"I suspect that your deception involving spun dough adorned with an amalgum of processed, aged dairy products and assorted meats and vegetables will not be convincing." Sev notes, drawing his blade with relish.
Jax knocks on the door. Your Pizza is here, sorry it took so long, took me a while to find this place. [dice=bluff]1d20
The voices stop. The silence lasts only momentarily until one of them nervously pipes up again.
"...I am kinda hungry..."
"Shhh!"
The first voice pipes up once more.
"...d... do you have food?"
"Be quiet! They might kill us."
"But I'm hungry!"
A pair of eyes peak their way through the barricade.
"We've been stuck here for..."
The eyes are violently jerked away from the doorway.
"Don't talk to them! They'll rip your guts out like the other ones did!"
"But you didn't see them! They're not those nasty critters, they're longshanks!"
"Um, hello!? They kill goblins too, ya know?"
"Well then I'd rather be dead, okay!?"
A short scuffle insues. The eyes return to the barricade.
"Do you have food? I promise we'll behave if you just give us something to eat."
The eyes are certainly that of a goblins.
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Almost forgot, you have to earn it. I took care of all those things for you, I just need you to fix something, there is something broke in the back of the ship and you all have what it takes to repair it.
Assuming they agree to Jax's request, he will send them to the back of the ship and close the door behind them, hopefully forcing the goblins to battle more of those things, killing two birds with one stone.
"Analysis: the ryphorian is initiating a ruse. Conclusion: refrain from presently terminating goblinoid life forms." Sev computes aloud.
Almost forgot, you have to earn it. I took care of all those things for you, I just need you to fix something, there is something broke in the back of the ship and you all have what it takes to repair it.
Assuming they agree to Jax's request, he will send them to the back of the ship and close the door behind them, hopefully forcing the goblins to battle more of those things, killing two birds with one stone.
"Okay, that sounds like a..."
"Shut up, you moron! We came in through the back part of the ship! You remember how dangerous that was!?"
"Analysis: the ryphorian is initiating a ruse. Conclusion: refrain from presently terminating goblinoid life forms." Sev computes aloud.
"What's a ryphorian?"
"What's a ruse"
"What's a terminating"
"Oh... that one sounds bad. I told you we need to stay in here!"
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Suit yourselves then, you are both going to be locked in here forever. Jax will barricade the door up with whatever he finds, including dead Atakas.
He turns to his teammates and speaks in a low voice. Don't worry, we will let them out once we are done exploring, I just don't trust goblins. We can also then explore the room they are in for anything of importance they are hiding.
The party heads to the galley. The crew prepared and shared meals in this kitchen and eating area, though the quality of the preserved rations leaves something to be desired. Among the cooking supplies are a few seasonings: salt, black pepper, and red cayenne.
Swv follows the skittermander into the next area, blade in hand.
Swv follows the skittermander into the next area, blade in hand.
Currently, crew storage, port cargo, and starboard cargo have been unexplored.
As the skittermander passes crew storage, Sev stops to check the door and, if necessary, attempt to disable any lock or trap.
As the skittermander passes crew storage, Sev stops to check the door and, if necessary, attempt to disable any lock or trap.
Sev checks the door and detects no traps.
Sev attempts to open the door.
As Sev opens the door, a laser blast fires from the crack in the door, hitting him directly at center mass.
Inside the storeroom are resinous shards of noqual, presumably from an akata cocoon. In addition, there is a disruptive fusion seal (5th), two mk 1 serums of healing and three medpatches in the storeroom.
Sev rests and injexts one of the serums.
Nik-a-Nik winces when Sev gets hit, but then smiles when the serums are found.
"Well, it looks like it worked out!"
He then moves on to the next area.
The party moves on to the starboard cargo hold. This large room contains a small science lab, compact mining equipment, and collected rock samples from the Acreon’s prospecting mission.
Numerous resinous shards litter the floor of the cargo hold -- more akata cocoons. In total, the noqual pieces have 2 bulk and are worth 1,000 credits. In addition, a flame pistol lies on the floor of the cargo hold. The pistol’s petrol tank currently has 8 petrol remaining.
The only remaining unexplored space on the ship is the port cargo hold.
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Jax continues searching the room for anything hidden
He then moves to the port cargo hold, but does not open the door, after seeing that trap, he doesn't want to be the next idiot to trigger something
Edit: Oh, we explored two rooms while I was away, that five perception was for the room with the trap in it
Jax continues searching the room for anything hidden
He then moves to the port cargo hold, but does not open the door, after seeing that trap, he doesn't want to be the next idiot to trigger something
Edit: Oh, we explored two rooms while I was away, that five perception was for the room with the trap in it [dice=explore starboard cargo hold for hidden stuff]1d20+4
Jax does not find anything hidden or unusual in the other rooms.
