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."
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A new recruit to the Starfinders, Ebon Doone stands out among other vesk because he is slightly shorter than most, at around six feet ten inches and because his scales are flat black. He wears Lashunta Ringwear armor, also flat black, and his only evident weapons, other than his clawed hands, is a pulsecaster pistol and a starknife. This makes sense once one notices the small mote of black that flits around his head, and once one learns he is also a bounty hunter.
Those who have worked with him are quick to point out that he is a lot of fun, making jokes and quoting lyrics from popular songs or lines from popular movies. He is also known as a low level bounty hunter around Absalom Station prior to joining the Starfinders. He's eager to be assigned to a mission.
He takes this situation in stride, humming the lines of a popular song,
"You not useless sitting still
Who sit on a throne in a kingly state
We live to serve when the galaxies will
They also serve who stand and wait."
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A large upright standing rat or a small rat-man (depends on your exposure to the Ysoki race) strolls into the meeting room. He nods at the imposing Vesk. While he has never been officially on a mission his time in the scoured stars has provided him with useful but scary experiences.
"Nice song. Is it new? I have not heard it before."
Yonkers nimbly fishes out a hair brush from a cheek pouch and he begins to lick and comb himself clean.
"You can never be too ready for a mission or at least that I what I have been told."
For the past year, the Starfinder Society has been searching for Ongie, a ysoki engineer on the run from the corporate overlords that have ruled her hometown for nearly a century. Known in Ongie’s hometown of Braerton as the Mongers, the Starfinder Society has recently come to suspect that the Mongers are the same group that they’ve been hunting all year—the mysterious Organization. If this is true, it’s likely that Braerton has an important role to play in Project Dawn, an ongoing plan enacted by the Organization that will result in the death of millions if they’re not stopped. Finding Ongie has become a matter of life and death.
Unfortunately, the Starfinders aren’t the only ones hot on Ongie’s trail. Organization assassins have been after Ongie since her escape from Braerton three years ago, and have finally cornered her on Vesk-7. If the Starfinders don’t act fast, Ongie and all the information she possesses will slip through their fingers."
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Yonkers pulls Ebon out of the mission briefing that was clearly not meant for their ears. Somehow they were sent to the wrong room.
The rat-man puts his brush away now that his grooming is complete.
"Well, this mission is more my speed. The last one seemed rather severe."
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"Nice song. Is it new? I have not heard it before."
"Lasers, Razors, and Skittermanders latest. Heard it on the tube coming in," Ebon replies, his voice deep and smooth. He hums the melody to himself while Yonkers grooms.
Yonkers nimbly fishes out a hair brush from a cheek pouch and he begins to lick and comb himself clean.
"You can never be too ready for a mission or at least that I what I have been told."
"True, as long as you don't lose touch with reality. As B. F. Traskogi said, 'By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.'"
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A drow slowly enters and looks around. He pulls out his data tablet and flips to a picture of a white haired ysoki. "Has anyone seen this Ysoki, Rattus Solo. My associates have no time for smugglers who drop their shipments at the first sign of a patrol cruiser." He puts it away. "Anyways...I'm here for the briefing. Balok"
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A slightly unkempt and small Ysoki shuffles in, wheezing a tiny bit.
"Apologies. My train seems to always break down.. had to run."
He wears light armor and has brown fur with spots of grey. He wears a hooded cloak and has a laser rifle across his back and a needler pistol in a holster. He also has what looks like some sort of medical equipment in various places about his person. Does that one case have a poison warning?
He sits down and sighs in contentment. "Hello. My name is Bonkers. Nice to meet you all. Looks like I didn't miss the briefing!"
It's a bit uncommon, but all of you have received an invite on AbadarCorp Mutter, the video calling app that is so common in the Pact World. The invite lists you as required, as well as a participant '@dealmaker'. Booked for a whole of 30 minutes, so somebody is short on time...
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Radaszam “the Dealmaker,” a vesk with emerald scales and knowing eyes, flickers into existence on the comm display. The faction leader sits at a desk in his private office, with a view of stars through a window behind his chair.
