Eustace & Hitomi and the Case of the Rambler's Inn, Chapter 11. The Kids Are Alright
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- "Previously on..." and Campaign Summary
- This Chapter Will Run Differently
- CHAPTER 11
- The Three Headed Cerberus
- Further Down the Rambler Hole
- The Rats Flee the Sinking Ship
- Smashes and Crashes
- Eustace and Hitomi Burn It Down (some of it, anyway)
- Somewhat Coda
- Doug's Commentary
- Mechanical and Story Notes
- Credits
Previously, on Eustace & Hitomi and the Case of the Rambler's Inn
Eustace and Elly help FBI Agent Jani Blum save the life of Amy Patel. Now: Eustace, Elly, Amy, and Milly are on the way to the Rambler to bring the schemes to an end. Back at Ralph's, Hitomi has picked up on Eustace's clue and her and Daphne (with others) are heading towards the Rambler to help. With Chief Raylon being caught by the FBI, the other actors are sure to try and destroy evidence so the clock is ticking.
About Eustace & Hitomi and the Case of the Rambler's Inn
See the "..and the Case of the Rambler's Inn" campaign-arc page for more information.
It is 1996 and Eustace Delmont is a geek in his mid-20s who has moved back to the town of Maidenstead and now drifts as a slightly big fish (with curly hair and a beard) in a small pond. One day, while helping a minor electronics kerfuffle at town's main landmark—the weird and overlarge Rambler's Inn Hotel—with a long and storied past, Eustace met the girl of his dreams: Hitomi Meyer. Staying with her loving but estranged father and adopted step-sister, Hitomi is down and out and distressed as she gets caught up in a scheme to help launch a subscription VHS ghost hunting video series. Eustace and Hitomi team up, and fall in love, while trying to solve a constantly spiraling collection of mysteries.
Content Warning: Smoking, Drinking, Drugs, People Being Held Against Their Will, Dog Theft, Foul Language, Murder (?), Other Crimes, Violence, Sex, Pornography.
This post is in the standard Doug Alone post style. See Anatomy of a Post for more details. The Image Oracles described in the post (gamemaster phases and mechanic notes, especially) are from the Maidenstead Mysteries one-sheet. They can be seen on the Tricube Image Oracles page.
Attribution for the tools and materials used—including the splash art—can be found in the Credits below along with some details.
This Chapter Will Run Differently
There are three segments to this chapter, initially — Eustace & Amy, Elly — Milly, and Hitomi & Daphne — that might grow or shrink. Each group will played out in very brief bits per scene as if their parts are happening simultaneously.
There will be very little lore or world development at this point. Just a few tasks to settle.
Once the group fills up 13-points on a mini-clock, they will have "solved" the Rambler. 13 is just a random arbitrary number that sounds good.
Each scene, Chaos Factor will increase by one. All Expected Scenes are understood to be "to help Eustace figure out all they can from the Rambler." Altered scenes will be a slight new wrinkle. Interrupt scenes will be a bigger new wrinkle. However the scenes will be as expected + wrinkle. Threads and characters that get brought up by Random Events during this chapter will be rerolled until something that fits current fiction shows up. Or ignored.
A challenge will be made for each group but no effort will be needed. This whole scene is basically one huge extended challenge. Resolution will not be lost unless it fits the fiction. The kids are going to make it through, it is just a question of how long it takes them.
Chapter 11. The Kids Are Alright
We are young, we run green
Keep our teeth nice and clean
See our friends, see the sights
Feel alright
We wake up, we go out
Smoke a fag, put it out
See our friends, see the sights
Feel alright
Are we like you?
I can't be sure
Of the scene, as she turns
We are strange, in our worlds
But we are young, we get by
Can't go mad, ain't got time
Sleep around if we like
But we're alright
— Supergrass, "Alright"
Setting the Scene. The Three Headed Cerberus
Saturday, June 22, 1996. 9:22pm
The Rambler's Inn.
Chaos Factor: 4
Scene Test → 2. "Interrupt" Scene. 45 NPC Negative. NPC = Milly Delmont.
Actual Scene: Right in the middle of this, the parents show up.
SOLVING THE RAMBLER: ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐.
Eustace: Hard Alert Challenge.
Elly: Easy Charming.
Hitomi: Hard Alert + Brainy.
The Three Headed Cerebrus
Saturday, June 22, 1996. 9:22pm
The Rambler's Inn.
