GM Zoomba's The Day the River Died [GAMEDAY XIII][SFS] (Inactive)

Game Master Zoomba

pys science: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (6) + 13 = 19
"There, that rock be big enough ta' hide us til we get close..."

Kalhoun charts a course for Amy.

Piloting: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (2) + 14 = 16

It only bounces off a couple asteroids.

Embidi is barely a spellcaster, but he's at his best helping other magic users get the most magical bang for their occult buck! He'd rattle his feathers, make some mystical motions, and try to help Thraega draw a mystical veil around our brightly coloured Drake.
Mysticism: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (20) + 12 = 32

Also @Thraega it looks like you rolled a 1d2, instead of a 1d20, for your check!

Yes, that would make high numbers more difficult :p
Thraega bot: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (16) + 10 = 26

Amy moves your ship in closer and carefully with the guidance of Kalhoun and Freeman. Said guidance isn't exactly great guidance, and your ship is exposed in open space for long stretches, but Thraega Gletch and Kalhoun all keep your output shrouded and the surrounding sensors cloaked to provide some less-literal cover.

You advance towards Asteroid Y-47 and the River Between flowing through it. Trickles of water leak out from the cylindrical river of greyish brown water in a few places, dissipating as they impact debris and burst into tiny droplets. Your destination is just ahead of you...when a gruff and boisterous voice crackles through the ship’s communication channel.
"What? Intruders?!"

Shortly ahead of you a trio of ships emerge into view from behind a drifting small asteroid. The communication is coming from the larger of the three green, though all three craft have their afts towards you as you seem to have caught the patrol unawares for most of your approach.

"Blast ‘em back to Absalom Station, Riveters! We’ll pull what we can from their blasted holds!”

The engines and systems of the three pirate ships start to glow hot as they ready for combat!

Starship Combat, Round 1
Engineering Phase
Piloting Initiative
Rest of Helm Phase
Gunnery Phase

So, you'll notice there's a lot of terrain going on on the map. The asteroids are...well asteroids. Their hexes block direct fire weapons, though trakcing weapon shots can go around them. You can pass through an asteroid hex, but your ship will take some damage for doing so.

Between the two blue lines is the River Between. Due to its containment field, the River Between is impassable and blocks a starship’s direct fire weapons, though a starship (or tracking weapon) can go over or under it by spending three hexes worth of movement for each hex they pass through that contains the River Between.
Alternatively, a starship can enter or exit the River Between by punching through the weaknesses in the faltering containment field at high speed. Doing so is a stunt action wih a Piloting DC of 24. Failure stops your movement and causes damage to your bow; success means you can enter the River. Inside the River, its flow (flowing from the 'top' of the map towards the 'bottom') will push you 1 square along at the start of each round, and for each hex of movement spent traveling inside of it.

Gletch runs from the sauna, his metallic leg clanking along the ship's floor. He slips into the science station and begins a scan of the lead pirate's ship.

Don't want to slow things down waiting on me when it gets to that part of the helm phase, and my action really doesn't depend on who wins initiative.

Freeman cracks his fingers , "Aye, divertin' power ta weapons!"
If our pilot yells they want speed instead, he'll grunt and do that instead.

engineering, divert: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (19) + 16 = 35

Don't forget one direct fire weapon was replaced by a heavy solar cannon. Pew Pew! https://thehiddentruth.info/player/starship/other/weapon?page=Heavysolarcan non

The dice roller hates me. I was just getting a jump on things.

Since combat seemed inevitable at this point, Thraega wants to help bring it to a quick end.
Eldritch Shot on Heavy Solar Cannon
Mysticsm: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (3) + 10 = 13

See. The dice roller hates me.

piloting init: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (15) + 12 = 27

So much for looking like a chunk of rock

Freeman boosts the weapons on your ship up as one of the smaller ships begins to spin around, flying evasively.

Red Evade?: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (12) + 11 = 23

Gletch takes the opening of hostilities to focus all of your sensory arrays on the largest craft. It's a tiny fighter tagged as the AAC Dyad. Designed for a complemenet of two crew, the ship is quick and agile Speed 10, Good turning (1 hex) with basic shielding. Current 10 shields to all four quadrants, 35 Hull, AC 18, TL 17. It carries both a light buster cannon and a plasma torpedo launcher on its bow, and the gnome detects a flax thrower welded onto its aft.

You're moving before Green and Yellow

Starship Combat, Round 1
Engineering Phase
Piloting Initiative
Helm Phase
Gunnery Phase

Kalhoun, Amy, and Embidi still with actions this round

Current status: Weapons boosted
Green HP 35/35
Red HP ??/??
Yellow HP ??/??

