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With just enough rest and relaxation after your last mission Fitch, the de facto leader of the Wayfinders Faction, summons you aboard the nearly repaired Master of Stars, the largest starship in the Starfinder Society’s fleet. A shuttle ferries you all from Absalom Station to the vessel through the Armada (the ever-moving queue of starships docking and exiting Absalom Station). The repairs to the Master of Stars are almost complete, and although a few rings of scaffolding remain visible around sections of the ship, its armor-plated hull, powerful engines, and sleek lines are almost complete. Your shuttle lands in a spacious hangar bay, and a drone leads you to a briefing room on an upper deck of the ship.
Fitch is waiting with a plate of bread, jams, and sweet pastries. As you arrive, she’s trying to chase off three of her grandchildren while scolding them with restrained aggravation that those snacks aren't for them. The three youngsters flee past you as Fitch hurls a doughnut to chase them off, with one of them nimbly snatching it mid-air and stuffing it into a cheek pouch. She performs an exaggerated scowl, though once the door closes, her face exudes smug pride in her cunning descendants.
Once you all sit down, she begins with the formalities.
“Vabaimus, here, is a planet in Near Space,” Fitch says while gesturing towards a holoscreen showing a very vibrant planet with a large, grey scar on one of the continents. “Green, lots of water, bright sunlight, beautiful, if you're into that sort of thing. Plenty of animal and plant life. Simple stuff. The most intelligent species is a marsupial no bigger than my kids! Look kind of like sloths. I like them, but we’re leaving them alone till they advance enough to at least get a language. Could take a while.
“But there is a research station on the southern continent. The scientist in charge is Dr. Mora Motressi, a xenobiologist. She and her people have been checking out the local flora and fauna, and they’re just starting a geological survey. Vabaimus is a resource-rich planet; we could do a lot with that, but we need to be careful to do it right. We don’t want to make decisions we later regret, disrupt the ecosystem, and create problems for ourselves and the locals.”
Fitch pulls a datachip from her cheek pouch and waves it around. “I was reading the first report from their geological survey, and apparently they’ve got a weird landmass down there. A plateau hundreds of miles across covered in a slick grey shell, like a giant lobster or something! No water or plant life at all— maybe it got blasted by some kind of curse, I don’t know. Mora and her people, they don’t have the equipment to do a proper survey, so I figured we could give her a hand. I’d like you to take some vehicles and survey equipment to Dr. Motressi and her people on Vabaimus, and help them get to the bottom of this mystery.”
Raising her hands and shaking her head as though you were about to protest, she continues, “I know, I know. This doesn’t sound like the sort of thing a bunch of super-stars like you usually go in for. There’s no first contact to figure out, no Swarm army to blast into smithereens. But this is how the hard work of research and science gets done, and besides, if this lifeless plateau is the result of a curse or a magical accident or something, Mora and those scientists will need help, maybe even an evacuation.
“So, what do you say? I trust your expertise. Have any questions?”
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A tall kisatha stands in the corner of the room, all four arms crossed. ”A straightforward job?” they mutter softly. ”I’ve yet to see a Starfinder mission that stays that way.” Raising their voice, they continue, ”I don’t suppose the geological surveys from the initial sweep of the planet got more useful information than ‘a grey shell’?”
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Fitch nods and spits out a datapad, then taps on it quickly.
"A cursory scan was all they've performed so far. Just enough to know it's not an active volcano, or some weird meteor strike. Otherwise Vabaimus is a temperate planet with considerable surface water and a variety of native life. It looks like a perfect colony world, honestly. That strange geological formation seems like a stony plateau. High in calcium. Covers approximately 85,000 square miles. The research station is situated nearby, so studying it up close should be easy with the equipment we're sending along."
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Kultha arrives to the summons, having recently invested her Starfinder stipend in new Reinforced EVA Suit heavy armour complete with an Azimuth Shoulder Laser.
Clocking the tall Envoy, she nods a rumbles a greeting before taking in the mission objectives;
"Komrade Vyecmuraf. Good to see you again. Likevise Mistress Fitch. So Near Space eh. Good to get off Station I think. Back to stars yes?"
She mulls data being projected and shared;
"Survey job, soundings good. Kultha nyet afraid of hard graft. Maybe stoney plateau is valuable mineral? Vurth minink samples?"
Fitch does some mining herself, digging through the box of doughnuts before grabbing one with pink and black sprinkles.
