OutPost I: GM Wolfspirit's Live Exploration Extreme (Inactive)

Game Master Wolfspirit

Remi makes her bewildering, unconvincing attack and only slightly more convincing bewildering appeal to the audience. Luckily, she's kind of cute, and already a chorus erupts in the chat from "Awww" to less savory, but quickly moderated comments. All that changes when Hudathan responds to the goblins attack: the hapless goblin explodes backwards like a gnat that got shot by a cannon!

From the feed
Zo! can barely contain his excitement. "Did you see that? Did you see that!? Folks, I don't know if any of you have travel plans to Vesk-8, but if that's the kind of welcome you might get, you might want to cancel them! ... What's that? Ahem... I've been reminded that I'm contractually obligated to mention that Vesk-8 is really quite a lovely travel locale with lovely vistas and a vibrant hotsprings. Visit Vesk-8 today! (This-message-paid-for-by-the-Vesk-8-Travel-Bureau.) Now back to the action!"

The spicodranth seems to ignore the camera and lighting crew, causing some "ooohs" and "aaahs" as the shelled creature trundles picturesquely close. Its massive paws look like they're usually suited to digging rock, but will take a chunk out of a Starfinder just as well.

Next up: Raatchet, Kultainen, Chirrk, Poppilo

"Hey, turn down the lights, will ya!? Makes for a more dramatic show!"
intimidate: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (17) + 10 = 27

Looking between his azimuth laser pistol and his static arc pistol, Poppilo sighs audibly. But the camera is filming and the show must go on. Striking a dramatic pose, he raises his right hand and places two fingers on his temple. "Let's make mush out of this creature's brains. Keeyah!" he shouts, as he releases a wave of psychic energy to slam into the spicondranth's mind.
mind thrust, will DC16 for half: 2d10 ⇒ (9, 6) = 15

move action intimidate lighting crew, standard action mind thrust

Raatchet yells in goblin, "Look at the cameras and smile! You're live on the infosphere!!"

Concerned about that crawling thing getting close to Remi, Raatchet redirects combat tracking to the spicodranth then unleashes another overcharged laser rifle blast.

Laser rifle vs EAC: 1d20 + 5 + 1 ⇒ (20) + 5 + 1 = 26
Damage, Overcharge, Critical: 1d8 + 1d6 + 1d6 ⇒ (6) + (5) + (2) = 13
Target is now also on fire

If the spicodranth is already down from Poppilo's attack, then please redirect to a goblin

The film crew recoils a bit from Poppilo, reluctantly obliging and lowering the lights down. How much did you want to reduce it by? It is less relevant now that...
Will save: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4

Likewise, the poor beast's fragile mind has little recourse against the Mystic's spell, and slumps down to the ground, dead. At least it was a humane death? But still, the feed is filled with comments like "Poor spico-thing, it was pretty" and "Appendages out for Spico!"

Raatchet's attack swats a second goblin with a loud <bwat>, and the goblin goes flying back into the rubble, its corpse smoldering.

In the feed
Zo!'s voice loudly exclaims, "That goblin is on FIRE! I can't wait to see what happens to the last one!"

Next up: Kultainen, Chirrk

"Appendages out for Spico!"

I'm dying. That's amazing.

Graviton-attuned: 2nd round

With the spicodranth down, Chirrk moves to the last goblin, the new ember flame doshko spinning casually in a display of martial prowess. The solarian smoothly slashes at the space-goblin...

Attack!: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (9) + 4 = 13
F damage: 1d8 + 2 ⇒ (7) + 2 = 9

Kultanien slips around the side of the battle, points her blaster and pulls the trigger
attack: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (8) + 2 = 10
And misses.

"If I had been using my red star plasma kukri, I'm sure that would have been another dead goblin." she says pointedly to the cameras.

Chirrk's vicious slice cleaves the goblin in twain, ending the hostilities!
The filming crew rushes forward to get a good shot of the party as you catch your breath and search the bodies; there isn't much of interest except for an unstable junklaser on each of the goblin corpses. As you search, several of you are taken one at a time to the Booth Will post the questions later.

