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As they make their way to Jatembe Park, Knows grins at Lightfoot: "You think we were going to use a plant disguised as body? No, no: recycle spare bodies as fertiliser. Their souls are gone, body best to return to earth. Is most useful this way. But do not frown: I am sure we will make fools of ourself in a most entertaining way at some point. Is inevitable."
"I am not frowning, Friend Knows." Lightfoot responds, flashing a grin that shows his full set of teeth. "I realize that a body that has been parted from a soul is much like a lantern that can no longer light. And if we are to inevitably make fools of ourselves, then I say let us do so together!"
Later, upon approaching the park, Lightfoot whispers to Knows-No-Bounds. "There does not yet appear to be any need to resort to violence, though I agree that these men appear intent upon engaging in some hostile or unlawful acts!!"
Nice try, but this isn't your turf nor your business. Time to face the consequences!
The thugs move towards you and begin shooting with their pistols.
Rozzicheep goes first, but the first two thugs already shoot at Knows.
Shoot the one with the big mouth first!
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Lightfoot watches in anger as the thugs fire at Knows, to whom he had just whispered his concerns.
"You, sirs, have shown yourselves to be villains by both word and deed!" Lightfoot cries as he races across the bridge, drawing his blade in the process. "Prepare yourselves for a righteous smiting by the flat of my blade!!" He moves quickly past Ceren, placing himself between the old woman and the hostile men and prepares to engage with them within the next few seconds!
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Knows stumbles as the pulsecaster blast slams directly into his chest. He grits his teeth, moves forward and - with a moment of hesitation - raises his rifle to shoot.
He aims high - not wanting to endanger Lightfoot - and the shot disappears into the trees.
"Am warning you: next shot will be more painful!" he snaps at the thugs.
Thug red shoots on Lightfoot. Damn talking rats, can't believe they are from the same planet as we are!
Ceren cowers on the bridge, trying not to catch a blast.
Zeayrams trick succeeds and he hits.
[ooc]Is that 4 or 8 damage?[/oo]
Lightfoots turn!
Thug blue is gripping his baton and trying to hit Lightfoot, Thug yellow steps aside and shoots again, this time at Zeyram.
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Lightfoot repositions himself so that he is directly between the nearest thugs and Ceren and to allow him to strike two thugs if either one tries to make a ranged attack from his current position.
Then, in an effort to subdue the opposition without needless death or bloodshed, he strikes the thug before him with the flat of his blade!
Red slumps down from the heat, after he took a blow from Zeyram before.
The blue thug takes the full brunt of Argons spell, only to be pierced by Blibdoolpoolps pike right after, which hits his head, splashing it open.
Delta-5 hits the yellow thug twice.
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"Though I, too, abhor bloodshed, not all my companions feel the same way. Should you choose not to renounce your nefarious ways then you shall feel the flat of my blade and, if that be insufficient to fell you, the force of my company." Lightfoot warns.
Lightfoot strikes!
What kind of crazy bullies are you?
The thug cries out and turns to flee...
Ceren turns to you and seems unperturbed by the gangers’ appearance, confident that your work at falsifying her death should throw off future investigations into her whereabouts.
From here, you provide Ceren with the information pertaining to her new identity, at which point the wizened hacker departs to find Jubair and goes into hiding.
Historia-7 contacts you remotely shortly after you defeated the gangers and provided Ceren with the information about her new life.
Historia-7 thanks you for your help and makes a brief quip about having to fix only “some of their work” — a true compliment from the Dataphiles leader. She relays that Ceren feels comfortable enough in her new identity to risk a return to public life. The aged hacker claims this is the most alive she has felt in ages and offered to assist the Dataphiles if they ever require her skills.
You also got the files to satisfy Historia-7’s request.
A rudimentary courier robot greets the you sometime after. It presents you with a gift box containing a standard datajack and 200 credits. A simple electronic message from Historia-7 indicates that the datajack is a token of thanks from the Dataphiles. The box also contains a frostbite-class zero rifle. The rifle is an old—albeit out-ofplace— acquisition of Ceren’s that Jubair found while cleaning out the family house. Historia-7 entrusts both items to you for the time being.
