Outpost IV: DebugAMP's SFS 2-02 - Waking the Past (Inactive)

Game Master DebugAMP

Frink would take a rest to regain SP if possible.

Tofana looks into the room. "Someone was processing ssarlithine before Abadarcorp arrived? Or is this a more recent installation? Is someone poaching the ssarlithine and smuggling it off world?"

The android pauses expressionlessly. "Teka's suggestion is good. Drift, I believe your skills are superior to mine. I will assist you in trying to extract a biometric profile from the door controller."

Computers, aid: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (20) + 12 = 32
That's a killer idea, Zynete.

And Tofana reloads her rifle before beginning work on the door controller.

And look at that roll.

Computers, is this door controller tech current Pact World standard: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (6) + 12 = 18
Engineering , is this tank and piping system current Pact World standard: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (4) + 12 = 16

Teka will not recover her SP yet.

"The dust on those doors looks like that no one has been here for a long time. If we were were trusting them, AbadarCorp has been here for less than a decade."

"We should move carefully though. One of their canisters have been broken open and I can't tell if it exploded or if something broke it open. If the chemical had been long been released I would have thought there wouldn't be much at all left behind."

After others have a moment Teka to appraise the chamber and the intact canister. She moves carefully to confirm the stability of the intact tank and keeps an eye out for any other structural weaknesses in the room.

Looking for traps, searching the room.
Perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (10) + 9 = 19

A brief look over the door controller gives you the sense that it is pretty archaic, likely from around the time of the gap. You are able to save the credentials from the lock, but trying to build a biometric profile from the data will take a lot more than the computers you have on you, especially without infosphere access. At the very least you can attempt to decode it later... assuming you make it out that is.

Teka finds no apparent traps, however it seems as though entering the facility has started some sort of a boot cycle as some of the facility's environmental controls sound as if they are starting. Nonetheless the room right now is extremely cold, and you can feel the tips of your fingers begin to numb. Approaching the intact canister, Teka finds that it appears to be empty, although a wisp of the sweet smelling gas seems to be emanating from it, albeit quickly dissipating.

Tofana takes a look at the tank and piping and notes that while it is certainly at least a couple hundred years old, it likely was from the Pact Worlds.

Croaker allows others to work on the doors. When they slide open and others are entering he says

"Agents! Please turn on environmental protections, if this is something deadly that spilled on the floor it might protect you." says Croaker and follows his own advice.

He enters the room and looks around

"This is a big planet with rich natural resources. So far this looks like some sort of lab, that was left behind. If it precedes the gap there could be some artifacts here. Potentially another exit as well."

He looks around and sniffs the air with his snout

"Eluding sweet smell..."

How about we try the doors to the West (down). Walking next to the broken cylinder freaks me out, as well as the big grey rectangle in front ;)

West sounds good.

Tofana also activates her armor's seals. "I concur, Teka. This equipment seems to be Gap era technology. The room would have to be very well sealed to still hold ssarlithine if the tank ruptured long ago. Therefore it seems likely the rupture is more recent. "

"You may wish to conserve your power supplies," Saeron interjects as her companions discuss environmental protections. "The protective wards I placed over us aboard the transport (link) will be in effect for several more days yet."

"They will protect us from all but the most extreme hazards." She looks around at the group. "The choice is yours, of course," she adds.

Saeron follows her companions, rifle at the ready.

Croaker looks at Saeron and facepalms

"You are right!"

Completely forgot that. No seals for me then.

Tofana addresses Saeron. "Will the wards terminate if you do?"

The android also deactivates her seals for now.

Sweet! Thanks SuperS.

We've got to stay within 30' of each other.

You only need to be within 30 ft when it's cast. You are all good to wander now. And thanks to your life bubble you aren't taking damage from hanging out in a freezer.

Spike, a bit unnerved with hanging out next to the tanks, checks the western door. It is unlocked, and functions normally opening up with a bit of a scraping sound from centuries of neglect. Stepping in reveals a bit of an unnerving scene. This lounge is furnished with a pair of metal tables and cushioned chairs. Two desiccated corpses are still seated at one of the tables, their rotting flesh withered with ragged holes. Two cracked and powerless vidscreens are mounted on the north and west walls and the entire south wall is a collapsed heap of rubble and splintered vending machines.

After a moment you hear a humming sound coming from the room you just departed, getting slowly louder.

"Fascinating. The memories we could find within this place...but it will be fruitless if we cannot find another way out. Your suggestion is as good as any." Drift says agreeing with the others an hoisting up his plasma fork as they move through the door.

