The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont, Episode 18 - Hacker Girl Meets Mantis Girl
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- "Previously..." and Campaign/Arc Summary
- The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont Episode 18 — Hacker Girl Meets Mantis Girl
- Icarus
- A DOUG WALL BREAK: A Slight Delay and COMPRESSION Due to IRL Thingamabobs
- Securing the Villa (Actual/Quick Play)
- Outfoxed
- Doug's Commentary
- Credits
Previously, on The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont
After two brutal fights, the team has managed to — at least briefly — secure the out perimeter of the Patel "villa." Now they need to get through the vault doors and deal with the interior troops and rescue three people inside.
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 18 — Hacker Girl Meets Mantis Girl
Expected Scene: The team has to get through the doors while Eustace "reprograms" the relic that guards that lawn.
Scene Test: [c118] 6. 2d10 = 7 + 10. Major Change.
[c118] says "A Critical Injury" is inflicted. { Eustace | Hitomi | Genny | Jones | Varvara } → Jones. I don't think we really need more details for the moment besides something goes wrong as Jones is trying to land. We'll allow him a chance to save vs Impossible. I mean, he might make it. The initial "injury" will be the Green Lady itelf.
Actual Scene: The Green Lady's shaky part that was field fixed will break at the worst possible time.
Setting the Scene, e18s1: Icarus.
Date: June 6, 1996.
Time: 11:17pm.
Place: Front lawn of Roman's fake Villa.
DATE PLAYED: May 18, 2025.
Icarus
Date: June 6, 1996.
Time: 11:17pm.
Place: Front lawn of Roman's fake Villa.
"Hold up, Jones, Eustace is doing something. No, I don't know what...," Genny says to his pilot friend as Jones hovers around 50 meters above the villa's front lawn. Eustace has been chanting something other his breath and writing a series of symbols down.
Occurred to me after last time that when Eustace spent his Spotlight to cast Witchery, I did not encode it in game terms. I won't make him roll again — he already lost a spotlight over it — but essentially he is rewriting the relic to only allow the people present.
Eustace turns around and nods to Genny. Hitomi is jacking her laptop into the door frame's hidden controls. Any passers-by would see just a fancy, mildly-decorated mahogany door. In reality, it is about foot thick and made of metal. The windows showing opulent rooms are aether-enforced glass and much of the facade is a fake to hide the exterior. They might have an easier time punching through the wall in a random place.
Is the control mechanism for the villa ServiSynth based? (Even) → [c24] No. It's a more traditional computer interface. Hitomi still gets +1 for her laptop but not her history with making friends with ServiSynths. We'll set the difficulty to Extreme.
Crime (3) + Fix (3) + 1 with her Hacker feat gets her an Extreme + Basic. She's able to start the door opening.
Hitomi is tapping away on her keyboard for a minute and then gives a positive shout. With a loud clunk, the heavy door starts sliding away, ruining the illusion as a whole chunk of wall starts sliding open slow. The sound of large, heavy gears can be heard turning inside. Genny brings his gun up and Vavara goes into a fighting stance, just in case they have company.
Eustace calls out a warning. Genny looks back to Jones and the Green Lady, about half way down, as the rotor shoots out bright sparks and flames and the Green Lady starts dropping. "JONES!," Genny calls out.
Jones needs an Impossible and this is a Dangerous roll, here. If he fails, there's a chance that Eustace can get him out but since Jones is the kind of guy to be strapped in, it will also be a very difficult roll.
Jones has Nerves (3) + Drive (3) and has Proven Driver/Pilot. He has three Adrenaline. He'll spend two of those to bump up to 8. I will not give him help from the Green Lady since she is essentially dead in the air unless he succeeds.
BAM, and just like that, he makes it. He got five 5's. He also got two 1s and so takes 2 Grit. He's able to control it enough to land it away from others. I'll give the poor man a Spotlight for that.
As Eustace is already expanding out his Soulburn wings, Jones does some complicated maneuver to pull the Green Lady back away from everyone the ground.
Is there enough room for him to land it without splashing down? (Even) → [c12] Yes.
