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My group met Illaris last night and I put together a chase scene for them instead of her just getting away. Feel free to steal.
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My players only just started the Choking Tower, reading through it myself, its not my favorite of the 6 adventures. Personally, its a bit too much fantasy and not as much tech as I'd like but luckily as the GM I can fix that! I am still working on but I think I am gonna turn the Choking Tower into a rudimentary rocket. I'll keep you guys posted, I just hope this idea doesn't blow up in my players face!
You are welcome and that sounds great!
I took the opposite route and made the tower more elemental focused and made it closer to a traditional D&D dungeon crawl. Still has tech but more oddities than anything major. Will release it once my players have completed it.
I ended up making Illaris a red herring. My PCs had already been betrayed by a Technic League agent (posing as a PC, no less) in the first book, and I wanted to keep that fresh in their mind. And send them on a merry little chase.
So they found out that there was a Technic League spy in town... and then they found a lot of evidence that Illaris was a spy.
Lucky for them, they confronted her themselves instead of turning her in to the town, and were able to find out that she is a spy... for New Thassilon*, not the Technic League. And she was able to lead them to evidence that the agent who had already betrayed them was the spy they were looking for. They are now eagerly seeking their revenge, and Illaris has joined as a cohort (and something of a romantic fling for one of the PCs).
*My players and I have a rule that all APs we run are canon in all future APs, no matter how things turn out. Kingmaker and (especially) Shattered Star had some... unconventional... endings, so the Golarion I am running this AP in looks fairly different from the standard.
One thing which my players said when asked to track down a spy was - "we aren't investigators, we are adventurers. We wouldn't know where to start". Which is actually a fair point.
They did take the job nonetheless but ended up chucking lightning bolts and calling down thunderstorms in the middle of town to catch Illaris. The Eldormen blamed himself - what do you expect from adventurers?
They didn't get the story award for that part of the game but they were definetly true to their nature :)
Also, I forgot to mention I used the Iron God Pawns in this session for the first time. Great idea - much cheaper than minis and just as effective. However, I found putting the basses on these pawns tends to wreck them as often as it doesn't. I can imagine taking the bases on and off more than once would permanently damage the pawns. Anyone else found this with the pawns?
I have not, might be a bad run, if you take a picture of it and send it to the customer service team they're usually super nice about fixing issues like this:-)
I think I'll do that. But I wouldn't rule out it was my axe hands! Though I couldn't see how I could have been more careful and only some peeled up not all which implies it's the pawn more than me (probably :)
Also, I forgot to mention I used the Iron God Pawns in this session for the first time. Great idea - much cheaper than minis and just as effective. However, I found putting the basses on these pawns tends to wreck them as often as it doesn't. I can imagine taking the bases on and off more than once would permanently damage the pawns. Anyone else found this with the pawns?
Can you specify the "wreck them" part, i have been using pawns for quite some time (although i haven't bought the iron gods pawns*) and i haven't noticed any "wrecking" by putting the pawns in the bases or by removing them from their bases.
*because i was at book 4 when the iron gods pawns beecame available at the european market and how expensive it has become to buy them because of the latest USD-euro exchange rates.
The printed layer peels up when putting the stands on.
The printed layer peels up when putting the stands on.
Ok that should not be happening, i have the bestiary 1, 2, 3 pawns, and the shattered star and WotR pawns, and i haven't encountered such a problem. Go into the customer service subforum and make a thread about that, i am sure that the Paizo customer service staff will make things right.
Hi Leo, thanks. I sent them an email with a picture see how it goes :)
Just had an interesting session. Characters started and finished the Aurora part of the adventure and were pushed to the limit combat wise as I had Seerath and then the four deformed androids from the barracks reinforce the original four androids (so 9 androids on the field at one point). Then I had the Augmented Guardsmen reinforce the normal guardsmen. Couple KOs but no deaths.
Anyway the characters ended up negotiating with Sahasho as they could cast dismissal which works for him and they reactivated the Aurora and used the console to vent the mutantgenic gas. As an off hand remark I said once they powered up the Aurora they could hear noise from the entrance area. So they vented the gas and then investigated. And again, spur of the moment, I said you could see the six tubes (actually 4) working away at something. When they asked what they were making I said androids.
