Category: Outgunned Page 1 of 3

The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont – Recap and Trivia

On June 14, 2025

In Intermission, Outgunned, Recap, Solo Campaigns, The Glow

Going Back Over the Posts

As I sort through the brain space to sum up this quite long campaign — the longest by word count and episode count, though Bleak + Pearl will quite soon over take both titles since it is maybe half finished at best — I figured I’d go back some episodes and discuss some notes and ideas that occur to me. And while doing that, I’ll fix a few minor errors while leaving the larger ones in place. It’s a living, fairly organic game. Stuff shifts. Let’s blame the Witches Three.

Also, this won’t be a complete list of every episode and interlude. More just a few highlights as things come to mind.

Then, after this I’ll do a general debrief. With the more philosophical and technical stuff.

The First Five Episodes, the Story That Was

Looking at episodes 1 (Psychic Boy Meets Hacker Girl) and 2 (Gathering Supplies), the very first thing that comes to mind is just how much it breaks my heart at how fast I could play and write these things. Pre-Wegovy, I mean. Don’t get me wrong. Weight loss is bigly important (pun intended) and likely will save my life, but the brain drain I get from consuming roughly 1200-1400 calories a day is most obvious from how I could write out episodes of that length in roughly a day where I’d play for an hour or two and then spend another hour or two cleaning it up and tweaking it.

When I started the series, I had roughly a two-week gap between playing and the post showing up. Meaning I played so much and so quickly that I could generate enough content to extend that far into the future. A few episodes in, I had less than a week. Eventually, I swapped to one episode per week (as opposed to three). And I still was “falling behind.”

Not a complaint. I play these games because I like them. I don’t advertise them. Don’t get paid. Don’t get endorsements. Nothing like that. It just amazes me how much 2500-3000+ calorie a day Doug could absolutely explode words and content into the screen without trying that hard.

BACK TO THE FIRST TWO EPISODES: The first ep has some really fun world building because at the time I didn’t have to focus at all on lore building. We have deadly exo-suit game shows, legalized pot smoking, semi-self-driving rental bikes. Soulburn sickness. We have the whole Citadel infrastructure. There could be an entire The GLOW arc that takes place in the mall. Eustace’s voice got killed somewhere around the half-way mark in the series as he was being consumed by the Witches, but a few jabs here or there were fun. Also just his hyper-awareness of other people. “I appreciate the severity of this question, but are you ok?” Asked right after slaughtering a group of people nearby.

Hitomi’s personality also felt a bit stronger. It’s a bit weird in that I have a pretty clear vision of her mindset but sometimes its hard to keep it really clear when writing it out for myself and others to read. Lines like, “Please. I used the magic word you will note. Please. Explain,” did a lot of work.

At the end of “Carving Out a Plan” we get a glance at the original plan for the plot: nearly immediately going to get Amy Patel. That got seriously sidetracked by the “real plot” showing up. Which feels appropriate for the genre.

The second scene of episode 2 (which was basically two scenes in one because, again, I used to write with gusto) is the first time I recall actively going back and redoing something. The original version of the scene had Eustace killing Hitomi’s landlords for betraying her. I changed it to him just reasoning with them to help protect her. That went a long way with saving his character, really. He is not necessarily the person who kills. He is the person who reasons but is willing to kill.

The character of Mischa (from “Holy Revenge”) was potentially a side story that never happened. Before Dave Akari became a major part of the bad-guy plot, making Mischa’s rebellion a lot more reasonable, I had the idea of doing something like a short, violent Cy_Borg one-shot with her.

Episode 2 also introduced the GLOW random chart/map that got a lot of use throughout the series.

EPISODE 4 (“Against Ouroboros”) helped to clench Juan Uno as a major anchor of the series, something that continued up to nearly the end. A funny “glitch” here is that we see a holographic vision of Magnus Odinson. Later it a bit of a “twist” that a person with a very Nordic name is actually a black businessman play-acting as a folksy cult leader. However, they would have already seen him. I made it more obvious there and noted his appearance right off in a later edit.

There were quite a few aspects that didn’t quite get carried over. The Brainwaves as a body-morphed gang could have been useful later. The fact that some of the Fallen Knives were working with Oro. The fact that Marius’s people wear rooster masks.

EPISODE 5 (Terminal Issues) introduces Genny who quickly becomes a major character and pretty equal to Hitomi and Eustace in the series. At first, he was just an asshole getting in their way. One missed chance from here is the biker gang that playfully challenges Eustace to a race. I had plans to bring them back at some point to actually help out — back when I figured Eustace on the bike would be a major element — but kind of forgot them in the gathering of allies. Ah, well.

Around this time I remember feeling increased brain fog because making the the fight scenes actually started to feel stressful instead of joyful.

Magnus Odinson and the Story That Would Become

The biggest shift in the story happened right after.

EPISODE 6 (“Knives Out”): Genny gets kidnapped and we meet the “Siblings”. I’ll be honest, I don’t remember if they were intended to be siblings — adopted or otherwise — but it remained funny to me to skip over a lack of remembering my own lore by always putting it in quotes and having people ask. They ended up becoming, essentially, the boss fight so it’s nice to see them grow with the player characters.

Generally, Episode 6 is the pivot in the way that Johnny Blue becoming a werecat was the pivot for his story. Even more so in this case. By establishing the Cabal as a group of businessmen trying to create their own GLOW it enabled me to deal with the chief problem with both stories in general: the GLOW is terrible. It consumes people and their misery to self-sustain and grow itself and some folks are getting absolutely rich from it. Most are left behind. Tourists flock in and film it like funny home videos. It can be fun to engage in a sort of jokesy-Dystopian-nightmare but I either need to deal up the surreality or find a way to break from it. The break in this case is that the GLOW could be fixed if the people who pushed hardest to keep it a terrible place were more neutralized. By adding in the whole meta-plot of Cthulhu and his allies being resurrected by alien infestations in the GLOW, it helped to keep the story more Doug but also make it grander, more fantasy-grounded, and a more hard-scrabble-vs-the-world.

On the more negative side, by EPISODE 8 (“Odin’s Favorite Son”), the brain fog was in full effect. It took me 5 days to play that one episode across three sessions. Sure, it’s long, but it’s only about the same length as the first episode of the series. I think the fact that the fight with Odinson ended up just being a kind of quick “yeet” over the bridge and it ends abruptly without me working out a lot of details on how to handle it says a lot.

Sometimes adapting to your own situation can open some freedom, though. Because mentally it was becoming harder to rely on the full stack of random tables I had been using, and harder to really balance fights, I came up with some unique situations and combats that broke or tweaked the Outgunned standards. Like the camo guards who had a stronger defense than attack. I had started using the “chase mechanics” to create some unique timing on encounters.

I just also kind of wish that I could see an alternate world where Doug wasn’t running at half-steam while writing. Where the rest of the campaign might have taken a month instead of three.

The Death of Eustace Delmont and the Third Pivot

I’ll talk about this more in the full debrief (which should be next) so won’t really go much into these episodes here, but here’s some behind the scenes for you. As I’m playing, I have a rough scaffold. Very rough. Not very “scaffold.” In gamemaster terms, it would be like having a rough area map with a few keywords. More than that, and your players will wonder off and you’ll never get to use it. Less than that, and you are stuck coming up with a bunch of random content as the female barbarian’s player asks what color the flowers are in the field. You can cheese it and just have five encounters that you make happen no matter what the players do, but it’s good to have a lot of player agency in traditional games. In solo games, though, player agency gets tricky. There’s nothing wrong with just writing five or six set encounters and playing them out. It’s a fair way to do it. However, I like there to be shocks that I have to try to absorb.

Still, it’s nice to have a kind of gravity that the story can be pulled towards if I get stuck. “There is a bomb that will explode.” That way, if nothing else, if I get stuck coming up with a scene, I can return to that bomb. If I come up with something better, the bomb can be handled offstage and no harm, no foul.

The rough scaffolding for this entire campaign arc was (1) Eustace Delmont was secretly a witch [not even he really knew but it was obvious from the beginning] and (2) at some point in time he was going to have to use his witch powers and (3) he would end up having to fight against the Order/GLOW itself, possibly at great personal sacrifice.

As I was ramping up the “Eustace the Witch” portion, something occurred. I rolled a few terrible rolls in a row and Eustace died. I decided to go with it. Ramp it up a bit. A whole new scaffolding slammed down — the battle of Yuggoth, the real driver behind the cabal, the death of humanity in less than a century — and I had a lot of fun with that.

Around here is where Roman, not Roger, fully became the bad seed. Prior posts still talk about Roger being the main villain even in the “gamemaster” sections and commentary, but oh well. People (including me) just had it wrong, see.

And the Rest of It

EPISODE 11 (“Gathering New Allies”) is clearly a strong-spark episode for me. Re-reading it was a pleasure. The slight shifts to make Genny’s grumpy-asshole nature into more of an uber-team-player who is used to seeing people dying — quite a few at his own hands — and wanting to protect people worked so well. Jones was made out of nowhere and the first scene with him — along with his 1990’s era racism of claiming the two Japanese characters looks like father and daughter — just fit the vibe of the series. Varvara got a bit left behind, story wise, but I tried making up for that at the end.

There is a humor in that Jones was brought on to fly a helicopter to the Moonblink and then to the Rambler and essentially struggled to handle the first because of a mechanical failure and couldn’t handle the second because stuff kept going wrong with the helicopter.

I think it would have been fun to have a Jones, Genny, and Varvara crew from the get-go even though five-people crews tend to be a bit rough for me to solo.

“Scrap in the Scrapyard” (EPISODE 12) was another strong spark for me even though length wise it was pretty tiny. It was a good, meaty scene. The fight was fun. Going from a junkyard brawl to a legit fight. I like it when people punching each other start working together. I liked how Varvara was shaping up. Jones was becoming a bit too much comic-relief but it was fun.

Eustace’s return to Antioch was one of those scenes I had to carefully craft. I had imagined, for some time — more of that scaffolding/gravity — that such a scene would occur. I had even thought about making Bel a potential side character, but I eventually just got elements established. The healing of the punished psychics was one of those moments where I was trying to fix some of the inherent cruelness in my own creation. The “Witch-King” moment was definitely of the same vibe of Arden Ulet becoming The Storm Crow in The Bloody Hands. Only Eustace himself severed that connection to retain some part of himself. A fact that did not play out into the final episode when he was able to escape the choices the Witches were laying out for him.

With EPISODE 14 (Crow Boy Meets Hacker Girl (Again)), it is probably the most obvious that I was struggling to play and write. I did a very smart thing, I changed up the formatting of the blog to make it easier to just stream stuff out without having to insert foot notes or break stuff down so much. That helped. We got one episode (Moonblink) split into 2 with the second half being pretty short. I also was unsure how to handle this new Eustace. I eventually reshaped him into a plot point and made Hitomi (and Genny) the main focus. At this point, I was trying to think of how to handle his and Hitomi’s relationship. I also set up a plot-line — the breakdown of Dave Akari — and kind of forgot it. It would have been nice to look a little more at it, I think. I do kind of explain it in a few episodes but that’s the kind of thing that might have been good to actually dwell on.

One of the best and one of the worst decisions for the campaign arc both exist in EPISODE 15 (Meetings). The best decision was to go and bring back plotlines from the Johnny Blue series and help this feel like the second two-thirds of a single novel instead of two completely separate stories. Taking my rough draft of an opening scene for “Neon Foster and the Spaceman” storyline and bringing it back to life worked super well to add some weight and narrative to the whole The GLOW. It felt like a proper arc and foreshadowed twist rather than a simple odd oracle result. Giving Detective Aurora Hernandez more screentime was a great idea, especially since it was becoming harder and harder to explain why MUNI wasn’t more present. Luca and Sofia are good characters and Sofia was one of the few to be able to see Eustace as he really was. Luca was one of the few that trusted Eustace entirely just because of his friendship with Jani.

Unfortunately, I violated the central rule of this entire campaign arc: Hitomi became a prop in her own story. She just tags along, there. Hitomi should have had a much bigger role in those scenes. She did manage a few things, here or there, but her voice should have been better heard.

The “Outfoxed” scene of EPISODE 18 was a bit more of the scaffolding left over from original plans. I was hoping we could have at least one scene of Eustace vs the Order and this is the closest we got. It was also maybe the roughest fight in the game. Eustace tossing the dude from a good height was fun. It was a little sad that Amy — intended to be the third character — essentially got only a scene or two and that her mantis was left behind [and the Green Lady]. Still, it was nice to have that.

My favorite three scenes from the last three episodes were “The Battle of the Rambler” (Episode 19), “The Past Is a Foreign Country” (Episode 20), “NOT the GLOW 1999: Transporter Jani Blum” (Episode 21). Partially because each of the three represented me just putting down the Outgunned rulebook and doing my own thing. The first was a Chase scene that was also a fight. The second was a fight scene where the fight was something else (ala Gareth Hendrix). The third was just a lore scene that both implies a happy ending but also a possibly scary one: Eustace has transcended and is willing to change reality to fit his version of truth and justice. We know he is a good man, but he is also a violent man at times and not always in control of where the latter meets the former.

The final fight was…ok. I think it worked out. One thing I still lack is knowing if I am hitting the right difficulty until stuff happens. But, that and more thoughts about the ending will need to wait for the debrief. Next time, Space Pilgrims. I’m back to moving boxes around.

The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont, Episode 21 – The Nurse House Calling the Doctor

By Doug Bolden

On June 12, 2025

In Actual Play, Gamemaster Apprentice Deck, Outgunned, Solo Campaigns, The Glow

A woman with an umbrella walks down a night time street with bright lights fading into the darkness.

“Previously…” and Campaign/Arc Summary
The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont Episode 21 — The Nurse House Calling the Doctor

Doug’s Commentary
Credits

Previously, on The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont

The team has fought their way to the top of the Rambler — Dr. Roman Patel’s floating skyscraper. Nemesio Jones has gone back downstairs to help people evacuate. Varvara Clean has stopped to destroy all the data she can find in the communications hub. This leaves Genny, Hitomi, and Eustace to confront The Doctor himself as well as his two elite bodyguards: Yori and Ambra. The “siblings.” No matter the outcome, the Patel empire is going — quite literally — to crumble. And once the Witches Three get what they want from Eustace, what will happen with the rapidly dying psychic?

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 21 — The Nurse House Calling the Doctor

The Final Advance

If I remember correctly (and maybe I do, maybe I don’t, it has been a minute since this campaign arc started), Hitomi and Eustace took a second advance right before Eustace’s death, in what was supposed to be the quick build up to them assaulting the Moonblink. Genny took his one advance right before they went for the villa. Jones and Varvara have not had an advance but currently are “out of action” and carrying out the mission in other ways.

I figure, then, that Genny and Hitomi are both due an advance. Eustace is a weird case. He effectively half-advanced when he was resurrected. We’ll leave him be for feats — or swap one out — but maybe get him brought full up on skills.

As for Jones and Varvara, if they do show up in the final battle I’ll just quick speed some stats for them.

Advancing Hitomi

Let’s up her survival a bit: +1 to Endure and Cool. Also, we’ll give her +1 to Know since she has greatly expanded her understanding of the world these past 7-10 days.

We’ll also give her the Mastermind feat. She can spend one ADR to repeat any roll and can ignore penalties due to complications like conditions and circumstances.

She is full up on ADR so won’t get one.

Advancing Genny

Endure +1 makes sense for him. +1 to Heal to show him working more as a team. +1 to Dexterity.

For his Feat, we’ll go with Combo. After he gets one hit he can spend ADR to keep stacking Grit.

He gets +1 ADR and is now full up on ADR and spotlights. He’s gonna spend them all this time.

Advancing Eustace

For Eustace, we’re going with just Endure, Stunt, and Cool.

We’ll switch out his Outsmart Feat for Martial Artist. He has switched to being way more physical than mental in his mood.

Note: this presumably doesn’t work when he’s using his claws. If anything, it’ll be more about dodging that hitting.

He also gets +1 ADR.

EPISODE SOUNDTRACK: While this isn’t Eustace + Hitomi — even if the two campaigns share a lot of genetic code and cross-reference one another — a major part of the final half of that arc was blending in music that Hitomi was listening to in world. Combined with the need of something somewhere between angry, hopeful, bombastic, and somber, the pick for the final episode’s soundtrack is…

Smashing Pumpkin’s Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.

Setting the Scene, e21s1.

Basically just a time out scene, though we’ll do a scene test for the next scene.

[NEXT] EXPECTED SCENE: The team confronts Patel and the Siblings in the office that started this whole campaign | world | series.

SCENE TEST: [c83] 5. 2d10 = 4 + 7. A minor alteration. “A friendly NPC changes drastically.”

ACTUAL [NEXT] SCENE: Juan Uno has given in to Roman Patel’s threats | bribes | something and is trying to air lift the three off the roof.

This scene will be them in a lounge trying to get ready for the showdown. Instead of a shoot-out in an office space, it’ll be a roof-top show down. I think I’ve been planning to have Juan turn on them for a moment but for now we’ll say that Patel has threatened Juan in some significant way. What significant way? [c119] Meet [c27] Defiant [c41] Lies. Hmm. Juan is trying to actually protect Hitomi. Patel has lied to Juan and said that he will kill Hitomi unless Juan gets him passage out.

Rather than making Juan able to pilot a helicopter, it will be Julian.

DATE PLAYED: June 9, 2025.

The Waiting Room

Date: June 7, 1996.

Time: 3:51am.

Place: The private lounge on the 28th floor of the Rambler.

“I’m telling you I am looking at the main offices and they are all empty, unless Patel is hiding under a desk…”

“You think they escaped?”

Eustace is going to try and seek them with his greatly enhanced psychic powers.

Focus (3) + Cool (3) = Extreme.

Eustace interrupts Hitomi and Genny’s bickering: “The roof.” Hitomi tries really hard to ignore the fact that it sounded like her voice that came out of his mouth. Eustace is losing himself even faster now.

She instead types in commands to see the roof and indeed Dr. Roman Patel is there with two people she recognizes. The strange maybe-Siblings. Back with their strange eye-wear.

Genny asks, “Why are they up there?”

Hitomi points to the large letter H near their feet. “Helipad. Pick-up.”

“Shit.”

“Wait,” Eustace says, this time in Mrs. Yuuki’s voice. He leans forward and stares carefully at the screen.

He’s going to spend ADR to roll two weak spots and pick one.

Weak Spot 1: (5,1) The enemy is exposed (or standing under a precarious structure). Shoot at Nerves + Shoot + 1.

Weak Spot 2: (5,5) You can lure the enemy into a trap, skip next Reaction turn.

Both of those sound really good. I’m going to go for #2 though because in the long run, not getting shot will be the key to surviving the next fight.

“There, that panel. It accesses the aetherware that keeps the Rambler afloat. If we can disable the locks on that we can use it to catch them off guard.”

“I can do that,” Hitomi says and clacks on some keys. “Anything else?”

Eustace shakes his head. Genny nods and stretches, checks his ammo.

“The good doctor is waiting and if I hear correctly, his coach is nearby. Let’s go…”

Setting the Scene, e21s2.

One thing I need more practice with when it comes to Outgunned is balancing fights. In this case, it is no doubt that it will be Extreme/Extreme. However, the long-game of taking away Patel’s toys has been helping with some of his powers. The last time Yori and Abra were fought, they had the following Feats/Special Moves:

Bulletproof vets (-1 to Range), Hard to Kill (each Hot Box stops damage even if damage goes over), and Martial Arts (-1 at close unless you have Martial Arts). Special actions include Disarm (1, Critical vs Brawn vs Dexterity or lose weapon), Don’t Think So (1, negates on Adrenaline special move), Weak spot (-2 to next Reaction roll), and Escape Clean (2, as it says, Impossible to stop it).

I like that mostly. In fact, I will largely keep it. They now have more defense. Are still quite deadly. The only change I will make will be to give them 9 Grit with Hot Boxes on the 3s (including final 3). And I might use their ADR in funky ways rather than the given sets.

Also, screw it, what’s the weather? → [c66] 5. Pretty dang normal. A bit windy but overall a calm early morning for folks to die.

By the way, if either Hitomi or Genny falls, then Varvara and Jones will show up [in that order]. We’ll figure that out when it gets there.

DATE PLAYED: June 9, 2025.

Looking down at a city from a tall building.

For the Final Time

Date: June 7, 1996.

Time: 4:04am.

Place: The roof of the Rambler.

“Um, Eustace…,” Hitomi says as they stand at the door to the roof. She realizes she can see through him. Not completely, but enough for it to be disconcerting.

“Oh,” is all he says. Then he takes the final orb of Soulburn he stored back at the Villa and pulls it from his chest. After crushing it, his form focuses back to solid. “Sorry, Foxteeth, not much time left. I’m burning away.”

“Why do you keep calling me Foxteeth?”

“An alternate reality. Where I lived and became the terrible Witch-King of the GLOW. You were my best agent. Foxteeth. The Dark Queen of the Order.”

“Was I a sexy dark queen?”

“You know it.”

“Kids…kids…hey, are we ready? The bird is awfully close to landing,” Genny interjects. Though he at least looks sad that he is interrupting what might be their last chance to talk.

Eustace and Hitomi brace against the door and prepare for their assault.

Genny holds out his fist for a fist bump. “Witch-King and Foxteeth. A pleasure to work with you.”

“No, not Witch-King. Nurse. And Mochi. Same, Genny.”

And with that they are in the early morning darkness as a helicopter approaches for landing. A helicopter that Genny recognizes. “That’s Juan’s personal ‘copter, what the fuck?”

“A double-cross?!,” Hitomi shouts to be heard over the noise.

“Who the fuck knows?”

Eustace kicks off and flies at speed to aim for the three people so intently watching the helicopter they have noticed their attackers. His target is the woman with glowing glasses, Abra.

Brawn (3) + Fight (3) + 1 (Blades) + 2 (ADR spent on cyber arms) = Initially, a Critical. A reroll gets us to Extreme. Eustace is risking it and going All In. It actually works and upgrades to Impossible. 3 Grit lost. I love it when risk pays out.

She is turning right as he slams into her side and even as she struggles to throw heavy punches at his face he blocks each and every one. Doing a quick turn in the air, he gets her up off the ground and then kicks her into an air-con system. Her body crumples into metal. Before she can retaliate, Eustace is up in the air and flying away.

Ok, Doug here. I know I established in the villa fight that Eustace can lift people and then drop them from a fatal height. I’m skipping it this time on purpose.

I might regret this but these people have been prepping for this fight for a good while. Let’s trust the heroes.

Genny and Hitomi say nothing as they open fire on the other two.

Genny is 100% emptying a clip (which negates their -1 penalty, essentially) and at a range to get +1. That gives him Nerves (3) + Shoot (3) + 1. If he lands a hit, he is going to start emptying his ADR to jack it up to the max. He scores…nothing. Essentially. Got a Critical + Basic and went all in to try and upgrade but whiffed. This means he has burnt down to just one clip left and can no longer full burst.

Hitomi has Nerves (2) + Shoot (3) – 1. She’ll spend 2 Adrenaline to make it 6 dice. She gets a Critical + Basic. Not enough. But she has Mastermind that allows her to reroll (at the cost of 1 ADR). Hey, three Adrenaline down but she gets an Extreme. That’s 4/9.

For this first reaction round, we are going to just have Genny and Hitomi spend a Spotlight each to avoid the damage. Cheesy, I know, but I’m saving them up for a reason. Hitomi wins the coinflip. Genny does not.

By now, Patel and the Siblings have figured out they are under attack and are moving to take cover as best they can in the railing on the other side of the helipad. Abra is starting to shake off her wound and is running full on for Genny. Yori opens fire on Hitomi. Both dive down out of the way and keep ahead of their attackers.

