PbP Gameday VI: Hmm's Starfinder #1-00: Claim to Salvation (Inactive)

Game Master Hmm

Raia puts a reassuring arm around each of the goblins "Oh, you poor dears! Don't worry, I won't let the mean man hurt you." She looks to the rest of her crew with concern etched on her face "I don't like the sound of someone like Borgor being in charge of these little guys. I think we'll have to pay him a visit..." Noting Obo's looking towards the catwalk, she adds "After checking in on the shaman upstairs, of course."

Obozaya makes her way over to Iseph and says;

How is this going to play out, are these goblins going to be.... pets? she says finally, looking for the right description. The So- our employers won't want them left here and if we stick them on a ship out of here they'll either crash into someone or try to rob them.

That throaty rumble emanates again as she seems dissatisfied with any option.

Whatever. Let's deal with this shaman first.

I will have used 1RP to recover stamina as well if Quig is repairing Scout

Looking at Obo weighing his words Iseph speaks in an almost monotone voice "The way i seeing Obo' you are right these... 'pets' as you refer to it probably should not be left to their own devices. But... this is a big but... maybe o great big powerful New New chief might have some contacts to work on connecting these easily mislead begotten souls here to a better alternative or goblin reservation. Heck maybe our employer might 'hire' them to get into some places and explore. Wouldn't surprise me if she ends up with a few under her command in the future doing what they do." Taking in a deep breath after that word vomit Iseph continues "Plus they probably can squeeze into some unlikely spots those of our size and your immense bulk wouldn't even think of trying." Thinking to himselfDid i just call her horizontally challenged? I may pay for that.

"Well this is becoming more interesting by the moment. It takes a lot of bravado to pretend to be a god. Real gods tend to frown upon things like that."

Keskodai watches as Raia treats the goblins like humanoid children, something he finds oddly familiar as a sentient carrying around his child to show them the universe.

He mentally projects a few words to her. "You are good to these goblins. They may be small like the children of many races, but they have a mean temperament. I hope your kindness changes this in them."

Raia, oblivious to Obo and Iseph's conversation, is deep in thought, wondering what the legal process for adopting stray goblins might be when she hears Keskodai I hope so too! I'm sure all they need is a strong parental figure in their life... She kneels down in front of the two goblins and smiles "Ok, I need you two to stay here for a bit while we go and speak to Gutproud. Can you do that for me?"

"Plus they probably can squeeze into some unlikely spots those of our size and your immense bulk wouldn't even think of trying." Thinking to himselfDid i just call her horizontally challenged? I may pay for that.

Obo looks suddenly quite offended and, even more surprisingly considerably more hurt by Iseph's words than the white-hot laser blasts mere moments ago.

Many among my people find 'immense bulk' a rather attractive quality I'll have you know.... she grumbles under her breath as she moves away. Maybe I'll squeeze your stupid android head and you'll fit into things more easily.... like the trash compactor...<sniff!>

She stomps off to the ladder and hauls herself onto the catwalk in a huff.

Quig watches Obozaya stomp away... and scratches his head: "Oh my... oh my..." he mutters.

Obozaya climbs up the ladder to find a locked door, but it is nothing that an angry Vesk (or a curious Ysoki with a tool belt) can't handle. Whichever way you do it, the door to command center is soon hanging wide open.

A soft glow radiates from flickering computer screens, washing the various numerous workstations under a film of light the color of sea foam. The constant hum of electronics floods the room, enhanced periodically by several nagging pings from blinking console alarms. Dim light radiates from several workstations in this cramped area, which peers over the hangar bay 40 feet below. The four chairs in front of these workstations appear unused.

Raia finds her attention drawn by the computer in front of her. A green-screened mainframe computer terminal covers the eastern side of the command center. It periodically showers the area in harmless sparks as thick cables sprawl from underneath its exposed bulk.

The goblins look up at Raia in awe. "The glowing green god! This holy place!"

What do you do? There's a lot of broken stuff here, including the mainframe, but some of it is clearly fixable.

Quig struts over to the pile of power cables, and laughs: "What a fool, look, I am sure the Shaman got zapped!".
Quig kicks a sort of lump that lies under all the cables, that actually gives off a whiff of charred flesh.
"What an idiot!" says Quig... but as he kicks the lump, he connects with the cables, and gets a bad jolt, burning his leg! "Ouch!".
Scout pipes up: "What an idiot!"

Casting a dark look at Scout, Quig grumbles and pulls out Livewire's family tool-kit, and glances at all the stuff, trying to determine what might be fixed.
"Raia, what do you want us to do?".

