The Starfinders have vowed to stop the Organization, a mysterious and violent criminal syndicate whose true name remains unknown and whose machinations threaten the lives of millions. Digging into the Organization’s past has revealed an interest in ancient Ulumbia, a long destroyed civilization from Deepwater Prime with few archaeological remains of value or importance. So why the interest? Travel to Deepwater Prime to unearth the secrets of ancient Ulumbia—a mission destined to drive the Starfinders into direct conflict with important agents of the Organization.
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A rather green looking halfling arrives at the briefing room. His clothes are unwashed and he smells distinctly of last-nights-cigarettes.
"Ugh... is it morning already?" he asks through bleary eyes. "Is this another signing? I'm going to have words with my publicist about nothing before midday... or maybe six."
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A dark-complexioned dwarf wearing ceremonial officer armor, a mix of dark green fabrics and gold plating, strides into the room. He glances around and nods to the assembled Starfinders. "Brock Laserforge, chief tactical officer for Laserforge Clan Holdings. Look forward to serving with you on this mission."
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Good morning Absalom Station! It is a beautiful fifthday, fifteenth of Kuthona. Newspark is right around the corner and the first Akitonians have headed off home for Reunion. The weather today is the same as every day, with temperatures within engineering limits The broadcast of Absalom News Radio (the voice of the station!) is interrupted with a comm's message to head over to the Lorespire complex.
Once there, the group finds Venture Captain Arvin in a comfortable lounge, together with Almina, a particularly talkative gnome I have to say, she says I'm really catching up with your music recommendations, and those of other starfinders. Only yesterday, Zigvigix told me to listen to this band, what was it... I forgot the name, they have this cute cobra-headed bass player with a red bow tie...
When the starfinders enter, she pauses for a moment Oh, hi there! I was just talking to mister Arvin here about latest events. Did you hear this? She holds up an original first-print signed copy of the five-year-old album Star Sugar Heart Love that looks rather worn out this stuff is great!
What are you guys listening to these days? Any recommendation?
“Thank you for coming, Starfinders,” Venture-Captain Arvin begins, placing his coffee down on the table. “As I’m sure you’ve heard, First Seeker Ehu Hadif has directed the resources of the Starfinder Society to stop a powerful and unidentified criminal syndicate that we’ve dubbed the Organization. Two months ago, agents of the Organization robbed the Grand Museum of Qabarat in a violent attack, causing loss of life and the destruction of numerous historical artifacts. Turns out, it wasn’t the valuable exhibits they were after—that was a decoy. Their real goal was the acquisition of all objects belonging to an obscure ancient civilization from Deepwater Prime called Ulumbia. As far as we know, the Ulumbians left a small archaeological footprint. There’s little of theirs left behind to study, nothing new of note has been found in over a century, and what artifacts and belongings have been recovered are of minimum interest to the public—in short, it’s not worth stealing. Clearly, we’re missing something.
“That’s where I come in,” Almina pipes up. “My name is Almina and I’m a Starfinder from the past. The founders of the group you call the Organization joined the Starfinder Society just over 100 years ago, and leveraged their membership to enrich themselves, lay the groundwork for their criminal empire, and commit numerous crimes, including the murder of Venture-Captain Koerah, my mentor and Arvin’s ancestor. While investigating Koerah’s disappearance, the founders attacked me, and I fled into a computer network. I intended to exit from another linked terminal and get backup. Instead, I was trapped inside a degraded network for a century. In the aftermath, the founders fled, erased all records of their existence, and created the group you now call the Organization.
Arvin nods. “The Organization operates in secret and suppresses knowledge of their existence. We’ve clashed with them multiple times before, investigated them on and off for a few years, and we’ve yet to even learn their name. However, thanks to Almina and the Starfinders who freed her, we finally have an advantage.