Amy and Eustace give up on subtlety and run through the lobby of the Rambler. At this time of night, the general number of staff are at a minimum so it is mostly confused desk workers wondering who the two unruly guests might be.
"Which way, Amy?," Eustace shouts as he bolts down a hallway at nearly random.
"This way, Nurse!," she says, grabbing him by the shoulder and pulling him back into the lobby and across to another hallway. Part of her research before pulling her disappearing act was getting the same maps Eustace wanted from Patrick. She remembers them well. [1]
As Eustace runs behind Amy, he does briefly wonder why not one is trying to stop him this time. The lights flickering the chaos the Disruptor is doing might be part of it.
Milly has helped to start the Disruptor and the effects are noticeable almost immediately. Various lights and systems in the Rambler are starting to flicker and flash and a few shouts can be heard. Right as Elly turns around to give a thumbs up, Milly catches Elly's eyes go a bit wider.
"I thought you were with Eustace," a voice acts. Oh crap. It's mom.
Milly looks behind her at her parents. The dad is like a bigger, butcher Milly while the mom is a shorter more effeminate Eustace.
While Milly is telling herself to not mention the shoot out, Elly cuts it. "Eustace wanted me to show Milly how this device we were working on works. He's in the Rambler helping out some folks." [2]
"Oh, that's nice. He's a good boy. You can learn a lot from him, Millikans."
Hitomi uses Daphne's key card to get through the door but it takes a few tries. She has no idea what is happening at the Rambler but she assumes Eustace and Elly are behind it. The whole place is full of flashing lights like a haunted house and she hears a few lights start popping.
Jenny took off towards the Gygax and is going to find Elly. Raymond is responding to a surprising call from Tiffany that Chief Raylon has been arrested. Morgan is back in the car keeping an eye on Libby. [3]
Hitomi wants to find Eustace but she mostly wants to be as big a distraction as she can be from the tunnels where he was going. She starts yanking down fire alarms and banging on doors and telling people to run. Then, surprisingly, she sees him running around a corner with Amy Patel. The two have taken another turn but Hitomi tells Daphne to follow and takes off running after the others. [4]
Setting the Scene. Further Down the Rambler Hole
Chaos Factor: 5
Scene Test → 7. As expected.
Actual Scene: Eustace and Amy get spotted. Hitomi is nearly to them. Jenny joins Elly and Milly.
SOLVING THE RAMBLER: ☑☑☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐.
Eustace: Standard Alert
Elly: Hard Brainy
Hitomi: Standard Brainy + Charming
Further Down the Rambler Hole
As Amy is pointing to some upcoming twisting hallways and explaining where she thinks the other control room would be, she hears her own name called out. [5]
"AMY!" Her and Eustace pull up and turn and see Roman Patel there, a stack of papers in his hand. At least he looks happy to see his supposedly missing daughter even he tries hiding the papers behind his back.
It is clear that neither Amy nor Eustace know what to do. Thankfully, Daphne runs up at this point and begins shouting about Amy being ok and how pretty she is — Amy is still in a ratty hoody and hasn't showered in a few days, Daphne's default mode is to make the people she loves to feel like they are most attractive people in the world — and how nice Roman looks and this breaks the spell for long enough that Hitomi bolts past and her and Eustace go deeper into the Rambler. [6]
Outside, Jenny has shown up and it is a friends-and-family reunion as the rainbow-haired woman makes small talk with the Delmonts. A few glances are spared towards the building as a fire alarm is now going off and people are starting to mill around outside. Eustace's dad seems like he is on the cusp of asking if someone should check that out when Elly asks everyone to be quiet for a second.
She realizes the overall effect of the Disruptor is wearing down as the extra battery drain is taking its toll. It is not enough time for Eustace to get clear.
Taking back control of the situation, she shouts, "Delmont, get me my tools from the bag there. And my lighter." Elly lights up a cigarette and then starts strapping even more power into the Disruptor with Milly as her very trusty lab assistant. The Rambler's power system starts flashing even harder as the two drown out any questions from the Delmont family. A light rain starts to fall. [7]
Setting the Scene. The Rats Flee the Sinking Ship
Chaos Factor: 6
Scene Test → 4. Interrupt. NPC Action. Mike Anderson
Actual Scene: Mike is trying to get out of the Rambler with some of the tapes that.
