[SFS_Aerondor] 01-10 The Half Alive Streets (Inactive)

Game Master Aerondor

I was doing some editing as you were posting, so it may not have been there to see

Making her way into the room, listening to the conversation and then seeing the first shots fired, or more like magic missiles she turns on the tracking of her exocortex and shoots at the one Arratoi wants dead, twice.

Actions, move action, shoot 2x and tracking

Azimuth rifle, tracking, get 'em: 1d20 + 4 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (13) + 4 + 1 + 1 = 19
Fire Damage: 1d8 ⇒ 7

Azimuth rifle, tracking, get 'em: 1d20 + 4 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 4 + 1 + 1 = 10
Fire Damage: 1d8 ⇒ 2

HK says Meatball are so predictable.

The android shoots twice at the one firing.

Lazer Rifle: 1d20 + 7 - 4 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 7 - 4 + 1 = 10
Damages (F): 1d8 ⇒ 3
Lazer Rifle: 1d20 + 7 - 4 + 1 ⇒ (16) + 7 - 4 + 1 = 20
Damages (F): 1d8 ⇒ 4

Will attempts a trick shot against whichever one is left standing!

Trick: 1d20 + 10 + 4 ⇒ (16) + 10 + 4 = 30 Vs DC 20+CR.

Membrane Holdout Pistol: 1d20 + 4 + 1 ⇒ (14) + 4 + 1 = 19, for 1d6 + 1d4 ⇒ (6) + (2) = 8 Fire damage.

Arratoi and Medrick both open up, but the couch provides useful cover for the shirren.

Mother-one doesn't care about furniture though and her lazer cuts straight through it, hurting the caster.

HK turns his own fire on the one with a pistol, winging him. William, with a choice of targets, goes for the caster, landing another shot from his unusual pistol on it.

Line draws on her own magic. Mr Philt, shaken but not stirred, still tries firing back, this time at the caster.
attack: 1d20 ⇒ 4
But he misses.

The shirren in the red shirt sends another trio of missiles out, this time at the dangerous William.
MM: 3d4 + 3 ⇒ (2, 2, 1) + 3 = 8

The one with the pistol returns fire at HK
attack: 1d20 ⇒ 17
damage: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (5) + 2 = 7
Winging the badly damaged android again.

Status, bold may post
Arratoi 10SP;
Mother-One
Medrick 6 SP
HK 7SP; 11 hp damage; 2 RP used;
William 8SP
Line-04
Mr Philt (dotted yellow)
Vrisken (blue) 15 damage
Theskell (red) 4 damage

HK, hit again, continue to shoot at his target.

Lazer Rifle: 1d20 + 7 - 4 + 1 ⇒ (17) + 7 - 4 + 1 = 21
Damages: 1d8 ⇒ 5
Lazer Rifle: 1d20 + 7 - 4 + 1 ⇒ (8) + 7 - 4 + 1 = 12
Damages: 1d8 ⇒ 2

"Everyone, geek the mage!"

Move action to put Get 'Em on Vrisken (blue).

"HunterKiller, you ain't goin down so easy this time. Get in there!"

Standard action to put inspiring boost on HK, healing 7 SP

Seeing her target still standing she takes aim again and fires at him while grimacing for a moment, hoping to drop the enemy.

Azimuth rifle, tracking, (possible get 'em from arratoi): 1d20 + 4 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (12) + 4 + 1 + 1 = 18
Damage (F): 1d8 ⇒ 1

Will grimaces in annoyance, and keeps firing!

Trick: 1d20 + 10 + 4 ⇒ (17) + 10 + 4 = 31 Vs CR+20.
Membrane Holdout Pistol: 1d20 + 4 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 4 + 1 = 7, for 1d6 + 1d4 ⇒ (2) + (3) = 5 damage.

This damned couch! I can't get a good shot off. He moves forward, working his way toward a clearer shot. He hears the order to attack Vrisken and Medrick takes the encouragement and advice. He takes a shot at the shirren. You can surrender still... its not to late.

arc pistol (EAC)(blue enemy): 1d20 + 6 + 1 - 4 ⇒ (2) + 6 + 1 - 4 = 5
-4 from cover and +1 from get 'em
damage (electric, nonlethal): 1d6 ⇒ 2

Move action to move and standard to shoot... I am not doing so hot this fight...

Lynn sways to the side, adjusting the lyrics of her song to send a message to the two shirren.

♫♪ And as the pain you've spread,
comes back to make you pay,
don't bother tryin' to fight in vain,
You'll find your mistakes won't change! ♫♪

Her headset adds an echo to her voice and amplifies it to make sure the shirren can't ignore it. With a sly smile she generates and sends another wave of force bullets out, these aimed at other spellcaster (red).

