Panic! at the Starstone

Chapter 6 - Reunion on Absalom Station

The elf is from Golarion! Lili was at a loss for words, but the elf was still standing there, waiting for a response.

The elf finally broke the silence herself. "Well you've already given me your name. I suppose I ought to return the courtesy. I am called Emanon." She held out her hand. Lili shook it, still in awe, but at least returning to the situation before her.

"Sorry," Lili said. "I just... I just don't know how to process what you're saying. I assure you, we're not on Golarion." She pointed at the false moon above them. "That's not your moon. That's a projection. It's just a giant light aimed at a ceiling." She pointed back the way they'd come. "That thing you rode to get here, it's called an elevator. And it took you down from one part of the station to this place, somewhere deep inside it. Though honestly, I never even knew it was here." She looked around again, marvelling.

Emanon grew more concerned as Lili spoke. "Then where are we? And how did I get here?" she asked.

Lili had been wondering this herself. "The first question, I can answer. We're currently on Absalom Station, but how you got here, I don't know."

A look of recognition crossed the elf's face. "I was just outside Absalom City when I suddenly found myself in a strange room I didn't remember entering. Might they be connected?"

"Possibly. Absalom Station is supposed to have taken its name from a great Golarian city, but nobody was really certain. What can you tell me about this city?" Lili asked.

Emanon grew thoughtful. "It's an ancient city, I can tell you that much. And it's the wealthiest city in history. It's a center of military as well as trade, located in the Inner Sea, at the southern end of the Isle of Kortos." Emanon looked at Lili's uncomprehending expression and sighed, "and you have no idea where that is, apparently."

Lili shook her head.

"Well, maybe you should tell me about Absalom Station," Emanon suggested.

"Ok," Lili began. "Absalom Station is old, but exactly how old we aren't sure. It was built during The Gap. We're pretty sure it was originally in orbit around Golarion, but when Golarion went missing, along with its moon," she pointed vaguely at the projection on the ceiling, "this station became sort of a lifeboat for the races that had lived there. Nowadays, it's the center of what remains of Golarian culture, such as it is, and it's the seat of a government that loosely ties all of the worlds of this system together."

"That's twice now you've said Golarion was missing," Emanon said urgently. "What does that mean? What happened to it? And what is this gap you keep mentioning?"

Lili had realized this question was coming, and was sympathetic to the pain her answer would cause, but decided to simply lay out the facts as directly as she could. "No one really knows," she said gently. "Even the gods won't say anything about Golarion except that 'it's safe', but we have no idea what that means. A little over 300 years ago, history was erased. We call it 'The Gap'. We have records dating back to a time before The Gap began, but it was thousands of years ago. We have no idea what happened in those intervening millennia except what we can piece together through archaeology. No artificial or biological memory of that time seems to have survived. And about Golarion, we don't even have records from before The Gap. We know it existed by virtue of oblique references in other records, and this station, obviously, which transits the same orbit around the sun that Golarion once did. But all information about Golarion itself is simply missing."

Emanon was stunned. "Missing? Even if this place we're in now is simply a room inside of some artificial satellite, it's clear that it was built by someone from my home. These plants, those stars, and that moon above us are all of Golarion."