[PBP Gameday VII - SFS] GM Poblano's Scoured Stars Incident (Tier 3-4) (Inactive)

Game Master Gary Pepper

Suddenly a video screen in front of you lights up, displaying a non-descript, totally forgettable-looking Starfinder wearing a red shirt. He says, "Hey guys! You're doing a GREAT job! But everyone can always use a hand sometimes, right? What can I do to aid you???"

Yay! An aid token has been passed to your table again. Use it well and have fun playing chicken with the star destroyer!!!

Bugface jumps back over to a gunnery position. {Let's finish this!}

Attack+Bonus: 1d20 + 6 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 6 + 2 = 10
Damage: 4d8 ⇒ (5, 2, 3, 3) = 13

Good grief, these guns hate me.

I would suggest focus firing on pink first because it is most damaged and still a threat and not yet disabled, so it's still coming at us. It's engines are malfunctioning but it's weapons are still fully operational.

Arratoi hops onto the coil guns!

Gunnery, circumstance, ziggy benny: 1d20 + 4 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (13) + 4 + 2 + 2 = 21
coil gun damage: 4d4 ⇒ (3, 2, 4, 2) = 11

Unless anyone objects, I'm going to change our strategy. Instead of applying our gunnery rolls on orange, I say we apply everyone's attacks on pink. Hopefully, we can disable pink with our gunfire this round so that it's gone from combat and won't continue to attack us next round. Then we use the aid token to disable orange's weapons. That will prevent orange from attacking us this round and next round. If this works, then only one ship (pink) attacks us this round and no ship attacks us next round (if pink is gone from combat). Then the round after that, only us, orange, and the capital ship are left.

Not sure I agree. Pink already has one crit on it and massive damage on it. Orange has a crit coming to it from damage threshold, maybe even two crits. Plus, shouldn't we use the aid on the capital ship itself so we can blow it smithereens? Or we can still use it on orange, cause it may still take more than two rounds to take it out. Plus you are already hitting pink, so next round it will be gone with just one gunner, and orange will have crits on it. Doing it the way you suggested might protect us the next two rounds, but I'm thinking of the next four rounds. If we continue what we are doing, Pink will get one shot at us this round, but that's it. It will be gone next round, and orange will still have a crit or two on it, do it your way and it will not.

Kess concentrates and tries to turn the ship on place. Let's go after the one who's got the most damage.

This was my 11,000 post on the boards

That's a lot of posts. To weigh in on the tactics. Honestly we're probably better off ignoring the bodyguards completely and unloading all the damage we can on the big boy. Try to evade them as much as possible and pump up our shields while we kill the capital ship asap.

That's fine. I defer to Huckle and Bugface. Please apply Arratoi's gunnery to focus fire together with Huckle and Hudathan. As for the aid token, I'm pretty sure it cannot be applied to the capital ship because the fire would be coming from the direction of the Starfinder ships, which will hit the capital ship's front arc....unless our GM allows it! ;-)

Hmmm. Alternatively, we could have the bombardment aim at the bodyguards and attempt to shoot the capital ship 5 times with flyby attacks.

Just to spell things out a bit more clearly, your targets for this mission are the two active NPC ships with which you are actively engage (Pink and Orange) and the Capital ship. Destroying the two assault ships does not give you an auto-success, but does make life easier for you, as it means you can go down and focus fire on the capital ship without getting popped by its escort.
You can only hit the capital ship in the aft arc, so to get to that part of the mission, you would need to navigate around to the back of it at some point.

The Drake opens fire on the as-yet undamaged orange ship, which quickly becomes a badly damaged ship. With all guns focused on the vessel, you quickly damage their systems.
Starboard shields depleted and two critical thresholds passed!

Crit effect: 1d100 ⇒ 64 Engines glitching
Crit effect: 1d100 ⇒ 19 Sensors glitching

Both engineers work on repairing their engines and succeed in doing so.

Neither captain is able to demand success of their crews.

Both pilots perform evasive maneuvers.

The science officers of each ship rebalance their shields to support their damaged starboard shields.

The gunners fire on your port arc, but only the gunners of the Pink ship manage to find their target.