Based on the "preferred roles" chart, it looks like no one's a preferred gunner; Embidi can do so passably, so he'll make with the shoot-shoot, and Thraega or whoever can Captain :)

Embidi slips into the gunner's station, and boots up the TacComp. "Ah, been a while since I've actually pulled the literal trigger myself! Let's see if we've still got it," he says as he toggles weapons control to manual and begins lining up the forwards particle beam.

FWIW the Heavy Solar Cannon isn't that great on a Tier 6 Drake, so probably not worth buffing it over, say, the particle beam or missiles. /shrug

Everyone can be a gunner when their primary roll is not needed. And I guess Kalhoun is now.

Gletch calls out, as he sends the ship telemetry to everyone's stations, "Looks like there's no turret and the primary weapons point front, so let's try to stay behind it ... Easier said than done, I know, with three of them."

Yeah, I'd say Embidi and Kalhoun, both being high Dex and with either a good BAB or piloting ranks, are probably our best choices for gunners.

Amy considers her chances of doing a flyby but decides against it. She ends up flying around Red and evading.

evade: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (1) + 12 = 13

Blue evade?: 1d20 + 10 + 1 ⇒ (12) + 10 + 1 = 23
Green Evade?: 1d20 + 13 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 13 + 1 = 15

As Amy gets a handle on your ship's handling or tries to at least the two other pirate vessels turn and spin evasively to bring their headings to bear on you, one more directly while the larger craft moves behind and asteroid for cover. Form that AAC Dyad a message is sent out to you from a snarling vesk man:

"Station do-gooders, always poking their heads in where they're not wanted or needed. You should have stayed in your cozy station!"

While the no fire comes towards you from the closest red ship , coilgun fire launches out through space at you from the other smaller ship blue. It goes quite wide, but Amy is only just able to avoid a torpedo that arcs out from the Dyad

Blue Coilgun: 1d20 + 3 - 2 ⇒ (11) + 3 - 2 = 12 for damage: 4d4 ⇒ (1, 3, 3, 1) = 8
Green torpedo: 1d20 + 6 + 1 ⇒ (11) + 6 + 1 = 18 for daamge: 3d8 ⇒ (1, 5, 3) = 9

Starship Combat, Round 1
Gunnery Phase (Embidi and Kalhoun) weapons boosted this round

Round 2
Engineering Phase
Piloting Initiative
Helm Phase
Gunnery Phase

Current status:
Green HP 35/35
Red HP ??/??
Yellow HP ??/??

init: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (17) + 12 = 29

Green failed to evade, and so is the easier target; but it's also behind an asteroid, and therefore can't be hit by direct-fire weapons. I'll let Kalhoun, who's a better gunner, take the heavy plasma torpedoes and have a go at Blue, isntead?
Embidi sets the safeties on the forewards particle beam off, and lines up at Blue.
"And you should have kept the River where it belongs!"
Particle Beam vs Blue AC: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (17) + 9 = 26
P. Beam dmg: 8d6 ⇒ (6, 2, 6, 2, 1, 2, 5, 1) = 25
Our finest weapons mean I get to reroll any 1s, but must keep the second result.
finest weapon dmg rerolls: 2d6 ⇒ (3, 3) = 6
So, 29 dmg, total.

Freeman diverts power to the engines.
"Yeah, slap em' down! Dirty pirates!"

engineering: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (19) + 16 = 35

+2 speed!

"Nice shot, Embidi!" Gletch calls out. "If that strike had been against the leader, it would have caused multiple system failures. I hypothesize these other vessels are likely weaker, so hopefully it will give them quite the comeuppance!"

Thraega sends out a communication. "You poozers are not up to this. You should just leave."
Taunt Intimidate: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (13) + 13 = 26

"Poozers! Ah! Good one!"
Drone buzzes.
"Aw shuddup."

Botting Kalhoun's shot just to keep us moving

Torpedoes v Blue: 1d20 + 7 + 2 ⇒ (14) + 7 + 2 = 23 for damage: 5d10 ⇒ (10, 1, 5, 7, 5) = 28
re-roll the 1: 1d10 ⇒ 2

Kalhoun launches a plasma torpedo and arcs it around the asteroid to slam into the bow of the larger ship since Gletch's scan would have warned you they and a flak thrower in the aft - whihc has Point defenses v torpedoes

It seems to connect hard, but not nearly as hard as the closer pirate ship in front of you. blue Laced by the particle beam it seems to be barely holding itself together.

In fact, the ship's weapons seem to power down as it starts limping away from the fight. The vesk pirate calls back "Leave? This is our place. You're not the experts here, we have the experts!" but his voice sounds a bit nervous Thraega: what phase were you looking to demoralize them during?

The undamaged fighter speeds past you before looping around to try and point at your aft. The larger ship meanwhile continues to slink from asteroid to asteroid.

