Star Wars: Legacies; Session Five Write Up

Session Five Write-Up

Dramatis Personae

Tahluta – Anzat Force Wizard

Luro Clan Voltan – Mandalorian Forward Scout

Jacob – Human Force Sensitive Warrior

R66-Y – Droid

 

The morning dawns on the planet Rikosh, and the party finds themselves in one of the garages that one of the local city gangs uses as a base. For whatever reason, they’ve found themselves forced into hiding on this planet and forced into the service of one of the local gang bosses. They stand in front of one of their direct superiors who has a very bewildered looking ASP Series Labor Droid standing next to him. They are told they need to deliver the droid to a contact on the other side of the city, where he will have some necessary data retrieved from his memory core. Unfortunately, the droid has some “issues” as their superior terms it with its internal systems. If the droid is jostled too much, the memory core might be disrupted and the data contained within lost. For that reason, they need to walk the droid across town instead of taking an air or landspeeder. With that, he leaves the party with the droid, who finally seems to notice them, and asks them a question they will come to hate really quickly.

 

“What do you require of me?”

 

Jacob answers “Nothing right now. Just sit there.” The droid then proceeds to sit down on the floor as the rest of the PCs look on dumbfounded, and beginning to have a growing sense of dread for the walk across town.

 

The walk was fairly uneventful, the droid getting distracted numerous times by various people and places outside. At one point, Tahluta snaps her fingers at the droid and yells at him to focus. At this the droid turns his gaze to her and zooms in with his photoreceptors, following it up with “What do you require of me?”

 

The party crossed into an area that was heavily contested between several of the gangs in the city, and eventually found themselves in a rival’s territory, that of the Stars by the looks of the tags on the wall. Eyes and ears perked for danger, they moved slowly, knowing they were only blocks away from their destination. Suddenly Jacob, Luro, and R66-Y turned around, hearing footsteps coming up behind them. They saw a motley collection of individuals moving towards them, three Duros, two Humans, and an Aqualish. The Aqualish stepped forward and demanded the party hand over the droid, which they outright refused. The Aqualish responded “Then we’ll just take it from you,” and the enemy pulled blasters and vibrodaggers. The Aqualish surged ahead and took a shot at Luro, who had ducked behind several garbage cans, which stopped the blaster shot. The three Duros moved forward next, the two with blades moving towards the party and the one with the pistol grabbed some cover and took another shot at Luro.

 

Tahluta grabbed the labor droids hand and ran around the corner, finding a small warehouse to hide in. As she was messing with the door controls, the droid looked at her and the following exchange happened.

 

Droid: What do you require of me.

Tahluta: Just be quiet!

*The droid looks at Tahluta as if he has something more to say*

Tahluta: *sighing* Fine. Speak.

Droid: It is imperative that I am not damaged in any way.

Tahluta: I’m well aware of that.

Droid: No. You do not fully understand.

 

At this point, the droid opens up a previously hidden hatch before leading to some amount of internal storage. Tahluta’s eyes grow wide as she realizes the droid is stuffed with enough high grade explosive to level half a city block.  The quickly moves the droid into the warehouse, blocks the other entrance with heavy shipping crates, and then proceeds to cover the other door, her hand in the folds of her robe clutching her lightsaber.

 

Meanwhile, the battle raged outside. Jacob and R66-Y surged forward to engage their opponents in melee, Jacob clutching a spear and R66-Y a stun baton. Luro meanwhile stuck behind cover and took some shots with his own heavy blaster pistol, putting some serious hurt downrange and wound up dropping four of the five enemies that weren’t able to run away. The Aqualish didn’t go down without a fight though, dropping Jacob, who was already battered from carbine fire from several of the enemy toughs. In the end though, the Aqualish wasn’t able to withstand a critical hit from Luro’s hand cannon.

 

After the battle, Luro took a quick look at the bodies and noticed the insignia patch on their shoulders. It was that of the Vipers, another of the five gangs in the contest for control of the city, and not the Stars. What the Viper’s were doing in another gang’s territory was anyone’s guess, but it was more disturbing that they knew about and wanted the droid bad enough to die for it. Jacob stirred and got groggily to his feet, and with the aid of the other two, moved to find Tahluta and the droid. They were immediately informed of the droid’s “information” and they immediately struck off to find their contact, who they found looking about worriedly after the gunfire he had just heard. They mentioned that they had just been attacked by members of the Vipers. Their contact guessed that there was probably a mole in their own gang. He would have to be exposed, and it would have to be “ascertained” who he was working for. He told them that he would leave the course of their investigation up to them while he finished what he needed with the droid.

