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• "Previously..." and Campaign/Arc Summary
• The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont Episode 12 — Scrap in the Scrapyard
• Rooting for the Rotor Control
• The Return to Antioch
• Doug's Commentary
• Mechanical and Story Notes
• Credits
• Taxonomy and Technical Data

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Previously, on The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont

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

About The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Setting the Scene. Rooting for the Rotor Control.

Date: Wednesday, June 5, 1996.

Time: 2:45am.

Place: Thompson & Son Scraps.

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

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

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

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

DATE PLAYED: April 3, 2025.

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Rooting for the Rotor Control.

Date: Wednesday, June 5, 1996.

Time: 2:45am.

Place: Thompson & Son Scraps.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Genny shrugs. "Couldn't just let the thing kill us all. Instincts kicked in."

"You a vet?"

"Yeah, but not a good one."

"I hear that."

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

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

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Setting the Scene. The Return to Antioch.

Date: Wednesday, June 5, 1996.

Time: 6:32am.

Place: Antioch, secret base of the Order Psychics.

Another scene where I just play it by ear.

DATE PLAYED: April 3, 2025

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The Return to Antioch.

Date: Wednesday, June 5, 1996.

Time: 6:32am.

Place: Antioch, secret base of the Order Psychics.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bel shouts. "Nurse, is that really you?"

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

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DOUG'S COMMENTARY

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

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

MECHANICAL AND STORY NOTES

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

CREDITS

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

Other sources used include:

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

ART CREDIT AND EXPLANATION

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

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

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

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

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Taxonomy and Technical Data

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

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• "Previously..." and Campaign/Arc Summary
• Rebuilding the Squad
• The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont Episode 11 - Gathering New Allies
• Genny Yusuda
• Elsewhere
• Commentary: Soulburn and Runworld
• A Bird with No Wings
• The One Who Imbibes Thoughtfulness
• Doug's Commentary
• Mechanical and Story Notes
• Credits
• Taxonomy and Technical Data

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Previously, on The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont

Eustace Delmont — GLOW Order Psychic on the cusp of rising to full Witch — has died. Hitomi has managed to track down the Moonblink — Dave Akari's traveling hoverboat — and is planning on attacking but must deal with the emotional fall out of losing Eustace. Unknown to her, Eustace's spirit has been gathered by the Witches Three — the three otherworldly beings who are at the core of The GLOW — and has been taken elsewhere into dreamspace. Now Hitomi gathers up a new group of allies to carry out the mission for which Eustace gave his life: protecting the Order from a group of billionaires who seek world domination and an alliance with an ancient evil.

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.

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Rebuilding the Squad

Eustace Delmont is dead. 

He is also still quite active but on another plane of existence. I am not sure if this will be a few scenes thing or a couple of episodes thing but at any rate the Outgunned way — and the Doug way — is to move forward. Eustace will be going through a few otherworldly moments. Hitomi will be getting revenge by going after Dave Akari and then Roman Patel. Eventually the stories will meet up, but it should take a few minutes.

KEYED SCENE: The next Major Twist or the fifth Minor Twist will set-up the return of Eustace Delmont to the world of the living. Somehow. I'll work it out.

When he does return he will be different. He will have the power of flight. He will also have extensive primal scarring.

For now, though, we need some new faces to help give Hitomi a chance. The obvious candidate #1 is Genny (Jinjuro Yusuda). The most logical Role for him is Commando. For his Trope we'll go with Party Killer. Genny is all about complaining about the situation though generally doing the right thing in a world where the right thing tends to get him in trouble.

For #2, we have a bit of a void. The other three main back-up characters: Libby (the mechanical dog), Bee (the twee sidekick), and BrokenRecord (the mentally frazzled street runner) are all poor choices. However, there was a moment where I considered keeping the Fractal Apocalypse and Shaolin Dragons as back-up allies. One of the previously introduced characters (from Episode Three - Bad Decisions Are Made) was Varvara Clean — bald [though finding art has changed this to more "really short haired], Eastern European, and a bit more serious than her partners in low-level crime. She would make a good hand-to-hand fighter with a parkour focus. Somewhere between street urchin and spiritualist. Her Role would be Fighter while her Trope would be Free-Spirit.

As for #3, I want a pilot-type that is attached to the party. An Ace with a helicopter. I have no previous person that perfectly fits this so we'll dive a bit into a few rolls. African-American by way of Central America. A bit chubby. The sort of character that gets a bit sidekick'd and left behind on the actual missions but occasionally comes into focus. Using Cyberpunk 2 we'll for Hispanic first name (#1, 75, Nemesio) and American last name (I like something a bit plain, like Jones). Nemesio Jones. Goes by Jones. Worked some overseas stuff with Genny before returning home to Texas. Eventually set up shop around the Pensacola area. Manages some flights out over the Gulf. Likes watching old cartoons and collecting old American comics. For him, Role = Ace. I think it will be fun to lean into his obsession with cartoons and comics and chose Neurotic Geek as his Trope.

In each individual case, we'll have a quickish scene all about set-up that introduces them and gives me a chance to work out their characterizations and such. I'll build them up from these basic foundations.

---

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The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont. Episode 11 - Gathering New Allies

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---

Setting the Scene. Genny Yusuda.

Date: Tuesday, June 4, 1996.

Time: 9:17pm.

Place: Juan Cafe, the After Hours Version.

Before we get to building a character for Genny, let's start out with a single question: would Juan have a place to cold storage a body [like, maybe not him personally, but somewhere he could call up]? (Even) → [c103] Yes? There's a corp prompt of "Piano Tuner's Anonymous". Let's build up from there. A building a few blocks from Juan towards the seedier section of the area. Piano Tuner's Anonymous with a weather-faded picture of a piano. Actually used to hide away bodies of various jobbers and on occasion sneak bodies out in various musical instrument boxes. Not owned by Juan but he and his jobbers are a major part of their business model so they would cut him some favor to stash Eustace's corpse. That's where Eustace is physically located during the interim.

Now: on to making Genny. He's a Commando. From that he gets a point in Brawn and several skills. For his Feats related to his Role we'll take Marksman (gets rerolls when handling rifle, shotguns, and machine guns) and Military Background (rerolls related to recalling/using military training). From the Party Killer Trope he'll take Nerves and the Feat Head on a Swivel (Free reroll with sensing danger/enemies, essentially).

He'll get an assault rifle with two mags. He also has his "microwavers". These are close range only, +1. Non-Lethal. Besides that he gets his scrying glass and a knife. From his part of the deal he has enough he will buy a bullet proof vest and have $1 left over. His flaw is that he distrusts folks. His catchphrase is "Like a goddamned Kindergarten class!" usually said as he is treating everyone else like a child.

PLAYED ON: March 23, 2025

---

Genny Yusuda.

Date: Tuesday, June 4, 1996.

Time: 9:17pm.

Place: Juan Cafe, the After Hours Version.

The mood is appropriately funereal. Which strikes Hitomi as almost funny. With the exception of Myranda — currently chain smoking in the corner and looking more upset than Hitomi — most of the people here had a much more questionable relationship with Eustace. Genny and Julian both seemed terrified of him. Juan laughed it off but Hitomi knew that having anyone representing some degree of law and order — if the Order represents such a thing at all — was a point of contention. Bee treated Eustace like a violent uncle. BrokenRecord liked Eustace but then BrokenRecord is prone to have conversations with flowers she finds growing in the sidewalk.

Still when Genny drug a distraught Hitomi — and Eustace's inexplicably mutilated body — to Juan's in the early morning hours Juan put out an all-call to jobbers than the cafe was closed. Invitation only. Bee was summoned to put Hitomi to bed while Juan handled the body. In the midst of Hitomi's near panic attack at the words, "I'll take care of the body," Juan ensured her the body was going to a cryo-storage facility that owed him enough favors that he could cash in a dozen directives over the handling of Eustace without even scratching the surface. With that she relented and crashed for four hours — most of it nightmares involving strange crows and distant planets — before waking up. After a brief check-in with Mrs. Yuuki, Hitomi returned here. To find a sort of wake. Everyone here was someone that had worked with her and Eustace in these past few days.

"I said I am in," Genny repeats after Hitomi's seconds of shocked silence have lapsed into nearly a minute. The older man went from harangued uncle to protective big brother almost immediately after Hitomi had repeated the phrase "Eustace is dead" to him last night. Other people at the PS Nontooth Fillup had spotted the very-bad-stuff-happened corpse and cleared the area. Hitomi went into guardian mode, expecting the skeletal ServiSynths to kick up some sort of fuss but for some reason they actually helped to act as a screen and went around powering down the station to avoid any other customers.

How could she have known they had received orders from a force so inhuman that most people would go mad just looking upon them, the same force which killed Eustace in order to alter the shape of his soul?

"What do you mean you are in? There is no pay."

"Fuck the pay. If the story you said was true, then this is all of us. You and Eustace were going above and beyond. He punched through multiple people to get to me and get me safe. I want in. If these people work out their plan as intended, everyone's life will be hell. A world-wide battlefield sold to the highest bidder and people like me would end up shooting kids just to buy a loaf bread. Fuck that. Been there, done that."

"It's true. Fact is, since Dave's had the tech to create small-scale Harrowing for years now, it's probably worse than we think."

"Mochi...?," Bee asks from her corner where she has been sitting quietly for the past hour.

"Yeah, Bee?"

"Are we all going to die?"

Hitomi grunts and lights her first cigarette in hours. It's how she knows she is depressed. Her mood low enough that things like caffeine, food, and nicotine just barely call out to her. It tastes terrible. Her body is in some sort of panic-survival mode where it just wants to drink water and sleep.

"Yeah, Bee. Some fairly powerful people are about to get a lot of people killed and everyone who dies is only going to make them stronger. Bonus points if we die screaming." After Bee starts stobbing, Hitomi wishes she could take it back. Only she knows what she said is true. No doubt the Patel-Akari alliance will sell this to the masses as some sort of innovative new forward thinking march of progress, but the reality will be a great slide back into feudalism. The great cycle of power. Power disperses and collects. Toss in the strange brew of The GLOW and Soulburn and Lamark and his Witches Three into it all and it will be unlike anything reality has witnessed before.

The whole terrifying puppet show barely holding the Earth up a few meters from the Gates of Hell relying on such thin threads. "That's the way to do it!," by the biggest Punch of them all.

Genny looks Hitomi in the eyes and lights up his own cigar. Juan shrugs and takes a sip of expensive coffee.

Hitomi stubs out her cigarette and reaches over to grab a room temperature sandwich that was meant to be her dinner over an hour ago. Takes a few bites and washes it down with sparkling water that has long lost its bubbles.

"Ok, Genny, you win. Let's form a band."

---

Setting the Scene. Elsewhere.

Ehhhh, just going to riff this one.

PLAYED ON: March 23, 2025

---

Elsewhere.

Eustace awakens to see stars and little else. There is an absence of sound. An absence of smells. A sense of a deep, dark cold runs through him. Against his back, he feels a rough surface. He blinks a few times and has the disconcerting sense that his eyes are not eyes but mere frames of reference. This becomes even more worrisome as he realizes that had he organic eyes, they would be boiled out of his skull. Because he is nowhere with an atmosphere. A place wholly hostile to human life.

He is elsewhere.

Sitting up — again another pretense to organic existence where it merely comes down to a shift in the frame of reference — he finds himself on a dark rock somewhere in the depths of space. Unsure how he knows this, he knows immediately that the one speck of light — admittedly brighter than others but on a scale where it is like comparing a rock to a grain of sand in the shadow of a mountain — must be the sun. He tries to bring together the psychic threads to run the math at probable distance from the center of the solar system but is shocked to find himself completely clear of the threads matrix. He knows he should be afraid but fear is for living things and he doubts he qualifies for the entrance exam at this point in time.

"You are standing on the remains of Yuggoth," says a voice behind him. More pretense at organic reality. Not a voice. Not words. Just an agreed upon lie.

Turning to face the speaker he sees the Witches Three and at least one pretense has ceased. They no longer appear anything like human. The three of them are each tripoidal. A body of three sharp angles jutting out from a central axis like three fish having swum together. In the center of the main fish body, where the dorsal fin would be, an arm extrudes with three joints between the body and the hand — an extra elbow of sorts — only the hand is a three fingered claw not unlike a crow's foot. Where the caudal fin would be the fish-like form tapers into a long twitching snake body, one per section. Each witch therefore moving around on three snake-like legs. At the top the three sub-bodies come together in a head like what would happen if you glued three beakless bird heads together into an obscene take on a triskelion. The true mouth seems to be at the top, with each body contributing a bony wedge like a three beaked bird only where the beak juts out of the top of their skull. A scattering of crab-eyes on stalks dot the head and upper torsos.

In the intersection between these three parts, large wing-like structures extrude and contract. The infamous cowls no doubt being some human trick to see them as robes rather than as what they are: appendages capable of interstellar travel.

A second of the Witches "speaks" — and Eustace senses this one is the Maiden of the three — "A terrible place full of vile things that met its end in a war finished before the genetic code for life on your planet was finalized. Destroyed by the war between its people and our own. A deadly war that ended both species at the same time. Scattered us to star winds to drift. Until a single piece of dead Yuggoth with the ashes of us three and a number of them broke free from its long stasis and fell down into the gravity well of your star."

The third — "Mother" — adds more details to the story. "Had Yuggoth lived, they would have turned your people into a kind of plaything."

Eustace sorts through all the various concepts that make up his being and finally finds one not unlike a voice. "Unlike yourselves? Turning us into playthings?"

Crone lets out a shrill laugh at this. "Lamark tasked us, tiny child."

Mother: "If we cheated a little and spread bits of ourselves into your human code, so be it. A dead race has a right to survive."

Maiden: "You surprised us by finding a connection to us. Not the first, but you called out to us harder than the others."

Crone: "Faced with the Symplegades you choose to steer your ship not into calm waters but deeper into the rocks and find home there."

Mother: "Flowing with the tempest like barnacles sinking upon a wrecked ship into the deep."

Maiden: "You seek to befriend the dragon rather than conquer it."

Eustace attempts to interrupt their constant lecture. "I am so very confused." All three laugh at this, which only slightly enrages him. Emotion finally finding a way into his strange aether-body. "I assume I am dead but how is my spirit here? We are so far from the nearest Soulburn."

Crone: "You think that we are limited by Soulburn?"

Eustace: "It is well known that the effects end at the edge of The GLOW. Out here should just be physics."

Mother: "Pah, little thing. Things impacted by those in Soulburn are not limited."

Maiden: "Only those in the Soulburn can see the miracles, though. Such is the limits of your fourth-dimensional minds."

Eustace stares at them. "Are you saying that witches have the power to change the world outside of The GLOW."

Crone: "Of course. There's a little white farmhouse in Nebraska. 107 Jerry Lane. Plinkett. Owned by the Dallas family. Only just now, I thought it blue."

Mother: "The Dallases see it as white because they are not in Soulburn."

Maiden: "The people of The GLOW do not see it at all because they are not in Nebraska."

"Then what good is it?"

All three: "One day one might be within the other: the farmhouse brought into The GLOW or the GLOW into the farmhouse."

Eustace stands in silence long enough that the Witches unfurl their wings and fly up into the space around the fragment of Yuggoth. In this environment, it is not like wings at all but more like manta rays. After a moment — in this non-place it could be a week later or days before the conversation even began — he speaks again. "27B-6. They use Soulburn to pull it to earth. Then, after it crashes and creates a new Harrowing, the people who never realized they were at an impact site wake up one day dead. Bootstrap paradox on steroids. You get the power to cast the spell after the spell has already been cast."

All three: "You can learn!" They dance and piourette in the absence of gravity.

"What happens then?"

Crone: "What happens when any one gains the power to destroy worlds? They make new worlds to destroy."

Mother: "Even now, those fools are seeking to align themselves to Him."

Maiden: "And when he has the Harrowing, he will rewrite the stars to always be right. He will bring R'lyeh up from the depths and humans will be as terrible as gods."

All three: "So long has he dreamed the dream of Harrowing in man until they were ready to give the dream back."

"Who?"

All three: "Cthulhu, high priest to Azathoth."

"WHO?!"

This brings more of that strange bird-fish laughter. "What does it matter," they all say at the same time and millenia apart, "if you stop it? Beat your drum, Skarl, and keep the mad center of the universe asleep."

With that, they stop and each raises a single trisectional arm and brings it down in a pantomine of knocking. In space, between here and that very distant sun, a large door appears and begins to open. It is the size of a few atoms and larger than Jupiter.

Without saying another thing Eustace kicks off of the shard of Yuggoth and pushes himself forward. Wings the color of every possible shade of visibile light at once flap behind him and propel him through the door. To elsewhen and nowhere.

---

Commentary: Soulburn and Runworld

March 23, 2025

Many, many years ago I wrote an RPG and played it with friends and posted bits of it online: Runworld. It was heavily inspired by a kind of pop-lit precursor to an over-fandom take on Philip K. Dick's writings. In it, there was an odd mechanic based on two drugs. The first was Run, which gave you the power to create miracles, and the second was Seek, which gave you the power to witness miracles created by Run. Only the people who took Seek could see the effects of those who used Run. It was one of several reasons why the world was fracturing into many versions of itself.

It was a hyper-paranoid, very strange sort of RPG that had a tri-stat system using descriptors that somewhat guessed several big shifts in the indie RPG landscape. After playing at it a bit, I left it drift into nothingness but the central concept I still really liked. Another major concept, that the world in the 2020s would devolve into a War on Meaning where realities split over and over due to people arguing about the meaning of words, is a bit less of happy place, considering reality right now.

While trying to think up what to do for this scene — where would be a good elsewhere, how strongly was I going to cast it into the Lovecraftian mythos with some major changes — the realization that Soulburn was kind of a repeat of that concept occurred to me. It allows for near infinite approach to miracles but you have to be inside the sphere of Soulburn to actually wield and witness those miracles. By sheer coincidence — as much as two ideas roughly two decades apart by the same author might be coincidence — I had stumbled upon the same paradox a second time. I figured it was good to just establish it as such.

Since the Witches Three were introduced back in the second ever The GLOW post, they were noted as likely inhuman forces. They have been broached a few times. Outside of hinting them as more crow-like, I had no real idea of what they were. In the back of my head, I had the idea that they were alien forces somehow beholden to the initial impact event. When I was writing this scene, I came up with the entire description as tripoidal fish-bird-snakes and how they were tied into the world lore pretty much on the spot.

There is a glitch between that early post and this one though. In that one, they turned the White House blood red as a warning. By the logic of this post, that would only have worked if the White House had been subjected to Soulburn. My only real explanation is that while Soulburn enhances their powers greatly and allows them to return briefly to reality, their true powers extend past it in more limited fashion. That or someone snuck cannisters to the WH. Either/or.

The reference to Cthulhu includes an important clarification at odds with many modern retellings of the Cthulhu Mythos. In the original story, Cthulhu is not seeking to destory humanity. The reason why people might serve him is not a paradox that needs any trite answers. In fact, the wording is this:

These Great Old Ones, Castro continued, were not composed altogether of flesh and blood. They had shape—for did not this star-fashioned image prove it?—but that shape was not made of matter. When the stars were right, They could plunge from world to world through the sky; but when the stars were wrong, They could not live. But although They no longer lived, They would never really die. They all lay in stone houses in Their great city of R’lyeh, preserved by the spells of mighty Cthulhu for a glorious resurrection when the stars and the earth might once more be ready for Them. But at that time some force from outside must serve to liberate Their bodies. The spells that preserved Them intact likewise prevented Them from making an initial move, and They could only lie awake in the dark and think whilst uncounted millions of years rolled by. They knew all that was occurring in the universe, but Their mode of speech was transmitted thought. Even now They talked in Their tombs. When, after infinities of chaos, the first men came, the Great Old Ones spoke to the sensitive among them by moulding their dreams; for only thus could Their language reach the fleshly minds of mammals.

Then, whispered Castro, those first men formed the cult around small idols which the Great Ones shewed them; idols brought in dim aeras from dark stars. That cult would never die till the stars came right again, and the secret priests would take great Cthulhu from His tomb to revive His subjects and resume His rule of earth. The time would be easy to know, for then mankind would have become as the Great Old Ones; free and wild and beyond good and evil, with laws and morals thrown aside and all men shouting and killing and revelling in joy. Then the liberated Old Ones would teach them new ways to shout and kill and revel and enjoy themselves, and all the earth would flame with a holocaust of ecstasy and freedom. Meanwhile the cult, by appropriate rites, must keep alive the memory of those ancient ways and shadow forth the prophecy of their return.

It makes a lot of sense given the various balls that I have been juggling — some from my own mind, others found through months of dice rolling — that The Harrowing with its hints of Mythos from the very start might in fact be the mechanism to which They seek to rise.

