SotB XVIII: Ghosts of the Eidolon

*Two months ago, a cargo ship called the Eidolon made a crash landing on a barely habitable planet well outside of populated space. Just now, its distress signal is reaching the fringes of civilization. The Broker, having been curious about the ship’s disappearance in the first place, immediately dispatches a team to investigate the crash site before anyone else can get there...*

## Agents

### Session 1

* Alro Hi'kot
* Balken Oppen
* Chim Chim
* Doxel "Dox" Ovo
* Kat'ik
* Kii'Vera
* R0C-K4

### Session 2

* Erdogan Cael
* Fai Mei
* Hank
* Jasper Sunflare
* Jokan Benn
* Nogg Nubo
* Saber Scintel

## Mission Report

*Summary by Cail*

The Broker sends out Jokan, Saber, Hank, Jasper, Fai and Erdo to investigate the cargo ship Eidolon, a freighter that crashed under mysterious circumstances about 2 months ago in relatively unexplored space. Their goal is to rescue the survivors, if any, and discover what happened to the unfortunate ship. The planet the ship crashed on has a mildly toxic atmosphere that gradually causes neurological damage, so the Broker supplies the team with breathing gear.

Jokan lands the Hungry Gungan in a jungle clearing, and the crew immediately travels to the six-story shipwreck, cracked over a river valley. The main part of the hull lies against a cliffside, while the bridge rests at the top. A portion of the hull separated in the crash and lies off to the side. On the way, the crew observe large lizards (~8’ long) with feathers and gliding wings, very similar to vractyls, perhaps distant cousins. They also observe some colorful flowers, but the poisonous atmosphere tinges everything with a sickly green-yellow.
As the crew takes stock of the area, they notice a gray figure disappearing deeper into a man-sized breach in the main hull. Saber and Hank stay to guard as Erdo, Jasper, Fai and Jokan go to investigate the portion of the hull that broke off and fell to the side in the crash.

Jokan and Fai use plasma torches to cut into the rooms of the split section, which appear to be crew quarters. The first contains the diary of a mercenary captain, hired to guard the freighter. It appears that while the captain was content at first, he became less trusting and paranoid over time. He wants off the ship, thinking that the captain has doomed them. Jasper goes to take blood samples from the floor and finds two bodies under the bed. They appear to be two human females, executed by blaster 4 months ago.. They are dressed as slaves, and both have defensive injuries.

The second room contains hazmat suits, and the datalogs that Fai manages to get from the engineer’s terminal indicate that this room belonged to the ship’s engineer. The datalogs seem normal until an entry complaining that the captain is allowing someone else to install a new engine. On the one hand, the engineer doesn’t like having someone else in his engine room. On the other, he is excited at the prospect of a new engine. Afterward, his logs slowly grow more and more paranoid.
Saber sees a dark gray head and shoulders appear on top of the ship, but is sinks below his line of sight before he can react. Saber comms that there's another figure. Jasper calls out that we're here to help, but there is no response.

The search team enter’s a door with a plaque that reads “Captain” on the side. While the room and furnishings are fancier, it appears that this room hasn't been lived in for quite a while, even longer than the other two rooms. Fai finds a ledger with job records that lists names of various clients. Jasper finds a safe at the bottom of the desk, which Jokan busts open. The safe contains private records which reveal the captain has been working with anti-slave groups to smuggle slaves out of Hutt space.

Having completed their search of the separated section, the group moves to enter the hull breach. Leading the way, Hank sets off a jury-rigged mine. Jasper provides medical attention. It appears that the mine was constructed after the crash.

As the crew travels inward, lit by glowrods, they notice 4 evenly spaced blood splatters, like an execution hall. Jasper examines the samples and finds dna from various races, executed slightly before the other slaves (~10 weeks old). A few days apart each.

The crew takes a maintenance catwalk down through the cargo section. Erdo drops his glowrod to the cargo floor, which illuminates a body. Fai sees faint heat signatures throughout the cargo space and goes to climb down. Jasper, Jokan and Erdo follow. The heat signatures come from flesh flies which fill the hold, feeding on the several thousand slave corpses in the hold. The slaves had been living in the cargo containers. The hold appears to have once had basic sanitation and amenities. Jasper examines a corpse and finds it died of a wound from a sharpened metal stake a little less than 4 months ago. As the crew explores, they find a body staked up against a crate with rebar has "Don't be like him" written next to him. Some of the bodies are wearing combat armor, but they appear to hold no weapons.

Fai finds a forest lizard nested in a crate. More of the lizards arrive as Jasper and Fai study it. Fai and Jasper unsuccessfully try to calm the mother. It spits a jet of sludge at Fai, but misses. Everyone decides they ought to leave the lizards be, and leave on the other side of the cargo hold and head for engineering.

Jokan falls through a trap in the floor into a pit of viscera. He is covered in gore, but manages to recognize that this is a trap for predators. It's full of the parts of meat that aren’t as good for eating. Saber helps him climb out.

