Fellowship of the Dice

Travel through the Drift is chaotic and dangerous, a mysterious realm revealed by the god Triune. The hyperdimensional region connects with every point simultaneously, and is only safely navigable by the shining Drift Beacons extending from real-space. Vast areas of it appear to be empty, but chunks of other realms chaotically drift through it. After having escaping the impending Corpse Fleet, the Loreseeker finds itself juking around sections of broken buildings and stone statuary somehow here.

The surviving crew is able to begin triage, saving the lives of those injured in the fighting. Barkley limps up to the cockpit, checking in with the hired champions. "Looks like everyone who made it back in will live, assuming no weird curses or something are at work." He leans against a bulkhead, taking the weight off of a lamed leg. "Was the mission worth it? Did you find anything beyond death and madness in there?"

Quig remains in the engine room, but Scout is up with the others, and a interface is set up between the two. The rat-man speaks through the drone, and it pivots here and there so its camera can focus on those talking at the time. Out of the drone comes Quig's slightly pixilated voice, "We found much-much in the computer systems. We did good, got what we needed, more even. Need access to a computer to decrypt. Need computer off network!"

Keskodai's healing, mundane and mystical, has done all it can. It is now in Pharasma's hands who lives and who perishes. The work has restored his pleasant fatalism, and he nods to Scout.

"Quig is right. Our haul of data may have even more value than we'd hoped."

Chk-Chk keens lightly. Keskodai taps the cradle-jar.

"Don't worry, my son. The bad skeleton man is far away, and Daddy will never let him hurt you."

Barkley perks up, looking a lot less stoic than before. "Really? We should probably pull in Arvin then, to give a status update. He'd know a lot better than I what to do with the encrypted files." He sits down and makes the call. It takes some time to find a clear signal through the chaos of The Drift, but eventually the signal clears up enough that the face of the Venture-Captain shines through on the screen.

The pleasant visage of the damaya Lashunta smiles. "It's been a while, friends. I'd been beginning to worry that you might disappear just the the Unbounded Wayfarer did. Anything to report?"

Quig joins the group when the call is being placed. He helps to try and clear the signal up and when the picture shows he holds up the data drive, "Data-data! Lots of it, encrypted, secret-secret, so much. We had to kill the dead again and again, but the big-big one we just ran from. Too Big-big for us." He shrugs and his nose and ears twitching, his tale sweeping side to side nervously behind him.

The Starfinder officer just kind of gives a slow blink at the verbal barrage coming from the ysoki's mouth. "Well then. I'm glad you are alive and well, goodman Quig." He pauses, parsing the fast-talk that he has just heard. "Encrypted data, you say? And something big? Like, a warship showed up? How did you get this secret intel?"

"A fair-sized fleet. The Threnody had an undead of great power aboard who seemed to heal the communications system enough to raise a distress signal. Speed was our ally."

Keskodai fidgets with his mustache. Running clearly doesn't sit well with him, even though it was clearly the smartest choice.

The image isn't as detailed as real life, given the constraints of metaphysical distance and available tech, but the Venture-Captain appears to look visibly alarmed. "A creature that could heal an entire ship? I ... I haven't heard of such a thing before. Have Barkley try to transmit the sensor logs when you are near a Drift Beacon. I'll forward any findings to Absalom Station authorities. If this is something new, they need to be informed." He pauses, clearly thinking about the implications of such a thing. "Regardless, this doesn't change your mission for the Starfinder Society. If you accessed their secure logs, you must have gotten the astrological data as well."

The image swivels over to face the only human in the cockpit. "Mr. Barkley, remind me to make sure that you and yours are noted in our records for going above and beyond here. Uncovering secret works of the undead, and living to tell the tale, is not just another day's work." He faces the freelancers again. "Are you well enough to continue on to the Unbounded Wayfarer? Or should I welcome you home, and send out another team to finish the job? I wouldn't blame you, after facing down the Eoxians."

Quig pats himself down, "No holes, no bleeding. I keep going, we all keep going." He nods and then the idea of one thing healing a whole ship by itself start to sink in. " I wish I could repair whole ship at once, master engineer I would be, could charge so much more money, like all the money!" He squeaks with joy at that thought.

Arvin lets out a chuckle. "Well Mr. Quig, if you manage that I'm sure that you will become the most famous Engineer in the known galaxy. I'd be more than happy to help spread the fame." He looks off to the side, whispering something to his secretary. After a minute, he turns back. "Got more excitement from Absalom Station command. Need to go. Keep in touch, and may the Gods be with you." The call drops, and the hologram disappears.

Barkley turns to the group. "I can handle trying to get the communiques through. We heading off to this mysterious planet now?"