Strange Happenings at Sterling Storage

Recommended Levels 5-6

Sterling Storage is a sprawling self storage facility the size of a small town. It is owned and operated by a young silver dragon named Cenati who protects the facility as if it were her own private hoard. A few days ago one of her guards, a Rhyphorian named Relu Holt, was attacked and left for dead during his overnight patrol. The security footage shows Holt trying to defend himself from an unseen assailant before falling to the ground. Strangely there are no visible wounds on Holt and he has still not regained consciousness.

Unknown to Cenati, exotic animal smugglers have been operating out of one of her storage units. Inside unit 170-B, several highly illegal Phantophants are being held awaiting a black market auction. Phantophants resemble adorable house cat sized purple elephants with three eyes. While the playful Phantophants are awake, the third eye on their foreheads remain closed. When they fall asleep, the third eye opens acts a conduit to the spirit world, channeling dangerous ghosts into their vicinity. In the wild this is a feeding behavior; when the Phantophants awaken they feed upon the bodies of the spirit's victims.

Holt was attacked by one of these spirits, and Cenati refuses to put more of her staff in the way of danger. She hires the adventurers to investigate the facility, offering them each 4000 credits each to find the source of the attack.

Sterling Storage can be located on any large planet or space station with enough space for a town sized storage facility. The facility is open to the air and lit by dim blue lights placed over each storage unit entrance. The floors of the facility are clean polished concrete. The units are made from thick insulated steel with vertically sliding doors that are activated by key-card. The party is asked to investigate at night as that is when the attacks occurred.

The individual units of Sterling Storage are organized into city sized blocks that are most easily navigated by vehicle. Cenati lends the party a security patrol cart to help them get around, as well as giving them a master key-card that will open any unit. An over all map of the storage facility isn't necessary for this adventure as Cenati will direct the party to the location of the attack and subsequent events will lead them to the next block locations.

Block 220-

The investigation begins at block 220 where Holt was attacked. Block 220 has 10 medium sized storage units labeled 220A-220J. Roll on the chart provided to generate the contents of each unit as they are explored.

Storage Unit Contents

1- Holiday Decorations 11- Coin Collection(5000 credits)

2- Floral Print Furniture 12- Comm Units

3- Musical Instruments 13- Handbags (8000 Credits)

4- Gardening Supplies 14- Armor Cache

5- Skiing Gear 15- Weapons Cache

6- Taxidermy 16- Enercycles

7- Computer Parts 17- Mini-sub

8- Exercise Equipment 18- Magical tomes/spell gems

9- Arcade Machines 19- Power Armor

10- Holo-Pool Tables 20- Artifacts/Magic items

The first two units that the party searches are uneventful, the third contains two hiding phantoms that emerge from crates and attack the party. The phantoms wait to attack until a PC is between the crates they occupy. If no PC walks between the crates where the ghosts are hidden, they attack as soon as a PC enters the back of the unit.

The phantoms are ethereal spirits with indistinct humanoid shapes. Their only defining facial feature are three glowing purple eyes. While they are not mindless, they are full of malice and refuse to communicate with the party.

Third-Eye Phantom CR 4 XP 1,200

NE Medium undead

Init +5

Darkvision 60 ft. Perception +10

Defense

HP 40

EAC 16; KAC 18 Fort +8 Ref +6 Will +3

Undead immunities, Incorporeal

Offense

Speed 30 ft., fly 60 ft. (average)

Melee- Incorporeal Claw: +12 (1d6+7, targets EAC)

Ranged- Telekinetic Projectile: +9 (1d6+4 B)

Statistics

Str +3 Dex +5 Con - Int +1 Wis +0 Cha +0

Acrobatics +10 Intimidate +10 Stealth +15

Unliving

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Frightful Presence (Su) Aura, Range of 30 feet, DC 14 will save vs Shaken for 1d6 rounds. Once a PC saves they are immune to this effect for 24 hours.

