But for those who are interested in reading... Here are a few introductory disclaimers.
- While I consider myself to be a decent writer, I am not going for artistic flair here. I just want to quickly bang out what happened. You're not going to be reading witty prose if you follow this blog. Perhaps if I was getting paid to do this, I might reconsider, but this is mainly for myself. If you find it entertaining to read, then I guess good for you!
- Sometimes I might fudge my recollection of what happened for better storytelling.
- Sometimes I get it wrong. These are often written days or weeks after the session itself. If my players want to comment on inaccuracies, that's totally fine.Here's a long recap of our first session. Let me first introduce the player characters:
 |
| Turk |
TK-182 (Turk) is a former stormtrooper who is now a smuggler, trying to make enough money to retire far away from the Empire. He and his first mate Gonner Redcloak are running some spice to Tattooine aboard his ship, the Silverlight. They have been commissioned by Arnette and Lisette to ferry them to Lisette's "father's Summer home" in the Yavin system. Turk has also allowed Lance to join the crew to assist with loading and unloading in exchange for free passage to Tattooine.
 |
| Arnette Sterling |
 |
| Lisette |
Arnette Sterling and Lisette are secret rebel agents that have been posing as a rich heiress and her butler. They have made an arms deal to keep the rebel army supplied for the next few years. They must however must hand-deliver the coordinates to the rebel base on Yavin IV as this is extremely sensitive information that cannot be transmitted. As part of their cover they "lost" her pleasure yacht gambling, and have hired Turk to take them to the Yavin system after a quick stop on Tattooine.
 |
| Lance Cortana |
Lance Cortana: Lance is a very young student of the force. The village elder took notice of him as a tween and spent the next 6 years teaching him everything he knows (Sense 3D). Lance wanted to learn more but the elder explained he'd need to find a Jedi, and they've all been wiped out by the empire. He's been searching far and wide but hasn't been successful in tracking any Jedi down yet. The latest rumors suggest he should search Tattooine next. He's volunteered to join Turk's crew for safe passage to Tattooine.
 |
| D'Wook |
D’wook (Actual name unknown): While hunting in the forests of Endor's moon, a young Ewok warrior found a strange flying metal beast and crawled into its belly. Suddenly things started to shake. It was getting hungry and found only barrel after barrel of a strange white powder. It sure tastes good....
Okay, so that was their information going into the game. I started with an actual star wars crawl provided by this website.
Opening Crawl:
Star Wars
Roleplaying Session I
SPICE AND SECRETS
It is a period of civil war. REBEL spaceships, striking from a hidden base seem to be keeping the EMPIRE preoccupied....
It is therefore a great time to be in the smuggling business.
Carrying a valuable (yet illegal) cargo of SPICE, former stormtrooper TK-182 and his crew of smugglers race towards Tatooine, a backwater outer-rim planet that nobody has ever heard of, but where everything important always seems to happen.
Once the shipment is delivered, the crew will then ferry some rich spoiled brat with a gambling problem and her butler to Daddy’s summer home.
With the fortunes promised for both missions, the treasonous Captain 182 would be that much closer to his goal of retiring before being discovered and punished for desertion by the Empire....
And from here the story began!
Aboard the Silverlight, Lisette and Lance played holochess while first mate Gonner Redcloak, a Sean Bean lookalike in a red starfleet uniform and ever the arrogant flyboy took special interest in the game. He wondered how it was so that Lisette could lose her own ship when she’s so good at holochess (an obvious form of flattery). Lance put up a good fight in the game, even seemingly anticipating her every move, yet somehow she would finish him off using extremely obscure rules and techniques. Arnette was also surprised, because it really seemed like Lance had the game under control. Lance himself was surprised because the force had even been guiding his hand. (He was supposed to trounce her each time, but I was dumb to make holochess knowlege + perception. Perhaps it should be perception only.)
 |
| Here's a picture of Gonner. For those who don't get it, I wanted to make it obvious that this character was going to die. He's a gonner. On Star Trek there was a running gag that everyone wearing red uniforms died the most often, and Sean Bean often dies in many of his roles. |
Suddenly Turk called Gonner up to the cockpit because there was an intruder alert alarm, and he wanted to investigate. Lisette and Lance played more holochess and Turk entered the cargo hold, whereupon he found inside one of the spice kegs what he thought was a dwarf Wookiee, fur covered head to toe in spice powder. He foolishly decided to attack, as the coked up Ewok lunged and counterattacked.
 |
| I am adding these pictures long after this was first posted. This one seems to fit. |
Hearing the commotion, Arnette and Lance decided to check out what was going on. Gonner took the opportunity to invite Lisette to the cockpit to show her the stars, trying to make her swoon. It didn’t work... at all...
