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I'll admit to being a little concerned about what if 25 to hit missed...Now that Rar'gul can give this fake Steward his full attention, we kill it. ...I called that one. As long as we're not taking a 10 minute rest, I'll have Communal Bond active for a few more minutes, and Pokey isn't much good as a shot, but I can pretty consistantly land a Harrying Fire for +3 to hit bonus to you.
Pokotho levels his pistol, closes his eyes and turns his head away from his target, and shoots. He's an awful shot. Like, truly terrible, and it zips over the "Steward's" head.
The shot is even more awful that his normal terrible aim, whizzing past John closer than it did the Steward. "Oops! Oh! Sorry!" Pokey exclaims nervously.
If I had one singular request with this AP, it would be this: Ziggy makes a huge detail in Star Sugar Heartlove about having lost their friends, their old team, in the Scoured Stars. Ziggy was only spared that fate themself by being horribly injured before the mission and being unable to go. We head into the Scoured Stars, but we learn ZERO about Ziggy's friends. Not even their names. I would have liked to see a mission to save them, or identify them as potential rescue Starfinders at one of the missions. I would settle for just uncovering their final fates, learning that they are dead so that Ziggy can have closure. It feels horrible that we do not hear word one about them.
Pokotho scrambles forward as the firefight erupts. Rar'gal! Rar'gal! Comms are out! When the Reptoid Dog thing gets too close, it shuts down all our tech. Pokotho communicates telepathically. Then drawing a bead on one of the approaching Reptoids, Pokey proceeds to fire wildly with a clear lack of aptitude, attempting to help John.
Following T'sorkel's lead, Pokotho chitters affectionately towards the beast, attempting to calm it from it's attack state should it's handler become more amicable to their ruse.
Don't be alarmed. We are here to help. We are all friends. I've brought you a treat. Pokotho projects in cool, calm, placating tones.
Pokotho's eyes glass over momentarily as he is flooded with a rush of endorphines, an overwhelming thrill of sensation washing over him as he exerts his free will in making a choice and sees his desires come to pass. "Oh yeah," he mumbles, momentarily groggy, "That.. that was a good idea." Trying to shake himself free of his fog, his centers himself and clears his mind before climbing behind the wheel again, finding himself facing his second great passion in piloting. "All aboard," he grins with overly enthusiastic demeanor, "Next stop, Terrapin Station."
Pokotho's antenna twitch as he telepathically communicates with his allies without revealing his thoughts to the android prisoners. I understand the need for proper repentance after wrongdoing, but I do suspect when these prisoners were brought here, being trapped by Reptoid Imposters wasn't the sentence they actually received. We have an extra car, if we want to let them try their hand at their 'do their best to find a ship' plan.
Pokotho slips out of the excavator and joins his new comrades, surveying the wounded. "I understand a sense of urgency in leaving this place," he politely agrees, "But what I don't understand is an urge to murder the people who are actively offering to help you. How does attacking us advance your goals of leaving the planet? Surely you do not believe a stolen Steward cruiser is just going to drive you to another planet."
[b]"Do you know of the location of an operational starship capable of 'getting a people off this rock'?" he asks poignantly.
Pokotho swings the big excavator around, jerking on the controls and burying the bucket into the ground on the opposite side of the androids, furrowing through the dirt to shake them in their place and provide harrying fire for his allies.
"Attacking us was a bad idea. You're digging your own graves here," he calls out to them. Then looking at the furrowed trench behind them, he gets flustered. "Well, I guess, in a literal sense I'm the one digging your graves. But you are still the ones who set the events into motion."
Pokotho hops onto the edge of the excavator and swings inside, taking a position at the controls. "Now aren't you a beauty," he says, lovingly taking the controls in his hands, "Come on, girl. Let's take you out for a spin."
Jerking the controls with a hard left, Pokotho truly does take the excavator for a 'spin', swinging it around in a full circle with the bucket hanging low, swiping near the Androids as a form of Covering Fire for his allies. It's awkward and clunky movements are too slow telegraphed for effective attacking, but it certainly seems capable of at least startling someone.
"I'll go help them, in case the injuries are real," Pokotho telepathically communicates to Rar'gul, "Just be watching in case things go south. Wouldn't be the first time I've been lied to, but I'll be damned if I let those Reptoids shake me to the point I start abandoning helpless, innocent people." Pokotho draws nearer, carrying his medkit. "Show me to your wounded," he offers, "Let the light of Hylax help and all that jazz." Having missed out on the fact they are Androids, he advances forward directly into the line of fire.
Pokotho scratches at his mandibles, peeling away the molting bits of his husk while he surveys the scene.