Jax stages at the port cargo hold.
Sev follows Jax. "Our sweep is nearly complete.," he notes.
The Acreon’s port cargo hold contains much of the ship’s supplies—extra food and water stores, replacement air filters, spare parts, and the like. There is also a shipping container approximately 8 feet square, addressed to the Eoxian Embassy on Absalom Station.
"Query: Why cede control of this vessel to the goblins?" Sev asks of Jax. "Would vivisection not be a more preferable alternative?"
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Dakes speaks, "Goblins just want to scavenge. There isn't any need to kill them - especially if we are working on behalf of of the Starfinders and the Eoxian embassy."
He considered all the rooms they have inspected as he looked at the crate. "Should we collect the salt from kitchen? The akata are weak to it? And further - should we open the crate?"
The scouring of the Acreon
The party returns to the goblins holed up in the crew quarters. Negotiations are simple, and the party is able to coax them out of hiding and into some other safe place to they can examine the room.
The goblins didn’t have much time to explore the ship before the akatas set upon them, but they did manage to scrounge a few items of value, including an incendiary grenade I, two shock grenades I, a stickybomb grenade I, two detonators, a tool kit (engineering kit), a fire extinguisher, and 500 UPBs. In addition, the party finds a dropped
computer key card (which can be used to access the ship’s computer system in the bridge) and a credstick with 500 credits that one of the prospectors stashed under her bunk.
With the aid of the keycard, the bridge's computers are easily accessible. You learn some of what befell the Acreon’s crew. The logs detail the discovery of the Drift Rock, the crew’s initial exploration of the asteroid’s surface and the strange “geodes” they found there. The captain then states that the crew was under attack from monsters that “hatched” from the geodes they brought back to the ship (the description of the monsters matches the akatas that the party has already faced). The next entry is more hurried, and the sounds of combat are audible in the background. “There’s something else—it came from the rock!” the captain reports with more than a trace of panic in his voice. “We’re getting overwhelmed! I’m going to open the ship to vacuum—maybe that’ll slow them down!” The log’s final entry was recorded in engineering and shows the captain in his space suit. “Purging the air didn’t work. I’ve set the autopilot to continue on to Absalom Station, but we’re abandoning ship. We’ll fall back to the rock and try to regroup there. Acreon
out.”
There are no further entries.
The party has earned a sufficient amount of experience to advance to Level 3.
The Driftrock
Having completed the exploration of the Acreon, the party takes a long rest before departing aboard the Hippocampus toward the Drift Rock. A sufficient landing space exists near the thick, titanium tethered being used to anchor the rock of the Acreon.
The Drift Rock is a rocky asteroid only a few thousand feet in diameter with an unremarkable, irregular surface. The asteroid has no atmosphere and is primarily composed of rock and metal. Strangely, the ship's sensors can pick up no additional information, as if the Drift Rock itself is interfering with the sensor readings. Upon closer inspection, the party notices one unusual feature about the asteroid: one side of the Drift Rock seems to have been sheared cleanly off, as if it was once part of a larger planetoid or celestial body. Also, unlike on most asteroids, no impact craters mar the Drift Rock’s surface, as if it had been somehow protected
from the ravages of space for millions of years.
The party finds a cavernous opening near the landing zone and makes preparations for their EVA. Shortly after departing the Hippocampus, the ship's autopilot commands the ship to depart, leaving the party alone on the Drift Rock without transportation. Ambassador Gevelarsk Nor contacts the party, assuring them that this was the actions of Absalom Station in order to quarantine the station from anything questionable until the party proves it is safe.
The first cavern encountered contains a dead humanoid body, floating in the zero gravity. The corpse is that of a human male. It’s still wearing an estex suit with a patch that reads “ACREON,” identifying it as a member of the mining ship’s crew. The man was not infected with the akatas’ void death. The dead crew member's estex suit
I is equipped with a backup generator armor upgrade and is holding an empty survival flare gun.
The Driftrock II
The tunnels continue to a crossroads. Four tunnels exit the cavern to the north, south, east, and west. Strangely, however, while the south and west passages are hewn rock, the north and east passages are finished and lined with some sort of polished, metallic plating on the walls, floors, and ceiling.
One of the unfortunate crew of the Acreon, now a void zombie containing the gestating larva of an akata, wanders this cavern. The prospector is wearing a space suit, but the lower half of its helmet is shattered, and a repulsive, bloated blue-gray “tongue” hangs from the remnants of the zombie’s lower jaw—the feeding tendril of the larval akata
inside. The void zombie attacks, but is no match for the party's combat prowess.
