slip that they wanted to buy a doctor outright, but Dusk wouldn't allow it.

Kim goes to work fixing her taser (just 4 or 5 hours work) before she realises she's completely forgotten about Zero (the name she's calling the dying guy she kept alive from the Circus for her experiments). She rents a shed from Shady to keep him in, hooking him up for a blood-pumper (powered by a roof-top solar panel, one that looks suspiciously like one from Fox's stash).

Dusk has a few tattoo appointments lined up, the scuttlebutt on TumTum's absence is all over the map, but when she spots his favourite bottle of whiskey still opened on the top shelf of the bar she knows he's planning to come back.

T-Bone, a new Purity recruit into Wire's gang wants a solid tattoo; he's feeling happy and ambitious. But she talks him out of a flaming skull (too many of those floating around). Instead he gets a stark wolfshead on his chest, with flaming nostrils. While she's at work, he spills some gossip about the lurgy. Apparently people starting getting sick down in the lower levels a month or so ago. No one likes talking about it (at least Pierre didn't want anyone talking abou it). Doc Robinson died early on from it too, so that's why they needed a doctor.

**

TumTum appears a while later. He's got a couple of pick-ups and his guards. He walks into the bar, strutting like he's got aces in the hole. Dusk wonders where the hell he's been (maybe talking to the refugees from Logger?) but he grins and shakes his head telling her that the haciendas won't be happy with the deal he's just made.
Dusk isn't shaken off that easily and insists that he tell her where Navarre is; and he knows that look on her face and tells her straight-up. He took Navarre up to where Jackson and a bunch of Scum were camped out. He's hiring them on for muscle.

News is coming in from a bunch of haciendas, the ones which've just lost their leaders are in some kind of unrest. There's rioting in Ebb's old place and there are reports of raids, including a big one on Johnson's.

Kim checks in on Zero: he's doing well and she assesses the experiment as being successful so far, albeit that he's not very healthy. She wants to do a field test; so she brings him out of sedation. He's in shock and she gently tells him that she saved him after he got shot and has nursed him back from the brink of death.
He is overcome remembering the horrors of that firefight, and he just wants to leave to get back to his people. He's not pleased when he finds implants at the back of his skull, and Kim tells him what they do: force compliance with her orders, prevent him from harming her and cause a teeny tiny explosion in his brain if he should somehow overcome those inhibitions. 
(she's taking careful notes: "And remember, this is for posterity so be honest. How do you feel?")


Johnson comes to visit Dusk (like he promised her) and has some ideas for a tattoo. Considering the aggressive and powerful hacienda owner, Dusk knows what'd be most fitting. He's got thick black gelled-back hair and she takes out a set of hair clippers, and he looks nervous. 
-I'm going to make you a shark, fierce and dangerous, so that no one can mistake you for anything else!
If anything, he looks even more nervous. So she calls in A.T. to placate him, asking him if a terrifying killing machine that won't stop for nothin' isn't the perfect way to think of his boss. A.T. is out of his depth, but nods cause that sounds like a good thing to him. Dusk turns around as the door closes behind her
-Sit down
She pushes him into the chair, and Johnson kind of likes that, even if he could never admit it.
The tattoo covers his head, with a wavy sharkskin pattern on the top and back of his head, and the viciously sharp teeth coming down out of his hairline and up out of his jaw. 

The conversation turns to her own tattoos, and she tries to brush him off. Telling him that they're special and she's not sure he can handle them. That only makes him want something like them more. She tells him that it's not for the faint-hearted. It'll require tattooing with the hammer, old-style, like her mentor, Midnight (the Witch King), did for her in the Witch Lands far to the north. Using essence of the serenity flower in the ink, she adds fine detail to each of the teeth: now there's an innate connection between the tattoo and the Maelstrom, and now there's an eerie, menacing quality to the tattoo.

*

Kim is feeding Zero something horrible like mashed turnip. She's happy squatting in the darkness of the ramshackle shed talking nonsense as he eats off the spoon she zooms into his mouth every so often. She even unveils her form in the Maelstrom, and he's horrified as he realises that the pink tentacles monster in front of him is in fact her. His form is much more primal, a wounded jackal who stares with cold malevolence.

A few days later, Johnson comes back to visit Dusk again. This time with Killer in tow. It's his gift to her, he'll make sure nothing happens to her. She's dubious, and quickly establishes that he still works for Johnson and not her, so she refuses. He's desperately looking for something to gift her, and she wonders if co-ownership of the Hacienda is on the table. He's hungry, but unsure and she pushes him back to the chair again, waving Killer out of the room.

