[SFS/Shifty] The Great Grav-Train Robbery (A) (Inactive)

Game Master Nik B.

It all happens so fast.

Kevan has messed with the auto-bartender whilst the Android barman is distracted, and LNA has managed to put some relaxants in it too.

Barat is dsitracting due to staring intensely at people, and the card game is playing out well. It looked like Aramesh was going to finally take a losing hand, but then shores it all up and snatches a small 30 credit win, despite Royce playing hard.

"A new drink sounds great" he twirls his fingers towards the barman who hasn't noticed the switcheroo and the drinks arrive. Brom takes a sip and almost spits it out "What is this? This isn't a Livarian Dream!?" he stands up and turns to make rude gestures at the barman, but as he does so he places his hand on the back of Aramesh (his new best friends) chair, the same hand that is also holding his jacket...

Royce looks mortified, he was so close, but so close never counted.

R5 Begins! You are now in the position for the Pickpocket to take their shot

@GM: Is it all up to the Pickpocket now, or should the rest of us continue to make checks?

Yep - they can chuck dice and let's find out what happens.

Sleight of Hand: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (9) + 16 = 25

Elena skitters up to Aramesh. "Please do not get too friendly with your gambling rivals. Royce has a way of taking advantage of those that get too close to him. It would be bad for me if Royce manages to enrich himself again." As she speaks warnings about Royce, she subtly slips a manipulator cable into Brom's pocket and extracts the target. She places it securely in her storage compartment.

Elena secures the datapad from the jacket in the confusion, and nothing registers with Brom.

Royce looks across at Aramesh "A well-played hand" he side-eyes LNA for a moment to let you know that he knows. "Now that this game is over, no doubt you are looking to retire to another carriage for more entertainment, do you care for some company? Perhaps a joint venture could on the cards?"

Elena looks up to Royce "Yes, that would be an optimal plan. Please follow us alone to the previous carriage. We can discuss the ways in which a joint venture may prove life-changing to you." Her synthesized voice somehow seems even drier than usual.

OOC, I'm guessing Royce is going to be a thorn in the operation, so getting rid of him early seems like a good plan.

Aramesh will reply quietly to Elena, "Don't worry, but you know what they say: Keep your friends close..."

------

In response to Royce, Aramesh replies, "Yes, there are matters for us to discuss!"

Aramesh turns to Brom and bows, "It has been a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I hope your enjoyment of the game and our company far outweighed any monetary losses. Perhaps we'll enjoy another game together later on before we all depart this train?"

Aramesh turns back to Royce and gestures to the other carriage, waiting for Royce to lead the way. "After you, dear friend.... Age before beauty.... hehehe..."

By the way, did Royce drink any of the drugged drink?

Royce didn't drink any of the drink, now you are looking at it you notice a few glasses under his chair, all but one are full and one is partially drunk - you suspect he has been switching full drinks with his half drink intermittently to make it look like he has been drinking, when he haw actually just been nursing something likely non-alcoholic and stashing the boozy drinks under his chair. Royce is clearly a slick operator

"Yes, I will be right with you - I need to collect my jacket and keys" his eyes flit towards a few pieces of your varied equipment and then down to his clothing, it is apparent he has no tools for the job on him "I'll fetch those and my toothbrush - I don't want to arrive empty handed and who knows how long we might be staying" he smiles "I'll join you at that other buffet carriage we both had in mind , five minutes?"

Is there any indication of where he's trying to go right now? Can we "guide" him back to a known location to confront him in private? I'm not entirely clear on how generally trafficked this area is.

You aren't really sure where he is intending to go - but he has indicated he needs to get his equipment which you'd assumed is stashed somewhere he probably doesn't want to reveal

From here you'd be moving rearward through occupied passenger and baggage carriages towards the cargo carriages. Anyones guess how trafficked the other carriages would be, but the passenger cars would almost certainly have bystanders.

I think we're at an impasse with Royce. We can't force him to follow us and he won't budge if we just follow him. And as soon as Brom senses any weirdness between our party and Royce, Brom will just have his guards shoot us first then ask questions later. So I think we just have to move forward and agree to meet Royce in the other car.

"Alright. Meet you in a bit, Royce..."

Later, when out of earshot, Aramesh says to the rest of the party, "Make no mistake. We turn on Royce the first chance we get. That means either a) leaving him behind for the syndicate to blame for the heist, or worse case, b) we leave behind his dead body. He will be looking for any opportunity to steal the cargo out from under us, so keep your eyes open and when he's around, weapons drawn if possible.

