Each of you is a member in good standing of the Starfinder Society. You have been hastily summoned to the Lorespire Complex aboard the vast, artificial construct known as Absalom Station that serves as the Society's home.
The summons, which arrived via comm message, was issued by none other than Venture-Captain Arvin, a tall, confident lashunta, known both for his no-nonsense approach to Society affairs as well as for having a penchant for magic, although he would likely never refer to it as such.
The comm message contained only sparse information, but held the promise of an opportunity to recover some information critical to the Starfinder Society and indicated that urgency is required if this opportunity is to be seized.
Upon arrival at the Lorespire Complex, an assistant ushers you into a waiting conference room with an assurance that Venture-Captain Arvin will be with your shortly.
There above the conference table floats the blue-hued, holographic image of a spacecraft bearing the markings of a Starfinder vessel. Appearing on the side of the holographic vessel is the name, "Unbounded Wayfarer".
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A hulking, pale-skinned bovinoid enters the conference room while squinting down his thick snout at the screen of his comm unit. When he looks up from it, it slips out of his furry fingers and crashes to the floor with a loud *CLACK*.
The Nuar lets out a long whistle as he squats down to pick up and examine the still-intact technological device. "Boy howdy I tell ya, gettin' that new Adamant™ brand case has been a lifesaver! Cost more than the comm itself, but I probably drop the sucker ten times a day! HARHAHARHAR!!"
He extends his other meaty hand towards the Vesk in greeting. "Name's Braford, partner! How do you do?"
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In strides a tall, dark skinned woman. Her pale green eyes seem to reflect the intelligence behind them. She eyes her soon to be companions and gives them a curt nod, hands lightly grasped in front of herself.
"Hello there gentlemen. I'm Levylissa Li Lilley, but most people just call me L. It is my. pleasure to make your acquaintance"
Upon seeing the "Unbounded Wayfarer" above the table, she thinks back to her days on Castrovel and the tales her father told her of his time aboard a similar ship
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A gangling humanoid with overly long arms and legs enters the office. He has expressive, black eyes and lacks a nose. His skin looks as soft and damp as an eel's. He wears a Steward's cadet uniform.
"The Unbound Wayfarer?" the woioko comments upon being ushered into the conference room. "Are they sending us to search for it?"
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Yet another large pale bovinoid walks in, this one dressed in heavy armor and bearing an assortment of large weapons. "Hrm, guess I found the right place. My name's Rogers de Stieren, nice to meet you all. And before you ask the same question all my students do" he holds up a large hand, "yes, Rogers with an 's'. No, there's only one of me." With a wry grin he plops down into a chair, unslinging his doshko and his large firearm and propping them up against the table.
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"That'll probably be me. Failed Vehicle Ed twice, now. I always feel squished into the driver seat. But gosh that'd be excitin' to drive a police cruiser some day. Maybe work for the Stewards during downtimes."
"I've been free rangin' my whole life. Born on the Station, lived in the Spike, the Ring, even the Armada. Used to be a medic, but higher learnin's so expensive these days. I felt so blessed when the Society said they'd take me. Not often you see one of us bein' sent off on a mission, and here we are two of us!"
"What about all you lot? What's your story?"
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"There are not many of you in total, as I understand from my dossier on the station," Laniakea says. "I am woiokan. From Heicoron. I was part of a diplomatic envoy to the Pact Worlds. I was assigned to the Steward program."
He turns to Braford and comments before resuming, "It is not nearly as exciting as it sounds. My ambassador and my preceptor in the Stewards felt that it would be important for my understanding of multi-species interaction to work with the Starfinders."
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"As for me, I am but a technoarchaeology professor on Castrovel. Both of my parents were in and out of academia as I was growing up. So I followed in their footsteps, combining their passions into one of my own. I'm on a bit of a sabbatical now to put what I preach into practice."
"I'm just hoping that I don't have to experience too much violence.
I'm not particularly well equipped in that regard."
"I'm afraid your immediate task requires you to stay a bit closer to the Lorespire Complex--here on Absalom Station, in fact." responds a voice from the doorway.
The source of the voice is a lashunta man, looking tall and confident, who now enters the room. It is Venture-Captain Arvin. He gestures to several functional chairs, inviting you to sit.
“Thank you for arriving so quickly.” says the officer. “As I mentioned in my comm message, we have an urgent opportunity to recover some critical information.”
“Several months ago,” Arvin continues, while directing the the Starfinders’ attention to the hologram hovering over the conference table, “a crew of Starfinders took a ship called the Unbounded Wayfarer into the Vast to explore a series of uncharted planets. They never returned.” The Venture-Captain accents his statement with a brief, sorrowful pause.
Arvin then continues, “Earlier today, a vesk pawnbroker in the Downlow neighborhood contacted us, offering to sell us several Starfinder insignias. These insignias belonged to the lost crew of the Unbounded Wayfarer, and that immediately caught the Society’s attention. The pawnbroker—named Julzakama—doesn’t realize the true value of the insignias. We negotiated a purchase price in exchange for the insignias and information about the seller. We hope this seller can lead us to the Unbounded Wayfarer and its crew.”
