[SFS] 1-08 and 7-07 Arniselle Double Feature

Game Master Kludde

Retcon:

As soon as Twila-5 received her orders to return to Arniselle, she sighed. I should upgrade my weapons for underwater combat this time.

Last game, someone asked if we could just pay the 10% difference for each underwater special weapon property. If that's allowed, Twila-5 will pay 218+190+75=483 credits for her pinhole rift rifle, tactical rotating pistol, and static arc pistol. If not, I'll have to re-think some things.

That sounds like so much fun. I ... only started the dancing to help pay for my Doctorate but ... I might actually keep doing it

Amy will also update her Harmonic Dirge Pistol for underwater use. If she can't do that, she'd just sell the old one and get a new one

She has a holstered Harmonic Dirge pistol on one hip and in the holster on the other side rests an Explorer's Handcoil. She also carries a Sunset Shimmerstone staff.

can I update my solar weapon?

I believe there's plenty of options for solar weapons (crystals and such). Just let me know what you want to apply.

Suukhu-huur explains about the dangers “There are dangers, yes, but nothing specific to the site. Morlamaws are the only sapient life on Arniselle but there’s plenty of aquatic predators in these oceans. Since the site is on a solid foundation, you can expect bottom feeders that filter nutrients from the water—don’t become those nutrients. Then there’s the environment. You’ll have a submarine to make the journey, but it’s far too dangerous to bring the sub into the structure—both for the site and the sub. Be prepared to swim.”

“The team is a mix of long-term partnerships and short-term consultants. The core team is Hinevera, Asthemir, and Lekeetri—they’ve worked out of Arniselle Lodge for years. Iyuurhoi and Pri-Pri are new. You’ll find more information on them in the personnel file.”

Hinevera keeps an ongoing report of potential ancient morlamaw sites, with ancient being defined as pre-Gap. No estimated age, but the structure is substantial. It shows up on scans as a 100-foot tall obstruction with a wider base. You’ll travel to the site by submarine. Hinevera’s float plan is already programmed in.”

I've got some equipment for you that might be helpful. Apart from the sub, I have hydrojet for your use if you need them, and for each of you an iridescent spindle aeon stone, and a swimmer’s locomotion serums.

Oh, I think you should borrow this, Suulhu-Huur says, holding out a light machine gun engraved with the name 'muncher' in kalo, and a cascade-class kalo shredder, in honour of my dear friend.

In terms of knowledge, you are of course aware of the Arniselle lodge that the Society re-established a few years ago, since most of you were the ones on that mission. Research conducted during these initial years indicates ancient morlamaws worshipped the Great Old One Ghatanothoa and other horrific cosmic entities. Local Starfinder Hinevera is deeply invested in uncovering more information about her people’s origins and ancient customs, particularly their religious history.

Arniselle’s oceans are rich with biodiversity, and many water-dwelling life forms live in the frigid ocean. Most are adapted for deep pressure, cold waters, and a lack of light.

Occasional ruins have been discovered on Arniselle, but few resources have been invested in their exploration. The most explored ruin is an ancient building carved into an underwater cave. It took months to excavate due to a pernicious haunting.

Let me know if there's any other purchases you want to make based on that info

Amy raises a hand.

Excuse me sir but ... how long has the morlamaw team been missing? And what do these iridescent spindle stones do?

sorry I didn't see a crystal to adapt the solar weapon. My Googlefu is bad! I'll get a crystal tactical lvl 3

The stones allow you to breathe underwater, so you get move around freely just like me. Saves you from having to haul around scuba hear and all kinds of gas mixes. Suulhu-Huur says.

Final call for purchases, giving the last player a little bit more time to chime, otherwise we head off!

Kalhoun takes one of the crystals. "Thank you. It was an honor to work with Hinevera in the past, and we will do whatever we can to ensure the safety of her and her team."

Twila-5 accepts the proffered serum, though the hydrojet and aeon stone are superfluous for her.

Not proficient in either of the proffered weapons. Pity, because the RP would be poignant.

Huh .... I've got gills already sir, but is it just underwater or what about noxious gases?

Huh .... I've got gills already sir, but is it just underwater or what about noxious gases?

We've got lactose digestion pills for that, if you need them. The stones just negate the need to breathe.

---

The float plan maps out a roughly four-day journey to the ruins, which would put the group at an arrival time that is two and a half weeks later than Hinevera and her team's arrival time.

