Shadow of the Waxwing Slain, Ch. 6
Baseline
My playing and writing will always be available for free, but being a teacher isn’t the most profitable career in the US, so if you enjoy what I write and would be willing, please pledge as it shows that what I’m doing provides value to others that they would be willing to pay for. If you’d like to support my newsletter in other ways, please subscribe, share and comment. You’d be surprised how thrilling it is to get new subscribers, views and comments on a post.
Chapter 6: Baseline
Shift 7: Afternoon
Location: LAPD-RDU
Dee sat in the familiar all-white room, facing the camera/speaker on the wall. She sat completely still.
‘Pull your shit together, Dee’ Rem said, in her mind. ‘You nearly lost it back there.’
‘Shut the fuck up, Rem’ she said back, silently and he went quiet.
“State your baseline” the disembodied voice came over the speaker.
Dee began to speak, trying to keep her voice controlled. “Mountains toppling evermore, into seas without a shore.” She paused. “Seas that restlessly aspire, surging, unto skies of fire.” Another pause. “Lakes that endlessly outspread, their lone waters-lone and dead, their still waters, still and chilly.”
“Is your constitution waning? Seas.”
“Seas.”
“Have you ever lost love? Seas.”
“Seas.”
At this point, I make a roll to see if she passes the baseline test. It’s an Insight roll, which is at disadvantage because she has less than half of her resolve.
Insight: d8 = 5 → No successes
I can’t really push because if I roll a 1, she’ll lose her last point of resolve and be Broken again. Let’s see what happens.
The voice continued. “Restlessly.”
“Restlessly,” she repeated.
“What do you do when you’re alone, restlessly?”
“Restlessly.” Had she paused a fraction of a second too long?
“Do others see you, restlessly?”
“Restlessly.” Had she mispoke?
“Into seas without a shore.”
“Into seas without a shore.” She pictured Eve Ricci’s body being slammed into concrete.
“Endlessly.”
“Endlessly,” she repeated. She could feel the crack of Eve’s body, held in her arms.
“Do you feel you are living, endlessly?”
“Endlessly.” She could remember the feeling of her thumb plunging into Eve’s eye socket.
“Is there something wrong with you, endlessly?”
“Endlessly.”
“Waters.”
“Waters.” She saw Eve’s broken body, lying on the pavement.
“Have you ever swam in the deep, waters?”
“Waters.”
“Have you ever been held, waters?”
“Waters.” She could feel the grip of Fletcher’s trenchcoat in her fist.
“Still.”
“Still.”
“Why are you standing, still?”
“Still.”
“Do you have dreams, still?”
“Still.”
“Into seas without a shore,” the voice droned on and Dee did her best to follow.
“Into seas without a shore.”
“Lakes that endlessly outspread.”
“Lakes that endlessly outspread.” Would Fletcher be upset, she wondered. Of course, he would.
“Their lone waters, lone and dead.”
“Their lone waters, lone and dead.”
“Their still waters, still and chilly.”
“Their still waters, still and chilly.”
A moment of silence, Dee’s hands curled into fists as she waited.
“Way off baseline, Dee. Go see Holden.”
Location: Eve Ricci’s apartment
While Dee was taking her baseline, Fletcher went back to Eve Ricci’s apartment. He could’ve interrogated her but he doubted he would’ve gotten much. Maybe there was something in her apartment, though.
There were a couple uniforms stationed out in front of the building, and one in front of the apartment door. They nodded to Fletcher and let him in.
He stood in the meager space, mostly one medium-sized room, mini-kitchenette, spare living room, a bedroom and bathroom off to the side. It was quiet. It reminded him of his home as a kid, living with his mom, before a judge had them thrown out for delinquency.
He started searching the place.
Using Key Memory to give Fletcher an advantage on this roll.
Observation: 3d10 = 2,4,9 → One Success
What is it?
Is it information relating to The Iron Court or Rhodes’ location? 1-3: Iron Court, 4-6: Rhodes
1d6 = 5 → Rhodes
(BR:RPG) Randomly Generated Location: Abandoned Resort in Santa Barbera
There were shreds of paper on the floor, where Eve had attempted to rip up information before fleeing. Most of it was beyond salvageable but Fletcher found an old brochure for a resort he’d never heard of, out in Santa Barbara. Santa Barbara had been flooded by the wealthy, becoming an Archipelago of mini-islands, each one owned, protected and lived in by the fabulously wealthy.
