talc
Eralyn's knife slashed her target's leg deeply, severing an artery. This probably would have been enough to finish him off, but them KKorg waded in with his hammer and did the job by crushing the man's skull. Then, Boz waded into combat with his scattergun, throwing steel balls into the remaining foes. Ketch finished the lead one off with his pistol. Seeing his lanes of fire cut off, Talc dropped his pistol and pulled his tactical baton as he closed with the remaining thug. He aimed low, trying to kneecap the man before he could run away. The baton connected, and the man yelped in pain.
The remaining thug, seeing his companions down and the odds arrayed against him, turned to flee, withdrawing into the woods.
In bold may act, I will merge combat posts as needed
R3: ketch, thugs, gogglez, talc, eralyn, boz, korg
R4: ketch, thugs, gogglez, talc, eralyn, boz, korg
current hit point status:
boz -0
eralyn -3
gogglez -0
ketch -4 (NL)
korg -0
talc -0
|
Boz racked his pumpgun, sending a discharged casing flittering to the ground. He walked over to one of the thugs that lay motionless on the ground, surveying the grisly damage his shot made. Whoever this person once was, they weren't too old - particularly so in the eyes of a Dwarf.
Damned sodhead, you should have backed off when we gave you the chance. Now you're nothing but a ripe meal for the Vat Gardens...
It wasn't much of a eulogy, but Boz figured that when someone's gone back to the mud on whatever rock they were standing on, some words were in order.
In the distance, he saw the other one he peppered turn tail and head for the treeline. Seeing Eralyn stand down, Boz figured it was probably for the best. He slung his scattergun back over his shoulder, and gave the corpse at his feet a nudge with his boot. No noise, no movement.
"Clear over here!"
|
Aiming his rifle in the direction the last thug ran to, Korg starts to scan the area of any more surprises. "I suggest we get moving as soon as we can. This simple job is getting more complicated" There is a tone of confidence in his voice. When he has a task, it is easier to not get tripped up on himself.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
You make it back to the Lorespire without incident, and escort Ceren and Jubair to Historia -7. The leader of the Dataphiles thanks you for your help and asks that you wait while she has a word with Ceren and her grandson. Soon, Historia-7 returned, alone, and spoke.
"Thank you for taking care of this mission for me. Ceren tells me that she hasn't felt this alive in years, and that she is ready to undergo her surgery to remove the malfunctioning tech immediately. You are to be commended for your efforts in taking care of the thugs that the Bluerise Tower corporation sent after Ceren, and for her new identity, but I feel compelled to point out some basic flaws in your efforts to wipe her old identity from the records. Still, a passable effort. I personally handled forging her death certificate, as 'yo' rarely appears in official documents."
She smiled a little at Gogglez as she said this last. Then, she bade you farewell and returned to her inner office.
|
|
Gogglez laughs, "Well like I told them, my datapad has been having issues with the latest update. Some overzealous auto-correct with an AI learning ability. Maybe you could take a look at it for me if you've got the time." he says as he waves around his datapad.
After Historia-7 bids them farewell, Gogglez looks at his group of agents, "Well, we got the one I wanted to do out of the way, anyone else have a preference? If not I say we go to the Acquisitives next."
|
Eralyn laughs. "It was nice to feel that old adrenaline rush again."
"Visiting Radaszam is a fine next step," Eralyn replies with a smile. "He's a relatively new member of the Society. He and his mercenaries turned Starfinders are invaluable in these days of..." She pauses a moment, looking quite forlorn before shaking her head and continuing, "...strife. I haven't had the chance to meet him personally."
With no one else pressing any strong opinions on the matter, you head off in search of Radaszam, leader of the Acquisitives. Radaszam's public office was in the Nyori Palisades, a luxurious neighborhood located in Absalom Station’s transparent central dome.
The plain white doors of the office 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.”
"Well, that's it. What are you waiting for? Get to the race's location in Botscrap and help out Laboni however you can. But, and I really can't stress this enough, don't kill anyone. At least not unless you absolutely have to."
|
|
At Radaszam's mention of a trash compactor, Eralyn narrows her eyes at the vesk. "Starfinders stick together." she remarks pointedly. "It's an old lesson that should never be forgotten."
"Of course we'll help Laboni. And hopefully teach her a lesson about humility while we're at it."
Looking at her fellow agents, she remarks, "Come along, team."
|
|
Gogglez twitches at hearing the name Ratrod, "I actually used to work with Ratrod, it's where I picked up most of my mechanical skills. Looks like I get to put my skills to the test versus my old mentor."
