PbP GameDay VI: GM S's "The Commencement" (Table 2) (Inactive)

Game Master Chris Marsh

Zigvigix gave us money for one copy already though, right?

"We also acquired a second copy for your own enjoyment," Gideon says curtly, handing over the second copy.

The shirren squeals in delight and offers you single charge cloak as a reward for your thoughtfulness!

With shaking heads the new recruits head out for their final assignment....

The Wayfinders’ transitory nature precludes them from having a single stationary headquarters on Absalom Station. Instead, the Wayfinders operate out of the Master of Stars, an enormous starship that is part of the Armada orbiting Absalom Station. The Master of Stars is currently undergoing extensive repairs, obsessively overseen by the Wayfinders’ leader Fitch. A Society
shuttle takes you out to the orbiting ship.

The station’s Armada can be seen from the shuttle’s view screen as it takes off, gleaming figures standing out against the emptiness of space. The Master of Stars immediately stands out from the rest, as layers and layers of scaffolding obscure its hull. Tiny lights flicker among the metal beams as distant figures weld plates and heat shields to the ship’s exterior. The shuttle smoothly glides closer until it reaches the starship’s docking bay, slipping through the magic field that keeps the hold pressurized with breathable atmosphere. As the shuttle doors open, a small drone flies in and pops up a holoscreen, displaying a harried-looking ratfolk.

“Finally, fresh meat!” the ysoki exclaims over the screen, sounding pleased. “Name’s Fitch—pleasantries over, time to get to work. I had some trouble earlier with the lights flickering on the ship, and now both the lights and computers have suddenly gone out on E-Deck. No idea what’s causing it, but you work this job long enough and—” Fitch’s attention flicks to something offscreen, and she shouts “Kirkath! The welding torch is not a toy! You wanna go in the toddler’s pen with the other kids?” She snorts dismissively before continuing, “Sorry, some of these little ones would cut off their own heads if I let them. Anyway, it could be some lunkhead screwed up the wiring, but that’s a pretty big system failure for a simple electrical short. I’d prefer to send in some people with combat training to scout it out, just in case someone or something is sabotaging the ship. If it’s nothing, great, get the power back on if you can. If there’s something suspicious, use your comm units to report in to me. I’ll give you the access codes, so— Selicha! If you touch that panel I will staple you to the hull!”

The screen on the drone cuts out, then flashes to display the ship’s schematics and the passwords for the computers on E-Deck.

Unfortunately, when you dock, the level is pitch black. Map updated.

Switching to darkvision, Kultanien looks around for any light switch, or obvious wiring or power cupboard.

"At least there is gravity and an atmosphere. And heating."

perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (19) + 4 = 23

Kultainen can see that the place is a mess.

Kultainen approaches the computer terminal.

"A working computer over here... so there must be some power - maybe just the lighting circuits are out?"
computers: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (9) + 5 = 14

"Um, so, ah, if you run a level four diagnostic it ah, should ah come up ah, pretty quick what's missing or down and then you should, ah, be able to ah, cleanly bypass the break in the ah, circuitry?" Flush offers hopefully. It's too dark in here for her to see at the moment. Huh. We should probably get that upgraded at some point when we have the funds.

Computers(Assist): 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (2) + 8 = 10

Kultainen and Flush work together to get the lights back on. Scattered barrels and boxes line the lowered floor of this storage chamber. A thick bulkhead to the port side leads farther onto the deck, while a similar bulkhead to the aft connects to an arterial hallway that runs the length of the deck. You catch a computer system that you could likely use to reroute power and get some lights back here.

A pair of very frightened human children blink at you. "Are we in trouble because of our pet?"

"Hello there" says Kultanien.

"Who are you? I don't think you are in any trouble. We are Starfinders here to help repair this bit of the ship."

She pauses "What happened, do you know? And where is your pet?"

diplomacy: 1d20 + 7 + 1d6 ⇒ (16) + 7 + (3) = 26

Kultainen's tone of voice strikes just the frequency the kids needed to hear to open up.

"I'm Kieu Lan and this is my sister, Kieu Si. Ever since mom vanished with the other Starfinders, dad has to bring us to work. Well, this morning we saw some weird alien. I think we woke it up in the kids area and it came here. It's our new pet! Anyway we decided to keep it as a pet and hid it in the next room."

