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First Seeker Luwazi Elsebo has summoned you to the Exemplarion, the personal space cruiseship of the undead media mogul, Zo! Compared to the Starfinder ship you have arrived on the Exemplarion is lavish to say the least. The ship has six decks and includes a casino, spa, a trio of restaurants and other amenities (you should see the shuffleboard court) to accommodate the hundreds of guests on board.
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A young, bright-eyed man with perfectly-quaffed hair walks backward into the room where Luwazi is waiting. A floating camera follows him, and he is excitedly talking to the camera.
"Viewers, do I have a treat for you today! We are actually on the Exemplarion right now, the famous cruiseship that the famous media-monger Zo! uses to surf the stars! I am reporting to you live from a meeting where the Starfinder Society's agents have been asked to meet with First Seeker Luwazi Elsebo, and I'm sure he's about to tell us the most exciting news about our mission! Now, of course, I will be focused solely on the mission as necessary, but when I do have downtime, I'll be showing you all the luxurious trappings of this beautiful cruise ship, and I'm sure we'll rub shoulders with the most well-known celebrities in the galaxy!"
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Drehp cocks an eyebrow at his young, very enthusiastic colleagues.
Wow. The voice of So-Lily-Quy and Sebrir himself on board. I'd best keep my hair combed when working with these publicity hounds.
He chuckles to himself, wondering if they'll bump into each other as they wander the halls talking behind them to their respective followers.
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In this enthusiasm at telling his viewers all about the beautiful room he's walking into, Sebrir unexpectedly hears his name and spins around, tripping right over the diminutive but impossible-to-miss form of Lily Quy herself. As to avoid bowling her over, Sebrir hops on one foot, hoping to swing his knee right over her head.
He deftly swings his leg over her head, spins, kneels, gracefully pulls one of her hands to his lips, and plants a soft kiss on top.
"My lady Lily, it is such a treat to see you here! I follow your cosplay vidcast in a practically religious way, and so look forward to your new uploads."
He looks her up and down, surprised to not recognize the outfit she's wearing today.
"What imaginative creature are you portraying today, my dear? Tell our viewers, for they will want to know! And of course, viewers, I'll have a hololink to Miss Lily's vidcasts posted right here..." he points to the air right below his face "in the final video!"
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He looks down at his paper and reads: "You can't miss him. You will probably hear Sebrir before you see him. Play nice, would ya? You'll be on vids in front of everyone. Just see the team gets to and from safe. -XS"
With a sigh, Tyrin scans the room.
Upon spotting and analyzing Sebrir, he walks up and introduces himself.
"Sebrir? Hi. I'm Tyrin. I'll be your driver."
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He deftly swings his leg over her head, spins, kneels, gracefully pulls one of her hands to his lips, and plants a soft kiss on top.
For just a brief moment, Lily is completely frozen.
"My lady Lily, it is such a treat to see you here! I follow your cosplay vidcast in a practically religious way, and so look forward to your new uploads."
Hold it together, L. Don't say anything that could embarrass yours-
"Sebrir! OhMyGosh I totally didn't see you there..."
Note to self: Delete audio of me totally seeing him there.
"What imaginative creature are you portraying today, my dear?"
"How FAB-YOU-LUSS of you to ask!", she exclaims as she strikes a couple poses. "Today being Casual Fireday I'm modeling my own personal brand of StationFlare, but I'm just as curious as you are about Zo!'s invitation. Rest Uh-Sured that when the ball drops, you won't be disappointed!"
And then, upon noticing Tyrin, she breaks out her comm unit and records a quick memo: "Reminder - ask agent about status of StarLyft."
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Sebrir greets his new driver warmly, recognizing the insignia. "No doubt they sent you to keep an eye on me, I assume? The Wayfinders do worry a bit much about me, I think. Anyhow, welcome aboard."
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After Tyrin walks away, Sebrir rolls his eyes. "My dear Lily, they do send such BOORISH henchmen to follow the likes of us, don't you think? I do love your outfit, by the way. I'll be sure to link your brand's site on this vidcast as well. Now, where do you think the hors d'ouvres might be?"
