Simar Chiyāsaṭha's page

Laboni nods eagerly. "So winning a race means I can always qualify for more! Do you think I should?!"

Simar's face is a study in blankness. "Do as you will, I'll leave your tab open."

"Well like... I'd learn how to drive first...
Oh! Prizes!"

A pack of ysoki from the Salvage Union approach with a credstick and a medal, which she gratefully accepts. "Hey uh... do you know where Ratrod is?" She turns back to you all and asks in a low voice "Do you think I should.. apologize? Or rub it in more? Or..?"

Ratrod - Cryospray: 1d20 + 8 - 3 - 2 ⇒ (5) + 8 - 3 - 2 = 8 At Laboni
Nyizin - Scraplauncher: 1d20 + 8 - 3 ⇒ (10) + 8 - 3 = 15 At Laboni -4
Orsis - No Gun
Velocity - Pulse Laser: 1d20 + 7 - 3 ⇒ (7) + 7 - 3 = 11At Orsis -4
Velocity - Macrocannon: 1d20 + 7 - 3 ⇒ (7) + 7 - 3 = 11At Nyizin -6
Velocity - Micromunitions: 1d20 + 7 - 3 ⇒ (19) + 7 - 3 = 23 At Ratrod -4

Ratrod Piloting: 1d20 + 8 + 2 - 2 - 4 ⇒ (6) + 8 + 2 - 2 - 4 = 10
Nyizin Piloting: 1d20 + 4 + 2 - 4 - 6 ⇒ (11) + 4 + 2 - 4 - 6 = 7
Orsis Piloting: 1d20 + 6 + 4 - 4 ⇒ (10) + 6 + 4 - 4 = 16
Velocity Piloting: 1d20 + 10 + 2 ⇒ (18) + 10 + 2 = 30

Acoria guns the engine and flashes across the finish line! Velocity trails narrowly behind, with weapons roaring in defiance they casually smash back everyone who hadn't allied with the Starfinders!

The crows goes nuts as Laboni's ID-placard flashes across the vidscreens and she flings herself out of the Loreseeker! The tails of her labcoat flap behind her as she piles into you all with big hugs which Simar mostly ducks, finally finishing by practically climbing on Acoria! "You guys did it!!"

Acoria's daring driving makes the difference as she opens up a commanding lead! Orsis and Ratrod are tangled up in a nasty scrum as Velocity chugs along in second place. But hot on their heels is the raw elemental power of Nyizin as she drops all pretense of driving remotely safely in favor of speed, speed, speed!!!

Ratrod - Cryospray: 1d20 + 8 - 3 - 2 ⇒ (12) + 8 - 3 - 2 = 15 At Laboni -4
Nyizin - Scraplauncher: 1d20 + 8 - 3 ⇒ (1) + 8 - 3 = 6At Laboni -4
Orsis - No Gun
Velocity - Pulse Laser: 1d20 + 7 - 3 ⇒ (12) + 7 - 3 = 16At Orsis -4
Velocity - Macrocannon: 1d20 + 7 - 3 ⇒ (8) + 7 - 3 = 12At Ratrod
Velocity - Micromunitions: 1d20 + 7 - 3 ⇒ (15) + 7 - 3 = 19At Ratrod -4

Ratrod Piloting: 1d20 + 8 + 2 - 2 - 4 - 4 ⇒ (9) + 8 + 2 - 2 - 4 - 4 = 9
Nyizin Piloting: 1d20 + 4 + 2 ⇒ (8) + 4 + 2 = 14
Orsis Piloting: 1d20 + 6 + 4 - 4 - 4 ⇒ (3) + 6 + 4 - 4 - 4 = 5
Velocity Piloting: 1d20 + 10 + 2 ⇒ (5) + 10 + 2 = 17

***

Simar: 1d20 + 4 - 3 ⇒ (16) + 4 - 3 = 17At Nyizin

Simar's eyes flicker between the trailing racers. "Keep it nice and steady Acoria, we've got too much of a lead for them to catch up as long as you don't crash and burn..." Her lips thin into a determined line as she recalculates Nyizin's speed. "...And as long as we make sure that she can't keep that up..."

