You have been summoned by Venture-Captain Arvin to a meeting room at the Lorespire Complex for your next assignment. As you arrive Arvin bids you to sit, and when everyone is here he dims the lights and calls up a holographic representation of Eox.
Arvin’s calm demeanor erodes for a brief moment, replaced with the genuine excitement of sharing some piece of obscure lore. “When the bone sages of Eox launched the Magefire Assault in 7 ag, they ended up triggering an ancient doomsday weapon the sarcesians left in orbit over their home world. This dormant ordinance detonated with enough force to send part of a moon crashing into the planet, where it completely obliterated the Eoxian necropolis city of Muthal. The rock remains a geological anomaly, now called Blackmoon, and is one of the most fascinating excavation sites in the Pact Worlds. The potential combination of technological detritus and magical residue residing within and beneath Blackmoon represents a treasure trove of knowledge about Eox and its history. By calling in a few favors, and through some diplomatic back channels, the Society acquired the rights to excavate key sections of this munitions made mountain with backing from the bone sages about a year ago. The Society has agreed to share any magical discoveries—including any magical items—unearthed within the ruins of the lost necropolis of Muthal.”
“In exchange,” Arvin says, with an air of professorial summation, “the bone sages continue to allow us access to the region and broadcast any major discoveries in the Starfinder Chronicles. None of this is why you’re here—not exactly. You’re here because a few weeks ago, the Blackmoon excavation called for assistance. The excavation overseer, a kasatha borai named Taylehm, has reported that every time we try to expand the boundaries of the dig, several Society workers and even some of the mindless undead laborers have disappeared or turned up dead or destroyed. The Society needs you to go to Eox, investigate the dig site, find the cause of the disturbance, and restore the excavation to working order— without jeopardizing our partnership with the bone sages!” he ends emphatically. “Now, do you have questions?”
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A green-furred skittermander who is taking notes with an antiquated paper journal and quill pen speaks up almost immediately, talking faster than some might be comfortable listening to. "Any known hazards of the area? Who do we communicate our finds to? Anyone important we need to know about? What's a bone sage? Do we have a map? Can I fly the ship out there?"
"Also," he adds enthusiastically, "have you heard anything about feuds between the Starfinders and Eoxians? Star-crossed lovers?
Mysterious signals from the Drift?"
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Perimeter Plasma speaks in his monotone voice Sir, about these disturbances. Is there any more information we can review, maybe recordings from the site? It would be helpful to know if these disturbances are thought to be natural, or perhaps more sinister in nature? Perimeter Plasma finds the Star Crossed Lovers comment, amusing and tries his hardest to look professional through a suppressed guffaw. :-) He thinks he is going to like this guy.
"Bone Sages are the leaders on Eox. Undead Elebrian who each rule a fiefdom on Eox."
“Taylehm will be your contact. She’s the overseer of our excavation operations around Blackmoon. She was once a Starfinder field agent but suffered a grievous injury on a mission in the Vast that... well, it killed her. The Society paid for her resurrection, but the process didn’t go as expected and she returned as a borai—a corporeal undead that clings to its soul. While Taylehm wasn’t eager to return to field duty, she agreed to continue her work for the Society and offered to use her new undead status to help manage our operations on Eox. She’s a serious agent who’s seen a lot in her lifetime.”
“Unfortunately Taylehm’s message was brief so we don't have a lot of details about the disturbances. It’s likely that she knows more but didn’t want to present it on a communication channel that could be intercepted. You’ll need to find out what’s going on and help her ensure these disappearances don’t jeopardize our ongoing operations.”
"We'll be sending you via shuttle to Eox, so no need to pilot it yourself."
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Culture:
"Oh, yeah, bone sages. I hear they don't get along with each other very well. Should get me some interesting material. Do we know anything about the ones in charge of the site? Friends? Enemies? Frenemies?
"And I guess we should prep for lots of mindless undead and nothing to breathe. It does me no good to get great story ideas and then get dissolved or eaten!"
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P.P. spends some time connecting to the Infosphere to discern what he can of Blackmoon and Eox. He is particularly interested in information about naturally occurring disasters.
"If Taylehm is worried about the message being intercepted, then I would already begin to suspect foul play. Not only do we need to worry about being dissolved good Skittermander friend, but there is something more overt to be concerned about".
A shirren mystic rushes in, Sorry I'm late! Took too long changing Chk Chk's cradle-jar. Keshkodai introduces himself and his young son.
"Currently Blackmoon does not fall under the control of any bone sage - which in part is why we are able to excavate there. As a neutral third party and sharing our finding with all the bone sages, no one bone sage gains from our discoveries."
