[SFS_Aerondor] 01-04 Cries from the Drift (Inactive)

Game Master Aerondor

Ysh'yaal scans the Honorbound.

It is a medium transport frame with a crew of up to 6. It is of average speed (8) and maneuverability (turn 2). With good protections (AC 14,TL 14) it has a solid hull (hp 70) and basic shielding (total 40, evenly spread).
The Honorbound's most powerful weapon is a flak thrower mounted in its front.

As a gunner at the gunnery phase you do an attack, pick one of your weapons (best to stick to just one for the moment). You use your BAB plus your dex bonus as your to-hit. Your target is the Honorbounds AC (plus / minus adjustments for range and tactics such as their pilot evading etc).

Over the coms you can hear captain Yuluzak encouraging the pilot to close in quickly.

Status: Engineering/Helm phase, round 1; Honourbound has moved.
Engineer Specialist
Pilot (Tania) to move
Science officer Ysh'yaal Has acted
Gunner Prim
Gunner Shaan
Ajel (location TBD)

Alejandro points to the enemy ship, ”We got the jump on them and that front weapon of theirs is nasty. Position to avoid being in that arc. We don’t want to violate the terms, so line up to hit them on the sides.”

Encourage Turret Gunner DC 15 Diplomacy + Expertise: 1d20 + 12 + 1d6 ⇒ (14) + 12 + (6) = 32

Encourage (Any Phase)
You can encourage another member of the crew to give her a bonus to her action. This works like aid another (see page 133), granting a +2 bonus to the check required by a crew action if you succeed at a DC 10 check using the same skill. Alternatively, you can grant this same bonus by succeeding at a DC 15 Diplomacy check. You can’t encourage yourself.

Tania takes the helm and also a deep breath since this is her first time actually piloting a ship in combat. She grabs the helm and tries to evasively manuever around to the sides as Alejandro directs her.

Piloting: 1d20 + 12 + 1 ⇒ (15) + 12 + 1 = 28
DC 13
Evade +2 to AC

Movement plan shown on map. Blue line shows that I think we have them in our port *and* forward arcs right between some of the asteroids!

Also GM feel free to do initiative for me whenever you want so things keep moving for everyone! Ty!

I'm not too clear about what I'm supposed to roll as a Gunner or whether there are any choices I need to make - can someone please tell me? Thanks.

In addition to what the GM wrote we also have a trinode computer so three people can get a +1 to a single check each round. Tania's piloting is so good plus the ship gives an automatic bonus that she won't really need it so maybe our gunner or gunners should consider using it?

I'm not sure which weapons I have to choose from or what the implications are of the choices.

Gunnery, Bab+Dex+Encourage+Trinode: 1d20 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 2 + 2 + 2 + 1 = 13

Shaan tries to fire the Pegasus weapons, but it's clear that he's been training more with his doshko lately...

The pegasus has a lot of weapons to choose from:
Attack (Forward) light laser cannon (2d4) Reroll 1s, Aljesdo, finest weapons
Attack (Port) light laser cannon (2d4) Reroll 1s, Aljesdo, finest weapons
Attack (Starboard) light laser cannon (2d4) Reroll 1s, Aljesdo, finest weapons
Attack (Turret) coilgun (4d4) Reroll 1s, Aljesdo, finest weapons
The turret can fire into any quadrant. Others just in one. In this case you have three weapons that you can direct at the Honorbound, your forward light laser cannon, your port light laser cannon and the coil gun in your turret (which is your best weapon). There are actions that let you fire more than one weapon, but as there are a number of folk new to space combat, I'm going to suggest we avoid those for the moment.

Shaan fires the (or sake of argument) forward laser at the honorbound, barely missing it.
Prim, you are up!

Light laser cannons have a range of 5. so you all get a single (just) range penalty

The honorbound returns fire.
gunnery forward,range: 1d20 + 6 - 2 ⇒ (20) + 6 - 2 = 24
gunnery turret,range: 1d20 + 6 - 2 ⇒ (12) + 6 - 2 = 16
flak: 6d4 ⇒ (3, 4, 3, 4, 2, 2) = 18

The pegasus takes some heavy incoming fire! Tania manages to dodge one of hte laser blasts though.