“I know them,” Almina cuts in, crossing her arms. “All seven founders. I know their names. I know who they are. I know how they operate. And knowledge is power. They want to lurk in the shadows? Well, they can’t. I won’t allow it.” Almina places a datapad on the table, which emits a holographic image of seven people in front of the Lorespire Complex. “This is them. The founders of the Organization—or whatever they’re calling themselves. We know that two of them are dead—Iroiveth a few years ago and Lubose last month. she says, nodding to Shari, Two more probably died of old age. But the other three we expect are still alive and pulling the strings. That’s their leader, Zhaneni, and her cronies Kebzec and Evethriel.”
“Evethriel was involved in the museum theft,” Arvin adds. “But, thanks to Almina, we have a lead. While the founders were members of the Starfinder Society, they were dispatched to an archaeological excavation on—you guessed it—Deepwater Prime. They reported that there was nothing of interest at the site. Likely a lie. While we have no record of the site—they erased it along with everything else—Almina remembers its location. We’re sending you to Deepwater Prime to check it out. Unearth what you can. Find out why Ulumbia is important to the Organization.”
Almina swipes her hand across the datapad, changing the image to that of a watery planet. “Travel to Deepwater Prime is tricky. We’ve arranged for a Starfinder named Yvyrna to pick you up. She’ll fly you there, give you aid when you need it, and help you with any bureaucratic difficulties. Think of her as a guide. But be careful! It’s possible that the Organization still has agents in the area. If they do, use your best judgment. Track them down and put an end to their schemes if you can, but don’t get yourselves killed.”
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Brock nods along as he listens to the explanation of the backstory. "Sound like a bunch of fiendish criminals, to be sure."
As they reach the end of the explanation, he says, "So ... what do we know about Ulumbia? Small archaeological footprint ... but obviously not a non-existent one, since we have a name for them."
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A short brindled pahtra wanders into the briefing room, talking on their comm-link. For those with good hearing, they might overhear...
"... If they do, use your best judgment. Track them down and put an end to their schemes if you can, but don’t get yourselves killed.”
They look up from their 'link, with a bit of a confused look on their face.
"I'm not late, am I? My sister sent me the briefing from the archives, so I should be caught up. I'm Nikko 5th of 9. What's this about Deepwater Prime? Will we need diving gear?"
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Shokil's eyes widen as the briefing goes on. "Oh... this could be good. I could get another novel out of this.." Turning to Alvin he says "Count me in. Sales have been... disappointing recently anyway."
Turning to a young man who seems to have blended into the background he asks "What do we know about this place?" he just silently shakes his head, and puts his nose back into the tablet he carries around.
Almira agrees with Brock, sticks her nose up in the air and crosses her arms. “Absolutely! They’re conniving, manipulative, killers. They joined the Society, but they weren’t Starfinders. We were just a means to an end—a convenient shield, that could extend their reach and line their pockets. They were always operating against us.”
Arvin sighs, “Honestly, we’re not sure what the Organisation is up to. We know that they’re working on something called Project Dawn. As far as we can tell, it involves the development and use of a weapon that causes earthquakes capable of utterly destroying a metropolis in minutes. The area and strength of these quakes can be controlled, allowing a user to target specific regions or buildings, or leave regions within the area untouched. We know that this weapon is complete and soon to be deployed against a large metropolis, but we don’t know the target. The lives of millions are quite literally on the line. As to the why of it? We don’t know their greater purpose or goals, but we suspect it’s more than simple profit.”
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Arvin takes the time to respond to other questions: “We don’t know too much about the Ulumbians,” Arvin admits. “They’re an ancient, land-based civilization which collapsed during Deepwater Prime’s pre-history. We don’t know what happened to them, but as far as we can tell, they had no descendants. They left little behind for archaeologists to uncover and they left no discernible mark on the planet’s broader history. To be fair, Deepwater Prime is just that—covered in water. The planet has a rich history of aquatic cultures and marine archaeology is of prime importance. It’s possible the Ulumbians were simply overlooked. They were certainly overshadowed.”
You won't need diving gear, though Almina responds, “It’s in the hills outside the city of Dumeray. Yvyrna has tracked down the exact coordinates. She’ll get you there.”