A quick search on his KIA revealed the resort had been abandoned years ago.
Would be a good hideout for a fugitive, wouldn’t it, Fletcher thought to himself.
Is there more to find here?
1d6 = 5: “Yes”
Fletcher kept looking.
Observation: 2d10 = 3,7 → One success
(PWM)Clue Oracle: 1d100 = 76 → “Connects to upcoming event/incident”
It would make sense for the clue to be information about the upcoming next ‘step’. So it could be about the timing or location. 1d6, 1-3 = time, 4-6 = location.
1d6 = 5 → Location
(BR:RPG) Randomly-generated location: Wallace HQ, Records Library.
Underneath a loose floorboard, he found printed layouts of Wallace HQ, specifically the Records Library, with notes written sporadically over them.
The Iron Court was going to bomb Wallace Corp.
Does the countdown clock increase?
1d6 = 5 → “Yes”
Countdown Clock = [X][X][X][ ]
Location: LAPD - Holden’s Office
Dee sat across from Holden, looking down at the floor.
Dee loses a Promotion Point but gains a Humanity Point for failing the baseline test.
“What happened out there, Dee?” Holden asked. “Your baseline was way off. That can’t happen again, get it? Next time, you go through Recalibration and if that doesn’t work…” He trailed off, looking at her.
“Retirement,” She said.
“Don’t fail three times in a row, or you’re done, got it?" Holden grumbled, closing the file in front of him. “And from what Fletcher says, you do good work, so we don’t want to lose you.”
Dee looked up. “How is…Fletcher?” Does he hate me, she wondered. He should.
Holden grunted. “He’s fine, kept asking about you. Said you ran down that replicant hard. He said to reach out to him when you’re done here, which we are.”
Dee got up to leave and went to the door.
“Dee,” Holden said, pointing at her. “Get your shit together.”
“Yes, chief,” Dee said and left. She went to the desks her and Fletcher had put together at the start of the case and used her KIA to reach out.
‘Fletcher, it’s Dee’
‘Dee, how you holding up?’
‘I should be asking you that. Fletcher, I…I really fucked up back there.’
‘It’s okay, Dee.’ There was a pause. ‘It was a fucked up situation. You did what you had to do and that can mess with your mind, don’t matter if you’re human or not.‘
Fletcher is going to use Counselor to give Dee a point of resolve this shift, so she’s back up to 2.
‘Still, I…I apologize for my behavior.”
‘Forget about it, Dee, we got bigger shit to worry about.’
‘what do you mean?’
‘I’m at Ricci’s apartment. I think I know where Rhodes’ is and where he’s going to hit next. The Iron Court is going after Wallace Corp. Must be information in there they don’t want getting out. Let Holden know, then meet me at this location.’ He sent her the address for the abandoned resort outside the city walls. ‘We don’t have time to wait for a team, we’re going to take Rhodes down now.’
‘Understood.’
It was raining hard outside as Dee got into her Spinner and took off.
End of Session
I’m going to call that the end of a session as quite a bit happened the past two shifts. Dee and Fletcher each get a Promotion Point for…Finding Clues, Revealing and Reporting a Fugitive N-8, Apprehending a suspect/fugitive, Uploading at least one piece of important evidence to the LAPD Mainframe. Dee gets 3 and Fletcher gets 4 as Dee didn’t really ‘Find a Clue’.
I’m going to give Fletcher 1 Humanity Point for ‘Interacting with his Key Memory’.
Chapter log
I’m going to shout out PartyDeMarty’s analysis of Bladerunner:2049’s baseline test and rules for making your own. It’s very cool to be able to make your own baseline test out of any poem you want to. This might feel like a bit of a short chapter, but considering there could be a lengthy bit of combat coming up, it felt better to stop here then to try to keep going.
I’m playing around with creating my own ‘Clue Oracle’ as I haven’t found anything I particularly like so far. Using 1d6 yes/no questions works but is a bit clunky. I like the idea of rolling to see what a clue connects to, a new or known person of interest? a weapon? A location? After some finessing, I’ll be sure to share it.
Leave a comment on how you think it’s going. Let me know if you think I messed up or how I could do things differently. I’m always open to suggestions. Or just tell me how much you enjoyed it!
If you know anyone else who might enjoy, please share.
Thanks for reading!
I loved the baseline scene! I would be interested In a clue oracle if you decide to sell it.