In order to retrieve valuable resources necessary to repair the Wayfinders' flagship, the PCs follow-up on another team's investigative mission to a long-abandoned Starfinder Society lodge on a world in the Vast. Finding the lodge submerged and already partially flooded, the PCs quickly realize they are far from alone in the depths of the distant world's ocean.
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Stell arrives with her usual flare and grace. She shows off anew armor upgrade recently purchased for this adventure, a set of hydrojets. She also shows off her new sniper rifle, a specialist Coil gun that replaces her old Shirren-Eye rifle. "It does a little more damage and holds six rounds, which is a big improvement over the Shirren, which only holds a single round."
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Jek wanders into the meeting wearing a Neon & Noqual concert t-shirt while listening to loud music on their comm unit.
"Sorry I'm running late. I didn't make it home from the concert yet, so may have to go pick up some gear and buy some new supplies before we leave. Has anyone heard what the mission is yet?"
Jek realizes they forgot to turn off their comm unit.
"Oops sorry let me turn that off. I could use some sleep hope it's a long trip to the mission."
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Neon and Noquel? Cool. I like some of their stuff but most of it is a bit loud for me. And yeah - speaking of shopping, I'm going to have to get supplies too - like a weapon to put this merciful weapon fusion on I acquired on a previous mission. I should get one that's underwater rated too ... just in case.
Oh. I'm Vega. A technomancer with a difference.
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Stell is an attractive human female with strawberry blonde hair, green eyes, light skin with freckles. She wears Vesk Brigandine armor and packs a number of small arms and a sniper rifle. Also sticking out of her pack is the scroll end of a synth-violin.
Those into the music scene might recognize her or at least her music. She has performed with the singer Gemma Argenta (Lashunta) and instrumentalist Cars Pax (male Kasatha). Her first hit was Eulogy for Fallen Stars, published after her parents went missing after the Scoured Stars mission went wrong. Her most recent hit is a song about the demise of the River in the Sky, weaving wistful thoughts on things lost with the theme of what the residents of the Diaspora face after the River began to change.
"Hello everyone," she says cheerfully. "I'm Stell. I'm trained in envoy and operative skills."
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A diminutive cuttlefish, held aloft by a tiny pair of golden, metallic wings, waves a tentacle in greeting.
Hello, fellow Starfinders! My name is difficult to articulate for those who do not have the ability to color shift their skin, but the closest approximation in galactic standard would be Gold-Flecked Black.
My particular specialty is social situations.
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Jek waves back
"Twila-5, Stell good to see both of you again too."
Then Jek introduces themself to the others
"Hello Vega and Gold-Flecked-Back good to meet you both, I'm the team's battle medic, and I'm always looking for new music. If you get a favorite band I could add them to the playlist, I think it's important to have a good soundtrack for a mission, makes those hurry-up-and-wait moments go faster, it's also a good option for keeping pace on a forced march, you know it's music its always a good option. You know how we shirren are options, options! Speaking of options, one of my favorite options in battle is grenades so many options to choose from! One makes a big bank, one makes smoke, I could go on all day..."
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"always good to have more options! I'd love to have a look at the play list. New wave you say, I just downed a cognate-inspired old-sounding new cover of an old new wave song. They used some really interesting instrument options."
Jek hits play on their comm unit.
Orkestra Obsolete Blue Monday.
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That's definitely interesting. Vega replies. I might have to follow them up.
I've got these guys, some of these guys and a bit of this among more classical pieces and pieces to soothe while meditating on the Cosmos.
It's all all-sorts really.
She opens the music directory and passes her datapad over.
Well, that's something. You were summoned to the Lorespire complex to meet with Fitch, and were guided into a meeting. The room is well furnished and stocked with various refreshments, but the meeting’s initiator is nowhere to be seen. After several seconds of silence following the last arrival entering the meeting room, a large holoscreen descends from the ceiling of the northern wall. Fitch’s small, albino ysoki face appears in clear resolution. She whispers quietly to the assembled group.
“I have a very important mission for you. You should be aware that the Master of Stars, the best ship in the Starfinder Society’s fleet, is undergoing extensive renovations. Well, we’ve hit a bit of a roadblock. We need some clophirium to complete the next repair, but supplies have been quite scarce in the Pact Worlds for the last forty years. Luckily, we searched our archives and found a planet in the Vast with substantial reserves: Arniselle.”
Fitch’s transmitted image picks up a datapad but accidentally knocks a screwdriver off the desk while doing so. She flinches as the tool clatters to the ground, then continues whispering in an even lower tone. “NO! I’m sorry about that. They’re finally all asleep, you see.
