GM Bret’s SFS 1-35 Rasheen's Riches, Tier 7-8 [PBP Gameday VIII] (Inactive)

Game Master BretI

Goose remembers that a ghost is able to drain a victim and renew itself.

Draining Touch (Su) As a standard action, the ghost can make a single melee attack against EAC. On a hit, this attack drains 1d4 points from any one ability score of its choice, and it recovers 6 Hit Points. Once a target has been affected by this attack, it cannot be affected again for 24 hours.

Working on status update now.

T’Kai hits it the force disc and greatly damages the creature.

Mon’s laser also hits, but not for full effect.

Round 1:

Bolded may act.
Mysticism to Identify Qinhu.

Big Jim -17
Buster -6
Compucast -14
Mon
Antoine -14
T’Kai
Ivok
Qinhu -40

"A ghost? Are you sure? That voice has a lot of life to-", Ivok pushes in past the doorway and stops upon seeing the specter.

Hearing the various and nasty things the undead could deal to the party Ivok pushes forward, ducking below the weapons fire. "I'm not sure what good my muscle will be against someone with none, but I'll hold the line!"

He holds his cryopike, arcing with a swirl of cold and fire against the ghost.

"Sorry friend, but I'm not keen on letting you kill my other friends. Maybe we could find a nice exercise program to work out your frustrations on."

If he does provoke from my reach weapon via movement, I will use Stand Still (1d20+16 to hit KAC+8) to try to stop movement.

I do also have Coordinated Shot, but that will not help as long as I'm blocking the party's firing lane.

"Does that make this a ghost ship? The kids are gonna love this!"

Jim and Buster start moving through the ship to find another way around...

Compucast enters the room as he hears of combat breaking out. He too tries to work out what the powers of the thing might be.

mysticism: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (13) + 12 = 25

Reaching out he supercharges Mon's weapon.

Extra 4d6 damage if you hit next round

Big Jim on hearing of the ghost decides to try and find another way into the compartment. Buster dutifully follows behind.

Compucast suspects this ghost has class abilities (how he knows this is a mystery to me) and a strong will.
Class abilities, Will is the high save.

He then sets Mon’s weapon to 11!

Round 1:

Bolded may act.
Mysticism to Identify Qinhu.

Big Jim -17
Buster -6
Compucast -14
Mon
Antoine -14
T’Kai
Ivok
Qinhu -40

My full turn was to double move forward. I got my post in as you were editing the last status update.

Without Ghost Killer, I am applying the 50% chance of no effect on the use of the cryopike for Stand Still.

Attack of Opportunity: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (13) + 12 = 25
Can work if greater than 50: 1d100 ⇒ 38

Qinhu attempts to move, causing Ivok to swing his pike in an attempt to prevent the ghost from moving. The ghost is just barely able to evade the strike and moves through the walls out of the room and back in, ending up between Ivok and those the mighty vesk was trying to protect.

Qinhu then lets out a moan of anguish. “Why must everyone interrupt my work? How am I to get this operational in time with the constant interruptions?” Evidently, whoever this was they were some sort of engineer in life. You can feel the absolute terror they felt as they worked on their last project.

Will saves from everyone except Buster and Big Jim.

Round 2:

Bolded may act.

Big Jim -17
Buster -6
Compucast -14
Mon Weapon is currently Supercharged!
Antoine -14
T’Kai
Ivok
Qinhu -40

will: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (19) + 6 = 25

"This is not that much. Return to your grave!"

Clever attack (bluff): 1d20 + 1d6 + 14 + 1 ⇒ (4) + (4) + 14 + 1 = 23
Camera (plasma rifle)+get'em: 1d20 + 11 + 2 ⇒ (9) + 11 + 2 = 22vs EAC flat-footed
f&e ghost killer: 1d10 + 7 ⇒ (4) + 7 = 11

reroll bluff cunning liar if lower than 7: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (3) + 14 = 17

+2 against the ghost for all

While Goose can appreciate dedication to the job, he can't stomach a psychic attack to prevent unwanted company. The tiny ysoki steels himself against the mental attack.

Will save: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (18) + 6 = 24

Having overcome the ghost's attack, Goose focuses on taking down the dangerous adversary. He maneuvers to get a good shot lines up a stealthy trick attack.

Trick attack vs. Ghost. Take 10 + 25 = 35 trick attack outcome. Beats up to CR 15 creatures. Target is flatfooted to entire party for the rest of the round.

Having maneuvered succesfully, Goose fires his shot at the ghost.

Attack with Laser Pistol vs. Flatfooted EAC: 1d20 + 11 + 2 ⇒ (16) + 11 + 2 = 29

Goose let's loose with a supercharged blast from the tiny weapon he wields but it is bound to pack somewhat of a punch!

