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Hi is the barely audible gasp that Momo introduces herself with.
At 163 cm (or 5 foot 4, for those not using Akitonian units), Momo naturally positions herself in the back of the group, and lets perspective to the work of making her look much smaller that her voice sounds. She plucks slightly nervously at her short, black hair that perpetually refuses to stay in line - as if defying gravity itself. A rather large carbon steel blade on her back betrays why she prefers her hair short.
My name is Momo and I'm in charge of dancing she adds finally with only marginally greater volume. While she says that, she's very elegantly standing utterly motionless.
As soon as any attention lifts off her - something she's eager to facilitate by not moving - she takes out her comm unit and starts tapping up a conversation with a contact stored under the name 'little blond punk'.
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Momo, and the rest of you have received a summons from Radaszam, leader of the Acquisitives faction, to meet him within the First Seeker Ilyastre Memorial Museum on the grounds of the Lorespire Complex. The museum contains cavernous halls with holographic displays and glass cases filled with relics put on public display per the Forum’s votes.
Momo is the first to arrive. Radaszam, the vesk leader of the Acquisitives stands in front of a museum display piece showcasing an ancient polearm of
unknown make.
We shall wait until the others arrive. he says.
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A shirren wearing a Top Down and the Strange Quarks t-shirt jogs into the Museum followed by a Klikharp hopping to the music Jek is listening to.
"Sorry I'm out of uniform I was just jogging around Jatembe Park with Tim,"
Jek gestures to their Klikharp companion.
" when I got the message. Nice to meet you Mono, I'm Jek. When I'm not listening to music I play a battle medic on the infosphere. Did you say you are in charge of dancing, this is sounding like my kind of mission. Tim show the nice lady how you can dance."
Jek starts hopping up and down and Tim the Klikharp follows along, although Tim is a much better hopper having legs built for hopping.
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A skittermander in battle harness strolls into the gallery, looking around curiously at the exhibits. His powered armor is largely black and blue in color, with flashy gold highlights, and the suit brings his black-furred head roughly level with a human’s, but still a head below the impressive vesk. A deactivated laser rifle is mounted on one shoulder, and a curve blade is elaborately peace-bonded at his hip.
”Reporting as requested, Radaszam,” Qimok says in Vesk, with a warrior's salute. He turns to the others, and gives them a toothy grin before introduces himself in Common. ”I am Qimok. I am here to help. I can help best when applications of brute force are called for, but I am happy to follow my allies' lead when subtlety is needed.”
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"No need to introduce yourself I would recognize Qimok the famous gladiator anywhere, wow this is cool looks like we will have another star on our team! A couple of missions ago Dash Riprock was on the team and now Qimok, luck must be on my side. Would you happen to have any t-shirts for sale? I'm Jek by the way."
Jek turns to Tim their Klikharp companion.
"Tim it's Qimok how cool is that!
Tim keeps hopping up and down.
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A blue skittermander trailing a tiny green fuzzy creature toddling in his footsteps trots up. "Hey, boss, what's cooking?" He grins toothily at the large Vesk and waves at the rest of the team. "Hopefully, you've seen my show, Borq's Bites? If not, you're missing a great one." He flashes 6 thumbs up at everyone, then picks up the green fuzzball. "This is Bzzt!"
Borq rummages in a pocket and pulls out a small battery with a nipple attached. Bzzt squeaks and grabs it, popping the end in her mouth and sucking vigorously. Borq scritches her head gently with a fingertip while checking her other pockets.
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"Qimok old man, it's great to see you! I don't think I knew you were part of the Starfinders. More fool me. And Momo and Jek. Looking forward to adventuring with you." Borq continues to smile, showing all his teeth.
A few moments later, a sharply-dressed kitsune strolls up tapping on a datapad. "Boss, I'm guessing we need to push back your interview on Zo!'s show scheduled for next week. It looks like you're going to be busy. Again." She raises an eyebrow as she looks at the group.
