[SF] Fly Free or Die AP - GM Ewok

Game Master EwokBanshee

While Akh rests, and Guess?'s searches get more NSFW, the rest of the group prepares to go to Engineering. Once ready, the six of you move across the hallway and open the aft door. Inside, the machinery of the engine room seems largely functional, despite the smashed controls and torn-off housings. Sparks from the damaged equipment occasionally brighten the area with flashes of bluish light. Another of the phantom creatures, another vesk, floats on the side of the room hunched over a workstation. Catching the movement of the door out of the corner of it's eye, the thing turns towards you. Not angry, like the other three, this one's face is full of anguish and pain. Before you can react, it dives through the drift engine behind it! It pops out soon after, floating away from your group. By the uniform he's wearing, this creature must have once been the ship's engineer.

Round 1!
Akh  SP 36/36, HP 24/32, RP 3/4
Melissa SP 25/25, HP 27/27, RP 5/5
Guess? SP 17/24, HP 8/22, RP 5/6
Jaraduk SP 14/28, HP 34/34, RP 5/5
Del SP: 20/20, HP: 24/24, RP: 5/5
Strek  SP 25/28, HP 30/30, RP 4/3

Red Ghost 0 Damage

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

Perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (13) + 9 = 22

"Even I can tell that engine is a ticking timebomb. One wrong turn of the wrench and it'll probably blow!"

Seeing that the ghost doesn't immediately attack, Guess? lowers his weapon, waves hello and says, "We don't wanna fight. In fact, we can be best ghoul-friends! Whaddaya say?"

"Someone look for the goblin ghost engineers, that thing is a disaster waiting to happen. Even my mining supervisor wouldn't make us work on that thing... "

You feel like with an hour of work, Strek and Melissa might be able to fix the Drift Engines. But it would be a difficult job to pull off without shocking themselves. It's a tough, but beatable, DC.

"Hello, are you trying to get back to the drift? We can help you if you let us get our stuff off first... "

diplomacy: 1d20 + 9 + 1d6 ⇒ (17) + 9 + (2) = 28

Jaraduk stands nervously, expecting the ghost to return and attack at any moment.

Uh, I suppose I can stand guard from the thing if you all want to work on that drift engine...

Delaying to see how the diplomacy checks turn out.

I'm assuming Guess?'s check Aids Melissa's check, meeting the DC 20+5? Are we out of rounds?

Strek analyzes the items on the workbench.

Engineering (4 ranks): 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (13) + 15 = 28
• DC –5 to Repair, Hold it Together, Patch, & Quick Fix

"I know Vesk aren't really known for their ingenuity, but I think I can see where he's going with this stuff. That scooper might work well enough for transferring the arcano-tachyon clusters into a more stable storage container. And everyone knows that cellulose is a natural insulator against electrostatic shock. Not sure what the confetti is for, though.."

I didn't think to roll Diplomacy earlier but if allowed I'll throw out a Diplomacy assist roll to go along with Guess?'s ghoul-friend statement.

Diplomacy, assist: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (15) + 14 = 29

You feel like with an hour of work, Strek and Melissa might be able to fix the Drift Engines. But it would be a difficult job to pull off without shocking themselves. It's a tough, but beatable, DC.

If we get the chance to attempt a fix later, Guess? will take a 10 min rest to recover SP then attempt to assist with the engineering fix.

While the others try to do their best ghost-whisperer and Drift-Engine-whisperer impressions, Akh hops into the engineering bay and keeps a closer eye on the ghost. If the ghost was once the ship's engineer, and it wasn't particularly sound of mind any longer, and it knew how to mess the engine up more...

well, all that together sounded very bad. Even to Akh, who knows next to nothing about Drift Engines. He readies his taclash, but waits to see how the ghost will respond to the diplomatic overtures.

Good job, you're not murderhobos. lol the author set up a fun little trap with this one.

The ghost turns in place at Melissa's words. Whether it's her helpful tone of voice, or the content, you're not sure. The phantom pauses, floating in place, then nods. It's flaming purple eyes seem to burn into your soul and it hovers there... doing... nothing. After about half a minute, giving you a few rounds to look at the workstation, engine, and area closer, it begins to claw at it's chest, expression full of pain. It's space suit begins to rip, and you begin to guess the source of the previous damage there. The ghost slowly floats into a corner of the room, watching you intently.

