[SFS OutPost Style] Starfinder 1-04: Cries from the Drift (Inactive)

Game Master GM Red

Davrin loses his usual cheeriness as he ponders the magnitude of what the party has just discovered. He shakes his head and sighs. "The extremes one goes through to survive. I can't approve of what they did. But I still empathise."

Looking back at the computers, he mutters, "I guess it is too late to put it all back."

"With the truth out, I believe both parties deserve to know. They were ... are one. But I agree with Ehdd. Klarima would be our best bet to get the news out to both groups without us getting caught in the crossfire. Hopefully."

Looks like we are in favor of passing the news to Klarima, and letting her be the messenger.

Now fully aware of Elytrio's sad history, you head back out of the mainframe, passing the same automated drones and power generators and looking on them with perhaps an altered opinion. The Mainframe has been automated in its function for decades, serving the membranes and Arkeost well only due to their contentious decisions of three hundred years ago.

Klarima waits for you outside the Mainframe. On your way back through Arkeost, you fill her in on the details. As she takes out her datapad to reopen a portal through the forcefield, she looks sad and distracted. "It has been a pleasure having you as guests, even if this revelation leaves us with a bit of a mess on our hands. Alomir and Koseemo back at the husk enclave are going to be understandably upset about this, and the Most Elevated will likely continue to keep the Mainframe off-limits. It may be best to not tell the membranes that the husks know of their past." She hesitates, urging you to step through the forcefield. ".... In any case, you have given me much to think about, new friends."

Klarima smiles and waves you off, and you head back to the Drake, departing Elytrio and thrusting through the stars back to Absalom Station with little incident. Venture-Captain Arvin is delighted to see you return. "Ah, if you're here, it must mean you've been successful. Did that automated defense give you any trouble? And what of Elytrio? Please, tell me everything! What have you found and learned?" On his screen, he pulls up Elytrio's blank datasheet and prepares to type.

"Well, it turns out that Elytrio fell to its own people," Chikasa begins sadly. "A few centuries ago, there was a war under the banner of Damoritosh, that ended when the fight went nuclear. There was a city that survived, however, called Arkeost. After the war ended, the people living in the city began to stretch their resources a bit too thinly. So a plan was developed. The people of Elytrio are called Ghibrani, and there are two subsets of Ghibrani, the Membranes and the Husk. Well, the Membranes came up with a tidy little plan to help themselves out at the expense of the Husks. They invented a deity called Mother Tuoloo and convinced the Husks that, if they left the city and went to live in the wastes outside, this goddess would bless them." He pauses a long while, giving the others space to add to his report and also taking a few deep breaths so he wouldn't have an outburst.

When everyone had thrown in their bits, Chikasa finishes by adding, "Anyway, you asked us to make contact. We did that much. I hope maybe we can get back there someday to help mediate an agreement between the Membranes and the Husks. Get the people back together and help them rebuild their society."

"Mother... T-O-U-L-O-O. Got it." With a click and a beep, Arvin commits the entry, then stands from his chair and dusts off his hands. "I take it these Husks don't know the truth, and the Membranes may not be all that clear on it either. Now that you've told their messenger, they may find out, and I'm afraid of what the consequences may be." He pauses to scratch his chin and takes a glance back at the planet on his monitor. "In any case, your decision on who to tell was certainly a difficult one. The Starfinder Society will keep a close eye on Elytrio for any future developments. For now, your work is complete! I will inform Fitch of the Wayfinders of your success. I'm sure she'll be delighted." After offering handshakes, Venture-Captain Arvin sends you on your way, but not before taking the Hutchket Rifle and Membrane Holdout Pistol into Society possession so that others may also benefit from their technology.

____

Epilogue

Back on Elytrio, Klarima stands at the center of the cave, explaining the situation to the Husks. Dystane, the ghibrani husk you'd originally met after fighting the sand brute, is visibly angered as Klarima provides every bit of ghibrani history to the clan.

"They lead us out the city so that they may live in luxury while we die trying to scrape by?" Her leathery husk rumbles with rage. "I will not simply stand here and let this continue."

Dystane huffs and motions for her hunters to follow her to the weapons room.