Once the party is prepared to leave, there is only one way to go: up. Clambering up the wreckage to reach the structure’s interior 20 feet above requires a successful DC 10 Athletics check.

The camera crew films the proceedings, and once the PCs are above, several crewmembers fire grapplers and adeptly hoist themselves and their equipment up.

The region beyond is a large cavern that sparkles with phosphorescent fungi whose caps span as much as 10 feet in diameter. The goblins’ explosion from below has buckled the cavern floor here, leaving a concentric impression in the ground where there appears to have just been unaffected stone before.

As the undead film crew finishes clambering out of the hole, a small party of dwarves arrive through a tunnel to the east! They seem to be lead by a female with short-cropped brown hair equipped with a strange variety of archaic weaponry and armor: wearing plate armor she wields a greataxe and has a crossbow strapped to her back. The pair of dwarves that accompany her also weird crossbows and have archaic chain armor.

The apparent leader eyes the undead crew apprehensively and begins speaking in Dwarven.

Athletics: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (20) + 3 = 23

Raatchet climbs up the wreckage, performing a few one-handed arm pulls, swinging his body and throwing himself from one handhold to another in mid-air. Just generally putting on an amazing display of climbing prowess and athleticism. Once he gets to the top, he strikes his Iron Rat pose but its effect is diminished by the fact that Raatchet is out-of-breath and tired by the time he finishes his, admittedly spectacular, climb!

While barely managing to hold his pose at the top of the wreckage, the crew easily scale the wreckage with the use of their grapplers with no effort - not having to bother climbing. Raatchet looks on at the ease with which the crew make their way up and says, "...rats!"

When the dwarves show up, Raatchet says in common to his own party, "Anyone understand what they're sayin?"

Raatchet will look at their equipment and try to determine if there's something special about it or if it really is just archaic weaponry and armor.

Perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (2) + 8 = 10
Engineering: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (3) + 12 = 15

Remi rubs her hands together as they approach the pile of rubble. “Right, well, you’ll catch me if I fall, right?” Without actually specifying who she’s addressing, or waiting for a response, she reaches out with both hands and sets to climbing.

Athletics: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (15) + 1 = 16

She clambers easily to the top and stands tall with her hands on her hips. “See? No problem. Just like climbing in the Stormshield Mountains back home.” She refrains from mentioning that it’s not actually a thing she has ever done, and she hopes she hasn’t just offended too many true mountaineers out there watching. She turns around to offer a hand to help up the next person.

***

She oos and ahs at the sight of the phosphorescent fungus, and she doesn’t even need to exaggerate her interest this time. But when a dwarf walks up and starts speaking to them, Remi looks to her teammates. “I speak a few languages, but that one is not among them.” She adds hopefully to the dwarf, “I don’t suppose you speak Common?”

Hudathan searches the bodies diligently, and holds up the junk lasers with a smirk. "Little better than grenades, these are. " He stares at the camera and grins. " Don't try this at home! " He them tosses them across the room into a pile.

Athletics: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (20) + 4 = 24

Hudathan watches Raatchet climb up with envy. Such style. Such grace. Such strength. HE SHALL NOT UNDERMINE MY RACIAL SUPERIORITY! Hudathan gathers his face into a look of grim determination and begins to bound up the face of the wall. Without taking time for fancy maneuvers, he quickly catches up to the Ysoki and barely manages to beat him to the top. Slightly out of breath, he shouts down to the cameras below. " Don't worry! Starfinders employ superior species to protect the squishy and slow ones! Every one is safe and welcome in the Society! "

After the dwarves arrive, Hudathan looks to the crew. "Uh..
Any help with interpretation? "

As Hudathan edges out Raatchet climbing up the wreckage, Raatchet mutters, "....double rats!"

