Still one of my favourite adventure journals, even after all these years. Came back for the nostalgia as I do every few years. Threadomancy is a thing, but this thread deserves to rise from the grave like Tyralandi's redeemed, control-seized undead.
Search Posts
Coffee break. Might as well post Session 11 now. I missed this session as I was working overtime. Za'iins player took the notes and wrote this entry on my behalf. Session 11: The group enters the Jedi council chamber from the turbo lift and they stand infront of the council members. Master Sunrider- Welcome young padawans. Jarred steps forward and bows respectfully J- Thankyou Master Sunrider, I am here on behalf of Master Loshem. I have a message to deliver to you. Danshi walks forward as if he is oblivious to what is going on. He stands in front of the central oblique and prods at it. He sees symbols carved into the rock but doesn’t know what they are. It has three carved channel lines around the middle. He is puzzled that it is in the middle of the council chamber and wonders the reasoning behind it. In touching it he feels a slight thrum of the force. He then places both palms against it. (use the force check- 23) Danshi sees in his minds eye a sand blasted city world. Buildings are in an older style, more ancient to the ones here, but with obvious signs of recent damage. Ancient but still of a modern style. The stars are slightly different, obviously not in the core. Suddenly he sees darkness well up around him as if he is falling. Suddenly he is standing in a large round chamber with a slightly domed roof, it is dark. Rubble is strewn on the floor. He can see himself, Kitana, Jarred and Za’iin in a furious battle with mutant creatures. Hulking 6ft tall creatures with no eyes, fanged mouths, muscular legs and short tails. Suddenly the image fades again and he is back in the council chamber. He removes his palms and steps back with a thoughtful ‘hmmm’ Jarred pauses and sighs at what Danshi is doing. A stern male voice addresses Danshi. ‘Padowan. Glad you could join us.’ D- I’m not technically a padowan. ‘Are you a master? A Knight?’ D- No ‘Do take your place.’ Danshi looks around a bit confused as to where he should be. The Master points at the floor. D- Thank you. Danshi smiles crookedly and steps up near to Kitana. D- *whispers* What did I miss? Jarred holds out the disc he has been carrying. It floats from his hand and to a female Master. This is Master Attris. Danshi smiles at the pointless use of the force. Master Attris (human female with white skin, hair and robes; and piercing blue eyes) She places the disc into a reader slot in the arm of her chair. From the ceiling a small projection device swivels down. A hologram of Master Loshem flickers to life. He bows and addresses the council in Ithorian. Danshi looks bored as he can’t understand Ithorian. Kitana does however and gives a summary of what Master Loshem tells in his message to the council. ‘He greets the council. Explains that the Sith have made an incursion on Recopia. They appeared to be after a device on a Rekatan research facility called the Star key. He proceeds to detail our attempt at recovery and his confrontation with the second Sith group. He tells them that the Sith managed to steal the device called the Star key. It appeared to be one of only four parts and made off with it. He is going to pursue further avenues of invesigation and request that his padowans- us- be allowed to conduct research at the grand library of the Jedi temple. And be granted access to the grand musem of Corisant for further study. So we can get as much help as we can get to find out about this.’ Hologram ends. The Masters seem disturbed, some begin to mutter quietly among themselves. After a minute one of the Masters on the far right- an older human male- Vrook Lamar speaks. Master Lamar- Padowans your Master Loshem has stated you encountered a Sith on your world J- That is correct Master. Master Lamar- Tell us more about them. K- We became aware a ship was crashing. It was in ditress so we followed it to where it landed on some islands. We found Assasi there. Master Lamar- Interesting. We thought them to be deceased . However the Sith. He motions for her to continue. K- They appeared to be a task force coming to the islands looking for the Star key… She stutters and Danshi interjects. D- It was a woman Masters. Master Lamar- A woman. K- We are not sure if she was the leader as there were more than one group. Master Lamar- You are unsure if she was the leader. K- There was a leader sending out task groups and its likely she lead a task group. Master Lamar- Do you have her name? K- It was a Darth Malice that was passing the instructions onto the task groups. J- I have collated all relevant information for your attention Masters.
She takes the pad and plugs it into a second data pad, and copies all the relevant information over. Once complete she hands Jarred his pad back and proceeds to scan his report. The other Masters now scan reports on data pads they have now produced. It seems the data pads are networked. (Much piss taking of the Star Wars universe occurs with comments on the fact they don’t have wi-fi or their data pads don’t ‘Use the force’. DM tries his best endure the ribbing) Master Sunrider looks up from her readings. ‘What more do you know of this Star key? Did you find anymore information?’ J- No Masters. Master Sunrider- Do you have anything to add to your report? D- Probably. Danshi turns to Jarred. ‘Can I?’ He motions to get the report off of Jarred. Jarred looks reluctant but hands it over. Looking through it he sees it fails to report the Sith that was found on the surface of Recopia that was killed by Master Loshem. D- I know that one of the Sith apprentices was killed by Master Loshem. K- She did have a really unusual light sabre. It was black and silver, it had a black blade. Master Sunrider- Hmmm. I see. Anything else you wish to add? J- It may be possible to actually find the identity of one of the Sith fallen. Danshi has recovered one of their light sabres. Master Sunrider- Thank you Danshi please hand it over. D- Finders keepers. Master Sunrider- Thank you and we know you now have it. Please hand it over. Danshi hands it over. Sunrider hands it to Master Mical who examines it very closely. He unscrews the power cell. Undoes the emitter. Takes it to 15 bits and increasing. Imagine an exploded diagram of a light sabre sitting in Mical’s lap. He finally removes the red synthetic crystal. Danshi has been watching him intently with a look of ‘you’d better put it back together again once you’re finished’ expression on his face. Master Mical- Master Attris what do you make of this? Mical uses the force to float the crystal into the reach of Attris. Master Attris gets out a magnifying glass and examines it more closely. Master Mical is still examining the encasing and construction of the housing. He suddenly gathers it all up in a cloth with a ‘Please excuse me Masters I must examine this more closely.’ and hurriedly disappears into a turbo lift.
Master Sunrider- Well if that is all you have to offer we thank you for your contribution. You’ll be met downstairs and shown to your quarters. We’ll contact you if we have more information for you. If you wish to access the library and museum we shall detail a knight to accompany you. K- Thank you Master Sunrider. D- Cheers. Z- *bows* We are grateful for you help and hospitality Masters. J- Thank you Masters. May the force be with you *bows* Danshi pauses and looks at the oblique ‘hmmmm’ ****************** All of the party enter the turbo lift and descend to the atrium level. They are met by the original Jedi padowan guide that brought them here. He greets them. Guide- I’ve been asked to show you around and to your quarters. Do you need anything else? J- We were told to await a knight who would contact us as we wish to visit the library. Shall we wait in our quarters? Guide- Please do. I will show to your quarters. D- We need to check out your stores. Guide- Why? D- I need to check out a light sabre. Guide- What is wrong with your own light sabre? D- Master Mical has my light sabre. Guide- The knight you are waiting on will have you equipped. The guides makes light chat about their journey here. When asked what he does for fun and does he ever get out he mentions about when he escapes out to night clubs and stuff. He talks about some of the places he has been to and that he has heard talk of exciting places and beings including the creatures of Iego and of angels. ******************** The party are taken to their quarters. They turn out to be in a circular chamber with 6 small rooms off the central living area. The padowan says they can pick anyone they like. He says he can show them to the mess hall and to the computer terminal. D- How would you sneak out discreetly to a club? Guide- Very, very quietly. K- Why would you want to go to clubs? D- She’s never been to one and I thought she’d enjoy it. The padowan describes a casino he enjoys. Saying that the food and refreshments are reasonably priced as it makes it money, naturally, with the gambling. He tells them to go down through the droid base and to avoid the speeder hangers as they are patrolled. D- Thanks. *holds out his hand* Hi I’m Danshi. Guide- Hi, thanks, I’m Falyn. Jarred looks briefly unhappy. He mutters to himself about only just having been here a matter of 10 seconds and Danshi wants to break the rules. Za’iin smiles tiredly and introduces herself to Falyn. She goes to find a room where she can quietly unpack herself and relax a bit. ***************** Everyone is in the Jedi quarters in the Jedi temple. Za’iin- Hey folks I don’t know about you but I’m just going to freshen up then head to the mess to grab some food. If anyone would like to join me feel free. I can’t be the only one in need of some real food. Kitana and Danshi get ready and join Za’iin in going to the mess. Jarred is re-writing his report. He makes his excuses ‘ I’ll be there as soon as I’ve finished.’ As he goes back to his typing. ****************** The Jedi Knight is in the lounge as they return. Jedi Nye Vollen greets them and advises that he can show them around and help them find things.
D- Is it possible to visit a store to acquire a light sabre? Master Mical has my light sabre at the moment as he is studying it. Jedi Vollen- Oh isn’t that it there? *points to the light sabre Danshi has out-of-sight on his person* Is there a problem with the one on your belt? It seems Jedi Vollen has noticed many things about the group he has been speaking to. D-No. Jedi Vollen- Then what need do you have of another? D- Because the Master is taking mine apart. Jedi Vollen- I’m sure he won’t be long. D- *looks annoyed* I thought the Jedi were respectful of other worlds cultures *he radiates annoyance and the impression that he considers it theft* Jedi Vollen- Well, we shall stop by Master Mical’s workshop later and see if he is finished. I’m sure he’ll explain about what he is doing with your sabre. Anyway we are going to the library and where you will not require any use of a light sabre. Danshi hits the turbo lift button. They all get in and ride up to the library floor. Stepping out and they see a long corridor ahead, it is wide with several terminals spaced at distances. Stacks of holobooks and various other media forms sit in shelving stretching out to either side curving round. Above there are two more balcony levels getting smaller as you go up. Jedi Vollen- This is the central hub. There are a dozen or so smaller archives off to the sides. Some are restricted. The droids will be able to find any subjects you ask for. Each of the terminals are isolated so you can be sure you can peruse the material in privacy. Your various subject matters are ordered alphabetically and by historical date. As said the droids will be able to help you.. Let me show you how to use a terminal. He leads them to a terminal. A small pentagonal desk with 5 other desks around it. Vollen sits down and produces a disc from his clothes, he describes how to use it all. D- Thank you *sits down* Jedi Vollen- If you should need me for anything *passes a com code* I will returtn for you in 2 hours K- Thank you very much. Z- We are grateful for your help Jedi Vollen J- *bows slightly* Many thanks Danshi and the rest of the group proceed to choose subject areas and search the archives using the terminals. (search your feelings, gather information) D searches for ANCIENT FORCE ARTIFACTS
K* finds that the information is rather limited. What she does find refers to sealed archives . Sith come from a faction of Jedi that turned dark, who left the core worlds and ended up on a world (blanked named) where they met the Sith species. They interbred and the resultant offspring were force sensitive. The Sith species made the others force sensitive by using alchemy to change the non-force sensitive Sith into powerful warriors. (K reads it as Massassi) Z* finds the Sith races were once a primitive species. Dark side force users which were renegade JedI who bred/interbred producing a hybrid race= Sith. They inhabited a large swath of territory later named the Sith empire. This consisted of hundreds of worlds. The capital of the region was Korriban in the outer rim regions. J* finds very little on his exact chosen subject. Using his own knowledge he finds a single phrase relating to the star key. The star key was broken, and the primary piece was lost through the seventh gate of Satikan in the temple of Helios. He found this information in a legend about a now long gone race- it is just a fragmented legend. After an hour that is what was found. D- Anyone found anything? Conversation ensues about the information they each have uncovered. Danshi decides to hassle someone to try get access to the sealed archives. He finds he may require a Masters permission to access a sealed archive so they find Jedi Vollen. They discuss about what they have found and therefore why they need sealed archive access. Kitana asks if there are any Masters who may be able to help us with this. Master Vollen wants to see what files they couldn’t access. Danshi obliges and types in the parameters including the new ones they discovered. Most of files relating to Sith, artefact and many of the Sith worlds are sealed files SEALED FILES. Kitana scrutinises these but with some interaction it flashes at her a warning- MASTERS ACCESS ONLY. She does however gain access to GREE; ARTIFACT gives files and astrogation charts; word SATIGAN is included in the files and something called the GREE ENCLAVE populated by an ancient race now in decline. SATIGAN comes up as the capital on the planet of Asation. GATE comes up. GREE uses a series of GATES by which they travel from world to world- HYPER GATES. Gree use the gates but don’t understand them. They have been in decline for 10,000 years. Originally the Gree had several castes. One of the castes were the builders that built the various artifacts. Another cast designed them. Another caste operated the hyper gates and other artifacts. Operators are the only ones left. All the builders and designers have died out. (Niall- ‘obviously the people they used to test the gates were the telephone hygienists‘) The Gree used genetic inheritance to produce the castes. They have lost the species ability to genetically produce designers and builders now. They are now also starting to loose the ability to use the technology. (Rhi mentions a race that has genetic reprodcution knowledge but it reminded his character would not know this. After consideration a species that we do know of is suggested- Archanian. Rob interjects with- ‘Yes but Archanian genetic reproduction is less than perfect.’ Caroline adds- ‘Yes we know- they produced jarred.’) However it is not the gene that hold the builder/operator/designer information. It is the racial memory that is passed on. Therefore re-creating genetically would not be the answer. (Conversation turns to the lack of paper in this high-tech world. Rhi- ‘Bet the ewoks are sat there writing on paper going ‘ f%@~ing muppets’) At this point we hear the voice of Jeeves. Trying to gain access to his Masters. He offers Danshi a canopay. Danshi asks Jeeves to speak to library computer on their behalf. Jeeves who has translated a Sith data pad now hands it back to Jarred whom gave it him in the first place. This data pad holds a document which would have saved them wasting 2 hours archive trawling as it has many vital pieces of information. The group ask for the Masters permission to peruse the archive about ARTIFACTS, ALCHEMY, GENETICS, GREE, RAKATAN, HIGGS FRIELD RADIATION … lots of subject field. It begins to look like the group won’t get much access as the head of the library is Master Attris. Master Attris is the one examining the crystal. She doesn’t seem the type to allow children into her precious archives especially not dark side ones especially in light of recent events. With Jedi being greedy about information that may have turned him to the dark side
I would advise posting two or three times per session, rather than putting up a single "monster" post each week as I have been doing on my latest journal. Smaller, more numerous posts tend to attract and keep other readers intrest for much longer than larger posts, as I have learned from experience. My earlier journals were divided into two or three posts per session. My Praxeum journal entries, however, have been running to about 7 A4 pages of ten point text per post and have received about a sixth as many comments per entry as my Khyber Rising journal did. Secondly, try to find a narrative voice. Develop a style that suits you overtime rather than trying to cram your entries into someone elses format. I will say though that you should spend as much time as possible working on your posts and avoid another of my recent errors -publishing the game notes raw and largely unedited. Try to give the flavour of a combat rather than dishing out a blow by blow account as I have done in Praxeum. The Praxeum journal suffers from a round by round narrative, which means constantly cutting from one characters action to the next in the intitiative order. That deliberate mistake came about due to time constraints. Given that I am a published author (by which I mean people pay me to publish my work), Im actually embaressed about the quality of my Star Wars Journal. At the time I started writing it I felt I had no choice but to publish my campaign notes raw and largely unedited (except for spelling) due to the pressures of my "real job" and other, paying, writing projects. Big mistake. If you want folks to read your journal, put as much time and effort into it as you can spare. No-one expects a journal to read like "A Game of Thrones", but people can tell if your not putting your back into something. Contrast the journal entries for my old WFRP game, here: http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/community/gaming/campaignJournals/bein gATrueAndHonestAccountOfTheTrialsAndTribulationsOfSeigfriedVonSchwimmerByGo spardOfNuln With the ones in my "The Praxeum of Master Thesoom" journal and you'll see what I mean about effort. And finally, make sure you pick a good, eye-catching name. "The Praxeum of Master Thessom?" What was I thinking. Try to pick a name that invokes the themes of your campaign, while giving readers an idea of the setting. I mean really, looking at the title of my campaign, would YOU think it was an al-Jedi StarWars campaign? Basically, take Praxeum as a good example of what to avoid in a campaign journal. I truly believe that only myself and the other players ever bother reading it. Folks might overlook one or two of these flaws. But no one will overlook all of them in a single journal. Good luck. I will be reading your journal with interest.
I am so far behind these days its unreal. Ive missed a few sessions in the last few weeks. Luckily, my six month old God-son has been filling in for me (well, he rolls dice occassionally. Or throws them, anyway) and my better half has been keeping the notes. Tonight begins session 18. Ill have another session posted as soon as I can figure out what session number the last post was.
Danshi miniature of the week: There ain’t one, cos he ‘aint here and dint tell anyone he wouldn‘t turn up. So we didn’t start till after ten. The Pilgrim exits hyperspace at the Junction of the Hydran Way and the Correlian Run, a deep space hyperspace beacon. Other than a few ships, local space is empty. There are no planetary bodies of any kind. A new course is plotted, and the Pilgrim’s jumps once again The journey thus far has taken six days, in which nothing of any note has occurred until the ship emerges in the chaotic traffic lanes around Coruscant, a distance of 9,400 light years (yes, the mathematicians in the group actually sat and worked this out. It equates to about half a million times faster than light speed!). Jarred steps onto the bridge. He’s not overly impressed. He was a student here before becoming a Padawan and unlike the others, his reaction can best be described as, “meh!”. Za`iin complains he has no poetry in his soul. Jarred pointedly sniffs. “There’s no merit to poetry“. METOP’s (Message to all Spacers) informs the group that holding patterns are currently at four hours. Jarred reaches for the comm, trying to speed things up. He contacts the Temple.
Za’iin lands the ship without complications at Galactic City Spaceport. No sooner has the ship set down than an airspeeder approaches the pad. The two crew were the uniforms of the Jedi Service Corps. The group are quickly ushered into the Airspeeder, after first setting the security settings, taking with them the Sith Datapad and the holomessage from Master Lo’Shem. Being Jarred on the ball, Jarred also brings Geeves for the Council’s translation convenience. The Temple is much smaller than in later periods, forming an actual Ziggarut with only a single, central tower. The entire complex is no more than a kilometre square, with speeder parking bays in the surrounding plaza. They are met by a fellow Padawan, somewhat older than Jarred, who leads them to the Temple. He asks if they need time to freshen up. Za’iin replies testily that they had plenty of time for that in orbit.
At the prompting of their escorting Padawan, Jarred agrees to explain the history of the room to the others. He observed this is one of only two spots on the entire world where one can stand on natural bedrock, the other being Monument Plaza. Za`iin wonders at this worlds ecology. Jarred explains about weather satellite, the artificial great western sea, polar ice, imported food, fuel and water. That the entire system can survive just three days of siege etc in almost exhaustive detail. In effect, the Temple is a great sheath that protects the surface of the planet from erosion and pollution. Jarred is rather impatient and irritable as he explains all this, largely because he is annoyed at being kept waiting. Finally they are led to a waiting room outside the council chambers. Twelve chairs occupy the JedI Council Chamber, yet four are un-occupied. The masters present are Nomi Sunrider, Atris, Kavar, Zez Kai-Ell, Vrook Lamar, Lonna Vash,Vandar Tokare and Miscal. All are human, save for the small green gnomish figure of Vandat Tolara, normally chair of the Council of Dantooine. None of the other four non-human Council Master are present. <We leave it there, because we’re all knackered, Rhee isn’t here and I’ve just spent ten hours on the final edit of a fiction piece that had to be submitted by midnight. My poor fingers are getting cramp.>
SESSION 8: Mostly a book keeping session, but with some setting development and role-playing involved. Three days later, Master Lo’Shem holds a meeting, almost as soon as the last Padawan emerges from a healing trance. The minutes list a number of points to be discussed. Several raids on local shipping by a previously unknown Pirate Group.
