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Mahari docks the ship back at Absalom Station already planning her next scam. She says goodbye to Khendai and gives them one of her many contact numbers (not one of the business ones, but one that she uses for "friends" that she might eventually need to ditch.) It's not that she isn't sympathetic to their situation; she's just worried they might get clingy and weird. She sends her after-action report to Radaszam, and heads home to do some research on Corbosi Inc. and the Kalistocrat sect. It's well into the night when she finishes her second glass of a nice Castrovellian white that she feels like she's got a plan. Two days later, Mahari gets her makeup, hair, and illusory clothing in order. Her hair is pulled back in a severe bun and bleached pure white with a single bright blonde highlight. It matches the all-white robe with gold trim and white gloves she's made her clothes appear to be. Her face is altered just enough that one of her teammates would recognize it as Dortay-but-not-Dortay. But given that no one else has seen the real Dortay in a very long time, who outside her team could gainsay her? She checks herself in the mirror one last time before heading down to the waiting (rental) limo. It promptly delivers her to an understated building that looks like a cross between a bank vault and a church. Within, Mahari joins the assembled Kalistocrats and proceeds to hob-nob and name-drop all the while gathering inside intel on their businesses along with personal data for future social engineering uses.
Mahari slides into the pilot's seat and begins the pre-takeoff flow then double-checks to make sure she didn't miss anything. It's nice to be back in a ship with standard controls and interfaces, though she kind of misses the performance of the Star Sythe, and Mean Gurl even more so. She lifts off the weird little planetoid and flies out toward the beacon. "What's the plan, Cap'n?" she asks Azara?
"I hope this isn't gonna be like one of Shokil's books," she muses. "You read the first one thinking it's a stand-alone. Then you find out from his promo-feed that he planned it as a trilogy. But when you finish the third book, there's a huge cliffhanger, and you realize it's a never-ending series."
"Yeah, maybe we should go make sure Khendai doesn't trip an alarm or break something." Mahari wasn't really looking at the art much anyway. Too big to take and likely too complicated to sell. "If you're sure you and the others will be okay, we'll get going. We'll take care of Khendai and go check on that beacon."
"Yeah, that was crazy," Mahari observes as she finishes checking Dortay's pockets and outfit. Finding ______, she stands and agrees to Nimh's suggestion. "Rishni, there's no one else here, right? No other surprises for us?" Even so, she pulls out her portable scanner to help check for any nasty traps Dortay might have left for potential thieves.
"Oh, for Hezmatta's sake, stop it with the little energy bolts, will you!" Mahari yells at the swarm knowing full well that it won't do any good. But it makes her feel better, and that's all that matters. She also knows she really doesn't have any toys in her kit for swarms. But maybe Dortay had some item to control it. Or maybe just messing with her body will draw it back away from the others. Either way, Mahari steps next to the mummified Kalistocrat and begins looking for ... something ioun-ish?
Hezmatta, it's making null grav somehow! I hate null grav! It always reminds of that birthday party on the ship... No! Not gonna think about that. I was a kid. And now I can frellin' FLY! Briefly panicking over the unpleasant memories of that ill-timed grav-gen failure during her childhood, Mahari hesitates. But then she simply rolls to her side and fires her jet pack, zooming out of the swarm and across the room. She zigs and zags her way to where Dortay had previously stood before taking her shot at the crazy old
@Jones228 / Kat6: When you make your Trick attack (aka Debilitating Trick), your roll should be +18+4 and you can Take 10. There's no reason to roll. You'll simply auto-succeed vs any CR <= 12. Here's the breakdown: Trick Attack: As a full action, you can move up to your speed. Whether or not you moved, you can then make an attack with a melee weapon with the operative special property or with any small arm. Just before making your attack, attempt a Bluff, Intimidate, or Stealth check (or a check associated with your specialization; see below) with a DC equal to 20 + your target’s CR.
Errata:
Interesting. Iseph's pregen character sheet still says it's a +4, and that's what I quoted above. But the new CRB says Ghosts only get +1. They used to get +4 before the second printing. Spy Specialists (like Mahari) still get +4 to Bluff for their Trick Attack. Maybe because Stealth is a Dex skill so it was too easy, and Bluff is a Cha skill which most Operatives dump.
