This is GM Lupulus's SFS 1-09 Live Exploration Extreme!
It's part of PbP Gameday VII - Extreme!
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Slender and dressed in a rugged and plainly cut ensemble of pale green trousers and vest over a plain white shirt, a damaya lashunta takes a seat in the waiting room, one leg crossed over the other. A black booted foot rocks up and down nervously as she occupies herself browsing the Infosphere using her comms unit.
Of pale complexion, silvery-blue swirls spiral out above her brows to her temples, where her medium length dark hair is gathered back in a haphazard bun.
A laser pistol is holstered on one side of her belt, while a knife is sheathed on the other. A stylised spaceship is delicately emblazoned on the knife's sheath. She also carries a small satchel, slung over a shoulder, and embroidered with motifs of curative plants and serpents entwined around winged staves.
|
Kallus gives the woman a rare smile. "I can keep time with the tapping of your foot. You're spooked about something. You fidget with the Infosphere, yet you are constantly looking around. Perhaps my job frightens you? You have nothing to fear from me. Vidloggers exposing bad corporate practices is not in my price range."
|
|
Saeron glances down and her foot abruptly ceases its tapping. Oh, very smooth! she chides herself.
"I am always nervous before a mission," she replies, returning her attention to Kallus. "The adrenaline helps prepare me for whatever might lie ahead."
"Your job?" Searon asks, bemused. What's that got to do with anyth- Her thought cuts off and she blinks as Kallus mentions details of her recent past. How'd he know about that? she wonders momentarily.
She winces inwardly. Of course! The realisation brings with it a wry shake of her head as she looks at the comm unit held in her hand. I best be more careful...
"Ah, a bounty hunter," she concludes at his mention of price range. Oh gods!, she briefly panics.
She licks at her lips with the tip of her tongue. "I trust our mutual duties edge any minor monetary matters?" she ventures, unable to keep the sound of a question from her statement.
|
|
Saeron nods and is surprised to find she'd been holding her breath.
Relaxing slightly, she opens her mouth to respond but the words are lost, her eyes wide with surprise, as Kallus speaks directly to her mind.
She takes a brief moment to recover from her shock before responding in kind. "I do," she replies telepathically to the man. "It seems I have a lot to learn of this agent business."
"It is unusual for a human to be... telepathically attuned," Saeron ventures aloud. "I don't imagine it is typical training for a bounty hunter?"
|
|
Kallus shakes his head. "We all do." He had dealt with lashunta before, but this one was different. "No, it is definitely not standard training for bounty hunting, but it does come in handy. Though, I suppose there really isn't standard training for being a bounty hunter, you just, do it." He pauses for a moment, his hand going to the stubble on his chin. "You could be one too, though a steadier foot might help. You ever been in a firefight Saeron?"
|
|
Saeron nods in understanding at Kallus' words. She laughs in genuine amusement at the thought of her being a bounty hunter. "Somehow I don't see that as a future career option."
Her brows raise. "What does your readout tell you?" she teases with a smirk. After brief pause, her face more serious, Saeron answers softly, "Only a few. I've found them to be... traumatic." She appears to be momentarily lost in recollection.
|
|
A blue, almost entirely robotic looking android walks into the room and takes a seat. "Greetings fellow Starfinders. I have given myself the designation Code 34 Blue, although you can call me any of those three words separately for short if you'd like. My skills include energy weapons, computers, and engineering, although my specific specialty is security systems." he says as he taps the obvious cranial implant on the side of his head.
|
|
Kallus grins. "Not enough apparently. " Looking at the newcomer, he flicks his fingers over the datapad to change screens. "I think Blue should be sufficient. Have a seat," he says, indicating the chair near him and Saeron. Looking back to the lashunta woman, he says, "Let's just hope this run won't be as.. traumatic. " Kallus pats the pistol on his hip.
|
|
In walks an average height lashunta, dark black hair cropped around her jaw. Light blue spirals on her face almost accentuate the bright green eyes they surround. Her deeply tanned skin shows her penchant for field work. "Hello all. I am Levylissa Li Lilley, but feel free to call me Levylissa; my students do." She takes a seat next to the very inorganic android, taking a definite interest. "And hello to you. I've seen many androids in my time, but none as interesting as you."
|
|
The lashunta inclines her head toward the android. "It is nice to meet you Blue." She shuffles over a little in her seat to make sure there is room for him to join them. Smiling, she continues, "That is quite a list of skills; we are lucky to be assigned with you."