During the discussion of this third point, Danshi asks what an Interdictor is? Master Lo’Shem explains in detail while Jarred pretends he already knew. Finally, the Ithorian confirms that several more Jedi have defected to the Sith, prompting the media to describe the current conflict as a “Jedi Civil War,” further portraying it as a religious conflict which has spilled over into the civilian and military populations. Many people are confused as to who the villains are. Many still see Reven as a hero and do not understand that this is a war of conquest rather than a religious or sectarian dispute. Master Lo’Shem goes on to say it is for this, final reason, that he will be sending the four students to Coruscant. Both for their own safety, and to convey word of the Sith interest in the Star Key to the High Council. “But surely Dantooine would be closer Master?” “Actually Jarred“, points out Za`iin, “It’s about 2 and a half times further away.” Jarred remains quiet for the rest of the meeting. Master Lo’Shem goes on to instruct his students to research the Star Key in the burgeoning archives on Coruscant. Jarred someone manages to avoid bouncing up and down with excitement at the thought. Khitana whispers something disparaging in this regard to Danshi. The meeting ends with instructions from Master Lo’Shem to spend a day preparing. Khitani comments acidly that it`ll take longer than that to remove the remains of that speeder-bike from the ship’s engine housing. On that note, Za`iin suddenly remembers she will need to update the ships navigation computer with the most recent coordinates. “ Things move in space Jarred,” she points out helpfully, successfully transferring people’s attention from her to Jarred (and eliciting a scowl from the other Padawan in the process). Jarred mutters something about borrowing Geeves - as they’ll need someone who can reliably translate any documents they find in the archives. He agrees, and congratulates Jarred on his forward thinking. After all, if Jedi have gone rogue, there’s no guarantee that the Temple Droids weren’t “modified” before they left. Master Lo’Shem hands 500 Credits to Za`iin along with instructions to buy what supplies they need - as well as obtain current navigation charts. She arms herself with information regarding Master Lo’Shem’s usual contact in the Navigator’s Guild before the meeting breaks up. While the others see about making arrangement’s Jarred challenges Danshi regarding his intentions with the Sith light sabre. “Why?” Danshi asks. Jarred explains that red light sabres are synonymous with Dark-Side force users. If people see him with it, they might get the wrong idea. Danshi says he will keep it as a back-up or a trophy. Jarred points out that trophy-taking is rather inappropriate for a Jedi - it suggests both aggression and material attachment. Danshi counter’s with the fact he is not a Jedi - and has no intention of becoming one. The Sidhe then reproaches jarred for trying to inhibit his personal freedoms. Jarred looks confused for a moment: “There’s nothing about protecting personal freedoms in the Jedi Code,” he protests. But Danshi uses this moment of distraction to make a sharp exit. Jarred can only sigh and wash his hands of the matter. While the others engage in the dirty commercial matter of selling on their loot, Jarred meditates on his action’s the day before and finds himself at peace with his actions. Though misguided, his rash act was born from a desire to protect his comrades. He returns to his meditations. The other three Padawans’ assemble their looted items, sorting through them for what they want to keep and what they plan to sell on to fund their future expedition. Proceedings are interrupted by a discussion regarding who should be in charge of monitoring the equipment situation and which of the two mechanically gifted students, Danshi and Khitani, should take the lead in ship repairs. In the end, it is decided that Khitani should remain behind to repair the ship. Whereas Jarred quite simply refuses to get involved in what he describes as an “arms-deal”. Fortunately, given that there is a war on, weapons prices are at a premium. It’s certainly a sellers market. Alas, at the weapons and equipment broker, the haggling skills of a certain not-a-Padawan Danshi leave a lot to be desired. Meanwhile, back at the ship Khitana decides to wind Jarred up regarding his morals. She points out that, since he doesn’t want anything to do with the profits from the loot sales, he wont want anything to do with the food they buy with it. He snootily replies that, technically, there’s no need to buy any more food supplies. Those provided by the school would be more than sufficient if all the students other than the pilot travelled in a Jedi trance. Khitana responds shrilly: “Where’s the fun in that?”
Khitana points out she has no time for meditation right now. She has an engine to fix. Jarred knows when he’s up against a brick wall and elects to simply monitor her behaviour for the time being, though he himself is not entirely sure how this darkness came about. Meanwhile, Za`iin calls in on Master Lo`Shem’s contact at the Navigation Guild. She tells them she’s looking for updated information on routes to the Core Worlds and reminds the dealer that he owe`s Master Lo`Shem a favour. The broker suddenly becomes somewhat nervous and defensive. He eventually exhales “Oh THAT good will!” when Za’iin drops a few hints as to what a failure to remember said favour would entail. She gets quite a good deal, and leaves feeling rather pleased with herself for achieving an 80% mark down on the price of charts. Rejoining Danshi, the two of them see to buying up few and restocking fuel and oxygen supplies, replacing certain worn components and spares etc. This costs a further 1800 Credits, which, with the cost of the Star Charts (a mere 200 credits) this would normally leave the party with a pool of XXXXXX, including the 500 credits Master Lo’Shem povided. This time Danshi does very well at the haggling (natural 20 plus persuasion skill bonus plus 2 from Za`iin’s assist other = 30, all without calling upon the force) and lowers the cost of consumable’s from 1800 credits to a mere 540 credits! A very contented pair of Jedi return to the school with 3000 credits in the expedition fund and a further 3600 Credits for the personal accounts of Danshi, Za`iin and Khitana (not including the 260 credits Danshi pocketed for himself). The others decide to keep this little matter of self-enrichment from Jarred, since he disapproved of the weapon-sales in any case and would certainly NOT approve of the other Jedi, pocketing anything for themselves what so ever (given the Jedi Order‘s outlook on personal property). So it comes to pass that, at the end of the scorchingly moist and humid Recosian day, the Padawans’ find themselves re-united on the bridge of the Pilgrim, accompanied only by the ever-fussing presence of Geeves, the Praxeum’s Protocol Droid. Za`iin tells Jarred about their planned route, asking Jarred if there is anything they should know about the route they‘ve chosen, namely the Correlian Run. “Yes“, Jarred says, “the Sith have pretty much conquered the whole Correllian Way. Travelling along that route might not be a good idea. By the way, most pirate attacks take place on the edge of a system as ships come out of Hyperspace, funnily enough, on major trade routes. Anything else you need to ask me?” Za`iin is sorry she asked. She wonders what Khitana and Danshi would suggest. Jarred points out that taking the Hydian Way to Galactic North then heading Coreward on the Perlemian Trade Route would work just as well - ie it would be safer, and wouldn’t involve that many more jumps. Danshi wonder’s if they can buy anything here that would be worth more on Coruscant. Jarred rolls his eyes. “You want to get involved in commerce now?” Za`iin works out whether they`d have sufficient supplies to take the alternate route Jarred suggests. She finds they’d have plenty left over, but it would take perhaps all their funds to re-supply afterwards. Jarred suggests that the others balance the certainty of running into the Sith along the Correlian Run against the possibility of encountering pirates on the Hydian Way. Za’iin points out that if Sith forces are so strong on the Correlian Run, surely the Pirates will have moved to the Hydran Way. Jarred agrees that’s a possibility, but observes that these new Pirates they have heard so much about are just as likely to be Sith Privateers as actual Pirates. Danshi throws in the threat of the Interdictor for consideration. Jarred suggests that the Sith are hardly likely to send their new weapon out against a bunch of Padawan’s. Danshi acknowledges this point, but also observes that just because the Interdictor wont actually be looking for them, it doesn’t actually mean that they won’t run the risk of being caught up in one of it’s operations. Jarred suggests they are approaching the situation like traders rather than Jedi. He suggests meditation and consultation with the Force. Danshi, Za`iin and Khitana all do so. Jarred doesn’t, on the grounds that he can`t actually use the Force in the way he suggests. (As Za`iin puts it: “It`s not that Jarred can`t actually hear the Force as such, it’s just that the Force has to hit him with a power-sled to get his attention first!”) The consensus is that the threat is lesser along the Corellian Way. Za`iin has trouble seeing the path the Force would have her take (muttering something about a shadow in the force nearby that seems to be clouding her connection to the Force) but Danshi is adamant that this is the case. Reluctantly, Jarred sighs, choosing to trust that the wayward Sidhe Padawan has, in fact, correctly interpreted the Force and isn`t just making things up. Meanwhile, after Jarred is subjected to some considerable teasing by his fellow students, Khitana finally gets round to finishing repairs on the ship. She begins work on stowing things away while Jarred inspects the ships medical supplies and runs a few simulations with the ships weapons. Meanwhile, Danshi and Za`iin go over the various trinkets they’ve purchased during their excursion, including a medical kit, a security kit, synth rope, a power-recharger and a medical visor for the communal stores. Without pause to return to the Academy, contenting themselves with a farewell transmission to their Master, the four youngsters blast off into the starry-night, on course for Coruscant. While Za`iin pilots, Khitana inputs the Hyperspaced coordinates. Within a few hours they reach the outer system and jump into Hyperspace. {{{{{Three more updates to go.}}}}
Thanks for the suggestion Turin. That`s just what I`ll do.
Turin! Once again I must salute you. I will bin my own suggestions, as they pale in comparison with the malevolent munificient magnificence you have created. Silent Man and the boys had best be on their toe's.
Sorry for the delay in this journal folks. I have a tight 31st of March deadline for a piece of short-fiction to meet. The StarWars Journal is easy enough given that I type the notes as we play and barely edit them after. But for this journal I`m essentially re-working my existing paper journal so that the story is told by in the voice of Gospard. In the old paper journal only the introduction to each "chapter" was actually written in the voice of Gospard. The rest was in the far more straight-forward and to-the-point style of Seigfried himself (and sometimes even told in the third person). Actually, I wonder if people enjoy Gospards rather windy style, or if they would prefer a straightforward journal? I might end up having to write in the latter style regardless anyway, depending on work and writing dead-line pressures.
ARGH! Forgot to do this last week. Session 8 underway as we speak. No. Time. To edit Session 7. Gonna have to post it raw! Wildly Inappropriate miniature of the week: Same again. Hopefully he’ll paint it black. Dark Side Point List Danshi: Zero transgressions. No Dark Side Points.
Wow! Khitani? What about Danshi? Who saw that one coming? Scene Begins: Danshi pulls Jarreds medpac from his belt pouch, and goes to work while Za`iin holds the medpac. While crystal shards fall all around, Jarred is brought round quickly, with a resounding hangover and dodgy legs. He takes a round to gather his wits (increasing his damage track to -10 and half movement). “Give me a few seconds. I`ll be fine.” “Do take your time!” mutters Danshi sarcastically. “All right, I`m ready to go. Fill me in as we leave. It would not appear to be wise to linger. Wheres my light-sabre?” Danshi summons it and sends it to the older students hand. He also notices that the power supplies to the complex appear to be fading. “As a wise man said. See you later!” comments Danshi. He makes his way to the nearest ladder and the group starts to climb. Jarred volunteers to go last (but not without a brief argument from Za’iin), in case he takes a dizzy spell and falls. He also takes another full round to recover while the others get up the ladder before him. This puts him at -5 on the condition track. A vast improvement on -10. As they leave, Jarred notes the crystalline machinery of the reactor begin to humm and vibrate at an alarming tone. They choose a variety of ladders and start climbing, Jarred following Za`iin and the others choosing separate ladders. Alas, the ladders don’t go all the way to the surface, just to the platform above. “Remind me to have a word with the engineers who decided to emplace escape ladders that don’t actually let you escape.” mutters a peeved sounding Jarred as the four Padawan reach the “safety” of the landing above. The platform mimics the shape of the one below, with multiple consoles all faslhing in suitable discordant alarm consoles. Danshi takes the lead in the rush to escape to safety. The others, including a rather muggy Jarred, follow immediately and without complaint. Alas, it appears to be yet another airlock. Danshi hauls Khitani over to one of the consoles. “Open this!” he demands. “Uh, Nah!” Khitana comments as she tries to open the doors. Za`iin has a smug moment however, and gets the door open without difficulty. Meanwhile, Danshi tries to send a telepathic warning burst to Loshem, being in particular an image of the Sith Apprentice making her escape with the Star Key. He receives a return image of Master Loshem standing bravely against a dozen humanoids in shiny silver armour, all firing towards him, along with a flashing red light saber blade and the image of a starship flying towards the viewpoint, all guns blazing. “He coulda just said he was busy!” Danshi mutters unhappily as the airlock door cycles open before him. The others follow. The airlock begins its usual cycle, and the Padawans are treated to a few nerve-shattering quakes as the complex continues to shatter around them in a cascade of falling crystal shards and shiny lights. Jarred takes the opportunity to focus upon his injuries in the force, managing to shove the pain further into the back of his mind, clearing the fog in his brain. Danshi does his best to look nonchalant during the wait. Jarred is not convinced. They doors finally open to reveal a ready room with several lockers, no doubt containing protective suits of various kinds. “Left.” mutters Jarred, assuming that the layout of this level roughly corresponds to the ones below. Khitana takes the time to open one of the lockers, drawing a dirty look. “Uh Khit. Priorities!” comments Jarred. The younger Padawan pointedly ignores him. She notes that the helmet appears to be two foot high and made for no race with which anyone is familiar. In fact, it has a cross-shaped cross-section. “Khit!” Jarred prompts. “Can we go now?” Khitana tells the others what she has found. “That’s wonderful.” Says Jarred. “Lets go!” “Thanks for that important update Khit!” growls Danshi. “Perhaps you can tell us all about it LATER!” They rush through the door (or rather, the others do. Khit seems distracted) and encounter more of those noisome red globes from earlier. Danshi adopts a defensive posture and darts forwards towards one of the turret/camera/blaster drones and darts towards the double doors he believes will lead to the turblolift room on this floor. He hasn’t heard a single sizzle by the time he gets there. It would appear (as Za`iin correctly surmised) that all the guns have been disabled. She and Jarred soon follow. Meanwhile, Khi opens up the lockers and grabs all four cooling suits before pursuing. “Khit!” Jarred snaps loudly from the doorway, his patience not helped by his multiple wounds. The others do not appear amused by their youngest companions delay. Finally reunited, the others punch the controls to open the door. The door opens. The party swears. In unison. At a pile of green crystal debris blocking access to where the turblolifts would have been. “New plan!” suggests Danshi. “Scatter and check doors!”
Za`inn, Jarred and Khitana checks doors that lead approximately in that direction. Danshi checks the other side of the corridor for the sake of completeness. “Slow-down hop along!” Za`iin shouts at Jarred. “Your not well enough to be in front!” Jarred being Jarred, he doesn’t listen. That’s because he has an Arkanians sense of direction and knows where the turbo lift is. He opens the door, and smugly grins back at Za`inn, who leapfrogs past him to smack the hatch. “HERE!” shouts Jarred, as they await the turbo lifts arrival. Danshi, meanwhile, has found an armoury with weapons in pristine condition in a hermetically sealed treasure. He grabs a few (I.e SIX) carbonite rifles like the ones Za`iin used earlier, before running out and heading off to join the others. <Trust Rhory to find some damn treasure! First edition gamer that he is!> “Bloody pack rat.!” Comments Jarred as Danshi arrives. “Would you like us to hang around while you keep looting?”. Khitana, meanwhile, ignores Jarred’s call and runs down a many doored corridor towards a console which appears to be little more than a food dispensor. After a moment wasted examining this device, she turns back and hears another call, this time from Danshi. “Khit! Are you COMING!” “Finally.” mutters Jarred as she finally arrives, catching one of the rifles as Danshi throws it to her. Za`iin meanwhile continues to prod the turbo lift continually, not trust the flashing light that indicates the turbo lift arriving. Khit tries to explain what she’s found. “Important updates are always appreciated Khit.” comments Danshi as he chucks a rifle to Za`iin. “You sure know how to please a lady.” Za`iin grins happily. Danshi winks and hands another one to Jarred. “Thanks!” Jarred mutters darkly. Danshi then explains that Master Lo’Shem has company and they should prepare for a fight. As the lift arrives, their commlinks receive a compressed brust transmission. They hear their Master’s stereo voice over the sounds of battle. They learn that a section of Sith troops have broken past him and are headed down to the second level. The four Padawans jolt simultaneously, backing up fighting positions. Under orders from Jarred, they form a firing line, with Za`iin and Khitana kneeling and with the two boys standing behind. All ready actions to blast anything that comes through the turbo lift door. Danshi chooses this moment to wonder if the rifles are actually loaded. Jarred gives him a dirty look and they all scramble to check for cartridges. Khit has her lightsaber drawn. Jarred swaps his rifle for his blaster and lightsaber, Z has her rifle ready and Danshi has drawn an arrow to his bow. “Jarreds the one who can deflect blaster bolts right? Why isn’t he in front, Mr Heroic one?” comments Danshi acidly. Jarred gives him a dirty look as Za`iin comments: “Because the state he’s in, if he lays down he`ll never get up again!” She puts on her best charming smile, Jarred forgoes comment. The doors open. The characters fire. THEN they notice four troopers in shiny silver armour pointing blasters at them. Jarred manages to shoot the wall, missing the turbolift and its contents entirely, from a range of about fifteen feet <Gah! Not a two again!> . Danshi’s shot pings off the side of the door. As the two shots fly above their heads, Khitani leaps forward to the attack, placing her lightsaber at a Sith warriors throat and demands their surrender. Za`iin runs forward, menacing the second Sith with her rifle. Danshi 21
Given the two levelled weapons, the two *ahem* warning shots fired by the boys and the lack of fighting room in a tugboat, the girls get heavy bonus’ to their Persuasion rolls. Four blasters drop to the floor. The party step over a few puddles to enter the lift. The girls gesture the Sith troops out of the lift and the four Padawans step in. The four Sith attempt to point out that the base doesn’t seem safe. Khitani sighs loudly and states: “We’ll send it back down for you.” She them goes into the beginnings of a soliloquay lecturing the Sith on the evil of their ways, only to be told to shut up by Danshi. They grab the blasters off the floor of the lift on the way up. Khitana passes everyone an environmental suit. Jarred looks at Khitana as if she’s mad and lets his drop to the floor. Meanwhile Danshi passes round carbonite cannisters for the rifles. No-one bothers putting the suits on. The lift comes to a gentle stop at its top level. <Me: Because the DM went to all the trouble of drawing four levels and he’ll be damned if we don’t explore them all!
The doors unfold to reveal a hanger bay, with the landing pad elevated to the roof. A number of doors lead out from the hanger bay. The party emerge from the turbo lift, weapons ready, and begin to explore looking for a way out. Jarred peers at the landing pad some twenty-five metres above, on extendable pylons. Meanwhile Khitana examines some consoles as Danshi moves towards another turbo lift, escorted by Jarred while Za`iin covers Khitana with her lightsaber. The girls find the terminals here are an isolated system operating on emergency power with near-depleted batteries. Nearby, Danshi taps the button, to no result save some audible groans and humming. Jarred tries another.
“The far side!” Danshi comments unhappily. “Why would they put the rungs on the far side?” asks Jarred even more unhappily. Something very unusual happens. Jarred and Danshi exchange an ugly look not actually directed at each other. Jarred calls the others over. They also successfully edge and leap their way across to the ladders and begin to climb. Jarred leaps across with aplomb and calls the others across. Za`iin’s leap is even more impressive. They all begin to climb the shaft. Except Khitana, who opens a door leading to the refreshers to find the whole place covered in a strange pink fungus. She finally follows, after first checking that the lift they took up here has already gone back down. A sudden explosion and deep rumble shake the shaft. Jarred is hardly even jarred despite his wounds. Khitana and Danshi are flung back and forth, hanging on by their skin of their teeth while Za`iin has to call upon the force to keep herself steadied. Jarred comments that the others need to work on their calesthenics a bit more and frowns darkly at the others difficulty. He should have gone last again after all - but for different reasons this time. Jarred reaches the top to find a hatch that needs opened. He loops his belt around a rung, leaving his hands free to open the hatch. He manages, albeit with difficulty, and forces the stiff door open, by which time Khitana has caught up. The hatch opens with a shower of dirt and small rocks. Their ears are immediately assaulted by the noise of starship engines building for lift-off as well as blaster fire. The group can still hear the humm of a lightsaber. Jarred looks down at the others “Prepare yourselves.” and propels himself out of the hatch, landing in a defensive posture astride the open hatch, ligthsabre held before him and towards the noise. The others climb out behind him. Danshi is first, he belly crawls to one side making towards the cover of a dead Sith trooper. The two male Padawan can see several soldiers scrambling into a ship via a hatchway. Two ship mounted blaster-cannons are servicing a target half-obscured by a dust-cloud - Master LoShem. A third lies rent with a bent barrel that could only have been caused by telekinesis. As the girls make their way to the surface, the ship lifts off and accelerates at full blast into the atmosphere, kicking up dust and debris behind it. Master LoShem drops to his knees, his lightsabre deactivating as he falls. Jarred lets out a gasp and rushes towards him while Danshi helps Za`iin and Khitana to their feet. They form a defensive cordon around the Ithorien, who seems to have been wounded several times. Though injured, he does not appear to be in imminent danger. Jarred asks if the Ithorian saw a female human Sith board that ship. The Ithorian gasps out of one mouth and speaks from the other. He confirms their fears. A force-invisible female with a black blade managed to sneak aboard the ship, but the Master believes that a second Sith is dead. Jarred goes looking for the body. “Can somebody stand by that hatch in case four Sith soldiers emerge.”
