Seeing the return fire he pulled out his pistol and turned around the corner and took a shot at the thug (red). "Time to move flesh bag... your time here has expired..."
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Holographic targeting data displays across the inside of Hawthorne's eye as Sophia locks onto the gangster.
You need better cover.
"I know.
Hawthorne aims down the sights and fires his pulsecaster rifle at the targeted gangster, the one who had killed his colleague.
Move: Combat Tracking vs. Blue
Standard: Attack vs. Blue
Zeyram hits Blue! Simagus hits Red! Cadence misses because of cover! Big Jim mounts his bike, ready for action! Sophia helps Hawthorne target and hit Blue!
★ ---- ★ ---- ★ ---- ★
Round 2
Active conditions: None
Gang Members:
Blue (-5)
Sky (-2)
Green
Orange (-4)
Red (-5)
Pink
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Zeyram (-4 sp)
Big Jim
Hawthorne (-2 sp)
Simagus
Cadence
Xyklik
Xyklik shoots Orange, and offers extra AC to Hawthorne!
★ ---- ★ ---- ★ ---- ★
Blue aims at Hawthorne and just barely hits!
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Sky, Green, Orange and Red all shoot wildly! No one knows what they’re shooting at now! Shots ping off walls, crates and the ceiling.
___
Pink aims at Blue and hits Blue’s shooting hand!
Blue yells, ”Aagh! My hand!” and switches the laser to his other hand.
★ ---- ★ ---- ★ ---- ★
Round 3
Active conditions: None
Gang Members:
Blue (-6)
Sky (-2)
Green
Orange (-6)
Red (-5)
Pink
================================
Zeyram (-4 sp)
Big Jim
Hawthorne (-4 sp)
Simagus
Cadence
Xyklik
Zeyram double-moves, trapping Blue. Hawthorne drops prone and shoots Blue. Cadence super-charges Jim’s weapon.
Xklik bodyguards Hawthorne, but continues fighting the other gang and shoots Orange.
★ ---- ★ ---- ★ ---- ★
Round 3
Active conditions: None
Gang Members:
Blue (-6, -2NL)
Sky (-2)
Green
Orange (-8)
Red (-5)
Pink
================================
Zeyram (-4 sp)
Big Jim (supercharged weapon +4d6)
Hawthorne (-4 sp, +4 AC from prone, +2AC from bodyguard)
Simagus
Cadence
Xyklik
There is now a smoking hole where Blue was! The Ysoki kids yell, “It’s BIG JIM! It’s BIG JIM!”
You see the other gang members look nervously at each other. ”Big Jim? He’s HERE?”
★ ---- ★ ---- ★ ---- ★
Round 3
Active conditions: None
Gang Members:
Blue (SPLAT)
Sky (-2)
Green
Orange (-8)
Red (-5)
Pink
================================
Zeyram (-4 sp)
Big Jim
Hawthorne (-4 sp, +4 AC from prone, +2AC from bodyguard)
Simagus
Cadence
Xyklik
Click. Whirr.
Simagus shoots the wall very bravely.
And then like that... There are sounds of alarms and loud sirens! All the remaining gang members react, as if listening to similar com channels. ”Security! Scram!” The fight forgotten, they run in opposite directions.
★ ---- ★ ---- ★ ---- ★
I’ll give you all one last round to either shoot them or chase them down. What do you want to do?
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When Big Jim shot blue, Zeyram tried to avoid most of the blood splatter. Fortunately the blast came from the side. No chance of questioning that one!
Seeing the rest of them fleeing, Zeyram sheathes his knife and goes over to check on the Ysoki family. Leaning down, he asks “Are any of you hurt?” He maintains a calm and reassuring manner as he does this and moves Kreel’s dead body so the laser burn isn’t as obvious to the children.
Overall, he wants to assure them that it is safe now — especially the young ones.
”We’re okay, Pops was crushing us. Is the old guy sick?” One of the Ysoki kids is trying to touch Duravor, hoping for a response. ”He’s not moving...”
Meanwhile ‘Pops’ is shaking your hand. ”I don’t know what we’d have done if you guys and the dwarf hadn’t helped us...” Then he looks down at the dwarf. ”Oh no,” he says, tail drooping. ”That poor, poor old man...”