“I apologize for the remote connection,” says Radaszam, “but things are moving fast right now for the Society. We need your help for a crucial task.”
Radaszam folds his hands together and leans forward as he continues. “As you may know, the Society has had a thorn in its side lately, and we don’t even know the proper name for our foes. The Organization—that’s all we know it as—has been working against us for over a year now. We know too little about them and their motivations, which puts us at a sizable disadvantage. But we think we may have identified someone who can help change that.
“On Kortus IV, there’s a colony called Braerton that we’ve dealt with in the past. A ysoki inventor named Ongie used to live there a few years back. Up until recently, everyone thought she had died. As it turns out, Ongie actually fled Kortus IV and has been in hiding for years. The group she crossed that forced her to disappear is likely the Organization itself.”
Radaszam casts a glance over his shoulder and gestures at the stars. “It cost us a great deal, but we’ve tracked Ongie down to Vesk-7, a frigid world on the edge of the Veskarium’s Ghavaniska system. She’s hiding somewhere in a little colony called Forget. We need you to find Ongie and let her know that the Starfinder Society wants to talk with her. We can offer her protection and any other reasonable measure needed to secure her cooperation. What she knows could help us turn the tide against the Organization. But you have to act quickly—if we’ve found her, it’s a good bet that the Organization has as well.”
I'll arrange a ship for you as well, if you tell me your choice. There's the Thunderbolt, that good old Drake, the Spitfire, which is a Pegasus-class vessel and the Preference, an Azata. I'll leave the choice up to you.
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Ebon listens attentively. He assumes he was recruited for his combat ability, as he doesn't know enough about politics or science to think of any intelligent questions. So he follows the old adage, that it is better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.
When discussion begins about the type of starship, he suggests, "If this Organization is after this Ongie, we had best take the Drake. I've read it's the best of the three when it comes to combat."
He has mixed feelings about returning to the Veskarium. He takes some comfort in knowing the Vesk-7 is remote and quite cold, so he's not likely to meet anyone who knows why he left.
He checks his comm unit for a shop between where he is and the space port that sells clothing suitable for a cold environment to pick up on his way off the station.
He tells the others, "Vesk-7 is plenty cold, so best be prepared for it."
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Yonkers jumps on the infosphere on his personal comm unit. The Ysoki starts typing in search parameters for the planet in question and two minutes latter the information spits out on his device.
"Alright what do we know about Vesk-7?"
29 Physical Science on a take 20 to recall information.
He turns to Ebon.
"I have a spell that should help with the cold. As long as you have some armor you should be fine."
Vesk-7 is cold, and Yonkers manages to quickly pull up the data files on the seventh Veskarium planet.
Vesk-7 is an icy world on the edge of the Veskarium with an orbit that closely mirrors nearby Vesk-8. Its most prominent native inhabitants are kothamas, a sentient species of huge but peaceful meditative magical beasts.
The planet shares a moon with Vesk-8. Known as Traverse, the moon changes the planet it orbits whenever the two planets pass one another, which happens approximately once every 36 Pact Standard years.
Vesk-7 is home to the colony of Forget, which treats itself as an independent body despite technically being under the rule of the Veskarium. As authorities rarely intervene in Forget’s affairs, the community serves as a haven for those who wish to leave their old lives behind and begin anew.
Whenever Vesk-7 and Vesk-8 pass each other in orbit, magical portals between the two worlds flare to life, allowing easy travel between the planets without the use of spaceships. These portals are currently inactive.
Radaszam says You are right, Vesk-7 is dreadfully cold. I'll make sure your vessel is stocked with cold winter gear in case you need it, but if you have a solid piece of armor, you can also use its built-in protections.
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Yonkers agrees with the choice of the Thunderbolt (Drake class) as their vehicle of choice.
He asks Radaszam if they have any particulars on Ongie and the mission in general.
