[SFS PbP] DM Rhino's Scenario #1-01: The Commencement (Inactive)

Game Master RyanH

"Let us see what Fitch desires," Blake suggests, raising his arm and readying the comm unit in his armor.

"Sounds as good as any to me. Let's go."

Zvei, adopting a rigid disciplined posture, nods in agreement.

Blake pings the leader of the Wayfinders for instructions. "New Starfinders on their Commencement requesting direction."

You remember from your recent Starfinder training that the Wayfinders’ transitory nature precludes them from having a single stationary headquarters on Absalom Station. Instead, the Wayfinders operate out of the Master of Stars, an enormous starship that is part of the Armada orbiting Absalom Station. The Master of Stars is currently undergoing extensive repairs, obsessively overseen by the Wayfiinders’ leader Fitch, a female ysoki.

After contacting Guidance, a Society shuttle takes the group out to the orbiting ship.

The station’s Armada can be seen from the shuttle’s view screen as it takes off, gleaming figures standing out against the emptiness of space. The Master of Stars immediately stands out from the rest, as layers and layers of scaffolding obscure its hull. Tiny lights flicker among the metal beams as distant figures weld plates and heat shields to the ship’s exterior. The shuttle smoothly glides closer until it reaches the starship’s docking bay, slipping through the magic field that keeps the hold pressurized with breathable atmosphere. As the shuttle doors open, a small drone flies in and pops up a holoscreen, displaying a harried-looking ratfolk.

“Finally, fresh meat!” the ysoki exclaims over the screen, sounding pleased. “Name’s Fitch—pleasantries over, time to get to work. I had some trouble earlier with the lights flickering on the ship, and now both the lights and computers have suddenly gone out on E-Deck. No idea what’s causing it, but you work this job long enough and—” Fitch’s attention flicks to something off screen, and she shouts “Kirkath! The welding torch is not a toy! You wanna go in the toddler’s pen with the other kids?” She snorts dismissively before continuing, “Sorry, some of these little ones would cut off their own heads if I let them. Anyway, it could be some lunkhead screwed up the wiring, but that’s a pretty big system failure for a simple electrical short. I’d prefer to send in some people with combat training to scout it out, just in case someone or something is sabotaging the ship. If it’s nothing, great, get the power back on if you can. If there’s something suspicious, use your comm units to report in to me. I’ll give you the access codes, so— Selicha! If you touch that panel I will staple you to the hull!”

The screen on the drone cuts out, then flashes to display the ship’s schematics and the passwords for the computers on E-Deck.

Again the Lashunta starts laughing hysterically "Ha ha ha ... I ... ha ha ... like this woman! She has balls! Ha ha ..."

"Then let us move in and see what this is about!"

Zvei reaches up and puts a hand on Shamshir's thigh to get his attention. Once they lock eyes, Zvei shakes his head disapprovingly. He then pulls the Diasporan rifle from his back, checks the battery, slings it back, and heads out of the room.

Shamshir immediately reaches out telepathically to Zvei before she has left the room so one else can hear them.

"Zvei, what is your concern? Where are you going?"

"One, your regard of Fitch's character was incorrect. Ysoki females do not have such physical features. Two, I am heading toward the engine section, unless I am mistaken where to fix power problems," Zvei thinks at Shamshir with neural tone and fairly matter-of-factly.

Six does a quick download of the schematics and passwords before following Zvei. "We should stick to stairs and ladders where we can. We don't want to get caught in a lift if another electrical system fails."

"That is an appropriate assessment, Phantom," Blake says, agreeing with the other android.

The party uses maintenance tunnels and stairs and ladders when the can to avoid the lifts to reach E-Deck. The doors on E-Deck are closed and do not automatically open without power, but since the magnetic seals on the doors are also disabled due to the power loss, it's easy to force them open.

The Master of Stars is the largest starship in the Society’s arsenal. Even before the events of the Scoured Stars, it was the pride of the eet. Years of neglect required an extensive retro t during the events of the Scoured Stars incident, inadvertently saving the agship. The repairs are still ongoing, hampered by the lack of any senior Star nders familiar with the ship’s myriad and esoteric systems.

The E-Deck is in total darkness when the you arrive, making the first order of business to restore power to the lights and the cameras prior to entering the area.

Computers or engineering to reroute power temporarily

Shamshir looks at his surroundings and finds the right terminal and tries to reroute power to this area temporarily.

engineering: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (18) + 5 = 23

"It looks like you have that in hand," Blake comments to the lashunta.

