GM Bret's Outpost I: Claim to Salvation (Inactive)

Game Master BretI

"Okay, Goblins,Strange Ships, A moon that wants to eat starships! Sounds like a FUN time!" Quig says a little fed up with the humidity, regretting now the decision to get off the ship. He wondered how Livewire held up this long!

Seeing that the meeting is ending, Livewire meekly asks Raia and Quig for a few moments before they leave.

"No matter what, please let me know what happened to Bago. If the old lunk’s still alive, tell him I miss my ‘Hairless Monkey.’" It is obvious she really does care for Bago.

Somewhat embarrassed, she also asks "If you find it in your hearts after exploring that damnable false moon, please put in a good word for me with the authorities. I’m not sure I can last here for my entire term.

To the whole team, she says "Good luck and watch out!"

I'll pause here for any role-play you want to do before leaving The Sauna.

Altronus bows to Livewire, "We will do what we can. Thank you for your assistance."

"No problem!Hopefully, he is still alive and kicking." He says as he looks at Altronus and the others.

"Not gonna lie I say if we are done here we can leave and I can freshen up!"

"Of course! The information we find there is likely to be very important and you helped us...we will do everything we can to help you in return. I will even try to send you a care package till it is sorted." Raia says with a smile at the request. She then gets up with the others and gets ready for their interesting mission ahead.

Navasi nods. "Agreed! If there's anything we can get you let us know. I don't know if they have some sort of prison comisary or something like that here but you've been really helpful and we're definitely good to help people who help us!"

Much as she had preferred to charge straight into action earlier, she acknowledges that the information provided would likely come in useful. She reminds herself that a good mercenary goes in prepared, and that includes have good intel. "Thank you. You have been helpful. Not squirmy like most ysokis."

Iseph heads back to the ship swiftly. Seeing the Ysoki is starting to make them uncomfortable as Iseph can't help but feel overwhelming pity for her loss of access to space. Once on board, the android sits down in the pilot's chair and begins to warm several systems up.

You return to the ship, relieved to get out of the humidity. The Sauna is certainly aptly named!

You receive clearance to leave and take off. As you reach orbit, you receive a message from Warden wishing you luck with your investigation.

Luwazi Elsebo opens communications right after you leave the Sauna. She asks for an update and after receiving it congratulates you on your efforts. She then authorizes you to enter the Drift and travel to Salvation's End.

The drift is an extraplanar void of kaleidoscopic colors. Distances within the drift are different than on your home plane, which is what allows you to travel distances faster-than-light. The ship never reaches those sort of speeds. Instead you travel a short distance in the Drift and come out a much larger distance away in your own plane.

Drift travel is tricky as you need to find the correct places to enter and exit. The Drift Beacons allow this sort of navigation, without them it is extremely difficult to know where you will come out of the drift.

It takes you seventeen days of travel in the drift to reach the place where you will exit in order to reach Salvation's End. The trip was uneventful.

Quig has taken the time to familiarize himself with the ships computer and its systems. Getting into the crawl spaces and looking at as much of the hardware as well as the software. If asked about his ordeals he will gladly talk ones ear off about the various systems his possible notes on improvement and the various quirks he has found in the systems.

You shift from the drift back into regular space. It looks like your navigational computations were accurate.

In the distance, a great metallic structure breaks the bleak monotony of space. Massive in size, the grandeur of this planetoid is hard to take in all at once. Before the scale of the moon sets in, a shrill song pierces through the ship’s communications system. As the first notes of the song shriek out, a trio of vessels blink on the sensor screens, followed swiftly by a warning alarm klaxon.

" ♫ Goblins shoot you up,
Goblins shoot you down!
Junkers flying all around!"

Space Goblins. Worse yet, singing space goblins.

Start of Space Combat!

Please choose your actions.

"Shit shit shit, incoming! Hold onto your circuits!" Iseph slams the ship into an evasion combat maneuver as the lights on their system screens start to flash erratically.

I have 4 ranks in Piloting for AC and TL purposes.

Navasi gravitates to the Captain's chair for the trip but makes a point to visit everyone individually first to make sure that they're alright with he taking that role, and that when push comes to shove in a combat situation they're also okay taking her orders (even though when not in combat she's very easy going and willing to let the experts in individual fields be the boss).

