[SF] Fly Free or Die AP - GM Ewok

Game Master EwokBanshee

Guess? taps $$$.

Then taps it again. And again. And again, over and over nonstop...

Suspicions as to why all of the vending machine buttons are broken confirmed.

Watches the $$$ emoji icon get a vote
And then no votes.
And then a vote
And then no votes.

Vote early and vote often must be a goblin saying...

"Just a reminder... Rok is paying us 18,000 credits for the return of this creature, which amounts to 3,000 for each of us.

"Remember, we let Aagavana go and that resulted in us losing out on a payday AND landed us in hot water with a secret radical Veskarium governmental faction. Let's not make the same mistake again."

Guess? puts on his big pleading eyes as he says, " Whadaya say??"

"Guess is just afraid he's going to wind up in a zoo. Again."

"Did we establish that this critter was male?"

"Guess or WIllie?"

"Either way, no, and after you."

Yeah, but now we have the risk of being in trouble with all of the Xenowardens in near space. They said they didn't want to use violence. They... didn't really cover what happens if they think they have to.

"These ecoterrorists always pick on the little guys. If they really cared about indigenous wildlife, there's plenty of wastelands in Azlanti space ripe for terraforming. Instead they focus on saving," he emphasizes his next word with quadruple air quotes, "charismatic species. AKA the ones that bring in the most fundraising and that look great on t-shirts. Ooo! Here's an idea. Run their transponder signal. Maybe there's a bounty on their heads."

Sorry on the radio silence all! As Ewok knows, I'd been out on a business trip this last week that ended up eating my evenings. Also Ewok, thanks for having mercy on us and not sticking to the typical Starfinder non-lethal rules where we'd have to heal the Caypin back every single HP we damaged.

Earlier:
Akh spends far longer than needed rolling about in the shallow water of the hydroponics bay, groaning about how even simple grab-the-escaped-monster tasks always ended worse than they should be. When he sees that the rest of the group is all still alive and mostly in one piece, he floats himself out of the swampy water and shakes until he's dry. "Well. I suppose it could still get worse. Maybe the station is rigged to blow."

Now:
When the ship gets hailed by some animal-huggers, Akh nods knowingly and says nothing. Instead, he waits to hear the entirety of the problem as well as what his allies think the solution should be. It's mostly not surprising. Strek's comments in particular resonate with him "That cloaking device should be our next purchase if we can pull together enough BPs. This is becoming quite annoying."

To Jaraduk's arguments, he says "We have tried doing 'the right thing' many times already. It has been universally miserable. Especially that part with Agavana. Both her and the Wintermourne entirely ungrateful, and now we have a faction of vesk radicals trying to reduce us to star dust. If we do a solid for these guys, you can be sure that they'll end up the sworn enemies of some meat-eating cult that will start trying to blow us up as well. They'll have to get in line."

He taps the money button on Melissa's mystery app "At least credits are worth something." He coils more comfortably before saying "And like Strek says, these guys can find some other horrible slobbermonsters to save. There's way more out there."

Assuming Del will vote to help the xenowardens...

"Tell ya what. If we go for the creds on this job, then instead of doing the sensible thing and staying out of Veskarium space, I'll vote to go see what's up in that prison where they've got Fireheart, the goblins and what's his name mineral buyer. Whaddaya'll think? Deal?"

Strek contorts his face in that becoming-all-too-characteristic manner when the team splits down the middle.

He tappity-tap-taps on GUMBI to bring up the random number generator again.

"You wanna call it? I only got one condition. If we hand the thing over to them, we barbeque up the eyeworms first."

"do you.. make sure those grow back first or you'll be getting an old fashioned pointy stick because you sold someone a blind tentacle monst..creature. "

"I mean I guess we can use pointy sticks over a fire, but I figured that'd be up to whoever's better at barbequing. I don't honestly know. Always been fine with microwaving, personally."

"I expect both of the potential recipients of this creature will want all its toothy eye tentacles largely intact. Though you make an important and potentially delicious point Strek. Maybe we should find out where these things are common, blow one up with plenty of fire, and experience a new culinary world." Akh nods.