"... She will be fine. In any case, I count those five visitors from abroad as Husks no different than us now," Brother Kossemo explains. "Had it not been for them, we may have never known the truth. They are welcome back anytime."

In Arkeost, Klarima gathers to another meeting with The Most Elevated to similarly explain what you had seen. They see no reason to change the way they comfortably live, and vow to uphold the tradition of keeping the Mainframe area taboo. They also recognize you as honorary Membranes given that you had dined with them and otherwise impressed them.

Boon wise, this means you gain the Friend of the Ghibrani Social Boon for both the Husks and the Membranes, and all of your SFS characters now have access to the Ghibran language when learning a new language.

I'll have your chronicles ready soon!

During the debrief

Ehdd nods along emphatically with old Chic "Yes, quite the sticky situation. We didn't want to get anyone riled up, certainly before we got out of there safely. Its too bad too, if they get their issues worked out I'd LOVE to put a dance studio down there! Those Husks can really jive!"

That's cool, glad we were able to walk the line and get away clean. That could be a language I pick up at some point!

Ratatatat listens to the debriefing and makes a sound of disgust as he walks away. The husks were getting the short end of the deal. That place was a frag on timer set to explode. He did not see any other way around it.

"Alrightletshit...theHologram...oneofyou...owemeadrink!" he did not really care for drinking but he needed to get his mind off this last mission.

Whatever you might be currently engaged in on Absalom Station or somewhere else, your personal communicators all beep three times, indicating a waiting message. Depressing the play button, the silence is broken by the loud rhythm of sugarpop music. The music plays for a few long seconds, and then you hear the raspy voice of a shirren. "Ah, forgive me, I've had this song on loop for hours! Isn't it great? Zigvigix here. Please, come on by to the Exo-Guardians' newly renovated headquarters. You may have heard of it before, it's in Downlow, and once held a friendly, strange alien. But no longer! There's much to discuss. Society business, of course. See you soon!" The sugarpop music blares once more, and then the radio cuts out.

____
This is a mustering post, I'll brief you tomorrow!

Here we go again, back to Downlow. At least we do not have to worry about the feather stalker.

0689 puts a fresh magazine into his new pistol and holsters it on his leg. He then grabs his batteries from the chargers and heads out the door. Turning off the lights before leaving his domicile.

Vandor groans as the sugar pop laden message interrupts his beauty sleep. Smacking the mute button he buries his face in his pillow again and mumbles. "Not him again... and that feather stalker was NOT friendly... ugh, just five more minutes, then I'll...", but before he even finishes his thought his room is once again filled with the sound of his snores...

Faraeon absolutely jams to the music as it blares out from his communicator. Hanging upside down from a climbing wall in the Society gym he considers almost as much a home as his tiny studio apartment, he hits the play button and listens to the message. "Alright! I get to hang out with Ziggy again? That guy's awesome! Definitely the coolest shirren I know. Maybe I should hook up with his crew too. I'm sure Fitch would be cool with it." The fame-hungry operative flips himself right side up, then lowers himself down to the gym floor before making his way to the showers.

I caught that little dig...

Ehdd's face is all sweat, his heart is racing, his multifaceted eyes straining as his old school flip phone beeps with a message. Ugh, now what, can't I get a minute of peace? He says as he hops down off the Full Body Workout 5000, his legs a bit wobbly from exertion.

"That song... make it stop... It was great the first 400 times, but really now its just... ugh. That's why I sold the damned thing!" He quickly hangs up after the message ends, closing his phone with a thwap! and heading off to take a long shower.

Watching his communicator go off followed by the sugarpop music the ysoki nods giving full attention to the head of the Exo-Guardians Onit...Willbethere...inamoment'snotice!" gathering his supplies he stuffs what he can into his cheek pockets and heads off for Zigvigix.

An augmented host shirren watches a bustling crew move office equipment from several large pallets into a large warehouse, while other workers weld scrap metal to gaps in the warehouse’s walls. The shirren occasionally directs a crew member and makes a note on a datapad. The shirren, Zigvigix, notices their new guests and turns to telepathically project a greeting.

