How does Chiskisk know about the alien language?

[Dimity]

I may have a big problem moving my PCs into the "Temple of the Twelve" adventure. They weren't able to decode the language on the panels of the asteroid, so either Chiskisk or Nor should be able to tell them what they mean, right? Unfortunately, it seems like the only way anyone on Absalom Station would have been able to see the writing would have been through the video feed provided by the drone. My PCs, being the untrusting bunch that they are, immediately threw a towel over the drone for the entirety of the time it was with them, so all that Chiskisk and Nor have is an audio recording of the adventure.

What are my options? How could Chiskisk (because Nor is obviously not in the mood to help the party anymore) have recognized the writing in order to send them off to Castrovel to learn more about it if he was never able to see it?

[pithica42]

Nor could have sent a separate operation (or video drone) after the PC's insulted him. In the situation they're in, Nor is trying to act as good faith arbitrator in a dispute between two economic powers. He's going to need, or at least want, video data to make something that appears to be a just decision in that arbitration. Since the PC's were d**ks about it, he'd send in a separate team (at least, that's what I'd do). That video data could have gotten shared with Chiskisk because he's a interested and involved party in the arbitration.

Later Dead Suns Spoiler:

They're going to be in a minor world of crap in AP3 when Nor doesn't give them help on Eox.

[Dimity]

Thanks. I'll have Nor meet with them upon arrival at the station, express his disappointment, and send another crew up to research the Drift Rock. A day or two later, Chiskisk will call them in to talk about what the *other* team discovered there. I'll have to come up with a sweet team name for the other guys, because they are going to get all the credit for the discovery and become the famous explorers that the PCs were supposed to be.

[AnimatedPaper]

The adventure explicitly states that the players can't thwart the recordings in any way. If they put a towel over the drone, Nor ahead of time planted more devices on them, ones they aren't able to detect. Or it turns out the drone had tapped into their intraparty communication network and had hacked into their own suit cameras. Again undetected and undetectable.

This is one of several problems I had with the module as written, but that is what the module states.

[Dragonchess Player]

Dimity wrote:

How could Chiskisk (because Nor is obviously not in the mood to help the party anymore) have recognized the writing in order to send them off to Castrovel to learn more about it if he was never able to see it?

Recordings have been mentioned.

Also, once the PCs finish clearing the Drift Rock, the Starfinders can send researchers with a computer and a downloaded data set to take 20 on the Culture check to decipher the writing (per the Core Rules, pg. 139).

[SirShua]

Make an intelligence check to see what they recall and can sketch for chiskisk. If it's not enough send them back. Part of the arbitration is determining what the drift rock is.

[sebastokrator]

I realize that you're past this, but it is patently unreasonable for the PCs to try and circumvent the recording of their activities. Not only is it important to to have a neutral record that both sides can have equal access to in a very public dispute but their employer is being upfront about recording device and its purpose. In any job I've ever worked disabling security cameras or messing with other security software or devices would be grounds for dismissal.

On to the actual topic, my initial strategy would be to have had Chiskisk listen to the recording, and then being the inquisitive bug that they are, ask the PCs a bunch of questions about their time on the rock. The PCs probably said something about the weird alien writing on the drift rock; this would interest Chiskisk. They then would ask the PCs to recreate the writing.

If they're bad at that, hey, they're starfinders/space archeologists! Chiskisk could sit the group down in front of a screen and they could spend a good long time looking over various writing samples to see if there is a match. There is no reason why this particular language can't have a very distinct style. After many painstaking hours of doing actual boring work the PCs find the match on Castrovel and that's an interesting puzzle worth investigating.

The cultists are a bit more challenging. I might cheat with the dice rolls on travel time behind the GM screen; the PCs journey might take them near the full six days to get there. Meanwhile, Chiskisk is curious about the actual text on the rock. Perhaps this team contains a hidden choir cultist or even Tahomen himself. The cultists could then take their own ship to Castrovel, again fudging the travel time roll to get the cultists their first. Or, you could have the cultists message a different cell already on Castrovel to get that plot in motion. Just be sure to have Chiskisk radio the PCs saying that they sent in another team and had the text translated; that will it won't feel like as much of a cheat when the information leaks out.