LEGO Minifigures Series 27

(See Tim's LEGO Reviews for my reviews of past LEGO Minifigures series.) 

Minifigure Series 27 was released January 1, 2025. As with the past half-dozen series, this one includes twelve unique characters that include a mix of fantasy and futuristic beings, as well as quirky mundane people, and a couple of  costume wearers. I bought 10 of the 12; the two I did not buy are marked with asterisks (*) below, and have less detailed descriptions.

Astronomer Kid: This character has posable short legs, and a huge mop of curly or kinky hair. The only printing is the double-sided head (one side smiling, one side with an eye closed), a cartoon rocket on the shirt, and a collar on the back and front. Their accessory is a brick-built telescope (made of 9 pieces), which my wife (the child of two retired astronomy professors) found highly appealing.

This child also has a removeable prosthetic arm. This is an interesting addition to LEGO's growing representation of people with disabilities and limb differences. Previous Minifigures series have included characters who use prosthetic legs, eyepatches, and wheelchairs, while the City and Friends themes include many other examples. 

Boogeyman: This dark blue furry monster has a large head and comically large mouth, with large red eyes and small blue-gray horns (which have appeared in white in a few other series). It comes with a book with the title "BoOo" printed on the cover and an image of the Boogeyman on the tile inside. This minifigure could be used for a subterranean humanoid monster or a bestial fiend. (The Pathfinder 1E bestiaries includes a nightmare creature template and a bogeyman, though the latter is more human-looking than this minifigure.)

Cat Lover: This character wears a striped sweater knit with cat shapes and pants covered in white cat hairs. The two-sided head includes a smiling face, and one with a stressed expression and cat scratches. Their accessories are a pink ball of yarn and a long-haired white cat (a new mold, I believe).

Cupid: This child-like god has short legs molded in two colors, and a torso printed with a robe or toga, a sash, a pierced heart brooch, and an armband. The head is double-sided with two smiling faces, one with heart-shaped eyes, and is topped with a tussled blond hairpiece. He holds a red bow and a red heart (a modified 1x1 tile). An L-bracket over the neck post allows the attachment of small, feathered wings; these are the smallest wings I've seen on a minifigure to date, which is fitting for Cupid's cutesy cherub look.

Hamster Costume Fan*: This young person wears a hamster costume with two-colored arms and short legs, and a hood-like headpiece. The only accessory is a 1x1 round tile printed to look like a cucumber slice. With a change to a plain white or caramel-colored head, this mini could be used for a humanoid rodent, such as a ratfolk or ysoki.

Jetpack Racer: This spaceman's red, white, and blue suit has Octan branding (the fictional fuel company used in the City theme and some Space sets). The helmet has the number "3" and a red faceplate. The head underneath is double-sided, both with a white astronaut's hood; one side has full face exposed, while the other has a mask over the mouth. The jetpack (built with 4 bricks) attaches to a neck bracket; this covers a printed version on the torso. 

Personally, I find the jetpack design to be a bit clunky, and prefer either space marine-style torso armor or Mandalorian jetpacks for my flying space characters. But this one does provide another option to make individual characters more distinctive.

Longboarder*: This character wears a black and white jersey and ripped pants, and some kind of small backpack. They wear a backwards-facing ballcap over shaggy green hair. The skateboard is a new design, with more exposed wheels.

Pirate Quartermaster: This pirate woman wears colorful clothing with two-colored arms and legs, and extensive printing to add necklaces, a pouch, bracelets, a compass, etc. She has a tattered red cloth skirt, and her black hair is bound up in a red bandanna. Her accessories include a standard cutlass and a white cockatiel with a yellow crest. Her head is double-sided, with a crooked smile on one side and a more open grin on the other.  This figure is a nice addition to the limited number of female pirates, and judging from her title, she holds a more important role among the crew than any of the other women.

Plush Toy Collector: This cute girl wears lavender pajamas with a hood with ears printed on the back, and smaller images on the shoulders. The head is double-sided, one with eyes closed, and she has a pink hairpiece with bangs and a couple small buns. Her two plush toys use identical molds, but one is green and frog-like(?) while the other is blue with a dog face. These pieces would be useful for familiars or other small, cutesy pets.

Pterodactyl Costume Fan: This costume is gray with two colors of blue printing on the front (but none at all on the back). The arms are wing pieces with hands, similar to the Vampire Bat (Series 8 and Monster Hunters theme), but the wings are a new mold. The double-sided head shows a woman wearing lipstick the same gray color as her costume; both sides have open grins, but one is more predatory-looking. 

This minifigure could be converted to an actual pterodactyl by replacing the head with a gray piece, turning the head 180 degrees (to look up rather than forward), removing the legs, then turning the body horizontal rather than vertical. You will need something to raise the body into the air, such as one of the transparent bent stems used in some superhero sets to make the characters look like they are leaping or flying.

Steampunk Inventor: This Victorian gentleman's defining feature is his steam-powered arm, which appears to be a prosthetic strapped to his torso. A piece that fits over the hand makes the arm bulkier, and features a pressure dial and a vent spouting steam. This character has one of the few single-sided heads in this series, as the top hat (complete with printed goggles and a hatband of lighter brown plastic) leaves the back of the head exposed. 

The clockwork hand assembly would make a good addition to a fully-mechanical-looking body to make a more bulky, menacing robot or construct.

Wolfpack Beastmaster: The Beastmaster uses a standard Wolfpack shield (from the classic Castle faction), and has the same emblem on his chest, but his body's print job is far more detailed than any past Wolfpack characters. The two-colored arms and legs show printed chainmail peeking out from under the brown leathers. Both sides of the head show a scar across one eye; one side is in a toothy snarl, which the other has pursed lips to howl. He comes with a fuzzy, fur-like cape and a new hood mold, with a gap under the chin. His weapon is a knight's longsword.

His gray wolf companion has printed eyes and snout, and is about half again as big as a standard LEGO dog (with a footprintn of 1x4 instead of 1x3), making it the perfect size for a menacing Medium-sized wolf. It has a single stud on the back, like the standard dog. (Incidentally, Cupid's wings look surprisingly good on the wolf's back.)

While waiting for this series to come out, I heard that army-builders and resellers were likely to make the Wolfpack Beastmaster the most-sought-for character of the set--much as the Dragonborn Paladin was in the D&D series. Unfortunately, this means that we can expect this character to soon become harder to find, and resale prices to go up steeply. But now that I've acquired one, I can better see why it is so popular: the character is a callback to a fan-favorite faction, the printed details are good, and the wolf is one of the nicest "pets" to appear in a Minifigure series. For now, at least, I'm satisfied with my one, though having multiple wolves could be very useful.

Starfinder Second Edition Playtest: Introducing "Encore"

Like many young vesk, he was trained in the ways of the warrior, but his family also insisted on lessons in a smattering of the arts to instill a bit of culture in him as well.  In one of his first real battles, he died  a painful but glorious death, chanting passages from epic poems until his very last breath. As his life ebbed away, he heard a exquisitely beautiful voice calling to him to return, because he was not yet done making art to please the gods. He awoke as a borai, alone on the battlefield, with a talisman of the sibling-gods Zon-Shelyn clutched in his hand. He made his way home, but like most borai, found that his loved ones had difficulty accepting his new living dead status. The resurrected vesk embraced that pain, vowing to prove himself worthy to be welcomed back into his family, just as his new patron gods had been eventually reunited after a long separation.

