[Paizocon 2022] SF One-Shot 3: System Takedown (Inactive)

Game Master Sedoriku

Welcome to my table of the new Starfinder One-Shot: System Takedown. Please post something here and then delete it to add yourself and character to the campaign and the campaign to your campaign tab.

Once you're done with that please move over to the discussions thread where there's a few mor things for you to fill out.

Dot

As a trusted strike team of an anti-Veskarium group, the Mrraheen, you’ve been on numerous missions to fight against the despotic Veskarium rule on Vesk-6. One of the Mrraheen’s most hated enemies is Shethris Nazriar, consul of the Vesk-6 region of Voyedris, known for his callousness and cruelty. The rebels have so far been unable to strike at him directly, but the Mrraheen recently acquired evidence linking Shethris to numerous illicit activities, from embezzlement to records falsification to multiple incidents of excessive force against citizens under his command. If this evidence was made public, Shethris would be removed from his position in disgrace and the Veskarium would be forced to appoint a different, hopefully less corrupt, official.

Spreading the information over the Veskarium-controlled infosphere without it being taken down immediately is all but impossible, so the Mrraheen have dispatched a team to infiltrate Comm Outpost 18. The outpost is a military communications facility in the remote jungles of Voyedris.

The mission is to reach Comm Outpost 18, enter the bunker facility and upload the evidence to the emergency planetary broadcast system. Once this is completed, you can escape and await the results of your action against the Veskarium.

You’ve all been chosen for a reason, Syrelle for her understanding of her home planet and fighting skills, Duthuj for his skills in both fighting and electronics, Khavarku for his magical aid and healing, and Veevee to help drum up more support for the cause with a planned livestream of the mission.

But you need to get to the outpost before anything else, and that requires stealth.

Please give me a stealth roll as you introduce your character.

You see a light blue skittermander carrying a spear, survival knife, laser pistol and a few grenades.

It is good to see you friends. Let's get moving. I am so exciting about livecasting this mission!

She turns to her datapad.

Friends across Vesk-6, I can't say exactly where we are for Operations Security reasons, but rest assured we are striking a blow for freedom and against the corruption of Shethris Nazriar.

She makes sure the datapad is set to "Do Not Disturb" before moving out as silently as she can with the others.

Stealth check: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (1) + 12 = 13

Well that is a heck of a start. Must not have silenced the comm unit.

An indigo ijtikri clad head-to-tentacle in armor walks up to Veevee. "We got this in the bag, V. In, out, everyone knows everything. Book it, done."

"Though maybe announcing our presence wasn't the best idea you've ever had..."

Stealth: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (2) + 16 = 18

Failing this mission before the briefing is over, cool, cool.

VeeVee accidentally trips an automated veskarium infosphere bot when mentioning their quarry by full name without changing anything. Her automated response system notifies her about the tracking bot that the skitter has to spend a few minutes booting from the stream before it starts to alert people properly. This leads to her having to work on her data pad instead of focusing on getting through the woods quietly. Duthuj also has to spend time watching out for the distracted skitter instead of moving silently and also comes crashing through the trees louder than they'd prefer.
Here's hoping Syrelle and Khavarku roll better!

The vesk nods as she attempts to ghost along behind everyone.

Stealth: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (12) + 10 = 22

syrelle tirem walk in, well equiped, Rock and roll all night, everyday, rock and roll all night. Oh, better be quiet as I move in stealth: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (6) + 9 = 15

Khavarku proves to be about the only silent one in the group as she sneaks closer to the settlement, keeping quiet and knowing how good vesk vision can be and avoiding lines of sight to anything ahead. Syrelle puts her music player away as she realizes she needs to be quiet as well, but at an importune time it decides to start playing randomly and makes her stand out a little bit.

