Into the Void

Game Master Peet

Thuldas steps forward as a thin electric whine cuts through the air. With a sudden motion, he attempts to slap the ghoul with a burst of arcane energy.

Jolting Surge Attack vs. Ghoul's EAC: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (9) + 2 = 11
Jolting Surge Damage (E): 4d6 ⇒ (4, 6, 4, 2) = 16

"Stand still, ya absolute miscreant!"

Question, GM - if this attack roll misses, I get to attempt another roll next round without losing the spell. Would you like me to reroll damage with every attack or keep the first damage roll I make? This is an important question, as Thuldas really likes jolting surge.

Move closer and cast mind thrust on yellow thug. DC 14 Will save for half damage.

Will Save: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (19) + 0 = 19

The man staggers under the force of the spell, and he clutches his head as his nose begins to bleed. "Agh! Damn... psychics..."

Electricity arcs from Thudas' hand to the ghoul, and she gives out a shriek before collapsing in a smoking heap.

"Ah, Felgercarb!" curses the man on the gantry. "Macky! The skull is down!," he calls out to his friend in the vat to the southeast.

Would you like me to reroll damage with every attack ...

I think I'd prefer that you roll damage each time. If the to hit roll is below 10 or so you can be sure that the attack is probably a miss and you can skip rolling damage if you want. Don't need to this time though. :)

Stell uses the moment when no one is shooting at her to drink her serum of healing.

Healing: 1d8 ⇒ 5

The stuff seems to turn into mist and expand through her body, healing some of the wounds and soothing the pain.

Iolas runs around the catwalk and takes aim at the man.

Attack vs. EAC: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (10) + 3 = 13
Damage: 1d10 ⇒ 7

Uh, what happened to the ghoul? I can't see her on the map any more

Following assumes that the ghoul did not move and is still adjacent to me

"Ow. It hit me. IT HIT ME"

"Go down you crazy b&#*~. DIE!!!!!"

Wint loses it and swings at it wildly with his baton (full attack)
to hit: 1d20 + 4 - 4 ⇒ (18) + 4 - 4 = 18
to hit: 1d20 + 4 - 4 ⇒ (20) + 4 - 4 = 20

Wow, I should lose it more often!!
damage: 3d4 ⇒ (1, 1, 2) = 4

Uh, what happened to the ghoul? I can't see her on the map any more

Following assumes that the ghoul did not move and is still adjacent to me

Wint: Thuldas took down the ghoul. You can use those rolls for whatever else you want to do.

Electricity arcs from Thudas' hand to the ghoul, and she gives out a shriek before collapsing in a smoking heap.

Iolas runs around the catwalk and takes aim at the man.

Also, Iolas: from the position of your token the man still has partial cover. But you are able to move 40' which would allow you to get to position "X" (marked on the map in blue) if you want; the enemy has no cover from there.

Wint: If I don't hear from you by tomorrow I will just assume you are full-attacking yellow with your laser instead.

For those players too young to get the Felgercarb reference. I didn't watch that show but I remember some buzz about their invented profanities, some of which crept into slang usage among fans.

Full attacking yellow is fine with me

"Nicely done Thuldas!!!. That b~!$% HURT me. Undead. They make me shiver"

Stell sprays the serum into her mouth and feels her wounds start to heal.

Stell: the serum heals HP, not SP. Which is generally a good thing, since SP are easy to recover out of combat.

Wint Miss Chance 1: 1d5 - 1 ⇒ (1) - 1 = 0
Wint Miss Chance 2: 1d5 - 1 ⇒ (1) - 1 = 0 ...ouch.

Wint fires two shots at the man on the catwalk, but both shots get lost in the foliage. The man ducks back from the edge of the catwalk.

Iolas runs around the side catwalk and takes a shot, but the hooded man ducks back into the shelter of the obelisk.

The man on the catwalk takes a shot at Dawn which strikes her in the abdomen, piercing her armor. He then runs to the west, shifting to the south side of the catwalk.

Laser: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (17) + 3 = 201d4 ⇒ 4

Dawn: 4 damage.
Thuldas & Wint: You no longer have line-of-sight to yellow. You could regain it by moving north to the row of squares north of the obelisk.

The man in the southeast vat takes a shot at Iolas and then runs into the bushes.

Laser: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (5) + 3 = 8
Iolas: The man below no longer has cover but you do have a 50% miss chance to hit him since he is back in the bushes.