When the goblins show up she leaps out of her chair getting up behind Iseph, giving them a very brief shoulder rub (but only if they had previously indicated that physical touch was acceptable) "Three of them? Okay Iseph, you've got this. You're one of the best pilots in the Pact Worlds!"

"Oh no they don't I just got to know Char as intimately as an Engineer can!!!I am not gonna let us loose this ship to a bunch of squeaky voiced junk munchers!!" He says popping out of a hatch and skittering over to his station.

"Oh fantastic! This should be another fun experience. Can we open comms with them so we can say hello?" Raia adds in as she pulls plugs away at the computer systems. She brings up the medium range scanners and sets them to actively scan for their new goblin adversaries.

"Come on! Come on! Let's see some new information!!" she says getting ever more excited about being in combat.

"Give me some details so I know where to put the most power, too?"He says getting to the station and began to log in and get his specs while Scout hovers above him.

"Goblins! Singing goblins! Someone turn down the speakers!"

Swivelling around on her seat to get a good view of the goblin ships, she focuses her fire on the nearest goblins ship. She roars in laughter and excitement. "Finally, some action!"

As the crew is pressed into their seats at a couple G forces, Iseph calls out "Awwww yeah feel this baby burn?! That's what a maxed-out Pulse Red feels like when it starts to purr!"
Initiative is 24 now, Evade succeeded

"I can make it go faster just give the word" QUig says as he monitors the systems looking to improve system efficiency.

Waiting for Engineering result before going to Helm phase. I am allowing the posting to happen in any order, but still have to resolve things in the normal order.

Iseph, please keep the results in spoilers.

QUig boosts the Shields

Engineering: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (9) + 14 = 23

Quig, Divert Power to Shields only helps if the shields are at less than full.

If you send it to the shields, restore an amount of Shield Points equal to 5% of the PCU rating of the starship's power core (see page 296), up to the shields' maximum value.

I will let you keep the roll and divert power to a different system if you want.

Then to Divert it to Engines for speed!

Engineering Phase

Quig works his engineering moxie on the engines and manages to squeeze a little bit of extra speed out of them.

Speed increases by 2 this round.

Goblin Song!: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (16) + 5 = 21

Helm Phase

Red Junker: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (17) + 11 = 28
Green Junker: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (6) + 11 = 17
Yellow Junker: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (12) + 11 = 23

Movement order:
Green Junker
Yellow Junker

Chartreuse

Red Junker

Green and Yellow junkers zoom forward, positioning themselves on either side of your ship!

Green Evade: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (4) + 11 = 15 Success!
Yellow Evade: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (4) + 11 = 15 Success!

You can move now.

Move complete!

Thanks to the extra speed that Quig provided, Iseph is able to get out from between the two junkers. They manage to find a spot behind the Green Junker that is still out of both the front and rear arcs on the two ships.

Raia uses this as an opportunity to scan the Green junker. Quickly analyzing the data, she shares her results.

Basics:

Tiny starship racer
Speed 12; Maneuverability perfect (turn 0)
Crew: 1

Defenses:
AC 14; TL 14 HP 20;
DT —; CT 4
Shields basic 20; forward 5, port 5, starboard 5, aft 5
Power Core Micron Ultra (80 PCU); Drift Engine none;

Weapon:
Attack (Turret) flak thrower (3d4)

Unfortunately as they were doing this, the Red junker got right up alongside the ship!

Gunnery

Oboyawa blasts the Red junker that came so close, destroying their port shield and doing 8 points of damage to their hull.

Two critical hits!
Crit: 1d100 ⇒ 20 Sensors
Crit: 1d100 ⇒ 86 Power Core

All three goblins fire at your ship.
Red Snap Shot with Flak Thrower: 1d20 + 5 + 1 - 2 ⇒ (19) + 5 + 1 - 2 = 23 Hit!
Damage: 3d4 ⇒ (2, 2, 3) = 7 Can chose between forward or port shield
“Silly longshank! Fly right into the flak!”

Green Snap Shot with Flak Thrower: 1d20 + 5 + 1 - 2 ⇒ (3) + 5 + 1 - 2 = 7 Miss!
Damage: 3d4 ⇒ (2, 4, 2) = 8 Forward shield
“No! You moved, that not fair!”

Yellow just fills the radio channels with something said in Goblin.