"I mean I guess we can use pointy sticks over a fire, but I figured that'd be up to whoever's better at barbequing. I don't honestly know. Always been fine with microwaving, personally."

"I meant from the druids. Isn't pointy sticks their sacred weapon? Or the drum circle. I'd rather be pointy sticked. I trust MOST of you to BBQ without putting your eye out or setting the place on fire. mostly in Guess's case because its an AND outcome... "

"If any planet lists those as common I'm NOT getting anywhere near it."

Strek Armstrom wrote:

"I guess we can use pointy sticks over a fire, but I figured that'd be up to whoever's better at barbequing."

"I meant from the druids. Isn't pointy sticks their sacred weapon?"

"I don't rightly know, but I suppose that is on par with their ineffectiveness and annoyance."

With all the talk of fire and barbeque, Guess? begins to salivate and lick his lips.

Shaking his head, he brings his focus back to the present with the need to make a decision.

He tappity-tap-taps on GUMBI to bring up the random number generator again.

"You wanna call it?"

I'm assuming you'll roll a 1d2 to represent what GUMBI comes up with?

"Alrighty then. On a one, we do the sensible thing and honor our word by turning the caypin over to Rok. If it comes up two, we assume these untrustworthy, conniving ecoterrorists are lying and will open fire the moment we deny them, so we're left with no choice but to give the caypin to these thugs and bullies."

kekeke

"I meant from the druids. Isn't pointy sticks their sacred weapon?"

"I don't know if they're ineffective or just weak against having the sluice turned on them in Lamasthan...."

Sorry on the radio silence all! As Ewok knows, I'd been out on a business trip this last week that ended up eating my evenings. Also Ewok, thanks for having mercy on us and not sticking to the typical Starfinder non-lethal rules where we'd have to heal the Caypin back every single HP we damaged.

I wish I could take credit. The author was feeling kind and decided that the buyer wouldn't care about unhealed nonlethal damage.

drumroll please...

GUMBI: 1d2 ⇒ 1

This time, GUMBI is content with capitalism. When you tell the Wardens of your decision, the captain sighs. "Typical." and cuts the feed without further comment. A few minutes later, the Warden ship peacefully pops out of existence as they head to go bother some other group of cargo haulers. Surprisingly... no immediate consequences this time. :) You head into the drift and settle in for a longer journey through Near Space. Anything you want to do in particular while you travel?

3d6 ⇒ (2, 5, 1) = 8

A week later you pop out of the Drift at the coordinates to see an asteroid with a series of elaborate bubble buildings built into the surface. Del expertly lands the craft on the large landing pad that connects to an enormous starship garage - easily big enough for a dozen ships. A butler ushers you inside, where you are greeted by an older man surrounded by four muscled guards. He is ecstatic that you were able to capture the caypin and insists on walking you through his complex as you discuss how it went. The walls are glass, looking out on enclosures with exotic and dangerous predators lounging within. "Wonderful work, just wonderful. I'll have my keepers transfer the creature, they can be dangerous as you know." He snaps his fingers. "Number two, please deposit the funds into their account. I am very pleased." One of the guards pulls out a datapad and gets to work. Soon after, each of you find yourselves 3000 credits richer each.

Alright! This mission was fairly straightforward after the inevitable extra-danger cargo was revealed. Do you have anything additional to say to Mr. Dregnaugh? Otherwise... where to now?

Melissa is going to at least entertain the idea of trying to attack the lizardgitmo with a pet tentacle monster. Probably resulting in her needing no small supply of bandages.

Hypocritically, she'll try to order bedrest for people with teeth marks still in them.

"Well this looks like an upscale zoo at least. I hope you're happy here Willie. " She'll hand the butler the cookies del made " He loves these. They'll reduce the chances of you needing another timmy by 50% ." She shows him her tail, which still has tooth marks in it. " yeaaaaah we noticed..."

She will listen in on the critters and chat with any if possible.

