I sent Khorvax a PM with his chronicle so I declare this game complete.
Thanks again for playing.
Peet
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Glad you made it back! I'll do up a chronicle for you when I get home.
OK guys, game has been reported and Chronicle Sheets are done: Astrator (formerly Altronus)
Sorry to take so long... it took me a while to figure out how to edit the damn things without shelling out $$ for Adobe Acrobat Edit. Ended up using PDFescape. If there are any problems let me know. I don't mind making corrections to the sheets. Khorvax: if you're out there, I need your SFS number for the chronicle sheet. RxGus: sadly, the whole point of the album was the physical "collector's edition." So downloading the album won't count, but also doesn't cost you any money. Sure, or point me to a link. I started this game with a pregen and then have since started playing another with the PC that I'd prefer to apply this chronicle to. Navasi: Sadly, my research has revealed that you can't apply chronicles to two characters at once and so you have to go with the 703 character. Sorry. :( Thanks again for playing, guys!
I think you can "hold" a chronicle you played as a pre-gen for a character that is not yet ready for some reason. Which means you don't have to decide right away I think. I will double check that if you want.
Congratulations guys! The adventure is complete. Thanks for playing. This was my first scenario GMing for SFS organized play. Hope you had a good time. If you have any feedback about how I could have done anything better, please let me know. Also: if everyone can give me a quick reminder: Who bought themselves a copy of the Star Sugar Heartlove album? I need to include that on the chronicle sheets. The price will be deducted from your adventure reward for the scenario, so you don't need to deduct the money from cash you had at the start. RxGus: unfortunately, since you were playing Altronus, you have to use his profession check for a day job check, and he doesn't seem to have a profession skill. BTW, you should also get a professional toolkit for Astrator to give yourself a +4 to day job checks. It pays for itself in 3 adventures.
Kieu Kein approaches the group after a long talk with Keiu Si and Kieu Lan. "I appreciate you looking after my children," says Keiu Kein. "I never seem to have enough time for them, and their mother was part of the Scoured Stars mission. We all miss her..." he says, his thoughts wandering. "But thanks again. I'll make sure they don't get into any more trouble," he says, looking at Kieu Lan and Kieu Si meaningfully.
"Children, tomorrow you should ask your robot teacher about ferrets." "See! I told you he wasn't a ferret!" shouts Kieu Si. "I don't know!" Kieu Lan replies. "Is he a mongoose?" Senko tries to use his knowledge of linguistics to decipher the pictograms. Altronus walks over and peers at the drawings, attempting to understand their meaning. Navasi tries to get a sense of what the creature is trying to convey, Three characters is too little to establish a baseline for any kind of translation, but Senko is quite sure that what he is looking at, while Navasi feels certain that the creature is intelligent and is trying to communicate. Not able to actually communcate though, the group calls up Fitch and reports their findings.
The strange creature seems about to dart under the consoles and through to the next room, but Iseph jumps in the way, careful not to hurt it but at the same time trying to block it's path. Then, miming a show of calmness, Iseph and Navasi manage to calm the creature down. They offer Wang the Choco Bomb, and the creature gingerly takes it, then scuttles back into the corner. It bites into the candy through to the gooey choloate center. But rather than eating it, it spits out the goo and dabs one of its forelegs in the chocolate goo. Then it turns to the wall and makes a series of three strange marks, that looks like a set of pictograms, though it is not in a language anyone recognizes. "Yeah, he does that," says Kieu Si. "Wang is an artist ferret."
Guys, we are just about done. If you can please give me a post here with: Player Name
"There he is!" Shouts Kieu Lan. "That's Wang!" The creature on the floor looks nothing like a ferret at all. It is a brownish centipede-like creature with perhaps forty orange legs. It is stunned for only a moment, and then it looks around the room in panic and darts particularly fast into the corner. Kieu Si offers iseph a Choco-Caramel Bomb. "Here, give him this! It's our last one."
Navasi accesses the environmental controls and shuts down the heat. It will take some time for the steam to clear to full visibility but the room begins to cool down quickly. Iseph is able to figure out that the tracks seem to emanate from a certain point, and clearly "Wang" must be living within the vents at that location. Senko thinks he can hear the sound of something faintly moving in that area, though it must be pretty small. Navasi realizes that she can use the controls to push air through those vents and flush out whatever might be hiding in there. She hits a few keys and clicks "enter." Soon there is the sound of air blowing hard through the vents. For a moment there is nothing else, but then an object the size of a softball gets spat out of one of the vents, landing with a "plop" in the middle of the room.
As the door opens, steam billows out of the door. The room us uncomfortably hot and moist, and the steam is so thick that it is diffucult to see more than a few feet. "We didn't do that!" shouts Kieu Lan. "Yeah! It wasn't like that before!" adds Kieu Si.
