Imperial Occupation of Edan II

[Zarm R'keeg]

[Zarm R'keeg]

Getting ready to move into episode IV, it ocurred to me I had yet to summarize our playthrough of III. (I think I always worry I'm getting on people's nerves or being self-indulgeant with the recaps; please let me know if this is the case, and I'll stop!)

Our single-player RPG was entitled Crisis in Southview!, and served as a prequel to Salvation on Silver-Tipper Wings, with the players taking on the roll of Watchman Whitley- an overworked colonial officer whose backup (a ZED police unit) is down, and who is being run ragged trying to hold the colony together after the bombardment. His efforts are exacerbated when someone removes the main control grid for the town's meager defensive systems, and an Imperial infiltrator/saboteur is suspected.

Whitley's investigations take him to the generator (where he must try and snatch a crucial piece of evidence before the restarting generator's internal workings destroy it), then thanks to crusted algae, to a river- where he must make a difficult swim in the ice-cold water to retrieve another piece of evidence, then (as it is a very identifiable piece of fabric) to a local widow and knitter... and a perilous climb up bombardment-damaged stairs (or attempt to climb the facade of her barn) to reach a scrap of forensic evidence caught on a high clothesline from which the previously-identified garment was stolen. This last piece of evidence leads Whitley to the mill, where Ol' Raymus, the disgruntled town drunk, is building a 'hang glider' out of scavenged parts. He's stolen the control grid simply to use as a framework for his cobbled craft. However, in retrieving it, the defense grid's emergency system is activated- summoning Whitley's unhinged, now-homicidal ZED droid (who is quite cheerful about the whole affair, offering Whitley a friendly greeting before informing him of his imminent death) to try and 'defend' the component- forcing Whitley to disable it before he can return the grid to its proper place.

Aiden's player fell through the broken stairs, and later took a hard line, cuffing Ol Raymus on the floor- leaving him helpless, to be beaten to death by ZED-3's billy club after the PC badly failed to subdue the droid. They both died. (ironically, he ALMOST triumphed, and I sent him an ending in which he totally destroyed the droid- before we both remembered that he'd set his blaster to stun- at which point we rewound time, ZED-3 was unhurt, and went on to massacre him.

Ko'Akora's player failed multiple swimming rolls and came within a hair's breadth of drowning before succeeding in the last one, just barely. When his time with ZED-3 came... he was also bludgeoned to death (though he did summon the militia men, who would be able to rescue Raymus, subdue the homicidal droid, and retrieve the grid). For a comic relief story, this was turning into quite the bloodbath...

Gand's player failed his stamina check and got mild hypothermia in the frozen river, then fell off of the stairs he was trying to climb, wounding himself. After throwing a rope up and climbing to the 2-nd story clothesline, it snapped and he fell again, wounded twice, with pneumonia and a broken arm. He convinced someone to help him limp over to the old mill despite his being at death's door. He fared poorly against the droid, but failed to finish the email scenario by the deadline, just shy of being beaten to death by the droid as well.

My wife decided to join in the story- and ended up the only one of the four that rescued that first scrap of evidence from the generator intact, heading Whitley straight for the mill (and bypassing the nickel-and-dime tribulations that ended up wearing down the other players). After being told to leave by Ol' Raymus, she had Whitley depart into the shadows, grab one of the white sheets covering the inactive machinery, and return as the ghost of Ol' Raymus' father. (Who of course wasn't dead, last time they spoke- so she improvised a scene in which she was coming to inform Raymus of his father's death). As the ghost- with copious bargaining roles- she convinced him to try and give up his life of drinking, tossing him Whitley's starting-equipment credits as his father's 'final gift' to go start a new life with. After the tearful Raymus departed, ZED-3 showed up- at which point Whitley threw the sheet over his own head off and onto the droid's head, ducked low, and took out the droid's busted leg (established with an offhand mention in the opening narration and forgotten by the other three players) to drop him to the floor, disabled and harmless.

Needless to say, she won the contest.
_________________
Star Wars: Marvels, the audio drama: www.nolinecinemas.com

Hard core OT, all the way!