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Drehp shakes Tyrin's hand with a chuckle.
We must remember that they serve their purpose, as do we all.
He leans in conspiratorially.
But it would be fun to disable their vidfeeds for an hour and see if they shrivel up into dessicated little bundles of meat.
He waves to Sebrir and Lily, indicating that he is part of their team.
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Tyrin grins and looks back in the direction of Sebrir, but obviously continues talking to Dreph.
"If he calls me his 'henchman' too many more times, we may just see the shriveling sooner, rather than later."
He then slides back a section of his armor revealing his custom-rig & datajack and lets out a light laugh.
Raia strolls into the room, a lashunta whose clothing is almost overwhelmed by her gizmos. She is so intent on making minor alterations to a wrist-mounted computer she almost walks into Lily and Sebrir.
Oh, what? Sorry, you okay? Good, great..."
The lashunta keeps on walking, eyes barely leaving her device, then she freezes mid-step and spins on her heel, "Wait, sorry, again..." she looks around and clocks Tyrin and Drehpehs as well, "Your Starfinders. Brilliant, I thought I was late. So, Zo, right, this Exemplarion is a crazy ship!"
A platter of canapes hover near and Raia darts over to it, "Oh, wow, that's so cool." She reaches for the platter, places it on the floor and grabs the tiny hover-bot underneath it. Eagerly reading scans of the devices from the wrist-top, she also produces a tiny screwdriver and starts opening up the machine.
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A android walks in wearing a ceramic breastplate, shoulder guards, bracers, and greaves. Many people would recognize the suite as the Hidden Soldier armor but the head piece has had some alteration to show his face. Over the armor, he is still wearing a lab coat. By the way he dresses, it is pretty clear that he identifies as a male. He also caries a backpack with two guns and a assault hammer hanging from it. He looks out of place being on this luxury ship.
Hello. I am Med-unit xx00876 but you may call me Medrick. I am a student in college training to be a emergency care doctor. He sees the two people with cameras around them, Ugh, as if getting interviewed by Zo! wasn't bad enough, but I will be traveling with 2 publicity hounds. He looks to the other people I think I will fit in with this crowd better.
He walks over to the small group of Starfinders. I would assume they put me on the mission because they need an expert on life science and medicine.
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Tyrin overhears the introductions and nods as his name is mentioned. When he hears med 'student' his demeanor shifts a bit.
"I wonder if working on humans to him, is like me working on robots. Oh god, and he is just a student. When I was in grad school I... Oh no. The soldering iron incident... I'm sure its nothing like that...
He pushes the thoughts out of his mind and forces a smile.
"Nice to meet you."
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After a little bit longer, a skeletal figure approaches you all, "Your presence is requested in the production studio." The skeletal figure leads you to decks 4 (the studio also encompasses deck 5.) The studio is a large, multi-tiered auditorium with an immense window that looks out over Salvation’s End. Dozens of professionals rush about the studio, adjusting lights, testing holographic displays, pulling clothes from wheeled wardrobes, cleaning the hundreds of tiered seats, and more. The elebrian media mogul Zo! sits on the stage with the Starfinder Society’s First Seeker, Luwazi Elsebo, animatedly telling a story while Luwazi marvels at the ongoing activity. When the First Seeker spots you she waves for you to walk down the aisles and join them. Assistants immediately rush out with additional chairs to accommodate your arrival.