Zigvigix wears a set of shoulder speakers that blast out sugarpop music from the band Strawberry Machine Cake. They bounce in place along to the music. “Welcome back! I just love this song!” Behind the excited shirren, several grizzled-looking station workers, each carrying a side of a heavy-looking holotable, roll their eyes.

“Thanks for coming—I hope you’ll understand if I keep this brief; we’ve got a lot of work to do to get our new headquarters up and running, and you are on a short timetable. A ysoki salvage barge named the Clutter Collector, captained by a ysoki named Winks - perhaps you've heard of her - picked up a distress-beacon transmission in the Drift. Winks didn’t have time to check it out, but she sold the data to the Society when she reached Absalom Station. How nice of her!"

“Well, it turns out that this beacon came from the Struggle’s Scholar, a kasathan ship that…” Zigvigix pauses for effect as their antennae wiggle excitedly. "…escaped from Sangoro’s Bulwark! If you don’t know, the Bulwark was the old base of operations for the Exo-Guardians. Now, First Seeker Luwazi wisely grounded us from investigating the Bulwark after all contact was lost with it shortly after the Scoured Stars incident, but we can’t pass up this opportunity to learn what happened there. We might even be able to find the coordinates to our missing headquarters. Wouldn’t it be joyous to have a large fortress to play loud music in?"

Zigvigix hands over a datapad. “Here are the coordinates of the distress signal. It is unlikely any of the crew survived, or they’d be here by now. So be on the lookout for bodies. Since the crew is mostly kasathas, it would mean a lot to their extended families if you could bring back their remains or keepsakes to the Idari! Otherwise, salvage any data you can—especially the ship’s log—as it could tell us what happened to Sangoro’s Bulwark. This datapad also holds a one-time-use decrypter that will let you decode the Exo-Guardians ciphers used on the distress signal. Good luck!"

"Oh! Of course, you'll need a ship. Would you prefer the Society's Drake, a frame with stronger combat abilities, or the Pegasus, which could be useful in retrieving and interpreting data?"

Ship stats on Slides 2 and 3. Do you have any questions for Zigvigix?

"TheScholar...soundslikean...explorationship...whattypeoffirepower...wasitc arrying?..Ifwecanpilotitback...shouldwebringitback?..WetooktheDrake...andit broughtusback...butmaybethePegasus...isbetterforthis...trip?"

Ratatatat looks at the others as he pulls out some wires, widgets and a wrench from his mouth clearly looking for something.

"Well?..Thoughts?..Ifnotletsgo..."

Ehdd gives Ratatat a look of horror as he suggests taking a different ship than the Drake "I vote we take the Drake, at least I have an idea now on how it flies and operates! But I'm not one to limit anyone else's choices here so a vote is fine with me."

Do we have anyone with computers savvy? Ehdd... not so much.

You are looking at one giant computer here....

"I prefer the attack craft. But if it is a recovery mission. The shuttle may be a better choice."

"The Scholar is a kasathan starship that was undertaking a short mission to Sangoro’s Bulwark around the same time the signals stopped coming in. We assumed the ship was lost along with the Bulwark, but this signal proves otherwise—thrilling! I do not think any of the crew could have survived this long, though—sad! Still, the ship is compact, with only ten or so internal compartments, so once you find it, it shouldn’t take long to search. It's likely sustained too much damage to be piloted properly, but if you find out otherwise, yes, please, bring it back!"

Based on the results of a Culture check, you might already know a thing or two about the Exo-Guardians and Sangoro's Bulwark

Please also slot your boons now

Culture unskilled: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (7) + 1 = 8

"Iftheyare...stillinthatship...Idontthink...theyllbewelcoming...uswithahug. ..If9ormehave...alookwemightbeable...togetitbackhere...AlrightifyouwanttheD rake...thentheDrakeitis...justdontspill...thoseartificiallyengineered...che esethings...alloverthecaptain'schair."

I'm good taking the Drake or the Pegasus. Maybe we'll need the firepower when the ghost ship attacks us lolol

Culture: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (13) + 4 = 17

"If only Guidance would let us have the coordinates for the Bulwark," a ryphorian with short, transitional white fur says as he slides down the side of a scaffold and joins the conversation. "Maybe the Scholar will give us what we need to find all those lost supplies."