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Knows shakes his head as he watches the final thug turn tail and flee: "Should have listened quicker." He looks down at the two bodies sprawled on the path and lets out a long sigh: "Am feeling sad that we brought violence to this place. Is pretty: all trees and plants. At least was for good cause."
He cheers up when they finish up their work for Historia-7, especially at Lightfoot's comment.
"Yes, to the Acquisitives. Am invesktigating what they want."
The Acquisitives’ leader, Radaszam “The Dealmaker”, manages the deployment of the Acquisitives and
his personal mercenary outfit, the Obsidian Spiders. He keeps a public-facing office for this purpose in the Nyori Palisades, a luxurious neighborhood located in Absalom Station’s transparent
central dome.
The plain white doors of the office slide open to reveal a stark, dimly lit room. The chamber is bleak and expressionless in its emptiness—no vanities line its smooth black walls, and no signs of use mar its smooth black furniture. The only occupants of the suite are a bug-eyed tadpole wriggling in a glowing blue aquarium and a reptilian vesk seated behind an onyx desk. The vesk gestures to a number of chairs in front of him, his features sharply illuminated by the light of his desk’s green holoscreen.
The new graduates, he greets, in a low and pleasant voice.
Good day. I am Radaszam, though since you are here, I should hope you already knew. I trust you are aware of our Society’s traditions, so I will cut to the point. I have a minor situation that needs resolution.
One of our members, a human named Laboni, had a rather public altercation with a junk scavenger from the pike. You might be more familiar with the scavenger than I, actually; he is a ysoki who fancifully calls himself Ratrod. I am told he runs a popular racing competition that has, hmm, several hundreds of thousands of viewers on the station’s infosphere.
For some reason, Laboni felt the need to tell him that any ‘real’ mechanic could easily beat the garbage that Ratrod and his associates slap together. Now that Ratrod has issued an infosphere-wide demand that she race him and prove it, Laboni doubts she can back that claim up.
Embarrassing, isn’t it? Not really the sort of troublemaker that suits our Society. Perhaps she should be better suited to the bottom of a trash compactor... Well, we cannot afford to throw her out, not after so many Starfinders were lost in the Scoured Stars. Besides, we can’t let people think we are so weak that we can’t control our own members, or that we cannot stand up to a scrapyard junker. No, I would like you to assist Laboni in winning this race. Show our detractors that even the least of our Society is not someone to be trifled with.
Here are some badges that mark you as Laboni's official pit crew. And directions to the race’s location in Botscrap. You should not delay, as you need as much time as you can to help with the race.
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"Have you any suggestions in how we go about assisting in this pursuit? Surely, there is not time to increase the racers skill! Would mechanical enhancements to the vehicle in question not be outside the rules of the race or the provisos previously contemplated by the agreement of the participants?" inquires Lightfoot.
Ratrod’s racing circuit is a hollowed-out section of a mountain of spare parts in Botscrap, the track specifically sanctioned by the ysoki-dominated Salvage Union that controls most of the yards.
When you arrive at the competitors’ entrance, a small robot informs you of the basic rules of the race: Hello visitors! These are the rules: racers and their pit crews are to build and improve their vehicles from the available scrap around the racetrack. Vehicles built at previous junkraces can return. Racers can fire upon other competitors during the race, but firing into the audience is grounds for immediate disqualification; racer weapons must be nonlethal and may affect only opponents’ vehicles. Do you have further questions? I hope you enjoy your stay!
Laboni is easy to find in the crowd due to her paisley clothes and bright white lab coat. She is in her late teens and sheepish about the whole debacle — in truth, she was merely aping the opinions of her seniors in the field and got carried away.
I´m so grateful you are here to support me. I know i can't win the race on my own, but i really don't want to apologize to Ratrod until i have won and saved face! Shall we begin preparations?