"Seems safe to me," he says, blindly trusting in an uncertain situation, and begins walking forward and waving a hand over his head in a manner of greeting. "Good afternoon, peoples," he introduces himself, "I am Reverend Pokotho and I am definitely not a Reptoid."
/shrug. I tried PF2, but honestly I didn't care for it nearly as much as I like Starfinder. That's why I'm still here. I'm sure this will bring PF2 players into Starfinder, so I'm sure it's a good move for Paizo financially. I'm also sure it'll push out the players like me who actually liked the product as is. I was way more excited for Enhanced and getting just some minor tweaks, instead of throwing it away and converting to PF2. I'll give it a shot; that's what I always do. Sometimes they surprise me, like 3E and 3.5 D&D both being purely upgrades. But more often than not, when I'm playing a system I already like, the new edition ends up being less fun and I ditch it within 6 months. (4E D&D, 5E D&D, PF2, M&M3)
Pokotho hunkers down low behind the wheel of the cruiser, the engine idling but still turned on, ready for any of his allies to dive in and make a break for it if needs be. The priest has more faith in his abilities to drive and outmanuever than he did his chances to best a dragon in combat. Though after several moments of hissing and snarling, John appears to have driven the dragon off. Pokotho breathes a noticeable sigh of relief. "I don't know what you said, but thank you," Pokey says graciously, "Unless it was 'eat the shirren'."
Pokotho hops behind the wheel of the cruiser, gripping the controls tightly and shifting into gear. **"Good luck, fire-friends,"** he wishes them well through the window, squealing the tires as he cuts in an overly showy spin-out, **"Let's ride!"** Pokotho peels out, heading the direction of the mine, leading the way through any hazards that might hedge the travels of his new allies.
I would like a Boon that opens up "Homeworld" to worlds beyond Pact Worlds/Near Space/Veskarium. It's a small thing, I know, but if you were to unlock Ghibrani, for example, as a species, but SFS rules your Ghibrani cannot actually be from Elytrio, because homeworlds in the Vast cannot be chosen. You are an exotic, rarely seen species... but you are from a commonly traveled part of the Galaxy where you are not remotely hidden. <-=O=-> I would also like to see an alternative or adjustment to the Manifold Host capstone boon. ALL of the other Capstone Boons allow you to apply them to a 0 XP character, so that the thing you put so much effort into using can instead be fully used. Except for Manifold Host. It only applies to the existing character. So if you faction Manifold Host with any species that doesn't require an Admittance Boon, you get nothing. And if you do earn it on a character that gets to use it, they don't get to use it until roughly level 9, when the character barely has any Society Play options left before they're hanging high and dry. I would like a version of that Boon which allows us to do it, but for a new 0XP character, so we can actually use personal boons for the first 9 levels of the character.
"Even the Stewards are not the Stewards," Pokotho said, riding the high of jovial excitement from joy-riding through the lava-fields. With a quick cast of Climate Adaption to cool himself off despite the bubbling lava fields, Pokotho took the hem of his priest's vestments and used it to rub a smudge off the finish of the cruiser.
Given that Pokey doesn't have the greatest attack bonus or damage output, my general approach has been to apply Communal Bond and then provide Covering or Harrying Fire depending on the needs of the party. With this being my first combat since coming aboard, as well as my first combat with this character in a PBP, I can certainly take a more aggressive or damage-dealy approach if you think that it's needed. I'm kind of following your lead until I get a halfway idea of how our party flows for combat.
Pokotho nodded in agreement. "I'd wager that's exactly their intent," he considered, "Shut down the comms until they neutralize the threat, but then they still need to be able to get them back online for themselves afterwards. They know that WE don't have the time to put it all back together, but THEY still could." It was little more than a hastily cobbled guess, but enough of an idea that it set his paranoid mind to work. Stepping out of the cruiser, Pokotho begins to slowly approach, scanning over the area for signs of foot traffic, traces of mud, anything that might give tracks sufficient to identify how long ago people were here and how many of them there were.
Screeching the cruiser to a halt with a 360 skid, Pokotho has a wide grin on his face when T'sorkel cautions him to slow down. "Right. Right," he agrees, still giddy with excitement, "I'll be careful." Looking out towards the domed area, Pokotho clacks his mandibles together, surveying the scene to determine how safe it might be.
Pokotho gets a stupid idea, his curiosity taking control of him. Subtly approaching the lava striders again, he nears the herd, and then abruptly tries to mount and ride one.
Getting kicked off immediately, he startles the herd into a makeshift stampede. Racing back towards the cruiser where Beau and T'sorkel are hesitantly waiting in front of the lava field, debating which of them will drive through the hazardous path, it is the panicking priest running at full speed who makes the decision for them. "Time to leave!" Pokotho shouts, flinging open the driver's door of the cruiser and diving in behind the wheel, with or without permission. Grinding the cruiser into gear, he takes off like a shout, howling with excitement as he ramps a rocky outcropping and begins bouncing them through what clearly looks like the most dangerous path possible.
