Rigs’ shot misses its mark, but Morroda’s strike so solidly connects that it causes parts of his target to disconnect.
The assault hammer clammers to the floor with a series of metallic thuds, followed by the body with a series of squishy splats.
Upon hearing the ghoulish sound, the cloaked figure partially emerges from the dense growth, firing a shot from behind the cover provided by a nearby plant and the portion of large machinery in the center of the garden.
Her laser fire burns through to the exo-skeleton covering the shirren's left appendage.
Meanwhile, the other human breaks her concealment among the plants just long enough to charge across the footpath and back into a dense patch of foliage.
Round Two Initiative Order Cont'd/Round Three Begins
Jchak-Chtal
Rig - 8 SP
Human (purple) – visiting Pharasma
Cloaked Figure
Human (green)
Morroda
K'zct-2 SP
Jchak-Chtal
Rig - 8 SP
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As soon as the immediate threat goes down, K'zict turns to find the others that must be there. As soon as xe does, xe is hit by the blast. K'zict immediately bounds down the stairs, flipping his staff around and aiming it ahead. When xe gets to a spot with a good vantage point, xe fires a blast from the staff, releasing an orb of pure darkness.
The bolt of darkness from the shirren's staff finds its way through the thick brush, striking the cloaked woman.
The android's shot, however, only strikes a low hanging branch.
Round Two Initiative Order Cont'd/Round Three Begins
Morroda
K'zct -2 SP
Jchak-Chtal
Rig - 8 SP
Cloaked Figure -3 HP
Human (green)
Morroda
K'zct -2 SP
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Morroda rushes forward down the steps taking them nearly two at a time. Ending just behind K'zict pointing his large Half-orc arm over the Shirren's sholders directly at the cloacked figure. Yelling out a demoralizing statement "If'n ye dunnae wanna end up like your bodyguard thar drop 'ur weapons now!"
Whispering to K'zict in shirren "Make it look like 'ur hold'n me back; the same as ye would a rabid dog."
Feeling the vibrations around her, Jchak-Chtal can sense the location of the other mercenary.
As Morroda cries out in an effort to demoralize her, the cloaked figure draws back her hood, revealing a face covered in rotting flesh. The undead woman lets out a cold, rasping laugh.
Then, Exegara hisses,"You have no idea just who you are interfering with, Breather!"
Her true form now revealed for all to see, the undead woman approaches the nearest Starfinder, K’zct. As she approaches, her jaw seems to unhinge from her mouth as a long, purplish tongue extends out it like a serpent. Her maw, now fully extended, attempts to wrap itself around a large portion of K’zct!
But Exegara’s bite, fails to penetrate the shirren's carapace.
Spurred on by her employer's boldness, the remaining human mercenary emerges from the growth, still wielding her hammer, and tries to take down the blustering half-orc with a single blow.
The blow connects solidly with the gladiator.
Round Three Initiative Order Cont'd/Round Four Begins
Morroda -8 SP
K'zct -2 SP
Jchak-Chtal
Rig - 8 SP
Exegara -3 HP
Human (green)
Morroda
K'zct -2 SP
The half-orc's doshko devastates the body while the shirren's power obliterates her mind. The combined assault on the human mercenary is far more than her mortal mind and frame could bear and she collapses into the dirt.
Seeing her hired help taken down so quickly and still reeling from her own injuries, Exegara quickly considers her options. However, one does not continue one's existence for centuries, even as one of the undead, without exercising some prudence. Recognizing that she has no hope of defeating the meddling newcomers or making good an escape, she raises her limbs of desiccated flesh into the air. "I... surrender." she rasps.
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"oh the spoils of war." Morroda gingerly loots the bodies and pulls them around piling them up in a nice place.
Looking to the undead woman morroda smiles "Glad to see you made the right decision." to emphasize his statement Morroda drops the last body. "Now we have some questions for you." looking menacingly at the woman Morroda gestures to one of the others more skilled in speech.
The bloodless ghoul appears to smile at the mention of "bloodshed", but whether it is out of amusement or simply that facts that her cheeks have begun to rot away once cannot say.
