New Day, New Tools
The radiator system is my house is out. Storm Benjamin is making the outside cold and wet, which is making the inside cold. I'm having to wear two extra layers. AND, my joints hurt from some extra exercise and activity this past few days.
On the good side of life, though, I took some awesome photos of roses being blown around in the rain [screw it, those can be the "theme photos" for this post] and I have a new solo tool with which to play: Solo RPG Playing Cards.
They in principle fit a similar space, a very similar space, to the more complicated Gamemaster Apprentice Decks but I am curious how well the scaled back approach works with the overall more symbolic/keyword style.
Figured it would be nice to try a few-scenes sized side story. Berg & Erzse were introduced in Part 4. Members of the Ancient Terranauts ecoterrorism cell. The ones leading the attack on the fireworks show (which was less proper terrorism and more performance art).
Originally they were meant to meet up with Johnny. Only the oracles had a different path and now Johnny is with Lanette while Maria is leading Billy and Jayson to the Terranauts.
The plan here is pretty simple. Use only the cards. Make stuff as I go. Play it like a game of Fiasco. B&E — I just now noticed that — are called to do this task by someone and go through trials and tribulations on the way down. Write it mostly as dialogue with some "stage" directions blended with fiction. Just come up with some names and some snares. No real stats. Skill/etc checks only done by card.
Hey yo, here we go!
#eSSBEs1eSSBEs1
Setting the Scene, eSSBEs1.
Berg & Erzse get a call on Berg's scrying glass. A man with a southern accent calls and sets up the attack. Mentions meeting up with Maria. His identity will be kept vague.
Ok, then, let's pull two cards and come up with a slight twist where things start going awry → 9♡ + A♠.
The 9♡ has a maple leaf on it. It's fairly autumnal here right now so I'm thinking: fall. Something coming to an end. The A♠ has a prompt word of "Tarot." That also sticks out. Bonus symbols of an umbrella and bonus prompt of recur also stick out.
Berg believes he is going to die soon. Literally the coming autumn? Not sure. But he has been talking to Maria, trying to find a way to escape his sense of doom. Tarot readings. Palm readings. Etc.
Single card: Are they in that general region of Florida? → A♢ → Yes. Makes sense. He has been seeing Maria. Is she the one that twigged them as potentially useful? → 7♢ → Yes, and... I think the "and" here is that she brought them in first. Got them on board before the others were alerted.
DATE PLAYED: 2025-10-23.
.leaves fall down
Berg smokes his pipe as rain drops fall nearby, filtered through the leaves. Room notes of blueberry and clove spread across the area, mingling with the smell of honeysuckle and all those many scents that dance under a summer forest. The grass is bright green in the late afternoon, despite the gray-blue day. The hiking trail is otherwise empty besides the two of them. Well kept despite the lack of use. Which is what she said.
The sound of gravel crunching under their shows as they walk. Approaching the place at the time. All laid out like a deck of cards set up for trick.
Erzse keeps looking up at Berg's pipe. Disdain crosses her features as she also leans in to get a few glancing whiffs of second hand nicotine. She quit smoking a month ago. Which means she restrains herself to two or three cigarettes a day. Ten at the most. She's only had twelve since breakfast. Feeling the withdrawal.
They arrive at a spot where a rain-coated park bench sits on their left a slight opening of grass is on their right. In the middle of that opening, mushroom eats a stump.
BERG: "The inevitable end of all things. Even corpses."
Erzse shakes her dreadlocked head and the blonde dregs swirl in the damp air. Berg's in one of his moods again. Has been like this since June.
What got him in this mood? → K♠. The word "Science" is the first to jump out at me, so let's say it's a medical diagnosis.
Since the diagnosis. The world grinds up the bones of ghosts to make futuristic street lamps shine bright blue but words like "cancer" are still treated as reality. She told him to find some hedge mages but he is worried about someone tampering with his soul. Said he preferred tech he could touch to mystic trickery. Did not stop him from finding her and look where that is getting them.
