Game Master S's "To Conquer the Dragon" (Table 1) (Inactive)

Game Master Chris Marsh

Maverick takes a serum for himself and grasps one of the thermal capacitors, lifting it up, "This is some good tech. I have a more basic model of this capacitor installed on my armor currently. It will increase your resistance to weapons that use fire or cold to damage you. Does anyone need this upgrade?" Glancing down at his datapad Maverick adds, "This Kelvezdreax sounds like he could provide us with some really valuable information if we can get it out of him."

By all means eat the food! Yes, good! You read the dossier. I can't tell you how many times I've heard of agents simply rushing in blind and hoping the gods sort it out."

The dragon looks over at other work beckoning to him. "If you're ready, you should head out."

Kiv slides one of the hypo-sprays of serum onto her pocket. "I believe my armor is compatible with the other capacitor if no one else can use it."

If someone else wants it, please take it. Otherwise I will be happy to use it.

Neroo takes one serum too. I'm not a warrior. Better let someone good at it taking it. she says about the thermal capacitor.

I'm ready!

Neroo activates her holoskin to look more like her representation in holovid.

"The capacitor will also protect you from the extreme cold that is typical here on Triaxus during its winter season."

oh, that’s true but I think Sparks has that part covered!

Says Neroo smiling at Sparks.

The gala is the next day, giving you plenty of time to check out the area HERE. In setting up there are plenty of interesting workers, people, art, structures, etc. Feel free to make a Perception or Sense Motive

Sparks is quite proud that Neroo from Absalom Idol finds her better than a capacitor!

Arriving in the area, Sparks, and the little mouse on her head, sniff the air, and look at all the people working and rushing around.
Perception: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (5) + 11 = 16

While at the same time trying to see if the people are working well, if they are part of labor unions--
Sense Motive: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (13) + 2 = 15
--and she listens to the voice of Fitch, coming from the datapad, who is also analyzing how the people work.
Fitch Sense Motive: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (9) + 6 = 15

Sparks dips her little rear paw in the "river", and looks around, to see if it is possible to take a swim?

Maverick installs the Mk. II capacitor in a upgrade slot on his armor, but keeps his old Mk. 1 model in his null space chamber should he need it.

Moving throughout the most busiest areas of the new lodge Maverick takes mental notes on the layout of the newly built structures and observes the work crews as the do their jobs. All the while snapping a few pictures on his comm unit so he can remember the occasion.

Perception: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (19) + 16 = 35

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (19) + 12 = 31

Kiv takes the thermal capacitor and integrates it into her armor. When on site, she looks around for potential sniper's nests. She also pays attention to any equipment that seems out of place or any personnel that looks to be stalling or not actually doing their 'job'. A sure sign of someone like me planning something.

Perception: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (14) + 14 = 28
Sense Motive: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (2) + 12 = 14

Sparks is a bit overwhelmed by it all, but Kiv and Maverick are on top of things. The information trade in Cumo closely monitors the lodge, and agents from multiple factions, including the city government, surreptitiously spy on you. The government agents have been seen handing off information to a city councilor named Tefarian Mel, who questions each agent closely about the objectives of the Starfinder Society. You spot a lodge maintenance employee transmitting information about security measures and facility maps to precise coordinates in orbit. The employee only knows that she was paid very well. Attempts to follow-up on the location reveal that it’s just empty space but could have been occupied by a starship passing by....

Yes I know that reads like a slew of hooks for specific adventures, scenes, and leads, but it's really just the list of "Gathered Information."

In short, it looks like this gala is going to be a hotbed of political activity. Stay on your toes (if you have them) and be ready for anything...

The guests begin to arrive for the gala around midday. Banners welcoming them hang suspended from flying drones around the dome while holographic displays run continuous loops of video showcasing the Starfinder Society’s recent public accomplishments and discoveries.

Duhm Kaoh

Sparks will smile and bow to the arriving guests, trying to check them out and see if she can guess anything about them, helping her IA analyze their non-verbal cues.

So Sparks will--
--action 1 closely monitor the guests.
After which, she will--
--action 2 set out to patrol the grounds, and make a tour of the property.

Action #1 Neroo will tries to make an impression on Commander Aralyx first.

Action #2 Neroo will continues to try to make an impression on Commander Aralyx (except if she already made it and its sufficient in this case she will try Tefarian Mel).

I meant to describe that you get 1 free Sense Motive each "turn."

Sparks begins to monitor the guests after trying to get a feel for the VIPs, but can't quite crack them yet. Instead they head off to monitor the guests and tour the property.

Monitor the Guests: Sense Motive OR Computers.
Tour the Grounds: Survival OR Piloting

Neroo wastes no time trying to make an impression. She expresses interest in the Society’s archaeological capabilities, particularly in dealing with curses and haunts. To make an impression on Aralyx, make either a Mysticism check or a Profession (Archaeologist) check. You learn those skills before either of your official actions, so I'll leave you at "go" unless you want to proceed.

