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

Game Master GM Red

Following the beacon's coordinates, Captain Ehdd depresses the button to disengage the Drift engine, and the ship shudders violently as it descends suddenly, and you realize you're somewhere completely different as the Pegasus slips into the Material Plane

Not 100 feet from the Pegasus, a heavily damaged kasathan transport ship floats in empty space, dark but for a slowly flashing orange light at its aft. Just a few miles away from the ship, a massive storm dwarfs the vessel, blue and gray etheric clouds warping the field of stars behind the ship and flashing internally with jagged streaks of light. For all its violence, the vast storm is silent, and it looms larger with each passing second.

You chose the Pegasus, so you can make the following check on the kasathan ship using the Pegasus' sensors.

Vandor slaps Swirzs on the shoulder. "That was some nice flying friend! Your first drink is on me once we get back to civilization."

You said we found the beacon lodged in a rock. So we still don't know the ship's location?

Taking 10 for 20

"oh well, what do we have here?" 0689 flips a switch and presses shift f4 on the controls. A layout of the ship comes up on the main screen.

"It looks like power is still running in the ship, and there is a life-form on the ship. I don't know what it is, but it is definitely omething."

Haha, disregard my question.

Mysticism (Take 10): 10 + 6 = 16

"An etheric storm is encroaching," Zatheses warns. "It will destroy what it is in its path and is moving far too fast for us to tow the Struggle's Scholar away."

Ehdd does his best to hold himself steady as the ship skids to a halt "That totally reminds me of the Duke's of Hazard when they slam on the breaks of take a wicked turn!" He adjusts his top hat and brushes off the front of his suit, sitting up straight in the Captain's chair.

"So we've got power on that hunk of space junk and one life form. Can we talk to it or the ship? Do we need to try going aboard to get that info off its computers? Tell me what we can and can't do people before time runs out!" He turns off his data pad television to help focus his attention.

Faraeon gazes in wonder at the enormous storm, but quickly snaps out of his revery as discussion about what to do starts up. "We've got to get on board and recover whatever information we can, right? And recover any kasathan bodies we can like Ziggy said."

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!"

Swirz Ratatat veers the Pegasus close enough to the Struggle's Scholar to be able to board. 0689 connects the two airlocks, and after floating down the airlock access bridge, the door opens into the strange, abandoned ship.

This entire chamber is one large airlock, with access doors to your east. Loose netting floats in the gravity-free chamber. A warning light above the interior door flashes every few seconds, periodically bathing the room in a dim orange glow. A small panel next to the door flashes orange in time with the warning light.

Ship Map

Zatheses activates his environmental protections before transferring to the stranded kasathan ship. A retractable helmet expands over his head, and a clear visor descends. The simplest of environmental information displays on the glass.

He leaps into the airlock and engages his magnetic boot clamps, allowing him to walk in the absence of gravity.

"We should restore environmental systems if we can," the ryphorian suggests.

0689 moves forward, to the small panel..."That will be a priority once I figure out where I can do that from on this ship"

He then moves to the door itself and opens it up, rifle shouldered at the same time..

Faraeon follows 0689, his pulse caster pistol in hand. "Do we have a location on that life-form, Nine? Or at least a direction?"

Vandor activates his environmentals as well, double checks that his pistol is fully loaded and follows the others onto the Scholar.

"Environmental systems are probably accessible from the bridge, or the engine room I would imagine. Some gravity would be pretty nice as well." He looks around the hold uncomfortably and readies his pistol in one hand and his flashlight in the other. (Is it dim-lighting?)

"Let's hope whatever that life-form is, it's friendly. Uh, you guys go ahead first I'll watch the rear."

"Negative...I can not track it from here. It could have gone anywhere from there. I have marked where the power spikes were at, so I guess we start with those rooms."

"Ok, I will try to work on gravity as well...but as stated earlier. I need to find the right control panel. So lets start with the engine room. See if there is a panel there, if not, then the bridge."

Ehdd watches the others activate different things on their armor and he nods and does the same I hope this stuff all works... it must be standard issue right? "Onward and inward at a quick pace, we're on a clock here guys!"

He draws out his blaster and float dances his way inside, letting the others take the lead. Prof Dance!: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (15) + 9 = 24

Yes, the ship is dimly lit for those without dark or low-light vision (or flashlight). The walls are 15 feet high.

After entering the airlock, 0689 hits the button to open the next door. The airlock shuts behind him, and the hiss of air rushing in and the weight of gravity upon your shoulders indicates a proper return to pressurization.

As air fills the room, a blaring alarm can be heard timed with the flashing light above the panel. After about thirty seconds, the alarm and light stop flashing, and you heard a horrifying screech echo from the south.