"Alright, GUMBI voted for altruism, capitalism, time for altriusim again? Lets go bust fireheart out of prison. or at least try it. If we can't then we can't."

When you tell the Wardens of your decision, the captain sighs. "Typical."

"Wish you knew how wrong you were."

During the travel time...

"Hey y'all, for what it's worth, that job wasn't actually half bad. No backstabbing. No extra honey-do lists. Sure it nearly killed us all faster than it takes Guess? to spell 'profit', but, if this ol' geezer can give us better information to go off next time, I don't think this'd be a bad side gig."

I NEARLY FORGOT! Your weekly scary message.

When you pop out of the drift, your communications beacon dings with a new email - Subject: This you?

You don't recognize the sender, @WorldsBestGrandma77522, but you open the attached video anyway. The shaky handcam footage shows a muscular hooded figure walking out of some sort of community center full of elderly lashunta gathered around folding tables. Being dragged behind the assailant is a familiar face, Runo Prat. The older man look terrified, sputtering "No, no, you've got me confused with someone else! I don't actually know those folks! My pals were Edge grunts, not independents!" The man pauses his head turning to look down at the captive lashunta. Though the camera is far away, you can make out a scaley snout. "Your blog describes the majority of the crew of the Bullseye Shipping. We've got some questions for you. Won't take long." He continues out the door, pulling Prat behind him, followed only by the screams of those within the large and now disturbed room.

*facepalmpalmpalmpalm*

"Friend of yours? "

Akh floats serenely near Rok's guards, already mentally calculating what portion of this newfound wealth can go to snacks and what portion should probably be set aside for needed gear. After the D-suit I fiasco, he's fairly convinced that anything he buys at full price will soon appear on foes the group faces, to be picked up for basically free. Which means... more snacks? Probably more snacks.

Something the client mentions grabs his attention and he comments "If you have any other dangerous critters than need to be rescued, acquired, comforted, fed with things that aren't mechanical dragons, or otherwise interacted with, I think we would be happy to help you. Just give us a call." After a pause he adds "Oh, and have you had issues with the Wild Wardens before? We saw some skulking around after we rescued your caypin."

As for the message, Akh barely recognizes the name - just with the vague sense that it might be from one of the dozens of horrible jobs the group was doing for EJ. In retrospect, those jobs were a lot less life threatening and involved far lower stakes than those Tarika was finding recently... All capped off with the job that started this whole 'Faction of indescribably petty vesk causing trouble' thing. Once the group is away from Rok, he comments "Is there any way we can just deal with these annoying mythril tooth vesk people? Maybe Agavana's worked out where they're hiding. Then we put out a calling card to lure them somewhere as a feint, and head to their base to tell them face to face to stop being annoying. Or get our smart tech people into their computers to erase us from their records." He rises up "That has to be better than going to the super obvious trap at the luxury prison resort."

"Friend of yours?"

Strek sighs, "Former client. And someone who definitely shouldn't be caught up in.. whatever it is we've gotten caught up in. Okay I was fine leaving everyone else to that day spa and hoping that everything would just blow over. But, Runo ain't done nuthin' wrong."

Strek looks over the crew, "I say we help him.."

Have to justify that capital "G" after the capital "N" somehow

Aww, I thought we were done being Team Good (TM). I'm so confused! Now we've gotta save this fellow? Did you see how the Caypin was looking at us before we turned it over? This friend had better be adorable.

Did you see how the Caypin was looking at us before we turned it over?

"Jaraduk, the thing had eyestalks with teeth. It wasn't crying, it was drooling."

"Besides, the last thing Runo said after we delivered those berries was 'Us little guys have to watch out for each other'. We sacked our first big payoff so he could retire. Now he's bein' interrogated. If we want to protect that payoff we gave him out of our own pockets, we gotta nip these thugs in the butt."

...and when Melissa opens her mouth, he adds, "I know that ain't how tha saying goes. Shush."

Previously....

