Written by Peter Weilnböck
Published on: 2023-06-11
In the second session of the blade runner starter box case file the investigators continue to follow the leads and find out the this case might be dangerous also for themselves.
Since the session stopped in the middle of the shift, we picked up right where we left off.
While Sol was checking the mainframe and the Esper Wall for more information around “Animoid Row”, since the cab had dropped Leah off there and JS5-9-76 and Marilyn D checked out Leah’s apartment, Jake “The Muss” and Willem Novak went to the crime scene for the first time.
Outside the club there was a crowd craning their necks, trying to get a glimpse of the actual crime scene. Uniforms were keeping the people safely behind the police tape and greeted Jake and Willem when they arrived. The two investigators did not pay the crowd any mind, and only asked the officers on site about the crime scene and potential witnesses inside.
Apparently the proprietor - Taffey Lewis was could be found in the club.
As soon as they were inside, Jake started to put pressure on Mr. Lewis, trying to get information out of him. Lewis seemed to just be bothered that the investigation took so long, since he wanted to open up again - expecting the incident to draw a curious or morbid crowd and boosting his bottom line - if he could capitalise on it in time.
In the meantime Willem Novak took a look around and noticed not only the large blood stain on the floor, but also the broken mirror on the wall. He managed to get a bullet out of the wall behind it. While not really using professional methods, he drew a line from the bullet through the bullet hole and estimated that this bullet might have been responsible for the blood on the floor - at least it probably came from that direction. Additionally he bagged a sample of the blood and observed the broken bottles and tables lying around, concluding that there might have been a scuffle.
Jakes questions turned up a similar story. Apparently things got rowdy, especially since a few human supremacists jeered the N-9 dancer that was performing that night. Among the supremacists Taffey Lewis remembered seeing Jelle Schylar, the publisher of KILL magazine. After some pale tall guy confronted them it got a bit chaotic. The shot that rang out soon after made people flee the club, and Lewis called the police.
Because of Jakes continued pressing, Lewis pointed them to the dressing room, where they could find the dancer, in case she saw more.
Iris - the dancer - basically told the same story, including the tall pale guy.
She also described the bang from the shot as “really, really loud”, which points to a blaster being fired.
The Runners already wanted to pack up and go home, when one of the uniforms told them, that they had a person claiming to have seen the whole thing.
This witness turned out to be a tall pale guy names Styles, who had already tried to get their attention when they were walking in. He also told the story of the human supremacists jeering the dancer. In his version they started to push around people and were probably also responsible for the shot. He identified Jelle Schylar as being among the supremacists as well.
After some direct questions from the investigators, he admitted to confronting the supremacists at the beginning of the scuffle.
He then agreed to give them a phone number as well as an address, where they could find him.
Getting exhausted by the investigations this far, the Investigators decided to take a shift off to unwind.
Jake knows how to unwind, and so he put on some music at home and once again looked at the old, crumpled photograph with a glass of rum to drown his worries. After this, he was stress free and ready for the next shift.
Jay had a more eventful night. She met up with her roommate Nami, who surprisingly had time for her. The night was passionate, but afterwards Jay once again did not feel like she had managed to connect with Nami. And while the sweat dried on her skin and she slowly drifted away to sleep, she could not help but feel used.
Sol decided to spend his shift letting off steam in the streets. Turning a corner, he suddenly saw his parents. At least someone who looked like his parents, which did not make sense, since he had been grown in a tank. This chance encounter shook him up more than he would dare to admit and in the end he felt more stressed out in the morning than he had felt in the evening.
Ever since Marilyn D convinced him to come in and too leave his noodles in the rain, Willem craved the aromatic and tart taste of cheap ramen, seasoned a hint of acid rain. On his way to the noodle shop, he saw an advertisement for a lifetime subscription of instant noodles, delivered to his doorstep without fail. He simply had to have them. He ended up spending quite a bit of his hard earned Chinyen to get this subscription, otherwise he would not have been able to get them out of his head.
Marilyn D probably had the most interesting night. She just wanted to unwind at home, when she got a surprise call from Taffey Lewis, who somehow had found out that she was working the same case as “The crazy bully of a cop” who visited him a few hours before. For the promise of letting him open up the club the next day, he had a bit more information for her, than he had told Jake “The Muss”.
He had seen Leah and the tall pale guy together in the past. He had noticed them at the club a few times for the last few weeks, and they seemed to have known each other. Maybe they were friends?
