CASE FILE 01 050 The final showdown in this Case File can happen in a variety of ways, depending on the player characters’ actions during the investigation. Here are the two most likely scenarios: b The characters don’t figure out Leah’s plan in time, and are alerted by RDU Dispatch of the murder at the Memory Lab. For this scenario, see the heading Lilith Killed. b The characters figure out that Leah intends to kill Lilith, and wait for her at the Memory Lab. When she arrives depends on the number of players – see the Countdown. In this situation, the main showdown will occur at the Memory Lab, although it can continue to the Moonbus (below). For this scenario, see the heading Leah Stopped in Time. LILITH KILLED At the appointed time, Leah arrives and simply walks up to the entrance, uses her own eyes (identical to Lilith’s) to bypass security, proceeds inside, and promptly shoots Terry in the leg. She then continues into the Memory Lab, where she confronts Lilith, explaining how the memories of her dead daughter Dinah have tormented her. Leah then proceeds to shoot Lilith, who offers little resistance, in the head. Only then, when the deed is done, does Leah discover Lilith’s daughter Sarah, who has been hiding in another room. Struck by guilt and Sarah’s extreme resemblance to her own daughter Dinah, and realizing that Sarah is now an orphan, Leah takes the small girl with her and leaves for the Moonbus. If the player characters don’t witness this, LAPD Dispatch calls them and reports a homicide at the Lilith Memory Lab, ordering them to proceed there immediately. At the scene, they find several LAPD uniformed officers, and Lilith Tyrell dead under a white sheet. They will also find the office clerk TR6-1.51, his leg wound hastily patched up. “Terry” saw the murder and confers the full story of what happened to Lilith, including that Leah abducted her daughter Sarah. He has no idea where Leah went, but he did overhear her tell Sarah something like: “Have you ever been to Hollywood? Come, let’s go to the real dream factory. There, someone will take us to the place of our dreams.” The above refers to the Hollywood Sign, where the Moonbus will pick up Leah. LEAH STOPPED IN TIME The player characters have no way to find Leah in the streets before she arrives at the Memory Lab, but they can stake out the place and wait for her here. CONFRONTING LEAH: If the player characters are present, the above sequence of events under Lilith Killed (above) can be interrupted by them at any point. They can try to stay hidden (straight STEALTH roll, as Leah is not actively watching for other intruders) or confront her directly. When confronted, Leah does not attack immediately, but rather tries to justify her actions and tells her story. Leah demands that Lilith should show her Leah’s key memory, and Lilith agrees to do so if asked by the characters – see the sidebar Leah’s Electric Dream on page 034. Leah pleads with the characters to let her kill Lilith, who she believes deserves to die, and let herself escape offworld. If the characters won’t allow both, she might (with a MANIPULATION roll) settle for one or the other. If the characters refuse both, Leah tries to escape, using force if needed, and killing Lilith in the process if given a chance. F I N A L C O N F R O N TAT I O N
ELECTRIC DREAMS 051 T H E WA L L AC E H I T S Q UA D If the characters arrive before Leah and confront her at the Memory Lab, the Wallace Corp hit squad arrives in their black unmarked Spinner Squad Transport at a dramatically appropriate time (having followed the characters here). The Spinner fires a tactical missile against the front gate, blowing it open. It then sets down and the attackers fan out, shooting on sight. A pilot stays in the Spinner, ready for extraction. Wallace has had enough and decided to shut down the investigation for good. Everyone is a target – especially Leah, but also Lilith (who has become a liability) and the player characters (who have seen too much). The hit squad are all dressed in black and none of them will speak to the characters during this encounter, nor in any other way reveal their identity. The characters may suspect Wallace, but they won’t find a single shred of evidence against the corporation. INTO THE KIPPLE After killing Lilith, or attempting to do so, Leah proceeds to the old Hollywood Sign, where the Moonbus is meant to pick her up and bring her off-world. Leah, with or without Sarah Tyrell in tow, will make her way to the Hollywood Sign using local trains, Metrokabs, and her own two feet. The player characters won’t be able to track her during the trip, but if they have figured out where she is headed (using Handout S from the Safehouse and/or the testimony of TR6-1.51), they can get to the Hollywood Sign in their Spinner before Leah arrives. THE FIREFIGHT The hit squad, equal in number to the player characters plus one, spreads out across the facility. Use the map of the Memory Lab as a battle map. Some of the attackers will charge the front gate, while others can circle around entering side doors, to surprise the characters. This should be a very tough fight – make it memorable. It’s entirely possible that one or more player characters are Broken here, or even killed. The hit squad won’t kill off Broken player characters however, instead leaving them for dead or getting distracted by Leah or another character. The hit squad won’t risk getting arrested, so they will pull out if half of them are Broken, bringing their comrades with them, or killing them if they can’t. The pilot in the