Shadow of the Waxwing Slain, Ch. 2

The Unknown Detective

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Chapter 2: The Ragged Detective

Photo by Vitaly Otinov on Unsplash

Shift 2: Morning

Wallace Corporation

Dee felt uneasy bringing the spinner in towards the massive, intimidating structure representing the amount of influence and wealth that Wallace Corp had. It was still under construction and yet dwarfed the pyramid that used to be Tyrell Corporation. She attempted to investigate this feeling of unease. This place was where she’d been created, and yet she had no feelings of warmth or belonging. She had an idle thought, wondering whether Fletcher would be surprised at her feelings. 

Some humans claimed replicants did not have feelings because their memories were fabricated and not ‘real’ but that was definitively false. Having memories, false or real, ensured emotional reactions to events. It was not as if human memories were truly authentic, often changed over time, affected by emotions, and influenced by other experiences. Even a human could not say whether their memory of an event was absolute reality, and yet, memories still had an emotional effect, just as they did on replicants. 

No, replicants had feelings, it was just that being aware that they were created, that they were instilled with fabricated memories, gave them an ability to be more in control of their responses to emotions. Humans felt their emotions and responded immediately, through facial expressions, verbal outbursts and physical reactions. Replicants could feel an emotion and decide how to respond, most of the time. At least, that was the conclusion Dee came to. Other replicants might have had different ideas. She did not talk to very many of them. 

As she parked in a huge internal garage, looking surprisingly empty, she remembered a strong memory.

She was young, a kid, looking at the synth fish tanks on Animoid row in wonder, before being called a thief and thrown to the ground by an LAPD cop.

That memory had instilled in her a drive to do what was right and despise those in authority who wielded their power to abuse others. It was a strong memory for a detective but perhaps it also played a part in her uneasiness in the LAPD capitulating to the Wallace Corporation. It felt wrong. 

“Analyzing your thoughts, memories and feelings is usually what I do,” the voice in her head spoke up.  

“Shut up, Rem,” Dee told him. 

Rem was a Doxie, a replicant detective but he lived inside her head. 

Dee was perfectly aware that a human in such a situation would be labeled “mentally unwell” and placed in a mental institution. 

Perhaps it had been a mistake in her creation, a bug, a glitch but Rem had always been there. 

“Fair enough, I wouldn’t want to distract you in front of daddy Wallace. If they knew about me…” Rem chuckled. “That wouldn’t be good for either of us.”

---

Dee sat in Quell’s office, looking at the woman over the desk.

The office was immaculate but drab, with few hints of personalization. No pictures on the walls. Everything was bare but orderly.

Quell sat behind her desk giving off an icy stare. “You’re quite new, aren’t you?”

Dee didn’t respond, she waited. She was good at waiting.

“Well, what do you have on the bombing so far?”

“We are following a few leads…”

Quell interrupted. “What are these leads? You of all should know an N9 couldn’t do this. Do you know how dangerous this is to you and those like you, if mishandled?”

Dee noticed Quell used “you” instead of “us”, despite the fact that both of them were replicants. Dee took a moment to respond. “We investigated the crime scene and are following up on leads. I am wasting my time by being here and talking to you when I could be doing my job.”

Quell sniffed. “Remember you only have a job because of Mr. Wallace. You only have a life because of Mr. Wallace.”

Dee is going to try to Manipulate Quell so she does not have to give away any actual information. A failure means Quell sees through it and Dee has to make a choice, anger Wallace Corp by refusing, or giving them what they want which is everything she knows about the investigation. Sometimes it’s good to decide what will happen on a failure before you roll, since you are the GM.

Empathy(D8) + Manipulation(D8). I will Push as much as I can (replicants can Push twice) because I feel Dee really doesn’t want to give in to Quell.

2d8 = 2,4 -> Failure. Push: 2d8 = 8,5 -> Success.

No stress because I didn’t roll any 1s.

