Category: Outgunned

“Previously…” and Campaign/Arc Summary
The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont Episode 7 – Finding Genny

Previously, on The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont

Eustace and Hitomi have fought their way into the Knives compound after Genny was abducted. Along the way they have been pitted against drones made to look like angels, cultists with malfunctioning guns, and a pair of Patel operatives. Now they face the real potential challenge: Eustace when he cannot connect to the psychic threads. Time is short. Magnus is planning on dismantling the Arcane Order and working with the Patels, and others, to claim the GLOW for the crime families.

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 7 – Finding Genny

Setting the Scene. Assault on South Tower.

Date: Sunday, June 2, 1996.

Time: 1:17am.

Place: The South Tower in the Knives of the Fallen Star’s Compound.

Expected Scene: Eustace is watching over Hitomi as she hacks into the tower.

Scene Test: [c75] 5. 2d10 = 10 + 3. Minor complication. “Teammates differ on strategy.”

Actual Scene: As expected, but elsewhere the other towers are being left standing which is weakening the attempt.

Can Eustace use his blades in the compound? (Even) → [c89] Yes. His arms are gnole-tech despite having some aetherware upgrades. This means his arms are technically his own flesh rewritten into machinery by the Gnoles. It would make sense that they are still functioning. His psychic powers are out, though. Technically he has a small amount of them but overall we’ll say none and he has a headache. He’ll get a -1 to Focus until the towers are all taken out or he has time to gather Soulburn [though the last time he did it, he ended up going berserk].

Since we had something like 4-5 combats last session, this point will be all about hacking. I will pull a card per turn and only when the BAD says Yes (even Yes? will be enemies getting near) will someone attack. There’ll be plenty of fights this session anyhow. We’ll consider the computer to be the equivalent of a Crit/Crit enemy with 9 boxes. Hitomi will have {6 | 9 | 12} 9 grit on her laptop. NOT ServiSynth this time. Just pure cyber.

SOUNDTRACK: The soundtrack for most of this post will be IANAI’s Sunir. I like abrupt turns and last time was all about pounding, loud cyberpunk themed music. This time, more ethereal and otherwordly.

Assault on South Tower.

Date: Sunday, June 2, 1996.

Time: 1:17am.

Place: The South Tower in the Knives of the Fallen Star’s Compound.

The so-called “tower” is a spiderweb structure stretching across what would be around four city blocks. Mostly pipes, fans, conduits, landscaping, and gauges. At the center of this beast of fluid dynamics is a small, squat spider: a industrial grade work shed that roars with noise. All those pipes, wires, and troughs lead to it. The main mechanism, the piece that actually absorbs and — as it turns out, stores Soulburn — looks like something you might pasteurize milk with on a kiloliter scale. Eustace was expecting something a bit more arcane, not something so clean. Where are the gold leaf lines? The cottage core Americana? The commune arcane? Ancient runes?

He’s sad to not see even one blacklight Jesus or Pastel Pagan printout. The standard motifs the Knives wield elsewhere across the compound. It only rings home that Magnus is less a cult leader and more a techno-fascist. The workers here, what few are trusted with it, must be some inner circle that wears suits when not being witnessed by other members of the common clay.

“Some of this tech is right in line with the shit Dave and I stole,” Hitomi says as she continues to work to bypass the security of the tank. “Equipment used to extract and perform the Harrowing on smaller scales, plus new storage for Soulburn.” [1]

“At least two different groups possibly working together, both using religious fanatics to do their dirty work. Even in place like The GLOW, that does seem like a hell of a coincidence,” Eustace responds, looking out the door of the shed. The lock would have been easy for Hitomi to get through but Eustace was in enough of a mood to cut through the whole metallic frame. One downside to the building being small and easy to navigate is that it seemingly only has the one entrance and exit. Probably if the Soulburn tanks go, the runaway reaction would shred the body and mind of anywhere nearby to make safety an afterthought.

His view is a scarce group of badly tended grape and scuppernong vines on leaning trellises and some flowering plants mostly left to go to wild. Enough to cover up some of the equipment for Knives not completely in the know but not so obvious, or plentiful, as to require actual care. One crack in Magnus’s masterplan. A sign that loyalty between him and his has limits.

One thing that is not in view is any sort of guards or security. The multi-point assault is doing its job, or Magnus has loaned the true heavies elsewhere in The GLOW. Maybe they get nights off. Eustace cloaking their entrance and now being in the same fog that prevented Eustace from seeing into the compound is likely part of it. Cult isn’t going to go against its dear Father and outsiders shine like lighthouses on a dark coast until they are inside. It is very unlikely that anyone near Eustace’s Psychic grade was recruited by Magnus before the Order found them so if he cannot punch through, they cannot as well. Grade Threes or Fours are likely their high end. He hopes.

Eustace is not complaining. His ribs still hurt from the kick by Miss Glowing Eyes. And his head hurts like he is deeply hungover. The near absence of Soulburn — and with it his psychic powers — is so definite he can taste it like a drowning man might taste air. No wonder Anastasia looks like she is starving all the time. Her brain developed a whole new stomach which will never feel full again until someone finds out to revert the changes to her biochemistry that Magnus’s “Crown of Thorns” inflicted upon her.

“How’s it going on your end,” Eustace asks.

Hitomi’s fingers are rapidly typing across two different keyboards. The right hand is on a standard QWERTY while the left is on a smaller attachment used to rapidly input rune code. “Bog standard 1996 intranet structure between this building and several others around the compound. However, the inherent Soulburn aspects mean it needs to run a low level aether-interface which are hacked together across a fairly low tier a/ether transform. Kind of parts you can get at Radio Shack. It does mean I’m having to hack both systems at the same time but this is made for people with less than expert knowledge I’d say.” [2]

Eustace scans his eyes over the gleaming silver of the equipment. To him, the room, and a good bit of the world, looks like it is covered in a gray fog. Microbursts of color try to surface and are swallowed back inside. So very different than the world outside of the compound. Where a room like this would be full of graffiti, trash, and likely a few people. Where the equipment would make a king’s alchemist feel underequipped. Where the world would be full of constant dancing light. He is going to need a lie down after this is all said and done.

He watches her click through for a while, smoking her always present cigarettes and occasionally grunting as she speeds up typing and moving things around. The system has some basic security, nothing as intense as the aether-grade protections might be — few things are as intense as a computer virus that can attack your soul — but overall she seems to be winning the battle. At one point she sighs a large cloud of cigarette smoke, her hand holding the cigarette as she makes a face at the readout on her laptop monitor. “The other towers are up and running.” [3]

“Is it a problem?”

“Means that are plans to flood the place with Soulburn to overwhelm the Knives are on delay.”

“Wait, this might be a good thing.”

“How so?”

“This means the psychics and mages working for Magnus are also blocked from seeing in. The rest of their tech is basic security protocols. Their guns they just got are useless. They are using landline phones and store-bought security cams. How about we set up the system to shut off in an hour or and move fast to get in position where all the psychics in the world won’t matter if there is no one who can react to their predictions?”

“Are you sure?”

“Who knows? Here, I’m just a guy…with blades in his arms.”

Hitomi puts her cigarette between when her lips and it bobs as she talks. “Alright, let’s give it a try. One hour until. I’ll try and loop into the others and have them all shut down at the same time.”

Five minutes later, and another cigarette, she has finished typing her double keyboard. “Done.” [4]

“While you are in, can you find any evidence of where they might have Genny?”

“I’ll check.”

Back to more typing. “No, can’t find any convenient maps or notes about where they might keep prisoners.” [5]

“Ok, I guess we wing it. We’ll head in and see what we find.”

Setting the Scene. The Fall of Jericho.

I want to figure out what would be a good place for the next scene. Eventually we’ll get to a chapel type place but for the first hits we should figure it out. Let’s draw 2 cards. c87 has a jack o lantern as one of its images. c35 mentions local cafe. A small canteen next to a place where they grow pumpkins and melons. Kind of a hippie commune take on Juan’s cafe. How intense is the resistance here? → [c45] 4. Not very intense. Still, people are gathering for food and discussion and planning. On that card is the name “Jericho” which seems perfect for such a compound.

Date: Sunday, June 2, 1996.

Time: 1:45am.

Place: Near Jericho’s, a small juice and fruit stand which serves as a regular meeting place for the farmers and currently being used as a central planning space.

Expected Scene: Eustace and Hitomi try to launch a surprise attack on some Knives to find out where Genny is.

Scene Test: [c43] 6. 2d10 = 9 + 2. Minor change. “Accident causes injury or loss.” “Dense smoke obscures your vision.”

Actual Scene: As they wait for a chance, an accident explodes a chunk of Jericho’s.

Rather than them waiting out this scene to get into a fight, instead they might end up rescuing someone from a fire. We’ll say after the guns are failing, some of the Knives came up with a plan to build bombs out of the farm chemicals but it goes poorly. Eustace and Hitomi will have to make an Extreme Dangerous Gamble Brawn + Stunt to avoid the blast itself.

An old shack turned into a farmer's market style cafe.

The Fall of Jericho.

Eustace and Hitomi have been mostly lucky in avoiding the Knives running back and forth. First with guns. Later with farm tools and equipment as the reality of the sabotage has dawned. What they have noticed that several groups have been moving in a particular direction towards the center of the compund near a large field full of young pumpkin, melon, and similar fruit. A few of the melons already showing flowers and early fruit but the season is too early for the majority of the crop to be obvious just yet.

Eustace and Hitomi have managed to gather up a couple of roughly fitting robes — a little small on Eustace, a little large on Hitomi — after ambushing a pair of Knives. Ok, very small on Eustace. Very large on Hitomi. “How were those guys so perfectly average size?,” Eustace asked, making do with a robe that only comes to slightly below his knees and which cannot bunch up. Hitomi’s has to be gathered at the waist to stop her from tripping over it. [6]

The end destination for several groups is a small building of a perfect kitsch to shout gentrification in most other cities. A reclaimed outbuilding of some size retaining a chipped paint motif, with various signs and farm accoutrements as decoration. A few wooden park tables are out front. This seems to serve as a kind of 1950s barnyard chic styled watering hole for the Knives. A place for them to grab a lunch or a jar of water after working in the fields. Currently, a half-dozen Knives are at the tables prepping jugs of something. Fertilizer, fuel, and other chemicals are being mixed together and the smell is atrocious. According to the conversation, it sounds like they have decided to make homemade bombs to counter their lack of firepower as groups of unknown assailants pour in.

During the two hours building up to the assault, Hitomi had made two phone calls. The first was to Anastasia and her group of ex-Knives. They were told to hit the north side. The second was to Juan. It was explained that Genny was down and that the Knives were a front for something much bigger than imagined. Hitomi made it clear that there was no way that she could pay for services but Magnus had already targeted Juan and one of his main jobbers. He said he would talk to folks. It is unclear how many took him up on the offer. Based on the gun fire, some folks owing Juan favors decided shooting cultists could be a good way to repay old debts.

Eustace and Hitomi have made their way to the side of the building, enough in shadow to be a bit out of sight, and have been trying to strategize using taps and hand gestures. Around the time that Eustace mimes picking up a table and using it as a weapon they hear a gasp. It is the only warning they have as Eustace grabs at Hitomi and tries to throw her back away from the front of the building. A huge blast of flame and smoke tear through the hold structure and pieces of wooden shrapnel mixes with metal signs to slice through the people there. As Eustace lets go of Hitomi and sends her flying back towards the edge of one of the plots, he rolls as best he can way from the blast and manages to get down before anything large slams into him. Hitomi lands roughly but is saved from the worst of it. [7]

Eustace runs around to where the front of the building would be. None of the cultists survived the blast. Even the couple that are relatively intact are clearly dead. His plan of getting information about where to find Genny will not happen here. He runs back around to where Hitomi is dusting herself off. Pieces of debris starting to rain down. Ears are ringing. Even over that, they just hear a group in the distance cry out as they get closer. Most likely another group of Knives are moving at speed to the location. [8]

Hitomi looks around and points in a direction to their west, even further into the main central buildings. The two take off running in that way.

Setting the Scene. Finding Jenny.

Date: Sunday, June 2, 1996.

Time: 2:17am.

Place: A garage where the Knives receive shipments and store goods.

Expected Scene: Eustace and Hitomi have made their way to the garage where Genny is being kept.

Scene Test: [c86] 3. 2d10 = 1 + 7. Only a minor twist to the tale. “A wits or perception challenge.”

Actual Scene: They have had to figure it out the hard way.

At the start of the scene, they will have had to keep running and fighting to get here. We’ll do a series of Critical [Dangerous] Rolls representing various fights. After each one, we’ll do Nerves + Awareness to represent how well they are keeping their head on a swivel. They need a Critical.

Roll 1: Eustace gets 3x Basic = 1x Critical. Hitomi gets Critical + Basic. For the perception, neither passes.

Roll 2: Eustace and Hitomi clear their Critical. For perception, neither passes.

Roll 3: Eustace gets Impossible. We’ll say this grants him the space to interrogate someone and negates Hitomi’s roll. Smooth + Speech + 1 Help = Critical success. He finally gets through to someone and gets the directions out of them.

Each roll will add 10 minutes of time. This puts them 30 minutes of time in the future from the last one, plus the time of the last one. It actually means the Towers are now shutting down and Soulburn is starting to pour back into the base.

The guards for the warehouse will be Bad Guys Template 2. Crit/Crit/9. Hot = 3/7. No Feats this time. Our pair has been through a lot and the final battle will be proper rough.

The loading dock of a small business, with several crates and an open door.

Finding Jenny.

Date: Sunday, June 2, 1996.

Time: 2:17am.

Place: A garage where the knives receive shipments and store goods.

“This is the building she described,” Eustace says, pointing out a squat metal structure that looks a lot like the back of warehouse turned store. The road from the gate drives right up to it so definitely matches the description. This is something like centra receiving for the compound, where vetted packages are brought and prepped to leave the compound. The cultist they found, a small woman with “the crown” on her shaved head, had pleaded for mercy after Eustace punched through the bigger guys that had been with her. There’s been a lot of killing tonight, so having someone not swing fanatical did a lot of assuage Eustace’s mood. He gave her the chance to say where they needed to go to get their friend. She had said to find this road and head north along it until they found the building.

“Which building?,” Hitomi asked.

“You’ll know it,” their captive had said, with a accent a bit Icelandic, “Where stuff is stored.”

Now in the present, Eustace and Hitomi are scanning it for the signs of any guards. They see nothing. [9]

“I think we might have broken the compound,” Eustace says.

The two go through a back dock into a large room stacked with various boxes. The large crate that once held a bunch of broken guns is there, helping to confirm they are in the right spot. The strange utopian cleanliness that has permeated the compound is a bit absent here. Wrappers and cigarette butts are discarded along the floor. Boxes of everyday goods. Actually everyday. Not The GLOW’s weird equivalent. Snacks. Chips. Medicines. When you are opposed to aether-tech, modernity becomes a kind of quaint squalor. Water drips from the ceiling. The smell of motor oil is on the nose.

The smell of smoke and people talking can be heard to one side, what looks like a manager’s cubby of sorts. Eustace and Hitomi carefully make their way over to it and glance around a shelf of books dedicated to farming and equipment repair and glance through the windows. Three people are inside. Rather than white robes and silver crowns, these are dressed in black paramilitary gear. Two men and a woman. The woman, bright red hair and a face that has seen some fights, is the one smoking. Genny is tied up in a chair. His face bloody and his clothes torn and ripped. Bruises and gashes are apparent all over. He is clearly taking the brunt of dissatisfaction for the failed shipment. Pieces of broken guns are on the floor at his feet. It looks like they beat him with a few jammed assault rifles. He is breathing, but not super well.

Eustace nods towards Hitomi and then takes a running start and leaps through the window with his blades out to break the glass. By the time the smoking woman, who seems to be the squad’s leader, has realized Eustace is inside and is pulling out a gun — no doubt a working one — two blades are whirling right in the midst of the soldiers. They barely have time to shout before Eustace has reduced their biology to simple physics. From Hitomi’s perspective, blood fills the windows and the room. [10]

“I think it’s safe to come in, now,” Eustace calls back. She pulls the door open and it’s like back at the mall. The three Knives soldiers are in pieces. Genny’s ropes are being cut and Eustace is seeing if Genny can stand. Unfortunately, the older jobber is too beaten by the ordeal. With Eustace living up a bit to the Nurse name, though, Genny gets stabilized enough that he isn’t in any immediate danger of dying. [11]

“What the hell are you, man?,” Genny asks Eustace.

“A weapon who made a major mistake by underestimating an enemy.”

“That takes me back.” Genny laughs at his own joke, but the sound is as much the crack of ribs and coughing up of injured lungs. Even if he is stable, a hefty stubbing of his toes might be enough to finish him off.

“Do you know where Magnus might be?,” Hitomi asks.

Genny shakes his head. “They didn’t discuss their secret lair while beating me with broken guns, unfortunately.” [12]

Eustace looks around at the steadily increasing Soulburn. A faint afterimage of light. Roughly what a non-psychic would see in the main GLOW, well below his own capabilities. He walks out into the main warehouse floor and starts breathing deeply. In his mind, he imagines reaching out large hands and weaving together threads. Little by little, he pulls in the faintest traces until enough Soulburn is around him. [13]

He looks back at Hitomi. He is a bit surprised to see only a single green thread flowing around her, currently very faint. If he only he was aware that upon entering the compound, dozens of other snapped off and flowed back out into The GLOW, suddenly reunited with all the lines and threads they had been pulled from by his own interest in her, he might have realized why all the city threads are starting to weave around her. Might have figured out more about who and what he is. Instead, what he thinks is that if he can’t do this, then he needs to call in those who can. And that means going back to Antioch. The next time he sees Hitomi, he might be under orders to wipe her mind or to kill her. By that time, the Gnoles might have turned more of him into this new style of weapon. A mayfly moment. That’s all he has.

He reaches deeper. Trying to avoid going so deep that he becomes a mere extension of Soulburn. The compound is a big place. The towers have worked over time, but there must be energy up there, above them. In the ground. In the shadows and cracks where the towers could not easily reach. He starts pulling that in, finger by finger. Centimeter by centimeter. Drops of light. Motes of dust. Like a magic trick where someone pours colored mist down onto a performer. Enough that even Hitomi and Genny can see it. Then it reaches a point where the swirling aurora spreads out. Crow’s wing. A crow’s beak. Moments later, the Soulburn surges forward in a direction north of their current location. A bird of swirling hues flying through the wall. [14]

Behind Eustace, another green thread floats through the air and begins circling around Hitomi.

DOUG’S COMMENTARY

February 25, 2025

The twist of Magnus Odinson being a major character continues to have slightly odd timing issues with the series. In The Good Place, Jason has a line along the lines of, “I’m too young to die and too old to order off the children’s menu, what a stupid age I am!” In a similar vein, Magnus is too big a boss to settle in a single scene but too minor a boss to rest the whole session to just handling him. In this light, it’s a good place to stop since this kind of would have made sense at the end of the last post but also makes more sense on its own. I have artwork and started some development of Magnus but in the OG scene he was just going to be an old man with more wits than sense. Now he’s a bit craftier and I’ve come up with some fun twists — e.g., he has a stash of Soulburn in his chapel and the black-camo troops to guard him.

Another reason I decided to not cram another two hour session’s worth of content here is I want to go ahead now and do the last “half” of my rules reread. Chances are that E+H are going to need some of those Plans B type mechanics. Genny was meant to be Help during the scene but he is out. People are scattered with the time table shift. It’s going to be Eustace “I am not a gun” against psychic bad guys, albeit ones not as strong as he is.

Overall, though, a story meant to be about saving one member of a crime family and then maybe having a shoot out with another member has gone to some fun stuff. The development of multiple cults that are interwoven. The strangeness of the higher level Patel troops. The various street gangs and how they play off. The storyline of why bad stuff keeps happening to Hitomi. Eustace becoming a crow instead of a fox because he is starting to actually weave the Soulburn instead of reading the threads. All fun stuff.

On the very slightly negative side of things is that I will likely be running slightly shorter sessions of this because it requires a good deal of overhead. I feel like I am hitting the Outgunned vibe, at least the one that I want to run, but some of my more simpler systems I like require a few dice and character sheets that can be kept up with on a notecard. This needs a bit more set-up and take down. Each scene has a few words of build up but behind the scene there is 30+ minutes of building up the graphics, time spent trying to make sure it all makes sense. Three to four scenes is likely a good upper limit unless the scenes just flow super well. That gives me more time and freedom to build up some quirky moments like the explosion. To develop how the tech would work.

It’s just a bit strange to spend around three hours of playing, crafting, and writing and then see what seems like short posts even though one-third of the work never quite makes it to the page besides as a final product. Some of that gets easier as we establish the factions and sections more.

On to the fourth and possible last proper intermission unless I spend one working out the Patel encounter, which I might.

MECHANICAL AND STORY NOTES

Is this tech exactly in line with what Dave Akari took from Hitomi? (Even) → [c90] Yes.
Crime + Fix. Double Critical. System takes 2 Grit damage.
A few more rounds. Crime + Fix to Hack. Nerves + Fix to resist the security protocols. +1 to both for the laptop (will lose that if loses Laptop Grit). Critical React. Next action: Crit + 2x Basic.
Action: Double Crit. React: Crit + Basic. Action: Impossible. At this point, she has done enough damage to the system, and gotten an impossible, so we say she gotten enough to hack the system and to set it up as desired.
Would they have where Genny is in the system? (Bad) → [c66] NO! The system isn’t used for that kind of system at all.
Treating the pair as basic canon fodder, the two just need Double Basic to get it and make those rolls with Crime + Stealth. Eustace’s fits → [c109] 4, not very well. Hitomi’s fits — [c4] 4. Also not very well. No real help at anything like a close inspection but will keep them hidden at a larger distance.
Eustace gets an Extreme + Basic. He is able to withstand the blast and say that drops that Hitomi to need a Critical. Hitomi makes that but has two 1s and so takes two grit.
Did any of hte Knives survive? (Bad) → [c80] No.
Are there guards around the building? (Good) → [c108] NO!
Eustace is going to spend an Adrenaline. In this case, we’ll consider his reckless actions to be a gamble. He gets 9 dice. Impossible success with no 1s. He catches them off guard and slaughters them.
Can Genny still fight? (Even) → [c10] No. Does Genny need immediate medical attention? (Even) → [c116] No.
Did Genny hear anything about where Magnus might be? (Even) → [c120] No.
Something of an open Gamble Focus + Cool. -1 for his still needing full Soulburn. Only gets a Basic. He’s starting to make contact, but not enough.
Spent a spotlight. Got it back on the coinflip.