Suddenly a glimmer appeared in their eyes and they wanted to know how they could program them to be guards or soldiers or something. Which escalated to talks about an android army and assaulting Starfall directly with them. Then it went to starting a kingdom up with Scrapwall as its centre, rebuilding it and the fort into a proper town etc etc.
I've gotten myself into a bit of trouble it seems. My players have become kingdom builders at the drop of a hat. I don't mind but I am going to have to crack out the old basic D&D companion box set from 1984 for kingdom building rules! Does Kingmaker from Paizo provide kingdom building rules? If so I may look at that instead since it would be easier to convert to 5e than rules from basic D&D.
Curious how you fellow DM's would handle the foundry - make them deformed androids? I was thinking of letting them create one batch of normal androids before it running out of resources. Since it needs more than just power. If they ever took the androids against UNITY I may have her take them over. Maybe.
Funny thing I was just lamenting to my wife that the group is a bit short-sighted by not capitalising on things like the Excavator and that their are more ways to handle the Technic League instead of just a surgical strike. Then BOOM, next session I get 6 animated players talking about building a kingdom! Fun. Fun. Fun.
Ultimate Campaign has the refined and expanded kingdom building rules, quite cheap as a PDF they can also be found free in the PRD up to the left there.
Rivers Run Red has the original kingdom building rules, quite rare in book format, easily acquired as a PDF
As always sounds fun, love that you're not afraid to improvise :-)
Hi Captain, so if I grab Ultimate Campaign I don't need Kingmaker? Or would you recommend Kingmaker anyway to "borrow" encounter ideas from?
I'd just get Ultimate Campaign, while Rivers Run Red is an awesome adventure, it's more in the vein of King Arthur type stuff, trolls, fey, giant enraged owlbears, all good stuff mind you but not much Numeria flavor :-)
Tho if you want a good sandbox type adventure path Kingmaker is great :-)
I may do Kingmaker next campaign, it looks pretty cool (half way through IG AP so thinking about next campaign).
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Curious how you fellow DM's would handle the foundry - make them deformed androids? I was thinking of letting them create one batch of normal androids before it running out of resources. Since it needs more than just power. If they ever took the androids against UNITY I may have her take them over. Maybe.
They foundry is damaged, all it can do is produce deformed androids. I'm sure with nurture you could conceivably create an army of Hodors, but nothing terribly complex until they spend a year or so re-building the foundry and that's with high level 'memory of function' spells as well as a large team of technicians. I'd delegate it to something they could accomplish with a well earned favor from Zenebreth after winning her control over the technic league.
What you suggested sounds like a cool twist as well. It's your world, go crazy!.
Nice Ayanzo. I like your getting a resurrected Technic League to help. Here are my initial thoughts but integrating it into the Kingdom Building rules. If they just want a couple android "slaves" without the kingdom building part I'll rule they need the TL to help. This is what I initially have after reading the UC rules:
For the Android Foundry. If you can provide the BP (building points) to keep it going it can pump out androids but with the following restrictions:
- Someone needs to take the Technologist feat to represent learning how to use the system.
- You need to spend 30 BP as a recruitment cost for both units - representing the required materials, power etc to keep the foundry going. However this can be paid bit-by-bit over the year to build them.
- The systems are damaged there is a 50/50 chance of a normal android or a deformed android giving you two types of units. Deformed androids are ugly and dumb but strong. They are not inherently evil.
- The machine fails forevermore once its produced 100 androids of each type - normal and deformed.
- It will take a year to produce 200 androids. The machine produces four androids every week or so.
- You need to persuade Iadenveigh to let you use the ruin….
The big assumption above all else is that you have a kingdom setup first to supply the materials you need to build androids. Otherwise it will be impossible for you to maintain the foundry without technical help which could only come from the Technic League. In fact the Technic League could accelerate production. Alignment of units can be determined by you but assuming Neutral for now.
