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After a quick rest you check your coms units. There is a message from Ixthia.
“Thank you for accepting this mission. We’ve identified a control center at the pinnacle of the Voidglass Spire. It is our belief that this is the core of the psychic transducer, which transmits thoughts and psychocorporeal foes across the battlefield via shadow beams. Investigate this control center and shut down the psychic transducer. If our luck holds, this will render their greatest weapon useless—the Voidglass Spire will be a hollow shell. Good luck, Starfinders. Our hope goes with you.”
Following your directions you arrive at an entrance... one that is covered by a shimmering barrier of solidified will!
Status: Spire control center Harrying fire: available
Option-8 Weakened. 2sp damage;
Ears weakened ; damage;3/4RP;
Dhomer 3/4 RP;
Twila-5 5sp damage; 4/5rp;
Jekcedo Impaired; 9 sp damage; 3/5RP;
Dirk weakened; 9/32sp; 28/28HP; 2/3RP;
Conditions
Group:
Unbreakable resolve: +4 to each of your initiative and +2 to will waves
Unexpected reinforcements: Once per combat, call down harrying fire on an opponent.
Individuals
Weakened - Con track poison damage;
The victim takes a –2 penalty to Fortitude saves, Constitution checks, and Constitution-based DCs. Every time the victim attempts a Fortitude save against the poison—whether he succeeds or fails—he loses Hit Points as per on initial exposure.
Impaired - Con track poison damage, as weakened, plus..:
The victim takes an additional –2 penalty to the affected checks and the affected DCs decrease by an additional 2. If she has 1 or more levels in a spellcasting class whose key ability score is Intelligence, she can’t cast her 2 highest levels of spells from that class.
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Jek takes out a Turquoise Cube Aeon Stone and puts it into motion around Jek's head. "I think we're going to need all the luck we can get."
Jek tires to learn more about the shimmering barrier. "This looks more dangerous than the other barrier we dealt with, best we try to learn all we can about it first."
Next Jek looks around to see if there are any signs of any control for the shimmering barrier or a way around it.
"I don't think my compound eyes like this shimmering light." Jek sits down and closes their eyes for a bit trying to clear their head.
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Jekcedo starts to attune to the odd wall of force. With the help of his stone he starts to disassemble it.
Dhomer, joining in, finds his will badly tested.
Twilia tries to bolster Option's assault on the wall..... which after initial resistance, vanishes in a puff of logic.
With the barrier defeated you proceed to the control room, which looks vaguely like the interior of a geode - sharp voidglass shards point in all directions. Scattered among these growths are things that must be control panels.
Status: Spire control center Harrying fire: available
Option-8 Weakened. 2sp damage;
Ears weakened ; damage;3/4RP;
Dhomer 27/33SP; 3/4 RP;
Twila-5 5sp damage; 4/5rp;
Jekcedo Impaired; 9 sp damage; 3/5RP;
Dirk weakened; 9/32sp; 28/28HP; 2/3RP;
Conditions
Group:
Unbreakable resolve: +4 to each of your initiative and +2 to will waves
Unexpected reinforcements: Once per combat, call down harrying fire on an opponent.
Individuals
Weakened - Con track poison damage;
The victim takes a –2 penalty to Fortitude saves, Constitution checks, and Constitution-based DCs. Every time the victim attempts a Fortitude save against the poison—whether he succeeds or fails—he loses Hit Points as per on initial exposure.
Impaired - Con track poison damage, as weakened, plus..:
The victim takes an additional –2 penalty to the affected checks and the affected DCs decrease by an additional 2. If she has 1 or more levels in a spellcasting class whose key ability score is Intelligence, she can’t cast her 2 highest levels of spells from that class.
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Jek not having any computer or engineering skills, tries to be useful by using their Profession maintenance worker skills to find anything that might aid others in figuring out the equipment safely.
" As a professionally trained maintenance worker first thing I always do with new equipment is look for the instruction manual, and before working on anything find and turn off the power source. I'll look to see if I can find either."
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Also suspecting traps (because who would leave such a vital control room unprotected?), Twila-5 does an additional search before entering, continuing to do so until she's cleared the room.
Once she's satisfied that traps won't be a problem, she approaches a control station and tries to sort out what to do to disable it, muttering: "I don't suppose detonating the whole chamber is a wise idea."
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The team, suspicious checks for traps before entering the area.
You are just about to head in when the sharp eyed Dhomer notices a doughnut on a plate. Reaching for it he pauses... that is perhaps too convenient. Do grioth even eat doughnuts? Holding up his hand the team freezes.
Under the doughnut there is a mystical rune.... surely something bad would have happened if he had got any closer too it.
