The Doug Alone

A man wanders through a liminal space with dice and dominos.

Contemplating the Anthology Film Format for Solo RPGs [with Fiasco 1st Edition]

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On September 20, 2025

In Solo Musings

Contemplating the Anthology Film Format for Solo RPGs [with Fiasco 1st Edition]

2025-09-19 Note: This was written around twenty days before it was posted. Setting up the internet around 10 days later and then getting sick caused it to be delayed by a good chunk of a month. I thought about going through and updating the text to reflect stuff that would have been true had it been posted when I finished, but ehhhh….

Getting Inspiration from Freaky Tales

Space Pilgrims, I am currently without internet on my main computer. I am not without internet. I can access it via my phone or via the cheaper travel laptop. I simply do not have internet access for the computer that is my main source of playing solo rpgs and just well, doing stuff in general. Turns out the wireless card is not working — it has possibly become disconnected in the move or just generally gave up — and the new geometry of the new house makes it questionable if I can get any sort of ethernet cord to it until I can mail order one or find a shop nearby that sells one. Instead of playing solo rpgs, I have been thinking about solo rpgs and sometimes it satisfies the same sort of energy.

Last night relative to writing this [August 30, 2025, I am currently unsure when I can get the ability to post it] I watched the recent anthology film Freaky Tales. I recommend. It has a bit of humor. A bit of romance. A bit of raunchy jokes. A fair amount of violence — my one complaint is how much violence against lovers, especially women, is a driving force — and a tinge of horror. It takes three events from around Oakland, CA in 1987 and highly fictionalizes them to add in a bit of magical realism and does a good job of adding in a fourth tale that interweaves. My primary take away, though, is that I really love anthology movies.

I extra-love anthology movies where the stories intertwine to some degree while bouncing off certain themes. Little hints of larger world building in the way things intersect just oh so slightly.

After watching the movie, I was wondering about how I might be able to pull off something similar in a solo rpg. And then I thought back to another thought I had very recently — no internet on my main PC gives me lots of thinking time — which was how could I use Jason Morningstar’s Fiasco to scaffold a solo game. This started when I was unpacking and found my Fiasco anthologies

Using Fiasco to Generate Characters

There are two editions of Fiasco and both have the same end goal: to tell a collectively generated, gamemaster-less story about a group of people on the brink of a fiasco. The first edition used dice and d66 type look-up tables to generate characters — by way of their relationships and certain places, items, and desires — while the second uses cards to generate the same. A simplistic overview would be that 1) you generate a lot of potential options [including player agency in which order to read the options], 2) players take turns connecting these options together, 3) once you have generated two relationships per player [and some other details] you then work out some basic details of backstory for the characters. In the way of such things, these steps are generally blended pretty well. The playsets range from generic — “Tales from Suburbia” — to a bit more high concept — “White Hole,” about a space station on the edge of a cosmic anomaly. Even when the setting seems commonplace, the elements lead to some hooks. The suburbs, but there are affairs and drugs and stolen money. The mall, but someone is stealing from the store. A wedding, but secrets are threatening to spill over. My favorite are those where there just enough weirdness to lean in but every playthrough can be fairly different.

From a character creation standpoint, the bigger-deal-than-acknowledged aspect of character creation is you do not generate characters, per se, you generate the spaces for characters to inhabit. You describe who you are playing by their relationship to other characters, by a need — not necessarily a need they have together but one that someone impacts the relationship — or a place or an object. By far the greatest Random Stuff Generator at any table playing Fiasco is how a given group, at a given time, chooses to express these spaces in terms of their characters.

Let’s take a look at one of the four “core” playsets: “Main Street.” You have six Relationship “categories” [the first d6 of the d66]: Family, Work, Friendship, Romance, Crime, and Community. Note that the usual playset does not go too deep into what any of these broad terms might mean — in this case, fairly self-explanatory — so some leeway is given to players when sorting them into their game. Each category has six items [the second d6]. Friendship has some fairly typical (e.g. “Old Buddies,” “Friendly Rivals”) and some less so that bleed into other categories (e.g. “Drug Friends,” “Friends with Benefits”). In broad, the “Main Street” set keeps things pretty real world for the relationship. Some hints of dirty deeds but also just people who know each other.

Then, you get a d66 table each for Needs, Locations, and Objects. Again, some more typical and some more flavorful. A Need “To get out… of this town before they realize you took it.” A Location “Out by the interstate… Durable Paper Goods, paper bag manufacturing plant.” An Object which is “Information… Secret recipe.”

Playsets that have flecks of spice in a seemingly bland soup tend to play the best in the long run, based on my many sessions. If the playset leans too hard to a single story, it takes away a bit of the spark. By giving players a canvas, some paint, and just a few thin prompts you get the best portraits.

You start combining these elements together. For instance, let’s say I am playing with four people: Barry across from me, Celia to my left, and Edgar to my right. For Celia I end up with friends with benefit connected to the paper bag plant [make note that while you have some freedom, it freedom within a smaller pool of elements generated at the start]. With Edgar, our characters are old buddies with a need to get out before “they” find out “you” took it. Could be either of us or both of us or maybe someone is running from us, there are ways to interpret it and even outright re-write it as the group fiction needs. It’s a genre prone to plot twists and changes of fortunes. As we talk, there are questions that come up — along with Barry character’s relationships with Celia and Edgar’s characters. Is Celia’s character and mind coworkers at that plant, or is that just where our characters hook up? Are Edgar’s and mine characters in trouble for theft or something a bit more abstract?

Some things you decide right away and some things you give a little bit of a definition but then work out later.

This means there is both an easy and a hard aspect using this in solo games. The easy is you can just roll. Four dice per character relationship [which works out to being four dice per character, but in principle it is different]. Four characters? Roll 16 dice. Then group them up as random or as purposefully as you want and make some decisions. Heck, you can even just roll a few dice to generate objects and locations and needs and slot them into your game. Any game, really, that might vibe with the playset.

From the fifth printing (2012) version of the 2009 Fiasco PDF. Copyright Jason Morningstar. All rights reserved, used here to demonstrate the style of table discussed in this post.

Where it gets harder is the solo aspect misses elements the collective bargaining process. If I am on my own, maybe I take the prompts as given and say that my character hooks up with Celia’s character at the factory and Edgar’s character stole some money and is about to get discovered. Only, Celia interjects. She doesn’t want her character to work at the plant (a prompt between her and Barry suggests her character came into money). And maybe she figures she doesn’t want to be the kind of person who has FWB. In her eyes, her character considers it a real relationship. My character is the one afraid of commitment. Edgar says he has already played a game where he stole money so he wants it to be something more esoteric. He wants to be a vlogger who has been anonymously telling town secrets by way of thinly veiled fiction stories posted to Youtube. He “took” the stories via some shady means and some of the stories have started to be viral and folks around town are starting to figure out who it is. These multiple interpretations are what makes the storyline so unique per group. Celia, Edgar, and I might play a wholly different game with very similar prompts the next time. It’s fun.

And sure, I appreciate the irony that all of those things were things that I thung for an example, but in my experience it is the kind of joyous vibe that kicks it all off. The story exists in the spaces between words shared between people at a table.

There are tons of tools — Mythic, Gamemaster Apprentice Deck, drawing Dixit cards — you can use to flavor the prompts to find something new, but it still requires a bit of slowing down to avoid rushing into first grasps. You have to push back against the oracles a bit. This might even be a good time to use a “player emulator” that helps to set moods and such.

There is the slight issue that you make characters in clumps, but that’s not an issue for me. That’s what I am trying to do at this stage. If you were making characters for a more traditional single character solo session, you might treat the relationships as background flavor. That should work ok.

Connections: Yes, No, How Big?

Anthology films come in several forms. At the lowest conceptual tier, you simply have rough groups of cinematic short stories probably linked by a theme or genre. Sometimes the theme is less an actual theme and more a “people who submitted films for a contest” or “directors who knew a producer.” Lots of them at least stick to a broad genre.

The next-highest tier involves wrap around stories. Presumably most readers know the general gist of what I mean, but to explain: a wrap-around is a framing device where the pieces of the anythology are being told/shared/exist in the context of a wider story. Some wrap-arounds are only loosely connected to the stories themselves — such as the Amicus-type films where four stories by Robert Bloch might be staged as anecdotes shared by asylum patients but the stories may or may not have anything to do with “madness” — and others are blended into the story itself. Usually this leans into the next highest tier — where stories interact with each other — but not always.

Going directly into that, the highest conceptual tier of anthology tends to blend the themes, characters, and locations to some degree. At this point, the framing story is just part of the whole. A somewhat extreme version of this would be Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark where the short stories are part of a larger story and form a narrative whole. Some old serialized novels can have a similar vibe, as well as some episodic television. Where there are distinct gaps between episodes/chapters but overall a complete story is being told. There are actually a lot of films that are effectively anthology stories — showing disparate viewpoints around a same event — with things only entering the framing device towards the end. If then. We’ll leave out the more “accidentally anthological” takes for now.

What I am looking for is a step before this highest concept: where the wrap-around/frame is less “the real story” and is more a technical narrative hook that allows the individual stories to play off each other while also giving them some freedom.

What I am picturing is creating four characters via Fiasco, generating a couple of extra locations and objects, and then using some mechanic to find spots where the stories touch. In later sessions, those touch points will likely be revisited with a new viewpoint or at least are assumed in the later fiction. You finally get to the final character where there have been multiple touch points and world building sessions and to a degree they will wrap up the whole. They will still be their own character, though.

How to decide where the stories criss-cross? I think it could be done with either cards — each other character represented by a face card/ace — with a specially created short deck or via decaying dice. You would only want 1-2 of these shared touch points per section though background shifts might be more noticeable. If one character burns down a gas station on a Saturday, the next character can’t visit it on a Sunday.

Can “later” characters revisit earlier characters in scenes that weren’t featured? I’m not sure.

Further Thoughts

I think I have an idea of what I’d like to try and I think I have some basic tools to do it. Will I do it? I think so. When? Not sure.

I sometimes struggle to juggle all the concepts of a single narrative without extensive notetaking. This means that I would want to make sure I’m in a good place to actually play off these notes. I am moderately ok with stories drifting a bit in theme and even in reality but overall I want it to feel connected and part of a whole just not revisting some of the same locations in otherwise separate stories.

On the other hand, I feel pretty confident in using the tools and tricks to weave these stories together.

All that being said, since I’m a sucker for horror-themed anthology collections I think it might be fun to try in October. Not with a specifically horror-themed playset, but one more normal with interjections of horror. Not sure what system just yet.

Time will tell if I actually pull it off.

CREDITS

Both the movie poster [taken from Wikipedia] and the snippet of Jason Morningstar’s Fiasco are copyright to their respective owners. Used without permission but to inform the reader. All rights are reserved to the original creators.

The Bleak and The Pearl, Part 25. Hungry Trolls and Sea Nymphs [ShadowDark] [SoloDark]

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On September 20, 2025

In Actual Play, ShadowDark, Solo Campaigns, SoloDark, The Bleak and the Pearl

A sea nymph lounges by a stream.

Previously, on The Bleak + The Pearl

Gryffin Grunkheart has lead the Lighthouse 6 back into the sea caves. After setting up a temporary camp, the party split up. The main party found a room full of illusory food that condemned the eater to desperate eat more and more until death by starvation and dehydration. The team left behind fell into trouble when Boris Loo — young and impetuous — tried a childish attempt to get a dangling necklace and not only collapsed an ancient, decaying dock but stirred up trouble. Now Gryffin worries about his two youngest members while also trying to talk to a man who was rescued from the room.

About The Bleak + The Pearl

The once great empire of Barthus has fallen as a corrupting force called The Bleak spreads from shore to shore. Pockets of humanity remain, and the greatest of these is the city of Grunce, long protected these three centuries by a Lighthouse designed to absorb The Bleak and use its own energy against it. However, the Lighthouse is fading. A group of four heroes risk life and sanity going further and further into the Bleak-ravaged Barthus to solve the mystery of ancient technology and stop The Bleak once and for all.

Joining them (in the second season) is a group of six new heroes who trying to help to complete the fuelstones to power the Lighthouse. These heroes represent the great houses that originally started the light all those years ago. Only, the great houses are not what they once were and the Lighthouse Six are little more than burnouts and vagabonds.

Content Warning: Fantasy levels of violence. Some strong moments of body horror. Some drinking. Some smoking. Language pretty tame but it’s a possibility. Moslty the violence and the weird horror, really.

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

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

The Bleak + The Pearl, Part 25. Hungry Trolls and Sea Nymphs

What We Talk About When We Talk About Bernark

Bernark, the starved man in the Hall of Feasting, is the leader of the bandits the party met their first foray into the sea caves. During that encounter (Room 1, “Bandits’ Cave”), it is just mentioned that the old leader went missing and now the remaining bandits no longer explore the caves. Assuming Bernark would simply use the base stats of the Shadowdark bandit (page 197), then he wouldn’t be particularly intelligent or chatty and would have a self-serving, chaotic disposition. That being said, the party saved him from certain death, saved most of his crew, and Louis is good at making friends.

I think he would likely share some information and tag along with the promise of help getting out of the caves. No problem. The issue is how much did he explore the caves before he hit the room? I think a good way to determine this is a simple d10 roll → 2. Ok, so not much at all. He likely went almost straight to the Hall of Feasting.

Does Bernark know any information about the caves which would be helpful? (Disadvantage) → 6. No. He would just be another mouth to feed but could potentially fight some more once he rests up.