Figured she might have woken up by now ;-)

Acoria bursts through a gout of Ratrod's Cryospray, carefully waiting until the last moment to steer away from the oncoming divider, maintaining speed and avoiding the deadly frost!

Orsis's telepathic defenses are finally overwhelmed under a hail of fire, and Nyizin and Velocity send him smashing into the wall, only to be overtaken by the Loreseeker as Acoria and Laboni take the lead!

Still the pack is closely behind her and Nyizin's necromantic dragonkin vehicle is roaring to greater and greater speeds!

Ratrod - Cryospray: 1d20 + 8 - 3 - 2 ⇒ (18) + 8 - 3 - 2 = 21 At Laboni -4
Nyizin - Scraplauncher: 1d20 + 8 - 3 ⇒ (12) + 8 - 3 = 17 At Orsis -4
Orsis - No Gun
Velocity - Pulse Laser: 1d20 + 7 - 3 ⇒ (9) + 7 - 3 = 13At Orsis -4
Velocity - Macrocannon: 1d20 + 7 - 3 ⇒ (8) + 7 - 3 = 12At Ratrod
Velocity - Micromunitions: 1d20 + 7 - 3 ⇒ (14) + 7 - 3 = 18 At Ratrod -4

Ratrod Piloting: 1d20 + 8 + 2 - 2 - 4 - 4 ⇒ (15) + 8 + 2 - 2 - 4 - 4 = 15
Nyizin Piloting: 1d20 + 4 + 2 ⇒ (19) + 4 + 2 = 25
Orsis Piloting: 1d20 + 6 + 4 - 4 - 4 ⇒ (4) + 6 + 4 - 4 - 4 = 6
Velocity Piloting: 1d20 + 10 + 2 ⇒ (16) + 10 + 2 = 28

***

Simar: 1d20 + 4 - 3 ⇒ (15) + 4 - 3 = 16 At Orsis once more

Simar tries to protect Acoria's fragile lead by slamming a high velocity round right off of Orsis's engine block!

Ratrod's fur puffs up in fury as he launches a tirade back at Yxov, "You think you and that kid are gonna be the ones to take me down, Glowbug? Huh?! Get outta here with that. You see my fans?! They get what being a winner is, what it takes! This Laboni brat hasn't got the chompers on her, says a lot about what's left of you 'finders.

"If she so much as gets out ahead of me I'll eat my goggles!"

He's clearly riled up, but if you can break his morale by getting Laboni ahead of him, it should make her lead easier to maintain!

***

As with most beings and vehicles, it looks like the Hedgehog should be more vulnerable to energy attacks, but there are a lot of strange, poorly linked capacitors on his racer that encourage you to look closer - If they're not mistakes, then he may have something crafty up his sleeve...

With Carter's help you're able to analyze the fragmentary design - an appropriately skilled Technomancer would be able to redirect the force of an energy blast to actually power up Ratrod's racer!

So assuming you want to go with kinetic weaponry, would you prefer to add another gun (this would give everyone but Acoria, the pilot, something to shoot), or do you want to power up the existing gun to make it more impactful for whoever uses it?

***

Handling it is Acoria! You've got one more check - What do you want to do for your final round of improving the racer?

***

Perception: 1d20 + 7 + 2 ⇒ (5) + 7 + 2 = 14

Simar and Mao work together to install a belt-fed automatic, but unfortunately the feeder is too gummed up and corroded to function - they'll need a replacement...

No problem at all :-)
Would you like for that roll to boost speed, handling, targeting, armor, or add or upgrade weapons?

Perception for Velocity's Racer: 1d20 + 7 + 2 ⇒ (16) + 7 + 2 = 25

With Simar's help, Doc Newblossom manages to better organize and orient some of Velocity's hodgepodge of an engine - it should improve their performance!