Borq nods as he continues to stroke Bzzt's head. "And this is Estrella. I couldn't handle all the press without her."
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Momo gives a somewhat rehearsed reaction to Tim's hopping Ooh! You dance really well! She moves along to the music as well, making her hair defy gravity even more. For a moment, she seems to forget her nervousness and even breaks out in a little smile while very moshable music fills the air
♫ Should you be always
So rigid under stress?
Full of inertia
A center of mass
You go around charging
A drain as the source
You think you're immobile
But you're meeting
An unstoppable force
So just preserve your energy
There's no use to fight
It's like that in nature
The law is always right! ♫
Ah, that was fun!
Qimok sells t-shirts? That's nice! Do you have any striped ones?
She then sheepishly returns Borq's six thumbs with two of her own. Bzzt... is that a...?
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"That was great, Momo! I have a friend who's a dancer, but that's definitely not my strength. In answer to your question, Bzzt's a hexoglin. We found her mama on an exploration of the Ghost Levels and she just followed me home." Borq grins again, then holds out the fuzzy pup. "Would you like to hold her? She's very friendly, as long as you don't take away her bottle."
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A humanoid wearing a helmet made of living coral, wearing a modified leather duster as armor, is late to arrive, but does so in style - landing a literal dragon in the museum grounds, and then calmly walking over to meet the others, moving with dream-like grace.
He stiffly raises a hand in greeting, but his eyes seem to focus on a point slightly to the right and above, rather than meeting your eyes directly - almost as if he was seeing something... not quite of this world.
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Jek keeps hopping along with Tim to Momo's song while introducing themself to Borq.
"Nice to meet you Borq, did you say an interview with Zo!, wow that's cool! You know I got Zo!'s autograph framed on my wall, well it's not really an autograph but it's close, it's his signature on a release form, like how could I pass that up, plus it was a gift from a friend, so it's worth a lot to me."
Jek looks over at Bzzt and jestures to Tim.
"Hay Tim come meet Bzzt, Tim I think you got a new friend."
When the mysterious humanoid lands riding a dragon, Jek stairs all bug-eyed in amazement.
"Cool ride! I'm Jek what's your name?
Jek pauses in thought for a minute.
"I got this crazy idea, what if you added some theme music to your dramatic landing, that would be even more epic! Something like this"
Jek ques up a song on his comm unit. The Grand Entrance .
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"A klikharp? How cute. And much better trained than mine, I can't take it anywhere," Qimok says cheerfully to Jek, then gives Borq several thumbs up in response to their greeting.
"My very last mission involved Zo! Radaszam brought us in to help Ol' Fingerguns with a bit of legal trouble on Triaxus. The trial by combat was glorious!" he effuses. "I'm very curious about what The Dealmaker has for us today."
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Ah, fuzzy fuzzy hexoglin. Kyoo kyoo... Momo says as she pets the furry creature, unaware of (or unbothered by) her hair standing up further from the static electricity.
Zo!? Momo catches the name, and wrinkles her nose I don't like him that much, he always gets my sister into trouble. I just hope we don't have to fly somewhere...
Momo stiffens up again when Radaszam starts talking Yes, mister Dealmaker she responds.
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Still no sign of Ears. Radaszam sighs. Someone can catch him up later
Heard the name Jelev Rasheen? He turns away from the display, walking and speaking while waving for everyone to follow. Most of you
probably have, even if kids these days don’t read the gazetteers anymore. She was a big shot explorer in the early days of Drift travel, sallied forth to find new worlds and meet new civilizations, all that explorer romantic kind of stuff. She always came back with holds full of riches, but I think for her the real treasure was the stories she got out of it. Until she didn’t come back, that is.
Radaszam continues through the museum, still waving to everyone to follow him. No one knows what really happened to her, but everyone she met seems to have had a theory; from her kids, those who call themselves her kids, her adventuring buddies, and the people who read those godsawful pulp stories. Don’t get me wrong, I like a good adventure story as much as the next vesk, he adds, but I’ve been on some of those planets and that writer had no idea what he was talking about.
