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Staar is a very small lashunta woman, with a sickly visage. Her eyes are glowing red motes of fiery-red light which smolder and produce thin trails of white smoke. If you ever come close to her, you are pretty sure you can hear voices whispering from inside her head, though her mummified skin might distract you from noticing it...
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A halfling with a large sniper rifle slung across his back and pistols holstered on each side of his hip silently walks down the corridor. His darting eyes constantly assessing various places. Glancing over at the Lashunta woman, he quips, "You should save some of that for whatever we are about to be sent to face." He nods at her, "Name's Gammer."
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A dwarf enters the room. His eyes - one blue, one mechanical - look around the starship's walls with a level of interest that doesn't seem to be given to the actual people in the room at first.
So this is the Silence huh. Fancy devil, barely hear the thrum. Wonder what impellers Jad's got in the engine room...
He seems mostly to be talking to himself while he walks around in his armor. Multiple rifles are strapped to his back alongside a bulky backpack with an excessive amount of wiring running over it. The dwarf abruptly comes to a halt and his head whips towards the lashunta and halfling.
Hey, good to meet 'cha. Darin, d'Xin. Any of your get the gist as to what we're all doin' out 'ere?
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A gnome enters the room. His dark hair is shot through with stripes in bright rainbow colors, and his armor is decorated with similar stripes, resembling stylized feathers or sashes. Hs is only lightly armed--a pistol on each hip, and a knife strapped to his leg.
Trundling quietly behind him is a small robot resembling a mobile sound machine. "Tune-Bot 2000" and "Tokno Remix" are emblazoned on the robot in Common, Gnomish, and a couple other languages, all in garish colors.
The gnome looks around curiously at the others, and breaks into a grin. "Well met, Starfinders! I am Toknomonicon, but everyone just calls me Tokno. Always pleased to meet new colleagues," he says cheerfully.
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A deeply red-skinned man in a white old style shirt with a bit of ruffle at the front and cuffs with hints of armor peaking out from under it, strides into the room and takes a look around. He breaks into a wide smile as he starts moving around the room handing out a small white rectangle of cardstock with the name 'Ceolor Xusha' and a few lines of information about the man under it. "Pleasure to meet you all! I don't believe I've made your aquintances yet. The name is Ceolor Xusha. Perhaps you've heard of me from some of my holonovels, such as the Akitonian Abroad, Around Verces in Eighty Parsecs, or my most recent one, The Death of Moon 2b."
Glancing around to see if anyone recognized his novels, the hylki then flashes one of the cards he handed around. "And these are my business cards, a bit old-fashioned I know, but sometimes it can be nice to have a physical reminder." He then holds it up to a comm unit built into the sleeve of his armor under his shirt. "But these also can communicate with regular devices as well and automatically load my contact details in to whatever device you use while also giving credit for one of my holonovels. Consider it a treat for being a Starfinder and great for passing time on long Drift journeys!"
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Through the doors enters a large furry creature. 4 eyes, insect-like mandibles, four paws ended with sharp talons furry body, and a long squirrel-like tail. The creature sniffs the air and runs inside bumping into Ceolor putting its furry hand under his hand.
"Smiley! Come back here, Smiley!" yells a figure from the entrance. The newcomer has green skin, longer tusks than some other humanoids, and long black hair. His face is covered in burn marks which makes his voice a bit harder to understand. He is wearing heavy armor and on his back, he carries what looks like a hatch from an aircraft with custom-made places to strap to your arm.
"Ceolor is that you? Are you again trying to get more readers to your holo-novels? Haven't you got enough?" the half-orc approaches and give a hand-shake to Ceolor turning to others
"I am Aravon and this one is Smiley, he comes from Castrovel but we bumped into each other and now we travel together."
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Your guide, a bantrid Starfinder working as an aide-de-camp to Jadnura introduces themself with a series of clicks and whistles that you can’t possibly repeat, but them simplifies it as “Squark.” They roll along the brightly lit corridor, listening to your introductions and asking questions about your backgrounds. They’re especially excited to get a free(!!!!) copy of Ceolor’s new book, and they revel in the joy of meeting Smiley. Staar scares them a little, but they do a little dance which consists of rolling in intricate patterns to some of Tokno’s tunes and all is well with the world.