"On the subject of the ship, my personal preference is the Pegasus," he adds. "I find the Drake too slow in its turns and the Pegasus better able to handle multiple targets if swarmed. Not to mention those missiles disappear fast if you're not a crack shot."

He runs both hands over his frilled ears. "I'm Zatheses."

A disheveled human enters the warehouse for the briefing, yawning and wiping sleep from his eyes. He cringes at the blaring sugar pop music coming from Zigvigix's speakers.

Culture: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (11) + 5 = 16

"Thrilling might not be the word I would use to describe being sent to investigate what is almost certainly a ghost ship, but I have to admit, the opportunity to discover more about what exactly happened at Sangoro's is intriguing. Also, have you ever considered using headphones? You know? They go in your ears... play music quietly... shirren do have ears, yes?"

"As far as the ship goes the Pegasus sounds more suited to this sort of mission, but something tells me we might need some firepower. My vote is Drake.'"

Faraeon bounces right along with Zigvigix throughout the briefing, occasionally mouthing the lyrics and jamming along with a particularly fun riff on air guitar.

Culture: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (18) + 8 = 26

"Umm...actually I really think we'd be better off with the Pegasus guys. Some rumors from the few Starfinders who visited the Bulwark before the fall report that the Drift and Material Plane space surrounding the area was prone to strange events. Exactly how these dangers manifest varies by each rumor, but it appears the space surrounding the Bulwark’s home system is prone to odd interplanar abnormalities. So we should really go in with a starship that carries powerful scanners to identify potential stellar hazards and bleeding between the planes."

"Oh! Ziggy, this is my favorite part..." and Faraeon trails off, loudly singing along with the music.

"Really?" Zatheses asks the korasha. "Oh, this is lining up to be an interesting endeavor."

Culture: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (7) + 8 = 15 Ehdd gives Faraeon a flat look through his pearly white sunglasses. "Look what the air bus dropped off... decided to come back to the best crew around? Or did your 3 fans just finally jump ship?" He says as he curses to himself I've never heard that about the Bulwark... gah maybe we should bring that other ship.

"As much as I loath to agree with Faraeon on this one, with that bit of info maybe we should take that high tech ship, so long as Ratatat thinks he can fly it and the rest of you know how to use the scanners and guns." I hope its compatible with my tv shows, Ratatat should know, I can count on him.

After a moment Ehdd remembers his manners and introduces himself to the newcomers "Hey fellas! I'm Ehdd... THE MASTER OF MOTION!" He says as he breaks into his signature dance move, the wurm. "I'm sure you've seen me around on the TV screens strutting my stuff. Best damned Dancin' Shirren in the Pact worlds!" If you could see through his sunglasses you'd notice his multifaceted eyes all wink in unison.

"OkJumper...yougotmore..intelonthis...thantherestofus...wegoPegasus...Graby ourgear...meetattheship...insixcycles." Ratatatat gathers all his 'stuff' and stuffs it back into his mouth while the others mill about.

I'll vote Pegasus as well given Faraeon's information. I think Pegasus wins.

Also, have you ever considered using headphones? You know? They go in your ears... play music quietly... shirren do have ears, yes?"

The shirren clicks their mandibles, and lowers the volume. "Y-you're just not feeling the music, are you? Very professional of you! Strictly business, I see!"

"Oh! Ziggy, this is my favorite part..."

.. And turns it right back up. "That's the way! Feel the music! Be the music!" Ziggy waggles their antennae so fast they're nothing more than a blur while rocking themself back and forth in their chair.

"The Pegasus it is. I'll have the transport ready for you in just a few moments. You'll be leaving from Bay 317." Zigvigix snaps their fingers, and a map illuminates on the screen. "Head here. A bulk freighter, the Promise of the Future, will be leaving you with. I hear the crew is made up entirely of aquatic people! Kalos, I believe they call them. I wonder how a race that needs water to breathe functions in a ship. Water-filled spacesuits? Or do they flood the entire ship? Hmm. You'll have to let me know!"

With that, you follow Ziggy's directions to Bay 317 and board the Pegasus, a standard Society vessel with improved sensors and a host of ready expansion bays. The Pegasus shudders as the launch thrusters fire. The ship shoots off into the stars to begin its journey towards the beacon provided by Ziggy.