He quickly turns to look back at the humming form the previous room and keeps his vision pointed in that direction as he attempts to find a way to lock the door behind them for the time being.

Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (5) + 4 = 9

Tofana also looks into the room behind them.

perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (15) + 6 = 21

"That may well be the the environmental systems coming online. Saeron, Drift? Can you tell anything from the chemicals? Should we try to collect a sample or delay the process before any of that makes it into the vents?"

There was a Physical Science check when we first entered the room, I'm not sure it would tell us more about the chemicals or the room.

Croaker again reaches for his AI assistant

Physical science, hireling: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (6) + 8 = 14

"The smell that we felt is of Ssarlightine gas. It is not harmful"

Croaker says as he looks for magic emanations.

Cast detect magic.

"Uh, I'm not...sure,"Saeron replies to Tofana. "Let's hope we don't have cause to find out."

No worries Thom.

Entering the next room, Saeron sees that the two bodies within are well beyond any assistance she can provide and focuses on the more immediate concern of the sudden change in the sound behind them... particularly in light of the recent elevator collapse.

Perception: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (3) + 11 = 14

Should it seem there is no immediate danger, she will move to investigate the bodies and their cause of demise.

Medicine: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (17) + 10 = 27

As the buzzing sound gets loud, Saeron turns around and looks through the doorway as Drift scrambles to close and lock it. She gets a glimpse of what looks like smoke and electricity arcing out of a conduit near the broken tank. Tofana catches a glimpse of it beginning to form some almost humanoid form before the door slams shut and the lock is engaged. After another 10 seconds or so the humming stops, and you hear a strange sound of something moving about in the now closed off room.

After a bit of waiting, it seems as though whatever it is isn't looking to breech the room your in, and Kasari takes a look over the corpses. The cause of death is difficult to determine seeing as they appear to have died a very long time ago and preserved in the frigid cold of this facility. At the very least, it seems as though their deaths were not natural as the splintered bone sections do not appear to be a normal part of decay. One of the workers still clutches a datapad in their hand. The datapad is in good shape but long since drained of power.

"Hard to say..." Saeron muses. "All I can tell for sure is that it was a long time ago and it wasn't natural causes."

She reaches out and tries to take the datapad. If successful, she says, "Not surprisingly, battery's dead."

She draws a spare battery from her pack and, turning to her companions, battery and old device in hand, asks, "Anyone think they can get this going?"

Engineering, read spoiler: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (18) + 12 = 30
Tofana watches the smoke and electricity until Drift gets the door completely closed.

...

She reaches out and tries to take the datapad. If successful, she says, "Not surprisingly, battery's dead."

She draws a spare battery from her pack and, turning to her companions, battery and old device in hand, asks, "Anyone think they can get this going?"

Tofana takes the battery and pad. "I will try, but maybe we should move on quickly. I think the smoke in the other room was a nanite cloud. It is hard to predict exactly what threat it may pose. "

Tofana manages to get the datapad powered up enough for it to display the last message logged.

“Mivren says one of the officers has a zero-rifle in his armory cubicle, but that’s hard to believe. I haven’t seen one of those since the Nightarch operation, right before we left the home system.”

That message remains frozen on the screen, and the datapad remains otherwise non-functional. Used 1 charge from the spare battery

Where to next?

Teka does take the opportunity to move away from the door as she does show a wariness of the unknown threat. "If we are avoiding it, I think it would make sense to avoid that side of the facility for the moment. Hopefully the doors are secure enough to hold it back."

Teka will move to the door west of the closed off room and searches it for locks or traps. Unless there are objections she opens the doorway with herself in the lead.

Perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (11) + 9 = 20

The doorway seems clear, and as soon as she steps directly in front of the door it shudders open. The automated doors appear to work, although time has not been kind to their sliding mechanisms. The lighting however is another story. The dim red emergency lights that illuminated the lounge appear to be completely offline in this room. These sleeping quarters both contain three bunk beds, with grimy, disheveled sheets and pillows. Hooks for hanging gear line the walls opposite the beds, from which hang two sets of dingy yellow coveralls.

Tofana switches on her armor's comm light and steos inside. "I will check for memory aids."

BY which she means diaries, work papers, etc.

Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (20) + 6 = 26

The first set of beds have nothing other than the work clothes and sheets, however the room next door appears to be clear of wards as well and is marked as another set of sleeping quarters. Expanding the search there reveals a corpse in fetal position underneath one of the beds clutching at another dust covered datapad.

"Oh dear." Teka moves and mourns for the corpse, but turns back to the sealed door behind just a moment to recall the danger she and the other Starfinders are in. She withdraws a battery and begins powering up the datapad.