"Also, assume that he's not working alone and also has a crew on this train that we don't know about. Unfortunately, they've already clocked us so they'll see us a mile away. Be suspicious of everyone we come across, got it?"

Aramesh finishes with some words of encouragement for the team, "Things just got a bit tougher and a bit more complicated. But with this team, we have the tools... we have the talent! We won't fail!"

Yeah, seems like it. Shame we can't get rid of or sabotage him early.

Elena is silent as Aramesh explains his stance on the Royce. At the end she delivers an affirmative tone "Leaving Royce to suffer as Catarina did would be an acceptable outcome, should we not be able to orchestrate a more extensive punishment." She files away the warnings about other accomplices on the train.

"Let us proceed."

You depart via the rear of the carriage and note that Royce heads in the opposite direction after a short pause and a bit of pantomime to the Ixo members as though he's forgotten something.

You push your way through several carriages of various types until you reach carriage 67C.

As you open the door you see Royce has already arrived ahead of you and has begun tapping away on the console "Great, you have made it - you have the datapad, may as well crack it and get this show on the road. 20/80, that's a fair split". You can see he now has several bulges that suggest he has got his equipment, and a sidearm is barely concealed in his waistband - you also notice he looks a bit 'windswept'.

"We probably don't have that much time, Brom is a thug but he's not an idiot"

Realistically, I think Aramesh and Elena would look at each other, exchange a knowing glance, then simultaneously draw their weapons on Royce before Royce can react. But does anyone want to take a different tactic before Aramesh and Elena goes into a threatening demeanor?

Kevan has been following the conversations earlier and doesn't have any objections to that plan.

Kevan will explicitly check behind the party, since Royce looks "windswept' he has probably been outside the train, and it is possible he has associates that have come around behind us.

Perception to check for anyone following us: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (18) + 6 = 24

Kevan can't see anyone trailing the group, it seems pretty quiet behind him - well quiet except for the noise of the train and the air rushing along outside.

Elena turns slightly toward Aramesh, then back at Royce. While he speaks, she surveys the area within the cabin. Knowing Royce, that rounding error already knew well that the team here had little intention of working with him. That meant he was confident he would be able to get the datapad back another way. He had a trick left in him.

Elena looks out for traps, then subtly aims her pistol. If she doesn't see any traps, she starts attacking Royce while he's still mid-sentence.

Perception: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (16) + 13 = 29

Haha! No love lost between Elena and Royce!

Aramesh will also draw their pistol on Royce, intending to talk before attacking. However, if Elena initiates combat, Aramesh had no qualms about joining in.

Elena can't see any traps, but then again perhaps she's already in one and can't see the forest for the trees - between all these bags, boxes, and crates anything is possible and would take hours to search.

Royce doesn't monologue - he just looks at LNA like he's DARING her to attack "You think I didn't see this coming and take precautions? What do you think I was doing with the extra time I had ahead of you? Don't be a fool, you can't split zero four ways" he's that confident he doesn't even go for his gun.

Over to you LNA!

Hmmmmmm

Elena rationally acknowledges that she does not have the greatest capacity to evaluate whether Royce's words are a bluff or the truth. And that's despite training on reading the tells of biologicals with Catarina's help. If she were alone, she'd simply shoot. After all, what's one job in comparison to eliminating the root cause of Catarina's misery. However, this time around Elena is not alone. She turns a little to the side to see what Aramesh and the others are getting out of Royce's words.

Sense Motive; is he lying?: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (2) + 12 = 14

Would love some sense motive help here. Also we could try to take him down nonlethally and then force him to undo any traps he's laid (if they exist).

"It'd be just like you to bluff..."

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 10 + 1d6 ⇒ (4) + 10 + (1) = 15

Well now, looks like we'll need even moar help!

Wow, what unfortunate luck. Looks like Barat is the only other one with it trained, and with a much lower bonus - though a high roll might help make up for that. Assuming we don't get a feel for Royce, I'm thinking Elena's going to take the shot despite his words. She's seen his duplicity before, after all. Objections?

Kevan has no Sense Motive, but has some paranoia. He is wondering whether the ambush will come from the Storage Compartments or the sealed crates?

Just in case I get lucky

Sense Motive: 1d20 ⇒ 12

Nope. How big is the McGuffin we need to get out with?

How big is the McGuffin we need to get out with?

Probably 3' x 3' from what you can gather, hard to know though as it is 'in here somewhere'

You haven't had (or likely to get) time to look around and find out though, as the pew-pew is about to start which will likely have an impact on how this all plays out from here as you go from stealth to loud :)

Wow, what unfortunate luck. Looks like Barat is the only other one with it trained, and with a much lower bonus - though a high roll might help make up for that. Assuming we don't get a feel for Royce, I'm thinking Elena's going to take the shot despite his words. She's seen his duplicity before, after all. Objections?