Kultanien takes her time on the climb, making it sure and steady.
Takes ten for ten

She carefully approaches the dwarf, trying common, Ghibran, Goblin and even Akitonian.
"Hello there, we were exploring. I am Kultanien, who are you?" she asks, her hands well away from her weapons.

diplomacy: 1d20 + 9 + 1d6 ⇒ (20) + 9 + (1) = 30

The dwarven woman seems a bit more relaxed by the calming words of the party (particularly Kultainen, whose message seems to transcend language barriers that one would almost mystical. Employment contracts are likely lining up as they speak.) The dwarf seems to recognize common and she responds "Critical error. Sequence Initiated. Speak?" It's clear that she's seemingly picking random words in common that she knows, though not really understanding the context. She repeats a different set of words in a variety of languages: Aklo, Celestial, Draconic, Dwarven, Orc, and Terran.

Does anyone speak those? Otherwise I'm going to need a Culture check from Kultainen or anyone that wants to try to interact with the dwarves.

Upon hearing Aklo, a wave of recognition washes over Raatchet's face. To the party, Raatchet says, "Guys!! I understand one of their languages...it's Aklo!! Man, I thought learning this language would be utterly useless when mom and dad forced me to attend all those weekend language tutoring sessions when I was a kid. I thought all I'd remember are the cuss words...but hey, it's coming back to me now!!"

Raatchet turns to one of the cameras points into it, strikes the Iron Rat and says, "Kids, stay in school and learn your Aklo!!"

Immediately, Raatchet turns to face the dwarven lady and says in Aklo...

Raatchet excitedly and animatedly spouts a long, long monologue in Aklo. His body gestures during the monologue include:

• arms open wide in welcome
  
• pointing down towards the location where we fought goblins
  
• making an A-OK sign with his left hand
  
• pointing at the undead film crew
  
• on his left hand, pinching his thumb together with his other fingers and rubbing together to symbolize money
  
• pointing at their archaic equipment
  
• siting down in a comfortable spot and while looking at the female dwarf leader, pats the spot next to him to indicate 'come sit down next to me'

I'm guessing the dwarves will have nothing but a look of confusion on their face while Raatchet is going on and on with his nonsense...?

DC 10 Athletics: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (20) + 3 = 23

Not to be outdone by the Vesk or Ysoki, Chirrk stows his weapons and, using all four arms, makes the ascent look rather mundane. Chirrk doesn't go for speed or flair. He just climbs up last with the least amount of effort and the most precise placement of each hand and foot.

At the top, he is equally impressed by the giant fungi as the short humanoids spouting an unknown language. While the others attempt to communicate with the dwarves, Chirrk is watching their body language, facial expressions, and gestures to get a sense of their intentions.
Sense Motive: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (20) + 5 = 25

Holy smokes!! Those rolls could have been instant death for something nasty...but I'll take it here =)

"...triple rats!!!"

athletics: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (5) - 1 = 4
1d6 ⇒ 4

Poppilo studies the slope with some trepidation. Physical labor has never been his cup of tea, and he approaches it with some caution. Sure enough, barely halfway up the slope, his foot slips and he slides all the way down, scraping himself along the way. Feeling the camera close in on him, he decides the best course of action is to simply ignore it.

Does he need to keep rerolling until he passes?

___

He listens in to the dwarves but fails to understand a single word. Sigh, should have gotten that shared language spell gem. He simply waits then for Ratchet to translate, looking at him warily.

As Popilo falls, Kultanien gasps in horror. "Anyone got a rope to lower down to him? That will be much easier to climb."

She adds, pointedly ignoring the lines attached to the film crew's grappling hooks.

On the stream there is an instant translation of Raatchet's conversation(if anyone wanted to watch.) The chat overall is howling with laughter at Raatchet's antics.

The dwarven woman seems greatly taken aback by what the ysoki is saying, almost offended at several points. She sputters a bit and is about to say something, stops a moment and considers it, then opens her mouth again, speaking in aklo.

Ooh, this is an interesting development! Wish I wasn't a dumb, no good soldier. Lol.