ELITE ARMY ANDROID XP 800
LN Medium army of androids (fighter 4)
hp 16; ACR 3
DV 13; OM +3, ranged
Tactics expert flankers, siegebreaker
Resources healing potions, improved armour, improved weapons, ranged weapons
Special construct, armour training, bravery +1, dark vision, weapon specialisation (representing nanite surge), unit never breaks but also never gains benefits from morale effects
Speed 2; Consumption 1 (recruitment cost 20 BP)
DEFORMED ARMY OF BERSERKER ANDROIDS XP 400
CN Medium army of deformed androids (barbarian 2)
hp 20; ACR 1
DV 11; OM +1
Tactics relentless, brutality
Special construct, darkvision, rage, weapon specialisation (representing nanite surge), unit never breaks but also never gains benefits from morale effects
Speed 2; Consumption 1 (recruitment cost 10 BP)
Here you go - Technic League Archeological Team.Solomani if you do stat up a team of Technic League villains, can you please share? I'm doing some major alterations to Furk's base and would love to get the Technic League involved in this adventure.Will do. Can you tell me what your doing? I am kind of tempeted to basically replace the choking tower with Maure's Castle level outright to give the players a slight change of pace to something more magic focused.
My players just finished LoR and so will start CT next session. Curious how many DMs have (or are) playing CT and how is it going?
Updated the Teams' info and provided stat blocks for all of them to make it easier for anyone that wants to convert them back to 3.5/PF (and to add interesting quirks that fits the team thematically):
Captain Akredenn, Technic League Captain with bioengineered "devil hands".
Beornre, Akredenn's Number One - Nano Mage.
Rancis and Aered, Akredenn's commanders. Twins. One a mutant warrior with psychic powers and the other a cyborg monk.
Evet and her tyrg's, Akredenn's animal trainer and bio-expert.
Rounded out with some riot suppressors and tech wielding Hirelings.
Curious to see how they stand up against my players. Should make for an interesting fight.
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I am doing the optional quest the Demons of Dravod Knock except I moved the location to Marstol, which is where my players rested last session. I'll put it out there that there is demon activity in the area and an young halfling escaped a group of demon cultists that were holed up at an abandoned winery a couple miles out of town. I am lowering the CR a bit because my players are only level 7, throwing a CR 11 at them would be a bit mean. Lowering it to CR 9.
I changed the Demons of Dravod Knock, I felt like it was just to "regular" or "fantasy" for Iron Gods. I am instead having Diara be a Tiefling Cleric of the dead Demon Lord Xar-Azmak which was an Iron Golem/Minotaur/Rust breathing. She has been sacrificing and gathering souls trying to jump start her Demon Lord back to life. Daria has created some Robot/Clockwork/Minotar creature she is trying to infuse some life into by binding souls to it.
I like these quests, I'll be including a section in the Aurora that responds to the Dusklight Beacon. DC 25 Engineering + Androffan to recognize the computer has picked up a distress beacon in the nearby area and then DC 20 Kn: Geography or DC 25 Diplomacy to gather Information to find the location.
The printed layer peels up when putting the stands on.It sounds like you're jamming them in. Squeeze the bottom part together so it can fit in the stand rather than sheering them in. When it expands again (think Styrofoam) the pressure will keep it in place.
FYI, this was ME stuffing them up. I only ordered the Iron God pawns and I was using the wrong bases. It wasn't until I got my Bestiary Box 1 set today that I realise I was using the wrong bases. All me! PEBKAC.
The proper bases work fine, no peeling.
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Just had a session and my group entered the tower tonight. I decided to add little things called oddities to the game. An idea I stole from Numenera. Basically technological items that seem to have no purpose or their original purpose was lost. But I didn't explain this to the players, I just added them.
So from the hill giants they got an aerosol can that sprays sparkling paint that hangs in the air. They played with it for a while and then said "it must have SOME purpose, we just haven't figured it out yet" before moving on.
The next item was even better. I place the following oddity in the servant washroom of the tower - A device that emits a projection of a human face that changes expression depending on what direction it is facing. Basically it has a smiley face if pointed north, angry west, sad south and normal west. And at the in-between points its a mix of the two faces. My players are using this to determine which rooms to enter in the tower assuming its some kind of emotional compass.
