Part 5: Reclaiming the Time-Lost Tear
We played Part 5 over two sessions due to time constraints.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.]
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