This area consists of two adjoining chambers. Four large containment capsules fill the fore room, three of which hold stasis-locked objects, including a tablet, a strange curved sword, and an odd spiral of bioluminescent coral. A crack leaks fluid from the fourth capsule, which displays a foot-wide breach near the bottom. The aft room contains several desks, each hosting a deactivated computer terminal. as they move into the room, the group quickly notices a large number of very small footprints. A lot of them. They go all over the room and often in and out of vents. It is hard to tell which direction they are going or which tracks are most fresh. Life Science DC 10:
Whatever made these tracks is not a ferret. It clearly has dozens of legs. Engineering DC 12:
The steam in the room is caused by the ship's own environmental controls. It could be deliberate or the result of damage. Computers DC 12:
Examining the computers in the second room, you realize that someone has been trying to access the terminals here, but without success. The dialog for the environmental controls is currently open and waiting instructions. Survival DC 18:
There is a particular concentration of tracks near the ceiling of the second room that makes you think that whatever made them goes in and out of the vents in the ceiling of the second room very frequently. Getting in there would be kind of tricky.
"I am honest kids ... I have had enough! You tell us everything now about your little friend and what you have been doing here!" Iseph says with a stern look on his face. The children begin to cry and deny any wrongdoing. They blame the whole thing on their robot teachers, who are either "too mean" or "too boring." They have been sneaking out to this level of the ship for some time.
"What do you mean, this 'Wang' lives here? This is a Starfinder vessel...." "Lotsa things live on this ship. It doesn't actually go anywhere," Says Kieu Lan. Kieu Si explains, "We found him in there!" she points at the door to the other room. "He was crawling around all by himself, and there wasn't any food in there. So we started bringing him some. He likes Choco-Caramel Bombs. But daddy says you can't eat just candy all the time so we brought him some other stuff."
Senko looks down a the two kids. "Hey, it's okay. We're not here to get you in trouble." He gestures at the door to the nest room while looking directly at Lan. "Just tell us what's up with that door." "Uh... well, we didn't want anyone bothering Wang. So, ah, well... we set the fire extinguisher to go off in someone's face if they opened the door. Heh heh." Iseph examines the door and is easily able to find the jury-rigged trap.
"I suggest that you grab your ferret and go. We have concerns that a saboteur may be lurking around down here. It isn't safe for you children." "We can't grab Wang!" says Kieu Si. She points at the adjoining chamber. "He's in there, and when the lights went off, the door locked!" "Besides," says Kieu Lan. "He lives here! We wouldn't be allowed to keep him upstairs!"
Spoiler:
At the sound of Iseph's voice, there is silence for a moment. Then two children pop out of the containers, shouting at one another. One is male, the other is female, and both are human. They look to be around eight or nine years old. "It wasn't me! It was all her idea!" the little boy shouts. "You shut up!" shouts the little girl. "It's your fault, not mine!" After numerous recriminations the group is able to get the children to settle down. It turns out that the children (named Kieu Lan and Kieu Si) came down here to feed their "pet ferret" named "Wang" (they have a variety of "food" for Wang, including seaweed snacks, candies, and some breakfast cereal). They found Wang while exploring the adjacent chamber and adopted him. They liked to come down here "because the children's creche is soooo boring," explains Kieu Si. The children don't know why the lights went out but hid because they were afraid they would get blamed for that. "We didn't do anything, really!" says Kieu Lan. "The doors locked and we couldn't get out!" Sense Motive DC 12:
Kieu Lan looks guiltily at the lintel above the door to the nest room as he says this.
The deck is large and a thorough search takes about an hour, after which, Altronus discovers a door that is locked.
A quick look around the door shows less dust on the floor leading to it, suggesting that someone has been here recently. Iseph has already gained access to the computer network and is easily able to unlock the door, after which the group is able to pry it open. Beyond lies a storeroom. Scattered barrels and boxes line the lowered floor of this storage chamber. A thick bulkhead to the port side leads farther onto the deck, while a similar bulkhead to the aft connects to an arterial hallway that runs the length of the deck (which is how you got here). Dice:
Iseph, Khorvax, and Senko can all hear whispering coming from in or behind various containers. Khorvax and Iseph can actually make out words: "Shhhh! Be Quiet!" one voice says. "You're gonna get us in trouble!" "You shut up!" says the other. "This is all your fault!" "Is not!" says the first.
Iseph patches into a local network hub and manages to restore emergency lighting. Though most fo the major systems on this deck are without power, Iseph is able to control things that only use a small amount of power, like opening electroic locks. When the lights come on, E Deck is revealed to be an area that sees little use. Many maintenance panels are off the walls and cables run along floors. Most of the rooms nearby seem to be empty or store unuses equipment of one kind or another.