When they're finished, he asks her if she'll visit the hacienda soon and she nods. Johnson leaves, and when she enters the bar, everyone there knows and she buys a round for the house with the proceeds from his shark tattoo.


At the hacienda, Johnson has been bolstering his defences, they've been raided by savages from the hills (probably Rum and his Marauders). Kim is continuing her experiments with the new taser there on site. There are some successes, some explosions and some fatal mishaps.

When Dusk arrives, she suggests that maybe she should try shooting at rocks and not people, at least until she irons out all the basic kinks.

Dusk is treated to cocktails on the veranda, but she insists on staying in separate rooms and on returning to Watering Hole after a few days.

Next Session: Complications

Not so Pure

Previous Session: Cold Pursuit

They pick through the aftermath of the battle, smoke and moans and the stench of blood and cordite fill their senses. They spot a few ex-Watering Hole (or at least ex-Valley) people who were recruited by the Circus in a bus. Dummy (a heavy lifter) and Lara (a keen scavenger) stumble out from behind a few crates in the back once they spot Dusk the Skinner. She gives them a hug, and Dummy tells her that she's one of the good ones.

Gaptooth comes down from the hills in his bike, he wasn't inside Purity after all. Dremmer goes out to get a trophy (Doberman's head presumably) for TumTum.

Meanwhile, Kim the Savvyhead finds one of the Circus folk who would die without her intervention and saves them as a test subject. She's working on a prototype obedience collar, using voice control from her tricorder.

Inside Mimi's bus, Dusk bumps into Jack pulling October out. This is when Dusk hears about the deal Wire made with Jack to get his Skeletons onboard for this job. Wire gets the loot and Jack gets any of the Circus folk to sell onto the hacienda owners at next market. Dusk isn't happy about this, but doesn't fancy her chances in talking Jack around or facing him down. October gives her a mournful look as she steps aside.
-Please
But Jack snarls and tells her
-He's an object now, not a person; I'll set high price coz he looks like a gifted boy

Down towards the rear of the convoy, one of his Skeletons (Pucker, maybe?) has Tinkerbell by the hair. She's a jeweller from Watering Hole and Wire the Chopper recognises her and intervenes. Pucker isn't convinced and smacks Tinkerbell into the van, reaching for his gun.
Dremmer's nearby, and he grabs the other Skeleton and even this threat doesn't bother Pucker. Dremmer hammers the guy (literally!) and then swings his shotgun from his back and gives Pucker another chance. No deal and they exchange fire, and Pucker is history (but it seems like Tinkerbell was caught by some blast through the thin sides of the van).

Back up at Mimi's bus, Dusk recognises the harsh ripping sound of Dremmer's automatic shotgun, and when Jack drops October's leash and starts to run down, she steps out to one side and raises the sawn-off she had inside her coat. She pulls both triggers and they hit Jack square in the back throwing him to the ground. He groans, turning over slowly and reaching for his gun, but Dusk walks up to him, calming reloading and taking careful aim at his head. !BAM!

Two of the surviving Skeletons get on their bikes and make a run for it, and Wire gathers her people up and gives chase. The pursuit is short and deadly, they gun down one and corner the other and surround him, giving Wire the chance to almost cut him in half with her machete.

The rest of them find the place almost peaceful without the bike gangs hanging around. Dremmer give the remaining captives the Skeletons captured the spiel on getting back to Watering Hole with them, and how they'll have the chance to carve out a niche for themselves. Do your time like everyone else and the place will be like home before long.

**

There's an ahoy from an observation platform high up on Purity. Kim gets the CB radio working and they are talking to someone named Pierre. Kim is really bad at this kind of thing and hands over the handset to Dusk.

Pierre doesn't seem to want to give them any credit for warning them about the Circus or stopping them - he's treating Purity as impregnable. He's happy to insult them, until Dusk invites him down. He starts to laugh at her suggestion, but then shuts up as he feels the sudden need to do so.

There's a bus on a cable that runs down the steep cliff from Purity, and eventually it gets to the bottom, whereupon Pierre and six bodyguards get out. As Dusk goes forward to meet him, Wire has grabbed the CB to talk to someone else up there - it's Gritch, and she promises to protect him from Pierre if he brings her up in the bus.

