GM Dinketry's Against the Aeon Throne for FoDs and GCP Faithful! (Inactive)

Game Master dinketry

Mal moves up and fires at red again.

Semi auto: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (16) + 3 = 19 Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 2

JD takes aim and fires his last remaining bullet at the cadet he has been attacking.

Azlanti Hunting Rifle: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (4) + 3 = 7
Damage: 1d8 ⇒ 6

As the last round skips off into the distance, he finally loses patience with the rifle and drops it angrily on the ground, cursing loudly.

I think I have hit twice with this rifle in about 25 shots. JD is over this thing and it's bent barrel.

He will push forward through the chaos and draw his pistol as he goes. Edit: tried to move JD on my phone but can only select the difficult terrain box, will update on my laptop later. He will move.over two and down one.

The captain clips the cadet with the whip while JD fires an errant bullet with his repossessed (and possible possessed) hunting rifle, missing yet again.

The colonists begin to funnel towards a building in the northwest, shrinking the chaotic swirl of panic. Unfortunately, JD still finds himself therein.

ROUND 6!

It is Verne's turn.

Verne levels off a shot at the nearest red cadet with his Pulsecaster.

Attack roll: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (20) + 2 = 22
Damage: 2d4 ⇒ (2, 2) = 4

Barrel smoking, he dryly addresses the rest of the crew.

"I've had enough of this planet."

The blue cadet races around the thinning-crowd of colonists, rifle extended as he goes. He squeezes off a shot at the captain!

Ranged Attack vs Mallura KAC: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (12) + 5 = 171d8 ⇒ 7 HIT! 7 pts of damage, Mallura!

The shot blasts Mallura in the chest. Though her armour deflects most of the force, she still feels winded.

It is Jarix's turn!

Jarix steps up to red and knifes her (or slides over to blue and does the same).

Trick Attack: 1d20 + 9 + 1 ⇒ (16) + 9 + 1 = 26 Damage: 1d4 ⇒ 1
Survival Knife: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (3) + 4 = 7 Slash Damage: 1d4 ⇒ 2

Jarix fakes the cadet onto his back feet, but fails to connect with his slash. In response, the cadet steps back and calls out to his companion in Azlanti.

"ငါတို့ကစစ်တန်းလျားတွေဆီပြန်လာပြီးတခြားသူတွေကိုသတိပေးရမယ်။ သင်ပြေးသင့်သည်၊ သူတို့ကိုငါနှင်ထုတ်မည်!"

He then lashes into Jarix.

Melee Attack, Reach, Non-Lethal: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (13) + 8 = 211d4 + 5 ⇒ (2) + 5 = 7 HIT! 7 pts of non-lethal damage, Jarix!

JD and Mallura are up!

"They're going to try for reinforcements. We have to kill them now!"

I never went back to update my position in the map, JD would have been where the orange smiley was

JD shouts at the crowd to clear out for their own safety one more time as he bursts out of the chaos. "Get the f%!! out of the way!"

He levels his newly drawn pistol at the cadet he's been chasing around and fires.

Tactical Semi Auto pistol vs. KAC: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (6) + 3 = 9
Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 2

I don't believe it....

Time to go fishing!

Mallura shouts in frustration, "You're not going anywhere, you Azlanti scum!"

Semi-auto pistol: 1d20 + 3 - 4 ⇒ (6) + 3 - 4 = 5 Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 1
Azimuth laser pistol: 1d20 + 3 - 4 ⇒ (13) + 3 - 4 = 12 Damage: 1d4 ⇒ 3

Who are you firing at, Mallura?

Sorry, should be firing at Red

Distracted by the thinning colonists, JD's shot misses high. Mallura, on the other hand, blasts multiple times, one of her shots clipping the wounded cadet in the chest. The colonists begin funnelling into the nearest building.

ROUND 7!

It is Verne's turn!

Verne, committed to finishing off the nearest red solider, flings a nearby rock at her.

