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terryclothWe had another session of Jeff's Star Wars campaign. Ed is gone this week, and Dave was kidnapped by some of his family, so it was just Patrick, me and Stacey.
The only really random and arbitrary thing Jeff did this time was let Druu Kai spend a force point to reactively make a heal-self check to avoid instant death. Having a dozen quasi-droids simultaneously throw frag grenades at us was pretty *mean*, though. }:P
Having lost their ship, the padawans had no choice but to follow Sepka back to the rebel camp and join their cause. Some of them were slightly bitter that Sepka and the others apparently knew all along that the 'black market' in town was essentially a sting operation and hadn't told them, but... well... regardless as to whether the rebels had set them up, they really didn't have any choice, unless they wanted to just run off into the swamps.
Much to Sepka's dismay, the padawans were assigned to accompany him on the stealth mission to steal the admiral's personal shuttle, which was equipped with a cloaking device. With that cloak installed on a larger rebel assault ship, they general thought they'd be able to take over one of the Imperial capital ships looming in orbit while the other was out on patrol, and thus take back the planet as the imperial forces wouldn't be hiding in the swamps, and so would be vulnerable to orbital bombardment.
Before the mission, Kuu asked Sepka, after yet another tirade about how useless the jedi were, to give them some pointers about covert missions. Sepka just used it as another opportunity to insult them for falling for the collaborators' trap, though. He did give some useful advice as to equipment to take when they were at the quartermaster's, at least. In addition to the recommended camo gear and electrogoggles, Kuu picked up a heavy blaster to dual-wield if he couldn't get close enough for sabers, Dodger got some armor, and Druu Kai requisitioned some stun grenades.
On the mission, Sepka abandoned them to their own devices for the hike through the forest to 'scout ahead', and Kuu was nearly eaten by an alligator [a total of 1 on a survival check], but Dodger saw it in time to warn him.
Sepka found them near the outer fence, and had them wait under cover until the main rebel force started their attack -- they needed them to take over the base computers to deactivate the antiaircraft guns and open the hanger doors, but their mission was covert so that they could escape with the shuttle even if the main attack ultimately failed. The initial infiltration went pretty smoothly except for some unexpected floodlights, which the padawans crushed with the force, earning a bit of praise from Sepka for once.
There were two guards inside, but they were no match for three jedi padawans and an initiate of the White Flame. Although Dodger did her best to expose herself to the maximum amount of enemy fire, Kuu forgot that blasters weren't as good at destroying weapons as lightsabers, and the enemies threw a couple stinking un-deflectable defense-ignoring always-do-at-least-half-damage frag grenades. After the fight, they managed to salvage a repeating blaster to give to the quartermaster (none of them could use it) and a half-dozen frag grenades, which Kuu kept.
The flight from the base did not go as well as they'd hoped. The base had a tractor beam which held them in place for far too long, while assassin droids popped out of the walls and started trying to slice up the padawans with vibroblades. The padawans didn't expect the droids to be *anywhere* as persistant as they were [they had class levels and thus vitality points, and so didn't go down in a single saber swipe], and Kuu was once again wounded to within an inch of his life, saved only by (depending on who you ask) Sepka's ion grenades, Druu Kai's creative use of move object, the largest droid's questionable decision to switch to heavy repeating blasters against drawn jedi lightsabers, or Dodger's decision to call on the dark side to blast the droids repeatedly with force lightning.
That last was... worrysome, to say the least. Once they were safely back in camp, Kuu and Druu Kai confronted her about it, and eventually went with her into the emerald holocron to speak with her new master.
"Ah, the jedi are foolish to neglect their left hand," the 'Priest of the Way' said.
"We've heard dark stories about what happens to jedi who turn to the dark side," Kuu replied, "They become twisted and evil. If Dodger is no longer a jedi, well, that would disappoint Master Li Shao, but if she became a baby-murdering sith lord then I don't see how we could continue to be friends."