She locates a few, and removes their blaster pistols. She gathers them together and stands guard over the captives, after first disarming them thoroughly. Realising that Jared only has two sets of Binders, and that no-one else has any, she uses liquid rope to restrain the Sith Troopers. Meanwhile, Danshi and Jarred do eventually find the Sith. He is very dead, having been squished by a large rock and dismembered by several light sabre strikes. Danshi pockets the Sith Light sabre, and attempts to do so surreptitiously. He notices Jarred watching his every single move. Jarred says “You will of course be passing that particular item on to Master Lo’Shem.” “No”. says Danshi.” “We’ll see.” says Jarred. Danshi searches the body while Jarred keeps an eye out - and not just for Sith! They both realise they recognise the Sith in question -despite the mauled features. They recognise him as one of the Jedi Padawan from the enclave on Dantooine or Coruscant. They exchange another one of our significant looks. Danshi takes the Siths battle suit, comm link and light sabre. Jarred smirks at the now well and truly overloaded young Sidhe. He doesn’t offer to carry any of the load, but picks up the rifle that Danshi chooses to leave behind. Za’iin helps Master LoShem to the ship. Jarred starts dragging the prisoners towards the ship going back for their gear when he’s finished. He first makes sure that the Sith commlinks are switched off (by removing their helmets - as advised by Za`iin- who is prepping the Pilgrim for take off) so that the Sith cannot trace their location. Za`iin also calls ahead to Geeves to prepare food, medicine and the Guard Droids for receiving prisoners.
Danshi comments that he’s not sure if that’s actually legal. Jarred shrugs and promises to examine the law later. Another quake rocks the island, part of the landing pad falls away. Steam rises from the lift shaft exit they have emerged from. Jarred chucks one last Sith over his shoulder and starts running for the ship, with Khitana and Danshi in tow. They guard the prisoners in the cargo bay. Master Loshem instructs Za`iin to lift off and return to the Praxeum. She hurtles the ship away from the island at speed, while behind them the island explodes in an eruption of steam and lava. Jarred peers out of the viewport behind them, mourning the lives of the four Sith left behind. Khit and Danshi run to the bridge while Jarred guards the prisoners. They are disappointed to find they are too late to determine the hyperspace vector of the departing Sith vessel. Danshi is put out by the fact they are not pursuing. Master Lo’Shem observes that the Pilgrim is outmatched by the Sith vessel - and that not one of the five Jedi are in any condition for a fight. FLASHBACK TO REACTOR ROOM:
EPILOGUE: A few days later, Master Lo’Shem steps into the Praxeum medical bay, where Geeves is tending to the wounds of the four Padawans, each deep in a healing trance. With a motion of his hand he summons their attention. “From what you have said and seen, it would seem the Sith have in their posession at least of the four Star Keys. I believe that with some judicious study at the Granf Museum, we may yet determine the location of others. I will lead the search. You four will carry a message to the Council at Dantooine. The Sith must not obtain the Keys.” With that, he turns and departs.
Danshi: I don’t suppose you could lend me 150 credits so I can buy a security kit, could you?
Jarred and Danshi begin hunting around, poking heads through doors, starting with the door the foe came through. Danshi suggests that Khitana retrieve any available intelligence from the droids databanks. “Again with the data retrieval!” moans Jarred, continuing his exploration. But Khitana realises hacking the systems would take too long. Even she, the youngest and least responsible member of the group, is beginning to feel the pressures of time weigh heavily upon her. The room the Sith-slaves came through is bare apart from a dedicated terminal linked to some very basic systems (as told by Danshi, with the aid of the Sith-Visor). A second door lies opposite in which Jarred stands with a circular red light showing above the door. Jarred enters, closes the door behind him to protect anyone else if something nasty happens (after first arranging with the others to monitor his condition through the force) and opens the opposite door via the console. He keeps his comm-link open as well. Just in case. A light starts blinking on the panel above the door and a complex bar scale appears on the terminal display. Jarred realises he has activated an airlock and seems unconcerned as the outer door closes behind him. But the odour in the room is more ozone than sulphurous, so he quickly realises that wherever this airlock leads, it doesn‘t go outside. He dons his breath mask and waits. The light above the opposite door cycles round like a clock, turning from red to blue with the passage of second.s A chime sounds (Ding!”) and he cautiously opens the other door, light sabre still lit and in a defensive position. <DM CUT> Danshi and Za`iin monitor Jarred’s condition through the Force. Za`iin states that their colleague seems to be fine and is not alarmed in any way. (At this point, and I`m not sure how we got on to this OOC topic, the DM points out that Za`iin has killed more foes than anyone (including the seemingly unstoppable Jarred), and that’s with only using her light sabre once). Khitani picks a door at random, and extends her perceptions through the force in attempt to sense if opening that particular door would be a bad idea (This is a “Search your feelings” check). The results are unclear. Though she does realise that she has some “odd” feelings towards that “cool” guy Danshi that she tries to impress so much. Za`iin continues to monitor Jarred’s emotional state but is having a hard time of it, perhaps because the Arkanian hardly seems to have any emotions in the first place. Za`iin: Well, he doesn’t seem to be panicing so far.
While Jarred waits for the doors to cycle (yes, they realise he’s in some form of airlock) the others continue to explore the other doors leading off from the corridor they just fought the Maasaasi in. Za`iin and Khitanas’ search your feelings check’s are largely unproductive and fail to indicate any sense of imminent danger. Khitani’s door opens to reveal: <DM: Khitanis door opens to reveal a small amorphous grey being with a short sword and a sling.
…yet another storeroom. Z’s room also turns out to be a storeroom. The difference being that her’s doesn’t have a strange looking mouldy goop over the floor and is more orderly in it`s arrangement.
Danshi stays in the corridor to provide over-watch. Seeing some of the goop in Khitana’s room he comments: “When we see Jarred again we should tell him we found one of his relatives”. Za`iin opens the crates with her Jedi utility device (the one that humms menacingly). Danshi, able to see int both room from his guard position in the corridor, states that the contents smell worse than one of Master Loshem’s dinners. Z meanwhile, finds some mouldy old biohazard suits. Next door, Khitani notes that the goop on the floor appears to be acidic. It eats her spare copper-wire like a hungry Gammorean eating through Nerf stake. Za`iin looks under the rotting packing material in some of the crates and finds the top of a smooth golden orb. Its big. And heavy. Danshi moves to take a look at it. His visor proves especially useful here. He reckons its some sort of heuristic processor. A droid or droid head of some kind of some kind. The three students look through the rest of the crates together. <DM CUT> “Oh” remarks Jarred. “It’s a reactor!”. Thinks Jarred. “I`m dead!” he muses. And lastly: “Why DO these thn=ings always have a rail-less bottom-less pit anyway?“ A pit which, incidentally, surrounds a seemingly ancient crystalline reactor core. An orange glow light’s the whole room from the depths below. Two smal bridges halfway along the peremiter of the room connect th encircling walkway to the reactor platform. Another platform can be seen about 100m above. Then, after a moment or two, Jarred realises: Hold on, that reactor core on the platform looks like the star key! It’s a pyramid shaped object held in suspension inside a clear cylinder by a green beam. A green beam flanked by two Masaassi. Outside, the others sense a deepening sense of smug satisfaction emanate from Jarred. With absolutely no sense of fear or alarm whatsoever. After all, the young JedI has been carving through these thugs all day. What he fails to note however, is the fact that these foes are BIG! <“Hey”, comments, Khitani’s player, “Jarred gets to fight Star-Key and Hutch!”> Two spinning stone disks hurtle towards him, launched by two Sith. One misses, Jarred’s players (that me) smugly announces that unless his assailants attack roll was twenty-three or higher, it’s stone disc has just been destroyed by Jarred’s lightsabre deflection. This smugness lasts for about three seconds before the DM announces the Maasaasi have surprise. For some reason, despite the fact he’s just fought a bunch of Maasassi coming out of this very room, is fully expecting to run into a Sith Apprentice, STILL has his lightsabre lit and is standing in the aforementioned defensive stance, Jarred is caught unawares! Que discontent mutterings from all four players. Jarred takes 10 points of damage. He isn`t overly concerned. No flash of panic through the force yet. However, the DM grins evily and chooses this moment to remind us that the link has to be maintained - Z and the others have been busy focusing on this droid head they`ve found rather than maintaining the link. Oh, and the shielded walls have blocked the comm-signal. They cant hear the hum of Jarreds weapon, nor the meaty smack of stone disc thwacking into flesh. Initiative:
The overconfident Jarred leaves the protection of the airlock,, activating Energy Resistance and moving to engage the Maasassi. However, he fails to call upon the Force successfully, leaving him unprotected against any residual radiation in the room. (I rolled a 2) M1 and M2 move to engage him. He finds himself trapped between the two. However, as M1 ran this round, only M2 can bring his axe to bear. The Maasaasi hits Jarred on the shoulder with a sturdy blow for 7 points, leaving him at thirteen. Jarred, rather rashly, attempts to tumble past the first Maasassi so that they can come against him only one at a time on the walkway and fails. Despite spending a force point (he rolled a 3 on the D20 and 1 on the Force Dice). He therefore provokes two attacks of opportunity. The first misses, barely whistling above his head. The second one hits for nine points of damage. He strikes out to return the favour and misses with a blow that would have connected easily with any of the other red skinned aliens he‘d faced that day. (Typically, Jarred , who has been kicking ass all campaign despite pretty average dice rolls and a non-combat build, manages to make crap dice rolls just when he needs them most). Now even the cocky Jarred is becoming concerned. Hhis player, on the other hand, has been concerned ever since the door opened. Where the heck is that Sith Apprentice? He must be in here somewhere? Though by this point, the location of the Sith is largely academic. Jarred might not have realised how dead he is yet, but I certainly have). M1 and M2 then act again. Both Maasaasi strike him and lands blows, reducing his condition to -5 and rendering him unconscious. Jarred does however, take a swift action and tries to use Absorb Energy as an interrupt (he doesn’t send out a psychic distress call, as he KNOWS Za`iin is monitoring his condition through the Force. Help must already be on the way) hoping to absorb sufficient energy to heal his injuries from the reactor’s ambient radiation. (Typically, I roll a two).. {{{{The DM chooses this moment to point out that Jarred hadn’t bothered sensing the force before entering the room, hence the decision regarding making him surprised. He also asked with genuine surprise why someone who’d been gaming as long as I had would do something so stupid? I then observed that Jarred is an arrogant, self-important twat with a deficiency in sense powers written into his background (hence he hasn`t tried to sense anything more than once in six sessions) and a psychological block against showing any weakness in front of his “subordinates”. Besides which, every time Jarred calls upon the Force the Sith Apprentice gets a chance to fix on his location. So Jarred’s actions were entirely in character. Jarred is particularly wise in some respects, but downright blind (such as with regards to his own failings) in others. Plus, no amount of wisdom can substitute for experience and teen-age recklessness. And Jarred simply doesn’t have enough of the former and truck loads of the latter. Jarred took the risk of scouting the airlock alone solely to protect his colleagues from any unfortunate traps or toxins - and to avoid exposing them (especially Danshi) to a Sith Apprentice. In his arrogance he was fully expecting a fight - but with a lone Sith Apprentice, not two Maasaasi. So in that respect at least, I conceded, the presence of the two Sith Slaves did come as something of a shock. Especially since by my count we’d now killed all the Maasaasi on the manifest. Then I recalled reading something about the VIP’s “attendants”. Groan! I fully expected Jarred to go down messily, but against a Sith Apprentice designed to take down four characters. Not a pair of Maasaasi thugs, Arrogance and Over Protectiveness. Jarred’s twin weaknesses. Maybe my own as well. }}}}} Anyway, back to the Game. The others rush towards the airlock doors, trying everything from detonite, light sabres and hacking to open the doors immediately. No effect. They wait thirty anxious seconds for the doors to open. As the doors begin to open, Danshi tumbles through the slowly opening gap into the airlock, lightsabre drawn. The others step in. Smelling ozone, they don breath masks as Jarred did earlier. Khitana takes the time to examine the console rather than simply using it to open the doors and discovers camera controls. (The DM looks meaningfully at Jarred’s player. I sniff pointedly and observe that Jarred is crap with computers, though inside I`m so embarrassed I`m cringing). Crowding round, they peer into the display. The students see two Maasaasi in guard positions at the edge of the platform, flanking the star-key/reactor in camera one. Jarred’s boots are just in the picture on camera 2 while camera shows three Jedi in an airlock staring at a computer terminal. Danshi sense’s a strong dark side presence in the room. Except he describes it as “Unseelie.” Fortunately the others are used to his ideosyncracies and follow his meaning. The door cycles open. Initiative: M: 18
The Maasassi warriors hurl their stones against the three Jedi, but fail to coordinate their attacks, inflicting 11 and 9 points of damage to Z and D respectively. This is despite their possession of partial cover in the diamond-shaped airlock, which fails to protect them from the ballistic skill of their foes. The two warrior-slaves back away to the far side of the room after firing. Which, to the other Jedi, seems rather odd given that the star key is still suspended in the centre of the room. The players expect an ambush. The characters are oblivious Danshi makes a Sense Force and a Perception check to identify the location of the Sith Apprentice. He fails to detect the Sith, despite rolling a modified roll of 26! All he can see between the orange glow from below and the flickering light of the three light sabres is a number of darting shadows against the walls. He moves further into the room, cautiously approaching the fo in a crouched over position, stopping astride Jarred’s inert and bloodied form. Khitana meanwhile uses a Surge power to move twelve squares into the room (this is a swift action). She then lets loose with a Force Slam attack. She catches both warriors in the blast, spending a force point on the force slam activation roll, and takes cover behind some of the reactor shielding. She inflicts 21 points of damage on both, knocking them prone onto the platform. Za`iin, somewhat concerned given the foe have already downed one of her companions (the one who normally wades through them) and survived a force slam of such power, uses a surge to move into the room and run right up to one of the fallen Maasaassi. Finally she gets to use her light sabre on a foe who can actually fight back (and there was much rejoicing around the table - along with friendly reminders of which part of the weapon to point towards the enemy). Her concerns are justified. Even though her foe is prone, it still manages to deflect her blows and protect itself adequately - only with the help of the Force does she actually manage to hit the foe, killing it. A dark figure flips up from under the central platform, clearing the meter tall energy shields, and landing with gun and black cored-light sabre in ready position, right behind Khitani. Before anyone can call out a warning, the Sith strikes. Khitani senses the presence behind her and ducks at the last possible moment. She feels the cold chill of the enemy sabre swipe across the top of her head, taking with it a foot long lock of hair, which sizzles horribly as it floats to the ground. <Khitani’s Player - Oh no, I’ve just exposed myself to the Sith.
The surviving slave warrior picks itself up from the ground and moves to engage Khitani from the rear. The lanvarock whistles above the young Padawan’s head. The Sith apprentice conveniently chooses to ignore her own failure and berate the Masaasi for failing to slay the little minx. Danshi seazes the opportunity afforded by this distraction and spends a force point to create an illusion of Khitani. Illusionary Khitani appears to overbalance as she frantically dodges incoming blows and falls over the side of the platform. To reinforce the illusion, D shouts: “NO! Za’inn, time to go!” and begins to drag Jarred’s body back to the entrance. <Khitana’s player: See, Danshi loves you really.
Khitana sees the laughing Sith look right through her towards the edge of the platform and hears the Massassi warrior grunt in satisfied approval. Khitana readies her attack action, afraid to disrupt the illusion by moving. She’s not quite sure how these illusions work, but she doesn’t want to risk spoiling the effect. The Sith turns to reach towards the Star Key, gloating, she calls out. “You’ve failed Jedi. Now I shall have the Star Key!” (No real game effect, just flavour text. Za`iin has still to take her action before the Sith has her next turn). The characters are quite pleased by this action - they had no idea how to remove the Key themselves and were rather counting on having someone else do it for them. Unaware that K`s death is a mere illusion, Za`iin ignores Danshi and instead moves cautiously towards the Sith and the Masaassi,. All too aware that her talents in melee combat do not compare favourably to her skill as a pilot, she is determined not to let the Sith escape with the artifact. Despite her wounds, the defeat of two comrades and the apparent desertion of a third, she is determined to do her duty. Thoughts of Vengeance are far from her mind. The Sith Apprentice activates a few controls, releasing the Star Key from its containment field. She summons it to her hand through the force, gloating happily all the while. <K’s player to Z, OOC: Grab it and thrown it down the pit!
Khitana seizes her moment against the now flat-footed foe, sweeping down with a heavy battle-strike assisted foe against the foe. She cuts into her foe for 23 points of damage in a single blow, cleaving straight across the Sith womans shoulder, slicing to the bone and forcing her to drop the Star Key. The surviving Maasaasi scoops up the Star Key from the floor, quick as a flash and retreats. Danshi rushes forward, blowing Khitana a cheeky kiss on the way past, and moves to engage the Maasassi, taking up a defensive stance (-5 to attack in return for +5 reflex save. Normally it’s only +2 to the save but Danshi has acrobatics, for an extra +3 modifier). Za`iin moves up to flank the Sith Apprentice , striking the Sith nemesis for a further twelve points of damage, making her scream with incandescent rage. The Sith Apprentice hisses, spinning her black sabre around, slicing into Za`inn for fifteen points of damage and striking again at Khitani on the backswing for an additional 19 points of damage. Grimly satisfied, the Sith finishes off her round by taking a second wind. Khitana responds by taking her own second wind as a swift action, yet stunned by the pain of her wounds her wild swing fails to connect with the Apprentice. The young human Padawan tumbles away to safety and retreats a few metres to consider her options. The Maasaasi tries to bring down Danshi, but fails to penetrate his expert, if not desperate, defence. It then tries to move away, giving the Sidhe Jedi a chance to strike at its retreating back. However, it takes a second wind before doing so, and Danshi’s attack goes wild. It reaches the airlock door opposite the one the characters entered and opens the inner door (the DM explains that the Inner Door’s does not go through the long opening cycle when the outer door is closed). Danshi leaves his defensive stance and advances upon the retreating warrior. Again he fails to connect. Za`iin takes her second wind. She strikes at the Sith, but misses badly (Jarred’s player isn’t the only one with bad dice rolls today). She tumbles away, somersaulting backwards, and takes up a more advantages position on the platform behind her original position. The Sith apprentice runs towards Jarred’s battered form, once again slumped on the walkway where Danshi left him, using a surge to move at great speed. She spins, smiles evily and summons the Star Key from the hand of the Maasassi warrior using Move Object. She turns her back arrogantly as the door begins closing behind her. At this point, the complex starts to rumble and shake. Cracks start to appear on the walls and on the platform surface. Khitana moves around the reactor, using a Force Point to recover use of Force Slam and uses it against the retreating Apprentice, causing 14 points of damage and shoving the arrogant woman forward to the floor, out of sight beyond the still closing doorway. The Maasassi tries to retreat further, but Danshi lands a weak slice on the creatures hide as it moves. It closes the door behind him (which turns out NOT to be an airlock door after all and instead opens into a normal room, hence it closes immediately behind it). Another rumble shakes the complex. Pieces of the structure begin to fall away, revealing alcoves hidden by a crystal panel façade. Panels that happen to contain Escape Ladders. The characters begin to notice a burning sensation emanating from the door through which the Maasasssi fled. Or most of them do, Danshi uses Negate Energy to resist the effects and even heal his wounds a little.. The Sidhe Padawan then pursues the Maasassi into the next room, but finds that the exit door from this room (through which the Maasassi has already fled), a door through which the Maasassi has already fled IS an airlock door. He swears loudly. Za;inn uses a Force Point to spend another surge. Running up to the airlock through which the Apprentice fled, she tries to shove her light sabre into the door, hopefully burning a hole and preventing it from locking closed. Alas, she rolls a two to hit and, in her haste, the weapon simply glances of the door. The Sith have escaped.
It truly was. John (the DM) possessed a Masterful blend of grim storytelling ability and black humour that had the rest of us rolling with laughter on the floor and matched exactly the feel of the Old World with its dark intensity and humour. I miss that group very much. Though my current group is every bit as good (even more so, even). I`ve done by best to capture that morbid bleak humour in "Gospard's" Journal. Note that Ive learned from my earlier mistake of posting six or seven pages of text once a week or so. Ill be posting much smaller excerpts every day or so. Speaking of which...