Dee realized what she needed to do. She let out a long sigh, leaning forward and putting her head in her hands. “You’re right, Ms. Quell, of course you’re right. The threat to Wallace Corp due to this crime is why it’s so important to me but the truth is we know very little at this point in the investigation,” Dee looked up. “My partner and I combed the crime scene and found very little. We’re going to be speaking to the victims and checking the Esper to see if the cameras caught anything.” Dee put more strength and steel into her voice, pushing herself up to stand. “But I promise you this, we will find the perpetrator, we will find the truth and we will ensure any threat to Wallace Corp or Wallace’s reputation is handled.”

Quell smiled, also standing. “Mr. Wallace appreciates your enthusiasm. I trust you will keep me informed every step of the way.”

“Good job, little Dee,” Rem whispered in her head.

“Of course,” Dee said.

“And if needed, you can access our Records Lab, Memory Lab or Memory Vault should that be useful.”

“Your support in this case is appreciated, thank you,” Dee said and gave an appreciative smile, holding it until she was back in her spinner. She took a deep breath before sending Fletcher a message.

University of LA Medical Center

Fletcher started a recorder and set it on the table beside Seo-joon.

“So, what, or who, did you really see?”

(BR:RPG)Randomly Generated NPC: Other, Cityspeaker

“Cityspeaker” is a detective archetype, like “Inspector” which Fletcher is, or “Doxie”, like Dee is, which means this case just got very interesting.

Seo-joon grimaced, shifting uncomfortably. “There was a guy there, looked out of place, like he was homeless, wearing rags and shit. He was one of you, though, so I just figured he was there, like, undercover, to make sure nothing happened.”

“A detective, how’d you know? Doesn’t dress like many detectives I know.”

“He fucked up and dropped his badge. He was real quick, slipping it away but I saw. I thought it was weird but it was almost my time to speak to the crowd. Then, a few minutes later…” Seo-joon shuddered. “The bomb went off.”

Fletcher knew there were some detectives who’d been born, raised and essentially lived on the streets, often undercover, who dressed like bums or homeless or worse. They were often the detectives who put a toe or even a whole foot over the line at times.

It was possible someone had been undercover at the protest but why wouldn’t Holden have mentioned it?

“Describe him as best you can,” Fletcher said.

Considering Fletcher has so many years on the force, I’m going to allow there’s a chance Fletcher knows who this Cityspeaker is.

1d6 = 1: No and…

The description didn’t sound familiar.

Seo-joon started coughing, hard enough to bring a nurse.

“He needs rest,” she told Fletcher. “You need to leave.”

It seemed the interview was at an end.

He slipped a card to the nurse. “Tell him to call me if he remembers anything else.” He grabbed his recorder and left.

Back at his spinner, he got Dee’s message and called her.

“Wallace is handled? Good, nice job.” He listened. “Yeah, I got something, an unusual-looking detective was seen at the protest. Let’s both head back to HQ, you can talk to RIT and I’ll check the Esper Wall to see if we can identify this suspect. See you there.”

Shift 3: Afternoon

LAPD HQ - Replicant Intelligence and Technology Division

Dee spoke with Coco, the Chief Medical Examiner, as he brought out the fibers that Fletcher had found. “What do you have on the explosion? And did you figure out what those fibers are?”

Was the bomb low-tech or high-tech?

1d6 = 6: Very high-tech

“This was quite the mystery,” Coco sounded excited as he talked, showing the fibers. “These were very difficult to analyze, but we were finally able to identify they come from a very advanced type of explosive. It’s like nothing we’ve seen before, likely military-grade.”

“It didn’t even kill anyone,” Dee responded. “I wouldn’t call that advanced for a bomb.”

“It is likely the device was tiny, the size of a fingernail and undetectable by security metal detectors. It’s possible this was a prototype, a test of some kind.”

“So you’re saying more could be coming. This could’ve been a test run run before the real thing.”

“It’s possible,” Coco said, intrigued. “I would love to get my hands on an actual device…”

“Thank you for your help,” Dee said, leaving and looking for Fletcher.

LAPD HQ - Esper Wall

“C’mon, I put the request in hours ago,” Fletcher said. “I need to use it,” he argued with one of the Esper Operators.