Gogglez is excited for this, his mechanical skills and possibly his Ace Pilot background are going to be put to use.
|
As Talc listens to the briefing, he plots the best course of action in his head. Piece of cake, we simply take out the competition.
But, and I really can't stress this enough, don't kill anyone. At least not unless you absolutely have to."
A frown quickly washes over the bounty hunter's face. "Aw, c'mon. Where do we draw the line of if we absolutely have to? I mean, who's going to really miss this ysoki anyway?
Shooting a sidelong glance to Golggez and Ketch Um, he holds his hand out as if to offer an apology, "No offense meant by the way."
"Starfinders stick together, it's true. But that really only holds for the outward facing world. Internally, if you deserve a busted lip, I'm not gonna hesitate to be the provider of that particular service. As for killing, I trust you to know the time and place for that. But, on a crowded racing circuit in full view of thousands of live spectators and probably millions of Holo viewers, that's probably not it, get me? Now, get out there and show those racers that Starfinders follow up!"
--------------
Ratrod’s racing circuit is a hollowed-out section of a mountain of spare parts in Botscrap, the track specifically sanctioned by the ysoki-dominated Salvage Union mercenary gang that controls most of the yards. When you arrive at the competitors’ entrance, a small robot informs you of Laboni's pit location, and of the basic rules of the race:
Laboni wasn't hard to pick out at her pit station, as she was dressed in a bright white lab coat over paisley clothing. She was a human female in her late teens, and she looked at you a little sheepishly as you approached.
"My crew seems to have mistaken the date of the race. Can one of you lend a hand and grab this fairing while I try and stabilize it? Thanks."
|
|
"Hey Gogglez, can you add anything to the inner workings of this? That seems to be your thing." Grabbing the car by the frame, Korg lifts it up so to help stabilize it and give better access to underside. Through gritted teeth "Ketch, think you can get some insight on the other cars and drivers?. This came more from a hope to give the Ysoki something that can play to their styles.
"Oh, wow, thanks I really appreciate this. So, you really want to help? I don't suppose any of you are any good at remote piloting a junkracer? Or firing weapons? I'm a good mechanic, but despite my tongue speeding off faster than my brain can think, I'm not that great of a pilot. According to the rules, I can have a pilot and a couple of gunners helping me out. I'll also need some help scavenging around this place looking for weapons or parts to improve this junkracer. Any help you can give would be amazing."
Everyone can have up to 4 pre-race actions, each of which needs to be accompanied by an appropriate roll. You can try a single action multiple times, but try and be aware that if you have 4 people wanting to make engineering checks, don't use all of our actions on engineering. Spread them around a bit.
Improve Laboni's junkracer
You can spend an action to attempt a Computers, Engineering, Perception, or Physical Science check to find parts in the scrapyard and install them in Laboni’sracer; the foolwoing improvements can be made. These are cumulative bonuses, so the same improvement can be made multiple times.
• 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.
Investigating the competition
You can scout out your opponents with Sense Motive checks, or scope out their vehicles with an Engineering check. On a successful check, you gain one useful bit of information about the opponent or their vehicle.
Sabotage
You can attempt to sabotage an opponent's vehicle, but you must dodge the eyes of everyone in the stadium and the pilot in question. This requires a Stealth check, followed by an Engineering check to successfully sabotage the vehicle. There are penalties for being caught.
Socialization
You can take the time to chat up the other pilots. This might prove beneficial in the long term. Use whatever social skill you feel appropriate.
"Oh, by the way, I just got the final llist of racers for this run. in addition to me and Ratrod, there is a gnome named Lemgem, a fairly famous ryphorian former soldier named Nyizin, a damaya lushunta called Orsis, and Velocity, a cold as nails android. That last one has a nasty habit of installing heavy weaponry and spending the entire race shooing at the other pilots, winning be damned!"
|
|
"Of course we'll help you, dearie. But when this is done -- win or lose -- you go over and apologize to that ysoki fellow you insulted. The Starfinders are weak right now. We need to make allies and forge new friendships, not belittle hardworking citizens."
Eralyn tries to install a few upgrades to increase the junker's speed.
Then she cleans off her hands and wanders around, looking to speak with the other racers. First she approaches Ratrod, the ysoki that Laboni insulted.