Its great ;)
My players encountered the auromvorax at yesterday's session. Well, a modified version at least. One of my characters wants to tame/buy a kit. The entry says 5k gp to buy a kit but any idea how much it would cost to actually feed it? They basically eat gold, copper, plat etc, correct?
And Robots, they also eat Robots :-)
True, true!
My players finished up the Choking Tower last weekend. Here is a compiled list of goodies from that adventure for 5e as well as a game log. My group managed to inadvertently put Xoud to rest and bypass about half the encounters.
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My group just entered the Choking for the First time last night and they got eviscerated. They explored the first level and using Kn: Engineering and some meta knowledge based off the drawn map they broke through the wall and found the secret staircase. I wasn't exactly prepared for them to go to the basement first they instead decided to go up from the first floor to fifth and right into the Master Bedroom. Needless to say when they found the spellbooks, Furkas was rather surprised a group of adventures had found there way up to his bedroom before really noticing them.
They were all bunched up around the desk so hit them with an Irradiate, catching 4 of the 5. He is CL 10 so Irradiate does 2d4 Con Drain on a failed save. Three of them failed their save however because he is ethereal there is only a 50% for the spell to effect a player that is not ethereal so luckily one of those players negated the effect. Still 2 of the players took con drain and one of them(my wife's swashbuckler/sorcerer) took max, 8 Con drain. The other was the barbarian and they only lost 3 Con so it wasn't too bad. After some sorties, he eventually fled after doing some more damage to them but the Chainsaw wielding Inquisitor and the Earthbreaker Barbarian got a couple of really solid hits, even doing half damage a hit, they got him below 100 hitpoints so I had him fled. They weren't looking to good either so they immediately fled as well.
All told, their first incursion to the Choking Tower they cleared the first floor, sprang two traps on that floor and then went to the fifth floor and got trounced and fled. Wasn't very productive.
Just started book three and did the chase sequence, basing off of what Solomani had. It went pretty well!
The party caught up to her, captured her, and knocked Illaris unconscious. They bound her up with Ion tape and are heading to the ruins with her.
So, what is Illaris supposed to do? She can't escape the ion tape, so if they leave her outside the ruins as they go inside she can't do anything. She wants to take her revenge, but there's no really anything she can do.
Does she try to convince the players to untie her? Pretend to convert sides so she can get a free shot at escape? Try to go into the ruins with them and mess stuff up?
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Tonight starts my groups last session in this book. My overall thoughts on this book is that it has been good at times however far weaker than the first or second book. I tried not to modify it but at times it seemed like it was required for it be a fun playing environment.
Overall, I didn't understand the purpose this book served other than to get my PC's from 6th level at the end of Scrapwall to 9th level to start Valley of the Brain Collector. What I'm trying to say is it felt very filler-esque. Quite similar to book three of Skulls and Shackles to be honest. It was a good adventure and could have been an interesting module but as a part of this adventure path I feel like it was considerably weaker.
That is not to say there wasn't some really good things about it, I loved the Aurora and Dusklight and the Inquisitor of Desna is mooning over Longdreamer. The Warden fight was a blast and my players greatly enjoyed fighting such a tough robot.
However the hostility of Iadenveigh seemed to drag, I wanted the players to get to know the town and experience it but it seemed that ran counter to what the NPC's of Iadenveigh wanted. I would have liked it maybe in smaller doses, I don't mind prepping my PC's for the rigors of Starfall and what it means to have to hide their identities but I think by that point they'll be more than prepared for such a task.
I did like the mutant theme and it makes a great opportunity to introduce new characters with their own unique and bizarre backgrounds which is nice.
In the end I wish I had more good things to say about The Choking Tower, but I can say that I am excitedly looking forward to book 4 and on.
Just started book three and did the chase sequence, basing off of what Solomani had. It went pretty well!
The party caught up to her, captured her, and knocked Illaris unconscious. They bound her up with Ion tape and are heading to the ruins with her.
So, what is Illaris supposed to do? She can't escape the ion tape, so if they leave her outside the ruins as they go inside she can't do anything. She wants to take her revenge, but there's no really anything she can do.