Stopping abruptly, Radaszam motions at a clear case on an ornate pedestal, with the label “JELEV RASHEEN—VOYAGE 17: SANCTUM OF THE HIGH PRIESTESS OF THE KATTAR-ZHIN.” It contains several pieces of engraved platinum. What with all the conflicting accounts, some coming from Rasheen herself, it’s hard to tell what’s real and what’s artistic embellishment. But there is hard evidence for many of her journeys—we have several reliable accounts from seasoned Starfinders who ran into supposedly uncontacted species with prior exposure to the Common language, and with some digging we’ve been able to connect them with Rasheen’s travels. Not to mention the reports of huge stelae with her family sigil carved on them in the middle of nowhere, or collections like this— he gestures to the case—lurking in a retired adventurer’s attic, to be sold off by kids who don’t know their history. Jelev Rasheen’s fingerprints are everywhere in the exploration business,
once you start looking. And with things settling down after our last dust-up, I had some time to look through the Society’s metaphorical attic for leads, and what do I find but a map of Jelev Rasheen’s last journey.
Radaszam pauses to make eye contact with everyone present. He then removes a laminated hard copy map from a hidden cabinet in the pedestal; it’s an image recovered from a damaged hard drive, with some areas pixelated beyond interpretation, but it clearly depicts a star system, with navigational information in its legend.
Following in her footsteps—or even finding her final resting place—would be a major accomplishment, both on its own and for raising the profile of the Society in the Pact Worlds.
Radaszam unlocks the case, removing an object smaller than his palm that may once have been a pendant. He touches it to his forehead reverently, then replaces it carefully, saying, Trust me, the experience alone is worth it—it’s a rite of passage for a true explorer. I almost wish I could lead this expedition myself.
Radaszam gestures for each of the PCs to perform the same ritual he’s just completed, placing the small object onto their foreheads
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Qimok listens to Radaszam's briefing with avid interest. While not the most well read of Starfinders by any stretch, he certainly appreciates stories of adventure and bravado.
Qimok also copies the ritual the vesk performed. As he does so, he looks more closely at the tiny object--more out of pure curiosity than from any expectation of understanding what he sees.
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Jek get's their nerve up to ask a question after doing the ritual.
"I'll need to do some shopping before the mission I just wanted to make sure I get the right stuff for the mission. Not that I have ever read a pulp story, but the general gist I get from hearing about them is that Jelev Rasheen story falls under one of two possible categories, either Jelev Rasheen is an adventure/explorer, or they were secretly a pirate, in either case, I can't image there wasn't at least some treasure finding involved. Anyway, I just wanted to be sure there was no evidence of piracy, that would help narrow down my shopping options."
Jek pauses for a moment then remembers another question.
"I almost forgot, you said you found a map belonging to Jelev Rasheen, by chance is there an X on the map?"
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When nothing happens after the ritual, Momo looks at the crystal again with crossed eyes and puzzlement. Did I do it wrong? she says, looking left and right at the other team members Did it work for you?
When Jek mentions shopping she adds Well, it's black hole fifthday!. With that, her comm unit pings and she reacts to the text with an akitonian hiss Ah, mee chin ge so. It's black hole fifthday... I forgot...
Ah, well... she sighs, and then asks Jek Do you want fashion advice from RKT-7?
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Hey Slo-Mo! Where are you? Rocky and me are ready to go, and even your sister showed up this time! Come on loser, let's go shopping
---Text message from 'Evil cousin D', Momo's comm unit.
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Jek's antenna straightens up when Mono Strawberry says "black hole fifthday."
"Sure does RKT-7 know where the best deals are! I'm looking at getting Arcanascopic lenses besides being very stylish, they could come in handy if we find magical treasure. Fashion-wise I was thinking if there might be pirates involved, it might help to have a pirate hat to fit in, or if Jelev Rasheen is just a normal adventure I was thinking of getting a hat like that one from the Idari Jones movie. I could use some advice on what option to pick, they're both really cool options hard choices to make."
