An adventure for characters of levels 1-4. Will begin on March 6, 2022.
You are on a Society starship traveling to Near Space watching a prerecorded video message from First Seeker Ehu Hadif.
“Thank you for accepting this mission post-haste. I hope to cover everything you need to know in this briefing.” Ehu gestures, and the image of a gas giant with broad rings appears hovering over his hand. “Chart a course to Xys, a planetoid orbiting the gas giant Preluria. The Xystrian Brotherhood has invited you to explore their planet. The Brotherhood is known to have ulterior motives, however, and I suspect they are likely to ask you for a favor in exchange for the privilege of visiting their world. Playing nice with them could be the key to valuable future alliances, as they curate a collection of artifacts from different civilizations and have a reputation as information brokers.
“Timely communication with the Society will be impossible, so if they do ask you for a favor, please agree to it, so long as it’s not something incredibly dangerous—or unethical. I trust your discretion. Please record anything the Xystrians tell you or allow you to see, as this is a rare opportunity to gather information about an otherwise inaccessible world and its culture.”
Your travel takes days, during which time you can familiarize yourselves with each other. As you exit the Drift, an intensely green gas giant recognizable as Preluria dominates the viewport. Its rings sparkle against the darkness of space, massive compared to those of the Pact Worlds’ own gas giants, Liavara and Bretheda. Xys itself is but a tiny speck within those rings, a planetoid caught in Preluria’s orbit.
As you enter Xys’ atmosphere, several ships appear to guide you toward the appropriate landing pad, where a group of humanoids stand ready to welcome them. Their leader wears a dark gray tunic with silver trim and appears human with smooth, pliant gray skin. The six others in his entourage wear light gray robes without any adornment and have their hoods drawn to obscure their faces. Makao smiles and bows.
“Welcome to Xys, travelers. I hope you had a pleasant trip. My name is Makao, and I will be your guide during your stay here. Your interest in Xys and the ways of the Brotherhood honors us.”
What follows are five days of relaxation in luxury spas and hotels, guided expeditions to farms and meditation circles, and meals catered to your tastes. Makao accompanies the PCs any time they step outside an accommodation. The PCs are free to ask questions and take notes about everything they see, but anything else they show interest in is brushed off as ‘not important’, ‘currently not open to visitors,’ or prompts some other vague or roundabout answer.
You receive information about the Brotherhood’s beliefs and practices, highlighting their sustainable farms that source to hungry populations throughout the system, pacifist beliefs, and meditation practices. You are also allowed to tour sections of the Brotherhood’s information vaults. You can transcribe some interesting notes about various artifacts and historical documents during this time but quickly realize they’ve only been granted access to a tiny fraction of the organization’s resources.
As this enjoyable but uneventful tour comes to an end, Makao leads the PCs to a conference room at the spaceport. As they settle in, Makao’s demeanor shifts from friendly and servile to direct and businesslike.
“We hope your stay was much to your liking, and that you send glowing reports back to your Society, but I would be lying if I said inviting you here was just part of a cultural exchange. We hope you can help us discreetly solve a disappearance. One of our agents has gone missing on the nearby Vault of Vorlath, and we’re concerned for his health. We have his last known coordinates, and of course a detailed description of him. Your organization’s increased presence in Near Space, combined with your outsider status, makes you the perfect candidates to investigate this matter.” Makao slides over a datapad. “In return for your cooperation, my organization will provide monetary compensation as well as inroads to a future alliance. We understand if you are hesitant about this mission. I can assure you that our agent wasn’t initially involved in anything illegal or dangerous, though I can make no such guarantees about his current situation. Ultimately, we need a neutral party to investigate the situation on Vorlath, and if you accept, we will owe your organization a debt.”
The datapad contains a full description and image of the agent. He’s a human of average height with brown hair and eyes, going by the name Firiz for this mission. His last known coordinates, taken from a tracking device built into his comm unit, are a location close to one of the Vault of Vorlath’s spaceports. The datapad also lists some of Firiz’s security codes, allowing you to decrypt any potential messages he left behind.
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Well indeed if your agent need to be assisted in legal manners you have in front of you the well-known Twisted Nicknick. I'm a lawyer active in all the Pact Worlds and beyond. Here is my card. I'm sure we can find an agreement for what concerns the fees.
