Somehow Idir threads a shot past Kuozar's ear, and between Thundergun and Stell to strike the prototypical Joro high in the chest. Fire bursts out. First Joro cries in pain softly and staggers backwards. He crouches low, below the light-camera fixture.
"You'll pay!" he hisses at the Starfinders. The light fixture fires through the doorway at the most exposed target, Kuozar.
Meanwhile there's a flash in the hallway behind Idir.
First Joro -23
... and DC 12 Fort save.
art +11 ranged (3d6 P plus Joro morphogen; critical
injection DC +2)
JORO MORPHOGEN Type poison (injury); Save Fortitude DC 12
... F nonlethal; critical blind AR
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In a bar age of lasers First Joro is now burning, so Thundergun is no more feeling bad the pal running away. But now team in the admin room so instead of he suggests:
- Maybe close door now?
And the technomancer looks for a control panel interface and screens where cameras show other parts of facility. Maybe he could recalibrate security system and camera sprays...
Stell does indeed miss.
Thundergun easily finds what he's been seeking, the computer with sole access to the light-camera-injector sprayers. It also controls the doors, and is tied into the clone production controls, and -- the loudspeaker system.
Kuozar is lavish in his gratuitous destruction.
-4 penalty to charisma based checks, rolls, and DCs, and
All of your speeds are reduced to 5 feet, your maximum Dexterity bonus to your Armor Class is reduced to +0, and you take a –5 penalty to Strength- and Dexterity-based checks (or your armor’s armor check penalty, whichever is worse).
Behind Kuozar Idir emits something suspiciously like a whinny and bolts past Kuozar, shouldering the nuar into the door jamb as he squeezes past. "The drone's back! But get the mean Joro!"
T
First Joro retreats to the north. Kuozar hears a familiar whirling hum behind him. He looks back to see the drone floating behind him and pivoting to bring its weapon to bear. There's a flash of blinding light.
Status Round 4 : Everyone to go.
Kuozar -22 (Ref save or blind)
Stell
Idir
Thundergun
First Joro -23
... F nonlethal; critical blind AR
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Stell sprints after the Joro-in-Chief. She runs faster than might be expected by her slight build and height. She makes like she is going to try to tackle him, then slashes her knife at his midsection. The knife leaves a bloody gash that spouts blood. "You had your chance to surrender," Stell hisses as the Joro registers the wound.
DC: 20 + Targets CR; success: Target is flat-footed against the trick attack; if attack hits add Trick Attack Damage
Stell fakes out and slashes Joro Prime over the weaponized whizdisk that he wields like a shield.
Kuozar is blinded by the light.
Idir chases after First Joro and encourages the others to attack the clone.
Thundergun to go.
Thundergun fails to gain control of additional computer functions.
Kuozar's vision doesn't clear. The drone flies past the nuar and izalguun.
Stell and Idir face off against the First Joro. One of the likeable features of most Joros is a bemused affability expressed in a nearly constant half smile. That expression was not apparent among the CommanJoros, and it's been inverted and amplified on the face of the Starfinders' opponent. First Jiro snarls with hate and anger. " As if I'd surrender to the likes of you. "
You'd think a whizdisk would make an awkward weapon, but First Joro swings and maneuvers the heavy metal ring with grace. His first cut gashes Stell's arm and she's barely able to slip away from a second.
,
,
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Idir sighs.
"I would rather not kill you, if only for a teachable moment with the rest of the Joros about what's been festering behind closed doors and that there's a better way. But fortunately, I don't need you to surrender to do that."
Idir raises his gun, switches it to nonlethal and takes the shot.
First Joro sneers contemptuously when he bats away Stell's knife. Idir picks up the slack and fires another successful shot past Stell.
Intent in his hacking, Thundergun twists around too late to land a blow on the drone as it flies by.
After avoiding Stell's attack First Joro tips his disk and backhands another slice. This time under her arm.
Anow familiar hum prompts Idir to turn around. The drone is right behind him! It fires.
,,,
...
Thundergun gains control of the light-camera-injector guns but there's two problems. First they only have one shot and First Joro (FJ) used a bunch of them. Second, you guys destroyed a bunch that FJ didn't use. If he could be maneuvered in front of one of those camera-lights .... The drone is FJ's personal mechanic drone run by his custom rig. There's no computer access to it.