SOLVING THE RAMBLER: ☑☑☑☑☑☑☐☐☐☐☐☐☐.
Eustace & Hitomi: Standard Charming
Elly: Standard Alert + Brainy
The Rats Flee the Sinking Ship
Eustace and Hitomi run up a short set up of steps, turn a right turn, run down some steps, then make a left turn only to end up a large room with a mezzanine. "What the fuck is up with this place?," Hitomi asks.
"The rumors on the forums is that it is designed to summon SHIT...," Eustace cuts off his sentence as he nearly slams into a man carrying a stack of black clam-shell cases.
"Mike?," Hitomi asks but Eustace immediately cops why someone might be trying to get out of the Rambler with an entire Movie Gallery's backroom worth of tapes. [8]
"Oh, wow. That's a cool set-up. Definitely would TUNNEL OF LOVE to see your filming equipment!," he says to a confused "Mike."
"Hey, thanks, but..." starts Mike but then Hitomi punches him full in the face, knocking years of incriminating evidence to the floor in the process which Hitomi proceeds to stomp to bits before her Eustace are running to a hallway on the other side.
Elly stands in complete control of the situation outside, cigarette in her hand like a general's baton. "We need to start seeing if we can help some of the confused people building up. Jenny, can you and Milly..."
Elly sees Martin Reed park a Rambler's Inn guest-services van by one of the side entrances. He is too far away to tell what he is doing, but it looks like he is waiting for someone to come to the door.
A long drag and an eye squint later, Elly turns to Milly. "Delmont, you are in charge of the Disruptor. Jenny, hand me my box cutter. We are going in." [9]
Setting the Scene. Smashes and Crashes
Chaos Factor: 7
Scene Test → 4. Interrupt. 95 Current Context.
Actual Scene: Hitomi hear a noise and Elly gets an ally.
SOLVING THE RAMBLER: ☑☑☑☑☑☑☑☑☑☐☐☐☐.
Eustace & Hitomi: Standard Alert + Brainy
Elly: Standard Alert + Brainy
Smashes and Crashes
Eustace is trying to figure out which passageway to head down now — they really all look the same damned boring "hotel" decor with an edge of faux-Victorian-meets-Ante-Bellum motif — when Hitomi hears a sound that causes her to turn. "Vern?"
She points to a door that has had some work doneto the outer look. A contraption is wedged into the outside meaning whoever is inside would be trapped.
Eustace takes one look at it, digs into his bag and pulls out a hammer. He slams it down and pops the whole locking mechanism off. After a few seconds, a blinking face peaks out.[10]
"VERN!"
Elly and Jenny approaches Martin Reed. Elly has the box cutter and Jenny has a screw driver. "You need to back away from the van, Mr. Reed."
"Now, why are you lovely ladies being so un-lady-like? I think I will stay right here and if you know what's good for you, you'll walk away right now." [11]
Elly hears a gun cock behind her head and Raymond's voice. "No, you need to walk towards me, Martin Reed. You are under arrest for trying to commit fraud by hiding Ariel Patel's death and for attempting to blackmail who knows how many people." [12]
"Put the gun away. You are not going to shoot me, Officer Clark."
"I might just. As you obviously know, Raylon ain't around to protect you, anymore, Martin. And besides, you were really shitty to my friends."
The first bolt of lightning hits somewhere off shore with a crash of thunder following. A storm is coming up.
Setting the Scene. Eustace and Hitomi Burn It Down (some of it, anyway)
Chaos Factor: 8
Scene Test → 7. Altered. I think it's time for the old classic as we nearly definitely wrap this up.
Actual Scene: They locate the door to Martin Reed's secret control room...right as the lights go out. Also the door has some different sort of lock.
SOLVING THE RAMBLER: ☑☑☑☑☑☑☑☑☑☑☑☐☐.
Eustace & Hitomi: Standard Alert + Brainy
Eustace and Hitomi Burn It Down (some of it, anyway)
Vern points out a door — marked MAINTENANCE, DO NOT ENTER — about five seconds before the entire floor goes dark. Some emergency lights turn on but it's clear the hotel is a bit behind code. Eustace works on the lock for a second, trying to solve it.
"Does anyone have a light by chance?"
"FUCK!," curses Hitomi.
"WHAT?!," asks Vern and Eustace at the same time. Eustace jumped hard enough to slam his head into the metal door.
