"All right then. The co-ordinates to Elytrio are being downloaded to your ship's databanks as we speak."
"If that's all the questions, let me wish you good luck. And Weydan be with you."
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“The Unbounded Wayfarer was attacked by some kind of automated carrier in orbit that sent drone fighters after it. They were equipped with laser weapons, but the Unbounded Wayfarer ran for it before finding out too much about the details of the enemy.” “As far as the planet goes...” Arvin turns back to look at the holo of the globe. “I can't tell you much, I’m afraid. Initial scans were too brief to get too many details. There are no open bodies of water. The planet would be a temperate one were it to have water, so you will experience a possible range of temperatures depending on where you set down. But the extremes of temperature are nothing an ordinary suit can't handle. The other Starfinders did report trace amounts of radiation in the atmosphere, so there is a distinct possibility the planet’s current appearance is not entirely natural.” "Uh, does our ship have substantially more firepower than the Unbounded Wayfarer? Just thought I'd ask" Arvin smiles. “Oh, I should think so,” he says. “You did destoy the Lawblight, the pirate vessel that destroyed the Unbounded Wayfarer. The Wayfarer was just a light scout, and not heavily armed.” Arvin looks around the room. “Any other questions?”
“Greetings, Starfinders,” he says, without turning. “You are looking at Elytrio, a newly charted planet in the Vast. While you might dismiss it as a lifeless rock at first glance, it still has mysteries to plumb. It was discovered by the Unbounded Wayfarer. The Wayfarer was attacked by some kind of orbital defense system when it got too close; the Wayfarer didn’t have the firepower to respond, so the crew made a prudent retreat. But we Starfinders don’t let these sorts of things go.” He pauses before continuing. “I’d like you to take the Calico Wanderer, travel to Elytrio, and discover all you can about it. If you find any inhabitants on the planet, do everything in your power to make peaceful contact with them. If the place is deserted, try to locate information about who might have built those defenses. Once you’ve got something interesting, report back to me here at the Lorespire Complex. Any questions?”
Venture-Captain Arvin greets the PCs with a warm smile as they disembark. “You can undergo the tedium of a complete debrief later. First, I’ve arranged for you all to enjoy a few days’ downtime in Kemanis, at the high-end clubs, theaters, and VR parlors. You’ve earned it. But,” he warns, with a sly twinkle in his eye, “after that, it’ll be time to put you back to work.” He hands each of you a credstick with 500 credits on it. “Here's a little reward for a job well done. Oh, and one more thing.” He pulls out a small disk-like device. “This is a Starstone compass. Don't leave spacedock without one. Thanks again, and enjoy your shore leave.”
Though you are out of communication range, Venture-Captain Arvin has prepared a mission briefing for when you arrive, and you access it through the ship's computer. His pre-recorded hologram stands on the bridge of the Odyssey, his hands clasped behind his back. “Hopefully your journey was uneventful. Based on your previous mission, we’ve obtained information about the planet of Ulmarid. The desert world has breathable atmosphere but is devoid of intelligent civilization. A cloud of asteroids—leftovers from a collision of the planet’s moons long ago—surrounds the planet, so you must carefully navigate the Odyssey to the surface to find the crashed Unbounded Wayfarer. “Be sure to bring the Starfinder insignias with you; they will be critical in recovering the information the Starfinders left behind. If you can recover any of the lost Starfinders—alive or dead—please do so as well. Good luck.”
"Welcome home," says Arvin warmly when he sees the group in the flesh once again. "It looks like you've taken good care of Wanderer," he continues. "I can hardly see any battle damage." "As I mentioned before, I'm sending you out again, only this time you'll need a bit more firepower to deal with something like Lawblight. I wish I could give you a Frigate to fly out there, but we're a little short on ships right now. Actually we're short on just about everything." "But I've booked you some shipyard time and we've got a bit of a budget for upgrades. I'll leave you in charge of the details. Make sure you give the Wanderer a bit more punch."
