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Malaak concentrates and aims another salve of magic missiles at the Jinsul!
Die!
Though struck by magical bolts, the jinsul base commander refuses to comply with the Starfinders request. The monstrous humanoid emits a series of clicking sounds, somewhat akin to a laugh. It waves one its limbs ominously.
“Freeze frame.” Tara Nova’s instruction brings a halt to the jinsul’s waving limb as the footage as the drone footage of the battle is placed on pause.
“Rewind. Six frames”.” the candidate commands, prompting the jinsul’s limb begins to move in reverse as the camera angle pans out as a bolt of magical force appears to eject from the villain’s abdomen and fly towards the back of Malaak’s hand before panning around for a close up of the Starfinder’s mouthing face.
“Pause and mark. “ she commands, before stating,“Replay.” The vid-editor complies.
Die!
“Stop. Delete replayed portion.” she commands.
Then, the woman then turns to the party.
“There are already enough overconfident lawyers on the vids.” Tara Nova chides Malaak. “Our targets audiences don’t want to see more of them. Even if some of them are undead..”
“And, you…” see says turning towards Croaker. “You weren’t lacking confidence either, were you?”
"Why don't you die already!"
Though its flesh is now seared, the jinsul's defiant stance is its sole response.
“Unusable, but easy enough to clear up here in postproduction.” she declares as the audio of the ysoki’s inquiry is deleted.
“Fast forward.” Tara Nova instructs.
Jagrur stays where he was, having Ears supercharge the plasma fork again. He sends a command to 'Dross to get into the Jinsul's face, and hit it with the sledge.
“And...stick a supercharged plasma-fork in it, people,” Tara Nova notes cheerfully, “it's done--the jinsul threat onboard the Implacable Reason postproduction.”
“Couldn’t have hurt for you to add a nice little sound bite, Jagrur, but it will do. It will do nicely.” she says by way of commendation.
“The action shots you all have given me should been more than sufficient to generate needed vid-traffic,” she concludes. [b]"I commend you for removing this jinsul threat. As First Seeker, I vow that no outside power should oppose the Society and I pledge to make sure that forces like the jinsuls can’t rebuild to harm the Society in the future."
Tara Nova hands you each a cred stick holding 365 credits. "You all deserve to celebrate your victory. I hope to see you around."
With only one potential candidate to investigate, the party is free to proceed to seeing Ehu Hadif Ko’ra Amares of Clan Tolar, who has arranged to meet you within one of the Lorespire Complex's many meeting rooms.
En route, you have some time to digest some information you may have already accessed about the candidate for First Seeker.
You have learned something about Ehu Hadif Ko’ra Amares of Clan Tolar. Ehu Hadif Ko’ra Amares of Clan Tolar, generally known as Ehu, is a male kasatha from the Idari worldship. He’s known for being an active solarian who worships Talavet, the kasathan goddess of storytelling, community, and tradition.
You meet with Ehu Hadif Ko’ra Amares of Clan Tolar in one of the Lorespire Complex’s many meeting rooms. Unlike the prior candidates that you have met, Ehu prefers the traditional meeting arrangements used by venture captains. When you arrive, the kasatha has clearly been waiting, sitting at the opposite end of a rectangular table. With one of his many hands, he motion for you to sit.
Picture of Ehu now available on Slides.
Folding one pair of arms while the other rests on the edge of the table, Ehu Hadif looks over the assembled agents before giving a solemn nod.
“Good. I trusted First Seeker Elsebo to send me the best of our latest group of agents and she has provided." explains the kasatha. "My name is Ehu Hadif Ko’ra Amares of Clan Tolar, and the Society needs your help. With our recent victory in the Scoured Stars, it has become apparent that our Society lacks a solid direction to take us into the future. Though First Seeker Elsebo has held us together through our trials, we need more than a desire to survive if we are to give something back to the universe that has given us the chance to exist.”
Ehu unfolds his upper arms and waves a hand over the desk, which promptly displays a blue wire-frame image of a slowly spinning planetoid.
“This is Athaeum, home of the Curators." he continues. "You may have heard of it, before but worry not if you haven’t. Athaeum is a library world known to teleport throughout the cosmos. The residing Curators control the planet and its associated libraries, which contain the rarest knowledge in the galaxy. I say the rarest, because the Curators ensure that the information stored in their world is the last copy in existence, going so far as to seek out knowledge on other planets for destruction."