CREDITS

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

Other sources used include:

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

ART CREDIT AND EXPLANATION

The Knives Compound is actually this farm: Photo by Amandine L. on Unsplash

The South Tower: This photo of industrial equipment. I needed something that felt a bit tech but also a little old school and it worked. It actually was a slightly more involved photo in that I needed it to have some Soulburn but also a sense of a headache so the Soulburn is more glitched, there are multiple competing layers, and a couple of other tricks [like grayscale] to make it a bit fuzzier.

Jericho’s, using a similar system: Photo by James Zwadlo on Unsplash.

Knives Storeroom: Photo by George Kedenburg III on Unsplash.

Taxonomy and Technical Data

World: The GLOW

Campaign: The GLOW

Arc: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont

Post: Episode 7 – Finding Genny

Dates Played: February 24-25, 2025.

The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont, Episode 6 – Knives Out

By Doug Bolden

On 2025-02-28

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

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

A group of worshipper gather around a speaker on the stage.

“Previously…” and Campaign/Arc Summary
The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont Episode 6 – Knives Out

Previously, on The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont

Hitomi had to flee back to Century to try and save Bee. Eustace, trying to reach Hitomi, triggered a strange force that brought sizable quantities of Soulburn into his body. As the two stop a group of militant street punks – the Terminal Assassins – Eustace loses control and becomes a weapon for The Order.

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 6 – Knives Out

Eustace and Hitomi are going to get +2 Adrenaline for that previous session.

Setting the Scene. Drop Off, From Afar, and the Expected Betrayal.

Date: Saturday, June 1, 1996.

Time: 8:47pm.

Place: Around half a kilometer from the entrance to the Knives of the Fallen Star’s compound.

Expected Scene: Eustace and Hitomi dicuss recent events while watching Genny make the drop off.

Scene Test: [c19] 6. 2d10 5 + 10 = minor twist. “A flash of an energy weapon.”

Actual Scene: The Knives try and betray Genny.

Did Mrs. Yuuki survive? (Even) → [c71] No? Hmmm. She’s unconscious. Critical condition. Not expected to pull through, but currently in hospital. We’ll roll again later and it will be “Bad”.

A greenhouse with buildings in the background.

Drop Off, From Afar, and the Expected Betrayal.

Date: Saturday, June 1, 1996.

Time: 8:47pm.

Place: Around half a kilometer from the entrance to the Knives of the Fallen Star’s compound.

Hitomi hands Eustace the binoculars and sits down behind an old A/C vent unit. From the roof of the warehouse, they have a fairly clear view of the Knives’ compound. Unfortunately, even at their current distance they can’t risk someone from the paranoid group of cultists spotting her lighting up a cigarette, which is what she is now doing.

“We can call it, you know?,” Eustace says, “If you want to get to the hospital.”

By hospital, Eustace means StormGroup Medical. Mrs. Yuuki might be a bit old school but she plays by new world rules. She has been paying up her StormGroup dues for years and lived relatively healthy — minus the smoking and the stacks of discount red meat — so has quite a few credits in their system. They took her there after she was found a few feet from manager’s desk. She had apparently tried to save the petty cash. The Terminal Assassins shot her and then set the safe on fire destroying the Cred. Bee was the only uninjured survivor besides a few that made it out in the initial chaos. Bee lived by hiding their small frame on the bottom shelf of the ice cream section. She’ll have an indefinite mother of a chill but currently is being kept by Juan. [1]

“I’m fine.”

Eustace says nothing as he watches Genny’s gray truck approach the front gate of the Knives of the Fallen Star’s compound, one of the many hydroponic green houses visible behind the wall. The plan is Genny drops off the guns. They give a count of an hour or two, enough time for the guns to get distributed but not enough time for the Knives to take them out for target practice. Then Eustace and Hitomi attack the north tower. Draw people to them. Then they try to lead that group to the west tower. Once enough commotion is going, Anastasia Yuma and her group are going to launch an attack on the south tower and the main compound. If it goes well, the Knives who are looking to quit but are currently trapped within the walls will join the fray. Magnus Odinson’s plans of toppling The GLOW will come to a halt. It’s a lot of ifs.

“Bee was smart and hid. Mrs. Yuuki was dumb and is probably dead. She could have hid. Could have gone out the back and maybe saved people. It’s not them I am worried about,” Hitomi finally says. Her position leaning up against the metal frame looks dejected. Worried. She holds the cigarette like it’s medicine. A medicine that isn’t making a dent. “I’m worried about you. You were glowing. And…they were there.”

Eustace sighs. They already discussed it. Eustace was in the middle of the bike race and started reaching out pulling Soulburn in, something he wasn’t aware he could do. After a point, he stopped being able to see anything but Soulburn. He does not remember any Psychics or killing a group of armed attackers. The next thing he recalled was Hitomi on the verge of tears holding him. Then getting to Bee and finding Bee shivering and losing consciousness from the cold. And a few other survivors like Mrs. Yuuki. A couple had insurance. The rest were taken to discount regional clinic and most likely will be organ donors before morning with their families billed for the remainder.

“I wish I could tell you it made sense to me, Hitomi.”

“Do Psychics believe in luck?”

He takes his eyes off the the deal going down. One where several people with robes are walking around the truck and it all seems pretty amicable. Eustace is having a hard time getting a read but currently Phase…whatever…seems to be going well. Looking at Hitomi, he waits for her to continue.

“I just mean, the Patels hit my kiosk. Then the Sasakis betrayed me. Then Juan got hit by Ouroboros. Then Bee and Mrs. Yuuki got hit by something that seems complete unrelated. Just meaningless violence, sure, but why a fucking grocery store?”

“SHIT!”

“What?” Hitomi is standing up.

Eustace has put the binoculars back to his face and has just seen one of the cultists hit Genny with some sort of stun stick. “They got Genny. Call Anastasia, we have to go!”

Setting the Scene. Two Hours Earlier.

Date: Saturday, June 1, 1996.

Time: 6:35pm.

Place: Anastasia’s apartment, above the BioKraft Club.

Just a quick sort of talkie scene to help establish a few plot points. Was the “first’ scene of this session but got moved down to help move action forward.

Two Hours Earlier.

Date: Saturday, June 1, 1996.

Time: 6:35pm.

Place: Anastasia’s apartment, above the BioKraft Club.

Hitomi lights the blonde woman’s cigarette. If Hitomi had to make a guess, Anastasia was withdrawing from something. Not drugs. That doesn’t feel right. Something else. Something more vital. Lanky frame. A certain haunted look in her eyes. A smile that feels foreign to her face. Like she is hearing ghosts talk to her.

“You’re a low level psychic,” Eustace says, “Grade One or Two.”

Anastasia stares at him. Her face going through all of its odd and no doubt unhappy emotions. Myranda had looked at Eustace with barely controlled lust. Anastasia looks at him somewhere between wonder and fear. Hitomi wonders what she sees.

Eustace ditched the t-shirt he had been wearing earlier. Already bloody and having holes from the gunshots. Still, the freshly laundered — or at least freshly bought — Hawaiian shirt does not dispel the scent of blood on him. He looks like a man who just got out of a fight with twelve angry killers.

“I was,” Anastasia says, the hint of an accent — Slavic or Russian — on her tongue. Like Hitomi’s British accent it is mostly gone except as affectation. “Then I met Magnus. What do you know about him?”

“Absolutely nothing,” Hitomi says. Eustace shrugs. “We were just told about the job just last night. Well, maybe this morning. Recent.”

“Magnus is the trope of the idiot genius. Plays up himself as the founder of a new religion. An ancient prophet. A literal son of Odin. But down inside he is a scientist looking for guinea pigs.”

She walks over to a desk that has a number of cigarette burns on it. Despite the stale smoke smell permeating the place, there is not an ash tray in sight. In fact, the whole apartment has a very pre-furnished, temporary abode vibe. Opening a bottom drawer she brings out a device that looks like a tiara. Hands it to Eustace. He holds it a second and then half drops, half tosses it back into her hands.

“It feels, weird. Cold.”

“Magnus calls it the crown of thorns. He has dozens of these. Maybe hundreds. New recruits are forced to wear them. Says it purifies your thoughts from the Soulburn. Gets all the tortured souls out of you. Only it does something else. It makes it so you brain, your body, detests Soulburn. The city smells like rotted flesh to me. I want to leave, only I left friends behind.”

She tells them that she was a young hippie type. Came to the city to find dreams. Only it awakened something in her. The ability to see. “I could see the Soulburn bright during the day. See it move and flow and dance. Only the city is such a terrible place. A giant mouth that chews. I found out about the Knives. ‘Back to Earth’ they said. A place that was The GLOW but was also something old world. It appealed. I got here and got fitted with that very crown. And it all went wrong.” She stopped being able to see the light dance and started sensing something dark and fearsome moving instead. Eventually, even that died down. Left her feeling like amputee. A phantom limb she only grew in Soulburn but now one her body craves to get back.

“There are many like me. Hedge mages. Psychics. Others. People who considered their new gifts to be a blessing. A way to fix this place. Magnus feeds off of us. Alters us. Claims to be fighting back against the evils of the Harrowing. Only…”

“Only he is turning you into weapons, people with a vested interest in destroying The GLOW.”

Anastasia nods.

Then they get to work making plans.

Setting the Scene. Angelic Intervention.

Date: Saturday, June 1, 1996.

Time: 8:51pm.

Place: Near the Knives Compound, approaching the “South Tower”.

Expected Scene: Eustace and Hitomi try to shut down the so-called South Tower.

Scene Test: [c95] 5. 2d10 = 7 + 10. Major twist/complication. “Drone Attack!” + “Speed or Agility Challenge” + the picture of a person with a knife through them that made me think of angel wings works plenty.

Actual Scene: The Knives realize they are being attacked and send a group of drones to attack.

For the “angels” we’ll use Bad Guys Template 3. Attack 2xCrit. Defense: Crit. Grit: ☐◯☐◯☐☐. Feats (3pts) = Tactics + One Step Ahead. Basically, it is hard to approach them AND there is no weak spot. Weapons will be the equivalent of pistols for range.

Angelic Intervention.

A statue of an angel above the tree tops.

Date: Saturday, June 1, 1996.

Time: 8:51pm.

Place: Near the Knives Compound, approaching the “South Tower”.

“Are those harps?,” Eustace manages to ask a half second before flinging himself, and Hitomi sidewise. Gunfire from above them tear into the spot they just were. Unfortunately, there is more where that came from as another attacker has set up on the side they dodge down. Neither Eustace or Hitomi are able to dodge this gun fire as well. [2]

“Are those ANGELS!?”

“Drones meant to look like angels!”

“I thought Magnus hated all this GLOW shit?”

As Hitomi says this bit, she is opening fire on the “angel” (one of three) right above her, unloading a whole clip. A few bullets graze off its metallic structure and send it back a bit. Eustace runs over and leaps off a trash bin and flies up to grab hold of another one. As it tries to maneuver to throw him off, he latches on to a drain pipe of an abandoned store front and locks the “angel” in place. [3]

The Angel that Eustace is on tries to slam the man against the wall but Eustace manages to hold on and weather the blow, though the sound of a cracking rib can be heard. The other two are focusing on Hitomi who takes multiple shots and glancing blows from ricocheting debris. [4]

Hitomi realizing Eustace and herself are in danger, slams another mag into the assault rifle and screams as she opens fire. The bullets cut through the angels above and the two not currently carrying Eustace falls to pieces. Eustace has figured out the general structure of the drone, jams a blade into, and pulls up, shorting it out. As the being crashes to the ground he manages to roll with the fall. [5]

“How did they know we were coming?,” Hitomi asks as she slides down the wall and grabs her injured sides.

“Most logical answer is that they have psychics. People like Anastasia, only she was too weak to be of use. The others are higher grade. People outside of the Compound. Mages. Psychics. Whatever. Doing the work for him.”

“How does that work, though? His plans would destroy him. Why help?”

“History has plenty of people siding with their oppressor if they think it shields them, often with the obvious result. But I don’t think his goal is to destroy the GLOW.”

Eustace looks down at Hitomi, all those emerald lines dancing around and through her. More than ever. He doesn’t tell her his new fear, why things are starting to impact her so much. Why the two of them must have stood out like beacons in the night to any Psychics watching. Instead, he focuses on his new realization. About what a power mad man might be doing by gathering up and experimenting on a bunch of low level mages and Psychics, hiding out in a compound where a particular agency would have problems keeping track.

“I think Magnus’s plan is to overthrow the Order.”

We have unexpectedly come to a great opportunity to have a Turning Point. It’s a bit “mid-session” but I’m fine with that since these solo playthroughs treat sessions a good bit differently. At any rate, neener neener.

Eustace: He has spent a lot of time punching and getting shot so I think Fight & Stunt are his most logical choices for skill pips. For a Feat, the most Eustace thing would be Counter. This allows him to React with Brawn + Fight, ignoring certain penalties. It is very much so him to leap into a gun fight or to keep punching when he should be dodging. He also gets 1 Adrenaline for the Turning Point and 1 for the fight scene that happened.

Hitomi: I think Stunt would be a good one since there’s been a lot of dodging and diving. For the other, going with Fix. A lot of hands-on type hacking and that’s the skill that makes the most sense. For her Feat, I am going with Tormented by the Past (“Neon Noir”). Her issues with Dave Akari are a scar that she has worked past. She (essentially) gets a bonus to all rolls to Cool and Endure. She also gets +2 Adrenaline for the Reasons above.

Setting the Scene. Sharpening the Blades.

Date: Saturday, June 1, 1996.

Time: 10:51pm.

Place: In a back alley a few blocks from the Knives Compound.

This is a bit of a Time Out. Rather than roll anything: they clear off the conditions and Eustace is running interference with the Knives’ psychics. Hitomi is going to be on the “phone” and setting up a response.

NOTE: By the nature of parsimony, this essentially will be tied to the bigger plot. Magnus working with or against the Patels seems likely. I learned my lesson. *wink*.

Sharpening the Blades.

Date: Saturday, June 1, 1996.

Time: 10:51pm.

Place: In a back alley a few blocks from the Knives Compound.

Hitomi and Eustace have broken into what was once a store front. Bodega. Electricity and water still on but shelves picked bare. A large blood stain near the cash register suggests it might have been closed due to violence, but if it was it was the kind of violence that didn’t tear up other parts. Targeted. Someone looking to kill, not to vandalize. They are back near a soda dispenser. Based on the smell, the soda has gone bad some time back. Hitomi is sitting on the counter and keeping a broad eye on the door. Eustace is laid out on the floor and stretched out, getting rest in before going back into battle.

“If this is what you say it is,” Hitomi asks, “The start of a full on rebellion against The Order, why don’t you call them? Tell your people they need to act. They showed up to watch a grocery store get slaughtered.”

“I’m not sure I have the authority. Also, when this Walk is up, I probably won’t be let back out unless I have a mask. Eustace will be gone. Only Nurse will remain.”

“How long do you have before it’s up anyhow?”

“Walks are funny. In theory, it means only the Psychics that are willing to dedicate themselves to The Order make it. They are the ones that come back. Others go on the run.”

“And your people allow that?”

Eustace thinks, again, to those people that get caught, have their powers stripped. Sigils cut. And the others. Limbs removed, brains carved directly with sigils. Floating in vats. Dying and burning out but able to untangle threads so effectively.

“No, not exactly. Unless we leave it all behind. Go north. South. Get out of the Soulburn.”

“And what are you going to do? When it’s time?”

“A mayfly lives its forever in a day, Hitomi. I’m just going to be myself. It started out about trying to find that mini-disc, fix Jani’s last mistake. Only now, I don’t really care what is on the disc. I only care about…well, you know.”

Hitomi gets up and walks over to him, crawls down beside him and wraps her arms around his chest. The two of them find things to worry about until the rest of the people can get in line and a more coordinate assault on the Knives can begin.

Setting the Scene. When Is a Wall a Door?

Date: Sunday, June 2, 1996.

Time: 12:51am.

Place: The wall closest to the southern “tower.”

Expected Scene: Eustace breaks through the wall to start launching the fight against the Knives.

Scene Test: [c5] 3. 2d10 = 1 + 1.

Actual Scene: As expected

How about a gunfight while Eustace is cutting through a wall? BOOM!

We’ll treat the wall as Defense = 2xCRITICAL enemy with no attack and 6 GRIT boxes.

The cultists shooting at Hitomi will be Cannon Fodder: 2xBasic/Basic/9. The twist is that the first time that Hitomi and Eustace both make a Reaction test, their guns will break. They can still come in punching and such.

The soundtrack for this particular scene will be Mister 404’s “Blow that Smoke.” I found that Youtube channel earlier today and have been enjoying some of the vibe it puts out. In fact, the entire Mister 404 playlist is worth a listen for this…

When Is a Wall a Door?

Date: Sunday, June 2, 1996.

Time: 12:51am.

Place: The wall closest to the southern “tower.”

The north side of the street is the five meter tall southern wall of the large Knives of the Fallen Star Compound. Eustace and Hitomi picked this spot as some distance from any of the guard posts and gates, but they know the Knives can sense them coming and so even with Eustace running psychic interference, they only have a short period of time. Eustace’s plan is to cut a circle in the wall here, about as close as they get to the Southern Tower, and then they will bee line for the tower. It should help them to escape, after they have Genny in hand.

The south side of the street is cheap apartments and more stores. The kind of place that closes up at 6pm with heavy shutters. The Knives make weird neighbors. Offering some protection and generally keeping the violence down, they also discourage anyone but the desperate to move in. Folks here can’t afford garages or armored cars. Sensible, older models are parked right out on the road. A lot of the buildings have old school fire escapes. Street lights are barely frequent enough to cover any of the glow.

Eustace rams the blades on his arms into the wall at the 3- and 9-o’ clock positions and then, muscles bulging, starts cutting through. He gets a about half a meter into his large circle when shouts are heard from up the street. A group of Knives are pouring out from a building across from the Compound’s walls, still in white robes, and starting to open fire. At the same time, Hitomi gets her gun up and starts peppering the guys with shots while also diving back behind a light pole to avoid getting hit herself. Eustace just flattens up against a wall. Two of the guys fall back from Hitomi’s gun fire. The sounds of clicks and curses announces that Hitomi’s sabotage is working. The four guys still standing pull out knives and start charging. [6]

Hitomi leaps over a car to give herself a cover and try and pull the guys off of Eustace. A few seconds later, all of these are dead in the street. She cocks her head and listens for anything like sirens. What she hears is more shouts from both directions. Soon, more of the Knives will be here. Eustace has the circle cut all the way to the top and bottom but will need more time to get through. Hitomi starts across the street and shoots out the windows of a car. She jumps inside and starts slamming the equipment to start all of its alarms going off. Right as she does, a much larger group of Knives can be seen running in their direction. [7]

Sure enough, they spot her and the loudly beeping car and make tracks in her direction, she gets behind the car and waits for them to get a bit closer to make sure they are all focusing on her. [8]

As soon as they are close enough that all eyes can be on her, she starts shooting into the mass of people and sees the woman in front go down under the bullets. One the guys behind the frontwoman also drops. Hitomi then turns her gun and shoots a blue car near the Knives, causing a second car alarm to erupt into the street. She glances towards Eustace who is continuing the “draw” a large circle in the wall but as she watches, he fades from her view. Even the hole in the wall itself is hard to focus on. [9]

Running backward while they open fire on the car she is behind, she again hears the sound of clicks and confusion. Not giving them time to adjust, she rolls out from behind the car and shoots through the group. Soon enough, this second group of Knives has fallen. [10]

“Hey, Nurse, not to hurry you up but we can’t have too much longer before MUNI shows up. Or worse.”

Eustace grunts and keeps cutting through the wall. “But you are doing….sooo…well.” His blades are somewhat stuck. He’s having trouble getting through. Struggling even harder, he brings the blades to within half a meter or so to completion. [11]

“THEY WERE NOT TRUE BELIEVERS!,” a voice sounds down the street. A few heads that had poked out to see what the gun fire had been about start going back in. Coming down the street is a short man in a dark suit. Glasses glow in the night. “Then again, who is?!” The man laughs. [12]

“Who the fuck are you?,” Hitomi shouts back as the man pulls out a large pistol from a holster. She drops her assault rifle and pulls her own handgun. [13]

“Such language, Hee. Toe. Me. My my.”

“Um, Nurse, this is really bad.”

“Be done in a tick…”

“Great…,” Hitomi says as she aims the gun at the man. He knows who she is. This means he is probably working with the Patels. Or the Knives’ Psychics have far too much information. Either way, she is tired of having bad days.

She pulls the trigger and the man is moving. Hard to tell if she got any hits in or not. She’s trying to move back into cover but isn’t going fast enough. She hears a thud as Eustace finally finishes cutting through the wall. Even as a hole big enough for them to get through is left exposed, he is moving to intercept the man. [14]

The man is on top of a car and shoots at both them. Eustace slashes at the bullets with his blades and manages to stop most from hitting him. Hitomi is not so lucky and she is tired of being shot, tonight. So many things have tired her out. [15]

Eustace closes the distance and even behind the strange bug-eyed glasses, Hitomi can tell he someone not used to dealing with opponents so one on one. Eustace slams the man down into the car and then kicks him down into the pavement. He drops down and stabs the man through the legs. Hitomi squeezes off a couple of shots, hoping to hit Eustace, but nothing seems to connect. [16]

As Eustace is about to bring his blades down into the guy’s face, another figure drops out of seeming nowhere — a woman with matching glowing goggles as the man — and kicks Eustace fully in the chest hard enough he tumbles back up and over the car. By the time he and Eustace gets around, both are gone. [17]

Eustace picks himself up. Sirens can be heard in the distance. As well as gunshots and shouts. The others are assaulting the other parts of the compound but MUNI is incoming. Maybe more than just MUNI this time around.