Spinner can fire smoke (blocking line of sight) or even another tactical missile to cover their escape. LEAH: Leah will use the attack as a diversion to escape – and kill Lilith if she can. If the characters are in deep trouble she can help them briefly – she feels remorse over killing Sandor and sympathy towards the player characters – but her main objective is to get away. Try to have her escape unless the players’ actions make this completely unfeasible. Lilith will seek cover during the fight, most likely in the main dome of the memory lab. Unless killed by Leah, the hit squad will seek her out and kill her. This can even happen “off stage” if none of the player characters are present. For the story, Lilith should preferably be killed during the fight – unless the players’ actions make this unfeasible. SARAH: At the appropriate place and time during the fight, have Sarah Tyrell appear. She has been hiding behind furniture, but suddenly appears, asking Leah or a player character to help her. Sarah will be ignored by the hit squad, but the players won’t know that. Keeping Sarah safe will earn the players Promotion Points and Humanity Points. Leah, seeking redemption and seeing a scene so very similar to her traumatic memory implant play out in reality, will fight ferociously to protect Sarah, even to the point of giving her own life. If Lilith has been killed and Leah is given a chance to escape, she asks Sarah to join her and the girl agrees (if Lilith was killed by Leah, Sarah didn’t witness this). Sarah can be convinced to stay by the player characters. STYLES: If Styles is still alive and at large, he can also arrive at the Memory Lab at the appropriate time, having also figured out Leah’s deadly plan. Styles can help the player characters in the fight against the hit squad, but his main objective will be to help Leah escape. He won’t help her kill Lilith, but he won’t stop it either. THE END: If Leah is captured or killed by the characters at the Memory Lab, the Case File likely ends here. If the characters want to follow up on the leads to the Moonbus, they can still do so, however. More on that below.
CASE FILE 01 052 THE SIGN: The old sign on Mount Lee is in terrible shape in 2037, with several letters having partly or completely fallen off. The slopes around it are now part of what’s called the Kipple – the vast areas surrounding Los Angeles that are covered in debris. Nothing grows here and the slopes are bare, craggy rocks. The view over Los Angeles is still breathtaking, though. Give Map G to the players. THE EXILES: If the characters arrive here before Leah does, they can hide and wait for her. If not, she will be here when they arrive. In any case, she will not be alone – in addition to Sarah Tyrell (if she is with Leah), six other men and women, all seemingly in their late 30s, accompany her. They are all Nexus-8 Replicants on the run from the authorities and helped by the Aurelian to escape off-world. They have the same stats as the Underground Replicants on page 039, but they are not armed. LEAH’S PLEA: If the characters reveal themselves, the exiles are clearly worried. Leah steps forward to address the characters, telling them that she’s going off-world, bringing Sarah with her (if she is here) for a new life in the Arcadia colony. She pleads with the characters to let her go. She even offers any Replicant characters a place on the Moonbus for themselves. If the characters try to arrest her, she will fight them – having gotten this far, she’s not about to give up now (they cannot MANIPULATE her to give up). The exiles will help Leah if she is attacked, presenting a threat even if they are not armed. SARAH: If Sarah left with Leah from the Memory Lab, she is also here. Leah wants to take the girl with her off-world to raise her as her own daughter, but she can be convinced (MANIPULATION roll) to let the girl go. If a firefight erupts, Sarah will take cover and hide. Again, Leah will fight to the death to protect her from harm. T H E M O O N B U S ARRIVES At the appropriate time, preferably when the player characters have met Leah and the other exiles here but not yet resolved the situation, the Moonbus arrives. The player characters first see a speck of light in the sky growing larger, and then hear a growing roar, approaching. After a few short minutes, the Moonbus, a small shuttle for off-world transits, touches down on the open area behind the Hollywood Sign. The shuttle isn’t very large (see Map H), but the thunder is deafening. An airlock opens with a hiss and a crew member in a helmet and jumpsuit steps out, expecting the exiles to enter the shuttle. MOMENT OF TRUTH: This is the moment of truth for the player characters. They need to decide whether to let Leah and the other exiles go, or (try to) arrest them – or to join them on the Moonbus (Replicant player characters only). If things turn violent, the exiles will fight until half of them are Broken before they give up. Leah will not surrender unless Broken. The Moonbus crew will stay on the shuttle but leave immediately if the player characters attack the vessel or try to enter it. THE SIGN H O L L Y W O O D S I G N M T . L E E MT. LEE DR. 1 0 m Map G