Round 5 Initiative:
Block 1: Iolas, Stell, Wint
Block 2: Bad Guys
Block 3: Dawn (-4), Thuldas (-5)

Round 6 Initiative:
Block 1: Iolas (-4), Stell (-7), Wint
Block 2: Yellow (-6), Blue (-3)
Block 3: Dawn, Thuldas

Everyone is up.

Iolas calls out, "Hey, ah, a little help over here?" He mutters to his AI to change the target, and then takes aim at the man in the foliage.

Attacker vs. EAC: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (9) + 4 = 13
Damage: 1d10 ⇒ 1

... and then takes aim at the man in the foliage.

Don't forget the 50% miss chance:

Miss Chance: 1d2 - 1 ⇒ (2) - 1 = 1

The shot penetrates the bushes and grazes the hooded figure.

"Agh! Devourer take you, moose-man!" he shouts from within the brush.

I wasn't sure if you wanted me to roll it or if you wanted to.

Dawn accepts the hit stoically, raising her laser pistol to fire two shots in retaliation.

Laser vs. Yellow Thug, Full Attack: 1d20 + 2 - 4 ⇒ (12) + 2 - 4 = 101d4 ⇒ 1
Laser vs. Yellow Thug, Full Attack: 1d20 + 2 - 4 ⇒ (16) + 2 - 4 = 141d4 ⇒ 4

Both of Dawn's shot strike the man while he is caught out in the open.

"Yoww!" he shouts. "Mackie!" he calls to his friend to the southeast. "Let's get gone!"

Round 5 Initiative:
Block 1: Iolas, Stell, Wint
Block 2: Bad Guys
Block 3: Dawn (-4), Thuldas (-5)

Round 6 Initiative:
Block 1: Stell (-7), Wint (-3), Iolas (-4)
Block 2: Yellow (-11), Blue (-4)
Block 3: Dawn, Thuldas

Stell, Wint, and Thuldas are up. Looks like Thuldas' icon has already moved though he hasn't posted yet.

Stell considers climbing the ladder to see if Dawn is okay, but when she sees the priestess zing one of the thugs with her laser, she decides to go help Iolas instead. She dashes back to a point where she has a relatively clear shot at the guy who burned her.

"Stay where you are or Moose and Girl will reunite you with your undead ghoulfriend!" she yells, pointing her gun at him.

Intimidate: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (11) + 7 = 18

Wint moves to where he can see Yellow and shoots
miss chance: 1d2 ⇒ 2
to hit: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (4) + 4 = 8
damage: 1d4 ⇒ 4

I forgot to add something:

If the guy does not surrender, Stell will shoot at him.

Looks like Thuldas' icon has already moved though he hasn't posted yet.

My bad, my post failed to go through and I didn't notice.

Noticing the shots exchanged overhead, Thuldas makes for the nearest ladder and starts climbing.

Two move actions shouldn't quite get me to the top, I think.

Stell calls out to the man to the south. He calls back,

"Hey, lady, I just want outta here. How about I just leave, and no more shooting, you or me. Whaddya say?"

Wint takes a shot at the man on the gantry as the man tries to flee...

Wint: You moved and passed behind cover, which qualifies you for a trick attack, which you didn't roll. Go ahead and roll that if you want; success could turn that into a hit.

Thuldas climbs the ladder until he can see above the gantry.

Thuldas: Climbing the ladder is DC 0 so unless your ACP is really bad you should make that on a natural 1. In Starfinder you ccan combine move types during a move. You moved 15 feet to the ladder, and that other 25 feet of movement gets you 12.5 feeu up the ladder. Not all the way but close enough that you can stay where you are and shoot targets on the upper level, and moving off the ladder will just be 5' of movement like normal.

The man on the gantry makes a run for the exit while the other hunkers down and waits for Stell to respond.

Round 6 Initiative:
Block 1: Iolas, Stell, Wint
Block 2: Yellow, Blue (-4, delaying)
Block 3: Dawn (-4), Thuldas (-5)

Round 7 Initiative:
Block 1: Stell (-7), Wint (-3), Iolas (-4)
Block 2: Yellow (-11), Blue (-4)
Block 3: Dawn, Thuldas

Everyone is up. Yellow could be down already if Wint makes a trick attack from last round and it works.

Iolas mutters indignantly, ”I’m not a moose. Gods.” He takes a shot at the man.

Attack vs. EAC: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (4) + 4 = 8
Damage: 1d10 ⇒ 4
Miss Chance: 1d2 ⇒ 1

Now I have the image of Wint & Iolas playing Rocky & Bullwinkle!

