The GLOW 1996: Agent Johnny Blue - Chapters Two & Three [Tricube Solo] [Multi-Phase]
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| © Dean Spencer |
Previously, on The GLOW
Agent Johnny Blue—codenamed Demontongue—is taken off his months-long task to bring down the Patel crime family and told to track down a problem involving werewolves and a magical mishap with few other details. He tries to find a place to stash the evidence—a potentially dangerous disk—but when his friend his found dead, Johnny gets caught up in the investigation. He has gambled and placed the evidence in a mall kiosk not knowing what will happen to it. Now he seeks to find a way to confront Macy "The Silver Fox" Maron and Barlow "The Big Bad Wolf" Hendrix on equal standing...
About The GLOW
The GLOW is an aether-noir mega-city along the American Gulf Coast which is powered by the Larmarkian Process, aka "The Harrowing". Spirits are extracted and tortured to create immense amount of energy, bringing back magic in the process. As money and technology skyrocket, the Arcane Order and Muncipal Police try to keep order in a city where humans traffic in super powers and ancient curses.
Content Warning: Smoking, Drinking, Drugs, Violence, Language, Spiritual Torture...
This post is in MULTI-PHASE style. See the about page for this blog for more details. Arcane Agents and Tricube Tales Solo are both by Richard Woolcock and Zadmar Games. The Image Oracles described in the post (gamemaster phases and mechanic notes, especially) are from the Arcane Agents one-sheet. They can be seen on the Tricube Image Oracles page.
On the Growth of the GLOW and the Return of Magic
With history-shattering amount of money and resources pouring into the Gulf Coast region, Dr. Jeffrey "Hell" Lamark begin enlisting allies to protect his investment from a number of global powers. His original name for the project was MONO—The MObile to New Orleans—Complex but the speed of the growth and shifting alliances ended up with a new name: The Gulf-Lamarkian Ordinance. Not a state. Not even, technically, a city. A loose group of economic entities buying into Lamark's masterplan and eventually a whole new way of life.
With rapid growth came rapid enemies, though. The United States, perhaps rightly, began to see the GLO as an active secession and formation of a new nation state. President Eisenhower approved the use of military troops and martial law to try and take back Mobile and the Blue Sky Grove where Lamark had holed himself up to rearch The Harrowing. This is when the world became aware of a secondary effect of using tortured souls to provide energy to a new world super-power. Magic had returned. In force. Though it took more than a decade for it to fully set-in, the world was starting to realize that Lamark had surprising support.
On December 12th, 1957 the New York Times dubbed them the Witches Three. Other papers and newsreels had different names—The Wyrd Sisters, The Devil's Harem, The Coven—but the effect was all the same. The Maiden, The Mother, and The Crone were realized to be mages of immense capability and immense loyalty to Lamark. With a nod to the classics, the military soldiers who attempted to storm Mobile were turned into pigs. When a somewhat hastily launched nuclear response was launched, the advanced mechanisms were changed into rose blossoms raining from the sky. The White House was turned blood red overnight with no guards nor cameras ever witnessing any activity. It was a sign. It was not the last time the US government authorized attempted violence but none of the future plans worked any better and others ended up worse.
The Witches Three are still, to this day, an unknown force. They got the title originally by showing up as three cowled and cloaked figures in press conferences standing behind Lamark. Name, age, gender, and nationality are unknown. Some suggest there are actually more than three. Some suggest there is something else—some alien or demonic force—being channeled and the Three are the manifestations of it. Or a cover story for some other malignant being. Three dark shapes in a bulky silhouette.
What is known is their actions. Soviet spies attempted to steal the technology and rumor has it you can still see their bodies floating up around 2 miles over the Gulf Coast. They might even still be alive. A Mexican businessman tried to pull contract law to lay claim to Lamarkian sites off the coast of Mexico and astronauts found his bones during the 1962 moon landing. One of the contracts he had famously waved in Lamark's face affixed to his skull by a long, silver dagger. Not a speck of moon dust on him. Nor flesh.
With The Witches Three guarding The GLOW from all threats domestic and foreign, the mega-city continued to grow and expand. Computer technology boomed. Aerospace advancements took off. Only weapons got left behind because who needed weapons when ServiSynth familiars could fight off dozens of normal humans.
Today, The GLOW is the third largest economy in the world. And that's just with the money that people are allowed to know about.
Chapter Two
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Despite many, many things going wrong in that last scene the primary goal—to get away and avoid the MUNI forces—worked. Johnny Blue has now been spotted "summoning an angel" in the mall, punching out a cultist, and saving a family so its a bit up and down in that regard. We are actually going to postpone building up the worker until that shows back up (if at all). We want to nearly immediately switch focus to what is ostensibly the main plot: the werewolves and the sorcery who turned himself into one.
Next Scene type: 3♢ → another Transactional Scene, 3♡ → involving relationships, 5♢ → with the key scene challenge involving an Easy Brawny Challenge. Did Johnny already hand over his gun before fleeing the scene last time? JOKER (yay! the last went soooo well! 3 → TWIST!) + 10♢ → Image Oracle for the twist this time: 4,3 Laptop + 3,6 Glock. Well. Ok, the gun makes sense. The guns are magically powered, already established. We'll say that the gun was not handed over but can be turned off via the aether-network. So, he has his gun, it just doesn't work right now. The transaction he needs, involving a relationship, is getting some weapon to fight back against the werewolves. What sort of weapon? Image Oracle, again: 1,5 → Cat + 2,1 → Chalk Outline Murder. We are not going to kill a cat. Instead, focus on the outline. A tattoo of a cat that will help Johnny to have animal-like reflexes himself. He's getting a new off-the-books sigil created.
