Star Wars D20 - Dawn of Defiance

We chatted with the Felucians, then went into the prison through the super secret entrance. We dispatched an evil mad scientist, then tangled with the guards and their commander. Fortunately the E-web could not be pointed down the hallway at us.

Follow up:

May 23, 2010
Vazus is old, scarred, gray-haired, and looks like a hermit. He speaks to the Felucians in their guttural tongue, and they relax. We will follow him about ½ km, and come across a small village that was carved out of the mushrooms. In the center are a number of Felucians squatting around a cooking fire. The warriors that were following us disperse into the village, leaving us with Vazus.
Brenna tells Vazus that we’re here because someone was taken prisoner by the Imperials. He says that there are few Imperials, and mostly are in the cities. We say that there’s a prison nearby…and he knows. He says he may have more in common than we think. That’s the primary commo station for the Imperials here. They threaten the Felucians just by being here, but many natives have been killed by the Imperial scouts. If we could take down the facility, it would be a blow against the Imperials here and help the natives a lot. He says he wants to help us.
If we trash the station, the Imperials will rebuild it after a while. It may also take a while to realize it’s been destroyed (?) because of the lack of communications. The mushrooms mess with radio communications so without this major equipment, you can’t communicate.
He offers us help and will introduce us to the natives.
He was part of a mercenary unit and was stranded here during the clone wars. He escaped when the clone troopers turned on them…he is, despite his years, a well-trained military commander. He has a stash of explosives as well.
Could we capture the facility instead? Hard to say.
As we talk, an old Felucian walks up to us. Vazus stops for a bit and speaks to them, then introduces the shaman. The shaman looks at us, then places his hand on Bertalan – and heals his wounds. Bertalan bows in thanks; the shaman nods in reply. The shaman looks intently at Morten and Brenna (both also Force Sensitive). He doesn’t look at Lorcan or Soma very long (not F.S.). He heals up Braktor (not F.S.).
Yes, the shaman is Force Sensitive. He speaks to us as Vazus interprets.
S: Why have you come here?
Vazus answers for us.
S: (smiles) What do you intend to do about the Imperials?
Brenna: We will take out any Imperials we come across.
Bertalan: Those who would fight against the Empire need information that one we have been sent to rescue has. We will destroy this facility if we can, as it is disturbing you.
Brenna makes a wonderful Persuasion check (unlike Bertalan), so the chief buys it. He will send us a guide to help avoid the Felucian Rancor and other natural hazards. The place we go is called “The Vanishing Place”. A tribe of shamans was sent to investigate but had to leave before being overwhelmed by pain. Many missing Felucians are suspected to be there, and the Empire is probably causing them great pain. The source of pain is concentrated on the west side of the facility.
Brenna: Is there a Force User within?
S: I have not detected one. What do you know of the Force?
B: Not much. I can feel it and manipulate very few things. (she Uses the Force to move a rock).
He wants to know what Bertalan can do. Bertalan attempts to show him Mind Trick but fails. The shaman asks Morten what he knows, as he uses a Light Saber. He knows that there is much his people have lost of the Force, and wants to see what Morten can do to learn. Morten says that in time, he may be able to show something and must meditate on it first.
The scout will be ready for us in the morning. We are free for the evening. Vazus tours us through the village and shows us a group of animals off to one side in a pen – tame kybuck. He tells us their names (Timon, Whisper, Zevas, Yellowtail, Zagyg) – named after his former officer comrades who were killed in the Clone Wars). He imported them during the Clone Wars; they are pets and mounts, and can move well through the marsh. They are also his friends. He says we can use them, but we need to bring them back in one piece. The guide will be able to keep up; there are a few more kybuck if needed. If we have to abandon them they will likely be able to find their way back here.
Other information about the facility? No – just where it is, that it’s a communication facility, and that he wants to blow it up.
Speaking of Felucians being Force Sensitive, yes, they are all strongly attuned to the Force. The Shaman is stronger, of course. Perhaps the facility is a source of hatred and anger that bothers all Force Users.
So in the process of freeing the prisoners, we’ll let the natives out as well as our captive admiral. What about the rest of them? Will we take them with too? There probably aren’t many people in there, but it’s hard to say for sure (not many guards means not too many people). The thing is, if the Empire wants these political malcontents locked up, we probably want them on our side. We’ll take them if possible.
