Session 015: The Relic Report

General Summary

Midnight Squad convinced Talmrin to join them & help them call in the ship letting them know that they knew where Ahnje L'Treaux was.

Learning information on the prison & the owner of the facility.

They split up with Fumbles, Rivet, & Kosh taking the ship. While the rest stayed in a secluded spot on the station & took out a majority of the Azlanti crew. They now had a ship & some.

Talmrin
"My modifications will get thee into a docking bay. Take thee this key card; with it, thou shalt be able to pass from the cargo bay to the cell blocks. Thou needst be stealthylike to survive. The Azlanti won't be mistaking thee for anything but Pact Worlds critters, so thou shalt needeth a disguise to look like Azlant folk. If thou shouldst be caught, or show up where thou shouldst not be, the Azlanti will imprison or kill you. Be certain thou hast a clear escape route to run back to thy ship, for thou shalt need it.
"There art three - a vesk named Mothkala, a shirren named Tseekchik, and a slivara whose name I'm not twistytongue enough for speaking. They were past-diggers, archaeologists. They smuggled things off Azlanti sites that once belonged to us Azlanti aliens, and gave them back to the people who were supposed to own them. I smuggled for them for a long time, but one day they picked up something powerful the Azlanti wanted, so the Azlanti went and picked them up. I saw the Azlant ships moving in and flew off, never came in for the rendezvous. They probably think I've abandoned them, but I haven't forgotten. I am just a coward."

Created Content

The PCs may not have personal experience sneaking through a heavily guarded prison base, but advice from Talmrin can provide them with a place to start. While the gosclaw has no knowledge of the specific layout of cell block J, she warns the PCs that they should expect to dodge guards, security robots, and cameras. She also gives a basic rundown of actions that will raise Gulta's alertness (though she has no knowledge of the exact consequences) and the actions the PCs can perform to attempt to avoid detection. The exact options available to the PCs depends on what prison room they're in, but Talmrin gives them general suggestions about how to get in and out of Gulta alive. Alternatively, a PC who succeeds at a Profession (smuggler) or other appropriate check can also suggest these tactics; the 1st-level ability of the outlaw theme applies to this check.

• *Bypass Bloodline Locks (The doors in Gulta are designed to open only for pure-blooded Azlanti humans. While a macabre PC might circumvent these locks by chopping off the hand of an Azlanti and carrying the severed limb through the cell block, it is also possible to simply hack the door electronically. A PC who succeeds at a Engineering check can open a single locked door in cell block J; each check takes 1d4 rounds. If the PCs hacked the biosignature readers on Outpost Zed, they gain a +2 circumstance bonus to these rolls, as the technology is similar. The PC attempting the tampering must also hide her efforts (see Disguise Tampering).

• *Disguise Tampering(A PC attempting to meddle with a system, machine, or robot can attempt to hide her actions with a Stealth check opposed by the Perception checks of any Azlanti in an area.)
• *Create a Disguise (While the PCs might attempt to formulate an excuse to explain their presence at an Azlanti prison moon base, a crew of Pact Worlds races within the Azlanti Star Empire is simply too suspicious to pass without scrutiny. Given that all Pact Worlds ships are shot down on sight, and that non-humans in the Star Empire are second-class citizens at best, the guards will have difficult questions for any non-Azlanti they see. While the ideal scenario would be for all of the PCs to look like Azlanti humans, the PCs can make do with only half of their group appearing as Azlanti, as long as the PCs are willing to offer a half-decent excuse for the presence of their obviously non-human crew members (such as claiming they are indentured servants).

The Azlanti are a human ethnicity of people who have high cheekbones, straight black hair with widow's peaks, bronze skin, and violet eyes.

  An individual PC might have some difficulty disguising herself as Azlanti, depending on her initial appearance. A human who already has bronze skin and black hair needs only alter minor details about his appearance, lowering the initial Disguise DC, while a human whose features differ substantially from typical Azlanti features has her Disguise DC increased. The DC is also increased by 2 for a member of a race that closely resembles humans, such as an elf; the DC increases by 4 for humanoids with notable differences from humans, such as a lashunta. Humanoids with very few similarities to a human - such as shirrens, vesk, and ysoki - have their DCs increased by 8. Small and Large PCs have their DCs increased by an additional 10 to disguise themselves as Medium creatures; similarly, PCs who aren't humanoids have their DCs increased by an additional 10 to disguise themselves as humanoids. Certain items or spells, such as a holoskin or disguise self, can mitigate some of these increased DCs.

