"Guess we can't do anything for these poor buggers now." Harlan shakes his head "Whatever set these up did it to keep 'em all suspended after the crash. Kept 'em alive at least, but maybe just for its own motives."
"Let's keep going. Find the source of that damn signal."
With the viral signal disabled, Harlan cracks his knuckles "Not a problem for us, eh?" He swaggers back to the ship with the rescued and unconscious Starfinders and resets the ship's systems to purge any remaining signal interference. "Time to get out of here. With a little luck, the other team's done enough that we can kick our feet up a bit. Right before everything goes to hell." He grins, sitting and leaning back in his chair.
Refreshed after his rest cycle, Zephyr is ready and eager to take on the next challenge!
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When you wake, the mess hall in your mother ship is crowded, loud with news and cheeful in general. Another team of scouts, investigating derelicts in the ice rings of Bastiar-7 discovered that a few Starfinder ships escaped the fate of our other ships in the area. Analysts are now determining the current locations of these ships so we can start a mission to evacuate the survivors. The rescue of all the survivors from Callion-1 has driven morale sky-high. Those survivors have been taken to a hospital ship, and their initial rescuers find themselves seated at a table that spontaneously emptied to allow you all to sit together, surrounded by dozens of Starfinders waiting to hear how you did it.
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Harlan waves off any adoring fans. There's more to be done, and telling tales can wait for after everything that needs to be demolished has been. He looks over the remaining missions and comments "We're suited to brawling. How 'bout that outpost on Agillae-1? Should be a clean one."
"Works for me," says Zephyr, "Should we get someone to join us?"
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The axes of the cosmos align. Harlan has barely stated his preference for Agillae-1 when VC Fitch arrives.
"You three, grab your gear." With a nod of her head, the ysoki separates you from the crowd and starts marching toward the hangar bay. On the way she briefs you for this mission. “We’re in a bit of a hurry, 'cause I only have a few minutes before my children realize I’ve snuck away! That beacon you recovered had important data about a Starfinder outpost on Agillae-1. Not long ago, our ships started receiving emergency signals from that planet, and all the messages basically say ‘we’re under attack’. It’s some kind of carnivorous creatures native to the planet, but that’s all we know. Your ship is ready. Jaeric's still working with Royo and the analysts. Your fourth is waiting in your ship. Good luck!”
A female human is waiting in the ship, sitting in the pilot's chair. She stands and moves aside when you arrive. "I'm Navasi. I've got the ship warmed up and through the systems checks. I've laid in a course to a suitable landing site not far from the outpost."
Zephyr nods and settles in to his typical location at the helm, thankful for her efficiency. ”I am Zephyr,” he states, checking out the flight plan and preparing to start flying.
"Navasi is it? Hope you're ready to blast some dinos." Harlan takes out a fresh cigar and sticks it between his teeth before wandering over to the engineering station. He'd just been starting to like Jaeric, just a touch, and the man was already missing.
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On the way Navasi gives a brief account of her experience and skills.
She's primarily been employed in the Starfinder's diplomatic and logistics departments, although the way Starfinder mmissions go, she's seen her share of fire-fights and aliens.
Zephyr puts the ship down on target without a hint of jarring. The landscape is dry, rocky and dusty. Smoky haze clouds the air. The ground under your feet is gritty, like ground pumice-stone. It's a short hike to the outpost. Along the way crevices open onto shallow pools or streams of lava. There's an occasional black stone cone that spews or oozes lava.
You're within sight of your goal when two creatures, best described as huge, dense, thorny tumbleweeds roll toward you.
Seeing it coming, Zephyr is nonetheless surprised at its attemp to run over him. He tries to dodge and lash out with a punch if he can.
Getting ambushed by something ten times earns an annoyed grunt from Harlan, doubly so because it isn't the dinos he was expecting.
He's torn up by the thorny tumbleweed before he dives aside. He tries to recall what these things might be before taking action.
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Never is done with extending friendship. She tried that the last time and they attacked. Now they attacked for no good reason. It's not like she was big on dialog, but it seemed like everyone in the galaxy just wanted to die by her hands. Might as well indulge them. Next time she would attack first, no questions asked.
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Zephyr readies himself, but it rolls in so fast he can't react before its on him. (quite literally)
Never attacks and does damage.
"who'd have believed they could move so fast?" Navasi drags her plasma pistol clear of its holster and blasts away at the target around her. Incredibly she only hits air between thorny canes.
Suddenly an incredibly fast kasatha warrior appears atop the ridge to the north. (right side of map) He launches a barrage from his heavy artillery weapon against another echelon of incoming bluethorns. They break up and sweerve away. The kasatha runs east along the ridge to pursue some of them, but before he goes, he radios, “That’ll even the odds. Take care of those bluethorns and we’ll link up later.”
The bluethorn cerature surrounding you rolls onward then pivots and rolls back. Meanwhile the other sweeps in from the east . It rolls over a lava vent on the way and flames crackle along its dry canes, but it keeps coming.
BT blue: 17 damage
BT red : 27 damage
Zephyr: 9 or 19 damage Save pending
Navasi: 19 damage Save pending
Never: Save pending
Harlan: 9 damage Save pending
... E & F; critical burn 1d8; 20 ft. line, unwieldy)
Red Bluethorn lava damage
Red trample Never Harlan Zephyr
Blue trample Never Navasi
Harlan staggers out of the blue thorny ravager, slipping his pocketwatch free as he does. He snaps it open and shut and launches himself through the creature, an aegis of fire surrounding him as he does.
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He turns after the second ravager tramples through him...
...but runs free of that one too, turns, and magically blazes a path across both oversized tumbleweeds at once.
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[ooc]Zephyr, apologies. I skipped your round one turn. It rolled over you before your turn. Your round 1 attack is made from inside blue. With red well away and undamaged. Then blue rolled away to start round 2, giving you your AoO, before it reversed course to trample Navasi and Never . Your second round attack is made from inside red. [ooc]
As the blue tumbleweed rolls over him, Zephyr chooses to make an attack of opportunity instead of dodging its attack (AOO for 28 to hit, 21 points damage).
Scratched and enveloped by the strange creature, Zephyr takes 19 points of damage as he retaliates on his turn by burning the blue tumbleweed with his artillery laser from the inside out.
As the blue tumbleweed rolls away, it provokes yet another attack from Zephyr, and he lashes out with his powered armor to try and hit it once more!
Having already taken his AOO this round against blue as it rolled away, Zephyr chooses to dodge red's attempt to trample him!
Unable to dodge, Zephyr finds himself trapped in the red tumbleweed, where he lashes out once again with fire from the inside of the creature!
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Running like a half-orc on fire, Harlan criss-crosses the battlefield, literally burning holes through the giant plant creatures.
Zephyr finds life inside the plant hard. There's lots of string barbed canes, and club-like stems or trunks that tear or strike at him. There's also a lot of space, which means he tumbles with the creature as it rolls. Somehow he still manages to fire a shot that burns through a thick rooty-looking growth. The entire plant spasms.
BT blue: 61 damage
BT red : 71 damage
Zephyr: 37 Save pending
Navasi: 28 damage
Never: Ref Save or AoO needed ( potential damage 19, 18 )
Harlan: 27 damage
[/ooc]