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After resting on Absalom Station between missions, you receive an urgent summons from Guidance. REPORT TO VENTURE-CAPTAIN ARVIN AT THE LORESPIRE COMPLEX AT ONCE. MISSION AVAILABLE.
After traveling through the grounds of the home of the Starfinder Society, you end up in a quiet waiting room. The half-orc secretary greets you kindly and explains that the VC is currently briefing another group. "Please take a seat over there." You soon find yourself seated with five other Starfinders.
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The Dwarf entered the room reading something in an actual book.
He appeared to be a typical representative of his race, squat and heavily muscled. he wore an holy symbol of beaten silver around his neck, and was wearing heavy armor, which meant that he avoided taking a seat and instead leaned against the wall, continuing to flip through his book while he waited for the briefing.
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A silvery skinned android saunters into the room. Seeing Tog leaned up against the wall he quips, "Hey whatdaya think? Arvins so cheep he needs you to hold up the walls? I've never been so insulted in my life?! Just kidding, I bet you're great in a fight! he turns to the venture captain, "So when do we eat?". Flexnaught slips casually into one of the chairs.
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The doctor arrives in his preferred outfit of black fatigues that comfortably carry his various tools. However unlike your typical medical professional he carries a rifle on his back and surveys his surroundings with a calculating eye (a cybernetic one at that).
When he is told to wait he nods quietly and takes his seat.
"Drift, begin auto-recording routines." he says quietly before turning to his new associates.
"Did any of you receive more than the usual ever so urgent summons?" he questions the others not introducing himself however it appears his name-tag is still attached to his chest: Dr. Mavrik Drix, Cybernetic Specialist.
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A professional-looking lashunta strolls into the waiting room. He regards the other arrivals while listening to the secretary defer the group for now.
"Yes, of course. It's only ever urgent. It seems this career is quite insistent on pulling me along where I at first thought it was just going to be a temporary gig as I got my tech career back on track. But that's another story, and not necessarily of immediate interest."
Suddenly noticing the Doctor's name-tag he remembers himself.
"My name is Sefel. I do software, technology and mix in some arcane arts. Please to meet you all."
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Jan strolls in the room proceeded by the clump of heavily armored boots. The soldier was dressed in his usual battered heavy armor, dull grey and festooned with pouches holding the various accoutrements for his profession, mostly grenades and ammunition for his heavy reaction cannon.
The full face helmet of his armor was off, clipped to his belt revealing a young and scarred face, good natured smile planted on it as he walked in. 3 day stubble on his cheeks leading past friendly blue eyes to 3 day stubble on his head.
His armor, in addition to old dents and scars, well patched, contained a few suspicious burn marks that looked relatively new.
Looking at the usual eclectic collection of fellow agents, the soldier smiles and says. "Greetings. I'm Jan. They said paying work, so here I am."
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The doctor finally realizes he did not properly introduce himself after the others do so.
"Dr. Mavrik Drix but since you aren't seeing me about cybernetics you can call me Drift if you prefer, quicker in a tight situation at least." he adds to the group and then turns to Jan.
"If the Starfinders are good for one thing it is prompt payment and mostly legal work." he says with a smile.
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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.” He then darkens the display to give his full attention.
“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. Those of you who have met Arvin before recognize that he is serious about this.
“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.”
You know basic information about the Pact World of Akiton. It is smaller than the Golarion standard with ×1/3 gravity and a thin atmosphere. This means non-acclimated people, like you, can jump three times as high and carry three times the normal weight, although you 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.”
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Arvin looks to Drift with a smile. "His file lists no known connections on Akiton. Of course, our data isn't perfect, but I expect he is working on his own. Unless he used the artifact for some foolhardy plan." He shrugs his shoulders and continues. "As for Akiton, it has a thin atmosphere, and we don’t have the luxury of giving you weeks to get used to it. It would be smart to make sure you some way of coping with it, or some armor. Any armor, even the lighter sets, offsets the difference.”