"Sorry! Just occurred to me that Ray and Jen bought a lot of stuff like flashlights and we left it with your costumes in the car!."
"Costumes?," asks Eustace and fiddles with a different set of tools and starts to have a bit more success.
"Um, Hitomi, who is this?," asks Vern who is doing relatively well for a person who spent a week trapped in an old hotel room after tracking a strange signal to this very door. Apparently Mike had caught home and Raylon had suggested they keep him under wraps until they could figure out what to do with him.
"This is Eu."
"That is me?," asks Vern, still wondering if the hotel room wasn't a better place.
Eustace interrupts this conversation, "Listen up you knuckleheads, I'm in..." [13]
Hitomi holds up her lighter to light the room and the first one has a bank of monitors and mixing stations. Oh the sights this room has seen.
Past it they find a room that was likely Martin Reed's hidden office. Besides a desk with an extraordinary amount of tacky nude decor, and a shelf full of binders of paperwork, there are many more of those clam-shell cases. A room full of dirty secrets to fuel all of Martin's plans which are now Roman's.
"Hey, Hitomi."
"Yeah, Eustace?"
"Amy was right, let's burn it down."
Setting the Scene: Somewhat Coda
That wraps it up, basically.
SOLVING THE RAMBLER: ☑☑☑☑☑☑☑☑☑☑☑☑☑.
| The Mystery of the Rambler's Inn | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5F | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10F | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15F | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20E |
| P | P | P | P | F | F | P | P | F | F | P | P | P | P | F | F | P | P | E | E |
However, there are a lot of open moments and it might be nice to revisit some. We are going all the way back to the beginning and letting 2027 Hitomi give us a few wraps and updates but still leaving plenty of gaps because stories like this just keep going.
I'll fill in some "future sight" that was missed but I think for the active sight, that's a better ending than I could have imagined.
Somewhat Coda
[ There it is, kids. The way I met the love of my life when I was just twenty and completely at a loss what to do with myself. The latter happened to a lot of us in the 90s. Still is happening to a lot of us. One day I'll tell you about Alex and his entire career as a Youtube star. ]
[ The next couple of weeks were full of excitement. Raymond deputized Eustace — something neither was sure was possible but no one was around to tell either of them no — and the two processed a lot of paperwork together with Tiffany and Jackson turning out to be quite capable with the right boss. Which Raymond was. He was made Chief of Police just the next year and still serves as such. He is still gorgeous and the source of many fruitless crushes. ]
[ My dad found out about Amy's mom and how Daphne and I were part of bringing that to light and decided his daughters needed a vacation from their vacation and took us off to Oxford to stay with my mom nearly a whole month. Who, by the way, finally decided to drop the Meyer and go back to Sato. It was nice, and I got to hang out with lots of old friends and meet my mom's new boyfriend. But, it was no Maidenstead. ]
[ While we were gone, Frank and Vern decided the ghost hunting thing was dead (especially without my dad's investment funds) and came up with an idea for Backyard 'Bama Science with a plan to sell tapes to schools across the Southeast. It worked for a bit and then failed. Frank can be a force of nature and has face more than meant for the screen but without a Daphne-type to chew up all the screentime Frank just couldn't hold the camera's interest. Frank didn't seem to have it in him to find a new leading man or lady to replace her. A decade later, years after Frank and Daphne had gotten back together but given up on the whole video-star dream, Vern would use that amateur science experience to help produce the early shows that kicked off Emmanuel "Jack Fall" Fallard. To this day, though, my main memory of Frank and Vern is the look of joy on Frank's face when Vern walked out with us from a now-on-fire Rambler. Both men, so different yet such good friends, hugged hard enough you could hear ribs popping. ]
[ In Eustace and Raymond's investigation, they discovered that Gunther was the majority owner of the Rambler the whole time. Martin had been kicked out of the will due to earlier transgressions but Martin had tricked his uncle and aunt into signing over their shares. Being under false pretenses, Gunther was likely to get the hotel back and could have been rich. Instead, he used the relatively minor fire as an excuse to demolish the Rambler before the court case was even settled. Gave the land to Maidenstead and turned it into Gunther Strange Park of Hope. To this day, a statue of Chicken Noodle soup stands in the center in his honor. Us oldsters all call it the Rambler's Park but the young'uns call it Soup Central, albeit lovingly. ]