In the cargo hold, Lance and Arnette attempted to help Turk get a hold of the situation. They almost succeeded but the spice in the air began to take effect and instead in the fighting they dented a wall and obliterated another spice keg. Arnette thought he recognized the stowaway’s species and could vaguely recall from his xenoanthropology class from college, years ago, that it was from Endor. He attempted to communicate with it unsuccessfully because he doesn’t speak Ewokese, the message came out wrong. “We come in peace” = “I want you in pieces.” “Come with us” = “I want you to come on us.” Lisette arrived on the scene and figured out that it understood basic. She was able to calm D’wook down enough to defuse the situation.
Suddenly Gonner communicated to Captain Turk that R3 was having a situation. Turk ran to his astromech buddy to see that he was smoking, and that battery acid like substance was leaking from his eye. Turk ran to the cockpit to see a warning light telling them that a collision was imminent. Turk bucked his seatbelt and pulled the Silverlight out of hyperspace... only to find the planet of Tattooine very very large in the window. Gonner shouted for all hands to brace for impact. Turk did his best to stabilize the ship, but it crash landed. Everything went dark.
Arnette called out to Lisette who confirmed she was still alive. Turk called out to Gonner who groaned in pain. He attempted to turn on the lights, but nothing was working. R3 made his final beeps and boops. Turk decided he would try to open the door to the outside to let some light in. Arnette, Lance and Turk manually pushed the door open, with Lance and Arnette falling 10 feet once it swung open. Turk went to go check on Gonner, only to find him impaled on the ship’s control stick. He said to Turk his final words... “I have been, and always shall be.... Your friend...”
Turk decided this would be a great opportunity to fake his own death, since this would allow him to assume another name and the Empire would be none the wiser. So... he... MUTILATES HIS BEST FRIEND’S FACE AND SWITCHES UNDERWEAR WITH HIM, because Turk has his name written in his underwear, and in a galaxy far far away, where blood samples can be analyzed without drawing blood, THIS is gonna fool the Empire, who probably doesn’t even care enough about a crashed ship on Tattooine to even ever find this place. He also wore some of Gonner’s extra clothes. He then was able to activate the ship’s computer, which told him he was a 3-hour hike through the desert to Mos Eisley. He was also able to assess the damage to the ship and find the exact parts he needed. He figured he could still sell the spice to his buyer, and use the money to buy parts for the ship.
Lisette gathered Arnette’s supplies and enough water for everyone. She also changed into some of Gonner’s spare clothes. D’Wook took six random objects:
- A model of the ship, a stock YT-1300 freighter
- A sabaac deck
- A commemorative limited-edition snowglobe celebrating Life Day on Coruscant
- TK-182’s Stormtrooper ID tags
- A flashlight (? I think ? I forget... but if it was a flashlight, it was an actual flashlight... not a lightsaber)
- A shiny “rock”
Turk set the lethal security system and the party began their long gruelling hike through the desert. D’Wook smells bantha poop. Suddenly in a somewhat rocky area, what appeared to be a lone Tusken Raider could be seen off in the distance. Weapons drawn, the party advanced, only to find that more Tuskens were hiding in the rocks. It was an ambush, but the party was far more heavily armed. Arnette got stuck in a Tusken sand trap and had his arm nearly blown off by one of the hidden Tuskens. Fortunately it was a mere projectile weapon so his arm stayed on... but it certainly hurt a lot. Lance took aim and shot his heavy blaster, which exploded in his shooting hand, breaking every bone. D’wook snuck up near one of the rocks and attacked the Tusken hiding there, took him down, and as he was lying helpless an evil streak flowed through the air.. It must have been the spice or something, but he let his blade do the talking.. Again.. And again... and again... Arnette repositioned and wounded the Tusken who had shot him. Lisette took down another.
