Hey there, folks. I've got a post for our homebrew game on the docket but just waiting to get one thing fixed before I post it. Until then, I've got the last two Starfinder sessions typed up and ready to go.
But first, a quick reminder -- a book I worked on, Night Horrors: The Tormented, is out! It's a Promethean: The Created supplement full of antagonists, story hooks, and more. It's currently in the 'advance PDF' stage, but once it's fully out you can get a PoD copy as well. Or if you buy the PDF now, you'll get a coupon when the print version is available so you get a discount as if you'd bought them as a combo.
Anyhow, with that quick plug out of the way, here we go!
[Note: This post collects two sessions, and we didn't have the exact same group lineup for both. So if characters seem to suddenly appear or vanish, that's why.]
So following the investigation of the asteroid, the group heads back to Absalom Station. On the way, they play some email tag with Chiskisk (as the realities of space travel means it takes hours for a message to get in either direction) and as he knows they'll have questions for Ambassador Nor regarding the Corpse Fleet, he's taken the liberty of reaching out to Nor to make sure he's available for an appointment when they get back. He also informs them he's managed to procure more funds for their mission from various parties interested in their success and wires the money to them.
So they head back and, sending a message ahead, make a beeline for the Eoxian embassy. Ambassador Gevalarsk Nor is waiting for them, though he gives Virxidor an odd look when he arrives (despite Virxidor wearing a face-concealing helmet with his armor). He's eager and helpful to help them with the Corpse Fleet issue to the best of his ability, though nobody's ruled out the possibility it's because he at least has to make a token show of doing so. But he doesn't have any useful information on-hand; that's all on Eox, at the Ministry of Eternal Vigilance, a government office that manages reports of Corpse Fleet sightings. If anyone can help them, it'll be the Director, a woman named Waneda Trux. He offers to call ahead so she'll be expecting them. He also wires them some cash, as a 'consulting fee' for their services[0] -- after all, regardless of whether the Corpse Fleet are truly disavowed or not, nobody wants a world-ending superweapon to fall into their hands. It'd be just as bad as the Cult of the Devourer getting it, though chasing the Corpse Fleet (who are in turn chasing the cultists) is the closest thing to a lead they've got.
At one point, Malesinder asks in so many words how they're to proceed with dealing with the Corpse Fleet, basically dancing around the question of whether they are to be captured or killed, or what have you. The ambassador makes it clear that the Corpse Fleet's existences are forfeit. The dragonkin then expresses concern for any hidden double-agents or anything, and Nor tells him that if he knew of any such agents, he'd have warned the group by now. As their meeting starts to wind down, Zar expresses some interest in, when this is all over, becoming undead (probably a ghoul) and moving to Eox. The ambassador says that is something they could discuss at a later time. Zar makes a comment about saving up the cash for bribes to expedite the process, and Nor comments (jokingly?) that it'll probably cost him about the same either way.
On the way out, Virxidor pulls off his helmet and asks if his new half-undead state is going to be a problem. Even with the fact that his head is a fleshless skull, Virx can register a bit of disgust from the necrovite as he tells him that on Eox, he'd better keep that helmet on.
The group spends a couple of days resupplying and upgrading their ship (no huge changes, mostly updated weapon mounts to make later upgrades easier), and they spend a few days in the Drift headed to Eox.
They arrive at Orphys, the closest thing Eox has to a capital city, and the ship's AI transmits their various identifications and clearances to get them permission to land at Orphys' small spaceport. Orphys is one of the domed cities on Eox, so it's safe for the living to travel without necessarily having to wear environment suits. Of course, while it's 'safe,' it's not exactly 'friendly,' as they quickly learn as they head for the Splice, the district where the Ministry office is. It's an industrial slum, and while there are shops and things, not a whole lot intended to cater to the living/breathing/eating. There's also an unpleasant smell that they realize comes from the local factories where flesh is grown in vats to be used in necrograft implants or intended to feed ghouls.
After some walking, they find the Ministry of Eternal Vigilance, a two-story building with holographic banners in both Eoxian and Common and flanked on either side by a pair of local shops ("Gentlesage's Necrografts and Sundries" and "Bonesmith's Boutique") and Virxidor makes a note that he wants to visit those shops when they get time. But instead, they go into the lobby where there's a ghoul woman punching in data on a computer behind the front desk and a living human in some sort of work coveralls waiting in a seat. There's a sign asking people to take a number, and the group takes one. The number is coming up shortly, and there's nobody else there besides the human.
Virxidor talks to the guy to get an idea of what his story is -- apparently he's a line inspector at the local flesh factory (another 15 standard years, he says, and he'll get turned into a ghoul and potentially live forever) and he thinks one of his co-workers is a secret Corpse Fleet agent. Zar gets the feeling that the guy's full of crap, and calls him on it in so many words. The guy gets very uncomfortable, and when his number gets called while he fishes around for a response, he says he'll come back and hands them his token.
