GM Quirk's INTO THE VESKARIUM (Inactive)

Game Master Quirk, Private Eye

Greetings, all!

This is for the repeatable quest pack 3-11, Into the Veskarium. There are four separate short adventures, all taking place within (as you might guess) Veskarium space.

I anticipate making the first in-game post late this weekend, either Saturday night or sometime Sunday. I should have some slides ready by then as well.

We'll need the following information. As far as boons go, there are no particular ones you'll definitely have. Note that there is a starship quest, so you may choose a starship boon. I'm fine with making a switch after you read the introduction to the first quest.

PC Name:
SFS ID#:
Preferred starship role:
Preferred starship: Drake, Pegasus or Other
Boons Slotted:
(faction) =>
(personal) =>
(promotional) =>
(starship) =>
(social) =>
(ally) =>
(slotless) => as many as you wish

[DICE=Day Job]1d20+

PC Name: Gamuzali
SFS ID#: 177216-702
Preferred starship role: Captain (+14 Diplo/Intimidate), Gunner (+6), or Chief Mate (+7)
Preferred starship: Drake
Boons Slotted:
(faction) => Improved Exo-guardians Champion
(personal) => Possessed Augmentation
(promotional) => N/A
(starship) => Solar Powered Weapon or Hero of the Stars (will make final call by end of briefing)
(social) => Into the Veskarium
(ally) => Commander Najiri's Respect
(slotless) => Starfinder Insignia

Day Job - Profession (special ops): 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (7) + 13 = 20

PC Name: Zargothrax McDonald
SFS ID: 4249-702
Preferred Starship Role: Magic Officer, Engineer, or Science Officer
Preferred Starship: USS EnterpriseDrake
Boons:
Faction - Improved Exo-Guardians
Personal - [REDACTED]
Promotional - Drink Ghost Goblin Ale! (Reroll)
Starship - Weapons of a Lost Civilization (Bring nukes to a gun fight)
Social - Faction's Friend
Ally - Spirits of a Doomed People (Unless we're missing a skill)
Slotless - Um.... lots... available upon request

No day job

Hello all. Freeman will level after the current game, which the great and powerful GM says is almost over. I'll level him ASAP once we get the chronicles.

PC Name: Freeman
SFS ID#: 73425-703

Preferred starship role: Engineer or science officer (+15 to both)

Preferred starship: Drake, Pegasus or Other Drake is fine, good either way.

Boons Slotted: 

(faction) => Improved Dataphiles

(personal) => Sudden attunement

(promotional) => 
(starship) => Heavy solar cannon upgrade
 or Skitterfreind if we need some crew help.
(social) => Contractor’s respect

(ally) => Preservation of AA-126D

(slotless) => as many as you wish
Day Job, arms+ armor manufacture: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (15) + 9 = 24

Just added slides. If someone could double check for me that I have it set for you to interact with that would be great. Though I have created several of these, I never feel like I get the settings right.

Slide 2 has a list of PC's for me to copy and paste for initiative. Please fill in a blank for your character. TheFreeman, your name is already there, but please make sure the initiative value is correct since you are leveling up.

Hello, I'm happy to be able to join the game with my 6th level mystic. I'll be able to adjust my profile sheet in the next few days.

PC Name: Abistar-4
SFS ID#: 2104-704
Preferred starship role: Magic Officer (+18) or Gunner (+12 with Mystical Gun)
Preferred starship: Drake, but fine with any ship
Boons Slotted:
(faction) => Exo-Guardian's Champion
(personal) => None
(promotional) => Promotional Reroll
(starship) => Mystical Weapons System
(social) => None
(ally) => Cedona
(slotless) => Rebuilding Nakondis

Profession Artist to Rebuild Nakdonis DC 16: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (4) + 10 = 14

Sorry, taken me a moment or two to get in here.

PC Name: Shokil Bluetoes
SFS ID#:100387-704
Preferred starship role: Gunner (+10, or +11 with skitterfriend)
Preferred starship: Well, Drake has big guns...
Boons Slotted:
(faction) => Exo-Guardians
(personal) => Halfling admittance
(promotional) => T shirt
(starship) => Skitterfriend (+1 bonus to one roll a turn in starship combat)
(social) => Factions Friend
(ally) => Duckmire allegiance (yeti)
(slotless) => heaps.

Day Job: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (1) + 5 = 6

-STill have to level up to 5

Just to make sure it's stated, the slides seem to working correctly, GM!

Just added slides. If someone could double check for me that I have it set for you to interact with that would be great. Though I have created several of these, I never feel like I get the settings right.

Slide 2 has a list of PC's for me to copy and paste for initiative. Please fill in a blank for your character. TheFreeman, your name is already there, but please make sure the initiative value is correct since you are leveling up.

Thank you, sir. Slides seem to work fine. I'm making notes now on my level up. Trying to decide if I'm going mechanic or operative for this level. :) I doubt the initiative will go up but I will change it on the slide if it does.

Slides seem good to me as well.