After a few minutes of stumbling through the forests of Vesk-6, or Pulonis for the more revolution minded, you find a small clearing where the normally thick tree canopy opens up to provide scant protection against the afternoon sun, and the sound of birds echoes through the air. The voice of your colleague, handler, and resident tech expert Vyrnandi crackles over your comms, as chipper as usual in spite of the mission’s gravity. “ Good afternoon, everyone! My scans say you’re just about there!” she exclaims. “No problems on the way, I hope? Ah, who am I kidding, I think I heard your stumbling from my bunker. Try being a bit more careful ahead, okay?”

Without waiting for a response, she continues. “Good news is it doesn’t look like your approach has been noticed. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to get any intel on the area—information on these places is locked up tighter than a High Despot’s vault. We know it’s an underground bunker, with an entrance near the center of the compound. I’m sure it’s got external defenses though, so I recommend scouting around. Satellite imaging shows another, larger clearing up ahead. Might be a good place to check out.” She sends everyone a copy of the image on your helm’s heads up displays, it shows an opening with some clear but clever image manipulations to hide any indicators of the outpost.

“Good luck, and remember I’m only a click away if you need help, be it information, advice, virtual hugs, cat pics, recipes, or hacking! Though as always hacking from here always takes a little longer than if you did it in person!”

I’ll pause here for a moment to let you ask questions if you’d like. I’ll look to moving us along again in 12 hours

As everyone moves on, Veevee finally gets her stream up and running again, this time free from an surveillance she can detect.

The next clearing, ringed by thick jungle foliage, lies just ahead, a metal fence surrounding the outer edge. Signs posted every several feet along the fence read, in both Vesk and Pahtra, “WARNING: Restricted Area. Authorized Veskarium personnel only. Use of deadly force permitted.” Beyond the fence, four large towers arranged in an oblong square pattern stretch toward the sky. The tops of the towers slowly rotate, seemingly scanning the area, as mechanisms within glint in the sunlight.

Scattered clumps of trees and vines dot the clearing around the towers, offering some protection from sight between open stretches of grass. To the north a small stone building with a single metal door is barely visible through the greenery.

Getting through the fence is a simple matter of wire cutters and a moment of time. However, getting further into the place seems to be a more difficult matter.

You can try another DC 20 Stealth check to scout (you all don't need to go) and gain more information about the clearing. Or risk running in and getting into a fight.

"Hold on, let me take a look around."

Stealth: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (4) + 16 = 20

Gonna be one of those scenarios, isn't it?

Well, that passes, skin of your teeth but passes.

With a few missteps, Duthuj is able to sneak closer to the clearing and get a good scope of the place. There are regular patrols of vesk guards in heavy armor and handful of turrets scattered around what looks like an underground entrance.

In he Clubhouse!, one of Veevee's more enterprising chat moderators sets up a poll to see what the audience thinks you should do from here.

There's more than a few things the group can pick up about the emcampment from here.

Phone based update before I head to bed. There will be visuals and a map up in the morning UTC-9. But until then feel free to discuss options.

survival: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (12) + 8 = 20

"I don't like the idea of heavy weapons pointed in our direction, but I can deal. I've got some temporary invisibility, if that would help."

Survival, untrained: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (7) + 4 = 11
Survival, untrained: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (20) + 4 = 24

After watching the guard's movements for a few minutes, he continues, "I think I see a couple of places where we can sneak through the patrols. Before we head out, I want to cast a spell that will let us talk to each other in our minds instead of possibly being overheard."

Maps are updated with images and tokens, feel free to take a look!

Also @Zirul, next time there are 2+ possible spoilers for you to open please tell me which one you are rolling for. Given that Vaidra passed the second Survival spoiler check, I'll apply your roll to the first one. Also if you could add more than just a dice roll that would be nice.

Syrelle is able to quickly spot that there are web vines littering the place here. These vines prey on unsuspecting animals and creatures by trapping them in a web and making them easy prey for predators. The vines get nutrients from what the predators leave behind. They are, however, a hazard for unsuspecting sentient creatures as well. If you walked over one unsuspectingly you'd likely be a sitting duck and have to cut yourself free.
I'll update locations on the web vines and patrol ranges in just a little bit.

map is updated! The 'w's are Web Vines and the white circles are the guard' S regular patrol routes. Don't forget to try the Engineering check. I'll also take computers if you prefer.