The group takes a lift down to E Deck. When the lift reaches E Deck, the doors fail to open, but the group is able to force the doors open fairly easily. However, there are no lights on E deck at all.
The headquarters of the Wayfinder faction is a large ship in the Armada called the Master of Stars. The ship is old and undergoing an extensive refit. The Wayfinders send a shuttle to pick you up and deliver you to the Master of Stars. The station’s Armada can be seen from the shuttle’s view screen as it takes off, gleaming figures standing out against the emptiness of space. The Master of Stars immediately stands out from the rest, as layers and layers of scaffolding obscure its hull. Tiny lights flicker among the metal beams as distant figures weld plates and heat shields to the ship’s exterior. The shuttle smoothly glides closer until it reaches the starship’s docking bay, slipping through the magic field that keeps the hold pressurized with breathable atmosphere. As the shuttle doors open, a small drone flies in and pops up a holoscreen, displaying a harried-looking ratfolk.
The ganger runs around a corner on the path and is soon out of sight. Combat Over. Both of the dead gangers have:
Khorvax and Huckle Jim take shots with their weapons, and both shots strike the ganger. He reels. Looking at his dead companions, the ganger takes a step back, and then turns and flees. Round 2 Initiative:
Round 3 Initiative:
Iseph sneaks forward an takes a shot after popping out from behind Navasi. The shot hits and the ganger next to Ceren collapses. Navasi shouts a word of encouragement and takes a shot at the last ganger, burning him lightly. Altronus closes to melee range and swings, but the ganger ducks under the blow. Round 1 Initiative:
Round 2 Initiative:
The ganger reels as Senko's shot hits, and he nearly drops his baton. Round 1 Initiative:
Round 2 Initiative:
The ganger next to Altronus pulls out a baton and swings it at the Kasatha. The ganger on the far side of the bridge draws a pistol and shoots, also at Altronus. The
Culture or engineering DC 10 (Culture DC 5 if you have the mercenary theme):
The pistols are pulsecaster pistols, which deal non-lethal damage in the form of an electric shock. Round 1 Initiative:
Round 2 Initiative:
Have a good time!
Culture: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (16) + 10 = 26
”Go tell your corporate contact..."... "What the @#*% are you talkin' about?!" the ganger shouts. "We don't work for no suits, and no suit's goona scoop our bounty!" The ganger reaches for a weapon within his jacket. Initiative Rolls:
Round 1 Initiative:
The woman approaches the men with confidence. “You were right.”...
Bluffing: You can use a bluff check to tell a lie convincingly, but really you are telling multiple lies here. You are telling these guys:
* Ceren is armed with hidden explosives. * You are corporate bomb technicians from Bluerise Tower. * You have the same boss as the gangers and have the authority to give them orders. Technically I could have you make two more bluff checks but as they are all part of one speech I can count them together. The down side will be that penalties from different lies will pile up. The rules state that "The DCs for Bluff checks to lie are adjusted based on the target’s initial attitude toward you (see Diplomacy) as well as other circumstances determined by the GM (such as the plausibility of the lie)." The rules don't give examples of what those modifiers should be so I am using the modifiers from Pathfinder as a guide. The problem is that elements of your speech give you away. Calling Ceren a "hacker" confuses the issue since they wouldn't know that she is. Saying "we're from Bluerise Towers" is like saying "we're from the Eastern Business Districts." And saying "your corporate contact" shows them that you have no idea who they are working for. The whole point of hiring gangers rather than sending corporate agents is the degree of anonymity this allows; if they're caught the gangers won't actually know that corporate cash is behind the contract and can only finger the back-room fixer they got the job from. This, plus the fact that the starting DC is based on the attitude of the listener, is going to mean that this is a failure. Sorry.
Senko is fairly certain that the punks are not actually trying to fool anyone, and are certainly threatening physical violence.
At the appointed time, the group heads to Jatembe Park in the station's Eye. Open to all citizens, Jatembe Park occupies a wide portion of the Eye of Absalom Station. Filled with lush trees and open grass fields, the park offers some natural terrain to the otherwise metalclad station. Ceren’s meeting point is one such forested portion of the park, specifically a spot often ignored by citizens due to the winding path required to reach it. As the group comes around the curve of the path they see the bridge up ahead, going over an artificial stream. Ceren stands on the bridge, looking out over the water. Several other people are also at the bridge. Three young men with bizarre haircuts and clothing that looks to have been deliberately slashed open in places and marked with neon paint in others. They seem to have just arrived, from the same side of the bridge as you. When they get there, one stops before getting on the bridge, and turns and looks around as if enjoying the scenery. The other two continue, but when they get to the middle of the bridge, the second stops, while the third one continues to the other side. "Hey, grandma," the one on the bridge says to Ceren. Ceren turns around to look at the man, surprised and fearful. He holds his arm up and turns on a device on his wrist; a holographic image appears in the air above. The image is of Ceren! "Yeah, this is her, mateys!" As you approach, the man standing on the near side of the bridge, calls out to you. "Sorry, civvies! Bridge is closed. Maintenance, an' whatnot. So shove off."