Nikko and Shokil find an old documentary on the Tabori cluster:
Approximately 6,000 years ago, the red supergiant star Bori collapsed in a violent explosion, forming the nebula known as the Tabori Cluster and seeding the planets orbiting its five neighboring stars with rich deposits of valuable starmetals. Mining these starmetals is the primary source of wealth and industry in the Tabori Cluster. On Deepwater Prime, siccatite mining is most prevalent.
Deepwater Prime is mostly covered by oceans and river deltas. The Ulumbians were the only known land-based ancient civilization, and their impact on the planet’s history was small. The study of Ulumbia is considered an academic dead end; no significant discoveries have been made in decades. Local scholars prefer to build a career in marine archaeology.
They also find an old business report:
Before a mining operation can be established on Deepwater Prime, an archaeological survey of the prospective site must be conducted, tying up the land for months, years, or decades at a time—longer if an important discovery is made. It’s rumored that many corporations use bribery and false surveys to avoid these complications
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Darkrunner listens to the briefing, curious that the Organization took what others find unimportant... or just don't understand. He looks down in contemplation, some of the circuit pattern on his face exhibiting waves of light.
Perhaps the thieves or the Organization know more about Ulumbia than we do.
He then continues to listen to Almina explain what she knows about the remaining living three of original seven. Then Alvin explains where the group is headed.
Oh, I see. I suppose we'll see for ourselves what they might have learned of Ulumbia... as long as there are traces left there.
b]“Absolutely! They’re conniving, manipulative, killers. They joined the Society, but they weren’t Starfinders. We were just a means to an end—a convenient shield, that could extend their reach and line their pockets. They were always operating against us.”[/b]
Yes, do you suppose the Society has strengthened our screening process in light of that situation? Could the Organization have planted further agents amongst our ranks?
He returns to more immediate curiosities.
How did we learn of this golarionquake weapon?
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Yes, do you suppose the Society has strengthened our screening process in light of that situation? Could the Organization have planted further agents amongst our ranks?
He returns to more immediate curiosities.
How did we learn of this golarionquake weapon?
These agents managed to stay undetected for decades. At lot has changed since then, but it would be unwise to assume the system is fool-proof now.
On the weapon: see this stony creature here? Arvin says, pointing at Lubose on the picture, Let's just say he clocked out of work early some day. When he was killed by a team of our specialists, he yielded a lot of into to us.
Yvyrna is an undine and the captain of the Unflappable Cockroach a bioship of xenowarden design with a chitin hull, smartcoral bulkheads, biological interface, and noqual lined cargo hold. Do you like it? Quite a marvel, isn't she? Yvyrna is just completing the last bits of paperwork I've got everything arranged for you: documents, stamps, licenses, departure clearance. I'm quite used to doing this stuff, it's usually the only thing they let me do. You are all so experienced, it's great to share the same vessel with agents of your calibre!
With some last-minute pre-flight checks complete, the bioship wobbles from the docking bay into space. We're headed into the Tabori cluster, that's why we need a bio-ship. Deepwater Prime is located within the Tabori Cluster—it’s a nebula that’s electrically active. The nebula interferes with most technology, including starships. While you’re on the planet, it’s usually alright. But getting there? She point to the ceiling of the cockpit and says with a smile you need a 'roach!
Speaking of which, let me put up some music for ol'roachy. She turns on some veeeery ethereal music that sounds mostly like the sound a space whale would make if it weren't for the space part. Yvyrna whispers Calms him down. Better that way...
The whale song is a persistent companion in the 23 days long journey. Alread on the second day, an encoded message arrives on the starfinder's comm units: They know you're coming!
There's the digital signature of an apple encrypted within the transmission, and the message for sure did not originate either on Absalom Station or anywhere within the Tabori cluster...
The bioship glides through a dizzying curtain of colors as it descends from orbit. Seen up close, Deepwater Prime is all brilliant shades of light and dark blue, with just a few significant land masses. Yvyrna pilots the craft to the largest one of them, to the crescent-shaped city of Dumeray, built around an inland bay at the confluence of three major river deltas, and lands on an island in the center of the bay, which serves as the city’s spaceport.