"I hope you are right," Saeron replies telepathically to Kallus, wrapping up their earlier conversation.
Saeron looks over at the sound of the door opening, surprised to see the latest arrival, albeit darker of complexion, shares more than a passing resemblance. "Well met Levylissa Li Lilley," she replies telepathically with more formality to the other lashunta. "I am Saeron Kasari. Please join us," she indicates a vacant chair.
The office you are all gathered in is aboard a modest Starfinder transport ship. Your destination is the Exemplarion, the personal luxury space yacht of Zo! the undead media mogul some of you may have already met. You all basically know this has to do with a return to the moon "Salvation's End", and Luwazi Ezebo the First Seeker herself is going to meet you aboard Zo!'s ship.
A low-level clerk type enters the meeting room you are gathered and greets you all. "Um thank you all for coming. Luwazi is already waiting for you aboard the Exemplarion, we are about to dock and then you can go straight from here to meet with her and Zo!." He is prepared to lead you to the docking port so you can transfer over to Zo!'s yacht.
|
|
Saeron continues in polite discussion with her companions as they await further instruction. She turns at the clerk's arrival and, smiling uncertainly to Kallus, stands to greet the man.
Her cheeks colour at the mention of Zo! and her features set in determination. "Let's go meet the First Seeker." And find out what this is all about...
The clerk escorts you all to the docking portal, and you make your way aboard Zo!'s personal yacht, the Exemplarion.
Zo! is a huge deal in system-wide media, and I guarantee this is the most posh, over-the-top luxurious spacecraft you have ever been aboard. It has six decks with a spa, casino, and no less than three restaurants, accommodating well over 100 guests and employees of the undead media mogul.
Zo! is Eoxian, and most of his staff aboard the Exemplarion are undead too. A skeletal servant takes the PCs on an unofficial tour as you make your way past all the opulence. He brings you eventually to the production studio, and on the stage you see Zo! animatedly telling a story to your own First Seeker Luwazi Elsebo. Luwazi notices your arrival and waves you over to join them.
“Yes. Yes! You’re everything I was hoping for,” exclaims the undead showman while looking over the new arrivals. “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?”
|
|
Saeron walks in wide-eyed silence as she takes in the abundance aboard the Exemplarion. Her stride falters momentarily and her breath catches when she spies the First Seeker and Zo! on the stage. She loiters toward the rear of the group as they approach the stage.
She gasps in surprise. "An artifical moon?" she murmurs, before quickly covering her mouth with a hand. She pales as the explanations continue. A film crew? Saeron winces, A live broadcast!? she licks nervously at her lips with her tongue. Oh gods...
Her mind racing, she is briefly unable to respond, leaving the initial queries to her companions.
|
|
Kallus leaves the room silently after returning Saeron's smile. Once the initial briefing is over, he only shakes his head. He was used to dealing with undead, he spoke Eoxian after all. This one was odd though. "I suppose these camera crew are armed and combat trained? Our jobs are difficult enough without having to babysit your crew. May I suggest camera drones?"
|
|
Levylissa lights up at the mention of the artificial planetoid. After all, this is her stock in trade. "This is so exciting. I have been on many explorations in my time, but never anything of this scale. I am so glad you have requested the crew, as documentation of a find like this is crucial. We don't want to do any sloppy science with a once-in-a-lifetime find."