"It is true that there are... dangers, that she is not yet ready to face. She should not have called on the left hand yet, her training is not complete. Unless, of course, the alternative was her death -- in dire circumstances the danger may be justified."
"The alternative was Kuu's death!" Dodger replied.
"That circumstance is not sufficiently dire. Only your *own* death would be sufficiently dire."
So, while this conversation was not entirely reassuring, Dodger did end up promising not to use the dark side again. Until she was trained. Unless she really wanted to.
Back in the real world... while the theft of the shuttle had been a success, the overall assault on the base had ultimately met with failure. Or, more accurately, orbital bombardment. Some of the rebel commandos had escaped, but not enough... and so the general reluctantly decided to send the padawans with Sepka again, to 'neutralize' the admiral in charge of the Imperial ship they were going to capture. 'High Inquisitor' was his title... the padawans figured this had to mean 'Sith Lord'. They weren't happy about going up against a Sith when they weren't yet even truly jedi, but capturing the ship *was* a very important mission -- it could very well be the deciding battle that would retake the planet from the Empire -- and ordinary soldiers probably wouldn't be much use because of the whole 'blasters against lightsabers' deal.
So, after cloaking up to the ship successfully and landing in a deserted AT-AT bay, they parted ways with the bulk of the commandos heading to take the bridge, and headed for the rear of the ship where (according to the duty roster that Ituda sliced from the ship's computers) the admiral should be asleep. Sepka came along to open any doors that got in their way and generally ride herd on them, but this time hung back in the rear, with Kuu and Dodger in front being sneakyish, and the whole party spread out to minimize the temptation for any ambushing enemies to use accursed frag grenades.
When going through the first of two sets of 'officers' quarters', a force field suddenly sprung up cutting Druu Kai off from Sepka behind him and the two smaller padawans in front of him. Gas filled the chamber -- and while his jedi training let him not breathe, it blocked his vision, so he wasn't able to see what happened to the others. Using his lightsaber, he cut his way into one of the adjoining rooms, and found it full of strange grey humanoid droids, obviously combat models from the blasters they were carrying. He telepathically contacted Kuu and Dodger, and after taking Kuu's masterwork datapad, Dodger was able to slice the door to the room to let him rejoin them.
This was a mistake, as opening the door activated the droids. Kai was shot several times by the enemy fussilade (deflecting several back at the enemies, but not taking any of them down), then fled the room, standing in the doorway to deflect any further bolts, while Kuu took potshots with his blaster pistols around the door frame, and Dodger tried to close the door.
Closing the door proved, if not impossible, certainly MUCH harder than opening it had been, and beyond Dodger's skill. This left the entire party huddled up in the doorway, a perfect target for the four grenades that the droids all threw in unison. Dodger and Kuu had enough vitality to evade the blast 'unharmed', but Druu Kai's luck ran out, and he fell to the ground, unconscious and bleeding, although his last ditch plea to the light side of the force healed him enough to keep him alive.
Thinking 'oh, they're just droids', despite the blood that had been seen splattering from them when Kuu had shot one, Dodger used the force to try to destroy them, getting another dark side point as they were actually living creatures. This did leave them wounded and lying in a heap on the floor, though, so Kuu decided that two could play at that game, and tossed a pair of grenades (using quick-draw and dual wield }:P) onto the pile. BOOM. *rattle* *spark* *die*
They were still cut off from Sepka and the rest of the ship, with a sith lord to face, so Kuu spent a force point to heal Kai's wounds and vitality. After that, and the usual round robin 'let's all heal each other and ourselves for the hour' bit, they were all conscious and at about half vitality... which meant it wasn't utterly suicidal to press onwards, which was good since they literally had no choice.
