You are getting used to the way the Starfinder hierarchy seems to summon you to mission briefings with little to no advanced notice. So much so, that when Venture-Captain Arvin's request for you to meet him at his office in the Lorespire Complex, you hardly felt any astonishment. Of course, once you got there and heard what he had to say , and who you would be working with, that might change.
The Lorespire Complex bustles with activity as the doors to Venture-Captain Arvin’s private office slide quickly. The lashunta man jots down some quick notes on his datapad, and then he glances up and motions you to sit down.
“Welcome, Starfinders. We have just finished compiling some intriguing news. The Society’s magical archive for divining potential new finds, the Communion Vaults, houses a perpetually sleeping Liavaran Dreamer named Whisperer of Solar Winds. The Dreamer rarely rouses from its torpor, but when it does, it spins interwoven dream stories that point us to promising finds. It awoke earlier this week and has given us an elegant story about a fractured sandstone tablet that could point the Society to a great treasure."
“Unfortunately, the three fragments of the tablet appear to be in very different locales based on the tales we’ve recorded. Luckily, each of these locations appears to be within the Pact Worlds. It’s your job to track each piece down and report back here so we can get everything pieced together and figure this dream out. Your first destination is the machine-driven world of Aballon. Based on the details of the first dreamspun tale, you’re likely to be looking for an android in a less-than-reputable city. We’re sending you via shuttle to Towershadow, where you’ll have to figure out for yourselves what awaits. Time is of the essence, as things can change quite quickly. Any questions before you depart?”
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An orange skittermander, dressed in loose priestly robes of a priest of Sarenrae, and holding a staff with a dawnflower holy symbol, listens intently. "Oh, this sounds so exciting!" He looks around. "I have never been to Aballon. Do they have an atmosphere there? What android are we looking for? It seems like there are probably a lot of them there."
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An armored vesk, his greenish scales bordering on gold with intensity and his size unusually large for a male, sneers at the lashunta. A shadow eclipses his face as a deep, black mote swirls around his head.
"Treasure, eh?" he hisses. "To what sort of treasure do you think these stone fragments will lead? And just what would you have us do with this android once we find him?"
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An extremely bland looking android, so boring you can practically taste it, listens carefully. "Do the androids of Aballon detest flesh creatures? Is the environment inhospitable to organic life? Are any other enterprises aware of the facts of these 'dreams' as they relate to our pursuit of the tablets?" He types away on a datapad as he speaks, transcribing everything that is going on.
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The female android, looks not as bland as 6ix, but what she lacks in looks, she makes up for with complete lack of emotion, and full monotone voice. Similarly, her datapad in hand as she speaks.
"I'm not finding much about this 'Liavaran Dreamer'. The one so named Whisperer of Solar Winds. Perhaps you can elaborate on how exactly this dreamer functions, and how accurate has his, her, it's visions been." She pauses for a moment upon hearing a familiar voice.
"Ahh yes. Talc. Its always a pleasure to see you again. I will confirm with my data from our last missions, but I believe this is a record. It has been t-minus 2 minutes and 30 seconds since we were notified of our task before you started proclaiming about your piloting feats. Bravo. This will be difficult to beat in our next mission."
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Rolling his eyes at the Android, he sighs. ”Ok, I was wrong. She can complain about it.”. He holds up a finger to make a point ”Still! Every time I fly a mission, we succeed.”
He looks around for his previous crew mates. Aw, man! Look Rei, now you scared away Jena, Harrac and uh, what was the rats name? Skiivvies? Skitterz? Whatever his name was. Him too!”
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"I was a pilot in the Scoured Stars Incident." 6ix states, and despite the fact it was one of the most exciting things to happen in recent history, as he says that it sounds like he was talking about taking inventory of an office supply store. He gets what almost seems like a wistful expression, lights flickering across his eyes as he replays the memories. "That was a stressful event."
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"I, Sarankahn, 'The Deathsong', also survived the initial expedition into the Scoured Stars, droid-ling." declares the vesk as the black mote encircles his head. "And those who observed me in battle there knew why it is that I am called the 'Deathsong', for when my cry went forth, death was soon to follow." A reptilian grin fills the vesk's scaly face.