Until that time comes, he has set aside his past, refusing to speak his old name or those of his family.  Instead, he has adopted the name "Encore," because he sees this new life as a borai as exactly that--one last chance to be remembered and applauded before the curtain goes down on him for the final time. 

Encore has a pronounced fatalistic streak, but has no desire to die until his last song is finished. He embraces pain as a teacher who helps him appreciate the beauty of life all the more for its fragility. In combat, he is constantly moving and whirling like a dancer, creating macabre art with his painglaive as he fights. He rarely intends to be cruel. Instead, he simply treats battle as an artform--a fusion of pain and beauty, life and death--and one that the artists most beloved by the gods will survive to create anew time after time.

This borai's hide is a sickly gray, with the scars of his mortal wounds still visible in places. Some of these scars cross the lines of spikes along his jaw and skull, leaving broken gaps in his "beard." The only real effort Encore makes to soften his disturbing appearance is to wear sunshades to hide his dimly glowing red eyes--until he decides that he truly wants to terrify someone.

Encore is a player character created for the Starfinder Second Edition Playtest. He was originally created at 1st level in order to play Playtest Scenario #1. I have since created a 10th-level version which I used for Playtest Scenario #3, and also plan to play that version of him in Empires Devoured, a higher-level playtest module which starts at 10th level. I may post that advanced stat block once we begin that adventure.

ENCORE (Borai Vesk, Disciple, Soldier 1)

(Medium; borai, humanoid, undead, vesk)

Perception +2; darkvision, low-light vision

Skills Acrobatics +4, Athletics +5, Crafting +3, Intimidation +5, Lore (Zon-Shelyn) +3, Performance +5

Str +2, Dex +1, Con +4, Int +0, Wis -1, Cha +2

Items painglaive, stellar cannon (2 magazines of 8), freebooter armor, climbing kit, comm unit, commercial cable line (50 feet), commercial sunshades, data chip (Zon-Shelyn text), holy talisman (Zon-Shelyn), hygiene kit, ordinary container, credstick (6 credits)

AC 18; Fort +9, Ref +4, Will +4

HP 24

Speed 20 feet

Melee [1 action] painglaive +5 (powered, reach, tech), Damage 1d10+2 slashing

Melee [1 action] first +1 (agile, finesse, nonlethal, unarmed), Damage 1d4+2 bludgeoning

Ranged [Area Fire, 2 actions] stellar cannon +5 (analog, area [burst 10 feet, DC 17], unwieldy, range increment 50 feet), Damage 1d10 piercing

Baleful Glare [1 action] (borai, concentrate, emotion, fear, mental, visual) A target within 30 feet must make a Will save or be frightened 1 (or 2 on a critical failure). The target is then immune for 24 hours.

Punitive Strike [reaction] Trigger A creature within reach use a manipulate action, ranged Strike, or move action, or leaves a square during a move action; Effect Make a melee Strike against the triggering creature. On a hit, the creature is also suppressed. If the triggering action was a move, it is disrupted.

Whirling Swipe [2 actions] (soldier) A two-handed weapon gains the area (burst) trait with a radius of 5 feet (or the weapon's reach) and unwieldy until the end of Encore's turn. Encore is excluded from the burst, which is centered on one corner of his square. Damage is the same as a melee Strike with that weapon, with a basic Reflex save (DC 17).

Other Class Features close quarters fighting style, primary target, suppressing fire, walking armory

Skill Feats Holy Talisman

Scoured Stars AP: Part 5

 Spoiler Warning: This post contains spoilers for the Scoured Stars Adventure Path. 

See the Scoured Stars Adventure Path: Index page for links to all of my campaign journal blog posts for this AP.

Part 5: Reclaiming the Time-Lost Tear

We played Part 5 over two sessions due to time constraints.

Session 1

Last time, our heroes followed a lead in search of one of several relics originating from the Scoured Stars system. This relic matched the description of one that First Seeker Jadnura, leader of the ill-fated expedition to that system, had used to penetrate the energy shield around those stars. They discovered the izalguun, who had fled that system to be free of a tyrannical god. They had received the relic, but spurning all "godtouched" gifts, had sent it to a secret repository on the moon of another planet in the same system as their new home of Izalraan

The izalguun elder Naarma gave the Starfinder Society permission to attempt to retrieve the relic, and provided directions to the silo where it should be located. The PCs were chosen to go back to the Izal system to retrieve it.

Reaching the moon was routine, but while the Starfinders traveled from the nearest safe landing site to the silo, they were attacked by two faudius demons. These small, cyborg-like fiends had been sent by their mysterious masters to locate the site, but had chosen not to enter after detecting radiation within. They ambushed the PCs to try to prevent them from entering. This proved to be a challenging fight due to their demonic defenses and potent body lasers. 

[The demons had the PCs outgunned, literally, in both accuracy and damage, especially when they opened with a supercharge weapon ability. I ended up ignoring their DR 5/magical, to give the PCs a better chance of survival, because the demons' immunities and resistances made them difficult to damage with energy weapons, and their SR was a challenge for the technomancer.]

After defeating the demons, the PCs spent some time resting before continuing on to the silo. Inside the silo, the found a catwalk which had once been connected to an inner airlock by a bridge, now missing. Below was a long drop into thick smog. This was no obstacle to the PCs, who included two hanakans and an ikeshti with climb speeds, and a maraquoi with a jetpack (loot from their last mission). However, the door was trapped with turret guns, which the team quickly disabled, but not without some injuries.

When they opened the airlock, their radiation badges immediately pinged, as radiation inside the complex poured out into the silo. Gambit and Zzyssa resisted the initial exposure, but Sasha and Sssami were weakened by radiation poisoning. 

They explored the upper level of the repository. The first room of interest contained a sort of nest with shed feathers and skin that they determined contained izalguun DNA, but mutated somehow. Nearby their found the skeleton of a dead izalguun, wearing a strange visor that combined a motion detector with an x-ray scanner.

The next room was a research lab that had been deliberately wrecked. They managed to repair the mainframe, restoring power, but before they could hack into the files, they were interrupted by three defender robots entering the room. Thanks to a comprehend languages spell, they PCs were able to understand the machines' demands to present themselves for scanning. One of them recalled the DNA samples from the nest, which they had collected, and presented those. When that worked, the other three quickly did the same, after which the robots ignored them. [This avoided the fight entirely, and we broke for the night there.]

Session 2

The PCs hacked the mainframe, unlocking the complex's interior doors and turning on the lights. They also found the logs of a mated pair of izalguun who had been caretakers of this place. They found entries about the arrival of the relic, which gave off radiation that caused the caretakers' bodies to mutate and their minds to become more animalistic. The male managed to produce a cure, but before he could use it, his now-paranoid mate killed him and retreated to the lower level to prepare for the birth of their children. (All four PCs made their periodic saves vs. radiation poisoning during this time, so none suffered any worse effects.)