Driving with a cool calm, shifting breaks and screeching the car practically sideways as he avoids hazards and navigates the pass.
It would be equally viable to say that T'sorkel was driving and Beau was watching Pokotho. And, as far as piloting is concerned, mundane driving like just leaving the place does not require a check. Pretty much anyone can drive through an empty field, same as it doesn't require Acrobatics to balance when we're just walking down a hall, or Athletics to climb up an actual ladder. The piloting checks don't come into place until we face actual obstacles or challenges, like now that we're reaching the lava. There's nothing wrong at all with Beau driving this far, and then stopping and going "Whoa. Hey. I don't want to drive through that. It looks too dangerous." We can hop into one of the other cars, we can have Pokey give a shot at driving... we could tame the lava striders and try to ride them? lol. I'm open to literally anything. And honestly, if the penalty for trying to drive through the lava and failing is just "trashed the car", and the alternative of not trying is also to leave it behind, then we might as well try. Worst case scenario just means losing the car, which we were already prepared to write off anyways.
Pokotho winces as he watches the truck take a splash of lava, grimacing painfully at the damage to the beautiful vehicle. "Oh, baby," he says sympathetically, "You don't deserve to be treated like that." Gently directing the Lava Striders away, Pokotho clears the path for his new allies, trying to remain calm while they pilot through the dangerous terrain.
I'm playing a few for PaizoCon. Friday Evening - Through Sea & Storm
If there's something anybody needs an extra player for Saturday evening, I'm still free in that slot. 1-4 is Envoy (Chipolte Maplewood)
Coaxing the lava striders back from the narrow passage, Pokotho slowly steers the herd out of the path of his new allies, waving them through as the way becomes clear. The heat of the lava causes his carapace to molt and peel and he wipes the moisture from his brow, nervously making his way through on foot to rejoin the others on the far side... should they survive. "Forever Queen in Holy Places," he prays, "I know I haven't been the most obedient servant. I still do not promise to submit to your will, but protect these people anyway. They have suffered enough pain and hardship already."
When the group slowed the cruiser to a halt a short walk away from the herd, Pokotho exited and approached the animals, one hand extended and openly broadcasting soothing white noise through his telepathy. "Easy there. Easy. We're not going to harm you," he offers in soft tones, "The Forever Queen admires the way you hold together as a herd and operate with collective purpose. You are not so different from ourselves. We wish you peace and safety."
Sheepishly Pokotho raises his hand. "I'm pretty good at keeping things calm," he timidly responds, "If we want to stop for a minute, I can probably guide them out of our way. The last thing we want to do is ruin this sweet, sweet ride." Pokotho's mandibles twitch together eagerly as he looks at the cruiser's controls. He can drive, but he can work animals almost just as well.
@T'sorkel. Yup. Pokotho has Mindlink. And I figured the quick synopsis would be better for moving things forward than going into an extended detail of my experiences in the first two books when it's bound to come across as fairly similar to your own. What with the Gray's simulation and everything, it seems easy enough that they were running this experiment with more than one group, and the Chimera is just the setting they had programmed for it.
Pokotho looks at the precarious lava flow of jutting rocks and glowing magma, dangerous obstacles which for him seemed infinitely exciting to race through. Yet, having also been victim to both the Grays and the Reptoids, he understood there was no way his captors were about to let him drive. With regrets, he closed his eyes and meditated upon the area, telepathically reaching out to the beasts around them with soothing tones to reduce the tension.
Having already magically scanned T'sorkel for shapechanging and deception, Pokotho was more trusting, at least with the other Shirren. Pokotho opened his thoughts and began to weave a tale of the past several days that sounded uncannily similar to their own experiences, beginning when he left his congregation on Nchak on a journey of self-discovery, flying on a ship known as the Chimera. Mystery and intrigue pulled Pokotho and some of the other passengers into an unraveling conspiracy, until they eventually discovered that the Chimera did not even truly exist, with each of them having been abducted and experimented upon in a Gray simulation, almost certainly the same program that T'sorkel had experienced. Pokotho and the others fought their way through the Gray ship, though the others never truly made it off the ship, and only Pokotho was able to survive to an escape pod before the ship was destroy. Left adrift in space, he was picked up by Stewards whom brought him here, but Pokotho's well-earned paranoia eventually resulted in him uncovering their ruse and struggling to escape. The story was close enough to T'sorkel's own that it suggested a conspiracy larger and deeper than Pokotho had initially imagined. Pokotho's shared memories were interrupted, however, as they came upon the lava flow and the herd of strange beasts. "On the left," he blurted out, "Your other left. Now punch it. Look out!" The Shirren's obnoxious backseat driving was a little irritating, but at least well-intentioned and slightly helpful.
