[SF Adventure] To Defy the Dragon

Game Master cmlobue

There's a little time before this occurs, but it's a longer time away so I didn't want to spring it at the last moment.

I've got a trip from 7/31 to 8/12, and for much of it I won't have internet access.

Final reminder. It's a bit of a long one.

This is probably the last post before the trip, but IF things escalate to combat with this paranoid fella Sefel would want to neutralize the situation with Resilient Sphere.

I will be traveling for business from August 9 - 16. I will have computer access but not as much time for games during that time.

Thanks for the heads up. Good luck with business and safe travels.

I can't find it in the posts now, but didn't we find a necklace or something for Liatha? Was it just the video?

Did we find it at another one of the labs? I seem to remember it coming up and thinking it was important but not knowing why, yet.

We saw the video. I don't remember finding anything like that at another site.

It's possible that you did not search the previous rooms thoroughly enough, what with all the undead and portals and stuff.

If you want to go back, you can, but you risk your new friend not remaining stable enough to wait if you do (and the risk gets worse the longer you take).

What do you guys think? I imagine he knows how to start the last mech, and he's dangerous in a fight.

Work with this situation as it is and just try to get the startup code from him? Risk the time to go look for a possibly non-existant something to calm him down? Alpha strike him now and sort it our later?

I vote for playing the hand we've been dealt.

I don't like the idea of just attacking him (as a player. The character thinks that's a great idea.)

I feel like leaving and coming back is just going to give him time to go crazy by himself so it won't matter if we find anything or not.

Sefel's already working with this situation. I agree too.

Are we going to talk things out with the guy or should Yargnod start building up to his Alpha Strike?

Since he's snapped I'd say odds of talking him back down are low.

Maybe Sefel’s strategy is futile, but it’s a nice option to have. Worst case we undo one and a time and focus fire.

The spheres have been lifesavers. It's a great spell and you've used it well.

FYI: I'm away in nature this weekend starting late Friday (9/6) afternoon and through Sunday (9/8) afternoon (US/Pacific time). I will resume posting Sunday evening.

I feel so bad for Yargnod. If someone's going to lose a bunch of turns, it's always him.

Alright, lads. How do we want to do this?

It looks like Fire Knight is the only dedicated ranged mech.

Looks like Time Knight and Palisade Knight are close combat focused.

And Shadow Knight seems more like a variable role mech.

Is anything calling out to anybody?

I think we should pick in order established by diplomacy rolls to quantify our success in argument. :-)

I also have no preference. Should we randomly assign them?

Yeah, as far as I can tell the mech's abilities have nothing to do with the pilots skills, combat abilities, or spells.

Yeah. The mech turns everyone into a big hard-hitting soldier. Damage output is pretty uniform. Power Points are 2, except Time Knight at 3.

So mech choice is mostly about style. Looking at specs:

Shadow knight stands out to me. Fastest speed (when flying) , cold ranged attack. Starts with 6 PP but only regains 1/turn; max 13. The inubrix frame gives these abilities:
Ethereal Body (2 PP) As a standard action, the mech's molecular structure becomes slightly intangible. It's treated as incorporeal for the purpose of taking damage until the end of its next turn.
Ghost Shift (3 PP) As a move action, the mech passes through a solid object or surface of a thickness no more than 1 foot per its mech tier, emerging on the other side. If the object is too thick, the mech is shunted back where it began and takes 1d6 damage per foot of surface above its tier.

Flame knight has only ranged attacks and flys. Starts with 1 PP but regains 3/turn; max 7. The hot siccatite frame has a nifty defense
Radiant Shield (2 PP) As a reaction when it would take damage from a melee attack, the mech can summon a shield of hot or cold flame, depending on its type of siccatite. The mech gains a +2 bonus to its EAC and KAC, potentially turning the attack into a miss. If the attack still hits, the attacker takes damage equal to the mech’s tier (cold damage if cold siccatite, fire damage if hot siccatite).
Thermal Burst (1 PP) As a standard action, the mech alters the temperature in an 80-foot radius around itself, dealing 6d8 cold (if cold siccatite) or fire (if hot siccatite) damage to all enemy creatures and mechs in the area (Reflex for half, DC = 15 + the mech’s tier).