Who is going to give it to him. All the same oracles as before plus a new one. {friend | foe | family | coworker | someone johnny previously saved | a business relationship } → a coworker. A person who works for the Order that Johnny knows but also moonlights doing sigils outside of this. Going to draw a card to see just how illicit this is: A♠ (3, another twist.....) + 4♢ → once more to the Image Oracles 4,2 Horned Reptile + 3,6 Glock. So, ex-coworker. Someone with the presence of a reptile. Lots of tats. Some sigils. Fired from the Order. Bad side of town. Older Male. Positive Personality 2: Groveling. Urban People: 1,4 → Biker/Outlaw (sure) + 1,1 → Actor/Entertainer (ok). Urban Location 6,1 → Sewer/Subway. Subject of Interest 1,2 → Assault/Invasion (o...k). Speech/Mannerism 2,5 → Drinks excessively. The crime that got them fired? 4,6 → Kidnapping. Ahhhh. Name: 4,4 Luca + 5,5 Rodriguez. Let's make him not terrible. What was he running from when the kidnapping took place? 4,3 Laptop + 1,4 Arson. His kids. His wife was going to burn them. Did she get to keep the kids after his arrest/firing? 10♠ → Yes, but... she seems to actively regret. Are they still together? A♢ (Twist, 4 New Location) + J♡ (Good for the whole murder investigation with Johnny as a suspect thing). K♡ (also good for the current werewolf thing. New Location = 1,3 → Bank/Moneylender.
Luca "Iguana" Rodriquez. Brawny Ex-Agent who Creates Sigils but is Alcholic. Got fired from the Order for a case where he went on the run with his own children to get away from his wife after he found online transcripts that she was planning on burning down the house for insurance money. Kids (and him) inside. In the aftermath, Luca was arrested and sent to jail for a couple of years and the court gave back the kids to Luca's wife (6,2 → Sofia). Johnny intervened and investigated and found out that a loanshark was threatening Sofia and took care of that business (a certain loneshark ended up being haunted by demons until he fled town and dropped all his accounts, for reasons). Sofia made it up to Luca and is a good mom to the kids even though everyone is a bit...different after that. Still Luca considers Johnny to be like family and Sofia backs her husband on this. Sofia actually knows about werewolf culture in the area and can be a help.
[[ PLAYER PHASE ]]
Luca and I go way back. Back to when he was "The Iguana" and specialized in using soul-ash to tattoo sigils in the rest of our skins.
It's not exactly a pleasant process. One of the tests you have to endure to get accepted as an Agent-in-Training is have your Seer-induced codename branded as a symbol upon your skin. Old school branded. Old school magic. Two-thirds of the candidates pass out before the iron even hits. It sucked. Luca and I both made it through. I have demon face sticking out its tongue on my hip. He has a lizard face dripping ink on his chest.
Due to a series of escalating situations around a decade ago, Luca is no longer part of the Order and now lives over in the heavy industry zone that took over where Bayou La Batre once stood. Specifically, Luca and his wife Sofia living in the husk of a cancelled branch of The GLOW's metro. A hundred feet below sea level in the damp and the wet along with other tunnel snakes.
Sofia is the reason Luca had to give up a career as one of the Order's best sigilists. More specificialy, Shane Ratthys is. Shane ran the kind of loanshark company you read about in shady novels. Get 'em hooked on quick Christmas presents for the kids. Then some plumbing repair. Try out some gambling. Treat yourself. Whatever. Get in deep. Start demanding favors for lowered interest. Kind of favors you can blackmail. Then demand worse favors.
I don't know everything Sofia did under Shane's tyranny and I did not ask, but I made sure she was the last victim he could target. Poor Shane saw demons and ghosts clawing for his soul, A Christmas Carol-by-way-of-Hammer-Studios. Side dose of LSD. Nowadays its mostly a moniker but back then I took the Demontongue name a lot more seriously.
Least I can to a man who very nearly had a woman burn down her nice house with her husband and kids still inside just so she could keep a small portion of the insurance money. After that, Shane would have gotten really serious with her.
Luca found out, ran with the kids, and Shane called in a kidnap tip with Sofia forced to back Shane up with a formal arrest warrant. MUNI warrant, of course. By the time I had realized what happened, and broke the loanshark's mind, Luca had punched out a couple of MUNI jobbers. One now requires a magic carpet to get around. Luca landed in GLOW prison and the would-be-arsonist mom-of-the-year got the kids. She was a low level witch working with the Order but quit with honors and now peddles hedge magic in the sort of places not even the Order chases down. I followed through and got her lots of help. Sent her some clients. Got her some watchdogs who knew how to leave some space. Nurse chipped in. Order eventually intervened and got Luca out. Stripped him of his sigils. Took his equipment. Dishonorable discharge. He took to drink. Started tattooing himself. Made it work, somehow, with Sofia. Oldest daughter off in New Orleans on scholarship now. Younger son probably gonna end up being a ganger and not likely to get through his next birthday before the first jail time hits.
Sometimes ups outnumber the downs. Sometimes it is a wash.
GLOW prison is not for the weak of heart, any day.
I park my car at a burned out fruit stand's parking lot and weave a psychic blanket over it where if you did see it looked like rusted out husk that has grown old in place. Most people won't see it. Even without the magic. Soulburn is dimmer, here. Half the sparse streetlights don't work. [1]
Head past the CONDEMNED - DO NOT CROSS chains blocking the stairs down. The tunnel snakes have set up lights not far from the entrance and the mold and rubbish piled up on the steps shows a clear pair of paths up and down where they enter and exit here. MUNI knows about the illegal squatting but tunnel snakes choosing to run their own society down away from the rest only is a problem when one of them gets high and shoots up a convenience station or some fight breaks out into the street. Tunnel snake society tends to self-filter really hard without outside influence.
Unlike my car, I do not weave any illusions around myself. Not a lot of the snakes want to take on an Agent and besides, I've been down here before. The old snakes really like me. The younger ones are more prone to ask me for candy than rob me. I guess I fit in. That's why I brought several bags of taffy along with me. Also a few scarves and blankets. Winter's a long way off and the tunnels stay pretty warm but sometimes it is best to take care of folks who need it. [2]
Getting down the fourth flight of stairs, I am on the base floor. Water pools up in cracks and fills the dug out part of the tunnel where the rails would have gone. A few shanties are here but these represent those who still think of themselves mostly as surface folk on a dark vacation. I head back up the east side along some wooden planks set up to keep feet relatively drive and head into the town proper where things get a lot more permanent. Thick rusty chains hold up old wood as the water flows underneath subject to tides. You can see the various watermarks and barnacles of different seasons etched into the wood and sometimes overflowing lower chunks. Hovels are carved directly into the tunnel walls. Bridges set up to pass over the water here or there. There are things swimming there that are not necessarily safe.