Zvei levels the rifle at the door, ready for it to open.

While Shamshir works, Six takes out her tactical knife and covers the rear flank in case anyone tries to get the drop on them from behind.

Shamshir deftly reroutes power into the local systems.

This quick jury-rigging only provides limited power to the the section of E-Deck near the party, but it is enough to restore moderate computer functionality.

Most of the starship’s cameras remain off, but the checking the displays reveals that there are two human children hiding in an empty storage room.

see google sheets for the map your bring up... the children are in C1... your position is marked

Carefully poking you heads into the room you see

Scattered barrels and boxes line the lowered oor of this storage chamber. A thick bulkhead to the port side leads farther onto the deck, while a similar bulkhead to the aft connects to an arterial hallway that runs the length of the deck.

The kids were last seen on the displays to the Northeast corner poking their heads periodically from behind the crates.

"Ha, these are only a couple of kids playing hide & seek! Let us get this done fast."

Shamshir starts walking into the deck towards area C1.

Despite Shamshir's casual regard for the situation, Zvei posts up at the doorway in a standard 'room clear' position while the others enter. His rifle aimed at the northeast corner.

"I doubt a pair of children alone could cause a deck wide blackout. It's more likely they just got scared when the lights went out. Lets move quietly and find out if they saw anything."

"Hmmmm ... you might be right Phantom. Zvei - thanks for covering us!"

Blake heads into the room, scanning for signs of trouble.

"Is there anyone here?" he asks.

Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (19) + 7 = 26

"No! No one's here!" whimpers one of the children.

"maybe they're here to help...", whispers one

"Shhh... we'll get in trouble" The other replies.

Zvei feels there are two and just two creatures, sound like children, in the corder behind the boxes.

Zvei does a quick scan of the rest of the room and moves to the small crate, pushes it up to the larger crate, hops on the small one, and props his gun on the big one, aiming at the next closed door.

From the other side of the corridor, a sudden noise, like that of someone banging their head against metal and loud swearing, suddenly started. "OW MOVE! DON'T KNOW WHY I DON'T SCRAP YOU, YOU JUNK HEAP!" a fast-paced voice cried out, followed by more clanging and rattling. As the others tried to convince children to come out of their hidey-hole, a small ysoki, even compared to others of his race, crawled out of a near-by air vent, followed by a large metal...something. The swearing continued at a quieter tone as the ysoki turned to the droid following him. "I swear, one of these days and poof! Gone, just like that, laid out on my work table, yes yes yes!" Catching movement out of the corner of his eye, he whipped around clutching a large wrench. "What?! Who are you? Starfinders only here, yes yes, just Starfinders! Show identification, or...or...Yes yes, D3-K0, earn your keep! Interlopers invaders brigands bandits! Yes yes!"

As he kept yelling out, by now too far into his increasing rant to notice anything around him, the droid behind him just cocked it's head and looked at the others with them.

Blake cocks his head to the side as the ysoki emerges from the ventilation shaft. He alternates his gaze from the mechanic to the corner of the room and back.

"Blake-03, Exo-Guardian," he says to the ysoki and produces the illuminated sigil of the Starfinders above his palm.

"Hmmm ..." Shamshir looks at the small Ysoki and says "... I hope that you are not responsible for the technical issues on this deck!"

Six shows her Starfinder insignia and shushes the ysoki, pressing a finger to her lips. "We don't know who, or what, may be down here. Let's keep quiet."

A little louder, but keeping her voice low, "Kids, you're not in trouble. Fitch just sent us down here to check on the electronics. Why don't you come on out."

Assist diplomacy: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (5) - 1 = 4

Zvei pulls out his dagger stashed in a boot sheath and aims a throw at the newcomer. He holds it readied until the ysoki mentions the Starfinder affiliation. Afterward, he goes back to his rifle ready position.

Twitch was brought out of his rant as the others showed their Starfinder affiliations. "What? Starfinders? Yes yes, good good, need help. Many systems breaking, things sparking and burning!" Turning towards his droid, he added, "Stand down, you menace! Can't you see they're friends?! Gah, so useless!"

Taking a deep breath to calm down, for a given definition of the phrase, he continued on. "Yes yes, need help. Good with computers? Engineering? Wait, kids? What kids? WHO LET KIDS ON THE SHIP?! D3-K0, search and rescue! Kids in trouble, left the nest! Yes yes, must find kids!" With a reasonable command, D3-K0 immediately jumped into action and started to search the area.