It occurs to me this entire episode might essentially be lore. That's ok. I'll no doubt get a few roles in but the second arc of The GLOW has been missing quite a few lore scenes already and its nice to sit down and try and work out what everything might actually mean.

---

---

Expected Scene: Hitomi and Genny gather up Jones.

Scene Test: [c112] 4. 2d10 = 2 + 10. Minor Twist (1 of 5). "Your hardware is recalled." Jones is available but his copter is being worked on.

Actual Scene: They show up to LoGrav — Jones' business — to find out that the particular helicopter cannot fly.

Setting the Scene. A Bird with No Wings.

Date: Tuesday, June 4, 1996.

Time: 11:23pm.

Place: LoGrav, Nemesio Jones' Helicopter Rental Business.

This is mostly to establish Nemesio Jones as a character. Like with Genny, 2/3s playing this scene will be working on a character sheet with a quick in-character scene.

Jones is definitely an Ace. From this he get Nerves (and some skills). Jones is going to be the type of pilot who likes taking care of his ride [maybe why he gave into a voluntary recall] and getting there with skill over any crazy stunts. This will give him Proven Driver (free reroll when handling a helicopter) and Mechanic (free reroll when repairing a ride). His gear is the Green Lady (a green helicopter of practical functions) and "she" has a speed of 1. He might get an upgrade ver shortly. His weapon of choice is a shotgun.

For his Trope we are going with Neurotic Geek. For this, he'll take Focus [much more about brains over sneaks]. For this Feat I think Scientist [Engineering] would fit him the most. Got great scores in college but his laziness and general avoidance of struggle left him a bit behind so he went into military tech before found that was worse and was semi-rescued from the life by Genny.

DATE PLAYED: March 27, 2025.

---

A Bird with No Wings.

Date: Tuesday, June 4, 1996.

Time: 11:23pm.

Place: LoGrav, Nemesio Jones' Helicopter Rental Business.

The black man behind the counter calls out as they walk through the doors, "Sorry, folks, we are closed for a week." A TV screen is showing the Super Friends work through the kind of world-destroying problem that can be solved in twenty-two minutes. The room is thick with cigar smoke. The man, not badly dressed, has a cigar and a pint of ice cream and seems to be watching Saturday morning cartoons. Hitomi notes the shotgun in each reach just in case the "folks" don't take the hint about being closed.

She walks up him and puts a trio of items down in front. [1]

He glances down at what whoever this person who clearly failed listening class might have tossed on his clean counter and chokes on his cigar smoke. "The first three issues of Doom Patrol Revives!?"

Hitomi leans over the counter in full flirt-with-geek mode. "The only three issues." A 1974 limited run meant to hit at least eight issues. The Doom Patrol, killed off in lagging sales in pay disputes, were resurrected by being shifted into The GLOW. It rankled people on both sides of the divide and DC shelved it rather than attend a congressional hearing (or an Order Tribunal).

"Is this a birthday gift?"

"Is it your birthday?"

"Um, yes?" [2]

"Jones, what did I tell you about lying to women to get laid?," Genny asked from near the door where he had stopped to watch Hitomi work her craft.

"GENNY! Holy shit. Is this your daughter? She looks just like you!"

Genny and Hitomi look at each other. It's Hitomi that answers, "No, no relation. Genny said you are the best helicopter pilot in The GLOW."

"I said he was the most affordable pilot."

"At this moment, that's the same thing," she slaps her hands down to stop Jones from sliding the three comics off the counter. "How fast would we be able to take off?"

"June 11 at the earliest."

Hitomi makes a low growling noise in the back of her throat and then walks back to a black fake-leather chair and sits on it to light up. "How much to speed that up midnight tonight?" She blows smoke into the room which is immediately lost in Jones' hefty contribution from a night of cartoons, cigars, and snacks.

"Sorry, no can do, Genny Jr.. Recall on the rotor control. The Green Lady is currenly unable to take off."

"Fuck!"

"You are telling me." He points at the comics and Hitomi nods. He picks them up and starts very gingerly flipping through them while making a giggling noise. "Where did you get these?"

"A collector who will wake up to find them missing in the morning. Word on the street is that she uses Fractal Dreams due to crippling insomnia."

"YOU STOLE THEM!?"

Hitomi shrugs.

"Oh shit! Insomnia? You stole them from Alessia? She's gonna be pissed!" [3]

Another inhale. Another exhale. Another shrug.

"They call her the Gumshoe!"

"Jones," Genny interrupts.

"Yeah, man?"

"If you can't fly, who can fly us?"

"Why do you need so fly so bad you steal comics from the grumpiest damned comic hoarder in the entire GLOW?"

"It's bad, Jones."

"How bad can it be? Compared to normal? Isn't that just Tuesdays, here?"

"Bad enough I am doing it for free."

Nemesio Jones stands up at Genny saying this and is shaking his head. "Oh hell no. That's it, I'm retired. Jinjuro Yusuda on a crusade means it is time to leave the state and not look back."

Hitomi pipes in, "The bastards killed Eustace. Sort of..."

"Who the fuck is Eusta...you know what, fuck it. No, I change my mind. I'm double retired."

Hitomi walks closer. No flirting now, it is all business. "People are going to die."

"Let me guess, if I don't help then a busload of orphans are going to end up in pies."

"More like a billion people."

"A billion people!?," Jones starts to laugh at this but catches Genny's eyes. "Wait, no shit, Yusuda?"

"No shit."

"Fuck."

Hitomi points back to the helipad where the Green Lady is inactive. "If you can just point us to somewhere who fly something like that, as soon as possible, then I'd appreciate it."

"If you can steal comic books from The Gumshoe, can you steal a rotor control?" [4]

"Yeah, probably."

"Ok, I'm getting my coat and my tools. I'll retire tomorrow."

---

Expected Scene: Hitomi, Genny, and Jones pick up Varvara.

Scene Test: [c32] 6. 2d10 = 2 + 5. As expected.

Actual Scene:

As expected.

Setting the Scene. The One Who Imbibes Thoughtfulness.

Date: Tuesday, June 4, 1996.

Time: 11:23pm.

Place: Gorgath Park in Pensacola.

This scene will likely be even quicker since Varvara doesn't talk much. Let's build her.

Her Role is The Fighter. She gets Brawn for this (plus the skills). Her first Feat is 100% Martial Artist (free Reroll when fighting and reacting unarmed). Her second will be Flying Kick (essentially she can get to Close and Medium opponents for 1 Adrenaline and get a +1 for leaping into the fray).

Her Trope is Free Spirt (she'll take Crime). The Feat she gets from this will be Parkour (free reroll when doing, well, parkour).

She also gets a $1 item of her choice. We'll go with grappling hook which she uses in her moving around and getting up and around places. She'll also have a can of Thoughtfulness that she tokes from occasionally.

DATE PLAYED:March 27, 2025.

---

The One Who Imbibes Thoughtfulness.

Date: Wednesday, June 5, 1996.

Time: 1:27am.

Place: Gorgath Park in Pensacola.

During the day, Gorgoth park is a place full of families, kids, and college-aged couples. At night, it is full of street punks showing off boards and tricks. At dawn, a group of ServiSynth cleaners make sure the PM does not distupt the AM, but overall it is the sort of place where rougher elements tend to avoid which makes it too authentic for tourists and outside the care of city surveillance. Hence, a great spot to meet up for a quick stop.

Genny parks his truck over near the concrete skate park where a dozen punks on boards are showing off and hanging out. Marijuana smoke mixes with tobacco but besides that the harsher element is restrained. Word is that a gang pushing crack tried taking the skate park a week back and were not so much thrashed as completely ignored until they limped off with only a bit of cred attached.

After a minute, three of the skaters break off. An outside observer would just see two black men with a slightly older — and vastly more serious — white woman. Nothing to raise any eyebrows. Hitomi, riding in the truck bed, recognizes Banshee, Vorpal, and Varvara. Banshee is still running Happiness while Vorpal has seemed to move on to huffing straight Bliss. Varvara — Hitomi is unsure if this her street name or actual name — is either rocking no artificial emotions or has chosen whatever "Quiet, sexy, and badass" might be.

"Did you get my message out?," Hitomi asks as they approach the truck.

Banshee nods and then starts giggling. "Yeah, Brokie passed on the word. V here volunteered right off. She wants in. One way to stop Brokie from going, herself."

Hitomi thinks what it might like to have BrokenRecord along on a life or death of billions mission — Darya being an accomplished parkour artist, shit fighter, and strange talker — and is glad that Varvara stepped up. "Thanks."

Varvara hops into the back of the truck like two-meter leaps with graceful landings are nothing and then makes herself comfortable. "Where first?," she asks. Again, Hitomi hears that hint of some Eastern Euro accent.

"First we have to steal some helicopter parts. How are at breaking and entering?"

Varvara does not answer but starts stretching which Hitomi takes as a good sign. "Ok, let's go."

---

DOUG'S COMMENTARY

March 27, 2025

I have enjoyed a lot about this arc and killing off the titular character might be the kind of zany twist that I enjoy the most. There are at least a few stories where someone "dies" and comes back as something different and its the kind of twist-trope — right next to the sort where the hero is a secret antagonist/monster — that still, to this day, gets me right in the happy vibes to read (assuming it is done well). This does not mean I started out trying to hit that note. The original idea was that Eustace had Witch powers but it might show up at one moment as a big finale. The scale of this whole arc was meant to be kind of small and personal but various forces have driven it outward. This is now a world-saving big-budget plot. We are about to have people parachute out of helicopter into a hoverboat while a dead man turns into a magic crow. That's something weird.

And special. To me, at least.

I really don't know how this series will end up but I'm happy to be here.

On a more technical side, I have added the second of two "features" to hide non-direct-story elements. For those that do not need my long winded commentary or notes they can trim that out as well.

MECHANICAL AND STORY NOTES

1. A dice roll in THIS session, how about that? Anyhow, for her to find 'the bribe' let's go with Crime + Streetwise. I need an Extreme with every 'miss' requiring $$$. That latter bit is not needed since she gets it.
2. Screw it. Is it Jones' birthday? (even) → [c72] NO! It's about as far from his birthday as it can be (which would then in early December).
3. Just snatched a quick name from [c74].
4. Rotor control is nonsense of course but let's pretend.

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

Genny comes from this photo.

The space door is from this photo by Kai Pilger on Unsplash and this illustration/render.

Nemesio Jones (after some debate) came from this photo by ManuelTheLensman on Unsplash.

Varvara Clean is this photo/model. Originally she was balder and just a bit younger but I'm going to slightly shift her up since she is the more sensible member of the ShaoDras.

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Taxonomy and Technical Data

• World: The GLOW
• Campaign: The GLOW
• Arc: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont
• Post: 11 - Gathering New Allies

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

Hide Prep Phases

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• "Previously..." and Campaign/Arc Summary
• Turning Point 2
• The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont Episode 10 - Tracking Dave Akari
• Sometimes They Come Back
• In the Skurry
• Commentary: After a Few Days' Break
• Said the Spider to the Fly
• The Crow Takes Flight
• Doug's Commentary
• Mechanical and Story Notes
• Credits
• Taxonomy and Technical Data

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Previously, on The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont

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.

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Turning Point 2

Getting the "bad" out of the way, the Heat is up to 7. That doesn't mean much for the moment but it is a good indicator of where things are.

Now for the other math. With Turning Points we get a Chance to Advance.

For Eustace, I am going to make a special Feat: Witchery. Spending an Adrenaline: he can rewrite threads. Effect will determine the difficulty. For now, we'll treat each as a Gamble since it will drain you to use it often. He gets a free reroll when using his Witchery powers. This is a Super Feat.

For his Skills, I'll give him a point in Speech because he talks all the time and it's in his character. Also to Awareness because my god. The boy has to pass a roll at some point.

For Hitomi, she'll get the Feat "Shadow," meaning she gets free rerolls when sneaking about. It's a pretty common thing her to try and stealth.

Her skills will be Awareness and Heal.

Both will get 1 Adrenaline for the Advance and 2 for the previous session. A goal this time will be to spend Adrenaline with Hitomi and maybe save some with Eustace but it's so fun to pop his abilities.

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The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont. Episode 10 - Tracking Dave Akari

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Setting the Scene. Sometimes They Come Back.

Before we figure out exactly what this scene is, let's ask a simple oracle question? Would Hasan's be something that Hitomi would be able to find out with just her Sprawl/GLOW knowledge? (Bad) → [c116] Yes? Then let's do a roll. Crime + Streetwise + 2 Help. She snags a Critical and with a reroll [she gets a free one] it becomes Impossible. She knows exactly whom to contact. Going with the card in question, I see two names "Mei," "Flavio," and "Zombie." Does the name Mei "Zombie" Flavio make sense? It does now.

Hasan has a Terminal Farm. Is Hasan a person? (Even) → [c97] No? In this case, let's say there is a Hasan but this is a brand name. Someone running a in-GLOW business though located elsewhere.

The business will be Hasan Information Solutions and HIS has a local terminal farm. I don't think I have any tools to generate a full Arabic name so let's come up with some backstory. Hasan's family is from Jordan but currently work out of London. There is some connection to the Patel's as his (and HIS's) "in" to The GLOW. Feeding a bit of that into ChatGPT, I get a d66 list and rolling 4,1 on that I get his full name as Hasan Adel Al-Kurdi. How legit is that? No clue! It's just flavor that might not ever show up again but I like to stack the pieces.

Going all the way back to Episode 2, I came up with a chart to map out places. Rolling 18,12 gives me a spot currently over the Gulf. That's fine since this means it is in the new construction. A place a bit more Top. It's going to take more clearance and fights to get inside. I'd like a different sort of fight. A tank-drone. Like the spider tanks from Ghost in the Shell. Tough nut to crack.

How intense is Mei's fee for this? [c21] 8. Very. Let's roll d6+1 Creds to start: Just get a 1. I'll bump that up to $3 in game currency. A chance to haggle it down.

These two factors suggest we need at least a scene to figure out how to get inside. ADO Security Zone. Full of the kind of start-ups where corporations split off a smaller company for tax purposes. Or, in this case, to get access The GLOW.

Date: Monday, June 3, 1996.

Time: 11:28pm.

Place: Near the entrance to ADO Security Area.

Expected Scene: Hitomi and Eustace have to find a way to get into ADO.

Scene Test: [c17] 5. 2d10 = 10 + 10. hahaha. Ok. Shit. Um. "Foe's local presence increases." And it's a big deal. Did Mei tip off the Patel's? (Bad) → [c92] No. You know what, I don't really need a good excuse. It's just that scene in a movie where the bad guys show up because they were chasing the hack or something.

Actual Scene: Yori and Ambra (from Episode 6) are back as Eustace and Hitomi are trying to get into ADO.

Yori and Ambra will get combined. Boss Template 1. Extreme/Critical. 6 Grit (hotboxes on the evens) with a special move of their final hotbox will trigger them escaping again. These are those bad guys. Bulletproof vets (-1 to Range), Hard to Kill (each Hot Box stops damage even if damage goes over), and Martial Arts (-1 at close). Special actions include Disarm (1, Critical vs Brawn vs Dexterity or lose weapon), Don't Think So (1, negates on Adrenaline special move), Weak spot (-2 to next Reaction roll), and Escape Clean (2, as it says, Impossible to stop it).

Got to love when a scene takes possibly longer to set up than it will to play. Maybe.

Scene Played: March 13, 2025.

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Sometimes They Come Back.

Date: Monday, June 3, 1996.

Time: 11:28pm.

Place: Near the entrance to ADO Security Area.

ADO Security Zone is a tiny, by The GLOW standards, dense area around 10-15 miles off the old coast in the NewGLO construction. Around 10-15 stories below would be water. Sort of water. What water becomes when it is infused with so much Soulburn that it has a personality. The in-between holds enough room for subway systems, cables, conduits, office space, and an entire nightmare world where sunlight never approaches and is never needed. Average cost of living? Yes. If you have to check your bank statement, you may not be able to afford it.

ADO's specialty is non-GLOW citizens — read: corporations from other countries including the United States — setting up a tiny bank head so that traffic in aether-tech becomes feasible. A few countries — Japan and Taiwan for instance — just push through and make formal, above board contracts. Others have stacks of reasons to avoid such paperwork. For them, there is ADO. A dozen city blocks of rectangular buildings, shipping crates, empty storefronts, and even a few cubicle farms. All granting them an in-GLOW address. The clever ones sublet their spot down to square-meter marks.

Apparently not Hasan's. Hasan Information Services. HIS. Started by Hasan Adel Al-Kurdi last decade in London and shipped around the world to get ahead of what most people would call the World Wide Web. One of the first international investors in The GLOW but also deeply suspicious of getting too entangled. Keeps ridding the razor's edge of full buy-in and interloper. Hasan has picked an entire quarter Block at ADO prices to host a bank of mainframes and then takes subletting to a whole new level. Claims it is encrypted against magic and psychic energies. Salt. Iron. Sage. The old classics.

They found out Mother_Bored's meaning behind her final few words after talking to Zombie. Mei Flavio. Another of Hitomi's many contacts. This one a bit more contentious. Eustace doesn't know the history of what soured, but on the working side of things they settle it by way of monetary exchange.

"I can't believe she charged me 2 Creds," Hitomi fusses as her and Eustace approach a back gate to ADO Security Zone. [1]

"She was going to charge you 3," Eustace tries to console.

"And I can't believe you shoved Mother_Bored's body on a train!"

Even without stooping to reading her mind, Eustace can tell this is more upsetting to Hitomi than the loss of the money. Even thought Eleanor, aka Mother_Bored, betrayed her. It was a sense of another young female hacker chewed up by Dave Akari and fed to The GLOW. The brief hope that Eustace had gotten to Ell makes the seemingly tossing away of the body a harsh metaphor. Possibly a fear that Hitomi has of Eustace doing the same to her when she is dead.

"Hitomi, I'm sorry. They found her so quickly I suspect that Dave had a tracker implanted. Or psychics. Though in that case, we might be in..."

"Trouble?," asks a voice that Eustace recognizes. "My mom said I had the gift. Could always guess whatever surprise she had for me. Never realized I had hacked into her bank account."

Eustace turns and sees the man from outside the Knives compound. Well, the man and the woman. She has on a new set of glasses, still glowing. He however has avoided putting his own. Or the cowboy hat. Or some of the twang. The bravado is still there.

The man points as Eustace and Hitomi. "The Doctor wants to see you. Please let's make this super easy. Just give him the disk. Make an apology. Maybe get paid. No need for blood."

"The Doctor? You mean Roman?"

"Ah, a man of culture. This makes it easy." The man holds up a scrying glass showing video of Eustace swatting down drones and then running off after Mother_Bored. "Such great footage. They really captured your rage. Your murderous rage. Shame you killed her. That little trick with the train almost caught us off guard but you didn't realize the Doctor owns that shipping line and her tracking flagged the very next stop."

"How'd you find us?," Hitomi asks, trying to stall for time. Her hand has been frozen over her laptop she was prepping to follow Mei's instructions. ServiSynth brains pilot secure trolleys into and out of ADO. Empty buildings acting as address forms rarely need human bodies to enter it. Convince a ServiSynth trolley you are a piece of cargo and presto!

"Nah uh! That would be telling," finally speaks the woman. Her voice a strange blending of accent somewhere between Chinese and French.

While the conversation goes on, Eustace is searching for two things. First: any sort of advantage he can have in this fight. Second: if there are any psychic threads connecting to him or Hitomi. For the first one he realizes that the man is starting to shake the longer it goes on. The woman is also nervous. Eustace frightens them. For the second he finds a thin red line broken and half-formed like a discount laser shining through thin fog. He reaches out and snaps it in a way it will take some time to reattach. [2]

"I'm going to be honest," Eustace starts, taking just a moment to search the man's mind, "...Yori, we're not going with you. Or your...sister?!"

The man, Yori, coughs. Sweat starts beading on his face as he pulls out a large pistol. Ambra, his sister, pulls out her katana.