Si speaks up, "We ummm.... set a trap for anyone who goes in. Sorry."

Lan responds, "Please. We think our pet ate some wires and that's why the lights went out. We didn't think any adults would come down here. Please don't be mad."

"Don't worry little ones. We'll have a quick look. If it ate wires... did you not think it might be dangerous? Then again if it likes plastic wiring, maybe it isn't - at least not directly. "

She looks at the doorway. "Do you think you could disarm the trap you set for us? What does it do exactly?"

Lost mother, yes, they will be upset

"I am sorry for your mothers loss. It maybe that she can yet be recovered..."

They look at each other, "IT's a REALLY bad trap. Mommy was a Starfinder, she taught us not to trust adults who aren't her friends. Sorry, but the trap stays."

Kultainen shows the implant she received earlier. "But we too are Starfinders. And if we are to help get the lights back on, then we need to get in there. Can you tell us a little more about the really bad trap? Is that why the electrical system is down?"

Gideon toggles on his suit's flashlight, but lets Kultainen do the talking. He quietly engages his gravity hammer.

Flush toggles on a particular implant that verifies that she's a member of the Starfinder Society as she goes over to look at the circuits and hopefully the layout of the 'trap' that the kids built.

Engineering(Examining): 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (18) + 11 = 29

"So, um, this is some pretty good work, but it uses a lot of ah, power. Um, would it um, be okay if um, I tried to make it better and use um, less power and do the um, same thing?"

Flush pauses for a second.

"Um, so, ah, could you um, describe your um, new pet, please?"

Clayton checked his weapon and the ammo status as the kids were talking about the trap and their mother. Switching on his implant in hopes of calming the kids and letting them trust his group some more.

"Where is the pet and where have you seen it the last?"

Both children sheepishly point to the door to the west. Neither child makes eye contact, but they whisper [smaller]"since you're Starfinders."[/bigger]

You can see the trap they've jury-rigged. It doesn't look overly complicated. Lan sees the party looking at it, "It's just the fire extinguisher will go off on you if you open the door. I'm not sure how to undo it."

Gideon looks over the door. "How did you rig it? What is the trigger?"

Anyone with Engineering want to look at it?

"I don't know anything about engineering..." admits Kultainen.

"Children, I'll call your father right now to let him know you are safe. He is probably worried sick about you."

Quickly looking up the father on her com unit, or a nearby terminal, the android puts through a call to him.

"We just cranked the fire extinguisher's sensitivity and aimed the nozzle at the door. If you get close, you'll get covered." Both kids tilt their heads down in embarrassment, but you detect a bit of pride in their work.

"We're sorry, you can call our dad, just don't hurt our pet."

Engineering: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (6) + 11 = 17

Flush looks up, walks over, and takes a moment or two disabling the device.

"Huh. Um, that's not bad for um, a quick, how you say, tribunal-rig"

"Um, so, ah, you know that ah, using fire safety equipment like this is ah, bad and um... okay, so what are we looking at now?"

Flush easily resets the extinguisher to normal, allowing the door to be safely opened...

Sort of. It's hard to see in here. It seems like the life support systems have gone haywire like the other systems around here. There's so much moisture in the air that it's like a fog cloud.

This area consists of two adjoining chambers. Four large containment capsules fill the fore room, three of which hold stasis-locked objects, including a tablet, a strange curved sword, and an odd spiral of bioluminescent coral. A crack leaks fluid from the fourth capsule, which displays a foot-wide breach near the bottom. The aft room contains several desks, each hosting a deactivated computer terminal.

There are holes everywhere, about a half meter wide. It looks like it's chewing through walls and coming out places. It MUST be the cause of all the trouble.

You can find their pet with a Survival check, you could try to follow the path with an Acrobatics check (watch out for sharp edges!), or you could use your knowledge of Engineering to deduce where the pet is now in relation to the holes.

Without getting too close to the holes, Flush would like to use either Life Sciences or Physical Sciences to determine how the holes were made -- ie, chewing, blaster fire, acid, etc, if possible?

SCIENCE!: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (19) + 8 = 27

The Vesk 'nerd' looks at the holes carefully, trying not to get too close to any of them while attempting to figure out whatmight have caused them.

