The adventure begins at the Lorespire Complex on Absalom Station, the Starfinder Society’s primary base of operations, where the Starfinders are scheduled to meet Venture-Captain Arvin. Arvin awaits their arrival in a comfortable meeting room.
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A red-furred pahtra saunters in sporting a dark suit of carbon skin armor. He offers a brief wave toward Arvin. "Kunris here, ready for action," he mutters as he slides into a chair at the conference table, curling up as best he can in one of the more comfortable chairs, lounging out with legs up on the table. He glances around. "Solo mission already?"
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"Of course not, MMMORTAL! A Witchwarper arrives only when he is needed, and not a moment before or after!" A black-robed human male declares dramatically as he strides into the room. A large gun with huge barrels is strapped to his back. Pinned proudly on his robes is a large medal on which is inscribed "Winner of the Great Absalom Relay."
"You sit before Merasmos the Magician! I grace the Starfinder Society with my presence because I deign to! And also...because I owe the Azlanti Star Empire a crippling debt in at least 5 multiverses, forcing me to seek asylum with the Starfinders." He takes a plush seat opposite the Operative.
"So, what have you been doing lately?" He asks his furred counterpart.
A shiren wearing an Electric Klikharp Orchestra concert t-shirt rushes into the room.
"Sorry, I'm running late. There was this great concert last night I didn't want to miss. I just got home half an hour ago and saw the message about the mission briefing and ran straight here. Did I make it on time?"
Chk Chk looks down at themself wearing a concert t-shirt.
"If you need me on the team, I'll need to change first, if that's ok? And by the way, my name is Chk Chk."
"Kunris, Merasmos, Ban-something, and Unknowen Kasatha, nice to meet you all. Guess I'm here in case any of you need healing or some guidance."
Chk Chk looks at the mission notices on their com unit.
"Say on the team we got a soldier, an operative, two witchwarper, and me, so expect a fight and for things to get really strange, Ok I'm mean I've had worse days this mission can't be too bad..."
Chk Chk sees Kunris eying their com unit, and titles the screen so Kunris can see better.
To: Chk Chk
I have a mission team forming so far. I have a soldier, an operative, and two witchwarpers so far. If you are available, we could use some of your skills.
"Now, which one of you is what I have no idea."
“Starfinders, thank you for coming,” Venture-Captain Arvin says. With a gesture, the lights dim, and a holographic image of the Pact Worlds system appears above the conference room table. “I’m sure you’ve heard of Aucturn, a planet that orbited our sun until last year, when it hatched, birthing a godling called the Newborn. Turns out the planet was an egg.” Arvin flicks his wrist and the hologram shifts. The furthest planet from the sun explodes, its debris scattering across the system, with most coming to rest at the ice field at the very fringes of the system—the Gelid Edge.
“It’s not every day a new god emerges, and certainly not in our own backyard, so we aim to learn as much as we can. To that end, I’m dispatching you to Dreamlink Labs, a laboratory in the Gelid Edge operated by a woman named Arta. Arta is a professor associated with Absalom Station’s premier magical academy, the Arcanamirium. She established Dreamlink Labs to study the remains of Aucturn, a material called aucturnite. She claims she’s made an important discovery, but that she needs our help to perform a follow-up investigation.”
“Your mission is twofold. First, I’d like to send a token of the Society’s support to Arta—a sample of Aucturn’s crust taken only hours before the Newborn hatched. Deliver this sample to Dreamlink Labs. Second, meet with Arta and see what she’s up to. If her research seems credible, I’ll work with her to plan next steps.”
Arvin waves his arm, causing the hologram to vanish. “I’ve got a starship prepped and awaiting you in the hangar. But first, do you have any questions?”
Hearing the ship is already prepped and waiting, Chk Chk sends room service a text message to have his gear moved to the hangar.
"Not the science type myself, but with a new god hatching, there could be some religious significance to this. I can help with that."
"Speaking of new god hatching, the Newborn gestated within the planet Aucturn until multiple gods battled on Aucturn over its fate. In the aftermath, the Newborn hatched from its planetary womb and quite a few people chose to worship it. They say it’s an outer god of birth, cosmic horrors, paradigm shifts, and renewal, but I don’t know if that’s what the Newborn is or what people choose to believe of it.”
"I just want you to know that the Gelid Edge is a remote ice field on the edges of the Pact Worlds, which has always been dangerous and eerie, filled with occult magic, strange debris, and cosmic predators. Since the birth of the Newborn, the Gelid Edge has also become a hotspot for scientists, Newbornite worshippers, and raiders intent on profiting off them. Be careful.” Arvin advises them.
When the Starfinders are ready to depart, Venture-Captain Arvin gives them a foot-long glass canister that contains a greenish-gold material suspended in a murky liquid. Wisps of black fluid seep out from the edges.
”This is the sample of Aucturn’s crust for Arta.” he tells them. He additionally gives them one medpatch each.