The facility is a two-story building with smaller square top. There is a big gun in the front next to the door. As we sit around scheming, Perception checks. We all hear a cry of anguish and pain coming from a hut off to the right. We run to the door and enter; we find four very small Felucian children that don’t look right. They are too weak to support their own weight; there is someone here tending to them.
I got a phone call from work. Yay! Everyone waits for me.
Brenna Treats Injury – they are sick with some kind of virus. With a successful Treat Disease, they could be cured – need 8 hours of tending. They are Force Sensitive but not unusually so.
Brenna will Treat Injury on them, then Force Trance to get her sleep. DC 27 on her Treat Injury check and she can get them on the road to recovery.
Vazus gives us the satchel charge and tells us how to use it. It cannot be stopped once set. It has a 10-minute timer on it. Range of death: 50 meters.
As the night wears on, the sun sets and the stars come out. The Felucians come out around the fire as the shaman tells them stories in their native tongue. The shaman checks Morten out again later in the evening, and says, “What have your meditations brought you, Jedi?”
He wants to search his feelings before answering – he’s not far enough along to take on Padawans, but he can learn something here. (good use of feeling searching!) He answers that perhaps they can teach each other – the shaman says that’s what he had in mind. Battle Strike, Negate Energy, and Sever Force – he teaches the shaman Negate Energy. Dude teaches Morten Force Blast (a free Force Power) – from the Force Unleashed.
As the night continues, some Felucians sleep in the huts, and others sleep by the fire. We enjoy the wilderness (since it’s not currently trying to eat us), then crash. In the morning, we hear a low whining noise coming from the outskirts of the village. Shortly afterwards, a stormtrooper speeds away into the deep jungle. A couple of us click off shots, and we all miss. Everyone gets alarmed – Vazus says that the trooper will turn the village in, so we better get on the kybucks and go! We mount up (ride skill? Ha!) and charge off.
Mount: standard action (or fast mount is you have the skill)…we all just mount. Soma’s first, then he Goes That Way. Then his ride check is a 2, so he’s barely hanging on. The scout takes off nimbly. The rest of us follow. (Bertalan gets a 9…uh oh!)
Brenna, Morten, Braktor are accepted by their mounts. Lorcan is at +2 for all ride checks because he did well. Soma’s and Bertalan’s kybucks are distressed (persuasion check to fix this – he does, so -2 for next round only).
Our kybucks are actually faster than the trooper while going through the woods, so we’ll be able to catch him.
We eventually end up in a swampy, fungal mess. Shallow pools litter the area, and the kybucks are splashing everywhere. Fungi droop overhead. This swamp is so thick it’s hard to see what’s ahead of us. Ride check DC 10! Soma has been having trouble, and is going back to the village because he’s trying to avoid being bitten by the kybuck. Bertalan continues to fight his kybuck but isn’t going backwards.
Braktor: there is either a hollow tree to go through or to the right through thick foliage. He heads for the trunk and has to duck.
Morten also follows through the trunk. Lorcan and Bertalan go through the foliage. Brenna goes through the trunk. Soma turns his kybuck around.
Braktor (in tree): is 72 squares away. He is closing *and* avoids hitting his head.
Lorcan: Treacherous terrain – the kybuck is jumping over everything. He also pulls out his carbine’s stock. Brenna closes. Bertalan comes out of the terrain and hauls out his carbine.
Next round, Brenna, Lorcan, Braktor, and Bertalan reunite and can see A. Suddenly, the ground beneath us explodes in dirt as a Felucian Rancor pops out. Ride checks! Lorcan is able to dodge and opens fire on the stormtrooper, but misses.
Morten is unable to avoid the Rancor and is struck by it, but is not knocked off. Bertalan also can’t roll well, so the Rancor slashes into him – but he moves on, losing ground.
Soma manages to convince his now-walking kybuck to start trotting again. The rest of us who are ahead come into a small clearing with wide river. The trooper flies through the area just above the river with the speeder bike’s repulsers splashing up a wake.