Strek holds up several odd items from the workbench. There's a wrench with the handle wrapped in toilet paper, a screwdriver with the front end welded to a metal coffee cup, and a tape measure that has been sliced into at least a hundred different pieces. Though completely useless, these modified "tools" have the shape and form of more advanced equipment that could have been used to fix the drift engine had you been in a fully stocked modern repair shop. Perhaps the ghost's mind is too muddled to realize the difference between these poor copies and the real thing.

We'll drop out of rounds now. If you all leave the engine area, the ghost will float behind your group, as far away as possible while maintaining line of sight. (Not creepy at all. lol)

"if he pops out of the wall again I will not be responsible for any coolant leaks. Ok, question.. how or why did he make ANY of those things if he passes right through everything? Either he should be able to touch nothing in which case.. can't make them. Or he can touch everything in which case they SHOULD be in cheekpouch..erm. well box around here somewhere and he doesn't need to make them. I mean some people are really connected to their tools and that might last beyond the grave but.. the toilet paper? "

Strek shrugs.

"On Entha, they use three seashells instead. Less wasteful, more intuitive, and works for more species.

I think I can get these engines fired up again. What y'all thinkin'?"

" We eventually got the dwarves on the bidet. Thankfully. I think I don't want the ghost hitting the on switch while we're trying to unload the fish, and either vanishing with the fish into the drift OR worse taking us with it. So unload our cargo THEN help these guys. I mean sure, the drift could pop em all back to life to help move the cargo but do we ever get that lucky? "

"As much as this devil-scarred ship is very nice and spacious, I think I don't want to be stuck here if it jumps back into the Drift. Still, that ghostie does seem to want to get the engine repaired again. If you can do it, we can jump for at least a little bit into the Drift and see what it does. Maybe it'll pass on to... whatever it is vesk tend to go after they die. Damoritosh's feasting hall. Or something." Akh nods, very happy with the idea of a celebratory feasting hall in the afterlife.

"Y'know... remember how Melissa said we do NOT want our ship to be identifiable when we drop the rotten fish on the vesk warlord? Well, if we can get this ship flying, then perhaps we use this one for the delivery. It'd save us the trouble of hauling all the fish onto the Last Chance. We'll just need to get this ship moving again and find a way to get the cargo airlocks operational again.

"Might be a better option than lugging crates of dead fish around for half a day...."

"Theres NO such thing as a little jump into the drift. Doubly so with ghost demon.. ghost engineers. Lets all risk our immortal souls to avoid three quarters of a work shift.... "

Sounds like the consensus is to fix the Drift Engine first, then move the cargo. Strek & Melissa, give me Engineering checks!

While Melissa and Strek work on the engine, the ghostly figure floats in the corner of the room watching. It takes (at least, in the case of failures) an hour of work so the rest of the group begins to get a bit bored. Guess? ends up wandering, and realizes the phantom isn't interested in where the rest of the group goes while the pair of more mechanically-minded crew members work on the Drift Engine. You could get started on moving the product if you wanted! You can only jump into the Drift from the bridge, so the ghost couldn't ambush you and jump to the Drift without you seeing it coming.

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

"I hope he doesn't mind we brought our own tools..."

Two people can Aid Melissa. Strek will auto-aid. Would someone else like to attempt to Aid?

we also have those starship repair tools

And strek has a bunch of bonuses for repairing starship stuff.

And melissa would be happy to stuff Guess in the path of ionizing radiation...

Fly this ship to their party? We'll be lucky if the ship itself doesn't crash down onto the table we're supposed to dump the fish on!

Jaraduk seems dubious but goes along with it.

"The party being inside or outside changes a lot of our plans, we should check the pictures from last years event"

Guess? takes a 10 minute rest to catch his breath. Then lends a hand to Melissa and Strek working on the engine...

Engineering, aid another: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (1) + 6 = 7

And I'll apply Desna's luck reroll to that!
Engineering, aid another: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (5) + 6 = 11

IIRC, this ship is pretty badly damaged beyond just the Drift engine. It's got some big gashes in it and if nothing else probably wouldn't go into atmosphere.

"Would this ship even fly anywhere?" Akh cranes his long neck around a corner to peek at the enormous gash in the hull through which can be seen the glittering void of space. "It seems a little too holey for that." He pauses "Holey AND unholy at the same time? Clearly a question for philosophers."