Damage - Magical, fire: 1d4 + 3 + 4d8 + 4d6 ⇒ (2) + 3 + (4, 1, 7, 4) + (5, 5, 3, 3) = 37

Will Save: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (8) + 12 = 20

Three glowing stars launch from T'kai at the ghost. Shooting Stars: 3d4 + 3 ⇒ (2, 3, 4) + 3 = 12

Antoine fearlessly takes another photograph of the ghost. It may be a little overexposed, the ghost certainly didn’t like it.

Goose moves to a better position and then fires at the ghost with the weapon that Compucast powered up. He has no problem hitting, although it didn’t do full damage.

T’Kai’s Missiles strike true and like Antoine’s “camera” they do full damage.

The ghost breaks apart, still bemoaning the interruptions.

Combat over

Will Save + bonus vs Fear: 1d20 + 7 + 2 ⇒ (12) + 7 + 2 = 21

Ivok feels a chill through his body as the spirit passes him by and unleashes the wave of dread and fear. Before he can close the distance though the spirit is dispelled and Ivok heaves a sigh of relief.

He looks about the room

"What was he doing in the end? Did he die here on the ground?"

Goose nods at Ivok's line of questioning.

"Yup, yup. What was he doing? questions the operative.

Can we make an engineering check based on the ghost's location and statements to determine what he was working on? My guess it that it had to do with the crash or something.

Surprised by the sudden cessation of hostility, Jim heads back to look at the engineering issue "Let's see if we can work out what was going on"

Search the room, check things over etc

Original room description.

The transmitter dish and blinking terminal are both obvious places to start, but given the amount of items scattered around there may be other options.
Computers check

On a nearby desk you also find a paper napkin with a hastily scrawled set of technical specifications for a beacon. Beside it is a sheet of memo paper with a crude surface map showing a route from the ship to something on what you would guess is a rock promontory.

When Big Jim enters the room, his radiation badge signals an alert. There is moderate radiation in this area, but so far the environmental protections in your armor have prevented any problems in the short time you have been here.

Engineering if someone wants to try and find and fix the problem. One check can do both.

Goose will focus on the engineering problem. He pulls out a well used and cared for toolkit. He mutters a bit as he falls into his work, tweaking and manipulating different systems to narrow down the root cause.

Engineering check to find and fix: 1d20 + 20 ⇒ (12) + 20 = 32

Aware of the problem, Goose is able to quickly locate some shielding that is the source of the leak. He is then able to patch the leaking panel, preventing further radiation from entering the engineering area.

----

Sorry, missed this before...

T'Kai notices a corpse that is most likely the mortal remains of the engineer. The name tag on the armor says Qinhu Xinya Miang. Their equipment is still with the corpse. The armor is a set of Regimental Dress II. There is an elite semi-auto pistol with the full 12 rounds loaded into it, a personal credstick with 2,500 credits and a set of mk 2 fiery runeplates.

will: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (13) + 5 = 18
Compucast stands staunchly stoic in the face of the ghosts scream.
Why is it always ghosts? Every mission... ghosts.

He stalks forward to investigate the computer.
computers: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (9) + 18 = 27

"I wonder what he was working on... and where this map leads?"

Compucast is easily able to break through the firewall on the system and explores the computer system. He finds a set of voice logs and some other documents from Captain Jiang. The documents indicate that the ship belonged to the Xinja family.
Culture check to know something about this family.

Day Zero, 21:43. “Can you still call it a good landing if only half the crew can walk away from it? At least I'm only down a leg…Lien splinted it, but the painkillers are taking their time kicking in…can't happen soon enough. The Drift engine is completely shot…if Chuan can't get the comms up and running by the time I wake up…we'll be in real trouble.”
——
Day One, 22:23. “Off the painkillers long enough to put together a data package to transmit while Chuan tries to repair the comm array.”

“Hinji won't let up about the damn beacon and the damn lights—he took Lien and went out to make sure it was what we were looking for, saw some light bouncing off the ice, and now thinks we're being stalked like this is one of his training exercises. ”

“He's setting watches like the problem's outside the ship, for hell's sake…I can't tell if he's trying to keep the others focused or if he genuinely doesn't realize we'll die here without a rescue.”
——
Day Two, 10:17. “I could kiss Hinji—the beacon's the answer!”

“Our array's beyond repair, but the beacon's a giant transmitter, even if it's out of date. He was able to download enough of the source code for me to analyze…If I can hack together a program to boost its signal output and punch through to the Drift, we can use it to transmit the package home and get help.”
——
Day Three, 17:52. “It's done—all I want is more pills and sleep. Hinji's going to get a good evaluation out of this; he got Lien to stop crying long enough to cold-proof the EVA suits so she and Chuan can upload the program—I'd rather do it myself, but I can barely make it to the bridge on this leg.”