(cue dramatic music)
Two more Tuskens snuck up on Lance from behind, while he was still reacting to his mutilated dominant right hand, he instinctively pulled out a utility knife with his left hand and without even looking delivered two fatal blows as they were right on him. This caused all the remaining Tuskens to flee in terror, screaming that the Jedi were back.
Turk shot one in the leg. They questioned him, but with what limited communication was possible, the survivor only was able to communicate his intense fear of Jedi based on stories he’d heard of one slaughtering an entire clan, including its women and children. He also said the ambush was only to steal water, and they would have let them live even if they’d won. Arnette took mercy on the survivor, gave him some water and a gaffi stick to limp home on. Turk thought it seemed a bit suspicious that a spoiled debutante and her butler could be so good with blasters. Lisette explained that it was merely for sport. After all, rich people love shooting things for sport, and sometimes Arnette needs to give her competition. Arnette and Lance used medpacs to heal what would today be severe injuries that might even need amputation. (Medpacs rule!)
The party then rode banthas the rest of the way to Mos Eisley, stopping to drink water when necessary.
Turk noticed that there was a lot of stormtrooper activity that day, far more than should be usual for such a small, remote location. They decided they had better try to meet Turk’s contact in the cantina before doing anything else.
They arrived at the cantina when a blaster shot silenced the crowd. A tall dashing man in a vest and Corellian bloodstripe pants tossed the bartender a credit and apologized for making a mess. He stared down the party who had just entered the cantina before going along on his way. D’Wook decided he would follow him.
 |
| Yes! This is the first real confirmation that it was THAT day. |
Knowing that his contact would know who he is if he ordered “Krayt Tonic” Turk ordered one. The Bartender said he didn’t know what Krayt Tonic was, but he was the second person to order one that day.. The first one being the dead Rodian over there, Greedo. Krayt Tonic must be unlucky!
Lance tripped over a severed arm and picked up a blaster it was holding. The party examined Greedo’s datapad, confirming that this was in fact Turk’s contact. They learned also that Greedo had been working with Jabba, and if they owe him something, they better give him what they promised or else.
D’Wook noticed someone else, an alien with jet black skin and a long dangly snout was also trailing the Cantina shooter, so he lost interest and returned to the Cantina.
More and more patrons learned that Turk had business with Greedo, and ran out of the Cantina exclaiming that they had never seen any of these people before... (hopefully driving the point home that the party ought to pay a visit to Jabba if they knew what was good for them...)
Just then the entire city was put on lockdown. No speeders allowed out of the city. The party somehow thought it was a good idea to go try to barter their belongings to buy the parts they need. The junk dealer they visited did offer them fair prices for everything, but it was nothing at all near what they needed, which would have been about 7500 credits according to the spaceport repair shop. They were able to swindle the repairman into dropping the price to 6000 in return for noble titles, but the junk dealer only gave them about 100 credits for the stuff he was interested in. Unfortunately they broke the limited edition snowglobe which was the most valuable item they had, but even this would not have netted them the money they needed for the parts. Arnette and Lisette thought they might try calling the rebel base from the spaceport, but with imperial presence and the communications officer listening to their transmission, they instead called some random restaurant on Dantooine. The comms officer thought Lisette was crazy. Arnette played along like she was.
Just then, a blonde human moisture farmer kid sold them a run down X-34 speeder. He tried to bargain with them for 2500, but as he was showing some of the features a panel fell off. He then quoted 2000 credits with a dejected look on his face. Lance asked the farmer and his elderly associate where they were going. But with a wave of the hand, he wasn’t curious anymore.
The group weighed their options, having a long discussion on the open streets (so the gamemaster decided to give them a kick in the pants to get going). A man dressed in full Mandalorian Armor was strangling a guy who was pointing in their direction. The group hightailed it out of there and the Mandalorian activated his jetpack and flew into his ship. (I guess he wasn’t really looking for them, was he?)
The party planned to sell the speeder for more to the speeder rental shop. The shopkeeper explained that nobody wants those anymore now that the XP-38 is on the market. They tried to rent another speeder, but the shopkeeper refused, since the city was on lockdown. After bribing him, he agreed to rent them two speeder bikes, at an increased rate.