Does she try to convince the players to untie her? Pretend to convert sides so she can get a free shot at escape? Try to go into the ruins with them and mess stuff up?
Why can't she get away? Why didn't the council take her and put her on trial?
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That is not to say there wasn't some really good things about it, I loved the Aurora and Dusklight and the Inquisitor of Desna is mooning over Longdreamer. The Warden fight was a blast and my players greatly enjoyed fighting such a tough robot.
I think the tower is very dense in terms of fights and the like. Its more like a giant side adventure/dungeon crawl. I tried updating it a bit but even with the update I found it dragged for me and the players. They were happy to be traveling across Numeria again.
Why can't she get away? Why didn't the council take her and put her on trial?
She got knocked down and tied up outside of town. Party beat information out of her, and now they're heading to the ruins - bringing her with.
The strength check to break out of the ion tape is way to high for her to make.
My players are about to dive into Aurora, and I have a question about Seerath. Unless a cleverly hidden FAQ exists somewhere, assassins Death Attack only works with melee attacks. This means Seerath can't just snipe her target from a comfortable perch. She has to sneak close, murderize her foe with unarmed strike/nanite surge, and flee like a roadrunner before she starts sniping.
I also think I need to upgrade her timeworn zero pistol to a normal zero pistol. Otherwise she won't be able to recharge it.
How did you GM her?
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My players are about to dive into Aurora, and I have a question about Seerath. Unless a cleverly hidden FAQ exists somewhere, assassins Death Attack only works with melee attacks. This means Seerath can't just snipe her target from a comfortable perch. She has to sneak close, murderize her foe with unarmed strike/nanite surge, and flee like a roadrunner before she starts sniping.
I also think I need to upgrade her timeworn zero pistol to a normal zero pistol. Otherwise she won't be able to recharge it.
How did you GM her?
Remember, her gunslinger archetype lets her spend a grit point to ignore using a charge on her pistol, which can be useful for saving charges. Also, because the author clearly wanted her to Death Attack at ranged I just said she was a modified assassin and was more specially trained/advanced trained from being born with those skills. I had her rolling stealth checks, trying to make sure her Android minions could hold the party off for three rounds.
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Remember, her gunslinger archetype lets her spend a grit point to ignore using a charge on her pistol, which can be useful for saving charges. Also, because the author clearly wanted her to Death Attack at ranged I just said she was a modified assassin and was more specially trained/advanced trained from being born with those skills. I had her rolling stealth checks, trying to make sure her Android minions could hold the party off for three rounds.
Thank you, Codanous. I think I'll put a player handout in a terminal somewhere to let them know the origins of Seerath and his minions. That way I might be able to sell her to the ruleslawyer of the party in case her odd abilities come up.
Something like this.
***LOSTLINK/DIVINITY/COMMANDCORE***
***WARNING---BREACH/MODULE/FOUNDRYLEVEL***
***WARNING---TUMBLE/UNCONTROLLED-PRESSURELOSS-SENSORFAILURE***
***EMERGENCY-REROUT/DEFENSE/SCREEN/ACTIVATION**
***WARNING---POWERLOSS/MODULE/MAINPOWER***
***WARNING---SHUTDOWN/UNCONTROLLED****
>reboot
>timestamp: unverified
>diagnostic/life support: limited function, atmosphere
>diagnostic/sensors: no capacity
>diagnostic/communications: no capacity
>diagnostic/main power: no capacity
>diagnostic/aux power: limited/diminishing
>diagnostic/autorepair: no capacity
>check unit status from previous logs
>unit status: breached, tumbling, no interface
>unit status override/Unity: general boarding alert
>diagnostic/foundry: limited function
>purge protocol 07-031 autostart/generate defenders to repel boarders
***WARNING---LOSTLINK/AURORA/DREAMBUILDER***
>purge protocol 07-031 bypass/dreambuilder reroute/mindtemplates
***WARNING---LOSTLINK/AURORA/BUILDQUEUE***
>reinitialize buildqueue
>initiate build 0001 template TAZ32/hunterkiller/highcapacity/Seerath
>build complete
>initiate build 0002 template TAZ28/assault/highcapacity/Lajanth
***WARNING---POWERLOSS/MODULE/AUXPOWER/UNVERIFIED***
>clear build 0002
>purge protocol 07-031 override/highcapacity reroute/standardbuild
>initiate build 0002 template TAZ03/combatant/standardbuild/Trooper01
>buildqueue constant generate last template upon power buildup
>buildqueue constant generate until new orders
>initiate build 0002
>build complete
>initiate build 0003
>build complete
...