Squark finally delivers you to a conference room onboard First Seeker Jadnura’s personal flagship, the Perfect Silence, currently orbiting Absalom Station. Inside the conference room, you find Jadnura and nominated First Seeker Luwazi Elsebo who is in the process of uploading a holographic map of a sparse region of the Vast. First Seeker Jadnura stares out a window at the opposite side of the room, his four arms folded behind his back as he gazes into the blackness of space surrounding Absalom Station.
“Thank you for joining us,” Luwazi says as she finishes positioning the map above the table. “We know there have been some hiccups in getting everyone on the same page now that the agents trapped in the Scoured Stars have returned. To keep any unnecessary schisms from forming, Jadnura and I decided to cooperate as joint First Seekers for the time being and focus on missions the entire Society can get behind. And nothing unites disparate factions like a common enemy.” She brings up a flickering holograph of an alien with numerous eyes covering an ovoid body atop six chitinous legs. “These aliens call themselves jinsuls, and you may have already met them. A fleet of their starships ambushed us once we returned to the Scoured Stars, and we were lucky to make it out alive. They’ve interfered with our missions more than once now, but we can’t mount effective counterattacks because no one knows a damn thing about them.”
Jadnura glares at the jinsul holograph. “The only common thread between their attacks is the Scoured Stars,” he grumbles. “The jinsuls used everything they had to drive us away from the Scoured Stars, and the other civilizations they’ve sought out in the Vast all seem to have some ancestral connection to the worlds within that system. Luckily, we still have two helpful artifacts; they’re known as Tears, which emerged from the Scoured Stars and sought out its former inhabitants. I probed the energies within the Tears again, and whatever force is powering them revealed coordinates to a new region in the Vast. Our scouts have confirmed jinsul starships occasionally visit one planet within the area. It’s not much, but we need to start somewhere.”
“We suspect the jinsuls inhabited this planet before relocating to the Scoured Stars,” Luwazi adds, “which means it may hold troves of information about their technology, leadership, culture, you name it. We’re planning to travel there, scan the planet from orbit, and send a few ground teams—including you—to conduct reconnaissance on sites of interest. With any luck we’ll get in, learn what we can, and get out before the jinsul commanders ever know we’re there. If you have any questions, now is the time to ask.”
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Aravon enters the room and looks at Jadnura and Luwazi trying to feel their relations. Aravon wonders for a moment if their 'joint First Seekering' is not the result of Jadnuras last mission.
He takes a seat, Smiley walking around the room and sniffing other agent's backpacks, looking for something juicy to eat.
Aravon listens to the briefing and his face changes whenever he hear about Jinsuls. As the image of those creatures is presented he barely feels his fists cleanching as he looks at the screen. Only then he feels Smiley pushing his head into Aravon's. The half-orc blinks few times and calms down, he pats Yasakaja on his neck.
"Any information about planet's gravitation, atmosphere and such? Do we have any intel about flora and fauna existing there?"
Tokno greets Ceolor and Aravon as eagerly as he did the others, and promptly hands off the Akitonian author's card to Tune-Bot to download a holonovel for their upcoming voyage. Ceolor soon receives a link to download some of Tokno's music in return, which mostly consist of two types: frenetic remixes of popular songs, and haunting ballads about the First World. He makes the same offer to the other Starfinders during their introductions to Squark.
The gnome regards Aravon's companion with great curiosity, showing no more fear of the creature than he did of Shaar's odd afflictions. In fact, he seems to get along with Smiley just as well as if they shared a language.
Once they join the First Seekers, Tokno falls politely quiet as he listens attentively to the briefing.
"I confess, I've only been involved with this Scoured Stars business in the most peripheral way until now," the gnome says. "How much do we know about these jinsuls?"
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Well they’re mean spiders, can say that. Darin says to Tokno. Only saw ‘em when we were gettin’ the Hells out of those Scoured Stars, but for a group bent on keep in’ everyone else out of that system they sure were also happy to try and kill us when we were already leaving.
To the first First Seeker, the dwarf asks: So you think this planet might be the jinsuls’ home? Or at least one of them? That’s true why wouldn’t there be a real fleet presence there ‘stead of a couple of flybys every once in a while?