Red evade?: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (1) + 11 = 12
Green evade?: 1d20 + 14 + 1 ⇒ (17) + 14 + 1 = 32

Round 2
Engineering Phase
Piloting Initiative
Helm Phase
Gunnery Phase
Engines boosted to +2 speed, Amy, Kalhoun, Embidi, Gletch still to act

Current status:
Green HP 16/35, front shields ??/10

I'll leave it to our pilot to decide if we're targeting the other lackey (red) or the leader (green), but by the time of my roll I'd know our position and target the appropriate ship.

Gletch begins inputting telemetry from his scans to the gunnery stations. "I'm calculating attack vectors to neutralize the target's primary weaponry in its bow ..."

Computers w/ ship modifier: 1d20 + 15 + 2 ⇒ (14) + 15 + 2 = 31

Crit on a 19 or 20, and any crit will affect their bow weaponry.

Amy moves the ship to get a good shot at the leader
evade: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (20) + 12 = 32

The gunnery phase

"Ohhh! That feels like something you weren't supposed to tell us. You're going to be in trouble for that later. You know, if you get to see later."

Taunt during Gunnery Phase
Intimidate: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (15) + 13 = 28

"Those angles and projections sure look pretty, but I'm gonna need a more intuitive plan..." Embidi trusts his orbiting magical aeon stone computer to handle Gletch's calculations, and then lines up a nice Broadside against the lead ship's Aft.
Taking one of our Drake's improved ICM +3s for the particle beam first shot, to offset the Broadside penalty. Also we never really clarified which gun we replaced with the Heavy Solar Cannon, so I'm going to assume it's in the Fore, instead of a coilgun?
Particle Beam Broadside with ICM: 1d20 + 9 - 2 + 3 ⇒ (7) + 9 - 2 + 3 = 17
Heavy Solar Cannon Broadside: 1d20 + 9 - 2 ⇒ (13) + 9 - 2 = 20
Particle Beam dmg: 8d6 ⇒ (2, 2, 2, 2, 5, 2, 3, 4) = 22
Solar Cannon dmg: 3d8 ⇒ (5, 3, 7) = 15

Guess I should have been online yesterday.

Kalhoun fires a torpedo at the Green ship.

Gunnery: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (16) + 9 = 25
Damage: 5d10 ⇒ (6, 10, 9, 2, 4) = 31

Flak: 1d20 + 6 + 1 ⇒ (9) + 6 + 1 = 16

Amy steers you right up behind the lead ship as Kalhoun and Embidi unleash a furious assault on it. It gets of a futile fussilade of flak that you easily didge before large sections of its hull are no longer there. "Damned Inners!" you hear in one final message before their comms go as dead as the rest of their ship.

At this, the untouched ship begins to turn tail and bolt off, moving in the opposite direction of Asteroid Y-47.

Green is floating dead in the water, blue barely functional, and red fully fleeing. You can pursue if you want to, but combat is effectively OVER (well done!).

Asteroid Y-47 itself continues to lie just a short distance ahead...

"Well, I suppose anyone on that base now.knows we are out here." He begins to suit up for arrival at the base. "Should we get a casting of life bubble before deboarding to be on the safe side?"

"Pashang, no Inyas in this ship!"
Embidi will do a little magical jig to help entice the spirits of Gletch's magic to last a bit longer (so its duration is +50%.)
"Do you think the way we trounced their ships will make them anymore likely to want to talk?" he'll ask, absent-mindedly, as he makes ready to land and, presumably, fight more space pirates.

Hopefully Amy replies So ... are we going EVA? she asks hopefully?

"Let's get to the asteroid. See if they let us in. If not, we do what we must. Oh! And stay alert for some surprises."

A precautionary series of life bubbles go up as you alertfully approach the Asteroid Y-47.

Sure enough, when you near a hail comes out from the asteroid:

“Unknown starship, leave if you know what’s good for you. You’re encroaching on Riveter territory. We will shoot you down. I repeat, turn your ship around and get out of here, or we will deploy our full defenses against you.”

You notice in the rock there is a small hangar bay offering entry into the rocky base. But getting there, now that’s the issue….

Appoaching and entering the Riveter base intact is likely going to pose a few challenges. The first: an opening gambit to get yourselves closer.

I need at least one of you to succeed at a social check against the angrily hailing pirates: either to Deceive and trick them, Diplomacize that you're here to help matters, or Intimidate them that they shouldn't mess with you. In addition, the rest of you can make checks to aid your ruse and delay the pirates' response time (Computers to jam sensors or Mysticism to fake illusory bogeys, Engineering to fake malfunctions, Physical Science to take advantage of nearby asteroid trajectories, or Piloting to disguise your route.

Is Amy casting the life bubble? I can cast it from a spell chip, but I think she has it as one of her normal spells. The duration on it is nearly a week at this level, so with Embidi's help we're set for an insane amount of time.

Oh, I just realized I forgot to roll my paradoxes for the day

Paradox 1: 1d20 ⇒ 17
Paradox 2: 1d20 ⇒ 2

Gletch begins using trying to jam the sensors.

