[SFS - PbP Outpost III] 2-00 Fate of the Scoured God - GM bigboom (Inactive)

Game Master bigboom

And I thought Selene was partway up a pillar already

Selene levitates up to the top of the pillar as instructed.

I take it that continually punching one on the way up to try and keep it unconscious isn't an option? she asks.

Oh I see. I had missed this post. Okay, that's two move actions to levitate up 40'. The mesa is 60' high. Do let me know if you had previously taken any move actions to levitate that I had missed, which would put you higher than 40'.

As for Selene's suggestion, I'll break down how this would work mechanically, using Steelscales as an example. Say Selene zaps an ooze unconscious. Steelscales makes a DC16 Athletics or Acrobatics to pick up the ooze. Then he performs a climb check to climb however far he can. That is his move action. Then he readies his standard action to whack the ooze when it regains consciousness. On his turn, he again makes the DC16 check, the climb check, climbs up, then readies to whack-an-ooze!

I imagine there are other potential variations on this theme.

Or as Steelscales suggest, you can try to lure the oozes to the devices. Remember that your characters know that the oozes don't have to be unconscious when the devices are used on them.

Twich concentrates and spends two move actions to levitate herself up 30', putting her level with the mesa.

Note that next round it will take one move action to move herself laterally onto the mesa itself unless someone just pulls her laterally over the mesa.

Steelscales again knocks the red ooze unconsious and withdraws around and to the base of the center 60' mesa.

Selene serenely floats straight up 40 feet!

Bruf backs up to a 30' mesa, dragging Twich along with him!

Twich then floats up 30' to be level with the mesa!

Uhhhh... Okay. I now realize I've been rolling 1's and 2's for their attacks. Due to a typo, I was rolling 1d02 instead of 1d20! HA! Okay, rolling ooze attacks with a proper 1d20 now!

selene/steelscales: 1d2 ⇒ 2 The purple ooze moves after Steelscales then lobs a gunk of red, bloody ooze after him!
Blood Surge vs EAC, purple: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (17) + 12 = 29
A Damage: 1d6 + 5 ⇒ (3) + 5 = 8
The gunk hits for 8 points of acid damage! The gunky ooze doesn't come off and sticks to Steelscales, causing corrode (1d4) and also entangles Steelscales!

selene/steelscales: 1d2 ⇒ 1 The red ooze regenerates then moves after Selene, 10' towards her, then 20' straight up the side of the mesa. Next it lobs a gunk of ooze at her!
Blood Surge vs EAC, purple: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (10) + 12 = 22
A Damage: 1d6 + 5 ⇒ (4) + 5 = 9
Selene is also hit, taking 9 points of acid damage, corrode and finds herself entangled!

The orange ooze regenerates and chases down its torementor, Bruf for 30', then shoots ooze at him!!
Blood Surge vs EAC, purple: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (18) + 12 = 30
A Damage: 1d6 + 5 ⇒ (5) + 5 = 10
As well as Bruf! Hit for 10 points of acid damage, corrode and entangled!

Round 5 cont'd & Round 6
The following characters in bold may take their turn:

Selene (-9SP, -1RP, Flight lvl 2, corrode 1d4, entangled)
Steelscales (-8SP, -6RP, corrode 1d4, entangled)
Bruf (-10SP, -1RP, corrode 1d4, entangled)
purple Godblood Horror
red Godblood Horror (-65)
orange Godblood Horror (-60)
Twich (-4HP, -1RP, Flight lvl 2)

Aid token is available!!!

Twich finishes her motion, landing on the high ground where we want to be.

Twich, your move action laterally moves you onto the mesa and back onto your own two feet. I've moved your token accordingly. You still have a standard action available to you.

I think the problem we are having is the action economy of having to move to the oozes (1 action), picking them up (2 actions), climbing (3 actions), and attacking them (4 actions). But hopefully now that have started getting on top of these platforms it will force them to have to come up after us. Then we can finally get them onto these things to zap them. So Bruf will climb up the mesa while shouting taunts over his shoulder to keep orange coming.