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Ceolor perks up into a broad grin at the sight of Smiley. "Smiley! If you're here then... Äh there's the half orc himself. Aravon you big lug, whatcha been up to lately. Still not got Smiley to heel?" He moves up to the big animal and starts to scratch Smiley's favorite spots. "Can't ever have enough readers. And Stsrfinders are more likely to give me constructive feedback than the general public! Really helps me make better stories."
He gives a small look of excitement over the music options that Tokno sent over and quickly adds them to his personal data pad. " I get to listen to a surprising amount of music on these missions! You should have seen this artist on our last mission! Literally sang down a heavily haunted obelisk! Hey, Avaron, you know what Yarameh is up to right now? We should send her a message."
~~~=^-^=~~~
After listening to the briefing, Ceolor seems a little giddy. "Oh, I know the jinsul! I've fought more than a few. I think I finally cracked the code on their language, so it ought to be interesting to see if I can't talk to them!"
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Gammer takes the proffered small white rectangle of cardstock from Ceolor and places it in a pocket to review later and greets the others as they arrive with a nod of his head.
He listens to the briefing and speaks up, "What are you hoping for us to find beyond what you stated? Do you believe there is another one of these artifacts on the planet? If this is a data gathering mission, do we try to avoid all contact with the Jinsuls? How many are estimated to be there and the planetary dangers involved? What type of resources and equipment will be required and provided beyond the normal?"
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Jadnura answers Aravon’s questions first. ”It’s good to see you again Agent Aravon, and you also Agent Xusha. You too, Smiley,” he adds with a rare smile. ”Preliminary scans indicate the planet is barely habitable; its atmosphere is breathable but polluted, and its surface is mostly barren. The climate is prone to harsh winters, and there’s a constant danger of lightning storms, so prepare for difficult overland travel. As for enemies, there’s no telling what lives on the surface, so bring plenty of ammo and whatever you need to get around unnoticed in case they outnumber you. Most signs of life are clustered in a few discrete sites, so we’ll be searching those first.”
Luwazi steps away from the holo-display at Tokno’s question. “We know little, which this mission aims to rectify. Biologically we know they have 360-degree vision and insect-like chitin plating. As a civilization, they’re hell-bent on bringing the other Scoured Stars species back to their ancestral homeland, and they’re more than willing to use violence whenever something gets in their way.” She nods to the other veteran agents that may have encountered the jinsul before. ”As they can attest.”
She continues as she recognizes Darin as one of her loyal agents. ”Agent d’Xin, sharp as always, I see. Their limited presence is something that concerns us. Maybe their fleet is away preparing for a major engagement against us. Or we did more damage to them at the Godshield than we thought. Or there’s internal power struggles going on. We have no idea. That’s why we’re bringing three teams for this mission.”
She then visibly perks up at Ceolor’s announcement of his new linguistic prowess. ”That could be incredibly useful. Do you think we should keep him with us on the command deck? To help all the teams in case they run across anything?” she asks Jadnura.
”Hmmm. That could be very useful,” he considers it for several heartbeats before shaking his head. ”But no. Reports are that Agent Xusha is very capable in combat, and I wouldn’t want to leave this team short-handed. I wish we had time to contact Yarameh as a replacement, but she hasn’t been answering her comms. However Ceolor, if the other teams require your knowledge of the language, we may need to comm you during the mission.”
”The planet is named Rax in our databases, Agent … Staar, is it? Though the jinsul may have another name for it. Perhaps your interpreter will be able to tell us, if so,” he finishes with a nod to Ceolor.
Jadnura picks up the rapid-fire questions from Gammer. “Mainly we want to find clues that may reveal the jinsuls’ motives and capabilities: who commands them, what they want, where they came from, what their society is like, anything that might give us an edge in future encounters. Learn what you can about their leadership and social hierarchies, so we know how to incapacitate their military command when we cross blades with them again.”