Kuozar starts to see spots, and shadows, and shades of color. His vision is clearing.
Stell plays for time with some healing.
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Idir groans as he takes the hit from the drone, but doesn't turn around. His friends and fellow Starfinders needed him, and the man in front of him was the true danger.
"I'm...not afraid of you. We're going to take you down, not just for the non-Joro's you've harassed and harmed, but for the benefit of all Joro-kind!" he says, trying to sound brave. "Dammit, they've got me doing it too!" he thinks to himself.
Then he takes another shot at the First Joro.
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TG quickly recalibrate all the remain couintermeasures, so that FJ would be number 1 overstaying protocols and should be locked, stuned or eliminated. He surely has a prepared framework for such ocaison.
-Kuozar, 4 steps forward. First Joro drop weapon! Idir, remember about stun mode!
Thundergun uses facility dynamics so his voice thundering the corridors from loudspeakers.
Idir speaks with bravado, and backs it up by ignoring the threat behind him, but his shot misses. Thundergun sets the installation's countermeasures to target First Joro.
Kuozar's sight clears.
The drone is no sportsman. It shoots Idir in the back.
First Joro pursues Stell but his strike is slow and easily dodged. He's breathing heavily. Could he be in almost as desperate straits as the envoy?
,,,
...
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I'm going to bloody kill you!! You're going to bloody die, you blasted jorobastard!
The roar echoes along with Kuozar's heavy footsteps. The nuar's nostrils flare wildly with every breath and exhalation, he looks from under his brows and when he meets the eyes of the First Joro, he sees that the nuar's eyes are bloodshot. Kuozar pulls the trigger.
Using a direct approach, Stell stabs First Joro. While the man gasps in pain, Kuozar rounds the corner and demonstrates why he's been First Joro's primary target. The nuar's custom laser punches a fist-sized hole through the clone's chest.
Analog maps of the vault hang from the walls in this network of rooms, several sites marked with photographs of the premises pinned over the blueprints. Certain areas on the maps are circled in red with small frowny faces drawn underneath them. Disassembled weapons and other gear lie scattered across the various workbenches.
Treasure: A keycard that unlocks the doors to First Joro's command center lies on one table’s surface. An adjacent workbench holds the Joros’ ongoing efforts to turn whizdisks into weapons and armor: two sopranino singing disks (Armory 51), a basic tactical shield (Starfinder Character Operations Manual 126), and two mk 2 frag grenades (Starfinder Core Rulebook 172), two returning sopranino singing disks (Armory 51), a field tactical shield (Character Operations Manual 125), and a spell gem of hurl forcedisk.
As the PCs emerge from the clone production complex, they find a large crowd of concerned Joros assembled alongside the non-Joros who fled the sports bar during the CommanJoros attack. The PCs can choose whether to reveal the existence of First Joro and their machinations to the vault’s inhabitants.
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As the Joro falls, Stell looks over her shoulder at Kuozer and gives him a thumbs up and a sparkling but weary smile.
Stell breaks out her medkit and treats any serious wounds as best she can.
Self:
Kuozar:
She cannot do much more than bandage cuts and sooth the pain a bit.
While she does this, she says, "I think we reveal what we've discovered here to the Joros. I think they have a right to know the cause of the many duplicates and to choose if they want the program to be set right so a more diverse population can be provided."
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Unlikely TG leaving facility soon as he is willing to check systems further and recover a bit.
As far as Joro crowds gather outside, Technomancer utilising nuars ability and discuss situation in minds before resolving.
I do not think we should reveal everything to them. We may say that we found a tunnel out... Hm.. Or we may continue the experiment now, when we cleared the corrupted part.
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"If we don't explain that the duplication of Joro-form was a glitch, then if we fix it and clones different from the current form begin to appear, they may react negatively. They need some reason to expect and respect the changes to come. Of course, as Pathfinders, we are only obligated to explore and report what we find, not try to fix what was broken. But as a person who cares about these beings, I'd like to do what we can to help them deal with this situation we've uncovered."