The most obvious passage to the lower level had collapsed since then, so the PCs had to make their way through a chamber with conveyor belts going down to a factory floor obscured by smoke. Their ability to climb or fly made this descent trivial, bypassing one trap without even knowing it and easily deactivating another hazard (pistons on the factory floor) without risk. 

[The first trap was a chute to a trash compactor, which afterwards would have deposited its victims at the bottom of the silo they had entered through--where a scavenger slime would have attacked them before any survivors of the trap could have treated their wounds. Because they did not search the conveyor belt, they did not find the discarded mutation cure, which eliminated the possibility of saving the mutants in the lower level. But I was just as happy not having to run two nasty encounters back-to-back, which could have easily brought the adventure to an abrupt, bloody end.]

The remainder of the lower level was flooded, and mostly consisted of a large chamber that had become a swamp-like pool, still dark due to smashed light fixtures. At the far end, a dim glow could be seen coming from a tear-shaped metal device--the relic the PCs sought! The made their way along the walls to avoid the water and the slimy catwalks that lined part of the room. Their presence was promptly detected by  three mutant, batrachian izalguun hiding in the pool, who attacked when the intruders approached the Tear. 

This was also a tough fight, because the mutants had an easy time hitting them with their tongue lash attack, and hit hard. Sasha was hit by adhesive spittle, and spent the rest of the combat entangled. The party soon worked out that their foes' spitting range was very limited, so mostly stayed out of range. However, Zzyssa (the vanguard) is much more effective in melee combat, so descended to engage one. She was soon grabbed by a tongue and knocked unconscious by two of the izalguun ganging up on the only target they could reach. One of the other PCs managed to deliver some healing to get her back in the fight (with more than the 1 HP she would have had if she had needed to spend a Resolve Point to do the same thing). As the second izalguun was being taken out, Sasha decided to fly down to the Tear to try to stuff it into a null-space chamber the team had found on the upper level. She was foiled momentarily by the relic being adhered to the floor with spittle, but she did get the last mutant's attention! Fortunately, Gambit and Zzyssa intercepted it, keeping it off Sasha while she cut the Tear loose with her laser, and the pair soon ended the fight. 

[I forgot to compare this adventure's stat blocks to the original scenario before running it. Fortunately, there were none of the "wrong subtier" issues from earlier parts of this AP. In the original scenario, the four-player adjustments would have removed one defense robot and one mutant izalguun.]

As the fight ended and the PCs began to search the room for other loot, a strange cloud with a glowing gold triangle at its center appeared for just a moment. [This is a mystery that will be explained later in the AP.] 

While the team collected anything of value from both levels, I asked them to make one last radiation save. Gambit and Zzyssa began to succumb to the radiation, and Sasha's condition deteriorated, as she began to sprout feathers and act more like a bird.  

The Starfinders returned to their ship, reported to Naarma on her species' new homeworld, then returned to Absalom Station with the Tear to report to First Seeker Luwazi Elsebo. They received treatment for their emerging mutations. 

[Sasha had reached the spliced condition stage of the magic radiation. Mental checks become harder at this point, but fortunately no more skill checks were required to finish the adventure. Sasha's player was given the choice of mammalian, avian, or batrachian traits, and chose avian because her hanakan allies' native language, Akan, uses moments of their arm and tail feathers. The team uses Akan as their "secret" language to communicate amongst themselves, despite two of them having atrocious "accents." After the adventure, Sasha wanted to keep the feathers so she would be more fluent. I've decided to allow it as a touch of cosmetic color with an interesting story behind it.]

The PCs were all interested in being part of the efforts to research the Tear. The Starfinder Society learned a few of the Tear's uses:

• A person could use the Tear to learn one language of any of the eight peoples to whom a Tear was sent. But they can only do this once each. (So far, they have only met the izalguun. Because the made friendly contact with that species, I am letting the PCs to also have access to the language through the Culture skill, if they choose.)
• A person could put an imprint of themselves into the device. Once per year, the Tear can be petitioned to return one creature with a stored imprint to life (as raise dead). 

Next time: Our heroes will join Luwazi Elsebo's expedition to the Scoured Stars system, where she will attempt to use the Tear to pierce the Godshield to rescue the Starfinders trapped within. [This will be the first of two multi-table special adapted to a single-party adventure, which makes them double-length scenarios. I anticipate it taking at least 3 sessions, but probably more likely to be four.]

Scoured Stars AP: Part 4

Spoiler Warning: This post contains spoilers for the Scoured Stars Adventure Path. 

See the Scoured Stars Adventure Path: Index page for links to all of my campaign journal blog posts for this AP.

Part 4: On the Trail of History

We played Part 4 over two sessions due to time constraints.  

Session 1

Last time, our heroes discovered records in the Athaeum showing that eight groups had left the Scoured Stars system at some past date. Later, eight relics were sent out along those same trajectories. First Speaker Jadnura had found one of these relics, which had opened up access to the Scoured Stars. If the Society could find another, then they might be able to use it to reach the Starfinders trapped in that system.

A planet called Icefront lay along the path of one of these migrations, so the team was sent there to try to learn more about the relic and the people it was following. As they prepared for their mission, they learned from Ykris (who they had befriended during "The First Mandate") that a Triaxian megacorp named Frozen Trove was thought to be doing clandestine research in the area.

Scenario artwork and minis
for the izalguuns

When the Starfinders reached Icefront, they learned that it had a similar climate to Triaxus, and was currently in its long winter phase. It was inhabited by a species of Large bipeds with four arms, the lower pair of which was sometimes used for faster locomotion. Their ship was hailed by Dr. Monsylkis, the verthani leader of a Winterharvest research facility. Their talk with her was interrupted by the appearance of an unknown starship, which immediately attacked. 

This narrative starship combat was a more evenly-matched battle than their first one (see Part 1), but the PCs held the upper hand the whole time. The enemy's all-out attack failed the first round, while the PCs inflicted 2 hits (out of 5 HP). The next round, the enemy managed to hit, and their vandal drones did additional damage to the ship before the engineer neutralized them. After that, the unknown ship had to spend its turn repairing damage, which left it slightly more vulnerable (regain 2 HP, but its Threshold lowered by 1). They finished it off in the fourth round, with their ship still at 2 HP (out of 5). (See the Conversion Notes below for starship star blocks.)

Dr. Monsylkis, who was just as surprised by the attack as the PCs were, offered to help repair their ship, and give them a tour of her facility. They were accompanied at all times by the doctor and two other base personnel: Farvenzi, the dragonkin head of security, and Spinjack, the ryphorian chief of operations. The tour was an investigation encounter to learn more about the facility before Spinjack insisted that they go on their way. Some keys discoveries included:

• Some of the genetically engineered plants produced here were designed not for agriculture, but to reverse-engineer other companies' pharmaceuticals. Other plants had a strongly addictive effect on the lab's research animals.
• The computers and personal gear of base personnel was surprisingly expensive for a nonprofit.
• The facility included a climate-controlling weather station, which was used to provide a consistent, stable environment for their experiments. However, the scientists were abusing its use by trying to stave off the effects of the beginning of spring.
• Dr. Monsylkis seemed to be perfected sincere and dedicated to her research, while Farvenzi and Spinjack seemed to be hiding something. (The dragonskin and ryphorian were also oddly in sync with each other, suggesting they were a bonded pair with telepathy.)

