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The doors to the office slide open with a soft pneumatic hiss. Inside is a well-lit and blue-carpeted office. Venture-Captain Arvin, a handsome and determined-looking damaya lashunta, sits behind a desk, his eyes riveted on a glassy display. After a heartbeat, he glances towards the open door and motions everyone to enter.
“Apologies, please come in. Be seated if you like, although this shouldn’t take long.” Arvin taps a button on a console and murmurs to a digital assistant,
“Croyd, put everything on hold for a few minutes. If anyone calls, please explain I’m in mission briefing and I’ll get right back to them.[b]” He then darkens the display to give his full attention.
“[b]Right. I have an assignment for you. This one is a little a different than others you might have received.” He pauses before he explains,
“It’s an internal matter. You’re probably aware that after the Scoured Stars incident many of our colleagues elected to leave the Society. That is unfortunate, but not surprising. We hate to lose good field agents, but no one is conscripted into our ranks. Normally we wish them well and that’s that. In this case, the defector, former field agent Reynald Talbot, stole an artifact from the Lorespire Complex before departing. Theft is where the Society draws the line; I need you to get that artifact back."
He gives you a hard look.
“Unfortunately, Talbot left weeks ago and we only discovered the theft in the last 24 hours. We launched an immediate investigation to determine the identity of the thief and their last known whereabouts. It’s our bad luck that Talbot was smart enough to get off the station and head to Akiton, where there’s no central government or law enforcement to easily call upon. I need you to track him down and recover the artifact. We know Talbot caught a shuttle to the Akitonian city of Maro, so that’s a great place to start. The Society will, of course, cover your travel expenses.”
Akiton is smaller than the Golarion standard with ×1/3 gravity and a thin atmosphere. This means non-acclimated characters (like you) can jump three times as high and carry three times the normal weight, although they gain no additional movement speed. Likewise, unless you wear any type of armor you must succeed at hourly Fortitude saves or become fatigued.
You also know Akiton suffered an economic crash when the revelation of Drift technology rendered the numerous pre-Drift fuels mined on Akiton virtually worthless.
Akiton is generally lawless, except for whatever laws a local authority might impose. Akiton survives on trade and commerce. Strangers find loyalty hard to come by, especially in the big cities.
Newcomers are consequently likely to be observed and watched, especially if an organization believes it can take advantage of the strangers. If Talbot acted or did anything at all out of the ordinary, someone is likely to have noticed. To avoid being found, it is unlikely he stayed in Maro for more than a few days.
Wealth is hard to come by on Akiton. If Talbot fled to the red planet, he did so for a reason. It’s likely the ex-Starfinder had a plan, and that plan involved gaining a large number of credits. Given Akiton’s unstable economy, such a surge should be identifiable for those who “follow the money.”
My intended character is tied up in a delayed scenario, so I'll need to make a new one. I should have it up tomorrow.
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A young man with a grin as wide as a starship walks up, holding up a vidpad, constantly recording. "Dear viewers! Here we are on another epic adventure for the Starfinders! Last episode, we fulfilled several smaller missions for the leaders of the Starfinders' various factions, including souping up a junkracer and grabbing a copy of the amazing new album from Strawberry Machine Cake (which is the soundtrack to this video, consequently)! This episode, I think we'll be seeing even more action and adventure! Let's meet the stars of our episode, the Starfinders themselves!"
Sebrir turns the camera on each of his fellow Starfinders in turn, asking their names, and for a bit of exciting information about them so that his viewers can get to know them better.
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The android known as Blake-03 is hairless and has had many of the superficial facial features removed from his chassis. He gives Sebrir a doll's eye stare when asked to introduce himself.
"Blake. Third iteration. I was originally built to serve as an assassination unit," he answers.
He elects to stand when invited into the office and listens attentively.
"He'd be a stranger in Maro. So he's probably gone, but it's a good place to get information."
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“Good question, but the answer is complicated because it’s actually two questions: what the artifact is and what Talbot thinks it is. We’re operating under the assumption that Talbot thinks he’s stolen an object from old Golarion called a philosopher’s stone. Legend has it that the stone could transmute matter, among other properties. What Talbot actually stole was recently re-cataloged as a charlatan’s stone. It does something similar, except the effect is a potent illusion and only temporary. We think ancient con artists used to make false gold.”
He pulls up an image of Talbot.
“He’s smart, capable, a bit brash, and a reasonable field agent. Talbot is also self-entitled and ambitious. After the Scoured Stars incident, he expected to be promoted to venture-captain, but the Forum felt he needed more time. He got angry. We think this theft is retaliation.”
He thinks a bit more about the planet.
"It would be smart to make sure you some way of coping with the thin atmousphere, or some armor. Any armor, even the lighter sets, offsets the difference.”
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You board a commercial flight for Akiton, and make it there without any difficulty.
