You are able to find the source of the problem, a disrupted water container and it caused some fungus to grow inside it. And you are able to treat his symptoms with no problem. You tell him to drink a half a pint of whiskey and tell him to try to throw up and in minutes his stomach feels better and he is sober cause most of the whiskey went back out.
Encounter 6, Ruined Hive
Devoid of even the ever-present wind that pervaded the desert, an eerie silence cloaks the broken structures and ruined ground in reverent stillness. Five large structures tower over the area, two of which appear wholly intact. In several places, the ground has caved in, leaving blocked tunnels littering the intervening spaces. The tallest structure, looming hundreds of feet high, features a huge platform in a sunburst pattern when seen from below. Atop this platform is a massive throne with a crowned formian figure, eternally holding its head between its hands. Jontane whispers, “This is the site of the broken hive, turned into a place of remembrance. Every day, formians come here to remember the fallen. Young formians are brought here to learn about the tragic event, historians come to view it in awe, and mystics come to pray and soothe the souls of the dead. All of them come so that we may never forget the cost of division and war.”
As you climb the tunnel leading to the dais, they are greeted by the figure of a mummified formian queen sitting on the throne at the top. A holographic projector shines an enlarged image toward the front of the dais. As you approach within 5 feet of the mummified queen and succeed at a DC 16 Perception check, they notice a curious hole drilled into her skull. You then succeeds at a DC 17 Medicine check determines that the hole is similar to scars left by neurosurgery and that a piece of the queen’s skull has been removed. These discoveries contribute to the scenario’s secondary success conditions.
You then spot and disable the Tamper mechanism.
|
Gammer sees the hole but doesn't know what the implications are about it so he asks Jotane. "Looking at the Queen, I noticed a small hole in her head which looks to be drilled. What was the purpose of this?"
"Please tell me why you were near the queen's body?"
Gammer responds "I have never seen a Formian Queen and wanted to see as much detail as possible. There are no barriers or signs that I see that prevents someone from getting close to her. Out of respect I did not touch her and stayed at a 5 foot distance."
Gammer does not notice anything else.
Okay, good enough, you did respect the queen. Just don't let this affect your reenactments. About the holes, don't know, but thanks for bringing it up.
|
Hermena listens quietly to her companions’ conversation with Jotane. ”I didn’t notice anything, but I trust Gammer’s eyes and the Doc’s expertise. We’ll keep our eyes peeled for anything else that stands out as unusual and keep you posted if we find anything.”
As the caravan prepares to depart, the Sarcesian takes one more look around and notices displaced dirt without any tracks. ”Remember what I said about pointing out anything else unusual? It looks like some kind of flying vehicle touched down here and took off recently. Are we expecting anyone else to be visiting this memorial?”
Jontane takes the news of the flying vehicle with antennae twitching in agitation. "A flying vehicle? Who would do that? None of the participants. And those holes in the Queen were one of the worst forms of desecration I can imagine. Who would do such a thing? Why?"
Then she calms. "But we have made good time, and you have been the best possible companions that I could ask for. Soon we will be at the meeting of the Queens, where we will all see the hives on their best possible behavior. There will be songs! Food! Dancing! Joy! Come, let us be part of the festivities."
As you come in, you see other hive delegations arriving to this sacred spot. There is formian music being hummed by one hive group. It's a delicate, complicated piece and it vibrates soothingly. Everywhere, formians are handing you flowers and small gifts of tiny sugared sweets, calling out greetings to the other hives.
Jontane pauses, wistfully. "Have you ever left your home behind, thinking to never come back, and then when you finally return... there is nothing more that you wish than to be part of everything again? That is how I feel now. It's good to be part of a hive in this ceremony, even if that hive is but a group of trusted companions. Come, let's get ready."
You exchange greetings with the bustling crowd, feeling the literal buzz of excitement as everyone gathers. Those of you with antennae of your own can reach out to touch the formians, antennae to antennae. The others can reach out fingers and gently touch the extended antennae, which Jontane tells you is like shaking hands or bowing for the formians. With his psychic senses, Dr. Kliktikiti feels the palpable joy in the crowd, which is including even you visitors as people start making their way to the ceremony.
"What do you think so far?" Jontane asks you. "Have you felt anything like it?"
Along the edges are a group of formian soldiers, drawn from multiple hives. "There's the security forces if you want to tell them what you've found so far," Jontane points.
|
|
Not that Mute is speciest he just finds the insectoid races a bit annoying and prefers to avoid them when he can.
