This is a big, disjointed recap of our last four sessions of Starfinder. Sessions 5 and 6 were effectively one big combat sequence, session 7 was a lot of talking and theorizing and scouting, and session 8 is where it all blew up again. I've been tempted to try to clean this up a little and make it legible for a general audience, but honestly, that would mean writing a novel. Hopefully these scrappy notes make for something at least half-way entertaining to read.
The Gang’s All Here
Deadeye Duncan, one man battering ram
Eli, wizened weirdo
Rue, magical
girl genius
Gorman, super
secret special ops survivor
And Scaddy’s our DM
Session 5
The Calm Before the Grease Fire
We prepare for the
Simplification’s attack on our little village. We yell real loud, bang on
tents, and try to rouse the townfolk. Pandemonium and panic.
Kess stays back to organize
some sort of resistance. The rest of us are on running at 2A with our guns out,
pushing South. Kess puts the drone super-low over town so it makes a lot of
noise and gets everyone’s attention. Good luck organizing a militia, hungover
buddy.
And so we run. There’s a band
of sixteen Simps that’s headed straight for us. We dig in our heels and start
shooting. Naturally, Gorman’s rifle makes the loudest bang. Duncan kills one
with a headshot. Eli casts grease once
they’re close enough and hopes for the best.
One of the Simps throws a ball
of red light at Gorman. It misses. Weird. No time to figure out what’s
happening, though – They catch up with us faster than we’d like. A band of five
charge in, get caught in some of Eli’s magical grease, and then Rue lights the
grease on fire with her laser pistol.
Gorman drops an incendiary
grenade on another mob and rolls a 6 for his damage. It still works out to
about 30 points of fire damage, and a bunch more Simplification mooks light on
fire! Fire everywhere!
Sunday revs her chainsword and
eviscerates a red for 39. “It’s called
technology, bitches!”
This goes on for a while. After four turns of combat, Eli’s three grease spells deep, and there’s a dozen Simplification
mooks who are fighting us while they’re on fire, but their morale is fierce.
One of them just runs through a grease pit and dies. Rue rolls a bunch of 6s on
those d6 burning rolls, and Gorman continues the tradition by rolling well, but
it’s pretty hairy. Eli gets hit with a hammer and goes down.
When he comes to, all but a
few of the Simps are dead. He’s not feeling well, but at least he’s on the
winning team. Still, there’s another mess of Simps about a hundred yards north
of us, and twenty more beyond that. This is gonna get worse before it gets
better.
Session 6
Asserting Dominance
While the group debates what to do next, Duncan climbs up
onto the ridge and he fires his street sweeper into the air.
Duncan—“THIS IS MY BOOMSTICK!”
Intimidate 25!
The Simplification reforms its
ranks, and the reds take cover behind the yellows. Duncan walks towards them
slowly, firing his street sweeper as he taunts them with his kill count.
One of the red-cloaks sends up
a flare, and it explodes in a flash of purple smoke.
Rue—That’s not an horrible omen…
Eventually, though, he gets
too close, and the Simplification charges him. He books it toward the town.
Four red-cloaks break out of
Group 3 and book it after Duncan.
A trike with an autocannon
attachment speeds by and shouts, “Get down you idiot!” Duncan thinks to hell
with that and jumps onto the back of a speeding battle-trike, and asserts his
dominance by pushing aside the gunner and taking control of the guns with a nat
20 Athletics check. “Hey, I’m Duncan. I just killed 40 Hammer Bros, I’m about
to kill 20 more.” The vehicle charges toward the Simplification and the vehicle
opens up on full auto.
Tru is the driver. Mace is
the gunner. Rue jumps up and down really excitedly when they drive back into
town.
We crest the center-line of
the ridge and watch as Sunday chases down some of the fleeing yellows. Somehow, it catches up to us that we’ve
won the day. The Simplification are retreating!
Duncan and Kess share a moment.
Kess—Wow, that was
incredible! I’ve never seen a gun like that! That’s like the guns on the
drop-ship!
