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Dispatched by the Wayfinders' faction leader to a Near Space world, the PCs have orders to assist a local Starfinder research outpost. The outpost's head researcher sends the PCs on a mission to explore a strange calcified region, which soon reveals that there's more happening on this world than first appears.
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The briefing takes place on The Master of Stars. You have been flown out to her aboard a shuttle, and get escorted to been with Fitch, leader of the Wayfinders. Fitch is a little distracted, the meeting room is set up with bread, jams and sweet pastries, however it also seems to have a number of Fitch's grandchildren present, whose proximity to the food seems to be some type of parallel to that of blackholes and nearby objects...
Once they are shooed out, Fitch gestures for you to sit and take some sustenance.
“Vabaimus is a planet in Near Space,” Fitch says, gesturing in the air as she paces atop her desk. “Green, lots of water, bright sunlight, beautiful, if you go in for that sort of thing. Plenty of animal and plant life, but the most intelligent species is a marsupial no bigger than my kids. Look kind of like sloths. I like them, but we’re leaving them alone till they advance enough to at least get a language. Could take a while."
“But there is a research station on the southern continent. The scientist in charge is Dr. Mora Motressi, a xenobiologist. She and her people have been checking out the local flora and fauna, and they’ve just starting a geological survey. Vabaimus is a resource-rich planet; we could do a lot with that, but we need to be careful to do it right. We don’t want to make decisions we later regret, disrupt the ecosystem, and create problems for ourselves and the locals.”
Fitch pulls a datachip from her cheek pouch and waves it around. “I
was reading the first report from their geological survey, and apparently they’ve got a weird landmass down there. A plateau hundreds
of miles across covered in a slick gray shell, like a giant lobster or something! No water or plant life at all— maybe it got blasted by some kind of curse, I don’t know. Mora and her people, they don’t
have the equipment to do a proper survey, so I figured we could give her a hand. I’d like you to take some vehicles and survey equipment to Dr. Motressi and her people on Vabaimus, and help them get to the bottom of this mystery.”
Raising her hands and shaking her head, Fitch goes on. “I know, I know. This doesn’t sound like the sort of thing a bunch of super-stars like you usually go in for. There’s no first contact to figure out, no Swarm army to blast into smithereens. But this is how the hard work of research and science gets done, and besides, if this lifeless plateau is the result of a curse or a magical accident or something, Mora and those scientists will need help, maybe even an evacuation. So, what do you say? Can I trust you on this one?”
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A humanoid creature that looks like it is entirely made of water wearing brightly colored armor stands in the briefing room. A second look also reveals a small transparent panel, through which you can see a fish a quarter of a meter long, with a wide, flat body and tentacles beneath its eyes, its skin changing colors - to a bright pink when she is called a "superstar".
<Greetings, Fitch,> a smooth telepathic voice says from the fish-body's direction. <I am Khubelu. I believe I am the designated jack-of-all-trades on this mission, though I am particularly skilled at negotiation.>
<I certainly wouldn't mind a mission where I get to stretch my tentacles, but it sounds like you're sending us to the driest part of the planet. In any case, I shall use all my talents to ensure that your objectives are completed.>
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A medium-sized pile of black rocks with a fascinating crystal pattern stands up from the side of the room. Three eyes, three arms, three legs, they bow to the rest of the room before standing at ease. "I am called Chrysanthemum," they say unironically. " I am part of the protection detail. Is there anything else you can tell us about the planet or any dangers you know of?"
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Fitch nods to the first "speakers" in turn.
“There’s maybe twenty people there. Scientists mostly and some assistants.
They’ve got half a dozen buildings not far from the plateau.”
Then, answering Chsanthemum's direct question "Vabaimus is pretty peaceful, but you never know. It’s a dangerous galaxy.”
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A blue-skinned android with dark bluish-black hair tied into a ponytail slips into the briefing room right as Fitch starts talking. She wears a sleek but armored black body suit that hugs her form, marred only by a pistol on each hip and a baton on the back of her belt. A tattoo in the shape of a butterfly, the symbol of Desna, is on the back of her right hand, and you can see what look like faint circuitry lines running along the veins of her wrists and neck.
"Tania," she says simply, introducing herself with a nod to everyone, running her fingers along the bulkhead of the wall before she finds a spot to lean against. After Fitch answers the other questions, she has a couple herself.
"What kind of vehicles are we bringing? And how big are they? I can drive but I can't speak for anyone else."
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"Ahh, equipment. We’ve packed up some towers, high-intensity scanners, and computers which, once you put them all together, will give you a 3-D map of the plateau’s interior and do a complete chemical analysis of the ground. Oh, and I threw in some enercycles and buggies, to help you get around out
there. You’ll have a lot of ground to cover.”
Fitch elaborates "The buggies can take three passanders along with a driver, the enercycles can take one passenger along with the driver. I guess it depends in you prefer the wind in your fur or a more relaxing trip/"
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A host shirren comes rushing into the briefing room on the Master of Stars. "Terribly sorry, all! My comm unit picked the worst possible time to run a patch, and I couldn't use the guide function. I was lucky that a couple of the ship's engineers children took pity on me and led me here. Ah, let me see..." They speed-read the briefing notes. "That sounds quite interesting. Interesting, indeed. Oh! I'm Talltree. Ruachar Talltree, xenoarchaeologist and occasional apprentice of the arcane arts. I never learned to drive, though, so I'll have to ride with one of you."
