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The Starfinder have caught glimpses of the dinosaurs as they get closer, they look like feathered bipedal snakes with rattling frills and two small forelimbs. The area has quite a few dry land patches surrounded by shallow dirty green water , several rickety bridges connect the islets , and there are some large, jagged rock formations between some islets .
The Umbral Dawn
Ophidiraptors
6ix
Ella
Spanner
Zoicoluu
Centian
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Turn 1: Spanner tries to follow the others across the bridges? He doesn't really trust their structural integrity. When the one falls apart as Ella steps onto it, he fells a sense of satisfaction and increased concern.
He then starts Tracking the closest raptor
Turn 2: Spanner fires at the raptor.
Azimuth Laser Rifle: target tracking
v EAC Fire Damage
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Zoicoluu moves closer and attempts to confuse the creature by making noises in the creatures mind, before feinting to shoot at it. As she does this she studies the creature.
CLEVER FEINT As a standard action, you can fake out an enemy within 60 feet, making that enemy open to your attacks. Attempt a Bluff check with the same DC as a check to feint against that enemy (though this isn’t a standard check to feint, so Improved Feint and Greater Feint don’t apply). Even if you fail, that enemy is flat-footed against your attacks until the end of your next turn. If you succeed, the enemy is also flat-footed against your allies’ attacks until the end of your next turn. You can’t use clever feint against a creature that lacks an Intelligence score.
At 6th level, you can spend 1 Resolve Point to treat a failed Bluff check for clever feint as if it were a success.
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6ix
The ophidiraptor instincts prove to be too good for Centian's spell and its scales too tough for The Umbral Dawn's Supernova. But Spanner's attack land on target.
Zoicoluu's clever feint works and the dinosaur is distracted, but she doesn't recognize the creature, perhaps it's endemic to this system.
The closest dinosaur attempts to bite once again, digging its teeth into The Umbral Dawn.
The farthest one moves closer, much closer.
OR #1 (HP 7/?)
OR #2
Ella
Centian
Spanner
Zoicoluu
6ix
The Umbral Dawn
OR #1
OR #2
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Seeing The Umbral Dawn's armour crack and blood seep through his protective suit, Zoicoluu lets her fellow Lashunta that his strength will out. "Your body is your strength, it is whole."
INSPIRING BOOST
As a standard action, you can signal an ally within 30 feet who has taken damage from any attack made by a significant enemy at any point after your last turn ended. That ally regains a number of Stamina Points (up to his maximum) equal to twice your envoy level + your Charisma modifier; at 15th level, this increases to three times your envoy level + your Charisma modifier. Once an ally has benefited from your inspiring boost, that ally can’t gain the benefits of your inspiring boost again until he takes a 10-minute rest to recover Stamina Points.
At 6th level, you can spend 1 Resolve Point to add your envoy level to the number of Stamina Points regained.
A loud shriek of audio feedback erupts from all communication devices across the Starfinder Society fleet and deployed teams. The feedback precedes an alert of a new threat: dozens of unknown starships are entering the Scoured Stars through the Drift!
Data screens across the fleet begin displaying a live feed of a chitinous, six-legged creature with a large mouth full of sharp teeth. Rings of glowing, unblinking eyes cover the upper and lower sides of the creature’s body, looking in every direction at once. The creature’s three-clawed forelimbs hold what looks like an alien plasma cannon, while its second set of limbs terminate in cybernetic augmentations resembling long sabers.
When the creature starts speaking, its words sound like a chaotic jumble of consonants, but soon the syllables turn into a sinister-sounding, digitalized voice speaking in the Common tongue: “We are jinsuls, and you are not welcome in our space. This is our ancestral home. You do not belong here. You will be removed.”
As soon as the ominous message ends, First Seeker Luwazi Elsebo speaks to the Society through the comm system: “According to our sensors, these creatures—jinsuls—are entering the Scoured Stars through a location near Bastiar-7. I need a group of volunteers, our best starship crews, to scout the area and keep these aggressors occupied. Meanwhile, I want everyone else to continue evacuating the survivors. Time is a luxury we don’t have, so make haste and be ready to be extracted at a moment’s notice!”
