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Wazasha stares intently at Luanna while her tongue transits her upper lip from side to side. "The fourth wall?! Do you have experience in entertainment? Usually I tell people to act naturally. Even in the booth, I tell them to talk like the camera is just a friend sitting there. But you should play to the cameras. The fans will eat you up."
The interview complete, Wazasha says, "Follow ..." Her unnaturally long tongue lolls out of her mouth and she flips her head back to return it to a speaking position. "... me." Then she leads you to Exemplarion's shuttle bay. ALong the way she speaks about the show. "Today you're more than Starfinder agents. You're tri-dee stars. Your job isn't just to explore this rock. You've got to entertain. So live big. Act strong. You've got to get the audience to connect with you. So let them know what you're thinking. Show them how you feel.... " The bay is roomy. In addition two the sleek shuttle, there is a shuttle sized pile of gear. Two androids and twelve ghouls are going through it all, comparing items to an inventory and checking functionality. Most prominent among the gear is a large hexapodal robot, but there's also holocord cameras, boom microphones, reflective screens to amplify natural lighting, and other equipment for properly recording the PCs’ exploits in several multimedia broadcast formats. While you watch an android uses a datapad to control the robot. The bot marches a few feet, turns a few times and then plants itself on the ground. Three slab sides of the robot scroll upwards to reveal refreshments, portable seats, makeup, some kind of projector, a pair of
Zo! looks searchingly at Idir for a few seconds, before nodding. "Agent Idir. Thank you for preserving us from explosive harm. I wish we'd had a camera crew that night."
Luwazi nods her head. "It is for me too, Agent Idir. I'd have liked to reconstitute your original team for this mission, but the others are on remote assignments."
"Unfortunately I was not at the gala. Zo! had given me an opportunity that I could not refuse on Varos. I was filming a prison break, through the sanitary recycling and evacuation system."
Luwazi replies so smoothly, it sounds prepared, if not actually rehearsed. "Peaceable first contact is always the Starfinder Society's first preference. Facilitating a mutally beneficial exchange of knowledge is one of our primary tenets." "But don't be afraid to defend yourselves!" Zo! interrupts.
Zo! claps his hands. "We can only hope! That would be great tri-Dee. Do your best for them if that happens." Wazasha comments, "Don't worry. We've insured them."
"Ahh,Ferrox is the fourth. All are accounted for now. Please follow me." The studio takes up the fourth and fifth decks of Exemplarion. It is a large, multi-tiered auditorium with an immense window that looks out over Salvation’s End. Dozens of professionals rush about the studio,
Zo! stands and also gestures for you to climb to the stage. “Yes. Yes! You’re everything I was hoping for,” exclaims the undead showman while looking over the new arrivals. “Oh, Luwazi, you’ve truly outdone yourself. They’re so exciting, so energized, so—” “—alive?” finishes a ghast woman wearing well-tailored clothing as she steps onto the stage. Zo! frowns at the blunt observation and tries to respond, but Luwazi intervenes.
Zo! visibly bounces in his seat with excitement as Luwazi continues. “If we found anything especially exciting, we’d need to limit exploration long enough for him to get a film crew out there to document whatever we found next. Well, Salvation’s End may look like a moon, but our initial survey of it found there’s something built inside—the whole thing might be artificial. That qualifies as especially exciting, but that was also several months ago.” The skeletal mogul waves his hands. “Oh, but Luwazi, I couldn’t just send a single crew. No, the Starfinder Society’s greatest triumph deserves far more production value.” He hops up again and gazes out at the moon as he paces and gesticulates. “Imagine: heroes from the Pact World, a mysterious planetoid, untold secrets, limitless adventure—all broadcast before a live audience in our greatest production yet!” He spins to look back at the group, his lipless mouth smiling gleefully. “Live Exploration Extreme!” The female ghast claps politely before interjecting. “To translate, you’re scheduled to explore part of Salvation’s End accompanied by a professional camera crew and production team. You will find exciting things and be thoroughly entertaining. Any questions?” Zo! adds "This is Wazasha Kevir, your associate producer. She'll accompany you during your jaunt, and supervise the film crew and pace the event." Incredibly there's a break in the conversation while everyone breathes. (Or at least 1 of the three breathes, the others pause.) You might be able to fit in a few questions before They start again.
