Reroll

An hour is a long time when waiting. Fortunately, I have my phone.  

Betty has other ideas, however: She drags me a few rooms away and… well. We both get some relaxation time in: She really knows how to use her tongue, and I'm… eager enough to learn.  I am, however, looking forward to being able to properly satisfy Betty again.

Once we're both sufficiently tired, she asks a simple question: “Have you read through the side effects listing on those pills?”

I shrug, “Not really; how bad is it?”

“The list is bad but the docs say most people don't actually get them, and that they tend to go away in a few months. Worth it, even if it comes up.”

Before I can respond, Ed calls out, “All done… get in here.”

We rush back, both of us summoning shadow armor to cover ourselves (and hold our ‘counterweights’ in place: Running with a large chest is very painful, even if it looks amazing).

Unfortunately, all we see is Ed holding the mirror.

“Where's the mermaid?” Betty poses the question.

“Doing slow laps in a swimming pool,” Ed answers, “Alone, sad, and naked.  I think she noticed the sensor, though, she's looking right at me.”

I answer the other sense of Betty’s question, “We don't get to see her. A scrying spell doesn't make an illusion for others, it's like casting your own eyes elsewhere.”

“Oh, she's talking to me… ‘Please get me out of here, I can't walk on land…’ come on, lady, tell me where you are… pity she can't hear me…” Ed seems a bit frustrated… and flustered. I can see his pants rising.

Betty raises an eyebrow, “Oh?”

“Yeah, it's like she thinks I'm being silent because I'm not sure I want to save her so she keeps offering herself and… posing…” Ed licks his lips, “But we need her address….”

Right, Druids don't get the Message spell, and a Scrying sensor is one way by default. Ugh.

“Finally…” he repeats some information, which I quickly write down, “That should give us a starting point, at least.”

I review the information… okay, so we have a few things… water tower with a city name, it shows through an East facing window… place of capture… didn't go far… Olympic sized pool… been there for weeks.

Hmm. Wonder why they're keeping her? Okay, I suppose there's the obvious, big, round reasons in the video… but it doesn't seem like they would keep her contained and alive for so long just for that.

“Okay… you research those clues while I try for the feathered woman,” Ed gets back to casting… for another hour.

While he's working, Betty and I get online. The city name and the capture location really narrow things down.  Finding the water tower isn't hard, then we look for things to the West that HAD big pools.  Active pools obviously aren't going to be it….

We have a few candidate locations by the time Ed's done with the next casting.  Sadly, the bird lady resists, so the spell doesn't work.  Still… a good day's work.

Ed and Betty go to bed; I keep watch (or rather, I play on my phone while an ‘Al’ pays attention to my surroundings)... and when midnight rolls around, I smell sulfer.

Oh, right: I terminated some more Guardians with their controller. How much are those things worth?

Well… might as well let Ed and Betty wake up on their own. There's no shortage of time here.  I start going through books… what alternative systems haven't we touched that don't come with their own drawbacks… oh, there's one… huh, that's cool… what can I do with that… perfect, actually… solves some problems… assuming we find somewhere to land it… but empty land is pretty cheap… how much do we need… no more than a 300 foot length for ‘medium’, and we don't have the staffing for ‘Large’...well, until next level when we can stockpile shadow minions. Okay… and no drawbacks, so… that's fine, then.  Although… if I drop a level into Conscript, I can take the pilot sphere with three talents and… oh, adaptation  notes… okay, I think I'm going to do that either way.

Betty wakes up first, while I'm still crunching numbers, “Oh you're… ah. Level up or did we all die in our sleep?”

“Level up, and I ran across a cool subsystem we can nab.”

“What cool subsystem?” apparently the noise is enough to wake Ed.

I smile, “Starfinder has STARSHIPS.”

“So? They have to cost…” Ed starts to object.

I shake my head, “They're a parallel character build resource, at the party level, because they're too expensive to buy. A party just gets one, and it runs on level up mechanics and a point buy system.”

“We can't run away…” Ed seems to be warming up to the idea.

“We can't,” I confirm, “but your basic Explorer comes with room for six people… plus power, water, and communications.  If nothing else, we'll want it for the hot showers.”

“I'm in!!” I get back in stereo. Heh.

