Down on the Disk (Graverobbing for Fun and Profit in an Original Science-Fantasy Universe)

Dirt Garden is one of the mid-tier markets of the Utallos District in the southern hemisphere of Zerzura. Far from the thick braid of nanocarbon cables linking to the orbiting station in orbit, the one from which you disembarked, and the much more expensive markets ringing it, it is your last stop on your three week journey down towards the Disk proper. Most of those three weeks you have spent browsing every market you could for deals and getting good and striking drunk every night, to celebrate your arrival.

All of which has put you in good company. Half of the people you've met so far have been doing exactly the same. If not for the near omnipresence of the silent and impassive servitors which maintain the world, their flickering, angular eggshell bodies drifting by overhead and squeezing past you in crowded passageways as well as the truly omnipresent form of the Disk drifting lazily by overhead, it would almost be familiar.

Everytime you run across the familiar hypercorp logo — whether it's the interlocking blue rings of Ten Springs, the stylized feather and sword of Samshi, or the black pyramid and eye of SkeleCorp — you are almost viscerally thrown back home.

You really do need to stop thinking of it as home, too, at least by the time you get down onto the Disk. Getting lost in memory and reflection is a good way to end up dead down there.

During your time exploring Zerzura what have you gained?

You have 9 Tokens and 1 FREE Companion Choice (least expensive companion).

Tokens can also be exchanged for Credits to purchase supplies and tools (1 Token = 525 Credits).

[] [Companion] Adra Ortun'essig: every single stereotype and cliche people say about the yddr died a quick and untimely death the second you laid eyes on Adra; who is the thickest, meanest looking example of her species you've ever met. Maybe it's the steel and orichalcum arm, claw tipped and with a disconcerting range of motion. You saw her stab a guy through the hand with her pointer finger and then immediately after light a cigar with her thumb. The red glow from her prosthetic eye doesn't help. Apparently she's decided you're going places. (-5 Tokens)
[] [Companion] Kre'ebik Stargulper: aadad have always creeped you out. Kre'ebik is no exception, not even for being all of fourteen. Surprisingly though it has less to do with his appearance (usually the sticking point for you with aadad) and more to do with how he keeps talking about 'leylines' and 'the spirits of the cosmos' and a 'galactic consciousness, dreaming itself full of stories.' Kids should talk like that. They especially shouldn't follow you around, talking like that. (-3 Tokens)
[] [Companion] Natya Dannika Llitov: your fellow apprentice and your only close friend in the world (or at least the only one you half-way respect) Natya is in many ways your reflection just as obsessed as you with metals and tinkering, but with a bent towards the magical. Why she chose to follow you on your journey you're not entirely sure, but you're glad to have her nonetheless. (-4 Tokens)
[] [Companion] Opal Glittering Skyline, Nine Wings Broken: Opal-Nine is an aged khar, his mottled brown and green carapace scratched from years and years of hard living on the edge of civilization. Long ago he was a soldier in the Republic of Kharmun-thar. You met him drinking himself to death in a rundown little joint on Zerzura and struck up a conversation, apparently he liked you well enough to forego the alcohol induced funeral and hitch his 'fading fortunes to you.' He's seen a lot and done more. (-5 Tokens)
[] [Companion] Nosta: raroh hawks are particularly intelligent and social species of hawks common — and prized — on your homeworld. Their mixed red and white feathering hides them against the quartz-iron rich walls of the canyons where they hunt, too have they learned to hunt in the cities dug into the canyon floors. You discovered Nosta as a chick, one of her wings weak and shrunken and nursed her back to health. In time her wing grew to full size but she never left you. (-3 Tokens)
[] [Companion] Elenari: three meters long, and as thick around as your waist, Elenari is a young moon wyrm (when you can expect to live to ten thousand, eight decades is practically infancy) who you encountered shortly before you left for the Disk. Though capable of shapeshifting in a variety of forms, their 'natural' one is vaguely serpentine and covered in large, ridged iridescent scales of a pearl white color. You have no illusions as to them being a 'pet' or anything like that, but for the time being they choose to follow you and help you. (-8 Tokens)
[] [Companion] Thurgash Namecaller of the Three Ravens: Everything about Thurgash is characteristically uurzish except for his unending thirst for knowledge (it almost matches your own) and seemingly encyclopedic grasp of the fields of divinities, linguistics, and geomancy. Not that you know all that many people with an interest in any of the three, but still for as much as he fits the stereotype visually — down to the elaborate full-body tattoos, wearing skins for clothes, and numerous bone piercings decorating his body — he bucks it intellectually. (-8 Tokens)

You start with 7000 Credits.