At Gammer’s question regarding another artifact Tear, he stares into nothing for a few moments before refocusing and answering. ”I … don’t know. As some of you know, I’ve had visions imparted to me by my contact with the Tear from the Mentrasi home world. That’s how I came by these coordinates. Perhaps there is another Tear on Rax, and it’s communing with our two, or perhaps the jinsul destroyed theirs. We know so little about them, it’s impossible to guess.” As he finishes, he slowly turns and stares out the window as Luwazi picks up the briefing.
”Given that you are agents of a hostile force, I think avoiding contact is the most prudent course of action.,” she begins. ”Until you know more about the situation, assume that it’s an entire planet of pissed-off jinsul. As the First Seeker said, take plenty of ammo. We can’t issue you anything, but obviously we’ll provide transportation to the system and a drop-ship to get you down. If you have your own vehicles, or overland flight capabilities, or stealth tech, any of those would obviously be handy.”
She concludes the briefing with an overview of what the two First Seekers will be doing. “Lastly, we’ll oversee the mission from this ship, which has a few gunboats among its shuttles that we can use to cover you if things go unexpectedly. If you lose contact with us, just keep following your primary objectives; we’ll fix communications from orbit and adjust the plan as needed.”
Squark sticks their head back in and says something to Luwazi in the Bantrid language.
”Ah, thank you, Squark.” She looks to you, ”The next team is here for their briefing. You all are dismissed to make your own preparations. Thank you for volunteering for this mission.” With that she turns to join Jadnura at the window as Squark leads you out to the armory.
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"Sounds like I'll want something a little less...bling," Tokno sighs to himself, glancing down at his garishly decorated outfit. "Ah, well, a new planet is always exciting." He gives the First Seekers a sketchy salute as he heads to the armory with the others.
'Exciting'. One word for it. Darin says quietly in response to the gnome as they make their preparations. Just a heads up about yer outfit: whatever it is, these bugs've got plenty of eyes. They'll spot it no matter where 'round them you are.
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Hearing a conversation about words happening, Ceolor pops his head back into the room. "I think 'exciting' would be a good word for it. Or 'exilitrating' or 'tantalizing!' This is part of why I joined the Starfinders (in addition to the travel benefits). We get to see places that no eyes from the Pact Worlds or, in some cases, sentient life have ever beheld! Meet new people, explore places, and figure out mysteries." Ceolor positively brims for a moment, before dimming the smile from a 13 to a 10, "Sure, we might run into the lovely jinsul and all their wonderful aggression, but we might get some actual insight into their lives as a species from this and finally find a way to reach out to them without being attacked for it."
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Squark leads you to your berths and gets you settled in, giving you a tour of the impressive ship along the way. You and the other two Starfinder teams, along with both First Seekers spend days travelling through the Drift before reaching Rax. Though the journey is mostly uneventful, Jadnura specifically invites Aravon to spend time sparring with him. He greatly enjoys the workouts, especially the challenge of fighting a mounted opponent which is such a rarity among Starfinder agents. And he seems to like Smiley a lot, too.
Meanwhile, Gammer and Ceolor get drafted by Luwazi to help her review diplomatic documentation pertaining to upcoming negotiations with the Kreiholm Freehold, set to take place in only a few months. She’s especially impressed by Ceolor’s breadth of languages. Gammer finds a variety of ways to improve the AI’s processing of the intricate formatting used in such diplomatic dispatches.
Once the Perfect Silence and its escorts emerge from the Drift, the command crew performs a scanning sweep of the system. After long-range sensors find no jinsul starships in the area, Luwazi Elsebo directs the crew members to maneuver the ship into orbit and begin scanning the surface. Jadnura soon identifies a prominent site of interest: a warm spot in the frozen wasteland, which appears to be ruins of a city. The crew swiftly finish final preparations on the dropships for all three Starfinder teams, and he issues orders to land around the city and investigate from different angles.
The descent through the atmosphere goes smoothly until just as you pass through the cloud line, at which point electricity starts to flash around your transport, and all comm units begin to transmit nothing but sputtering static. St. Elmo’s Fire jumps across the viewports, sparks fly between internal components, until suddenly, a massive bolt of purple lightning strikes the dropship, causing key systems to fail!