They took to the streets and broke through a barricade on the outskirts of town, with 4 stormtroopers giving chase. Lisette destroyed one speederbike before the trooper could get there, and the trooper slumped his shoulders, dejected.
The three giving chase were swiftly taken care of, but Lance lost control of his bike, and careened into a rocky canyon (that was designed as the perfect place to have a fantastic speeder chase, but which the players simply sidestepped), crashing the bike. Turk was concerned but the rest of the party assumed he was dead.
D’Wook jumped aboard one of the trooper’s speederbikes, dispatched the driver, and jumped back onto the speeder.
As Turk dismounted to try to find Lance, but 10 more troopers on bikes were closing on his position. (Or... i found the perfect way to give Lance a reason to visit Obiwan’s hut on the fly, and didn’t want Turk to join him. I wanted him to go to Jabba’s palace). Turk zoomed away in the direction of the Landspeeder. The troopers collected their dead and returned to the city. Unfortunately the landspeeder’s navigation system did not have any information regarding Jabba’s palace. But Lisette faintly remembered reading something about Jabba being close to the Bomar order of Monks. Arnette searched for nearby monasteries. They thought they might try to ask the monks where Jabba lives. Fortunately (or not) the monastery happened to be Jabba’s palace.
 |
| So yes, we're visiting things from episodes 4 and 6 at the same time! |
At Jabba’s palace, Turk, Arnette, Lisette and D’wook groveled before the mighty Jabba, explaining that they had the shipment, but since they had crash landed they were unable to deliver the spice on time. But they assured him it was in tact, they just needed to fix the ship. He appreciated them coming all the way, but wondered why Greedo was unable to sort out the particulars himself. They broke the news that Greedo was dead, they saw him shot. Jabba asked who did this to my best bounty hunter? Turk explained it was a guy who was really handsome... Jabba raised what would be his left eyebrow.... Whereupon the rest of the crew described the cantina shooter by what he was wearing. “SOLO!!!!” cried Jabba... as he knocked his plate of living frogs over... and the slave who was to be feeding them. He then blamed and berated the slave, threatening to let his family out of their cages... pointing downward. Jabba then declared he would take a trip into town to confront him. He also agreed to fix their ship and collect the shipment, they would all ride back on his sail barge. The group talked to the slave, Rodd Moonslayer, who declined their help saying he didn’t want to cross Jabba. He would just serve his time and hope Jabba would be merciful enough to let his family go. The party boarded the sail barge. Turk asked.. Well what about the rental bikes? And Jabba’s men laughed.. Saying Jabba owns Mos Eisley... it won’t be a problem. The sail barge entered Mos Eisley, dropped Jabba at his mansion, the barge then went to the spaceport and Jabba’s men got off and took the parts they needed for free. They then traveled to the crash site, only to find that the Silverlight’s protective hull had been completely stripped. Two dead Jawas lie in front of the main door. The ship would still be spacefaring, it would also be weaker. Jabba’s men got to work, while the party was instructed to load the spice onto the barge. R5-D4 was also present, rolling in circles around the crash site. Arnette removed his restraining bolt.
Meanwhile, back in the canyon, Lance was alive and well, but his comlink was broken. He instinctively felt that he should walk north for a while. The feeling got stronger, as he was drawn closer and closer to a specific location. Once he knew he was very close, he climbed out of the canyon to find a small dwelling. He entered and instantly felt that this was the home of the Jedi he was searching for, but he was certain that the Jedi was no longer on world. How he knew all of this was a mystery.. But he was sure it was the force guiding him. He looked through some crates and came across two broken “red crystal flashlights”. He took the lights and then found a map showing a walkable shortcut to a place called Lars Homestead. He walked there and saw that there had been a skirmish some hours earlier, and two charred skeletons lie in the sand. The whole house was in ruins, but the garage was, however, still intact. Inside was a fully functioning T-16 Skyhopper, which Lance was able to fly. He contacted the others using the airspeeder’s communicator.
