As Speaker for the Dead takes the defensive, Misty kit helps bolster the defenses of Elwin.
Morbo wallops the gremlin in front of him, but its thick skin barely bruises.
SOMETHING IS AMISS? Round Three Cont'd/Round Four Cont'd!
Elwin the Technomancer -6 SP
Misty Kit
Bisig Sandahar
Speaker of the Dead -8 SP
Blue
Red
Yellow
Orange -6 HP
Morbo Rivers -5 SP
The technomancer's touch topples the tiny terror. The illusory dwarves disappear.
SOMETHING IS AMISS? Round Four Cont'd!
Misty Kit
Bisig Sandahar
Speaker of the Dead -8 SP
Blue -17 HP
Red
Yellow
Orange -6 HP
Morbo Rivers -5 SP
Elwin the Technomancer -6 SP
Bisig whispers under his breath, "Come on Wreck, you can do this.", and lines up two shots on the red gremlin.
The first shot strikes the hobkins gremlin , but the second shot misses the slightly out-of-phase goblin and is directed towards Speaker for the Dead.
The shot misses the totally defended embri.
With the elf failing to fall, the gremlins gather around the lashunta!
SOMETHING IS AMISS? Round Four Cont'd/Round Five Begins!
Morbo Rivers -7 SP | -5 HP
Elwin the Technomancer -6 SP
Misty Kit
Bisig Sandahar
Speaker of the Dead -8 SP
Red -2 HP
Yellow
Orange -6 HP
Desperate for anything that might help, Speaker for the Dead mutters the words for a spell to make one of the gremlins see him as an old friend!
Speaker for the Dead recognized that these creatures are fey, whose minds differ greatly from most humanoids.
Morbo steps out of flank and swings at orange again
Morbo's baton bounces off the gremlin's skin, not even leaving a mark, and the baton is redirected towards Morbo's hygiene kit!
The hygiene kit is unscratched!
SOMETHING IS AMISS? Round Four Cont'd/Round Five Cont'd!
Elwin the Technomancer -6 SP
Misty Kit
Bisig Sandahar
Speaker of the Dead -8 SP
Red -2 HP
Yellow
Orange -6 HP
Morbo Rivers -7 SP | -5 HP
Elwin moves past red, expecting the attack as he moves.
"Perfect, thank you"
He sends that fan of flames out, managing to catch all three of the baddies and just barely missing his team mates.
Two of the gremlins are consumed by the flames. The third avoids some of the flames. Nevertheless, an expression of concern is on its face.
SOMETHING IS AMISS? Round Five Cont'd!
Misty Kit
Bisig Sandahar
Speaker of the Dead -8 SP
Red -14 HP
Yellow -6 HP
Orange -18 HP
Morbo Rivers -7 SP | -5 HP
Elwin the Technomancer -6 SP
Seeing only one creature left, Bisig moves up and squeezes off a shot.
The ranged shot misses the gremlin and is redirected toward another Starfinder.
The resulting shock drops Morbo!
The remaining hobkins gremlin decides to pick on someone more of its own size. It floats over towards Misty Kit, trying to rake the Starfinder with a claw.
SOMETHING IS AMISS? Round Five Cont'd/Round Six Begins!
Morbo Rivers
Elwin the Technomancer -6 SP
Misty Kit -3 SP
Bisig Sandahar
Speaker of the Dead -8 SP
Yellow -6 HP
"Someone help Morbo! I hate these annoying things..."
Elwin walks up to the last one and attempts to stab it, since ranged attacks seem to fare so poorly.
The knife blade slips off of the gremlin's resistant hide and slips towards where Elwin keeps his personal comm unit!
The blade does no damage.
Morbo moans.
SOMETHING IS AMISS? Round Six Begins!
Misty Kit -3 SP
Bisig Sandahar
Speaker of the Dead -8 SP
Yellow -6 HP
Morbo Rivers -1 RP
Elwin the Technomancer -6 SP
Bisig's well-placed shot catches the gremlin by surprise, nearly knocking it to the floor. However, it still manages to float menacingly.
It, then, turns and flees.
SOMETHING IS AMISS? Round Six Cont'd/Round Seven Begins!
Morbo Rivers -7 SP| -7 HP | -1 RP
Elwin the Technomancer -6 SP
Misty Kit -3 SP
Bisig Sandahar
[b]Speaker of the Dead -8 SP
Yellow -10 HP
Using his natural speed, Elwin is able to keep the thing in sight for one more shot...