You have a very short amount of time to react. You can try to land the crippled dropship safely or get everyone and everything strapped in to minimize damage . Alternatively, you can try to extract as much data from the doomed ship’s systems or evaluate the bizarre storm looking for clues to its nature . It’s clear to anyone who’s been Starfindering for long that trying to land and bracing for impact will likely prevent immediate damage and injury, while other actions may not help in the short term, but will improve the chances of eventual mission success.
Ceolor commented about my Q&A post being “Smooth as a cargo plane carrying baby oil!” There actually is a thing called “cargo smooth.” Often, Air Traffic Control will ask pilots how the turbulence is, because some passenger plane is looking for smoother air. When they ask us, we often answer “cargo smooth,” meaning “It’s bumpy, but the cargo doesn’t care.” It’s also fun to hear the passenger birds then come to our altitude and complain that it’s not smooth. Hey, we didn’t say it was!
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Ceolor jumps into action from the diplomacy planning room, hoping the system will save the files he'd been working on onto his flash drive properly, and blazes to the bridge immediately. He takes a glance at the clouds as he runs, trying to note the colors the outside of the ship is burning in.
Bursting into the main deck, he glances around and looks for whoever is piloting, asking if they need anything and trying his best to support them.
A few moments before impact, he streaks back across the ship to the room he'd been in before, grabs his data stick and straps himself into a crash landing chair.
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During the trip, Gammer spends time examining his equipment to make sure they are in a ready & working condition. He spends time programming the Detonators he purchased to the Flak Grenades/Explosives. He helps out the First Seekers as much as possible and do what is requested.
As the dropship passes through the cloud line and is struck, he unbuckles, jumps up and rushes to the cockpit. Climbing into the seat beside Darin, he also starts turning knobs and dials trying to reroute power from any fried displays to working ones. He grabs the controls and tries to stabilize the ship.
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Aravon enjoys the training sessions with Jadnura, but man he is a good fighter. Extra set of limbs is only one thing but his orientation and responsiveness is what caused him the most problems. When mounted he tried to use superior mobility and climbing to attack from unexpected angles, but he rarely scored a hit not even a saying about getting an advantage.
Few times he tried to trample or use their weight to tie him into close combat but it rarely helped. Half orc was bruised and soar at the end of each fight. He learned a lot but he was not an equal partner to Jadnura.
When the crashing start Aravon made sure that Smileys environmental collar was on. Then he went to help the pilot while his bowling tried to get the data
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Tokno is first to get to the computers and is surprised at how similar the OS is to one of the synth-systems he recently used at a concert. He’s able to get quite a bit of data retrieved even as he points out a break in the clouds for Darin to fly through.
Staar leans into the cramped and crowded cockpit, points at one of the instruments with a grunt, and goes back to stare out the window as she contemplates her life and ultimately futile fate.
Darin initially grabs the controls and with the help of Staar and Tokno, begins to get it under control. When Gammer steps in, the dwarf shifts over to the communications array and continues downloading atmospheric readings.
Ceolor stops at the window where Aravon is to look at the colors of the lightning. They speak a bit about what they see, and together they arrive at some useful hypotheses as to the nature of the storm.
Gammer takes the controls from Darin with a succinct nod. He’s easily able to maneuver the ship and avoid what could have been a particularly nasty storm cell.
Aravon wisely takes care of Smiley first, then moves to the cockpit. He and Ceolor discuss the storm, then he steps in for Gammer when the halfling turns his attention to the magnetospheric data download.
Working together, you manage to get everyone seated, strapped in, and all the data downloaded just in time. It’s still a horrific crash. Seats are torn from their stanchions, the window next to Staar shatters inward, and the pilots console explodes in a hail of wiring and plati-glass shards. The ship tumbles end-over-end twice, ripping off the port thruster and tearing a hole in the cabin between Aravon and Smiley. As you finally come to a rest, the oxygen masks deploy, and a prerecorded voice advises you to don the masks taking care of yourself first before assisting others.
You climb out and assess your situation. It’s quite clear that the dropship is utterly destroyed as you watch it rapidly vanish beneath a snow drift. Each of you has taken a beating by the disaster , but you’re also acutely aware that without your actions, the damage could have been much worse. Not that your situation is very good now, but at least you’re all alive. The comms are nothing but static, and you can’t even raise the other two dropships either.
