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Weapon 1 - Energy (-4 to Piloting)
Weapon 2 - Kinetic (-6 to Piloting)
Boost
Boost
Boost
Boost
Boost
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Weapon 1 - Kinetic (-4 to Piloting)
Weapon 2 - Kinetic (-4 to Piloting)
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Energy Weapon - (-4 to Piloting)
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The race begins!
As all six vehicles lurch into high gear, D-474, Buster, and Brob all land shots on Ratrod, as do Velocity and Nyizin! Unfortunately, the energy weapon hit seems to help Ratrod stabilize his engines from the barrage of firepower heading his way! The ysoki shows his mastery of junk racing by not losing any speed, even though the amazingly fast Star Shatterer is off to a commanding lead, Ratrod a close second, followed by Velocity in third!
As the racers come into the first turn, only Buster is able to hit Ratrod, but this time you're assisted by both Lemgem and Velocity, who strike the ysoki's vehicle enough to slow it down! Unfortunately for you, however, Nyizin's supercharged kinetic weapon was able to strike your port stabilizer, disrupting operations enough to affect Darkrunner's control of the vehicle! Star Shatterer is still in the lead, with Lemgem pulling into second place to lend support, Ratrod and Orsis tied for third!
Approaching turn two, a hail of weapons fire gets the crowd out of their seats and cheering at the top of their lungs (and other breathing apparatuses)! D-474 lands a telling blow right on Ratrod's air intake...but the energy weapon only helps charge the ysoki's engines! Lemgem and Velocity mitigate that by both hitting Ratrod's racer, with Velocity's second shot clipping Orsis. Nyizin lands a critical shot at Lemgem's spherical vehicle, causing it to crash and come to a dead stop! Even though Nyizin and Ratrod both hit your vehicle, Darkrunner is ready this time, and the Star Shatterer breaks out into an even bigger lead already more than halfway through the course! Ratrod is still in second with Velocity in third, but both are very far behind!
Rounding the fourth turn, Tyrone hits Ratrod square in the cockpit, as do Lemgem, Velocity, and Nyizin...but Nyizin also didn't know about the energy converter, allowing Ratrod to stabilize his craft! Darkrunner-42, seeing an opportunity to punch the supercharger into high gear and make short work of things, kicks the booster on, even as Nyizin and Ratrod shoot your craft again and again...your vehicle's overwhelming speed is just too much, and the Star Shatterer flies down the rest of the course and crosses the finish line, setting a new track record!
(Mike's rule for pbp: High is always good for the PCs)
...and then your engines burst into flames! The crowd thinks that was on purpose, so they keep cheering even louder!
Without your vehicle's four guns in play, weapons fire dies down between the remaining racers who are considerably slower than your vehicle! Laboni had been out of the vehicle and celebrating with you all in the pit area for almost 18 seconds before the rest of the vehicles came around the final corner!
In First Place... STAR SHATTERER!!!
In Second Place... Orsis!!
In Third Place... Velocity!
Ratrod comes in across the finish line less than a second after Velocity, with Nyizin pulling across less than a second after Ratrod. Poor Lemgem finishes last, her vehicle's earlier crash giving her a delay she was unable to recover from.
The results of your race in .jpg format
The excel sheet I used in case you ever want to run this scenario and use this method for the junkrace
The crowd goes wild at the exciting race and finish! As the racers (or in the case of Star Shatterer, passenger) exit their vehicles, you get a call on your personal comms from Radaszam indicating his satisfaction with how things turned out, especially as you (and he from his office) witness Laboni approach Ratrod and offer apologies for her previous statements. It's clear that the ysoki’s pride still hurts, but the gesture compels the Salvage Union to offer Laboni some extra payment in the form of collected gear, on top of the race’s prize money. In addition, the Salvage Union makes a public offer for Laboni to become a regular on Ratrod's show! This twist in events provides the Starfinder Society with valuable contacts in the Salvage Union, leaving Radaszam both exasperated and vaguely amused at the result. Laboni then comes bouncing over to you, giving each of you a big hug and also almost all of the winnings from the race - 400 credits and a set of graphite carbon skin armor!
~~~~~
Two missions down, two to go. If no one posts a preference for what to do next, I'll roll randomly for it!
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Kallus is surprised at the sudden hug from Laboni, but he accepts it nonetheless. As she moves away, he looks to the others. "I wouldn't mind trying out that graphite armor for myself. I seem to be a magnet for weapon fire of late." He then continues, "We should probably go and see Fitch next. She isn't known for her patience."
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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 female 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 offscreen, 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 again 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.
~~~~~
Taking the indicated lift, you arrive on E-Deck, which is in pitch darkness. There is one computer terminal next to the elevator, however, that still has auxiliary power.
One character can make a Computers or Engineering check (the Aid Another action is available for anyone else who would like to roll in advance to help, however), in order to reroute local systems from here. Failure would mean having to either call Fitch back to send a tech, or to explore the rest of the deck in complete darkness.
