GM Zoomba's The Herald's War [SFS 1-39] (Inactive)

Game Master Zoomba

Check in here and chat amongst yourselves!

I will also need to know:

Player name:
Character name:
Organized play #-#:
Faction:
Day job: Your day job skill and roll. (or alternative such as training or true savior)
Reputation: Which factions you have reputations with (and how much) before participating in this scenario.
Boons: Any boons you have slotted. (you may change these after the briefing)
Ally:
Faction:
Personal:
Promotional:
Social:
Starship:
Slotless:
Purchases: Any purchases you wish to make from your initial funds, before the start of the game.

I'll be checking in here soon with all of my info.

Meanwhile:

Doublegold
135676-702 Huckle Jim
Faction: Acquisitives with 5 reputation (unless this scenario is meant for a certain faction, then I'll be that faction instead).
Starship boon: (depends upon what the ship is supplied with, I do have mining laser boon, which can replace one of the weapons)
Day Job: Instructor boon
Team Spirit: Slotless boon (Cost 0 Fame, cause of Protector of the future. Does something if teammate dies)
Field Trainee: Ally Boon (cost 1 fame)
Scoured Stars Survivor (personal boon)

Player name: Grimsnik
Character name: T'Kai
Organized play #:99317-701
Faction: Wayfinders
Day job: Qabarat University Admittance- Life Science
Reputation: Wayfinders 44, Second Seekers (Luwazi Elsebo) 2
Boons:
Ally:
Faction: Wayfinders Champion, improved
Personal:
Promotional: Volunteer Shirt Re-roll
Social:
Starship:
Slotless: Explorer's Preservance,
Purchases: Clearsight Goggles, Regimental Dress II

Player name: bigboom
Character name: Raatchet
Organized play #-#: 194657-701
Faction: Dataphiles
Day job: Corporate professional: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (17) + 11 = 28
Reputation:
Dataphiles: 42
Wayfinders: 1
Exo-guardians: 2
Second Seekers (LE): 4
Second Seekers (Jadnura): 2
Acquisitives: 2
Boons:
Ally: Spirits of a doomed people (1-31)
Faction: Dataphiles
Personal: Scoured Stars Survivor (1-99)
Promotional: T-shirt
Social: Scoured Stars Memorial (1-14)
Starship: Automated defenses (1-03), Solar powered weapon system (1-07), Defender of the fleet (1-99)
Slotless: many

I've got 3 starship boons available. I figure I'd list them all so that we can compare notes to decide who brings what.

It sounds like a lot of you are good in multiple Starship roles, but we should discuss and hash out who will be holding eahc posiiton (Pilot, Engineer, Captain, Gunner(s), Science Officer).

Keep in mind, you can change it up round to round.

So my skills relevant to ships:
Piloting +18 with Sky Jockey
Computers +12
Gunnery +12
Diplomacy +9

Engineering +20
Computers +18
Piloting +15
Gunnery +12

Player name: Alan Bengs
Character name: Quirk
Organized play #-#: 278101-701
Faction: Acquisitives
Day job: Your day job skill and roll. (or alternative such as training or true savior) Profession (Law Enforcement) + professional clothing: 1d20 + 19 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 19 + 1 = 26 Please see boons, as I will probably slot known quality, multiplying the usual number rolled by 3.
Reputation: Which factions you have reputations with (and how much) before participating in this scenario.
Acquisitives 43
Exoguardians 4
Wayfinders 1
2nd Seekers (Jadnura) 1
Dataphiles 1
2nd Seekers (Luwazi) 2

Boons: Any boons you have slotted. (you may change these after the briefing)
Ally:Dream Whisperers
Faction: Acquisitives Champion, Improved
Personal: Shadow Whispers
Promotional: Shirt reroll
Social: Known Quality
Starship: Solar Powered Weapon system or Weapons of a Lost Civilization (nukes!)
Slotless:

Quirk can handle himself fairly well at any of the starship positions.

T'Kai is a better pilot and Raatchet is a better engineer.

Quirk has these skills:

Computers +19

Diplomacy +16
Intimidate +10

Engineering +19

Piloting +17 (6 ranks)

Gunnery +12

My assumption as it stands right now is that T'Kai is the pilot, Raatchet an engineer, and I will move between gunnery and science.

I guess we'll need to see what the other characters bring.

As stated
+15 Pilot
+15 Gunnery

Was there a 5th player that wanted to play? I'm sure we can do this with four, but a 5th is always nice.

Sent a message over to him this afternoon, so waiting to see if James responds

Okay, here goes:

Player: JamesMartin
Character: Navasi, serving as proxy for Shim-Shim!
1904-706
Faction: Wayfinders
Day Job Profession Architect: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (8) + 7 = 15 x2 = 30 credits

And we're off! (with Starship combat at least)

Raatchet and Quirk: now that you know which ship you're in and your crew, please confirm which starship boons you slotted now/when you next post.

And again, any questions or clarifications you want, let me know. Starship combat can be a bit complicated, even without PbP :)

I'll use Defender of the Fleet for Raatchet's starship boon, equipping our ship with 'Finest Weapons': Each of the weapons on your starship is the best available in the Starfinder fleet. When you roll damage, you can reroll any damage dice with a result of 1 on the die; you must keep the second result.

So note to all gunners, if you roll any 1's for damage, then re-roll that die!

