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Impeded by the locked door, Saeron heads to the door to the Medical bay to check for first aid supplies, giving the door a quick once over, before opening it, if it appears safe to do so.
"He's locked in his room for now and sounds like he's seeing to things, so you should have some time to take a look around... best move as quickly as we can," she reports quietly to the others over their personal comm channel.
Saeron sees no traps, and the door is unlocked. She makes it into the medical bay.
Unlike the rest of the outpost, this area is nearly sterile. Most of the medical equipment has been removed, leaving only the computer, bio-bed, and recovery rooms.
Saeron can see that it was once a decent infirmary, but gathers that Karezan has probably been raiding it for various supplies over time and now it is pretty much empty of useful items. It would have been a worthwhile infirmary once upon a time when this was a mining outpost, but for one lone resident it is pointless.
Data gets half way into the Tier 2 computer system... one more bit of work to go!
Ella manages to get into the system, and download the critical information she is after!
With Karezen’s data, you return to the Ercinee and report back to Naiaj.
"You got the data? Well done, in and out without giving yourselves away - great effort, I'll get Celita to go through the data, and send a copy to the client"
***
As you return, Naiaj pops back up on comms.
"We have another mission"
“Resurgent Technologies has requested our services at one of their R&D departments on Aballon. They’ve been vague about what the job entails; the most I’ve been able to tell is that there’s been some, as they’ve put it, ‘unexpected results’ from one of their experiments that needs to be discreetly cleaned up. As I’m sure you know, reputation is vital for any organization. Be sure to keep ours in mind during your mission. Best of luck, Starfinders. And be careful.”
To go get an answer to Gargalus's question, you all head off and catch the shuttle to Aballon and the megaplex settlement of Endeavor. There, a guide directs you to a Resurgent Technologies research campus, and then to a spacious office.
A woman with ash-colored skin and hair that resembles a plume of blue fire sits behind a desk while a drone hovers around her left side taking measurements for a prosthetic arm. She looks up and offers a strained smile. “Being such an eclectic group, I suspect you must be the Starfinders. I’m Eshazi Seza, a researcher for Resurgent Technologies, and I’m ashamed to say you’re here to clean up my mess. As I’m sure you know, we pride ourselves on creating the best hybrid technologies in the Pact Worlds, but a little over a week ago, a test went horribly wrong and briefly opened a rift in the planar fabric, which pulled in everything nearby before closing.” She gestures wryly to her missing limb.
“However, at the time, we didn’t realize the rift also allowed something else to cross to the Material Plane. Only days after the accident, bodies started turning up in one of the company housing districts nearby, and we suspect the incidents are related. We contacted the Society in the hopes that this can be taken care of discretely, as the higher-ups naturally worry about our image should news of something like this come to light. I have a few suggestions as to where you can start investigating, but if you have questions before we get into that, feel free to ask.”
What Saeron knows:
Aballon is the closest Pact World to the sun, making its natural environment unsuitable for most organic creatures.
Anacites, intelligent, self-improving machines said to have been left behind by the mysterious First Ones, are the most common species on the planet, though many other constructs also reside there.
Aballon is a center of industry and manufacturing, which are centered in the megaplexes—country-sized cities run with machine efficiency. These megaplexes are some of the only locations on Aballon’s surface that have an artificial atmosphere that allows organic creatures to survive.
Endeavour is one of Aballon’s megaplexes. It gets its power from the Sun Basin, a massive solar array. Endeavour is a place where magic and technology meet in spectacular ways, such as the collection of interplanar and interplanetary portals maintained and operated by the Resurgent Technologies corporation. As such, it’s an interplanar travel hub, meaning visitors may rub shoulders with any kind of outsider alongside the more common settled races of Aballon.
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Curious about Resurgent Technology, Gargalus asks around but with no avail.
When they meet their contact, Eshazi and she talks about what went wrong he says
Hi Eshazi, I'm Gargalus, pleasure to meet you even if these dire circumstances!
How do the corpses turn up? As undead? What do you think could have escaped? Have you the autopsy reports, so we can try to figure out what have killed them?
"Pleased to meet you too. I hope our meeting is mutually beneficial"
"They turn up as dead bodies in the street. It’s been ten days since the lab accident. Since then, six bodies have turned up with similar injuries. Reports state the cause of death appears to be energy damage, perhaps from a weapon. The body of the most recent victim is still in the morgue, if you wish to inspect it yourselves.”
"We have no understanding of what the perpetrator might be, but it came from outside of our plane as a guess"
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Ella smiles and seems to enjoy being around a biome geared towards constructs. She frowns, however, as the researcher explains why they are there. "You created a rift that took your arm off?! And now you think something has come out of it? Were there no safety protocols? Do you even know where this rift opened to? That could tell us more about what came out."