In this light, let’s do a SoloDark oracle check to see what his general approach to the situation will be then: → 25 Consume 41 Danger + 70 Win 63 Victory. Unlike the other bandits, Bernark is more into the lifestyle to get out and make something of himself. We’ll treat him as a Level 0 character. Rather than go with the above plan of giving him base stats, we’ll do a “3d6 down the line” for him.

Bernark Sigmond

[using the Nord Name tables from Cursed Scroll #3, result 15]. Background [from Nord Backgrounds]: 6 Livestock Farmer.

S: 9(-1), D: 9(-1), C: 9(-1), I: 9(-1), W: 5(-3), C: 11(0). This gives him 1 hit point. Yowza.

He should still have his leather armor and shield (12 AC with his penalty). Does he still have his weapon? → 19, Yes, but… it was left in the room.

His alignment will be Chaotic. We’ll leave him there just to find out what might come of him if he does make it.

DATE PLAYED: June 26, 2025

Day 3 (Airwen 23). ROUND 24. Torchlight Remaining: N/A.

This will trigger another wandering monster check while they are gathered around the campfire. Result: 6. Negative.

Setting Out (with a new “friend”)

“Are you sure we can trust him, Gryff?,” asks Louis.

“Trust him?! By the ancients hells of course we can’t trust him, but we also can’t abandon him now that he knows our camp and I don’t feel like killing him,” Gryffin replies.

The two of them are back from the others a bit, still in the light of the campfire. Ronick — after tossing the body of the zombie into the lake to watch it slowly drift beneath the swirl of jellyfish — and Del have sat down with the rescued man to swap war stories. Ada is sitting a bit from the fire and staring over at Boris who is morose about the aftermath of his actions. Gryffin worries he took it out a bit too hard on the pair but life is dangerous down here in the dark.

Let’s do an opposed test. The highest WIS between Gryffin and Louis — which ludicrously is Gryffin’s 9/-1 — versus Bernark’s CHA (0). 19-1=18 vs 15+0=15. They spotted through his lies about just being a farmer who was interested in the caves. But they also get the sense that he isn’t immediately untrustworthy despite the lie.

“He lied about being a farmer. Did you notice the outfit and markings?,” Gryffin asks.

“Yeah, matches the group we gave a lift out of here. Another ruffian hiding out from some crime or another.”

“Maybe we can get him to his people.”

“We’ll keep careful watch. But ok, where do we go first?”

“These caves are all about these rivers and streams and this lake. I want to scout the water. Only it could be dangerous if we get into combat. Ada has already been knocked down twice since we entered. She won’t be able to dodge a whole lot on the boat. What do you think?”

{boat | land} → land

“I think with seven of us, it might be best to keep to the shore for now.”

Gryffin scratches his stubble on the way to growing into a blonde beard. “Ok, fair. Let’s tell the others we’ll go up this way.”

DATE PLAYED: June 26, 2025

Moving East Through the Caves

Tracking up this beach area into the next numbered part of the caves takes about 120′ which is 4 rounds of moving through a new area. That’s a single wandering monster check — 4, negative — and not much but some flavor.

The zombie had a rusty handaxe. We’ll say Bernark is equipped with that for d6 damage.

For now, the marching order will be:

  • [FRONT] Gryffin & Ronick
  • Ada [holding torch]
  • Boris & Bernark
  • Del & Louis

We’ll pick up the main action just west of [and entering] Room #15: “Flotsam Caves.”

DATE PLAYED: June 27, 2025

Day 3 (Airwen 23). ROUND 28.
Torchlight Remaining: 7 Rounds [held by Ada].

Many Piles of Trash and a Parasomniac Troll

Ada’s torchlight casts Gryffin and Ronick’s shadows like lean giants into the room before them. “Room.” Another natural cavern but wider. Over to Ronick’s right, the room slopes down. Either by design or by natural chance, this forms a kind of filter for the caves. Massive piles of debris have built up and choked the area. What is behind them is completely unknown.

Do the piles have a strong smell? → 19, Yes [quite strong] but… the smell isn’t necessarily rotting. Just like…the underside of a swampy dock in the middle of summer. Nothing that warns them away.

Ronick sniffs the air. “Hey, turtle, you want to go and check it out?”

Boris guffs, a bit louder than intended, “No, lizard, I don’t!” Most of the others are a little surprised by Boris’s retort, especially Ada, but the only person who laughs louder than Dhelia is Ronick himself.

“Less loud, please,” Gryffin reprimands. The torchlight does not pierce the shadows cast by the flotsam filling the caves so anything could be there. What if some ice giant was using the piles as a blanket? Silly, he knows, but still. Staying alive means working together. Grusk and the others have faced some rough battles and Gryffin wants his team to be able to do the same. Just not yet. They need more training. “All, the same, might be worth glancing at those to see if there is anything on the other side. Would be terrible to search this cave all over for the Mantel and have it be right here.”

I will not consider this a place for the mantel just yet.

Let’s roll a die for Ronick and Boris to see who wants to impress Gryffin more. Ronick gets a 2. Boris gets a 3. Hah, neither are quite thrilled with it but Boris — possibly due to the presence of the ring — is willing to push forward just a bit more.

Boris approaches the nearest pile — the density of them means it is mostly an academic debate between where one starts and where another ends — and as he moves further and further to the edge of the light, it makes it clear just how large they are. Boris, the second shortest member of the group, is absolutely dwarfed by the debris. It fills the cavern to the very near the top.

Day 3 (Airwen 23). ROUND 29.
Torchlight Remaining: 6 Rounds [held by Ada].

“I’m going to climb up it to see if I can see over,” Boris says in a voice he hopes carries back to the others without being too loud.

Room #15 says that any one who touches the piles needs a DC12 check or take 2d6 damage as it collapses.

Boris will need {1d3} → 3 Rounds to get to the top.

Check #1: 16+1 = 17DEX. The stuff shifts under his weight but does not fall.

This makes it Round 30 [5 rounds of torchlight] and needs another Wandering Monster check: 1. We get a monster. The piles of trash come down, as well. Ooo, lucky. He only takes 3 points of damage! Nimble little turtle dude.

Wandering monster = 5, Ruggamort the Troll [eek] sleepwalks into the room.

That might be a bad coincidence. Does the sound of trash falling wake him up? (note, the encounter description just says “if touched”) → 16. Yes. Ok, let’s break out of this and take a look at him.

Ruggamort the Troll

He is sleepy and very cranky if woken up. Can be appeased with food and hears that human finger bones are tasty.

Stat-wise, seems to be a normal troll (not a frost troll) but that’s still a L5 encounter. Which will be rough for the team.

However, the team does know of a place with “interesting food” [assuming Ruggamort doesn’t make his saving throw].

Boris is half way up the pile when he hears a strange shuffling sound and has the sense that something is going on behind him. Turning around, he sees a large green creature half-way between a boil on his grandmother’s ass and a old piece of driftwood shuffling around with its eyes closed. Mumbling something. The other six, are frozen nearly still — Ronick pulling his great sword out as Gryffin notches an arrow — and Boris tries to catch their attention to figure out what to do. Right at this moment, the pile of debris to which he is clinging lets go and comes crashing down. Boris does the best he can to catch himself but it’s like riding a landslide. There’s only so much control you can have. He slams into his shell at the bottom and a year’s worth of washed up sundry pours over his head.

Which means he does not see what happens next. Which is that the troll opens its eyes and looks around confusedly. Angrily. What was that damned noise? He glances to the pile and then quickly turns to face the other little things standing there staring at him. He sees their weapons. Their terrible torchlight fire. Are they sneaking up on him in his own bedroom? Well, not his bedroom. Wherever this is? Ah, the place with all the trash and the flotsam.

“A night time snack, eh? I am hungry,” he says to them in giant-tongue…

Louis does speak Giant, which is good because he is also the most likely to talk their way out of this.

We’ll have him intervene. He knows of the room with the illusory food. I’ll make a CHA roll for him and give him a DC15. If he succeeds, he cuts through sleepy anger of Ruggamort and gets some bonus to the reaction roll. If not…eh, he can try convincing the others to flee.

18+1 = 19CHA. Excellent. Now to do a reaction, we’ll give him +5 total. 5+5 = 10. “Curious.”

“A snack? Us. Scrawny and underfed and full of tough scales,” Louis pipes up in Giant — to the others seeming like loud grunts and rather large vowels — “No, no. However, we do know a place full of food. So much. We were just there! It was frankly too fine of a food as little mites like us. Terribly unworthy we were of it…”

“Lou, what are you doing?,” Gryffin asks in a low voice without turning his head or taking his eyes off the…

Gryffin has done some adventuring. Let’s let him do a DC15 INT check to see if he knows about trolls. 13+2 = 15INT. He does!

…troll. Trolls have been in Barthus since before the Crossing. Used to harass some of the travellers in the South Barthic plains. Not necessarily the kind of creature you want to grunt at without careful consideration.

But Louis is good at using his voice as a kind of weapon in its own right so in Barthic he simply says, “Hush, making friends,” and then goes back into Giant: “What do you say, my sleepy fellow. Would you like to see the food that so above us? It might not be fully worth your time but I hope it can only go a way to appease your mighty hunger?”

Ruggamort is a bit surprised that one so small and frail — and yes, scrawny and below his own stature — can speak so fluently in such a large language, but is also curious about the feast being offered.

Does Ruggamort know about the illusory food? → DC12 INT = 8-1 = 7INT. If he does, he has forgotten.

Also, behind him, Boris is pulling himself out of the wreckage and is sneaking around. He gets advantage on that. We’ll do a Ruggamort WIS (+0) vs Boris’s DEX (+1, ADV) = 4+0 = 4WIS vs 19+1 = 20DEX. Boris is well hidden from Ruggamort’s attention. The promise of food is too strong.

“Well, scrawny one, let’s go,” Ruggamort says and waits for Louis to inform the others they are leading the troll back to the feast. Gryffin spots Boris sneaking at the edge of the shadows but shakes his head to indicate holding tight and not attacking. For now, Boris listens.

DATE PLAYED: June 27, 2025

It will take them 2 Rounds to get back (31 and 32). That brings us to…

Day 3 (Airwen 23). ROUND 33.
Torchlight Remaining: 2 Rounds [held by Ada].

Wandering monster check → 3, negative.

Tricking the Hungry, Sleepy Ruggamort

Let’s get this out of the way, DC18 WIS check on Ruggamort. 17+0 = 17WIS. Wooo, close. 2d4 days = 6 days. Though the PCs have no way of how long it will last.

I’m not going to have others check again.

The party has spread out a bit to either side of Ruggamort in a rough wall the troll will have to fight through. Boris remains furthest back — and struggling a bit with the sense that he should start the fight — but the others each take a “corner” with Ada a bit back holding up torchlight. For the past several minutes, the team has avoided going for their weapons but still have kept their hands in range for as ready reach as they can manage.

As they approach the room, Louis goes back into all smiles and giant-tongue speech. “Here, look at this great food. I told you we were not worthy!”

Ruggamort peers into the room and right as his troll face is sliding into anger it instead slides into a troll-smile. The two emotions are indistinguishable to non-trolls. He walks in and smashes through one table making a seat for his oversized frame. After a moment he picks up silver plates and starts dropping absolutely nothing into his mouth.

Bernark, standing about half as far as Boris, watches the display. “Is that what I looked like?”

Gryffin nods. “Yeah, pretty much.”

Louis asks if leaving the troll to such a fate is cruel.

“Not exactly. Trolls can heal themselves far beyond the rest of us. Sure, he’ll eventually snap out of it half-starved and probably very confused but he should be fine if no one sets the place on fire.”

“I still feel a bit bad,” Louis says.

“We could feed him Bernark,” Ronick suggests.

As Bernark goes pale the draconian laughs and slaps him hard enough on the back the semi-ex-bandit has to walk it off.

DATE PLAYED: June 29, 2025

There and Back Again, Again

This dang thing playing out like a fetch quest.

Ok, 2 Rounds to get back to the debris filled room [#15: Flotsam Cave]. Ada lights another torch.

Before we get to that, since I forgot to check that last time, I am going to give the “sneakiest” person in the group [which frankly is probably Boris] a check versus his…INT? To see how well he hid their supply chest and boat. He does get advantage for “sneaking” and I’m willing to give it to him. 19+1 = 20INT. Very well. If we get evidence of anyone searching the area they have to beat that score. For now, we’ll hold that he put it in the rubble of the dock.

They did not search the piles of flotsam and debris for treasure but since Boris dropped a sizeable stack on himself, let’s roll twice on the “search random loot” table for that room. We get… 7 “A chipped longsword” and 10 “Potion of Healing”. Bernark would prefer {long sword | axe} → axe. They will leave the long sword and he’ll keep the axe for now. Boris will pocket the potion of healing.

Gryffin: “Anything back there we could use?”

Boris: “I didn’t get high enough up to see but what I did see was just more trash like this.” Kicks picks up a chipped longsword and gives it a swing. Offers it to Bernark who shakes his head. Boris tosses it back into the trash.

Del: “It’s not all bad, Snaps. You did uncover this.” Tosses him a Potion of Healing.

I should actually check to see if…Ada, I suppose…would recognize it. 16+1 = 17INT. Sure.

Boris: “What is it?”

Ada: “A potion of healing. The way this adventure has been going, we could use it.”

Boris: “Nice!”

Gryffin: “Well, if we can’t go that way,” gesturing behind the piles of debris, “Then we have one way forward. Don’t want to dally. Louis’s troll friend is liable to break out of that trap any time, now.”

