Pepper Dawn

Description

Pepper is tall for a Ysoki but often over-represents her own height. Pepper often fits in tight spaces but always make it clear she might not. She has hundreds of cousins and dozens of siblings. Per Ysoki custom, she often gets close enough to her crew to consider them family and will talk about them as such. She may also give them nicknames based on physique or characteristics. Pepper is extremely proud of her exocortex, named Leapfrog, and often makes adjustments to it. She is very peppy, doesn't remind repeating herself.

Background

Pepper traveled on the Aruvian Dawn with Bun until the ship was destroyed in the Battle of the Stone Sea. Left home world to find a purpose, which was lost on her amidst her few dozen siblings.

Character Stats

	Ability Score	Modifier
STR	9	-1
DEX	14	2
CON	12	1
INT	16	3
WIL	12	1
CHA	10	0

Session Notes

Jaldamarrack the Martyr

6.28.20. 6 months since Swarm landed and battle of the Stone Sea in Suskillon. Have taken over half the planet. Suskillon PF training volunteers at Camp Caviler. Sent for by Vesk soldier, Jaldamarrak, a super old Vesk, has worked as private military consultant, won Starsone Medal, has cybernetic eye. Is new commanding officer. Sent to do evening patrol and report back. Can see city, Branoa, in distance. Bun and Pepper meet Olo here. Pepper sees Brush Stalker tracks. Call to return to base, under attack. Fight Swarm Dredger on way. Closer to base, find crater, see space station collapse to planet, creates dust storm. Fight more Swarm Drudgers. Radio message from Jaldamarrak to retreat to Fort Dalmarack, 24mi away. An hour into long walk, find Jaldamarrak at the end of a trail of Swarm corpses, alive but eviscerated. Pepper cries, says we'll report 200 kills from him in the battle, he clips a medal to Pepper's armor. Glory Medallion, 1/day move action after reducing an enemy to 0HP. 400XP.

The Long March & RIP Olo

7.12.20. Swarm is Swarming our way from the direction of the dust storm/collapsed space station. Transmission--bridge being collapsed to halt swarm. Find dead civilian, Aaron Kelvin, Bun eats found candybar. Fight Brush Stalker. Civilian's pack: Tactical Semi-Auto Pistol with 9 in clip, basic med kit, 2 tier-1 stimluants, 4 wake up patches, 3 R2E's, 2 mark-1 syrums of healing. Use syrums. Pepper passes out, Bun carries. Olo says caring "for your rat" will get him killed. Reach bridge, 2 Swarm Vorphoma. Olo darted through head, dies. Bun outruns the Vorphoma, JUST gets to land before bridge blows. Given bag by medic with supplies, Pepper carries. Take a moment for feelings. Taken by truck to Fort Gallant. Leut Gorham asks about Jaldamarrack, Pepper says he sacrificed himself for us and took 500 Swarm with him. Taken to debrief with Commander Hadiya Najiri, she's having her mangled leg amputated. Seems to be just given command. Staying in 5th, being assigned new members. Given flash drive with allowance and aqusitions order. Head to acquisitions, greeted and thanked by human woman civilian, Anacia Render. At aquisitions, note from Commander says to give us BL5 prototype. 1hr battery life, can only charge him at base.

The New Midnight Squadron

7.26.20. See a business casual gentlemen, Lochwart, Z. from Bronze Beam Research Consortium yelling about planet being overwhelmed. Commander assigns Scout (Mike) and Crash (Kate) to our group. Assigned to Rear Guard. Chased by Swarm ship. Reach Sahtor Region with Eskue Ocean in distance, Jurdos Mountains. Capitol of region of Reos City, about 8hrs from where we are. Heading into area called Lynmari to a temple to rescue a priest, need to grab any civilians along the way. Asked for help for downed person, trap, we fight.

The Slime of Linmari

8.6.20. Fought some bugs off cars and civilians. Bun almost dies. People say their manager, Reda Cooper, wouldn't let people take fuel for cars to get away. Pepper is devastated by this. Find scared soldier hallucinating bugs and muttering "Hilax will know." Hilax a peaceful god. Susreth Susaro, a medic, taking with us. Reach Linmari, sign for Longship Agricultural Alliance. Reda trying to calm crowd, says ships are coming to evacuate but the people want to leave. Goes into building. Sneak in, body-snatcher slime, Reda on ground. It takes Scout, we fight. Take out slime.