[] [Purchase] Samshi SurvivalistTM​ Weapon: Knives, spears, swords, axes, hammers, any weapon you could imagine, Samshi makes. Their Survivalist line — consisting of rugged, weatherproofed, simple designs — is sold practically everywhere and will serve against most wildlife. Most even have dual function capabilities as utility tools.
Price: 180 - 615 Credits
Gain: One Weapon
[] [Purchase] Sled: Simple wood and metal sled. Provide transport for supplies, artifacts, and/or injured companions. Not self-propelled, range dependent on the user's own strength and stamina.
Price: 205 Credits
Gain: Small Transport (Slow) Capacity
[] [Purchase] Samshi All-Environment Ranger Kit: 'Perfect for Rangers of all shapes and sizes! Feel at home in all environments!' That's what it says on the packaging. Includes a BlendAllTM​ camouflage cloak, MoonshotTM​ bow, WaspStingTM​ throwing knives, DragonhideTM​ armor, plus more.
Price: 1500 Credits
Gain: Decent Armor, Decent Weapons
[ ] [Purchase] Olorin Class 1 Environmental Suit: Erun Luvar & Daughters Co. stopped producing approximately fifteen centuries ago, and yet their products still show up across the galaxy. Partly a testament to their hardiness and partly a testament to their popularity, this example you stumbled across in an isolated junk-market during your second week. Class 1 is good enough for most environments you'll find within the settled portion of the Disk and brief sojourns into the unsettled ones.
Price: 2125 Credits
Gain: Protection against moderately extreme environments.
[ ] [Purchase] PalmDiv, All-Purpose Scanner: Azrhan-Dam House Works is a small-time producer of custom scanning and divination devices for pest-control, law enforcement, and adventurers of all kinds. One of their first models, the PalmDiv lacks in much of the modern deep penetration capabilities of competitor designs but makes up for it in affordability.
Price: 2750 Credits
Gain: Limited short-range treasure/enemy/resource detection.
[] [Purchase] SeeAll, Deep Penetration Divination Sensor: Made of a flexible, semi-transparent plasti-crystal ("... comes in a variety of tints!" announces the box) with 'comfort designed' adjustable straps to attach a wide array of limbs types, as well as activatable 'Super-StickTM​' enchantments to allow for static mounting. Made by the Tein Uulass Ring, and usually running several tens of thousands of credits, this one has a giant crack running down the center and several of its convenience enchantments have failed. Still, it works.
Price: 5000 Credits
Gain: Short-range treasure/enemy/resource detection.
[] [Purchase] Ten Springs Two-Way Uplink Set: Utilizing automated astral projection and catching techniques these pair of fist sized black stones with gold filigree allow for the transmission of both thought and data across upto 100 kilometers without lag and 1000 kilometers before total signal degradation. Has both hands-free and manual mode.
Price: 3725 Credits
Gain: Easy long range communication and data transmission.
[] [Purchase] Report to High Prelate Gharisk on Assets of the Four-Hundredth and Thirty-Second District of the Final Conquest: This ancient half-corrupted report dates back some twelve thousand years, during the short tenure of Akalad, Conqueror of Ten-Million Stars as ruler of Mu and the Disk. Supposedly gifted with divine power by the uurzish god Grol (though Akalad themselves was sylthen) they established a heavily advanced empire relying mostly on having stronger armor and blowing up their enemies harder, plus a dash of apparent divine favor. In other words, almost perfect for you.
Price: 4095 Credits
Gain: Guarantee the majority of sites you start with access to will be Engineering and Metallurgy oriented.
[] [Purchase] Single-Family Pre-Fab Module: Contain adjustable sleeping space for up to 8 individuals, one double occupancy/multi-species restroom, climate controlled storage, combination cooking/dining space, attachment points for full on environmental control suite, and a Quick SealTM​ airlock for rapid entrance and egress. Exterior facing module pieces are made of high-strength composites rated to withstand Class 0 extreme weather conditions.
Price: 3800 Credits
Gain: Ready made shelter with minimal personal time investment.
[] [Purchase] Skiff: Built by the uurzish conglomerate Iron-Skies, this single occupant skiff is rated for suborbital pressures of up to 3 atmospheres. Shaped like the end of a particularly nasty argument about one's ancestry, it is everything one would expect from an uurzish company on the surface. It won't move much, but it'll get one person from point A to point B safely. So long as you stay in atmosphere.
Price: 9470 Credits
Gain: Small Transport Capacity.
[] [Purchase] Lighter: Cobbled together from the corpses of at least four different ships (that you can recognize) held together by wishes and duck tape; resembling several squashed eggs tuck to the side of a conch shell, fins running down its side, that someone hammered an enormous arrowhead into point out. Out of atmosphere it'll probably last long enough to get you down to the Disk, but after that it will be relegated to ferrying you to and from sites unless you invest a lot in rebuilding it.
Price: 15045 Credits
Gain: Large Transport Capacity.

You must pick at least 1 Rival.

[] [Rival] Inquisitor: out here, so far from the temples and sacred grounds, the gods have little presence. But 'little presence' is not 'no presence' and it is most certainly not 'no interest.' Ruins of ancient temples and shrines litter the surface of the Disk; though the attention of their patrons have mostly moved on. For whatever reason you have gained divine ire and now are hunted by the agent of some god. Not that you know that yet.
[] [Rival] Natya Dannika Llitov: your fellow apprentice and your only close friend in the world (or at least the only one you half-way respect) Natya is in many ways your reflection just as obsessed as you with metals and tinkering, but with a bent towards the magical. Why she chose to follow you on your journey you're not entirely sure, and you're not sure if she can be trusted.
[] [Rival] Red Iron Works of Vapim, Asset Protection: Some of your more… energetic projects had unfortunate collateral impacts. Nothing ruinous. And no one lost more than a finger, or two. Still they put you, nominally, in the debt of Red Iron Works of Vapim; a local megacorp of your homeworld Golac, a debt that you had, technically, skipped out on. But with you gone to the Disk they'll probably just write you off as a lost asset and collect a fat insurance check. Right? They wouldn't send someone after you, would they?
[] [Rival] Torin Dyatlav: you never really noticed, but for years Torin has been living in your shadow. Always held up to your example and found wanting. It's the sort of thing that can gen irritating, that can get under someone's skin and drive them just mad… the sort of mad that leads to questionable decisions made on the basis of questionable reasoning. One way or another they mean to demonstrate for now and forever that they are not just a lesser version of you come too late.

[] [EXTRA] Major Discipline: (Choose from same list as previous)

Unspent tokens are lost at the end of character creation.

Note: You may write-in a rival, but you MUST submit it to me first for approval.