SFS 1-21 - Yesteryear's Sorrow (KS) (Inactive)

Game Master phaeton_nz

Gameplay Thread. - You know the drill. And you're welcome to RP while you wait.

A young human male in heavy armor enters the room. He smiles and appears cheerful.

"Hi all.. Dirk here, I wonder where we're going for this mission?"

A shirren wearing a Top Down and the Strange Quarks t-shirt enters the room.
"Sorry I just back from vacation, didn't have time to gear up yet."
Jek recognises Dirk and waves
"Dirk good to see you again how have you been? I haven't seen you since the Battle for the Bulwark, that was a tough mission, hope this next mission is less of a war zone."

You soon find out as you meet with Zigvigix in the headquarters of the Exo Guardians.

Past several holographic combat-simulation chambers and an open sparring area, resides an office made of portable prefabricated walls painted a dark maroon. Inside, the augmented shirren, Zigvigix, sits behind a small desk plays a vidgame involving matching different colored orbs. Have you tried this game yet? they ask a few moments later after they fail a level. It’s called Congruenz, and it is most enjoyable! But that’s not why I called you here, Starfinders. They switch the holodisplay to show the three-dimensional image of a desolate planet. As has become evident in the past few months, the Starfinder Society lacks the means to protect itself should we encounter a large threat, such as the threats within the Scoured Stars. Their antennae twitch. Of course, we aren’t looking to start any fights, but we want the galaxy to know we are ready to finish them. As such, I believe that this planet, Elytrio, might have the resources to aid us. Have any of you been there?

"I have not."

Trial and exercise hone the mind and strengthen the biological form. RZMR remarks when he sees the Congruenz game through repeated challenge, the mind becomes stronger, ready for a task at a higher level. The voice of the android is stern until it switches to a type of friendly announcement voice, which adds All fragile items should be handled with the utmost care.

RZMR hasn't been to Elytrio, a fact he doesn't acknowledge immediately.

Of course, we aren’t looking to start any fights, but we want the galaxy to know we are ready to finish them. As such, I believe that this planet, Elytrio, might have the resources to aid us. Have any of you been there?

"As a matter of fact, I have been there," replies a well-dressed ysoki. "It could have been a season or more ago, though, it seems almost like it was just yesterday." The sensation is one common to the precog. Spotting an untended game controller, the ysoki casually palms it ans slips it within a cheek pouch.

Would you like to share that experience please?

"Not me!" Dirk smiles. "The Society hasn't sent me there!"

An old man arrives at the scene wearing a garb that looks classic rather than futuristic. He wanders his mind of the scenes he is seeing before he gets to focus on the mission briefing at his arrival.

Greetings! I am Xeno The Chronicler. Apologies for my late arrival. I may have wandered my mind too much!" he says and gives a hearty laugh.

"What is our mission today?" he asks anyone closest to him and once informed, he nods.

"We met ghibranis! Is that what they are called? Yes, those insect-looking fellows that I don't understand, yet they are harmless, I think. They have this past that we discovered but we chose not to divulge it to them, thinking that it might fall their civilization apart. Is that the one?" the technomancer is unsure if he remembers the details from his last mission correctly.

Knowledge is a commodity to be shared among the collective. RZMR says, not being able to contribute any knowledge of his own.

I have played the Elytrio missions with different characters, so for me there's no worry about spoiling anything - not sure about the other players

"We met ghibranis! Is that what they are called? Yes, those insect-looking fellows that I don't understand, yet they are harmless, I think. They have this past that we discovered but we chose not to divulge it to them, thinking that it might fall their civilization apart. Is that the one?" the technomancer is unsure if he remembers the details from his last mission correctly.

"They are called the ghibranis, although their people split sometime ago following a global conflict. Some, sheltered in their mostly self-sufficient city, are capable of flight," notes Tuek. "Others, denied the city's comforts, are land-bound, but have formed a strong community despite the harshness of their environment and the residual radiation tthat endures from the conflict."

"Although I haven't been to Elytrio, I remember reading something about it on a message board it said "Planet Elytrio city of Arkeost, the next Junkers Delight! An old unmaintained city just waiting to be scraped! To get into the city, just tip a friendly local husk exploited by the local membranes." I thought it was some kind of scam but maybe there was something to it."

My other character Pockets had played 1-03 Yesteryear's Truth but hasn't leveled up enough to play this one.

