Percepi, the colony in question is the one Ariona grew up near, and went to University at. It was settled in 2070, and her parents moved there in 2072. Ariona graduated from the University there in 2097, and moved back to Earth with her parents, where she has been ever since. The colony is ~8 light years away from Sol.
For whatever reason, the Heart Tree helps the planet awaken more quickly into a powerful psion. The colony has very recently awoken. The planet does not yet realize what it is, like a newborn. Unfortunately, such powerful psions attract the notice of the Destroyer.
Now, the Destroyer has been distracted, chasing Dragonstar, for quite some time. Rae fled Dragonstar out of curiosity regarding these mystically infused worlds, including the colony. She asked around and discreetly discovered that Earth is the original homeworld of the settlers. She then traveled there to see the sights. She is now on Earth, but is familiar with the mystic seeding process.
As she left on a mystic transport, she felt the Destroyer coming near. It came due to the recent awakening of the colony, and because Dragonstar chose to borrow that solar system’s star(s) for half an orbit (close enough for Rae to reach the colony with the ancient Div+Dis transport).
A quick note on Dragonstar’s traveling pattern: it "borrows" stars for a fragment of an orbit, then moves on. On the planet, they have night and day for a few weeks at most, followed by the "Long Night," also known as the "Traveling Time." This lasts for another few weeks (Glaurung uses spatial folding to skip across space – this is a very advanced form of Displacement allowing for effectively faster than light travel, without the relativistic side effects), until they rest again at another star. Glaurung absorbs energy from the star to replenish his reserves.
The fact that Dragonstar borrowed the colony’s solar system’s star(s) was noticed on the colony. They saw the gravitational anomaly and were intrigued by it (both colonies saw it). Probably they got some images just before the Destroyer eliminated them. The party learns this knowledge (it’s a clue) from the other, remaining colony. The inference is that the Dragonstar planet had something to do with the colony’s destruction.
There is a nearby space settlement – a controlled research station that has not been seeded with mystic energy. This is the outpost where Ariona grew up. This settlement did not disappear, and is now slowly drifting out of position.
There is another infused colony in the same solar system, Laboro, but it has not yet awakened, so the Destroyer has not yet come for it. The plan is to port a scout (Ridge) to the other infused colony in the system, to find out what happened to the colony, once they realize that people being ported directly there are disappearing.
Before the incident
Andrew was successfully (sort of) engineered with some psionic abilities. Elves, who monitor charity organizations due to Sara’s influence, notice Andrew’s abilities, tell him no one has ever been able to do that without training before, and that he could be a very powerful psion one day with the proper instruction, which they then provide.
Due to his involvement in the Institute, he has had contact with several failed experiments where mystic abilities were supposed to have been implanted in one way or another. Someone (connected to the scientist disappearance) is very interested in these cases, and so that links Andrew to the scientist disappearance group’s plotline. Details later.
Andrew travels to the colony for a symposium on genetics. He decides to visit the grand opening of the colony’s arboretum, because one of the events is a speech from the genetic engineering team responsible for some of the unique vegetation in the arboretum. This is not necessarily of that much interest, but… Also, the artwork of one of his former patients is going to be unveiled.
Fey is supposed to give a speech and dedicate the recently planted Great Forest. She can travel there using the Heart Tree tree stride technique if necessary.
Noun is messed up. He is at the dedication because he designed some art of some sort near the main entrance to the arboretum – an archway, or some other mind-bending structure as per his paradigm. Obviously, he cannot give a speech, but he is introduced to the crowd. When the Destroyer comes, Noun screams (along with everyone else), and somehow reality bends to save him, Fey, and Andrew.
(As a side note, the halfway house where Noun was placed for nearly a year is the same Institute where Andrew works still. Noun’s method of communication does not work well with Andrew, so they never became close–in fact, Andrew never really understood Noun much at all.)
Jason’s character may also be at the dedication ceremony, depending on the character. TBD.
When Noun screams, the sculpture bends and flexes, and it somehow "sucks in" Noun, Fey and Andrew (and Jason’s character if he is there). Ages pass within the sculpture, as those inside await rescue.
After the incident
Ridge was supposed to have been teleported to the missing colony as a starting point for her next settlement mission, but now it is deemed too dangerous. She is instead tapped to fly back to the colony’s old position and scout the area to determine what happened there. They teleport her and her ship to the nearby infused colony as a starting point.