Duncan—That’s the worst
defense I’ve ever seen! You don’t have a shovel in your hands! I don’t see any
trenches! Here, I’ll show you how it’s done. I had time to kill sixty
Simplification, and you couldn’t even grab a shovel?!
We rendezvous back in town,
then take some time to loot the bodies.
+8 crystals from the reds.
+2 slate tablets, one cracked.
+1 masterwork hammer. Two
handed, d10 damage.
One of the reds was wearing a
bright scarlet; a different make. The yellows and reds could’ve been local, but
he definitely wasn’t. He was wearing good leather shoes. There were also some
cool flares that pop purple smoke – or black, yellow, or red. They each had
about 3-5 days of rations on their person.
Duncan strolls into the bar to
be greeted as a hero.
Duncan—Sixty Simplification
attacked. I killed forty of ‘em, and the autocannon took care of the rest.
Deadeye Duncan. Savior of the town.
There’s a tense moment that
follows. Haley lets Eli know that we’re all being scanned, and that dragons are
about to burn us all down. Target acquisition! Duncan rolls two Perception
tests, and flubs 'em both.
Tru is talking to folks at the bar.
"Look, we talked last night
about the Simplification being a problem, and sure enough, they show up. Cost
us a lot. I know a lot of you guys are scared and want to move on to the next
town, but these guys are comin’ for us now. We gotta do somethin’ about it. We
gotta find where these guys are, and we gotta kill ‘em."
We interrogate two Simplification yellows we've taken as prisoners. They're not terribly forthcoming...
When we ask 'em why -
"Because you’re holding us all
back! You make yourselves slaves to the old world. You don’t even know what it
is? We have to become more. Put down this stuff. Destroy it. You can feel the
light of the Great Above! What humans are supposed to be!"
When we ask 'em why now -
We were trying to convert you!
To show you the error of your ways. And three days ago, a great fire shook the
earth! We knew then it was war. Real war. It was you or us.
More bits and snippets of the conversation:
Duncan strips off his
technology, and asks, “Do I feel any holy light?”
The Simp says, "You haven’t accepted the Great
Above?"
Duncan touches his toes and
sticks his ass in the air. "How does this work? I’m waiting for it?"
Simp: "Take the crystal and realize
that you have sinned!"
"Ok, now what?"
Simp: "You’re not repentant! (lunges, bites for 2 damage)
Duncan grabs his sword and
hits him hard in the arm. Then shoots him in the leg. The session ends shortly thereafter.
Session 7
Flat Canyon Blues
We’re not really sure what to
do next. But, with Kess on our team piloting a drone, and with a bunch of
crystals being overclocked by Rue to triangulate our enemies’ position, we’re
getting an inkling. Eli talks to Tru and asks him to keep an eye out for high
explosives. We think they could be useful very soon.
Lyric and Gorman concoct a
plan to let the prisoners escape, then track them back to the Simplification’s
hideout in the south.
“I’ll say he’s been workin’
too hard. I’ll offer to take over for him, and then, of course, they got away
from me. I’ll have to kill one just to make it a show, y’know? Whatever, we’ll
just lie. That’s fine. I’m overthinking it really.”
Gorman goes in, bluffs Mase,
and takes over guard duty. He’s ponderin’ this a bit, and realizes these folk
have a lot less food and water than Gorman’d expect. “Were y’all just planning
to take the water from us, so that you didn’t need to carry any out?”
Simp: “You don’t know the power of
the Great Above.”
Gorman: “It doesn’t look like it’s
gonna rain today.”
Gorman: “What’s the story with that
wish crystal? How’s water gonna come out of that rock?”
The Simp tires of explaining himself
to an unbeliever.
Half an hour later…
Duncan gets a check-up from
the Doctor.
Duncan—“I need like,
seventeen hit points healed.”
The Doc—“The best thing for
you is rest, but I can try to heal you up quicker… Try to avoid getting hit in
your broken rib.”
Duncan—“Nope.”
