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Sturmvanger falls to the ground below where the star was. "Hot." He replies simply to the question about how it felt as he gets to his feet. He gives a nod. "I'm fine," in response to questions about his health. He scoops up the crystal. It's not useful for any of them but the man they're looking for can probably find something to do with it. "Inside?" he asks. Seggas: <Sorry you didn't get to sample it. My plan to subdue it from inside didn't work out.>
Sturmvanger isn't great at dodging so he sticks with what he knows, jamming his bone blade into the sun as it gets close.
He then finds himself stuck inside the thing and struggles to get out.
Seggas: <I think we can make a special exception for this case. Maybe we can figure out a way for it to power our lab. Assuming I can get out of it.>
Sturmvanger is just enthralled by the black hole as the rest of the group for a bit. But then he deliberately looks away. Seggas:
<It is *unsettling/frightening/overwhelming/metaphysically-threatening* to be so close to something so primally destructive.> He turns on the environmental seals on his armor and heads for the airlock. "Perhaps there is atmosphere in the temple?" he suggests in response to Catsial's question.
Sturmvanger takes the full brunt of the kasatha's solar power but the thin layer of scales over his thicker scales burns away and immediately begins to grow back. He pops out a long, heavy blade made of bone from his forearm. But, he doesn't want to prove these people's points by being bloodthirsty so he turns it at an awkward angle to not harm his attacker...too much.
Sturmvanger was about to remind the Kasathan youth that it was a bad idea to threaten a large descendent of dragons when he made it evident that he wasn't interested in talking. "If your parents were Starfinders during the Scoured Stars incident, they were probably heroes and they'd want you to follow in their footsteps, not attack people with no provocation," he replies to the man. But he's not going to just stand there and let himself or Seggas get hurt so he pulls out his tactical rail cannon and takes a shot.
Seggas:
<I guess people who don't want to talk want to get shot.>
Sturmvanger decides that discretion is the better part of diplomacy. He sits quietly as the conversation goes on. He takes up a pose not unlike Master Boojan's and closes his eyes to simply listen. Seggas: <*This reminds me of my training back on Triaxus flashes of meditation interspersed with grueling training and combat.*
Hope you feel better, soon! This seems anticlimatic, now but I'm going to be at a convention (Reapercon) all weekend starting tomorrow and Monday is Labor Day so I probably wouldn't have been posting again until Tuesday.
Sturmvanger stops and thinks when he is asked to elaborate. "We find ourselves facing a lot of environmental, bacterial, viral and physical dangers in our tasks. While we, unfortunately, often seem to be dealing with the repercussions of those threats, we are also able to use those solutions and expand them into other areas of life. From better anti-virals to more effective pain management to things as simple as keeping a home environment comfortable efficiently."
"I'll have Duke Tan, hot," Sturmvanger says, rather proudly. Seggas:
<The captain in a documentary about space exploration I watched always ordered it that way.> The dragonkin sits with his legs folded under him, his long neck bent to keep his head about on a level with everyone else as they talk. "I am Sturmvanger. I am her research assistant in the laboratory and her guard during fieldwork," he says, tilting his head toward Seggas to indicate who he is talking about.
"That is what I've heard about the Cycle, too so it is good to hear from a native," Sturmvanger says.
He falls in line with the group as they head to the tea shop to follow a lead. Notably taller than most of the other people in the market, it allows him to sweep his head back and forth, looking for threats.
Even in a civilized place like this, Sturmvanger is on his guard. There are just too many people around and people are generally untrustworthy. Where the others might see wonders for sale and exciting hustle and bustle, he just sees the potential to be cheated and too much chaos. He gives a nod to the rest of the group as he and Seggas peel off so she can get some enhancements. Seggas:
<I'm a little surprised you're not doing this yourself. But then, I guess a surgeon doesn't operate on themself, either.> While there, he can't help but show off her work, borrowing someone's igniter and holding his hand over it until the finer layer of scales on his palm peel away painlessly. Pulling his hand away he holds it up as fresh scales grow in. "At least he's famous," Sturmvanger points out as they start to look for a four armed straw in a four armed haystack.
"I'm willing to go talk to him and let him know the state of the society without him, but, as you said, we're not kidnapping him," Sturmvanger replies. He takes a final bite of a sugary confection that is burning with a faint green flame before standing up, flicking the two tails of his jacket from his actual tail as he does so. He leans over the map. "At least the likely locations where he might be are close together. We won't have to wander over the whole ship." "We'll meet you at the transport," he says to the group. Seggas: <*Bemused* I know. I had a bite but you were enjoying it so much it was hard for ME to concentrate on the briefing. Almost as distracting as that time you brought Morvuul back to the lab.>
Even though most establishments on Absalom Station take into account the needs of beings of various sizes, a dragonkin still takes up a lot of space. The one sitting at the table is no exception, even though he keeps his wings tucked in. His golden scales have a distinctly red undertone to them and close examination shows what appears to be a layer of smaller, almost transparent scales growing over the main layer. "And what if he doesn't want to come back?" Sturmvanger asks. Seggas: <It doesn't seem right to force someone into a life they don't want. Especially when there are others who can do the job. Even more especially if it's only for the sake of politics.>
Void Runners: Ravnivori Empire If you give me your e-mail address I can send you a complimentary copy, instead.