Juan’s helicopter, close enough now that Genny can see Julian Shame piloting it, is trying to get down as Roman Patel waves for it to land. Genny takes his radio and throws it to Hitomi. “Channel 17. Ask him what the fuck he thinks he is doing!”

Hitomi snags that and rolls under the a complex telecommunications array to get out of the gunfire.

Genny tossing the radio was his Quick Action so he has no chance to reload. He’s going to have fight this time (using his gun as a weapon). He does not have Martial Arts so he is at -1 versus Abra. Brawn (3) + Fight (3) +1 (Gun-as-club) -1 (Abra’s skill level). He gets 3xBasic = Critical. Not enough. Screw it, he’ll spend his second (of three) Spotlights and then 1 ADR to bring the damage to the next hotbox. Coin flip is he loses it. But the team is up to 6/9 Grit lost. Unfortunately the bad guys now have two ADR to spend.

Eustace is going for Roman Patel. He gets an Extreme this time but only has a Basic so is still in the thick of it. (7/9)

Hitomi’s Full Action will be her diving for full cover. Her Quick Action will be to radio Julian.

“What the fuck are doing, Jooleeannn?,” Hitomi screams tauntingly. In front of her, Eustace has just landed on top of Roman Patel and knocked the man down. Yori is turning his gun to the back of Eustace’s head. “GENNY!,” she shouts but sees the old soldier is swinging his rifle at Abra’s head. Abra ducks but finds Genny’s boot in her gut. And then the rifle to her head.

“Um,” Julian’s voice comes over the radio. “Boss said that he made a deal to keep you safe. Only…”

“ONLY YOU ARE HELPING THE ASSHOLES THAT WE ARE TRYING TO STOP FROM KILLING US!”

“Roger that…”

Hitomi takes a deep breath.

Rather than have her roll for it, we’ll do a test, does Julian bail on saving Patel? (Even) → [c86] No? He is still too loyal to Juan to completely ignore the orders.

Hitomi asks, as nicely as she can, “Can you pretty please just fly away?”

“I don’t know, let me talk to the boss…” and then he cuts communication.

“Ah, fuck…”

Hitomi is in full cover and out of firing range.

Genny is going to save his last Spotlight to shoot Patel. Brawn (3) + Stunt (3) -1 = absolute whiff. He is taking the hit and the full 9 Grit. He has also has “You look Hurt” and will be at -1 for Brawn rolls going forward.

Eustace will spend an Adrenaline to turn and slice at Yori at close range. Brawn (3) + Fight (3). Critical + Basic absorbs 4 of the 9 Grit. He takes 5.

Genny is hit so hard in the face that he feels teeth crack. It might be a few days before he can talk without a lisp. He sags to one knee but stays on his target, slapping his last clip in. He sees Eustace slicing at Yori’s face but taking shots right to the chest. If Eustace was any more human, he’d be losing a quantity of blood. As it is, Soulburn is seeping through.

Patel, pulling a high-powered aether-enhanced gun from a shoulder holster, points the gun at Julian and the helicopter.

“Drop your fucking weapons or your boy eats raw Soulburn!”

They are spending 2 ADR to activate their Weak Spot special reaction. This will make everyone -2 to their next reaction. Since they do Extreme damage, that is bad. However, the heroes have a Weak Spot of their own.

Eustace is out of Adrenaline so only gets 7 dice this time. He actually puts his claws up for the free reroll. Just straight punches. So that drops him to 6 dice. Nothing (he had a critical but couldn’t upgrade it to Extreme).

Genny is going to pop his last Spotlight and empty his Adrenaline to blast Patel off the roof (and he actually gets the Spotlight back). This will “end it” but the twins have a trick up their sleeve about getting away…however.

The Weak Spot involves opening a trap underneath. {Yori | Abra} → Yori. Yori will drop which will cause Abra to go and try and help him. They don’t have enough for a clean get away.

Is the aetherwork system deadly to fall into? (Even) → [c60] No? I figure since the fight is “over” that it doesn’t quite matter. Still, sounds more like it is a bit of a drop but not like…crushing death.

In response to Patel’s threats, Genny falls to the side and opens fire directly upon Patel himself. Doctor Patel stumbles with each shot until the third sends him tumbling over the side of the Rambler. Abra screams and goes to bash in Genny’s head when she hears Yori shout out. During the fight with Eustace, he has stumbled right over the trap laid earlier. Yori tumbles down into the aetherwork gears. Abra screams his name as she runs to save her “brother.” Right as she gets to the grate and leans over to help Yori out, Eustace shoves her inside and calls out for Hitomi to re-engage the locking mechanism. The grate is shut with a loud magnetic clamp.

Eustace sends out a psychic message loud enough that Hitomi and Genny hear it as well. People out to see on fishing boats likely hear it. Maybe further. Get out of the building or get to the roof. Along with a vision of the building coming down. Now. Screams almost immediately pick up from below as multiple combatants prioritize self-preservation over their squabble.

We’ll throw three “Good” cards. At least two yes results means both Jones and Varvara have completed their tasks and can get to safety.

[c40] No? [c29] Yes. [c30] No? Hot dang.

Varvara isn’t going to be able to get to the roof in time.

Then Eustace pulls out his scrying glass, unused for so long. Cracked and half forgotten. He calls a number he just knows and asks for a name. After a half minute of waiting, he tells the person on the other end: “Amy, drop it.”

Hitomi is waving the helicopter to land while Genny limps over, keeping an eye on the roof access door. “Where’s V?,” he asks.

Eustace points at Hitomi as she is running towards him. “Genny, get her on board.” Then, before Hitomi even registers Genny picking her up and pulling her into Julian’s helicopter, before she can call out for Eustace to come back, he takes over in flight fast enough to punch through the doors and heads down to get Varvara.

Brawn (3) + Know (3) = AFTER GOING ALL IN…2xCritical. I’ll say that’s good enough.

Varvara has collapsed by a pillar and watches the fire spread. She knows she should heed the message and head up to the roof but she kind of doesn’t think she can. The past hurt, earlier. Filip, her beloved older brother. So weak. Effeminate. Queer. Picked on a lot. One day some bullies trapped him and threatened him. And Varvara found out and scolded sweet Fil. Told him to be a man. So he did. He got better at fighting. Better at killing. Until the two of them had to flee here to this hell. That day, she could have praised him for his poetry. For his tiny little paper sculptures. Praised him for his beauty. But she mocked him like a bully. And now he is dead. Why not let herself die fixing that one mistake?

And right as the smoke fills her lungs and things go dim, an angel with rainbow wings punches through the darkness, scoops her up, and explodes into the outside.

The Rambler comes tumbling down…

Setting the Scene, e21s3+.

That essentially ends the game. I’ll do a couple-three quickish vignettes.

DATE PLAYED: June 10, 2025.

Tumbling Down

Jones was shocked that folks that should be shooting at him were shouting thanks instead as they got on the elevator and went down. Rats fleeing the Titanic and somehow instinctively the chubby black man with a shotgun to be there to help. Which he was, but he wasn’t sure if he was happy about it.

After giving a count of 100 since seeing the last group down — a few folks that just screamed “accountants” along with three guards — he got on the elevator himself and rode to the bottom. After that, he just stared up. There was enough chaos on the ground — MUNI had joined the fray, along with Order Mages and Witches — that it was hard to see anything else except that a helicopter trying to approach the roof. After the sound of gunfire from up above, a body fell and slams into the ground. Jones was pretty sure it was Roman Patel, but that would be forensics’ problem.

Then came the voice. Eustace. Telling people to flee. Complete with a slide show of death raining down. So Jones fled. Shouting that everyone needed to get back now. People shouting and confused in return but starting to move as he got closer. Sure, they heard the voice, too, people kilometers away probably heard it, but Jones strangely felt like people were listening to him. Folks that greatly outranked him in the GLOW hierarchy.

He did not look back as great crashing roar of the Rambler slammed into the ground. He did not look back as it tilted — luckily not in his direction — and collapsed over two city blocks (mostly rubble by this point, anyhow). He did, however, look back when he heard gasps. And there was Eustace, carrying someone. Only, a few meters from the ground, the Soulburn wings blinked out and Eustace fell.

As everything does, eventually.

A pile of rubble meets the early light of day.

The Death of the Witch-King

Varvara is just starting to accept that she lived through the adventure and relax in Eustace’s arms when she feels him sag and suddenly they are falling. Ten meters later she is on the ground and rolling as best she can. Around her, the world is an earthquake as the thirty-stories of reinforced stronghold that was the Rambler hits with a force of a bomb.

She is running back to the limp form of Eustace Delmont. The “other” Eustace is completely gone and he remains mostly just a husk of who he was. She leans down and lifts him up, shocked at how light he has become. He blinks at her, having trouble focusing on her face. “Hold on, we’ll get help,” she says.

“Your bother, Filip, he never held it against you.”

“Please shut up and just hold on.”

It takes Genny holding a gun to Julian’s head to have the helicopter get anywhere close to the ground, but it is good enough for Hitomi to risk leaping off and running in the direction they saw Eustace collapse. As Julian starts taking back off, Genny — a body full of pain and contemplating retirement more than he ever has before — sees Hitomi throw herself down near Varvara. The early morning sunlight bathing everything in a sickly pale light. Genny sighs. Happy endings don’t happen in this damned town. “Let’s go,” Genny garbles through broken teeth, “Juan has some explaining to do and needs to get the whole squad out to help keep things together.”

On the ground, Hitomi is helping Varvara lift Eustace and my god he looks like photos her mother had of her maternal grandfather after being released from a POW camp post-World War II. A skeleton held together by flesh. She presses her lips against him and is terrified at how cold he already is.

“Sorry. Mo. Chi. I wont…”

And then Eustace Delmont, Witch-King of the GLOW, dies. Again.

The Nurse’s Choice

Eustace opens his eyes and is floating in space. Above a planet all magenta and full of crystalline structure. Flying from structure to structure are creatures that are the same species as the Witches Three.

Our home world.

Long gone.

Finally avenged.

“Has it been reborn?”

No.

“I’m sorry.”

The three beings floating around him like points in a triangle remain silent. Three beings from a race so complex that the name of it is impossible for him to properly conceive.

“So,” he says, awkwardly, the long fought confidence of these past few days dwindling, “I’m dead, right?”

Yes.

But an offer we can make.

We’ll join our sisters and give our stored energy to bring you back, again.

“Is there a catch?”

No catch. Only a decision.

Do you wish to be the terrible Witch-King and lead the GLOW to conquest?

Or maybe a normal man outside the GLOW, a fisherman or a librarian?

Eustace thinks about it for a while. Years. Days. Microseconds. What does time mean when above a planet that is so ancient that it was stardust before life on the earth — at least life as Eustace thinks about it — was started?

“Neither.”

Oh.

Ho.

Ha.

“I’m not a Witch-King. I’m not a normal man, though I’d be a kick-ass librarian. I’m a Nurse.”

The Witches Three laugh and laugh.

Back in the GLOW, the temporary peace brought about by the collapse of the Rambler is, well, collapsing. MUNI is moving to arrest people, the Order is trying to outrank MUNI, and many of Patel people are trying their hardest to fade into the night. That’s before you get to all the damned tourists who have showed up in early dawn to snap pictures like they aren’t in mortal danger.

Hitomi and Varvara are crying over the corpse of Eustace when suddenly he sits up. They are too stunned to say much as he stands, wobbly. And then flicks his hands in a complex series of motions.

The rubble of the Rambler starts drifting up and dancing around and reforming into buildings. Fires diminish. Streets rebuild. The process feels almost instantaneous to those watching but it also feels like it takes weeks and weeks. Frozen in time while the GLOW heals.

When it is done, the only change is where the Rambler was, a pair of thrones stands. Made in part of the same mahogany desk where Amy gave Jani that mini-disk all those days ago. Towards the throne on the left, Eustace walks. As he does, his body rebuilds itself. Only, instead of a hulking warrior, he is a 35-year-old man who has gone a bit fat. Still fit, just slouching to middle-age with a bit of grace is all.

When he sits and faces the crowd, Hitomi notices all the sigils that had scarred his body have faded. Leaving only a single mark, on his chest right over his heart. A simple ancient word for “Nurse.” In a language spoken before Ubbo-Sathla broke down into chemicals and faulty alien technology and gave birth to terrestrial life. Before Mana-Yood-Sushai’s great dream flooded into the first primates. Before Skarl’s drumming was mimicked in each and every heart beat. Even before Cthulhu and his mad devotion to Azathoth lead to a intergalactic war and the High Priest ended up imprisoned on a simple rock of a planet. Waiting for the stars to be right. Which, without Yuggoth, they may never be.

She does not know where any of the words she is thinking is coming, but she sees Eustace — and really Eustace now, not some Witch-King or psychic monstrosity — looking at her and she has a memory of their first meeting. In the parking lot of the Rambler. Her crying over her missing dog. Him, so fat and curly-haired, holding out a box of tissues. Wait, that’s not right. That’s not how they met all. Also, fuck, she forgot about Libby. Only now Eustace makes another gentle gesture with his hands and there is her little cute robot pet standing next to the other throne.

Hitomi walks up. “What’s all this about, then?”

Eustace speaks in a voice she knows so well, but even quieter. Calmer. She feels like she is hearing his real voice for the first time ever.

“Hitomi Meyer. Mochi. The woman who could have been Foxteeth and burned the world. Will you marry me?”

“No world burning?”

“Only if it really, really needs it.”

She leans over and whispers something in his ear and he laughs and laughs. Then she sits down in the throne next to him.

As everyone watches, the two — along with the thrones and the robot dog — fade into Soulburn.

Back in the crowd, Luca lights a cigarette and hands it to his wife, Sofia. “I think the boy did good. Would make Johnny proud.”

She smiles at her husband, who fought so hard tonight to keep everyone safe. “I’m proud of you.”

“Let’s go, boo.”

NOT the GLOW 1999: Transporter Jani Blum

Date: December 31, 1999.

Time: 9:17pm.

Place: Outside the Flying Y. Plinkett, Nebraska.

Jani exits the truck stop and lights a cigar. He is all smiles. The smile’s name is Tanya and she is definitely flirting. Well, more than flirting. Offering. Her shift ends at 10pm, she said, and a New Year’s Eve party of two — three if someone called Darlene is about and down and it seems like Darlene is always down — sounds perfect. Jani is looking forward to it.

He’s spent the past three years being a runner with Jacob Maron and life has been pretty grand. They transport things. Various things. A few that are two-legged and wanted. A surprising number of them being mostly legal. Currently dropping off a load of appliances and picking up some farming equipment — and three people who had bounced to avoid warrants for some heinous acts. Got picked up in Plinkett and held. Time to take the three little piggies homes.

That sort of thing. Jacob has settled down a good bit outside the influence of his mom. Still a wolf. Always the next Silver Fox. Only it turns out that werewolves and werecats are good at hunting. So they hunt criminals. Bring them back. Often with a load of scrap to help pay for gas.

The cat’s urge to make more of its kind is strong but Jani has found that ancient entities don’t know too much about modern birth control. So he is good about wearing condoms. Being careful. Can’t have too many random werecats sprouting up around the country. It’s already weird enough.

A farmer from out in the podunkier parts of Plinkett has been ranting all afternoon at the truck stop “bar.” Where locals and truckers get drunk but deny drinking on premises if law enforcement cares to ask. Frankly, law enforcement makes up a good quarter of the customers. Farmer said that his house just turned blue last night. The “bartender” — big lass named Sheila and Tanya’s aunt or mother or some such: bigger breasts, bigger mouth, bigger hips — threatened to cut him off. Jani laughed a good bit at that. He spent a lot of years in a place where miracles were commonplace.

Looking down at the Plinkett Weekly in the newspaper rack — all the news of the week, plus Piggly Wiggly coupons, for a quarter — he sees the front page news. “The GLOW confirmed to be shrinking!” He doesn’t need to buy a paper to know the news. People have been talking about it quite a bit. The GLOW had been assumed to be all world consuming on a long enough time line. The faster it grew, the faster the amoeba ate. Some predictions considered 2150 to be a conservative estimate. Only, the past couple of years it had not only stopped slowly spreading but the outer edges are pulling back.

What’s more, after reports flowing out that the Witches Three were back, that there was some new Witch-King, that the Rambler got dropped, and other madness: the general vibe about the place is that it has settled down. Still place where the suffering of others powers a mega-city. Only, the suffering is just a little less cruel. Maybe.

Amy and her brother travel the world, spending all the left over Patel money setting up charities and human rights organizations. Ruffling some feathers. Only photos show her always flanked by a pair of bodyguards that seem to make “elite forces” seem inadequate as a turn. A man and a woman. With strange glowing sunglasses. Typical GLOW weirdos. Could be brother and sister. Hard to tell.

Jani stares out at the snow — thin for this time of year according to all the locals but more due to come in shortly — and takes a deep puff of his cigar. Just half an hour to go until he and Tanya waste a night while Jacob waits for January 2nd to hit so he can get the paperwork for the criminals settled. A decent bounty awaits them in Illinois.

Across the field, in the halo of a bright light used during summer time to illuminate a fruit-and-veg stand and during winter to call a few truckers off the interstate, a family is playing in the snow. Making anemic snowmen. A fat-ish man, his Asian wife (also going a bit to fat), and a couple of boys just graduating to toddler status. The kids’ laughter is nice, even if the sound echoes funny. Like he is witnessing a memory he never knew he had. And the man…something about him. Maybe it’s just strange to see a family out in the cold this time of night. Only, well, long trips on the road: you sometimes have to stop and make do to help the kids run down.

Jani turns back and looks down to the Interstate 80 and sees people heading various ways to the new year. An infinite string of lights and he doesn’t know a single one and that’s nice. His long years of being paid to know is behind him. Then it hits him. Where he knows the guy from. But that makes no sense.

“Eustace?,” he asks, turning. Only the family is gone. Only a set of foot prints starting and ending in the middle of the field.

And overhead the sound of flapping wings, like a giant crow is flying off into the heavens.

DOUG’S COMMENTARY

One of the hardest tricks and one that I might have failed here or there was changing the POV from primarily-Eustace to essentially never-Eustace after his death-and-rebirth. After the scene near the remains of Yuggoth, Eustace is almost entirely described by other people. Even if the fight at the Villa, I had the viewpoint of the villain. Eustace basically became an NPC (and deus ex machina) in his own story.

The white farmhouse that turned blue finally pays off. I had to plop Jani somewhere for the final scene so I figured why not use it. Since the farmhouse is only blue when in the presence of Soulburn, it was a clue that something had brought Soulburn to Plinkett. Just silly little literary tricks.

At the end, I decided that Yori and Abra did escape. They had at least one Adrenaline left, after all. *wink* Only now they are Amy’s pets and being used as a force of good.

There were a few questions we never figured out but that’s ok. IF the GLOW ever returns, maybe we’ll find out about Bee, BrokenRecord, Mrs. Yuuki, the Heretics, and so forth. They are living their lives for as long as they can. Some of them less poorly than others.

I nearly made a mistake. I started writing that scene with Jani as a general transporter of goods — sort of a trucker, though maybe not that specific — before I remembered he was to become a bounty hunter. I blended that together a bit. In my view, Macy never joined Jacob and Jani. Instead she stayed with Barlow in Bunker. The two families from the very origin of werewolves, staying in the pack. Not quite the Kai Yotes this time, but also never quite what they once were. Maybe Gareth will show up somewhere and represent the “something new” but maybe not. The GLOW has plenty new. Lina should still show up in a couple of years. Jacob better watch out.

The idea for this version of a happy ending wasn’t exactly organic in the way most of the other mad-cap story was. The idea of Eustace choosing to return as Nurse came to me a couple of episodes back. It was only a question if the team could survive long enough to make it happen. Which they did. Genny is probably the true star of the whole thing since I think he has scored most of the killing blows versus the rougher enemies and kept the team going forward while Eustace and Hitomi each faced their own flavor of burn out. I like to think he has fully retired now, working with Jones to get the Green Lady back. Varvara, I have no idea. Probably back with the ShaoDra and Fractal Apocalypse, making gentle street drugs for the masses.

I probably screwed her backstory up. I don’t know. By the end, the idea that her and her brother were Romanian and had escaped to The GLOW and something bad happened that made her take up a monk-ish lifestyle. She had deep rage issues, hence the fighting prowess, but generally wanted it to be behind her.

I also don’t remember if I ever gave The Witches Three a species name. I like the idea of it being something a bit too ancient to even be approximated in human speech/writing. I like that it was all sort of a Lovecraftian story but one where Cthulhu gets truly beaten. Screw it.

This has been one hell of a story to write. With the four “double episodes” of Johnny Blue, it ends up being 29 total episodes, some of them quite long, plus some interludes and such. And elements from the story crisscrossed into the Alabama Weird version of Eustace + Hitomi, which crisscrossed back. Stuff like the Rambler collapsing — planned from early on in The GLOW — actually showed up first in Eustace + Hitomi — again at Amy’s insistence. It has been draining in the best possible use of that term. It’s a messy story with elements being shifted here or there, sped up in places, and slowed down in others.

Still, as far as stories go, it is absolutely amazing to me how much my initial vision blended with the mechanics of solo-play to make something that I wouldn’t have made if I had just sat down to write. Originally, it was going to be Eustace and Hitomi getting in a gun fight in the mall, escaping to rescue Amy, and then running a short campaign to carry out her wishes. It kind of got there in the end but the whole Cabal, the fake religions, the world threat, the Space Man, so many fun elements that make it feel unique were all just dice rolls and card draws hitting in the right order.

It really feels like it could have been dozens of other stories had chance worked out a bit differently.

As usual, I’ll do a debrief in a day or two so I’ll wrap this up here.

One quick thing, a lot of the “reader control elements” — all of them, even — were excised. As my presentation style has changed, some of those elements have become such a part of the story that cutting them out would remove some sense. Also, as we finish prepping for the move it might be days and most likely weeks before I can go back and do stuff like updating episode lists and such. Tags will have to suffice for now.

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.

Special big things to Richard Woolcock and Dean Spencer. Their games and art were the spark of all of this and though both Arcane Agents and Dean Spencer’s art got left behind as stuff got increasingly complex, this story exists because of the inspiration.

ART CREDIT AND EXPLANATION

Another night in the GLOW: Photo by masahiro miyagi on Unsplash.

The Aftermath is another 3D Render, this one by “A Chosen Soul, because again I wanted to avoid using actual city destruction. Bonus fact: this is the only “Eustace Vision” image in the series that uses the default “Seed 0” render of plasma in GIMP.

“Atop the Rambler” is Photo by Denys Nevozhai on Unsplash. In this case, using the long-shutter effect blending in all the headlights work to give the impression of something like fire underneath. It was also really difficult to find a precise photo I wanted to use because the Rambler, by type, hovers above the other buildings but not like…too far above.

The Flying Y is Photo by Vlad Tomm on Unsplash. Fun Fact: it was so hard to find a good photo during the day I rewrote the scene to be at night.

The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont, Episode 20 – Heading Up

By Doug Bolden

On June 10, 2025

In Actual Play, Gamemaster Apprentice Deck, Outgunned, Solo Campaigns, The Glow

Reader Options/Controls
“Previously…” and Campaign/Arc Summary
The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont Episode 20 — Heading Up

Doug’s Commentary
Credits

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Previously, on The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont

After fighting their way to base of the floating skyscraper called the Rambler — the base of the Patel operations — the team has begun their assault on the final piece — and core — of the cabal. Amy Patel has control of the mini-disc and is planning on destroying her family fortune but the team is making sure that all loose ends are tied up first.

About The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont

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 20 — Heading Up

EPISODE SOUNDTRACK: Experia’s Hidden Agenda.

Considering how much this episode is inspired by Final Fantasy 7‘s running up the stairs for Shinra HQ, I resisted the urge to play that soundtrack. However, Experia hits some of the same vibe.

