Da'at looks to his companions and comments: "I've always liked the guy. I mean, I don't really know him, and he loses chunks of himself all the time; but, man, that guy is just so... Ya know?" And, humming the intro to one of the media mogul's many shows, he follows along, a spring in his step.
Did I say Zo, yeah, typo, it is suppose to say Royo. Zo ain't in this picture, I just happen to know a lot of the Starfinder NPC names.
The top floor of the tower is a single open chamber. A lone pedestal rests in the center of this space, with a small cube floating atop it. Complicated ridges cover the surface of the cube, forming a maze that somehow moves in on itself. The object glows with a faint blue aura.
Royo points out the cube You touch it and you'll be stuck in a mind maze, but there is treasure at the end of it. They are made by the Chitakin, an extinct race. I really don't want to have to enter the maze with you to bail you out, as you should all be worth Starfinders, but I will if stuck in there too long.If you roll a mysticism or Physical science check dc 21, you get to know the mechanics of how the cube works before you enter it.
mysticism, physical science 21 or touching the maze:
Navigating the Maze: Creatures that touch the mindmaze fall
into a trance. In their minds, these creatures find themselves
suddenly standing atop the surface of the mindmaze. Any
creatures that touch the cube appear at the same location in
the maze, allowing the PCs to traverse it together. Go around
the table and have each PC inside the maze attempt a DC 10
Intelligence check. With each success, the PCs make progress
toward the center of the maze. With each failure, the mindmaze
draws on the psychic energy of the PCs, fogging their minds; this
deals 1 Wisdom damage to each PC and causes the surface of the
cube to shift, further complicating the maze and increasing the
DC of all subsequent checks by 1. The PCs must continue taking
turns rolling checks until they succeed six times, reaching the
center of the maze. Once inside, PCs can escape the maze only by reaching its center or by falling unconscious from Wisdom
damage. Although PCs inside the mindmaze cannot voluntarily
leave the trance, PCs outside the cube can shake them awake.
PCs who do not touch the cube can observe that illusory
duplicates of their companions appear on its surface after touching
the mindmaze. They can follow the progress of entranced PCs
across the cube and can even provide aid by whispering directions.
This functions as aid another, allowing PCs on the outside to
attempt Intelligence checks to assist a primary navigator.
If one or more PCs slotted the High Society Influence (Royo)Which you did boon, then Royo actively coaches his allies as they navigate the maze. He points ideal paths in the mindmaze, granting PCs with the boon slotted a +2 insight bonus to their Intelligence checks to discover the center. If you have trouble getting out of the maze Royo will enter, you all will exit and he will be unavailable to help you the rest of the game.
As Spanner gets out in no time flat, being slightly less wise than he is, Royo congratulates him. All he finds is credits, but lots of them. In the higher tier you would have gotten consumables too.
A trinary star system—a place you instinctively know to be
the Scoured Stars—floats in the center of the maze. Many of the planets around the three stars grow green, representing an abundance of life. Suddenly a dark presence, felt more than seen, descends on the room and hungrily encircles the stars. One of the worlds pulsates with a golden aura that continues to grow. Eventually, this vast golden shield covers all the worlds of the region. The clawing darkness recedes.
Time passes, generations come and go in the blink of an eye.
Gradually, the golden shield lowers. Soon after, eight groups
of ships, their shapes too intangible to make out, depart into
the cosmos beyond. Each fleet travels through the void on a different path. The home of these eight fleets soon goes dark, and over the coming generations the last vestiges of life in the Scoured Stars disappears.
Sometime later, eight small objects hurtle out from the
lifeless planet that summoned the shield. Each object, a relic
of immense magical power, follows the course of one of the
previously departed groups. The objects disappear along their
trajectories, and the vision abruptly ends as the worlds of the
Scoured Stars fade to black.
Heroes start to head back down the building and as soon as they reach the first floor, a message reaches them.
Suddenly a small flying clockwork drone, roughly a foot wide,
whizzes into view and rapidly approaches. A holographic projection of Albryan the Curator emerges from the top of the drone and begins to speak.
“Starfinders, I am glad that I have reached you. The Order of
the Pyre Hellknights who accompanied you to Athaeum have
destroyed the lore wardens in a nearby tower and are burning
one of our most ancient book collections! We have more wardens
on the way, but they will arrive too late to save our books. Please,
hurry to the Tower of the Ellicoth and stop the Hellknights from
causing further harm! If you do so, the Curators will waive your
research fee entirely and offer whatever assistance we can!”
The Tower of Ellicoth is 10 minutes away, how would you like to proceed?