Xelonan Lays Hands

8.23.20. Reda has been possessed for last 5ish days, agrees to evacuate people immediately. Drive on to Temple of Hylax, through a very tight tunnel through a mountain. Find a truck to pilfer on way. 2 Swarm Vorphoma hovering and staring at door fight. Explore temple. Find Xelonan in inner sanctum room, ghostly images of Swarm around him while he floats and chants. He says we're there to protect temple, not evacuate. Place is too important. Scout starts to convince him to leave, he heals people, a Swarm Convecyte bursts through front doors, releases 3 more swarm from its carapace. Long rest overnight. Radio call to get back to base for evacuation then cuts out before saying time.

Suskillon Falls

9.7.20. Get to Rios City, completely evacuated. Commander says to get to space port starship and evacuate to Ultraneus, Swarm front approaching. At space port, ships melted and scattered. A human woman, not bugged, on city council, Kilora Gishi. With small group of refugees, including some lishunta; the family we rescued at a gas station before; Zandtos Loachwart, the troublemaker from Fort Gallant; and Otvash, a vesk Scout knows. A Pact Worlds ship flies overhead--thankful woman from Fort Gallant. Woman says a ship is in a bunker of a shady figure nearby. Refugees follow. Munitions explosion at door, police tape. Stairs lead ~100ft down. Security cam off. Door with keypad, Pepper jimmies open. Super loud alarm trap, deafens Pepper who turns it off. Fight with 3 guard androids. Scout finds books on ship maintenance and operation. Find swag, ship. "Terminus Wild" on side of ship. Pepper fixes fuel line, Cerebric Fungus appears, fight. Fueling ship as swarm appears, fight. Bun almost goes down. Zelanon does some healing. Take off, see seething mass of Swarm on planet below. See swarm hydra 70-60 feet tall, emits psychic bellow at us, we are seized with feeling of dread.

The Space Chase

9.20.20. Have two civilians in the ship, the Terminus Wild, one is Zantos Loachwart who acts as Science Officer. Pepper acts as Engineer. Chased by two swarm ships that are alive and tiny, have no crew, are very fast. Killed both. Out with 1 damage. Takes us three days to get to Utraneous.

Sabotage Above Utraneous

10.18.20. Systems issues, Bun gets knocked out. Pepper freaks out and revives with serum of healing. Passengers are Councilwoman Caloragishi, Oatvash (Vesk soldier), Zantos Loachwart, Zeleanon (Hilaxian Priest, Syran), Half-Elf (Kenda, female, civilian engineer), Formian (Ch'thrak, male, civilain medic), Kasatha (Saldri, male, civilian lawyer). Life support and forward weapons were sabotaged, scrambled code, not elegant change. Ship is a medium transport, 2 decks, 1 crew and 1 passenger, elevator in between. Drifting off course--autopilot was nudged off course. Crash giving passengers ice cream, observes them. Pepper checks escape pods, everything untempered with. All join ice cream party in the mess. Councilwoman says Ch'thrak treated civilians. Zantos accuses us of ignoring civilians. Scout goes to cockpit, hears laughing in the cockpit. Pepper goes to join, lights flicker in lift. In cockpits, screws not tampered with, notice something in cargo bay on security cam. Scout and Pepper run to cargo bay, 2 radioactive assembly oozes, will split into more if left alone. Crash and Bun join us, we fight. They got out of their container and just started consuming APBs. Salvage 400 UPBs, other items.

Medals and Promotions

11.1.20. Xantos stumbles in, complains, leaves. Transparent aluminum panel was popped out, allowed oozes to escape. Crash checks computer systems for tampering, everything fine. Bun knows Glitch Gremlins (fey) live on spaceships. Heal each other, long rest. Scout and Pepper check cockpit, computers, all clear. Crash and Bun check passengers, get breakfast. Lights go out, warning for power core failure. All run there. Door stuck, giggling. Three Glitch Gremlins, attach to Mike, can redirect electricity. We fight, fix systems damaged in fight. Power core cursed, Xelanon removed. Zantos complains more. Pepper and Scout fix power core. Scout, Ben find a Mk 1 ring of resistance on one of the Glitch Gremlins. Zantos calls us to Observation deck, tries to stage a mutiny, we talk him down as a group. Other passengers offer to help with things. Reach Oddrock, ship port built on asteroid, given clearance to dock first. Above Utraneous, mostly oceanic planet. Run into Lieutenant Gorum. Taken to New Graca on planet. 1.2million humans, shirren. Taken to city hall, Commander Najiri, STF setup. Najiri awards us the Radiant Star Medal of Courage, promotion to Lieutenant. Broken out of classic STF structure, report directly to her. Each get stipend of 2000 credits, up to level 4 items. Sold drugs we found, extra equipment. Shopping.