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 | 11 | 0 |
| DEX | 16 | 3 |
| CON | 14 | 2 |
| INT | 18 | 4 |
| 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 Scout, 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 Graka 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.
Too Much Fire
11.15.20. Water capture facility in New Graka has stopped working, assigned to investigate. Warned about Muatta creatures, steal things. Arrive at facility, water overflowing from funnel that collects rainwater. Garbage everywhere, possibly scattered by Muatas. 2 Muatas appear, we fight. Computer indicates blockage in funnel. Bomb explodes on platform, hits Bun and Pepper. Pepper and Crash fix funnel issue. Report back to Najiri, told there's been a problem nearby and we are closest. Arrive at a building on fire. Search all 5 floors, evacuate family of 3 Ysoki and 2 humans. Firefighter robot comes on scene, says to leave the area and attacks an engineer. We fight. Bun almost died.
It's All Conspiracy
11.29.20. Loot arc emitter gun from robot, tampered with to target police or military uniforms, likely in last week. Security guy Moe tells us about the Reckoners who distribute fliers. Says he will let us know if reason for fire is figured out. Long rest at SPF bunks. Broadcast center received evacuation order city hall didn't send, need to investigate. Nothing unusual on computers. Find woman, Chendwen, on a computer, poorly cut SDF jacket. She says she's trying to send out evac plans, needs computer help, saw someone else in building. She goes to investigate, Scout follows, she stabs him and he shoots her. We all run to help, she gets away through window. Investigate computer she left, find blueprints to fiery building, schedule to New Graka police rounds, video of some kind of claw. Video from Reckoning, says swarm will consume all unless you follow the swarm and Sister Spark. Can be found at Reckoner Hall. Android. We investigate. Scout and Crash infiltrate, knock out guard, we put binders on him outside and all enter. We fight lots of people.
Bad Omens
12.13.20. Fight until Sister Spark says to stand down. Arrest them, call a vehicle to take them away. Find lot of credits, blank keycard. Find 6 mk2 frag grenades, detonator. Investigate Sister Spark's computer, find plans to explode spaceport and a list of all Reckoners, hidden folder with map of underground caverns with tunnel marked "entrance," images of styled stone carvings reminiscent of the swarm, likely bolt hole for Reckoners. Cannot find carvings online. Commander Nagiri calls us in. We spend a day healing. Tunnel map overlays the Temple of Friendship. Xelanon visits us, heals us, we tell him about the tunnels. Says language is Kucharni, language of his ancestors. Xelanon having nightmares of The God Host, other shirren experiencing the nightmares. Doesn't know what it is. Like something is swimming beneath him. Go to entrance to tunnels at Vibrakleen, a sonomat.
A Bummer Cave
12.27.20. Outside Vibrakleen. Enter lobby, Pepper's engineers "employee's only" door open. Enter folding area with robots. Pry panel off wall, reveals stairwell. Enter natural caves with some cave-ins. Pepper opens a chest with the found blank keycard. Bun opens a curtain that opens to another room lit with bioluminescent moss on walls. Holographic displays; meticulous garden, rolling hills with alien buffalo, long legged creatures sneaking up on sleeping shirren. Holographs loop. Bun understands this shows the options the shirren had after leaving the swarm. Feeder fungus emerges, releases spores. We fight, it hurts Bun a lot, Pepper heals with Treat Deadly Wounds. One wall is an illusion, walk through, no light. Etchings on wall, calculations. On Western wall, focused on shorter journeys, further along hall shows longer trips. Manage the traps along the hall. Reach seating area with carvings with hidden words carved with antiquated tech. About "The Dawn of Friendship." Seating area leads to alter with hologram showing list of names, dish holding stick of old burned incense, small wrapped package. Names appear to be lists of ship crews lost during the exodus. Poem on wall talks about loss, mourning, grief, growth, change. Further along hall, opens to room with pool and waterfall. Utranean Seawyrm, we fight, Scout gets swallowed. On other side of pool, shrine room with dusty alter and amber glowing orb. Hologram of shirren woman appears greeting us with open arms then dissipates into golden motes of light. Bun can tell there's a living creature held in status in orb, which disintegrates. Apari. We fight. Bun almost dies, kills with 1 HP. Shirren woman hologram loops. Investigate side room with bed, desk, trunk, lamp, bioluminescent moss, globes. Globes seem to be souvenirs, similar to snow globes with oils. Look in trunk, devotional amulets to Hylax, robes, datapad. Bun's recovery amulet crumbles to ash, takes the amulet of Hylax to be a necklace. Datapad has information about cave, traps etc. Shirren woman was devout, meant to aid pilgrims, mentions "The Forever Reliquary." Find long narrow metal box same material as chest, contains staff of mystic healing. Grab everything else out of chest for Xelanon, he thanks us and gets us 2000 credits in gratitude. Nagiri gives us temporary leave.
