GD VII [SFS] Revvy Bitterleaf's Scoured Stars Invasion (Inactive)

Game Master Revvy Bitterleaf

Vchk fires rapidly at the approaching opponent..his first shot going upin the air and slamming into the ceiling leaving a small mark but his second one impacts solidly into the human wearing the green uniform. All though rocking back on his feet a tiny bit from the impact there is no cry of pain at all.

@Hido since you can't see the map I'm assuming you'd prefer to shoot at the closest target and not at the one you previously shot at since it's behind cover ..or that you would move before shooting..in which case you wouldn't have a second attack. This seems most beneficial for your group so going with this
Hido rapid fires at the closest target and even though in his excitement his first shot misses his second shot brings down his target who goes down without a word with a hole in his chest slowly sinking through it's knees before falling flat on his face a spasm running through his body before going completely motionless

Twitch joins in overcharging his blaster but misses by (or should that be with) a long shot

Fire damage: 1d6 ⇒ 4
The slightly bigger guy continues to burn..all though must hurt a lot to be on fire he doesn't show any sign of pain even though the smell of burning hair and flesh is starting to fill the air and as he raises one leg up in an almost 90 degree angle topples over to his left landing on the ground with a thud and staying there, on his side, with his leg still bend in a 90 degree angle while his hair continues to smoke

A small puddle of blood starts to spread from the 2 humans you brought down, the pool from the burning man a tad bigger then the other downed opponent.

init
Vandor, Ceolor
Pink
All of you guys

[Damage]
G: Down
Green: Down
Vchk: 5 (non-lethal)

To get the ball rolling again I'll streamline this round so everyone can take an action again

Unsure of what's going on Vandor and Ceolor take on defensive postures

The last standing opponent steps forward with his right leg and drags his left leg behind him for a few strides as if he has forgotten how to use his other leg

I'll forgo making an attack with him to compensate Vandor and Ceolor not taking their actions

init
You guys
Opponents

Damage:
G: Down
Green: Down
Vchk: 5 (non-lethal)

It looks like the map got shifted under the tokens. I tried to fix it as best I could.

Vchk takes aim and fires off two shots (full attack) at the final enemy (purple), trying to put it down before it can close the distance.

Full Attack vs. Purple (KAC) w/ Hunting Rifle: 1d20 + 4 - 4 ⇒ (14) + 4 - 4 = 14
Hunting Rifle Damage (P): 1d8 ⇒ 7

Full Attack vs. Purple (KAC) w/ Hunting Rifle: 1d20 + 4 - 4 ⇒ (11) + 4 - 4 = 11
Hunting Rifle Damage (P): 1d8 ⇒ 4

Seeing two opponents down, Hido sets his exocortex fo target the last remaining enemy. With his rifle already settling to his shoulder his vision is flooded with targetting data and statistical probablibilites as he selects the firing solution he likes and works the trigger.

Attack, EAC: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (6) + 3 = 9
Damage, F: 1d8 ⇒ 3

move to target, standard to attack

I can't 100% remember what the map looked like, but it seems all right now so let's go with what we've got.

Vchk fires 2 shots in quick succession. His first shot hits while his second bullet glances of the thick clothes the human is wearing.

Hido sets his exocortex fo target the last remaining enemy. With his rifle already settling to his shoulder his vision is flooded with targetting data and statistical probablibilites as he selects the firing solution he likes and works the trigger. But all the fancy targeting data is not enough to make this shot and he ends up just missing his target.

The pools of blood on both downed opponents continue to grow larger as blood leaks out of the wounds you delivered to them while bringing them down.

init
Vandor, Ceolor, Twitch
Enemy

Damage:
G: Down 1
Green: Down
Pink: 7
Vchk: 5 (non-lethal)

"We have to stop their approach. Put a volley of fire on that last one." Twitch raises his laser rifle and fires.

