For the last few weeks, each of you has been cramped aboard the Orion, one of three massive starships traveling through the Drift under the command of the host shirren Palivhar Chooser of Hues. Palivhar Chooser of Hues has collected dozens of agents for an epxloratory mission on a recently discovered planet. Or 're'-disocvered, as his second-in-command, the maraquoi Saivessa, likes to excitedly emphasize.
Finally you all woke today to see that the Orion, the Chain's Edge, and the Pickle have translated back onto the material plane and come into the orbit of a modest-sized plant below. While you take it in, the shirren commander's voice echoes across the ship-wide comms:
“Welcome to Krethiskar, Starfinders!” declares Palivhar Chooser of Hues. Their voice rings out over the ship comms as the starships emerge from the Drift. “Krethiskar was once a member of the Szandite Collective, an alliance of planets that have communicated with one another via psychic szandite crystals since before the advent of modern space travel. The Collective lost contact with Krethiskar during the Gap, and many suspected the planet had been destroyed. And yet... here it is.”
Below the vessels, a planet looms large, red seas battering rocky gray earth beneath swirling green cloud cover. An enormous mountain crests the clouds along the equator, not far from a modest space elevator and a few other orbital structures. Cities and crystalline structures dot the planet’s surface, though they lack any obvious signs of life.
“Our mission is to perform initial explorations, make peaceful contact with any inhabitants we meet, and discover what happened to Krethiskar. I’ve selected a landing site in the lowlands, near the equatorial mountain, not far from the ocean and one of the local metropolitan centers. When we land, support staff will be asked to establish base camp, while field agents will conduct initial survey missions. Thank you for joining me in this moment of discovery, my friends. Learn what you can on approach and prepare yourselves for arrival. I’ll see you at the landing site.”
Computers of Culture, Engineering, Life Science, Medicine, Mysticism, Physical Science, Perception
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A female human in a flowing, colorful dress arrives at the scene, her smile warm and friendly as she walks toward the group. Her presence feels calm and peaceful, bringing a sense of comfort to those around her. With open arms and a gentle voice, she speaks kindly.
"Greetings! I am Luzviminda, priestess of Sarenrae. May her eternal flame be with us, lighting our way and giving us hope!"
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The creature wearing a pair of highly stylized golemplating armor nods as he enters. In a deep digitized voice, through his draconic mask, he says, "Greetings. I am Blitniz. I'll be in engineering, if you need me. Just call me on comms." He makes his way toward engineering and, throughout the trip, rarely leaves there ... and when he does, it is always in his full armor.
As you near the planet, Blitniz tries to assess what he knows about the situation.
To Luzviminda, he says, "Seems that there is a strong mystical influence in these materials. I can help with the science of what is happening, but have no training on the magic end of things."
Despite his modesty about mystical matters, Blitniz proves quite confident with the 'hard' sciences. The armored dragon takes in the many giant crystalline formations that seem to spread for miles along Krethiskar's surface. The formations appear to Blitniz to not only have likely contributed to tectonic events, but to have also drawn natural resources away from other nearby geological formations, leaving mountains and plains devoid of vegetation, with only small patches of life remaining here and there far from the veins of crystal found planetwide.
On the approach he also takes note of a structure on the far side of the mountain from where your own landing zone is. It appears to be a space elevator connecting from some complex on the planet's surface to a small spacedock and loading platform in low orbit. The docking slips on that orbital platform are all occupied by freighters of odd geometric designs, but as best Blitniz can tell neither the ships nor the space elevator is drawing any power or actively operating.
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A large intimidating Shobhad dressed as a professional wrestler wearing grim trophies and a large leg bone hanging from his belt enters the ship followed by a Contemplative carrying camera equipment and greets the new team in an amplified voice.
Then GRIM*! voice amplifier turns off and he speaks in a much softer all most timid voice
"Nice to meet you all, hope we can be friends. This is Xylavol Intellectual Cinema Verite Visionary."
GRIM*! gestures to his Contemplative tech hireling
"She's the brains behind my video channel, see, look at this."
GRIM*! takes out his comm unit and plays a clip from the Pact World Warriors!
That's me, I hit..." stops to read the caption in the video.
"Rafelo really hard, he took it well, I'm told. Do you think they like to wrestle on the planet we are going to?"
"Hay look at what I found! I don't know what I'd do without the infosphere, I found the wiki on the Szandite Collective and Szandite crystals and a lot of history, and some other info on it, but nothing about wrestling."
GRIM*! shares his findings with his new friends
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A snow white skittermander enters. His face brightens as he sees that his collogues of a few days have arrived before him. "Hello, hello goodest friends! It is so very, very good good to see you again. Sneaker is here here to help." He rushes forward and gives GRIM*! an unsolicited hug while simultaneously giving Luzviminda a wave and a finger gun and two thumbs up to Blitniz. "What am I here to help help with today? I hope hope it is an investigation. Why is that you ask? Well you didn't ask but I know you want to so I shall shall answer. It is because I am a detective. For really real this time and not just pretend." He nods and smiles.