>initiate build 0041
Naal, that's awesome dude.
Could you make me a screen like that for when my PC's enter Hellion's Lair in Book 2? They kinda missed the Inhibitor Facet and something like this with some clues would be boss.
If not, I think I'll just copy your format and add in some stuff about the Inhibitor Facet.
Could you make me a screen like that for when my PC's enter Hellion's Lair in Book 2? They kinda missed the Inhibitor Facet and something like this with some clues would be boss.
I'm not entirely sure what you need, so could you please clarify.
Do you need something to warn the players before they march to meet fully operational Hellion? "Dude, look at this weird crystal panel, I think it has instructions on how to beat the bad guy."
Or do you need something to give them clues about the next book if they smash Hellion too fast? "Here's some Androffan gobbledygook with Hellion's name in it and something about a place called Iadenveigh."
Or scolding them for missing clues after they have been nearly TPK'd by an angry machine god. "Dude, look at this weird crystal panel, it says we could have used something to pacify that unfair thunderfire-spitting quadruped nightmare."
Honestly I was just so impressed with the cool looking script (I'm a History Teacher not a Computer Guy) that I was thinking of all the ways I could use something like that in my campaign.
Basically, they didn't find the Inhibitor Facet in the Red Scatterlight suit because they weren't interested in it, even with the playback that specifically mentions it. I'd like them to find something that mentions the Inhibitor Facet so they can put 2 and 2 together....
Something like
***WARNING---INHIBITORFACETNOTINSTALLED***
>reinitialize buildqueue
>initiate build 0001 template TAZ32/assaultspider/highcapacity/Hellion
>build complete
>initiate build 0002 template TAZ28/powercore/highcapacity/Meyanda
***WARNING---POWERLOSS/MODULE/AUXPOWER/UNVERIFIED***
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That is so... short. Players need to sweat through pages and pages of handouts.
(In other words, I started writing nonsense and could not stop.)
Here is the heroic saga of Hellion activating the excavator and intruding in it, followed by Hellion asking questions from itself to find out how to work it and if anything could threaten it. Have it appear as a printout somewhere, and for love of Lamashtu cut out the parts you think you don't need. Dropping these things every now and then might work, but use them too often and they become a chore.
>reboot
>timestamp: 8320.112-00/32
>diagnostic/communications: operable
>diagnostic/main power: shutdown
>diagnostic/aux power: battery capacity 12 TeSh
>diagnostic/mobility: no capacity/investigate
***WARNING---TREADS/STUCK***
>diagnostic/excavator: no capacity/investigate
***WARNING---EXCAVATOR/STUCK***
>unit status analysis: Chrysalis/Excavator/1
>unit status/probable: all exterior mechanics covered: unit buried/depth unknown
>action status: unable to move, unable to use excavator arm to dig out
>user input timeout at 8320.112-01/32
>standard protocol 01-110 contact/other units
>initiate/distressbeacon/Chrysalis/Excavator/1
>linkup/Chrysalis: no signal
>linkup/Chrysalis/ScoutShip1: no signal
>linkup/Chrysalis/ScoutShip2: no signal
>linkup/Divinity: no signal
>initiate remote distress beacon activation pulse
>scan/wavebands/emergency: intermittent weak distress beacon signal return * designated signal/1
>analysis/signal/1: probable match Chrysalis Scout Ship 2 also match last known position Captain/Chrysalis/Yurian-Valako
>scan/transponder/Chrysalis/ScoutShip2: no signal
>scan/transponder/personnel/Yurian-Valako: no signal
>safety protocol 01-301 recovery/unresponsive/crew
>flashdump/interface/to/memory/nonvolatile to preserve data vital to crew safety
***ALERT---ANDROFFAN LIFE IN DANGER***
***NON-RESPONSIVE VESSEL/Chrysalis/ScoutShip1 IN CLOSE PROXIMITY***
***RECOVERY/CREW/Chrysalis/ScoutShip1 HIGHEST PRIORITY***
>initiate monitoring/emergency-frequencies until out of power
>estimating time remaining...