"C'mon, you gross breakfast cereal mascot reject! Come and get me!"

athletics 1: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (14) + 11 = 25

athletics 2: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (6) + 11 = 17

OK the first check should get me 20' up, then the second gets me up the last 10' and then I will move away from the ledge so it has to fly/climb up for line of sight.
@GM/Twich, any reason why Twich can't move more than 5' laterally with her move action? If she wants to attack first, she certainly can, but I think we need to get away from the ledges to force it to come up to us.

Now that I'm looking at it I want to make sure of something. The area in purple is difficult terrain and a ramp yes? So I can just walk up on it and continue to the machine it'll just be 10 movement per square right?

@Bruf, don't forget you're also corroding and entangled. The ooze gunk that is on you is corroding and entangling you (as well as Steelscales and Selene). Entangled cuts your speed in half so if you have 40' of movement, it's now down to 20'. One climb move action gets you up 10' so your two climb checks puts you up 20' with the 10' left to go to reach the top.

As for Twich, she's currently levitating and typically wouldn't even be able to move laterally. She's floating in the air, 5' away from the edge of the mesa with no method of lateral movement (short of perhaps grappling hook something and pulling herself laterally). I mentioned earlier that we'll bend the rules so that Selene and Twich can spend a move action to somehow scramble laterally to the mesa edge and simultaneously stop concentrating on levitating to move themselves laterally 5' as a move action, resulting with them on their own feet on the mesa. If anyone can come up with a plausible method of moving themselves laterally 5' from levitating in air to the edge of the mesa that would then allow them to continue moving after getting their feet on the mesa, all as a part of a move action, I'm certainly open to it!

@Steelscales, yes the purple marks a ramp but it's a ramp from a 30' high mesa in the northeast to the 60' high mesa in the center of the map. So that ramp is about 60' above your head from your current position. Unfortunately, it's not a ramp that starts at ground level.

Oops, sorry about then entangle! I saw it, but completely forgot as I typed up my post.
Hmm, I guess I made the mistake again of assuming that SF was more like 1st edition PF than it may actually be. I've always just interpreted the 2nd level version of the Flight spell as functionally identical to the Levitate spell from PF. I see now that they left out the last half of a key sentence from Levitate: "You cannot move the recipient horizontally, but the recipient could clamber along the face of a cliff, for example, or push against a ceiling to move laterally (generally at half its base land speed)."

I am honestly a little baffled as to why they would leave that half of the sentence out. If they really do intend that 2nd level Flight somehow prevents lateral movement, it makes the spell incredibly limited in usefulness, and opens up weird defensive uses of hovering an inch off of the ground and then saying you are immune to bullrushes!

Personally I was thinking of it in terms of the spell effectively making them weightless and having them move like the zero gravity rules. So I was assuming that once the casters ascend up high enough to reach the top, that it would be a simple matter of reaching out with a toe and pulling their body forward with a step and walking. Apart from the 5' square mechanics of combat, is there any reason they can't be just an inch away from the wall as they ascend, so they can easily grab hold with hands or feet once at the top? You seem to agree with that, it was just a matter of whether that 5' step from midair onto the ledge was a full move action or could be part of a full stride. Given our time constraints it is probably not worth arguing over a few squares of movement. Sorry for the distraction! Let's kill these things and move on :)

The energy emanating from Dhurus and its hierocrats ripples and wanes, indicating their vulnerability to elite Starfinders’ attacks.

Table GMs, the Weakened Herald condition is now in effect.

Twich will move closer to the machine she wants the bug to follow her to.

Reflex to stop corrode: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (6) + 7 = 13
Acrobatics to unentangle: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (9) + 10 = 19

That makes more sense. I was wondering how the ramp went up 60 ft in a 10 foot span. Climbing it is then. Those two rolls above are two move actions so I suppose I'm done. As I mentioned in discussion maybe they could use boot clamps to move laterally. If not, could Bruf and I extend our tails for them to grab once we climb up? Also, I'm not sure tying to fight them is worth it. If we can corral them over to the things and have it suck them up that seems easier.