“At least we have enough supplies for at least a month or so. There's plenty of ice to convert, and if those lights are some life form, maybe Hinji can do some hunting…”
<plinking noise in background> “…wait, what? Oh. Oh hell, no, not again!”
<gunfire in background, heavy panting in the foreground, then audio cuts off abruptly>

Goose begins tapping his tiny paws on his chin for a few seconds, trying to recall where he heard the Xinja name before. After contemplating, Goose swipes his paw against the back of his ear.

Culture check, Xinja name: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (20) + 18 = 38

"Xinja, eh? I may have heard of them.

Goose recalls that the Xinya family has connections with the Golden League, a corporate syndicate of several family lineages from old Golarion widely believed to be involved in illicit activities.

"Not sure what I was hoping to find from the wreck, but I thought we would find Rasheen's ship since we didn't find the beacon waiting for us. Now it looks like the beacon is here, or at least it was here on the planet." Ivok looks over the map and takes a picture with this datapad before looking elsewhere.

"Is there anything on the records saying how long ago this ship ended up here? I have no idea how long it take ghost to ... appear, but maybe there is someone still around."

"Let's continue searching the ship then see if we can follow the map to the beacon."

"I agree. " nods Compucast.

He tries to look for a datestamp on the computer files to see how old they are. "I'll see if there is any type of map or directions in here too..."

The ship seems to have crashed here about five years ago.

Where to next?

"Sweep the ship then form side to side. Last thing I want is something to catch us from behind. I feel like I got lucky to come out of that as I did. Start with the corridor we just came from and check the doors there."

Marked on the map the suggested next room. After that it would be to move down north down the corridor checking doors on the way.

"Hey we did miss a door back there too"

What looks like the one leading to the cargo bay

Yes, you did skip a cargo bay,

You open the door and find a conference room. It doesn’t look like they made much use of the room.

At Big Jim’s comment, you backtrack and check the room.

The port cargo hold is in disarray. Several crates are broken and a lot of packing material along with a few broken parts are scattered across the deck.

Searching the area, you find a small hidden cache under a grouping of tipped over boxes. You discover an unopened freight box that contains some pilfered Xinya family supplies. The crate contains several pieces of stone figurines displaying humanoid figures with two thumbs on each hand and an eye in the back of their head. The figures wear baroque gothic armor inlaid with fine brass trim. They are 2 bulk and you suspect an Art collector would pay about 8000 credits. In addition you find a set of clearsight goggles in the partly hidden box.

To speed things up, how about you number the order you will search the rooms.

Ivok looks over the relics and leaves them in place for the moment before starting for the rest of the ship. "Do you think they were out here for the same reason we were?"

I've numbered an approximate order for searching the ship.

"Interesting items in that cargo bay. Seems that there are a few things quite amiss here. I'm thinking you might be on the right line of reasoning Ivok"

Once you are done in the cargo bay, you move forward through the ship.

Room 1 & 2

These crew quarters are currently in a state of complete disorder, with items strewn across the room as though the artificial gravity was disrupted and no one cleaned up afterwards. The rods that supported curtains dividing the bunks from each other have collapsed, leaving lengths of green fabric on the floor. All the chests lie open.

There are heavy boot marks in the frost here.

Survival to analyze the tracks

There is nothing of interest in the crew restroom.

Since you found something, I will wait to move on.

"Yes, these are very interesting items." T'kai starts keeping track of everything found on his datapad. Once completed he takes a look at the tracks.

Survival: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (10) + 10 = 20

Compucast moves the finds toward the airlock, for later relocation to Big Jim's furniture removal truck.

"What about that body.... we should put it to rest somehow. Don't want to leave the ghost on this ice ball for ever."

T’kai realizes that the boot pattern indicates a tactical search of the room, as though sweeping the ship for threats.

"Looks like someone has already searched through the ship."

"It is unlikely we will find much... apart perhaps from them. If the ghost was more powerful then - or they were less well prepared than us, it could have overwhelmed them."

"If it did we should have found a body or sign of a fight." Ivok moves some of the cloth in a half effort to clean up one of the beds and check for anything hidden or lost. "Don't rest just yet though. We already found one crate they left behind. Maybe we can find something else they missed."

"If people already searched the ship then they were looking for something specific - otherwise they wouldn't have left a pile of valuable art in the cargo bay. I wonder what was truly going on"

As you discuss what you have found, you move to what you assume is the bridge.