The ysoki is wearing an armor but hasn't any weapon.
I'm sure my companions can assume a tactical situation. By the way, you told we should go on Vorlath? Where is it? What do you know about the situation? What was your agent doing when he disappeared? When did he disappeared? Where exactly did he disappeared? You know the most of disappearances are solved in the first 24 hours. Then it becomes more difficult.
"We'd be ha-happy to help. Can you tell us what Friz was do-doing on Vault of Vorlath?"
"Checking in on one of the Brotherhood’s many interests.” Makao says enigmatically. He declines to elaborate further.
I'm sure my companions can assume a tactical situation. By the way, you told we should go on Vorlath? Where is it? What do you know about the situation? What was your agent doing when he disappeared? When did he disappeared? Where exactly did he disappeared?
“Vorlath is another planetoid within Preluria’s rings. It is governed by the Vorlath Mercenaries, a cutthroat company that hires themselves out to the highest bidder. They’re... less hospitable than we are here on Xys. The planetoid itself is nothing much. Mostly deserts, rocks, hovels, and terrible bars"
“We started to worry a week after he failed to check in. Although it’s not uncommon for agents to go quiet for a while, they have several subtle ways to get a signal to us. None appeared. We contacted your First Seeker at that point. Had our agent reappeared before you arrived, this would just have been a pleasant holiday for you. Drift travel being what it is, plus your tour, allowed more time for Firiz to resurface, but there’s still no word from him. We fear the worst.”
“Start with the last place he updated his location. You probably won’t find Firiz at those coordinates, but with any luck, you may uncover a trail to follow.”
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Yes, of course. We will follow the trail we will discover for sure.
The lawyer takes notes to resume in case he will have to edict a contract of representation in front of a magistrate.
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He mentions he is happy in the to be back after a weird adeventure in a place containing clones.
Romano Fafard says, “Always a pleasure to work on my awareness of the environment to find a lost person. I am conscious my companions have asked all the relevant questions.“ He thinks if the group has forgot to ask any questions.
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During Drift travel, you all would learn a bit about Varuthalla, such as the info in the About section.
"Makao, what can you tell us about these Vorlath Mercenaries? Do you have generally good relations with them, or have your two enclaves been at odds recently? What kind of reception should we expect, going in on your behalf?"
"What was the contents of the last contact that Friz sent?" inquires Liftt.
"That may help us locate him."
"It was merely a ping with his coordinates."
"Makao, what can you tell us about these Vorlath Mercenaries? Do you have generally good relations with them, or have your two enclaves been at odds recently? What kind of reception should we expect, going in on your behalf?"
“Most members of the company are worlanisi, a small, blueskinned species of humanoids that set up shop on Vorlath after volunteering for some sketchy genetic studies years ago. Preluria’s political situation creates near-constant demand for their work, so for the past 10 years, they’ve been recruiting other species into their ranks to help fill the demand for their services. They have a charming motto: pay up or get out.”
Worlanisi are indeed small and blue-skinned. They also have four arms and incredible luck.
The Brotherhood graciously provides an unmarked shuttle so you can travel anonymously to the Vault of Vorlath. The shuttle’s journey takes several hours, charting a roundabout route to make it harder to determine its exact origin point. The Vorlath spaceport incorporates an amalgam of technologies from different eras and worlds in various stages of disrepair. Firiz’s last known coordinates point to a rowdy dive bar close to the spaceport.
A bored worlanisi bouncer stands outside the bar. Since there’s a show tonight, you each must pay the cover charge of 20 credits each to get in, unless you can create a diversion (Bluff) or sweet-talk the bouncer (Diplomacy).
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Varuthalla pulls a skittermander out of her pocket and says, "I am sure my professional hireling can come up with many excellent reasons why I do not need to pay this cover" and tries to walk confidently past the bouncer.
...until she hears what the hireling says, grumbles, and then fishes out 20 credits. "Conqueror's scales, what do I even pay you for..."
The Vorlath Mercenaries are the government here, so the rules are pretty much what they say they are. You are unlikely to find legal relief if you disagree with the cover charge.
The bouncer gives you a quick once-over after you’ve paid and nods for you to go inside.