Status:
Prim - to fire!

The Specialist, realizing that now is the time for speed to better position themselves, diverts power to the engines!

Engineering DC13: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (15) + 8 = 23

Speed is +2 hexes.

Pegasus can move an extra two hexes if you wish. Won't change the range increment though

Pegasus:Shields (T:F:P:S:A 30:0:10:10)
Hull 47/55

Status: Gunnery:, round 1;
Engineer Specialist has acted
Pilot (Tania) has acted May move an additional two if you wish, but keep the same arc for firing.
Science officer Ysh'yaal has acted
Gunner Prim
Gunner Shaan has acted
Captain Ajel has acted
Honourbound has moved&fired

Tania put the ship there so we could have 3 weapons lined up on them. She's good there!

Whoop, been (and will be) busy with family stuff this weekend - apologies!

Prim narrows her eyes as she focuses on her targeting screen, all other distractions fading away. It wasn't that she'd never had any training at all on the guns but it certainly wasn't something she'd spent any extra time training on, either.

Come on Prim, you can do this...

Deciding it's best to go big rather than go home, she takes aim with the coilgun and fires!

Gunnery (Round 1; Trinode): 1d20 + 3 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 3 + 1 = 6
Damage (Coilgun; Finest Weapons): 4d4 ⇒ (2, 2, 3, 2) = 9

Posting Round 2 action now so as not to hold things up...

Damn, I should've practiced my shooting more...

Highly displeased with her first attempt at the coilgun Prim lines up another shot and tries again...

Gunnery (Round 2; Trinode): 1d20 + 3 + 1 ⇒ (18) + 3 + 1 = 22
Damage (Coilgun; Finest Weapons): 4d4 ⇒ (4, 1, 2, 1) = 8
Rerolls (Finest Weapons): 2d4 ⇒ (1, 4) = 5

"Yeah! Much better!"

Engineering: ROUND TWO

”WHAT IS GOING ON UP THERE?” shouts The Specialist. Gonna have to reroute some of the core’s output to shields, clearly.

He starts fiddling with some of the engineering menus, calling up the power transfer node submenus. A few quick taps, flicks and scrolls, and he realizes, How is this even possible? This Pegasus-class engineering subsystem programming is still defaulted to Engine Shunt Priority. You’d think the Society’s ship engineering bay would’ve already modded it to allow auto-shunt to shields or weapons. ‘The Pegasus class is designed for sprinting not shooting, blah blah blah.’

OK, quick fix to alpha and beta routing protocols and we should be...

Engineering DC13: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (11) + 8 = 19

...GOLDEN.

”OK! Diverted power to regen the shields. You shouldn’t feel any lag on the engines, Tania, but tell me if you need a boost. And for godssakes, try not to take so much damage to the shields, eh? This Pegasus PCU can only divert so much power to the shields at once! And yes. I AM amazing. Thank you for noticing.”

Dammit. I’m gonna need to mediate before we disembark. I need to get back into a positive headspace. <whew> <whew> <whew> Breathe INNNNNN and OOOUUUTTTT. Ahhhhh...

Divert 7points back to shields!

Round 2 - Science Officer -

Keep it on! We will prevail!

Ysh'yaal works on the computer to target the enemy's engines.

Computer (DC 5 + 1-1/2 the tier of the enemy starship + its bonus from defensive countermeasures): 1d20 + 8 + 2 ⇒ (14) + 8 + 2 = 24

Tania winces as the vesk ship's laser gets past our shields. She grits her teeth and calls into the comms, "Everybody hold on. I'm going to pull some fast high-G turns and come around their other side!" She puts the nimble Pegasus into a series of fast twists and turns around Honorbound and an asteroid or two before emerging on a parallel course, still evading their shots!

Piloting: 1d20 + 12 + 1 ⇒ (16) + 12 + 1 = 29 DC 13
Evade +2 to AC/TL

Prim's first shot was just a range finder. The second tears into the Honorbound like a hot knife into butter. While its's shields absorb most of the impact, you notice them flicker out as the trail of hot destruction scores a light impact on the Honorbounds hull.