Kim looks at the Purity crowd carefully - they look a bit weird and through the Psychic Maelstrom they all seem even stranger

Dusk's lithe and attractive, even here, but her bare skin shows off scales and a lengthy tail pokes out from the back of her coat. Dremmer beside her is a massive hulk that obscures so much. Pierre has jet black marble eyes and a forked tongue. His cronies are horned/winged/furry/tentacled beings - they are all different at a single moment in time, but their form shifts to copy and react to the others. They are all connected by a thread and their eyes all resemble Pierre's, and he has shadows that reflect their larger features.

Pierre considers Dusk before him
-Consider yourself blessed. This is the first time these feet have touched this ground in years. But it's just for you, given that you're so irresistible I'd love you to come up and visit me properly.
Dusk shakes her head, she's happy down here.
He scowls, obviously a man who's used to getting his own way. He takes out a piece of paper
-I've got a new list for the trade with Watering Hole
Dusk looks at it, and her eyes widen. Purity has just doubled their price for the same amount of water purification tabs, They're even asking for a doctor. She tells Pierre that this won't do and one of his bodyguards, the small one called Pinky steps up to her
-We don't need you! We're save as houses up in Purity; we'll just ride all this out until you come back screaming for us!

She ignores him and leans in closer to Pierre
-I think you need us more than ever. I think you're going to up the number of tabs for this list from 105 to 240. I know a doctor who'd be able to clinic here for you and I smell desperation off you.

Behind them, the bus starts to rise up the cliff and they see Wire inside. Pierre and his guys panic and rush to get aboard, but it's too late. Dusk walks back with Dremmer to their guntruck and they get ready to roll.

*

Wire climbs out at the top to meet Gritch at the winch controls. She turns off the CB to drown out Pierre's demands from below. Absolution is furious at Gritch's action, and he feels betrayed that anyone might want to leave Purity. Gritch tells her about those down below who've been getting a terrible lurgy, with boils and everything. They haven't had a doctor for years.

Absolution goes to prevent them from doing anything else and gets Wire's machete in the face for his trouble. She goes on a hiring spree. She's got spare bikes for a half-dozen new riders and she quickly amasses the right kind of people.


Kim walks over to try to calm Pierre down - she hears from him that Goldie (her only contact inside) died peacefully in his bed ten days ago.  He's trying to evoke some sympathy from her to help him out for the sake of Purity, but that won't have much effect on Kim.

Dusk and Dremmer try to get his attention back to their deal - it sounds like he really needs that deal now. Kim stands in the way of Dremmer's gun and she cuts a deal with Pierre to do a couple of days work at a clinic from down here.

Pierre smiles at Dusk and tries his luck with her one more time
-I still want you Dusk
-I'm good, I'd like to stay clean
Kim blurts out with a laugh
-I mean, who wants to sleep with snaggle-toothed morons, right?

Wire returns on the bus with six new recruits and they all drive back towards Watering Hole.

Next Session: Back to the Grind

Cold Pursuit

Previous Session: Detritus

Fox the Operator drove away from the Circus that night, with an increasingly ill Brother riding shotgun. She pulls in on the side of the road, far from the craziness but still within sight of Watering Hole to nurse him back to his normal self.

Wire the Chopper drives back into the hold with her gang tired from the road. Tempers are frayed a little, and Tandem and Bull go at each other at Chubby's. Wire breaks up the fight, which seemed to be cover for Red's leadership challenge. A couple of them don't walk away from that mistake. Finally she can't put up with the ruckus, and heaves in behind TumTum's people to help tamp down the rioting.

The following day, Fox moonlights - it feels strange to be doing so without Brother or Kim in train, but she juggles a dozen interested parties to broker a few deals, and then in her spare hours does some surveillance in the crowded bar to report movers and shakers to GoGo, the likely heirs of BlackJack's old hacienda.

Things don't go so well when she tries to stay on good terms with Dusk though. She orders a bottle of the good whiskey to go on Dusk's tab and when Putrid (the bar keep when TumTum's away) breaks the news to her, Dusk is not impressed. There's a small stand-off re payment between the two (Putrid & Dremmer backing up Dusk) with Kim ready to stand in with Fox. But they settle it and the open bottle goes back behind the bar.

Dusk the Skinner heads out to talk to Wire, about putting together a strike on Doberman and the Circus before they can reach and wreak havoc on Purity. Wire is definitely up for that, and picks out her fastest cross-country biker, and old codger called Gaptooth, to go out (with a CB radio) to warn Purity not to let the Circus in. Maybe he can call back with some useful information when he spots them as well.