The littlest one is still sniffling, but wipes the tears away. ”Can we meet Big Jim?”
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Zeyram looks at the child trying to get Kreel to respond. What do I tell him? I'm no good at lying. I wonder if there is some phrase their folk use to reassure children? After a short pause, he tells the child "He isn't in any pain, but can't respond right now." He quickly glances at the elder Ysoki for his reaction. I hope that was appropriate!
Then he focuses on the child who asked about Big Jim and says "Let's ask him!" Looking to the other children, he asks "Do the rest of you want to meet Big Jim and Buster?" That will help distract them!
As he is talking to the family, he discreetly holsters his weapons.
Looking to Pops for confirmation that this is alright, he then moves a short distance from the body and waves to get Big Jim's attention. ""
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The vesk looks saddened for a moment, but puts the gun away quickly and puts on a brave face for the kids - "Hey kids, come meet Buster and check out all the tools, we need to make space for the emergency guys to come and do their thing - yeah look this way...an arc welder!"
With the kids distracted he looks concerned back over to the body of his friend "This is supposed to be a family-friendly show, what happened old buddy?" he asks himself quietly. Buster takes over and does what droids do in entertaining the children "Yeah good idea, Buster will take you for a ride around the hangar!"
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Is Xyklik trying to scare the kids? I hope not!
Zeyram shoots Xyklik a glare, then quickly goes back to the children. He helps herd the kids in the direction Big Jim indicated.
"Now listen carefully to Big Jim. He is a professional and knows Buster better than anyone!" This would be so much easier if I had ever watched his programs. Guess I'll just take my cues from him and try to keep the children's attention off Kreel.
The dodgy gangster doesn’t let a bit of grease slow him down...
Meanwhile the kids are delighted to ride around on Buster! Their Dad, who appears to be some sort of mechanic, pulls halters and and straps out of his cheek pouches and straps them in. Then Buster goes into gear, and the kids all say, “Wheeeee!” as they ride around the hangar.
Meanwhile, the pragmatic Xyklik goes through the old dwarf’s pockets. He finds a wrench, a data tablet, a credstick with small change on it, a bunch of plastic corks and a bottle opener.
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Hawthorne stands and slings his rifle over his shoulder as the gangsters flee in every direction. The LED on the side of his datajack deactivates.
"It's a shame we couldn't catch one," he says. "Good effort, though--Cade, was it? Are we waiting for the authorities?"
Looking toward the dead Pathfinder and Xyklik's findings, he offers, "Let me see what we can get off of Kreel's datapad before then."
His datajack LED turns blue as Sophia reaches out to infiltrate the small computer.
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”Slippery little shits.” Cade stops visibly fuming and sags a little, all the anger leaking out like a deflated balloon. ”Yeah, Cade.”
He walks over to the dead ganger’s body and stands over it, looking down at the mess, ”Iomedae’s eyes! He’s just some scrawny kid.”
He looks like how Danby Remo looked when he was in school. He’s a dentist now. Damn, kid, shoulda been a dentist.
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As the kids go roaring away on Buster, Zeyram says “We need to take Kreel’s body to The Lorespire. The Starfinder Society would want to hear of this.”
Looking at Pops, he says “Kreel was always looking out for others. Honor his sacrifice, but do not be sad. It is the way he choose.”
At Hawthorne’s comment about catching the gang members, Zeyram Waves towards the shuttle. “I was in such a hurry to help, I don’t think I shut off the external cameras. Something there may help us find the villains.”
The datapad oddly doesn’t have much. There are files on each of you, of course. Nothing creepy, just news bits and email exchanges with all of you, including room vouchers for you at some place called the ‘Moons of Sleep.’
There’s lots of notes of back and forth email exchanges with a group called the Hard Scabble Collective, but most of these seem to be friendly updates with family and friends. There’s messages from all sorts of people, from all over... Some of them seem to be updates from kids that he’d helped out of the gangs, who have now moved on to other things. They talk about school, or what they’re doing with jobs, or children, or other things.
There’s a complete run of Big Jim’s show.
There’s a page with assorted notes that ends with:
Hardscabble... Acreon... Must tell Chiskisk.
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Meanwhile, the sirens die down and Absalom Security show up. “Everyone, please stay where you are. We need to interview everyone.” Some Shirrens and a Kasatha in medical gear rush to take care of the wounded, and the Security Staff slowly saunter up to your armed group.