Time Knight hits a tiny bit harder in melee, but less hard in ranged combat. Starts with 2 PP and regains 3/turn; max 8. Fastest ground speed. No flight. Horacalcum frame gives
Bullet Time (2 PP) As a reaction when it would take damage from a ranged attack, the mech can try to dodge the hit, attempting a Reflex saving throw with a DC equal to 15 + the enemy creature's CR or mech tier. On a success, the attack misses.
Temporal Pulse (4 PP) As a standard action, the mech can emanate a burst of chronological energy in an 80-foot radius. Allied creatures and mechs within the area can take an extra move action on their turn, while enemy creatures and mechs within the area must succeed at a Will save with a DC equal to 12 + 1/2 your mech's tier or lose their move action for the turn. This effect lasts for 1 round.

Palisade Knight also has a ground speed only. Starts with 6 PP but only regains 1/turn; max 13. Noqual frame's
Anti-Magic Targeting (1+ PP) The mech can activate this ability when making a single attack against a magical construct or foe capable of spellcasting. If the attack hits the mech increases its damage dice by 2 × the PP expended.
Dampening Field (2 PP) As a standard action, the mech can create a magic-dampening aura around itself. The effect lasts for 1 round, though the mech can extend the duration each round by expending 1 PP as a free action. Spells or spell-like abilities cast within an 80-foot radius of the mech have a 25% chance of failure while this aura is active.

Keep in mind you'll want to use power points in the normal ways too. See the last slide for normal power point options.

The mech do use your stats for making checks, so if there is a mech you want to mostly use in ranged combat, the character with the highest Dexterity or Piloting would be the best option as pilot.

I'm not going to go too much farther until this decision is made, because you may want to use them in a situation coming up soon.

If you like Shadow Knight, Telirix should take it.

And now that I know Palisade Knight's abilities, I'll claim it.

That leaves trusty ol' Flame Knight and Time Knight for Mordack and Sefel.

Though, if anyone wants Palisade Knight, for its close combat abilities, Yargnod likes to hang back so he'll take Flame Knight, instead.

Sefel has been piloting the flame knight so far. If someone has higher dex or piloting and wants to take over, feel free to say so! Otherwise he’ll keep on using it.

Sounds like the decisions have been made, then.

Telirix - Shadow Knight

Yargnod - Palisade Knight

Sefel - Flame Knight

Mordack - Time Knight

Unless Mordack wants to trade me for Palisade Knight.

I'm good with either.

Time knight's a good melee combatant. Recharging 3 PP per round let's you use your special abilities more freely. That's one thing I noticed in our mech fights.

Is there somewhere that the damage to the mechs is being tracked?

Time Knight (-5 HP)
Flame Knight (-22 HP)

Just a heads up, I'm traveling for a couple days with my wife. Can porbably resume posting Tuesday night. Please bot Telirix as needed.

Couldn't find a mech-based DC for weapons effects either. So maybe we go back to the core rulebook:

Weapon Special Property and Critical Hit DCs
Source Starfinder Core Rulebook pg. 181
Some weapons that explode or cause critical hit effects (see page 182) allow the target to attempt a saving throw. The DC of such a saving throw is typically equal to 10 + half the weapon’s item level + one of your ability modifiers. Unless stated otherwise, the ability modifier corresponds to the ability score you’d normally use to make an attack with that weapon (Dexterity for a ranged weapon, and Strength for a melee or thrown weapon). Any penalty you would normally take to your weapon attack roll also applies to this DC, including penalties from the weapon’s range increment.

Where the item level is the mech's level?

