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Chronicles ready! Check the links below, and let me know if you have any questions or concerns. I'll keep these up for about a week, or shorter if I hear back from everyone that they got them. Laanok
There are actually two rooms you haven't checked - the lavatory (which was unremarkable) and the cargo hold across from the sparring gym. Sturmvanger has enough time to search both while Mel and Weylin collect the data stored on the bridge. The metal walls of the cargo hold are twisted and damaged, likely from a collision with asteroids similar to the ones you encountered when fighting the Honorbound. A security camera reveals that Blue Sky-101, the android crew member, fought another one of those insectoid monsters in this room shortly before the collision breached the hull and sucked everything in this room out into space. The damaged was patched, but only Blue Sky-101's severed arm, lost in combat with the monster, remained behind. ----- With your objective collected and the remains of the crew in tow, you scramble back onto your Pegasus and slip back into the Drift just before the mysterious stellar storm overtakes the derelict ship. Once you return to Absalom Station, Zigvigix is extremely appreciative for the shred of hope that the retrieved data represents. The tale of the Struggle’s Scholar’s fate disturbs the Exo-Guardians faction leader. Zigvigix promises to deliver the remains or personal belongings of the Struggle’s Scholar’s crew to the Idari for proper last-rite ceremonies. The Society maintained active files on each of the crew members, and Zigvigix can confirm that every member requested burial of their bodies or their final possessions returned to the Idari—even the android, Blue Sky-101. Zigvigix then tell you that they will send the damaged data to the Dataphiles in the hopes that their leader, Historia-7, might be able to parse the information and recover any word about the fate of Sangoro’s Bulwark. Before dismissing you, Ziggy offers a personal thanks for your role in this endeavor. “This is the first shred of truly good news that the Exo-Guardians have had in a long time! My many thanks for all you have done in securing this important data. Now, there is another important matter I wanted to bring up. “Prior to the Scoured Stars incident, I was part of a group of loyal friends, like the team you’re all a part of. Right before that dark event, I bought some tickets for my friends and me to a major upcoming concert. It was going to be our big outing—a capstone to all our missions together. Now, all my friends are trapped or lost in the Scoured Stars, and who knows how long it will take before we find out what happened there. The concert is coming up in a few months, and I wanted to extend an invitation. No promises or anything; you might be on assignment, and field missions take priority. If you are free, though, I would be honored if you would join me at this concert. Think of it as a remembrance for my lost comrades and a celebration of a new generation’s camaraderie. “Oh! I just realized that I should invite Historia-7 too! Okay, well, thanks again. I should get going!”
The doshko and hammer whir through the air, followed by the wet crack of the creature's carapace. It's four arms fall limp, and its mandibles twitch once or twice before going still. With the monster defeated, you scour the bridge of the Struggle’s Scholar for the necessary data. With some quick connections and technical jury-rigging, you download the data onto Mel's datapad. You also find some of the pilot's personal belongings, meaning you have burial materials for almost every member of the crew (Blue Sky-101, the one android among the Scholar's crew, is still unaccounted for). Do you have anything else you want to accomplish on this ship before you have to escape the oncoming storm?
GM Screen:
The party converges fire on the monster, but only Pellet's hailstone and Sturmvanger's doshko manage to do any harm. The beast lashes out at Sturmvanger in a four-armed frenzy, but most of the attacks glance off his armor. The only successful attack is a bonk from a chair leg being wielded like a club, which the dragonkin mostly shakes off. Round 3 (bold may act)
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The one advantage of Twila-4's collapse was a clean shot at the monster; both Weylin and Mel manage to land shots on it, though Laanok's slug sinks into the computer consul with a shower of sparks. With Twila-4 neutralized, the alien realizes her flesh is synthetic and quickly loses interest. Instead, it turns towards the towering dragonkin, scurrying around the swivel chair and lunging towards his ankles. It's jaws clamp around his leg, but cannot pierce his thick armor. Round 2 (bold may act)
GM Screen:
Mel follows Weylin into the room, sliding behind Sturmvanger and blasting the creature with her azimuth laser pistol. The dragonkin, finally able to harm a this flesh-and-blood foe, wallops it with his doshko. The beast flies into a fury, lashing out at Twila-4 again. It bites her, but once again the paralytic saliva doesn't seem to take with the android. It then swings at her with two pieces of debris, clutched in its claws like improvised cudgels; one connects with the side of her head. Round 2 (bold may act)
The statewide outages are over but the lines at my house are down. I'm hoping to be back online tomorrow. No worries, thanks for letting us know. Stay safe over there, these storms are no joke
GM Screen:
As Twila-4 swivels the pilot's seat around, she realizes too late that the corpse is inhabited - a four-armed, insectoid monstrosity bursts from the decaying chest cavity, its jaws clamping on to Twila-4's leg. She feels her thigh go numb, but her mechanical physiology doesn't take the creature's venom as severely. Round 1 (bold may act)
GM Screen:
As you fan out to secure the bridge, you notice the corpse of the ship's pilot slumped over in one of the foremost chairs. Gore from his burst chest is spattered over the console in front of him - the only one left that is still lit, after all the others were shut down to conserve energy.
