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Caught up in the heat of the battle, Hakrinag sets aside his weariness, moves up and slams his doshko on the skreebara, smashing through its thick armor. The vermin rears up it head and screeches in pain.
It swings it head around and chomps down on Hakrinag with its powerful mandibles. They slices deep into his side, while their sonic emanations bruises his flesh.
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Pan-Ep looks up at the beast, and... casts a spell, calling upon Triune's knowledge and power to scan the skreebara's mind, and divine the most vulnerable portion of it's thoughts.
"Oh, it fears the crystal storms too!" Pangea thinks, and starts to send information about storm after storm pelting down on the monstrous worm, overload its brain.
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"On it!", Eli shouts, and takes a beeline towards the mounted gun. She runs past the creature, attempting to evade its claws and mandibles.
Move through a threatened area 15 + 1-1/2 × opponent’s CR, full speed +10 to DC.
If you attempt to move through multiple threatened spaces or opponents’ spaces during the same round, you must succeed at a check for each space, and the DC of each check beyond the first increases by 2.
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Jonas draws his weapon, ready to attack the giant beast. Pangea-Epsilon activates his form of weapon - his mind, blasting the skreebara with a barrage of overwhelming mental images. The weak-minded creature gets pounded psychically by him, and again it screeches in pain.
Madrigal fires her pistol at it, hitting the softer flesh under its thick armor. Eli, deciding that she needs heavier firepower, races for the x-gen gun. She starts well in ducking under the forbidding mandibles but stumbles on the soft sand, right into their path. The powerful bite slices deep into her side, and she almost faints from the great pain.
+
Hakrinag steps along the side of the vermin. Taking advantage of its attack on Eli, he slams his doshko again down on the skreebara, once again smashing through its hard armor and biting deep into its flesh below. Once again, its screams fills the air.
The giant vermin-like beast is shivering in weakness, its blood and gore pouring copiously into the ground. But this is its territory and the Starfinders are invaders. It steps back and swings its head to face the reptilian that has causes it the most damage thus far, and releases a horrendous scream right at Hakrinag.
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Hakrinag fails to jump out of the way in time, and takes the sonic blast full on. The attack tears open his flesh and ruptures his organs, and he is on the verge of collapse. Pangea-Epsilon reacts immediately, stepping forward to lay his hand on the vesk. The wounds immediately close up, and other than being winded, Harkinag looks almost whole again. However, the android's artificial flesh rips open, taking some semblance of the wounds that Hakrinag had borne earlier.
Not hesitating a moment to even say thanks, Hakrinag brings down his doshko again on the skreebara. Again, his mighty attack connects, this time smashing in the head of the creature. It collapses onto the ground, its six legs twitching violently before they gradually become still.
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As the beast collapses, so does Hakrinag. A thick knee thuds into the ground and he braces himself on his doshko, taking deep, ragged breaths. "Android, that is a good trick you have there. We shall be excellent battle brothers," he declares, still staring at the floor.
After a minute, he stands back up. "I owe you a debt. I intend to pay it in blood, but should you desire an alternative medium, I am yours to direct." He then looks at the android's wound and points to his own chest. "If you're lucky, that'll make for quite the scar!"
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Whilst examining the body of the skreebara, you realise that the tough, overlapping crystals that make up the skreebara’s carapace might be valuable.
You also turn to examine the wreckage that is spread out over a large area. The tactical X-gen gun affixed to the section of shattered hull can be removed, a job that takes about 10 minutes of work. However, it is too damaged to reload, and can only fire off its its remaining shots. At least, it can be sold as scrap.
Otherwise, the Unbounded Wayfarer is clearly damaged far beyond repair. There are also no survivors - you find seven desiccated corpses in the wreckage. Any other crew members were likely pulled out by the skreebara and devoured. At the bridge, you find one of the corpse with its hand lying near the distress call button - he had managed to send out the signal but did not survive long enough for rescue.
Nonetheless, you turn to search through the debris for any useful information.
