Trial By Firefight

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Viridian File 032122: Stardate 16124.2123.03210715

Ravenloft Tower - Temaga District

Late in the evening, a shuttle arrives at Celta Moira Spaceport and a blue draconian exits to find a female Togruta light blue skin and hunter green montral markings with a holosign with his name on it on the docking bay.
Togruta: "You must be Kar'jan (Car-Hawn). The name's Rayna. I'm to catch you up to speed on the way to the tower."

---

The next morning, Kar'jan wakes up early not wanting to be late for the mission briefing after the delays of yesterday. He heads down to the arboretum to find the Grotto Conference Room. Around the same time, Zs awoke, checked on Buddy and made his way down to the second floor headed for the grotto room.
Amelia, though she woke up earlier than the others, spent the morning getting coffee in the Cobalt Harbor and sitting beside the fire before making her way back upstairs a few minutes before the briefing.
Zukrom sleeps in until about 10 minutes before the briefing and hastily gets ready running through the halls to get to the meeting on time.
With everyone in the arboretum, they notice a small crowd gathered near one of the rock waterfalls and a lot of murmuring. Each of the party make their way through the crowd seperately and pick up different bits of info. Zs hears some comments about him and Buddy and a few comments about why would initiates get paried with "him"?
Amelia and Zukrom pick up a few additional details; they pick out that someone of importance has come to the tower and is in the grotto room. Amelia hears on the outskirts "What?! But he never comes here!" The party enters the Grotto Conference Room, a chamber of hewn stone with small gaps that are exposed to the waterfall which allows the sound to fill the room. There are small pools of plants and small animals also along the walls giving the room a vibrant and tropical feel.
Inside in conversation is Chief Rivena and a Murean with his back to the group of green scales and skin and several tentacle like appendages on his head where hair would notmally be. He also seems to be floating just a few inches off the ground.
Chief Rivena: "Ah, recruits. Good morning. Good to see every member of the squad is here and on time. I will hand it over to your mission leader to give you the details. Good luck."
He turns and in a low voice makes some final remarks to the Murean before he gets a notification over his communicator from Nephea.
Nephea: "Hello, chief? The crew of the Fettuccine Alfredo has just landed. They'll be arriving at the tower in 10 minutes."
Chief Rivena: "Well, I need to go take care of this. Good luck." and as he leaves he addresses the onlookers: "Alright that's enough. Don't you all have duties to attend to. Off with you now."
The murean smiles and shakes his head and turns to address the group.
Murean: "Ah yes. So you are to be my squad today. Please, have a seat and I will explain the details of our assignment. I have high hopes it will go well. At least not as bad as what the chief has to go deal with. I heard they blew up a mountain." and he lets out a laugh as the party takes their seat. "I'll start us off with introductions. I am Warden Kii Fyro (Key-I Fie-Row) of the Alatheian Protectorate. I research and have contacts with those in the criminal world and seek to bring criminals to justice. Now, who might all of you be?"
After introductions, Kii resumes with the briefing.
Kii Fyro: "Wonderful. Your probationary assignment will be with me today. An associate of mine by the name of Ka'ral in the Celta Moira police force has been working on investigating a possible leak in their organization. While the Celta Moira force has a record of exemplary performance, lately there have been a series of unusual cases where evidence has gone missing, or suspects are always one step ahead of the officers. Ka'ral has asked me and the Society for aid as an outside party to help in this investigation. Seeing as most of you are new to Celta Moira, that is an added advantage we have since no one will readily recognize you. This morning we are going to meet Ka'ral at a secret contact point to follow a lead she has."
Zs: "So Ka'ral believes she has found the mole?"
Kii Fyro: "Undetermined. Most likely we'll find the criminals before we find the mastermind. But if we can catch anyone involved it will give us a much better chance at rooting out the source."
Zs: "So... this is a capture alive mission?"
Kii Fyro: "That is preferred. However," and he glances around and lowers his voice, "there are other ways we could learn information from them. The saying dead men tell no tales isn't always true. But preferrable alive." back in a normal voice: "Any other questions? No?" He opens a holomap and points out an area in the outskirts. This is our metting point. We will be taking speeders which you will be loaned for this mission."
Zs: "Are you bringing the crowd out there with you?"
Kii Fyro: "Hahaha. Yes, as my work does require me to be elusive it is a rare sight for me to be here and many have sought to catch a glimpse. Not to worry though, they know better and will go about their normal work. Now then, I believe you are to report to the Supply Depot to recieve you general kit and make any last preparations. Meet me out in the main plaza in 10 minutes."

