Thevshi

Okay, Starshot manages to hit the creature when it rears up for its next attack. It only gets a 22 on its toughness save vs DC 23, so it gets a bruise. That is enough to make it feel this meal is not worth the effort and it disappears back below the surface.

She was dazed last round.

Round One: 30 Starshot (Unharmed, 3 HP) 21 Jaw Fish (unharmed) 17 Soreen (unharmed) 14 Laark (unharmed) 9 Ul-Mor (2, both unharmed) Starshot is up!

GM The large bounty hunter continued moving until he was next to the antigrav vehicle. But instead of climbing in he leveled his large energy weapon toward Roulette's retreating form. Flipping a switch to change the setting, he fired a single powerful blast at the Zultasian. But the attack missed widely, blasting a chunk in a building a bit in front of Roulette. The large bounty hunter gave a grunt of frustration as he shook his weapon slightly, as if he could somehow get it to aim better that way.

The large bounty hunter will take another parting shot at Roulette, this time with a focused blast, but he misses. Bliss is up!

Susan’s smile faded slightly, but there was still a trace of it. "Edward might have been interested in something like that once, but he has continued to become rather more like father of late." Dee’s expression became a bit more serious as she looked at her twin. "Is that part of why you have been having a hard time recently?" She asked, a bit of an edge to her voice. Susan gave a small shake of her head as she looked back to Dee. "No, not really. He has been by a bit less frequently, but he still visits. I think it has been more a problem with the drugs or the dosage. It is been harder to keep things out of my head."

The antigrav vehicle get a 32 on its toughness save, so is perfectly fine.

Here is the attack: Attack on boat: 19. The boat gets a 21 on its toughness save vs DC 22, so takes some slight damage (-1 toughness) Time for initiative!

GM The group set off on their makeshift boat, using the crude paddles they had managed to fashion to paddle the boat along. It was not far from shore that they discovered there was a slight current to the lake, one that tried to pull them to the south, but they were able to compensate for it, and use it to help guide the toward opposite shoreline to the southeast. Once they were out on the water they were able to see a large island about two kilometers to the south, toward the southern end of the lake. Like the shorelines, it was covered in the giant mushrooms they had used to fashion their boat. The boat was about halfway toward the opposite shore when suddenly a large form broke the surface of the water to the left side and the massive head of some sea creature reared up, opening a mouth more than a meter wide and filed with hundreds of sharp teeth. The creature took a bite at the side of the boat, causing some minor damage before it slipped back down under the dark waters with a large splash.

Time for another notice check!

GM In order to launch from the point where the trip would be the shortest, the group had to move down to the very southern end of the shore, more than a kilometer to the south. Luckily it was easy going, with nothing unusually happening as they went. The giant mushrooms grew all along the shoreline of the underground lake, so there were plenty to choose from where the group had moved to. The crude Ul-Mor axes proved to be perfectly suitable to chopping down one of the mushrooms and u the cap from the stem. As the group worked on their raft, a small group of the shovel snouted creatures like those that had stampeded by them earlier came onto the shoreline from another small passage that was near the southern end. The creatures were not panicked like the others had been, and paid the group little heed as they began their shovel like mouths to scoop up lichen that as growing around the base of the giant mushrooms. A bit of testing proved that the mushroom caps did not need to be hollowed out, as they served as large floats just as they were. But it was quickly apparent that they would need more than one to make a raft capable of bearing all their weight. So they cut down a few more of the giant mushrooms and also cut the long stems in half, making planks they could lash to the tops to connect them all and form the body of the raft. Fortunately Soreen and Laark had a good amount of syntharope in their packs. While the group worked on the raft, they took some time to eat and rest, as they had been traveling through the caves for several hours.

I suppose she does Ari (sorry, had sort of forgotten what all you had intended her to cover). But we can always have more than one Martial Artist

GM Glancing at the giant mushrooms, they certainly were big enough to use them to fashion some sort of boat, using either the trunks or just the tops. Either way would likely require some sort of lashing them together. "I am not sure I relish the idea of that long of a swim." Soreen responded. "If there is any sort of depth to these waters who knows what could be lurking under them." Looking down into the water with his helmet's enhanced abilities, Starshot saw that the water quickly dropped to at least ten meters deep along the shoreline, and just went deeper from there.