Magic Missile, full, harmful spells: 3d4 + 4 ⇒ (3, 3, 2) + 4 = 12

Theskell drops to the ground - blasted by magic and fire.
Vrisken doesn't look that much happier after coping a laser to the chest.

Seeing his mate go down he throws down his pistol and shouts "We surrender! Oh no..." as he turns to see if he can save her...

Out of initiative

Will shakes his head.

"You know, it would have been a lot more pleasant for all concerned if you had just done that in the first place."

He then lowers (but does not holster) his weapon, still not *entirely* trusting Vrisken, but wanting to believe the Shirren's sincerity.

Lynn breaks off her singing and bounces forwards while humming the rest of the song. "You're giving up? Great! We can try to help your pal." Lynn doesn't have the skills to do so, but she looks hopefully at Medrick and Mother-One.

"If you didn't mean to make those zombies, you shouldn't have tried to kill us, y'know!" She skips over and gingerly picks up the pistol Vrisken discarded. "Once she's not going to die, you've gotta explain what happened here! With the zombies and augmentations and everything! Maybe we can help?"

As soon Medrick hears the word surender he shouts, Finally. Now let me help your friend! He moves over to the dying body and attempts to stabilize it. He looks down in distress as he isnt wearing his lab coat... but there is no time!

First Aid (Medicine DC15): 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (12) + 8 = 20

But he is able to successfully stabilize Theskell but they are still unconscious. Theskell should live, but he will need some care to bring him back up to good health.

With the teams skill you can stop the second shirren from dying. After she is safe, the mail shirren tries to explain.

"The zombies are our old customers..." he sighs.

"It's a bit of a long story.." he starts.

Several months ago, a shirren family made a tragic mistake in a last-ditch attempt to save its failing business. They ran a small cybernetic augmentation clinic, with Theskell crafting the technology, the medically trained Kinnakt handling the implantation, and the merchant Vrisken acting as their salesperson and promoter. But like many new businesses, they struggled, not managing to sell more than a few augmentations a month. They had set up shop in Absalom Station’s competitive Freemarkets, an open-air sales district in the Ring sponsored by AbadarCorp. Their early floundering and low sales jeopardized their business permit; with many competitors clamoring for a spot in the markets, failing to make a profit usually resulted in expulsion in favor of likelier prospects. Vrisken came up with an idea to cut their costs by producing more components more quickly: purchase an illegal assembly ooze. This biotechnological creature, capable of assembling and disassembling technology with its nanite composition, could replicate nearly any materials they needed. They scraped together the credits to smuggle the banned creature onto the station.

Aware that the ooze could not replicate the quality of materials required, Theskell tampered with its programming. Tragically, upon its activation after the modifications, the ooze immediately consumed the nearest technological item: a suit of armor—with Kinnakt inside. The changes in programming and absorption of organic material induced the ooze to produce biotech augmentation components, rather than the merely cybernetic ones Theskell intended. Distraught at the loss of their partner and desperate to salvage something out of the situation, the two surviving shirrens began to sell the resulting augmentations.

“Something in the ooze’s programming went wrong— that’s why it attacked Kinnakt in the first place. The components it produced must have gone bad too. We didn’t know! We couldn’t have known; Kinnakt was the doctor, not me or Theskell!” he concludes.

Will raises an eyebrow.

"You knew that there was a programming fault in the ooze (which you knew was a black-listed item), and you sold the items it created anyway? Without any sort of testing? I can appreciate wanting to salvage something out of a bad situation, but that strikes me as, at best, a little sloppy, and at worst, criminal..."

He then turns to Philt.

"What will happen to them? Is AbadarCorp going to want this handled... discretely, or will the resolution be more... public, to try and avoid others making the same mistake?"

Lynn listens to their tragic story with visibly growing empathy. She moves up near Vrisken and leans in, eyes earnest "That's... terrible Vrisken! You lost someone so close to you in such a horrible way, and then when you tried to make do with just the two of you that were left, even worse things happened~" Her voice wavers with sadness.

"But Will is right too. That was really really risky! And you hurt a lot of people with the risk you took. I know you didn't mean it" As she says that she looks into Vriskens compound eyes searchingly "But Station Security will hold you two responsible. I'm sorry." She puts a hand up to rub the shirren's back.

"Its not over though! You two are still alive. And I'm sure everyone will see that you're not evil people in any trial!"

She steps back to see what Philt has to say.

"We didn’t know anything was wrong until the first undead showed up. By then it was too late to do anything for the rest!”" protests Vrisken.

Mr Philt shakes his head "They will certainly lose their market position. I think leaving them to the care of station security is the best thing now."

He has been tapping away at a computer in the room. "Ahh, look, a customer list. I can arrange for the appropriate people to get this to make sure they are no threat to anyone else, and if we are lucky save them."

