A Starfinder Second Edition Playtest adventure designed for 5th-level characters.
Countless derelict and abandoned starships litter space—some damaged beyond repair, some containing valuable cargo, and others empty save for the dead. The Xenowarden starship Bloom is one such ship. During a routine survey mission to a newly discovered dwarf planet in the Vast, the crew of the Bloom collected a variety of biological and environmental samples, secured the samples for further study, and departed, plotting a course through the Drift to a mobile research laboratory in the Pact Worlds.
The Bloom that emerged in Pact Worlds’ space was much changed—unresponsive, careening out of control, and with no sign of the ship’s crew. Explore the biomechanical corridors of the Bloom to uncover the fate of its missing crew and face off against a dangerous, alien predator that can’t be allowed to survive.
The Bloom is haunted. That’s the least of your problems.
Welcome to the Starfinder Playtest! You can directly shape the future of the Starfinder Roleplaying Game by participating in a fun and rigorous playtest period using the Starfinder Playtest Rulebook and one of several playtest adventures—including Starfinder Playtest Scenarios! Each Starfinder Playtest Scenario is a short, single-session adventure designed to be played in 2–3 hours and written by a member of the Starfinder Team.
Written by: Jessica Catalan
We find our grizzled adventurers in space, aboard the starship Overhaul. The Overhaul is a Kevolari Venture class explorer regularly running cargo hauls between the fringes of the Pact Worlds and the gas giant Bretheda. This time around, the cargo bays are full of designer clothing from Kalo-Mahoi...
Antoniius, comes from the Azlanti Empire, as his purple eyes show. There, he had quite the life, until his smuggling operations were stopped by the Imperial Navy... then, he had to run from the Empire and had to go where they will never go, the Pact Worlds.
That's how he find his way on the Overhaul, ready to start anew... his life of a successful smuggler!
Antoniius is a good looking guy with an easy smile alway ready to listen and quick to disappear.
From his previous life, he kept a rifle from his time in the Army.
|
"Hey hey, it's a new day!" A colorful Pahtra with a prosthetic arm snaps a selfie with their handheld comm unit in front of the door to the cargo bay. Which isn't a very interesting background. They really need a shot of the cargo. But that's in boxes, so not very interesting either.
Dae sighs. They signed up for this mission as soon as they saw "designer clothing," but that may not have been a very level-headed decision.
A rake-thin vesk, with pale, almost white scales, clad in a form-fitting (but stylish) black suit of armor, nods to the others.
"I, for one, am glad that we are hauling couture, rather than claymore mines. We're less likely to be scrutinised carefully by customs."
A man with cunning eyes and an ironic half-smile examines the reports available to them on the contents of designer clothing boxes. I think we can get something interesting out of this story. He glances at azlanti and vesk, clearly feeling a "brothers in spirit" in the matter of non-standard business solutions. Pahtra raises some doubts in him, but perhaps he is also not averse to getting hold of fast money. Something profitable.
A klaxon sounds on the bridge of the Overhaul, blaring an imminent collision warning. Ahead, a starship that looks like a cross between a building and a tree is incoming, spiraling erratically in its out-of-control flight through space. A slight change in trajectory at the hands of the pilot and the collision is avoided, the biomechanical starship careening past in the direction of Bretheda and its many moons.
Flavius attempts to raise the other vessel on the comms.
"Ahoy, unidentified ship! This is the Overhaul. You appear to currently be on a collision course for the planet Bretheda, and are moving erratically. Please advise: Do you require assistance?"
Dae and Flaviu send out hails, but there is no response, and the ship keeps on it's erratic flight path.
"I don't like this. I don't like this, one bit..."
Flavius casts an eye over the ship...
By the Empire! What's going on with this ship?!
Antoniius do a quick scan of the ship.
The scan quite clearly show the name 'Bloom' on the hull, which is a Xenowarden ship. The scans shows the starship is alive, and that the airlock doors are open. Antoniius scans, and finds that there are dozens of life forms aboard. Most are Small or Tiny and one is Large.
Dae notices four airlock doors, two on the port side and two on the starboard side. One of the port airlocks is open.
