|
Flush nods eagerly to Laboni and pushes up the glasses on the bridge of her nose. "That sounds ah, right, um, too! Um, ah, not here to ah poke ah, fun, but um to help you do the victory ah, thing!"
The brilliantly-hued Vesk pulls out her customized set of tools (that seem to have an oddly disproportionate number of wrenches and hammers in it, even for a mechanic) and begins tapping gently at the piece of work in front of her, assessing the material strengths to see where things could be trimmed or added to.
This is being done to both improve speed and/or durability of the pile of parts.
Whichever seems easier to fix she'll get right on it. Y'know, for a human she's kind of attractive?
Flush's inept flirtations get a smile from Laboni, but she seems to be all business, at least for now. Unfortunately at the moment it doesn't look like he has much to add. Though, Flush gets a feel for what kinds of things would help.
Round 1 of 4:
Flush: Improve the junk racer (fail)
Clayton: Sense Motive or Engineering
Jaynix: Go
Knight of Tides: Go
Kultainen: Go
Jaynix moseys around the competion and gets a solid look at the race to come:
Lemgem is a blue-haired gnome covered in piercings, tattoos, and augmentations. A short conversation reveals she is obsessed with continual alterations to herself and her racer, to the point where her vehicle modifications skirt the bounds of common sense.
Nyizan is a female raphorian. Unstable black-market mods made of dragon bone and elemental energies fill Nyizin’s vehicle.
Orsis is a male damaya lashunta. He is a stoic, dark-haired lashunta who looks unfairly good in black and gold.
Ratrod is a ysoki with mottled gray-and-white fur. He has a showman’s personality to match his icon status. People in the Spike consider him something of a hero to the ysoki-dominated Scrap Union. You don't need to win so much as to beat him...
Velocity is a beautiful nonbinary android with silver hair and skin. They have self-modified to have both masculine and feminine attributes, and have decorated their clothing, eyelids, and lips with bright, colorful patterns.
With the competition scouted, going forward people can target one for specific work...
Round 1 of 4:
Flush: Improve the junk racer (fail)
Clayton: Reconnoiters
Jaynix: Go
Knight of Tides: Go
Kultainen: Go
|
|
Gideon listens carefully to Jaynix's report, and heads straight for the head honcho. Striking up a conversation, he tells Ratrod of grand interest in the race and its outcome. After establishing a friendly rapport, he turns to asking the ysoki about all the various valves and pumps in his vehicle and whether he's checked each of them for leaks and blockages -- for the ysoki's benefit, of course...
Gideon doesn't seem to get anywhere with Ratrod. He's focused and confident, maybe even overconfident. Maybe a little fear would do him well...
Kultainen knows just what to do, "Thanks. It is, isn't it? I'll tell you what. I want to see that Ratrod lose. Just be careful, he's got this piece of tech that turns energy blasts that his junker takes to his advantage."
Clayton looks around and chats. Looks like the skillset of the racers are all roughly similar, though Ratrod's got a much better racer. Upon returning, he notes that Lubani's has remote control capability...
Round 2 of 4:
Flush: Go
Clayton: Go
Jaynix: Go
Knight of Tides: Go
Kultainen: Go
|
|
Flush, you're trying to do too many things all at once. You need to focus on one aspect of the equation at a time. You can do this. Engineering is a piece of cake. Boil it down to the simplest expression -- no no, stop thinking about the human! -- go big speed, or go battletank. Wouldn't speed be better for a race? The Vesk looks a bit spaced out for a few seconds as she holds up a spanner, getting ready to calibrate her own skull...
Almost as if puppeted the brightly covered reptilian woman reaches her hands into the guts of the racer and fingers begin moving about, making connections, removing others, bypassing the bypass of the safety interlocks, and adding copious amounts of duct tape, baling wire, and blood.
"Um, so ah, how does that look, then?"
|
|
Gideon notes Jaynix skulking around and tries to offer a bit of a distraction. Leaning in close to Ratrod, he spells a warning. "Listen. I hear Laboni has quite a bit of power in her racer. Look at that -- look at those mods! I'd be careful out there if I was you. This challenge might not have been your best idea..."
Kultainen chats up the other racer who gives a bit of friendly advice, "WOW! Thanks for noticing. I picked it up at Elmore supplies, they're really good for that kind of thing. I'll give you the address. Say, you know what? I appreciate you noticing my work. I'll give you a little bit of advice. If you invert the polarity on the tachyon emitter and vary the pulse frequency, you can get a bit more speed, but be careful. There's a chance it'll blow out."
Flush works his magic, finding PLENTY he could do:
• 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.
The Knight of Tides works his way FIRMLY under Ratrod's skin, scaring him more than he'd ever admit.
Round 2 of 4:
Flush: Upgrade Pick
Clayton: Go
Jaynix: Go
Knight of Tides: Intimidate
Kultainen: Help
|
|
Flush pokes around a bit more, throwing a couple of things out -- they must not have been important, right? Her goal is to make this thing the fastest racer in the race. Piloting the abomination isn't her job, thankfully! Almost as an afterthought, she slaps a good coating of red paint on the creation, because Red Is Faster!
|
Kultainen works her way back through the crowd, and passes the advice on to Flush and Labroni.