You cna roll piloting to reduce the travel time

Two days after departing the Arniselle Lodge, the navigational system sounds an alert in a calm voice, “Unexpected object in path. Reroute?”

The system shows a rough scan of the object, which is a large structure with unnaturally sharp corners and flat edges.

You can roll Physical Science or an appropriate research-based Profession check

piloting: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (16) + 13 = 29
phy sci: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (19) + 13 = 32

Stell enjoys watching the underwater world. She takes pictures with her video scanner from time to time. She plays her violin if anyone wants some music to pass the time.

She sticks close to Amy as she pilots the ship, hoping to learn from her and maybe help a bit.

When the strange obstruction looms, she turns on her camera and tries to help figure out what it is.

Piloting, aid: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (11) + 10 = 21
Physical Science, aid: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (4) + 6 = 10

At first, Twila-5 hovered near Amy in case she needed some help piloting the craft, but it quickly became apparent that her assistance was absolutely unnecessary. Impressed, the android plunked herself down at a console to do some scans of the general area.

I feel like rolling to aid here would be superfluous. Nice rolls, Amy!

I wonder if I can get one of these for use on Castrovel?

"With enough credits, anything is possible."

Yeah .... it's getting them that's the difficulty

Kalhoun will take the hydrojet of no one else is interested. He keeps an eye out for dangers that are less... stationary... than the one Amy avoided.

It's clear enough to Amy that there's a large structure with unnaturally sharp corners and edges blocking the path, clearly not a natural occurence. While the sub computer says Rerouting... Calculating.... it's possible to disable the autopilot.

A forest of kelp partially obscures the structure from view, its strands shifting with the currents. Through the kelp, the boxy structure is revealed in slivers and patches—a basalt foundation, with walls of shell and smoked glass, coated here and there with barnacles and seaweed. At the top of the structure is a hinged panel, its opaque glass panes cracked and broken.

You'd have to leave the sub to explore, or just let the autopilot continue...

Stell gets excited by what can be seen outside the sub.

"Given Hinevera's mission, I doubt she would have ignored this structure. We should stop and explore a bit, in case she stopped here and got trapped. Or maybe they're okay and just with communications blocked. Let's hale them first and do a scan for a ship."

Stell realizes she's talking very fast and stops talking to give someone else a chance to comment.

OK. I'll just check their ... erm ... float plan ... then prepare for EVA

While Amy checks their float plan, Twila-5 checks the logs to see if there's a location tag associated with Hinavera's last transmission. If it was received past this location, it would be better to hurry onward and make a mental note to explore it on the way back.

There's no sign of Hinevera from the outside of the structure, nor any location that matches this one. The structure itself has a stone door, which could be opened with enough force (Athletics), or the broken panel can be used as an entry point, though the shards of glass may make that a bit dangerous ( Acrobatics or Athletics)

What did Twila-5 learn checking on the location of Hinevera's last transmission? If it was beyond this location, then we should note the coordinates and continue. If not, Stell recommends exploring enough to see if their vessel is in the area. Maybe take a peek inside that stone door first.

"The rescue operation should be our priority. If there is no evidence that Hinevera is here, mark this location for future study."

There was no location tag associated with Hinevera's last transmission, which means it's not clear if Hinevera was, or is, here.

"Here's goes!"

athletics: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (12) + 10 = 22

"Let's look inside and make sure they did not stop to investigate here before we move on. It just feels likely that if they traveled this same route, they'd discover this site and as their mandate is to explore such things, why wouldn't they?"

Stell seals her armor and heads out the airlock to help try to open the stone door. Using her hydrojets to maneuver and her lights to help see, she assists Dirk's efforts to open the door.

Athletics, aid: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (11) + 8 = 19

Twila-5 sighs, catching herself mimicking her predecessor's habit. Huh. Haven't thought about Twila-4 in a while. She shakes her head to clear the memory so she can focus on the task at hand. "Yeah, let's make sure they're not here." She suits up and heads out to follow the others, looking for signs of Hinavera's passage.

Perception: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (19) + 13 = 32
Survival: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (1) + 3 = 4

It looks like Amy goes out the airlock just as she is.

Dirk and Stell manage to force the door open. Twila-5 looks around and finds a tusk cap sized for a morlamaw half-buried in the silt. It's not much use a weapon for the non-morlamaw folk, but it does have two useable weapon seals: a ghost killer fusion seal and a trailblazer fusion seal.