Chk Chk sells their repair tool kit so they can get a medkit, and changes into their adventuresing gear.
"If you don't mind a simple bonding ritual, I will be able to heal the team if needed. It doesn't hurt."
Chk Chk, gather the team around
"Just relax."
Telepathically, everyone starts to feel a humming vibration. As the humming reaches each person, it synchronizes with their heart rhythm, or the rhythm of whatever drives them. Each rhythm stands apart from the other in a different pitch, and then the group of pitches harmonize, then silence...
"It is done."
Once done with their preparations, the team proceeds with their mission.
In the Starfinder Society hangar, the Starfinders board Zephyr Blue, a starship well-suited for speed and exploration. The journey to the Gelid Edge through the Drift takes days, adjusted by one of them to Plot Course.
Midway through the journey, the starship’s proximity sensors blare alerts as a large structure appears out of nowhere. The structure is visible out the starship’s viewport and on its scanners; it looks artificial and alien, of a style unlike any starship or space station the Pathfinders have seen before.
Just as swiftly as it appeared, the structure vanishes into the Drift.
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Merasmos takes the wheel. "Do not worry, mmortals. I have a starship license from another timeline! Surely this will work out." He says, 100% earnestly.
Through sheer dumb luck, he manages to steer the ship properly and out of the way of the superstructure that appears out of nowhere.
"Curses! Damned invisible glitched buildings! The developers of this universe really need to fix their bugs - this is a terrible user experience!" He yells angrily as he swerves to avoid the hazard, getting a good look at the thing as he does so.
"Hmm...if you haven't already figured this out, these buildings are infused with occult mmmmmmagical energy! You can tell by the weird tentacle textures that are placed all over the walls of its surface - when in doubt, just add weird eldritch beings beyond our mmmmmortal comprehension, am I right?" Merasmos half-explains, half-spouts random, fourth-wall breaking gibberish.
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Kunris looks out the window at the location where the foreshadowed dangling plot thread vanished. "Weird. Shame we probably won't ever run into that mysterious ship again, to have an opportunity to find out what's up with them. Oh, well, I suppose some mysteries aren't meant to be solved ..." Ah, the naivete of novice Starfinders.
Chk Chk also looks out the window at the passing ship
"Look, it's two ships passing in the DRift."
On the last day of the journey, the Starfinders receive a message over the comms.
The message’s metadata indicates it was sent 17 minutes ago across all available channels.
With no immediate response received, the group immediately navigates to the Dreamlink Laboratories' location, and in under an hour, they arrive.
Upon their arrival, the Dreamlink Labs space station is still transmitting its emergency message. They hail the station, but get no response. They dock at the station with ease.
"Everything looks normal to me, maybe they are just having communication problems."
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Kunris points out the small, bug-like shuttle to Chk Chk. "I doubt that's standard docking procedure. Looks like a visitor ... maybe the source of their emergency." He nods in agreement with Trex. "I think the warper's right. If we can neutralize the shuttle, then these visitors won't have an escape route."
He pulls a line of cable out of his backpack and hooks it to his autograppler. "So I'm guessing we're going to have to spacewalk to get to that shuttle, right?"
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Merasmos turns off the engine of the spaceship in space without first shifting gears into parking. He pings the space station with both his magic and the ship's scanner.
"No sign of damage anywhere on the station. Time to take our time then, mmmmortals...hey what are you doing?" He asks Kunris and Banana-android, confused at their eagerness to fight until someone points out the strange black thing.
"Surely there must be a safer way to the shuttle?"
"If there are survivors, I'm sure they won't want us to take our time. It's a space station, there's got to be a place to land or dock. Whatever gets us inside quickest, I think, is the best option."
They find that the shuttle clinging to the underside of Dreamlink Labs is latched onto the station’s exterior and burrowed through the hull.
With their armor’s environmental protections, they exit their starship and spacewalk over to the shuttle to further investigate.
Chk Chk examines the shuttle
"The air seal is good, but the secondary entry hatch looks locked."
" The hatch appears immune to my arms."
Sounding panicked, Chk Chk says frantically
"We need more options! There could be survivors in there. Does anyone have better arms or another method?
Chk Chk points their painglave at the hatch.
"If something attacks us, I've got the pain ready."
At first, it does not budge with Chk's attempt that he even activates the shuttle's security systems, making it harder to open on further attempts. Kunris also tries it until the hatch finally opens on his third try.
Sickly green lights inside the shuttle illuminate an interior made of an oily black material. From inside, it’s clear the shuttle latched on to Dreamlink Labs with a mechanized array modeled after insectoid legs. The shuttle’s maximum capacity is six.
"I got a bad feeling about this."
Bannakaffalatta check the seats ad finds that the seats are adjustable, capable of seating occupants in a bipedal or quadrupedal arrangement. A kennel suggests the occupants kept a live animal on board.
Chk and Kunris find a cabinet that holds mostly liquid food, including bulbs filled with viscous black fluid. The bulbs don’t have any noticeable openings or labels.