GM Quirk's Threefold Conspiracy

Game Master Quirk, Private Eye

That's funny.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Yes. Thank you, Thom.

I would also like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. Online games, particularly this one, have been a highlight this year. I feel like we have hit upon something very good here.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good OH MY GOD IS THAT A SLIME MONSTER!?

Looks like we're waiting for John and Doc (or maybe just Doc--I'll double check). In any case, I'll bot tomorrow if necessary.

You might need to clear your cookies before you can log in!

Just in case anyone who can't log in takes a look at the thread.

I have wrestled and defeated the elusive cookie monster.

I'm back. There will be posts this weekend.

Yes, this poor 'lil alien has taken a bit of a beating.

If anyone still needs instructions on the cookie issue:

Thread with issue

Chrome: Right click the lock icon next to https://paizo.com/ in the address bar, left click 'Cookies', select 'paizo.com' then click 'remove' and 'done', should be all gone and you can relog now!

Firefox: Go to History > Show all History, search for Paizo.com, right-click the entry for the homepage and select “Forget about this site.”

I'm a little worried about Dr. Flint-Bridge. Have not seen a post in over two weeks now. I did reach out via PM with no response. He's also in another one of my games, and I haven't heard from him there either. I didn't miss a post saying he would be gone for a bit, did I?

Remember that wind storm was a week ago, so she might not be able to sign in still because of that. She's not in any of my other current games. though.

Yeah, I wish they had put a notice on a banner. As it is, you have to manually look for info if you can't sign in since you won't be presented with you campaign threads. I'm sure some people just assume the site is still down.

Let's all shout together and maybe she'll hear us.

Jimbles! TOSS YOUR COOKIES TO LOG IN!

Sadly, I think Jimbles (Dr. Flint-Bridge) may no longer be with us. He is also involved in one of my other games, and has not been active there either.

For the time being, I would like Dr. Flint-Bridge to remain with the group, but as a non-combatant. She'll be available for healing and skill checks--otherwise she will be keeping her head down.

Should the player come back, we will happily welcome Dr. Flint-Bridge back.

Hope all's well, Jimbles.

Happy with the suggested plan and hopefully Jimbles will be back shortly.

Board-monster! I had a perfectly nice post submitted last night.

Install the Typio form recovery extension (spiritual successor to Lazarus). It puts a little blue icon in the corner of any web field, including Paizo's forum block. You can click on it and restore the last several inputs you had for any web form.

Might I suggest Doc use Inspiring Boost when available if she is being loosely botted for this fight?

The pistol-knife is pretty cool. It kind of addresses the fact that 90% of our weapon loot has been long arms. And it's just neat.

That's a really fun concept. I love the mwntal image of it morphing between states.

T'sorkel is in need of a small arm?

It really is cool, and very thematic with this adventure. I say let T'sorkel use it. He bravely ventured into the room and found it.

Heh, just saw this after my post. T'sorkel will use it if no one else wants it. He's got his default Telekinetic Projectile spell, but that starts to be less useful around now.

By the way, sent PM's to Supersuperlative and Therealthom. Just an opportunity with my home game for some special help (a "guest star"). May hit up any of the rest of you who had some interest in Discord games soon as well.

If no one wants it or objects to T'sorkel taking it, he wouldn't mind taking 10 minutes to reconfigure it. Vapor cavitation pistol is nice, but it's power hungry. I was thinking a sonic or shock weapon would be better. But I recognize the 10 minutes might not be best now. Maybe better when someone wants to recover Stamina too.

I think John's had his fair share of loot. T'sorkel can have the gun as far as I'm concerned.

GMQ, sounds like fun, but I couldn't get audio to work when I tried a guest appearance with my son's on-line group. Had to listen to Apple is better than Windows for weeks.

Hey, no problem on my little local game. I'll be looking into other possibilities (and in fact a couple more of you who expressed interest in the possibility of discord play may hear from me later tonight).

THERE WILL BE A BRIEF INTERLUDE IN OUR GAME PLAY. Look for a special post within the next 48 hours. You might call it a flashback.

Sit tight. This is going to be a helluva ride.

I hope everyone has had an enjoyable weekend. I mere moments I will be enjoying good Italian food with my beautiful better half to celebrate Valentine's Day.

I did just post a brief interlude. I hope you all (particularly T'sorkel) enjoyed it. It's my hope to have something like this posted for each of you between the end of this book and the beginning of the next book.

Meanwhile, please proceed in whatever direction your characters would like to go.

I hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day!

The flashback was awesome! I'm not going to do a full reveal on it just yet, since I suspect you have something similar in store for the others. It will be more meaningful if others get the same type of thing.

Nice peaceful domestic scene. Interesting that the nurses are human. I'd have expected shirrens at the family home.

Hello everyone.

I HAVE NEWS!

One of my local friends has shown some interest in this group. I have invited him to take over Dr. Flint Bridge for the time being. Of course there is the caveat that should the original Dr. Flint-Bridge return, he may have his character back.

(This reminds me of when they switched the actors on the 60's TV show "Bewitched").

My good friend John (not to be confused with the esteemed PC John Rawlins) should be making a post soon. We'll do all we can to catch him up--I may appreciate all of your help because I will forget things.

John is somewhat new at PbP, though he is in one of my Gateway to Absalom games (he's Thak--I think one of you at least is in that game).

With that in mind, I will wait for tomorrow to introduce the new room (I have three tables for Outpost IV I am getting started, so this will help me to slow down for just a little bit...).