“Mind telling us what’s happened here?”
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Pointing to the shuttle, Zeyram says “I had just landed in the shuttle and we were disembarking when several humans started shooting.”
Pointing to the corpse of Blue, he says “That one shot and killed my boss, Duravor Steelhand Kreel.” He points a different hand at Kreel’s dead body. “He is a member of the Starfinder Society in The Lorespire and has a reputation for helping people. He had stepped in front of the laser fire that otherwise might have killed this family.” pointing with his third hand towards Pops and the forth hand towards the kids riding on Buster.
“Several more shots were fired, and most of the humans causing the problem fled when the sirens went off.” Shaking his first hand which was still pointing at Blue, he adds “Except that one, who was no longer able.”
“Sorry we weren’t able to capture any of the villains, sir.”
After making sure that the officer knew what he was pointing at, Zeyram folds his hands in front of himself.
Pops speaks up in your defense as well. "They're telling the truth, sir. I'm Sprocket, one of the engineers on Dock 94, and today's 'Take Your Pups to Work' day. There's my kids... Axle, Gavelock, and Parbuckle. If that poor kind dwarf hadn't defended us.." He trails off, looking sadly at Kreel's body.
Other folks on the docks, including some of the wounded, rush to corroborate the story, though a couple of the star struck mention things that never happened, including a bit about Big Jim single-handedly leaping over crates while driving Buster as he ran over gang members. Others talk about the rest of you. Cadence's magical spells and Xyklik's deadly accuracy are mentioned, but in an expanded fashion which had Cadence was throwing around pyrotechnic spells and Xyklik shooting four gang members with a single shot. "The guy in the white and red shirt was really brave," pointing at Hawthorne, "and took a lot of fire! And that Kasatha cornered a gang member while armed only with a knife!"
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
The Security folks raise their eyebrows as the tales come forward. One of them sighs in exasperation. "This is going to be one of those cases, isn't it, Ed?"
Meanwhile, 'Ed' a beat-up looking Korasha Lashunta, nods wearily while looking at Blue's corpse. "That's Azul, the main clipper of the Downside Kings. We're way outside their territory. What were they doing here? Did anyone get a close look at the gang colors of the other gang?"
"I could see it was two gangs straight away, was too late to do anything, not that you can at a time like that, I'm just a regular guy who fixes broken widgets and provides family-friendly entertainment, but yeah I saw they were two gangs, here I'll jot down what I think I saw"
“His name is Steelhand? Hmmm.... I can see why.” The Kasatha medic, a graceful female, has been multi-tasking her examination of Duravor’s corpse. One hand taking pictures, while others gently examine the corpse and take measurements. “His left hand looks so realistic. One would never know it’s bioware without close examination.”
“As for whether you can take him, I don’t see why not.” Although her face is mostly covered by the traditional scarf, the eyes are expressive. They look at you with great sympathy. “The cause of death is obvious. I’ve taken my measurements and we even have the murder weapon.”
Then she gently taps Kreel’s Starfinder Insignia, eyes sad. “Besides, I had a cousin in the Society. I know he would have wanted his team to bring his body home if he could.”
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Meanwhile, Ed listens to Big Jim’s description of the other gang and raises his antennae, queryingly. “The Level 21 Crew. Interesting...” He turns to all of you. “Do you know where you will be staying? I’d like to have contact information for all of you if we have further questions.”
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Sophia downloads the room vouchers (and then remotely transfers them to their companions' datapads that doesn't have significant encryption, pinging each of them in turn), the page of notes, and any episodes of Jim's Jams that she hasn't watched.
Hawthorne steps over to the investigator slowly. "We'll be staying at the Moons of Sleep," he announces for the others. "Steelhand had it arranged already."
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Zeyram asks the medical examiner for a body bag for Kreel’s corpse. He then packs the body and belongings.
He is surprised when Hawthorne announces where they will be staying. He had rooms reserved for us, What did he have planned, and why couldn’t he talk about it?
“We need to go to The Lorespire first.” Zeyram says as he hefts the bodybag up on his shoulder.
With Steelhand Kreel’s body in tow, you make your sad journey to the Lorespire.