Dr. Monsylkis was not able to provide any of the information the Starfinders sought about the relic that was sent here, but suggested that they talk with the izalguuns, the species that the PCs' scanners has picked up. The party decided to do this, got directions, and set out.

Soon after their entered the forest, they heard the sound of a fight. They found two izalguun hunters trying to fend off three agitated megafauna--a sort of long-necked giant sloth. They went to the izalguun's assistance, but the beasts proved extremely dangerous and hard to hurt, so both izalguun were badly mauled, and one survived only because the PCs finished off the last beast in time to give the hunter prompt medical attention. (The other had been down for a couple rounds longer, and was beyond help.)

The PCs (lower left) come across a battle between izalguun hunters
(yellow and green bases) and megzoloths (Huge pawns)

After the fight, another group of izalguun approached, led by an elder named Naarma who, unexpectedly, spoken flawless Common. She thanked the Starfinders for their efforts to save the hunters, and rewarded them with a paid of tactical knives and three thermal capacitors--another surprise, given the way the PCs had been told tat the izalguuns were "simple and quaint" creatures. The PCs had many questions, but Naarma asked them to come with her to their tribe's home before answering any of them.

The fight with the megafauna (megzoloths) proved very challenging, as they were high CR for this level, with high AC, attack bonuses, and damage. Because the players were struggling to inflict damage, I reduced their HP by a third, and let the PCs stabilize one of the fallen izalguun when someone reached its side the round after it was dropped to 0 HP (which normally kills anything lacking Resolve Points). After the session, I compared the encounter with the original SFS scenario (#1-13), and found an error in adapting that scenario for the AP: In the original, the PCs face 2 megzoloths at levels 3-4, or 3 at levels 5-6. The AP version makes this part a 4th-level mission, so there should have only been 2 of the beasts. The final fight (next session) appears to use the correct subtier's stat blocks, but I'll be comparing both versions more carefully in future scenarios in this AP. (Note also that the AP does not include any scaling adjustments, as it assumes a party of four PCs. However, in the original, a party of 4 players would have a third izalguun to help balance the fight.)

After the battle: 3 dead megzoloths; 1 dead and 1 dying izalguun.

Session 2

Naarma led the Starfinders to her camp, which was composed of temporary shelters and earthen ziggurats, and populated by izalguun using archaic-looking tools and wearing furs. A closer look, however, revealed that the camp was laid out to optimize access and defense, and the izalguuns' gear incorporated advanced materials. 

Naarma took them inside one of the ziggurats, where the PCs discovered she had pharmaceuticals on par with those of the Pact Worlds, and that the building seemed to be a disguised starship medical bay. The elder showed them an izalguun patient suffering withdrawal symptoms from ingesting some of the plants modified by the Frozen Trove research station. She believed she had identified how to treat the addiction, but lacked the resources to keep pace with the station's output. The elder was cagey about how she knew so much about the station's activities, and how much she knew about the artifact the Starfinders sought. But she was willing to share what she knew on one condition: that the Frozen Trove outpost be removed from this world, which her people call Izalraan. They agreed to this, thinking that Dr. Monsylkis, at least would see reason.

While resting at the camp, the party watched some izalguun playing a sport involving passing a discus. Sasha and Zzyssa asked to join in, and their athletic abilities allowed them to each successfully score a point in the game, gaining the other players' respect. The team captain even took Sasha's rifle and tinkered with the sights to give a bonus to hit targets with cover. [This was a temporary advantage, lasting the duration of this adventure.]

Soon enough, the Starfinders had to return to the research outpost. As they approached the weather station, the security guards there hailed them, claiming Dr. Monsylkis was inside and wished to see them. This was an obvious lie, and one of the PCs noticed one of the three guard talking into his comm unit. But the party went along with the ruse long enough to get better positions for fighting back. The PCs took a few hits but quickly killed or knocked out all three enemies. [The security guards were not a serious threat, being a few levels below the PCs, and outnumbered, but were there merely to soften up the Starfinders before the final battle.]

However, the guards' bosses had been alerted. The Starfinders soon spotted the dragonkin Farvenzi flying towards the weather station from the main installation, with her rhyphorian partner Spinjack on her back. Because the PCs had defeated the guards so quickly [in less then 3 rounds], they had a moment or two to prepare for this next fight. 

During that first fight, Gambit had found the scaffold tower easy to climb, but had trouble holding on when shooting, and fell off. [Their climb speed negated the need for an Athletics check, but an Acrobatics check was needed to keep their footing on the icy tower while doing any other actions.] While waiting for the dragon to arrive, Gambit climbed the tower and tied themself in place so they wouldn't fall.. Meanwhile, the others spread out along the walls and courtyard.

Fighting Farvenzi and Spinjack
(pawns) at the scaffold tower

Farvenzi landed in the courtyard between the nearest wall and the tower, allowing her to threaten both Gambit and Sssami, who stood in the courtyard. Zzyssa rushed into melee with the dragon, flanking her with their fellow hanakan. Meanwhile, Sssami retreated out of melee reach to hurl spells, and Sasha kept up firing her rifle and directing her teammates [using get 'em]. The Starfinders focused fire on the dragon--the biggest threat of the pair--and knocked her out within a few rounds, though she mauled a couple of the PCs pretty well before she fell. Spinjack refused to surrender, and moved around the compound as best he could while fighting, until he was cornered and killed. 

[I forgot until a couple rounds into the combat that dragonkin are immune to fire, and a couple PCs had been using laser weapons. I decided to just ignore the immunity, because it was a tough enough fight without try to retcon that.]

While the Starfinders were still binding their wounds, disarming their fallen foes, and tying up the unconscious dragon, Dr. Monsylkis arrived on the scene and was quite upset by the violence. The PCs presented their evidence that Winterharvest was a Frozen Trove front, that her research was being used for nefarious purposes, and that the local wildlife was being harmed as a result. Their persuasion resulted in the verthani scientist not only agreeing to leave the planet with all her staff, but asking about how to join the Starfinders' organization instead.

Another view of the fight. The red die tracks Gambit's height on the tower (3 squares = 15 ft.) while the Glyph of the Open Road die is a reminder of Sasha's get 'em target. 

In thanks for the Starfinders' help, Naarma provided them with a handwritten star chart showing the location of a moon orbiting another planet in the same solar system. The relic they seek was sent to a secret facility hidden inside the moon. However, the site was designed so that the relic would never be found, so the PCs should proceed with caution. She would not elaborate further, but expressed her hope that the izalguuns' technologically advanced status would remain a secret. The Starfinders pointed out that they would have to report everything to their superiors, but promised to recommend that her people's wishes be respected. 

The team was true to their word when they returned to Absalom Station to report to Luwazi Elsebo. The nominated First Seeker agreed, and showed some concern about Frozen Trove. She felt it likely that the megacorp would eventually learn the Starfinders were responsible for foiling this operation, but hoped they would refrain from retaliation rather than risk drawing more attention to their illegal activities.

