A small, barely furnished waiting room stands outside an automated door emblazoned with text reading "ARCHIVES CORTEX." A small red light glows over the door.
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A handsome, slender, and tall lashunta walks into the room with a good amount of grace and pomp and circumstance. Seeing how he is the first one there, one would think he would drop the act, but for Mustachio Marino, the acting never ends.
"Captain Mustachio Marino, leading man, mega super star television action hero of Star Rangers Ultra Paradox, is once again on the case. Will he lead yet another Starfinder team to success? I think we all know the answer to that."
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A small ysoki wearing microscopic vision googles is tinkering with a rifle in the corner with utmost concentration. Upon hearing the new entrant, he raises his googles and looks over...
"Mustachio huh? I had a friend tell me a really disgusting story from one of his adventures once.... I seem to remember something about a toothbrush. But I'm sure that was about a man called Mustazio so it must have been someone else. You do seem to match the description though.... Maybe you're related?"
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"Ahem... ah... toothbrush toothbrush toothbrush... No, it doesn't ring a bell... Dr. Mustazio Mazino, of course, is well known to all on Absalom Station. If we run into any needs requiring medical attention, I'm sure that premier-gumshoe-doctor-who-kicks-ass-and-chews-bubblegum will make an appearance...."
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Through the doors enter well dressed, medium hight Kasatha. He is wearing pants and tunic of dark red with elements of purple colors. The attire contain an emblem of a four-arm dragon holding different objects. He carries a bag on his arm that he lays down on one of the chairs. In his hand, you can see a fashionable cane in the same colors as his clothing. Kasatha does not seem to need a cane so it seems to be part of the attire.
Glancing at the aliens gathered so far he walks with certainty and charisma looking at Lashunta and Ysoki:
"Good morning to you Sirs! My name is Catsial Drun and I work for House Khadil acquiring goods that are of interest to them. As this is my first business arrangement with Starfinder Society I am thrilled to meet you."
The four-arm dragon is an emblem of House Khadil and it holds a skull, sword, scroll and a scepter. This house is interested in knowledge related to dragons and dragon-like aliens and has a collection of goods and information related to them.
You can see that even that Catsial has his mouth hidden in a customary Kasatha way, his eyes are smiling to you. He does not seem to have any weapon unless it is hidden in his bag.
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Catsial shake Marinos hands while patting him on his arm with his third hand.
"Of course, Mustachio Marino. I did hear of you, of course. I can see now that at least some of what I heard is true."
After a moment of awkward silence adds quickly: "I like your sense of fashion. But let me meet with other agents Mr. Marino."
Kasatha walks toward Ysoki and raises his hand: "Are you as an honorable guest as Mustachio over there?"
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An overly muscular Ysoki wearing a black tanktop and carrying a reaction cannon and several ammo cans stalks into the room. He eyes everyone up and down, his beady eyes narrowing as he assesses them. He pushes past Mustachio and Relij without a word.
"They keep hiring these wannabe celebs and suit. Betta not get in the way," he grumbles under his breath, loudly enough for both of them to hear.
He gives a respectful nod to Fixit before finding a corner of his own to lay out his stuff and begin tinkering. He puts together a small round object and wraps it up in paper before slipping it into his cheek pouch, then begins cleaning the reaction cannon and loading magazine, carefully holding each round up to the light before snapping into the clip.
Buster responds to Fixit's introduction with a sharp laugh, "Ha! That's good. People call me Busta'. Cause dat's what I do. To people's faces."
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"Ah, well every group needs a heavy, am I right, Mr. Busta'? And every group needs a person to slick the wheels of diplomacy, and as such, you are lucky to have me, Mustachio Marino. Perhaps you saw how I won over the Undead Lover of Eox without doing anything but performing wonderful massages, in one of my most famous films, "Undead Lover of Eox", starring myself, as Bruno the Masseuse?"
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From around the corner comes a skittering of small feet, a series of small clanks as if something metallic was dropped, a pause, then more skittering. A brown ysoki rounds the corner, half skidding in his turn, then he straightens out and barrels into the room. He stops in seven staggered steps and looks around breathlessly. He kind of collapses against the wall.
"Did I beat the VC? You ain't late if you beat the VC." After several panting breaths to recover, he draws himself straight up, smooths his robe-like business wear over his skin tight body armor. One paw strokes an outsize ear from back to front.
"I'm Ears. Pleased to meet you all."
With a click, the red light over the door flashes to green, and the door opens. The efficient hum of machinery fills the Archive’s Cortex. Projected images and text flit across multiple screens positioned around a raised swivel chair occupied by Historia-7, leader of the Dataphiles. Historia-7 swipes a finger to clear the feed and speaks without preamble.