They were more careful traversing the second set of 'officers'' quarters -- they kept together, with Dodger and Kai using the force to enhance their senses to search and spot respectively, while Kuu kept a 'readied action' to move object any incoming grenades -- and this time spotted the force fields before setting them off. They disabled the first one, but after spotting the trigger lasers and having Kai crawl under them (Kuu and Dodger were too short to set them off even by accident, which is why only Kai had been trapped in the field in the first hall) they decided to leave the second force field on, figuring that if they had to run back this way in a hurry, having a force field pop up behind them might be a good thing.
Unfortunately, they didn't have Sepka -- their communications were being jammed, so they couldn't ask where he was, and he refused to open his mind to their telepathy (and none of them were good enough to contact an unwilling target). This left Dodger as their only slicer, and she wasn't really very good -- she didn't get the turbolift door open, but she set off an alarm which opened all the *other* doors, and out marched an army of silvery quasi-droids with blasters...
Thinking fast, Kuu threw his cloak down the hall to trigger the force field, saving them all from a continuous volley of blaster fire. While the field held back the droids and Dodger tried unsuccessfully to get anything useful out of the computer, Kai used his lightsabers to cut away the turbolift door so that they could climb up the shaft.
Of course, none of them were good at climbing, so when Kai spotted an 'emergency call' button he hit it... and while it did bring the turbolift, it also dropped the force field. As Dodger frantically worked to get the inner lift doors closed, Kai went totally defensive with his sabers out to cover the party from blasters, and Kuu readied to move-object grenades... and sure enough, a dozen frag grenades came sailing towards the lift. Thank, er, the 'Heroes of the Force' source-book for 'split force' (which lets you target multiple objects with one use of a force power)! Deflected blasts and grenades wreaked havoc among the enemy ranks, and Dodger finally managed to get the lift moving, and so it was off to the Admiral's private sanctum.
Expecting a fight, the party focused their minds for battle and strengthened their will against dark force powers before opening the final door. "I don't know why we're bothering with this," Kuu grumbled, "We're not allowed to strike first, so he'll just keep us talking until these powers expire."
Sure enough, the Sith Lord kept them talking for quite a while, trying to recruit them to his cause. "The empire can be your friend instead of your enemy!"
"We already have friends that we owe loyalty to," Kuu replied.
"Ah, like Sepka? Even now, he betrays you -- see?" On a view screen, Sepka was shown setting explosives all around the ship they'd left hidden in the AT-AT bay. Dodger focused her telepathy, and sure enough the Sepka on-screen reacted -- it appeared that this much was true. "He's been a thorn in my side, inciting rebellion on many of the empire's planets, but at last I managed to track him down and... convince him to join me."
"I can't say I'm entirely surprised about that," Kuu said bitterly, "But he wasn't who I was referring to."
"Oh, do you mean this silly resistance movement?" the sith lord asked. "Their cause is doomed. I'm afraid the patrol schedules we allowed them to see didn't mention the squad of star destroyers that should be arriving here any minute."
No, Kuu thought, I mean our jedi masters, but he didn't say that.
The Sith Lord offered them a choice -- join the empire, face him in battle, or simply tell him the information he required and he'd leave the ship to them and the resistance. "Just tell me your names, and the names of your masters, and I'll leave the ship to you." The padawans were spooked enough, and the information seemed innocuous enough, that they (well, Kai) decided to give him what he was asking -- and somewhat to their surprise, he kept his word and left, just as Sepka appeared out of the wall.
"AARGH! Get her out my head! This 'Li Shao' won't SHUT UP about you!" he screamed at them.
"Why did you blow up the ship?" Dodger demanded.
"What? I had to, it was full of those silver-skinned guys, about two hundred of them. Just -- I'll tell them! Li Shao wants you to come to her on [some planet]. I told them! Get out of my head!"
At that point, the encrypted commlinks came back online, and Kuu frantically called the general on the bridge. "Have you captured the ship yet? We need to get into hyperspace now! There's four --"
"Yes, we've got control -- oh my god, what are THOSE?!"
"Just jump to hyperspace now! I already set the coordinates!" Sepka yelled through the link.