A few hours into the trip, you look out the aft window, and see the large, blue bulk freighter, the Promise of the Future. As you're sizing up the ship, a red light flashes on the communication panel of the craft, and a holowindow opens with a grainy video transmission. On screen is an aquatic, gilled humanoid with a stretch of webbing between his arms and legs - almost bat-like in appearance. He leans back in the gunner's chair of a flooded ship.

"Hey! Mantarider Ushuul here, professional gunner and LEADER of the Manta Corps!" He throws his weapon up, the sheer size of it enough to cover the entire screen. "Yeah, Muncher here usually does the talking, should any sort of trouble break out. If you know what I mean."

Another kalo shoves Ushuul aside. "LEADER? Psh. Whatever!" She takes the gunner's chair, moving her face a little too close to the camera. All you can see is one ominous black eye. "Hey, how's it going? Out on Society business? So are we! I'm Mantarider Suulhu-Huur. Where are you folks headed?"

"Hi there, Mantariders! Great to meet you! I'm Faraeon Star-Jumper, champion grav-runner and Starfinder Society field agent. We've got a heading following a beacon out into deep space. Our VC, Zigvigix said we'd be meeting up with you here. Said you'd be leaving us with something? I didn't quite catch that part. I was just feeling the music too much, eh, Ehdd?" Faraeon gives a little shimmy as he looks over at Ehdd at the ship's helm.

Ehdd rolls his eyes a bit "That song is way overplayed man. They need to bring back some of the oldies. Ever heard of jazz? Maybe a little disco!" He does his own bit of wiggle.

Ehdd sticks his head in front of the monitor to get himself on camera "How they hangin' guys an gals? Ehdd here, Captain of the fine, if not a bit overly complicated, Pegasus." He reaches out to smooth the tape labels over the various buttons and knobs.

"Like Faraeon said, we're heading for a long ride out to check up on some stuff, an old ship beacon needs investigating. What's going on on your end?" Ehdd continues to shoot the s#@+ with the Mantas. Diplomacy: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (19) + 10 = 29 Sense Motive: 1d20 + 5 + 1d6 ⇒ (14) + 5 + (6) = 25

"I believe Ziggy said that the Promise would be departing with us not leaving us something," the ryphorian corrects Faraeon from his gunnery station. "I could be wrong. He was blasting that music painfully loud."

His delicately frilled ears undulate to emphasize the point about the painful volume.

"Leaving you with something?!" Sullhu-Huur exclaims. "Hey, Alluguoth, were we supposed to give them something?" She swims away, and another kalo slowly floats onto the screen.

Ehdd senses no dishonesty from the Mantariders. "There was no gift mentioned," he says. His voice is soft and he speaks slowly, and he has a certain mystical air (or water) about him. "Perhaps Zigvigix misspoke. The sound vibrations he produces with those dated compact discs often result in damage to the tympanic membrane."

He continues. "We are on a classified mission and cannot speak of the details. We just finished some work eliminating a rogue band of formians on Castrovel. The lashunta are a proud, intelligent race," he says, looking through the camera at Faraeon. "What of you? A champion 'grav-runner', hmm? I wish to learn more about this."

... ... ...

Time passes as you continue to engage with the kalos, and though they don't offer any details about their mission, they do trade stories about their former travels across the Pact Worlds.

Two days into the trip, the Promise of the Future moves out of communication range, the crew bidding you farewell. The rest of the trip towards the distress signal takes 5d6 ⇒ (1, 5, 4, 3, 3) = 16 days.

Approaching the beacon, a sensor blares onboard, indicating a large asteroid field of roughly two dozen asteroids just ahead, surrounding the source of the signal.

___
To give you some insight, the writers intended the encounter with the Kalos to foreshadow a potential future scenario involving them - mostly fluff for this particular scenario.

Take 10 on physical science for 19
take 10 on computers for 20

"The incoming asteroids are chunks of obsidian....from the plane of Earth I believe. Possibly from use of a drift engine." Looking over the sensors he notices something strange. "Interesting, the interiors of these asteroids hold molten stone."

Mysticism: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (20) + 6 = 26

"Watch out for those asteroids," Zatheses warns. "They're obsidian shards from the Plane of Earth. Drift leavings."