PC Name: Chk'tarlsh
SFS ID#: 274536-701
Preferred starship role: Gunner +10 or Chief Mate +11 (+13 w/o armour)
Preferred starship: Drake
Boons Slotted:
(faction) => Exo-Guardians Champion, Improved
(personal) =>
(promotional) =>
(starship) => Automated Defenses
(social) => □□□ Into the Veskarium
(ally) => Dream Whispers
(slotless) =>
Marked Field Agent
Private Vault (Vanity)
Starfinder Society Care Package (Limited Use)

Day Job (Mercenary): 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (7) + 14 = 21 w/prof. toolkit.

Looks like we don't have a pilot. I've not +9, but haven't done my level 5 ranks, so could boost to +13 (+14 with skitterfriend), but I'm hoping someone else already has at least as good or better than that.

Looks like we are solidly high tier on this.

Oh, I have +11 piloting too. I'm just not used to being the one with the most piloting.

Pretty balanced party too. Technomancer, mystic, and a nice balance between martial skills and other skills.

I'll be posting the introduction to the first of the four quests later tonight.

Meanwhile, if you would like to introduce your characters in games play, you certainly may. Assume you are in the Veskarium, and the team has assembled for the hop over to Vesk-2.

FYI, the first quest is NOT starship combat.

Cool. I was hoping my +9 (or +10) wasn't the highest piloting skill. :)

If Freeman isn't leveled later tonight, he will be tomorrow. Enough to play on, anyway. :)

I'll leave it to the lizard wizard to be pilot then.

Away for a few days, back after the weekend. Please bot me as required.

Let's see if we can get a few of you to push us one way or another as far as waiting out the storm or pushing through.

Once I get three votes one way or another, I'll proceed (hopefully tomorrow evening sometime).

How I read that Initiative post..

Suddently six large worms burst forth from the ground. They seem intent on attacking the scanning equipment!

1. The Fremen

This was just SO perfect!

How I read that Initiative post..

GM Quirk wrote:

Suddently six large worms burst forth from the ground. They seem intent on attacking the scanning equipment!

1. The Fremen

This was just SO perfect!

Ha!!!!! I get it!

shai hulud!!!!!!

I'll catch up on this tomorrow, earlier rather than later I think. This will give Chk'tarish a chance to get a turn in.

You guys are doing great.

"The Freman"--heheh.

Thank you, GM Q, for the clarification re: guarded step and high gravity.

I just realised that in my haste to post earlier, I had forgotten to address it properly.

Also, I just noticed Gamuzali mention their DR and thought it I'd do the same. Chuck has DR 5 Slashing, Fire and Cold (from feat and armour upgrade).

Thank you, you reminded me that Fremen, er I mean Freeman, has cold and fire resistance 5. I tend to forget that playing online. ;)

With regards to Abistar's combat casting, I'll do some retconning tomorrow. Basically, Orange would have been dead earlier, so Kataali would have damaged yellow. Of course Abistar wouldn't take the hit either.

Thursday is my late night at work. My brain is fried. I think I'll be far more ready to get another turn going on this crazy combat tomorrow.

I hope you guys kill a couple more so I can simplify this...

Heh. We'll try to oblige. :)

I enjoy this format but yeah... planning and combat occasionally get a little confusing, compared to a face to face game. Oh, I so look forward to that again...

I think this particular combat would have been more fun and easier to handle around a real table (though it would have taken a bit of preparation, as there are lots of moving parts).

I am also thankful to be able to play here online, but I can't wait to be around a table with my home group as well--most of us have the vaccine, so we are planning to do so very soon!

It it helps here is what I think is the result of that turn if everything goes exactly the same.

Both Orange and Yellow get the DC 19 Reflex save for 5 or 11 damage.

If that damage doesn't kill Orange ...

If that damage isn't enough to bring down Orange everything is the same (but yellow will have a bit more damage because of the force blast).

So the changes from current damage totals would be:
3. Abistar-4 (-18)
8. Yellow (-10 or -16 depending on Reflex save)

-

If that damage kills Orange ...

Orange is killed before the turn, it doesn't attack Kataali (and so Kataali takes 8 less damage).
On Kataali's turn, instead of attacking orange, she attacks Yellow (dealing 9 damage to Yellow.)

So the changes from current damage totals would be:
3. Abistar-4 (-18)
8. Yellow (-19 or -25 depending on Reflex save)
11. Kataali (-9)

This doesn't account for the fact I'm provoking attacks now from Yellow and Red, but hopefully this helps in any fashion.

My local off and on again group is also talking about it. One guy is waiting for his younger son to be able to get the vaccine so we're still a month or two away.

I am going to a local con in June. They did one last November (when the local numbers were thankfully down) and did distancing, larger tables with fewer gamers, masks mandatory, lots of cleaning, only 10% of the usual numbers of total attendees and as far as I know we had zero cases come out of it... This time supposedly everyone coming is vaccinated and they are doing the same rules...

