Session 9: Adrift in Space [Sep 9th, 2021]
The Starfinders feel quite rested after spending a straight 24 hours within the narrow confines of the Hippocampus shuttle. With Shiiga’s aid, they overcame their disease and are able to explore more of the Acreon. They enter the ship again, returning to the engineering bay where they last fought the viscous akatas. The beasts are slain and they are able to look about the chamber. Vashon determines that the ship’s power core is damaged, but might have enough power for life-support and be able to pressurize the cabins. Zaeo finds that the back air-lock is open to the void of space. He sees the Drift Rock dangling in the distance behind the long tow-cables. The Starfinders find more of those noqual-laden shards as well as a fine laser pistol.
They pick up the items and head back towards the Hippocampus to store them away, but they make a startling discovery. The Hippocampus is gone. Panic begins to ensue as the heroes realize they have only 20 or so hours of oxygen left in their space-suits. Finding the bridge and enabling life-support has become a critical priority. The heroes leave the items near the air-lock and head towards the bridge of the ship. They open the door and enter the chamber, finding the large bridge’s long transparent-aluminum window looking out towards the tiny twinkling lights of Absalom Station and the Armada ships.
The heroes are then immediately attacked by three more akatas. They pull back to the hallway, as Zaeo is bitten numerous times. The others blast the akatas, Vashon summons shards of metal to tear them up as Shiiga heals Zaeo. They pull way back near engineering as Drozen attempts to blast them with his sniper rifle. Unfortunately, Zaeo doesn’t make it and collapses as the akatas overtake him. The others blast a few of them down and Vashon and Drozen flank the final one until it is felled.
After the combat, Zaeo, Vashon, and Drozen are realize they’ve been infected with void death. The heroes head towards the bridge, but see a door rattle down a side passage. They decide to ignore it and head back to the bridge. Vashon is able to gain full computer access and restores the lights and closes the rear air-locks. He then pressurizes the cabins and the heroes are able to breathe freely. They rest in the bridge, while Shiiga treats their wounds and disease. During the long rest, Vashon finds the Captain’s log and learns about what happened to the Acreon’s crew.
They hear from Captain Obox that they found the Drift Rock in the Drift as they were returning from their survey mission. They sent a few crew to explore its surface and they found some strange rocks laden with noqual. They took them back to their makeshift lab, but soon found that these geodes were really akata eggs. The crew was attacked and they tried to fight them off. At some point the Captain says that something else attacked them, and “it came from the Drift Rock”. With his crew dying, the Captain makes a final log saying that he and the rest of his crew were heading to the Drift Rock and he opened the Acreon to the vacuum, hoping to stop the akatas. He sent the ship on auto-pilot to Absalom Station, hoping they’d reach help before it was too late.
After the rest, the heroes explore the rest of the ship, finding a few items in the crew cabins, along with a makeshift trap. Vashon is able to make a few salt-water bombs for the akatas. The heroes then break open a barred door and find two space goblins inside, named Tholo and Bunkrut. The heroes talk them into an uneasy truce, and the goblins tell them how they used makeshift rockets to blast from a passing ship to the Acreon to loot it. They did not steal the Hippocampus nor had a discernable plan for escape. The goblins follow the heroes for a bit as they explore the cargo hold.
In the cargo hold, They find the crate that Gevalarsk Nor wanted, but leave it unopened as requested. The goblins then try to steal their weapons and the heroes immediately retaliate, blasting their little green heads off. One of the goblins junk rifle explodes and incidentally takes out the camera drone that has been following the Starfinders. With the camera gone, Drozen opens the crate. Inside they find an Eoxian wearing some sort of military uniform, she is quite upset that they opened her crate and berate them. She demands they do as they were told and take her to Absalom Station as cargo. Eventually, they close the crate and leave the elebrian alone for now.
