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Month: April 2025

The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont, Episode 13 – Moonblink

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A ship floating across the sky with party-goers aboard.

 


Previously, on The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont

After a fight in a scrapyard, the team has gotten the pieces to fix the Green Lady. Elsewhere, Eustace has returned to Earth and is attempting to regain control of his own destiny.

About The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont

Eustace Delmont is a psychic on the cusp of “graduating” into a full-blow Field Psychic. He requests his right to Walk, a brief period of freedom to encourage psychics to see the other side of The GLOW. He tries to finish his long-time partner Jani Blum’s final unfinished mission: to find a mini-disc and crack open the Patel crime family. He meets Hitomi Meyer, a criminal hacker. The two are now on the run between a powerful crime family and an even more powerful adversary: The Order and its plans for Eustace.

Content Warning: Occasionally very foul language, lots of smoking, quite intense violence, drinking, gambling, non-graphic sex, drugs, criminal behavior, and black magic. The GLOW is a world of spiritual torture and weird horror.

This post is in the standard Doug Alone post style. See Anatomy of a Post for more details.

Attribution for the tools and materials used—including the splash art—can be found in the Credits below along with some details.



The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont. Episode 13 — Moonblink



This is a brief Time Out to check in on some conditions and to fix up some things.

Setting the Scene. Getting the Green Lady up and Running.

Date: Wednesday, June 5, 1996.

Time: 7:19am.

Place: LoGrav Helicopter Tours.

This is just a quick Time Out so we’ll work out a couple of actions/tests.

Basically, grit is cleared and each character can take up to two tests/actions but we don’t need anything like that.

DATE PLAYED: April 6, 2025.


Getting the Green Lady up and Running

Date: Wednesday, June 5, 1996.

Time: 7:19am.

Place: LoGrav Helicopter Tours.

Hitomi gets out of the shower and looks at herself, unclothed, in the mirror. She traces the lines of her arms and legs. Notes the fading bruises. The healing cuts. Life can change fast in The GLOW. Hitomi feels like she has exceeded all expectations. Two days ago she was in an apartment with Eustace. Two weeks ago her and Bee were running a kiosk at the Citadel and doing small but lucrative jobs on the side. Now she’s standing here on the second floor of LoGrav while three people — none of which she knew more than a week ago — are outside working on an older model helicopter to try an impossible mission well above all of their pay grade. [1]

A mission that needs her attention. The original plan was to be on the Moonblink — Dave Akari’s hoverboat and luxury ship — by now. Hitomi brings up one of her laptops and tries to log into her aethernet sanctum and reconnect to her warded avatars she left behind to keep track on Dave. Only, Hasan has to be running some sort of security and though her wards should be good for a period of time, it was irresponsible to not check in and re-inforce them. She manipulates a stream of symbols and tries to claw back some time by pre-announcing to Hasan’s data center that reports of breaches are a log glitch. It’s worse than she feared, Hasan has sent several AstralForms to guard the data. Thinking quickly, she disguises herself as a basic scraping routine long enough to dupe the Astral and then replaces the aether-ID of her warded avatars to match. The system will see her intrusion as itself. For a bit of time, anyhow. After a bit of processing time, she once again has real-time tracking of Moonblink’s location. [2]

Outside, she hears a cheer. Looking out the window at the small airstrip that LoGrav shares with a couple of other tourist-minded businesses — sometimes the best way to beat the competition is to form a loose coalition with them — she sees Jones high-fiving Varvara. It is honestly the most excited she has seen the other woman act. Since they have gotten only two-hours of sleep, that probably explains a lot. A thoughtful demeanor gets wiggy after your brain crashes.

“Going well?,” she shouts down.

“It sure is!,” Jones shouts back up. He hops off the Green Lady — his helicopter, so named because he is using a aether-fitted Vietnam-era Huey — and pulls out a large cigar and lights up. After a few puffs he hands it to Varvara who starts smoking it proudly. “The gear we found was an upgrad of what I have been running. Should do wonders to up the output.” [3]

Genny walks out. Holds up a couple of ammo cases. He had been out waking up a couple of his gun buddies to get more ammo for himself and Hitomi. [4]

Varvara, still smoking Jones’ cigar and refusing to give it back to him, nimbly moving out of his reach — Hitomi suspects the two of them are flirting a bit — calls out, “When do we go?”

“How about right now? I suspect Dave isn’t the kind of guy who does early mornings so we have a chance to catching him completely off guard.”

The three down around the Green Lady look at each other. Everyone is a bit tired but they see the merit in the suggestion.

“Where’s the bastard located?,” Genny asks.

Hitomi looks back over her shoulders at the coordinates. “Looks like the Moonblink is stationed near Milton and drifting this way, actually.” [5]

“Oh, good, that should save some gas money,” Jones quips.


Expected Scene: The crew have to “sneak up” on the Moonblink.

Scene Test: [c49] 5. 2d10 = 9 + 1. Another minor twist (3/5). The catalyst on the card says “A secret is revealed or betrayed” so I think we’ll use a bit of logic, here.

Actual Scene: While moving towards the Moonblink, other helicopters move to intercept.

Setting the Scene. Green Lady vs the Two Blues.

Date: Wednesday, June 5, 1996.

Time: 8:22am.

Place: The sky above Pensacola.

This will make it a pretty standard Chase seen. Need will be 16. Speed will start at 2. Enemies, like most chase scenes, are sort of a “Critical/Critical” kind of thing. Two blue helicopters sent to take down The Green Lady. Why are they doing it? Let’s see. Drawing three cards and pulling some ideas off of them. [c70] An associate is interrogated. [c64] Improve Desperate Prison. [c105] One of the images is a tower crumbling.

