GM Jhaeman's "Dawn of Flame, Chapter 1: Fire Starters" (Inactive)

Game Master Jhaeman

I live in Australia, and there aren't any wolves here. I could be a were-crocodile though!

From what I've heard, there's plenty of things in Australia that are more dangerous than lycanthropes.

Could Cabizo close the door, drop prone so Xylian can occupy the same space, then Xylian make a computers/engineering check to hack/sabotage the lock so it won’t open again?

Darn. Missed it by seconds.

Xylian, if you don't think we can take this guy (which I understand... pretty sure I am going down next round since he needs a 2 or 3 to hit me, and he hits way harder than my total hit points), then totally understand if you want to lead a retreat back to the ship and let the bad guys blow up. At least you'll be alive to join up with our re-rolled characters on the research station. :)

Sorry if there was a diplomatic option that I missed, by the way. That's my job, and I just don't know that language.

Still got two bodies for her to get through before Xylian is threatened so that’s two rounds for someone to get a crit lol.

Yeah we lost boys.

If she doesn’t move this round we could try my door idea next round.

Guys.

It’s possible that I arbitrarily chose languages that sounded fitting for the campaign without putting much thought into it.

It’s also possible I didn’t realize until now that Ignan was one of those languages.

Things are looking dire, folks. But please don't beat yourselves up over coulda/shoulda/woulda. These are some really tough foes to fight at your level (especially at close quarters where they have the melee advantage). If anything, blame the dice gods and the AP for having a skewed vision of what an average L1 party of Starfinder characters can take.

Keep in mind that defeat doesn't necessarily mean death. And if the encounter does end in a TPK, we'll pick up the story with new characters on Far Portal Station, and this will all have been a dramatic and memorable prologue!

No worries!

I apologize for my radio silence. Today has been a weird day that culminated in a relatively impromptu family reunion with relatives that i never knew I had.

I didn't declare it (again, sorry on the radio silence) but last turn Vilo would've use a Resolve point to stabilize and another one this round to "Stay in the fight". Or I can call it a wash on the last round, lose a point there, and spend a resolve point to stabilize this round and spend the last one next round get back in the fight (either way, Vilo can only get back up once).

Since everyone else is trying to surrender/talk, I think you should stabilize but maybe wait to get back up (at least obviously). Remember, that is an airlock. We might be able to sneak in after the bad guy moves past, detach this part of the ship, and at least some of us could escape that way. Long shot, but survival, right? Everyone else could run for the ship.

... Nevermind, the GM just put everyone in there anyway. So, if the Azer knows the ship, we might really be trapped, but if she doesn't (I'm guessing she doesn't, or she wouldn't have gotten herself trapped in there), that's an airlock, so I'm hoping there is a way to detach this section.

Surrendering the Sun Runner isn’t an option. Xylian’s proog is still onboard.

Probably you should run then, and leave me to try to get out via the long shot when I come to.

Xylian was going to undock the Sun Runner and blow the airlock off the flamy flame ship to launch the azer into space.

I’m really happy we found an alternative.

This is a surprisingly realistic depiction of what would happen to a real research team in such a situation.

Looking at the rules and wondering if a 10 minute rest is going to help. Vilo doesn't have any resolve points left to spend to regain her stamina, and if I spend my last resolve point, I can't use some of my abilities for computer checks, which I figure we might need. Is there anything else that a 10 minute rest does for us?

I have an Engineering Toolkit... are they okay to share? So if someone else needs to make a check, they can borrow mine? Or does it have to be one per person?

Xylian and Shujae both get engineering and computers tools via the mechanics Custom Rig feature so I think everyone is covered.

Is Xylian next on the chopping block for party tank? Distract the bad guys so Vilo can get at least one attack off?

Or Staim, considering he is probably the most expendable. not that I'd ever admit that.

If anyone else shows up, Vilo's goal is to hold them off while everyone else clears the ship.