And so they were off to the far side of the galaxy, to hopefully rejoin one of their masters.
last session | next session
The only really random and arbitrary thing Jeff did this time was let Druu Kai spend a force point to reactively make a heal-self check to avoid instant death. Having a dozen quasi-droids simultaneously throw frag grenades at us was pretty *mean*, though. }:P
Having lost their ship, the padawans had no choice but to follow Sepka back to the rebel camp and join their cause. Some of them were slightly bitter that Sepka and the others apparently knew all along that the 'black market' in town was essentially a sting operation and hadn't told them, but... well... regardless as to whether the rebels had set them up, they really didn't have any choice, unless they wanted to just run off into the swamps.
Much to Sepka's dismay, the padawans were assigned to accompany him on the stealth mission to steal the admiral's personal shuttle, which was equipped with a cloaking device. With that cloak installed on a larger rebel assault ship, they general thought they'd be able to take over one of the Imperial capital ships looming in orbit while the other was out on patrol, and thus take back the planet as the imperial forces wouldn't be hiding in the swamps, and so would be vulnerable to orbital bombardment.
Before the mission, Kuu asked Sepka, after yet another tirade about how useless the jedi were, to give them some pointers about covert missions. Sepka just used it as another opportunity to insult them for falling for the collaborators' trap, though. He did give some useful advice as to equipment to take when they were at the quartermaster's, at least. In addition to the recommended camo gear and electrogoggles, Kuu picked up a heavy blaster to dual-wield if he couldn't get close enough for sabers, Dodger got some armor, and Druu Kai requisitioned some stun grenades.
On the mission, Sepka abandoned them to their own devices for the hike through the forest to 'scout ahead', and Kuu was nearly eaten by an alligator [a total of 1 on a survival check], but Dodger saw it in time to warn him.
Sepka found them near the outer fence, and had them wait under cover until the main rebel force started their attack -- they needed them to take over the base computers to deactivate the antiaircraft guns and open the hanger doors, but their mission was covert so that they could escape with the shuttle even if the main attack ultimately failed. The initial infiltration went pretty smoothly except for some unexpected floodlights, which the padawans crushed with the force, earning a bit of praise from Sepka for once.
There were two guards inside, but they were no match for three jedi padawans and an initiate of the White Flame. Although Dodger did her best to expose herself to the maximum amount of enemy fire, Kuu forgot that blasters weren't as good at destroying weapons as lightsabers, and the enemies threw a couple stinking un-deflectable defense-ignoring always-do-at-least-half-damage frag grenades. After the fight, they managed to salvage a repeating blaster to give to the quartermaster (none of them could use it) and a half-dozen frag grenades, which Kuu kept.
The flight from the base did not go as well as they'd hoped. The base had a tractor beam which held them in place for far too long, while assassin droids popped out of the walls and started trying to slice up the padawans with vibroblades. The padawans didn't expect the droids to be *anywhere* as persistant as they were [they had class levels and thus vitality points, and so didn't go down in a single saber swipe], and Kuu was once again wounded to within an inch of his life, saved only by (depending on who you ask) Sepka's ion grenades, Druu Kai's creative use of move object, the largest droid's questionable decision to switch to heavy repeating blasters against drawn jedi lightsabers, or Dodger's decision to call on the dark side to blast the droids repeatedly with force lightning.
That last was... worrysome, to say the least. Once they were safely back in camp, Kuu and Druu Kai confronted her about it, and eventually went with her into the emerald holocron to speak with her new master.
"Ah, the jedi are foolish to neglect their left hand," the 'Priest of the Way' said.
"We've heard dark stories about what happens to jedi who turn to the dark side," Kuu replied, "They become twisted and evil. If Dodger is no longer a jedi, well, that would disappoint Master Li Shao, but if she became a baby-murdering sith lord then I don't see how we could continue to be friends."
