Luanna expertly drives the first service car from the siding onto the main track. Thrym-Who-Speaks-With-Spirits follows behind in the second car with only moderate damage to the gearing.
As soon as they join the main track, an amber light with a spanner icon begins to flash on the dashboard. The manual controls lock out, and the autopilot engages.
You coast at a comfortable pace along the track, passing several stations without stopping. One is signposted as “Freemarkets”. The streets are quiet, but ( ) Ona spots a Ysoki hanging out of a window waving something.
A short while later you pass an area signposted as the SecRes Pavilion. You can all see a large number of what appear to be military types bustling around, and you hear the occasional sound of laser fire.
Eventually the service car comes to a stop at an intersection.
The pavement of this wide, surface-level intersection is normally kept clear of debris. Its lanes are neatly demarcated by metal railing and medians planted with colorful flowers.
The scene that unfolds here is one of nearly unrecognizable destruction. Vehicles crushed like tin cans completely block the intersection, and twisted metal and hunks of scuffed plastic litter the roadways. The squeal of breaks and honking horns rises to form a din that barely covers the loud arguments in a dozen different languages erupting from the traffic stalled behind the wreckage. Up ahead, the source of the problem is clearly visible: a traffic signal’s tri-colored lights blink red, green, and yellow in senseless patterns.
Round 1 - first task:
Dozens of panicked commuters remain trapped in their vehicles as a result of the gridlock. Most of them sustained only minor injuries, but a few of them need urgent medical treatment.
She does have a med kit if that would boost the
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"The motherlode!" Nixxer's eyes are drawn to all the fresh, valuable scrap just waiting to be pocketed! He darts back and forth around the crashed and stalled cars picking up anything that's not bolted down (and maybe one or two things that are). In between loads, he gives a hand to people on the way.
The group springs into action, focusing on helping the trapped commuters out of their vehicles. Thrym-Who-Speaks-With-Spirits frees several groups. Nixxer also helps several groups - often as a by-product of collecting scrap. Kai struggles with the twisted metal, but after Nixxer's assistance guides some people to safety. Poko struggles with the uneven terrain.
Luanna approaches the nearest vehicle, comes face-to-face with an injured quorlu, and finds that the standard treatments for carbon-based life aren't effective. Ona finds some commuters with more familiar biology and effectively administers first aid.
Round 2 - second task:
You need to clear the debris and wrecked vehicles from the intersection (). Alternatively, you can try to use the service car to tow the vehicles, but you’ll need either or . If you don’t have any of these skills, you can try to drive the less damaged vehicles out of the way ().
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"It's like a jigsaw puzzle, 'cept all we gotta do is pull the pieces apart, and that's a cinch!" Nixxer starts directing people on where to push and pull stalled vehicles in order to clear the intersection. "Heya," he says to no one in particular. "Anyone notice there sure is a lot of weird stuff going on today?!"
Commuters watch in awe as you clear the intersection in the manner of an expertly choreographed ballet - with Nixxer and Ona directing, and Thrym, Luanna, and Poko pirouetting vehicles into their appropriate places.
Kai's contribution is less graceful, but you clear the intersection nonetheless.
Third task
Finally, you need to fix the malfunctioning traffic signals.
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Luanna likewise has to rely on the technologically savvy to attempt the fix. She packs up her medkit and returns to the vehicle to be ready to drive once the signal is fixed. She checks her comm unit again, in case any news has made it through the glitching technology. She wonders if some kind of cybernetic terrorism attack is causing all this.
That'll do it. There's only one control box.
Ona manages to disconnect the signals from the central network, which seemed to be sending spurious code. Instead, he implements a simple repeating sequence for the lights. Not efficient, but it'll allow traffic to flow without any issues.
You see that the amber light with the spanner icon has turned off in the service cars. You can now freely drive them to any point along the track.
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Kai looks to Luanna and Mixxer.
“I hear you both about needing to get back to HQ. I agree, but Ona makes a stronger point about gathering direct information that we can share when we return. If we go to the Freemarkets, the stories we hear and things we see could be valuable in the larger scheme of things. Likewise with the SecRes pavilion. They might also have an alternate comms system up and running.”
