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Ceolor gives a whistle as a small hole in reality seems to form, showing what looks like the depths of space, a few stars far far off in the distance. After a millisecond the mote starts to form into the outline of a rifle, but still keeping the appearance like someone cut out a rifle shape in reality.
He then wipes down his visor.
The next moment a red burning energy starts to form around his eyes as he takes aim and fires at the jinsul in green, while loudly clicking his tongue.
The rifle fires a small line of energy, the then binds the 'laser' rifle and target together, before rapidly draining the target of heat.
The solarion then takes a deep breath as his feet start to push out flames and in a blaze rushes across the frozen pond, leaving behind a line of them behind him as he goes.
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Aravon wipes a visor and looks at the jinsuls with hatred of thousands suns.
He waits for the reaction to Ceolor words, and when they fail he pushes Smiley to begin to run forwards. The Smiley runs without any troubles, moving like a giant cat. It makes a few longer jumps to get to the closest Jinsul, whom Aravon hits with a solid punch, putting in the whole weight behind it.
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Most of the party quickly acts to clear away the sticky gray ash. Even so, Gammer isn’t quite sneaky enough to catch the jinsuls off guard, though his shot does connect with the closest one. As he studies the creatures more closely he can tell that the jinsuls are pretty much regular jinsuls like what the Starfinders have fought before. He knows that they’re unflankable and slightly resistant to fear, and they seem to have been trained in a kind of “hit and run” fighting technique that Pact World soldiers use. It’s also modified its hunting rifle to be more deadly . Lastly, its many legs are so powerful that it looks like it could easily make jumps without having to get a running start. It doesn’t seem to have any vulnerabilities.
Aravon is certain that the other creature is a jeskraal, something Ceolor had shown him on a poster in the ruined city.
It was a scavenger animal originally native to one of the neighboring planets, and the the jinsuls domesticated them to serve as attack beasts, bodyguards, and pets. Often their training includes the ability to protect its master(s) while leaving itself at risk .
Its tail sports a collection of manufactured plates resembling a contorted suit of armor, curled up over the creature’s spine like a shell. Jeskraal inhabit abandoned armor, carapaces, or other shell-like homes, migrating between them like hermit crabs when they become damaged. And if they become too damaged, such as from a critical attack, they’re able to nullify the extra damage by shifting their plated coverings about, though this leaves them more vulnerable to subsequent attacks.
As Aravon briefs everyone on what he knows, Gammer adds that it looks like this jeskraal may be trained to actually take all of an attack’s damage on itself when protecting its master .
Darin opts not to clear his visor and pays the price as his shot goes way wide.
Ceolor easily hits the lead jinsul, who seems strangely unsurprised that someone on Rax speaks the language.
It then makes a gesture to its friends. Ceolor isn’t sure whether the gesture equates to a conspiratorial wink or a rude flip-off.
It doesn’t really matter, because Aravon comes charging across the ice and tears its head clean off its body!
Stunned by the Starfinder’s blitzing attack, the other jinsuls rally to retaliate.
Yellow charges across the field at Staar, running right past Aravon and Smiley and attempts to bite her.
Likewise, the jeskraal instictively puts itself between its masters and the great big toothy critter and also tries to bite Smiley.
The one with Red paint streaks on its armor fires at Ceolor, while the one with a Blue helmet tries to shoot Gammer. After taking their shots, they move to be closer to their jeskraal.
All of the native’s attacks hit the Starfinder invaders!
Darin
Gammer
Aravon
Ceolor
Jeskraal
Jinsuls
Tokno
Staar
==========================
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"C'mon, Staar, hang in there, you can take it!" Tokno calls out, trying to encourage the dour solarian after the jinsul's attack. "Let's show this creep what we're made of!" For the moment, the gnome seems much more intent on cheering on his companions than he is on drawing a weapon to defend himself or join the fray.
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Staar attunes photon and forms her solar weapon: it envelopes her right arm from hand to elbow and looks like a gauntlet of erratic plasma (the electric & fire one, not blood), with “droplets” of energy falling from it but disappearing right before hitting the ground.
Then she punches the yellow jinsul that so promptly joined her.
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Zist! Darin swears. the dwarf takes some seconds to wipe the snow from his face . Seeing Staar with a bug right in her face, the dwarf spins his rifle's barrel and winces as he directs an extra surge of power from his eye, through implants along his nervous system and arms and into the caustolance before firing an unstably boosted shot at the new target.
for
When I find the vendor who sold me this #$##$%#$@!.....
