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I am sorry to have abandoned this PBP game. I still have no regular access to a computer. I'm hoping my laptop comes back before GenCon, but... well, then I have to prep for GenCon and GO to GenCon, and catch up on freelancing things, Freelance Forge, and my new job duties will start to kick in. I don't think I'll be able to hop back into any PBP any time soon.
Sorry folks, I am still without a functioning computer of any kind. Hope to get that addressed soon, but right now all my efforts are on figuring out ways to get my writing assignments done with the limited computer time that I do have. :-/
Hey folks--new routines are hard, and mine have been repeatedly disrupted this week! I know I've not been meeting my own one/day expectation. I'm still going to aim for that. I think the trick will be to post in the morning before the kid is up, because after that, it's chaos! PURE CHAOS!
Unfortunately, the Starfinders are unable to discover any more information about Talbot or recent events in Tasch before they leave. Izzip is not sure what sort of illusion magic might be able to disguise such a large quantity of Drift engine fuel, but it's reasonable to assume that Talbot is somehow involved. The Starfinders ask around and easily find a place to rent a vehicle (a sort of elongated dune buggy) for the two-hour trip across Akiton's surface to Tasch. A long dusty road, lined with single-story dwellings, runs through the town of Tasch. Some powered vehicles rest chained to their owner's homes. A small general store stands near the center of town, illuminated by flickering white lights. Another building, full of locals, hosts a signpost that reads "Digger's Dive"--clearly the town bar. Although the sun beats down on this desert town, its citizens meander around the bar in good cheer. Most are ysoki and humans, with the occasional lumbering four-armed shobhad mingling among them.
Sorry for the missed day yesterday. It's the last day of school, so my schedule this week is a bit screwy, and I'm still adapting. Summer vacation starts tomorrow, though! SUCH TIME. MUCH POST.
Rev shrugs. "They tell me nothin'. Promise job, then no job. Been'a coupl'a weeks. I think maybe they fo'get me." She takes a long drink. "Think we stuck on Akiton fo' life!"
Mori thinks that it is highly unlikely that someone discovered a significant amount of materials for Drift engine fuel in this region (or any region) of Akiton. Following the advent of Drift technology, there were extremely thorough efforts to find such materials on the red planet. They were unsuccessful. Tasch, the town that Rev spoke of, is a small mining town, but most such towns on Akiton are struggling, at best. The mines are far less valuable now that Drift technology exists.
With the arrival of Met, the Starfinder team is now complete. They make their way out of the spaceport, passing numerous humans, ysoki, androids, and a few other individuals from all over the system. These folk mostly keep to themselves and their work, and pay little attention to the Starfinders. Immense graffiti masterpieces decorate the upper reaches of the city. The descent into the chasm is a colorful journey, in large part thanks to this graffiti, but also thanks to the countless neon signs and lights illuminating nearly every surface. On the way down, your crowded lift begins trembling. The locals hardly seem to notice, and eventually the source of the reverberations reveals itself: it is the deep, resounding bass of several competing shumka beats! Following the music, you arrive at an establishment near the lift that seems to cater to those going to and from the spaceport. Q'Qwaan thinks this seems like a natural place for Talbot to have visited. The waitstaff are diverse, and so are the food and drink. Navasi and Met mingle well enough with the crowd, and learn from a Ysoki Drift-duster named Rev that AbadarCorp, the largest corporation in the Pact Worlds, recently purchased a large amount of Drift engine fuel from the nearby town of Tasch. The discovery of Drift fuel on Akiton is impressive, but apparently the AbadarCorp fleet that purchased the fuel is 2 days overdue for departure. "An' they'was suppos'a off'a gig in'a 'gine'room. Was fin'ly gettin' off'a this rust-bucket, know'me? Then they AWOL. Sucks!" Unfortunately, Maro is a busy port city, and the group is unable to find anyone who has heard of Talbot.