You find signs that the ship had been salvaged earlier - anything obviously worth salvaging was likely taken away by the Corpse Fleet explorer that plundered it earlier. There was something that they had missed, however.
Although the Unbounded Wayfarer’s computers are beyond repair, they retain sufficient power to interact with the Starfinder insignias. The computer interface ports contain an indentation the same shape as the Starfinder insignias. The Corpse Fleet crew had obviously overlooked this connection. When you slot an insignia into the indentation, the computer flares to life just enough to display a datafile of worlds previously explored by crew of the Unbounded Wayfarer. They include:
- A wasteland planet called Elytrio that displayed signs of scattered technology.
- A sentient asteroid called Lamentia teeming with morlock “children” in the Vast.
- A massive space station called End of Bright Things stuck between the orbits of two blue dwarf stars.
- A stormy, oceanic world called Wealdriad, with upthrust columns of basalt piercing the storm-tossed ocean’s surface.
Having successfully recovered the data module from the Unbounded Wayfarer, you can now safely retrace your steps to the Odyssey and leave Ulmarid’s surface.
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Asier just stands there with a blank look in his eyes unblinking as he records the movements and actions of the creature in front of him. After Hakrinag smashes the things head in, though his eyes come back into focus and he blinks a couple of times. "Thanks for holding it off everyone! I got some amazing footage of... actually Epison what was it again? And how do you spell it; I need to put a name on this file. It would have been good if I could have had a little more time to analyze it, but I at least got to see it's screech. Now if I could take a few samples, I should have enough data to add a short entry to Szuta's database."
Asier then proceeds to gather a few samples of the creature's exoskeleton, blood and other fluids as well as taking long looks at some of the more interesting structures of the creature. After determining the crystals could be highly valuable, he proceeds to strip them to strip them off te creature. He doesn't take any more than 10 minutes in total, allowing the rest of the group to rest up if needed. When he finishes he turns to everyone and says, "I believe I have collected enough information, now let's get moving before another storm or creature appears."
As they approach the ship Asier points out some odd markings on the hull. "What ever took them down had some very heavy artillery!"
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"I am fairly certain Hakrinag does not share your interest about its screech, Asier," Jonas comments, his tone close enough to that of a quip.
"And you are correct about the ship that took the Wayfarer down," he continues as he looks at the ship's hull. "Coilguns or railguns, from the looks of it. And the Wayfarer did try to avoid the fire but it seems like it darted the wrong way. Or that the enemy ship's gunners were too quick."
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With her palms on her wounds, Eli waddles over to the crashed ship, checking the hull damage. She confirms Jonas' observations, and takes notes on the datafile displayed when the insignias are inserted ( or copies the entire thing, if possible ).
After Madrigal's request, she nods, but has a request before that. "The bug got me good. Can someone look at these before I go? Getting caught in that storm in this condition might be an issue."
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Pangea-Epsilon uses Triune's powers to heal Eli, taking 10 minutes to commune with its God and channel energy to mend the wounds, doing so while its comrades rest to recuperate their stamina.
Then, Pangea casts its last daily spell to heal its own wounds.
Pan-Ep bows to Hakrinag: "I am just doing my duty, friend, if I may, I just ask that you respect and help followers of Triune if you can, when you meet them in your adventures and explorations".
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Eli nods at Epsilon afterwards: "Much appreciated. I'll try to convince Hakrinag to give you priority service after we wash that uniform.", she adds with a spark in her eye.
Once the wounds mend, Eli asks for 10 minutes to get back in shape, and walks towards the dunes, making notes on the planet on the way.
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Eli sets out towards the Odyssey on her own safely, and pilots the ship back to the rest of the party. They spend some time reverently transporting the remaining Starfinder remains on board, before finally taking off.
A warning klaxon blares, and the ship lurches. The asteroid field around the world of Ulmarid is more agitated than on the descent down to the surface. Although it’s not clear what has caused the anomalous activity, what’s certain is that you must reach safer altitude before a more serious collision occurs.