Connections roll! You need to roll this when you’re filing requests for certain things like a warrant, or to use the Esper Wall, etc. Sometimes, you also need to spend 1 or more Promotion Points, which are basically points you start with if you’ve been on the force for awhile, and that you acquire through doing detective things like finding clues, etc. I need to spend 1 to use the Esper Wall.

Connections Roll: D10 Empathy + D8 Connections

D10 + D8 = 8,1

Success!

“C’mon, Clare, it’s me, Echo,” Fletcher said. “You know I wouldn’t be asking if it wasn’t important.”

Clare sighed. “Alright, alright, give me the details and I’ll feed it in.”

The Esper Wall is made up of tons of the city’s security cameras all over the streets, as such you need to be specific and technical when entering the information if you want it to give you what you need, so it requires a Tech roll as well.

D10 (Intelligence) + D8 (Tech) = 7,5

Success!

Fletcher gave her the information on the detective Seo-joon spoke about as well as the area he was spotted in. There were cameras in the courtyard of the Courthouse so it was very likely they’d get something.

“Give it some time,” Clare said. “I’ll send you a message when it’s ready and you can access it through a terminal.”

“Thanks, Clare,” Fletcher said, with a nod. He messaged Dee and they met back up at the desks they’d corralled together previously.

Dee related what Coco had revealed.

“Shit,” Fletcher said. “If this was a test and not targeted at the Movement, we could be looking at another incident.”

Dee nodded. “Could be larger and more destructive too. Did you get anything from the Wall?”

“Waiting on it,” Fletcher said. “But I got a good feeling.”

Dee sighed. “Are you feeling ‘good’ because we have details on a suspect in the area where there are many security cameras so it is a very high probability of getting footage of the suspect? Is that why you have a ‘good feeling’?”

Fletcher shrugged, drinking another coffee and eating a stale donut from a box that had been left in the break room. “Like I said, I’ve got a good feeling,” he said with his mouth full.

Dee just shook her head.

Did the Esper cameras get footage of the detective described by Seo-Joon? I think the outcome is Likely, so I’ll add +1 to the roll.

1d6 + 1 = 6: Yes, and…

An hour or so later, Clare sent a message to Fletcher that the footage was ready.

Short video clips strung together from different cameras, showed in somewhat grainy footage, the ragged-looking detective Seo-joon had described, arriving at the scene after the protest had already begun. It followed him as he made his way through the crowd and even captured the moment the badge fell from his pocket as he was rummaging for something.

Fletcher paused and, fiddling with the Esper controls, zoomed in on the badge, able to identify the badge numbers. He printed the screenshot.

“I’ll look him up, you can keep looking at the footage and see if there’s anything else of interest,” Fletcher said, taking the print-out.

Dee moved into position to operate the Esper.

The Mainframe and Esper Wall can count as the same location so I can access both in 1 shift. Detectives can access the Mainframe through their KIA but get an advantage to their Tech roll if they do so onsite. With advantage, I get to roll another of my lowest die.

D10 Intelligence + D8 Tech + D8 (advantage)

1d10 + 1d8 = 1,1,2

Failure. A brutal one, because if I Push, I’ll end up taking at least 2 stress due to the 1s.

Is it because there’s no information or is it because it’s classified? 1d6, 1-3: Information isn’t there 4-6: Information is classified. I’m going to say it’s Likely that it’s classified, so +1.

1d6 + 1 = 3.

The information isn’t classified, it’s just not there.

“Damnit,” Fletcher swore after a few minutes.

There was nothing connected to that badge number. No detective, no previous cases, no evidence, nothing. It made no sense.

He headed back to Dee, who was still watching. “Dead end,” he said. “Zip, zilch, zero.”

Dee continued to watch the Esper footage. “How is that possible?”

“Not sure yet,” Fletcher said. “Maybe it’s a fake badge, maybe someone wiped the Mainframe, who knows? Anything else on that footage?”

Does it show the detective planting the explosive?

1d6 = No, but…it shows something else.

What else could it show?