At some not obvious signal, Berg steps up on the stump and crosses the outer perimeter of the circle. As soon as he does, his scrying glass chimes and he lifts it to see a blurred face of a man. Strange swirls and sigils crisscross the image so that it would be impossible for anyone less than a Grade 4 psychic to untangle it. Maybe not even then.
Young? Old? Possibly yes. To both.
The voice is a southern drawl speaking Russian with a bad accent.
VOICE: Vy prinimayete usloviya?1
BERG (in a voice like a Norwegian speaking English, which he is): I told you. I speak Russian if absolutely needed. I'm Norwegian.
VOICE: Well, I don't speak Norwegian.
BERG: Then English, por favor.
The sound of chewing can be heard over the connection. To Berg. Erzse, outside of the ring, is only hearing Berg's half of the convo.
VOICE: No problem. God's language. You accept the terms?
BERG: There are no terms. Erzse and I do this act, and maybe you who will not give us a name or any proof will help me to find some help for my condition that does not involve psychic surgery.
VOICE: Sounds like terms to me.
BERG: Yes, well, you know who you are and if you are capable of any good.
VOICE: Is that a no?
BERG: Miss the chance to screw over some Americans shooting off fireworks into a swamp? No, of course not. We will definitely do it. I'm a dead man, anyhow, might as well die doing what I love.
VOICE: I have strong reason to believe we can help.
BERG: And I have a reason to think everyone within a thousand miles of me is a liar who will destroy this planet for five of your American dollars.
VOICE: Careful, now...
BERG: No. You be careful. Never tell a dying man to be gracious for pennies earned on the back of the oppressed.
VOICE: [sighs] Fair, but I do give you my word.
BERG: Det er en sorg i verden som ingen tårer kan lette: det at det var for sent da du skjønte dette.2
VOICE: I told you, I don't...
BERG: I know. But I do. We are going now for the task. Money for the supplies?
VOICE: She has them. When will you see her?
BERG: She already knows. She always knows.
With that, Berg steps off the stump and the connection drops.
ERZSE: We good to go?
BERG: Ja. We will meet up with her tomorrow and she'll give us the cash for supplies.
Erzse chews on her lips for a second before asking a fear.
ERZSE: You aren't trusting Maria completely, right? She is possibly dangerous. I feel like a lot of people trust her too much.
Berg reaches over and pulls her against him.
BERG: Can't trust my brain any more. Have to trust my heart on this one, and my heart says that she is the most likely person to take care of you after I am gone.
Erzse swats at him in a poor attempt to avoid crying. The two of them turn around and fade back into the growing darkness as rain continues to drip from leaves.
Behind them, as pale as a mushroom, a small child's face grows out of the darkness and grins a grin filled with more teeth than the stars in the sky.
Setting the Scene, eSSBEs2.
I want one more scene before the meeting with Maria [which might be the final scene since I think plenty will have been established by that point].
For this one, an additional hook/trouble and maybe at least one additional character will show up.
For the hook → 5♢ + 7♠.
For the first, there's an icon of a footprint. Words like "Endure," "Runner," and "Mask." For the second there are shears and words like "Denounce," "Guard," and "War."
A schism in the group. Someone wants to go more extreme. Berg & Erze [and others] disagree. The group is preparing to "pull a runner" but are still wearing their masks. Berg & Erzse are biding their time until they can cut this second group loose. Trying to cut them out before damage can be done to the cause.
The person they are talking to, here → 4♠ + 10♠.
4♠ had a smoking pipe and "Devour," "Midnight," "Solitude," and "Ritual." 10♠ has a key and "Dissolve," "Whisper," and "Complicit."
Someone related to the dissenters. Someone who wants to use the group's goals to progress dark magic or, more likely, the inverse of that: anti-natalist sorcery. Powering the cause by death. A microcosm of The GLOW, itself.
A name? → 4♣ → Claus.
