Ion, having partied to hard has the sickened condition for the next hour.
Just about after everyone takes their first action after the explosion, Ion just finishing up chugging water, all Starfinders receive an audio only communication from Venture Captain Naiaj: A group of vesk have attacked a nearby docked Starfinder vessel and are attempting to flee with items stolen from the Society! All nearby Starfinders are to canvas the area, assist wounded civilians, and rendezvous with Starfinder Pickle, a female Ysoki.
Dalteno, the witchwyrd bartender, barrels past the Marveen and Surge to join the fray, slapping Surge on the back with a joyful “Get in there!”
Right outside of the Seeker’s Respite, three vesk have pinned down one of the Starfinder escort teams behind some cargo and are closing in to finish the engagement. Dalteno and the other Starfinders from the bar busy themselves with fighting fires or picking off other vesk, keeping them out of the battle.
Jinn
Marveen
Surge
Green
Blue
Red
Xin-Haran
Lionel
Ion
BOLD MAY ACT!!!
The vesk ignore Surge's attempts at diplomacy!
Green fires at Marveen!
But misses.
Blue closes the distance, grabbing a Solar mote and forming a glowing armor about herself, and attacks Marveen with a Plasma Lash!
Red moves and cast a spell towards Marveen!
Roasting the large solarian with a cone of fire!
Jinn
Marveen (-23 SP)
Surge
Green
Blue
Red
Xin-Haran
Lionel
Ion
BOLD MAY ACT!!!
No it's been less than 30 seconds.
The Starfinders close the distance on their adversaries. Lionel takes a shot at Green and burns a scorch mark on his armor.
Pickles watches Marveen take some hard hits and calls out Don't let them keep you down! You can do it!!
Jinn
Marveen (-13 SP)
Surge
Green (-8 HP)
Blue
Red
Xin-Haran
Lionel
Ion (Sickened)
BOLD MAY ACT!!!
Blue takes an AoO on Surge!
But misses.
With a coordinated effort between Surge and Marveen, Blue drops, still breathing.
Across your comms you hear Naiaj "Take one alive for questioning!"
Green moves and fires at Marveen!
But misses.
Red steps over to Surge, reaching out and touching his comm unit.
But misses.
Jinn
Marveen (-13 SP, IB Pickles)
Surge
Green (-8 HP)
Blue (-35 HP, -1 RP, Unconscious)
Red
Xin-Haran
Lionel
Ion (Sickened)
Red takes an AoO with his prepped touch spell on Xin-Haran!
But misses.
Green moves and fires at Ion!
But misses due to covering fire.
Red reaches out for Surge again!
Then takes a five foot guarded step out of flank.
Pickle calls out inspiring words to Surge! You can do it!
Jinn
Marveen (-13 SP, IB Pickle)
Surge (-5 SP, IB Pickle)
Green (-8 HP) Harrying fire
Blue (-35 HP, -1 RP, Unconscious)
Red (-17 SP)
Xin-Haran
Lionel
Ion (Sickened)
Sorry all it's been a hell of a day at work and I messed up the turn order. I'll skip the bad guys turn this round and hopefully get it going in the right order next round.
Jinn
Marveen (-13 SP, IB Pickle)
Surge (-5 SP, IB Pickle)
Green (-8 HP) Harrying fire
Blue (-35 HP, -1 RP, Unconscious)
Red (-17 SP)
Xin-Haran
Lionel
Ion (Sickened)
Red is down and out.
Green is down and out from Xin-haran's might blow. Combat ends.
As the battle ends, Venture-Captain Naiaj arrives, casually surveying the site after jogging in from the Lorespire Complex. She quickly moves to check on the status of the vesk and Pickle.
Naiaj quietly questions any survivors with the assistance of an aide before standing them up and handing them off to other Starfinders to march them back to the Lorespire Complex.
While the Venture Captain questions the vesk, Wirath approaches Jinn and Ion. She makes a show of reloading her spent pistol battery and asks, So, do those weapons work, or are they just for decoration? before returning to help with the wounded.