D3-K0 Perception: 1d20 ⇒ 14

"Come out, children," Blake says in his best attempt at being comforting. "No one is angry with you."

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (12) + 0 = 12

The kids poke their heads up.

"Oh, thank the gods... someone is here to help. It was dark for so long. The lights just came back on a couple minutes ago... we knew someone would be coming.", Says a young girl

"Coming to get us in trouble! Look sis! That one on the crates... he's got a gun! Oh, I didn't think it'd be that much trouble!", Squeals the brother

"You're right, probably so much trouble... please, please just take us out of here!"

"Kids, you are safe with us! Come over here - we are Pathfinders and will get you pack on your path to find your parents." Shamshir looks at all of you then starts to laugh again "Ha ha ha ... ha ha ... you got that .. ha ha ... path to find ... ha ha ..."

Zvei just quietly shakes his head.

"No children allowed! Back up top, yes yes! Come come come!" Twitch exclaimed, hopping onto D3-K0 and holding his hand up. "Bring kids back then fix ship, yes yes yes!"

Blake looks at Twitch blankly for a moment. He then pings Fitch on the comms. "We found two children down here. They need to be returned to their progenitors."

Looking around you notice that the storage room is in a somewhat haphazard state— all the boxes and barrels in the chamber are empty.

"Yes... yes... send us up... have Fitch send some one for us!", one of the children says with obvious relief.

"What about... you know...", whispers the other far too loudly for her intentions.

"Oh... you're right!", "We're fine here... now that the lights are on... you can go about your Pathfin... er STARfinder business... Starfinder you say you are?"

"Yes, we're good... go continue fixing stuff... that'd be great. Maybe leave us any candy you have?"

Fitch on the comms, "What? Kids? Alone done there?! Must be Kieu Kein's kids... what the hells are they doing down there?!"

"Oh, sir, we do not know. Do you have any idea? They might have heard your name from us but they called you by name just now Venture-Captain."

Phantom puts her knife away and sits down on a crate near the kids, half listening to the comm.

"We're not leaving you alone down here. Getting the lights on was only a temporary fix, and there's no telling when it could go dark again. But, you can let us handle the 'you know' while we get you safely back to the upper deck."

"Did you children accidentally pull any wires or levers while you were playing down here?" Blake-03 asks, expressionlessly.

"What what? No more questions! Out out out!" Twtch exclaimed from atop the four-legged mechanoid. "No children down here, up up up!" With that, he started ushering the children towards the nearest lift.

The children look like they're about to start talking... seeming to relax a little. When Twitch comes in all high-strung, and ushers them out, their eyes go wide, and the follow him to the nearest lift.

The disheveled room now appears empty.

Zvei maintains postion, rifle trained on the door.

Twitch should totally [spoil] the [spoil] then. ;)

Blake moves down the stairs and examines the access control for the door into the next room.

Perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (6) + 5 = 11
Computers: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (7) + 6 = 13

Blake goes to examine the controls for the door. It is an unlocked motion sensored sliding door.

The children are sent up on the lift

Blake is at the inner door control.

Zvei is sniping from across the room.

Everyone else is huddled at the first door, not yet having entered the room.

"Bah, no standing around, no no no!" Twitch said as the children left the area. "Must finish repairs, yes yes! Go go go, into next room! Yes yes, go into room!" And with that, Twitch, riding atop the mechanoid D3-K0, moved into the room.

"It appears to be unlo--" the android says as the ysoki robot-rider clomps past him.

Six lets out an exasperated sigh and draws her knife again before following along behind the ysoki. "So much for stealth and recon. If there is someone down here, let's hope they're deaf."

As Twitch passes through the doors, but just before Phantom gets there, the ship's fire retardant system activates! The system releases gallons upon gallons of fire retardant foam in a 10'x15'area...

In the new room... this area consists of two adjoining chambers. Four large containment capsules fill the fore room, three of which hold stasis-locked objects, including a tablet, a strange curved sword, and an odd spiral of bioluminescent coral. A crack leaks fluid from the fourth capsule, which displays a foot-wide breach near the bottom. The aft room contains several desks, each hosting a deactivated computer terminal.

The room is extremely cold. While not damaging, the temperature has caused ice to form along the floors. Moving more than 10 feet per round in the area requires a successful DC 12 Acrobatics check, or the you fall prone.