GM: Without the experts, you have two options. You can try to remotely shut down the reactor from the control console, but that’s been rewired and probed by generations of hungry robots. Or you could turn off the reaction manually, but you’d have to trust in the radiation suits.
Chris: Sure, we’ve had casualties, but this is why the Reclaimers came along. I’ll put the suit on.
Laura: Isolde takes a brief break from securing the plant to come and talk to you. “Are you sure you want to do this? We’ve done the hard part of flushing them out – we can hold this place long enough to get support in.”
Chris: Karl pulls the battered and patched helmet on, and through the helmet’s faceplate you can see he’s determined. “C’mon, Sarge, we both know you don’t have that much ammo.
Trust me, I know what I’m doing.” He grins. “And they’ll have to listen to me if I pull this off!” Then I pass my bow to Isolde and head to the airlock. “Look after that, alright?”
GM: As the airlock cycles and opens, the room’s filled with a blinding blue light. The bad news is it’s Harm 4 – good news is that your suit’s 2 Armour against this.
Chris: Ouch. I’ll mark off ‘On the Defensive’ and ‘Blood-soaked’.
Can’t stay long here. What do I see?
GM: There’s the reactor assembly – a globe suspended in the centre of this huge, multi-story room. It’s glowing bright blue and the light’s pulsing painfully. There’s all sort of cables and pipes going in and out of the sphere, attaching to various places on the room’s walls.
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Chris: I mutter a curse on those superstitious idiots and their shoddy protective gear and start working out what needs to be sabotaged.
This is definitely Hostile Grounds, but thankfully Karl has the hardened tag. If he didn't he'd be acting with Disadvantage: rolling three dice and discarding the highest.
GM: You only have enough time for one approach: do you want to break whatever you can, or work out a controlled way to shut it down?
Chris eyes his Force of +2 and Lore of +1.
Chris: The second one… probably sounds better for everyone involved. Let’s give it a go.
GM: OK, roll for Defuse with Lore.
A Lore of +1 and a roll of 3 is not enough!
Chris: Well, shit.
GM: Yeah, it’s not good. You’re scanning over the pipes and cables, frantically trying to find a way to shut it down, but you’re getting woozy and it’s hard to focus. You find yourself staggering and stumbling. Take another 2 Harm.
Maybe you have time to get back to the airlock?
Chris: No, I don’t think so. Even if my lore has failed me there’s always smashing. I’m going to mark my Dead box – even as I die I make one last strike, destroying whatever killed me.
GM: Yeah, that’d do it. Want to describe what happens?
Chris: Sure. I always have more weapons, right? There’s a blast arrow still in my back quiver – probably shouldn’t have brought that in, but too late now. I tear open the suit, grab the arrow, and start climbing the cables. I climb on top of the reactor, and smash the arrow into it where the cables and supports are holding it up. I’m thrown away by the explosion, as the reactor falls to the floor and crumples apart in a second blast.
GM: Laura, how’s Isolde taking this?
Laura: I’ve been watching tensely on the plant’s monitors. As Karl
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starts climbing it I’m already running to the airlock and I’m putting a radiation suit on as the explosion happens. I try and open the airlock – maybe I can still help?
GM: The generator’s gone – the airlock isn’t working. Maybe you could push it open with Force?
Laura: No, I can put two and two together – if there’s no power he succeeded and he wouldn’t want me risking my life for nothing. I say a prayer for Karl, then go to the roof and launch a flare so the Battalion know that the mission’s succeeded.
GM: Yeah, you’ve definitely seized claim of this plant and this territory. Good job - get Surplus: Progress and 2 Tech from raiding the power plant.
Aftermath
Laura: I’ll leave the troops to secure this place and head back to the homeland. I have to return Karl’s bow to the Reclaimers.
Chris: I might as well pick up Skols as a quick character.
Quick characters are there to fill out a party, give other players someone to play, and (as here) be a temporary substitute for a deceased character.
Chris: I reckon they're a Leader with Educated from my family playbook. 2 Lore, -1 Force, 0 in Sway and Steel. They've got a weird device picked up from the factory - the central processor for that huge electric bug.