***

Time is quickly running out and the crowd is getting restive - you probably each only have time for one more useful task!

Oh, but to be clear, don't worry about assigning out the aids specifically - instead everyone just gets a +2 on these skill checks from Carter and Mao

Doc Newblossom's modifications bear fruit, boosting the top speed of Laboni's racer by at least 10%! (Assuming a sufficient concentration of tach-water can be maintained)

Unfortunately, examining Ratrod's rig, they begin to suspect that that might not be enough yet... Ratrod's Junkracer, 'The Hedgehog' looks like it would still be considerably faster than Laboni's even after the upgrades - it would probably take at least two more equivalent upgrades for her racer to match its top speed!

Otherwise the racer is fairly similar to her's, good handling, awful targeting systems, and a potent energy weapon in the turret, but The Hedgehog's armor looks a good bit better as well...

***

"Ohinevermetapodthatpickedoutanything reallyitsallamatteroffindingwhatsoutthereandchangingittofitwhatyouwant evenforagnomelifestooshorttowasteyourtimestandingstill youreveryshinyisthatmodulatableorisitsimplyamatterofopacityincoveringsandis itaffectedbydiet..." Lemgem's chatters along at a mile a minute, her bifurcated tongue clearly doing nothing to slow down a direct brain-mouth pipeline. You get a strong sense that it would be fairly easy to nudge her towards different ideas as long as they were new, whether something like making sure Ratrod doesn't win, again, or adding some 'particularly daring' modifications to her own Junkracer.

***

Simar returns to the racer with her own report on Orsis. "I think he takes himself too seriously to sacrifice his own chances at winning, but he's meticulously proud of his piloting. Someone might be able to butter him up into giving some tips for this course."

***

Nyizin, the battlescarred Ryphorian responds very grumpily to Yxov's overtures, aggressively polishing her hulking racer. "Look, I see that badge round your neck. That makes you the enemy, no matter who else you've got with you." As she says that she looks up and over the intervening debris at Acoria once more. "Unfortunately this race isn't too the death, but that doesn't mean I've got time to be distracted."

As part of a being intimately familiar with a dragonkin's bond, you know that their most common partners are Ryphorians, the other main species from their homeworld... It lends a **very** different shade of meaning to the large draconic skull on the hood of her racer.

***

Velocity seems oddly bored while the other racers are hard at work. They aren't fiddling with the engine, often taking quite a while to decide between pieces. Still, they seem very self-assured, even if their vehicle is likely to be somewhat undertuned. Since they aren't particularly busy, they'd likely be open to a more involved conversation.

***

Ratrod is having a grand old time, constantly calling up to the fans in the observation gantries - any interactions you have with him **will** be public. The stakes might be hard to lower, but you could probably taunt him to fluster him more. Of course, then you run the risk of him living up to the hype...

Since Sabotage is kinda 'High Risk, High Reward,' Simar won't initiate that without one of you requesting it. (Both due to her personality, and her role as a GMPC ;-)

Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (5) + 7 = 12
Discovery: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (8) + 7 = 15

Simar's own searches for quality parts are unsuccessful, but she makes sure to have their path carry her past one of the other racer's orbits. As soon as she gets close to Orsis, a dark haired damaya lashunta who looks unfairly good in black and gold, his antennae seem to prick up and he quickly moves to greet her with a deadpan smile. "Just couldn't keep your eyes off her, could ya?"

Mysterious Will Save: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (4) + 3 = 7

Heh, good rolls Yxov. Let me recommend that other people spy on the cars then :-p
In the meantime, go ahead and show me some of his icebreakers. Lemgem's the blue-hared gnome who's covered in piercings, tattos, and other augments; Nyizin's the battlescarred Ryphorian, Ratrod's the goggled ysoki with a showman's flourish, and Velocity's the elaborately decorated and androgynously gorgeous android. Don't worry about posting something up for each of them, I'd rather see an in-depth conversation with one you think Yxov would have a good chat with :-)

Simar's mouth curves into a cold smile as Odd Ball edges away from the group. "Unsurprising."