Back in engineering, the Specialist lives up to his name, restoring vital shields.
Which quadrant did you want them in? I'm guessing port, which is the side the Honorbound is on, and also the side without any shields.

Ysh'yaal locks the Pegas's guns onto the Honorbound's engines, while Tania puts the ship through a brutal set of twists and turns, narrowly avoiding one of the larger asteroids.

"Good shooting" you hear the cheerful sounds of Yuluzak over the coms.

The Honourbounds turret returns fire, Tania manages to dodge one laser bolt, but the second removes most of the shields that The Specialist has just restored.

End of round 2:
Pegasus:Shields (T:F:P:S:A 31:1:10:10)
Hull 54:/55
Aft weapons glitching.
Guns locked onto Honorbound's engines.

Status: Gunnery phase, round 2; Honorbound has acted.
Gunner Shaan
Captain Ajel (you can man a third gun if you choose)
Engineer Specialist Diverted power to shields
Pilot (Tania) has moved
Science officer Ysh'yaal Has acted Locked onto engines
Gunner Prim Boom - coilgun in turret

Round 2

The captain again tries to bolster his turret shooter with encouragement, "You got this, line up the shot. Remember to aim for where they will be, not where they are."

Diplomacy + Expertise: 1d20 + 12 + 1d6 ⇒ (1) + 12 + (4) = 17

_____________________

Round 3 action so I don't fall behind

Alejandro pops on the comms and taunts the opponents with an aggressive boast, "Oh you... THAT'S IT! YOUR ENTRAILS WILL BE FOOD FOR ASTEROID MITES!"

Intimidate to Taunt round 3: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (3) + 12 = 15

Taunt: You can use the communications system to broadcast a taunting message to the enemy vessel. You select an enemy vessel and a phase of combat (engineering, helm, or gunnery), and then attempt a Bluff or Intimidate check (DC = 15 + 1.5 × the enemy starship’s tier). If you are successful, each enemy character acting during the selected phase takes a –2 penalty to all checks for 1d4 rounds; the penalty increases to –4 if the enemy’s check is made as part of a push action. Once used against an enemy starship, regardless of the outcome, taunt can’t be used against that starship again during the same combat.

And... bombed that one!

Sorry for the posting delay - been a little hectic with ConCurrent this weekend.

Round 2 attack
Port Laser Cannon, Bab+Dex+Encourage?+Trinode: 1d20 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (16) + 2 + 2 + 2 + 1 = 23
dmg: 2d4 ⇒ (1, 4) = 5
reroll 1 from finest engines: 1d4 ⇒ 4 (8 damage total)

Shaan remembers how his trigger fingers work again and enjoys blasting away at close range - the other ship is so close that he fancies he can hear the thud of the lasers hitting their hull (he's not the brightest).

Posting for Round 3 in advance
Port Laser Cannon, Bab+Dex+Trinode: 1d20 + 2 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (7) + 2 + 2 + 1 = 12
dmg: 2d4 ⇒ (2, 3) = 5

Shaan's shot is right on target. The ships swing around for another pass at each other, dodging asteroids as they go.

pilot(honorbound): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (16) + 6 = 22
pilot (pegasus): 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (9) + 13 = 22

Tie, they got first due to lower ranks

The honourbound pilot almost manages to slip a trick in, but doesn't quite manage it.

Map updated. Think I did it right, doing this on a very small screen today. Starfinders are up.

Tania takes a hand off the pilot's stick to give Shaan a thumb's up then moves the Pegasus in pursuit of the Honorbound. She reduces power to the throttle so that she doesn't end up in range of their forward weapons but tries to go just fast enough that she doesn't risk violating the rules of the duel!

Piloting evade: 1d20 + 12 + 1 ⇒ (10) + 12 + 1 = 23
Evade AC/TL +2

We should be able to shoot them with forward and turret this round!

Shana's latest blast goes wide
Status, round 3; bond to post. Honorbound not yet acted
Captain Ajel (you can man a third gun if you choose)
Engineer Specialist
Science officer Ysh'yaal
Gunner Prim Boom -
Pilot (Tania) has moved & evaded
Gunner Shaan Shoot, miss

Round 3 - Science Officer -

Good job guys!