Moving into the main cabin of the ship, a gruesome trail of blood runs across the floor of the ten-foot wide hallway that runs horizontally across the ship; at each end of this hall are metal access doors leading to the north and south. A double-barreled weapon turret limply hangs from the ceiling, just west of the southern airlock door.

Gravity's restored after exiting the airlock access. The map has the blood trail on it. Still want to make for the Engine room, or anywhere else first?

Ehdd looks down at the trail of blood and swallows hard "That doesn't look good fellas. As much as I don't want to, maybe we should follow that blood?"

He looks up at the turret on the ceiling "Umm, is that thing gonna blast us? Could we tell it to blast anything nasty maybe?" He looks at 0689 with hundreds of questioning eyes.

"I am not sure...again..controls are probably in bridge, but let me take a look" He moves closer to the turret system.

engineering: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (17) + 9 = 26

Faraeon moves south along with 0689, his eyes trained on the turret to watch for any suspicious movement. He may not be able to help fix the thing, but at least he can help his friends avoid getting blasted by it.

Zatheses grabs a rod from over his shoulder and extends it into a battle staff as something screeches from the starboard side of the hall.

"Something awaits us," he states as he follows the lashunta into the hall.

Vandor sighs in relief as gravity is established. "Well all right, there we go, maybe this won't be so bad after all..." his words are cut off by the terrified screech heard echoing though the cabin, then he crosses into the hall and sees the gruesome trail of blood.

Oh @^*%, this hallway just became my official unhappy place. I will never be able to unsee this. Gods." Sickened, but also slightly fascinated he investigates the blood trail, following it "north" to the ship's port side, where he notices the trail leads to a door marked "Sparring Room"

"Hey! This is a sparring room, maybe it was just a friendly fencing match gone terribly wrong. I mean, kasathas right? All those arms... flailing... maybe they just had a little accident in there. I'm sure that's all it was." Vandor nods to himself as if that explains everything before returning to the group, shining his light up at the turret to assist 0689 in his investigation.

"Let's do this quick guys, I'm getting a great big no feeling from all of this. Any luck there Niner? How certain can we be that thing won't start shooting, should I be around the corner right now maybe?"

Ratatatat races back to the cargo hold drops his titanium cable and grabs the squad machine gun. "Ohhhyeah...Ivebeenthinkingaboutyou...letshopeweget...areasontointroduceyou ...formally...hehehe." Ratatatat races to the others and sees they are still following the trail. The large turret gun hanging seems to be making their progress cautious. Ratatatat just shakes his head as he catches up to 9. Stroking the machine gun the ysoki chimes in while pointing his nose in the direction of the turret gun "Thatgun...wouldhavelaidwaste...tousalready...tightenyourgravlocks...youbun chofgibbercats...wegotamissiontofinish...andastormapproaching." Ratatatat distances himself from the others.

Just as a sidenote: All armour in SF comes with a personal comm unit which has a flahlight that has a range of 15 ft. Page 430 CRB: Personal comm units are common, inexpensive devices that are capable of communicating with each other on a single planet or between ships orbiting a given world. Small enough to be carried in a pocket, they also come automatically integrated into all armor of 1st level or higher.

Description of comm unit on page 218 CRB: A personal comm unit also includes a calculator, a flashlight(increases the light level one step in a 15-foot cone), and several entertainment options (including games and access to any local infospheres).

0689 determines the turret has malfunctioned likely owing to the power surges caused by the etheric storm. It isn't working right now, but such power spikes could cause unpredictable results to any electrical equipment aboard the Scholar.

Let me know if you'd like to do anything here, and then I take it you'll head for the sparring room?

"We probably should not leaving things that scream to our rear," Zatheses comments, pointing at the captain's quarters.

"Looks like the rat brought the biggest gun, so I'm going wherever he goes."

Ehdd shakes his head and pats Vandor on the shoulder "It was nice having a first mate while it lasted." He gives a quick glance to Ratatat before also gesturing towards the Captain's quarters. "Best deal with or help whatever that thing is first!"

"Alright, let's move to the Captain's quarters. Let's keep an eye on that turret, though, right? If it was a power surge that knocked it out, another surge might cause it to go off randomly again." Moving forward, Faraeon stands behind Ratatat. "Lead the way, Tat!"

Ratatatat stops DEAD in his tracks and turns immediately towards Vandor flipping the switch on the machine gun.

"WHAT...DID...YOU...CALL...ME?" lifting the gun up with his small frame is a sight to see but he does it with no effort. "Youcallme...that...word...againand...you...willbe...needingthe...distress. ..beacon...Gotme?"