The Green Lady slams hard right on the edge of the water and Jones lets out a groan. The seat absorbs some of the impact but he will be bruised in the morning. "Shit, Shit!" He jumps out and snags the fire extinguisher and starts trying to douse the flames. The rotor is ruined. He knows at a glance that it could take hours to do decent repairs if he was back at his shop. Out here, he might be able to do some risky field work but how long before it does that again, higher up with less flat space to land?
Using his Fix (3) + Focus (3) to just assess the damage, he gets a Critical.
Can the Green Lady be fixed at all in the current conditions? (Bad) → [c111] No.
Genny runs over and checks Jones out and then pulls off his own jacket to help beat back some flames. "Goddamnit, man. You scared the shit out of me."
"Scared the shit out of you, welll...my apologies. She's toast. I can probably get her fixed but not here. We should have waited for the proper parts. Damned junk part got stressed too hard with the flying we've been doing today!"
By this time, the front door is fully open and the interior hall is in view. There is no resistance yet, but Hitomi knows it can't be long.
"We have to go, now!"
"Looks like we're taking the boat out of here," Genny says, patting Jones on the shoulder, "You just got promoted to assault team."
"Fucking great!," Jones says. Dreaming of happy days reading comics and not getting shot at.
A DOUG WALL BREAK: A Slight Delay and COMPRESSION Due to IRL Thingamabobs
May 22, 2025
Doug here. Just jumping in to note that there was an unexpected gap between Scene #1 and Scene #2 of a few days and then a longer than intended gap between Episode 17 and Episode 18. The long story short is that there is a lot of stuff going on in real life. Nothing horrible or the like, just a lot of tasks that require pretty much all my mind power. In fact, after a couple of days of moving quite literally tens of thousands of files into appropriate archives, it almost hurts my eyes to look at screens. Still, I'm going to play out the rest of this as best I can.
A very minor consequence is that we are going to essentially skip a scene of combat on the interior. We've done combat in this series. A lot. The only thing I am going to do is draw three cards. The first two will represent the "good guys" who are non-ironically good guys despite the cyberpunk trapping. The third will represent the bad guys. I will pick the highest of the first two and compare it to the third. This will establish how well the fight went. If it ends up going quite poorly, then I will work out some stats changes and the like in a fun but super quick way.
This means that basically "Scene 2" will be a quick "raw notes" type scene so we can get to Scene 3 pretty quickly which is the meeting with Amy Patel.
REMEMBER IN SOLO PLAY THE ONLY PERSON YOU HAVE TO PLEASE IS YOURSELF. As life compresses, you can squeeze stuff up to be tighter. As stuff relaxes, you can take more time. You are the boss.
Securing the Villa (Actual/Quick Play)
This scene is a compressed take on what was meant to be a third fight. In the original plans, it was to be a weak fight with maybe a slight twist of there being hostages. By this time we have had two fairly strong shake ups to the fights and have had the Green Lady taken out of commission. It's been rough going.
To generally set this scene, the villa's lavish exterior is much more office space inside. Things kept clean. Store rooms to move various goods that Roman Patel. One of which is the current prison of BrokenRecord and Bee. We know that Amy is being kept near the bar. We'll find out more about that in the next scene.
To just give some structure to the fight, we will draw three cards. Cards A and B will be used to determine how well the team fought with the highest card being the overall result. Card C will be how well the guards fought. The team will win, but this is to figure out what sort of licks and kicks they took punching through. Then, the next scene it will be a bit more lore-structured but include elements of the fight in there.
Card A → [c45] 4. Card B → [c32] 6. Card C → [c93] 2.
With a 4 and a 6, the PCs did not necessarily excel, but the guards inside are definitely behind the quality of the exterior guards.
There will essentially be no losses for the PCs. I will give them each +2 Adrenaline for the now four encounters (including the crashing Green Lady).
DATE PLAYED: May 22, 2025
Expected Scene: The team finds Amy Patel at the villa's bar and try to convince her to join in.
Scene Test: [c54] 6. 2d10 = 8 + 7. Another major twist. "A harsh alarm klaxon..." "Your accounts are compromised..." "Hunters are hunted..." Someone has betrayed them. It could be Juan if he is trying to get into good graces. Myranda is a possibility as well. Let's try it like this: {Juan | Myranda | Someone else} → someone else. Got it. Some of the field psychics that do not like being out-shone. Remember, Eustace had a 91% chance of "rebellion". Maybe what the field psychics were detecting where them actually rebelling against Eustace.