This also means Raatchet won't divert power to weapons (turns damage rolls of 1 to count as 2 instead) unless something very strange happens.

Great!

Two reminders as well:
1) the Drake has a mk2 Trinode computer, so 3 of your rolls each round can get a +2. If there are certain rolls you’d like to default to always taking that bonus on (such as the ‘initiative’ piloting roll, or gunnery checks) let me know. You can also always shift round-to-round.
2) Any 8th level or higher character (so all of you but Raatchet) get a FREE Resolve point each Starship combat you can use during it. So an extra use of any of those Resolve-based starship actions

Threw some pictures of three of the Kreiholm Freehold's reps on the slides. Paizo has not yet released any images of the Matoh or Syngnathrix so you'll have to use your imaginations :)

@GM Zoomba, the mission goal was to defeat the hierarch, which we did, although not this Dhurus-possessed version. Can you tell us if this actually satisfies the mission parameters laid out to us? Or is this something you cannot comment on?

@Everyone else, if Zoomba cannot comment, any thoughts on trying to fight or flee? Considering Jadnura is telling us to get out and that we're facing a divine herald that is, and I quote: "While the manifestation is not his full form or power, anything strong enough to even do this much is likely extremely dangerous."

As disappointed as Raatchet would be, I'm starting to think these are hints that we're not intended to defeat Dhurus...

Well, if we flee, I for one like perfection when playing a scenario, getting it perfect, all objectives complete. So I'd have to revisit this scenario again with a SS-JA decked out character. I'm sure many of you as well would too return to this scenario, or maybe it doesn't bother you the scenario wasn't played to perfection.

On another note, I used the wrong modifier on the aoo, I should be +12 to hit not +14, still a miss though and doesn't change a thing.

Not doing anything until I see what everyone wants to do.

Edit: I think the fight is doable. I'll probably back up or move away if the boss did take that aoo. If I go down, someone can grab my plasma gun, since all you have to do is hit an intersection dc 5. It will deal 2d10+level if you have weapon specialization in heavy weapons and dc is dependent upon your dexterity and other things. It has three charges left.

Ah, what the heck, fight or flight, I don't plan on running until we have to. We have the RP to stablize and be back up at 1 if needed. I suggest spread out so his line attack can't get us, and so that he will have to move all over the place just to get to all of us.

I'm good with a tactical retreat. Part of T'kai would want to continue to fight but another wants him to report back what happened.

Thinking of how to phrase this...

Your main assignment was to get aboard the carrier and disrupt the commanding force(s) aboard the carrier so that the rest of the fleet can turn the tide. Based on the comms chatter and the starfield around you, the jinsul forces now seems on the run. Dhurus' manifestation however is something that the First Seekers almost certainly did not anticipate.

To pull the curtain back a little about my GMing style here without spoiling behind-the-scenes aspects of the scenario itself: If there was an utterly unwinnable fight (which PFS or SFS society encounters occasionally do have) I would do my best to try and make that clear to you. This is not one of those, but it is a very challenging one, especially coming right on the heels of an encounter where you expended much of your resources. You certainly are managing to hurt and hinder Dhurus, though he is also well-capable of hurting you. As you have seen, he is also freakishly strong in melee, and as it turned out two of you were unfortunately right next to him from the start.

The Comm chatter (which is mostly written into the scenario) was intended by me of reminding you that retreat is a potential option, no more no less. Especially in the PbP format there can be less 'table-talk'/group coordination so Jadnura's latest comment was a way of letting me remind you of the 'tactic that dare not speak its name' while all of you were still standing.

Was able to move myself up one square on my labtop when I got home.
On another note, we only have 12 rounds to defeat the boss once he is up, we are running out of time.

Sarcastic joke, on the running out of time part, more like one of the teams would go down before then. Hopefully him and not all of us.

Movement noted.

May I ask where I implied there is a specific time limit here?

I forgot about the shot landing somewhere else, so I marked it on the map, exactly where I'm aiming to be sure it didn't hit an ally.
Through the intercoms, ship we on taking heavy dmg. Don't worry, I won't spoil it, just couldn't resist the sarcastic joke.

I guess quirk won't care if I borrow his laser pistol and use his charges to help down the boss, I'm out of charges for my weapon.

Absolutely. Go ahead. If I get up, I have another pistol.

Also put Nufriend Skittermander +1 on my chronicle.

Due to the Holdiays I will not be posting until late tomorrow at best, and more likely on the 26th And Happy Holidays to those of you who celebrate them. But at that point I will have your Chronicles! If there's anything specific you need noted on them or purchases you'd like to make, let me know!

And chronicles are up HERE

Please let me know if anything is awry or needs changing. I also want to thank all of you for playing, and hope that you enjoyed yourselves. Considering this is a 'season-capper' the author pretty much threw in a bit of everything (Starships, influencing, skill challenges, and some tough combats) but I hope it felt appropriately climactic. I greatly enjoyed running for each of you, both for getting to experience your memorable characters (and witnessing one of the Drake models get some new tagging) and for your consistent and attentive posting habits.

I'm sur I will see you all again around the boards!

I'll be watching for your games, Zoomba. Looking forward to what you have in store next.

Thanks everyone, I have a fun time.

Chronicle looks good.

Thank you GM Zoomba for running and thank you to my fellow players! It was a blast!!!

Looks great! Thanks for an excellent game!

Thanks, updated him already to level 10.