[Zarm R'keeg]

Chapter 3: The Convoy started out less-than-smoothly. I established that the group had been taking shifts flying the Y-wing to scout ahead, so that I could throw everyone out of the comfort zones- putting the destructive duo (Horatio and Doon) on the ground to negotiate with Scrutts' men (along with Gand, and Dantaree- who my wife took over for this session), while the fast-talkers of the group (Ko'Akora and Aiden) had to deal with the TIE.

Unfortunately, the TIE encounter went disastrously... the torpedoes had been exhausted by the Destructive Duo in the last session, and when the Y-wing took its first hit from the TIE, it received heavy damage... and the random table result was the complete destruction of their one remaining weapon system, the laser canon (this salvaged Y-wing has no Ion Canons).

Rather than try any kind of offensive (pop the canopy and use hand-blasters, forcing the TIE down, etc.), the panicking pair ejected the cockpit, setting the body on a failed balistic-collision course with the TIE. They then threw their bodies to either side in a paltry attempt to 'dodge' the parachuting cockpit module (a sitting duck) from TIE fire. It was up to a timely rescue from Scrutts' outlaws (with the PCs in tow), using one of the missile tubes like the group get from the convoy later (with the men complaining that 'We used up our last anti-aircraft missile rescuing you!') to save their bacon. Needless to say, the loss of the Y-wing put a bit of a crimp in the ongoing storyline...

Joined with Scrutts' group, the PCs went in for the raid. While Dantaree (as a PC) and Scrutts went after the transports, the speeders (including the PCs', donated to the cause) duked it out, and the hovertank was a force of terror. Doon was the first to scale it, and went straight for the grenade launcher in the back- firing down the barrel from point-blank range to detonate the magazine. The attack was a success, removing the killer weapon (which had been just about to blow Gand to smithereens), damaging the hovertank... and killing Doon in the blast. This was okay- shocking as it was for the other players, Doon's player had been planning to kill him off, and had finally found his opportunity.

Dantaree and Scrutts managed to open the hatch of one transport and partially take out the drivers- then had to dive out of the way as the other transport rammed it, trying to disable and set off the munitions in the captured speeder to keep it out of rebel hands. As it backed up for another blow, both leapt into the cab and brawled their way to victory- with only Dantaree bracing sufficiently to remain uninjured and conscious under a second ramming blow. Piloting the largely-undamaged (those things are sturdy!) transport, she wheeled it around to engage her counterpart head-on. (My wife rocks! )

Gand managed to mount the speeder as well, just as it was targeting an outlaw speeder. He elected to use a FP to open the hatch (VD Security on the control keypad), pop it open, and drop a grenade inside, an action hero moment to save the day- but he let another player talk him out of it, out-of-universe, and instead go for the greed angle... using his FP to rip it open, leap inside, and take out the crew, capturing the tank as loot. The delay in eliminating the threat gave them time to blast the speeder, killing 4 outlaws... and for both bad roleplaying (letting another player change his mind about his previously determined actions) and the unheroic nature of trying to grab more firepower instead of prioritizing life-saving, Gand will NOT be getting that FP back.

With the tank captured, Gand was able to turn its guns on the second repulsorlift transport and force the pilots to stand down. Aiden found a dying Doon for some not-terribly-well-roleplayed (he sounded healthy and happy for a dying man! ) last words, dropping the revelation that his adopted father was an Imperial officer... then expired. But, moments later, the group encountered his new character (not ideal, but opportunities to introduce new characters in this particular module are limited, so I wasn't able to give the death the time to be impactful that I might've liked), a Clone Wars-era pit-droid who has been manumitted and taken up life as a bounty hunter (which he is actually not very good at; he just doesn't realize it yet). We have high hopes for the more-comedic character. For his intro, he was in one of the weapons crates, trying to get shipped up to the Havoc to track down an Imperial scientist there (but he ended up in the wrong crate and was part of the convoy instead). Since the PCs eventually hope to board and destroy the Havoc, he's sticking with them... for now.