“Time to go, Mochi.”

DOUG’S COMMENTARY

February 22, 2025

I’m going to be honest, the reason I stopped the battle there is because I want Yori and Ambra to return. Roger Patel’s more specialist agents. Hunting Hitomi but also working with Magnus with a plan to weaken the Order. Eustace and Hitomi are having to pass on and going longer into the battle would have ended up with the siblings probably dead and it’s more fun to have that moment where the next level bad guy shows up and goes “boo” before disappearing.

I’m still struggling a bit to be creative but that final scene was a lot of fun. Increasingly difficult bad guys building up to a mini-boss fight. It helped me get a feel to how well the new Eustace skill kit works and that’s about right. I like it. Yori “The Poltergeist” got his vibe because I had some Nick Fancher art bookmarked to use somewhere since a lot of seemed like it would be a good match and when I did a search for “cyber cowboy” it brought back the picture that became Yori. It wasn’t a perfect match for my initial idea but I quickly realized the opportunity for sibling assassins with glowing eyewear. We’ll build up Ambra in the future.

The shift from Magnus Odinson being a brief stop to one of the major turning points was a welcome one. It’s the part of solo play that I really like. Where you find a way to trick yourself and surprise yourself with the plot. In this case, it was meant to be maybe episodes 3 and 4. Then it stretched out. It’s already 4 episodes into dealing with it. As I got a few major twists and realized where it could be going it just made a lot of sense. Something I had not planned but something that made the story more interesting. Because while there is still no good way to have a happy ending for Eustace, there is an odd side-truth: he is still sort of doing what The Order wants. Fighting back against the enemies of The GLOW.

There was meant to be at least one more scene involving shutting down the tower and figuring out how much of an impact the towers were having on Eustace. Still, we’ll start there next time and deal with rescuing Genny and maybe fighting Odinson. A proper mini-boss battle.

Have started embracing more art with people in it. Anastasia, Magnus, Yori, and Ambra. It’s a neat thing but it still makes me a bit self-conscious. At any rate, the pictures I have found have been perfect for telling the story.

MECHANICAL AND STORY NOTES

Quick card to make a hospital. [c29] Don’t like ‘Tryhard E-Sports’ so will take the image oracles: lightning bolt and a mob. Will go with a bit of cyberpunk hypercapitalism tropes.
Eustace gets Double Basic and manages to absorb only 2 of the 6 Grit (takes 4). Hitomi gets a Critical and ‘only’ takes 3. Ouch.
Hitomi empties a mag for +1. Gets +1 for the range. Nerves + Shoot nets her 3 Basic which turns into 1 Crit damage. Eustace tries to leap up to get to them (full action, not quick). Brawn + Stunt nets him one Crit + Basic. He makes it and gets a quick action as well. This does two grit total with the first hot box hit.
The angel tries to slam Eustace into a wall. Eustace gets a Critical (+1 Help for using the enemy as a shield) and manages to hold on (still takes 3 Grit). Hitomi does get any successes and takes 6 danged grit. Both take the You Look Hurt condition.
Hitomi has banked 6 adrenaline. Spends them to take the Spotlight. She gets an Extreme success which does three grit and takes them down to a single grit remaining. Coin flip lets her keep the spotlight. Eustace spends an Adrenaline to use Focus + Know + Blades + 1 for grappling (8 dice). Gets a Critical and two Basics. Is able to roll with the fall and avoid further damage. That finishes off the Angel drones.
Brawn + Fight. +1 for arms. +1 for blades. Eustace gets 2 Crits + a Basic. He knocks out one Grit from the wall and has enough left over to attempt to dodge. For shooting back, Hitomi gets Critical + Basic and does 4 damage. For dodging, both Eustace and Hitomi *just* get Double Basics which means they avoid getting hit but this activates the jam for the guys, who now have to run foward.
Shoot + Nerves + 1 for range + 1 for confusion. Gets an Extreme and has enough to cut down the rest. Eustace gets Extreme + Crit for 2 more successes. The wall is around half cut now.
Next group is Critical/Critical/9. Hitomi has the attention brought on her and has partial cover from the car. 50% chance they will spot Eustace.
Hitomi loses 1 for the partial cover but after going all in, but with an All-In manages to hit Extreme + Basic. The Extreme will do 3 Grit damage to them. The Basic she will use to shoot another car down the street and set off its alarms to add the noise. Eustace gets Extreme + 2 Basics. He has moved it just one more notch forward but with the two basics we’ll say he partially obfuscates himself from their mind. Combined with Hitomi’s actions, he will get one more turn before they even check to notice him.
Hitomi gets an Impossible Reaction. I like to play that leftovers can be used for counter attacks so that becomes 1 for dodge and 8 successes to fire back. She mows them down.
First roll, nothing. Second roll, he gets a double crit. He is now 4 Grit into the wall.
A bit behind the scenes but the man’s name is [c19] Yori The Poltergeist. As an agent, he is all about inspiring fear and being something of an infamous legend.
Even with a free reroll, she doesn’t make a Focus + Streetwise.
Bad Guy Template 4. 9 Grit. 2x Critical Attack. Critical Defense. 9 grit. 2 hot boxes (4 and 8). Bullet Proof Vest and Hard to Kill. Hitomi still manages an Extreme hit and drops him to his first hot box. Holy crap, Eustace finally gets enough to finish off the wall (Extreme + Crit). The wall drops and he can join the fray.
Eustace gets Crit + 2x Basic and only takes one grit. Hitomi only gets 2x Basic and loses 4.
Eustace spends 1 Adrenaline to roll 9 dice. After the reroll and going all in, he has 1 Extreme + 1 Crit + 1 Basic. 4 Grit, taking Yori to his next hot box. Hitomi gets no hits but doesn’t accidentally shoot Eustace so there’s that.
Going to use the Call Backup special action. Ambra (name from same card) will show up. Bad Guy Template 5. She’ll do one Reaction and her and her brother will go. She is no joke at allllllllllll… Eustace gets a Critical + a Basic but loses the Basic on a reroll. Takes 3 Grit. They are then going to disappear and show up later as a team.

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

Knives worship meeting: Photo by Janay Peters on Unsplash.

Greenhouse: Photo by Viktor Talashuk on Unsplash.

Anastasia Yuma: Photo by Oleg Onchky on Unsplash.

Angel Drones: Photo by Kasper Rasmussen on Unsplash.

The Back Alley: Photo by omid armin on Unsplash.

Outside the Compound: Photo by Minsoo Eun on Unsplash.

Yori = this photo. Ambra is this photo. These are a pair of photos that convinced me to try out the Unsplash+ license.

Taxonomy and Technical Data

World: The GLOW

Campaign: The GLOW

Arc: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont

Post: Episode 6 – Knives Out

Dates Played: February 20-22, 2025.

The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont, Episode 5 – Terminal Issues

By Doug Bolden

On 2025-02-26

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

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Front door to a night cafe, a few people just visible inside.

“Previously…” and Campaign/Arc Summary
Experiences! And other paperwork…
The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont Episode 5 – Terminal Issues

Previously, on The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont

Eustace and Hitomi have gotten the guns intended for The Knives of the Fallen Star (while possibly kicking of a ServiSynth rebellion by accident). Now they need to meet up with one employer to betray another. Eustace must comes to terms what what stance he will take. Will he uphold Soulburn at the cost of his own future?

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.

Experiences! And other paperwork…

Ended the last one right as the action died down (as I am wont to do). This leaves a bit of a need to work out a few post-shot details

GRIT: Eustace will be healed up. I’ll build this into context but generally at the end of the Shot, or when they get a break, it resets. Grit is meant to be very fluid, something I will build up more in this shot [which will be about 2-3 sessions across a couple of posts].

EXPERIENCES: To deal with the more rapid-fire nature of the game, there is a soft-…well, experience system baked in. Characters get experience to represent things like achievements, scars, and relationships developed over the story. On page 192, it words it like… “When you face a challenge that leaves a mark, when you survive a desperate encounter, when you take part in a memorable exchange, or when you make an upsetting discovery, the Director can ask you to note down the Experience on your Hero Sheet.” It then says to check in per Shot to see anything sticks out. There’s no hard-and-fast rule to what does or doesn’t get in, it just helps to slightly accelerate the bigger-than-life action.

I’d like to go ahead and add at least two. For Hitomi:

Achievement: Learned how to bond with ServiSynths.

While for Eustace:

Achievement: Can use obfuscation.

There are other possibilities. We know Hitomi has suffered a fairly major betrayal — Dave Akari — that has changed her outlook and that she prefers payment but has done a lot of favors for folk while several older people have partially adopted her — Juan Uno, Mrs. Yuuki Jones. For Eustace, I am playing it like most surface level thoughts and identities — stuff without danger attached — are automatic for him to read and he is inadvertently reshaping psychic threads. In all these cases, I am just building into the story for now. As it becomes more pronounced, we’ll see.

Besides that, we’ll clear the Condition from Eustace and both of them get 2 Adrenaline for the last (couple of) session(s).

The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont. Episode 5 – Terminal Issues

Setting the Scene. Haggling and New Opponent.

Date: Saturday, June 1, 1996.

Time: 1:07am.

Place: Front room of Julian’s Cafe.

Expected Scene: Eustace and Hitomi plan for the next half of the job…

Scene Test: [c102] 3. 2d10 = 3 + 10. Minor twist: Someone jockeys for your job.

Actual Scene: While Eustace and Hitomi are patching up, someone jumps in to try and snag the job from them.

Since this other person is a good candidate for friend or foe once we move out of the more prologue bits, let’s make a person. “Guns for Hire.” 10 Jinjuro Yusuda. 58 ex-Saudi GID, thermoptic camo, synthetic endorphin addict [for synthetic endorphin read the sort of stuff Fractal Apocalypse does]. Weapon is 36 Sleek Microwavers. 69 Henpecked, wears camos, buzz cut, rational. Absolutely plenty.

Also, just to establish. Where is the Knives’ base? 14, 9. Between Elsanor and Seminole. Around the Baldwin State Forest area. Or what used to be a State Forest. Now a community of hydroponic farms and high tech farmer’s markets.

Haggling and New Opponent.

Date: Saturday, June 1, 1996.

Time: 1:07am.

Place: Front room of Julian’s Cafe.

Hitomi does her best to ignore Myranda. Myranda Wayne. 2 meters tall. Thin. Busty in the way that defines busty. Often poured into tight dresses that show off a lot of sun-kissed skin. The frequent hostess for after-hours Juan’s Cafe, when it takes on its other face: a hub of various GLOW jobbers and their many clients. When the plants in the courtyard are lit by special pulsing LED lights to make it hard to see through them, and soft music carries with it multiple jamming frequencies. Myranda assigns seats and keeps the peace with both carrot and stick. She’s also the resident medic for the very many post-job touch-ups such a locale might need.

Right now, she is bent over Eustace and applying bandages to his chest and arms. She is well known for her quick, effective treatments. She has is taking her time. Tracing out the muscles and sigils that cover Eustace’s back and chest.

Based on the smirk on Juan’s face, this is possibly a tactic. Either it goads Hitomi into dropping the ball or Myranda and Eustace end up in some backroom working out a payment plan in Juan’s favor. Or both.

Hitomi takes a long drag on her cigarette and reminds herself that Eustace is a big boy. She just reserves the right to shoot him.

The other distraction is Jinjuro “Genny” Yusuda. Originally from Tokyo. Did mercenary work in the middle east until he made a big enough name for himself to become a regular guardsman. Married local. Then defected to the US. Then defected to The GLOW. Rumor was he was a plant. Only he made friends with Juan and now seems to be a regular. A potential spy within a spy within a spy. His wife is cute as hell, though ferocious. He is sitting on the other side of the table next to Juan. Filling in some guard dog duty as well as looking for a bone.

Hitomi has spent the last two hours disabling several firearms so that they will past a quick inspection but will jam up pretty hard after a few seconds of shooting. Along with stripping a good amount of ammo of workable powder. She’s exhausted and having to deal with a double dose of dumbfuckery. [1]

“She’s a kid. He’s already gotten sliced up. Juan, come on,” Genny argues. He puffs on his cigar and makes it sound like he is just being rational and not trying to snag a job that Eustace and Hitomi for which Eustace and Hitomi have already done a lot of work. His hair is cut short. He’s in old fatigues. He looks like the old soldier he is. You want to trust his judgement. But they are talking actual money.

Juan, for his part, is flipping through the log books Hitomi stole. Now that MUNI is wrapping up Ouroboros’s lair after the ServiSynth slaughter, the value on its details has no doubt plummeted. Still, Hitomi is tired of being on the owing end.

Surprisingly, Eustace speaks first. “He’s right. Well, half-right. If we drop off the guns and then get spotted blowing up the Knive’s base, that gets tracked back to Juan. We just spent time stopping Juan from being a target. Chances are it would be best to bring in a third party on this. Split the cash three ways.” Points to himself, Hitomi, and Genny. [2]

Genny seems aware the power dynamic is shifting but Eustace is making a good point. The fact that they could walk right now and not cut him in on any is obvious. He nods. “I make contact with the Knives, give them the guns that Hitomi has prepared. Two hours later, you hit up their south base and start the rabbit run.”

Hitomi catches Myranda’s finger nail trace a line near Eustace’s neck and slams her own hand down. “Hey, speaking of pay, what about us for taking a dangerous threat off your back, Uno?”

Juan nods to Myranda who goes behind the counter and comes back with two fully charged blue Creds. Slides them to Hitomi. A thank you.

“Thanks,” Hitomi says. Juan shrugs. “It is easy to get taken advantage of in this place. You went after me without even asking. I am grateful. For now, though, rest up, little ones. Tomorrow…well, today…is going to be a long one.”

With that he stands and makes his leave. Genny stands up and looks like he might be about to salute Eustace but settles for handshake and a nod towards Hitomi. This just leaves the three.

“Speaking of sleeping arrangements…,” hints Myranda.

“True,” says Eustace, “Can you call us a cab? This Nurse needs a sponge bath and,” playfully kicking at Hitomi, “I think someone owes me for getting stabbed.”

Hitomi does her absolute best to not flip off Myranda on the way out the door. It’s best to be a joyous victor.

Setting the Scene. Bee Held Hostage.

Date: Saturday, June 1, 1996.

Time: 8:03am.

Place: Motel Room at Rest+ Motel.

Expected Scene: Hitomi wakes up a lone, and Genny knocks.

Scene Test: [c102] 6. [c110] 2d10 = 8 + 8. Major complication. Situation: Dependent in Danger. [c97] Shopping Cart. Were they targeting Hitomi? (Even) → [c26] No?

Actual Scene: Hitomi is woken up by a phone call from Bee. Mrs. Yuuki’s store is being held up. Possibly just a random attack.

Since they are probably not targeting Hitomi, this is going to be a random gang from the Century area. They have hit up the store and currently holding hostages, including Bee. Bee gets a call off but won’t have time to share much details. MUNI presence there is low but soon enough it will be lit up by cops who will likely complicate it.

32 Terminal 04 Assasins. Bit on the nose, but ok. 90 Tech Savvy 24 Skill Chipping 49 Street Fighters. 22 Leader hires out her most neurologically damaged boys as muscle. It’s a test rum. A show off. Here are some people with fried out chips that might be worth picking up on the cheap.

Also, since I said the next major twist would bring in the Psychics…they will also be there. Watching.

Bee Held Hostage.

Date: Saturday, June 1, 1996.

Time: 1:07am.

Place: Front room of Julian’s Cafe.

Hitomi wakes up nude and alone in bed. The smell of Eustace on her skin. Also, a few streaks of his blood. He really needs to take a bit of time take care of himself. She pulls herself out of bed, barely rested, and notices Libby has a flashing light. “Libby, play message,” Hitomi commands as she walks naked to the sink and fills up the coffee spot. She lights up her first smoke of the day as Eustace’s voice plays through the techno-dog’s speakers.

“Gone to get clothes. Be back very shortly. Have the bike.”

“Typical,” she says. To herself. To Libby. To the universe. She starts doing some stretches and working up to a full routine when her scrying glass lets out a light noise largely heard in her own head. She picks it up. “Hello…”

“Mochi. Thank god. Help.”

“Bee?”

They have shot Mrs. Yuuki’s guard. A few other street punks, too. Taunting the other folks. I’m hiding in the freezer section. It’s…cold.”

“WHO?!”

“Don’t know. Weird people. All in black. Yellow patch that has three-eyed smiley, they…oh shit, they are coming. I got to go. Help!”

Three-eyed smiley means Terminal Assassins. Techno-utopia cult that believes the future is augmenting the human brain. Plug and play personalities, skills, emotions. The Assassin part comes from its habit of making money by selling off the people that failed to resonate with the implants to do bad things. Literally “terminal assassins.” Greatly enhanced skills until their brain burns out. An attack on a civilian store is most likely a sales pitch. Fire sale. Extra stock of mind melted murderers. Last time it happened they killed everyone they could until a fight with MUNI broke out and a score of officers went down. Likely chance of MUNI actually trying to help anyone is low if not nil. Everyone in that grocery store is dead. Will be, soon.

Hitomi shoves clothes on at speed and grabs her pistol and shoves it into her belt and grabs her newly acquired assault rifle. The GLOW is a whole new level of open carry but she does have the issue of convincing any cab driver not likely to shoot her and take her Creds to actually let on her own board. She thinks “EUSTACE!” really hard but has no idea what that might do. Right as she is debating just leaving the guns behind and figuring something out, there’s a loud knock on the door.

She opens it with her pistol lifted and aimed and hears Genny curse. “What the fuck, Hitomi?”

“Sorry. I need a ride.”

“Unless that ride you need is to the warehouse you dropped off the cache, I pass.”

“Friend of mine is in danger. Terminal Assassins.”

“Double pass. My neighbor does really respectful cremations. I’ll give you his address.”

“Look, goddamnit. They are just 18. They are nice and stupid.”

“In The GLOW? 18 is old for someone making that many mistakes.”

“You can have my share.”

Genny stares at this. Jobbers don’t give up cash. Ever. “Just a ride, I don’t get involved.”

She is pushing past him on the way to his truck, then runs back in and leaves a message for Eustace.

Setting the Scene. Nurse { Gives | Gets } Chase(d).

Can Eustace pick up enough of the psychic threads to feel Hitomi leaving the area at speed? (Bad) → [c47] Yes? He can, but it will take a roll to get any specific detail.

Date: Saturday, June 1, 1996.

Time: 8:21am.

Place: Racing north after Hitomi…

Expected Scene: Eustace is on the road trying to follow after Hitomi.

Scene Test: [c101] 7. [c110] 2d10 = 1 + 9. Minor complication. A challenge to your reputation.

Actual Scene: Eustace is en route but a group of minor street punks stupidly decide to give him guff.

These guys will mostly just be cannon fodder. It just gives us a fun excuse to have a chase sequence. We’ll only clock it at {6 | 9} since it’s kind of just to delay him getting there. Some practice with the mechanics. Need: Eustace needs to get away. Speed: 1.

6 if he makes the psychic read. 9 if he does not.

SCENE SOUNDTRACK: For some silly action, going to jam out loud to Creepy Nut’s LEGION for this one.

A man on a bike stops in the road like a challenge.

Nurse { Gives | Gets } Chase(d).

Date: Saturday, June 1, 1996.

Time: 8:21am.

Place: Racing north after Hitomi…

Eustace is on his way back to the motel when he can feel the various emerald threads stretch and change and start pulling away from him. At speed. He reached out with his mind and wraps one of the threads around the bike and starts moving in that direction as fast as possible. There is no doubt in his mind that she might be running to trouble and need help. [3]

He is heading back north feeling the roads around him and instinctively finding the less traffic congested routes. On a road practically ignored by the past decades of rapid, unstructured progress he is able to pick up a bit of speed. Which means he has to slam on his brakes when he sees a man in the road, blocking the access. Three bikes behind him block any sort of retreat, not that he has intention of retreating. Thing is, he doesn’t really sense any sort of actual hostilities. Even with one behind him pulling out a gun and pointing it in his direction.

“Ah, just idiots…”

The gunner does his best to look threatening as he points to tell Eustace to turn around. The helmeted rider in front is moving the bike back into the road direction and revving the motor. Looking for a race. Do they want a race? Is this recruitment? Eustace can feel the emerald thread pulling tighter. He wonders if he should point out to them that he is not actually a bike rider. This bike is probably capable of decent speed but Eustace is more apt to run very near the actual speed limit. Can’t bring himself to threaten four street punks that pose no threat to him.

Ah well, they can figure it out. He kicks the bike back into gear and once again lets the emerald line start pulling his bike forward. Within a half second of getting up even with the seeming leader, Eustace revs forward and puts himself in the lead. The leader quickly catches up swings around to the right. One of the other three tries to squeeze into Eustace’s space and so Eustace, almost gently, places a large foot on the interloper’s bike and shoves hard. The kid swerves off to the left and flips over a fruit stand while a farmer screams at him, her face looking like she enjoys taking dumb boys down a notch. [4]

The gun waving dumbass takes this as a clue that he needs to try and cock Eustace up the side of the head. Teach Eustace to not have a helmet. Though in Eustace’s defense, he didn’t have a bike all that long ago. The gun butt hurts but he pulls his head back enough to stop it from cracking his skull too hard. [5]

The emerald thread starts vibrating to a strange beat. Hitomi is definitely stressed. He doesn’t have time to keep playing so he reaches into his Psychic core and will his sigils along his back and arm to start grabbing the skills to race more effectively from the very men challenging him. He reaches down into the bike with his mind and begins pulling wires and tweaking gears. His eyes glow green and the Soulburn pouring into him builds up enough that it is clearly visible to even the racers who begin to pull back to give him space. As the Soulburn stretches back like great vibrant crow’s wings, Eustace’s bike reshapes into something new. He accelerates much faster than the others can keep up. [6]

He waves back at the bikers to show no hard feelings and with a quick glance back sees the leader lift a fist in the air, joined by the other two still in the race. Whatever they had in mind, they are impressed and letting Eustace know.