Spoiler where the message came from.

Yes. That is the one. Zigvigix replies. Elytrio is a planet in the Vast with two moons. The first time a Pact Worlds ship approached, the ship was nearly destroyed by an automated orbital-defense system. Later, a Starfinder team was sent to explore the planet and investigate a large energy signature that turned out to be an inhabited city named Arkeost. The Starfinders made peaceful contact with those that lived there: the descendants of survivors of a great nuclear war that ravaged the planet.

Elytrio’s inhabitants are a dimorphic race of beetle-like people known as ghibranis. The husk ghibranis have sturdier frames and climb with ease, while the membrane ghibranis are slenderer and have wings that let them fly. The husk ghibranis eke out an existence in the planet’s wastelands, while the membrane ghibranis live comfortably within a city protected by a force field, with robots providing for needs.

The Starfinders discovered that in the years after the war, the leaders of Arkeost enacted a plan to create a false deity named Mother Touloo to trick some of the survivors into leaving the city. Without this plan, Arkeost would not have been able to sustain its population for very long. The husk ghibranis are the descendants of those who left the city and still worship Mother Touloo to this day. The current membrane ghibranis had no knowledge of this shameful history, and the two groups aren’t hostile to one another. The Starfinder Society decided not to divulge this information to any of Elytrio’s inhabitants.

It looks like he is reading all of this off a screen display.

Our scans and contact with the surviving inhabitants have uncovered the presence of abandoned underground bunker at a ruined military base that we believe might hold a few stockpiles of unused weapons. We’d like you to head there, explore the facility to clear out any dangers within, and mark any weapons you find with these. Zigvigix places a small stack of plastic disks on the desk. Once you believe it is safe, the Society can send a larger vessel to pick up and transport any weapons you find. You will also be meeting a local contact on the ground to provide you with translations, if you need help.

The shirren explains that the devices are locator disks and function similarly to homing beacons, putting out a faint signal that someone tuned to the right comm channel can easily find. They require no skill to activate, simply the press of a button. Once activated, they have a range of 1 mile and use very little power. A disk’s battery life is measured in months, not hours, so you are in no rush to complete your mission and return to Absalom Station. There are six locator disks.

Do you have any questions?

"Interesting disk. I wonder if our pre-Gap ancestors have such devices." Xeno comments after picking one of the locator disks and activating it.

Xeno looks at the shirren with a smile on his face, as if awaiting more instructions, rather than asking questions.

I do not know. You could always ask Kyra-IO - an android that claims to be created before the Gap on Lost Golarion. Although he memory of those times can be .... suspect.

"Do the ghibranis know of the stock pile, are we trying to get to it first to prevent another war? If asked bout Mother Touloo does is Starfinder Society's stance to remain silent about the truth?"

I do not know for sure but I do not believe so and yes

"Where can we find the android?"

She is a Starfinder - and she does have a counselling practise. Her comm number should be in the directory. But I suspect you are being distracted from the mission.

Do you have any further relevant questions?

Xeno shakes his head, signifying he has no more questions to ask. He readies himself for the mission assigned to them.

Well-armed reinforcement form the backbone of the military force. Keep your forces well-supplied and well-fed, and they shall remain loyal. RZMR declaims, Know your threats and anticipate your foe's moves he adds, his way of asking whether any type of threat is known.

"I assume you will furnish us with coordinates to this bunker" asks Tuek. "And what is the name of our contact? May we presume our contact is aware of the parameters and nature of our mission?"

RIght RZ!" says Dirk nodding.

An old friend perhaps Zigvigix replies. He provides you with the Drift co-ordinates for Elytrio as well as the planetary co-ordinates of the meeting point.

Before they leave, they can make any last-minute purchases they want on the station and slot their boons. Any boons that help the PCs with exploration and survival would be wise to slot at this time. Since this is an Exo-Guardians mission, any boons related to that faction are also potentially helpful. If any of the players have the Friend of the Ghibrani boon from Starfinder Society Scenario #1−03: Yesteryear’s Truth, encourage them to slot that boon.

Jek changes out of his concert t-shirt into his gear and is ready for the mission. "Sounds like a simple mission what could go wrong? I'm ready when everyone else is."