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Dawnfriend smiles and waves multiple arms at everyone. "I am Dawnfriend, but you can call me Dawn. Or Friend. Or whatever you want. If anybody gets hurt, just let me know." He nods to Deathsong. "I haven't been to the Scoured Stars. What's it like? It sounds like it's very clean there. Do they know about Sarenrae there? Sarenrae is the most helpful god!"
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Talc looks to this Deathsong character, looking him up an down once before turning over to the six-armed teddy bear. He chuckles once to himself This is going to be interesting before saying "Nice to meet you Dawn and Deathsong?"
Turning to the Vesk he asks with some incredulity "Look I gotta ask. How does one come to a name like Deathsong? Did you just kill a bunch of people while singing to them or was that something that came about from your buddies saying your voice sucks? "
Brushing some imaginary dirt from his shoulder he leans back and says "I mean if we're using callsigns then you can call me Blaze."
“Aballon is a planet known for its machines and robotic inhabitants. It’s very difficult for biological life to survive with nonexistent atmosphere and other dangerous environs. Thankfully, its primary inhabitants, a machine race known as the anacites, have built self-contained megaplex cities. One of these megaplex cities, known as Striving, houses your destination region of Towershadow. As there is artificial atmosphere within the megaplex, you shouldn’t need anything more than your armor and whatever tools you already have.”
“As for the Dreamer, they are a long-slumbering creature from the Pact World gas giant of Liavara. When Dreamer wakes, they speak of prophetic dreams that can lead to astounding fortunes, but they tend to drift back off rather quickly. Whisperer of Solar Winds is already asleep after imparting us with the relevant information.”"
"I'll send an image of Lerecti to your datapads, along with a brief note about this task and the info we have. I don't have any available ships for you to wreck, Talc, so you're going by shuttle this time."
"Time is of the essence, folks, so grab your gear and get moving."
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Turning to the Vesk he asks with some incredulity "Look I gotta ask. How does one come to a name like Deathsong? Did you just kill a bunch of people while singing to them or was that something that came about from your buddies saying your voice sucks? "
Brushing some imaginary dirt from his shoulder he leans back and says "I mean if we're using callsigns then you can call me Blaze."
"There is nothing wrong with my voice, Morsel." Sarankahn hisses, resulting in an unpleasant noise akin to a screech from a chalkboard being mixed with the sound of falling gravel. The vesk bears his teeth in an apparent predatory display, before regaining his usual, smug composure.
"I should not be surprised by your mammalian ignorance. Many like your kind have already fallen readily to the might of the Veskarium. The feline humanoids of Vesk-6, the antlike beings of Vesk-5, the cold brutes of Vesk-7 and Vesk-8-all have succumbed to the fighting prowess and superior intellect of the vesk. Thus, allow me to educate you." declares Sarankahn. "Among true warriors, it is common to take on epithets related to ones victories in battle. As my cry is the last heard by many that have faced me, I have come to be known by the nom-de-guerre of 'Deathsong'."
With the human's "education" complete, the vesk turns his attention to the assignmenet at hand.
Viewing the note provided by Venture-Captain Arvin and attempting to process it with his reptilian brain, Sarankahn concludes,"The message is nonsense! Indecipherable!"
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f'Diksi stands off to the side, observing the others. A few of the others hear a soft voice in their head. He eyes the massive Vesk warily, that one seems angry. He must be in pain.
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"I believe the fleshling takes his identity from being a pilot. I am an accountant who occasionally finds himself piloting, fighting, or engaging in subterfuge. I am called 6ix," the android states. "As this is the sixth body my consciousness has occupied. It is good to have competence to offset the human factor, f'Diksi, Deathsong, Rei and Dawn."
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"Confirming the definition of 'Morsel', I find it a perfectly reasonable and acceptable form of reference for the human known as Talc. If you experienced his previous missions as I have, that would only bolster this recommendation."
Rei's perfectly monotone voice makes it extremely difficult to understand if she is attempting to make any sort of joke, or if she truly believes what she is stating.