Ok, Bee has been captured by Dave Akari’s men. After the chase of Mother_Bored — was was known and tracked — Dave would clearly have recognized Hitomi. He had Patel put some MUNI sleaze on tracking Hitomi. Once Hitomi basically left to do this mission, these people moved in and cracked Juan Uno’s safe house. Bee and BrokenRecord were captured. While neither are going to betray Hitomi, it adds some stress because they are both on Moonblink and will need to be rescued.

These same MUNI sleaze have tracked Hitomi down to LoGrav and know she is in the air and moving towards Moonblink. They are going to try and shoot her down before she gets close.

I guess that’s a lot more than a Minor Twist but in principle it probably won’t change a whole lot in the long run. Just add some flavor. HOPEFULLY.

MUSIC SHOUT OUT: Yeule just dropped “Evangelic Girl Is a Gun” earlier today, so it seems to be a natural soundtrack for this scene.

DATE PLAYED: April 8, 2025.


Green Lady vs the Two Blues

Date: Wednesday, June 5, 1996.

Time: 8:22am.

Place: The sky above Pensacola.

“I’ve got some bad news,” Genny says while making a complicated gesture over his custom Scrying Glass. Layers of security for talking to homebase directly.

“You might need to save it, man, we got company,” Jones says, glancing out the pilot side of the Green Lady.

“You’re kidding me, a tail in the air?,” Genny asks.

Jones points, and a blue helicopter of more modern design is flying to match their speed but around thirty yards lower down. Varvara points out the other side and a twin ‘copter is keeping pace in a similar holding position on their right.

“Ah, fuck,” Genny says and starts pulling out his assault rifle and checking it. Hitomi gets out her pistol. It won’t do much at this range but gives the sense of taking part. Varvara crawls up in the passenger seat beside Jones. If nothing else, she can be another pair of eyes. Genny wrenches back the right hand doors and air floods the area.

Jones says a quick prayer — which sounds a lot of like the phrase, “By the power of Greyskull,” — and then reminds everyone on board why he was a young, well-regarded pilot. The Green Lady nose dives down until its level with the other two helicopters. As they swoop up to cover the distance he pulls back hard on the yoke and sends the Green Lady forty meters up in the air. Gunshots plink around but the gunners on the other two helicopters can’t risk shooting through their own rotors and have to cut off as the pilots desperate try and keep up with Jones. [6]

The pilot of the blue ‘copter on the left overcompensates and cuts awfully close to the Green Lady. Jones acts like he is pulling hard to the right to avoid but then tries to do a twisting maneuver to the left to actually put both of the chasers on the right of him so that Genny can keep a shot. “Hold on!,” he shouts as whips the Green Lady over. Genny deftly grabs some straps while Varvara barely shifts in her seat. Hitomi loses her footing and nearly slams into the wall but Jones, sensing this, taps the Green Lady slightly back to the other side which helps to steady Hitomi. She flashes him a thumbs up. [7]

Jones start pushing the Green Lady even faster and begins to slightly pull ahead of the other pilots. In the back, Genny takes a measured stance and begins aiming at the cockpit of the nearest Blue. Hitomi, trying to avoid being flung out tries to find a way to strap herself in but fails to find enough strapping to get a good hold. That’s no good. [8]

The nearest helicopter opens two small windows in the side and gunfire rips out. Johns banks the Green Lady to the side slightly to absorb most of the shots. Bullets bing off the metal and the glass, with cracks appearing the side window, but Jones has kept folks safe. Hitomi fights good footing next to Genny and takes aim. [9]

Jones expertly maneuvers the Green Lady to line up Genny’s shot. As Hitomi opens up fire beside him, plinking hard against the side. Genny breathes out as he expertly empties a clip into the cockpit of the Blue Copter. Each shot rings true as blood explodes from inside. As the nearest one starts to dip, Genny turns his fire into the now exposed far Blue. It also erupts under gunfire. A few minutes later the two helicopters collide in air and a large fireball erupts as rubble crashes down into the streets below. [10]

7 matches on 8 dice is a ridiculous roll.

“Good shooting, Yusuda,” Jones says, smiling back at his old friend. Up ahead, they can see the Moonblink drifting slowly a kilometer above the ground and Jones starts banking towards it. Varvara unstraps and joins the others in the back. The plan is to do a sweep over the top and the others will drop down. Jones will fly nearby and land once they have dispatched Dave and taken out as much of Dave’s tech and plans as possible. Or if things go pear shaped. Push comes to shove, Jones gets out and flies back to Juan and its time for the second string to take a shot.

“What was the bad news,” Hitomi asks Genny as the older man is steadying his breathing and getting ready for a return to combat. The exploding helicopters triggering some old memory of his.

“Um, someone in the organization exposed the apartment. Or Bee lead them to it. At any rate, Dave’s men raided it late last night and Bee and BrokenRecord have been captured. Also, someone seems to have stolen Eustace’s body.”


Expected Scene: The team lands on the deck of the Moonblink and must find a way to carry out their mission.

Scene Test: [c50] 5. 2d10 = 8 + 1. Another Minor Complication (4/5). “Discover a secret worth keeping”. There’s also an image on that same card that shows a sort of dizzy person icon. I think the real reason that Dave Akari has been relatively difficult to find (several episodes in) is because his working with Soulburn/etc has induced a kind of Soul-madness. Moonblink is less a true “party yacht” and more a refuge to keep him hidden. This is the real secret he is trying to avoid.

Actual Scene: The team land to find that Dave is being imprisoned on the Moonblink and most of the workers are either medical carers are Patel folks keeping Dave inactive.

Setting the Scene. Twenty Mannequins in a Line.

Date: Wednesday, June 5, 1996.

Time: 8:34am.

Place: On the deck of the Moonblink, in the skies above Pensacola.

Another one of those scenes where I take “minor twist” with a huge grain of salt. Still, the armed response will be lower with a higher emphasis on other skills, perhaps. Like, harder locks and such.