In the aftermath, the PCs mourned the fact that NOW they had proton torpedoes for the Y-wing (too late), divied up the loot with Scrutts, and went their separate ways... enthusiastically accepting Jarus Kai into their party. Suckers. Dantaree's player did a good job of building that suspicion casually but concretely, giving me a lot to work with for episode 4.

In the epilogue, the PCs buried their fallen friend... with Ko'Akora bitterly expressing at the graveside that he couldn't help but feel that justice had been done (referencing the civilians killed by Doon and Horatio in the previous adventure). With the loss of their primary vehicle and one of their number, the parties' spirits were low as they made camp- ending on the cliffhanger of the TIE bomber attack, and leading into Chapter 4... where things will quickly get MUCH worse. This is serving very effectively as the PCs' "Empire Strikes Back" second act.
_________________
Star Wars: Marvels, the audio drama: www.nolinecinemas.com

Hard core OT, all the way!

[Zarm R'keeg]

Aaaaaaand things went disastrously. For Chapter IV: Bright Lights, Empty City, the characters took a pounding. The raid on their camp leveled everything- and while they took out 2 TIE bombers, they ended up fleeing with the clothes on their backs and the gear on their belts, blowing up half the camp by detonating their remaining munitions, but timing it wrong and failing to take out a strafing TIE.

In sight of the city, the PCs let Jarus Kai (despite heavily suspecting him of being a traitor) talk them into going down to a nearby construction site to commandeer a vehicle (to replace the Y-wing they'd lost in rendezvousing with the Bothan Whale and transporting weapons). Kai, Dantari, and Horatio Gates went down, impersonating Imperials- and when a Trandoshan foreman began to loudly decry the Empire and all the misery it had brought to Edan II, Kai whispered to Horatio not to interfere, made a speech, and shot the foreman dead (the second shot execution-style). Horatio didn't stop him, and gained a DSP.

The furious group debated violently, but didn't trust letting Kai out of their sight and kept him on... then let him convince them to let him go off alone to meet his contacts! LUB-36, the new droid PC for Doon's old player, tried to follow him but was spotted and told off.

Despite suspecting a trap, the PCs went to meet Jarus- leaving three of their number on the road leading up to it (easily herded in by the four Stormtroopers sweeping inward toward the fountain). The PCs weren't really proactive about initiating combat, and I probably should've had the target (Dantaree) simply shot in the head by Locux, but gave them a few minutes to waffle and ask questions before Ko'akora decided to shout at him, drawing Locux's fire. At the same time, Aiden tried to cut Locux's throat with the vibroknife he had concealed... and thanks to a high strength roll, Locux was completely unharmed. The vibroknife met metal under the skin, and one grade-A badass was formed.

LUB-36's player argued with the narrator over a balster that he claimed he'd never said he left behind when it was declared that everyone had left their energy weapons behind, and which would have had a major effect on the PCs' dealings in the city. In the end, it didn't impact gameplay much. LUB-36 and Ko'akora made a run for it and escaped.
Meanwhile, Locux shot Aiden in the leg- and only hefty spending of CPs kept him from losing the leg to that plasma blaster. Locux then nonchalantly tossed a grenade over his shoulder and almost blew up Horatio and Gand. Dantaree, fleeing along with LUB and Ko, saw that Aiden was down and turned back for him (having formed a strong attachment to him).

Gand shouted to draw the stormtrooper's attention as he entered an alley- and getting it, being shot in the head and incapacitated due to lack of choice to dodge (just as in the first chapter of this adventure). Horatio ran after him, planning to scoop him up and drag him away down the alley- and also neglected to dodge, drawing the fire of 5 sucessful Stormtroopers. He was shot to death, falling onto Gand's prone form- our second PC death.

Trying to rescue Aiden- who was jabbing at Locux's gun-hand with his Vibroknife- Dantaree sank her own blade into the back of Locux's skull. Or tried to... it reflected off of more metal implants- meaning that STABBING HIM IN THE HEAD DIDN'T EVEN HURT HIM. He then turned around and shot Dantaree in the face, burning off most of her hair and charring her skin black. She dropped, incapacitated.