You have a couple of options to deal with the rune, you could try to deface it (engineeing) or try to nullify the planar forces that are gathered around it (mysticism, easier)
Status: Spire control center Harrying fire: available
Option-8 Weakened. 2sp damage;
Ears weakened ; damage;3/4RP;
Dhomer 27/33SP; 3/4 RP;
Twila-5 5sp damage; 4/5rp;
Jekcedo Impaired; 9 sp damage; 3/5RP;
Dirk weakened; 32/32sp; 28/28HP; 1/3RP;
Conditions
Group:
Unbreakable resolve: +4 to each of your initiative and +2 to will waves
Unexpected reinforcements: Once per combat, call down harrying fire on an opponent.
Individuals
Weakened - Con track poison damage;
The victim takes a –2 penalty to Fortitude saves, Constitution checks, and Constitution-based DCs. Every time the victim attempts a Fortitude save against the poison—whether he succeeds or fails—he loses Hit Points as per on initial exposure.
Impaired - Con track poison damage, as weakened, plus..:
The victim takes an additional –2 penalty to the affected checks and the affected DCs decrease by an additional 2. If she has 1 or more levels in a spellcasting class whose key ability score is Intelligence, she can’t cast her 2 highest levels of spells from that class.
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Twila-5 joins the teamwork, but the grioth have some weird mumbo-jumbo going on here. It's hard to make heads or tails of it.
"Uh, guys... This doesn't feel right..."
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Woith the whole team - and I do mean the whole team - cooperating together, you narrowly manage to disable a rather nasty trap that surely would have flooded the room with planar energies, doing all kinds of unspecified nastiness to you all. Already battered from the previous battle, that would have been inconvenient at best for you.
Faced with the control room that is now safe, you must somehow work out how to shut down the psychic transducer.
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"Got to get this right the first time."
Jek says pacing back and forth near the psychic transducer. Jek stops and takes out their canteen and has a drink, before starting to remove their equipment
"Here take my gear I don't want any distractions trying to make this mystical connection."
Jek removes everything except their clothing and com unit.
"Might be good if you all stand back or even get out of the room."
Jek sits down and turns on some relaxing music with Klikharps thrumming in the background. Jek's antenna completely relaxes and then perks up to the rhythm of the thrumming putting Jek into a relaxed state of mind to help enable mystic connections.
Jek reaches out for the psychic transducer's connection to the giroth leader, then tries to become one with it, still breathing in and out to the rhythm of the Klikharps, Jek's antenna following the same motion. Jek stays in this state for several minutes, then all of a sudden Jek hits stop on their com unit stopping the music, as Jek tries to snap the giroth's leader psychic transducer's connection.
Jek stands and looks around trying to feel if they have succeeded.
“Starfinders,” Ixthia announces. “The Voidglass Spire is nearly ours, but General Itharris and Lieutenant Ulgaran remain at large. Finish your missions and report for further instructions.”
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Jek manages to sever the connection from the transducer to... He senses a name... General Itharris. But the general is definitely aware and is already trying to reinitiate the connection.
You have only a short time in which to shut the device down fully. There is still some lingering psychic energy, so failure here may still be painful.
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Jek grabs their tool kit wihtout stopping to gear up yet and starts trying to disable the device. "I'm not an engineer but I know enough about maintenance that pulling these fuses should stop it from working correctly."
"If this thing blows up I still have some MK2 Serum of healing with my gear over there."
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Twila-5 had *really* disliked Jek's martyerdom schick from moments before, despite seeing how necessary it was, given the time constraints. Now that there's something--anything--she can do to help, she hustles over to share some of the danger-load. "I could use some help rerouting their subroutines into a virtual mobius strip. That should permanently disable the connections."
Hoisting their weapon aloft, Ixthia shouts, “Starfinders, the time has come for our final assault. General Itharris and the last of her soldiers have retreated to the heart of Sangoro’s Bulwark and are defending it to the last! We must sweep them from the Bulwark forever!”
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As one the Starfinders sweep toward the Bulwark's Heart.
The Bulwark’s Heart is lit by artificial lighting, the luminescent glow of the cenote, and the sinister glow of the Voidglass Spire and other voidglass deposits.
The ceiling in is 100 feet high. Around the edges of the Voidglass Spire (all spaces above the voidglass platforms), which has pierced through the upper floors of the Bulwark, the ceiling is instead 200 feet high. This space is massive, with hundreds of Starfinders and grioth soldiers engaged in chaotic battle.