Combat Status
Starfinder Drake: -9hp, Starboard shields down to 8, Forward Shield down to 8, Port Shield down
Pink: -43hp, port shield down, engine glitching
Orange: -35hp, starboard shield down, forward shield down to 4, sensors glitching

Starfinder Drake Initiative: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (4) + 10 = 14
Pink Initiative, engine glitching: 1d20 + 12 - 2 ⇒ (14) + 12 - 2 = 24
Orange Initiative: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (4) + 12 = 16

Unlike last time, both jinsul ships are able to outmaneuver Kess, and wait to see what she will do.

Kess moves the Drake first.

Captain (if one)
Engineer
Pilot (move and maneuver)
Science Officer
Gunners

"I hope everyone is wearing their harnesses. She types some commands quickly, and ship is thrown in reverse. "Someone fix those shields please."

Back Off: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (11) + 10 = 21

Getting us some room to maneuver. If that's not what you would like, I'm open to suggestions.

Since we're in a time crunch we've gotta get behind that big ship soon.

Agreed with Bugface, lets speed to the south side ASAP. We're under real life time pressure. We probably have no more than 3 rounds, including this one. Plus, since the enemy ship's won initiative, it'd be hard to make sure we outmaneuver them.

I can divert power to engines in order to get us 2 extra move speed this round. That'd get us behind the capital ship if Kess uses the maneuver action to improve our maneuverability to Turn 1. Of course, it also opens us up to being fired upon by the two assault ships. :/

Not sure what the best move is.

Agreed. Hopefully we'll withstand three rounds of fire.

Hudathan aims at the capital ship and fires!

Hit : 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (7) + 8 = 15
damage : 2d12 ⇒ (11, 11) = 22

Alrighty, if Hudathan's in to beeline the capital ship, I'll go ahead and post under that assumption:
Lynn wavers for a moment, then returns to some intense typing on her terminal "This might be a super risky move, but HERE, WE, GO!"

Engineering; divert power to engines for +2 movement, Computers bonus: 1d20 + 10 + 1 ⇒ (12) + 10 + 1 = 23 If people decide we need to bump up port side shields (by 7 points), please make this an attempt to divert to shields.

Do we want to use the aid token to disable one of the two assault ships?

Do we have enough speed to get our front arc within range of the capital ship? If not I can either divert to shields or shoot a different weapon at one of the bodyguards. Or should I just stay where I am since I didn't declare I was changing before the round started? An aid token may be a good idea.

If I can move to engineer
Divert power: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (4) + 11 = 15

If I can shoot
Attack: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (18) + 6 = 24
Heavy Laser Damage: 4d8 ⇒ (4, 1, 5, 8) = 18
Or,
Coilgun Damage: 4d4 ⇒ (2, 4, 4, 3) = 13

Arratoi continues to encourage Huckle's gunnery! "It's crunch time and you've got the right stuff!"

Diplomacy, DC15 Encourage: 1d20 + 10 + 1d6 ⇒ (5) + 10 + (5) = 20

If attacking the capital ship this turn, I'd suggest flying forward 8 hexes instead of backing off 4 hexes. That'll fly us straight through and past the capital ship, allowing us to fire through our rear arc.

Huckle will fire at pink or orange, preferrably pink if he can get a shot in an attempt to kill it. Using the drake's +1 to any three checks, plus Arratoi's aid. I'll kill one of these guys, then we rapid fire on the capital ship
hit: 6 + 1 + 2 + 1d20 ⇒ 6 + 1 + 2 + (6) = 15
dmg laser cannon: 4d8 ⇒ (2, 8, 7, 1) = 18

Moving forward 8 hexes. Let's hope we don't blow up.

Huckle's mouth drops in surprise You're brave Kess, and I thought I was

Lynn puts some extra oomph into the Drake's engines, giving Kess the added thrust she needs to punch straight through the line of ship's protecting the jinsul capital ship. She is able to get the Starfinder ship behind the enemy capital ship, but the majority of her firepower is on the wrong side.

From what I can see, it looks like you had the movement to go straight through the jinsul fleet, but you couldn't turn around to put your main guns on the capital ship's aft. You can still use your turret, though, and your aft coilgun.
That means you could have Hudathan and Bugface's attacks against the capital ship and Huckle's missile attack against the pink ship all go through! One point of clarification, though. Hudathan, which weapon did you replace with that 2d12 weapon? I thought that was one of the weapons from the forward arc, but I may be having trouble finding your post where you explained that boon.