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- I am not good explainer of social changes. We need not conclude the experiment or simulation whatever this is...
Actually as we have everything under control we could probably spend couple days here to repair facility, cameras, and find some proper administrator. But yeah, Joros should be prepared for more diversity in their community.
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"Much as I agree with your assessment of our mandate, Miss Z-Lin, I would argue we've already vastly overstepped it through becoming involved. And since we've started this, I recommend we finish it as you've suggested. I do not like leaving a form incomplete or unfiled."
Idir steps forward.
"Friends, Joros, clone-folk, lend me your ears! I see in your eyes the same confusion and apprehension that was in ours when we first entered your home-vault. A mystery lay before us, how had this society, seemingly composed entirely of a single man multiplied many times over, come to be? And why, despite this, were there a small few who were their own person, and persisted in that despite the overwhelming pressure to conform to Joro-hood? We have, for better or for worse, found our answer: this vault, your home, was never meant to be inhabited solely by Joros alone. The builders, whoever they were, had planned for many different clones, of all species, to be born. More Reltons, more Kenros, more Annalises and Finbars."
He pauses, to let this sink in, then continues.
"We have discovered here part of the cloning facilities that produce you, and in its software code, we found a fault: it had become stuck on the genetic template of Joro, continuing to produce more and more Joros instead of moving on to the next template to produce a different clone. Whether this was accidental, a glitch or programming error, or deliberate sabotage, it is unclear, but either way, one Joro, calling himself First among you, discovered this and sought to exploit it, turning away from whatever plan was envisioned for your society and replacing it with his own vision: one of a vault populated solely by Joro, each person here a reflection of himself. A narcissist's ultimate dream. This First Joro not only hid the truth from the rest of you, allowing none but Joros to be born, he was attempting to create genetic modifications to convert non-Joros into Joros, destroying their very bodies and identities to impose his own on them. And if he could not do that, he would simply bully and kill those few clones who were not Joros, through his Commanjoro militia. Had we not discovered your vault and befriended you, his plans might very well have succeeded."
He bows his head.
"This man...this arrogant megalomaniac of a Joro...robbed you. Robbed ALL of you, Joro and non-Joro alike, of so much: the chance to meet new people and learn new things, to explore and discover new ways of thinking and find fulfillment outside the stagnant constraints of likes, dislikes, hobbies and pastimes he had put upon you. To decide for yourselves who you are and what you want. As some of you might have guessed, we are not clones like yourselves. We have come from outside your vault, explorers from the Starfinder Society. We...want to offer you a chance to take back what was denied you for so long by one Joro's ego, his inability to appreciate the identities and viewpoints of those not like himself, to learn and grow. We want to fix the programs we discovered, so the cloning facility may produce truly new clones for the first time in maybe ever. To do so would mean that more non-Joros would emerge, not just more like those already here, but new ones who may never have had the chance to exist thanks to the First Joro's interference. This will be scary...I understand, change is always scary. No one knows more about fear than a dromada. But change can also make you happy in ways you never imagined possible. And if your bravery and curiosity is greater than mine...which is pretty good odds, I am nothing if not easily frightened...you don't need to stay in the vault if you don't want to. You can follow us out the way we came in and make new lives for yourselves. There's a whole galaxy out there, vast and full of wonders. It's...strange...hard to understand...sometimes it can be dark...terrifying...but it can be bright...beautiful...and it would very much like to meet you. The choice, for the first time, is yours."
He looks back up at the assembled crowd, tears starting to well up in his eyestalks as he awaits their reaction.
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Thundergun stares at Idir, suddenly improvising posture to stand similar with dromada, as far as izalguun mostly agrees.
Though this is hard interference of experiment which now should be reconfigured or concluded, TG thinks this is humanistic qualities showing.
Sometimes kind folks solve problems better than scientists. Providing more work for other folks.
TG did not actually believe in Joros intelligent and counts their perspective to build society - pretty low. So he decidedly to help as he could.
And adds after Idir:
- it is hard to decide. So before you do - I am sharing a short presentation about proved good political and society structures. Also I am sharing with your infostructure a movie about.. big world outside. I believe Joros have curiosity and good community base. It might hel.