Antoniis conveys his finding to the ship crew and observes the course of the ship as an experienced pilot of his own.
Hmm, maybe we could get in there? Eric will nod to Dae when he shares his observation about the open airlock. Pure madness, though. But in one of the realities, we will do exactly that. Is it in our time line or in another one?
Antoniius has seen this kind of vessel before - it's a Xenowarden vessel. The Xenowardens are a far reaching and diverse organization who study and protect natural ecosystems across the galaxy, explore and survey new planets, and create eco-friendly technologies. Much of their technology utilizes biotech, magic, or both. The Xenowardens would pay well for the return of one of their starships, even if nothing valuable remains aboard.
Xenowardens pilot biomechanical living starships grown specially for them by Unified Conservatory (or UC). Most Xenowarden captains form a psychic connection with their starship that enables them to control some of its systems with a thought. The Bloom is a UC Librama class starship, marking it as a scouting and research vessel designed for preliminary exploration and analysis of new and distant planets. Libramas have multiple specimen laboratories and workspaces to better facilitate the study and analysis of alien flora and fauna.
The notion of boarding crosses Eric's mind.
Flavius takes the controls, and tries to bring the ship alongside.
Flavius does a decent job of locking on trajectory of the ship.
Flavius engages his rebreather, and then heads out the airlock.
Eric goes to look for spacesuits for himself and the rest of his comrades, who may need them.
Antoniius activates his armor's protection, for what they worth and "flies" towards the other ship.
Eric find a nice sleek flight suit in the port cupboard, in several sizes. Fortunately, nobody has any issue crossing the terrifying emptiness of space between the Overhaul and the Bloom.
The open airlock leads to a laboratory, and only a shimmering green aura in the doorway marks the transition from the void of space to the Bloom’s dark interior. Inside, the laboratory is a mess of broken specimen boxes and lab equipment.
Flavius and Antoniius are able to see in the dark, enabling them to see the bloodstains and gore tha mar the walls and floor. There's also the speciment boxes that hold some rests, but they appear to be ripped open.
Just under the debris, there's a half-eaten corpse of a crew member still wearing a tattered lab coat.
There's also two tactical medpatches on the floor.
Flavius frowns.
"Looks like 'Sample 62' busted out, and then *ate* the other samples. Guess we know what happened to the crew..."
In one reality, it was a small creature with eight limbs and a long tail. It jumped on the face of a crew member and left its seed inside, but no one knew about it until a new monster gnawed its way out of the chest. He chuckles. I hope we're in a different time line, otherwise no one in space will hear us scream.
Good one Eric! I think the Empire made an holoFilm about this story, even several! But hopefully we’re not in an holoShow. Nevertheless some experiment seems to have gone rogue… Lets be prudent and make sure to know more about the specimen who hates these ones.
Antoniius looks around for some datapad or datajack where he could access to some information.
Also, better to take these medpatch, we could have the use of them.
Beyond the only door in the room, the port cargo bay contains scientific equipment and survey gear. A broken porter drone lies on the ground, its legs twitching erratically and sparks periodically flying from its circuits. The broken drone has been damaged and knocked over, though it could probably be repaired with little difficulty.
Apart from the door that the group moved through, there is one more exit.
In one of the realities, it has started working again! Apparently, in a parallel one.
"Sorry, I don't know anything about that kind of tech. I'll just keep recording, yeah?"
Dae holds up the shining ribbon of light that is their solar weapon. "I'll just keep you safe from the beastie. And maybe any surviving crew... Anybody got any idea how long ago this happened? I got some cheap medpatches, but I suspect we're at least too late to help this one."
Flavius shrugs.
"Sorry, I deal with creatures, usually, not tech..."
Antoniius connects his datajack and tries to access the drone's memory.
The diagnostic log shows multiple blunt shocks being applied to the drone, as if it was being battered, followed by a barrage of sonic damage. Once the drone went down, it took no further damage.
Pushing ahead, the door leads to a large aft compartment. The Bloom’s engine room was clearly once a marvel of biomechanical engineering, containing a high-speed Drift engine, four sleek workstations with state-of-the-art biomechanical interfaces, and four plush chairs grown from leaf fronds and flower petals.