This left Aiden with a choice; surrounded by Stormtroopers, his only chance was to bug out- but he could only rescue one comrade. He used a FP to pull a pin on one of Locux's grenades, and dove after Gand... leaving Dantaree behind as the explosion lit the plaza.

And there, we had to abruptly end, as Aiden's player's wife was calling him home. It was an abrupt cliffhanger, and I still haven't decided what happens to Locux. Based on his inhuman reflexes, I'm sure he could shed the grenade in time, and I'd hate to lose such an awesomely-unstoppable, Terminator-like character as the rolls end up presenting him as... but I'm hesitant to either mean that we pick up the cliffhanger with Aiden getting away scott-free (no real challenge), or arbitrarily make it so that his FP spending meant nothing. So he will either have an easy getaway masked by the explosion, or have taken out Locux. (Also, the narrator thinks he roleplayed badly, as his character seemed to have a much stronger bond with Dantaree, but his player made the out-of-character choice to save the PC rather than the NPC. But then, that's just a matter of opinion.)

It looks like next session will probably have to be a Chapter 4.5, resolving the cliffhanger, letting the devastated band try to regroup and escape Fortuna City, and introducing a new PC for Horatio's player (possibly the pilot of the Y-wing on the Bothan Whale?). The group is in shambles... and with a messy, disorderly end to the session... well, we'll see what everyone's moods are next time.


Meanwhile, in the 1-player RPG, Roadblock (a prequel involving a member of Scrutts' outlaw band trying to ambush a speeder by dropping a tree-trunk with explosives- his goal being to get in, steal the rank cylinders of the officer riding in it, and leave no survivors of the speeder's compliment (1 officer, 2 Stromtroopers, and an Army Trooper pilot).

Aiden's player triggered the explosives later than he meant to and smashed the speeder flat under the treetrunk. He popped the canopy and had an intense shootout with the lone surviving Stormtrooper- but, despite a victory, had irrevocably destroyed the rank cylinders. He was the lone survivor of this scenario. He used the least character points, and was the only clear survivor- as he said ‘I can live with surviving.’

Gand's player triggered just a little too early, allowing the speeder to come to a stop. He ran up to it and engaged in a firefight, but was wounded twice. Desperate and about to be killed, he threw his grenade inside and blew up the speeder, incapacitating himself out. He awoke beside the burning wreck, stiff and badly injured, his future uncertain. This was a strong contender (an exciting and dramatic set of events, despite mission failure)- but all character points were used, and as a tiebreaker on three close scenarios, that dropped it out of the running.

Ko'akora's triggered the explosives far too soon, and the speeder was able to stop, pull a u-turn, and flee. He made a long-shot grenade throw into the engine cowlings, the explosion rolling the speeder and bashing it up. He popped the canopy, exchanged fire with the troopers and was wounded, and leapt into the speeder as the officer scrambled into the front and took the speeder off. In a backseat shootout with the stormtrooper, however, he was shot in the head and killed. But the cylinders, at least, remained intact… and for overcoming long odds to get so far and persevering, plus not destroying the mission objective, he was the winner of this scenario.
_________________
Star Wars: Marvels, the audio drama: www.nolinecinemas.com

Hard core OT, all the way!

[Zarm R'keeg]

For Episode V: Waylaid in Fortuna City (which is essentially just a beefed-up version of the second half of the module's Episode IV, which we didn't finish last time), the situation began grim. NPC Dantaree had been shot and was left behind. PC Horatio had been killed (and his player elected to sit out this session). PC Gand had been incapacitated, and was relying on another PC, Aiden, to save him- while Ko'akora and LUB-36 also had to make good their escape.

To give the comatose-Gand's player a chance to participate, I worked with him to develop a map of alleyways down which the players could flee, tracked by stormtroopers and a vengeful Dark Jedi (who, lest you think I am a sadistic GM, one of the PCs purposefully and intentionally ticked off, bringing the pursuit on himself!). I had the map and markers for everyone, but, reflecting the chaotic nature of the chase, the players had no overview- simply a little figurine on the table for each indication their North/South/East/West orientation, and a description of what was in front of them.

