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Carlos shadow-walks into the main hallway of the ruined hospital. To the east he sees a large set of double doors leading outside, but which appear to be completely blocked by rubble from the southern wings. To the west, he notes other doors leading deeper into the hospital. But most of note are the 3 jinsuls immediately in front of him.
None of the jinsuls even notice the invisible halfling. They seem to be performing a routine sweep of the area, perhaps looking for survivors. Or lunch. Or both. For the moment, they’ve stopped to discuss which way to go at the intersection.
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Carlos pops back into the Office, briefs the team on the threat and his plan of attack, and then disappears again. Well, you assume he disappears back out to the hallway; he was invisible the whole time…
The sneaky and deadly halfling ports into the hallway and casts his spell. He notices as he does this that these jinsuls seem to have some kind of special training to resist spells. He easily overcomes the troopers’ resistance, but the Commander puts up more of a fight.
The Trooper with the Blue gun starts babbling, and the Commander yells at him in a high shrill scream.
Taking the highest of each pair:
+2 Init from Battlemind added:
Bold may act!
Map: Oh, Hello there!
Active Conditions: None
Environmental Conditions: None
Roquefort
Azzirm
Croaker
Ceolor
Back’Up
Blue Trooper
Carlos
Green Trooper
Commander
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Roquefort appears in the corridor, ready to start blazing away!
vs Green
Trick attack
Sense Motive Take 10 = CR13 tricked.
Attack vs FF EAC
Damage
+Bleeding Shot = 9 Bleed.
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Focused fire from the Starfinder team is just enough to bring the Trooper with the Green armband down before it can even act!
Ceolor may act!
Map: Oh, Hello there!
Active Conditions: None
Environmental Conditions: None
Roquefort
Azzirm
Croaker
Ceolor
Back’Up
Blue Trooper
Carlos
Commander
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Life Science
Roquefort moves into cover and fires around the corner.
vs Blue
Trick attack
Sense Motive Take 10 = CR13 tricked.
Attack vs FF EAC
Damage
+Bleeding Shot = 9 Bleed.
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Ceolor begins to align himself to the light energy of the universe and with line of sight on Blue, fires his solar weapon:
But the shot just barely misses.
The Trooper with the Blue gun realizes just for a moment what’s going on. It looks to the Commander for guidance, but getting none, it turns and spots a certain ysoki “blazing away” at its comrade. It moves to protect its Commander and fires at Roquefort.
Maybe the jinsul wasn’t as lucid as it thought it was, as its shot gets nowhere close to the Detective.
Carlos may act!
Map: Oh, Hello there!
Active Conditions: None
Environmental Conditions: None
Roquefort
Azzirm
Croaker
Ceolor
Back’Up
Blue Trooper
Carlos
Commander
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Carlos moves forward and fires at the Blue trooper. It just barely hits, and the jinsul turns its attention to the killer halfling!
Meanwhile, the Commander, who hasn’t been attacked yet…
lashes out at the Blue Trooper, mistaking it for a … halfling?
It reaches back behind its head, draws forth a weapon made of pure energy, and slashes at the unfortunate subordinate.
Suddenly, Roquefort darts behind cover and fires at Blue. His shot rips into its torso, and the jinsul crumples to the ground in front of its very confused Commander.
Bold may act!
Map: Oh, Hello there!
Active Conditions: None
Environmental Conditions: None
Roquefort
Azzirm
Croaker
Ceolor
Back’Up
Carlos
Commander
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Carlos looks at the commander through the sight of his sniper rifle, shooting gamma rays. "I watch my breathing: exhale, inhale, exhale and inhale. I watch my breathing: I don't want to be bad at anything." Repeating this mantra, he slowly pulls the trigger exactly between heartbeats.
With a satisfied nod, he teleports to Roquefort in a whirlwind of shadows in the blink of an eye. At parting , he says
The last one who attacks him - retreat so that he does not see you. He'll come after you anyway. He's insane.
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Azzirm moves forward, climbing through the hole--and probably widening it as the weaker structure of the hole meets the hard surface of the power armor. With a better line, he shoots at the commander with an overcharged shot--also hoping to draw it's fire from the others.
The shot accuracy was definitely not as good as the first....probably because the rebar of the wall knocked askew the servos that control the gun, but the amount that hits definitely seemed to be a whopper.