"Well, then," Yori starts, "I guess we'll..." And Eustace hits him full on in the face. Yori's nose explodes in blood but as Eustace's left arm is bringing the blade to bear, the gunman is spinning to his left long enough for Ambra to leap at Eustace and block the strike with her sword. Then herself has to dodge back as Hitomi starts squeezing off shots. [3]

Hitomi knows that the gunfire will bring ServiSynth guards soonish. However, she first to take care of the gunman before Eustace is dealing with two on one. She keeps her gun up as the swordswoman uses her left hand to send a small kunai flying and knocking Hitomi's gun out of her hand. As the gunman targets her, Hitomi leaps over a power box she had been using as temporary laptop desk — grabbing up her laptop — and dives hard behind. The swordswoman tries to use the momentum to chop down into Eustace who repeats her previous success by bringing up his arm blades to jam the katana back up in the air. [4]

Eustace uses this momentum to lock her Katana in his twin blades and then brings his head down hard against hers, knocking her down to her feet. He sees the gunman circling around to get to Hitomi. [5]

As Eustace watches Yori go to leap out and catch Hitomi off guard, the lights of a trolley swing right at him and a few seconds later a loud crunch is heard as his body is snapped off its security shielding. The gunman hits the ground and rolls. Ambra shouts his name and runs over to grab him and get him up as Hitomi shouts for Eustace to get on (calling him Nurse). [6]

He takes off running for the trolley, stopping just for half a second to grab up Hitomi's gun, and then the two of them are riding past the security gates into ADO. [7]

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DOUG'S NOTE: I actually screwed that up in three different spots: Hitomi's shot, Eustace's deflection, and Eustace's hit. I basically ignored the Bulletproof Vest and Martial Arts feats. That's probably ok since they made it by more than enough to damage/avoid in both cases and such things happen. I won't punish Eustace or Hitomi for it but we'll play it out that the siblings were actually going a bit easy on them for some reason. Like, maybe they are secretly working with Amy and trying to slow down Roger or some such. We'll find out next time they show up which should be in the final arc (even stronger).

Setting the Scene. In the Scurry.

Date: Monday, June 3, 1996.

Time: 11:41pm.

Place: Inside of ADO.

Expected Scene: Hitomi and Eustace have to avoid security while getting to Hasan Information Services.

Scene Test: [c120] 4. 2d10 = 3 + 4. An expected scene!? IN THIS GAME!? Hot diggity!

Actual Scene: As expected.

I want to set the avoidance up sort of like a Brawl meets a chase. Critical difficulty. Getting spotted is a Danger. Once they accumulate 12 successes, they have completely lost the guards. However, if a character fails more than twice in a row then it will turn into a combat.

The guards will be humanoid ServiSynth firing high speed dry ice bullets designed to not damage property.

Getting into the lock will be a Critical roll that can happen after either the guards are evaded or after they are beaten in a combat. With a combat, more guards will be dispatched after 3 additional turns.

Combat: 2xCrit/Crit/6.

In a mood shift for this one, will be using a different sort of soundtrack. This one will have Proleter's new album — Temperamental Cats — which was just released the day I am playing out the scene.

Scene Played: March 14, 2025.

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In the Scurry.

Date: Monday, June 3, 1996.

Time: 11:41pm.

Place: Inside of ADO.

The water kicks up as the pair are running in front of an elaborate building marked as ADO Management. A large, shallow pool was easier to run through rather than around. In the distance — and not much of said distance — a strange "WumpWhumWumpwum" sound can be heard as the ServiSynth guard's are communicating in a strange frequency code low enough down that it is very nearly sub-sonic. You can feel it in your chest. Eustace pulls Hitomi close to him as they hide behind a tree that is older than the GLOW and so was transplanted as a fully mature tree to this spot. Where very few people might ever set foot. Fancy building. Fancy sidewalk. Only seen by ServiSynths not even given human speech because the average population of the area has to reach in the low decimals.

"Why in Dr. Hell's glorious earth do they have such a nice pool?," Eustace asks Hitomi.

"Money talks, wealth whispers, massive wealth fucking screams. Look, you want to sell a bunch of business folk on spending thousands and thousands of Creds just to host a few bricks here, you need some nice photos."

It's her turn to pull Eustace back as that "WhumpWumWooooo" sound passes nearby the pool. The ServiSynths look like humans in livery, only with dark blue heads with only a hint of eyes and nose and mouth. They are scanning using some internal organ — or maybe echolocation — but do not spot the couple behind the tree. [8]

After the ServiSynths pass, they are running down the side of the ADO offices and passing by a storage shed marked Nakatomi Trading Corp. Behind that, Wilson Mechanics inhabits a plot of land consisting mostly of a fence and a mailbox currently crammed full of mailers.

As automatic sprinklers come on, Hitomi lets out a slight gasp before diving over the fence. If the ServiSynth security has eyes, it would be hard to miss her but she is banking on them tracking by sound. Sure enough, the WumWum sound comes around the corner and seems to scan the area. Eustace, for his part, is on top of the Nakatomi shed, holding still. Once again, the ServiSynths are moving on. [9]

Hitomi approaches Eustace, crawling down from the shed. "They use sound. We need to be extra quiet even if that means we are moving slowly." [10]

"Makes sense, people who pay for a spot here are probably the kind of people that wouldn't want a guard to see any definite details," Eustace agrees. With this new knowledge, he moves a bit slower but quieter. Hitomi moves nearly silently in front of him. Right as Eustace comes to close to stepping on a metal grate she slaps back to stop his foot. [11]

After this they keep close by each other for a bit and keep an eye out trying to find the terminal form. They see dozens of business — Channel ZA (South African Broadcaster that dabbles in war reports and small military arms), Barnabas Infotech (out of the Caribbean), and Niet Exports (Slovenian front for Greek Business that traffics in Middle Eastern properties) — but no Hasan. At least they keep quiet enough that they have not heard the guards for a minute. [12]

Hitomi is craving a smoke but the sound of her lighter would no doubt ring out like a gunshot in this quiet place. Plus, she can't be absolutely sure they don't have some sort of chemical detectors. Smelling smoke would seem to be a useful function to have. Glancing around, she realizes she is getting her bearings and recalls the address that Zombie gave her. She motions to Eustace to move slow and runs off quietly and circles back in a moment. She has found it. [13]

On the outside, you would think something like a post office. Thick brick walks, a few perfunctory windows. A metal door with a glass pane in the middle frosted enough to not be able to see inside. HASAN in clear letters on the front. A building not to impress but to protect. A few wards glow in the brick to try and stop any sort of exterior mystical attack. The door has a intricate electronic lock but Hitomi brings out her aether-board and types a complex series of symbols. After a few seconds the door releases with a hiss and the two are disappearing inside into the artificial light as the WumWump starts moving in their direction. [14]

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Commentary: After a Few Days' Break

March 18, 2025

It's been about four days since I last got to play.

A bit of that was a few rounds of storms passing through the area.

Some of that was my family returning from an out-of-country Spring Break trip. They got back and so we spent the weekend in our makeshift storm cave and also just hanging out a bit.

Finally, I have moved up to an even stronger dose of my meds and while they is doing wonders to help my health and to improve mobility overall, the first day or so after I start just wipes me out pretty badly.

Figured it would be good time to go ahead and play out at least one more of the projected two scenes left in this week's play, one of which I've known since more or less the start of this episode, and then from there figure out what next week might look like since it should wrap up the middle third of the campaign arc.

Now that I am treating this not as 4-5 quick-scenes over 1-2 sessions but 1 big+ scene (at least in development, worldbuilding, and such) per shorter session it makes sense to maybe throw in a few intermediate commentaries to sum up some things and thoughts.

The previous two scenes were full of lots of references without any real common sense as to what got reference where. ADO Security was simply because I was listening to albums by Ado while playing through the first part of it before switching to Proleter. Nakatomi would be the sort of the same but not the same company from the first Die Hard movie. The idea in The GLOW is that the entire reality of the planet is shifting around the effects of Soulburn so people and events are purposefully given in the wrong order. I forget when it was but the Moon Landing happened several years earlier, for instance. People's ages don't line up.

The ServiSynth guards that hunt by sound were, in my head, a sort of stockpile "baddie" based on the weenie/minions from various Super Sentai series. A lot have a kind of repetitive sound phrase they use now that we have mostly moved past them being various paramilitary fascist organization troops. Super Sentai and other tokusatsu flavor a bit of the action sequences already — Yori and Ambra are kind of a tribute act to various Kamen Rider baddies — so expect more such silliness.

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Setting the Scene. Said the Spider to the Fly.

Date: Tuesday, June 4, 1996.

Time: 12:26am.

Place: Hasan's Terminal Farm.

Expected Scene: Eustace and Hitomi have to fight past Hasan Security.

Scene Test: [c23] 5. 2d10 = 3 + 1. That's two expected scenes in a row. Strange.

Actual Scene: As expected.

The plan here is to have a single, tough enemy. Literally tough. A tank. I'm going to be picturing, essentially, the spider tank from 1995's The Ghost in the Shell. Feel free to do the same. However, this is going to be a spider ServiSynth designed to protect a server farm. Blaster guns or tank shells wouldn't make sense. Six arms for mobility, two that have stun-gun type arms.

It definitely will get the Titan Feat (each hit does only one Grit). And tough armor: Extreme defense. Attack will be on the slightly lower side: 2xCritical. Non-Lethal. If you get knocked out you are trapped more than killed. Right now three Grit. It also has (for its other two Feat points) Exoskeleton. -1 to ranged attacks. I'll do my best to actually remember this. For Special Actions I think Tackle (Critical Dangerous Brawn + Force or get knocked down) and Clamp Down (Brawn + Stealth Basic roll or get trapped and fail Reaction automatically, Critical Brawn + Force to break free).

For the hacking, I am going to use Chase rules. Hitomi starts out with a Speed of 1. A Need of 12. Most rolls will require Critical. Note: Once she gets into the mainframe, she will get + 2 Help to "fight" the ServiSynth Spider. She'll also get + 1 to "fight" since she has an experience of making friends with ServiSynths.

Date played: March 18, 2025.

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Said the Spider to the Fly.

Date: Tuesday, June 4, 1996.

Time: 12:26am.

Place: Hasan's Terminal Farm.

In the style of the whole Security Zone, Hasan's Information Service's Data Center is strikingly clean. Massive banks of both aether- and digital-servers line the walls and aisles. The air smells of ozone while the dimly lit space is kept at a chilly 10C. As soon as Eustace and Hitomi enter into the space through a UV-charged airlock, dehumidifiers click on and start cleaning the space of any possible human infestation: dead skin, hair, or other unwanted materials. Standing still for a moment, the lights start to brighten slightly. No doubt there are switches and controls somewhere to actually increase the light but the off chance of a on-site human is low enough that they are not given a priority.

Hitomi glances around for any terminal input spot. "There's a lot of shit to sift through. Look at the size of it!"

At least a hundred displays show a variety of blinking lights with a number of short screens showing various codes and symbols. No wonder this building dwarfs many of the other false fronts. Hasan is no doubt trafficking in terabytes of data. Exactly what the data is is unknown. Eustace asks Hitomi about it. She shrugs.

"A lot of family photos," she quips. She gets around 3 meters into the place before a loud voice shouts at them both.

"PLEASE. PROVIDE. IDENTIFICATION."

It repeats the command in Japanese, Arabic, and Spanish.

The voice comes from a large, human-sized spider-shaped ServiSynth. The eight-eyes — glowing faintly glow in the half-light — are currently split between tracking Hitomi and Eustace. Despite the appearance, high-volume, and size: it does not seem threatening. Yet.

"We were sent by Hasan Breach Insurance Services to validate data against potential code loss," Hitomi tries. She smiles and holds up a laptop. The Spider scans her and then its eyes flag from green to amber. It repeats its request for ID in multiple languages, the eyes growing redder with each syllable. Its front pair of legs lifting up and showing voltage flowing across them. [15]

"Eustace!," she shouts as she runs to keep searching for a way to plug into the terminal. He steps forward with his blades extending and tries to chop through one of the shock-pads in its forearms. The Spider slams Eustace's blades up before they can cut too deeply and then turns to face him down. [16]

Eustace tries to step back as the double shock pads crash down around him but sparks fly up as the Spider gets a solid zap. Eustace grunts as his feet buckle. [17]

As the Spider turns to press its advantage, Eustace pushes off with his powerful legs and leaps on top of the Spider and with a heavy kick cracks into its "head" while also flinging himself up to the top of one of the server banks. Sending out a silent prayer to the Witches Three that this isn't the one that has the data they need, he shoves his blades down in-between it and the support structure and pulls the bank from the shelving to collapse it on the Spider, trapping it underneath. The Spider's shock pads turn off as it tries to hold the server up and prevent damage to the data. [18]

Hitomi asks if everything is ok as she is trying to get into the system. She has plugged her laptop into a terminal port near the back of the room and is starting to get through to the data but it is a long process forward, still. The shallow security layer — aether-program designed to unwrite random memories of the person doing the hack — gets caught up in her laptop's defense matrix but it suggests that Hasan is not playing around. [19]

Eustace slaps at one of the back leg's of the Spider as it struggles to set the server back into place. His blades cut through its exoskeleton. In response, one of its shock pads retracts as a pincer claw comes out of its left front leg. It reaches for Eustace who steps back from it, right into the right leg's shock pad which punches him in the side. He finds his nerves starting to shred from the heavy shock. A weaker man might have already collapsed. [20]

Trying to ignore Eustace's grunts or the sound of shock pads connecting with flesh, Hitomi brings one of her favorite particular hacks out of her grimoire. She acts the triplets. Three aether-synth programs which act like her and look very much like her own self-representing avatar as they dive off in different direction through the aether-space. The only difference is hair color and personality. Green, Blue, and Red hair with aggressive, playful, and dominant personalities. Each a bit of Hitomi. The effect works well as the majority of the middle security functions chase after them. Unfortunately, a simple nerve shredder gets through the ruse and Hitomi feels her fingers tingle as it very nearly punches through the laptop's net. [21]

Back up front, the Spider lunges for Eustace and then swipes as Eustace backs up and manages to duck his head. Looking around for anything to use, Eustace takes a gamble and dives forward to roll under the legs of the Spider. Lifting it up, ramming blades into its underside, he pushes well past reasonable limits as he pulls the blades further and further apart. Sparks and ServiSynth oil pour down on him as the Spider twitches heavily. Eustace's knees buckle as his feet slip on the floor and the entire weight comes crashing down on him. Trying to extract himself from the wreckage he hears whirring muscle motors as the ServiSynth prepares for one last death-throe-leap and flings itself back on top of Eustace to finish crushing him, which Eustace just barely manages to avoid by rolling hard against another server bank. [22]

"Fuck...," he croaks, barely able to move after that fight.

Hitomi resists the urge to go and check on Eustace — the sudden silence slightly more worrying than the loud smashing sounds that proceeded it — since all of her concentration has to focus on navigating through the back-end of Hasan's security. Soon enough she, and her three duplicates, are through and into the major file structure. Flying across an avatar of the city itself. She retools the duplicates to start sorting data and look for keywords that might match "Dave Akari" and "hover boat." What did Mother_Bored call it? The "Moonblink." As the data processes, the various buildings shift and resort until the entire simulacrum of the city is just a single building of data. She flies down into it and soon enough has the data needed. She begins setting up her own hooks in the system so that her laptop can continue to track the hover boat. At least until the data breach is found. They won't have forever, but she has hopefully bought them about a day. [23]

Eustace limps back to where she is. She lets out a small grunt at how bloodied he is — mixed with the blue oil that runs a ServiSynth's internal organs — as she is wrapping up.

"Now we have to get out," he says in a voice that is half a groan.

"Let me see if the guards outside are controlled at all from here or if I can at least get to any kind of control interface for them." She redirects her duplicates to search for any kind of interface into the ADO Security Zone's internal system and they bring it up. With a few more symbols sent into the system, she conjures up a large non-existent goose to flap a lot of wings in the pool. It will buy them some time for the guards to be distracted and then to report an animal. [24]

"Come on. Let's get you patched up, again, and see if we can get a way to get on a hover boat."

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Setting the Scene. The Crow Takes Flight.

Eustace got completely walloped in that last one. Narratively appropriately so. It was a rough fight for a number of reasons. This does mean that all things equal they are not going to rush into another fight or dangerous situation until he's had a decent chance of being patched up. Now, the "You look SHOCKED" condition would likely heal up on its own over time (being the direct result of being SHOCKED). He still is going to have his other condition "You look SMASHED" until a Time Out.

Expected Scene: E+H have to find a helicopter to get on board the Moonblink.

Scene Test: [c60] 3. 2d10 = 4 + 8. A major twist. In this case, the fact that the card has the catalyst of "New tech changes the game..." makes me think this twist is actually somewhat positive. You know what, let's put it to the test. (Even) → [c66] Yes. So there will be something else that gets Eustace and Hitomi on-board the Moonblink. Flight based? (Even) → [c33] Yes. Magic based (Bad) → [c95] Yes. What the hell. Let's go....

Actual Scene: As Hitomi is trying to find a way to intercept the Moonblink, the Witches Three make a deep alteration in Eustace.

Date: Tuesday, June 4, 1996.

Time: 3:42am.

Place: PS Nontooth Fillup.

This is going to hurt. The way I understand it, it doesn't matter how much excessive Grit he takes, it's going to trigger a death roulette. In this case, if he dies I'll play it out in one way and if he does not I'll play it out in another.

He will need to resist Extreme Brawn + Endure. Good luck to us all.

Date(s) played: March 20-21, 2025.

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The Crow Takes Flight.

Date: Tuesday, June 4, 1996.

Time: 3:42am.

Place: PS Nontooth Fillup.

Despite the obvious flaw in her behavior, Hitomi has walked towards the gas pumps to smoke. And to shout into her Scrying Glass. She's talking to Genny. Maybe Genny's wife, again. About helicopters and needing to rent one in eight hours. Based on her shouts and scoffs, the conversation is not going greatly.

After fleeing ADO they made it back into terra firma GLOW and then drove north until property values dropped enough that the chance of anyone caring about a large, very smashed up looking man on the bike of a red motorbike dropped considerably. They found PS Nontooth Fillup, a gas station with a distinctly clashing retro motif mixed with Tourist-level New Orleans Voodoo. Actual gas, not Soulburn. Economic realities mean the lower your yearly pay the more likely you stick to unleaded petrol power.

Plus, for those who might be looking to flee north out of The GLOW, having a car that can keep driving past the Soulburn barrier is a pretty big deal. At least right now, when there is some place on this planet that has not been devoured by The GLOW.

The station is in automated mode right now. The storefront dark. Sounds of Dr. John's Gris-Gris are currently playing. Early it was Scientist ridding the world of the evil vampire curses. A few pumps are lit up and watched over by ServiSynths made to look like tall skeletal humans in top hats. It says something about the place that all the graffiti on display is purposeful kitsch. Skulls and spray paint totems. Looks like for all the shallow charm — pun not intended — the place has some real power. Locals fear the curse. Eustace wonders what Soulburn version of loa might look like.

At any rate, Hitomi took over driving duty after they got of ADO — Eustace's injuries being notable enough that he was not sure he could drive, even holding on felt like a challenge — and pulled in and then called some folks. Then some other folks. Then she called Genny. A few seconds into that Genny's wife snatched the phone and demanded to know what young woman was bothering her husband at 3am. After that shouting match went on for a moment, Genny got the phone back and they talked logistics and why Hitomi did not have any.

Eustace, after filling up the bike, pushed it over to the side and has been licking his wounds. Some of his blood has mixed with blue ServiSynth fluid and he is wondering about toxicology reports.

It actually takes him a moment to realize that he can no longer hear Hitomi talking. Or anything, really. No cars on the highway behind him. No more Dr. John. The world has fallen into silence. What's more, glancing at Hitomi, the first thing he notices is her cigarette smoke has stopped moving. The fog around her has turned into a still life. The second thing he notices is that a few meters behind her is a woman. Well, a person. Dressed head to toe in a black cowl that obscures any details.

Even a school kid in The GLOW would know exactly what he is looking at.

His heart drops, trying to race and give up at the same time. All the moisture in his mouth is gone. A scent much like what he would imagine a world made of cockroaches slams into his nostrils. Eustace is more afraid than any previous time in his life.

He contemplates running. Surely they are after him. If he leaves, they would not stay to pick the flesh from the reality around this gas station, right? Only has he turns to look behind him, another one is there. Closer. He does not look around to confirm the third one. Of course the third one is here. Somewhere.

And no sooner has he thought this that he sees the third one right there. Right in front of him, like she has always been there. For the first time in two decades, he sees something that no one else in The GLOW has. The Witches Three.

The one closest to him pulls a hand out from under the cowl but it is not a hand. It is a crow's claw. Talons long and sharp and bloody. That terrible scent intensifies. As she reaches out and starts to traces lines on his chest, the one behind him is whispering in his ear. The one near Hitomi is now on his left side. They not so much move but cease to exist at one point and then exist elsewhere. Maybe everywhere. And all three are speaking words now. Words that have never in the history of the universe been uttered by any human lips. Words that are shapes and symbols and realities and death and chaos and life and birth and fire and ash and freezing bright light.

