/dot in
You are all aboard a Veskarium transport ship, Kagzala’s Jewel, on the final leg of a tour through several remote worlds in Near Space. First Seeker Ehu Hadif has requested you join him for an emergency briefing in one of the starship’s meeting halls...
***
First Seeker Ehu Hadif springs to his feet excitedly and gestures for his guests to choose one of the comfortable seats available inside the cozy meeting room. “Thank you for responding so promptly. I know you’re all tired and looking forward to returning home, but starting now, our tour won’t be proceeding as scheduled. A few minutes ago, we received a transmission from a nearby planet that we believed to be uninhabited. I’ll play it for you.”
A flickering holovid of an aging dromada appears over Ehu’s datapad. The dromada’s fur is speckled with gray, and he speaks in a tired but firm voice: “I am Colrid of the Star Treader herd. We took refuge on Zrulik-3, but now many of our herd are—” Colrid’s image stutters as the message fades into garbled static. After a moment, the message resumes. “—attacks. If anyone can hear this, please help us.” Ehu paces anxiously as the message plays, his brow furrowed with concern.
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The relatively tall and well-built skittermander walks into the briefing room and his furry face smiles.
"Ehu Hadif! My man! Bring it in!" He yells from the doors running towards the First Seeker and hugging him.
After greeting other Skitters he listens to the recording.
"Herd? Interesting. Nufriends need our help, we should be going!" says enthusiastically
"Any questions before you go?"
"Colrid - I know a fair bit"
“Dromadas are often skittish and rarely leave their herds, but Colrid was brave and independent. He once told me that he left his own herd in anger and sometimes regretted it. He wanted to fight the poachers that hunted them, but the others refused to stand together. He served as a Starfinder for many years, but his missions were often complicated by those who wanted to murder him for his meat—a despicable practice that still goes on today. He decided to retire after one of those monsters captured him and put his entire team in danger. I tried to talk him into staying, but he’d hear none of it.”
“When last we spoke, Colrid confided in me that he dreamed of forming a herd for other exiled or lost dromadas. He must have succeeded.”
“The planet - we don't know much, to tell you the truth. It’s a remote world covered by thick forest. The Jewel’s crew say that landing might be tricky and scanning from orbit is nearly impossible. Pirates used the rock as a hideout in the past, but the High Despots put a stop to that after they began targeting vesk ships. I’m not surprised Colrid chose it as a hiding place.”
“The apex predator on Zrulik-3 is the zrulicat. A zrulicat can see in all directions at once and has a prehensile tentacle it uses to drag prey into its mouth. The beasts are solitary hunters that live deep in the forest, however, so you may not even encounter them.”
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"Oh...another mission so soon. They are going to burn my fight pit down while I am gone. And not in the good way." Mujina says mussing his fur as he throws a small fit. With a sigh he plops down to listen more.
He starts to cheer up when it sounds like a warmer climate...then falls back again when the Zrulicat is mentioned. "Ya know...maybe the slugs weren't so bad. So First Seeker, this is a rescue mission? All-Assist Mr. Colrid, then a vacation?"
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Buddy listens with his eyes wide open and comments every now and then
"Ex-Starfinder.... no way! .... murder for meat .... that is atrocious! Why anyone would do such a thing!" he does not go silent, like speaking would allow him to better absorb the information.
As he speaks he moves his head causing his ear and nose-rings to make a metallic sound.
"Mujina! Squizzer how great to see you!"
"This appears to be a rescue mission - there's a nufriend in need of help, so let's go allsix and then back on a vacation"
"Yes, murder for meat, dromadas are considered a delicacy"
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Guiseppelia Ba'drys Olyvia Nandell Eve Shirley (or 'Joe Bones' for short) comes running in, obviously late. A very small, very pale yellow female skittermander runs in, pushing vials into her bandolier, hefting her capture pole, and making certain her caustolance rifle is secure on her back.
"Sorry....I was making some last minute serums to heal people...i think we might need them as Buddy and Mujina seem to have punching-bags on their face or something...what did I miss?"
Running over to Buddy, Mujina and Squizzer she gives them all a brief hug, while using 2 hands to download the mission video that was being recorded....
Getting a quick look over what she missed.