[ We Meyers came back from Oxford in late July — I had an entire suitcase full of Doctor Who merch — only to find that Amy had whisked Eustace off to somewhere unknown. According to Ralph, she had been visiting Eustace a lot for two weeks before they both disappeared. Nothing strikes the fear into the heart of a lovesick twenty-year-old quite so hard as picturing Amy's mantis tattoo and all the many configurations and angles from which it might be seen. Eustace returned with his beard back, a bottle of wine, and several packs of Gauloises for me. The old always-yes-man Eustace was dead but the new Eustace was never unkind, just more aware of his on self-worth, much to the chagrin of folks like Hayden Warren who was missing out on hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars of free repairs (albeit with that very special Eustace guarantee of maybe making things worse). ]
[ Turns out he and Amy had chased her dad all over Europe and it ended with Eustace leaping into a canal in Venice to stop Roman from getting away again. The photo of Eustace nearly drowning was a minor success in the Italian press and even showed up back here in Maidenstead under the caption, "Local Nerd Nearly Dies Exposing Corrupt Banker" along with photos of Ralph's shop and Eustace's back room (Julian still labeled on the wall next to that map of the Rambler). I tried to poke Eustace about what else Amy and he got up to but just said, "Oh, lot's of cool stuff!," with a smile. I did check his neck for bite marks and no apparent attempts were made to chew it off. I'll accept it. ]
[ Amy made out pretty well and got a lot of money while also promising to turn the Patel fortune into something useful for the community. A scholarship for young international women to attend American schools and conferences was made in Ariel Patel's honor. Eustace got a sizeable reward and the two still hang out from time to time. Eustace attracts beautiful people like flies. He has me, after all. ]
[ There is so much more I can tell you. The way that Isaac Gibbs got caught without his older half brother running interference. The way that Morgan and Patrick Yost ended up dating. The way that Jenny and Elly decided to separate for a bit and work on themselves. Elly left Lamark and formed Moment Labs with Milly as her chief programmer. The two of them have dozens of patents and Moment Labs remains Maidenstead's largest employer to this day. Well, since the Rambler is no more, at least. There will never a hotel quite like it in the world. ]
[ I could talk about the way that Ralph invited me to be a partner in his shop so he could start taking more time off. The way the name was changed to Ralph and Hitomi's Electonics until a stroke...well, let's save some sad moments for the future where they are. Just know that Delmont Electronics is still called Ralph's by a lot of us, including me. My apartment is now an office and storeroom. Eustace still claims the back room as his special place when he needs to think things through, which is quite often with all the cases he works. I help with a lot of those. Sometimes our kids join in, too. ]
[ There are always tomorrows and yesterdays. Sometimes it is the todays that matter the most. Let's go one last time to 1996 to a day on the first weekend of September. Sunny after a few days of rain. Picture if you will, a couch in a small but cozy apartment. The near-Autumn but still quite-Summer light coming in. Two people leaning against each other as a short and plump dog snuggles across their laps. One is 6'4", bearded, and comfortably fat. The other is 5'11", long-haired, and comfortably thin. They look so different and yet fit together so well that sometimes it breaks my heart that it took them twenty years to find each other. The two have just had a conversation about how how they want to make the relationship work for long term and how they needed to take time to figure out how to do that since they had spent the whole relationship caught up in various mysteries and shenanigans. ]
"What's the plans, Mr. Delmont?," Hitomi asks. She meant in the here and now. Possibly involving getting dinner or catching a movie. They had just spent an hour talking about the future. About her going to college to get a business degree. She was ready to get out and start working on Saturday.
"I kind of like just sitting here with Libby and sniffing your hair. It smells lovely."
"It smells like French cigarette smoke and cheap American shampoo, you creep."
"Perfect." He leaned over and kissed the top of the head he loved.
Hitomi played with the buttons on Eustace's shirt. Since the return from Venice, he had taken to wearing Hawaiian shirts instead of his plain pastel office button-ups. While Hitomi was glad to have finally talked about her worry that this relationship would crash and burn, she doesn't really have a roadmap after this point. How slow is too slow? When will they know it is time to enter a next stage? Especially since a relationship close to both of them that seemed to be doing just fine had suddenly split. Two if you include Frank and Daphne. Eustace had spent the morning helping Jenny to pack. Eustace have brought over a couple of boxes and Hitomi asked if they could talk and then they just sat here in silence, enjoying each other's — and Libby's — warmth.