“My sources indicate that you are the most efficient and capable team the Starfinder Society currently has for my mission. I sincerely hope you do not prove this claim erroneous. I recently detected a discrepancy in the Society’s data logs. As you may be aware, my primary objective has been decoding information regarding the Scoured Stars incident. Before the incident, my predecessor, Historia-6, and other Society members extensively investigated several corporations as well as the Scoured Stars system. Much of their knowledge was lost to us. A recent ally, a skilled hacker named Ceren, uncovered multiple data links from what remains of my predecessor’s research leading back to a corporation known as the Arch Energy Consortium. When I compared these findings to our records, I found no mention of this corporation, and all data related to Arch Energy Consortium was somehow deleted from our records. My worst-case scenario is being realized: our data has been tampered with.”
Historia-7 unhooks the neural cables from her neck and massages the attachment sites. “I require additional information about this corporation. Arch Energy’s CEO, Ilia Tamm, has enough security resources and paranoia at her disposal to make a direct infiltration inadvisable. The weak link in this proverbial firewall is her son, Envar Tamm. His proclivities make him very suggestible, and I hypothesize that resourceful individuals could convince him to provide the information I seek."
“Envar routinely attends gladiatorial fights on Arch Energy’s corporate space station, Brilliance. It will take you some time to reach Brilliance from here. During your journey, I want you to create false identities. Meanwhile, I’ll make sure that you’re entered into one of these gladiatorial matches as contestants. From there, you’ll need to get Envar to grant you access to his mother’s computer records. Acquire any data related to the corporation’s board of directors. Above all, this mission demands subtlety, as Envar has quite the media presence.”
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A halfling man in a chefs white shirt joins the group As the door slides open and joins the party
Gladitorial matches? What kind of gladiatorial Matches? I am a chef not a gladiator. Are we meant to be part of Arch energy Consortium? or do these gladiatorial contests attract outsiders?"
As a corporate agent he will offer some insights into Arch Energy Consortium and their rivals
Although with that roll probably not much more than has already been said
Gordon recalls that Arch Energy is a minor subsidiary of Resurgent Technologies, which is a larger Aballon-based corporation. Some analyes of Arch Energy’s finances suggest its CEO wants to keep it that way. Ilia Tamm has made multiple business decisions over past fiscal cycles that stunt company growth, leading the halfling to conclude that the company is a front—for what, exactly, he doesn’t know. He also is unsure if Resurgent Technologies is unaware of this.
"An actor." Historia-7 interjects dispassionately. "I imagine the type of gladiatorial match wherein you'll have to best some exotic beast or captured alien in mortal combat. I recommend you polish up your fighting skills if you're going to pose as a gladiator, otherwise your cover IDs might not hold water with security. You won't be members of Arch Energy, rather visiting pit fighters; it was the most common visiting professional I could find that may match your general appearance without drawing too much undo attention. It'll also provide a quick way to get in contact with Envar. He's your main target for access to Ilia's computers."
"You'll be able to register as a group, to my knowledge. And the better your cover IDs, the less likely you are to get caught by security, so I'd lean toward more extensive rather than less."
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Catsial bows to Historia-7: "It is a pleasure to meet you. I've read a lot good about you."
"So you want us to fly to Brilliance, enter a fighting pit and win in such a manner that we would get close to Envar. After that use that relation to get all the information that we can about Ilia and Arch Energy. Got it."
After thinking about it:
"Does Envar have his preferences regarding gladiators? Does he prefer finesse or brutal strength? We probably should make a show of it. The fight part should be easy, we just need to send that handsome young Ysoki towards whatever threat awaits us and collect the parts. Hahaha"
Catsial points at Busta while saying that and laughs from the picture in his head. After few seconds continuous:
"Well that reminded me, before the briefing I got some very important news that would prevent me from joining you on that mission. But given the tasks at hand, I think my skill set would be far from ideal."
He makes a few steps towards the door: "However I have a colleague that is a consultant for 'Relij acquisition strategies' that can replace me. He is a privateer, experience in space combat and more inclined to enter a pit as a gladiator. He is called a Spider, I will introduce you to him on a docking bay."
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Seeing another Ysoki enter the room, Buster whispers to him conspiratorially. "We Ysoki gotta look out fer each other. The universe is fulla big louts looking t' stomp us down. Anyone gives ya any trouble, let me know, 'kay?"
Buster grumbles in response to the mission. "Another mission where we gotta play dress up and babysit some gooba'? I was hoping for somethin' a bit more straight forward this time. I ain't good at sulking around and playin' pretend." Buster grunts while swinging a silvery headed hammer around as if testing its weight. He holds the hammer up to the light, carefully examining it, then nods and slings it back onto his belt. "Though do I like the sound of fightin' in the gladiator pits."
