Jimbles' Dead Suns

Game Master Jimbles the Mediocre

Aureum stops abruptly, a little suspicious at the ease of access, but doesn't comment on it just yet. She draws her laser pistol with her free hand, and nods in agreement at Entiren's suggestion.

"I can try to get the lights back on from here, too," she adds, feeling apprehensive about roaming around a mysterious ship in the dark.

Seeing Aureum with a flashlight, Diedre makes a mental connection and she's glad no one can see her flush of embarrassment through her enviro-hood.

"Yeah, lights," she says in a tight voice. "That would be good. Let's turn those on."

Aureum glances down at Diedre, noting the tightness in her voice, and then around at the others. "I'll see if I can find the controls," she replies.

She takes a small, cautious step out of the airlock and sweeps the beam of light over the engineering room, looking for power and environmental controls.

Jehir steps out into the corridor. He scans the area in either direction.

"I don't need light," Jehir says. "But I don't see any threats here."

Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (16) + 6 = 22

"Nevertheless," he says, and he reaches up and grips his solar mote. The black smoke squeezes out from between his fingers and runs down his arm, covering his torso and limbs.

Activating Solar Armor, FWIW.

"However, we may as well look around this room while we are here."

Entiren and Jehir scan the room, and find no immediate dangers. They do, however, immediately notice that the floor is littered with a lustrous metallic shrapnel of some kind that seems out of place on the grimy mining transport.

The workbenches hold more typical materials for the engineering bay of a starship - Entiren is able to collect some spare UPBs, while Jehir finds a pair of arc pistols lying under a work station, their batteries near depleted.

You gain 450 UPBs and 2 static arc pistols, one with 6 charges remaining and another with 8.

"I can try to get the lights back on from here, too," she adds, feeling apprehensive about roaming around a mysterious ship in the dark.

To her dismay, Aureum finds that the lights and atmosphere are controlled globally, and the master switch is not located in the engineering bay. She could probably jury-rig a solution on a room-by-room basis, but that would like time.

Jury-rigging lighting for a single room is a DC 16 Engineering check that takes 10 minutes.

As Aureum attempts to activate the lighting, Diedre steps close.

"I think we should move on," Diedre says.

Lauren lowers herself to the floor as she enters the engineering bay, closing the door to the airlock behind her ((if she's the last one in)). She bends down and looks over the metallic shrapnel.

Life Sciences: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (13) + 7 = 20

Success

Lauren calls out to everyone on the comms. "Peoples... I don't know word for this. It's a star metal." She fumbles on her comm unit for a second, "Noqual. It come from space animal that is very dangerous. My people call them ရေဘဝဲသည်ခြင်္သေ့. I'm not sure word in your language. We encounter only recently. They have four legs and eat people. This is from egg."

"We should be prepared for attack."

With that, she grabs her laser rifle and scans the room.

Perception: 1d20 ⇒ 11

Just a quick post to note a few things for Miraj in case he must be 'Botted. He has a spotlight in the sheath of his sword cane, which illuminates in a 100-foot cone. He won't shine it down a hall or into a room until those with darkvision can make a first check, so we don't give away our presence too early, but otherwise, he'll shine the spotlight wherever light is needed. He will use his semi-auto pistol (Alice) in battle unless something indicates a laser pistol might work better (such as long range or such). He can draw Alice as a swift action using his Quick Release Sheath (armor upgrade). This laser is in a conventional holster requiring a move action to draw. Otherwise, follow 'Bot instructions on his profile page at the top.

Note on his profile under OFFENSE, there is a spoiler with the attack rolls typed out so they can be copied and pasted as needed.

Life Science: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (5) + 3 = 8

Aureum, focused on the engineering equipment, takes little notice of the metallic shards. ”Hm. The power and atmosphere aren’t controlled from here,” she reports to the others. ”I could probably get the lights on room-to-room, but it’ll take a few minutes; maybe we should just move on.”

Lauren scans the engineering bay, but she doesn't notice any immediate threats lurking under darkened workbenches or idly blinking consoles. As the camera drone flits silently above their heads, it becomes evident that the mystery of the Acreon will not be solved in this room.