The sounds of blaring music, throaty singing, cheering, and jeering erupt from inside the bar, and the odor of smoke and stale alcohol spills out into the street. A large bar top divides the room into two sections, with private booths on one side and open tables on the other. The floors are sticky with spilled drinks, and the air is hot and stifling in the windowless building. Most of the patrons gather around a stage in the back watching a performance. A vesk dressed in a sparkling, skintight bodysuit
with vibrantly painted scales belts out a popular song. He performs a dance routine as he sings, and his choreographed moves are reminiscent of combat. Occasionally a patron throws an empty can or bottle onto the stage that the dancer crushes with his tail, showing off bulging muscles in the process. A few scattered patrons hunch over the bar or relax in the booths. The bartender, a scarred female hobgoblin, offers a gruff greeting: “Buy a drink if you wanna stick around. We don’t do charity here.”
Signs on the backstage door to the south and the first three doors to the north read “personnel only.” The northeastern door bears the universal symbol designating it as a restroom. The kitchen and backstage doors are in clear view of the whole bar.
The patrons are an eclectic mix of about a dozen different species. Most glance at you and keep a cautious eye on you.
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Not realising it's surely a faux-pas, Speaker for the Dead skitters up on the stage. He remembers a holo-vid dancer he once spoke the life of after a tragic accident, and tries to duplicate some of her moves. As he gyrates awkwardly, he says to the vesk in the bodysuit, "This one would like to speak to that one about an individual named Firiz."
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Varuthalla is quite obviously taken with the vesk singer. "Cor, look at the spikes on him! That suit must be scale-tight; I can almost see his cloaca! SKITTER! Go talk to him, and impress upon him my complements! And don't mess it up this time!" She shoos her skittermander hireling off to go do the talky-talking. She'll buy herself and the performer a drink after he's off the stage, so she can wave across the bar to him after the Skitter puts in a good word.
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Liftt just goes over to the bar. "Ahhh... something non alcoholic please." he says.
What he does do is position himself so that while the bartender is talking with him and delivering a drink, they have their back turned to the "personnel only" doors.
<<I can help us communication quietly in here if you like>> he thinks to others in the group.
<<I'll try to distract the bar-tender if one of you wants to slip into those private doors.>>
The bouncer intercepts Speaker for the Dead and the skittermander as they approach the stage. "Don't disturb an artist at work," he says brusquely.
Liftt, Romano and Nicknick head for the bar. The hobgoblin 'keeper asks you for orders.
Ji-Thil mingles with the crowd. Most of them are unwilling to talk, but he does find a hovertruck driver seated near the stage who is at least willing to greet you.
Ji-Thil gets the hvertruck driver to admit that that he talked with someone matching Firiz’s description about his deliveries. After they discussed his delivery route, Firiz left him alone to meet with someone in the back rooms. Bolgin then gave Firiz a ride to a drop-off point in the middle of the desert in exchange for paying his bar tab. He also tells you that the bouncer, who runs a gambling side gig out of the bar in his off-hours, has keys to the back rooms.
After serving the Starfinders their drinks, the hobgoblin confirms that Firiz spent time in the bar recently and spoke with both the vesk performer and a regular patron named Bolgin. She points out the latter, who is the driver Ji-Thil is talking to.
"Don't recall exactly, but it wasn't this week."
After the set is over, the dancer joins you and gratefully consumes the drink Varuthalla bought him. "Name's Domakayo," he says cheerfully. "Were you just looking for a dance, or was there something else you needed to discuss?"
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Varuthalla saunters over after her hireling puts in the wingman effort. "Your dance work was masterful, and the disco ball tail is a wonderful touch!" She spends a few minutes fawning and talking to Domakayo in what she hopes is cool, suave, bar flirting that she definitely doesn't have the Charisma to pull off, before turning back to business.
"...and so I says, 'Daimalkan? But I hardly know him' ho ho ho! Oh, anyways - I also wanted to know if you've seen my friend, Firiz, lately? Humanling, about so tall, standard mammal plumage on top, always getting into trouble?" she says while sliding over her digits.
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Well allow me to introduce myself to you. My name's Twisted Nicknick the well-known lawyer. Perhaps do you have a need of my services one day or even presently. Let me know how I could defend you in any justice case.
The ysoki is trying to know if the guy stands in the middle of a drug trafficker gang.