"Yes. Yes! You’re everything I was hoping for," exclaims the undead showman while looking over you all. "Oh, Luwazi, you’ve truly outdone yourself. They’re so exciting, so energized, so—” “—alive?" finishes a ghast woman wearing well-tailored clothing as she steps onto the stage. Zo! frowns at the blunt observation and tries to respond, but Luwazi intervenes. "Starfinders, no doubt this is all happening a little fast, so let me explain. After the Scoured Stars incident, the Society struggled to support new expeditions. I reached out to numerous people and organizations for grant money, and our host was eager to help. He financed more than a dozen missions, including the one to Salvation’s End. There was one big catch." Zo! visibly bounces in his seat with excitement as Luwazi continues. "If we found anything especially exciting, we’d need to cease exploration long enough for him to get a film crew out there to document whatever we found next. Well, Salvation’s End may look like a moon, but our initial survey of it found there’s something built inside—the whole thing might be artificial. That qualifies as especially exciting, but that was also several months ago." The skeletal mogul waves his hands. "Oh, but Luwazi, I couldn’t just send a single crew. No, the Starfinder Society’s greatest triumph deserves far more production value." He hops up from his chair and gazes out at the moon as he paces and gesticulates. "Imagine: heroes from the Pact World, a mysterious planetoid, untold secrets, limitless adventure—all broadcast before a live audience in our greatest production yet!" He spins to look back at the group, his lipless mouth smiling gleefully, "Live Exploration Extreme!"
The ghast claps politely before interjecting. "To translate, you’re scheduled to explore part of Salvation’s End accompanied by a professional camera crew and production team. You will find exciting things and be thoroughly entertaining. Any questions?"
Zo! smiles, "This is Wazasha Kevir, my associate producer, who will accompany you to Salvation's End to supervise the film crew and make sure all of the action is captured for your adoring fans! Don't mind her dourness, ask away."
Photos:
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It's always a little disconcerting dealing with the Eoxians. But they seem to have adapted to their lifestyle change and I need to let go of old prejudices.
Wazasha, forgive my bluntness but...exploration is dangerous. We may face hazards which threaten the lives of hardened, heavily armed professional adventurers. Are we going to be responsible for the safety of amateurs doing it backwards and concentrating on getting the best vid shot?
”First Seeker!” Raia guiltily holds the dismantled bot behind her back, ”You’re here.”
”Yes, any information about the moon would be very useful. Also, transport?”
Raia taps on her computer, plugging into whatever data streams are available, looking for information.
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Sebrir bows deeply to their hosts as well as the First Seeker. "I assure you, we will perform impeccably. Why, entertaining those on my vidcast is my bread and butter, and I guarantee you, your viewers are in for a treat. Now, would I be allowed to vidcast this endeavor as well, or would this be exclusive to the Zo! network?"
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Zo! turns to Lily Climate Controlled? You're all Starfinders, ACTION STARS! The ruggedness of the location will only improve the viewer enjoyment!
Wazasha addresses Drehpehs, "My crew is all expertly trained to stay out of the action and leave it to the stars. I assure your exploits will be captured and you won't have to worry about my crews safety."
Luwazi looks at Raia, "I hired a team to perform a surface survey, and it was they who discovered a hatch that led much deeper into its interior. We also know that a tribe of goblins calling themselves the Exhaust Drinkers live on the surface, and we’ve clashed with them in the past. Most recently, we undertook a concerted effort to clear the tribe out from our landing facility on the moon’s surface. The moon’s gravity will feel about normal, but we’ve detected that the gravity is artificially maintained and even seems to reorient itself in some areas."
Wazasha then continues, "We will be taking a shuttle, the ride is approximately fifteen minutes. We will leave in an hour."
Zo! stares at Sebrir, "While your reputation precedes you, I have negotiated for exclusive rights for this expedition and I cannot allow you to record it concurrently."
Wazasha addresses the group, "Now if there are no further questions, we will be leaving in an hour, we have equipment available for your purchase."
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She spends her hour getting into character, and when the group is ready to go, she reveals her creation!
Lily is wearing much less than she was earlier, and she's looking about as busty as a Halfling can manage. She's applied a bluish purple skin cream all over, as well as yellow contacts, and what little clothing she wears is tattered. A long tongue flaps outside of her mouth, and the pointiness of her ears has been emphasized. She brandishes her tactical pistol in a wide legged stance.
"I figured our audience is mostly of the unliving persuasion, so who better to cosplay as than the famous ghoul vid-star: Lazara Croft, Tomb Reclaimer!"