 

They launched their investigation, and despite Jacob nearly blowing it open right away, they managed to follow a Viper back to his base of operations where they noticed Habukh, a new member of their gang heading into the building. It wasn’t hard to figure out that he must be the mole and so they put together a quick plan to get him outside and into their custody. R66-Y approached the guards at the door, doing his best impression of a courier droid and told them he had a message to be delivered to Habukh. One of the guards called him out. Jacob used the Force to create a small noise to distract the guards and planted a small suggestion that they should go and check it out, at which point Luro sneaked up behind Habukh and knocked him out with a blow from a stun baton. They quickly dragged the body into the alleyway and found an unused warehouse where they could interrogate him. They quickly secured him to a chair and woke him up. Without any preamble, Tahluta straddled him, put her face close to his, and snaked her proboscis up his nostrils and began feeding on his soup, adding the underlying threat that there would be more of this to come if he didn’t cooperate. R66-Y tried to make him spill the beans on what he knew, but he flat out refused to talk. Jacob tapped into his darker emotions and used the power of the Force to wrack Habukh with pains while Luro kept a lookout. Taluhta and R66-Y finally broke him and he spilled the information. He wasn’t working directly for the Vipers. But he didn’t really know who he was working for. He was hired and the jobs given to him by an intermediary. One further complication: He didn’t know this person’s name either. He just knew that he went by Red Eye.

 

So, their investigation now took on the focus of finding out who Red Eye was and finding out who he worked for. Jacob stopped into a local cantina and poked around for information, asking the bartender if he had ever heard of him, sliding him a few credits for any information. The bartender leaned in close and said that he was a fairly common sight around the loading docks. When asked what he looked like, the bartended responded that he was a big, bulky specimen of a Duros.

 

They headed down to the docks, and saw him taking a walk around the area. Luro tailed him as he took the walk through the docks and all the way back to the government district, where he went into a building, pushed a button on one of the directories, and was let in remotely. Luro brought the rest of the party to the building. Tahluta tried to peer through the door and see which button he had pressed, but the typeface was just too small. So, R66-Y put on his best bewildered droid impression and wandered into the lobby and took a look at the door. He drew the attention of the guards, but was able to deflect attention by wandering around the lobby, stopping awkwardly at several other places, and leaving. He noticed that the label on the button Red Eye had pressed was for the Office of Mr. Tsun. As Jacob tried in vain to recall the name and what he was in the grand scheme of the government of the city, several large figures approached them; two Gamorreans and an incredibly built Human. They walked directly up to the party and said:

 

Enforcer: Mr. Tsun knows you’ve been asking some questions. For your own well-being, you’d best stop.

Tahluka: *waving her hand* We are not causing any problems here. You have the wrong people.

Enforcer: *binking* I guess you guys are alright. I must have you pegged wrong.

 

With that, he barked an order to the Gamorreans and the three of them left. The party gathered themselves when Luro’s comlink crackled to life. It was the voice of their boss, demanding to know what had come of their investigation. They told him all they had found out. There was a brief moment of silence before their boss told them that Mr. Tsun’s full name was Corell Tsun, a low level financial bureaucrat with connections to the bigger mobs. If he was getting involved in the goings on of the gangs in the city, it could only mean that the larger syndicates were making moves to take power over the smaller areas. He ordered them back to the base so that the situation could be assessed.

 

 

This session went really, really well. I had a ball playing the droid up and I think the party enjoyed his antics. The fight proved to be challenging, which is what I wanted (it was a CL 2 level fight, utilizing 3 Thugs from the Core Rulebook, 2 Brutes from Threats of the Galaxy, and a Scoundrel 1/Soldier 2 build for the Aqualish). Luro’s player was on fire, taking out four of the five enemies that were killed (the last thug ran away in the third round of combat, shouting that he wasn’t paid enough for this. And his critical hit to end the combat did well over 30 points of damage. This also feels like it was the session where the entire group “got” skill challenges, and was, in my opinion, the best one I have run yet. I even managed to run a smaller skill challenge inside of a larger one with the interrogation scene. I’m looking forward to next week’s session when I add in a new player to replace the one that dropped the game for personal reasons. I’ve gamed with this guy before, but he moved away when he joined the military a few years back and just moved back into the area. He hasn’t gotten a chance to play Saga Edition yet, so I’m looking forward to teaching him the ropes.

 

Star Wars: Legacies; Session One Write-Up

I finally got my new Star Wars game that I’ve been working on for some time started last night. The basic idea is to have the players explore their own legacy through five characters in six eras of play, connected with some watershed events. It’s the most ambitious project I’ve ever run, and as I told my players, it could wind up working very well, or it could wind up failing spectacularly. Only their vested interest and willingness to explore their characters will tell.