Hudathan ignores the foreign talk and peers over the cliff edge. Let the tiny-lings speak their tiny language. Real warriors speak Vesk. Everyone knows that. He unclips a large spool of titanium rope from his pack and begins to toss it over the edge of the cliff. He talks a floating camera drone as he does so.

The Vesk smiles at the camera and backs away from the edge of the cliff. Wrapping the rope around a rock and fixing it with his foot, he shouts out. "climb up, bad climber man! I will hold you! You can do it! " He turns to the camera again. "See? The Starfinders love teamwork. Vesk love teamwork. Almost as much as we love eradicating our foes. "

When it becomes obvious that's she's not going to sit down and drop her (what Raatchet thought was a) LARPing persona... that she's actually the genuine article, Raatchet says, "hunh!" (Which translates to any language.) Standing up, Raatchet bats the dust off his trousers.

Raatchet bows before Ylga then says,

Raatchet turns to his party and translates everything Ylga just said. In addition, Raatchet adds with a hint of a smile, "Hudathan, they recognize you appear to be a great warrior so they'd like to bestow a sign of great respect upon you. Their customs are a bit... strange. But go with it... they mean no harm and only want to establish friendship."

At this point, Raatchet will translate anything the party wants to say to the dwarves and anything the dwarves say to the party (unless the dwarves say something Raatchet wants to hide from the party or if Raatchet wants to say something he wants to keep hidden from the party). So from this point forward, for simplicity, should we drop the Aklo spoilers?

After Raatchet finishes translating, he'll turn back to Ylga and ask, "So you say your people have always lived underground here? And that you believe that you're currently on Golarion? And you're right now headed to the surface of Golarion? Hmmmm... Maybe we can help each other out..."

Hudathan looks over his shoulder as he helps Poppilo up the cliff. "Ah! They are wise indeed! Just a moment! HURRY UP SLOW POKE! I AM TO BE HONORED FOR MY BATTLE PROWESS! " He turns back to Raatchet and smiles. Then, he looks back at the camera. "Join the Starfinders today. Meet new cultures, be honored for your talents and enjoy the full protection of the Vesk! Your friends and neighbors. " Well, the nice ones. That Vesk on the red planet wasn't so nice. But all's fair in war. He joins Raatchet, rubbing his head fur, Just the way this odd rat-ling likes, and waiting for his honor.

Kultanien looks relieved as Raatchet takes on the talking duties, but she does remind the dwarf. "We all speak this language, so it may be best to use it. That would mean we could understand you directly without Raatchet translating for us."

She ponders of the dwarves words a bit.
"Golarion was destroyed hundreds of years ago. We are not sure exactly how long as there is a bit of a gap in our knowledge of history... How long have you been here?"

Unless I'm misunderstanding, the dwarves don't speak Common. So communication between the dwarves and our party will be through Raatchet translating back and forth between Aklo and Common (which he is happy to do). Unless someone has comprehend language or share language spells available?

Chirrk continues watching the dwarven party, but can not help but notice the subtle signs that Raatchet is finding great humor in something he is saying to them in their odd language. The rat-man should wear a mask like me to better cover his expressions...but at least he is not hostile!

She knows -words- in common, but clearly doesn't understand what they really are. Anyone that wants to forgo Raatchet can use a culture check to convey your meaning, though it takes a while and involves pantomiming

And while you're pantomiming, trying to get your message across, Raatchet would probably say, "Dude! Just tell me what you want to say to them."

Remi looks to Raatchet in confusion. "Are you sure you didn't mistranslate that? It doesn't make sense." A little impatient that she can't talk directly to the dwarves, she gestures to the one who has been speaking. "Ask them how they got here, and where they think they are right now. I don't think we're all on the same frequency here."

I thought they had responded to common and called it the gods language. I must have misunderstood.

Kultanien nods to Remi. "And tell them that Golarion has been gone for more than three centuries."

She looks around "Unless this is all that remains of it?"

Raatchet translates everything to the dwarves and will translate all responses from the dwarves back to the party.

Ylga glowers a bit at Raatchet, shaking her head.