"Only maybe twenty people there. Scientists mostly and some assistants. Too early for miners, but they've set up half a dozen buildings not far from the plateau, so it's a step above camping. We’ve packed up some scaffolding towers, high-intensity scanners, and computers which, once you put them all together, will give you a 3-D map of the plateau’s interior and do a complete chemical analysis of the ground. Figured your skills would come in handy there. Oh! And I threw in some enercycles and buggies, to help you get around. You’ll have a lot of ground to cover.”
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Lar, a bare bones android, stands listening to the briefing and questions from his fellow starfinders. "Our mission is to take survey equipment to the site and report to Dr. Motressi to 'get to the bottom of this.' I assume any additional directives will come from Dr. Motressi, such as if we encounter hostile lifeforms, or foreign technology." Lar flexes his left hand a couple of times as he speaks. His face begins to light up a bit (literally) when speaking of foreign technology.
Fitch flutters an ear slightly, “Well, hate to disappoint about that last part, but far as I can tell, Mora’s team is the first to explore the planet. BUT! Hooking up those towers is going to require a lot of engineering expertise, so you should have your hands busy enough!"
Fitch nods and mutters, "Yes, absolutely, totally understand..." as though continuing the topic with you, but oddly, she begins to lean to her side, one arm slowly extending outward. Then, in the blink of an eye, she swings it down below her chair! A muffled "Eep!" emits from out of sight before Fitch drags up a squirming ysoki child and begins bouncing him on her lap.
"Knew there was one more around here somewhere."
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Calcium is good for the bones Dicebot remarks, initially more focused on carefully sampling the pastries Hmm.. good mouthfeel. Flaky, not too soggy, well-balanced filling.
As the one lost child moves up closer to the metallic hulk, DICEBOT secretly passes an Akitonian radish to the kid, before asking Do we know what the wildlife is like? Any dangers to be aware of?
It seems like he's more interested in what the wildlife tastes like.
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A large Morlemaw in new armor and a jaunty little hat walks in. His tusks are shiny and his eyes bright.
"Oh! Donuts! One of the best things about the rest of the universe!"
He grabs a jelly one and looks around, greeting his friends, old and new, "Kultha! Lar, and yes, even you, Vyecmuraf! Good to see you! Very nice to meet you as well, Dicebot! My name is Boris!"
He then turns the the information, "Ah,a water planet, nice! Hm. A mysterious grey 'scar' on the planet! I can't wait to see it! And yes, there is engineering and science skill to spare int his group!"
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Do we know what the wildlife is like? Any dangers to be aware of?
"Nothing terrible enough to include in the survey data. I'm sure there's some sort of predator-prey relationship going on there, same as here," she says as she noogies the tyke on her lap.
"How long until the Master of Stars is ready for voyage Mistress Fitch? Vil you be lookink for krew?"
"She took a beatin' by those Jinsuls, didn't she? Harrying firefight that was. Engineers tell me not long. Have you applied at jobs.sfs.as? Be sure to upload a cover letter, CV, the whole works. I just review the finales. My old eyes would go blind readin' hundreds of resumes!"
Fitch bids you farewell, orders a shuttle to transport you to your choice of Pegasus or Drake, as is customary, and you soon find yourselves setting course for Vabaimus, located in Near Space. The days of your journey is spectacularly uneventful, and you have ample opportunity to learn about one another before finally arriving at your destination.
Within minutes, Dr. Mora Motressi, the lead scientist at the research station, comms you and invites you to land at the nearby pad. The scenery as you descend is unadulterated and lush, with flocks of strange, shelled birds giving your starship a wide berth. In the distance, the great, barren expanse that is the plateau serves as a looming reminder as to your purpose here. As you land at the outpost , some of the scientists and assistants emerge to help unload the vehicles and survey equipment.
Mora turns out to be a friendly professional and devoted mother; as she speaks to you, a sloth-like creature clings to her torso while a human child plays with a datapad in the background. She introduces her as “Little Mina”. The girl flashes a smile and a little wave and goes back to her drawing.
The outpost itself is a simple affair set upon the grassy shore of a broad river, with two dormitory buildings to the east, two science labs to the west, and between them a common room for the staff to relax. All the buildings are white half-cylinders obviously assembled from prefabricated parts shipped to Vabaimus from the Pact Worlds. A basic chain-link fence surrounds the compound, an improvised exercise track loops around the entire campus, and a pair of researchers in athletic clothes are jogging in the morning sun. The mysterious plateau rests only a few miles away.
Once you're settled, Mora leads you to one of the science bays. Activating a handheld control, she gestures to a holographic image of an imposing, gray plateau. “This is Big Mina. You probably saw it as you came down from orbit. The plateau’s covered in a gray calcium compound, somewhat like a shell or a bony crest. There’s nothing like it anywhere else on Vabaimus and, frankly, we’re not sure what to make of it. But that’s where you and the equipment you’ve brought us come in.”
