Admiral Serovox had employed his prodigious necromantic powers to wrestle control of the Stellar Degenerator from the Starfinders. Negative energy rippled across almost every surface of the ship and engulfed the control systems the PCs had previously been using to deploy the power of the starship against the surrounding Corpse Fleet ships.
Cypher quote, “That’s not good!”
Whenever they tried to touch the controls, spectral hands would reach out and grab them. Wesley wondered about the necrograph heart he had collected on the cultist’s asteroid. He pulled the heart out and when he got close to the controls, the heart began to glow and beat faster. This creeped him out and he decided he didn’t want to do that anymore. He pulled silver dust from the same asteroid and sprinkled it across the controls. The dust glowed and then disappeared. Although intriguing, Wesley decided to play with that later.
Nuil examined the energy field and identified it as a powerful necromancy ritual which enabled Admiral Serovox to take control of the ship. She knew there were a couple ways to counter the ritual. The first would be the easiest and the hardest would be to find where the ritual was being performed and disrupt it. The second would be to perform the same ritual using a more powerful energy source. In the immediate area, she could use the spell dispel magic to remove the effect but she did not have that spell.
Wesley wondered if he could use TIM-X to touch the controls and Nuil added she could always summon gremlins to play havoc with the ship. She also wondered about her psychokinetic hand and unseen servant spells but realized neither could manipulate the system.
Wesley yelled dramatically to his drone, “TIM-X, let’s meld!” The combat drone transformed into a mech suit and surrounded Wesley. He grabbed the controls and for a moment, nothing happened. Suddenly, the necromantic field crept up the arms of TIM-X and electrocuted Wesley. However, before he was shocked he was able to accomplish one task (because Michael rolled a crit on his engineering check). Wesley zeroed in on Admiral Serovox on the bridge and also identified that as the location where the ritual was being performed.
Wesley fled back from the controls and briefly lost consciousness. When he came to he told the group where they could find the admiral as well as where they would need to go to stop the ritual. He was also able to determine the Stellar Degenerator was slowly drifting out to join the remainder of the Corpse Fleet navy. He also noted the state of the defenses of the Gate of Twelve Suns. The Corpse Fleet definitely had the upper hand. Finally, he got a good layout of the ship and found an alternate route to the front of the ship using a maintenance rail system on the lower levels.
Wesley wondered if the group should contact the Starfinder Society but Cypher insisted they not do so. He pointed out he thought the Society would take control of the weapon and would use it for their purposes. The PCs decided not to contact them.
After some debate, the group decided the best way to reach the bridge would be to use the maintenance rail system. They descended into the lower levels of the engineering bay. Drez and Switch covered their egress from the upper levels.
They stumbled across some tech chests when they reached the lower levels. Nuil used her x-ray goggles to check them first and inside they found UPBs, 3 tier 3 healing serums, and an advanced laser crossbow for Nuil. Drez, Cypher, and Wesley all took one of the healing serums. They took a short break so Wesley could add an accuracy modification to Nuil’s new weapon.
A spooky laugh echoed through the lower levels of engineering.
Nuil turned her x-ray goggles on the areas beyond the east and west doors and saw no danger. The coast was clear. The group went through the eastern doors.
They moved into a circular room with tracks inlaid in the floor and an ancient vehicle which would have ridden the rails. Nuil recognized as similar in design to transports she had seen on her home planet. She and Wesley began repairs.
While the pair worked, the others scouted a short ways ahead through two tunnels leading north out of the room. Cypher heard some scraping noises coming from the darkness to the north. He quickly alerted the others and activated his cloaking field. The rest who weren’t working on the transport took cover. Ryder, Cypher, and TIM-X took aim and prepared to fire.
An amalgamation of robot and zombie parts came ambling out of the darkness. Those on guard fired and the three of them hit the necrograft robot. They blasted one of the arms from the creature but it kept coming. The battle begins at the 44-minute mark in the video. A second robot emerged from the darkness and shambled forward. The Starfinders quickly dismantled the first robot and turned their attention on the second one when their Geiger counters started ticking.
An ellicoth floated down from a hidden alcove above and flooded the chamber with radiation. Some of the PCs were protected by its radiation by their armor but a couple were not. When they last faced this type of creature, Wesley was nearly killed but this time they were prepared.
TIM-X attacked the second necrograft robot while Wesley threw a grenade at the ellicoth. Cypher distracted the ellicoth and blasted him with a powerful trick attack. He then retreated from the room and closed the door behind him. The ellicoth tried to attack the ysoki as he retreated but his tentacle smashed the floor instead.
Nuil summoned a wall of fire. She spiralled the wall around the center of the room, overlapping it so it did not harm her allies but built an inferno around the ellicoth and over the necrograft robot. The robot went up in flames but was left with 1 hit point. The One Hit Point Wonders strike again! The ellicoth drifted up to minimize the fire damage it sustained but it could not avoid the flames altogether.
Switch finally caught up with the group and rushed into the room. Without slowing, he charged into the ellicoth and slammed into it with his ultrathin longsword thin blade (rolling a crit) doing 74 points of damage (which is all the ellicoth had left). Electricity leapt off the blade and slammed into the robot. Both foes went down with the one attack.
Nuil and Wesley finished the repairs on the transport. Nuil then tended to her ally’s wounds. Wesley then grabbed enough scrap from the area to build a sledge so everyone would fit on the transport. Meanwhile, Nuil and Switch worked on repairing TIM-X. Switch completed what repairs he could and Nuil cast make whole to finish the job. Cypher and Ryder kept watch while the other worked.
The moved the transport onto the rails and zoomed through the maintenance tunnels. Fifteen minutes later, they were found themselves at the end of the tunnels and left the transport behind. The maintenance tunnels opened into a large storage facility with advanced medical tech. There were also three equipment storage units. Wesley examined them and discerned this was a high tech biological containment unit. They noticed writing on the floor which revealed this room to be a life pod. In fact, there were twenty maltur in suspended animation. Nuil gasped in surprise. Most of them were scientists and a few were ship crew and soldiers.
The PCs discussed whether they should wake up the maltur or wait until later when the ship was secured. They decided the maltur would be too vulnerable and decided to leave them where they were for now. They marked the location on their datapads so they could find their way back.
In the storage containers, they found equipment which was meant for the maltur in suspended animation. Including in storage was two pairs of kishaleen battle armor. Switch and Ryder took the armor and Ryder passed his previous armor to Wesley.
Cypher, who was keeping watch again, heard what sounded like a liquid substance slapping against the floor and then a sliding sound. He called out to his comrades just as a pair of yellowish slimes with technology grafted to their tops slid into view. The battle begins at the 1-hour 30-minute mark in the video.
Wesley commented, “I thought it was a person coming down the hall but it’s not.” *drum roll*
Switch moved forward while the rest of the group retreated to high ground. The android engaged the scavenger slimes in melee combat to protect his allies.
Initially, the group used their usual tactics against the slimes but found some of them ineffective. The creatures possessed no sight and could not be distracted by anything which required it. They also quickly discovered the creatures were resistant to most types of damage. They quickly switched through their arsenals until they found attacks which could do the most damage and mowed them down.
END OF SESSION
The Zen Game Master 
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