Raia squees with excitement, transfixed by the beautiful sight of the green monitor The glowing green god is a computer!

"Oh my!" Raia exclaims as Quig kicks the lump "The wire shaman..." She instinctively tries to cover the goblins' eyes "So that's why she was taking so long... Poor thing mustn't have known what she was doing." Looking back and forth between the wires and the screen, she replies to Quigs question with one of her own "Would you be able to fix it without hurting yourself? Because, I don't know about you, dear, but I'm mighty curious to see what the glowing green god has to say..."

Worried about how the goblins might react, she softly says "Don't worry, we're just going to find out what's wrong with the glowing green god so that we can make it all better."

If Quig tries repairing it, Raia will hand him tools when he needs them.
Aid Another, Engineering: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (7) + 11 = 18

"Everyone has an end and everyone visits Pharasma one day. Though this is a pretty bad way to go."

Keskodai takes a moment to bow his head in silent prayer for the shaman.

"Please be careful with this device. It has already taken the life of this goblin shaman, and i don't want to have to pray for the Lady of Graves to guide another soul to her spire today"

Powering his Energy Shield up, which shimmers and surrounds the Ysoki with a little force field to help reduce any discharges from the mainframe, Quig kneels down, takes out Livewire's kit, and thanks Raia for handing him the correct tools from it.
He then starts to whistle and hum along as he tries to repair the computer:
"Toss the goblins
In the bins
Throw the shaman
In the can
But hold on t'your wig
Here comes Quig...

As Quig works, he does by necessity uncover the charred corpse of the wire shaman, Gutproud Tech Talker. "Oh no!" the goblins wail when they see her corpse. "She knew glowing green god better than anyone else! Who talk to god now?"

With some of the preliminary work already having been done by the now deceased Gutproud Techtalker, Quig easily repairs the mainframe!

Whiirrrrr.

The monitors lights up. The mainframe has a touch screen and keyboard set up as interfaces. The keyboard has symbols that look eerily familar to you. In fact, some of them appear exactly like the seven patterns seared onto the arms of the goblins.

A prompt screen appears on the room's computers, and asks for a 7-digit numerical code. What do you do?

Now that you know how the Mainframe works, you all have a +5 to hack the system.

Raia excitedly heads over to the monitor "Don't worry little ones, I'll talk to it now." She frowns when she sees the symbols "That's odd..." She looks at the arms of the two goblins "How did you get those marks on your arms? Who's the oldest, and who's the tallest?" The cogs start whirring in her head as she considers how to brake the code Maybe the password is in age order... Maybe I should just try uploading new firmware, or design a new algorithm for recursively searching the net- Oh, I'll just brute force it!

Computers, Bonus: 1d20 + 14 + 5 ⇒ (17) + 14 + 5 = 36

Watching in amazement as Raia gets one of her wild hairs and moves with such speed Iseph can barly make out her key strokes.

Whispering to Quig "Should we let her? She might fall in to her work and... What did the humans call it... Follow The White Rabbit again."

Obozaya watches on as the more tech-savvy members of the group try to crack into the system.

She wonders what they might think if she admitted the smell of charred goblin flesh has made her hungry but, remembering Iseph's "immense bulk" comment, she decides against it.

Wow, technology is not my forte. I am happy that the others are here.

Pulling the keycard from the north most chair Iseph asks "So whay do think think this goes too?" he looks over the card for any markings or symbols.

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"Wow. Just look at her work! I only wish i could understand the complexities of computer systems. Even at my best i just press some buttons and the device does all the hard work."

Click-click-click-click. Whirr.

Raia slips into the foreign computer, going deeper and deeper. Firewalls and protections fall against her superior hacking skills.

First, she discovers some of the basics of the computer system, figuring out the controls for turning the hangar's lights on and off. As her fingers fly and the lights click on throughout the room, the goblins shade their eyes and look up at Raia with awe.

"New new chief communes with Glowing Green God!" Red says aloud, thinking, Hope she still not need sacrifice, or if she need sacrifice, she take Orange, not me.

Raia learns how to activate or deactivate electronically sealed doors, silence the klaxon of alarms pinging within the room and adjust the ambient temperature between slightly chilly to balmy warm. Then she notices a Ping. Ping. Ping. It's the mysterious signal again. She realizes that she can now pinpoint the source of the mysterious signal to somewhere beneath the hangar.

By the time she digs down to the second set of firewalls, the patterns and algorithms of this system have become obvious to her. She finds a backdoor into them easily, and discovers a whole new set of controls.