Third-Eye Foresight (Su) Once per combat the phantom can re-roll one attack roll

---

Hazy Help-

During the phantom attack, a squatter in a nearby unexplored storage unit is woken up by the sound of combat. After combat is resolved the PCs can hear loud coughing through the unit walls with a DC 10 perception check. Inside this unit is a chain smoking Ysoki named Haze. A DC 15 diplomacy check is required to convince him that the party are not ghosts or security and open the door willingly. The PCs can also simply open the door with the key-card and find Haze sitting on a small cot in his boxer shorts holding an over-sized electronic vaporizer.

The whole unit is filled with a cloud of spicy orange vapor, which Haze claims is medicinal. The PCs must make a DC 12 fortitude save to avoid coughing for 2 rounds.

Haze has lived in this storage unit for several weeks and tells the party that the first few weeks were uneventful. About a week ago he started hearing strange noises at night and suspected that the whole facility is haunted. He points the party towards Block 170 where he caught a glimpse of one of the phantoms and tells the PC that the block gives him "harsh vibes" whenever he passes by.

Haze also claims that the vape juice he bought from a holistic remedies store prevents ghost possessions and also cures lower back pain. Unbeknownst to Haze, the vape juice does contain small amounts of ghost salt, and while it won't cure pain or stop possession, the ghosts find it distasteful and have avoided his unit because of it. A PC inspecting the juice learns this information with a DC 20 Mysticism check. One bottle of juice can coat a melee weapon to allow it to deal normal damage to an incorporeal creature for one attack. Haze will sell the party two bottles of his juice for 300 credits. Vaping the juice has no medicinal effect, but the ghosts will prefer to attack other targets if a PC is actively vaping around them.

Block 170-

Block 170 is comprised of two large units. If the party did not notice or chose not to talk to Haze, they spot another phantom outside after searching two more units at block 200. This phantom leads the party directly to Block 170A.

170A-

Unit 170A is full of stacked crates containing unsold but outdated clothing styles awaiting shipment to remote colonies where they will be considered cutting edge fashion.

The crates are stacked dangerously high and the phantoms attempt to topple the crates onto the party as soon as one PC enters the unit. The PCs can notice the tipping of the crates with a DC 30 perception check, giving them one round to react. If the party spoke with Haze, the ghosts have had less time to anticipate the PCs and the check to notice the dangerous situation is reduced to 25.

Crate Avalanche Trap

Perception- DC 30/25 Disable- None

6d12 bludgeoning damage, DC 16 Reflex save for half

Range- Entire interior of the unit and any creatures directly adjacent to the unit entrance.

170B-

This large unit contains empty cages and pet supplies. In the rear of the unit are five cages holding sleeping Phantophants. Each of the Phantophant's third eyes are open and glow with a malevolent purple light, but they otherwise appear asleep to the party. Between the adventurers and the sleeping Phantophants are five Third Eye Phantoms, also with glowing purple eyes. They attack the party as soon as the unit door is opened.

This is could be a difficult encounter if the party chooses to fight all the phantoms. Any PC who makes a DC 15 Mysticism check can tell that there seems to be a link between the ghosts and the sleeping animal's third eyes. The party can wake the sleeping phantophants with a standard action if they are adjacent to their cages. Each time a phantophant is awakened one of the ghosts disappear as the third eye connection between them is severed. The phantoms will attempt to stop this and will target PCs attempting to wake the phantophants. The phantophants yawn adorably after being awakened and want to play and snuggle with the party after combat is over.

Should the PCs try to fight the ghosts and end up in trouble, fleeing is an option. The security cart is barely faster than the ghosts, and the party can use it to make a narrow escape. The phantoms won't leave the facility premises.

Cenati pays the party for their help if even if they have to flee, as they have solved the mystery either way. She calls for back up in the morning to track down the smugglers and secure the dangerous phantophants. If the party takes a phantophant as a pet, they must do so discreetly or it will be confiscated by the authorities. The phantophant makes a wonderful and loving companion aside from the nightly ghost attacks.

If the adventurers defeat all the ghosts or awaken all the phantophants and didn't steal from any of the units, Cenati is impressed by their bravery. She offers them the contents of one abandoned storage unit, which should be rolled randomly on the unit contents table.