Folks I see tend to be carrying guns openly which means they probably do not know how to shoot. A few have no guns visible, which means they probably shoot really well. I stop off at a church built in an access tunnel and drop off most of what I brought. The church itself is only a small portion of the space. The priest is a woman of inderminate age somewhere between a nun and a Wiccan love goddess with a long stop at a 60s commune on the way down. Through the church, the access tunnel has been converted into a catacombs. I doubt even she knows how bodies are sealed up in those walls.
A few carved out, man-made cave/apartments I pass are essentially the tunnel equivalent to lifestorage. Space is limited. It takes weeks or months to expand. They build these alcoves where people can store family possessions. Tunnel honor keeps folks from just walking in and taking them out. It is understood the only ones who steal are the ones who need it and they will repay their transgression.
Finally, I pass by the markets were everything from barnacle meat to bottled water to cute little dollar store paintings are for sell. I am getting close to where I need to be. [3]
Luca is sitting on his "stoop" in a darker part of the tunnel. Down here, the small amount of electronics and mystical gear means the tell-tale blue-red-and-orange glow of The Harrowing is not so evident. You barely get any glow, just a faint sense of light on the eyes. This means that, unlike the surface, there can be patches of true dark. True silence. A place not illuminated by the souls of the damned with ambience to match. No, the damned are all alive and struggling down here.
He has an unlit cigar clamped in his mouth and it is clear as he stands up that he is decently drunk. I wince a bit. In the tunnels it is always a good time to be sloshed but Luca used to be the kind of guy that got up at 5am to put in a 10-mile jog before breakfasting on fruit.
His old sigils have been burned off by Order mages. On top of those scars, he has self-tattoed a number of designs with no real motif. Bright and surrealist self harm. The total effect makes him live up to his "Iguana" name: a fae, reptilian beast from beyond the wall. I know, though, that brand showing the iguana face is still untouched to his chest and he has left it alone. Once the Order brands you, gives you your true name, you are theirs for life and that name is yours. Even when they don't want you.
We hug and it goes on for awhile. I am not a hugger but Luca is the kind of friend that you let get in any hug you can. Every visit might be the last.
I tell him I need some services and he brings me inside to apartment (Sofia has fancied up the stone and dirt walls with some nice tiles and curtains so it feels less liek a ground sloth tunnel and more like a fallout bunker from a middle class family). After a second to see if anyone is paying too much attention—no one ever is in the tunnels—he takes me through a curtain into another chamber about the size of the first. This one has a lot of tools. The kind you use to tattoo random shit into people's skins as long as cleanliness is not a going concern. Shockingly, in a back tank, he has something else I did expect to see but which raises my hopes a good deal.
A strange creature whipping back and forth. Somewhere between an octopus and a squid and an eldritch horror.
"How in the hell did you get possession of an Arcane 'Pod?," I ask him.
"How in the hell did your ass not get busted for that shit you pulled in Florida three years ago?," he retorts. He slurs his words but the point still stands. That's a story for another time, though.
I tell him about getting pulled off the Patels to deal with Ms. Macy and Big Bad Barlow.
"You are going up against the werewolves? Again?" Man, does his laugh bring back memories. Even when it is being a bit mean-spirited.
"Only," I pull out my arcane pistol and put it down on the table. The tank is still full but the glow has gone from blue to red. "I got into some shit with MUNI and the Order has frozen my weapon rights."
"What did you do?"
"Wrong place. Wrong time. Some bastard in a space helmet snuffed Neon and like a chump I thought it best to bring in the city folks instead of burning the whole site to the ground."
"What kind of sick asshole would want to kill Foster?"
"Absolutely not a clue. Again, I made a mistake. Thought they would appreciate the nod but instead they want to put me in jail to black-eye the Order. Territorial pissings."
Not having a gun meant I only had my own sigil-enhanced body. Against 99% of the people in this city, victory goes to me. I am not the strongest, nor the toughest, but I can sprint fast enough to climb a skyscraper. This might suffice with Marcella "Ms. Macy, aka The Silver Fox" Maron who rarely liked to get her fangs bloody but Barlow Hendrix got the name The Big Bad Wolf the old fashioned way. By throwing his victims so hard their skulls popped open and their organs melted on impact. Where biology turns to physics. He huffs and he puffs and then kicks down your house and eats your children.
If it comes to physical confrontation, I am not going to outpace Barlow's self healing abilities without magical assistance and it only takes a glancing blow and I meet the kind of retirement that involves a coffin.
"What do you need from me?"
"Some old theoretical tech you and Sofia worked out back in the day. I need the Bast Sigil."
I fully expected the loud whistle he lets out. Fifteen years back, Luca and I (and Nurse) were all new and fresh and full of ideas. Sofia was a promising Weaver showing a bend towards witchery. That's how she met Luca. She had some experience with shape-changers. Lycanthropes. She came up with a thesis: use their powers on Agents by binding animal sigils to them. Order nixed it as painful and unnecessary. As being truly unexpected. The word they use to mean psychic threads could not untangle the Weave. She only got so far as her first practicum: the Bast Sigil. A sigil combining a cat motif with some ancient mathetmatical sass. Gives someone the power of a werecat at the mere cost of great physical suffering and a craving for chin scratches. It set off so many warning bells that students who might have seen it were questioned and detained. Her instructor got a paid vacation that still involves tropical beaches miles from soulburn to this day.
He agrees. No payment yet but of course I will make sure he gets fully re-imbursed and then some.
"You know this is going to hurt. A lot. A lot a lot."
"I can take pain. Look, you know me. I got shot three times in the line duty. I once had to punch through a stone angel ServiSynth. I have a heavy pain tolerance."
I pass out around the time he is getting to the first ear. [4]
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Current scene count: 0♣0 | 0♢1 | 1♡0 | 1♠0
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Johnny only has a single point of Reolve and a single point of Karma left. Next couple of scenes are likely to involve him pushing one or both to zero.
A slight glitch in time-keeping occurred last episode. Johnny left the Patels at the Rambler sometime at night. Then went to Neon's and was detained for an hour. Then went to a mall. We are going to ret-con as slightly as possible that and say that mall is open quite late. Since the whole city has a strange neon glow all day and night long, it would make sense that some people are out later than would be real-world likely.