He mingles his way through the crowd and any touching that happens is done so in the briefest of manner. He continues to move toward the edge of the crowd where he can use his stealth and disappear without detection or offense to the delegation.
In his ghost mode, he continues to circle the parameter in hopes of finding some action and preventing any harm to come to this celebration.
|
|
Gammer listens to Jontane and the excitement in her voice. When she points out the security forces, he nods and heads over to them. "Greetings. Can you please tell me who is in charge of your forces and where I might talk to them? There is some grave concerns we wish to bring to their immediate attention."
|
Replying to Jontane about being happy to come back home, Kliktikiti replies “I’ve been stuck in the Scoured Stars, separated from my two mates. I know the feeling”
After that, she is caught up in the ceremonies and the experience, to the point of almost forgetting about the evidence found so far. She follows the rest of the team when they go for the security forces.
These ones are honored with security, honorable delegate from the lost hive. How may these ones serve you? The security forces listen to Gammer's and Dr. Klikiti's concerns.
Meanwhile, the growing excitement and some nervousness is showing in the rest of your delegation, too. Your lead delegate, Zussura Bwaynox, is touching antennae everywhere she goes, trying to show these formians that a lashunta can be an enthusiastic participant in peace. The bantrid Professor, Euiuyou, is rolling everywhere in this area, trying to talk with hive members about how crystal growth patterns can enhance hive construction, while his assistant, Felzhen, is following along looking embarrassed and highly miserable in this press of people. Meanwhile, the trox Ulkhat, has gone to hum with formian choir, providing a basso profundo undertone to their music. The osharu mystic, Woowl, is walking beside you, telling you about different customs in an awed tone. "Do you know that ilia flowers were first used as a symbol of peace during the peace negotiations that ended the formian-lashunta wars? Their honey scent was considered soothing by both sides!"
As soon as you reach the amphitheater's entrance, formian escorts guide you through a well-lit tunnel and into a large changing room that includes several private restroom facilities, a large table filled with cold beverages and foodstuffs, and formal dressing attire. A datapad shows the seating arrangements for the delegation. You, Jontane and Zusurra have seats in the front row, while your other fellow delegates Euiuyou, Ulkhat, and Woowl take up the seats behind you.
This amphitheater is an open space with a central stage surrounded by rows of seating. Several tunnels offer passage to and from the crowded venue. Murmuring bodies fill the seats, and the noise of anticipation reaches fever pitch as attendees strain to see the stage, decorated simply with five ten-foot-tall representations of hives arranged in an X-shape. Each hive's symbol is etched in beautiful script along the sides and tops of the decoration. A hush suddenly falls as cleverly concealed doors in each decoration slide open and the Meeting of Queens begins.
The reenactment starts with a bright flash and smoke pouring forth from the center hive. After the smoke clears, the center hive lies in pieces and the queen is nowhere to be seen. The crowd sighs in melancholy reflection at the rendition of the destruction of the fallen hive. The remaining queens slowly twirl gracefully toward the center, mourning the loss of their fellow queen and hive. They kneel as one, lifting a large crown from the rubble of the destroyed hive and all four hold it aloft. A keening song begins, but almost as soon as the melody starts, one of the queens suddenly drops to the stage, clawing at her face. A scream erupts from the crowd and everything becomes a blur of motion and violence.
Dr. Kliktikiti feels an evil miasma blanket the amphitheater.
“Oh, that’s awful!”, Zusurra cries, holding her antennae, face looking sick. Clearly, she feels it too.
Jontane looks even worse, her whole body trembling. Makeitstopmakeitstopmakeitstop!
The emissaries acting as queens begin tearing into each other, and the crowd surges against itself as formians batter their neighbors, drop comatose, scream and run around wildly, or tumble down through the bleachers. The remaining members of your delegation huddle fearfully near the southwestern edge of the stage. Zusurra waves to get your attention, pointing to the large eastern tunnel entrance, where the equipment you stored in the wagons was delivered so that the gear could be collected after the ceremony. However, do you have the time to get them?
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Round 1
Active conditions:
Captain Marbles
Gammer
================================
Surprise if needed
Felzhen
================================
Reticent Stroidjumper
Dr. Kliktikiti
================================
|
|
Gammer points to across the theater and says to the rest of the group, "How did Felzhen get over there and why is he no longer with our group? It looks like he's trying to flee while holding something in his arms!"