The first game book I ever bought was the AD&D guide to Dragonlance. I don't know how long I had it before I bought the PHB, DMG and MM which actually made it playable. And I may* have written and published a Savage Worlds setting that is...we're going to say...heavily inspired by Spelljammer. And there's a new Marvel Super Heroes game in the works. It's like 1987 is coming for me all over again. There's going to be a LOT of Tinkerer gnomes in the near future. *: I totally did.
Mine looks good, thanks for running the game. I enjoyed all the role playing from everyone. It gave me a chance to lean in even more on Istilnar's dark personality. For anyone who is wondering, Istilnar, is just a rearrangement of the letters in the name Raistlin, the power hungry mage from the Dragonlance novels. Istilnar, is just my homage to that wonderful character. Did we all look like rotting skeletons every time you looked at us?
"Is the cargo bound for Multifold headquarters or one of their larger facilities? If it's just being delivered to a third party, I don't see why we can't just drop it off before heading back to Absalom. Even if they have security, we can notify the Society of what's happening and deal with any guards," Sturmvanger says.
This is just the kind of scenario I like in Starfinder. It feels Star Trek and classic sci-fi in that it's not just a guns blazing adventure but one that gives the players an opportunity to think about a big philosophical topic (in this case, what does it mean to be alive and what does being alive mean.) And it was very well run. And well played. And my chronicle looks good.
"We're not suggesting that you leave Multifold, necessarily. You may be able to lead a happy life in their employ. What we are saying is that, until recently you were a valuable asset and not a person. Not everyone is willing to acknowledge someone else's personhood if it loses them a valuable asset. "Multifold may be completely reasonable. They may set you free with no fuss. They may ask you to pay off the value you formerly had to them through some sort of contract. But they may also be completely unreasonable. We want you to be somewhere safe if that happens so you aren't at their mercy. "And yes, you are allowed to do it. You've committed no crime so you're as free as anyone else," Sturmvanger says. He looks at the others in his group. "We're probably not the best suited group for a freedom negotiation but we're what you've got and we can contact them for you."
"Let us escort you back to Absalom Station. We can talk to our superiors with the Starfinder Society to get you assistance. There are groups who protect sapient machines. They can talk to Multifold and broker a deal. "Then, maybe you can find a crew to partner with. Some friends so you won't feel empty," Sturmvanger says.
"My bond partner is right. Some machines are designed to emulate self-awareness so closely that it is almost impossible to tell that they aren't. AutoMaint 13 may be one. And there are lots of organic beings that don't dream and even more that don't think about themselves. In a way, they are machines as much as any computer driven device," Sturmvanger adds. Seggas: <And, of course, she may be projecting all sorts of things onto AutoMaint 13. Which of us didn't have a person we idealized at her stage of development? *image-of-midnight-black-dragonkin-that-flickers-between-being-rather-plain -and-truly-radiant.*>
"It sounds like you are living up to your chosen name. As Keskada said, you are daydreaming and doing it avidly. You have shifted from existing to living. All living entities do it but most of us aren't developed enough mentally at the time to realize or question it. You've jumped from newborn to adolescence in an extremely short time span," Sturmvanger says. "Let us help you get somewhere safe where you can process your thoughts and feelings and new existence. Things won't be so confusing and daunting if you give it a little time."
"Well, this is troublesome," Sturmvanger says after reading the logs. "Anyone got enough credits to buy a cargo hauler so we can set her free? "Is it stealing, hijacking, kidnapping or emancipating when you take a ship that develops sentience away from the people who had it built? "I guess I don't care what we call it. We need to get Avid Dreamer someplace safe until we can find out what Multifold Industries would do with her. I'm not willing to just let her go off to some R&D lab to have her system wiped."
The disadvantages of being an ordinary sized creature in a universe full of small beings. They never make anything properly sized. Sturmvanger finds his opponents in tight quarters that he doesn't want to squeeze himself into. So, instead, he draws his reaction cannon and takes a shot at the red hued robot.
Seggas: <For two people who don't seem to particularly like each other they certainly think alike don't they? *images-of-Liilywind-and-Istilnar-side-by-side>
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