Jek pauses then one antenna droops looking a bit worried.
"I just remembered a lot of adventure stories especially one in old places, have lots of undead in them, I might need more than just a new hat for that."
Jek's other antenna droops.
"Oh no, I just remember another adventure story. They found a pyramid and were attacked by a swarm of little bugs. Just because I'm shirren, doesn't mean I'm not freaked out by swarms of bugs of any size. In fact, that's why I went to battle medic school to help fight the swarm if they came back. We need to be prepared for anything! If needed I still have a stockpile of nuclear missiles I keep just in case the swarm comes back."
"We should go shopping before I think of more bad options that could happen."
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Borq also completes the ritual and does it for Bzzt too, absentmindedly pulling the cord out of Bzzt's mouth as she tries to eat it. "No, baby, that's not food for you." He holds up the battery bottle with yet another hand and Bzzt grabs it again.
Looking back at Radaszam, "Hey, boss, what do we know of Rasheen's last voyage? Where was she headed? Anything about the star systems in that area?"
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If Rasheen did stop in this system, she almost certainly left one of her claim beacons. Back when Drift navigation wasn’t as reliable, explorers sometimes left beacons to broadcast their claims to first right of settlement before returning to their home stations. Jelev Rasheen used hers to mark her path on longer expeditions; she’d leave a beacon-zero at her first stop outside known space, with a quick situation report and her
planned heading, then beacon-one at the next stop, and so on. If we can find one of her beacons, we can confirm whether or not it’s actually from her last journey, and get a lead on where her next destination might have been—those beacons will be guideposts to her final resting place, if we can just find the first one.
Can't really tell you much about the system as famous explorers don’t pick well-mapped systems. It seems a mining company did a quick fly-by, saw there weren’t any mineral deposits floating around, called it the Arat system after their rather… self-obsessed captain, and then they left. Their initial scans show a young yellow star; this map doesn’t depict any rocky near-solar planets, but there are several gas giants, so we might be looking for a moon, or if any local species have achieved advanced technology, a dome system. At those distances from the sun, subzero temperatures are almost certain, so pack accordingly.
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Sleekly brown-furred ysoki with a streak of white between his ears and over his jowls skids four-footed around the corner of an exhibit and nearly bowls into the back of Radaszam's knees. Only by drooping onto his butt and pumping his legs against the floor does he manage to stop in time. He springs adroitly to his feet.
"Hey, boss! Sorry I'm late. I was playing -- experimenting that is -- with a new zero K bomb design. Had to make sure it was properly deactivated and the cryo-sive safely stored. Didn't want to turn the Lorespire into an icecube while I was gone."
The ysoki is wearing tempweave armor and has regular sized pistols at each hip.
"Jek, Thrym, 'sup?"
If he's embarrassed, there's no sign in his bearing.
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"Ah, yes, pack for the cold," Qimok murmurs to himself as he uses his comm unit to either place an order or check on one. He then drums the fingers of two hands on his battle harness while muttering. "Now...which cousin? Gizmo or Ozmig?" After a moment, he decides, and quickly sends off a message to request a hireling meet them before takeoff.
The skittermander gives the late arrival a friendly wave with a free hand, then turns to the talkative shirren. "Nufriend Jek, perhaps you should fret less. Be bold, but remember to stand behind me, yes?" Qimok gives them a toothy grin, as he poses impressively with all six arms akimbo.
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"Thanks Qimok, Nufriend Qimok that is, I was getting option overload. Once we get into combat I thinking about options becomes much clearer, if we run out of options you can count on me to drop a grenade on myself."
Jek looks at Qiomk's power armor.
"I don't mind fighting in the front line but I'd be silly not to take cover behind someone wearing that armor, I got your back on this one."