★ ---- ★ ---- ★ ---- ★

Congratulations, Raia. This computer system is yours now. From your datapad, you can reach just about everything remotely.

• Lights Out. You can turn lights on and off wherever you go.
  
• Strobe. You can cause lights to rapidly turn off and on again in weird and distracting patterns.
  
• Up, up and away. You can turn gravity off and on and send people flying.
  
• Now, hear this! You can record and play audio files over the speakers in this complex.

★ ---- ★ ---- ★ ---- ★

Where to now?

Oh the power! Mwuahahahah :)

"Aha! Got it..." Raia, still fiddling with her datapad, turns around to face her crew mates and the awe-struck goblins "The Glowing Green God and I are now the best of friends!" She announces with a huge smile "We can do all sorts of fun things together." With a final few taps on her datapad, her voice crackles out of the speakers "Fun things!" Clipping it back safely to her belt, she continues "It also told me exactly where that signal is coming from, and it's somewhere beneath us. Now if we can just figure out how to get dow-" She suddenly notices Iseph messing around with a key card of some sort "Oh, what's that?!"

As Raia and Iseph study the key card, they realize that it would have fit into the slot in the computer, making it easier to hack the machine in the first place. But... it turned out to be unneeded.

The orange goblin tugs on Raia's tunic. "UpDown Room leads to Spirit Hole where Big Mean Chief is! Touch the three hearts, then zoom to the hole!"

Then Red chimes in. "But mist growls if you don't touch quick, quick!"

They point to a set of doors on the opposite end of the catwalk from you.

Where the Red Arrow is on the map. Feel free to place yourselves there.

"Well seems you have rendered this useless Raia." tossing the key card on the console. "No need to keep it then. So off to the Elevator then?" Iseph walks the rest of the catwalk and stands warily next to the sliding doors.

Seriously, if I could adopt those goblins, I would! :)

Raia starts laughing "Well my way was more fun anyway." Looking towards the doors she agrees "Yes, whatever Borgor is doing down there, it can't be good..." She looks down at the goblins and smiles warmly "Thank you. You two have been such a big help, I'm so proud of you!" After giving them a big hug, she follows Iseph across the catwalk.

Obozaya follows herself. Her mood brightens, but only slightly, at the prospect of facing off against the Borgor.

We can put an end to whatever his scheme is, I'm sure. We're working well together as a crew. I don't want to get ahead of myself, there's lots of bullets to fly yet, but maybe we should stick together after this is all done.

Altronus scratchs his head with one of his hands.

"Does some of you need preparations? I will need to meditate if we will confront."

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Quig makes sure he does not get to close to Raia, unsure whether she might strike him down with some thunderbolt... "Has she really become a goddess?"" he wonders.

Keskodai chuckles at Quig's statement, but tries to stifle it.

"Who could know, Quig. With near infinite worlds and dimensions i guess that anything is possible. For now at least Raia can control the lights and lifts, which will certainly be very handy for travelling further in this place."

Raia smiles and jokes "Didn't you know? Once you control the lifts, you can ascend any time you want! Why, I have the power of ascension in the palm of my hand..." She holds up her datapad and waves it around theatrically.

The doors are electronically sealed, but that does not stop Raia!

A thick plume of steam rolls out from the freshly opened doors. After a moment, the steam evaporates, revealing a marked transition into an entirely different area—a section of an entirely different starship. Where the hangar bay had straight lines and smooth plastic walls, this elevator has exposed cords and wires in varying dark shades such as charcoal and umber.

As you enter the elevator, a singsong voice greets you in an alien tongue. Soft lights wash over a smooth, wet surface at the elevator's southern wall. Scores of holographic glyphs appear in three spiraling patterns foreign to the Pact Worlds.

ඔබ දන්නවාද?
ඔබ හදවත ස්පර්ශ කරනවාද?
ප්රමාද නොකරන්න;
ඔබේ මනස ඉරා දැමෙනු ඇත!

The goblins point to the buttons in sequence. "The hearts! The hearts!" They point to the exact center of each spiral.

"Go, Go, Go!"

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Did Altronus just push the buttons indicated?

Who builds something like this? Obozaya asks, frustrated, before jabbing her fat fingers directly into the "hearts" as indicated by the green space-rats hanging around by Raia.

The elevator doors close and it rockets down toward Shantyspire's base. The lift swiftly decelerates and comes to a smooth stop.