Computers w/ ship modifier: 1d20 + 15 + 2 ⇒ (11) + 15 + 2 = 28

Playing to his strengths, Freeman quickly reduces the total power output to what is needed for the level of propulsion to get there, sensors and life support and one main weapon, just in case, to try to lower their energy signature, hoping in concert with the computer expertise of Gletch he can make the ship harder to track. He's ready to bring her up to full power with just a flick of a switch, just in case...
engineering: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (11) + 16 = 27

...it's possible I just finished binge-watching season 6 of The Expanse, so I am taking that off-hand "inners" comment and running with it, Zoomba :D

Embidi takes a moment to clear his throat and get his affectations in order, and then puts on his best Space Pirate-ese voice.
"Oye bosmang, milowda ta ge erefo wa fight, but da lúsamang abandoned da kapawu! Xitim im's ours, haha! Are returning xom."

Thraega tries to work up images of friendly ships at the periphery of sensor range.

Mysticism: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (15) + 10 = 25

Even without the last of your crew that's good enough for now:

As Embidi takes the comms and spins a tale of a captured new ship, the rest of the hanakan's party does the work to back up his story. The Riveter on the other end sounds impressed.

"Deting wa gut cap! Amash demang was poke ere fo ge ta ge, eh? waperu, demang..."
{That a good cap! But who was pokin' around to get got, eh? Wait, who...}

Amy has been able to take the ship in considerably closer during this conversation, but at such short range the asteroid's sensors seem to have seen through your ruse. On the exterior of the rock dozens of large hatches suddenly open up, releasing dozens of mines and chunks of twisted metal directly in your path of approach!

I need at least one of you to make a Piloting check to maneuver around the mines and debris. Others can help by either blasting the objects away (Gunnery), scanning or scrying for a clear path (Computers, Percpetion, or Mysticism), or boosting the impact shields (Engineering)

"Ah, damn pirates! Boosting shields!"
engineering: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (15) + 16 = 31

"Telemetry incoming to your consoles!" Gletch cries as he tries to highlight the more problematic obstacles on the screens.

Computers: 1d20 + 15 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 15 + 2 = 21

Piloting: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (17) + 14 = 31

Kalhoun uses Gletch's maps to dodge the asteroids.

mysticism: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (2) + 12 = 14

Gletch charts the safest course, and with Freeman pumping the shields Kalhoun is able to fly the ship through with no hull damage.

Your craft nears the hangar bay for landing. But as you're coming in, you can see the doors beginning to close shut as quickly as the Riveters on the asteroid can seal them!

You're almost in, but the access point is closing fast!
At least one of you will need to keep the hangar doors open remotely - either via remote hacking (Computers) or telekinetic force (Mysticism). the rest of you can try to help your final race to the door by manually optimizing the engines (Athletics or Acrobatics), competently optimizing the engines (Engineering), or flying like hell (Piloting).

Amy tries some remote hacking,
computers: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (18) + 12 = 30

Gletch also tries to hack remotely. "Hold on ... who's flying the ship!"

Computers w/ ship modifier: 1d20 + 15 + 2 ⇒ (15) + 15 + 2 = 32

Embidi flexes his magical muscle, straining to keep the doors open at a distance!
Mysticism: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (14) + 12 = 26

"Stay open. Stay open. Stay open."

Mysticism: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (10) + 10 = 20

Kalhoun was last I looked. Amy replied. He's shifted piloting controls to his station - rather rude I thought. But I gotta admit - he's doing a rather fine job

Her finger hovers over the "I'll have those back now please" button - or whatever it's called.

'Flying like hell' is what Kalhoun is here for.

Piloting: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (4) + 14 = 18

At the last moment, he swings the ship around to slide the wings through the doors.

Piloting, Promotional Reroll, Two Novas: 1d20 + 14 + 2 ⇒ (5) + 14 + 2 = 21

'Like hell' is about how he is piloting at the moment.

Freeman goes old school, running to the engine room and doing a little manual overdrive.
acrobatics: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (5) + 10 = 15

Drone assists him, beeping something about his incompetence...
acrobatics, assist: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (16) + 11 = 27

Despite a bit of bickering on the bridge, your crew is able to cooperate in action. The closing hangar doors begin to stall and spark under the combined strains of hacks and magicks and Kalhoun is able to shoot your ship into the hangar before the entrance slams shut behind you.

As you quickly disembark the Drake you see several Riveters caught off-guard and scrambling to form a makeshift defense. One of the harried pirates yells to their colleagues "Xalte da line. Nosy inyalowda gonya ruin kowlting" {Hold the line. Nosy Inners will ruin everything!}

Initiative

Freeman
something
Kalhoun
Gletch
Thraega
something
Amy
Embidi

New map added!