Setting the Scene, e20s1.

No “expected” scene tests for the rest of the campaign arc. This will be “draw a card and make a scene that matches the card.

[c103] 4 (+9 = 13 total). Some keywords “An intellectual challenge or puzzle.” “Flashing emergency lights.” “Runner job gone wrong.” “Personal secrets.”

Going with that, and with the fact that scene is lower than normal intensity, we’ll say that the alarms and lockdowns are going off around the Rambler and Hitomi needs to fix it. Only, one of the team has some history with the Rambler. The most logical answer is Varvara. Maybe this is part of why she has such a grudge against Patel and tagged along.

DATE PLAYED: June 5, 2025.

Recalling a Cleaner

Date: June 7, 1996.

Time: 2:28am.

Place: The thirteenth floor of the Rambler.

The window gives way with a smash. Eustace, sweat pouring, releases the other four and then sits down hard. Hitomi is the first to him: “Are you ok?”

Let’s let the dice decide if he is ok. We’ll treat this as a 2xCritical Dangerous Gamble to push himself that hard. Brawn (3) + Cool (2) to represent his mix of physical exertion and psychic power. He gets +1 since he has experience with carrying people in flight mode.

With 7 dice, he actually makes it without any Snake Eyes.

Eustace nods and pats her hand. That stunt probably cost him around four hours of his scant time remaining but they are in. Which is, annoyingly, only around half the fight.

The emergency lights are blaring bright red. Security shutters have fallen to protect the art. Fire doors have swung shut.

Going to roll a d20 (Psychics) vs d12 (Patel). d20 = 11. d12 = 11. The fight outside is pretty much evenly matched right now. Patel has the numbers but psychics have the ability.

The gunfire outside continues. As does the sound of lashings and screams. Hitomi hopes that everyone within a few kilometers’ radius has gotten the hint and started vacating hard but she can’t help but wonder how many tourists are running towards the battle.

Jones runs up and pushes open one of the fire doors but the side doors seem to be mostly locked down. Shouts of people trapped inside one are loud. Voices of multiple accents crying out for help in at least four languages. “What kind of bastard builds a lock down system that traps workers inside?”

Varvara is the one who answers and she just lets out a loud grunt.

We are on the 13th floor. Let’s roll d6-2. 4-2=2. 15th floor, around the halfway mark.

Something in her grunt gives a personal edge away and Hitomi glances at the martial artist with a unspoken question. Varvara, to be heard over the various klaxons, points up. “Floor 15. Head of security office. We should be able to shut it down, there.”

“How do you know?”

Varvara chews her lip and suddenly looks to be in her late teens. Hitomi thinks that she isn’t going to respond but finally Varvara does: “Varvara Clean. Like, a…portar…a janitor. Because I was.”

“Here?”

Varvara nods. “My brother was…a gun. I was a broom. Then my brother…”

“Why didn’t you say so?”

Varvara shakes her head.

“We’ll get the fucker, ok? I’ll make sure you get a chance to punch whomever you need to punch.”

Genny interrupts. “Ok, you heard the lady. 15th floor. Stay tight. Any door in our way, we shoot.”

The number of doors in their way turns out to be four. Both stairway doors were locked tight and they had to punch through both the outer door to the facilities section on the 15th floor — which looks like the behind-the-scenes scuttle of a large urban mall — and then the door into the security room.

Are there any guards still here? (Good) → [c84] Yes.

The fat man with glasses and the skinny woman chewing on a crucifix jump and put on a pretense of reaching for their guns. Genny gets his up first and says nothing but makes it clear that he will shoot first.

Let’s say Brawn (3) + Streetwise (2). +1 for the gun. He gets a Critical. These guards will abandon post and leave.

A few seconds later the pair have fled out into the hall and disappeared to who knows where.

“Those two might be trouble,” Jones whispers to Genny.

“Fuck it, we’re trouble. Besides, I have shot enough desk jockeys in my day. I want to save my bullets today. Is that ok?”

“Yeah, man.”

Inside the room, the security set-up is a lot of state-of-the-art — by GLOW standards — TVs and a couple of small laptop terminals. Would be worth several thousand, probably several several-thousands. Currently the words “LOCKDOWN” flash on several of the computers. Hitomi takes lead and pulls Libby and her laptop out. Setting the robotic dog down (and fully feeling the extra weight that Libby has weighed), Hitomi starts plugging into the system and working. A second wire from her laptop is plugged into Libby.

I don’t think I’ve asked this. Is the Rambler ServiSynth based? (Even) → [c73] No. They definitely use ServiSynths, but not in their mainframe.

“It is complex and esoteric. Built from the ground up by people paid to play the GLOW’s rules. Only, it is also deeply secular. Like a code that would work in the real world as well as this shithole.”

Jones asks, “Can you get in?”

“Can your ass fly a helicopter? Give me some space.”

Crime (3) + Fix (3) + 1 (Libby) + 1 (Laptop). She gets a Jackpot. Oooooooo. The computer system is hers.

Around 2 minutes later, the alarms turn off and the lights go back to their normal glow. The sound of doors unlatching can heard up and down the halls. Shouts of relief. Dozens of trapped workers are now free to try and get out. Only, there’s the drop down.

Does the Rambler have some sort of way down besides the hovering elevator? (Good) → [99] Yes.

Most likely it would be something like ladders and inflatables. Though people dropping would have to have a clear place down below.

Hitomi types some commands and the tannoy starts announcing a general evacuation. Emergency escape modules are activated. Only…

“What if the jackasses out there shoot their own coworkers?,” Jones once again shows up with the annoying questions.

“I don’t know. I could send a message to the troops but they aren’t sane.”

Jones sighs and brings up his shotgun. “Hey, crow boy, can you send a message to your people down there to punch through and make a corridor?”

Eustace nods.

“Good, I’m going back down and do what I can to get the people out. And if fat guy or cross sucker shoot me, I’m going to haunt Genny.”

With that, Jones is gone to try and save as many people as he can.

Setting the Scene, e20s2.

[c117] 5 (+13 = 18 total). Some keywords “A major personal loss occurs.” “Find inner peace.” A icon of spider webs.

There’s going to be ServiSynth’s controlled outside of the mainframe that shoot out sticky, trapping stuff. So…kind of a fight but the grit loss is not so much damage as being trapped. Wait, not webs. It traps you in a “psychic web” of some sort. I think I can make this work.

We’ll treat this as 2xCritical Attack, Critical Defense, and 10 Grit (no Hot Boxes) [aka, 5×2].

DATE PLAYED: June 5, 2025.

The Past Is a Foreign Country

Date: June 7, 1996.

Time: 2:51am.

Place: The eighteenth floor of the Rambler.

The first sign that something is wrong is when Hitomi remembered the taste of her dad’s beer. Oxford. 1984. Her mom’s birthday party. A group of academics had come along to swap Thatcher hate while talking shit about students. Her dad had come back from the states with new-wife and new-daughter. The conversation had turned to the philosophical ramifications of some place like The GLOW and after half an hour of hearing about the physical torture of souls as a drunken, Reverend Meyer had become frustrated with how much of a game the whole affair was being treated. In the past month, one of his parishioners had disappeared. Kidnapped. Murdered. Or simply…faded.

When he had — gently — stormed off, he had left behind his warm beer, mostly untouched. Hitomi stared at it for not long at all before reaching over and picking it up to taste a sip. A basic youthful act of defiance. While doing it, Dr. Richaud — the skinniest man she had ever met that managed double chins — had spotted it and winked. Hitomi slightly panicked because she realized that Oxford was not for her and had been building up the courage to move to live with her dad in The GLOW. What if he didn’t want her there, anymore? What if a daughter that sips beer is not what he needs with his new-wife and new-daughter?

It was exactly the kind of thought that had plagued her for around two hours. By the time she was sixteen, she had become the kind of surly that hoped someone would give her shit for taking a sip of beer. She later found out that her dad was the kind of father that would maybe tsked lightly before hugging her even harder. She was always welcome at his home. In other words, that two hours of fear were such a minor part of who she was that she had literally not thought about them in a decade. But, there they were.

And just like that, it starts again. Her dad arguing with a woman with hair a color red so fake that it kind of felt natural — Hitomi thinks she was the wife of another professor but realizes her memory space has no recollection of anything like a name — and her dad leaving and fifteen-year-old Hitomi leaning forward to take a sip of beer but this time as she looks up, it is not double-chinned-and-thin Richaud looking at her, it is Eustace.

“You are under psychic attack,” he says, sitting there in a chair and behind him the colorful world of her dreams turns gray in his shadow. Like he is the size of a mountain.

How I’m going to do this is roll for everyone and then really only describe the results from Hitomi’s perspective.

Nerves + Cool or some other skill if it makes more sense.

Eustace [2 + 2 but I’ll give him +2 because he’s pretty shored up as a psychic]: 2xCritical outright. He is very much so dodging the attack.
Hitomi [2 + 2 but she also gets +1 for Tormented and Eustace is helping her for +1]: She blocks a Critical and a Basic and takes 2 Grit.
Genny [3 + 3]: Critical + Basic and takes 2 Grit.
Varvara [2 + 2]: Just a Basic and takes 5 Grit. She’s going to get “You Look Scared.”

Hitomi chokes her the beer and then spills it. A worse version of her memory. No doubt, as it keeps looping it will get worse and worse. As a couple of professors come over and start helping her to clean up, she ignores them and focuses on Eustace. “How do we get out of it?”

“We fight.”

“How?”

“It’s your mind. However you want.” To demonstrate, Eustace extends claws and stabs into the earth. For a brief second she sees reality. Eustace, Genny, and Varvara standing still as in a trance on the eighteenth floor. That’s right, they had to switch stair wells because from here on up it’s the upper floors.

While walking across, they…

She turns and punches Richaud in his face before he could pour another pint of beer on top of her. The memory trying to take back over.

Eustace’s mental body and physical body are so linked I’ll let him take Brawn (3) + Fight (3) + 1 = Extreme. Thats 3 Grit down.

Hitomi is fighting with her mind but we’ll let her sneakiness take over. Crime (3) + Survival (2) = No successes.

Genny is going to use his Nerves + Cool, again. Critical + Basic. 1 Grit down (4 total).

Varvara is going to use her Focus (2) + Cool (2) to try and outhink it. She gets another Grit down, (5 total).

Richaud snaps back and then the memory does the same. Only now Eustace is there from the very beginning and it’s not her dad they are screaming at, it’s him. Her memory is being weaponized to try and force him out. And this time the glass she is picking up and drinking from is blood. She goes quick to trick herself. Like a kid hiding medicine under her tongue.

Eustace gets Extreme + Basic. The extreme covers him but there’s not enough left over to shield others. Instead, he is going to be hitting back. 2 more Grit will be lost (7 total).
Hitomi is going to use Crime + Stealth (+1 for Eustace’s help). She avoids taking any more damage.
Genny again gets Critical + Basic and takes two more Grit.
Varvara will switch it up to Focus (2) + Fight (3) as she is bringing the new her into her old self. She takes the full 6 Grit. To avoid this, she will spend her spotlight. She loses the coinflip and does not get it back.

As the memory-professors shout even louder at Eustace, he begins cutting them away. Instead of blood, they bleed glimpses of reality. It is odd, but Hitomi feels his attacks like a headache in her own head.

She fakes drinking the blood at the fake-Richaud turns to wink only as he does his face half slides away. The world is burning itself up and melting to try and keep her inside. She thinks if she is quick she can dive through the holes that Eustace is carving.

Eustace again gets 7 dice. Extreme + Basic. That breaks it.

Hitomi leaps into the putty that barely even attempts to look like Richaud and then finds herself standing around as others are likewise blinking and waking up.

Genny glances over at Eustace. “Thanks for the assist back there.”

Eustace nods. Turns to look at Varvara. “I’m sorry about your brother.”

“Me too,” she says with a sniff and it’s clear that she has been crying.

“What was that?,” Hitomi asks.

“A psychic trap. Or some sick person’s idea of fun. Come on, let’s go.”

The team heads up the large spiral staircase in the middle of the room. Knowing the real battle is still ahead.

Setting the Scene, e20s3.

[c4] 4 (+18 = 22 total). Some keywords “Tresspass Inconvenient Research.” “A social call turns “(b)romantic.” “Personal papers.”

Someone is going to try and talk the team out of stopping. Someone that might have a personal connection. Maybe a couple of someones. After they get through this, they will be in the final fight scene.

For a person, a name that was never resolved was Dr. Mariya Kazuo. We know that she teaches at Pensacola Polytechnic and that it’s a “school” largely to fast track people into various millionaires’ and billionaire’s payrolls around the GLOW. Patel is one of the sponsors. Kazuo was not really made to be another Patel lackey or tied into the Akari situation, but just for tying up loose ends, she can be here. What is she professor of? Well, we’ll say her speciality is in the economic impact of The GLOW but in practically she’s more into managing cutting edge technology. Exactly the sort of person who might stay behind despite all the warnings that collapse is imminent blaring.

DATE PLAYED: June 8, 2025.

Skitter Scatter

Date: June 7, 1996.

Time: 3:24am.

Place: The twenty-secondth floor of the Rambler, the floor below the Patel’s personal quarters.

“Please evacuate the Rambler, collapse is imminent. This is not a drill. This is not a drill. Please evacuate…,” the voice booms out from all directions as the team gets to the top of the spiral stair case.

Ever since the psychic attack on eighteen, the trip has been pretty smooth sailing. The only three armed people they passed were running downstairs so fast that they even stood to one side of the stairs to let Genny keep going. Boxes of paperwork have showed in small piles. A smashed laptop with a scattering of blood where someone seems to have cut themselves on the screen. A small fire near a kitchenette. Patel is the kind of guy who hires the kind of people who develop loyalty only as an extreme version of selfishness. This far up, everyone likely knew of the “plan” but what good is being in the eye of the hurricane when a nuclear bomb is being dropped?

It is the twenty-secondth floor that pulls them to a stop. A huge bank of computers and hundreds of filing cabinets are the primary decorations followed by desks with multiple monitors set-up. A communication hub of sorts. One more populated than any floor they have seen in the past half-hour. The people are running around shoving paperwork and laptop into boxes. Screaming, “HURRY UP!,” as they load data into disks. Rats fleeing the ship with blueprints of the ship.

It is one person in particular that Hitomi stops and hails: “Hey, Mariya, what the fuck?”

Dr. Mariya Kazuo. Professor of Economics at Pensacola Polytechnic. Speciality is in ultra-rich economic bubbles and the impact on local economies. The speciality of that specialty is The GLOW and people like Roman Patel. Makes sense that she would have been tapped to work here. Also makes sense why Hitomi hasn’t seen Mariya enough in the past three months to break up. Hitomi was worried that dating a woman her mom’s age was some kind of weird lesbian oedipal thing. Sex was mediocre at best, anyhow.

Japanese woman in an office, eating an apple.

Dr. Kazuo turns around and sees Hitomi and lets out a smile. “Mochi, I didn’t know you were working for Pat…” Then stops. Takes in the blood and the grime and look on Genny’s face. Takes in Eustace. “Oh, this is all your doing, right? You are the one that is taking down the Rambler?”

“Well, it’s actually Amy wants to crash her dad’s estate, literally, but we are volunteering our services to help her win the worst daughter of the year award. Why don’t you go ahead and tell your drones to put their boxes down. No way we’re letting this data out of here.”

“THIS IS MY LIFE’S WORK!”

“Your life’s work is the death of the human race,” Eustace says. Only, despite standing just a meter from Hitomi, she can’t help but think it sounds like he is shouting with the voice of a jet engine from a kilometer away. So incredibly loud and yet so incredibly quiet. Hitomi watches Mariya’s nose start bleeding.

Dr. Kazuo shakes her head and pulls out a small gun and in response Genny and Hitomi both get their guns up as well.

“Are you going to shoot me? And what the fuck is he?”

It is Varvara that answers, her voice sounding icy cold. Hitomi worries that something has broken. What could she have possible seen in the guilt trip room?

“He is something new, and they won’t have to shoot you if I break every bone in your body.”

Dr. Mariya Kazuo looks around and makes a decision…

Will she put down the gun and surrender? (Even) → [c72] NO!

Genny has Nerves (3) + Shoot (3) + 1 for range. He gets an Extreme.

…she aims her gun right at Hitomi and gunfire explodes out. As Hitomi is opening her eyes, assuming she might be dead, she sees Mariya’s body hit the ground. Several of the drones are spinning and seeing Genny aiming a gun at them, start dropping boxes and scattering their materials as they head for the stairs.

Hitomi walks up, lighting a cigarette, and fights back tears that Mariya does not deserve. “Anyhow, I guess I’m breaking up with you…”

Eustace looks around and in the most normal voice he has managed in the past few hours says, “We have to try and take down all this data, can’t risk something vital being recovered in the wreckage.”

Hitomi has full control of the system from earlier so setting up all the digital aspects should be easy.

For destroying the physical, it might take a lot of time. Let’s let Varvara make a roll: Brawn (3) + Fix (2) + 1 (Lighter). She gets a Critical. So that’s good enough to do it but they are down another ally.

Hitomi wipes her eyes and starts logging back into the system. Data is scattered all over. It is only a matter of time before she has sent out kill commands from Patel’s systems. She uses data from a back catalog of junk: solitaire rules, how to solve Rubik’s Cubes, first edition Dungeons & Dragons, the breeding cycle of frogs in Brazil. The kind of stuff that will look like technical instructions and it might take days, weeks, or even years before people realize just how much they have lost.

Genny and Eustace are gathering up papers and putting them into a pile when Varvara approaches Hitomi. “I need your lighter.”

“I didn’t know you smoke.”

“I did, once, not any more. I’m going to burn all this to dust.”

Genny, overhearing, starts to point out that it’s a lot of files, but Varvara cuts him off. “My brother died…was sacrified…to add a few pennies to Patel’s bottom line. I want to destory Patel’s dreams and make sure no one can ressurrect them.”

“Amy is going to drop this building,” Hitomi says.

“Good. Don’t worry about me. I’m a gândac de bucătărie. A cockroach. I’ll live as long as the universe wills it.”

Hitomi hesitates but hands her lighter over to Varvara who nods and then starts to set fire to various piles. Hitomi thinks about it a moment and then goes in and switches off all fire suppression systems. The Rambler has a good chance of burning down. No pun intended.

As the remaining three get into Patel’s private lift and start going up, Varvara shouts out to Eustace, “Hey, Witch-King, fix this.”

Eustace nods and the elavator doors slide shut.

DOUG’S COMMENTARY

I am tired, space pilgrims. We have managed to cut through a lot of the extra books, DVDs/Blu-rays, boardgames, and pipe tobacco tins but still have several loads left to go before we are finished for the move. There tends to be a variety of muscles sore each and every day, but hey: moving is free gym.

I realized this episode that at some point in time I had dropped the first “r” in “Varvara” and was writing her name as Vavara. I’ll go back and fix some of it but no doubt it will be woven into several episodes from here on out.

Not sure if I have much to say. As I stated up near the beginning, the mental image of it was a bit of the scene in Final Fantasy 7 where Avalanche is running up all the stairs at Shinra HQ. Only we focused on a few floors where they were running from one staircase to the other and not the scenes of them having to stop and hold their ribs because they were exhausted.

Tying in Dr. Mariya Kazuo was an odd bonus but I’m fine with it.

I’m ready to play the final episode. We’ll start with a Advance and Time Out and then probably half the episode will be a somewhat freeform showdown.

CREDITS

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

“Up the Rambler” is Photo by adriaan venner scheepers on Unsplash.

“Alarum” is Photo by Nastuh Abootalebi on Unsplash.

“Garden Party” is this photo.

“Mariya Kazuo” is this photo.

The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont, Episode 19 – Alright Ramblers, Let’s Get Ramblin’

By Doug Bolden

On June 3, 2025

In Actual Play, Gamemaster Apprentice Deck, Outgunned, Solo Campaigns, The Glow

Reader Options/Controls
“Previously…” and Campaign/Arc Summary
The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont Episode 19 – Alright Ramblers, Let’s Get Ramblin’

Doug’s Commentary
Credits

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Previously, on The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont

Getting into the Villa was only the start. After a mechanical error downs the Green Lady, the team comes face to face with a trio of rogue psychics. Pushing themselves to the limit just to survive the fight, they are now regrouping and preparing to storm the Rambler. Amy Patel has her mini-disc back and with it, the controls to shut down the whole Patel empire. However, Eustace wants to make sure that the cabal can never be reborn.

About The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont

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.

Coming to Coinflip: Trigger the Showdown Right Now or Nah

I realize I’m at a bit of personal impasse, a snag of analysis paralysis. By this point, the story has been told excepting one last piece of the puzzle: fighting Roman Patel. We could reasonably jump through a couple of scenes and kick off the showdown this very post. BUT, I feel like…maybe not doing that. There was a time where this series could have taken on a tower-climb or heist type vibe. The Rambler, floating above the GLOW, could have been several episodes of Die Hard fights and tight corridors. That time is a bit past. Still, it doesn’t feel quite right to have it all just skip to the end.

I think what I’ll do is draw some cards. The “Difficulty Number” is a bell curve centering around 5.5. Between three and four “warm up” scenes feels appropriate. 3×5.5 = 16.5 and 4×5.5 = 22. The average of the two (aka, 3.5×5.5) is 19.25. We’ll round that down to 19. Draw cards. Each card we will use to figure out some challenge or scene. Once we exceed 19, we will then be in the penultimate fight or task or what have you.

Then the final showdown with the siblings and Roman Patel. Roger will likely show up and have to decide if he joins Amy in this.

There are, basically, two Plan Bs at this point. (1) The Witches Three show up and unwind reality to prevent the Yuggothians from being resurrected. (2) Amy activates the kill switch for the Rambler and drops it to the ground.

Both are bad and will involve people dying.

Ultimately Eustace and Hitomi will have to decide when it is time to pull those triggers.

But first, a time out. Folks are tired, exhausted, and needing to evade some MUNI who are definitely on the way.

The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont. Episode 19 – Alright Ramblers, Let’s Get Ramblin’

EPISODE SOUNDTRACK: Yeule’s album, Evangelic Girl Is a Gun dropped just yesterday (May 30, 2025) in what is a most epic birthday gift. Anyhow, that will 100% be the soundtrack for this episode.

Setting the Scene, e19sX.

Don’t need to work out too much in the way of set-up here. It’s a Time Out. Maybe not the last Time Out but it is 100% nearing it. Still in the bar, let’s ask a quick but important question.

Are MUNI close to the villa? (Good) → [c4] No? This means that Detective Hernandez has managed to gather up the folks she can trust and is running interference. We’ll probably never explore just how important she is to the finals segment but this is likely her shining moment. Since there’s a “?” there (aka, “but”) some will likely show up after a moment so we might still get a race but we’ll do that at the very end of the Time Out. It just means we don’t have to compress everything into rolls.

Everyone but Hitomi has “You Look Nervous”. One of their actions will be clearing that. Hitomi will be the only one to get two actions.

DATE PLAYED: May 31, 2025.

Quiet Anticipation™

Date: June 7, 1996.

Time: 12:27pm.

Place: The “bar” of Roman’s fake Villa.

“Bird. Bird. Bird,” BrokenRecord chimes while looking at Eustace which makes Hitomi feel slightly better. At least it’s not just herself who can see the other-Eustace seeping out into reality. He had said thirty-six-hours but she puts him at less than twelve to go. Burning a flickering candle twice as fast. If only Amy Patel had picked a different time to flirt, it might have been less confusing to Hitomi’s brain. Twenty-seven is too young for this much shit.

I’m going to consider finding Bee, BrokenRecord, and Libby [a bonus] automatic. But can they find the Mantis? We’ll assign that to Jones since Green Lady is beyond repair. Focus (3) + Detect (2) = 2xBasic. Hmm, tragically I would want something a bit better. Maybe Hitomi can make it on her first action.