GM Rolls with NPC actions for this round, as well as the results of your attacks, coming soon!

Disregard my question, Hudathan. I found the posts again and have updated your ship's info in the slide to help my memory. It looks like you are good with using your plasma cannon, and Bugface's shot can come from the aft coilgun!

Even with the Drake facing its stronger forward arc away from the capital ship, the vessel's turret-mounted weapons remain a force to be reckoned with. A blast from Hudathan's light plasma cannon and the aft coilgun rip into the capital ship's unprotected aft arc! 35 damage is no joke! Keep it up!

Meanwhile, Huckle keeps his eyes on the threats still buzzing around the Drake, and drives a missile straight into the pink ship's forward arc. The shields in that quadrant absorb most of the damage, but still manage to whittle away at the ship and send another system into disarray.
Huckle's shot takes out Pink's forward shields and deals an additional 8 damage, putting it over another crit threshold.

Crit effect: 1d100 ⇒ 64 Engines! The engineer only took 1 action to patch last round, so technically the engines should still be malfunctioning, meaning this crit wrecks Pink's engines! All checks involving the engines other than patch and hold it together automatically fail. Bye bye piloting maneuvers!

Knowing that the ship's engines are kaput, the pink ship's engineer instead focuses on defense, trying to give as much power to the ship's forward shields as possible. He fails in his attempt, though, so the pink ship remains defenseless for the moment. The orange ship's engineer also pumps some extra power toward the forward shield's, but he also fails to correctly channel the energy into the ship's defense.

The pink ship's pilot knows his ship is basically dead in the water, so he waits to see what Kess will do. The orange ship's pilot, on the other hand, makes a daring move to fly right above his capital ship and down on top of you. He manages the insane maneuver, and gives his gunners an opportunity to fire on your weak points as he flies past!
Successful flyby maneuver is contingent on whether you move from your current position.

Unlike the engineers, both ships' science officers understand how to redirect the ship's energy to the forward shields, so they are able to rebalance the remaining shields to the forward quadrant.

Combat Status
Starfinder Drake: -9hp, Starboard shields down to 8, Forward Shield down to 8, Port Shield down
Pink: -51hp, port shield 2, starboard shield 1, aft shield 2, forward shields 5, engine wrecked
Orange: -35hp, starboard shield 5, forward shield down to 11, port shield 5, aft shield 3, sensors glitching
Capital Ship: -35hp

He changed one of the turret weapons. It appears to have been changed on the slide to reflect that. Edit: Ninja'd!

Drake Initiative: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (14) + 10 = 24
Orange Initiative: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (6) + 12 = 18
Pink automatically loses initiative

Pink and Orange have both moved. After rereading the flyby rules, it looks like Orange will get the attack from that maneuver regardless of whether or not you stay in place. Please let me know if you think differently.
Effects of successful jinsul attacks do still depend on your final position and crew actions though. There's the potential for some big damage coming your way. Be careful!

Captain (if one)
Engineer
Pilot (move and maneuver)
Science Officer
Gunners

Here's my proposed strategy. We should turn in place to put our front arc facing the capital ship. From there on out have two engineers and four gunners. Have the engineers refill our shields every round and other wise ignore the bodyguards, we should live a few rounds that way. And then give the big boy all he can handle from 4 guns. Maybe use the aid token fire to take out a bodyguard.

100% agreed Bugface.

Lynn hits the emergency broadcast frequency, sending out an urgent message to the other Starfinder ships nearby. "Hullo Starfinders! Drake #606 here, behind enemy lines, about to take out a carrier! But we're zetta exposed out here! Anyone able to keep an ORANGE jinsul assault ship busy for a couple of picosecs?"

Using our Aid token to keep ORANGE busy for the next round!

After she sends out the distress call, Lynn focuses on diverting power to the shields, hoping desperately that she sends them to the right places!
Engineer action; Divert to Shields; Restore 7 points to starboard: 1d20 + 10 + 1 ⇒ (8) + 10 + 1 = 19 This assumes we turn around and point our nose at the carrier. If we do that, starboard and aft are our most exposed sides.