NOTE: The “Crow Form” of Eustace is a first glimpse of his higher level of power. Rather than an “experience” he is going to get a Bike with a starting speed of 2. He has reshaped the mechanical workings of the bike. I also think he has made friends who might show up again later.

Setting the Scene. Head First.

Date: Saturday, June 1, 1996.

Time: 8:39am.

Place: Near Mrs. Yuuki’s Grocery Store.

Expected Scene: Hitomi (and maybe Genny) have to find a way into the store.

Scene Test: [c35] 4. 2d10 = 3 + 5. Them minor twists are wracking up. In this case, I think the obvious thing is the MUNI are {more | less} planning to tussle = More. They are changing their plans and are getting ready to storm the store.

Actual Scene: Hitomi shows up right as the MUNI are planning to hit the store with an EMP.

Is Genny going to stick around for this? (Even) → [c45] Yes? He’s not going to run off right away but it depends on how invested he gets.

Is there a sewer entrance to the store? (GOOD) → [c66] NO! Man. Ok, this means Hitomi will have to rush the back and go in shooting.

The outside of a grocery store, with apologies to Foodlands everywhere

Head First.

Date: Saturday, June 1, 1996.

Time: 8:39am.

Place: Near Mrs. Yuuki’s Grocery Store.

“I don’t suppose you are up for ramming your truck into the back do…ok, it was just a question!”

Hitomi has graduated from chain smoking to chewing her hair. Somewhere in the Foodland in front of her, Bee and possible Mrs. Yuuki Jones are hiding out. An unknown number of Terminal Assassins are inside. An unknown number of dead. And the MUNI have seemed to take their previous losses against the Assassins personally. They are preparing some large scale weapon in the front parking lot. As soon as they get some command from higher ups, they are going to go in guns blazing and try to win back some respect. Municipal Police running by street gang rules.

Which means she needs to get inside and fast. The back is much less densely covered. Terminal Assassins do not escape. Walking dead men and women, their short lives are only worth anything if they survive and can take on even bigger jobs. [7]

“Let’s go, we are going in through the back door. Bee said freezer section and…,” Hitomi stops as Genny grabs her arm and pulls her around to look at her.

“Are you really about to face down Terminal fucking Assassins for your friend?”

“Bee is more than a friend. Mrs. Yuuki, too. They are people that saved me from a moment that nearly devoured me. Even if they don’t know it. I don’t know if I can do anything for Mrs. Yuuki, but I might be able to save Bee.”

“Ok,” he says. He pulls out his gun. No time for microwavers in this situation. “But you don’t do it alone. My wife would kill me if she found out I was doing this for no money. In and out as soon as we get your friend.”

Hitomi approaches the back door of Foodland and spots a couple of MUNI rookies standing way back and smoking. She waits to see if they will say anything but they just shrug and watch. After a few seconds of working with the lock, she has the door open. She holds it for a second, nods to Genny, then shoves it open fully and dives behind cover provided by a couple of crates of bottled water. Genny rolls in after her. [8]

As the door continues to open, it makes enough noise that the three Terminal Assassins who are wandering the storage area walk over to investigate. Within seconds, they are taking pot shots at the cops outside and shouts can be heard. Using the distraction, Hitomi gestures towards Genny and the two make their way across the aisle between boxes and dive down under a table used to store and sort fruit. [9]

With a laugh and a mention of “bleeding pig,” one of the TAs slams the door back shut. At this point, the terminally brain-fried killers seem to realize what an open door might mean and spread out to search the area. Two more Assassins from the front of the store come back to see what the shooting is about. As the now larger number are again continuing the search, and Hitomi is holding Genny’s gun hand, a very loud crash can be heard from the front of the store. Glass shatters as the entire store shakes. Based on the shouts and gunfire, the Terminal Assassins out there are occupied. Genny looks at Hitomi and mouths the word “MUNI?” but Hitomi just shrugs. She’s more interested in the fact that there are only two Assassins left back here for the moment, three having run forward.

She now nods to Genny and pulls her assault rifle forward, takes a moment to aim at the legs of the one closest, and opens fire. As the first one goes down grabbing at his shins, the woman behind him starts to take aim but Hitomi pivots — along with help from Genny — to bring the second Assassin into her sights. Both are down but it takes more than that to finish off a TA. [10]

Both of the Assassins start shooting under the table as Hitomi and Genny are scurrying back from under the table to keep crossing the room, heading towards the door to the main shopping area, planning to dive towards the right where Mrs. Yuuki’s freezer section is. Debris from one of the glancing bullets catches Hitomi on the side but she shrugs the pain off as best she can. [11]

Whipping back around, her and Genny unload bullets into the two TAs before the injured attackers can get up off the floor, finishing them off. Then, Hitomi pushes open the door and stops and stairs at the wreckage. At least a half-a-dozen dead shoppers are sprawled out in this back section of the store. One has been hacked up and tossed in with the meat in the butcher’s counter. If there’s this many back here, surely many more line the rest of the store. Up front, there is more gun fire and a loud grunt as the sound of someone slicing through meat can be heard. [12]

As she passes by an aisle for noodles, rice, and other dry goods she glances up and sees something that makes her stop.

“Eustace?”

Only, Eustace is not alone.

Setting the Scene. The Nurse Makes a House Call.

Date: Saturday, June 1, 1996.

Time: 8:41am.

Place: Near Mrs. Yuuki’s Grocery Store.

Expected Scene: Eustace arrives and gets involved.

Scene Test: [c7] 6. 2d10 = 9 + 8. Major twist. I think the Fight Painful Soul from the card is perfect.

Actual Scene: Eustace shows up and loses control.

Eustace is still geared up from that previous Jackpot. We are going dumb action on this one.

Are the Psychics going to get involved? (Even) → [c20] Yes? Good enough.

A deeply rendered swirl of red and purple bubbles as if being underwater in a dark sea.

The Nurse Makes a House Call.

Date: Saturday, June 1, 1996.

Time: 8:41am.

Place: Near Mrs. Yuuki’s Grocery Store.

To the very many MUNI cops, and even more spectators, the man on the red bike is worthy of notice. Because he is barely a man at this point. The ever present Soulburn — only slightly visible during the day to most people — wraps the man like a shroud. Swirling in place. A storm cloud of many colors. Then the bad thing happens. The man stops and stares at the roof of the building. After a few seconds, three figures shimmer into being, dropping whatever field they had been weaving to stop others from noticing them. Three figures wearing kitsune masks.

People shout. Some scream. A few MUNI start backing up. Three Field Psychics in one place is the equivalent of a nuclear bomb. Quite a few spectators suddenly remember they need to get to work, to go home, to be anywhere else. A few diehards start crowding closer.

Whatever mental communication the man on the bike shares with the three on the roof, it seems to be concluded. He revs his bike twice, and then launches himself like a missile towards the front doors of the grocery store. As he does, all that Soulburn spreads out once more and then comes crashing in through and around him to form a blade of light. Which strikes the glass door and windows and shatters through them, a good portion of the Soulburn dispersing like an entire murder of crows. The man leaps inside and gunfire and more shouts can be heard. The three Psychics leap down from the roof and follow through.

Many of the MUNI start packing up and prepare to leave. Whatever standoff they planned to have has been cancelled. The Scene now belongs to the Order.

Inside, the man fights like he is no longer in control of his own body. Metal blades — in reality a bioengineered extension of his own arms — shimmer and shine as they cut through flesh. Bullets strike him but several barely make it past the thinned out cloud spinning around his body. The head of one of the Terminal Assassins flies off. Another one goes down with a massive gut wound. Still, there are plenty to fight. [13]

The second round of gunfire tears into the man. He deflects some of the shots, but others are clear getting through. Blood starts dripping down his chest. [14]

The man grabs a large box of cans on the floor and smashes into the skull of another of the Assassins, before slicing heavily through two more. A fourth is kicked back into the shelves with such force that his body crumbles. [15]

A redheaded woman rolls out from a nearby kiosk and opens fire at near point blank, but as she does one of the Field Psychics makes a twitch of their hand and the woman finds herself shooting a cardboard cutout of a Motorball athlete instead. [16]

The man drags his shining blades through her torso and ends her life as a massive burst of assault rifles try to catch him off guard. He uses the momentum of dodging back to leap over the counter as the bullets tear through it. [17]

The Terminal Assassins, thinking they have finally gotten the man cornered, approach and continue firing. A moment later the the man leaps out and comes down in the middle of them, cutting them away. And then there is silence. [18]

As the glowing, swirling light pulses through the man one of the Field Psychics walks forward and makes a strange clicking noise with their tongue. The swirling light speeds up and finally disperses. And with it, the Psychics fade like smoke themselves.

As Eustace sways in the aftermath of his slaughter, Hitomi is running up to try and catch him.

DOUG’S COMMENTARY

February 19, 2025

It has been over a week since I’ve had a chance to really play this. Part of it is just embracing that Solo Burn Out which in my case is less a burn out and more a zone of not having a huge amount of personal energy to play but a decent amount of energy to vibe some back-end stuff. Hence why we get a race and a semi-exploding Eustace. It was fun to think of some story beats and not worry too much about it.

I’m calling it here just so I can immediately pivot to the Knives bit in the next one. Probably just skip pretty much all scenes between Eustace and Hitomi getting back together to the drop off of the guns. Bee survives, that’s a given, the others I’ll find out when I sit down and play again.

Not really a whole lot else to say. I wanted to have at least one of these “Eustace loses control” scenes and try out different difficulties of combat and such. Overall, the team tends to just thrive and survive. A LOT of Extreme successes (which I still type as Exceptional in some places) and whatnot.

DANG IT, I just realized I once again treated a Reaction Turn as a Gamble. Ah well, since it was Eustace leaping out into gunfire to fight back, I’ll allow it. I need to make myself a note.

MECHANICAL AND STORY NOTES

Really want an Extreme for this. Even spending an adrenaline makes it so that she only got double Critical. Went ahead and spent a Spotlight. She does not get it back. With the 2x Crit + Extreme, though, we’ll say the job goes super well and she has snagged an extra assault rifle AND filed off the security number. She also grabbed four mags worth of ammo in a way that would not be readily traced.
Smooth + Leadership. Going for Leadership because he is basically taking control here. He gets a Critical.
Focus + Awareness. Critical + Basic. Can both follow the threads (so 6 speed only) and also wraps the thread around himself to help pull himself towards it. Does not get the message.
This is a test race, of sorts. Double Basic difficulty. Nerves + Drive + 1 Help from the psychic thread doing some of the driving nets Eustace a Critical + Basic. He gets to pull to Speed 2 and gets an additional action. Who doesn’t love a good fruit stand smash up?
Brawn + Drive. Gets Double Basic and I tried pushing it which dropped it to a single basic. He takes a single Grit. ☑☑☐☐☐☐
Burned an Adrenaline to use Focus + Know. Got an Impossible success and risked it on a reroll to get a Jackpot. By the rules of the race he finishes it out right.
Are MUNI even guarding the back? (GOOD) → [c73] No? A little, maybe, but just not caring all that much.
Crime + Dexterity + 1 Help (Lockpicks). Crit + Basic + Basic. Enough to get in without being heard + two actions to get herself and Genny a few feet into the room.
Crime + Stealth + 1 Help (the gunfight). Another Crit + Basic combo. Again, enough to get her and Genny to another spot.
These two will be cannon fodder. Nerves + Shoot + 1 (Precision) + 1 (Genny). Double Critical. Their Defense is just basic so this does 6 of their 9 Grit right off.
Brawn + Stunt. Only gets a Basic so takes 1 Grit.
Only needs a Critical and gets it.
Brawn + Fight + 1 (Blades) + 2 (Adrenaline) + 1 Help (Psychics) = Crit + 3 Basic = 2 Crit. We’ll say these are spicier cannon fooder (Crit/Crit + 9). That’s just two of the grit removed.
Brawn + Stunt. Double Basic. 1 Grit lost.
Second time around, he gets Crit + Extreme for 4 grit damage to them. That’s 6 of the 9.
Gets a Crit and manages to take no damage.
Out of Adrenaline so only 7 dice. Crit + Double Basic. 2 Grit remain on the Terminal Assassins.
Full cover so gets +3 Reaction. Has 2 snake eyes so takes 2 Grit damage BUT gets Impossible Reaction. The extra actions means he leaps from his hiding place and finishes them off.

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 front of Julian’s Cafe: Photo by Brad Fickeisen on Unsplash.

This uses a slightly modified version of the Soulburn art style of this series. Thicker lines. More washed out photograph. After having two different posts [technically three] show off Julian’s courtyard, I figured I needed an alternate take.

The interior of the motel room: Getty Images via Unsplash+. It’s a digital mock-up for a kitschy motel room but it made me smile.

The street punk: Photo by Jusdevoyage on Unsplash

The Foodland: Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash

The burned out vision of Eustace in the grip of full Soulburn Madness started out as this photo by Angus Gray on Unsplash.

Note: This is the first The GLOW post to not use any Dean Spencer artwork. Since his art style has been a big part of character development, still wanted to give him a shoutout.

Taxonomy and Technical Data

World: The GLOW

Campaign: The GLOW

Arc: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont

Post: Episode 5 – Terminal Issues

Dates Played: February 18 and 19, 2025.

The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont. Intermission #3 – Checking in with Rules and Such

By Doug Bolden

On 2025-02-23

In Campaign Design, Intermission, Outgunned, The Glow

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

The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont Intermission #3 – Checking in with Rules and Such

Credits

The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont. Intermission #3 – Checking in with Rules and Such

Why Am I Checking In?

In game terms, we have just wrapped up what would be roughly equivalent to our second shot. Solo makes it a bit odder. The first shot being getting out of the mall and dealing with the Apostates + Holy Rollers. The second shot being shutting down Ouroboros and getting a job. The third shot will be dealing with the Knives and their allies. Then we should be at a turning point.

I would say generally the story is going about 70% correctly. We are introducing a few wheels within wheels. We are getting some good — but not locked down in stone — character moments. We have a few allies. A few enemies. Some intrigues but not so many the story is self-burying. Remind me to tell you the time I spent sessions trying to get back to the central intrigue in my first ever solo game. I think we have a good start. A fairly solid start.

But not really a great one. The action is a bit too Tricube Tales — and I say that with love. At this point, most of the action feels like it might have come from Cities Without Number, Cyberpunk 2020, or most other games. It has fights. It has dodges. It just does not quite have the explosive, silly oomph I was wanting.

There are some good moments. Eustace slaughtering the Patel goons before they had a chance to move was campaign establishing. Dodging over the collapsing church floor after taking several hits from the security drones worked well for me. The fight with Weird Arms. Hitomi “hacking” a sentient computer by being friendly to a relatively abused system is the kind of lore that moves worldbuilding forward. Also a lot of simple checks just to find stuff that does not really have any danger associated. Moments where simple talking is plenty. Some of that, maybe a lot of that, was the pneumonia. It is hard to think of exciting things when a set of stairs can wind you for several minutes.

The time has come though to ramp this up a bit. The fight with the Knives is a good start, partially because it challenges a central thesis of the arc: Eustace gets his powers from Soulburn. What does he do against enemies that stop it?

Before I do that, though, I want to take a moment to get a bit into a deeper dive with the rules. Go over the chapters and sections, talk about things I could do better or focus on more.

Rereading “A Time For Action”

“If something can go wrong, roll the dice.” [page 60].

I think this is the primary thing I would like to tweak. Each time the dice come out I want a general break down of what actually fails when they fail.

Partially this is on me to focus on the scenes and set-pieces that have more action. Gun turrets. Three groups of smaller goons rather than just a single fight with a single big bad. Timers and explosions.

“Most rolls worthy of a Hero are Critical rolls.” [page 64].

This is how I have been playing it but it is good to know. Basic should be largely just be used to do more minor rolls where some failure would be fun. Extreme should be more or less the top tier rolls. I think I got this part down ok.

“When Re-rolling, you take all dice that weren’t part of a combination and roll them again.” [Emphasis mine, page 68].

This I have been doing incorrectly. I even talked about, somewhere, there being an odd mini-game where sometimes you get two Basics and I wasn’t sure if you were supposed to risk one of the Basics but picking up those dice and rerolling, especially in cases where you have Snake Eyes. I will, instead, consider a Basic success as “locked” even if it interferes with rerolls.

“If after making a Re-roll or Free Re-roll you got a better result, you can still choose to go All In.” [page 69]

I have not used this but probably should. Eustace is very much an “all in” type of guy.

The next little bit is about extra actions from additional successes. I need to work on this a bit. Partially this, especially: “If you passed a roll with flying colors and one of your friends has failed, you can use any of your extra successes to lend them a hand.” [page 73] I think I have generally treated extra successes as extra effect, not extra actions. I should tweak that.

Another tweak I need to figure out more about is Help. I think I have doing that wrong. For instance, a gun does not grant Help. It just allows you to enter into a gun fight. A laptop might grant Help to hacking since it brings your tools to the table. Eustace’s blades grant help becuause a fist fight doesn’t require blades. I’ll pull that in a bit.

Rereading “Impending Danger”

I have a bad feeling this is the one where I am going to be handling stuff a bit wrong. For instance…

“The difference between a normal roll and a dangerous roll is that if you fail a dangerous roll, you don’t face the usual consequences for a failure. Instead, you lose a set amount of Grit depending on the difficulty of the failed roll.” [page 81] Then it goes on to list the amount of grit. Basic = 1. Critical = 3. Extreme = 9! Impossible = 12. That’s a huge jump from Crit to Extreme but ok. The problem is…

“A Gamble is an extremely risky action or reaction, a wager against all odds that runs the risk of backfiring on the Hero. Gamble rolls can be either Dangerous or normal, but in either case, they carry a threat for you to lose additional Grit.” [page 86] And then, on the next page [page 89], “Afterwards, look at the dice: for every Snake Eye you rolled, you lose 1 Grit. When doing this, you only count the left on the table after you decided whether to Re-Roll or go All In, regardless of if they are part of a success or not.”

The reason this is wrong is you have Gamble Rolls and you have Dangerous rolls and sometimes Gamble Rolls are dangerous but not always. I have pretty much played every combat as a Gamble when sometimes it would not be. It also clarifies that you do count “snake eyes” [aka, 1s] as a hit even if they are part of a success. I thought so, but wanted to double check.

Gambles broadly come from two sources: very dangerous rolls — it lists two variations of this, playing with fire and taking things too far — and going all in which is a +1 and different from the other “All In”.

Healing I have been slighly overcomplicating. You essentially heal all Grit when the character (1) sleeps, (2) catches a break, or (3) the end of a shot. It’s a bit more automatic and regular, once again re-inforcing the need for higher amounts of action.

Generally conditions I have been playing correctly, just haven’t had much use for them overall. One thing to keep in mind is that several conditions have a kind of mini-game aspect that grants an alternate solution. For instance, “You Look Scared” can be removed by facing your fear. That can be fun to play with.

Rereading “Gear Up”

Don’t think it really requires a lot that wasn’t already discussed above. Equipment is in four categories: Common [just for flavor], Tools [+1 Help or “grants permission”], Guns [obvious], and Rides [also obvious].

Combat is very focused on guns which makes the Eustace vs Hitomi, Sword vs Gun divide a bit odd. Eustace get +1 Help from his swords. Hitomi does not for her gun. I think I might be slightly running combats wrong but we’ll get to it.

One thing I missed was “You can lose gear…when you choose to sacrifice it to gain +1 to a roll that you think is extremely important.” [page 99] That’s a mechanic, like the “All In” that I haven’t used. I sort of have in the storyline with Eustace giving up his jacket to steady Bee’s nerves, but not really in a way that would impact the mechanics. I’ll keep an eye out for opportunities.

A lot of the other bits about Rides and Cash are slightly not necessary. It looks like the stay in the motel should cost $1 [again, in Outgunned terms, it is more a logarithmic scale than anything]. I covered that by saying “there were credits” but good to know in the future. There’s stuff for Black Market [page 111] where everything is $1 cheaper and a Gear Up Scene where you can have a shopping spree montage to replicate the moment in a movie where people get a lot of equipment.

On page 110: “Anyway, it’s hard for a Hero to get their hands on more than 1$ at a time, unless they are robbing a bank or some such thing.” That slightly changes how I think of some economy. Probably get $1 for the information snagged from Ouroboros. The other two missions will be $2 and $1 respectively.

That being said, Eustace and Hitomi have a large crate of guns that they can borrow from, but they will have the tag of “easily traceable” which means using them will up the Heat.

Rereading “Face the Enemy”

With the “Impending Danger” reread, I’d say most of how I ran fights “wrongly” might be somewhat fixed (in that I treated Reaction Turns as both Gambles and Dangerous). There are a few other things that I need to note, though, to add some spice. The quick run down would look like…

[page 115] Quick Action + Full Action per Action Turn. Frankly, I’ll probably keep this pretty loose since it’s solo play but it’s the metric.
[same page] Instead of Brawn + Fight or Nerves + Shoot you can use other combos to fight back if they make sense. These would still wear down the Grit of the enemy as long as they might “might hurt, tire, discourage, or chase away your enemies…”
[page 116] Likewise, other skill combos can be used for Reactions as long as they make sense.
[page 117] Fights can start either Action or Reaction, depending on circumstances. This can make surprise and awareness rolls more useful in some cases.
[same page] If I get additional successes on Reaction, those can be used to counter attack, to do extra actions, or to block damage from others. Blocking damage requires a full additional success.

One thing I was unsure about was the Brawl vs the Fire Fight. Seems like Brawl is more than a simple “fist fight” metric though it is meant to be for less lethal fights [like bar fights or quick punch ups]. Only roll Action Turns but Actions become Dangerous. I’m not sure if that would fit a lot of fights in “Neon Noir” but stuff like the fight in the cafe could have been a nice place to use them.

For gun fights [which would also include Eustace going blade-heavy] the main two things I need to note are [page 124] if the guns fail they use up a mag and [page 125] firing at an enemy in melee — which happens a lot — it’s treated as Gamble against the allies in melee. Hitomi is 100% going to end up shooting Eustace at some point.

When Enemies have a Hot Box as their last Grit then they get one last chance to spend their Adrenaline. I’m not sure if that has come up yet but just to remember.

