You gather in a Lorespire Complex hangar. You're supposed to meet Venture-Captain Arvin here, but no one has seen him yet. Nearby, several teamsters load crates of astronomical equipment into a Pegasus-class starship.
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Dani stands on tip toe, her multi-colored hair shifting as she peers at the workers. Look, Beran! That looks like quality astronomical equipment! That ought to cheer you up! It's not every day you get to study other stars! The young lashunta woman grins at her ysoki co-worker. Her telepathic 'voice' is cheery. Just think! We get to study the worlds beyond our own Sun! Everyone in the Deep Cultures Institute will be so jealous of us!
"How can I look at the equipment? It's in crates." Beran the ysoki grumps as she hauls some equipment of her own. "And it's not like you'll be using that astronomical gear, anyway. Or keeping track of the calculations. If it's not mystical woo-woo, you don't give a damn about any of the research!'
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Really? Mystical woo-woo? Dani's forehead antennae twitch as she tries not to laugh. She illustrates the term with jazz hands. Is that a technical term? What I do is just as important as you. We make a good team, if you ever acknowledged it. Complimentary skills!
Now this should cheer you up. Dani points to the starship. A Pegasus! You'll be riding on the Starfinder's premier science ship!
Beran's whiskers twitch with anxiety. "At least we'll be in comfort when we burn up in a crash."
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A tall kasatha pops up in the hangar, his robe is of dark red color with emblems of a four-armed dragon. His mouth is covered by the cloth in the same color and near his head a mote of a constantly flowing darkness stays. Next to it a more technological device is hovering
"Yes Raven, I know that you would like to go on a mission with me, but I am concerned about your safety. You are an aspiring agent but at the moment the assignments are to dangerous." after a moment of pause he adds
"I assure you, on this mission, no other assistant will be present."
He turns towards the Lashunta and Ysoki a bit baffled why do they stand in silence smiling and gesticulating.
He approaches and puts his right hand on his chest and lowers his head first towards the female and then towards the male.
"My name is Vecro Asynti of House Khadil I received an invitation to meet Venture-Captain Arvin, have you seen him? Medium height, Starfinder uniform, a green crest of hair, and a tattoo on his skull?" asks Kasatha in a deep voice.
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Oh you must be on our team! Dani responds telepathically to Vecro, raising an arm in Absalom Sign Language greeting. I'm Dani Merta of the Deep Cultures Institute, from Stellacuna bubble in the Burning Archipelago. The lashunta woman smiles apologetically. I've never actually seen Venture Captain Arvin, though he did text me a mission briefing once. This is the first time Beran and I are going out of the Pact Worlds system, and we're so excited.
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"Wait. Is excited that feeling when you think you're going to crap your pants because you're gonna die on some alien world?" Beran asks, agitatedly going through their equipment one more time. "Because if that is excited, then yeah, I guess I'm excited."
The ysoki looks up at Vecro. "Tall, aren't you? Can you stand between me and anything big with lots of teeth on this mission? I'd appreciate that." Then Beran looks up at Vecro. "I'm also from the DCI, and yes, Dani always talks in your HEAD. You'd think she was a barathu or something."
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"Stand between you and anything with teeth? Of course, I will. That is my main role in most of the mission to protect the ones that are less protected."
He eyes the Ysoki and pats him on the arm turning to Dani he focuses, never knowing how does it actually work
Unfortunatelly I never learned the signed language. And maybe I should, given four arms I could speak way faster. I've never been to Burning Archipelago, how is it there? I heard that you can really feel the solar winds not like in here. And most of the solar activities echos in such force that some had troubles to bear them. Vecro is clearly agitated when speaking about the sun, even that, for the most part, he maintains calm and is very much in control of his emotions.
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Oh, I would be happy to teach you Absalom Sign during our journey! Dani's face lights up when Vecro attempts to meet her, mind to mind. The Burning Achipelago is the most beautiful spot in the Pact Worlds. Giant temples to Sarenrae and Desna. Efreeti markets! Shining and clean bubble cities. And yes, the solar winds are present, especially traveling by skimmer from bubble to bubble. You must come visit. I'll show you around.
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A humanoid figure seemingly made of coral, with two multi-pronged stag-like antlers protruding from its head, strides into the room. A small nodule of glimmering light swims between the various coral extensions like a small fish. It stops, puts its arms down, and turns in a circle, before lifting its arms up and speaking in a baritone voice that sounds like it's muffled behind its natural faceplate. "Companions! Agatio welcomes you, and looks forward to our assignment together. And such exciting new methods of communicating! Agatio has high hopes, especially following Agatio's last mission." The copaxi shakes his head, causing his antlers to twist dramatically.
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Dani turns her head as the figure made of coral comes forward.