Watercraft of all kinds fill the bay, from weather-beaten fishing boats and rusted cargo freighters to luxurious pleasure craft and floating casinos. In the distance, people walk along the piers and city streets. Gumbo! Get yer Gumbo here! Vendors hawk gumbo made with a variety
of local shellfish, crispy lizard wings with red hot sauce, and small meat pies made with a crispy dough.
Most of the local inhabitants seem to rely on analog technology if they aren't using biological or magical equipment. The infosphere... is about as good as you'd get it in an AbadarCorp Travel Driftside Lodge (which - for those who haven't seen Envar's blogs - are notorious for their poor reception). It's severely underdeveloped, and getting even a simple text message out is challenging to the point of frustration.
Yvyrna, for her part, ushers the group to disembark, then loads them up into a boat, which she pilots across the bay and downriver. It's just a short ride beyond Dumeray, into the eastern hills. Sure enough, after a two-hour journey, she docks the boat on the riverbank and passes the group a map. “And we’re here! she says, pointing on the map. It's a paper map, so no blue electronic indicator of position, but it's still relatively easy to navigate with it. I’ll wait with the boat. The old dig site is just over those hills. I have marked it on the map in case you get lost.”
The old dig site looks like nothing more than a grass covered field, nestled between three hills, save for the deep gashes in the earth that have since flooded with stagnant water or been overgrown by flora.
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Shokil
Brock
George 9-23
Nikko
Darkrunner
Delea
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George 09-23 picks up a few toys (a personal gravitational distributor, thieves tools and a broad-spectrum scanning kit) before departing Absalom Station. While not particularly rare or powerful this equipment is novel and the android spends a few moments readying his gear. He also purchases an industrial quality backpack.
George 09-23 examines the encoded message in more detail but finds nothing of interest.
Once he arrives at the dig site he activates the seals on his armor and puts the suit's HVAC to good use. He then examines the mineral deposits at the dig site.
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Shokil, if only to give him something to think about other than whale music does what he can to help track down the source of the message.
Once on-planet he looks like a different halfling. Either three weeks of whale music somehow helped his composure, or someone hid all the alcohol that was on the ship.
Mostly he seems to be concentrating on the deep slashes that have been torn in the earth.
His natural grace and agility allow him to works his way along the top of the gashes and give an excellent view of the area, without falling in.
At the dig site, George immediately spots a tablet that looks like it was man-made, because the stone doesn't match the soil of the hills.
Nikko finds a rotten brush and bucket, which have been exposed to the elements for decades and are half-buried in sediment. While they don't seem to be particularly ancient, Nikko quickly concludes that a previous excavation may have used these... about a hundred years ago.
Delea receives faint echos of previous activities through her scrying, and sees the site was poorly excavated and unprofessionally handled. It’s likely that many artifacts were damaged during the dig, and the environment took a long time to recover.
What Darkrunner finds is even stranger: he discovers potsherds, tiny fragments of broken pottery, buried in the soil and overgrown with plants. It's as if the archaeologists on site either weren’t very thorough or just didn’t care about collecting and preserving all the archaeological finds.
Shokil's 'archaeological' find is something... contemporary. He finds a piece of garbage — the greasy fast-food wrapper for a restaurant called Big Bites on Carvanne Street in Dumeray. The wrapper looks clean, indicating that it was dropped recently and has not been exposed to the elements for long.
---(round 1)---
Shokil
Brock
George 9-23
Nikko
Darkrunner
Delea
---(round 2)---
Shokil
Brock
George 9-23
Nikko
Darkrunner
Delea
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Darkrunner points out the pot shards.
It seems the last crew wasn't very thorough.
The android turns his auto-sensors on structural remains for more cultural identification. He was underwhelmed by the lack of fidelity in engineering findings, but it seems the remains have been overly disturbed by untrained hands.
Nikko looks for signs of local wildlife, but instead finds the remains of a structure, submerged beneath the surface of a now flooded gash in the ground.