I’m also going to roll for Genny to find more ammo but likely won’t discuss it in text since we already had an ammo scrounge and it is kind of automatic for him.

Crime (2) + Detect (2) + 1 [he already knows the guards have compatible ammo] = Critical. We’ll treat Basic as a success so that’s 3 clips.

Varvara is handing out a cannister of artificial emotion while Amy is pouring shots from the few bottles that survived the psychic onslaught. The entire group — sans Eustace — is resetting their emotional state. Hitomi is not sure these short term energy restorers are going to be enough for her until she hears a mechanic bark and looks up to Jones coming into the room with Libby. “BOO!,” Hitomi shouts and goes over and starts petting the robotic dog despite Libby having no external sensors.

“I found this downstairs and had a sixth-sense to bring it,” Nemesio Jones says. The chubby man looks washed out after the last few hours and Hitomi goes to say some — any, really — words of encouragement or thanks or condolences or…whatever. Jones seems to catch her struggling to speaking and waves his hand. “Nah, don’t. Saving the world can’t be easy. I don’t think I really believed it at first but the stuff we’ve seen. Like…”

“Him?”

“Yeah, it’s weird to hang out so close to a guy whose eyes glow. Have you looked into them? Well, whenever I do I have glimpses of the whole world burning in Soulburn and people bowing to at his feet. Only…”

“…only that’s not what he wants.”

“Right…and if he’s fighting himself to save us, I figure I can fight beside him. For now. Just don’t judge me too hard if I chicken out and go home.”

“Juan will know someone to get the Green Lady back.”

“It’s ok, I think after this I might retire to a farm somewhere. And plant not a goddamned thing.”

Jones walks off with a slight wave as Hitomi starts to check over Libby and is glad to see her robotic companion is ok. She glances up when she hears footsteps approaching and sees Bee. Hitomi grabs her long time friend and practically adopted younger sibling in a hard hug. The conversation turns to Eustace and the changes that have happened since Bee saw Hitomi and Eustace last.

As they talk, they see swirling light beginning to gather around him.

For his action, Eustace is going to “bank” some Soulburn.

Brawn (3) + Endure (2) = Extreme. That’s 3xCritical so he has 3 “stores” of it that can be spent to give +1 Help.

As they continue to stare, three orbs form near his head and he grabs them and presses them against his flesh. Each forms a strange shape. A letter from an alphabet older than the Solar System.

“I’m sorry, Mochi,” Bee says.

“Don’t be. Maybe after all this the two of us can go back into the kiosk business. Sell coffee or something.”

“I’d like that.”

Let’s give Hitomi a chance to find the mantis and wrap this up, it’s starting to stall.

Crime (3) + Awareness (3) + 1 (we’ll say Amy mentioned it being somewhere) = Critical, she found it. But NOT the contacts that helps Amy to control it.

That means it won’t join the final scene but at least Amy gets it back.

15 minutes later…

The boat they bought from Jal Pilkin is loaded up with Jones behind the wheel. Another boat has been pulled over and Amy, Bee, and BrokenRecord — and the prone figure of the mantis ServiSynth — are on it. MUNI sirens are approaching and the time to leave is now. The plan is that Amy will get to cybercafe and launch the mini-disc. On command, or when she loses communication with the team, she will launch the “DROP” command on the Rambler.

“Be safe, you,” she says to no one in particular. Then throttles up the boat and heads north.

Jones listens to the sirens and asks Genny if they think they get gone before company shows up.

How close are MUNI? Anything greater than 7 means close enough for a chase (with 10-Difficulty) being the starting speed. — [c13] 7. They are close but just far enough that the team can get away without being chased.

Genny says, “We are good if we go right now.”

Jones looks sadly back at the half-crashed Green Lady and speeds their boat back to the South and Genny’s truck. As they pull into a side canal, Hitomi catches a glance of MUNI boats approaching at speed. After a few moments, she knows they manaaged to get away.

Setting the Scene, e19s2.

Expected Scene: The [loyal] Order troops are clearing the way for the team to storm the Rambler.

Scene Test: [c51] 1. Helllllllll. 2d10 = I mean. 3 + 6 but let’s be SHOCKED. “A safe haven is exposed.” I think this one is self-explanatory.

Actual Scene: The Rambler is a battle ground as Patel’s full army are fighting off the Order in a large scale battle that is burning down the GLOW around it.

Without the Green Lady, Eustace is the primary flyer so we’ll see depending on how this goes.

Intensity for this section will be… [c69] 9. Dang. This fight will be pretty massive right off the start.

There’s enough good guys fighting bad guys that feats and special actions will be a weird way to handle it, so let’s do an converted sort of “Chase”. 18 Need. Damage will increase as it goes on. Every 4 Need filled, it will go up an intensity. Basic → Critical → 2xCritical → Extreme. Critical will remain the “defense” of the bad guys. There’s enough around that you will be shooting someone. Genny will be the ‘pilot’ as he leads the group across the way. Starts with a “speed” of 1 and it will go as he plots a way to get the team through. The idea is the fight will essentially go on until Patel falls (perhaps literally).

DATE PLAYED: May 31, 2025.

The Battle of the Rambler

Date: June 7, 1996.

Time: 1:45pm.

Place: The base of the Rambler.

Genny turns the corner and it’s a repeat of the Villa. The Rambler continues float, almost serene, above it all but the houses and businesses down below are on fire. He tries super hard to not flash back to the numerous conflicts where he was paid good money to do this kind of damage to property. “Frontline morale destroyer”. The people with him — well, Hitomi, Varvara, and Jones at least — need him to stay strong, here. Eustace…whatever is going on with him will just have to play it out. If he could happen to get Hitomi as far as possible from the blast radius. All the better.

He slams on breaks and pulls in behind the remains of a clothing shop which is now mostly just some walls and some summer clothing well on fire. “Everyone out, follow me!” He doesn’t look back to see if the team is listening. The team will be listening. The best damned troops he has ever lead. So what if a couple of them are just kids. That’s how war is always fought. People like him leading kids to die while the people in power print out awards and certificates and make bank in stocks.

Gunfire slams into the other side of the wall as more psychic lashes explode a car half a block down. Genny needs these to actually be on Eustace’s side. Otherwise, he’s going to radio Amy to just blow the whole joint.

Still not looking back, he plots out a path that will get them to a car lot that somehow has managed to stay mostly intact.

Nerves (3) + Cool (3) = Extreme. Speed increases to 3. Total Need = 3.

A couple of quick shots shatters the glass and he leaps through. He points to some ’96 model luxury cars and begins crawling around behind them. He hears glass crunch behind him and is glad to know that at least someone is following him.

Unfortunately, one of the Patel bastards has spotted them and a few more are running. These cars look awfully fancy but Genny doubts they will be able to stop many bullets. He points down and dives.

Let’s do a basic Brawn + Stunt to get out of the way.

Eustace. Brawn (3) + Stunt (2) = No successes. He takes 1 Grit.
Hitomi. Brawn (2) + Stunt (2) + 1 (Bulletproof vest) = Basic. Clears it.
Genny. Brawn (3) + Stunt (3) + 1 (Bulletproof Vest) = Extreme. He can actually block everyone else in this case. So, Eustace gets the Grit back and we’ll skip rolling for the others.

As glass shatters down, Genny notes that Eustace and Jones are a bit exposed and he finally breaks his “don’t look back” rule to grab then and pull them both into a better place. As Eustace — the strange bird-demon impression stronger than every — looks up and nods thanks, Genny pats him on the shoulder. Just another kid in over his head.

Genny jumps up and opens fire to mow down their attackers.

Nerves (3) + Shoot (3) + 1 (Distance) = Double Critical. Speed increases to 4. Total need = 7 which crosses a threshold.

As the Patel bastards drop, it opens up a gap in their flanks. Genny shouts “Let’s GO!” and takes off through the corpses. Again, he is glad to hear the sound of crunching glass behind him.

Several fox faced psychics are up ahead pushing hard against their opponents. One glances back and sees the group — and Eustace — and then nods. A few seconds later, the psychic is cut down as bullets tear through them and a phalanx of Patel troops try to flank the now outnumbered psychics.

This time we’ll go with stealth. The group is not the target so staying mostly out of the way will help, but damage is up to Critical.

Genny. Crime (2) + Stealth (3) + 1 (BPV) = 2xCritical. He can protect one of the others but we’ll hold to see who.
Eustace. Crime (2) + Stealth (2) + 1 (Obfuscation) = 2xBasic. Will take 1 Grit.
Hitomi. Crime (3) + Stealth (3) + 1 (BPV). She gets an Impossible. Again, she can spend enough successes to protect everyone.

Hitomi punches Genny on the shoulder and points to some azaela bushes — on fire — with concrete planters. The mixture of fire and smoke will make a great approach and soon the team is making the way through the unexpected path. Genny feels a moment of regret leaving what he assumes is compatriots to face gunfire but again, that’s war. Besides, just three psychics pushed this entire group to their limits. There seems to be dozens fighting Patel right now. He almost feels bad for the other side. Not really, though.

Up head, a building that housed a art school reaches critical damage and falls into a pile of rubble. It makes a nice short cut but the group will need to find a clear path.

Genny’s Brawn (3) + Force (3) makes sense. Critical. Speed is up to 5. That makes it 12 and carries it all the way to 2xCritical as a risk. Just another round or so will get them there but they are in real danger now.

Genny rushes forward and shoves the wreckage aside and there’s a ramp that will get them within a block of the Rambler — which is nearly wide open — but they will have to make it through flames and a collapsing structure.

Brawn + Endure feels like the best thing. Damage = 2xCritical.

Eustace. Brawn (3) + Endure (2) = 2xBasic. He stands to loose 4 Grit.
Genny. Brawn (3) + Endure (2) = Critical. 3 Grit.
Hitomi. Brawn (2) + Endure (1) + 1 (Tormented). Basic. 5 Grit.
Varvara. Brawn (3) + Endure (2) = Critical. 3 Grit.
Jones. Brawn (2) + Endure (2) = Critical. 3 Grit.

Everyone is going to push through this damage.

As the group jumps down and brushes off the burning debris — and Hitomi pulls a shard of glass that had jabbed her in the leg — they now need to make a mad dash through a relatively open parking lot and park to get into position under the Rambler. “What the fuck do we do when we get there?,” Genny shouts back to the others.

Eustace says in a voice full of all the death in the GLOW: “Trust me.”

“Yeah, figured you’d say that. Ok…I’m going to punch through.”

Genny is going to empty a clip. +1. Distance = +1. Spend an adrenaline = +1. Nine dice to get this done.

Extreme + Critical. He got there. This moves their speed to 7 and fills out the space.

Eustace spends an Adrenaline and one of his Soulburn orbs. Focus (3) + Fix (3) + 2. Double Critical. That’ll *do* but it would have been nice for more.

Genny gets his gun up and starts taking out Patel troops on the left and right. Here, the battle has barely reached so it is clear they were expecting a completely different kind of combatant.

He clears enough space that they can underneath the Rambler, floating twenty meters above their head. Unfortunately, other bastards are noticing them and starting to turn. There will be no protection, here.

Then Eustace speaks in a language that is clearly non-terrestial in origin and pulls at one of the sigils on his chest until he is holding an orb. He crushes it in his hand and a bubble of Soulburn flows out to form a wall that seems to be keeping the Patel troops out. Only, as Genny watches the walls warble and warp under bursts of gunfire, he knows it is short lived.

Only, somewhere outside he hear’s a cry: “For the Witch-King, for the Order!” Then there are more screams and pops. At least their enemies are going to be occupied for the moment.

“Ok, NOW what?,” Genny hears himself shouting way too loud.

Since they got here before the main Order troops, is the elevator working — or at least can Amy get it working? (Even) → [c44] No.

Alrighty then.

Can Eustace fly the entire group up now that he is around 50% consumed by Soulburn (or more)? (Good) → [c70] Yes.

Eustace spreads wings. that fill most of the bubble and starts to wrap around the others there with him.

“Now,” and Genny feels that Eustace’s voice sounds just like his grandfather and suspects the others also here someone else they trust, “We fly…”

Laying on burning fields

With you, as we watch

The Sun on fire

Burning our love down

Into dust, just like how

God takes away

A man from the dogs

All I want to do is

Love you, oh

But all you want to be is

In a dream

— Yeule, “Skullcrusher”

DOUG’S COMMENTARY

I might have another scene in me but the chance that it could end up being a pretty intense one again makes me think that I’ll just pick it up next time. I’m really happy with the makeshift chase scene there since it felt like a nice way to handle moving through an increasingly dangerous place.

I thought about having to deal with a rope ladder or some other system but we’re fully in “super hero” mode right now.

That was Genny’s scene for sure. Maybe the next one will be Hitomi’s. I like the idea of giving the others a chance to shine. I think I’ll do that.

Couple of personal notes. Yesterday was my birthday. I’m now 48 years old. That seems like a good age to be. Has a lot of factors including some of my favorites like 4, 8, and 16.

Second, one of the reasons this entire series slowed down is because I started taking Wegovy back in January and in February, around when this campaign should have been taking off, the dosage increased enough that Saturdays and Sundays tend to be washed out. I was working a full-time job and having to do a lot of weekend errands in the middle of the week to make up for the loss of the weekends, and it just got tricky to ever have as much mental energy as I wanted.

I am still exhausted as I play this on a Saturday but it was nice pushing through even if it was around a scene shorter than it might have been otherwise.

Onward and upwards.

CREDITS

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 Rambler: Photo by Luke Witter on Unsplash. When I first was thinking of what to do with this image I had contemplated creating some collage art to represent the Rambler floating in the air. However, as soon as I saw Luke Witter’s photo of the John Hancock Skyscraper it struck me as just perfect on its own. It leaves me with a bit of a gap for next episode since it won’t be as easy to match up other photos to it, but push comes to shove I’ll just re-use Witter’s awesome photo.

For the destruction around the Rambler I wanted to avoid using any real life footage of disasters so I snagged this render. For reasons.

The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont, Episode 18 – Hacker Girl Meets Mantis Girl

By Doug Bolden

On May 29, 2025

In Actual Play, Gamemaster Apprentice Deck, Outgunned, Solo Campaigns, The Glow

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“Previously…” and Campaign/Arc Summary
The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont Episode 18 — Hacker Girl Meets Mantis Girl

Doug’s Commentary
Credits

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Previously, on The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont

After two brutal fights, the team has managed to — at least briefly — secure the out perimeter of the Patel “villa.” Now they need to get through the vault doors and deal with the interior troops and rescue three people inside.

About The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont

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 18 — Hacker Girl Meets Mantis Girl

Expected Scene: The team has to get through the doors while Eustace “reprograms” the relic that guards that lawn.

Scene Test: [c118] 6. 2d10 = 7 + 10. Major Change.

[c118] says “A Critical Injury” is inflicted. { Eustace | Hitomi | Genny | Jones | Varvara } → Jones. I don’t think we really need more details for the moment besides something goes wrong as Jones is trying to land. We’ll allow him a chance to save vs Impossible. I mean, he might make it. The initial “injury” will be the Green Lady itelf.

Actual Scene: The Green Lady’s shaky part that was field fixed will break at the worst possible time.

Setting the Scene, e18s1: Icarus.

Date: June 6, 1996.

Time: 11:17pm.

Place: Front lawn of Roman’s fake Villa.

DATE PLAYED: May 18, 2025.

Icarus

Date: June 6, 1996.

Time: 11:17pm.

Place: Front lawn of Roman’s fake Villa.

“Hold up, Jones, Eustace is doing something. No, I don’t know what…,” Genny says to his pilot friend as Jones hovers around 50 meters above the villa’s front lawn. Eustace has been chanting something other his breath and writing a series of symbols down.

Occurred to me after last time that when Eustace spent his Spotlight to cast Witchery, I did not encode it in game terms. I won’t make him roll again — he already lost a spotlight over it — but essentially he is rewriting the relic to only allow the people present.

Eustace turns around and nods to Genny. Hitomi is jacking her laptop into the door frame’s hidden controls. Any passers-by would see just a fancy, mildly-decorated mahogany door. In reality, it is about foot thick and made of metal. The windows showing opulent rooms are aether-enforced glass and much of the facade is a fake to hide the exterior. They might have an easier time punching through the wall in a random place.

Is the control mechanism for the villa ServiSynth based? (Even) → [c24] No. It’s a more traditional computer interface. Hitomi still gets +1 for her laptop but not her history with making friends with ServiSynths. We’ll set the difficulty to Extreme.

Crime (3) + Fix (3) + 1 with her Hacker feat gets her an Extreme + Basic. She’s able to start the door opening.

Hitomi is tapping away on her keyboard for a minute and then gives a positive shout. With a loud clunk, the heavy door starts sliding away, ruining the illusion as a whole chunk of wall starts sliding open slow. The sound of large, heavy gears can be heard turning inside. Genny brings his gun up and Vavara goes into a fighting stance, just in case they have company.

Eustace calls out a warning. Genny looks back to Jones and the Green Lady, about half way down, as the rotor shoots out bright sparks and flames and the Green Lady starts dropping. “JONES!,” Genny calls out.

Jones needs an Impossible and this is a Dangerous roll, here. If he fails, there’s a chance that Eustace can get him out but since Jones is the kind of guy to be strapped in, it will also be a very difficult roll.

Jones has Nerves (3) + Drive (3) and has Proven Driver/Pilot. He has three Adrenaline. He’ll spend two of those to bump up to 8. I will not give him help from the Green Lady since she is essentially dead in the air unless he succeeds.

BAM, and just like that, he makes it. He got five 5’s. He also got two 1s and so takes 2 Grit. He’s able to control it enough to land it away from others. I’ll give the poor man a Spotlight for that.

As Eustace is already expanding out his Soulburn wings, Jones does some complicated maneuver to pull the Green Lady back away from everyone the ground.

Is there enough room for him to land it without splashing down? (Even) → [c12] Yes.

The Green Lady slams hard right on the edge of the water and Jones lets out a groan. The seat absorbs some of the impact but he will be bruised in the morning. “Shit, Shit!” He jumps out and snags the fire extinguisher and starts trying to douse the flames. The rotor is ruined. He knows at a glance that it could take hours to do decent repairs if he was back at his shop. Out here, he might be able to do some risky field work but how long before it does that again, higher up with less flat space to land?

Using his Fix (3) + Focus (3) to just assess the damage, he gets a Critical.

Can the Green Lady be fixed at all in the current conditions? (Bad) → [c111] No.

Genny runs over and checks Jones out and then pulls off his own jacket to help beat back some flames. “Goddamnit, man. You scared the shit out of me.”

“Scared the shit out of you, welll…my apologies. She’s toast. I can probably get her fixed but not here. We should have waited for the proper parts. Damned junk part got stressed too hard with the flying we’ve been doing today!”

By this time, the front door is fully open and the interior hall is in view. There is no resistance yet, but Hitomi knows it can’t be long.

“We have to go, now!”

“Looks like we’re taking the boat out of here,” Genny says, patting Jones on the shoulder, “You just got promoted to assault team.”

“Fucking great!,” Jones says. Dreaming of happy days reading comics and not getting shot at.

A DOUG WALL BREAK: A Slight Delay and COMPRESSION Due to IRL Thingamabobs

May 22, 2025

Doug here. Just jumping in to note that there was an unexpected gap between Scene #1 and Scene #2 of a few days and then a longer than intended gap between Episode 17 and Episode 18. The long story short is that there is a lot of stuff going on in real life. Nothing horrible or the like, just a lot of tasks that require pretty much all my mind power. In fact, after a couple of days of moving quite literally tens of thousands of files into appropriate archives, it almost hurts my eyes to look at screens. Still, I’m going to play out the rest of this as best I can.

A very minor consequence is that we are going to essentially skip a scene of combat on the interior. We’ve done combat in this series. A lot. The only thing I am going to do is draw three cards. The first two will represent the “good guys” who are non-ironically good guys despite the cyberpunk trapping. The third will represent the bad guys. I will pick the highest of the first two and compare it to the third. This will establish how well the fight went. If it ends up going quite poorly, then I will work out some stats changes and the like in a fun but super quick way.

This means that basically “Scene 2” will be a quick “raw notes” type scene so we can get to Scene 3 pretty quickly which is the meeting with Amy Patel.

REMEMBER IN SOLO PLAY THE ONLY PERSON YOU HAVE TO PLEASE IS YOURSELF. As life compresses, you can squeeze stuff up to be tighter. As stuff relaxes, you can take more time. You are the boss.

Securing the Villa (Actual/Quick Play)

This scene is a compressed take on what was meant to be a third fight. In the original plans, it was to be a weak fight with maybe a slight twist of there being hostages. By this time we have had two fairly strong shake ups to the fights and have had the Green Lady taken out of commission. It’s been rough going.

To generally set this scene, the villa’s lavish exterior is much more office space inside. Things kept clean. Store rooms to move various goods that Roman Patel. One of which is the current prison of BrokenRecord and Bee. We know that Amy is being kept near the bar. We’ll find out more about that in the next scene.

To just give some structure to the fight, we will draw three cards. Cards A and B will be used to determine how well the team fought with the highest card being the overall result. Card C will be how well the guards fought. The team will win, but this is to figure out what sort of licks and kicks they took punching through. Then, the next scene it will be a bit more lore-structured but include elements of the fight in there.

Card A → [c45] 4. Card B → [c32] 6. Card C → [c93] 2.

With a 4 and a 6, the PCs did not necessarily excel, but the guards inside are definitely behind the quality of the exterior guards.

There will essentially be no losses for the PCs. I will give them each +2 Adrenaline for the now four encounters (including the crashing Green Lady).

DATE PLAYED: May 22, 2025

Expected Scene: The team finds Amy Patel at the villa’s bar and try to convince her to join in.

Scene Test: [c54] 6. 2d10 = 8 + 7. Another major twist. “A harsh alarm klaxon…” “Your accounts are compromised…” “Hunters are hunted…” Someone has betrayed them. It could be Juan if he is trying to get into good graces. Myranda is a possibility as well. Let’s try it like this: {Juan | Myranda | Someone else} → someone else. Got it. Some of the field psychics that do not like being out-shone. Remember, Eustace had a 91% chance of “rebellion”. Maybe what the field psychics were detecting where them actually rebelling against Eustace.

Actual Scene: A trio of Field Psychics along with some armed folks are waiting inside, trying to take down Eustace.

Setting the Scene, e18s3: Outfoxed.

Date: June 6, 1996.

Time: 11:40pm.

Place: The “bar” of Roman’s fake Villa.

This is likely going to be the second hardest fight in the entire campaign arc. These guys need to be “boss” level. A case where someone else besides Eustace has super powers.

Before we come up with actual stats for them, let’s find out a couple of details.

First, is Roger Patel here? (Even) → [c77] No? He’s not here right now but he’s en route. Second, is Roger’s loyalty to his sister? (Good) → [c68] Yes. We’ll say that Roman is very aware that some rogue psychics are at the villa and has let it slip to Roger who is trying to get to Amy and protect her rather than let her be bait.

Third, we know that Amy was trying to stop her family in some way, and it makes sense that she is trying to stop the Second Impact. How well will she react to her “saviors” (considering she’s the type to try and use her allies so even if she agrees with someone she might not be a “good friend” type) → [c34] 5. Pretty much exactly neutral. They will have to prove themselves to her.

I have long forgotten how many “Plan B” type elements I have used but there’s a big one here: the Witches Three. If things go south the Witches will intervene because they are at least temporarily considering Eustace to be the lynchpin for some new future that does not have the Yuggothians take control of the Earth.