Let’s go with a fairly simple response force, then. I think “Commando Team” works as a good base. 9 Grit. Two Hotboxes (3 and 7). Critical/Critical. Heck, we’ll bump it up 2xCritical/Critical. Tactics [Quick Actions to move require a coin flip]. Armored (-1 to hit the enemy). Flashbang (Critical Reaction [Nerves + Awareness] or become Distrated and -1 next turn), Pile on (Character with the least Grit takes 2 Grit). Tackle (Dangerous Critical Reaction [Brawn + Force], -1 to next roll). A somewhat tanky but kind of small group of well trained people acting more as Dave Akari’s carers rather and his inner circle.

DATE PLAYED: April 11, 2025.


Wooden stairs leading down.

Twenty Mannequins in a Line

Date: Wednesday, June 5, 1996.

Time: 8:34am.

Place: On the deck of the Moonblink, in the skies above Pensacola.

As soon as Hitomi leaps out of the Green Lady and falls the 3 meters to the deck, she feels a sense of disorientation. Enough that she hits the deck kind of hard. One of her laptops slips out and slams down, shattering into glass, metal, and plastic shards before sliding over and then, annoyingly, off the deck. “FUCK!” At least Genny and Varvara landed better. Genny in a slightly overdone, very military style roll. Coming up with his gun already aimed at the three men running up the steps to confront them. For her part, Varvara did a kind of odd tip toe landing that turned into a running leap at those same guards. [11]

Despite the irritation at the lost laptop and one again being under threat of gunfire — a very common occurrence these last few days — it is the ServiSynths that made Hitomi stumble and nearly fall. Mannequin style. Very nearly human but obviously not past any cursory inspection. By design. Bigger department stores — the kind strictly third floor and up in the Citadel — might use them. Put clothes on them and then just walk around and act little vignettes. Let’s you see what the clothing might look like in actual use. They need to look like, well, like mannequins because you don’t want tourists talking to them or thinking they are people. On a broad scale of ServiSynth intelligence, these are fairly low. Just enough of a spark to play at their long game of charades and pantomimes. They don’t even get voiceboxes.

Three fancy dressed mannequins.

And there are roughly twenty of these plastic-faced models stored up against the wall of the main cabin. In weather-proof evening wear. Holding obviously fake cocktail glasses and fake cigs designed to smoke. On the way down, she realized what this meant. These would be positioned around the edge of the Moonblink at night. To give the apperance of a crowd. This is before you get to the fact that two nurses, out for a smoke break, are currently retreating at speed. This is not a luxury yacht meant to host the young, rich, and wild of The GLOW. This is a charade.

Gunfire finally cuts through her confusion. Though by the time Hitomi has her gun out and aims up, she sees those three guards hunched over in pain and growning. One definitely has a broken arm and another is holding a rib like it might be broken. Hitomi glances towards Genny who shrugs and points to Varvara, standing on top of a rail overseeing the three me she just beat down in the opening salvo of combat. [12]

“I don’t think she’s happy they kidnapped BrokenRecord,” Genny notes.


DOUG’S COMMENTARY

April 11, 2025

At one point in time, there was maybe this idea to have, you know, one of the helicopters — if not both — chasing Jones in The Green Lady while the other three madcap dash across the deck to get to the controls, but this episode is weird. This whole arc is weird. And the storyline keeps twisting itself. I mean, that’s generally my fault. I enjoy the odd twists and playing them up more and more. First we had the pretty big swing to this all being a meta-plot to create bespoke GLOWs. Now something is up with this new tech that is doing terrible things. We’ll find out next time.

BUT, to what degree I can take the blame, Genny getting “triple Jackpots” and Varvara essentially going all in and hitting the exact right “death count” also does weird things to the whole flow. Kind of fun things. The new crew is stomping it in fights and next scene most likely will trigger the return of Eustace. It is less a -punk and more a aether-pulp-adventure right now but that’s ok.

MECHANICAL AND STORY NOTES

  1. You can clear You Look NERVOUS by spending an action in Time Out to indulge, relax, etc. The shower and minutes of self-contemplation will work for that.
  2. She originally had a day. It has now been almost double that. She needs at least an Extreme to just not be tracked. Crime + Fix + 1 (Laptop). She gets an Impossible. She’s managed to undo the damage and buy – essentially – unlimited time. At least indefinite.
  3. Basically, anything Basic+ will count as working. We already killed the momentum enough. Know + Fix + 1 (his tools) gets an Extreme + Critical. +1 to Speed seems good.
  4. No need to stress about rolls or anything, here. He’ll spend $1 of his money and $1 of Hitomi to get 2 mags each. He knows a lot of ex-mil types. Someone is going to have some bullets to share with him.
  5. Rolling on the map, get 20,6. So all the way to east and just a few bits above where they are. Roughly where Milton, FL and Bagdad, FL are in the real world.
  6. Jones gets 2xCrit. Speed increases to 3 (3 total). With the extra Critical, he is going to pay it forward into this next action to protect someone.
  7. Jones [Nerves + Dexterity] gets a Critial + Basic to complete the shift. Genny [Brawn + Stunt] gets Crit + Basic. As does Varvara. Hitomi misses it but Jones has a floating Crit that he uses to protect her.
  8. Jones gets 3xBasic = 1xCritical and Speed is up to 4 (7 total). Genny starts aiming at one of the Blue ‘copters. Hitomi tries Nerves + Fix to fasten herself down better but whiffs it.
  9. Jones gets Extreme + Basic. That’s two free Crits to help protect. Varvara does not make it, so that’s one. Hitomi gets an Extreme so we’ll give her +1 Help on her next shot. Finally, Genny doesn’t make it so that eats the other.
  10. Jones gets Extreme + Basic, again. Speed is up 5 (12 total). Genny is going to get + 1 for aiming and + 1 for emptying a clip. Genny gets…um. 7 matches. Screw it, let’s roll for Hitomi. Nerves + Shoot + 1 = Crit + Basic. Wow.
  11. Just a gentle check (Basic would have been fine) but she failes it. One of her laptops smashes. She has just one left. Genny does fine. I’m not even testing Varvara, it’s her whole schtick. Varvara is going to spend one Adrenaline, though, to flying kick into the guards.
  12. Brawn + Fight +1 (Flying Kick) -1 (Armored) equals 6 dice. With her Free Reroll and an additional Reroll, Varvara gets an Impossible. She has taken them out in a single turn. Precisely.