Telekinetic projectile: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (11) + 2 = 13
Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 4

The android blasts a chunk of rock into the face of the taclash-wielding cadet, dropping him senseless to the ground. The other cadet watches his companion drop, curses in Azlanti, and runs.

You all may take one more round of actions against this combatant before he speeds away!

With a look of grim determination, JD raises his trusty old pistol and carefully aims at the remaining cadet.

Tactical Semi Auto Pistol: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (13) + 3 = 16
Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 5

The mechanic's bullet tags the cadet in the leg, raising a pained shout but not stopping his flight.

Jarix, Mallura, and Verne may all act.

Jarix chases after the cadet and stabs at her.

Trick Attack: 1d20 + 9 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 9 + 1 = 16 Damage: 1d4 ⇒ 1
Survival Knife: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (15) + 4 = 19 Slash Damage: 1d4 ⇒ 1

Mal drops her azimuth pistol and runs after the cadet, drawing her knife as she goes. She circles around the pillar obstructing her path, then cuts back toward the cadet, hoping to prevent his escape as she drives her blade toward their chest.

Survival knife: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (12) + 3 = 15 Damage: 1d4 ⇒ 3

Jarix and Mallura fall upon the fleeing cadet, slashing and stabbing successfully with flashing blades. The cadet stays on his feet, intent upon his escape.

It is Verne's turn!

Verne runs (move 30 feet) after the fleeing cadet, trying to muster the energy to stop them in their tracks again.

"HALT," he commands.

Verne, by my count, you don't have another level 1 spell left for today. You cast reflecting armor before the encounter with the elemental, you cast command on the elemental, you attempted command on the other cadet. That's three - do you have another 1st level spell slot that I'm missing?

Whoops!

Verne runs (move 30 feet) after the fleeing cadet, and readies his gun.

Pulsecaster pistol: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (15) + 2 = 17
Damage: 1d4 ⇒ 2

Weathering numerous slashes and two pistol wounds, the lone cadet makes a break for it.

The cadet is using withdraw as a full round action to race away at double his speed. The first square he moves through is not counted for AoOs, but the second one that only Mallura threatens still triggers an AoO from her. Mallura has a single attack to try and stop him, otherwise he escapes. Mallura?

On second thought...

Overwhelmed by the onslaught of the crew of the Brilliance and out of adrenaline, the last remaining cadet’s eyes roll up in his head and he crumples.

COMBAT END!

Jarix starts to pick up Jerrik, "You two, help me get him back to base. Don't forget to scrounge that ammo. We'll need more. Let's hurry. We have to get out of here."

As Jarix calls for help getting Jellik to safety, Mal calls out to the citizens as they continue fleeing. "That's right everyone, go ahead home and stay safe. But remember this, you are not forgotten. You are not alone! The light of the Brilliance is here to purge the Azlanti infection from your midst. Hold strong!"

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (18) + 10 = 28

She then hurries around, gathering up the weapons from the Azlanti, while checking them for any other quickly salvageable equipment as well.

Mallura scans the cadet’s bodies. The cadet who wielded the taclash has a survival knife and a tactical semi-automatic pistol with 9 rounds. The cadet with the hunting rifle has a survival knife and a tactical baton. Both wear troop ceremonial plate. They have nothing else of interest.

The remaining citizen nods and smiles at Mallura’s words before closing the door to the building where the majority fled. Jarix removes Jellik’s limp but living form from the lamp-post and the crew hustle away back to Aibretta’s.

Nice job Verne, and everyone else! If anyone had missed he'd have gotten away.

Before the crowd fully disappears, JD will scoop up the hunting rifle he discarded and press it into the hands of a military aged male. "Keep this hidden away, until it's time to use it" Without another word he'll turn away from the crowd and rush over to Jarix to assist moving Jellik.

Halfway back to Aibretta's place, a klaxon begins to sound in time, indicating that - even if the senior cadets hadn't reported the attack - someone has noticed the skirmishes within the colony. A repeating message sounds in Azlanti, followed by Common.