So they go up to talk to the ghoul woman at the desk, who turns out to be the one they're looking for -- Waneda Trux, the Director of the Ministry of Eternal Vigilance. She's expecting them, and explains that most of the reports the Ministry gets in about Corpse Fleet involvement are BS, usually someone complaining about an annoying neighbor or co-worker. And she complains that doing up these reports is basically her life now, because she cleaned out her life's savings getting turned into a ghoul rather than subject herself to indentured servitude for decades to pay it off. The Ambassador gave her this job because he was familiar with her studies of Eoxian history, and it comes with room and board -- even if that means she has to live someplace where she has to smell the flesh factories, constantly. It makes her hungry (and Zar teases her a bit about that).
But getting back to the subject at hand, she does have a couple of recent reports that might actually be decent leads. She brings up a pair of recent reports and shares them with the group. One report is of a missing vat of flesh with a Corpse Fleet badge next to it at a nearby flesh factory. The other report involves an ex-Navy bone trooper's[1] roommate who has vanished and left behind evidence of disillusionment with the current Eoxian government and some interest in joining a local contingent of the Corpse Fleet.
Before sending them on their way, Waneda takes a moment to show them the storage room she's repurposed as a guest room at the ambassador's request if the group needs to stay there -- though she sarcastically expresses some annoyance at having to host living stranger she's not allowed to eat in the building. But once they know they have a place to crash, the group heads out to follow up on the lead with the retired bone trooper.
But first, Virxidor heads into Gentlesage's Necrografts and Sundries next door -- the sign out front depicts a corpsefolk[2] in a deeply cut chiffon shirt, with a vestigial head growing out of one shoulder. Both heads are wearing top hats and monocles. The group heads in to find that the sign accurately depicts the proprietor, Jonesworth "The Gentlesage" Longfoll. He snootily welcomes them to his shop and makes it clear that they are welcome, but he asks that they not breathe on his wares as it leaves behind the stench of the living and most of his normal clientele are put off by that. Virxidor, who's generally pretty interested in biomods in general, spends a little bit of time browsing the selection of necrografts. Malesinder, more than a little put off by the place, quietly excused himself. Virxidor's definitely intrigued, but as they've got things to do and it'll take a while for the necrografts to get installed, he decides to come back later.
Since it's literally down the street, they go to the apartment of Gretal Rapinder, the ex-Navy bone trooper who thinks her roommate has left to join the Corpse Fleet. They get there to find the door open and three ghouls in (presumably) Gretal's face, here to show her "proper respect" for her home world. The group draws the ghouls out of the apartment for a fight, driving two off while Zar kills the third before he can flee.
The bone trooper steps forward to introduce herself and thank her apparent saviors for rescuing her from the brute squad of Corpse Fleet sympathizers. She mentions that she'd tried to do her civic duty and recognize the proper Eoxian government by reporting what she thought was Corpse Fleet activity, and somehow word got out and these guys wanted to teach her a lesson. But then she realizes she's getting ahead of herself, and asks the group what brought them to her apartment.
They mention they're from the Ministry, following up on the aforementioned report, wanting to find out more about her roommate's apparent defection. She leads them to her roommate Harvinne's bedroom and opens it up, having figured out the passcode to the door a while ago. There's a bit of a conversation about the propriety of breaking into the room in the first place, and Gretal says that Harvinne had vanished and in looking for signs of her she'd found that the room had been more or less cleaned out (as the group could now see) except for the stray journal page left behind.
N1-C0 comments that in the barracks back on Triaxus, it was almost customary to break into other peoples' rooms for pranking purposes. Zar counters that on some planets, that sort of thing will get your throat slit. Someone points out that Gretal doesn't really have to worry about that, and stuff is now officially awkward.
Zar breaks the awkward silence by asking to review the journal page, and he removes a gauntlet to take it from Gretal. He can read Eoxian, fortunately, and thus reads that Harvinne was planning to meet with something called 'the marrowblight' before taking up her new commission with the Corpse Fleet. Marrowblights, Zar recalls, are a variety of undead born from someone who died while undergoing the agony of having their body deformed or mutated by radiation or arcane energies, and are particularly unpleasant even before you get into the bony arms extending from all over its body.
He asks Gretal if she knows anything about a marrowblight, and she says she doesn't know any specific ones. Then, before they get ready to go, she gives them an old armor upgrade of hers, a souvenir from her time in the service. She realizes she doesn't really need it any more, but figures the Starfinders will be able to put it to good use tracking down the Corpse Fleet -- and, perhaps, it will serve as a reminder that not all undead are bad. They're quick to assure her that they never assumed that, and then they get into their plans to follow up on their other investigative lead -- the theft at the flesh factory. Gretal volunteers directions -- conveniently, it's within walking distance.
As the group walks over there, Zar makes it clear he's looking forward to the investigation, already planning to have to rough up the foreman a bit. N1-C0 comments that Zar's insatiable, and maybe to keep him distracted they need to install some hologram girls in his room. Zar points out that N1-C0 clearly doesn't know him that well to suggest that specifically, and comments that hologram girls would be more useful in Kech's room, given that so far she's literally hit on every woman they've met with skin. Kech jokingly(?) admits that is, more or less, where the line is drawn.