Playing as we speak.
Pre Game Book-Keeping: Rhee’s Totally Inappropriate Danshi Miniature of the Week: The DM made him use the redeemed Vader’s apprentice again. Hopes were dashed. Players were disappointed. In character comments during book-keeping: Danshi: I don’t suppose you could lend me 150 credits so I can buy a security kit, could you?
We gained enough xp to level up last session. We spent half an hour at the start of the session levelling up. Most of us took another Jedi level. Khitani was torn between a level of Jed or Tech Specialist so Niall decided he’d level up next week.
Yes, you`ve guessed it. This is a WFRP Journal. Before you all gasp and recoil in shock and horror, please give it a good read first. I promise you might like it. It`s not an ongoing campaign, but one I uncovered in my archives. Since I know your all a bunch of journal junkies like myself, I thought I`d share it with you. The majority of it consists of the journal as written by me, for me. The DM kept his own journal and I`ve included some of his notes, comments, and thoughts, as a matter of interest. Note that I havent been able to contact him to establish permission to do so. But since he posted these comments on his public blog himself, I cant see it becoming a problem. Even so, if they start to disappear, you`ll know why. Game System: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Second Edition.
The Characters (in the words of the DM) Alane:
Bertholdt:
Mordrin:
Grundi:
Siegfried:
I`ll update with a new post from Gospard tomorrow or (more likely) Wedensday
Good. Glad your getting some new blood Cap. Never hurts as far as keeping the game alive is concerned.
No games for the last couple of weeks (cos of my shifts). Next game on Tuesday. Next update probably Wednesday.
Oh the former. Definently the former. I`m addicted to them too. Dont think theres many here that I dont read.
Oh hello Turin. Hadn`t realised Drunn was one of yours.
Dont worry Cap, if I have any ideas I'll let you by private mail :).
No they dont. Case in point from last weeks journal: "Jarred advises the group track the Sith quickly - lest they recover the Star Key and return to the surface via a different route. For once the others agree without arguing and do as their told. <Break for Baby Changing. Nialls bairn is six weeks old and mum needs help with the nappy changing. I help by holding the baby for a second, who promptly decides to puke on my T-Shirt>" Incidentally, a huge part of me (and all of Jarred) REALLY want to just wait at the entrance and ambush the mooks as they came out, presumably all battered and bruised. But I knew how much work Rob had put into this particular adventure, including some astonishingly cool and detailed maps... Metagaming yes, but from the point of view of making sure everyone had a good time, and not at the expense of the DM.
I keep a journal of every game I play in or GM. As a DM I tend to write out a brief two or three page summary of events at most, like I did on the Darkness Rising journal that ran concurrantly with Allen's AOW. Alas, it has long since dropped off the boards (taking with it the infamous NPC, Captain Apple Merryweather) since neither myself or anyone else has posted on it since the game ended about two years ago. However, if you take a look at the Praxeum of Master Thesoom thread you`ll find that, as a player, I record a blow by blow account of the game as it progresses. Each three to four hour session results in about a 7 page small type Open Office file. In retrospect, posting each session as a complete single post rather than simply posting a page a day on the forum was a mistake, as the size of the posts seems to prove daunting for many readers. It would have been better to post smaller portions over a number of days rather than simply one full post a week. That aside, recording the notes themselves does not present a particular problem. By taking my inexpensive notebook PC to the gaming table I can type up events as they happen. While you might think this takes up a lot of my attention, ultimately distracting me from the game and limiting the time I actively spend roleplaying, this is not the case. You`ll see by how often my character (Jarred) fetures in the roleplaying and decision making aspects of the game that I contribute just as much as any other player. It shouldn`t be a problem for anyone else either - provided the chronicler is a sufficiently fast typist and is content to leave any grammatical or spelling corrections until after the game. Working thus, I usually find I have the game update ready to post the very next day, following at most half an hour or so of editing. The only thing I really miss out on is much of the OOC chat that goes on during the game - as I use this as an opportunity to clarify any events I might not have been too sure of at the time of recording. But as we meet at 7 and dont start gaming till afer dinner at 9, I dont feel that I`m missing out on the OOC socialising aspect of gaming. All in all, I think this particular method of recording works out well. Jarred isn't any less an arrogant, obnoxious genius than he would have been had someone else been recording the journal. The only gristle in my steak pie being that, from a professional point of view, the narrative text can sometimes set my teeth on edge. But only because I don`t re-write the text, only amending the spelling and grammar. I just have to remind myself every now and then that I`m writing a campaign journal. It`s for fun, not payment, so why spends as much time with it as I would on something publishable?. Allen, I personally would love it if you could find time for a new journal. I found your writing style in the last one refreshingly witty and urbane. Needless to say I enjoyed it immensely.
It`s an unusual group of characters. But then, thats the glory of RIFTS. Theres no such thing as a "usual" group
A good alternative to the Rogue would be the Artificer class from the
Plus they alos have a wide selection of "infusions" they can use to buff
Great class the Artificer. Love it.
Totally inappropriate Danshee figure of the week: Vader’s Apprentice. Current odds of red-light sabre construction. 1:21. (In all fairness, it was the Redeemed version. A cunning attempt at subterfuge, we think. Star Wars Campaign Session Five: Cut to Z. At the controls of the ship, Z detects an incoming blip at the very edge of sensor range. It appears to be an assault shuttle of some kind. Realising she cant hope to successfully engage this vessel with its heavy armament and full crew, Z decides to hide the ship beneath a suitable rocky outcrop, but without communicating with the other characters on the grounds that the incoming ship might detect her signal. So skilled is her landing, that the thrusters kick up a cloud of dust that gradually settles on the upper-side of the ship, providing some degree of visual camoflage. She leaves the ship and cautiously retraces the steps of her Master and fellow students, finding the corpses of two bodies in the small hut next to the landing pad. Knowing that the others descended to the bottom floor of the turbo lift, she enters and begins her descent into the depths. Cut to the rest of the group. Tracks through the dust, clearly marking the path of previous visitors, leading towards both sets of double doors in the hexagonal chamber. The room has two double door exits and a second turbo lift with four blue crystals on the wall to one side. They appear to be some form of decorative marker - perhaps donating that the characters are presently on level four. No tracks lead towards this second turbo lift. The walls of the room are coated with green crystal. As the four Jedi enter the room, Danshi heads towards the other turbo lift, wanting to see if it leads to any other letters. As the party steps out, the turbo lift platform they originally occupied climbs back towards the surface. As the Sidhe approaches the door, it fails to open at his approach. Jarred moves towards the northern set of doors, which again do not open automatically. Jarred initially reaches for his trusty jedi lock pick but instead he shrugs and looks for a control panel. He finds one, apparently part of the wall, but these crystals are oval shaped. He slaps one, anticipating this will open the door, and making sure on this occasion that he does, in fact, have his light sabre lit this time. The door shooshes open, to reveal a T-Junction before him. As he steps out into the corridor, he finds the door he entered by flanked by a pair of what appear to be consoles. However, he has little time to examine his surroundings as a red globe off to his left hand side shoots a bolt towards him. His Jedi reflexes save him, as his coppery-blade snaps out to deflect the incoming shot. He notices a second red globe to his right, this one does not fire. Danshi uses the force to shut the door by hitting the button telekinetically from the opposite side of the room. The door closes like a pair of wings folding. Its at this point that Za’iin steps into the turbolift upstairs. Downstairs, the others note that the damaged crystal formation appears be to regenerating itself rather swiftly. Both Khitana and Jarred feel a sudden burst of dark side energy from the crystals themselves. Its almost as though the crystal in this room appears to be a living organism infused with the energies of the dark side. “Interesting!” comments Jarred. (“Ugh” comments Khitana. Danshi also finds the crystals interesting, muttering something about “Unseelie“ energies. Master L indicates he does not feel it would be wise to use such a crystal for light sabre construction. At this point, Khitana notices that the turbo lift they just left appears to be in use. Jarred takes up a guard position at the turbo lift door as does Master L and Khitanaa. Danhi is oblivious until Khitana draws his attention to the lift noise. He uses the a blast of force energy to move sufficient dust to cover all the tracks in the room, including thr party‘s own. The turbo lift doors open, and Z finds herself confronted by a quartet of light sabre blades at her throat. Wisely, she calls out before stepping forward. Master L says “Ah!” in smug satisfaction . Jarred mutters acidly: “You were supposed to remain with the ship.” Z very quickly fills the others in regarding developments topside. Meanwhile, Jarred reflects that the Sith somehow managed to avoid being blasted by the red globes. He wonders if it is related to their being dark-sider’s or if they have some other way to avoid being blasted. Danshi asks if Za’iin took the time to conceal the dead bodies topside. “Ah!” she replies. However, being Zaabrak she wisely refrains from any literal head-slapping. Master L orders the four students to search for the star key, destroying it if neccessary rather than allow it to fall to the Sith. Master L will go topside to keep the new arrivals busy. (((Brian to Rhea: That means not searching every damn room this time!
Master L: Do you need anything else?
Master L departs with the usual “May the Force be With you.” Khitana asks Jarred to check the other door. Jarred agrees and suggests the other stand back, since he is the most proficient at deflecting blaster bolts but not so skilled at controlling what gets hit afterwards. Meanwhile, Za’inn asks for an update on past events from Khitana and Danshi “Er, stand out of the line of fire please!” says Jarred. He waits for the others to do so, then opens the door. He is faced with another T junction, this one with a single console niche directly ahead and curving backwards around the perimeter of the hexagonal room. There is another set of the folded-wing double doors to his right. He can only glimpse this however, as another red globe shoots another red beam at him. Again he deflects the beam, though just barely on this occasion. K 23
Khitana steps forward in front of J and tries to force slam the globe, she succeeds and little pieces of red crystal along with electronic components fall to the ground. Jarred motions Khitana forward to the console, adopting a protective stance to one side. Danshee moves to guard the newly discovered doorway to the left. As Khitana steps forward Jarred moves into the firing arc of another red globe around the corner, this time Jarred fails to deflect the bolt and takes ten points of damage. <Same Initiative Order> Z continues to face back into the hexagonal room, protecting the rear. Khitana manages to access the consoles systems but cant figure out how to use them given the interface is entirely alien.
Jarred takes his second wind, whipping out his pistol in an attempt to destroy the globe, yet his shot flies very wide. The globe fires again, scorching the wall and missing Jarred. Za’inn continues to guard the rear. She reaches out through the force, to try to detect the presence of any more force users (J is beginning to feel particularly unloved at this point, since no-one seems to want to help him kill the globe). Za’iin cant even sense her own feet however. Khitana reaches out with the living force to feel the space between her and the red globe, spending a force point to reach out across the intervening space and use Force Slam for the second time in one encounter.
Khitana sticks her tongue out in the direction of the door and mutters “so there!” Her excessive use of force reveals a diamond shaped room beyond the door, with a strange squiggle in the centre. Jarred suggests Khitana and Danshi go back to the console. Jarred keeps watch while Za’iin guards the rear. Danshee seems so impressed by Khitana’s show of power that he might even have forgiven her for spraining his ankle. Danshi~: “Subtle just left the building, though!”.
At Khitana’s suggestion, Jarred moves to inspect the squiggle in the next room. The corridor continues further to his left, with another door halfway along and yet another console niche at the end. Jarred finds the room to be a lab, full of shattered glass and smashed equipment. A section of ceiling has collapsed, forming a squiggle on the battle mat. He also see’s a door on the opposite side of the room. The ceiling hasn’t even begun to heal itself of this damage, though it looks ancient. Danshee stands by Kit, watching the other side of the corridor while Khitana continues her work, She manages to get the screen functioning erratically, but the system is showing its age through poor performance. Its also in a language she doesn’t recognise. Jarred mutters that he should have thought to bring Geeves along. The others agree and seem to blame Jarred for not thinking of that earlier. He feels even more unloved than he did a moment ago when faced by a blaster bolt hurling red globe. Jarred notes that no footprints were leading off towards the lab. They instead led to the double doors which are now behind him and which Danshee is currently watching. Jarred wonders over to examine the writing on the console. He cant read it, but observes it bears no resemblance to any of the Sith heiroglyphs seen before. Jarred tries to issue voice commands in the hope it is fitted with a translator program. He has little luck and move away with an impatient grunt.. For some reason, Khitana and Za’iin get into a conversation about why droids are better than men. Danshee, leering, points out that Men also think in terms of Zeroes and Ones. As a last ditch effort, K tries typing in binary commands, having figured out which characters represent zero and which represent one. To her great surprise, it produces a series of language options including basic. The screen flickers showing a very sketchy map of the fourth level of the complex, complete with doors and consoles marked out by numbers and variously coloured crystals respectively. It does not show the location of defence turrets however. There is a legend for the various numbers, although it appears to have been corrupted and is no longer readable. Danshee wonders round to the console at the dead-end Jarred discovered, trying to figure out why it is marked by a different colour on the map. Meanwhile Jarred keeps up a running commentary to keep Za’iin appraised of what everyone is doing. Danshee discovers his console appears to be slightly damaged and on standby power. The wiring looks chewed. J arred advises the group track the Sith quickly - lest they recover the Star Key and return to the surface via a different route. For once the others agree without arguing and do as their told. <Break for Baby Changing. Nialls bairn is six weeks old and mum needs help with the nappy changing. I help by holding the baby for a second, who promptly decides to puke on my T-Shirt> (((((Caroline (to Brian): Go on then hun. Change the Nappy for them! You need the practice!
About thirty second later: Cue “Sweet Child of Mine“ on the telly in the next room (Niall‘s missus has been watching CSI). There is much laughter at my expense. P.S No, she‘s not pregnant)))))> Upon resuming, the group heads towards the blast door opposite the lab. Jared again takes the dangerous duty of opening the double-wing doors, light sabre once again at the ready. It opens into a hexagonal room with a door opposite where Jarred stands and at turbo lift to the right. D 22
Danshee runs across the corridor to take cover in the console niche. Za’inn tumbles into cover as well. The globe shoots and Jarred doesn’t even have to make a deflection attempt, the shot is so poor, K charges in and takes a swipe at the globe with his light sabre , but in her excitement she forgets the basics of her training and misses completely. “Centre yourself Khitani” Jarred reproves, pausing only to leap high into the air and slash through the globe, cutting it in half with what amounts to little more than a glancing blow. Jarred asks if the others have tried shutting off the turrets using the console. Khitana explains there wasn’t much power left in the console to play with. Nonetheless, at Jarreds prompting (read: moaning) she backtracks and gives the dead end console a go. Danshee goes with her, as does Za‘iin. Jarred spends his time trying to work out if any prints lead towards the turbo lift. Jarred, despite being the one party member skilled at tracking and surviving, has trouble discerning what tracks belong to him let alone anyone else. Luckily, no one is around to witness his humiliation. Khitana wires Z’s spare power pack into the console, hoping for enough power to reactivate the obviously damaged console. Khitana and Z, noting the nature of the damage to the console, reach out to detect life through the force, They detect a number of harmless insects munching away and nesting within the consoles innards. Meanwhile, J opens the turbo lift and examines the controls, revealing it travels between levels 2 and four. This goes some way towards easing Jarreds’s concerns that there may be levels below even this one. Abandoning the console idea, the others rejoin Jarred in the room with the third turbo lift. After a brief conference in which the group exchanges news, Jarred moves to the next door, which refuses to open, Jarred uses his standard issue Jedi lock pick (that’s a light sabre by the way) to gain entry. He has little luck, this material seems exceptionally resistant to high temperatures. Khitana steps up to have a look. Danshee tries to sort it with the aid of his goggles and mechanical skills, He manages to open it successfully. Alas, this means Danshee is the one closest to the door when it opens. The door opens into what appears to be a control room with functioning consoles and display screens. Jarred suggests that Danshee and Khitana check for operating security cameras. Z counts down from five before saying to Khitana. “Well, they’ve not been sizzled yet. Lets go in.” Jarred takes up station by the exit while his more technically minded colleagues play with the machines. Khitana has trouble containing her glee. Its like her life-day come early. The others spend quite some time trying to figure out the facilities systems, prompting Jarred to become impatient. “Gentlebeings. Every moment we waste brings our enemies closer to their goal - and exposes our Master to more danger.” Khitana replies that she knows, but that she’s trying to enter the security system. Meanwhile, Z persuades all the other consoles to operate in basic mode. “Hurry up!” Jarred prompts. Khitana keeps fiddling with the security consoles in the meantime. Jarred’s foot begins tapping rather rapidly. Z gets two of the consoles responding the basic. J arred: We’ll have time to muck about when we defeat the Sith. For Force’s sake, hurry up!” Khitana finally cracks the security. Camera 1 shows a short hall way with double door opposite the camera and a single door to the right
Jarred: Can you shut down the turrets? Khitana realises that the cameras and turrets are one and the same. Camera 3 shows a corridor with a double door on the far right and a single door opposite the camera and on the opposite wall another single door with a corner intersection on the left
Jarred: Do any of them show the Star Key? Khitana: No Jarred: Fine then just turn them off and lets go! The others try to figure out what camera is where on their map, leading Jarred to become ever more impatient and agitated. Jarred: Switch them off and lets go. Camera’s 5, 6 and 7 turn out to be broken. Danshi: Wait one second. I have an idea. Lets try to gain access to personal files, find someone relevant to the Star Key and what sector they work in. “YES!” Jarred shouts. “For heavens sake that’s what I want you to do! Just find the Key!” After a few more minutes of this, Jarred’s voice becomes very quiet. The sort of voice he normally uses when he’s getting very angry! Jarred: We are wasting time! Get a move on! After five attempts to switch of the turrets unsuccessfully (and a total of about nine minutes spent in this one room), with both Danshee and Z assisting Khitana, the party packs it in. Danshee makes a comment about how Jarred hasn’t even bothered opening the door yet. Jarred actually GROWLS in response. Khitana uses the console to open the rooms remaining door. Jarred is ready to deflect upon the door opening. D 19
D anshi pushes past Jarred and into a corner where he skulks behind Jarred. Z moves to just behind Jarred, close enough to support Jarred should he move into the attack. Jarred lunges forward to attack the globe, which has so far failed to react, but stumbles in his haste and misses the turret by a whisker. Khitana uses her telekinetic abilities to rip several wires out of the turret, which she proceeds to dangle in front of Jarred’s nose. Jarred gives her a really snotty look and says nothing. Jarred and Khitana have a brief discussion as to whether they should be exploring rooms as they go or eliminating all the turrets first. As they do so, Danshee dives round the next corner and attempts to emulate Khitana’s feat on another turret. He manages it. Barely, even then only because it was already hanging half off the wall anyway. Shrugging, their argument now moot, Jarred and Khitana move up to join Danshee. The exploration of rooms now begins, giving that the remaining two cameras are on the opposite side of the level. Two of the rooms transpire to be small refresher stations and a storeroom for decayed fire suppression equipment. Z seems quite taken by these artefacts and lifts one up. At that moment, one of the doors in the corridor guarded by Danshi opens, and the young Sidhe comes face to face with a troop of Massassi warriors. J 20
The Maasaasi charge forward towards Danshi, making sufficient noise to alert Z and Jarred to their arrival. One of them runs forward far enough to see Jarred just round the corner and takes a shot at him, barely missing. Jarred moves forward into battle, activating his battle strike but failing to land a blow. Khitani tumbles into the space to Danshee’s right, letting fly with her Force Slam and catching all four Maasaasi warriors within the cone of effect. Each warrior takes fourteen points of damage and is knocked prone, knocking all four down the damage track by one step as well. In fact, the only foe not seriously affected is the probe droid skulking behind the warriors, now revealed by the simple fact that the four Maasassi it was hiding behind have been decked. Danshi pulls out his bow and shoots at the probe droid, going straight through its photoreceptor and knocking it to the ground. Energised by his success, Danshi gains his second wind. K comments: Your contraptions not as effective as my bad breath!” Z uses her surge power, enabling to take reach the combat in one turn and take up position where she can shoot the Maasassi with the cryogenic rifle she had been examining in the fire storage room. Despite the minus five for lack of proficiency, she manages to hit one of the Maasassi warriors for a whopping 16 points of subduel damage, freezing it solid to the floor and dropping its damage track by one again. Jarred reverses his lightsabe stabbing downwards into the throat of a fallen Maasaasi warrior (not the frozen one), eliminating this particular threat to the safety of the galaxy forever. The remaining two Maasassi (the one shot by Z is both unconscious and immobilised) try to rise. Khitani takes the opportunity to attack one as it does so, splitting it in half. The other one is not threatened by any of the player characters. Danshi moves forward, leaping over Khitani’s swinging blade, and brings his lightsabre down on the enemy as best he can, cleaving the blade down through the length of the aliens body from head to near crotch. Z swings her rifle round, and tries to bash the creatures brains out with the butt of her rifle cracking the creatures skull open, not having had sufficient time to register the creatures helpless state (and not likely to care given that her whole family were slain by Sith). The coup de gras is messy but effective. None of her fellow Padawan comment on the morality of this action - Jarred , as an Arkanian, is not predisposed towards mercy in any case. The others are too inexperienced in the ways of the Jedi to offer comment. Additionally, Master L himself has said there is no such thing as redemption for the Sith. How they can criticise their colleague when their own master has openly supported such a course of action? On that note. The Session ends and we adjurn until next week.