Instead of smiling, she opens her mouth to reveal pointy tooth caps, and her vocal modulator kicks in to turn her voice into a gravelly hiss.
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Tyrin hears the equipment offer and stifles a grin. He heads over to the display cases of gleaming armor, racks of weapons, and cases of misc magic & tech gadgets.
He then pulls out his decidedly light cred chip and sighs lightly.
"Zo! didn't happen to open a line of credit for his new stars did he?"
Raia looks at the one credit left on her credstick, "I'm good to go!"
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Wazasha Kevir leads Medrick into an ajoining room.
For Medrick:
Basic iridishell (heavy armor),
business stationwear (light armor)
Ember flame doshko (advanced melee weapon)
ifrit-class flamethrower (heavy weapon)
red star plasma kukri (level 5 one-handed basic melee weapon that deals 1d4 E & F damage, has the wound critical hit effect, has L bulk, and has the operative and powered [capacity 20, usage 1] special properties) static arc pistol (small arm)
After Medrick returns (possibly with some spiffy new branded equipment) you are all taken on a 15-minute voyage to the false moon’s surface. The camera crew and production team are waiting for there, and there is a bit of downtime while Zo!’s special effects team plays an opening montage to build the audience’s excitement.
"You are welcome to follow the show's action on the local infosphere." Wazasha says.
You see several other Starfinders currently in the process of retrofitted the dock into a more permanent structure. One of them says to you, "Depending on what you find, this may become a new lodge."
The repair crew also guides you to a heavy hatch that leads deeper in the facility, beyond which lie dark tunnels that lead deep below the surface.
As you explore you find broken and incomplete robots and drones of unknown design at irregular intervals along the worn steel hallways. Almost every light fixture is broken or malfunctioning, making the 15-foot-tall tunnels dark but for the occasional, haunting flicker of light from the distance. In the few places where it seems signage once hung, someone has purposefully defaced or removed the analog signs and torn out any digital displays.
Farther down you also find a midden containing both refuse and excrement.
[Spoiler=If you get higher than a 15 on this check]You recognize that some omnivorous creature about the size of a vesk was the source of another pile.
creatures visited this midden within the past hour, and you can
confidently follow the, what appear to be goblin tracks further down the tunnels.
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Tyrin investigates the technological scraps along the way.
"That's interesting. I've not seen anything of this make or manufacture before. Its familiar, yet.. different. Mostly scraps and attachment points. Main hardware has been removed."
He then uses his custom rig to cut off any sockets, connectors, or interface devices that may be useful to jury rig a connection later.
"Never know when you need an adapter."
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As the Live Exploration Extreme! gets underway, Sebrir takes a few moments to directly introduce himself to the crew's cameras.
"Dear viewers, my name is Sebrir Feedbringer, and I am one of your hosts-slash-participants for this exciting venture. I work for the Starfinder society, and maintain a fairly popular (if I may say so myself) vidcast channel, and I am sure many of my wonderful followers are among your ranks as we speak. Let me introduce my colleagues."
He points at Medrick to begin, beckoning the camera to follow. "Some of the muscle of the mission, this is Medrick."
Then to Tyrin. "And the personal guard and driver that the Wayfinders sent for me, which I highly appreciate, this is Tyrin."
Then to Raia. "This lovely lashunta female is Raia, a whiz at both magical and technological pursuits."
Then to Drehpehs. "Our four-armed friend here, Drehpehs, is a follower of the goddess of humanity, Iomedae, and will be making sure that any injuries we sustain during our mission are patched up."
With a long, graceful flourish, he jumps in front of the camera himself for a moment. "And finally, last but in ABSOLUTELY no way least, boy do we have a treat for you today, viewers! This young woman may be small in stature but she's huge in the world of cosplay. I speak of no other than Lily Quy!" He then points the camera toward Lily.
"Lily, my dear, please tell the viewers about your cosplay for the day. As you can see, she's come very well prepared for today's event!"