Male Human Envoy (outlaw) 8; SP 56/56, HP 52/52, RP 10/10; EAC 20, KAC 22, CMD 30; F +5, R +10, W +6; Spd 30 ft.; Init +4; Perception +11, darkvision 60 ft.; Conditions: —
Reynold scowls in response to the Hellknight threat. "Unsurprised, but still disappointed. Let's see if we can pop in above them. Better hurry!"
Spanner gets ready to rumble. Or snipe from cover.
Reminder, the building is 10 minutes away assuming you doublemove but don't run, so unless your sniper rifle has a range of 6,000 feet, you ain't sniping out the window of this building and into the other building. Waiting to see what else anyone is doing if anyting before I move on, will update in several hours.
Only what vehicles you brought with you Da'at, I double you bought any with your own credits.
Starfinders reach the Tower with no problem in ten minutes. A narrow hallway circles the entire tower. In the northeast, southeast, and southwest corners of the tower, steep stairs descend 10 feet to area B3. In the northwest corner, a stone double door leads into area B2. The circular stairs in the corners of the tower lead up and down to other floors. Where to? If heading to B3, which corner would you like to come from, alternatively you could split the party and come from two or more corners and still be in the same room.
"We should try to flank them if possible, let's split and come at this room from both directions." Raia offers, her pistol held tightly in one hand and the other ready to work magic.
I'd say split into two groups and go to B3 to help alleviate any cover the Hellknights may have found.
Male Human Envoy (outlaw) 8; SP 56/56, HP 52/52, RP 10/10; EAC 20, KAC 22, CMD 30; F +5, R +10, W +6; Spd 30 ft.; Init +4; Perception +11, darkvision 60 ft.; Conditions: —
Reynold nods. "The old pincer maneuver. Classic. I'll go to the upper floor, I'm not much good hand-to-hand." He pulls his pistol and a grenade to be ready.
Da'at blinks. Splitting the group, huh? That's not going to end well.
He motions to the southwestern stair, going down into the are stenciled "B3". "I'll be going that way. Lets just make sure we don't get into too much trouble."
Raia splits the party, but doesn't split it much. The group sees two hellknights and a Loomarch Devilbound. Place is on fire and has lots of smoke
init:5 + 1d20 ⇒ 5 + (6) = 11 zero-six-eight-nine
init:2 + 1d20 ⇒ 2 + (16) = 18 Da'at
init:3 + 1d20 ⇒ 3 + (13) = 16 Reynold
init:2 + 1d20 ⇒ 2 + (16) = 18 Spanner
init:2 + 1d20 ⇒ 2 + (20) = 22 Raia
init:8 + 1d20 ⇒ 8 + (9) = 17 Hellknights
init:3 + 1d20 ⇒ 3 + (11) = 14 Devilbound
New map is upGoing up stairs it not difficult terrain, as the stairs are very small. The mini tanks you see are canisters of Nitrogen, destroying them, creates a 30 foot range explosion and puts out fire. Fire will spread each round, chains of 3 to 5 create one fire square per round, chains of 6 to 11 create 2 squares per round, 12 to 23, 3 per round etc.
"Bastards! So much for your vaunted Law and Order!" Raia screams in rage as she watches the books in the library burn. A quick application of magic to her pistol and Raia levels it at the closest one.
Move action to use Empowered Weapon, sacrificing a level 2 slot, then firing.
Thunderstrike Sonic Pistol vs EAC:1d20 + 6 + 2 ⇒ (16) + 6 + 2 = 24Damage:1d8 + 2 + 2d6 ⇒ (4) + 2 + (4, 4) = 14
Yeah, I forgot the detail that the canisters are on the ceiling, ten feet up, go ahead and recon that action Da'at. Spanner, no, the smoke is just special effects, it is not heavy enough.
Male Human Envoy (outlaw) 8; SP 56/56, HP 52/52, RP 10/10; EAC 20, KAC 22, CMD 30; F +5, R +10, W +6; Spd 30 ft.; Init +4; Perception +11, darkvision 60 ft.; Conditions: —
Reynold rushes down the stairs toward the cooling agent cannon, whistling at the devilbound to distract it while taking a shot with his pistol.
Move to space, standard clever attack vs. devilbound. Can we use the nitrogen canisters as ranged weapons besides just detonating them?
Spanner shoots the devil, but he is immune to fire.
Zero-Six-Eight-Nine misses
Reynold does not hit, but bluffs out the creature
Waiting on Da'at since I said he could recon. The canisters cannot be moved, they are attached to the ceiling and very heavy. And no, you cannot spray the canisters, unless you have a latter or something to reach the button on them, even then, it won't do damage, but can put out the fire. Exploding the canister deals 1d6 damage, and it takes the entire canister to deal that damage, so spraying, which uses only a fraction would deal zero damage.