This is Round 36 so let’s do a wandering monster test → 3, negative.

Will pick this up in the next full scene as we enter the next area.

DATE PLAYED: June 29, 2025

Setting the Scene, Sea Nymph Den.

This takes our adventurers to Room #13: “Sea Nymph Den”. There’s a 3:6 chance they are “home” when the party arrives. Let’s start with that. 2, yes.

There is Sashir (older and more cautious), Pareem (thin and curious), and Manit (stern and regal). We’ll put Sashir more directly facing the party while the other two are near the underground river where the nests are.

There is also a gray ooze in one of the pools of water. It seems to stay partially hidden and just vibes. Do the sea nymphs care for the ooze? → 1. Absolutely not. They consider sticky and icky. It doesn’t bother them but they also don’t like having it around just they haven’t wanted to bother with leading it off.

For the Gray Ooze, we’ll use Cathelineau’s “Transparent Slime” icon and just fade it out until it shows up. For the Sea Nymphs, since they are described as elf relations, we’ll use Delapouite’s “Female Elf” icon and mark them as “neutral” blue with green skin to suggest a hint of “nautical”.

Are the sea nymphs aware of the adventuring party? → 11. Yes, but… they have largely been apathetic to their travails. They don’t take any particular stance upon them.

Day 3 (Airwen 23). ROUND 37.
Torchlight Remaining: 8 Rounds [held by Ada].

The Sea Nymphs

As Gryffin and Ronick step forward, Gryffin notices two things. Well, four things. The first thing is that they are once again leaving the natural stone of the sea caves. The area here is in even greater disrepair than before. The tiles sunken down and pools of water with grit and slime litter the floor. A couple of the pools are wide enough, and possibly deep enough, that Gryffin could take a bath as long as “long-decayed-sea-water” was the scent he was going for.

The remaining three things he noticed was tall, elfin women. In the nude. Their skin is a sea-green color and scales mark their necks and arms. One of them is standing a dozen feet away and watching the party, the other two are near another underground river, playing in the frigid water like it was a summer bath.

Near them piles of sea weed and drift wood are set up in what appears to be some variation of a bird’s nest.

The one nearest to them has claws extended towards them and her face reads not so much a threat but a willingness to act upon one.

REACTION TIME! I’ll say they speak Merran, which only Boris speaks.

Reaction = 9 + 1 (Boris’s CHA) = 10. Curious.

The woman standing before Gryffin says something in a language that sounds somewhere between whale song and crashing waves. After a second, Boris clears his throught and says something back though his chelonian beak makes the sounds seem more…childish. The woman makes only the slightest change to her stance, mostly putting her clawed hands down, but Gryffin takes it as her welcoming the group inside. She doesn’t back up so they can enter too far, but enough so she can see all of them.

We’ll check to see if Gryffin, the closest to the ooze, notices it.

13+2 = 15INT. I’d say so.

As he walks in, he makes it five things. The pool of water nearest his feet is not just water. At the moment it just seems to be…digesting…something. He takes a wide berth around it after pointing it to the others. Seeing this, the woman let’s out a laugh that sounds like summer rain off the coast.

“Terrible rodent that ershiiel,” she says in partial Barthic.

“Rodent?,” Gryffin asks.

“Ah, no. Ah, slime. Stink. Annoying.”

“Is it dangerous?,”

“Of course.”

Gryffin only nods at this. “Boris, tell her we are searching for the Mantel.”

Boris tries to convey the context of their search to the three women. Another of the three, the thinnest and seemingly youngest though Gryffin suspects this is a very relative term, has come close and is currently checking out the scaled musculature of Ronick. The dragonborn seems delighted to have a naked woman so close even as Del rolls her eyes. The third has entered into one of the strange bird nests and is sitting like a queen might sit upon a throne.

Boris gets 13+1 = 14INT. That is good enough to get the basics across.

Do the Sea Nymphs know where the mantel is? I’m going to say it is likely they know more about the caves than most, since the water flows throughout. 14. Yes.

Partially to avoid this going in some odd circles, going to glance at the map and pick out labels that haven’t been explored yet [that seem likely]:

  1. A statue is marked in Room #14
  2. There are Nords/Berserker marked in Room #11
  3. A Draugr in “Room” #17
  4. A Dverg in Room #8
  5. Troll [likely the only already encountered, but we’ll see] in Room #6
  6. Then Room #4 [unlabeled] looks sizeable

Rolling 1d6 we get → 2. Nords/Berserker.

Fun…

There is another Sea Nymph in Room #12 which might offer something of a backdoor to that encounter for a surprise attack. Would the Sea Nymphs offer such a thing? → 19. Yes [a lot], but… they have a price. Since it says they like song, they will demand a song for it.

“People like…some you. They have found the unliatsa you seek. Mean people.”

“We can deal with mean people,” Boris says in Barthic. Again, that summer rain laughter.

“Maybe. Maybe.”

“How do we find them?,” Gryffin asks.

“South until you see their…illkri…um…their fire.”

“Unless…” the queen-like woman speaks for the first time.

“Yes, Manit?,” the main speaker prompts.

“We can show them another way.” Manit’s Barthic is cleaner than the first speaker.

“Ah,” laughs the third, now full on flirting mode with Ronick and her then nude body is fully leaning against him. The normally brutish Ronick seems nervous to handle something so…pretty. “Manit wish a song.”

Louis finally speaks. “A song to show us a better way to find these mean people?” And Manit nods. Louis beams and pulls for this guitar. “Then, let’s…”

Louis rolls a 18+3 = 21CHA. He plays very well. The sea nymphs are very delighted.

Day 3 (Airwen 23). ROUND 39.
Torchlight Remaining: 6 Rounds [held by Ada].

Wandering monster check = 3, negative.

“Very good, land folk. Beautiful. We will help you. But first, take these…” From the edge of water Manit and the younger one — she introduces herself as Pareem and the first speaker as Sashir — pull forth small blobs of sea moss that glitter in a strange way. “Eat these, you can breathe like us…in there. Do that, and then we’ll take you.”

“How?,” asks Del, looking around for a boat.

“Through there,” Shashir points. At the dark underground water. Flowing east into more darkness.

DATE PLAYED: June 29, 2025

DOUG’S COMMENTARY

I am essentially out of time to play any more today and it is unsure if I will have any time to play until after the move so this might be it for couple weeks to a month. There’s a part of me that was really hoping that the mantel would have been in Room #14 since I could have played it out and gotten to a stopping spot but that’s ok. It’s nice to get to explore some more.

When I come back — likely August — we’ll run what will likely be the final battle for this dungeon and then work on getting out. I’m not sure how many of the current characters will survive. We’ll have to find out.

CREDITS

At it’s core, the Bleak + The Pearl is a ShadowDark (by Kelsey Dionne and Arcane Library) and SoloDark game. More information is available at The Arcane Library.

This session is played using materials from Cursed Scroll #3: Midnight Sun including the Sea Caves map used for the main adventure, the text from the “Hoard of the Sea Wolf King” adventure, and the Isles of Andrek used for the hex crawl. “The Hoard of the Sea Wolf King” and all maps used in it are by Kelsey Dionne. Used here for personal use. The hex crawl, including Valthis (etc), are also creations of Dionne. The hex map cartography is by Cameron Maas.

Tokens are from Game-Icons.Net‘s various artists and used here CC-BY 3.0. I’ll try to start shouting to artists and link to particular icons as I introduce them.

Other sources that have been used in this campaign include (those in bold are especially well used):

  • Zach Best’s Universal NPC Emulator.
  • Paul Bimler’s The Solo Adventurer’s Toolkit One & Two.
  • Cesar Capacle’s Random Realities.
  • Atelier Clandestin’s Sandbox Generator.
  • Kevin Crawford’s Worlds Without Number and Scarlet Heroes.
  • Xane & Bunnie Daniels’ (et al) Unnatural Selection.
  • Matt Davis and dicegeeks’ Books of Random Tables. Various ones but especially the The Great Book [Fantasy] and Quests series.
  • Various maps by Dyson Logos.
  • Ben Milton’s Knave, 2nd Edition.
  • Chris Powell’s Letters from the Dark series of supplements.
  • Raging Swan Press’s GM Miscellany series, especially Dungeon Dressing and Wilderness Dressing.
  • Skerples’ The Monster Overhaul.

ART CREDIT AND EXPLANATION

“Nymph by a Stream” by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Provided by The National Gallery of London via Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license.

Open Threads, Notes, Situations, and Complications

  • Possible XP [Unclaimed]
    • Ring of Ramlaat +1
  • [Primary] Finding the fuelstone activators:
    • The [Mad Del] Marius Diadem [Found, Returned, Activated]
    • The [Elude] Harucam Mantle
    • The Bittermold Mask
    • The Mistamere Lens
    • The Grunkheart “Eye”
  • Gryffin’s doubt about Boris and Ada’s abilities to help
  • Attacking the Nords to get the Mantel back
  • Boris is being slightly (for now) manipulated by the Ring of Ramlaat
  • Gryffin is under a Great Oath of Odin to help Signe [Valthis] vs Jarl Karsgald. He has until Pyngode 1 when Karsgard launches his winter campaign.
  • Exploring Jonias’s Grunkheart’s lab and the Everburning Forest to harness its powers.
    • Jonias’s pocket dimension
  • Working with the Librarian [the Grunkheart Golem] to take control of the monolith
  • Grunce Drama:
    • House Marr [who manages the marketplace] vs
    • House Allocius [who manages the shipyard] vs
    • Free Merchants [those who do not wish to align with the current two great houses]
    • Currently the plot by Marr to sabotage the Free Merchants has been anti-climatic.
    • Lady Moreena Grunkheart [Gryffin’s mom and Cal’s Aunt]: Current leader of House Grunkheart
    • Lady Varren Marius [Del’s cousin]: Current leader of House Marius
  • The Bleak:
  • Other Characters:
  • Other Places:
    • The Isles of Andrik: North of Barthus and free from the Bleak
    • Caux Mountains
    • Sofron Desert:
      • Mist Lake: Not actually a lake, it’s a flat still portion of the desert traditionally run by House Mistamere after they fled Grunkheart
    • South Barthic Plains
      • The River Orneth flows through it

The Bleak and The Pearl, Part 24. Feasting on Darkness [ShadowDark] [SoloDark]

By

On September 20, 2025

In Actual Play, ShadowDark, Solo Campaigns, SoloDark, The Bleak and the Pearl

An elaborate feast on a table showing meats and drink.

Previously, on The Bleak + The Pearl

Gryffin Grunkheart has lead the “Lighthouse 6” to the Andrik Islands north of The Bleak. The goal is to find the Harcuram Mantle, one of the activators for the fuelstones deep beneath Grunce. His group of new adventurers are composed of himself, four members of the once great houses of Grunce, and a strange Chelonian who has been Bleak touched from birth. In the icy caves they fought undead, wildlife, and saved bandits. Now, they are preparing to go back inside.

About The Bleak + The Pearl

The once great empire of Barthus has fallen as a corrupting force called The Bleak spreads from shore to shore. Pockets of humanity remain, and the greatest of these is the city of Grunce, long protected these three centuries by a Lighthouse designed to absorb The Bleak and use its own energy against it. However, the Lighthouse is fading. A group of four heroes risk life and sanity going further and further into the Bleak-ravaged Barthus to solve the mystery of ancient technology and stop The Bleak once and for all.

Joining them (in the second season) is a group of six new heroes who trying to help to complete the fuelstones to power the Lighthouse. These heroes represent the great houses that originally started the light all those years ago. Only, the great houses are not what they once were and the Lighthouse Six are little more than burnouts and vagabonds.

Content Warning: Fantasy levels of violence. Some strong moments of body horror. Some drinking. Some smoking. Language pretty tame but it’s a possibility. Mostly the violence and the weird horror, really.

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

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

The Bleak and The Pearl, Part 24. Feasting on Darkness

Making Camp

To start this one off, we’ll do a little “raw play” style to get things back up to speed. At the end of Day 2, the team had returned to The Crossbow and unloaded treasure [which I need to go back and take better notes about, didn’t think this would six months later]. According to Cursed Scroll #3, ships have 10 gear slots per passenger and as many passengers as hitpoints. The Crossbow is a galleon class ship carrying a lot of Grunkheart and Marius types [well, at least their crews]. Then in Letters from the Dark, Volume 6: Scallywags Chris Powell writes that that “any ship larger than longboat” can effectively carry all the gear a crew would need. I’ll blend this together to say that the Marius ship has been very well stocked and if they get back to that, then essentially any gear from the standard Shadowdark crawling kit (see page 36) can be had and there are some additional weapons and armor that I might roll to double check at Advantage, normal, or Disadvantage depending on rarity. Ladies Marius and Grunkheart will be fussy if the charges rack up too high, so gathering stuff on their own will be part of the “test run” of this mission.

That being said, everyone will get up to 3 torches, up to 20 arrows, and up to 3 rations to refill before diving back in.

I will generally skip the initial re-entry into the caves. We’ll say it takes one torch but that area is pretty well explored by this point [they have made the trip in and out three times now]. Their initial goal is to the beach they found near the end of their last foray into the caves [near the burial boat] (See Cursed Scroll #3 and “Hoard of the Sea Wolf King [SWK]” rooms 16 (“Decayed Docks”) and 19 (“Longboat Hold”) for descriptions of these areas). They will set up a campsite here with a small chest, a fire, and some basic bedrolls and such. They will not be leaving any sort of guard but they will stash the stuff in a way it is not immediately obvious. We’ll say the chest has 6xtorches, 15xrations, and some bandages and bedrolls.