CREDITS

The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont is played using Two Little Mouse’s Outgunned and Outgunned: Action Flicks (especially, but not limited to “Neon Noir” and “Great Powers”). It uses Larcenous Designs’ Gamemaster Apprentice Deck: Cyberpunk 2E as its main oracle.

Other sources used include:

  • Zach Best’s Universal NPC Emulator.
  • Cesar Capacle’s Random Realities
  • Kevin Crawford’s Cities Without Number
  • Matt Davis’ Book of Random Tables: Cyberpunk 1, 2 and 3.
  • Geist Hack Games and Paul D. Gallagher’s Augmented Realities.

ART CREDIT AND EXPLANATION

I felt like if I searched for the Marina Bay Sands (in Singapore) there might be a shot like this that gives the effect of a luxury ship floating across the sky: Photo by Sam Quek on Unsplash.

External shot of LoGrav is Photo by Stefan Lehner on Unsplash. Shockingly hard to find a good helicopter photo for went for “small airstrip,” instead.

Not quite the right kind of Huey but from this Air Force webpage. While the photo itself is in public domain, when I try to load the page about it kind of glitches out but looks like the photographer is Airman 1st Class Stassney Davis.

The Moonblink Deck is not really the deck of a ship but some stairs down to a dock that matched the image I had of this overly “so opulent it looks kind of like a relic” type ship: Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash.

The mannequins are Photo by Sara Kurfeß on Unsplash.



Taxonomy and Technical Data

  • World: The GLOW
    • Campaign: The GLOW
      • Arc: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont
        • Post: Episode 13 – Moonblink

The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont, Episode 12 – Scrap in the Scrapyard

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A pile of scrap cars.

 


Previously, on The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont

After the death of Eustace, Hitomi has started to gather a team of specialists that can help continue the mission. Genny Yusuda is an ex-commando and now gun-for-hire that has put aside monetary considerations to do what is right. Nemesio Jones — helicopter pilot, mechanic, and nerd — is an old friend of Genny’s that has joined in. Finally, the street-punk monk Varvara Clean — known for using artificial meditation-enhancing moods — has brought her own blend of street smarts and physical prowess. The team is currently trying to fix Jones’ helicopter, the Green Lady, while racing the clock.

About The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont

Eustace Delmont is a psychic on the cusp of “graduating” into a full-blow Field Psychic. He requests his right to Walk, a brief period of freedom to encourage psychics to see the other side of The GLOW. He tries to finish his long-time partner Jani Blum’s final unfinished mission: to find a mini-disc and crack open the Patel crime family. He meets Hitomi Meyer, a criminal hacker. The two are now on the run between a powerful crime family and an even more powerful adversary: The Order and its plans for Eustace.

Content Warning: Occasionally very foul language, lots of smoking, quite intense violence, drinking, gambling, non-graphic sex, drugs, criminal behavior, and black magic. The GLOW is a world of spiritual torture and weird horror.

This post is in the standard Doug Alone post style. See Anatomy of a Post for more details.

Attribution for the tools and materials used—including the splash art—can be found in the Credits below along with some details.



The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont. Episode 12 — Scrap in the Scrapyard



Let’s find out where they can get the parts needed at this time of night. We’ll draw a card and take it’s difficulty rating – 4. c34 = 5. -4 = 1. So not very hard at all. I’d like a little fight so we’ll say scrap yard with minimal guards [enough to help test out the new team]. Thompson & Sons Scraps. Owned by Geoffrey Thomspon’s daughter. Jill Lakeford. Hires recovering addicts and ex-cons to help run the place. A non-lethal Brawl rather than a full on fight. That’s fine with me.

Location in the GLOW: We’ll do d66 but count from the bottom right instead so it is near the current location. 6 and 4. Looking at the GLOW map table, this puts us at 15,9. That puts us in the same rough area as ex Knives-compound which makes sense for a scrapyard.

Expected Scene: The new team attempts to steal the parts from Thompson & Sons Scraps.

Scene Test: [c60] 3. 2d10 = 3 + 5. Another minor complication (2 of 5 for Eustace’s return). This tells me two things. 1) This was the same card that was pulled that led to Eustace’s death and therefore I need to shuffle the cards because I probably flipped the deck and 2) There’s something else to fight. Something from the scrapyard itself? Yeah, that’s funny to me.

Actual Scene: The team goes to break in but finds military grade tech coming to life and fighting all people.

Setting the Scene. Rooting for the Rotor Control.

Date: Wednesday, June 5, 1996.

Time: 2:45am.

Place: Thompson & Son Scraps.

The brawl with the workers we’ll just put at Critical/Critical/6. Very much so a warm-up.

The fight with the tech, though. Let’s see. [c41] gives me a helmet icon and “demanding tones.” [c93] gives me a robotic leg icon and “a might or endurance challenge”. A police enforcer robot, a bruiser type, designed to intervene and break up riots. Scrapped after it killed a few peaceful protesters.

Funnily enough, Dean Spencer dropped an absolutely awesome bit of filler art that will do nicely to help describe the robo-enforcer. Almost gorilla-like. Wrist guns in its right arm. Extendable baton in its left.