The image of the plateau rotates to a top-down perspective, and three circles of light appear. “The survey equipment will allow us to construct three towers, one at each of the these locations: Forsaken Canyon, the Windy Cliffs, and this dry riverbed. Once the scanners on the towers are calibrated to the computers we keep here at the camp, we’ll perform a deep scan of the entire plateau, going down thousands of feet. We’ll have a three-dimensional map of Big Mina’s interior, we’ll know the chemical composition of the soil, and hopefully we’ll figure out whatever caused this formation to appear in the first place. We have an office pool going, and right now the popular choice is some kind of magical accident, but my money is on an anomalous weather pattern. Anyway.
“Those enercycles and explorer buggies you brought will be handy to travel across the plateau, so use any combination of them you want. We’re currently loading them up with the equipment you’ll need to raise the towers, plus some climbing gear just in case. Once you arrive at each scan location, you’ll need to assemble the tower and calibrate the computer. I can help you with that last bit from here. We have twelve hours of daylight left, and while I’d love to knock this out in a day, you don’t need to be reckless. You can bunk on these sofas for the night if you need.
“There’s one other thing,” she noticeably pauses as she looks to Vyecmuraf before continuing, “It’s probably not important, certainly has nothing to do with why you're here, but just in case—we recently stumbled across a small, abandoned starship. It appears to be centuries old, possibly just after the Gap, and... it's Kasathan. It didn’t crash; we think its pilot landed safely. But there’s no sign of whatever happened to them. Whoever it was must be long dead by now.” She sets the sloth creature down on a plastic climbing apparatus with a branch of leaves hanging nearby.
“So, I think that’s everything. You all came highly rated. Any questions?”
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Kultha gives a head bow at the scientist's introduction of herself and a clawed wave back to Little Mina.
She studies the holo-map with interest, giving a toothy smile at the news of a pool concerning the nature of the plateau.
"Big Mina nyet as kute as little namesake I tink."
When the Doctor mentions the abandoned ship, she looks up with interest;
"Da. Makes sense to investigate. Haf salvage rights been sekured?"
”Could you send us the coordinates for this abandoned ship? If it is near one of the installation sites - or not far off the path to get there - it may be worth investigating as well.”
“Actually, yes. If you want, I’d be happy to. Maybe you can make more sense of it than we can.” she sends the coordinates to your comm unit. "It's not located on the plateau, so it'll be out of your way, but honestly if you would like to check it out, please feel free. We stumbled across it while gathering specimens for study," she gestures to the sloth, which is deftly managing the climbing apparatus.
"Big Mina nyet as kute as little namesake I tink."
"Heh. She's always wanted a big sister. I told her this was the best I could do."
"Haf salvage rights been sekured?"
"Indeed. And passed on. Given the age, we decided it was best to contact the Idari for them to send someone to pick it up, or decide whether it was worth the effort. It's a curiosity, but maybe they have records on file. We did find these items on board. You're welcome to them if you think they're useful."
She shows you three large, gray pearls each worth 50 credits, three mk 1 serums of healing, and 2 doses of zero.
"And hanging in the cockpit, we found this," she says as she dangles a purple-hued, engraved medallion on a chain.
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Kultha nods slowly as news of no lucrative salvage rights are available, then looks to Vyecmuraf to identify the Kasatha trinket;
"Ach vell. No matter... Komrade Vyecmuraf vill know vhat that is I tink."
The mech-tea walks over the where the sloth creature is slowly ascending;
"Zhis little vun. Indigenous to Vabaimus yes?"
Mora smiles, delighted that you seem interested in her work.
“We nicknamed him 'Bud'. One of my assistants is currently examining his mate, 'Beky'. They're both from B troupe. As far as we can tell, their species isn’t yet sapient, but they’re making all of the right moves in that direction. Right now, Bud’s pretty good at using a stick to get insects out of the ground! Maybe one day his descendants could be farming, building towns, or doing whatever else expresses their evolving culture. We've avoided interfering with the species overall, but we do want to know more about them, so we brought Bud and Beky here for a closer look. They’re easy to get along with, and my daughter likes them.
“Our previous camp set up on the northern continent, where we studied A troupe. We think the species is endemic to Vabaimus based on preliminary genetic analysis. There are some oddities on this continent, though. You probably saw a flock of featherless avians on your way in. We call them 'stonegulls'. Absolutely weird. There's a feathered variety on the northern continent, but down here they have the same grey coloration as Big Mina. It's on our list of things to study during our stay here."
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Lar looks to each as they speak.