We are still looking at the time crunch, though. It was never specified but Amy Patel expects Johnny to activate (or to not activate, perhaps) the mini-disk by a certain time. His next shift or so. Do not know when it is but there is the sense that he is running out of time with that project. Him failing that easy roll needs to be felt.
Moving on, next scene is 6♢ + 6♣ + 4♣ → another transaction type scene, this one task based, and the task is something involving a Hard Agile challenge.
It makes sense that if Ms. Macy is the matriarch of a violent gang of werewolves that an Agent might have a hard time getting close enough to even find out what is going on. WE know that a sorcerer has figured out a way to create new lycanthropy and this is causing issues in the Hendrix/Maron pack. Johnny has no clue. He will need to find someone lower down in the pecking order of the pack and do something for them in exchange for the information.
What kind of favor is needed? Image Oracles: 5,4 Pentacle + 1,3 Arrest. Someone has been arrested for hedge magic. Johnny needs to get them out.
Ok, let's find out who. {male | female | non} + {younger | same | older} → younger male werewolf. Urban People 2,5 Cultist/Fanatic + 3,3 Engineer/Architect. A sort of mage/nerd type. Obsessed with putting together his own bespoke hedge magic. Demeanor 2,1 Boss/Commading + 2,6 Caring/Worrier. Older brother taking care of younger siblings. Swaps between making demands and fussing after others. Subject of Interest we'll take as given. Speech/Mannerisms 5,1 Slouching Posture + 3,2 Folded Arms. Name is 6,6 Tadeo + Jackson. Let's go with Tad.
Tad Jackson is a Crafty Hedge Mage Werewolf who is Impulsive. He was arrested for (Image Oracle 1,2 Arm Bandage + 5,2 Modern City) running a street clinic where he used hedge magic to try and help heal up people in the neighborhood. Does Johnny and Tad know each other? (Likely) 5♡ + 4♠ → 5 trumps so No, and... Tad is the type to distrust authority figures.
Nurse, it is.
[[ PLAYER PHASE ]]
I wake up with my head in Sofia Rodriquez's lap and she's stroking my hair.
"Hi, Johnny."
I sit up fast. Luca is there and looking worried about me. Sofia is beside me on their makeshift bed. While life has turned Luca into a living lizard, Sofia still looks like a witch-queen she should be. Still, it doesn't take an Agent to see the haunted look in both their eyes. The shit they went through left deep scars. I should probably track down Shane Ratthys and make him suffer more.
"You want the good news or the bad news?" This is Luca.
"Both, same time."
"Sofe came back and she had some improvements on the Bast Sigil and we were able to get those added in. Bad news is listening to you scream in your sleep while I finished it made me drink all my booze so I'm currently sobering up."
I reach up and touch the back of my neck where the sigil was carved into my skin and stop. Sigils don't heal like normal tattoos. The process is so complex that the concept of "trade secret" is redundant. Soul-ash is combined with Arcane Cephalopod ink and bound to your very soul by way of mathemetical formula and complex geometry forced upon your flesh. Usually with a bit oldy-worldy magick flair (the Bast Sigil design is roughly in the shape of a cat which is both pointlessly cute but also deeply important, magic is weird). Sigils only heal when you manage to attune to it. This can take hours, weeks, years. Some Agents have to have the sigils rebound multiple times because their body literally spits out the soul-ash ink. I have always been a quick attuner but what I find shocks even me.
The skin feels flat. The Bast Sigil has already integrated itself into my soul. Either Luca and Sofia are the greatest Sigilist and Weaver combo the Order was stupid enough to let go or fates are aligning. Both bother me to contemplate.
"Ummm...," I articulate, plainly.
"Yeah," Luca theorizes.
"Johnny," Sofia adds in to interrupt our deep and thoughtful discussion, "Normally with a sigil as...altering...as the Bast Sigil, it would take weeks to months to learn how to use properly. You can still take days even with," she pauses, gesturing at my neck, "that, happening."
"I have about six hours. Or less."
I stand up, thank them both, and head out. Since Luca can stand to dry out a little, I do not offer to replace his booze. Once the credits transfer he'll no doubt do it himself. I did not ask what the improvements were. Things are aligning in a weird way and I feel like that will be spoilers for what will happen next. [5]
Once I am back in my car, heading east, and cursing the sun rising over the horizon I tap my left ear and call into Nurse.
"Nurse, I'm up and it's apparently tomorrow."
"I want you to know that I had to stay up half the night filing a second injunction after the thing at the mall while the first injunction was still processing. On the plus side, not even Detective Hernandez can figure out how to make 'Stopped an attempted hedge mage sacrifice attack while risking personal harm' into a crime to hold against you. On the negative, since the Order thread-matrix had a virtually 0% chance of you being anywhere near the mall that time of night while on assignment, it is making the scroll work strange. If I go at least half the day without any sleep I might even be able to get the right forms filed out to start getting you your gun back."
Awww, he cares. Unfortunately, my own far from spotless record can take some tarnish and I need Nurse on something else. "I am following the task assigned but I need some help. As you know, Ms. Macy and I have a mixed history." I busted her son for smuggling soul-laced drugs and then next year got involved with keeping her son and daughter-in-law alive from a rival pack. A problem partially caused by own arrest to begin with. "She likes and hates me at the same time. If that pack is agitated I am flipping a coin to see if I even survive. She thanked me last time by breaking only one of my fingers. That shit hurts."
"Ok, how do I help? It can take days to get your gear turned back on."
"No, don't worry about that. At least not right now. I've been visiting Luca and Sofia...DON'T fuss...and I have probably as good of a chance as four armed agents." That is to say, only slightly north of zero if Barlow is in a playful mood. "I just need a softener. An...ice-breaker. A gift I can come bearing. And, since I have to wrap this up soonish so I can not live just to die by the very beautiful, very scary lady with her mean giant bug, this has to be something I can do before breakfast. Get me six psychic threads. Chance of legality is slim so skip it to the double-blind branch. I will justify the paperwork later."
It takes a moment before Nurse gives me the details.
Tadeo "Tad" Jackson. Young, black, and proud. Parents faded from the scene early so the young werewolf, using the latent magical ability normal to the Maron side of the pack, got good at taking care of himself and his younger siblings. Eventualy turned those skills to sharing some of his werewolf healing powers with people on the street. Ran a few underground clinics. Hedge-magic is a class-three felony in Order territory so MUNI arrested him. Only MUNI does not mind him so much because they appreciate having to take care of yourself under Order control. He gets out. Goes and does it again. The story repeats.
