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Jellico beings by referring to what he can remember of the ship's layout. He tries to translate his knowledge of piloting a smaller craft to such a large vessel as this one. "If I were driving, where would an explosion annoy me the most?"
After working on that for some time, he moves over to the missiles themselves, examining them to see which ones might have structural imperfections and are most likely to explode. He also makes note of the controls and anything else about their physical makeup that might make them more prone to exploding.
Lastly, he meditates stretching out his mind over the ship. He tries to touch the minds of the Eoxians to see if they really are united against them. "If there are is any dissent, maybe we can capitalize on that once the explosions being."
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Ted begins wiring up bombs! His face shines with glee as he mutters his plans to his top.
He also uses his professional experience as a Stage Magician to make the explosions more dramatic and showy so that they surprise and awe the undead audience.
He also wires up a program to launch the stunning display with its intricate timing.
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Seeing his companions work with such skillful brilliance gives Isu hope that they can succeed despite his scant contributions. He does his best to move the missiles about carefully as directed with his power armor providing most of the strength.
Part of the maneuvering of this missles requires aerial assistance, so he fires up his jet pack and flies while holding top of edges of missiles, in a very careful dance of death.
Though, he was never much of a dancer.
In the beginning you carefully split up, Isu serving as the lookout as you scope out locations for the missiles to be delivered to maximize damage. Isu ends up having to get you to move a couple of times as large patrols sweeping through the area almost fall upon you. You even have to fight a smaller group than gets through his watch, but soon afterward, Jelico is able to pilot the truck away to keep it from being seized by a larger force.
Once positions have been identified, Ted and Spec begin priming them for their subsequent detonation. At the missile tubes, Spec introduces his virus to the missile deployment system - a difficult task given the computer's defenses, but within Spec's capabilities. Ted follows by messing with the system to link the virus deployment to his particular, very specific, timing schedule. And with Jelico's guidance, you select the perfect missile for each detonation location.
With the speed and the synergy with which you work, you're able to also investigate the vicinity some. In one storage area, you find a stash of gear left in case of boarding parties.
100 ft of adamantine cable
an advanced medkit
a standard photon crystal
a merciful, venomous paragon semi-auto pistol
3 doses of tier 3 sedatives
3 doses of sprayflesh
As the heat in the sector builds and more enemy troops start to converge on your location, you slip through various back corridors and maintenance shafts in an attempt to make it back to the Grav Train station. As you do, Ted starts the timer on his show. The explosions begin shortly before you arrive - dull thuds that vibrate throughout the ship. The lights dim, then return, then dim again. Another rumble marks the second missile going off, and with that you recognize that it's time to go.
You pilot the grav train through the cavernous tunnels of tracks that run from dorsal to ventral sides of the Empire of Bones, taking a circuitous route to throw off any pursuers before entering the cargo hold sector. The train emerges onto a thinly populated station, and you're able to swiftly dispatch the defenders there before heading deeper in to locate an isolated corner. You find the cargo hold largely empty at present.
After activating Eskolar's TombRobber virus, you're able to settle in, heal, and then take a long rest to recuperate and restore your physical and magical reserves for the final push against the leadership of the Corpse Fleet!
With TombRobber's effects wearing off and the widespread alerts of breathers throughout the ship dying down, you head back to the Cargo Hold station and hijack a new grav train.
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Arcalinte meditates while they rest. It had been quite a strange and enlightening journey: what had started as a small incident on Absalom Station had taken them through the jungles of Castrovel to the Temple of the Twelve, across the splintered world of Eox, to the mysterious city of Istamak, high above Nejeor VI's ruined clouds. And now, with the thirteenth gate opened, aboard the Empire of Bones, they'd decide the fate of the Pact Worlds and perhaps the whole galaxy.
He looked at the others, the Starfinders he'd come to call friends, and smiles. No matter how frustrating they could be, he trusted each one with his life, and united as a crew, they were unstoppable. As they ready for the final confrontation, he stands up.
"This may be the final chance we get to speak before things become chaotic and possibly deadly. I just wanted to say it's been an honor to fight at your side. The Dawn Brings New Light, and hopefully we'll live to see that dawn over a Pact Worlds free from danger...and if we don't...then I'll greet you in Everlight."
As you board the grav train, the message from the purported captain of the ship continues to scroll on a nearby screen.