ELECTRIC DREAMS 053 STYLES: If Styles is still alive and at large, he will show up at the Moonbus, overseeing the pickup. He will do anything, including risking his own life and fighting the player characters, to ensure that the exiles leave on the Moonbus as planned. THE HIT SQUAD: If the Wallace Corp hit squad retreated from the Memory Lab, or if the characters never encountered them there, they will arrive at the Hollywood Sign in their black unmarked Spinner at the dramatically appropriate time – most likely after the Moonbus arrives, but before it leaves. The hit squad will try to kill everyone here, starting with Leah and the Replicant exiles but also the player characters. The pilot fires a tactical missile and then lands, after which the hit squad exits, guns firing. They cannot be reasoned with in any way. Again, if Sarah is present, Leah will fight to the death to keep her safe. However, under no circumstances will Sarah be seriously injured in the fight. Even if the characters offer Leah and the N-8 exiles as captives, Wallace wants them dead, as they know too much. If the characters fight the hit squad, the exiles might help them, but might also use the opportunity to escape on the Moonbus. TO THE STARS: Unless the Moonbus is made inoperable during the fight (it has Hull 10 and Armor rating C, see page 080 of the rulebook), it will leave once the exiles are onboard or it’s clear that they cannot go. If Leah is onboard, she leaves Earth for an unknown fate off-world. If Sarah is here, Leah wants to bring her along, but can be convinced to leave the girl on Earth. If any characters are onboard, the game ends for them here (at least for now) and their players will need to make new characters. Make sure that the players understand the full consequences of their choices before they go. NO LEAH? It’s possible that the player characters go to the Moonbus even if Leah was killed or captured earlier (most likely at the Memory Lab). In this scenario, the characters will still meet the exiles, and Styles and the Wallace hit squad can still appear. THE MOONBUS BEDS SEATS COCKPIT SEATS ENGINE EVAC SUITS EVAC SUITS RIGHT AIR LOCK LEFT AIR LOCK BEDS 1 m Map H
CASE FILE 01 054 After the final confrontation at the Memory Lab and/or the Moonbus, this Case File is over. All that remains for the surviving player characters after the final confrontation is to decide what evidence to report to their superiors. It will also affect how many Promotion Points and Humanity Points they receive after the session. BACK TO WORK: For player characters who survived and didn’t leave on the Moonbus themselves, it’s then back to work in the Rep-Detect Unit. Unless the Replicant Underground was exposed by the player characters, things pretty much go back to normal after this Case File is closed. If the player characters did expose the Aurelian, it makes the news for a few days, but the larger Replicant Underground survives – the Aurelian and his operation were just a part of a larger network. THE WALLACE COVER-UP: After the Leah situation is resolved, one way or another, Wallace Corp uses its substantial resources to bury or discredit all reports of even a single rogue Nexus-9 Replicant. Such a piece of news is simply too dangerous to get out, so Wallace makes sure it doesn’t. The story in KILL magazine is quickly discredited (few people take KILL seriously anyway) and the LAPD, reliant on its N-9 Blade Runners and hardly in a position to defy Wallace, buries the case. The player characters would do well to toe the line – if they try to spread the word about the incident – including the hit squad’s attempts on their own lives – they will quickly be reined in by the LAPD (costing them several Promotion Points) or by Wallace (potentially costing them their lives). If the player characters keep silent, Wallace won’t make another attempt on their lives – with Leah out of the picture, killing Blade Runners is deemed to be a bigger risk to the corporation than leaving them alone. For now. THE NEXT INSTALLMENT: The next installment in THE IMMORTAL GAME campaign arc will be published by Free League in the future. In the meantime, the BLADE RUNNER RPG core rulebook includes comprehensive tools for writing your own Case Files. A F T E R M AT H “The world is built in a wall that separates kind. Tell either side there’s no wall, you’ve bought a war. Or a slaughter.”
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INDEX A Aftermath 054 Animoid Row 042 Assets 011 Aurelian’s Shop, The 044 Aurelian, The 016 B Bob Gorsky 046 Briefing 005 Bullet Bob’s Runner Surplus 046 C Coco, Chief Medical Examiner 023 Countdown 009 Countdown Events 010 D Disciplinary Actions 013 Doc Badger’s Pawnshop 031 Downtime Events 011 E Esper Wall 024 F Final Confrontation 050 G Group Size 009 H Handouts A – Holden's Orders 003 B – The Independent Sentinel 004 C – Leah’s Data File 006 D – Sandor’s Data File 006 E – KILL Magazine 009 F – Leah’s Performance Report 025 G – Lilith’s Data File 026 H – Styles’s Data File 027 I – Esper Image 026 J – Zoomed-In Esper Image 027 K – Crime Scene Photo of Leah’s Apartment 029 L – Bedside Photo 030 M – The Poem 030 N – Crime Scene Photo of The Snake Pit 036 O – Crime Scene Photo of the Safehouse 047 P – The Second Poem 049 Q – DROID Magazine 049 R – Off-World Leaflet 049 S – Postcard 048 Holden’s Office 022 Humanity Points 013 I Iris 039 J Jelle Schylar 041 K KILL Office 040, 041 L LAPD Mainframe 024 Leah 014 Leah’s Apartment 029 Leah’s Electric Dream 034 Lilith Tyrell 015 Locations 019 Lockup 024 M Memory Lab, The 032 Metrokab Dispatch 040 Moonbus, The 053 P Promotion Points 012 Q Quell 018 R RDU Resources 008 Remote Access 008 Reporting Evidence 008 RIT Crime Lab 023 S Safehouse, The 047 Sarah Tyrell 034 Sign, The 052 Snake Pit, The 035 Styles 017 T Taffey Lewis 038 TR6-1.51 “Terry” 034 Tracking Time 008 U Underground Replicants 039 Using the KIA 008 W Wallace Corp 028 Wallace Hit Squad 019