GO GETTIM SIS Selene yells as she notices the more experienced Starfinders attacking Dhuras himself. I KNOW YOU CAN DO THIS

I just hope I can do this. At least this isn't rope. she mutters to herself as she continues moving up the pillar. Her plan had been to use her grappler to hook the machine and pull herself onto the pillar before landing on it but now she was all gummed up, that might not be an option. Still ... it was worth a try.

She also takes another shot at red, 20ft below her in the hope that electricity will knock out it's regeneration ability, or it'll fly up to her so she can grapple it.

v EAC: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (3) + 5 = 8
electricity: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 2 = 6

I'm a Witchwarper she also thinks to herself I should be able to reject it's current reality and substitute my own.

Twich, now level with the top of the mesa, pulls herself onto its surface, and moves into position, ready to both disable the device and destroy the ooze as soon as the ooze draws near!

A damage: 1d4 ⇒ 3; Selene takes 3 points of acid corrosion damage from the gunk on her.
Regardless, she soldiers on, firing her pistol at red! Unfortunately, it misses! Selene then continues levitating up 20' more feet and is now level with the top of the center mesa!
Reflex DC13: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (12) + 4 = 16; Fortunately, Selene manages shake off the gunk and is no longer suffering corrosion nor entangled!

A damage: 1d4 ⇒ 4; Steelscales takes 4 points of acid corrosion damage!
I had previously linked the entangle weapon property instead of the entangle condition. So there's actually nothing you can do about the entangle. However, spending a full action to rid yourself of the corrosion condition gives you a +4 bonus. Therefore... Steelscales quickly works on scraping the gunk off himself and succeeds, which also frees him from being entangled!

A damage: 1d4 ⇒ 4; Bruf takes 4 points of acid corrosion damage! Bruf strains and fights against the acidic oozy gunk and climbs up the mesa, slowed down but making progress!
Reflex DC14: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (14) + 8 = 22; On the way climbing up, Bruf succeeds in smearing the gunk off him into the side of the mesa, leaving a bloody red vertical 'snail' trail as he climbs up. The fortunate side effect is Bruf's no longer suffering corosion and is not entangled!

Slam vs EAC, red: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (9) + 15 = 24
A Damage: 1d4 + 10 ⇒ (1) + 10 = 11; A Damage, corrosion: 1d4 ⇒ 4
The purple ooze moves after Steelscales and succeeds with a slam attack, hitting Steelscales for 11 points of damage! More of the oozy gunk gets stuck on Steelscales, again entangling him and causing 4 points of acid corrosion damage! (DC14 reflex at end of next turn to end corrode condition & unentangle)

The red ooze regenerates then moves up the wall 30' towards Selene then lobs another gunk of ooze at her!
Blood Surge vs EAC, purple: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (15) + 12 = 27
A Damage: 1d6 + 5 ⇒ (4) + 5 = 9; A Damage, corrosion: 1d4 ⇒ 1
Selene is hit for 9 points of acid damage, takes 1 point of corrode damage and is entangled a second time! (DC11 reflex at end of next turn to end corrode condition & unentangle)

The orange ooze regenerates and chases after Bruf, moving 10' to the wall then up 15' to be within melee range of Bruf!
Slam vs EAC, red: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (5) + 15 = 20
A Damage: 1d4 + 10 ⇒ (4) + 10 = 14; A Damage, corrosion: 1d4 ⇒ 4
However, the attack misses!!!

Round 6 cont'd & Round 7
The following characters in bold may take their turn:

Selene (-12SP, -1RP, Flight lvl 2, entangled, corrode 1d4, DC11 at end of turn to end corrode & unentangle)
Steelscales (-27SP, -6RP, entangled, corrode 1d4, DC14 at end of turn to end corrode & unentangle)
Bruf (-14SP, -1RP)
purple Godblood Horror (sticky x2)
red Godblood Horror (-60, sticky x2)
orange Godblood Horror (-55, sticky x1)
Twich (-4HP, -1RP, Flight lvl 2)

Aid token is available!!!

Bruf thrusts a power armor boosted kick down at the horror climbing up behind him, then finishes his ascent to the top.

punch: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (9) + 11 = 201d10 + 10 ⇒ (9) + 10 = 19

athletics to climb: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (17) + 11 = 28

"Get ready with whatever that device does. I am guessing he'll be climbing up over that ledge in a moment." he says in encouragement to his Ysoki ally as he stands beside her, ready to defend her.