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Tokno helps Staar recover a little of the wind that got taken from her sails, then points out a way to get a tactical advantage on her opponent by aiming at the prominent seam in its midsection.
Staar charges her fist with dripping solar plasma and takes Tokno’s advice. She puts a solid punch right though the bug’s midsection. It’s not quite enough to kill it, leaving a live target for Darin to take a shot against. Having wisely cleared his visor, he takes Tokno’s advice too, and puts his shot right into the hole that Staar left in its belly. (Good thing he listened to Tokno, cause he’d’ve missed otherwise.) It drops to the ice, all of its legs splaying out and twitching in the falling snow.
Meanwhile Gammer evades the notice of the Blue helmeted hunter that just shot him, and puts a nice big smoking hole in its … back? Front? Thorax? Who even knows with these damn bugs anyway? Either way, it’s very clear that Gammer’s target can barely stand after that shot. It’s hard to tell, but it seems as if it might be looking around for a way to escape after taking a hit like that.
Darin
Gammer
Aravon
Ceolor
Jeskraal
Jinsuls
Tokno
Staar
==========================
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Smiley roars in pain when the odd creature attacks it. Aravon clearly angry at the creature attacking his mount looks to the sky, and open his visor for a moment. Then he looks at the enemies and breathes out a cone of cold
Then he leads Smiley to take a step back and jumps to the ground in his place.
"Leave Smiley alone, you mut!"
But Aravon gets his feet stuck in the saddle.
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Ceolor misses. Aravon breathes fire on the small group huddling around the jeskraal, then gets his feet tangled in the stirrups as he tries to hop off Smiley.
The jeskraal ducks away instinctively avoiding the worst of the blast, but that leaves its masters to take the full damage. Sadly (for them anyway) it’s too much for Blue and it drops.
The jeskraal then quickly moves to follow Smiley, once again attacking the largest target it can see. Red steps into its shadow, and continues firing at Ceolor. It found Ceolor amusing when he asked them to lay down their weapons, and humor is a sign of weakness in their warband.
The jeskraal takes another chunk out of Smiley’s right foreleg, but Red misses, perhaps allowing the disdain to overwhelm its aim. Yellow tries again to bite Staar, in spite of the gaping wound in its body.
It seems to have developed a taste for lashunta.
Darin
Gammer
Aravon
Ceolor
Jeskraal
Jinsuls
Tokno
Staar
==========================
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Ceolor fires another shot.
Not sure how well he hit or not, the solarion decides to try something interesting. He cloaks his whole body in flames and once again speeds around shedding flames everywhere as he goes. He rushes right up to the enemy jinsul and animal, the heat waves causing him to be a little hard to see clearly, and stops right next to his target. He then taunts him in Jinsul. "Hiii! Why don't we make this more personal?"
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"It's on the ropes, keep it up!" Tokno chirps cheerfully as he dashes past Staar and Darin to get a better look at the rest of the fight, drawing his static arc pistol as he goes.
"Ooh, nice light show!" he says appreciatively when he sees Ceolor leave another trail of flames. "Hit that guard beast hard!"
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Staar is. Not. Pleased. The undead princess of snow and blood* doesn’t even have to try hard. She hits it in a critical leg joint, and a spray of blood and ichor covers the ice as she tears the jinsul in half.
Ceolor drops the last of the jinsuls. When he makes his running dance around the jeskraal, it does indeed try to bite him as he passes.
But when he comes to a stop, it realizes that its masters are gone. It whines, looks at Ceolor standing in a blaze of fire, and hunkers down defensively.
Darin
Gammer
Aravon
Ceolor
Tokno
Staar
==========================
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When Tokno sees the jeskraal surrounded, master-less, and hunkering down, the good-hearted gnome feels a surge of pity for the beast. It's still dangerous, certainly, so he approaches it cautiously, sheathing his pistol and trying to make himself look as unthreatening as possible. "Let me see if I can calm it down," he says to the others. "Maybe we won't have to kill it after all."
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Aravon looks at the falling jinsuls and then his eyes stop on the creature.
He moves with Smiley back and dismounts looking at Smileys legs, "Go and rest, you did well fluffy. I will handle the creature."
He walks from behind Tokno and stands next to the gnome "When you are treated as a beast for a long time, you may believe that you are one. Keep on doing, what you are doing."
He puts his shield on the ground and squats keeping his hands open to see.
Then he moves a bit closer and pulls out a piece of food. "Now, now. It is allright" he says more relying on his soothing voice than the actual words.
