Dead Suns – Session 27

Watch the game session at https://youtu.be/DlqJfkZUnnY.

Pain shot through Cypher’s body. The PCs spotted the glint off the optics of a sniper rifle before it disappeared from the ruins atop a building near the House of Renewal.

Cypher yelled, “Hey Li, you’re slipping! There’s a time that would have gone through my forehead instead of my shoulder.”

The taunt drew no response. The PCs could chase Li or retreat to their ship. With little time to debate the matter, the group decided to chase Cypher’s wayward protégé. Cypher activated his haste circuit and used his jump jets to leap to the top of the ruined building where Li had fired from. Switch swept wide along the street to flank Li. Ryder and Nuil rushed along the southern edge of the building to cover the other side.

Cypher landed on the dilapidated roof just in time to see a cable hung over the far edge of the building. The operative rushed to the edge and saw Li had rappelled to the ground. Ryder and Nuil came around the southern edge of the building and the three PCs saw Li rush into the lower level of the next ruined building.

Cypher quickly drew his pistol and scored a hit on Li. She had redonned her armor when she escaped from the Raza but had not found the time to repair the damage from their previous skirmish. The laser blast did not slow her down and she disappeared from sight again.

Ryder fired up his comms and informed the whole team of Li’s location. Switch acknowledged and charged forward to close the gap. Ryder also warned everyone to keep an eye out for traps. Li had apparently planned this escape route which made it dangerous. Cypher leapt to the roof of the building into which Li had fled and began looking for a way to descend quickly. Meanwhile, Switch scouted the north side of the second building watching for Li to emerge.

Ryder cautiously checked the opening through which Li charged and he spotted an explosive tripwire. On the north side of the building, Switch also looked for traps but failed to notice the tripwire there. A jury-rigged frag grenade exploded next to him but Switch is so damn tough he ignored the blast (low damage roll plus Switch’s damage resistance = no damage). Cypher located an elevator shaft (sans elevator) and deftly dropped down to the lowest level of the building to rejoin the chase below.

The PCs all reached Li at the same time. The bounty hunter spun and fired on Ryder but the attack flew wide. She then turned and prepared to jump out an open window. Switch blitzed through the building while Ryder sprayed bullets in Li’s direction. He barely caught her and she spun. Nuil summoned her magic and cast a grease spell which coated Li and the area between her and the window.  Switch slammed into Li and wrapped her. The pair slid through the grease and slammed into the wall.

Li demanded Switch release her and struggled against the vesk’s grip. Cypher asked her what she was trying to accomplish and Li admitted she just missed. If she had hit Cypher in the head she would have gotten what she wanted. Ryder commented on how disappointed he was with Li’s efforts to escape. He expected better from one of Cypher’s protégé.

The PCs wondered if they should end Li now or try to detain her again. Cypher tried to question Li and she made her intentions very plain. She was going to keep coming after the ysoki until she ended him. He asked what he had done which made her want to kill him so badly. She responded it was what he didn’t do. Cypher never went back to rescue her after they split to escape the Guild. She reminded him about what the Guild had done to her when they caught her.

Cypher insisted he had gone back to look for her but she was gone. She wondered aloud, “Did you really come back? I don’t think you did.”

Cypher responded, “You know, maybe not physically.”

QUOTE OF THE NIGHT!

Li felt even more justified.

Ryder quipped, “Li, I think you deserve at least another shot.” However, he insisted she clean herself up first because she wasn’t good enough when she was on the juice. She insisted she couldn’t do that and Ryder reminded her that they would help her. Nuil insisted Li needed to get clean before she killed Cypher. In the meantime, she suggested taking Li back to the ship because they had things to do.

Back at the Raza, they found Wesley and Zaleria had given the ship a shakedown and it was fully secure. Wesley rigs one of the rooms so Li could not escape a second time. The rest of the group recognized the flaws in his work and they managed to properly secure the bounty hunter.

