Although the assassin sees Darkrunner's shot coming, he is still hit by it. Delea then causes a moment of convulsion in the same assassin, as he tries to fight off the instrusion in his mind.
The sound of summoning, with familiar voice of George 09-23, can be heard coming from nowhere...
In the meantime, the assassins keep firing, with cunning stealth to trick the Starfinders!
---(round 2)---
Delea
Nikko
Brock
Shokil
---(round 3)---
Darkrunner
George 09-23
---
Enemy - Red (35)
Enemy
Enemy
---
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Breathe, now Smith wouldn't have missed that shot would he? thinks Shokil.
'Only three of you?' muttered Smith. 'This shouldn't take long'.
'He's had too much to drink. I told you. He's seeing double.' came back the not-so-witty reply.
The third shadow loomed behind the talker, crashing down on it like a ton of bricks even as Smith's fist connected with the chin of the man he had been talking with moments earlier.
'We was wondering where you got to Sgt.'
Smith glared at private-whats-his-name over his cigar. 'Never interrupt another mans fight without asking for permission first, Private.'
Breathing deeply, Shokil tried to calm his too-fast-beating heart as he lined up the already wounded merc in a red suit. Who wears red to an ambush anyway?
As George 09-23 completes his spell three tiny sized robots appear. They are styled after gleaming silver toy tanks with oversized cannons and treads. The first two attack red outright while the third one tries to distract it with harrying fire.
"Bleep...focus fire on red. Bleep."
The next character to attack Red should get +2 circumstance bonus to their attack roll.
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Brock is shot again from one of the assassins, just as the muddy axe comes to rest again in his hand. He triggers the jump jets again and leaps to the north, slipping the handaxe back into his starfinder backpack as he moves.
When he comes to a landing, a large rifle materials within his hands. He brings it up, aiming toward the assassins, and fires.
Nikko just barely hits the assassin, while Shokil's internal struggle channels into solid marksmanship.
George's servants lay down excellent cover fire (but don't hit much), which Brock makes good use of by just setting all three of the assassins on fire. The damage is too much to handle for the red assassin, who collapses on the spot.
---(round 2)---
Delea
Nikko
Brock
Shokil
---(round 3)---
Darkrunner
George 09-23
---
Enemy - Red (DOWN)
Enemy - Blue (17)
Enemy - Orange (17)
---
Darkrunner lands a hit, but fails to trick out the cunning mercenary.
---(round 2)---
Delea
Nikko
Brock
Shokil
---(round 3)---
Darkrunner
George 09-23
---
Enemy - Red (DOWN)
Enemy - Blue (25)
Enemy - Orange (17)
---
Delea moves closer to be able to Mind Blast her opponents in the future.
Double Move.
@DM Kludde - YMMV with the holidays. Personally it is a mad scramble for me before the holidays with preparations but I have plenty of screen time during the holidays to post. A lot of people are travelling or going from party to party so your call for a relaxed posting schedule is a good one. :)
Delea moves in, and the mercenaries reposition, each taking care of a flank. The firts snipes at Darkrunner, but misses completely, while the other takes a rather painful shot at Nikko.
---(round 3)---
Delea
Nikko
Brock
Shokil
---(round 4)---
Darkrunner
George 09-23
---
Enemy - Red (DOWN)
Enemy - Blue (25)
Enemy - Orange (17)
---
George 09-23 spell completes and another tiny robot tank appears.
"Bleep. Rapid Fire all units!"
The tanks all fire their sonic cannons in quick succession at Blue.
The summoned allies concentrate their fire on the blue mercenary, dealing pinprick after pinprick, but all that damage adds up. Meanwhile, George 09-23 remains in hiding.
---(round 3)---
Delea
Nikko
Brock
Shokil
---(round 4)---
Darkrunner
George 09-23
---
Enemy - Red (DOWN)
Enemy - Blue (36)
Enemy - Orange (17)
---
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As the first ambusher goes down, Shokil switches targets, his eyes narrowing. For once the excitement of the moment drives thoughts of Sgt. Smith from the authors mind. He reloads and, pauses... and fires.