While funds are being transferred to us, Guess? will say, "It was our pleasure, Rok! Feel free to call on us again - transport is our pleasure and our specialty. I do have to mention though that next time we'll require full disclosure if the cargo is of a hazaardous nature, such as this one. Otherwise, we'll have to charge an ignorance fee, I'm sure you understand.

"Speaking of which, given the dangerous nature of this creature and the fact that we brought it to you alive, well and unscathed, I do believe that beyond the 18,000 credits, it would be fair and gracious of you to add a hazard bonus on top, amirite??"

--------------

Currently...

Seeing the video, Guess? says, "Gobbammit! Runo's been nabbed? Sentimentality aside, this means this shadow government is operating outside Veskarium space. Which means that they'll keep coming at us wherever we go and whomever we do business with. That will render our corporation unviable.

"Okay, as much as I wish we could've avoided it, we have to do something but everyone promise me, while we're doing whatever we're doing, everyone's GOTTA keep an eye out for ways to make creds outta this, got it? Good!"

Guess? turns to Melissa, "So run me through that riot and looting plan again?? Something along the lines of start riots on various planets, steal easy loot, rinse, wash and repeat until the government is so tied up putting down rebellions that we have an opportunity to do some kind of jailbreak unnoticed?"

Despite the injuries the caypin caused and looking like a beast borne from a nightmare, Del is oddly sad to see the creature go. She bakes an extra batch of caypin-chow for the creature, being sure to give it over to Dregnaugh with Melissa.

---

After hearing the message, Del looks absolutely stunned. "But... but... Runo didn't even DO anything! They can't hurt him! He was so... so... NICE!" She nods at Strek. "Exactly! We've got to go help him. And maybe we can punch back at these vesk agents while we're at it!"

"Where did he retire to? Did he say?" She looks again at the footage. "...Did they bust into an old-folks home to snag him?! Ugh, these Adamant Scale just keep getting worse."

Aww, I thought we were done being Team Good (TM). I'm so confused! Now we've gotta save this fellow? Did you see how the Caypin was looking at us before we turned it over? This friend had better be adorable.

having heard and understood the Caypins growls, she doesn't let jaraduk know it basically said "needs oregeno"

"Lets see. The first team they send after mom and dad is.. definitely not coming back. After that she'd probably hide So I have some time there. If they go after BIG sis...well they deserve each other. She'd carve out a kidney for claiming the blasphemous title of best grandma from Grandma." she makes a ysoki grandma worshiping sign that translates to roughly "not in the face not in the face". "Lit bros may need a heads up slash warning. I don't think campus security is up to dealing with paramilitary lizards. "

Sighs at Guess "ONE planet wide riot isn't good enough for you? Voxhis wasn't that different from the Miraxah republic. We're kind of a colony of it. The HGs moved in, enslaved everybody. Miraxah's afraid the HGs will do the same to them if the vesk don't help, but that's trading one empire for another. SOMEONE on the planet should know that, and be upset about it. "

"We find that group, give them a little push. You can play a few dozen different people they've accosted for "interviews" , strek and I can start an internet campaign. For profit.. uhm.. the veskputer printed us a reward for capturing the adamantine scale.. .not that it ever thought we would.. We could also sell T shirts. "

"I doubt they've got this place set up JUST for us. By chance someone in there has to have enough credits to give a big thank you."

Starts the meme wars

Are the lizards monitoring YOU!?

Only YOU can tip the scales

Mention the Scale go to Jail

Just say no to "vesk requests"

The retired merchant smiles with venom at Akh. "Hmmmm... you didn't blow them out of the sky did you? You know, there's no real laws out here... If you ever find a Wild Wardens transponder floating out in space, bring it to me." His teeth clench. "That would fit beautifully as scenery in my defrex cage."

Rok gives Guess? a dirty smile. "Of course there's a hazard fee! It's included! You didn't question why the price was so high?" He winks and stares at the half-velociraptor half-panda in the cage. He kindly accepts the extra chow from Del and hands it off to one of his guards. "Give this to the keepers. Perhaps they can make something similar." He waves you goodbye. "I'll have my people call your people if we find another special delivery for you to make."