After dealing with the vesk Naiaj approaches the assembled combatant Starfinders, Pickle in tow, offering congratulations for keeping one of the Keepers alive.
“Such destruction.” Venture-Captain Naiaj surveys the scene, looking in dismay at the broken glass window that was once the front of the Seeker’s Respite. “We have a lot to do to make this right. Lucky for you, you’re not on clean-up duty. Our attackers were just a distraction. While you were busy fighting, another group was able to make it to a docked starship and escape into the Drift. I believe they took an artifact retrieved by our agents back to their base of operations in the heart of the Veskarium. To make matters worse, these are no ordinary thieves: I believe they are members of the Keepers of the Lie, a fringe cult whose beliefs are so ridiculous I won’t even legitimize them by telling you.” Naiaj sighs and turns to the Starfinder by her side. “Thank you for your assistance, Pickle. You did an excellent job retrieving the item from the contact we gave you, but we couldn’t have known that the Keepers would be waiting in ambush when you returned to Absalom Station. These Starfinders may have some questions for you, but after that conversation, you’re dismissed. I’ll be tasking these agents with retrieving the artifact, even it means going to Vesk Prime.” Naiaj turns back from the agent. “I was hoping it wouldn’t come to this, but I’m going to need to call in a favor from an old friend—a former brutaris sparring partner of mine who happens to be the commander of the Division of Disloyal Organizations in the Veskarium. We don’t have time to get any formal approval before I send you on this mission, so hopefully he receives my request for aid in time—you’ll be able to tell by how he greets you. I’ve instructed the dock crew to start preparing a ship to take you directly to Vesk Prime.”
|
ion walks up to the group and say
good job boys and girls that was a good fight if I wasn't so drunk I would of gave my all....hold on..I..I..yep...I'll be right back...
Ion runs over to one of the down vesk and lifts his cloth in front of his face and then proceeds to throws up on the blue downed vesk...
....well does that count as giving my all to the fight...
Ion turns to the group and says
sorry about my drunkenness I swear that wont happen again for a long time.
|
Well you shouldn't of thrown up on the one guy they are going to question... Marveen looks at Venture Captain Naiaj, I am sorry for how ignorant my colleague is here. We will go to the docks right away to head to Vesk Prime to retrieve everything we can. What is the name of the contact we would need to talk to when we get there? What exactly are we going to be going to retrieve. Marveen pulls his data pad out and is taking thorough notes on everything.
Naiaj first looks at Ion appraoching the vesk she is questioning with a dead eyed stare that can only be described as particularly uninviting. When Ion lifts his mask to vomit, she and the other Starfinders jump back, aghast at his behavior. If looks could kill, the glare the bleaching gnome turns on Ion would disintegrate his ancestors.
Naiaj takes a moment to compose herself. Then continues, "No need to apologize on his behalf. He's making us all look bad. I'll speak with Dalteno about over serving. You there, inebriated Kasatha, you won't be leaving for Vesk Prime with your compatriots. You'll be coming back with me to sober up and undergo a fitness for duty evaluation. If you're lucky, you can catch another transport and catch up with your colleagues later. Now I recommend you dont speak or do anything other than you are told. Anyone else have questions?"
|
|
Lionel walks over to join the group with Naiaj, as he does he passes Wirath and offers his fist as to pound her fist in a congratulatory manner. "Looks like we've found our rookie of the year."
Lionel makes it over to the group just as Ion is getting his lecture from Naiaj.
"What all did I...," Lionel looks down at the vomit covered Vesk and answers his own question before finishing his sentence then looks over to Ion and understands what's going on.
With a look of disgust, "Dude really? Even I dont hate Vesk that much and I'm a Pahtra."