Deadeye and Eli go out
scavengin’ for a few hours, and find a pair of bottlecaps.
Gorman’s out in the wilderness
tracking the scouts. If they’re following the track of the army, they didn’t
take a direct route at all. Sense Motive [[15]] gives Gorman the impression
that they’re pretty lost. Hmm.
Gorman dreams that he’s home.
He knows everyone around him, and he’s with his team, and life is good. He’s at
peace.
Tru brings back 3 blocks of D8 from the nearest dig site, +2 weeks of fungus and water
for our party and NPCs who come with us.
We head south, armed and ready to take down the Simps. We find a patrol about an hour north of a big encampment.
Duncan—“Scuse me gents, if we could
just pass by…”
Them: “Stop in the name of the
Simplification!”
FIGHT
Afterwards, Duncan does the most Duncan thing yet and eats their leader's heart.
Duncan—"I have claimed your leader’s
courage! Bow before me!"
Rue—[addressing the cowering survivors] Do you have any fruit?
+2 sledgehammers
+2 red vials, +1 black vial
Session 8
Black Means Boom
We arrive at the
Simplification’s rally point.
Spying on them from a rocky
vantage point, we see that there are 60 people in the SE quadrant, 30 in the NE,
and west of camp is empty. No idea who's in the command tent. This is
definitely an important place, and we want to blow it up.
Rue's plan: Get the village to
come with us and fake being an army. We dress as Simplification, sneak in, and
act as insurgents.
Gorman—Do they even have
bullets? I thought they were more of a rock people.
Rue’s other plan: We get the
Simps up and running towards us... and then, during the confusion, our
insurgents sneak in and blow it up.
Gorman—And let the
Townsfolk die to the Simplification?
Rue’s third plan is to cause a
distraction and—
Gorman—We don't need a
commotion unless we're trying to loot from them as well. I don't really want
any of their weird crystals.
Our group decides we’ll wait
until night. Rue wants to use Kess's drone to plant the C4 on the crystal and
then blow it up. That'd work, provided they don't see the drone. But Gorman
realizes it’ll be a lot easier if he just sneaks in and does it.
Yeah, damn, there's a 30' crystal pillar right there in the middle of camp, floating above the ground. The D8 should take care of it?
We’ve got 2 hours tops to pull
this off. We wait for an opportunity to present itself. Near sunset, an ear
splitting screech splits the air south of the rally point. Kess says, “Cave
lions!”
Enormous cats that live in the
high peaks. With wings.
We seize the opportunity.
Gorman moves in.
Gorman—[talking to himself] They speak another language don't they? Worship the Great Above? Ah, I already forgot. I super don't care about what they believe in.
Stealth to move thru the heath
undetected [[23]]
Athletics to get in the camp
[[15]]
Sneak to move thru the camp
undetected [[32]]
Rue hears the sound of wings. Like
a flying animal.
Stealth [[31]] as Gorman
sneaks up into the central plaza and looks for a seam in the crystal. He find
it, backs off, and sets off a flare. Deadeye sees it, but hesitates for a
moment before pressing the detonator. Gorman’s anxiety spikes.
An earth shattering kaboom.
The crystal snaps straight up the middle, then falls to the south. It’s
pandemonium in the camp.
Gorman flees as fast as he
can; a patrol spots him and gives him chase. Athletics to jump a burm [[16]]
lets Gorman get ahead of them, and they throw things at him in response,
missing terribly.
The dark blue is rallying the
reds and getting ‘em to round up the yellows. Eli, Rue, Deadeye, Sunday, and
Kess all hoof it north, back to the horses.
Gorman is hoofing it south,
toward the direction of the cave lions.
We spot two cave lions eating
our horses. There are still four left, but two are toast. Eli casts ghost sound
to mimic another cave lion, and then we try hopping on our horses while the
lions are distracted. It works. Everyone rides north except Eli, who hangs back
and waits for Gorman. He spots Gorman before the lions do, waves him down, and
together we ride north.
We reconnoiter at the pikes.