GM: Alright, taking that metro tunnel back means you don't need to roll Wasteland Survival. The tunnel ends at a blockade, through which you can hear the bustle of South Circle.
Laura: I knock on the barricade, and shout my name and rank.
We've saved this place enough times they should trust me.
GM: No response, it's likely too thick for noise get through.
Chris: Skols has a plan. We have a bunch of robot components in our South Circle storehouse. I'll tinker with that CPU to try and set up two-way comms with it and the robot scrap.
GM: Sounds like Unleash Power, roll +Lore.
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Chris rolls a 11, 13 with his Lore. He gets three picks.
Chris: I'm OK with the CPU powering down for a while. I'll go with 'it does exactly what you wanted', 'you avoid its side effects', and 'you don't rouse other devices in your environment'.
GM: There's a blare of static and then you hear a shout of surprise - one of the workshop novices.
Chris: Skols picks up the CPU and speaks slowly and clearly into it.
"Novice, this is Acolyte-Engineer Skols. I am with Sergeant Isolde of the Last Battalion at South Circle's B Line tunnel.
It's safe and we need you to remove the barricade."
GM: It takes them a while to get over the shock, and longer to get enough people together to remove the barricade.
Within a few hours though you're out.
Laura: Let's go to the Reclaimers. They need to know about Karl.
GM: Sure, you head there with the Reclaimers that had gathered to tear down the barricade. When you tell them what happened to Karl how do you do it? With military discipline, or as someone who lost a friend?
Laura: Isolde probably starts restrained, but as she sees the Reclaimer's reaction she becomes more emotional and talks about the good times they shared together, how he was someone she knew she could rely on, how the world won't be the same without him.
GM: As you finish talking they pick it up, telling stories about his passion for making a safer world, how he was an incredible fighter, how they'll make sure his kids get his effects. You handing over the bow?
Laura: Yeah.
Chris: I'll pick that as a relic. I'll tie Eternal Arsenal to it.
When you die you pick a possession as a relic. When your family members hold it, they get access to one of your moves.
GM: Alright, you've definitely done enough to trigger Eulogy.
Chris, how do the Reclaimers react?
Chris: This has definitely brought our families closer together.
We'll give the Battalion 2-Treaty on us.
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GM: So another section of the city's been made safe and you've secured a valuable bit of infrastructure. Everyone alright with moving to the Turn of Ages?
Everyone agrees. The roll for this is +Mood - the balance of Surplus and Need. The Battalion has +1, the Reclaimers have -1.
Laura: 9 on the dice, so 10. Two fortunes and +2 Tech.
Chris: I got a 7. One fortune, one trial, +1 Tech.
Laura: So first, I'll say we used the foothold of the plant to clear out the whole region between the park and the plant. We get +1 Grasp and Surplus: Weaponry, but get -1 to Diplomacy with the city scavengers this age.
Chris: We know there's some titan machine out there - that's what Karl was trying to hunt down, remember? I think it raided the homeland in revenge for the Battalion's actions, and we stopped it at great cost. We get +1 Reach and Surplus:
Morale, but also get Need: Recruits.
Laura: My second pick is that we get pretty close with the Reclaimers - maybe we shelter them after the titan attacks, and there's even some marriages over the years. We get a move from the Reclaimer's playbook - I'll pick Sufficiently Advanced. Let's say the Reclaimer descendants in the Battalion put a load of scavenged tech together to make a ward that shields a wide area from the machines, powered by precious fuels. In return, we give the Reclaimers 2-Treaty.
Chris: Almost going extinct and changing a lot leads us into a golden age, questioning old doctrines. We get Need:
Leadership and a new Family move: with Weird Science we can make permanent solutions.
GM: What new threats, opportunities, factions are out there?
Obviously the titan's lurking out there still.
Laura: The plant's plans revealed a control facility for the entire power grid. We're going to try and find it.
Chris: Some people have started worshipping the titan, sacrificing technology to it in hopes of salvation. They're not dangerous yet but we're wary of them.
GM: Great! Let's make characters and start the age...