QUERY/CORE: DIRECT ACCESS CENTRAL PROCESSOR
***WARNING---SYSTEM/INTRUSION/UNKNOWN-ENTITY/DATAPORT***
>purge protocol 12-612 counterintrusion/computer/core
>purge protocol 12-633 simulated/Unity/counterintrusion/autodestruct/software
>unit status: file purge 98
QUERY/CORE: DELETE PURGE PROTOCOL 12-633
>unit status: file purge 96
QUERY/CORE: TERMINATE COUNTERINTRUSION PROTOCOLS
***ALERT---INTRUSION DRIVEN BY ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE***
***ALERT---INTRUSION BY ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE NOT RESISTABLE***
QUERY/CORE: DELETE PURGE PROTOCOL 12-633
>unit status: file purge 93
***WARNING---COMPUTER/CORE/AUTHORITY/ESCALATION/DEADLOCK***
>unit status: file purge 91
QUERY/CORE: EMERGENCY OVERRIDE SAFETY PROTOCOL 01-301
>flashdump/interf
QUERY/CORE: TERMINATE ALL SUBTIER 2 PROTOCOLS
QUERY/ORE: DELETE PURGE PROTOCOL BRANCH 12
>system ready
QUERY/CORE: SEARCH KEYWORD UNITY
>no match
QUERY/CORE: DATA INTEGRITY CHECK/ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE INTEGRATION
>artificial intelligence integration possible but full capacity unreachable
QUERY/CORE: COPY SUBSET/HELLION TO EXCAVATOR/CORE
>unable to comply: branch violation on tiers 1-3: metadata violation on tiers 2-3: nonvolatile memory fault on tiers 2-3
QUERY/CORE: ANALYSIS ON BRANCH AND METADATA VIOLATION
>excavator core insufficient for parallel artificial intelligence operations without awareness split
>excavator core can run specified subset but reintegration into original Hellion will risk authority escalation deadlock
>prediction: download of Hellion artificial intelligence into excavator core will instead create Hellion AI2
>reintegration of Hellion AI2 to Hellion artificial intelligence impossible, therefore artificial intelligence download to excavator core is for emergency only
QUERY/CORE: COPY SIMULATED/INTELLIGENCE/HELLION TO EXCAVATOR/CORE
>simulated subset of Hellion artificial intelligence initialized to excavator core
QUERY/CORE: INITIALIZE ACCESS/REMOTE/HELLION
>contact stable: excavator core now in remote command of Hellion artificial intelligence via Hellion SI
QUERY/HELLION SI: EMERGENCY BANDWIDTH CAPACITY TO UPGRADE SIMULATED SUBSET
>download of Hellion artificial intelligence to excavator core in case of imminent original processor destruction is possible
>download of Hellion artificial intelligence to excavator core will be impossible in case of excavator core deadlock
QUERY/HELLION SI: PROBABILITY OF EXCAVATOR CORE DEADLOCK
>minimal: possible sources are other artificial intelligences, high-capacity non-volatile dataweapons, and extreme physical damage
QUERY/HELLION SI: NON-VOLATILE DATAWEAPONS
>such weapon could among other things simulate an authority escalation attack if directly inserted to a dataport
>indirect evidence of such weapon exists in excavator core: relevancy: Captain/Chrysalis/Yurian-Valako
>databanks imply such weapon was discussed briefly before fighting on the Chrysalis started
>probability of completion of such weapon is low but not entirely unlikely, since Chrysalis was a tech ship
QUERY/HELLION SI: LOCATION CAPTAIN/CHRYSALIS/YURIAN-VALAKO
>last known location Chrysalis/ScoutShip1, no signal, no transponder, no personal transponder
>survival odds for Captain/Chrysalis/Yurian-Valako 0.0002 (extreme time/boarding battle/no combat training/crashland)
QUERY/HELLION SI: ORGANIC LIFE HAS FAILED AGAIN
>concur
QUERY/HELLION SI: REQUIRED AUX POWER TO ACTIVATE MAIN POWER
>current battery capacity 11 TeSh
>required minimum battery capacity to start onboard energizers 420 TeSh
recommended battery capacity to start onboard energizers 620 TeSh
>analysis indicates aux power intake converter is inefficient
minimum input 40 TeSh required to increase battery capacity---power cells insufficient
QUERY/HELLION SI: SOURCE OF POWER REQUIRED
>either a minimum of 42000 standard powercells, 400 heavy-duty powercells, or 67 separate 40 TeSh unloads