Will frowns.

"You could have come forward sooner. That would have given those that had not already turned at least a fighting chance... Still, there is no point talking about what might have been; what is done, is done."

"What would have been the point? I told you, the patients were as good as dead already, us going to jail for smuggling wouldn’t fix anything! The best way to deal with it was to let the zombies come to us and make sure they were destroyed.” sighs the defeated Vrisken.

"Well, that is demonstrably false - in the process of finding you, we came across a halfling woman whom we were able to save, by extracting your faulty biotech..."

Medrick is interested in the client list. He reads it over, counting the number of clients and the number of zombies we have found. If there are dates, he sees if there are any the same time as the halfling we saved. Look, yelling at these Shirren is not going to change anything. They are probably going to be jailed for awhile and it was clear this happened through negligence rather than intent so I doubt something like this will happen again. Let us go and see if there is anyone else we can save!

Will looks surprised.

"Who is yelling? I am merely pointing out that, whilst they might not, technically, be mass murderers, they are definitely responsible for mass culpable homicide. We encountered just one family that (nearly) lost a member; how many dozens of others actually went through the pain and trauma of losing a loved one, and then having them return as a mockery of life?"

Lynn blows out her cheeks "Oh my gosh guys, don't fight now! We managed to stop things here, destroy that creepy people-eating assembly ooze, and there won't be any other people getting turned into zombies! We did an awesome thing!"

"Vrisky, is there anyone else not on the list that got one of those icky augments? We'll try to help them if you know any extras."

Mr Philt nods. "With this list, we can take care of the rest. AS for these two... well we'll be sure the Starfinder society gets due credit for stopping this tragedy from getting any worse."

Indeed page seven news stories about the cybernetic zombies and the dangerous of avoiding the dangerous-goods-import laws do appear for at least a day or two in some of the on-line news-sites. The startfinder society, good as Mr Philt promised, gets a good write up. There seems little to no mention of where the clinic had been operating. Looks like AbdarCorp managed to keep its nose clean. Again.

One interesting thing however is that over the course of the next few weeks, a few halflings, impressed by the help the Starfinders provided, start to make inquiries about joining the society.

Back at the Lorespire, Arvin is a little disappointed at the technology not really being ready, but more than happy that the Society has come out of it smelling of roses.

That is a wrap. Any final questions?

HK seems happy with the resolution, but with the most silent android it's difficult to really say.

With its metallic bland voice it says to Mr Philt.

Pleasure to doing business with you. If you need a bounty hunter to find a guy, I'm available.

He sends to the Shiren its digital business card.

Turning to his comrades it adds
Not our problem.

Thanks Aerond, it was quite a game :)

Mother-One takes the notices and nods at the final outcome, turning to Philt she hands him a card with her details. "If you need any assistance in the near future, you can reach me or my company..."

Turning to the rest of the Starfinders she gives them all a nod "It was a pleasure, hope to see you all around!"

After checking in with Arvin, Lynn pulls the group together for another couple of minutes before everyone splits ways. "I bet no one would of guessed we were going to chase down zombies this time, huh? I think we did something really great for the station though!" She beams at each of her party members one by one.

"HK, thanks for protecting me out there! Mother-One, I'll take a business card too... though maybe I'll send you mine so you can check out my music. I know you'll like it!"

"Medrick, I hope I proved that even Idols can be helpful on missions! So you don't have to roll your eyes next time you see one." She giggles, bouncing off to the next person. "Will, I'll be following your next game! Good luck!"

"And Arratoi," she grins mischievously at the ysoki "I'd work on those jokes of yours before you add any of those groaners to your books! Though, I'm looking forward to your next novel!" She winks "Something to do with 'undying avenues', maybe?"

Turning to regard the group as a whole, Lynn pulls out her datapad. "OK! Lets get a pic to remember the group by!" Before anyone can protest, she raises the datapad up and takes a swift picture.

"Thanks! See you all on another mission!"

Thanks for the whirlwind of a game guys.

OMG the jokes!! Things moved so fast in the later half of the scenario, I forgot to keep the in character bad jokes going!!!

"Everyone it has been quite the adventure and all of your heroic actions have indeed given me some inspiration for my next horror novel! And for this, I give you all a hand!"

Arratoi hops onto his chair and with a sly grin, gives the entire team a standing ovation!

"But seriously, when this book comes out, I'm sending all of you a signed copy, free of charge!"

A couple months later, you receive an actual, physical book signed: If anyone ever tries to steal this book away from you, just smack 'em and say 'Hands off!!' kekeke!! Arratoi

Thumbing through the book, you find that the plot more or less parallels your mission, but the names of the protagonists have been changed to:

Circle-04
Youdrick
Grandmama-One
Jean-Luc Picard
HippieFlowerChild 42-5
Ratz