During downtime, the PCs heard reports of more attacks across Near Space and the Vast, from mysterious ships matching the description of the one that attacked them near Icefront. These raiders seem to be scouting dozens of systems. 

Next time: Our heroes will return to the Izal system to attempt to recover the Scoured Stars relic from the izalguuns' secret repository.

*****

Conversion Notes: See my post about Part 1 for a discussion about converting Starfinder Society ships. This time, the party chose the Pegasus, which has an improved Computer bonus at this tier. Stat blocks for Tier 4 starships are as follows: 

DRAKE (TIER 4)

Average DC 16; Hard DC 21

HP 5

Skill Modifiers +1 to any three checks per round

PEGASUS (TIER 4)

Average DC 16; Hard DC 21

HP 5

Skill Modifiers +2 to any two checks per round; +4 Computers; +1 Piloting

And here is my converted start block for the ship that ambushes the Starfinders' ship upon their arrival at Icefront:

UNKNOWN STARSHIP (TIER 4)
Average DC 16; Hard DC 21
HP 5; Threshold 2
Skill Bonus +12

Special Abilities
Vandal Drones: When this weapon does a hit to a ship, the shrapnel animates into drones that continue to damage the hull. Each successive round, the struck starship suffers 1 additional hit until the engineer makes a Hard engineering check or the pilot makes a Hard Piloting check to remove the drones. 
Self-Destruct System. 

 

Note: This ship's  original stat block includes the Reversible quality, which gives a bonus to Piloting for the Flip and Burn stunt. Given the more abstract tactical positioning of narrative starship combat, this ability has no effect.

Let Me Tell You About My Character: Remastered Edition

Thibdab of the Dragonskull Tribe, with his new riding drake mount, Tyneri.

Following the uproar over Wizards of the Coast's proposed Open Game License 1.1 in January 2023, Paizo has made a herculean (and still ongoing) effort to remove or change any content in Pathfinder Second Edition that could even potentially be claimed as Wizards' intellectual property. This isn't an edition change, but a "Remaster" of the current edition. Players are welcome to continue using any or all 2E "legacy" content in their home games, but the Pathfinder Society organized play campaign is requiring players to update to the new core rules where those rules differ from the original. Some examples of those changes include (but are not limited to):

• For any character option (such as a feat, spell, or item) that is reprinted using the same name, the Remastered version must be used going forward. Options which have not yet been reprinted may continue to be used freely. 
• When a class is released under the Remaster, no new characters of those classes can be built using the old chassis; new PCs must use the Remastered version of the class. Existing characters are not required to change to the new version, except where changes to specific character options are required to use the new text immediately.
• Alignment has been removed from the game. Instead, the concept of edicts and anathema has been expanded, divine characters are sanctified (which may be holy, unholy, or neither, depending on the god), and alignment damage has been replaced with spirit damage (which counts as holy or unholy if its source is). And instead of forbidding evil characters from PFS play, PCs cannot be clerics or champions of gods that require unholy sanctification.
• Schools of magic have been removed from the game. The school-based wizard subclasses have been replaced with actual magical schools built around various themes. Options that depended heavily on the old schools of magic (like the Rune-Lord archetype and school-themed staves) are no longer available for play.

To make the transition less onerous for players, all characters who received XP before November 2023  receive a free, complete rebuild. Players have until the end of December 2024 to use these rebuilds. The dates were chosen because Player Core (containing 8 of the 16 core classes) was released at GenCon 2023 and Player Core 2 (containing the remaining core classes) at GenCon 2024, and players would need some time to update their characters, if they wished to do so.

(NOTE: All of the above is, obviously, a gross oversimplification, because this column is meant to focus on my own characters, not attempt to explain the Remaster as a whole. Full details on how the Pathfinder Remaster affects PFS can be found here.)

I currently have nine active characters in PFS 2E, but I had to wait for Player Core 2 to be released before I could Remaster most of them. Six belonged to classes that appeared in that book, three had ancestries or versatile heritages that appear there, and three had non-multiclass archetypes. (There was also a great deal of overlap between those categories--like my catfolk monk/pirate.) In the end, I chose to rebuild only two before Player Core 2 dropped, because in one case, I decided to ditch their archetype, and the other one belongs to a non-core class that will not be reprinted before the deadline.

Thibdab (goblin champion 10) is a redeemer champion of Sarenrae, and his character choices have largely focused on his animal companion mount and becoming an extremely efficient healer. His last adventure brought him to 10th level, when he could take the Imposing Destrier feat to finally increase his wolf companion's size to Large. (He could--and did--ride it at Medium size, but the Bulk of a goblin in heavy armor encumbered his mount.) However, in the same adventure, he unlocked access to a riding drake companion. As a goblin of the Dragonskull Tribe, he couldn't resist make the switch! The Remaster changed the champion's access to an animal companion to be through a feat (Faithful Steed) rather than a class feature, so I made that change to his feats. 

As a healer, Thibdab has the lay on hands focus spell, Medicine skill at master rank, and nearly every Medicine skill feat available at his level. I changed his background from laborer to combat medic to give him one of those skill feats for free. I didn't know about the Medic archetype for most of his early career, but as part of his rebuild, I decided to give him the dedication feat for the small boost to healing. (Treat Condition and Holistic Care are skill feats, so are likely choices for the future. Doctor's Visitation seems powerful, but not really compatible with mounted combat.)

Thibdab's new mount's mini (shown at the top of this page) is the red Dragon Costume mini with the head replaced with a plain black head. Riding drakes are wingless, so I've replaced that part with the clear part used to add attachment points to the back of a minifigure. I have also changed Thibdab's legs to the short hinged type so that he could be posed while riding.

Millicent Velarno (human sorcerer 9) has the hag bloodline, so I would have liked to make her a changeling from the start, but that ancestry boon would have cost me nearly every Achievement Point I had accumulated by then. (She was my second PFS 2E character, built long before everyone was given 80 bonus AcP, and I wanted to keep a reserve in case of a character death or other dire fate.) The rebuilds in the boon store don't allow a change of ancestry or heritage, so I couldn't change that later on, either. But the Remaster rebuild is much more generous, so she's now a changeling (which have since become free), though still human. I kept her Linguist archetype, and made only minor tweaks to her spell list (mostly to clean up the assignment of her signature spells). Visually, the only change is that one of her eyes is now a different color from the other. I have not given her any ancestry feats granting claw attacks, because she has always actively avoided entering melee.

Xathel (elf investigator 7) started as a Thassilonian Delver (one of the Legacy Backgrounds I have access to from having played PFS 1E), and his adventures have included an Azlanti site and multiple visits to ancient dwarf ruins. So it was natural that I gave him the Archaeologist Dedication feat when I rebuilt him. He was originally an ancient elf, which gave him a free multiclass dedication at 1st level; I had taken rogue, for the extra skills. But Archaeologist took up the slack in skills, so I changed him to a whisper elf to make him even better at finding things. Beyond that, I made very few changes. 

I updated Xathel last of my nine PCs, partly because of adding the archetype, and partly because investigators gain skill increases and skill feats at an increased rate, so there were more choices (and math) to double-check.