---

The group exits the room and heads to the first floor and back down the hall Amelia and Morph visited yesterday. She notices that the hall has been renovated overnight and 2 sliding glass doors are now at the end with a sign above reading "Supply Depot".
Amelia: "Look, before we go in there I gotta say something. I was snooping around yesterday and found this place before it looked all official. The guy who runs this place seemed kinda weird. I mean he gave me free stuff which no one else gets cause y'all are not cool like me, but... while we are in their just keep your eyes open. He gave me a weird vibe. I wanna see if he give's y'all a weird vibe. I get weird vibes from people but I also typically don't like people, but this guy was like another level or weird vibe."
Kar'jan: "Vibe? What is vibe? "
Amelia: "Oh... uh... getting a vibe from you now.. but uh... how do I put this into words. You know like a gut feeling about a person. Like with this guy," gestures to Zukrom, "it's like rainbows and bubbles and stuff. And this guy in the store is like 'what?' was the vibe I got. Like a vibe check. Like the thing at the back of your head that tells you about someone or something..."
Kar'jan: "Ah yes. I know exactly what you mean."
The party then enters the store and see Elian Tarrack at the counter with 4 packs on the counter. When the light chime of the doorway goes off he looks at the party.
Elian Tarrack: "Ah yes. The new recruits. Welcome. What better way to launch my humble shop than to provide you with the suplies for your first mission. This has everything you need to get started including a minor health stim. So everyone in your party will get 1 minor health stim from this pack." and he gives a quick wink to Amelia.
Zukrom purchases a 50EC black quartz. During this transaction, Amelia is trying to watch him and make a "vibe" check. Nothing stands out until she seems to notice that he does not seem to blink at a normal rate. Rather he has not blinked the entire time they have been in the store until once when asking Zukrom for payment.
Kar'jan: "What are you?"
Elian Tarrack: "Now whatever do you mean? Are you asking what I do hear? My family history?"
Kar'jan: "What are you pretending not to be?"
Elian Tarrack: "Now, what gives you the impression I am trying to hide something?" he says with a smile.
Kar'jan: "It's not that you are hiding something, but you're trying to be what you are not."
Amelia: from somewhere in the store "Aren't we all?"
Elian Tarrack: "I am exactly who I appear to be. I may not hide it, but if someone is not able to percieve it... well... that's another matter." At this point more people enter, "But, I believe that is all we have time for today. You best get going. You dont want to be late for your mission."
Zukrom: "Thank you. Good job by the way. We all have something to hide. You do a phenominal job."
Elian Tarrack: "Ah but that is the secret. I don't try to hide it."
Zukrom: whispering, "Well, you are better than me."
Amelia: "Ok, I don't like a lot of people, but I like that guy. Still a weird vibe, but I like him. He's a character."

---

The party exits, seeing a different raven on the entry desk this morning. By the Azurite Stone in the plaza are 5 speeder bikes. 4 generic looking and 1 very unique with no seat.
Kii Fyro: "Right. You all have used speeders before, yes? Stay with me. We'll be taking some pretty congested streets until we reach the outskirts."
The party gets on their speeders and all but Amleia take off after Kii Fyro. Amelia's bike sputters and shakes (rolled a 0 on the piloting check). Zukrom comes back and notices it is in between reverse and drive. Clicking it into place rights the bike and the two speed off.
On the streets of Celtra Moira the party speeds through heading north. The party is making good time and surprisingly (with a nat20 piloting check) Amelia comes speeding through weaving through traffic with definitely illegal street manuevers. Morph strapped on the back with a few tentacles wrapped to hold on and the rest Naruto style out waving in the wind.