"A whole planet is a lot of ground to cover in search of one man. Does Talbot have any known contacts on Akiton? Do we have a lead for where to begin our search?" "We know Talbot caught a shuttle to the Akitonian city of Maro, so that's a great place to start." With your questions answered and your purchases complete, Venture-Captain Arvin encourages you to get moving as soon as possible. He has arranged for transportation to Akiton via an in-system transport shuttle. After four days of uneventful travel, you arrive at your destination. Outside the observation windows floats Akiton, a world the color of blood, rust, and red clay. A thick shell of white caps both poles. The shuttle descends toward the planet, and a barely perceptible shift in gravity occurs as the ship's artificial gravity begins to lessen and the planet's natural gravity begins to take hold. From suborbital heights, a handful of small towns, large complexes, and industrial sites that spew noxious fumes into the thin atmosphere surround the trench city of Maro. A spidery web of dirt roads scratched into the rust-colored ground by regular traffic connects these sites to the metropolis. Maro, the so-called City of Lights itself, comes into view as the ship begins its final descent. The city occupies more of a vertical space than horizontal, built into a six-mile-long section of trench that is half as deep and a half mile wide. Entire neighborhoods and business districts are built into the walls, accessed by patio entrances. Lights, neon signs, and holographic advertising bejewel either side of this urban canyon, while an active spaceport and industrial zones occupy the ground level. As the shuttle lands, it does so beneath the backdrop of an immense mural of brightly glowing neon-green graffiti that reads in Common: "Git out! Planet's Broke!"
Something like this in your PC's profile works best for me.
Arvin nods along as the gathered Starfinders ask their questions. A look of approval briefly crosses his face. "Yes, excellent questions indeed. As Starfinders, it is important to have a full understanding of your mission before proceeding. Failure to ask questions would be reckless, to say the least." "Talbot is a male human with long, dark hair. He's a decent shot with a pistol. He is smart, capable, a bit brash, and a reasonable field agent. Talbot is also self-entitled and ambitious. After the Scoured Stars incident, he expected to be promoted to venture-captain, but the Forum felt he needed more time. He got angry. We think this theft is retaliation." "The object he stole is... well, it's complicated. What the artifact is and what Talbot thinks it is are two different things. We're operating under the assumption that Talbot thinks he's stolen an object from old Golarion called a philosopher's stone. Legend has it that the stone could transmute matter, among other properties. What Talbot actually stole was recently re-cataloged as a charlatan's stone. It does something similar, except the effect is a potent illusion and only temporary. We think ancient con artists used it to make false gold. The stone just looks like a sooty black rock." "You may be wondering why we need to recover the artifact at all, given its lack of actual transmutation abilities. We need to make a statement. Rumors of the theft are already circulating through the Society, and it's important to send a message that we're not going to tolerate that type of betrayal. Also, if we don't react, we convey that our work is not very important because it's not worth defending. The Society is in a precarious enough position as it is, and we need to prove our strength and attract supporters. That said, the charlatan's stone is not worth dying over. Be careful out there, and be prepared. You should take some time to get to know each other so you can cooperate more effectively."
Next gameplay post coming from me tomorrow morning (PST) and then I'm going to aim for a minimum of one post a day. Please let me know if that pace won't work for you. :)
Excellent! I hope they add more Starfinder-appropriate avatars in the near future.
I want to confirm that I am in...I think there's room. Let me double check the Freelance Forge forums in a bit and do another count. Yup, you're one of the people I was already counting as "in." Let's do this! So far we have two technomancers, a soldier, and a mystic, plus whichever pregen Andrew decides to play. Please remember to fill out the roster as well.
I want to confirm that I am in... I think there's room. Let me double check the Freelance Forge forums in a bit and do another count.
The Venture-Captain blinks a few times at Mori's unique entrance, and gives a blank stare as Ice-9 introduces himself. "Well, you two do seem well-suited to a recovery mission, at least," he says. He responds to Mori's question. "Your primary objective is to recover the missing artifact. Talbot's not worth the expense of dragging back here, so you can do whatever you think is necessary with him. That said, you don't have a license to go on a mass killing spree. Don't make the Society look bad. It might be tough to do on Akiton, but don't take that as a challenge." "What other questions do you have?"
If anyone needs help setting up a character sheet, whether for a unique PC or a pre-gen, I highly recommend the resources in this shared PBP GM Kit folder. It includes pregenerated character stat blocks as well as templates for other characters, and tons of other resources.
Thanks Nick, Jeff, Andrew, and Kate for checking in! I know more folks posted in Freelance Forge saying they're interested, but four is technically enough to get started, so I'm eager to get things rolling as soon as you've set up your characters.
To roll something like this...
You'd type something like this... (dice=Untrained Culture check)xdy + z(/dice) Replace the () with [], and replace x, y and z with the appropriate numbers. You can separate multiple rolls with a semicolon, e.g.: (dice=Attack and damage)1d20+5; 1d6+1(/dice)
Other useful tags are (ooc)(/ooc) for blue out-of-character text, and of course (b)(/b) and (i)(/i) for bold and italic text, also using brackets [] instead of (). EDIT: Ninja'd by 36 seconds. :P
I don't mind that you've run it before. :)
Sounds good! If you want to make a new PC you could do always do that. But I get if you don't have the time/inclination.