After a moment of reveling in her excitement, she recalls one key fact that the First Seeker mentioned. "You made mention that the Starfinders discovered this planetoid. Who went and what have they done so far? It would be a shame if they compromised the site before we could even see it for ourselves." At this Levylissa starts pacing around the room with a mixture of nervous excitement and dread.
"Yeah. Thanks," Mordin says, brusquely, to the ghast. "What do we know about the place so far?"
Luwazi explains, “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.”
Zo! thinks he remembers seeing at least one of you before. He looks at Saeron "Oh I remember you from that party! Wonderful to see you again, some kind of blogger? About trees or something? But tell me, I don't suppose that other lashunta girl is with you as well? SHE was amazing, had all the workings of a star in the rising! But don't worry my dear, we'll make a famous star out of you too!"
"I suppose these camera crew are armed and combat trained? Our jobs are difficult enough without having to babysit your crew. May I suggest camera drones?"
Zo! wildly shakes his hands at Kallus's question. "Heavens no! The production crew are present only for documentation purposes. YOU all are the stars of this show! Our crew is expressly forbidden from interfering."
The ghoul Wazasha responds more dryly "Our agreement in financing this enterprise and many others in the Starfinder Society comes with the stipulation that we have unhindered access to production rights regarding this exploration mission."
Zo! adds in "It'll be LIVE! It'll be EXTREME!"
Luwazi sighs. "Do your best to keep them safe. If any disruption comes to this production it could negatively impact the Society's future fundings."
|
|
Zo! thinks he remembers seeing at least one of you before. He looks at Saeron "Oh I remember you from that party! Wonderful to see you again, some kind of blogger? About trees or something? But tell me, I don't suppose that other lashunta girl is with you as well? SHE was amazing, had all the workings of a star in the rising! But don't worry my dear, we'll make a famous star out of you too!"
Saeron notices Zo! looking in her direction and grimaces, before reluctantly stepping out from behind her poor attempt at concealment, her face colouring, as he addresses her. Why couldn't it be the gnome!? She might have been crotchetty, but at least I made a good impression on her!
"Hello again, Zo!" she greets the media mogul somewhat perfunctorially, the exclamation in name only and not a sign of enthusiasm.
"Yes, that's right," her brows lift in genuine surprise at his recollection of her. "Rare botanical specimens and other interesting flora and fauna encountered as part of my research on Castrovel," she adds, her confidence buoyed. Maybe I didn't make such a bad impression, afterall.
Saeron's hopefulness proves short-lived, as Zo! turns to praising Telwyn's exploits. "Yes. Yes, she was great," she replies, sighing, a little dispirited.
"No, no. Thanks, it's fine," she declines his offer of stardom. "We have a job to do; that's more than enough. I'm looking forward to documenting our discoveries."
At least he remembered you, she consoles herself.
|
|
A rather dirty looking ysoki stumbles in from another room - he appears to be in a rush but not concentrating on where he's going. He's examining a small robotic device through a occular magnification augmentation. He bumps into Zo! from behind and looks up in surprise.
"Ah I made it. Zo! - I remember you. Bad business but we kept the Seeker alive so I guess that was a win!
He removes his augmentation from his eye and tucks it away along with his unidentifiable device. He looks around at all the other Starfinders.
"Fidorius Nixit at your service! Most people just call me Fixit though. Whatever suits. So... What did I miss?
After getting caught up, Fixit asks some questions of his own...
"So do we have a particular destination in mind? We are just heading through his door come what may? What about the camera crew? Are they tagging along behind a couple hundred feet? or are they going to be all up in our faces as if I was wearing that magnification augment?"
|
|
Saeron turns to the late arrival, nodding her head and smiling politely in Fidorius' direction. "It's good to have you along for the ride, Fixit."