Now, can they possibly carry their rowboat from the river they followed in to this beach? [SoloDark oracle test [SoD]] → 12, Yes.

Let’s roll a d6 for { 1/4 | 1/3 | 1/2 } speed → 1/4 speed. It’s pretty stout and going will be slow. The landing spot is slightly to the west of Room 17 (“Longboat Hold”). That is around 130′. We’ll say it takes them a full 10 rounds [-1 Torch, basically]. It will obviously do the same on the way out so let’s hope they aren’t being stalked or attacked.

That triggers three wandering monster checks. All were negative.

They will moor the boat near the decaying docks.

We’ll jump back in on Round 11 [by the light of the campfire].

Setting the Scene, e24s2.

Gryffin’s first priority will be establishing something of a safe place. From the place on the beach [roughly SWK Room 16] they have three points of interest unexplored. To the north is Room 18 (“Hall of Feasting”). To the south and south-east is a large underground lake which Gryffin wants to explore [he always prioritizes going to the right and I’m sticking with that for this cave]. To the east is Room 15 (“Flotsam Cave”).

For full descriptions of the encounters/rooms, see Cursed Scroll #3.

  • Room 18 (“Hall of Feasting”): There is an illusion here. While it is just old ragged tables and tarnished silver plates, those entering must pass a DC18 WIS check or think the room is full of food. If they eat the food, they get stuck for 2d4 days. There is no mention about how to solve the curse [besides waiting] but they can see a man who is half starved “eating” the food. He is the leader of the bandits from the previous session.
  • Room 15 (“Flotsam Cave”) is a trash filled cave that has some potential treasure.
  • The lake has “hundreds of stinging, purple jellyfish”. There is also a silver amulet at the end of the decaying dock. On it is a treasure. Of sorts. Or a curse. You know how it goes.

Since the specific room and encounter is a bit hard to predict until I actually play the scene, we’ll leave things vague and fill in gaps/info as we need.

DATE PLAYED: June 22, 2025.

Day 3 (Airwen 23). ROUND 11. Torchlight Remaining: n/a.

Regaining Footing

The light of the campfire pushes only some distance in the dark, icy caverns. The ceiling rises up to just at the edge of light while the beach carries on some distance into the darkness. The still waters of the underground lake, a deep and dark blue, reflect the light back. Perhaps it is this that is most disconcerting. The way the water does not move. There are no waves. Only occasional drips as water from the ceiling strikes the surface. While setting up their base camp, they had spotted vaguely luminescent jelly fish under the water. Too far down to see clearly. Like seeing the ghost of a night sky.

Del has her pipe out and is smoking with her back to the darkness where she can keep an eye on the water. The others mostly look into the fire. They have done well in their exploration but danger lurks.

Gryffin uses his thumb to indicate the lake behind him. “I want to get in there and explore that, but we need to make sure our camp here will be safe. Ada and Boris, you stay here by the fire and then the rest of us will first go up the beach a bit. Staying close enough we can see the fire. Nothing has attacked us yet so I’d like to think this spot is safe enough for now. Once we get a good feeling of our surroundings, we’ll then get out on this lake and see other paths.”

The others nod at this plan, though Boris looks a bit sad — as sad a human-sized turtle that thinks of himself as an assassin can look — to be left behind on guard duty. If Ada has any objections, her strange otherworldly face shows no sign. Both are Bleak-touched. Boris is a chelonian who has taken the gentle nature of his people and turned his body into a weapon. Ada’s folk were once human, but her deer antlers and multi-colored eyes show the effect of other forces in her genetic code.

“If you need us, shout. We’ll do the same.”

Day 3 (Airwen 23). ROUND 12. Torchlight Remaining: 10 [Louis].

Party moves north 30′, can see a room opening up north of them.

Wandering monster check: 3. Negative.

Setting the Scene, e24s3.

This primarily derives from SWK Room 18 (“Hall of Feasting”). As described above. We have a starving man eating a massive feast of food. Are there light sources inside (not based on the description), illusory or otherwise? → 19. Yes, but… the illusion only shows up as you enter the effect of the room.

Does the food/illusion have a smell component? → 2, No. I think this, combined with the starving man, will reduce the DC to 15 to break the illusion. At least for Louis and Gryffin, both who are good at seeing through a situation and dealing with people.

DATE PLAYED: June 22, 2025.

Day 3 (Airwen 23). ROUND 13. Torchlight Remaining: 9 [Louis].

Feasting on Starvation

Marching order will be Gryffin and Ronick up front. Louis [holding a torch] and Del will take the rear.

As Louis’s torchlight starts to illuminate a room showing up the north, with rickety wooden tables, Gryffin is caught off guard as he blinks his eyes and the room is suddenly lit. A number of candles burn across the tables — not so rickety at second glance — full of food. A lot of food.

“What in ancient hell is this?,” he asks to no one in particular, or to anyone.

“Now that’s a proper feast,” Del remarks, peering over his shoulder.

“Yeah, but who put it out,” Louis asks, “and who the shade is that?” Pointing to a man. Older than anyone here. Bearded. Oily. But also, deeply starved. Cheeks are shrunken. Black hair hangs loosely. He shovels the food by the handful into his mouth. Like, well, a starving man at a feast fit for a royal party.

Gryffin gets a 14 (-1 WIS) = 13. Fails, even with his bonus.

Louis gets an 18 (-2 WIS) = 16. Passes with the bonus.

Ronick gets a 6 (-1 WIS) = 5. Nope.

Del gets a 20! and succeeds with style.

As Louis keeps staring at the man, the food flickers and wanes. The room goes dark with the man sitting at tables once again rickety. Plates and candelabra are tarnished with years of age. Louis feels almost dizzy at the sudden shift, but Del’s voice makes him feel better to hear:

“By Ord,” she shouts, “What manner of trick is this? I was just starting to get excited by that food.”

Gryffin, who had been walking into the room to approach the man, sword drawn, stops and turns back at his seafaring companion.

“Del, what is it?”

“I don’t know, the food just…”

“Disappeared,” Louis finishes.

Ronick grunts. Then laughs. “Are you tricking me so you can get that roast salmon first?”

Del shakes her head. “The food…it was strange. I just realized that it had no smell.”

Louis nods at this. “Yeah, I was watching him eat,” pointing to the man just on the edge of his torchlight, “and wondering how he could be putting that much food away without taking a drink.”

I’ll say that Gryffin is the kind of person who trusts his people. We’ll give him a roll, at Advantage, versus DC12. This time he gets 16 – 1 = 15. The illusion fades for him.

Ronick deeply trusts Louis and we’ll do the same for him. This time he gets a 20 as well. His long standing friendship has broken the spell.

At this, the spell breaks for the other two and now all far are standing in a room of ruin. Maybe once a great feast hall in life, but now a place only to die. Is it the ghosts of ancient feasts that animate it? Or something more sinister?

Are there other bodies here in the room? (ADV) → 11, Yes, but… a few very old corpses have mostly faded into the debris of old tables and debris on the floor. If they stay and search they might find them.

Gryffin looks back to the man shoving “food” into his face and now it looks like what it is. A man shoving empty air into his face. Trying to feed a terrible hunger with nothing at all.

Day 3 (Airwen 23). ROUND 14. Torchlight Remaining: 8 [Louis].

“What do we do with him?,” he asks the other three. If it was just his life on the line, he’d try to pull the man out. However, staying in this room might bring whatever drew them in back.

I’ll roll 3d6. Each 1-3 = “leave the area alone” and each 4+ will to be to try and save the man. Del and Ronick want to be done with the room [each rolled a 1, so they feel strongly about it]. Louis on the other hand rolled a 6 so he feels strong about saving the man.

Del suggests they get out of the room with haste and Ronick agrees. In his gruff, draconic voice, he wonders aloud if the man is part of the trap. Louis backs up Gryffin’s urge to try and help the man. Gryffin gives some thought to the disagreement and suggests that he and Louis approach the man while Del and Ronick stay back.

Ronick grumbles at this. “Loo, man, if he’s real, he’s half dead.”

“Yeah, Ron, but not all dead. What if it was you tricked into thinking you were eating some great roast salmon while you rotted away?”

“Bah, fine, but if he attacks you, I’m taking his head off.”

“Perfect.”

Gryffin nods to Louis and the two approach the man. After a few second of hesitation, Gryffin puts his hand on the man’s shoulder.

Let’s just through this to a reaction roll. At disadvantage. Not that it matters too much. It was a 6 and a 4. Both hostile.

“Sir, you need…”

“I’m feckin’ eating, this is MY food.” Standing up, the man takes a swing at Gryffin as Gryffin and Louis step back.

He rolls a 5 which is nowhere near enough to hit Gryffin’s AC of 19.

Even as Louis and Gryffin move back, Rorick upholds his promise to protect Louis. The draconian runs in with his great sword swinging.

He rolls a 3. Even with his +3, that won’t cut it. Pun intended.

The enraged, starved man is strangely spry as he leaps back on a table and the great sword smashes through the long dry rotted wood. Silver plates clatter to floor.

Gryffin is unsure what is going on but leaps after the man with a punch to try knock him out.

Gryffin gets a 16+2 = 18 for an easy hit. But now we’ll do a special check. DC12 Wisdom check to see if he can judge the right amount of damage (Benark is presumably around 1hp and near death at this point so pretty much any unjudged hit will end him). 19-1 = 18. He does. Benark goes down into a slumber.

“Ronick, if you can carry him, let’s get him back to the other. Maybe Ada can help.”

Just to note: No one has any interest in looting plates that seem to have some sort of ghost food curse upon them. Ronick might be willing to risk it for food but not for a few haunted pieces of silver [even if they are worth 2gp each].

Playing in the Darkness with Dead Things

It will be Round 15 before the “away team” returns, so this leaves Ada and Boris time to chat. They aren’t the sort that really talk to each other and there’s a silver chain hanging on the end of the decayed pier. I’m going to make a very minor challenge just to let Boris act a bit like a kid. A DC12 DEX check to get out there (with DC15 to do it without the ancient pier crumbling).

“So,” Boris asks while picking at his snapping turtle beak, “jellyfish, right?”

Ada continues to hum a song under her breath and just cocks her head slightly to the side. With her antlers, it gives her very much the appearance of a confused deer. No one but Ada knows the origin of the song. It was a tune made up by her mother that was sung to get the strange child to sleep. Back when life wasn’t so strange for the young mutated girl. Before even her mom and dad considered her a bit too Bittermold. Another thing that no one but Ada knows is that deep down she is actually glad to have this new strange family of fools and remnants. The kind of words to explain this fact are as beyond her as the ancient language is beyond a potato farmer. Not impossible, just difficult and in need of training.

Boris sighs, taking Ada’s internal sorting in the wrong way. As he gets up and starts searching their small campsite, he spots something. Right at the edge of the pier, and almost at the edge of the firelight. A silver glint. He kicks against the pier and the silver moves slightly. He turns, excitedly, to point it out to Ada but reading excitement on his snapping turtle face is not easy for those good at reading faces and Ada is currently worried that the kick she heard was frustration about her and so is looking off to the east where the dark of this underground beach devours the edge of sight.

Boris shrugs and lifts himself up on the pier. It kind of holds him. Besides, it’s not like there is anything better to do while “guarding” freezing cold sand that has not seen daylight in…well, in ever. He guesses. Boris can smell the flow of water in the open ocean but down here? This is a place for worms and mushrooms. Those that don’t mind the temperature, anyhow.

He braces his feet for it and takes off…

He gets ADV on sneaking/hiding but nothing like parkour type things. Rolls a 2. Even with his +1 it is nowhere near. The dock is coming down. He’ll burn one of his “Smoke Steps” to leap towards the necklace and grab it.

Trying to roll to swim he first gets a 3+1=4DEX. Then, again, he gets a 20. So he flounders a bit but overcomes.

The jellyfish “roll” a 4, meaning they don’t get to him.

Ada watches Boris leap up onto the pier and then a loud crack sounds out that echoes around the cavern. As the chelonian starts to fall, he moves impossibly fast — faster than her eye can track — and grabs something right as he and the ruins go down into the water. She is on her feet and watching the dark surface as bubbles drift up. But right as she starts for the edge to see if she can help he pops out from the dark and after effortless paddles toward the shore.

“That water is absolutely freezing!,” he says with a laugh.

Because the decayed dock collapsed, will roll wandering monster at disadvantage— 5 & 1. They trigger an encounter.

Since the first two are more environmental, we’ll do d6+2. 2+2 = 4. A ravenous zombie with a round shield, leather armor, and hand axe shows up. We’ll say from the water. Normally zombies (ShadowDark [SD] page 265) have AC8 and do a +2 slam attack for 1d6. Leather Armor + Shield will boost that 13 – 2 (DEX penalty) = 11. The hand axe does the normal 1d6.

“What were doing, trying to…”

Ada spots the shop coming out of the water behind Boris and points. He does a quick front flip and reverses to see a nord corpse shuffling forward. Water-rotted leather armor — mildly preserved by the cold temps — wraps its decaying flesh. A rusty hand axe. Whatever magic animates it, is animating it right for them.

I want to try individual imitative. Boris gets 6+1 = 7. Ada gets 14+2 = 16. Normbie gets 20-2 = 18. It goes first.

It will attack Boris.

8+2 = 10 vs Boris’s AC of 13. Miss.

Ada attacks with a dagger. 13-1 = 12STR. A hit. For 2hp (zombie has 11).