Now, this isn't Starfinder, which means there aren't refueling stations for starships everywhere. So we get two items that would be pure fluff in the game, but are strictly necessary for us: A Fuel Synthesizer and an Industry.  The first let's us make our own fuel, the second let's us make specific types of items.  We go with UPBs, the basic unit of construction in the game… because that let's us - at least in theory - build any item in that game… once we're skilled enough. More importantly, they're used for basic ship maintenance, such as patching hull damage.  We get a few other fluff items too - I mean, who doesn't want a Holographic Amusement Center and luxury quarters?  Oh yes, and a Virtual Intelligence with Skill Expander and a hardlight projector to run the Industry, move the ship around, and handle any maintenance for us when we're feeling lazy.

Ironically, it's when we get to the more functional expenses that we start having arguments.

“We want big, orbital weapons and a ton of shields! Make it really clear nobody can mess with us and live!” Betty seems interested in the ‘Big Stick’ approach. But I suppose those Paladin levels do make her primary melee.

“We don't know what the Inquisition has, but we do know the world has a giant arsenal of nuclear weapons mounted on rockets that can leave the atmosphere, and NASA can hit asteroids successfully from halfway across the solar system. I do NOT want to see how many hits they can make if the world goes all out… which they WILL if we try orbital bombardment!”  That's Ed, “We want a sniping build: Big engines to keep an enemy at range, long range sensors, long range weapons, and a Gray Cloaking device!”

Admittedly, I find it very amusing to watch a naked man and woman in a shouting match over starship design philosophy, so I don't interrupt, just watching them go back and forth.

…until Ed drags me into it, “This is a team game… how about we use Kenneth as the tiebreaker?”

My first reaction: “We can use our real names here?  Sweet!”

That makes them both pause, “I am Edward. I am Ed.  Huh, we can.”

“I'll stick with Betty,” the goth-like person shrugs, “I like it.”

“I suppose we are out of character now… but we do need to choose… okay, so how does this sound… keep in mind, long term, we need to be able to sell ourselves as the good guys…” I walk them through a partial compromise: We MOSTLY go with the sniper build: M12 Horchalium engines (fastest available for the frame), an Advanced Gray Cloak (best cloak available), and Ultra Long range Djezet-infused sensors (the best available sight for a starship).  And we do use a long range weapon… specifically a Light Orbital Particle Cannon - which, yes, as the name implies, can hit ground targets… from across the solar system.  It doesn't do much damage (it will take QUITE some time to wipe NORAD off the map with it) but still works as a threat, and isn't limited fire.

Satisfied enough (Betty is still a little miffed) they both sign off, and keep their characters going on the logical progression of their existing builds.  I do the Witchwarper portion of mine like normal, but go slowly, wanting to be the last one to sign off… I want us to be the good guys, and Betty will ABSOLUTELY snitch the trick and go for her “ransom the world” plan as a plan A.

But after they both do sign off and fade out, I use my own plan: A one level dip on my mixed side for the Conscript class from Spheres of Might.  It gets two Combat talents at first level, plus a bonus combat feat… and there's a combat feat for another combat talent.  So I grab the Pilot sphere (specifically the Stellar package), Pilot's Savvy (so I can use the Pilot skill - which I get free ranks in for having talents in the Pilot Sphere - for basically any Starship-related task), and I also grab the Personal Starship talent from same.  Now, normally, that requires ten ranks and starts you out with a ship that's… not particularly useful. But if the plan is NOT to use it in “character scale” combat, the requirements can be waived, and the starship scale jumps to character level minus two.

And with only a single occupant to worry about, I can use a cheaper hull, and skimp on a few of the fluff items. Oh, I keep the Industry and Fuel Synthesizer, as well as the luxury quarters and the minor Virtual Intelligence set up for full repair and maintenance, and I even put in the same Stealth sniping hardware Ed wanted.  I skimp on shields (the point is to avoid even being targeted in the first place) and don't even have the room for the Holographic Amusement Center.

But the “Tug” frame comes with a Heavy weapon mount on the turret, and I just can't resist having a Heavy Nuclear Silo hiding just a phone call away.  It only has three shots before it needs to rebuild them… but that rebuild only takes ten minutes. I want to be the good guy. Really I do.

But I do understand the “big stick” philosophy.