Star Wars D20 - Dawn of Defiance

We fought through some stormtroopers and rescued the cargo (a dude in carbonite), then escaped the station. We went to Alderaan and visited with Bail Organa, then went to Felucia to rescue an Imperial turncoat. Things were going well until we started getting stomped by some locals, and then some dude stopped them. Next session we'll have a little discussion in the native village.

Follow up:

May 16, 2010

From last week, we got 430 XP and 50 credits.
I show up a tiny bit late because I was on my way back from Anime Central. I didn’t reveal the Master DM trick.
We are going to the Blue Deck, which is sort of upper-society. We have to pick up a package which is actually a dude frozen in carbonite who was smuggled out of the Deep Core. Switch gives us a map of the Blue Deck. We also sell him some 11 blaster pistols for 100 credits each since they’re extra.
It’s not uncommon for humans to have alien slaves or servants.
The carbonite dude is on the main cargo bay on that deck, right under the Imperials’ noses. We’ll bribe anyone that we need to. We follow Switch’s map and descend through a series of tubes to the Blue Deck.
It’s like we entered a different space station – clean and polished; windows on the wall that show a beautiful view. There are many maintenance droids. There are many humans here, most of them wealthy looking. They look down upon any aliens present and eye us up. Our map ends here; we need to find the main hangar (sign points to the east). Brenna strolls forward like she belongs here.
Brenna and Morten say someone talking about stormtroopers and “suspicious cargo”. We continue. Morten also notices someone who looks like the dude who was chasing Maya. (another intelligence agent) That dude noticed Morten, and ducks into a cantina. We let him go but will watch for him.
There are two stormtroopers on guard at the dock entrance.
“I’m sorry, Ma’am. The bay is closed on official Imperial business. We are under strict orders not to allow anyone in or out until we get orders from our Commander.
Brenna tells them she doesn’t have time to wait. One of them grabs his gun.
One of them asks Brenna who Lorcan is, and says that he matches the description of someone wanted for questioning.
Bert says, “We can argue all day, or you can let us through and we’ll get out of your hair.”
Joel has to look this up – I am sort of asking a guy to do something that’s going to get him smoked. Some DM’s have recommended using the Mind Trick like Persuasion (including reaction adjustments).
Persuasion DC’s for requests like this would be 20+…Mind Trick is more powerful, but still prone to abuse. A request like this directly countermands what they’ve been asked, so it’s a little more difficult.
Anyway, one of them gets on the radio and calls for backup when Soma and Lorcan start firing. They drop A with a single hit; B starts to freak out. Brenna misses B. Braktor hits B and drops him. Inside the room, we hear Cmdr Bourne Zeta screaming for help.
Morten Senses his Surroundings and feels several people waiting to poke their noses around the corner. He also senses nine guys in the room with their anticipation. Bertalan takes cover at the corner and misses C. C misses him (along with two more unseen guys).
Soma readies. Lorcan shoots, but also notices someone with a repulser sled that’s carrying a carbonite block *and* has a blaster cannon mounted on it. It’s pointing towards us. He also shouts in Mandallorian, “For the glory of Mandalore!”
We hear through the broken helmet, “Reinforcements will be here in a minute!”
All of the enemies have cover (just like Bertalan). Brenna readies for someone to poke their head out. G shoots at Lorcan and misses.
Braktor clicks a shot off at the guy on the repulserlift and hits. I misses Brenna. J fills the entryway with autofire and hits Braktor and Lorcan. Morten moves into the room by D. B shoots Lorcan and crits him for 20; he burns a Force Point to remain at 0. BTW as a reminder, -1 = dead.
Bertalan misses J. Soma dashes into the room. D misses Morten. Brenna readies on I. G shouts, “Stop in the name of the Galactic Empire!” Braktor hits J again but he’s not dead yet. I misses Brenna; she misses in return. E misses.
Cover is either Cover (+5), Improved Cover (+10), and Full Cover (no line of sight; no attack). J AOE’s and hits Bertalan, Brenna, and Braktor for half (7). F shoots Morten for 10. Morten tries to stun D and hits but can’t drop him. Bertalan shoots J and prepares to Second Wind.