Ysh'yaal works on the computer to target the enemy's engines.

Computer (DC 5 + 1-1/2 the tier of the enemy starship + its bonus from defensive countermeasures): 1d20 + 8 + 2 ⇒ (19) + 8 + 2 = 29

Prim's Round 3 - Turret Gunner

"Woo! Now we're talking," Prim cheers, finally getting into the swing of things as the two ships dance among the stars. Happy to continue doing her thing with the turret, she locks on...

Gunnery (Turret; Trinode): 1d20 + 3 + 1 ⇒ (13) + 3 + 1 = 17
Damage (Coilgun; Finest Weapons): 4d4 ⇒ (4, 1, 3, 1) = 9
Reroll Damage (Finest Weapons): 2d4 ⇒ (4, 2) = 6

ENGINEERING Round Three

The Specialist grimaces as he feels the ship jolt from something.

Shields are still taking a beating on the port-side. Better see what I can do 'bout that.

Engineering DC13, Divert Power to Shields: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (6) + 8 = 14

SUCCESS!

Alejandro already took his round 3 action here. He bombed an intimidate attempt.

Prim's aim with the coilgun stays right on track, as more hot steel is accelerated to terrific speeds and pours into the Honorbound's starboard shields, and hull.

The Specialist does what he can to restore the pegasus's damaged shields. Which is just as well as one of the Honourbound's gunners is right on target, damaging the Pegasus's front shields.

Tania again foxes the Honourbound. It's pilot seeing an asteroid too close in front, twists the ship around to face you head on.

Pegasus end of round 3
Pegasus:Shields (T:F:P:S:A 33:5:8:10:10)
Hull 54:/55
Aft weapons glitching.

Status, round 4; bold to post. Honorbound pilot has acted ,nobody else.
Captain Ajel (you can man a third gun if you choose)
Engineer Specialist
Science officer Ysh'yaal
Gunner Prim
Pilot (Tania)
Gunner Shaan

Prim's Round 4 - Turret Gunner

"Oof...everything holding up?" Prim calls over the comm as the ship takes another hit. "This thing packs a punch but they're not making it easy to land a hit," she continues as she tries to take aim again...

Gunnery (Turret; Trinode): 1d20 + 3 + 1 ⇒ (11) + 3 + 1 = 15
Damage (Finest Weapons): 4d4 ⇒ (2, 2, 4, 3) = 11
______________

Posted now since I'll be asleep most of the day today; please adjust the above as necessary to account for any bonuses or penalties that come into play from other actions~

Tania grumbles when the vesk pilot pulls up right in front of her. "Hang on, I'm going to try to zip right past them!" she calls out then tries to do a flyby!

Flyby stunt: 1d20 + 12 + 1 ⇒ (8) + 12 + 1 = 21 DC 18
This lets us move through their hex in space and one of our gunners can choose what quadrant of the enemy to target when using gunnery this round! Other than that our front and turret can target them this turn

If they base us again I might do the maneuver stunt. It lets a ship turn before moving if it starts with "turn 1" like ours.

ENGINEERING Round Four

What the hell? thinks The Specialist as he tweaks the engine output ratio to favor shield maintenance, again.

"TRYING TO DIVERT POWER TO SHIELDS," he shouts to Tania over the comms. "I can't patch the glitching aft weapons if you can't give the shields a rest!"

Engineering DC13: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (3) + 8 = 11

**FAIL** **FAIL** **FAIL** blinks the PCU management submenu. "S&*$! Failure on the maintenance subroutines! Not sure what's wrong. I'll try to fix, but we've got no additional power to shields, for now."

Round 4

The capn's voice crackles again on the comm system, "Aight, our pilot is doing a tricky maneuver. I'll pop onto a weapon and take the extra shot. Shuul, keep blasting on the forward laser."

He lines up a free weapon (starboard) and aims for the enemy ship's starboard section that just got hit by Prim's prior shot.