Gammer is the first to notice that the snow is not entirely normal. There’s as much ash as there is actual snow, and it seems to cling to absolutely everything. He spots the skyline of the city that was your target, and quickly estimates that it will take several hours to reach it. It will be a tough overland slog, but there does appear to be some ruins and random bits of cover along the way. That’s a good thing, as the storm hasn’t really let up. Bright flashes of cloud-to-cloud lightning streak across the sky, and you can see where it’s struck the ground quite recently.
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As you begin your hike, you encounter nothing but the ruins of the jinsul civilization. Destroyed buildings, demolished vehicles, detritus, and graffiti give everything the sense of walking through a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
1) You can investigate the remnants of jinsul culture, including architecture, artwork, city planning, propaganda, and other trappings of civilization with a Culture check.
2) You can examine inoperative, derelict vehicles by the side of the road that were once used in everyday life using Physical Science or Engineering.
3) You can examine the religious and mystical iconography built into the jinsuls’ society using Mysticism.
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Gammer conducts a triage and makes sure everyone is all right. He takes a short breather, collects his gear, puts on the Environmental Clothes he purchased and engages his Armor's Environmental Protections. He states to no one in particular, "This is going to be a long arduous trek."
As they head out, he investigates the Jinsul culture remnants and the inoperative, derelict vehicles. He keeps a wary eye out for signs of tracks or habitation.
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Tokno is uncharacteristically quiet for a long moment after the broken ship finally shudders to a halt. He's had the wind thoroughly knocked out of him, and when he does move, he does so slowly as he assesses his injuries. Meanwhile, Tune-Bot's electronic voice cheerily confirms that the hastily downloaded files are secure in its data banks, which brings a shaky smile back to the gnome's face. "Thank the Loverly Ones," he murmurs to himself, then calls out, wheezing a little, "Everyone still with us, I hope? Whew...need a moment to...catch my breath..."
After checking and double-checking that his armor's environmental protections are active, and that his new multipurpose outfit is set to protect him from the cold, Tokno clambers out of the ship with the others. He looks about curiously, trying to decipher as much about the jinsul ruins as he can while trudging through deep snow with his short legs, and periodically wiping ashy snow off his faceplate.
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Fine. answers Darin, decidedly scratched up and bruised but still standing. The dwarf looks mournfully at the shuttle as she fades under the ash-snowfall. Damn. Thought she looked solid enough. Hells of a stormfront they got here.
He keeps watch warily as Tokno recovers. With luck the storm's noise and the snowfall had kept their crash less notable to any jinsul scouts around. then again, luck wasn't how he'd describe some of his latest missions.
Lets just stick close, like rats'n a warren. Gammer: you got eyes on where we're headed?
As they move, Darin trudges through the snow in a tense mood. A bit of a foul one too as the snow keeps floating onto his helmet's viewscreen. Passing along seemingly abandoned vehicles though, the crew member tries to take opportunities whenever they pause and re-check their path to get a good look at the machines.
...meanwhile behind you a much less hearty looking dwarf trails nervously. Looking much more the 'scholar' than an adventurer, he shivers in extremely basic environmental gear and protections while muttering to himself. every time he brings me something goes wrong. I deserve ten times what he's paying me for this....
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Ceolor takes some time to rest as well but spends most of it gathering data or useful looking debris or exploring this or that.
He takes a moment to look over things as he goes, curious as to what the culture of the people here were like and what customs they might have had. As he looks and stares, flickers of light weave through his red hair.
He then tries to help anyone exploring the cars or vehicles on the road by reading any written words or languages. "OH, This one says 'Warning: This vehicle may explode if driven sideways.' Interesting!"
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After crashing, Aravon checks on Smiley and they both take a rest to recover. The half-orc makes sure that the environmental collar on Yasakaja was not damaged and then they take a look around.
As they walk by, Aravon looks at the buildings and architecture elements trying to see if he can learn something from them.
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The gray ashen snow continues to accumulate on everyone’s visors, and it gets annoying having to wipe it off. In spite of this, Gammer notices that the patchwork technology, made with low-quality steel and bits of jinsul chitin and utilizing low-yield but common combustibles as fuel sources, suggests that this location in the Vast was always particularly inhospitable and devoid of resources.