I figure we'll give everyone the weekend and another day or two to get their profiles in order and then officially start by next Tuesday or so. Please check in here and complete the chart in the Google Drive document. There should be a link displayed next to my avatar ("FF 1-02"). Also, feel free to introduce your PC in the gameplay thread.
Venture-Captain Arvin summons you for a briefing in the Lorespire Complex on Absalom Station. The doors to the office slide open with a soft pneumatic hiss. Inside is a well-lit and blue-carpeted office. Venture-Captain Arvin, a handsome and determined-looking damaya lashunta, sits behind a desk, his eyes riveted on a glassy display. After a heartbeat, he glances towards the open door and motions everyone to enter. "Apologies, please come in. Be seated if you like, although this shouldn't take long." Arvin taps a button on a console and murmurs to a digital assistant, "Croyd, put everything on hold for a few minutes. If anyone calls, please explain I'm in mission briefing and I'll get right back to them." He then darkens the display to give his full attention to the assembled Starfinders. "Right. I have an assignment for you. This one is a little different than others you might have received." He pauses before he explains, "It's an internal matter." "You're probably aware that after the Scoured Stars incident many of our colleagues elected to leave the Society. That is unfortunate, but not surprising. We hate to lose good field agents, but no one is conscripted into our ranks. Normally we wish them well and that's that. In this case, the defector, former field agent Reynald Talbot, stole an artifact from the Lorespire Complex before departing. Theft is where the Society draws the line; I need you to get that artifact back." Unfortunately, Talbot left weeks ago and we only discovered the theft in the last 24 hours. We launched an immediate investigation to determine the identify of the thief and their last known whereabouts. It's our bad luck that Talbot was smart enough to get off the station and head to Akiton, where there's no central government or law enforcement to easily call upon. I need you to track him down and recover the artifact. We know Talbot caught a shuttle to the Akitonian city of Maro, so that's a great place to start. The Society will, of course, cover your travel expenses."
Culture DC 10+:
Akiton is smaller than Golarion standard with 1/3 gravity and a thin atmosphere. This means non-acclimated characters can jump three times as high ad carry three times the normal weight, although they gain no additional movement speed. Likewise, unless they wear any type of armor, they must succeed at hourly Fortitude saves or become fatigued. You know that Akiton suffered an economic crash when the revelation of Drift technology rendered the numerous pre-Drift fuels mined on Akiton virtually worthless. Culture DC 15+:
Akiton is generally lawless, except for whatever laws a local authority might impose. Akiton survives on trade and commerce. Strangers find loyalty hard to come by, especially in the big cities. Newcomers are consequently likely to be observed and watched, especially if an organization believes it can take advantage of the strangers. If Talbot acted or did anything at all out of the ordinary, someone is likely to have noticed, and it is unlikely he would stay in the same place more than a few days. Culture DC 20+: Wealth is hard to come by on Akiton. If Talbot fled to the red planet, he did so for a reason. It's likely the ex-Starfinder had a plan, and that plan involved lots of credits. Given Akiton's unstable economy, such a surge should be identifiable for those who "follow the money."
For discussion of out-of-character matters and logistics.
Sorry to hear about your injury! I hope you are recovering well. Here's a link to your chronicles. Please let me know if there are any issues. I still intend to wrap up the scenario but I don't want you to have to wait any further for these.
We're still going to finish it :) see gameplay thread
Nyroba's arrow catches the man at the door in the thigh, and he goes down with a scream, clutching his leg. Between Maelstrom and Drusilla's attacks, the woman at the door also goes down before she even knows what happened.
The two remaining men dart over to their friends, staying low and trying to avoid attacks... but they aren't expecting blinding dust to suddenly burst into the air.
One of them blinks a few times but manages to resist the spell. The other, on the right, cries out, "Augh! I can't see!"
Hi everyone, thanks for continuing to check in. I want to play out the end of the scenario but I also don't want to keep anyone waiting for their chronicles any longer than they have to! So I'm scanning those and uploading them to a shared drive today, and I'll post the link here.
Your continued patience is appreciated. Would you believe I've had to move out and back in to my classroom three times this year due to having rocks thrown through my windows and having all my materials covered in glass? Not fun, and a humongous waste of time.
None of the Kortos agents registers as evil in Nyroba's eyes. They are either not powerful enough, or not evil enough, to cast an evil aura. "We don't know how many Aspis might be on their way. We do know they are spread thin due to recent events in the city... I would not expect more than half a dozen." The Kortos agents take their leave. About an hour later, the Pathfinders hear a group approaching from the west. They split up, some of them heading for the main entrance, and others heading for the smaller door to the south. Like the Kortos agents, this group quickly discovers the broken lock on the guard room door. The main doors open shortly after...