"The shuttle will take you to Zinhew, a settlement to the north of Blackmoon. Once there, we've arranged for you to meet up with a member of the excavation staff to take you to the site."
"Any other questions?" asks Arvin.
"You won't be doing any excavating. Your job is to investigate the deaths and disappearances, find and deal with the cause so they can get back to work."
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" Solid requirements. Any special reporting details we need to worry about? I presume standard data logs, recordings, pictures and any evidence we discover will be sufficient? What about extraction? What do we do if there are...complications with the locals?" other than these issues, Perimeter Plasma thinks the briefings are sufficient.
"Standard reporting, yes. Extraction should be a straight forward return to the city and hop a shuttle home. The locals shouldn't be any problem - unless they are the source of the issue," Arvin concludes.
"Safe travels, and best of luck." he adds before dismissing you.
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The journey from Absalom Station to Eox takes 5 days. The chartered shuttle refrains from entering the Drift, instead coasting along the Pact Worlds trade lanes that connect Absalom Station and Eox. Overall, the journey to Eox is uneventful, with the exception of a flotilla of Aballonian starships. This small fleet consists of seven Compent AEV ships escorting and defending a heavily damaged Compent Group Defense Frigate. The robotic starships, under the direct control of an intelligence identifying itself as Tutor 2–12, respond to hails indicating that everything is satisfactory and that they’re on a slow burn to Aballon for repairs.
When you arrive on Eox, your shuttle lands in the necropolis settlement of Zinhew, located on a shelf of rock north of Blackmoon. You have a few hours to explore the settlement prior to a prearranged meeting in one of the transport docks with a member of the Blackmoon excavation staff.
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At the appointed time, you head to the loading bay where transports disembark into the wastes of Eox. There you meet your ride, an imposing Vesk named Berchta Deepdelver. Her clothing is stained and mud splattered, but her beard horns, teeth, and the frilled ridges of her head are all multicolored hues of an oil spill on water.
"Right on time! Good, I like that," she notes. "I'm the dirt boss for this venture and this here is Digger," she says, indicating the robust mechanical drone with six arms underslung with sawlike drilling implements standing ready to receive gear for transport. "Let's get loaded. Taylehm is waiting for you back at the dig site."
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Perimeter will be on the lookout for explosive (Fiery) small arms ammo.
With his standard awkward flare " Well met Berchta. I am Perimeter Plasma. We are here from the Starfinder Society to help you all with some troublesome events. What has been going on?....That is a one beast of a Drone you got there, I think I can carry my own gear thank you "
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Kōlēfō quickly sketches the drone in his notebook. "Interesting design..." he mumbles to himself. "Good arm quantity. Maybe this thing could be secretly evil, or disguise itself as a skittermander... or BE a skittermander that had all its limbs replaced."
He glances up and sees the vesk glaring at him. "Oh, yeah, ready to head out, sir!"
"Best be talking to Taylehm when we get there. She's got all the details."
Once you and your gear is loaded onto the transport, Berchta takes you out of Zinhew and onto the surface of Eox.
While it seems from orbit that the monochromatic bleakness of Eox’s surface was a simple trick of the eye, driving through the gates of Zinhew reveals the surface to be every bit as barren and lifeless as it appeared from high atmosphere. Up close, Eox’s ground looks less like gray dirt and more like desiccated skin peeling away from ancient, cadaverous flesh. A haphazard sprawl of berms and rock clusters push themselves up like broken bones and scabs, and shambling forms—humanoid and non-humanoid alike—move across the landscape in eerie half-shuffles and stilted gaits.
Above it all rises Blackmoon. True to its name, the gigantic hemisphere, itself a color between darkened ashen sand and volcano glass, looks less like a mountain and more like a heavenly body that collided with Eox and refused to let time or the elements break its shape.
The surface of Blackmoon is crisscrossed with footpaths and roads packed down and flattened by the passage of hundreds of vehicles. The transport has a generator and recharging unit that ensures your armor remains at full capacity. Berchta stops the transport outside of a large camp complex of interconnected research and storage pods, mess areas, and sleeping quarters for researchers, scientists, and the few laborers among the living.
A tall kasatha woman with visibly grayed skin comes to meet you as you exit the all-terrain transport. The woman introduces herself as Taylehm, the head of the Blackmoon excavation. She is short on time and busy keeping the other Eoxians from getting too interested in the recent deaths and disappearances, but fills you in quickly on what is happening.
The Society’s survey site around Blackmoon is one of a handful of excavations across the surface of the mountain. Due to Blackmoon’s awesome size, camps are dozens of miles apart from one another, allowing each to operate in relative seclusion and privacy.