“We’ve remotely transferred the requested credits to Julzakama. Now, we need you to collect the insignias and all the information you can from the vesk regarding whoever sold him the insignias, and then track down that seller. Learn where to find the Unbounded Wayfarer and its crew. I’m worried that the seller might not be on the station for long, so act quickly.”
Vesk are a common, reptilian species that are predatory and war-like both in practice and appearance. They are heavily muscled and covered with thick scales and short, sharp horns. Though they have long since adopted technological weapons, vesk retain the thick claws and teeth of natural predators and enjoy using them to intimidate “softer” races. For that reason, a vesk is always considered to be “armed”. In addition, they have long, powerful tails—while primarily used for balance, some vesk martial arts incorporate formidable tail slaps.
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"So one of my brethren is up to our old habits of intimidation and violence, eh?" a soft, rumbling voice says from the least brightly lit corner of the room. A tall, thin vesk with pale white scales stands from his position leaning in the corner and moves toward the table. "Well, he may have a bit more trouble intimidating of powerful opponents such as ourselves," he says, looking around the room at his fellow Starfinders and sizing them up.
You make your way to Downlow, a poor and densely-populated section of the Spike that extends below Absalom Station.
Julzakama’s shop is less than an hour from the Lorespire Complex, the headquarters of the Starfinder Society, and reaching the run-down store is fairly simple. Based upon directions provided by Venture-Captain Arvin, the party has no trouble locating the alley where the shop is listed as being located.
Although some areas of Downlow are clean and trendy, this narrow alley of concrete and metal buildings drips with oil and sparking wires. A wide, red neon electric sign reads “Julzakama’s Loans” on a building sandwiched between a Kuthite sensation house and a derelict building covered with graffiti. The shop’s solid metal door contains a single, small window too grimy to peer through.
Upon entering the store, your nose is hit with the acrid smell of a reptile house that has not been cleaned in months. You find the interior of Julzakama’s Loans to be crammed with shelves containing all manner of near-valueless items, from small appliances to VR game consoles and jars of colored powders.
Behind a low desk in the rear of the shop, enveloped within a series of metal bars anchored into the ceiling, stands a massive vesk in a muscle shirt stands, who looks up from what appears to be the carelessly disassembled remains of an old computer as you enter the shop. With a visible glint within his reptilian eye, a smirk begins to form across his scaly face.
"I always welcome paying customers," he says, displaying a toothy smile, ”but it appears to me that you folks must be lost.”
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Levylissa approaches the bars with a broad smile on her face, "Good day met sir Julzakama. We are far from lost. We have come to collect some Starfinder insignias. I understand that you hold these for us and that the appropriate credits have been transferred." She leans in closely, while glancing back to her companions, "What can you tell me of the provenance of these items? A man like you would know a great deal about anyone he would make a deal with, am I right?"
“Oh, so you’re Starfinders, eh?” the brutish vesk replies with a wide, knowing smile. Julzakama reaches down to a shelf close to his feet, his lengthy tail flies up and whips against the bars as he does. He then stands upright, a metal box in his hands. “Thank you for your business,” he says as he slides the box towards you through a small opening in the bars.
“Go ahead, open it, lash-ling," he says in a deep, gravely voice. "You can trust ole Julzakama.”
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"There is little reason to be coy, Levylissa," the gangling woioko says. "Julzakama is well known to be neither a gentleman nor forthright. He is most likely looking to squeeze us for additional payments over those already rendered. However, he should be aware that there are benefits to cooperating with the Starfinder Society in a more forthright manner than he is accustomed--in particular, repeat custom and reliable income for future information regarding happenings in the Downlow."
“I’m sure that we can find a vid you’ll like!” Julzakama calls out in response to Braford’s comment. But, otherwise, the vesk remains silent, continuing to display a toothy, crocodilian grin, as the Starfinders discuss matters. When he sees Levylissa take the box without opening it, he nods approvingly. If he has taken any offense to Laniakea’s characterization of him, he does not give any outward sign of it.
Turning to the Starfinder now holding the box, the vesk says, “Your nu-ling friend over there with the fine hat seems willing to speak my language. Now, let’s how you do.”
He scratches the scaly skin between his bony beardspikes with a clawed hand and says, “Seems I’m now fully paid for those trinkets there. I remember Arvin said something about wanting information, too, and I can do that. But information costs extra.”
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Rogers replies in a similar whisper. "I think he can be talked down,"
Turning back to Julzakama: "Listen, buddy, this nonsense is pissin' me off, and I'll be honest: your shop here is startin' look an awful-lot like a china shop, if you get my meaning. Tell us what we want to know."
Julzakama chuckles in response to Rogers’ bull-ish attempt, though the vesk’s laugh sounds more like a series of hisses. "You break it, you bought it, nu-ling." the vesk warns, before turning back to Levylissa.