I played at a table of Great Grav Train Robbery with Alex Spiedel. There were lots of errors on those pregen sheets. He said to run pregens as printed, because it's not our job, and certainly not appropriate for new players, to have to deconstruct and correct the official pregens.
But wait, there's more. At 7th level, Operatives get Specialization Skill Mastery: You become so confident in certain skills that you can use them reliably even under adverse conditions. When attempting a skill check with a skill in which you have the Skill Focus feat, you can take 10 even if stress or distractions would normally prevent you from doing so. In Kat's case, she has Skill Focus in Acrobatics AND Stealth, so she simply Takes 10 on those two skills, even in combat. So, to review, when you Trick Attack using Stealth with Ghost Specialization and Specialization Skill Mastery, you get 10+18+4=32. The DC is the target's CR+20, so you'll always beat a CR of 12 or less. FWIW, you can even just put "10" in the dice roller instead of "d20":
And lastly, you have the option to induce Flatt footed or Off Target, as you've been doing. But Iseph also has Interfering Shot: For your debilitating trick, you can prevent your target from using reactions until the end of your next turn. Maybe not so useful here, but another option. I would suggest that Kat switch to doing Flat Footed if we get Dortay into melee. Then Mahari can use her alternate Debilitating Trick which will prevent Dortay from taking guarded steps to cast.
"Whelp? Sure I'm younger than you. Most everyone in the damn galaxy is, you dried up, nasty, old b$&~%." Mahari's mean-girl comes out as the two magic missiles puncture her armor. Then she feels the radiation warming her unpleasantly. Not much she can do about it, though, so she focuses on the problem at hand. Seeing that it didn't react to Nimh's shot at close range, Mahari tries running straight through the swarm to get at said wrinkly old bat. Spread out! she calls out mentally.
Waiting to see if Teleemo successfully countered the spell. Staggered shuts Operatives down (can't trick attack), so I'd rather not roll the save if I don't have to. ================================= On an unrelated note, I've really got to figure out a good way to use her Chronal Harness in PBP. It says: "You can spend 1 Resolve Point to reroll your initiative check after seeing the result and use whichever of the two results is higher." Of course, in PBP things happen between the GM rolling init and me getting to post. Especially in this situation: Boss battle, plenty or RP remaining, even though she rolled a 15 on the die-bot, I likely might have spent the 1 RP just to see if I could do better, and certainly if I'd known the Big Bad was gonna go first. (Of course, I did kinda know we were getting close to another combat. So, yeah, I could have just reminded the GM that she has it and I'd like to use it either way.) But beyond that, or for situations where we don't know that combat is imminent, does anyone have any suggestions on how to effectively use it without causing issues for the GM and the table?
"Oooh, Nimh, I like how you're thinking," Mahari says as she holsters her pistol. "Maybe we can also get Rishni to casually inform Dortay that there are 'guests' preparing to depart once we're in the outer entryway, even if it's only via an automated alert or something." She starts heading that way to take up a position.
Mahari stands aside as Kat inspects the sarcophagi and briefs them about the historical connections. She doesn't really care about all that but fakes interest - which isn't hard for her at all. When the discussion turns to whether they're doing the right thing, she pipes in. "You make a good point, Kat, but I don't think there's any "law" out here. We're way outside Steward's jurisdiction, and if Corbosi even still remembers Dortay, they'd've sent a team to deal with this already." She pauses and checks the battery on her pistol. "But if we do eliminate her, we'd be doing Corbosi a favor, one that they might very well repay us for handsomely." Plus maybe give me some contract work in the future, she thinks to herself. "And since Rasheen clearly didn't end her travels here, I bet that damn beacon is just another huge data dump and a pointer to yet another beacon somewhere else anyway." Somewhere with more undead crocodiles, undoubtedly. "Dortay's got the comms locked out which keeps these uploaded people prisoner. Even if we can take Khendai with us, they're still stuck here. Forever. So I'm okay with it." "As to how we get in...." The little spy smiles as she begins planning.
Mahari looks up from the datapad that she'd been reading over Nimh's shoulder. Corporate financials are usually a valuable asset for resale, but she's beginning to suspect that she wouldn't get much if anything for these given how old they are. Some of the message traffic, though, could prove useful for social engineering purposes. "Yeah, that makes sense, Azara. We never checked that big room just beyond the design suite. Heck, if we happen to run into this Khendai person, we can pass along Rishni's concern."