Finally, for the final part of this re-read: Weakspots are more complicated than I have been playing them. On page 147, there are a list of possible ones on a table. Presumably I could also come up with others in a similar vein. An example of one on the table is “The Enemies aren’t really sharp. You can attack with Focus+Know +1.”

That’s Enough for Now

That re-read gets me up to page 147 out of roughly 190 pages of rules so most of the way. The remaining bits are stuff like Chases (which I haven’t ran even once so re-reading wouldn’t make much sense), some more technical campaign development, Plans B, and other elements that will likely become more prominent as we get into the Turning Point and then the main campaign arc kicks up. At the Turning Point I’ll probably work a shorter version of this post and go ahead and fill out the Villain and Supporting Character info — Libby is going to get some stats!.

The next re-read I’ll go over “Neon Noir” as well just to make sure I am getting that down.

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.

The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont, Episode 4 – Against Ouroboros

By Doug Bolden

On 2025-02-21

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

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

A modified soldier who has a left arm ending in tentacles and a sword in his right arm.

How could I not use this art?
Image © Dean Spencer

“Previously…” and Campaign/Arc Summary
The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont Episode 4 — Against Ouroboros

Previously, on The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont

Two harmless street gangs — the Fractal Apocalypse and the Shaolin Dragons — pulled a problematic snatch. Their target was Juan Uno, a man who is consider something like a saint by folks in The GLOW. Eustace and Hitomi have helped to defuse the situation but now they must deal with the root of a problem: a enignmatic and very crooked fixer, Yuito Ouroboros.

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 4 — Against Ouroboros

Setting the Scene. Planning Revenge.

Date: Friday, May 31, 1996.

Time: 5:47pm

Place: Juan’s Cafe.

Expected Scene: E+H discuss taking down Ouroboros before phase 2 hits.

Scene Test: [c47] 7. 2d10 = 4 + 10. Minor complication. HAH, the catalyst literally says “A minor issue escalates”.

Actual Scene: As expected, but now the rain has turned into a full blown downpour of near white-out conditions.

We have a single piece of the puzzle missing at this stage: the name of the dangerous gang backing up Yuito. Pulling a single card [c19] I see three things that pop out. A brain wave sort of image icon, “Chemtrails,” and “Fear.” Putting those together we get the Brainwaves: a hedge-magic using street gang which tend to use mind control toxins to strike fear. This might explain their long game with trying to drive out and break the FA. Having people with equipment to make artificial emotions would be a powerful tool for them to have.

SCENE SOUNDTRACK: The scene and the next couple are going to be Timecop1983’s Childhood Memories just to help keep the mood kind of chill. More sneaky and thoughtful than punchy.

Planning Revenge.

Date: Friday, May 31, 1996.

Time: 5:47pm

Place: Juan’s Cafe.

The rain is loud enough it nearly drowns out Juan’s quiet voice. Hitomi and Eustace are huddled over a table with Juan and Julian on the other side. The evening crowd is sparse so far. The events earlier have spread through the ripple of gossip to keep what few diners might brave the rain way and the late night customers have not yet surfaced. Hitomi worked overtime to get the fake birthday story — leaving out the all important fact of whose birthday the surprise was — and for now people have bought it.

Back inside the main cafe, BrokenRecord, Banshee, and Varvara are chatting amicably with Samvel Adamyan: Juan’s other mainstay bodyguard. The one who actually shot BrokenRecord. He seems to think that them bringing back Juan and apologizing makes up for any and all misunderstandings and BrokenRecord is doing her best to flirt, weird stutter and all.

“A very interesting case, this…,” Juan starts, bringing out two flat disks carved of semi-precious gems. He taps the first and a sphere of nonsense floats over it. He taps the second and another sphere. Juan leans forward and whispers Hitomi’s name and suddenly the nonsense coalesces into a series of words and pictures. In both, an older man is visible: dark-skinned and white-haired. “I’m sorry, big one, I do not know your name so I can not decode them for you,” Juan says to Eustace, “Introductions might be in order.”

Eustace had been peering at the shapes and has very nearly figured out how to bring them forward. With a snap, they come into focus for him. “Eustace Delmont. You’re Juan Uno. Whose the old guy?” [1]

“Oh, ho, very good,” says Juan with a little clap. He pulls out a thin, black cigarette and lights it. Julian bends down and whispers something in Juan’s ear. “A Psychic? My, my.” Blows smoke out in a thin stream from the left of his mouth. “Sometimes you folks show up to set up jobs with me. Never had one not in mask, though.”

Eustace continues the lie of leaving out the technically probationary status of his capital-P Psychic status. “I’m just here as a tourist. Visiting with a friend.” Gestures towards Hitomi who winks back at him.

“Little Miss Meyer. A regular of mine. Do treat her well. As I was saying, this one is an interesting case. The ‘old man’ is Magnus Odinson. No doubt his real name is Richard Little or something minor. But Odinson considers himself a holy pilgrim. Has gathered up a large group. The Knife of the Fallen Star. Blends old world religion with Christianity and Satanism. Considers Soulburn and magic to be against the human soul. Plotting a war against people like Mr. Delmont.”

A few flicks of Juan’s fingers shows another man featuring in the first sphere. Another old man. This one thin and well dressed. Japanese. A crooked smile. “This is the source of today’s trouble. Ita Oro, aka Yuito Ouroboros. The kind of guy that can get anything for anyone. At a cost. Sometimes that cost is straight up betrayal. Has a tendency of screwing people over at the worst times and forcing them to bargain.”

“Why is he after you?,” Hitomi asks. She has lit her own cigarette and is staring at the two floating images of the men.

“I think because of this first little disk I am showing you. Magnus Odinson approached me for a job posting. Ouroboros had stiffed the Knives out of a large shipment of guns. The kind that go bang bang with no aethertech or magic required. Seems like Oro got them just fine but then decided to make the Knives pay more. I normally don’t like dealing with religious freaks but Mr. Oro has been causing greater and greater issues, playing some long con so I took it against my better judgement. I guess he found out, somehow, probably a mole within the Knives.”

“And the other sphere?,” Eustace asks.

“What makes it interesting. This is a job posted by Anastasia Yuma. Ex-Knife. Said she underwent a lot of abuse by the members, that other people from the area are getting trapped in Odinson’s bubble. Wants a job for people to run distraction so she can get in and get people out.”

“How much?,” Hitomi asks.

“Which one?”

“All of it. How much for us to take care of Ouroboros for you? How much for us to take care of Ouroboros for Odinson? How much to take care of Odinson for Yuma?”

Juan laughs at this. Starts discussing prices.

Afterward, Eustace and Hitomi are getting a bit to eat, on the house, and he has to know. “Are we really going to arm abusive cultists and then fight those abusive cultists?”

“I’m good with guns. Really good. Dad taught me when he wasn’t preaching at me. We get the cache, make most of them not work, give them over and get paid. Then we use their dumb confidence to carry out this next job.”

Setting the Scene. Always a Good Day for a Bad Idea.

Date: Friday, May 31, 1996.

Time: 7:40pm.

Place: Near the back entrance to Yuito’s bunker compound.

Expected Scene: Eustace and Hitomi need to find a way into the bunker.

Scene Test: [c25] 4. 2d10 = 1 + 9. Minor shift. “A bond or connection is explored.”

Actual Scene: As they waiting to get inside, some of the Knives shows up.

It is easy for all GMs to create Gordian Knots on accident. Puzzles a bit too hard to solve. In this case, Yuito’s bunker being an underground nuclear fallout shelter is going to make getting inside rough without a frontal assault. The strange ritual party will help but we’ll have to go a bit easy on the pair trying to get end. A back entrance used for servants and deliveries. Still guarded but maybe less so.

A blue door at the end of a strange cavernous hall.

Always a Good Day for a Bad Idea.

Date: Friday, May 31, 1996.

Time: 7:40pm.

Place: Near the back entrance to Yuito’s bunker compound.>

“Yeah, that’s clearly a trap,” Eustace says, looking at the blue door at the end of the tunnel. The front entrance had clear guards but Hitomi had mentioned that Yuito Ouroboros had less of a nuclear bunker and more of a fallout mansion. Big enough to need a few entrances. The largest, the “front door,” big enough to let vehicles in. One of the side entrances they explored had been sealed up. This one is something like a servant’s entrance. On the outside just a fenced of tunnel with a plain blue door at the end. Lights burning but no sign of any activity. Except the loud bass music that can be felt more than heard through the feet.

“This is why they pay us the big bucks,” Hitomi says, “Because we fall into obv…mmmmphf!” Eustace has grabbed her and pulled her against the wall is kissing her hard enough that she can’t possibly finish her sentence. He pulls his hands down her shirt and is making it very obvious that they are just a couple who came out for some fresh air and sex. [2]

She starts to push him away but then hears the footsteps behind him. A couple of people laugh and then keep going. She decides to choke back her anger and goes with it for a minute until they are far enough away she can pull back some. As he finally lets her catch her breath she sees a couple of guys and a woman at the blue door, knocking on it. A few seconds later the door opens — the loud bass music pours out — and then shuts cutting it off. [3]

“Sorry,” Eustace says, “We had almost no time and it always seems to work in the movies.”

“You’re in trouble, but for now I appreciate it,” she says, a bit upset but realizing their job nearly got terminated before they had even gotten to the tricky part. “So yeah, that’s definitely a trap but we have to get through to find the cache. Then somehow get it out. And take out Ouroboros in the process as a bonus. Any ideas?” In her backpack are four Bliss Bombs™ courtesy of an apologetic Banshee. Plus two gasmasks. And one of her laptops. The problem is though they have more than enough Bliss to take out two of the Fractal Apocalypse warehouses, Ouroboros’s bunker is on a whole other scale.

He looks back at the entrance of the tunnel, that always sense that something in the Soulburn is watching him, then back at the door. “It’s always a good day for a bad idea,” he says.

“What are you thinking?”

“We just walk in.”

“What is Plan B?”

“I’m serious. Obfuscation is one of the Psychic’s main tricks. I’ve never really used it but the principal is simple enough.”

She looks at him. She has heard a few stories about the Order Psychics. How they suddenly appear in the middle of a party and start cutting down people. How they might be outside your window watching you sleep and you wouldn’t know. “What do we do?”

“Stay really close to me. Don’t so much think thin as ‘not there’.” [4]

Setting the Scene. The Walls Have Eyes.

Date: Friday, May 31, 1996.

Time: 7:48pm.

Place: Inside Yuito Ouroboros’s Bunker.

Expected Scene: Eustace and Hitomi have to find their way around without being caught.

Scene Test: [c5] 3. 2d10 = 3 + 4. Only a minor twist. “Time to Tinker with Tech.”

Actual Scene: Eustace and Hitomi are inside but it’s the tech that is causing problems.

The Spotlight is enabling Eustace and Hitomi to shut down other people’s perception of them, plus the party is kicking off more and more. Despite his many bad dealings, Ouroboros is cocky. Even members of the Knives are here to help sell out Odinson. The problem is the ServiSynth Eyes. We know that psychic waves meant to shut down human perception don’t work since Amy Patel’s mantis could see through Jani’s psychic screen. Eustace is around three grades higher and stronger, but still, ServiSynth are a problem. We won’t give them a battle stat but they are CRITICAL to avoid.

Do the eyes have a rudimentary intelligence capable to detecting intruders? (Even) → [c112] YES! This means that Eustace and Hitomi have to work fast.

SOUNDTRACK: Time to up the stress levels. Karl Casey’s Cold Future.

A control room for an underground bunker.

The Walls Have Eyes.

Date: Friday, May 31, 1996.

Time: 7:48pm.

Place: Inside Yuito Ouroboros’s Bunker.

Hitomi finds herself having trouble breathing. To her, it seems like her and Eustace are just walking past other people. They don’t even acknowledge. Whatever mind games Eustace is playing, it is making a blank spot. Some of the people are clearly Brainwaves. Carrying guns and swords. Often shirtless to show off tats and strange head decorations. Huffing cans of something. Their bodies reach of predatorial pheromones. A twisted cousin to the Fractal Apocalypse. A topless Brainwave woman walks buy smoking something that reeks of death. Her hands wearing aether claws. Still, what Eustace is weaving in the air is stopping even monsters like this woman from sensing them.

There is a new problem, ServiSynth Eyes that look like large human eyes are in the walls. And Eustace’s psychic weave is clearly not working with. They tried leaving this initial area — something like a pantry leading into a kitchen — and one of the bloodshot eyes honed in quick before she pulled him back. His concentration is dedicated to keeping the blanket protection up. She parks him in a corner and starts back out in the hall. The eye moves in its socket. Nearly a foot across. Rudimentary bio-plastic lid closes over it but not enough. The wall underneath is wet with tears. The things must be in constant pain.

She takes three deep breaths. More of that terrible cigarette that smells like burning tar and flesh. Then walks out and moves in a strangely fluid pattern where she times the blinks of the eye and the way it rolls back and forth so that she is always outside of its vision. She needs to find a hub where these things might be controlled. Without knowing how far Eustace’s obfuscation can carry her. [5]

Another hall, another eye. Again, she uses her long history of being in places she is not supposed to be to help guide her around. She sees veins laced along the wall. Nerves and fluid ducts for the eyes. She follows the general path until she finds the control room she is looking for. This hall is much more abandoned. A lot more rustic. More to its original design as some 1960s shelter built in case of some retaliation against the GLOW. Down the hall, a Brainwave male. Something strange is happening with his left arm but he is too far to see. Before she has to test if Eustace is able to keep her hidden at this distance, he turns and walks into a side door without glancing back. [6]

She pushes the door open. Finds a room full of old computers. She is shocked to see no one is here. The Brainwaves are clearly convinced they are a big enough threat to keep people out. [7]

She sets her laptop down on one of the terminals and plugs into the aether system. Pulls up a series of wards and runes and beings working against the internal systems. The system is like a giant brain, a bunker-wide ServiSynth that is trying to protect itself from threats. She starts trying to talk to it as it pushes back against her. She is able to shove through some of its outer defenses and hears no alarms going off, but there is a lot more to go. [8]

Voices in the hall. She ducks down and pulls her laptop under the desk. She pulls out memories of sunlit days that she recorded and begins running them into the central brain. Happy thoughts. Joy. She sends the rune for friendship three times over. The brain finally accepts her communications. After years of being abused by the powers that be, Hitomi is considered a true friend. Rather than abuse that trust, she actually starts sending counter commands to the system, building up its self-awareness. Turning on some of its own defenses. [9]

She pulls out a cable that looks a bit like a bit of intestine and holds it to her own scalp. “What’s your name, sweetie?”

The ServiSynth brain responds with three symbols: a broken chain, a lighthouse, a cloud. [10]

“I’m going to call you Silver Lining, ok?” She gets a positive sense back. “A friend and I need to help some people out. Can you help us with that? I don’t want to hurt anyone or you, is that ok?” She gets a strange sensation back. Like Silver Lining was hoping for something a little bit different. [11]

She sends thoughts of Eustace, all the thoughts. The first meeting. His wanting to protect people. The way he kisses. The way he moves. The way he keeps looking behind him like he senses someone there in the distance.

That complete she sends out her thoughts to Eustace, hoping he can hear. Luckily, a few seconds later she feels his thoughts push back. He has been listening in. [12]

She can see him move down the hall through the eyes. The Brainwaves continue to be absolutely terrible security as no one tends to move. Wait, there is one. [13]

Dark skinned, short, and built like a swimmer this one has a pair of hatchets and seems to be vibing with swinging the wide while talking to himself. Tattoos of snakes wrap around his body and his arms. As he walks near Eustace, he does not turn. Eustace stands still and one of the axes embeds in his arm and then the Brainwave walks on, not noticing the blood dripping down one of them. Eustace, in pain, keeps coming toward Hitomi’s location. [14]

As he gets into the room, she helps to bandage the bloody wound by using a bit of her shirt. Then she asks Silver Lining where Ouroboros might be hiding the guns. It shows her a place. The hallway the weird armed guy just went down a few minutes before. [15]

Setting the Scene. Mr. Weird Arm.

Date: Friday, May 31, 1996.

Time: 8:01pm.

Place: Inside Yuito Ouroboros’s Bunker.

Expected Scene: Eustace and Hitomi confront the strange armed Brainwave.

Scene Test: [c66] 5. 2d10 = 1 + 5. As expected.

Actual Scene: As expected.

I had some cool stock art I wanted to use so we will get a rough fight with a single, well-armed opponent. Bad Guy template 1. 6 Grit. Hot Box on 3. Critical/Critical. Fighter (-1 close range), Sharp Blade (potential to Hurt), and we’ll give him a custom feat for using his tentacle arms that failing to get a Basic means he latches on. This will be like an extra help for him.

There is obviously a hidden entrance to get out. We’ll figure that out in a bit.

Mr. Weird Arm.

Date: Friday, May 31, 1996.

Time: 8:01pm.

Place: Inside Yuito Ouroboros’s Bunker.

The store room is a large place with many metal crates. Ouroboros is clearly behind on a lot of orders. Seems like only a matter of time before his fate catches up to him.

“Silver Lining, which of these has guns designated to go to Magnus Odinson?” The ServiSynth brain returns a sense of confusion. They would need to know how the place is coded to ask the question. [16]

“Damn it, Nurse, I think we are on our own.” The two begin looking through the crates but it will take some time to open and inspect each one. There has to be some sort of log, somewhere. As Hitomi goes to start looking for it, another voices calls out.

“My at the rat problem we have. I told Yuito we’d need to set some traps. Luckily, he has me.” The speaker is the strange armed guy she saw earlier. Strange barely covers it. His left arm ends in a series of octopus tentacles. His right holds a sword. The man looks with a sense of glee at the chance to get to use both.

“Foxteeth, find the guns!,” Eustace calls out as he runs forward to fight the guy. Despite Eustace having the edge in height and body mass, Hitomi is not entirely sure how long he will be able to hold up. Also, what the hell did he just call her?

Eustace gets his left blade up to cause the superior fighter to back up and then brings his right blade down to slash down Weird Arm’s…well, weird arm. It is a heavy hit and the Brainwave’s cockiness plummets as his blood splashes the floor. [14]

In retaliation, Weird Arm continues his sweep right across Eustace’s guts. He avoids getting emboweled but its no longer just Weird Arm’s blood on the floor. [18]

A series of small slashes from Eustace starts to wear Weird Arm down but right as Eustace gets a hit in, Weird Arm deflects it back up and brings his blade down Eustace’s right arm. Eustace returns the deflection with his right blade and then brings it down and cuts through the tentacle arm, slicing it off. Weird Arm screams loud enough that people nearly have to hear. [19]

As the guy is screaming, Eustace brings both arms together and cuts the head right off. [20]

On the other side of the room, Hitomi has managed to find the list of codes for the boxes and after finding the cache of guns just shoves it in her backpack. Blackmail might buy Juan and the rest a bit more time. Keeping an ear out, she doesn’t hear the sound of pursuit. Silver Lining’s loading ServiSynth help to put the crate in question on a truck and then starts opening the door which drives out into what appears to be a run down barn. Before her and a bleeding Eustace drive out into the night, she turns and hands one of the ServiSynths the four Bliss Bombs™.

“Maybe don’t make it a slaughter, but for tonight have some revenge. Also, I want you to think really hard about this. Rooster masks. Rooster masks. Got it? Good.”

The truck is gone before they push their luck anymore.

It is a few hours later that she hears the news across the ‘net. Yuito Ouroboros and many of his guests have been slaughtered. The security system reports a group of people in rooster masks are to blame. MUNI is starting investigations. [21]

DOUG’S COMMENTARY

February 11, 2025

This is, essentially, the remaining bits from the shot that I had to bail on last time to get some rest.

That was a more abrupt ending that intended but it’s a bit of a byproduct of still recovering out of the brain fog mentioned last episode. It is also just trying to keep the fat a little trim. The Crooked Fixer is one part of the Odinson cult. We already have three new gangs growing out of it before we get to the Knives. As much fun as Ouroboros could have been, that would be adding a secondary complication to a side job that would only delay getting to the main story. I like the idea of the ServiSynth rebellion starting. A minor thing that might grow beyond this arc and set up some later stories. I also like that we are continuing to build the false legend of a gang of rooster-headed vigilantes taking down major crime groups when it really just two fairly overwhelmed people managing to survive.

So, it was a bit cheaty-cheap but two episodes that were a really long episode are enough. Hitomi has learned that befriending the semi-aware aether systems is a tool. She’ll use that. Eustace has learned that swords hurt, he’ll use that. He drained a lot of resources just to keep her safe. She’ll also use that.

One of the reason I’m interested in running the showdown versus Odinson is because it challenges one of the assumptions of this whole campaign: Eustace needs Soulburn to function. Going to a place with reduced Soulburn is going to take away his powers or at least greatly hinder them. This was already Hitomi’s time to shine. They will probably need help next time around.

Some fun trivia. The base-wide ServiSynth was going to have a grapple attack and I had stock art picked out for it. Before we got the whole “Brainwaves are terrible at their job” oracle results over and over and before we got “Hitomi will choose to be a friend because her real goal is to help the downtrodden despite being a bit of a bitch about it” shine gloriously, the intent was to have maybe a showdown with Weird Arms and Ouroboros while Eustace and Hitomi are dealing with their legs being grappled. Then we got her making friends with a tortured ServiSynth. And the Brainwaves just refused to respond. Plus I was tired.

Had they gone to the ritual, though, Eustace was going to experience a more pure Soulburn experience and get a glimpse of his future destiny — spoiler, he is turning into a witch. The whole plot about psychic threads targetting Hitomi is not because the threads care about her, but because he does. He’s inadvertantly making the threads around the city start to gather to her and her own personal sphere is getting impacted by it. I’ve been coy with myself on this but that is why he keeps thinking the Soulburn is talking to him. Because it is. Once I came up with the idea to have a Eustace story and that story was going to have a Hitomi, I realized that he might not have been sensing a place to hide the mini-disc. He was sensing her.