Selene uses her grappler to pull herself onto the mesa, and reels herself in next to the machine, before landing on the ground.

Come on you overbloated mossie. Come get some

And she takes another shot at it
v EAC: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (7) + 5 = 12
electricity: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 2 = 8

reflex: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (4) + 6 = 10

It looks like she's not having a good day. She then hears the voice of the Dreamer in her mind which helps her get the goo off (Invoking Dream Whispers boon slot to add +2 to the reflex save)

Steelacales tries to get the ooze off his back.

Claws Full Attack: 1d20 + 10 - 4 ⇒ (2) + 10 - 4 = 8
Damage: 1d3 + 13 ⇒ (2) + 13 = 15

Claws Full Attack: 1d20 + 10 - 4 ⇒ (11) + 10 - 4 = 17
Damage: 1d3 + 13 ⇒ (1) + 13 = 14

Reflex: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (12) + 7 = 19

Twich readies an attack to shoot the ooze when it surfaces to the top of the mesa.

laser pistol vs EAC: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (9) + 6 = 15
F damage: 1d4 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 2 = 6

Twich gets ready to fire at the incoming ooze!

Just FYI, Selene would have to take a shot before reeling herself in with the grappling hook as she would lose line of sight after reeling in.
Selene fires a shot at the ooze but unfortunately the bolt of electricity misses the ooze! She then fires off the grappler and pulls herself to the device! While doing so, the voice of the Dreamer gives her the calm presence of mind needed to scrape the goo off and prevent it from causing any further corrosion damage nor entangling her.

Steelscales swings at the ooze chasing after him and both of his attacks over swings and misses! But fortunately the wide arc and momentum of his swings flings off the ooze that was gumming him up! No more corrosion nor entanglement!

Bruf takes a kick at the ooze and knocks it unonscious although it remains stuck to the side of the wall! Taking advantage of its unconscious state, Bruf scrambles away, climbing up and taking position next to Twich.

Slam vs EAC: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (14) + 15 = 29
A Damage: 1d4 + 10 ⇒ (1) + 10 = 11; A Damage, corrosion: 1d4 ⇒ 3
The purple ooze slams Steelscales for 11 points of damage! And again some blood ooze gets attached to Steelscales, entangling him and causing 3 points of acid corrosion damage! (DC13 reflex at end of next turn to end corrode condition & unentangle)

The red ooze regenerates then moves up the wall to the top of the mesa right up to Selene and attempts a slam attack on her!
Slam vs EAC: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (19) + 15 = 34
A Damage: 1d4 + 10 ⇒ (3) + 10 = 13; A Damage, corrosion: 1d4 ⇒ 3
Selene is hit for 13 points of acid damage, takes 3 point of corrode damage and is entangled again! (DC13 reflex at end of next turn to end corrode condition & unentangle)

Bruf, Twich: 1d2 ⇒ 1 The orange ooze regenerates and as it reaches to the top of the mesa, Twich fires her pistol at it but misses! The ooze moves up right next to Bruf and Twich, then attacks Bruf!!
Slam vs EAC: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (20) + 15 = 35
A Damage, crit: 1d4 + 10 + 1d4 + 10 ⇒ (4) + 10 + (3) + 10 = 27; A Damage, corrosion: 1d4 ⇒ 1
The attack manages to find an exposed portion of Bruf's armor, hitting him for a painful 27 points of damage! A chunk of ooze is left on Bruf, causing 1 point of corrode damage and entagles Bruf! (DC11 reflex at end of next turn to end corrode condition & unentangle)

Round 7 cont'd & Round 8
The following characters in bold may take their turn:

Selene (-25SP, -3HP, -1RP, Flight lvl 2, entangled, corrode 1d4, DC13 at end of turn to end corrode & unentangle)
Steelscales (-41SP, -6RP, entangled, corrode 1d4, DC13 at end of turn to end corrode & unentangle)
Bruf (-42SP, -1RPP, entangled, corrode 1d4, DC11 at end of turn to end corrode & unentangle)
purple Godblood Horror (sticky x3)
red Godblood Horror (-55, sticky x3)
orange Godblood Horror (-65, sticky x2)
Twich (-4HP, -1RP, Flight lvl 2)

Aid token is available!!!