The heroes rest again, tending their disease and wounds, sleeping on the comfortable beds of the Acreon. The next day, they gather their gear and set out to follow the tow-cables to the Drift Rock. They float along the cable and eventually reach the large asteroid. Shiiga finds the entrance to a small cavern on the side. Drozen leads the way, floating down the dark corridor. The group then turns a corner and finds an android with a sniper rifle ready for them. She blasts the rifle at Drozen, but then hesitates as she sees Vashon and mouths the android’s name.
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Session 10: Silent Whispers of the Dead [Sep 23rd, 2021]
Vashon stands astonished as he sees the android mouth out his name. However, that hesitation causes the android to drop its sniper rifle and leap forward, using some sort of holographic projector to create mirrored images of herself. Drozen activates his own holographic projector and the two trained assassins go toe to toe with their melee weapons. Zaeo tries some diplomacy, but the assassin seems intent on killing them. Shiiga hangs back, avoiding the danger as Vashon fires at the android assassin. Zaeo fires as well, trying to coordinate his allies attacks. Eventually, the Starfinders are able to remove her holographic images and injury her, Drozen manages a hard smack with his tactical baton that sends the android flying into the cavern, floating in space, unconscious.
After taking the androids items and a short rest, the Starfinders find the android has awoken. She joins the universal comm. channel and introduces herself as Clara-247. She explains that she was hired through a number of shell companies to assassinate them. First, she tried to kill them with the necroglider, but after that was destroyed she used her built-in jets to fly to the drift rock and ready her attack. Now that she has been defeated twice, she considers herself a failure. The Starfinders feel a bit sorry for the android, knowing how hard it is for many androids to find honest work and avoid slavery.
Vashon asks Clara-247 how she knows him. Clara-247 tells Vashon that he was one of the best saboteurs for Astral Extractions and that they worked together on a few jobs in the past, assassinating competitors and android abolitionists that got in the way of the company. Vashon explains how he doesn’t know anything about himself from before 5 years ago, when he awoken at a junkyard in Absalom Station. Clara-247 unfortunately cannot elaborate more about who Vashon used to be.
The Starfinders encourage Clara-247 to seek her freedom and find a ride to the Vast away from her employer, whom she says would likely seek retribution for her failure. She then heads to the opening of the Drift Rock and uses her built-in jets to soar through space towards the Armada.
The Starfinders continue their exploration of the Drift Rock. The next cavern they find the corpse of a member of the Acreon crew, his fatal wounds appear to be caused by Akata claws. In the next chamber, they are attacked by a void zombie, another corpse of the Acreon‘s crew animated by the akata larvae inside. It strikes at them with its long tendril tongue seeking to suck their blood for sustenance. They manage to take it out eventually, but Drozen is drained of much blood and loses much of his strength.
Zaeo leads the way into the next cavern where they are assaulted by a ghostly apparition. It strikes at Drozen and sends his mind into confusion. The others fire at the ghost, but finding their weapons having little effect. Drozen continues to hurt himself as the ghost reaches out to harm Vashon. Shiiga then blasts the ghost with a psychic wave that vaporizes it instantly.
The Starfinders then head north into a long corridor made of a strange ceramic-metallic material. Vashon examines the surface and is unable to identify the material, but understands that is nearly indestructible and unlike anything he has ever seen in the Pact Worlds. The Starfinders continue down the corridor for over 100 feet, before coming to an opening into the void of space. The whole side of the Drift Rock appears to have been sheared off and divided perfectly, with an impossibly smooth surface. They then head to another corridor on the outside and return to the stone caverns.
The Starfinders then head south where they find two more void zombies blocking their way. Zaeo is assaulted while Drozen fires his new sniper rifle from the rear. Shiiga moves in and slams them with stones as Vashon jumps in and sends a wave of thermal heat into them. With a few well-placed shots, the zombies are destroyed.