Now, to stat the thing. I like the “Angry Giant” template. Bad Guy 3. 6 Grit. Attack is 2xCrit. Defense is Crit. Has the Titan feat (only takes one damage per attack). Grab and Throw and Parry. Instead of Parry, I will use “Defective Cyberware”. Essentially, instead of taking Grit damage, the enemy loses a bit of itself. It will rip off its arms or some such. Maybe the characters get a bonus depending, but I like it.

DATE PLAYED: April 3, 2025.


A scrapyard showing parts.

Rooting for the Rotor Control.

Date: Wednesday, June 5, 1996.

Time: 2:45am.

Place: Thompson & Son Scraps.

“Geoffrey Thompson, before his death, had a contract with the US Military. Note that I said You Ess and not The GLOW,” Hitomi explains as the group approaches the outer fence of Thompson & Sons Scrap. Actually owned by Jill Lakeford. Geoffrey’s daughter. Jacob and Joshua, the two sons that were meant to take over, both ended up washing their hands of it. Jacob by way of meeting a man-of-means who enjoyed showering a younger husband with fancy clothes and a triple stack of designer drug habits. Joshua by way of contracting a Soulburn virus and being forced to leave the GLOW. Jill, who married humble architect Waylon Lakeford, figured it was at least worth a tax write-off. Her and her husband now keep it functioning partially as a half-way house and occasional money laundering scheme.

Declare a successful building project a failure. Declare the valuable materials from the failed project as consigned to the scrapyard. Toss in a bunch of junk scrap for the records. Or just fake the records. Then use the good building materials to cut corners on the next project. Repeat every two to three years to skim a few million creds off the top.

“This leads to an opportunity for us. You see, Pensacola can handle the building of aether-enhanced helicopters and drones with no problem. However, some of the parts are actually handled by the American Air Force which has legacy contracts with the Pensacola air fields. The American government over builds parts that have no use outside of The GLOW and upsell to us poor GLOW folk at premium. We have more money than sense so we over buy. A lot of it gets melted down and or reconstructed into expanding the land more and more kilometers off the coast. But some fiddly bits end up in places like this.”

As Hitomi is talking, Genny is cutting a hole in the fence large enough to bring his truck around. Varvara is keeping a careful watch. Jones is chewing on an unlit cigar and sweating profusely in the late night heat.

“Daughter Thompson, now Lakeford, stashes some the tech for her own use and contacts. Word on the street was that she put out a fire sale on some parts that might fit the bill but there’s a general consensus with my contacts that most people consider any tech capable being made by the US Military-Industrial-Complex being a bit too 1989 for their tastes. Its the 90s for goodness sakes. Hoverstones and Liquid-Air Dirigibles are the rage. That and small unmanned-air-vehicles. Helicopters are for tourists. No offense, Jones.”

“Umm, none taken,” says Jones as he wipes his forehead.

Genny finishes pushing the gap in the fence back far enough that they can drive the truck through. Only his truck is old and loud and will surely trip all the sensors. The plan is to get the part as close as they can to the gap and use the truck as back-up if it goes pear shaped. Another element of the plan is to use non-lethal force. The people hired to watch this scrapyard are the kind of folks one offense away from disappearing into the kind of prison people don’t like to talk about. Hitomi tries very hard not to think about the phrase “Spiritual Torture” and the intersection with the incarcerated.

Besides, the general wisdom on Jill’s reformers is that they are meant to put up token resistance but if people want to steal scrap then so be it. She’ll just claim the scrap was worth way more credits than it actually is and get a bigger insurance pay off.

Genny nods and Varvara takes point. Leaping from junk pile to junk pile with such speed and silence that Hitomi wonders if the woman has mystical powers. By contrast, Jones and Genny just clump on through. Hitomi follows somewhere in between. She would rather not get punched. Besides, there’s a part of her that still has a internal twitch remembering the fights Eustace was in. Blades slicing through flesh. Eyes and body glowing with Soulburn as if The GLOW itself were directing him. The GLOW or some terrible intelligence behind it.

She looks forward to retiring to some cottage somewhere and growing petunias.

“Jones,” Genny says a little bit too unquietly for Hitomi’s comfort, Yusuda might be itching for a fistfight, “You are up my man.”

Jones nods by way of reply and in the half-light of the nighttime scrapyard beings looking through stacks of parts. It only takes him about half an hour to locate the bits needed. Another fifteen minutes and he has detached all the parts required. Hitomi fights the urge to light up during this time, despite things going smoothly, because she is pretty sure that your average ex-junky can smell cig smoke at a quarter mile. Chum for the sharks. [1]

After Jones frees the part he strains to stop it from dropping to the ground. Varvara, who has been pretty much just a pale shadow this whole time, drops down quietly beside him and hoists it up. With a little help from Genny and Jones, she gets it balanced on her back. Good news, they won’t need to get the truck past the fence. [2]

Bad news, the dim half-light has gone full-bright which means someone, and not one of the four interlopers, has triggered the alert. Sure enough, five men of various ages and a fairly singular background start walking towards them. Each has that washed out harried luck of a person who has put a wreck of a life back together through energy drinks, shallow faith, and the kind of help group where you talk shit about your ex-wife and what a bitch she was for not taking the abuse.

The leader, a black man with fuzzy hair and a tattoo of a teddy bear on his face, speaks in a thick Jamaican accent that seems well-below honest: “Naw, Naw, four littl’ piggies. Can’t be doin’ all that.” Yes, definitely fake.