Given how the dice has rolled, nope, no objections. Going loud against Royce at this point would be in character for Elena. However, Aramesh would be worried if this would obviously draw attention from other trains.

Shifty, are we pretty isolated in this car? Would a gunfight in this car be loud enough to be noticed in adjacent cars?

If no, then Aramesh won't object to Elena opening fire.

If yes, then Aramesh will do the following spoiler:

You have just entered the sealed cargo car full of the Ixo's highly valuable items, you haven't had time to determine what alarms, traps, sensors etc might be present (and whatever Royce seems to be hinting at). Whilst small arms fire may or may not be noticed in the next carriage, any blasts and explosions certainly would be. It's all about the risk at this point.

Barat Oza's shoulder-mounted cannon is aimed right at Royce's smug face. "Just give the word, team leader, and I'll neutralise this obstacle through direct application of pinpoint force."

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (18) + 4 = 22

Anyones guess at this point

Aramesh will say what was spoilered above - repasted below. But if Elena fires anyways, OOCly I'm totally fine with that. ICly, Aramesh will not be happy.

Aramesh says to Elena, "Hold on there. This will draw too much attention and cut off our own escape. Let's not get ourselves caught. Karma will eventually have its day."

Deferring to Aramesh! While shooting right away seems more faithful to Elena's character, I think it's more fun to play along and get into trouble :)

Elena is silent, needler still pointed at Royce and with a nerve-deadening analgesic loaded in the foremost needle. "Karma is a manufactured concept devised by lazy biological minds. However, your comment about drawing attention is valid. Let us secure our target first."

"Alright Royce, let's get this thing and get gone."

I'm not sure what stage we're now at. I think it's cracking into the right crate to get the item we're here to steal. Then after that, we use the datapad to open the bay doors and get lifted out by Ardo - during which we'll try to doublecross Royce, of course.

The datapad unlocks the maglocks securing the crates and storage containers in this carriage, and can also be used to open the roof doors

"Pragmatism and self-interest in equal measure" Royce smiles "The crate we want is on the bottom of that stack of three, the datapad will unlock the crates and allow us to use the crane to lift off the top two, then we can access the crate we want on the bottom. I can operate the crane from here, or you can if one of you is good with computers or engineering equipment - need to use that datapad first though, looks like nothing works until Aramesh says the word"

"I believe we'll operate the potentially dangerous crane. Kevan, do you mind doing the honors?"

Looking at Elena and Barat, "And keep an eye on Royce as well as for surprise visitors. Anything smells funny, shoot first ask questions later."

when Kevan is in place and Elena and Barat on guard, Aramesh will use the datapad to unlock the crates.

Slides updated!

At first, nothing happens. Suddenly, dozens of sharp mechanical clicks snap loudly as the magnetic locks on every container in the car disengage simultaneously. A signal light above the far door illuminates and spins rapidly, accompanied by an ear-piercing klaxon wail. A moment later, the din is compounded by a grinding noise followed by the massive bay doors in the roof sliding open.

There’s a ringing clang as the lid of the huge crate on the other side of the crane suddenly crashes to the floor. Clearly printed in large letters on the metal are the words: “HANDLE WITH CARE: LIVE ANIMAL.”

A gigantic eel-like creature emerges from the crate.

Royce looks rather shocked.

R1
Aramesh
ENEMY

Living creatures (all except LNA) need to make a DC14 Fort save or be paralysed

Fort: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 2 = 8

"What tha-" is all Aramesh manages to utter before he is frozen, paralyzed!

Mentally, Aramesh is trying to figure out what that creature is...
Life Science to identify: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (1) + 6 = 7

Well alrighty! Time for Aramesh to absorb all the awful dice rolls in order for ohers to get some good ones??

Aramesh is paralysed.
Fresh save next round

/CHOMP!
The eel bites at Aramesh

Attack 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (19) + 16 = 35
Damage 1d8 + 11 ⇒ (6) + 11 = 17

Dice 1d20 ⇒ 10
Royce reaches for a concealed weapon, but then side-eyes Kevan and stops, keeping his hands visible "Don't want you to get the wrong idea" he shrugs, thinking better of pulling weapons in the vicinity of the bear.

R1
Lna - NO save required
Kevan - save required
Barat - save required

R2
Aramesh - save required

Fortitude Save: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (4) + 4 = 8

I knew i.. is all Kevan manages before he is paralyzed.

