Session 31: Troubles in the Splice [July 28th, 2022]
The Starfinders spend the night in the crude quarters prepared for them by Waneda Trux. They spend the morning going over all the armor and weapons that they confiscated from the Star-Eater’s Spine. Vashon expertly repaired the items and they decided to sell most of them. They spend the rest of the morning and early afternoon shopping in the mercantile parts of the city and stocking up on better gear and items.
Later in the day, the Starfinders return to the Spline district and begin investigating the two reports given to Waneda about possible Corpse Fleet activity. The first report takes them to Fleshworn Fabrications, an ocular necrograft factory. They meet with a corpsefolk named Voxel who seems to think they are Eoxian agents and detectives. He shows them the Corpse Fleet badge he found near the empty flesh-vat and explains how the material inside simply vanished overnight. The security cameras were mysteriously off during that time. He desperately wants the Starfinders to write an official document that clears his name, as his bosses think that he is responsible for the missing flesh.
Voxel brings them over to the empty vat and Zaeo convinces him to let them get down inside for a closer look. Vashon is able to repair the lowering mechanism, and Drozen and Shiiga climb down into the empty vessel. With some careful searching, they find some bony osteoderms that Shiiga determines were left by an undead humanoid called a marrowblight. They question Voxel about the osteoderms, but he doesn’t seem to know anything about them. The Starfinders promise to give Voxel the requested documentation after they finish their investigation.
The Starfinders ask Waneda about marrowblights, but she can only say that she knows of one that lives outside the boundaries of the city, but not where she lives. The Starfinders then head over to Gentlesage’s Necrografts and Sundries, a cheap shop with a crude veneer of luxury. They purchase a few upgrades and chat with the proprietor, a corpsefolk with a top hat and monocle, with a small vestigial head on his shoulder. Gentlesage warns them that ghouls have been prowling the area intimidating those who have been making Corpse Fleet reports to the ministry.
The Starfinders then head to an apartment flat to investigate the second report. They find the door is damaged and hear shouting inside. They rush into the apartment to find three ghouls intimidating the bone trooper, Gretal Rapinder, the same person who made the report. The Starfinders strike at the ghouls, who also charge into fight. The battle is quick and decisive, with the Starfinders taking out two of the ghouls, and the the third tries to run. However, the Starfinders are able to stop him in the street. Gretal calls the authorities and the Starfinders ask the ghouls questions while they wait. Shiiga is convinced these ghouls acted alone, trying to intimidate anyone who works against the Corpse Fleet, but she does not believe they are actual members of the organization.
They then talk with Gretal who explains how her roommate went out one night and never returned. She also shows them the journal fragment, where her roommate, Harvinne, who was also a former Navy officer, explains how she became a Corpse Fleet sympathizer and has been meeting with “the marrowblight”. It seems this marrowblight is the key to finding the Corpse Fleet in Orphys. Gretal suggests they ask around the neighborhood, as others may know where the marrowblight can be found.
It has grown late and the Starfinders return to the Ministry and rest in the crude room upstairs.
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Session 32: The Fearsome Costume Ball [Sep 8th, 2022]
The Starfinders awaken well-rested and continue their pursuit of any information concerning the marrowblight. Waneda Trux informs them that she has learned the marrowblight’s name as Xerantha Mortrant. However, she has yet to learn where outside the city the marrowblight dwells.
The Starfinders decide to ask around the Spline to see if anyone might have seen the marrowblight or know where to find her. They head over to Bonesmith’s Boutique where the skeletal properietor, Bonesmith Jaklyn greets them in her pirate costume. She doesn’t know anything about the marrowblight. Zaeo butters her up and is able to procure a discount on a spell gem to protect against any radiation on Eox’s surface. Zaeo also learns about a grand costume ball happening that night at the Opera House in the city-center of Orphys. Jaklyn invites them to join her as she has many extra tickets, asking Zaeo to be her date. They agree to meet with her later that evening with costumes.
The Starfinders then head over to Gentlesage’s Nercrografts & Sundries where they procure some costumes for the night’s events. Shiiga dressed as a dracolich, using a massive reptilian skull over her head. Zaeo tried to match Jaklyn’s outfit, and wore a sexy pirate outfit. Drozen, quite reluctantly, was talked into wearing a sexy cowboy outfit. Vashon then picked out a fabulous carnival feather outfit.
The Starfinders then return to the Ministry to drop off their costumes before heading out into Orphys, trying to get more information and checking out more of the undead city. They return that afternoon and get ready for the costume party. They head over and pick up Jaklyn and the five of them take a train to the city-center. They find a massive dome-like building with mortuary vibes with two massive black doors leading in. After they show their holographic tickets they enter a small entry room.
A grim-reaper dressed corpsefolk is handing out masks to everyone as they enter. He asks them each about their costume and then hands them a necrograft mask. Drozen, Zaeo, and Vashon on wear it without question, the face-mask clings to their face and tiny tendrils grab their skin. Shiiga examines the magic and determines its not dangerous, but enhances senses and heightens fear.
The Starfinders find the grand costume party stretches into multiple side chambers, many that focus on a particular macabre interest, death, or fear. It is clear they are some of the only living people attending the party. The group separates and Shiiga finds some corpsefolk engaging in a mental battle. Drozen finds a room with shifting blades and dancers who narrowly avoid being sliced. Zaeo mingles with the guests and hears more rumors about a marrowblight outside the Spline, but no real information. Vashon sees a strange cloaked figure looking at him. He chases the figure down, who then calls Vashon over.
