Hmm's Incident at Absalom Station (Inactive)

Game Master Hmm

Cade puts his hand over his mouthpiece, "I can arrange rooms at the Arcanamirium. It's in The Eye and has some seriously classy bits so she can't pout about it. And it's a totally neutral venue."
Cade shrugs, "Plus, handy for research..."

Cade was recently employed at the Arcanamirium: Absalom Station's major university.

Then he takes his hand away from the device and addresses her, "The Arcanamirium is an excellent conference facility, and the coffee is great. Bring your buddies."

"What are we talking to her for, she wasn't a fan of any of us... she even accused us of hacking her system"

We might not exactly be accurate, but Hawthorne certainly attempted to. He even got me to distract the receptionist.

“We are supposed to gather information for Ambassador Gevalarsk Nor. That means if one or the other side wants to explain something, we listen.” As he says this, he points at the floating skull that the Ambassador had provided.

Back on his comm unit, he asks “Will a meeting room at the Arcanamirium work for you, Ms. Joss?”

"I agree," Hawthrone says. "If they want to talk; we can listen."

"When have I not tried my best to accommodate you? As always, I do all I can to be of service, so, yes the Arcanamirium it is, dear friends".

"Sure, I just don't trust 'em all that much, they seem less than honest"

Cade has the robo-taxi head for the Arcanamirium, and sets you up for the meeting.

I'll let you describe where you are meeting, and what you prepare.

Xyklik has nothing much to add, only: "A neutral meeting place is fair. A tactical advantage for us as we seem to be fighting the enemy on their home turf more often than not."

With some hurried calls, Cade arranges a meeting room.
”It’s called the Scripture Room: got a big, old oak table from Old Golarion and a weird peacock-woman statue from some place called Zin-Shall-Ask. I installed the new data points when they replaced the floor last year.”

Zeyram muses “Sounds like the opposite of what Ms. Joss would want. She seems like the type of person very focused on the present and future.” As he is saying that, he puts together and sends the event request to Ms. Joss and the group. The request includes the location and an ability for Ms. Joss to add guests.

Looking towards Cadence, he asks “You aren’t doing that on purpose, are you?”

Once there, Zeyram checks that there is enough seating. He also checks if Ms. Joss has updated the event with a number of guests or any other requests.

You gather in the Scripture Room of the Arcanamirium, and prepare as you wish.

No updates from Ms. Joss.
Then you see Bill 278 appear, well, what used to be Bill: bald, with a wrench soldered to his head in lieu of a hairpiece, he does not say a word, nor smile, simply entering, and positioning himself so you can see the large vid-screen that has been bolted to his arms.
The screen comes to life and you see a bright green field of grass, with children of various species happily running around and playing amidst the flowers.
A vesk-kid looks at the screen, smiling: "Thanks to Astral Extractions my daddy is gainfully employed!".
Cut to a dark asteroid where a group of workers of all genders and races finish the hard work of installing mining equipment. Then we see them sharing a nondescript drinks after a hard day's work. A burly shirren looks at the screen: "Thanks to Astral Extractions, our viridium helps save lives in the Pact World's hospitals!"
And so on and so on, a slickly produced marketing presentation that highlights Astral Extractions’ efforts in discovering, developing, and managing much-needed natural resources from across the galaxy and selling them for a bargain in the Pact Worlds.
The clip ends with the words: Astral Extractions, Building Better Worlds!

Then the fabulously gorgeous, if slightly pouty, lashunta woman in her skin-tight silver dress suit appears: "Hello dear friends, I am so happy to be with you again. I would offer to buy you all a drink, but I do not wish to bribe you in any way in your upcoming arbitration. No, and I do not want our friendship to cloud your judgement: please, remain objective, totally cold and neutral".

Zeyram grimaces at the sight of what had been done to Bill 278. Well, I guess that is another way to send a message.

Keeping his voice neutral, Zeyram says “Thank you for making time to see us again, Ms. Joss.” ...and wasting our time with the presentation that has nothing to do with the current situation.

“It is Ambassador Nor who will be negotiating the arbitration, we are just to gather information. As such, he has provided a recording device.” at which point he gestures to the floating skull.

“Would you like to give us a brief overview of your side of the disagreement between your company and the Hardscrabble Collective? Is there anything specific to your case that you would like us to investigate on the Acreon or the Drift Rock?”

Jim looks very non-plussed.