Now, let’s look at some stats. Boss Template 3. Extreme Attack. Critical Defense. 12 Grit. Hot boxes on 3, 6, and 9. They have 5 feat points. 3 will be spent on “Evil Genius” (from “With Great Powers”): Heroes suffer -1 to all rolls to find the Enemy Weak Spot. When a Hero uses any Feat that requires them to spend some Adrenaline, they must flip a coin. If the result is Head, the Enemy can predict their move. The Hero loses the action and the Adrenaline used. Additionally, the Enemy begins combat with 1 Adrenaline. That should be pretty fitting for a psychic. They also have “Armored”: Heroes suffer -1 to rolls made to hit the Enemy. In both cases, these are related to their psychic powers.

Special Actions will include (1) Help Me Please (1ADR) [During an Action Turn, the Enemy threatens the life of an innocent bystander. A Hero must give up their Action Roll to save the victim. If nobody does, all Heroes bear this weight on their conscience and lose 3 Grit.] with Amy/BR/Bee being the obvious choices. (2) Double (2ADR) [The Enemy creates a multitude of clones or illusory copies. From now on, whenever a Hero lands a blow, they must flip a coin. Heads: The Hero only hit a copy. The Enemy loses no Grit. Tails: The Hero hit the original. The Enemy loses Grit as normal. Heroes can try to locate the original Enemy by making a roll or using a Feat, as they would to locate a Weak Spot.] (3) Chaos (2ADR) [The Enemies scatter around, break everything in sight, and cause a racket, or they set off an alarm, or start a small fire. From now on, the Heroes are dazed in the chaos and can no longer spend Adrenaline to gain +1 to their rolls.] Again, this latter one will take on a bit of a “psychic” flavor.

I said there are guards with guns when I started typing but frankly, I think this trio will be enough.

Also, really quickly: have any of the guards had compatible ammo to Genny? (Good) → [c84] Yes. Ok, good. He’ll fill up his ammo since there won’t be any time to do any shopping at this point.

DATE PLAYED: May 26, 2025

A bar with bits of kitsch in the background.

Outfoxed

Date: June 6, 1996.

Time: 11:40pm.

Place: The “bar” of Roman’s fake Villa.

SCENE SOUNDTRACK: Dance with the Dead’s Driven to Madness.

Genny pulls the body of the guard from where it’s slumped over a small table. The vase that had occupied the table now smashed unto the floor. Cheap? Expensive? Genny has no idea. Weird he almost regrets it more than shooting the guy whose body he is now tossing to the floor on top of the shattered glass. Rifling through the ammo belt he finds some clips that will work. “Waste not, want not,” he says, mostly to himself. The others — despite instructions — have gone on ahead. Once they breached the vault door and got into the main structure, they found what is largely a replica of a Japanese-owned style business. Much like with Magnus’s church/shrine housing a bunch of cubicles, the members of this cabal drop all pretense as soon as it is time to hit a budget line.

At the end of the corridor, a half dozen meters from Genny, Hitomi is shoving open the third door and as soon as the cigarette smoke comes out she knows she has hit pay dirt. God, a smoke sounds good right now but it feels wrong to stop moving to light up. She looks back at the others who are holding tight in formation behind her. Eustace is closest with Varvara flanking out. Jones behind Eustace. Hitomi briefly tries to recall what color Eustace’s eyes were before they were replaced with the swirls of Soulburn. He’s lost another few kilos since she first clocked that his body is burning itself out to stay alive.

Enough moping. Time is quite literally running out and so with a nod she pushes the door open and enters with her gun drawn and scoping the place. After the sterile office space the rest of the interior embraces, she was half-expecting the so-called bar to be a set of vending machines. Instead, it fits up to its name. A rainbow of browns, cigarette smoke, and a sense of age. A mishmash of themes. The bar itself is fairly upscale American with a months-long supply of liquor. The back is much more rustic and Euro. Enough tables to sit a small army. Which brings home what this villa is most likely really for: a place to avoid the consequences of ones own actions.

“Who the fuck are you people?,” a bitchy, feminine voice asks from the corner of the bar proper. Hitomi has been plugged into the scene long enough to recognize Amy Patel at a glance. Even in casual-wear, Hitomi can see why the rumors are that Amy is only a few years from running the Patel empire on her own. Or, at least, was. Amy takes a long drag off her cigarette while staring down Hitomi in turn. “At least your cute. You want to sit by me while they fight it out?”

“While who fights it out?,” Eustace asks from behind Hitomi and Hitomi gives a little jump. His voice has a tendency to shift into some strange low key like the rumbling of an earthquake. Like whatever thing the-man-named-Eustace is piloting is starting to speak from the voice box of reality itself.

To answer Eustace’s question, three shapes merge from shadows that do not exist. People who were clearly standing there the whole time just outside of sight. Three people wearing fox masks and standing like they have not a care in the world.

“Ah, fuck shit,” Genny says entering into the room just in time to see the psychics drop their obfuscation. “Hey, Eu, these yours?”

“No, I do not think so,” Eustace replies. Which makes the psychic in the lead chuckle. Hitomi catches a whiff of anger coming off the other two. Speaking of earthquakes, this is full on earthquake weather. Something bad is about to happen. And she says this as a person that watched the man she loved die just a day or so ago.

To avoid the “Psychic One” and “The Other One” type language, let’s generate three very quick “backstories.”

First one, [c63] Nephele is one of the names given and that works. “Assets frozen by the corps,” “Fancy hat,” and “Be acknowledged” are all text snippets on that card. There’s a picture of a mini-gun. Nephele (female). Essentially a hitwoman for the Order. However, has crossed too many lines has been demoted. Wants her due and to live a life of luxury.

Second one, [c120] “Unthinkable realities” so let’s go with Unknown as a codename. Male. “Rows upon rows of sigils and glyphs.” Unknown is heavily sigil’d and the “magic-user” of the group. “Fulfill a superstition.” Unknown thinks it is his destiny to grow in power and cares little for material worth. Practically silent as he kills and murders his way to the top.

Third one, [c61] Picture of a mimic and Mimic works as a code name. Another male. Lockpicks suggest he is good at getting into places he is not supposed to be. “Keys” as a belonging. “Mugged for loose change.” “Restore an heirloom.” Mimic comes from money but his family has lost a good bit. He thinks he deserves to be rich again and has gotten used to power to abuse it against others.

Old wooden pub tables with a spiral staircase up in the back.

The one who was in laughing steps forward and she is all about cocky violence. Her laugh is a machine gun. A tool she has used to threaten others. Hitomi thinks back to that first fight where she saw Eustace slaughter a trio of other people who are cocky but by comparison this group represents enough power to destroy a small city. Field Psychics following orders can break the brain of a dozen people from a distance. What might three psychics who are acting on their own accomplish.

“No, we are not his, this so called Witch-King. We are very much our own people.”

“Why are you doing this?,” Eustace asks.

We have a passing reason but I’ll give Eustace a chance to actually convince them to talk. If he fails, their reasoning will be left a bit unsaid.

Smooth (2) + Speech (3) with no penalties. Needs a Critical. Has Silver Tongue. Gets a Critical.

“Why,” asks the guy to the leader’s left (meaning Hitomi’s right). His voice is cultured. Fancy. Like he studied abroad and still expects that fact to carry some weight. “Aren’t you king of the psychics?”

Leader laughs again, another threat pretending to be mirth. “I’ll make it easy for you, child-boy. Because you are getting in the way. Wrecking our shit. So we are going to wreck yours.”

Jones pieces it together. “Ah, bullies. Just found out that you are not going to the high school with all your previous victims and are about to be picked on yourself by the jocks. Got it.”

“I’m going to kill you, personally,” Leader says, pointing to Jones, “but tell me, what good does it do me to have all this power and be stuck in fucking Gulf Shores? I could be in Paris. Tokyo. No, right here tending to stupid little Southern Sheep like a good old shepherdess.”

“Holy shit,” Genny cuts in, “You think the GLOW spreading over the world is a good thing because you get travel benefits?”

Hitomi feels the anger grow and knows violence is eminent. As she is figuring out a path to get to Amy — who has been smoking and watching this whole exchange with a look of amusement bordering bemusement — Eustace sprouts his wings and goes for the one on Hitomi’s left. The quiet one. Genny — who has never had a chance to even put his gun down — takes aim at the Leader and Varvara is moving to cover the third. Jones is going for the bar. Hitomi squeezes off some shots as she tries to clear the distance towards Amy.

Eustace is going to try and get to Unknown before Unknown can start up the full brunt of psychic attacks. He will attempt to seperate Unknown from the others while fly-fighting.

I think Brawn (3) + Stunt (3) to latch on is a good starter. This will no damage but take no penalty. He gets 3xBasic = 1xCritical so he has latched on. No extra successes to go ahead and move Unknown out of the way.

Genny is going to empty his new clip he just got. That’s +1. His range is +1. He gets -1 for their Armored. None of his feats require Adrenaline so that doesn’t trigger anything. That’s Nerves (3) + Shoot (3) + 1. He has Marksman for a Free ReRoll. He ends up with just a Critical which does do one Grit.

Hitomi is going to be Nerves (2) + Shoot (3) – 1. She has Gunslinger but is only rolling 4 dice. She gets no successes (which is fair since she’s shooting wildly).

Varvara is diving for Mimic using her Flying Kick. She succeeds the coin flip. She has Brawn (3) + Fight (3) + 1 (kick) – 1. 6 dice with Martial Artist. She gets a Critical and does another Grit (10/12 remaining).

Jones is going to dive into Partial Cover and we’ll say he just makes it since he won’t be a main target after the others have joined in the fight.

Eustace impacts the quiet one and sends the other man flying back. Actually, check that, Hitomi realizes. The man is literally flying. Eustace has latched on with his talons and is holding the man up. That’s the last she gets to see as she aims in the general direction of the other two and takes shots at them.

Genny and Varvara both seem to have more success. As Genny opens fire up on the Leader, Varvara does a running jump kick at the third. Both land glancing blows and push the psychics back. Jones has gone behind the bar.

Amy is standing up and realizing she is probably in a bad spot. Hitomi has nearly cut the distance when she feels the Soulburn lash of the psychics’ counter attack slamming around the room.

Everyone is going to get lashed in much the same way. I’ll give jones his +1 for Reaction to avoid the psychic lashing. Amy will be “out of target” for the moment though it won’t necessarily be obvious.

Everyone will need to roll Brawn + Cool OR Crime + Cool to represent taking it by brunt force or by managing to dodge somewhat out of the way.

Eustace: Brawn (3) + Cool (2) = 2 Basic. Man. That’s 7 Grit. He has hit “You Look Nervous”.
Hitomi: Crime (3) + Cool (1) + 1 (Tormented). Critical. She takes 6 Grit. It’s rough out here.
Genny: Brawn (3) + Cool (3) = Critical + Basic. He takes 5 Grit and also gets “You Look Nervous”.
Varvara: Brawn (3) + Cool (2) = 1 Basic. 8 Grit. Another “Nervous”.
Jones: Brawn (2) + Cool (2) + 1 = 2 Basic. 7 Grit. You guessed it.

As the tendrils of psychic energy tear into the room, light fixtures and old wood explode into sparks and splinters. Hitomi hears the others cry out as no one is spared the painful wrath of three psychics working in tandem. She feels a mixture of physical pain mix with a lifetime of negative emotions slam together. And she is relatively clean. How is someone like Genny holding up? Someone who has pushed morality to its limits so often. She doesn’t glance back to see how he is doing but sends out what positive thoughts she can muster as she leaps over the counter and tries to drag Amy with her.

SCENE SOUNDTRACK CHANGE: Dance with the Dead’s Into the Abyss.

Crime (3) + Stunt (3) = Critical. She manages to get Amy.

Eutace is going into killer mode, flying Unknown back out of the space with any extra successes. Brawn (3) + Fight (3) + 1 (Claws) – 1 (Armored). He gets Extreme. Nice. Two of those will go into 2 Grit damage (8/12, +1 Adrenaline). What’s more, this separates the trio. Defense is still Critical but Unknown is now Critical while Nephele + Mimic = 2xCritical (it might not matter).

Genny is pissed. Another clip emptied. I’ll say dredging up his war crimes will net him +1. This puts him at 8 dice now. 2xCritical. Grit = 6/12. They are also up to 3 Adrenaline. That’s bad.

Varvara keeps fighting it out with Mimic. Critical + Basic. Grit = 5/12. She’ll use the Basic to kick a table up as a shield for the next round of attacks (+1).

Jones might be able to do much but Nerves (3-1) + Shoot (2) – 1 = 3. Oh, and the range is passed where he is. Hell, I guess he’ll go into full cover for now.

Hitomi snags Amy by the shoulder and pulls the other woman down with her as the two land hard behind the bar. Amy’s face — already shocked as the psychic assault began — goes from fear to anger to something like confusion as she realizes that Hitomi is protecting her. “You can stop flirting, you know, just ask me out. What kind of food you like?”

“Hush, you,” Hitomi says. Feeling a little bit chickenshit knowing that the others are still out there.

She misses seeing Eustace carrying off the quiet psychic like a bird of prey carrying a rabbit as he flies back out of the room and down the corridor towards the open vault doors.

She also misses Genny walking forward and pressing heavy bursts of gunfire into the Leader’s space as Varvara punches Snooty boy before kicking up a table to act as a shield in-between.

If Eustace uses Counter as a feat, he’ll have to coin flip. Hmm. Let’s try it. Heads, he gets it. He is now using Brawn + Fight (7 total while holding the other guy) and extra successes will be damage. Another Extreme. He dodges the damage and does something a bit showy. Unknown will be dead.

Back inside, the other two have put up a psychic whirlwind. This will stop the heroes from spending +1 to get bonuses to their rolls in general.

What’s more, they will do another around of attacks. Jones, Hitomi, and Amy are all fully covered.

Genny is putting himself into the brunt of fire. He gets Extreme and avoids further Grit.

Varvara gets +1 for kicking up the table so is up to 6 dice. Critical + Basic means she only takes 2 more Grit of damage. Which is a bit moot since this fills in her Hot Box and she gets +2 Adrenaline (without much to use for it).

Unknown, real name Nick Allent, is fighting perhaps his strangest opponent. Which makes sense. He has made a career out of picking on the weak, the undisciplined, and the powerless. A few hedge mages here or there have been a surprise but nothing like this. In his mind, Eustace “Witch-King” Delmont is barely a man. Instead, he is a giant crow with antlers. Talon’s cut into Nick’s body and he calls on his sigils to slice away the arms holding him tight. Only Delmont does something quick and Nick’s attack fails to land. “What is your issue, man, you could be be leading us all to glory. Now Nephele is going to kill your friends. Is that what you want?”

“Can you fly?,” the bird-demon asks in a voice like thunder and Nick is too stunned to respond for a second before realization kicks in. Eustace is flying in open sky and has just released Nick to fall. It doesn’t take a psychic to know the fall is about to be quite fatal.

Back in the room, Genny is marching towards Nephele — whom Hitomi has been calling “Leader” — and continuing to let out a stream of bullets. Even as the second round of psychic whips explode around the room — this time accompanied by a great Soulburn wind that is just crunching the furniture and glass bottles into shards and debris — Genny shrugs off the stings and Nephele realizes that she might have misjudged picking a fight with an actual soldier as opposed to wannabe gangsters.

For his assault, Mimic is only slightly pleased to see the young woman he’s fighting stagger back as he hits her in the face with a particularly potent lash. She’s still standing, but blood is pouring from her nose and her eyes look dazed. She’s maybe one hit from falling. Only, as he is ready to start gloating, Mimi — Andre Thomas — feels Unknown’s life forced snuffed as Nick is swallowed by fear. And now he is returning. Only he is not alone. They are nearby. Nephele has just convinced Nick and himself to commit suicide.

2 additional Grit were lost so that puts them at 3/12. They also have another +1 Adrenaline (2 total).

Eustace is a full turn out so won’t be rolling for now.

Genny will once again empty a clip [his third] and will get another 8 dice to roll since he is still trying to keep his friends alive. Extreme + Critical. That takes out the last 3. Holy hell. Look at him go.

Andre barely gets the thought out when he hears Nephele shout out and collapse. He doesn’t even try and turn to see the bullets that tear through his own chest a few seconds later. In some ways, he is glad. Had the Witches Three arrived while he was still alive, it would have been a lot worse.

Genny gets to Varvara as she starts to fall back and grabs her. “Stay with me, Clean. I got you.”

Behind the bar, glass and splinters have peppered Hitomi’s back as she continues to brace over Amy. As the noise dies down, Amy pushes Hitomi back gently and pulls out a pack of smokes. “You never answered my question.”

Hitomi reaches over and snags the lit cigarette from Amy for herself. “About going on a date?”

“That too, but who the fuck are you people?”

Before Hitomi can answer, Eustace lands on the bar and perches like a crow looking down. Even facing him head on, Hitomi is distressed to see she is starting to see the other-Eustace like a fuzzy overlay. He is very nearly gone.

“Ms. Patel, I am here to help you stop your father.”

DOUG’S COMMENTARY

I had a back-up for this scene where if more than one hero got dropped then the Witches Three were going to show up and lash out at reality. It’s still on the docks as a Plan B since I think we’ve only used one so far.

Considering this episode got split into thirds due to me wrapping up work and dealing with all the stress and energy-drain of that, I think it went mostly ok. Not my best writing but that fight (essentially a mini-boss fight) was a lot of fun because before it turned around, it was looking pretty bad. We’ll pick up next time (hopefully in just a couple of days and not a week and a half) with the Time Out related to re-equipping from scraps and getting Bee, BrokenRecord, and the Mantis.

I’d guess roughly two episodes remain at this part. Maybe three, depending on if the Three get called. Then maybe a coda.

Including the Dean Spencer art I used in The GLOW’s prologue [which was used in Arcane Agents and the kick off of using Dean Spencer art, kind of…] and The “newspaper clipping” of Amy Patel from Chapter 10 of Eustace & Hitomi, this makes the third not-really-the-same character image for Amy. That has to be a record. Hitomi and Eustace did not get images in the OG run of the series that bears their names and their Alabama Weird versions are somewhat different. Alabama Weird Eustace is basically me in my mid-20s: fat, bearded, curly haired. Alabama Weird Hitomi is a young woman with long hair and a bit too thin even for her American-Japanese frame. Both are hotter and fitter here. Well, at least Eustace was. Hitomi still is.

Still, a strange paradox of both of these series is that Amy Patel is practically the third character and in both cases she sort of shows fairly late to the story. At least in this case, she is actually kidnapped and not just pretending to be kidnapped to try and force an investigation into her father. Also, that Amy was basically a business + liberal arts grad into queer rights and charities masking it a bit by being a bitch. This Amy is the kind of bitch that has most likely killed people, even if those people are a bit on the bad side of morality.

Originally, I figured they would rescue Amy around Episode 4 or Episode 5. And I was going to call it “Mantis Boy Meets Mantis Girl” in reference to Eustace’s arm blades. Now he has triple blades on each arm that come out more like crow feet so I tweaked it a bit.

CREDITS

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

Amy Patel: Photo by Maksim Istomin on Unsplash.

Patel Bar 1: Photo by Giovanny Ayala on Unsplash.

Patel Bar 2: Photo by Nicolas Hoizey on Unsplash.

The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont, Episode 17 – Storming the Villain’s Villa

By Doug Bolden

On May 19, 2025

In Actual Play, Gamemaster Apprentice Deck, Outgunned, Solo Campaigns, The Glow

A canal running down between nice houses.

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“Previously…” and Campaign/Arc Summary
The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont Episode 17 — Storming the Villain’s Villa

Smoke on the Water

Doug’s Commentary
Credits

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Previously, on The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont

The team has gotten equipped and are preparing to storm Roman Patel’s “Villa” which is actually a safe-house pretending to be a quaint, million-dollar house. Hitomi has also realized that Eustace has only a bit over a day left alive. With that, they are now in the midst of their one last ride.

About The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont

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 17 — Storming the Villain’s Villa

Expected Scene: The team (sans Jones) ride the ex-MUNI boat and take out the guards along the perimeter.

Scene Test: [c97] 7. 2d10 = 3 + 8. Minor alteration. “Hit by a stray shot”. Is the shot directed towards the player characters? (Even) → [c70] No.

Ok, there are some options: {Thom Marius | The Apostates } = Thom Marius.

Actual Scene: Right as the team shows up, they find the outer guards tussling with Thom Marius’s goons.

Setting the Scene, e17s1: Smoke on the Water.

Date: June 6, 1996.

Time: 10:41pm.

Place: The canals of New Pensacola Beach.

First off, why is Thom Marius attacking now? Scene 2 of Episode 2 established that it was a potential that Marius would act but sense then the two “rival gangs” — Marius’s people and The Apostates that took over Dave’s turf — have been ignored. Let’s get three cards and make something of them… [c16] Lose [c14] Holy [c08] Council. Patel was keeping Marius at bay due to {Dave | Magnus} → Dave’s fake church business. At least one of the “real” jobs for the Church of Holy Illumination was to help Marius traffic in some sort of illict goods. What kind? [c17] has an icon of clockwork and an icon of a combination lock. The “belongings” portion of the card mentions expensive meds. The Church was helping crack containers of medical supplies for Marius to get out on the street as narcotics. Once the Apostates turned against Dave [for reasons never explored], this cut off a major revenue stream for Thom. Roman would not have considered it his business so now Thom is going after Roman Patel’s most favored possession: Amy Patel.

Now we’ll roll 2d10. First one for Patel. Second one for Marius. To see how the teams are faring. Less than Δ3 will be evenly enough split that this could be treated as a distraction. Greater than Δ3 and one team is winning fast enough that whichever team it is will be the new fight, though weakened. A Δ6 or greater means it was so one-sided that the winning team is in full force (essentially). Patel = 7. Marius = 10. Marius is winning but not so much so they will be at full force.

Does the Marius group have boats? (Even) → [c60] No? Ok, so they have boats but not at the spot. They could get boats but that wasn’t their plan. {Foot | Flight} → Flight. They are hovering over in helicopters. Making a spectacle. Which means the stealth suit in the villa grounds will get a teaser. It doesn’t make sense for it have surface to air missiles, but it fits the genre pretty well.

For the Marius invaders, we’ll use “Villain’s Private Army” since that seems fun. 12 Hit Boxes. Hot Boxes on 3, 6, and 9. 2xCritical Attack. Critical Defense. Bulletproof Vests and Piercing Bullets. A small stash of special actions. However, to represent the wear down effect, we’ll take away 4 boxes [and one hotbox]. They have 8 remaining [starting on box 5]. Also, they will lose a feat: {Vests | Bullets} → Vests. This means they still have bullets but their armor has been worn down by the fight. The sucky thing is this negates the bulletproof vests and the armor of the boat. Full cover is still a possibility, though.

SOUNDTRACK: Karl Casey’s White Bat 45.

DATE PLAYED: May 15, 2025.

Smoke on the Water

Date: June 6, 1996.

Time: 10:41pm.

Place: The canals of New Pensacola Beach.

The sound of helicopter blades and gunfire is obvious some distance from their location.

“Hey, Jones,” Genny says into the headset, signalling the pilot flying some distance overhead, “We have a situation.”

“One second,” Jones voice comes back over the radio.

Focus (3) + Awareness (3) → Critical + Basic.

He can both get some details of the fight and (for now) stay out of sight himself.

“Looks like three ‘coptors tussling with the boys on the boats. Considering the bodies floating around the boats and one boat being on flame, I think the ‘copters are winning. I’m holding a bit further back.”

Genny throttles down the boat and faces back. “We have bonus company. No clue what that’s about but it seems like they are hitting the same place we were planning to hit.”

Eustace will use his psychic powers. Same stats as Jones. 3 + 3. He technically can get a free re-roll since this would touch base on sensing danger but that feat has done nothing for him this whole dang time so let’s see. A Crit + Basic. Rerolling the last die and get nothing so it becomes a Crit. That’s fine. He can sense that it’s Marius. I’ll even throw in for free sensing their intentions. They already have a reason to go inside — getting Bee/BR — so this is just rule-of-cool, basically.