As
we recently stumbled across a small, abandoned starship. It appears to be centuries old, possibly just after the Gap
Lar's face panels light up.
If it was possibly active just after the Gap, it could have been active just AFTER the Gap!
At the showing of the artifacts found on the ship, Lar identifies the holy symbol.
"This holy symbol is devoted to Talavet, also known as the Storyteller. Talavet is the kasathan goddess of community and tradition. Her worshipers practiced the art of storytelling with the magic thayt is inherent in communicative acts. With this being the case...and the approximate age of the ship, the information stored within could prove to be extremely enlightening." Lar's led's glow even brighter as he voices his thoughts out loud. Much of the talk of grandchildren and indigenous creatures is lost on him at this point.
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Watching from the back, Boris winks at little Mina when she looks his way and waves with one flipper.
"If we are not on a definite schedule it might be best to check that ship for sure. It appears that the local life is mostly friendly. Are there any predators or such we should look out for?"
Watching from the back, Boris winks at little Mina when she looks his way and waves with one flipper.
*Giggles*
"If we are not on a definite schedule it might be best to check that ship for sure."
Mora nods, letting out only the smallest sigh. "Absolutely. We're very grateful you've come. The least we can do is let you determine your own schedule. In that case, you could probably visit two sites today, and two sites tomorrow, rather than rush the three towers all today. Safety first, after all."
"It appears that the local life is mostly friendly. Are there any predators or such we should look out for?"
“There seems to be a large concentration of stonegulls in the canyon. We think they roost there because there's little reason for anything else to be there. Safety in isolation. There’s otherwise no life or water on the plateau that we've seen. The danger at the second site along the cliffs is the wind; the ridgeline is unfortunately both best for reception and intense because of wind gusts. Finally, there’s the riverbed. We tried to set up a scanner there when we first arrived, but it stopped functioning after a few days. We eventually found it knocked over and smashed up. Bit of a mystery, but we think it was a coinidental meteor strike!"
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“There seems to be a large concentration of stonegulls in the canyon. We think they roost there because there's little reason for anything else to be there. Safety in isolation. There’s otherwise no life or water on the plateau that we've seen.
There is no greater reason for anything to be anywhere. an extremely high-pitched voice pipes up from the corner of the science bay. A very pale gnome woman in heavy armor continues as she moves from where she had been lurking in the corner towards Mora and the rest. But we all drift about and come to rest where we do for unfathomable reasons. Maybe these towers will give us better answers. I don't think so, but the doctor is hopeful.
Looking at the new faces the gnome introduces herself. Sorry. I'm Mizix. Society Society security here. It's been a while since I've seen new faces. Or much of any faces. Most of the scientists tend to think I 'bum them out'.
Mora chuckles, and winks at the party, "Was wondering when you'd reveal yourself! And you're *not* a 'bummer'! Mina even drew a picture of you! But I'm glad you can finally do something more meaningful than guard these flimsy fences," she smiles.
Still, it is strange that a perfectly working ship like that would land and never leave. Were any signs of activity ever found?
"We don't have the equipment to hack into a three hundred years old computer system, but judging by the vegetation growth around the ship it hasn't been inhabited by anything larger than a family of Vabaimium sugar gliders."
"You mention a riverbed. How good is the water quality here?"
"Good question! So, that particular riverbed is currently dry. We actually can't tell the last time water flowed through it. Furthermore, the water flowing nearby is actually more acidic and slightly warmer than we think it should be. We're not entirely sure why, but it's a statistically noticeable difference from the water samples we collected on the northern continent."
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Kultha nods in agreement;
"Da. Vurk first, vunce all towers up then ve investigate Kasatha ship. Unlok secrets of past..."
The big vesk-tek looks down towards the armoured gnome;
"Greetings Komrade Mizix. I am Kulthalovosh... Kultha to friends. Glad you vil be givink us security. You know lay of land, vhere best to start?"
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I was not a fan of the name. Not actually edible.
Pity DICEBOT, the perfect integration of cook and kitchen machine, says. Also, Mizix, please note I do not have a setting for being 'Bummed out'
He then reacts to the remarks on water: Acidic, luke-warm water? Not very tempting, and probably bad on digestion as well, depending on content. Did you test for potability?
Agreed on the towers, let's head there first
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Mizix gives a nod back towards the vesk.
The riverbed should be the simplest. Since all of the towers there keep getting into trouble is a clear sign that the assumptions we cling to are flawed in way we do not yet understand.
So I would start with the canyon. Gulls can be irritating. But the cliff wind messes with your hair. She looks at who she is talking to. Well my hair.