“Now, back to the mission. We established a lodge on Arniselle about a century ago. It was abandoned when the First Seeker at the time decided to refocus Society resources closer to the Pact Worlds and abandoned several outposts in the Vast. Unfortunately, our scans show that Arniselle has undergone substantial seismic activity during the intervening years, and now the whole lodge is underwater. We assigned a special team to go investigate; they’re all kalos, call themselves the Manta Corps. Maybe you’ve met them. Anyway, a ship dropped them off, but the Manta Corps never reported back for their pickup.”
Suddenly, a loud shriek erupts from the holoscreen, followed by quick pitter-patter footsteps. Fitch drops the whisper and turns away from the screen. “Hey, you’re all supposed to be asleep for another hour! Back in the beds before I duct tape you in and leave you to find a way out!”
Fitch turns back to face the screen. “Anyway, the current First Seeker agrees with me about the importance of this mission and has authorized me to mount a second expedition.
We must finish repairing the Master of Stars, and to do that we need Arniselle’s clophirium. This could be dangerous, so I’ve selected you, some of our most experienced agents. Go to Arniselle and investigate the submerged lodge. See what it will take to re-establish our presence there. And try to find out what happened to the Manta Corps. Best case scenario, they’re just down there working, but it’s not like them not to report in.
“I’m sending you information on the planet now. Oh, and remember! There could easily be intelligent life on this world. The lodge wasn’t staffed long enough to really explore the oceans. If you meet any new species, be diplomatic! It’s not only our mission as Wayfinders, but locals might help us with getting that clophirium as quickly as possible. Any questions?”
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At almost the exact second the briefing was scheduled to begin, a wiry, crested dinosaur wearing a crisp Steward's uniform - looking like he just stepped out of a recruiting poster - steps into the room. He stands ramrod-straight near the other agents and takes up a parade rest stance, announcing formally, "Tactical Officer Kalhoun, reporting for duty." He looks briefly puzzled, as he sees no superior officer, until the screen descends.
Kalhoun listens intently to Fitch, considering the data sent to his comm unit, and ponders a number of potential operational strategies. "Sir, what intel can you provide us about Manta Corps or any potential hazards they may have faced?"
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Jek ask Fitch.
"This clophirium we need to get, is it safe to handle? I hope it's not radioactive or anything nasty."
Jek looks around their antenna twitching nervosity, Jek telepathically whispers to the rest of the team.
" Did Fitch say ocean? Does anyone know how to swim, I'm from the bright side of Verces, the only thing I've swam in is sand."
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"It's like moving in zero-G, but thicker." Twila-5 responds to Jek, thinking back to the swimming lessons she tried years ago. I hope I remember how...
She asks Fitch: "What do we know about the specs of the Lodge before it was abandoned? How *far* underwater is it now? What data did we collect on Arniselle and the Lodge's surroundings before it was abandoned?"
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Stell has no questions but listens intently to everything said. After the meeting, she hustles out to a armor and weapons dealer to pick up a few things for underwater adventures. She looks forward to the adventure with both excitement and foreboding.
“Brody felt a shimmy of fear skitter up his back. He was a very poor swimmer, and the prospect of being on top of—let alone in—water above his head give him what his mother used to call the wimwams: sweaty palms, a persistent need to swallow, and a ache in his stomach—essentially the sensation some people feel about flying. In Brody's dreams, deep water was populated by slimy, savage things that rose from below and shredded his flesh, by demons that cackled and moaned.”
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"Wow having water as your home must be really cool, I mean like actually cool, and and also figuratively cool. The bright side of Verces is actually hot and figuratively not so hot a place to live, but the bright side does have its perks like you don't need a fire to cook outside."
Jek looks at here comm unit shopping for gear ideas
"This hydrojet armor upgrade looks like it would be useful, and how cool is this they actually make underwater grenades!"
“There are four agents in the Manta Corps squad. The leader, Deepspeaker Alluguoth is a spiritual type. He doesn’t say much, but when he does, I’d advise listening. Then there’s Mantarider Ushuul; he’s a lot more talkative and loves to show off his gun. You might have seen Mantarider Suulhu-Huur around the sparring rooms. She’s a fighter and uses some kind of fancy cryopike. Lastly, there’s Wavetreader Vhoosh. She’s even quieter than Alluguoth, but that’s probably a good thing. She can be a little bit unnerving. She always wants to know about how many people you’ve killed. They’re good agents, all of them.”
Clophirium... how best to explain it... it's best described as a welding agent on steroids, and absolutely essential for building the kind of ultra-strength hulls that can withstand extreme accelerations, meteor impacts and radiation blasts. Refined Clophirium is quite dangerous to handle... just imagine accidently glueing your fingers together with the stuff.
While clophirium is a major strategic asset for the Society, the symbolic impact of the Master of Stars is even greater. Getting this ship back in action is my highest priority right now.