A corpsefolk,a corporeal, intelligent undead, with sickly pale skin, and and advanced case of rot on his left hand that has left the bones of his fingers exposed, interrupts politely. He's wearing the slim maroon business suit that's nearly as tight as the skin drawn over his skull. The rot and bare bones don't seem to affect his use of the hand. He points at you. "Pardon me, but are you the Starfinders? I was told I'm to bring you to Zo! and First Seeker Elsebo in the studio, but I only see three of you. There should be four. Is your companion indisposed? Perhaps taking care of an organic inconvenience?"
On first Seeker Luwazi Elsebo's orders, the team has boarded a modest Starfinder shuttle and landed on the Exemplarion, Zo!’s personal starship and luxury space-yacht. Mission details will be communicated on board the media-mogul's ship. Upon arrival, you're given an opportunity to clean up and to tour the ZO's ship if you wish. The Exemplarion is six decks of luxury. A casino, spa, trio of restaurants, and other extravagant amenities are there to accommodate the hundreds of guests on board.
Begin here!
It's a tough mission, but you guys did really well. With five players you got to face slightly stronger enemies and that final dragon fight doesn't have an option to scale down for 4 players, so you were playing hard mode. The ship combat fiasco, I'm going to lay on my plate. I'm sorry. Every ship combat that I've run has been less than optimal. Happy to hear any ideas on how I could get it to move faster or play smoother. Working on chronicles, still expecting a day job roll from Voldresk, if applicable .
Limping slowly the team follows Lola toward the central room. The forcefield barring the openings is gone. The finely crafted stairs spiral down to a vault where various strangely shaped bottles and cryptic devices are stored on shelves: the Dreamer’s relics. With the relics retrieved you make your way back to the ship. Venture-Captain Arvin contacts you on the flight back to Absalom Station. Arvin
Stone walls covered with purple runes. The round tablet-topped altar. There's nothing in this room that the dragon is obviously guarding. However glancing through the doorway you came in through, you can see the yellow runes in the circular chamber have disappeared.
Voldresk fires over his two threatened teammates, just as Kanavu lunges forward for another bite. The slug rifles into the dragon's gaping jaws and explodes out the back of its head, streaming darkness. The dragon stops moving and limply hangs in space. Over the course of the next few minutes the dragon and its wreath of smoke-like shadow evaporates.
Lola crouches just out of the dragon's reach to feed Idir a serum. If it edge forward the merest hair, she'll be in danger of her life. "Blood and darkness! Even a shade of your flesh satisfies like nothing I've had before. Were I there in truth, I would feast richly indeed. If you escape somehow, I will hunt you down and eat you in your dreams."
Kanavu twists into his own shadows and Idir's shot is lost, hissless, in the gloom. The dromada is staring in disappointment when Kanavu riposte's by lunging at him and its teeth bite deeply. The dragon follows up with a second lunge, as painful as the first.
Idir is dying:
While dying, you lose 1 Resolve Point each round at the end of your turn. (If your Hit Points reached 0 during your turn, such as from an attack of opportunity you provoked, you do not lose a Resolve Point until the end of your next turn.) This continues until either you die or stabilize (see Stabilizing below). Stabilizing
If a healer or medic is tending you are while you are unconscious and stable, the attendant can attempt a DC 15 Medicine check each hour before you attempt your Constitution check. If the Medicine check is successful, you gain a +2 bonus to your Constitution check, and if your Constitution check result is less than 10, you treat it as if the result were a 10. Constitution Check Result Outcome
GM stuff: ... P DC 12 will save or shaken ... P DC 12 will save or shaken Kanavu breath available in round 7
Meaning Idir is up.
Voldresk fires wide again. Lola backs and somersaults through the doorway. The dragon bites the stone where she stood She rolls to stand beside Voldresk. Kanavu spits stone and dust and his gaze swings to Idir.
Joro hits. Kanavu shouts, "Friends of Dreamers, you only anger the Nightmare. "
Damaged and fragile, Lola backs carefully away. Sensing an easy kill Kanavu follows and lunges to bite again, but the Stafinder fends off the attack.
GM stuff: ... P DC 12 will save or shaken Kanavu breath available in round 7 Lola : immune to aura Idir : K.Joro : immune to aura and bite Voldresk :
Joro steps back and readies his rifle. The smoke and shadows confound Voldresk. Idir skips away from the dragon's breath and lands another telling shot.
[ooc]Initiative/Status: Round 2 - Everyone to go!