Engineering: 1d20 + 14 + 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 14 + (4) + 1 = 20

Teka passes the the pad to others as she secures the battery in place.

"This person met with their end at the hands of that nanite swarm. It was something they were fighting against, and they were building a projector that could affect it, but it seems as though they weren't able to get it to work before they perished."

"We should try to move quickly. I hoped for a moment that we would have time, but if this poor soul wasn't able to hide away from it here, then we shouldn't dilly dally. We need to find out more about the creature or find our way to the lab."

Tofana takes the pad, reads it quickly then passes it on.

"Riddled with holes. Inconvenient."

The android moves quickly to the presumed next set of quarters and opens that door.

Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (11) + 6 = 17

"Swarm?! On Grandmother's furry tail!" he begins looking through his backpack

"No grenades or other blast weapons, and my spells would be completely useless! Crap!" yells Croaker.

"Quickly! On your paws! if the swarm came back online we need to find this projector and turn it on!" says Croaker as he runs towards next door following Tofana

Murky water covers the floor of this lavatory and large patches of ancient mold cover the walls and ceiling. Though the south wall has collapsed, the north wall still contains two open stalls holding mold-encrusted toilets and a dingy washbasin. One section of the collapsed south wall is a tangle of wires and loose steel panels that occasionally shifts and vibrates creating a soft rattling sound.

As Tofana inspects the room she notices that the electrical panel covers a gap that winds away to the south. Peering through the damaged panel reveals a 2 ft high by 3 ft wide crawlspace, likely once used for routing cables.

To gain access to the crawlspace you'll need to remove the panel (strength check). It can be easily traversed by small creatures wearing light or no armor. Medium creatures with light or no armor and Small creatures with heavy armor can navigate it more slowly and with some difficulty, but Medium creatures with heavy armor, and Large or larger creatures will not fit whatsoever.

"Here is a moldy bathroom and some kind of crawlspace through a collapsed wall. It's a tight squeeze for most of us. I suggest trying the other door next. "

Leaving the lavatory for now, the android moves across the room to the last door. She tries to open it.

"A shame but perhaps we can carry on the legacy of this Dr. Hsiung by utilizing this projector. If we can find it in time...I have no doubt we can get it working. That and we may have no choice because I am not well equipped to handle a swarm of nanites, myself." Drift says moving on with the others.

In the next room he eyes the electrical panel cautiously.

"Let's hope that panel doesn't have anything running through it. We could perhaps pry off the panel but a crawlspace sounds like a deathtrap knowing what is lurking in the facility. I agree with Tofana, let's see what other choices we have."

"If it comes to it, I'm willing to pass through the tunnel. I've learned to avoid death by myself a few times before and I rather not force that experience on any of you. I think I could manage for myself down the way. We may need to take some risks if you all are going to get out of here without your fur singed."

Teka readies her sonic pistol in a hand she joins Tofana at the door.

Croaker stands behind Tofana and Teka and nods for them to open the doors.

He feels the need to hurry, his paws are sweaty and he reaches with one of them for a pack of chewing gum.

Without saying a word he offers one to others

"With a bit caffeine..." he begins chewing himself trying to calm a bit

As the party begins to move to the remaining door, a hum comes from the ostensibly dead panel in the bathroom... and suddenly a swarm of nanites begins to pour out of it, beginning to take the form of a massive humanoid creature.

Round 1:
Saeron
Croaker
Tofana
Nanites!
Teka
Drift
Frinke

"Not good. See if you can close the bathroom door. "

Engineering: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (11) + 12 = 23

Tofana eyes the coalescing swarm and draws her static arc pistol. With her other hand, she tries once again to open the last door.

Engineering: 1d20 + 14 + 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 14 + (1) + 1 = 19

Teka unfortunately isn't able to identify the emerging creature.

Hearing the sounds Croaker immediately turns around with his rifle pointing to the source of the sound. Seeing a being emerging he takes a shot

Attack vs EAC: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (17) + 6 = 23
Damage, fire: 1d8 + 4 ⇒ (4) + 4 = 8

"Tofana! Open that door, quick!"

I have mysticism +10 there is no way with me rolling 21 on d20 :P Or is it?

Croaker loaded dice: 21 + 10 = 31

Tofana punches the door controls to hopefully find a room to retreat into while Croaker takes a shot at the forming creature. The nanite swarm reorganizes to make a nice gap exactly where the shot is aimed, and it strikes the wall behind it.