Rooting around beneath the water further indicates that the rest of the structure was destroyed, and the trace remains of it were removed—signs in the landscape and a single baked clay brick is all that’s left.
For Darkrunner-42, this is enough for a closer investigation. The baked clay brick has been exposed to extreme heat sources many times in the past. It’s likely that it was once part of an oven, furnace, kiln, refinery, or similar structure.
Brock shifts some rocks, and quickly comes to a jarring conclusion: the way this dig site was handles wasn't incompetence, it was malice. Someone went truly out of their way to make it look like an unprofessional dig, while destroying as much archaeological evidence as possible.
George 09-23 spends some more time looking at the tablet, which radiates some kind of magic. It looks to be about two inches thick, and about a foot wide. There's no telling how long it is, since it is still partially buried in soil.
The clay tablet is an antique weapon fusion seal that depicts an eye seeing clearly through murk—it’s not ancient and certainly not Ulumbian.
---(round 2)---
Shokil
Brock
George 9-23 (Follow-up checks)
Nikko
Darkrunner
Delea
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While George inspects the tablet, Brock finds some footprints at the edges of the dig site. The footprints look to be fresh and from the size, patterns and depth os the print must have been made by a bipedal humanoid of approximately Medium size.
As the group investigates, Brock uncovers footprints. Before he manages as much as a shoutout, three mercenaries appear, armed with pistol. They move over the ridge and advance on the group.
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Darkrunner
George 09-23
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Enemy
Enemy
Enemy
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Delea
Nikko
Brock
Shokil
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@DM Kludde - My character would not touch/pick up the weapon seal until examining it fully. He is by nature fairly cautious. :)
George 09-23 reacts quickly to the appearance of bandits. As the most fragile (by far) member of the team he decides to find a defensive position to safely cast his spells. George 09-23 immediately turns invisible and moves to hard cover.
George 09-23 is invisible and behind cover.
George just... disappears, while darkrunner fires a warning shot. The newcomers answer by returning fire on the front line!
The assassins seems to be mostly laying down cover fire, tricking the team but not landing hits, until one of them hits Brock solidly in the chest!
---(round 1)---
Delea
Nikko
Brock
Shokil
---(round 2)---
Darkrunner
George 09-23
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Enemy
Enemy
Enemy
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"See.. now this is why I took up writoing.." mutters Shokil.
"Heroes deal with ambushes.."
Hmm.. what would Smith do?
Sgt. Smith swayed through the street. The rest of his squad was our carousing around here somewhere. They deserved a break. Well, he found them drunk on base it would likely be an arm... But here, He'd best make sure they didn't get up to any trouble. There had been talk of insurgents and drunk squaddies made for easy targets.
Turning down an alleyway the siren call of a neon bar sign beckoned him. Just the sort of place his boys and girls would head. The sign flickered and went out, and Smith heard the sound of a boot fall behind him.
I'm feeling good... So I'm going to give you one chance to *&*^%! off before you make a mistake." he muttered. Turning he saw by the glow of the cigar in his mouth three figures covering the entrance to the alleyway...
With a sign Shokil unlimbered his own weapon. Just as well this isn't an alleyway. he thought as he lined up the central ambusher in his sights. Taking a risky shot he aimed for the mans head.
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Brock is unable to see the attackers and squints in that direction, exposing himself to a full blast of acid straight into the middle of his chest. The acid eats away at the hairs on his beard. "That's it!" he shouts, firing up his jump jets as he maneuvers to the north. As he soars through the air, he draws his handaxe from his belt. As he lands, he hurls the handaxe toward the nearest enemy.
Whether it strikes true or not, the axe spins through the air and winds its way back to Brock's hand.
Nikko sloshes through the mud, aims his laser rifle and lands a solid hit, burning through his assailant's armor. Shokil takes a risky shot, but the gambit doesn't pay off, and he hits only armor plating. Brock's handaxe lands in the mud with an unsatisfying 'thud' sound.
---(round 1)---
Delea
Nikko
Brock
Shokil
---(round 2)---
Darkrunner
George 09-23
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Enemy - Red (14)
Enemy
Enemy
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