MECHANICAL AND STORY NOTES

Can Eustace break the hedge magic encryption around the info spheres? (Good) → [c99] Yes.
Focus + Awareness for his danger sense. Gets a Critical. He can feel the people coming into the tunnel after them.
Do the rogue Knives fall for the ruse? (Good) → [c23] YES!
Not going to roll this one. Eustace is going to spend a Spotlight. He loses the coinflip and does not get it back.
Crime + Stealth + 1 Help from the psychic field. She gets Extreme + Basic. She is good for three checks to avoid them and needs a Crit to find the hub.
Crime + Awareness. Actually gets a Crit using her Hacker feat.
Is there someone actually watching the control hub? (Even) → [c72] NO! The people are very cocky about their position of power.
Crime + Fix + 1 Help (Laptop) + 1 Adrenaline. Basically considering this a Gamble. Even using her Hacker feet tops out at 1 Crit + 2 Basic. Not enough to take control but enough to avoid getting detected, yet.
Again. This time the roll works better. Extreme + Crit. Combined with the previous advances she is down two Adrenaline but Hitomi is now in control of the system.
Snagged these symbols through three quick cards.
Is Silver Lining ok with this? (Even) → [c16] Yes? It actually might want to hurt the people that have built it into the walls.
I forgot to establish this before hand so to be fair, did they agree to use his psychic powers to communicate? (Even) → [c41] YES!
Are any Brainwaves going to be in the hall? (Even) → [c39] Yes? Hmm, we’ll make him roll a bit to see if his psychic field is holding.
Is his Psychic field still holding? (Even) → [c90] Yes. Brawn + Stunt Gamble to avoid the axes. A basic that is snake eyes. Two grit lost. We’ll say the Spotlight ends after this, though.
I want at least one good fight sequence! Plus I have the stock art. Also, Eustace is going to get Distracted for holding the field for so long.
Will Silver Lining be able to help find the box? (Even) → [c35] No? Not exactly.
Brawn + Fight. + 1 Help from the blades. +2 Fight from the Adrenaline. -1 for the Fighter Feat. Risking a reroll, gets Extreme + Critical. 4 Grit lost right off.
Brawn + Stunt. Gets only a Basic. This avoid the grapple and the hurt but still nets two grit damage.
Same as above but this time gets 3 Basic = 1 Critical and only does one more Grit damage. Has a snake eye so takes a grit. Only one Grit remaining so spends the Adrenaline to activate a counter does a grit damage back to Eustace. Eustace spends his last adrenaline and gets an Extreme so we’ll say he cuts off the tentacle arm and gets +2 next turn but takes one more grit from a snake eye. Next hit he is at Bad.
Critical + Basic with no snake eyes. Eustace is very injured and drained of Adrenaline but prevailed.
Is there a log of the crates? (Even) → [c87] Yes. Did people hear Weird Arm’s screams? (Even) → [45] Yes? Yes, but are not necessarily caring. Ok, how about this…are they responding to them? (Even) → [c43] No. these bodyguards.
Does Yuito survive Silver Lining’s rebellion? (Even) → [c109] NO! Alrighty then.

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

Yuito’s Bunker’s Back Entrance: Image by Tobias Wahlqvist from Pixabay.

Control room is an uncredited photo on Pixabay.

Taxonomy and Technical Data

World: The GLOW

Campaign: The GLOW

Arc: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont

Post: Episode 4 – Against Ouroboros

Dates Played: February 11, 2025.

The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont, Episode 3 – Bad Decisions Are Made

By Doug Bolden

On 2025-02-19

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

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

The warehouse drone brings boxes down
Image — Dean Spencer

“Previously…” and Campaign/Arc Summary
Making Some Jobs
The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont Episode 3 — Bad Decisions Are Made

Previously, on The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont

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.

Making Some Jobs

Similar to how I did the other dimensions through the Swirl with The Bloody Hands, I am going to create multiple missions here with the idea that I will start out focusing on one and possibly only focus on that other one. The others might show up as backups, background info, and so forth but mostly they are just flavor. The GLOW is a big place — bigger on the inside — and there are dozens of such intrigues brewing.

The method broadly used will be essentially as described in Kevin Crawford’s Cities Without Number. 2x Mission Tags. A couple of mission type rolls. Then go back and pick out elements from the Tags that would make the most sense. Toss in a few references to the Cyberpunk 2E GMA deck if I need further prompts. The mission that gets picked will likely get a few details added from either Dicegeeks or Augmented Reality as needed.

Mission 1. Tags: 36 Crooked Fixer [Supposed supplier is up to something]. 12 Beleagured Locals [People are being pressured by outside forces]. Mission Type: 9 Theft . Patron → 8 Community Leader. Biggest Obstacle → 6 It’s extremely easy to track. Valuable to patron? → 10 Patron needs it to complete something. Twist? → 6 Taking it will hurt a sympathetic group.
Mission 2. Tags: 40 Feckless Idealist [Someone with strong ideals but no common sense]. 76 Roaming Raiders [Nomadic raiders are involved]. Mission Type: 6 Sabotage. Motivation → 3 Distraction. Patron → 6 Past victim of target’s owner. Defense? → 6 Well fortified location. Target? → 4 Important piece of equipment. Owner’s need? → 8 Sign of Trust from a Major Ally. Twists? → Spread over several locations.
Mission 3. Tags: 16 Biological Weapon [obvious]. 33 Criminal Cop [Also obvious]. Mission Type: 2 Espionage. Patron? → 5 Local elder protecting the district. Profit? → Grants access to invite only business. Obscure? → 1 Almost no one knows it exists. Why Guarded? → 6 Treachery against a seeming ally. 17 → Stealing it will enrage a third party.

Almost immediately the idea to combine elements of the first two together comes to mind. Then the third can be something like a blueprint for the next job, the one where they work towards getting revenge against Dave Akari (which might be AFTER the Turning Point but is coming).

If we combine the first two we get a kind of interesting stewpot. There is a insular community within a community. A cult who believes that the place they are is their home [divinely granted]. Protected, perhaps, or at least accepted, by the community at large. I like the idea of a cult who pushes back against the Soulburn. Old World Pagans. Gas masks. Filtered rooms. Googles. Growing their own food in gardens with filtered air and runes to to purify. It won’t work entirely. Some of the very magic they hold to is powered by Soulburn. However, they are growing stronger and more desperate to defend their land (all a lie based on some half-assed 1960s death cult type prophet). The end game is fight back against “The Man” — Lamark Society, The GLOW, just some sense of “Them” — and they have tried to get a cache of weapons. A shady dealer took their money is now not following through. Partially because the weapons could be tracked back to them. The cult is willing to pay $3 [note, in game terms, in real world turns it would be a couple thousand] to get the weapons. They have new towers that are more effective at stripping out the Soulburn and are setting those up. Disrupting a lot of people’s lives in the area.

On the other hand, one of the ex-cult members is trying to take out the cult before they can make things worse. Destroy these new towers. Only, destroying the towers is just to be a distraction to pull the heads of the cult aside while the ex-member does something.

The Cult’s Name? [c60] Meteor Strike. [c50] A thief holding a knife (?). The Knives of the Fallen Star. The leader? [c14] Magnus Odinson. The ex-member who wants revenge? [c16] Anastasia Yuma.

We’ll build up more details as we need.

The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont. Episode 3 — Bad Decisions Are Made

Setting the Scene. Street Kids Pull a Fast Juan.

Date: Friday, May 31, 1996.

Time: 11:23am.

Place: Juan Uno’s Cafe, On the Outskirts of Pensacola.

Expected Scene: E+H meet Juan to find out about jobs.

Scene Test: 1. 2d10 = 6 + 4. A major twist/complication. [c82] Someone close is abducted. [c84] Icon of a man emitting rays. [c87] Gang Wars.

Actual Scene: As Eustace and Hitomi enter Juan’s, a gang shows up and kidnaps Juan before Hitomi can make contact. Eustace will sense the danger and might be able to intervene.

Well, maybe never mind about those jobs. Is this a new gang to the group? (Even) → c45 Yes? So yes, but maybe a known associate of someone else we’ve met. Ah, the crooked fixer. He knows the Knives have put a job to get the weapons and so is targeting a well known person who might be arranging the job.

The gang hired by the fixer (Urban Tribes from Augmented Reality): 23 Shaolin 06 Dragons. 75 Androgynous 33 Parkour 48 Pranksters. 72 Find and sell corpses to body banks. 44 Allied to… 89 Fractal 30 Apocalypse. 30 Rastafarian 10 Info-Socialist 42 Boosters. Who are 20 Premier suppliers of street-level premier pheremones.

Basically these are “kids” who dabble mostly in pranks and mischief, avoid real drugs or violence. Not a threat in the least.

Why did they take the deal from the crooked fixer? [c43] Ponder [c109] Stealthy [c107] Freedom. They owed the fixer some money and he has agreed to let them off the hook if the do this.

SCENE SOUNDTRACK: Karl Casey’s White Bat 44 which just dropped this last week or so.

Let’s get one “sensory detail” for flavor: [c58] Rain drumming against…

A cafe courtyard filled with plants and puddles of water.

Street Kids Pull a Fast Juan.

Date: Friday, May 31, 1996.

Time: 11:23am.

Place: Juan Uno’s Cafe, On the Outskirts of Pensacola.

The cab drops them off right as the rain hits the parking lot of Juan Uno’s Cafe. Hitomi had explained to Eustace that Juan tends to be a bit moral as far as job scouts go — moral for The GLOW at least — and she had racked up a decent amount of good graces with him. He knew the kind of jobs that she would take and made sure not to tempt her with stuff she liked to avoid. Though, money was tight enough lately that she had been willing to bend a few personal rules.

“Juan?,” Eustace had asked.

“Yeah.”

“Uno?”

“Yeah.

Eustace kept waiting to see if she would crack a smile but after a moment said they should probably call a taxi. There is an irony in stealing a motorbike the night before a rainstorm was predicted to sweep across the area.

As Hitomi steps under the eaves of Juan Uno’s cafe, Eustace pivots and stares at shapes coming out of the rain. Street punks dressed in loose fitting clothing, heads shaved and bodies thin enough that their faces blend together. He feels no animosity coming from them but still he can tell they are up to something shady. He reaches out to grab one and the kid flips over him as the other start leaping over barriers and diving over the fence that leads to the courtyard. [1]

“The ShaoDra? What are they doing here? Come on!” Hitomi takes off running through the front door as the inside erupts into chaos. At this time of day, Juan’s is pretty much just a lunch spot. A lunch spot currently compressed indoors as the famous courtyard is being drenched by rain water. One of the best places near P’cola to get a Cuban sandwich or spicy sushi with a variety of tea and cofee drinks. At least for the daytime customers. The other customers tend to be more nocturnal. Now, all those hungry civs getting sandwiches and tea are currently having to deal with a half-dozen Shaolin Dragons as the bald youths knock tables aside and toss lunch trays at Juan’s bodyguards, a pair of beefy men who usually don’t need to go into full work mode until much later in the day.

Entering into the dining room, Eustace sees a guard pull a gun and start to take a shot and dives over to grab the the arm. The gun goes off while Eustace is shouting, “They are just kids, stop!” A shout of pain lets him know he did not make it in time. The bodyguard goes to shove Eustace aside but Eustace takes control of the situation. “Arcane Order! Everyone WEAPONS DOWN!” The declaration of being with the Order does the trick as the bodyguard drops his gun and both stand back. [2]

Hitomi already has the ShaoDra member in her arms. A young woman. Maybe nineteen if that. Holding her arm as her biceps bleed out. A few inches to the right and it would have been a center-of-mass wound and much closer to fatal. The ShaoDra’s skin a light brown with black eyes showing pain. Like the rest, head is shaved but stubble shows dark hair. “Uncool. UNcool. UncOOL,” she says. [3]

“You said that, sweetie,” Hitomi says, defaulting to the same big-sister mode she uses with Bee. “Nurse, she’s hurt.”

Eustace bends down beside her. As he starts seeing if he can tend to her wound, another shout is heard from the back. Hitomi recogizes it as Juan’s voice. The next thing she knows is he is being carried out a side door by the other ShaoDra. A van pulls up. The letters F A on the side in strange grafitti. She recognizes this calling card as well. Fractal Apocalypse. More kids playing at street punks by way of modifying and amplifying natural hormones and pheremones. Kidnapping is not on either group’s CV. The bodyguards, still respecting Eustace’s command to not pull weapons, run outside to try and stop the van.

“Look at me…Darya. No, you prefer BrokenRecord. Look at me. I’m going to bandage your wound, ok?” After a minute the bleeding has stopped and gentle psychic persuasion has helped to block the pain. [4]

“Thank you. Thank you. Thank you,” Darya/BrokenRecord says.

Hitomi squats down beside her. “BrokenRecord, did he say?” Then waits while the younger woman says “Yes” three times. “Ok, BrokenRecord, why in the fuck did your friends just make the massive mistake of kidnapping someone like Juan?”

Setting the Scene. Fractals within Fractals.

Date: Friday, May 31, 1996.

Time: 12:24pm.

Place: On route to the Fractal Apocalypse’s Warehouse.

Expected Scene: Hitomi comandeers Juan’s car and her, Eustace, and BrokenRecord go to try and find out what is going on.

Scene Test: [c47] 7. 2d10 = 8 + 5. Minor complication. Catalyst is “Your Hardware Is Recalled.” Keeping that more “minor” I’m just going to say it means that Juan’s vehicle is in the shop so they are having to borrow one of the bodyguard’s cars. Does he let them take it without going along? (Bad) → [c72] No. So they have a bodyguard along with them. Who? Julian Shame. Pulling another card [c74] we get a badge, a nose, traits of “Diligence” and “Pride”. Big guy. Bigger nose. Ex-cop. Left the force because of his pride. Likes to take care of his plants and the plants around Juan’s.

Actual Scene: The four people are en route to the FA warehouse, including an ex-cop who takes his job very seriously.

I don’t think we need a lot here. Just a brief “lore dump” type scene before getting to the warehouse itself.

Eustace gets one Adrenaline from that last scene.

An alleyway with lots of graffiti on the walls and a couple of people made out just in the distance of the end.

Fractals within Fractals.

Date: Friday, May 31, 1996.

Time: 12:24pm.

Place: On route to the Fractal Apocalypse’s Warehouse.

Hitomi has been catching Eustace up on the details. The Shaolin Dragons — ShaoDra by most folks’ shorthand — are low level wannabe Buddhist punks who mostly engage in parkour and skating to achieve oneness with the city. Chief money making endeavor is corpse detail. They gather up dead bodies from war zones, old apartments, and the underground. Some they return to kin. Some they sell to scientific research. All they give blessings and purifications. Most tougher gangs have a broad truce with the ShaoDra. In fact, violence against them is considered very bad form.

The Dragons team up with the Fractal Apocalypse — F A, pronounced Eff, Ey? — Rastafarian jolly mollies getting off on their literal own supply. Taking human hormones and pheremones and piping them through various tech and magical enhancements to great moods and vibes. Real life love potions coming with self-affirmations. Both are found in a warehouse run by the FA. A day job of sorts providing some cover. Not even the MUNI cares to bust them, they are that harmless. Hell, good vibes and cleaning up dead bodies puts them generally in the helpful category.

“The thing is, they just openly snatched Juan. He fits a particular place in the The GLOW. He gets people jobs that have a…moral elements. Moral for The GLOW. It’s his major trade. Small community getting sick because of corp waste. People who betrayed their crew. Realtors who made land grabs. Generally, if you have the slightest excuse for violence, Juan can shop it. This means his jobbers are folks who consider Juan to be a bit of a saint. Lots of rough folks who do terrible things on a redemption arc. Trying to buy a bit of their soul back.”

“Dangerous people who might consider an attack on Juan a one-way ticket to hell. Literal hell,” Eustace fills in.

Eustace is in the back of Julian’s car. Julian Shame. Ex-MUNI. Got dishonorably discharged after he refused to go light on a man who preyed on an orphanage despite a lack of evidence. Took up with Juan and takes it personally. Drives a rather sensible car. No aetherware. No hedge magic touch-ups. Petroleum burning.

Next to him is BrokenRecord. She is in her vibe. FA enhanced happiness. If Eustace had to make a guess, the feeling of see a new kitty cat. Or a sunny day after a storm. She leans forward and touches Eustace in this Gnole-enhanced fingers. “Nice fingers. Nice Fingers. Nice fingers.”

“Nuh uh, sweetie,” Hitomi says from the front passenger seat. “Those fingers are claimed. I got my teethmarks in that one.”

Foxteeth, Eustace thinks. Then tries to shake his head. So many psychic threads are weaving around Hitomi that she appears to glow green brighter than the murky daylight outside. Shapes dance along her face and hair. The rain has stopped but the clouds threaten more for the afternoon.

Julian, taking directions from Hitomi, finally speaks. “I though Order Agents tended to dress a bit…spazzier, than that.” Referring to Eustaces sleeveless shirt and workman’s pants. He has not yet made up the loss of his coat to Bee.

“Not an Agent.”

Hitomi, in the front seat, is a little surprised to see Julian — a big man with a bigger nose, who once removed a hyped up street sam’s chainsaw arm by bending said chainsaw arm into a seemingly impossible geometric configuration — start to sweat. Like many folks in The GLOW, she has heard of Order Psychics. Also like many, she has taken them as a type of cryptid. A fairy tale. The MUNI know better. They have seen burned out husks of people after their minds have been removed.

Julian, fighting hard to keep the quiver out of his voice, asks, “Don’t you people wear fox masks?”

“Sometimes, when we want people to be afraid.”

BrokenRecord starts talking, in triplicate, about pretty little foxes as the car turns down an alleyway well decorated with colorful grafitti and a couple of watchers pretending to be unhoused drunks. Hitomi holds up her hands in American Sign Language for F and A and then nods at BrokenRecord in the back. One of the guys taps three times on a grating and the car turns left. The Fractal Warehouse is in front of them. [5]

“Remember,” she says, “We aren’t shooting anyone. We are going to find out what the hell is going on and then we’re going to get Juan back to his cafe before any of his fans get jumpy.”

Setting the Scene. Surrounded by Dumbasses.

Date: Friday, May 31, 1996.

Time: 12:41pm.

Place: In a breakroom in Fractal Apocalypse’s Warehouse in West Pensacola.

Expected Scene: They get a chance to talk to the ShaoDra about what is happening.

Scene Test: [c7] 6. 2d10 = 4 + 6. Scene as Expected.

Actual Scene: As it says on the tin.

Since there is no twists to the scene, let’s build up the crooked fixer who is part of the problem. Flipping over a card [c5] we get Yuito + Ouroboros as a name. I think that makes a good street name. Envy and Suave as two traits that work. Flipping over another [c23] we get a cultist and a bleeding hand. “A personal celebration is interrupted.” Situation: Modified lifeforms. Smuggler’s den. A third [c118] I get an alien face, a beaker that makes me think of a nuclear power plant and “A survival shelter”. Combining the Verb + Ad + Noun from those cards the first combination is Remember Ghostly Legend. Another possibly combination is Trick Complex Stockpile.

Ito Oro. Goes by Yuito Ouroboros. Has an old fallout shelter as a home basement with underground storage. Throwing a party in a couple of days related to a local legend about aliens and ghosts. Oooh, like a seance to talk to the lifeforms from the Chicxulub event. Posh folks. ServiSynth sex workers. Gawdy masks and people high on the Fractal Apocalypse’s supply. Only, after they sold a large quantity of their stock to him, he claimed it wasn’t sufficient and threatened to send some dangerous folks [we’ll make these in a second] after the FA and the ShaoDra. Know that that Knives have it out for Yuito, and he found otu they had shopped out the mission through Juan, he convinces the FA+SD to snag Juan just for a little talk [hoping to kill Juan, the FA, and the SD in the crossfire].

I’m feeling it.

A warehouse with boxes rising up on either side on shelves.

Date: Friday, May 31, 1996.

Time: 12:54pm.

Place: In a breakroom in Fractal Apocalypse’s Warehouse in West Pensacola.

Despite the young — around 20 at a high estimate — black man having a full foot over Hitomi, she has backed him into a corner and has a finger pointed at his face. He keeps giggling in response as she lectures him, though the artificial joy he is caught on keeps slipping as he tries to resurface. Another, younger, black man with a strong French accent is sobbing on the floor. He apparently is tripping on abject sadness. Why? No one knows. BrokenRecord has said the word “Wow” about fifteen times and Hitomi looks like she is going to snap.

“Listen up, you shitbrained dumbass. Do you have any bottled emotions that might be something like, I don’t fucking know, seriousness?”

A pale woman with a shaved head, a ShaoDra around the same age as BrokenRecord, nods. Gets up and goes out. Besides Hitomi and the two victims of her wrath, you have Juan Uno sitting at a small table that just shouts corporate breakroom. Which it is. The Fractal Apocalypse is an amazingly modern looking warehouse once you get past the gutter-trash exterior. That’s part of its security. That and the Artifical Bliss bombs set to trigger if you open the door without the watchdogs outside giving the signal. Any attempted break in and you will feel so happy you might never feel happy again.

Behind Juan is Julian, puffing himself up to look extra big. A hand is clearly on his gun in his holster. He has taken Hitomi’s command to not shoot anyone — and his fear of Eustace keeps him extra in line — but he has the rough ok to make it seem like he is. Eustace is at the door and keeps glancing out at a warehouse bot in the constant motion of moving boxes around like a strange cross between a spider and a sloth. It seems to just be shifting boxes without meaning, but surely it is doing…something.

Laughter is Banshee McCready. Sadness is Vorpal Spark. The pale bald one was Varvara Clean. Her accent, based on the two words she has said since they entered, demanded to see Juan, and got brought here puts her as Eastern Euro or playing to stereotype.

While waiting, Hitomi looks around for an ashtray and, seeing none, grabs a coffee cup and sits down next to Juan and lights up. She offers one to him and he accepts. “Are you ok?”

Juan is in his 40s. Mom was Mexican and an early settler in The GLOW. Dad was a Japanese cafe owner who emmigrated in the 50s. The two hooked up and made a happy home that young Juan took offense at. Ran a rough childhood until his 20s when he took a dime in MUNI prison. Got out, found his parents had disowned him, and started his light-gray-hat business while trying to make his dad proud. Hopes one day they will try and find them.