Gunner + free comp bonus: 1d20 + 2 + 3 + 1 ⇒ (13) + 2 + 3 + 1 = 19 for Laser: 2d4 ⇒ (4, 1) = 5 and Finest Weapons Reroll: 1d4 ⇒ 1

Round 4

Shaan also keeps up the fire on the same starboard section that his comrades are focussing on.

Port Laser Cannon, Bab+Dex+Trinode: 1d20 + 2 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 2 + 2 + 1 = 9
dmg: 2d4 ⇒ (3, 2) = 5

However, it's clear that the long hours training with the doshko have left Shaan's trigger finger weak and atrophied...

Round 4

Seeing that The Specialist is unable to add some shield, she balances them, completing the front to its maximum.

Computer: 1d20 + 8 + 2 ⇒ (9) + 8 + 2 = 19

The PEgasus's weapons continue to drill through the Honourbounds shields, more or less at will.
There is a small explosion aboard the ship, it looks like you damaged the Honorbounds power core.

Her own twin lasers drill into the Pegasus, but the reinforced shields are more than enough to deflect it.

While technically we should go on further, as this is a friendly battle, and it is coming across quite one sided...

The Honourbound hails you. "It appears we are overmatched. Good shooting, and if your pilot ever wants to find different employment send her my way. If you wish I will relinquish my claim, or if you wish to continue to duel, I would be happy to do so - I think it would do my crew some good to practice against something more challenging than drones."

Tania lifts her hand off the throttle waiting to see what the others think. She'll whisper through her technopathy node to everyone else's screens on the bridge, "That was fun, but who knows if they'd start getting lucky shots in if we kept going. I'm okay either way."

<3 GM for letting us play it out a bit and then giving this option. I'm going to share this with other GMs I know and probably steal this idea for pbps when I get the courage up to run one myself. I'm totally okay if everyone wants to move on, I got my starship combat fix!

Alejandro gives a nod to their pilot, "Well done, you've got some skills. Ya made all that look easy."

His voice crackles on the intercomm, "Anyone wish to continue the duel? They've already conceded defeat, I don't think we need to push anything else on them."

Alejandro gives a nod to their pilot, "Well done, you've got some skills. Ya made all that look easy."

His voice crackles on the intercomm, "Anyone wish to continue the duel? They've already conceded defeat, I don't think we need to push anything else on them."

"Frankly, the engineering subsystems on this Peg probably couldn't hold for an entire battle," says The Specialist. "Let's call it a day."

I had my share of thrill for today. Lets call it a win.

Says Ysh'yaal.

It works better for this than some of the others which are less friend ly :-)

"A vanquished opponent should show respect. Here, take this as a sign of our appreciation." calls back the vesk ship. They eject a cargo pod, that Tania can easily swoop up. It contains a set of golemforged plating II armor and a squad machine gun

Retrieving the beacon is a simple matter. It takes only a half-hour of scanning the asteroids to find the beacon lodged in a hunk of rock. The lightly encoded message contained within is easy to crack with the decoder provided by Zigvigix.

See handout in maps

Shaan scratches and massages his trigger finger, trying to figure out what is wrong with it. "Good thing that was a friendly match!"

When his fellow vesk send over his offering, he nods in appreciation. "A real mensch, as my granpappy used to say."

If no one else wants it, the machine gun would be very handy for Shaan.

About the message in the beacon: I'm slightly confused - does this suggest that maybe the crew are still alive and have just sent this message? Or do we think this is the message that they sent back when they were first wrecked? Or are we not sure? Basically, do we have any idea how old this message is?

After decoding the message, Ysh'yaal says Seems like this is something important. Lets activate our armor protection and explore the ship.

Alejandro signals the other ship, "Thanks for the good battle, hope to see you again someday when we aren't fighting over the same salvage. Fly safely!"

He nods to Shaan, "All yours buddy, I can't even lift that thing. Anyone else want the armor? It's uh... really sturdy stuff."

Reading off the decrypted comm message he agrees with Ysh'yall, "Maybe still alive, probably not. But now we know we definitely need to get that hard drive." Sealing up his armor protections he looks over the ship for the best entry point.