The group returned to the Temple Found. Ryder recalled the air ducts Wesley had found with Canary previously. After some debate, the group decided to enter the facility from the roof. They used Canary to scout through the duct system and found a dimly lit hallway below them. Retrieving the drone, they dropped into the hallway below.

In the hallway, the PCs found 2 massive metal doors, a smaller door east of them, and more hallways further to the west. The small door revealed a staircase which led to a lower level. Eventually, the temptation of the giant doors got the best of them and they could not resist. They opened one of the doors and discovered a large fire elemental who was very happy to be freed. He was also ready to cause some mayhem.

The fire elemental pummeled Drez with its fiery fist. It then thanked the PCs for freeing it. The kishaleen had imprisoned the elemental to power the Foundry and the creature admitted to have some pent up rage. Cypher tried to reason with the elemental but it admitted it had been waiting a long time to smash a puny mortal and it didn’t much care which puny mortal that was. Drez took that as his queue and slashed through the elemental with its doshko.

On the far side of the room, the floor rumbled underneath Nuil’s and surged upwards. A large earth elemental had been hiding in the floor and it attacked Switch and Nuil. The elemental rolled a critical fumble (first use of the critical fumble deck) and smashed its hand into the floor. The impact smashed his craggy fist. For the next round, the creature had to use a full round attack to make a single attack.

Ryder blasted the fire elemental, activated his haste circuit, ordered the party to “Get em!” and then retreated around a corner.

Nuil summoned her nanobot swarm and surrounded the large earth elemental. Then she climbed up the wall and retreated around the same corner as Ryder.

Cypher joined Ryder and Nuil behind cover. He then summoned holograms to distract the earth elemental (trick attack) and blasted the creature with his aphelion laser pistol.

A large air elemental appeared in front of the trio undercover and unleashed a wind attack against Ryder. The quick-moving envoy dodged the attack!

The fire elemental tries to smash Drez but the vesk soldier was too quick on his feet and he dodged.

The creature left itself vulnerable and Drez slashed all the way through the monster. That was 81 points of damage crit and it was epic.

The earth elemental swung wildly at Switch (penalty for multi-attack, the penalty for the off-target, penalty for Nuil’s swarm) and his attacks amounted to nothing but futility.

From under the second door, a pool of water began to flow and the PCs finally knew where the inevitable water elemental was hidden.

Ryder used his clever attack and blasted the air elemental (making it flat-footed). Ryder used this opportunity to rush past the monster to find safer space on the other side of the room.

Nuil crawled along the ceiling to move away from the air elemental as well. She then fired back on the air elemental but didn’t do enough damage to harm it. She split her swarm to distract all of the elementals (including the water elemental which was forming).

Cypher, not to be left out, cleared out of the hallway and got farther away from the air elemental. He decided to focus on earth elemental and blasted it knocking it down to 2 hit points.

The air elemental rushed towards Nuil and Switch took a swipe at it. The android hit the elemental and stopped it from moving. Electricity arced off of his weapon and electrocuted the earth elemental for 6 points of damage. It resisted 5 points and took 1 point, bringing it down to 1 hit point.

The “One Hit Point Wonders” strike again!

Switch followed up the opportunity attack with his own turn and smashed the air elemental again causing 1 additional point of damage to the earth elemental, destroying it.

Drez charged into the air elemental and finished it off with a solid strike. Drez broke wind…

At this moment, enough water had finally pooled into the room and the water elemental reformed itself. It bashed Switch with two watery fists.

Ryder turned on the water elemental and opened fire with his laser pistol and a Get em!

Nuil retreated into the far hallway again for cover and blasted the water elemental with her laser pistol. The PCs discovered this elemental was vulnerable to fire when it took extra damage from her attack.

Cypher threw his holograms at the water elemental and mowed it down with his laser pistol. He crit the creature for 56 points of damage (it had 57 hit points left). It was vulnerable so it took additional damage and was destroyed.

