Alright, so here's the first entry in my Starfinder coverage. For those who haven't been paying attention, to give myself breaks in story planning, my usual tabletop group alternates between my homebrew games (currently my Woodburn Chronicles game, previously my Werewolf: The Apocalypse chronicle) and an Adventure Path. In the past we've done Pathfinder, but for a handful of reasons we cut our most recent AP short to play Starfinder instead.
So here we are. My group is going to be covering the Dead Suns Adventure Path, the inaugural Starfinder AP from Paizo. These write-ups aren't necessarily going to be per-session, because we sometimes have to play short-ish sessions and sometimes more than a little of that time is going to be taken up by simply moving from room to room and dealing with monsters or what have you. So these are going to be more based on story progression than session-by-session recountings.
(Also, because I'm expecting at least one or two people who are only passingly familiar with Starfinder, at least for the first couple posts I'll be including copious setting details and footnotes.)
So with no further adieu, let's begin Dead Suns, Vol. 1: Incident at Absalom Station!
So we begin on the shuttle Okimoro, approaching Absalom Station. Absalom Station occupies the orbit once held by Golarion, the third planet in the system currently known as the Pact Worlds. At some point in the past, Golarion was moved elsewhere by the gods and replaced with a massive space station that can hold a few million people. But nobody remembers this because it happened during the Gap, a period of time wiped from memory and written record (presumably, again, by the gods) that only ended 317 years ago.
But back to the shuttle, where three passengers[0] are traveling to Absalom Station to join the Starfinder Society, an organization devoted to exploring the universe to figure out what happened during (and perhaps even what caused) the Gap. Those three passengers:
Zar Z'ress of House Vexidyre, played by Sean -- A drow from the planet Aucturn (way out at the edge of the solar system, inhabited by Mythos cultists), whose memories of the past are a little sketchy. All he knows is that during the Gap he was, to put it simply, a villain and Nyarlathotep priest thwarted by adventurers. He went into stasis and only woke up recently, with his memories fuzzy at best and more or less a clean slate. He's joining the Starfinder Society to get a better idea of where he came from and where he's going. He's a solarian, capable of channeling the power of the stars (or, in Zar's case, the energies of a color out of space) through their bodies.
Malesinder, played by John -- A dragonkin from the planet Triaxus (which is known for weird, centuries-long seasons) and former member of the Skyfire Legion, a mercenary band of do-gooders. Like most dragonkin, he's psychically bonded to a partner (who, because the player was unvailable when we started, is 'on another shuttle, catching up'). Malesinder is a soldier practicing the 'blitz' fighting style, focusing on speed and aggression to dive into melee and take out enemies up-close.
Virxidor, played by Kevin -- An elf from Castrovel (a hot and humid jungle planet, kinda like we used to think Venus was), kinda exiled from the normally-insular elven society by being a little too open with trading technology with other races. Virxidor is a mechanic, a technical expert with a quadrupedal drone companion that he's named "Nothing." (Mostly for moments where he gets to say things like "Nothing can save you now" and such.)
So the three of them are on the shuttle, and Malesinder is trying to be friendly but Virxidor is wearing a rebreather and Zar is wearing a full-head concealing helmet (as drow reputation has not improved since the good old days of quasi-medieval shenanigans) and neither is conducive to friendliness. At one point, rather than speaking, Zar just vents some sort of gas from his helmet at the dragonkin, and the whole time Virxidor is just trying to mess with him.
But in short order they arrive at the station's Docking Bay 94, where they go to meet Duravor Kreel, a dwarf with the Society who is to serve as their initial point of contact. But as they cross the docking bay to get to him, blaster fire rings out and they're caught in the crossfire!
The group seems to have wandered into the middle of some street gang conflict and right away, Kreel gets a blaster bolt through the neck and is dead before he hits the floor. Malesinder, being absolutely massive, gets a hit but immediately lunges at one of the gang members from the direction the shot that killed Kreel came from and hits back with a tactical pike. Zar, following his lead, goes after one of the gang members on that side of the bay, lunging at him and wreathing his fists in unnatural energies to drain the life out of him. But before he can finish him off, a blast from the other side of the room drops the gang member. And Virxidor tries to finish the fight quickly by having his drone produce and chuck a grenade, but by the time the smoke clears one of the gangs is down and the other is running for it.
Security arrives at about the same time as our other two party members show up:
N1-C0, played by Zac -- An android from Triaxus (who looks somewhat like the Ryphorians, the dominant humanoid species from that world, with silvery skin and fringed ears) and Malesinder's partner. In a sense, he's been Malesinder's partner longer than he's been around, as when an android dies, if the body is intact, the soul moves on and the body repairs itself for when a new soul arrives. The android is effectively a different person, though sometimes a body will come with baggage because not everyone actually believes they're a different person. So the soul that used to inhabit N1-C0's body was Malesinder's previous partner, and now N1-C0 has taken up the position. N1-C0 is an operative, skilled and clever and more interested in being sneaky than tough.