Actual Scene: A trio of Field Psychics along with some armed folks are waiting inside, trying to take down Eustace.
Setting the Scene, e18s3: Outfoxed.
Date: June 6, 1996.
Time: 11:40pm.
Place: The "bar" of Roman's fake Villa.
This is likely going to be the second hardest fight in the entire campaign arc. These guys need to be "boss" level. A case where someone else besides Eustace has super powers.
Before we come up with actual stats for them, let's find out a couple of details.
First, is Roger Patel here? (Even) → [c77] No? He's not here right now but he's en route. Second, is Roger's loyalty to his sister? (Good) → [c68] Yes. We'll say that Roman is very aware that some rogue psychics are at the villa and has let it slip to Roger who is trying to get to Amy and protect her rather than let her be bait.
Third, we know that Amy was trying to stop her family in some way, and it makes sense that she is trying to stop the Second Impact. How well will she react to her "saviors" (considering she's the type to try and use her allies so even if she agrees with someone she might not be a "good friend" type) → [c34] 5. Pretty much exactly neutral. They will have to prove themselves to her.
I have long forgotten how many "Plan B" type elements I have used but there's a big one here: the Witches Three. If things go south the Witches will intervene because they are at least temporarily considering Eustace to be the lynchpin for some new future that does not have the Yuggothians take control of the Earth.
Now, let's look at some stats. Boss Template 3. Extreme Attack. Critical Defense. 12 Grit. Hot boxes on 3, 6, and 9. They have 5 feat points. 3 will be spent on "Evil Genius" (from "With Great Powers"): Heroes suffer -1 to all rolls to find the Enemy Weak Spot. When a Hero uses any Feat that requires them to spend some Adrenaline, they must flip a coin. If the result is Head, the Enemy can predict their move. The Hero loses the action and the Adrenaline used. Additionally, the Enemy begins combat with 1 Adrenaline. That should be pretty fitting for a psychic. They also have "Armored": Heroes suffer -1 to rolls made to hit the Enemy. In both cases, these are related to their psychic powers.
Special Actions will include (1) Help Me Please (1ADR) [During an Action Turn, the Enemy threatens the life of an innocent bystander. A Hero must give up their Action Roll to save the victim. If nobody does, all Heroes bear this weight on their conscience and lose 3 Grit.] with Amy/BR/Bee being the obvious choices. (2) Double (2ADR) [The Enemy creates a multitude of clones or illusory copies. From now on, whenever a Hero lands a blow, they must flip a coin. Heads: The Hero only hit a copy. The Enemy loses no Grit. Tails: The Hero hit the original. The Enemy loses Grit as normal. Heroes can try to locate the original Enemy by making a roll or using a Feat, as they would to locate a Weak Spot.] (3) Chaos (2ADR) [The Enemies scatter around, break everything in sight, and cause a racket, or they set off an alarm, or start a small fire. From now on, the Heroes are dazed in the chaos and can no longer spend Adrenaline to gain +1 to their rolls.] Again, this latter one will take on a bit of a "psychic" flavor.
I said there are guards with guns when I started typing but frankly, I think this trio will be enough.
Also, really quickly: have any of the guards had compatible ammo to Genny? (Good) → [c84] Yes. Ok, good. He'll fill up his ammo since there won't be any time to do any shopping at this point.
DATE PLAYED: May 26, 2025
Outfoxed
Date: June 6, 1996.
Time: 11:40pm.
Place: The "bar" of Roman's fake Villa.
SCENE SOUNDTRACK: Dance with the Dead's Driven to Madness.
Genny pulls the body of the guard from where it's slumped over a small table. The vase that had occupied the table now smashed unto the floor. Cheap? Expensive? Genny has no idea. Weird he almost regrets it more than shooting the guy whose body he is now tossing to the floor on top of the shattered glass. Rifling through the ammo belt he finds some clips that will work. "Waste not, want not," he says, mostly to himself. The others — despite instructions — have gone on ahead. Once they breached the vault door and got into the main structure, they found what is largely a replica of a Japanese-owned style business. Much like with Magnus's church/shrine housing a bunch of cubicles, the members of this cabal drop all pretense as soon as it is time to hit a budget line.