"Are ah we um sure it's ah one um creature?"

It looks like.... by chewing! the pattern is also consistent with a single creature.

"I'm not sure I want to get close to anything that can chew holes in a spaceship..."

And I have none of those skills. I could try survival or acrobatics untrained, but will give the others a chance first.

Holding his hammer out to steady himself -- using the literal weight of gravity as an anchor -- Gideon carefully traces the path with is black armored boots.

Acrobatics: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (19) + 4 = 23

The Knight manages to weasel his way in the damage. Sparks continue to fly a bit. All of a sudden a creature pops out into the room!

It looks like an eight legged cat with a head the size of its body, and most of THAT is taken up by a mouth that contains rows upon rows of teeth. The eyes stare at the party as Gideon flushes it out. It begins making a series of noises that are far too complex for animal intelligence, but there's nothing remotely close to an understandable language.

It's obvious NONE of you have ever encountered, or even heard of, anything like this. You can blast it or catch it. Catching it won't be easy. I'll take an Acrobatics, Athletics, or Diplomacy check.

While presumably Kultainen opens her mouth, Gideon circles around and, in an instant, lunges with blistering speed.

Athletics: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (14) + 6 = 20

Gideon doesn't grab the alien, BUT he does manage to flush it into an easier place for others to also grab.

Kultanien does her best to help corner the alien.

acrobaitcs: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3

But only narrowly avoids falling down a hole.

Flush blinks a few times at the creature's appearance and reaction, and attempts to help out, more by blocking particular exits and holes than actually going up and confronting all those teeth!

Athletics: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (12) + 2 = 14

CLayton watches the show and just blinks with a grin on his lips. "you boys got this?"

"Boys?"

Flush looks at herself in confusion.

"Did ah, someone slip something in my food or um, drink when ah, I wasn't um, er, looking?" she inquires before glancing back at Clayton, somewhat flustered.

"OH! Um, yeah, um, human um term generic for People. Got it. Um, ah, yeah, but um, it can't ah, hurt if you ah, watch the um, exit since the ah, door isn't the same as it um, was before we came in here."

Flush is suggesting Clayton lend a hand, because that whole 'work together to build a better team paradigm through exploration and groupthink reporting... ie, 'Explore, Report, Cooperate'

"You could help," Gideon growls, stalking the thing's next move.

Yeah, I doubt a 3 and a 14 are going to cut it here.

grinning at the rest he takes a step back as he regards the construction of the pipes, the ducts and where the best hiding spot would be. "I think he is hiding somewhere between this opening and the one over there..."

Engineering: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (6) + 4 = 10

The party quickly works together to corner, and capture the strange creature. Not a single one of you know what it is, so you can assume this is a first contact of some variety. The children CLEARLY had no idea what this new "pet" was.

Fitch is ecstatic! You've managed to not only help with the situation, but you've discovered a new species!

It doesn't take him long to contact HQ and before long you get a call back from Guidance asking you to return.

The intelligence once again presents itself in a holographic form—this time taking on the appearance of a wizened male korasha lashunta— to congratulate you on your successful missions. It goes on to state that in the aftermath of the Scoured Stars incident, the Society needs skilled agents more than ever, and that it sees potential in YOU as you start your new careers as Starfinder field agents.

By not only completing all your missions, but completing them WELL, your reputation within the organization quickly begins to grow.

"So, ah, yeah, um, er, that's that and um, good job, then? If um, you ah, ever need ah, a technician I will um, well, uh, here's my ah, comm number and um be sure to um, reference this uh, mission so er, ah, um, I know it is um, you and not some canned-meat advertiser, um, okay?" the nerdly Vesk offers to the team.

Just wanted to punctuate with some personality on my side. Thank you for running, Game Master S.

Sort of at a bit of a loose end, Flush goes to look for Laboni to see about setting further particulars for the get-together.

Kultanien offers a smile to the hologram.

"I am excited. I wonder what new missions will come our way in the future?"

Thanks for the introduction GMS. I especially liked the race.

Gideon nods curtly to each of the others, and to Guidance, and promptly strides from the room, off to do... whatever it is that he does.

Tech fail. Will scan and email tomorrow.