"Oh....Dromadas....yeah...skittish. And one was a Starfinder, how neat! I haven't met one yet, but they should like wonderful people. And being all tasty and all that...well...us Skitters are considered edible by the evil stridermancers...I hear a Dragonkin that in the Starfinder society has got one and is attempting to tame it, how scary!. Anyway....this Colrid sounds to be an unusual specimine of the dromada species...most I hear do not want to be leaders-as leaders are what usually gets attacked by predators. But he wants us to help, be better get out there and help. This zrulicat predator sounds pretty scary, I better get on the infosphere and find all I can about it!"
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Garcon waves back. "Did any of you need coffee too? Or a cocktail? I didn't prepare any more since I didn't get more orders but I can fix that!"
He sets his cocktail tray down on an empty seat and pulls some equipment from his pack. "Coffee? Tea? Vercite Martini? Ryphorian Mule?"
He thinks for a moment then adds, "If a Zrulicat can see all round and has tentacles and stuff then couldn't you just administer an intoxicant to keep it sluggish and deprive it of it's main advantages?"
He pulls out a few ingredients in expectation of a drink order.
"OK well your team is assembled - you may depart when ready"
Joe Bones finds no further information on Zrulicats other than the summary provided...
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Garcon realizes that the First Seeker's gaze has included him at the mention of the assembled team. "Erm... I thought I was just here to bring drinks? I'm uh... going too?"
He looks at the assembled starfinders, then at Ehu Hadif, then at his own effects strewn across the chairs, then back at the assembled starfinders... then back at Ehu Hadif. Finally he grins ear to ear.
"Nufriends!!!"
"They'll need drinks planetside - think you can handle that much helping?"
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Garcon realizes that the First Seeker's gaze has included him at the mention of the assembled team. "Erm... I thought I was just here to bring drinks? I'm uh... going too?"
He looks at the assembled starfinders, then at Ehu Hadif, then at his own effects strewn across the chairs, then back at the assembled starfinders... then back at Ehu Hadif. Finally he grins ear to ear.
"Nufriends!!!"
Buddy looks at the newly arrived Skitter with a plate of drinks
"Can we take him? We could gladly use another three pairs of hands."
Then he rushes towards Garcon and gives him a hug almost making him to drop the plate all together
"Don't you worry Garcon, let me introduce the others."
He walks towards Mujina-chan
"He is Mujina, he is a gladiator fighting at the stages ... Where was it Mujina? He pretends to be all stiff and hides from hugs. But deep inside he is just a furry ball of emotions like the others."
The walks further and stops in front of Squizzer
"This is Squizzer she is always first to try new things, eat, drink live through. Set a portal to a new dimension and you will see just the back of her fur going in. Sometimes she waves her hands and brings cold or storm from odd places. I swear once I felt a smell of fried stridermander after she casted one of her charms."
Then they walk to Joe
"This is Joe, she is all educated and smart. She sometimes speaks funny when she gets all excited, and every now and then she shots others with syringes. If you don't like injections like I do try to keep your squishy parts away from her."
Then he turns and says
"I am Buddy Jabo, you might have heard of mine drumming videos that I post regularly. My latest one keeping up with the tempo with your 5th hand, common mistakes got almost 500 views. Ok, it was closest to 300 but it was just shared, like a week ago."
He smiles broadly his ear and nose rings catching the light
"Welcome to the team!"
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In a distant part of the ship, surrounded by a small collection of datapads and digital displays showing images and holovids of Acquisitives faction leader Radaszam in action, a small figure wearing a mask and a full cloak of a rich golden color suddenly starts with a gasp, as if coming out of a deep trance. "I am needed here? I thought I was going to help here before, but I was still helping there. Or was that another me? No, I'm the only me that can help. Help? I need to help! Gotta hurry!"
The figure springs up and scampers out of the small shrine she has constructed in the air ducts on C-deck. Rushing through the length of the ship, she finally reaches the conference room where Ehu Hadif is just preparing to send the skitter crew on their mission. As she skids to a halt in the room, her cloak billows up around her legs for just a moment revealing iridescent fur that seems to shift in color as you watch it.
"Szama reporting for duty. I'm not too late am I?" she says, breathing heavily from her run.
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"Szama reporting for duty. I'm not too late am I?" she says, breathing heavily from her run.
Buddy turns around and spots Szama breathing heavily.
"New member? Now there are six of us!" he runs towards Szama and gives her a hug.
"I am Buddy. Let me introduce you to our team..." He repeats mostly the same thing that he said to Garcon.
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Joe waves happily to the two new skitter's....