"Yeah, no thanks. I'd rather live for today than live for forever." "Rishni, what would happen to you, the others uploaded, and this place if and when Dortay is ended? Who would take over?" "I think you can tell we're all just as horrified at the prospect of self-mummification and eternal un-life as you are. Since you seem to feel strongly about it, what can you do or tell us to help us end this abomination? Like about her security systems, or her personal abilities?"
"Heh. She can't see what she can't see," Mahari quips as she spots the datapad. She smiles gleefully as she plots out how to The professional spy fades from view and flies out to the gazebo, picks up the pad, and jets back to the doorway where she reappears. "Here you go, Nimh," she says as she hands over the pilfered pad.
Satisfied with how easy it was, it's only then that Rishni's comment registers. "Wait, WHAT? Dortay mummified herself?"
There's a lot she's not telling us about Dortay and her current "condition." she expresses to her teammates. Turning her attention back to Rishni, she nods in sympathy. "Wow, that sounds terrible for both of you. Ok, if we run across Kehndai, we'll try to talk them down, and we'll only use non-lethal force if it resorts to that. We'll do our best to take them with us peacefully. Sound good?" With that seemingly resolved, and with Kat and Nihm done as far as she can tell, Mahari steps over to the grass(!) area and peeks through the archway. "What's out here, Rishni? she inquires of their new friend.
Mahari watches Nimh expertly do his thing and checks on Kat as she downloads info on old Golarion. At the repeated question about Khendai, she drops into her usual mode of thinking - lie first, then lie some more if you get caught. "Khendai wasn't the name of the dead maintenance worker, right?" she asks feigning forgetfulness. "So there's other folks working here, too? I suppose there must be, he was a tech third class, so he'd have a couple supervisors and plenty of coworkers. And someone to feed them, and ..." she lets the sentence trail off as she pretends to think about the situation more deeply. She proceeds to sidestep the question with a technical truth wrapped around a bluff, with the intent to turn the topic away from Khendai. "But, no, we haven't seen any other maintenance workers at all, now that I think about it. Where is everyone else that should have been working with that poor unfortunate ysoki?"
Seeing that Khendai has calmed down somewhat, Mahari holsters her pistol. With a thought she dismisses the invisibility field as she steps out from behind one of the shelves. Hands spread in a non-threatening pose, she smiles charmingly. "Khendai, have you heard of Eox? It's a planet of all undead in the Pact Worlds. I've got some contacts there who could help you get settled in and adjusted to your situation once we take you with us." Once it becomes clear that Khendai has provided all the info that he can, she suggests visiting the server room first. It was hidden after all, and therefore clearly not somewhere intruders should be going. Which is all the encouragement her curiosity needs.
Mahari continues to slip along the wall past the strange lashunta. She takes her time, placing each foot carefully given how closely she's passing by the clearly agitated man. Her eyes track his fidgety movements, wary and cautious. In place at his 6 o'clock, she thumbs her pistol to Stun. I'm in place behind him, near the back corner, she informs the team.
Mahari easily dodges out of the way of the incoming sticky grenade. She looks back and snerks a little at how Croaker is covered in the stuff before activating her invisibility and moving forward. "I don't think we can reason with him at this point, but maybe we can subdue him." The little halfling slips by Azara but not before she lets everyone know what she's planning. I'm invisible. Gonna go past this guy to catch him by surprise.
"Thanks, Rishni. When we meet up with the Lady, we'll be sure to let her know how helpful you've been," Mahari says earnestly, but also angling to prompt the sphinx to divulge more about the Lady. She then follows Azara down into the work room and begins to poke around at the notes. Azara, any guess how long it's been since anyone used this place?
Mahari moves on from the bridge, satisfied that this isn't some elaborate ruse or just wishful thinking. She's a little intrigued by the split-level villa (Might need to con my way into a stay there for a little break) and the red pyramid (Take notes on the interior layout in case I run across this place). She asks their host for info on both of them and scans the QR code for future reference. As she makes her rounds of the displays, she stops at the partially complete sculpture of a humanoid-snake hybrid with a star for a face. "What's up with this one, Rishni? What does it represent, and why isn't it finished like the others?" She studies it more closely, and it begins to creep her out a little, but she listens attentively to the sphinx's response.