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Once the exploration actually begins, Sebrir will be busily explaining everything that he sees as the group makes their way through the facility. He fiddles with the torn-out digital displays as they go. "Viewers, these displays look just like the ones I installed on my custom viewing rig back home, where I watch other vidcasts from your and my favorite vloggers around the galaxy. Let's see if I can get one of them working using a spare mini-monitor, shall we?"
Unfortunately the displays are just barely too destroyed for him to get them going, and he hands them off to Tyrin who has already been busily messing with one. When Tyrin mentions the same-but-differentness of them, Sebrir looks thoughtful. "I wonder if this place is truly as ancient as was first thought? We shall see, no?!'
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"Oh dear, viewers, be glad that we don't have the smell-o-raters installed on this camera rig, as this is truly rank. This offal definitely suggests that at least some sort of creatures have lived here. As foul as it is, we're explorers, so I'm going to take a small sample for analysis later."
Sebrir bravely stands as far away as he possibly can from the foul-smelling liquid while still collecting a small bit into a plasteel tube. He eyes the disgusting stuff in the tube after rinsing it off with a deodorizer spray.
"I won't hold this up for the camera for your own sakes viewers, but I think I can make out a bit of what's in here."
"Yes, I have no doubt... the bits of techno-junk in here in addition to organic material suggests that there are goblins afoot!"
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Jumping out of the Shadows, Lily-Ghoul rushes at the camera, tongue twisting and teeth gnashing as she growls and hisses. When she reaches just feet away from the shaken camera operator she acrobatically flips, turns off her vocal modulator, and addresses the audience.
"Hi-yee! My name's Lily! You probably don't recognize now right now, but I'm the voice of So-Lily-Quy, one of Absalom Station's top rated fantasy-themed, convention-prep, cosplay-focused comm-casts! On today's episode I thought it would be to dress up as one of the most iconic of Eoxian vid-stars, !"
Lily spins around and mocks a few action shots and firearm poses, trying her best to mimic the famous action star.
She then flips her hair, smiles at the camera, and winks, "Hope you enjoy the show!"
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Medrick looks at all the sponsorship items. Ill take the cool basic iridishel armor. He ponders the other options. [i] This is the same gun that I use, but it might be nice to use a branded one for the show... but I have never seen this weapon before! But then, this one is way stronger than my hammer. Mmm so many options. [/b] He picks up the Ember flame doshko that is banded for Zo! Ill take this as well. Thank you for the kind offer. I will show off the bands as often as I can.
Medrick meets back up with the group wearing a new suit of armor that is prominently branded in multiple spots. And instead of his hammer, he now has a doshko.
When we land, Medrick corrects Sebrir I am not just the muscle of this. I am more of a brain that a muscle. For example he points over to the hole This is a natural forming rock. But this "moon" has been under large amounts of gravitational force, or something big has been moving around to the center of the core. I think that hypothesis is more likely because of the excrement of something living.
Medrick goes and over, having the cameras follow him and studies the left overs. Well you can tell by the fecal make up of this and the olfactory responce that this is made from a group of goblins, as my vid-casting pal pointed out. But! Medrick goes to a different pile left behind and studies the excrement. As I suspected!!! This pile is not from a goblin, but... Medrick makes a big show of taking a deep breath, hoping that the explanation of how putrid the scent is would make this gesture worth it. In fact it was left by a omnivorous creature about the size of a vesk
To end his show of how his a brain and not just a strong arm, Medrick points to some tracks. These are goblin tracks leading to the tunnel! Also, these tracks are less than an hour old! Very fresh. So I hope I have proven that I am more valuable to you than just a muscle, but I will also protect you with my life. Medrick stands proud, doing his best to display his brands.
Raia nods along with everyone's assessments, "Yes, the technology in this midden has clearly been removed from a more serious piece of hardware: something stripped down, perhaps."
As she moves along, Raia almosrt compulsively removes parts from different pieces of equipment, jury-rigging them together into little gizmos that click and whirr and flash, before pulling them apart and starting again.