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Seeing the asteroid field is more agitated than earlier, Asier takes to one of the scanner control panels and tries to help plot a course through the asteroids.
"Eli, if you take a left by 1.236 degrees, bank up for 5.336 seconds and then accelerate for a burst of 8.6659 seconds, you should be able to shoot through that large hole in the asteroid right in front of us!"
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The asteroids rain down upon the Odyssey, and despite a number of really close calls, Eli competently threads a path through the obstacles with some precision directions from Asier-23-7. Nonetheless, it was a tense hours or so for the entire crew before the ship clears the bulk of the asteroid field.
Just as everyone starts to relax and prepare for an uneventful trip back to Absalom Station, klaxon calls sound out throughout the ship as the scanners detect an approaching ship. A large vessel of rusted metal slips from behind an enormous asteroid directly behind you, its weapons already firing. The front of the ship resembles a stylized skull with crossed bones beneath—a clear indication of space pirates!
A transmission from the enemy ship beams over. "How nice for you to drop in," a deep rumbling voice projects from the Odyssey's speakers. "I knew if we left the distress beacon on and just lie in ambush in the asteroid field, it would draw ships in like honey draws flies. First that undead ship, and now you. You have the pleasure of being the prey of the Lawblight. Consider it an honor. In the very short remaining existence of your light, that is. Over and out. For good."
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Before panic sets in though, you are reminded that you are not wholly unprepared.
- In questioning Exegara earlier in the Vat Garden, you were already pre-warned of the possibility of the ambush by the Lawblight. As such, Eli is not completely taken by surprise and manages to maneuver the Odyssey to a somewhat more advantageous position before engagement.
- When the Loreseeker first encountered the Endless Threnody, Jonas had scanned the ship, and had logged in the damage pattern of its aft. As such, you have some information of the Lawblight's torpedoes weapon system. The ship computer, with this information, is better able to predict the torpedoes' flight path, and perhaps, evade them.
- The data you downloaded from the Endless Threnody after boarding it contains some information on the Lawblight, likely picked up by the Threnody's scanning combat during their battle.
- Whilst examining the damage pattern on the Unbounded Wayfarer back on the surface of Ulmarid, Eli picked up some sense of how the Lawblight's coilguns fire, allowing her to better evade those attacks.
Immediately, Jonas calls up the relevant information on the Lawblight, sending it to all your workstations.
Ship Information Lawblight | Medium transport | Crew Complement 6 | Speed 6 | Maneuverability average (turn 2)
Defense Systems AC 13 | TL 13 | Hull 70 | Shields F:15 P:5 S:5 A:5 | PCU 130
Weapons Systems Forward: coilgun (4d4), heavy torpedo launcher (5d8) | Aft: gyrolaser (1d8) | Turret: coilgun (4d4)
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Being forewarned, and with Eli's lightning quick reflexes, she manages to outmaneuver and reacts more nimbly to place the Odyssey at a more advantageous position before either ships' weapons can engage.
The Lawblight captain had thought that its broadcast of that taunting message but the heart and will of the Starfinders are strong, and remain resolute. Meanwhile, the engineer manages to transfer some of its auxiliary power to the ship's weapons, empowering their attacks. The pilot, despite reacting slow than Eli, still is skilled enough to weave the ship about, making it a difficult target, as it flies straight for the Odyssey. The science officer manages to hack into the Odyssey before Jonas repels the intrusion, not only learning of the Odyssey's basic ship information, but of its defenses as well.
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"Time to space-dance, guys. Strap in!" Having expected a possible ambush from whatever crashed the Wayfinder, Eli was prepared to engage a quick thrust and facing change if the enemy ever reared its ugly head. While the pirates thought they were getting the drop on the Odyssey from behind, with a few quick maneuvers, the Odyssey is turned completely around.
”Aye, captain, extra power to the weapons coming right up" Asier follows Madrigal's orders and, hoping to Triune that this power board likes him better, tries to divert extra power to the guns. He misses one of the more important steps and messes up.
