The inner doors are unlocked.
, +20 to search
You enter into the mine itself. Long tracks allow carts to move easily through the mine, set just inside from the front lobby and extending several hundred feet. A branching tunnel extends even further into the depths of the facility, though hazard tape indicates the area has seen little use. Crates stacked throughout the quiet space bear neat labels with their contents, though the tags indicate that they were packed almost a year ago. A large loading dock has a platform that can be raised to a hatch in the ceiling, which now welded shut.
One of the crates has been opened, and several of you notice a robot sitting just outside of it.
It starts to power on.
You three know how to control that thing, correct? Bluuuuu asks as the trio of engineers frantically swim forwards. As he sees them working feverishly while the machine still powers on, he approaches.
Correct???
Will spend two rounds approaching, the defend them in case the robot really doesn't want to power down. For the third round, will look at the crate he's next to to see if there are any markings, labeling, or latches to determine what it was used to hold or transport.[/ooc]
Atticus and Compucast recognize a mining robot. The whole group is easily able to shut it down before it finishes powering on.
, +20 to search
You can see from the scope of the mine that an enormous quantity of basalt was mined from this facility, easily enough to fill the cargo bays of a large starship. However, none of the mined basalt is present. While searching the crates, Atticus finds an addendum slipped in with the shipping manifest stating that the mining equipment is being held back in lieu of shipping 50 tons of basalt on the Golden Meteor and that subsequent arrangements would be made to ship the mining equipment. It is signed by Datch and dated one year ago. The manifest and addendum are written on a simple datapad.
Two driver seismic picks (Starfinder Armory 13) and a medium excavation laser (Starfinder Armory 20) rest within the opened crates.
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Driver Seismic Pick (Advanced Melee Weapon)
Damage 4d6 Sonic Deafen 1 Penetrating, powered (capacity 20, usage 1), professional (miner)
Medium Excavation Laser (Longarm)
Damage 3d10 F 60 ft. — 40 charges 2 2 Penetrating, professional (miner)
Atticus looks rather puzzled, Who would want quite so much basalt, what the hell is Datch planning to do with all of this stuff? he says as he also heads towards the doors.
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"I don't think she actually wants the basalt. She wants the mining equipment and the mine." concludes Compucast.
"She has made arrangements to have them left behind after all... I think she was using AbdarCorp to mine for something else entirely..."
He thinks a little more.
"Basalt shouldn't have hidden us from the submersible sensors, should it? Maybe there is something else down here with shielding properties?"
Bluuuuu will take one of the uncovered picks this could be useful in case one of these doors is unable to be hacked open and follows the others.
That is correct. If this basalt is able to thwart all scanners, it could be being used by Datch to hide something big. But what? And why is this world’s basalt so unique?
You open the doors and see a research lab. Several desks with computers line the walls of this room off the main entrance, while long tables down the middle of the room are crowded with machinery and experiments. Basalt samples float in suspension in front of sensors or are set up for strength testing and many broken pieces of basalt fill waste bins.
If you examine the experiments:
DC 20
If you hack the computers:
DC 28
If you search the room:
DC 10
DC 25
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Compucast smiles at the lab. This is my element
He starts by looking at the experiments.
Before heading over to see what Atticus is doing with the computers.
Finally he has a glance around the room for anything the team has missed.
"I'm not sure about these experiements. They look simple, but I can't quite figure them out."
He does however discover some healing serum and a datapad. "Anyone need one?" he says, offering them around.
"These may be handy... I wonder what the datapad holds.."
Heading inwards, Bluuuuu attempts his own scouting of the space.
but finds little.
I am not familiar with high-end experiementaion, but is it common to be conducting senstitive experiments so close to the mine itself? he asks. I would have thought being so close to the noise and vibrations and bustle would have a risk of contamination.
For whoever is looking at the datapad:
It's a lab notebook that contains hand-entered data from a series of experiments.
DC 20
There is also a strange doodle on one of the pages of data, along with a comment about the Eternal Source. The doodle is apparently abstract: a tangle of lines with a few extending out of it like an octopus’s tentacles and several eyes in the middle.
It is oddly disconcerting. Please make a Will save.
DC 18. If you fail, you are sickened for one minute as you are overcome by the feeling of your skin (or suitable exterior) hardening.
Dusty does not find any traps at the airlock. He does note that it seems designed as a much smaller entrance than all the others here, as though it were not intended for morlamaws but instead someone much smaller.
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Compucast also looks at the notebook. Reassured by the others words, he takes his time this time.
"I think you are right.. ugh
"I don't feel so good..."
