Out of the fire, into the frying pan
May. 31st, 2005 10:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
terryclothJeff had us come in early yesterday (it was memorial day, so we didn't have work) so that we could get even more gaming in... but unfortunately, both Ed and Dave showed up, staggered so that we wasted all the extra time and more making characters for them. Meaning that after rearranging stuff to come in early, the rest of us were sitting around bored for three hours.
He went easier on the dark-side points this time, but while we weren't *exactly* railroaded, there was really only one possible outcome where we didn't end up dead or enslaved. Since he did the whole 'since I want you to be fooled, I won't remind you to sense motive on these people' thing.
It took a month for their nearly crippled ship to reach the next planet. The jedi-in-training spent the time charging their crystals, for the most part, which would eventually let them build their own personal lightsabers (they already had trainee sabers, which were almost as good). They also spent time communing with the emerald holocron, whose imprinted personality offered to teach them 'the way', which was obviously a force-adept tradition. Kuu and Dodger showed some interest in this.
Also, a mysterious coccoon that none of them had noticed hatch, disgorging a fifth trainee that Master Li Shao had been secretly training using telepathy while he slept. After hatching, it was a four-armed humanoid thing that most of the rest of the party secretly found creepy. Kubal (the fourth trainee, a human, who hadn't done much last time) decided to call him 'moth man', and I don't think anyone ever referred to him as anything else, although he probably had a name.
Upon arrival to this random nearby planet which they expected to have shipyard facilities, they were hailed by a pair of imperial battleships that were apparently enforcing a trade embargo of the planet. Since they were in desperate need of repair, they were allowed to crash-land into a docking bay of the starport, but were warned not to trade or barter with the natives.
The official line on the holonet was that the planet had recently been 'liberated' from the 'separatists', and was currently in a period of transition to a new government. They of course took this with a grain of salt, considering that the same official news sources told of how the vicious murderous Jedi had been wiped out and outlawed (in that order) after trying to kill the emperor. They considered turning themselves in -- that *was* the law, after all, and it was still the republic even if it had changed its name, right? Plus, they had a pretty solid alibi.
But they weren't actually jedi yet (as their masters had always been sure to remind them), and the 'heroic Darth Vader' line let them on to just who was behind this supposed jedi rebellion -- Darth was a title given to the Sith, an ancient enemy of the jedi. So instead they decided to try to keep their powers hidden (but see below) and just buy some ship parts here, and then go... somewhere... Illion (a nearby planet with a strong jedi presence), Coruscant (the head of the repub-- empire), and back to the planet they just left (since farseeing seemed to indicate that Vidal was still alive there, and still fighting) were ideas floated.
The only store still open nearby was the 'Imperial Super Mart', so they headed there to look for ship parts, and a few other random supplies (Kubal wanted armor, for instance). It was full of crap, though, at usurious prices, and 'pets' (that is, anyone who couldn't pass for human) were told to stay outside. Dodger ignored this and pranced right in, but Kuu waited outside to keep watch.
When they went to check out, though, the people inside discovered that republic credits were no longer accepted in the empire -- they needed imperial credits instead, and a large transaction would have to be reported to the authorities, who probably wouldn't buy Kubal's lame 'my grandmother had them hidden under her bed' line. The store manager offered to give them a worse exchange rate off the books, and took them into a back room for negotiations, where Kubal tried repeatedly to use jedi mind tricks to get him to give them the best possible exchange rate and still not report it, without success.
At this point Kuu, outside, saw an army of aliens moving in to assault the store, but was locked into the cutscene and wasn't able to warn the party about it until they were already set up and firing at the store. [grr] He decided to approach the attackers and make a plea for nonviolence... but it turned out that their tanks were only being used on the building itself, and that they were stunning all the actual shoppers.
They claimed to be the legitimate government of the planet, reduced to fighting an underground resistance movement after the empire's unprovoked invasion -- and made up mostly of aliens because the empire was apparently discriminating against aliens in addition to imposing ludicrously burdensome taxes (50% of gross) on the entire planet. They offered him a chance to join, and he agreed to hear them out... and whether through similar offers or just being captured shopping in the evil imperial super mart, all the aliens in the party were taken to their base.