Duhm Kaoh

Quickly understanding that she will not be able to impress Aralyx with her knowledge, Neroo transmits her knowledge of Aralyx's interests to her comrades. May be one of them would be better than her to impress the Dragonkin.

She excuses herself with a smile and tries another guest, the gnome Jaxter, hoping she will have more abilities to impress him.

Sparks goes over to the sensors and scanners, and hooks her data jack up to help check for any strange alarms that might come up.
"So, Fitch, what do you think we'll find, here?", she asks her I.A..
Monitor the Guests w. Computers
Computers: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (2) + 9 = 11
But she is easily distracted by the waiters coming and going with trays of finger food and various beverages, and forgets to watch the computer screens.

Sparks looks around to see how people are dressed: does she have the feeling that not wearing clothes over her proud white fur might be a problem in going to interact with the special guests?

Having stuffed her face, she goes out to check the compound.
She sees there are some drones, and... is that a little golf car she can drive around?
Tour the Grounds w. Piloting
Piloting: 1d20 + 19 ⇒ (5) + 19 = 24
She sets off to look around, but she had a bit too much to drink there, and does not move around very well.
"It was to wash the crab cakes down!" she mutters to herself.

I accidentally switched Sparks and Neroo. Fixed it below.

Neroo politely excuses herself from the conversation. Jaxter seems to be all about business. He’s interested in acquiring relics and goods from outside the system. Since you used your free Sense Motive, you'll have to guess what skill will do it.

Duhm Kaoh

Just a heads up that I probably posted at the same time as you.
Check above your last post (you might have missed this).

Thank you! I would have missed it.

Fitch makes a distracted pass through the electronic IDs of the guests, but indeed, there's a lot to take in. Sparks, however, notices something awfully strange. One of the drones flying around has a strange flight pattern. Sparks notices that there's something weighing it down. Make a Free Engineering check to identify.

Now that there's obviously something afoot, the Starfinders are a bit more alert. Perception is now available for "Patrolling the grounds."

Duhm Kaoh

@GM I will wait for my comrades if they are able to guess what type of skill Jaxter seems to be more susceptible.

Duhm Kaoh is not feeling socialable at this time, so he will instead Patrol the Grounds.
Action 1:Patrol the Grounds Survival: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (17) + 14 = 31

Duhm Kaoh decides he likes to patrol so much he does it again.
Action 2:Patrol the Grounds Survival: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (19) + 14 = 33

Apologies for my absence. On my weekend I got a Allergy-Induced cold and it was awful.

Being sick is always crappy. Sorry to hear it. A lot of my students are suffering the same.

Duhm works the grounds, and finds something strange. There's a strange device, recently placed, behind a bench. I've indicated where on the tactical map. You also get a free engineering check to identify the object. His second sweep after the first produces nothing else...

Duhm Kaoh

Kiv spends the early part of the evening ensuring security is tight. After a shift of 'monitor duty' the operative goes to check the other buildings.

Action 1 ~ Monitor the GuestsComputer: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (8) + 15 = 23
Action 2 ~ Check the Building

EDIT ~ Neroo reminded me about the free Sense Motive

Sense Motive vs Jaxter: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (4) + 12 = 16

@Kiv don't forget your free Sense Motive roll against one of the guest ;-)

Duhm Kaoh has no engineering knowledge and balls of steel. He grabs the strange device and takes it from the bench.

He inspects it, then decides to radio the others. "Anyone know what the hell this is? I'm sending feed now."

He does just that, and sends them feed of what he just pried from the bench.

He is a rockstar, not an engineer. Of course he would do something like this.

Sparks wonders what is weighting the drone down...
Engineering: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (14) + 15 = 29

Maverick is inspecting the buildings action 1 when he receives Duhm's message on comms. He heads over to him and will take a look at what Duhm found.

Engineering: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (17) + 16 = 33

Neroo introduces herself to the gnome.

Greetings Mr Jaxter. I'm Neroo, from Absalom Idol. May be you've heard of me? I have a successful holovid on the infosphere. I've heard that you are quite interested about some object the Society found during some of its mission? You're in luck because I've myself discovered some!
Let me talk about ...

Culture: 1d20 + 20 ⇒ (19) + 20 = 39 +4 if considered as Recall Knowledge

Don't forget your free Sense Motive check on the guests!

Sparks and Maverick both check out the things which caught their attention.
The drone has something attached... Both agents know what they're looking at right away. These devices are targeting beacons! The what, the who, and the why are unknown, but the when seems pretty obvious! Both Starfinders manage to deactivate the devices, but if there are more... Maverick can inspect buildings with an Athletics check, or an engineering check.

