At the outset of the Drift Crisis, many ships were thought lost forever. Among them an enormous recreational vessel, the Revelry , with thousands aboard. As the Drift Crisis recently came to an end and the Drift stabilized, the ship fell out of the Drift, and briefly transmitted a garbled signal before suddenly falling silent. Now it floats among icy bodies beyond the fringes of the Pact Worlds system.
It was the Starfinders who first heard and reacted to the signal. The Vigilance , an Exo-Guardian vessel, went to investigate. Neither ship nor crew has reported back since their arrival on site, save for one incredibly garbled message. The PCs are tasked by Ixthia the Unbreakable with unraveling this mystery. They must journey to the now silent Vigilance and Revelry , where they will discover the latter's name is now a supreme irony, and—at the center of it all—a cold malevolence that seeks to spread its despair through the Pact Worlds and beyond.
The office of Ixthia the Unbreakable is located in a raised loft area at the back of the Exo-Guardians warehouse. It’s a brightly lit, humid space packed with countless potted plants and plenty of windows overlooking the main warehouse space. A few uncomfortable stools and a spartan worktable are crammed in among the vegetation. The sole plant-free area is a wall-to-wall storage locker, filled with armor and weaponry of all kinds.
“You’re here. Very good. We have something important to tell you,” Ixthia says as they spread their arms wide and spin in a traditional copaxi greeting, then gesture for everyone to be seated. “For the past few months, one of my best agents, Lulora Remis, has been carrying out a research mission in the outer reaches of the Pact Worlds. Two weeks ago, her ship, the Vigilance, picked up a garbled signal sent from an unknown ship. Suspecting it may have been a distress signal, she and her crew of Starfinders went to investigate. They identified the unknown ship as the Revelry, a luxury vessel that vanished during the Drift Crash. Something out there is interfering with signals, and after the Vigilance arrived on site, the only message Lulora got through to us was this.”
Ixthia swipes their hand over a datapad on the worktable. A video message starts playing on a large screen on the wall. The transmission is mostly static, with the occasional snap to clarity showing the terrified face of a ysoki. She wipes fresh blood off her face, and winces as she speaks, “It’s far worse than I… only way… destroy it.” The transmission turns static, and Ixthia stops the playback with a swipe of their hand.
“We’re worried. We want you to investigate the two ships. Help Lulora and her crew evacuate, learn whatever you can about this unknown threat Lulora mentioned and, if possible, destroy it. Do you have any questions?”
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The robot sits silently as it regards the scene with its two camera 'eyes' glowing a dull red within the skull of its polished chrome endo- skeleton, it appears made for intimidation and fear. A smaller innocuous-looking robot marked with safety symbols sits next to it carrying a medkit in its hands.
"DocMedevac™ and this is a DocJr™, we're here to help. I can understand that you would require some specialist medical support for such an event, so it makes perfect sense why we are here"
"If the ship we are traveling in does not have a suitable medical facility already on board I will take my new ambulance - DocWagon™ - which I can operate from a cargo bay, we will also need an additional bay for any patient holding or potential quarantine areas"
"If you have some leisure time you might want to catch up with some back episodes of 'The Doc is in!' - my hit info-tainment medical show, or perhaps put a downpayment of one of my invaluable and life-saving DocJr™ first-aid assistants - can you really put a price on peace of mind? Perhaps you might want to buy some quality first aid supplies"
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Mr. Bison speaks telepathically to everyone in the room.
"You eggheads ask the questions. The society doesn't pay me to think. I get paid to take care of the problems you guys with the words in your mouths can't handle. Because there has never ever been a gladiator combo like me and Zangief who have dominated the fighting pits of Akiton like we have. Ten thousand years as Intercontinental Champion, Oooooh yeeeah!"
Most of you are familiar with Mr. Bison and his hulking combat drone Zangief the Red Cyclone. They are the reining champions in the mounted combat divison of the biggest fighting promotion on Akiton. Their matches have been televised all across the Pact Worlds over the last few years.
Ixthia is eager to answer Tracy The Vigilance is a standard Pegasus class ship. Luloru has been captaining it for the last few years on her research mission.
Ixthia also pulls a manifest of the crew of the Vigilance () Lulora is a skilled mystic and experienced Starfinder who leads a crew of five. She is something of a free soul and her methods are sometimes unorthodox, but she and her team always pull through.
The Revelry was one of the most notorious pleasure cruises in the Pact Worlds. It was marketed as a great way to relax and enjoy all kinds of entertainment and recreation. The Revelry’s crew numbered in the hundreds, and it had thousands of passengers aboard. If you watched the news on the infosphere around the time of the Drift Crash, you may remember it was one of the more publicized losses to the crisis.
Tracy actually remembers this: There were many stories about the Revelry in the news when the ship disappeared. The luxury cruise liner was known for its opulence and extravagance. Many high-profile individuals were rumored to be onboard at the time of its disappearance. The news about the disappearance was hailed as “divine justice” by some groups due to the hedonistic atmosphere and rumors of ties to criminal organizations.
The doctor also has some background on Luloru. Lulora has been studying different sites across the Pact Worlds and beyond for the past few years, looking for evidence of alien civilizations that may pose a threat to the Starfinder Society or their allies, as well as anomalies related to the Drift Crisis
Lulora Remis has a dark side and a fascination with the occult that has sometimes gone too far. Two years ago, her careless approach to a mystic ritual caused the death of a colleague, but there is no official record of it
Travel to the outer fringes of the Pact Worlds system, well beyond Apostae, takes days.