Grazga (half-orc summoner 3) belongs to a class that will not be Remastered, or at least not anytime soon. That mostly just left her ancestry and heritage to update, since half-orcs are now called "dromaar" and are no longer restricted to being a human heritage. I kept her ancestry as-is, though, because as a Sarkorian god-caller, I felt that she needed to be at least partly human to have a blood-tie to her culture.

Samara Sawleaf (leshy fighter 5) originally had the Mauler archetype, but once she reached 5th level, fighter weapon mastery made the dedication feat pretty much redundant for her chosen weapon group (polearms). After careful comparison of  fighter and mauler feats, I felt that the archetype didn't add enough to justify keeping it. Because of that decision, I was able to rebuild her before acquiring Player Core 2 (where the mauler was reprinted with no changes that I could find).

Samara's new mini uses the Halfling Druid's leaf-like cloak (from the new D&D Minifigures series), which is almost a perfect match for how I drew her cloak in her character portrait. 

Professor Felicity Featherwit (halfling rogue 6) is another character that I could have easily remastered before Player Core 2, but I was waiting to see if her versatile heritage (ganzi) would make the cut first. It did not, and I did not expect her Juggler archetype to appear there either, since it appeared in an Adventure Path. I was very happy with the way I had built her, so I think the biggest change to her is the fact that Remastered rogues are proficient with all martial weapons. That will not have any effect on her weapon choices, though, as she very much prefers finesse weapons (with which she uses Dexterity to calculate damage, being a thief).

Coracle Jibbs (catfolk monk 3) had to wait for Player Core 2 for his ancestry, class, and archetype (Pirate). But other than a couple tweaks to his Lore skills (Pirate now gives a new Lore rather than advancing Sailing Lore, and Catfolk Lore gives Additional Lore), he did not really change.

Veellox (kobold oracle 2) was originally built as a dragonscale kobold who took the Dragon Disciple Dedication feat at 2nd level. That archetype was not reprinted, but the brand-new dragonblood versatile heritage does very much the same thing, just with ancestry feats rather than class feats. So he now has that heritage instead, and will have to wait until 3rd level to get a breath weapon through Ancestral Paragon. He doesn't have any abilities requiring him to choose a draconic exemplar yet, but I've already decided it will be a fortune dragon.

He was also originally a snare crafter, because of a boon from a Adventure Path chronicle that gave access to new snares. But he had yet to deploy any snares in game, because they take time and materials to set up, so don't seem terribly practical for PFS play. I decided to drop that idea, and change his background from Sewer Dragon to Merchant, to play up the "knowledgeable about wealth and trying to acquire more" aspect of being obsessed with dragons, and his chosen exemplar in particular.

The way oracular curses work changed substantially in the Remaster--the benefits of being cursebound were removed, and in some cases, the drawbacks were simplified. I've seen a number of complaints about these changes online, but Veellox is only 2nd level, so has rarely ever triggered his curse, so I'm not terribly attached to how it works. The original Ancestors curse was one of the most complicated to track, so the new curse is at least simpler to implement (and it has been triggered in both sessions I've played him since Remastering him). If I do decide that I still want to play with the concept of random ancestor spirits giving bonuses in return for obedience to their demands, that has been redone as the Meddling Futures feat. 

(Up until now, I've used a reptilian humanoid D&D mini to represent Veellox, largely due to a limited supply of suitable LEGO heads. But with the new D&D Minifigures series, I now have a dragonkin head to spare, and gold is one of the two colors in his scales (the other being green).

Aikhaheni (kitsune barbarian 2) is a duskwalker barbarian with the spirit instinct. His bonus damage while raging is now spirit damage rather than positive or negative, which fits nicely with his devotion to Pharasma. Apart from that he did not change at all, even in his minor gear. His ancestry did not appear in Player Core or Player Core 2, so will continue to follow the rules in the Ancestry Guide. 

LEGO Minifigures: Dungeons & Dragons

(See Tim's LEGO Reviews for my reviews of past LEGO Minifigures series.)

Ironically, Hasbro licensing the LEGO Group to produce "official" D&D-branded minifigures and sets coincided with my family and many of our gaming friends losing interest in D&D following the Open Game License 1.1 fiasco in January 2023. So I initially had very mixed feelings about the announcement of a D&D Minifigures series. However, the characters and parts chosen for this series, and a huge dose of nostalgia, persuaded me to collect a full set. 

This set of 12 includes a mix of four named characters from D&D lore (like Strahd and Tasha), one classic D&D monster (mind flayer), and seven characters defined by their race and class.  Most of these unnamed adventurers come with two double-faced heads--one male and one female (or at least presenting that way)--and each hero has been given a different skin tone as well. With WotC and other game publishers increasing their efforts to be more inclusive and representative, this is a very welcome addition to the Minifigures theme. (The LEGO Group has been making similar changes in other themes as well, most notably the Friends theme, which has always provided a wide variety of skin tones, and has recently introduced some characters--and even pets--with disabilities.) Very few of these characters disappoint on their level of detail, often incorporating two-color molding, printing on the sides of arms and legs, and distinctive accessories.

Aarakocra Ranger: Aarakocra* are avian humanoids who excel at aerial combat. Many are rangers, though somewhat surprisingly, this one has chosen a landbound companion, a small gray dog. This hero has the same digitigrade legs used for the Faun (Series 15) and Harpy (Series 25), in a new color and print. The head and wings are new molds; the wings are a single, fixed-position piece, but have a more natural curve than past options. I am not certain if the bow is a new mold (I think it is to my collection), but the tan color certainly is. 

* Aarokocra first appeared in the AD&D 1E Fiend Folio. For their 5E stats, see the Elemental Evil Player's Companion.

Dragonborn Paladin: The dragon head profile on this paladin's shield shows allegiance to Bahamut, the god of good dragons. They wear full plate (minus helm) with huge pauldrons. The torso is printed front and back underneath the cuirass, as well as on the sides of the arms and legs. The paladin's weapon is a mace with a large, translucent crystal head and a gold tassel on the shaft. The head is also a nice sculpt and print job, which has appeared in other themes (and, I believe, in the huge initial D&D set), but is in gold here for the first time.

Dwarf Barbarian: This is one of the five character with two double-sided heads; this one is brown, with an orange beard printed on the male head. (The heads alone are welcome additions to any collection, just for more diversity in available dark-skinned heads.) The dwarf wields a torch and a battleaxe that (AFAIK) is a new mold. A tan fur collar covers the shoulders of a torso printed front and back, and on the arms. The axe pendant (front) and hunting horn (back) are nice details.

The legs are the mid-length, jointed legs that debuted in Harry Potter sets a few years back. These, however, lack any printing at all, which has both pros and cons. They're kind of dull compared to the other legs in this series, but this leg length is still fairly uncommon, so having a unprinted set to use for other characters may be useful to some builders.

Elf Bard: This character's skin is a pale caramel, basically a shade yellower than the peachy-pink default for licensed "white" characters. (It's close enough that the elf-ears hairpiece could be used with either and not look bad.) Naturally, both heads come with a "singing" side. The costume consists of a raspberry scarf (and hands), a teal vest with white arms, and two-tone brown (dual injection) legs. Fittingly for a bard, the most detailed piece is their lute. 