The Morning brought bad news. KILL magazine had published an article about the shooting, claiming that one N-9 Blade Runner hat shot another. Inspector Holden was furious and texted the Runners for an explanation, on who leaked information to the press. He only got a rather short reply from them (that they were headed tot the magazine now), which did little to calm him down. The Runners decided to stick together for a bit and visit KILL magazine together - with the exception of Sol, who should bring the evidence from the crime scene to the forensics lab and try to confirm their suspicions.
Sol did not play around much. Instead of trying to analyse the evidence himself, he simply let Coco do his thing. After only a short time, he heard back that the blood was indeed Sandor’s and the bullet a case-less .44 caliber. The same kind of ammunition as in the standard issue Blade Runner Blaster. This kind of ammunition is rather uncommon outside of the REPD department.
The rest of the investigators headed to KILL-magazine, intent on squeezing everything out of Jelle Schylar.
What they had heard of him so far did not endear him to them, and that he had made their life more difficult with the article that morning had not increased their mood.
He nevertheless greeted them more or less friendly, hoping to get information out of them himself.
The Runners were annoyed and not willing to trade information and decided to take more drastic measures after their thinly veiled threats were meat with more open threats of “press freedom” and “interested readers”.
They took him to a small room to the side, one of them standing guard. They quickly fabricated a pretence of him attacking Jay, and proceeded to advanced interrogation techniques. Under duress he told them that he indeed was at the Snake Pit at the night of the shooting, drinking and watching “that useless skin-job on stage”. He remembered the brawl with the albino named Styles, and that two Blade Runners intervened. He claims that the female Runner had pulled her gun out of nowhere and shot her partner as he went to arrest Styles, before running outside and getting a Metrokab.
Being satisfied with the info, they put him under arrest for attacking an officer, and promised him a release once a retraction of this mornings article was published.
When visiting the address that Styles had given them, they found out that it was inhabited by a friendly old lady, offering them tea and biscuits. She had never heard of Styles, so they wasted their shift on this trip. When walking out of the building, they suddenly were attacked by a team of 4 guys in identical black outfits, flying a unmarked black spinner.
Marilyn D. was combing the streets of L.A. listening for gossip, but before she was able to find out anything useful, she was attacked by a guy clad in black riding in on a unmarked black spinner cycle.
Even though the investigators were split up they were attacked at the same time, and I therefore let them draw initiative at the same time and handled the combat simultaneously.
Jake with his fast reflexes did not wait until someone shot at him, but used his speed to immediately shoot one of the attackers in head. The others were not as lucky / efficient, but the attackers hit even less. Maybe they were shocked a bit by the quick reduction of their numbers. With the noteable exception of the one attacking Marilyn D, who was quite efficient in inflicting pain and sorrow.
Over all the fight was short and brutal. The last of the attackers at “Styles home address” fled into the spinner and finally did some serious damage with a tactical missile at close range. He was taken out before he could fire the second missile, but the first one had already brought pain to the Runners, especially to Jake who had taken the brunt of the explosion and had been thrown around like a rag doll.
Marilyn D. had done her best closing in on her assailant, but he managed to break her before he took off - sirens closing in on their location.
The Team had found out quite a bit this session, but they still do not know where to find Leah. Some of them are quite banged up after the attack of the Strike team, but they now also know that they are not the only ones putting thins in motion. The attack is the reason they need rest, but it also shows clearly that they should not waste any more time and get to the bottom of this quickly. How will they proceed?
Over all the round was quite successful, and once again I had a lot of fun. I continue to be impressed by the quality of the material provided in the starter box. So far I had very little improvising to do, since almost every possible path is laid out rather clearly including consequences and how everything connects. The only real critique I have for the box is the quality of the binding of the Case File booklet itself. I use it quite a bit and leafing through it not only during preparation, but also during the session, finding the relevant pages. And it is falling apart. By now the cover is no longer attached to the pages inside. Since I am over all very careful with all my books, etc. this surprises my quite a bit. It might just be, that I had gotten a bad copy (and so far I don’t have issues with other Free League stuff), but is still irks me.
Oh, and of course the combat. Not a critique: It was fun. I was just surprised how deadly it was. They had luck, and therefore landed some nasty critical injuries on their opponents, but it very easily could have been the other way around. And taking cover is very important. Which is nice to see as well.