Round 4:
Soma moves and shoots D, but misses. A shoots Morten, who Negates Energy. Rock on! Brenna shoots J. Braktor hits J for 18 more and staggers him. J fills the hallway with blasterfire again…3 points is half. Then the hoversled moves. Morten stuns and drops D, then takes his square.
Bertalan SW’s, then moves, and completely misses J. This was almost perfect. Soma plugs J and can’t drop him. A moves to a control panel and hits a button, closing the blast door and sealing Brenna, Braktor, and Lorcan outside. Brenna starts to check Lorcan to see if he’s alive. B crits Bertalan and drops him. I shoots Soma and hits. E shoots Morten and misses. J AOE’s and hits Soma, who’s barely alive.
Morten fires his blaster carbine at F and hits, killing him. Someone AOE’s Soma and drops him.
Brenna Medpacks Lorcan. He wakes up. G misses Morten. Braktor hacks the door back open. I misses Morten. E fires through the open door and shoots Lorcan for 7 points (which isn’t enough to drop him). J drives up to the door and tosses a net at the three in the door. He hits, so everyone is entangled and is at -2 to all attacks.
Morten uses Battlestrike and shoots J, including a Force Point. 16 to hit (exactly what he needed) and takes him out. The hoversled is available, but the operator is out of action…
A bunch of stormtroopers made a dash for the hoversled, but Brenna beats them to it. She spins it around to face the enemies…A is splattered. G shoots Brenna and hits her for 15, which knocks her down the track. Braktor shoots G and drops him. I misses. E shoots Brenna and misses. Morten says, “You can give up now!” B misses Brenna. That was round 8.
Brenna…first, Lorcan realizes that they need to call for help (to Maya) when they’re ready to leave. He does so. Maya tells him to hold off the reinforcements. Brenna turns B into a grease spot. Braktor kills E. I tells Morten he’s not surrendering, and that Morten can die here. Then he crits Morten for 20 points. Morten shoots I in return. Lorcan says that more stormtroopers are coming, and fills up I’s square with blaster fire. Brenna grabs Bert and throws him on the hovercart. Braktor moves into the room.
Lorcan closes the door, then shoots it to disable it. Brenna continues to pick up people. She notices that Outer Space is beyond the windows. Braktor asks where and when help is coming. Morten throws Soma onto the sled. We still need to get the carbonite. Lorcan takes a stormtrooper helmet and medpack. Morten grabs a utility belt.
Round 12: By Order of the Imperial Guard, open this door or we will blow it up!
Lorcan moves away from the door and mentions that the door has malfunctioned. Brenna wakes Soma up. The bay is full of private goods. Braktor moves away from the door.
Outside: The door seems to be jammed, sir! Then blow it up!
Morten loots another utility belt. Soma starts to recover. Lorcan recovers. Brenna tries to revive Bertalan and fails. Morten throws another medpack to Brenna. Soma recovers. Lorcan hears blaster fire against the door and spots it turning red. Brenna Medpacks Bertalan and gets him up. Morten keeps looting. Bertalan recover-recovers and grabs a carbine.
We keep looting and waiting. The door is about to blow up, but there’s a ship coming in quite rapidly. It’s a Bato-class star yacht. That’s a pretty nice ship, and it will be here next round. Brenna moves the hoversled near 2, 6, and 4 (behind some cover). 10 more troopers wait outside the freshly-destroyed door. Lorcan hoses the area with fire (natural 20 but Joel does not rule on whether or not they get critical hit). Morten shoots E and doesn’t drop him. Bertalan finishes recovery and moves for cover (or to make an escape).
A ship shows up, and over the PA we hear, “I hear we have friends in common – hop in, it looks like it’s gonna get a little hot here.
Lorcan hoses down the stormtroopers (misses) and gets on the ship.
Brenna drives the carbonite onto the ship. Braktor gets onto the ship as do the rest of us. The ship’s door closes as the stormtroopers open fire and we leave abruptly. The pilot yanks the ship out into space and rockets us off into hyperspace.