Lance joined the others at the crash site, when Jabba’s head man noticed that some of the spice had been broken into, and that Jabba would not be happy about this. He demanded that the party appear before Jabba for sentencing. As there were 15 of them, the party had no choice but to comply, hoping Jabba would be as nice as before.
At Jabba’s mansion, the party again groveled before the mighty Jabba, who demanded to know why they were two crates short. Turk explained that there was a stowaway who had broken into the spice kegs. D’Wook, at the sound of this, thought Turk was selling him out. But when Jabba asked who this stowaway was, Turk explained that he killed him, mutilated his face, and then put his underwear on him. Jabba, with a confused look upon his face asked why he would do such a thing. The rest of the party then began speaking all at once, trying to convince Jabba that there was a way they could make things even. Jabba thought about it for a second and then had an idea. He first had to be sure that none present were affiliated with the Empire. Turk assured Jabba that none present were imperials.. This is when his pack came loose and his stormtrooper helmet fell out onto the floor. Jabba was displeased, but the others explained that Turk had at one time been a stormtrooper but now he is a deserter, and uses his old armor to trick imperials when they get too close.
Jabba decided to trust them, suggesting that maybe having an ex-imperial would be helpful. He had some data that the imperials were offering a reward for. It was on an encrypted datapad, and the told the group to deliver this data to a nearby Imperial space station and collect the 200,000 credit reward. The Empire could not be allowed to know it came from him, otherwise there would be no reward. Once the reward is received, the group was to return with the money to Jabba, keep the repaired ship, and all would be forgiven. The party accepted. Jabba warned them not to look at the data themselves, and not to go anywhere else other than to the space station and back to him... and that he would know if they didn’t do exactly as he said.
Back at the ship, the working crew had put on the finishing touches, and had even buried Gonner. Lance stored Luke’s skyhopper aboard the Silverlight. The rest of the party boarded, and R5 followed them, gleefully. After they had taken off and were in space, Arnette and Lisette revealed that they were in league with the rebels, and there was no way they were going to let this information fall into the hands of the Empire. The group first wanted to determine what the data was, so R5 assured them he could hack it easily. The data was nothing more than 5 names and 5 locations:
- Karan Jasra - Ryloth
- Masri Ondogo - Ando
- Nyla Minjoza - Orvax
- Obiwan Kenobi (hiding under the name “Ben”) - Tattooine
- Yoda - Rumored to be on or near Utapau
Between Lance, Arnette and Lisette, they realized that this was a list of Jedi who had survived Order 66. Lance was confident this list was accurate, as he had been to Obiwan’s house on Tattooine. The group decided they would falsify the data and still deliver it to the empire, by changing the names of the planets. R5 gave them the BB8 thumbs up to let them know he could do it. Lisette made the best damn forgery ever, even making the false data appear more legit that the real data, adding that it had already been verified by several (now deceased) Imperal agents. Just then a wave of depression fell over Lance, but he wasn’t sure why. (Alderaan had just been destroyed).
The group headed for the imperial space station where they docked and were escorted to the Moff. He took a look at their data and asked for proof. Lance produced the two red flashlights he found. The Moff’s eyes grew large, as he expressed amazement that someone had found “it”. He took both parts and went to another room. He returned explaining that it was in fact Darth Maul’s double bladed lightsaber, and that he would be keeping it. But he gave them the reward.
Once on the Silverlight again, Turk contacted Jabba saying they were returning. Meanwhile Lisette and Arnette made contact with the Rebel Base on Yavin, who ordered them to bring the money to them, because X-wings ain’t free, you know? Knowing that they were still being tracked by Jabba, they asked D’Wook to smell around for the tracking unit. He found it instantly because Ewoks can smell really well. They placed it in an escape pod, flew back to Tattooine, and jettisoned the escape pod.
The Silverlight then headed for the Rebel Base. Arnette and Lisette met General Dodonna, and handed him the information they needed to complete their mission. He thanked them for a job well done, but explained they had a real situation going on. He explained what had happened to Alderaan, and that the Death Star was on its way and they were preparing to attack it, but the rebel attack depended on the exhaust hatch actually being there if it wasn’t then they would evacuate. They could not spare any other ship, so the party’s mission was to visually confirm that the exhaust port existed. The general also gave 10 percent of the reward to Turk, more than what was promised for delivering the agents safely. Turk agreed to take them on this next mission.