The Starfinders then take a short rest as they examine the door to the south, where the ceramic-metallic plating surrounds a door, much like one that would appear on a space station…
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Session 11: Ancient Technology and the Garaggakal [Oct 7th, 2021]
The Starfinders cautiously approach the metallic door and Vashon is able to decipher what he thinks is the open button on a nearby alien panel. The door slides open and the Starfinders enter into a T-junction composed entirely of the strange ceramic-metallic material. They immediately notice that there is gravity in the corridor as well and they are able to walk normally.
The Starfinders turn a corner and find a collection of alien view screens and information panels, streams of unknown symbols slide across the screens, but no one can easily decipher their meaning. Behind the panels, a small red metallic orb comes to life and expands and transforms into a small security robot. It immediately blasts the Starfinders with an electric arc. The heroes fire their weapons and spells at the alien robot. Drozen destroys it with a hard smack with his baton.
Drozen examines the wreckage of the robot and finds it to be some unknown alien technology. Vashon and Shiiga examine the view-screens and monitor devices nearby. They are able to determine that this technology is some alien combination of tech and magic, and it was made to monitor some larger device that exists elsewhere. Vashon determines that the symbols across the screens are actually warnings and errors as if they device it was supposed to monitor was no longer connected.
Zaeo then finds a small hatch in the wall. Drozen is able to rip the door off with his android strength. Inside, they find a small storage chamber, however, it is currently occupied by the corpse of a human woman. They recognize her space-suit insignias as the same as the drift-dead ghost that attacked them earlier. They take a number of technological items from the dead woman, but also find a dead datapad. Vashon is able to recharge it somewhat and finds a recorded message.
She introduces herself as Moriko Nash, the captain of the independent starship, the Sunrise Maiden. She explains how she landed her ship in what she thought was an asteroid in the Drift. But soon found it to be a strange alien structure inhabited by a monstrous beast that can phase through walls. She has been able to survive thanks to her force field, but knows her end is nigh. She offers her ship, the Sunrise Maiden, to anyone that finds this datapad and hopes they’ll keep her flying.
The Starfinders are emboldened by a moment of hope, believing another ship is nearby. They explore the eastern passageway, where Vashon finds another computer system. This one has a full interface and he is able to hack into it. He learns that the Drift rock is part of a much larger structure, possibly a massive weapon of some kind. However, those parts are no longer connected. Additionally, he learns that this technology not only is way more advanced than anything in the Pact Worlds, but is extremely ancient, possibly millions of years old. This may be the greatest pre-Gap find in centuries.
The heroes continue to explore to the east, finding a large cavern that serves as a crude hangar bay, there is a large white-metallic starship docked inside. However, they find two human bodies dissected and splayed out in front of them. Zaeo steps into the chamber and finds a large pile of art from various cultures stacked in the corner. It is then that a large beast leaps out of the corner of the room.
Zaeo has some of his life-force drained by the creature but tries to flee, throwing a bomb of sticky material on it to slow it down. The others blast it with bullets and electric arcs, but it seems far too dangerous and powerful. The Starfinders decide to flee back into the corridor. Drozen keeps firing at it with his sniper rifle as the others head onward. Vashon then hacks the computer again, rigging the electric trap to go off. Everyone manages to get out of the way, and Vashon ducks away from the beast as the electric explosion blasts into the garaggakal.
The Starfinders then pull north into the cavern, but find that the zero gravity makes things extra difficult. The garaggakal then phases through the wall and strikes out. Zaeo blasts it with a couple shock grenades and Drozen manages to roll through the gravity-less chamber out of the way. The beast leaps on Zaeo, who tries to stick a grenade in its mouth, but fails. It explodes at his feet. Drozen keeps firing sniper shots from afar as Shiiga pelts it with debris. Vashon uses Moriko’s arc pistol with a fresh battery to blast it repeatedly.
Eventually, the beast manages to tear into Zaeo ripping him to the ground. Shiiga and Vashon attempt to pull back, but decide to return to save Zaeo. They find the beast trying to tear out his intestines. It is then that Drozen blasts it with a sniper shot to the head, and the beast is destroyed.
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