"
အရပ်ဌာန၌မသင်မနေရညမထွက်ရအမိန့်။ မည်သည့်အရပ်သားကိုမဆိုလိုက်နာရန်သေစေနိုင်သောအင်အား။"

"Civilian curfew in place until sunrise. Repeat, civilian curfew in place until sunrise."

Despite the alarm and announcements, the crew makes their way swiftly back to the mechanic's junk shop without any further entanglements. Aibretta has been waiting.

"You fracking idiot," she says with a small amount of tenderness, addressing the unconscious Jellik. "If he's not going to bleed out, get him in the below-deck stowage." She indicates the trapdoor that was under the large and previously-immobile all-terrain vehicle.

You all immediately notice that that vehicle sits in a different section of the workshop, and sports a slight alteration in appearance: the front end of the vehicle now sports a mammoth wedge-shaped spike and a few wired devices have been soldered onto the front edges of the vehicle. Additionally, the back end of the vehicle emits a small trail of water vapour and a soft purring of an engine can be heard.

Aibretta notices your glances. "I wasn't going to sit on my ass worrying," she spits almost defensively, "especially since ya got me some of the cod-sworn water that I had been begging from ya. It ain't jungle-worthy, that's for sure, but it'll ram the frak out of a reinforced bunker door - concussive devices of my own design will breach whatever you want."

She smiles. "It seats four. Wanna ride?"

"Now may not be the most opportune time. Plus I know I could use a day or two to rest and recuperate from my wounds."

"I agree with Jarix," Verne chimes in. "We haven't had more than a brief moment to rest since we arrived. It would be a good idea, if at all possible, to heal our wounds and take the time to plan our next move."

JD nods at Verne and Jarix's assessment. "It's been a long day. People know we're here now. We don't want the colonists to get too brave, especially after the Azlanti announcement. They're not advertising the shoot-on-sight policy in common."

He drops into an empty chair in the workshop with a sigh. He spends a minute running his hand over his tired face and hair, feeling the stubble and grit. He definately looks and feels rougher than usual. "If Jarix needs a few days to rest, I could spend some time working up a new build for Sh-Ux."

The smile on Aibretta's face fades.

"I don't think you've got more than a day to rest before the Azlanti start going building by building through the colony with much more thorough searches than what they've been doing to date. You've killed - what, a half-dozen of 'em so far? You think they're going to take it easy?" She gestures at Jellik's unconscious form. "You rescued this idiot, but how many colonists are going to suffer while the Azlanti let their squibs hunt for you?"

She hefts Jellik's form in an all-too-familiar way over her shoulder and moves to the trapdoor. "Use my place to lay low; do what you want," she grumbles in less-than-exuberant fashion.

It is very late at night, or very early in the morning, on Nakondis.

"She could have a point. We might want to return to the ship for a bit before returning to continue our campaign of terror against the Azlanti."

"On the other hand," Verne muses, "We ran into some trouble in the jungle getting here. Going back to the ship might be more trouble than it's worth..."

Mal weighs the options as well as she can. "Aibretta's right. The colonists don't have a lot of time before the Azlanti start really cracking down. Maybe we should just take a breather, take the buggy out to the ship and rest for the night. Then we'll come back here in the morning. Besides, it sounds like Lih could use some help out there. We lost Asenath already. If we can keep Lih alive, that would be something worth doing, I think."

Suggesting we take a 10 minute and spend the RP to get our stamina back, then take the buggy out under cover of dark so we can get out of the settlement somewhat discretely. Then we'll come back in the morning.
Any other suggestions?

"If she's worried about the colonists here getting the backlash from our actions here, maybe there's something we can do to keep the Azlanti occupied. If we can put them on a wild goose chase for awhile, that might lift the pressure here in town."