The expectation was very much that Aiden and Gand (one man carrying another on his back and dodging stormtroopers/running while being pursued, including by a Dark Jedi? No way he's getting out of that!) while Ko'akora (who's been leveling up each session without mentioning it, apparently, and has a Dodge of 7D now) and LUB-36 (the lone armed PC) with a head start would make it out alive. Aiden and Gand's players had backup characters ready and I had an intro point designated, expecting a quick execution.

Aiden managed to scoop up Gand, and burning character points like crazy (20 in the adventure, all told- everything he'd saved up), he managed to keep consistently just around the corner, and out of sight/blaster-line from the Stormtroopers. (A good thing for Gand; rather pragmatically, Aiden had the unconscious comrade draped over his back, so that any blaster shots would hit his unconscious friend first!) There was several extremely close-calls with the Dark Jedi, but several crucial failures of her tracking rolls (including the climactic get-away-or-be-caught-and-die round, where she managed to get all for dice as ones!) allowed the duo to make a clean escape.

Ko'akora and LUB, meanwhile, blundered into dead ends, got split up, and, with Stormtroopers closing in from both directions, ended up rounding a corner from opposite sides and nearly running into each other. Thinking quickly, Ko'akora scooped up the diminutive pit droid and dashed across the street, pursued by a pair of firing trooper- while LUB fired over the Twi'lek's shoulder form his rear-facing perch.

When a bit of bad luck put another patrol directly in their path, however, Ko'akora (whose introductory 1-player session involved his 'droid companion of several years,' his closest friend in the Rebellion, being sent into a dark room with a suspected gunman as canon fodder/live decoy; this man has always been a little exploitative to droids) attempted to put the droid down- and use him as a bit of a club in the process, throwing him into the troopers to throw them off-balance. The droid didn't want to go, and rolled a successful opposing grapple to cling onto the Twi'lek... who got both a complication, and a movement failure roll. He ended up running into a wall whilst twisting his ankle, now with 4 stormtroopers on their tail (and the Dark Jedi just about to round the corner). Seeing the Twi'lek's distress (and running penalty for the next round), LUB-36 (who is designed to lift heavy things, disproportionate to his size) decided to jump down and pick the Twi'lek up instead... completely depriving the now-immobilized man of his 7D dodge ability. (Suspecting he'd loose another grapple roll, however, Ko'akora's player elected not to resist). In-universe, a grateful Ko'akora, who'd only called the droid 'tick-tock' (as he had semi-derogatory names for all the other PCs), leaned close and whispered "Lub- you are my friend forever"- which ended up being his last words, as the droid inadvertently picked him right up into the line of fire as he was shot dead by the 4 stormtroopers.

(Ko'akora's player was very happy with how his character had come full circle, reforming his attitude to droids and dying in perfect mirror of his exploitative actions toward droids at the start. It was unexpectedly- if also absurdly- poetic).

LUB-36 put on a burst of speed and got away from the Stormtroopers literally 1 round before the Dark Jedi would have killed him. Unfortunately, even though the pair were able to spot Dantaree being hauled off to incarceration across the square, they were too harried to do anything to rescue her.

This story ended up being the RPG session I have prepped for the hardest, with almost 50 pages of branching possibility preparation... and a part of it comes down to the construction crew that I invented, just outside the city, to give the PCs a chance to steal a small vehicle to replace the salvaged Y-wing that they'd lost. As recounted earlier, it served as a Dark Side test for one of the PCs... and just to make Jarus Kai a little more of a jerk-hole, I had him offhandedly mention that anti-Imperial sentiment was probably high among the construction crew after his summary execution, and that they should probably all be killed, lest they foment rebellion. What I didn't expect was for this session, after restoring Gand to consciousness and sending he and LUB-36 off to board the Bothan Whale (the two groups managed to connect, and fill each other in on the loss of 50% of their party in the ambush!), the conscientious Aiden set off to get out of the city, back to where the stolen lifter was, and stop off to warn the construction crew along the way!