On the lodge: Starfinder lodges are built to withstand almost anything. It might be flooded, but the structure should still be intact. The Society built a lot of lodges during that time, using a standardized design to be cost-effective and resilient. That means every lodge, including the one on Arniselle, has airlock systems, even if the atmosphere is normally breathable. If we’re lucky it could still be dry inside. There’s usually one airlock to enter the building, an airlock to go between levels, and an airlock to get into the records room.
Who knows what kind of shape anything is in if the lodge flooded. The Society pulled out of there quick and left a lot of equipment behind. Staff were on Absalom Station when the orders came through, and they couldn’t even get dispensation to return for personal effects.
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Vega picks up a Merciful Weapon Seal (L2) she had previously ordered, a Engineering Specialty Toolkit, a underwater rated Explorer Handcoil, and three spell gems of Life Bubble - just in case. Total spend 2,581 credits.
Of course the merciful seal gets attached to the handcoil.
She then looks glumly at her cred stick not sure she can afford the musical soundtrack from her latest favorite RPG vidgame any more.
Looks like knowledge of the Manta Corps is widespread: Twila, Stell and Kalhoun and Gold-flecked Black all remember quite a bit about them.
The Manta Corps are all kalos. Kalos are an aquatic race from the Brethedan moon of Kalo-Mahoi known for their blue green skin, batlike wings, and glowing, protruding eyes. These four kalos are quite tight-knit and go on assignments together, typically deployed to underwater locations.
The Manta Corps prefer action-oriented assignments, and have been known to avoid assignments with a lot of detail or paperwork. Because of this, they’ve earned a reputation as underwater commandos but also as a group that doesn’t do well in overly social settings.
Kalos often redesign weaponry to function much better underwater.
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Twila know a bit more about Clophirium (or Clophirum, as it's called in the Veskarium): It's lightweight and thermally stable, and it's an essential component in many early Drift engine designs, but natural sources were limited, and Pact World planets with clophirium deposits quickly exhausted their supplies. Alternate Drift engine designs that do not require the mineral have become more popular
in the last 40 years.
It would be possible to update the Drift engine of the Master of Stars with a more modern design, but the entire engine structure would have to be rebuilt, taking years. Finding additional clophirium supplies is the fastest way to get the Master of Stars up and running again, even if the Society must identify a new mine to do so. The substance is incredibly difficult to find, so any charts or maps identifying existing veins of clophirium would be invaluable to the repair operations.
Well, we couldn't even get Abadair tickets this time. Captain Zhast - a shirren - instead welcomes the group aboard the [i]Pregrination into night[/b], a lumpy cargo freighter reeking of fertilizer. Even though Zhast is not a host shirren, she makes for a good host, greeting the team jovially and offering daily, delicious meals that she painstakingly prepares herself.
During the travel in the drift, the purplish swirl of vortexing matter is interrupted by the appearance of a ship, and a friendly hail breaks the silence: This is xenowarden vessel Bloom, on our way to an exploration mission. Where are you headed?
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When the ship finally arrives, Zhast explain We have a small submersile vessel on board our ship, and with it you can reach the lodge's coordinates. I'll remain in orbit for two days, that should give you plenty of time to explore.
The submarine vessel is a tight fit, but otherwise completely sound, and after a harrowing descent through the atmosphere, the much calmer aquatic environment submerges the team to a depth of about a quarter mile, where the lodge is found with ease.
As the submarine's lights shine upon the building, the Arniselle lodge appears to be intact. The structure’s northern edge is pushed into a cluster of rocks and boulders, with obvious signs of other past impact.
A closer inspection of the exterior of the lodge reveals many subtle signs that someone (or something) currently resides within the facility. Broken parts of the exterior are haphazardly repaired, exterior lights are active, and the front door is decorated with a strange broken chain.
There is an airlock that would provide entrance.
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Stell attempts to keep the team entertained by playing her synth-violin and other instruments during the voyage.
She has a video scanner connected to a miniaturized computer for storing the digital recordings. She often uses it during the voyage to record interesting sounds, but once in the submersible, she keeps it focused on the view to the outside.
She zooms in on the chain thingy on the door to try to get a better idea of what it might be and what it might signify.
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During the trip, Stell has a new fan as Jek listens to her music.
At the mission, Jek tires out their new hudrojets slowly making it over to the airlock to check out the chains.
"That chain is some kind of holy symbol, I'm certain of it, it's really the only option, but I got no clue for who, must be some powerful entity that likes chains on doors, I've seen strangers spiritual beliefs before. When it comes to strange beliefs the options seem endless..."
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On the trip out, Vega listens to Stell's music as well.
Oh. I know that one. My best friend, who's a Star Shaman mystic, danced in space, for the River Between when it ran dry. She said the moves just came to her and she danced to honour the creators of the River and in remembrance of it. She said something about getting permission to use that song in her subsequent performances through the Diaspora
With no response to her knock, Vega cycles the airlock and goes through, tapping on the inner door. It seems she has no problem getting wet. She is still wearing her armour as if it was a wetsuit.