So, have done these types of threads in the past, but figured it was time for another (given we have more new players that have joined since last time around). The Praetorians superteam is looking for some new members. The concept of the Praetorians is heavily influenced by DC's Legion of Superheroes and Marvel's Shi'ar Imperial Guard. More specifically, the original Praetorians were an Imperial Guard equivalent for a intergalactic empire more than 2,000 years ago. A number of them were placed in suspended animation by the Curator back then and were revived at the start of the Communion’s invasion during Incursion (a site event that happened a few years ago). Now that they no longer have an empire to serve, they have become more like the Legion of Superheroes. I put together the concept of the team as part of our expansion into space and as a way to provide easy access to a supergroup for newer players as well as more established ones. Because the concept is for a large supergroup that rarely operates all together at once, it allows for players to have a chance to be in threads with a number of other members. For those interested, there are generally two primary options for "new" characters: 1) Make another of the original Praetorians from 2,000 years ago that was placed in suspended animation. This provides an easy in and instant connection to existing members (particularly the other members from 2,000 years ago). 2) Make a new member from the present day that has joined the group post-Incursion. There are generally two different paths for this: (a) The new player encounters some Praetorians in a thread and gets invited to join after; (b) The new player is sent as a representative of some current galactic power to be on the team. The team current has a Star Knight and has had a representative from the Lor (that PC is currently inactive, so this is an open option). Some of the archtypes the team is current missing (and by no means is this the only types of PCs the team is looking for): Martial Artist Telepath (or other Psionic powersets) It is also somewhat light on energy projectors and other ranged attack powersets. So, just let me know here, by PM or in chat if anyone has any questions or is interested.

GM The group followed after Starshot without any complaint as to his choice of direction. The passage continued southeast for a couple hundred meters before it opened up into the largest cavern they had encountered thus far. It was illuminated by large deposits of the phosphorescent minerals that were common in the caverns and was at least a kilometer wide from east to west and ran several kilometers north to south. In fact, from where they were standing they could not even see either the most northern wall nor just how far south it went. The ceiling of the cavern was at least fifty meters up, if not higher in some parts. And the cavern was almost completely filed with water, a vast underwater lake. The group had come out onto a rocky ledge that stretched at least a kilometer to the south and was covered with giant mushroom-like fungi. Looking out at the vast underwater lake, they were able to see another shoreline on the easternside, about a kilometer southeast of the southern end of the shoreline they were on.

GM As the four Praetorians discussed options for making their way deeper into Khanate space, up above Kembel a pair of short range space fighters were making a standard patrol of far orbit toward the planet's nearest moon. The two fighters were toward the outer edge of their patrol route when their long range sensors began picking up a large object approaching from the far side of Kembel's second moon. The object was not in a normal shipping lane, nor was it transmitting any sort of standard navigational beacon. After a quick call to headquarters, the two fighters deviated from their patrol route toward the approaching object, passing the orbit of the nearest moon and into the space between the two moons. It was as they began closing with the second moon that they first made visual contact with the object, which appeared to be a small comet that was headed towards Kembel. A full squadron of additional fighters were dispatched after the patrol called back, making it to past the near moon as they came to intercept the object. Several salvos of missiles were launched toward the comet, hoping to blast it apart or at least divert its course, but to no avail. The missiles seemed to explode just short of impacting with the comet, which plunged through the explosions with no seeming effect. Back down on Kembel's surface… As the Praetorians were discussing their options, the sound of alarm klaxons began echoing through the city, causing the patrons and employees of the bar to look up from what they were doing for a brief moment. Then several of the patrons began getting to their feet, heading towards the exits quickly. The employees began quickly shutting things down and informing other patrons, who did not seem to understand the significance of the sounds that they needed to exit toward the nearest shelter.