He nods and seems to find it all a bit amusing. Hitomi has tried to explain that some potential roughs will be here before long unless they get Juan back, safe and sound, and this is all just a hilarious misunderstanding.

“A birthday party, ok? A surprise party and that was all a bit high energy to make you think you were being kidnapped. We offer your customers a free coffee drink for the disturbance. Julian backs us up and no one shoots any dumbasses despite them practically begging for it.”

Varvara has returned and Vorpal and Banshee are now huffing a cannister labeled Buzzkill™ and suddenly the smiles and the tears are both wiped from their face. They go into apologies.

“Sorry, ma’am. Ouroboros had promised us to clear some debt if we brought Juan here for a secret meeting only the ShaoDra took excitement before going and maybe took too much,” Banshee explains in a quiet voice completely not living up to his street name.

“Ma’am!?,” Hitomi chokes.

Eustace finally tears his eyes from the ever moving warehouse bot and looks over at the group near the table. “He wanted you all to die, you know that, right?” As the group stares at him like they just noticed a large man with artificial arms has been standing there this whole time. “Oroborous, I mean. He figured Juan’s fanboys would go on a murder mode and raid the place.” [6]

Looking over at Julian, Eustace adds, “Yeah, I can read your mind. You are thinking of daffodils for some reason.” Julian makes a high pitched whine in his throat.

“Eu, honey, are you done scaring the nice people?,” Hitomi asks, recharged and ready to go back into lecture mode.

“Yeah, though if someone can explain what the hell this bot is up to, I would…”

Hitomi makes a zip it gesture at Eustace and he goes silent. To him, it looks like she has just flung a dozen green lines through the air that resettle on her face like butterflies to a flower.

“We all good on the birthday lie? We have around, oh, zero seconds to get out here and start telling it really loud. Then, after that, I am going to Juan about making sure this never happens again before Oroborous tries again.”

DOUG’S COMMENTARY

February 10, 2025

I’m wrapping this up a bit earlier than I normally would but it is a fair stopping point. I am still in a fairly long recovery process from a bacterial infection in the lungs that is now largely let go but the meds have left me a bit spaced. It has been almost a week since I have been able to dedicate much mental space to playing. The sickness is a part of it. Another part was having issues — due to the sickness, but also just a lot of personal stress related to recent news — trying to come up with an interesting hook for the next part. I could have just clipped and went straight in for the Amy Patel rescue but I wanted to have at least a side mission first to give Eustace and Hitomi a chance to make some money and kind of work a storyline that might be a bit dangerous and risky but overall was a bit lighter in tone.

After spending half-an-hour, or more, going through the whole random generation arc coming up with missions and finally finding a vibe I liked I then get a major twist. It is the classic solo play experience. The random crap generated from the twist was more fun. I like the ShaoDra and the FA. I think it will make for a good couple-three more sessions of trying to protect a group of streetwise dumbasses from the true violence of The GLOW. There will be another cult, another street gang, and some weird lore development. At that point we will have something like five or six gangs and that’s enough to just run with for a bit.

At any rate, forgive the brevity here but next time will start back at Juan’s and will detail making plans to play a few people off each other. I’m looking forward to it. I am also looking forward to having my brain back.

By the way, a bit of trivia. I had picked the warehouse bot because originally Juan’s was going to be a warehouse. Then I had of him shifting Hitomi to a cafe. I found the cafe with all the plants through a random search. Once I came up with the two non-violent street gangs the idea that one of them might run a warehouse both for their own artificial moods but also just as a side job was pretty natural. My brain fog meant I couldn’t really think of a good use for it in the scene so I just thought it was funny for it to be moving boxes around at random to fit the kind of FA/SD spaced out street punk motif. Eustace was staring at it because I would have just stared at it and wondered what was up.

Spoiler: but the next major twist (if not sooner) will be our first glimpse at the other psychics. We know form the first session that they are tracking Eustace. I think we should get at least a glimpse.

MECHANICAL AND STORY NOTES

Focus + Aware. Gets a Critical. Knows there’s no danger. Brawn + Stunt to try and grab one but no successes at all.
Only a Basic success to block the shot. He’ll stop the kid from getting killed but the kid still gets shot. Smooth + Leadership with Silver Tongue. Gets an Extreme. Eustace is in control of the scene.
[c37] Darya. Persian (and other) female name. BrokenRecord is another name so let’s give her a verbal tick.
Focus + Heal. Extreme. Boy is living up to Nurse pretty well.
Criminal + Streetwise. She gets a Critical + Basic without even rerolling. She definitely knows the codes.
Focus + Detect + 1 Help since it’s kind of obvious. He gets a Critical.

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

For info about the photo for Juan’s cafe: see previous post where I went over creating new art for this series.

The alleyway towards the Warehouse: Photo by Linda Xu on Unsplash

The Fractal Apocalypse Warehouse: Photo by Ruchindra Gunasekara on Unsplash

Taxonomy and Technical Data

World: The GLOW

Campaign: The GLOW

Arc: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont

Post: Episode 3 – Getting a Job

Dates Played: February 8 through February 10.

The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont, Episode 2 – Gathering Supplies

By Doug Bolden

On 2025-02-14

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

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

Libby the Lab. Rebuilt experimental war tech. Faithful pooch.

“Previously…” and Campaign/Arc Summary
Making a The GLOW Map Table
The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont Episode 2 — Gathering Supplies

Previously, on The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont

Psychic Eustace Delmont has gone on a Walk. In a massive indoor mall, aka The Citadel, he meets a hacker criminal named Hitomi Meyer. After fighting, and obliterating, a group of Patel family goons, Eustace and Hitomi are now trying to get to safety. They are heading to Century, FL where one of Hitomi’s old allies can help take care of Bee.

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.

Making a The GLOW Map Table

A grid of real-world Alabama and Florida Panhandle divided into a 12x20 section

A map for me to generate some random events in a more consistent manner. Explanation below.

More so than the original arc where a lot of things were left up purely to the flow of the story, this time around I need a few new tools. The map above is one of those. Taking the 2023 Alabama state highway map from ALDOT, I have overlaid a 20×12 grid representing the local scope of The GLOW and the “near” GLOW. This gives me a way to roll for locations and to generally mentally map how locations are connected. There is no attempt, yet, to link this up to The GLOW’s subway system or to map out changes in the roads. This is a bit higher concept than that.

Each grid is about 10 miles. It’s not meant to be super precise but that’s close enough. Take this with a grain of salt in that I might have really messed up my math. I don’t need granular distance measurements, more of just a broad sense.

In the context of the GLOW, there would be anywhere from 1-5 additional grids worth of city off the coast representing the strange floating — as in on water — portions of the city. South of Mobile it would extended even further, nearly 70 miles off the old coast. This is where the more expensive houses and such are. Those are not indicated on the map because this is much more of a “Sprawl” type campaign.

This episode starts in Century, FL which is on the map in 18,1. The Citadel, which they just left, is 14,11. Just to establish such, the Blue Sky Grove is in 6,12 while The Rambler is in 9,9.

In this light, I can find out things like: Where is Hitomi’s apartment? → 19,2. A place slightly south of the real world Jay, FL. In this world, it will be “Little Tokyo.” A bit more built up than the anti-Order Century but also a bit out of the main stretch.

The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont. Episode 2 — Gathering Supplies

Setting the Scene. Setting Up a Wild Goose Chase.

Date: Thursday, May 30, 1996.

Time: 6:52pm.

Place: In the parking lot of the closed RINA Auto Repair Shop.

Expected Scene: Hitomi is working on removing the tracker from the Patel Car.

Scene Test: [c116] 7. 8 + 3. A Minor twist/complication. On that card it has a catalyst of “law enforcement comes for you.” Not a major-enough twist for that level of complication, but makes sense that they are in the area. Reason? [c3] has a person stabbed in the back. Let’s say there is a murder in the back of RINA’s lot.

Actual Scene: They are having to do this while some MUNI cops are investigating a murder very nearby.

Does the Patel car even have a tracker? (Good) → [c114] Yes.

Another thing from the c116 card is “Rest Plus Motel”. Let’s make it Rest+ and save that for later since I was going to eventually need a hotel or motel at some point.

Setting Up a Wild Goose Chase

Date: Thursday, May 30, 1996.

Time: 6:52pm.

Place: In the parking lot of the closed RINA Auto Repair Shop.

Hitomi is bent under the car while Eustace makes it look like he is trying to repair something under the hood. They are in the parking lot of RINA Repair Shop. What RINA might mean is lost to time since the sign doesn’t say and the shop has been closed for some time. The front glass is exploded out. A couple of cars left behind are burnt husks. Some kids have left a stack of beer cans in a pile in the parking lot. Strangely that has been left undisturbed.

MUNI is around back, adding to the stress of being here, but the cops are caught up with a vagrant that got stabbed this afternoon. At least the body was found this afternoon. Eustace could probably solve the case for them with just a few quick seconds but at this moment they are just a couple of people with a broke down car who found their old favorite mechanic surprisingly out of business. That’s the story they are going to tell if any of the MUNI asks what is up.

Because a burnt out shop is a great place to leave a stolen car after you have murdered the owners. No cameras. No scanners. By the morning it will likely be another burnt out husk or stripped for parts.

Hitomi looks over at Bee who is having a hard time keeping their eye off the cops. Hitomi is not sure if Bee is worried or just curious. Or horny. What Hitomi is sure is that if Bee keeps snagging her cigarettes, she is going to start charging her roommate tax. Bee has walked off with Hitomi’s smokes and makes no move to give them back.

“Did you get it?,” Eustace asks, wiping his hands like he just did anything at all to the car under the hood.

Hitomi holds up a tracker device and scoffs. “Let me stick to the tech shenanigans, you stick to other murder-death-kill.” [1]

“You know, that’s the first time I have ever killed anyone. In person. I’ve seen a few deaths.”

Hitomi looks at him and realizes he is serious. “Fuck, I’d hate to see you with training.”

At this time an 80s model car shows up — American — and an old lady gets out. Yuuki Jones. In her 70s, looks to be a hard-50s. By the general average life span of The GLOW, she has won some lottery. MUNI cops look up at her but glance away. To folks around here, must look like an old granny bailing her unruly granddaughter out of a fix.

“I brought your JUMPER CABLES, Mochi.” Hands Hitomi a paper bag that has zero jumper cables but does have a change of clothing, a couple of credit sticks, some hair-dye, and some ammo for Hitomi’s gun. [2]

“Thanks, おばあちゃん,” Hitomi says, taking the bag.

“You call her grandmother?,” Eustace asks.

“This huge 外人 speaks 日本語?,” Yuuki asks, giving Eustace a very long glance.

“Don’t let him lie to you, Yuu. He’s psychic, apparently. Also, stop calling people 外人, you have lived her longer than most of these people have been alive.”

“Hey, big psychic, what am I thinking about, right now?,” Yuuki asks.

Eustace, not even looking in her direction, responds, “I’m about average size.”

Yuuki cackles a smoker’s laugh at this. “Ah, too bad, Mochi. Too bad. They make pills for it, though.” The old woman then walks over to Bee and snags the cigarette from the younger adopted-grandchild’s mouth. “And no smoking for you. Save that for us grannies.”

“You got Bee for the next couple of days?”

“How much trouble you in?” Yuuki notes the blood on Eustace’s jacket that Bee is still wearing as an all-in-one outfit.

“Patel-sized.”

“This boy’s fault?”

Hitomi looks over at Eustace. “No, someone else. He was trying to help. Only it got worse. You’ll catch it on the news, tonight.”

As Bee leans up against Yuuki, Hitomi walks over to her young friend. “You help out at the store, ok? I’ll be back in a few days. Hopefully. Also, kill the hair.”

Bee sighs and touches a node on behind their ears. The sea-green hair settles down. With another tap it shifts to a bland bad beach-blonde look. The effect won’t catch anyone off guard who knows Bee, but those who don’t would have a hard time picking them out of any average plain teenager.

Hitomi looks around in the fading daylight and then finds a casual way to walk over to the MUNI car like she is being curious. Once she is sure that none of the MUNI are really paying attention, she quickly bends over and slips the tracker to the underside of their bumper. That should confuse the Patel gang. [3]

Rejoining Eustace, Hitomi says, “Ok, Nurse, we need to grab a bus and head to Little Tokyo. Grab my stuff if we can get to my apartment in time. Hopefully they haven’t hurt Libby.”

Setting the Scene. Getting Libby and Getting Betrayed.

Date: Thursday, May 30, 1996.

Time: 7:30pm.

Place: Outside Sasaki Ramen Bar in Little Tokyo.

First, has Patel’s people found Hitomi yet? (Good) → [c1] Yes? They are close but won’t show up until later in the scene.

Second, Hitomi did really well with getting the device and planting it on a cop car to lead some of Patel’s heat on a wild goose chase. Will give her an adrenaline up to 4.

Expected Scene: Hitomi and Eustace try to get stuff from her apartment before Patel’s people show up.

Scene Test: 5. 2d10 = 5 + 7. Another Minor Twist. “A secret is revealed or betrayed.” The Sasakis turn in Hitomi for a reward.

Actual Scene: They get to the apartment before the goons, but the goons will lie in wait for an ambush.

Ah, The GLOW, where getting sold out by people you think are your friends is just a minor twist.

These two need to be tougher. We’ll use Bad Guys Template 1 to show the increased intensity. Roger Patel can’t imagine the slaughter was due to a kiosk owner so assumes it must be a rival gang. Still, he wants Hitomi to find out what happened to the mini-disc. 5 Grit with 1 Hot Box. They have Automatic Weapon and Martial Arts feats. Attack: Critical. Defense: Critical. Like before, their weakness will be Patel’s people aren’t good at working together. Names? [c48] Ecrin and [c45] Leonie.

The owner’s name, Sasaki, by the way came from the Japanese Surname table in The Book of Random Tables: Cyberpunk 3.

Outside Hitomi's apartment, as seen by Eustace.

Outside Hitomi’s Apartment in the Little Tokyo portion of The GLOW. Above Sasaki Ramen.

Getting Libby and Getting Betrayed.

Date: Thursday, May 30, 1996.

Time: 7:30pm.

Place: Outside Sasaki Ramen Bar in Little Tokyo.

Eustace hears Hitomi ask him, “Anything?”

He turns and searches through the psychic threads. “Yes. Very close. Two of them. We don’t have a lot of time.” [4]

“Okey doke.” She pulls out her gun and makes sure it is ready to go. Hands Eustace the three laptops she is carrying and hopes that if he has to go berserker again he will not completely smash them up. “The Sasaki brothers have been very nice to me and let Bee and me crash here. I’d rather them not get hurt in this. Even if they are ex-Yakuza hiding out here to avoid some heat from actual Tokyo.

She leads him down a alley far cleaner than any he has seen in The GLOW, up some stairs, and to a door she hastily unlocks. Counting down 3, 2, 1 on her fingers she shoves it open and then aims her gun inside, to nothing but a dark apartment smelling of stale smoke and old ramen. One benefit to living here is getting a lot of cheap food for small favors.

Red eyes light up across the room, followed by a small mechanical canine. Hitomi bends down and pets it like is a real dog. “LIBBY!”

“That’s Libby?,” Eustace asks.

“Yep. Libby the Lab. My own little walking, barking chemical and electronics analyzer. Get it? Lab? Bee came up with that one. Found her in a scrap yard and fixed her up. For a psychic, you sure seem surprised a lot.”

“I am trying to respect your privacy. I trust you to tell me what is important.”

She glances back at the big man and gives him a wink. “Stop, Nurse, you already getting laid tonight. First, though, let me get my gear and some smokes to replace those that Bee stole.”

She spends only a couple of minutes snagging up a backpack, shoving the laptops in, several packs of cigarettes, a couple more cred sticks, and a couple sensors and detectors.

As they make their way back downstairs, Libby following, Eustace tenses. “I think they are here.” [5]

Sure enough, coming around the alley from the direction of the street are two more Patel goons. These look a bit better put together than the last ones. The bit that upsets Hitomi is that Junya Sasaki is behind them. “Yep, that’s her. No hard feelings, Hitomi.” And with that he is gone. [6]

Dark woman who looks a lot like Quiet and Dark from earlier steps forward pulling a gun out and pointing right at Eustace. “Come with us. We have to talk to you about a certain mini-disc and what might have happened to my brother.”

“Ah, shit,” Hitomi says, because that has to be a real bad sign.

“Marius’s men hit them after Hitomi gave them the disc,” Eustace says, “We just got out there before this weird guy with katanas started to chop up everyone. Sorry we can’t help.”

Hitomi knows Eustace means Thom Marius. A rival industry-man-turned-gang-boss to Roman Patel. Interesting, Talkative and Dark seems to believe him. “Marius? The fucker is making a move?” She looks back at her red head extremely Irish looking companion and then shrugs. He takes out his gun and now aims at Hitomi, “Thanks for the heads up, but no disc makes this easier.” [7]

Eustace is moving before Hitomi gets her pistol up. As he is closing the gap she has taken a bead on Very Irish and pulled off a shot. He grunts but stays up. By this time, Eustace is at the presumptive leader’s side and bringing down his arm blades. She tries to throw a kick to block them but the blades catch her in the shoulder and keep going down the length of her body until she is split in two. [8]

Very Irish doesn’t break stride at seeing his partner killed. He pulls the trigger and catches Hitomi in the shoulder. Then he runs up and kicks Eustace in the head. The big guy stumbles down but seems to roll pretty well with the fall. [9]

Hitomi moves forward to try and cover Eustace and despite being a bit shook-up after being shot, she manages to drop Very Irish with a headshot. She pulls Eustace to his feet. [10]

Eustace looks down her injured arm and bends forward to tear a strip off her shirt and starts wrapping her up. At the same time, she checks his head for injuries. He seems to have fared better than her.

“Will your landlords tell the cops it was us?”

“You know what, fucking probably. What the hell happened to honor?”

“We live in a city powered by tortured souls,” he says, shrugging. Then picks up the two corpses and walks into the Ramen bar (the customers having already fled). A few second her and Libby follow inside. She is afraid of seeing blood dripping from everywhere but instead Junya is grabbing keys from the woman’s pocket and rushing past her to hide the car while his younger brother — she has never caught his name — is helping to drag the bodies in the back while apologizing to Eustace. “I had a talk about turning armed thugs against someone who helping The Order and they saw common sense. They are going to help hide the evidence and say that a group of weirdos with rooster masks taunted the Patels here and they ran off after shooting a few shots and taking some hits. And that no, they don’t know where you are. They heard you were heading down to Mexico. Or I would rat them out to the authorities. That’s for betraying your trust. You need to get to their security system and hide this footage.” [11]

Setting the Scene. Holy Revenge.

Before we figure out exactly what sort of scene this might be, a question: Does Hitomi know someone who might sell her a decent car | bike for $2? (Even) → [c94] No. This means they are going to have to steal one or keep taking public transportation. Let’s generate some details about a place where she might steal one. [c16] has “FaithCorp Featuring Jesus 2.1” and a picture of a saw blade. [c67] has Akari as one of the names as a visual identifier of “pristine pressed clothes.” [c113] has a video camera and an icon that is a virus but it also makes me think of little droids. Maybe little droids with cameras. The catalyst text is “A high-stakes wager is offered.”

What was the nature of the wager? [c81] Unseal [c9] Profitable [c4] Research. A couple of image icons for this → [c13] I…don’t actually know what that icon is meant to be. Ah, cannister. One more just for a bit more flavor: [c25] Dead Head.

I have some good backstory, now.

Date: Thursday, May 30, 1996.

Time: 8:37pm.

Place: Near FaithCorp’s Holy Church of Illumination. Cottage Hill, FL.

Expected Scene: Hitomi and Eustace scope out the Holy Church of Illumination — in reality just a big garage with a bunch of people ensnared by Dave Akari — and make plans to snatch a particular bike.

Scene Test: [c94] 5. 2d10 = 2 + 6. Another minor complication. [c96] A chase or pursuit breaks out. An image on that same card is a note held in place with a dagger.

Actual Scene: As H & E watch, another gang shows up and starts wrecking the place and several of the workers take off after them.

Dave Akari, 32. Street prophet and con-man. Five years ago, ran jobs with Hitomi. Eventually they were made a wager by one of Dave’s contacts. If they could steal data from an Order outpost, they would get the cash they needed to set up a real shop. Turns out the data was about The GLOW’s usage of recently deceased individuals to feed more fuel into the Harrowing, something The Order denies. Hitomi succeeded but Dave betrayed her while she was still coming to terms with it. They money he made from that deal ended up funding FaithCorp, his “rehabilitation for sinners” for-profit church. It engages in a lot of shady dealings with unhoused folks, recovering addicts, prostitutes, and other people that The GLOW grinds under its massive feet. Only, he turns their guilt into his own wealth.

The Holy Church of Illumination is a chop-shop that claims to be overcoming the sins of earthly possessions. Stolen vehicles are brought and broken down as “penance.” Dave sells off vital parts to a number of buyers. And, if one of his parishioners drop dead, his contact from five years ago has a particular use for them.

Hitomi has never quite gotten over the betrayal, both emotionally — it was a shock and Dave was like a big brother to her and taught her several of her skills — but also financially. She has curtailed doing any big jobs again and ends up spending a lot of her cash helping out others to make up for past actions.

Not only should there be a lot of vehicles here, but she wants Dave’s own custom bike.

Is Dave in this time of night? (Even) → [c100] No.

What time will he back? → [c92] The arrow is pointing to the “2,” essentially. {am | pm} → pm. This means he has night and morning managers.

And I finally get to use Augmented Reality. The rival gang that shows up for the Illumination group is the 50 Panzer 62 Killaz. They are 67 Rag-Enshrouded, 15 All-Female 31 Chromers who 50 Target Small-Fry fixers and gangers and steal their shit to sell. I think that explains it pretty well.

The Holy Church of Illumination. Chop Shop for the Burnt Out followers of JesusCorp.

Holy Revenge

Date: Thursday, May 30, 1996.

Time: 8:37pm.

Place: Near FaithCorp’s Holy Church of Illumination. Cottage Hill, FL.

“The Holy Church of Illumination,” Hitomi explains while her and Eustace — and Libby — watch from the rooftop of an abandoned movie theater. The sign on the marquee reads BAT LE AN EL. “JesusCorp bought out the whole block and now his holy rollers drive out most everyone else.”