"Look, lash-ling,” he says to the lashunta woman. ”You seem nice enough, even if you do keep some questionable company. Why don't I give you a few moments to mull things over while I try to help a paying customer.", the vesk suggests, adding emphasis.
Now addressing Braford, though still from behind the bars, Julzakama shouts out, "So, you're looking for nostalgia are you? I think I have just the thing you’re looking for, nu-ling."
Reaching down behind the counter, he produces a small, black box with some kind of lever protruding from it. When he grabs ahold of the lever, a small viewscreen contained within a large box on a nearby shelf switches on. A small pixel of light travels across the screen; a distinctive sound can be heard when it reaches the other side. “What do you think, nu-ling? Is that nostalgic enough for an ole rawhide like yourself? Can't easily replicate an experience like that with the new vidsystems, that's for sure. Cutting edge for its time.”
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Braford grumbles audibly before scraping a horn against the metal shelving, producing a horrible noise.
"I said 'nostalgic', not 'ancient'. And I don't like being made fun of with your PUNS, either!" he says in an ever-increasing volume.
"Why don't you tell my friends here what they want to know, Vesk-ling. You don't want a double dose of mad cow disease."
"All right! All right!” Julzakama says, backing away from the bars. He looks with desperation over at the lashunta woman, "You can keep your credits! Just keep that horned menace away from me!"
The vesk reaches out and pulls on one of the bars in front of him in an effort to reassure himself that they, and thus he, are secure. Regaining his composure, the vesk continues, "The seller was named Exegara, and she wasn’t from around here." he spills, keeping his eye on Buford. "Definitely an Eoxian. She looked like a manling, but didn’t breath or blink or anything. Wore a flight suit, like she had come off a long trip. Once she had her money, she asked about where to purchase clean skeletons.” He points to the littered shelves around his shop. "I don’t carry goods like that!"
"So I sent her to the Vat Garden. She stormed out of here. Mentioned something about hiring some local muscle. ‘Just in case’, she said. “ Julzakama raises his clawed hands in protest. "That’s all I know. Honest!”
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"Ahh, the Vat Gardens. Make sense given their propensity to use flesh as fertilizer. I would wager we should make our way their as soon as possible." Levylissa pockets her credstick in a simple flourish and bows, almost imperceptibly, to Julzakama, then using her telepathy, says to him "Don't forget, the Starfinder Society can be a great ally or a terrible enemy. Until next we meet fair sir."
Julzakama lets out a low hiss in response to Levylissa's telepathic comment as he sees an opportunity to pocket a few more credits disappear. "Next time we meet..." the vesk mutters in a low tone, "it'll be on my terms."
The journey from Julzakama’s Loans to the Vat Garden takes about 10 minutes. Walking through the corridors of Downlow, your ears get accustomed to hearing a constant din filled with conversations, commerce, and the sounds of every-day life. Parts of Downlow are fairly crowded, as people go about their daily business. After walking for a few minutes on approach to the Vat Garden, however, you notice there appear to be fewer people travelling through the corridors.
After, the station passageways open into an enormous sunken pool filled with a riotous growth of plants. A narrow walkway leading to other parts of Downlow encircles the overgrown vat, and a spire of some kind of machinery stands in its center. For such a busy section of Downlow, the area is surprisingly quiet. Two ladders and a steep staircase pierce the foliage and lead down into the vat.
Surprise Round
Thug (green)
Rogers
Cloaked woman (red)
Thug (blue)
Thug (yellow)
Gamuzali
Laniakea
Levylissa
Braford
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Gamuzali snaps to attention as he nears the edge of the vat. His scaled fist rises into the air, signaling a halt, then he delivers a quick series of hand gestures to the rest of the squad.
The silent vesk then crouches low and begins to creep forward as he sets the butt of his laser rifle in his shoulder. More interesting than that, however, is the pulsating darkness that begins to envelop his entire form, from head to toe.
One of the thugs scans the area to make sure that his employer can continue undisturbed.
Athletics +9 beats DC 5 for climb.
Spotting the motioning vesk, the mercenary gives a shout to his companions, "We've got company! On the walkway!", he cries.
"I'll let them know they're in the wrong place." he says, as he secures his assault hammer and heads up the ladder to the walkway. Once atop the vat, he is surprised to also see the woioko. He pulls his hammer and moves toward the two Starfinders in a threatening manner.
Initiative Order
Thug (green)
Rogers
Cloaked woman (red)
Thug (blue)
Thug (yellow)
Gamuzali
Laniakea
Levylissa
Braford - Delaying
The thug manages to avoid Rogers’ swing.
With trouble apparently brewing, the cloaked woman draws a laser pistol. “Make sure that they don’t take my supplies. If I don’t leave with what I came for, you won’t get paid,” she warns the two thugs. Then, unsure whether or not she has a shot and deciding not to call more attention to herself, she enters into the thick plant growth for cover.
In response, the other mercenaries take up defensive positions in close proximity to their client.
Initiative Order
Thug (green)
Rogers
Cloaked woman (red)
Thug (blue)
Thug (yellow)
Gamuzali
Laniakea
Levylissa
Braford