The crew sends a signal back to the hip to report in. Bouncing the signal off a distant Drift Beacon, they manage to send a report to Venture-Captain Arvin. A few hours later the return message arrives. "Well done. That's one less ship in the Corpse Fleet left to trouble the living. Salvage anything you think you can use and then blow the ship to bits and head home. I'm going to send you out to Ulmarid, but I think your ship might need an upgrade or two before taking on a genuine pirate vessel." "I've got a bit of a treat for you. When you're done with Threnody, enter this passcode into the ship's cargo files. A little compartment will open up in the galley with a few things to liven up the trip back. I know this mission isn’t yet complete,” he explains, “but you’ve earned the right to celebrate a bit on your return trip. I asked the quartermaster to include a few delicacies so you can enjoy being alive—after an encounter with necromancy.” "I'll see you when you get back. Arvin out."
"What do we do if we run into any stinking undead, I mean Eoxians, aboard? Do we have to give them a chance to surrender or can we just kill them on sight? Well, uh, de-undead them anyway?" "The Corpse Fleet are declared enemies of the Pact Worlds. They know that if you turn them over to Pact Worlds authorities things will not go well for them, so I doubt they will try to surrender. But strictly speaking the Society doesn't especially care about a crippled Corpse Fleet ship in the drift. We would prefer it destroyed, but the main goal is the data in its computer banks, so use your judgement."
With a burst of static and a flash, a blue-hued hologram of Venture-Captain Arvin appears at the Loreseeker’s communications station. “Excellent work. The Endless Threnody is incapacitated, but not pulverized. I need you to board that vessel, access the main computers at the bridge, and recover the coordinates of the missing Starfinder vessel’s crash site. “That energy signature looks dangerous, and those discharges can damage your hull. Dock at the cargo bay at the rear of the ship and make your way forward to the bridge. Wear space suits if your armor can’t protect you from vacuum—there are a few suits in a storage locker aboard your ship. Eoxian ships do not have life support and are often exposed to space. Any questions?”
”Anywhere I can get some spare parts for the ship? I know a few places but they’re mostly...less than legal.” "The folks in the Ysoki Scrap Union have been quite helpful. Later on, there will be opportunities to do some refits. The Starfinder Society has accounts at most of the main shipyards here in the pact worlds, so even weapons and so forth can be purchased quite legally. The main factor is time, and I'm keen to get you on your way." To VC Arvin, she asks, "What sort of crew does this corpse fleet rely on? Anything we should expect?" "Well, they're certain to be undead, that's for sure. The Corpse Fleet doesn't believe in cooperation with the living. Ghosts are rare on such ships since they can't manipulate ordinary controls, but beyond that it's anyone's guess. It doesn't sound like Endless Threnody is especially important to the Corpse Fleet though so I doubt you'll see anything you can't handle."
“Thanks to the datapad you recovered, we're pretty sure that the lost Starfinder vessel, the Unbounded Wayfarer, was discovered by undead creatures from the ghoul Exegara's ship, the Endless Threnody. We’ve pulled some strings with our more reputable Eoxian contacts to get more information, but they’ve disavowed knowledge of the Endless Threnody entirely; this likely confirms our suspicions that the Endless Threnody is connected with the Corpse Fleet, a group of Eoxian separatists who refuse to work alongside the living. “We have the location of the Endless Threnody in the Drift, courtesy of that ghoul you tracked down. Its Drift engine is incapacitated, so it’s unable to escape the Drift; it should be waiting for the ghoul to return with repair parts. Take the Calico Wanderer here into the Drift, cripple the Eoxian ship—as a Corpse Fleet vessel, they won’t be open to negotiations—and recover the location of the lost Starfinder vessel. Once you've done that, head back to Absalom Station to check in.” “The Calico Wanderer isn't a warship; she has a few laser cannons but nothing heavy. But the Endless Threnody is apparently pretty badly damaged and hopefully can't put up too much of a fight. Nonetheless, we asked our new friends in the Ysoki Scrap Union to see what they could come up with, and they managed to track down a plasma torpedo launcher and some upgrades to the shield generators. Wanderer should be able to take a bit of a beating, and now has some extra punch.” “The upgrades should be finished in a few hours, and then you can leave whenever you're ready. I know the ship is kind of a mess - the previous owners didn't give her up willingly. But I'm sure you'll make do. The trip out will take at least a week so hopefully you'll be able to get the ship up to speed by then. She's got supplies laid in for a couple months, but hopefully you'll be back before then. You only have seven torpedoes, so make them count.” “The is ship registered to the Starfinders which means if you need to you can stop at a friendly port and things like fuel and docking fees will be covered. The Starfinders aren't everywhere but we have accounts in most starports where Pact Worlders go with any frequency. You can't change the tail number but if you want to change the name go ahead; just make sure you register it with the port authorities before you leave.” “Questions?”