Boris attacks with his razor chain and whiffs. Natural 1. Spends a Luck token (5 remaining). Gets a 4+2 = 6. Still a miss but doesn’t critically fail.

The zombie moves with surprising speed and swings the rusty axe but Boris gets his shell in the way and it bounces off. While it is focusing on the chelonian, Ada has her dagger out and stabs into its sodden flesh. The entity does not react at all.

Boris pulls out his razor chain and spins to slash it across the zombie. It very nearly gets caught in the rotted flesh but at the last second he manages to pull it back just right to disentangle it.

Initiative: Boris (13+1=14). Ada (16+2=18). Normbie (20…again).

Zombie this time attacks Boris again. Mad about that dock. 14 + 2 = 16. Hit. 2 damage.

Ada: 3-1 = 2. Miss.

Boris: 16+2 = 18. Hit. Does 3hp damage. Zombie has 6hp remaining.

If we go with conversation = 1 Round. Pier equals 1 round. Combat equals 2 rounds, so far, the others will show up on the next, running to help.

As the second slash of the axe comes down on Boris, this one chips a bit of shell off and slices through the arm. The chelonian curses loudly. Ada drives forward and tries to get a second stab in, but this time the misses. Boris snaps the chain at the zombie, wrapping around its arm, and pulls tightly. It cuts through the soft flesh but the zombie has no sense of pain or fear and so continues its assault.

Initiative: Boris: 15+1=16. Ada: 14+2=16. Zombie=14-2=12. This time the zombie goes last. If the zombie is still standing we’ll roll init for the others.

Boris: 13+2 = 15. Hit. 1hp. Nice. Zombie has 5hp remaining.

Ada: ooo, 20. Gets that Luck token back from earlier. Gets 2d4 damage. Gets…2. Hah. 3hp remaining.

Zombie: 19+2 = 21. Against Ada. For 6hp. She goes down. Gets 4 turns on her death clock.

Gryffin: 13+5. Strong hit. Does 7hp damage. Zombie does not make it’s “Relentless” save and collapses.

Boris dives to the zombie’s right and slashes at its axe arm while Ada goes for the left and stabs into the zombie’s left. Both land hits but the animating force of the creature keeps it upright.

Tragedy hits as the zombie changes its target from Boris to Ada. The swing of the axe catches her off guard and she falls!

“ADA!,” Boris shouts. From the darkness behind him, an arrow shoots true and catches the zombie through its head. Finally, the animating force is vanquished and it collapses near the water’s edge.

Gryffin runs up with the others and taken in the scene — collapsed pier and collapsed Ada — “What happened? Are you hurt?”

Boris tries to stammer an apology but Gryffin cuts him off. The ranger pulls forth his pouch of herbs and vials and starts working on a concoction. The second time he has done such for Ada in as many days. He tries to not think to himself that maybe she shouldn’t be here as he works on a healing salve.

Rolls at to make a DC15 [WIS] healing salve. Gets a 3. Spends the luck token that Ada just got back. This time gets a 20 [hello!]. Gets that luck token back and has a double dose. I’ll say he can give one shot to each of the two youngest members. Boris gets 3hp back [to full] and Ada gets 6 [to full].

As he tilts Ada’s head up, Gryffin puts some of the healing salve on her head injury and pours some into her throat and washes it down with water. He then hands the other half of the concoction to Boris. The chelonian starts to refuse but Gryffin insists. Boris is definitely looking sheepish — at least those who can read chelonian expressions — but gets more excited as Ada starts to revive.

“I’m so sorry, Ada. I just saw this glinting at the edge of the pier and thought it might be…interesting.” He holds up a silver chain with a bone ring on it. “I…don’t know what it is, though.”

Bone-based relics seems like it might be in Ada’s wheelhouse. We’ll say DC15 INT. 2+1 = 3. No. She doesn’t recognize it.

Before this next moment, I’m going to give Boris a WIS open check. 7-3 = 4. Yeppers.

She shakes her head. “It’s…interesting. Looks like a ram’s head. You should wear it. It would look good on you.”

Boris smiles a snapping turtle smile and takes the ring and fits on his smallest finger, blinking a bit as he feels a certain…anger…wash over him. But the positive attention from a member of the group counteracts it. For now.

The Ring of Ramlaat allows you to enter into a berserker rage once per day (double damage, but enemies have advantage to attack). It also taunts the wearer into attacking and entering into conflict.

Ada thanks Gryffin as he helps her to her feet. He half ignores it, still trying to not think too badly of the two. He gets her attention and points to the dying man. “Can you try and help with him?”

“What’s wrong with him?”

“He’s been eating an illusion for some time.”

“I’m not a healer. Maybe feed him.”

“Yeah, but how…”

Boris coughs. “I was a cook. Fed a lot of half-starved sailors. I can come up with something.”

“Something that tastes better than a magic spell?”

Boris goes over to the chest and rummages pieces from the food inside. He starts prepping a gentle broth that will still be full of flavor.

Because it is sort of a redemption moment for him, and because he wants to make it up to Gryffin, I’ll give him Advantage [besides, his background is as a cook]. The DC will be 15 since he’s competing against magic. He gets an 18-3 = 15WIS and hits it.

14 rations remain in the chest.

Since this will take a few rounds, let’s say d6+2 = 4+2 = 6. 2 more wandering monster checks. Both negative. This brings us to round 21…just to make that official…

Day 3 (Airwen 23). ROUND 21. Torchlight Remaining: N/A.

Boris spends the half an hour making the a cup of broth that Gryffin has to admit the smell is delicious. Considered the dried and generally spartan nature of their rations, he is unsure how the teenage chelonian managed it. Still, he takes it and gives it to Louis to pour in small doses into the man’s mouth. The man starts to stir as real food starts to register with his body — and quite excellent real food — and quickly takes the cup and downs the whole serving.

“More…,” he croaks.

“We have more food we can share, but first can you help us?,” Louis says in his most pleasing voice.

Rolling with ADV for the food and his bard background, gets 13+3 = 16CHA and passes a DC15. The man is going to be majorly impressed.

“How can I possibly help you?”

FUTURE DOUG HERE: I realized right as I was editing this post that if they moored the boat near the docks, that it’s collapse might have caused the boat to drift. I didn’t say at the time and frankly feel it would be unfair to just solo-caveat and say “nah, something else” so I’ll leave it to chance. Did the boat get set free at the collapse of the of the dock? → 9. No, but… the mooring ropes are tangled in the wreckage. Nothing that requires any dice roll or play time, but something for story.

The last couple of bits here were added at that time.

“We need to know our way around these damned caves,” Gryffin answers, “So let’s talk about that while Boris figures out how to get out boat free from the mess he made…”

“Ah, squid,” Boris says, looking at the boat half sunk as the weight of the collapsed pier has pulled it slightly under.

On the Nature of the Months in Barthus

Before the fall of Barthus, the empire kept time through a series of twelve months. Each named for a type of tree that thrived. Each having 30 days precisely. The names of the months are derived from Old Barthic words and some degree of semantic drift has changed them. After some debate about how to handle the final few days of each year, in Barthic Year 697, it was decreed that the final five days of each year would be called Thorn (or Dran, in old Barthic, there are debates about which is most appropriate).

After the collapse of Barthus, the people of Grunce and some other locations have kept up this system of months. Some consider it to be the year 1791BY. Others, like Cal Grunkheart, put the date 301 After Crossing. A new calendar for a new, terrible world.

The relative isolation of the various pockets of Barthic remnants means linguistic differences exist amongst the Barthic diaspora, but in Grunce the 13 months are:

  1. [SPRING STARTS] Ingode [Flowering Dogwood]
  2. Crosen [Cherry]
  3. Salea [Azaleas]
  4. [SUMMER STARTS] Falla [Apple]
  5. Gellig [Pear]
  6. Airwen [Plum]
  7. [FALL STARTS] Dorwen [Oak]
  8. Onwen [Ash]
  9. Yanwen [Yew]
  10. [WINTER STARTS] Pyngode [Pine]
  11. Sedwyd [Cedar]
  12. Merryw [Juniper]
  13. [THE CHANGE OF YEARS] Dran [Thorn]

DOUG’S COMMENTARY

June 24, 2025

On the Session that Never Was…

As hinted at in Intermission #7, there was a session of this campaign that has now faded into relative non-existence. In it, a few non-sense moments happened. Ronick wandered north on his own. He went into the room and I misread the encounter and made him roll to see if he would start eating immediately. He did. Del and Louis found him, and starting grabbing the plates and tossing them out. For some reason, I started playing it as if the room was right at the beach so it was like they were tossing them right out into the water. All this did was to cause the man inside to scream, rush out, and drown himself to try and get to the plates.

Eventually, four of the team — everyone but Boris — pulls Ronick out and tosses him in the water and he ends up getting stung a lot and finally “breaks the curse” after using his lightning breath to send bolts of lightning into the water. Around this time, Boris spots the chain and does a quick jump to get it and then gets back with no problem. He feels the anger of the ring but laughs it off because he “always choses violence.” After that, they decided to head up the beach towards the flotsam cave.

Add to this that I rushed getting them back into session with no real notekeeping about restocking, healing up, or anything. No sense of Gryffin’s general careful planning for his team. Essentially no one — except maybe Ronick — was played like a character. So I restarted it and worked out much more about how they actually act. I kept Boris making the nonsense decision to try for the shiny thing to alleviate his boredom and impress Ada. For my sins. And his.

During that session, though, I did work out the months, above. So I kept that.

Getting Back to the Session That Is…

I had a lot of fun playing through this a bit slower and figuring out the voices. The brashness of Del. The careful leadership of Gryffin. The bruskness — but still team-player-ness — of Ronick. The shifting vibe of Louis as he plays up to what he thinks people want to hear. Ada struggling to fit in despite her antlers [and hooves, which people likely haven’t noticed]. Boris being very much a teenaged, bleak-touched, ninja chelonian. The latter two are the youngest but also the ones most abandoned by their family [Ronick is kind of abandoned by his family, but largely because he abandoned them first]. It’s nice to picture them making a frienship. One that might be tested by Boris being influenced by the ring.

I still don’t know if it is “proper” to allow someone to heal a person doing death saves but I’m going to say it is. It’s how I would play it non-solo. If anything ever says otherwise, I’ll probably ignore it.

This is the kind of session where half of it doesn’t really make it to the “page.” I set up a folder for files related. Set up a template. Updated some CSS. Set up a musical playlist. Got the files sorted to have the ones that are “officially” part of the campaign [see the Credits, below]. Tossed one set of dice because they were being very naughty — actually the dice set I reviewed months ago — and instead I subbed in some dice that I think came from the Shadowdark Kickstarter. Black with silver skulls. They work a lot better at not rolling the same three numbers on repeat.

Speaking of music, this will mark a slight shift for me, at least compared to more recent months. I have been largely using a single album to act as a kind of theme for each session/post. In this case, I just loaded up a playlist of various music with generally a mix of folk, world, dark ambient, ambient, sort of alt classical, dungeon synth, and such. Then I just play it at random. The playfulness of the Boris scene, pre-fight, was a bit brought about by the playful nature of the soundtrack at the time. Etc. If ever a track really shines through the current playing, I might give it a shout out.

On the personal side, after playing this I am going to be packing up most of my gaming supplies: dice, random generators, and such. I’ll keep a few small books and my “small box of dice” out. That might be it for my physical toolkit for a couple of months.

June 25, 2025

After some thought, and thinking back to the way that some threads and characters shifted hard or disappeared in the The GLOW 1996, I figured it was a good idea to create a fully “Open Threads, Notes, Situations, and Complications”. It’ll sit at the bottom of each post and I’ll update it as things change. It’s a little fuddly to put it on EACH post and I might change my mind and just move it to a single document in the future but this way I don’t have to spend quite so long having to open up three or four previous posts each time I’m just trying to recall some info about a city district or whatnot.

CREDITS

At it’s core, the Bleak + The Pearl is a ShadowDark (by Kelsey Dionne and Arcane Library) and SoloDark game. Various Cursed Scrolls and other official supplements are used for characters and notes. More information is available at The Arcane Library.

This session is played using materials from Cursed Scroll #3: Midnight Sun including the Sea Caves map used for the main adventure, the text from the “Hoard of the Sea Wolf King” adventure, and the Isles of Andrik used for the hex crawl. “The Hoard of the Sea Wolf King” and all maps used in it are by Kelsey Dionne. Used here for personal use. The hex crawl, including Valthis (etc), are also creations of Dionne. The hex map cartography is by Cameron Maas.

Tokens are from Game-Icons.Net‘s various artists and used here CC-BY 3.0.

Other sources that have been used in this campaign include (those in bold are especially well used):

  • Zach Best’s Universal NPC Emulator.
  • Paul Bimler’s The Solo Adventurer’s Toolkit One & Two.
  • Cesar Capacle’s Random Realities.
  • Atelier Clandestin’s Sandbox Generator.
  • Kevin Crawford’s Worlds Without Number and Scarlet Heroes.
  • Xane & Bunnie Daniels’ (et al) Unnatural Selection.
  • Matt Davis and dicegeeks’ Books of Random Tables. Various ones but especially the The Great Book [Fantasy] and Quests series.
  • Various maps by Dyson Logos.
  • Ben Milton’s Knave, 2nd Edition.
  • Chris Powell’s Letters from the Dark series of supplements.
  • Raging Swan Press’s GM Miscellany series, especially Dungeon Dressing and Wilderness Dressing.
  • Skerples’ The Monster Overhaul.