Gith Warlock: The githzerai* and githyanki* are closely related races that dwell in Limbo and the Astral Plane, respectively. Long relegated to adversarial roles only, they became a playable race in 5E and are currently more popular than ever thanks to the latest Balder's Gate game. This one has the facial markings typical of both races (more pronounced on the "male" head), and the classic LEGO yellow is a decent match for gith skin tones. The hairpiece is black dreads or braids gathered into a topknot, and would work well with elves and similar races, too. For the warlock, the body is printed with an amulet, potion bottles, and pouches, and subtle black spirals on the dark blue base. The legs are dual-injected to give brown boots, which match the hands/gloves and spiky shoulder pads. The gith wields a unique dagger (that seems to evoke the gthyanki's distinctive swords in miniature) and a staff topped by a large eyeball.

* Githzerai and githyanki first appeared in the AD&D 1E Fiend Folio. For their 5E stats, see Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes.

Halfling Druid: The druid's two heads are caramel-colored, and the male head sports the muttonchops common to many 5E halflings. The torso is printed front and back, but the legs (being short) are dual-injected but unprinted. The cape is dagged to resemble a leaf, and is reversible, with brown and green sides. The latter side matches the hood, which is a very nice piece, dual-injected with hard rubber tan antlers. The remaining accessories are a staff topped with a flower and leaves, and a small, dark tan sparrow.

The Lady of Pain: The mysterious Lady of Pain rules the many-portaled city of Sigil in the Planescape setting. Her robes are orange with printing on front and back, and she wears an orange cloth cape that is split into four streamers below the shoulders. She wears her distinct many-bladed helmet over a plain black minifigure head. She carries a cubic gate made from a 1x1 plate and a printed 1x1 tile, and levitates on a clear 2x2 cylinder brick. This minifig of my two least favorites in this series, mostly because I have never delved much into Planescape lore, and the parts could be challenging to use in another context. 

Mind Flayer: The mind flayer, or illithid, is one of the most classic of D&D monsters (and is, in fact, one of the ten monsters from the 3E Monster Manual that were never released as Open Game Content, as I discussed here). The pale purple, squid-like head is very nicely sculpted, and is set off well by the relatively simple body (black robes with printed shoulder plates on the torso and arms). It comes with an intellect devourer, a monster created by the illithids (and featured in the Honor Among Thieves movie). The 'devourer is designed to fit over the head of its minifigure victim, which is a lovely macabre touch.

Szass Tam: This lich is one of the rulers of the magocratic nation of Thay (which is not one of the regions of the Forgotten Realms setting that I know much about). His red robe is printed on front and back, and he wears a two-piece dark red cape. His head and hands are bone-colored , and the facial print includes some small details that elevate it above most LEGO skeletons. He makes a very distinctive lich enemy for any campaign, but I was underwhelmed by his accessories, which consist of a transparent orange flame projectile and a transparent red skull. The skull's classic LEGO skeleton face is printed in plain black, so is hard to see on the head.  

Strahd von Zarovich: Strahd is the most famous vampire in all of D&D, having been the signature villain of the Ravenloft setting ever since the debut of the module of the same name in AD&D 1E. His torso and legs are elaborately printed, including on the arms, and the legs are dual-injected to give him dark brown boots. His head has two faces: one with a smug smirk (well known to anyone whose character has met him) and one with fangs bared for killing. He holds a clear crystal goblet (for holding blood, of course) and a longsword (one of the longer knight's sword models). He comes with a large, red-eyed black rat.

Tasha the Witch Queen: Tasha (also known as Iggwilv) is the one witch who could ever rival her mother, Baba Yaga. This minifigure is clearly based on her portrait on the cover of Tasha's Cauldron of Everything--even to the windblown red hair. Her legs are dual-injected, and arms are printed with buckled straps like the ones on her torso. She comes with a cauldron with a transparent purple flame, and an arcane-looking book with a printed cover and a printed 1x2 tile for the page inside. 

Tiefling Sorcerer: The final adventurer provided with two heads, the tiefling has orange skin, which matches their tail. Black hair is tied into a bun behind brown horns. The torso is printed on front, back, and arms, and the legs are dual-injected to provide black boots. The sorcerer's accessories are an energy effect in transparent pink, almost certainly meant to be magic missile, and a small red dragon  The dragon would be perfect for small draconic familiars, such as a pseudodragon (though those have tail stingers, and this one does not), or for a wyrmling red dragon (though in 5E, those would be Medium-sized). 

The tiefling sorcerer is probably my favorite character for this series, for several reasons: 1. I'm fond of tieflings in general, so more variety is better; 2. The hairpiece lacks ears so can be used with just about any other LEGO head; 3. The magic missiles are simple but dramatic, and 4. The dragon is, simply, the best dragon LEGO has ever produced at this scale. My next favorites are the mind flayer and the dragonborn paladin, then probably the halfling druid (whose hood and cloak I already plan to steal for building existing player characters of my own).

Scoured Stars AP: Parts 2 and 3

Spoiler Warning: This post contains spoilers for the Scoured Stars Adventure Path. 

See the Scoured Stars Adventure Path: Index page for links to all of my campaign journal blog posts for this AP.  (Note: Part 1 has been updated to add narrative starship combat stat blocks for the Drake and Pegasus.)

Part 2: The First Mandate

In this adventure, Luwazi Elsebo and Radaszam ask the PCs to attend a gala at which the First Seeker will make an important speech. Their primary job will be to influence certain guests who have instrumental in the Starfinder Society's recovery from the losses of the Scoured Stars incident.

The influence encounter featured 5 NPCs, including two important Starfinders (Venture-Captain Naiaj and Forum member Royo); undead media mogul Zo!; Ykris, representative of a biotech company; and Iteration-177 of the Aspis Consortium. Our heroes struggled at first to learn what skills would be useful to influence these dignitaries, and never did learn any of the mysterious android Iteration-177's personal foibles. However, they did do better in the second half of the encounter, and just barely managed to fully influence all five in the allotted time. 

[Those who had played this adventure before were shocked that they managed to influence Iteration-177, as they assumed this would be more  difficult than the others. However, the DCs were the same across the board, and they just had poor dice luck with the Apsis agent until very near the end.]

The highlight of the encounter was Gambit's interactions with Ykris, who was a symbiotic parasite bonded with a half-elven host. As an evolutionist, Gambit was keenly interested in augmentations (though their own are strictly cybernetic) and proved to be knowledgeable and entertaining on the subject. Gambit also leapt at the chance to experience the symbiotic relationship for themself, very briefly (earning an automatic success).

Once that portion of the ball was done, Radaszam approached the PCs to help him investigate a potential threat to the event. He had reason to believe that a dangerous assassin known as Triloteya was on the station, and that they might intend to target someone at the gala. His sources had provided an address, and the PCs went to check it out. They found a workshop guarded by a shock-trapped door and two electrovores. Once they dealt with these defenses, they found ample evidence of the assassin's plan to target the First Speaker at the gala, using explosives.

