Raia unlocks the door and opens it. A soft glow radiates from flickering computer screens, washing the various workstations under a film of light the color of sea foam. The constant hum of electronics floods the room, enhanced periodically by several nagging pings from blinking console alarms.
The four chairs in front of the workstations appear unused. A green-screened mainframe computer terminal covers the eastern side of the room. It periodically showers the area in harmless sparks as thick cables sprawl from underneath its exposed bulk. The cables partially bury the charred remains of a goblin.
"I guess we know why the goblin shaman has not been seen." notes Obo without any real emotion.
She carefully approaches the computer, wondering if there is anything she can do to it.
Navasi follows Obozaya into the room and eyes the sparking console from the far side of the room. "Raya, more opportunities for you to work your particular form of magic. Let me know if I can help."
A green-screened mainframe computer terminal covers the eastern side of the room.
Raia easily finishes the repair work the unfortunate goblin shaman had begun, restoring the mainframe to full operational status. Navasi hacks the system, bypassing the seven-digit numerical password authentication to access the basic functions. She can do the following:
•Turn the hangar’s lights on and off.
• Activate or deactivate any electronically sealed doors.
• Silence the alarms pinging within the room.
• Pinpoint the source of the mysterious signal (a chamber on the lower level).
• Adjust the ambient temperature between 66° and 78° F.
Another firewall blocks access to more in-depth systems functions.
Good job Raya, keep up the good work
Obo goes back to the doorway to glare at the goblins and make sure they are not trying to set any fires.
"Let me know when it is time to go down and see if we can rescue Livewire's friends."
Navasi marvels at Raya's ability to penetrate the dense tangle of wires and find the right ones to extract, reconnect, and get things humming again. She turns off the alarm sounds and brings up the lights in the hanger to annoy the goblins mostly.
"Raya, we need your mojo to get past this pesky firewall."
While Raya works on the firewall, Navasi pulls the shaman into the clear and searches the body. "What was he trying to do here?" Navasi says to herself as she searches.
"Not a problem. Give me just a moment." Raya uses her new tool to try and crack the firewall.
When Navasi fails to hack through the firewall, it activates the computer system's countermeasures--a shock grid! The floor beneath her suddenly pulses with electrical energy that sets the envoy's nerves afire! Fortunately, the grid is set on the stun setting only, leaving her reeling for a few seconds, but not harming her.
After she recovers, the envoy searches the goblin, not finding much of value on him. The charred corpse seems to indicate that the goblin fell afoul of the lethal setting of the shock grid--a fate that Navasi might have suffered had Raia not repaired the mainframe!
Looking around, Navasi also discovers a small green key card stuck in the cushions of one of the chairs. She hands it to Raia, who uses it to help access the system.
Eventually, the lashunta gains full access to the mainframe. She can establish a link between the computer and any computer that one of you carries (including a personal comm unit) to remotely control environmental aspects of the lower level.
There doesn't seem to be much else to do in this room.
"Let us head inward then" says the impatient Vesk.
Obo leads the way out and around the catwalk to the other side of the space-port bay.
The doors to the elevator are electronically sealed, but it's a simple matter to unlock them with the computer. A thick plume of steam rolls out from the freshly opened doors. After a moment, the steam evaporates, revealing a marked transition into an entirely different area—a section of an entirely different starship. Where the hangar bay had straight lines and smooth plastic walls, this elevator has exposed cords and wires in varying dark shades such as charcoal and umber.
A singsong voice greets you in an alien tongue. Soft lights wash over a smooth, wet surface at the elevator’s southern wall. Scores of holographic glyphs appear in three spiraling patterns foreign to the Pact Worlds.
Stinkface told you to "touch the three hearts" to "zoom to the Spirit Hole."
Once everyone is in, Obo readies her weapons and punches the three hearts.
I ready my gun.
When Obozaya pushes the three glyphs in the center of each pattern, the elevator doors close and it rockets downward! After several pulse-pounding seconds, the lift swiftly decelerates and comes to a smooth stop before the doors suddenly open.