Attack vs. Pink (EAC): 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (8) + 2 = 10
Damage: Fire: 1d8 ⇒ 3

Vandor blinks. Shakes his head. Looks around in confusion. "Whoa. I totally spaced out there, I was having a dream, we all got stuck here just like the other Starfinders. People kept trying to get in to find us, but a weird ysoki guy kept turning them away. It seemed like it went on forever. But... I guess all is back to normal now. I hope. Where were we anyway..."

Vandor uses Not in the Face again (DC 14), targeting the remaining Starfinder now, and fires his semi-auto.

Tactical semi-suto pistol (KAC): 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (20) + 2 = 22
Piercing Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 2
Crit Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 2

Ceolor sidles up 15 fifteen feat, blinking heavily. "Ever have a moment where something that was just a few moments ago seems like it was forever ago? I'm having one of those now!" Trying not to simultaneously yawn and lose hold of his solar alignment. Ceolor re-adjusts his glowing gun and takes aim at the final starfinder zombie thing. "We've got some way of stabalizing these people after this right? I would be loathe to actually kill these people until we know they can't be cured! Also, stand back from the one still standing, I'm going to try something and don't want anyone else caught in the blast range!"

Laser shot, targetting EAC: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (17) + 4 = 21
Damage, Fire: 1d8 + 3 ⇒ (2) + 3 = 5

Twitch raises his laser rifle and fires at the last advancing Starfinder person who isn't part of your landing team and ends up missing.

Using the confusion on appearing not worthy to be beaten combined with a killer shot right between the eyes Vandor joins into the fray

While Ceolor finishes the job by placing a burn mark on your opponents body

Without making a sound, his mouth wide open as if screaming in silence the last opponent goes down

The pools of blood surrounding the bodies of the Starfinder you brought down are growing ever larger as you can see what little life is left in them is slowly seeping out of them. The one closes to your party tries to take a barely visible breath of air after which you can see small bubbles forming in the pool of blood ..almost as if his lungs are leaking directly through one of his wounds.

What are you going to do?

init
All of you
Damage:
G: Down 2
Green: Down 1
Pink: Down
Vchk: 5 (non-lethal)

This doesn't feel right. What in the blazes is going on here?

Vchk runs up to the closest injured "Starfinder" (move action) and attempts to keep them alive (standard action to administer first aid). While he works, Vchk inspects the "Starfinder" closely. is this really a human?

Medicine check to administer first aid: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (16) + 4 = 20
Under normal circumstances, the DC to stabilize a creature with first aid is 15.

Life Science check to identify creature: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (18) + 4 = 22
If this is not, in fact, a human, Vchk has the xenoseeker theme, which reduces the DC to identify rare creatures with Life Science by 5.

"Uh, should you get that close to them Vee? Something about this doesn't seem quite right. Maybe we should keep our distance until we know more." Vandor illustrates his point by moving back 30 feet.

Vchk waggles his antennae at Vandor's advice.

{"No one ever solved a mystery from a safe distance, Vandor. Besides - if these really are our fellow Starfinders, I want to do everything in my power to save them."}

Vchk manages to staunch the flow of blood from the very much human being. His blood is maybe a tad darker then it should be and possibly his skin is moving in ways that's not normal for a human almost as if something is crawling underneath it almost as if trying to close the wounds from the inside..but failing to successfully accomplish it, but this is very much a human as far as Vchk can tell by taking a curiously glance at the poor bleeding, blood covered injured human Starfinder who is still unconscious but at least isn't at risk of dying in the next few minutes - unless he takes additional damage which would cause his wounds to reopen. He might be infected with something though..but that's hard to tell in a few seconds while being distracted by trying to close his wounds.

init
Everyone but Vchk Vandor still has a standard action if he wants to take it to do something

Damage:
G: Down 2
Green: Down 1
Pink: Down - stable
Vchk: 5 (non-lethal)

Twitch slings his rifle and rushes over to the fallen opponent to see what happened to them and to staunch any bleeding that he can. "Well, well. What do we have here?" Twitch says as he pokes, prodes, and bandages wound sites closed.