  While the Azlanti Star Empire is large enough and contains enough dialects that the PCs' disguises will not be compromised by speaking accented Azlanti, if it becomes apparent that a disguised PC can't understand Azlanti at all, her disguise automatically fails.

• *Create a Major Distraction (As a last resort, the PCs can create a violent distraction in some part of the cell block, such as a rampaging monster or an explosion. This causes prison guards to temporarily leave their posts to investigate the source of the commotion, but it also increases the Alertness Level. If the situation appears to be an accident and is dealt with before another situation raises the Alertness Level, the Alertness Level then decreases. Creating a large enough explosion for a major distraction requires at least three grenades, a piece of technological equipment rigged to explode (requiring a successful Engineering check), or a petrol tank or other explosive container. Remember that explosives can be triggered remotely with the use of a detonator.)
• *Create a Minor Distraction (A PC can attempt a Bluff or Diplomacy check to attempt to cover for another PC who is performing a suspicious action (such as tampering with a camera) in the same room as a prison guard. In order for a minor distraction to succeed, a PC must create it before whatever action she is trying to distract from has taken place. For the next 2d6 rounds, all allies within 30 feet of the distracting PC use the that PC's Bluff or Diplomacy check result in place of a Stealth check to avoid detection. The PCs must use the distracting PC's check, even if an individual's Stealth check would have been better. At the GM's discretion, distractions that are out of place (such as a one-man band) raise the Alertness Level anyway.)
• *Deal with Security Doors (In the event that the prison goes into emergency lockdown and the cell block's doors are sealed, the PCs can force the doors open with a successful Engineering check or Strength check. Each of these checks takes 1 round.)
• *Disable Local Cameras (A PC able to reach a security camera (see Scope Out a Room below) can disable it with a successful Engineering check that takes 2d4 rounds. A PC can re-enable a camera in 1 round without a check. Alternatively, a PC can hack into the camera's feed with a successful Computers check, altering the image it sends to area B5 (such as showing a loop of an empty room Uxiana won't notice this tampering for 1d3+1 hours. In either case, the PC attempting the tampering must also hide her efforts (see Disguise Tampering below).)
• *Disguise Tampering (A PC attempting to meddle with a system, machine, or robot can attempt to hide her actions with a Stealth check opposed by the Perception checks of any Azlanti in an area. There also is a 50% chance that the prison guard in area B5 is watching the feed of that room at that moment and can attempt her own Perception check.)
• *Fast Talk (If the PCs fail to be subtle, they can attempt to smooth things over with a good lie. Whenever the PCs are present during an action that would raise the Alertness Level, they can attempt a Bluff check to lower the amount of the Alertness Level increase by 1. The PCs can attempt to lower an Alertness Level increase only once per incident. The difficulty of this Bluff check depends on the current Alertness Level (see The Alertness System).)
• *Move Stealthily (PCs can make Stealth checks to move without being seen. These rolls are opposed by the Perception checks of guards in an area, and take a -2 penalty if the PCs have not spotted all of the security cameras and other security measures in the area. If the PCs are outside of the cell block in the low-gravity environment of Gulta's moon, they can use Acrobatics in place of Stealth to avoid being seen.)
• *Scope Out a Room (Spotting security cameras and other security measures requires a Perception check unless otherwise noted.)
• *Set Up a Remote Trigger (PCs who have succeeded at a check to disable a system or device can attach a spare comm unit to that device with a successful Computers or Engineering check. The system does not then deactivate (and raise the Alertness level) immediately; instead, a PC can deactivate it remotely with a move action. A PC can hide the comm unit attached to the device with a successful Sleight of Hand or Stealth check, opposed by the Perception checks of any nearby guards.)

Related Reports

Sardat Zolan Ulivestra "He is an Azlanti noble who is a member of the Imperial Fleet and also who owns the prison moon of Gulta, which is why he is an Azlanti noble. Gulta is where Sardat Zolan Ulivestra keeps prisoners for the Imperial Fleet and also for himself, because he owns the moon and thus can use it for multiple purposes. Recently, he left the system to perform a military operation on Nakondis, which has a small colony that belongs to the Pact Worlds, because an Azlanti survey probe crashed upon Nakondis and sent back survey information that caused Sardat Zolan Ulivestra to perform a military operation on Nakondis. This military operation likely did not go well because foreign people are now in Azlanti space asking about Sardat Zolan Ulivestra.