The elevator doors open into a rectangular storage room that shares the same design as the hangar bay above. A mesh grating just beyond the western elevator door overlooks stacked crates below. An adjacent set of stairs descends to the floor. A second set of stairs continues to a separate, stone chamber to the east.

A pot light is illuminated on the far end. You hear the sounds of eating and smell charred flesh. A set of stairs descends from the catwalk's eastern edge to the cargo hold's floor amid several steel crates. The crates are stacked two high throughout the hold, reaching a height of 10 feet. Most of the crates show signs of having been busted into and pillaged.

How do you proceed?

I flipped the map so you can see this room better!

Exiting the elevator, Raia sniffs the air and can't help wondering what, or who, was recently overcooked Is anyone else as curious to find out who's behind that crate as I am? She thinks to her crew mates as she fiddles with her datapad yet again. A big red button appears on the tiny display and she starts hovering a finger over it What would you guys say to a little zero-G fun?

Turning off the gravity probably isn't the best idea, but it might be fun :) I'll let the more combat inclined decide.

You do remember you can also use telepathy, right?

Hehe, how did I forget that? Edited accordingly ;)

"Do our boots work here?", Quig asks, before adding, not too sure of Raia's new status, anyhow, better be safe where Gods are involved - after all, she already can speak into our minds - "Oh, err.. Almighty Raia".

On the road now so cannot check CRB, but all armor suits have boots that can be used to anchor oneself in Zero G. Not sure if they state when/where it works. But if someone can check it could be a plan to turn them on to anchor ourselves and send the others flying!

Raia smiles Almighty? Oh, Quig, you do know how to make a girl blush... I don't know about the boots though. She thinks for a moment, trying to remember what the saleswoman had said about the features of her tempweave We could always just hold on tightly to the catwalk?

I did look, but I couldn't find anything other than that boot clamps are available with most armour.

Keskodai replies to Raia using the same telepathic communication that she used.

That sounds like a very interesting idea. I'm curious to see what happens if you turn off the artificial gravity for this area. If it becomes too hard for us to move about it should be simple enough for you to switch it back on, is that correct?

Keskodai seems even more chatty and able to express himself better when communication in this way.

Looking at the description, you can do a localized attempt to turn off gravity in only one section of the room for one round, so I am going to assume that you are going to do just that.

Raia sends the command to her console, and gravity turns off in the back section of the room. A two-headed giant, dishes, eating utensils and a half eaten charred goblin leg float upwards to the ceiling. "What the hell?" The giant floats upside down, arms and legs flailing awkwardly for a moment as it reaches for a firearm. One of the giant's faces stares at you with a malevolent and angry expression. "Interlopers! You ain't gettin' nothing but DEAD. I was here on this rock first!"

The other head has a jaw that hangs open and kind eyes that stare out, vacantly.

★ ---- ★ ---- ★ ---- ★

Round 1

Active conditions: Zero Gravity (in back half of room)

Keskodai

================================

BorgorBago (floating)

================================

Iseph
Quig & Scout
Obozaya
Raia
Altronus

================================

Quig's eyes bug as he sees a giant: "By my nuts and bolts, what the heck is that overgrown mutant?!".

That thing's uglier than you first thing in the morning Quig! Obozaya growls, trying to decide between her doshko or autorifle.

"Hypocrite! If you were here first, where'd the goblins come from, you big troll!" Raia yells back at the giant.

Life Science: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (9) + 14 = 23

"Heh. Gobs don't count! They're minions and lunch!" Borgor retorts.

life science: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (12) + 8 = 20 Close but not quite enough.

mysticism: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (5) + 13 = 18

"An old human saying is that binary heads are an improvement on the singular. You have two heads but one of them seems rather silent right now. What does your other head think about this situation?"

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (7) + 1 = 8
Quig is still very concerned about Obozaya's comment about Quig being ugly in the morning, before starting to decide between her doshko or autorifle: "Is Obo' gonna shoot or slice ME?" Quig wonders... and does not pay much attention to the giant's heads.

"He ain't thinkin' about nothin, and that's the way I like it!" Borgor sneers.

Keskodai, you have an action here before the troll acts. Do you want to use it?

★ ---- ★ ---- ★ ---- ★

Round 1

Active conditions: Zero Gravity (in back half of room)

Keskodai

================================

BorgorBago (floating)

================================

Iseph
Quig & Scout
Obozaya
Raia
Altronus

================================

I'm happy to wait and see what the creature does first.

life: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (12) + 5 = 17 sense motive: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5

I know he is an ettin. Just that.

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