Kim puts out a strong message far and wide into the Psychic Maelstrom along the same lines: "Don't let the Circus in". Then she goes to speak with Johnson about the delivery of the new phaser. They hash out a deal, which they both (just about) can be comfortable with.
He'll provide her with a workshop on his hacienda, with security, power and a few test subjects (who are to pull the trigger during tests, and not be particularly worth crying over if everything goes badly).
She'll provide him with a fully functioning phaser, demonstrate it and charge a flat one jingle for it, and then one extra for each successful killing shot.

When Dremmer finds out what they're up to, it's obvious to Dusk that he wants to go. But when she asks him, he hums and haws - with TumTum gone out on business he feels responsible. She tells him to get Putrid's boyfriend (Wanger) on the door while he's gone, but he digs in. When she offers to hire him as her bodyguard should TumTum throw a hissy fit when they return instead of thanking them for hunting down the Circus, he gets right on board. He grins like a little boy when she tells him that they'll be taking Navarre's truck out.

He brings out the big gun (a 50cal) and sets it up on the pintel mount on Navarre's truck. This is going to be awesome!

**

The rag-tag posse sets off. There's an unspoken but very real rivalry between Skeleton Jack's and Wire's gangs, and the Skeleton Crew are more aggressive in their pace-setting. As they get further towards the edge of the Valley, the rusted vehicles piled up on the highway become more numerous and when they get to the foothills near Purity, the potholes and damage to the road make it an especially bone-jarring journey - not that Dusk notices in the cab of the truck.

They slow down as the road winds up into the mountains when one of the lead Skeletons falls off the bike. A few moments later, when everyone realises that it was a sniper shot and not an accident, the other hidden snipers open fire. A few more go down before Wire catches up and then sends some of her crew off around the flanks to flush out the snipers. They spot a machine gun set up in a wicked ambush position, and it's about to wreak havoc; when Dusk rounds the corner and Dremmer opens up with the 50cal. The ambushers die horribly in the rout, and the bikers seem disappointed that they were just bandits and not from the Circus.


After a while longer, they can see Purity. At a v-shaped gap in the mountain. A deep river runs through the gorge, and there's a spectacular waterfall cascading down the face of the mountain. A road runs alongside the river, and there's the tail-end of the Circus' caravan.

Kim talks to Gaptooth, convincing him that she's on the level - he's inside Purity and she gets him to try to convince them to help destroy the Circus. He's not too sure as they seem pretty stand-offish.
Dremmer is up top with the 50cal and Dusk yells at him to "light them up!". As he opens fire, the bikers work their way up the side of the road and pick off the dismayed Circus crew.

Wire comes across someone who must be Doberman - he yells his defiance at her, but she just blows his head off without any further ado. And that's the end of the Circus.

Next Session: Not so Pure

Detritus

Previous Session: One Night Only

In the pre-dawn light, Dusk the Skinner and Kim the Savvyhead head out to take a look at the carnage from Navarre's rampage and the Circus' withdrawal. They drive there in Navarre's monster truck (Dusk finds a sawn-off shotgun under the seat and readies it, just in case).

They find a handful of burnt out and abandoned vehicles, with dozens of bodies and they start looking for survivors. Unthinking, Kim puts a trader with a belly wound out of his misery, but Dusk gives her a stern look - Ripper, Watering Hole's doc might be able to help some. They drag the locals they find out of danger from the fires, and then Dusk finds a still-breathing Navarre, half-buried under a pile of his victims. They haul him back to the flat-bed and drive him back to get Ripper, who has turned Dusk's place into an emergency surgery.

Ripper's not too sure when she looks at Navarre's wounds (3 GSWs and some broken ribs) and hears his name that his credit is good, but Dusk vouches for him. The fact that Dusk is acting like a friend of this feared road-warrior surprises some (especially given his obvious mutations) and rumours start to circulate.

Inside the bar, Dusk gives TumTum a chance to salvage his civic pride. He's going to leave Navarre alone - he really wants to isolate and interrogate him, but Dusk promises him a chat when the road-warrior is back on his feet. In the meantime, he should organise the recovery of the wounded, and salvage of the remnants.

Kim heads along, to find something interesting. She follows thin wisps of pink smoke into the collapsed big tent and comes out with the dispersal engine for the hallucinogens. One of the two machines is fine and the other is good for parts.

Back at his place, TumTum's anger is beginning to show, and wishes Dusk would make herself useful. He doesn't even know what that means, and Dusk whispers to him across the bar that she could call Mimi back. TumTum is incredulous, and wonders how that's possible. She tells him the she'd do it the same way she called Navarre here.

He's definitely interested and goes off to round up a posse, while Kim tries to check if the Circus' leader is even still alive (he is, but is doing poorly and probably won't recover from his wounds).