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Between Tokno’s soothing tone, Ceolor’s advice, and Aravon’s offer of food and his skill with animals, the jeskraal quickly turns from its guarded and wary posture. It starts to lick Tokno’s hand with a tongue that has the texture of rough tree bark but a surface that feels unsurprisingly like chitin.
When Ceolor says something in jinsul, though, it immediately perks up and begins shuffling back and forth. It doesn’t wag its tail (that might be a little dangerous), but you get the impression that it’s expressing the same emotion.
As half the team deals with the unnamed jeskraal, Staar takes a break. Presumably someone checks out the jinsul’s gear and finds that they carry pieces of scavenged armor once worn by jinsul commanders and decorated with military medals.
Eventually, you agree that it’s time to keep moving, and you continue your trek towards the ruins of the city in the distance.
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1) You can investigate the remnants of jinsul culture, including architecture, artwork, city planning, propaganda, and other trappings of civilization with a Culture check.
2) You can examine inoperative, derelict vehicles by the side of the road that were once used in everyday life using Physical Science or Engineering.
3) You can examine the religious and mystical iconography built into the jinsuls’ society using Mysticism.
4) [NEW!] You can also observe the occasional jinsul individual or group and draw inferences about their psychology and current activities using either Stealth or Perception
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Staar stays away from the new pet, not trusting it to obey its new masters when the next jinsul combat begins.
----
She keeps examining the vehicles for unique or unusual models, perhaps belonging to some officer.
Having being nearly killed by an avatar of Kadrical, she has some interest in it - not enough for her (black) heart to waver from Urgathoa though.
Every now and then she'll jump up some higher ruins and observe the enemy's behavior from a distance.
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"Precisely my thought. Thanks," Tokno murmurs to Aravon as the half-orc and Ceolor come to help. The gnome grins brightly as the jeskraal rapidly becomes much more friendly, and coos, "That's a good little monster, you just needed some better friends, right? Sorry, I shouldn't call you 'monster,' that's unkind." As he looks over the beast thoughtfully, the many protrusions on its armor shell keeps drawing his eye. "How about...Spike?"
When the group finally moves out again, Tokno is somewhat distracted by paying attention to the jeskraal, but tries to do his best to help study the remains of the jinsul settlement, and keep a weather eye out for more enemies.
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As the others are befriending the Jeskral, Gammer inspects the gear and armor on the Jinsul.
He collects the gear and armor pieces and says, "This military regalia could be worth up to 1,200 credits to Society scholars studying the Jinsul hierarchy. These pieces could be reassembled into functional armor better than anything we are currently wearing but would take me about an hour to reassemble it into something functional. Alternately, I could remove and attach the Deflective Reinforcement and would require only about 10 minutes ."
If we do not want to take the 1 hour time for the armor repair and no one wants the deflective reinforcement, he starts to fiddle with the armor pieces while everyone else is currently engaged. When we leave, he will just stow the pieces and continue working on them in his spare time each time we take a break.
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As the others are befriending the Jeskral, Gammer inspects the gear and armor on the Jinsul.
[dice=Culture]1d20+15
[dice=Engineering]1d20+15He collects the gear and armor pieces and says, "This military regalia could be worth up to 1,200 credits to Society scholars studying the Jinsul hierarchy. These pieces could be reassembled into functional armor better than anything we are currently wearing but would take me about an hour to reassemble it into something functional. Alternately, I could remove and attach the Deflective Reinforcement and would require only about 10 minutes ."
If we do not want to take the 1 hour time for the armor repair and no one wants the deflective reinforcement, he starts to fiddle with the armor pieces while everyone else is currently engaged. When we leave, he will just stow the pieces and continue working on them in his spare time each time we take a break.
I'm not disputing your math, but how did you come up with an hour? The scenario doesn't suggest a time, so is there something in the CRB or elsewhere that drives that?
The upgrade itself is intact and would be installable within the 10 minute rest. Gammer is correct that there is no check involved for installing an upgrade.
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I'm not disputing your math, but how did you come up with an hour? The scenario doesn't suggest a time, so is there something in the CRB or elsewhere that drives that?
CRB Pg.142 under Engineering Skill for Repair item. The amount of time this takes typically depends on the complexity of the object. The DC of the check is determined by the GM and based on the complexity of the object. ...If the object or piece of equipment is damaged but not broken, you can repair it at no cost. ...The DC for an Engineering check to repair an item is based on the complexity of the object. The following chart provides base DCs by complexity and examples of such items. The GM may adjust these DCs and times to reflect other circumstances.