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Luz gathers information and learns that the Szandite Collective is an alliance of seven planets spread across four adjacent star systems in Near Space. In the distant past, each of these seven planets experienced meteor showers which deposited magical crystals across their surface, varying in size from a few feet to nearly a mile. These crystals were later named szandite.
To Luzviminda, he says, "Seems that there is a strong mystical influence in these materials. I can help with the science of what is happening, but have no training on the magic end of things."
"That is true!" Luz tells the mechanic. "Let's see what magical we can find!"
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GRIM*! looks down at Sneaker with a curious look as he gets hugged, and starts counting
"One, two, three, stop moving so much it's hard to count, four, five, six. Wow you have six arms that's."
GRIM*! stops to look at all of his arms
"Two more than I have, have you thought about wrestling as a career?"
"You know what, I could use some help sometime, Xylavol holds my camera when we make videos, but I don't have anyone to hold my spotlight."
GRIM*! takes out his spotlight and turns it on
"This is a really powerful light says right on the label, 100 foot cone of light! If we have to fight in the dark it's hard to get it on video without the spotlight."
While GRIM*! does an equipment check and shares what he found on the infosphere, Sneaker confirms many of the details about the Szandite Collective. The skittermander in fact also recognizes that each of the Collective's planets has its own languages, though they also share a single 'trade tongue' in common that makes translations between the languages a bit easier.
Meanwhile Luzviminda works in concert with Blintniz, each working to complement the other's specialties. As the dragon observes the dormant spacedock, the priest scans the surface and identifies several ruined cities dotting Krethiskar's surface. Their remnants hints at a technologically advanced and fairly cosmopolitan civilization, but the cities and structures seem to lack any occupants - alive or deceased. At a glance she can't see anything biological remaining of what might have been a large and varied populace.
Magically the mystic is able to reach out towards the szandite crystals: the nature of the crystal generates a psychic resonance that should be detectable even from a distance. Strangely however Luzviminda has difficulty sensing their mental thrum. Each attempt brushes up against a strange psychic hum or chittering, and whatever it is it seems to be blocking the crystal's signals.
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The armored draconic creature nods toward the skittermander, saying in his deep digitized voice, "Excellent! Please apply your deductive skills to the data file I've shared with you."
He glances around at the rest of the crew. "Are our investigations complete, then? Or do we have any other preparations needed? My vote would be to investigate that abandoned spacedock first, before proceeding down to the planet."
The landing site is already bursting with activity as most of the support staff brought along are erecting the pre-fab buildings that will make up the camp. Saivessa finishes speaking with a sextet of agents before turning and approaching you four.
Right, breathe in that new planet air! They take in a deep breath and sigh contentedly. All right, we've got a world lost so long it might as well be brand new here, and almost a clean slate as to what it's about. This is what Starfinding is all about!
Now, while we're still digging in here I need you and the other teams to do some quick surveys of the nearby areas. Don't trek out too far before we've got the infrastructure set up here to send more support your way if something comes up, but there's plenty of sectors close to camp that surveying could give us a better idea of where to focus our efforts on. Take some looks around these sectors and report back what you find!
You’re heading west then, to explore the nearby plains? Saivessa responds after overhearing your discussion. Great! It’s got a few hills, but I’m pretty sure there’s something
off about the biggest one. Check it out.
A quick 10-odd minute westward trek brings you away from the camp and across a seires of rolling and uneven plains. The ground is carpeted in fragrant red-gray grass, while insects flit through the air and signs of small birds, mammals, and reptiles are scattered around the sector.
One grassy hill towers over the surrounding area, standing tall and irregularly shaped. After a quick survey around the perimeter, the you discover a small pile of long-eroded stones which obscure a cave-like entrance leading into the hill
Within the hill, you find it mostly hollow, with a few other interior tunnels leading to small chambers. The walls of the hill are hard, but are made of a material that clearly is neither earth nor rock.
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As you travel, Blitniz points out some sections of the ground that show unnatural markings, clearly an indication of a long ago battle. As you find he entrance, he says, "The structure of these stones represent the remnants of something ... boring out from within the hill." He looks around.
Blitniz says, "I have not yet calibrated a stealth mode for this armor. Do we wish to attempt a quiet entrance, or come in fast and ready for action?"
Your sensors don’t detect any life forms hiding within the hill. The interior appears safe.
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Making their way in, Blitniz says, "I'm going to do a quick scan for tech. Anyone who wants to just look around, though, can use this."
He pulls a broad-spectrum scanning kit out of his starfinder backpack and offers it up to anyone in the group that wants to make use of it.