Game starts in ten minutes. Will post an update tomorrow if possible. However, it might not be as Im on nighshift.
I agree with you Cap. That archer really does scream out "re-occuring" sniper menace. Deepwood Archer perhaps?
Intersting. I`m going to keep reading and see where this goes.
Er, I meant players in general rather than players in this particular game. Maybe I should have said "readers" to prevent any confusion, since I`m not involved in snorters game. Bit misleading. Sorry.
Just a quick note to say how much I'm enjoying your journal. You`ve not been getting a great deal of feedback from other players, so I just thought I`d speak up to let you that there are folks out here following it and lurking about. Keep it up.
lol. I dont plan on having *quite* such an adversarial approach as yoursel Allen. Much as I`d like to. I know simply too well that my players wouldn't be able to take it. Although we all started out in the heady "this is my previous characters other younger brother" days of AD&D, my fellow gamers are now well and truly into the habit of investing emotionally into their characters. i.e they get upset when I kill them off. Especially when I permadeath them. Although iI was always struck by your fairness and the friendly nature of the competition between yourself and your players, I'm not sure it would be possible for me to pull off the same degree as gleeful carnage as yourself. Rather, I'll adopt my usual approach to DMing dice fudging (meaning there wont be any- and none of this rolling monster attack and damage rolls behind a screen either) and no-holds barred monster tactics (I subscribe to the great Tucker school of thought and have seven years of military sneakiness to add to it). My players are well aware that I keep track of PC deaths in my campaigns as a way to gauge how effectively I'm playing the villains. I'm just not quite sure they realise how much (very) guilty pleasure I get out of it. Interestingly, D&D seemsto to be the only game I do this in (except for games deliberately designed to make combat deadly, such as Twilight 2000, Dark Millenium and the Aliens Adventure Game. |None of which I've played for over a decade). Perhaps because it IS so easy to claw back from the depths of character death once you successfully manage to get a character up to the mid-levels of the game. In any case, part of me hopes to see quite a low body count. If only brcause I particularly enjoy being outwitted by my players. Or at least, I enjoy seeing the little looks of delight lightingup their faces when they think they've got one over me.... After all, it just means I can jutify being even more devious next time.
Now that sounds pretty promising to me. Alas, I think my current gaming group more than qualifies for the "well-oiled uber killing machine" title.
Yes, for those of you reading my current StarWars campaign journal - assuming anyone actually is other than my silent players and Cpt Muckamuck- the characters in that game are making lots of silly mistakes. Unfortunately, (for any prospective bodycount that is) thats only because my fellow players and I are playing a bunch of teenagers. Yup, we're actually cackling with glee as we roleplay our characters latest rash move. I think, realistically, I have a better chance of a decent bodycount with Redhand. Its not your traditional dungeon batch (something we're all very proficient at in our group - vetern roleplayers check the corners of a room with a 10 foot pole before entering. Our groups prods the ceiling first (and has been known to send an illusionary party through first to be on the safe side even then). On the other hand, I think the challenge of fending off a maruading army might be a challenge even for them. We'll need to wait and see. Give us a month or so and I`ll start posting another campaign journal on the site.
Next game Feb 10th. Update shortly thereafter.
Given that our StarWars one-shot is now coming to an end and that our regular DM is now knee deep in ankle-biter I`m very inclined to introduce our "three-year-FR-campaign-with-one-(permanent)-PC-death" group to some old-school DMing. Not quite as lethal as Alan and Turin to be sure, but still fingers to the bone no-holds-barred "I`m happily going to kill your characters (once or twice)" Dming. With this in mind (and knowing already how loathe the guys are to play in my own home-brewed campaign with its complet3e absence of "second-chance" magic) I`ve been contemplating running the "Red Hand of Doom" and the "Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil" campaigns. Alas, while I have to say both campaigns are extremely strong and well-written (Monte, James and Richard can sit at my table any time. Anyt ime, that is, they have the inclination for a 6,000 mile round trip) I`m also mortified by the lack of nigh-killer encounters leaping out from the pages. Sure, the very first encounter at the Moat House had me cackling with glee, but after that it's all fairly safe (save for one or two encounters in Nulb) right the way through to the Inner and Outer Fanes. While the last few encounters are deadly to the point of making me downright giddy and I fully appreciate the value in luring pc's into a fals sense of security I can`t help but feel that the PC death count might not be as high as I would like. Turin, Allan, since I know you've both GM'd or played in these campaigns yourselves, I was wondering if you could offer some comment on the character death count for these two publications?
Danshi: (To Jarred) Aha! I see my wisdom is beginning to rub off on you!
Session Four: Rhee’s totally inappropriate character miniature of the week: Darth Nihl. Current odds that Danshi will be using a red crystal when he builds his first Lightsabre: 1:13. The Party calmly emboss upon their vessel, which Za’inn flies back to the Praxeum (prisoner in tow). They receive a communication from Master Lo’Shem, who comes to meet them at the landing pad. The Master‘s normally inexpressive face is a confused mixture of confusion and “what the hell did you do to my ship and cargo sled?”. The group greet the Jedi Master, except for Danshi, who mutters something about needing a wash and heads towards the refresher. The Jedi Master asks for a full report on the situation. Khitani brings the prisoner forward for her Master’s inspection. Jarred respectfully reminds the Jedi Master that they have a small problem to deal with. Jarred also states he believes the Sith may be aware of the Jedi presence - he relates the story of the Sith communication he overheard in the ship. Khitani reveals the destination of the Sith. The Padawan are dismissed to clean up and refresh themselves before being ordered to reassemble in the dining hall in thirty minutes. He also instructs them to collect Danshi on the way back. “I`ll do it,” says Jarred, “Unless Khitani has any particular desire to see her fellow apprentice naked?” Geeves has prepared a fine meal, which Danshi has already made short work of. The group reassemble in slightly more thirty minutes due to Khitani taking longer than she needs to do her hair. Danshi arrives in the dinning room, attempting to place his feet on the table, only to have them intercepted and pushed to one side by a quick telekinetic push from a frowning Ithorian Master Jedi. “Tables are for eating on,” the Ithorian remonstrates. Jarred waits patiently for his Masters words as the others enter. Master Lo’Shem asks for an update. Jarred explains: They are looking for something called a Star Key. They number thirteen, including one Sith, and have at least four speeders. Khitani observes they know nothing of the second group except its ETA. Danshi looks up information on the Star Key in the local myths and legends section of the Praxeum’s database. Danshi finds brief mention of a species called the Rakatans which may have established an outpost on Recorria some twenty thousand years ago. Theories regarding their technology involve the use of the Force as a power-source. Danshi’s eyebrows raise, and he passes his data slate to Khitani. Jarred shakes his head in bemusement at Danshi’s rudeness towards the Master. Khitani passes the pad on to their master after perusing its information herself. Meanwhile, Jarred fidgets like a household pet in need of it’s next meal. The Master relates he recalls this particular legendary race. He remembers that they were founders of something called the Infinite Empire. Jarred wonders aloud that, as much as this would no doubt make fascinating reading (he glares pointedly as Danshi), what does it have to do with the Sith? Jarred suggests calling up a map of the caves. Danshi looks smug and produces a map downloaded from the Praxeums computer.
Danshi writes a note on some flimsiplast and sticks it on the table. Jarred doesn’t bother to read it. Khitani sees that it reads “footstool“ she sniggers as the Sidhe tries once again to place his boots on the table surface. Danshi then states he will begin preparing concussion missiles immediately. Jarred hurriedly points out that Dark Side items have an annoying habit of causing cataclysmic explosions when destroyed by heavy firepower. “Do they?” Danshi inquires. “Yes,” agrees Master Lashem, “and may I draw your attention to the repeater array for the planetary communications network on Star Isle as well?” “Well obviously I don’t want to blow that up.” Danshi lies unconvincingly. He suggests tapping into the relays records. The others point out the impracticalities of this suggestion - and the groups lack of a suitably seasoned slicer. “Good idea though”, Jarred says, patronisingly, though seemingly sincere. “Are we going to sit around forever, cos for once I agree with Danshi that we have to get going sooner rather than later.” the Arkanian adds. “Is the world ending” Khitani asks. Danshi doesn’t reply, he’s too busy noting this rare event in his journal. Master Loshem comments that as long as the Sith have only primitive weapons they still have the advantage. For the second time that day, Jarred points out that just because they haven’t seen Maasassi with blasters so far, it doesn’t mean they don’t have them. “My wisdom must have been rubbing off on you.” Danshi comments. “Is that what you were up to in the shower?” Khitani asks sweetly. Danshi and Jarred glare in unison. Master Loshem rolls his head in despair. The Jedi Master explains that, while Star Isle has the comms relay, Maliff island is home to an ancient yet still occupied monastery of sorts. The Horned isle is home to two main structures - a manned atmospheric and biological research facility with a small security building. It is also home to a small landing pad and accompanying facilities. Both the last two isles contain several cave entrances and the catacombs beneath. Danshi proposes informing the monks that the Sith have come to kill the Hawkbats they worship. Master Loshem observes they may attempt to avert such a catastrophe with a sacrifice or three. Meanwhile, Jarred indulges in a bout of head-slapping and produces the Sith data pad. He requests that Geeves produce a translation. He also recalls that the fleeing speeders seemed to be heading for Maliff’s cove, a small inlet on the Maliff Isle. It transpires that the Datapad entry concerns the Star Key. [Translation: The StarKey is comprised of four segments which together form a tetrahedron. Each segment is composed of an unknown translucent crystalline material and emit’s a form of Higgs Field Radiation. The segments are also charged with a polarised magnetic energy, which it is theorised binds the segments into one upon contact. Depictions show three of the segments to be a crimson red colour, with the fourth a deep indigo blue. Micro circuits are etched on the inner surfaces that connect with the other segments and small dimples form connecting patterns on the outer face. Once completed the Star Key can be used to activate the Stellar Converter, this device appears to be of Rakatan origin, with elements of RKA technology as well.} “Is there any way to detect Higgs energy?” Danshi asks. “Yes“, Khitani replies, slamming a cup on the table. “This.” For some reason Danshi does not understand, everyone else in the room starts laughing (OOC: It`s a physics joke guys, don‘t worry about it) There follows an impassioned discussion about the nature of the author of the datapad, a Darth Malice. Jaws drop all around the table when the otherwise peace-loving Lo’Shem coldly comments that the only cure for the Sith cancer is surgical excision. He goes on to explain that he does not believe in the “myth” of redemption for the Sith. Once the four students have clicked their teeth back together, Danshi wonders if there are any unusual geological indications on the three isles that might be explained by anything other than natural causes. For once Jarred is stumped. As is everyone else. Danshi wonders why Maliff island would have a landing beacon. Danshi decides to interrogate the schools computer to find out and learns that ship have experienced severe turbulence upon approaching the island - due to an unusually strong magnetic field and odd weather patterns. “That sounds exactly what we’re looking for.” Danshi comments. Jarred proposes circling to the north of the island in the Pilgrim, where they can approach the monestary via speeder-bike from the direction of the volcano while Za’inn hovers at a safe distance ready for a quick up. Khitani proposes sending a warning to the research outposts. Jarred points out they do not yet know if the research station on the Horned Island has already been compromised. Khitani suggests they use Geeves to interrogate their captive. They learn (with the help of Danshi‘s Mind Trick): The Sith Apprentice believes they are searching for one segment of the Star Key found somewhere in Maliifs Island.
At this point Jarred points out that there are two known cave entrances in the ruined volcano. He observes that, while they have gathered valuable intelligence, time is passing. Furthermore, Master Loshem sends the Massassi to sleep and Jarred assigns a security droid to watch the prisoner. They head out towards the island, circling round to the North. While they do so, Danshi gets in touch with a Duros pilot he knows via comms, asking for anything he knows regarding the Monks on the island. He obtains the frequency of the islands landing beacon and learns that the twenty odd monks are always armed. At a suitable distance, Khitani, Jarred, Danshi and their master leave the hovering Pilgrim via Speederbikes and come down to the North of the Island. They see no trace of any Sith speeders on their way in. They then circle around the base of the volcano and approach the lower cave entrance flying low and on minimal power (Master Loshem pilots one speeder-bike, Danshi the other). Za’inn remains at least 20 km away, before parking the Pilgrim in high orbit (Za‘inn‘s player couldn`t make this session and had to be written out for a while). The others pull up at the mouth of the cave, not willing to park their bikes therein until they have a better idea of what they may find there. Danshi attempts to Sense Force within the cave and is able to discern the presence of a tiny flickering spark of darkness, just below the peak of the volcano. He reveals this information to the others. Jarred asks his Master if he can sense anything further. The Jedi Master reveals that something is blocking his force sense (he rolled a 1). Jarred, with his ability to see clearly in the dark, offers to take the role of scout. He steps into the cave with some degree of caution. The group parks the bikes in the cave and then proceed on foot, Danshi attaches a glow rod to his headband. The cave is naturally rough-floored, with a near-octagonal cross-section yet it appears completely natural. The cave begins at a massive 25 metes across, narrowing the farther into the cave the four Jedi progress. They encounter a number of side passages. “Time is of the essence.” suggests Jarred, “I suggest we by-pass any side passages for the time being despite the risk.” Danshi ignores him and wonders down the side-passage. Master Lo’Shem also speaks up in favour of haste, with the support of Khitani. OOC: Brian: There we go, First edition mentally again. Just as well it wasn’t Danshi who was supposed to rescue Princess Leia from the Death Star. He`d still be searching for her!” Danshi reports that both the passages leading off from the side tunnel move downward somewhat. Before limping back to the others. Khitani sighs and begins inspecting side-passages as well. They discover three more. Jarred doesn’t look amused but continues on regardless, with Master Lo Shem, assuming the other characters will give up. Jarred mutters something about the wisdom of giving the other students enough rope to hang themselves. Master Lo Shem does not comment. At the other end of the cave mouth (does that make it the butt end of the cave), Master Loshem and the others quickly take what cover they can. The Ithorian points out that there is a landing pad in the Caldera slightly to the right hand side of the Jedi position. The area around it looks scuffed, as if by many feet. The pad itself looks somewhat dusty, albeit pristine. Very odd for a structure in this worlds acidic atmosphere. Jarred surmises that it may be a pre-settlement structure. Khitani assumes it might simply be an alloy they haven`t encountered before. There is a small powered structure nearby. However, they are relieved to note the caldera is NOT a saarlacc pit. Jarred observes that they can either move around the cauldron on foot, or else return to their bikes and swoop over the rim of the caldera before coming in for a landing. Danshi is able to use his newly acquired Visor to ascertain that the small structure contains a power source of some kind. Master Loshem orders the rest of the party to move around the rim on foot. Khitani keeps one eye on the sky at all times. He suggests movement by pairs. Jarred volunteers to be in the first pair. Master Loshem states he will also go in the first pair. Concerned for the discipline (or lack of it) of the other Padawan‘s, Jarred suggests he should therefore be in the second pair, so that at least one “responsible adult” will be in each pair. He is overruled. The first pair manage to travel about ¾ of the distance to the landing pad when, looking over at the structure, Danshi (with the help of his mechanical interface visor) picks up signs of powered hydrolics in the building. He keeps this to himself for the time being, guessing that the structure is used to elevate the landing pad as required. As they two groups draw nearer it becomes clear that there is no door to the structure on either wall of the building. Danshi is able to sense the presence of two life-forms, tainted by the dark-side, in the building. Danshi holds up two fingers and waves to attract Master Lo Shom’s attention. The message is passed. Master Loshem indicates to Jarred that he will approach the structure from the left and Jarred from the light. He beckons for the other two to follow at a distance. Danshi unhooks his bow from his shoulder and flexes it experimentally before fitting an arrow to the string. The first pair approach their target. The second pair manouvre to where they can see the door. As Loshem and Jarred round the corner, they locate a sealed door. They take up flanking positions on either side. Over the commlink, Loshem communicates their position to the others and calls them over. Danshi hangs back to cover the group with a bow. The door bursts inward as Master LoShem force pushes it open. It clangs into the front wall of a turbo lift within a structure. One of the Maasaasi within is knocked flat by the heavy metal door careering past him and crushed against the machinery. Initiative: Danshi 25
Khitani steps up before the surviving Maasaasi can recover and places her blue glowing blade against its throat. Jarred rolls his eyes is dismay. “Prisoners?” he snorts unhappily, “Are we going to have to leave a baby-sitter behind now?” Master Loshem calmly enters the structure, moving towards the downed opponent to check its pulse, He shakes his head. Jarred moves into the structure, taking up position by the turbo lift doors. In the meantime, Danshi is monitoring the Maassassi comm frequencies. Khitani keeps her blade at the Maassassi warriors throats and reaches for its weapon with her other hand.
Lo Shem lashes out with his Force Stun ability, but the strong willed Maassassi stays on its feet. It responds by taking a swing at Khitani, but fumbles and drops the lanverock stone from his weapon. Jarred takes his chance and slashes his weapon across the foes chest (for 16 points of damage) eliciting a terrible howl of pain and anguish from the foe as it drops to one knee. Jarreds return swipe, aimed as it was for the creatures head, fails to connect and instead whistles a clear foot above its target - exactly where the head would have been a moment before.
Outside, Danshi hears the humm of light sabres and the anguished bellow of an unhappy Maassassi. He shakes his head in dismay at the lack of stealth exhibited by his comrades. Unknown to him, a few metres away, Jarred is having similar thoughtd regarding his Masters battle tactics. Inside, Khitani finishes off the beast that wounded her. Mater LoShem comments that she could have taken that prisoner alive. Jarred comments that they cannot afford to loose one of their number guarding prisoners. Master Loshem retorts that they could have taken the prisoner with them. Jarred wonders aloud if his master realises they are involved in a military encounter, NOT a police action. Master Loshem steps outside and beckons Danshi into the shelter. The Sidhe limps across (the player seems to make a point of mentioning his limp pointedly every chance he gets, much to the amusement of the group in general and Khitani in particular). Danshi helps Khitani with starting up the aged computer systems while LoShem heads out to inspect the Landing Pad. Jarred heads outside to keep watch. Danshi looks at the console for two seconds. Shakes his head disgustedly, and hit’s the power switch. Khitani turns a lovely shade of red. “Does anyone else think taking prisoners just now is a bad idea.” Jarred muses, seemingly bemused. Danshi’s agreement does not help his peace of mind. Master Loshem returns and indicates that he cannot sense anyone else above ground. The party descend in the turbo lift. The lifts display indicates four levels. They elect to head straight for the bottom level of the complex. This journey takes considerable time even given that the party are in a turbo lift. The doors part to reveal an octagonal chamber with two sets of double doors and a second turbo lift shaft entrance. The dust on the floor has been recently disturbed, with a trail leading from the tugboat to both sets of double doors on either side.
Interesting idea. Personally I love both settings. It should`nt be too difficult to incorporate the ancient evils of the Ptolus Setting (trying not to give away too much here). After all, in some ways they are very similar to a pre-exsting, banished menace from the Eberron setting. Eberron is more magic-based technology friednly than many other settings as well. It shoudn`t be too hard to integrate chaos-tek items with a world that already has elemental power trains and airships. I have loads of ideas you might be interested in. Just let me mull them over for a while first.
Any chance we'll get some new posts soon? I'm looking forward to find out just what is going on. I don't know what your group's schedule is so I don't know if there has been another session, but I'm anticipating some interesting developements. Sorry for the holiday season delay. That combined with the presence of our gaming groups newest arrival (happy zero anniversary, you little mite) means we havent been gaming much. We played the Tuesday week of your last post but I havent had time to correct the spelling of the notes yet. Expect a fresh post in a few days.