JUNK RACE PREPARATION
Each of you can take four actions before the race, which you may use to improve Laboni’s vehicle or engage with the other racers. After this time, the race begins, although you can still assist Laboni from the sidelines.
You can spend an action to attempt a DC 16 Computers, Engineering, Perception, or Physical Science check to find parts in the scrapyard and install them in Laboni’s
racer; other rolls or abilities may be used to the same effect, so long as an adequate reason is provided.
Weapons installed on the vehicle do not cause damage, but instead impose penalties to the target’s Piloting rolls for 1 round on a successful hit.
Every successful check allows you to pick one improvement from the list below to apply to the vehicle’s statistics; these bonuses are cumulative.
• The vehicle’s base speed increases by 5 feet.
• The vehicle gains a +1 Piloting modifier.
• The vehicle gains a +1 attack modifier.
• The vehicle gains a +2 bonus to its EAC.
• The vehicle gains a +2 bonus to its KAC.
• The PCs install a basic energy weapon on the vehicle (imposes a –4 base Piloting penalty on a hit).
• The PCs install a basic kinetic weapon on the vehicle (imposes a –4 base Piloting penalty on a hit).
• The PCs upgrade a weapon to impose an additional –2 penalty to enemy Piloting checks on a successful hit.
Once you finish upgrading the vehicle, Laboni asks you to give her junkracer a name, though she vetoes anything humiliating or inappropriate.
You can scout out your opponents with a DC 15 Sense Motive check, or examine your opponents’ vehicles with a DC 15 Engineering check. You can do this as part of making
a prerace improvement skill check — you can take breaks during the improvement attempt and casually investigate one of the other racers. Otherwise, it costs you one prerace action to converse with or examine all members of the competition. This check does not grant exact knowledge of an opponent’s statistics. On a successful check, you can ask one pertinent question about the pilot’s skill or about the vehicle the pilot is driving (or receives similar relevant information, if a player is unsure what he or she should be asking about).
You can attempt to sabotage the other vehicles, but you must dodge the eyes of everyone in the ramshackle stadium by spending a prerace action and attempting at a DC 20 Stealth
check. Failing this check raises the DC of future Stealth checks to sabotage vehicles by 2. Someone who succeeds at this check can then attempt a DC 15 Engineering check on one of the opposing vehicles to either reduce the vehicle’s speed by 10 feet or to impose
a –4 penalty on one of the vehicle’s modifiers. Being caught cheating in this manner might have dire consequences.
You may also take this time to speak to the other pilots.
During their prerace actions, you can forgo making an Engineering or Sense Motive check to examine and socialize with your opponents.
The junkers are busy with their own preparations and do not have much time to talk. It might still be advantageous if people are talked to in the right way and much could be learned.
Speed 40 ft., full 400 ft.
EAC 10; KAC 12
Attack energy weapon (–4 to Piloting)
Modifiers +2 Piloting, –3 attack
Passengers 1
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Remote Control Laboni’s junkracer and weaponry can be remotely controlled by the PCs, allowing them to make attack rolls and attempt Piloting checks in her place.
Opponents:
LEMGEM (FEMALE FEYCHILD GNOME TECHNOMANCER)
NYIZIN (FEMALE RYPHORIAN SOLDIER)
ORSIS (MALE DAMAYA LASHUNTA MECHANIC)
RATROD (MALE YSOKI TECHNOMANCER)
VELOCITY (NONBINARY ANDROID ENVOY)
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Zeyram asks the robot "Where does all the scrap used for this come from?"
Looking around, Zeyram starts grinning. When he thinks the others are done asking the robot questions their questions, he asks one last question.
"Is it legal to use you as a part of a junk racer? You are in the area after all."
I suspect that question may cause a rules update.
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When they get to Lamboni, Zeyram asks "How did you become familiar with these races? Have you watched a lot of them, and if so what can you tell us of the competitors and their vehicles?"
"Is there any available records of the vehicles as they existed in past races? If not, how do they verify that what is brought in is what was previously built?"
"Do you have any allies among the other racers?"