"Nice to meet you Garcon and Szama, as Buddy said we are Ehu Hadif's strike team of awesom skittermanders. We know how to all-six it, and are willing to help each other and all our nufriends that we have yet to meet!"
While she is talking one of her hand is doing a quick medical scan on the two new skitters....."Looks good, and if I have to give you an injection, it shouldn't hurt. Hopefully you two won't be like Mujina and Buddy and make me run out of the 6 serums I made to use in my needler pistol to keep them alive....this crazy crystal elemental was beating the ever-living stuffing out of those two. I am so glad that Buddy and Mujina make good punching bags, or else that crystal thing would have went for the more squishable among us. Hopefully you two can either help me keep those two from being as squishable, or able to hurt things a lot."
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"Oh I think I've seen a scanner thing like that before! Yeah, you can absolutely use your injections on me if you need to, Joe! And I hope I can help keep everyone safe, although sometimes I don't do so good keeping this version of everyone safe cause I'm actually helping out a different version of everyone? I'm not sure how it works all the time, but I'm learning and I try really hard!"
Szama pauses and looks down for a moment as if she is thinking, then quickly looks up again, "Oh! And I have these!" She pulls back one layer of her cloak, revealing a bandolier full of all sorts of grenades. "'Sometimes the best offense is knowing how to control the battlefield!' That's something my hero, Radaszam, said once! I think...or was that a different Radaszam? I'm not sure..."
"YOur shuttle is awaiting you in the hangar - I trust one of you knows how to fly..." with that you start heading to the hangar and begin loading into the shuttle.
The small shuttle descends towards the planet with Szama at the stick.
The forest canopy is astonishingly dense. Colrid’s distress message broadcasts repeatedly but, true to Ehu’s warning, the signal is spotty, and the shuttle’s sensors have trouble penetrating the thick canopy.
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Joe wanders into the shuttle, looking around curiously.
"Ohh.....can I play the science officer? As Buddy and Mujina and Squizzer knows, I am pretty good at that!" With no immediate (as in almost zero time for any rebuttal), Joe hops into the Science officer chair.
[b[]"Look at all these buttons! Let.s see, this should do this..and this does that...okay...I think I know how this works. Szama, just make certain you don't skim anyting close to the ground...some of our science probes are on the bottom of the shuttle...don't shear them off...."[/b]
With that Joe takes Science officer, and proceeds to lightly comment whenever asked questions "That is illogical captain." and "Indeed", while trying to raise her right eyebrow--though unsuccessfully with that.
Though Joe is probably enjoying playing Science officer than actually doing it.....
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Garcon pokes and prods at his serving tray a few times. "Erm... I guess if I'm coming I'm gonna need some scans too..."
A few slots open up and several pieces of barware are revealed along with a collection of... syringes? He mixes up a few shot glasses and places them nicely on his tray, then reaches into his pack for a pair of small arms to strap to his sides.
The two Skittermanders can't crack the signal... can someone else help!?
Erastil manages to squeeze the shuttle through the canopy - it looked like a super tight fit, but the shuttle sets down without incident.
You look outside the shuttle as things calm down. It’s afternoon, but the light level beneath Zrulik-3’s canopy is rather dim. The thick underbrush throughout this part of the forest looks like difficult terrain to move through.
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"Vesk-6. The Pahtra love a good fight almost as much as the Vesk..." Mujina answers to Buddy and Garcon.
The skitter nods and shows a few patches of missing fur and lingering bruises from his encounters on the last mission before dropping his head in shame.
"Not letting something get the best of me like that again." he grumbles.
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"Easy landing means something difficult is coming right up. If Zrulicats have lots of eyes then we have to beat them with lots of arms..." he says keeping an eye out as he peers outside.
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The two Skittermanders can't crack the signal... can someone else help!?
Buddy goes next to Joe and looks at her struggling with cracking the signal.
"Let me help you Joe! Sometimes computers have a tendency to hang. You simply need to press the button with more confidence." Says Buddy as he begins to smack keys on random on Joes console
"Work! Work!"
==== After landing
"Wow! Nufriends look at that forest! It is so green and so leafy, and so thick! I love it!"
Szama takes the keys out of the ignition as you all try locate the source of the signal. Buddy #helped but things seemed... vague.
***
Mujina, on the other hand, has fantastic eyes and solves the problem!
