GM Nomadical's 6-04 Secrets Long Submerged (Inactive)

Game Master Nomadical

Kōlēfō bangs the side of the computer, but at least it did move them in the right direction.

He ponders if his vocal modulator combined with a Bluff or Life Science check (ideally the former) could allow him to sound like another eel enough to distract their pursuer.

If not, he will auto-aid Tari's bluff-grenade.

I have an if/then thing for this round. IF an additional assist on piloting is allowed, Yith will do that. If not, she will survey the giant eel, the environment around them and see if there is anything out of the ordinary that a Mysticism check would reveal that may give them some positive result.
?: 1d20 ⇒ 3
Piloting is an auto aid at +16, ,+17 for mysticism.

Tari whips her grenade launcher off her back and dumps some random bits out of her pockets next to it. Moving quickly, she jams a spiky bit into the bottom of one of her grenades which starts to make that characteristic whiiiiiine.

"Out of the way," she shouts as she stands up and aims at the gigantic eel bearing down on them.

Feint: 1d20 + 22 + 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 22 + (2) + 2 = 30
Attack?: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (2) + 10 = 12 (range 60 ft., shock grenade to try and disrupt it's field to find us. damage irrelevant unless you need it.)

Happy to reroll that. I want it to be cool! I have a campaign coin, since I don't remember if I've used my reroll yet.

Normally Azara would give an inspirational speech to the pilot at this point. But, he suspects the computer is not going to be inspired by anything he might say.

So, instead, he directs his inspirational skills toward the big guy with the big gun.

Diplomacy (Inspire): 1d20 + 19 ⇒ (17) + 19 = 36

Kōlēfō considers some options and it does seem like tricking the eel could work. There were certainly other eels like it (that you heartlessly and mercilessly slaughtered), so it's not unreasonable to think it could be distracted.

Yith checks all the scanners as she would in a starship but doesn't find anything mystical out here that could help.

Tarifa chucks a customized grenade back behind the sub like a tiny sonic depth charge. Though she hits the spot she aimed for, the eel doesn't get distracted.
@Tarifa, don't waste the reroll now. You can beat its DC, but it'll take a pretty high roll and maybe some help. 

Azara inspires his buddy Azzirm. Maybe it'll help him hit it with the big gun.

Grump continues to help the ship’s AI pilot find the best route, though it looks like it will need to evade some wreckage up ahead.

Piloting, Evade DC 21, AP, Ship mod, Zone, Grump Aid, Positioning: 1d20 + 20 - 1 - 2 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (14) + 20 - 1 - 2 + 2 + 2 = 35

As the ship pulls out into the open ocean, you spot a pod of whales. There might be an opportunity to cause some confusion if you could get them to scatter. See slide

Round 2
BOLD May Act
Map: A Sur-eel Chase.
Surfboat statistics

Latest position update: Open Ocean

Pilot (Autopilot)

==========Chase Progress Phase==========

Azzirm (Aided)
Azara 
Grump 
Kōlēfō 
Tarifa
Yith

Azzirm's first shot was close....but still missed. He listen to Azara and smiles a little. "Thanks for spotting me....let's see if that helped."

The gun gets quickly overcharged, and he fires.

Ranged Attack (EAC) Overcharged: 1d20 + 14 - 2 + 2 ⇒ (11) + 14 - 2 + 2 = 25
Damage (Fire): 2d8 + 1d6 + 9 ⇒ (2, 5) + (2) + 9 = 18

Again....taking a -2 for speed....tell me if/when we go full speed and I will modify it to -5. Also took a +2 from Azara's aid.

"Tarifa, I have a spare shock grenade if that will help. Maybe aim for the nose this time..."
Yith will try to figure out the best place to put a shock grenade to acheive this desired result
aid trick, life sciences: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (3) + 7 = 10

I haz reroll: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (14) + 7 = 21

Tari holds out her hand imperiously for the grenade and loads it into her launcher. This time she delicately pulls the pin partly out and loops a spare bit of wire around it before launching

Is the Bluff needed higher or the attack? Thrown weapons are definitely not her best skill, if someone else has a better chance of hitting.

Feint: 1d20 + 22 + 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (5) + 22 + (5) + 2 = 34 In case it's relevant, anything rolling SM against her bluff has "disadvantage"
grenade: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (5) + 10 = 15

Rolling single digits sure isn't helping this either

"Anyone able to play with the whales? I don't think they'd notice anything I can do."