Ceolor happily reads everything he can see, reveling in the chance to practice his newly acquired skill. He does note that there seems to be very little ornamentation on things, and what there is is religious in nature. He comes to understand that the jinsuls viewed their hostile new homeland, which they too called Rax, as a sacred trial to endure for forsaking Kadrical, the patron god of the Scoured Stars, in exchange for their own freedom.
Kharl stands staring at a cairn-like monument when Staar suddenly appears behind him. Without a word, she wipes the gritty snow away from one critically significant symbol, and Kharl snaps his stumpy fingers in understanding. ”Ahah! Yes, these tombs honoring jinsul warriors indicate that for thousands of years, the jinsuls viewed survival and conquest as evidence of divine favor. Hmmm, let me see. Ah, so some thought that each victory represented Kadrical’s acknowledgement of the jinsul’s superiority, but others, hmmm, yes, like this other one over here, thought it represented his becoming obsolete as a deity. Interesting, thank you, …. Staar.” he says to her already retreating form.
Darin stops alongside a particularly interesting looking industrial crane. Or maybe it’s a children’s swing-set. Who knows. Either way, he enlists Staar’s aid to run a quick chemical analysis and together thay find that it contains chemical alloys foreign to this planet’s makeup but more common in neighboring worlds, suggesting the jinsuls slowly expanded and conquered a handful of worlds in the region to extract resources necessary for their continued survival.
At one point, everyone ducks into the ruins of a building that still has most of its roof remaining. Inside, you find statues and portraits of six prominent jinsul warlords. Gammer, Tokno and Aravon are able to piece together the story from the historical plaques. It seems that when Kadrical’s beacon (resembling the Tears the Society recovered from the mentrasi and the izalguuns) arrived here, their most prominent warlords refused the Call to return to the Scoured Stars. Instead, these warlords took the beacon for themselves, broke it open, and consumed the sliver of divine energy it held. This transformed the Six into a group of semi-divine beings who brought the disparate jinsul factions together and formed them back into a cohesive civilization.
With the storm seeming to abate for just a few minutes, you step back outside. Suddenly, a bolt of purple lightning streaks from the sky, nearly striking Darin.
But the static buildup in his beard was enough to warn the dwarf and the lightning misses him.
As the after-image of the nearby strike fades, Aravon, Darin, and Gammer each look to the other with a “did you see that, too?” look. They’re each pretty sure they saw some kind of magical eyeball or sensor that formed from the snow just before the lightning struck. But it disappeared as soon as the bolt was gone.
Your journey continues, and perhaps there is still more to learn about the jinsuls.
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1) You can investigate the remnants of jinsul culture, including architecture, artwork, city planning, propaganda, and other trappings of civilization with a Culture check.
2) You can examine inoperative, derelict vehicles by the side of the road that were once used in everyday life using Physical Science or Engineering.
3) You can examine the religious and mystical iconography built into the jinsuls’ society using Mysticism.
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Gammer records everything they find in his PCU and takes recordings. He double checks to see if there is any signal but doubts it. "Someone or something looks to be manipulating and using this storm for their own purposes. We better keep a vigilant eye out continuing forward. Is there some sort of mystical spell that could be used for scrying?" He hopes someone from his team can answer. He continues observing and inspecting the jinsul remnants and technology, recording and noting everything they encounter.
Gammer stealthily scouts forward of the group looking for signs of life or habitation.
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Yeah. Noticed Darin says as he stands stock-still right next to where the bolt almost struck him. Well Kharl?
oh. the other dwarf replies. well, there is the spell 'scrying'. Several other variations though. and somewhat obsolete now with technological scans. but maybe the jinsuls are old-fahsioned. maybe there's more to be found in those carvings...
Yeah well, yell if you find something. Darin says as his employee ally wanders off absorbed in his research. Though if this lightning's being aimed, might explain how our shuttle got struck so fast. Also makes me think the other teams may've run into similar dracha. As they continue - more nervous and wary of the snow itself than before - Darin takes more note of the abandoned vehicles and tech along the way to see if there's any insulation material left over, or possible some signal boosters for scans.