"It is true that there are... dangers, that she is not yet ready to face. She should not have called on the left hand yet, her training is not complete. Unless, of course, the alternative was her death -- in dire circumstances the danger may be justified."
"The alternative was Kuu's death!" Dodger replied.
"That circumstance is not sufficiently dire. Only your *own* death would be sufficiently dire."
So, while this conversation was not entirely reassuring, Dodger did end up promising not to use the dark side again. Until she was trained. Unless she really wanted to.
Back in the real world... while the theft of the shuttle had been a success, the overall assault on the base had ultimately met with failure. Or, more accurately, orbital bombardment. Some of the rebel commandos had escaped, but not enough... and so the general reluctantly decided to send the padawans with Sepka again, to 'neutralize' the admiral in charge of the Imperial ship they were going to capture. 'High Inquisitor' was his title... the padawans figured this had to mean 'Sith Lord'. They weren't happy about going up against a Sith when they weren't yet even truly jedi, but capturing the ship *was* a very important mission -- it could very well be the deciding battle that would retake the planet from the Empire -- and ordinary soldiers probably wouldn't be much use because of the whole 'blasters against lightsabers' deal.
So, after cloaking up to the ship successfully and landing in a deserted AT-AT bay, they parted ways with the bulk of the commandos heading to take the bridge, and headed for the rear of the ship where (according to the duty roster that Ituda sliced from the ship's computers) the admiral should be asleep. Sepka came along to open any doors that got in their way and generally ride herd on them, but this time hung back in the rear, with Kuu and Dodger in front being sneakyish, and the whole party spread out to minimize the temptation for any ambushing enemies to use accursed frag grenades.
When going through the first of two sets of 'officers' quarters', a force field suddenly sprung up cutting Druu Kai off from Sepka behind him and the two smaller padawans in front of him. Gas filled the chamber -- and while his jedi training let him not breathe, it blocked his vision, so he wasn't able to see what happened to the others. Using his lightsaber, he cut his way into one of the adjoining rooms, and found it full of strange grey humanoid droids, obviously combat models from the blasters they were carrying. He telepathically contacted Kuu and Dodger, and after taking Kuu's masterwork datapad, Dodger was able to slice the door to the room to let him rejoin them.
This was a mistake, as opening the door activated the droids. Kai was shot several times by the enemy fussilade (deflecting several back at the enemies, but not taking any of them down), then fled the room, standing in the doorway to deflect any further bolts, while Kuu took potshots with his blaster pistols around the door frame, and Dodger tried to close the door.
Closing the door proved, if not impossible, certainly MUCH harder than opening it had been, and beyond Dodger's skill. This left the entire party huddled up in the doorway, a perfect target for the four grenades that the droids all threw in unison. Dodger and Kuu had enough vitality to evade the blast 'unharmed', but Druu Kai's luck ran out, and he fell to the ground, unconscious and bleeding, although his last ditch plea to the light side of the force healed him enough to keep him alive.
Thinking 'oh, they're just droids', despite the blood that had been seen splattering from them when Kuu had shot one, Dodger used the force to try to destroy them, getting another dark side point as they were actually living creatures. This did leave them wounded and lying in a heap on the floor, though, so Kuu decided that two could play at that game, and tossed a pair of grenades (using quick-draw and dual wield }:P) onto the pile. BOOM. *rattle* *spark* *die*
They were still cut off from Sepka and the rest of the ship, with a sith lord to face, so Kuu spent a force point to heal Kai's wounds and vitality. After that, and the usual round robin 'let's all heal each other and ourselves for the hour' bit, they were all conscious and at about half vitality... which meant it wasn't utterly suicidal to press onwards, which was good since they literally had no choice.
They were more careful traversing the second set of 'officers'' quarters -- they kept together, with Dodger and Kai using the force to enhance their senses to search and spot respectively, while Kuu kept a 'readied action' to move object any incoming grenades -- and this time spotted the force fields before setting them off. They disabled the first one, but after spotting the trigger lasers and having Kai crawl under them (Kuu and Dodger were too short to set them off even by accident, which is why only Kai had been trapped in the field in the first hall) they decided to leave the second force field on, figuring that if they had to run back this way in a hurry, having a force field pop up behind them might be a good thing.