The Silverlight flew to the far end of the gas giant when the Death Star came out of lightspeed. Turk wanted to congratulate the empire on a job well done with a celebratory fly-by. The communications officer was not amused, telling them to be on their way. THIS IS THE DEATH STAR... WE ARE GOING TO DESTROY THE REBEL BASE!!!!! Turk asked again, and the comms officer told him to make it quick.
The group were able to see the exhaust port, but they also saw that it was closed. They quickly sent a message back to base that the exhaust port was in fact there, but it was closed. The base responded that the mission was a-go and launched the attack, asking Arnette to repeat the second part of the message.
He repeated that the hatch was closed, but comms went dead as they were now being jammed.
 |
| So the Silverlight is in this picture, it's just too small to see. Yeah, that's it! |
The crew decided they had to get on board to open it. Turk hailed the Death Star again, explaining that he was a stormtrooper and he had rebel prisoners. They told him that TK-182 was dead according to their records, and they didn’t care about rebel prisoners because they were going to DESTROY THE REBEL BASE right now. But then the comms officer told them to wait... and suddenly they were being tractored in. The party hid in the smuggling compartments.
Once on board the DEATH STAR, Darth Vader boarded the ship, sensing Lance’s presence. He quickly found Lance and asked him who his teacher was. Realizing that he was not worth keeping around as an apprentice, he simply read his mind to figure out what the rebel plan was. Realizing that the threat was real, he called for two TIE pilots to follow him. He told the troopers in the hangar bay to not let anyone off the ship. Of course they got off, guns blazing, and switched into Stormtrooper gear. On their comlinks they could hear all the communications made by the rebels making their attack runs.Turk led the group to the propulsion area and the exhaust control, which required a password to open. An explosion occurred and on the comlink a rebel pilot said that his torpedoes merely impacted on the surface (because the hatch was still closed). Nobody knew the password, but Lisette was confident that with explosives they could get it open. Too bad they didn’t have explosives.
 |
| The shiny "rock." |
D’Wook took out his shiny “rock” that was actually a thermal detonator. Arnette armed the detonator and made the throw of his life. Just then the elevator doors opened. Turk told the 4 stormtroopers that the rebels went “that way,” pointing to the exhaust control panel. Two charged forward. D’Wook relieved one stormtrooper of his hamstrings, and the last trooper saw what was going on (with the detonator bouncing around on the ground as it got closer to the control panel (dink... dink... dink..). Screw this, he said, and got back into the elevator with the whole party. The detonator exploded as the doors closed.
The trooper surrendered to the party asking if the attack in progress could really take down the station. They explained that it was a definite possibility, and if he wanted to make it off the station alive, he had better lower his hands and play along. He told the party that there was likely no way they were getting off in their own ship, the empire was alerted to their presence now. There’s no way that anyone would let that ship take off. But he could take them to Grand Moff Tarkin’s shuttle, which was at the ready. He had overheard his superior officer ask the Moff to evacuate, but Tarkin refused.
 |
| Let's get outta here! |
They arrived at Tarkin’s shuttle. There were 20 stormtroopers guarding it. They “commanded” most of them away, telling them they had to go support the effort to capture the rebel landing party. 5 remained to guard the shuttle, when their captive stormtrooper screamed at them that if they wanted to live, they’d get on that shuttle now and go.
Over the comlink: “You’re all clear kid, now let’s blow this thing and go home!”
Turk jumped into the cockpit and zoomed out of the Death Star, which began to explode. He accelerated and beat the explosion, flying Tarkin’s Lambda Shuttle and 6 stormtrooper POWs back to the rebel base.
 |
| That's not the Falcon. It's the Silverlight. Honest! |
During the awards ceremony, Rodd Moonslayer lunged from out of the shadows trying to get at Solo. The party were able to take him down, recognizing who he was. He pleaded with them to let him complete his assassination attempt because his family was in danger. It worried the party that one of Jabba’s assassins had tracked Solo to the rebel base. If he could do that, what would Jabba do once he finds out that they cheated him out of 200,000 credits?
Cliffhanger Ending
No comments:
Post a Comment