Hungover in the Hyades

The year is 4309. The human sphere has fractured, and Imperial and Colonial forces are clashing in dozens of systems across the galaxy.

Fortunately for you, the Hyades cluster is a neutral territory. Its alien cultures—which, although primitive, appear to be the remains of several ancient fallen civilisations—have been placed under the protection of the multi-species Galactic Parliament, a benevolent but mostly ineffectual overseer.

Here the war is just an unpleasant echo. The cluster's inhabitants—assorted archaeologists, historians, adventurers, lowlifes, suspected spies, off-duty officers, as well as the collected native population (the last believed by most of the former not to really count)—are far more interested in the exciting discoveries to be made in the forbidding deserts, swamps and jungles of the four primary worlds.

Did their empires flourish and fall independently, or were they uplifted and later abandoned by some conquering precursor race? What is the rightful place of the hundreds of fascinating artefacts recovered from the ruins—museums, private collections, or the hands of the makers' surviving descendants?

Ordinarily you'd have a lot to say on the subject. Right now, however, you have other priorities. You would very much like to find your pants, and something to take care of that pounding headache. You're sure that the party you went to last night was fantastic—you can't believe you finally got to see the inside of Matthias Renault's luxury yacht! You only wish that you were able to remember more of it—and that you knew how to extricate yourself from your current predicament.