You take your hard earned pay and head back to the ship. The group decides to go after these top-secret-evil-vesk-spy-assassins, the Adamant Scale. You recount what you know as you go through your options.

According to Agavana, “The Adamant Scale is a faction within the Veskarium so well-hidden that even the Council of Despots does not know of its existence. The Adamant Scale claims to protect the empire and strike at its enemies, but its members answer to no one save themselves. It was the Adamant Scale who turned the humble zayapede into deadly hellfire toxin. Apparently they are preparing another large test on the scale of Burandamana." Apparently the TruBlue executives are under the Adamant Scale's thumb or... talon? :).

You suspect that the vesk ships, which you destroyed, who attacked Agavana as the Wintermourn escaped were members of the Scale. Since then, many notable people you've worked with as a crew have begun to disappear. One of them, your purchasing contact for the space rocks, Lindol Syfskoda was taken to the Tranquility Rehabilitation Center. The Center is a a state-of-the-art Marixah Republic prison complex comprising hundreds of isolated facilities known as “calms,” each built on separate artificial islands. A massive hexagonal wall patrolled by drones and topped with anti-air weaponry surrounds the entire region. According to the online brochure... Tranquility structures the calms as small island villages devoid of conventional security with only a drone or two to perform maintenance and interface with guests. Each island houses only 16 prisoners, and from their calms, inmates can see surrounding islands and their occupants, creating a sense of community with no risk of overcrowding. Every island has plenty of room for exercise. Many prisoners have painted the walls of their calms with murals, and everything from the paint color to individual room design intends to minimize psychological pressures and conflicts. AI consoles throughout the facility provide counseling as well as advice on developing life skills, self improvement, or routines to increase mental and physical wellness. Inmates can cook their meals and do laundry on their own, but they can choose to have drones serve them, too. Tranquility has open visitation 24 hours a day, which requires neither supervision nor observation.

Several ideas floated by the crew are:
-Visit the prison
-Start a world-wide rebellion on Marixah against the Marixah Republic
-Lure the Scale to you
-Meme the Adamant Scale out of existence (love the memes by the way).

Please copy and paste the information you learn in your own post, to share with the rest of the team.

You reach out to your contacts to find out more about the history of this Tranquility Rehabilitation Center.

You take a closer look at the security shown in the Tranquility brochure.

The brochure includes a diagram showing how extensive a network of visual and heat sensors there are on the wall to identify incoming ships.

Some crew members discuss disguising yourselves, either to bring the Adamant Scale to you or to get into the Rehabilitation Center.

When some of the crew members discuss drawing the Adamant Scale out, you think through the odd messages you've received over the last few weeks.

diplomacy : 1d20 + 8 + 1d6 ⇒ (3) + 8 + (5) = 16
Engineering : 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (9) + 12 = 21
Sense motive : 1d20 + 4 + 1d6 ⇒ (8) + 4 + (1) = 13
life science : 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (18) + 4 = 22

Culture: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (20) + 7 = 27
Piloting: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (20) + 13 = 33

Clearly Del's bribing the dice-bot today!

Del takes a break to go bake some pumpkin cupcakes while she thinks... "The rehabilitation center was created almost a hundred years ago. It was immediately successful; the inmates who were released from the Center melded back into society at a far higher rate than traditional prisons. The original island, or "Calm" as it was oh so cutely named, was copied many times over until a few hundred existed. The old-style prisons were shut down and no longer exist on Marixah.

"As far as I know, it's only within the most recent year or two that the Veskarium has leaned on Marixah to get them to follow along with their will. Based on the long history of Tranquility, and the interactions between the Veskarium and the Marixah Republic over that time, I think that the Veskarium has no major hand in the administration of the prison. A rogue nationalist Veskarium intelligence agency wouldn't have the personnel to hold more than just one of these island Calms."