The sharp eyed Skittermander notices an abandoned shuttle partially concealed by vines off in the foliage. A quick investigation shows that the comm equipment on this ship is the source of Colrid’s message, though there’s no sign of him here now. A set of hooved tracks meanders around the clearing and appears to lead south to an overgrown trail.
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Joe looks a little crestfallen that her and Garcon couldn't crack the singal.
"It must be in a non-binary language...maybe hexadecimal? Or maybe that strange pseudo-code that the Eoxians use that includes magic...ehh....no idea."
Seeing Buddy 'helping' on the computer, Joe watches with interest to see if that would actually help.....but it apparently doesn't.
When Mujina is able to see the abandoned shuttle, Joe forgets about the problems on cracking..."Of course the Dromada's are a herd mentality, it was obviously in a hierarchical code set...that is why we couldn't think of the right combination Garcon....."
Looking around Joe does her best to see if she can find the right way to follow the dromada's....
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Garcon contemplates Squizzer's question. "Trains?"
He seems quite satisfied that he has solved Squizzer's riddle.
As he runs around looking at all of the hoofprints pointed out to him, his cocktail tray somehow manages to keep the drinks from spilling despite splashing about well above the rim of the glasses... which themselves have no reason to not be falling over.
Over his center-left arm has has a long white napkin draped, somewhat concealing the fact that his lower left arm is now holding a pistol of sorts.
He grabs his cocktail shaker and mixes up a drink, pouring it into one of the shot glasses.
Finally he asks the party, "Who is good at following hoofprints?"
After a long pause a look of realization crosses his face and he turns to Squizzer. "Oooooohh!!! Tracks! I get it!"
Joe Bones is struggling to follow the tracks at the beginning, but after a refreshing tonic from Garcon the trail becomes much easier to track!
The eagle-eyed trackers are right on the trail!
A massive old-growth forest stretches unbroken for miles beyond the clearing. Trees with vibrantly pigmented bark form a nearly impenetrable living wall. A chorus of hoots and screeches reverberates through the humid air, and thorny vines grasp and tear with every step. Suddenly, all the cacophony dies away, and an uncomfortable silence settles over the trees.
As if answering Mujina, a pair of large cats emerge from the foliage!
Buddy
Garcon
Joe Bones
Mujina
Squizzer
Szama
ENEMY
R1
Garcon
Buddy
Szama
ENEMY
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"Kitties! Look Squizzer, they are almost as fluffy as you... Oh look they are smiling." Rambles Buddy for a moment until he recognizes that they are a treat.
Buddy with one swift move of four hands pulls out his Hailcanon and a doshko. His remaining two hands were constantly holding drumming sticks which he used to beat some rhythm when nervous.
He quickly moves forwards to get a clear shot at one of the cats. He lowers his canon takes aim and pulls the trigger
Buddy looks good, but the shot is wide of the mark.
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Pushing through an unknown jungle...an abandoned shuttle...dangerous fauna...this is all beginning to feel very familiar to Szama, and she does not like it! "Oh no! What planet is this? I swear I didn't crash this time! We can escape if we need to. DON'T GO IN THE WATER!"
Szama rushes a short distance ahead and waves her top left hand as her low-right hand draws a pistol from her belt. The magic that her waving hand was weaving manifests in the midst of the clearing as a horrifying roar of a large alien predator resounds in the area.
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"Deer? Where are the deer? I only see cats... maybe they think we're mice? That would be very bad..."
He quickly grabs a shot glass off of his tray while at the same time, moving his serving napkin aside to reveal his pistol. In one swift movement, he pours the shot into a reservoir on the chambered dart and raises the weapon to take aim as he scurries to the side to line up a clear shot.
**THWIP**
You introduce a mild hallucinogen into a living creature’s body, making it difficult for the target to move or act. The target gains the encumbered condition and must succeed at a Fortitude save (DC 14) or also gain the entangled condition. This is a mind-affecting poison effect.
R Will save
Y Will save
Y Fort save
Red moves in on Garcon
Attack
Damage
+Grab
...but misses.
The slightly hallucinating cat wanders in - confused by the ghostly sound.
R1
Squizzer
Mujina
Joe
R2
Garcon
Buddy
Szama
ENEMY
R 0
Y 3
Buddy lands a beautifully placed shot!
This inspires Joe to do the same!
Squizzer starts summoning...
R1
Squizzer - acted
Mujina
Joe - acted
R2
Garcon
Buddy - acted
Szama
ENEMY
R 19 (Staggered/Inhibited -2AC)
Y 3