Huckle fires upon the capital ship this round with laser cannon if able. using the Drake's +1 to any three checks per round. hit: 1d20 + 6 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 6 + 1 = 11 dmg: 4d8 ⇒ (7, 1, 5, 4) = 17

Great plan! Full assault!"

Hudathan grins at the enemy's exposed rear engines. "Not today, jinsuls. Let us leave in piece. Ish."

Hit : 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (19) + 8 = 27
damage : 2d12 ⇒ (8, 10) = 18

Sorry about the confusion! Yes, you are correct.

You mean leave us in peace. Don't Jinx it, they will leave us in piece(s) cause that is what you told him to do.

"Full assault!!"

Arratoi fires the forward coil gun, leaving the missile launcher turret for Bugface to fire!

attack: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (14) + 4 = 18
damage: 4d4 ⇒ (1, 4, 2, 1) = 8

Kess flips the ship around. "This is going to hurt isn't it."

Bugface rushes over to sit by Hudathan. {Let's send these nameless fools to whatever afterlife they believe in.}

Attack with Node: 1d20 + 6 + 1 ⇒ (15) + 6 + 1 = 22
Missile Damage: 4d8 ⇒ (8, 2, 6, 1) = 17

Bugface jumps on the comms, {Kess, can you turn this shio around? After that we should just leaver her here. Can you help Lynn keep our shields up? If not come take my place and I'll help her. Then we can unload all the guns. Destroying something this big should be a very satisfying explosion indeed.}

Lynn pushes a fist in the air and echoes "Sending nameless fools to the afterlife, in progress!"

Lol!

With a final, desperate attempt to finish the job, even if it means risking your own lives, you turn your arsenal to face down the aft of the jinsul capital ship and unleash a full barrage of laser, plasma, and missile fire. Explosions rip across the ship's aft hull, then suddenly extend to its sides. Within moments, the engines go dark, and the lights blinking along the exterior of the enormous craft dim.

The two assault vehicles, first the orange, then the pink, go racing off toward the capital ship, trying to recover whatever crew they can from their mothership. It seems that, together with the other Starfinder ships assaulting the capital ship, you have brought down the threat of the jinsul fleet!

Now all that remains is to assist in clearing out the jinsul boarding parties that managed to make their way aboard the Starfinder carrier ship.

Congratulations! That's a success!
I'll report the success, then start up the boarding combat. We probably won't finish it in time, but we can always try!

As you fly your ship back toward the carrier, your comms crackle to life once again, and the voice of First Seeker Jadnura comes through, “Starfinders, our sensors show your carrier is in the midst of a jinsul boarding action. There’s likely to be fighting in every part of the ship, but it is important that you defend Deck 13. That area contains the ship’s bridge and all the most critical systems. Do not let them take over the bridge! Defend it at all costs!”

After docking your ship, you quickly make your way up to Deck 13 and take up defensive positions just inside the bridge. A jinsul boarding craft comes within range and fires off a cluster of boarding tubes, which strike the hull just outside of the level's laboratory.

The harsh sound of jinsul voices reverberates up the corridor from the laboratory. They are here.

For this round, everyone go ahead and post, since it's mostly just going to be everyone moving into position to locate and engage the enemy.

INITIATIVE
Carrier, Deck 13
Bold may post!
Hudathan
Lynn
Jinsul warrior (orange)
Kess
Jinsul warrior (red)
Huckle
Jinsul mage (blue)
Arratoi
Bugface
Jinsul warrior (purple)

Features: Computers, containers, ships, and other obstacles provide cover. All stairs count as difficult terrain. All doors are open. The elevators in the access corridor near the bridge are no longer operational.

Bugface hustles towards the sound of the boarding tubes.

"Right from one crisis to another crisis! We're almost out of here, lets give it our all!" She beams at her party members, shining eyes encouraging them. "I'm going to try a post-Digital-world Special take two! Be on the lookout." She winks at the rest of the group.

Lynn steps over to next to Bugface and starts to ♪♫♬ sing out in an energetic, soulful tone ♪♫♬. As she does so, a metal door slides shut over the passageway to the lab, blocking off the line of sight for any jinsuls that may be approaching from that direction!

(Casting holographic image, DC16 Will to disbelieve on interaction. Hopefully Lynn's reference to their previous maneuver after leaving the simulation world is good enough to prime the party to disbelieve the illusion.)