"Dammit! Fine then!" shouts the man as he returns fire at Iolas, grazing Iolas' arm.

laser: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (18) + 3 = 21
Miss chance: 1d5 - 1 ⇒ (2) - 1 = 1
laser damage: 1d4 ⇒ 1

Iolas: 1 damage.

When the man shoots, Stell shoots back, but her shot goes into the brush. The man darts through the bushes to the west.

Rejiggering initiative based on delayed and readied actions:

Round 7 Initiative:
Block 1: Iolas (-5)
Block 2: Blue (-4)
Block 3: Dawn (-4), Thuldas (-5), Stell (-7), Wint (-3)
Block 4: Yellow (-11)

Round 8 Initiative:
Block 1: Iolas (-5)
Block 2: Blue (-4)
Block 3: Dawn (-4), Thuldas (-5), Stell (-7), Wint (-3)
Block 4: Yellow (-11)

Dawn, Thuldas, & Wint are up.

NEver occurred to me that a 10 might hit :-)
stealth: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (9) + 12 = 21
For an additional damage: 1d4 ⇒ 1e

"Lets just let them go if they're trying to run away"

Wint would then delay, coming out of delay only if one of them shot at us

NEver occurred to me that a 10 might hit :-)

For a creature of CR less than 1, EAC is normally 9 or 10.

Wint's shot strikes the man on the catwalk, and he drops with a scream.

That was a completion of your last action so you still have an action this round.

Round 7 Initiative:
Block 1: Iolas (-5)
Block 2: Blue (-4)
Block 3: Dawn (-4), Thuldas (-5), Stell (-7), Wint (-3)

Round 8 Initiative:
Block 1: Iolas (-5)
Block 2: Blue (-4)
Block 3: Dawn (-4), Thuldas (-5), Stell (-7), Wint (-3)

Dawn, Thuldas, & Wint are up.

Seeing that the fight is nearing an end, Thuldas moves across the catwalk towards the remaining sounds of commotion and unlimbers a curious starknife from its holster. The blades, heavy and square, are etched with old dwarvish runes, which contrast with the natural patina of the metal to create a striking effect.

Move action and drawing a weapon.

Dawn moves closer to Thuldas, peering down at the man beneath the catwalk. "Let there be no further bloodshed. Leave this place at once!" she calls, holding her pistol at the ready in case he refuses to relent.

Move and ready an attack to shoot the man if he attacks somebody.

"Let there be no further bloodshed. Leave this place at once!" she calls, holding her pistol at the ready in case he refuses to relent.

"Okay, okay!" the hooded man calls out. "I'm putting my gun away, and comin' out real nice. I just want out of here!"

The man holsters his laser pistol and slowly heads to the exit. Once he is up on the gantry, he runs down the hallway.

"Halt! You can't just try to kill us and then rocket away. Who are you working for? What were you doing here!"

Stell amps her voice up, hoping to scare him into talking.

Intimidate, voice amplifier: 1d20 + 7 + 2 ⇒ (20) + 7 + 2 = 29

Oops! Ninja'd!

"Fine! Fine! We were workin' for that Eoxian over there. But you dusted her so I'm out of a job now I guess, and there's no creds in sticking around. She wanted us as 'backup.' Supposed to be bodyguards, which was chill. But then we get here and she says we gotta start digging up skulls! Do I look like a landscaper to you?"

He shakes his head.

"At first it was a pain, until we realized the monuments told you where folks had been buried. Then it was easier. They were buried pretty shallow."

"We got a few already but she kept saying 'more more!' Then you showed up."

"Can I go now?"

"First give us the money you got paid for the job. THEN you can go"

The hooded man gives Wint a cold glare for a few moments.

Then, slowly he reaches into a pocket and pulls out a black credstick. He tosses it on the ground not far from Wint.

"Is that it?"

Mysticism check: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (3) + 6 = 9

First a creepy mortician, and now a creepy ghoul diggin' up th' dead. Am I gonna get used t' this, or do I just resign m'self to a permanent case o' the heebie jeebies?

Thuldas holds his starknife at the ready, attempting to protect himself and his compatriots from any funny business.

Readying an action to attack with the returning starknife if this merc attempts any obviously violent action towards Thuldas or another Starfinder.

Mysticism: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (12) + 8 = 20

Dawn holsters her pistol as the mercenary flees. "It is possible this ghoul was trying to harvest body parts to incorporate them into a device or possibly a starship. Gruesome as it may be, Eoxian sometimes use humanoid remains in their technology. Let us search the creature's remains to see if we can discover what her purpose here was, and if she has the missing Starfinder insignias on her."