Those crow talons tear through his flesh. This time, his heart stops for real. [25]

---

He feels himself falling into darkness. Down. A forever space wider than a life is long. Centuries pass. His flesh withers into dry dust and falls apart. His bones become brittle sand. The centuries stretch into eons. Epochs. Large shapes in the darkness break down into dead matter. Universal forces give way between their atoms. Existence shatters again and again. Reality becomes once more just a long sigh of a dreaming god. The beat of Skarl's drums threaten to cease and the great mad eye of Mana-Yood-Sushai threatens to open.

Only it is Eustace's eyes opening and he is not falling down but up. Up through the sky above a primal world. Down below, great behemoths and leviathans toil through an environment rich in warmth and food. Beasts the size of cars and houses feeding upon the great plenty that is everywhere while small mammals and early birds scurry about madly. Other living forms, not present in the fossil record, are also there. Aquatic humanoids. Great star spawn. Strange extra-dimensional beasts slithering into the higher dimensions between cracks and shadows. Odd bulbous beings built like the trunks of trees waving three arms into the air in their esoteric science.

Into the sky a great shape falls. The Chicxulub impactor. It catches fire as slowly — to Eustace's eyes — slams into the atmosphere. Mere moments in reality, it falls for a decade as Eustace continues to rise up and gives witness to the destruction of an entire planet. The spirits bound to the impactor also extinguish. The massive city of star spawn sinks beneath the waves. Those strange plant-like beings find themselves trapped by the plummeting temperature as odd black blob-like beings rise up and overthrow. The fish men dive deeper and deeper to wait. And all those leviathans and behemoths find themselves scurrying as the mammals realize that the tables have turned.

From this great scene of destruction and death, Eustace continues to fall up and up. Only not towards empty space but towards an ocean that has swallowed the world. And as he speeds up to slam into the waters at a speed that would eradicate most any other matter in known existence he glances himself in its reflections. Behind him, large black wings spread out. His body covered in scars that are an ancient language dead before Sol was cool enough for the planets to properly condense. His arms have become blades and he is writing upon himself.

And the words say...

---

Hitomi turns around at the sound of the crash and sees Eustace falling back over the bike and staying prone. His blades have been extended and by all appearances he has either been carving deep gashes into his own chest or somehow fending off a nearly silent foe. Still holding the phone she runs in his direction and and stops short. She doesn't even realize she is crying until the voice of Genny cuts through, asking what is wrong.

"Eustace.....he's dead."

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DOUG'S COMMENTARY

March 21, 2025

That is the classic Doug ending, eh? I think in most of my main solo-play — excepting Shadowdark — someone dies and goes through vision space to learn new powers and abilities. Maybe I should play a bit more cautiously but ehhhhh...

Anyhow, it is very nearly time to hit post on this for the week so it won't be a huge amount of commentary at this point. I'll likely have to do some editing in post. I'm liking to what degree that the story feels properly emergent. My only idea initially was to get the disk out, avoid Patel goons long enough to have a story, and then fall back into patel goons. Only now we are dealing with primal truths of the world, have some fun bad guys, and all that.

PS Nontooth Fillup is a reference to "Paul Simon Nontooth". No clue why I wanted something with kind of a hokey but maybe authentically magic gas station. Just made sense at the time. There was a bit about abandoned cars as people get out and flee The GLOW and like, maybe that is still true but also I wanted to dial it back.

Also, we mash in Dunsany and Lovecraft mythos pretty distinctly into this one. The Deep Ones first showed up near the end of Jani's arc. There have been a couple of Lovecraftian moments under Eustace's tenure — the Patel masterplan involves channeling energy to bring up R'yleh — but again this is the most concentrated it has been. Or maybe not. The vision sequence is just that: visionary.

Alright, time to do a few last edits and click submit. I'll try and get next week's finished early enough that I have time to ponder more.

MECHANICAL AND STORY NOTES

1. We'll give Hitomi a single chance to haggle. Crime + Speech. She gets a Critical. Drops it by $1.
2. Spends an Adrenaline to search for two weak spots. First: 1,6 (Enemy is Afraid of You, gain 2 Adrenaline). Second: 6,2 (Situation is Right for a Crazy Stunt to work, Gamble for +2). Will go for the first. Makes sense since Eustace did a lot of damage last time they fought. Second, IS a psychic tracking them? (Bad) → [c2] Yes? Like with the Knives, not very good ones. Focus + Fix nets Eustace a Critical. More than enough to sever it.
3. Spends an Adrenaline and goes all In. Ends up with 2xCritical which is maximum damage per hit. Hitomi spends an Adrenaline to get +1 and rolls 6 dice. Humorously, she gets a full straight. With a reroll she gets to a Crit and we'll hold there.
4. Will security ServiSynths be here soon? (Good) → [c28] Yes. We'll say 3 more combat rounds. They will spend the Adrenaline to try and disarm Hitomi. Hitomi fails her Reaction and drops it. For avoiding damage: Hitomi versus Gun is Brawn + Stunt. We'll spend another Adrenaline. Hey, she gets it, plus a Basic. She'll use that to jump behind a power box and get back to her main task. Eustace spends an Adrenaline to Counter. He also manages the Extreme + Basic but can't really dodge out of fighting.
5. Needing to conserve ADR, Eustace just uses his Blades + Brawn + Fight. Will give + 1 Help for countering her hit last turn. Gets Critical + 2xBasic. This takes them to the second hotbox. With the double basic we'll say he puts her off footing. Will reduce her attack by 1 tier to Double Critical.
6. Hitomi will spend one of her Spotlights to get an Extreme. Enough to hack into the computer and to pull a quick one. Just for the sheer cinematic nature of it, the other two 'successes' will be to direct the trolley to hit Yori. She loses the Spotlight on the coinflip.
7. Brawn + Stunt Gamble. He gets it but takes one Grit.
8. Hitomi gets Extreme which is enough for two clicks on the track AND to cover Eustace. We won't give a click on the track, but that means he doesn't have to roll which is maybe for the best.
9. Both make a Crit doing another two 'damage'. 8 successes remain.
10. Since Hitomi is good at this, I will ask with (GOOD), do the ServiSynth guards track by sound? → [c65] Yes! Entirely by sound then, perhaps to stop from having a visual record. Makes sense.
11. Eustace only rolls 2xBasic but Hitomi gets 2xCritical and uses hers to prevent his loss. 7 remain.
12. Business names come from three cards: 62, 64, and 25 with minor changes. Eustace gets Critical. Hitomi the same. 5 remain. They will get +1 Help for this.
13. Hitomi gets Extreme + Critical. Eustace gets Critical. They have found their way.
14. She gets +1 Help and gets 3xBasic for a single Critical to open the lock.
15. Why not, let's give Hitomi a chance at Extreme Criminal + Speech to see if she can wing it. She gets a Crit + Basic, enough to gain a second of confusion so they can attack first but not enough to convince it.
16. Preserving ADR for now. Eustace gets a Critical and does no damage.
17. Only gets 2xBasic trying to resist so takes 4 Grit!
18. On second thought, we will not preserve ADR. Spends one for +2 to Fight. Actually manages a Jackpot. Only one damage can be done so the other two 'Impossibles' will be used as such. We'll give Eustace a freebie weakness gauge + a dodge. Weakness will be either 6,1 (Enemy is under a precarious structure, +1 to shoot out the ceiling) or 3,5 (enemy is trapped, free attack for 1 Grit). I like number 2.
19. She gets a Critical + Basic for both the hacking roll and the resisting security roll. Speed of 2 and Need of 2.
20. Eustace gets a free hit on the armor. Eustace dodges the clamp down pretty easily. Only gets a Critical + Basic to resist the attack and takes 2 more Grit. This refills the Bad Spot which gives him a condition: We'll call it Shocked and is -1 to Nerves.
21. Hitomi gets Impossible on her Crime + Dexterity. Speed is up by 3 to 5. We'll play exactly by Chase rules so this puts her React at -1. 2xBasic but takes 1 Grit. And yes, it's the Powerpuff Girls. Need = 7.
22. All in with ADR to make it a full 9 dice. Unfortunately his Extreme needed is all 1s. That's 4 Grit lost filling up the rest of his Grit track. He gets double basic which will be kind and apply to his avoiding the tackle. He gets an additional Basic which all three equals the needed Critical.
23. Hitomi wraps up the 12 Need without needing to make a roll. However, will have her do one last hacking roll to see how well she hides her tracks. She gets an Extreme. This will give them about 24 hours or so. For the visual, thanks to Kamen Rider W and the 'library' scenes...with an added mix of Gridman.
24. Can she control the guards from in here? (Even) → [c5] Yes? Kind of. Will take an extreme roll. It takes going All-In but she actually manages it.
25. Eustace gets nada. And fails his death save. Plan B it is.

CREDITS

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

Other sources used include:

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

ART CREDIT AND EXPLANATION

I've had the photo for Dave saved up for a good minute now. It's base is this photo by Wilmer Martinez on Unsplash.

ADO's exterior is photo by Robert Tjalondo on Unsplash. Originall of the Netherlands.

Yori and Ambra are once again Nick Fancher's awesome looking models.

The interior scene of ADO: Photo by Arvin Mantilla on Unsplash.

Hasan's Terminal Farm is a composition of this 3D render with a photo by Christine Trewer from Pixabay.

PS Nontooth is Photo by Thomas Thompson on Unsplash. With some color shifting to make it more purple. And some tweaks to the graphic to hide that it's actually a Quebec gas station.

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Taxonomy and Technical Data

• World: The GLOW
• Campaign: The GLOW
• Arc: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont
• Post: Episode 10 - Tracking Dave Akari

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

Hide Prep Phases

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• "Previously..." and Campaign/Arc Summary
• The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont Episode 9 — Worse Angels
• Worse Angels
• In Between
• Stalling for Time
• How to Make Friends, Badly
• Doug's Commentary
• Mechanical and Story Notes
• Credits
• Taxonomy and Technical Data

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Previously, on The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont

After pushing into the heart of the Knives of the Fallen Star compound, Eustace + Hitomi + Genny have managed to find and kill Magnus Odinson while gathering up data on his anti-Order activities.

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.

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The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont. Episode 9 — Worse Angels

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Setting the Scene. Worse Angels.

This is a dream sequence where Eustace will be given a chance to realize what is up but it might not be a hard one. He'll also see upcoming calamity (which was a mechanic from the very first session of this but has been dropped). This will help to give some flavor to the next session or two outside of simply (1) Get Dave Akari, (2) Get Roman Patel, (3) Profit.

To generate elements of the dream I'll draw three cards and build up some things: [c100], [c20], [c48].

• c100 has meteorites falling. That seems useful to use. Also a skeleton.
• c48 has Confuse Arcane Container.
• c20 has "the reek of vomit," "flames in the distance," and "hover-carrier..."

I think all three bits can make for some interesting screws tightening. This Anti-Order league is pulling a new asteroid towards the Earth to recreate The Chicxulub Event. They are on a hover carrier somewhere. Flames and vomit and other terrible scenes.

Date Scene Played: March 10, 2025.

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Worse Angels.

He walks across kilometers of dry grass under the heat of the sun. Large birds overhead. Three and sometimes four. Though always feeling like more. He thought they were vultures until he stopped and risked sun-blindness to stare at them. No, they have black wings like crows. Beak faced. Black-eyed. But their bodies are human. Pale skin. Dark skin. Covered in scars. Covered in stench. Some ancient furies looking for a battle ground to feed.

Behind them, in the sky, a new moon is visible. Misshapen. Broken. Falling towards the Earth. An asteroid untethered from millennia of gravitational stability. Falling into the gravitational well of the sun. Quick stop on planet Earth on the way down. Steadily getting larger as it approaches. In the distance, screams from an unknown host of people carry past the horizon.

Underneath it all, he keeps walking. Kilometer after kilometer. The day that will not end. Towards something.

As the forever sun is finally setting, he comes to a small white building on the edge of the scrubland plain. Mountains in the distance. The sounds of people screaming seem closer or the number of people has increased. Up ahead, the crow-angels move in a complicated spiral but now there are definitely three. Maybe there was always just three. The newborn moon is triple the size of its older sibling. Like some perspective trick, always directly above.

He takes three steps towards the building and then finds it suddenly in front of him on the fourth, the door swinging open with a crunch like he just kicked it. He walks into the black hole past the door and finds a building interior very much in tune with the external carapace but also defiantly different. Too long, too narrow. Cramped yet large like the fear of dark is large. Full of emptiness. Shattered into obscene order. Stone floor where the building would clearly have wooden slats. Plain glass windows are now a cacophony of stained glass spirals gone dark with time. The pulpit is an ornate nonsense edifice. The crucifix a complex design made of carved yet living branches and vines behind it. Perched upon it, three crows. With a spot for a fourth.

In the floor, in the middle of this place is a pit carved into the stone like some ancient dhole has dug up from underneath. The edges are rough with rubble but the pit itself is smooth like eaten clear by millennia of water erosion. Walking towards it, he hears the pit breathe and sigh and the smell is not unlike a cat's breath. Carnivorous and sharp toothed. The death of rats and dry food. He blinks and it is a green door set into an old castle wall. Blinks again and it is a still pool in a forest floor. Blinks again and it is a throat.

He walks forward and falls.

Outside the people scream and burn and fires erupt as the newborn moon grows to fill the sky. The three angel crows are just one, now, the size of mountain, as emerald threads fall out of it and cover the landscape.

He falls for as long as he walked. Longer. Shorter. Hours and days and months and years. Just a few minutes. Eventually he finds himself again walking though this time through a city street. Overfull. Stuffed to the brim with signs and glass and debris. Graffiti marks every wall. Some in languages approximating human tongue. Others in wild letters that could only be spoken by star-spawn. All empty of people. A great edifice. A great orifice. Devouring until it had consumed its only food source. The air is empty of Soulburn.

No more souls to harrow.

Eventually, he comes to a small fruit stand. The apples and oranges upon it gone to ash. The sign curled and twisted by some  great heat. Past it, a small electronics store. The pieces inside impossibly antiquated. Some past eras concept of modern progress. Wires and cables like blood vessels and nerves. Machinery in the shape of hearts and livers. Old screens with green text burned into them. All of them saying just one word. Over over.

The sky, ahead, if he looked up, is a cavern roof. The newborn moon so wide there are no horizons that are not it. Gravity inverts, falls up into the sky. Dust and debris. The tops of buildings begin the crack. Glass shards spiral up into the newborn. Great pipes and tubes. Yellowed and oxygen burned paper. Old desks eaten by time and termite. All into the newborn's hungry mouth. Babies mouth the world. Tasting. Discovering. Finding it all lacking.

He is resolute down below. Walks into the shop as though gravity is the direction he chooses. He walks until he finds a door. Just a plain white door and on it is a sign that says "Employees Only." He pushes upon it and once again time distorts and he is already through and in front of him is a spider web of green lines and threads. Emerald yarn. Spider silk verdant and shimmering. In the middle of it, there is a woman. He knows her name like he knows his own name.

A taste rather than a word.

As he looks closer, he sees the green threads are lines drawn in the air. Sentences scribbled in crayon. And again, they over and over just say one word.

He looks down and arms end in two long blades. Like mantis arms. He is suddenly deeply aware that all these words threads strings silk ropes lines are his own work. He has been trapping her inside. He suddenly remembers what the word is. [1]

As the city outside breaks apart and falls up into the sky which is actually the new ground, as the planet is consumed into a newborn moon now older and more ancient the continents, inside this little shop that remains like a skull in a desert there is a man reaching up and pulling the woman from the threads. And he says the word:

"Foxteeth."

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Setting the Scene. In Between.

Date: Sunday, June 2, 1996.

Time: 9:22pm.

Place: An apartment in downtown Pensacola.

Actual Scene: This is the Time Out scene where we wrap up things from last time before starting a new sub-arc.

This one will be blending in character actions and interactions with most Time Out mechanics. The characters will actually get around 24-hours of downtime while working on to their next step.

Eustace has two conditions to heal up. We also need to find out things like how many credits the team has gotten. Genny is kind of done as a side character for the moment. This next step will likely use Libby instead.

Normally I would play this out more quickly but since I just spent the last eight or so hours of playing going through constant combat and action scenes, I need one where the action is less about bloodshed and more of the broad sweep of the cyberpunk experience.

Heat has definitely gone up to 6 at this point. It just feels appropriate. At 6 Heat, they go up to 3 Lethal Bullets.

Date Scene Played: March 10, 2025.

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In Between.

Date: Sunday, June 2, 1996.

Time: 9:22pm.

Place: An apartment in downtown Pensacola.

Eustace awakes from his dream with a dry mouth and a headache. For the first time in several days he finds himself craving a moment alone with his pipe and so gets up and starts searching through his old pockets to see if he can find it. Despite the beating the pants have taken over the past seventy-two-hours, the small briar pipe has has taken the abuse. Using his thumb to push the burley shag into place, he glances around for a light and finds nothing. At this point, where he is starts pushing its way to the forefront of his consciousness. An apartment. Pink sheets with white flowers. Corporate-level art on the wall. Knick-knacks on department store furniture. A mirror over the dresser showing his bruised body. A small crack in the corner to give it just enough verity. A place barely lived in but one that feels well-worn like a comfortable pair of shoes.

The apartment is owned by Juan and run very low down on the books. Accounted for as a storage space on the other side of The GLOW according to Juan's files and owned, by the building's files, by some woman named Mary Stewart. That particular Mary has been dead for a decade. Common enough name there are at least three other Mary Stewart's in GLOW at this point in time. A couple of soft lies to hide a bigger one. A hiding spot for jobbers that Juan rarely uses for only those he completely trusts. Hitomi has made the list. Eustace has no illusions how far he would get if he was on his own. He moves with a groan as he starts to pull on a shirt and then abandons it until a few more bruises heal. The whole time keeps his pipe clenched in his teeth. Myranda helped patch him up in the early morning hours but they only got so far before Hitomi decided that Eustace had been pampered enough. [2]

Speaking of Hitomi — he tries to not recall the dream and the word "foxteeth" — he pushes through the door and enters into a hallway decorated with old pictures of some family he does not know. The whole place smells of baked goods, mothballs, and stale cigarette smoke masked by lemon-scented candles. It smells of old photos and grandchildren playing. Synthetic scents. A gentle misting of Fractal Apocalypse-brand Contentment™ blended with a complex milieu of industrial grade esters. If MUNI somehow got wind and raided the place, their own brains would lie to them and convince them to take off their shoes.

Eustace finds Hitomi in a second bedroom (of three, Bee currently occupying the third) refitted to be a minor office space. She is asleep with a cigarette burned down in the ashtray beside her. Some dried blood on her shirt sleeve. He has no idea if it is hers. The green lines, such a steady companion for her these past couple of days, now mostly gone. A single line pulses between them, connecting their thread together. He realizes that aspect of his dream was true. Somehow he was embedding these lines into her, weaving them. He reaches out and pulls down a thin-as-spider-silk line moving faintly through the air and it actually catches in his grasp. He pulls it near his nose and smells. It smells like...fights and long nights. It smells like bleach and bed sores. A small TV playing the same meaningless commercial television on loop. A person barely able to stand because of exhaustion but so much requiring them to stand tall. Siblings? Lovers? Young lovers. Trapped by youthful love and long expectations. Never a marriage. A prison sentence. What attraction and hope was there is now gone. Eustace takes this thread so thin and light and he twists and turns a portion into a sigil he knows represents a way out, a removal from a trap. A dangerous game he could be playing. Leading to murder. To early death. But he feels deep down he has made the right call. [3]

After this he turns back to Hitomi and lifts her up. She weighs so little in his arms. She pushes a bit back but he ignores her protests and soon she is in bed, her soiled clothing removed. She'll need a shower but now is not the time. He re-enters into the office and glances at the screens processing data. After a few minutes of reading the output he grits his teeth. Another element from his dream come to life. Asteroid 27B-6. Spectroscopy results suggest Earth-like levels of carbon and organic materials. High likelihood of exposure to extra-terrestrial life. Complicated math suggest patterns that can be used to pull it out of its solar orbit and plummet it to Earth. Self-contained Soulburn Vessels. One map identifies the Indian Ocean as a likely target. Human casualties approaching half a billion or more. Massive fuel for a second Harrowing center, one built up with a different social structure. A particular spot in the Pacific ocean to act as an artificial atoll. Code named R'lyeh. Launching pad for a series of bespoke islands to store and harness concentrated doses of Harrowed energy. 