Engineering: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (4) + 12 = 16

Duthuj puzzles over the various devices in the area. "I can hide myself pretty well," he adds, fiddling with the cloaking device on his armor (which is actually an exploit, but whatever). "Let's just get through here and to the people without huge guns fast."

VeeVee will try the computers, even though it is not her forte.

Computers check for the DC 20 Engineering spoiler above: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (9) + 8 = 17

Would the Hacking Kit help here? If so, that adds a +4 to the check and it becomes a success instead.

I am normally better at hiding than I was on the way here. We should try to sneak past.

Both Duthuj and Veevee fail to recognize the turrets. They might be something easy to sneak past or not, but you'd have to try getting closer to one to try figuring out how and how far they can detect people.

In addition the poll on Veevee's Clubhouse! finishes and it proves to be a landslide victory for "Take out and hack the turrets first!" gamermode 4382 summarizes it best with their insightful "hacking turrets is always the best choice
you get two benefits from it instead of one
also for the fun of it!"

The push from the virtual community gives everyone an nudge in that direction.
All actions relating to disabling or hacking the turrets get a +1 from the livechat egging you on. Additonally, given how focused on the turrets they've become I'll allow everyone to retry/try the check untrained.

Duthuj sneaks over to the closest turret and, assuming he is not Swiss cheese by then, looks for a way to hack it.

Stealth: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (15) + 16 = 31
Engineering: 1d20 + 12 + 1 ⇒ (12) + 12 + 1 = 25

I will assume Khavarku can cast telepathic message before we move any closer.

Following in Duthuj's footsteps, Khavarku stops out of line of sight of the turret. Close enough to help with healing, but not getting involved with the hacking.

<<Be careful. They don't know we're here yet.>>

<<Khavarku, watch out for the web vines. You are between a couple of them. It might be better to go around the other way.>>

Veevee will move but will try to stay out of sight and out of the range of the weapon.

Stealth to move: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (15) + 12 = 27

Duthuj gets a set of schematics from DismantleEVERYthing89, and quickly realizes that the turrets are thermal sensitive to about 20' and can be bypassed with security keycards. But more importantly, they have a single flaw in their design that allows them to be hacked from 30' feet away.

You can try a Computers or Engineering check (with a +1 from the live chat) to disable any turret you are within 30' feet of and not risk activating it (unless you move closer than 20' feet to one. Duthuj, I'll take the stealth roll as one to stay hidden from the guards.

Just to be clear, is our goal to get to the Stairs in the Northern central part of the map?

Yep, but you can make it as easy or hard as you wish, also you need to be standing in the squares of the web vines to set them off.

You all go first, I'll probably inadvertly set them off.

Duthuj moves to just outside the pink turret's firing range and tries to remotely hack it.

Computers: 1d20 + 12 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 12 + 1 = 17

<Stupid establishment tech.>

Veevee gets a little closer to the turrets getting a good shot of them for her stream and even getting close enough to show the guards on their routes. Her automated face blurring algorithm helps keep her from doxxing the guards.

Duthuj gets close enough to try disabling one of the turrets, but the older programming on them gives him a bit of trouble with the hack and he has to try again.

Not 5 under the DC, and therefore doesn't cause the turret to go off. You can try again.

Trying again, then.

Computers: 1d20 + 12 + 1 ⇒ (7) + 12 + 1 = 20

Duthuj learns from his mistake in syntax from earlier and tries again, this time getting the turret to power down. He redaily finds that the turrets have a bypass that recognizes security tags that the gaurds are supposedly carrying. If he could just tweak the code to trigger the opposite way...

You can try making the turret work for you with another computers check.

Duthuj keeps banging on the keypad.

Computers: 1d20 + 12 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 12 + 1 = 17

<Someone else take a look at this... my hacking algorithms just aren't working.>

Khavarku keeps an eye on the guards, making sure nothing comes our way.

