DM:
It's a surprisingly fitting end when you consider he's a scoundrel whose career was essentially rolling the dice and praying it worked out. As for how to proceed, what do I need to be aware of as I develop his replacement?
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desperation: 2/11 wound points
fort save DC 11 Nichos forces himself to stay conscious as he takes one last final shot, staring the creature down as he does so, showing no weakness.
As for Janitor, he disappeared into the wilderness and never came out of it; not that big of a surprise on a world like this.
attack: Wound points 8/11
Fort save DC 8[/ooc] attack
At this point, especially with a 1, Nichos is dead. What are the considerations/restrictioncs I need to be thinking about when making a new character?
I'd say try for a 5th player, especially since you're already going to be needing to incorporate a new character any way at this point, and I don't own any of those devices, so I can't really help much there.
the end, one way or another: just to get it out of the way, I'll assume that the creature does less than 14 damage, and get the last roll out of the way.
attack
Figures; well, I suppose if he has to die, leaving a mystery behind as to how and where is within his style.
pests: Nichos grits his teeth as he switches back to single fire and focuses on the last pest.
stupid pests: "Stupid suicidal beasts." 5' back and multifire
attack: Nichos will take a 5' step back and use multifire to try to strike both of them.
attack: Nichos aims for the smaller of the two trying to flank him, aiming quickly and firing.
the jungle hunt continues: Nichos takes a second to ponder how to deal with the threat, and decides the simple approach is best. Pulling out his rifle he aims for the largest looking beast.
Good. Doing great at your hunt too Nichos. And you had your doubts. Not without reason; without lucky and force points, it would have been a very different story. Still, I'm pleasantly surprised at how well he's done, and it's giving a strong case for staying in the scoundrel class to get more access to lucky.
Still here.
jungle fever still: Nichos will take the time to try to find another beast of burden, not being one to give up easily.
jungle fever:
His recon done, Nichos swings into action.
Phase 1
Phase 2
Phase 3
Phase 4 (here's where things get interesting)
jungle fever continues: Knowledge (tactics) + FP
Knowledge (alien lore) Computer Use Intelligence Perception +FP Stealth Survival Handle Animal Nichos watches from the edge of the boneyard for a while planning his next step. After he takes some time to scope it out and figure out how to avoid the larger scavengers, he moves in to get a closer look and find some choice samples that Arana can use to make some possible new armor and/or weapon designs he's found with the help of his datapad.
jungle fever: Computer Use (general aid)
Perception Survival +1 from Arana Intelligence World Lore Alien Lore Local Wilderness +4(if Int) or +2(if Wis); not sure which applies Appraise Acrobatics Stealth luck reroll (stealth) Nichos is basically looking for his standard stock in trade, knowledge. Ruins, remains of lost expeditions/hunters, tech, anything that enhances understanding and knowledge would do at this point. He may be on what views on a primitive quest, but that doesn't mean he plans on abandoning his strengths.
Nichos manages to maintain a mostly stoic demeanor throughout the painting ceremony, though the others in the party can guess that he is less than impressed with the whole thing. Once it is done, he takes his gear, and leaves camp without comment. Nichos' hunt: Despite his extreme apathy for the nonsense he finds himself in the middle of, Nichos sets down to the business at hand. After some thought, he chooses the nearby jungle for his 'hunt.' The cover it provides, along with it's probable wealth of resources makes it the best bet for him to both survive and find something these primitives would find of value and still be unknown to them.
I see no reason why helping the Malakai and helping the empress must be mutually exclusive. Even if she doesn't end up with resources you expected her to, she can still get important alies both on Malakai itself, and by being able to keep the Chiss divided long enough to firmly secure the space station as a permanent foothold. And regardless of what she gets directly, weakening the other would be empire heirs is still a very likely outcome, so she still gets a big boost. Nichos has already figured out that direct control of resources may not be the best way for the empress to ultimately win the greater war; having strategically placed allies and enemies is going to be as important as what she can directly command.
Nichos would tend to save that kind of information for the empress, especially since he still doesn't know where Taggard stands on the whole "empire is bad" hangup so many people have.
"I see no need to delay. I am as ready as I will ever be, and the sooner we resolve this, the sooner we can move on to the bigger mission."
The expectation of challenge is to fight a beast. If it dies without a fight, then the encounter was pointless. Which is why Nichos will not be doing the challenge unless a predator forces him to. To him, seeking out a fight with something that could kill you simply for the sake of fighting it seems rather moronic and a good way to ensure a short life span.
The difficulty he is going to have is finding the resources in the first place. Unless we found out a lot about the local area from the temple, he's going to be more than half blind to begin with, and with no survival skill, it'll be even harder. He should be able to at least get the minimum without too much headache, but anything beyond that is going to be really hard.
I'm not sure his intelligence will help him as much as raw patience and luck to be honest, but we shall see.
Spoilers are fine. Nichos is probably not going to accomplish much on this, to be honest. He's not much of a hunter, he lacks the survival skill to readily find resources, and there probably aren't any ruins for him to delve into to scavenge technology from, and he has next to no information on the local geography, flora, or fauna, so at this point, he's probably going to be wandering around blindly until some resource or challenge manages to find him. The only things really going for him are his lucky class skill, stealth, perception, and for equipment, his datapad to look up the basics on wild flora and fauna in general and his electrobinoculars. He shouldn't have problems surviving, but finding anything worthwhile is a bit of a long shot no matter what he chooses to attempt.