"We got three Ysokis here. Maybe we should pass ourselves off as 'The Razor Rats' or something."
"Does Envar have his preferences regarding gladiators? Does he prefer finesse or brutal strength? We probably should make a show of it. The fight part should be easy, we just need to send that handsome young Ysoki towards whatever threat awaits us and collect the parts. Hahaha"
"To my knowledge, Envar has no preferences. He simply delights in the thrill of the fight. I'm guessing anything you can do to grab his attention would be valuable for greasing the wheels."
"Do we get our own ship, or are we on commercial transport?"
"My records show you have a Drake class starship set aside for your assignment. Use it carefully, we don't want to draw too much attention to ourselves."
It takes just shy of a week to reach Brilliance on your Drake. En route, you begin working on your cover IDs.
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"Piped Piper... Piped Piper... What would he wear? A big green hat, of course, with a feather. A flute. I could make one out of cardboard, perhaps. Green tights. Oh yes. Definitely. Who doesn't like wearing tights?"
"Everyone, give me your ideas, keep em coming. Happy to help, happy to help. As you all know, I did the wardrobe and makeup for "The Dandy Goes to the Ball" I'm sure you've seen it. No? What, really? Well, we are stuck on this ship, let me see if I can dig up a vidchip from my quarters..."
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Seeing another Ysoki enter the room, Buster whispers to him conspiratorially. "We Ysoki gotta look out fer each other. The universe is fulla big louts looking t' stomp us down. Anyone gives ya any trouble, let me know, 'kay?"
"Absolutely. Fur is warmer than skin."
"We got three Ysokis here. Maybe we should pass ourselves off as 'The Razor Rats' or something."
"Let's not play to prejudice. How about 'The Sleekly Furred' ... "and Naked Monkeys?"
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"Hmmm... Well Gordon is no ysoki, but he's short enough to fake it with a costume. What do you think, friend Gordon? Could you be a rat in my crew?"
"Well if I make a quick dash back to the armoury and get a Ysoki version of second skin that should be doable." He smirks slightly and adds "This could be fun"
Adding 5 to my culture check as Tamm qualifies for reduced dc as per corporate agent theme
"Maybe ysoki crew may not be such a good idea"
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Buster shows Mustachio a short video of himself on a stage, dressed in a heavy metal outfit of chains and spikes over his gray combat armor.
"If I gotta dress up, make it somethin' like this." Buster speaks in a low voice, with a twinge of nervousness in it. "And can ya' make it look cool? I don't wanna look like a stupid gooba."
"So dis gooba we gotta babysit is some kinda pesh head, huh? I've had t' deal wit their kind before. Rich or poor, they all the same. Ain't a surprise he owes someone a buncha' money."
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Mustachio starts working on Buster, and with the few supplies in the ship manages to make him look EXACTLY like video.
"You are extremely kick-ass, Friend Buster."
Mustachio looks down at his own outfit-- green tights and green hat, with a cardboard flute.
"Sometimes the muses inspire me, and sometimes they...don't."
Cover ID results thus far:
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When you got to a landing bay you noticed on a platform next to your ship two kasathas talking to each other. One of them being Catsial Drun dressed exactly the same way as in the briefing while the other being a strange figure sitting on a crate. You might assume that the other person is the so-called Spider
He wears a simple travel clothing with dark pants, a grey shirt and a black jacket. He has a spider tattoo on his neck which is probably a reason for his nickname. He wears high leather boots. When he jumped off the crate you can see that he limps a bit on his left leg. That is why he always uses his cane while walking and due to metal elements at the bottom of his boots and cane he makes a clicking sound while doing so.
His cane is black and has a Besmara symbol at the end of it. Behind his belt, he carries a semi-auto pistol that has its hand covered with leather.
Spider has a scar on his cheek and carries a dark red bandana on his face to cover his mouth in kasatha way. In one of his hands, he carries a bottle
of spirit and as he comes closer you can smell alcohol.
Catsial says: "As I promised this is my replacement. You can call him Spider, he can fight, drink and fly starships which is what you need the most." With that Catsial leave you on the landing bay.
Spider limps towards you and greats you offering a bottle to whoever would be willing.
After that kasatha goes into the pilot room to get prepared for the journey.
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Looking at Mustachios `professional` disguise, Spider suggests:
"If we are going with a Piped Piper I could be a Narrator and we could change the fight into a theatre. We would make it surprising and unexpected."
Spider comes up with a flask and makes a sip out of it.