ART CREDIT AND EXPLANATION

The splash art is derived from “Banquet Still Life” by Abraham van Beyeren.

Open Threads, Notes, Situations, and Complications

  • [Primary] Finding the fuelstone activators:
    • The [Mad Del] Marius Diadem [Found, Returned, Activated]
    • The [Elude] Harucam Mantle
    • The Bittermold Mask
    • The Mistamere Lens
    • The Grunkheart “Eye”
  • Gryffin’s doubt about Boris and Ada’s abilities to help
  • Boris is being slightly (for now) manipulated by the Ring of Ramlaat
  • Gryffin is under a Great Oath of Odin to help Signe [Valthis] vs Jarl Karsgald. He has until Pyngode 1 when Karsgard launches his winter campaign.
  • Exploring Jonias’s Grunkheart’s lab and the Everburning Forest to harness its powers.
    • Jonias’s pocket dimension
  • Working with the Librarian [the Grunkheart Golem] to take control of the monolith
  • Grunce Drama:
    • House Marr [who manages the marketplace] vs
    • House Allocius [who manages the shipyard] vs
    • Free Merchants [those who do not wish to align with the current two great houses]
    • Currently the plot by Marr to sabotage the Free Merchants has been anti-climatic.
    • Lady Moreena Grunkheart [Gryffin’s mom and Cal’s Aunt]: Current leader of House Grunkheart
    • Lady Varren Marius [Del’s cousin]: Current leader of House Marius
  • The Bleak:
  • Other Characters:
  • Other Places:
    • The Isles of Andrik: North of Barthus and free from the Bleak
    • Caux Mountains
    • Sofron Desert:
      • Mist Lake: Not actually a lake, it’s a flat still portion of the desert traditionally run by House Mistamere after they fled Grunkheart
    • South Barthic Plains
      • The River Orneth flows through it

The Bleak + The Pearl Intermission #7. Re-Entering the Sea Caves (finally)

By

On June 24, 2025

In Intermission, Solo Musings, The Bleak and the Pearl

A lone explored stands dwarfed at the watery edge of a cave with the light of day glinting off frozen trees behind him.

Finally Returning to The Bleak + The Pearl

The last time I posted The Bleak + The Pearl content was December 29, 2024. The last time I played The Bleak + The Pearl was actually early January. It is mentioned in Fourth Wall Break #7. At the time, I thought there was going to be “a week or two” before I tried playing it again [around three weeks after the last posting]. In reality, it has been six months.

Why?

The simplest answer is that the “one campaign arc at a time” — replacing the old system of playing through two-to-four campaigns at the same time and posting once from each around weekly — ended up working well. And all the other stuff I have talked about impacting my solo play time schedule this year. Those things combined and I just got busy (in general) and specifically got busy having fun doing other things.

Had The GLOW 1996 not taken five-plus months, we probably would have seen Bleak + Pearl back in March. All things considered.

The more complex answer is that three additional things — beyond the one-at-a-time mental shift — happened at the same time while I was playing the session that was not and will not be posted.

Thing the First: There is an encounter where characters might fall for a mental compulsion/illusion where they think a room is full of food and are compelled to keep eating it. It is pretty open when it comes to solutions as to how to break someone out of the spell. I came up with a rather odd solution, but I was trying to play the whole campaign as a series of fast bullet points. So the solution was kind of weird and felt rushed. I did not like it. This was a time to be learning new characters and it felt like I was shortcutting stuff. Which brings me to…

Thing the Second: About once every three months I sit down and say, “Hey, I need a break from my longer, more drawn out stuff and the best solution would be a fairly quick to play, quick to record campaign!,” and every three months plus a couple of sessions I end up not really liking it. Partially, maybe mostly, because it leads to me quickly trying to shortcut around stuff. The second campaign session felt very rushed. Notekeeping was getting sloppier. Solutions were getting sloppier. I was starting to pre-plan some encounter solutions to keep it going faster. It was feeling less and less like something I would play and more like something I was trying to speedrun.

Thing the Third: The fast-play-then-recap nature — and associated shortcuts — meant that I was using increasing amount of stuff directly from the modules and the maps and the icons and taking less time to make sure everything was properly credited. I’d like to play more pre-existing content but I don’t want to just copy-and-paste someone else’s intellectual property. I needed to take a bit of a break and think about ways to avoid doing such a thing.

I needed a way to rectify those things when I felt it was time to do so. Now seems like a fair time — assuming I have time to get this done before moving to another country and having to put the whole blog on hiatus. I will do my utmost.

Complex Problems Require Simple Solutions

The general answer is stop trying to force myself into a rapid-fire “bullet-point then recap” style. I like things where characters and settings are felt. Described. Discussed.

Besides that, a few compromises will be made.

I am going to reduce some elements in the general formatting of the blog. The hiding of mechanics, notes, and “gamemaster” [i.e., “planning”] sections will be done away with for now. My style of play has increasingly become about shifting around those and even when they intefere somewhat with readability they are kind of vital to understanding exactly what happens. They might return after we settle down and get this up and going, but for now I’m not going to worry about it. There will still be a “table of contents” type element. I like being able to link to specific scenes, lore, and such. There will not be a previous/next episode. Simply because it might be a minute before I can update the “playlist.” For the time being, tags and campaign pages will have to suffice and even the latter might go un-updated for weeks or a couple of months until I have time to catch up.

All these things will greatly help me in being able to play the game largely offline and then import it directly into the blog when I have time.

Though I am reducing elements, I will be adding a time tracking element. Some games that did not feel a good fit for the “Doug Style” of playing were partially because they had a more precise time tracking element — especially OSR and NSR type games — so I’ll add a simple element to fix that in place. It should look a bit like this:

Day 3. Round 7. Torchlight remaining: 5.

Not every segment of time will get its own bubble. If we wait for five rounds, then the next one will be five rounds later. It’s just a tool, not a requirement. For those games that take place in a real world or real-world-analog where I keep track of days and locations, that element will take over that place.

Generally I will also be trying to reduce (but not 100% avoid) intellectual property issues. It’s hard to avoid it, completely. Any let’s play of a published adventure is going to spoil some elements. Use some names. Possibly show some graphics. Some let’s plays just show snippets of the module directly on screen. Effectively all let’s plays discuss anywhere from a moderate to a major portion of the content [NPC stats, locations, twists]. That being said, I’ll try and keep it well balanced. Refer to module pages and names. Post only quick summaries of room/area content. Try and avoid showing completed maps and such. Credit everything. With the current adventure, I won’t go back and undo stuff I posted — instead, I’ll focus on moving forward — but as the overall campaign continues it will shift a bit to being more in Doug-voice and in-world voice rather than than in-module voice.

Finally, I will just gladly return fully to Doug-style playing. Characters will get scenes. Scenes will get details. There will be inner dialogue. Drips of lore. All that. The Shadowdark sessions tend to fairly quick play — the balance between mechanical and planning sections vs writing/playing sections closer to 50/50 or even 60/40 rather than stuff where it is more like 20/80.

When Is It Returning?

I don’t know. The plan is to start playing this week (the week of June 16th, 2025). I will write it directly into the blog as my play diary, etc. If I get through the caves and get to a spot where I feel the story is complete without there being a cliff-hanger, I’ll start scheduling the posts to go out either on a weekly or semi-weekly or even…um, whatever 1/3-weekly schedule would be. If I do not get finished, I’ll leave a note to that effect and then I’ll have a few sessions in the bag to help kickstart the re-awakening of the blog circa-August/September 2025.

Along the way I’ll work on some solo advice and solo musing stuff. And maybe some simple one-shot type things.

CREDITS

“Re-entering the Sea Caves” is photo by Jonny Gios on Unsplash.

Happy First Birthday, The Doug Alone

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On June 21, 2025

In Fourth Wall Break, Intermission

 

Happy birthday, Doug Alone, you are now one year old [officially]. 

A bit over a year ago (maybe 1 year + 1 week) I had come up with the idea to play a solo campaign that could be entirely played on my oldish smart phone. I didn’t need a lot of apps, per se. A PDF viewer to view a Tricube Tales micro-setting (I chose Guardians of the Shadow Frontier) and the Tricube Solo PDF. A dice app. Then Google Keep to track the short scenes. 

Here is what the original playthroughs looked like:

As you can see, I misunderstood how scenes worked with Tricube Solo and thought you had to draw an Ace/Joker to move on to the next. It made a fairly action oriented episode played out over a few set-pieces. 

After playing out a “session” over a few short bursts, I would recap it to this blog. It was nice and relaxing. For the blog version, I would type as many or more words than my initial notes. Sometimes I would add in dialogue and side scenes. A simple piece of stock art (pulled from Pixabay) would be used. At the time, it was never meant to illustrate the scene but instead to simply act as kind of a symbolic mood piece.

A little over a week later, on June 30, I posted the third session of my Bleak + Peal campaign. Initially, it was pretty much exactly like The Bloody Hands. I would play it out with external tools and then post a summary after the fact.

The next day after that (July 1), I posted the first piece of advice: about treating death in solo play as more of a narrative opportunity rather than a reduction of narrative options. Then, that same week (July 4), I posted the initial draft my “extended Tricube framework” which wasn’t just for solo play but actually for co-op play. Over time I have changed a good deal of concepts for it and probably, soon, should write out the changes. 

Finally, in that same week (or so) I posted the recap that was meant to bring my main solo play campaign, an Advanced Fighting Fantasy campaign about Barston Bakersfield and a city called Humb, to the blog. As of eleven months later, that plan has never worked out. Soon, maybe. 

So, see you next year, right?  

July 2024, the first true month of the blog, had 31 posts. An average of one-per-day. Which is crazy talk.

Arguably, the most important change in the early days of the blog was the Gareth Hendrix and the Bunker Bigfoot campaign. It was the first “actual play” campaign where I used the blog itself as a play journal. It used the footnotes concept I had introduced for part 5 of the The Bloody Hands campaign to display mechanical aspects of the play “in line” (but without the mark-up meaning readers had to scroll down to see them). It used a short-story format to represent a higher depth of solo play for myself (where characters had actual dialogue and scenes had setting details). It brought the Alabama Weird to the blog.  It basically took the blog from an idea dump and recap collection to a central tool in my solo play journey. It also introduced using stock art – including photos I had taken myself of a real world equivalent of the setting – to actually illustrate scenes rather than just hint towards them thematically.

By the end of the month, The Bleak + The Pearl had transitioned to an “actual play” campaign and more art was being used. Then the first draft of Eustace + Hitomi was created as a spiritual successor (though set nearly 30 years earlier) to Gareth Hendrix. The use of multiple campaigns in multiple settings meant I was increasing AI art to try and fill in the void. A decision that I ended up retconning and regretting but posts from that time still have pieces here or there. 

Prior to the more advanced formatting tricks to bring up posts, I was using custom “section breaks” for each campaign. Small PNGs to split up sections to help reduce eye strain. Which ended up being a bit of a problem when I would swap up colors on the blog. 

After the next month, I started introducing gamemaster/prep phases where I would set up elements and figure out scenes. I started adding in intermission elements for campaigns that needed check ins and extended musings. And then, on August 25, I introduced the term “Fourth Wall Break” to describe more meta-posts. I had already had a “check-in” but the FWBs were conceived as a way to talk about the personal elements around the blog but also some thoughts about the blog and solo-play that did not fit a particular post. This one is technically a Fourth Wall Break but also is not. 

So it goes…

By October 2024, I was playing around with what would become the standard Doug Alone format with different sections have different distinct colors and formatting. Around the middle of November 2024, I had started using even more complex formatting and hyperlink elements to make mechanical notes pop-up on hover. 

I kept struggling with the [likely wrong for me, personally] belief that what I really needed was to return to fast-play recap-style posting. Every time I tried, I ended up frustrated. Also, copy-and-pasting my actual play notes into the blog’s HTML (possibly) led to the blog being flagged as some sort of scam site. 

In December 2024, I put the blog on a hiatus to go and work out some formatting (meaning that some posts linked above probably look different than they initially did, which means some of my above links are likely wrong on timing). The GLOW 1996: Agent Johnny Blue represented the first full version of the standard formatting (which changes, but sticks to the overall elements).

January 2024, I went through and did something completely different. I rewrote essentially every Eustace + Hitomi post up to that point. Sometimes, a little, sometimes a lot. Fixing some heavy glitches and concepts. I also decided to focus on one primary solo play campaign at a time [generally a shorter arc/chapter of a campaign]. 

Anyhow, one year and 154 published posts later, I’m still here. Still playing solo games. Badly. But enjoying myself, mostly. 

What surprises me the most going back and looking at all these posts is just how much recrimination and self-doubt shines through. Like, really, honestly: who cares? This is a fun experiment that allows me to play games and do some creative writing. Why have I so consistently worried about it? 

I have no idea.

What have I learned over this year? Absolutely nothing. Anything I type here I will end up going back on and forgetting within a week [month at most]. 

What am I looking forward to the most in the second year? Based on this historical look back, probably starting 2-3 “recap only” campaigns and then complaining about it. Making a big deal about adding a couple of formatting elements. And still not bringing back my OG boy, Barston Bakersfield.

Poor guy.

Thanks for reading, Space Pilgrims. I love you all.

Fourth Wall Break #10: Arcs/Games Likely (and less likely) to Appear on The Doug Alone. aka, Doug’s Wishlist

By

On June 19, 2025

In Fourth Wall Break

As said in my recent debrief from The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont, I want to do a quick-ish list of all the various campaigns, campaign arcs, mini-campaigns, and one-shots that have occurred to me over the past few months but as-of-yet not realized. This is kind of a bookmark of sorts. A place for me to go back and say, “Hey, I was thinking about playing that!” 