After waiting a moment to ensure nothing else sprung from the dead kasathas, the only thing between you and the ship's bridge was a single door. Steeling yourself for whatever awaited beyond, you make your way towards your objective. The ship’s bridge is alight in red warning screens. The nearing ethereal storm looms beyond the forward viewing platform, while the ship’s failing power causes each station’s panels to flicker intermittently. A battered captain’s chair oversees two tiers of descending operations panels.
When he sees the dead kasatha, he begins pulling away chairs and checks them to see if they have any items that might be useful to their exploration. GM Screen:
Sturmvanger leads the team into the room, and makes a beeline for the dead kasathas. In his haste to search them for viable equipment, he fails to notice that both corpses were ungulating, with a wet squelching noise emanating from their abdominal cavities. As the dragonkin leans over to investigate, two ruddy, bulbous worms with circular maws burst from the corpses in a spray of gore, tearing at Sturmvanger's armor. Though his reflexes were fast enough to keep the mysterious vermin from burrowing into his flesh, they do manage to gnaw at his scales a little before he rips them off and stomps on them. Mysticism 15:
These larva are rarely seen on the Material Plane, but closely resemble the early life phase of a xill, a four-armed insectoid creature from the Ethereal Plane. The macabre life cycle of these extraplanar vermin requires them to deposit larvae in the still-living body of a victim, often one paralyzed by the creature's saliva. Despite the setback, Sturmvanger does not return empty-handed. One of the kasathas has pouch labeled "medic" tucked into her belt, which contains a pair of mk 1 serums of healing. The table also has a key card on it, though a quick investigation reveals it would have opened the Captain's Quarters if Mel hadn't already hacked the lock.
Yes, using a serum of healing will not impact your ability to take a 10-minute rest.
Pardon my confusion. I'm at 5/5 RP at the start of my first turn as a dying person, because I don't lose any RP until the end of my turn. So if I use 1/4 of my 5 RP to stabilize, I assumed I'd have to use 2 RP (not 1), leaving my at 3 RP. Is that right? Correct.
Mel uses her datapad to ping the Pegasus, and its sensors indicate the storm is still out of range but fast approaching. You will likely have time for one 10-minute rest to mourn and recover, but after that you will need to make haste to the bridge if you want to get what you came for and make it out alive.
----- With the starship battery disconnected from the power armor, Weylin can rejigger the engine room's circuit board to give you access to the rest of the ship. The first stop on the way to the bridge is the mess hall, though it looks more like a charnel house than a cafeteria. The remains of two dead kasathas are piled in the northwest corner, surrounded by knocked-over chairs. A ceremonial table setting in the center of the chamber is spattered with blood. The stench of decay is palpable in this room, and even the sink along the southern wall is coated in a dark-red shade. Storage containers fill the eastern side of the room, each similarly spattered by gore. An impressive set of double doors bars passage to the north.
Once they lose that RP... Good catch, I misread that. Yes, if you spend 1 RP now you will automatically stabilize, leaving you with 3 left.
GM Screen:
With one last swing of Laanok’s baton and a blast of Mel’s pistol, Yotto’s tortured soul dissipates and the room grows quiet.
Players who are dying lose 1 RP per round. Once they lose that RP, they can spend one quarter of their max RP (in your case 1) to automatically stabilize on this turn. If you spend another RP on your next turn, (3 out of your total of 4) you become conscious at 1 HP. Alternatively, any healing that restores HP automatically stabilizes and awakens the healed character. A player with a medkit can stabilize a dying character with a DC 15 Medicine check.
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Weylin capitalizes on Pellet's distraction to land a body blow, while Mel takes a desperate shot with her laser pistol that connects. Yotto finds a new threat in Weylin, arcing a claw around to gouge him across the chest. Round 5 (bold may act)
For this fight, yes, but since you’ve still got all your RP you can be stabilized if the rest of the party survives.
