Pre-gameday SFS: Commencement (1-2) (Inactive)

Game Master Paladin of Baha-who?

Idomyll Tapped a few commands into his control deck getting ready for the fight he was sure was about to break out. While everyone was engaged he began to move to flank the "security" as best he could with his little drone.

"Oh, deary me. All this fuss over us? Would you believe that?" Lola tags the speaker with her exocortex targeting system.

"Fine, have it your way," say the corporate gangers, and the others raise their pistols as well.

Speck
Itch
Ganger blue
Ganger red
Radiance
Idomyll
Ganger yellow
LolaRuby
Rastar

"You really mean that, huh? Gonna rough up and kidnap an old woman." he pulls his pistol and tries to shoot the one in yellow.

Trick attack: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (12) + 12 = 24

Attack: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (9) + 3 = 12
Damage: 1d6 + 1d4 ⇒ (5) + (3) = 8

"You corporate goons are soooo predictable," Speck mumbles, amazingly while casting a spell. Tapping a few of his exposed augmentations, 3 shimmering bolts burst forth from his head to smash into one of them. Then, he drops down to a prone.

magic missile vs blue: 3d4 + 3 ⇒ (2, 4, 2) + 3 = 11

full round: cast magic missile; swift: drop prone

Itch watches the ganger carefully and shoots when he sees an opening, the bullet breaking through the armor and causing an exclamation of pain.

Speck's missiles explode into another, leaving him groaning in pain and bleeding heavily.

Does that mean we're up or do the gangers still get a turn?

Sorry for the delay, I thought I had submitted this post already.

The first ganger aims for "Ceren" with his pistol, firing twice. The first hits, sending a pulsing blast of electricity through her body. 2 points of electricity damage (nonlethal).

The badly wounded one fires wildly towards Itch, but misses and decides to make an escape, running alongside the creek.

Radiance
Idomyll
Ganger yellow
LolaRuby
Rastar
Speck
Itch
Ganger blue
Ganger red

"Ceren" gives a slight curse as the electricity flows through her and glares at the man who shot her. "That wasn't very nice! Uppity youngin'! And your aim's terrible. Let me skow you how it's done!" With a short prayer to Sarenrae, a laser rifle shows up in the 'old' woman's hands. She brings the gun up and takes aim with it. "Now repent for your mistakes!"

Laser rifle, vs. EAC: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (14) + 3 = 17
Damage 1/2 fire, 1/2 holy: 1d8 ⇒ 5

Idomyll double taps the trigger of his pistol sending metal slugs towards the security forces [/b]"Gilrynth Attack!"[/b] came his battle cry.

Full Round Attack VS KAC: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (16) - 1 = 151d20 - 1 ⇒ (19) - 1 = 18
Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 21d6 ⇒ 2

Gilrynth attack VS KAC: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (5) + 4 = 9
damage: 1d6 ⇒ 3

I think I'm "Ceren," since I looked more like an old woman. Not that I'm complaining if you want to take the damage!

Which ones are you shooting at, Radiance and Idomyll?

I am going to go for blue cause it is closer, I realize it is going to get a cover save because Gilrynth is in the way. I don't really have a better shot.

The drone is not actually in your way. To determine cover, you draw an imaginary line from any corner of your square (of your choice) to each corner of the target square. If any of those lines intersect an obstacle, the target has at least some degree of cover. You can check on the map by using the line tool if you want, but the drone is not in your way. In any case, your shots hit and drop him.

With a quick double tap, Idomyll downs the human running along the side of the creek. The drone fires as well but the bullet goes over the fallen foe, since it was aiming at where his chest was before he fell.

I now see that Radiance specified the one who shot her.

Radiance fires at the ganger who shot her, the holy fire making him regret his life choices.

"Well then, this is a little unexpected. Seems you're all in this together, and I don't think you're actually the target."

The remaining ganger fires his pistol carefully at Speck, then begins retreating to a more advantageous location. 2 nonlethal electricity damage to Speck.

I have lost track. Which one(s) is (are) up? Red?

Rastar took aim with his pistol, trying to take down the one who had figured out the game. it wouldn't help them, after all, if the thug just reported back to his masters that Ceren was still alive. He then closed the distance to the thug, hammer at the ready.

Please place me adjacent to the survivor, whichever one that is.