In his gunner’s chair Hakrinag mumbles something about a ‘bossy woman’ and ‘going to do that anyways’ before adjusting a few things and firing both of the turreted weapons.
Epsilon on the other hand just nods at the captain’s words and fires off the heavy laser cannon.
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Finding her efforts at diplomacy rebuffed, she turns the full force of personality across the transmissions to Lawblight, greatly shaking the morale of pirates especially the gunners. Asier-23-7 attempts to divert auxillary power to the weapons, but Odyssey must be related to Loreseeker, for it resists his attempts as much as the previous craft. Meanwhile, Eli takes the Odyssey to swoop around on as tight a turn as the ship can muster while taking evasive actions at the same time, bring its forward arc to come upon the Lawblight's unweaponed port side. Jonas successfully hacks into the enemy ship, planting a bug in its power core system. Hakrinag fires away with both weapons in the turret but he is still unfamiliar with the new system and fires too early before the Lawblight moves into the firezone. Epsilon-Pangea, however, manages to land blasts from the forward laser cannons, shutting down Lawblight's port shields and damaging its hull.
The Lawblight returns fire with the only weapon it can, the turret coilgun. Eli accurately predicts the path of the rounds from studying the damage on the hull of the Unbounded Wayfarer and easily dodges the attack.
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The Lawblight tries to outmaneuver the Odyssey but Eli once again proves to be a better pilot.
Seeing his gunners shaken by Madrigal, the captain starts screaming through his public address system at the first gunner to instil discipline back into him, even if temporary. The engineer keeps the auxillary power diverted to the weapon system to supercharge them. The pilot, despite being slower to react, still successfully manages to reverse the ship, trying to keep Odyssey to its front. At the same time, the science officer returns Jonas' favour by similarly planting a bug into the Odyssey's engine system.
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The ship skirts the astroid cluster and turns towards the shieldless port side. Once lined up, weapons fire!
Captain Madrigal will encourage
Engineer Asier will divert to weapons
Pilot Eli will try to Evade incoming fire
Science Officer Jonas will target systems
Gunners Hakrinag and Pangea will fire their weapons
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Madrigal sends words of encouragement to Pangea-Epsilon, who despite being an emotionless android, still finds himself buoyed by her gesture. Asier-23-7 continues to struggle with the managing the auxiliary power controls. Jonas, this time, finds the enemy science officer has put up some firewalls and fails to hack into their computer system. Eli, however, continues her graceful flying, bring the Odyssey once again to bear on the Lawblight's port side, while taking evasive actions as the same time.
The gunners, eager to take down the unscrupulous pirates, fire all the guns are their disposal. Hakrinag's control of the turret coilguns are spot on as the rounds rip into Lawblight's unshielded port side. His unfamiliarity with missiles shows, however, as yet another one flies out into the abyss of space aimlessly. Pangea-Epsilon with a level of hyperfocus that only androids can bring out, similarly manages to punch deep into the Lawblight's hull with his forward coilguns as well.
The combination of both coilgun rounds wreck major damage across the Lawblight, shorting out multiple ship systems including its starboard targeting, life support and sensor systems.
The Lawblight turret gunner fires his coilgun at the same time. This time, he seems better prepared for Eli's flying and the rounds flies unerringly towards the Odyssey. Only in the last minute does Eli manage to pull away and the rounds glance off the forward shields.
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Madrigal turns her attention to Eli, boosting her morale to keep her more attentive to the moves of Lawblight. Eli executes a tight turn, narrowly avoiding Lawblight while coming up beside an asteroid for protection. Jonas, working near-magic on the computers, manages to plant a bug in the Lawblight's power core monitoring system.
The captain, seeing his ship's life support system starting to fail, races to the engineering section to install a quick patch to keep it going. He commands the engineer to restore the damaged shields, which he completed successfully, while ordering the science officer to transfer some of that to the unshielded port side, which he failed. Through all this, the pilot follows Eli's lead and executes a tight turn, narrowly zooming by the nearby asteroid, to come up behind the Odyssey.