I shall know the position of my enemies, while obscuring my location from them. Through invisibility I will force my enemy to dilute its resources while preserving my own. Similarly, I will expend resources to make my enemy visible. Please wear your radiation badges in a all marked areas. RZMR says, as he sets out to procure a radiation badge.

Dirk grabs a badge.

"Will do.."

Assuming there are no more questions, you head off. The journey to Elytrio through the Drift takes 5d6 ⇒ (2, 3, 6, 4, 5) = 20 days. The trip through the swirling purple clouds is uneventful until about the halfway point in the journey. At this point, you come across a battered freighter limping through the Drift at suboptimal speeds. The ship identifies itself as the Numinous Canticle and indicates that it holds a group of two dozen refugees who’ve recently fled a moon-based mining and trade hub in the Vast. The base was made up Pact Worlds citizens and the refugee ship seeks to return after the colony was annexed by forces belonging to the Azlanti Star Empire. Any of you who are engineering-inclined, can offer to assist the Numinous Canticle with repairs.

"Let's help them!" Xeno says pleadingly.

After assessing the damage incurred on the ship, Xeno details the works the crew needs to do, focusing on essential parts of the ship so they can safely return to their destination
Engineering: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (7) + 10 = 17

Before we left, after hearing RZMR recommend radiation badges Jek also picks one up and 2 doses of Rad-Out Serum.

Jek helps out where he can focusing on the more basic repairs needed and also helps Xeno where he can cleaning and preping parts to be reinstalled.

Aid to Xeno roll
Profession maintenance worker with tool kit: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (15) + 14 = 29

Jek gets a bit carried away cleaning parts
"This part looks almost new now!"

With that aid, you manage to complete the repairs and discover that the Azlanti arrived shortly after a mysterious starship crashed elsewhere on the moon. The citizens offer their only information about the incident, a transmission (written in Azlanti, which none of the refugees understand) that reads: “We’ve secured the King Xeros and are effecting repairs.” You aren’t authorized to explore this situation, but upon reporting this, Zigvigix promises to raise the issue with the Forum and First Seeker.

A few hours after your ship exits the Drift, you approach Elytrio and can see, even from orbit, that the world isn’t much more than a massive wasteland, with nary an ocean to be seen. There is a moment of turbulence as your starship enters the atmosphere, but it passes quickly, and you can land at the coordinates provided by Zigvigix, which are within sight of the ruined military base.

"What do you guys think we'll find??" Dirk asks.

"If the mission intel is correct, weapons, likely nukes if RZMR is right about needing radiation badges. If we are lucky we'll find the secret hideout of Strawberry Machine Cake, but if some rival of the band found it first, we might be walking into a building filled with killer robots, so could turn into a shoot first get autographs later kind of mission."

"The base is certainly in worse condition than the city I visited last time--though perhaps only by a little." Tuek notes. He picks up a lose rock from the planet's surface and slips it into a pocket.

Paradoxes: 3d20 ⇒ (16, 18, 9) = 43

Relying on intelligence provides a first basis for expectations RZMR says, his way of indicating he expects to find weapons yet intelligence is prone to flaws and imperfections. The wise leader calculates plausible but severe adversities, and adjusts accordingly.

What exactly that entails, RZMR does not disclose, but he does clip on his radiation badge.

Ready to go

"I love Strawberry Machine Cake!" Dirk pulls out a CD and a tee shirt. "See!"

Jek's antenna perks up a bit and Jek hops once when Dirk pulls out the CD.
"Looks like this mission has a soundtrack!"

Jek considers what RZMR said about The wise leader calculates plausible but severe adversities.
" So if by luck it's not a weapon cash what's the most dangerous band we could encounter... maybe Abysshead?

On hearing Tuek description of the city.
"Tuek, you've been here before what's the odds of us finding, Bomb or Bands?"

All this time while Jek is talking, Jek is scanning the terrain ahead looking for the best path to the ruined military base.

Survival: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (6) + 10 = 16

Exiting your ship, Dirk bopping along to the sounds of Strawberry Machine Cake and Jekcedo, contemplating if the sounds of Abysshead can be weaponised, you are met by Klarima, the membrane Ghibrani explorer some of you would have met before.

She takes you into the ruins of Egoret Base, less than a mile from the landing site. As you travel, the clouds above darken ominously, which provides a brief respite from the merciless sun.