...and the agents don't seem to see the bear trap right in front of them. They are too distracted looking around for possible intruders... which they also fail to spot.
Haha, thank you, and sorry for the delay. What a year. I will do these things tomorrow.
The agents look suspicious and confer briefly. "Don't trust 'em..." says one, but the leader says, "I want to hear their proof, Gharles. And besides..." she says in a low voice, "it seems we are outnumbered." After you share the notes you discovered on Laszo, she says, "We suspected the Aspis were up to no good, but we had no idea they were undertaking anything quite so damaging as this. I'm not sure who you are or why you got involved, but... my superiors at the Kortos Consortium will certainly want to know about this before making any further decisions. We'll leave you be... but be warned, if we discover any treachery on your part, you will have upset some very important people." Unless you have further questions, the agents leave you to deal with whatever comes next.
One of the men is armed with a bow and wearing light armor; the other two have swords and shields, and wear breastplates. The woman has a shortspear and wears a symbol of Irori. She speaks up when she sees Aurora, "Who are you? How did you get in here, and what do you want?" The swordsmen place their hands on their sword hilts and peer around cautiously.
"I think there's more of 'em..." says one of the men. "Show yourselves!" he shouts.
Chronicles are available in this folder. I will leave them there for a week or two in order to give everyone a chance to grab them. Let me know if any corrections are needed.
Delroya takes her leave to ensure everything is in order for later. The group takes a few hours to prepare their traps and barricades, then takes up their positions around the warehouse. Shortly after dark, the Pathfinders hear a small group approaching the upper-level loading entrance on the west side of the warehouse. A few of them split off and head to the entrance to the small guard room. The Pathfinders clearly hear the jingling of keys, and somone says, "Everything had better be in order. We've got enough problems as it is." "Hey! This lock's broken!" shouts another voice. "Be on your guard..." says the first voice, and the front loading doors open. A woman stands with another man, and two other men quickly join them. Though they are well armed, they have yet to draw their weapons. They gaze about suspiciously, raising lanterns. One of the men mutters something. Perception DC 18: "Someone must be here.... maybe it's just the Aspis?"
Chronicles coming today!
It was a crazy week, with someone throwing rocks through my classroom window, causing all manner of disruption to my daily routines and a lot of wasted time moving to another room and then back again once my old room was clean. Thanks for your patience. Chronicles and conclusion info coming soon. :)
I thought so, but regardless it looks like you mopped up the enemies fairly quickly. Chronicles coming ASAP. See gameplay thread! :)
Cesare inspires his companions with a shout, and Ako casts her spell--the magic ball of frost flies true, striking the woman on the temple. She collapses into a heap on the floor of the warehouse. All of the agents are unconscious--either asleep or, in the case of the leader, heavily concussed. She may need medical attention, though the others are likely to awaken eventually.
The red lines are raised platforms that G'boar crafted.
"Aye, you could keep an eye out for their badges. Good thinking."
Daverin takes one final swing, but the guard deflects the blow and continues to flee. As the men vanish into the desert and the dust settles, the Pathfinders douse the last of the fires and ensure that no documents are in danger of being damaged or lost. The woman that the Pathfinders knocked unconscious in the large tent is still alive, but without healing it will likely be a few hours before she awakens. Among the objects recovered from the camp are records of Prince Zinlo's involvement in the Consortium's scheme, including a detailed provenance of every resource he provided the Aspis agents (mainly information about the Emir's planned defenses). The note describes plans to send multiple decoy transports to confused would-be-thieves and to move some vials of the elixir "by other means entirely." The records also show that Prince Zinlo and the Aspis Consortium conducted extensive trades with each other at favorable rates. Later, in a meeting with Ziralia, she conveys Guldis's gratitude for testing his convoy's defenses and tells you that your actions will help Pashow move toward economic recovery. She personally thanks you for disrupting a plot that would have bankrupted Pashow, and requests a detailed report of all the weaknesses you noticed in the convoy's defenses, as well as anything you found that might suggest that the Aspis Consortium was not the only threat.
"Someone is casting a spell! Be on your guard!" shouts one of the agents. They move forward as a group, cautiously skirting around the bear trap and drawing melee weapons. G'boar lets an arrow fly at one of the thugs when the group gets close enough. The man cries out in pain as the arrow grazes his leg. "AMBUSH!" shouts the woman in the middle of the group--the apparent leader. Ako finishes the last incantations of her sleep spell a moment later. The leader seems unaffected, but the others blink their eyes heavily and grow sluggish as the spell sets in.
