So, a plot in one of my recent sessions involved the players encountering a strange alien race who had docked at Absalom Station and gotten involved in some shady dealings. At first I let them think the aliens were purely profit-motivated -- one of their crew came on Absalom Station and helped start up a casino -- but it turned out the casino was a front for abducting research subjects looking for a neural match for a species that could access a dangerous artifact the aliens were carrying.
This artifact was in fact a partial borrow from a Numenera adventure and contained an entire star system in its own demiplane or pocket universe. Our group's Mechanic, in unforseen circumstances, got abducted by the aliens and was informed that they might be the Key to stablizing the artifact so it could be studied and potentially avert a cosmic catastrophe.
The aliens in question were creepy and brutal and murdered innocent people in their quest. (Granted they didn't see it as murder because they were the alien equivalent of transhumanists and granted their victims a vivid VR "afterlife" that they saw as being superior to the flesh, but nevermind all that... the player still saw it as murder, and justifiably so.) Therefore, quite understandably -- even after I'd outlined the stakes -- my player refused to cooperate with them. We got a pretty classic and thrilling SF moment out of this as the players fought their way free and fled the doomed ship as it prepared to go into the Drift to minimise damage to anything nearby as the artifact's containment failed. (In another unexpected twist, my player not only refused to collaborate with the aliens, but even actively sabotaged the containment field.)
The ship went into the Drift as its payload presumably "detonated." This feels like the kind of event that must have consequences.
It also represents a rich and unexpected source of adventure hooks: a pocket dimension with its own civilizations, deities and history has been essentially let loose inside the Drift. Potentially it could be richer adventure fodder than the meta-arc I originally had planned.
But there are so many possible ways to take it that I find myself a little at a loss as to how to actually proceed with it. So I'm throwing it open here: how would you deal with this kind of scenario? What could, or should, or shouldn't, a pocket universe running amuck in the Drift do, if you were in my place?
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I'm not a Drift expert, but from what I understand about one of the environmental costs of Drift travel, it siphons off pieces of planes, and a ship with an artifact connected to it just suffered a catastrophe -- pieces of this pocket universe should start showing up a LOT . . . .
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Well, it's not a very large pocket universe, and the overall sentiment I got from the description was that containment failure wasn't so much explosive as it was....... firm in its intent. I think it's reasonable to assume the star system remained intact after emerging, rather than scattering throughout the Drift. Note that we have in-universe canon already that you can take real matter into the Drift and leave it there, and it will work out exactly how you want, implying that many people have done exactly that, since it's a relatively safe place to stash your hideout.
But large doesn't mean safe, and OP used the word "deities". The Drift is Triune's baby, and I can't believe he'll be content to just let an entire pantheon emerge inside his pyramid scheme for galactic conquest. If I were the OP, one of the first consequences would be Triune's clergy declaring a Fatwah on the main adventuring party for critically endangering all FTL travel and communications galaxy-wide, which it is pretty reasonable to get upset about.
I'd also have the Starfinder Society, the Free Captains, and corporations everywhere - Abadarcorp, Arabani Arms Ltd, and the Aspis Consortium, just to name three - and the Vesk (basically everyone interested in expansion for fun or profit, as well as the naturally curious) find the thing more or less simultaneously, inducing a sort of "gold rush" for the new system and whatever it has to offer. Since the main party are now famous throughout the Pact Worlds for their crimes against society, as just mentioned, maybe they get message from the Free Captains, telling them how impressed they are with the PCs' style, and inviting them to get in on the ground floor of the pillaging.....
The artefact was very ancient (pre-Gap) so I don't think I can make Golarion the inside. It might be interesting to tie it in with
I wondered if Triune might have a way to just quarantine the whole businesss... but it doesn't seem like interfering in the Drift is really Triune's MO whether what's happening inside it is either bad or good. I like the idea of getting Triune's clergy involved once it is fully realized what's happened. The "gold rush" idea is cool, too. Maybe get factions like the Dominion of the Black and the Azlanti involved too. Thanks quindraco.
And thanks all for the input! Anyone else who has ideas, I would definitely welcome them.