Past the barest remnants of a stone wall with a missing gate, several bombed-out shells of buildings ring a central open space paved with crumbling tarmac. Heaps of rusted metal that might have once been vehicles dot the area, and the occasional gust of wind stirs up clouds of grit.

A quick search of the area reveals that anything of interest in the base’s aboveground buildings has either been scavenged by husk tribes or rotted away into nothingness.

Perception checks please.

Not knowing what to expect Jek draws a sticky bomb grenade.
"Keep your senses sharp, this looks like a good place for a swarm of tiny rodents or bugs to hide out."

Perception: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (12) + 10 = 22

Jekcedo spots part of a large metal hatch in the ground - or floor - in the largest hanger that is mostly buried between a large pile of debris

And maybe Jekdedo just tempted fate by saying that as the wind picks up, bringing with it a storm of sournettles. Klarima tells you that Soarnettles—weeds with razor-sharp thorns that are carried on the winds—are one of the few types of flora to thrive in Elytrio’s postwar ecosystem. She warns you that this unusual storm is called a “soarnettle squall,” and usually any creatures caught out in them are sliced to pieces. She urges you to find shelter, but unfortunately your vessel is too far away. Uncovering and opening the hatch is the safest course of action.

It takes 8 rounds of work to move enough rubble off the hatch to be able to open it. A PC who succeeds at a Strength check can perform 2 rounds’ worth of work in 1 round. Once uncovered, the hatch must be unlocked with a successful Engineering check; each attempt to unlock the hatch takes 1 round. Alternatively, the lock can be broken with a successful Strength check or by dealing enough damage to it. Finally, the hatch’s opening mechanism is jammed, requiring a successful Engineering check to fixor a sustained force to loosen it with a successful Strength check; each attempt to fix or force open the mechanism takes 1d4 rounds. Restoring a total of 3 Hit Points to the mechanism also repairs it. Once the hatch is open, the PCs and the Guide can pile into the underground bunker and escape the soarnettle squall.

"Sliced to pieces? That's terrible to experience! Quick, someone open the hatch!" Xeno tells his allies before they will be torn to pieces.

After someone successfully uncovers the hatch...
Xeno skillfully attempts to unlock the hatch.
Engineering: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (19) + 10 = 29

"Got to get this rubble off the hatch."
Jek pushed himself, thinking back to his vesk drill sergeant in combat medic school.
Strength: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (15) + 0 = 15

Once the lock is unlocked
Jek helps open the jammed mechanism.
"A little oil on the hinge might help, and now to get some leverage with this wrench hopefully will do the trick."
Profession maintenance worker with tool kit: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (9) + 14 = 23

The weakness of the biological form is easily compensated through concerted effort. A chain is a strong as its weakest link, but an array of chains is as weak as its strongest component. Though RZMR doesn't claim stength, he is not beyond cooperating to remove rubble.

Strength: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (17) + 17 = 34

After Xeno presumably unlocks the device

Bend to my will, puny mechanism RZMR declaims

Engineering: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (15) + 10 = 25

Tuek tries to add his muscle to that of any ally
Strength to Aid Another, whoever attempts next: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (3) - 1 = 2

Dirk looks around.

Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (12) + 6 = 18

- - -

"Let me see..."

He tries to move the hatch.

STR: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (2) + 3 = 5

"Oh my back...I'm TOO young for this"

Xeno cannot fiddle with the lock until the hatch is uncovered. Jekcedo and RZMR succeed in clearing a lot of rubble, cutting the time required to clear the rest of it in half.

As you are working the squall hits. Everyone receives slashing: 2d6 ⇒ (1, 3) = 4 damage (DC 14 for half)

Four rounds required to clear enough rubble to reach the locking mechanism

Fortitude: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (19) + 1 = 20

"Keep digging!"
Strength: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (17) + 0 = 17
Jek repeats himself this time in vesk.
"Keep digging!"

DC 14 Fortitude save: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2

"Ouch! Ouch!" too many slashes for Xeno, prompting him to remove the rubbles first.
Athletics(?): 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (16) + 0 = 16

Sorry, that strength check got botched in my last post - that should have a +0 (!) not a ridiculous +17

Your contribution to clearing this rubble has been noted, Jekcedo RZMR says in his odd way of complimenting people, and proceed to clear rubble.

Reflex: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (11) + 2 = 13 SP 17/21

Strength: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (9) + 0 = 9