Varvara, not saying a word, shifts the load on her back and then does a little tip-toe run that makes Hitomi think of a Russian ballerina she saw as a child while still in Oxford. The run ends with Varvara leaping three meters in the air and then dropping down right in front of the leader. Without dropping the rotor control parts they came from, Varvara kicks straight up and catches the leader in the chin while the man is trying to get out, “Wha,” in what has to be his normal accent — bog-standard Mississippi drawl — before his whole body travels up on the end of her foot and crashes back down. A white man with beard and various runic symbols on his arms — Pagan or white supremacist, Hitomi cannot tell at this distance — shouts something about “skinny bitch” before lunging to grab Varvara. Seeming forgetting the gravity defying woman has two legs. Her first leg comes down and springs out her second which hits the Mr. Runes in the chest hard enough to bounce him back. His head slaps into an old car and bounces and he goes down harder than his supervisor.

Genny chuckles — Hitomi is a little bit irked that overprotective mode isn’t being used to smother the ShaoDra — and runs forward pulling out his Microwavers. They look like a pair of defib paddles and are capable of sending out quick bursts of microwave energy that does funky things to people’s brains at close distance. Nothing permanent, unless the user has a vindictive streak, but it can make you a lot less likely to be active. Jones, on the other side, grabs up some scrap metal and goes to join in. [3]

The leader is trying to stand back up, saying “Hey, now…” when Varvara kicks him hard in the back of the head and drops him a second time. Two men, looking similar enough to be brothers of some Hispanic background, rush over to protect their boy when Genny is there point the Microwavers at one each. A look of confusion on their face turns to nausea as their brain and nervous system decides maybe vomiting is a useful tactic. The one on the left spews hard enough that Genny has to step back. The one on the right just grabs his stomach with one arm while waving away the fight with the other. This leaves just one guy, who has squared off with Jones. Jones swings the pipe at the man’s head but the man ducks and punches Jones right in his nose. Brass knuckles shinning the bright artificial light. Jones goes down hard on his backside. [4]

While Varvara and Genny are sizing up the man fighting Jones, a loud tearing metal sound pulls all eyes over to a stack of junk metal. Another tearing roar and a car door flies up and lands near the foot of Varvara who easily dances away. From this gap, a silver arm punches through. Then another. Then a head, strange and beastlike. Glowing green sensor lights blink as the head swivels and picks out the combatants. “STOP. PRotesTING….withOUT PRIOR APproval IS A CLass……Threeeee Viola….SHUN.” The first arm out the heap clicks and clacks and a pair of guns pop out.

A sort of gorilla-like robot droid.

“Oh shit,” Hitomi says, pulling out her own gun. Likewise, Genny is bringing his assault rifle around from his back after unceremoniously dropping his Microwavers. He kicks at the feet of the barely conscious black man who was leading the night scrappers. “This one of yours?” The black shakes his head. All four of the conscious scrappers are looking terrified. “Fuck,” Genny says. “Like a goddamned Kindergarten class. Get your boys out of here!” [5]

Varvara takes off the running and gets on top of a stack of cars behind the strange Gorilla bot with the shouty voice. As it turns its head to start tracking her, Genny opens fire but the bullets just bounce off of all the junk metal the bot is encased within. Genny curses and pulls out a fresh mag and slams it home. Hitomi has her pistol out and shoots into the robots head. With a satisfying clang, one of the bullets seems to land. The bot swivels its head back around to look at Hitomi. Jones moves back and scurries around some wrecked A/C units to try and get cover. [6]

In retaliation, the strange bot lets loose a hail of bullets from its gun arm. Genny and Hitomi run to the sides but the sheer quantity of bullets is hard to avoid, especially since every bullet that misses as a chance to bounce off of scrap and send more projectiles in the air. A number of minor cuts break out and blood starts dripping down their arms and backs. After its barrage, the Gorilla looking robot pulls itself out of the wreckage and starts closing the gap. [7]

With a leap, Varvara comes down off the stack of cars and crunches the bot in knee joint on its left leg. The hefty enforcer stumbles from this and swings its left arm, now sporting a retractable baton at her. She dodges back but is unable to get clear of the fight. Genny takes careful aim and shoots into the main body of the Gorilla with some of the bullets being rewarded with internal fluids spewing out of the front of the beast. Hitomi keeps up her fire but aghast to see one of the bullets bounce off and catch Varvara in the cheek. It’s a minor glancing blow but it still rattles her. [8]

With a big sweep of its gorilla-like arm, the enforcer bot grabs Varvara by the lag and tosses her. The street monk easily catches herself with the fall and lands gracefully and is back into an attack stance within seconds. During those seconds, though, Genny and Hitomi are again in the fire range of the bot. Genny is hit pretty badly, with blood squirting from his leg, as Hitomi takes off running and skids behind a home gas tank. Praying to no god in particular that it has been completely drained. Which it has. [9]

As Genny and Hitomi are bracing for the next round, a loud clang is heard and a huge chunk of scrap falls down and smashes into the back of the enforcer bot. Its gorilla frame shutters. The huge magnetic mover arm has just dropped an industrial level bread oven on top of it. Clanging and shouts are heard from all around as the scrappers run back out. They seem to have clocked that the robbers have turned into protectors of sorts and are paying back Genny stepping in to protect them. They are not so stupid to get out into the main line of fire, but are putting up enough fuss and noise that the Gorilla’s head keeps turning and is having trouble locking onto actual threats.

Taking advantage of this, Varvara once again kicks the same damaged knee as before, this time kicking through it, and the bot falls over to one side. She then dances back out of the way in another ballet-like flourish as Hitomi and and Genny open fire. Genny goes all in, emptying and entire magazine into the bot. After a few seconds where they think the bot is definitely down, it stands back up. It shutters a moment and then ejects its gun arm which it just used to take a good number of the shots. [10]

The Gorilla then swings upon Varvara, bringing its baton down in a crush blow. The woman, maybe 1/3 the weight and build of the artificial enforcer, kicks her leg up in a sweeping axe kick. She grunts as she holds the baton up for a moment, then using the Gorilla’s own weight and force brings her leg down hard and smashes in its head. Sparks fly up and the whole body crashes. [11]

Everyone breathes heavily for a few minutes. As soon as she catches her breath, though, Hitomi finally gives in for the cigarette she has been craving the whole time. A few deep inhales later she looks at the scrappers who are standing around and congratulating themselves for helping. “Thanks, guys.”