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"It's just a scientific mission" assures Fitch.
"Though, as always, you need to be prepared."
"The locals are pre-sapient still. They’re a long way from civilization, but from what Dr. Motressi’s written in her reports, they’re definitely on their way. Check back with me in a few thousand years. And so far as we are aware, nobody else is down there. We are the first!”
You pack up, board your shuttle and in just a couple of short weeks.
arrive at Vabaimus. A cursory scan confirms the information that Fitch provided. Vabaimus is a temperate planet with considerable surface water and a variety of native life. It looks like a perfect colony world. There is, however, a strange geological formation, a stony plateau which covers approximately 85,000 square miles on the southern continent. This is the feature you have been sent to investigate, and the Wayfinders’ research station is situated nearby.
You are contacted by Dr Motressi (see slides) who greets you and suggests you land at the research center.
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You land without difficulty and are met by Dr Motressi, who has a sloth-like creature slinging to her torso, playing with her ears. Tagging along behind is a child who seems more interested in the datapad she is holding than the visitors.
Looking around tThe outpost is a simple affair on the grassy shore of a broad river, with two dormitory buildings to the east, two science labs to the west, and between them a common room for the staff to relax. All the buildings are white half-cylinders obviously assembled from prefabricated parts shipped to Vabaimus from the Pact Worlds. A basic chain-link fence surrounds the compound, an improvised exercise track loops around the entire campus, and a pair of researchers in athletic clothes are jogging in the morning sun. The mysterious plateau looms only a few miles away.
A couple of scientists and some other assistants emerge to help with your unloading.
Dr Mora introduces herself, her daughter "Little Mina" "Come in and have some non-recycled water and food!" she says, leading the way to the common room.
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Dirk looks out the window.
"Where's the research center? There's a lot of water here!"
[i]wow I'm offworld finally![/i[
The shirren's telepathic senses easily pick up the novice soldier's emotions, and they incline their head. "It never gets old...at least it hasn't for me yet."
In response to the lead scientist, Talltree nods. "That would be wonderful. Thank you! Have you had anything new to report since you sent the information we reviewed during our briefing?"
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After activating a handheld control, Mora gestures to a holographic image of an imposing, gray plateau. “This is Big Mina. You probably saw it as you came down from orbit. The plateau’s covered in a gray calcium compound, somewhat like a shell or a bony crest. There’s nothing like it anywhere else on Vabaimus and, frankly, we’re not sure what to make of it. But that’s where you and the equipment you’ve brought us come in.”
The image of the plateau rotates to a top-down perspective, and three circles of light appear. “The survey equipment will allow us to construct three towers, one at each of the these locations: Forsaken Canyon, the Windy Cliffs, and this dry riverbed. Once the scanners on the towers are calibrated to the computers we keep here at the station, we’ll perform a deep scan of the entire plateau, going down thousands of feet. We’ll have a three-dimensional map of Big Mina’s interior, we’ll know the chemical composition of the soil, and hopefully we’ll figure out whatever caused this formation to appear in the first place. We have an office pool going, and right now the popular choice is some kind of magical accident, but my money is on an anomalous weather pattern. Anyway. “Those enercycles and explorer buggies you brought will be handy to travel across the plateau, so use any combination of them you want. We’re currently loading them up with the equipment you’ll need to raise the towers, plus some climbing gear just in case. Once you arrive at each scan location, you’ll need to assemble the tower and calibrate the computer. I can help you with that last bit from here. We have twelve hours of daylight left, and while I’d love to knock this out in a day, you don’t need to be reckless. You can bunk on these sofas for the night if you need. "
“There’s one other thing. It’s probably not important, but just in case—we found a small, abandoned starship a few months back. It was centuries old and clearly kasathan in origin. It didn’t crash; we think its pilot landed safely. But there’s no sign of what happened to them. Whoever it was must be long dead."
“So, I think that’s everything. Any questions?”
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"Between what we have here, and what you have brought with you, we have everything you should need for the towers." says the doctor. "As for hazards...We’ve seen some native life in the canyon, resembling birds. I don’t know how anything survives on the plateau, where there’s no plant life or water. Maybe you can get a closer look at them when you’re setting up the scanning tower? The second site is along the cliffs; try to get a tower up anywhere along the ridgeline, but be careful: the wind can get pretty intense up there, and it’s a long drop. Finally, there’s the riverbed. We tried to set up a scanner there when we first arrived, but it stopped functioning after a few days, and we eventually found it knocked over and smashed up. It looked like it had been hit by a meteor or something!”
"I can show you what we managed to salvage from the crashed starship if you like. Maybe you can make more of it than we could."
She opens a draw and pulls out some pearls, a set of three very old healing serums. Lastly there is a glass vial with a couple of doses of what looks like a drug of some kind. "Testing it, shows it is Zero."