"I need you to go to Athaeum to investigate some tomes that pertain to a previous Starfinder mission to the planet, long before the Scoured Stars incident." Ehu states, his speech maintaining an air of formality. "This mission was never recorded in our records, so it is a blind spot in our history. The Curators have graciously allowed us to send a team—all of you—to Athaeum to review the texts that were previously investigated. By learning about this past mission, we might find guidance on where our future should take us.”
Ehu concludes with a nod, eager to take any questions that you may have.
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Octavii is a bit annoyed that he didn't get a chance to supernovae the jinsul but ... at least he survived this one and got his ten minute rest ... finally.
If you need an appropriate musical score for that he chirps to Tara Lemme know
To Ehu he asks. So ... if these dudes want to have the only copy ... and we find out what we wanna know ... won't they want to erase the knowledge that we gain?
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Ears is well satisfied to see the jinsul turned into a stew with crunchy bits. "Almost like magic," he congratulates Jagrur softly.
Ears watches the Starfinder-celebrity-influencer-producer at work. He is not particularly impressed with this reworking of history, but grateful for the knowledge that he should view all such documentation very skeptically indeed.
He thanks Tara while he accepts the credstick.
Ears scratches his eponymous appendages. "Good point, Octavii. Sir, are there any safeguards we should take once we have the data?"
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“You weren’t lacking confidence either, were you?”
"Oh I'm sorry I mussed have missed the memo describing how I should behave in combat for the joy of the viewers." responds in a similar tone that Tara used.
Croaker hears what Tara is saying and smiles a bit.
=============
On their way to Ehu Croaker do some inquiries
"I must have lost my mojo as what I learned of Ehu is garbage. Sending it to you right now."
After he hears the briefing
"So we should go to Athaeum and investigate the tomes? Should we come back with the findings? Or is there something else that we should do? Also how probable is that this mission was wiped from our records, rather than never there? "
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"Oh Ehu. He's pretty bad ass in combat. Powered armor, solarian sword, right in the enemy's face. Looks out for his people.
But he's really a scholar. He focuses primarily on history, nothing cool like xeno-biology or physics. But he values knowledge. I heard he wants to see the Society return to surveying planets and researching the mysteries of the galaxy, but he doesn't have a solid goal yet. He’s been looking through old missions to find a grand strategy or philosophy for exploration."
To Ehu he asks. So ... if these dudes want to have the only copy ... and we find out what we wanna know ... won't they want to erase the knowledge that we gain?
Ears scratches his eponymous appendages. "Good point, Octavii. Sir, are there any safeguards we should take once we have the data?"
"Curators pose no threat to us, at least not at this present time." Ehu assures, "To the contrary, the Society has reached and understanding with the Curators, who have previously recognized the Society’s need to reproduce information necessary to recover lost agents and have granted the Society a measure of immunity in replicating such key data found on Athaeum in order to complete our ongoing mission. I know of no reason to believe that this understanding has, in any way, changed."
"As for safeguards for the data," he continues. "utilize whatever means you deem reasonable to make sure it is not compromised."
"So we should go to Athaeum and investigate the tomes? Should we come back with the findings? Or is there something else that we should do? Also how probable is that this mission was wiped from our records, rather than never there? "
"Yes, go to Athaeum, investigate the tomes, return with your findings." Ehu repeats. "Of course, it is not entirely unusual for Starfinders to encounter circumstances while out in the field that call for the modification of a mission's initial parameters."
"As for the probability that a mission has been 'wiped from our records'," Ehu explains, "we only came to learn of the existence of the mission recently, when a band of Starfinders accompanied Forum member Royo to Athaeum to recover information related to the Scoured Stars. On that mission, Albryan, one of the Curators, confided that he had had prior interaction with members of the Society. Prior to that time, the Society was unaware of any such prior expedition to the library world."
"All subsequent inquiries for additional information have been declined by the Curator." Ehu sighs. "There are a multitude of variables that could impact one's calculations of probabilities and the Curators certainly hold their share of mysteries. However, given that Albryan is an axiomite, I think it likely that he was telling the truth and that a prior Starfinder Society mission was, in fact, undertaken to Athaeum, even if said mission is not reflected within the Society's current records."