“True believers?”

She takes a drag on her cigarette and points out the drifting Soulburn. “Pretty dumb to not believe.”

Eustace keeps mum. He knows that she probably sees a gentle neon after-image. To him, the city is Soulburn. Reality is the fuzzy bit. The emerald lines of psychic threads keep showing up and each and everyone keeps pointing to her. This bothers him. For lots of reasons but mostly because more and more he feels like he is being watched. He glances back behind him and wonders how long before there are fox masks there.

“Why are we here, Hitomi?”

“Mochi. Call me Mochi. My friends do.”

“Fine. Same question. Why? Here? Mochi?”

“Church is run by a scumbag named Dave Akari. We ran together back in the day until he betrayed me right as was dealing with existential shit and got a lot of money out of it.”

“Ran together?”

“Not like that, you creep. He was like a big bother picking up another lost girl in Little Tokyo. Half-Nigerian, Half-Japanese. We made a pair. Talked about taking down the system. Then he became the system. Got some people killed. One person in particular. Rika. She and I did run together. Like that.” Hitomi sniffs. Not exactly sadly, not any more, but definitely a step in that direction. “He got too well protected for me to do much. Took enough gear from our collective stash, I spent a lot of time trying to work my way back up. Then I met Bee and took them in. Realized I could do more with money than get rich.” [12]

“This is revenge?”

“Got a problem with it?”

Eustace looks at the emerald line, well beyond Hitomi’s ability to even sense, as it runs through her and around her. “No. I think you are stuck with me.”

“Let’s see how you are in bed first. And, to answer your question: No. I mean, yes, of course it fucking is. Only the good Church is a lie. The holy rollers are all refugees of The GLOW bent into religious disciples by Dave. This particular branch is all about taking material possessions — in this case various stolen vehicles — and breaking them down to purify them of the sin of expensiveness. Dave then takes the parts and sells them on. Tosses a few bones back though the holy rollers could be paid in dog feed and still worship the man. He’s Jesus 2.1. But a bunch of stolen cars means we can snag a ride. With luck, Dave’s there and I can take his fancy bike he likes to show off around town.”

Eustace reaches out and pulls her back right as a few bikes and decked out cars tear through the night. A group of people, maybe a dozen, dressed in strange rags like leprous penitents, ride up and jump off. Flashes of chrome show through the outfits as gunfire erupts. A few seconds later they run out carrying a sack of something — probably aether-boards stripped from top models — and drive off. The holy rollers — heads shaved, drably dressed, and tatted all over with crosses and JesusCorp versions of Bible verses — run after them, a few cars joining the chase. There are a lot more of the rollers than this new gang.

“Holy shit!,” Hitomi exclaims, “I think that’s the Panzer Killahs. Lesbian chromers who play at wasteland garb. They like to hit smaller gangs and steal shit. Half the fun is stirring up trouble.”

“They look clearly outnumbered by the rollers.”

“Means it’s likely a trap. Also means we have a great chance to get inside. Watch out for Dave’s security bots.”

Setting the Scene. Going to Bloody Church.

Date: Thursday, May 30, 1996.

Time: 8:46pm.

Place: First Floor of the Holy Church of Illumination. Cottage Hill, FL.

Expected Scene: E+H blast through the first floor and try to make their way upstairs.

Scene Test: [c41] 8. 2d10 = 9 + 10. A MAJOR twist. Fascinating. Let’s draw three cards to work out what it might be. [c32] Reveal a tension or rivalry. “Mischa.” [c1] Domestic Papers + image icon of a hand being cut off. [c29] Destroy Anachronistic Government.

Actual Scene: Expecting it to be mostly abandoned — except for the security bots — they find that a coup is underway as Mischa and her apostates are violently trying to reform the church.

This means the humans are mostly caught up in their own struggles and that there is a bit of a clock before all the stuff that Hitomi might want — a ride, information from Dave’s computer — might be destroyed if they lose momentum. I won’t formally “clock” it but once a couple-three failures pile up, they will essentially be out of time.

Security Bots will be confused by the action and looking for something to attack. Attack: Critical. Defense: Critical. 9 Grit Boxes. Hot Box at 3 and 7. They armored (-1 to hit) and a Walking Hazard (Gamble to attack them [in melee?]).

SCENE SOUNDTRACK: The album I will be playing while playing this scene is Perturbator’s Lustful Sacraments. It seems appropriate.

The Holy Church of Illumination first and second floorplan. Also an image of what it looked like before extensive conversion into a car garage pretending to be a church.

Going to Bloody Church.

Date: Thursday, May 30, 1996.

Time: 8:46pm.

Place: First Floor of the Holy Church of Illumination. Cottage Hill, FL.

“FUCK!,” Hitomi screams as she pulls back her head just in time to avoid being splattered with blood. She had hoped the Church would be mostly abandoned after a good contingent of rollers took off after the PK. Instead, she nearly ran into a slaughter as one group of rollers is currently slaughtering another group. “What is this shit?”

“Schism, I guess,” says Eustace coolly. The only detail he notes is that side leading the slaughter all have fresh, bloody crosses carved into their foreheads. Upside down.

“I guess it really was a trap,” Hitomi says, “Some sort of inside job.” As if to underline the point, a large explosion and screams can be heard coming from the direction the PKs lead the other rollers away. “Don’t really fancy trying to make our way through the blood bath.”

A couple of un-marked rollers take off out the door, barely paying attention to Eustace or Hitomi.

“We can just snag the nearest vehicle and try to go.”

“No, I want to see if I can get to Dave’s office. Might have some vital intel.”

“Climb?”

“Think we can?”

Eustace looks up and shrugs. He extends his blades and starts punching out handholds and going. He’s not super quick with it, but he is making his way up. [13]

Hitomi watches him go at a snail’s pace before going, “Fuck it!,” and starts climbing after him. “Libby, go and hide yourself and only come out when I ask, got it?” Libby lets out a small mechanical bark. Within a couple of seconds she has climbed past Eustace and smashed open a window. She turns to help him up. [14]

As they are setting foot on the carpeted inside, they hear a high-pitched whine as one of the security drones’ flechette launcher warms up and dive behind a table as sharp, thin projectiles embed into the old wood. The room they are in is a conference room and looks out of place in the overall decay of the region. Luckily, the table is thick enough to take a few hits. Unluckily, more of the bots are entering the room. They look something like crabs with a tall column for a head. At the top of the column is a camera. To either side is flechette launchers. Pincers can detain a trespasser if they can grab you.

Eustace leaps over the table to go after the first one and manages to slice through the metal but in the process takes a cut along his arm. Hitomi stands up and starts aiming for the cameras and takes out a couple of control units at the top of the bots closest to her but another hits her in the leg with a flechette. [15]

The four bots in the room now open fire with a stream of blades. Hitomi works to dive behind the table while Eustace snatches up a chair to block. Neither are completely successful as blood is dripping from Eustace’s chest and Hitomi has been hit in the side. [16]

Eustace reaches out his hand and psychically shoves one bot into another with enough force to cause all three to explode. Hitomi tries to shoot down the last but mostly keeps it distracted. [17]

As the remaining bot swivels its busted out camera head, a red light starts flashing. A high pitched beeping speeds up as it nears a self-destruct sequence. Hitomi braces for the explosion but Eustace leaps forward and kicks the bot back out the door. An explosion shakes the building. [18]

“Are we having fun yet?,” he asks as he helps her up.

“This might too much fun,” she replies.

They make their way into the hall and see the explosion has damaged the floor. Shouts downstairs can be heard through cracks showing a bit of the workshop floor below. It can still hold, maybe, but it will be a bit of gamble. [19]

Eustace goes first, again. He makes it across but the boards make a cracking noise. Hitomi looks and takes a few light steps over and tumbles to the other side right as the floor gives way and falls down. Based on the shout, it took out one of the combatants. [20]

“Come on, Nurse. We have to find Dave’s office before the crowd downstairs comes to investigate.” Luckily it doesn’t take her long to find Dave’s office. “Block the door!” Eustace has enough to drag some heavy furniture across to seal the door. Voices are shouting outside as some people have found the wreckage in the floor and the smashed bots. [21]

Dave’s office is a lot like most pastor’s offices, only a bit more neon and garish. The nude photos of bald men and women take on a flavor in the strange lighting. Hitomi looks down at Dave’s desktop computer. There might be a lot of good information on it but time is short. “We need to get out. Can you carry that?” Eustace nods. She aims her gun at the window and shoots out the glass. Then she runs up and leaps out. Eustace follows her.

Both hit the ground, Eustace takes a bit of the brunt of it while holding up the computer tower. Hitomi rolls with the fall and is up and running back around to the front of the building. Now that slaughter has finished and the strange apostates are upstairs trying to find what caused the explosion, she has a brief window to actually grab a vehicle. [22]

She leaps on a red motorbike. “GET ON!,” she shouts at Eustace. He gets on behind her, still holding the computer. She pulls out into the alley and whistles for Libby. The mechanical dog runs up and attaches itself to the back of the bike. They ride off into the night.

They can hear other vehicles leaving the church but for a moment they have some freedom of movement. [23]

Setting the Scene. Resting Up.

Date: Thursday, May 30, 1996.

Time: 10:26pm.

Place: Room 1217 of Rest+ Motel. Outside Pensacola.

This is a Time Out so no scene test.

Factions are fun in cyberpunk. We have the JesusCorp Holy Rollers. The Apostates. The unknown Dave Akari associate. The Patels. The Mariuses. The Panzer Killahs. Some are working together. Some are against one another. Should give me plenty of meat to chew upon for the next shot or two.

Overall, though, it is time for a Time Out.

SCENE SOUNDTRACK: You can play whatever sexy synth music you want, but I will go for Veno’s “Midnight Lu Rou Fan” for a nice sexy love song about dealing with late-night horniness with some nice spicy pork and bok choy. Wink.

Time Out #1

Hitomi and Eustace get both of their grit back.

Eustace uses one of his actions to Heal Hitomi. She loses the Nervous condition.

Hitomi’s first action will be to try and get into Dave’s computer. Crime + Fix +1 Help from Libby = Double Critical. Excellent roll. She will start off next session finding all the information she wants to find.

Eustace’s second action will be to Fix the bike. He gets a Critical. Enough to have up to “Standard Bike Quality” but not enough to really improve upon it.

Hitomi will then spend her second action going investigating in the aethernet. She’s going to try and find a job. Focus + Streetwise. Critical + Basic. Likewise, she will have a good lead for the next session/shot.

For the general handling of themselves and working together the last couple of scenes, two adrenaline for each.

Now for the scene itself.

Rest+ Motel. Near Pensacola.

Resting Up.

Date: Thursday, May 30, 1996.

Time: 11:26pm.

Place: Room 1217 of Rest+ Motel. Outside Pensacola.

After working on the bike — he’s already calling it the Red Devil — he re-enters the motel room and sees Hitomi hunched over two laptops and Dave’s stolen computer, furiously typing across all three. A half-dozen cigarettes tell the story of a battle she has been having while the smile on her face tell the story of her winning. A seventh cigarette is in her mouth and she seems oblivious to his presence. The air is thick with smoke and opens one of the windows just a crack to let a few atoms of oxygen in.

“Shower,” he says and she gives a little wave.

Five minutes later, he is washing some of the blood off his chest when she steps into the shower with him. He has a moment where he feels his heart rate increase for an unexpected reason. She has a tattoo of a fox clearly visible on her thigh.

“Why the fuck is it so cold?,” she asks.

He says nothing as he leans forward and turns the heat up, keeping an eye on the tattoo and wondering when paranoia is not paranoia. Hitomi groans contentedly as the now hotter water works the kinks in her sore muscles.

“Did you get into the computer?,” he asks and she shushes him. Hands him the bottle of complimentary shampoo.

“Sponge bathe time, Nurse.”

Working up a lather, he starts washing her hair as gently as he can. She leans back into his arms. He feels her hands come up and start stroking his aetherware. Without reading her mind, just going on vibes, he answers the question he assumes most would have. “I can feel stuff through them ok. It’s different. A whole new set of nerves. But it’s not exactly missing all feeling or constantly numb or anything like that.”

She rinses her hair and then turns to face him. A whole lot of possible words pass by her mouth and she once again opts for the simplicity of a long kiss. Begins feeling along his body with her hands. “I see quite a few things are in their natural state.”

“The attachments are on back order from Taiwan, sorry.”

“Good, I want you to feel this.” She slides her hands and mouth down his body, leaving a trail of kisses. Enjoying the hardness of his muscular body. The reaction to her touch. After a few moments of very much feeling it, he reaches down, picks her up, and carries her to bed.

Half an hour later, the two lie nude. Finally dry. She has lit another cigarette and he is holding the ash tray on his chest. She flicks ash and lets out a little sigh.

“Hitomi…”

“Mochi.”

“Ok, Mochi, I…”

“New rule. We don’t say the L-word. Ok?”

“Oh, I wasn’t…”

“Another new rule. We don’t say that we weren’t going to say the L-word. We just take it as fun and we find more fun things to do this next couple of days.”

His turn to sigh. There are so many things he feels he needs to explain to her. What 91% might mean. What could happen if he goes rogue. How he refuses to read the future because he doesn’t want to know. How he just wants to stay in bed with her for a week and then maybe run as hard and as fast as he can. Instead, he opts for something a little different.

“Rub right there, the ticklish bit on my side.” As she does, he reaches out and shares the feeling with her. She grabs her own side and he sees her work through what it means.

“You can do that?”

“Yep, the favorite flirting trick of psychics everywhere.”

They eventually get some sleep.

DOUG’S COMMENTARY

February 4, 2025

This is scheduled to go out on Valentine’s Day so happy sexy times — snuggle times, just friendly times, whatever you need — for the two biggest dorks in my arsenal of dorks.

I thought about swinging the sex scene even sexier but I think that’s my limit without abruptly nose-diving into corny. Just more experimentation to get the more-ness of The GLOW down. More violent. More passionate. In its way, more loving. When your friends and loved ones might die or disappear due to street violence any moment, you both put up shields around your heart but also rapidly let people in from time to time.

The “Mochi” nickname is in full lock here. Much like the Weird version, a little nickname from her mom. One she shares with those people like Yuuki, Bee, and now Eustace she truly trusts. Though she has been burned a few times so she is going through some doubts.

Originally concieved as a kind of quick half-shot to round out the first post, this one grew to have a lot of fun elements. The betrayal by the Sasaki brothers. The Holy Church. The Apostates and the Psycho Killaz. The building up of factions. Holy Rollers is very nearly a Pensacola joke. If you have ever been lectured about the nature of sin at a P’cola beach, you know exactly what I mean.

The bike was an easy grab — well, after going through a couple of rough-ish battles — because the artwork I picked and will use a bit later shows Eustace on a red bike. I thought about just starting him out with one but this way was a lot more fun. Libby the Lab is also potentially fun. I think both will be the kind of gear that needs a lot of TLC. Less a full on cheat and more part of the young-couple-on-the-run aesthetic.

The Century use, and Foodland, was a shout out to the days when Doug was a young’un. Family would make weekly roadtrips down to Century, FL to get groceries. I don’t think it was a Foodland. I don’t remember what it was. Looks like it is a Food Giant now. I have no idea why we would drive half an hour to get food there. Presumably it was just cheaper. Maybe they had cheaper cigarettes or something. Family would also pick up lotto tickets. I should probably work that into the next session.

Before I play the next session, I want to re-read the Outgunned rules. I think I have them around 70% down. Still a few edge cases I am fine with just ruling on to make it fun for now, but would like to try and get it right before I purposefully screw it up.

Going to experiment a bit more with including more pictures, a few “actual play” sections, and the scene-soundtrack notation. Each arc is a way for me to experiment and the trying out soloing different systems is a good time to try out a few new techniques as well. I might make an intermission post just to so some of the process.

Next time will bring in either Augmented Reality or Cities Without Number to generate a job, or two. Then after they get some cash and can actually do more than hide out, we’ll work back around to the first Turning Point: rescuing Amy Patel.

MECHANICAL AND STORY NOTES

Crime + Fix and Hitomi only needs a basic to disable it. She gets an Extreme so she not only takes it out but she keeps it working. Heck, she might improve its broadcast range.
In the terms of Outgunned, not enough money to count as a $1. More like spending cash to help with note keeping later.
Crime + Stealth. Gets a Critical success.
Focus + Detect with Super Senses. Gets a Critical.
Gave him +1 help this time since he knows they are coming. Only a Double Basic so he again senses them but not precise info about from where.
Like the surname, first name comes from Cyberpunk 3. Japanese Male name with a 79 on the roll.
Eustace only gets 4 dice from his Smooth + Speech but with his Silver Tongue is able to pull a Critical. Does Ecrin and Leonie just let Eustace and Hitomi go? (Bad) → [c66] NO! Ah, well, it was a nice attempt.
Hitomi, with her Gunslinger Feat, still only gets a Critical and does 1 Grit. Eustace burns another Adrenaline to get +2 along with his blades for +1. However, he loses one because of their Martial Art feat. He gets an Exceptional. This does 3 more and will finish off Ecrin. Leonie is going to get +1 Adrenaline for his turn.
Hitomi gets no successes and has two 1s. She takes two grit damage and gets the Nervous condition as per Leonie’s feat. Eustace gets no successes and gets knocked down but has no 1s so doesn’t seem to take Grit.
Hitomi is at -1 for her Nerves. She still gets the shot off by spending an Adrenaline.
Eustace doesn’t play when it comes to taking lives casually. He burns a Spotlight to make it very clear that they will NOT remember Hitomi and instead will come up with a story about something. Anything else. A flip of the coin and he gets the spotlight back.
Rika is 23 on BORT: Cyberpunk 3.
Brawn + Stunt. Gets a Basic.
Crime + Stunt. Gets a Critical and a Basic. She’s a lot better at this.
Brawn + Fight. Adrenaline to get another +2. -1 for the bots’ feat. Gets a Critical but has a 1 left over. Hitomi gets an Extreme for 3 grit damage. She also has one 1 so takes one grit. Bots have 5 grit remaining and get 1 adrenaline for their move.
Both Eustace and Hitomi get Double Basic to reduce Grit loss to 1 each.
Eustace spends a spotlight and uses his psychic push to damage the bots, doing 3 grit (down to 2). The bots get another adrenaline. Hitomi only gets double basic so we’ll give her and Eustace a bonus on the reaction roll. Coin flip gives back the spotlight.
Bot is going to self-destruct. We’ll play it like Grenade but reduce damage to Critical to represent Hitomi’s help. Brawn + Stunt for both. Eustace gets a Extreme and manages to kick the bot into the hall, where it explodes.
Did the explosion damage the floor? (Even) → [c88] Yes? We’ll say it is holding up enough but it’s a gamble. Literally. A failure will result in the floor giving out and the person falling below.
Eustace gets Double Basic but no snake-eyes. This worsens the condition so Hitomi needs a Critical. Spending adrenaline, she gets a Critical + Basic. She makes it just fine.
Crime + Awareness + 1 help for knowing how Dave works and also spending a lot of time around her dad’s church. Critical + Basic success, again.
Eustace gets a Basic and takes 2 grit. Hitomi gets a Critical.
Are the apostates going to give chase? (Bad) → [c50] No? They are, kind of, but for now not the best.

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

I’ve been keeping the in-joke of a new Libby the Lab in the back of my head for a while. A War Tech dog made by Moment Labs. Now a different sort of lab capable of chemical and electronic analysis. Kind of a Doctor Who K-9 figure. But ragged and prone to breaking down. Which is possibly a very Doctor Who K-9.

The map (aka the real world map you can see in the grid) is provided by the Alabama Department of Transportation. I used to love getting the Alabama road map every year. Like, love it. I had stacks of them when I was younger. It made my heart a bit glad to get to bring that use one again.

The image of Hitomi’s apartment in “Little Tokyo” is uncredited on Pixabay. I’m trying a slightly experimental way of showing a glimpse of how someone like Eustace who can see details and shapes in the Soulburn might see the world. That take is around…80% correct. The idea is that he can make out the general details just fine, and finer details as he focuses, but the edges get lost a bit as the Soulburn actively seems to be trying to communicate with him.

The image of The Holy Church is by digital designer from Pixabay. I played around with the technique more to try and find slightly different vibes in the same style.

The “good enough for a couple of scenes” floorplan of the church is actually the First Baptist Church in Madison, IN. I’ve warped it a good bit because, again, we are seeing a lot of this through Eustace’s eyes. The main requirement was a church with a large ground-floor open area and I got it right in one.

The image of Rest+ Motel is by StockSnap from Pixabay.

Taxonomy and Technical Data

World: The GLOW

Campaign: The GLOW

Arc: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont

Post: Episode 2 – Gathering Supplies

Dates Played: February 2-4, 2025. Though February 2nd was mostly about playing around with the art style.

The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont. Intermission #1 – Revisiting Starting Expectations

By Doug Bolden

On 2025-02-12

In Gamemaster Apprentice Deck, Intermission, Outgunned, Solo Campaigns, The Glow

Now that I have some small experience playing Outgunned and have a few rounds to try out some characters, going to go over what I feel is working and not before I get deeper.

The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont, Episode 1 – Psychic Boy Meets Hacker Girl

By Doug Bolden

On 2025-02-09

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

Special Agent Jani Blum, aka “Johnny Blue,” aka “Demontongue,” has gone off the grid. His long-term psychic partner — Eustace “Nurse” Delmont — has therefore graduated from Psychic Agent Liaison to potential Field Psychic. He is taking his Walk: a brief respite from active duty, to try and figure things out for himself and to solve one last piece of unfinished business.

The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont – “Session 0,” Arc Launch, Goals, Expectations, and Resources

By Doug Bolden

On 2025-02-07

In Campaign Design, Launch, Outgunned, The Glow

The GLOW returns for its second outing. We are meeting an alternate take on Eustace Delmont and Hitomi Meyer. Rather than a chronically do-gooder nerd and the love of his life, a person finding herself far from home, we meet the much more capable psychic and hacker duo. Still entwined by fate, but facing cyberpunk adventures instead of solving cozy mysteries.