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In even the most recent years, ordinarily new Starfinder agents were posted missions on either Absalom station direct, or within its immediate vicinity.
However due to recent events, this can no-longer be the case. Following on from reports of more experienced agents, the follow-up missions are now being issued, and you suspect this is what you have been assigned.
To-date your only communique to this regard has been a rather cryptic message from "Guidance" which was;
"Hello agents, I have got your next assignment ready for you. Please attend my location at the Lorespire complex as soon as possible."
Once you have arrived, you will have time to mingle with the other agents summoned, and to have a chance to find out more about each other!
Lets have some quick intros and any interesting talking points please people!
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Jackojare walks in, Hi, how you doing, I'll be right over here working on a project. Feel free to ask me any questions
You see Jackojare putting together junkyard pieces he found out of a junkyard, thrown out scraps of metal, discarded batteries with little juice left and ten minutes later he has built a shock grenade. He then loads his shock grenade into his grenade launcher. Was an empty gun, but not any more.
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From out in the hall way, "What in the sam hell did you call me in for? Is this a baby sittin mission. I am a scout, I belong ahead of everyone and on my own. Fine...fine..I'll play along."
A tall human male walks into the room, carrying a long rifle down by his side. A pistol rest on his free handed side in a thigh holster, modified to hold a knife on the side of it. He wears travel clothes over some light weight armor.
He moves over to an empty seat and throws himself in it. "Nice potato gun you got there." He says looking over at the grenade launcher.
"I'm John Joseph Oaklie. But you can just call me J.J."
An insect-shaped drone hovers near the shirren.
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Kastien looked about and smiled at all of the ranged weaponry arrayed around him. It would be the perfect complement to his own in-their-face fighting style. The pulse gauntlet on his hip bounced gently as he waved to everyone, then found a place. The korasha's stockier form was on par with that of most humans, and gave him an edge in combat. A fist-sized ball of blue-white energy orbited his head.
The lashunta was surprised to see a pair of shirren in the room. Kastien knew that more and more shirren were joining the Starfinders, but he hadn't seen two at once in a small room like this. He marveled at their differences.
"Hello all! My name's Kastien. And a pleasure it is to be grouped with you lot for this mission...whatever it is."
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A male human with light brown skin, bright white hair and matching close cut beard walks into the room. For those of you familiar with humans, he is obviously into his elder years. He is packing a variety of gear including a set of pistols at his waist and a stungun in a shoulder holster.
He introduces himself, "hello there, I'm Alejandro. It's excellent to get word of another mission so quick. The last one was quite an enjoyable experience."
Smoothly continuing, "so I'm decent with a pistol but I'm a lot better at talking my way out of a fight or getting people to back down. I've got a bit of knowledge when it comes to the less savory parts of the world, but hopefully we can avoid them completely..." he trails off and seems unlikely to provide further information about his past.
Offering a brisk handshake, he moves around the group.
"That's a nice skill there. I've got a couple grenades, but they are only for last resort. If you've got the skill to use them well, then I'm happy to have you here."
"J.J., good to meet you. I doubt this will be babysitting. So far I've had to do a lot more fighting than I ever expected on these runs, but it's been worth it for the outcomes."
"Greetings K'Klacklun. Glad to have you with us." He looks intently at the buzzing creature hovering nearby, "is that... a drone?"
He offers a strong handshake to Kastien, "pleasure is mine of course, you seem to be a strapping gent. I'm guessing you like to get all close and personal when things go bad?"
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The bank of jet black computers against the far wall starts whirring faster and faster. Suddenly a golden light bathes the room, as a holographic projection of an amorpheous figure appears in the centre.
”Hello Starfinder’s to those of you who haven’t met me previously, I am Guidance. Please pay attention as this, is your mission.
One of the Pact Worlds’ most prestigious organizations recently discovered a dataset detailing the location of an outpost abandoned over two hundred years ago. The organization has requested that the Starfinder Society dispatch a team of agents to secure the site, along with any remaining equipment or data. Your team will travel to this outpost and retrieve as much information about it as possible. You should also salvage any relevant equipment, which the Society will take as part of its payment. If you have questions, now is the time to present them.”
Simultaneously to this, a stream of data starts shooting down one of Guidance’s main screens with data detailing the outpost
” “Finally for this assignment, you have been authorized use of a Drake or a Pegasus starship. Both starship frames can complete this assignment.
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Alejandro makes sure there are navigation coordinates in the data packet and then downloads it to review on the way. He pipes up, "Hello Guidance, nice to finally meet. Are you allowed to answer what organization discovered this dataset and what their interests might be in hiring us to investigate?"
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"Do we know the contents of the outpost, or at least the complement that was there originally? What can we expect of environmental conditions? Are there unusual lifeforms?"
Kastien was excited about the possibility of seeing new lifeforms on a new planet. It was the primary reason he became a Starfinder after all.