A group business leaders who got rich playing by the rules looking to create a world where there are no rules but their own currency and power. Enough evidence already collected that Eustace could walk out with these computers right now and be considered a hero to the entire Order. Would be able to coast for the rest of his life. [4]

And in exchange, he would never see Hitomi, again. A return to Antioch. Or, based on his new-found abilities, perhaps whatever hidden dimension the Witches Three have been hiding in. Assuming they are still alive. He thinks back to those "Worse Angels," those crow angels. Watching him. He pushes down into himself and tries to find other threads being attached to himself, ones that he might not recognize. There, around his arms, he catches the glimpse of something new, a magenta thread. He reaches out to grab it but it slithers out of his fingers. He's not yet strong enough to grasp it and soon it fades from his sight. [5]

As he is struggling with that, he hears a sound at the door as someone enters. He rushes outside and sees Bee and BrokenRecord breaking out of their long kiss and turning, looking shocked and worried. "Is that your dad, is that your dad, is that your dad?," Broken says in her signature repetition vocal tick. Eustace realizes that to most people he — with no shirt and covered in bruises and cuts — would likely be a shock. To two young people on the slight and frazzled side of life's coin he might look like a complete threat. He knew that Bee had gone with someone to visit Mrs. Yuuki in the hospital but is a little surprised to see BrokenRecord. More threads tightening and interlinking people. Still, they should make a nice pair.

"You know me, Darya. How is Mrs. Yuuki, Bee?"

Darya, aka BrokenRecord, looks up and realizes who is in front of her. "Oh you! You! Nice! Nice!" All smiles now. Bee slaps up against her shoulder, seemingly not so sure. Bee has been saved twice by Eustace, both times thanks to Eustace chewing through an entire group of people who were threatening them. Bee has strongly mixed emotions about a man who will cut off another man's face — quite literally — even if the outcome is a good thing. They shrug. "She's out of intensive care but has a long way to go before anything like hitting safety. Looters took out the rest of her store. Maybe some of the food went to helping people." [6]

"She'd probably rather they paid."

"Definitely."

"Um, um, um..."

Eustace waves at BrokenRecord's interruption and turns to leave the two young adults alone. Then turns back, "Do either of you have a lighter?"

Half an hour later, he is finishing his first bowl of strong burley tobacco — the office air thick and swirling with tobacco smoke and Soulburn — and going over some of the files from Dave Akari's computer. Tech to store and make new Soulburn. Miniature Harrowing born directly out of torturing sentient beings. Trapping them. A space station design. Several places around the globe where tests are being carried out right now. Often with various false religious cults to cover for them. No mention on where Akari might be right now, or how to get closer to the Patels. Other people involved. At least not obvious mentions. Account names by way of numbers. A few codewords. Basilisk. Bloodhound. OpTimeL0. People? Organizations? Unknown. [7]

On the desk in front him, 4 blue Creds. His and Hitomi's share. Combined with what they already have, enough to get started. To fight back. Assuming she is in. And if she is out, will he turn against the world for this brief moment? He truly has no idea. [8]

Down the hall, he hears more giggles from Bee's room. He has tried to ignore the sounds as much as possible but they are quite loud. Only, it's not really the sounds he was expecting to be ignoring. Either the two of them are having the world's most ticklish sex or they have opted instead for a late session with a joke book. Frankly, flip of the coin between the two. Still, it reminds him that he should also be resting up. The future looks stark and steep.

He crawls back into the grandmotherly bed that Hitomi and he is sharing. She is snoring lightly. At his initial disturbance she makes a face like a person trying lemon for the first time. After a moment, though, she rolls over and gathers herself against him. He holds her tight and looks up to see that magenta thread twisting and waving over him. Looks at the ceiling and pictures, up there, plans for a space station that will create a man-made disaster to destroy a half-billion people. He reaches up and plucks at the thread he cannot hold, and along it he hears a laughter that is older than dirt and darker than the bottom of the ocean. A terrible crone's laughter.

His heart is racing when Hitomi makes a sort of shushing sound with her mouth. He had not even realized he had been talking out loud. No idea what he had been saying. Instead, he grabs her and pulls her warmth into his and holds her there. Remembering her saying no L-words and no-not-L-words. But he has trouble keeping it to himself. "I love you, Hitomi Meyer."

She smiles and then presses her face into his chest and starts snoring again.

---

Setting the Scene. Stalling for Time.

Date: Monday, June 3, 1996.

Time: 7:17pm

Place: The Palafox Street Market in Pensacola.

Before we roll the scene to test it for expectation, we are going to do something a little different. I'd like a bit of a street market scene which could be an interrogation (Expected), a chase (Minor), or a fight (Major). Basically, they are trying to find a confidant who can help them locate Dave Akari's base of operations [which we know from the initial dream sequence, or well, stuff on the back end, involves a hover-carrier].

Creating this person we'll do some of the standard things. { male | female | non } = Female. { younger | same | older } = younger. (from Augmented Reality // Hackers & Slicers) 70 Mother_Bored 96 Drug-addicted net regulator, knows system's weak points 27 Malnourished, pastey, dank. Real name (from Dicegeek's Cyberpunk 3 // Phillipine Names) 42 Eleanor 36 Clemente. Another hacker from the days when Hitomi and Dave ran together, only Eleanor/Mother_Bored stayed with Dave — at least, he stayed with her. MB's drug habits makes her a weak link in the chain but her knowledge of The GLOW aethersecurity and day job of doing legit business keeps her an asset.

Expected Scene: Hitomi and Eustace try to find Mother_Bored at the Palafox Street Market.

Scene Test: [c53] 8. 2d10 = 9 + 8. Minor complications are like...taxes. Inevitable. It's a chase then.

Actual Scene: H+E are having to chase Mother_Bored through the street market.

Need will be 10. Hotboxes on 3 and 7 just to add some more shenanigans. Starting speed will be 0. Once they catch her, we'll figure it out based on whims, dice, and cards.

Date Scene Played: March 12, 2025.

---

Stalling for Time.

Date: Monday, June 3, 1996.

Time: 7:17pm

Place: The Palafox Street Market in Pensacola.

There are moments like this when Hitomi very nearly loves The GLOW. The crowd on Palafox Street. Families. Couples. A few old men and women with canvas bags full of sandwiches and juice. A couple of guys playing chess on a table. The scent of good cigar smoke. Laughter. A kid eating funnel cake. Very few MUNI officers or private security. The general density and flow of the crowd increasing as they approach the market. The night version which is much the same as the day version:  just a swap from grown goods to crafted ones. Late night it swings to more esoteric things. Early morning more baked goods and meal prep and medicinal. Some folks timesharing stalls, equipped with anti-humidity devices and bug-repelling light sources. During the day all the tomatoes you can eat for a few quarter creds. At night, all the tomato shaped necklaces. Drones fly overhead, giving live updates on foot-traffic flow and sales patterns. Palafox regulars tracking haggling and stock so they can better play at being farmer market's browsers.

Similar to the Citadel, there are layers upon layers of unspoken rules. Some quite loud. Enough of the old grandpas and young wives running the stalls — day or night variations — have ties to various street gangs that any assault upon the market would likely trigger an all out war. In fact, backed by folks like Juan Uno, the market is broadly under 24/7 Pax. Doesn't mean there aren't plenty of petty thefts and occasional violence, it is just understood that it will involve as little damaged merchandise as possible. Tourists meander through the street. No doubt some will claim that hanging out here has shown them the real GLOW.

"Mother_Bored was an early recruit to several security firms. By age of seventeen, she had mastered a complex series of wards unique to her own grimoire. By age of nineteen, she fell in Dave Akari and myself. A few weeks later, I was out and she was the new second-in-command. The trick to getting good at wards is that you are generally good at cracking them. Hooked up on various souldrugs. Became a liability to Dave and got kicked out of inner circle herself but too valuable to push far and much too valuable to kill. If anyone knows how to find Dave and his current troupe, she'll be it."

Hitomi has been bringing Eustace up to speed. Mr. Psychic likely can know all these details with a quick thought but it's nice to talk out loud. She can feel that their relationship has shifted. Become the kind of one where just talking to one another counts for something, and it worries her. Eustace has a non-zero chance of being able to slaughter every person on this street and while that could be downright sexy in some situations, it remains a bother. Not that Eustace seems the type but The GLOW is full of people who seem like they wouldn't backstab an entire swath of the population until they do. She read the reports snagged from Magnus and Dave: a second impact event calculated to extinct just enough people to make folks poised to capitalize on it richer than the word "rich" can convey.

Eustace, listening to Hitomi, is worried about coincidences. Palafox Street. Foxteeth. Crow-winged, scarred angels. Newborn moons. The dream/vision running amok in his brain. And the fact that many of the terrible things circling around Hitomi are directly related to him not so much reading the psychic threads matrix and rewriting it.

The two of them hit the main crowd and once again the general effect of Eustace's size does wonders as tourists and regulars part silently, doing their best to not be seen looking. The stall in question sells tat made of reclaimed computer parts. On the surface. Motherboards turned into wall art. Hard drives and disks turned into outsized jewelry. People in the know might be sold a CD on a kitschy chain. The CD just so happening to contain backdoor ward breakers into a credit union. Or a list of names and dates for expected souldrug drop offs. A rotating series of codewords and catalog numbers. The kind of place you have to very nearly not need to use in order to navigate its services.

Approaching it, Eustace gets his first glance of Mother_Bored. A woman a couple years younger than Hitomi but whose small stature and thin frame makes her look an anorexic teenager going on late-forties. Drug of choice is synthetic sleep blended with soul-speed. Manages a roughly twenty-two work day between aethernet security, this booth from 5pm to midnight, and various unsavory acts in the early morning. Brain always somewhere between deeply dreaming and wide awake. Eyes twitch as aether-goggles convert realtime talk to dreamlike sequences at x10 fast forward. Hence the nickname. Normie speed is a sin to her. She'll likely be dead before she hits thirty but will have lived a longer life than most.

Hitomi approaches while lighting a cigarette and asks for "Whole Wheat Flour, Ground Tuesday" which triggers Mother_Bored to start automatically reaching under the counter before she whips her twitching head to stare about a half-meter over Hitomi's head as the dreamland versions of events alerts her to just who made the request. Eustace is braced for a scene but instead he hears the shutters on the stall activated as MB bolts out the back while he and Hitomi are inside a security pen that would, in normal circumstances, require bioprint ID to unlock. Eustace has blades out between the sliding chain-link fence before it can close and arm and Hitomi is out past the gates and giving chase. Eustace shoves back against the gate long enough to get out himself and hears the shutters click behind him, powering on the electrofence grid. He does not look back as he catches up to Hitomi and they see Mother_Bored dive behind another stall. [9]

MB reaches into the neighboring stall — filled full of blown glass icons and religious trinkets — and snags out a big handful of ornate candle holders and slams them down into the ground in front of Hitomi's feet. The old Asian woman behind the counter let's out a curse in Vietnamese as her grandson — or paid thug — steps out to face Eustace. Hitomi leaps over the broken glass and keeps moving at full speed. Eustace turns to the man and points a bladed arm in his direction with a single shake of his head. The man holds his hands up and steps back long enough for Eustace to get past. [10]

Hitomi swings out further behind the stalls where the crowd is a bit thinner — even though the crowd is more likely to be sitting on the sidewalk and munching on street food — and runs through a group of college kids playing at some card game. Eustace leaps up on top of the stalls — the synthetic canvas actually a complicated aetherlaced metal meant to give the appearance of cloth — and leaps from stall to stall as some of the commerce drones start following and tracking him to put on a show for all the subscribers. [11]

MB hits some buttons on a large watch she is wearing and Eustace sees the drones blink as their blue light flashes red and they swerve down to strike at the two chasers. Then Mother_Bored abruptly turns and changes course to dive into the crowd and start crossing the street. Shoving against people larger than her. Several folks start cursing. As the drones dive down, more curses. People losing their entertainment. Eustace leaps through the air to strike the drones down before they can get to him and Hitomi. He uses this momentum to fling himself into the crowd. The crowd parts as he lands. Several people have camcorders and scrying glasses filming the action. Some tourists seem unsure if this is a planned show or just the natural entertainment that erupts in The GLOW. Hitomi reaches out and grabs hold off the supports holding up a stand of homemade jellies — spiked with tiny glimmering beads that glow with Soulburn — and swings out, using her momentum to turn to follow. [12]

Eustace powers through the crowd while trying to not trample anyone. A young mother with a small kid is giving a lecture about allowance and steps out in front of him. He pivots into the side, bounding off a ServiSynth made to look like a cartoon character — selling bootleg animation cels from a popular robot series — but keeps his pace up as best he can. Hitomi, too, is struggling to shove though the people, many focused on Eustace and closing the gap to try and get as much good video as possible. She grabs a middle-aged Japanese man in a suit and shouts, "ありがとう!," as he trips and falls back. No doubt he will have a fun story to tell his wife and kids back home. [13]

A bike trolley carring several tourists on a "pedal and sip" tour of Pensacola pulls blocking Eustace's view for a moment before he spots MB dodging down an alley. He lets the tourists go past before chasing down after her. Hitomi, further back, nearly misses this but catches the back of Eustace as it goes around the corner. She takes off after. Eustace is heading for the end of the alley when Mother_Bored's fletchette launcher fires off a few sharp blades. He smacks them down and then closes the gap and kicks her legs out from under her. [14]

A few moments later, Hitomi comes up as well, breathing hard. Almost regretting the pack of cigs she has smoked today. Almost. As soon as she catches her breath she is going to start on her second.

"What the hell, Ell?," Hitomi asks. Then, to Eustace, "Get her, we'll find some place we can talk."

---

Setting the Scene. How to Make Friends, Badly.

Date: Monday, June 3, 1996.

Time: 8:47pm.

Place: 8th Floor Auditorium of Pensacola Polytechnic.

Expected Scene: Eustace and Hitomi bring Mother_Bored to a location to talk to her about Dave Akari.

Scene Test: [c52] 6. 2d10 = 8 + 5. Minor twist. "Your net traffic is leaked.

Actual Scene: Private security is converging to liquidate Mother_Bored.

For the attackers, we'll go for 2xCrit/Crit/6. Won't worry about special actions so no hotboxes but they have a couple of feats: Tactics (need to flip a coin to get close), Piercing Bullets (ignore partial cover).

Date Scene Played: March 12, 2025.

---

How to Make Friends, Badly.

Date: Monday, June 3, 1996.

Time: 8:47pm.

Place: 8th Floor Auditorium of Pensacola Polytechnic.

"You just happen to have a key to a classroom?," Eustace asks, looking around as the lights flicker on. They are a fair sized auditorium, eight floors up in a single-building "university" called Pensacola Polytechnic. Corpo salary slave pipeline. The smiling PP board photos on the first floor were a who's who of mid- to very-nearly-large GLOW corp CEOs and CFOs. Roman Patel was one of the many on display, near the center with a slightly bigger portrait than the others. From students in suits to office drones in suits in four short years. If you have a particular knack of taking orders well and ignoring questionable lines on a spreadsheet, all expenses paid. Not the sort of place that Eustace would have considered Hitomi to have any connections. Surely she wasn't a student.

"I dated a professor. Well, still...dating. Maybe. It's complicated."

"Ah. Nice?"

"Skip. Next question! Like, where the fuck is Dave, Ell?" [15]

Mother_Bored scoffs at the old nickname for Eleanor and then stares back into space. Been nearly an hour since last fix after she bolted and left her stash back in her stall. In six hours time the stall becomes a fruit stand specializing in GLOW-harvested apples with purple skin. Of course, all her shit will be there which will rankle Tomas. Reality is starting to bleed in. She had been having such a lovely dream of falling through infinite space while multi-colored planets...

"ELL!"

Mother_Bored whips her head back up, coasting somewhere over a planet full of red hexagons for clouds. Hitomi and her new man talk. so. slow. The ever present fear of coasting back into fleshtime starts crawling up her spine.

"How about I slap her?," Hitomi asks.

Eustace stares down at this poor pitiful woman. DTs causing her to sweat. Body odor suggesting a lack of basic hygiene for going on a week, punching through any perfume. Candle burning from both ends, twice as fast. His first thought was she wouldn't make until thirty. Now getting a read he feels like she might not make it until 1997. Multiple organs on the cusp of failure. He slows down time around him, pulls forth the threads weaving through this room. So many colors. Not just the emerald ones to which he is attuned, but thousands and thousands of shades. He finds a gray, thin, dying line that represents the remainder of Mother_Board's life. Grabs and twists it into shapes. There's no rulebook for what he is doing. No grimoire. He can only go on the patterns that his own soul are trying to solve. He ties the thread off into a knot and let's go. A relatively minor miracle, one with immediate effect. [16]

Mother_Bored gasps and falls over, whipping off her glasses as the dream state she was in crashes into dull colors like an after effect of staring at fireworks. The sweat dries up. The need dries up. Her brain no longer overclocked she is cruising at 1:1 time. She's starving. Her back hurts. She desperate needs water. What the fuck just happened?

Eustace looks down at the panic in her face and tells her plainly, "I removed five years worth of addiction. Can't stop you from getting back on but your body has a chance to fight back against it."

"You did...fu...wha..." Mother_Bored — now just Eleanor Clemente — stops when she realizes Hitomi is just as shocked as she is. She wants to be furious but her body is now nearly too weak to sustain any emotion besides all the basic needs. Shit. Does this mean she is going to have normal dreams?

"Hitomi asked you a question, where is Dave Akari?"

Hitomi's hands are shaking as she is trying to light a cigarette and she gives up. She's had a sense that something is happening with Eustace but she realizes she has been undershooting the mark. She has a sudden unbidden thought of three figures in cowls. No people. Something much, much worse.

For now, though, she sees that Ell is resisting talking despite whatever the opposite of body shock might be so it falls on Hitomi to take on the good cop to Eustace's absolutely terrifying reality altering cop. "Dave is involved in some terrible fucking shit, Ell. Like, killing millions and millions of people. Maybe billions. Women. Children. Puppies, for fuck sake. We are trying to stop him before it's too late." [17]

Eleanor "Ell" "Mother_Bored" Clemente looks at Hitomi for a second and starts crying. "I don't know, Hitomi. He left me behind. I still have to keep getting him stuff or he said he'll cut me off from my supply. Well, I guess I don't have to worry about that any more. He's taken to The Moonblink. All I know."

"The Moonblink?," Hitomi asks.

"His hoverboat. Using Patel tech. Flying somewhere over The GLOW."

"Do you know where?," Eustace cuts in and Hitomi slaps him on the arm.

"Um, no, dipshit. Hover. Boat. It moves around."

"Ok," says Hitomi, "How can we possibly track it. Do you know?"

"Now that Mischa has pulled her mutiny, only likely terminal is Hasan's Terminal Farm." [18]

"Mischa? Hasan? Who are..."

Blood explodes as Eleanor's head explodes and Hitomi and Eustace whip around to see a pair of men in dark suits holding silence pistols aimed at the late Ms. Clemente. Without saying anything Eustace starts running towards the men as they split and run in opposite directions. After a second, Eustace has to turn and tracks the guy on his left. Hitomi whips out her gun and fires at the guy on the right before diving behind the lecturer's podium. [19]

Large chunks tear through the podium as the one gunman pins her down but none of the bullets find their mark. She hears the sounds of bullets ricocheting off of Eustace's blades as he cuts some of them out of the air but also hears him grunt as he doesn't cut through the entire barrage. [20]

From her spot she hears the sound of someone cutting through flesh and then the dull wet thwack as a man screams. Glancing out from behind the podium she sees the gunman she was targeting splattered with blood as the other man's head is still bouncing off of him. She takes advantage of the moment to open fire and the second gunman drops. [21]

Eustace jogs back up to her. She asks him, "Did you just cut one man's head off and use it to hit another man?"

"Seemed expedient."

"Ok, and now what the fuck are you doing?"

Eustace is wrapping one of the dead man's coats around Ell's body and picking her up. "We just chased this woman in front of a large crowd of people. They find her dead now, it won't take MUNI long to track us. Come on, security has to be coming."

Hitomi hesitates only a moment before following after him. She has to figure out who or what a Hasan Terminal Farm might be.

---

DOUG'S COMMENTARY

March 10, 2025

Worse Angels is a reference to a Laird Barron novel of the same name. One about experiments gone awry and state secrets. Outside of that, it does not really have any presence or impact — no pun intended — on the rest of the session. The dream sequence, at least bits of it, were somewhat inspired by Laird's writing style. But also just dream logic of a sort.

The church and its image at the start was picked by just scrolling through recent stock art and finding something that would make sense in that dream. Another picture would have flavored elements of it differently. The bit about the pit smelling like cat's breath was actually the first element I came up with while giving one of my cat's medicine. Giving him medicine requires getting him to open up his mouth and then getting the pill to the back of his throat. I get to smell cat's breath fairly often, thanks to it.