He spends fifteen minutes watching the group start working on the engine. When it looks like the ghost isn't planning on doing anything bad, he heads for the cargo bay to find out if the fish have turned into a malignant undead swarm yet.

Melissa BARELY resists banging her head on the electrified plate at that pun.

Forgot to mention I'm at KublaCon from yesterday through tomorrow. First in-person Con for me since the plague started ^_^

Strek's roll here was in response to your post above saying "It's a tough, but beatable, DC."

Ahhhhhhhhh, I forgot Strek was a super starship-fixer. Well, we could let him do the main roll, but Melissa's was high enough with two aid rolls.

Akh and the rest of the group walk around the ship and determine it isn't flying anywhere anytime soon. The traditional engines, used when flying around a system, are ripped to shreds and the hull has punctures throughout. You are happily surprised to see that the cargo has not turned into a horrible fish-monster yet. Bored, with an hour to kill, you open a few of the cargo boxes to look inside and make sure they all contain the expected rotting fish. Everyone give me a Perception check...

After about an hour, Melissa and Strek crouch next to the drift engine and stare at two unseated electrical contacts, a black one and a yellow one. Guess? yells from the other room, "If it's yellow, let it mellow!" Somehow... that's helpful. Melissa connects the black wire, and the engine roars to life without causing 6d6 damage to a random person in the room. The ghostly figure bobs in place slowly in response.

Alllllllllllllllrighty. Want to go into the Drift or move the cargo?

Jaraduk takes a whiff just into the opening of a crate.

Perception: 1d20 ⇒ 3 that's not good for business

Yup, fishy. Anyway, I hate to say it, but while fixing the drift engine is great this junker isn't very mobile. I suppose we can see if we've made the ghost happy, anyway.

Vote for moving the cargo, but checking on the ghost.

If the perception check will matter once the engines are fixed and the infernal fish swarm doesn't eat the party before then.

1d20 + 7 ⇒ (8) + 7 = 15 + scent if we ever get enough atmosphere.

Perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (1) + 9 = 10

"Too bad this ship isn't flight worthy. Ah well. I suppose we should get that cargo off the ship before sending the ghost off into the drift where it seems to wanna go so much..."

Strek gets giddy patching up the unpatchable. Every engineer's life calling!

"Hey, Del? Mind bringin' Last Chance with us into the Drift?"

With Melissa and Guess? finishing up their work, Akh starts loading up crates. As he works, he considers whether trying one of the rotting fish while no one is looking is a good or bad idea.

Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (18) + 7 = 25

Yep, cargo first, imo.

Strek gets giddy patching up the unpatchable. Every engineer's life calling!

"I think incorporating the toilet paper officially pushed us over the barrier between "gerry rigging" and "mad science" "

Ah, nice roll!

Akh picks up a fish from a crate at random, eyeing it for tastiness. But as he pulls the slightly rotting meat from the container he reveals something shiny beneath. It takes a bit of digging to unearth the find, but after a few seconds Akh comes up with a slimy datapad! The datapad's battery has run dry. You let it charge for an hour or so before trying to crack it open.

The group has no trouble moving the cargo into the Last Chance, though it does take a few hours. You've had worse cargos though, in both smell and transport. The phantom becomes visibly agitated when the majority of you enter the Last Chance with the cargo, but keeps it's distance. After the boxes of flash-frozen fish are loaded up, you shove the guardian robot into a secondary bathroom of your ship and lock the door. That's a problem for another day.

Finally, Del settles into the pilot's chair of the Last Chance while (someone?) takes over the bridge of the derelict ship. If you time your launches correctly, both vehicles will appear in the Drift at the same general location. Alrighty, anything else you want to do here before you try out those new engines?

Guess? assists with any attempt to crack the data pad:
Computers, aid: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (13) + 4 = 17

"So! Who's gunna volunteer to man the Final Endeavor? Y'know what? I will. That way, I can, if only for a moment, call myself 'Fleet Captain'!!! Amirite?!?!"

Nothing else Guess? wants to do at this moment. Good to go!

Piloting +11

Seeing where things are headed, Jaraduk nervously scratches his head.

Say, since Del is the better pilot maybe she'd better handle the horrible ship...? You wouldn't want to lose your grenade enthusiast to that junk heap.

He quickly gives in to resign.

Ah fine, I'll take it into the drift and follow Del.