"I'd suggest you only do it if you are about to cross the finish line and he is just ahead of you. Too risky otherwise."
To flush she reminds him "Energy weapons don't do anything to him, if you are going to mount a weapon, make it a kinetic one."
"Oh totally we can mount a weapon, AND you can control it!"
Round 2 of 4:
Flush: Upgrade
Clayton: Go
Jaynix: Go
Knight of Tides: Intimidate
Kultainen: Help
Jaynix is stealthy as all get out, but can't quite get his wires crossed the way he wants to...
Round 2 of 4:
Flush: Upgrade
Clayton: Go
Jaynix: Stealth success, engineering fail
Knight of Tides: Intimidate
Kultainen: Help
The Starfinder racer can have someone remotely handle either piloting and/or guns.
Clayton, you can install either a kinetic weapon or an energy weapon. Which would you like?
Clayton gets the kinetic weapon up and running, complete with a remote control so that a Starfinder on the sidelines can use it.
Round 3 of 4:
Flush: Go
Clayton: Go
Jaynix: Go
Knight of Tides: Go
Kultainen: Go
|
Kultanien continues to work the crowd, this time seeking out the voluptuous Velocity. "Good day to you!" smiles the golden girl.
"What beautiful designs you have! Did you make them yourself?" She starts the conversation, before bringing it around to the racing.
"I'm new here, what sort of things should I be looking out for?"
|
|
Flush looks up from her handiwork and rubs the horns under her chin thoughtfully. What next, Flush? You've pretty much given up on armor, do you want to go for handling or even more speed? It'll get harder to put more speed on it, and more dangerous.
Clayton will get a bit of a nod as he installs the kinetic weapon -- and there's a quick verification that it won't upset the power balance of the 'vehicle'.
"Okay, um, yeah, ah, I got it!" She dives into the vehicle once more, dragging along a pile of starship retro-thrusters and placing them all over the vehicle, wiring them through to the joystick. "That should ah work for um, uh, improving handling and ah give you a bit of a jump if you run into bumps and the like."
Kultainen gets a smile in return. "Indeed, though really I have designs more impressive than my skill. I just can't figure out how to integrate this system. Hey, I know you're with that human trying to beat Ratrod. I'll tell you what, if you have an engineer who can help me, I'll make sure to point my little gun towards anyone beating your girl!
Meanwhile Flush tweaks a few things here and there to fine tune the racer!
Round 3 of 4:
Flush: Improve!
[b]Clayton: Go
Jaynix: Go
Knight of Tides: Go
Kultainen: Chat
|
|
Finished chilling Ratrod, Gideon moves on to warm up Orsis, mostly by complimenting his looks.
"Nice get-up. Black suits you. I'm fond of the color myself, as you can see." There is a brief pause. "And the gold accents are a fine touch, much like the fire of the stars that dot the deep of the Vast."
The Knight moves on to the lashunta, who immediately begins to probe Gideon's thoughts. It's not a hostile feeling, but more one of caution. "Ha! You're right, I do. Look I saw you messing with that snot. I'm not going to go any easier on your team, but I'll tell you what. Let me tell you a few things about the course. I'd rather face your team that that fraderachi."
Round 3 of 4:
Flush: Improve!
Clayton: Go
Jaynix: Go Go
Knight of Tides: Recon
Kultainen: Chat
|
|
"I'll ask... what sort of gun do you carry on your cat?" she asks the other android.
"Word on the street is that he can capture energy weapons and use them to power his cart and make it go even faster."
--=-=-=-=-=--
When she heads back to the rest she passes on the offer.
"One of you engineering types want to help my pretty friend over there? She is willing to fire at the rats craft if we give her a boost."
"Thanks for that. I'll keep an eye out. Not sure what weapon I was planning on. But that certainly helps!" Kultainen passes on the information, and heads back to the crew.
Round 3 of 4:
Flush: Improve!
Clayton: Go
Jaynix: Go Go
Knight of Tides: Recon
Kultainen: Chat
Clayton tweaks the gun a bit to make it a better shot.
Round 3 of 4:
Flush: Improve!
Clayton: Improve
Jaynix: Go
Knight of Tides: Recon
Kultainen: Chat
The Starfinder racer can have someone remotely handle either piloting and/or guns.
Round 4 of 4:
Flush: Go
Clayton: Go
Jaynix: Go
Knight of Tides: Go
Kultainen: Go
The Starfinder racer can have someone remotely handle either piloting and/or guns.
Unfortuantely Kultainen can't quite work out a better solution, though it seems just on the tip of the fingers.
Orsis looks over at the Knight, "You know you're colorblind right?"
Round 4 of 4:
Flush: Go
Clayton: Go
Jaynix: Go
Knight of Tides: Fail
Kultainen: Fail
|
|
Flush, frustrated with the efforts of the party to try and help her with the Starfinder racer, heads over to Velocity's vehicle to see if there's anything she can do with it.
"So ah, you have this ah, power conduit here that you were actually feeding to itself so it was ah, a dead lead, and this one here you were feeding back to ah, propulsion. With the ah, two of those in place you should have a smoother ride AND ah, be able to um, y'know, ah, use the ah, weapon." she explains to Velocity. "Too lengthy um didn't register? Just push the red ah, button when the system goes bright indicating um, target in ah, optimal shooting space."