He looks over at 0689 and his sensor readings. "Watch out doubly so, then."

EDIT: Wrong android!

Vandor peers over the shoulder of 0689 trying to make sense of the sensor readouts. "Lava filled asteroids bad, makes sense. Any sign of the Scholar though?"

After 0689 reports the results of the ship's scan, another starship comes into view, zipping towards the asteroid field at top speed. On either side of the ship are three bright-red thrusters, reminiscent of the energy blades of a plasma doshko. It stops abruptly, just short of the first asteroid.

Map

The ship has not yet attempted to open communications. What will you do?

Engineering: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5
Mysticism: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (14) + 6 = 20

”Those ships appear vesk... at least the have placed Damoritosh iconography on their vessel,” Zathese informs the others.

”It’s a ship!” his datawatch pipes unhelpfully.

"It's a ship!" Faraeon shouts in sync with Zatheses's watch.

taking 10 on engineering for 19

"They are merely for decoration. They are not optimized as weaponry. Would you like me to try to open up a communication link with them." He asks the the one in the captains chair.

Ehdd quickly looks up from his data pad, letting the edge of his tux cover the screen quickly. "Yes! Open up communications before anyone does something they regret." He drums his claws on the arm rest of his chair impatiently while he fiddles with his data pad. Gah turn off already!!

Once the comm link has been established Ehdd will send a greeting "Greetings Vesk ship, this is the Pegasus, Captain Ehdd speaking. Is everything ok there?"

Was this the ship that was sending out the beacon?

As ... ahem, "first matey"... Vandor will attempt to assist his brave captain in case any diplomacy rolls are needed.

Aid another, diplomacy: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (18) + 7 = 25

Checking the data pad providing by Zigvigix, Ehdd can tell the beacon comes from within the asteroid field rather than from the ship that had just appeared.

A large, male vesk wearing a deep red flightsuit with black buttons appears on screen. He speaks in Vesk at first, but when none of you respond, he changes languages to Common.

"Ah, greetings, Captain Ehdd! I am Yuluzak, speaking from the Honorbound." He's positively jovial and polite. "The Pegasus is a Starfinder Society frame, isn't it? Are you Starfinders, out on an exploration mission?"

"The Honorbound here - she's a salvage ship, and we're scouring the Drift for finds important to the Veskarium. Our directive is not the most glorious or honorable of missions, I can admit, but the threat of the Swarm demands the Veskarium investigate all avenues of advancement to prepare against the next invasion."

Ehdd smiles and nods into the telecomm unit as the Vesk speaks "An aptly named ship for such an honorable race of beings." He schmoozes as Vandor whispers something at him from off camera.

"We're Starfinders for sure, how'd you guess? We're out exploring the area for a distress beacon of some sort that showed up recently. Have you come across any ships in this asteroid field at all?" Ehdd spins around and hollers behind him "0689, we getting close to that beacon or what?"

He spins his chair back around to continue his conversation with Yuluzak "Its good to know the Vesk are on our side, no one wants to deal with the Swarm, trust me, I know. We'll let you know if we find anything you could put to use."

Diplomacy + Aid: 1d20 + 10 + 2 ⇒ (10) + 10 + 2 = 22
Sense Motive + Expertise: 1d20 + 5 + 1d6 ⇒ (12) + 5 + (2) = 19

Ehdd senses that Yuluzak is honest in his explanation, but that he does have an ulterior motive.

Captain Yuluzak smiles, his scaled maw as wide as the grainy screen displaying him. "In our travels, we'd encountered other Starfinder vessels before. One of them almost identical to yours, and just as friendly."

At the mention of the beacon, however, Yuluzak's smile drops, and his voice turns serious. "The beacon, hmm? We've also determined the source of the beacon, and... I'm afraid we cannot allow you to proceed with your mission. We are mandated to find anything of potential interest to the Veskarium, especially information on Pact World and kasathan starships." He stands now, zooming the view out so you can watch him pace the bridge of the Honorbound.