"I know that His Excellence the Ambassador will be arbitrating, but also that you will be his eyes and ears. So what you bring back and how you portray the information is important. However, I will not give even the slightest overview of our side of the matter. We want you to be totally neutral. We do not wish to influence you in the slightest. So much so that if we end up appreciating how neutral you are, Astral Extractions will hire you for other missions, or simply remunerate you for studying what jobs we might have for you".

"Yeah, I can see that your treatment of employees is top notch so no doubt all of your business practices are equally legit, I can only assure you of my complete neutrality going forward"

"We do not employ our pens, vidcams, bots, or toilet cleaners, objects are not employees".

"Of course" the Vesk smiles, as only a reptile can.

"Very well," Hawthorne says after the others have had their piece. "If that is all you wanted to convey, I can assure you that you will be most impressed with our neutrality, and we will get back to preparing for our assessment. Thank you for taking the time to meet with us and relay these encouraging words."

Bluff: 1d20 ⇒ 10 ...to appear to be in agreement.

So, no information from them. Got it. Big waste of time.

Still, it would be easier if some of my companions didn’t try to bait Ms. Joss.

Trying to keep is voice professional, Zeyram says “I will do my best to not allow any personal feelings get in the way of collecting the information. Still, it might be easier if we knew both sides of the story.”

“It is often the case that two parties in a disagreement will see the issues in very different ways.”

“If you think of anything that you think we should know, you can send it to us. Otherwise, unless you have some questions for us I believe we can conclude this meeting.”

Zeyram waits for everyone to agree they are done before standing and saying “Thank you again for your time spent preparing the presentation and meeting with us, Ms. Joss.”

I hope that I maintained a properly respectful presence there. As she mentioned, how you present something can be just as important as what you present.

Ms. Joss smiles, and the screen goes back to a presentation of some amphibian alien children swimming in the clear waters that fill an old Astral Extractions mining site.
Bill spins around and leaves.

”Oh, Bill.” Cade sighs as he leaves.

”I’m not sure that was very neutral.”

"No," Hawthorne said. "No, it was not. Shall we return to our preparations?"

As Hawthorne asks his question, you hear Cade's comm' unit beep, signalling an incoming message.

Checking it out, Cade sees it is a voice message from Stock in Rock, the group you contacted that handles the Hardscrabble Collective's contracts: "Delores here. The Collective is still not currently accepting any jobs, I still cannot forward messages, and they’re still not returning my calls, but... but I told them you had a job for them, and now they just buzzed me back. Otal Serissi says he's up to meeting you on his ship, the Dust Runner, out in the Armada. Don't tell me what you want to do, since I cannot contact them. Thanks, have a great day, and don't forget to put your Stock in Rock!".
You have coordinates and a little map to reach the ship in question, with a small shuttle waiting for you if you wish to take that.

Looking at the skull, Zeyram says “Sounds like Astral Extractions or at least Ms. Joss doesn’t believe that androids have souls.”

With a small sigh, Zeyram then suggests “Let’s see what the Hardscrabble Collective has to say to us.”

Getting into the robotaxi, Zeyram directs it to the shuttle’s bay.

As they travel, he mentions to Hawthorne “Sounds like we are going to be short for time. If you want, I can just buy the armor upgrade rather than have you build it. Just talking to you about the options helped me better understand what I would want.”

"Yeah may as well see what the Collective has to say, can't be worse than dealing with Miss Joss, toldjaso she was a waste of time - those stiff suits never play a straight deck, all they do is get someone from Legal or HR to come by and push around the little guy"

"Yes," Xyklik says, hoisting his pack, "We should go. This mission gets more complicated by the moment."

"Either way," Hawthorne says with a smile for the kasatha.

He looks over a Jim. "It was not entirely a waste, although it took far too long."

Tell me if you do anything special before heading here (or if some wish to not go - please speak up if so).

You follow the directions and the robo-cab drops you off at loading dock used for ore.
There you find a small vessel, basically a tug, without any seats or such, where you take place in a cloud of various metal-dusts.

The trip out from the Absalom Station and into the Armada is beautiful.
Thousands of vessels, from small pleasure yachts to immense vessels, all glowing against the black of space, and punctuated by the blue flares of drives as ships enter and exit the Drift.

Your tug comes up to the Dust Runner, a working tramp freighter, practical and utilitarian, with little in the way of luxury or even comfort.
The tug docks against the obviously patched and re-patched hull, and the airlocks hook up and open: you may enter the freighter.

The P.A. systems crackles: "Welcome, I'm Otal Serissi, the head of my crew. Heck, I am the crew! Thanks for coming out here to meet with me. Hop on board..."