The chart at the end of the paragraph shows - Item: Equipment | Example: Weapon or Suit of Armor | Time - 1 hour | DC: 15 + 1.5 X Item Lvl. ((Vesk Brigantine III Armor Level (8). DC:15 + (1.5 X 8) = 27.))
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Darin looks over the dropped jinsul's gear while Aravon tends to his mount. These ones stung a bit, but not exactly a crack crew with tech pops out of nowhere. he says while prying off some of the more salvageable armor components. Jinsul in this storm ain't cream of the crop.
Noticing Tokno eyeing the armor, the dwarf waves him over. You did good out there. Every crew needs a steady hand to guide the action. think I could probably refit some of this for you if you like.
---
When they're back on the road, the rest of you might notice Darin walking a bit more confidently and looking up at the sky much less frequently. Lightning seems to like me anyway. he explains. It'll stab at me anyway, no point crouching around about it.
As he walks, his more bold stride takes him a bit further off the main path while checking vehicles more off the beaten path. Away from the central trail also gives him a chance to carefully observe some suspicious movements from afar.
Kharl does not roam far: the hireling sticks close to the core of the group while trying to translate and infer meaning in the writings and imagrey they pass.
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Ceolor tries to help people on the hike up to the city, trying various tactics and advice as he goes. Before setting off he takes a minute to refocus and set up the light dancing in his hair again.
He then looks over the cars and vehicles on the road reading out anything he finds in Jinsul.
He then tries to help decipher the various religious objects around.
He then takes a minute to retune himself to the gravitons in the area as he hears some jinsul in the distance.
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In spite of not really caring much about jinsul culture, Aravon does chat with the others about what he’s seeing. As you all discuss what you’re seeing and reading, you come to the conclusion that Dhurus decided not to study how to permanently ending the apostate warlords. Instead Dhurus had each of the toppled jinsul leaders affixed to the prow of an immense flagship that would serve to lead the newly re-formed Jinsul Hierocracy. Now ritualized sacrifice of heretics, or effigies representing them, is an integral part of the jinsuls’ renewed pursuit of salvation in the eyes of Kadrical. Darin then points out the disturbing presence of small effigies lashed to the fronts of nearly every vehicle you see.
Kharl consults with Staar and Ceolor, and they begin to piece together the evidence of ritualized sacrifices, cannibalism, and self- flagellation that they begin to notice. It seems to reveal that jinsuls who seek Dhurus’ forgiveness routinely seek out opportunities to sacrifice heretics to representatives of Kadrical’s “true” faith. In this case, a kohkleim demon that offers protection similar to Kadrical’s divine barrier serves as a suitable recipient of the jinsuls’ depraved offerings.
Gammer and Tokno discuss the individual jinsuls they’ve observed and their behaviors. These jinsuls lack the leg blade augmentations used by their Scoured Stars kin and use less refined tactics compared to the well-disciplined and well-equipped jinsul military that the Society has previously encountered. Their wild behavior also suggests that they may not care about catching their allies in friendly fire.
In addition, the jinsuls fervently seek out various objects that may have sentimental value (such as photographs or writings) and immediately set them on fire. Based on their behavior, it appears those left behind by the main jinsul force desperately seek to prove themselves by purging their cities of reminders of any former heresies.
More critically, you realize that a disciplined jinsul, missing a leg and wearing a scarf-like wrapping of animal fur, is watching them. This one is clearly acting differently than the others, carefully observing you but making no move to attack the way any of the others would.
As Ceolor stops to reattune himself to the gravitons, a bolt of that familiar purple lightning again lances down from the sky, but this time it strikes true.
This time Gammer spots the sensor orb just before it dissolves into the snow.
You trek on towards the ruins of the city in the distance keeping a watchful eye out for jinsul war bands and your mysterious shadow.
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1) You can investigate the remnants of jinsul culture, including architecture, artwork, city planning, propaganda, and other trappings of civilization with a Culture check.
2) You can examine inoperative, derelict vehicles by the side of the road that were once used in everyday life using Physical Science or Engineering.
3) You can examine the religious and mystical iconography built into the jinsuls’ society using Mysticism.
4)[NEW!] You can also observe the occasional jinsul individual or group and draw inferences about their psychology and current activities using either Stealth or Perception
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Tokno listens to his companions' interpretations of the jinsuls' religious practices with obviously horrified fascination. Some of the more disturbing images provoke him into muttering brief prayers to "The Loverly Ones," which seems to be his quirky way of referring to the gods of beautiful things, Shelyn and Arshea, whose symbols inspired much of the decor on his original armor, which he just bundled carefully into his pack.