"Do we have a picture of her, even an outdated one? Also do you know if she likes to hang out in any particular spot? You don't happen to have any contacts that we can meet up with on planet do you?"
Ongie's an ysoki grease rat. Radaszam says, showing a picture
That may sound disrespectful, but none of that is intended: she truly is quite gifted with gears and innovations. She fled Braerton after crossing a group called the Mongers—we suspect this group has some connection to the Organization. Ongie stood up to the Mongers over the poor treatment of local miners, which brought the Mongers down on her head. She faked her death, fled Kortus IV, and has been on the run ever since. Ongie’s canny enough to have stayed off everyone’s radar for a few years, and she’s likely to be paranoid, too. Expect her to be hard to find, and when you do, you’ll need to convince her quickly that you’re there to help, or she’ll assume you’re assassins sent to silence her.
“Fugitive she may be, Ongie still has family in Braerton. She’s careful when poking her head up, but she does check in on her father Roget now and then. In fact, it’s Roget that put us on her trail in the first place, when Saar and Z Data Z got tipped off. Once we knew to look for her, we picked up on some signals she fed to a surveillance drone and tracked her from there. We've pinpointed the signal to Forget, but to get more details I need a ground crew” Radaszam says, quite clearly implying that's where you come in.
Okay, just to be clear. We propose to bring Ongie to Absalom Station and put her under our protection. She’ll have the full security of the Lorespire Complex to keep her safe. Beyond that, you’re free to negotiate on the Society’s behalf. We can give her credits, resources, information—you can meet any reasonable request she puts forward. We’ve operated without reliable intel about the Organization for far too long, and the information Ongie’s gathered is of primary importance. Sweeten the deal however you need to, so long as you convince her to come of her own free will.
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Travelling to the Vesk system always takes about a week (Exactly days to be precise). On the sixth day of travel, an alert flashes across a computer terminal, indicating that someone is attempting to make contact. Preliminary scans show no vessel within range, suggesting that the transmission originates from outside the Drift. The message itself, however, is nothing more than noise and gibberish.
Bonkers analyzes the audio track, and finds a clearer message is embedded in an envelope of noise. After detuning the bridge speakers with polarity-inverted, in quad mode, the message plays back to simply sound out: “They’ve located her. Hurry.”
The Thunderbolt drop out of the Drift, and it takes another hour to zone in on Vesk-7. Locating Forget via scans is a simple matter even with the poor scanners on the Drake, and the landing pad is just outside the community limits.
The docking authorities make little fuss. Around here, the population mostly seems to comprise of humans, pathras and androids, and orbital scans seem to indicate a community of about 12000.
Forget is supposed to be in the warmest region of Vesk-7, but even here the place is still hellishly cold, with frequent blustering snow squalls and icicles hanging off the eaves of every building.
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Ebon is best deployed on the starship as a gunner, as he has no piloting, computer, or engineering skills.
His heavy armor and a warm coat prepare him for the cold and he offers to stay to the front of the group as it moves into the unknown, to be ready to take on any hostile creatures. Once underway, his jokes and quotes cease and he is focused on watching for threats.
Yonkers sets down the shuttle with ease, despite being buffeted by some strogn stormy winds here and there. On the ground, the colony town of Forget has all the feels of a small town. In the cold, the pahtras, ysoki, humans and androids that inhabit this town mostly look at their shoes on their brief stints outside, trying to get out of the cold as expediently as possible. Who could fault them.
It's an interesting question to ask. The hostile environment of Vesk-7 means that somebody living outside the protective buildings and heating systems offered in the heart of Forget needs a source of energy and steady supply line.
Most of Forget’s buildings are patched into a central grid consisting of buried power lines that can’t get blown down due to harsh winds. Anyone seeking to live outside the city longterm would have to patch themselves into the grid, purchase a well-made generator, or locate an established structure that was deliberately built to be self-reliant.
A pair of abandoned structures near Forget drew power from outside the central grid. A power plant east of the colony was decommissioned prior to the current grid being established, but it was obliterated by a major earthquake a few years ago. To the north, the now-defunct Ridgerock Prison had its own set of backup generators to make sure that an outage in the central grid didn’t give prisoners a chance to escape.