"See this seems more down to earth, I like the rugged practicality of the ship here, it seems much more honest and upfront - none of that slick suits, fake smiles, and shiny chrome like that other outfit tries to dazzle us with"

"Pleasure to meet you, Otal! I am Zeyram."

Zeyram gives an appraising eye to the ship as they enter. Not fast, but plenty of power for hauling.

"So, is there a story behind the name of your ship?"

Xyklik checks the exits for any peculiarities before boarding, and then the large shirren moves in and sits down into the bucket seat with a large thud.

Perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (18) + 5 = 23

He looks out the window in preparation for departure.

Hawthorne smiles toward the PA system before entering the freighter.

"Which way?" he asks as he looks around the airlock.

I'm amused how cautious some were with Astral Excavations who then promptly let themselves be isolated when meeting with the Hardscrabble Collective. Both have something to gain by influencing us with honey or the stick.

Hawthorne chuckles to himself. "I know, but I don't think we have anything to fear from either. Yet."

Cade smiles at Jim, "I feel the same, pretty much, but I've had people put up a hearty rough-knuckled front before just to stiff me on a deal."
That damn filter, even with me working on it, it still breaks down every month...

He shoulders his pack, "We figure out what's behind all this. Get to the root of why Steelhand died. Sort out this stand-off. If we can piss on Bluerise's shoes, all the better, but let's keep our heads straight."

Cade checks his semi-auto pistol and the new laser pistol at his hip and the sensors on his suit.

Then he steps through the airlock, onto the freighter.

The voice keeps on coming over the crackling PA system: "Dust Runner, some name, heh? Sometimes I say the name comes from the fact she runs so beautifully you only see the dust in her wake. Other times, like now, I say it's because all she carries is useless dust...".

As you enter the freighter, you see there is little in the way of luxury or even comfort.

Captain Serissi is waiting for you in the galley.
"Howdy! Have a seat, get a load of your feet... y'all have feet? Yes? Okay, no tentacles!"
He pulls a bottle Soy-Whisky out, along with a bunch of mismatched glasses.
"Want a snort?"
He raises a very full glass: "For Duravor Kreel! See you one of these days, Steelhand!"

Zeyram is about to refuse the drink, when the captain makes it a salute to Kreel.

He raises the glass and says "For Kreel!"

Lowering it, he then hesitantly asks Otal "Would you happen to have a straw?"

If the answer is no, would a straw be part of a Kasatha's hygiene kit? Not something I thought of until this instance in game...

Cade hoists the proffered glass, "Steelhand."

After slugging the rough stuff, Cade raises an eyebrow, "You know who we are?"

"For Kreel. A pity things didn't go differently, I would have liked to see him fight."

Xyklik raises a glass to his mandibles and slurps the liquid out loudly.

"Tell us about this situation with the Acreon."

Serissi looks around, a bit at a loss, then smiles: "A straw..."
He jumps up, grabs a piece of rubber tubing, yanks his pocket knife out, cuts a part of the tube, blows into it to "clean" it, and hands it over.
Other than smelling a bit like diesel fuel, Zeyram has its straw: "Here you go!"

You see that Serissi has a slight red tint to his skin: he is most probably from Akiton.

"Yeah, I know who you are. Is why I asked to meet. I'm a kind of unofficial spokesman for the Collective. The Hardscrabble Collective that is. And I want you all to better understand what the Collective stands for. So I'll tell you that beyond all this thing about millions of credits and such, the fate of the Acreon is important to us because of its crew."
He looks at you all, with rather sad eyes.
"What if they're all dead? I mean, we aren’t rich; most of us scratch out whatever meager livings we can from the rocks of the Diaspora. So, when the occasional corporate contract—like the Acreon’s contract with Astral Extractions— is an opportunity few have the luxury to refuse. But let me tell you this: the Collective values its independence and freedom greatly, and we constantly struggle against exploitation and even takeovers, at the hands of would-be corporate overlords. So we're gonna fight for our claim on the Rock. And it’s clear to us that the crew of the Acreon staked their own claim on the Drift Rock. And that we believe that the terms of their contract allowed them to do so."
He shrugs, and calms down a bit.
"Sorry, because you guys don't really care about that. That's something that'll have to be resolved in court or whatever. Besides, is it any surprise that we're suspicious of Astral Extractions’ attempts to lay sole claim to the Acreon and the Drift Rock following the mysterious circumstances of their arrival at Absalom Station?"
He leans forward: "What I really asked you to come here for, is this: the members of the Hardscrabble Collective call themselves a clan, and we mean it. Once you join, you’re family. Members look out for each other, defend each other, and care for each other."
He looks from one to the other.
Then goes on: "The Collective doesn’t know what value, if any, the Drift Rock might have, but we know the worth of our brothers and sisters on the Acreon."
He stands up: "We need to know what happened to the Acreon’s crew, as any family needs to know the fate of their loved ones. And if the worst has happened, then perhaps whatever wealth the Drift Rock holds can help ease the loss of the families left behind."
He sighs: "That’s all we really care about."
Turning back to Cade: "Yeah, I know who you are and what you're doin' for the old Bone-Bag. And let me tell you that the Hardscrabble Collective ain’t disputing Astral Extractions’ contract with the Acreon; we're happy to turn all of the files and findings from the ship’s prospecting mission over to the company, but the ship, and the claim its crew staked on the Drift Rock, belong to the Collective. That's what we'll fight, whatever you find. But that ain't for here and now. What I asked you here for is to, please, do your best to find out what happened to the ship's crew. To try and save any you can. Please."