Outside the observation windows floats Akiton, a world the color of blood, rust, and red clay. A thick shell of white caps both poles. The shuttle descends toward the planet, and a barely perceptible shift in gravity occurs as the ship’s artificial gravity begins to lessen and the planet’s natural gravity begins to take hold.
From suborbital heights, a handful of small towns, large complexes, and industrial sites that spew noxious fumes into the thin atmosphere surround the trench city of Maro. A spidery web of dirt roads scratched into the rust-colored ground by regular traffic connects these sites to the metropolis.
Maro, the so-called City of Lights itself, comes into view as the ship begins its final descent. The city occupies more of a vertical space than horizontal, built into a six-mile-long section of trench that is half as deep and a half mile wide. Entire neighborhoods and business districts are built into the walls, accessed by patio entrances. Lights, neon signs, and holographic advertising bejewel either side of this urban canyon, while an active spaceport and industrial zones occupy the ground level. As the shuttle lands, it does so beneath the backdrop of an immense mural of brightly glowing neon-green graffiti that reads in Common: “Git Out! Planet’s Broke!”
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The young lashunta peers down at Maro through the window of the ship as they land, her antennae waving gently as she takes in the sight. Remi sends telepathically to the other three, {I am no thief-catching expert, but I'm guessing that interviewing random strangers to find out if they've seen Talbot is not the way to go.}
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The team boards the next bus for Tasch. The cost is low, and the Starfinder society is more than happy to cover such incidental expenses. The journey takes a couple of hours, and drops you off a little outside of the town limits. What you see doesn't exactly inspire confidence.
A long dusty road, lined with single-story dwellings, runs through the town of Tasch. Some powered vehicles rest chained to their owner’s homes. A small general store stands near the center of town, illuminated by flickering white lights. Another building, full of locals, hosts a signpost that reads “Digger’s Dive”—clearly the town bar. Although the sun beats down on this desert town, its citizens meander around the bar in good cheer. Most are ysoki and humans, with the occasional lumbering four armed shobhad mingling among them.
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Digger’s Dive is a single-story structure built using imported wood. There are no windows, but there are small rectangular openings in the exterior walls at ceiling height to allow for ventilation. The front entrance is a swinging waist-high wooden half-door. The ceiling is 15 feet high and strung with dim electric lights which provide dim light.
Faint electric lights dangle from the ceiling, while the open sky is visible from cracks between the planks that serve as a roof. The floor is solid wood. The interior walls and ceiling supports are mud brick, the latter being carved in a rare attempt at ornamentation. The tavern is divided in two halves by an energy field with an opening on the northern end. The bar lining the southern wall is open to either side, with a wall of half-empty bottles behind it. The tables are wooden and makeshift, but solid. The east end has square wooden platform about a foot above the floor. Two sets of double doors are built into the northern and southern walls on the west end, both ajar. A single closed door provides an exit behind the west end of the bar.
Behind the bar is a Ysoki, serving drinks.
As Sebrir moves into the tavern, to ask about Talbot the man he talks to raises a glass and the whole tavern shouts "To Talbot!"
You notice a couple of out of place characters in the bar. You see a shirren and two vesk bodyguards in the corner of the bar.
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Remi moves forward casually so she's within 30 feet of Sebrir and the others, and sends to them a message: {There's a shirren with bodyguards sitting in the corner. I'll keep an eye on them, so go on asking about Talbot.} She crosses to the northern side of the room and faces towards the bar so she can see if the bodyguards make a move.
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Sebrir continues to chat up the clientele of the drinking establishment, trying to get some information on where Talbot may be spending his days.
"You're all friends of Talbot, it would seem! Excellent! We're here to find him and congratulate him on his excellent work! Do you all know where we might find him?"
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Indeed Talbot is the talk of the town. Apparently he has discovered a way to transmute thasteron (which is mined locally) into a more marketable fuel.
"Been working the old thasteron mine again, like the good old days" notes one old timer.
It is not hard at all to get directions to the mine where it appears the man himself directs operations.
One of the Vesk in the corner saunters over to Sebrir.
The hulking brute suggests "My employer Mr Philt requests the pleasure of your company"
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When Remi sees the Vesk approach the others, she walks up behind Oboyaza in time to hear his question. "I think there's no harm in speaking with the gentleman, to find out what he wants."
She adds privately, {Don't mention that the stone is a fake. It seems like a lot of these people have benefited from it, and they might get upset. We should keep that information to ourselves for now.}
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"Greetings!" smiles the Shirren. "I am Mr Philt, and I am here to represent AbadarCorp!"
"You must have heard of us. My people couldn't but overhear your talking about Mr Talbot... and we are curious about your interests in the man."
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"The issue is not so much finding him as extracting him.." sighs the Shirren.
"He is a bit of a favorite here, with bringing such prosperity to the town. I believe I have located his rough...area of abode. I'd be willing to share this information in return for having you hand him over to me once you are done with him..."