Oh, and check all your mech's auxilliary systems. They've got some pretty cool powers. Wish I'd cloaked when combat started. I could have dropped in behind the guys beating on Time knight or Palisade knight. Can't waste a full round now to do it.

So I'll be on Vacation from the 20th to the 27th, won't even have internet access as I'll be out to sea. Bot me as necessary.

Seems like now is the time to use up our mechs’ power reserves.

I'm not going to call things for the villains just now, but it seems like that is the way this is headed. Been talking to my local VO, and there are a couple options if this encounter has a bad ending.

You are far enough that I can simply issue chronicles with full rewards and end things.

Or, I can refluff the encounter after this one and continue. This is a one-time option which is only available because there is a way to make it make sense after losing the current battle.

Yikes. Things went bad in a hurry. We were insufficiently technical, tactic-less, and I personally didn't 'feel' the damage accumulation on Shadow Knight until your warning post.

Also the guardsmen were unexpectedly tough. I expected to wipe the field with them before we got to the real business with the dragons and ubermech, but it seemed like they were as tough as the dragons.

I'm playing for a low level Starfinder. I was imagining this as a last adventure for him after he finished his Starfinder career. Although I like Tel, I can start over easily enough.

I will accept decisions over whether to cash out now or play to the TPK to the others who may have a more tangible risk.

I have to admit, I'm a little disappointed that it's turning out like this, but it does very much feel like things went wrong in just a couple of turns.

I don't remember who I was planning on applying the credit to, but it was probably (or could be) a character I don't have any credits on, so I don't mind a TPK, either. Sometimes when you gamble, you lose.

This is the final battle of chapter 2. It's meant to be hard, but I was also surprised how badly it went for the PCs. Part of that is dice luck (you should have hit more often and them less) - but also, it's labeled as a CR 13 (and it seems tough for that) though you are just four tier 11 mechs.

EbonFist never filled out RPG Chronicles, so I can't answer who you may have assigned it to. The chronicle is a 3 XP sheet for tier 9-12.

This is also our first experience with mech combat. So all those character creation skills on how to make the best whatever doesn't matter here.

Edit: I wouldn't call it over yet though. Now that I'm remembering I can recharge shields every turn, I'm back up to full shields. So 25 SP and Hardness 5. I can probably last another round or 2.
Also they do piercing damage and I have piercing resistance, so my guy is more than willing to duke it out with them when my mech gets disabled.

Yeah, if I can find a way to be crafty with spells after Sefel re-groups in the bunker...

But the flame knight is definitely done for, for now.

RPG Chronicles is fixed so you can sign up at the appropriate level, but required me to delete all the entries.

https://www.rpgchronicles.net/session/e3fe4ad7-fa4d-4f5d-a38a-4919a75ddddb/ pregame

Applying it to a level 1 if possible, we just might be turning things around.

Mordack's crit was awesome. If Tel's took out yellow, we might be doing something now. Got a feeling it's false hope. Unfortunately Tel's damage output is about to go way down. And the grey robot-mech-dragon hasn't been touched.

Good idea to switch dice before that round.

So did we win?

You did. Sorry, got caught up in things. Know what would have been a great time to tell you to take a break and level up? Before the major US holiday.

Leveled-up. No purchases for now.

Someone should probably update the Loot sheet
Claim what you need, and take your remaining 3,333.375 credits then reset the loot sheet and add the new items.

Bought some stuff, Sold off some stuff at 10% value. Remember folks, Starfinder you get 10% of the value you bought it for, not half.

Wow! Did not think we were going to get through that one. Awesome work, team!

It will be a few days before I can level Telirix.

It was definitely a nail biter. Which is the best way for those climatic battles to work out.

Curiously enough, Yargnod has more SP/HP than Palisade Knight.

But, I think we all know the strategy, now. Boost shields every round they're down and wait for the power points to build up when boosting the shields isn't needed.