Zeyram is thankful for the make-shift straw. He carefully uses it to take a drink from the glass.

I can definitely understand them wanting to know what happened to the crew. Unfortunately, it has been so long since the ship returned, I'm not sure how any of the crew could have survived until now.

"We can let you know what we find. As for retrieving the bodies, it really depends on what we find. The Ambassador made me believe he would make an effort to make sure they are treated properly."

"The Ambassador's the Ambassador. But maybe you'll see that there's something to do that's right. I know y'all are thinking they're all dead. Who knows? Maybe someone locked himself up somewhere or whatever... Just keep in mind that these people are loved."

"Happily look into that" Big Jim nods sagely "no one should be left to an unmarked grave, and we will certainly do our best to understand what went on"

Oops, some irl stuff happened...

Simagus followed the team and was taking notes when he could, filing them away for later research, when the mention was about the missing people or dead ppl he looked up in a way that was curiosity. "Yeah, let's look into that.."

You may continue to talk with Serissi ; or leave, and take his tug back to the Station.
The main idea being that you would rest, overnight, to recup' SPs and health and such, and be rested to set out in the Hippocampus in the morning.
You can pick up the stuff you wanted to get.
You could craft during the evening, night, just RP if it takes from your beauty sleep.
Also, I have no problem with you going right now to the Hippocampus, and not taking your rest.

Jim is all good to board the Hippo :)

No spells used, no damage dealt: Let’s go to the hippocampus.

"We'll document all that we can find," Hawthrone agrees.

"Thank you for your time, Otal. We will do what we can for your missing people."

Once back at the station, Zeyram makes two trips in order to purchase some equipment. First he gets infrared sensors installed in his armor. Then he has a weapons merchant install an Ominous fusion on his static arc pistol.

"Ready."

The Robo-Taxi takes you from where the tug dropped you off, to a neighboring dock. It is still very interested in Buster: "Want to share a can of oil one evening?"

As the dock, as promised, Gevalarsk Nor has procured a ship for you.
It is shuttle, the Hippocampus, which is waiting in a private docking bay.
The Hippocampus is one of the numerous shuttles that regularly ferry passengers and cargo between Absalom Station and visiting ships that either are too big to dock directly with the station or prefer to remain among the ships of the Armada.
Originally a Ringworks Wanderer model, you see the Hippocampus has been heavily modified for station security use.
And Nor's people are further modifying it for your expedition as you arrive.
You see a bunch of zombies in overalls soldering things.
One sees you, and asks about who you are, then, understanding the ship's for you, starts to explain what's been changed.
You see the zombie's arm take fire, and have to tell it what's going on: "Sorry, I don't feel pain, a real drag!".
Following the zombie's information, and entering it, you see the Hippocampus has upgraded armor, defenses, shields, power core, and sensors... and the addition of a turret-mounted coilgun, that still smells of charred-zombie.
You even see the shuttle has been outfitted with life boats.
"Just in case", says a smiling zombie, with a lug wrench in hand.

A tall skeleton comes over: "I can pilot this baby for you, but the boss thought you might want to handle that yourselves? It's no skin off my back", and he starts laughing, pointing to his visible spine-- no skin or flesh left.

“Anything different about the controls I might need to know?” Zeyram asks as he looks the ship over. They have really packed this thing with guns and defenses! I think there are interceptors with less!

After getting a quick run-down, he replies “I should be able to handle it, but thank you!”

"So you like to tinker huh?" Jim seems right in his element as he looks at the work and chats to the zombie "Did you put in any features 'just for fun'? No fishtank in the cockpit or anything a bit crazy?" Jim heads off to look at the Engineering system.