At the designated location, two vessels come into view, drifting idly in space. The larger is a massive cruise ship surrounded by an aura of unsettling green light that flickers and dances in a mesmerizing fashion. A docking umbilical from the smaller ship is connected to the larger vessel, piercing through the strange energy field that shrouds it.
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"That glow doesn't seem too promising"
Doc gets onto the computer systems to see what sort of scanning capability his ship has that might provide some data about the two vessels.
He is hoping to get deck scans, signs of life, or any radio frequencies or emergency beacons, as well as any readouts on the green field - eg radiation.
He will also hail the ships.
Computers -
+whatsever sensor array.
The doctor scans the ships, but strangely enough the scan reveals the space occupied by the Revelry, behind that aura, is completely empty!
The pegasus ship is the Vigilance. Its shields are down, but the hull is fully intact. There's a strange malfunction in the ship’s power core and Drift engine, but the exact nature of the malfunction can’t be determined. The umbilical connects the two ships, and seems to go straight through the aura.
The Vigilance also has a smaller docking module on the port side of the ship, which is currently unoccupied. There's some gravitational anomalies around it, which make piloting harder.
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Mr. Bison floats onto the riding saddle and Zangief's back. He slides a huge sintered greataxe from its holder. Zangief's hands are both gripping a cryopike. Mr. Bison turns on the environmental protections on his armor.
Telepathically, "I'll see you all in the airlock and yes you don't have to ask me to go first. If there is terrifying creature lurking on the ship we are about to board you eggheads can let me and Zangief handle it."
With that the barathu and his combat drone proceed to the airlock.
Scotty and Brutag pilot the Drake to line up with the small docking port, and despite the grav anomalies, manage to dock the vessel smoothly. The airlock hisses, and the group find themselves in the rear cargo holds. The lights are dim, but provide enough light to illuminate the rooms and corridors. Everything else seems to be off-line.
The air in this cargo hold feels heavy, with specks of dust dancing in the light that streams in from the door. The space is filled with countless shelves and crates lining the walls, each one packed with supplies. The towering shelves cast long shadows that stretch across the creaking metal grates on the cold, damp floor. The distant hum of machinery echoes through the walls like a ghostly chorus.
The faint hum of the oxygen-carbon decompressor indicates the life support system is still online. It's bloody cold, though, about 35F, just above freezing point.
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Telepathically, "The ship is in low power mode. It must have switched to that mode once it's battery dropped below 10%."
Mr. Bison then activates the light projector upgrade on his armor and the whole airlock is bathed in the intense light from it.
Zangief's metal feet make audible clanking sounds as the combat drone carries Mr. Bison across the airlock floor.
With the disturbance of the aura, it is clear that nobody should count on video feeds carrying long distances, though a few rooms down should work.
The cargo hold has a single door, which is unlocked. A large number of supply crates are stacked here.
Beyond the door is a small laboratory. The place is filled with the sharp smell of chemicals, and the lights in the ceiling flicker dimly. Among the lab equipment is a large centrifuge, two refrigerators, and a computer terminal perched atop a desk.
The refrigerators contain test tubes clearly labeled as samples of different plant and animal cells collected from various planets over the years. None of the dates are recent.
The centrifuge contains nearly two dozen vials, all filled with a black liquid.
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Shari Misraria - drow woman, who has been flying with you all this time and has been continuously organizing concerts and public fights of several of her clients, including a couple of famous Starfinders - has now changed her expensive business suit for more comfortable clothes for research. She takes everything that happens on video, saying that this horror content can be sold pretty well... We need to get to the bridge as soon as possible. There may be valuable records of what's going on here.
The doc looks at the samples. It's a bit hard to recognise under the dim light, but the dark liquid is, in fact, blood. The subtle differences in color also tell him that these come from a variety of different humanoids.
There's also computer here, but with the power outage, they're not doing much.
Beyond the laboratory is a narrow corridor. The dimly lit corridor is lined with doors and illuminated by a solitary red emergency light that flashes slowly, conjuring illusions of shifting shadows. The ventilation system exhales brief gusts of air, producing a gasp-like sound that echoes through the corridor.
The doors have signs on them, indicate what each of them leads to: the one the group passed through has 'docking module' written on it, the door to the aft leads to 'engineering', the starboardside door says 'medical bay', while the forward door reads 'nexus passage'. The last door is locked.
With the extra tools and the Doc's help, Mr Bison manages to unlock the door to the forward side.
The Nexus passage is lined with an array of doors on either side and at each end, illuminated by a pale green glow from the signs that hang above them. The distant hum of machinery is broken by the occasional drip of water from the pipes.
There are again signs on the doors, which indicate the doors lead to the interlink corridor (A3), washroom (A8), crew quarters (A9), escape pods (A10), captain’s quarters (A11), air lock (A12), and mess hall (A13). All the doors are unlocked.
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Scottermander has already launched his spy drone which is now hovering in the Nexus corridor.
I'll leave Thunderbird One in there in case someone turns up. Hopefully we'd get advanced warning. And yes, let's get this bird back up. And then we'd better head for the bridge
Scottermander follows Doc to engineering.