Gammer leaps into action and hops over the top of the rows of theater bleachers in pursuit of Felzhen.
Moving a total of 60' in front of Felzhen.
He holds up his hands but ready to tackle Felzhen, "What are you doing, Felzhen?"
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Gammer makes it all the way to Felzhen.
"What am I doing? What does it look like I'm doing? I'm running away! I---" Then Felzhen looks at Gammer and slumps, tears in his eyes. "I didn't plan this. I mean, maybe I did, but I didn't know THIS would happen! I surrender! Help me fix it, help me stop it!"
All around the amphitheater, the formians are still tearing into each other.
|
|
Seeing Gammer handling the situation, Mute is on crowd control, disappearing and reappearing through the crowd. If someone is being attacked by enraged formians or the like, he would reappear to sink an arrow in a non-vital body part to distract them from the civilians in an effort to protect people.
Reticent, the formians are attacking everyone, and hurting themselves in the process. And the rest of the party... what are you doing? You can act now. Remember, Felzhen is holding a bag.
|
|
Feeling utterly exposed in the chaos without her gun, Hermena leaps from her seat and starts to make her way towards the eastern passage where her team's equipment is sequestered.
Her long stride gives the Sarcesian more room to move than her shorter counterparts, and she struggles up the stairs. She shouts down to her companions, "I'm getting our gear! Find out what Felzhen's carrying and tell me what I need to bring back to make it stop!"
|
|
The shirren doctor does not have much to do there, she doubts her words will calm the people around here. She does have a non lethal option thought, that was given to her at the beginning of the mission. Hoping it will prevent more killing that help them, she draws one of the smoke grenade and throws it on her right.
Hermena runs for the group's gear. Even though she is moving nimbly, the crowd is going wild around her!
Two members of the crowd claw at her along the way.
The crowd continues to tear at each other. There are screams, both vocal and psychic, of people in intense pain. However, the Doctor's smoke grenade definitely slows things a bit on that end of the amphitheater!
Felzhen turns to Gammer, and shoves the bag he's carrying at him. "How do we stop this?! Help me!"
The bag contains a mechanical rendition of a formian queen's skull with a piece of carapace or similar biological matter fused in a network of wires.
As Gammer sends out a deactivation signal, Dr. Klitikiti can feel the miasma blanket start to lift! Everywhere, formians look around at each other, dazed, as the brutal attacks cease. Guards rush in to usher the hive queens to safety, and one security officer comes up with the team that you approached earlier. "These sentients are the ones that tried to warn us," one of them indicates. "Yes, but one of their own was responsible for triggering this upon us," they say, looking at Felzhen.
The security guards with differing opinions consult with each other for a few minutes. "Please, follow us." They lead you and Felzhen to a secure chamber attached to the amphitheater, where you may heal your injuries.
"We will be calling on you to speak at our investigation," they say.
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Half an hour after the chaotic outbreak, the formian security forces manage to restore order and set up a triage with efficient medical care services. The guards escort you to another enclosed chamber in the northwest tunnel of the amphitheater, where the various emissaries from the formian hives demand answers.
A translucent conference table seats half a dozen furious formians bearing cuts and bruises. Lashunta delegation members huddle together on one side of the conference table as the formians accuse them of orchestrating “this outrageous event.”
"Zusurra, we invited your delegation to be a part of this event, and one of your delegates caused this horror! What do you all have to say for yourselves?"
You do notice though that Gammer and Dr. Kliktikiti are getting a gracious nod from one of the security formians standing against the back wall, however.
What do you say?
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Gammer brings forth the mechanical device and places it on the table in front of the delegation. "First let me point out that all those in attendance were effected, not just the formians. This device is what caused all of the chaos. If you look closely, there is a piece of bone fragment imbedded and wired within. We believe this fragment was taken via neurosurgery from the Fallen Queen of the Broken Hive. We noticed a hole in her skull at the time but did not know what it meant."
"Furthermore, we discovered a ship had landed outside of the site. We believe this has all been planned well in advance. Maybe Felzhen can shed some light on where and who he received this device from and what was the intent of activating it. Felzhen?" Gammer turns to the phentomite questioningly.