With the help of Iseph, Navasi manages to hack into the city's medical database and alters the medical records for Ceren to match the features of the cadaver. While she is there, she also alters Grace Danhael's records so the don't quite match the corpse. After that the group stages their "accident" in a shadowy region of the downlow district and calls in ananonymous tip to the Stewards.
Not far from the Downlow district and just below the Eye is the district of Conduit, known to its locals as "Pipetown." Within Pipetown is the central processing sector for Absalom Station's water, power, and sewage systems, and most of those who live in the district work within those facilities or in support of those who do. The mortuary the party has identified lies just within this district. The group pulls up outside. The sign reads:
As you open the doors a small chime sounds. The front office is clean, but drab. Cheerful-looking potted plants are revealed to be plastic and are covered with a thin film of dust. Nobody seems to be here, but after looking around for a moment, you hear a voice come from what looks to be a small intercom on the desk. "I'm in the back! You can come back here or wait in the lobby." Pushing your way through a pair of double doors and a sterility force screen, you enter the rear area, which turns out to be 'workroom.' Four examination tables are present, but only one is occupied, by the corpse of a middle-aged man who appears to have a crushed pelvis. A thin human man in a lab coat is working on him and looks up as you enter. He is balding and his skin looks rather greyish. Culture or Life Science DC 15: The man is a Dhampir, human but with a touch of undead in his background.
Diplomacy: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (14) + 5 = 19 Altronis is able to line up a number of new "friends" for Ceren's new identity who will vouch for her.
Senko successfully arranges a part-time job for Ceren in a bakery on the other side of the station, and fills out a background where she was once a full-time baker but is now semi-retired. Computer to input data into accessible systems which support the crash storyline : 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (8) + 6 = 14 Iseph quickly realizes that without some sort of password they will not be able to hack the Stewards' computer systems to implant false data about a vehicle accident.
In her search Navasi comes across a mortuary in nearby Pipetown that has a reputation for dealing in cash and not asking too many questions, called the Peaceful Repose Morgue.
FYI I'm going out to the country for the weekend (for my brother's wedding) and probably won't have net access. I should be back on track Monday.
Sense Motive on Jubair: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (7) + 9 = 16 Jubair seems to be rather in shock. "I can't believe it. Ah... I better get packing our things, I guess." Jubair gets to work on packing up things in the apt.
Before putting her plan into affect, Navasi ponders what else she may need to acquire to make the deception seem believable.
"Grandma!" gasps Jubair. "They can't be talking about you, can they?"
Sense Motive: 1d20 + 4 + 1d6 ⇒ (20) + 4 + (2) = 26 Navasi gets the feeling that the youth is genuinely baffled by your questions. "...They probably won't believe nme unless I have a statement from the current occupants. Would you mind if we came and and asked you and your grandma to sign off saying no specialist for hire lives here?". Navasi responds. "Uh... okay, I guess." The youth turns around and calls out through the screen door of the apartment. "Gran! Some people here to talk to you!" "Who is it?" relies a faint voice from inside. "I dunno!" the youth looks at you questioningly. He turns back to the door again. "Something about a computer specialist."
"Ah... nope, it's just me an' Grandma living here," the young man says, clearly confused. "We can sell you some tomatoes if you want, but that don't have much to do with computers." He looks you up and down. "You sure you got the right apartment?"
The Langston Field Apartments are a group of residences which theoretically are for medium- and long-term transients, who might be on-station for a few months or years. But despite this, many permanent station residents live here, taking advantage of the cheap accommodations. The apartments are organized into "racks" of cube-shaped apartments made from Astrocrete*, that are stacked four-high from floor to ceiling of the deck; two such racks face each other forming an open chasm between them. At the far end is the upper wall of the station and long vertical windows let natural light into the gulf between the racks, and each apartment cube has windows only on the front face. Each apartment has a small "outdoor" porch leading to its entrance. The coordinates that Historia-7 gives the PCs point to an apartment that like the others here resembles a cement cube, with about fifty tomato plants in plastic barrels sitting on an otherwise barren porch. A young human man appears to be tending the plants, and looks up when you arrive. He is not wearing armor and is unarmed. "Ah... hi. Who are you guys?" __________________
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