"Skulls?" Exegara hisses, "Why I was simply acquiring the components necessary to repair the damage to a Drift engine. I needed several--the damage is rather extensive you see--and not just any component will do. Your carapace, for instance, would hardly power a maneuvering thruster, but a specimen like his..." she continues, as she motions toward the half-orc. "A fresh skull that thick and energetic could probably power the entire Corpse Fleet for a week."
"You are quite the straightforward one, aren't you?" the ghoul hisses back. "Very well. By 'insignias', I assume you mean those trinkets I sold to the pawnbroker? The answer is simple. Our ship, the Endless Threnody had picked up the transmission from a distress beacon originating on some desert planet in the Vast. We set a course there, hoping that among the wreckage we could locate some... new recruits." She punctuates her sentence with a flick of her long, deep-purple tongue.
"Alas, all our scouts were able to recover were those trinkets along with a few batteries and power converters." she continues. "The recovery mission proved costly, however, as the Endless Threnody was attacked by a pirate vessel, which we identified as the Lawblight, as we were attempting to enter the Drift. Our ship made it into the Drift, but once there we realized that the Drift engine had been too badly damaged during the ambush to allow the Endless Threnody to leave the Drift."
"Seeing little other recourse, I was dispatched here with whatever spare items of you Breathers might find of value, including those trinkets." Exegara explains. "I brought them here to sell them off and secure enough components to make the necessary repairs to the Endless Threnody's Drift engine."
"I am, and now forever shall be, one of the Corpse Fleet." Exegara responds with what appears to be a hint of pride. "I am merely one of the more... recent recruits."
She pauses to consider the implications of her admission and subsequent activity, before admitting further, "Thus, I know very little of the Fleet's activities. An officer of high value, one with working knowledge of the Fleet, would not have been to sent out alone to obtain replacement parts." She glances over at the bodies of the two humans and further remarks,"And certainly would have been afforded better protection when conducting an operation."
"It would delight me greatly to be able to make an appraisal, but I would require an opportunity for closer inspection." says Exegara, with another flick of her tongue. "All that would be required of you, is for you to come a bit closer and allow me to... remove it."
"Very well," Exegara replies. "You can keep your head for now, if you choose."
Then, looking over toward Morroda, she says, "Your companions are rather spirited, half-orc, but what of you? You were all intimidating talk and bluster before, yet now you seem strangely silent. Are you considering my offer of an appraisal?"
"I know not the coordinates of the crash site that held those baubles nor even the name of the desolate world where it lies." Exegara responds. She pauses for a moment, then continues, "However, if you release me, I can tell you where to find that information."
"Information alone has little value, unless you know what to do with it." Exegara responds. "If you release me, I will tell you how the information on the datapad can lead you to your crashed starship."
As you are questioning Exegara, five ysoki appear on the walkway and make their way down into the Vat Garden. "Oh, thank the Grandmother Rat that you stopped that monster. Not only did they drive away our customers and take what belongs to us, but they stepped all over the grass!" the eldest ysoki notes.
The elderly ysoki reaches into one of his cheek pouches and produces six plant bulbs. "Please accept these as a token of our thanks for dealing with those trespassers and thieves."
Later, upon your contacting Venture-Captain Arvin and his receiving your report, he seems quite pleased with you all for following up on the leads you received so quickly.
"As for Exegara, I'll see what strings we can pull with our more reputable Eoxian contacts, to see what they may know about her and this ship, The Endless Threnody." Arvin suggests. "But if her ship visited a planet where they obtained the insignias from the crew of the Unbounded Wayfarer, its coordinates are bound to have been recorded within the files of her ship's navigational computer. I want you to follow this mystery by finding the Endless Threnody."
"Keep the Starfinder insignias for now. Now that you've retrieved them, it is important to find the crew of the Unbounded Wayfarer or, as the ghoul suggested, its crash site. Although this isn’t common knowledge outside the Starfinder Society, these insignias are no mere trinkets; they can be used to encrypt or decrypt information that the Starfinders wanted to keep hidden.” Arvin notes. "Whatever information those Starfinders uncovered, we owe it to them to retrieve it."