Turin, even after nearly two years on these boards, your sheer destructive deviousness (and that of Alan) never ceases to amaze me.
Actually, I read all the campaign journals posted on this thread, and have enjoyed all the ones you`ve been involved in, whether in an actual journal or your contributions to the one liners thread. Its only now that Ive begun posting my own journals again after almost a year that I`ve realised how much journal-keepers value other peoples comments. I`ve been very remiss in commenting on other peoples journals in the last few months, something I intend to fix directly.
This sounds like a very fun game. I'm looking forward to hearing more. Yay! First comment. Thanks for reading Cap'n! Heck, I was starting to wonder if even the other players were reading this thing :P
Campaign Session 3: Rhee’s Danshi miniature of the week: Emperor Palpatine. (last week it was a Sith Marauder. The weak before that: Anakin Skywalker, Sith Apprentice). The other players are beginning to sense a worrying theme… Session 3: Danshi comes across the bodies of two dead Massassi in one of the crew quarters, both of which appear badly beaten up. With his light sabre, Danshi prepares to ensure that these two foes are actually dead, but notes that both warriors appear to be missing sufficient body parts as to make survival entirely unlikely. He quickly makes his way to the location of the final Massassi warrior he detected last session, opening both doors that could lead to his location. One door opens easily enough, the other appears scorched and jammed - possibly even deliberately melted. Behind the door that does open, the Sidhe see’s another crew room, which appears to have been ransacked even before the ship crashed. Even with this one brief glance his heightened Jedi senses register that the clothing strewn about has clearly not been designed with the Maasassi frame in mind. He carves open the jammed door with his incandescent weapon and immediately must dodge the swing of a Maasaasi weapon. Behind this foe, Danshi see’s the bridge laid out before him, and glimpses the body of another humanoid, pinned to its seat by a shard of glass-steel. All of this is irrelevant at this time however, as the young \Jedi must fight for his life. He lashes out at the last Maasassi, stepping into the room and slashing his blade across the warriors chest. This is enough to slay the wounded foe, who crumples to the deck with a sigh, clearly dead. Danshi chooses this moment to inspect the body at the controls. Suddenly, Danshi see’s something swoop down upon him from the corner of the bridge. He dives to one side just as a blaster bolt flashes past. Below, Jarred hears the familiar blast-hiss of a blaster bolt from above. He makes his way swiftly to the turbilift, pulling himself through the opening he made earlier. Or he tries too. Unfortunately he cant quite seem to get a grip of the edge of the hole he made earlier. Danis looks up to see a tiny floating droid buzzing above him. He moves to engage it in melee, but his blows fail to connect with the agilely dodging little nipper. The droid shoots back at him, but the Sidhe calls upon the power of the force to negate the energy of his foes attack. Khitana, having previously tied up her prisoner (and now sensing combat within the ship) ignites her weapon and runs into the ship, just in time to see the coppery glow of Jarred’s own light sabre fade from view. She pursues and sees a pair of kicking feet scrambling up a hole one turbloaser toof. Seeing the other turbo across the hole, she moves in and activates the turbo lift. Jarred finishes climbing up the hole. He steps out the turbo lift onto the second floor and spots the droid flying towards him. Light sabre held defensively before him, Jarred goes into a battle trance and, channelling the power of the force, engages the droid foe. Alas, he fails to strike home with his attacks. Meanwhile, not far away, Za`iin tries to work out how she’s going to explain the Pilgrim`s engine damage to Khitana. Danshi runs up behind the frantically jinking droid, trying to strike it once again. He misses, but as he strikes out he calls to Jarred “Kill it, avoid the photoreceptors.” “KILL it?” Jarred admits grudgingly, “I can`t even hit it!” Khitana runs up behind Jarred and tumbles over his head, landing beneath the floating droid and attempting to grab it on the way past. Jarred stares, in gaping mouthed annoyance as Khitana gets between him and the probe droid. “Khit!” he fumes, as his light sabre swings through the air, barely able to check his swing in time and narrowly missing giving his younger companion a hair-cut. It is at this point, that Jarred hears a very girly tune coming from his spare utility pouch. Someone is trying to call Khitana’s comm. Soaring above the fight in her ship, Za`iin wonders why no-one will answer her calls. Below, the droid tries to zoom past the three entangling Jedi. All three manage to hit it on the way past. There is an all-mighty crash-humm as the three light sabres meet roughly at the centre point of the droi chassis. Pieces of droid confetti hit the back wall of the corridor. Jarred answers the comm, (much to his and Danshi’s relief) “Aha! I see you know your place!” Danshi smarms to Khitana, sandwitched as she is between the two young JedI. Khitani replies with a leg sweep, attempting to knock the Danshi down to size by flooring him. This she does remarkably well, scoring a critical and lowering Danshi one step down the damage track due to a sprained ankle. He leaves in a sulk (Jarred tries to look like he disapproves, but fails) to acquire a Sith lanvarock which he quickly uses as a crutch. “Hello Za`iin. We’re just cleaning up here. And Khitana’s been cleaning up with Danshi!” “Er, yeah. Listen. I got the Sith, but tell Khitana she needs to do a little maintenance.” Khitana yanks the commlink out of Jarreds hand. “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!” “Er, I might be doing the dishes for a while, Khat! I`ll explain when I come and get you.” “Where’s the prisoner?” Danshi asks as he comes back in. “You didn’t just leave him?” “He’s fine” she replies, holding up an image of a wriggling Maasaasi on the data pad. “Ill go watch him.” In the meantime, Danshi and a sniggering Jarred begin searching the ship and the dead woman slumped over the comm, who is armoured as a Sith. Danshi searches the body while Jarred begins searching the ship. Danshi finds little of value on the body, but rips off the Sith lieutenants rank pip’s in case they come in handy later. Jarred meanwhile begins at the crew quarters and barracks, searching through the ransacked quarters. In one he finds humanoid (not Maasassi) clothing, gear and spacesuits sized for a female and two humans. Meanwhile Danshi calls Khitana back up to look through the ships computers. She sets up the Datapad next to the computer terminal so she can watch what the prisoner is up to. But Danshi moves to watch the prisoner regardless. Za`iin manages to locate a suitable landing site nearby and sets down. She begins making her way on foot towards the crash site. Khitana coaxes the ships computer into recognising her as a valid user (believe it or not, under the saga rules, this involves actually making it “friendly”). Her first priority is to obtain a damage report on the vessel, to ascertain how safe the groups presence in aboard ship. Alas, the computer was a little reluctant to do so. The result being that Danshi heads off to give the engine compartment a good once over. He finds the door locked due to explosive decompression. However, Khitana is able to convince the computer that the ship is now in a safe atmosphere ( a debatable premise really, given they are on Recopia) and opens the door. Danshi finds the engine compartment is a mess. Toxic smoke billows out, along with the smell of melted plastic and scorched insultation. He is reluctant to stay in there for long, given the nature of the fumes, but has sufficient time to give the room a once-over. He finds a strange pink looking mess with various ropey bits attached. He recognises this as the inevitable result of a rather messy explosive decompression. He shuts down the main reactor to render the vessel safe, and finds nothing happens. The rods appear to jammed into the reactor and will not retract. Meanwhile, jarred finishes going through the starboard barracks. They bodies therein had already been striped and searched. He locates a basic data pad marked in a strange unknown language (for game note purposes, this language is Sith). He moves to the lounge and galley, which is very short on supplies for a ship this size: about a quarter of what it should hold. He then moves to the Port barracks. Upon opening the door he finds a buckle out, scorched wall and two human bodies lying on bunks, one male in a pilot suit and a second male in the remnants of a Sith officers day uniform. Searching the bodies he finds a small code cylinder on the officer, but little else except for basic identification. His uniform in in an irreparable condition, but marks him as a Commander in the Sith fleet. Jarred has to cut through the fresher station doors. It seems the ships hull took a direct hit here, leaving the superstructure mangled and out of shape. This completes his search of the upper deck. He notices one thing that is definitely missing: He has counted, including the Maassassi, a grand total of 17 corpses, out of bunks for 27. There could be more bodies on the lower deck, but Jarred is beginning to become concerned. He comms Geeves. ”Any problems along the perimiter?”. The droid replies in the negative, and upon being instructed to treat any unannounced visitors as hostile, remarks. “Does this mean I should dispense with the ginger soufflé’s, sir?” Jarred comms-off without comment. On investigating the Cargo Hold, he counts four speeder racks on the decking - and another four on the ceiling. Oh dear. He thinks. What happened to the other four speeders?” He comms the others to inform them of the missing bikes- and crewman. Khitana’s reply is very unladylike. Khitana wonders how ten crew could fit on 4 bikes, and when did they zoom away? After all, they had a lot of bother with the last four. Jarred calmly points on (not too snobbily, for a change) that just because the ship can carry 27 crew, it doesn`t necessarily mean they had a full complement on board. And some may have been sucked out of the ship during decompression. Khitana, meantime has been trying and failing to call up the ships flight plan. On the other hand, she c alls up the vessels complement: three cockpit crew, 1 Sith officer, 22 Massassi warriors and one “High Ranking Representative” with the title of Apprentice. [Cue a sudden drop in temperature around the gaming temple. Bear in mind here that Darth-frikking-Vader was “technically” a Sith “Apprentice”.] Danshi has done his best to stableise the ships engines as much as possible. In a mushy pile near the remains of the ships engineer, he finds a mechanical interface visor. Which he wipes off a bit before placing over his head. He also recovers two usable vacuum masks. Khitana checks the ships logs to see if the cargo bay or airlock doors were opened during or before the vessels uncontrolled descent. Alas, she learns that the ships doors were opened during atmospheric flight some two hours ago. This news is met with a chorus of groans from the party. At this point, no longer too keen on the idea of Za`iin making her way to the crash-site alone, Jarred leaves to collect her on a speeder bike. While he’s doing that, Danshi loots the armoury, finding 26 cases of Lanverock discs, I Needler Pistol with ammo clip, two slug thrower rifles with 4 ammo clips, 3 pulse wave pistols and 10 power packs, 12 frag grenades and 2 block of detonite explosive - none of which the characters can actually use! (Great treasure Rob. Thanks) By the time they are done, Za`inn and Jarred arrive back at the ship. They set about loading the loot onto the speeder bike pinions. Halfway through, Jarred is contacted by Master Lo’Shem. He brings him up to date with regards to the various loose ends. The Master ends the communication by informing his pupils that he is almost back at the Praxeum, which he will secure pending their return. At the same time, Za`iin and Khitana go back to the ships bridge, hoping that Za`iin will have better luck obtaining a flight plan, cargo manifest and so forth. She successfully identifies the intended landing site as a group of three islands to the North-West. Coincidentally, this would be the same direction that the three fleeing Speeders were escaping too. Khitana and Danshi are all for setting out in pursuit right away. Za`inn curbs their enthuisiams by reminding them she has not finished. She then reveals the ships departure point was somewhere in the Deep Core regions of the galaxy. It also seems the vessel was damaged in an attack by several unidentified and unknown ship alarms. Alas, the ships status report indicates that it’s visual sensor records and even the ships black box have been sadly destroyed. It also informs the group that the main reactor is unstable (though Danshi had figured that out already), the computer memory core has been damaged, and the chicken soup dispenser on level three is dispensing some vile concoction or another - which, Khitana observes, probably means it’s in perfect working order. Jarred joins Khitana and Za`iin in the bridge. He hands them the code cylinder and asks them if they can obtain anything information from it. They plug it into the command console and obtain full access to the ships systems. Danshi guards the Maasassi warrior (in person this time, rather than via a data feed) and robs the damaged speeder bike of the survival pack in its pennions. Now that Za`inn has full access, Khitani heads off to strip the damaged speeder bike and the rest of the ship for parts. “May I remind you all.” Jarred speaks snottily, “That the longer we spend here stripping this noxious junk pile, the colder the trail left by the remaining hostiles become!” Khitani agrees reluctantly and instead uses her commlink to set up a data dump between the ship and the Praxeum. Especially its star-charts. The ones in the damaged memory core. She and Za`inn attempt to download the communication logs, but alas, they seem to have been damaged also. Meanwhile, Jarred taps his foot impatiently. Danshi also remarks on the delay - albeit somewhat more verbally. (Somewhere along the line we also learned the ships designation was simply AST-1) The ships cargo manifest reveals nothing unexpected, except that the ship was carrying two Probe Droids. At this point Khitana finally chooses to mention there was a Sith Apprentice aboard. As Za`iin and Jarred become suddenly paler ( an impressive feat given that Jarred happens to be Arkanian). Jarred rushes off to inform Master Lo’Shem, muttering loud imprications about the wisdom and diligence of his younger colleagues. And then, finally, Za`iin asks if anyone thought to check the ships log. Danshi and Khitani suddenly look a bit blank. And after a quick bout of head-slapping, rush off to check the ships log. From this the group discerns the location of three future “landing sites” - perhaps they are scouting for an invasion fleet, Jarred reflects, when informed of this a few moments later. Maleks Cove: Scorpians Tail,
Once the four students are gathered, Khitani plays a holomessage from the log. The hologram of a female humanoid in heavy robes appeared on the holo-pad. The message she sent and had recorded in the log indicates that the commander has been sent to scout Maleks cove for something called a Star Key and that a second scout team will rendevous with them in 48 hours. Khitani downloads the holo-message and the logs directly into Jarreds data pad and feeds it to the house computer. Master Lo’Shem, having just been commed by a slightly less calm-and-centred Jarred than usual, is suddenly commed by a frantic Danshi to reveal that more Sith will be arriving in just over 42 hours time. Master Lo’Shem does not react well to this news. To say that he became somewhat perturbed by these further developments would be somewhat understated. He orders them to return to the Praxeum immediately. Danshi pretends the message breaks up, then looks at Jarred. Jarred comms Master Lo’Shem back. “Message received and understood. See you back at the school.” “Er, sorry about that.” says Danshi “must have been static or something.” Khitana insists she will remain behind and dismantle the turret and that Jarred can go home and be locked in his rooom like a good little boy if he likes. Jarred’s silence speaks volumes. She then agrees that going back to collect Master Lo’Shem might be a good idea after all. Next episode: Just how many Sith escaped? Where are they going? Is Master Lo’Shem EVER going to turn up? And just what level is this Sith Apprentice after all? Will our characters survive? More importantly, what the hell kind of miniature is Rhee going to bring next time? All this and more in two weeks.
Some quotes from our Tuesday night Star Wars game. In and out-of-character. If you want to see these in context, check out the Praxeum of Master Thesom thread elsewhere in Campaign Journals. Rhee: “That’s Mr Emperor Palpatine to you!” (following the outraged protests when he plonks down a Palpatine figure as his "totally in-appropriate character mini of the week. No prizes for guessing what colour his characters light sabre is going to be!). Rhee: (after Jarred dismally fails to climb out of a perfectly functional turblofit) “Is this where Jarred makes sure nobody saw him and then presses the button instead? Brian: (looking at Za`iins miniature perched precariously on top of a die-cast starship mini): Babe, if your out on the hull, whose flying the ship?” During a fight with a booby-trapped droid:
Khitana “Catch me, Sweetie!” (as she tumbles over Jarred and into the droids square, nearly landing on Danshi in the process). Danshi (to Khitana, as she is positioned tightly between Jarred and Danshi after the droid fight): Aha! I see you know your place!
Jarred: “Hello Za`iin. We’re just cleaning up here. Khitana’s been mopping up with Danshi!” Za`inn: Er, yeah. Listen. I got the Sith before they could escape, but tell Khitana she needs to do a little maintenance on the ship”
Brian: (upon learning the ships computer has an initial attitude of unfriendly); Who are you? I don’t know you? Why are you trying to talk to me?” DM: The door is locked.
Geeves (The Praxeum's Protocol Droid): Treat any unannounced visitors as hostile, sir? Does that mean I should dispense with the ginger soufflés?” DM: Midichlorians are banned!
Brian: You don’t love me enough to share your Pringles with me?
Caroline: Computer says Naaaaaaawww. Jarred: Has anyone else ever noticed that Danshi only ever runs off to give Master Lo’Shem BAD news?
Just because I can`t let this thread die. Jarred (my char, after a young Jedi asks him for instructions regarding the disposal of a prisoner): "Hurmph. There's nothing in the Jedi Code about mercy." <shocked silence> Caroline: Your new character really is a prat, isn`t he hon?" Me (as myself and sounding very self-satisfied): I`m letting my inner s**t shine through!
Session 2: NPC’s: G3VS “Geeves”: The Praxeum’s Protocol Droid/Butler. “Take us back to Danshi,” Jarred yells, observing that the Maasassi have spotted the young Sidhe trying to run the side of the rock mound Khitana just scrambled from. Za`inn takes the vessel back down and around towards the Sidhe’s last known position, to see him, light sabre drawn, ready to confront the oncoming Maasassi. Khitana yells for him for get aboard, causing the Sidhe to turn and run towards the oncoming vessel. However, the Sith-slaves launch two discs at his retreating back, one clipping him for 10 points of damage. He stumbles but leaps aboard . Meantime Jarred jumps into the co-pilot seats, pointing out (rather snottily and unhelpfully) oncoming obstacles and serving only to distract his Zaabrak companion rather than aid her. This prompts some rather snarkey remarks from Khitana in the back as she watches the engines for further signs of overheating. All the young jedi, save the injury-distracted Danshi, observe the turret atop the crashed vessel rotate and target the skimmer, albeit through a rather clunky and rough series of movements. Thereby prompting a spectacular display of jinking from the groups Zaabrak pilot. A series of blaster shots splash into the rocks around the Sled, prompting Jarred to observe that the Sith targeting systems must be down. They quickly escape behind a series of rocky outcrops and speed towards the Praxeum. Jarred tries to contact Master Lashem and warns Geeves they are coming. Meanwhile Khitana comments that the group needs to come up with a series of food-order related codewords for the protocol droid to activate various programs that will enable the droid to prep a ship. Jarred sighs loudly and tells her to mind the engines. Being unsuccessful Jarred starts checking the camera feeds from their improvised surveillance device. Meanwhile Danshi mutter darkly about the wisdom of flying the groups only available means of transport into weapons range of the enemy. The Sled comes into land. Danshi decides to shut off before the parking takes place, not being confident regarding the stability of the repulsors. Jarred shakes his head at this apparent lack of faith in the abilities of the other Padaswans. The Sled lists severely to one side as the Sled comes to a stop. Khitana bemoans the fact it will take probably take all week to repair. Jarred expresses a desire to secure the Praxeum, pointing out that the ship may have launched an escape pod that the Academy computer failed to detect. He passes his data pad to Za’iin and borrows Khitana’s coom link. He assures the others he will stay on comms. He ascends to the Praxeum proper via the ladder to the comm room. Za’inn passes the data pad to Danshi prior to beginning prepping the school’s starship, The Pilgrim, with the help of Khitana, Danshi notes that the Maasari at the crashed vessel are unshipping speeders. Za`iin states it will take twenty minutes to prep the ship. Khitana suggests they prepare to run. Jarred speaks over the comm, suggesting they prepare for a fight. Danshi suggests fleeing. Jarred refuses, stating he will not simply hand the Praxeum over to the Sith. He points out that many of the Maasassi are dead and the others are wounded. He suggests they fight. “Yes, fighting, cos that’s the first resort of a jedi” Danshi comments acidly. Jarred ignores him “Do they have weapons on their speeders?” Jarred asks. “No” comes the response from Za`nni. “They’re still assembling the speeders, but they have weapon mounts.” Khitana calculates the assembly will take about half an hour. “Perfect” announces Jarred over the comms. “That gives us plenty of time to prep the ship and its weapons.” He finishes his sweep with the assistance of the security droids and and a rather unhelpful Geeves: “No sir, we have had no callers today. Should I begin prepare
Satisfied, the elder student informs his colleagues the base is clear. Danshi in the communications room, notes an incoming message. He hears the stereo voice of Master Lashem. Alas, it’s a recorded message. The Master notes he is two hours out and demands the students reply when they receive his message. Danshi switches on the long-range comm, addressing Master Lashem as “Mister Lashem”. He quickly explains the situation to the Ithorian Jedi Master, who wishes his students to hold their ground until he arrives. Danshi informs the others the Master has told them to stay put. He also adds (falsely) that the Master told Jarred not to do anything stupid. The others laugh (except for Jarred) but they all know fine well that the Sidhe is lying. Danshi and Jarred join Khitana and Za’nii on the Pilgrim, but not before Jarred instructs the droids to put the school on lock-down. Danshi suggests the use of Danshi program one. Jarred instead takes the time to instruct the droids to delete Danshi program one (and anything else Danshi has programmed into them since he arrived) from their memory. With the ship prepped, Khitana keeps an eye on the holo-transmission while Za`iin issues instructions regarding the wepaons and shields to Jarred and Danshi. Jarred contacts Master Lashem once more from the ship. He informs the Ithorian that the enemy will soon have three armed speeders prepped and ready to fly. He calmly requests permission to intercept and engage them in the Pilgrim. The Ithorian agrees, explaining he is still an hour out and gives the students permission to engage should they or the Praxeum appear to be in danger. He leaves the matter to Jarred’s judgement. Danshi does not approve. Khitana suggests linking the base computer to the Pilgrim. Jarred agrees. He suggests monitoring the progress of the three speeders from a safe altitude in the Pilgrim and engaging the Sith-slaves should they exhibit aggression. Danshi suggests the use of concussion missiles from a safe distance. Jarred states this is complete overkill, but should remain an option. The Sidhe suggests locking the concussion missiles on the holocams comm signal prior to launching. Jarred agrees this plan has merit and suggests Khitana rig up one such missile as a contingency plan. Danshi watches the data pad. Jarred suggests they take the ship up and hover above the Praxeum for the time being. Jarred laments that they made need to destroy the crashed vessel with a concussion missile, he would rather recover any intelligence remaining aboard. Danshi looks shocked. Jarred has actually just said something he agrees with! Jarred seems puzzled by the Sidhe’s shocked expression. The Maasassi have their Speeders assembled and begin placing their wounded near the damaged section at the rear of the crashed vessel. However, Danshi’s holocam view is soon blocked as two Maasassi carrying a heavy object clamber over the concealed holorecorder. Jarred advocates allowing the Maasaasi to leave the area of the crashed vessel before engaging them, in the hope of being able to investigate the wreck, Jarred tells Za`iin to take the Pilgrim in to intercept the Speeder bikes at a point outside the range of the crashed vessels weaponry. He states the weapons on the Speeders are ineffective at a range over 200m and will not damage the ship. He also observes hat their own ships blaster weapons have a range of about 1800 metres in the atmosphere of Recosia. Danshi, still monitoring the data pad, see’s the Sith-slaves carrying a large conical object away from the ship. It appears to be a concussion missile, which they set down between the two injured Maasassi.