The jinsul high command collapses as Kadrical’s blessing wanes, affording veteran Starfinders an opening to strike.

Table GMs, the Frayed Leadership condition is now in effect.

The tension in the atmosphere surrounding Bastiar-5 eases as the golden energy enveloping it withdraws into the immense pit. The receding light sweeps away the jinsul fortifications, restoring the planet’s natural, rugged terrain. The remaining jinsul forces scatter, soldiers scurrying toward the horizon and starships fleeing into the Drift. Across a battlefield strewn with dead and wounded bodies, Starfinders cheer at the sight of the retreating enemy.

As the Starfinder fleet regroups, the communication screens light up with the image of both First Seekers, the various faction leaders, and numerous venture-captains. Luwazi Elsebo, front and center, beams with pride. “Agents, we stand together in the midst of our Society’s most glorious victory to date! Today, we have risen from the ashes of our previous failures, stronger and more united than ever before! Not even an army of bloodthirsty jinsuls, with an armada and the power of a waking god at their backs, could defeat us!”

Jadnura nods. “We have indeed accomplished much, but there is more in our future. With Dhurus defeated, the Scoured Stars are safe, but only so long as others don’t seek to foolishly unlock their secrets. Coming here was my mission as First Seeker, and while I have succeeded, I intend to continue seeing this mission through. I shall remain in this system, communing with the waking Kadrical and standing sentinel over others who would disturb this site. My time as First Seeker has truly ended.”

Luwazi’s smile softens as she looks at Jadnura, and after a moment she speaks. “As for me, my only goal as First Seeker was to rebuild the Starfinder organization and rescue those we had lost. I can say that our organization is stronger than ever, boosted by powerful allies and friends. While I cannot think of a higher note to end on, I do not believe the time has come for me to step down, but instead I shall stay on a short while longer to ease the transition to a new First Seeker. I cannot wait to see where our remarkable society goes next under new leadership. Perhaps someone currently among our ranks will be the next to choose our heading? You’ve all certainly demonstrated that you have what it takes. But that can be our first order of business once we return home. For now, we tend to our wounded, we recover, and we celebrate!”

Days after its momentous victory in the Scoured Stars, the Starfinder Society fleet emerges from the Drift near Absalom Station. With their deeds relayed through Drift beacons, the crews of the returning vessels begin tuning into the local infosphere to hear the Pact World’s response to the Society’s victory in the Scoured Stars. The reactions flood in.

“I, for one, believe that an organization that can amass that many military-grade resources needs to be held on a tighter leash.”

“Didn’t the Pact Council vote not to interfere in the Scoured Stars? Who do these Starfinders think they are?”

“Yeah, the Strawberry Machine Cake concert rescue was pretty great… but what if it were a Starfinder setup, to help justify their little war?”

“Does anyone know what the jinsuls did to us? I mean, I heard that the jinsuls were a peaceful civilization, and the Starfinders just wanted to pillage their homeland.”

All over the Starfinder comm channels, pundits and social media stars relay similar questions and messages of dismay at the Society’s recent actions. Moments later, First Seeker Luwazi Elsebo sends out a fleet wide broadcast. “Starfinders, it’s clear that we’ve not returned to the hero’s welcome we hoped for. In fact, it looks as though we’re the target of some sort of coordinated media attack, as organizations we’ve never had any dealings with are smearing our recent triumphs. Fear not, this is just another challenge for us to overcome, and perhaps the next few months will be well-spent polishing the reputation these hidden attackers have sought to so recklessly tarnish.”

And with that our conclusion. Thank you GM's for all of the hard work and effort you have put into this Special and making it successful! And thank you to all of the players for your great roleplaying!

Reminder for Chronicles. You each earn all boons on the Chronicle sheet
except the Slayer of Godspawn boon, which can be obtained only by players at Subtiers 9–10 and 11–12.