After responding to the agent's questions, Ehu arranges for a shuttle to bring you to Athaeum onboard a Starfinder vessel called the [i]Ceaseless Escapade[/bi], piloted by an exuberant dwarf named Karlato.
Thanks to the planet’s unique means of teleportation, it takes only a few days in the Drift to reach Athaeum. Karlato announces that he will await for you in orbit above the mysterious world.
As Ehu had indicated, you are greeted on arrival on the surface of
Athaeum by the Curator Albryan, who escorts you to the Tower of the Inspired, one of Athaeum’s many library towers. Albryan looks like a
steel-skinned damaya lashunta wearing robes made of glowing mathematical equations. The Curator directs you into a specific section of the tower and provides you with the coordinates for a set of tomes that the Society had previously researched.
It does not take you long to pull the texts Albryan indicates from the shelves. You find that the series of four textbooks are written in Common, but they appear to be entirely incoherent and assembled from a variety of Pact Worlds documents from over the past two centuries. The text is a complete garble of everything from news reports, to food recipes, to anthropological studies of alien life-forms.
You recognize that the text has been magically scrambled to mask its original intent, and conclude that you could find more clues with deeper research.
Albryan informs you that you have one hour to spend recording the documents and trying to decipher the text.
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Well ... I think I can get behind Ehu on that .... think of all the new music I could find. I think he gets my vote ..... do we vote for First Seekers?
Octavii actually scans all the text into his datapad, connects it to the TuneBot ... and see if there are any musical patterns in it - something like what was found on Enerith-7. While it's digesting all of that, he looks for patterns in the text.
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"Altered? Let me see..."
He grunts and nods, but he can't feel it. But there is no reason to distrust Ears on that matter. So he begins to scan magically the materials before him.
His hands radiate with mystical energies...
And he feels the flows within the libraries. Croaker adjusts his aura to tap into the magical potential of this place.
It shocks him how magic mirrors the places. Even in a mystical plane, everything is ordered, clean, and accounted for. Factinating!
As the you are winding down on your research, having gleaned a number of potential insights, a book drops from a nearby shelf and falls open upon the floor.
Streaks of light briefly flash out of the pages of the newly-opened book before the tome then snaps shut, closing on its own.
The falling of the book is accompanied by activity elsewhere in this chamber of the Tower of the Inspired, as a stack of creatures emerges from several of the bookshelves!
Picture of creatures now revealed on Slides
Map of library chamber now revealed on Slides.
These tomes are animated, making them animated tomes. Though one may have been warned not to judge a book by its cover, the covers of these books indicate that they may contain spells!
Known as gishvits, these creatures are smaller outsiders originate from Axis, where the residents view them as little more than vermin. These gishvits must have replaced books in Athaeum and been sleeping within the chamber when something woke them and set them into a frenzy.
Ears
Yellowbook
Malaak
Octavii
Bluebook
Jagrur
Greenbook
Redbook
Spiker
Orangebook
Purplebook
Something more....?
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Croaker was still fishing for more information when the rattle has started. Then he looked at the source of the chaos
"You see that bearded book of some sorts? Yeah the one written by Kapp! Those are animated tomes, they might contain spells, but don't bet your life on it."
"The biting ones are not books at all, those are gishvits, creatures from Axis. They are treated as vermins." shares Croaker still sitting behind the table
"Can we ask someone from the Curators?" yells Croaker, hoping that such a library has waves of handling such odd occurrences. Suddenly he regrets not taking a flamethrower in here.
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"You see that bearded book of some sorts? Yeah the one written by Kapp! Those are animated tomes, they might contain spells, but don't bet your life on it."
Croaker can tell at a quick glance that the spells within the one dusty old tome are showing not only their age, but also the author's early naivete with game design and inartful efforts at balanced mechanics!
"The biting ones are not books at all, those are gishvits, creatures from Axis. They are treated as vermins." shares Croaker still sitting behind the table.
One of the gishvits crawls closer to the Starfinders.
PAGE MATCH! BEGIN!