At the end of the corridor, a half dozen meters from Genny, Hitomi is shoving open the third door and as soon as the cigarette smoke comes out she knows she has hit pay dirt. God, a smoke sounds good right now but it feels wrong to stop moving to light up. She looks back at the others who are holding tight in formation behind her. Eustace is closest with Varvara flanking out. Jones behind Eustace. Hitomi briefly tries to recall what color Eustace's eyes were before they were replaced with the swirls of Soulburn. He's lost another few kilos since she first clocked that his body is burning itself out to stay alive.
Enough moping. Time is quite literally running out and so with a nod she pushes the door open and enters with her gun drawn and scoping the place. After the sterile office space the rest of the interior embraces, she was half-expecting the so-called bar to be a set of vending machines. Instead, it fits up to its name. A rainbow of browns, cigarette smoke, and a sense of age. A mishmash of themes. The bar itself is fairly upscale American with a months-long supply of liquor. The back is much more rustic and Euro. Enough tables to sit a small army. Which brings home what this villa is most likely really for: a place to avoid the consequences of ones own actions.
"Who the fuck are you people?," a bitchy, feminine voice asks from the corner of the bar proper. Hitomi has been plugged into the scene long enough to recognize Amy Patel at a glance. Even in casual-wear, Hitomi can see why the rumors are that Amy is only a few years from running the Patel empire on her own. Or, at least, was. Amy takes a long drag off her cigarette while staring down Hitomi in turn. "At least your cute. You want to sit by me while they fight it out?"
"While who fights it out?," Eustace asks from behind Hitomi and Hitomi gives a little jump. His voice has a tendency to shift into some strange low key like the rumbling of an earthquake. Like whatever thing the-man-named-Eustace is piloting is starting to speak from the voice box of reality itself.
To answer Eustace's question, three shapes merge from shadows that do not exist. People who were clearly standing there the whole time just outside of sight. Three people wearing fox masks and standing like they have not a care in the world.
"Ah, fuck shit," Genny says entering into the room just in time to see the psychics drop their obfuscation. "Hey, Eu, these yours?"
"No, I do not think so," Eustace replies. Which makes the psychic in the lead chuckle. Hitomi catches a whiff of anger coming off the other two. Speaking of earthquakes, this is full on earthquake weather. Something bad is about to happen. And she says this as a person that watched the man she loved die just a day or so ago.
To avoid the "Psychic One" and "The Other One" type language, let's generate three very quick "backstories."
First one, [c63] Nephele is one of the names given and that works. "Assets frozen by the corps," "Fancy hat," and "Be acknowledged" are all text snippets on that card. There's a picture of a mini-gun. Nephele (female). Essentially a hitwoman for the Order. However, has crossed too many lines has been demoted. Wants her due and to live a life of luxury.
Second one, [c120] "Unthinkable realities" so let's go with Unknown as a codename. Male. "Rows upon rows of sigils and glyphs." Unknown is heavily sigil'd and the "magic-user" of the group. "Fulfill a superstition." Unknown thinks it is his destiny to grow in power and cares little for material worth. Practically silent as he kills and murders his way to the top.
Third one, [c61] Picture of a mimic and Mimic works as a code name. Another male. Lockpicks suggest he is good at getting into places he is not supposed to be. "Keys" as a belonging. "Mugged for loose change." "Restore an heirloom." Mimic comes from money but his family has lost a good bit. He thinks he deserves to be rich again and has gotten used to power to abuse it against others.
The one who was in laughing steps forward and she is all about cocky violence. Her laugh is a machine gun. A tool she has used to threaten others. Hitomi thinks back to that first fight where she saw Eustace slaughter a trio of other people who are cocky but by comparison this group represents enough power to destroy a small city. Field Psychics following orders can break the brain of a dozen people from a distance. What might three psychics who are acting on their own accomplish.
"No, we are not his, this so called Witch-King. We are very much our own people."
"Why are you doing this?," Eustace asks.
We have a passing reason but I'll give Eustace a chance to actually convince them to talk. If he fails, their reasoning will be left a bit unsaid.