"How are Elly and Jenny doing?"
"Jenny is heading out to Las Vegas to be with Aunt Elvis. With Tammy. Turns out as bad as Jenny's family is, Tammy was a shining light. An aunt that had taken care of Jenny as best as she could so Jenny took care of Tammy after a nasty divorce. Jenny has stopped dying her hair and has toned down the color palette some. Just trying out a new look to go with a new life. Gives her a new vibe to see her with blonde hair.
"Also, bonus, Elly said she is divorcing me. We have joint custody of Milly but I think Elly won that fight."
"Will they get back together?"
"Maybe. Who knows? They met at a very vulnerable time and helped each other to heal. They had some pretty big hang-ups that June brought out and they just want to sift through the matrix a bit. "
"So what's in the boxes?"
"Jenny's parting gift. Said it should help us to figure out some things."
Hitomi gets up and opens the book marked "H" and finds a note from Jenny just saying, "Good Luck," and some costumes hand-made by Jenny. Lifting the first one up, it is a maid outfit. With optional fox ears. The second one down is a fur bikini with the label "Leela" on it.
"Hey, Eu?," she says, feeling her heart already racing. Opening the box marked "E" the note says "Don't fuck it up, Delmont" and right on top is a hat and a very long scarf. The Doctor. The Fourth Doctor. His favorite. And hers now that they have watched it, together. Such lovely curls. Oh, dear.
"Yeah?"
"Do you mind if we slow things down starting next week?"
[ After all, there are so many uses for a scarf that long. Might need a minute. ]
DOUG'S COMMENTARY
January 12, 2025
I have an IRL fever after finishing this — a literal one from a virus, not an excitement about a Doctor Who scarf — so I will write down some quick ideas and see if I have any other details to add tomorrow before I hit "publish." As of the moment I have an image to make.
Considering that Hitomi and Eustace are at least partially based on Kazumi (my IRL partner) and myself, I sincerely doubt they ever slow down. Kaz and I didn't. Not really. But...they made it work. Not everyone does. I am lucky several times over for the 21-years with Kaz. Eustace and Hitomi are now pushing 31-years together. Just know there were lots of fights and bad decisions but also lots of love and happiness and support. Because I am writing it and I am a softy.
There are some mysteries left in "...and the Rambler's Inn". A lot of the more character-background ones I am not that concerned about. Life is like that. You meet people and share their space for a bit everyone has those spaces, those notes, beyond us. Deep down even with a few extra bits of insight and GM-narrator voice, it should be understood that all the truths were either from Eustace's or Hitomi's viewpoint and neither are perfect mind readers. The whole story started as a riff on unreliable narrators: the dice told the character's version and I was going to tell the real happenings. That got dropped soon but I still might like to try it again.
The truest mystery is where did the Disruptor come from? By the end it was quite powerful but it seemingly just showed up and got used by Amy and Roger Patel. It was a way to have the Doctor's sonic screwdriver for Eustace to play with here or there. Not meant to make too much sense. This is the Alabama Weird. It could be aliens. It could be eldritch beings or the gnoles or the Kid or just someone making mad science in a lab. Maybe The GLOW's Eustace dropped it off. Or a time loop. If we ever return to revisit, it will definitely return along with us.
Just to clarify, the intention is that the backpack found in Chapter 1 was Amy's. That's how far back I had the plan of Amy being more complicated than a mere missing person's case. Her accomplice was Roger. Why did they do it? I think I might have answered this in passing but they realized their mom was missing in weird circumstances and their dad was getting away with something. Amy figured if she also disappeared, people might start looking into Roman Patel's affairs. Unfortunately, she wasn't expecting Raylon to play the double cross of both pretending to be helping her find her mom AND making sure the missing person case went nowhere. That last part I only worked more recently by leaving it up to dice rolls. I am satisfied.
Why did Strange and Raylon want Eustace specifically to avoid the Rambler? I think it's just because he runs face first into weird situations and pokes all the bears. If anything, they likely did suspect him of causing the glitch in the first place. Gunther had become aware of the tape and wasn't sure what to do with it. That happens sometimes in Alabama. You know your family is doing something wrong but you also don't really know what to do about it. Especially when the police are accomplices. I think Gunther would have eventually done the right thing even with Mike running interference.
January 13, 2025
I am slightly on the mend so ready to wrap this up a bit more.