Trenton is somehow related to the Fearful. Decide how. In any case, Trenton’s mission is to try and find fragments of Pandora’s Box’s lost knowledge, as well as to justify their mission (why magic needs to be sealed away). So it makes sense that he would investigate the missing colony. He’s heard tell of a scouting mission going out to investigate the colony. Talk is that the governments are trying to cover up what has happened out there. Hopefully Trenton can stow away on Ridge’s ship, or talk her into letting him come along.
After Malcolm has been on Earth for a time, he receives a command (which as far as he knows is very unusual): he is told to learn why the colony disappeared, and help those affected (since It can sense the lack of mystic energy there, and is extremely troubled by it). Somehow, Malcolm needs to get involved with Ridge’s mission, since he shares that goal. Unfortunately, he has no military clearance – or does he? He has an identicard given to him by the Caretaker. Maybe the card possesses the ability to aid him in his mission. In other words, his credentials for the mission are always in order. Rather than have this function work all the time, however, it will be more like flashes of insight in his mind. IDENTICARD, he thinks, and knows it will be capable of getting him onboard the scout ship.
As one of the few pieces of debris from the incident, the sculpture is almost certainly going to be brought aboard the ship (along with a few satellites orbiting the planet). (If necessary, it can pull in the ship, too, ultimately ending up inside the ship, due to its paradoxical multidimensionality.) Either way, once it’s on Ridge’s ship, it spits everyone back out and reverts to its original (still mind-bending) form.
PCs united
Once everyone is together, why do they stick together? Why do they keep investigating the disappearance together?
Andrew stays if Noun stays, because he wants to stick with his (former) patient.
Fey would want to find out what happened to her life’s work.
Malcolm has been asked by the Caretaker to learn what has happened here, and will continue to investigate.
Noun felt something different than everyone else from the Destroyer (apart from the loathing and terror): true nothingness – zero dimensionality. It is simultaneously intriguing and terrifying, but somehow too compelling to resist further investigation – it granted him levels of insight previously unimagined to him, only for a moment. Also of note: his sculpture was taken by the Destroyer. But Noun’s scream extended the sculpture in dimensionality in such a way that it continued to exist in their location, as well as "no location" (within the Destroyer). This effect is unlikely to be duplicable; however, the sculpture is now a unique artifact in that it represents a pathway of sorts leading to the Destroyer. Later in the campaign, after the sculpture has been largely forgotten, it could play a vital role.
The investigation
Astronomers on the second colony observed the planet’s disappearance from the sky (for unknown reasons), and the second colony did hear the Destroyer’s echoes in their minds, which caused widespread panic.
Before she left the second colony, Ridge was told that scientists noticed a gravitic disturbance that appeared to be a new planet (large–possibly a rogue planet–but astronomers were unable to identify from whence it came, except that it seemed to have been traveling faster than light), and that she should check that out after visiting the site of the missing planet.
Assuming everyone convinces Ridge to let them stay aboard while she continues the scouting, everyone proceeds to the last known location of Dragonstar.
Since Dragonstar was there for at least a week, the scientists had time to send an unmanned probe, which detects signs of possible life: frozen water, oxygen, but the data does not match a planet simply hurtling through space (although scientists still do not understand the full ramifications of a planet capable of FTL, since we have not traveled that fast). The unmanned probe was sent while Dragonstar was still approaching, after they detected strange gravity waves emanating from the increasingly close object, hence the use of an unmanned vs manned mission.
However, a few days before the waves of nausea and terror, the transmissions from the probe go haywire (constant variation between red and blue shift, so distorted as to be uncorrectable – because it got so close to Dragonstar that the gravitic wake started affecting the probe’s transmissions). It can’t properly identify the data once Glaurung leaves the solar system at FTL speeds.
The probe never made it to orbit before the planet left the solar system. So it’s still there near where Dragonstar was. Ridge is ordered to retrieve it, since its systems have all gone haywire and they can’t control it remotely anymore.
Cliffhanger
After bringing aboard the probe, repairing it a bit, and copying off the data, analysis shows an interesting phenomenon: a glip of light shoots from Dragonstar to the colony three days before the incident.
Second session
The gravitic wake left by Dragonstar has begun to affect Ridge’s ship as well, especially the gravitic drive. Space-time is warping, and Noun is intrigued. Strange visual effects accompany the distortion; e.g., every so often, the world shifts around you, and you feel like you are facing the opposite direction, having been spun around.
The satellites brought on board that were orbiting the colony will have captured data on the glip of light from Dragonstar – so minor that it wasn’t even noticed, until they actively look for it. They will follow the trail until they discover that someone near that glip of light left the planet moments before it was annihilated.