Kubal, who was human, looted the store (for a dark point) and then ran off, managing to escape by using jedi superspeed.
At the resistance base, the party was interviewed by the general and asked to join their cause. Some were more sympathetic (and impressed) than others, but they all wanted to confer with each other and with the others back at the ship before committing to anything, so they were given a meal and sent back with a chip that would modify a commlink to send a secure message when they'd made their decision.
Back at the ship, Kubal (who was convinced the resistance were a bunch of clowns) went looking for a source of ship parts other than the now-destroyed super-mart (which hadn't had what they needed anyway), and was sent from person to person until a junk dealer offered to tell him where in the currently shut-down junkyard he could find the parts he needed, if he'd also fetch a case of equipment that he'd left behind on his last trip and was now cut off from.
So when the others got back, they went to scout out the junkyard. It seemed lightly guarded, so they decide to come back at night and sneak in. Since Itsuda had to go to get the parts, they decided to all go in in case there was trouble, with Dodger left outside the wall to watch for any sign that they'd been spotted.
They managed to all jump or levitate over the wall without being seen, and snuck to the center of the junkyard where the ship parts were kept. While Itsuda extracted the parts from one of the wrecks, Kubal split off to go get the box.
Unfortunately, the box was a trap, and touching it set off a gas bomb and an alarm. Instantly, an entire army of stormtroopers that they hadn't seen anywhere were charging into the junkyard and surrounding the ship-parts section. Dodger warned them telepathically, but the stormtroopers had already formed a perimeter before they could escape.
Kuu made an illusion of the parts pile behind the troopers collapsing and kicking up a huge cloud of dust, to obscure the enemy's vision, but their night-vision goggles weren't affected, meaning that they all got saves every round [compared to the expected result going by the description of the power in the book, which was 'no save unless they interact'] and could actually see through the illusion if they made it [compared to the expected result going by the description in the book, which was 'but it's still opaque even if you know it's an illusion']. So since that didn't really work, they were forced to fight... although it worked well enough that Kuu spent the whole fight doing nothing but maintaining it.
Even with half the troopers distracted by the illusion, it was a really close shave. All the enemies had grenades, except the leader, an ARC trooper with a rocket launcher -- and the grenades were guaranteed to do at least half damage on every hit, to multiple party members.
On the other hand, half the troopers were blinded by 'dust' and couldn't really do anything effective, and it was pretty much one swing, one kill against the troopers. So while Kuu and Kubal were badly wounded and almost killed, they did manage to break through the line and escape back to their speeder. (which the resistance had let them borrow)
Of course, that left Itsuda (who refused to leave without the parts) and Dodger (who refused to leave without Itsuda). Itsuda was really sneaky, and wasn't spotted or anything, but Dodger was almost shot and roasted as a couple troopers' lunch. Eventually, they managed to recover the two, but Itsuda foolishly used his commlink to tell them to come pick him up, which the troopers all homed in on, meaning they had to quickly flee the area (and turn off their comms).
However, they'd managed to pick up a force adept from the resistance, who'd stepped out of the swamp to insult them repeatedly for being so stupid as to get caught. "Of course it was a trap -- you asked the collaborators to get parts. I shouldn't have expected anymore from a bunch of stupid jedi, though. I guess now you'll want to come join us, since you don't have a ship anymore." The ship, of course, having been confiscated now.
While Kubal still thought the resistance was a bunch of fools, and told this agent as much repeatedly, in even ruder terms than he'd used, they all had to agree that at this point they really didn't have a choice. Besides, they'd been planning to join up anyway.
last session | next session
I think the moral of the story here is 'don't bother leaving someone to keep watch, because the GM won't let you take any actions until you're surrounded and the enemies are announcing themselves anyway'.
The illusion thing was really annoying -- it's a mental illusion, so it doesn't affect droids, and you have to pay for the distance to the farthest target that you want affected... but apparently it's physical enough that since I didn't specify I was changing the display of their night-vision goggles, they weren't fully affected. He also said that he was being 'nice' by letting my allies see through it -- so apparently it's physical enough that I HAVE to include my allies as affected by it, even though it won't necessarily get all the enemies unless I pay the appropriate distance.