Altronus was manning a gun too, right? Waiting for him to fire.

Please indicate targets when firing. Closest will be assumed unless you state otherwise.

"It looks like I have one in my arc. Firing!"

Targeting the closest(red).

I didn't mention at the star of combat, but I'll be using the Forward weapon "Light Particle Beam". Leaving Obozaya with the better bonus on the turret.

Altronus also hits Red in the port shield!

Red junker is disabled!

Do any changing of stations you want.

Round 2

Engineering Phase

Altronus remains logged into the Forward array console and begins spooling the recharge functions and starts to track a new target.

"Target has been disabled. I'm beginning to track another target, keep them lined up in my arc if you can."

I'll continue in the forward weapon position, and fire at the closest in my arc during the gunnert phase.

Altronus, the computer bonus is +2, not +1. Not that you need it with your good rolls!

"BOOYAH!!!" Obozaya screams out when her shot hits. Quickly, she swivels her seat to follow the same (red) junker, ready to blow it out off space! "Keep to its port side!"

Iseph turns on some tunes as they start getting into the grove and rapidly slams combinations of thrusters.

Red is disabled. The junker is no longer a threat.

Oops, missed that. Then target the nearest junker.

Quig does a systems check.

Iseph that's awesome music!

Navasi grins as Iseph's maneuvers pushes her back into her seat. "Great flying and shooting! Let's keep it up everyone!"

Then with a big grin she punches in a command into her console adding a new song to the queue. "Right on Iseph! You're flying circles around 'em!"

Engineering phase

Quig diverts power to your shields, restoring 8 points.

Helm Phase

Green Init: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (4) + 11 = 15
Yellow init: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (20) + 11 = 31

“We block you in!”

Green gets directly behind you while Yellow gets directly in front of you.

Your move.

Iseph zips around and puts both of the ships in their forward arc.

Back at ya Navasi!

Shoot! The free attack doesn’t apply because there is only one crew member! I went and rechecked the rules. Ah well, goblins aren’t supposed to be tactical geniuses.

The goblin in the Yellow junker nearly gets whiplash as Navasi goes zipping past.

Waiting for the Science Officer.

With the scan complete I suppose there isn't much use for a Science Office so I should switch to a Engineer or something else?

Technically, you need to do that at the beginning of the round.

Could rebalance shields, lock-on to select what system gets crit if a crit happens, or scan in order to find out more about their ship.

If you want to declare switching to Engineering for next round now, that is also fine.

End of Helm Phase

Raia scans Yellow and compares the results. She quickly provides a summary of her findings.

Weapon: continued

Attack (Forward) light laser cannon (2d4)
Attack (Aft) light laser cannon (2d4)

Load:
budget short-range sensors, mk 1 mononode computer, mk 3 armor, mk 3 defenses;
Expansion Bays none

Gunnery phase

Obozaya hits Yellow's port side! It wipes out the shields and does 4 damage to the hull.

Crit hit Yellow!: 1d100 ⇒ 51 Weapons! Their turret is damaged!

Altronius hits the same side, doing 9 more hull points.
Crit hit Yellow!: 1d100 ⇒ 4 Life Support!
Crit hit Yellow!: 1d100 ⇒ 68 Engines!

-2 Turret Weapon
-2 Captain Actions
-2 Pilot Actions

Begin round 3!

I assume that Raia moves to Engineering this round. Correct?

Engineering Phase

"YES! Eat particle beam, dirt munchers!" Obozaya screams in joy. Again, she tracks the same ship (yellow) and releases yet another shot from the turret guns.

Raia, in most games I've played, the science officer focuses on targetting system, usually power core or engine. Other than the increase chance of causing a crit, what I find more important is that you get to decide which area to cause crit damage (whether by rolling 19-20 or by crossing CT), rather than leave it random. This focuses the crit damage on the same area, rather than leave it randomly distributed. But for this combat, the goblin ships hull points are so low, it might not make a big difference to cause all those debuffs if they get destroyed rather quickly.

Love hearing other's strategy! Targeting is great, but I've also seen people swap between Science Officer and Engineering or Gunnery. Gunnery is usually limited by number of guns that can be brought to bear.

Ah yes, gunnery could be useful in this situation, since we do have multiple targets.

"Keep up the pressure everyone! These little junkers aren't stopping us! You're doing awesome Iseph!"