The airlock makes an underwater 'kunk kunk' sound as vega knock on it. The airlock opens, and once everybody () gets in, closes again, slowly draining of water. With a hiss, it then opens to the interior.
The airlock door spins open, and two creatures await on the other side. One creature is a vibrant teal and the other a similarly bright indigo. Both are large creatures with an imposing presence, each with a stout body that ends in a single wide flipper. They have articulated side flippers with a surprising level of fine motion, brightly colored whiskers, gills, and four long tusks, two on each side. The tusks are lightly carved with decorative patterns. They both wear white robes that flutter with the movement of the ocean, and the indigo creature speaks in slightly accented but otherwise perfect Common.
“Hello, and welcome! I am Hinevera, and this is Teltham of the morlamaw people. Welcome to our home. You must be more Starfinders, I presume? The last group left rather quickly, so we assumed another group would arrive soon. Greetings!”
A large curtain divides this room, and faint lines on the ground indicates that several walls were likely removed to make this space more open. A five-foot-high stage and eight rows of benches fill the northern half of the room, while the southern half has several large tables. An airlock on the eastern wall acts as a front door, and airlocks on the northern and southern walls lead to other areas. Steel doors lead to the north and south.
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Stell joins with the others entering the old lodge. She is amused but not surprised to find creatures have made it into a home (apparently). She nods as others ask after the departed Starfinders. When the time is right, she says, "I love what you've done with the place. This used to be a lodge for the Starfinders, but the kalos probably told you that. We're here partly to locate them, as they should have reported back some time ago. We are also here because this planet used to be a source of a valuable mineral; perhaps the kalos told you that too. It is quite rare but we need a supply to repair our organization's flagship. What are our chances of finding this ore and do we need to deal with others of your kind for permission?"
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While everyone else is chatting up the morlamaws, Twila-5 docks the submersible and cycles through the airlock to join them. When she enters the room, she tries to read the energy. Is it tense? Friendly? It's always hard for her to tell, and those local residents are some big folks...
She can't tell. Well, my team doesn't have weapons out, and they're not taking up defensive positions, so I guess we're in talking mode now? She strides up to stand beside her allies, ready to peel off if things get hairy, but makes an effort to appear friendly. "Hi. I'm Twila-5. What'd I miss?"
Once she's caught up, she asks: "How did you and the previous group of Starfinders get along? What were their names?" It occurs to her that assuming the previous group of outsiders was the Manta Corps could be a mistake. With such a rare and valuable resource at stake, any number of organizations would want to get their mitts on it too.
Yes, we are Starfinders. Hi. I'm Vega. Erm. Do you know where the other group went? We're trying to find them.
“They were quite funny, weren’t they? With their… wings? Is that what they’re called? The other Starfinders visited for a little while, and we offered to let them inventory and take back all the Starfinder marked property. We certainly have no need of your weapons and armor; it’s hard for us to use them!” Hinevera waves one of her flippers to demonstrate. “They left quickly though; I don’t think they were keen on inventorying.”
"Nice to meet you Hinevera and Teltham, I go by Jek, also a Starfinder. Do you know why the other group left so fast? Oh I almost forgot to ask, I noticed the chain on the airlock, I suspect it has some greater meaning but couldn't figure out what religion it belongs to."
“We worship the Weeping Knight, and we know through him that we can only find meaning through enduring many trials. Losing our old home was painful, but that was but one early trial and now we can worship freely.”
"I love what you've done with the place. This used to be a lodge for the Starfinders, but the kalos probably told you that. We're here partly to locate them, as they should have reported back some time ago. We are also here because this planet used to be a source of a valuable mineral; perhaps the kalos told you that too. It is quite rare but we need a supply to repair our organization's flagship. What are our chances of finding this ore and do we need to deal with others of your kind for permission?"
“Yes, the lodge is a great place. Our species is morlamaw, and we live in trench cities all over this planet. Our particular group was cast out of our homeland because we discovered a new faith, but we were lucky enough to stumble upon this structure to shelter us from local predators. We’ve spent the last 10 years repairing this place and making it suitable for us to live in. It’s now both our home and temple.”
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"How did you and the previous group of Starfinders get along? What were their names?" It occurs to her that assuming the previous group of outsiders was the Manta Corps could be a mistake. With such a rare and valuable resource at stake, any number of organizations would want to get their mitts on it too.
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Wings, yeah Vega replies. So are any areas still flooded? And, if I wanted to go for a swim, are there any local sea life I need to worry about? Although it'll be probably safer to go with an escort.
Anyway, I'd better start inventorying then. Any one of you wanna show me around so I don't go anywhere I shouldn't. I want to respect your customs and beliefs.