In harm's Way. Benefit: When an attack hits an ally whose Armor Class you have increased with the Bodyguard feat, you can intercept the attack. You take all damage and associated effects from that attack, and once you intercept the attack, no other ability can redirect it. This ability takes no action, but you can intercept only one attack in this way each round.
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The shopping experience that involves Deedee calling Momo a slowpoke, Zoey wondering if Jekcedo is Momo's new boyfriend, Momo strongly denying the rumor while trying not to hurt Jekcedo's feelings (which somehow involved a lot of checking whether her shoelaces are tied), RKT-7 giving elaborate fashion advice, and Momo dropping her milkshake when Jekcedo mentions the swarm.
Momo somehow makes a big fuss about Jekcedo buying the right brand of battery ("those Enerblocks are just cheap knock-offs, you can't rely on them").
She herself picks up a Thermal Regulator, since they were on a buy-one-get-one-free sale (unfortunately with a high marked-up 'regular retail price', making the deal exactly as good a buying a single one...).
RKT-7 advices Momo into buying a sweater with orange-and-white horizontal stripes and a matching woollen hat. For some reason, her fashion advice also includes her buying a set of rounded spectacles with zero-strength glasses.
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Ah, I see Jekcedo, you're a spring! Are you going for more of a villain type hat, or more of a brave hero type of hat? Nonono, not that one. The fashion police says 'no', that one will make you look like a muppet. This one... awesome! Goes well with the shirt too.
---RKT-7 Strawberry, unprompted fashion advice
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"Ears glad you could make it. I was just thinking about everything that could go wrong, so many options... Have you ever tried to supercharge weapon a nuclear missile? I got a stockpile in case we encounter the swarm."
"Never tried it. Might be blue on black, but I'd be happy to try."
"Thanks Qimok, Nufriend Qimok that is, I was getting option overload. Once we get into combat I thinking about options becomes much clearer, if we run out of options you can count on me to drop a grenade on myself."
Jek looks at Qiomk's power armor.
"I don't mind fighting in the front line but I'd be silly not to take cover behind someone wearing that armor, I got your back on this one."
"He's not bluffing on the grenade thing."
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"Nice to meet you, Ears! Looks like we have a fun group. Though I'm not sure about the grenade at the feet thing. That's a little weird."
As he heads out on a final shopping trip, he pops his head back into the briefing room. "Hey, does anyone cast spells? I'm looking for one called life bubble. It's good for extreme temperatures."
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"Nice to meet you, Ears! Looks like we have a fun group. Though I'm not sure about the grenade at the feet thing. That's a little weird."
As he heads out on a final shopping trip, he pops his head back into the briefing room. "Hey, does anyone cast spells? I'm looking for one called life bubble. It's good for extreme temperatures."
"The first time I dropped a grenade on myself, I was surrounded by zombies on all sides. I yelled I got them all flanked, but realized no one had a melee weapon, so I pulled the pin. Next time we were fighting a swarm of tiny things and I was the only one with weapons or spells that could hit them, so did what I could to keep the swarm away from the party as long as I could, when my spells ran out it was time for a grande at my feet again. That almost finished the swarm off, but I was almost dead, that's when Ears took my last grenade, supercharged it, ran into the swarm to draw it away from me, and blew himself up too, this time killing the swarm and saving the party. Now that Ears fur has grown back you can't even tell."
"I cast spells but I don't know life bubble that does sound useful. By the way, if you ever need to drop a grenade on yourself, I recommend using a shock grenade they leave fewer scars."
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While you're shopping, you get a message from Radaszam that the Thuban, a Drake class ship, has been prepped for you and ready for launch.
Your group also nearly bumps into a rather shy, blue-haired, human female who is consulting a shopping list on a padd and muttering something about spellgems. Ears thinks he might have seen her at the last Sparkler Parade, and Momo believes she may be a fellow dancer, but not working for AbadarCorp Entertainment. She had recently been on the vids doing a dance for the River Between, in space, without obvious protection.