Kōlēfō tries to sound like a whale.

Bluff if I can get away with it: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (10) + 18 = 28
Life Science if not: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (6) + 4 = 10

+2 of vocal modulator helps

Kōlēfō consults with Yith and together they trick the whales into scattering by singing a song of panic and fear. Cause who wouldn’t be a little panicky with a ginormous eel barreling after them?

Azzirm and Azara work together, but the eel slithers out of the way. Tari tries again, but the grenade still isn’t making much of an impression on the eel.

@Tarifa, it has no SM modifier, so the DC is based strictly on its CR. Which is kind of insanely high.
@Yith, Reroll not needed so keep it just in case. You hit the Aid Another DC already (Only DC 10 in SF), and I applied it as an Aid to Kōlēfō's Bluff. 

Round 2
AZARA May Act
Map: A Sur-eel Chase.
Surfboat statistics

Latest position update: Open Ocean

Pilot (Autopilot)

==========Chase Progress Phase==========

Azzirm
Azara 
Grump 
Kōlēfō 
Tarifa
Yith

"Hmmm...a little to the left, I think...but you're doing great!" Azara tells Azzirm.

Diplomacy (Inspire): 1d20 + 19 ⇒ (19) + 19 = 38

Suddenly, Narfalsr’s voice comes in over the comms. ”Starfinders, I see you’re in a bit of a situation. Let me see if I can distract the sovereign eel to buy you some time.”

Narfalsr’s crew sends out a series of pulses from their ship causing the serpent to appear momentarily confused. It slows down and seems to be hunting through the wreckage as if it lost track of the little Starfinder sub. After several seconds, though, it picks up the scent of canned meat again and resumes the pursuit.
As a result of your success with Narfalsr at the atoll, he caused the serpent to take the “slow down” action this round and not advance. It’s a one-time thing, though.

”I’m sorry we can’t stay to help longer, but we’re running low on battery power. And we don’t really want to become the sovereign’s next meal either. Good luck, Starfinders,” he signs off.

Grump keeps tweaking the AI’s routing,

Piloting, Keep Pace DC 21, AP, Ship mod, Zone, Grump Aid, Positioning: 1d20 + 20 - 1 - 2 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (17) + 20 - 1 - 2 + 2 + 2 = 38

The ship reaches a beautiful reef and the crew needs to program the autopilot to pick a path. You can either stay below the surface and dodge through the reef, or surface into a raging squall which will help hide you from the eel if it were to catch up to you, but the winds could also have other effects, too
See the Slide for the mechanical effects, all related to the next round’s Piloting roll.
If you want the Autopilot to do something other than Keep Pace, like Speed Up, etc., please let me know.

Round 3
BOLD May Act
Map: A Sur-eel Chase.
Surfboat statistics

Latest position update: Reef

Pilot (Autopilot)

==========Chase Progress Phase==========

Azzirm (Aid)
Azara
Grump (Auto-aiding Autopilot)
Kōlēfō 
Tarifa
Yith

"Thank you!" Tari shouts as she continues to fiddle with grenades.

I'd go up, but whatever y'all want to do. This'll work eventually. :)

Feint: 1d20 + 22 + 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 22 + (4) + 2 = 34

"I'm leaning toward using the squall to hide us while we pick up the pace."

"I'm with Grump on this!"

She then gives Tarifa encouragement.
Don't have feint so can I even assist?
a roll, just in case: 1d20 ⇒ 17

The skittermander bangs on the side of the computer. "Can't this thing go any faster?" He clearly thinks it's time to Speed Up.

Auto-aid Piloting

"Higher and faster, is my vote!" Azara says as it becomes apparent there are two possibilities.

"Third time's the charm, Tari! You got it, this time!" he encourages Tarifa.

Diplomacy (Inspire): 1d20 + 19 ⇒ (6) + 19 = 25

"This thing...it seems just impossible to hit....", Azzirm somewhat says and somewhat snarls.

The gun gets quickly overcharged (again), and he fires.

Ranged Attack (EAC) Overcharged: 1d20 + 14 - 2 ⇒ (10) + 14 - 2 = 22

Damage (Fire): 2d8 + 1d6 + 9 ⇒ (6, 2) + (1) + 9 = 18

But all it does is hit the water...