The party takes regular stairs down to engineering. Engineering was once poorly barricaded, but the party is easily able to move the barricade out of the way. Jokan recognizes that the engine is in shambles, and that the damage is consistent with an uncontrolled descent or other crash.. Some sort of unregistered, cyan engine coolant is slowly vaporizing from a pool on the ground. Jasper guesses it's booster blue, but while it would be deleterious to humanoid neurology, it is not a stimulant. Jokan finds the engineer, rotting in an inflated hazmat suit. It appears to Jasper that he suffocated.

As they head toward the med bay, a blaster bolt shoots Jokan out of the darkness. Saber uses the Force to pull crates, a helmet, a pipe and the blaster out of the darkness. As Jasper treats Jokan, Fai proceeds forward and is shot by another blaster bolt from a similar trap. She sees a figure running away. Hank gives chase but loses his quarry.

Jasper goes into the med bay, which is clean, but stripped of supplies. Fai notices that one of the beds has scratch marks and slight traces of blood near where the arms would be strapped down. With some help from Jokan, he cracks into the medical console. Approximately nine months ago, the doctor was ordered to do biweekly check ups of crew, including brain scans. Minor deterioration to brain, increasing over time, gradual but serious. Jasper agrees with the doctor that symptoms would include paranoia, mood swings, memory loss, and dementia. The brain scans stop 5 months ago. The doctor’s personal logs seems displeased with reclusive captain and overbearing merc guards 6 months ago. Holofootage shows the doctor being shot by one of the mercenaries. Cameras erased after and before.

Maintenance room seems clear. It is full of crates of sharpened rebar. Paint lists Rules - When in the presence of a guard, always be facing them, the rest is illegible. Erdo deciphers some with Fai's help - possession of weapons disallowed, no asking for food, strict curfew. Behind some crates is less worn writing: Punishment: Warning, trip to the doctor, execution. The writing is between 4 & 5 months old.

Crew finds cargo ferry/speeder attached to the ship. Erdo and Jokan lock the controls.

They climb from the hull to the upper level of the ship. The blast door leading to bridge has not been open in a long time. Jasper senses that the bridge is eerily devoid of life. Fai fails to pick it with her shiv-spear, but Hank cuts through it with his lightsaber. The crew finds four desiccated bodies on the bridge, all but one shot in the back of the head. Jasper finds the blaster pistol that was used to shoot them next to the body of the captain, who appears to have starved or suffocated. They have been there for about 3 months. The captain’s logs are like those in his quarters, a year ago correspondence from a codenamed individual offers free engine upgrades for free medical records. The captain can't afford to refuse offer because he's cutting half of his cargo space for free runs of slaves to free planets. His diary covers the last outing of ship. It makes note of merc guards finding a Hutt saboteur in engine room. Afterward, the captain grows increasingly paranoid. He thinks the Hutts are on to him and he can't go back to Hutt space. He eventually locks off the bridge because of a mercenary rebellion. Jasper cracks into the astrogation computer, finding that after sabotage attempt the ship veered off course and started making random daily jumps. The last jump came out of hyperspace just outside of this planet’s gravity well. The ship just drifted into the planet. At some point, the ship passed through a mid-rim area where an Imp station tried to hail them. The Eidolon did not answer. An Imperial ship docked with the Eidolon, which hyper jumped away with intruders on board.

Faint echoing voice talking to something. Plate on the floor leads to a shaft that slopes down. Voice is coming from there. It grows louder as they approach. "All right boys, still on mission. We don't know how many are there, but we know our orders. How are we doing with the slicing? Rescue will be here soon." Jasper calls out that the crew is an Im[perial rescue team. "Identify yourself, soldier." Jokan notes that this is an Imperial commando. 3 dead commandoes slumped against the walls. This guy's helmet is half-blown off. His hair and eyes stick out. Everyone tries to convince him to come some place safe. Jasper convinces the trooper that he has a cure and the trooper agrees to come with the party. As they approach the speeder, the trooper sees an imperial shuttle. Fai stuns him and they all load onto the speeder. Jokan guns it, and they go.

Saber ties to move an object into the Imperial's way, but can't lift the heavy crate. The imperials open fire, striking the speeder and Hank. Jasper attempts to repair the speeder. Fai attempted to hack the opposing speeder, but failed. Erdo shoots the leg out from under a stormtrooper, who falls off the speeder, and Hank stands up, trying to draw imperial fire.

Jokan takes a large lead as the Imperial speeder hits a larger tree. The Imperial shuttle and unmarked shuttle exchange some fire near the Eidolon, and the unmarked shuttle flies away. Our crew makes it back to the Hungry Gungan, which is spotted by the Imperial cruiser in orbit, but jumps away as blaster bolts whiz by. The crew reports to the Broker, finding the cause of the crash to be the new engine, but unable to identify the culprit.