Smooth (2) + Speech (3) with no penalties. Needs a Critical. Has Silver Tongue. Gets a Critical.
"Why," asks the guy to the leader's left (meaning Hitomi's right). His voice is cultured. Fancy. Like he studied abroad and still expects that fact to carry some weight. "Aren't you king of the psychics?"
Leader laughs again, another threat pretending to be mirth. "I'll make it easy for you, child-boy. Because you are getting in the way. Wrecking our shit. So we are going to wreck yours."
Jones pieces it together. "Ah, bullies. Just found out that you are not going to the high school with all your previous victims and are about to be picked on yourself by the jocks. Got it."
"I'm going to kill you, personally," Leader says, pointing to Jones, "but tell me, what good does it do me to have all this power and be stuck in fucking Gulf Shores? I could be in Paris. Tokyo. No, right here tending to stupid little Southern Sheep like a good old shepherdess."
"Holy shit," Genny cuts in, "You think the GLOW spreading over the world is a good thing because you get travel benefits?"
Hitomi feels the anger grow and knows violence is eminent. As she is figuring out a path to get to Amy — who has been smoking and watching this whole exchange with a look of amusement bordering bemusement — Eustace sprouts his wings and goes for the one on Hitomi's left. The quiet one. Genny — who has never had a chance to even put his gun down — takes aim at the Leader and Varvara is moving to cover the third. Jones is going for the bar. Hitomi squeezes off some shots as she tries to clear the distance towards Amy.
Eustace is going to try and get to Unknown before Unknown can start up the full brunt of psychic attacks. He will attempt to seperate Unknown from the others while fly-fighting.
I think Brawn (3) + Stunt (3) to latch on is a good starter. This will no damage but take no penalty. He gets 3xBasic = 1xCritical so he has latched on. No extra successes to go ahead and move Unknown out of the way.
Genny is going to empty his new clip he just got. That's +1. His range is +1. He gets -1 for their Armored. None of his feats require Adrenaline so that doesn't trigger anything. That's Nerves (3) + Shoot (3) + 1. He has Marksman for a Free ReRoll. He ends up with just a Critical which does do one Grit.
Hitomi is going to be Nerves (2) + Shoot (3) - 1. She has Gunslinger but is only rolling 4 dice. She gets no successes (which is fair since she's shooting wildly).
Varvara is diving for Mimic using her Flying Kick. She succeeds the coin flip. She has Brawn (3) + Fight (3) + 1 (kick) - 1. 6 dice with Martial Artist. She gets a Critical and does another Grit (10/12 remaining).
Jones is going to dive into Partial Cover and we'll say he just makes it since he won't be a main target after the others have joined in the fight.
Eustace impacts the quiet one and sends the other man flying back. Actually, check that, Hitomi realizes. The man is literally flying. Eustace has latched on with his talons and is holding the man up. That's the last she gets to see as she aims in the general direction of the other two and takes shots at them.
Genny and Varvara both seem to have more success. As Genny opens fire up on the Leader, Varvara does a running jump kick at the third. Both land glancing blows and push the psychics back. Jones has gone behind the bar.
Amy is standing up and realizing she is probably in a bad spot. Hitomi has nearly cut the distance when she feels the Soulburn lash of the psychics' counter attack slamming around the room.
Everyone is going to get lashed in much the same way. I'll give jones his +1 for Reaction to avoid the psychic lashing. Amy will be "out of target" for the moment though it won't necessarily be obvious.
Everyone will need to roll Brawn + Cool OR Crime + Cool to represent taking it by brunt force or by managing to dodge somewhat out of the way.
- Eustace: Brawn (3) + Cool (2) = 2 Basic. Man. That's 7 Grit. He has hit "You Look Nervous".
- Hitomi: Crime (3) + Cool (1) + 1 (Tormented). Critical. She takes 6 Grit. It's rough out here.
- Genny: Brawn (3) + Cool (3) = Critical + Basic. He takes 5 Grit and also gets "You Look Nervous".
- Varvara: Brawn (3) + Cool (2) = 1 Basic. 8 Grit. Another "Nervous".
- Jones: Brawn (2) + Cool (2) + 1 = 2 Basic. 7 Grit. You guessed it.