As we depart into hyperspace, some white-haired woman comes back to speak with us. Serona O’Keefe, and her ship, the Banshee. It is beautiful (well-maintained), includes an off-limits pool, and does not have any stormtroopers on it. We’re on our way to Alderaan. The first mate’s name is Crash; he’s a droid. He is a little touchy and may show us how he got the name “Crash” if we mess with him. She says we’re supposed to leave the guy frozen in Carbonite. She figures that Switch wasn’t clever enough and couldn’t keep the guy hidden…Maya is back on the station, but Serona will rendezvous later. Oh yeah, we did forget to bring the Corellian Ale. Oops!
Serona says she doesn’t know us and doesn’t want to, but if Maya trusts us, she trusts us. She’ll bring us to Senator Organa. She does know the Senator…he’s a personal friend. She says he’s expecting the frozen guy, and thankfully we got here in time or they’d have lost the information.
Morten looks for Force Sensitivies and only finds Brenna and Bertalan.
There is a suite of rooms we’re welcomed to. It appears that this ship is O’Keefe’s, and she carries people around in it.
Soma fixes up one of the stormtrooper helmets for Lorcan. He pulls the electronics package out of the Trooper helmet and later on will put it into Lorcan’s new helmet.
We get 521 XP for the combat.
We heal up and rest up; we don’t get Force Points without Force Point Recovery. Joel gives us a Force Point.
As we come out of hyperspace, we see a view of Alderaan. We hear spaceport control tell the ship to land at the Royal Palace. We can’t carry guns openly. We are a little surprised to be meeting a real Senator (except Brenna, who’s dressed for the occasion).
A page says, “Hail, Serona. Make your guests at home, and we’ll be with you shortly.” We’re met by two royal guardsmen that bring us into a waiting room in the palace – in front of us are the doors to the grand hall. We wait and watch them wheel the cargo from the Banshee in through another entrance. Shortly afterwards, Senator Organa opens the doors and greets us. He says that the Empire is making everything unpleasant.
The agents that we worked with say we can be trusted, so he trusts us. He needs us to do something for him, but he has to find someone unknown. That would be us.
We have already been paid for delivering the package (1000 credits each). He’ll pay 2000 credits for this next mission.
What is he doing about the Empire, other than voting against it? His vote doesn’t matter, but he is helping to sow the seeds for future work against the Empire. He’s not necessarily looking for rebellion, but to work within the law and protect information that some would want to hide.

Planet Felucia was ravaged; there is now a permanent garrison there where prisoners are kept. A few months ago one disgruntled Imperial Admiral started to send Organa information, but that information has stopped. He’s being held on Felucia and needs rescue.
If we need transport, Serona can bring us there.
Morten: Palpatine needs to be brought to justice.
Bertalan: If this Admiral is against the Emperor, or Empire—the same thing as you say it, I’m willing to save him.
Lorcan: I see this as a double win. I get cash, and I get to kick the Empire’s shins.
Morten: It may be best not to see you in person; I was a fugitive from the Empire before incidents on the station.
Organa: These are my private chambers; we are safe.
Braktor: Why are you a fugitive? I’d really like to know…
Bartalan: We’re all fugitives now.
Morten: I was one of the few escapees from the Jedi Academy.
Soma: We *are* all fugitives now
Admiral Gilder Varth – a veteran of the Clone wars and honorable man; he was promoted after the Battle of Coruscant. But now his loyalty has been shaken after seeing what he has seen.
Felucia is a primal world – wild and untamed, full of dense overgrown and massive creatures. (where the Rancor came from?) We should be careful of the local wildlife.
The Imperial presence is light – the facility is secret, so they don’t staff it heavily. The knowledge of its existence is their primary benefit. The base is buried in the jungle away from major cities. He can’t supply us directly, but all we need is food, outdoor gear, and medpacks. The ship will be able to land and stay hidden.

Commlinks: a short-range commlink (50 km) will reach low orbit. A long-range commlink (200 km) will reach high orbit. We will be landing 60 km away from the base (outside radar range but close enough for a one-day there and back). It’s actually not going to be a one-day journey, especially not through jungle. We do have maps of the area.