She then turns her attention to Deathsong. "The note is pretty straight forward. We need to head to the Towershadow district. Please prepare to embark"
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Talc listens to the vesk puff his chest up with his words set to impress. Talc nods along as he speaks, pretending to simultaneously understand and care whatever the hell he is talking about. When he is done, he deepens his voice artificially and holds his hands up in the air at he level. ”Whoa ho ho! Big man in the room! Watch out for “ he moves his hands together and does air quotes while exaggerating his voice even deeper, ”DEATH SONG. SINGER OF, UH, what is it you sing again? DEATH THINGS.”
Chuckling at his own joke, he moves to the Captains desk and grabs a marker. He takes a piece of tape and writes something on it. Tearing the tape, he slaps it on his chest. Written on the tape is Morsel. He holds up his hands and announces ”Alright then, y’all can refer to me as MORSEL.”
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"The note is pretty straight forward. We need to head to the Towershadow district. Please prepare to embark"
"The notation by the Venture-Captain said as much." Sarankahn replies, his eyes locked onto the android, seeming to consider the value of its component parts. "It provides, however, no instruction upon what to do when we arrive. How do we find one artificial life-form when the Pact Worlds seem to already have an...overabundance of them?"
{Morsel Deathsong asked an important question a moment ago. What are our rules of engagement regarding the android? And are we publicly representing the Society on this venture?}
"You task me...Insect ," the vesk growls in warning. "You task me, and I will answer."
”DEATH SONG. SINGER OF, UH, what is it you sing again? DEATH THINGS.”
He holds up his hands and announces ”Alright then, y’all can refer to me as MORSEL.”
"Simply 'Deathsong' will suffice, Man-Ling." says the vesk in response. "Or, as you seem prefer, Hairy Morsel."
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"You task me...Insect ," the vesk growls in warning. "You task me, and I will answer."
Morsel scratches his head, confused. ”I mean, he did and you answered. Why are you repeating yourself? Is that a Vesk thing too?”
Pointing to his name tag he corrects ”It’s just Morsel. Hairy is clearly someone else.”
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Rei continues to focus her attention towards Deathsong. "I suppose if the VC knew the exact name and location of the target, then we all would not need to be here today. However, I do believe that we can rephrase your question into a new one, with some added clarification of your intended purpose."
Rei then turns towards the VC.
"You mentioned 'Lerecti'. Is this whom we are to make contact with once we arrive? Do you have any more background information on Lerecti that you can provide?"
6ix headed out, leading the way to the shuttle, while everyone else followed along behind, some still talking. It would be a long few days to Aballon at this rate.
It was.
After a few days, the shuttle reaches a blasted wasteland of a planet that — despite its dark and barren appearance — quickly shows itself to be covered in glittering metal cities under the full brightness of the Pact World’s sun. The shuttle goes through a set of blast doors into a city built inside and around what was clearly once a massive silver tower.
Once inside the blast doors, the shuttle set down at a docking bay. You had arrived at your destination. Now the hard part, finding this fugitive android. As Deathsong had said, the percentage of artificial beings on Aballon was excessively high. However, there were enough non-synthetics and human-looking androids that your group didn't stand out too much. There were even bars, restaurants, shops, and hotels that catered to your needs.
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f'Dirksi is glad to get out of the shuttle. If he was forced to hear one more story about Talc's piloting adventures or how Morsel Deathsong crushed an opponent, he'd go insane. At least 6ix and Rei were pleasant and mindful not to intrude on his thoughts.
At the first opportunity, f'Dirksi sought out a local watering hole that didn't balk at serving the Swarm. He tentatively reached out to the barkeep and serving robots to determine if Lerecti had caught anyone's attention.
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Over the course of the next few days, Talc only answers to "Morsel". He will ignore all other forms of communication with the group using Talc and he completely ignores Rei no matter what she says. At one point he asks 6ix if it's possible to reprogram an android with a sense of humor. The next day he asks if he can check Rei's processing for corruption.
Talc can't get fhirsty or thrisky or whatever the hell that bugs name is correct and takes to call him Dirk.