The PCs opened the second door. Examining the two rooms, they realized the rooms were rigged to slowly absorb the energy of the elemental and would convert it into electricity to power the Foundry. In the room, they found an ancient kishaleen x-ray visor. They realized they could modify the device to work for a two-eyed creature and stopped for an hour to do so. Everyone took a short rest while they worked.

They decided Nuil would be the best to carry the device. They moved to the additional hallways to the west and explored a series of doors they found there. Nuil put the new visor to good use and scanned the rooms through the walls. These appeared to be offices which had not been accessed in quite some time. The last door led out to the roof but junk and rubble had collected outside the door making it unpassable.

Cypher checked the terminals in the room and was able to access them. They confirm their suspicions about the Temple Found being the Foundry where the Stellar Degenerator was studied. However, any valuable data about the superweapon would be found elsewhere in the Foundry in a secure repository.

Fascinated with the new visor, Nuil walked the hallway and wandered down to the end of the hallway to look through cubicle walls the PCs had spotted there. She spotted a snarling wild creature which was looking in the PC’s direction and sniffing the air.

Nuil identified the creature as an eohi although this specimen was much larger than other eohi she had studied. At some point, the kishaleen must have brought these creatures here before the collapse of their empire. She yelled out to her comrades for assistance.

Cypher ran around the corner and Nuil pointed at the cubicle in which she had seen the creature. Within a good line of sight, Cypher drew his grenade launcher and skillfully fired a grenade into the cubicle from above. Although he could not see the creature, it howled in pain, and the operative was sure he had hit his mark.

The eohi climbed up the cubicle wall and leapt at Nuil. It brought its fists down to smash her but Switch stepped forward and hit the creature (using Bodyguard) knocking it off target. Nuil was spared from the eohi’s fury.

Drez charged the eohi and slashed through it but did not manage to kill it. He howled, “Leave my friend alone!”

Nuil cast Inject Nanobots and slammed her fist into the side of the eohi’s neck. The creature instantly began to froth at the mouth and shake its head violently. It was confused and Nuil backed up five feet.

Ryder leaned around the hallway corner and rained fire down upon the eohi. He scored a crit and caused 69 points of damage to the creature, destroying it.

It was a good night for PC crits, no doubt.

Switch moved farther into the room and spotted a second eohi. He charged into the monster and provoked from a third eohi which was hiding in the cubicles. The eohi crit Switch but was not able to trip the soldier as he went by. Switch smashed into the second eohi but fumbled his attack. He spun out of control and part of his armor popped open lowering his KAC by 2 until he finds time to repair it.

A fourth eohi comes around the cubicle wall and spots Switch. It double moves and flanks Switch.

The third eohi slams Switch again with its fists. It tried desperately to knock Switch down to make him more vulnerable but the soldier managed to stay on its feet.

Cypher loaded another grenade and ran around the edges of the cubicles. He quickly launched his holograms at the closest target (the fourth eohi) and fired his laser pistol. He hit and the creature howled in pain.

The second eohi (flanking Switch with the fourth eohi) clawed at Switch but could not hit the soldier even with the advantage.

Drez could hear the sounds of battle along the southern edges of the room and run in that direction. As it turned a corner, it saw the second eohi attacking Switch. Before he could act, a hidden kish with a drawn battle bow fired on Drez but the arrow bounced off Drez’s armor. Drez taunted the archer feebly and vowed to deal with him soon enough. Cypher was embarrassed by the taunt.

Ryder followed Cypher in and clever attacked the same eohi which the operative had attacked but he missed. He followed this with a “Get em!” and spent a resolve point to affect all the creatures he could see.

Nuil climbed up the wall and used a spell hack on her crossbow. She shot the third eohi and her arcing surge spell triggered from the attack. Electricity ripped through her target and the eohi which stood next to it.

Switch cleaved the two eohi Nuil had attacked. He hit the first eohi but fumbled the second attack. Somehow he managed to tangle up his weapon in his own legs and tripped himself. He failed his fortitude save and when his face smashed into the floor, his eyes were filled with refuge. He was blinded for 2 rounds.