His side-quest ended very abruptly, when the first obstacle to escaping the city, a roadblock being set up because the group had taken too long before getting back on the move, ended poorly. He ducked into a nearby shattered building, intent on reaching the roof and bypassing the checkpoint from rooftop to rooftop. In there, he encountered a wild animal (a crystalline serpent, previously established as an animal on this planet)... and due to extremely poor rolls, got himself Incapacitated by a 3D+2-damage bite immediately. That would've ended his story (left behind in the city and found by Imperials), so taking pity, I let him roll Stamina to stay conscious... after which he failed to hit the serpent with 3 consecutive melee rolls, took several more bites, and, bereft of CP, decided to flee up to the roof (with the serpent in pursuit), run to the edge, and leap.

He got an 8, and fell to his death.

The man that I was sure was toast incredibly survived a Dark Jedi, squad of stormtroopers, and alley chase- then lost to a snake and a bad jump and died anyway.

Edan II was not supposed to be planet murder-death-kill, but there is now only 1 of 5 original PCs left after 5 sessions. One death was intentional suicide to make way for a new character; 2 deaths (and 2 getting-shot-in-the-heads-and-incapcitateds) have been due to choosing/being made not to dodge; and 1 death was due to incredibly bad luck in rolls. (With the last shot-in-head-incapacitation/character loss being the sacrifice of an NPC to save a PC). Looking at it objectively, I don't *think* I'm being too hard on anyone... but man, taken cumulatively, it sure feels like I'm raking these guys over the coals. Their party has now experienced the loss of 5 people, and there is only one actual Rebel left in the group. If anything happens to him, the rest of the players will realistically have no reason to actually finish the mission anymore, as the original goal of rejoining the rebellion is nearly moot!

Gand and LUB-36 conned their way into the spaceport by posing as workers (with Gand cleverly playing off his obvious blaster head-wound to bigoted stormtroopers as the treatment he'd incurred from an Imperial master elsewhere in the city after he'd ticked them off, and identified himself as a worker from the construction site- prompting the stormtroopers to cruelly admonish him to deliver his cargo and get back to the construction site ASAP, laughing to one another... well aware of the impending slaughter at that site.

And it was at that site that Ko'akora's player's new character was introduced. While Ko'akora had been a silver-tongued, smarmy, smooth-talker (I believe the typical media term is 'a magnificent... fatherless-child,' if you catch my drift), Urdada is a jolly, kind-hearted simpleton of an Abyssian, and a member of the doomed construction crew. Giving Aiden the death scene I'd had planned for if the Bothan was gunned down in the alley-chase, I had the dying Bothan drag his broken body out of the city, to warn the construction crew of the impending Imperial attack... pressing coordinates to both the stolen, blaster-laden lifter, and the Bothan Whale rendezvous it was bound for, into the hands of the Abyssian before expiring.

Unfortunately, Urdada was a very simple soul- and once given the warning about the Imperial attack and the imperative to get the lifter to the rendezvous, he immediately went off to do just that... not thinking to share his news with any of the rest of the construction crew. As the sounds of blaster-fire and dying screams filled the air far behind him, the Abyssian ascended the hill to the hidden lifter, smashed together the heads of the stormtroopers that had just found the lifter, and took off. (Much, I'm sure, to the consternation of the player who had his fatal snake encounter and dramatic, redemptive death-scene to atone for the comrades he'd had to leave behind in order to SAVE the construction crew. At least, so I assume. He had to leave early, and I haven't told him yet.)

Urdada flew the transport in detection range of the Empire (upping the TIE count for the assault at the start of the next chapter), flew directly past the Bothan Whale in full view of the passengers (raising onboard suspicions), and crashed into the hatch while trying to land... getting aboard while raising the maximum possible ruckus and destroying all hope of stealth completely (though, since Jarus Kai's transmitter is still on the lifter, it's a moot point). The chapter ended there, with the Abyssian and the two surviving PCs not yet having met up. That- along with the introduction of two new PCs aboard the Bothan Whale- will be the start of our next chapter... one which, hopefully, they will all survive.
_________________
Star Wars: Marvels, the audio drama: www.nolinecinemas.com

Hard core OT, all the way!