Naiaj pulls out her personal datapad, and with a few taps, produces a digital image: that of a younger, more colorful Naiaj grinning widely in a brutaris player’s uniform, dwarfed by an enormous, green-black vesk with a scar down one side of his face. “This is Paxel. He’s known as ‘The Dragon’ in the Veskarium. When you meet him, you’ll see why. He and I were part of a joint Pact Worlds–Veskarium brutaris exhibition many years ago, back when relations with Vesk Prime were fresher than they are now. Paxel may seem friendly but make no mistake: his allegiance is to the Veskarium, and he’ll do whatever he needs to do to protect it.” She cocks her head to one side with a quiet snort. “He’s quite vain, though he’d never admit it. I heard he’s had several interesting augmentations done as he’s aged.”
Pickle adds, "The artifact is a metallic cylinder inscribed with unknown markings that resists translation through technology or magic. It was originally found deep within Apostae. But we procured it from a broker of rare artifacts elsewhere."
Based on the result of a Culture to recall knowledge or a Diplomacy check to gather information, the Starfinders might know more about the Veskarium.
The Veskarium is an autocratic military dictatorship
ruled by a council of high-ranking military officers. A military
commander called a high despot rules each of the Veskarium’s nine
major worlds. Together, they form the Council of Despots, a nine-
member body that rules the entire Veskarium from the Imperial
Palace on Vesk Prime. Vesk dominate the empire and make up
the majority of its inhabitants. The Veskarium claims the entirety
of the Ghavaniska system: Vesk Prime, the imperial capital and
home world of the vesk; seven other planets, which the vesk have
renamed and numbered based on their distance from the sun, from
Vesk-2 to Vesk-8; and the immense mobile space station known as
the Conqueror’s Forge.
Dozens of planets are under imperial rule, and Veskarium
citizens include many sapient species, such as formians, ijtikri,
kothamas, pahtras, and skittermanders, among others. Although
most vesk consider themselves superior to other species, they
nevertheless believe they have an obligation to care for vassals
they’ve conquered and incorporated into the Veskarium. The laws
of the Veskarium are strict and draconian, but standards of living
are high, and most residents of the empire, vesk or not, are content
with their lives and support—or at least tolerate—their government.
Based on the result of a Culture or Mysticism check to recall knowledge or a Profession (historian) check (other professions at my discretion), the Starfinders might know more about the Keepers of the Lie. They learn all of the information below whose DC is less than or equal to the result of their check.
The Keepers of the Lie is a vast criminal organization based in the Veskarium. It recruits from the bitter and disenfranchised by offering a unique worldview: that the universe was created after the Gap, and all history before then is an elaborate lie. The cult calls for members to cast off the bonds of family, religion, and past, and craft a new truth for themselves through smuggling, extortion, and slavery, all while working to erase any traces of pre-Gap history.
Shortly after the end of the Gap, a group of vesk soldiers and researchers on the icy wastelands of Vesk-8 uncovered a being encased in the ice. Though it couldn’t move, the entity telepathically informed the vesk they were being lied to, their entire existences simple contrivances, as the universe had been created whole cloth after the Gap. Rumors say that the mysterious being continues to guide the Keepers from within the False Witnesses, the organization’s innermost circle.
With the cult’s spread beyond the Veskarium, new voices have been added to the council that runs the Keepers. A councilor has recently been selected to represent the cult’s growing influence within Absalom Station, and rumor has it that they’ve been planning a sizable operation in order to impress the cult’s leaders and take their place among more-established branches of the organization.
Naiaj dislikes the idea of sending Starfinders into a situation without proper support. She provides the Starfinders with a library chip (Culture) (Starfinder Pact Worlds 199) so they can study the Veskarium during their travels, as well as a tetrad certified translator (see the Starfinder Society Guide) in the unlikely event that none of the Starfinders can speak Vesk.
Naiaj closes the briefing by informing the Starfinders that they should make any purchases necessary, and then meet
back at the docks as soon as possible.
Naiaj closes the briefing by informing the Starfinders that they should make any purchases necessary, and then meet
back at the docks as soon as possible.