What a strange greeting. But it is only polite to follow suit.
Dani stops, puts her hands to her sides and spins as well, her antennae wiggling as she does so. Welcome, Agatio! You're a copaxi, aren't you? I've heard that your world was being considered as a Pact Worlds Protectorate. I have... never met a colony being. Do you have many minds, or just one? I hope you don't mind if I ask you lots of questions!
I feel so stupid. Beran does the little spin, awkwardly, then mutters to Vecro, "Was that the hokey-pokey? It felt like the hokey-pokey."
Turning back to Agatio, Beran adds, "Even if you do mind, she'll ask you lots of questions. You can't get her to shut up, really."
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Vecro looks at the copaxi knowing a bit about his race.
He turns around with his hands to the sides, palms turned up.
He smiles at the hokey-pokey reference "On some planets hokey-pokey are ice-cream sold by the street vendors. I tried one here on absalom, a remarkable taste. I will send you the location."
Turning towards the newcomer
"I also have a lot of questions. I heard only a bit about your customs and would enjoy hearing more."
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Oh, I would be happy to teach you Absalom Sign during our journey! Dani's face lights up when Vecro attempts to meet her, mind to mind. The Burning Achipelago is the most beautiful spot in the Pact Worlds. Giant temples to Sarenrae and Desna. Efreeti markets! Shining and clean bubble cities. And yes, the solar winds are present, especially traveling by skimmer from bubble to bubble. You must come visit. I'll show you around.
"I would be honored to see the place that you call home. And to learn your language." He nods gratefully
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Dressed in a charcoal grey suit, pale blue cotton shirt, navy blue pocket square, and knotted navy blue silk tie, Cavaler Traleth looks every bit the ambassador from the elf nation of Sovyrian on Castrovel and senator representing the 4th district of Absalom Station. A small robot hovers in his general vicinity playing relaxing instrumental music. He places a bag full of gear and a rifle case on the ground at his feet. He then extends his hand, drawing each individual in with a firm grip, and looking them in the eye while he introduces himself.
"Cavaler Traleth, pleased to meet you."
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A morlamaw with a hide of dark blue-grey reminiscent of a deep ocean slides into sight, his giant tusks are beautifully carved with images of archaic sailing paraphernalia - compasses, small boats, oars, and other objects one would have expected to see on ships in the age of sail. He wears a natty old tricorne hat featuring a skull and crossbones upon which is perched a fairly decently sized (and rough-looking) marine iguana.
"Well hello!, you must be my fellow Starfinders. I was supposed to meet... umm... err.." he seems to drift for a second until the iguana pipes up "Arvin", "Arvin. Yes. I'm here to meet Arvin. I'm 'Scrimshaw Benny' pleased to meet you. Is that our ship? We going on a journey to the stars?"
He extends a flipper to Cavaler, "Nice to meet you fellow traveller"
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A humanoid figure seemingly made of coral, with two multi-pronged stag-like antlers protruding from its head, strides into the room. A small nodule of glimmering light swims between the various coral extensions like a small fish. It stops, puts its arms down, and turns in a circle, before lifting its arms up and speaking in a baritone voice that sounds like it's muffled behind its natural faceplate. "Companions! Agatio welcomes you, and looks forward to our assignment together. And such exciting new methods of communicating! Agatio has high hopes, especially following Agatio's last mission." The copaxi shakes his head, causing his antlers to twist dramatically.
A twitchy purple moth-like creature hovers near the Pegasus, its wings emitting a fog of glittering mist. The creature's delicate, fairy-like appearance is offset by its left arm, which has been completely replaced by an intricate cybernetic running with tubes, syringes, and scalpel blades, shifting absently as though organic itself. It communicates in a squeaky telepathic voice, its antennae vibrating as it harshly punctuates its speech seemingly at random. So many NEW organisms! Morlamaw, ELF, ysoki, LASHUNTA. I've WORKED alongside a KASATHA before though. FASCINATING!
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Benny seems happy with the hand flipper contact "Starfinders came to Arniselle, and since then we have been travelling out into space since. It was a rather amazing discovery for me really. Often I felt a calling from deep within and laid upon the surface of the ocean looking out amongst the stars almost seeing them as a flat canvas upon which the bright stars and moons were painted, like pearls and diamonds laying against fine black silk - imagine my surprise to find out that it was actually space and very far from two dimensional!? That it was actually another ocean infinitely larger than the one I was born in - an endless ocean through which drift any number of celestial leviathans, like its version of whales...? Starships just being the latest vessel to navigate by the stars - and yet the first to navigate BETWEEN the stars"
"Hey if you have some time later I have this great book I'd like to share with you, it talks a lot about navigating your life by the stars and setting a course for your own destiny - It features this really great person called Besmara..and whilst you don't have any tusks to engrave, I have a few pieces of scrimshaw that I have carved that I would like to share with you as a gift, and a token of her wishes for your safety on a space voyage..." he fishes out a few bits of scrimshaw, you can see the skull and crossbones of Besmara in their designs.