"I'm all for Guess piloting the ship since he's going to hell anyway. Hey, if you're piloting this ship and you kinda own the other ship wouldn't that technically make you an admiral?

computers: 1d20 + 9 + 2 ⇒ (16) + 9 + 2 = 27 " Thanks Guess. The cheetohs really bring out the old thumb print just a little tape and..."

".. what on earth is this doing here? Is the dragon undermining him, sending him information, or rubbing his horn in the fact that she's got his data? You got some reading material for your trip. After I make a copy. No no I have full confidence in you... "

Melissa show's the datapad's contents to the group. The datapad's background is a black square with a short sentence emblazoned in white text, "Corporate Espionage is just good business." The device's memory banks are nearly empty. There is only one file, a text document. It seems to contain information on shipments from a vesk multi-planetary agriculture company. The contents - pricing, quantities, dates, and upcoming orders - could be used to undercut the corporation for several years to come.

Guess? and Melissa's understanding of veskarium culture tells them that the agro-corp identified in the file is a major supplier in the region of the vesk warlord ruler this shipment is headed to. The information within seems to be all coming from a particular ryphorian-owned company in the Allied Territories of Triaxus.

"I'm all for Guess piloting the ship since he's going to hell anyway. Hey, if you're piloting this ship and you kinda own the other ship wouldn't that technically make you an admiral?

Seemingly oblivious to the hell comment, Guess? shoots finger guns at Melissa and enthusiastically replies, "I guess it is Fleet Admiral Guess?!!!!"

Looking over the data, Guess? offers up his conclusion, "Hmmmm... My guess is that the vesk warlord is actually the dragon's client. The warlord commissioned some corporate secrets from the dragon, who agreed to delivered it hidden amongst tons of rotten fish. Well, maybe the fish wasn't originally intended to be rotten. But then this ship was lost...

"What we probably shouldn't do, though, is anger the dragon. If we somehow end up angering the vesk warlord, I'm pretty okay with that. Warlords come and go... revolutions and political power ebb and flow. But a long-lived dragon... and a long-lived dragon with the resources of a corp/megacorp? No, we probably don't want to be on the wrong side of that equation, amirite?!?!"

Culture roll to see if Guess? knows any other background about the relationship of the warlord with the agro company, about the ryphorian company from Triaxus, and about the Allied Territories.
Culture: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (8) + 9 = 17

"Two ships is hardly a fl... Yeah sure, Why not. "

"If they're working together and are friends, why in the name of Saranrae's nightlight would she send him the message in a crate of rotten fish... yes it was like that before we got here. For once. We were warned about that. She could have sent it in a case of, I don't know, genuine dragon roasted BBQ, we drop it off at the door, and he gets it whenever. She wants it delivered on that table during the celebration for some reason. She's either working against him... or really wants it to look like she is. So either we're staying on her good side with our plan AND his or we're only ticking him off. In otherwords Operation its raining menhaden is back on the table! "

for what to do with the datapad "Grandmas got a saying. Don't bite more than your cheekpouches can hold. We could probably make a decent profit using that information and not show up as more than a rounding error on their ledgers We keep flying without anyone ELSE trying to shoot us. We put it with the holographic shashimo of the dancing dragon and let him find it. "

Talking aloud makes her wonder... "Hold on, do we really know that there's a dragon that wants this done? Maybe the guy that hired us just wants everyone to think that to get these two fight. Mysterious guy we met in a back alley isn't the best credentials...Ugh. I've been playing too many games of antitrust with Guess?... "

Strek just keeps nodding his head slowly as the conspiracy theories flow forth, but you've known him long enough that he's probably completely lost.

"So.. Uh.. how do demons and ghosts fit in with all this?"

"Until it wasn't. We get hired to pick up where the delivery went awry the first time and and it just so happens that Akh's illogical desire for organic food stumbles upon the true purpose of the delivery!"

"AHA! You just want to keep all the organic food to yourself! You're revealing your true colors at last!" Akh coughs as fermented fish wafts from him. "But really, how can you possibly call eating delicious things illogical."

Once Guess? is done explaining his thought process, Akh comments "I think Melissa is more right-ish here. The dumping of fish seems like its designed to make the vesk mad. Doesn't sound like something you do to your pal. Seems more like its included to add a threat to the insult. 'We could ruin this company at any time, capiche?' Something like that."

"I like making a copy, but we should deliver it as planned."