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After The Umbral Dawn brings the first beast down, Centian and Ella defeat the second one, fast. After traversing to the last islet, you find bones,
destroyed equipment, and other evidence that the Starfinders who left the beacon have long since died. However, the beacon contains information about a larger group of Starfinders that established an outpost on another planet in the Agillae system. The information is encrypted, and it will require time onboard one of the larger ships to decipher, so the Starfinders can now carry on with the other missions.
Luckily for the crew, a group of landing craft has just become available and can extract them from the site immediately. You do not need to trek back to their starship on foot.
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Historia-7 briefs you on on this mission.
“Greetings, Starfinders. Our initial recon teams found dozens of our colleagues held in stasis on Agillae-5. Forcibly removing their bodies from the stasis pods would leave their minds are trapped in a virtual world, which means we’re sending you in to release them. Our specialists have put together a digital tether that allows you to enter the virtual world without getting trapped like your colleagues did. Still, you must careful. Even though nothing that happens in there is real, dying in the simulation might kill you.”
A team of Starfinder computer specialists waits at the facility. The lead specialist approaches you. ”Everything is ready. Any gear you're carrying should transfer over, consumable or charges you spent there won't be spent in the real, but any shock or trauma you receive will transfer as weel, be careful. Now, all you have to do is plug in.” he grabs your shoulder. ”Good luck.”
111010101010110100101010100111101010101010100111100
Jacking in you instantly find yourself in a Cantina, where a bartender named Jodain sees you looking all about and in near shock. ”Relax, have a drink. Or even eat something good and not worry about a thing.”
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Zoicoluu pulls herself together when she hears the voice of a bartender and the familiar sound of hospitality. Turning round she steps towards the barman, "Yes that sounds a splendid idea... Jodain is it? Do you have something refreshing and fruity? It's been a long journey here to come visit some old friends." she says light heartedly as she accepts the colourful banded liquid in a tall glass. She looks around the bar, at the customers and staff, getting the lie of the land before she continues.
Turning back to Jodain she continues, "So do you get a lot of visitors? It's such a nice bar, very relaxing."
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Ella seems intrigued by the set up Historia-7 describes. "We will interact with the Starfinders in the virtual simulation? Do we know how to release them from the virtual world? Do you think they know it is an artificial construct?"
Once inside the simulation, Ella looks around for anyone who is wearing a Starfinder insignia or looks like they might have equipment from the expedition. She looks down at herself to see if she retains all her equipment and normal clothing. "Fascinating."
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"Great, we are going to play a video game for our next assignment? I don't waste my time on such leisure activities. Could I please be assigned a task more...worthy of my abilities?"
The Umbral Dawn looks around the Cantina in wonder. So real. He walks over to where Zoicoluu is chatting with the bartender and speaks to her telepathically.
"Why are you talking with a simulation? He's probably just here to distract us from our mission."
The Umbral Dawn addresses Spanner, Elle, and 6ix telepathically. "You androids are into this high tech stuff, right? Can you just hack the information we need out of this guy or something?"
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Historia-7 responds to Ella before you dive in, "We are confident the release trigger should be inside the virtual world, and they -takes a small pause to gesture towards the pods around you- have been trapped so long, they may not be aware it's a construct."
One of the specialists answers Spanner, "We've managed to build the tethers so you won't get stuck down there, but there are no guarantees the fail safes will work correctly. If you die down there, you might end up dead here as well."
110101101010010101010010110101101101010010101
After seeing that you're settling in, Jodain, speaks in a friendly tone, "Why don’t you go and meet all the friendly folks who live here. But remember, we’re all happy here, so don’t say or do anything that might upset them."
You see three groups of people you could interact with.
Bikers: Five Starfinders—a human, two lashuntas, an ysoki,
and a vesk—wear leather jackets and protective clothing. They
tune-up expensive-looking enercycles.
Library: Five scholarly Starfinders—an android, a damaya lashunta, a kasatha, and two shirrens—engage in a heated debate about Golarion. According to these Starfinders, Golarion never disappeared!
Picnic: Six Starfinders—a dwarf, two kasathas, two humans, and a shirren—enjoy a picnic in the park. They wear fashionable clothes. The group marvels at the beauty of the natural world, saying things like "Ain’t it great to be outdoors, smell the flowers, feel the wind and sun on your face?"