Medicine: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (8) + 10 = 18

Lacking medical skills, Hido raises his rifle and keeps an eye out for more "starfinders" that might be coming out after all the gunfire.

He does give Vchk a "Be careful"

Vandor simply observes for now, but of course he can't resist commentating from the peanut-gallery. "Is their skin supposed to do that? Mine has never done that. At least wear gloves guys, just for the sake of sanitation, come on."

Since we are still in rounds it will take Twitch 2 rounds to reach and stabilize one of them (the only one Twitch can reach in 1 round is already stable

@Hido; Since you mention lacking medical skills; First aid to stabilize is specially mentioned as being able to be used untrained in case you want to give it a try. Not saying you should, just saying you could if you wanted too

You guys can take another round (Ceolor can take 2 rounds / Twitch would use up both rounds to do what he did) I'll summarize later today/tomorrow and you can move towards your next challenge shortly after that. Do you guys know where you want to go next?

@Hido; Since you mention lacking medical skills; First aid to stabilize is specially mentioned as being able to be used untrained in case you want to give it a try. Not saying you should, just saying you could if you wanted too

Dangit, I specifically looked that up earlier and missed that part! Well that's exactly what I wanted to do!

Ceolor drops his weapon as he watches the last figure fall. He spots Vchk moving to help one of them already and decides to head for the farthest one that dropped in the first few seconds of combat. Mentally wishing he had some gloves, he rips off some of the downed person's clothes and tries to press the wounds closed. "I've got the big one, some one get to the lady in green!"

Untrained First Aid: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (6) + 0 = 6

His first attempt just results in more blood pooling out, and with a frown he tries to apply more pressure.

Untrained Medicine: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (19) + 0 = 19

...That finally seems to work out a bit better. "Alright do we get these guys to a doctor? Or should we press on and make sure that whatever's destroying these ships and possibly causing infestations of something that wriggles in an oh so gruesome way is taken care of?"

Once the Starfinder in front of him is stabilized, Vchk studies them more closely, trying to determine what's causing their strange behavior.

Not sure what kind of check would be useful here - I'm doing to make a Medicine check as a full-round action, but the result would be the same for a Life Science check or 1 greater for a Survival check. Vchk has a basic medkit on hand, if that's useful in this situation.

Medicine check: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (11) + 4 = 15

Working as a team you fail to get the big one stable. You shot him down first and he's been loosing blood for a while now.

As Ceolor is bending over him trying to staunch the blood loss he suddenly clamps onto Ceolor's arm and gasps:
" “I’m sorry… The nanites are too strong… "

before letting out his last gasp of air ever.

Vchk, knowing what to look for now can confirm it are indeed nanites which have infected the STarfinder
I Guess a life science check instead of medicine..but it should be obvious by now what has infected them

The other 2 Starfinders are stable and can be moved if it's done carefully

After battling the mindcontrolled Starfinders, you continue searching the starship graveyard and make a terrifying discovery: dozens of Starfinders are currently comatose and held in secure stasis chambers.

As you call in your findings Historia-7 assigns Starfinder medical experts to start analyzing their condition so that the Society can determine how to evacuate them.

You return to your rendezvous point for extraction and proceed to your next assignment

Succes, where do you guys want to go to next?

Disturbed that they found their compatriots in such a state, yet relieved to have found them at all, Hido gathers with the group to lift off.

Looking around the group in the shuttle, he asks "What next?"

we did the one I wanted first :) I am happy to do any of them next

Ceolor looks over the list of possible places to investigate and notes the 'City of the Ancients'. He points at the spot, commenting "You know that sounds intriguing. Bet there'd be a lot of cool things in there!"

Medicine: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (15) + 10 = 25

"Well since we went where I wanted to go first, I guess we can go visit where you want to go Ceolor." Twitch twitches his nose and brushes at his armor a bit as he speaks.