Soma is coming up on the rancor. Everyone else gains ground and shoots except Bertalan, who loses ground. Several huge mushrooms in this area cover the Imperial outpost in the area (not what we’re looking for). We notice the guy who was chasing us start fiddling with a radio.
The rancor chomps on Soma for 17 points. Braktor vapes D, but the radio is still powering up. Lorcan assesses the comms unit (50 HP, hardness 20) and decides to smoke another stormtrooper. He succeeds. B pulls out on his speederbike, and laser fire rains down upon us. Bertalan drills A; E misses Bertalan. H shoots Morten and misses. Brenna crits A and leaves him at 1 HP (and badly down the track). A begins to move his machine and auto-fires on Brenna and Bertalan, forcing both of them to use Force Points to avoid dying.
F and C shoot and miss. Soma rides and will join the fight next round. Braktor wipes out A. Lorcan shoots the other guy on the speeder (with the laser cannon). Morten moves towards B and shoots. The speeder is in bad shape. One of them drills Lorcan and knocks him down the track. Braktor smokes a trooper. Lorcan shoots B but can’t kill him; B shoots Lorcan one more time. Morten finishes off the speeder bike. Morten moves and closes on a couple more, and calls them out. Soma shows up and blows one of them away. Braktor finishes one off. Lorcan finishes off the last one. Morten doesn’t see anyone else around, but the antenna on the comms is spinning ever more quickly. He attempts to shut down the unit, and does so.
330 XP for this encounter, plus 100 XP for shutting down the comm station.
Stormtrooper gear: carbine, armor, medpacks (8).
If we died, our mounts are dead. Brenna and Bertalan are mountless. We may as well all walk then, including the scout. We send back 7 blaster carbines. We trash the communication gear, or would…but we may be able to hack in and disable their communications (all kinds of white noise for everyone in the base).
We continue on foot with the scout’s help, and after another four hours we come across the actual facility. He doesn’t say much, mostly because it wouldn’t help. We watch the facility for a bit…gray walls, no windows, two stories. Second story is smaller and has blinkenlights. Blast doors and a turret gun (an E-web blaster) are on the front. We see four troopers at the blast doors, and listening we hear the hum of speeder engines in the woods around us.
Some of us hear a thud-thud-thud noise of some kind of walker tromping about in the forest. The scout points urgently into the woods; we follow him. Is there a back door? We hope so because that E-web doesn’t sound too friendly. Following the scout, we pass through the woods…
We make stealth rolls…the worst one is Lorcan’s 8. Uh, he sucks at Stealth. With the help of the scout, we avoid capture. He brings us to a leaf-covered trapdoor, points, and motions quickly. The door’s not trapped, but it is locked…Morten uses his can opener to reveal us a pit and tunnel. We climb down the 3-m ladder and head onward. The scout will wait here. Going east, we find some stairs going up to another grate. We listen and hear nothing other than the heavy footprints of the AT-ST outside. It’s secured from the other side. Morten canopeners this one too, and we find ourselves in a storage room. There is a door in here. There appears to be food and rations in here, but nothing real useful. The metal door and wall appear to be locked; we hear nothing as we listen at the door.
We draw and open the door…
Oh, BTW…Brenna and Soma suddenly get a Destiny point (Discovery bonus). +1 to defense for anyone within 10 squares of either of them.
Doors open and we see the stark interior of an Imperial command station. We see no one outside and hear nothing. Ahead of us are some lifts. We check out the door to the big room, and leave the door to the supply room open. We hustle over to the next door and listen, and hear nothing. We open the door and immediately spot three doctor/scientist-types working on some computer terminals. Init!
This appears to be a place of healing…but a closer look shows operating tables scattered about. The whole room smells like a sterile medical bay. There are bacta tanks in here.
2 2-1B droids at the tables…
The doctor says, “How many times have I told you not to disturb me when I’m working…who are you?”
Soma runs in and says, “Step away from the console!” The rest of us enter. The tables appear to have mutilated beings on them but no one is alive as far as we know. Brenna steps in and presses the button to close the door.
Dr: You don’t belong here. I’ll have to do something about that! We hear doors lock or something, and suddenly the contents of the tables start to move. They look like mutated Felucian natives…the bodies bend unnaturally, and we see one arm turned into a bone blade. Tough scales grow from their bodies. The Dr. hides by the bacta tank and says, “2-1B, dispose of these ruffians!”