Last month he got busted for a third (or fourth, Nurse's report was fuddled by the double-blind nature of the psychic threads) time and this time the Order balked. It is understood that hedge magic exists in the GLOW. It is practically on the tourist posters. Still, you are meant to try and kowtow to the powers-that-be a little or be rich and bribe the right people. Tad was poor and shoving it in their face. The Marons and the Hendrixes live free. Seems like the Order purposefully shoved the priority down on any solution involving Tad so he got trapped in jail.
MUNI still likes him and is bucking a bit against The Order by having him transferred out some distance to the Gulfport region. The idea is to maybe get him released on the edges of Order's main control and hope the young werewolf takes the bait and takes off to elsewhere. Wouldn't work. MUNI has yet to come to grips is that Order's sphere of influence is roughly past the Moon's orbit and that folks like Tad don't so much learn lessons as inspire new rules and regulations.
Tad is a favorite of Ms. Macy's and getting him free and bringing him back with MUNI turned against him greatly increases the odds he will turn more discrete. Which Ms. Macy will like. He is currently being set to be transported by two older cops as a non-violent prisoner. Which is a bit stupid. Tad's a werewolf. He could chew through a cop car. They just assume he won't because MUNI often fails to respect the post-Lamark pecking order.
The final part of Nurse's report is that I am to intercept the transport and jailbreak Tad and then, possibly against all his wishes, escort him back to Ms. Macy. Goodie.
"I do this under protest but give me the coords. Also, start filling out the third injunction. Detective Hernandez is going to murder me."
A spot near what would be the Alabama/Mississippi-line if The GLOW gave two shits about anything like established borders. Still, in a spot where the city is more a dream rather than a constant reality. Sandy patch meets swampy patch with some old worn down gas station by the road. The threads suggest this will cause the old cops to realize they need breakfast and their old bladders need a break so they will start thinking ahead to where they can stop. This distraction will buy enough time that their responses will be at the lowest. Make it through the terrain, avoiding literal fucking quicksand, and a service road goes back and away from the main road long enough that by the time the two paths meet I will be back in the heavier section of The GLOW. [6]
Getting there takes no time at all and I find the service road and get find a path through the quicksand readily easily and stop to wait. Maybe boredom, maybe it is fear, but I do something I normally never do: reshape my features. I try and look like a strange country creep of no particular appearance but trouble. It feels weird. [7]
When I see the MUNI car coming around the curve, I start moving. I have no idea what they see but it must look like Farmer Joe erupts from behind an old gas station doing around 80km/h and then leaps up into the sky. A lot. More than I intended, even. I come down behind their goddamned car and watch them slam on brakes. The two cops get out with confused looks on their face. So confused it takes them a second to start reaching for their firearms. In that gap of time, I close the distance, dive into the driver side door, slam it shut, pull the passenger side door shut, and improvise. I speed off the road and weave through the patches of looser sand. Glancing up in the rearview to see if I am being pursued, yet, which I am not, I notice that my human face—the fake one I put on for this heist—has fallen away...if it was ever there...to reveal black-haired cat with blue eyes. I stow that fact for later. [8]
Jumping out of the car and opening the back while telling Tad that I can get him back hom to his family and Ms. Macy, I am forced to wait while he slowly stares at me.
"Who or what the fuck are you?"
We are going to be good friends. I can tell.
Chapter Three
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| © Dean Spencer |
{{ GAMEMASTER PHASE }}
Current scene count (+X-): 0♣1 | 0♢1 | 1♡0 | 1♠0
Current plot invokes (+X-): 0K0 | 1Q1 | 0J1
First test: Can Johnny regain control over the Bast Sigil? Card pulled for it = 4♡ → Hard Agile. Makes sense. His "speed" in his natural attunement. It represents how he sees himself. Unfortunately, he gets no successes and so he is stuck as a black-furred werecat shape.
Second test: What is this doing to Johnny's other sigils? Image Oracle x2 = 6,2 Sheep + 6,4 Temptation. hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Two different links come to mind. The first is related to following (the sheep follows the shepherd and everyone follows their temptations). The second, the image of sheep's wool and the snake both invoke things that lose their outer covering but are also wiry. The overall image I am getting is the other sigils are starting to "follow" the Bast Sigil and fade. Thin lines of soul-ink are weaving into the Bast and its taking over the others which are changing and molting into something underneath. His sigils are being rewritten into this new form. One he struggles to control.
Now for the scene task. We have 9♣ (a scene invovling a task) + 2♢ (the task involves an object) + 8♢ (the scene challenge is Easy Crafty). I think a gift is in order. Oddly, we've had a lot of transactional scenes in which some task was required and I have probably been playing them more like this which is something I need to work on.
What gift does he need to get (besides Tad, himself)? Image Oracle x2 = 6,5 Sacrificial Dagger + 2,3 Chicken. While the blood magic that Ms. He needs to bring something she can sacrifice. In this case, I am going to go outside of my own personal knowledge and look this up. The Wikipedia page for Santeria, which is pretty close to the style of magic that Ms. Macy was shown to pratice in her Gareth Hendrix version (different realities, different Ms. Macies, but close enough), says "These offerings can consist of fruit and other foodstuffs, liquor, flowers, candles, money, or slaughtered animals." The scene task will be him picking the right things.
[[ PLAYER PHASE ]]
Tad has been staring at me from the passenger seat for the last few minutes. He no longer seems angry to have been pulled from a cop car by a humanoid cat but is now more amused. The cuffs are still on him, laced internally with silver so that if he tries wolfing out it will burn, possibly cutting of his hands. This explains a bit why a couple of old cops were considered sufficient. [9]
"The Order hiring pussy cats now? Also, why we stopping here at this fruit stand?"
Let's clear a few things up before we continue. Werewolves are genetic and very old school, way before Dr. Hell or the Harrowing. None of that biting thing or drinking a wolf's blood under the light of a new moon. There are 247 werewolf families known to the Order and of those maybe only 60 on a good day score around 100% of offspring inheriting the gift (and even then, it is never guaranteed). Marons and Hendrixes are in that group. Hell, they sort of exemplify the group. Naturals, as it were. But, only a couple of wolves per generation because more than that causes issues and splits. Some rumors state they are the original wolf clans, joined together for centuries. One silver and dark. The other large and mean. Mystic and Meathead.