A place? → 8♢ → symbol of handcuffs. I actually avoided bringing in the police in the last episode because of keeping the factions down [I got an icon that suggested police were involved]. Here we go, then. Claus is a cop working for the Gaston police department.
Claus has issues. Last name → 7♣. There's a ring. A little bit of camp always helps stories like this: Claus Diamond.
How many police divisions will Gaston be big enough to have? Let's pull a card and use its suit: ♣ = 1, ♢ = 2, ♡ = 3, ♠ = 4 → 3♢.
We'll put that as a North Precinct and Main. North being tasked to handle the more rural people and the campers and such around the lake and swamp.
DATE PLAYED: 2025-10-24.
lyrλmbient
One of the many musicians and composers who have music in my broad The GLOW music board — lyrλmbient — just released a new song in between me making the first half of this and the second half: "i lost myself in this song." Not only is the music a good vibe to blend in with some of the harder techno beats to represent The GLOW and the realities of a world remade via Soulburn, but the album covers also look like something you might see in one of my posts.
Give them a listen while reading this.DATE NOTED: 2025-10-24.
the .lawside of the wrong
The Gaston North Precinct is mostly dead by 9pm. A woman is scrolling through her 'glass and smoking while a middle-aged couple holding hands are walking their dog. None of these look up as Berg approaches. Erzse is staying behind. The official story is that she is visiting the site to figure out some traps but in no way is she down for such bullshit.
The traps were Claus's idea. Claus Diamond. Night cop for the Gaston PD North and voting member of the Ancient Terranauts. Founded the group with Berg and Patr back in 1989. College kids in southern Florida. Pissed at the Miami scene and all the damned tourists. Pissed at the encroaching GLOW.
Patr went corporate and dropped out before the member count hit double digits, around the time Erzse joined.
Now that it is closer to thirty than twenty, Claus has taken to using words like "army" and "for the cause." Setting himself up to be Dear Leader who could send their rag-tag group to do deeds dirty. Shed some blood.
Even if Berg was ok with harassing the poor man with the chainsaw instead of going after the millionaire who got rich selling native land, could he be ok with killing either one of those people? He might be fine with breaking the chainsaw. Past that, no.
Claus says Berg needs to put the terrorist back in the job description. Berg would almost prefer eco-artist. He planned to be a ballet dancer. Not a gun.
Plus, Berg knows it is only a matter of time before those little ragged soldiers get pointed at targets that profit Claus before getting anywhere near the cause. Claus went from cop-hater to cop. Word on the street is that he has been particularly nasty to campers he thinks he can shake down. The man is a walking bag of mismatched principles to sell out for profit.
Only the Terranaut group structure dictates Berg is in the voting block so Claus can't willy-nilly calls for violence. Claus is trying to get Berg in on the violence or get Berg out.
Berg feels the back of his head and tries to picture the thing growing there. The cancer will kill more than Berg. Unless she can help.
Erzse thinks Berg has been seeing "Madame Sinister" to talk about cancer, and he has but only in passing. He likes the fatalism, just not what comes after Death wins the game of chess.
He is mostly talking to Maria about how to save the Terranauts.
Berg opens the door and walks in. Bracing for the constant power play.
Setting the Scene, eSSBEs3.
I was originally going to have dialogue drive most of that but as I kept free-storming some ideas, I realized I had already typed up most everything that we need to progress. Sure, there might be particulars but I think it works as is.
Two things that could have been added to the previous scene: who is a co-conspirator that Claus is bringing in to help push his side, a person from the ranks that Claus is elevating to the central voting group → K♢ → Hoover + 6♠ → Ellen. Ellen Hoover.
What is Claus Diamond's actual plan that is causing problems (besides just the hint of violence)? → 9♣ + 5♡. The words "News" and "Floor" jump out of the former. The image of the origami crane on the latter takes me back, incorrectly (since it was a origami unicorn, there), to Blade Runner. Free association made me immediately think of terms like replicant and infiltration and violence.