“Hey, ma’am, no problem,” says the leader. Fake accent all gone and attitude a lot less street thug. He points up towards the poles. “Boss likes us to put on a good show. Helps with the insurance claims. If we wallop you good, it’s good for business. If we get wallop we flee early and often and make it look like we tried. Send in both tapes and bam, she gets paid. You know how it is.” He turns to look at Genny, still clearly bleeding. “Thank you, man.”

Genny shrugs. “Couldn’t just let the thing kill us all. Instincts kicked in.”

“You a vet?”

“Yeah, but not a good one.”

“I hear that.”

The two men shake and then the groups start to divide when Hitomi calls out. She tosses a Cred to the leader. “That’s for helping, too. Tell your boss that this bit of MUNI enforcer bot tech might be worth shopping to a bidder.”

Leader laughs and waves and soon enough the lights go back to half dim and the Hitomi and her new crew walk back to the truck, the gear the needed still being carried by the person who just kicked a killer robot to death.


Setting the Scene. The Return to Antioch.

Date: Wednesday, June 5, 1996.

Time: 6:32am.

Place: Antioch, secret base of the Order Psychics.

Another scene where I just play it by ear.

DATE PLAYED: April 3, 2025


A campus building curves around a small lake to the left.

The Return to Antioch.

Date: Wednesday, June 5, 1996.

Time: 6:32am.

Place: Antioch, secret base of the Order Psychics.

Bel wakes up next to Jade. She claims her name is Jade Evertree. Why she thinks lying to a psychic is a good idea, he will never know. Tamara Jenkins. Age 23. Too young for Bel. Too femme. Too slight. Still, in the aftermath of saying goodbye to Eustace, Bel needed something different.

He starts to get up and for a second pauses half-way out of bed. Why in the hell is he up? It takes him nearly twenty-seconds, a lifetime for a psychic — even a low-grade one like Bel — to have missed the obvious issue. The screams. Other psychics screaming is a very. bad. sign.

Though Bel (aka, Belladonna, the not so rare case of low grade psychic whose self-given name and code name have blended together, see also the aforementioned Jade) would rank himself pretty low down on the heroic scale — he doesn’t even heroically do homework — the compulsion to be outside on the balcony is strong. So strong it takes him three seconds to even contemplate if he is doing this of his own free will.

In those three seconds, he spots the second sign that things have gone awry. Several Antioch Psychics are staring up and shouting. That’s bad. The real bad part is that some other psychics have joined them. Psychics in kitsune masks. Field psychics. Who very nearly never show up to Antioch unless they are here to bring a renegade home. Wasps in the bee hive. Wolves in the sheep pen. It is around now that it occurs to Bel to look up.

Above Antioch a door the size of all heavens has appeared and opened. Large enough that folks must be able to see it for miles around. Miles and miles. Only he suspects that only people in Antioch can see it. He hopes so, or the whole “secret base” thing has just been greatly spoiled.

Right as Jade, blinking back sleep from her eyes, joins him on the balcony, he gasps and says, “Eustace?”

Because it is. Only the last six days have done something to Bel’s former lover. Eustace has lost some body mass. His body is covered in some sort of primal sigils that burn the eyes to look at. That, and the wings. Eustace Delmont — formerly known as Nurse — has massive Soulburn wings spread out to either side and is gliding down over the lake and fountain at the center of Antioch.

Bel realizes he needs a much bigger list of bad things when they come down behind Eustace. Them. All Three of them. Returned to the surface after twenty-years. And no longer feeling the need to appear normal. They are unclothed. In their true form. Bel hears more screaming. Then more screaming. Jade is clutching her head and crying out for her mother. One of the Field Psychics has his mask off and is punching himself in the face. At least one of Antioch psychics seems to be trying to drown themselves in the fountain. People are scratching at their eyes. Blood is starting to flow.

The ground ruptures and large tanks shove up out the dirt. As they open, quadruple amputees — eyes removed and mouth turned into a breathing-and-feeding complex — are ejected out. Strange moans erupt from them as new limbs start growing to replace the old. More screeches for the damned.

Bel wonders why he is not so moved but the answer is obvious. He is too weak on the psychic scale to see what must be the equivalent of a nuclear bomb going off around him. Could a normal person even see Eustace?

As Eustace alights on the top of the fountain, Bel finally catches a glimpse something. A thin magenta line. Three thin magenta lines. Woven together. From each of the Witches Three. Tethering Eustace to some destiny. Bel sends out a thought. A wish. “Break free, lover.”

Almost like Eustace can hear him, Eustace grabs at the line, seemingly aware of it for the first time in some time, and then extends one of his arm blades. Only know it looks like bone. Which it always was.

“Stop it, you are killing them,” he says to the Three, who laugh and cackle. Then Eustace neatly slices the line clean in two. The Three laugh even louder and its the worst sound Bel has ever heard. What shocks him the most is that he realizes it is approval. They wanted Eustace to break free. [12]

With the line cut, the psychic onslaught seems to be dying down. People lapse from screams into sobs, from sobs into quiet moans.

Eustace lands on the ground and his wings fade into the morning light. “Everyone. I’m sorry about that. But I need your help. The Order is under assault and we must work together.”

Bel shouts. “Nurse, is that really you?”

But before Eustace can shout back, the Three speak for him. Each one saying their bit. “Nurse no more.” “Welcome your new brother, reborn.” “We give you, Eustace Delmont, Witch-King.”