Soma’s up: he retreats. 2-1B #C moves and says, “Commencing operation!”
Braktor shoots D and hits. Lorcan crits F for the crappiest 6d8 we’ve ever seen.
Morten backs up and shoots E with his carbine. Hit!
We discuss the rules about withdrawing; you can in certain situations withdraw and still attack. This is different from D&amp.
Bertalan backs up to the wall and shoots D, missing. B attacks Morten and misses. E moves up to Morten and attacks. D crits Brenna for 12 points. Soma shoots D and hits, finishing it off…it mumbles something unintelligible as it dies. C says, “Commencing operation spleen removal!” It hits Morten for 6 points. Braktor drills E for 16.
Lorcan hits F and drops it down one rank. Morten fights defensively. Bertalan Force Stuns E. Brenna smokes one of the 2-1B droids. E misses Morten. Soma aim-aim-shoots E and crits, killing it. Braktor kills the other droid. Lorcan crits F, killing it. The doctor shoots at Lorcan (because he’s the only one he can see) and misses. Brenna moves and shoots the doctor, killing him.
The room is full of medical equipment, including two working bacta tanks. 10 healing stimulants (wt negligible, removes the -5 to Treat Injury for second (etc) medpacks – but you go -1 persistent down the track, eliminated by 8 hours of rest), 2 med kits, ten medpacks.
231 xp for fight with the doctor. And Morten only has 1 spleen, which the aliens find hilarious.
This area has been to designed to trash Felucians. The bacta tanks are scratched up from inside. Research data: well, look at the computers. Computer is unfriendly. Doctor has a blaster, lab coat, and medkit. The bacta tank is too slow (you need to use surgery as well). We hide the corpses and hole the tanks, then leave.
When we leave the room, some of us spot a stormtrooper going around the corner. We stop and hear him walk away. He comes around the corner; Soma misses, and Morten kills him. We drag the body into the medical room, close the door, and go to another door (leaving wet tracks). We hear voices in the distance (“I thought I heard shots – let’s go check it out!”) Bertalan switches to stun right away.
A patrol of stormtroopers comes around the corner and we open fire. They notice Lorcan as he misses! They quickly scatter. We also scatter and wait for someone to stick their head out. Someone shouts, “sound the alarm!” Braktor shoots at dude who steps out and drops him; E runs away. Bertalan runs, and A misses him.
We decide to use Dan’s rule (for now, anyway) that if you are readying to fire around cover, you can’t take total cover – just Improved Cover.
E cries out, “We have intruders in the base! Sound the alarm!” C also runs. Bertalan keeps running around the medical room (along with Braktor and Soma). We can see E, kind of, along with more stormtroopers and the E-web blaster (which is hopefully fixed pointing out). There is equipment and a computer as part of the E-web emplacement. That equipment is about 2 meters tall.
If you aim-aim-fire, you are sticking out from cover (improved cover, not total cover). We hear the warning siren, and all the doors auto-lock. Yay!
Braktor runs down the hallway and drops prone. G shoots some kind of blast cannon and misses Braktor. C comes around the corner to stand in front of Braktor.
One of the troopers flings a grenade at Lorcan; Lorcan kills him in reply. E shoots Braktor and misses. Brenna moves. H, I, J all run up to Braktor. Uh oh! Soma misses I. Morten kills one trooper and then notices his grenade…he goes to fetch one. Braktor shoots the guy with the thumper but can’t kill him.
Bert misses E. Brenna moves and misses. Three of them move and fling grenades at Bertalan…ouch!
E does not drop his weapon or attack. Bertalan moves up and stuns H. G uses his boom gun in a cone to hit Brenna, Lorcan, Morten. Several of the troopers gang up on Braktor and still miss. Soma shoots I and misses. Morten flings a grenade down the hallway; Joel needs to start looking at grenade rules. E drops; J does not. Lorcan picks off G.
G was in a gray uniform and has a dark black helmet. He’s got explosives. Braktor kills J. Bertalan misses again.
We have a toilet water leak to contend with, then finish the combat.
No game next week thanks to Memorial Day.