Have we discussed starship roles? Freeman has +16 in both engineering and Computers and is fine with either engineer or science officer.
His piloting is +11. Hopefully we have a better pilot than that. :)

If he's in the gunner chair we're in trouble. If he's in the captain's chair it'll just be funny, until we die. :)

We mentioned them at the start with everyone stating their preferred Starship roles.

There is all of them for reference:

Freeman: Engineer or science officer (+15 to both)
Zargothrax: Magic Officer, Engineer, or Science Officer
Gamuzali: Captain (+14 Diplo/Intimidate), Gunner (+6), or Chief Mate (+7)
Abistar: Magic Officer (+18) or Gunner (+12 with Mystical Gun)
Shokli: Gunner (+10, or +11 with skitterfriend)
Chk'tarish: Gunner +10 or Chief Mate +11 (+13 w/o armour)

I'll admit that none of the characters gave piloting as their role.

For his part Abistar-4 does not have any training at piloting at all, but I do believe a number of characters are trained in piloting, but it is possible that +11 is the best piloting check the party has.

Here is the same preferences everyone listed, but organized by position.

Preferred Starship Roles

Engineer: Freeman, Zargothrax
Magic Officer: Zargothrax, Abistar
Chief Mate: Gamuzali, Chk'tarish

Pilot:
Science Officer: Freeman, Zargothrax

Gunner: Gamuzali, Abistar, Chk'tarish

Captain: Gamuzali

From this, I think Abistar-4 would be good as one of the gunners firing a one of the primary weapons with a mystical boon applied to it (preferably the turret weapon).

I can also pilot at +9. But really, Pilot is very important, with Freeman having a two point advantage that is the way to go.

What is Mystical gun?

I think you are missing Shokil from the gunner slot as well.

I believe we settled on me being pilot.

What is Mystical gun?

I had misstated the actual name. The boon is "Mystical Guidance Systems Upgrade". When slotted I choose one weapon on the starship and give it the 'mystical' special property.

That adds the option to that weapon for someone us fire that weapon using ranks in Mysticism (rather than base attack bonus or Piloting ranks) and Wisdom modifier (instead of Dexterity modifier).

Abistar-4 has a +12 to fire a mystical weapon, but a +5 to fire any other starship weapon.

Oh nice. Really made for mystics! Where did that come from?

Oh nice. Really made for mystics! Where did that come from?

That one is a convention boon. I think they had it cycling around for a few years. I wouldn't be surprised to see it become available again as Starfinder AcP comes online.

We should talk about computer nodes too.

I'm thinking one for our pilot, one for our best gunner who should be in the turret.

Third can go to whoever might need it - science if our shields are low, otherwise another gunner maybe. I'll not grab it for turn one.

A 6 rank pilot will help with things like AC and TL as well. Extra +6 never hurt anyone.

My Starship combat experience is on the limited side.

The rules for gunner role state that "A starship can have at most one gunner (or gunner team) per weapon mount".

Does this mean could have two gunners on front arc (particle beam, coilgun) and one on turret?

Yes, yes indeed. Each weapon can have at most one gunner. But we can have lots of us able to fire different weapons.

Thanks, Shokil.

But essentially only one arc will be relevant on any given round? (For single opponent vessel)

Just trying to get a sense for the best place to set up - not sure Chief Mate will be very useful, or 3rd gunner for when the dice fall our way.

Unless we win initiative or they stay in our front arc. In which case we can get three weapons bearing on them. Hurrah.

I -think- we are going to be wrapping this up VERY soon.

Is anyone desperate for their chronicle sheet for this weekend's Paizocon action? I might be able to help you.

Nope. No rush for me! Thanks for running a great game, Quirk!

I never did sign up for anything at Paizocon. :)

I have a FTF con the next weekend though. Doubt i'll be playing this chracter...

Ugh.

Shoulder injury and soreness.

Hoping to feel good enough to type tomorrow.

Ugh.

Shoulder injury and soreness.

Hoping to feel good enough to type tomorrow.

Heh. Feel better soon! I swung an axe at a stump for about 10 minutes yesterday. Mine is self inflicted. :)

Ugh.

Shoulder injury and soreness.

Hoping to feel good enough to type tomorrow.

It is no problem. I'm hoping for your quick recovery.

Shoulder much better than it was most of the weekend. Probably just a repetitive use injury, since I spend a lot of time pushing a mouse and typing at work as well as at home.

Anyway, I will work on chronicle sheets tomorrow night and get them out to you via email by Wednesday.

Only thing regarding the adventure I might mention is that there were a sophisticated series of skill checks that led up to the final encounter. It was just not going to play well in PBP, so I left it off. I won't spoil it, as it probably wouldn't be too bad if you are around a table (in fact it looks like fun).

I just loaded the chronicles onto my Google drive. I'm not sure if I have the settings right. Please let me know if you are successful in finding and downloading you chronicle.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1RjbyLj2GZEtgQRlG0UIRAhCTzJaFri_B

Changed some settings. If the above doesn't work, try this one:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1RjbyLj2GZEtgQRlG0UIRAhCTzJaFri_B?us p=sharing