Just put in a blue line to show where Lynn's door illusion has closed.

You aren't next to me actually, I double moved. In fact you put the door behind me. I can stand out here as bait though. Bugface is not afraid.

Under the supervision of First Seeker Luwazi Elsebo, the Starfinder fleet’s best starship crews have overcome the first wave of incoming jinsul starships! The Capital Ship Down condition is now in effect.

The seemingly endless tide of jinsul ships ends—for a moment. All PCs in the All Hands on Deck! mission can perform an extra standard action for 1 round.

Alongside the recently returned First Seeker Jadnura, the crews of Starfinder carriers have repelled most of the jinsul boarding parties! The Champion Defeated condition is now in effect.

The carriers can devote more of their resources to supporting the ongoing starship battle. Each starship crew member may reroll any checks attempted during starship combat for the round; they must use the second result.

Thanks to selfless sacrifices and tactical victories, the Starfinder fleet manages to evacuate most of the transport ships back to the carriers, bringing nearly all the surviving Starfinders to safety. One by one in a rapid succession, the enormous ships dive into the Drift. The carriers converge at their rendezvous point, still at full battle readiness. But no jinsul craft follow; the pursuit is over.

Nominated First Seeker Luwazi Elsebo addresses the fleet through the ships’ comm units. “Starfinders, today we did something no one would have thought possible a year ago. We were able to rescue many of our comrades and two members of the Society’s former leadership, and what we now know about the Scoured Stars system may at least bring some closure to the loved ones of those who were beyond our help. Despite our victory today, we must remain vigilant, because a new threat has revealed itself. We know little of these jinsuls, but we all witnessed that their armada is massive, and they may have hundreds of thousands of soldiers eager for battle. It is clear they are an enemy we cannot ignore. Today, we must head back home to recuperate, but tomorrow, we must prepare.”

The Society endures, but a new threat to the galaxy is rising.

That is the end. Thank you GM’s for all of your hard work and effort to make this successful! And a special thanks to everyone for sticking it out during the multiple website outages. Over 105 players and GM’s alike were a part of this and all your hard work made it possible.

Hudathan draws his laser cannon and runs up behind the "wall". "Here we go.. "

The few of you within sight of the jinsuls see the creatures look back and forth at one another nervously as a horrifying chatter comes over their communications channels. Suddenly, the creatures turn a complete 180 degrees and begin to scuttle as fast as their hexapedal forms can carry them back toward their boarding tubes. With the enemy beating a hasty retreat, you form up a defensive line, until it becomes apparent that victory has been achieved!

As the Starfinder fleet slips back into the Drift and off to safety, you reflect on the hard-won victories you've achieved.

Congratulations, folks! You've survived the Scoured Stars Invasion and rescued many of the lost Starfinders trapped there.
I'll be working on getting this session reported and getting you all your chronicles in the next day or so. Let me know if there's anything special you need me to note for you.

"Oooh, my wall must've really scared them!" Lynn giggles at the joke. "Carrier saved! Good job everyone, we really showed those jinsuls who's boss around here!" Lynn skips around, giving the team high fives.

Shame we didn't get a chance to run through the regular combat encounter, but glad we finished off the Starship one!

"Good job Starfinders. We did it!" Kess gives high fives to everyone. Even bugface with his skinnny little limbs.

"Well done everyone! I believe few starship crews beyond us can say they've flown head-to-head against a Jinsul star destroyer and have lived to tell the tale! Your heroics will most definitely be reflected in my next novel!!!"

Kess has a surprise waiting for her when Bugface's cybernetic arm doesn't even budge with her high five.

Yes, nicely done everyone. I enjoyed this greatly and thanks Mjolberd for making sure we had a GM all the way through. Hopefully we see each other around on more missions!

Yeah, they ran Say does the actions and successes of this special affect the next special. I know in certain 5th edition modules, when you report the results online, it affects certain future modules, like certain villain escaped/died, certain people were saved, the water was cured of poison, etc. Also disappointed I couldn't fire upon the Jinsuls that boarded the ship, especially if that affects the next special of them still being alive.

In Paizo's society play, kinda. Not exactly like that though. There will be certain things that are the canon happenings from this scenario. Then you may get a boon that does something in a later scenario if we accomplished certain things.