Genny sees Eustace’s eyes glow a strange magenta hue. “Thom Marius’s goons. Looks like they are pissed about something and have found out about Amy. They are showing up for a good old fashioned kidnap.”

“Didn’t anyone tell them that’s our job?,” Genny asks.

“We can’t bail, they’ll get to Bee,” Hitomi says, the edge of worry starting to crack her voice. With Eustace’s death and the constant forward momentum, she kind of just convinced herself that Bee was safe and just slightly out of reach. However, she now feels like time is running out for multiple people she loves. Mrs. Yuuki is in the hospital. Bee is captured. Eustace is…

“Wasn’t planning, In fact, this might work in our favor if we play it right. They are making enough noise we can get closer. Though someone is likely to call MUNI.”

“I have someone on the inside helping to run interference, but it’s not going to hold up long,” Eustace says.

“Man, why is everything out of your mouth just absolutely terrifying today, man?,” Gennya asks, and starts piloting the boat closer.

As they are pulling out of the main canal into what can only be described as the villa’s moat — think less castle moat full of gator and a half-dozen meters wide and full of boats and dying people — one of the three helicopters is starting to land in the front lawn of the villa. Only, from seemingly nowhere, a flash explodes upwhere from near the front door — in actuality a heavy metal vault door looking innocent from the outside — and strikes the helicopter. In a large flash, the helicopter explodes and flaming wreckage pours down onto the heavily landscaped grass. MUNI can’t ignore this much longer.

“And then there were two,” Genny says.

“I’ll take that one,” Eustace says, pointing to the helicopter that just pulled back further from the explosion. The other one, though, has clearly spotted the boat. When they were dealing with Patel — who has a good deal of MUNI on his payroll — the ex-MUNI boat was a boon. Now, Marius’s thugs are going to see it as an immediate threat. There are only a few seconds before they come under fire and based on the wreckage of the other boats in the moat, they are packing serious heat. Eustace gestures to Varvara, “Favor some up and person close combat?”

The street monk, hopped up on Righteous Anger™, nods. Eustace grabs her hand and pulls her up. A few seconds later he has sprouted his Soulburn wings and is flying Varvara and himself straight at the more distant helicopter. Genny pulls out his assault rifle and takes aim. Hitomi feels a bit left out with just her pistol so jumps behind the wheel and tries to out maneuver the gunners flying overhead.

Just to play out a whole round of combat at a go…

Eustace and Varvara are going to be using physical attacks after landing. I’ll make him spend his turn to maneuver. Varvara can get an attack. Then both react.

Hitomi is going to be driving with success giving +Help to Genny and herself to dodge and for Genny to shoot. It might be a foolish plan but it’s something.

Eustace’s flight will be Brawn (3) + Stunt (2). He gets Double Basic. That’s not enough to actuall land inside himself but it’s enough to get Varvara within range since she has Flying Kick. This sets her up for Brawn (3) + Fight (3) + 1 (Kick). With her free re-roll she ends up with Critical + 2xBasic. That does 1 Grit (5/12) and gives her the ability to maneuver into the cockpit. We’ll say Eustace has +1 Help next time to land.

Hitomi tries to pilot the boat. She has Nerves (2) + Drive (3). She makes it with Critical + Basic. I’ll say that’s worth +1 Help to dodge and +1 Help for Genny to shoot.

Genny takes aim. Medium range so he gets +1. He gets another +1 from Hitomi. Then he’ll empty a clip for +1. Combined with Nerves (3) + Shoot (3) he has 9 dice. Genny “The Killer of Helicopters” Yusuda gets Impossible + Critical. Since their defense is Critical that is 9 + 1 = 10 hits. More than enough to finish the remaining 7 Grit.

Let’s leave this up to an oracle. Does the third helicopter collide with the second? (Bad) → [c103] No. Instead it will just flee (all the while thinking this is Patel’s MUNI people). With Varvara inside.

Eustace flies up and right as he is about to grab hold of the door of the helicopter falling back, the pilot is alert and starts banking away. Eustace swings Varvara up and she twists in the air to land inside with a rolling kick that knocks one of the gunners out the open door on the other side. The luckless gunner plummets down and lands with a crunch on the ground. The pilot is sweeping the helicopter around to try strike Eustace with the blades. Varvara leaps into the co-pilot seat and starts striking the pilot. She’s not landing any major hits but she’s disrupting his ability to handle fine maneuverability.

Down, below, Hitomi steers the boat towards the lower helicopter — currently aiming right for them and getting ready to unleash some heavy gunfire — and then guns it so the boat shoots under the helicopter’s belly. Before the gunners can adjust to the moving target, Genny stands up and empties a clip into the fuel tank and another of the three helicopters bursts into flames.

Seeing this, the final one has decided that they are outmatched and peels back and starts heading north.

Varvara is going to have to do a leap and trust Eustace to catch her.

Varvara Brawn (3) + Stunt (3). Ooo, she only gets a 2xBasic.

Eustace is going to need to fly into the helicopter and get her. Upgrades it from Critical to Extreme. He’s going to spend 2 adrenaline to bump up his Brawn (3) + Stunt (2) to 7 dice. That seems lucky. Good, he gets Extreme + Basic. He’s not going to really mess with the helicopter — Marius spreading a false rumor that Patel is too strong stops them from trying again — but he will be able to get Varvara out.

It seems mean to give her a condition for her failure but I’ll take off 1 Grit.

Varvara, seeing that she is currently on a helicopter moving away from her destination — and her team — tries to make a mad dash to leap out of the side where she hopes Eustace might able to catch her. Unfortunately, right as she is tensing her legs and getting ready to jump, the other gunner in the bay grabs her bulletproof vest and snatches her back and slams her down into the floor. As she is struggling to get her arms up and back into a fighting stance, a multi-colored light plows into the bay with her. Eustace has flown through the helicopter, slamming the second gunner back, and snatched her up.

As she looks down she is being carried back to the boat, below.

All four back together again, Genny radios Jones and tells him to hold tight while they find out what exploded the first ‘copter. Jones takes absolutely no convincing.

Expected Scene: The team have to fight a tanky, aether-cloaked fighter guarding the front.

Scene Test: [c98] 6. 2d10 = 9 + 7. A major complication. Neat. On the card we get a sticky boot icon and the text of an ancient artifact. Some sort of magical protection that causes invaders to become stuck. A second card ([c49]) says “Caught Red Handed.” A third ([c61]) says “Silence. Heroic. Scum.”

Actual Scene: As the group tries to set foot on the island, a aether-artifact of some power holds them fast while knock out gas starts seeping up like fog.

Setting the Scene, e17s2: The Sneaky Bastards.

Date: June 6, 1996.

Time: 10:52pm.

Place: Front lawn of Roman’s fake Villa.

We’ll make this pretty extreme. Like, literally. Resisting the “sticky foot” effect will be EXTREME difficulty. Knock out gas will be Critical but that will be every turn they are stuck in place. All the while, the mech-pilot will be honing in. Attack 2xCritical (the last “Critical” is the knock out gas). Defense: Extreme (while cloaking is active, Critical without it). Three hit boxes. We’ll ignore special actions but the suit has Titan so can only take one hit per time.

Basically, we start with a Reaction turn. failure to get at least one Critical means the character is knocked out. Characters can choose to “unstick” themselves but need an Extreme to succeed. Eustace is “immune” because of his flight. The rest are not. Jones can’t get close because of the missiles. That seems nice and hard.

SCENE SOUNDTRACK: We’ll keep the Karl Casey train going with White Bat 47.

DATE PLAYED: May 15, 2025.

The entrance to a villa hidden by trees and a wall, somewhat.

The Sneaky Bastards

Date: June 6, 1996.

Time: 10:52pm.

Place: Front lawn of Roman’s fake Villa.

Genny is first off the boat and is shouting commands as he starts to run across the lawn but lets out a shout as his feet stick hard to the grass and his entire body slams hard into the ground. As he pushes himself up, he finds his shoulder is now also stuck, as well as his hands. “What the fuck is this?”

I’ll do a quick Focus + Dexterity check to see if the others who are behind Genny notice in time to pivot.

Hitomi: Focus (2) + Dex (3) = no successes. She is stuck.

Varvara: Focus (2) + Dex (2) = Basic. She is also stuck but we’ll say she keeps her hands and upper body out of the “muck”.

As said, Eustace is going to be flying and not subject. However, can he finally sense the stealthed Mech before it is too late. It will take an EXTREME (I just like saying it like that).

Focus (3) + Awareness (3) = Impossible. So yes, he well spots it. We’ll give him a +2 for the extra extremes since the Mech pilot is not aware. Eustace gets to attack first. Then Reaction for everyone, then checks.

Eustace will be getting Brawn (3) + Fight (3) + 1 (Blades) + 2 (Extra successes) = 9 dice. Even with a reroll he just gets it to an Extreme. He chips away one Grit (which is the max) but doesn’t bank any additional anything.

It is too late for Hitomi and Varvara — both rushing to aid Genny — to realize what is happening as both women end up caught in the same trap. Hitomi goes down as hard as Genny and ends up fully affixed as well. Varvara pivots better with the fall and only her feet are caught while her hands stay up.

Eustace flies past them and slams into something standing closer to the door. Varvara is the only with a vantage point and while she can hear the loud metallic thud as Eustace pivots in air and starts flying up, she still can’t see what it was that he it. It was like he collided hard with air.

Since it is a single enemy, we’ll say it has to either fire at the three people stuck to the ground or at Eustace and we’ll let chance decide. {Eustace | Others} → Eustace. The others still have to make the Critical roll to not be knocked out.

Eustace gets Brawn (3) + Stunt (2) → Critical and takes 3 Grit.

The other three will need Brawn + Endure. Genny has 3+2=5. Scores a Critical + Basic. Hitomi has 2+2+1 (from her Tormented by the Past Feat). No successes so loses consciousness. Since Varvara has a hand free, we’ll say she can clamp her hand over her mouth and gets 3+2+1. She gets 2xCritical. Is she close enough to Hitomi to reach her? (Even) → [c114] No. So Hitomi is out and Varvara and Genny are both awake.

As Varvara watches and tries to make out their unknown attacker, a light blue gas starts seeping up through the ground. Genny, combat-trained, immediately starts fighting back and resisting and shouting that the others need to hold their breath. Vavara clamps her hand over her mouth but Hitomi does not get a chance to react as her body goes limp.

“Genny, Hitomi’s down!,” Varvara shouts. Genny curses and starts trying to push his body up.

Genny is trying to get up. Brawn (3) + Fight (2) → No successes. He’s still stuck.

Varvara is trying to get her legs free. Brawn (3) + Fight (3) + 1 (being upright) → 3xBasic = Critical. Still not enough to get up. She will shift close enough to reach Hitomi next turn.

Eustace is going to dive bomb the mech. He’ll spend his last adrenaline to get +2. This brings him up to 9 dice (again). This time he gets 2xExtreme. He’s going to use the extra to snatch up Hitomi. The mech has one grit remaining.

This time it aims for {Eustace + Hitomi | Genny + Varvara} → Genny + Varvara.

Genny can’t really move so this is going to be Brawn + Endure + 1 (Bulletproof Vest). Varvara can move…enough. Brawn + Stunt + 1 (Bulletproof Vest).

Genny only gets 2xBasic so takes 4 Grit. Wait, Varvara gets an Extreme and can block 1 Extreme worth of damage from Genny…no, instead, she’ll put that Extreme to getting free and charging the space where the gunfire was. Sorry, Genny.

Varvara can hear a whirring sound as the unseen attacker’s gun starts prepping to fire. At that time, the multi-colored form of Eustace — attacking like a bird of prey hunting a rabbit — flies down and again a loud clang as he impacts something large and metal and bounces off. This time, instead of flying up, Eustace bee-lines for the prone body of Hitomi and with an elegant spiral manages to grab her and pull her free from the ground and takes back off towards the boat with her.

Denied the flying guy, the invisible foe takes it out on Genny and Varvara. The old soldier can’t do much and shouts in pain as the bullets tear into his patch. Varvara manages to weave back and forth despite her stuck legs and avoids the brunt of it. Her momentum helps her to get her one leg up and then her other. She briefly does a mental coin flip between stopping to get Genny or going for the attacker. She goes for the attacker. The prolonged burst of fire against Genny helps her to pinpoint the thing and start running towards it. If it moves, it might all be for naught but she will strike as soon as she feels like she is in range.

Eustace is out for this round as he gets Hitomi to a safe location. Varvara is now up and moving so will get first strike. Another flying kick will close the distance and give her + 1. That’s Brawn (3) + Fight (3) + 1. Unfortunately she fails to land a blow.

Genny still doesn’t get back up. Let’s do another test to see if they can stay awake from the gas. Varvara, yes. Genny gets 2xBasic and is still conscious but nearly out of it.

Screw it, then, let’s find out if they get shot up. Genny is no longer a target so it’s just Varvara. Critical + 2xBasic. She takes another Grit of damage.

Varvara closes the distance and leaps up in a kick, which is knocked aside. She had the general approach but the thing is firing from its left side, not its right, and so she misjudges. Rolling with the rest of her momentum, she sees another wave of that strange light blue gas come up. Again she’s able to scoot back and get her breathing under control but she sees Genny sag. Before she can even contemplate trying to help him, she hears a click nearby and realizes it is pointing at her. She starts doing back flips to get out of the way but it’s very hard to dodge bullets you cannot see.

Eustace is out of adrenaline so will use his spotlight at the end of the action turn to finish off the mech.

Let’s ask the oracle: is Varvara able to see the mech at this point? (Even) → [c20] Yes? Her kick left a smear on it from the damp grass. She is able to focus on that and attack.

She’s also out of adrenaline and so runs up and just tries kicking hard in that space. +1 Help from being able to spot something to know where it is.

Hey! An Extreme. That takes out the last point of Grit it has.

Glancing back just briefly, she sees Eustace flying fast towards them. Still, she has a moment to get her revenge for her miss. Focusing on the air in front of her, she sees the strange sight of a grass stain hovering in mid-air. That would be the thing’s side. Doing some quick head math she figures out where the “head” might be and does a double sort of hop and then kicks hard and fast straight up. She hears glass shatter as suddenly the invisible foe’s camoflage turns off and she is standing in front of a mechanized body suit around three meters high. She has caved in the large glass shield that allows the pilot to see through the stealth. As she is roughly face to face with the guard inside, and as he is bringing the now quite visible gun arm down to aim at her, Eustace gets there. The entire mech suit is slammed back into the wall and the claw like blades on Eustace’s arms are out as he pulls the pilot out and demands to know where Amy Patel and the others are.

Since this is intimidation, Brawn (3) + Speech (3) with Eustace’s Silvertongue feat. 3xBasic = 1xCrit so Eustace gets through and the guard starts shouting out the location inside.

To break the field, he needs adrenaline. He’ll use his spotlight to get an automatic success and to take control of the aether-relic enchanting the area. He does not win the coinflip and get it back.

As the guard starts shouting about the storeroom behind the bar, Eustace picks him up and tosses the man into the wall. The guard collapses in a stunned heap.

Eustace looks around at the ground and breathes slowly. Even to Varvara’s eyes, the Soulburn starts intensifying around him. Reaching forward, he scratches a complex symbol in the grass and suddenly the strange effect that has been pulling her down the whole time let’s go. She feels several pounds lighter. She runs over and pulls Genny up, easily, and starts rousing him.

While Eustace is going to wake up Hitomi, Genny radios to Jones that it should now be safe to land the Green Lady.

DOUG’S COMMENTARY

That’s two fight scenes a bit more hectic and tougher than expected, even if Genny trivialized the one. I think it’s a good stopping spot and we’ll pick up next time with Hitomi trying to get access through the doors and the last fight inside.

I personally think I do better when I am playing this game in this style. Not quite Rules As Written and finding ways to play at the rules. That felt like the kind of fight I like. Similar to the case where Hitomi was having to buy Eustace time to cut through the wall and they were fighting the stealth soldiers. Might not be tournament legal but it has a lot of chances for narrative.

Eustace and Varvara are both pretty drained and even with the “free adrenaline” I am about to give them, the next fight will likely rely more on the other two. We’ll see.

CREDITS

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

New Pensacola Beach Canals = Photo by Hyukjoon Sohn on Unsplash.

Patel Villa = Photo by Owen Roth on Unsplash.

The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont, Special Intermission – The New Outgunned Book Is Now on Backerkit

By Doug Bolden

On May 16, 2025

In Intermission, Outgunned, The Glow

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The New Outgunned Book Is Now on Backerkit

The current The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont is based on Two Little Mice’s Outgunned RPG. Combining the base game with the first Action Flicks‘ “Neon Noir” and “With Great Powers” flicks, it plays a bit loose with rules here or there but the system as written is amazing at playing these larger than life type characters and moments.

In what is a pleasant coincidence, the next “chapter” in the Outgunned series – Outgunned Superheroes – is now crowdfunding on Backerkit. Besides the new game, there will be a third Action Flicks, a new Mission Dossier, and a variety of bits and bobs (including a new dice set).

For those that have missed any of the previous stuff, it is pretty much all there. There’s a pretty massive €449 “Mightiest Hero” tier that is essentially “get it all in one click.” And a few others that allow you to pick up the previous books, dice, coins, and so forth. For people like me who have the books but not the dice, I’m partially going in early just to get those.

Also, one of the flicks in Action Flicks 3 is something very, very near and dear to my heart:

I am stupidly excited for that one.

The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont, Episode 16 – One Last Ride?

By Doug Bolden

On May 14, 2025

In Actual Play, Gamemaster Apprentice Deck, Outgunned, Solo Campaigns, The Glow

Empty outdoor tables at a cafe after a rain storm has left the table wet.

Reader Options/Controls
The Final Stretch
“Previously…” and Campaign/Arc Summary
The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont Episode 16 — One Last Ride

Doug’s Commentary
Credits

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The Final Stretch

This post is going to be laid out a little bit oddly.

We are either at the final “real” location or at the penultimate one. Partially, I am unsure. When this campaign started, I was thinking that it might be nice to have the Rescue Amy Patel moment kind of early. Then Dave Akari, Magnus Odinson, Juan Uno, and the Moonblink showed up. There were Fractal Apocalypses, Heretics, and Shaolin Dragons. Eustace went from being a decent psychic to a scarred Witch King on borrowed time burning up his own life force to finish a mision. It’s been ups and downs.

Therefore, there has been this notion of some estate somewhere — not the Rambler — where Amy Patel was being held and that freeing her would unlock the final gap. There’s stock art of Amy Patel sitting in my bookmarks. She was initially conceived as being a somewaht major ally/foil (she would be a bit of both, kind of an unstable companion who had her own agenda). However, because of all the other stuff and the entirely unexpected meta-game that has developed about what the events Johnny Blue kicked off actually mean, Amy has been a bit downgraded. Rescuing her will no longer open the final stretch. We are in the final stretch. This leads me to a bit of a coin flip.

Will this estate also house the final fight with the stuff involving the Rambler being kind of a epilogue? OR, will there still be one final showdown afterward?

I think a fun way to figure this out will be to draw three cards. Card A will represent the human-based active defenses: guards and Patel thugs. Card B will represent non-human active defenses: turrets, robots, ServiSynth, and tech available to group A. Card C will represent security features and passive defenses: locked doors, computer security, possibly magical traps. For each card I get the “intensity number” [looking it up, it’s called the Difficulty Generator]. I’ve been using this to generate a kind of swing value for scene interrupts and twists. It’s a bell-curve centered around 5-6 with 4s and 7s next in line. There’s one 1 and one 10. I think. At any rate, I’ll pull the three cards in order and generate “two details” for each: how strong that category is (from 1-10) and use the other elements on the card to generate a few keywords.

If the total is greater than 17 — i.e., greater than the statistically average of 5.5 x 3 = 16.5 — or if any single value is greater than 8, this villa will essentially be the final showdown and we’ll trigger a last Advance. Roman Patel will also be here. However, if neither of those are true there will be at least one final fight at the Rambler.

Group A: [c56] 6. A normal amount of resistance for this time in the game, just slightly tweaked up. Some keywords/icons: There’s “jumping puzzle” icon and the phrase “On the water”. Since this is all about human guards, I like the idea of there being a moat and this is attached to some canals in a classic Grand Theft Auto boat race type scene. Not a full on chase, just more a few boats full of heavily armed guards. A lot of the heavier enforcement will be outside the parameter.

Group B: [c88] 2. Not a whole lot at all. Clues from the card include references to stealth and military vessel. Maybe a single military-grade piece of equipment that cloaks the user from human sight. A small mech type option? That sounds fun.

Group C: [c10] 6. Kind of like the human guards. Solid, but not super punchy. The only keyword/etc on the card that sparks joy in this regard is the phrase “grinding gears…” which kind of makes think of big, strong doors and systems that open slowly.

This brings the total to 14. Not enough to trigger this as the final final fight. You have a villa surrounded by water. Guard patrol in boats. In the area between this and the courtyard is a stealth suit that represents something like a mini-boss. Past that is the interior which does not have much in the way of active defenses. Instead, it has large and heavy doors and a small, single contingent of troops inside. Not the siblings. I want to save them to be Roman’s elite guard. Roger and his folks, maybe. We’ll actually find out if Roger sides with Amy or Roman during the fight.

This sets up 3 fight sequences: boats (can be bypassed by flight but what’s the fun in that?), the stealth suit, and the inner guard. There will be some skill needed to get inside. Amy, Bee, and BrokenRecord are being held inside.

Is Amy’s Mantis also inside? (Good) → [c50] Yes? It’s there but it has been deactivated so it has to be found AND restarted.

Since this will not be the showdown with Roman, it is not yet time for the Advance but that will be very, very soon.

Previously, on The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont

Eustace has enlisted Detective Aurora Hernandez to help with the corruption in the MUNI and Sofia Rodriquez to being building up a new group of witches to help his plan: to protect the GLOW and its people by “destroying it.” To rebalance The GLOW to be more compatible with human life. Now the time has come to finally fight back against Roman Patel but the first stop is Patel’s private villa where Amy Patel, Bee, and BrokenRecord are being held hostage.

About The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont

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 16 — One Final Ride?

Setting the Scene, e16s1: Back to Square Juan.

Date: June 5, 1996.

Time: 3:00pm.

Place: Juan’s Cafe.

The crew is all together at last while the various cogs that Eustace have set into motion do their thing elsewhere — will find out how well this works when we get to the scene of storming the Rambler.

This one will be quick and mostly lore with maybe a few oracle pokes. Basically just a set up for what will follow where things should speed up until the end.

DATE PLAYED: May 12, 2025.

Back to Square Juan

Date: June 5, 1996.

Time: 3:00pm.

Place: Juan’s Cafe.

Hitomi looks around at the gathered folk and thinks how many of them had been here just thirty-six-hours ago to talk about Eustace’s death. Now they are all watching him. With a look of fear. Maybe. A look of awe. It’s a lot to process and she would be willing to bet none of them feel these feelings as hard as she does.

When you look at him directly, he looks like a body-builder who has been through a couple of chemo treatments. That’s before you get to the scars or the beard that is moving fast into gray and already showing signs of white. Eustace was in his late-thirties when she met him just a few days ago. Now he looks like he is pushing his early fifties. And it might be paranoia, but she thinks he already looks more wasted than when she met just a few hours ago. Whatever is happening to him is happening fast. He might only have a day or two left at this rate. She wants to scream at him to slow down, to just give it up, but she also knows that that he won’t. It’s up to her to go with him — and, in the process, kill him — or walk away. She knows she can’t walk away.