Our plan – land, move in, recon and rest, then break Admiral Varth out in the morning. He needs to be brought to the ship and returned to Alderaan. They have no visual recon of the prison, unfortunately.
We can’t buy stun grenades on Alderaan because they are restricted. We all load up with food (7 days’ worth) and get information (maps, Edible Plants of Felucia, etc.)
We’re good here on Alderaan.
The knowledge of the Alderaanian security officer (the frozen guy) has the information for the prison. Serona punches up the nav data, then takes us into hyperspace.
After time, we come out into Felucian space and head for the prison. We get a glimpse of the planet below: It’s blue-green. Almost instantly our eyes are drawn to a cutscene and an Imperial star destroyer hanging in orbit. Captain O’Keefe tells us we’re in for a bumpy ride. The destroyer comes to intercept us, but we rocket down to the surface. Passing through the thin clouds, we get a view of the fungal swamps of Felucia. This landscape would be beautiful if it wasn’t approaching so quickly.
As the dive stops, something screeches of bending metal, and we crash to a halt deep in the jungles. When the hatch opens, the hot, humid air fills the ship. O’Keefe says the ship survived for the most part, but repairs are going to take time. Fortunately, we’re well-hidden. The Nav computer brought us down fairly close to the facility. They know we’re here and will know we’re close to the prison…so we had best get a move on. She updates our maps, and says that we’re available by comms but only within 5 km. The planet is weird that way.
The planet is pretty boggy and clearly alive. The jungle is loud, alien, and alive – hundreds of animals and insects.
After a half-hour, we are making our way without issue. However, Brenna steps in something that causes a foot-related injury. She splashes out of the burning water and takes another four points of damage from her feet burning. She pulls her boots off, and something stops burning. Her boots begin to dissolve, clearly from some kind of acid. We save the boots by flushing them with water. Bertalan also heals her back up.
After another hour, no problems.
After another hour, we take a short break. Brenna leans into a mushroom and we hear some kind of hissing sound – then the bloom explodes in a cloud of fire. Her hair is singed and burned, but she’s unharmed. Lorcan also leans on a mushroom that fires off a number of spikes that miss him.
After another hour, Brenna continues to complain and then suddenly disappears into a sinkhole. She takes 9 points of falling damage. At the bottom of this 6 meter deep hole is hard-packed soil (and a whiny princess).
Morten drops a rope (something thin and wiggly) and we hoist her out, admonishing her for not watching where she’s going.
Something almost grabs a hold of Bertalan but misses him.
We continue to make good progress. We think we’re going the right way. As we’re passing through a partially-cleared area (or at least less-congested), we need to make Perception checks to avoid surprise. Bertalan, Braktor, and Soma are taken aback…the splashing of our feet is covered by the noise of insects. As we pass through a pool of water, six native felucians (they have weird, weedy-looking heads and arms with claws and suction cups) approach us. They carry rancor jawbones and are well-camouflaged. Init!
They move in to attack us. Braktor takes the first damage. And because we are in a close group, it’s -5 to attack because everyone is in melee combat with everyone else. Morten draws his lightsaber, but it’s not lit yet. The blade (when we see it) will be…yellow!
Soma whacks B with his stun baton. B returns the favor – swift/swift/attack and miss. Eh? D hits Braktor that same way; he apparently has to wind up, and he hits! Braktor goes down. Lorcan hits the one by him.
Bertalan takes two hits and goes down. Morten slashes E in half. Brenna misses. F misses. Soma attacks B again and hits but can’t drop him.
Suddenly someone in the mist calls out, “Peace! Please, stop fighting!”
The aborigines lower their arms. Lorcan readies. Morten stands over Bertalan’s corpse. Brenna keeps her blaster drawn but does not fire.
Out from the mist walks a long-haired human. Lorcan and Brenna heal up Braktor and Bertalan.
He says his name is Abasas Mandrake, and he asks us to put our weapons down. They attacked us because they thought we were Imperials, and he apologizes for any trouble they caused. He says we’re only a stone’s throw from their Felucian village.
We take a moment to catch our breaths (and recover up the track); then we will join them for whatever.
We get 133 XP and will level. Yay!