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The supercharged laser blast burns a hole straight through the incorporeal kasatha, leaving only a few tattered wisps of wrath to lash out at you. Yotto wheels about and gashes Twila-4 in response to the devastating blow. Round 3 (bold may act)
Realizing that the driftdead will start killing people if it doesn't go down soon, Mel channels her magic into Twila-4's laser pistol. "If someone with a force baton gets over here I can give it some extra 'oomph' for a bit!" She cries. After seeing Sam-12 clock Yotto in the head, Weylin suspects the wrathful spirit will turn on the android next. He and Pellet try to provide covering fire to help protect him.
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Weylin predicted correctly, and Yotto bears down on Sam-12. The covering fire helps offset the worst of the full attack. Round 3 (bold may act)
GM Screen:
Mel sears the driftdead's ethereal form while the two androids flank it, allowing Sam-12 to clobber it with his force baton even though he fumbled the trick attack. Yotto's spirit rages at the two androids on either side of it, lashing out with one spectral claw at each of them. Round 3 (bold may act)
Your SP gets consumed before your HP, so if your banner is correct and you haven't yet been damaged then you will be at 0/9 SP and 7/13 HP remaining. You can still act, but another hit like that will drop you.
Mel continues to babble incoherently.
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The driftdead, distracted by Weylin's earlier fire, floats right into the path of Laanok's force baton. Twila-4 capitalizes on the hit to land a trick shot with her laser pistol. Yotto's wrathful spirit turns its ire on Laanok, using its incorporeal claws to exact retribution for the vesk's attack. Round 3 (bold may act)
GM Screen:
Sturmvanger's breath causes the driftdead to recoil, but ones the flames dissipate it lunges at the dragonkin in a fit of rage. Round 2 (bold may act)
The lights flicker ominously once again as you gather around the bloodstained power armor. You cast worried glances at each other, taking your positions for your standoff against the restless soul of Yotto. GM Screen:
No disturbance.
Confused for 2 rounds. Confused for 2 rounds. Round 1 (bold may act)
The moment the forcefield drops, the wispy figure of a badly burned kasatha materializes in the center of the room . It screeches as it takes form, immediately calling to mind the sound you heard when you first boarded the Struggle's Scholar. However, the proximity of the tortured soul makes its wail batter not only your ears, but the core of your being; you feel the rage and terror flood your senses as the monster's agony fills the room.
The room south of the Captain's quarters features four beds, suggesting it is where the crew of the Struggle's SCholar slept. Each bed is neatly made with a prominent item placed atop its center. Above the beds are tightly sealed storage compartments. A single-tier metal shelf curves around the southwestern wall, its surface pristine but entirely empty.
Culture 15:
The items placed atop the beds are each part of a kasathan tradition for those who are making a journey from which they don’t expect to return. The crew members left personal items on each of their beds, as gifts to those who survive them and continue to create future history. One of the items left atop the bed items is an electronic scale model of the Idari (the roughly cylindrical kasathan worldship that currently orbits the Pact Worlds’ sun) rotating slowly in the air above a smooth stand. The Idari model is worth 100 credits. Another bed holds a personal datapad, flashing with a low-battery warning. Any flashlight or similar battery can be used to power the datapad, unlocking the most recent personal logs of one of the kasathas from the original crew, named Teliu.
Teliu's Log:
RECORD 1
I am worried about Yotto. She is furious about what happened at the Bulwark and seems to be withdrawing more and more—she didn’t even attend this morning’s spar. Instead, I battled against Blue Sky-101, who is a skilled opponent but lacks the same vitality and understanding of honor. I thought Yotto would at least work some of her anger out by taking baton to bot. Perhaps it is her youth getting the better of her. I will give her a few days to restore her balance. RECORD 2
When we return to the Idari, I hope the adata will accept Yotto’s body and grant me dispensation to query her soul. I’d like to speak with her one last time—and ask her why she was in the cargo hold when we were hit. For now, I have shrouded her body and placed it in the sparring chamber. RECORD 3
FINAL RECORD
– Teliu Davead Mord of Clan Ferrous, House Elwood, truth-keeper of the Ferrous Stone A ceremonial Idaran force training baton (same stats as listed earlier), engraved with the lengthy lineage and titles of its owner, rests atop the third bed. This uniquely crafted force baton could be sold for 650 credits. On the fourth bed is an elegantly bound copy of the book Customs of Kasath, a gift traditionally given to a kasatha who has just completed the Tempering, a coming-of-age ritual. The nameplate inside identifies the copy as belonging to Yotto, one of the kasatha crew members. Nestled inside the cover is a least photon crystal. The compartments above the beds are locked.
DC 15 Engineering or Strength check to open: They contain 3 basic medkits.