Jarred also swears. He wants to capture the Sith vessel as much as Danshi does. The Arkanian states the group needs to split up. One group needs to take out the Maasassi wounded on foot. The other should engage the speeders. In the Pilgrim. Danshi states the maasaai have begun now setting up a second warhead. The detonator switch is now fully in evidence. Jarred really wants to send Khitana, the groups telekinesis expert, to disable the warheads. But he cannot bring himself to send the young Padawan into danger again. Not alone anyway. Khitana notes that the device is assembled in such a way that the signal will not be sent automatically if the cable is severed or removed. Jarred suggests that someone needs to go take care of this. He cannot bring himself to look at Khitana and volunteers to go on one of the Pilgrim’s Speeder Bikes, himself. Danshi and Khitana also volunteer. Khitana and Danshi mount one bike, with Jarred on the other. Jarred shouts “Go now, before their speeders leave the blast radius.” As soon as they are aboard they gun their bikes, running at a depth below the plateau, and set off towards he crash site. They stay beneath the lip of the plateau until they are in range. Meanwhile Za`inn monitors the situation on the ships sensors. Jarred suggests they come in from the direction of the rubble the ship crashed into, a blindspot that the blaster cannon cannot shoot at, and then drop rapidly to the ground. The two speeders hug the ground low, waiting for the Maasarri Speeders to leave before moving in. As soon as they do, the Jedi Speeder bikes swoop in and over the ship. All three Jedi attempt to pull out the cables telekinetically as they speed past. Initiative Order Sith-Slave scum.
Za`inn 10 (separate encounter) (At this point gameplay is briefly disrupted when Neil’s cat steals his wife’s chocolate. Hilarity ensues.) Both jedi bikes swoop over the lip of the rubble, fortunately the turret faces elsewhere, and cannot rotate in time. Khitana cant do anything and holds her action until Danshi sweeps down and across the collapsed ship, dropping to ground level. They both use their telekenesis to pull out the wires connecting the warheads to the detonators Danshi sets his bike down beside the two Maasassi, who are obviously in no state to offer .resistance. Jarred tries to land beside the ships hatch, scraping the paintwork. He looks through the hatch into darkness. Fortunately, his Arkanian night vision kicks in. He can see debris and a mangled speeder bike. Another hatchway lies opposite. Za’iin sees the Maasassi Speeders zoom away from the crash site, following the flow of one of the acid channels cutting through the rim of the hollow. They veer off in the opposite direction of the Praxeum, heading towards a small island archipelago. From the navigation computer, Za`inn estimates there are three likely destinations for their travel. She swoops after them. Back at the crash site, Khitani looks from the wounded Maasaasi to Jarred, “Do we capture them?” she asks “There’s nothing in the Jedi code about being merciful.” Jarred states coldly, (at least not for a foe determined to die)). He notes that one of the Maasaari seems to be reaching towards a warhead. Khitana leaves her bike, swinging her light sabre and flipping over the nearest Maasassi to strike the one fiddling with the warhead. She sweeps the energy blade through the hand of the fallen warrior, but so weakened is the creature that this is sufficient to slay it immediately. “That fool slave is dead!” states Danshi, attempting to use Mind Trick on the last Massassi. “You, report!” Danshi’s reward is a perplexed look. One that suggests the mightily wounded warrior has no idea what the Sidhe is saying. Behind his two companions Jarred ignites his lightsaber and steps into the dark ship, making his way cautiously towards where he believes the ships turret ladder to be located.. Upper most in his mind is the knowledge that at least two Massassi warriors, albeit injured ones, remain onboard. In his careful explorations he uncovers doors to the armoury and two cargo lift doors. Meanwhile Za`iin closes on the unsuspecting Speeders, creeping up on them at a rate of 3km per second. Khitani stands by Danshi, looking from him to the Maasassi. Danshi points at the Maasaasi, stating “Guard him. I`m going to check on Jarred.” “Try not to break him!” Khitana jokes. Its not long before, in the glow of his light sabre, Danshi notices that the cargo hold is sticky with spilt blood and entrails. “Found the turret yet ?“ he asks Jarred as he reaches the other students position.. “Not yet” Jarred replies, cutting a plug into the roof of one turbo lift with his lightsabre. Several kilometres away, Za`iin closes into concussion missile range. Given that the Speeders are in flying in close formation, she realises a single missile will likely tear them apart. She launches her first concussion missile. It streaks towards the fleeing foes at supersonic speed, exploding on contact with the centre craft, vaporising all but the smallest fragments of bike and beast alike of no two bikes. The final, badly damaged bike, attempts to dive down into the cover of the acid clouds above the sea. Za`inn lets out an almighty (and rather crude) roar of delight (Jarred would have a lot to say about taking such unseemly delight in the death of an intelligent being, but fortunately he is not present). Khitana spots two grenades, and a dagger on the belt of the fallen Maasassi, which she stashes in the two unoccupied pouches of he utility belt. Danshi steps into the turbo lift opposite that chosen by Danshi and presses the button. He steps into the lift and turns himself side on towards the doors, crouching with his light sabre held ready in defence. The door slides open. In the glow of his light sabre, the Sidhe see’s the other turbo lift door in front of him, sealed securely. He reaches out through the force and senses the presence of one being towards the front of the ship and a hidden presence somewhere on the lower level. “Jarred, be advised there is someone in the airlock downstairs and one up here.” he announces (via commlink). Being the intellectual type, Jarred guesses Danshi means the other airlock, not the one they just came through and creeps towards it. He stands on the ruins of a crashed speeder bike and readies an attack, just in case. “In position.” he whispers through the commlink. “Acknowledged. Moving in myself.” Danshi replies. Meanwhile, a fair distance away, Za`iin swoops in after the remaining Speeder, aiming to toast the craft with her engine wash. Alas, the ship is buffeted by the sudden grinding of Massassi and Speeder through an engine intake. “Wahoo-oooo-ooo--oh -Ooops” Za`inn`s elation turns to horror at the sound of grinding gears and coughing engines, wondering in the name of the Force she’s going to explain this one to Master Lashem and, even more worrying, Khitana! (Game Effect: The ships goes down one step on the Damage Charts). “Er, Za`iin to Padawans. Enemy dead. Final score Maasassi: one. Engine Intakes nill.” Khitana tries to tie up her prisoner with its own belt and some of the remaining wiring. Danshi advances further into the craft, towards the life form he senses, passing the crew berth on his way. Two Massassi, clearly deceased, litter one corner. Jarred activates battle strike, then opens the airlock door, a Massasssi warrior stands ready, crouched over within. He lets his axe swing forward and stumbles forward one square, since Jarred isn’t actually standing in the square he‘s attacking but standing to one side (due to those Arkanian brain cells of his, no doubt). The stumbling foe practically falls onto Jarreds blade, landing in two pieces. The airlock’s exterior door is blocked by rubble. Jarred notes the creature seems to have something in its ear. Namely a small commlink bud. Something is talking, in a language the young man does not understand.
Luke: I uncovered this journal during that last excursion to Arkania, The data pad was in disrepair, but with a little effort and the help of Mirrax, I was able to recover most of the data. Its author is an over-inflated, arrogant Arkanian windbag puffed up with his own hubris. Which just goes to show that even ancient Jedi weren`t immune to institutional arrogance. Assuming your actually patient enough to tolerate the biographers egotistic, rambling style (and I`m not sure even you are THAT patient) it should provide some insight into a little know period of Jedi History. Enjoy, or rather, endure. Your friend, Corran Horn **********************************************************************
Welcome treasured reader, or should I call you, “Seeker of the Wonderous Truth?” I have begun this journal in the full, and not immodest knowledge, that I, as one of the first of my kind to join the most esteemed and fabled Jedi Order in some years, am likely to have become a figure of some importance in the History of our great Species. Note that I am not so immodest as to believe my life could possibly interest anyone outside my species and Order, but neither do I have any reason to doubt that the Force may lead me to places and heights of importance that I cannot yet for-see. While there is no doubt in mind that you already know something of the identity and deeds of the humble author of this work -else why would you partake of it’s wonderful insights and sagacious qualities- I shall not be so rude as to avoid an introduction. I am - or will someday become- the Jedi Jarred Thorrn, a scion of Arkania, from a line as great and famous for it’s intellectual achievements as it is for its cunningly acquired wealth and hard-earned commercial accolades. Alas, the nature of my birth line is of little importance in the story of my life, for I left all that far behind upon my entry to the Jedi Order. You see gentle reader, my family shares the common hatred among our kind for the Jedi. A hatred born out of misconception, arrogance and historical enmity. For were my people not once among the greatest servants - indeed, near-partners- of the Sith? Which leads me to ecplain the context of our gentle tale within the course of the Republic’s vast and magnificent history. The Sith - or an entity calling itself the Sith- has returned to our peaceful, albeit war-shattered borders. Some time ago, the great Jedi revanchist heroes, Malak and Raven, led the forces of the Republic to a great but costly victory in the Mandolorion Wars. All but exterminating the fierce warriors of that wild, barbaric religion (perhaps I flatter it by calling it such, would not, perhaps, the word “cult” be better? History will judge it so, I gather). Alas, only mere months, weeks ago even, these vanished heroes and their missing fleet returned to Old Republic Space, having disappeared into the savage borderlands of the galaxy, those be-knighted regions outside the grace and protection of the Galactic Republic and its earnest Jedi guardians. They returned not in triumph, as victors and saviours, but as conquerors. Already the vast Republic Fleet yards of Foresst have fallen. Sith warships, of a class and design aesthetic never before seen within the Republic, maraud systems up and down the border regions and raid far into the rich inner systems at the Core of our great confederation. Only a few scant hours ago, the War imposed itself upon the happy world and acid seas of Rocosia, disturbing the tranquil peace of my Master’s Praxeum, and setting my mentor and his four devoted servants upon the path to great adventure. ************************************************************************** The peace of my meditations were broken by two rude and near-simultaneous interruptions: A summons to the communications room by that in-gracious (and often downright irritating Sidhe) the Padawan Danshi, and a sudden impression of suppressed fear and intense concentration which slammed into my conscious mind via the sublime medium of the all-encompassing Force. My eyes opened somewhat more quickly than I am used to, switching near-instantly from my night-vision mode (for the thick, yellow acid clouds of Recosia allow only the smallest reflected yellow light to pierce the dome above the meditation balcony) to what humans and most other less evolved species would consider to be normal vision. But not quickly enough. My eyes suffered somewhat from a sudden trail of fiery light shooting past the dome, too quick to visually identify its source, even had numerous small lights not been dancing before my beautiful, colourless eyes. It not being necessarily to possess my superior Arkanian intellect in order to immediately connect these two events I rushed towards the communications room, arriving so quickly that the spots in my vision were only just not beginning to diminish when the doorway parted before me. Alas, despite my turn of speed and startlingly swift reactions, of all the Praxeum’s students I arrived last. I was already aware in the forth front of my consciousness that Master Loshem was not present this day, having left in one of the schools Cargo Sleds earlier that morning to procure supplies from that miserable dusty shanty town the locals have the gumption to have named “Capital”. It seemed my initial assessment was indeed correct - a ship had passed overhead and was clearly in some distress. It transpired that a chime had alerted the other three members of the student body to the incoming craft, one which I could not hear due to the depth and proficiency of my trance. There was no time for complacent self-congratulation however. With the Master absent, it fell to me to organise our response to this momentous and potentially catastrophic (for the passengers, at least) event. Fortunately the Master and I have the other so well trained - even that ignorant wretch Danshi - that no issuance of Orders or discussion was necessary. With the mutual insight and silent communication only a JedI collective can display, we each set to our respective tasks. Danshi immediately sent a message to our master. Za`anni was already departing as I arrived - on her way to prop the school’s remaining cargo sled, while I moved to the planetary comm link in an attempt to contact the stricken ship. I recall Danshi muttering something about prepping our ship instead, but I simply ignored this ludicrous suggestion. I knew Khitani would not be so foolish as to waste twenty minutes prepping a starship when our Cargo Sled would be ready to leave in mere moments - and therefore transport us to a crash-site much more swiftly. This was, after all, a mercy-mission. In the meantime Khitani attempted to gain more information on the ship and the nature of its damage via images of it captured by the Praxeums security and computer systems. Alas, the ship had passed by too quickly and even our schools most precocious younger student could glean little from the blurred images in the short time available to us. Though, perhaps it is not too surprising. Khitani is hardly our most scholarly inclined student, albeit our most mechanically and combatively gifted. Having made contact with the ship, I made what sense I could of the garbled transmission I received. Along with the deciphering the obligatory call for assistance, I was able to determine the ships projected landing coordinates. As I suspected, the crash-site would be nearby, on a plateau we could reach in less than one-sixth of a standard hour. Fortunately, they would avoid a crash into our planets deadly sulphuric-acid seas. Surprisingly perhaps, that urchin Danshi had the sense to run and fetch the medical packs while I computed our best route of travel. In the meantime Khitani rushed off to collect our light sabres and other outdoor gear from our rooms. I could only hope that in her over-eager youthful exuberance she did not mistakenly grab a training light sabre or two instead. However, one must trust in the Force with such matters and, in any case, had this excursion proven to be as straightforward as I had hoped, there would have been little need for weapons regardless. However, I was pleased to note that none of us were willing to take chances with an unknown ship. The first duty of the rescuer, after all, is to avoid contriving a situation where he or she may need to be rescued themselves, Only moments after the rather sudden arrival of the stricken vessel, we were gathered on the Cargo Sled and ready to go. Danshi was the last to arrive, having paused to instruct the schools computer to monitor all of our transmission in case something should happen (who would have expected such insight from one such as him). With commendable decorum, the schools protocol droid, G3, happened to be standing by with a collection of lunch boxes as he ran past. How I miss the old days, when I had a veritable legion of equally diligent droids at my every beck and call. But such a life is not for a JedI. Za`iin, being our best pilot was already at the controls. When Khitani began recklessly passing out our equipment via Force Telekinesis. I frowned at her lack of self-control but resolved to bite my lip before the other students. Now was not a suitable time or place to issue a reprimand to our charming, if somewhat childish, younger colleague. In any case, one supposes we must at least be grateful for her enthusiasm. I wisely decided to discuss it with her later and, depending on the results of that conversation, report this latest incident to our Master as well. Though I was loathe to do so. I would prefer to set a good example by the sole expedient method of my own upright and virtuous behaviour instead. But these are dark times for a youngster to dabble in such dangerous things as unnecessary and frivilous use of the force. Yet I digress in my concern for the other students. The many short-comings of Khitani and, indeed, Danshi also are for another time and a later entry. Thank the Force that Za`iin, at least, does not possess anything in the order of such inadequacy as they. No sooner had the Sled sped from its hanger under Za`iin’s pursuant control than did Danshi, in his usual ignorant fashion, belatedly wonder aloud as the Sled capabilities with regards to surviving a plunge into our acid sea. At least the question gave the other half of my brain something to do as I explained the various safety measures of our fully enclosed means of transport. Meanwhile, the rest of my considerable intellect was focused upon the problem of contacting the ship once again using the Sled’s comms. An endeavour that was entirely unsuccessful on even the most reliable of frequencies on this notoriously obnoxious world of ours. However, we soon picked up the ruined craft on our Sleds sensors. Danshi and Khitani were able to identify it as one of those deplorable Correlian vessels, a Minoc class vessel of the Transport weight class. However, this proved to be of little help as those insufferable Correlian engineers insist on making their starship designs as modular as possible. We were as likely to encounter a heavily armed military or pirate vessel as we were to find a passenger liner full of stricken civilians. I overheard Danshi and Khitani indulge in a whispered conversation at this point, clearly wondering if this was some sort of ruse. I did not discount this possibility, even though the sensors clearly indicated that the ship was genuinely damaged. Indeed, it appeared to be embedded in rock up to its engine compartment. It was a wonder the vessel had not immediately combusted. Nevertheless, I approved of their caution and went so far as to tell them so. Strangely, they did not seem to appreciate my offered praise as much as they should. For some reason, it was at this point, when we were more than half-way to the stricken vessel and, indeed, could even see the damaged peaks and overhangs of the plateau where it had flown through them, that our newest student decided to ask me if there were any relevant planetary authorities who should be contacted. I suppressed a flash of irritation at his ignorance, generously conceding that he was, after all, new and, at least, had the sense to seek the answer from the one individual best equipped to deal with the situation. He had, after all, arrived after the Master’s yearly address on the powers and responsibility of a JedI Watchman and his apprentices. Such ignorance can always be excused when it travels hand in hand with the desire to learn. Even Danshi might be gracious and perceptive enough to admit thus, I have learned. In any case, I quickly summarised the content of the lecture in as few words as possible. Explaining that the planetary capital was a capital in name only with no authority outside its own town limits (I hesitate to call such a dreary hole a city, regardless of its grand pronouncements to the contrary) and that we, as the deputies and assistants to the systems Watchmen, were in the fact the only local authorities both empowered to and likely to bother to intervene. This brought, thankfully, a moment of silence from this most difficult individual, allowing me to return my thoughts as to how best approach the ship. I instructed Za`iin to circle the crash site before landing. The ship had come to rest in a hollow, its bow submerged under collapsed rubble from the surrounding crater wall which had, from a distance, created the illusion that the ship had actually pierced the rock wall like a blade. The confining nature of the hollow made it difficult to circle from a good angle and much of the ground beneath us was covered by overhanging rock. Concerned about this lack of visibility from the air, I nevertheless instructed our Zaabrak pilot to set us down where she may. But not before my companions endeavoured to reach out through the force in an attempt to locate any survivors. Alas, in this we were unfortunately most unsuccessful. To distract my junior colleagues from the tension no doubt building inside their minds and muscles I regaled them with a monologue regarding the corrosive properties of Recosia's cloudy atmosphere with regards to its effects on terrain, quoting a surprisingly detailed lecture by Professor Tossk of Coruscant I had heard some years before. I concluded by stating (for the benefit of Danshi of course) that while breath masks were not strictly necessary at this elevation, given the recent precipitation over this area the night before, I would be wearing mine regardless. I finished just as Za`iin put us down with nary a nudge to indicate our land-fall, and, after informing the others that I would investigate alone for the time being, stepped from the vehicle through one of its side doors. I felt rather than sensed Danshi leave the Sled through the other side door regardless of my instructions - he is a wilful and disobedient wretch. However, I had only just suppressed my rising indignation - which threatened to become that most dreaded of Jedi emotions - irritation- when I noticed the ships escape hatch was open and untended. Where were the survivors in their eager rush for assistance? I knew then that we faced adversity. That was when I sensed movement in the rocks above.