Having nothing bad to saw about Dawn, Talc just gets a weird feeling and is creeped out by all of the arms. I mean, how hard it must be to get into a shirt with six arms! How many times does it get stuck?
When they finally get to their location he is ready to be off the ship with "DEATHSONG-Will-Suffice" as he's started calling him. [i]This big brute should be in a fighting arena, not in the society. What were they thinking?!"[/b]
Talc suggests "I recommend we start by "bar hopping". It's not a term most of you would be familiar with. Here's how it works. We go to a bar, grab a drink and try to blend in while we look around. If we don't see anyone after oh, say, when our drink is empty then we go to the next bar. We repeat this process until we have actionable intelligence."
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6ix, for his part on the journey, tries to avoid any major confrontations. He advises Talc / Morsel that androids have fabulous senses of humor. He tells a joke.
6ix has the most bland, robotic laughter. Ha. Ha ha. And the time for mirth is over.
"My cultural database has an entry on 'bar hopping', would it not be more effective simply to inject the depressant directly into you? You have a very ineffective method of doing things, Hairy Morsel." Thankfully, the Shirren seems to have the carousing under control, as 6ix detests people. Even most other sentient robotic lifeforms grate on him after a time.
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Scratching his head in response to 6ix, he wrinkles his brow and shakes his head no "No, no, no. You 'droids always are taking the living out of things. The whole point is to-" he waves it off, shaking his head again. "You know, what, it's not worth it. You and Rei, you were made for each other."
He gives that a thought that had never occurred to him before and then asks "Hey. So uh, do guy and gal 'droids do it, you know? If so, I'm dying to know what the scientific reasoning behind it is."
He looks over to Rei and raises his eyesbrows twice, waiting for 6ix's reply.
"C'mon, tell me about it while we find the closest bar and I soak the depressants into my body."
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In typical Rei fashion, out comes the datapad as she starts keying away. She lifts her face briefly "I get it. I'm positive." before putting her face back down to her data pad.
"There. I am attempting to hack into the native CCCCCCTV systems to determine if there are any recent recorded images of our target Lerecti so we can locate. While my algorithm runs, to answer Morsel, Androids do not require physical intimacy for reproduction. However, there are records of some androids, in their attempt to appear more human, to 'fake it'. I believe this is something you are familiar with."
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Presently having little patience or regard for the rest of the party, Sarankahn strikes out on his own, while the others are hopping bars and surfing webs. Besides, all the talking food was making him hungry.
Imagining that if this "one made real" were trying to avoid capture by the authorities, then it likely must be trying to survive on the streets. The vesk considers the tower and it's surrounding environs in an effort to discern where his quary may be hiding. The vesk pauses to meditate, drawing upon the ebb and.flow of the photons flowing around him to provide insight into the matter.
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"Indeed, the miracle of sentience is not so base as the mammalian act that must occur to create new life. Additionally, my social protocol database indicates that is what was referred to as a 'sick burn'. It indicates I should offer you a salve. Are you in need of an ointment or unguent, Hairy Morsel?" 6ix delivers these lines completely deadpan, as he has every word he has said, with only minor inflections when appropriate to the sentence. He makes no attempts to aid the hacking work of his comrade, nor any of the other various attempts to locate their prey.
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"Uhhh." is all Talc can response with to the slew of words that made no sense to him when strung together. "Right."
Slinging his arm around 6ix's shoulder he starts walking with him towards the bar and asks "So let's skip the ointments, I'm fine on that. But did I ever tell you about the time that I had to fly a Necrofighter off the moon of Exos 9 when the shipboard computers were down and we had no nav? MAN! This is something, let me tell you. It all started when this big oaf of a vesk named Harrac spilled his Dead Mystic back in Engineering while he was supposed to be closing up the hole from the skirmish we just finished up. Anyway, "
Morsel continues to go on for fifteen minutes with his tale which clearly is exaggerated greatly in numerous places, all of which are boasting his piloting skill and describing how he saved the day.
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6ix logs the tale in his database of complete bullcrap. There aren't even 9 planets in the Exos system. And it probably wasn't Eox either, as that planet is 5 in the pact worlds.