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The gray snow piles up on everything, but somehow Staar seems to fit right in with the leaden quiet and dreary skies. She moves down a slope past Gammer and silently points out two significantly different sets of markings on adjacent vehicles. As Gammer examines them and other vehicles they pass, he realizes that the markings resemble license plates. Their variety suggests the jinsul nation splintered into hundreds of smaller warbands, each attempting to eke out an existence within the inhospitable territory where they’d settled.
The quasi-undead girl in the snow continues past the others until she catches up to Ceolor. She finds him rambling about a cool plot line and story he’s developing, but she just shrugs. She nudges him with a sharp elbow to draw his attention to a depiction of Dhurus, someone they are both intimately familiar with. Snapped back to reality, he suddenly realizes what the engraving conveys. Dhurus appears frequently in the more recent religious iconography, and his likeness bears mystical signatures far stronger than those of the demigod warlords. He came to the jinsuls after they desecrated the Tear, and his horror at what the jinsuls had done to his master’s gift was boundless. He sought to punish these apostates for eternity while bringing the rest of the jinsul flock back into Kadrical’s fold.
Meanwhile Kharl has uncvovered a bit more about the Six. Scraps of religious text state that when Kadrical’s beacon (the Tear) arrived from the Scoured Stars, several warlords saw it as a divine tribute from a failed god. The warlords consumed the relic, achieving the divinity they believed they had earned for leading the jinsul race through perdition. This then was the desecration that Dhurus abhorred.
Gammer begins to scout ahead, being as silent as he can though the gray snow squeaks with each passing step. He stops to wipe the crud from his visor when Tokno bumps into him from behind. The gnome had been studying what probably passed for a book or pamphlet among the jinsuls. He’d done some work as an archeologist in the past, and his training was slowly coming back to him as he looks at the defaced depictions of the Six that he carries. When he shows it to Gammer they piece together that when the “prophet of Kadrical” (called Dhurus in some records) arrived to bring the jinsuls back to the Scoured Stars, he riled the jinsuls into overthrowing their current lords, whose semi-divine energies kept them alive despite the coup d’état.
As Darin scrounges for some insulation in a wrecked land rover, Kharl says something to his boss….
… just in time for Darin to jump aside from another lightning strike.
This time, though, no one managed to spot the sensor - if there even was one. Maybe it was just a natural strike. Sure, that’s gotta be it…..
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His nerves still on edge from the two near misses, Darin is hypersensitive and is the only one to notice the clicking and clacking noises. He immediately signals a halt, and Gammer scouts ahead. The halfling easily avoids detection by the group of four jinsuls accompanied by a shaggy-furred creature with a toothy snout and long, double-jointed legs emerging from its back like a spider’s. Its tail sports a collection of manufactured plates resembling a contorted suit of armor, curled up over the creature’s spine like a shell.
Darin
Gammer
Aravon
Ceolor
Jinsuls
Tokno
Staar
==========================
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Something in this storm really doesn't like dwarves, Tokno thinks to himself as Darin dodges a second lightning strike. The gnome has been largely following in the stocky mechanic's wake as the group hikes through the snow, but he starts leaving a bit more room between himself and Darin, as he tries to make up him mind whether the dwarf is exceptionally lucky or unlucky.
When his companions detect the jinsuls, Tokno waits to follow the lead of the more experienced Starfinders who have faced these foes before. He quietly cleans off his visor so that he won't be impaired when he joins the fight.
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As they move, Darin starts to notice the gnome's eyes on him. Especially after the second strike. He smiles as Tokno puts a bit of distance between them. Yep. Sky gets a bit mad whenever a dwarf pops 'is head on the surface. he muses. Can do its worst though: I ain't going down from a little spark and flash.
---
When Gammer sneaks quielt back to report on what he heard, Darin gives the halfling a quiet nods of thanks. As the party carefully approaches, his mechanical eye whirs and tries to focus on the strange creature. Yup. Jinsuls all right. But the hells is that thing? Too large to be a larva...
As the rest of the party readies to break out in unison, Darin moves and unslings his caustolance and fires at the strange being surrounded by the other jinsul.
for
...and promptly curses as the collected snow and shivering joints cause the shot to go wide.
Focus up! Fire fast! Down 'em quick! Drop 'em before the ruckus calls more in!