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"The honor has been mine as well. To think we have survived and thrived through our many adventures. Know that this one will gladly die for each of you to enable this adventure come to the proper conclusion. If it comes to it, this one will steer the ship into the void as you flee. There are no arguments. Spectre, this one leaves it to you to finish the pizza cult on Absalom Station."
With Jelico at the helm, you pull the grav train out of its station and manually plan your route toward the Command deck. As before, you try to take an evasive course, but as you drive, you find the tunnels you expected to lead further up ending in dead ends or looping back on themselves. As Jelico doubles back and tries another route, the rest of the team notes the echoing rumbles coming up the tunnel behind you... another train in hot pursuit! The pursuer's glowing red headlights shine out of the darkness behind you.
The security train is designed to maintain security in the transit corridors in case of a boarding action and to find and immobilize runaway grav-trains. It is smaller, faster, and more heavily armored than a typical grav-train, with protected gun ports to allow fire from within with total cover, but it isn't as agile. While your vehicle lists a collision attack, you can normally collide only with things in the same zone.
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|||| ROUND 1 ||||
Starfinder Grav Train HP 150
Security Train HP 130
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Ted licks his top and throws it at the chasing train. The top drips goop as it arcs back down the tunnel and splashes with a loud GLOP on the pursuing train's windshield.
GREASE T1
School conjuration (creation)
Casting Time 1 standard action
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Area or Targets one 10-ft. square or one object
Duration 1 minute/level (D)
Saving Throw Reflex partial, see text; Spell Resistance no
You cover a solid surface with a layer of slippery grease. Any creature in the area when the spell is cast must succeed at a Reflex save or fall prone. A creature can walk within or through the area of grease at half normal speed with a successful DC 10 Acrobatics check. Failure means the creature can’t move that round and must then succeed at a Reflex save or fall prone, while failure by 5 or more means it falls prone (see the Acrobatics skill for details). A creature that doesn’t move on its turn doesn’t need to attempt this check and isn’t considered flat-footed. The spell can also be used to create a greasy coating on an item. Unattended material objects are always affected by this spell. If you attempt to affect an object in a creature’s possession, the creature can attempt a Reflex save to negate the effect. If the creature fails the initial saving throw, it immediately drops the item and must attempt a new save each round it attempts to pick up, hold, or use the item. A creature wearing greased armor or clothing gains a +5 circumstance bonus to Acrobatics checks to escape a grapple and a +2 circumstance bonus to its AC against grapple combat maneuvers.
You pass near Drift Control, where space time is slightly warped , while the security train passes through Reserve Power, where hungry generators siphon some small amount of power from their train.
The security train's gun ports swivel to aim toward you and send ghostly bolts of negative energy in your direction - aiming at Isu profiled in the window. One bolt misses, but one strikes him in the side .
|||| ROUND 2 ||||
Starfinder Grav Train HP 150
Security Train HP 126 (greased windshield)
Isu (29 dmg)
Everyone is up!
Jelico blazes ahead, routing between different tracks to glean small advantages over your pursuer. For the security train's side however, their grease-impaired driver just weaves the train this way and that, slowly falling further and further behind. You fire back, lasers and plasma blasts mostly skimming off the front of the security train. Then, the moment you break line of sight, Jelico slams the train down a side tunnel and loses your pursuers!
Piloting wins the day!
After a moment hiding out to make sure your pursuers are truly gone, Jelico routes you back toward the Command deck. As you get close, you spot an interlaced web of black beams of energy criss-crossing the whole tunnel up to Command. The mystically trained among you reason that these are negative energy emitters. However, with no other way forward, you resolve to power through them and get to the Command station.
Moments before you strike the wall of beams, they dissolve and you zip through unmolested. They flicker back on behind your train, and on your comms you hear Eskolar's voice "And with that, I have given you your best chance. Good luck. I will be making my own way out."
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Ted makes sure anyone who wants it has a Life Bubble surrounding them as well as turns on his abilities to Comprehend Languages and See Invisibility.
"Who wants to be invisible?" Ted smiles.
SEE INVISIBILITY M2 T2
School divination
Casting Time 1 standard action
Range personal
Duration 10 minutes/level (D)
You can see any invisible or ethereal objects or beings within your range of vision, as if they were normally visible. Such creatures are visible to you as translucent shapes, allowing you easily to discern the difference between visible and invisible or ethereal creatures.