It does not help my mood that I've been reading over the past couple of nights the new-to-English book The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica. Post apocalyptic nightmare state BDSM nuns with post-modernist feminist lesbian romance inside of its terrible logic. None of its imagery really figured in the dream sequence but that sort of mood of things not fitting besides how they fit were inspired a bit by it. The book cost me a couple of nights of sleep and so take that as the high praise it is, even if the book sort of ends up in exactly the place you might figure it would.

27B-6 is definitely a reference to Brazil. The plot to destroy a country to get rich is...you know...also a reference...to something.

March 12, 2025

The Palafox Street Market is a real thing though something completely different. I figured if I was setting some sort of street market scene in The GLOW's Pensacola I should at least give a shoutout to a real one. It seems awesome.

There is no Pensacola Polytechnic. That originated out of a prompt from Augmented Reality. On page 48 I got "School Stack" and then realized that something that was a bit southern but also a bit cyberpunk would make sense. I didn't want to use a real location since I was going to be a tad unflattering, but I like the PP alliteration.

After the bang-bang constant rush of the previous few episodes, having a slightly "slower" and somewhat "smaller" one was nice. This one is a bit more standard Doug I would say, good or bad. A lot lore baked in. Each scene played on its own with some time in between to think. I would generally prefer more scenes like these, even if they take twice as long. Where each scene is its own puzzle. Figuring out the dream sequence. Figuring out the truth of the data they stole. Figuring out how the relationships are going. The street market and making that feel like a place. Even just the oddity of having the quick shoot out in the classroom.

Some of this was me watching Johnny Mnemonic earlier today. There are several "definitely 'punk" moments but there is also several scenes where reality is mostly just life in the XXI. A good percentage of the cyberpunk vibe is trash piled up in large spaces while extras playing homeless folk struggle to not look at the camera. Or people spazz out on the least convincing hospital set of cinematic history. While that is no doubt thanks in part to the budget and the 90s struggle to figure out what cyberpunk might look like if it was box office profitable, it is interesting to think about how Sprawl vs Top is sometimes not so clear cut. Most societies with extreme stratification of economic realities have a large middle class left behind by the true Top and those middle class people smear the lines between the other two extremes as they form bubbles of secondary and tertiary Tops. Hence the market which was contrasted to the mall. A place where violence and high tech and squalor can exist but also a place where people need to shop and buy trinkets. The school where people sell their souls to corps to get a middlin' education. I wanted to find those places where the 'punk is restrained behind the scenes. In an actual cyberpunk universe, a large number of people would just be living. Same as it ever was.

And some of it was this campaign changing one of its side benefits. Initially I had been playing it here to get the hang of playing the system as written with the plan of demo'ing at the 2025 Huntsville Pop Culture Expo. After some consideration — a bit between some financial concerns and between having issues running games at big cons now due to my disability — I am actually going to give running games a pass this year. It makes me sad but it can be really hard to spend something like fifteen hours running games and it just takes it out of me.

On the positive side, this means that I can swing back to playing Outgunned more like I tend to play games without having to worry too much about nitpicking the rules. It will still be Outgunned but it will also be a bit softer, with less focus on sticking to all of its mantras of action and pacing.

The next session — and I am sticking to one post per week combining 2-3 different sessions — will most likely be a Turning Point. We are starting to see WHY the campaign exists. I love the threat of these businessmen plotting to create a second impact. It feels proper outsized and dangerous. Still, next week will almost definitely have the showdown with Dave Akari on his hoverboat and build up to the final sub-arc of confronting Roman Patel.

MECHANICAL AND STORY NOTES

1. Focus + Fight to tear out his own accidental psychic hooks that have been increasingly trapping Hitomi. Dream Eustace gets a Crit + Basic. Good enough for me!
2. Did Eustace's pipe survive the last several days? (Even) → [c87] Yes. With Myranda giving + 1 vs Eustaces Focus + Healing checks, he gets Critical on his first and fails his second. He removes his Hurt but still has his Smashed. He will be at -1 Brawn to this session.
3. Eustace is gaining an Experience: aware of his ability to move threads (aka, witchery). For this test, Focus + Fix + 1 Help from said experience. He gets an Impossible. Boy has jacked the system. Let's pull two cards: [c45] + [c35]. A tense relationship is strained. Your heart breaking. Heavy tobacco smoke. Does this pair want to be together? (Even) → [c43] No. Why are they together? → [c109] A tripwire. They feel trapped due to one being injured.
4. Criminal + Fix + 1 Help (Libby) + 1 Help (Laptop). Even with all the dice she only gets Critical + Basic. Enough to find the data, not enough to snag extra money/etc from it.
5. Are the Witches weaving Eustace's threads? (Even) → [c80] Yes. This will require something big, like Extreme or Impossible, but all he gets is Crit + Basic using Focus + Fix. He is aware of it but not good enough to untangle himself from it.
6. Is Mrs. Yuuki recovering? (Even) → [c4] Yes.
7. Generated by drawing three cards - [c95], [c93], [c55] - and just riffing off a piece of information on each. I have no idea what these will be, if anything. Future fodder.
8. I rolled 3d6. 1-3 = 1. 4-5 = 2. 6 = 3. Got a 1+4+6 = 6. Split three ways gives 4. Hitomi had promised her share to Genny but he did not take it.
9. Brawn + Fight -1 (Smashed) +1 (Blades) nets him double Critical. He moves speed up to and gives them both a chance to get out. Hitomi goes for Brawn + Stunt to get out the opening and also keep up. Gets a Critical + Basic and also goes to Speed 1. Need = 1 for both at the end of the first round.
10. Hitomi with Nerves + Stunt manages to get an Extreme. We'll give her a boost of another Speed to 2. Eustace with Smooth + Speech gets a Critical with his free reroll.
11. Hitomi manages a Critical Brawn + Stunt to go up to Speed 3. Eustace, with adrenaline spent, gets a Extreme and goes up to Speed 3 as well. Both are at Need 4 and we get an adrenaline for a thing.
12. Brawn + Fight nets Eustace an Extreme. Enough to guard both himself and Hitomi and to increase his Speed to 4. Hitomi using Nerves + Stunt manages to corner the turn and keep moving.
13. Both using Brawn + Stunt. Both end up with just a Basic and maintain Speed. Eustace is up to 8 Need. Hitomi is up to 7. This triggers the next hotbox event.
14. Focus + Awareness to find her after losing sight. Both amazingly make it. She then takes a shot but he dodges that with Brawn + Stunt. Next Action turn will have him finishing it up so he has caught up to her.
15. Just in case it ever comes up, which it might, the professor's name is Dr. Mariya Kazuo. Just snagged that from c86.
16. Going to make him spend a Spotlight for this (he does not win the coinflip to get it back). He then goes for Focus + Fix. Gets Extreme + Basic.
17. Is Eleanor willing to talk? (Even) → [c108] No? Smooth + Speech + 1 Help for all the stuff happening. Crit + Basic.
18. Would Ell know about Mischa and the Apostates? (Good) → [c10] Yes. Hasan was just a name on the card.
19. In a move that surprises no one, Eustace does not detect the men. They kill Ell. Eustace loses his coin flip to approach so has to spend his full action to get there next turn. Hitomi gets Crit + Basic and so notches 1/6 Grit and takes full cover.
20. She's in full cover so takes no hits. Eustace rolls Brawn + Fight to get Crit + Basic to absorb 4 of the 6 grit's damage.
21. Eustace spends an Adrenaline to get +2. He gets a Extreme + Crit and does 4 Grit damage to them. They have 1 Grit left. Hitomi, even with the penalty, manages to roll a Crit without even rerolling. Good for her.

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 27B-6 above Earth shot is from a computer rendering by Planet Volumes on Unsplash. I wanted a photo of an asteroid above the earth and viola! Not exactly a photo but I'll take it.

The Dream Chapel: Photo by nathan gordon on Unsplash.

The exterior of the apartment is this photo by Giulia Squillace. She has others that will be excellent for the mood of this current session so at least one will likely show up.

In fact, the very next photo was a street market shot from her collection.

Pensacola Polytechnic is from this photo of a classroom auditorium.

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Taxonomy and Technical Data

• World: The GLOW
• Campaign: The GLOW
• Arc: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont
• Post: Episode 9 - Worse Angels

Dates Played: March 10 & 12, 2025. With editing and additional touch ups on March 13, 2025.

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

Hide Prep Phases

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• "Previously..." and Campaign/Arc Summary
• A Quick-ish Retcon
• Crafting the Shrine
• The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont Episode 8 - Odin's Favorite Son
• A Race Against Crime
• A Wild Genny Chase
• Axe vs Sword
• The Battle of the Courtyard
• Chaos in the Compound
• The Inner lair
• Upstairs || Downstairs
• The Chase through the Streets
• Doug's Commentary
• Mechanical and Story Notes
• Credits
• Taxonomy and Technical Data

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Previously, on The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont

Eustace and Hitomi have rescued Genny and turned off the towers. Now that they know that Magnus Odinson is behind — or at least part of a plot — to try and destroy the Order, Eustace has to try and stop Odinson. Though they have dealt a death blow to the Knives, it seems likely that Odinson will try again. They have to push into the compound and the shrine at its very heart. All the while, MUNI is growing closer and closer and absolutely no one is acting in any official capacity. If Eustace turns himself back into the Order, he will lose Hitomi. Likely forever.

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.

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A Quick-ish Retcon

THIS IS THE FIRST ONE-PER-WEEK EPISODE FOR THIS ARC. That mostly just means instead of trying 1 quick session pretty much daily, I have more freedom to build up a 2-3 smaller sessions and maybe 1+ longer sessions throughout the week. If it fails, I'll undo that change almost immediately. One aspect of this is that I will start dating the playthrough per scene and commentary will have potentially multiple entries at the bottom as I play. We'll see how it goes.

WHERE THE HECK IS MUNI? This is the kind of thing that I am very prone to miss in solo- and multi-play. At the end of Episode 6 ("Knives Out") we established that MUNI was on their way. Then in Episode 7 ("Finding Genny") I had a mild twist about the other towers not being knocked out so I felt it made sense to put a delay on their actions, which also helped the twist of Magnus Odinson having psychics working for him. Unfortunately, this leads to a glitch. What was meant to be a 20-minute dash across a compound has become an hour and a half. Longer before it is finished. MUNI should be here. I thought about going back into Episode 7 and working in MUNI as a growing threat but instead I will use a soft retcon.

By the nature of Neon Noir, MUNI will be at least somewhat in the pocket of people like Roman Patel. We know from behind the scenes cooking that Roman is helping Magnus. This means that Roman might have placed a call to stop MUNI from diving in head first. This combined with MUNI forces tussling with Juan's people and Knives that are fleeing the compound means there has been a delay. One that is coming to a close. Especially with the increased Soulburn in the area, MUNI equipment will be working more functionally again. They will show back up. They are not the main threat for now but at least a bit of a chase sequence might be in order to get away.

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Crafting the Shrine

The idea I had for the shrine, after some back and forth, was something of a single-story structure built on the "greenhouse" motif. A outer (false) sanctum where Magnus delivers his sermon/speeches. Inside, though, a glass enclosed courtyard stores up Soulburn along with a kind of airlock style mechanism between the false sanctum and the courtyard. The outer walls are around 10 meters high. Inside, two large tanks store up Soulburn to keep it evenly dispersed. A courtyard full of strange plants and decadence. To the north, an inner sanctum that is less a holy shrine and more a tech haven where the Knives secret psychics, hackers, and mages gather to carry out the plans that Magnus and the others are hatching.

One of the ideas for motifs was something like the Kailasa Temple though not built into a cliff face. Something that kind of emulates it, though. Magnus is all about design to hide his true intention and an elaborate front would be a perfect cover.

The gist of this session — the first and test of the week-long "session" format — to have a sort of five-room-dungeon but it's five scenes within the inner shrine where specific details can be worked out later on. The five scenes planned are:

1. Guards at the gate. A not so terrible fight but one in which breaching inside might require getting past a stronghold. In other words, the guards can duck back inside or fall back and force the PCs to come to them.
2. A Hitomi-themed scene requiring getting through the security of the airlock mechanism.
3. A more complicated fight sequence in the courtyard using pillars, plants, and tanks to establish some strategy and planning. These will be people able to tap into Soulburn and so will likely have some degree of powers.
4. A bit of a placeholder. If the fights are too easy, this might be a third fight sequence. If the fights are hard, this will likely be more of an establishing scene.
5. A mini-boss battle with Magnus Odinson.

Rather than work them out, will keep those concepts in mind per scene. There is a chance that Eustace and Hitomi will run out of steam before they reach the end-game, in which Magnus escapes and Heat rises again (to 6).

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The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont. Episode 8 - Odin's Favorite Son

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Setting the Scene. A Race Against Crime.

Date: Sunday, June 2, 1996.

Time: 2:42am.

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

MUNI cops are entering the compound. As Soulburn is returning, the helicopters are able to get closer to the ground but are still being a bit cautious but the PCs have only one more hour (3:30am) before there's enough Soulburn for MUNI to be there in full force.

Is there enough Soulburn for Eustace to lose his Distracted? (Even) → [c104] No. He'll lose once he is in the Shrine but for now he is back to feeling a bit headache-y and unsure.

I will go ahead and count the 20ish minute break they get as a Time Out for purposes of regathering. Grit will reset (otherwise the fight would likely be too easy to feel like a mini-boss). Besides that Eustace gets an action to try and heal up Genny again.

Is there a vehicle to steal to speed up getting to the Shrine? (Even) → [c68] Yes. Hitomi will work on that. Besides that they will grab some food, etc.

Essentially this will be a quasi-Time-Out with gathering up and making plans.

Genny is going to be built with the rules of Supporting Characters in Chapter 6. Name: Jinjuro "Genny" Yusuda. Help: Shoot. Flaw: Obstinately Practical. Brawn: 4. Nerves: 6. Smooth: 3. Focus: 4. Crime: 3. Grit: 3 (total).

Date Played: March 2, 2025.

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A Race Against Crime.

Date: Sunday, June 2, 1996.

Time: 2:32am.

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

With a great grunt of movement as every joint and muscle has been transformed to a package of dull pain, Genny bends and carefully grabs the gun from the corpse of the woman who had been leading the black-garbed guards. Even with his precise movements, he finds blood smeared across the back of his hand and as nonchalantly as he can, he wipes it on the top of the desk and its many receipts. He tries not to look at the remains too much, despite years in various violent services. The smell is bad enough. 

Genny walks back out to the main chamber and sits down next to a heap of wrappers and empty bottles. He has been guzzling protein bars, pain killers, and electrolyte-laden drinks from the Knives' stash. Nurse's orders. Genny complained a lot but he realizes the large man — whom Hitomi has called "Nurse" — is nearly at good at fixing people as chopping them into bits. Genny tries very hard to not be impressed but being a soldier for as long as he has means you sometimes have to give kudos to people who are just that practical in the field, like a gun feeling admiration for a sharpened knife. Genny is pretty sure that "Nurse" is in some way "the enemy" — jobber competition or something worse — but for now they can be allies and Genny is not going to kick up a fuss. There's an order of magnitude, here. Genny tends to involve the kind of action that requires a single warrior to take out a whole platoon. Hell, his number one choice of weapon is basic microwavers that disorient and nauseate. He's shot plenty of people but he's pretty sure a good number of those could have recovered (whether or not they did is a whole other story). Nurse dissects people. [1]

Outside, Hitomi is hacking into a three-wheeled vehicle that looks a bit like an armored golf cart designed to take bullets while going off road. Not exactly going to help if they have to flee into the main city streets but for the compound it should be pretty invaluable. It is roughly six kilometers to the compound gates from here but there is enough MUNI that the sirens catch on the wind here or there. Probably waiting to get permission to storm the compound. Waiting or permission and for the fighting to die down. The shooting has mostly stopped. That's a plus. On the other hand, the sound of MUNI helicopters keeps getting closer. Right now they can't get below 50 meters or risk a stall out but there is enough Soulburn that even Genny is starting to catch a sparkle out of the corner of his eye. Nurse's weird glowing wing trick seems to have sped that process up.

Hitomi comes back inside and looks through boxes until finding one that has a carton of cigarettes and rips it open while grimacing at the American label. She tosses a pack to Genny. Opens a pack for herself and lights up, no longer seemingly carrying out Country-of-Origin. "Got the cart cracked. Turned off some of its safety features as well so we can push it until it craps out." [2]

Nurse grabs some fruit and nut bars and hands it to Hitomi, pulling the cigarette from her mouth, and says, "Eat." She sticks her tongue out at him but takes him on the offer and chews thoughtfully. Nurse walks back over with a few bottles of water. Hands her one of those. She starts drinking and then shoves her own food into his mouth with her other hand with a giggle. It turns into a gentle tussle of two people taking care of each other while pretending to be irate about it. Genny is not exactly sure if he has seen a more nauseatingly cute display of affection and the fact that three corpses have been turned into hamburger behind him makes it all the more surreal. 

A few minutes later, the whole time without saying another word, the trio head out to load up and race against the opposing forces of criminal and the law, knowing that they will find solace in neither.

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Setting the Scene. A Wild Genny Chase.

Date: Sunday, June 2, 1996.

Time: 2:50am.

Place: The Gates to Magnus's Shrine.

Expected Scene: The trio have to shoot through guards to get inside.

Scene Test: [c78] 2d10 = 3 + 4. Only a minor complication. "Sacrifice yourself or a friend." A literal sacrifice seems a bit much but maybe Genny has to do something to help that takes him out for the rest of the session.

Actual Scene: There are too many guards at the gate so Genny is going to lead several off on a wild goose chase (and maybe survive).

There are dozens of black-camo'd guards watching the gate. Enough that it would be a high level boss fight if the trio tried punching through. Instead, they are going to lead a good number off. Still a rough fight but maybe more doable. What would make it succeed? A chase sequence where Eustace and Hitomi have to bail out and double back works for me.

We'll set the Need at 9. Initial speed is at 1 because presumably the guards will be in similar vehicles. It will take some reckless action to get a good race up. For the most part we are looking at Critical, Critical. Genny will have to drive which puts it against his Nerves. Once they hit 9, they have enough of a lead to leap off and hide.

Date Played: March 2, 2025.

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A Wild Genny Chase.

Date: Sunday, June 2, 1996.

Time: 2:50am.

Place: The Gates to Magnus's Shrine.

"Ok," says Genny, "UNESCO should definitely sue." [3]

"Layers within layers of random religions woven to appeal to the sort of hippie hopeful that might be trapped in The GLOW," Eustace says. The gates to the shrine at the very heart of the Knives compound is clearly meant to evoke Indian sub-continent vibes. Pillars with carvings of men and women lead to a door meant to look like old stone but no doubt something more secure. A glowing light next to it suggests that all the lotus and elephant motifs are just hiding something a lot more high tech. Eustace can see the seeping Soulburn at the door's edges. Which is a surprise. Apparently the inner temple has been hiding a surprise from all the anti-Soulburn parishioners.

The main problem is that the gate into the shrine is full of guards in the same black camo as earlier. Magnus's non-believing guns for hire. There are at least a dozen or more. Smoking, laughing. The body of a few white robed Knives are stacked up near one of the pillars. All riddled with bullets and now discarded. Apparently Magnus has dropped the charade and any Knives that came here for refuge were given very strict leave-or-eat-bullets orders.

Sitting on a small central altar where no doubt Magnus himself stands to give his bullshit sermons is a big man with a bald head and a sturdy axe. He has a headset on and seems to be the one coordinating some kind of clean up based on the bits of speech that drift across. The time until Magnus bails and leaves the Knives behind is fast approaching.

"Can you take that many?," Genny asks Eustace.

"I'd rather not find out. Mochi, plans?"

Hitomi looks back at the armored cart she has rigged. "We do a quick drive by and start shooting, get as many as possible to give chase. See, on the side, two more of these carts. At some point you and I bail out and get back here."

"Genny?"

"Be the rabbit to lead the foxes away? Maybe a little payback for the beating I took earlier? I'm game to try. If I get shot, though, you need to apologize to my wife."

At the word "foxes," Eustace has winced but as far as plans go its possibly the best they have. If the shrine is actually full of Soulburn he can be a lot more effective once they are inside. Right now he is just a pair of blades attached to a man with a migraine.