As the tendrils of psychic energy tear into the room, light fixtures and old wood explode into sparks and splinters. Hitomi hears the others cry out as no one is spared the painful wrath of three psychics working in tandem. She feels a mixture of physical pain mix with a lifetime of negative emotions slam together. And she is relatively clean. How is someone like Genny holding up? Someone who has pushed morality to its limits so often. She doesn't glance back to see how he is doing but sends out what positive thoughts she can muster as she leaps over the counter and tries to drag Amy with her.
SCENE SOUNDTRACK CHANGE: Dance with the Dead's Into the Abyss.
Crime (3) + Stunt (3) = Critical. She manages to get Amy.
Eutace is going into killer mode, flying Unknown back out of the space with any extra successes. Brawn (3) + Fight (3) + 1 (Claws) - 1 (Armored). He gets Extreme. Nice. Two of those will go into 2 Grit damage (8/12, +1 Adrenaline). What's more, this separates the trio. Defense is still Critical but Unknown is now Critical while Nephele + Mimic = 2xCritical (it might not matter).
Genny is pissed. Another clip emptied. I'll say dredging up his war crimes will net him +1. This puts him at 8 dice now. 2xCritical. Grit = 6/12. They are also up to 3 Adrenaline. That's bad.
Varvara keeps fighting it out with Mimic. Critical + Basic. Grit = 5/12. She'll use the Basic to kick a table up as a shield for the next round of attacks (+1).
Jones might be able to do much but Nerves (3-1) + Shoot (2) - 1 = 3. Oh, and the range is passed where he is. Hell, I guess he'll go into full cover for now.
Hitomi snags Amy by the shoulder and pulls the other woman down with her as the two land hard behind the bar. Amy's face — already shocked as the psychic assault began — goes from fear to anger to something like confusion as she realizes that Hitomi is protecting her. "You can stop flirting, you know, just ask me out. What kind of food you like?"
"Hush, you," Hitomi says. Feeling a little bit chickenshit knowing that the others are still out there.
She misses seeing Eustace carrying off the quiet psychic like a bird of prey carrying a rabbit as he flies back out of the room and down the corridor towards the open vault doors.
She also misses Genny walking forward and pressing heavy bursts of gunfire into the Leader's space as Varvara punches Snooty boy before kicking up a table to act as a shield in-between.
If Eustace uses Counter as a feat, he'll have to coin flip. Hmm. Let's try it. Heads, he gets it. He is now using Brawn + Fight (7 total while holding the other guy) and extra successes will be damage. Another Extreme. He dodges the damage and does something a bit showy. Unknown will be dead.
Back inside, the other two have put up a psychic whirlwind. This will stop the heroes from spending +1 to get bonuses to their rolls in general.
What's more, they will do another around of attacks. Jones, Hitomi, and Amy are all fully covered.
Genny is putting himself into the brunt of fire. He gets Extreme and avoids further Grit.
Varvara gets +1 for kicking up the table so is up to 6 dice. Critical + Basic means she only takes 2 more Grit of damage. Which is a bit moot since this fills in her Hot Box and she gets +2 Adrenaline (without much to use for it).
Unknown, real name Nick Allent, is fighting perhaps his strangest opponent. Which makes sense. He has made a career out of picking on the weak, the undisciplined, and the powerless. A few hedge mages here or there have been a surprise but nothing like this. In his mind, Eustace "Witch-King" Delmont is barely a man. Instead, he is a giant crow with antlers. Talon's cut into Nick's body and he calls on his sigils to slice away the arms holding him tight. Only Delmont does something quick and Nick's attack fails to land. "What is your issue, man, you could be be leading us all to glory. Now Nephele is going to kill your friends. Is that what you want?"
"Can you fly?," the bird-demon asks in a voice like thunder and Nick is too stunned to respond for a second before realization kicks in. Eustace is flying in open sky and has just released Nick to fall. It doesn't take a psychic to know the fall is about to be quite fatal.
Back in the room, Genny is marching towards Nephele — whom Hitomi has been calling "Leader" — and continuing to let out a stream of bullets. Even as the second round of psychic whips explode around the room — this time accompanied by a great Soulburn wind that is just crunching the furniture and glass bottles into shards and debris — Genny shrugs off the stings and Nephele realizes that she might have misjudged picking a fight with an actual soldier as opposed to wannabe gangsters.