As he heads after it, a string of Elvish curses spew from him, completely the opposite of his normal serene self...
The final hobkins gremlin, pierced and frozen, drops to the floor.
With the last of the gremlin infestation handled, the Pathfinders are free to explore the remainder of the lodge, which consists of living quarters, waste facilities, storage, and a communal mess hall, all currently quite empty.
When you’ve finished clearing the area, you can return to the landed shuttle and head back to the Lorespire Complex to meet with Calder Soren.
Back on Absalom Station, the Calder Soren eagerly awaits your return. On the far side of the headquarters, you see the morlamaw onboard a circular hoverplatform reviewing a computer screen.
From the entry into the headquarters, you again see the set of guideposts intended to accommodate a line of hundreds of people. The line is empty.
He follows the guide posts on their return.
After having you stand in line once more, Calder Soren greets you eagerly. Following a briefing on what you found at the lodge, he is pleased that you were able to remove the infestation of malicious fey noting that the creatures must have delighted in tormenting the occasional prospector and explorer visiting Kalcijet 5. Concluding that the gremlins likely arrived on a prior prospecting vessel and found the abandoned lodge to be the perfect location to practice their malicious form of trickery, Calder Soren affirms his intention to send a more permanent team to Kalcijet 5 to permanently reoccupy the lodge and use it for further exploration missions in the region.
The sole candidate left for the party to meet is Ehu Hadif.
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.
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.
"This one finds the prospect fascinating. This one would ask that one, how does the Society know of the mission if it was never recorded?"
"The Society 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." Ehu explains, "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."
"And maybe more importantly, I guess they won't let us simply copy the information and leave."
"An understanding has been reached between the Society and the Curators," assures Ehu. "The Curators 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."
"Ah this should be a welcome change of pace. Perhaps this research will uncover a suitable topic for my next documentary."
"Perhaps," Ehu notes, not without hesitation. "I think it doubtful, however, that the Curators will allow you make a recording of your visit to the library world."
Elwin sits and listens dutifully. When he hears that they will be allowed inside the Curator's library he can't help but smile.
"When do we leave?"
"As soon as you wish." Ehu replies. "I have arranged for a shuttle to the Ceaseless Escapade. You will board her and travel on to Atheum."
True to his word, Ehu has arranged a shuttle, which transports you to the Ceaseless Escapade. The Starfinder vessel is 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.
On arrival on the surface of Athaeum, you are greeted 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.
Map of the library now revealed on Slides.
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.
While researching the documents, you are able to gain enough insight from the documentation to tell that the Starfinder Society agents previous had been following up on all information related to a string of Pact World–sponsored colonies out in the Vast that went missing, but were never acknowledged by the Pact (presumably, the reason they only appeared in Athaeum).
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.
You note traces of the faint, strands of light permeating the air, twisting and moving about. Focusing your vision on the effect, you see the wisps of golden light manifest into mathematical symbols and notations forming equational formulas that dance on the air.
The falling of the book is accompanied by activity elsewhere in this chamber of the Tower of the Inspired, as a host of creatures emerges from several of the bookshelves!
Map of library chamber with opponents now revealed on Slides.
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.
One of the bookish creatures skitters forward on the stone floor before scaling the side of the marble stairwell.
Another scampers across the floor, then along the wall towards the Starfinders!
THROWING THE BOOKS AT YOU! Round One Begins!
Blue
Green
Bisig Sandahar
Morbo
Misty Kit
Yellow
Speaker of the Dead
Elwin the Technomancer
Red
Elwin, not seeing anything special about the otherwise glowing book throwing off oddities shakes his head, looks back to his friends and says ""Hey. Anyone else see this?"
Where Elwin points, traces of faint, strands of light permeate the air, twisting and moving about. Focusing your vision on the effect, you see the wisps of golden light manifest into mathematical symbols and notations forming equational formulas that dance on the air.
THROWING THE BOOKS AT YOU! Round One Cont'd!
Blue
Green
Bisig Sandahar
Morbo
Misty Kit
Yellow
Speaker of the Dead
Elwin the Technomancer
Red
As Misty Kit's wings beat faster, Bisig's shot lights up one of the creatures
Another one of the creatures skitters quickly across the stone floor.
THROWING THE BOOKS AT YOU! Round One Cont'd!
Blue
Green -5 HP
Bisig Sandahar
Morbo
Misty Kit
Yellow
Speaker of the Dead
Elwin the Technomancer
Red