She tilts her head. "But one? They could probably hold one. Bets that it's the one with our goblin pals?" She suddenly looks at Guess? with wide eyes. "No! Wait! I'm not betting anything. Definitely not! You won't trick me into losing credits again!"

She pours the batter into the little paper cups. "I took a look at the sensor network around the place. While sensors keep an eye out on the periphery, the designers were thinking in only two dimensions. The visual sensors attached to the guns create an invisible wall of data above the physical wall, going up to the atmosphere. But if I came in from outer space, I could fly high above Tranquility and then simply descend down inside it, beyond the range of the wall-mounted guns. However, those heat sensors that monitor the air above the prison will still be problematic; if we want to avoid detection, we'll have to cut all power, fall through the range of the heat sensors, and then ignite thrusters just before the ship hits the water."

She grins. "I could handle it. I can get us inside the prison undetected—well, not for someone standing there and staring at us. But from the sensors."

She continues puttering around the kitchen.

Culture: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (15) + 8 = 23
Piloting: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (16) + 4 = 20
Life Science: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (15) + 8 = 23
Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (20) + 7 = 27 Woo, my dice weren't snoozing either!

Akh nods to Del's comments "Even if they can man only one island, they might still have a lot of influence and eyes and ears on the other islands. If we're going to go there, we should be very careful. Not that it will help too much, since we have to go to the island that they definitely control."

When she explains the potential aerial approach he clanks suspiciously "A prison where you can just jump in and out from above without anyone knowing you're there? Seems very strange. But better than just coming in the front door where the sharpest-eyed guards can check our disguises. Hopefully there isn't another hidden web of detection to find us."

"Disguises should help, I think, especially if we're just dealing with some underpaid government guards. Without the threat of the Golden League's higher-ups to keep them in line, they're probably snoozing most of the time. The disguises would probably also work if we take an automated shuttle to the jail from Doba, though I wouldn't recommend it, since it'll probably be watched and we wouldn't be allowed to take our weapons easily." He nods "Drawing the Scale's attention to a different place with the help of someone else may be a good idea too."

After a while longer pondering the situation, he adds "If we do try to lure the Scale away while we're investigating, or try to pull some of them aside to ambush them somewhere, we can probably count on them being cautious and not sending too large a group. Secret societies tend to be paranoid and cautious, at least based on my old family. That's good for us, probably, since we might be able to fight whoever comes to investigate and then ask some very nice questions."

melissa tries to hand out pamphlets. But even on a soap box, vanishes into the crowd

Engineering : 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (7) + 12 = 19

"The leaping dolphin statuary they put on these things are pretty cool, but its going to stop the turrets from turning more than 180 degrees. If we could get the ship inside, it would be safe to fly out." she hmms... "Odds on a whale big enough to fly a ship? No? What happens to a space ship under water? If we were EXACTLY over the center and dropped straight down, do you think these things could point 180.0001 degrees up to shoot us?"

Having a few dozen people waving protest signs might make it easier for a ysoki or "skittermander" to sneak up and disable the heat sensors. Especially if someone handed out some reflective foil for folks to get creative with beforehand. ( see we don't need to send it completely off the rails we can just nudge the train.. a little. ...)

Sense motive

huh what?

Well I can get my gear in I don't think that's as comfortable as the rest of you. This isn't where they store the dangerous people so they're not THAT worried about it. Those look like the same sensors we had on the mine to keep anyone from wandering home with "souvineers" I've been disabling them since I was 8. Too bad I didn't escape with my rock collection...

Nice work, y'all can open all of the Spoilers in my last post.

I love how the brochure uses both "guests" and "prisoners" in adjacent sentences.

I think the distraction is certainly a must, but what do you all think a realistic location is to draw them to? Maybe we hire those doubles and make like we're leading a protest somewhere else...

I love how the brochure uses both "guests" and "prisoners" in adjacent sentences.

I think the distraction is certainly a must, but what do you all think a realistic location is to draw them to? Maybe we hire those doubles and make like we're leading a protest somewhere else...

Vesk embassy ? it's the appropriate place AND Would make them a little less likely to just drop the bioweapon on the doorstep.