You follow the blood trail to the south and reach the door to the Captain's Quarters. You test the handle on the door to the room... but alas, it is locked.

Second choice?

"Who uses locks these days? Geez. We could go check out the other end of this blood trail. Watch where you step though, hard stain to get out of socks and suits."

A single door opens into this open space. Just inside the doorway, the entry floor is caked with blood, and several batons and shuriken are scattered throughout the room. A simple sparring mat covers much of the center floor. An alcove along the eastern edge houses a weapon rack filled several kinds of batons and a dozen fine shuriken. On the opposite wall is a pad of self-healing foam with colorful abstract targets painted on it. A four-armed metal robot stands in the southwestern corner of the chamber.

The floor-mounted, four-armed robot whirs to life when you enter. It speaks, though in another language.

"⌇⌿⏃⍀-⏚⍜⏁-3000. ⍀⟒⏃⎅⊬-⎎⍜⍀-⎅⎍⟒⌰. ⎅⍜-⊬⍜⎍-⏃☊☊⟒⌿⏁"

Vandor holds his hands up in a calming gesturee as Ratatatat gently "corrects" him on his nomenclature.

"Whoa, hey, I think I got it, I mean it's a little tricky to make out what you're saying sometimes, but okay, message received pal. No R-word, alright? I'm sure you come from a very very proud and unrodent-like heritage. Although, to be honest, have you looked around? We all might be in need of the distress beacon before this is over, maybe sooner than we like. So how about we keep the guns pointed away from each other and focus on not meeting the same fate as blood smear guy, okay?"

Vandor follows along near the rear as the group moves up to the sparring room. From the hall he listens to the robot's message.

Not sure if sense motive is useful on robots but if it is, Vandor would like to know if the message sounds hostile or not, or if the robot is playing a programmed recording, maybe triggered by entering the room, or if it's actually attempting to start a dialog.

Sense Motive (Expertise (1d6)): 1d20 + 4 + 1d6 ⇒ (3) + 4 + (2) = 9

"Anyone know this language? We should tell it we come in peace."

Ratatatat shrugs and then nods at Vandor's words. With that he takes point and leads everyone to the sparring room. "Danceryougot...equipmentstill...theonefromlastmission...withthehusks...ifn otmaybe...usethoseantennae...tospeakinitshead?"

"Sorry, I've got nothing on this language stuff. Parents didn't really raise me to be a diplomat or whatever. I can try to see if it can communicate telepathically too, though." Faraeon looks up from Ratatat and locks his gaze on the robot. The bulbs at the tip of his antennae glow faintly as he probe the automaton for some kind of mind.

Hello? Are you receiving me?

"I wish! They don't let us just keep the cool gadgets from one mission to the next. There's this big burly Vesk that shows up at your pod if you try to... or at least so I've heard..." Ehdd takes a step back from the robo wrastler and tries to communicate with it.

"Yo man, chill out. You speak regular talk?" He then cycles through the languages he does know to see if it responds to any. Shirren, Vercite, Ysoki, Ghibran

Sense Motive for intent: 1d20 + 5 + 1d6 ⇒ (16) + 5 + (6) = 27

Good idea on the Sense Motive. Ratatat: I don't believe I can waggle my antennae and just speak with anyone, but perhaps I'm mistaken?

See, there's your problem, Ehdd! You have to wiggle your antennae, not waggle them.

Very busy day, my apologies for the slight delay.

Vandor and Ehdd try to get a sense of what the robot's saying. It doesn't sound threatening, but it certainly seems to be asking you a question. It merely repeats itself.

"⌇⌿⏃⍀-⏚⍜⏁-3000. ⍀⟒⏃⎅⊬-⎎⍜⍀-⎅⎍⟒⌰. ⎅⍜-⊬⍜⎍-⏃☊☊⟒⌿⏁"

... Only the words come out like a children's toy quickly running low on batteries: creepily slow. It begins to repeat them again, but only makes it half way through the sentence before it shuts off to preserve any remaining power.

Meanwhile, you see a set of running lights illuminate around its neck, leading towards a panel on the robot's back.

Possess an Engineering Kit or roll DC 14 Strength to open the panel

Meanwhile, taking a look around the room:

Perception: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (16) + 3 = 19

Faraeon gazes around the room as he loses interest in the broken training dummy and his gaze falls upon a holoprojector in the ceiling. "Oh! So by 'sparring room,' these kasatha really meant 'Danger Room.' Check out the projector. Probably creates different environments for them to deal with or changes up what the dummy looks like. Speaking of which..." Faraeon trails off as he approaches the robot. He follows the string of lights to its back panel and attempts to pry it open.