"I am partial to the Drake class. More firepower, and I have been quite comfortable in the captain's chair of many of those."
It doesn't take much to realize Kastien has never captained a spacecraft before, though he is eager to try.
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The hologram turns to regard you all once more;
”Answering the questions in turn; Who discovered the outpost? That would be AbadarCorp. It is the largest corporation in the Pact Worlds and has many subsidiaries underneath it. The outpost was one of many sponsored by AbadarCorp during the post-Drift colonization rush”
“In terms of the outpost; “It is a prefabricated modular outpost made by Veylen Enterprises. These outpost models used to be quite common. However, the presence of unfamiliar modifications is very possible.”
“The planet itself is fairly hospitable, with normal gravity and a breathable atmosphere. However the planet itself is overall disruptive to modern technology, perhaps part of why the outpost failed? Beyond the environment of the planet, it is unknown what threats may exist at the outpost. You should prepare for many possibilities, such as pirates, large predators, hostile native cultures, or supernatural events.”
“Finally a note on any natives, there is limited data, in fact no data available on what if any natives exist. Therefore as ever, please endeavour to make peaceful first contact if required.”
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Alejandro plays along with Kastien, "ah yes, the Captain's chair is most often the most comfortable to sit in."
He smiles, "and you seem like a chipper enough fellow to handle the boring duties of said chair. I'm sure with your experience you know that Captaincy isn't really that glorious. You pretty much just sit there and try to keep our spirits up as the ship gets pounded with weapon fire."
Looking to the hologram he nods, "thank you for the briefing and additional intelligence, we will do our best."
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The older human adds as they walk to the ship's berth, "I usually end up in a secondary gunner's seat or engineering, though I'm not exactly spectacular at either. But, in my experience, you can never shoot enough guns or restore enough shields. In a pinch too, I can also pilot from point A to B, but usually there is some Ace in our crews who can do better in combat."
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Finally, after a few days travel through the inky black of space, the final destination of the newly minted team of Starfinder agents comes into view.
It spans the whole of the starships main viewscreen, and just as you all rush to the bridge to admire the view the alarms star to blare.
As you watch the planet slowly grow in the viewscreen, you see something, that frankly you thought was the stuff of nightmares - animals that large, should NOT be able to exist in space.
Yet, there it is, what looks like a glowing whale, with extra spikes, twine rows of teeth in a mouth that could swallow a shuttle whole.
It has a large row of spines running down its back, with a flickering green shell looking to be made out of energy around it.
You guys don't need to dive straight into combat with it, you can do anything your characters would do - however, I do want an initiatve roll, right at the end of everything else, we will resolve RP first, and if that fails into combat we go
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Alejandro zero's in the screen on the space whale nightmare creature, "um... no I have not. I uh, don't think anyone has. Let's hope that has nothing to do with the possibility that no one has survived to report it."
He looks around at the crew, "does uhm... anyone want to try to talk to it? Maybe a comm signal at least?"
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After fighting off the Besmaran Whelp, your shuttle leaves the primary shuttle-bay, and starts its slow descent towards the planet. As your vessel starts picking up more and more readings, as you approach, you notice that there are several sections of the planets surface that you can’t scan through. There would appear to be energy storms ravaging the surface, but with no discernible pattern, they swim across the planet at random.
There is a part of this storm directly over the site of the abandoned outpost (or the co-ordinates you have for it) so you will have to land a few miles away and walk it in on foot.
The shuttle sets down without any problems, and as you walk towards the outposts co-ordinates, you find a village of the native inhabitants. The village is small, with just under 40 basic structures, and there is technology present, but not to the level of the pact-worlds. For example, basic gas powered vehicles, rudimentary electricity and the like.
As you pass by the village, two of the more adventurous natives approach the party and start waving towards you and gesturing towards themselves, whilst talking in a language you can’t comprehend. They are waving at the sky, and waving back at you.
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Yes, it is called shoot first and ask questions later. Oh wait a second, only if we can see that they have weapons on them. But that is a good universal greeting. Then pauses for a moment Just kidding, it is bad enough us Shirrens are discriminated against, no need to make it worse. Send in a non Shirren first. as Jackojare tries to keep a straight face before saying the just kidding part.
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When he saw the natives, Kastien opted to go ahead and absorb his mote, which had the effect of covering his entire body with what appeared to be blue-white crackles of electricity.
Then, he bowed slightly to the natives and spoke in common, hoping to begin the communication process.
"Our peaceful greetings to you. I am Kastien and these are my friends. We are explorers, here to chart your world and the places upon it. We mean no harm to you or yours."
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You get the feeling that none of your words have been understand
The natives continue to make the same gestures but now more slowly and with more exaggerages movements l, almost as if they think you are all a little dim.