<<Not me. You could capture everything I know about computers in a thimble and still have room to spare.>>

Duthuj once again runs into a syntax error in his programming and fails to get the turret to respond like he wants it to.

The DC to take over the turret is a DC 19, you can roll until you either pass fail by 5 in which case the motherboard fries and it stops responding.

The invisible Khavarku keeps an eye on the guards and their movements. They seem to be completely unaware of the people around them. He, however, does spot that the doors to the place don't seem to have any way inside but an intercom button. It might take some time to get inside.

Anyone else want to try hacking the turrets?

Hack more!

Computers: 1d20 + 12 + 1 ⇒ (17) + 12 + 1 = 30

The Turret turns on with a small blip of nearly imperceptible noise, and Duthuj feels he and his fellow revolutionaries can walk around in the firing range of the turret without worry.

With that, you have a good idea of what the DCs are for these, it's a DC 19 computers or engineering to take down a turret, and another DC 19 to reverse it's tigger. Feel free to roll for the 3 other turrets, to speed things along. If you ever roll a 14 the turret either starts firing if active, or fries of inactive.

Computers, White: 1d20 + 12 + 1 ⇒ (10) + 12 + 1 = 23
Computers, White: 1d20 + 12 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 12 + 1 = 14

Computers, Yellow: 1d20 + 12 + 1 ⇒ (16) + 12 + 1 = 29
Computers, Yellow: 1d20 + 12 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 12 + 1 = 15

Computers, Blue: 1d20 + 12 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 12 + 1 = 14
Computers, Blue: 1d20 + 12 + 1 ⇒ (20) + 12 + 1 = 33

I'll let the White one break since it was not active and reroll the Blue with my shirt.

Computers, Blue, Reroll, 2 Novas: 1d20 + 12 + 1 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 12 + 1 + 2 = 21

And continuing on Yellow, since the second roll failed.

Computers, Yellow: 1d20 + 12 + 1 ⇒ (12) + 12 + 1 = 25

I believe this leaves White fried and the other three under my control.

<<Hey, folks, I don't see any way in except for the intercom. Anyone up for pretending to be a guard?>>

After a little manuvering around and timing of taking down the various turrets by Duthuj one of the patrols of guards gets too close to the turrets. There’s a brief moment where everyone holds their breath and then the turret activates and swivels to face the guards. They give a small cry of surprise as the machine whirrs and fires at them.

Turret vs Guard EAC: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (17) + 13 = 30
Fire damage: 3d6 ⇒ (1, 2, 5) = 8
The guard in white gets a stinging bolt of laser across the face.

The other patrol tries to join the first one, but they pass too close to a second turret and get fired upon by that one too.

Turret vs Guard EAC: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (9) + 13 = 22
Fire damage: 3d6 ⇒ (6, 3, 1) = 10
Teh gaurd in black then gets a blaster shot in the back and starts bleeding heavily.

Combat start

Everyone is still hidden from the guards and the guards and turrets will be fighting each other, but you still need to get to the entrance and inside. If you pass within 20 feet of one of the guards you’ll have to roll a DC 20 stealth or be spotted. A spotted character might get fired upon by the guards.

★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Round 1: Time to get inside!

General active conditions: None
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Duthuj
Khavarku
Syrelle

Turrets
Guards:
- Black: -10
- Light gray
- Dark gray
- White: -8

Veevee

Bolded may act.
>>>Maps<<<

I moved Duthuj to within 30 feet of the Blue turret, since he would have had to be there to interface with it. There are plenty of paths around the map that do not get within 20 feet of the guards. The blue X is where he was before, if you want me to start from there instead.

Duthuj sneaks around behind the trees.

Stealth: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (15) + 16 = 31

Khavarku tries to thread the line between the two groups of guards, pausing in a bush for a moment to see if he's been spotted.

Duthuj, starting from around the blue turret successfully sneaks past the guards and around to the back of the entrance to the outpost.

