Don’t Trust Your Surroundings

Tuesday, May 5, 2020

Inside volume two of Starfinder’s The Threefold Conspiracy Adventure Path, Flight of the Sleepers, by Owen K.C. Stephens.

The timing of this blog series was delayed a bit, but we last looked into volume one in Don’t Trust Your Senses. Now let’s catch up and explore volume two!

This cover by artist Tomasz Chistowski shows a terrible, two-headed quantum troll.

This cover by artist Tomasz Chistowski.

This Starfinder Adventure Path volume continues The Threefold Conspiracy Adventure Path and includes:

  • “Flight of the Sleepers,” a Starfinder adventure for 3rd-level characters, by Owen K.C. Stephens.
  • An examination of the enigmatic aliens known as grays, by Vanessa Hoskins.
  • A study of fringe scientific theories, by Leo Glass.
  • An archive of alien creatures, including a beast that attacks with magnetic pulses and a mutated troll, by Vanessa Hoskins, Jenny Jarzabski, and Owen K.C. Stephens.
  • Statistics and deck plans for a Steward frigate, plus a glimpse of a lawless mining planet, by Owen K.C. Stephens.

Trapped in a bizarre research facility that’s under attack, the heroes must battle against weird technology and experiments run amok. Even after they are aided by elite Steward agents in their escape, the heroes are left with more questions in need of answers!

Even if you are not playing this AP, you can use all this content in your homebrew Starfinder campaign

SPOILERS

Starship: Steward Banshee FA Frigate by Owen K.C. Stephens.

The Banshee FA (fast attack) frigate is a well-known Steward vessel produced under contract with ATech, manufacturers of the Immortal. Although on the small side, this starship is designed to be fast, stealthy, and hard hitting. The standard crew comprises a half-dozen well-trained Stewards, but Banshees have seen field duty with as few as two people—an arrangement made easier by the fact that the ship’s weapons are concentrated in a turret and one forward mount. The typical Banshee can also carry a small contingent of marines for boarding actions and airborne assaults.

The Enigmatic Grays by Vanessa Hoskins. Art by Nathan James

“You find scars and bruises on your body but don’t recall an injury, enter a room and forget why you’re there, surf holovids for what feels like only five minutes but an hour has passed, or are quite certain you completed a task only to find it unfinished. These are symptoms of an encounter with the grays. They involve themselves in every aspect of your life, but you’ve never heard of them. They watch you constantly, but you’ve never seen them. They’re the nightmare of an intruder that you can’t recall. They prod and probe, but you forget. Remember! Make yourself REMEMBER!
—From the personal journal of Steward Reyard Maldun

The following are excerpts from the personal journal of Steward Reyard Maldun, discovered in a locked box behind a false panel in an apartment leased to “K. Carlock” almost 2 years after Reyard’s disappearance on 2 Rova, 317 ag.

WHO ARE THE GRAYS?
That’s the first question most people ask: Who are they? Let’s start with what we know. Grays are named for their gray‐skinned bodies because no one knows what else to call them. They have a basic humanoid shape with a symmetrical body, a single pair of arms, and a single pair of legs. Their hands and feet are strikingly similar to those of humans, though generally smaller and more delicate, with elongated fingers. Their stature is like that of a ysoki or a human child, but each has a bulbous head on a small, wiry frame. A gray’s face is a stoic mask with two relatively large, black, emotionless eyes and an almost nonexistent nose with two nostrils no larger than a data port. Their mouths are tiny and slit‐like, which makes one wonder what they eat.

Grays have no trouble maintaining balance with precise grace, despite their over‐large heads. Reports say they sometimes stand in perfect stillness for several moments before acting all at once, each movement perfect as if choreographed and well rehearsed. The movement of a gray is so deliberate and agile, it would rival that of a finely tuned robot, yet their flesh is certainly organic.”

Read the full 8-page article for more on their plots, plans, and equipment!