KAC pistol: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (9) + 5 = 14
damage: 1d6 ⇒ 4

Lola grins. "You figured that out all on your own? You're not as stupid as you look!" From beneath her voluminous dress she produces a pulsecaster rifle and returns fire on the last hired gun.

Pulsecaster to last target, with targeting: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (9) + 5 = 14
Pulsecaster NL damage, if applicable: 1d6 ⇒ 3

Itch carefully watches the remaining thug and tries tp time his shot to the man's movements.

Trick Attack: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (2) + 12 = 14

Attack: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (2) + 3 = 5
Damage: 1d6 + 1d4 ⇒ (2) + (1) = 3

Blue has been eliminated. I removed that icon.

Rastar shoots the one in yellow and steps up to him, hammer ready. Lola blasts the red shirt and he winches in shocking pain.

The ysoki characters are up.

GM, want to point out that Speck dropped to prone in the last round, so that's +4AC. Would that still hit him?

Pressing himself flat on the floor, Speck once again taps the same sequence on his head augementations, and again three glowing blue energy balls appear in front of him briefly before arcing towards the two remaining goons.

full action cast magic missile

MM vs yellow: 1d4 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5
MM vs red: 2d4 + 2 ⇒ (2, 2) + 2 = 6

Forgot about that, thanks. Your EAC would be 17 in that case and he would miss.

Yellow-shirt drops due to the magic missile blasting a hole in his chest. The remaining ganger barely avoids Itch's shot, and the missiles injure him badly as well.

"Awww, hells... this went to shit!" he exclaims and starts running. He's double moving, off the map entirely. He's actually 7 squares away from the edge of the map, so that's 35 feet. You can all try to take him down with ranged weapons.

"Don't let him get away! He can tell his masters about the subterfuge!"

Rastar moved after the man, cutting off his retreat and firing his pistol once more.

1d20 + 5 ⇒ (15) + 5 = 20
1d6 ⇒ 5

Rastar guns down the final ganger.

Investigation reveals these men all have criminal records and are well known mercenaries and assassins. The trail doesn't lead back to the Bluerise group, but perhaps the information Ceren stole can help the Starfinders track it down and turn it over to the station authorities.

Shortly thereafter, a call from Historia-7 comes in on one of your personal comm units. "Well done, Starfinders," she says in an even monotone. "Ceren -- rather, 'Dot' says she feels confident in your work, and I have personally gone over the identities you have created for the two of them. The work was satisfactory. A courier will meet you shortly to deliver a personal thanks from us."

As she promised, a courier robot greets you on your way to your next destination. A large gift box contains a credstick carrying 200 credits, a standard datajack, and an old, battered-but-functional frostbite-class zero rifle. A note in the box indicates that the datajack is a token of thanks from the Dataphiles, while the rifle was something Jubair found in an old trunk while packing his and Ceren's things.

It is now quite late relative to the time you awoke this morning, and though Absalom station can never be said to sleep, things are shifting from "day" to "night" in many parts of the station.

Lola stifles a yawn. "We've got what? Two more errands to run? If we're not under the gun for time, let's rest and finish up next cycle."

No particular time limit was set by Guidance, but you don't know if the tasks the other leaders might have for you have any kind of time limit.

Speck feels his whole body aching, still badly bruised from the rather embarassing encounter he had at the line, an experience he would like to put behind him. Still, there's a job (or jobs) to be done, and he is not one to skive off. "Let's just push on. Get it over and done with," he mumbles, rather grouchily.

"All right. What's closest?"

Radiance pulls out her data pad, trying to ignore how itchy her face is and the wound in her side is. "Well, the Wayfinders are all the way out in the field of ships around the station, so I'd say the Acquisitives are much closer! I say we go there. Who's with me?"

Lola nods. How can she still be so <expletive deleted> cheerful?

"Acquisitives it is, then. Let's be off. As for the rewards, I could use the long rifle if no one else has any proficiency with them. Four arms means twice the fun!"

Trying not to dwell on the fact that he just killed a person, Idomyll was quiet as he followed the others.

A quick inquiry confirms that Radaszam, leader of the Acquisitives, is working late tonight and is available to meet you. He maintains an office in the Nyori Palisades, a luxurious neighborhood located in Absalom Station’s transparent central dome. The same location is also the headquarters of the Obsidian Spiders, a mercenary outfit of which he is widely suspected as the clandestine owner.