Wow, we got through the first mission already? Neat.

{"'City of the Ancients' sounds interesting to me as well. Let's try that one!"}

"Yeah, this City of the Ancients sounds promising, my mother was an archaeologist and a Starfinder. She followed Jadnura into the Scoured Stars, if she came here she'd probably head there. Maybe, just maybe... Anyway, it can't be any worse than what we just went through."

Reporting for duty you are assigned to go the City of Ancients.

The imposing vesk Radaszam, leader of the Acquisitives, stands near a large screen that displays a tidally locked planet labeled as Callion-2. “Starfinders,” he greets, in his pleasantly low voice, “I’m sure you’ll find this mission interesting. Our sensors have detected numerous communication signals broadcast from Callion-2. Because one side of the planet is always facing the sun, only a narrow habitable zone exists, but here’s the interesting part: the entire habitable area is covered in one big, technologically advanced megacity.
Finding survivors, or at least useful information in the city,seems likely. I’ll upload mission data on your ship’s computer. Good luck and come back safely!”

Following Radaszam’s instructions, you easily find the right location in the sprawling megacity to take your landing craft.
You find a suitable place to land on a rooftop. As you approach the destination, you start to realize the only living things in the city are plants and small insectile invertebrates.

There are five locations you can investigate within proximity of the landing zone. During your time within the megacity, you almost constantly can hear strange alien music (akin to distorted modern elevator music) playing in the background through loudspeakers integrated into the city’s buildings and infrastructure.

Factory:

Library:

Military Base:

Residential Area:

Shopping Mall:

Where do you want to go? (and to possibly speed things up, just give an order in which you want to do them)

{"Some areas are bound to be more dangerous than others - I say that we try to learn as much as we can before venturing into risky situations. Perhaps we should investigation that potential library first? Save the military base for last?"}

"Sure. Library might be a good place to start. Radaszam wants survivors or information, so let's check for info there first. Then maybe the residential area for survivors after. What is this music anyway? It's creeping me out. Still, at least it's not Strawberry Machine Cake..."

You head for the library:

With the exception of the ever-present alien music, this enormous building remains completely silent. Digital and physical records from the planet’s past fill shelves and data archives stretching for the equivalent of city blocks.

You also find a log entry about visitors whose description suggests the visitors were Starfinders, but the entry doesn’t reveal what happened to them.

As you go through the library can see an androgynous human watching from afar. As/if you try to get a closer look at the human he disappears around a corner and is gone.

Just to speed things up a bit, going for the residential area

Residential Area: There are no living inhabitants here. You only see robots making repairs and cleaning the residences. The bots flee at top speed if you confront them.

As you walk through the eerily deserted cityscape, you take a look around to investigate it a bit

In the distance you see a humanoid shape that looks a lot like the androgynous human from the library who once more disappears from view as you try to get closer to him/it.

Where do you want to go next/what do you want to do?

Ceolor's eyes open in wonder at the description of the planet. "So Vreces in another thousand or ten thousand years? Ooooh, I'm going to have to see this! This is going to make a great afterword for the next prining of my Around Verces in 80 Parsecs!"

On the planet he nods at the suggestions Vcnhk and Vandor offer. I agree, hitting the information heavy and best places for people to survive would be best. Maye we should visit the shopping mall and factory in that order next and the military complex last."

Ceolor initially ignores the music but steadily gets more and more annoyed with it. "Arggh, I didn't really enjoy the Strawberry Machine Cake albums at first, but at least they had depth and layers, this is just soooo... bland!"

He tries wrapping something around his head to block out the noise, and heads to the library. He triues puzzling through the writing system, trying to get a grasp on what it is saying.

Culture: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (6) + 8 = 14 -5 to the DC to recall customs and related topics (not sure if that applies but just in case)

He finally gives an exasperated gasp. "Alright I can't get this! All I can get is this very simple entry on what might have been some Starfinders here." The red man points out the entry.