Nothing you've seen suggests that this is part of Golarion, other than the presence of the dwarves. The planet is small, but certainly larger than you expect a chunk of the planet to be. Something doesn't add up, but the dwarves seem wholly convinced that they're being truthful

Ylga glowers a bit at Raatchet, shaking her head.

Nothing you've seen suggests that this is part of Golarion, other than the presence of the dwarves. The planet is small, but certainly larger than you expect a chunk of the planet to be. Something doesn't add up, but the dwarves seem wholly convinced that they're being truthful

Assuming the translations continues
"We can assure you that this is no longer Golarion." says the golden girl.

"Perhaps if you can show us where you came from... or if something unusual happened to you and your group recently?"

Raatchet mutters under his breath, "...quadruple rats!"

Turning to Hudathan, Raatchet says, "Hmmm...sorry big guy. It seems they won't just take my word for it that you're a great warrior. They'd like to see you in combat versus a monster first, which is fair if you think about it. So I'm sure right after they see you slay a monster, they'll bestow their sign of great respect upon you. Good things come to those who wait, don't you worry!!"

Raatchet turns to a camera and instead of striking an Iron Rat pose, he instead shoots finger guns at the camera, winks and says to the audience, "We'll discuss this in the after-show Q&A session!"

Turning back to Ylga, Raatchet responds, "Okay, fair enough. We can forgo formal customary greetings for now. Disappointing but it's okay. Perhaps you'll change your mind later once you've seen that lizardman in action!

"Hey, so if we go deeper in these caves, are going to come across your entire dwarven civilization?"

I'm back to regular posting!

Poppilo allows himself the indignity of being raised up by the vesk. Besides, heavy lifting is what the big musucular dude is for in the party, right? Finding no way to avoid the camera, he gives the audience a big impish grin and flash a V-sign. "Starfinders, we explore, report, and most importantly, COOPERATE!"
diplomacy: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (14) + 10 = 24

---

Poppilo has +11 to mysticism to autopass that.
He stands there listening to Raatchet and the dwarves conversing back and forth. Poppilo has met some dwarves in the Diaspora, but these are quite a different kind altogether.

"Torag? That's a major dwarven deity who disappeared together with Golarion. No living dwarf still worships him, or even know much of his existence." Poppilo ponders this for a while. "So either they have been enchanted into believing this fantastical tale, or..." he pauses here for dramatic effect, before continuing, "they are indeed from the long-lost Golarion!" He turns to look at the camera, wide-eyed in amazement!

"Tell them that we can help them discover what is making their tunnels shake and crumble. As we can see from this large indentation here, something is cracking the ground..."

Ylga glowers at Raatchet, causing the two dwarves that accompany her look ready to draw their weapons, but she waves them off. She glances around at all the strange beings and technology that seem to conflict with everything that she knew before.

The gestures to the other dwarves, and looks towards the tunnel from which they previously came, then back at you all.

Darn, I was hoping for a Future vs Past combat...probably would have been to easy.

Hudathan frowns, disappointed at the lack of respect. "They must be from the past if they do not know of the Vesk's combat superiority. Let us hope there are more worthy opponents than goblins in these tunnels. They were a distraction, but nothing more. "

More of The Booth!

Wazasha also manages to coax Ygla into The Booth, though the dwarf finds the whole experience unsettling. Even through the dampening field you can hear shouting that the feed translates as "Let me out or construct of the gods or no I will smash it to bits with my axe!" She then storms out, glowering.

"Hey! Friends! You're up!"

Raatchet continues to translate everything back and forth, then says to the party, "I say we go meet the high priest. What do you guys think?"

When Wazasha fails to get Ygla to remain in the booth, Raatchet can't help but to laugh out loud at Wazasha. "You certainly get an A for effort!"

And as Ygla storms out of the booth past Raatchet, Raatchet offers up a canteen of water for Ygla.

I like to think Ygla grumpily knocks it out of Raatchet's hand onto the ground while uttering a 'harumph!' as she marches back to her group of clansmen, to which Raatchet utters, "...how rude!"