As you are not far from that location, you are able to quickly travel there. The building is unremarkable, having an ordinary set of office suites and a comfortable waiting room decorated in dark grey hues. Over the intercom, a voice calls out, "Come in, come in."

The plain white doors of the ofce 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 Spike. 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 would 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.”

He calls up details of the upcoming race in a projection on one of the walls. It is taking place in a few days, which would give you barely enough time to enhance a racer.

"While you're here, would you like to contact Fitch of the Wayfinders? I was just about to make a video call to the Master of Stars, the Starfinder Society flagship, or what we have left of one after the Scoured Stars."

Lola starts at the story. "That was one of ours?! I saw that in the news. This Ratrod is going to be gunning for Laboni all the way. Fixing up her racer is going to be a challenge...." Her voice trails off as she contemplates the technical issues, but then she returns to herself. "Contact Fitch? Of course!"

"Really? You don't think letting her lose and learn a little humility wouldn't be better than showing her that the Society will back her idiocy every time she opens her damn mouth? What happens when we win? Do you really think she'll learn to not go mouthing off? I mean, you're the boss and all, but I'm not sure this is the right play, boss."

Itch's ears go flat as he hears Fitch's name. "If we must..." The ysoki shakes his head and turns back to discussion of Laboni.

"I guess we can help, but I don't know the first thing about junkracers."

"Leave the mechanics to me and Idomyll. You find out what you can about Ratrod."

"Really? You don't think letting her lose and learn a little humility wouldn't be better than showing her that the Society will back her idiocy every time she opens her damn mouth? What happens when we win? Do you really think she'll learn to not go mouthing off? I mean, you're the boss and all, but I'm not sure this is the right play, boss."

The vesk shakes his head. "First thing we must do is protect our reputation. Then we deal with the troublemakers within our ranks. Believe me, I will have words with Laboni when this is done."

Radaszam peers curiously at Itch when Fitch is mentioned. "You have history with her?"

"Leave the mechanics to me and Idomyll. You find out what you can about Ratrod."

"Eh hem, yours truly down here close to the ground is mighty handy around a wrench or computational system, too, yeah?" Speck's whiskers twitch in mild irritation, as once again the little folks are forgotten.

That's what happens when you're doing a quick post from your phone while something else is going on in the background. Sorry!

Lola has the grace to look abashed at having omitted the technomancer. "Better and better! So we'll need to know the rules, what kind of vehicle Laboni has already, and then we can make a plan for what needs to be punched up. Oh--Radaszam, do you know if she needs one of us to pilot?"

Radaszam peers curiously at Itch when Fitch is mentioned. "You have history with her?"

"Easy with the prying questions, big guy." Itch shakes his head. "Yeah, I guess you can say we got history, the worst kind -- family. Fitch is my mom's sister. I mean, one of her sisters. She's got 6 of them and 4 brothers too, so it ain't like we had to be close. But since I needed a place to hide out, an itchy whisker tells me that Auntie has something to do with me being here."

He draws his pistol and checks it. "I just hope she don't expect anything out of it. I didn't ask for help, and I don't much care for it."

"It wouldn't surprise me if she needs a pilot. She's better at running her mouth than the racer," Radaszam grumbles. "From my research, many of the racers are capable of being controlled remotely, but tradition demands a 'pilot' ride the actual vehicle, even if they are not directly in control."

The Vesk nods thoughtfully as he places a call to the Master of Stars. A beautiful, albino ysoki woman appears on the screen. No significant resemblance to Itch is notable, but he seems to know her face well. "Radaszam! What's the occa- Oh! Fresh meat! Finally. Hmm... Name's Fitch, but you probably know that already. I know some of you already, and I'm sure I'll get to know you all soon enough--" 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?”

A scream is heard dimly from the speakers, and she lowers her ears in an expression of frustration. "I'll call you back, Rad. You lot give me a call when you're on your way to the Armada." She breaks contact without waiting for acknowledgement.

"Well, that's Fitch for you," the vesk says amusedly.

Any questions or actions before heading to the Spike?

"Well, let's get going then. Ah well, I pity this Ratrod. No matter how good he is, he hasn't met us."