While most passages are blocked or lead into open space, one progresses into another room. An incorporeal creature aimlessly haunts the chambers of the Drift Rock and attacks the party on sight. While a difficult assailant, the party is able to put the spirit to rest.
Further,an incongruous door, more akin to what one would expect to find on a space station, stands in the south wall of the caverns. Two void zombies stand at the ready, though are quickly dispatched. One of the void zombies is still carrying a credstick with 470 credits. In addition, an azimuth laser rifle and needler pistol float in this chamber, discarded by the void zombies after their transformation. Both weapons are depleted of charges and ammunition.
Beyond the southern door, the rooms and corridors are all finished with ceramic-metallic plating, and artificial standard gravity is in effect. In stark contrast to the caverns elsewhere inside the Drift Rock, this chamber looks more like a room on a space station or starship. Rather than the unfinished rock of the asteroid, the walls, floor, and ceiling are clad with finished sheets of some polished, metallic substance, along with components of unrecognizable equipment. Panels on some of the walls flash with lights and mysterious symbols, and an almost infrasonic hum of unseen machinery pulses through the walls.
The wall panels are some sort of ceramic-metallic plating that is as strong and durable as adamantine alloy, but is itself a substance
unknown to Pact Worlds material science. Also, the party notices that the lower portion of a wall panel in the northwest corner is actually a concealed hatch. Before the hatch can be examine, an antiquated security robot attempts to dispatch the party -- a task it fails at.
The closed hatch is difficult to open, though with enough teamwork, the barricade finally opens. This small chamber was once a storage area for spare parts and small maintenance and repair robots, but it is now empty save for the dead body of Moriko Nash, captain of the Sunrise Maiden, who first discovered the Drift Rock 75 years ago. The body looks suspiciously like the incorporeal creature dispatched earlier on the asteroid. While numerous wounds are visible, the cause of death appears obvious: a self-inflicted wound to the head.
Moriko's computer is easily accessible. In a recording, Moriko identifies herself as the captain of the independent starship Sunrise Maiden, and briefly relates her discovery of a strange asteroid in the Drift. She landed her ship in a cavern on the asteroid and began exploring other chambers inside it, but she was attacked by a terrifying monster that seemed to consume life energy
and could walk through walls. Wounded and unable to escape the monster, Moriko managed to modify her armor’s force field to extend in a bubble around her, as the monster seemed unable to pass through the force field. Nevertheless, Moriko realized her force field
would eventually run out of power, and the monster would finally be able to reach her. She ends the recording with the following:
“I think I’ve come to terms with it. I won’t survive, but at least I’ve explored strange worlds and seen wonders I would never have dreamed of as a child. I guess everything comes to an end eventually. I’ve always been the master of my own fate, and I’m not going to change now.” Captain Nash holds up a pistol. “When my force field goes down, I’ll fight. But I’m saving my last charge for myself. My life, my death.
“This is my last will and testament. To whoever finds this recording, I leave the Sunrise Maiden to you. It’s a good ship, and no matter where I’ve gone, it’s always brought me home... until now. If you treat it right, it’ll do the same for you. Leave my body where you found it—we came from the stars, and to the stars I’ll return—but the Maiden deserves to keep flying.” Nash takes a deep breath and ends the recording.
The Driftrock III
You leave Moriko's body and make your way into what appears to be an ancient control room. The various lights and controls on the machinery in this room provide dim light. This chamber seems torn between two worlds—its southeastern half is an unfinished rock wall, while the northeastern portion of the room is finished with the same ceramic-metallic plating found in earlier areas. It may be possible to gather some additional information by accessing the computers.
A computer console is before you. Other than the way you came, the room only has one exit, which appears to be a large airlock.
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Nik-a-Nik happily adds the extra grenades to his vast stockpile, keying all of them to a single detonator.
Upon hearing about the horrible life-draining creature, he shudders.
"That would have been a horrible way to go!"
Coming to a decision, he then shoulders one of his rifles, holding his pack in one of his (now spare) hands, and the detonator in the other.
"If we encounter it, I will rush it, and then blow it to smithereens; we can't let something like that get back to Absalom Station...."
When the computer terminal is discovered, he shrugs.
"Can anyone do something with that?"
Sev attempts to access the computer console.
Sev attempts to access the computer console.
Sev is able to access the data contained on the computer console. Regretfully, the information contained within is in an alien language unfamiliar with everybody.
"Anyone understand that?"
Nik-a-Nik does not understand the gibberish on screen.
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"I have no need of any of the grenades," Dakes said. "I'd probably blow myself up with them anyhow." He chuckled darkly to himself as he imagined how ridiculous the academic would look if he attempted to throw a grenade.
He looked though at the computer and made an attempt to understand the language.
He looked though at the computer and made an attempt to understand the language.
Dakes is also unable to decipher the language.