The spell doesn’t reveal the method used to obtain invisibility, doesn’t reveal illusions or enable you to see through opaque objects, and doesn’t reveal creatures that are simply concealed, hiding, or otherwise hard to see.
LIFE BUBBLE M1 T1
School abjuration
Casting Time 1 standard action
Range medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
Targets up to one creature/level, no two of which can be more than 30 ft. apart
Duration 1 day/level
Saving Throw Will negates (harmless); Spell Resistance yes (harmless)
You surround the target creatures with a constant and movable 1-inch shell of tolerable living conditions customized for each creature. This shell enables the targets to breathe freely in a variety of atmospheric conditions (including in corrosive, thick, thin, and toxic atmospheres), as well as underwater or in a vacuum. It also makes the targets immune to harmful gases and vapors, including inhaled diseases and poisons as well as spells with a harmful gaseous effect. In addition, the shell protects targets (and their equipment) from extreme temperatures (between –50° and 140° F) without having to attempt Fortitude saving throws, as well as extreme pressures.
Life bubble doesn’t provide protection from energy damage, negative or positive energy (such as found on the Negative and Positive Energy Planes), or radiation; it also doesn’t provide the ability to see in conditions of poor visibility (such as in smoke or fog) or the ability to move or act normally in conditions that impede movement (such as underwater).
COMPREHEND LANGUAGES T1
School divination
Casting Time 1 standard action
Range personal
Duration 10 minutes/level
You can understand the spoken or signed words of creatures or read otherwise incomprehensible written or tactile messages. The ability to read does not necessarily impart insight into the material, merely its literal meaning. The spell enables you to understand or read an unknown language, not speak or write it. You can’t use this spell to read magic writing or encoded messages (though it does reveal if a message is magic or encoded), but you can use it to read raw computer code or foreign programming languages, allowing you to understand enough to attempt Computers checks on those materials without penalties.
The grav train slides to a stop in a station that stands in stark contrast to the utilitarian, industrial spaces you've seen up until now. A vast expanse of green marble flooring, wooden accents, and gold trim on every object fill this opulent train station. The vaulted ceiling rises to a height of a hundred feet above, and its surface sports an intricate mural of interlocked and contorted bone.
However, you're not given long to appreciate this gorgeous sight, as your attention is drawn to the three gargantuan creatures defending the station. You last saw one of these on Eox, but here, these Ellicoths seem to be fitted with electric collars and sport more defined musculature. The look an awful lot like someone's oversized, trained pets. The three appear to have been waiting for your group to arrive, as they have their attention focused on the train.
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Still, they're slow to start, and you get the jump on them.
|||| INIT ||||
Spec
Arc
Isu (3 dmg)
Jelico
Ted
Blue Ellicoth
Red Ellicoth
Yellow Ellicoth
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Ted's eyes pop out of his head, "This is going to hurt."
He throws Greater Invisibility on Spec and moves towards the back of the train.
INVISIBILITY, GREATER T4
School illusion
Targets one creature
Duration 1 round/level (D)
Saving Throw Will negates (harmless); Spell Resistance yes (harmless)
This spell functions like invisibility, except it doesn’t end if the target attacks.
The three ellicoths converge on the train, reaching out with their tremendously long face tentacles to try to grasp at the party. The one reaching for Isu only manages to ineffectually snuffle at his armor. Similarly, yellow gets its tentacle into the train and tries to strike Ted, but he dodges away. Only red meets its target, Jelico!
The tentacle briefly latches on and drains a fraction of Jelico's vitality. He's left cold as the tentacle retreats.
|||| INIT ||||
Spec
Arc x2
Isu (3 dmg)
Jelico (14 dmg, staggered)
Ted
Blue Ellicoth (75 dmg)
Red Ellicoth
Yellow Ellicoth
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Arcalinte is awed at the gothic majesty of the station aboard what he'd assumed to be a military ship, but that awe is cut short by the ellicoth attack. Seeing the rest of the group has the one thoroughly under control, he bolts towards the one that attacked Jellico and cleaves into it with a flurry of blows!
Then, as his power dawns once more, he raises his sword and wreathes it in Sarenrae's holy fire and strikes again!