Two doors, locked open, lead forward to the power core.

"Let's move on," Diedre says, indicating the door to the left with her sidearm.

Lauren proceeds to the door to the left. She examines the door, double checking that it won't blow up in her face.

Perception: 1d20 ⇒ 9

I doubt she'll notice anything, so...

She will then attempt to open it, using her engineering skills, if needed.

Engineering: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (3) + 7 = 10

Assuming it opens...

As the door opens, she looks inside.

Perception: 1d20 ⇒ 9

Sorry for all the dice rolls at once, I'm not sure which would be necessary and figured it would be easier to just roll them all at once as I described what she did.

While others survey the area, Miraj asks, "Lauren, other than having four legs und eating people, what is known of these whatever you called them? Where do they come from? Vill they die in an airless environment like this? Are they big und scary or small und swarmy? As for this star metal, it sounds like it is valuable, but is it dangerous, maybe radioactive?"

As he says this, he glances as his radiation badge.

Once Lauren has answered, he looks at the egg fragments and kicks one of them. "So one likely scenario is they found these eggs und gathered zem for study, one of them hatched und zee rest is.a bad Tri-D movie."

Miraj does have a radiation badge on, so if any dangerous radiation is encountered, it should give warning.

GM: Is the internal gravity of the ship active?

Jehir looks around.

"I don't see any damage from rampaging creatures, so I assume that whatever they are they are small enough to fit through these doors."

Before Lauren opens the door, jehir stops him.

"Wait! There could be one of those things behind the door! Let me get into position first."

Jehir stands to one side of the door, ready to swing his doshko at anything that might be on the other side.

Basically I want to ready an attack in case there is something hostile on the other side of the door. I propose that this should be SOP while exploring this ship. I assume that photon mode will not apply for this attack, but if it does add 1 damage.

readied attack (if necessary): 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (9) + 4 = 13
doshko damage: 1d12 + 3 ⇒ (9) + 3 = 12

reminder that, according to Jimbles' post, the doors are locked in the open position

Diedre follows up behind everyone with her pistol readied.

"Now I wish I wasn't such of fan of Tri-Dee horror. It really opens up the possibilities, ya know?"

Lauren is happy to allow Jehir to take point, and with obvious relief in her body language, steps out of his way and into a position where she can provide him with covering fire if needed.

Over the comms, she responds to Miraj's questions as best she can. "My people only found them on asteroid in belt near our planet. They is people sized and flesh eaters. I don't think they breathe. I sorry. I not know much else about them." She fumbles on her comm unit again, "Ah... new word! Is not radioactives but is valuable, yes."

"So what do these things look like?" Diedre asks, her voice a mix of nervousness and excitement. "I'm sure we're going to see one soon, but right now my imagination is generating all these nightmare mish-mashes."

She streches up to see over the others and try to catch a glimpse through the open door.

"Did you ever see Fatal Vacuum? It was kinda like this. There were these creatures that were created from a mix of ionized silver and a bio experiment. Really cool looking. Although they needed a better render farm to generate the final images. But the premise worked."

She frowns for a moment.

"On second thought, forget about that one. Everyone died at the end. Not sure why I brought it up."

Entiren will keep his laser rifle at the ready as he moves through the room. Spotting the UPBs, he will quickly scoop them into his backpack, not wanting to potentially lose them or forget where they were. He then returns his grip on his weapon as he returns the pack to his back. Listening to the conversation about the shards on the floor and the creatures that emerged from them, he says "Well, whatever they look like, they sound like they are fairly dangerous. We should be careful as we proceed. I would say to keep your ears open, but... you know... theres no sounds in a vacuum." Rolling his eyes at his own attempt at humor, he hopes that it has helped to relieve some of the worries of the others. Seeing the group heading towards the left door, he will move up and be ready to provide covering fire to anyone who needs it.

@ Jehir I believe that the artificial gravity is functional, as that was the reason that GM Jimbles gave for Entiren not being able to utilize his space-only flight.