The rest of the werewolves have gaps, sometimes for generations. Tad's family is distantly related to the Marons but not all of his family show the gift. His siblings were tested by Order Psychics and he was the only one in his generation. His grandma was the only one in hers. Ms. Macy, though, does not really hold that against him. Too many wolves spoil the broth.
There is a second way to become a werewolf and that's some pretty old blood magic, a variation of which Ms. Macy practices. It was very rude of me to call them "voodoo werewolves" but in practice, that description gets the job done. This sigil that Luca and Sofia carved into my soul is the only recorded instance I know of where such magic has created a werecat (a much smaller branch of lycanthropy, practically theoretical at this point since none have been confirmed since the 17th century fire of London). Most of the non-wolf Lycos faded in ye olden days as magic waned.
The Maron magic tradition involves a lot of sacrifice. Mostly the kind where good cigars and nice rum are burned along with some rose petals and occasionally a small animal or two. Lots of symbolism in their variation of hedge magic. Some sexy times. The mathematical language is there, though, so I am currently in a Bay Minette area farmer's market largely run—and largely serving&mash;The GLOW folks who have come up from the Mexico outposts of the Ordinance. I'm looking for a white hen, a dozen yellow daisies, and a bottle of Sangria.
My pyschic powers are heavily aligned with illusions and trickery but in practice I can attune them to plucking at threads as long as the threads are either big and obvious or do not super complicated. Helps when they align with deception and tomfoolery, which this seems to do. Following that sense, I have ended up here with the notion of what to get. [10]
Making my purchases and putting them in the backseat, including the chicken, I start making my way to Spanish Fort, where Maron and Hendrix have holed up with around a dozen other wolves.
"First of all," I answer Tad's question around fifteen minutes later, "I am not a pussy cat. I think of myself more as a panther. And this is...I'm not sure. Secondly, we're here to get Ms. Macy some things she needs but has not taken the time to get herself."
"Nah, you not a panther. You are a some sort of black devil in a cat face. Are you and Ms. Macy friends or something? I never heard her talk about a 'cat on the payroll." [11]
"Believe it not, the last time I was in her good graces she still hated me enough to break my fingers. Well, one finger. This one. Called it a symbolic death," I say, holding up what is now an elongated claw. Tad whistles and chuckles. I see him shaking his head and I give some thought to my "currently a cat" situation. At least my sigils still allow me to connect to the car enough to drive it. I decide to test something out and scratch behind my ear which has to be one hell of a sight. Just a two-meter tall humanoid black kitty with deep blue eyes giving itself scritches. Just think of the merchandising rights to my life story. Hearing the connection with Nurse turn on helps me to feel better even it is feels a little fuzzy. No pun intended, goddamnit. [12]
"Nurse, I was able to get Tad out. Picked up gifts. Heading to Ms. Macy. Buy me some time. Communication wil be dead for a bit. I'm going silent."
I close it before Nurse has enough time to realize my internal thoughts are less human than normal.
Tad is glancing around my car looking for the camera or scrying glass. "Who were you talking to?"
"Nurse. My...helper."
"You have a helper you can just talk to through the thin air and she's a nurse?"
"HE's a nurse and we have a psychic connection. Standard Agent protocol. Not exactly a secret. Nurse is his codename. That is maybe meant to be more secret but I'm having a weird day so who cares about secrets right now?"
"All you people get a codename? What's yours?"
I think only for a few seconds before sharing it. Something tells me we are past proper Agent protocol by a good notch. "Demontongue."
Tad whistles, again. "I told you you were a devil."
{{ GAMEMASTER PHASE }}
Current scene count (+X-): 0♣1 | 1♢1 | 1♡0 | 1♠0
Current plot invokes (+X-): 0K0 | 1Q1 | 0J1
Next scene is going to be 5♡ (about conversation/interactions) + 6♣ (Johnny has a task to do) + 6♢ (that task involves a Standard Brawny Challenge). I think his new cat form is going to trigger a "playful" bout with the werewolves. In order to get enough time to talk to Ms. Macy, he's going to be expected to put up a fight. We have hit three diamonds (and, in a row) so this kind of wraps up one progression and is a good time for the first combat/extended-challenge of the campaign. After this scene is concluded, I will reshuffle the deck entirely but I'll keep the tally going.
Will he be expected to fight Barlow Hendrix? Q♡ → So yes, and... Barlow has a particular grudge against Johnny. Macy's son was Barlow's best friend. Even saving him, the younger Maron had to leave the area. Barlow has been keeping it in since no good comes from fighting the Order, but with a little prodding... Since it is Barlow, though, this is going to be a 3-effort fight. And that's just for Macy to be satisfied. Taking out Barlow would be rough BUT now that Johnny has the spirit of a cat-goddess in him, he might actually land spirital damage.
Where are they at more specifically? Urban Locations x2 4,5 Office/Workhouse + 2,1 Factory/Mill. The pack runs a factory Spanish Fort and Macy and Barlow are in the office portion on the factory grounds. Image Oracle x2 4,4 Light Bulb + 2,2 Charm. They make cheap little light-up picture frames with hearts and such decorated. Things like that. Kind of stuff people shopping in dollar stores and farmer's markets might pick up as a cute little anniversary or Valentine's Day gift.
Moonheart Accessories is the name of the company they run. Which is, of course, a bit of money laundering but also is kind of legit.
[[ Player Phase ]]
I pull up into the gravel lot of Moonheart Accesories and see a few of the old-wolves and near-wolves sitting out in the yard, propped up on stacks of pallets and expired equipment, smoking and eating lunch. The beep-beep-beep of a forklift backing up comes from inside. The building is old, maybe older than The GLOW, and looks it but some of the vines and rusted gear and broken glass is for effect. They should probably toss in a few bones while they are at it. No better NO SOLICITING sign than a vibe that says, "You will die here if you come past that fence". Helps when the workers sitting outside can grow fangs and claws.