In other words, much like his interpretation of light and dark side points, it makes no sense.
Also, he forgot that it was PITCH BLACK and we were all having to pay vitality and use the force to 'see' anyway.
Still, overall the session was fun.
He went easier on the dark-side points this time, but while we weren't *exactly* railroaded, there was really only one possible outcome where we didn't end up dead or enslaved. Since he did the whole 'since I want you to be fooled, I won't remind you to sense motive on these people' thing.
It took a month for their nearly crippled ship to reach the next planet. The jedi-in-training spent the time charging their crystals, for the most part, which would eventually let them build their own personal lightsabers (they already had trainee sabers, which were almost as good). They also spent time communing with the emerald holocron, whose imprinted personality offered to teach them 'the way', which was obviously a force-adept tradition. Kuu and Dodger showed some interest in this.
Also, a mysterious coccoon that none of them had noticed hatch, disgorging a fifth trainee that Master Li Shao had been secretly training using telepathy while he slept. After hatching, it was a four-armed humanoid thing that most of the rest of the party secretly found creepy. Kubal (the fourth trainee, a human, who hadn't done much last time) decided to call him 'moth man', and I don't think anyone ever referred to him as anything else, although he probably had a name.
Upon arrival to this random nearby planet which they expected to have shipyard facilities, they were hailed by a pair of imperial battleships that were apparently enforcing a trade embargo of the planet. Since they were in desperate need of repair, they were allowed to crash-land into a docking bay of the starport, but were warned not to trade or barter with the natives.
The official line on the holonet was that the planet had recently been 'liberated' from the 'separatists', and was currently in a period of transition to a new government. They of course took this with a grain of salt, considering that the same official news sources told of how the vicious murderous Jedi had been wiped out and outlawed (in that order) after trying to kill the emperor. They considered turning themselves in -- that *was* the law, after all, and it was still the republic even if it had changed its name, right? Plus, they had a pretty solid alibi.
But they weren't actually jedi yet (as their masters had always been sure to remind them), and the 'heroic Darth Vader' line let them on to just who was behind this supposed jedi rebellion -- Darth was a title given to the Sith, an ancient enemy of the jedi. So instead they decided to try to keep their powers hidden (but see below) and just buy some ship parts here, and then go... somewhere... Illion (a nearby planet with a strong jedi presence), Coruscant (the head of the repub-- empire), and back to the planet they just left (since farseeing seemed to indicate that Vidal was still alive there, and still fighting) were ideas floated.
The only store still open nearby was the 'Imperial Super Mart', so they headed there to look for ship parts, and a few other random supplies (Kubal wanted armor, for instance). It was full of crap, though, at usurious prices, and 'pets' (that is, anyone who couldn't pass for human) were told to stay outside. Dodger ignored this and pranced right in, but Kuu waited outside to keep watch.
When they went to check out, though, the people inside discovered that republic credits were no longer accepted in the empire -- they needed imperial credits instead, and a large transaction would have to be reported to the authorities, who probably wouldn't buy Kubal's lame 'my grandmother had them hidden under her bed' line. The store manager offered to give them a worse exchange rate off the books, and took them into a back room for negotiations, where Kubal tried repeatedly to use jedi mind tricks to get him to give them the best possible exchange rate and still not report it, without success.
At this point Kuu, outside, saw an army of aliens moving in to assault the store, but was locked into the cutscene and wasn't able to warn the party about it until they were already set up and firing at the store. [grr] He decided to approach the attackers and make a plea for nonviolence... but it turned out that their tanks were only being used on the building itself, and that they were stunning all the actual shoppers.
They claimed to be the legitimate government of the planet, reduced to fighting an underground resistance movement after the empire's unprovoked invasion -- and made up mostly of aliens because the empire was apparently discriminating against aliens in addition to imposing ludicrously burdensome taxes (50% of gross) on the entire planet. They offered him a chance to join, and he agreed to hear them out... and whether through similar offers or just being captured shopping in the evil imperial super mart, all the aliens in the party were taken to their base.
Kubal, who was human, looted the store (for a dark point) and then ran off, managing to escape by using jedi superspeed.