GM After filling their water containers, the group started off once again, continuing along the direction they had been going and into the passage exiting the large cavern to the south. After about a few hundred meters, that passage led to another large chamber that ran east/west. To the west were several side passages heading north, which Starshot's computer system estimated had a high chance of leading to the other passages that had branched off south and southwest from the cavern where they had dodged the stamped. Another passaged headed due west, which the computer estimated to likely lead back to the main passage, which would again be on the wrong side of the cave in. Lucikly, there was another passage heading east, which again carried the highest chance of finding them a way around the cave in. Starting off that way, the group was rewarded with the passage turning due north after a few hundred meters. They traveled a long ways for about two kilometers, which should be bringing them close to being above the cave in, when the passage curved back to the east and then a few hundred meters started back to the south, with a small side passage heading southeast. As they stood at this fork, Starshot was sure he could hear the sound of lapping water faintly echoing from the southeastern passage.

Cape, time for yet another Notice check for Starshot! (and I have marked the new HP for him burning out his plasma rifle in the OOC word doc I have keeping tabs on that sort of thing)

GM Laark was primarily a melee fighter, carrying the rifle only because the realities of galactic travel and combat tended to occur more often and ranges beyond melee, so he had to insure he could participate until an opportunity to engage in melee presented itself. Everyone took the opportunity to fill empty water containers, and soon the group was fully restocked with water. Studying the dark waters more closely, Starshot could not make out any large passages that might be under water, tough there were some smaller ones that would likely be difficult to navigate, even if they were not six fee or more underwater. He also spotted a few small forms slowly swimming under the water, so there appeared to be some sort of marine life in the cave system.

Okay another bruise for Roulette and he is up again.

GM With the large Praetorian keeping herself positioned to protect Bliss and Ruby, the bounty hunters continued their move to retreat from the battle. The Jaas hunter also took a parting shot at Roulette, but unlike his companions managed to hit the elusive target. While the blast stung, Roulette managed to remain on his feet. The insectoid alien then moved over to the antigrav vehicle and climbed into one of the back seats.

GM The intense beam from the plasma rifle quickly burned away a large chunk of the cave wall behind which the water laid. As Soreen had estimated, there was not a very high water level behind the wall, and only a small bit of water flooded through the hole, barely covering a few feet in a shallow pool. As the group walked over toward the newly formed hole, Laark offered Starshot his blaster rifle. "Want this boss? I have my club after all." Beyond the hole was a large pool of water, stretching more than twenty meters in either direction. Water was constantly dripping off the stalactites above the pool, the source of the dripping sound. From what Starshot's helmet could tell the pool varied from less than a foot deep (nearest the hole) to about ten or more feet deep out back towards the far end of the pool.

Okay, the Jaas bounty hunter climbs aboard the antigrav vehicle and takes a parting shot at Roulette. He actually manages to hit Roulette, so DC 23 toughness save for Roulette.

GM While Starshot communicated telepathically with Kahai, Soreen studied the wall and thought a moment. "If there was enough water behind there to flood this entire cavern I would expect it to be fully contained by the wall such that it would be leaking through these holes. Given that it is not, I expect the water level behind the wall is lower than the holes, meaning at best breaking away part of the wall will result in only a small pool of water forming here near the hole, not nearly enough to be a threat to us." She replied. After Starshot communicated Soreen's comments to Kahai, the Ul-Mor responded in agreement with her estimation.

GM The group spread out and began searching for the sound, moving towards the east as that was the direction that Laark was hearing the sound. As they moved closer to the east wall, everyone began to hear the sound, though it was a faint echo of dripping water. But as the continued toward the eastern wall that echo grew a bit louder, and though there was no sign of water on the ground the air certainly felt a bit more humid than the dry warm air that was the norm for most of the cavern complex. Eventually everyone reached the eastern wall, still with no sign of the water. But as they grew closer Starshot spotted several holes in one section of the cave wall, which allowed his helmets X-ray vision to see beyond the wall to where there was a pool of water beyond. Investigating area of the wall near where all the holes had formed (which looked like was due to erosion when the water level was likely higher), they determined that section of the cave wall was rather thin, so it might be possible to break through to the pool of water beyond.