I only have essentially the same explanation (from bringing together dice rolls and such) at the end that I shared. My idea is that Mike had been working with Martin to make a sort of bespoke pornography ring for rich amateurs and had been collecting some of the tapes as a kind of exit plan but one that had never really manifested. It wasn't until the accident with Ariel Patel and Roman's overreaction that it went south. However, Roman had already been working on plans to use the tapes himself (hence the papers he was trying to hide from Amy). It only makes sense if you don't think too deeply. Still, with the burning of the Rambler, a lot of sexy times were returned to more private channels where they belonged. Good for them. Gunther, rather than deal with any potential evidence, took out the entire Rambler to guarantee their peace.
By the way, the random people showing up at the end were all just perfect to tell a story. Sometimes the dice are psychic like that. I was going to make sure that Vern was ok since a broad rule here is that none of the main kids could die (Jani might have gotten shot but the dice rolls were heavily on the side of Team Good). I love that kind of gauntlet run of little rolls and action sequences, especially have spending chapters slowly building characters and concepts.
The "other women" are an unknown. Had the story gone on a few more chapters, we likely would have figured it out. The simplest answer is that Martin had recruited a number of actors to help provide whatever fantasy was chosen by the customer. Roman was likely bribing them to stay quiet but a part of me felt at least some of them were more team Ariel and might have turned up to help if given the chance.
It is humorous to me that we never got to meet Patrick Yost. I spent three different chapters trying to get close to him but always bouncing off. Early on I had kind of an idea that maybe his and Morgan's antagonism was due to a mis-match attraction. At the end, with no further information, I just went with it.
MECHANICAL AND STORY NOTES
- Does Amy remember the maps? (50/50) → 06 Exceptional Yes.
- Eustace gets 0 successes, meaning that someone has probably noticed. Will roll an NPC next scene for him.
- Elly gets 1 success.
- Has Jenny come along? (Likely) → 15 Yes.
- Hitomi spends a point of Karma versus her Determined (to find Eustace) perk. Gets 1 success.
- Eustace gets 0 successes. The person who spotted them was...Roman Patel. Spppiiiiiccccy.
- Daphne spends one of Hitomi's Karma to get 1 success.
- Elly gets 3 successes.
- Eustace spends 1 Karma because he realizes what the tapes might be.
- Elly gets two successes.
- Eustace and Hitomi gets 2 successes.
- Elly gets no successes.
- Does Raymond dramatically show up? (50/50) → 27 Yes.
- Eustace spends a Karma (vs Lateral Thinker) as he figures out the strange lock. Hitomi spends a Karma (vs Determined) as she's ready to see this done. He's at 2. She's at 0. I actually did forget all about the costumes and equipment but oh well.
CREDITS
Eustace Delmont and The Case of the Rambler's Inn is played primarily using Richard Woolcock (Zadmar Games)'s Maidenstead Mysteries Tricubes one-sheet and Tana Pigeon's Mythic Gamemaster Emulator is used to handle a lot of the scene management and basic oracle checks. Various tables Tricube Tales Solo (also by Woolcock) and various articles from Mythic Magazine also show up.
Other sources used include:
- Cesar Capacle's Random Realities
- Madeline Hale's Table Fables: Modern
- Matt & Erin Davis's Book of Random Tables: Modern, Book of Random Tables: Eldritch, and Book of Random Tables: 1980s - 1990s
- Zach Best's Universal NPC Emulator.
ART CREDIT AND EXPLANATION
The glimpse of the "Rambler" at the top is actually JTD Media's photo of the Seelbach Hotel (shared via Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0). I had a slight problem in that I wanted a photo of the Rambler to finish off the series but in the current take on the story, the Rambler was an enigma. An alternate storyline where dice rolls and card draws didn't so completely lock the main cast from being able to explore the hotel would likely have spent a LOT of time building up the parts of the Rambler. However, the storyline I got was that the Rambler was a place that was beyond their grasp. Eustace has an almost distasteful response to it and its clash of styles and eras and strange outbuildings. So I didn't want to spoil that by suddenly grounding it in sense. The Seelbach is close to some of the stylings and that little glimpse is about all we'll get to show the various strange constructions of the past 80 years.
In an alternate campaign, it could have been a lot of fun to have Eustace be a guest and spend more time exploring things like the weird tower that juts out over the spring or the unnecessary courtyards. Maybe a prequel will be in the works, but most likely not.
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