Scrap, played by Bryan -- A space goblin originally from Absalom Station, arriving at the docking bay by corridor rather by shuttle because that's where Kreel is supposed to meet everyone. Like other goblins, Scrap is a technical wiz (albeit an unstable one) but rather than a mechanic he's a soldier, specializing in heavier armor with an eye at mastering powered armor down the line.
Security forces quickly question the characters and other witnesses, and determine that they didn't start the fight and were defending themselves, and are free to go. As security and the station's medical staff make arrangements for Kreel's body, the group picks up his tablet computer. which has names and descriptions for the three of them, Malesinder's partner N1-C0, and a space goblin named Scrap (to which Virxidor said "I thought they sprayed for those things here"). It also had the name 'Chiskisk' and an address that none of them recognized.
Scrap arrives and quickly assesses what happened before he steps up and says a prayer to Triune, the machine god, for the fallen dwarf. Malesinder proceeds to mock the goblin's name, and the goblin punches him in the foot with an armored fist. N1-C0, introducing himself, takes a look at the tablet. He recognizes the name Chiskisk as a high-ranking Starfinder on the station, and the address is the Lorespire Complex, the base for the Starfinder Society. So with a lack of other options, they shuffle off to the Lorespire Complex, where they're greeted by a receptionist. They open by explaining what happened to Kreel, and the shocked receptionist directs them to a waiting room.
After a short wait, they're lead into a cluttered office where they meet Chiskisk, a shirren[1] and a friend of the late Duravor Kreel. They express their regret that the group had to come together under such circumstances. They quickly inform the group that these sorts of attacks are rare on Absalom Station, and that station security has identified the two parties involved as a pair of gangs: The Downside Kings (whom the group is pretty sure shot Kreel) and the Level 21 Crew. Gang warfare isn't especially rare, except that the gangs don't normally have it out in the docking bays like this.
Chiskisk is more than a little concerned about whether it's all a coincidence that the two gangs would start a gunfight in the docking bay just as the group was arriving to meet Kreel. But it feels like something else is going on, like Kreel may have been targeted. And as the group came to the station to try and prove themselves to the Starfinder Society, investigating the incident may serve as a good mission with which to get them started. Chiskisk suspects that station security will rule it was all a coincidence, but they would rather be sure. And if it turns out that Kreel was murdered, then Chiskisk would like to see justice done for their friend's death.
To get the group started, Chiskisk transfers some credits into their accounts as a 'signing bonus' and suggests a nearby hotel that offers discounts for Starfinders renting rooms by the week. The group takes that suggestion and gets some rooms -- Malesinder and N1-C0 share an efficiency, and Zar and Virxidor share a suite, and Scrap is on his own. Zar and Virxidor have kind of an awkward moment the first time Zar takes off his helmet to reveal his true species, but Virxidor's flexibility with regards to other races gets them past that awkward moment pretty quickly. Also, Virxidor hacks the hotel terminal to get free pay-per-view for their room.
Once everyone's settled in, they go out investigating. They also discover there's not a lot of talk about what happened in Docking Bay 94, because everyone's talking about a ship called the Acreon that arrived outside the station a few days prior. The ship's crew is missing, and they've towed a mysterious asteroid from the Drift[2] (colloquially called, creatively enough, the 'Drift Rock') into the space outside the station. But the ship is under quarantine while the two companies involved in the ship's last surveying mission, Astral Excavations and the Hardscrabble Collective, fight over who has the rights to the asteroid. The Astral Collective contracted the expedition, the Hardscrabble Collective are the miners' union that provided the ship, and both maintain they have a claim to the asteroid itself: Astral Excavations sees it as the sort of mining resource that the Acreon was hired to find, and the Hardscrabble Collective maintain that the ship brought the asteroid back for themselves.[3]
N1-C0 and Malesinder go out to the docking bay to get shipping manifests and see if the violence had something to do with a ship coming in. They see someone at the terminal that would have the info, and N1-C0 telepathically asks Malesinder to cause a distraction so he can get the shipping manifests from the terminal. Malesinder panics and can't come up with a good distraction, as he's just not wired for that sort of deception. So he pretends to be sick -- not hard, given how stressed he is -- and 'accidentally' coughs badly enough to set off his breath weapon and set a luggage cart on fire. However, it's a motorized luggage cart that's moving, so the fire is being dragged all over the place, setting other things on fire, triggering fire suppression systems trying to follow the moving flames. It's an absolute mess. But it does give N1-C0 time to get the files out of the terminal and after Malesinder runs off they head back to the hotel.
Meanwhile, Zar, Virxidor, and Scrap go down to Level 21 -- a good starting point, they figure, to find information on the Level 21 Crew. They ask around and find out that the Level 21 Crew, while a criminal organization, are also the sort of gang that actually puts their ill-gotten gains towards community improvement, and sometimes hire themselves out to marginalized groups needing assistance. In fact, lately, the Level 21 Crew have been providing protection (like actual protection, not gang/mob 'protection') for the Hardscrabble Collective, as they've ended up on someone's shit list. But not only are the Level 21 Crew well-liked, there's a bodega called Mama Fats' on the level where a message can be left for them.