When I have an open-ended question, sometimes I roll on the Starforged: Ironsworn Core Oracle tables. They are Action + Theme and Descriptor + Focus, each is a d100 and you combine two answers together. I don’t always stick to the numbers I rolled, sometimes I take the opposite, so I’ll check what 50 is instead of 5 to see if that’s a better fit. In the end, I ended up with “Gather” + “Supply” which gave me an idea.

“It doesn’t show him planting anything. He was in the area but nothing to definitively say he placed the device. It did show this, however.” She let Fletcher watch as she replayed a clip, showing the detective talking to someone in the crowd, exchanging some money, and taking a package in return. “This is 23 minutes before the explosion. The suspect then moves around to different areas of the protest, including the area where the bomb exploded, before leaving the area a couple minutes before the bomb goes off.”

Fletcher nodded. “Good find. Could be drugs. Could be the device which he dropped before leaving.”

Dee reversed the footage back to the exchange, zooming in on the face of the person speaking to the detective. “At the very least, we have another person of interest.”

I decide I already know who this is, but they’re in disguise, so I’m going to roll Observation to see if Dee or Fletcher figure it out. I give Dee the first chance,

1d10 + 1d6 = (9,3)

Success!

“Luckily, we already know who it is,” Dee said, looking at Fletcher, pointing to the unknown man. “It’s the actor, Gabor Nanjiani.”

---

Upkeep

Currently, Fletcher has 1 stress, and spent 1 Promotion Point to access the Esper Wall.

At the end of a session, you gain Promotion and/or Humanity points for different things. Considering I’m not really doing sessions, I figure I’ll go for every 3 shifts, since that’s how many shifts you can normally go without downtime, before you start taking stress. (Fletcher can go 4, due to one of his specialties). Things that get you Promotion Points:

• Found one or more clues

• Found one or more fugitive N8s and reported them to the RDU

• Apprehended one or more suspects and/or fugitives

• Stopped one or more serious crimes being committed

• Uploaded at least one piece of major evidence to the LAPD Mainframe

• Saved the life of another LAPD officer or performed a similar act of bravery

• Reported another PC of misconduct and provided evidence

• Successfully took a baseline test (Replicant only)

They both found clues and uploaded major evidence to the LAPD Mainframe (fibers of explosive device, picture/footage of suspect(s)/Persons of interest), so they each get +2 Promotion Points. Things that get you Humanity Points:

• Took a personal risk to help another person

• Connected to someone on a personal level

• Learned something significant about someone’s life

• Tried to talk someone down from committing a crime

• Learned something that made them view the world differently

• Refused to upload evidence to protect someone

• Refused to follow orders because they felt it was wrong

• Used their Key Memory or interacted with it in some way

• Interacted with their Key Relationship

• Played 1 or more scenes of Downtime

• Failed a Baseline Test (Replicant Only)

I would say Dee interacted with their Key Memory but didn’t use it (using it gives you an advantage on a roll in a key moment). The interaction still counts. She definitely interacted with her Key Relationship as well, so she’ll gain +2 Humanity Points. I don’t think Fletcher gets any this time though.

---

Chapter 2 log

This chapter was great, with intrigue and surprises galore. I’m not going to lie, crafting the mystery, coming up with clues, figuring out possible answers isn’t easy, but it’s pretty fun. I didn’t expect to not find anything about the detective on the mainframe, but I rolled the dice to give it a chance, and now I’ve got a really interested idea for why that is. It took me days, though, to think it out. Sometimes, that’s what rolling the oracle does. It will give you something you can’t quite figure out or apply to the current situation but after some time, you give your brain long enough, it will connect bits and pieces. Our brains are constantly making connections and telling stories, if you give it time, it will figure something out.

I will admit, I nearly did rewind and not do that oracle roll, thinking it would be easier to just have the information be classified, and that’s definitely something I could have done. If you give something time and it just doesn’t sit right, it’s fine to go back and change something that makes more sense.

There’s a fine line between going with what makes sense in my head as a storyteller, and using oracles to generate something. So far, I’m enjoying the mix, and oracles often lead to interesting surprises. I’m excited to see what happens next.

Thanks for reading.

Chapter 3: The Fearful Actor