They get to Fleshworn Fabrications, an industrial facility surrounded by a metal wall and a chain link fence with a gate. They can see vats full of some substance inside.[3] They press a button on an intercom next to the gate and get the foreman who filed the report with the Ministry, a corpsefolk named Voxel Darksend. He's all too eager to bring them in, once they say they're from the Ministry. Apparently his bosses have been accusing him of either stealing the missing flesh or just losing it somehow, and having someone official who can vouch for him will be a great boon.
He leads them past a number of flesh vats to the empty one. Zar asks if anyone could have seen what happened (as near as Voxel can tell, nobody did), if there was any obvious sign as to whether it was stolen magically or mechanically (tough to tell), if someone could have gotten a truck inside (sure). When asked, Voxel produces the Corpse Fleet badge he found and shows them a picture he took of it as he found it, to prove he found it next to the vat.
Kech asks if they can check the inside of the vat, and gets Voxel to admit that the computer controlling the vat's mechanisms has been acting up for a couple of weeks. Everyone gives each other a knowing look, and N1-C0 gives the computer a once-over but determines it's not any sort of sabotage -- just lazy maintenance. Malesinder fixes the mechanism directly and climbs into the vat to look around.
While he's down there, Zar asks Voxel about the quality of the flesh at Fleshworn Fabrications, whether it's of high quality, whether someone might consider targeting another facility if they wanted to, for the sake of argument, feed an army of undead. Voxel mentions another company in the area, and Zar makes a note to check them out next...
...until Malesinder tosses Zar some bone spurs he found among some spare scraps of synthetic flesh in the bottom of the vat. Zar recognizes them as sheddings from a marrowblight's boney limbs.
A suspect is revealing itself.
They ask Voxel about them, and he says he doesn't know any marrowblights, and they're of a particular temperament that makes it very difficult to employ one. The foreman asks the group if they would be willing to give him a signed affidavit he could show his bosses to establish he's not responsible for what happened. Malesinder digs out some paper and a pen and produces a written one that everyone signs, while Zar records one for good measure. To thank them for their time, the foreman gives them some grenades from his personal stash that, against company regulations, he sometimes uses to knock stubborn pieces of flesh loose from the vats.
While they're on their way out of the factory, Zar gets a call from Waneda. She warns them that she's just gotten word from Ambassador Nor -- his contacts have tipped him off that the group's investigation has upset someone, and they have dispatched a couple of assassins to take the group out of the picture. She tells them that if they get past the assassins, she might have some useful information for their investigation back at the Ministry.
The party is on their guard as they leave the factory, as a pair of zombie-looking undead called nihilis step out of the alleys and ambush them. Nihilis, intelligent undead that rise from people who died in vacuum, are of particular danger to the living because anyone who sees them and gets close enough feels their lungs decompress (which isn't a problem for N1-C0, as an android). Zar and Kech gang up on one while the others gang up on the other. Zar thoroughly pulps his while Malesinder cuts up the other one and N1-C0 finishes it off with a shot to the head. Neither of the nihilis have any identification, carrying only the credsticks with which, presumably, they were paid to attempt to kill the group.
The party gets back to the Ministry without any further incident. Waneda teases them about how pleased she is that they're alive, and that they're not rotting in the street and going to waste. But then she gets down to business and tells them that if they're looking for a marrowblight, she knows just the one. There's one named Xerantha Mortrant with a fondness for raw flesh and known to have Corpse Fleet sympathies. She resides as a hermit outside of town and doesn't normally cause trouble, so the authorities have largely left her alone. She comments on how they're 'made,' and this segues into a general discussion about how folks want to go when they die (or what type of undead to become if they decide not to). This leads to some morbid banter between Zar and Kech, partially involving a half-orc's shorter lifespan (relevant because Kech would rather die peacefully than become undead) and pointing out that becoming a ghoul wouldn't affect Zar's skin tone that much.
They also discuss the benefits and drawbacks of becoming, perhaps, a vampire instead -- and Waneda chimes in that a jiang-shi vampire (what's also known as a 'hopping vampire') doesn't have most of the drawbacks of the regular kind, reminding her that she has some detailed dossiers of known Corpse Fleet troublemakers to make available to the group in case they turn out to be useful. She hands them files on Rialphus Evanko (a corpsefolk), Zeera Vesh (a jiang-shi), and Woan Watten (a ghast). She hopes those wind up being helpful to them later.
She also provides them detailed directions to Xerantha's hermitage out in the middle of nowhere, and we left off with the group getting ready to head out.
[0]-- In case you haven't noticed because Starfinder discourages looting dead NPCs for cash or things to sell and doesn't have much treasure in the traditional sense, there are going to be a lot of moments where NPCs are going to hire PCs for tasks or give them cash rewards for things so they can keep in decent gear.
[1]-- Eoxian term for intelligent skeleton (what Pathfinder usuallys call a 'skeletal champion').
[2]-- Eoxian term for intelligent zombie (what Pathfinder usually calls a 'zombie lord').
[3]-- Each vat is full of biological sludge that, over time, will form into sheets of synthetic flesh. The flesh is later cured and worked into a rough approximation of undead flesh and shaped into organs. Then the appropriate necromantic rituals can be worked on them to make them into necrografts, a type of biological augmentation that is... basically what it sounds like.
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