"Hello there, Ratrod. May I speak with you for a moment? Laboni's is new to the Starfinder Society. Young and foolish. On behalf of the Society I want to apologize for the insults she levied against you and your legitimacy. She regrets it. Hopefully, after the race, you'll let her talk this out with you?"
|
|
Boz looks over the junk-racer to see if there's anything he could improve on. If we added a plate or two of nanomantine here... it wouldn't slow us down too much, and it'd protect the throttle control a little better... He then plugs his hand terminal into the cockpit, and gets a diagnostic readout. The camber on these side-thrusters are a couple degrees out of sync... if I tweak it by 3 degrees here... and the port one by 4...
Boz feels slightly better at their odds of winning now. He's done everything he can to optimize the craft.
He then heads over to Orsis' place at the pits and talks up their machine. "Now I know a racer when I see one... tell me now, is she fast? Or is she... fast?"
(not quite a social skill, but here's hoping, ha)
|
Ketch looks over the racer his team is putting together. He looks over the weapons, seeing if he can fine tune them to be more effective.
After tinkering with the guidance gyroscopes of the weapons, he decides to take a stroll through the race pits to check out their competition. He stops by the second pits, and gives the racer and rig a look up and down.
Nice rig ya got. Pushes out what, 1000 power per cubic foot. Top speed in 6 seconds?
"Oh, so Laboni runs her mouth off in a public infosphere cast and then send her gramma to come out and beg me to let it go? Ain't happening lady. Toddle on off to the old folks' home, or wherever you came from. Let suck down a little humility with her breakfast shake. As for the Starfinders, you can all go fly into the void for all I care. If you can't control your members better than that, you don't deserve to have a gang. Now get lost. I've got a race to prepare for, and if you keep hanging around, I'm gonna have you ejected for spying and attempted sabotage."
Orsis is kitted out in black and gold, and looks unfairly good. Part of this is likely due to being lashunta, but even among that fair race, Orsis' looks would stand out. He looks at you with a semi-blank stare as you approach, then frowned slightly. As you opened with your discussion on piloting, though, the man smiled. After a few minutes of discussing the finer points of junkracer piloting, he showed you some of the more difficult parts of the track, and gave a few tips on how to get past them. Although he refused to ally with you during the race, his tips should help immensely.
Korg stared around, fascinated at all the goings on. She he help with the racer or go bother one of the opponents?
Speed 50 ft., full 500 ft.
EAC 12
KAC 14
Attack energy weapon (–6 to Piloting)
Modifiers +4 Piloting, –3 attack
|
|
"You complain of lack of respect by offering lack of respect?" Eralyn lets out an amused chuckle. "Farewell, Ratrod. May you learn to accept the hand off friendship when it is offered."
Eralyn smiles at the angry ysoki, looks at his racer, and then wanders off.
Then she returns to the others to await the start of the race.
The android, Velocity, appears to have both male and female traits, with silver-blue hair and skin. Its clothing is bright and colorful, as is its racer. You notice right away that the android perked up when you started talking about speed and modifications. "It's closer to 950 right now. I could push it hotter, but I'm not sure I've got the chops to keep it from exploding. I'm a better pilot than an engineer, to tell the truth. You look like someone with some skills in both areas. Care to make a deal?"
You get the feeling that if you were to offer to help it make its racer faster, that you could enter some sort of alliance with the android junkracer.
Korg was able to help tweak the piloting controls, but was unable to in the armor much. The polycarbon fairing he grabbed couldn't be molded to fit Laboni's design.
|
|
Even though he was able to help the piloting, Korg curses himself some for not being able to help the armor. It was like when he was a youngen.
After some time he steps back and starts to and starts to work on the weapon system some. Maybe he can help with that and do better then he did with the armor. He wishes he was smarter and more skilled.
Ratrod's racer looks fast. like really fast. The twin KZ-3000 thrusters barely hiding under the heavily armored cowlings look to make up most of his racer.
|
|
Boz wanders over to Korg, seeing a pang of frustration on the vesk's face. "Sometime a problem just needs a second pair of eyes on it; lemme take a quick look."
"Hrm... the mount's perfect, you did a great job there. I think it's just the focussing emitter. Seems like something's loose in it, likely an aperture issue. Happens all the time." Boz hovers his hand over the energy weapon, and closes his eyes for a short moment. A small dab of arcane energy shunts the weapon, and Boz flicks his hand like he just touched a hot cookplate. "Eesh. Here's hoping that did it."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
|
|
Talc watches Boz work from behind his shoulder. When he flicks his hand, Talc sighs loudly. "Look, you need to agitate the beryllia thingy with an uhm, what's it called, that crystal solution thing."
While Talc clearly had this idea in his head, his ability to translate it fails miserably. Suddenly growing very interested in the pavement, Talc stares at the ground and hopes like he didn't come across like the idiot he sounds like.