Even Smith would be happy with that shot. he thinks, satisfaction bringing his protagonist back to front of mind.
Darkrunner tricks a mercenary into assuming something is behind him. The android then shoots him right in the back, and another well-aimed shot from Shokil is all that is takes to take him down.
Brock and Nikko then re-target to the last assassin, but both just narrowly miss their mark.
The last thug stands his ground, firing at Darkrunner. He's trying to be sneaky, but you can't beat Darkrunner at his own game. You can shoot him, though.
---(round 3)---
Delea
---(round 4)---
Delea
Nikko
Brock
Shokil
---(round 5)---
Darkrunner
George 09-23
---
Enemy - Red (DOWN)
Enemy - Blue (DOWN)
Enemy - Orange (17)
---
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Shokil checks his magazine. Last round, better make it count..
Eyeing up the final assassin, Shokil tracked his rifle right until the man was dead center in his sights. Pausing for a moment to let his heartrate steady he gently squeezed the trigger.
Smith draw his pistol and fired point-blank into the last of the muggers. <click> The magazine was empty. A rooky mistake, and one that Smith hoped wasn't going to cost him his life.
* fire
* reload
The quartet of tanks all fire at orange.
Shokil pulls the trigger once again, until his magazine is empty, before he can see the result, the summoned tanks unload, with little accuracy save for one shot. Nikko fires twice, but his only mud. When Darkrunner comes in with a nasty hit, the mercenary falls silent...
A quick search of the assassins yields no manufacturer logos or serial numbers of any kind on their equipment. They do all carry encrypted cred sticks.
One of the assassins has a business card for Rad Riff Acoustics, a music shop on Shortfield Court, with an address listed in Dumeray.
The mercenaries were armed with liquidator disintegration pistols. No manufacturer, no serial number, black market stuff.
|
On command a pair of robotic arms extend from the housings of each of the toys tanks. A disembodied voice insists that they strip the mercenaries down to their undergarments.
"If these bastards survive they will be too busy looking for clothing then to bother us again."
"Good job everyone. Now perhaps we can try to crack the encryption on these credit sticks."
The android takes out his professional hacking kit and puts one of the credit sticks in a standalone unit for safe decoding.
"You never know what viruses these might be carrying. You can never be too careful."
George manages to hack into the cred-stick and circumvents the privacy controls, to determine that each credstick recently received a large deposit yesterday, which was carried out by an intermediary: Scajamine Clerking & Payroll, at their office on Gynbeau Drive in Dumeray, the nearby city.
|
|
A disembodied voice continues to speak as the space wizard is relishing his invisibility (for now) in the meanwhile the summoned robots dissolve back into the ether.
"All right people, what do we know about these locations? With so many experienced Pathfinders I am pretty sure we will have a good answer."
@GM Kludde - Is it possible that the liquidator pistols only have an effective range of 15 feet?
Darkrunner vaguely recalls hearing the names Scajamine Clerking and Payroll, Rad Riff acoustics, even Big Bites: these are all in the same block in a commercial district in Dumeray.
Yvyrna can confirm this Yes, these are all in Dumeray's market district. Do you want me to take you there?. She also quite quickly gives a list of local businesses:
---
Beat of the Midnight Drum, Blanchet Street
Big Bites, Carvanne Street
Lead n’ Gold Renewables, Carvanne Street
Onshore Heritage Limited, corner of Blanchet Street and Shortfield Court
Rad Riff Acoustics, Shortfield Court
Scajamine Clerking & Payroll, Gynbeau Drive
---
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George 09-23 pops back into view.
"Sure but we should go back to the dig site. We are not finished with the ancient weapon seal and there might be more to discover there. There is no need to be hasty!"
George 09-23 attempts to identify the magical properties of the weapon seal with Detect Magic. He is careful not to touch it until he understands its properties better.
"Delea, Nikko perhaps you might want to have a look at this?"
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"Well.. I think we can see that the dig site is a set-up. So the question is who set us up? And any good protagonist will follow the clues... which in this case lead us to Scajamine Clerking and Payroll." notes the author.