"I do not think I vill ever be able to vatch a Tri-D about space explorers again. After this, it vill seem tame or lame."

Miraj takes up a position along the back bulkhead, draws Alice and holds his cane with the spotlight pointing on the floor at their feet, ready to illuminate the next room and fire if necessary.

Miraj will take possession of one of the static arc pistols, one with 8 charges left, unless someone wants it instead.

"Are you saying that Tri-Dee doesn't match up to the real thing, Miraj?" Diedre asks with a smirk.

"My twelve-year-old self would not think zat possible, but ve all must grow up sometime," Miraj says softly with a shrug.

Miraj will take possession of one of the static arc pistols, one with 8 charges left, unless someone wants it instead.

As he waits for the door to open, Jehir takes one of the Arc Pistols. He swaps the battery from his laser pistol to the Arc Pistol, and vice versa. He holds up the arc pistol.

"Anyone need this? I am not likely to. It is now fully charged."

The static arc pistols are better than laser pistols damage-wise (1d6 vs. 1d4) so if you use a laser pistol might as well grab one. They also do the same damage as a Tactical Auto but target EAC so they are arguably better than those too.

Unless the fact that they are here means the enemy is immune to electricity in which case save them for later. :)

Since we are indoors, I will likely not need any weapons other than my spear and doshko.

Lauren will take the remaining Static Arc Pistol if noone else is going to. It's an upgrade to her non-lethal only pulsecaster pistol. I didn't claim it earlier since the pistol is my backup weapon, I figured one of the primary pistol users should have first crack at it.

"I will take its, Jehir. But only if noones else need it."

Aureum could use the pistol if that’s alright with you, Lauren. It’s better than her current one.

Aureum stays toward the back of the group, letting those who can see better in the dimness lead the way.

Please, go ahead and take it Aureum.

As Lauren peaks around the corner, she spies a quadrupedal creature with a mane of thick tentacles - unmistakably an akata. Unfortunately, the creature also sees her, and rushes straight at the scyphozoan! Luckily, Lauren is able to hold the silent creature's gnashing maw at bay while Jehir lands a crushing blow with his doshko. The piercing blades tear into the creatures translucent blue flesh, scattering blobs of viscous navy fluid that bead when they hit the floor and resist boiling off in the vacuum of space.

Before anyone can react, another akata runs through the starboard-forward door, taking only a moment's hesitation before running up to Aureum and tearing into the lashunta's thigh with a mouthful of jagged teeth!

Aureum's Fortitude Save: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (20) + 0 = 20

The bite is incredibly painful, but the pain seems to be localized to the wound in Aureum's thigh.

Aureum takes 8 piercing damage, and everyone is up!

Round 1
Block 2: Aureum (-6 SP, -2 HP), Diedre, Entiren, Jehir, Lauren, Miraj

Round 2
Block 1: Akatas

Diedre steps out so she can see the creature. As she moves, she draws her tactical sword with one hand and waves it in the air while keeping her sidearm trained on the creature.

"Hey! Big and scary! Leave her alone!" she shouts out as she continues to wave the sword.

Clever Feint - Bluff: 1d20 + 7 + 1d6 ⇒ (20) + 7 + (6) = 33

token moved

A2 is flat-footed until Diedre's next turn.

Lauren screams, "They look like this!"

Extricating herself from the maw as well as she can, she takes a guarded step away from the creature, drawing a bead at the akata's torso, then opens fire with her azimuth laser rifle.

Ranged Attack vs EAC: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (12) + 2 = 14

I'm pretty sure that's a hit, so I'll go ahead and roll damage.

Fire Damage: 1d8 ⇒ 2

My token is moved. That should be my turn.

Seeing Aureum getting bitten by the creatures that are coming into the room, Entiren will work his way over that way to provide assistance. Careful to keep out of biting range of the creatures, he moves up to his new position before firing at the beast.

Movement Route: Entiren will move two squares down, one square down-right, and then one more square down.

Targeting A2
Ranged Attack vs EAC: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (13) + 1 = 14
Damage: 1d8 ⇒ 3

Move Action: move as indicated; Standard Action: attack A2.