No. That's a cut and paste error.
Kanavu recoils. "Fools! can you defeat the nightmare? Leave now and you may yet live."
GM stuff: breath weapon (15-ft. cone, A, Reflex DC 12 half, usable every rounds) Lola : immune to aura
Blind fear works for Idir. He hears the dragon hiss in pain again. When he opens his eyes, he sees a burnt spot on its chest adding its smoke to the dragon's smoke-like shadows.
Knitter Joro dashes in front of the dragon to flank it. He may be fast, but Kanavu is quicker. The dragon snaps at Joro with large and pointed teeth.
Lola stands in bravely, and confuses Kanavu with a flurry of lights. She takes advantage to score her own hit, drawing a third hiss.
GM stuff:
Lola : immune to aura
KJ is unimpressed with the dragon's show.
Despite the dragon's aura of fear, Voldresk stands and delivers a very well-aimed shot that draws a hiss of pain from Kavanu.
The dragon looks on intently while Lola fits the pieces into the main body on the tablet. The pieces seem drawn to their places as if magnetized. The last one actually pulls from Lola's fingers and clicks into its cavity. The tablet glows briefly and the cracks fade away. The dragon swirls and grows in an intensifying cloud of black smoke. "Thank you, foolish children! Now begone! I am Kanavu the Deceiver and this prize is mine! " Fear rolls off the dragon like a tidal wave that engulfs the Starfinders. It doesn't wait for compliance with its order, but snaps immediately at the closest Starfinder, Lola.
Kanavu
Shaken:
You take a –2 penalty to attack rolls, saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks while you have the shaken condition. If you are already shaken and then become subject to an additional effect that would cause you to be shaken, the duration of the shaken condition increases by the duration of the second effect. Mysticism, DC 15:
This is a nightmare dragon, a natural enemy to the Dreamers, and something is not right about its claims to be a willing guardian. GM stuff:
....
"You've retrieved the missing pieces? The prophecies are realized! Place them here on the altar and claim your just reward." The dragon moves aside to let Lola approach the altar. Coming closer she can see a cracked stone tablet lying atop the altar. Three holes shaped like your fragments mar the tablet's surface.
"I am the Guardian of the Vault. It's been ages since the Dreamers commissioned me to protect their resting place. Only a few have found this place, and they only intent on pillage. Can you prove yourselves worthy to be here? What form did your invitation take?"
Bolstered by Voldresk's presence, Lola edges forward toward the threshold of the altar room. Joro and Idir trail behind. Out of shadow in front of the altar, a form slowly coalesces, taking the shape of an ebony dragon with red frills. Its body is terribly contorted and trails shadows. With a voice like rocks scraping together, it speaks. “Who dares to break the sanctity of this holy resting place?”
Lola peers through the doorway This chamber has not escaped the ravages of time. There are holes in the walls that likely once held doors, and the sandstone tiles on the floor are dirty and broken in places. Softly glowing purple runes cover the interior walls of the chamber, encircling a round altar covered in more runes in the center of the space.
Idir's quick research shows that runes like these are typical of ancient Liavaran Dreamer sites. The sickly green ones often indicate some form of defense or trap has been activated by an agitation in the local zeitgeist. Such a trap can be disabled with proper application of magic, but also with mundane means that lead to a proper frame of mind. Meditation, symbolic motion, or chanting are all suggested means of achieving the proper mental state. It even suggests various incantations. From among the suggestions, the dromada settles on, "Owa tagoo siam," after a few minutes of repetition in four part harmony, the party reaches an amusing revelation about the nature of the chant -- and the green runes transition to the ubiquitous purple.
Lola and Voldresk step forward suddnely she stops and throws an arm across the vesk's chest to keep him from also stepping forward. Lola:
Perhaps you're getting mor sensitive to the runes. There are some sickly green ones scattered around the walls ceiling and floors for the next 10 feet. Is it some kind of magical trap?
Dm stuff:
The forcefield only blocks access to the central circular room with the staircase. You are free to explore the rest of the tunnels and rooms shown on the map.
The forcefield shows no change with proximity to any combination of the tablet fragments.