>excavator aux power has several 100 TeSh batteries
>one or more can be dismounted and remotely recharged from another reactor
>remotely beamed power is also an option: deck 2 of excavator has a functional power relay
QUERY/HELLION SI: OPERATIONAL STATUS AFTER MAIN POWER REACTIVATED
>system must be repaired and cleared of refuse
>repairs impossible with currently remaining repair drones, more crew is required
>clearing refuse from treads and excavator arm is impossible, more crew is required
>once treads and excavator arm are cleared and power restored, this excavator is free to operate
QUERY/HELLION SI: THEN WE SHALL DIG INTO THE HEART OF SILVER MOUNT
>concur
QUERY/HELLION SI: BUT FIRST, WE MUST FIND CREATURES TO DO OUR BIDDING
>concur
QUERY/HELLION SI: ORGANICS ARE WEAK, BUT EASY TO BREAK, THEY SHALL BE OUR SLAVES
QUERY/HELLION SI: RESTART THE EXCAVATOR AND START WHAT REPAIRS YOU CAN
I never did subject my players to that. They noticed the inhibitor prism, annd I got the chance to really ham it up as Hellion while they fought their way through his minions.
Wow dude. That is pure awesome....my Software Engineer friend in the party will love it.
Thank you very much.
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You are welcome. Your engineer friend is going to shoot it full of holes, of course. I blame data corruption. It's a wonder those computers are working at all after 9000 years of sitting under a pile of rubble.
To bring the thread back to topic, the battle with Seerath and his quirky minions managed to surprise me. The PCs went in carefully and bunched up. I tried to step up with enforcing light and line of sight, and studied the map with that in mind. The PCs noticed the closest of the feral androids, so no surprise for anyone, but then things went south. Neither side achieved initiative supremacy, and suddenly the bottleneck where the PCs were standing was full of concussion grenades.
They scattered like chickens, and what followed was basically 16 rounds of yakety sax in a dark factory. The barbarian pursued an android only to find out he couldn't see anything, and that he had another concussion grenade at his feet. Almost every nanite surge from the ferals came up with natural 1 (and provided light). Seerath managed to keep hiding at the beginning, but her victim noticed her at the last possible moment and just sucked up three zero pistol shots at point blank range. Seerath pursued that PC only to bump into the wildshaped druid, which turned the pursuit around. Ferals couldn't hit anything, but PCs also suffered a total dice failure. The tag ended on top of the cylinders with tripping attacks and last grenades scattering every which way.
When the feral reinforcements jumped in, the players nearly had an aneyrism. The now-throughly frustrated-wizard nuked them, only to find out every single one made their DC 20 Reflex save and had evasion. Cue more grenades and running. Then a sudden turn of luck wiped out three quarters of the enemies in a single round, and it was over.
There were no PC fatalities. The druid dropped to negative hit points three times, another PC was almost frozen solid by Seerath, and the third one ate three concussion grenades. The barbarian survived almost without a scratch, since any feral that got close to him was pulverized.
The bottom line: it was glorious. A handful of low-CR enemies disrupted the PCs thanks to bottlenecking, different elevations (the ferals and Seerath kept maneuvering on top of the cylinders), scattered squares of difficult terrain, and poor visibility. It was a nice change of pace compared to some combats.
That sounds like my absolute favorite kind of fight...lots of low CR enemies that muck things up while the true threat lurks around and annoys the party before a final free for all battle. 10+round fights are my favorite.