Mahari turns back to the sphinx and her teammates. She doesn't have to work too hard to keep a straight face, given that lying is something she does naturally. But she's gotta be extra careful not to betray what she's thinking. Lady Dortay "moved here to begin her retirement." Vastly wealthy already. With an interest in archeology and the past. And though I've heard of this corp, I've never heard tell of the Lady. Cause she's .... No, it can't be. No way is this Lady actually Rasheen. But she doesn't tell her friends of her theory yet. Instead, she asks the sphinx, "What should we call you? And how long ago did the Lady retire and set all this up? I've heard of Corbosi Incorporated before, of course, but I don't have a lot of details."
Architectural firms aren't common targets in the corporate espionage biz, but it seems like Mahari might have heard of Lady Dortay ven Corbosi and her eponymous company.
"A client commissioned this replica to connect Kizmatta’s Arethusan Exchange Complex to a new luxury residential zone." Mahari moves to look at the model of the bridge and scans the code with her comm to see if she can get more details like exactly where in Kizmatta it is. "Hey, we were just on Kizmatta not long ago. Did we see that bridge on our city tour with Tioran?" Mahari asks her teammates.
"I thought Croaker said the Kalistocrats dressed this way Which means there are or were some kind of staff here. And that he's not from Rasheen's crew." Mahari turns her attention away from the corpse and to the elaborate entryway and displays. She moves forward cautiously to the next room. She's got a bad feeling about the sphinx. It's gonna do or say something, she just knows it.... "So what the hell is this place?"
Mahari keeps pace with Azara as the solarian descends the ramp. She keeps her eyes peeled for traps as is her nature. Yeah, either an elaborate tomb or the fanciest bank vault in the cosmos. Either way, I can see why Rasheen came here, she sends to the team telepathically. Oh, yeah, I picked up telepathy for when I'm going invisible. Also works for places like this that just feel like we ought to be quiet. "Jeez, I hope that's not her," she says reverting to the habit of speaking aloud.
Mahari watches Kat expertly land the borrowed ship and even chuckles at the android's joke. She stands up from the Captain's chair, gives Kat a thumbs up and a smile, then heads for the hatch. After checking her seals and drawing her pistol, she joins Croaker at the door. "You said these Kallistocrats had immense wealth? Maybe this whole place is a big bank vault." Mahari can barely keep herself from salivating at the prospect, but she knows it won't be this easy. It never is.... "Well, let's try Radaszam's key card," she says as she slides the provided key into the slot.
Mahari plops down in the Captain's seat to watch New Kat fly the ship out through the Armada and into the Drift. Not bad. I guess she'll do. But I miss the "real" Kat. She sits there musing on the similarities between large but disparate families like the halflings have and android model lines. Her fingernails absentmindedly drum out a song from one of the bands that
That's a good question, the iconic is listed as gender neutral. I'm not sure the rules around changing details so I didn't want to modify anything, which is also why I had a little fun last night with my movie reference. I will likely go on typing "she" though just to keep it easy. I used "guy" in my post trying to be combative as well. I don't know if it's written anywhere, but the understanding has always been that since gender has no mechanical effect you are free to re-gender an iconic pregen when you play them. That rule also has the effect of making the game more accessible to new players who might not be comfortable playing a different gender, e.g. the teenage boy at a con that really wants to play the barbarian (Amiri) but can't bring himself to play a girl - a stereotypical example, for sure, but admittedly that could well have been me many decades ago. The SFS guide lists the bonus as a "circumstance" bonus for publicist. Thanks!
Mahari eyes the "new guy"* suspiciously and doesn't really like the backhanded comments about her friend's model. She goes over to Kat and gives her a hug. "I wish you were coming, but I understand. You get a job, you gotta take it. You be safe out there, too. Comm me when you get back." She releases the hug but keeps hold of one hand for a lingering moment. When she lets go with a final squeeze, she wipes an eye with the hand. "Geez, they really need to replace the filters down here. Too much metal dust in the air," she says blinking away "something." She turns her attention to Kat6. "Alright. Welcome aboard. You know us, but we don't know what you're really capable of. If you can, how about you take the pilot's seat and show us what you've got," she says trying to hide the implied challenge. ================ After listening to the briefing, Mahari sighs. "Great. Undead. Didn't we already do this? Probably frellin' undead Azlanti crocodiles."