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"Morning starfinders, great that you have had such a relaxing time, but the First Seeker has new instructions, time for action. Please you can you halt the relaxation program and return to action stations. We have incoming, could be a threat. We need all able bodied starfinders to return to their ships and prepare. All civilians must be evacuated back to the starships as we suspect that the planet is threatened, and loss of life could be imminent." She looks around the picnic area, a puzzled look on her brow, "Hmmmm, when we get back, remind me to get the programming changed, there are anomolies with the plant life. On Castrovel you would never get a great blue ostrichas plant growing up next to the aggressive golden bloomrist strangler, which would send creepers out and strangle the life from nearby plants and unlucky small creatures. Surely the program should have factored that into it's reality program. I know they look good together, but really the program ought to be better than that." she points to the two plants growing peacefully to the side of the picnic area.
EXPERTISE You are an expert at dealing with challenges that test your skills, be the challenges social or otherwise. At 1st level, when attempting a Sense Motive check, you can roll 1d6 (your expertise die) and add the result of the roll to your check as an insight bonus. You can use this and other expertise abilities as long as you have at least 1 Resolve Point remaining. At 5th level, anytime you roll your expertise die, you gain a +1 bonus to the result. At 9th, 17th, and 20th levels, this bonus increases by 1. At 13th level, you roll 1d8 as your expertise die instead of 1d6.
Beginning at 9th level, you have even greater expertise with skills to which you can add your expertise die that you have also selected with the Skill Focus feat. For each such skill, once per day when rolling your expertise die to add to that skill, you may roll the expertise die twice and take the better of the two results.
SKILL EXPERTISE At 1st level and every 4 levels thereafter, you can use expertise with one additional class skill. You must have at least 1 rank in a skill to select it, and it must come from the following list: Bluff (Cha), Computers (Int), Culture (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disguise (Cha), Engineering (Int), Intimidate (Cha), and Medicine (Int).
1st Level - Bluff
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Ella cocks her head to one side, listening to the assertion of Golarion's existence. "An odd assertion. Sensor readings show quite the opposite. The planet vanished during the Gap. Trace amounts of neutrino and quantum fields are all that remain. If a planet was there, gravitational effects such as lensing and disruption of solar winds would be a dead giveaway. Not to mention Absolom Station would be consumed by it."
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6ix finds himself well at home among the Librarians, being an accountant by trade as he is. He tries to think of a manner in which he could convince them that they are in fact not in the real and actual world.
"Have you perhaps noticed that the passage of time is not what it should be for the given rotation of the planet? Do you ever consider that the day lasts longer than it should, and your diurnal rest period seems to last only a flicker?" He tries to go at it from an Astrophysics approach, speaking of celestial bodies and orbits. "You are yourselves trapped in a simulation! Your bodies are in stasis and you must return to them! If you do not leave shortly, you will be in grave danger!"
He tries to motivate them to action based on fear, rather than with kindness or subtlety.
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The Umbral Dawn addresses everyone as a realization dawns on him about the simulation.
"I recognize this bar. Its in Absalom Station. I think this whole simulation is pulled from places on Absalom.
The Lashunta heads towards the group of bikers. "This is a simulation, you fools. We're here to snap you out of your fantasy. If you ever want to ride an energycycle again, for real, you need to take a real hard look at reality you're in."
If I can get these guys riding on their cycles, they'll see that there is something off. I'm sure they can tell the difference between riding a bike for real and driving in a simulation.
He looks at one of the bikers in particular and challenges him. "You think I'm crazy, huh? Why don't you get on this bike and test it." He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a credit stick, slamming it on the table. "Here, its money. Go out and race. Whoever wins can have this."
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After talking to the different groups you can see their attitude starting to shift, but they aren't convinced of what you're saying yet. Still, doubt is growing within the trapped Starfinders.
- --- Picnic
- Zoicoluu (Life Science ✔) Bluff ✔
- --- Bikers
- Spanner (Engineering ✘)
- Umbral (Piloting ✘) Intimidate ✔
- --- Library
- Ella (Phys Science ✔)
- 6ix (Phys Science ✔) Intimidate ✔