All of them except for the leader suddenly collapse onto the ground, sound asleep. The leader, who was about to speak words of inspiration and encouragement, stands with mouth agape and only manages "uhhh..."
"I'm not sure which group will come first. You'll need to keep a keen eye on whoever is approaching if you want to determine their identity; they're unlikely to openly wear any sort of insignia, so you might have to listen to their conversation or observe their actions before they notice you." Searching the warehouse more thoroughly, the group finds two disguise kits, a bear trap, carpentry supplies, masterwork artisan's tools; in the guard room they find an oil of arcane lock; they discover that the loading platform has a hidden crawlspace beneath that is big enough for one Medium creature, who would be concealed if the platform was lowered all the way; and finally, in the lower warehouse area, they find a portable poisoned dart trap that can be set to trigger when someone touches a particular object.
Between Tsadoc's conjuration of a torrent of water, and Enlil and Cornelius' efforts to recover documents and douse the flames, the Pathfinders manage to extinguish the fire and save the papers. Cornelius "grabs" a particularly fancy looking map with his spell. The two men withdraw, one of them heavily injured, clearly trying to take cover using the other tents and find a way to escape into the desert. "We gotta get outta here! Forget the damn documents!"
The open door plan seems to work; about an hour later, a group of people approaches the warehouse from the west. They seem to be about to split up and head to different entrances, but then they notice that the front doors are wide open. "Hey... what gives?!" says a man in their group. They stop just at the entrance and look around, spotting the trap. "Someone else is here... they set a trap for us! Stay on your guard."
Without any further ado, the Pathfinders set off. It doesn’t take long to find where they need to go once they reach the right street. A large warehouse looms into view at the end of Gull Street. Its main level sits at the edge of the street above a ten-foot drop to the harbor’s waters below. A door in the western wall of the warehouse opens, and a woman clad in simple leather armor steps out. Her features display a blend of Taldan and Mwangi heritages, and her crisp accent is difficult to place. “I am Magali Delroya. You must come quickly, Pathfinders. We do not wish to be seen.” Delroya moves briskly, waving off protests or interruptions, and speaks with the rhythm of her steps. “Questions later. Much is at stake. First you must listen.” Her outward display of authority does not entirely mask her fear. The small room through the warehouse’s western door features a round table and several chairs. “This room is for the guards. They are all too busy dealing with our disruptions, so no one is here for now. That door leads to the docks below,” she says, indicating a door in the southern wall. “Come this way. I will show you the warehouse.” She opens a door in the northern wall, revealing a cavernous storage room. Haphazard stacks of barrels and crates almost reach the ceiling twenty feet above. Two large skylights in the ceiling provide ample light during the day, and a dozen unlit lanterns are spaced around the room. To the east, a wide opening in the southern wall looks out over the loading bay ten feet below. A freight elevator platform rigged to a complex set of pulleys and ropes and a staircase both lead down to the loading bay. “As you can see, the Aspis Consortium maintains a sizable operation out of this warehouse, which they rent from the Kortos Consortium’s Locosta family in exchange for alchemical goods. After tonight, I hope that the relationship between Aspis and Kortos will be irreparably damaged. “We may have delayed the shipment, but my sources tell me that both the Kortos and Aspis consortia are likely to investigate the warehouse later tonight. I had hoped for more time, but I will not able to move the goods until after midnight. I need your help in holding off the agents until everything is in order. They are not likely to work together, so you should prepare for multiple groups of agents. While I have no qualms about fighting the Aspis agents, if possible we should avoid further antagonizing the Kortos Consortium. Their agents may be willing to look the other way. “Because the agents are on high alert, you should stay at the warehouse until they arrive. We wouldn’t want anyone spotted or attacked out in the city before we’re ready. That gives you several hours to prepare. Most of the items in the warehouse are simple trade goods designed to make this outfit look legitimate. You may want to take some time to look around, though—you never know what the Aspis Consortium might have stowed away here. “I can stay here briefly, if you have questions or need assistance.”
The guards seem desperate to destroy the papers and maps stored in the large orange tent; in fact, the one with a flask steps away from Daverin and throws the flask at the tent.
The flask strikes the ground next to the tent and explodes, spreading alchemical fire in every direction. The tent seems to be covered in some sort of oil, as it immediately bursts into flames.
After throwing the vial, the guard takes out a heavy crossbow, but it isn't loaded yet. "Let's get out of here!" He shouts. The other guard tries to get the best of Daverin with his longsword, but can't find a good opening to strike. "Lead the way!" he shouts, and takes a step back.
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