For purposes of the game, I’ve kept the definition of “legacy” very loose so the characters can play the kind of characters that they want to play. I have one player who is connecting her characters through a philosophy on the Force. One is connected his characters through various bloodlines. Another is connecting his characters through shared research towards a common end in the final era. One is connecting his character through a Mandalorian clan. The final is connecting her characters through a mercenary group. The game is starting in Clone Wars.

The Dramatis Personae of the Era

Carthis – a human from Kilia IV, and member of the Kilian Rangers out to give his aid to the Republic and further his training
Raz Oeselle – a Force sensitive umbaran noble and senator from the rebuilt world of Taris
Biro clan Voltan – a human Mandalorian engineer, pilot, and jet pack warrior
Tiss – a brilliant mrlssi mechanic and droid specialist
Hurrgh – the known name of a wookiee martial artist and mercenary soldier

The scene opens above the planet Saleucami, large lines of warships arrayed in lines opposite each other. The respective commands are given, and the weapon batteries flare to life, filling the darkness of space with deadly flashes of incandescence. Starfighter squadrons race towards each other, engaging in a deadly and frantic furball in between the larger ships, attempting to clear a path for the heavy assault craft to begin their close range attack runs against the capital ships. Middle sized craft engage in the battle in any number of ways, moving into areas of heavy fighting to assist with their own weapons or to find cracks in the enemy lines and break through to attain superior positioning. Explosions large and small take place as the larger ships start to lose their shields and other critical systems while the smaller craft simply disappear in balls of flame. The Force practically screams with the loss of life as the battle continues to rage.

On the surface of the planet, two figures meet, one a large green skinned humanoid dressed in what appears to be armored life support gear, and the other a battle droid bearing the distinctive markings of an officer. They speak to each other in heavily modulated voices.

“The Republic forces cannot be allowed to break through our defenses. The cloning facilities must be protected at all costs. Arm the ion cannon and prepare the droid armies for battle.”

“Roger, roger. I’ll see to it personally. There will be no one to stop us this time.

Aboard the Republic flagship, the acting admiral approaches a motley collection of five figures. Without any preamble, he begins speaking.

“A planetary ion cannon is preventing us from getting a ship close enough to the planet to land an occupying force. However, a small ship can breach their lines and avoid the cannon fire. You five will take a small contingent of clones with you and establish a beachhead. Help to defend it against the initial attacks until we can land some more forces. After that point, you will be relieved of your command duties planetside and report back to the Singularity, where you will be given new orders. If there are no questions, you may fall out to the docking bay.”

The party heads down to the docking bay to see a small platoon of clones loading supplies and materiel onto a Gallofree Medium class transport. Biro sighed when he realized that this is what they’d be piloting to breach the enemy lines, but was heartened slightly when he heard that they would be receiving escort from a flight of ARC-170 starfighters. The Deck Officer filled the group in on the rest of the mission, telling them the supplies and materiel were to establish a beach head and a preliminary command center and barracks to support more troops that were to be shuttled down in small groups. After a large enough force has been gathered, the clones mission will be to find a way to take out that ion cannon. Armed with this knowledge, the crew boarded the transport. Biro took the helm while Carthis slid into the co-pilots seat. Tiss scurried down to engineering while Hurrgh climbed into the gunner’s seat. Raz slid into the commander’s chair.

It wasn’t long before they noticed a flight of vulture droids angling towards their position. Several of the droid ships paired off with the Republic starfighters, where they were destroyed in short order, but about three of them stayed with the medium transport. Raz noticed a gap between several of the droid control ships in orbit the transport could squeak through and ordered the ship through it before the route was closed off. Biro and Carthis poured some power into the engines in order to try and lose the droid ships. The droid ships flew past them and began pouring laser fire into the transport. Several of the blasts began to weaken the shields of the craft and causing some minor hull damage. Tiss worked more power to the shields while Hurrgh tried in vain to keep the droid ships off of them with the point defense banks on the ship, but the poor targeting system coupled with his unfamiliarity with shipboard weaponry proved to be ineffective against the agile craft. Biro attempted to push the engines even harder but the continued strain proved to be too much, and the engines nearly gave out. He cut the power back to normal and hoped the droid ships would leave them alone after the first pass. However, the fighters turned around and locked on with their missiles. Two of them shot past, turning around to make another pass, while the third one slammed into the ship, the explosion ripping through the shields and into the hull, causing a few small hull breaches which Tiss went to work locking down. However, they had some space on the droid ships, so Biro shunted all the auxiliary power into the engines and made a dash towards the gap between the control ships. The two remaining missiles tried to keep up, but missed, exploding harmlessly past the ship. Biro continued shoving all power to the engines while Tiss continued repairing the damage done to them earlier as they sped past the droid control ships and into the atmosphere of Saleucami.