At the resistance base, the party was interviewed by the general and asked to join their cause. Some were more sympathetic (and impressed) than others, but they all wanted to confer with each other and with the others back at the ship before committing to anything, so they were given a meal and sent back with a chip that would modify a commlink to send a secure message when they'd made their decision.
Back at the ship, Kubal (who was convinced the resistance were a bunch of clowns) went looking for a source of ship parts other than the now-destroyed super-mart (which hadn't had what they needed anyway), and was sent from person to person until a junk dealer offered to tell him where in the currently shut-down junkyard he could find the parts he needed, if he'd also fetch a case of equipment that he'd left behind on his last trip and was now cut off from.
So when the others got back, they went to scout out the junkyard. It seemed lightly guarded, so they decide to come back at night and sneak in. Since Itsuda had to go to get the parts, they decided to all go in in case there was trouble, with Dodger left outside the wall to watch for any sign that they'd been spotted.
They managed to all jump or levitate over the wall without being seen, and snuck to the center of the junkyard where the ship parts were kept. While Itsuda extracted the parts from one of the wrecks, Kubal split off to go get the box.
Unfortunately, the box was a trap, and touching it set off a gas bomb and an alarm. Instantly, an entire army of stormtroopers that they hadn't seen anywhere were charging into the junkyard and surrounding the ship-parts section. Dodger warned them telepathically, but the stormtroopers had already formed a perimeter before they could escape.
Kuu made an illusion of the parts pile behind the troopers collapsing and kicking up a huge cloud of dust, to obscure the enemy's vision, but their night-vision goggles weren't affected, meaning that they all got saves every round [compared to the expected result going by the description of the power in the book, which was 'no save unless they interact'] and could actually see through the illusion if they made it [compared to the expected result going by the description in the book, which was 'but it's still opaque even if you know it's an illusion']. So since that didn't really work, they were forced to fight... although it worked well enough that Kuu spent the whole fight doing nothing but maintaining it.
Even with half the troopers distracted by the illusion, it was a really close shave. All the enemies had grenades, except the leader, an ARC trooper with a rocket launcher -- and the grenades were guaranteed to do at least half damage on every hit, to multiple party members.
On the other hand, half the troopers were blinded by 'dust' and couldn't really do anything effective, and it was pretty much one swing, one kill against the troopers. So while Kuu and Kubal were badly wounded and almost killed, they did manage to break through the line and escape back to their speeder. (which the resistance had let them borrow)
Of course, that left Itsuda (who refused to leave without the parts) and Dodger (who refused to leave without Itsuda). Itsuda was really sneaky, and wasn't spotted or anything, but Dodger was almost shot and roasted as a couple troopers' lunch. Eventually, they managed to recover the two, but Itsuda foolishly used his commlink to tell them to come pick him up, which the troopers all homed in on, meaning they had to quickly flee the area (and turn off their comms).
However, they'd managed to pick up a force adept from the resistance, who'd stepped out of the swamp to insult them repeatedly for being so stupid as to get caught. "Of course it was a trap -- you asked the collaborators to get parts. I shouldn't have expected anymore from a bunch of stupid jedi, though. I guess now you'll want to come join us, since you don't have a ship anymore." The ship, of course, having been confiscated now.
While Kubal still thought the resistance was a bunch of fools, and told this agent as much repeatedly, in even ruder terms than he'd used, they all had to agree that at this point they really didn't have a choice. Besides, they'd been planning to join up anyway.
last session | next session
I think the moral of the story here is 'don't bother leaving someone to keep watch, because the GM won't let you take any actions until you're surrounded and the enemies are announcing themselves anyway'.
The illusion thing was really annoying -- it's a mental illusion, so it doesn't affect droids, and you have to pay for the distance to the farthest target that you want affected... but apparently it's physical enough that since I didn't specify I was changing the display of their night-vision goggles, they weren't fully affected. He also said that he was being 'nice' by letting my allies see through it -- so apparently it's physical enough that I HAVE to include my allies as affected by it, even though it won't necessarily get all the enemies unless I pay the appropriate distance.
In other words, much like his interpretation of light and dark side points, it makes no sense.
Also, he forgot that it was PITCH BLACK and we were all having to pay vitality and use the force to 'see' anyway.
Still, overall the session was fun.