***

When Dusk grabs some sleep in her chair Kim speaks to the nervous Goddamit! She wants to pump him for information about the Circus and Mimi. He's only been with them for a few seasons, since they were east of Logger. They were just a travelling circus until they went through Logger, and then they met up with Doberman. His people joined as muscle and things took a nasty turn. Where previously they had left people weirded out, now they left carnage. Loads of new blood joined and Doberman was in charge of them all. He minded the Circus and stopped bad trouble from harming them, looking after the non-Show clowns and biker gangs.
Over a month or two moving around inside Logger, things got weirder and weirder and then they moved out into the Valley where smaller holds and haciendas got the same treatment.

But Goddamit! is real nervous. He wants Kim to help protect him, maybe get him to Lopez. He's seen the way people are talking about treating anyone from the Circus and fears a lynching. Kim tells him to keep his head down and tell her about Doberman. She gets the rundown on his appearance, but she'll tell TumTum that they need Goddamit! to identify him.

A.T. arrives at the bar to grab Kim for a chat with Johnson, who's holding court. He's heard of her super weapon and will put all his resources at her disposal to acquire one. She can't guarantee him the same results, and won't sell him hers. But she'll do some experimentation and come back with an answer/offer.
He tries to pressurise him into visiting his hacienda, to sleep and eat with him and build his new weapon. But when Kim introduces herself properly (her terrible family history) he backs off a little and accepts her offer to meet up in a day to discuss terms fully.

She tells TumTum to keep Goddamit! safe, and tells him that he's there to be a 'canary in the coalmine' if Doberman comes to extract vengeance on them - he's the only one who can identify him.

**

Dusk wakes up in her chair at the doorway to her shack, clutching Navarre's sawn-off. Johnson is standing over her, bodyguards lurking behind him. He wants her to walk with him, talk about something important, so she grabs her coat and follows.

He wants her to back him in ousting TumTum - he fucked up in allowing the Circus in and in letting them run rampant. She shakes her head. The Circus drove up outside and she doesn't really think TumTum could've stopped what went on.

Anyway, does he really have what it takes to run Watering Hole? He should concentrate on sending out his people to bring back the heads of the Circus clowns and Mimi specifically if he wants to ride the popularity wave.

Otherwise, he'll have to deal with idiots here telling him what the best way to manage the water, and walkways and market layout is, while making them all play nice and not burn the whole place down.
He'll have to juggle egotistical hacienda owners' competing demands (and appear neutral while doing it).
Then he'll have to convince Lopez that he's not making a power grab over the entire Valley, which'd provoke a devastating response.

Johnson isn't happy, but obviously he thought it would be easy, and thanks Dusk for her advice as he walks off.


Dusk turns around and walks back to the bar. Getting TumTum to pour her a drink. Without mentioning names she tells him that she just had to talk someone out of killing him for the Circus. When she asks him why he killed Blackjack and Nero (two other hacienda owners in the bar after lock-up) he shrugs and blames the crazy smoke. She's not convinced, but moves on. If he wants to secure his position he'll need more help, and not from the hacienda owners.

He thinks he could go to Lopez to get soldiers, but she tells him he's crazy. He should go out on the road the bring in Logger refugees. They'll add to Watering Hole in any case and the tougher ones will be grateful and useful in a fight.

Dusk calls Mimi back, and TumTum musters his warriors, along with the Skeleton Crew and some of the agreeable hacienda soldiers as a reception party.


Kim starts work on the new phaser for Johnson, taking her own one apart to figure out how to amp the power up reliably, while putting in an on/off switch and an emergency shutdown circuit inside her own tricorder (for her own safety).

*

That night, Kim dreams of a powerful man in a dark room. It's too dark to make out, but he's looking for her. Then there's a bright, blinding light which silhouettes him.
-Where's my jingle!
in Lopez' voice

Lo and behold. In the middle of the night, the sentries spot a lone vehicle approaching Watering Hold. From the direction the Circus left in. It's a small minibus, and it pulls up outside the gates. Out steps someone else (it's not Mimi). Dusk asks him who the hell he is and he goes inside the bus to drag out a terribly wounded Mimi.

As Kim checks the perimeter (paranoid her!) Dusk asks what he had planned. The blunt answer back is that he didn't want to die. They had been going south to find somewhere to hole up, and the rest of the Circus kept going when Mimi heard the siren call. He could only force a couple of them to take him back.

Dusk nods at TumTum, and he gives the order to his death squad to open fire. They don't stop til their magazines are empty.

Next Session: Cold Pursuit