Saying that, the android puts words into action, climbing down to investigate the fallen ghoul.

The man slowly heads towards the exit until he is past everyone and up on the gantry. Once he has a clear line of retreat, he runs out the exit.

The group looks over the remains of the dead men and the destroyed ghoul.

The men and the ghoul are each wearing Flight Suit Stationwear armor. The armor is somewhat damaged by the combat but still usable.

Each of the men also had a laser pistol, an assault hammer, and a black certified credstick. Each of the credsticks (including the one surrendered by the hooded man) has 200 credits on it. They also have a few odds and ends of little value, like house keys, cigarettes, etc. None of them carries any actual identification.

The ghoul also has a laser pistol, though clearly she did not need a melee weapon. She has a half-dozen similar credsticks, but none of them have any funds on them. Finally, she has a datapad. The datapad seems to be encrypted.

You may attempt to hack the Datapad. This is a DC 18 computers check.

The hooded man gives Wint a cold glare for a few moments.

Then, slowly he reaches into a pocket and pulls out a black credstick. He tosses it on the ground not far from Wint.

"Is that it?"

Stell holsters her pistol, turns off her voice amplifier, and says sweetly, "Have a nice day."

Stell then joins the effort to find clues.

Culture: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (2) + 6 = 8
Computers to identify datapad: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (14) + 5 = 19
Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (10) + 4 = 14

"Sweet datapad," she says, handing it to Iolas. "It's miniaturized and has a security unit. I'll bet it has some useful intel, but I'll let you net-heads work on that."

She picks up one laser pistol and a hammer, for her own use, and gathers the credsticks into a pile.

culture: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5
perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (7) + 5 = 12

Sigh

"Way to go everybody. We WON!!!!!!!! And nobody got seriously hurt. YAY US!!"

Computers to Hack: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (2) + 5 = 7

Dawn pokes at the datapad for a few minutes before shaking her head. "I cannot get past the encryption. Thuldas, perhaps you would like to make an attempt?"

Culture check: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (15) + 4 = 19

Thuldas turns over one of the cred sticks in his hand, letting out a slow whistle.

"These ain't no AbadarCorp credsticks. See this glossy black finish? Jus' fancy enough t' look pretentious, but smudged up th' moment y' touch it wi' your dirty fleshy fingers? I'd wager creds against crap that these sticks are originally Eoxian." Thuldas looks down at the expired ghoul. "Although t' be fair, I don't think I'm bettin' against th' house 'ere."

"I cannot get past the encryption. Thuldas, perhaps you would like to make an attempt?"

"Hmm, I'll give it a shot." Spinning up an arcane brute-force algorithm, Thuldas spins arcane login attempts into the datapad, forcing thousands of commands directly into the machine. After a few moments, he grunts. "I'm in! Looks like..."

Computers check to Hack System: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (1) + 7 = 8

"A letter from m' ma?" Thuldas turns over the datapad to reveal his own computer, build around the hand holding the ghoul's pad, unlocked and displaying all of the dwarf's encrypted files. "Aw, Shob-wipe!" He turns and hands the datapad to Iolas. "Here, big guy. You give it a shot. I hope we haven't nuked it yet."

Perception check: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (9) + 2 = 11

Iolas takes the datapad and begins trying to hack it. He mutters to himself, ”Assist-o-tron, get that password cracker up. Hm, encryption isn’t bad. Looks like there’s a heat sensor on there too. Just gotta override that and...ah, there we go.” He begins looking through the now decrypted files, trying to find why the ghoul was here.

Computers: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (15) + 7 = 22
Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (10) + 4 = 14

Iolas manages to hack through the encryption. Fortunately, the datapad's wipe feature has been disabled; otherwise previous attempts would have deleted its contents.

Iolas is able to learn a number of things:

• The ghoul's name was Exegara Long-Tongue and she was the first officer aboard a freighter called Endless Threnody.
  
• Endless Threnody discovered a wrecked starship and salvaged a variety of things from it. Where this occurred is not shown.
  
• Shortly afterwards as it tried to leave for the drift, Endless Threnody was attacked by a pirate vessel they identified as the Lawblight. The Endless Threnody took heavy damage but managed to escape.
  
• Endless Threnody is now trapped in the drift, unable to leave due to damage. Her current coordinates are listed.
  
• Exegara was assigned to take a shuttle back to Absalom Station to scavenge parts to repair the ship's control systems. She was given items from the wreckage of the crashed ship to sell if she needed funds. Since Endless Threnody is an Eoxian ship, the "parts" she needed were humanoid skulls. She was to return to the Endless Threnody after obtaining them.
  