As in the hallways, blast marks scorch the walls and ceiling here. The starboard duty stations are badly damaged and appear to have been electrically overloaded. Blood stains spatter the seats at those posts, but no bodies are present, though bloody streaks in the floor indicate they may have been moved. The monitor at the pilot's station appears to have exploded, leaving the seat riddled with debris and covered with blood and even some frozen pieces of bone. Additional shrapnel appears to have reached the captain's station. The port duty stations remain intact except for one cracked monitor.

Goose notices that the nozzles on the fire suppression system are not frozen over like he would expect given the cold.

"How odd, it is almost like the ship attacked the people on board." muses Compucast.

The vesk magister approaches the intact port duty station and tries to see what he can find in way of logs...ideally a video log of the bridge from the dates he discovered in the earlier computer.

computers: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (17) + 18 = 35

Need an Engineering check to repair the systems before you can use them. You can keep the Computer skill roll.

Big Jim wanders over "If those nozzles aren't frozen over then they are clearly still live - the last thing we want to do is miss-wire the computer system, create a bit of smoke and get covered in halon."

Jim gets to work on the fire system.

"Ok kids, SAFETY FIRST! Here we have a battle-damaged bridge with what appears to be a non-functional but otherwise mostly intact computer system. As one has exploded though I can only guess that the power might have overloaded catastrophically creating a an injury to the operator that should have been reported to his Workplace Health and Safety representative. My good buddy Goose tells me he noticed the nozzles weren't frozen, so I'm guessing they are using some sort of retardant that is keeping them from freezing and are probably still charged. We're going to look at those first because if there IS going to be a fire then I already have a BAMFORD brand portable fire suppressing system to deal with it in a controlled manner - quote #FIREBUG for 20% off your next purchase of one of these reliable units. Kids, get parental permission before making any purchases."

Engineering - check & disengage the fire system 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (8) + 16 = 24
Engineering - check & restore the computer system 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (12) + 16 = 28
+Quick Repair
+Miracle worker (if needed)
+Specialty toolkits (if needed - Engineering, Hacking, Starship repair, Thieves, Trapsmith)

"OK try that"

As Big Jim works on the fire suppression system, he realizes someone had set it up as a trap! Safety is not having a trap go off in your face! He is able to disable the nozzles before it goes off. It doesn’t look like the system has the original fire suppressant in it any more but without tracing the lines back to the tanks or setting off the trap he doesn’t see a good way to determine what it is loaded with.

He then goes over and gets the computer system operational again.

Compucast is then able to get into the system. It has a lot of navigational data and some logs, but hardly any security.

Just as Compucast is looking through the data, the door on starboard side opens and you see a creature beyond. Looks like another of the crew has become undead!

Mysticism to Identify

Round 1:

Mon
Antoine -14
Hinji
Compucast -14
T’kai
Ivok
Big Jim -17
Buster -6

Compucast looks on aghast at the sight of the new creature.
mysticism: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (14) + 12 = 26

Big Jim looks aghast that someone turned a life-saving emergency system into a trap! "More ghosts?"

Compucast recognizes it as a Marooned One.

There is a special psychological pain in watching your last chance of survival slip out of sight. Those who are left behind to die in the cold of space—whether on a deserted asteroid or a derelict ship— sometimes arise as a special type of undead called a marooned one. Whether they died of asphyxiation, dehydration, or starvation, unfortunate souls that arise as marooned ones have a desiccated look, with taut skin stretched across their bones.

Male marooned one, NE Medium undead, Undead Traits, 2 questions.

I believe the creature to be adjacent to the #3 on the map, correct? My reactions are based on that assumption. :D

Goose is startled a bit as yet another strange and horrific creature emerges from the derelict ship. "Did they set up an undead factory here or what?" muses the operative as he hops nimbly out of the way and takes cover by the captain's chair.

Use Uncanny Agility with the Marooned One as my target.

While moving, Goose nimbly and with practiced stealth, lines up a shot on the undead menace, using his skill to trick the creature into becoming more vulnerable.

Trick attack. Take 10. 35 result. Beats up to CR 15. Target is Flatfooted to entire party this round.

Once set up for success, Goose fires his laser pistol at the creature.

Fire laser pistol at Marooned One vs. FF EAC: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (14) + 11 = 25

Damage if successful; Fire, Magic: 1d4 + 4d8 ⇒ (4) + (7, 3, 7, 6) = 27

Antoine is near #3, the light blue ninja near the doorway is the marooned one.

Goose shoots the creature, burning away part of its torso.

Round 1:

Mon
Antoine -14
Hinji -27
Compucast -14
T’kai
Ivok
Big Jim -17
Buster -6