Unfortunately, they didn't have Sepka -- their communications were being jammed, so they couldn't ask where he was, and he refused to open his mind to their telepathy (and none of them were good enough to contact an unwilling target). This left Dodger as their only slicer, and she wasn't really very good -- she didn't get the turbolift door open, but she set off an alarm which opened all the *other* doors, and out marched an army of silvery quasi-droids with blasters...
Thinking fast, Kuu threw his cloak down the hall to trigger the force field, saving them all from a continuous volley of blaster fire. While the field held back the droids and Dodger tried unsuccessfully to get anything useful out of the computer, Kai used his lightsabers to cut away the turbolift door so that they could climb up the shaft.
Of course, none of them were good at climbing, so when Kai spotted an 'emergency call' button he hit it... and while it did bring the turbolift, it also dropped the force field. As Dodger frantically worked to get the inner lift doors closed, Kai went totally defensive with his sabers out to cover the party from blasters, and Kuu readied to move-object grenades... and sure enough, a dozen frag grenades came sailing towards the lift. Thank, er, the 'Heroes of the Force' source-book for 'split force' (which lets you target multiple objects with one use of a force power)! Deflected blasts and grenades wreaked havoc among the enemy ranks, and Dodger finally managed to get the lift moving, and so it was off to the Admiral's private sanctum.
Expecting a fight, the party focused their minds for battle and strengthened their will against dark force powers before opening the final door. "I don't know why we're bothering with this," Kuu grumbled, "We're not allowed to strike first, so he'll just keep us talking until these powers expire."
Sure enough, the Sith Lord kept them talking for quite a while, trying to recruit them to his cause. "The empire can be your friend instead of your enemy!"
"We already have friends that we owe loyalty to," Kuu replied.
"Ah, like Sepka? Even now, he betrays you -- see?" On a view screen, Sepka was shown setting explosives all around the ship they'd left hidden in the AT-AT bay. Dodger focused her telepathy, and sure enough the Sepka on-screen reacted -- it appeared that this much was true. "He's been a thorn in my side, inciting rebellion on many of the empire's planets, but at last I managed to track him down and... convince him to join me."
"I can't say I'm entirely surprised about that," Kuu said bitterly, "But he wasn't who I was referring to."
"Oh, do you mean this silly resistance movement?" the sith lord asked. "Their cause is doomed. I'm afraid the patrol schedules we allowed them to see didn't mention the squad of star destroyers that should be arriving here any minute."
No, Kuu thought, I mean our jedi masters, but he didn't say that.
The Sith Lord offered them a choice -- join the empire, face him in battle, or simply tell him the information he required and he'd leave the ship to them and the resistance. "Just tell me your names, and the names of your masters, and I'll leave the ship to you." The padawans were spooked enough, and the information seemed innocuous enough, that they (well, Kai) decided to give him what he was asking -- and somewhat to their surprise, he kept his word and left, just as Sepka appeared out of the wall.
"AARGH! Get her out my head! This 'Li Shao' won't SHUT UP about you!" he screamed at them.
"Why did you blow up the ship?" Dodger demanded.
"What? I had to, it was full of those silver-skinned guys, about two hundred of them. Just -- I'll tell them! Li Shao wants you to come to her on [some planet]. I told them! Get out of my head!"
At that point, the encrypted commlinks came back online, and Kuu frantically called the general on the bridge. "Have you captured the ship yet? We need to get into hyperspace now! There's four --"
"Yes, we've got control -- oh my god, what are THOSE?!"
"Just jump to hyperspace now! I already set the coordinates!" Sepka yelled through the link.
And so they were off to the far side of the galaxy, to hopefully rejoin one of their masters.
last session | next session