"The building portion happens before the race proper begins, but then as the entrant/challenger Laboni will need to be the pilot.

"And as you say, we should go to meet her."

***

Ratrod's racing circuit is a hollowed-out section of a mountain of spare parts in Botscrap downspike. A plethora of signs and sigils for the ysoki-dominated Salvage Union, who control most of the yards, make it clear that this is a sanctioned event. The crowd presses close around you as they head towards the arena, but the crush thins out as you loop around towards the competitors' entrance.

Simar passes around official looking badges that identify you as members of Laboni's pit crew, and you're quickly let through the security 'bots to the prep area.

As soon as you head into the workshops, a human girl who looks like she's still in her teens cannons into your group, barely stopping short of flinging her arms around Yxov in a hug. "Oh thankyouthankyouthankyou!!" She steps back, straightening her goggles and tucking her blindingly-white labcoat closer over her vibrant paisley top. "I'm Laboni, and this iiis..." she gestures to her workspace, "...kind of a work in progress."

She's already managed to put together a pretty serviceable racer, but as you look around at the other pilots and junkracers, it's clear that it hasn't had the benefit of multiple design-iterations to really get it up to speed.

Next to an ammo-hopper that still needs to be hooked up to the racer's turret is a bulky looking computer with a variety of heavily customized ports, but it has been cracked in half...

Laboni sees Simar eyeing the broken piece and turns sheepish once more. "So... I'm actually not much of a pilot, and it turns out that installing vehicle-guidance software mapped to the circuit is uh... frowned upon. Bit of a yellow card situation actually. But! It turns out I found a loophole! I have to drive the car, but it and the guns can have a, uh, 'auxiliary emergency control module.' Soooooo if I took my hands off the wheel, then whoever had the 'auxiliary controls' would be able to help steer us home or fight off the other racers!

"That uh... that sound good?"

***

So once we get into the thick of things, here are a few options for how to Improve the Junkracer (Computers, Engineering, Perception, Physical Science) - this can be used to improve the racer's speed, handling, targeting, armor, or add or upgrade weapons.

While you're doing that you can Investigate the Enemy (Sense Motive or Engineering): Scout out the opposing pilots or vehicles. If you don't want to improve the junkracer you can investigate each pilot instead of just one by skipping the first roll. Once you've got them scouted out you might be able to use different social skills to make good use of those insights too!

You could also do something else (like Sabotage!), but that would probably take up your improvement time...

The other racers and vehicles are here

Radaszam gives a smooth smile, explaining "I don't watch the junkraces myself, but I had Simar here prepare a dossier in case you weren't familiar with it either."

"Essentially racers and their pit crews are to build and improve their vehicles from the available scrap around the racetrack," Simar's words are precise and carefully enunciated, and her voice is a good deal gentler than her eyes. "Because vehicles built at previous junkraces can return, more established racers have a built-in advantage. However, politicking can be crucial, and newcomers may have advantages there. The weapons are non-lethal, but no junkracer can take the lead without taking some fire as well. Far easier for our young friend Laboni to be victorious if more of her opponents wish to see Ratrod defeated than her."

"Glowbug's got a point," Odd Ball still doesn't look calm, but is close enough to speak, "Do we need more than a convincing apology?"

Radaszam gives a sideways nictation, but the Simar cuts in before he replies. "It's not enough, Odd Ball. Right now especially, the Starfinders can't back down to a Junkracer. Our dear little friend hasn't given us room to maneuver, so since we can't back down, we have to back her up. If we don't stand by her it damages our reputation to the outside world, and worse," her gaze focuses intently on Odd Ball, "it tells other Starfinders that they don't need to protect one another. A dangerous precedent, don't you think?"