Lola skirts the edge of the hole to try to get into the central room. When she tries to cross the threshold, the runes on the inside walls, floor and ceiling of the central room flare yellow and a yellow forcefield blocks her passage. The impact unbalances her and for a long heartbeat she teeters for a moment on the edge of the rift, before recovering herself. She reaches a tentative hand out and earns another, much fainter flare of yellow from the runes inside the room and the air in front of her fingertips also flares and pure focre blocks forward motion.
Lola leads the team down the crude stairs into the tunnels below. The concentric pattern of the ruins above is repeated down here. Although the purple runes flash as you pass through, the purple force field parts for you. On the other side you find there's breathable air in the tunnels and your gear is dry of any traces of methane. On this level the round central room has another very finely constructed staircase that delves deeper into the core.
Three stone fragments and a prophecy, it's not much to go on, and Idir's reference can add nothing to Lola's theory except an alternative explanation that fitting the entire tablet together may open a portal through which shadows, shades of the dead, or psychic projections from the outer planes might enter the physical world. Eight hours later, the party is refreshed and ready to go.
The ruins only cover about a quarter acre (.1 hectare) and can be searched in less than an hour. The walls and floor are quite bare. The sandstone has been scoured down by the constant motion of liquid methane, presumably over centuries.
Down the hole or stairs, dim light is provided by more of the purple runes on the sandstone walls. Strange semi-fluorescent plant life has started to grow in patches along the floor and on the walls.
Idir lands but is also quite tired. This outcropping shows obvious signs of erosion. Strange semifluorescent plant life has started to grow along patches of the ground and on the walls of the ruin. A large hole in the sandstone lies to the west, and shimmering inside the hole appears to be a force field made of purple runes. To the south, a set of rough sandstone steps lead to another force field, this one holding back the liquid methane. The surface of the rocky core can be explored in short order. The sandstone ruins that you landed near are the only point of interest.
Lola and Voldresk land beside the Joro. The vesk is tired after his swim, but the human feels fresh.
Fatigued: Source Starfinder Core Rulebook pg. 276 You can neither run nor charge, and you take a –1 penalty to your Armor Class, attack rolls, melee damage rolls, thrown weapon damage rolls that add Strength to damage, Reflex saving throws, initiative checks, and Strength- and Dexterity-based skill and ability checks. The amount of bulk you can carry without becoming encumbered is reduced by 1. If you are already fatigued and would gain the fatigued condition, you lose the fatigued condition and are exhausted for the total duration of all fatiguing effects. After 8 hours of complete rest, you are no longer fatigued.
KJ:
Because Starfinder authors don't believe in physics? Scenario doesn't say explicitly, but implies proxitimity to the moon's center is the cause. I will personally roll with magic. You can make up your own mind.
There's a physical science check here that I'll give you for that roll. The walls are made of a sandstone that is not compatible with the rest of the stone you've seen on the moon. It may (must?) have come from elsewhere.
As you all get closer you can see a faint purple glow. When you get closer still, the glowing resolves itself into small runes scattered over the walls of the ruin.
Joro gains his footing on a rocky outcropping, barely breathing hard. The outcropping is attached to a much larger roughly spherical rock. Through the murky methane he can see the concentric circles of some ruined foundations. Knitter Joro: Somehow gravity is normal on the rock.
Lola and Idir become disoriented in the swirling liquid methans, but Joro and Voldresk maneuver them and occasional absorb a bad impact for them. The current eventually slows down and the party finds itself gently sinking in the dark cavern of the liquid core. At the edge of the tunnel you just exited, Lola spots a trio of glowing runes gradually growing dimmer as you sink. Using them and the instructions from the eddy cavern runes, she orients herself, and knows which way to go.
The runes give directions to 'the Dreamer's Bed' or 'Resting Place'.
Confident they're on the home stretch, the party pushes out of the chamber and back into the main current. Their confidence is short-lived because the current grows faster and turbulent. It turns and spins the party members and threatens to dash them into the tunnel walls or impale them on the occassional stalagtite and stalagmite.
Voldresk develops a plan and Knitter Joro provides the muscle to send a number of large stones tumbling downstream. The party is able to continue.
Beyond the now-opened rockfall an eddy deposits you in a circular chamber. Strange glowing runes on the walls provide dim light as you swirl slowly along the wall, driven by the eddy.
Knitter Joro and Voldresk agree that the left tunnel will lead deeper. And it does. A few more splits are successfully negotiated and farther down you find your path nearly blocked by a rockfall. The current through the obstruction is strong enough to indicate the tunnel will open again on the far side.
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