Kiv spends some time checking the guest list, and spots a forged invitation! After a bit of digging, she grabs a picture and spots the "invited" guest! You can talk to the guest for free this round. Include a "social skill" roll which reflects your approach. The distraction of the device prevents her from helping Neroo, who just goes for it.

Neroo finds that Jaxter is easy to talk to. He’s interested in acquiring relics and goods from outside the system, and is suitably impressed with the lashunta's ability to speak of such matters competently.

Duhm Kaoh

Sparks looks at what she found: is this device a targeting beacon for things like missiles, guided bombs... heavy stuff?!

Maverick moves quickly to check the rest of the buildings. Activating his comm unit to the teams' frequency he informs everyone of the presence of the targeting beacons, "If there are anymore of these on the grounds or in the buildings we need to find them as quickly as possible."

Engineering: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (16) + 16 = 32

After making sure all the buildings are clear he will monitor the guests to make sure none of them are doing anything suspicious.

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (2) + 12 = 14

Neroo seeing that Jaxter seems impressed by her, excuses herself and moves next to Tefarian Mel.

Hi Councilman Mel. What an honor to meet you! I’m Neroo, from Absalom Idol, may be you’ve heard of me? I have an holovid quite popular in the Pact World.
It must me something to be part of Cumo City Council. So much to do, so few people to help. I’ve heard that you are quite interested in gathering intelligence and I can say that I’m myself quite good at it!
If I may, i have some knowledge that could help you in that. Blue Print of modules I’m working on to miniaturize things...

Engineering: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (8) + 18 = 26

Maverick hones in on the buildings, doing some quick work. A flickering light in one of the buildings is suspicious.... Aha! there's a third device wired into the lighting system! Free Engineering check to remove it.

The effort with the buildings takes all of his attention, and he doesn't really pay much attention to the guests.

Neroo takes a crack at the councilman, but the conversation goes poorly. He seems to be more interested in sussing out the Starfinder Societies motives, and less on civil engineering projects.

Duhm Kaoh

Engineering: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (19) + 16 = 35

After removing the third device Maverick continues his sweep of the buildings.

Athletics: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (14) + 15 = 29

Once he is certain that the building are now clear he will mingle with the guests and make sure none of them are up to no good.

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (6) + 12 = 18

Maverick's tapped out of actions, but ends on a high note:

Maverick easily disables the targeting device, but doesn't feel that good about having them all...

Maverick hones in on the buildings, doing some quick work. A flickering light in one of the buildings is suspicious.... Aha! there's a third device wired into the lighting system! Free Engineering check to remove it.

The effort with the buildings takes all of his attention, and he doesn't really pay much attention to the guests.

Neroo takes a crack at the councilman, but the conversation goes poorly. He seems to be more interested in sussing out the Starfinder Societies motives, and less on civil engineering projects.

Duhm Kaoh

Do I still get a free sense motive on one of the guests? Or is it just 2 actions period?

Kiv slides up next to the guest. She does not look directly at him, but projects into his mind telepathically. They have spotted your phony credential. You are putting the rest of the operation as risk. Before you even ask, of course there is a back up plan. Leave now before scrutiny on you makes security suspicious of the rest of us. And stay off the comms, they are probably monitoring you already.

Bluff vs Invitation: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (2) + 13 = 15
Sense Motive (Tefarian Mel): 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (2) + 13 = 15

Strictly speaking the Sense Motive only comes after committing to talking to a guest. The scene is complex enough as is, so I rolled with it. With Kiv's post though, we wrap up "round 1".

Kiv's gambit doesn't work. The person doesn't seem to know at all what Kiv is talking about, "I don't know anything, I was just paid to show up!"

After a bit more back and forth, Kiv gets nowhere and moves on to Tefarian Mel. Unfortunately she doesn't fare much better there.

You opt to compare notes and meet in the middle. Zafeldrin curses into the comm as you all see each other approaching. Zafeldrin hurriedly jabs at a pad displaying an unauthorized data transfer from the lodge computers. He fumes quietly. “Hackers got in to the computer system a few minutes ago. They’re transmitting my data to a starship in orbit. It’s backed up locally but they’ve got copies of nearly everything.”

He glances in surprise when the pad indicates an incoming communication. The weathered visage of an old white dragon appears, a twitch in one eye belying her detached demeanor.

Zafeldrin breaks the silent regard. “You seem upset. Just explain yourself and I’m sure we can talk this out?”

The white wyrm presses a button on her display, and slowly whispers, “Hush now. I want to savor this.” The dome grows brighter as a new star blooms in the sky above and a roar builds in the air.

An orbital bombardment rains down upon the gala! High intensity lasers blast through roofs and guests alike. It only lasts a couple of seconds, but the death and screaming feel like an eternity.

You are not spared from the destruction. You each take 30 damage half fire half piercing from the bombardment.