Hello all. This thread acts as a counterpart to the campaign notes in the Praxeum campaign thread. Unlike the Praxeum posts, which are largely unpolished and written during the actual game session, this thread narrates the same events as seem through my own character, the Arkanian Jedi, Jarred Thornn. As such, he is the only point of view character in this journal. Whereas the officla notes jump around from one character to another. The events described herein are the characters take on what happens during the course of the campaign (and are not neccessarily the same views as my own. Don`t be surprised if they differ from the actual game notes to a varying extent as the campaign develops. Remember, Jarred is a self-aggrandizing, pompous, stuck-up over-privilidged, spoiled late-teenaged brat. Made even worse by the fact he actually is as smart as he thinks he is. Just because Jarred believe he is the guiding force and leadership behind the Praxeum Pack, it doesn't mean he actually is. Enjoy.
STARWARS CAMPAIGN Session One:18th November 2008 Characters: Jarred Thornn Male Arkanian Jedi 1(J). Played by Brian The oldest and most intellectually-inclined student at the Praxeum, Jarred thinks of himself as an elder brother and mentor to the other Jedi, although his skill is not much greater. His logical and dispassionate attitude often grates on the other students - particularly the newcomer Danshi. He strives hard to control his tendency to patronise and demean the other students, despite his clearly superior mind- by the simple expedient of keeping his mouth shut as much as possible. Alas, he does not succeed as often as he would like. Za’iin Jith Female Zabraak Jedi 1 (Z) Played by Caroline One of the older students at the Praxeum, Za`iin is quietly confident in her abilities and strives to best herself in all she does. Despite this trait that drives her towards being superior she avoids the pitfalls of being patronising or demeaning that Jarred unfortunately tends to hit. The Zaabrak is friend of all and finds herself well-liked, she especially enjoys the company of her fun-loving young female co-student Khitana as well as long talks with the Master Loshem over supper. Though obviously mature for her age Za’iin takes great delight in simple sometimes childish pleasures. Danshi Male Sidhe Jedi 1(S) Played by Ruaridh Danshi is the newest student at the Praxeum, though he is easily as old as Jarred and Za`iin, having returned with Master Loshem from his last mission. Though Danshi is something of a rebellious and wilful student, he already possesses considerable skill in the force. The Sidhe works to maintain an aura of mystery about him and is notoriously tight-lipped about his past. Never one to follow the obvious path when a complicated one will serve the purpose, the Praxeums newest student seems determined to follow his own path, something which annoys Jarred no-end. Khitana Female Human Jedi 1 (K) Played by Niall Though not the newest student of Master Lossom she is certainly the youngest, being barely into her early teens. Khitana excels in the martial aspect of her Jedi training, being easily the best member of the group in lightsaber combat especially. She takes a childish delight in her mastery of the force, often using it when mundane means would suffice. None of the other students can match her ability with telekinesis. Though not unintelligent by any means, Khitani is hardly the most scholarly of the students at the Praxeum and often struggles with the less physical demands of her training. DM: Rob OPENING CRAWL: In the years following the victory of the Jedi-led Republic Forces over the Mandolorian Invaders, the once heroic Jedi Knights Malek and Reven have returned at the head of a huge Sith fleet. Having successfully raided the Republic Fleet Yards at Forost, the Sith Armada, under the command of Admiral Saul Krath, has re-doubled its strength at the expense of the Republic Fleet. Now, as the Sith forces continue to raid and conquer Republic Worlds, a small group of Jedi Padawan continue their training on the acid-world of Recopia. Scene One: The Jedi Praxeum of Ithorian Jedi Master Te’Borr Loshem on Recopia. Danshi is reading data pads in the atrium, Jarred meditates in the meditation room above the great hall. Za`iin is practising her acrobatics in the training room, dodging objects thrown at her by an eager Khitana. They hear a rumble from the sky. Danshi wanders towards the communications room and notices the sensor panel is lit. On the display he sees a ship appears to be passing over head and in considerable difficulty, belching flame and on a crash trajectory. It appears to be flying towards an uninhabited section of the planet. He estimates a 20% chance that the ship will hit land rather than sink into the acidic sea. Master Loshem is not present, being on a supply trip. In the training room, Za`iin and Khitana pause as he announces his findings. Jarred is awoken from his meditation by the noise and sees a blight flash and smoke through the dome above him as Danshi makes his announcement. He also runs to the communications room. The others arrive in the communications room. Danshi sends a message to the master, Jarred runs over to the comm panel and tries to contact the ship. He transmits on broadband. Khitana tries to get more info on the ship from the computer. Za`iin volunteers to start prepping the remaining Cargo Air Sled for an urgent journey. Jarred receives a slightly garbled mayday message and partial coordinates for a “landing.” He announces the ship is likely to hit land. He calculates a trajectory for the Sled. Danshi raids the medical bay. Khitana runs back to the rooms and grabs everyone’s light sabres and utility belts. The party boards the sled as soon as they are ready. Jarred hands Za`iin a data pad with the directions he has plotted to get to the crash. Danshi instructs the household computer to monitor events in that area and to update the party as required. As the Sidhe Padawan runs to join the others on the sled, G3 the protocol droid appears with packed lunches on a tray, which Danshi grabs as he dashes by. Khitana uses the force to pass the equipment to their respective owners as Jarred looks on disapprovingly, making a mental note to have to a word with her later about such unnecessary use and abuse of the force. Danshi belatedly wonders about safety features should the Sled crash into he Sulphur Sea. Jarred takes great pleasure in explaining the Sleds safety features in an officious and patronising voice. The crashed ships soon appears on the Sleds sensors, seven or eight minutes travel away. However, they cannot pick up any life forms at this distance. Basic information on the ship was captured by the sensors. Za`iin tries to figure out what sort of ship it is but is distracted by having to pilot the ship. Danshi and Khitana recognise it as a Minoc class ship, which they think is some sort of combat shuttle, landing craft or cargo vessel. Danshi nudges Khitana and wonders if this might be a ruse. Jarred says we’ll worry about that when we get closer. Khitana and Jarred agree caution is warranted however. As Khitana and Danshi examine the data, they agree the damage does not appear to be faked. Jarred notes that its genuine damage doesn’t necessarily mean it will be friendly. Danshi wonders if there is a planetary authority that should be informed, but Jarred explains that there is no true central authority there. The capital is called such because of its size, not because other settlements answer to it. Master Loshem, is the systems watcher, and the only real authority figure on the planet. Hence, as his students, the group are the proper individuals to intervene. Jarred attempts communication with the crashed ship using his comm-link but receives no response. He is unsure if this is due to a lack of survivors or something less sinister such as comm-damage or interference from the acid lakes As the Sled approaches the plateau, they see smoke rising from the centre of the land formation, which includes several sharp peaks and overhangs, one of which appears to have been torn away. Jarred advises circling the crash site before landing. Danshi attempts to sense any survivors through the force, using Sense Force and Sense Surroundings. He does not sense any strong force signatures that would indicate a Force Sensitive other than the students nearby. Nor does he sense anything else at present. After circling, Danshi suggests Za`iin take the party in, which she does, passing over several acid channels until coming into visual range of the ship, approaching from its rear. The ship appears to have crashed into a rock formation set into a hollow, which the superstructure has penetrated for some distance. Sets the ship down in an area relatively free from wreckage and scattered fragments of rock, only metres away from the ship, but away from its still-hot engines. Jarred notes the hollow was likely formed by acid erosion of cracks and weak points in the rock. Danshi ignores him and observes that he can now sense survivors. Za`iin decides to stay with the ship while the others investigate. Jarred spots an open hatch in the side of the vessel and leaps from the skiff. |He looks for weapon damage, but has to admit he wouldn’t know what blaster damage would look like. Jarred observes that breath masks are not necessary, though advised, as the heavy rains and height of the plateau clear away harmful organic compounds. He puts his on anyway prior to examining the ground around the hatch, hoping to see tracks of survivors. He notices that, while the rock is bare, boulders have been moved away from the door, Danshi continues to concentrate on sensing life forms, detecting more than a dozen in the area but failing to pinpoint the exact location. Danshi leaves the Skiff, avoiding the area behind the ships engines. Khitana tries to assess how stable the engines are while peering out the Skiff window. She calls out that she does not believe the engines are in immediate danger. Jarred suggests they need to reach the engineering compartment to disable the engines. To be safe. Danshi examines the ridge lines at the top of the hollow. Initiative Order Foes 19
Za`iin spots movement along the ridge tops to her left. Jarred and Danshi notice movement on both sides of the ridge amongst the rocks. Khitana is oblivious as she studies the ships engines intently. Huge, red skinned bearded figures appear on the ridge tops above the party. From their studies Danshi, Jarred and Khitana recognise these creatures as the Massassi, Sith servants, possessed of great speed and strength. Fortunately they all appear to be armed with double handed axes rather than blasters. Jarred recognises these as weapons as lanvarock. M1 and M2 run forward through the engine wash of the crashed ship, careless of the radiation damage they sustain and come into melee range of Danshi. M6 and M7 rush towards the rear of the Sledge while M3, M4 and M5 reach back with their huge, axe like weapons and fling them forward. Discs shoot forth from their weapons, two aimed at Jarred and the third aimed at Danshi. Jarred attempts to deflect both missiles launched against him with the copper blade of his light sabre, belatedly realising he hasn’t actually drawn it yet alone ignited it yet. He takes 14 damage from the stone projectiles. Meanwhile Danshi is also hit by a spinning disk and suffers 7 points of damage. Za`iin shouts a warning to Khitana, unnecessarily as M1 and M2 have already run past the viewport she was looking through. She shouts, “hold on”, and reverses the Sled, trying to run over M6 and M7. The Skiff clips both foes as they try madly to scramble aside. Though the blow is only a glancing one, the speed of the manouvre pulps both creatures by collision and overrun damage. Khitana looks out through the viewport and sends a Force Slam towards M1 and M2, managing to avoid Danshi in the process. They waver slightly, but do not fall, although they are bruised and buffeted by the force energy sent against them, taking seven points of damage each. She also ignites her light sabre. Danshi ignites his own sabre and makes a withdraw action, spinning on his heel to block an axe attack and then breaking and running for the skiff, which he boards. Jarred finally activates his light sabre and tries to use Battle strike as he runs towards the front of the skiff, reaching the front fender. However, distracted by the pain of his wounds he fails to activate the Force Power successfully. M1 and M2 rush to the doors where Khitana and Danshi await, swinging wildly at the two Jedi, chopping huge groove into either side of the door as they miss the moving vehicle. The remaining three launch more discs at their remaining target, Jarred, smashing into the front fender of the moving skiff. Za`iin accelerates forward and upwards, looking to spin the sled around and smash M1 and M2, hoping that Jarred will be able to jump aboard a she passes. The Arkanian student ducks under the front of the vehicle as it spins, calling on the force and back-flipping through the door as the Sled zips past to safety. (The DM let me spend a Force Point to move outside the action sequence - I then rolled a 23 on Acrobatics check). Danshi sends a message to Master Loshem, Jarred takes the time to clean his wounds and those of Danshi, spraying their cuts and bruises with an anti-septic cream. (No actual use of treat wounds skill at this point, just flavour) Za`iin takes the skiff to a safe height while the party investigate their options. Jarred observes dispassionately that there is no one else available to fight them. He recalls (calling upon his Arkanian intelligence) that the range of a Massassi lanvarock (the axe like weapon) is about 18 metres at most. Za`iin suggests sweeping the area from a height of about 25 metres above the Massassi until they hear back from Master Loshem. Jarred agrees, but points out that just because the Padawans haven’t seen a blaster, that’s no guarantee that their foes do not have one. Danshi and Khitana also agree and so their Zaabrak companion pilots the Skiff back towards the crash site. Luckily, Danshi has his bow with them and intends to take pot shots at the Massassi. Jarred also wishes to join in with his grandfathers pulse-wave blaster pistol, even though he is the first to admit he lacks sufficient training to use it well. However Danshi cannot sense anything through the Force or with his eyes. Jarred takes the controls while Za`iin, with her superior Zaabrak senses, attempts to locate the Massassi. Khitana also uses the force and his eyes to locate the foe. She detects four healthy life forms hiding in the ship and four more weaker ones are also present. Inside. Khitana can also sense two more hiding on the peaks, acting as Sentries. Za`iin cannot detect anything at all. Following direction from Khitana, Jarred takes the Sled down a few more metres, into range of the Maasari weapons, so that his companions can open fire on the foes. He tells Khitana to take his weapons and start shooting the sentries. She has even less training in blaster weapons than he does. Jarred follows her instructions to position the ship where she has a line of sight at the monsters. Alas, she even fails to hit the huge rock spire and barely avoids hitting the door. “Brace your wrists before you fire,” suggests Jarred, with typical snotty-nosed disdain, completely disregarding the fact he doesn’t know how to use the weapon properly either. The sentry peeks out where Jarred can see it. Za`iin also spots it through the window. She also spots something moving across the opposite side of the hollow, where Khitana said another sentry lurked.. The young Zaabrak reports her sighting to the others. The party hears two loud thunks and spot the rather sudden appearance of a new dent in the wall as the Sith fire back. Danshi demands that the ship be taken higher but Jarred takes the ship closer to the first sentry instead, pointedly ignoring the Sidhe, so that the other Padawan can jump into combat with the Massassi. Za’iin takes the controls from Jarred and tells him to go fight. Khitana leaps out of the Sled and onto the rocks, attacking with her light sabre, only to slip and stumble as she lands. Jarred leaps across to flank and attack the sentry, slicing straight through its arm and spine. “Back on board”, he says dispassionately, though his chalky-white Arkanian cheeks gain some colour as he guiltily realises he has taken an intelligent life for the first time. Meanwhile Danshi takes a shot with his bow and arrow at the second sentry, curving it over the rock with the force to strike the second sentry , who pops up from behind the rock, arrow protruding from its shoulder, and shoots back. The Massasi throws the disc with a road, but the range is too far and it passes harmlessly beneath. Seeing this, the Massassi moves around the rim of the hollow, from cover to cover, trying to close the range. Za`iin holds her action, shouting for Khitana and Jarred to jump board. Khitana does so, Danshi takes another shot but the arrow skitters off the rock. With a final look back at his dead foe, Jarred also rejoins his comrades on the Sled. As he does so, Za`iin moves the Sled into reverse, swinging round to the opposite side of the hollow with expert skill, pausing with the sled door mere inches from the edge of the rocky outcrop. However, the Massassi axe takes out the Sled’s rear repulsor. “Take us out.” Roars Khitana, “Land and I can fix us.” In the meantime she tears off an inspection hatch and begins working on repairs. Alas, the repulsor is trashed. She can only restore temporary power to the damaged repulsor and keep the Sled flying for a few minutes - just long enough to get home. “Ten minutes” Khitana shouts, “That’s all I can give you. Set her down.” Danshi readies an arrow while Jarred takes a pot shot with his blaster. His lack of training tells and he misses completely. Za`iin takes the Sled up and away intending to set the Sled down in a few moments at the opposite side of the island plateau. As they turn away and climb, Danshi shoots with his readied action, but the arrow skitters away across the rocks. The Massassi’s hurled disk fails to connect with the damage skiff by a whisker. The Sith-aligned alien ducks behind his rock again. Khitana keeps the repulsor going with some frantic mechanical work. Jarred shoots again and misses completely just as the damaged sled bucks and rears. Za`iin zooms away in the Sled, taking the Sled out of range, looking for a good place to set down. Khitana tries to Jury rig repairs as the Sled moves, albeit with little success. Za`iin takes the Sled down to about twenty metres above the plateau, looking for a cave or other concealed spot. She finds one the Sled will fit into barely. Danshi asks Jarred if any local life forms might be found in the cave. The Arkanian replies that most of the local cave-habiting fauna is harmless unless the nest is disturbed and that they live in flocks of up to twenty. Danshi reaches out through the force, but detects only small burrowing reptiles within the cave. Having felt Danshi centre himself and reach out through the force, Jarred asks Danshi, “Do we land?” Danshi states that only a handful of small lizards are present. Jarred states these are harmless but Za`iin refuses to land until she has given the cave a good once over through the viewport. Khitana warns her the ship wont last much longer. This is born out when the Sled shudders and lurches from side to side. The Zaabrak parks the Sled without further damaging the paintwork with languid ease, despite its now pronounced list to one side, and shuts off the power to the engines. Jarred checks to ensure the comms are still working and sends another message to Master Loshem. The Padawans take stock of their situation and discuss what to do next. They find themselves in an erosion formed cave, made from limestone pockets. Jarred announces they need a plan of action. He states they can either wait for Master Loshem to save them, or clean up the problem themselves. Danshi seems to agree with the Arkanian that they should deal with the problem themselves but Khitana states she wants the Sled fixed before they try to do anything else - so they may escape if necessary. She is already poking around the damaged repulser, Danshi offers his assistance. Za`iin wants to wait until hearing from Khitana regarding the state of repairs before making any plans. Jarred volunteers to keep watch in the meantime. Khitana suggests repairing the Sled and coming back with the Praxeum’s Nova class transport, an armed and shielded vessel. Danshi crows, reminding the others that he suggested bringing the ship in the first place. Khitana points out people could have been hurt. They did not have twenty minutes to waste prepping the Transport. Khitana and Danshi manage to jury-rig repairs that Khitana is certain will last a few hours. Jarred wonders if it might be worthwhile leaving a scout behind. Danshi looks mischievous and says he has an idea. He asks if anyone has a holo-recorder. Jarred begins to smile and agrees he does. Jarred points out Khitana is the sneaky one but points out that he can easily set up a feed between the holo-recorder and his data pad. Jarred asks if Khitana is willing to take the risk. He connects Za`iin’s commlink to the holo-recorder and his own commlink to his data-pad. He then passes the holorecorder to Khitana. Danshi pilots the sled to 100m out from the downed ship. With whispered good wishes, Khitana makes her way stealthily to the crash site. Alas, she fumbles and alerts the Massassi to her presence with a scattering of dislodged rocks.. They come charging out of the ship and barrelling towards her. She runs and calls for help through her commlink, pausing only to attempt to confuse them by dislodging rocks through the force. Danshi seemingly panics and leaps from the sled, running towards Khitana on foot. Za`iin turns the sled round and flies in to pick up Khitana. Jarred wonders what in the name of science Danshi thinks he is doing and takes up position by one of the doors. He announces he is ready to provide covering fire with his blaster. Khitana manages to conceal the holo-recorder into a convenient nook before turning to run. At this point the sled pulls up as Khitana comes sprinting over the ridge. The Massasssi are still charging up the other side of the slope. Danshi continues to run (to be fair to the player, his actions were due to a mix-up regarding the nature of the local geography) towards the Sled, which is now between him and the crash-site. As Khitana climbs aboard, the fast-moving Massassi close into firing range.
The following is the campaign notes for a newly inaugerated Star Wars Sage edition campaign set in the Knights of the Old republic era. These are the actual game notes compiled by myself, the player of Jarred Thorrn, while the game was in progress, edited only for spelling purposes. I`ve posted them for the use of the players and Gm, and to share them with my fellow "journal addicts". All comments are welcome from players and non-players alike. Finally, because I know how much people enjoy reading "character journals" as well as campaign journals, I will also be posting the character journal of our very own Jarred Thorrn as well, albeit in a separate thread. I`ll post the entry for the first session after work. Please enjoy.
***Can't..... let.... thread.... die!**** Some quotes from my current Tuesday night game. Oderic (Cha 20 ): "I`m too handsome to fight acid-breathing monsters!" Throgga the NPC 1/2 Orc mercenary (after seeing Havok inching towards his kit and treasure chest):
Elaphral: Havok is way scarier than Throgga.
Glorfalin the 1/2 Copper Dragon (after Oderic spits down the tubular pit Glor's just glided to the bottom of): Do you really want a spitting contest with me? Oderic (still standing over the same pit): Things are really going down the tubes now.
Oderic: An orc in a library? I disbelieve! Elaphral: He's smarter than the average orc. Oderic: Do you hear that neigh, Mal? Thats the gift horse you've just been offered running out the stable door!
|