Pokotho winces as he hears John use the radio. "We might want to consider radio silence," he cautions the others, [b]"My computer spirit told me that comm signals route through Terrapin Station. But if that's our best shot at getting off this rock, given what we've seen so far, we might not necessarily want them to know that we're coming."
My run, my players ran from her. The mechanic had a grapple drone and had it grab her while they flew away. They did kill the underlings, but they were too terrified of her (and one of the party members had already had to Resolve back in at 1 hit point from the indoors fight). So they had the drone grab her and they ran. When the bomb went off, they flipped. They were so terrified of facing her. So I absolutely brought her back at the start of book three, leading the Vesk Golden League Assassins. Instead of doing that attack in Public, I put it ON the ship, and AFTER they met with Tarika. Ambushes on the ship while they just were taking off into space. And I had her using a level 5 upgraded version of the Mechanic's Drone, so that he could be attacked by his own upgraded, repurposed tech.
Pokotho obediently climbs into the rear of the vehicle without complaint, just grateful to put the Reptoid base in the rear view mirror. "No need for guns," Pokotho assures them, "I've already been abducted twice this week. I know how it works." The Reverend settles into the back seat with his hands folded neatly in his lap. Then, leaning forward over the driver's shoulder, he starts obnoxiously giving little bits of advice as an overly chatty backseat-driver.
With the Priest theme, my level 6 benefit is: Mantle of the Clergy
Sounds like he is known enough that you might have heard of him. Not like Space-Pope style or anything, but enough that his name has floated around and his robes are recognizeable. The general buzz about him these days based on his backstory and set-up for the adventure is that he's kind of had a bit of a crisis of faith, and so he left his congregation to travel, but then he disappeared (was abducted by Grays).
Pokotho scrambles backwards away from the strangers momentarily, nearly tripping over the dead Reptoid, the psychic shriek from T'sorkel still startling even if it did not terrify. "Unmask!" he shouts in reply, dropping his concentration on the spirit locked within the roll-up door's console, and magically scrying into T'sorkel. (Will Save DC:16 or any Disguise/Shapechange attempt is temporary removed to reveal true appearance. I presume this has no effect on T'sorkel other than confirming that he is not a Reptoid.) Apprehensively keeping at a distance, Pokotho looks at the armed group, and then at the vehicles readied behind them, his best chance at escape from the area. I was abducted, he projects psychically and in Shirren, These Stewards are not at all who they appear to be, and we need to get somewhere safe. I am Pokotho, and I'm just a Priest of Hylax. Then, with an enthusiastic twitch of his mandibles that could only be interpreted as a grin, he looks past T'sorkel momentarily and gazes fondly on the Steward Cruiser. And that is one sweet looking ride. His antenna tingled with excitement with an urge to drive, his cultural obsession almost overwhelming his common sense.
Pokotho looks over the roll-up door's access panel. Forever Queen's sake, he laments, lacking the tech skills to open it himself, Doc, a little help here. His irreverent prayers were answered as he began to manifest his mystical powers, briefly binding the spirit of a deceased former comrade into the control panel to access the computers on his behalf.
"Open," Pokotho says with dramatic flourish, "Says-a-Me"
I can change mine if that makes it easier for people. I just looked up Shirrens and there were only two, one of which was already being used by T'sorkel. Didn't realize that I was stealing yours. There's probably one with just a Holy Symbol or something that I can nab instead.
Pokotho wrapped his arm around the throat of the Reptoid Steward, gripping him into a clenched headlock choke, the Reptoid swatting and striking until finally fell still. Exhausted, Pokotho dropped the Reptoid to the ground, then dropped to the ground himself in a seated position, breathing heavily in exhaustion. "Hylax's Holy Hell," Pokotho panted, pushing the Reptoid's body away with his foot, and then leaning backwards against the roll-up airlock doors. The police cruiser the Reptoid had been using to transport the abducted Reverend back to their base now lay in ruins, wrecked beyond Pokey's ability to repair from the crash that had preceded their fight just outside the entrance to the facility bulkhead. Resting against the door, the back of Pokotho's head thudded against the roll-up door as he considered the gravity of his situation, trapped on Varos with no one he could trust and no ability to call for help. "Do I seriously need to break IN to Reptoid Headquarters to be able to escape here?" Pokotho laments, his Shirren thoughts projecting faintly through the surrounding area, unaware that another perceptive Shirren was so closely located just on the opposite side of the roll-up door, working on securing the transport vehicles.
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