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"My experience as a bounty hunter has taught me to think like a fugitive. In this situation, someone seeking a safe hide-out might choose any of these places, but I'd investigate the prison first thing. Security would be easier to establish in such a place. If it has repairable infrastructure, a good engineer would likely find that appealing."
Balok asks around, and finds an Ysoki hardware store. The owner, Qwuik, says Yeah, I remember someone. She was looking to acquire some parts to repair a laser grid, which I thought was odd. Knew everything about electronics too, far more than I do, I must admit.
Chance stumbles upon a xenodruid Yeah, I'm here to do research on the Kothamas. There's a flock on an ice plain, just north of here, where I was surveying. I saw a small humanoid figure dressed in heavy winter gear, and she was observing the same group from afar. I wanted to get over there to talk, but before I could get any closer, the figure disappeared.
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The abandoned prison is only a mile and a half north of Forget, but the heavy sleet and snow are testament to the fact that escaping the place would not have been easy. Not unless you stole some armor or winter gear along the way.
Most of the squat, gray complex known as Ridgerock has surrendered to the frigid elements around it. Snow drifts pile high around the building, but one entrance remains mostly clear and unobstructed. The sliding metal door shows signs of tarnish but otherwise is in remarkable repair considering the building’s age. A keypad sits in an indented section of the wall.
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Yonkers is toasty warm in his bargain basement armor bolstered by the Climate Adaptation cantrip.
"You might be right, Ebon about her location. We shall see."
The ysoki turns his attention to opening the door. He takes out his handy Engineering kit and gets to work.
"If anyone wants to help out they can."
@GM Kludde - Please use result 18 for the next initiative check for my character (Paradox 11 +7 modifier). Also my character has Blindsense (Scent) 30 feet to help detect hiding or invisible opponents. :)
Yonkers goes to work on the lock while Bonkers watches on. The ysoki manages to rewire the closed and open wires of the lock, and simply typing in the wrong keycode now does the trick to open the door. As long as you don't type the right one by accident.
Dim lighting originating from panels in the walls casts the interior of Ridgerock in a dull yellow glow. Comfortable interior heating fights off the bitter cold from outside, and small, dirty puddles from melted snow pool on the ground. Around the corner, a long, wide hall is lined with hooks and racks, holding all manner of coats, boots, outdoor gear, and tools.
The coats are sized for Small humanoids, though some of the coats and sweaters have two sleeves and others have six sleeves. The tools are well used but disorganized. There's a laser drill, two batteries, and a fire extinguisher.
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Yonkers puts his engineering kit away to look at the new gear.
"Not a bad haul considering. Hopefully we can put these items to good use."
The ysoki resists the urge to stick the laser drill into a pouch cheek (never a good idea with items of this nature despite the safety switch) so he holsters it at his side after examining it.
Resisting the urge to be a complete pack rat he asks the others.
"Who wants the fire extinguisher and the batteries?"
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Ebon will attach the fire extinguisher to his pack in case of emergencies. "If these belong to Ongie, we might want to make it clear we aren't stealing anything. Looks like she's got a posse if she's responsible for all these improvements, like a Skittermander assistant at least."
Once there is a path inward, Ebon takes point. He reaches out and grasps the black dot that has been drifting around his head. It transforms in his hand into a shape like a starknife.
Yonkers takes a moment to make sure no items of value are left behind, while Ebon carefully moves ahead.
There's a door to the east, which leads to a storage room. The room contains crates, construction materials, and sundries. There’s a mound of UPBs and an obviously valuable gemstone sitting atop the crates in the north corners of the room.
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Yonkers takes out his broad-spectrum scanning kit and starts to check out the storage room for any signs of traps or hidden compartments. He also gives a sniff to see if there are any hidden creatures in the room.
Blindsense 30' (Scent)
"I would not leave a big gem like that unguarded. Everyone have a look around first."