"Hey! Big and scary! Leave her alone!"

Diedre waves her arms frantically, and the akata tilts its head in her direction, blood bubbling from its jaws.

Extricating herself from the maw as well as she can, she takes a guarded step away from the creature, drawing a bead at the akata's torso, then opens fire with her azimuth laser rifle.

Lauren's quick shot strikes the akata square in the body, but the heat of the laser quickly diffuses through the creature's skin, briefly glowing a dull orange before fading away without leaving a mark.

Careful to keep out of biting range of the creatures, he moves up to his new position before firing at the beast.

Entiren is easily able to strike the distracted creature, but, like Lauren, he notices that the heat of his laser rifle has negligible effect on the akatas' space-proof hide.

Round 1
Block 2: Aureum (-6 SP, -2 HP), Diedre, Entiren, Jehir, Lauren, Miraj

Round 2
Block 1: Akatas (A1 -12 HP; A2 flat-footed)

Aureum cries out as the creature tears into her thigh, and takes a guarded step away as soon as it lets go. As Diedre distracts it, she palms the new static arc pistol, quickly firing off a shot.

Static Arc Pistol Attack: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (20) + 3 = 23
Trick Attack, Sleight of Hand: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (8) + 9 = 17 Nope

Static Arc Pistol Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 1

Miraj judges that Jehir can handle the beast attacking at the north door, so he instead aims at the other coming toward Aureum. "Aureum! Incoming on your left."

He is using his trick attack based on Sense Motive.

Trick Attack, Sense Motive: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (20) + 12 = 32
Semi-Auto Pistol, Vs KAC: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (2) + 3 = 5 Range = 30
Damage, P: 1d6 ⇒ 3
Trick Attack: 1d4 ⇒ 3

Maybe his environmental clothing throws him off, but the shot goes high.

"Vut zee Drak?" he exclaims as the creatures close to attack.

Aureum stumbles away from the akata in haste. Unable to line up a measured shot, she's nevertheless lucky enough to nail the beast right in the eye! It writhes as electricity cascades across its face, a stray blot of energy arcing out to strike the camera drone, which doesn't seem fazed by the damage.

You might have missed the trick attack, but you rolled a crit!
Arc Pistol Critical Damage (E): 1d6 ⇒ 6

Miraj, meanwhile, carefully lines up a shot only for his hand to point in an entirely different direction than the one he thought it was, sending a bullet ricocheting off the ship's walls.

Botting Jehir: Jehir hefts his doshko, once again bringing it crashing down on the akata in front of him. When he lifts the weapon, the creature does not rise from the floor.

Attack vs. A1 (KAC) w/ Doshko: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (18) + 4 = 22
Doshko Damage (P) (+ Photon Mode): 1d12 + 3 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 3 + 1 = 6

The living akata tries to strike at Aureum again, but she is quicker this time and deflects the blow.

Round 2
Block 2: Aureum (-6 SP, -2 HP), Diedre, Entiren, Jehir, Lauren, Miraj

Round 3
Block 1: Akatas (A1; A2 -7 HP, flat-footed to Diedre)

Heh, you botted me 4 minutes ago! :) Sorry, lost my net connection at work last night but I am home now.

Right now it looks like I can't get at A2 without provoking.

"Diedre! Aureum! Get away from that thing!"

I will Delay until there is a square adjacent to A2 that I can enter (preferably Deidre's square). Once the space is open I will move in and attack:

Doshko: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (6) + 4 = 10 Probably not unless someone else does harrying fire...
Damage +1 photon: 1d12 + 3 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 3 + 1 = 9

As the creature follows up on Aureum and attempts to bite her a second time, Diedre begins to panic. She drops her distracting sword and, with both hands on her pistol, proceeds to pull the trigger repeatedly.

full attack

Tactical Semi-Auto Pistol Attack: 1d20 + 2 - 4 ⇒ (10) + 2 - 4 = 8 vs KAC - flat footed
Tactical Semi-Auto Pistol Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 2 piercing

Tactical Semi-Auto Pistol Attack: 1d20 + 2 - 4 ⇒ (16) + 2 - 4 = 14 vs KAC - flat footed
Tactical Semi-Auto Pistol Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 3 piercing

Realizing that her laser rifle was so ineffectual and not wanting to risk drawing her pistol and missing, Lauren decides to instead focus on the technomantic source code of the universe, finding the threads of force, shape, and will, and casting (as a full round action) magic missile at the remaining Akata.