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Still bearing bandages where the medics patched up her wounds, Hermena nods along with Gammer's explanation. "Felzhen did bring this contraption into the theater, but he also didn't exactly act like some bring-you-all-down-with-me fanatic. He was bolting for the exit as soon as the chaos started, and once Gammer caught up with him he changed his priorities pretty quickly. He surrendered and didn't interfere with our damage control."
She fixes her gaze on the phentomite. "If you truly didn't intend for all this to happen, you should start explaining yourself now. If your answers here aren't satisfactory we'd be happy to send you out on your own to chat with the rest of the formians waiting outside this comfy little room."
Felzhen steps forward, shaking. "Um... as some of you probably know, I'm a teaching assistant at the University of Qabarat. My family had to mortgage their business in order to pay for this education. So, I've been working to lobby the administration to set up more scholarship opportunities for everyone, and lower the fees we all have to pay. I know friends who are struggling, and graduate only with crippling debt, or have to drop out with no degree and still a heavy financial cost."
Taking a deep breath, he continues. "I got an anonymous offer shortly after I was selected to be part of the delegation." He turns over his datapad to Gammer. The datapad displays a row of alphanumeric characters “DCH FZN 00025000 A13D4B6FF9001”.
"That was for the bank account that transferred me money. But you should know that it wasn't for me." The entire room learns that the phentomite teaching assistant was contracted to set off the transmitter during the reenactment to signal a starship in low orbit.
"I didn't know what it was going to do. I thought maybe they wanted to record the historic event. Because that was what I would do. Record it, so all the Pact Worlds could see this ceremony of peace!" Tears are streaming down his face, but he continues. "I didn't know, but I didn't look too closely. All I did know is that some third party guaranteed payment large enough to set up a permanent scholarship fund for students at Qabarat not wealthy enough to pay the college's expensive tuition fees. I wanted this so badly that I didn't think that people didn't pay that kind of money for recordings, and now I have wrecked everything!"
"We will deal with you later," Zusurra says grimly to Felzhen. She turns to the formians. "I think we all agree that orbiting ship must be dealt with?"
The queens look at each other and nod. Yes. The orbiting ship must be dealt with and any information about its purpose and architect found. But who will we send after them?
With further discussion between the lashuntas and the formians, one thing becomes clear. Neither group wishes to send their own people to engage the ship, fearful that even a rumor of either side having sole access to such dangerous technology could cause lasting political harm.
Then the queens turn to you. Starfinders, you have proved yourselves honorable allies. You saved us from ourselves. You tried to warn us about security problems, and you are a neutral party. Will you go after this ship for us? We will hold the festivities until your return.
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Mute reappears and slide up between the crowd to look at the datapad.
"I know that routing number. I've had...dealings involving numbers like that. I believe it is an AbadarCorp branch but that doesn't mean that AbadarCorp themselves are involved.
I myself am interested who this conspirator is. Now, we are getting a real ship to chase after them and not some rickety, old aethership to follow along with this festival, right?"
|
|
The shirren doctor was waiting for her turn to talk but as every thing was said by her colleagues, she waited for an opportunity to say something. Hearing Felzhen, she thinks for the right goal, doing the wrong thing. For such a bit sum, he should have investigated further, he’s a bit at fault anyway.
Following Staidjumper remark, she adds “You’re right. This is no reenactment and unfortunately, not a mission of peace.”
|
Marbles gets escorted in with a bandage on his head. Well that was exciting and crazy! Looks like I missed the fun. Just as everything started to go to hell I got knocked out by a smoke grenade someone threw right at my head! After being filled in on the bank account and the belief that the ship they saw signs of is still somewhere around, Marbles gets a gleam in his eyes. He strokes his experimental weapon, happy to have it back and agrees Oh, yes. We would most certainly be happy to bring these culprits down.
Good, I'm glad it is agreed you go after that ship
You blast board and blast off into space to encounter a heavy freighter. Immediately they fire their weapons at you near missing by less than a foot as you see the weapons go by.
|
|
Hermena grits her teeth as the Drake powers its way into orbit, relaxing a bit once they are in the comforting drift of vacuum. Once the mysterious freighter comes into range, the sarcesian starts to maneuver into an advantageous position. "Alright captain, comms are open. If you can't get them to play nice and stand down, I'll get us all up in their grill."
Mystical starship weapon property - When attempting a gunnery check with a mystical weapon, which is a hybrid device, a gunner can use ranks in Mysticism in place of her base attack bonus or ranks in Piloting, and her Wisdom modifier in place of her Dexterity modifier.