Kevan looks into the strange compound eyes causing their muscles to freeze up.

R1
Lna - NO save required
Kevan - Paralysed
Barat - save required

R2
Aramesh - save required

Barat Oza shrugs off the paralytic effect and springs quickly to the attack!

My movement will provoke an AoO if the eel has reach.

Fort save vs paralysed: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (20) + 9 = 29
entropic strike vs KAC: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (19) + 9 = 28
damage (acid & bludgeoning: 2d6 + 10 ⇒ (4, 3) + 10 = 17

Fellow PCs, Barat Oza has Coordinated Shot, so you'll get a +1 on ranged attacks against the eel as long as he's attacking it.

Fort: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (10) + 2 = 12
Can our characters trying "looking obliquely" to get a +4 bonus to the fort save?

It does have reach
AOO
Attack 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (11) + 16 = 27
Damage 1d8 + 11 ⇒ (5) + 11 = 16

***
Aramesh, you are paralysed, so unable to look away etc - however we can keep that spoilered roll for when you DO break free!

***

Barat lays an amazing blow on the creature!

Elena spares some of her attention to monitor Royce's movements as she subtly fires the numbing shot she'd been saving at the new threat.

Trick Attack (Sleight of Hand) vs DC20 + CR: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (18) + 16 = 34
Needler Pistol: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (12) + 8 = 20 Damage (P): 1d6 + 3 + 3d8 ⇒ (3) + 3 + (3, 2, 1) = 12 (If trick attack is successful, debilitating trick makes the target off-target for 1 rd. If the attack hits, the tier 1 analgesic makes the target flat-footed 1 rd as well)

With half the group paralyzed, Elena starts trying to evaluate Royce's potential escape paths. It seemed likely he would try to take advantage of the situation.

LEGIT hoping Aramesh makes his save :)
Lna nails the serpent with a nasty hit!

/CHOMP!
The eel bites at Barat

Attack 1d20 + 16 - 4 ⇒ (1) + 16 - 4 = 13 vs KAC
Damage 1d8 + 11 ⇒ (2) + 11 = 13

Attack 1d20 + 16 - 4 ⇒ (11) + 16 - 4 = 23 vs KAC
Damage 1d8 + 11 ⇒ (3) + 11 = 14

Royce eyeballs Kevan and the giant serpent, and clearly decides against pulling out a weapon, diving into a locker that slams shut behind him.
The roof of the carriage starts opening.

R2
Lna -
Kevan - save required
Barat -

R3
Aramesh - save required

EEL 57 (Flat footed)

Fort Save: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (11) + 4 = 15

Ohh, Bearly made it!

Since the roof is opening, is it possible to use the crane, since I am standing at the controls, to either hit the Eel with the crane, or more outrageously, pick up the Eel (maybe by the box it is still in) and drop it outside the car?

Fort: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (17) + 2 = 19

Assuming it's still okay to use the previous rolls...
Aramesh takes a guarded step back and fires his pistol!

"Try to keep eyes on Royce! And watch yourselves, don't know who opened the roof!" cautions Aramesh to the team.

Aramesh blows a chunk out of the thing, which subsequently catches fire.
It looks in horrible shape.

Kevan, you can start firing up the crane, computers or engineering check

The burning eel illuminates the night, and the light from the flame glints off the belly of a sleek enercopter flying low above the carriage.

R2
Lna -
Kevan - acted
Barat -

R3
Aramesh - acted

EEL 76 (4 burn)(Flat footed)

Barat Oza tries to finish what he started, lashing out with powerful tentacle strikes!

entropic strike vs KAC: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (17) + 9 = 26
damage (A&B): 2d6 + 10 ⇒ (4, 3) + 10 = 17

I'm gonna try something crazy. Watch out

Computers check to fire up the crane, with Serum of Enhancement, Scientist: 1d20 + 16 + 2 ⇒ (16) + 16 + 2 = 34

Perhaps this is a bit too paranoid, but does it look like the locker Royce jumped into connects to anything else? Like, does it seem suspiciously flush with the ceiling or wall such that it might have a secret passage out? If so, Elena is leaving the badly injured eel to the others and heading into the locker.

Elena leaves Kevan to his hacking and fires once more against the massive eel creature.

Trick Attack (sleight of hand) vs DC20+CR: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (19) + 16 = 35
Needler Pistol: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (2) + 8 = 10 Damage (P): 1d6 + 3 + 3d8 ⇒ (6) + 3 + (7, 2, 6) = 24 Making it flat-footed if I hit

Not overly paranoid at all. This was also Aramesh's worry. That and also who opened the train ceiling???