Chances are, absolutely nothing from this list will actually make it to the final product (i.e., actually posted to this blog). Better chances are that some of these will make it and others will get added to other stacks. Some things thought to be long will be short. Some things thought to be short will be long or even kick offs into whole meta-campaigns. Quite a bit of stuff will be altered before it begins and then altered even more before it is finished [I’m good at that!]. Any one of these might inspire a half-dozen more things that take the place of the others.

To keep it kind of simple, I’ll list things roughly in order form Very Likely to Likely to Less Likely to Who Knows?. 

Very Likely

Lars and the Raven. Every entry in the Larsson the Maudlin D100 Dungeon short campaign ended with more backstory, more lore, and more characters. Since it is set on Phillia (the same island-once-kingdom as the rest of Ick + Humb), I figured I might bring it along into that fold (aka, Advanced Fighting Fantasy). Then the idea of combining it with the redeemed ex-warlock Haig Raven popped in my head. None of that will make sense to anyone but me, but the idea is a somewhat comical adventure focusing on a dour young man with some fighting ability, an older man trying to redeem his past evils, the former man’s cute storytelling lover-to-be (an accomplished people person and thief), and a fairly cynical archeologist who came to Phillia to get rich. No clue about the story, just yet. Will likely figure it all at random and then have a couple-three dungeons.

Alice Hunter Investigates. Another adventure growing out of Ick + Humb. Alice Hunter (like Haig Raven) worked with Barston Bakersfield for an adventure or two. The idea for this one is she has teamed up with various outcasts around Humb to solve crimes. Kind of a blatant rip off of Discworld’s Night Watch. Comic. Silly. Occasionally epic. An adventure that started but never really got going by me involved angry centaurs, an ancient space ship, and various broken promises. Might restart that one. Might not.

Yevony and Nizel, Right Bastards. The third of the side stories related to the aftermath of Barston Bakersfield’s victory in the Warlock War. Yevony the Great and Nizel Torel are the two greatest heroes in the history of Phillia. Both are also conmen. Yevony uses his wizardly adventures to steal artifacts from better, less popular, wizards. Nizel is less a fighter and more a liar who knows how to write his own stories in third person (across a dozen pen names). While they look for new victims, they have been tasked by Barston to solve one last problem of his: a group of people kidnapped and shipped north from Humb. For reasons. 

“All Mimsy Were the Borogoves.” I had an idea for a short story (the kind you write, not the kind of you play) about a man who takes it on himself to investigate his missing ex-girlfriend and her missing new husband. They disappeared after moving to Cresthill, Alabama [essentially the nexus of the Alabama Weird]. When he searches their house, he finds a room with a series of mirrors angled to reflect a small wooden box’s reflection back at itself over and over. The box is open and the word “mimsy” is found inside. I had no idea where it was going but thought it would be fun to play. Originally going to be Tricube Tales (possibly “unflavored” and just using the base system), I’ve now been thinking about shifting it to 198x Midnight Misfits. I like the system (based off of 24XX) and I kind of like the idea of having it be a group of kids investigating weird stuff about town but leaning a bit dark at the same time. If it works out, there might be others in the “Jabberwock” series. 

Bleak + Pearl. Bleak + Pearl is the campaign that will likely live as long as this blog in some form or another. Once I play out the plot to get the Lighthouse back online, it can kick off dozens of other stories without issue. As they push back against the Bleak, it opens up a whole world of weird adventures without having to figure out if folks are mutating and I like that.

I also want to do Something Cypher. Like, real bad. Just don’t know exactly what yet. There was a vague idea of a tie in to Armitage, Alabama and a group that travels through the various levels of the dreamscape. Maybe that. Maybe something else. 

Likely

Untitled Cultist Story. The idea was pretty simple: a cult leader has activated a spell to hide himself while infiltrating Maidenstead. Essentially just a fairly straightforward playthrough of Richard Woolcock’s Eldritch Cultists, it would be a Tricube Tales Solo game where the entire campaign/etc is decided randomly. There would be a mild twist in making it a foe to adult Eustace Delmont (now in his 50s) though Eustace would likely only show up in passing if at all. 

The Whole Damned Dinner. A play off the classic Roadside Picnic, this one would use Troika and Acid Death Fantasy to basically kick off a new campaign world. Rather than just a few random sites of alien incursion, the idea is that a massive alien fleet landed on earth and rewrote all the rules of physics for the planet (well, exposed the truth of physics…but with a Heavy Metal level twist). In the strange otherworldly desert where Alabama used to exist, a group of people do…something. I have no real deep plans for this, but it could be interesting and I really want to play Troika here in some way. Very much so the kind of world where pretty much anything goes.

Oh Captain, My Captain. A straight-forward Outgunned short arc focusing on three or four ex-elite operative types who team up to avenge their old commanding officer who gets taken out by some local tough. The plan is to play a more by-the-book Outgunned story. Genny Yusuda and Nemesio Jones – the more real world/Alabama Weird versions anyhow – are likely to show up but I might change my mind on that. 

The Bitter Taste of Victory. Set almost entirely in The GLOW’s Citadel – mega-mall and den of iniquity rolled in one, but what’s new about that? – some time after Eustace’s influence altered the course of The GLOW (2012 or thereabouts). A group of food cart vendors take place in a Citadel-wide competition for “best street food” and get caught up in various, possibly violent hijinks. Will possibly be played with the third-party Tricube one-sheet Food Fight! and might just be something else. A bit lighter than other The GLOW takes.

Alex The Dumbass vs the Cineplex Demon. One of the longest running “not yet” campaigns for this entire blog, this was the campaign that got completely side-railed by Eustace + Hitomi coming into existence. Then, again, by The GLOW. The idea is that Alex and his friends – not exactly dumbasses but also not not-dumbasses – investigate weird things around Armitage, Alabama. Would be set in essentially current time with Alex and co having a Youtube channel. One of Alex’s friends his Eustace and Hitomi’s son. Probably played with Bloat Games’ Survive This! rules mixing together a few rule books. The initial story will involve a local movie theater where people go missing during showings and occasionally strange movies play without any running the projector booth. Possibly told more as a transcript of the livestreams where the idea that stuff off camera happens but is basically cut. 

Somewhere in this category are thin ideas for a Zombie Apocalypse story and maybe a Pulpy Retro-Sci-Fi story that is basically a zombie story in spaacccceeee….with jetpacks. And ray guns.

Less Likely

Eustace + Hitomi and the Case of the Missing Promises. Technically the prologue of this one is already done. The thing is, I am still not sure if Eustace nor Hitomi Delmont really need another direct story, still. Eventually, though, I’ll want something a bit more Slice of Life and then it might show back up. A ship, The World Promises, turns up in Maidenstead with everyone missing except for some futuristic-looking human-sized containers stored below. Starting off with Eustace, Jani, and Ellie investigating a proper slice of the Alabama Weird, it will also have a pregnant Hitomi and still-slightly-pining-for-Hitomi Amy Patel teaming up to handle other things that crop up about town. Queerer, weirder, and more action-y than the first Eustace + Hitomi story.

The Shadow over Leftfield. A Call of Cthulhu game set in the 1920s or 1930s era of Leftfield, Alabama (the setting for the most popular post on this blog by a notch). The original one-shot (the one played before I started this blog, the post involves the second adventure in the town) involved The One Who Devours, an entity represented by a giant mouth. Seemingly connected to the area’s zipper factory. I am not sure how well a solo-CoC game can go for me but I have a lot of experience playing the system. It’s probably more than “less likely” but it’s also something I might need to push myself to start.

Somewhere in this category would be Other Post-Apocalyptic and Other The GLOW stories. I have ideas, but they have a long way to go before anything like running them.

Who Knows?

The Dregs of Light. Somewhere between Red Dwarf and Warhammer 40K, I had a silly idea for a campaign set in a universe where the Chroma Empire has waged a bloody war for a thousand years. A war that has left little of the galaxy left. Different factions, largely known by their color-coded battle armor, have trampled all the “lesser races and planets” under their foot while shooting at each other. Only a few of the True Colors remain. One vessel, The Magenta Ray, has struck disaster as a bio-virus designed to target the battle armor of the soldiers onboard has killed everyone but the support staff. Now a group of janitors, cooks, and other people considered too unworthy to be of notice have freedom to travel the ravaged galaxy.

Eustace and Gareth Team Up. I had an idea of Eustace Delmont (in his 50s) teaming up with Gareth Hendrix a year or two after the events of Bunker to try and figure a solution to Gareth’s problem. Gareth’s transformation to a near-mythical being that cannot die continues. His wolf-form is now massive and even in human form his regeneration has accelerated to make him practically immune to death. They travel [somewhere] and do [something] trying to untangle what Gareth is, and who the Hendrixes and Marons really are. I have a strong visual of the opening scene but no clue on how to play it or where.

Future Bloody Hands stories. The Bloody Hands started this blog and Arden Ulet was last seen becoming The Storm Crow and leading a war against the Hand that has infiltrated The Order. The thing is, I kind of think the story is just pretty much told. I might set a one-shot or two in that universe in the future but I’ll wait and see.

In here not so much because of disinterest but because of time would be stories using Ironsworn/Starforged, Loner, and others. The problem is, well, I have a lot of ideas. And a lot of those ideas can be played in systems I know pretty well [see above]. See also anything by Kevin Crawford. My own take on Dyson Delve (using Basic Fantasy?). Etc, etc. 

The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont – Debrief and Final Thoughts

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On June 17, 2025

In Debrief, Gamemaster Apprentice Deck, The Glow

 

 

The Recap Section Was Its Own Post

Usually when I do these debrief interludes, I tend to include recaps/trivia and such all rolled together (e.g., The Bloody Hands REBIRTH: Stone Crack’d recap. It gives me a sort of all in one sandbox to kick around a few hefty footfulls of sand as I muse over the game I had just played.

However, the extended nature of this one meant I did the The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont recap [with trivia, sort of…] as a separate post. Essentially, it was a long enough time difference from the start that I knew I would forget things.

I will write this with the assumption that whoever is reading this has a rough understanding of the campaign arc OR of the recap.

The Two Campaigns that Were Not

The original (shorter) arc of this campaign, featuring Johnny Blue, was inspired by three rough things: (1) I was in a bit of a slow down and saw a Youtube video about using Tricube Tales and got the itch to play some more; (2) I liked the challenge of figuring out characters for the Dean Spencer artwork used in the Arcane Agents one-sheet; and (3) I wanted something a bit unrelated to any other on-going campaign so I could futz around with the formatting. I had previous played Arcane Agents with Kazumi — my spouse and primary IRL RPG partner — and liked it. The concept of The Harrowing occurred to me surprisingly quickly. How it might be tied into bring magic into a world that was highly accelerated in technology. A few things were stranger choices: that the smoking — and clearly east Asian woman — was Amy Patel, that the base was a Rambler that floated above the ground, and that Eustace Delmont was in the background.

These strange choices, on a whim, ended up having an impact on a lot of the Eustace + Hitomi campaign. Amy Patel — initially conceived as a young woman of purely Indian descent — changed to Dr. Roman “The Doctor” Patel’s “adopted” daughter, essentially, one he doted on. She became less a victim in the original and less a villain in The GLOW. Concepts like destroying the Rambler started in The GLOW but then happened in the Alabama Weird, first. Eustace became less of a sad sack nerd and more a hero-in-the-rough. His GLOW version became older.

The Johnny Blue campaign that never was: Early on, I was playing a bit loose with storylines but I was always expecting Johnny (aka Jani) to team up with Amy to fight her family. It was a bit unclear what was on the mini-disk [as it was unclear whether I felt like spelling it like mini-disc or mini-disk]. Essentially, his story became too much about the mythic history of The GLOW to deal with petty thugs.

Thus, Eustace Delmont the Psychic was born. Aged up. Bigger. Rougher. No real history of fighting but designed to be a new type of Field Psychic who was as capable in physical fights as psychic battles. Also considered a flight risk by the Order (originally the Arcane Order but since that was a bit of Richard Woolcook’s creation, altered to be just The Lamarkian Order or The Order in later references).

The Eustace Delmont campaign that never was: In fact, that flight risk was originally going to be a big deal. When it first started, I was still using Dean Spencer artwork and had picked up a couple of graphics that had a post-apocalyptic vibe. I had this idea that once Amy Patel was settled — or at least rescued — I might have some twist that the mini-disk was related to the “truth of The GLOW” and that were areas that had been completely consumed by the Soulburn. The Order was going to oppose Eustace finding it and were going to try to stop him, possibly ending with him turning out to be a witch.

Only, we ended up creating a whole host of characters — including Patel’s associates, the Cabal — and there was the whole plan the Cabal had to shop out new GLOWs. A plan that would end up rebirthing the Yuggothians and allow them to help spawn Cthulhu back into existence while wiping out the human race. The scant remnants forced to flee into space and live as Soulburn creations.

I do not regret the fact that both campaigns ignored my original “scaffolding,” especially since both tended to be bigger and more interesting stories, but I do slightly wish Amy had been around for more of it. By the time she showed back up for Johnny, he was going in a completely different direction. By the time she showed up for Eustace, he had a full crew.