Conferring with Radsaszam on the way back, the PCs were given the choice of whether to deal with the assassin while the vesk's Obsidian Spiders dealt with the bombs, or to split the party to try to tackle both threats at once (riskier, but potentially earning more glory for the Starfinders). They decided on the latter, but soon discovered that the two technically-oriented PCs lacked the Perception skills to find the bombs quickly. (Nobody in this party is outstanding at Perception.) I allowed them to change plans on the fly, and call in Radaszam's team to deal with the explosives while those two PCs joined the others in confronting the assassin. Despite the close quarters of the audio-visual booth, Triloteya proved to be hard to pin down thanks to her operative training. The PCs did finally manage to take her down just as she tried to flee the area, and kept her distracted enough to not set off the explosives (which the Obsidian Spiders finished defusing a few rounds later).

With the threat averted--very publicly--Luwazi was able to make her speech. She announced that the primary goal of her tenure as First Seeker would be researching the Scoured Stars, in the hopes of rescuing the Starfinders trapped there. And the PCs would be just the right team for the first mission toward that end...

Part 3: In Pursuit of the Scoured Past

The First Seeker tasked the PCs with escorting Royo to the mysterious library world of Athaeum, which stores knowledge that exists nowhere else, to seek information about the Scoured Stars. They were offered a ride there by Iteration-177, who was already acquainted with the Curators of Athaeum. 

During the voyage through the Drift, Iteration-177 invited the PCS to dinner with their other guests, two Helknights of the Order of the Pyre. The android owned a pencibiter, a device that translated memories and thoughts into food, and they asked each guest to contribute a memory to share. The memories that the Starfinders chose to share were: 

• Sasha: The memory of her death, on the job when she worked for a mob boss. (Tasted fiery and spicy; choleric.)
• Zzyssa: The first time that they were punched in the face during a dance-off (a popular way to settle disputes among hanakans). (Lemony/citrusy taste; sanguine.)
• Sssami: The hatching of his children, after the violence involved in ikeshti mating. (Eggy taste, happy but bittersweet; sanguine.)
• Gambit: They were shunned by their people for becoming obsessed with technology (which  most hanakans strongly distrust). However, this led to them being able to be themself. (Phlegmatic.)

[The italicized descriptors will have an effect later in this adventure path. For now, the PCs only know that the choice had some importance, but not why yet.]

The PCs also experienced memories from Royo (a dry taste and smell of enjoying reading old books) and the two Hellknights: One underwent an ordeal of fire, emerging unscathed. The other was some kind of fiery fiend who inhabited the armor of a Hellknight who died during the ritual that summoned him.

At the Athaeum, each of the three groups (the Starfinders, Iteration-177, and the Hellknights) were met by an axiomite Curator, who reviewed the rules of accessing the archives. One fundamental rule was that no copy of any kind could be made of the knowledge found here, but an exception would be made for information on the Scoured Stars, because the Curators had learned that their copies were no longer the only ones in existence. [As explained in a sidebar, this was a change to the original adventure to fix some plot holes relating to why the PCs were allowed to copy the information they sought to take elsewhere.] The Athaeum teleports from place to place, but had suffered some damage in its most recent transit, so the Curator requested that the PCs do a couple of tasks for them, in exchange for a reduction in the astronomical fee to access the vaults. 

The first issue involved a machine virus that had breached containment and infected some of the library's mechanical guardians. These needed to be destroyed, and the virus downloaded so that it could be safely stored once more. The PCs fought the two constructs, taking a number of injuries from the lore wardens' spells, but prevailed and then easily downloaded the virus for storage. They then rested for a while before continuing. Sasha made the mistake of trying to examine some scrolls floating in special containers in the room, and suffered some Wisdom damage as a result. (Her player played up the fact that Sasha now had only an effective Wisdom of 5 by making her brashly overconfident and eager to be in the thick of things for the remainder of the adventure.) 

The second task required them to track down a ksarik that had escaped its cage, and needed to be returned there. The PCs managed this with minimal harm. 

With the tasks completed, they were able to proceed to the vault containing data on the Scoured Stars. This data was stored in a mindmaze, a psychic device that allowed characters to enter the maze on its surface. Ssamai and Sasha entered the mindmaze, while Royo, Gambit, and Zzyssa provided guidance from outside. They reached the center quickly, without taking any psychic strain, and were treated to a vision of the history of the Scoured Stars--including one detail that Royo thought was a significant lead. 

Almost immediately after completing the mindmaze challenge, the Curator sent a message requesting help. The Hellknights were burning books in one of the library's vaults. The PCs rushed to stop them, being both outraged by the destruction and eager to have their access fee reduced even further.

Fighting the Hellknight arsonists

They reached a vault where two Hellknights guarded the entrance,  while two others and Loomarch (the fiend) burned books in the chamber below. This was a long, grueling fight that pushed our heroes to the limit. Here are a few highlights:

• Sssami cast holographic console to clone the controls to the fire-suppressing cryo-nozzles (located on the other side of the two Hellknights at the entrance), and spent most of the fight putting out fires and dealing cold damage to Hellknights in the line's path. (One Hellknight was knocked out solely, or very nearly so, by repeated blasts from the nozzles.)
• Sasha headed down into the chamber below fairly early on, and played cat and mouse with a couple of the Hellknights there. (She has the combat expertise alternate class feature for envoys, but Hellknights have high Intimidate scores to resist demoralizing, so she rarely did as much damage as she hoped to.) 
• After trading blows with the Hellknights at the entrance for a few rounds, Zzyssa moved down into the lower room to face off with Loomarch. They managed to land a couple critical hits on the fiend, but then the devil grabbed them in its claws. They easily made the saves to avoid losing a limb to Loomarch's incinerating maw, but suffered enough fire damage to go unconscious within two rounds of being grabbed.
• Gambit used their climb speed to mostly keep out of the range of the Hellknights' flamethrowers and pikes. This left them with fewer wounds than the vanguard or envoy, which meant they were able to played a key part in taking down Loomarch late in the fight, when Zzyssa was running out of HP and time.
• The cyro-nozzles had very little effect on Loomarch (despite being a fiery being, it was also cold-resistant) so Sasha did not engage. (Her longarm does cold damage, and she did not like her changes in melee against it.) Instead, she gave some inspiring boosts to her allies and pumped healing serums into Zzyssa to keep the hanakan vanguard standing a little longer. 
• Sssami joined the fight once the lesser Hellknights were taken out, and cast spells at Loomarch. Gambit also moved closer to harass the devil, but got a bit too close, and became its next target after Zzyssa was taken out. A critical hit seriously wounded the hanakan evolutionist, and threatened more pain, except that Sssami took down Loomarch with a junk shards spell before it could try to incinerate any of Gambit's limbs.

With the Hellknight threat ended, the Curators happily waived the Starfinders' fee, and the team was able to leave with a new lead: the path of a relic similar to the one First Seeker Jadnura had discovered and used to enter the Scoured Stars. If they could recover that second relic, perhaps they could use it to reunite with the lost Starfinders. 

Next time: "On the Trail of History," in which our heroes will follow the trail of the strange relic.

Loomarch, unique devil Hellknight

[Update 11/30/2024: Gambit's player has decided to name their evolutionist's augmentations after X-Men: their datajack is Charles, thrusters are Storm, and voice amplifier is Banshee.]