"As I am not a psychologist or sociologist, I will not inquire as to whether your braggadocio stems from lack of maternal affection or more recent failures with females of various species, but suffice to say your piloting is unremarkable. I have similar feats, and am an accountant." Poor Morsel, to tie one's esteem to tasks in which androids will always be superior.
The hour containing the afore-mentioned "bar hopping" and the excruciating conversations that went with it were actually more productive than it might have first appeared. An android f'Dirksi spoke to remembered talking with another matching Lerecti's description, and mentioned that he was headed to Towershadow, to hide out as a convenience store clerk. With that news in hand, Rei was able to hack local employment records and public cameras to figure out which store, and verify Lerecti's presence there. Deathsong spent nearly an hour with the video streams, determining Lerecti's normal schedule, and the best place to ambush him for a "talk".
It was late in the day when you entered the shop where Lerecti was hiding out. Deathsong reached over and locked the door after you were all inside, changing the sotre's status from "Open" to "Mildly Dangerous to Enter". An androgynous android fitting Lerecti's description - with a few cosmetic alterations - looked at you with fear in his face.
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Talc scratches his head. "You know Six, you are sounding more and more like Rei. I think we should spend less time together."
Later, once they are inside of Lerecti's "hideout", Dawnfriend starts to do the talking. When he hear his introduction, he facepalms. Gods help us. Putting a hand on his shoulder, he steps in front of the six armed teddy and leans in to whisper "I got this."
"Hey there. Look, what Dee is trying to say is that we're here now and everything is going to be cool from this point forward. Let me introduce the gang."
He briefly points to Dawnfriend as he says "You already know Dee." before pointing to 6is adding "That's 6."
Moving to f'Dirksi he says "He. It. I mean their? Damn pronouns.
Whatever, just call it Dirk. He's cool, but says s%++ in your head. Weird the first time, you get over it."
Rolling his eyes he moves to the vesk "That's The Death Song." he leans in whispers "Don't ask. Super sensitive, just roll with it." and finally he says as he points to Rei.
"Meh, just ignore her. That's what I do."
Pulling himself up into a chair and kicking his feet up he concludes "Oh. And all my friends call me Morsel."
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While Dawn and Talc make fools of the bunch, Rei spends her time examining the 'hideout', and trying to keep a keen eye on anything Lerecti might use against them.
as she paces around, when Talc points at her, she finally chimes in.
"What Morsel is trying to say, is that there are 6 of us, and 1 of you. It's only logical to comply with our requests"
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"You are all very bad at speaking. Perhaps you should leave it to the bureaucrat? People love to speak to us." He looks eerily at Lerecti.
"My socially stunted companions do not have the benefit of a social protocol database. Greetings. I am 6ix. We have come in search of clues to the whereabouts of a stone tablet, and are informed you have them. May we have them? If necessary we can come to an agreement regarding recompense, or perhaps you have need of relocation to a safer clime."
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"My socially stunted companions do not have the benefit of a social protocol database. Greetings. I am 6ix. We have come in search of clues to the whereabouts of a stone tablet, and are informed you have them. May we have them? If necessary we can come to an agreement regarding recompense, or perhaps you have need of relocation to a safer clime."
"I have spent nearly an hour pouring over mind-numbing video streams, watching you, studying your habits, taking note of your routines, learning all I need to about you." growls Sarankahn. "Do not make allow my efforts to have been in vain. Provide us what we seek, what the other android has asked for, and we will have no need to dismantle you and take it!"
Lerecti seemed ready to bolt before 6ix and f'Dirksi got involved. Even then, when Deathsong got involved, he looked ready to run again.
"Okay, yes, the tablet. Sure. I will answer any questions about the tablet, but I no longer have it in my possession. It is somewhere safe. I hid it while I await my trial. I was framed for murder on Verces, my homeworld. I had to come here to get a fair trial. I am sure you know about Verces. Android trafficking is not legal, but the local officials were looking the other way. I exposed some bigshot club owner, and he had his goons trying to kill me before the trial. That is why I came here. To hide out. Speaking of which, how did you find me?"