Last time I was here, Jacob Maron was being hunted by the Chupacabras after Macy and Barlow had been lured away on a wild goose chase by the bulk of the pack while just three of their best hitmen had it in for Jake. Nurse and I had sussed their plan out and—to the surprise of no one following along with my story—ignored orders and protocol and chose to intervene. I used two soul tanks on my arcane pistol and all of my late mother's silver but I kept Jake, his new wife, and myself alive long enough that Macy and Barlow got back. Barlow had killed around a dozen by himself. The Chukes—by the way, not the goatsuckers but another pack of wolves trying to take over Maron and Hendrix turf—had greatly misjudged their foe and the last few remaining to this day tend to have gone clean. [13].
My reward was a series of gashes on my right leg that frankly looks hot as hell in the right light and Macy symbolically carrying out the murder charge laid against me by breaking a single finger and announcing I was dead loud enough everyone could hear. They all turned and looked away as I walked off and got in my car. Jacob even looked like he was mourning me.
Now, unfortunately, the Order Psychics have deemed that my prior engagement with the pack means I am the best to intervene and have given me no details. The dead man returns to face old punishments.
I have been in my car for about half a minute after stopping and I can see some of the wolves getting edgy. My car screams "federal agent" and I cannot put it off for much longer. I might as well get this out of the way...
I get out and walk around to the passenger side to help Tad out. Then I start gathering the gifts I left in the backseat. You know how you can hear some silences like they are louder than any possible noise? That's what's going down, now. Workers are coming out to stare. Many of those are actually near-wolves—family members who did not get the gift but still have a chance to pass it down—and the wolves full- and near- begin to chuckle a bit. Soon, it hits full laughter.
Not everyday you see a black-cat in a highly tailored suit carrying flowers, a bottle of whine, and a white hen. There are going to be stories about this one.
Tad and I head for an outbuilding on the side of the lot. You know the type. Couple double-wide trailers welded together into a makeshift office. We walk up the concrete steps and go inside. Why no guards? No locks? If you are asking those questions, you are not paying attention.
"Oh sweet Demontongue, what did the CAT drag in?" After that a deep and rough laugh carries around the building.
Werewolves in their human form look like whatever and there is no good way to tell what they look like inside. By contrast, Macy and Barlow look exactly like what you would imagine the human halves of their respective wolves.
Marcella Maron is short, very dark, and has very bright silver hair. Her age is somewhere been late teens and early sixties. Dresses like a hippie grandma. Her eyes are iron. The cigar smell in the office belongs to her. Nicotine is like alcohol or drugs. Wolf-blood heals too fast for there to be any benefit but sometimes they pretend at habits to fit in and sometimes cigar ash is important for scrying spells.
Barlow Hendrix is what we southern folk might call cornfed. Big. Bulky. Five o'clock shadow year round. Wears plaid, jeans, and workboots. Has looked like a tired-40-year-old since he was 15. Does not smoke. Instead, drinks moonshine prepared by Ms. Macy that is laced with wolfsbane so he can actually pitch a drunk without his extreme Hendrix healing factor shedding the alcohol before he is finished swallowing it.
The two of them make up the leadership of a pack so associated with the Marons and the Hendrixes that it has no name besides that. Not really. 20-years-ago-plus, it was Macy and Barlow's dad that ran it. The Bigger, Badder Wolf. The fact that Barlow won the fight against his larger, more terrifying father is almost definitely because of Macy's intervention. Papa Hendrix had a proper mean streak. Order still assumes that a good number of missing people from the 60s and 70s were down to him. Old World Terror.
Jake was meant to take over from her but I fucked that up just doing my job. Really, though, I think he was ready to be out.
Macy is staring at Tad and myself and chooses to ignore me for the moment.
"Tadeo, why are you in cuffs?"
"They have silver in the..." I start to explain on the younger man's behalf but a glance from Macy has me go silent. He got caught. He did not rat out any of the pack. Minus and Plus. She's weighing him and my place is to be cat-shaped furniture for the moment.
Tad gives the rundown about I showed up in werecat form and tore through a cop car and got him back. He asks if there's a way to get the cuffs off and Barlow gets up, bumping quite hard into me, and escorts Tad back towards the factory. This leaves me alone with Macy.
"Ms. Macy, I..."
"You are dead to us, Demontongue, only you seem to have forgotten. Why do you look like a cat?"
"I had work done. Order assigned Nurse and I to come and chat with you about threads going dark and I wanted...assurance.
"Barlow eats other wolves when he is in a mood. You think looking like Puss-in-Boots gonna keep you alive he turns sour?'
"I was not really expecting...Ah, I come bearing gifts." I lift the wine and the hen and the flowers up to show her.
"You bring me the exact things I was thinking I needed? Order must be spooked for real."
"I don't think the Order knows what is up. Something is frying their grasp on the threads. That's why they sent me."
"To die?"
"To live. How's Jake doing by the way? He need anything?"
She stares at me at the mention of her son's name. Emotions are complex, here. She would not be the first woman I have deeply confused. "Why are you here, Johnny?" First name. That's either very good or very bad.
"I am here to help. My intuition said something is brewing and you are aware of it but you have to check with the oricha and these things would be the keys."
She laughs a quite grandmotherly laugh and claps. "I always liked you, deadman. I tell you what, you show me how this new cat body of yours works and I'll take your gifts."
I pause. Take a deep breath. I knew it would get rough but I can also hear a hint there. Like I said, I have confused a good number of women before. Several have also confused me. I go for cool and suave. "Ok, what is the test?"
"She means me," I hear the voice behind me say. Typical. Trying to play up my pick up game so much I just ignored the elephant sized horror in the room.
I turn to see Barlow in full wolfman form—well over three-meters tall, pushing four-, with an arm reach that could touch opposing walls in the trailer—and his fist heading for my face.
Remember how I said that I was built for speed, not strength? But if I move fast enough, it still counted as a hard hit? Well, Barlow Hendrix is the opposite. He is built for strength, not speed. Thing is, you throw a punch hard enough with arms long enough and fists big enough, it still comes at you fast.
His wolf claw hits me in my pretty cat face and I feel teeth snap off and my jaw come lose and something go wrong with my spine even as my new reflexes try to lessen the impact and off I go, flying through the air. I hit the inner wall of the office hard enough that I keep going and end up seeing gravel come up to meet me right as Johnny Blue fades to Johnny Black. [14]
== DOUG'S COMMENTARY ==
Don't worry, we all knew the fight vs Barlow was going to be rough. Johnny lives. Just...altered. He will return next week. Same cat-time, same cat-place.