Well, north of the pikes. It’s a bit of a mess, but long story short, we
regroup out in the desert and plot our next course of action. There’s a strong
debate. First, we debate going back to the village or going to attack the
Simplification. Then we debate between going north or south once we get to the
canyon. Gorman and Duncan break off from the group with the intent of blowing
up the next Simplification rally point, and Eli, Sunday, Kess, and Rue ride
north to the nearest dig site. It’s a contentious debate. Eli doesn’t think
Duncan’s coming back from this one; he gives him his lighter as a good luck
charm, then hopes for the best.
Duncan and Gorman push east.
Near the site of the second crystal, they encounter a single red Simp. He sees them. It's an open plain, so there's no where to go except into the fray.
Critical hit with a sniper
rifle: [[44]] damage, but it’s not a kill. Gorman looks at his gun in disbelief. The mortally wounded Simp cold clocks Duncan and manages to get a few hard jabs in at Gorman before he bleeds out.
Duncan—I want his magic fist punching powers. I'm gonna eat his heart.Gorman—Hold up. Let's take his robes first. Then you can eat his heart.
They reach the site of the crystal. It's the same as the first one, but they also notice there's a wagon filled with dirt. And in it sits a fruit tree.
Gorman—Ready the second
satchel charge.
Duncan—I was already doin’ it.
Gorman—That tree has got to
go.
Gorman sneaks in wearing the red's cloak.
Yellow Simp—What news of the patrol?
Gorman—WHAT news of the patrol? Did YOU lose track of it?? Bluff [[17]]
Yellow Simp—Sense Motive [[16]] Uh...
Gorman pushes on brusquely. He finds another batch of Simps near the crystal and addresses them.
Gorman—Give me some time to inspect the crystal. Privately. Bluff [[25]]
It works.
A simplification mook fails to notice Gorman place the explosives. Perception [[3]]
Gorman runs through the tent city. Acrobatics [[25]]
Gorman whips out a black flare - Duncan sees it explode.
Duncan—"Black means boom." Engineering [[21]].
The first charge blows up the pylon. There's a crashing sound, followed by a crack-snap and the pillar breaks into three pieces, then falls to the west. Absolute chaos ensues.
Gorman swings around to drop another charge at the tree. He tries to look like he belongs here, but ... Bluff [[7]]. He's not particularly convincing. One of the yellows notices him. Gorman has a choice between the tree or the gate... and he chooses the tree. He slaps the charge on the trunk, and the yellow shouts, "Heathen!"
Watching from a distance, Duncan shoots him for 26. Zzap. His head explodes like a melon.
Duncan—"So, I've been made."
A gang of yellow Simps surrounds him and Duncan shouts, "We're under attack! Take cover!" Bluff [[19]] It's true. Both parties are under attack right now.
Sense Motive [[19, 19, 20]]. Hmm. Shit. Three people jump out of the crowd and attack Gorman, but no one lands a hit. Duncan tries to grab everyone's attention off of him - he is an icon, after all.
Duncan—"Surrender! We have you surrounded!" Intimidate [[24]]. It works!
Then again, for those in the back: "STOP! I HAVE YOU SURROUNDED!"
Meanwhile, one of the yellows hits Gorman for 27. He's not dead, but good lord.
Duncan—"You may be wondering how one man can surround you. But where you see one man, I see four!" [presses the detonator]
It's chaos. Gorman escapes, but a red runs Duncan down. Duncan stands his ground and fires his rifle, burning action points like they're fireworks. He hits often but rolls low on damage, even counting a critical hit. The energy gathers around him, and black fire rushes out across the ground at Duncan. He jumps out of the way just in the nick of time; he takes 12 damage and loses all his Stamina. The red goes black, and charges after Duncan. He misses a clutch attack, and Duncan kills him with a perfectly time riposte shot.
Duncan—"Who brings a hammer to a laser fight?"
DM: I really thought you were dead there.
Duncan: I did too!
Duncan continues on north. Gorman swings south, then switches north.
So ends session 8.