Claus wants to infiltrate a news agency and take it hostage to broadcast his demands. People will die while the feed is running. Ellen is already there, doing something.
I think that's enough for this scene as is, which is where they will meet Maria a few days (or weeks) before the start of this campaign arc.
DATE PLAYED: 2025-10-24.
we .lose ourselves in these songs
Erzse sees Maria on an upside-down milk crate. Sitting. Smoking. Out of costume [the black robe hanging from an old shelf left to weather by the metal door]. The morning light weakly but steadily dancing through the fog that has shrouded Arbuck. Maria's cigarette smoke curls up into it. Lost like sweat in the rain.
God, she could use a smoke. Today is she being really good. Only two so far.
Berg walks forward and nods. Erzse hates that she finds herself tensing. Maria is stupidly pretty. That perfect mix of jaguar and pussycat to make you feel like hunt her down just to take care of her while avoiding the claws.
Berg's not easy bait for such traps, though. At least Erzse hopes not. How cruel would it be to lose someone like Berg first to the cause and then finally to cancer, only somewhere in between to lose him to Madame Sinister?
The emotion she feels is much like jealousy, but it is also fear. Grief. Frustration. How dare this world put Cancer and Claus in her path? At this point, seeing Berg get into a failed relationship with a tarot card charlatan would be a funny story for later.
BERG: A gift from a secret admirer?
Erzse realizes that she has overlooked the fact that Maria is holding a white, speckled rose. One that looks like it was drowned in water.
MARIA: I found it in a puddle while walking across the parking lot. A piece of beauty thrown away. It's like a song lyric.
She sounds almost apologetic. No, guilty. Maria sounds definitely guilty.
BERG: We are taking the job. Only Erzsébet and I know we are working for you and not them.
MARIA: Ah, he might know. He's funny like that. Can see so much that he's blind to little things like checking up on his subordinates.
BERG: Maria, why are we doing this?
MARIA: Because we made a deal where...
BERG: No, sorry. Let me clarify. Why are you doing this and asking us to help you?
Each "you" emphasized by a point.
Let's ask some questions.
What is Maria getting out of it, besides helping out Estevan? → K♣ + (black) Joker. Ok, Jokers play a bit different. There's no real indication on the card what its intention is to be. The language on both has an overall negative curve, maybe, and some of the words are blacked out. You can still read them, though. I'm going to take it being a TWIST with one of the words explaining the twist. In this case, from the Joker I'll take...harlequin. From the King, I'll take the image of the tea pot. Something under pressure.
She can sense pressure building and the twist is that the her we are seeing is largely a "fool character" playing to expectations. This might explain why she was strong enough to completely overpower the Forked Tongue.
Does Maria sense that Eustace is going to become the Witch-King? (Advantage) → 5♣ + 8♠ → No and "No, but..." so the latter wins. She doesn't know Eustace specifically is coming as an event, but she has glimpses. The crow-shape. Only that.
Does Maria intend for B&E to meet with Johnny? → 10♢ → No. This means the plan to disrupt the fireworks has another purpose. Were the disrupted fireworks a distraction for something else going on at the event? → J♣ → Yes. Something needed for the team's larger plan is involved. Only B&E are going to be doing something else.
Ok. Claus is supposed to be running interference. Tossing the cops on guard in the wrong direction. So that "they" can {steal | kidnap} → Q♠, upside down, 3/odd → steal *something* [we'll find out what later]. Only B&E are going back to circle around to the police station and get something Maria needs. We'll also find that out, later.
I'm good with rolling with it.
MARIA: [drags on her cigarette] The GLOW is breaking. Can you feel it.? Like being inside of a teapot rounding the corner to boiling. And I keep...
ERZSE: Yeah?
MARIA: ...I keep having dreams of a crow.
BERG: That's nothing, you're American crows are tiny. You should see our good Nordic ravens.