I originally cut this post off at just Chapter Two and did not like that. One of the issues I feel like I have in this blog is aiming for a bit too short, overall. It is kind of just the nature of it. I have a fairly busy full-time job and seven-year-old-kid lifestyle so having shorter (around an hourish) play sessions is nice for my lifestyle but this means some stories feel a bit cramped and the kind of things that I would normally like to let stew and develop more naturally. I am going to try and lengthen all my posts just a bit so anyone reading it, including myself, has time to get a bit tucked in. The fact that this one ended up on kind of a cliff-hanger was a nice surprise.
A bonus "oracle" in at least this first run of The GLOW is that Dean Spencer's stockart (which I have bought around 12 pieces so far) has inspired scenes and details I would not have initially considered. The first episode of The GLOW with the Prologue and Chapter One used the two images that were directly responsible for me playing this session. The "thing in the tank" image at the top of this post was one I snagged because I figured I could work it in somewhere and as soon as the notion of a "new sigil" came up in the oracles I immediately started thinking how a squid/octopus creature might produce a kind of ink that allows for soul-ash to be bound to a person's skin and soul.
It will come as no surprise that for a solo-play campaign like this, I have a few basic set-pieces in mind and then figure out a likely way to get there. From the onset, there was going to be a confrontation scene with Macy and Barlow vs Johnny. I had no idea what the details or the terms would be but there was going to be something. Had it happened right away and the stuff with the disk had not gone so pear shaped I think it would likely have been a bit more stealthy and confrontational. In that version of the campaign, the wolves would have been more blank antagonists with a lot of the campaign swinging back around to the Patels and the disk. The fact that it had a couple of sessions worth of play to brew meant the wolves became more characters and so the confrontation became less black-and-white and more nuanced. There will be a scene, eventually, involving the Blue Sky Grove on Dauphin Island and the sorcerous experiment [and somehow the Patels will return] but we are bit past my earliest ideas so I am just along for the ride.
Chapter One, Johnny went through bad luck while succeeding at his scene tasks. Chapter Two, he has great luck while failing at scene tasks. I like to think this is him losing even more control of the situation. Passing out during the sigil process meant he does not quite know the sigil currently altering his body. Failing to smoothly jailbreak Tad means that said sigil starts taking over. One of the inherent joys of The GLOW series is that the characters are notes in a loud orchestra. I don't have to really think of long-term implications for Johnny. The GLOW devours people all the time. Maybe literally so. Chapter Three shows the "new Johnny" starting to regain some control. I'm sure there are really detailed essays about the noir genre and what it means but for me this kind of hapless hero who has streaks of feckless villain fits: the old rules are kind of there but they are falling apart.
The next part will finally get around to the sorcerer turning into a werewolf that the Order Psychics detected and assigned Johnny to investigate. I have already stumbled upon another piece of art that will flavor this some but a few chance oracle rolls have already changed what this campaign, at least this arc in the campaign, is about so I will just sit back and see where the cards and dice and the Doug-that-writes-that-section ends up.
== MECHANICAL NOTES ==
- Card pull to test challenge difficulty. 8♡ → Easy Crafty. Johnny gets it in style.
- How well is Johnny Blue known and respected by the tunnel snakes? (Advantage) 7♢ + Q♡ → Queen trumps and the ♡ upgrades it. They know and really like him.
- Some details to fill in some visual gaps. Image Oracle 4,1 Handcuffs + 3,6 Glock + 3,3 Daemon Pull. Chains, guns, aquatic creatures...maybe something with lots of tentacles. Urban Locations 2, 5 Graveyard + 1,6 Depot/Warehouse + 3,6 Marketplace. Now, blended together...
- Only was a Easy Brawny Challenge so I figured Johnny had it. He did not. He got a 2 + 1 so nearly a criticial fail. He is going to lose another point of Resolve.
- Without going into the details of making her stats, we'll give Sofia three dice for this. She gets double sixes so her improvements are pretty exceptional. Image Oracles bring up 6,4 Spy + 2,3 Chicken + 4,5 Magic Portal. Stealthiness. An ability to slow down a fall even more than cat like reflexes. An ability to get out of danger boarding on short range teleports. All sort of like enhanced versions of normal cat-like graces. He is going to be more cat-like than expected. It is working too well.
- Wilderness Location 4,6 Quicksand/Crevasse + 2,1 Cabin/Hut as seen through some Gulf Coast flair.
- To test the difficulty, pull a J♢ → as fun as it would be to imagine how this makes the whole arrest plotline easier we will keep it more literal so that the J = Easy so an Easy Agile task. Johnny gets three successes so maps it out so well does not even need to check on the way back. Open Crafty roll to test his psychic weave and gets a 6 so really good.
- Johnny actually fails his scene check to hit the cop car before they could really see him. However, for funsies, I work in that this is because his Bast Sigil is already activating. He overshoots the jump because he is not used to his cat-like leap. He then has a follow-up check, 2♡ → Easy Agile Challenge. This one he gets three successes on. Though he whiffed the in and out aspects he moves so much faster than the cops that he is now able to take their car before they can react.
- Oh, I should check this. Was Tad handcuffed when rescued. 9♡ → Yes, and... the handcuffs are at least somewhat anti-werewolf.
- He gets one success, so he might have a detail or two wrong but should be close enough.
- Does Tad know of the history between Johnny and Ms Macy? We know he doesn't really know Johnny so this is unlikely. J♣ + 2♡ → 2 trumps so no, and Tad is not really part of the core pack. He gets along with them ok but since his younger siblings aren't wolves tries to stop them getting too deep in.
- Does his older sigils still work even if they are different? J♢ → Yes.
- Image Oracle 6,2 Sheep + 2,2 Charm. I'll eschew all the fun puns of "wolves of sheep's clothing" and say instead of sheep, it's a goat. Heart = blood. Goatsuckers. Aka...
== CREDITS ==
The system is Tricube Tales and Tricube Solo by Richard Woolcock and Zadmar Games. The base system has been extended with my own "extended framework" which a new version is being play-tested during this so I'll provide and updated link as that works out.
Some art © Dean Spencer, used with permission. All rights reserved.
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