"You would be surprised how much fear and respect one could gain with a bit of rumors and articles. "
"I think we could use Fixit skills with computers and use the 6 days to spread a word about Piped Piper the gladiator that fights his way to the top. We could buy some sponsored articles or simply fabricate some pictures that would find it's a way to be publically available."
Your ship pulls into a dock in the outer ring of Brilliance , waved in by several lashunta flight techs. You approach a female korasha lashunta customs officer and present your forged identities for inspection. She pores over them for a long while.
She immediately waves you through to a waiting service staff, who rushes you down a lengthy hallway. "Please come this way, and hurry, Mr. Piper and team. Your match has been expedited; Mr. Tamm has become impatient and is eager to see your performance. You are slotted to fight an alien creature imported at Mr. Tamm's request." Eventually you reach a holding cell reminiscent of a green room, with two massive doors set in the wall. A susurrus of crowd activity can be heard beyond. The service employee checks her comm. "Okay, they're just wrapping up the previous fight. You have a couple minutes to get ready if you need it. Come through the doors into the arena once they open." She leaves the way you came, shutting the door behind her.
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Spider walks confidently in his clown-like makup, with smiling lips drawn on the piece of cloth hiding his mouth. His red cylinder stands out, especially that most of his teammates could comfortably hide in high grass.
Listening to the employee, he addresses the other gladiators:
"Ok, Mr.Piper we will do it as in other fights. I will go first and introduce you to the audience. Please come in after you hear your name. The ferocious horde can enter after they hear you playing on that flute."
He reaches for a device in his pocket: "I took it from the ship and loaded the songs that you send me. The speaker is not loud but it might sound as you are playing it."
Spider pass the device to Mr. Piper.
After the doors open, Spider walks toward the entrance and glances back:
"I do hope that this time we are walking first on the stage. Good luck!"
With that, he fixes his cylinder and his tux. And runs on the stage.
As he enters he checks if he is safe, make a bow and yells:
"Ladies and Gentleman! From the far end of the known galaxy, a mysterious figure appeared. He spread fear in the hearts of men! Females feint on the sound of his name! He can charm the beasts and monsters with a sound of his flute."
While he says that he lifts his cane like a flute and hold it close to his mouth.
"He first made an appearance in Akitonian mines, hired to clean it from monsters that scared of the miners. After doing his magic, the giant shobhad decided not to pay for his services. His end was horrible!"
Spider makes a turn making sure that his cape adds a swoosh to it.
"Here he is, one and only! The devourer himself spit his horde back! The unstoppable and undefeated Piped Piper! "
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Mustachio runs out with his intro, holding his flute to this lips, and flicks on the music device that Spider had given to him earlier. A highly amplified jaunty tune issues forth. After a few seconds, he lowers the flute and yells, "I control my rat horde with this flute, given to me by the gods themselves! They do my bidding and tear enemy flesh from whole to bits in seconds. Yes, it is I, Mustach--- I mean... It is I, the infamous and powerful Piped Piper! And here...is the horde!!"
Flicking the music back on, Mustachio plays with a single hand and points outward with the other. It is the ysokis' cue! (And Gordon's.)
The nearby sun blazes against a backdrop of inky space through the transparent ceiling of the arena. The glare obscures the faces of the roaring crowd crammed into bleachers towering above the floor. Overhead, six suspended holoscreens loop images of the arena. Metal pillars rise like jagged teeth from the bloodstained arena floor, and an announcer’s voice booms, “ARE YOU READY FOR SOME CARNAGE?!” The crowd echoes the refrain as the silver metal door to the east grinds open.
The crowd dulls a little as Mustachio gives his preamble, apparently confused by your group's aesthetic. But as soon as Buster enters and powers up his gun, they cheer wildly. Opposite you, a team of two male korasha lashuntas and a female vesk armed with stun guns guides a harnessed and chained beast through the metal door at the north end of the arena. The group begins latching the harness clips onto either side of the door.
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(jack of all trades exploit allows check in untrained skill
oops shoulda taken 10
"Dont worry Team its a crest eater not a tail eater"
Gordon moves forward trying to use his tumbling skills to jump on top of some of the scenery. It doesnt go quite to plan but he lands and rolls into a low crouch to make it look like that was what he intended all along
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Ears looks across the arena. "Two lashunta, a vesk, and crest-eater?! Think they're stacking the odds against us much? Can we just shoot them now?"
The ysoki doesn't try to play to the crowd, but shuffles as quickly as he can in Buster's wake. He does however draw his pistol and hold it pointed up. He scans the crowd looking for their real target, Envar Tamm.
Gordon's stunts initially seem clumsy, but the crowd seems unexpectedly enamored with the ysoki-dressed halfling, cheering wildly!