AMBER ZONE: The Githiaskio Mystery

Players’ Information:

The Githiaskio have recently discovered a piece of the Ancient’s technology on their planet buried in the deepest part of their ocean. Their archaeologists called on the neighboring Imperium to send their Ancients experts. After years of cooperative research, it was determined that this is one of many beacons the ancients placed on planets that had emerging sophonts on them. It has been theorized that the Ancients would take groups of emerging sophonts from their home world and transplant them to similar worlds with the express intention of observing evolutionary patterns. After the recent discovery of theorized sophont cephalopods on Marduk and Chalchiutlicue the Githiaskio are curious if they might be the descendants of the prehistoric Githiaskio .

Larshon, a Githiaskio representative, has enlisted the aid of Nosi an uplifted dolphin to help recruit a crew to visit a set of planets to research the possibility of the aquatic cephalopod life being sophont and making contact with them. If they are sophont the crew is asked to leave a deep-sea capable communicator that can relay messages to and from Githiaski. Larshon would like a DNA sample from each discovered species for further study.

Tasks:

• Visit the list of water worlds given by Larshon.
• Make contact with any Sophont Cephalopods on those planets.
• Convince the discovered sophonts to open communication with Githiaski.
• Obtain a DNA sample for research by Githiaski Scientists.

Referee’s Information:

The Travellers are contacted either though a contact they already have or are messaged directly by Retired Navy Petty Officer Nosi Azul. The message is an offer of employment by the Githiaskio. If the Travellers accept, they will be offered to take on Nosi as a crewmate, but this is not a requirement for the job.

Nosi (Nawsee) is a gruff navy veteran. He went to the Naval military academy and spent three terms in the Navy, He had planned on being a lifer but an incident with the Engineering Officer on his last assignment caused him to voluntarily muster out and join the scouts. While in the scouts he discovered a love of learning languages. Nosi is a master of linguistics. He can easily learn new languages. Especially any that resemble the Githiaskio language or are related to sonar-based communications. He has a fairly severe injury to his muzzle that caused him to retire from the scouts. He will not talk about the incident that caused it and the visual of the injury is fairly horrific. He is missing parts of both his top and bottom mandibles. They have been repaired using removable cybernetics, but it does not allow him to speak his native language naturally and he must use neural implants and comms devices to communicate. Also, he needs to have his cybernetics adjusted periodically or they will cause him pain and he will opt to go without them (which is not a pretty sight). Nosi is always willing to leave the ship and swim beside any underwater vessel the travellers are in. His neural implants allow him to speak and hear directly through any comm of a tech level 8 or higher.

The crew is given 6 Deep Sea Communications beacons that are capable of linking to communications relays on star ports and passing ships.

The list of planets suggested are Marduk (Trojan Reach 2120), Chalchiutlicue (Trojan Reach 2314) and Torpol (Trojan Reach 2221). But any water world can be used. If you use the planets listed; there are Sophont and friendly giant Squids on Marduk, Intelligent but not quite sophont P-squid on Chalchiutlicue, and a giant squid on Torpol that is similar in every way to the ones on Marduk, but they appear to have only a base intelligence. If you are using your own worlds; roll 2D6, 8+ and there are Cephalopods on the world. Another 2D6 10+ and they are Sophont. Travellers must devise a way to make contact with each species they come across, but most water worlds will have submarines and some way to communicate underwater.

The information and DNA samples do not need to be delivered back to Githiaskio, they can be taken to any Imperium Science station and the travellers will receive their reward and bonus. If they choose to take Nosi with them they will get DM+1 to any checks made to communicate with the Cephalopods.

Rewards:

• Successfully visiting each planet – Gain the entire world of Githiaski as a friendly port and each player gains 2D6 thousand credits (rolled before leaving on the mission)
• If they are able to return at least three DNA samples they will gain Larshon as an ally and will get 3D6 thousand credits as a bonus.

Fun Stuff:

The Giant Squid on Marduk are distant cousins of the Githiaskio and DNA testing proves this. If the travellers convince them to communicate with Githiaskio then a network of information trading and history is generated between the two. If a DNA sample is obtained from the P-squid on Chalchiutlicue it is discovered that they are also descendants of the Githiaskio but never evolved into a fully sentient race. The Giant Squid on Torpol have an interesting DNA path. It seems that they are more closely related to the Mardukian Squids than the Githiaskio. It is theorized that the Ancients may have done on Marduk what they did on Githiaskio when the Mardukian Squids began developing more advanced intelligence. In fact, there is an old tale told to young Mardukians that long ago some of their brethren left the planet to fly in the stars with the Lights of the Gods.