He points to the large marine iguana on his head "This is King Takalua, he's the head-man of his tribe and has joined us to share his thoughts and wisdom, and to meet his distant cousins at the Veskarium - to create a positive relationship between the two tribes."
"Aha, there you are! Glad everyone could make it." Venture-Captain Arvin, a male lashunta with a half-shaved head, emerges from the docked Pegasus. He presses himself against the hull near the cargo-bay door to make room for several teamsters as they carry crates packed with intricate recording devices onto the starship. Once the cargo is brought onboard, Arvin hops down off the loading ramp to speak face-to-face.
“Not long ago, some of your colleagues recovered ship logs describing a previously unknown planet called Wealdriad. The planet lacked any sentient life or noteworthy resources, so we sent a long-distance probe to monitor it while we focused on the Scoured Stars debacle.
“Well, that probe picked up something intriguing: solar flares from Wealdriad’s sun create auroras in the atmosphere, which are then ‘shaped’ into unnatural patterns by the magnetic forces arising from stone pillars on the planet’s crust. It is unlike anything we’ve seen in the Pact Worlds or Near Space, and the Forum decided it’s worth investigating further. Our probes indicate a massive solar flare will hit the atmosphere directly above the planet’s largest collection of pillars within the next few weeks, so we don’t want to miss what could be a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence. Furthermore, the auroras should make for quite a spectacle, so we advertised the upcoming event to some interested parties throughout the Pact Worlds. The Society’s public image has taken a beating recently, so this aurora could give us some much-needed good press.
“You’ll be taking this ship, along with some state-of-the-art astronomical equipment, out to Wealdriad for the upcoming aurora. Your mission has three components. First, gather as much data about the aurora as you can. Second, make a good impression among the other visitors so we can start rehabilitating the Starfinder brand in light of this multimedia smear campaign against us. I suspect other spectators are planning to record the event as well, so if you can collaborate with the other attendees, you might just kill two electrovores with one bullet. Third, we might not be setting foot on Wealdriad’s surface again for a long time, so see if there is anything interesting on the ground that our probes missed.
Any questions?”
Culture (recall knowledge) or Diplomacy (gather information) to determine what you already know about existing records that concern Wealdriad:
Mysticism (recall knowledge) to determine what you can expect from some of the other spectators you might encounter on Wealdriad:
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The dwarf in golemforged plate armor walks in. He carries a doshko and a plasma longarm, a backpack, some kind of control-pad with exposed wires and circuitry, and a few other items.
The emblem of Talavet is stamped on to the breastplate of his armor.
he shouts as if trying to be heard over heavy machinery
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"From what I've read in the reports from our initial explorations of Wealdriad the Azlanti Star empire knows of it's existence. There is a possibility that we will encounter their citizens on planet. My dealings with them in the past have never gone well. That being said I am fluent in their language and well schooled in their customs and style of negotiation."
"The phenomena on planet may also attract various religious groups to its mystical nature. Not all of these groups would be of a benign nature. In fact we can expect to meet supplicants of the dark arts."
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"When you sent out the invitations did you get any RSVPs? It would be good to know ahead of time if we are to meet any dignitaries or representatives of other organisations - so we can source some information on them and their organisations interests"
"This equipment - is it portable, is it self-deploying - I am not a scientist to operate it, and is it valuable? As in would someone want to engage in some buccaneering and steal it?"
"We haven't gotten any solid RSVPs, but that's not entirely unexpected. Not a lot of major groups want to be seen fraternizing with us at the moment, and even private messages might be considered 'unseemly' if they became public." Arvin rolls his eyes. "It was sort of a Hail Triune on our part, so we won't know who else will be joining you for the light show.
"The equipment comes with setup instructions and operating manuals, but keep in mind that Wealdriad's surface is uncharted territory. If you don't have the expertise to set up the equipment in less-than-ideal conditions, make sure you find a parking spot with ideal conditions before someone else nabs it. The equipment is valuable, but I wouldn't worry too much about theft. We don't know who's coming at the moment, but once you are there the list of attendees will be pretty small, so finding any burglars would not be hard."
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Vecro welcomes others and shakes Bennys flipper just before Venture-Captain Arvin begins the briefing.
Kasatha listens without any expression on his face until he hears about solar flares on which his eyes betray interest. From his early years, he was always interested in solar activities and he is very glad to be part of this mission. Exploration is his passion even thou he does not have the skills necessary to be part of science teams.