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Qimok collects his new set of clothing, as well as his hireling a bespectacled, grey-furred skittermander who he introduces as his cousin Ozmig. The small academic seems very excited to explore new star systems!
By the time Qimok meets back up with his new teammates, he also has the test of his arsenal on him: a riot shield and a tactical pike.
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"Nice to meet you, Ears! Looks like we have a fun group. Though I'm not sure about the grenade at the feet thing. That's a little weird."
As he heads out on a final shopping trip, he pops his head back into the briefing room. "Hey, does anyone cast spells? I'm looking for one called life bubble. It's good for extreme temperatures."
"I don't cast spells -- I influence the quantum and entropic properties of matter and energy. Looks like magic to a lot of people. And no, I can't do anything like that. Technology should see you through the low temperature problem. "
...That almost finished the swarm off, but I was almost dead, that's when Ears took my last grenade, supercharged it, ran into the swarm to draw it away from me, and blew himself up too, this time killing the swarm and saving the party. Now that Ears fur has grown back you can't even tell."[/b]
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"It was a stupid plan, but desperate times..."
It occurs to Ears that he has not developed a better plan for this contingency, although he now regularly purchases grenades for missions.
AbadarCorp Acquaintance (Social Boon): [Respect]
Solar Powered Weapon System (Starship Boon): The files you retrieved from Brilliance also included blueprints for
experimental innovations by the Arch Energy Consortium. When you slot this starship boon, select a single weapon
on your starship with the word “laser” in its title; you gain a +1 bonus to damage rolls with that weapon. A gunner can
spend a Resolve Point prior to firing the selected weapon to increase the bonus to 4 for 1 round. A starship weapon can
be improved only by a single copy of this boon, but copies of this boon can be applied to different weapons.
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Momo looks quizically at the blue-haired appearance and wonders aloud Wasn't she on that show with Zoey? Can't recall her name, something with a metal. Tungsten? Tellurium? Zinc?
When Momo's comm unit pings, she briefly flashes a bright yellow. She turns quite silent after, and especially when Ears and Jekcedo keep on mentioning the swarm, she turns a bright pale, almost white. It's not until her cheerful sister hugs her and speaks some word with a bright smile that she returns to a semblance of life.
Borq's question barely registers, but ultimately she responds with a trembling voice I-i've taken s-some flying lessons, mister Borq. B-but m-maybe it's better if you f-fly.
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Remember how badass you were against the Honorbound? Nothing beats my sister! This crew looks very capable, everything is going to be fine. Don't worry about anything, okay?
---Zoey Strawberry, encouraging words to her sister
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It takes Momo the time taken to get settled into the Thuban to remember that the metal she is looking for is Mercury.
It takes to reach the Arat system and the planetoid depicted on Radaszam’s map fragment. Partway there you come across the wreckage of an alien starship. Another starship, a salvage vessel of unknown origin that identifies itself as the Tinker’s Path is already salvaging what it can from the spread debris.
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"We'll have to get to medium range so I can scry the ship. Whoever's good at computers can scan the ship too."
Jek uses the ship's computer to aid the Scry
vs DC 5 + 1.5 times target ships tier + countermeasures if any
Jek puts on his pirate hat
"Best we crew the guns just in case it's a pirate ship disguised as a shipwreck, I read about that in a book."
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Bzzt provides a great distraction for nervous flyer Momo, who seems to fare a lot better flying when some emotional support is around. She does occasionally move around to calibrate the gun sights (again and again) and check if the escape pod batteries are properly charged (again and again).
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Shouldn't we try hailing it first?
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Greetings Tinker's Path, this is the Thuber. No, not the Tuber, that's a potato, this one is named after a star. Found anything good today?
She whispers to Jek Maybe you should have bought a sheriff's hat?
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"Somebody has already started salvaging it," Qimok points out to Borq. "But it wouldn't hurt to talk with them. We might hear something interesting."
He seems content to let Momo hail the other ship, but winces when she gets their ship's name wrong. "It's Thuban, nufriend Momo," he corrects, whispering.