All the doors in the ship are steel doors that slide sideways. Propping it open may be possible, but the biggest problem is that the doors along the central north-south axis of the ship are all airlock failsafes in the event of structural compromise. Based on your evaluation of their structure, compromising the power system of the Mess Hall door by removing the battery will automatically activate the failsafe to seal the door and maintain atmospheric pressure. If you had a way to reduce the pressure throughout the ship you may be able to minimize the force exerted by the failsafe system, but working that out would require much more time than you actually have. Speaking of which, a 10-minute rest hear is possible. The lights continue to flicker ominously as you recover, and occasionally a flare from the planar storm baring down on you causes the entire derelict to rock back and forth. You receive a ping from your Pegasus: Sensors indicate unstable environment will overtake these coordinates in approximately 30 minutes.
Seeing the activated armor, powered by a precious starship battery that the surviving crew hooked up to it, helps Twila-4 connect the dots. The spectral kasatha is likely a driftdead, a restless spirit that manifests when a sentient creature dies in the Drift while consumed by powerful emotions, like wrath or terror. If returned to the Material Plane, a driftdead becomes incorporeal and can move through material objects, much like you saw in the holo-recording. It would also explain why the monster could rend its targets from a distance, as driftdeads have a notorious ability to pull apart the flesh of living creatures within 30 feet. As an incorporeal undead, a driftdead could through the powered armor, but not through force effects. When you saw the creature dive "into" the kasatha wearing the powered armor in the projection, the wearer must have sacrificed their life to turn on the forcefield and trap the driftdead inside with it. The surviving crew could then drag the powered armor into the captain's quarters (thus leaving the trail of blood) and hook it up to the battery to ensure the driftdead remained trapped. You would need more evidence to confirm that's what happened, but all the parts make sense. Unfortunately, it means that disconnecting the battery to open the bridge would likely release the driftdead once again.
As Sturmvanger runs, the turret takes a parting shot at the dragonkin.
You hear a repetitive clunk sound as the turret attempts to reload, despite running out of ammunition. --- In the now-accessible captain's quarters, The signs of struggle are visible everywhere. A single bed in the northwest corner of the chamber is torn, with its comforter halfway on the floor. A nearby bed table and desk are in similar disarray, covered with shattered glass and hunks of broken ceramics. A pool of blood covers the southern floor, adjacent to the chamber’s sole entry point. Next to the bloodstain, a familiar-looking suit of power armor with subtle rends in the abdomen lies askew. You recognize it as the power armor that entered the holoprojector's recording, where it was attacked by the ghostly kasatha. A cursory examination reveals a dead kasatha's corpse still resides within the armor, and the shimmer of a barely visible force field projects around the armor at a range of about one foot. A cable on the floor leads from the base of the suit to a starship battery pack, identical to those found in the engine room.
Hitting the turret with your weapons is rather simple, since it cannot evade. However, the hardened starship metal absorbs most of the damage without affecting function. Only Sturmvanger's wallop seems to get through its hardness.
The turret takes aim at the closest target, which is now the dragonkin who bashed it.
An Engineering check could give you some insight there.
You bring the battery from the sparring gym back to the engine room, and after a few minutes Weylin and Mel get it hooked up to the first power terminal. Some of the lights flicker as new energy feeds the rooms, and you hear the whirring of the door to the captain's quarters sliding open. You also see a few blinkers on the northern door light up; according to the rough map drawn on the wall of the engine room, it looks like the mess hall is now accessible. Unfortunately, adding power to this route activates the turret. It emerges from its silo and takes a shot at the first "intruder" it sees - which in this case is Weylin.
Once it shoots the dwarf, you hear a whirring mechanism as the turret's rifle reloads.
Mel's knowledge base is insufficient to identify the ghostly kasatha from the recording alone, though she may have more luck if she encounters it in person. As you process what you've learned, the ship rocks again and the orange emergency lights flicker. You've still got a mission, and the clock is ticking.
Within moments, Mel detaches the functional starship battery from the wall. During this time, Laanok searches the weapon rack and finds an Idaran force training baton (see below), 10 carbonedge shuriken, 8 tactical batons, 4 cestus battlegloves, and 2 serums of enhancement (commando).