They get into the vehicle and hit the ignition. The whine of the electric motor kicks back up. There's some gas power that can be turned on to increase the speed but once they do it will make a lot of noise. [4]

The trio drive in clear view of the guards as Hitomi opens fire. One of the women who had been close to Axeman the Barbarian drops. Genny whips the cart back away as Eustace shouts about needing to get back to the others. His attempt to conjure fear of some helpful horde does little to shake any of the confidence of the group, though, as they return fire and take to carts of their own. [5]

Genny swerves around a tree to avoid the worst of the gunfire while Eustace and Hitomi do their best to hold on and avoid taking a bullet in the back. The cart's armor holds off several of the shots but now that several of the guards on other carts and coming after them, it might not be long before their ride is wrecked. [6]

Genny directs the cart across a field and down a slope. Cover is sparse but it's easier to maneuver and build up speed when early season vegetation is your prime obstacle. Hitomi takes aim and shoots the driver of the cart directly behind them. While the dark-skinned man falls over and the cart slides out of control, the other cart speeds up and tries to come around on the side. The stopped cart's driver is pushed out and a blonde woman and the world's angriest face takes his place and rejoins the chase. [7]

The second cart shoves in and tries to ram their cart along the side. Genny shouts and pulls hard to the left while Hitomi and Eustace are both slammed around in the back. Genny whips back to the right in time to avoid spinning out and again keeps just slightly in front of the two chasers. [8]

Eustace leaps forward to start helping Genny find a path through the dark landscape. "THERE!," Eustace shouts, pointing towards a group of buildings. A farm house with equipment, silos, and a large feeding area is front of them. Hitomi squeezes off a few more shots at the cart behind them but none of them manage to land as she ejects her mag and starts reloading. [9]

The cart behind them returns fire. However, Genny is now cutting right in front of the cart that has been keeping up beside them so the shots tear through their cart instead. Several of the guards on that are forced to duck down and lose control. Blood is dripping down Eustace's arm but he manages to hang on and keep an eye out on the terrain around them, looking for opportunities. [10]

"Get me CLOSER to them!," Eustace shouts as Genny slams on brakes and whips back around a silo used to store grain. The cart is moving at a high rate of speed as it swerves with a meter of the completely caught by surprised cart driven by the blonde woman. They are even more surprised as Eustace jumps up out of Genny's cart and lands on top, blades slicing through the roof and cutting through the driver's head and scattering the other two that are inside. As the cart crashes into the side of the silo, Eustace is rolling away and down into the shadows where he is hidden. Hitomi has finished reloading and getting ready to dive off herself. [11]

To get into place for Hitomi to exit, Genny whips through a large open building designed to feed animals. Taking the cart on two wheels to slam into a 90° turn, Genny masterfully handles the speed as the cart flies past a series of troughs. Hitomi taps him twice on the shoulder and leaps off into a pile of hay in one of the troughs. As the cart chasing them enters into the building — sparks shooting off their side as they cut it a little close — Hitomi buries herself down into the straw and hears the other cart go past. She wishes Genny luck as she leaps out and trots back to the silo to meet up with Eustace. [12]

By the time she catches back up, Eustace is moving bodies out of the other cart and looking it over. He pulls it back from the silo and pulls a few wires. After a second, the heavily damaged vehicle is restarted and the two head back to the gates. [13]

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Setting the Scene. Axe vs Sword.

Date: Sunday, June 2, 1996.

Time: 3:06am.

Place: The Gates to Magnus's Shrine.

Expected Scene: Eustace challenges the leader.

Scene Test: [c33] 7. 2d10 = 10 + 9. A major complication. There's an image of Canopic Jars. [c31] An airlock cycles.

Actual Scene: As Eustace and Hitomi gets back, the airlock has been opened and the axe-wielder is now using Soulburn to power up his fighting. The others have retreated inside to help guard the courtyard.

Rather than be another "goons vs heroes" fight, this will be two Soulburn wielding people fighting it out. Let's build our axe-man.

Leon Larken. Specialist in close fighting. Boss Template 1. Attack: Extreme. Defense: Critical. 6 Grit. Hot boxes on 2, 4, and 6. Feats: Sharp Blades, Heavy Handed, Fighter, Relentless. Special Actions: Parry, Counter, To the End.

Eustace and Hitomi are both going to have +2 Adrenaline from the last couple of scenes but it will be rough.

Date Played: March 2, 2025.

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Axe vs Sword.

Date: Sunday, June 2, 1996.

Time: 3:06am.

Place: The Gates to Magnus's Shrine.

As Eustace and Hitomi approach the gates, the only guard left is Axeman the Barbarian. His subordinates, the ones not pulled off in the wild chase, have gone. For a lot of people, this would be a clear sign to not approach any further. Before Eustace and Hitomi have come clearly into view in the faint light, Axeman is already pulling off his headset and readying his axe. 

Eustace notes that the door is now open and Soulburn is pouring out into compound. As the axe-wielder looks at Eustace, the man's eyes seem to glow. He is clearly using some psychic powers to aid him.

Eustace scans around for anything to use as an advantage. The man's weakness stands out. He is all brawn. He doesn't know how to strategize but instead will rely on pushing through the fight. [14]

Eustace does not even shout as he runs to meet the man head on. Throws one blade up and to the left and as the guard is smirking and bringing his axe to block it, Eustace swings his right arm and cuts the man through the stomach into the chest. The man, the same size as Eustace, is caught completely off-guard and shifts gears to bring the axe down heavy on Eustace's right arm blade to block it from splitting him open entirely. Blood explodes up and out as Eustace dives over to the side. Hitomi shoots at the large man but the Soulburn has given him enough of an edge that even heavily injured he is able to move out of the shots with surprising speed. Hitomi curses and pulls out another mag and slams it into place. [15]

The heavily bleeding man charges and swings wildly at Eustace who manages to parry back against the worst of the blows. Still, it is clear his assailant hits like a truck and every blocked swing still drives Eustace back. [16]

As soon as Eustace gets an opening he kicks the man in his heavily injured stomach and knocks him back. Right as the axe-wielder looks up with fury in his eyes, his head explodes. Hitomi has walked up and shot him. [17]

Eustace grabs up the guard's axe and the two of them run into the open door. [18]

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Setting the Scene. The Battle of the Courtyard.

Date: Sunday, June 2, 1996.

Time: 3:11am.

Place: The Courtyard in the Shrine.

Expected Scene: Eustace and Hitomi enter the courtyard and fight the remaining guards trying to get to Magnus before he can escape.

Scene Test: [c61] 3. 2d10 = 1 + 5. Minor complication. "Bent light of active camo." The guards camo allows them to hide in the bushes.

Actual Scene: The guards aren't as tough as the one outside, but they are harder to hit.

Eustace has taken a right beating. We'll have Genny show up during this scene but not at start. Eustace will need to try and take as little damage as possible. In fact, I am going to spend Eustace's Spotlight to allow the "change a rule" and give him a chance at some self-repair. He will be still Hurt but will maybe get some Grit back so they don't have to abandon the mission.

As for the remaining Guards, we'll have them use an odd combo of the Strike Force sample but reverse their damage and defense. We'll also trim back their Grit slightly to 6. 6 Grit, Hotboxes on 2 and 4. Attack Critical, Defense 2xCritical. Feats: Automatic Weapons, Bulletproof Vests, and Tactics. Special Moves: Counter, Flashbang!, Surround, and Disappear.

Date Played: March 2, 2025.

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The Battle of the Courtyard.

Date: Sunday, June 2, 1996.

Time: 3:11am.

Place: The Courtyard in the Shrine.

Eustace sits on a bench and uses the rest of the medical equipment they snagged earlier from the storehouse to treat his many wounds. After a bit, he still looks pretty hurt but at least he doesn't feel the pain so much and has staunched the bleeding. [19]

The courtyard is a large, gardened area with several pillars, benches, and fountains. Above them, several meters over their head, a sturdy glass ceiling helps to keep the Soulburn contained. The decor in here is much more Italian villa than ancient Buddhist temple. The faux religious trappings are less important when the Knives cannot see. The interior is all about money. A bit of a glimpse into the inner workings of Magnus's mind. The plants are several exotic varietals and their shapes and colors are strange and warped as they flow in a breeze that only they can feel. Mages have clearly changed their taxonomy into something unique. Plants that breathe Soulburn.

Eustace and Hitomi get up and move through the dense fauna and try scooting along the edge of the courtyard when gunfire rips out. Eustace flings himself behind a large plant filled with some cosmic horror version of azalea bushes. Hitomi gets down behind a stone bench as chips break off. [20]

"Where the fuck are they coming from?," Hitomi hisses as soon as the gunfire lets up. She thinks she sees a shape moving and opens fire with her assault rifle but fails to find any targets. Eustace reaches around with his mind to try and find any sort of opening and his mental focus pulls towards a large metal tank over to one side of the courtyard. It is full of Soulburn and if it could be released, he could channel it into a weapon. For the moment, though, he dives over a fountain to where he thinks the gunfire came from but finds no one, there. [21]

He sends a quick message to Hitomi about the tank as another burst of gunfire sends him diving into the water fountain. She tries sprinting towards the tank but has to duck to try and avoid getting hit. [22]

He is immediately back up and moving towards the bullets. He finds a shooter masked by their suit to blend in with the many strange plants. This explains the black camo. Soulburn powered camo. He brings both blades down through plants and person alike. Hearing a slight sound behind him he swings back without even trying to look. A gasp as another camo'd gunner's head flies off and comes into view. He is already moving before it hits the ground, diving behind a heavy pillar. Hitomi takes off running for the tank and shoots to where she thinks she hears motion. Emptying out an entire magazine, she is satisfied to hear a grunt as another enemy goes down. [23]

The enemies start unloading their own guns and Eustace and Hitomi are pinned down. There is no good way to move. Anytime they try and get free, another unseen gunner starts targeting their area. The guards tightening the noose. A shout for the door takes some of the pressure off. 

Genny says, "I figured you could use some help and starts squeezing off shots into the undergrowth to try and buy up some time. [24]

The hidden guards take shots at Genny, who ducks back behind the doorway, and Eustace is able to move fast and target their locations. Within a few seconds, the gunfire dies down as the other three are dead as well. 

Not long after, a loud roar rips through the courtyard as the Soulburn tank blows out the side of the wall. "Shoot the glass!," Eustace shouts. Her and Genny start shooting out bits of the glass above and Eustace and Hitomi due their best to avoid any fallen shards raining down on the courtyard. The thick Soulburn starts to dissipate. [25]

Eustace slides his blades together to get the blood off of them. "There's another tank this way, come on." It is not long before Hitomi is set it to explode as well. The spiritual pressure in the courtyard is greatly depleted and already some of the plants are starting to lose their luster. [26]

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Setting the Scene. Chaos in the Compound.

Date: Sunday, June 2, 1996.

Time: 3:25am.

Place: The Inner Sanctum which is really just a business office running the Knives' true purpose: crime and finance.

Expected Scene: The trio have to make their way through offices to find Magnus.

Scene Test: [c41] 8. 2d10 = 10 + 6. Another minor complication which, on the general feels amazing how many we get. In this case, "Wageslaves revolt" seems to be fun and a rare "positive twist" in this series.

Actual Scene: As they move through the Inner Sanctum, many of the folks working behind the scenes are actively fleeing the space.

Sometimes the "always be action" aspects of Outgunned clash with my tendency to dawdle with lore and character interactions — with action taking a hard backseat in many of my solo efforts, being summed up in a few sentences — and so to counter that want to take a moment to establish some scene cues. Elements to pull upon when I try and get into scene mode.

The same overblown intensity of architecture that the outer sanctum and courtyard had. Massive pillars. Works of art on the walls. Large spaces. Not quite Brazil (the movie, not the country) levels of great vast areas inside of offices but something that could be like that. But also brown brick, golden, marble. Bright desks. Computers. Thoroughly modern — even more so than 1996 standards — and human-friendly, but ostentatious all the same. A display of money and decor. Something that might make more sense in a reclaimed church or older building being renovated but this is built brick by brick to establish Magnus in power. A couple of dozen people who essentially live in this structure and take some tunnel outside, who have only windows into the courtyard.

And currently most of these wage workers — even, if not especially the ones with some mystic ability — are fleeing. Eustace and Hitomi have punched through their guards, through their angel drones, has destroyed their control over Soulburn. The more and more Soulburn that Eustace absorbs, they more he looks like a crow. They more they see the lines dancing through Hitomi. The more they can feel the fox-faced psychics watching over Eustace approaching, especially now that Soulburn is pouring into the compound.

We have been through a few hard fights already so this scene is more about just building up things.

Date Played: March 4, 2025.

---

Chaos in the Compound.

Date: Sunday, June 2, 1996.

Time: 3:25am.

Place: The Inner Sanctum which is really just a business office running the Knives' true purpose: crime and finance.

Genny collides full on with a young man in a DEPTH CHARGE t-shirt carrying a box of papers. "Watch it, asshole," Genny shouts, pulling out his gun and taking aim. Eustace grabs his arm. Gives DEPTH CHARGE a chance to run. Points out the handful of other people scattering with folders and boxes and trying to find exits. Especially now that the main exit was just blocked by three armed and bloodied people walking in. Most of them are pretty young and look terrified. One has a hammer and is smashing up computers but upon seeing Eustace watching him, takes the hammer and smashes through a window and starts crawling through. Another man starts to follow.

"These are just workers. Folks caught up in it, we have bigger fish to fry. Looks like most of the people of power have already left. Or, just aren't here this time of night." As Eustace is saying this, a woman in a long earth-tone-rainbow colored robe walks around corner and then lets out a scream and backs away from Eustace, pointing in his general direction. "Ah, the workers and the psychics." She is already running quickly past a desk with a bright lamp. One of many in this huge space. The damage done to try and bury evidence is massive but clearly only half done.

"It's like a cathedral," Hitomi says, taking in the large pillars and the odd stained glass motif. More oceanic than heavenly. Full of teeth and fins and claws.

Eustace, back in Soulburn, tries accessing the threads constantly flowing around in the air. "This place was a state park just 10 years ago. That means this is all built to look decadent and ancient. Magnus is a weird dude." [27]

"Plenty of weird dudes can't afford to build something on this scale," Genny points out. He has moved over to one of the many desk and is looking at the print outs. "There are financial statements from all over. At least a couple of local banks. Several very much so not local."

Hitomi walks over to one of the terminals. Plugs in one of her laptops and clacks away at the keyboard before sighing after a moment. "I can get in, but it might take a moment." [28]

Eustace grabs a young woman with purple hair out from under one of the desks where she thought she was hiding. "Magnus. NOW." She yelps and piss flows down her pants. Eustace nearly feels bad except he knows that these office workers are partially responsible for the subjugation of a number of people their own age and plan to spread it even further. He shakes her again and she points to a door at the end of a hall and says, "He's....the tunnel..." [29]

"And why aren't you going into the tunnel?"

"Shoot...shoot...us."

Eustace sets her down gently and points to the door back into the courtyard. The woman runs off. She is the last visible worker in the area. Presumably there is a larger day staff but they are elsewhere right now. Which Eustace points out that the Genny, Hitomi, and himself need to be as well.

Hitomi taps some more keys and the screen of her laptop goes bright red. "I set it to punch through the system, upload it to my off-shore data bank. If anyone touches it, it will burn itself." She wipes it down for finger prints. Eustace walks over and pulls the Soulburn off of it. Crushes it in his hands. Hiding their tracks as best they can. [30]

After that the group runs through the room to the hall that was pointed out. At the end of it is set of stairs into a mezzanine and they follow it up.

---

Setting the Scene. The Inner Lair.

Date: Sunday, June 2, 1996.

Time: 3:40am.

Place: The main office of Magnus Odinson.

Expected Scene: A few guards are left behind to protect the tunnels while Magnus gets away.

Scene Test: [c82] 4. 2d10 = 4 + 5. Wouldn't you know it, a minor complication. There's a picture of a secret door and "Isolate Slovenly Work".

Actual Scene: Guards are in the room, but relatively simple ones. They have sealed the tunnel but have not done a great job.

We'll just make these guys some advanced cannon fodder. 2xBasic/Basic/9. Finding the door will take some examination.

Date Played: March 4, 2025.

---

The Inner Lair.

Date: Sunday, June 2, 1996.

Time: 3:40am.

Place: The main office of Magnus Odinson.

As Eustace pushes open the left side of the double door, gunshots ring out and smash through the wood. This place might be a sham but Magnus likes his mahogany and marble. Each bullet just cost their boss a hundred dollars. Eustace has pulled back behind the right with Genny and Hitomi pulling out their guns and taking up position. Eustace tries to get a read on the situation but can't focus on how many gunners there are. "More than one, maybe." [31]

"Good job, Mr. Psychic Weapon," Hitomi sasses before running through the door and taking a shot at the first person she sees. As a bearded man in black camo goes down she is already turning to fire at a person behind her and takes that person as well. Eustace walks in behind her and shoves outward with all the excess Soulburn the place has built up, using himself and Hitomi as a calm center. The air crackles and then explodes outward as the rest of the guards are slammed back at force against the walls. One of the large globe lights shatters and rains down shards of glass into the room. A few seconds later the immense psychic pressure drops and the broken bodies drop down like rag dolls. Some have been punched through like anatomically correct water balloons. [32]

Genny walks in after him, looking like he is weighing in on running or maybe even trying a lucky shot against Eustace. Instead, he holsters his pistol — well, since he has no holster, just shoves it into his pocket with the safety on — and shrugs. "Just glad I can help."

Hitomi starts searching the room. It combines the general shape of a bishops office with minimalist decor. A desk joined the people in the room being smashed. A chair with it. A few paintings are now blood splattered. Besides that, it is mostly empty. The impression of an office for a man who clearly does much of his work elsewhere. Windows, cracked, show more of the courtyard outside. From those same windows they can hear MUNI 'copters flying overhead, low enough to land. Speed is very much of the essence.

They scramble around the room, trying to find anything that shouts "tunnel" when Hitomi shouts "AH." Walks over to one of the blood spattered painting, this one depicting the body of Christ in the tomb, and snatches it down. "For the son of a bitch is risen. I am going to enjoy shooting the self-important replica loving bastard." Behind it is a panel that she deftly works at until it goes green and the center a panel on a wall next to where the painting was — a panel covered in brains from one of the black camo'd guards who just found out why you don't mess with the Order — slides back. "Open Sesame." [33]

---

Setting the Scene. Upstairs || Downstairs.

Date: Sunday, June 2, 1996.

Time: 3:50am.

Place: Approaching the bottom floor and the entrance to the compound's secret tunnel.

Expected Scene: The trio are reaching the bottom floor of the multi-story stair well which will lead them into the tunnel to leave the compound.

Scene Test: [c72] 4. 2d10 = 4 + 9. Amazing. Shocking! Another minor complication. It's minor so rather than go with any prompts on the card, we'll just say that some guards are left behind and Magnus is getting away. They have some turns to catch up (before Magnus hits the main road) and the combat eats into that.

Actual Scene: Guards are shooting back.

Speed starts at -1 (essentially). 8 turns before Magnus hits the end of the tunnel. 12 need. If they are not past 6 mark on their Need track by turn 8, they are in danger of losing him.

Guards will be Crit/Crit/9.

Date Played: March 6, 2025.

---

Upstairs || Downstairs.

Date: Sunday, June 2, 1996.

Time: 3:50am.

Place: Approaching the bottom floor and the entrance to the compound's secret tunnel.

They have been running down the stairs for five floors. Five floors of gray concrete and plain swept steps. Almost indistinguishable from any corporate office's stairwell at this point. The many faces of Magnus Odinson. AgroHippie Compound becomes Eastern Copy Cat spirituality becomes Overblown Splendor becomes Drowning in Civil Engineering. Too few witnesses to impress, most likely.

With the bottom floor in sight, Eustace hisses a warning in time for the group go on the defensive as more guards below them open fire. Bullets slamming into cement and into the metal. Eustace leaps over the edge and lands the floor below, a half-set of steps before the bottom, and slices through a guard. As another new Eustace takes bead on the large man, Hitomi opens fire with her assault rifle. That guard topples as well, more are running up the stairs and Hitomi starts plugging them. [34]

Four more guards are running up the stairs and targeting Eustace and Hitomi. Eustace once again leaps over the railing and hits the floor, now below and hidden slightly from the gunners. These new opponents take only a moment to relocate their targets. Two turn and run back towards Eustace while the others empty mags into the stairs above. Even as Hitomi and Genny press themselves down and against the wall there are simply too many ricocheting bullets and shards of stone to avoid taking any hits. [35]

The two guards who have backtracked to find Eustace realize the error of their ways too late as double blades come out of the darkness of the stairwell underneath them and pierce both the man on the right and the guy slightly to the left and behind them in the heads. Which Eustace then slams together, dropping both. Back above, Hitomi and Genny pour bullets back towards the remaining two as they are reloading. Hitting empty on the assault rifle, Hitomi flings the gun down and then grabs herself and Genny and dives down to get more cover than last time. [36]

The guard on the stairs, seeing that his last remaining friend was dropped, starts advancing on the last known location of Hitomi and Genny. As he does, though, a blade comes up through the stairs at his feet and slice. He screams and falls back, his gun firing wildly as he does so. Hitomi and Genny have to keep themselves pressed down as the last the bullet echoes come to a close. Getting up and running down stairs, they see Eustace finishing off the man. [37]

All three are now running across the to the garage to which the stairs have been leading. They see the tail lights of another care in the distance which blink as the car goes around a corner. There are only two other cars left at this point. One is a heavier transport vehicle — dull and gray and well used but likely dependable — while the other is a sports car — red and sleek. Eustace runs back and starts pulling at the dead guards' pockets. Hitomi, realizing what he is doing runs over to help. Eventually, in the pockets of the man that Eustace cut down first, they fine a set of keys that seem to work and head back. To Genny's sadness, it is for the truck. [38]

With Hitomi behind the wheel, they speed off after the now gone car.