You get the feeling diplomacy won’t work until you have figured out a means of sharing each other’s language, or at least you being able to understand their gestures and building on it from there
Linguistics if anyone has it, or a really good idea roleplayed out if not
The drone hovers over to another native and revs it's motorized wing-actuators as if issuing an invitation to race.
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Alejandro rolls his eyes a bit and mumbles, "I gotta get that translator system next time I'm home."
Walking forward he waves his hands to get their attention then begins slowly. First, he points to himself and says "Alejandro." Then he points at them and says, "you are?"
If they respond, he adds with his arms open and pointing at his allies, "help us?" He then points to the vehicles and makes a zooming motion with his hands, "vroom vroom?"
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With some excessive arm waving, and very slow speaking, John has managed to convey some basic ideals to the natives. He has managed to convince them, that you are from outer-space, you beat a terrifying space monster, and you are here to help & look for someone who may not belong to this planet.
All of this is swiftly undone however by K'Klacklun's drone as well as Alejandro, and the natives instantly swarm both of these, all in either gas powered cars, or on gas powered bikes.
They offer Alejandro his pick, and start eyeing the bug, and revving their engines to try their luck!
Those who want, can give me a diplomacy check, to try and get some info out of the natives, now that relations are established.
Those who want to inspect and improve the vehicles, give me an engineering check.
Finally those who want to go racing, give me a piloting roll!
With the cue to start being given, the drone races ahead along the course, trying to stay ahead!
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Alejandro, caught up in the emotion of actually getting somewhere with this first contact (at least for him), surveys the vehicles for a good one. Noticing that K'Klacklun has fiddled with one, he gives him a small conspiratorial nod and hops in. Burning rubber he takes off to get a feel for the vehicle!
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The natives are absolutely obsessed with racing, to the point of what would seem rudeness & ignorance to those not of the planet, or less experienced in first contact.
They set off racing both K’Klackun’s drone as well as Alejandro, and whilst the drone starts to fall behind, Alejandro thanks to K’Klackuns tinkering streaks into the lead, and after the third lap of the village is declared the winner!
After the race has finished, Alejandro & Kastien start circulating amongst the natives and telling stories about their own prowess and finding out more about the natives.
A number of things become apparent, firstly – the natives had a special connection to the Besmaran Whelp. Well more accurately, to its eggs. They thought themselves the protectors of the eggs and now that the mother has died, they inform you that you are now the proud protectors of a clutch of eggs. The final responsibility of yours is now to defeat the exile and protect the eggs, as the exile wants to steal the eggs.
They inform you that the exile, is exactly as described, an exile from the village, who was removed due to his un-holy and un-natural mystical powers, and is now holed up in an old outpost.
This outpost, is somewhere the natives dare not approach, due to the demons that still hold sway and protect the site from outsiders.
As you leave the village, and head out towards the outpost, you encounter the edge of a swirling vortex of energy, this is clearly the storm that stopped you landing closer to the outpost. You realise that you probably need to travel for a further 3-5 hours through the storm to get to your final destination.
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As they had towards the outpost Alejandro has a huge smile on his face. "Well that went smashingly well! Peaceful contact with the natives AND info on the outpost. Well done team!"
He asks the group if anyone knows anything about these eggs that they are now protecting.
When they get close to the storm he holds everyone up and tries to identify if this is a normal storm or something that requires special precautions, "I heard about this diamond storm on a regular planet just like this one. Shards of diamonds like rain that cut right through every single person's suit and body. Wiped out a whole survey team."
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"Be careful, the eggs are not a gift, they are a responsibility. Care for them as if they were your own young!
As you stagger through the edge of the storm, the winds pick up, and you feel as if you are pushing against a hurricane!
As you push through, bolts of arcane energy as well as more natural lighting are continually lighting up the sky, with absolutely no rhythm or rhyme.
After about an hours worth of travel, you are all starting to feel the effects of fighting against this wind, your arms and legs are getting heavier and heavier....
3 separate fortitude saves please everyone!
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Pushing on the storm ebbs and flows but never abates.
At times you are almost bent double and at others you feel almost as if you are walking normally.
Bolts of azure and crimson energy crackle and spark all around you, with the occasional really big one landing close and turning the be ground to glass!
Thankfully for the team as a whole you only manage to get hit twice by these large bolts and that is within the first hour, clearly thereafter you recognised to learn the signs and avoid these bolts of destructive energy!
After three solid hours of slogging away and monumental effort the storm starts abating, the winds dying down and the energy early no where near as intense.
You find yourselves in the eye of the storm, with several dilapidated structures scattered around.
You stand at the edge of a chasm, with only a single span bridge broaching the gap. This gap blocks your progress any further and you must brave the bridge which has clearly taken a battering over prolonged exposure to this storm.
Athletics check to cross the crumbling bridge please everyone unless there are inventive ideas and feel free to throw some wearied role play in, 3 hours in a storm! That’s a long old time