Force Damage: 3d4 + 3 ⇒ (3, 4, 3) + 3 = 13

One of Diedre's bullets glances across the akata's torso, but it's the deadly bolts of force streaking from Lauren's outstretched tentacle that send it tumbling across the floor of the engineering bay, a lifeless corpse.

A dozen seconds of tense, silent combat and it's all over... or is it?

We're going to stay in initiative until someone takes an action that would last a minute or more. To streamline things slightly, I'll be rolling automatic Perception checks to notice any creatures lurking in the shadows, when appropriate. Checks to recall knowledge (like the one below) are free actions that you can take out of your turn, if you wish.

The two akata corpses lie on the decking, looking as if they could reanimate at any moment - hardly a speck of dark-blue blood stains the floor.

Round 2
Block 2: Aureum (-6 SP, -2 HP), Diedre, Entiren, Jehir, Lauren, Miraj

Round 3
Block 1: Akatas (A1; A2)
Block 2: ???

"Medic! Aureum has been bitten!" Miraj calls out, then realizes Aureum is the medic, at least the most skilled at medicine. But he glances as the spell casters, knowing they may be able to heal with magic. He watches Aureum for signs that she was poisoned or otherwise affected by anything in the bite.

"Those were hatchlings? How do zey survive in hard vacuum?"

Diedre stabs at her comm, not even bothering to open a private channel.

"Aureum! Are you ok?!" Diedre broadcasts, her voice higher pitched than normal. She frantically looks over the damage in the engineer's suit to verify that it's sealed itself.

just RP - she don't know no nothin' about suit maintenance.

Here's a question: Can one use a healing serum in this kind of situation? i.e. suits are sealed against environment/vacuum.

Diedre it explicitly says in the CRB that a suit's 'air tightness' is the result of 'force fields and magic' as much as anything and says that you can eat or drink (including potions) while inside them. The GM is free to say otherwise, of course, but I think that's the 'normal' answer.

I'm not sure if I get another check now that I've fought them, but just in case

Life Sciences: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (19) + 7 = 26

If I get extra intel from the 26. I'd like immunities and resistances.

Lauren looks up, her tentacle still shaking. "Not egg. Egg is wrong word I used. What is it when adult creature go dormant? Like butterfly?"

Here's a question: Can one use a healing serum in this kind of situation? i.e. suits are sealed against environment/vacuum.

I would agree with Lauren here - most armor (especially at low levels) is designed for everyday use by miners, technicians, and other laborers. It would make sense that they easily accommodate passing of potions, medicinals, or snacks from outside to inside, whether by mechanical interlock or by permissive force field.

"I think so," Aureum replies with a grimace. She places a hand on Diedre's shoulder to help steady herself as she examines the wound on her thigh.

Life Science: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (13) + 3 = 16

"Patch her up now if ve can," Miraj offers. "Then let's clear zis room und rest a bit before moving further in."

That is, take ten minutes to recover stamina.

"Whatever is here on the ship has waited for days," Jehir says over his communicator. "It can wait a few minutes more. There's no air, so unless these things are telepathic or they can hear our comm broadcasts, they won't have heard us."

Jehir looks at Aureum.

"Go ahead and rest. I'll stand watch."

Jehir takes a position by the open door and holds his spear ready, in case more creatures appear.

Basically a readied action to throw in case something shows up.

"Go ahead and rest. I'll stand watch."

As soon as Jehir utters these words, he spies another akata prowling around the corner of the ship's power core, rocking its head back and forth in a rhythmic motion. Without pause, he launches his spear at the creature.