Maybe next time, eh? Speaking of…

The Future of The GLOW

At one point I considered The GLOW to be a major meta-series. 1996 was going to be for Johnny and Eustace. 1992 was going to be for Neon Foster. 1997 was going to be for Aurora Hernandez. 1999 was to be for Luca and Sofia’s oldest daughter. Other characters might return. Each year, things were to be worse and worse. Some might be more cyber [or, in this world, aether]. Some might be more mystical. Others might be more slice of life.

At this time, who knows? Eustace has somewhat solved The GLOW both in real life and in game world. I assume that (in world) the Yuggothian influence is fading more and more everywhere. Hedge magicians are finding their craft to be less effective. Psychics are weaker and weaker. In exchange, some of the inherent cruelty is fading. People are still bastards, but the Witches Three are gone and The Order is being led by a person who has become one with the Soulburn [or pulled a trick to hide himself from view, I still don’t know which one I prefer].

That being said, there are still so many stories I could tell. Something silly like food truck wars in The Citadel. Something horror. Something action. Something fantasy. I doubt I am done with The GLOW unless I just get very distracted, but it’s less a story that needs to be told, now, and more one just waiting in the background for me to recall.

Things I Liked

There was a lot I really enjoyed.

Speaking purely for the Eustace Delmont and Hitomi Meyer stretch, I liked most of it. It was a fun story that was a fairly Doug-type narrative. People at the bottom of the pecking order manage to overcome by punching up hard and fast. I adored the way it became an existential fight for the human race. I liked how Eustace became a crow with antlers. It feels very Doug.

Thinking to a few scenes in particular that stand out…

  • The initial scene in the mall (aka, The Citadel). It was pure aesthetics and then quickly shifted to the first fight. I didn’t know how strong enemies had to be so I went for fairly weak enemies — if I could do anything over, I might have made them tougher and more recurring — and Eustace killing them in a single roll went a long way to establish his personal legend. In fact, removing Patel’s goons from being the recurring bad-guy did a lot of work to making the story even bigger.
  • The hotel scene where Eustace and Hitomi — have only just met but tangled together by the threads matrix — try to make their relationship make sense. It was a fun sexy scene that still stayed relatively pure.
  • The scene in the safe house where Eustace just figures out the plot and it suddenly is very Lovecraftian.
  • The scene where Eustace drops a fool from a great height, a trick I only allowed myself to use once.
  • The scrapyard scene and the motorbike scene as two non-consquential scenes that show how people in The GLOW still see the shared humanity.
  • Virtually any scene where I abused chase mechanics to make something new — such as the Battle of the Rambler or the various hacking mechanics — were also a lot of fun because they felt pretty me.

Even though it was meant to be a maybe two-months-long story, it ended up becoming the core of my solo play for five-plus-months and it makes it feel more like a piece of me than some others that go more smoothly. These have been my characters for a fairly long time now, all things considered.

Things I Did Not Like So Much

I think the only thing I did not like so much was the mental struggles of playing and writing the campaign while going through five tiers of brain fog. I’ve talked about it before and don’t want to keep hashing on about it, but it was like lifting a sofa while exhausted. The brain fog meant it was hard to keep everything in memory. I should have taken better notes, made myself cheat sheets. I’ve done that for shorter campaigns.

I think I would have liked more oracles in the end.

I also know that the meta-game elements of Outgunned got completely left behind. Heat, the Boss Villain, Plans B, and so forth. It was there and influenced things but while the mechanics was 90% Outgunned, there were gaps in the glue holding together. I think this is most felt in the final fight. On one hand, it was precisely an action movie fight. Two of the characters going off to do things to bring the plans together. Hitomi diving behind some non-descript structures to help manage the fight. Genny having a broken jaw and diving down to shoot the main-big-bad off the roof. Eustace flying down into a collapsing building to save a friend. On the other, it sort of missed some elements of Outgunned. I think. I would like to play another, shorter, more rules-and-meta-as-written campaign arc just to get a better feel for the complete rules.

Lessons Learned

When I was first building up towards the campaign, I had the idea of using Mythic 2nd Edition. It had worked well enough for me in the past and during Eustace + Hitomi, I had generated a fairly useful series of sub-tables to help the game progress nicely. Essentially, as places showed they might get added to a list that starts with a lot of blanks. As that table fills up, places show up more and more. Places that show up more often might take up additional slots. Same for people, objects, and even concepts. By the end, that campaign had its own meaning table of sorts. It was a nice way of starting with a kind of blank sheet that eventually became its own table.

During the middle of The Stone Crack’d arc of The Bloody Hands, I swapped over to Gamemaster Apprentice Decks to handle the oracle for a mixture of reasons. I just wanted to try something new and I was also having a major love-hate relationship with altered/interrupt scenes that was leading to frustration.

With the start of this campaign arc, though, I wanted some interrupts to return. I came up with an idea. Pull a card. Take the Difficulty Generator…that’s the number in the top left of the card below…and then roll 2d10. If one die is greater than it, there’s a minor twist, alteration, or complication. If both are greater than it, there’s a fairly major twist, etc. When there is just one change, use the main card pulled — rather than any particular science, it could be the “Scene Type” (and usually was, which is the text around the center of the card), one of the sensory prompts, the image icons in the upper right, etc — and if it was a major twist then draw a couple additional cards and mix and match.

Note, that card is from the 2.4 version of Larcenous Designs, LLC’s GameMaster’s Apprentice Deck: Cyberpunk, 2nd Edition. All rights reserved. Used without permission. But also highly recommended for solo play in cyberpunk-type games.

This worked ok but I made a bad assumption at the start. I assumed that the Difficulty Generator was 1-10 equally spaced — out of the one-hundred-and-twenty cards, twelve would be “1”, twelve would be “2”, and so forth. In fact, it is bell curve centered around 5 & 6. Both systems work out to 5.5 being the average value pulled but rather than being the equivalent of 1d10 vs (lowest of) 2d10 it was 2d5 vs (lowest of) 2d10. That flavors some things. Just re-reading it, both systems would be a bit too apt at generating at least constant minor twists.

I’m a bit mixed about it. On one hand, the nearly constant barrage of minor twists was part of the backbone of the arc. On the other, it is not really the system I was intending. I think maybe 1d10 vs (lowest of) 2d8 would have been closer. Twists lurking but popping up every other scene or so.

I want to give some thought to the system, for sure. As it stands, though, the main lesson learned is always double check your tables and oracles to make sure they are working like you think they are working.

Things That Might Be Fun to Do Differently

There is only one thing that fits, here.

The next time time there is an Amy Patel, she will show up early and be part of the story from near the beginning instead of just a background character.

Up Next for the Doug Alone is…

This gets a bit tricky. As of today there is roughly about ten-plus days before the computer I am currently working on is packed up to be moved. After that, there will be ten-plus days before I board an airplane. Then maybe a month of transition as we navigate turning on utilities, getting internet, and unpacking everything. Twenty days is a fair amount of time work out some stuff (assuming I have some other device with which I can even post something) but also not since over half of that will be spent being fairly busy with shipping our lives overseas.

I would love finishing out the dungeon started in Bleak + Pearl. Poor people have been left on a boat for months, now. I think I could manage that. Though when I return it will be going into “Standard Doug Alone Style” rather than the recap format because that campaign arc ended partially due to a glitch in me trying to play a faster style. I got to a complicated encounter and keeping it quick and “keywords only” lead to a conclusion that I did not like.

Also, after months of building up slightly more and more complicated formatting I think it’s time to start playing around with what works and does not by taking bits back out. Some of the elements like the “table of contents” and subsections remain useful to me after the fact. Stuff like hiding elements does not. Next and Previous entries in the arc is super nice and I use it a lot but it adds hassle. I need to reduce hassle. I’ll find out a compromise.

Still, there is a chance this will be the last campaign arc posted on this blog until maybe as late as September or so. I want to try and avoid posting anything until a) I am sure I can finish it and b) I know I have a bit of a backlog. How great a chance that is, I don’t know. I’ll start playing Bleak + Pearl this week. I want to try and move on to one or two short campaign arcs after that. Will I get that done in the ten days?

I haven’t a scooby do.

One thing I would like to do would be to post a Fourth Wall Break that talks about all the various campaigns, mini-campaigns, arcs, and one-shots I have mulled over. Something like a record of ideas off which I can bounce. I’ve been stuck in The GLOW for so long that there are a lot of ideas that never got to see the light of day. That will likely be next. Then I would like to post a Solo Advice column about scaffolding, insights, and seeds. Just to show some tools I use to handle different degrees of “truth” when planning out solo games.

And I have a post I never finished where I worked out something fairly different. A classic gamebook and a way I can share my playthrough.

But, really, we’ll see is about the best I can give.

The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont – Recap and Trivia

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On June 14, 2025

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

 

 

Going Back Over the Posts

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

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

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

The First Five Episodes, the Story That Was

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Magnus Odinson and the Story That Would Become

The biggest shift in the story happened right after.

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

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

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

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

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

The Death of Eustace Delmont and the Third Pivot

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

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

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

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

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

And the Rest of It

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By

On June 12, 2025

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

 

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

 

Previously, on The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont

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

About The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont

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

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

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

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

The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont. Episode 21 — The Nurse House Calling the Doctor

The Final Advance

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

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

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

Advancing Hitomi

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

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

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

Advancing Genny

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

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

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

Advancing Eustace

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

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

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

He also gets +1 ADR.

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

Smashing Pumpkin’s Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.

Setting the Scene, e21s1.

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

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

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

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

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

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

DATE PLAYED: June 9, 2025.

The Waiting Room

Date: June 7, 1996.

Time: 3:51am.

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

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

“You think they escaped?”

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

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

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

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

Genny asks, “Why are they up there?”

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

“Shit.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Setting the Scene, e21s2.

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

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

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

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

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

DATE PLAYED: June 9, 2025.

Looking down at a city from a tall building.

For the Final Time

Date: June 7, 1996.

Time: 4:04am.

Place: The roof of the Rambler.

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

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

“Why do you keep calling me Foxteeth?”

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

“Was I a sexy dark queen?”

“You know it.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Who the fuck knows?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Roger that…”

Hitomi takes a deep breath.

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

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

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

“Ah, fuck…”

Hitomi is in full cover and out of firing range.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Rambler comes tumbling down…

Setting the Scene, e21s3+.

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

DATE PLAYED: June 10, 2025.

Tumbling Down

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

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

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

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

As everything does, eventually.

A pile of rubble meets the early light of day.

The Death of the Witch-King

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

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

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

“Please shut up and just hold on.”

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

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

“Sorry. Mo. Chi. I wont…”

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

The Nurse’s Choice

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

Our home world.

Long gone.

Finally avenged.

“Has it been reborn?”

No.

No.

No.

“I’m sorry.”

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

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

Yes.

But an offer we can make.

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

“Is there a catch?”

No catch. Only a decision.

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

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

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

“Neither.”

Oh.

Ho.

Ha.

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

The Witches Three laugh and laugh.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“No world burning?”

“Only if it really, really needs it.”

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

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

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

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

“Let’s go, boo.”

A large gas station on a snowy night.

NOT the GLOW 1999: Transporter Jani Blum

Date: December 31, 1999.

Time: 9:17pm.

Place: Outside the Flying Y. Plinkett, Nebraska.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

DOUG’S COMMENTARY

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CREDITS

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

Other sources used include:

  • Zach Best’s Universal NPC Emulator.
  • Cesar Capacle’s Random Realities
  • Kevin Crawford’s Cities Without Number
  • Matt Davis’ Book of Random Tables: Cyberpunk 1, 2 and 3.
  • Geist Hack Games and Paul D. Gallagher’s Augmented Realities.
Special big things to Richard Woolcock and Dean Spencer. Their games and art were the spark of all of this and though both Arcane Agents and Dean Spencer’s art got left behind as stuff got increasingly complex, this story exists because of the inspiration. 

ART CREDIT AND EXPLANATION

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

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

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

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

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

By

On June 10, 2025

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

 

A spiral staircase down into the dark.

 

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

Previously, on The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont

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

About The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont

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

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

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

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

The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont. Episode 20 — Heading Up

EPISODE SOUNDTRACK: Experia’s Hidden Agenda.

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

Setting the Scene, e20s1.

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

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

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

DATE PLAYED: June 5, 2025.

Recalling a Cleaner

Date: June 7, 1996.

Time: 2:28am.

Place: The thirteenth floor of the Rambler.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A corporate office space tinted red.

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

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

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

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

“How do you know?”

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

“Here?”

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

“Why didn’t you say so?”

Varvara shakes her head.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Yeah, man.”

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

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

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

Jones asks, “Can you get in?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Eustace nods.

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

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

Setting the Scene, e20s2.

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

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

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

DATE PLAYED: June 5, 2025.

The Past Is a Foreign Country

Date: June 7, 1996.

Time: 2:51am.

Place: The eighteenth floor of the Rambler.

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

A pleasantly fancy garden party.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“We fight.”

“How?”

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

While walking across, they…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“What was that?,” Hitomi asks.

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

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

Setting the Scene, e20s3.

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

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

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

DATE PLAYED: June 8, 2025.

Skitter Scatter

Date: June 7, 1996.

Time: 3:24am.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Japanese woman in an office, eating an apple.

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

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

“THIS IS MY LIFE’S WORK!”

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

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

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

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

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

Dr. Mariya Kazuo looks around and makes a decision…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“I didn’t know you smoke.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

Eustace nods and the elavator doors slide shut.

DOUG’S COMMENTARY

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

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

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

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

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

CREDITS

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

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

“Alarum” is Photo by Nastuh Abootalebi on Unsplash.

“Garden Party” is this photo.

“Mariya Kazuo” is this photo.

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