Taylehm indicates that in the last 2 weeks, the Society’s excavation team has lost days of productivity while trying to expand the borders of the excavation beyond its current boundaries. So far six researchers, four of whom were members of the Society, and over a dozen of their undead workers are missing and presumed destroyed. Of the living researchers, only two bodies were discovered, and they looked as though they had been savaged by some kind of wildlife; the other four bodies remain unrecovered.
In addition to the confirmed deaths, workers reported damage on some of the heavier industrial mining equipment near the excavation’s latest expansion site. Taylehm has sent three of her contracted security detail agents to the site to try to see what’s causing the disturbance. These security agents have yet to report in, and Taylehm is gladdened by your timely arrival, as the site has little else in the way of protection.
Taylehm had the two bodies brought to the excavation’s impromptu morgue, originally a cryogenic storage facility intended for artifacts. The medical officers on site are mostly scientific staff on the Society’s payroll to investigate and catalogue findings. Their primary purpose is not to provide medical care and attention, though they’re trained for such eventualities.
You are introduced to three researches who make up the medical staff: Kopos (agender android), Rayburn (male human), and Whipstitch (female ysoki). Only Kopos has sufficient medical training to perform autopsies. The current assessment among them is that the deaths were caused by the feral undead that rove across the planet’s surface, as all of the living humanoids had wandered outside of camp boundaries when they disappeared.
You request to inspect the bodies, which prompts the staff to remove the bodies from storage. Both bodies are humanoid: one appears to be a male human, the other a female korasha lashunta. Further details are almost impossible to obtain due to physical trauma. Both bodies have been savaged, with large lacerations, deep gashes, and compound fractures; digits are missing on the hands of both humanoids, and skin bears signs of tearing and flensing.
Having gotten what you can from the bodies, it is time to move on.
You make your way over to the site living quarters. Despite their name, the quarters house both the living (over 30 of them) and the unliving (almost twice that number). Most of the living are from off planet, drawn here for contract work.
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Kōlēfō will whip out his notebook and a hat with a card in it that says "Press" in it in many Pact Worlds languages. He will talk to some of the residents, claiming to be researching a story for a news feed on Absalom Station. If anyone is reluctant to share, he is willing to slip in a veiled threat or two to make them more talkative.
(whichever is more appropriate - they have the same modifier)
Perimeter digs into the computer messaging system to see what he can uncover. He learns that everyone who went missing, including the undead laborers, were all operating beyond the established perimeter of the main excavation site. It’s common knowledge that they fell prey to some of Eox’s roaming feral undead.
Kal chats with the workers to find out what they may know. The latest dig site hasn’t been fully launched yet, and staff are eager to begin work there. So far, Berchta has managed only to set up several automated excavators to start trawling the ground, both identifying points of archaeological interest as well as preparing for the next set of digs. A korasha lashunta named Sennox led a small band of mindless undead menials to begin a preliminary sweep of the area. Sennox’s body was later found ravaged, and the mindless menials disappeared. Berchta has yet to let anyone else inspect the new dig site for fear of further attacks.
On the hunt for a good story, Kōlēfō learns that Taylehm dispatched the excavation’s security force, a group of three armed mercenaries, to the nearby Redspire Canyon to hunt down the feral undead responsible for the recent deaths. The three guards have yet to return, and the outpost believes they might have been caught in a “glass cyclone,” a local weather phenomenon that can tear up even the strongest of environmental protection suits.
Berchta offers to take you out to the dig site as soon as you want. Given the terrain, the transport can't get there, but she says it is only a 20 minute hike from the camp.
Berchta gathers Digger and the six of you head out to the dig site. The toxic Eox atmosphere requires you to turn on you environmental protections before heading out, but beyond that the journey is uneventful. You arrive at the eastern edge of the new dig site.
Berchta explains that she hasn't spent much time out here, only stopping by periodically to move the automated excavators.
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Perimeter is observing Berchta to see if she carries any Data Pads or other interesting tidbits that may be swipable
" These digging machines look interesting, I would like to see how they were set up and maybe what they may have been looking for....Is that..some old building foundation they were unearthing"?
Kal doesn't spot anything suspicious on his approach.
"Yeah, some seismic disturbances unearthed these ruins a few months back. We've had the excavators working on clearing out the loose rock form the area, before Sennox and her crew came out to start the real work."
"Yeah, as been mentioned, this is our newest dig site. We barely got started when the disappearances began."
Kal checks out the first excavator, which is currently inactive. The cabins on top of each are pretty big (easily hold 4 or 5 medium creatures)