Attack vs. A3 (KAC) w/ Spear: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (16) + 4 = 20
Spear Damage (P): 1d6 + 3 ⇒ (3) + 3 = 6

Jehir's throw hits home, lodging itself in the akata's flank before leaping backwards towards the borai's outstretched hand. Enraged, the creature bounds silently in the direction of the Starfinders, revealing another akata hot on its heels!

10-minute rest interrupted. Back into combat!

Round 1
Block 1: Aureum (-6 SP, -2 HP), Diedre, Jehir, Miraj
Block 2: Akatas (A3; A4)
Block 3: Entiren, Lauren

Realizing that there are more of the creatures coming from port hallway, Diedre reaches over and grabs a tool from a nearby workbench and throws it towards the starboard hall hoping to create a distraction.

Clever Feint - Bluff: 1d20 + 7 + 1d6 ⇒ (15) + 7 + (2) = 24

If successful, A3 is flat-footed vs everyone till Diedre's next turn.

Attack vs. A3 (KAC) w/ Spear: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (16) + 4 = 20

Spear Damage (P): 1d6 + 3 ⇒ (3) + 3 = 6

Jehir's throw hits home, lodging itself in the akata's flank before leaping backwards towards the borai's outstretched hand.

Woot! A decent hit. Don't forget that photon mode will add +1 damage. The only time I won't have photon mode going in combat is when I have just used supernova, which shuts photon mode down until my next turn starts, so things like AoOs won't benefit if I have done that.

"Two more of them!" Jehir shouts into the comm as he advances into the corridor. "I'll leave a line of fire open!"

He steps to one side to allow the others to fire down the hall as he attacks.

Tactical Doshko: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (3) + 4 = 7 ...meh.

"Wonderful," Aureum mutters unhappily, and takes a careful step forward to look down the corridor. She keeps her pistol hidden in her hand until the last second, firing a shot at the nearest akata A3.

Static Arc Pistol Attack: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (20) + 3 = 23
Trick Attack, Sleight of Hand: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (9) + 9 = 18 Nope, but that's another crit!

Static Arc Pistol Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 2
Critical Damage (E): 1d6 ⇒ 2

Miraj aims Alice down past Lauren and Jehir. Taking advantage of Diedre's distraction to get a more accurate shot, Miraj squeezes off another shot. "Incoming," he broadcasts on the intercom.

Trick Attack, Sense Motive: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (6) + 12 = 18
Semi-Auto Pistol, Vs KAC (flat footed): 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (20) + 3 = 23 Range = 30
Damage, P: 1d6 ⇒ 5
Damage, P, critical: 1d6 ⇒ 3
Trick Attack: 1d4 ⇒ 2
Not sure if the trick attack damage gets rolled twice on a critical, but in case it does, here it is:
Trick Attack: 1d4 ⇒ 1

Aureum's post Ninja'd mine. If her shot took out A3, Miraj will move forward until the other one is within 30' and shoot at it.

Diedre's arm is pretty good, and a heavy wrench ricochets off the wall, catching the attention of the lead akata as it tumbles past. Jehir tires to strike the distracted creature, but his cumbersome doshko catches on the ceiling in a shower of sparks and he misses his strike. Aureum's quick hand is once again rewarded with a brutal shot, but the electricity coursing over the akata's body leaves to nearby walls and people, striking Jehir with a stray bolt!

That arc critical effect does not play favorites. Jehir takes 2 electricity damage.

Finally, Miraj snipes out the akata from across the room, dropping the creature in a heap on the floor.

Meanwhile, the second akata, heedless of the death of its kin, rushes forward towards Jehir and bites deeply into the solarion's arm, spattering black blood across the walls and floor.

Jehir's Fortitude save: 1d20 + 4 + 1 ⇒ (18) + 4 + 1 = 23

The borai simply shakes the creature off, hardly feeling the wound.

Jehir, you take an additional 7 piercing damage.

Round 1
Block 3: Entiren, Lauren

Round 2
Block 1: Aureum (-6 SP, -2 HP), Diedre, Jehir (-9 SP), Miraj
Block 2: Akatas (A3; A4)

Entiren and Lauren, you're up! Everyone may post actions if they wish, as well.