"Looks like I found you a ship!" he says with a smile. "Come on in and have a look around." Inside, you can see that the ship clearly has seen a lot of use. Bits of trash litter the floor here and there as well as cut sections of cabling and panels. Now and then a Ysoki runs by with some tools. "The Calico Wanderer got seized by the Stewards, and we picked it up at auction. It's a tight little trader that mostly made runs to colonies in Near Space. It's got room for a small compliment of passengers and two cargo holds. Not huge, but the big ships can't afford to call at the smaller colonies. She's reasonably quick and dependable, and big enough for you all have a post on the ship rather than being passengers." He brings you to the ship's galley and invites you to have a seat. "Let's talk about the mission."
While the group rests in the gardens, Rising Dawn contacts Venture-Captain Arvin on her comm unit to report their discoveries. "Good work! I hope no one was hurt?" the captain says over the comm. "Upload the data to me if you can," he continues. "Take whatever time you need to recuperate and I'll get to work on the data. I'll contact you when I have another assignment for you. I'm betting it won't be long."
"All right then. If there's nothing else, I'll bid you good luck. you can call me here when you have something." With a nod, Arvin dismisses you, and returns to his papers. "Elora! Where's the file on the Dentrathi Nebula Survey?" "On your desk under the stapler!" shouts a voice (presumably Elora's) from the next room.
"Do the insignias have any identifying features? We should be certain that Julzakama is not trying to deceive us with false replicas." "From Julzakama's description and the pictures he sent I believe them to be genuine. Each insignia is a kind of medal and bears an inscription on the back. As a result, each insignia is unique. If it turns out that these insignia are forgeries, then whoever forged them would have had to have access to the crew roster and records of a number of members of the Unbound Wayfarer's crew. Not likely, but possible. But if that is the case, it raises more questions than it answers, and we should still want to know who sold them to the junk dealer and what their game is." "Here are directions to Julzakama's shop." The Venture Captain sends you each a location file. "Any other questions?"
You are usshered into the office of the Venture-Captain by a couple of harried-looking aides. Venture-Captain Arvin turns out to be a tall Lashunta man of middle age. He has an office overlooking the ring of the station, and the once-posh office has been plastered with papers, charts, and data screens. More stacks of papers and data wafers sit on his desk. There is in fact so much information on the walls that it is impossible to tie it all together and most of the things you glance at have no fathomable connection to one another. The tall and confident lashunta man turns from examining some data posted on the wall and gestures to several functional chairs, inviting you to sit. “Thank you for arriving so quickly. As I mentioned in my comm message, we have an urgent opportunity to recover some critical information. “Several months ago, a crew of Starfinders took a ship called the Unbounded Wayfarer into the Vast to explore a series of uncharted planets. They never returned. Earlier today, a vesk pawnbroker in the Downlow neighborhood contacted us, offering to sell us several Starfinder insignias. These insignias belonged to the lost crew of the Unbounded Wayfarer, and that immediately caught the Society’s attention. The pawnbroker—named Julzakama—doesn’t realize the true value of the insignias. We negotiated a purchase price in exchange for the insignias and information about the seller. We hope this seller can lead us to the Unbounded Wayfarer and its crew. “We’ve remotely transferred the requested credits to Julzakama. Now, we need you to collect the insignias and all the information you can from the vesk regarding whoever sold him the insignias, and then track down that seller. Learn where to find the Unbounded Wayfarer and its crew. I’m worried that the seller might not be on the station for long, so act quickly. If you have any questions, please make them fast.” |