Hello everyone, I hope you had a fantastic Thanksgiving. So, we have a slight problem. If we explode canisters, there are 7 squares (two globs of 32 squares and one single square) that we cannot put out, with the canisters beings fixed in position. Does anyone have any firefighting capabilities? Is Create Water a thing?
Da'at, after doing some quick mental calculus, shakes his head. "If we start making those canisters explode, we're going to end up missing half the fire."
And with that he looks around for another way with which to put out the fire.
Perception:1d20 + 7 ⇒ (1) + 7 = 8
What is that thing in the upper left corner of the map, on the raised structure? Some sort of computer?
If looking around does not consume my action, Da'at will also fire a burst at Captain Happy. And since I don't know which of the hellknights I'm targeting on the map is which, I'll leave who that is up to you GM. If my perception check does count as an action, count this towards my next action.
Da'at misses with his machine gun. That thing in the upper left hand corner is in another room. There is a wall there. You actually cannot see that.
The Devil will throw an incindiary grenade II at the group of three of you lined up dmg:2d6 ⇒ (4, 6) = 10 fire It does not catch anything else on fire, reflex 13 for half. You are also on fire if you fail the save and take 1d6 fire every round until you pass. It then moves behind the bookshelf. The Hellknights doublemove to Raina, one just barely has to doublemove. All heroes are up The fire spreads.
If you finish the combat, you can put out the fire, easily, smother the flames whatever quickly before it spreads too far, but during combat, no
"Hey! Come over this way Hell... Jockeys? I've never trashed talked a knight from Hell before. You got any good ones?" asks Da'at as he moves up once more to shoot, ignoring the fire that is beginning to burn him.
Male Human Envoy (outlaw) 8; SP 56/56, HP 52/52, RP 10/10; EAC 20, KAC 22, CMD 30; F +5, R +10, W +6; Spd 30 ft.; Init +4; Perception +11, darkvision 60 ft.; Conditions: —
Reflex DC 13:1d20 + 7 ⇒ (9) + 7 = 16
Reynold shrugs off most of the flames, then glances up at the canister atop the overlook. ”If that top one bursts it should help extinguish the fires below! Take it out!” He carefully aims his pistol and fires at the canister.
Move action: get ‘em on the NW canister. Standard shoot at it with static arc pistol.
Yep, Spanner you were out of the grenade Reynold, there is no NW canister. There is SW, SE and NE, but not NW canister, which one you detonating?
Da'at puts in bullet in the Hellknight elbow.
Spanner then lasers the same one in the knee and finds out Hellknights don't have any immunity or resistance to fire like the devilbound does.
reflex:3 + 1d20 ⇒ 3 + (10) = 13 reflex:3 + 1d20 ⇒ 3 + (20) = 23 and one falls prone
They get back up go towards raia with pikes hit:8 + 1d20 ⇒ 8 + (10) = 18 vs KAC hit:8 + 1d20 ⇒ 8 + (17) = 25 vs KAC
dmg:2d8 + 4 ⇒ (3, 4) + 4 = 11 To Raia
The Devilbound with throw his other grenade getting Da'at and 8069 hit:1d20 ⇒ 3He has a high modifier to hit the square, just gotta make sure he don't roll a 1dmg:2d6 ⇒ (4, 6) = 10 fire and reflex 13 for half all heroes are up
Raia takes a bad hit in her shoulder and begins bleeding. She curses but steps back once more, and casts a defensive spell. The lashunta vanishes.
Since Grease lasts for 4 minutes, the Hellknights would have needed to make a DC10 Acrobatics check when they moved towards Raia, or they could not move (and would have had to make another reflex save to avoid falling prone).
Guarded Step back followed by casting invisibility
Is the reflex save accounting for the decreased DC grenades have in this system? -1 to the DC per range increment. So for a range 10 grenade, it would be at a -4 from its original DC. I ask because it is not a well known feature that my fighting style deals with.
Reflex:1d20 + 3 ⇒ (17) + 3 = 20
Da'at dodges out of the way of the worst of the blast. "Are you guys shy? Not super social? That's cool. Here's something I learned: people usually don't like it when you burn their stuff."
Is the reflex save accounting for the decreased DC grenades have in this system? -1 to the DC per range increment. So for a range 10 grenade, it would be at a -4 from its original DC. I ask because it is not a well known feature that my fighting style deals with.
Unless they have Far Shot, increments are -2 DC each. Though most grenades have a range increment of 20, which means probably obly -2 DC at most since the grenades are coming from the one in the middle.