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Turning to Vyecmuraf, DICEBOT asks how long do Kasatha live, anyway?
The kasatha doesn't respond, tapping a few buttons on their wrist computer. A few seconds later, Dicebot's communicator unit beeps politely as it receives a message.
As the other Starfinders suggest starting by setting up the tower in the riverbed, Vyecmuraf shakes their head. "Whatever."
Mora leads you out of the lab building and towards a staging area where her assistants have laid out the buggies and enercycles for your perusal
“The canyon and riverbed are both about 60 miles away and a fair distance from one another. The cliffs are about 75 miles away. Because of the slopes and terrain, all three sites are roughly equidistant from one another. You don't need to set up the towers in any particular order. Comm me at each site after you've setup the towers and I'll walk you through the Computers check.”
In each buggie you find TWO sets of: 100 feet titanium alloy cable, an engineering kit, a grappler, and a handheld geological scanner. Each enercyle contains ONE set instead.
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Well the canyon drive should be easy enough. Until we reach it at least. Then we need to stop quickly or else fall precipitously down into the chasm below, flailing to reach frim ground we did not appreciate until it was taken away from us in an ultimately futile effort to stave off the inevitable progression of the universe and ourselves within it.
Anyway it’s that way the chipper-sounding gnome points. Am I riding with the walrus?
"Sorry, we do not. We've never actually ventured far from our camps."
Buggy 1: Dicebot (P), Vyecmuraf
Buggy 2: Boris (P), Mizix
Enercycle 1: Kultha
Enercyle 2: Lar 612
With Mizix's excellent navigational skills everyone finds their way in just 2 hours' time with no breakdowns or wrong turns. Hooray!
Like the rest of the plateau, Forsaken Canyon is a bleak and lifeless region, the ground covered in a hard, gray substance that resembles the shell of a lobster or the surface of an oyster. But here, the ground slopes steeply into a wide canyon with large mounds the size of vehicles and narrow gullies that wind between hills. Your coordinates lead you to a hill in the middle of the canyon.
Each of the scanning towers is a 30-foot-tall structure of titanium alloy rods that must be assembled on the spot, a process that takes about 30 minutes. Instructions show how to assemble and anchor it step by step, and the Engineers in the group recognize this as a mundane task . The tower has a small platform at the top, which can support only one Medium or smaller creature, a larger platform 10 feet below that can support two Medium or smaller creatures, and a ladder that allows easy access to each . The geological scanner must be installed on the top platform, and calibrating it involves talking to Dr. Motressi for about 15 minutes.
Over the course of the first 30 minutes, you spot a flock of "birds" about a mile or so away. As you are calibrating the computers, they appear to become agitated and begin circling overhead (120' above the ground; 90' above the tower).
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DICEBOT planks the buggy up the hill without effort, but also with little regard for the comfort of the Kasatha.
Once the tower is set up, DICEBOT takes a tactical position on the middle platform. DICEBOT is mostly interested in the birds, getting ready for a cooking demonstration, if necessary.
If you stand really still DICEBOT says, these birds will not approach you.
Unfortunately, I do not have a setting for stealth DICEBOT adds, as he gets ready to draw the bird's attention away from anybody else...
--
For stealth options, we recommend the KA-2010 'NOCLANK' attachment, which comes with muffle socks
--DICEBOT instruction manual
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Mizix hops off of the buggy as it comes to a rest at the canyon's base. See: I told yo it was pretty straightforward. Walking with the group over the the right position, the gnome helps the party unfurl the tower components and then looks at them as if they were an alien lifeform.
So...which rod goes in which hole?
When it comes time for the experts to actually calibrate the thing, Mizix remains at the tower's base, kicking the occasional calcium lump to kill time.
Noticing the creatures DICEBOT is talking about, she gives them a closer look. Those are the stonegulls all right. Pretty unique to here. And no wonder: in order to survive in their crystalline state they need an enormous amount of calcium each day. Stopping or slowing would cause their forms to crack and fall; they must forever be sucking and eating their very home on this plateau. Spending their time stripping away the resources of the very environment that spawned them in order to keep pace on the vicious treadmill evolution has brought them to.
Mona was right: the creatures here are weird.
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Vyecmuraf endures the ride in stoic silence, but doesn’t hesitate to exit the vehicle once they reach the tower site. They pass equipment from the buggy to the other Starfinders, using all four hands to handle some of the more awkward pieces.
When Dicebot and Mizix draw the group’s attention to the incoming wildlife, the kasatha’s brow furrows. ”So are we hoping he can burn the stone birds, or should we take cover until they pass?” They eye the space under the buggy, then their morlamaw companion as an alternative source of improvised cover.