Khavarku gets closer to the entrance trying to thread through the two guards, but not getting too close to alert them while they are distracted by the turrets.

I'll give Syrelle another 8 hours to post before bottling them

Syrelle also moves up between the two patrols trying to not get too close to the otherwise engaged vesk guards.

The turrets fire again before the guards can react.

Turret vs. Black: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (6) + 13 = 19
Fire damage: 3d6 ⇒ (4, 1, 3) = 8

Turret vs. White: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (16) + 13 = 29
Fire damage: 3d6 ⇒ (1, 3, 2) = 6

Two of the guards then fire back at the turrets.

Autotarget Rifle: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (16) + 7 = 23
Piercing: 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7
Autotarget Rifle: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (6) + 7 = 13
Piercing: 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7

One guard tries to fix a turret.
Computers: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (14) + 1 = 15

The fourth tries to back away out of the range of the turret closest to them.

★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Round 1: Time to get inside!

General active conditions None

★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★

Veevee

Round 2:
Duthuj:
Khavarku
Syrelle

Turrets
Yellow -7
Blue -7
Guards
- Black: -18
- Light gray
- Dark gray
- White: -14

Bolded may act.
>>>Maps<<<

The speedy ijtikri finishes his route around the outskirts of the encampment and reaches the door.

Stealth: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (14) + 16 = 30

Double move, so no time to do anything once I am there.

Don't we have a 4th player or did they drop?

Keeping bushes carefully between himself and the guards, Khavarku scuttles across the ground to join Duthuj.

Veevee is still here. Just been quite while we sneak

Veevee moves up the west side, steering clear of the Guards

Stealth if necessary: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (12) + 12 = 24

Move to guard and attack hit: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (8) + 6 = 14 vs KAC hammer
dmg: 1d10 + 6 ⇒ (3) + 6 = 9 blunt.

Sorry! I was hoping that we hadn't lost anyone.

Most of the group keeps sneaking around to get to the entrance, but Syrelle decides to take things into his own hands and bring the fight to the guards. He pops out of the bushes behind the one smart guard trying not to get shot by the turrets and surprises the vesk. With a quick swing the vesk is quickly reeling from the blow.

The vesk gives a shout but before anyone can react the turrets fire again.

Turret fire vs. Black: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (1) + 13 = 14
Fire damage: 3d6 ⇒ (5, 6, 2) = 13

Black just BARELY avoids getting killed by the turret near him.

Turret fire vs. White: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (7) + 13 = 20
Fire damage: 3d6 ⇒ (3, 3, 1) = 7

White is not so lucky as the turret guns him down with a blase of laser blasts.

The vesk that just got pummeled by Syrelle gives a small gasp of surprise and steps back 5 feet trying to line up a clear shot against the pahtra. ”Should have known it’d be insurgent scum like you!”
Autotarget Rifle: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (12) + 7 = 19

The guard trying to reverse hack the turret also stands up and tries to fire on Syrelle, but has more cover than he’d like from the pahtra.

Autotarget rifle, vs cover: 1d20 + 7 - 2 ⇒ (16) + 7 - 2 = 21

Black decides to try another shot as well, but doesn't get out of the way of the turrets.

utotarget rifle, vs cover: 1d20 + 7 - 2 ⇒ (1) + 7 - 2 = 6

★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Round 2: Everyone one was kung fu fighting!

General active conditions None

★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★

❕ Veevee

Round 3:
❕ Duthuj:
❕ Khavarku
❕ Syrelle (Zirul)

Turrets
Yellow -7
Blue -7
Guards
- Black: - 18
- Light gray
- Dark gray -9
- White: -21

Bolded may act.
>>>Maps<<<

"Gotta show off for the feeds, don't you?"

Duthuj checks the door for traps.

Perception: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (14) + 10 = 24

Then they do the thing to get past any traps or locks on the door.

Engineering or Computers: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (15) + 12 = 27
if a second is needed: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (17) + 12 = 29

Assuming they have an open door now, they enter and prepare to lay down covering fire if needed.