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Darkrunner and D-474 work the computer, and are able to restore lights, environmental controls, and some of the security cameras to E-Deck!
When the cameras come back on, however, you all take note that there are two human children, visibly appearing to be under 8 years old, hiding behind some blue barrels in the room next to you.
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The children are clearly a bit frightened, especially with Kallus's stern demeanor and drawn sword, but Darkrunner is able to calm them somewhat. The two hiding children are Kieu Lan and Kieu Si, the daughter and son of one of the ship engineers, Kieu Kein. In a rapid string of talking over each other without taking a single breath, they reveal that they "were playing with a new alien friend who hatched from the glowy egg and who looks really funny but is super friendly but who started sucking on the wall and then the lights flickered and then we came in here and were afraid that people would come and hurt it so we were gonna lock the door to keep people from going next door to hurt it and then all the lights went out so we were afraid we'd get in trouble for that so we just hid."
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Brob beams a smile at the two kids. "Do you know anything else about your friend? He does seem pretty friendly, but we want to make sure he doesn't get hurt. Don't you think he deserves to make new friends and not be stuck down here?" Thank you "Child Psychology for Dummies
Brob: Diplomacy check please :)
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"Well yea for sure we don't want it to get hurt that's why we did the thing with the fire extinguisher but we don't know how to undo it and we shouldn't talk about that so we'll stop."
The two of them just kinda start looking around, their eyes going anywhere in the room except the door that least west.
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Kallus looks at the door and then Darkrunner. "I'd be careful if I were you. Androids don't run on bioelectricity alone. Wouldn't want you becoming a snack." He then joins Darkrunner by the door and looks for the fire extinguisher thing the children were talking about. He is apparently distracted by the thoughts of the creature watching them from some hidden alcove...
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With Darkrunner's assistance, Brob finds a fire extinguisher rigged up as a crude trap on the western set of doors.
If the thermal trigger is not disabled with an Engineering check, it would go off in a 10x15 foot area () when the doors are opened. This wouldn't cause any actual harm, but it would soak anyone in the area with freezing foam that would soak into the joints of your clothing and armor and make you shiver () for about one hour.
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Only because of Buster's aid, Darkrunner is able to disable the thermal trigger and with it, the trap! You can now progress into the next area (depending on what you want to do with the children).
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 coming from the remains of an ovoid object that has cracked open. The aft room contains several desks, each hosting a deactivated computer terminal.
A chill hangs in the air in these chambers - you can see your breath as soon as the doors slide open. Somehow, the thermostat has been significantly altered, making the environment extremely cold. While not damaging, the temperature has caused ice to form along the floors. Moving more than 10 feet at a time in these rooms requires a successful DC 12 Acrobatics check, or else you will fall prone.
The creature you are looking for is nowhere in sight, but there is a section of wall () that looks like it was chewed completely through!
You can follow a pattern of triangular markings that look like teeth-marks, and you think you know where the alien creature should be currently located.
Given the systems that were knocked out (lights and security cameras), you suspect which path the alien chewed through, and as such you think you know where the alien creature should be currently located.
You think you can stick your head into the hole made by the alien creature to see where it went without getting any jagged metal edges to the side of your face - you think you can see where the creature should be currently located.
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"Well done, gentlemen." Kallus says honestly as they disarm the trapped door. It wasn't something he was used to dealing with. "Someone should stay back and watch the children, in case this thing gets loose again and tries to take its new friends with it." As he says this, he surveys the room, careful to avoid slipping on the ice and that he doesn't walk into something. "Looks like someone's experiment got loose." He points his sword at the broken capsule.
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With Buster and Brob guiding your team, you are able to cautiously maneuver through the chambers until you see a purple alien creature that is mostly an oversized mouth sucking on the power output of a computer monitor!
The creature looks weak enough that a single blast from a weapon could kill it, but if you wanted to lure it away from vital systems in a more peaceful manner, there are other ways...
- Engineering
- Life Science
- Medicine
- One person may willingly sacrifice a battery to offer to the alien ()
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With some rather expert coaxing towards less critical systems, the creature calms and leaves behind the power couplings it was suckling on - as it does, full power is suddenly restored to all of E-Deck!
After you report in to Fitch about what was going on, the ysoki quickly sends down a first contact team. They give you a hearty round of thanks for your expert handling of the situation as they take over and tell you to report to Fitch on the bridge of the ship.
Fitch gives your party a credstick with 400 credits on it. The Wayfinders’ leader thanks you for your diligence, but is quick to get back to work on repairing the ship, and tells you that your shuttle back to Absalom Station is ready for you in shuttle bay two.
As you arrive in the shuttle bay, you are met by Kieu Kein, who wanted to thank you in person for rescuing his children, and he gives you a mk 1 ring of resistance. He's about to say more, when suddenly Fitch comes over the comm yelling at him for not being at his post. He smiles apologetically, then leaves you to it!