The android learns that the mysterious figure is Dr. Garrik, a former scientist who worked for the Ariana Holding Company’s lab that created Vashon. He seemed bothered by Vashon’s presence as he came to Eox to hide from the AHC’s spies and avoid the mistakes of his past. He tells Vashon to seek out Dr. Vanessa Ventish, as she was the one who never gave up hope to free him. Last he heard, a few years ago, she was hiding somewhere in the Fields of the Lost in the Diaspora.
A gong then rings out and the main event begins. A large figure dressed as a winged demon stands on stage and begins a speech about embracing fear and death as the last emotion of the dead. The undead in the room begin chanting and a hazy mist fills the air. This makes the Starfinder’s head grow dizzy and they pass out as dark fear-driven dreams fill their minds.
Zaeo finds himself in his childhood again. He finds his young parents, but nobody pays any attention to him. His parents completely ignore him and he rushes to his friends’ houses, but they cast him away, closing the door in his face. He then finds that he has died with his grave in a fallowed field and that he never left the farm he grew up on. He never became famous or did anything special with his life. He was forgotten.
Drozen finds himself working for Draxar again. He is sent out on an assassination job in one of the Diaspora’s small mining cities. He waits on a rooftop until he sees his mark. But before he can fire his sniper rifle, his target, the man picks up his young daughter. They begin to walk away with smiles on their face and Drozen is forced to blow the man’s head off. He then stares through rifle’s scope into the eyes of a frightened young girl.
Vashon finds himself rushing down a corridor, chasing another android, firing his laser guns. The android leaps out a window and parasails away. Vashon leaps out as well and magically floats to the ground. He then follows the parasail on foot, shooting up at his target. He eventually leaps up and rips the android down to the ground by his feet. The two wrestle for a moment before Vashon breaks in the android’s face, smearing blood and electronics with each deathly blow. Vashon then looks around and finds he is in an android mining camp, surrounded by android slave miners. They are all judging him and looking at him with traitorous eyes.
Shiiga finds herself in the Temple of Damoritosh on Vesk 6 again, she is interrogating another prisoner. This male elf, however, is extremely resistant to her mental barrage. Eventually, her priestess master comes over and reprimands her. There is much shouting and disappointment thrown into Shiiga’s face. Eventually Shiiga finds herself being dragged through the temple’s halls and thrown out the main door. As the temple doors close, the words of her masters echo in her ears, “failure!”, “disappointment!”, “too weak!”, “too weak!”, “too weak!”.
The Starfinders awaken, finding themselves on comfortable chairs in one of the side rooms of the ball. There is no one around. Jaklyn then comes in and helps them get to their feet. She explains that the fear-mists are particularly strong on the living. She brings them back to the Spline. Zaeo and Jaklyn then retire to her apartment where they spend the night in a long chat about life and undeath. The others head back to the Ministry to rest.
The next morning, Waneda tells them that she found the marrowblights home in the wasteland. She provides a map to the location. The Starfinders then head out, leaving the environmental protections of the dome surrounding Orphys. They head into the wastelands, passing through winding gorges filled with skulls, acid pits, and craggy outcroppings. After a few hours, they reach a small area that looks quite cultivated in a macabre simulacrum of a garden. There is a single hut. As they approach the hut, however, they are accosted by a massive creature charging towards them.
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Session 33: Battle of the Ellicoth [Sep 22nd, 2022]
The Starfinders turn to face the hulking monstrosity charging towards them. Shiiga and Vashon both manage to blast it with a spell as it rushes forward. It then slams into Vashon with its long tentacle-like trunk. Shiiga then recognizes the creature and warns her friends about its deadly radiation it emanates. Vashon immediately begins to feel the effects.
The Starfinders begin to spread out, trying to avoid the monster, firing at it desperately with spells and laser-guns. It chases after them, but proves to be much faster and more agile than it at first appeared. It chases down Vashon and nearly kills him, sucking portions of the android’s soul with a magical suction. Vashon falls down due to the radiation. Shiiga uses a spell gem to protect the rest of them from its radiation field. Zaeo then manages to distract the beast, and he runs towards it waving his hands to get its attention. It rushes towards him, leaving Vashon a chance to recover.
Drozen keeps firing at it from afar as Shiiga makes a full sprint far and wide around the hide-covered hut. Zaeo tries to flee the monster, now that it is on his tail, but it tramples him and slams him to the ground, knocking him out. Zaeo is also greatly weakened by its emanating radiation field. Drozen manages to distract it and it charges after him as Vashon gets back up and blasts it with supercharged weapons. Shiiga runs back towards Zaeo and helps to revive him.
Vashon and Drozen continue to blast the beast. Then Drozen leaps under the creature cutting into its underside with his plasma kukri. He does this twice, until the beast cannot keep its inner organs together. It finally falls dead upon the wasteland of Eox. The Starfinders make some distance from the hut and take some time to catch their breath and treat their wounds. Shiiga cures Zaeo’s initial radiation exposure, although, unbeknownst to them, Zaeo, Shigga, and Vashon all have latent radiation sickness.
Drozen activates his cloaking field and enters the hut, looking for the marrowblight. She suddenly appears in the dirty room. Drozen blasts her with his laser-gun before she can shoot him wtih her rifle. A small fight breaks out and Drozen calls for reinforcements over the comms. The others come charging into the room. The marrowblight laughs with glee, saying the Starfinders “fell right into Veera’s trap” and that the Corpse Fleet will soon find the Stellar Degenerator. Vashon then blasts the marrowblight with a supercharged weapon, shooting off one of her distended claws. She offers to surrender, but Drozen sneaks behind her and slices off another one of her distended claws. She tears into him, incidentally infecting him with red ache disease with her infectious spurs.
Shiiga commands both of them to stand down with her intimidating voice, and the marrowblight surrenders, ready to spill the beans on the Corpse Fleet’s latest plot.
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