"I understand that you cannot simply back down from your mission, and I am a vesk of reason. I propose a duel." He pauses for effect. "A fair duel. This is the Honorbound, after all. So - let's set some ground rules. No targeting the life support systems of each other's starships. We will both abstain from targeting the rear arc, as well, and should try to face each other head-on. Let's say combat is over once one of our ships is crippled, but not destroyed. No, no, that would be barbaric. And of course, either of us can surrender at any point in the duel."

He walks backs to the captain's chair and slowly sits down, forming a bridge with his scaly green hands. "Do we have a deal?"

"I find it encouraging that upon discovering we are at cross purposes he did not immediately open fire," the ryphorian comments dryly.

Ehdd's face get a bit stoic and serious "Give us 15 minutes to discuss this as a crew here and we'll get back to you." Ehdd says, then goes about poking at different buttons on the consol trying to turn off the communication. After the Try Number...: 1d4 ⇒ 1 first try the screen fades to black.

"Well that's not good. Wish I held back a bit more on our mission here, lesson learned." He points to the other crew members "Ok we need to know what their ship can do and what ours can do in a scrap. Guess we should have maybe brought the old Drake after all? Gimme some info people!"

"We're not too bad off, in truth," Zatheses informs Ehdd. "The Drake has no port or starboard weapons; we are at an advantage there as we have both and the terms of the duel preclude firing at our unarmed aft. That agreement would also allow us to rebalance our shields to the fore. We are likely more maneuverable than their ship."

The ryphorian thinks for a moment.

Can he think of any other way that we might resolve our impasse in a way that Darmotash might approve of?

Mysticism: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (2) + 6 = 8

...guess not.

"Hopefully, their ship his not named ironically."

"I can ping the other ship, but they may become aware what we are doing"

"As far as our ship goes. It may not have as strong of shields as the Drake, but it can maneuver better and is a bit faster."

Ping, computers: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (4) + 10 = 14...uh not good

0689 attempts to configure the Pegasus to scan the ship, but the computer returns the red text ERROR - Countermeasures in place.

Zatheses attempts to recall some details about Damoritosh that might win the Vesk over, but the Honorbound starts to turn, distracting his focus.

Growing impatient, Yuluzak reopens communications. "Now, now, there's nothing to be afraid of," He says, noting the attempt at a scan on his monitor. "The Veskarium promotes honor and truth. Follow the rules, and neither of us will be killed, hmm?" The vesk grins. "Except, as you may have guessed, the winner gets a head start on the beacon."

With that, the whirr of the Honorbound's engines as they spin up sounds, followed by the weapons charging and the communication screen going dark once more.

Having scanned the asteroid field earlier, you know the following about its nature:

Piloting, Honorbound: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (12) + 5 = 17

Combat Map

Starship Combat - Helm, Engineering, (Captain) Phase are up!

Beat 17 for Piloting and the Honorbound moves first. Otherwise, the Pegasus moves first. Captain action is optional depending on what phase they'd like to act in. When moving your ship on the map, click the blue arrow and drag the yellow circle to reorient the ship to the desired hex.

Swirzs-bot engages the engines.

Piloting (Initiative), Ship Bonus: 1d20 + 11 + 1 ⇒ (20) + 11 + 1 = 32

Ship Bonus Reminders: +1 Pilot, +2 Computers, 2 x +1 floating

"Gunner's I am targeting there weapons systems. Hopefully we can take out their offense and defenses simultaneously."

target system, weapons: 1d20 + 10 + 2 ⇒ (15) + 10 + 2 = 27
if I beat the DC, which is 5 + 1.5x ships tier+defensive counter measures, the next attack that hits scores a crit on 19-20, and automatically damages the selected system. Any other critical damage done follows the normal rules.

If needed I can jump over to engineering or gunning

Faraeon calls up from the gunnery deck, "Got it! Swinging around the coil gun to fire on to their guns!"

The Honorbound's thrusters flare to life, a jet of azimuth energy propelling the ship forward. The ship approaches the asteroid field, turning as it stops near the closest space rock.

0689 calibrates the Pegasus' targeting to lock on to the enemy ship's weapon systems. A 27 versus DC 15 + 1.5 x ship tier + Countermeasures, = a pass!

The Pegasus can now move/maneuver, Gunnery can roll to fire if desired after moving, and Captain can act