MARIA: This crow is the size of a mountain. Glowing bright like a rainbow in the depths of space.
ERZSE: Why does this involve us, though? Berg and me?
Maria looks up at Erzse and smiles. It is the saddest smile that Erzse has ever seen.
MARIA: Because the webs are getting thick. The air is swirling. And some cocky shits are starting to tangle people up in the mess. I need blades to cut people free.
Erzse can't put her fingers on it, but Maria's voice sounds different. Almost older. The speaking cadence seems to have changed.
BERG: I am not a blade. I won't cut people for you. Especially not for them.
MARIA: That's not what I mean. I need you to help some people get free before they get very hurt by all this.
BERG: That I can do.
MARIA: [stubbing out her cigarette] Let's see if we make it. I'll see you at the campfire in one week. Make sure the celebration goes down.
BERG: The money?
MARIA: I already put it on your back porch this morning before coming here. I didn't want to risk anyone see me hand over that much cash in this place.
BERG: Then why the fuck did we come here?
MARIA: I wanted you to see.
ERZSE: See what?
MARIA: [standing up and putting back on her cloak, tossing the rose back into the remnants of a puddle near her feet] Exactly.
With that, she turns around and goes back inside. Right before she does, Erzse calls out for her.
ERZSE: You can run with us. I mean, from here. Somewhere else.
Maria says nothing and just shuts the door. Erzse likes to think that Maria very nearly paused.
BERG: I think I do see it.
ERZSE: What?
BERG: The fog? The air? The whole world? They are swirling.
Erzse looks at it and at first she can't see it. Then it kind of clicks. Like a giant spiral so large that anyone inside looking at it would see it as just straight lines. Wrapping around itself. Getting smaller. Trapping everyone inside.
- Вы принимаете условия? "Do you accept the terms?" Rather than doing the trope of accented speech, I'll post it correctly and you can read it with an accent as you will. ↩︎
- From "En Hustavle" by Arnulf Øverland. "There is a sorrow in the world that no tears can ease: that it was too late when you realized this." ↩︎
DOUG'S COMMENTARY
That's not quite the initial mental image I had of Maria Salas. I might have even described her as having long hair. However, while going through a backlog art of stock art bookmarked to use somewhere in The GLOW, I found the above photo by Nick Pliahas recommended and it fit enough of that vibe that I went with it. Like the works I used for Amy Patel and Eustace Delmont, I consider that to be part of the creative, random process: come up with a mental sketch, find something that fits close to it, and then adjust the mental sketch.
Overall though, it was a fun diversion that will establish a few things without having to leave too many elements up in the air. We now know more about Berg and Erzse, some more background for the Ancient Terranauts, and a bit more about why Maria seems to be playing multiple angles while actually be earnest with both. She's a young woman trying to save too many people in her own not entirely honest way.
Like Bunker Bigfoot, I had an initial idea of typing out an intro that was fairly comical and then weave a few bits in that were more serious but before I got through the first paragraph it was more in pure serious mode. If I ever get around to the Alex the Dumbass I will have to work hard to not let the first few paragraphs swing too serious or I'll lose it and turn into Eustace + Hitomi part 2 pretty quickly.
Credits
This side story was played entirely using Ravenridge Press's Solo RPG Playing Cards.
"Mushroom Stump" from Photo by Immo Wegmann on Unsplash.
"Gaston Police" from Photo by Joseph Sharp on Unsplash.
The photo of the rose in the rainstorm is my own.
"Madame Sinister" from Photo by Nick Pliahas on Unsplash.
We have a couple of threads and one new character to add:
+ THREAD: Claus and Ellen's Plan (to hold a news station hostage).
+ THREAD: Berg & Erzse's secret plan with Maria.
+ CHARACTER: Claus Diamond.
+ (minor?) CHARACTER: Ellen Hoover.
There's also "the Voice" where I don't have specific plans for which character it might be, but major candidates include Finley, Scooter, Cash, or Don.
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