Inside the structure is one vast room with heaps of debris half-buried in silt and sand.

Lots of checks possible to explore: Engineering, Life Science, Physical Science or Mysticism

Dirk looks around the equipment.

Engineering: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (4) + 6 = 10

He scratches his head.

I don't get this

Twila-5 examines the tusk cap, a bad feeling twisting in her gut. "They wouldn't have left this here unless..."

@GM: Does it look like the tusk cap is recent-ish, or super old and sitting undisturbed for eons?

Tucking it away, she gives the debris a hard look before moving forward to begin searching for answers.

Engineering: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (1) + 13 = 14 Boo!
Mysticism: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (16) + 12 = 28

engineering: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (2) + 7 = 9
life science: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (17) + 7 = 24
physical science: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (8) + 13 = 21
mysticism: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (12) + 13 = 25

Is anyone able to transfer these fusions seals?

"Amy beats me. I'm not much of a spell caster"

Life Science, Aid Amy: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (2) + 9 = 11
Physical Science, Aid Amy: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (13) + 6 = 19

Stell takes a quick picture of the vista and then begins to move around. She focuses on trying to figure out what the structure was designed to be or how it may have been constructed.

Engineering: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (1) + 9 = 10

Drawing a blank on that, considers the scientific conundrums posed by the place.

Life Science: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (18) + 6 = 24
Physical Science: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (8) + 6 = 14

The rules state: Any character trained in Mysticism can transfer a fusion to a new weapon. Stell is trained in Mysticism. She might be interested in adding the Ghost Killer fusion to her semi-automatic. She can transfer one or both for anyone who wants one.

The colors on the tusk cap look vivid and not too marred by the dirt, and the design is quite recent.

Beneath the silt and sand at the center of the room, the floor is worked black stone with a spiral pattern inlaid in white shell. Twila immediately recognises that as the religious symbol of Pharasma, goddess of life, death, and prophecy, marking this building as a temple or other religious site.

Amy finds that the building has some recent damage - not older than a month - caused by some kind of biological acid.

She also knows of the limitations on using glass underwater: it is very rarely seen on Arniselle, because it is simply impractical to create. The sand used to create these glass panes is not even found in this region - perhaps not even on the planet...

"I'd bet this damage and the tusk cap indicate Hinevera did investigate this place."

Stell looks around for an area large enough to hold a submersible.

Amy suddenly blushes in embarrassment as, being trained in Mysticism, she does have the skills to transfer the fusions herself.

Ah .... does anyone want these fusions? I ... just remembered I do know how to swap them she says shyly. She too, is eying up the Ghost Killer fusion.

She also tells the others about the possible presence of an acid secreting life form.

"Great," Twila-5 remarks dryly. As she scans the area for incoming threats, she asks nonchalantly: "Does anybody else want the trailblazer fusion seal?"

Perception: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (13) + 13 = 26

Twila-5 is also trained in Mysticism. The rules state that transferring the fusion to a higher level weapon has a cost. @GM: What is the level of the tusk cap?

Twila's conclusion on the weapon fusion seal is that it would be compatible with almost all of the Starfinder's weapons.

Works up to level 8

Are you ready to move on?

"I'll take the trail blazer on my new spear!"

"Sure, here you go."

Erm ... what's the rating on the Ghost Killer? Unless someone else wants it Amy asked shyly.

"Best for the fusions to be used by those whose weapons will be most effective. Feel free to use it, Ms. Mercury."

There's another day of underwater submarine travel until the group reaches the excavation site. The sub’s autopilot pings with a notification: “Destination reached. Safe anchoring point located. End trip?”

You can choose to let the autopilot handle the docking, or to do it yourself with a piloting check

Due to the Arniselle basalt, long-range comms are well outside the realm of possibilities, though short-range comms still work (up to about 100 feet)

Stell explains, "The Ghost Killer fusion is well named. Most ghosts and a few other monsters are hard to hit as they are essentially incorporeal. The fusion eliminates that advantage. Whoever has the best skill with their weapon should take it, since if we encounter a ghost, we'll want our best fighter to have it."

An uneasy feeling has been sitting in Twila-5's conduits: concern about the missing people. Antsy, she slides into the pilot's chair to manually dock the craft. Perhaps *doing* something will take her mind off her worries.

Piloting: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (15) + 16 = 31

In that case, it's not me

Since Amy was 'off-watch' she has her face 'glued' to the window.