"When will we be expected to depart?" Nichos outer countenance undergoes no changes, but inwardly he can't help but groan at the instinct of turning something so simple as an information exchange into a complicated lifetime obligation.
Nichos hides a wince as he looks to Zaleos and Arana, "Perhaps you can explain it better. I fear that my train of thought right now is a bit too wide of focus to be able to explain in a narrow enough fashion to get our immediate needs across."
"I was simply answering your question of who we were, and who we served, and why we were here. As for Lady Mirianna, she does not know much of what I just told you, as our mission is to find such information, and we have only found much of this out while on this planet, so we have not yet had a chance to report it back to her. When she finds out about the darker legacy her father left behind, I have no doubt she will take what steps she can to deal with it; while few would consider her a paragon of good, and the surviving jedi elsewhere view her with great suspicion, she is fair and just, and seeks not personal profit or vengeance. Of the options available to settle the universe down and bring it back from the brink of destruction, she is the only one that does not let her passions and old grudges rule her as she carries out her goals. What we seek is quite simple, really; we know the planet that our quarry is operating out of, Batseren, but not it's precise location. We only know it is somewhere in this vicinity. Once we have it's location, we can go there, get the information we seek, and probably weaken the sith threat on this planet in the process. In the meantime, any information you can give us regarding the Trandoshan and their activities will better allow us to deal with that them and the Hutt that stand behind them. In short, what we seek to do takes pressure off of not only our mistress, but yourselves as well, but we must have information so that we can make sure that our actions have maximum impact."
"You ask very good questions, but they come, I am afraid, with no easy answers. The Emperor, it would seem, was rather two faced. His public face, inherited by his daughter, and our mistress, was a mostly benign, if somewhat heavy handed, entity. His private face was much darker, and is the side that you have seen. Led by servants such Darth Vader, and fueled by secret research that has recently led to the super soldiers that destroyed your temple; this dark side is the one responsible for the death of the jedi, and has been inherited by others, whom we are currently seeking accurate information on so that our lady may take the proper steps against them. Your cooperation would be helpful as we have discovered that a servant of one or more these darker heirs has infiltrated your tribal structure here on this planet; those he serves are also those responsible for the slaver's presence here as well, we believe." Nichos is quiet as he talks, clearly measuring every word to ensure maximum clarity and impact without telling so much that he is putting his own life, and the life of his friends, at risk.
Nichos chuckles quietly, as he speaks quietly and tests the waters of the limits of their host, "I can only hope that you are more enlightened than some of your cohorts, for what we have discovered on our mission is that not all things are as they appear to be in the politics of the universe. The old emperor left behind many followers and successors, some widely known, some not so much, and each with their own agenda. We serve one such heir to the Empire, one whose simply interested in reestablishing some semblance of order to the shattered universe. We are here looking for information on some of the other would be heirs who would put their own profits and concerns before the needs of those whom they seek to be master of. This planet has the dubious honor of being a place where parts of their agendas have been tested out and expressed in action. I understand that you cannot trust us without some information, but the same is true of us. We are in hostile territory, beset by enemies on all sides, most of whom would prefer to tear us apart than to hear out our position; with not only our lives, but the cause of our mistress on the line, we cannot be expected to share everything without assurance that it will not come back to harm us or our employer."
Nichos speaks with his usual quiet firmness. "We seek to stop those would continue to fracture the politics of the universe, and keep it in upheaval, for their own profit. A thorough search of the ruins of the nearby temple led us here."
Nichos, by this time thoroughly exhausted, both by the climb and the effort of keeping his frustrations about the climb to himself, simply shrugs, "Karval, now would be a good time to introduce our trophy."
Nichos groans a bit as he looks up at the wall in front of him, but takes what meat and hides that he can while arranging all of his stuff to the best of his ability, keeping his own grappling spike launcher close at hand, before attempting to head up, but getting nowhere fast.
Nichos will keep watch while the others set about preparing their kill.
I would say all of them. The big head proves that the beast is dead, the rest to make appropriate ornamentation to proclaim the deed to those who cannot travel to see the head.
NIchos pulls some of the meat he had gathered earlier out of his pack. "Perhaps some food might encourage it to calm down."
Nichos is not able to do much, but he keeps an eye out while the others take care of business here. "You said something about a young one; we should secure it if we can."
Nichos grits his teeth as he tries to take the beast down before it can do anymore damage.
"Then perhaps we should keep the offspring, let it get to know us while he's still adorable, and let him grow into a fearsome predator liking us. Or let the locals do so; would make for quite an introduction, I would say, to walk into their camp with the youngun alive, and the parent in pieces."
Nichos continues to focus on the task at hand, hoping that the melee folks can hold on long enough to take this thing down. In an attempt to lighten the moment up a bit, he comments drily over the intercom, "What precisely made you think we needed this particular excitement, Zaleos? Was our mission not complicated enough?"
Nichos grimly and quietly keeps up his steady fire.
Nichos keeps firing, glad for his training that allowed him to fire into a melee without hindrance.
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