The venture-captain then turns to Jan with a serious expression. "I want the stone back. Talbot’s not worth the expense of dragging back here, so you can do whatever you think is necessary with him. That said, you don’t have a license to go on a mass killing spree. Don’t make the Society look bad. It might be tough to do on Akiton, but don’t take that as a challenge." He looks at each of you individually, making sure everyone knows he means business.
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Arvin looks at Flexnaught with the smile of a proud teacher. "“Good question. Taking on a mission without full understanding is reckless." He pauses a moment to think, then continues. "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 laughs, setting his hands down on the desk. "Talbot is smart, capable, a bit brash, and a reasonable field agent. He 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. Maybe he hopes to use the stone.”
As Sefel asks his question, the captain grabs his datapad. "Hotspots? Other than the whole planet?" He mutters absentmindedly, obviously searching for something on the computer. "Ask around when you land in Maro. The locals should be able to point you towards the low-life's. Ha!" He jabs at his screen. "I found the safest spaceport near Maro. Just sent it to you all."
He sets down the datapad with a sigh. "Thank you Starfinders, make haste."
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After a few hours to prepare, the group reconvenes at the ship. Settling into your favorite spot on the standard Starfinder vessel, you get ready for lift-off. After a couple days in the Drift, your shuttle goes back to regular space, 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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I'm not the smoothest talker, but I can check some of the online markets to see if he's putting out feelers to sell his artifact. Or perhaps he's posted questions somewhere requesting help in using it.
Sefel taps away on his datapad, checking search engines, local artifact message boards, local classified boards, markets, auctions and the like for traces of Talbot.
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Jan draws upon his professional background as a mercenary. The android uses their capacity to sift through information sources, like interplanetary news outlets and hiring websites, to find clues on Talbot’s whereabouts.
He discovers a strange anomaly brought up on the mercenary boards. AbadarCorp, the largest corporation in the Pact Worlds, recently purchased a large amount of Drift engine fuel from the nearby town of Tasch. Mercs have been flocking there, eager to cash in on some less dangerous work.
While the discovery of Drift engine fuel on Akiton is impressive, the fact that the AbadarCorp fleet that purchased the fuel is 2 days overdue for departure suggests something is likely amiss with the delivery.
Sefel and Drift work hard on the computers, but come up with very little. Drift does find a map of Maro, and of the planet. But very little of interest shows up on it, nothing that could lead to Talbot. Sefel searches the news outlets, but there is a conspicuous absence of news surrounding a man with a Philosopher's Stone. He must be laying low, or particularly clever.
Tog continues to greet the local humans with, "Hey there, red feller!" They don't seem to appreciate it, and ignore him.
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Drift, with help from the rest of the group, asks around about Talbot. Thankfully, you know Talbot’s time of arrival and the specific shuttle he flew in on, so you have a solid starting point from which to poke around. He soon discovers that Talbot departed to small mining town called Tasch a few miles outside of Maro.
Now that you have determined where Talbot headed off to, you can head to the nearby mining town of Tasch. Getting transportation to Tasch is not difficult, only taking an hour to find a dune buggy for rent. The Starfinder Society pays for your travel expenses, so you get the luxury model! (All four wheels included!)
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The elongated dune buggy transports the group from Maro into the red dunes of Akiton’s surface. The journey only takes two hours, with the buggy driver stopping just outside the city limits to let you off, before continuing to other peripheral towns.
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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You approach the center of the town’s social life, the bar! 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.
Passing through the door, you are assaulted with the smell of spilled bourbon, sweat and dried blood. 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. Through the backdoor hums a power generator and water condenser which keep the bar running.
As you enter, a loud cheer rings out from the several miners and their families who occupy the bar. "Huzzah!" A female ysoki slings drinks behind the bar, calling out to you. "Hey there strangers! Come to share in our good fortune?"