The battle for Sangoro’s Bulwark rages in a beautiful cavern, marred by the Voidglass Spire and damaged by the gunfire, shrapnel, and magical attacks. To the north, the ground drops away to a glowing cenote, its waters churning violently. To the south, the lower reaches of the Voidglass Spire emerge from the ground, rising into the air and puncturing the ceiling in its quest for the sky with no regard for the damage caused to the ancient architecture of Sangoro’s Bulwark.
All around, Starfinders and grioths engage in heated combat. Emerging from the enemy throng are two formidable grioths who bark orders to the surrounding soldiers: Lieutenant Ulgaran, muscular and fierce, with white fur and a bellowing voice that spits curses and insults as often as he swings his voidglass sword; and General Itharris, terrifying in a metal and crystal containment suit, wielding a plasma sword and rifle.
General Itharris raises her sword and bellows at the top of her lungs. “Come to your death, Starfinders! I am that which gnaws and consumes! The terror in the dark! The corruptor of souls! Face me and embrace the Void!” Her voice reverberates with psychic power, tearing through the mind and leaving behind an ominous weight. A telepathic din rises in response, as the soldiers cheer for the coming bloodshed.
Lieutenant Ulgaran snarls. “You heard the General, maggots! Show them our strength! Draw out their fear! Tear apart the Starfinders!”
Status: init, if you beat a 19 you may act: Harrying fire: available
Option-8 Weakened. 2sp damage;
Ears weakened ; damage;3/4RP;
Dhomer 27/33SP; 3/4 RP;
Twila-5 5sp damage; 4/5rp;
Jekcedo Impaired; 9 sp damage; 3/5RP;
Dirk weakened; 32/32sp; 28/28HP; 1/3RP;
Ulgaran (19)
grioth (red,blue,pink,orange) (5)
Conditions
Group:
Unbreakable resolve: +4 to each of your initiative and +2 to will waves
Unexpected reinforcements: Once per combat, call down harrying fire on an opponent.
Individuals
Weakened - Con track poison damage;
The victim takes a –2 penalty to Fortitude saves, Constitution checks, and Constitution-based DCs. Every time the victim attempts a Fortitude save against the poison—whether he succeeds or fails—he loses Hit Points as per on initial exposure.
Impaired - Con track poison damage, as weakened, plus..:
The victim takes an additional –2 penalty to the affected checks and the affected DCs decrease by an additional 2. If she has 1 or more levels in a spellcasting class whose key ability score is Intelligence, she can’t cast her 2 highest levels of spells from that class.
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Jek runs (takes 2 move actions) almost making it to the clifts but just short, Jek takes cover behind some large crystal rising from the ground.
"There's some cover here as we get ready to scale the cliff. Does anyone have a rope? We can climb over each other to get up but will likely need a rope to get the rest of us up."
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The leader screaches and flaps down toward the isolated figure of Jek.
Status: bold may post Harrying fire: available
Option-8 Weakened. 2sp damage;
Ears weakened ; damage;3/4RP;
Dhomer 27/33SP; 3/4 RP;
Twila-5 5sp damage; 4/5rp;
Dirk weakened; 32/32sp; 28/28HP; 1/3RP;
grioth (red,blue,pink,orange) (5)
Jekcedo Impaired; 9 sp damage; 3/5RP;
Ulgaran (19)
Conditions
Group:
Unbreakable resolve: +4 to each of your initiative and +2 to will waves
Unexpected reinforcements: Once per combat, call down harrying fire on an opponent.
Individuals
Weakened - Con track poison damage;
The victim takes a –2 penalty to Fortitude saves, Constitution checks, and Constitution-based DCs. Every time the victim attempts a Fortitude save against the poison—whether he succeeds or fails—he loses Hit Points as per on initial exposure.
Impaired - Con track poison damage, as weakened, plus..:
The victim takes an additional –2 penalty to the affected checks and the affected DCs decrease by an additional 2. If she has 1 or more levels in a spellcasting class whose key ability score is Intelligence, she can’t cast her 2 highest levels of spells from that class.
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Ears boosts Twila-5's pistol and then heads toward Jek. Dhomer drops to the ground, must be a doughnut there... and then takes a cheap shot at one of the grith who he remarkably hits.
Twila-5 shoots... and scores. She is pretty sure that no static arc pistol in the history of static arc pistols has packed a whomp like that before. The grioth roars in rage.
Status: bold may post Harrying fire: available
Option-8 Weakened. 2sp damage;
Dirk weakened; 32/32sp; 28/28HP; 1/3RP;
grioth (red,blue,pink
orange (-5)
Jekcedo Impaired; 9 sp damage; 3/5RP;
Ulgaran - 21
Ears weakened ; damage;3/4RP;
Dhomer 27/33SP; 3/4 RP;
Twila-5 5sp damage; 4/5rp;