Everyone jumps as a metallic clang sounds. Turning to face the noise they see the cover of a ventilation duct has popped off and fallen to the floor, and a young Ysoki is climbing out.

He looks over the group. "They gone? Oooh, those jerks, look what they did to the garden! What a mess! This will take hours to clean up!"

"Who are you guys, anyway? None of you are undead, are you?"

Iolas turns to the ysoki and says, "Well, I'd certainly hope not. We're, ah, we're Starfinders. Name's Iolas." He extends a large hand to the ysoki.

"Can I help you clean up the garden?"

"Can I help you clean up the garden?"

Of course Wint would offer to do that! :)

"Uh... okay..." the young Ysoki stares at Wint for several seconds. Clearly he has never seen a Skittermander before.

"Well, that's good, 'cause they say many hands make light work. Get it?? MANY HANDS MAKE LIGHT WORK!!! Hee hee hee hee heeeee..." the Ysoki falls to the ground, rolling around, slapping the ground, and giggling. Eventually he gets up again. "ah, I kill me," he says, rubbing tears out of his eyes.

"I suppose I should call my folks and make sure they're okay. They had to run off when those guys barged in here and took the shovels. I hid in there," he points at the ventilation duct.

"So you're Starfinders, huh? Yeah, that's cool. Must be wiz flying spaceships around and stuff. They call me Scav, by the way."

He activates his comm and speaks for a few moments to someone you imagine is his mother. Soon the call is over and he comes back to Wint. "Okay, so the bones are usually scanable, and you can go over to the touch screen on the memorial marker to see who it was and where they were buried. Scanning the bones is kind of backwards but you can still do it through this menu... So let's see... this was Halina Shanur, An old Ryphorian lady. She was buried in the Vercite Azaleas over there. Yeah, I've seen her family a couple times. So over here..."

Not long after Wint and Scav begin working, a group of half a dozen Ysoki come in, three children and three adults. One of the adults comes over to the group. "You must be the Starfinders Scav told me about. Thank you so much! We didn't know what to do when those... people came. With guns even! Nobody ever bothered us like that before. Digging up the dead... it's not right!"

"Now I don't have a lot of money I could give you, but there's something special here in the garden I could give you." She goes over to the Castrovel section and digs up a few odd-looking things with a small shovel.

"Here! These Samariax bulbs are from the Ikal expanse." she starts brushing the dirt off them. "If you chew them, the liquid gives your endocrine system a boost and you'll find it helps you resist poisons for a while. That should be useful for Starfinders, right? Here, there's enough for one for each of you."

The plant bulbs function like a tier-1 antitoxin.

Stell listens intently as Iolas reads out the information, nodding as she connects dots to the group's assignment. "Sounds like we can locate the ship that seems to have attacked the Unbounded Wayfarer. If we can get a ship to this Eoxian freighter, we might be able to determine if they got the Starfinder emblems from our lost ship and if so where."

If no one else has done so, she'll collect the cred sticks from the fallen as well as their weapons, if they have enough resale value to make it worth the trouble to sell them.

Stell laughs at the joke told by Scav and does what she can to help. "I don't know if these dead guys deserve such a nice resting place. Do you want us to contact anyone to have them hauled away? If you want to report this to the authorities, we can stick around and give a statement about what happened."

While Wint assists with the graden repair, Thuldas wanders through the garden, quickly snapping pics of the vibrantly varied flora.

"Now I don't have a lot of money I could give you, but there's something special here in the garden I could give you."

"Thank you! We really appriciate it," Thuldas responds with a broad smile, "and I'm so sorry that these miscreants elected t' bust into your domain like this. What ya got here is just so beautiful - I hope we didn't make too much of a mess o' your gardens."

Gently bringing a branch closer to his face, the dwarf inhales deeply. "I've never smelled an'thin' like it. Elvesfoot? M' Pa had a book o' Castrovellian flowers. He always aspired t' bein' a gardener, but there ain't much that grows in Akitonian dust."

He begins looking through the now decrypted files, trying to find why the ghoul was here.

"An'thin' interestin' on the 'pad? We should probably send th' files to the Venture-Captain posthaste, see what he says. Although, if y' don't mind, I think I'd like to take a minute to enjoy these flowers some more."

Thuldas would like to take 10 minutes to spend a Resolve Point and regain stamina, if the group is alright with that.

Stell too would like to rest before hitting the streets again. She thanks the gardeners for their gift and wraps it in some foil and puts it in a small pocket on her Second Skin suit.