The other problem is when you don’t look directly at him. Out the corner of your eye he no longer looks like Eustace at all. He looks like some other. Huge. Larger than life. Head bent over because it no longer fits inside of Juan’s cafe. That other explains the first problem. Something inside of Eustace is eating him alive. That thing is most likely himself. He’d likely call it a metaphor.

How severely is everyone acting towards Eustace being back? → [c117] 5. About average, a mixture. Neither greatly elated or deeply scared. Wishy-washy enough that we’ll mostly just leave her earlier statement to hold.

Eustace has been answering Genny’s question about what happened with Dave Akari. “…lucky that Lamark’s process was flawed and unrefined enough that the essence of the beings from Yuggoth — so called Mi-Go though the variations of the fungoid beings is quite large — was too…”

Juan interrupts, “Is this necessary to understand what struck down Akari?”

“Sort of. The basic principle is that too much knowledge is a bad thing in this case. Once you reach a higher degree of refinement — which the that Hitomi helped steal — sorry Hitomi — does — the fungal nature of the original beings can infest new hosts. Dave Akari is around 220% Yuggothian at this point.”

“I think your math might be off,” Jones says.

“No, Soulburn spores do not play by the rules of reality. They are filling up until…”

Genny makes a exploding gesture with his hand. “Like stepping on a puff mushroom.”

“And then exponentially expand from there. What’s more, based on testimony from the future — it would help if you would stop interrupting — the second impact in 2012 will actually be even more infected by Yuggothian spores. Though by then the process will be so refined the entities will be able to hide the process.”

Varvara lets out a sigh. After a day of straight Contemplative Bliss™ she has actually taken the night off any Artificial Moods, and it seems her natural disposition tends to a bit sad and forlorn. Or maybe it is just her Eastern European accent.

Hitomi feels the need to ask, “What is the Order going to do with Dave?”

What is the order going to do with Dave?

[c52] Strengthen. [c44] Callous. [c24] Wreckage.

“Their plan is to actually increase the process in Dave. They think that he represents self-sustaining Soulburn potential. A self-Harrowing. What…well, someone…called the Crucible.”

“There’s no way we can let that happen,” Genny says.

“I said that’s the Order’s plans. Other entities have already started working to foil them. I think they will succeed.”

Will the Witches Three be able to disrupt the Order’s foolish plan? (Good) → [c70] Yes.

“Who?,” Hitomi asks.

“The Witches Three.”

At that, the room goes silent. Hitomi can see a range of questions on people’s faces but there’s a part of her that notes the reaction is muted. After a moment it occurs to her that everyone here is a transplant or too young to really know the lore. She’s been in the GLOW for a few years. Genny a few years more and Jones with him. Juan has been here a bit. Eustace probably has the most time in the GLOW. One of the few who actually remembers the strange acts of terror the Witches performed to protect the city and Lamark’s legacy. How would someone like Mrs. Yuuki react, she wonders.

Genny continues to steer the conversation forward. “Ok, let’s trust those three old biddies can carry it off and stop the Order from making a big mistake. Let’s look to the present and what we need to do. Roman’s little home in rich-folk-town. What’s the schematics say?” This last bit is directed towards Hitomi was to try and dig up information.

Will do a Crime (3) + Know (1) + Laptop (1) + experience with the Patels and previous rolls (1). This would be “The Top,” though, so she doesn’t get her free reroll due for Sprawl. Still, manages an Extreme success so has good surveillance information. The slight boost will give them +1 Help to any sort of navigation or location rolls they might need while on the outside. Not for every roll, but if it comes down to them finding their way while fighting.

“Quaint little bank vault pretending to be a villa from the outside. Surrounded by a canal system. Fresh water. To show off. A good old fashioned moat. Interior has some military tech but it seems Patel prefers the human touch.”

Jones: “Can we land on the property?”

Hitomi: “Maybe. But getting access will require us punching through the kind of heavy duty doors that would seem ridiculous on a space ship. Meaning it would take enough time that any and all guards will have to be dealt with.”

Genny: “We split, then? Some on boat, some…,” looking towards Eustace, “…maybe fly in?”

Eustace shrugs at this. “We would do best if we’re a team, I think. We go in on a boat first and then maybe cycle around to flight approach if it looks clear enough.”

Genny looks to Juan. “You wouldn’t happen to know a boat we could borrow, would you?”

Does Juan know of a boat they could “borrow” [in other words, a boat that they could get that will likely not make it back in one piece]? (Even) → [c26] No? So, not at those terms. But a boat they could buy, sure.

“I know a man who could sell you a boat, no questions asked. One suitable.”

“Fair enough. Let’s go get some shopping done and prepare for one last ride, eh?”

Setting the Scene, e15s2: Prepping for the Ride (Actual Play).

Date: June 5, 1996.

Time: 3:30pm to 9:30pm.

Place: Around Pensacola.

In the official rules, there is something called a GEAR UP! where you emulate movies and shows where the good guys show up at their supplier and start stockpiling. In Outgunned, these are meant to align with Turning Points and Showdowns. This session isn’t quite either but I want to do two things that fudge the rules because I think it makes storyline sense.

One, I want to have a GEAR UP! here because a GEAR UP! later will make very little sense.

Two, I want to go ahead and give Genny a “free” Advance because he has generally been left out. It makes sense that Jones and Varvara would be a bit “behind” but Genny has been somewhat attached for around half the sessions.

Note: This means Genny will still get an Advance before the assault on the Rambler but I think this will bring his character up to aligning. Hitomi and Eustace are still a bit ahead. Then Genny as the heavy secondary character. Then Jones and Varvara as the tertiary ones.

The rulebook says that GEAR UP!s should be dramatic but I also want to blend a lot of “shop” talk in with this one so am just running it actual-play style rather than mechanics + GM + player style.

Boosting Genny

Genny gets 2 Skill Points and 1 Feat. For Skills, I think Stunt and Dexterity to show a bit more aplomb in the field. For Feat, hmm. I think I like Selfless. He gets a Free Re-Roll when saving or defending others. His general character arc has been to move from a selfish sort of guy worried about his bottom line and considering himself something of a leader who is taking care of his troops.

He also gets +1 Adrenaline. Which likely won’t last long.

Shopping Spree

Just to speedrun this part a bit and get back into action (well, back into action next time): the team will spend ALL their money to get 3 Bullet proof vests (One for Hitomi, One for Jones, One for Varvara, Eustace is a bit past worrying about his damage taken). They will have maxed ammo for Genny and Hitomi and 2 extra clips for Jones. And they will get an ex-Muni boat that will grant +1 Help to dodging gun fire while on board due to its armor.

DATE PLAYED: May 13, 2025.

The Briefest of Respites

Date: June 5, 1996.

Time: 9:45.

Place: Jal Pilkin’s Military Surplus, the back lot.

Genny is laughing at some raucous joke with Jal. Jal Pilkin is a fat, one-armed drunkard that traffics in second-hand military gear. Stuff from The GLOW, the US, India, Japan and others show up here. All, technically, above board. Then there is the back lot. Stuff not so decommissioned. Stuff that would summon MUNI down on the place with haste. At least, if Jal wasn’t bribing MUNI to look the other way and swapping a few military-grade pieces for a few MUNI-grade pieces in trades that seemingly favor MUNI enough to keep them satisfied all the while running a hefty profit on Jal’s side of things.

Genny’s truck has a boat hitch so they have a way to get it to the water. The cover will hide the fact that it is not a fishing boat hopefully long enough for them to get it into the network of canals and artificial rivers that cover that stretch of The GLOW: an artificial area so fake that fake nature is on the minor side of the true expense. It’s not like fishing boats are allowed there. Of course, it’s not a fishing boat. It’s a MUNI intercept boat. Armored. Fast. Lots of places to hide out from gun fire. The hope is that Patel’s folks will assume it is one of theirs until too late.

Jones will be in the Green Lady. As soon as the ground is deemed clear, he’ll come in for a landing and they will enter into the faux villa together.

Genny, still laughing, is strapping a bullet proof vest on Varvara, instructing the young woman on how to get out alive. “You see me go down, you don’t stop for me. I’m an old soldier, right? You keep moving.”

“Genny has changed, hasn’t he? Gone from a fussy, selfish bastard to a over-caring, doting bastard,” Hitomi says to Eustace beside her. He’s now wearing a shirt and clothes that no one has died in so the improvement is notable. The past six hours, though, has aged him another half-decade. Hitomi watches him for a reaction while strapping on her own bullet proof vest and pulling her shirt down over it.

“I think we’re seeing what he was always like. Sometimes when you care about a lot of people, it becomes a kind of selfishness. If you are gone, who is going to take care of folks?” Eustace says that not with any sign of psychic awareness, just a person talking about a new friend they are getting to know.

“I’d feel better if you were wearing one of these vests.”

“I…don’t think it matters. I’m not sure I can die. Until…”

“Until your time is up?”

“Yeah.”

“How much longer do you have?”

How much longer does Eustace have? (We’ll say 5 = 1 day and the results are a bit exponential [3 would be 6 hours, 7 will be 2 days]) → [c54] 6.

“36 hours, give or take.”

“If you die before we get to have sex one more time, I’m going to be irate.”

“I love you, Hitomi.”

“Jesus. What did I say about the el-words.”

“It’s true, though.”

“I know, goddamnit. Fuck. Shit. Ass. Fly north, you fuckhead. Get past The GLOW and just be a dumb, normal person.”

“I think it’s too late. I take the GLOW with me, now. If I flew north, it would be the city left behind by Soulburn, not me.”

“I hate this.”

“I know.”

“I don’t think I can say ‘I love you,’ back. It would hurt too much.”

“Ok.”

“But…”

As she starts crying, he picks her up. Despite the obvious loss of muscle mass, he is still strong as an ox.

Genny looks over to tell them it is time to go and sees the two kissing. And, inside, the old soldier knows it might be for the very last time. So, he gives them the briefest of respites.

DOUG’S COMMENTARY

This is somewhere between an interlude and a play session. More “gamey” than the pure lore post that preceded it, less “gamey” than the “it’s going to be mostly fight scenes” post that is likely to follow. Unless we get a few MAJOR TWISTS, which could happen.

Nothing much else to say right now. I feel like I have set this up just right for the kind of story that I like to play. I am glad that Eustace has more than, say, 6 hours to live. If the Magnus Odinson “1 hour until…” thing is any indication, time gets away from me.

Jal Pilkin is a somewhat obvious Grand Theft Auto: Vice City reference, because I can’t not see this as a bit of a tribute to GTA:VC. I love those old PS2 games.

CREDITS

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 Juan’s cafe post used second is possibly the most used recurring theme image in the campaign. Also the one I used to demonstrate some of the tools I use to tweak the photos while making the art for this campaign.

The first one, though, is from a fairly similar looking cafe [at least, at a glance] and is from: Photo by Darya Luganskaya on Unsplash.

Since that is likely the last ever scene at Juan’s, it’s kind of a goodbye. As the hero’s leave, the literary “tavern” becomes empty.

The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont, Episode 15 – Meetings

By Doug Bolden

On May 12, 2025

In Actual Play, Gamemaster Apprentice Deck, Outgunned, Solo Campaigns, The Glow

A space suit looking up distant celestial objects.

Reader Options/Controls
“Previously…” and Campaign/Arc Summary
Another Lore-ish One
The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont Episode 15 — Meetings

Doug’s Commentary
Credits

← Previous Arc Session |[ ↑ Arc/Campaign Page ]| Next Arc Session →

Previously, on The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont

Eustace Delmont has returned, now with the ability to fly. As Genny, Varvara, and Jones begin preparations to assault one of the Patel strongholds to put an end to the cabal’s plans — Roman Patel being the only primary member still in power — Eustace and Hitomi have gone back into the heart of the GLOW. He has a need for allies and has a couple of people in mind.

About The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont

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.

Another Lore-ish One

There are some scenes and ideas that were effectively cut by the large-ish shift in The GLOW and as I am getting back into the groove of regular playing, I wanted to give some notes to them. Primarily the first one of this post.

The major impact of this is that this one will remain a fair bit “lore heavy” with minimal rolls. The plan is to build up after this to what will likely be mostly action oriented as we play out the final sub-arc of this campaign arc.

The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont. Episode 15 — Meetings

Setting the Scene, e15s1: The Adventures of Neon Foster and the Spaceman.

Date: June 5, 1996.

Time: 10:22am.

Place: The Apartment of Detective Aurora Hernandez.

Detective Hernandez was introduced in the opening chapters of The GLOW and was at one point in time a kind of foil. In that same post, there was an incident in which one of Johnny Blue’s (aka, Jani Blum’s) friends — a non-binary hacker named Neon Foster — is killed by a person or entity wearing a space suit. Think 1950s style retro-SciFi. As stuff tightened up and Johnny = Werecat become the primary focus, the whole Amy Patel + Neon Foster + Spaceman + Aurora Hernandez storylines were dropped.

Before there was a Eustace Delmont in the works, there was a vague plan to have a The GLOW 1992: Neon Foster and the Spaceman. That was postponed and after some soul searching was decided to not be followed up. I’ll discuss more about the decision process in this post’s commentary.

The original arc of The GLOW didn’t do a whole lot of precise time tracking. I could probably go through and figure out a precise time-line, but let’s say one week. That’s good enough for me.

DATE PLAYED: May 1, 2025.

A person in a space suit stumbling near an overgrown storage dock.

The Adventures of Neon Foster and the Spaceman

Date: June 5, 1996.

Time: 10:22am.

Place: The Apartment of Detective Aurora Hernandez.

One Week Prior

Detective Aurora Hernandez takes three breaths before entering the interrogation room. It has been a rough week and one name continues to float up from the cesspit: Johnny Blue. Demontongue. Agent for the Order. Professional asshole. Blue entered into Aurora’s life after calling in the murder of one Neon Foster. A hacker whose real name is scrubbed so hard from MUNI records that Aurora suspects that Neon Foster is the real name and the hacker was hiding in plain sight due to the benefit of some techno-urban-hippie parents. Reality is most likely “Neon” seduced someone hard enough that said feckless clerk traded in professional ethics for a chance at brief and varied love affair with a singular person who made a personal trade in being many different people.

That’s the first and second breath explained. The third is the person. Thing. IT. Inside. With Jerry Quell. Her assistant. Jerry has been grilling the so-called “Spaceman” who was found near the murdered Foster and who, according to Blue, assaulted a Order Agent. MUNI tech has been unable to unseal the spacesuit even with massive threats of violence. Truth told, Aurora’s own obsession with Agent Blue has prolonged what should have occurred over 36-hours-ago. A formal interview with a murder suspect. It’s just that a place like The GLOW always has other things a cop could be doing. Her dad, also a cop, liked to say that big cities breed crime like a shit-house breeds maggots. Only in The GLOW, those maggots sometimes speak in dead languages and hack into computer systems.

There is only so much space on the shelf to stack the books, to quote her brother the librarian.

If a cop wants to get around doing anything you just claim other books got stacked on the available shelves. That works for a while. Hell, sometimes prisoners just fade out of existence while in MUNI custody. Some problems literally go away on their own. No questions asked. No answers given.

But that’s not Aurora Elora Hernandez. She prides herself on being the good cop. The one who cares. Who shows up to a perp’s mom’s house with a sandwich and a cup of coffee. Who helps little old men cross the street. Not the cop who lets prisoners melt into the shadows. No matter how hungry The GLOW gets.

She enters into the interrogation room and sees, in order, (1) Jerry Quell pulling a cigarette from a pack, (2) The Spaceman still in helmet, (3) Beat MUNI Ralph Hines standing behind The Spaceman, (4) that Jerry is now smoking her favorite brand. Ex-favorite.

Aurora was a long-term smoker since the age of sixteen but a relationwhip with a crunchy yoga instructor brought that to a close in exchange fro a highly modified application of downward facing dog. Had Marabelle not kept up the All MUNI Are Assholes rhetoric, they would have no doubt now have moved on to Tree Pose and life would be swell.

“Quell, you had best not be thinking of smoking in my interrogation room. Interview. Sorry,” she says, to The Spaceman. Like a character from a Buck Rogers serial needs to be explained updates to departmental lingo but Aurora herself petitioned for that change and is proud of it.

Jerry sheepishly puts the smoke back and Aurora resists taking the pack from him as she sits down and announces the day, time, and location. She asks if The Spaceman would like any sort of legal representation and notes, out loud for the recording, that the prisoner — John Doe — shook their head inaudibly.

“You were caught at the scene of the crime by a highly respected Agent of the Lamarkian Order,” she manages to say without choking on the last few words, “and are being held for the suspicion of the murder of the GLOW citizen known as Neon Foster and for the willful destruction of Foster’s equipment which has been used in the assistance of The Order and MUNI investigations. Would you like to explain your presence at that location and your assault against Agent Blue?” She feels a moment of shame that she desperately hopes that The Spaceman might put some of the blame on Agent Blue. Anything that might explain why Agent Blue’s apartment was the site of an attack by a large crimson mantis ServiSynth and the daughter of one of the most powerful non-Lamarkian men in the whole of the city. Hell, Roman Patel likely counts as powerful by non-GLOW standards.

Silence stretches out long enough that Aurora is beginning to script a whole bad-cop/good-cop approach with her and Jerry — which would be more of by-the-absolute-book Good cop and cop-who-is-good-at-jokes Fair cop scenario — when The Spaceman reaches and begins fiddling with his/her/their/its helmet. Ralph is reaching for his gun and Aurora is desperately waving her hands while reciting for the recording, “The Suspect is engaging with their space-helmet-like costume while no force is being used by MUNI in response.”

After a few seconds, Soulburn starts seeping from the edges as the seal gives away. The sigils that flare up along the neck of suit are highly stylized and by all appearances greatly advanced aether-tech. Once the pressure stabilizes, the helmet is lifted up. And Aurora manages to not gasp (like Ralph) or shout (like Jerry) at what she sees. While the head is essentially human, and effectively male, there is no flesh. Instead, the person sitting across from her seems to be shaped out of pure Soulburn into the semblance of a human.

When he speaks, the voice is far too normal to make any sense. Like a 1950s husband in a radioplay. “I did kill Neon Foster and wrecked their equipment. I was in love with them and trusted them and they betrayed me and my cause.”

Aurora reaches out for Jerry’s cigarettes. “Give me a lighter, Quell.”

Now

Aurora blinks back a hangover and has her first cigarette of the day clenched between her lips as she walks from her bedroom into the living room in search of her lighter. After a full ten days on the job, she finally gets the day off and so spent a lot of her time last night getting drunk, high, and full to the brim with sex and nicotine. Marabelle and all her talk about chakras and good living can go to hell. Being told by a Soulburn ghost from the future that the world is coming to the end over the next forty years takes good living out of you.

Tuesday nights aren’t the best night to hit up lesbian bars and seduce strangers but needs must.

The Spaceman — real name for the record being Sigma Theta DW63 — told them a story that was way too stupid and complex to be a fabrication. In 2012, a second impact strikes off the coast of India. In 2020, a third. By 2031, seventeen total asteroid strikes have laid waste to the world (including the OG one all those years ago that took out the dinos). The so-called Seventeen Steps. As various billionaires become trillionaires and race to have their own personal darkly-enlightened GLOWs to own and control. Only something is wrong. Rather than a semi-controlled Harrowing, Sigma calls it the Crucible. Humanity and all life on earth beings to change and mutate. Billions die over two decades.

Finally, a person declaring themselves to be Raphael Lamark and supposedly the bastard son of the bastard son of Dr. Hell himself comes up with a radical plan. The few humans clinging to a world being devoured by Soulburn can be transported off planet into colonies far from the earth-sized GLOW. Only, there’s a catch. Supplies are critical. Time is critical. Hope is critical. Yadda yadda yadda. A mere One-hundred-and-forty-four-thousand people are selected for the twelve floating space colonies — Kreuger-Lamark Advanced eXoterran Orbiting New-colonies, KLAXONS — and each and every one must be converted into immortal beings composed of self-generating Soulburn.

No names, only call numbers. Like her brother’s library books.

Thirty-thousand or so years into the future, the Soulburn-forged remnants of humanity finally realize that their own suffering with immortality is powering their own existence. Some start blinking out. Then more. Finally, KLAXON F is the only KLAXON remaining with a sustainable amount of lifeforce and a group come up with a desperate plan: sacrifice themselves to power a time jump back to thirty-years prior to the second impact.

Sigma was chosen. Upon landing, he struggled at first to maintain his own existence in a world where the Soulburn was unrefined, much like a human forced to live on primordial soup. Eventually, he got his functionality up high enough that he could start working on his mission. He met Neon Foster and fell in love. At the time, Neon was in male-persona but gender was like morality to Neon: subject to whims. The two worked together and became quite close for six months until Neon did the unthinkable. At a critical junction, when Neon was supposed to help Sigma stop a known-to-MUNI criminal Dave Akari from getting plans that would lead to the second impact, Neon joined Akari and betrayed a stack of people on the way down. Sigma was so heartbroken he very nearly willed himself to cease to exist but the ultimate paradox is that his own suffering only made his lifeforce stronger.

He eventually decided that he was not enough to stop the future but he could at least get revenge for the heartbreak and murdered Neon Foster. Since then, the dullness of his mind has been spreading. Turns out once you punch through ennui hard enough you enter into too blank a state to care about your own suffering. Had Agent Blue not shown up at that exact moment, Sigma would likely have been turned into space dust over the next couple of days. Instead, being forced to deal with people had slowed the process. But not stopped it. Sigma was dying.

Aurora pulled some strings and got Sigma up on the roof top early the next morning as morning light cut through the GLOW’s never dark saturation of colors, he faded into the Soulburn flowing over the MUNI headquarters. Aurora clocked out and went and bought two cartons of smokes and decided that was a good enough hobby to occupy her time until the world comes to an end around in her lifetime.

Now if only she could find her lighter.

“Do you need a lighter?,” the voice from the couch asks rather helpfully.

Aurora screams and — because she is the type of cop to go down fighting — dives to grab a weapon. Unfortunately, because she is the kind of cop to not leave her service revolver unsecured, the only weapon she comes up with is a her television remote. Trying to keep it cool as she can, she points it at the voice and sees a large, shirtless man and a woman sitting next to him. She looks like a relatively normal type for The GLOW. He also looks relatively normal for the kind of people The GLOW likes to grow. His bare chest is covered in strange marks and sigils and his face and beard looks oddly wizened. Like a street prophet that you steer away from because hedge-magic is real and he might just have the gift.

Aurora can’t shake the feeling that she is underselling it. Still, this is her apartment and you never win a fight by starting off by backing down.

“I’m calling MUNI so you might as well leave.”

“You are MUNI,” says the woman.”

“Exactly, so I know exactly who to call for a quick response.”

“Sorry for the disturbance, but Jani trusted you,” says the man, finally speaking for the first time.

Aurora is debating how hard it will be to get to her scrying glass, currently in the bedroom, without taking her eyes off the pair. “Who?”

“Jani. Johnny. Blue.”

“You are somehow tied up with Johnny Blue!?” Aurora reaches out and grabs the woman’s lighter and lights up. She does not immediately hand it back.

“My partner. Ex-, I suppose.”

“I didn’t think his type of agents had partners. Wait…,” Aurora pauses as her sluggish brain begins processing a rough org chart for the Order, “…shouldn’t you be in a mask or something?”

“I, um…”

There’s something in his manner, some aspect which could very much be described as “apologetic confidence” that answers the situation for her. A person so powerful that they do not even understand they are looking down on you. A person so above reproach that they had no idea they should be afraid breaking into a cop’s apartment. Like had there been a gun, it wouldn’t have fired bullets but instead shot out butterflies or lemon soda. Like his brain has to slow down to think of the world like a normal citizen and the kind of stuttering apology is his equivalent of a big man talking to a small dog. The fucker. “You are a witch.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m still going to call MUNI,” she says as she is sitting down, no longer caring about calling anyone. She just wishes was high or drunk right now instead of hungover. She hands the lighter back to the woman with the witch — at least Aurora doesn’t think she is a witch, because two in one place is very nearly completing a triple and that’s very bad for everyone — and the woman uses it to light her own cigarette and the pair smoke while the witch waits patiently.