When the smoke clears there are a few dead bodies, but not as many as you might have feared. Zafeldrin is distraught when he realizes the attack destroyed the lodge mainframe, wiping out his data backups. He urges you to locate the starship that received the data transmission and recover the information. “Not only is it a terrible loss, but an enemy could learn the identities and locations of Starfinder agents and outposts using what’s in there, using that to target more of our colleagues. Please go!”

Seconds later, Jaxter approaches. He's covered in dust and blood, but it doesn't look like his. "Please, take this. Don't let this insidious attack go unpunished!" He takes off and hands over a mk II Rings of Resistance.

Sparks gets her answer: the targeting beacons were for things like missiles, guided bombs... heavy stuff for sure!

As soon as the terrifying barrage is over, she will check to see if her little mouse is safe, then, seeing it is, pat herself down: no blood.
At least a bit relieved, she will comm' her comrades: "Anyone bleeding?!" (any need of HP healed?)--
--before rushing out to go stabilize people and help heal the dying.

This scene is plain stupid. Having only one round to try to deal with everything and "guessing" with almost no info and without the possibility to have any back up plan to impress the guests is nuts.

After the dust settle, Neroo caught a lot, her pride more than her health quite wounded.
But she stands up and answers Sparks question I'm only out of breath and not severely wounded.

She moves to help the wounded as much as she can.

When Zalfedrin call them to pursue the Starship she says Yes, you're right. We can't do anything more here. Life are at stake!

By the Stars! How did we miss this?

Kiv goes to help Jerris off the ground, "Mav, I'm gonna need you to get me in range of that ship. I plan to blow it out of the sky. Can you fly?"

Assuming we are headed into space for this. I'm good sitting on the big gun that Maverick 'booned' into the ship.

Kiv, since you have the Mk. II capacitor equipped you will take 10 less fire damage from the bombardment. Just 20 total since half the damage was from fire.

Maverick is already wearing 2 magic items so someone else can take the ring of resistance.

The unexpected bombardment catches Maverick totally unaware and blasts him from his feet. The flames from the explosions caused by the destruction of the lodge wash over him, but his armor's thermal capacitor quickly activates absorbing some of the damage.

As Kiv helps him off the ground Maverick looks at the carnage, his face a mask of grim determination, "If that filthy worm of a dragon made the mistake of not targeting the hanger bay we'll be supersonic in 30 seconds." He looks at Kiv and starts sprinting toward the Drake.

Yeah that scene read as chaotically as it seemed. In the interest of pulling back the screen, partial successes also helped. Getting 3 beacons was a big deal.

Zafeldrin works quickly, hoping to get you into the air before the dragon can target and strike the bay. It looks like he's pulled all available workers to hasten your take off.

Minutes later, you're up and headed towards space. It looks like it's an incoming message, and sent only to the Drake. The white dragon’s visage appears once more. She clutches at her display, choking in disbelief. “Still alive? No. No!” She quivers with rage, the display cracking under her grip, before calming herself and regaining her placid composure. “It doesn’t matter,” she declares. “Now I know your hiding places, your secrets. Come face me and die or stay there and live, while I hunt down your comrades!”

The line stays open as you hasten to duel the dragon's ship. Does anyone have a chronicle for "On the Trail of History" with this character?

Maverick has that chronicle.

"And you! I KNOW you!" The dragon is clearly only holding back a berserker rage by the thinnest of strings. "THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING OF YOUR PAIN JERRIS SAKAI!"

Kiv slides into the gunner's station where the coil gun was originally mounted. She reviews the controls for the recently installed tactical nuke. Yeah, the wiring is a little patchwork. Still, it should be adequate to obliterate the threat! "Sounds like you have a little history Mav. Anything we should know about?"

The Starfinders rush the Drake into orbit. The space is busy, really busy. A tangled nest of freighters and transports clog the area. Your rendez-vous course is smack in the middle of a highway of traffic.

Before long, you make visual contact. The ship is designated the Diamond Glow The ship has a large bridge nestled under the
forward weapon system, with blisters of shield projectors and
weapon mounts circling the round hull. The plating glitters with a
white chitinous sheen.

The transponder for Norys's ship has been scrambled, so it's flag and ownership aren't being boradcast Unscrambling it can be done as part of the Scan action during combat.

You're the white ship (Sorry, I'm using the Sunrise Maiden pog.) Norys is red. The white ships are non-combat freighters moving about the area.

Norys makes visual on you at the same time. She screams over the comm, practically frothing at her crew to blow you out of the sky! She tries to taunt you, but her rage makes her trip over her own words.

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Initiative
Combat Role sheets
If you beat a Piloting: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (16) + 17 = 33 Take your Engineering Phase. If you lose initiative, take your Engineering and Helm Phase.