Ceolor ooggles the robots, and after finding that they flee at high speed, does so at a distance. After knocking on what appears one of the doors, Ceolor tries to break into one of the buildings curious as to what might be inside.

Culture: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (13) + 8 = 21 -5 to the DC to recall customs and related topics (not sure if that applies but just in case)

He comes trapsing out again, looking a little green, after a moment to get some fresh air, he shakes his head. "It looks like this place has been abandonded for ages. Also the robots clearly DON'T clean out the refridgeration units. I swear that mold was contemplating eating me!"

Stepping off the shuttle Hido winces at the awful alien music, rifle up and scanning for danger while simultaneously wondering at the huge city.

"Ok, Library."

Reaching the library Hido quickly browses the shelves with interest, recording as much as possible with his exocortex.

Physical Science: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (5) + 7 = 12

Noting the fleeing figures, Hido hears his compatriots mention that they are robots.

"Fascinating"

Twitch keeps his head on a swivel as he moves into the library. He also gives his head a shake as the incredibly bland music bites into his
ears. Upon seeing no threat he begins to look through the archive.

Engineering: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (15) + 15 = 30

"These folks were quite advanced both technically and culturally. We need to flag this place for future exploration and data mining."

Following Ceolor out of the library and to the nearby homes Twitch keeps watch. He scans each home, street, and alleyway for potential threats as they move. He also takes a defensive position at the door when Ceolor goes inside.

Twitches eyes get big as he spots Ceolor quickly exiting the home with a pale green nauseous look about him. "That bad?"

At Library:

Culture check: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (17) + 5 = 22

Vandor hits the stacks, perusing the most relevant archives he can find. "Hmm, not much useful info here as far as I can tell. Whoever these people were they were advanced, I can tell that from these archives. But no clues about what happened."

At Residential Area:

Culture: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (5) + 5 = 10

Vandor tags along as Ceolor searches the buildings but doesn't discover anything worth noting.

Where do you want to go now?

We are on to the Shopping Mall.

Shopping Mall:
In the shopping mall, the weird elevator music is louder than elsewhere. Robots place useless and deteriorated products on display, but no one is around to buy anything.

After some investigation you to the same conclusion you already made in the Residential area; the city (including this shopping mall) was abandoned long ago—likely millennia ago—and the original inhabitants left the machines to take care of the city (and in this case - this shopping mall). In the distance you notice the now almost familiar presence of the androgynous human.

since you mentioned going to the military base last - factory it is

As you move to the factory you notice the androgynous human you've been spotting around town enters it just before you get there.

The factory district is full of activity: industrial robots building and repairing other robots. You can easily see that the level of robotics is highly advanced, and everything looks fully automated.

As you you take in your surroundings in the factory the human shape you saw entering (not to mention following you around the city) approaches you and you can now see that it is an hologram.

It asks you in a soft voice:
"What it the nature of your presence here?"

"What do you mean, like am I actually here or am I like you, a hologram?" Twitch gives a shake of his head and adjusts his rifle grip. "We are here in search of members of our organization who came this way about a year ago. Have you seen anyone with this symbol within the last year?" Twitch holds up a starfinder insignia to show the hologram.

"I mean with relation to your mission to this location; please respond and/or elaborate"

The hologram glitches a bit before responding to Twitch's question about having seen anyone with a Starfinder logo
"Question does not compute, please re-state question."

"Would you like to ask another question?"

Vchk steps up to try and assist, speaking verbally for once. "We are a search and rescue party, looking for members of our organization who may have become trapped in this system. Have other sentient creatures like us visited this place recently?"

If the answer is no (or another glitch-out), Vchk will ask a second question of a different tack.

"Our organization is one of exploration. Can you tell us more of this planet and the people who lived here?"

Hido watches the at least some what intllegent and mobile hologram with more than a little interest, setting his cortex to record what it can for future study.