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Carlos unleashes a gout of irradiated petrol right in the Commander’s face! But it seems as though he ignores a little of the flames sweeping across him. Not much, mind you, but some.
The radiation doesn’t seem to have any effect at all, sadly.
Back’Up prepares himself for further combat while Croaker takes a wild shot and misses. A piece of rebar gets in Zir’s way and his shot also misses, but just by inches.
The only enemy that the jinsul can easily see is Azzirm, so it rushes forward and attacks the big half-orc who’d been hoping to get its attention anyway.
But the big man’s armor zaps the Commande right back which all seems to affect him normally.
Everyone may act!
Map: Oh, Hello there!
Active Conditions: None
Environmental Conditions: None
Roquefort
Azzirm
Croaker
Ceolor
Back’Up
Carlos
Commander
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Roquefort keeps blazing away...
Trick attack
Sense Motive Take 10 = CR13 tricked.
Attack vs FF EAC
Damage
+Bleeding Shot = 9 Bleed.
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Azzirm sees the jinsul charge at him and wonders how he gets himself into these predicaments, then remembers that 'oh yeah, I build my own power armor, and am usually seen at a front line fighter....', and mentally shrugs, as he realizes his lot in life is to just be a 'tank'.
Seeing that the mono-blades seem to be able to cut into his armor like a hot knife through butter, he decides to play defensive, and keep it focused on him....and hope his allies can get a good shot at this thing.
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Carlos pops through the Shadow Plane across the room leaving Roquefort standing by himself. When the murderous halfling emerges, he buts a blast of irradiated petrol into the jinsul Commander’s left flank. Roquefort sees an opportunity and fires off a shot, hitting the jinsul’s right side. Back’Up sends bolts of magical force into its torso, and Croaker follows up with a shot that goes straight through its skull! Azzirm swings at where its head was, but it was falling to the floor, and his swing passes harmlessly over its dead body.
Azzirm seems a little winded , but otherwise the rest of the team is uninjured.
Searching the bodies, you find that the Commander wore a d-suit III, and had a red star plasma pistol with 2 batteries (20 charges each), a minor photon crystal, a mk 3 ring of resistance, and mk 1 travel treads. Each of the two troopers wore an estex suit II, and carried a squad machine gun with 40 rounds, a tactical skyfire sword, and had two mk 1 screamer grenades.
In the silence that follows, you’re able to look around and see that you’re standing in the main entrance hallway of the hospital. Next to Roquefort are two double doors that are closed . There’s still the hallway that Back’Up was guarding . There’s also a small windowed room farthest east by the main front doors that was clearly a guard and reception desk, but the door is open and the room is trashed. It’s possible that the jinsuls were using it as a toilet, or a kitchen, it’s hard to tell from the stench.
On the other side of what might once have been a large waiting area, you notice a single door . There are 2 internal windows to the west of that door, but they seem to have been covered from the other side. Furthermore, the single door seems to also be blocked and barricaded. It would take time and effort to undo the barricade that someone clearly erected in defense.
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It’s possible that the jinsuls were using it as a toilet, or a kitchen, it’s hard to tell from the stench.
***
Roquefort admires the ring, "Anyone mind?"
"If the defensive position is on the other side it isn't Jinsul, and any Jinsul in this area probably know we are here after the firefight"
Roquefort goes and starts working on the barricade .
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Ceolor takes a look at the armor, assured he could probably use it well, but after the stench of the toilet/kitchen he's not sure he'd be willing to take the time to move his climate control unit over... and would rather not have to do so anywhere near there!
He follows Roquefort around to the Magenta obstacle adding in his voice, "We aren't Jinsul! Promise! Though technically I can speak it." If there's no response he tries again, this time in a language they might understand, Jinsul.
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Azzirm looks at the equipment garnered from the dead jinsuls and helps with the retrieval. Nothing on them is especially amazing for him though. Maybe eventually, but not while in a possibly hostile area.
After stripping the dead, he will walk towards Croaker and the rest...to keep them covered just incase more jinsuls are around.
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Beyond a barricade of furniture and bulky medical equipment, first aid supplies are strewn throughout a narrow hallway between a dozen single-bed patient rooms. Wounded survivors slump in the doorways, wide-eyed and fearful of intruders.
Two dozen creatures representing three distinct species inhabit these rooms, some stretched out in beds while others stand guard over their companions. A winged, bat-like humanoid confronts you in the hallway, their weapon at the ready but not pointed at you. Yet.