Before she leaves through the trapdoor, JD calls out to Aibretta. "Aibretta, you mentioned someone in town here was a turncoat, giving the Azlanti information. A shopkeeper, or quartermaster?" He then turns back to the crew to pitch his idea. "What if we feed them intel through this spy that we've got a ship stationed off in the wrong direction. Or that we're holed up in some kind of landmark the locals know. Might buy us some time, and serve to discredit their spy"

"Tace," Aibretta says with distaste on her face. "Rendell Tace. He's the licktoad you're looking for. At the storehouse."

Of note, Aibretta isn't 'leaving' via the trapdoor: it's not a passage, it's just a large stowage area.

Verne slumps with his back to the wall of Aibretta's shop; he nods off as the conversation flows between Aibretta and the others.

10 mins rest to regain SP.

The team recoups.

Aibretta looks flatly at the group after resurfacing from her stowage area.

"Y'all gonna rest here? I've got water now; I've got hydroelectric energy to burn in making me and some of the colony some ammunition." She puts on a carbon-polymer apron and sleeve-length set of gloves. "Just keep an eye peeled if you're sticking around or you might lose one."

She snaps a face-mask on and moves into her proper work-space.

What next?

Seriously, can we rest for the night?
"Once we've recuperated, I think we should take a run at their command center. Maybe cause a distraction that draws off some of their troops so we won't have as many to deal with at once."

Of course you can! Aibretta is just a jerk, that’s all. If you choose to rest for 8hrs, then you'd all restore all of your SPs and RPs, and you'd each get back 2 HP from the rest. Would you all like to do that?

"Maybe we should just take a breather, take the buggy out to the ship and rest for the night."

"Given Aibretta's warning, we seem to be stuck between a rock and a hard place, but at least the rock's our rock. Let's not impose further...we should go back to the ship and prepare."

"Captain, at some point the Azlalnti will retaliate for what we've done. If we're at the ship, we won't be in position to help. If we stay, though, there's always that chance we'll be discovered and overwhelmed. You know the condition of our supplies and our bodies and our fighting spirit. What say you?"

I forget, were there more of those motion detection badges on the armor we scrounged?

You got the original proximity alert badge from Jellik when you first met him. You recovered a second when you defeated the cadets at the cemetery. Those are the only two that you've recovered.

Mallura weighs Jarix's words for a long moment, her chin resting gently on her hand as she leans against Aibretta's workbench. She and her crew had had a very long day, and were definitely not in fighting condition right now. But could they really leave the settlement to get rested up back at the ship when there's a good chance the Azlanti could start pulling people into the street and treating them like they had Jellik? No. There was only one option...

"Alright. Here's the plan. Aibretta, we appreciate your fervor, not to mention all the help you've been to us since we arrived, but we all got beaten up pretty badly today. We need to rest, at least for the night. But we're not going to give the squibs the luxury of a day's rest. First thing tomorrow morning, we give your lovely little buggy here its big debut.

"Aibretta, do you happen to have the materials on hand to give our weapons a charge or work up some ammunition for us? We need to go in armed if we're gonna storm the barracks in the morning."

Jarix nods at Mallura's decision. "It's going to be a long night." He goes into the hole and gets comfortable.

Aibretta's expression brightens at the captain's words. She then smirks.

"You DO know that morning is about 3 hours away, right? I don't know about recharging your Starfinder batteries, but I'd at LEAST need four hours to recharge y'all's weapon batteries if I was swapping them out in serial. As far as ammunition goes, what do you need?" An eager glint comes to her eye.

JD nods at the captains decision. "I understand. It's not these peoples fault Sh-Ux got wrecked. It's mine"

He gets up from the chair and looks for a moment at the hatchway to their hiding spot, and back at the workbenches where Aibretta is working as if trying to decide what to do next. With a sigh he turns to towards the workbenches. As he walks past the captain he quietly adds "For what it's worth, I think we're doing the right thing here"

Standing at the workbenches, he follows up on Mal's question about ammunition. "What can I do to help?"

If Aibretta has the capacity now to make ammo or charges (or anything else flavourful) JD will help working through the night. (Edit, because GM and I were typing at the same time, will work for the next 3-4 hours.)