Kabal/Rainforest outside Spirepoint/Ruined Temple
5:55 PM/Sunset at 6:45
Zig-zagging through the broken amphitheater,
Arsinoë found a direct route toward a cluster of solid pillars. The walker was somewhere out there, hidden from view, hunting them from above. Her father had once made an off-hand reference to a "shooting gallery" when complaining of the Empire's handling of a botched Rebel plot against him; now she knew firsthand what it felt like to be in a shooting gallery. There! An escape route! An archway, partially covered by rubble, on the west side of this arm of the starfish. To a casual eye it would seem to be a merest fissure, but it would be enough for them to slip through, even Rex too with just a bit struggling; stormtroopers in bulky armor, however, would need to spend time clearing out the rubble to fit through.
As
Rico regained his balance after being tugged along by the young woman, he caught a brief glimpse of the trio of stormtroopers advancing cautiously, blaster rifles at the ready. Ahead another 20 meters was a solid row of stone pillars which must have once supported the roof. Despite Arsinoë picking a seemingly direct route to reach that superior cover, the broken terrain of the amphitheater conspired against them, forcing Rico and Arsinoë to take cover behind the weathered coral statue to avoid being seen by the stormtroopers.
From that vantage point,
Arsinoë could also make out a thin line around the dais the coral statue rested upon, as if the dais was free-standing. Faint grooves, like a screw or the lid to a water bottle, were visible in that 2 inch gap, as if the entire dais was threaded into some large hole in the ground which it could somehow be lowered down into.
| GM: | The pillars will provide Ranged Defense 2 to anyone using them, but you must decide whether you put them between you and the walker or you and the stormtroopers.
Being forced by the terrain to stop before reaching the cover is due to threat on Stealth check. |
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Garrett kept his vision diffuse, accustomed to keeping a lookout for dangers in the rainforest, and there at the rainforest's edge, shifting in hues of brown and green, was the camouflaged walker, paused as if scanning the southwestern arm of the temple to get a fix on their positions. Its armorplast-coated durasteel hull was all but impenetrable to their blasters. Its sensors would find them. The full weight of the gravity of their situation sunk in as Garrett's mechanical knowledge gives him cause for despair.
He blazed a trail for
Rex, avoiding the worst of the debris littering the amphitheater to spare Rex's treads. However, this meant taking a more circuitous route. A twisted lump of lustrous pale metal overgrown with moss served as momentary cover for Garrett and Rex. For a moment, Rex's scanner went haywire, revealing multiple humanoids at the perimeter of the temple, but simply moving away from the lustrous metal and then back towards it confirmed that it was the metal which caused the anomaly.
Garrett and Arsinoë managed to see each other, and he could pick up on where she was headed – toward the pillars. And beyond that was an archway, similar to the one they'd emerged from, albeit half covered in rubble. He and Rex could make an immediate b-line for the archway if they hurried, though Arsinoë and Rico had no such luxury. Complicating the choice, though, was the fact that as Garrett studied the archway he realized the entire wall it was built into was slouching and leaning out due to erosion and mudslides. If this was the wall the shuttle had supposedly crashed into, its structural integrity could be questionable.
| GM: | Garrett [MENTION=6803188]VLAD the Destroyer[/MENTION] suffers 1 strain due to a threat on Perception check. The other threat on his Perception check hasn't been discovered yet.
The metal scrap will provide Ranged Defense 1, but you must decide whether you put them between you and the walker or you and the stormtroopers. |
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Kospirian, no stranger to covert operations, was close behind them, keeping low and utilizing the ruined seats and upturned stones to remain out of sight. Though the motion and the bodies in front of him obscured his view of any potential escape routes, he could see that the terrain was splitting them up. Arsinoë and Rico over a debris-laden route toward the coral statue but with a stretch lacking cover between there and the pillars. Garrett and Rex over easier terrain toward a bit of scrap metal barely providing cover but a clear path from there on. Another path was possible, too, ascending a downed block of stone that lay at a diagonal like a fallen tree, leading to the tops of the pillars.
| GM: | So [MENTION=6801242]GreenKarl[/MENTION] Kospirian needs to choose his route. If he goes the way Arsinoë and Rico went, that will resolve the threat on his Stealth check. If he follows Garrett and Rex, there will be a different threat. Likewise, if he ascends the stone block.
Counted multiple successes on your Stealth check as elevating the group's overall Stealth (for purposes of any opposed checks) to 3 successes. Plus he's green, so he blends into the rainforest.  |
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