Ears
Yellowbook
Malaak
Octavii
Bluebook
Jagrur
Greenbook
Redbook
Spiker
Orangebook
Purplebook
Something more....?
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"I can handle vermin." Ears talks confidently, but he doesn't have a lot of options that won't damage the library. He follows Octavii, then casts [i]grease to try to slow some of the creatures.
GREASE 1
School conjuration (creation)
Casting Time 1 standard action
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Area or Targets one 10-ft. square or one object
Duration 1 minute/level (D)
Saving Throw Reflex partial, see text; Spell Resistance no
You cover a solid surface with a layer of slippery grease. Any
creature in the area when the spell is cast must succeed at a
Reflex save or fall prone. A creature can walk within or through
the area of grease at half normal speed with a successful DC
10 Acrobatics check. Failure means the creature can’t move
that round and must then succeed at a Reflex save or fall
prone, while failure by 5 or more means it falls prone (see
the Acrobatics skill on page 135 for details). A creature that
doesn’t move on its turn doesn’t need to attempt this check
and isn’t considered flat-footed. The spell can also be used to
create a greasy coating on an item. Unattended material objects
are always affected by this spell. If you attempt to affect an
object in a creature’s possession, the creature can attempt a
Reflex save to negate the effect. If the creature fails the initial
saving throw, it immediately drops the item and must attempt
a new save each round it attempts to pick up, hold, or use the
item. A creature wearing greased armor or clothing gains a +5
circumstance bonus to Acrobatics checks to escape a grapple
and a +2 circumstance bonus to its AC against grapple combat
maneuvers.
Collectively, the Starfinders know that the gishvits can climb, force unwanted information into beings' minds and can be reduced to blank books with requisite magic.
The agents also know that the animated tomes can fly and cast a few 1st level spells as well as couple of others at will..
Malaak's magic missiles manage to mangle and mince the mystical manual into mulch.
One of the gishvit's clambers forward.
PAGE MATCH! Cont'd
Ears
Gishvit (yellow)
Malaak
Octavii
Gishvit (blue)
Jagrur
Gishvit (green)
Gishvit (red)-12 HP
Spiker
Animated tome (orange)
Animated tome (purple)
Something more....?
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Jagrur nods at the candidate for the next mission.....one in a library.
He attempts to help with the research, but knows that tomes are not his forte` in research....give him the good ol' infosphere....
He does his best, having 'Dross just trundle around pulling out tomes for others to read...and having it put them back--hopefully in the correct spot.
When the 'defenses'(???) start...Jagrur grins a little...this is MUCH better than smelling old dusty books.
The bookish outsider remains on what passes as its feet even as the floor below it becomes slick.
Another gishvit rushes towards the dwarf and clambers up the wall.
PAGE MATCH! Cont'd
Gishvit (yellow)
Malaak
Octavii
Gishvit (blue)
Ears
Jagrur
Gishvit (green)
Spiker
Animated tome (orange)
Animated tome (purple)
Something more....?
The lines of the tome toe the line, following Croaker's command and it flies toward the ysoki.
The animated tome floats through the library, unleashing one of the spells within it on Ears.
Another of the gishvits clambers forward, but rather than climb the steps, it begins climbing the wall, avoiding the magical grease on the floor.
The tongue-like ribbon of gishvit lashes out like a whip towards the nearby ysoki.
As its ribbon connects with the Starfinder, the gishvit begins transferring the volumes of information within its pages, forcing this information directly into Ear's mind!
PAGE TURNS 2!
Gishvit (yellow)
Malaak
Octavii
Gishvit (blue)
Ears
Jagrur
Gishvit (green)
Spiker
Animated tome (orange)
Animated tome (purple)
Something more....?
being far away from the creatures, Malaak continues to use his magic to destroy them!
Malaak means to massacre another manual in moments with magic missiles, but instead magical marks manifest and enter his mouth!
The Starfinder bends over, retching and regurgitating. The magical script hurls from Malaak's mouth and streaks toward the nearest Starfinder, striking Ears!
PAGE TURNS 2!
Gishvit (yellow)
Malaak
Octavii
Gishvit (blue)
Ears -5 SP
Jagrur
Gishvit (green)
Spiker
Animated tome (orange)
Animated tome (purple)
PAGE TURNS 2!