The elevator doors open into a rectangular storage room that shares the same design as the hangar bay above. A mesh grating just beyond the western elevator door overlooks stacked crates below. The crates show the telltale signs of a forced opening. An adjacent set of stairs descends to the floor. A second set of stairs continues to a separate, stone chamber to the east.
A pot light near the southern end of the area sheds additional illumination beyond the lights in the ceiling above. As you look around the chamber, a hulking creature shambles out from behind a stack of crates in the southeast corner of the room--a two-headed giant!
"What's this?" the giant's right head growls. "You're not goblins. Come to jump on my claim to this place, eh? The secrets of Salvation's End belong to me! Come, Bago! We fight for what is ours!" The giant clenches his right fist, the glove on it beginning to crackle with electricity.
The right head has a dull expression on his face. "Yes, Borgor," it says.
"You're actually the claim jumpers here. If you surrender now, we'll make sure you get a fair trial."
"Ha! When I'm through with you, I'll have something more satisfying to eat than roasted goblin!" Borgor roars back. He seems to have no intentions of surrender.
Obo charges forward with a confused look on her face.
"We were sent here by Livewire to try and help you..." she stammers. "you-s" she muddily adds, confused by the two headed creature.
"The second head to speak has been charmed. Perhaps this giant is of two minds about the situation," Navasi warns, immediately sensing something off about Bago.
"You know what they say, gang; the bigger they come, the harder they fall."
Then she tries to shake Bago out of his charm with some diplomacy. "Hey! Bago! You going to let someone push you around and make you do what you know you shouldn't? Snap out of it!"
"Livewire?" Bago asks, frowning in confusion. The giant's left set of eyes focus on the toolkit Raia has slung over her shoulder. Suddenly, he blinks and growls. "Borgor! What did you do to me? Where's Livewire?"
"You were going soft, brother!" Borgor growls back. "I had to get you back in line!"
"I'll show you getting in line!" Bago snarls. The giant's left hand begins swatting at the right head.
"Ow! Cut it out, damn you!" Borgor hisses.
Raia will target the "enemy" head with Mind Thrust cast as a 2nd level spell.
He looks at Bago Leave this place, you know you want to runnaway coward
Borgor's eyes widen in horror as he succumbs to the command and reels in pain from the mind thrust. The giant turns and runs to cower in the corner, lowering his defenses.
As Bogo runs, Obo strikes out at him
Unless he has surrendered, she advances and slashes at him again.
But misses.
Navasi jumps to the top of the crates and moves closer and then prepares to shoot, feinting in case Bogo keeps resisting.
"Com'on Borgor! It's over. We didn't come to hurt you, so don't be a fool and let's just talk! Bago, talk some sense into your captain. We're friends of Livewire." "Then we can work out how two heads ended up on one body," Navasi thinks.
assuming it is not over, sonic pistol vs EAC
Obozaya's doshko sears the two-headed giant's flesh, leaving horrible burns behind. BorgorBago's skin blackens and chars, blood pouring from his injuries.
Borgor presses his right hand to his injuries, trying to staunch the bleeding to no avail. As Bago continues to bite and kick at his brother's shins, the right head's face falls. "Alright, you win! I surrender. Please, help me. I don't want to die!"
"If he dies, I die, too!" Bago says. "Staunch the bleeding and tie us up!"
"Good choice." says Raya, who brandishes her pistol as threateningly as possible.
"Aleon, please apply some of your mystic magic to keep our friend here alive, Borgor too. Anyone got rope? If not, I'll scrounge for something in these crates."
Whether needed or not, Navasi will begin to poke around into the crates that have already been opened and anywhere else there might be useful finds.
Most of the crates have already been thoroughly looted, though Navasi is able to find enough cable to bind BorgorBago's wrists and ankles.
Peering into the recessed chamber east of here, the envoy sees a series of thick cords attached to a computer console that hums with power. The cords connect to a large, gore-covered hatch. The hatch firmly seals against the room's rough stone floor. Several vents surround the hatch, each spewing forth gouts of miasmic exhaust and emitting angry whistles at irregular intervals.