"Waaaay too heavy for the likes of me," Prim remarks with a shake of her head. "That was mighty nice of them, though! And good to know I've always got options if the Starfindering doesn't work out," she chuckles.

Her expression grows much more serious after Alejandro reads off the decrypted message, however. "The message made it sound like the situation was already pretty serious. I'd really like to believe that someone's still alive over there, but...we'd best be realistic about it. And if there's information for Exo top brass on that ship then we need to get it back to headquarters and fast."

"Let's get there," says The Specialist.

Shaan pats his own golemforged plating II. "Aye, good stuff this is, saved me from a few scrapes, that's fer sure."

As the vesk ship departs, Shaan also acknowledges them in Vesk: "Sail well, cousins, hope to meet again before the stars all go out!"

Then he activates his own armor in order to leave the hospital environment of the Pegasus. "Ready! Let's go..."

Rules question: I just noticed that, according to Hero Lab, my golemforged plating II armor has 72 (out of 72) uses of - I think - environmental protections available. Is this something that I need to keep track of? Like, for example, can you only use your armor to go out into space 72 times before you have to replace it? Or is it presumed that it gets recharged when you return to the ship and you can therefore just ignore it? Or is it tracking 72 uses of something else entirely? Thanks for any clarity any of you can shed!

You can recharge your armour from a ship. There are other things like jet packs and powered armour which you might need to track differently. I suspect the 72 is hours in space.

The beacon gives you coordinates you can use to exit the drift, and return to normal space.

So with a subtle

cashrshldkadfjshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

You depart the drift and return to the Material plane.

A heavily damaged kasathan transport ship floats in empty space, dark but for a slowly flashing orange light at its aft. Just a few miles away from the ship, a massive storm dwarfs the vessel, blue and gray etheric clouds warping the field of stars behind the ship and flashing internally with jagged streaks of light. For all its violence, the vast storm is silent, and it looms larger with each passing second.

Mysticism check from anyone for information about the storm. And a computers check from your science officer (don't forget the Pegasus's bonus!) to do a scan of the ship.

Herolab sounds weird. Armor gives you 1 day of environmental protection per item level. I think maybe it's giving it to you in hours?

Tania nods a little sheepishly at Alejandro's praise. "Thanks...I guess my frame remembers something about flying ships in combat. I've only ever done that in a simulator before."

She'll follow the coordinates and try to give the science officer and everyone else a close-up view of the ship while also keeping an eye on that storm...really not liking the looks of it.

Mysticism: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (19) + 5 = 24

As Ysh'yaal tries to remember somtehing about the storm, she scans the ghost ship with the Pegasus Sensors.

Computer: 1d20 + 8 + 2 ⇒ (19) + 8 + 2 = 29

"Through the window, it just looks like an old abandoned ship. I guess we should just go aboard - I can't see anything that could go wrong - this mission is going to be so easy..."

Ysh'yaal recognizes the stellar event as an etheric storm, an uncommon event where the barrier between the Ethereal and Material Planes is thinnest. It looks pretty violent. Likely it will destroy the craft well before you could repair her enough to bring it back to Absalom. But you would have enough time to quickly board it.

She also notes The presence of notable power spikes in the captain’s quarters, engine room, and bridge.

Ysh'yaal's eyebrows rise in surprise, she double checks her instruments, but... there is is. The presence of a life-form still active on the ship. Its exact species and location is indiscernible, due to the storm, but it’s clear that there’s someone (or something...) alive aboard the ship.

"Through the window, it just looks like an old abandoned ship. I guess we should just go aboard - I can't see anything that could go wrong - this mission is going to be so easy..."

”That’s the spirit, Shaan! Everything is gonna be A-OK, I’m sure of it!” says The Specialist in a Mr Rogers-sounding voice. ”Best part about the storm, is that it gives us a deadline to work towards, motivation, and some healthy fear to keep us going!”

Mysticism: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (10) + 8 = 18

"Uh...right," Prim remarks, looking askance at The Specialist. "It definitely gives us a deadline and motivation, no doubt about that. Could do without the fear, though..." she continues as she suits up and prepares to go aboard.