Having regained some measure of composure, Saeron adds several questions of her own to the briefing. "First Seeker, what can you tell us of these areas where the gravity reorients itself? Is there anything of note about this goblin tribe?"
|
|
Levylissa listens intensely to the questions from the others and just has to interject at the mention of the goblins, "These goblins may be an invaluable resource of knowledge if we could possibly speak with them. Any information you could provide us with in regards to them would help us immensely, First Seeker."
Luwazi responds "These goblins - Exhaust Dreinker tribe - are at best a pest, and have been actiovely tearing the site apart. They are hostile and will likely attack you on site, seeing you as competition for their destructive salvage operation. Like I said, we've taken measures to clear them out of the landing zone - and I don't mean we brought in our goblin cultural liason..."
Some of these recruits can seem so naive...
Wazasha fields some more of the questions about the crew and setting. "This production is themed as an exciting exploration into the unknown. We expect action, and the crew will be where they must to catch the action. We hope for your cooperation in presenting a quality production with excitement and enthusiasm for our system-wide ausience."
Luwazi doesn't have many specifics about the strange gravity. "The gravity will be approximately normal most places on the surface, and given the size of the "moon" we believe it must be artificial, and we do see variances and sudden changes. It is part of the mystery you must unravel once you get inside. We have already selected what we believe to be your best entry point, beyond that is what you are all here for."
Zo! excitedly clasps his undead hands together. "Splendid! If there are no further questions at this time, Wazasha will see you to your shuttle, but Fixit, Mordin, and Saeron please follow me first! I always have some exciting opportunities for some old friends!"
Wazasha leads the others to the shuttle bay, where the undead crews are preparing and chatting. If you have any questions for them they seem friendly enough for a horde of zombies.
If Fixit, Mordin and/or Saeron follow Zo!, he leads them to an adjacent room where a table displays several high end weapons and armor, with extra labeling and marketing slogans visible.
"I get sponsorship offers all the time; usually I feel they ruin the authenticity of an operation like this, but for you guys I will make an exception. If any of the gear here looks useful, ploease feel free to use it!"
One main sponsor is Nova Solutions LLC, a family-owned half-orc company that specializes in frontier-ready weaponry able to stop even the toughest alien life form in its tracks. It’s sent in several new flame, laser, and plasma weapons from its new Scorched Earth product line, advertised with the motto “Why end a fight when you can end a planet?”
The other main sponsor is Clashwear, the Verces-based producer of comfortably armored clothing that’s on the bleeding edge of Pact Worlds fashion. The high-end stationwear sent covers everything from the stylishly casual to the glamorously eccentric, all created by the wildly popular shirren designer Neshkuay I with the tagline “Dressed to Express.” Additional equipment by less noteworthy companies is also available.
PC's with high society invluence (Zo!) can pick up two pieces of gear here for use during this adventure.
Armor: Basic iridishell (heavy armor), business stationwear (light armor)
Weapons: 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)
|
|
Kallus muttered something about "...glorified underpaid well-armed babysitters..", but he lets the matter drop, staying silent the rest of the meeting, only half smiling when Mordin mentioned his solution to the issue of the goblins. He busied himself looking for something, anything really, he could use against Zo as leverage, should it become necessary.
He eyed Zo warily as he took some of his companions to another room. Sighing and shaking his head, he boards the shuttle and checks his weapons. It was going to be a long mission.
|
|
Saeron follows Zo! somewhat reluctantly, uncertain what to expect. So much for keeping a low profile! A film crew! She shakes her head.
She casts an eye over the array of weapons on display, a faint look of distaste on her face. Her expression changes to one of surprise, then consideration, as she makes her way toward a particularly stylish ensemble, with a hint of flare. Maybe this will do the trick...
Picking up the suit, Saeron turns, looking for somewhere to change, and notices a smaller pistol hidden beneath the larger weaponry. Inexperienced with firearms, she tests the balance, unsure exactly what she is looking for. On a whim, she decides to drop it atop the garments draped over her arm.