"I'd prefer to fly in, obviously. I'm not exactly a blend-in kind of girl and acting's not really my jam. That said, however we choose to get in there, a distraction's a good idea—especially if it's at the Veskarium Embassy. I can donate my credits to help with the hiring. I do have one concern: what if the people get hurt? The Adamant Scale strike me as very... 'murder first and worry about guilt never.' ...I supposed if there's lots of each of us, they'll be fine... Right..?"

"I am also not much for blending in." Akh shimmies a little and his ostentatious golden scales glitter in the light of the lounge-room's spotlights. "So my vote is for setting up a distraction and then pouncing on that distraction to capture an Adamant Scale goon. After that, we can take the fly in approach, like you say Del, probably right after while they're still off-balance from our ploy. Better not to hire some people and have them be blown up or exposed to that super-toxin, or we'll have an even worse reputation than we currently do. Maybe it'd be enough to create a rumor on the infosphere and see if they bite?"

"Can GUMBY, our real captain, do d4s or do they only think in binary?"

I'm not exactly a blend-in kind of girl

"We just..ermmm haven't found anywhere with enough shiny people for you to blend in with. and really really tall ceilings."

Melissa spends a long time looking at her WWSD t shirt

"I don't like the idea of anyone getting hurt and that includes us... but if we shoo the admantine scale and the vesk out for these guys, there's no reason they can't come back the second we leave and thats going to be the second we're done... . If the folks here are in on it, then its miraxah throwing them out, not us. "

As you plan your visit to the Rehabilitation Center, you work on making the Last Chance a little less distinctive. Everyone give me one skill check to help with this. Computers, Engineering, Disguise, Strength, and Piloting all come to mind.

The team decides to stage a spectacle at the veskarium embassy on Marixah. The tall squared concrete building reeks of brutalist architecture and vesk superiority. A large plaza of brick, centered on a statue of the High Tyrant, in front of the building will make a perfect location. Alright! Give me some skill checks to see if you pull off the distraction. Use reasonable applicable skills to your actions and what you're contributing to the activity.

If your plan is successful, you're confident it will draw in an Adamant Scale hit squad. Your conversation turns to what happens next. Some crew members have raised the idea of a distraction, which would be the perfect time to infiltrate the airspace above Tranquility. Others have wanted the event to be a trap, where you can fight the Scale muscle and take one soldier captive to get more information on the compound before flying in. You decide to put the two options to a vote.

Option 1: Distract and infiltrate
Option 2: Bait and interrogate, then infiltrate

Engineering to repaint the ship and add dozens of superfluous metal spikes: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (9) + 12 = 21 Because thats what vesk cargo ships look like right? And we still have paint left over from the EJ logos.

... that might not an exact replica of the Brood class Logistics ship but if they're lucky next year it MIGHT be...

Diplomacy to rile up the crowd: 1d20 + 9 + 1d6 ⇒ (13) + 9 + (5) = 27 Because melissa always does great talking to crowds and not stepped on...

Apparently that statue is up high enough that Melissa isn't getting trampled. She scrambles up on its head

"Someone want to explain what the difference is between the boot of a hobgoblin and the boot of a vesk when it kicks you in the **chitter* ? They both hurt and they both stink.

"Its our planet, our space, and our lives to do with as WE want. We DON"T want to work 16 hour days for an imperial war machine. We don't want to be irradiated because some government official thinks mining would be more efficient if we glowed in the dark. We don't want to be told what to do at the point of a gun and shot if we'd rather take a nice easy 12 hour day once in a while and spend enough time with our kids to learn all their names. "

"It's OUR lives and OUR system. Vesk, HGs, GTFO and keep going!!!"

She'll set herself over an eye, so that one she blasts off in the jetpack it leaves a nice shiner.

"Can GUMBY, our real captain, do d4s or do they only think in binary?"

"Stands for 'General User-Managed Binary Interface'. Easier to program than Trinary, and 'GUMTY' is kind of an inappropriate word where I'm from."