The vesk turns even greener as the odd doodle turns his mind and his stomach.
Don't throw up in your armor. Don't throw up in your armor
Or maybe this will make my scales even harder. Think positive...
Perhaps a viral meme? Bluuuuu says. I have heard there are theories such things could be weaponized.
When everyone is ready, you head into the airlock.
It leads to a small office, with furniture clearly sized for a creature much smaller than a morlamaw. This room is filled with air. The desk is bare other than a computer. An open door leads to a small bedroom, though there are no personal items visible in here.
DC 24
DC 20
Really? Bluuuuu says in surprise. Living in such a small space, for months on end, right next to where you work? This mine is very isolated - I would imagine wanting to leave the moment I was able to.
The barathu floats past the vesk and begins searching the living quarters beyond.
As Compucast touches the computer, it springs to life and displays a cartoonlike pixelated image of the white ysoki holding up a mining pick and smiling at the camera while snacking on an apple.
It then explodes!
on anyone in the office, DC 18 Reflex save for half
Mu's crew film the whole explosion, and then find a damp towel to put out her smoldering fur.
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Bluuuuu clearly didn't look around well enough, as he is rocked by a burst of fire behind him. The barathu is able to duck behind some furniture to avoid the worst of it, but still gets some flames licking at him. Perhaps it was a mistake to replace the Thermal Capacitor
--
Bluuuuu hears a loud noise from behind him and maneuvers back into the office space as quick as he can underwater. Seeing a surprising amount of singed fur and scales for an underwater space he asks What happened? Did I hit a tripwire?
The computer is demolished, but you all have the sneaking suspicion that Datch wouldn't have left any important files on it anyway.
The cart tracks outside must have been used to carry the basalt out of and through the mines. Bluuuuu says as he pokes his head outside the office while Dusty and Compucast recover from the unexpected blast. If we follow them, perhaps we may find some evidence of exactly how much was extracted, or where it might have been shipped.
As everyone rests up, you notice something odd. There is now a gap of air near the ceiling, just a few inches deep.
You head north and find an area quite out of place for a mine. Shelves contain datapads on occult subjects and a neatly machined wall of basalt has various diagrams and symbols carved into it. The phrase “the Eternal Source” is repeated over and over again in Morlamaw, Aklo, and once in Common. It looks like mining equipment and resources were moved out of the way to make room for the strange library.
One of the clearest images looks like a jagged spire of rock stretching high out of an ocean, surrounded by waves. There are old and bizarre relics featuring morlamaw imagery as well as occult symbols.
DC 22
DC 32
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Atticus also studies the markings, running his claws over the witing in Aklo.
Yeah, he breathes out a long, low whistle. This is beginning to feel more and more like a damn trap.
He examines the markings more closely
Looks like this Eternal Source is an actual creature of some kind that its followers worship. Anyone know more about this stuff? I majored in math and science, not squid eyed entities from Aucturn that turn your brain to mush
[dice=Culture]d20+17
Dusty glosses over the symbols, not being a mystical thinker, but he looks into the Morlamaw scripts (being fluent) and furrows his brow at the contents. "...uh, friends. This 'Eternal Source' does not look good. Like...elder evil, Great Old One not good..." The halfling swallows.
That is...decidedly bad. Bluuuuu agrees. In fact the barathu reflexively moves itself a bot away from the shelves
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After her rest, Mu studies the diagrams carefully.
"Oooh, this is NOT good." Mu snorts, head slightly lowered, one foot unconsciously pawing the ground as if she wanted to charge something. "I thought I was DONE with these stupid death cults after literally dropping a friggin' mountain on top of some cultists in Castrovel."
Then she breathes deeply and says, "I can pinpoint the exact identity of the creature: Ghatanothoa, who is exceedingly strange even for a Great Old One. Yeah, like the rest of them, he's an ASS HAT."
She gestures with her hands and fingers as her camera crew zooms in for this very dramatic moment. She's mimicking tentacles as she talks. "Ghatanothoa is a mass of limbs, tentacle, and eyes, that folds up over on itself, constantly shifting and melding in and out of form. His appearance is said to be so horrifying that those who gaze upon him or upon perfect images of him can be turned into effectively immortal, petrified mummies, aware of their surroundings but unable to move. "
Straightening up, she shakes her head. "Praise Iomedae that the earlier image that we found was imperfect, or most of us would have been stone cold, with our minds active and our bodies frozen."
Looking at the diagrams and the gap of air on the ceiling, Mu says, "These morlamaws are in deep, right? Can we think of any reason why these caves would naturally drain of water? Is this low tide? Because I don't know why aquatic creatures would want that."