Male Human Envoy (outlaw) 8; SP 56/56, HP 52/52, RP 10/10; EAC 20, KAC 22, CMD 30; F +5, R +10, W +6; Spd 30 ft.; Init +4; Perception +11, darkvision 60 ft.; Conditions: —
DoubleGold wrote:
Reynold, there is no NW canister. There is SW, SE and NE, but not NW canister, which one you detonating?
Is that blue thing on the platform overlooking the library not a canister? Sorry for the confusion.
Is the reflex save accounting for the decreased DC grenades have in this system? -1 to the DC per range increment. So for a range 10 grenade, it would be at a -4 from its original DC. I ask because it is not a well known feature that my fighting style deals with.
Unless they have Far Shot, increments are -2 DC each. Though most grenades have a range increment of 20, which means probably obly -2 DC at most since the grenades are coming from the one in the middle.
Looks like I am partially mistaken. Thank you Raia!
Oh, right, that would lower the grenade dc to 12. acrobatics:4 + 1d20 ⇒ 4 + (3) = 7acrobatics:4 + 1d20 ⇒ 4 + (14) = 18 reflex:3 + 1d20 ⇒ 3 + (13) = 16reflex:3 + 1d20 ⇒ 3 + (12) = 15I gotta move that one back, Raia, ignore the first 5 of 11 damage, you only took 6 that time That thing in the upper left corner overlooking the library is raised up and behind some one-way glass, you cannot see that. It is also not a canister, so even if you broke the glass and shot it, that is not what would happen.
Da'at misses
Reynold is up, still has an action from last round and and this one.Reynold that shot of 19 will hit anything, you can transfer it to another canister or a Hellknight and deal 3 dmg. Spanner is up and 0689 is up
Male Human Envoy (outlaw) 8; SP 56/56, HP 52/52, RP 10/10; EAC 20, KAC 22, CMD 30; F +5, R +10, W +6; Spd 30 ft.; Init +4; Perception +11, darkvision 60 ft.; Conditions: —
DoubleGold wrote:
Reynold is up, still has an action from last round and and this one.Reynold that shot of 19 will hit anything, you can transfer it to another canister or a Hellknight and deal 3 dmg.
Aha, gotcha. In that case Reynold will shoot at the devil, and make it a clever attack to boot.
Reynold fires at the Devil, but finds out he has resistance at least the amount he did to it and deals nothing. He does bluff out the boss though.
Um 0689, you saw Spanner shoot the boss with fire, as laser, a square hit and it did nothing. You probably want to transfer your roll to another gun or your rolls to another target.
Spanner misses
0689 hits a Hellknight and he screams in pain
acrobatics to move:4 + 1d20 ⇒ 4 + (10) = 14 Hellknight is able to across the grease reflex:3 + 1d20 ⇒ 3 + (7) = 10 but the green one falls prone.
The other one attacks Raia with a pike hit:8 + 1d20 ⇒ 8 + (9) = 17 and jabs her with dmg:1d8 + 2 ⇒ (5) + 2 = 7
The Devil. Spanner, I said it had resistance to electricity, that was a mistake, adding 3 dmg onto him.
The Devil sill get up to 0689 and attack you with his claw hit:12 + 1d20 ⇒ 12 + (3) = 15 vs KAC dmg:1d10 + 6 ⇒ (4) + 6 = 10 plus grab, looks like he misses.
All heroes are up
Raia was invisible, so I'll roll miss chance for the one who hit her. Miss Chance:1d100 ⇒ 72 looks like it still hits.
Raia tries to muffle her cry of pain as the pike finds her again despite the invisibility. She needed to move away where the random flailing wouldn't hit her...
Male Human Envoy (outlaw) 8; SP 56/56, HP 52/52, RP 10/10; EAC 20, KAC 22, CMD 30; F +5, R +10, W +6; Spd 30 ft.; Init +4; Perception +11, darkvision 60 ft.; Conditions: —
Wait, if the devil doesn't have electricity resistance then Reynold's attack should have worked too.
If Reynold can manipulate the adjacent canister:
Seeing the northern fires grow, Reynold yanks the foam canister from the adjacent mechanism and chucks it into the flames, hoping to detonate it and douse the fire.
Move to dislodge, standard to throw into the intersection with the green X.
Attack vs. AC 5 (intersection):1d20 + 6 ⇒ (19) + 6 = 25
If Reynold can't manipulate the canister:
"Can anyone stop these flames? The problem seems to be spreading!" Reynold shouts before turning his attention back onto the devil. "Start by bringing him down!"