.....next.....

A majority for up into the Squall, and a couple votes for Speed Up are good enough.

Azzirm can’t hit the broad side of a colossal eel.

Encouraged by Azara and aided by Yith, Tarifa lets another grenade go. Just as the sovereign eel sticks its nose out of the last bits of wreckage, the grenade goes off below its chin. It falls for the fake out and glances downward right when Grump and Kōlēfō get the autopilot headed upwards into the howling winds and rain of the sea squall.

Piloting, Speed Up DC 28, AP, Ship mod, Zone, Grump Aid, Kōlēfō Aid, Positioning: 1d20 + 20 - 1 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (11) + 20 - 1 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 = 38

The little ship jumps ahead, and the eel dives back down deeper into the depths looking for other prey.

CHASE OVER!

As the giant beast turns away Yith slumps a little i relief.
"Well. For some reason that seemed more frightening than that faux Deity thing.."

"We done with being seafood for a while?"

Yith nods. "Indeed. Although I suddenly feel like some sushi. Anyone know a good place on this planet?"

"Yeah, the faux deity was surprisingly easy to take down. Maybe the giant eel would have been too, but it seems like we might have had to do it from the inside," Azara comments.

"I may know someone who knows a place," he continues when discussion about sushi comes up.

"We could check in with Narfalsr & his team before we head back."

"Sushi sounds good...as long as we get the type that we eat...not the ones that eat us....and I agree Grump. Narfalsr helped us out there when we really needed it. We probably should radio to see if they got away from the area safely too."

Tari slumps down in relief once the eel decides to lunch elsewhere. "I'm up for anything that isn't actually *in* the ocean."

Safely back on your ship and en route to Anduwar with visions of sushi and a hot bath in mind, you have time to delve through the data that Azzirm extracted from the server room. He finds that:

• Storm engines were developed and maintained by storm giants, who kept their creation and operation secret.

• This site was a secret research facility founded shortly after the Gap. Its goals were to reverse engineer, recreate, and improve upon storm engines.

• The founders of this research facility were clearly cloud giants of the ruling Cloud Imperium who believed that their storm giant colleagues would soon betray them. They feared that when this betrayal occurred, they would lose access to the storm engines that protected their cities, for the storm giants would surely sabotage, destroy, or weaponize the engines against them.

• The founders of this research facility were led by a very powerful, well-respected Cloud Imperium bureaucrat, though the founders’ identities were never entered into the system. Instead, they used code names. The codename of this ringleader was “The Weathered One.”

• The storm engines were researched, concepted, and prototyped in this facility, but manufactured and tested elsewhere, at sites likewise hidden behind code names, such as A-21, C-6, S-13, U-27, or V-9. These storm engines performed only fractionally as well as those created by storm giants and required more than a tenfold increase in power to function even suboptimally.

• Spies reporting to the Weathered One discerned that storm giants mystically transferred a portion of their own electric aura into the storm engines they crafted during the construction process. With dozens of storm giants providing a portion of their aura to each engine they built, this amplified the power of the engine exponentially while having a negligible effect on individual giants. This led the research facility to turn to biological sources to power their storm engines, including captive storm giants, electric eels, and Pholskar serpents. Being used as a power source in this way rapidly drained one’s life force and was always fatal.

• Researchers were attempting to reduce the lethal effects of aura siphoning by cryogenically cooling subjects such that their bodily functions slowed to a near standstill.

• Two researchers, named Algernal and Sopholine, were opposed to the heinous experiments they had become a part of and were instead attempting to create an artificial or biotech substitute. Their research proposal was denied by the Weathered One and they were fired shortly thereafter. There are no further records of these researchers on the servers.

========================================

Upon your arrival in Anduwar, Kurvasyr (the agent of High Marshall Taviss) greets you at the Pholskar spacedocks. They begin by asking what you discovered and asks that you share any data you collected. ”I would be glad to write a letter of commendation for each of you addressed to First Seeker Ehu Hadif with the promise that the Starfinder Society be granted exclusive archaeological exploration rights to Talgradur for the next 4 years,” they offer in exchange for your findings.

SM vs DC22: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (19) + 15 = 34

"While I wouldn't mind sharing our findings with you & the High Marshall, we still have our patron awaiting delivery."