DOUG’S COMMENTARY

Initially called “Moonblink” this episode was mean to focus on 3-4 scenes of Hitomi and crew getting up to at least the start of infiltrating the flying yacht headquarters of Dave Akari. However, I had the fun luck of catching a serious enough infection I had to take double dose antibiotics. For those keeping score — a peer group largely consisting of myself — this would be the third major illness in 2025. It has been a blast.

The change created by this illness is that a slightly simple opening scene grew into a fairly developed scene. And we got the Witch King. Which is a bit much but my voice currently sounds like gravel when I try talking so a little bit of too much is ok.

MECHANICAL AND STORY NOTES

  1. Know + Detect (5 dice). Gets Crit + Basic. Then, to remove the part in a timely fashion, Know + Fix. Again, gets Crit + Basic.
  2. Is it too heavy to carry? (Even) → [c113] No. It’s carry-able. Let’s do Brawn + Stunt + 2 Help. For Varvara that is 8 dice. She gets 2xCritical + Basic. She can essentially carry it without penalty once they help her get it up.
  3. For pure show, Varvara goes in for Flying Kick. -1 ADR, +1 to hit. Can close the distance. Gets Extreme + 2x Basic. Genny and Jones have to spend their time closing the space. Hitomi holds back for now. The scrappers have 6 Grit remaining.
  4. This time Varvara gets Crit + Basic and does another Grit. Genny will uses his Microwavers at this range with Nerves + Stunt + 1 (Range). He gets Exteme + Basic. That’s 3 more Grit. Jones is Brawn + Stunt + 1 Help from the scrap. He whiffs and takes 3 Grit. Scrappers have 2 Grit remaining. Time to bring out the real threat.
  5. Genny said his catchphrase in a dramatically appropriate way. He gets a Spotlight!
  6. We’ll give the enforcer bot partial cover this first time, making the characters shoot at -1. They also get +1 to dodge. Varvara will spend her turn closing the gap (no more ADR to spend). Genny rolls Nerves + Shoot +1 -1 so 6 dice. He fails to get a hit. Has to slam in another mag next turn. Hitomi only has 4 dice but manages Critical so does 1 Grit. Does Jones have his shotgun somewhere on his person? (Bad) → [c15] NO! Jones is pretty much out of this fight.
  7. Hitomi spends a point of ADR to roll 7 total dice. Manages to roll a Crit + Basic and so takes 2 Grit. Jones is in full cover. Varvara will be out of arc of this attack. Genny has a total of 6 dice and also gets Crit + Basic and also takes 2 Grit.
  8. Varvara gets 3xBasic = 1xCritical. She does damage to it, but doesn’t have enough left over to get back out of the fray. This means Hitomi and Genny are shooting at a Gamble. Genny will spend his Spotlight to avoid hitting her, but due to the Titan feat it only does one damage. Hitomi spends 1 ADR and rolls 6 dice. Gets no hit and a single 1 which strikes Varvara. We’ll give Hitomi You look NERVOUS for this and she uses up one Mag. Jones remains under cover.
  9. Enforcer Bot uses Grab And Throw versus Varvara. She makes the Brawn + Endure roll and rolls with the fall. Genny spends ADR and only gets 2xBasic. He takes 4 more Grit. With ADR, Hitomi actually makes her dodge and takes no Grit.
  10. Will the scrappers come back to help? (Even) → [c13] YES! They definitely want to repay Genny for helping them to escape. We’ll give +1 Help to Dodge and Shoot but if the team misses then one of the five guys takes the hit. Varvara rolls 7 dice (Brawn + Fight +1 (Scrappers)). She gets Crit + Basic. Enough to kick the bot [2 Grit remaining] and bounce far enough back to not be in line of fire. Hitomi gets 5 dice (Nerves + Shoot -1 Nervous +1 Scrappers) and gets 1 Critical. Genny gets 7 Dice (Nerves + Shoot +1 Scrappers). He unloads a whole mag to get +1. He gets 3xBasic = 1 Critical. This would normally be enough to kill it but we’ll say it uses its Defective Cyberware to tear off its gun arm to have one grit. It will go in for a lunge versus Varvara.
  11. Varvara blocks Crit + Basic with her 7 dice. She takes two Grit. She then gets an Extreme on her attack. We’ll add some flourish.
  12. Eustace is going to get +2 Help. One because the Witches Three are kind of rooting for him. One because Bel, who probably loves Eustace second only to Hitomi, is sending out psychic support. 8 dice. And holy crap, Eustace rolled a Jackpot. He has 100% passed the Witches’ test. He has graduated.

CREDITS

The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont is played using Two Little Mouse’s Outgunned and Outgunned: Action Flicks (especially, but not limited to “Neon Noir” and “Great Powers”). It uses Larcenous Designs’ Gamemaster Apprentice Deck: Cyberpunk 2E as its main oracle.

Other sources used include:

  • Zach Best’s Universal NPC Emulator.
  • Cesar Capacle’s Random Realities
  • Kevin Crawford’s Cities Without Number
  • Matt Davis’ Book of Random Tables: Cyberpunk 1, 2 and 3.
  • Geist Hack Games and Paul D. Gallagher’s Augmented Realities.

ART CREDIT AND EXPLANATION

The top picture for Thomspon Scraps was this photo by Documerica on Unsplash.

The second picture for Thompson Scraps was this photo by TFM WAC on Unsplash.

The Gorilla Bot is © Dean Spencer. Used with permission. All rights reserved.

Antioch is actually a building on a Bogota campus: Photo by Camilo Botia on Unsplash.



Taxonomy and Technical Data

  • World: The GLOW
    • Campaign: The GLOW
      • Arc: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont
        • Post: Episode 12 – Scrap in the Scrapyard

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