Now, the engine room is a mess. The front panel is torn off the broken Drift engine, tools are scattered around the floor, and something has taken bites out of the chairs and other biomass. The ground near the forward doors is coated in a sticky looking slime, which trails through the open doors to midship. Through these doors, midship is coated entirely in a thick layer of slime and pulsing organic masses. Amid these alien egg-sacs crawl grub-like creatures with oddly humanoid bone faceplates, each engorged and nearly a foot in length. Movement in the distance indicates there’s likely additional grubs in adjoining chambers.
The engine room contains some basic controls used to operate the lights and control the ship’s interior temperature. The Bloom’s engine is damaged and its Drift engine is broken completely. It’s obvious that repairing the engine or Drift engine will take days (to weeks) of work.
The workstations show sign of damage, which most of the floral chair looking like something has been eating them. Only one computer remains functional.
"Oh good, whatever did this eats plants." Dae looks over their companions with some concern. "Humans aren't plants, right? I failed bio."
They also look at the grubs with distaste. "Do we... squish them? Vote now--oh, no infosphere here. Nobody's gonna see this for weeks. Nevermind."
The swarm of grubs on the other side of the open bulkhead door seem to have noticed the group, and are looking hungry enough to advance on the group.
[ooc]It's still possible to close the door separating yourself from the incoming swarm.
We are not in a reality where we will be devoured, I am sure. Although such time branches definitely exist.
Eric sees the creatures, and it looks like a small of hatchlings grubs. They're quite uncommon, but it looks like these are particularly averse to fire and area effects. These creature are dangerous in that they can emit an ear-piercing shreak as an area effect, which can be devastating under the worst circumstances.
---(Round 1)---
Antoniius
---
Monster
---
Flavius
Dae
Eric
---
Antoniius, in one fluid movement, draws his weapon and aims at the creatures.
Weapon in hands he shoots at them.
After shooting, he moves.
Antoniius burns the advancing swarm of hatchlings, which moves closer and unleashes a piercing scream of terror
---(Round 1)---
Flavius
Dae
Eric
--Round 2---
Antoniius
---
Monster (17)
---
Dae already has their solar weapon in-hand, but in an instant they're lined with a protective light and have another mote of sunlight floating just above their off-hand. They mostly avoid the shriek.
"Fire, you said? I've got fire--but you're kinda in the way! 'Scuse me!" Dae pushes past Flavius and then clambers over the grubs to reach the corner. Not the best place to be, but it's just far enough from their allies--solar flame bursts out from them. In its aftermath, their solar armaments seem to have gone dark.
Dae maanges to burn the shrieking herd of plants, and nearly scatters them.
---(Round 1)---
Flavius
Dae
Eric
--Round 2---
Antoniius
---
Monster (31 - Dazzled)
---
"Get 'Em!"
Flavius then does exactly that!
Antonius, aims and shoots again.
With one hand, Eric stops the wave of sound rushing into him. With other, like a demiurge of destruction, brings it back, turning energy into flame.
In another reality, everything was on fire here. Look.
And the flame is burning up!
FLASHFIRE [three-actions]
SPELL 3
CONCENTRATE
FIRE
MANIPULATE
Range 120 feet; Targets 10-foot burst
Defense basic reflex; Duration sustained up to 1 minute
You cause fires to ignite and spread. This deals 3d6 fire damage to each creature that’s in the area when the spell is cast or that ends its turn in the area (basic Reflex save). A creature who critically fails its saving throw also takes 4 persistent fire damage. The area is hazardous terrain. A creature who moves on the ground through the area takes 4 fire damage for every square of that area it moves into. Everything on each side of the flashfire is concealed from creatures on the opposite side. Each time you sustain this spell, the radius of the fire increases by 5 feet.
Flavius lets loose on the swarm, and his fiery shot manages to obliterate it, but not before he sees a second swarm come in.
It doesn't last too long against the readied Starfinders, and in a barrage of shots, this one meet a fiery end as well.
Antoniius tries to access the ship's logs.