"Bago... " says the confused Vesk. "With two heads? How on earth were you going to run away from your brother? "
Raya whistles and says "That hatch would be worth a pile of credits if we could get it out."
"Livewire and I had a plan," Bago says, once the giant's wounds are healed and he is securely bound. "We were going to download my consciousness into a special android body so that the two of us could run off together. Have you seen her? Is she okay? I miss her so much. Her soft fur, her kind eyes..."
"Livewire is in jail at the moment. But she provided us information to try and get you out."
She shrugs. "Downloading your mind to an android body sounds... odd." she admits. "Still, if you were going to die, maybe that would be acceptable. I was not aware the technology had been developed"
"I haven't seen such a technology, but it makes sense given how Androids reproduce."
"The gobs we defeated upstairs said 'Chief Ritarip Metalskin' took you two down here a couple of days ago to sacrifice you. They also said something about worshiping a 'green god' who had stopped giving them miracles. That make any sense to you?" Navasi says, eyeing the strange combo, scratching her head. "What would we find if we go below that expensive hatch over there."
"I think the green god might have been that screen back up stairs. But good point. Where did the goblins go?" aks Obo.
"The goblins are a superstitious lot who worship the machinery as if it was a god," Bago says. He shakes his head when asked about the hatch. "I don't know. Borgor was trying to get it open, but he couldn't get through the computer's firewalls."
When asked where the goblins went, the giant looks ashamed. "The goblins dragged us down here to sacrifice us. They threw Snips and Xalak-don in the exhaust vents, but we were able to fight off the paralyzing agent they used on us and wake up in time. Borgor killed them. And then, we, uh, we ate them."
"That clears a few things up," Navasi comments. "I'll bet our friendly neighborhood technomancer can get past this thing's firewall. Let's watch out for booby traps, though. Does our connection to the mainframe upstairs allow us to open this door, do you think?" Navasi looks at the options on her comm unit, studying the menu and trying to see if the adamantine hatch is connected.
Obo looks on as the weaker members of the party wrestle with the great green god.
Raya uses the computer connection to open the trap door.
The computer console's screen rapidly scrolls through a series of blueprints, plans, and schematics that hint at a larger substructure beyond the closed hatch. Raya downloads the plans to her personal computer before expertly slicing through the console's firewall and accessing the hatch controls. With a hiss, it unlocks and opens up.
Just beyond, you find the gruesomely melted remains of Snips and Xalak-don. The less said about their condition, the better, though some of their gear has survived--a credstick containing 1,500 credits, three mk 2 serums of healing, a carbon steel curve blade with an entangling fusion seal (6th level), and a mk 2 ring of resistance.
You've secured the Starfinder Society's claim to Salvation's End and located the way in to the interior of the false moon. You've now completed the tasks you were hired for. Further exploration will fall to the Society's agents in the future--for now, you can return to Absalom Station and collect your reward.
"Mission successful" says Obo, adding another notch to her weapon.
"As expected."
"Good work all!" says Raya as the situation has resolved.
Navasi sighs as the party turns back from what must be an exciting area to explore. But she is happy to get back to the ship and contemplates what she might do with her well-gotten gains.
Bringing BorgorBago with you, you return to the Pegasus and depart Salvation's End, slipping into the Drift to return to Absalom Station. Borgor begrudgingly remains docile, not wanting to risk angering his new captors. Luckily, the Starstone makes for a quick return trip. Luwazi heaps praise upon you for a mission well done and is excited to discuss future opportunities with you.
You turn the two-headed giant over to the authorities. Livewire is cleared of her charges and Borgor is imprisoned on Varos as her replacement. The Starfinder Society grants Bago clemency by downloading his consciousness into an appropriate receptacle, thus freeing him from his vile brother and allowing he and Livewire to start a new life together.
Future Starfinder Society missions are sure to explore the interior of Salvation's End. For now, you should take satisfaction that your discovery of such an immense and unexplored location is sure to get the attention of countless organizations—not to mention catapult the Starfinder Society back onto the galactic stage as an organization with sole rights to explore the false moon!