Unfortunately, Biro quickly discovered that the damage done to the ship by the missile coupled with the speed of their planetfall caused the battle repairs to break free and caused even more damage to the ship, forcing them to land at the first convenient spot. As they got out and surveyed their surroundings, they made the judgment that it was nowhere near suitable for a command center, even for a droid army. It was too open to defend and there was no supply of fresh water, which would cause too great a strain on the Republic supplies. As they mulled this over, a clone who was manning the sensor suite announced the presence of a decent sized water supply a couple of klicks to the east. They couldn’t fly the ship there, but they could unload the materiel into the several repulsor sleds and hike it there themselves. They decided to send their scouts out first on speeders to check the area and make sure it was a good spot. It was reported back the water supply wasn’t fresh, but could be easily purified and the area was atop a small mesa with two small approaches, easily defensible. They also warned of droid activity noticed on their way to the site, most likely an advance force coming to check on the ship that just touched down. They quickly unloaded the supplies and left most of their forces with the ship to defend it against any possible droid attacks until it could be repaired, and then they set off.

About halfway into the journey, the sharp eyes and ears of Biro and Raz managed to keep the group from being taken totally by surprise by the force of droids that the scouts had warned them about, a group of B1 and B2 series battle droids. Weapons were drawn and initiative was rolled.

The heroes and their allies

The droid forces

Raz immediately moved into a position of superior cover while Biro ignited his jet pack and took to the skies, laying some blistering fire with his carbine into one of the B2 droids downrange, damaging the droid. Tiss moved into a position and finished off that droid with his heavy blaster pistol while the rest of the clones and droids moved into areas of cover and began engaging. Carthis used his skills with the shield gauntlet to deflect the first of the attacks sent his direction, but proceeded to take a minor burn before paying the droid back in kind with a shot from his Siang Lance. Hurrgh let out a battle cry and charged into the midst of the droids, looking to take some apart with his hands.

The battle is joined

Hurrgh charging the enemy forces

Raz leaned out to try to pick off a B1 droid with her blaster pistol, hitting the droid, but not solidly enough to put it down. She ducked behind the natural wall afforded to her by one of the rock mesas to avoid any return fire, not noticing one of the B1 droids looping around the mesa to bring the fight to her. Biro laid some coverfire over the wookiee’s shoulder into several of the other droids standing there, destroying one of the B1s and damaging another one of the B2 droids. Tiss leaned out and lined up a shot with his pistol, striking a B1 droid in the perfect spot, overloading his internal components and causing the droid to literally explode from the inside (a critical hit). Carthis finished off the droid Raz damaged just seconds earlier as a second B2 droid moved into attack the wookiee, who took a nasty wound. Carthis was wounded again as well, fairly severely, dropping the young man to one knee. However, Hurrgh paid back his attacker by grabbing the droid by the shoulder and yanking it out of its socket as he slammed his fist into its face, finishing it off. The wookiee was wounded once more in the exchange.

A close up of Hurrgh and an opponent

Carthis moving in to help the wookiee… or steal some glory. Who knows?

Raz finally noticed the droid attempting to sneak up on her and took it down with a well placed shot from her pistol. Meanwhile, the battle almost won, Tiss commanded several of the clones to help him load a downed B2 droid into the repulsor sled while Biro landed next to him. Carthis got back to his feet and charged the last remaining opponent, spearing him with the Siang Lance, but not quite putting him down. Hurrgh attempted to finish him off, but was reeling from his last wound and just missed. Biro hopped into range, and finished off the last remaining droid with a hail of blaster fire, cutting it nearly in two.

Victory for the Republic!

Tiss finished up loading two of the B2 droids into the cart, one to tinker with and one to reprogram as a bodyguard for Raz at her request. The rest of the group caught their breath, tended to their wounds, and regrouped themselves before making the rest of the trek to their destination, reaching it without further incident.

The command center was put up in short order and communications with the Republic flagship were established. The admiral ordered the PCs back to the Singularity immediately. The space battle going poorly for the Separatist forces, several of the larger remaining warships had taken to using their gravity well generators to capture asteroids in the system and were hurling them towards the planet, either hoping to catch some of the Republics ships in the attacks, cause difficulty landing for the forces, or to destroy something the CIS didn’t want the Republic to find. They were to take command of the destroyer and engage these warships, the rest of the navy still locked in combat with the remaining CIS forces. A shuttle was being sent down with their replacements groundside to take them to their next command post…

And that’s where the first session ended. It was largely an excuse for them to roll some dice and get reacquainted with the system again (none of them having played since about April). In the next session , the main plot of the era begins to kick in. Anyway, next session is in two weeks. Looking forward to it.