Blitniz then commences looking around, using the the custom rig built into his armor to perform appropriate scans and measurements to help with the analysis.
Looking around the hill's interior (and recording it for good measure) GRIM*! finds multiple dried-out casings abandoned on the ground within the hill. Looking closer the shobad realizes these casings seem to have been eggs - or something like them - though whatever creatures hatched from them have long since left the hill.
Or 'hill'. Because Blitniz takes readings and measurements of the structure you're within and comes to a surprising conclusion. This 'hill' is - or was at least - an organic spacefaring vessel. The dragon doesn't recognize its make or model, but the plantlife that has completely overgrown its exterior makes it clear it must have crashed here ages ago. And based on the gaping hole in it and its dried out interior it certainly will never fly again.
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Luz confirms what Blitniz finds: the earth seems to have once been deeply gouged and furrowed, likely the result of a battle in the distant past.
She follows everyone inside the hill. Once inside, she checks the wall to see what it is made of.
"We can go to tower-like mounds to see if this site is related to that one." she suggests.
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"These look like eggs, I like eggs for breakfast, but if someone had them for breakfast it was a long, long, long, time ago it looks like. What's over here, Sneakers can you point the light this way."
GRIM*! points to the sector to the left then gives Sneaker a double salute before moving to have a closer look.
"Blitniz, let me try that broad-shoulder scanning thing you got."
As you cross back through the camp on your way to the eastern foothills you see that Saivessa and the camp staff have already made decent progress in setting up the area. The maraquoi greets you warmly and listens to you as you report your findings.
A bioship huh? Fascinating. We'll send some xenobiologists out there to do further scans. I think there may be a xenowarden of two that came with us who might be able to to tell if the craft was one of theirs. But for now I'd like you to check out the base of that peak." They point to a massive mountain off to the east. Initial scans indicate there’s an artificial complex beneath it, but we failed to learn any more about the site or pinpoint its entrance so far. Find a way inside and give it a quick looksee.
A quick one for now and not a full delve —just find out what it is and report back. We’ll send in a few more experienced teams if further exploration is warranted
The terrain on this side of the landing site are rougher and harder to travel through than those to the west, but eventually your party is able to discover faint traces of an old road that winds through the foothills before finally ending at a massive steel door set into the mountainside. The doors are twenty feet tall, thirty feet wide, and constructed of an unidentified metal. They’re closed and have no handles or obvious means of operation, save for an old console jutting from the nearby rock. Touching the console it looks still functional, but has an antiquated alien interface.
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Blitniz looks around, then does a quick scan with his broad-spectrum scanner.
"Some sturdy walls on this place. Hope the door works, because we cannot easily cut through that." He nods in agreement with Butcher about the buzzing, as he puts his scanner away and pulls out a set of thieves' tools to help assist in opening the door. First he glances over the symbols to see if he can make sense of them.
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While all of that is going on GRIM*! returns the scanner to Blitniz and tries to get his searchlight back from Sneaker.
"Sneaker thanks for the help! I think it's best for now if I put the searchlight away to save the batteries."
Not sure if it's needed or not GRIM*! gives Snearkes one more double-arm salute.
Blitniz makes at least some sense of the console's language. It bears a few similarities to the common trade tongue sued in the modern Szandite Collective, though many of its words and syntax don't align as if this was an extremely archaic variant. Still it does help a bit and with the help of his translation and engineering assistance Butcher is able to input the right commands to get the steel doors to *CREEEEEEEK* and slide open.
With the entrance unsealed it's clear that the complex sprawling out before you within the mountain is a military bunker. Emergency lighting still illuminating the space shows it has an independent power grid and there's a large parking area within the entryway (though its devoid of vehicles).
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While all of that is going on GRIM*! returns the scanner to Blitniz and tries to get his searchlight back from Sneaker.
"Sneaker thanks for the help! I think it's best for now if I put the searchlight away to save the batteries."
Not sure if it's needed or not GRIM*! gives Snearkes one more double-arm salute.
Sneaker pouts for a moment, points the searchlight at a couple more interesting things then sighs and returns it.
He also returns the double salute with a double salute of his own along with an okay sign and a thumbs up. "Let me know if I can help help again. I'm a good helper."
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Back at the camp Palivhar Chooser of Hues' warning rings out just as a...well swarm of insectile creatures erupt forth from the ground. As you draw your weapons you hear a cry of dismay as massive sinkhole appear underneath the three starships that carried all of you down to the surface. Many starfinders move to try and hold the line as enemy creatures pour out from the opening, but looking to the north you see a trio of crawling chittering creatures moving right towards you!
As the bugs mass and the audible chittering sound rises to a cacophany, each of you also feels a psychic buzzing in your head escalate painfully as well.
Initiative
Sneaker, need Will save