I think the Q about the vesk warlord's relationship to the agro company is a good one. I think we don't know enough specifics here to be playing in the big leagues.

Yeah, I probably should have invented names for these corps and warlords. Seems like the AP was trying to reduce the number of red herrings for the main "storyline" of this book. Also, these conspiracy theories are 10/10.

Guess? recognizes that the ryphorian corporation is food preparation company who is a major supplier for the Triaxian Allied Territories military. He doesn't know any specific ties between them and any dragos but Guess? is well aware of the hostilities between the ryphorians and dragonkin of the Allied Territories of Triaxus and the dragons of the Drakelands. It would definitely be in the best interest of a dragon ruler to bring down a major ryphorian corporation that supports their enemy's military. Guess? can't recall anything specific about the relationship between the warlord and the agro-corp, but his knowledge of vesk corporate relationships is hazy.

---

"Admiral" Guess? stays back in the semi-repaired ship while the rest of the group stays with Del in the Last Chance. Through some timed maneuvers, you both pop into the purple clouds of the Drift at the same time and area. Guess? stands up from the chair, feeling fulfilled from his time at the head of the "fleet", and turns to find the vesk phantom standing directly behind him.* Barely avoiding wetting himself from fright, maybe, Guess? freezes in place. The ghost is visibly more 'physical' now that you are in the drift, it's whispy trailing lower half forming into legs. It reaches out a clawed hand, gently tossing a fusion seal into the vacuum between the two. The goblin catches it and runs tactically retreats back to your ship. You detach from the ship, happy to be back home. You look out the viewports as you leave, seeing several of the phantoms flitting in and out of the ship's hull. After spending some time with the fusion seal, Del recognizes it as a ghost killer fusion seal (5th level) I added that to the Slides. Alright, what do you want to do with this cargo?.

*I almost tagged a photo of a scary movie with the bad guy standing in the background of the shot with the protagonist in the foreground, but they were too scary to link. lol just imagine it.

Melissas plan for the fish was to hide it inside a giant cake that looked like the mayflower first contact ship between vesk and the skittermanders, have them explode with a compressed airbag and duct tape a holographic sashimi dragon to do a song and dance number. We can put the datapad with the shashimo so they find it.

The boys, as they were left unsupervised, developed a striper based plan.
Melissa, doesn't understand the whole put clothing on to take clothing off thing to start with, and is even more confused about what the stripper is suposed to do with the fish, unless we hand him a shovel or something.

For a compromise, Melissa propposed the ship, with the doors opening to reveal a statue of our target in a vesk performer outfit in the role of Myles Standish. I think we were unterupted by devil ghosts at that part of the planing stage(as always)

"Oh. Yeah. I guess we did leave the Captain alone with the ghost. Umm. Let's not do that next time. Because you know there's gonna be a next time.."

For now, Strek is more concerned with the details of how to deliver the cargo. And, not get caught doing it.

"I'm thinking we need to find the catering company that's supposed to do the party, and make an "early" delivery in their name. Drop off the exploding fish box first, then when we head back to grab more stuff, we take off."

"Oh. Yeah. I guess we did leave the Captain alone with the ghost. Umm. Let's not do that next time. Because you know there's gonna be a next time.."

"Thanks for volunteering. "

Akh floats above everyone else on the Last Chance's bridge. "Well, that went well. Did the ghosts actually get to move on, or are they just trapped in a slightly more comfy Drift-flavored purgatory now? Hmm." He taps his claws along his chin as he ponders.

He nods along with Strek "Oh yes, catering. Even vesk have catering, probably. Or maybe we don't even need to bother - just show up and say 'a present for you!'"

Not sure about the rest of you guys, but I feel like we don't have the depth of information on any of the parties to do anything complicated here.

Most of all, we probably want to get out of Dodge fast once the fish are delivered. I know it's not our message, "Luca Veski sleeps with the fishes" or whatever, but I'd rather not see who they're willing to take out any rage on in the moment.

Most of all, we probably want to get out of Dodge fast once the fish are delivered. I know it's not our message, "Luca Veski sleeps with the fishes" or whatever, but I'd rather not see who they're willing to take out any rage on in the moment.

"Sorry yeah, any time an angry vesk is involved "and then we run away really fast" is just ASSUMED to be part of the plan. It's built into ysoki grammar"

Melissa has drawn up a quick diagram of the plan, on the npc slide.