Thanks! Mahari will slot Acquisitives again for part 3. Anyone have the Publicist Acquisitives tier 1 boon? I'm curious to know what the bonus type is and whether it will stack with her Operative insight bonus. Lastly, FYI for the team, Mahari picked up a Limited Telepathy species graft. It kinda makes sense for when she's being invisible or sneaky scouting. She's leveled and her profile's been updated. Ready to go when you are.
I had slotted Acquisitives for this scenario, but unfortunately, I only mentioned it at the bottom of this post, so it was easy to miss. I can change the chronicle myself if need be, but can you change the reporting? If not, no worries. Does Part 3 have any tags, faction or otherwise?
Mahari sits at the conference table and carefully considers how she was greeted and treated by both governments in question. She straightens up and puts on her serious face. "I've had contact with both systems. I got attacked unprovoked by an Authority ship, and I got welcomed civilly by the Republic. The Marixans are more like the Pact Worlds, and if the Society, the Council and the Stewards want to encourage that kind of democracy in other worlds, they need to put their money where their mouths are." She pauses and fidgets with her fingernails. "I'm no lawyer," though I've played one more than once "and I don't know the terms of the Society's non-aggression pact with the hobs. But non-aggression to the Authority shouldn't preclude closer diplomatic and trade ties with the Marixans. I'd recommend working with the Republic and keeping the Authority at arm's length. To that end, in fact, there's this," she finishes by passing over Tioran's coded contact info with a quick explanation. "As far as what we found, Kat's got a full visual readout of a very interesting Pre-Gap and non-hobgoblin artifact that Jelev found along with a golem that the drow claim to have invented but was certainly there long before that. We arranged to have it all shipped here so you and yours' can study them." Later after all the paperwork is done, and she's said goodbye to her team, Mahari heads to her Station apartment. There, in the OakWood tower on the Ring just a stone's throw from the SecRes Pavilion, she relaxes with a cup of tea and compiles her personal report making sure to include Tioran's contacts. Following a quick nap, she dials in her outfit to the latest party fashion while adding in some Marixan elements. She heads out to scam drinks, pick pockets, skim comms, and most importantly blow off some steam...
until she gets her next call for a job.
@Kat: Here's the Folder of Level 8 SFS Pregens in BB code. Just copy the Mechanic to a new forum alias. I'd recommend naming the alias something generic that you can use for any Pregen you play. I use Nomadical's Pregen, then in the Gender line of the profile, I make the character's name [bigger] so that it stands out, like I did here for Jirelle.
"Well, I guess we can leave the big stuff here for now. Let Vekkhad arrange transport back to the Lorespire complex later, maybe," Mahari ventures as she goes to look down the frenata burrow. "I don't mind crawling through tunnels, but only when I'm breaking into somewhere secure or checking out a new ship. I think we've found everything here worth finding," she says as she peers around the warehouse space. "Can you guys get the data off the beacon? We don't have a ship that we can put in orbit while it downloads this time."
She peers over Nihm's shoulder for a couple minutes, but then gets bored and starts loading some of the smaller loot into the null-space chamber. "What do you say we head back, take a nice hot shower, and have Tioran show us some of the city's best resto's and clubs?" the semi-professional party girl asks with a twinkle in her eye. Oh, I so wanna get this whole team wasted. Especially [REDACTED] and [REDACTED]. THEN we'll have some fun....
Mahari is continuing and is leveling to 9 between these two parts. Couldn't Jones228 play a level 8 pregen and hold it until Kat reaches level 8? Could even play the Mechanic and change the name to Kat6 and the gender to female since those are non-mechanical (heh) changes to the pregen. That way Kat would have the credit for the whole trilogy, albeit with a delay.
Mahari hops down from the top of the crate, happily accepting Azara's assistance with a teasing smile and wink. Silly boy, he saw me fly up there. Not too bright, but he is good looking, and he's got a nice bod, she decides. She kneels down ostensibly to check the damage to her borrowed armor, but also maybe to check out a certain chivalrous solarian's tush. She stands as the "view" wanders off. Satisfied that the armor's damage isn't too bad, she heads over to look at the haul.
"Whoa! This thing is old!" she exclaims in excitement. "Certainly pre-Gap, and look at these marks here, and here. This isn't a hob thing, I'm certain." She stares at the disk a while longer. "We can't really haul this outta here, can we? Do we just leave it and tell Vekkhad about it?"
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