Croaker, feel free to roll anyways, once its fully emerged I'll be (retroactively) lowering the DC, but I figured you should have at least a far remote possibility of recognizing it before that happens. It'll be DC 25 after it acts, which unfortunately means that Tofana and Teka will not be getting any additional information at that point.

Tofana looks into what looks like some central foyer. A square column fills the middle of this damaged area. The column is open to the north and south, allowing a clear view of an eight-foot wide elevator shaft that descends into darkness.

Round 1:
Saeron
Croaker
Tofana
Nanites!
Teka
Drift
Frinke

Saeron advances toward Tofana. Reaching the doorway, she turns to see if the nanite creature follows them.

"Doors don't seem to stop it, but let's see if we can at least buy some time," she says, readying her rifle from a position by the door panel.

The nanites finish pouring out of the panel with the final burst forming silver-blue breastplate, pauldrons, and helm to cap off the humanoid form. A red ring glows on its face as it begins to slowly march forward. It scans the room, then fixes it's gaze on the closest subject and raises its arm, revealing a thin whip-like strand of nanites emanating from it's hand.

Saeron fires off a dart from her rifle, but it shatters against the rigid formation of nanites across its chest and does not seem to bother it in the slightest.

Anyone who has not already attempted the earlier check can do so with the DC now reduced to 25.

Round 1:
Teka
Drift
Frinke

Round 2:
Saeron
Croaker
Tofana
Hulking Nanite Monstrosity

Uncertain about the nanite creature Teka retreats into the central room and throws a grenade at the robotic swarm.

Attack intersection immediately left of creature with mk 1 shock grenade
Grenade Attack vs AC 5: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (11) + 3 = 14
Electricity Damage, explode 15 ft, DC 15 for half: 1d8 ⇒ 1

The grenade explodes, but the arcing energy only seems to invigorate the swarm as the nanites momentarily move faster, then return to their normal speed.

Round 1:
Teka
Drift
Frinke

Round 2:
Saeron
Croaker
Tofana
Hulking Nanite Monstrosity

Mysticism to identify: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (1) + 10 = 11 Yeah, right. I liked my loaded dice more.

"None of our weapons seems to harm it, run! Through the doors, try to barricade it, and keep going!" throws Croaker as he runs through the doors.

Unless we find some weapon that works against it, I don't see how we can fight it.

I used one move action to get into the room, I have 1 action pending that I can spend on closing the doors (if they can be closed).

"This is why they were working on a specific weapon, we can't stay." Drift says agreeing with Croaker.

Drift rushes into the next room to begin looking for a way to seal the next door.

Double Move.

Croaker quickly steps into the elevator lobby with Teka and hovers his fingers over the panel, ready to lock it as soon as his allies are all in. Drift sprints in behind, moving deeper into the room to give his compatriots room to file in.

Round 1:
Teka
Drift
Frinke

Round 2:
Saeron
Croaker (Readied)
Tofana
Hulking Nanite Monstrosity

"Pass through," Tofana tells Saeron. Then goes through the door herself.

"Frinke, hurry! This door is closing with or without you!" The android readies herself to close the door either after Frinke comes through or the nanite golem comes within 10 feet.

"What's behind the next door?!"

Move as shown. Ready action to close door as described above.

Mysticism: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (9) + 11 = 20

As her companions prepare to fall back to the next room, Saeron glances behind her.

Although she gets a better look at the creature, she still has no idea of what it might be.

Raising her rifle she fires another dart at the thing.

Tactical acid dart rifle, vs KAC: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (18) + 4 = 22
Acid & Piercing damage: 1d8 + 4 ⇒ (6) + 4 = 10

"Coming!" she calls before dashing through the door.

Saeron fires another dart which fails to have any meaningful effect as she ducks through the door to join her compatriots.

Can someone bot Frinke please?

Frinke retreats with the rest of the party from the ominous threat of swarming nanites.

As soon as Frinke steps through the door, Croaker and Tofana quickly close and lock the door. A moment passes and the expected pounding on the door doesn't come...

Everyone can act. I'll put some markers on the doors that you've locked and which side you locked them from. As you leave rooms that you've discovered, I'll put some fog of war markers down just so you know what rooms you know about but don't have present visibility into.

Oh, thanks for the bot, yeah, I saw I was up and was watching what everyone was doing, while forgetting to do something myself
These things are tough, we have to deal with those, maybe another time.

"It has mobility, moving through the conduits or ducts and knows the complex. If we double back through the tank room, and try the other door there, we might throw it off for a few extra moments. "

Her suggestion not withstanding, Tofana holsters her pistol and moves to the opposite door and tries it.