The Starfinders hurry to one of the great freight elevators that descend into the Spike, the massive, conical, lower extension of Absalom station. The Spike has sections for industry and shipbuilding but a large section of it is essentially a massive scrapyard. In this mountain of spare parts and salvage, a hollowed-out section houses Botscrap, a racing rack specifically sanctioned by the ysoki-dominated Salvage Union that controls most of the yards.

While traveling, you all review the rules of the racing on your personal comm units: racersrs 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 fre upon other competitors during the race, but fring into the audience is grounds for immediate disqualification; racer weapons must be nonlethal and may affect only opponents’ vehicles. You have time for further investigations, so ask any questions you need.

Once at the racetrack, you easily determine that there are six racers preparing for the upcoming race. Besides Laboni, who is a human in her late teens, there is Orsis, a male Damaya Lashunta; Lemgem, a female Feychild Gnome; Nyizin, a female Ryphorian (a race of humanoids from Triaxus); Velocity, a nonbinary android; and of course the ysoki, Ratrod.

Laboni is easy to find in the junkrace facilities due to her paisley clothes and bright white lab coat. She smiles at you sheepishly as you greet her. "Thanks for coming. It felt like I was thrown a spacesuit in a decompressing cargo bay when I got the text from Rad saying he was sending over some expert mechanics and hackers to help. I know I can't win this on my own -- I've got the best junkracer I know how to build, but it's not good enough compared with Ratrod's or the other racers. I would just drop out of the race, but I somehow ended up putting the honor of the Starfinder society on the line -- my posts on that forum just kinda got away from me, and before I knew it I was boasting about what we could do. I don't want to apologize until we've won, if we can, though."

Lola skips the pleasantries. "Tell me what your racer can do. Speed, defenses, armaments, how hard it is to pilot. Quicker we can start, better we can do. How's your piloting?"

Laboni scuffs her foot, embarrassed. "I'm alright... I'm willing to sit in the racer and let you pilot remotely if you want."

For comparison, here are the statistics for types of junkracers that are commonly used:

You have two days to work on this vehicle, or to interact with other racers and find out more about them, possibly even make alliances or undertake to undermine or sabotage them. Assuming you need to rest, that means you'll be able to work for two eight-hour shifts per day. Each shift, you can take an action to do something with Laboni's vehicle or something with the other racers.

These actions include:

Engineering, Physical Science, or Perception checks to create or find parts to enhance the junkracer. With a successful check, you can add one of the following improvements:

• 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.

During these shifts, during breaks, you can check out any one opponent by making a Sense Motive check, and one other relevant check depending on the opponent -- Diplomacy or Intimidate might work. I'll let you know what kind of approach might work based on the results of your Sense Motive.

You can also spend an entire shift going to each of the opponents and talking to all of them, which allows you to do the above with all opponents, but you can't make a check to improve the junkracer.

Sabotage is risky but possible, requiring stealth checks first to avoid being caught, then engineering checks for the actual sabotage itself. The rules are harsh on such behavior - one instance of attempted sabotage will result in the individual doing this being ejected from the arena. A second instance from the same crew will result in disqualification of the affiliated racer.

Do we know the DC of the checks to improve the racer; if so, what are they, and can we take 10 on our rolls?

Do we know the DC of the checks to improve the racer; if so, what is it, and can we take 10 on our rolls?

I'll reveal the DC after a few people make it. However, the success of these checks is essential to the success of this portion of the scenario, so taking 10 is not available, as per the Core Rulebook: "taking 10 is almost never an option for a check that requires some sort of crucial effect as a key part of the adventure’s story."

Itch is useless improving the racer. He'll spend his time focused on the other opponents.

Your perception isn't bad, and you can aid another if you want as well. But, so you're taking the shift to talk with and socialize with all the other racers? OK... give me five sense motive checks.

Itch moves among the other racers, basically ignoring Laboni and the team. He jokes with some of them and nods along as they talk about their junkracers. You see him rubbing his nose at times and at the end of the shift he makes his way back to the group.

Sense Motive #1: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (14) + 8 = 22
Sense Motive #2: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (15) + 8 = 23
Sense Motive #3: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (11) + 8 = 19
Sense Motive #4: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (1) + 8 = 9
Sense Motive #5: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (15) + 8 = 23