He tries his own question. "As my compatriots have said, we are looking for other sentients sho may have visited this place recently. We are hoping you saw them. As a secondary... what happened to this place?"

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (15) + 4 = 19

"Information is classified"

The hologram starts to glitch and then smiles at Hido

"But it seems like you should know"

High enough Diplomacy allowed you to get the answers he can give you and bypass a fight

The hologram introduces itself as A-1 and everything is fully automated. A-1 doesn’t know much about the species that once lived on the planet, only that it was left in charge when they left.

You notice 2 small drones flying overhead with guns way to large for their small frames return to the military base.

The AI reveals that a group of Starfinders visited the city a year ago but the defense bots killed them. In their subsequent investigation, the bots found information about a group of Starfinders trapped on the desert planet Callion-1. A-1 also reveals its computers have detected weak signals coming from that planet within the last 24 hours, which may mean some of the Starfinders are likely still alive.

You report this information back to HQ

Succes, where do you want to go next?
If you wish to attack the Hologram for killing the Starfinders a year ago that's still an option, but it's unrelated to the success condition of this mission

Ceolor watches the proceedings with some interest trying to take notes and is just about to speak up in an attempt to help Hido, but the hologram responds pleasantly enough before he can say anything. He notices the bots flying away and gives a slight shudder as he realizes just what was going on. "Those things could have shot us dead before we even realized it, and they were only a small part of their military force, I'd say. Let's take the information and be grateful we can leave without blood shed. The hologram was likely only following programing anyways."

Back aboard the main ship he looks over the sheet they've been handed. "Hmm Lifeless space looks like a horrible place to try finding people, but we should make sure just in case, then maybe hit up the planet of the dinosaurs and then the third kind?"

Not sure if the Starship of the Third kind means actual starship combat in which case we might want to avoid that like the plague considering the time sink that can be in PbP.

{"I agree, Ceolor. If we leave the defenses in one piece, we save ourselves some trouble and allow another team to study them in greater detail once the rush has died down."}

I second Ceolor's suggested order of missions.

Lifeless Space followed by Planet of the Dinosaurs and lastly Third Kind it is - assuming something doesn't happen before then, or one of the other players has a strong preference for the next mission

Venture-Captain Naiaj briefs you for your next mission.

“Ah, there you are. Our scans detected a lone Starfinder starship, the Aeon Horizon, orbiting Bastiar-4. The ship looks fully operational, but we haven’t detected any communication signals.
Nonetheless, the ship likely contains hints as to what happened here, so I’m sending you to investigate. See if you can find any survivors, or at least any data logs about the ship’s mission.”

As your starship approaches the lone Starfinder vessel over Bastiar-4, You start scanning the ship.

Eying the sky on their way back, Hido is happy they didnt have to fight the gun drones they saw, with who knows what else potentially coming after them.reporting back and heading back out, Hido runs scans on the derelict ship, hoping to get some clues on approach.

Computers: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (4) + 10 = 14 Really? All I needed was a measly 5!?!

But is unable to find anything useful on his console.

Ceolor stares at the computer screen on the ship in front of him blankly for a second. "....this is completely different from my personal comm unit. What's a /root_access anyways? ....wait do you think this can play Gumdrop Gush?"

Twitch starts plugging away at the computer. "I am going to try hailing the ship as we approach. Hopefully it doesn't trigger anything awful in response."

Computers: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (3) + 11 = 14 It appears the dice are against us.

"Step aside, step aside. Let a pro give it a shot.

Computers: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (2) + 5 = 7

"Hmmm... nope. This console must be busted or something. lol

"Maybe we should just hail them..." Vandor opens communications to the Starfinder ship. "This is Vandor Draak of the Starfinder Society, hailing the Aeon Horizon. Please respond. What is your status Aeon Horizon? Our mission is to locate and extract survivors. Please respond." He disconnects in frustration. "No response. Great. We'll have to board her. I'm sure this isn't going to go well. Everyone ready?"