Too Many Bugs
1.10.21. Called into Commander Negiri's office. Xelanon there, says he has heard of the Forever Reliquary (a place). Writings by Galchak (from Zessh University) say it is on Ilemchuuva, overtaken by the swarm before Suskillon. We are being sent there for it. Planet used to be rolling hills, now a wasteland. May be bases we could use, unknown. Swarm destroy natural and mineral resources, not buildings. Atmosphere likely difficult to breathe. Giving us the Flash Viper, a Suskillon Whip ship. Will take us 6 days through the drift. Get there, it's worse than expected. Dreadlancer ship is orbiting planet, has Ultafearons flying around. Planet is destroyed--200m/h winds, continent-wide lava flows, giant cracks in crust. Hiding behind moon, Altipheron. Determine to wait until Dreadlancer is behind the planet and drift in. Almost get caught but make it to planet. Looking for city called Uudz where university is. Storm sweeps in, does acid damage to the ship, passes. We land, exit ship. Swarm Escutchide and Swarm Dredgers emerge. (Bun knows the swarm speaks Shirren.) We fight. Three medium figures appear over ridge and provide covering fire. Pepper determines that dredger group takes half damage. Scout goes down. We kill them all, Pepper heals Scout. The three figures approach. Female shirren w/corroded power armor and an exocortex "Etchiax", a bolida "Kokan", a male android who studied at Zessh "Queue", make up "Clade Company". Galchak was a religious studies professor. Hadn't heard of SDF. 10 minute rest.
We Should All Be Dead
1.24.21. Follow Etchiax to cave, turn on environmental protections. Venture into caves, have to navigate around river of lava. Swarm are extracting all mineral resources from planet, cause parts of cave to shake. Reach underground resistence and refugee camp, mostly insectoid species. Eskamoo is contact for information, warns us about the Extractor Imago shaking the ground, wants to take it down from the inside. Heal up then travel there. 250' long, 100' tall. Sneak into exhaust port, through a sphincDOOR, a few swarm, we fight. Go through next sphincDOOR, fight. Bun, Pepper, and Scout knocked out. All live.
Fumbles and Crits
2.7.21. Explore, enter upper gut, exceptionally hot. Bun's environmental armor gets damaged, almost dies. Pepper injects with serum of healing. Fight two blobs. We get into brain room, fight two swarm effigene. Bun and Pepper almost at zero, Bun crits last enemy on last hit. Unload guns at the brain, creature dies and begins to collapse. We book it out while it deflates like a balloon. Exit to battle and carnage between the swarm and Clade Company. Etchiax gets us in the transport, peel away. Imago explodes behind us. Etchiax collapses tunnel into headquarters behind us as was pass through. Escamoo and team patch us back up to full health, say they can't do that every time. Full night's rest. Introduced to Jadvata, nervous young Shirren. Was a student at Zassh University. Used Gelugon fire extinguishers in pranks, can freeze doors shut or make it snow inside. Could make us grenades (cryo grenade mk1) or a cannon. Professor's office on second floor. Pepper excitedly talks to him about his mechanic classes. Hasn't heard about any tunnels, if so they may have collapsed anyway. University had three floors and a basement level before swarm. No useful equipment rooms, but professors occasionally confiscated things from students that could be useful. Clade Company wants to set up a forward base in city near University, will be sending a large contingent with us. We could retreat back to that base. Travel to university. See a conspicuous lack of bodies--swarm process organic matter. Enter atrium, two corrovox waiting in ambush. Fight. Find directory, Professor in room 1026. Barricades around atrium made from seating. Find lots of swag. Explore first floor. Second lecture hall door warm, flame sounds. Peek in--fire monster. Move on, find room 1026. Open door, office has been ransacked, items are organized on floor in ascending size order, including pieces of the Professor. Swarm mindreaper turns to us, we fight. Decimate at first, then crit fails himself. We fumble around then Bun crits him dead.