Welcome John! Thanks for stepping in. We've got a fun group going here.

And I do hope Jimbles is ok.

Welcome, John. Or should we call you Darrin?

Enjoy the ride. I still have no idea where it's going.

This is a very strange AP, glad to have our biohacker back.

Welcome as well! Good to have the six of us back in the flow.

Let's keep digging into this dang mission until something makes sense!

Hey, all! Thanks for the warm welcome. As Alan said, I'm still new to PbP, but I've been playing Starfinder since it came out and actively playing Starfinder Society since a little before Gen Con 2018.

And yes, therealthom gets to endure adventuring with Thak, my slightly neurotic Brenneri envoy.

I'm looking forward to learning from you all and having a great game!

... and Supersuperlative knows Thak, too! (Sorry I missed you before!)

John, sorry I haven't welcomed you yet. Been busy with the kickoff off Outpost4. Welcome aboard!

Endure isn't quite the word I'd use for playing with Thak. He's a lot of fun. Love the introspective and flashback posts.

It will be nice to have a active doctor again.

@therealthom -- Thanks! He's an interesting critter.

If all goes as planned, by April I'll finish GMing enough Starfinder Society games on Roll20 to complete a regional boon and have a brenneri character for Society play. SO stoked about it!

@group -- Two quick questions for the team as I dig into the Doctor's details.

** Has Rar'gul taken a 10 minute rest since the doctor gave him an Inspiring Boost? Just wondering if I can clear that notation and boost him again if necessary.

** Does anyone know what skill/ability the other player this entry is tracking? She apparently used it on Rar'gul and Beauregard.

TDW -/J/-/T/Y

I figured out everything else on the character sheet, but this one's defying me.

Hey Janosian,

No problem. I was in a similar situation recently, forgetting Alan was playing a PC in a game we were in together.

I can help with both of those:

* Yes, Rar'gul just took a 10 minute rest in the previous room.
* TDW is Treat Deadly Wounds, which each pc can only receive once per day (with the exception of med lab/specific abilities, etc)

Thanks, Super! I fixed the Inspiring Boost marker for Rar'gul so all's good there.

TDW threw me, but (of course) now it makes perfect sense. Gah.

I'm really excited to run a dual-classed character. I've never done one in Starfinder, so this will be very cool.

My sincere thanks to everyone for welcoming me so warmly. Here's to our game!

Dear players,

This game makes me happy.

Signed,

GMQ

P.S. I beg your pardon if I am slow posting this week. I agreed to GM a few games for the Outpost IV Starfinder Society event that just started. I probably bit off more than I can chew, but as the three games get up and running over the next few days I am confident I will be able to fully engage. In the end, these three Society games are temporary events for 6 weeks, whereas this game is a long-term endeavor.

I wish I could say the same - this game is seriously messed up!

All these brain grenades and exploded heads is not okay!

(I am enjoying the game, too. Even if it is more than a little disconcerting the more I think about it...)

No problem, I have likely overcommitted to my games too :P

LOL. Yeah, there's some disturbing implications in this game.

I'm running my first PF2e game in Outpost, but playing in 3. But we're still in lockdown status, so I'm sitting a home a lot anyway.

Have we had doc scan us to see if we have brain bombs? Even if she did, could we trust what she says? She could be one... of ... them.

Yeah, GMQ, when I saw you were running 3 games for outpost, I thought, "he's nuts. " Running three games nearly broke me, and you got 5? I'm in recovery, running occasional SFS games on Paizo.

ANd this is a great game. So happy to have doc back in the mix.

Iirc, Doc did 'scan' us related to the brain bombs. Obviously that isn't a guarantee we don't, but at the moment it's the best we can come up with.

Using the keycard that Yariel repaired earlier, you are able to open the airlock on the west wall of the data foundry. There is an evening out of air pressure as the door open, and you see not the open sky, but another chamber, roughly octagonal in shape.

From the book:

Dust hangs thick in the air in this roughly octagonal room,
and cracks run through the smooth stone ceiling and floor, as
well as north wall, which is paneled in dull metal. ... In the southwest corner is a chair and desk with a computer workstation, all smashed. A humanoid form lies crumpled among the wreckage.

A voice rings out telepathically NO! NOT BELONG! KILL!

A three-foot tall muscular gray figure emerges from behind the workstation and attacks!

I thought the crumpled form and the muscular grey figure were different people and that the telepathic voice was crumpled form commanding muscular grey.

No. Your best guess is that the muscular gray figure that you defeated in battle may have made the telepathic communication.

Otherwise, there was the badly mangled body of a standard gray in the room.

Added a slide with the cutout for the Eldri carne-asada. Or whatever it's called.

Looks like a nifty little device.

I'll make a post for the next room tomorrow.

Are we due to level up soon? Seems like we've killed so many things.

You are, actually.

You know what?

I was planning on doing this after 2-3 more encounters, but let's do it now!

Honestly, I have an online convention I am participating in this weekend. I am also GMing three games for Outpost (one of which is thankfully nearing completion).

This will give us a chance to take a VERY SHORT break and ease some things up for me.

ADVANCE YOUR CHARACTERS TO LEVEL 4.

I do hope you will all post some notes here in discussion about choices, etc. I'll enjoy reading them.

MY NEXT POST IN GAMEPLAY WILL BE SUNDAY NIGHT.

Also, please decide which door you want to investigate next. There are three possibilities (four including the one you came from) in this room with the vending machine, dolls, etc.