She offers a nod to the rest of the team after leaving "The Booth". "I'm sure we'll be honored to meet the high priest. Perhaps they can shed some light on this mystery."

With Ylga's help, it only takes about half an hour to navigate down into the tunnels. However, you arrive at the Marbleheart Camp to see that the settlement is in distress! You can clearly see that that there are bursting pipes (strangely built to resemble rocky outcroppings) and a fissure split down the middle of the settlement’s cavern, dropping a massive chunk of stone to crash into the Temple of Torag’s facade. Numerous dwarven corpses line the cavern, and a few dozen survivors are struggling to break through the boulder or one of the reinforced walls to get inside the temple, where one of the dwarves exclaims that the chief priest Holsin Nolskrit is trapped inside.

Ylga quickly introduces you all to her clan and coordinates the dwarves in their rescue effort. After some examination, she determines that there are two likely ways to get in and help Holsin: remove the boulder or send in a small group through the fissure. Several dwarves determine that the fissure’s trajectory should lead to its intersecting with the temple’s rear rooms, but the trench has partly filled with an unknown, viscous fluid.

Once it’s clear to Zo! that there are multiple ways that the you might enter the temple and launch a rescue, he booms over the feed: "How will our heroes rescue whomever is inside? Let's have you decide!"

Wazasha lets you know that the audience is voting on what you should do next, and the pulls up a holographic display from her wrist computer to show the votes as they’re cast. Every time the dwarves identify one option’s difficulty, painfulness, or uncomfortable circumstances, the voting for that option surges. Ultimately, though, the audience votes for you all to clamber through the strange fluid-choked fissure to sneak into the temple from behind.

The ghast shrugs and adds, "Of course, this vote is non-binding, but defying the fans can anger them..."

Looking at all the destruction, Raatchet tries to deduce the cause of these earthquakes as well as whether there may be a short term quick fix.

Engineering: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (17) + 12 = 29

Looking at the liquid, Raatchet tries to identify what it is.

Physical Science: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (20) + 9 = 29

Does this cavern appear fully 'natural' with rock and foliage and whatnot? Or does it appear as though the cavern is artificial, then natural stuff was built on top to give it the facade of being natural? Basically, I'm asking does it appear to be something like a Dwarf terrarium?

As Raatchet looks over the area, it isn't obvious what's causing the earthquakes. This sort of rock formations should be stable... but there's clearly something off about it. It almost looks like... something crafted / grew the entire area but there are bits of machinery are beginning to poke through that were meant to be cleverly hidden. From an engineering standpoint it doesn't make sense... it would be a lot easier to just build the tunnels without adding in parts that clearly appear meant to disassemble. On the other hand, the dwarven tunnels and structures were built by what you imagine to be authentic pre-gap methods. You see no indication that the dwarves are "faking things." There's definitely something bizzare going on.

Raatchet also identifies the liquid as a synthetic lubricant, much as would be found in a mechanical engine or hydraulic system. The substance isn’t directly harmful to the touch; however, anyone marching through the fissure would likely become slathered in it as if a affected by grease. It does look like you could brace yourselves against the walls to stay out of it (Athletics check)

"You said earlier that the tunnels looked as if they had been warped by strong gravity. Maybe that gravity anomaly is just happened here?" poses Kultanien.

"Another mystery for us to solve... what is causing it?"

The golden girl approaches the fissure with a grin look on her face.

"I'm sure hoping they don't cut to some seedy jelly-wrestling add after I get covered in this."

She does her best to stay clear.
Takes ten for.. ten on ten athletics.

Raatchet communicates what he figures out to the party and adds, "I'm guessing someone built this place like a terrarium or a zoo, then somehow placed this clan of dwarves here without their knowledge. They truly do believe they're still on Golarion!"

Then Raatchet proceeds forward trying to avoid the lubricant.

Athletics: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (15) + 3 = 18

Once across, he gathers some pebbles that when thrown, won't hurt someone but would be distracting. He considers asking the live audience whom they'd like to see dunked into the lubricant...but thinks better of it.