He asks his associate for help regarding expected spectators but he learns nothing new.
In his low voice, he shares
"I am certain we will be able to prevent any theft from happening. Do we know anything about planet's atmosphere condition? Is the air breathable? Any natural difficulties that we should expect, storms, big predators?"
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Dani gets a little confused by some of the last minute personnel changes, watching the Copaxi realize that he was needed for a different mission. Still she is excited by the sheer diversity of the newcomers here, and smiles warmly at Venture Captain Arvin. He's cute!
She nods to Cavaler, Scrimshaw, Juli, and Dr. Helix as each arrive. I am so pleased to meet you. I am Dani Merta from the Deep Cultures Institute on Stellacuna Bubble. It's wonderful to be with such a competent team.
She raises an eyebrow at Cavaler's comment about Azlanti, and then nods in agreement. This is my first time travelling outside the Pact Worlds, but I should be able to help with communications with the Azlanti. My telepathy often crosses linguistic barriers. The lack of any annexation effort suggests the Azlanti Star Empire doesn’t consider Wealdriad valuable territory. Any Azlanti citizens who attend the aurora are likely non-human subjects of the Empire conducting eccentric research. And... coming from the DCI, I think we can bond over the possibility of eccentric research!
Though initial reports did not recognize intelligent life on Wealdriad, it may still exist; locals may be too far underwater for orbital scans to detect, or too primitive to develop large hubs of civilization. A closer investigation may reveal evidence of other inhabitants, and possibly the divine forces that guide them.
Dani turns to the Venture Captain. This sounds like an exciting mission. I cannot wait to be part of it!
Beran listens to all the talk with increasing alarm.
"Solar flares? Storms? Azlanti? Death cults?!" Beran asks the Venture Captain, "Geez. What does the society provide for life insurance and body recovery?"
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Do we know anything about planet's atmosphere condition? Is the air breathable? Any natural difficulties that we should expect, storms, big predators?"
"Wealdriad is almost entirely oceanic; the only noteworthy landmasses are the basalt spires that seem to generate the magnetic fields we’re investigating. Orbital scans also detected harsh and unpredictable weather patterns, so expect a lot of wind and rain." Arvin casts a concerned eye to Guli before saying (a little louder), "You may want to save your voice for when you get there, there's a good chance you'll need to shout over the gales!"
He turns back to Vecro. "Apart from that the atmosphere is habitable, albeit cold and barren. Interference from the magnetic fields prevented our probes from identifying any life forms on the planet, so I can't help you much with that. For those of you who can't swim," he shoots a wink to Benny, "You'll need the Pegasus to get around, since the weather will likely be treacherous.
"A smaller vehicle capable of air or water travel may help you navigate Wealdriad’s surface with more precision, and let you leave the Pegasus at your preferred spot to record the aurora so another spectator doesn't take your parking space. If that’s out of your price range, see if you can strike a deal with another attendee and borrow their ride if you need it. Sadly we can't provide one for this mission; we've yet to really restock on ground vehicles since the Scoured Stars mission.
"Any other questions?”
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Dani catches Guli's expression of discomfort.
Oh, he must think I'm hard of hearing. That's why he's been shouting!
Dani tries to smile in an assuring way. You don't have to shout on my account by the way. I may sign, but I'm a CODA. She crooks both index fingers and joins them together. Here's your first sign. This means, 'friend'.
Arvin breaks into a grin at the Kiirinta's burst of energy. "Alright then, best of luck! I look forward to seeing what you bring back from Wealdriad once the aurora has resolved."
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The journey to Wealdriad takes 17 days, and once you emerge from the Drift you see a small blue planet veiled in thick storm clouds. Dr. Helix brings the ship's sensors online to scan the planet for an ideal landing site to view the aurora.
Despite your long travel into the Vast, you quickly realize that you are not alone in Wealdriad's orbit. The captain's comm unit pings with a distress signals almost immediately after you exit the Drift.
Beran just sticks her head in her hands. Here we go again...
"Look. I'm all for convenient rescuing. But we've gotta get down to the surface before all the good spots are taken, or we're gonna be setting up in the drink!"
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Cavaler opens a hailing frequency to the distressed ship. "Unidentified starship this is Cavaler Traleth acting captain of the Starfinder space navy vessel Loreseeker. How can we be of assistance?"
Cavaler patches her response through the ship's intercom system so everyone can hear.
He turns to the rest of the crew, "Opinions?"
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"I agree with Benny on this one. Showing Starfinders as willing to help others would go a long way to help society PR. Ask them what is the problem Cavaler."
Kasatha keeps Benny between himself and Dani, is it on purpose? Or is he expecting a thunder to struck her and he does not want to be anywhere near her?