Sorry for my slow posting the last few days--it's been one of those weeks! Hope everyone is having fun.

No complaints from the peanut gallery!

Slow and steady is better than burning out!

Think we have to drag it out by moving out of sight. It doesn’t look like it wears armor so it probably stays out of melee range.

Well, we can always take potshots from around the doorway with our two ranged weapons that aren’t completely fire damage. XD

Could. Worth a try before we give up I suppose. The only other option I can see is to admit this can't be done, grab what we found already, and bug out. If Vilo falls again I can stabilize her with a spell gem, but I've only got one. If many people go down then we're in trouble.

Sorry--I really thought getting to the bridge would help us shut things down, and then at least we wouldn't be on a timer anymore and we could take more time to do things right. And I thought maybe that guy who lives in the engine would have chilled a bit and been ready to listen, but I guess we just don't have enough time to let him stew and think about it.

Other thoughts?

Things we should do before we go:

--Get the pile of gear from the locker room
--Bring the prisoner (if we want to risk that collar that turns you to ash)
--We should probably make a copy of the voice log I heard... not very useful, but at least it is something to study.
--If we can, maybe rig the area past the airlock to detach so that there is some little part left for the people at the station to study? I found the hidden controls to the escape pod, but not sure if someone has to be in it or not.

Anything else?

Those all sound like awesome suggestions!

I guess I could toss in a grenade, but a little worried that it will make the engines blow up now rather than later. :)

Did the hesper trigger Xylian’s ready action when it moved into his view?

Yes, you can go ahead and take that readied action.

Experience Points (Instalment #1)

Role-specific XP Awards

Complete your individual role challenge below at any point during “Fire Starters” to earn bonus XP equal to a CR 1 challenge. Each challenge can only be attempted (and XP can only be awarded) once, and you should state clearly you are attempting the role challenge before making any dice rolls.

haha, I'm never going to get my RP specific stuff done. I built a security specialist that literally talked her way into the job.

I think it's okay if you can't... the fun part is working together anyway, but might as well try. :)

That was a cool first adventure. Felt very high-stakes and intense.

Back in about 36 hours!

Let me know if anyone wants to claim anything that is unclaimed.

@Zharis: Many thanks for helping us stay organised!

Good RP guys! I enjoy the fun interaction.

Do we want a loot spreadsheet so Zharis doesn't have to keep an ever-growing list copied somewhere? I've got a template that's worked pretty well I could easily adapt from Pathfinder to Starfinder if folks are interested.

Up to you Cabizo. I am just keeping it in my profile (it's after my equipment), but if you want something more complicated than that, then I am totally good with someone else keeping track. :)

Was the hull breach in the other room large enough for people to fit through?

No, it was pretty small—clearly the result of battle damage from the fire whale.

Experience Points (Instalment #2)

How is everyone doing so far?

Just to give you an update on your progress, you've finished about the first third of the chapter.

Fine I think. Overall I think that the recruitment encouraged us all to focus on skills and being scientists, and we actually need some more combat expertise... but hopefully that will improve when we level up eventually.

yeah, I figure its a sort of intended miss-match, they didn't expect we'd see much resistance but obviously, they were wrong so we will have to develop those skills on the job.

yeah, I figure its a sort of intended miss-match, they didn't expect we'd see much resistance but obviously, they were wrong so we will have to develop those skills on the job.

I like it =)

learn by doing!

You guys are doing great, despite some tough early battles. Also, don't forget about your role-specific bonus XP opportunities--that's 400 extra XP.

Is there anything else anyone want to do with the alien ship? I expect it’ll be a while before we get back this way again. Do we want to try talking to the prisoner before we go?

I think that collar will just toast her if we wake her up... killing her because she failed to kill us or something. The other collar turned the other guy to ash.

I don't think there is anything else to do other than leave it here and let them study it and fix it up, although we should warn them about the guy in the engine.