With Switch on the ropes, the fourth eohi which Cypher and Ryder had attacked, turned on them and charged towards Ryder. It smashed into the envoy, crit him with its attack, and knocked him prone.

The third eohi moved into a flank around Switch and tried to hit him but Switch managed to fend off the attack.

Cypher tried to protect Ryder and fired at the eohi which had knocked the envoy prone but he missed.

The eohi closest to Drez turned on him and slashed his legs out from underneath him.

Drez quickly jumped to his feet and dodged the eohi’s attack of opportunity. The vesk slashed through the eohi in retaliation.

The kish climbed across the wall, no longer satisfied to wait for an opportunity to ambush the PCs, and leapt into melee range with Cypher and Ryder. He slashed with his battle axe through Ryder and struck Cypher with his cleaving attack.

Ryder used his clever attack against this new threat and shot him at point-blank range. Now the kish was flat-footed and Ryder was able to jump to his feet and back away to a safe distance.

Nuil, using her x-ray visor, spotted the perfect place in the middle of the cubicles to drop a grenade. She tossed it over the cubicle wall and caught two of the eohi and the kish in its blast radius.

Switch pushed himself to his feet and took a defensive posture to protect himself while he was vulnerable.

The eohi which had charged Ryder leapt over the wall and continued to follow him. It lashed out at the envoy but missed.

Cypher activated his holographic clones and 2 extra Cyphers popped up next to him. He then backed away from the kish and moved back into the hallway outside the cubicle room.

The eohi fighting Drez slashed through his legs again and knocked him prone a second time. Drez cursed the creature!

Drez jumped to his feet again and the eohi clawed through Drez’s shoulder. The soldier slashed through the eohi with his doshko but failed to kill the creature.

The kish climbed up on top of the cubicle wall and fired his battle bow at Ryder and impaled him with an arrow.

Ryder stepped back from the closest eohi carefully and used his clever attack on the creature. He mowed it down and killed it.

Nuil climbed across the ceiling to find the right position to hit the kish and the closest eohi. She unleashed a second arcing surge, this time from herself, and blasted both targets. Only the eohi managed to avoid ‘some’ of the damage.

The kish bellowed, “Why did you do that?”

Cypher taunted, “Cause you’re a dick.”

Switch, still trying to clear the debris from his eyes, went into a total defensive stance until he could restore his vision.

The injured eohi which had been dancing back and forth between Switch and Ryder returned to the soldier as his target and slashed with his claws. Switch, blind but not helpless, heard the attack coming and managed to avoid it.

Cypher repositioned himself and threw his holograms at the kish but failed to distract him. He still managed to hit him with his laser pistol. Cypher spent a Resolve Point to ensure the kish was off-target anyway.

Meanwhile, the eohi which was continuing to pound of Drez missed with his attack and Drez was not knocked prone again. Drez wound up his attack and dropped the creature once and for all. The soldier then leapt through the air and landed next to the kish.

The kish slashed through Drez’s armor with his battle axe. Vesk blood covered the cubicle walls!

Nuil conjured three magic missiles which slammed into the kish. The kish looked back at Nuil and wondered if he should ignore the vesk and go up the wall after the magic user.

Switch finally cleared the debris from his eyes and tore through the last eohi with his blade and killed it.

Cypher made his holograms dance around the kish to distract him and shot a hole through his shoulder. The kish attacker was barely hanging in there.

Drez asked the group if they wanted him to keep the kish alive. The vesk soldier tried to knock the kish out but failed to hit him.

Ryder offered surrender to the kish but the warrior refused. He slashed through Drez with his battle axe and cleaved into Switch as well. He then tried to make a quick getaway. Switch and Drez swung on him as he went and Drez connected with his doshko, killing the kish.

Weary from battle, the group searched the room and took a short bit to rest before they continued on. Nuil checked the crew and administered first aid where it was needed.

They found some baubles hidden in the cubicles which they estimated were valued around 2,000 credits to the right buyer.

END OF SESSION