Fringe Science by Leo Glass. Art by Alyssa McCartney

“Look, no one cares what happened to the researchers who previously owned this engine. Y’know why? Because this thing stops freakin’ time, that’s why! Picture this. You’re cruisin’ through the Diaspora in your Vagabond, just mindin’ your own business, when your sensors ping a gunship filled with pirates screamin’ in at full burn, gyrolasers hot. But you got this, because you made a savvy purchase from ol’ Pogo before you left this station. Your engineer turns one lousy knob, and boom! That enemy ship locks in place like it’s caught in a tractor beam! Meanwhile, your crew’s buzzin’ around the deck as if you spiked their morning coffee with liquid thasteron! Who’s got the drop on who now, scum suckers? Arm the plasma torpedoes—it’s time to make pirate paste!”
—Pogo Quick, ysoki tech broker

While modern scientific and engineering knowledge might appear to cover nearly all aspects of life, hundreds of intellectual questions remain unanswered. Though Triune granted access to the blueprints of Drift technology, no one has yet ascertained why using this technology rends a portion of a random plane into the Drift. The union of magic and technology has solved many modern problems, but travelers continue to experience dilemmas related to perfecting interspecies communication, understanding astronomical phenomena, overcoming biological diseases that may accompany first contact with alien creatures, and myriad other obstacles.

When mainstream science is unable to explain the origins of mysterious phenomena, the curious open their minds to more radical explanations, hoping to find even a trace of plausible explanation in an expanse of doubt. These practitioners often participate in what some call “fringe science,” a generic term for fields of study that diverge from the theories generally considered to be rudimentary by experts within a specific discipline. To traditional scientists, fringe science is a fool’s errand, as it usually relies on premises that may have been previously refuted and can often be performed by someone with no academic background. While this is true in some cases, some fringe scientists use methods that are just as statistically significant and reproducible as their more traditional counterparts. Fringe scientists often remind others that many disciplines, such as interplanetary communication or cybernetic and biological augmentation, were once considered little more than fantasies before true genius unlocked the power behind their mysteries.

The following disciplines represent fringe science practiced within the Pact Worlds and systems beyond, as well as some equipment associated with these fields.”

For more mad genius science, including cloning, multiverse theory, and neurolinguistic programming, read the mind-blowing 8-page article!

Alien Archives by Vanessa Hoskins, Jenny Jarzabski, and Owen K.C. Stephens. Art by Sebastian Rodreguiz

Local superstitions on the frozen world of Mobulen tell of a three-hooved “devil” that appears in the night and moves inexorably in a single direction, charging over rocky terrain and walking straight up the sides of buildings. Bad luck and worse fall upon those who stand in the creature’s way, especially those who wear heavy metal armor. Records show that multiple Mobulen devil sightings have occurred simultaneously across the planet, with each creature moving toward magnetic north. Unfortunately scholars have yet to determine the true nature of these migrations.
—Excerpt from Galactic Tales and Legends by Dr. Borogrand Traceter

A small aberration called a gray bounder, a large magical beast called a kunnid, a large plant called a linyf, a large quantum troll, and more lie in wait within the pages of Flight of the Sleepers!

Codex of Worlds: Stopgap by Owen K.C. Stephens. Art by Kent Hamilton

Port of last Resort

Stopgap is a dwarf planet in orbit around Foergrim, a yellow star in Near Space. The Foergrim system has no full planets, only several clouds of planetoids and asteroid belts that form rings and vague orbital clouds around the star. Stopgap is the largest object in the system—it’s just barely big enough to round itself out through gravitational forces. It has no atmosphere or native life of its own, but it does contain the manufactured corridors and chambers of a small base.

That’s only the first paragraph, but there is more than a half-page of detail, along with this intriguing art.

Don’t forget that The Threefold Conspiracy Adventure Path Dice Set by Q Workshop are available too!

Paizo releases Starfinder Adventure Paths in monthly, multi-volume arcs. You can acquire them at your favorite local game store. With your ongoing Starfinder Adventure Path subscription, we'll send each new volume to your door and charge your payment method automatically as we ship each product. You only need to sign up once, and never need to worry about renewal notices or missed products.

Next, we will unveil volume three, Deceivers’ Moon, with an article describing the insidious reptoids, a catalog of starships used by the Unseen, and a selection of new monsters, including cryptids from the Starfinder setting!

Adventures Ahead!

Aaron Shanks,
Marketing and Media Manager

More Paizo Blog.
Tags: Starfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game The Threefold Conspiracy
Sign in to start a discussion.