The batman-person speak to you in a language that everyone except Carlos and Back’Up understand, but which even they easily recognize as Vesk.
”Hold it! You’re clearly not jinsul, so I’m not inclined to fight you. Who are you?”
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Croaker looks at Ceolor with a sheet of plastic "Put it down, even without magic I know what you think of, what will my next novel be?" says turning towards the bat creature
"We are Starfinders, we received your stress call, and came to help. I have medical training, and can help with the wounded, while others can explain the rest."
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”Star… finders…?” From the tone of the question it’s clear they’ve never heard of your esteemed organization. ”Is that a military recon unit? You all seem pretty capable and certainly well armed. Looks like you took care of those jinsul out there,” they say with a nod to where the remains of the troopers are easily visible. ”Even got yourselves’ a sniper providing overwatch,” they add with a note of approval when they spot Carlos.
-Back'Up is here. Starfinder also. What kind of vesk are you? I advice that you not fight us. May I come in?
Someone else has to translate Back’Up’s questions, which get answered with a twitching of the small mushrooms growing from the bat’s forehead.
”What kind of vesk are we? We’re not… Ooooh, the language.” They shake their head and wave for all of you to move into the corridor. ”Let’s get everyone in and close that barricade back up before another jinsul patrol arrives. Then we’ll explain.”
Once you’ve all gathered in the corridor and secured the entryway, you can more easily take stock of the state of the occupants. There are 3 distinct species here. Muyari introduces themselves and explains that they are a nelentu. They point out another species called syngnathrixes which resemble a cross between a chameleon and seahorse, and the third they introduce as thyrs, beings that are a gaseous, intelligent ooze that have no set forms of their own. The lone thyr is wearing what looks like a fully sealed, humanoid shaped vacuum suit which Muyari explains is called an “encounter suit” for making other species more comfortable with the telepathic oozes.
”We’ll take any aid you can give us. We’ve got wounded, though I presume our physiology is new to you.”
As you examine the wounded, Muyari helps to explain the different species, and also explains why they speak vesk. It seems a wounded vesk stumbled into the system and passed away several years ago, though not before a certain syngnathrix named Dr. Yuuqa treated him and learned his language.
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Kish excuses for his theory about vesk type.
Back'Up is highly intrigued about Thyr and even mentions some similar creature from their Kish folklore.
Anyway Shaman gladly provide healing, aiding ysoki squad to threat wounds and take care of the trio.
Just thereafter Backup asks more about jinsuls and local lituation.
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Muyari watches as Roquefort, Croaker, and Back’Up save the lives of the three gravely injured patients. ”Thank you. We don’t really use magic for healing,” he says a little dubious of the technique but unable to fault the result. ”Though, I must say it appears that our med tech is much more advanced than what you’re using. I’d love to show you….”
Muyari curses at the single explosion in their native tongue rather than vesk. ”That sounded like it came from the operating theater. That’s where I was going to take you, but let’s go see what happened.”
They hustle you through the greenhouse and into a large circular room. On the way, a syngnathrix doctor calls out to Muyari. ”I think the generator blew up. Everything’s gone! All the equipment! All my notes!” She seems panicky and barely registers the six heavily armed aliens in her midst.
Muyari tries to disengage and takes you into the now destroyed operating theater. This is where the hospital staff had performed delicate procedures too complex to be carried out entirely by machines. They explain that the syngnathrix, Dr. Yuuqa, and her colleagues presided over surgeries here, and the room had contained advanced medical technology unique to the Kreiholm Freehold. All of it now destroyed beyond recognition.
As you survey the damage, Azzirm’s contractor experience and the team’s general knowledge of explosives and jinsul tactics make it clear that it was indeed the over-taxed emergency generator finally giving out. It’s only then Muyari calms Dr. Yuuqa down enough that she can talk to you coherently. It turns out that she was the one that sent the distress signal, and she included vesk in the hopes that maybe someone from outside their system would hear it. While delighted that you’ve come, and that you’ve clearly handled the jinsul patrol, she’s distraught over the loss of the equipment and generator.
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"Sorry about the loss of equipment, I am sure you can piece things back together again later when the invaders are repelled. I understand out tech isn't what you are used to, but your friends are alive so at least you know we can provide aid until you get back up to speed"
"You aren't running any other dubiously put-together equipment are you?"