Strength check: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (16) + 1 = 17

With a bit of effort, he manages to jam the edge of his knife into the seam of the panel and pop it open. "Ah, there we go! Now, time for you techies to do your thing!" He steps back to let 0689 or Vandor get at the opened panel, and offers a boost to anyone who wants a closer look at the holoprojector.

Ratatatat heads towards the hibernating robot with little care for anything else in the room.

Perception: 1d20 ⇒ 11

"Alrightwhat...dowegot...here...Hmmm...needthose...magnopliers...and...Ihad that...Jumper...let'sseeif...youdamaged...anything?"

Engineering: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (5) + 10 = 15

Perception (Take 10): 10 + 8 = 18

Zatheses notes the damaged holoprojector. He moves around the powered-down combat dummy to watch Swirzs work. He offers the ysoki a pair of minipliers instead of magnopliers.

His watch beeps and then speaks: "Those are the wrong pliers. He wants these." An image forms on the mystic's watch.

Engineering (Aid Another): 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (15) + 1 = 16

perception, take 10: 10 + 8 = 18

"Very nice, carbonedge shuriken" He then takes a moment to pull it from the device. He then flips a few switches.

computers, take 10: 10 + 10 = 20

The projector then finally turn on...

"Seems like its trying to ask us something. Can't say I know the language of those four armed giants." He pushes his round sunglasses up on his face a bit and turns his attention to watching what the others are getting on with.

"You guys gonna get that stuff working? Maybe that projector records things too, give us an idea what went on here." Home movies for the ride home? Yes please!

Having been repaired, the holoprojector replays its recording on the nearby wall. The video is grainy and cuts out periodically, but you can make out a kasathan crew member fighting another strange, ethereal looking kasathan with half of its body melted off. The crew member throws a carbonedge shuriken at the creature, and the shuriken passes right through its body and into the holoprojector's lens. The video ends abruptly.

The panel on the robot opens up to reveal a battery - not the kind that you'd power an energy weapon with, but an older style two terminal variety that might be used to power equipment. It looks like it can be removed.

The room also contains a weapon rack with the following loot: 10 carbonedge shuriken, 8 tactical batons, 4 cestus battlegloves, and 2 serums of enhancement (commando). There's also an Idaran force training baton.

"Anyoneabletouse...thestick?..Grabitif...youcan...thatvideo...givesusenough reason...maybethatkasathan...istrained...likeasolarion?" Ratatatat does grab a vial of the enhancement serum just in case.

When Faraeon sees the baton, his eyes bug out so much that it makes Ehdd's eyes look almost humanoid. "Umm...if no one has any objections, I believe I could put that to some good use! Especially if it'll help with that...whatever it was."

Zatheses shakes his head and gestures to Faraeon to take the force baton.

"Uhhh well. That wasn't a very long, OR riveting home movie. Looks like we may be dealing with something unpleasant?" He shifts his feet nervously side to side as he looks at the others.

What would be the check to know about whatever that thing was, or at least why weapons would go right through it? Culture hopefully?

Culture: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (1) + 8 = 9 S&+&. Hopefully not culture.

Not with that roll, pal! While I think the film far too grainy to determine what it is, Life Sciences would probably help you in figuring out what sort of ability it had that caused the shuriken to fly through it. Someone can still make that roll, but I'm going to move us forward. Let me know if anyone wanted to take the battery or any more of the equipment.

With some of the useful equipment obtained from the Sparring Room, you head across the hall into the Cargo Hold. The eastern wall of the chamber is so forcibly compacted to the west that the chamber extends only about ten feet from the door. Several person-sized crates are fused into the distorted hull, obviously melted by extreme heat. Space is visible from between several gaps in the northern wall, accented by the occasional shimmer of a force field.

Inside one of the cargo containers is a macabre set of limbs: a right arm and leg belonging to an android. Just as these are noticed, the etheric storm outside surges, and the lights flicker ominously.

Perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (19) + 8 = 27
Computers: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6
Medicine: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (5) + 0 = 5

Zatheses taps the wall around one of the holes with his staff and grimly states, "Blood. Android synth-blood and another creature's blood here."

computers, take 10: 10 + 10 = 20
medicine, take 10: 10 + 8 = 18

"Odd, the force field was lowered recently by user Blue Sky-101. Why some one would lower it while in open space is beyond me."

He scans the body, "It looks like the arms were ripped off by something with sharp claws"

Ehdd cringes visibly, and starts to shake "I.. I... I've seen this before!! In an old movie! Careful, sometimes they can burst out of someone's belly!" He takes a step back from the jumbled pile of limbs with his pistol drawn and aimed.

"Maybe they opened the field to try to suck the alien with the claws out into space!"