“Good, but just know that there is a cabal of people right in here in the GLOW that bringing about the end of the world.” At these words, Aurora stops and thinks of the fading spaceman dying as much of a broken heart as 30,000 years of ennui. “I’ve killed one of them myself. I have another one in custody. There is one remaining. And this third one owns a fair chunk of MUNI so if you mention any of this, you will be dead within a week.”

“I already wrote several of the details about this in my report and submitted it.”

“I know.”

And in the end, those two words were the scariest thing the strange, large man on the sofa said for the entirety of the conversation. Because if he knew, who didn’t. Besides perhaps Good Cop Detective Aurora Hernandez.

Setting the Scene, e15s2: The Witch and Her Iguana.

Date: June 5, 1996.

Time: 12:19pm.

Place: The Underground.

Luca “The Iguana” and Sofia Rodriquez were introduced in Chapter Two of the OG The GLOW. At the time, Luca was the main operative and represented a way of Johnny Blue to protect himself against Barlow “The Big Bad Wolf” Hendrix. Since the scene was constructed around Luca — ex-sigilist for the Order who was disgraced after his wife was co-opted by an insidious blackmailer — Sofia was downplayed a bit. “A low level witch” is how I described her. One who was a potential victim type. Since then, the notion that even a low-witch is capable of outranking upper grade Field Psychics has slipped in. What’s more, it has become a kind of head canon as to why the actual cause of the family’s misfortune received a lesser sentence than her husband. The Order is scared to punish witches. Witches are the lifeblood of The GLOW and the Order. They have the ability to make all the rest of the magic possible.

By the end of their section, Sofia had constructed a sigil so complicated it could rewrite destiny. Essentially, she was nearly ret-conned immediately into a witch so powerful and capable of creating new magic they downplayed her. Johnny Blue didn’t really put it together but he isn’t the sort of person to look up, right? Eustace would see her potential immediately and consider it so obvious he never pointed it out to his partner.

They were said to have two children. An older daughter in college. A younger son who was going the way of gangs and drugs.

Another fun tidbit, this was a case where Johnny’s more demonic side was demonstrated. He went in hard to punish those that had hurt his friend and his friend’s wife.

It might be nice to bring them back. Like Eustace, The GLOW is eating the Rodriquezes alive. Despite Sofia’s ability to make it stop if she just trusted herself.

DATE PLAYED: May 7, 2025.

The Witch and Her Iguana

Date: June 5, 1996.

Time: 12:19pm.

Place: The Underground.

Sofia Rodriquez once went by the call-sign “The Butterfly” but her symbol was butterfly wings with tentacles underneath. Recognition of her outward beauty and interior strangeness. A inner weirdness she has tried to hide most of her life. Never floating too high. Never soaring. Keeping herself in the river. And if sometimes she swam with the current and sometimes she asked the river to swim for her, then so be it. Who didn’t take advantage of their situation?

She awoke to the smell of marijuana smoke and a quiet hovel. Ignacio, her younger son, no doubt to blame. Sofia feels like a bitch telling her kid to avoid drugs — Luca and herself definitely partook back in the day — but Iggy has been pushing it. Thinking back to the pain she put her family through she fears trying to rein him back in. When does Sofia-the-Mom stop and Sofia-the-Witch begin? What if she altered him and made Iggy into something new? With Josi, off at LSU, it is easy enough. That girl reeks of goodness and will likely settle down with a whiter-than-white-bread accountant and raise mildly artistic kids in a safe neighborhood. At least, Sofia hopes. A quiet life for one of the four. That’s good odds in this world.

A knock on the door pulls her eyes to the front room. She calls out for Luca and hears no response. It’s a Wednesday. He’s out helping the Thomases gather recycling. She herself was up late the night before helping the Ekubos out. Their young twins had picked up a bit of Soulburn sickness. Sofia has a knack of coaxing it back out of the human body. Like the pied piper, she knew the song to sing to cause the colors to swim up out of the dark skin of the Nigerian children and dance and fade and leave them whole. A song made of colors rather than sounds. In her head, it was deafening. To others it probably sounded like she was barely whispering an atonal whisper. They can not see like she can see.

She pulls her shirt closed over her bare chest and opens the door — expecting either a client for her own hedge-magic or someone looking for Luca to do some odd jobs — and stops at the sight in front of her. A human-sized crow — no, a crow that is larger than human — with tree-branches growing out of its skull like large antlers stands there. Only, that’s not right. It is a person. A person who is barely hanging on to his own humanity. Beside him, a woman maybe a few years older than Josi is standing in a pose that Sofia recognizes as “Bad Bitch Protects Her Man.” A few folks from the underground are walking around and Sofia is confused that no one is bowing. She is struggling to not bow down before him.

Up the tunnel she sees three young girls and knows in her heart of hearts that if she stops and really looks at them she will not survive the encounter. Her brain is already so full.

“Come in,” she says, struggling to stay upright.

“Thanks,” she hears a Southern-accent tinted voice say. A painfully human voice. One that she very nearly recognizes. Then it all comes back. Johnny Blue going all in to help her and Luca and the kid. And behind Johnny another, the other half to Johnny’s soul.

“Nurse?”

“Hi, Butterfly. It’s weird because we’ve never met in person but I know your face pretty well.”

“Mmmm hmmm…,” says the woman beside Nurse with a definite intonation. Sofia could no doubt take her in a fight but she immediate appreciates just how much willpower this younger woman is showing. And appreciates the compliment that such immediate jealousy might imply.

“I figured you’d be a little scrawny boy, not a…” Crow? Demon? What is he? Even without the double-self, Eustace “Nurse” Delmont is big even by Luca’s standards and that’s saying something.

Seemingly sensing her discomfort for the first time, Nurse looks down and maybe sees himself as she sees him. He coughs and does something complicated with his hands, tracing sigils in the air, and the crow-shape is gone. Not that it helps all that much. The real him looks washed out and devoured in some critical way. A big dude. Strong. A natural fighter. But fading fast as his own body is being consumed by his spirit. He’s burning himself alive in a race to some miracle. It does not help that those three “girls” let out a giggle at this transformation and then fade back into the shadows. Out the corner of her eye, Sofia nearly sees and squeezes her eyes closed for a second to prevent her mind from filling in the gaps.

Nurse and the woman with him — he introduces her as “Foxteeth” before correcting himself and says Hitomi — enter into the room. Then, after saying they were fine without any tea or coffee or water, Nurse proceeds to wait. Five minutes later, Luca comes rushing in with a look of fear on his face. It does not surprise her that her husband could not only sense her distress but was able to tie into it before she was even aware it would be showing. Fortune telling by way of vibe. Marriage among the truly gifted hits a bit different than normal wedded bliss.

Luca looks down — his face going from the edge of confrontation to something like happiness — and lets out a barking laugh. “Eustace? Holy hell, mi amigo. What are you doing here?” It is the paradox of agents and their psychics that the two shall never meet. But sometimes the same sigilist applies both sigils: a demon sticking out his tongue for Johnny and a simple snake curled around a staff for Eustace.

The two chat for a bit before Eustace “Nurse” Delmont — only now Sofia knows that “Nurse” is no longer his name — and says, “Butterfly…I mean, Sofia. And Luca. I need your help. I need help by people of true power.”

“True power?,” she says with her most convincing scoff, “Me?”

“That sigil you placed on Johnny was old world magic that represents the most powerful witchery that the GLOW has seen in years. At least until…”

“Until you?”

He nods. “The GLOW is under threat and I plan to save it and its people in the only way I know how.”

“How’s that, Eustace?,” Luca asks.

“By destroying it.”

DOUG’S COMMENTARY

In the days when The GLOW was still forming in my headspace, there were ideas. See, the whole campaign was basically a technical experiment. I wanted to a) figure out the Dean Spencer stock art used in the Arcane Agents Tricube Tales one-sheet, b) wanted to work out more complicated formatting for my blog, and c) wanted to come up with my own weird take on the magi-cyber-punk genre. A lot of the big ideas just fell immediately into place: the Harrowing. Words like “witch” and “mage” and “psychic”. Dropping Eustace into an unrelated story.

Then some ideas grew out of weird rolls and burned brightly for a moment before being left behind. One such example was Neon Foster and the Spaceman. I had a weird notion of a person in a space helmet. This later morphed into a more complete space suit but not to start with. That grew out of a single oracle check giving me a crystal ball and me thinking “old timey space helmet from retro Science Fiction.” Neon Foster was also a series of oracle checks and rolls: non-binary, theatrical, dead. I thought maybe it would be fun to have an entire story about the two of them and why the Spaceman killed Foster but there was never any time to work it out in Johnny/Jani’s story. Should I play The GLOW 1992: Neon Foster and the Spaceman? Well, no, is the answer.

And the real reason why I didn’t is because Foster was non-binary by way of being omni-gendered. They swapped their body back and forth from football star to cheerleader to punk girl to femboy. It was going to be a fun quirk that underneath the technical skills and theatrics was a rather accomplished hedge-magician who used all their powers to shape themselves into a complex myriad of beauty standards. Only I wasn’t really willing — or able — to give time to such a character that both deeply embodies but also kind of trivializes the trans experience. Despite all my queerness and general acceptance of gender relativity, I am definitely cis and spend a good deal of time watching the impacts of “ally privilege” on a community under constant assault. Neon Foster’s story is not quite my story to tell.

At the same time, the whole reason for why the Spaceman exists — and why MUNI can’t remove the helmet — threatened to be very complicated.

One day I sat down and tried to work it backwards: the scene in the interrogation room. Almost exactly like it is, above. The Spaceman wears the helmet because he is purely made of Soulburn. The KLAXONS existed much as they do in the above post — though the Kreuger were originally an alien species — and he had come back in time to try and prevent that future. The big difference is that the GLOW from that storyline was not a catastrophic event brought about by human greed but simply a natural occurrence of the GLOW’s nature. It spreads and it feeds.

The fact that Neon Foster’s death was able to be tied into the Dave and Hitomi fall out and bring the now month’s-long campaign into something like a tighter knot was just too damned poetic to ignore. It’s almost like I planned it instead of just rapidly interpreted what is now hundreds of dice rolls and card draws into something sensible.

Sigma Theta DW63 is all just a big tribute to Doctor Who because I can. The joke of an un-named character — a character known more by their nickname than any real name — being called Sigma Theta got a small chuckle out of me.

There were two other planned outings for the GLOW. The GLOW 1997 was going to look at Aurora Hernandez and her dealing with some of the crimes around town in the aftermath of the Johnny/Eustace saga. The GLOW 2001 was going to look at Josi Rodriquez — who is a witch stronger than her mom and hiding her powers from her family as she is back in town to solve the death of her brother.

I no longer think I will. So, in some ways, the whole point of this episode is to kind of give voice to those three stories altogether. And, well, maybe one day I will revisit this strange twisted place.

But first let’s finish out the current arc with a bang.

CREDITS

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 opening image of the Spaceman started out as a render by Alex Shuper.

The spaceman walking around was a render by Cash Macanaya.

Both were pretty prefect as they were but I kept to the consistent motif for this series. Sure the two different suits are…well, different…but it gets the brain thinking in the right way. I mean, that’s probably the least eggregious continuity error I have made.

The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont, Episode 14 – Crow Boy Meets Hacker Girl (Again)

By Doug Bolden

On May 9, 2025

In Actual Play, Gamemaster Apprentice Deck, Outgunned, Solo Campaigns, The Glow

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“Previously…” and Campaign/Arc Summary
The Doug Alone Returns
The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont, Episode 14 — Crow Boy Meets Hacker Girl (Again)

Doug’s Commentary
Credits

Previously, on The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont

Hitomi, Genny, Jones, and Varvara have infiltrated the Moonblink. Only things are not what was expected. Rather than a high-tech party ship, it has minimal protection and a host of pretend people. What is secret that Dave Akari has been hiding from the world? At the same time, the reborn Eustace Delmont — now dubbed “Witch-King” — is starting to gather allies to help protect not only the Order but possibly others from the worst case scenario: The GLOW spreading to cover the world.

About The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont

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 Doug Alone Returns

The Spring 2025 semester is winding down and so there is more mental space to commit to actually posting again without everything having to feel rushed, panicked, or half-thought. It’s not quite like riding a bicycle but it might take me a few minutes to fully get back into the groove so I’ll just take it easy and chill and relax. I am looking forward to it.

There will be an experiment starting with this one. Rather than use footnotes [my preferred method for most of this blog] I will explore how it looks to add in mechanical rolls into the middle of passages. For example.

Doug rolled some dice and got some numbers.

I personally consider this a bit of an either/or thing. Either having footnotes or more in-line notes works just fine. For a lot of my stories, having the notes a bit separated out is better for the flow. For others having it more in-line will help. The GLOW 1996 is probably former case but it’s my current game so I will explore it here and then maybe switch back and forth from post to post to see what vibe strikes me as the better vibe. Since I built a new system where people could hide commentary like this (which also breaks my footnotes) this is one possible solution out of many. Alright, time to get back into the vibe.

The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont, Episode 14 — Crow Boy Meets Hacker Girl (Again)

Expected Scene: The team learns the truth of Dave Akari’s illness.

Scene Test: [c17] 5. 2d10 = 2 + 5. As expected.

Actual Scene: As expected.

Setting the Scene, e14s1: Wild Goose Chase.

Date: June 5, 1996.

Time: 8:41am.

Place: The server room upon the Moonblink.

I think this will mostly be a “lore” type scene since we’ve established most of the details up until this point and these are known twists that have been brewing behind the scenes.

The scene card does have some text like “Follow Pandering Afflicition” and “Expensive Meds” but really we have already decided this. It’s just a nice coincidence.

DATE PLAYED: April 28, 2025

Wild Goose Chase

Date: June 5, 1996.

Time: 8:41am.

Place: The server room upon the Moonblink.

This computer system is ServiSynth based. Therefore it is less like “hacking” and more like “convincing”. Hitomi, specifically, has learned to treat ServiSynths as more like people to work with rather than computers to use. In that, we’ll go with Hitomi having Smooth (3) + Speech (3). On top of that, she has her own Laptop (+1) and experience with “chatting” with ServiSynths (+1). This will give her 8 dice with 1 Free Re-Roll.

She ends up with a Critical + Basic. We’ll mostly ignore the latter but use the former to say she learns all there is to learn, which is mostly that there isn’t a lot to learn.

“This makes no sense, there is nothing here,” Hitomi says, “Well, nothing that is important to the cabal’s plan. There’s a lot of things about Dave’s medical condition but these numbers make no sense.” Ignoring the no smoking signs placed around the server room, she has a cigarette smouldering on the side of the desk. Genny has a cigar and is puffing on it while aiming his gun back at the door in case any intruders try to enter. They saw a guy in a blue Hawaiian shirt. He poked his head in, saw the gun, put up his hands and walked away. Whatever is going on is past his pay grade. Which is exactly the message that Genny is trying to send.

Varvara is staying outside the room where they stashed the guards. Turns out the room they picked was once a bar but has been basically kitted out to host a whole bevy of medicines. The kind of stuff that goes past your neighborhood pharmacy and goes into specialist hospitals that only exist in the GLOW.

Would anyone in the party have any experience with Soulburn Disorder type drugs? (Even) → [c116] No. The intensity of that card is a 7 so we’ll say it will take an Extreme information roll to find out.

Hitomi again will ask the ServiSynth. This time Smooth (3) + Know (1). We’ll give the above +2 but no Free Re-Roll. Only a Critical + Basic. Not enough.

Let’s generate a “name” for the ServiSynth. [c116] has a picture of a wave. I really enjoyed Saga Emeral Beyond so Tsuna works. The name of the drug can be a bit more complicated. Just taking four random syllables from the environmental prompts we get “eSCAPing gas”, “WONderland”, “lighthearTED”, and “graVITY”. Taking that with a grain of salt, we can get Wonscaptevite. That sounds like a good BS name for highly experimental aether-pharm-tech.

“As for the cannisters of whatever the hell Wonsca…the gas tanks were, Tsuna is not willing to answer the question,” Hitomi says after plugging in more details and questions.

“Tsuna?,” Genny asks.

“The ServiSynth. Codename Tsunami. Doesn’t like being called that since the name is a force of destruction.”

“The kind that might happen from an asteroid strike near a populated area.”

“Exactly. Tsuna is not exactly on board with the whole plan. Hence why they have routed out most of the data to another computer.”

“Does ‘Tsuna’ know where the data is now stored?” Hitomi is glad to see that Genny voiced the air quotes but did not actually make the gesture.

Does Tsuna know where the data is stored? (Good) → [c61] Yes.

Using our handy-dandy GLOW map we get a 18,11 which is essentially just west of the Real World Pensacola Beach. So “New GLOW” but not so deep it is in the much more expensive stuff south. Enough that it can be a reasonably well-guarded Patel stronghold but not their main base near The Rambler.

Hitomi brings up a map display on her laptop and points. Genny whistles. Security will be up a good notch there.

Genny asks, “Patel owned?”

Hitomi exhales smoke and nods.

“Well, looks I am going to get to shoot some more fools. I’ll call Jones and get him to land. Time’s fleeting.”

“Wait,” Hitomi interjects, “I want to find out what happened to Dave.”

Expected Scene: The find the door to Dave Akari’s chambers and learn the truth.

Scene Test: [c25] 4. 2d10 = 7 + 3. There we go. “A bond or connection is explored” but really, it’s the return of Crow Boy. With friends.

Actual Scene: As Hitomi and crew approach the door, Eustace shows up with company.

Setting the Scene, e14s2: The Arrival of Crow Boy.

Date: June 5, 1996.

Time: 9:03am.

Place: On the Deck of the Moonblink.

More lore-heavy to move things into the final arc.

DATE PLAYED: April 29, 2025.

A warrior with a kitsune mask leaps over a rooftop.

Crow Boy Returns

Date: June 5, 1996.

Time: 9:03am.

Place: The deck of the Moonblink.

“GUYS!,” Jones voice comes over the communicators. “We have incoming!”

Genny pulls up short in their jog. He, Varvara, and Hitomi have been scooting down the stairs to where the floor plans say that Dave Akari is currently being held. In a room with more intense security systems than your average bank vault. “Jones, is it Patel?”

“Negative. It’s…I mean, it looks like some large bird. And there are three copters following. Order. The kind of Order equipment I don’t think any of us have the clearance. A certain fox motif.”

At this last bit, the team stops running. Hitomi pipes in, “Jones, you have to land right now, we have to vacate this…” but it is too late. The Moonblink shudders as something lands in front of them. Something that looks like a larger-than-human crow made up of Soulburn.

Even as the wings and the beak are fading into the morning light, Hitomi is already running forward. As Eustace turns out, she is leaping into his arms.

“Hello, Hitomi. I’m glad you are ok.”

“YOU WERE DEAD. HOW ARE YOU ALIVE?”

“Um, well, I’m not really sure but…”

Eustace sets her down and she steps back to look at him. He’s lost a good 10%-20% of his body weight. His beard looks grayer. Like he has aged 10+ years in the past day. His skin is now covered in strange, twisting sigils that are hard to look at. His Gnole-enhanced arms look different. More organic.

“You had me worried, jerk.”

“I had me worried.”

Their reunion is cut short as the three Order helicopters — looking far more sleek than the Green Lady — hover overhead and a number of Field Psychics, masks fully secured, drop down to the deck. Genny and Varvara have backed up as far as they can against the wall and are trying to look scarce.

Of of the Psychics approached Eustace. “Witch-King, are we ready to transport Akari?”

This phrase causes Genny to speak up. “Witch-King? What the hell, Nurse?”

Eustace waves a hand at Genny and mumbles something about long story. He starts giving instructions to the Field Psychics. Hitomi tries to follow along the things being said but around the time she hears the phrase “scuttle the Moonblink” she speaks up.

“No, don’t do that. Tsuna is an innocent.”

“Tsuna?”

She explains to Eustace about the ServiSynth brain at the heart of the Moonblink and he nods. “Hitomi, can you ask Tsuna to follow the Order helicopters back to Anti…um, a place?”

One of the Field Psychics starts to complain and this is when Hitomi notices that not only are they trying hard to not make eye contact with Eustace — the so-called “Witch-King” — but they are doubly so trying to not look up above or around Eustace’s head. Hitomi, herself, looks up to get an idea and right at the corner of her eyes she thinks she catches something. More than one something. Hovering there. Like a storm cloud past the horizon or a tooth ache in a lover’s mouth. Right out of reach. Right out of taste.

“Eustace, what…”

“I’ll explain as best I can. Do you want to go for a flight? I need to meet people.”

“Flight, I…yes. I want to go with you.”

“Good. Genny, will be ok to get back off the Moonblink?”

Genny points to the Green Lady, a speck some distance but holding formation.

“Ok, meet Hitomi and myself at Juan’s at noon.”

Varvara speaks up in her always calm voice. “What about BrokenRecord and Bee?”

Hitomi sees Eustace’s question before he asks it and explains.

Before things changed quite so much, I had intended that BrokenRecord and Bee were being held on the Moonblink. Let’s see if that still makes sense in the light of the altered story.

Are Bee and BrokenRecord being held upon Moonblink? (Even) → [c100] No.

To keep it simple, they are being held in the same Patel place as the server room (and Amy Patel).

Hitomi watches a flash in Eustace’s eyes as his powers kick in. To her, it looks almost like a nictitating membrane made of Soulburn blinking in front of his sight. He shakes her head. “They are not here, I’m sorry.”

“I think I know where they are,” Hitomi says.

“Ok, let’s get Tsuna some directions and then we have people to meet.”

Twenty-minutes later, they are back on deck. The sound of blow torches and diamond saws can be heard cutting something large from its structure. In the duration, The Green Lady has landed and the Field Psychics have been gathering the scant guards and nurses and prepping to load them into their ‘copters.

Eustace stands on the edge of the deck and motions for Hitomi to join him. She does. A few seconds later he leaps off and as Genny watches, massive Soulburn wings sprout and the two are flying at great speed back towards the heart of the GLOW.

“What the fuck was that about, Genny?,” Jones asks as he initiates take off.

“That’s Nurse. It’s a long story.”

DOUG’S COMMENTARY

April 29, 2025

The Kitsune-Masked Psychic image used above is most likely the currently longest span of stock art being chosen and actually showing up in the flow of the story. Back on December 3rd, 2024, in the very first ever The GLOW post, it was mentioned that the Field Psychics wear Kitsune [aka fox spirits] and fox-themed masks and motifs. This was inspired initially by looking up the Dean Spencer art to use in that post and spotting the image being used in this post. This means it has been nearly five months and over a dozen posts between being inspired to add that detail and actually using the art in question.

There are at least two other pieces of Dean Spencer art not intended for The GLOW that will be the absolute longest in that one of them was the first piece of stock art purchased for this blog: in a story that has not showed up yet. Hopefully it will.

I can tell that the vibe of this post is a bit off. Taking the break and changing up the flow a bit will do that to you. The next one will also be a lore-heavy, rolls-light and will bring up a few things intended for a long time but never discussed. I’ll explain those more as they happen.

With this one, and with the simplification of some of the flow, the plan is to return this to a multiple times per week post. So more 2-3 scene posts rather than just a single 5-6 scene posts. I think that overall fits my brain patterns better.

As a bonus, a lot of the vibe of this one was generated while listening to Colin Stetson’s Uzumaki OST album. It will likely be continued in at least a good chunk of the next one. It’s swell.

CREDITS

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 close up of the crow’s eye is this photo by Zdeněk Macháček for Unsplash+.