---

Abandoned Warehouse - Celta Moira Outskirts

As they approach the meeting point, Amelia does not see anyone and activates her comm unit and talks to the party.
Amelia: "Hey, I don't see anyone. Something doesn't seem right. Isn't the meeting point up ahead? I have a bad feeling about this."
Kii Fyro: "Agreed. Everyone slow and stay alert."
As they get closer they see a lone hoverbike with no rider and no one around.
At the meeting point, no one seems to be around. Kii Fyro looks around while the party investigate the bike and nearby area. Amelia discovers the bike is not cold but definitely has been here a for a bit. Probably no more than 30 minutes before they got here.
Zs and Zukrom look for clues in the nearby area. Zukrom finds this area is highly defendable so if something did go down, she would have to have been overwhelmed by numbers. Zs finds small sprinkles of white powder and finds a small pile leading away from the bike and back to the street.
Kar'jan and Zs are unable to identify the powder but speculate it might be a drug or some similar substance. Warden Fyro also looks over the powder and mentions there is a Ketricite warehouse further out that some of the local gangs have been fighting over. This does not seem to fit the normal small time gang activity MO but its the best lead they have.
Warden Fyro tethers Ka'ral's speeder to his and takes off with the party close behind. After about 15 minutes of travel, they see a warehouse up ahead with large concrete median dividers out front. Suddenly, a shot rings out and the party attempts to dodge the projectile. The speeder group scatters as 4 armed enemies start shooting using the concrete barriers as cover.
Zs and Buddy hop off their speeder and move to cover the group and get an angle on the attackers. Amelia jumps off and after a Produce Flame misses by hitting the barrier, she conjures a Flaming Sphere to burn the 2 nearest the warehouse. Warden Fyro leaps off and takes out a steel staff which spearates in two and goes on the offensive.
Kar'jan attempts to leap off his bike with his wings to land behind the barrier but accidentally slams the brakes on the speeder. Afterwards he leaps over and attacks with a sword. Zukrom uses a few Chill Touches before he outflanks the barriers and gets a clean shot at the back of one of the thugs attacking Kar'jan. During the fight one of them manages to retreat into the warehouse, though Amelia's Flaming Sphere blasts through the door granting them access.
Inside they see 2 guard droids in a room guarding a door but can see thugs through a large window in another room with a tied up Ka'ral. Kar'jan goes after the droids while Zs and Zukrom take shots through the window which shatters. During the firefight, one of the thugs puts a knife to Ka'ral's throat and whispers something to her making her eyes go wide.
The party slowly makes their way through the shattered window and manage to keep Ka'ral safe with one of the thugs even surrendering. Kar'jan flies in and the remaining thug who refuses to surrender turns and Kar'jan draws on the power of the Voithan and a micro black hole appears sending the thug to oblivion. Now that combat is over, he goes to the other room to investigate while the party unbind Ka'ral and ask what happened.
Zs: "What happened? Were you jumped at the meeting site?"
Ka'ral: "Yes. I heard speeders approaching which seemed to early to be your group. Out of nowhere I was jumped by 8 thugs. They wanted my access codes and access to recordings and evidence in recent cases. He said..."
Suddenly... Amelia and Zukrom feel a chill in the air. A harsh and menacing chill... one that seems familiar to Zukrom.
Zukrom: "Hey, we've got this guy here. We should move him out of this room. We should talk to him separately so he doesnt hear everything Ka'ral tells us."
As he reaches for the remaining thug, everyone in the room feels the temperature drop and the shadows elongate as the shadows of both the corpses and the surviving thug are violently wrenched from the body as the surviving thug lets out a wail of terror and pain and then lays still, alive but unresponsive. The shadows all retreat through the shattered window and front door and when they do the lighting returns to normal and the only chill is the one of fear and shock among the party.
Kar'jan: "What was that? I heard yelling." he checks on the body and discovers he is alive... but is completely unresponsive to any stimulus. He sees the body is no longer casting a shadow and there are ancient records of a curse that robs the shadow and soul of an individual. Biologically, the thug is alive, but he is just an empty husk.
Amelia and Zukrom exchange a glance because they can't shake the feeling that what just happened was intentionally timed to prevent the group from getting information and was involuntary on the part of the guy who surrendered.
Ka'ral: "uh... well... that just happenend... uhm. I guess I should give you all more context, but what I am about to tell you is classified information. You must swear not to divulge this to the public. Over the past 2 months, 6 Federation starships have gone missing all within the Morriga, Numbari, and Azanti sectors. 2 Kestrel Corvettes, 1 Valdore Class Cruiser, and 1 D'eldan Class BattleCruiser newly constructed at the shipyards with its 2 Val'dan corvette escorts. We have no idea what has happened to them or the men and women onboard. And these thugs just told me that the missing ships were only the beginning. And now seeing what just happened. I dont think we are dealing with a normal criminal organization. They've been using the local minor gang conflicts as cover but these people are far more cordinated and intelligent."
Ka'ral calls in to the police station to send out a crew to process the scene. The party goes and gathers 4 Clip(30) which are given to Zs, 3 Mk I Thermal Detonators and 5 Mk II Spark Poppers.
Warden Fyro: "We should bring this one back with us. The medical facilities at the tower might be able to reveal something others cannot. I will stay here with Ka'ral to process the scene. All of you head back to the tower. As far as Probationary Missions go, while different, I'd say this counts as a success in my book. Once the police arrive I will head back and we can discuss our next move."
Kar'jan takes the body of the thug and the party takes their speeders back towards Ravenloft Tower.