---

Setting the Scene. Chase through the Streets.

Date: Sunday, June 2, 1996.

Time: 3:55am.

Place: The tunnel between the compound and the streets under Maidenstead.

Expected Scene: They are chasing Magnus's car through the tunnel.

Scene Test: [c90] 6. 2d10 = 3 + 4. AN EXPECTED scene!? In THIS game? Holy cow.

Actual Scene: As expected.

This will start on turn 4. They have 4 turns to get within spotting distance. We'll start there.

Date Played: March 6, 2025.

---

Chase through the Streets.

Date: Sunday, June 2, 1996.

Time: 3:55am.

Place: The tunnel between the compound and the streets under Maidenstead.

Hitomi slams the clutch down and gets up a good amount of speed before the truck stutters and starts slowing down. "Fucking shit dammit!," she shouts and then manages to stabilize. The tunnels up ahead and lit by the headlights of the truck but so far they cannot see the car up ahead. Eustace tells her to kill the lights and he can help navigate. She looks at him for a few seconds for taking his urging.

Eustace leans forward and keeps a watch on the tunnel. To both Hitomi and Genny, it now doubt looks nearly pitch black. To Eustace, it is a swirl of color. As Hitomi starts to gather back up some more speed, Eustace notes faint light up ahead. Actual light. Not just the swirling Soulburn. A system designed to turn the overhead lights on as Magnus passes and then off after he is gone is a good indication they are getting close enough to him to see at least some indication of his passing. Eustace directs Hitomi to turn right. "No, more right. Wait, that's too much!" A loud tearing sound comes from the passenger side of the truck where Genny is sitting as Hitomi slams into the wall and loses even more speed.

"I really want to turn the lights on, Nurse," Hitomi says, barely concealed anxious anger in her voice.

"Trust me, we are getting very close. We'll be in light soon enough."

Without taking her eyes off the dim light in front of them as they approached the still active lights over head — another one going dark before they get to it, and then another, they are falling behind — she reaches into her pocket with her left hand and pulls one of the cigarettes she pilfered from the compound. Activating the truck's lighter, it ejects it's glowing red tube. She lights the cigarette, puffs hard a few times, and then leans forward and starts accelerating again, this time not missing the cues to shift gears. Soon enough, they are now fully in the light and she can see again. Which means she can see the wall in front of them start sliding shut. She glances around the cab and notices a small remote clipped to the sun visor. Hitting that, the wall stops closing and starts reopening. As she drives through that she glances left and right and spots the only other car on the road — well, a car with two motorcycles driving in front of it like escorting a VIP — and whips the truck in that direction, turning the headlights back on. [39]

As they fall in a quarter kilometer or so behind Magnus's car, Hitomi focuses on trying to keep up but also trying to drive in a way that it just seems like she is casually following, hoping that Magnus and his squad are expecting the guards to have followed. One of the bikes falls back to check them out but after a second goes forward again. She seems to have passed the test. [40]

As they are crossing over a complicated overpass junction where the freeway here dive off to cross the bay, head south to the new GLOW, or head north into Maidenstead, Hitomi guns it and charges forward. The truck smashes through one of the bikes and hits the back end of Magnus's car, driving into the guard rails on the side. It flips over and comes down hard on the roof and keeps sliding away. Other vehicles honk and swerve to get out of the violence. Eustace and Genny are thrown hard into the windshield, with Eustace's head smashing into the glass hard enough to crack it. Genny is squeezed up against the door and let's out a gasp. Still, he fairs better than Eustace and he and Hitomi are both out the door shooting before Magnus's car starts sliding. [41]

Hitomi and Genny first target the other guy on the bike before he can get his gun out. Then the driver of the car. Soon, it's just them and Magnus. Other cars on the free way are avoiding the situation. Like the saying goes, no one sees anything in The GLOW. [42]

Finally, Magnus crawls out. Lifts his hands up. No threat. No intimidation. Just an older black man still dressed in his compound attire. Likely caught there late when stuff started going sidewise and stuck around assuming he could push through. 

Hemp shirt. Beads. Looks more like a man that might run a herbal remedy shop than a person orchestrating the destruction of multiple lives. A grandfatherly looking fellow. No doubt his down-to-earth appearance was part of the fanatical following. For a person who caused so much pain, he certainly looks trustworthy.

"I can pay you...," he starts to say, defaulting to his wealth and the power he just spent the last twelve hours losing. Hitomi just shakes her head and waves of tiredness wash over her. This man has hurt a lot of people. Including Juan. All the suffering. Anastasia. Dozens of others. Hundreds of others. How many corpses around The GLOW due directly to this man? And yet, face to face with him, she is suddenly exhausted. She wants to know if Mrs. Yuuki pulled through. Wants to check in on Bee. Wants to find out if Anastasia made it. Just wants to crawl in bed with Eustace and spend 24-hours healing up.

Magnus starts to smile. He clearly thinks that these two would-be assassins might be bribed despite everything they have witnessed. Then his smile fades.

Eustace is walking up. Bleeding from the forehead. Covered in cuts and bruises. Eustace looks down at Magnus, such a small man to cause so much trouble. "You. You were going to topple the Order?"

"Ah, it was just business, you know? I was being paid very urk..."

Magnus is silenced, for good, as Eustace picks him up and throws him over the edge of the overpass. Cars below start honking furiously.

---

DOUG'S COMMENTARY

March 7, 2025

This was my experiment of trying out "once per week" posting and it was ok. I played the first four scenes of this in essentially a 3ish hour burst. Then, there were two bursts of the other four scenes. The end result is something that feels more like what an actual multiplayer TTRPG session would have, while still allowing me shorter solo play sessions to make up for the lack of downtime. All the same, it just feels a bit odd to have a post this long. Over 40 mechanical footnotes. I think 10 images included?

Some of it was the action-heavy aspect. I definitely play better when I have a chance to stew a bit. I think I need a week where I do not dedicate every single scene to some sort of combat or conflict to get a good feeling about whether this longer semi-sustained posting schedule is better than 2-3 shorter posts where each one represents a session.

The biggest benefit I have had is that I can usually take a whole day to come back to a session and then do some pretty substantial up-cycling. By this I mean I keep the general action and all the dice rolls but I go through and add more details. I usually have a fairly complete scene in my mind and it can be hard to get everything down without completely losing or burying the game. This style, where I am not having to essentially constantly play and post to have enough content to keep stuff flowing, gives me some extra time to have a few extra scenes but also to try and make some scenes better. I do not think I quite hit that fully, here, but there are a lot of little additions that I had the chance to work on. More time to work on certain interactions. Etc.

Another pootential benefit would be the inclusion of proper one-shots where the "one" means "one week." I am slightly itching for one now to show some behind the scenes aspects, so to speak. Stuff going on that does not involve Eustace or Hitomi.

Overall, outside of the debate of the one-per-week vs 2+-per-week, this was a fairly exhausting post to play/write. Since the scene with Genny getting captured and the flashback to Anastasia, it has been pretty a constant run. There was the "timeout" to handle the Turning Point nature of it and then we had something like twelve scenes in a row in which a gun fight, chase, or similar conflict was happening — with me even adding in to option non-combat conflicts. I guess the scene in the offices this time wasn't really a conflict. That one might have gone differently had we gotten there sooner. Guards shooting around office drones. I just needed a break from rolling some dice, essentially.

My favorite fight was the camoflaged guards in the courtyard. There is a thing in this campaign where no matter how much damage an enemy can put out — and quite a few have put out a lot — they seem to die in just a few turns. Having enemies that were more resistant to dying than they were actually good at doing damage was a nice spin.

Up next will be a timeout as Eustace and Hitomi try to patch up and Genny gets paid. We'll also figure out how much money was obtained. And then it seems like a good time to deal with Dave Akari and the Apostates, possibly. I wondered about dealing with the law and fall out but ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...

Oh, bonus fact. There is a guy in the offices who is wearing a DEPTH CHARGE t-shirt. I wrote those words because I just needed a band name to include that might make sense in context to the characters but not necessarily the readers. I decided to look it up and found out about Depth Charge's Nine Deadly Venoms which very well could have been in circulation in The GLOW in 1996 so there you go. Just imagine that album cover or artwork was on the t-shirt. Or make up a band. That's fine with me, too.

MECHANICAL AND STORY NOTES

1. Healing Genny is Critical on Focus + Healing. -1 due to Distracted. +1 for there being supplies. 6 dice. Eustace gets a 2xBasic after a reroll so pushes All In and gets a 2xCritical. Genny is back up to all 3 grit.
2. Criminal + Fix. 6 dice. Even without a reroll gets a Critical + Basic. Cart will be Armor 3 and Speed 0.
3. I went looking for an actual UNESCO site to show how Magnus just borrows stuff in his mishmash religion. See https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/243/.
4. Is the cart electric? (Even) → [c106] Yes? It is mostly electric but has gas power for an added burst.
5. Genny only gets a Basic so speed is maintained at 1. Hitomi gets (Nerves + Shoot) Crit + Basic. Eustace gets (Smooth + Speech) no successes. Need = 1/9.
6. Genny gets the Critical to avoid the worst of the gunfire. Eustace gets only a Basic and takes 2 Grit. Hitomi gets 2xBasic and takes 1 Grit.
7. Genny gets a 2xBasic so enough to maintain speed while Hitomi manages a Crit+Basic shot. They are wearing the chases down a bit. Need = 2/9.
8. Genny gets the Critical to avoid the ramming. Eustace and Hitomi take 2 and 1 Grit respectively.
9. With Eustaces +1 Help, Genny gets up to a Crit + Basic. Speed is now 2. Hitomi does not land a shot but only gets double basic. Enough that it will reduce the difficulty to Basic but she also has to reload. Need = 4/9.
10. Eustace takes 2 more Grit, poor guy. Genny gets an Extreme so next turn he'll have +2 Help as the other cart recoups. Hitomi manages to avoid losing any Grit.
11. Genny with the +2 gets Extreme + Crit. Eustace rolling Brawn + Fight and using the extra Crit to close the distance leaps off and comes down with 2xCrit + Basic. He chops up the cart closest to them and has enough to roll back behind the silo to hide from the third cart. Hitomi spends this round reloading and gets ready to leap off herself. Speed = 4 and Need = 8.
12. Genny gets an Extreme. Like last time this will give enough left over to avoid Hitomi having to roll. Well, not literally since she's about to ROLL, get it?! Don't need to play out the next action turn since the Need will fill, so instead will do Hitomi in a Gamble vs Critical: Nerves + Stunt. She gets Crit + Basic and makes the action, getting down behind a trough as the third cart chases after Genny.
13. Is the other cart salvageable? (Bad) → [c113] Yes? Focus + Fix -1 nets Eustace a Critical. He gets up and running enough that they can ride it back to the gates.
14. Spends one Adrenaline to use his mind powers to search for weakspots. 3,5 = Enemies aren't sharp [can be attacked with Focus + Know + 1] or 4,4 Enemy hasn't really noticed you. I like the first one.
15. Focus + Know + 1 + 2 for using his Cyber Arms (Adrenaline) + 1 for blades -1 for Leon's Feats = ludicrously, without rerolling, an Impossible + 2xBasic. Hmmm. Leon is immediately forced to spend his 3 adrenaline action of To the End and has 2 Grit left. Eustace has two Quick actions so he can move out of the way to give Hitomi a clear shot. She doesn't make a hit, though, and has lost another mag.
16. Brawn + Fight nets Eustace two Criticals which absorbs 6 of the 9 damage.
17. This time Eustace only gets 3xBasic = 1xCritical. Leon still has 1 Grit left. Hitomi, though, gets a Critical and finishes the guy off without shooting Eustace.
18. Does Leon have any mags on him compatible with Hitomi's gun? (Bad) → [c63] NO! No, he is very much about choppy chop.
19. Eustace will spend a Spotlight for a chance to heal up. Know + Healing + 1 Help due to the equipment they snagged earlier. He only gets Critical + 2xBasic. He will heal 5 Grit. He still has the Hurt condition though. He does win the coin flip and keeps his Spotlight.
20. Neither Eustace nor Hitomi make their stealth rolls. Eustace gets a Critical to avoid being shot. Hitomi gets 2xBasic and takes 1 Grit.
21. Hitomi does not get any hits and loses another mag. Eustace spends an Andrenaline to sense weakness as his quick action. Weakness = 1,1 enemy has a portentious weapon. 4,3 enemy has some explosives. The latter seems to be the most fun. Eustace also fails to get any damage on the enemies, though.
22. Eustace gets 2xBasic and takes 1 Grit. Hitomi makes Critical and avoids getting shot.
23. Eustace spends Adrenaline for +2 and goes All In for another +1. Gets Extreme + Critical + Basic. That's two Grit gone and enough to take a quick action to get into full cover. Hitomi shoots while moving. She emptys an entire mag for +1. She gets Double Crit for 1 more Grit. That's 3 down.
24. Eustace is in full cover. Hitomi makes the Critical + Basic so is able to keep moving a bit. Enemies trigger Surround which means E+H take 1 Grit to use their Quick Action. We'll say Genny shows up here.
25. Eustace once again uses Adrenaline and goes All In. Actually goes All In in both ways and comes out with Extreme + Critical. This does the last two Grit of the enemy. Hitomi fails her Crime + Dex roll but spends a Spotlight to active the tanks explosion. She gets her Spotlight back. Both her and Eustace make their Brawn + Stunt roll to avoid taking damage from fallen glass.
26. Eustace makes his Focus + Awareness roll to detect the other tank. This time Hitomi gets an Extreme and sets it to blow just fine.
27. Ah, why not. Focus + Know. Gets a Critical + Basic.
28. Does the area still have a terminal Hitomi can hack into? (Good) → [c58] Yes. However, she only gets 2xBasic. Enough to see a path, not enough to do it hurriedly.
29. Brawn + Speech + 1 Help due to the obvious threat. Gets a Critical. Now, does she know about the secret tunnel? (Even) → [c37] Yes.
30. Same as before but she gets another +1 for sacrificing her laptop. This time gets Double Crit + Basic. She'll get the data and has enough left over to hide her tracks. Eustace is just showing off.
31. I don't think he has ever gotten a good roll but Focus + Awareness only nets a Basic.
32. Hitomi only gets 2xBasic for 2/9 Grit. Eustace spends Adrenaline to use Focus + Know to shove hard. Extreme (9 Basic damage) + Basic. He's out of Adrenaline for now but it looks cool, right?
33. Crime + Awareness + 2 Help for all three working together. Gets a Critical + 2xBasic. The painting, by the way, is The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb by Hans Holbein the Younger if want to look that joyous image up.
34. Eustace succeeds in a danger sense roll for maybe the second time in the whole campaign. He only gets a critical when attacking though, which knocks the guards down to 8 Grit. With the emptying of a mag and +1 Help from Genny, Hitomi does better: Extreme + Basic. That knocks them down to 5 grit and she has time to reload.
35. Would leaping over the railing be a gamble at this height? (Even) → [61] Yes? Ok. We'll not treat the "dodge" as a gamble, but make him do a second Brawn + Stunt which will be a Gamble. Needs just Basic to land, though. He gets the dodge for the bullets and makes the landing, but takes 1 Grit from snake eyes. Hitomi fails her React entirely and takes 3 full Grit damage. Genny will take 1 since Hitomi so completely failed.
36. Eustace gets 2xCrit and drops both on him. Hitomi only gets a single Crit but 2xBasic. In order to do this she emptied her last mag for the assault rifle and 'burned it up' to get another +1 as she throws it at the guards. It's silly, but I like it.
37. Since there's no way the guard could aim at Eustace and Hitomi, I chose Eustace's reaction to just attack. He gets a critical. Rules, scmules. To keep cinematic, though, we have the classic gun shooting wildly while falling down stairs. Hitomi gets double basic and takes 1 Grit.
38. To determine the cars still left will roll 6d6. Each at -4. Speeds of 0 or less means 'no car'. Get only 2 possible vehicles. Speed of 1 and Speed of 2. Do the guards have the keys to one of the cars? (Good) → [c19] Yes. Which one {truck | car | both} → Truck. Eustace whiffs but Hitomi gets her Crime + Detect.
39. Turn 4: Gets Crit + Basic. Speed 2. Need = 2. Turn 5. Fails to get even a Basic. Drops to speed 1. Need = 3. Turn 6: Double Basic. Speed = 1. Need = 4. Turn 7. Speed drops to 0. Need = 4. Turn 8: Spends Spotlight to get Speed up to 2. Need = 6. Coinflip loses the Spotlight.
40. She gets a Critical on Nerves + Driving. For Reaction, they are trying to play it cool. Crime + Cool for her. She gets a Critical so her driving is matching expected and in the dark it will be hard to tell who is inside. Speed = 4. Need = 10/12. Next turn they will make it so will do a ramming maneuver.
41. She's going to sacrifice the truck for +1 Help. Gets Critical. Eustace needs to get a Critical Brawn + Stunt -1 to avoid taking damage. He fails. This means he is up to 8 Grit taking and takes a second 'Hurt' which we will call 'Smashed'. Genny is back down to just 1 Grit.
42. She gets Extreme on Nerves + Shoot + 1 (Genny). This is enough to completely lock down the situation.

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

Magnus Odinson is from this awesome photo by Natalia Bluth. The man is gorgeous and apologies to the OG model for me turning him into a crafty maniacal scientist.

The Gates of the Fallen Star is actually the Ellora Caves.

The barn-building scene for setting up the chase: Photo by Randy Fath on Unsplash.

The Courtyard: Photo by Nicolas Lysandrou on Unsplash.

Inner Sanctum: Photo by Crew on Unsplash.

Magnus's lair: Photo by Gioia M. on Unsplash.

Stairwell Down: Photo by Arisa Chattasa on Unsplash.

The Tunnel: This photo.

The overpass: Photo by Tom Barrett on Unsplash.

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Taxonomy and Technical Data

• World: The GLOW
• Campaign: The GLOW
• Arc: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont
• Post: Episode 8 - Odin's Favorite Son

Dates Played: March 2-7, 2025.

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

Hide Prep Phases

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• "Previously..." and Campaign/Arc Summary
• The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont Episode 7 - Finding Genny
• Assault on South Tower
• The Fall of Jericho
• Finding Genny
• Doug's Commentary
• Mechanical and Story Notes
• Credits
• Taxonomy and Technical Data

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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.

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The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont. Episode 7 - Finding Genny

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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.

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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."

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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.

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The Fall of Jericho.

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.

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.

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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.

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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.

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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

1. Is this tech exactly in line with what Dave Akari took from Hitomi? (Even) → [c90] Yes.
2. Crime + Fix. Double Critical. System takes 2 Grit damage.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. Would they have where Genny is in the system? (Bad) → [c66] NO! The system isn't used for that kind of system at all.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. Did any of hte Knives survive? (Bad) → [c80] No.
9. Are there guards around the building? (Good) → [c108] NO!
10. 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.
11. Can Genny still fight? (Even) → [c10] No. Does Genny need immediate medical attention? (Even) → [c116] No.
12. Did Genny hear anything about where Magnus might be? (Even) → [c120] No.
13. 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.
14. 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.

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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.

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Hide Prep Phases

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• "Previously..." and Campaign/Arc Summary
• The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont Episode 6 - Knives Out
• Drop Off, From Afar
• Two Hours Earlier
• Angelic Intervention
• Sharpening the Blades
• When Is a Wall a Door?
• Doug's Commentary
• Mechanical and Story Notes
• Credits
• Taxonomy and Technical Data

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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

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.

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The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont. Episode 6 - Knives Out

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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".

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Angelic Intervention.

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*.

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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.

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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...

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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."

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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

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. First roll, nothing. Second roll, he gets a double crit. He is now 4 Grit into the wall.
12. 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.
13. Even with a free reroll, she doesn't make a Focus + Streetwise.
14. 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.
15. Eustace gets Crit + 2x Basic and only takes one grit. Hitomi only gets 2x Basic and loses 4.
16. 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.
17. 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

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

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.

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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.

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