Rumored Haven for Damaged StarshipsSource Starfinder #14: Soldiers of Brass pg. 62
Location The Vast
Settlements —
Diameter x1; Mass x1-1/4; Gravity x1-1/4
Atmosphere Normal
Day 33 hours; Year 274 days
Spacefarers need not go deep into the Vast before hearing rumors of Topheki b, a desert planet orbiting a star in a binary system that dangles out a thread of hope to crews whose starships’ engines have been critically damaged. Though the Topheki system’s location is unknown to the official Pact Worlds governments, savvy pilots always keep an ear cocked for whispers of such emergency berths, for to find one’s starship adrift with failing engines and life support systems is an ever-present fear for those traversing the far reaches of deep space. Those pilots who know the planet’s location, when asked where they learned of it, always have the same answer: from a chance encounter with an ifrit—a geniekin born from a union between a humanoid and a creature of elemental fire—over drinks in some shady cantina on this or that far-flung space station or world.
When such informed pilots on starships with severe damage who are fortunate enough to be within reach of the Topheki system nurse their vessels into orbit around the desert planet, their ships’ scanners detect a single small settlement at the equator. A distress signal or query to the surface for assistance elicits a friendly invitation from the city either to land the damaged vessel or to bring a shuttle to the surface with the particular engine components that require repair.
Crews of the descending craft observe a barren world of rock and sand, wracked by furious windstorms illuminated with an otherworldly purple hue from hordes of a species of bioluminescent desert beetles swept up into the violent twisters. The tumultuous trip to the surface eases into a smooth ride as soon as the craft enters the protective energy field surrounding the settlement, a 10-mile-wide, tiered depression that resembles a massive arena embedded deep in the bedrock. A party of pleasantly smiling ifrits meets the desperate spacefarers at a landing pad on the city’s outer limits.
The inhabitants of Topheki b eagerly divulge to visitors that they are a small colony of like-minded ifrits who came to this world fleeing oppression by the dominant species of their home planet, though they remain politely evasive about that world’s name and location. Perceptive visitors might notice that the coloration of the inhabitants’ hair is not the yellow and red typical of ifrits but instead curiously matches the violet glow of the planet’s indigenous beetles.
Most visitors who have their damaged components repaired by the helpful ifrit engineers claim to have no further problems with them, but a few say that their vessels act up from time to time, and occasionally their thrusters or computer systems flicker with the same purple light as seen on Topheki b. Following up on these claims is difficult, however, as such starships are rumored to have disappeared under mysterious circumstances shortly after noting their complaints.
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