Kai smiles and nods to Ona.
“And people matter too. I'm for going to the Freemarkets.”
Having had a bit of practice, you easily drive the service cars back to the Freemarkets station - passing the SecRes pavilion, which is still a hive of activity. In contrast, the rest of the station is eerily quiet.
The gilded doors to this marketplace have been forcibly pried open and jammed with a cement block. The door’s automated mechanism stutters as the portal repeatedly slams against the obstruction. Inside, several lifts are frozen in place, and light fixtures flicker intermittently, casting misshapen shadows over the booths and storefronts that compose the multilevel structure.
You spot the same ysoki as before, waving a t-shirt from outside of her second floor pawnshop. The touristy t-shirt features a symbol of Abadar encircled with the words “Freemarkets of Absalom Station”.
“Hey, you lot. Get in here. Before you’re mowed down by a cleaning robot or chewed up by an escalator.”
Inside you find a cramped pawnshop. The ysoki leads you to a table and chairs in a back room.
“Hi, the name’s Dot. Please, sit.” She says, gesturing to the chairs. “I saw this coming. Cut back after cut back. You can only neglect the infrastructure for so long.”
She places a radio in the center of the table. “Fix that will you. Then we’ll get some information about what’s going on. And who’s going to compensate me for a day of lost sales? That’s what I want to know. Oh, maybe I can interest you in something.”
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Luanna cannot argue with providing public service, as she has committed her life to the goal of healing the sick and injured.
Luanna doesn't know the technological details about how a radio works, but she knows physics and that radio signals can be blocked by conductors. She also knows an antenna can help boost the signal level, so she connects a long wire to the antenna port and positions the radio as far away from metal surfaces as possible.
"Exactly!" Dot says, cycling through frequencies on the now working radio. "I can tell you were raised right. Where was your warren? Back on Akiton?"
There's only static.
"I saw some of you have the pins, so the Starfinder Society will probably compensate you. I'd prefer if you didn't mention me though. I've only just opened the business and my paperwork isn't all in order yet."
You look around and see several decades of accumulated dust.
She glances up at Ona. "Oh, yes. Lots of people need help. In fact, I have just the job for those muscles. Could you fetch a couple of boxes from the storeroom? They're the boxiest looking ones."
Ona easily finds the boxes from Dot's description. He struggles to pull them out from the bottom of a stack without causing an avalanche, but Thrym comes to the rescue.
“I thought you’d gotten lost back there. Let me take a look at those.” Dot says, hobbling over to look at the boxes. She opens them up, and you see that they contain bottled water and charged batteries.
“Yep, these are the ones.” She says, escorting you out of the shop. “You can deliver them to the relief workers over in the aid station. It's just up that corridor. They’ll be grateful for them with all this chaos going on. I bet Stanton next door hasn’t sent them anything. Cheapskate.”
She closes the door behind you.
Located in a cul-de-sac surrounded by the crowded stalls and storefronts of the Freemarkets, a small circular platform stands in an open pavilion. Theatrical lights accent the stage, and various audiovisual equipment is integrated into the platform, though currently no performers occupy it. A pallet of crates containing emergency relief supplies—blankets, first aid materials, rations, and water—stands to the west of the performance area. A handful of harried-looking relief workers in bright orange safety vests tend to dozens of injured and panicked individuals of several different species.
Before you can complete your delivery, you see some creatures emerge from a side street and begin moving towards you.
Round 1
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> Nixxer
> Thrym-Who-Speaks-With-Spirits
> Luanna
unknown oozes
Ona
Poko
Kai
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Luanna summons more magical energy to her hands and this time three motes of energy orbit each others like a 3-body problem in chaos mode. She releases the motes at the nearest one, staggering the timing so if the first one or two put an end to the oozy danger, she can direct the later ones at the next closest ooze. As before, the motes streak around any obstacles and home in on the target(s), looking like tiny shooting stars.
"If it's not one thing, it's another," she mutters after the last one zips away.