Idaran force training baton:
An Idaran force training baton is a 2nd-level uncategorized basic melee weapon that deals 1d4 bludgeoning damage. The damage from this weapon counts as a force effect when wielded by a character with at least 12 Strength. Note, this does not mean the weapon deals force damage, only that it counts as a force effect for overcoming certain defenses such as incorporeal. It has the operative and powered (capacity 20, usage 1) special properties, it is light bulk, and it costs 400 credits. Twila-4 and Weylin manage to patch together the holoprojector enough to play its last recording. In it, a kasatha backs into the room rapidly and rushes for the rack of weapons. She's pursued by a ghostly, translucent kasatha who enters just as she pulls a baton from the rack. While she turns to face it, it strikes at her from nearly 15 feet away. Somehow, even though its arms are far too short to span that distance, it rips a chunk from the living kasathan's abdomen; or maybe it would be more accurate to say a chunk erupts from her abdomen. Another two crew members charge through the door and the translucent monster's ghostly claws get beaten back by the the kasathas' training batons. Somehow the crew get the better of it, and it flees between them toward the door where a figure in powered armor waits. The armored one falls back out of sight as the ghost rips and tears at the kasatha inside. As the two kasatha left in the room follow, one bangs its hand against the door and her baton falls to the floor. The recording ends.
As Laanok squares off against the robot, its arms stutter a few times while the lights in its eyes flicker. It lowers its arms and speaks again.
Speak Kasathan:
"BATTERY LEVEL TOO LOW TO PERFORM APPROPRIATE FUNCTIONS. PLEASE REPLACE BATTERY TO RESUME TRAINING." A few moments later, the entire robot powers down, leaving you free to explore the room uninterrupted. The battery connected to the robot is low on power, but the one next to it is still sufficiently charged.
Though Twila-4 remains hidden, Sturmvanger and Laanok draw the robot's attention. It springs to life, raising its four arms in a combat position and barking something in Kasathan.
Speak Kasathan:
"I AM READY TO SPAR. STEP ONTO THE MAT, OR SAY 'HOLD' IF YOU WISH TO ACQUIRE A WEAPON FROM THE RACK BEFORE WE BEGIN." As Laanok noted, a holoprojector is suspended above the training mat. It looks as though it was used to record sparring matches for later review. Once you deal with the robot, a successful DC 20 Computers or Engineering check will allow you to repair the projector enough to see what it last recorded.
The door that Twila-4 approaches still has sufficient power; the door stutters a couple times, but eventually opens. Just inside the doorway, the entry floor is caked with blood, and several batons and shuriken are scattered throughout the room. A simple sparring mat covers much of the center floor. An alcove along the eastern edge houses a weapon rack filled several kinds of batons and a dozen fine shuriken. On the opposite wall is a pad of self-healing foam with colorful abstract targets painted on it. A four-armed metal robot stands in the southwestern corner of the chamber, its sensors flickering while they scan the room. A set of cables run from the back of the robot to a pair of large, brick-sized batteries installed in the back wall.
Perception 15: You notice a holoprojector in the ceiling with a carbonedge shuriken lodged in it.
Mel's technical know-how and Sturmvanger's interest in the ship's energy signatures lead them both to the same place: the engine room. Cracks mar the surface of this room’s western wall. A constant thrum of power is audible within the area, clearly emanating from an immense engine embedded into the northern wall. A standalone module sits opposite the only entrance to the room, but the thick cable that should connect it to the humming engine is irrevocably split. The engine enclosure in the forward section of the room is missing its front panel, and a maze of crisscrossing wires connect to various terminals; Mel can determine that some catastrophe rendered the engine useless for travel, at which point the engineer on board patched what she could and diverted remaining power to the ship’s life support systems, some sort of containment module on the port side, and as many of the ship's internal doors as possible. However, several of these rerouted power strips are now inoperable, since the engine is slowly losing what power it still retains. South of the control module, several dead, brick-sized starship batteries are stacked on metal shelves. A nearby power terminal had its cover removed, and a sketch in marker shows where these supplemental batteries were providing power. Mel knows enough about the ship layout to make sense of which cord provides power to which doors of the ship, though she would need additional batteries to power them back up. She's also skilled enough to realize that even an expert would not be able to successfully reverse-engineer the patched power cables from the engine in the time you have left before that storm reaches you; your best hope is to find some batteries squirreled away within the ship.
Twila-4 joins the ranks of those unable to bypass the turret's sensors. The device still doesn't have power diverted towards it, so it is unable to reactivate at this time; however, the cramped workspace means attempting to disable the turret again will take considerably more time. Mel has a bit more luck with the keypad, using her datapad to bypass the keycard encryption. Unfortunately, she only hears the feeble whirring of gears within the wall; the door itself barely budges.
Weylin and Mel attempt to disarm the turret, but the entire cabin rocks slightly as the emergency lights flicker - likely some energy disturbance from the storm baring down on you. The disruption in energy currents prevents Weylin from successfully disconnecting the motion tracker, and sure enough the turret begins to follow anyone walking through the hall. It hasn't fired yet, but it's only a matter of time. Sam-12 determines that the shriek likely arose from the starboard side of the ship (where you are currently searching), but cannot specifically pinpoint its origin.
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