Gishvit (yellow)
Malaak
Octavii
Gishvit (blue)
Ears -13 SP
Jagrur
Gishvit (green)
Spiker
Animated tome (orange)
Animated tome (purple)
being far away from the creatures, Malaak continues to use his magic to destroy them!
He targets the one next to Jagrur.
Octavii blasts one of the gishvit's , nearly bringing it to the burning point.
The newly-injured gishvit clambers through the grease.
The creature stumbles and falls prone. With little option left, it lashes at Ears with its tentacle-like ribbon.
Jagrur heaves, regurgitating magical text that forced its way into his mouth and now hurls at his nearest ally.
PAGE TURNS 2!
Gishvit (yellow)
Malaak
Octavii
Gishvit (blue) -7 HP
Ears -13 SP
Jagrur
Gishvit (green) -5 HP
Spiker -5 SP
Animated tome (orange)
Animated tome (purple)
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Ears is considering which gun would damage the library least, when he feels something crawling up his throat. He bends double and wretches.
Suddenly the choice doesn't seem that important. He snatches for both, comes up with the shocker, and peels off a charge at the one climbing the stacks.
... (critical Arc 2; Stun)
He bends double and wretches.
Ears regurgitates the lit symbols, which fly towards Octavii, striking him.
Suddenly the choice doesn't seem that important. He snatches for both, comes up with the shocker,and peels off a charge at the one climbing the stacks
The gishvit near the dwarf lashes out with its tentacle-like ribbon against a nearby foe.
It slaps the dwarf and begins forcing information into Jagrur's mind!
PAGE TURNS 2 Cont'd!
Gishvit (yellow)
Malaak
Octavii -5 SP
Gishvit (blue) -7 HP
Ears -13 SP
Jagrur
Gishvit (green) -10 HP
Spiker -5 SP
Animated tome (orange)
Animated tome (purple)
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"Ok that is getting preposterous! Let me end this." He takes a step back and focus on the animated tome.
"Eat this you cheap quality cook book! And leave Jagrur alone!" throws some bantering to the fight
He reaches to the tome hoping that it should have some mind to attack
He waves his furry paws attacking the Gishvit with the accumulated magic, he redirects some of the streams of data that were flowing nearby wanting to overload the book with information.
He waves his furry paws attacking the Gishvit with the accumulated magic, he redirects some of the streams of data that were flowing nearby wanting to overload the book with information.
The outsider shrugs off much of the data, but the sheer volume overcomes the volume and it collapses.
An animated tome , having its course set some time ago, approaches as commanded, only to realize afterwards that, as construct, it had been immune to the effect !
The floating spell book attempts to cast mindthrust on Jagrur.
The second tome
An animated tome attempts to cast mindthrust on another nearby Starfinder.
A gishvit closes to Octavii, clambering along the wall, then opens wide in an effort to slice the kiirinta's wings with pape cuts!
PAGE TURNS 3!
Gishvit (yellow)
Malaak
Octavii -7 SP
Gishvit (blue) -7 HP
Ears -21 SP | -3 HP
Jagrur -5 SP
Gishvit (green) -19 HP
Spiker -5 SP
Animated tome (orange)
Animated tome (purple)
This time Malaak is able to keep is head up and calls again for his magic to destroy the creatures!
The mayhem meted out by Malaak's magic missile manages to minimally, yet masterfully, mangle the masterwork, mincing its missives into mush.
PAGE TURNS 3!
All acting PCs, must succeed at a Will save (DC 10, minimum) at the beginning of their post or spend a move action regurgitating magical script.
Gishvit (yellow)
Malaak
Octavii -7 SP
Gishvit (blue) -13 HP
Ears -21 SP | -3 HP
Jagrur -5 SP
Spiker -5 SP
Animated tome (orange)
Animated tome (purple)
Octavii chills with a bad book.
PAGE TURNS 3!
All acting PCs, must succeed at a Will save (DC 10, minimum) at the beginning of their post or spend a move action regurgitating magical script.
Gishvit (yellow) -5 hp
Malaak
Octavii -7 SP
Ears -19 SP
Jagrur -5 SP
Spiker -5 SP
Animated tome (orange)
Animated tome (purple)