So the trio go to Mama Fats', where they meet the halfling woman who runs the place. They go to leave a message for the gang's leader, an ysoki[4] named Jabaxa, that he'd like to have a talk about what happened. Also, noticing that there's a shrine to Desna[5] in the back of the shop, he draws a black butterfly on the message.
They head back to the hotel, where they just happen to arrive just as Malesinder and N1-C0 are getting back. Immediately, they grow concerned about the fact that Malesinder looks and smells like he's been in a fire recently. There's some dancing around the subject, with shenanigans and sarcasm, until N1-C0 just comes out with it as Scrap provokes them. So as to resist the urge to beat up Scrap for a comment he made ('dragon-blooded abomination'), Malesinder stomps off to get some food from a vendor while N1-C0 goes over the shipping manifests but doesn't find anything that stands out, and afterwards everyone turns in for the night.
When they wake up, Virxidor has a message from the Level 21 Crew, agreeing to a meeting at the bodega. They show up and are escorted into a back room where the scarred ysoki Jabaxa is waiting for them, and pours them each a shot of hooch. He explains that the Downside Kings, among other things, have lately been working as muscle for Astral Excavations to hassle the Hardscrabble Collective -- presumably over the Drift Rock. He explains that the only reason the Crew were in that docking bay was to confront the Kings, but they don't know why the Kings were there in the first place. But if the party wants to deal with them, he knows the name of a nightclub called the Fusion Queen that they uses as a front and that their current leader (they apparently have a lot of leadership turnover) is a human woman named Ferani Nadaz and that she has a vesk bodyguard nicknamed the Hatchbuster.
Zar wants to go down there and kill everyone but one person to tell the story, and this leads into a conversation among the group about 'acceptable collateral damage,' the difference between 'noncombatant' and 'civilian,' and that sort of thing. But they eventually work out a reasonable interpretation of terms that will prevent a massacre of innocents, and after unsuccessfully trying to convince Jabaxa to offer additional compensation for putting a dent in some rivals, they head down to the Fusion Queen.
The party hoofs it down to a run-down neighborhood in the lower levels of the station to find the garish monument of neon called the Fusion Queen. There are a couple of bouncers outside, but these guys are hard enough that Zar's immediate attempt to intimidate them out of the way is met with drawn weapons. They take down one of them pretty quickly, and Scrap tells the other one to drop everything he has and leave. The guy runs off, though, bringing his gear with him, and for failure to follow instructions Scrap actually shoots him in the back.
But they barge into the club, the main area of which is full of just civilians and carousers, and they make a beeline for the door marked 'Staff Only.' They open up that door to stop a trio of gangsters playing cards around a table and Virxidor tosses in a smoke grenade, and they hold the door shut as the smoke wears them down. About the time it dissipates, and it sounds like the gangsters are still fighting, he tosses in a more traditional explosive and that puts a stop to the resistance.
They then move to the office door where Zar calls out Ferani, trying to intimidate her into backing down, offering her a chance to cooperate to save her own hide. After considering it, she agrees, and begins said cooperation by admitting her gang's complicity in what happened in the docking bay, specifically calling out that they were fulfilling a contract on Kreel's life -- which is a name none of the group had said yet. They tell her they're going to come in and discuss this further, and the moment either she or her bodyguard start shooting, their lives are forfeit.
They come into the office where she and her bodyguard have weapons raised, and when pressed Ferani says that they were hired by Astral Excavations to get the Hardscrabblers to back down regarding the Drift Rock, and that in particular they were contracted to kill Kreel to get both the Collective to back down, and to try and get the Starfinders to back off as well. She can't give them specific names of the contact she spoke to, but she has messages on her computer to that fact. And she's willing to give the group whatever they want as long as they let her live. She gives them the key to a storage closet full of loot and gear and cash, and they also 'confiscate' a bunch of the gang's stuff as well -- letting Ferani and her bodyguard run free for the moment, but financially hobbling them such that maybe they'll cut their losses and rethink their lives.
And we leave off there.
[0]-- My group for this game consists of five players, but due to scheduling issues we decided to get things rolling with just three. The other two will show up shortly.
[1]-- Just so I'm not dancing around it above: Chiskisk is a member of the third gender that shirren, have, a 'host,' and as such the preferred pronouns are 'they/them.'
[2]-- The extraplanar space through which spaceships can travel at faster-than-light speeds.
[3]-- Yes, this is blatant foreshadowing.
[4]-- Ratfolk from Akiton, which is kinda like if Edgar Rice Burroughs' Mars (or Barsoom, if you prefer) looked like Blade Runner.
[5]-- Desna is the goddess of luck, stars, dreams, and travelers, and takes the form of a woman with butterfly wings and uses a lot of butterfly imagery. There's also an Empyreal Lord (a type of demigod) known as the Black Butterfly, a powerful servitor of hers who represents her more aggressive and militaristic side, and that happens to be Virxidor's patron deity.
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