"That jinsul with the missing leg worries me," Tokno confides. "If any of the others noticed us, they'd just wildly charge at us, giving us lots of opportunities to use their mistakes against them. That one, though...it's biding its time. Planning something nasty, I'd bet."
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Just as Gammer wipes snow from his visor he speaks into his PCU to the others, "There. Did you see the Orb again. I wonder if that Jinsul watching us is also in control of the Orb and behind these lightning strikes. You alright there, Ceolor?"
As they keep traveling, Gammer continues to investigate the remnants of Jinsul culture, continues to examine the inoperative, derelict vehicles and tries to sneak up to observe the occasional Jinsul individual or group activities in the distance.
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If th' mummied one's lightning us then at least its got better sense than the lot tried to take us eye t' eyes. Darin reaches back to take inventory of his rifles and frowns. Hmm, should picked up a scope to snipe the thing. On the list for the arm'ry when we get back.
Whiel they walk, he continues to keep and eye out while Kharl nerds out, but the dwarf muses quietly aloud.
So, if what you lot're finding and reading's true, we got a species of hard-scrabling bugs building a whole Civ around conquest and warbands. Then this Dhurus godling shows up and gives a planetful of harsh warriors a purpose and points them directly at a cause. Fantastic.
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Staar stops to watch several jinsuls that are gathered around the corner from her position. She notices that they don’t seem to be bothered by the storm to the same degree as the Starfinders. The supernatural force that is causing the environment to actively hinder you appears to be protecting the jinsuls from harmful cold and the lightning. As she relays her observation to the rest of the team, Kharl spots the scrying sensor open just behind her shoulder.
The sensor seems to be stuck in place for just a little longer, and in that all too brief time, the studious and over-worked dwarf sees what’s controlling it on the other end. It appears that the lightning—and the storm itself—are manifestations of a kohkleim, a demon formed from the souls of those who ravaged their neighbor’s environment for personal gain. This type of demon often offers climate-based protection to mortals in exchange for living sacrifices, and it can remotely monitor creatures caught in its storms.
Gammer had been on the other side of a ruined garage when Staar got hit. He’d been trying to sneak up on a small group of jinsuls fighting over the contents of a smashed open crate. These jinsuls decorated themselves with tokens that resemble military regalia, squabbling over preferred medals and bits of armor. Their focus on such tokens suggests Dhurus brought the jinsuls’ strongest fighters to engage the trespassers (meaning the Starfinder Society) when they re-opened the path into the Scoured Stars, and those left on Rax seek out validation for their own (inadequate) combat prowess.
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From the starship combat scene in 2-00, Fate of the Scoured God, in describing the jinsul commander’s capital ship:
“Writhing shapes are visible along the jinsul command vessel’s prow, each impaled by a vicious, violet metal spike. “|
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Columns of smoke rise from a blasted cityscape. Scorched skeletal frames of circular structures loom over the rubble-choked streets, their contents stripped or burned away. A chorus of distant keening wails, punctuated by the occasional crash of a collapsing building, replace the bustling urban sounds that one would expect from a city. But of course, this apocalyptic wasteland is like no normal city.
Entering the urban hellscape, you find a blazing settlement before you— the home of the jinsuls left behind by Dhurus after his military set fire to the last remaining jinsul city on Rax in an effort to demonstrate their loyalty and commitment to returning to the Scoured Stars. Jinsul fanatics perform debased blood rituals throughout the streets and structures, most of them too engrossed in their violent rites to notice you.
Wisely trying to sneak through the chaos, you silently observe all the horrific activity taking place around you. Ceolor and Gammer notice of a group of jinsuls driving a vehicle slowly behind the team as if stalking them. This street crawler is little more than an elongated frame made of steel rods and jinsul chitin mounted on six wheels and powered by a dirty petrol engine.
Suddenly, the jinsuls gun the engine and try to ram Tokno, who was trailing slightly behind and tending to Spike!
Their driver momentarily looks down at his comm unit and the distraction of trying to text and drive causes him to veer off and crash into the adjacent wall. The jinsul attackers then leap off their vehicle, cursing the driver as they do, and attack in a frenzied rage. The last one off the vehicle, the driver orders their jeskraal pets to dismount and attack also.
The jinsul don’t seem to notice that you have an adopted jeskraal following you, but Spike immediately begins chittering at the other jeskraals. The one with an Orange traffic cone stuck in its armor stops moving and converses with Spike, ignoring its masters commands. The other one charges off the crawler and positions itself to defend its masters.
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Jeskraal
Tokno
Aravon
Gammer
Ceolor
Jinsuls
Darin
Staar
==========================