The gunners siezes this opportunity. The first gunner fires away the forward torpedo but the nearby asteroid interferes with the tracking system, and it smashes into the big rock instead. The second gunner, however, aims true with the turret coilgun. The rounds smashes against the Odyssey's aft shields, which although weaken, does not fail, keeping the hull still intact.
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Asier, completely ticked off about his failure to do anything with the Odessy's cursed board fumes silently for a moment before turning on the comms and sending out a comment. "I'm done with trying to finagle these controls right now! I need to shoot at something. I'll be in gunner bay three if anyone needs me."
His curse for starship computers apparently follows him to the gunner bay though as he fires off a few wild shots that might hit someone in a century or two, but definitely does not hit their intended target.
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The Lawblight pilot was able to duck and weave erratically about enough to cause both androids to miscalculate its path, missing both coilguns. The seeking missile, however, is not fooled and slams head on. The resulting explosion takes out the forward shields completely, and damaging the hulls.
Despite not breaching the hull, the Lawblight still shakes violently from the missile explosion. This throws off the pilot, and Eli once again gets the jump on him.
The captain stays in the engineering section, installing some quick-fix patches to restore the ship's sensors to optimal functionality, while screaming at the engineer to restore some shields. With his boss briefing directly down his neck, he manages to divert some power to do so. Unfortunately, the science officer is still too frazzled to shift more of the shields to the vulnerable front. The pilot meanwhile flies the craft around the asteroid, waiting for the Odyssey to emerge from the other side to blast it with its forward weapons, taking evasive maneuvers while doing so.
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Captain Madrigal will
Engineer Asier will
Pilot Eli will try to
Science Officer Jonas will
Gunners Hakrinag and Pangea will fire their weapons
Hakrinag
Pangea
Madrigal, encouraged by the fighting so far, keeps the gunners active.
Asier, as normal, can't divert power, much less patch anything.
Eli does his best to evade incoming fire!
Jonas targets the Weapons subsystem on the pirate ship, however....
Hakrinag and Pangea shots were accurate AND damaging, but didn't crit.
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Caught up in the heat of the moment, Hakrinag finds himself hugging and dancing around with Pangea. "WE ARE THE MASTERS OF ALL SPACE! FEAR US PIRATES, FOR YOUR DOOM IS UPON YOU!" the vesk screams, adding in more roars, high-fives and epic fist bumps with his favorite Pangea model.
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Eli expertly pilots the Odyssey to emerge from behind the asteroid, turning the craft at the last minute to fast the Lawblight head on. As if a final confrontation, both ships fire their best weapons almost simultaneously at each other. The Lawblight torpedo flies straight and true, but the Odyssey computer, having been fed data of that weapon system, autoengages an evasive maneuver, weaving past the torpedo which again slams into the nearby asteroid. The Lawblight's forward coilguns smash to the Odyssey, but only sufficient to weaken the forward shield.
Launched by Jonas, Hakrinag and Pangea-Epsilon, a missile, a heavy laser blast and a burst of coilgun rounds propel themselves towards the Lawblight straight and true. The pilot is barely able to dodge out of the way when all three punches through the meager shields, and completely through the severely weakened hull. The resulting explosions, which first starts in the power core system but subsequently spreads to more and more sections rip, the ship completely apart, filling up the screen of the Odyssey with fiery fireworks! When it eventually dies down, all that remains of the pirate ship are pieces of debris floating about in space.
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With the Lawblight defeated, you are free to return to Absalom Station with the information retrieved from the wreckage of the Unbounded Wayfarer. Venture-Captain Arvin greets you with a warm smile as you disembark. “You can undergo the tedium of a complete debrief later. First, I’ve arranged for you all to enjoy a few days’ downtime in Kemanis, at the high-end clubs, theaters, and VR parlors. You’ve earned it. But,” he warns, with a sly twinkle in his eye, “after that, it’ll be time to put you back to work. Perhaps it is time for your commencement...”