"That would suggest our intention was to open a rift into a particular plane, as opposed to simply ripping a hole in our own that may have opened any entryway to who knows where"
"Alright if you have no further questions, you could probably go and see what the witnesses know. It’s been difficult to tell who’s actually seen something and who’s just making a scene. You could try talking to Ex-Maintenance-22, an anacite who runs a food stall in Mystic Hearth and may have seen something. You could also try the Mystic Hearth online message boards and see if anyone’s discussing these events. I’m not a member, so you’d have to procure an invitation from someone or see if you can find a back door to the infosphere site.”
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Saeron exchanges pleasantries and listens intently as Eshazi briefs them. she nods thoughtfully at her companions' observations and questions.
"My computer skills are satisfactory, but no where near Ella and Data's. I'll tag along with Gargalus - we might even be able to find a message board member who'll invite us."
"I would also like to visit the morgue to see what clues we can glean from the unfortunate victim. Perhaps before we set out?"
Messageboards
Y Data Y
Ella
Street & EXMaint22
? TBA
Morgue
? TBA
Messageboards
Y Data Y (31)
Ella
Data manages to crack the boards.
Data and Ella find several threads discussing working for Resurgent Technologies and living in Mystic Hearth, discussions of workplace safety and benefits, and finally a thread where residents compare their creature sightings.
Several users state that they saw a cloaked shape roughly the size of a human that floated instead of walked roughly around the time of the murders. One person claims to have seen the creature vanish into thin air. A PC who succeeds
You gather that if the creature can likely fly, turn invisible through magical means, then it is some form of outsider.
*****
Street & EXMaint22
Gargalus (Intimidate 23)
Orrian Dip 8
Gargalus and Orri taket to the streets. Orri finds the local anacite community pretty much unforthcoming with information and gets brushed off. Gargalus offers to give one of the anacites an 'involuntary grease and oil change' and the attitude shifts rapidly - with a password to the Mystic Hearth forums becoming freely available!
Gargalus and Orri hone in on the suggested witness. Ex-Maintenance-22 is found on corner maintaining their food stand. The anacite seems to be running a business catering to the organic residents of Endeavour.
"Noodles! Noodles and broth! Hot and tasty!" he calls out to passers-by.
He spies the two Starfinders and plates up two hot bowls almost instinctively "You there, try some of my chefs special!" he offers enthusiastically.
*****
Morgue
Saeron (Med 11/Myst 27)
The most recent victim was a male android named Version-12 whose body was found in an alley the day before your arrival.
Saeron is led to a spartan, chrome-colored, frigid room where the body lies on a table covered with a cloth. Upon inspection, it’s clear the body suffered severe energy damage of some kind.
Whilst she can't make much of some of the damage, she can tell that the energy damage is the result of magic, rather than technological weapons.
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No idea what could be this shadow...
Says Gargalus once he had access to the forum.
Hello mate! Seems good what you have here. Is the business good? On such planet I wasn't expecting hot noodles!
Says Gargalus to Ex-Maintenance-22 while buying some for himself.
I was wandering, as you are here often. Do you know what happen in the area? I've heard that strange things happened. I'm always looking for a new contract, and I was wondering if tracking what or who kill people here could be a good gig?
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Saeron scowls at her inability to glean anything from the wound site. Retrieving her comm unit, she captures several mages of the wounds and the surround tissue.
"Well, as reported, the injuries are consistent with those caused by impacts from energy," Saeron broadcasts over the party's comm channel. "However, these were not caused by conventional weapons, but the result of magical energies."
"There's some damage to the victim that I was unable to identify. I have captured some images of the areas and am sending them to you all to see if you have better luck."
Street & EXMaint22
Gargalus
Orrian
”Sure, probably not a bad spot to serve up fresh cheap food to organics. Tell you what, you give me some feedback on the noodles and I’ll tell you all about a murder near here” he watches Orri and Big G intently, waiting for them to try the noodles.
The pair tries the new creation—a noodle dish with murky broth that smells reminiscent of an electrical fire, and the aftertaste is worse.
"Ahh yes, you had questions"
"I was a sort of witness to murder just the other night! On the night I heard a sound like metal scraping on metal, then a dragging noise. I investigated and discovered Version-12’s body near a service maintenance tunnel. When I initially arrived on the scene, I also noticed the door to an out-of-service maintenance tunnel slam shut, though I didn’t see any other creatures in the area"
"As you have both done me a good turn on trying my recipe, I'll tip you off that the tunnels aren’t used anymore because dangerous fumes and other runoff from Resurgent Technologies’ activities occasionally leak into the space."