Aww, I thought we still had another day or two to finish up. Well if it matters, I can knock Orange out again and let Twich do her thing. In fact, why would Twich ready to fire a shot with her pistol last round when instead she could trigger the device?

Huh. That is odd. We're scheduled for another day and a half. I'm guessing maybe we all hit certain thresholds that brought us to a conclusion...

As for the device, it takes a full round action to activate and the ooze must be adjacent to the device. So Twich could've readied an action to begin activating the device once the ooze was adjacent to it, but that would not have defeated the ooze because she'd have to wait till the next round (which is now this current round) to finish the full action. Given this, I figured Twich might as well get an attack off... although now that I think about it again, that would've stopped the ooze from coming to the device... Just as well that she missed, I suppose.

Sorry we weren't able to finish this encounter...I think you guys were getting REAL close to knocking two of them out, which would've made the last one a piece of cake!

Welp, if any of you would like to finish up this round, please go for it! I'll work on getting the chronicles out tomorrow (nearly 1AM for me at the moment). Everyone please confirm that your details on slide 2 are correct. That's what I'll place onto the chronicles!

Selene is feeling battered and bruised but she soldiers on.

v EAC: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (14) + 5 = 19
electricity: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4
reflex: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (6) + 6 = 12

Selene fires a blast from her pistol and it hits the ooze! The ooze seems to take full damage but suffers no other hindrances.

Based on what you've observed so far, you quickly realize that the only energy damage type the team has not yet tried on these oozes is cold energy. Perhaps that would have more adversely affected these oozes?? Cold would have hindered their regeneration.

And just as you brace for another attack from the ooze, all the oozes droop and flatten to a bloody puddle. The day is won!!

Confident Katrina contributed no small part to this victory, you are heartened by the victory.

Moments later, a ysoki wearing a jetpack flies over to address all of you.

"Selene, Bruf, Steelscales, Twich!!! Whew!!! Good to see you all safe!!!

"I'm helping to coordinate the logistics of moving all landing parties back to our ships as we prepare to depart after this great victory!!!"

Raatchet looks around at the godblood oozes... He pulls up an info feed and after quickly scanning some info, realizes what you fought against.

"WOW! Those things are NASTY!!! The four of you took on three of those things?!?!? Daaaaaaaang!!! R-E-S-P-E-C-T to you guys! Keeping those things occupied kept them off the back of other Starfinders for sure. And that's no small feat! Well done friends!"

Raatchet then spots Tyler.

"Well hey there little buddy!!! What are you doing here? You know your presence breaks probably every rule of safety and child endangerment laws in the books. But y'know what? WC!!! No! No! Not 'water closet'!! Who cares!?!?! Y'know what I was up to when I was your age??? Well lemme tell ya!!"

Raatchet scoops Tyler up and starts walking back to the shuttle telling the young child about absolutely irresponsible acts that Raatchet took part in involving electrical shock prank devices, homemade flamethrowers, gumming up schoolbus engines, preventing entry into classrooms by jamming classroom doors shut, and on. And on. And on....

Selene actually listens to Raatchet. Maybe there's some ideas there she can use. Still .... she had always been the more serious and studious one of the two sisters. Katrina was the younger, more adventurous, reckless one. She did however, recommend to Tyler that gumming up Bruf's school bus might not be a good idea as that might mean he wouldn't be allowed to go on any more Starfinder field trips.

And yes, I played Katrina on the VTT multiplayer special

LOL. Nice! This is all going into the backstory for futher adventures of Tyler and his chaperone, Bruf. Thanks again for running this awesome scenario. We got through, what? 8 missions? including two very difficult starship battles? That's way more than I imagine we could have done at a table in person.

Twich appears to have a nose in a book on the entire journey back, although she is polite if interrupted.

LOL. Nice! This is all going into the backstory for futher adventures of Tyler and his chaperone, Bruf. Thanks again for running this awesome scenario. We got through, what? 8 missions? including two very difficult starship battles? That's way more than I imagine we could have done at a table in person.

Yep, 8 combat encounters. There were 6 we weren't able to get to. Pretty good overall I'd say!.