The ring segment known as Drifter's End is one of the most diverse and raucous parts of Absalom Station. The district caters to alien ambassadors from newly discovered worlds, explorers, long-haul cargo crews, and spacefaring vagabonds of all sorts. Housing is cheap and temporary, bars are noisy and full of stories, and patrons looking to hire experienced scouts and first-contact specialists clog notorious “Drifter” hangouts such as the Hard Burn, Kristoff's, and the Last Good Run.
Finally, you reach the cluster of buildings that house the Lorespire Complex, a campus that includes not only the soaring Lorespire, but research facilities, libraries and the famous Hall of Discovery. A holographic woman shimmers into view. “Greetings, visitors. I am Guidance. How may I direct you?”
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"Hello Guidance. I hope you're doing well today," Hawthorne says as he approaches the holographic AI with a penchant for archaic explorer captains. "Sad and grisly question: does the Society have a morgue and, if so, where is it? Also, could you direct us to Duravor Kreel's venture-captain? Thank you."
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"Yeah, not the best meetin' I have to say, there was an incident and it involved a fatality. I don't think the episode I came for is going ahead, there won't be the 'at-risk youth being given a chance' story I thought I was coming here to shoot" Jim seems a bit morose still about the whole incident.
"Guidance, you got any idea what Kreel was up to of late?"
The Android followed the rest of the party silently after having said a small prayer for Steelhand. When arriving at Guidance he looked at her with mild interest. "Greetings Guidance..." He let the rest do the talking seeing as they were the more, social ones.
"Oh, that is terrible news. Another loss, and so soon after Soured Scars." The hologram looks contemplative for a moment, and then responds. "Yes, we do have an agent on file named Chiskisk. He and Steelhand were often partners. All that I had on file for Steelhand's current projects was a training program for new Starfinders..." She scans your faces, and then nods. "...And here you are. Still Steelhand was not always forthcoming about his projects, even with me. He may have also been working on another project of his own."
The hologram turns.
"We have so many things to arrange now... A funeral, amongst other things." Several cleaning bots arrive to pickup Steelhand's body. "If you don't mind, I will put his remains in cold storage until we can arrange something more formal." Then she points to another bot. "This bot will escort you to Ckiskisk now."
Guidance pauses. "Though more empathic than most programs, I'm not very good at breaking bad news. Do you want to tell Chiskisk what happened to Steelhand Kreel, or should I?"
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Not having anything to add, Xyklik spends his time flipping the setting on his laser rifle--kill to stun to kill to stun--and letting the simple choices flood his receptors with contentment.
So this is where the Society lairs...
When Guidance replies, he says suddenly, " We were there. We should be the creatures to tell this Chiskisk what Kreel's last moments were."
-Posted with Wayfinder
Click. Whirr.
The bot assigned to escort you moves sullenly forward.
I'm a state of the art personality emulation bot, suitable for both diplomatic negotiations and high stakes combat. And what am I doing? Scutwork and tour duty. No, don't mind me. I of course have nothing better to do.
Bot Buddy rolls through the hallways without even waiting to see if you are following. Look, here is an empty hallway. Followed by another empty hall. Oh, there's someone walking in this one, but they're going in the other direction so don't mind them. Bot Buddy gestures at a Lashunta walking off in the distance. Over in this wing are research labs and combat training facilities, but we're not going there. Oh, here's a maintenance closet. That's where I spend the majority of my time. Not that you care.
He keeps rolling forward, keeping you all at a fast walk.
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On the trip over to The Lorespire Complex, Zeyram checks his communicator. Looking over to Hawthorne, he says "No idea. Have you checked the infosphere yet?"
When they arrive at the complex, Zeyram is intrigued by Guidance. Is this a full AI or just an emulator? I'm really not sure. If it is just an artificial personality, it is quite good.
When they come out, Zeyram hands the body bag over to the cleaning bots.
He nods agreement with Xyklik. "Yes, we saw what happened. We should be the ones to tell Chiskisk."
Looking to Guidance, he asks "Could you please show us an image of Chiskisk, so there is no confusion?"
I don't recall Kreel mentioning this Chiskisk, but I suppose that shouldn't be a surprise. I wonder what Guidance meant about training new recruits? Was he recruiting some of the people he worked with on the docks?