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (20) + 7 = 27

"Can't wait to see what other people find here! I have a stellifera friend who would probably be great for this job!"

Spoiler: other than having a swim speed, Khubelu would be awful for this job.

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (3) + 8 = 11

Azzirm looks at the cloud giant agent.

"Our initial findings need to be brought to Councillor Ethel first. After that, depending on what she says, it might be possible."

Azara isn't at all sure about Pholskar politics, but his instinct is to dance with the one who brought you.

The fact that Grump and Kolefo seem to have sussed out something suspicious only makes him stand firm by that decision.

The information that they actually got just makes him shake his head at the tragedy that people pushed themselves and others into in a quest for both literal and political power.

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 13 + 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (15) + 13 + (3) + 2 = 33

Tari frowns slightly. The offer is *very* tempting, though she would rather never come back to this waterlogged world again. "The First Seeker is always on the lookout for more information and exploration opportunities. As long as we get the information back the way we left it, I don't see what the harm is myself."

Do any of the names ring bells for those of us with Culture?

Do any of the names ring bells for those of us with Culture?

Nope. No other mention of them in the scenario.

Seeing that they’re not getting the dataset, Kurvasyr turns away. ”I’m sorry you all feel that way. I would have wanted first crack at it, but I suppose I’ll just have to get it from the old bat herself later,” they say with a shrug. ”I hope you don’t live to regret your decision, Starfinders.” With that, they slide into a luxurious giant-sized stretch limo and depart.

Arriving back at the Imperium complex, you’re met by Private Roros who quickly escorts you in to see Elthel. Once more in the same grand receiving room as before, Elthel commends you for your hard work and dedication.

”Rest assured that after this success, I’ll continue to further lobby on behalf of the Starfinder Society. Furthermore, I’d like to have you all return in the future, as I suspect I will have some “independent work” that you would be perfectly suited for.” She particularly gives Azara a nod and a small half-smile, as Roros looks down at her feet in abject embarrassment.

She asks you to wait while she peruses the data you’ve brought her and considers the rest of your report. When she gets to the part about the research that was being conducted in the secret laboratory and the mysterious Weathered One mentioned in the datasets, Elthel appears grim yet resolute, saying that she had feared something foul was occurring in Talgradur.

”I would ask you to keep this information quiet for a week while I ensure the data is duplicated and properly stored to prevent foul play.”

”In the meantime, I understand that Private Roros knows an excellent seafood restaurant. Tell the owner to charge dinner to the Council,” she finishes. Though you are dismissed, she remains behind for a little while to continue reading your reports.

"You don't have to ask me twice."

The skittermander does his best to test the limits of "all-you-can-eat" and ends up asking Tarifa for more from her travel bag than shampoo.

"I have also worked up quite the appetite!"

Azzirm looks towards Ethel and speaks up. "So.....just so you know, there were at least 2 attempts to ask us where we were going before we left, with hints that they would be interested in our findings....and one of the agents asked us if we had data that we could share since we got back."

"People are definitely interested in it," Azara agrees with Azzirm.

"We don't mind sitting on the information for a while but it is important that people know the truth so we will release it after a reasonable amount of time."

He makes a point of not looking at Roros. "And I have to say that I'm looking forward to visiting your lovely world again. There's no denying that there may be trouble brewing, but what world doesn't have some troubles and I believe you're on the right path to clear things up."

At the restaurant, Azara eats but not as heartily as some of the others. He spends much of the time quietly talking with their escort.

Elthel seems unsurprised at Azzirm’s information. ”I rather expected my political rivals to interfere, as they’d like me out of the way. Thank you for handling them as well as you did, and for letting me know.”

The giantess stands and leads you all to the door of the conference room to bid you farewell. ”Please pass on my thanks also to Mr. Hadif for the loan of your team. I look forward to seeing you all again someday.”

====================

Back at the Lorespire Complex, First Seeker Ehu Hadif thanks you for your efforts and asks about the exploration. Ehu is proud of your discoveries, noting that “…even the darkest parts of history must be brought to light.”

Naiaj, on the other hand, is worried, sarcastically retorting, “Yeah, I’m sure that digging up the dirty secrets of a planet’s government won’t cause us any problems.”

Ehu Hadif rolls his eyes at the gnome’s reply and suggests that you all get some rest.

”I sense that big changes are on the horizon. For all of us.”

Fini.