Date: 2018-07-16
Player Characters (330 points):
ESA1000 45460 (4-5 for organics), humanoid engineering robot
Gaichu Koschei, android infiltrator/assassin
James Titus Kane, human legendary starship Captain of the Stewards Navy (retired)
Alva von Kirchess, aasimar diva / Captain of the Knights of Golarion (retired), breach and clear specialist
Notable NPCs:
Archibald Grey, renowned explorer
After deciding to seek their fortune in the mysterious Hidden Suns nebula, the adventuring company was through their network of contacts introduced to the renowned explorer Archibald Grey. He contacted them online with a job proposal: escort him on a dangerous expedition in search for a specific item, serving as his security detail and performing a wide range of exploration-related tasks. The offer was sound, 5000 credits down payment and a further 25000 after the expedition’s completion (successful or not) for each of them, or an equal share in any treasure found. To be decided at the expedition’s conclusion, which itself should last no longer than a month and a half. Further details he would only reveal in person.
The company accepted the invitation and set out to meet Archibald aboard the starship Wanderer, roaming the Hidden Suns and serving as the base camp for all exploration of the nebula. Recommended by Archibald, they arranged for transport with a tramp freighter captain doing supply runs for the Wanderer.
Approaching the captain to discuss payment, Alva banked on her looks and celebrity reputation to haggle a good price. It didn’t matter – he was star struck to have the legendary Captain James T. Kane as a passenger. He and his entourage were to fly for free. Jimmy Kane!
The flight to the Hidden Suns was uneventful. Alva composed scores for her next album, Gaichu sat in a corner and sharpened his blades, while 4-5 just stood there plugged into a wall socket, browsing the ship’s databanks. He and Gaichu also maintained each other a couple times. Jimmy just enjoyed the captain’s cabin, who graciously turned it over to him for the trip and bunked with the rest of the passengers.
After 19 days in the Drift, the freighter appeared in the Centerpoint system. Asteroids and debris as far as eyes and sensors can see, and a giant metal sphere in the center, letting through what little starlight of the captured star managed to escape it through its rings. The Wanderer was unfortunately at the other side of the system, so they flew another 6 days through the debris.
Reaching the Wanderer, they docked in one of its many hangar bays. Disembarking, Alva went to look for a rental hovertrolley for her baggage pile. Meanwhile, 4-5 made acquaintance with a local load lifter droid. Alva ended up buying the hovertrolley instead of renting it. The freighter captain thanked them for this wonderful opportunity, and gave them his contact details if they needed him in the future.
The company set out to find the Four Point Star hotel where they were supposed to meet with Archibald. Aboard a turbolift, Alva and Gaichu experienced a slight sickness in the stomach, while Jimmy had to hold down his breakfast in his mouth with his hand, muttering something about accursed mid-section gravity planes. The lift opened up to one of the habitat decks, this one with a simulated day and night cycle. It appears it was around noon. On their way through the streets, 4-5 noticed that the ratio of miniature organics still upgrading themselves rapidly to that of the standard models was lower than usual.
Finding the hotel, which appeared to be decently classy but nothing too luxurious, Alva rented a luxury room (bit below her standard really) for three weeks. Exploring this concept of “renting a room”, 4-5 rented one of the cheapest ones, suspecting the receptionist of ripping him off. The small room with a bed folding into the wall and a view to a bulkhead wall didn’t help. Gaichu just manned the bar until their meeting with Archibald tonight. Jimmy soon arrived there too, accompanied by a gaggle of women. Jimmy Kane! Sometime during late afternoon, he just faceplanted on the table, the girls poked him a bit, shrug and left. Gaichu collected him and paid (out of Jimmy’s pocket, as usual) the hotel staff to clean him up and get him back to his room.
It was eventually evening, and Alva came down to the bar in one of her uncountable night-time outfits after an afternoon of relaxation. Gaichu changed his appearance to be wearing a suit for a business meeting. 4-5 was there too, observing once again this strange protocol the organics have for changing their outer shell periodically. Jimmy was still in his room, and would be until sometime tomorrow when he would wake up with a monster hangover.
Archibald arrived, and led the company to join him in a private part of the bar. After the transparent isolation walls closed, he revealed that he was actually looking for the final resting place of the legendary pirate captain Harkwood, the item he was seeking being Harkwood’s equally legendary ship the Black Star Diamond. He came into the possession of a lead to Harkwood’s last destination, in the form of logs belonging to one of Harkwood’s liutenants written just before his departure, inherited by his descendants. Apparently, Harkwood’s last journey was right here to the Hidden Suns, specifically to the planet Glacigneous orbiting one of the Vertices. Alva was suspicious about how was Archibald able to dig up this intel since the Knights of Golarion have always been on Harkwood’s trail and were looking for him since he disappeared those 50 years ago, but haven’t managed to find out anything so far. Gaichu countered that people don’t just go bragging around that their relatives were space pirates, unless they are themselves similar unsavory types, which is not a guarantee. Archibald seemed honest enough and Alva could smell no deception, so she let it go. 4-5 was confused as to why would anyone spend significant resources and embark on a dangerous journey to find something that they weren’t actually sure it was there. Archibald explained that it was called risk, and that without risk there was no reward. Gaichu tangentially brought up the topic of gambling, which 4-5 went to google in his head straight away. He narrowly avoided mental stun, because it definitively did not compute. But he did recognize that this was what Jimmy was doing so often, and some things about his illogical behavior have now started to make sense. The company accepted the deal, received their down payment, and arranged with Archibald to embark on the expedition in three days, in order to obtain some additional gear in the meantime.
The next day, Alva wanted to find out how exactly was the Wanderer governed, but critically failed her Administration roll. She got the impression that it was a completely lawless hive of scum and villainy. Wanting to find out where she could buy some maps of Glacigneous, she went around intimidating the locals until she got a line on some expedition gear stores. The clerk was somewhat perplexed by her request and didn’t really know which price to ask, so he offered it for 10 credits, which Alva bargained down to 5 since he didn’t really care. Downloading the map, it became clear to her why the clerk was so confused. The map was really just an orbital hi-res photo of the planet. There were no detailed maps of Glacigneous, as none of the planets within the Hidden Suns are actually properly charted. It was a good thing she was in a mellow mood, so she also bought some gear from the store.
Gaichu spent the days, aside from shopping, in the bar drinking on Jimmy’s expense, as is customary after Jimmy ends up needing to be taken care of. Jimmy was also drinking on his expense, just much more than Gaichu and in many more establishments. Just before their departure, Alva rented out a secure storage unit for her stuff, and in the meantime managed to discover that there is a semblance of law here, called “don’t do stupid things or all of the active and retired adventurers who live here will draw on you”. The local crime rate was actually very, very low.
Lair Of The Chaotic GM 