For his assault, Mimic is only slightly pleased to see the young woman he's fighting stagger back as he hits her in the face with a particularly potent lash. She's still standing, but blood is pouring from her nose and her eyes look dazed. She's maybe one hit from falling. Only, as he is ready to start gloating, Mimi — Andre Thomas — feels Unknown's life forced snuffed as Nick is swallowed by fear. And now he is returning. Only he is not alone. They are nearby. Nephele has just convinced Nick and himself to commit suicide.
2 additional Grit were lost so that puts them at 3/12. They also have another +1 Adrenaline (2 total).
Eustace is a full turn out so won't be rolling for now.
Genny will once again empty a clip [his third] and will get another 8 dice to roll since he is still trying to keep his friends alive. Extreme + Critical. That takes out the last 3. Holy hell. Look at him go.
Andre barely gets the thought out when he hears Nephele shout out and collapse. He doesn't even try and turn to see the bullets that tear through his own chest a few seconds later. In some ways, he is glad. Had the Witches Three arrived while he was still alive, it would have been a lot worse.
Genny gets to Varvara as she starts to fall back and grabs her. "Stay with me, Clean. I got you."
Behind the bar, glass and splinters have peppered Hitomi's back as she continues to brace over Amy. As the noise dies down, Amy pushes Hitomi back gently and pulls out a pack of smokes. "You never answered my question."
Hitomi reaches over and snags the lit cigarette from Amy for herself. "About going on a date?"
"That too, but who the fuck are you people?"
Before Hitomi can answer, Eustace lands on the bar and perches like a crow looking down. Even facing him head on, Hitomi is distressed to see she is starting to see the other-Eustace like a fuzzy overlay. He is very nearly gone.
"Ms. Patel, I am here to help you stop your father."
DOUG'S COMMENTARY
I had a back-up for this scene where if more than one hero got dropped then the Witches Three were going to show up and lash out at reality. It's still on the docks as a Plan B since I think we've only used one so far.
Considering this episode got split into thirds due to me wrapping up work and dealing with all the stress and energy-drain of that, I think it went mostly ok. Not my best writing but that fight (essentially a mini-boss fight) was a lot of fun because before it turned around, it was looking pretty bad. We'll pick up next time (hopefully in just a couple of days and not a week and a half) with the Time Out related to re-equipping from scraps and getting Bee, BrokenRecord, and the Mantis.
I'd guess roughly two episodes remain at this part. Maybe three, depending on if the Three get called. Then maybe a coda.
Including the Dean Spencer art I used in The GLOW's prologue [which was used in Arcane Agents and the kick off of using Dean Spencer art, kind of...] and The "newspaper clipping" of Amy Patel from Chapter 10 of Eustace & Hitomi, this makes the third not-really-the-same character image for Amy. That has to be a record. Hitomi and Eustace did not get images in the OG run of the series that bears their names and their Alabama Weird versions are somewhat different. Alabama Weird Eustace is basically me in my mid-20s: fat, bearded, curly haired. Alabama Weird Hitomi is a young woman with long hair and a bit too thin even for her American-Japanese frame. Both are hotter and fitter here. Well, at least Eustace was. Hitomi still is.
Still, a strange paradox of both of these series is that Amy Patel is practically the third character and in both cases she sort of shows fairly late to the story. At least in this case, she is actually kidnapped and not just pretending to be kidnapped to try and force an investigation into her father. Also, that Amy was basically a business + liberal arts grad into queer rights and charities masking it a bit by being a bitch. This Amy is the kind of bitch that has most likely killed people, even if those people are a bit on the bad side of morality.
Originally, I figured they would rescue Amy around Episode 4 or Episode 5. And I was going to call it "Mantis Boy Meets Mantis Girl" in reference to Eustace's arm blades. Now he has triple blades on each arm that come out more like crow feet so I tweaked it a bit.
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
Amy Patel: Photo by Maksim Istomin on Unsplash.
Patel Bar 1: Photo by Giovanny Ayala on Unsplash.
Patel Bar 2: Photo by Nicolas Hoizey on Unsplash.
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