"Really, this should be a cut-scene in a good novel. Let us follow where the thread of plot take us!"
George spends more than enough time to examine the tablet (), and finds that the thing is a trap, most likely planted here by the assassins.
---
Scajamine Clerking & Payroll on Gynbeau Drive, Deumeray, is a firm that handles accounting, budgeting, finances, and payroll for a variety of businesses in the area. Welcome, what can we do for you today? a friendly but stuffy-looking greeting clerk says.
|
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George 09-23 turns to Darkrunner-42. He is not personally interested in the seeking fusion seal preferring at all times to use his magic in combat but he is a completionist at heart.
"Darkrunner-42, perhaps you could help me disarm this trap or more precisely I can help you disarm it. I have the proper tools for the job and I am fairly handy myself."
|
|
Of course it is a trap. Darkrunner remarks stoically.
He nods at his fellow android. Let us commence disarming.
Accepting George's masterwork engineering toolkit he approaches it cautiously.
Mid procedure, he begins to think something is off in his sensors and articulation, and makes an offer to George to lead the disarming with his solid aid.
--------------------
Darkrunner approaches the counter.
Hello, yes. We came across some credsticks and on analyzing them found that your establishment was used to make large deposits into them. We thought you could be helpful with information about the customers so that we might... trace the credits back to their original source. Perhaps they would find that helpful.
The anroid is not the best liar, so he attempts to maneuver the safest set of facts. He certainly isn't good at "warming up" others.
|
|
Skokil looks over at how the others are carelessly handling the sealk.,
"I recommend using gloves.."
-=-=-=-=-
The rather non-descript man who has been trailing behind Shokil, taking "publicity photos" from time to time looks at his boss for permission before stepping forward.
"Hi! I'm Brad, social media manager for the famous author Shokil!" he says by way of introduction.
"And I was thinking that an organisation like yours could do with some good social media exposure. And you know what would look excellent - showing up on Shokil's media feed. Think about it... next time anyone wanted payroll they would think [b]Scajamine's"
He takes out a camera. "How about a photo of you and the boss under your sign? And here.. " he takes out a copy of 'Trip... to murder' and a pen. "Shokil, if you could sign this copy in the photo.."
Darkrunner's disabling of the trap looks like it's about to get botched, when Shokil steps in and point out the sigil that can be scraped off.
----
When Darkrunner speaks, the greetig clerk looks a bit lost. Oh, I'm sorry, sir. For that I'd have to get the manager.
A few moments later, a human woman emerges from the back half of the establishment Oh, why... famous author... photo.. photo? Oh, in that case... she hesitates It's a kind offer, but I'd want to keep my name out of social media, if you understand.
I believe your colleague said something about credits? That is more our business than publicity. I must warn you, we treat our client's confidentiality with the utmost respect.
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George 09-23 nods to Shokil although he knows they would have properly disarmed it with a bit more time. He quickly retrieves his trapsmith tools from Darkrunner-42 after they disarm the trap. While they are not valuable George 09-23 is pernickety and tends to fuss when his items are out of place.
"Why don't you take the weapon seal. It might come in handy."
----
At the shop George hangs back. People in general make him nervous and he never seems to know what to say or how to say it. His social routine programs always seem to fall flat for some reason.
|
|
Brock strides over and bangs his fist onto the counter, directing his comments toward the manager as she arrives. His voice increases in volume from his vocal amplifier implant. "Listen, we're here on official business. We've linked this business to some real shady dealings - we're talking mercenaries and paid assassins, you hear me? Now, I get it, you want to keep things confidential ... but if we have to go through official channels, then we can, and you'll be tied up in months, potentially in very public litigation. Give us the information we need, or we could ruin you."
Alright, alright. Didn't know you were with the fuzz. Mercenaries, assassins. I suppose I can give this stick a run-through and check if I find anything supicious.
She types in a couple of commands on a console. Okay then. Serial number... tap tap tap... recent transactions... The manager suddenly turns pale, almost gray as she stammers On.. onshore heritage limited. Th-that's all you need to know.