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| Yes, every small ship in the galaxy looks like that. |
Opening crawl
The rebel agent Zaz Kamiroz is dead, but with his last breaths he revealed to Vero Morelock, whom he mistook for an undercover Princess Leia Organa, that the ROYAL PALACE of ALDERAAN has been found by the miners of OUTPOST 11 in the Graveyard of Alderaan, a newly formed cluster of asteroids that once made up the doomed planet.
It is very likely that the Empire has also learned of the discovery and the rumor that Bail Organa, one of the architects of the Rebellion, may have survived the planet’s destruction.
The race is on to find the palace before the Empire can, but Vero and her friends can do nothing other than return to the safe confines of Poliss’ droid shop to discuss their next move.
The Graveyard of Alderaan module was written with several cutscenes which serve to inform the players (but not the party) of the story. This time we opened with Leia standing over a dead miner and telling Luke that they found her father and they have to go to Alderaan. Han then suggests taking the Falcon.
I have to say I kind of don’t like this, because it forces the players to act on information that their characters don’t have. They now know that the feature characters are on their way to the same place they are going, and their goal is to preserve continuity or else the Empire Strikes Back isn’t going to happen. I tried to alter the story a bit to inform them in game that this is what is going to happen, but then it was all the less climactic when they uncovered that information.
The party returned to the droid shop and decided the best course of action would be to try to acquire a ship. When they got there they saw Poliss visibly angry at one of his employees, telling him it is illegal to build droids that fight. He sent him home for the day.
Poliss welcomed the party into the shop, and explained that he was mistaken in thinking that they were the princess and their friends.
The hippie Ithorian from the exotic items shop, who gave Hal his second lightsaber, had alerted Poliss that they were not who everyone thought they were, and Poliss revealed that he had sent agents to contact the princess that he had important messages for her that could only be delivered in person by the miners, who are also rebel agents.
Also Poliss told them that the hippie Ithorian wanted to speak to Hal again.
Inside the droid shop the party found a frankendroid made up of spare parts, an astromech head and body with another head from a protocol droid, one protocol droid leg, another leg from an IG droid and various arms of varying usefulness.
The droid introduced itself as Golden Wheels and proceeded to translate a tirade about Turk from D’Wook. Seeing the utility that such a droid would offer, the group asked Poliss if they could keep the droid rather than having him destroy it.
The group thought the best thing to do would be to trick the rich Twi’lek into hiring Turk as a smuggler to return with riches from the palace. Poliss liked the idea but warned the group that the Twilek known as Kapin Toologin is a ruthless crime lord, and they should be careful.
The party visited the exotic items shop again and the shopkeeper asked to speak to Hal alone. He told him that he was in tune with the force, and that he and the one they call Skywalker were on different paths that they need to face alone, and it would probably be best if they ever meet that he keep his abilities on the down low.
Hal looked around the shop and asked if he could have a particular jedi book about mind reading. The shopkeeper said it would probably be too advanced for him at this point, but he could come back at a later date to borrow it when he is ready.
The party then decided to look for Kapin Toologin in the cantina, but realized as soon as they got there that rich folks probably wouldn’t be hanging out there.
Turk remembered seeing him at the restaurant behind the hotel on the river. So they rested for the night at the droid shop and then visited the hotel first thing in the morning.
Jeegn alone approached Toologin and was stopped by two fierce looking Trandoshan guards. He explained that he wanted to talk to their boss and they begrudgingly allowed him.
Once in front of Toologin, Jeegn fumbled through his words, saying he wanted to smuggle goods for him to Alderaan. Toologin waved him away saying there’s no one to smuggle goods to. Then Jeegn remembered that the plan was to suggest that they take his ship, find the royal palace, fill it with loot and then return it to Toologin.
The Twilek agreed, on the condition that he get to keep 90 percent of the haul. Jeegn negotiated it down to 60 percent plus one of his guards would get to travel with them.
The guard, Kaylorn, told the party to meet him in the hangar bay in five hours. Grundle said he would stay back on the ship because he had some Ithorian business to attend to.
The party went last minute shopping for med pacs and other necessary goods for a mission.They then joined Kaylorn on the ship, the Rusty Something or other. Jeegn noticed that Kaylorn had a tattoo resembling a sun symbol, which identified him as a member of the Black Sun crime syndicate. But he neglected to tell everyone.
The party took off and headed for mining outpost 11, but killed Kaylorn along the way. It took several of the group to hold him to the ground as he used his immense strength to keep them at bay. D’wook however liberated him of one of his eyes, and lodged his vibro blade deep into the Trandoshan’s brain, covering Vero, who had been grappling him, in blood. She changed into one of Toologin’s expensive robes and the group did their best to clean the bridge as they shoved Kayloorn’s corpse out the airlock.
As they approached the asteroids, an old capital ship looking as if it belonged to the Trade Federation appeared out of nowhere. They flew underneath it and it disappeared just as fast as it had appeared. The party was able to identify it as a Trade Federation Providence Class Destroyer. The party got scared, but pushed onward.
Arriving at the outpost, the group talked their way on, dropping Kamiroz’ name. They immediately and intelligently headed for the computer room and downloaded data regarding the imperial palace with L1-NK’s help.
L1-NK discovered the location of asteroid 7785, and two emails. (Note, this module was written long before email was commonplace, but organized two messages, one sent to the mining company and another to imperial intelligence, in a way that makes them look like standard emails.)
The first email discussed finding the palace on 7785 and a man claiming to be Bail Organa inside the palace.
The second email was addressed to Darth Vader, saying that the plan is working and the “Heroes of Yavin” have arrived at the outpost, surprisingly much earlier than they had anticipated, and would soon leave for 7785.
The party was then locked in the computer room, and realized the whole thing was a trap.
Vero picked the lock and they all decided to leave the station immediately (as is the intelligent thing to do upon realizing that it’s a trap. This resulted in skipping over several encounters with miners and a sequence with a runaway mining vehicle... but this is the writer’s fault.)
Upon leaving the station, the module says to read another cutscene. This time aboard the Milennium Falcon, Han, Luke, Chewbacca, Leia, C3P0 and R2D2 are aboard. Han says they will be in Alderaan in about four hours.
The party wanted to simply fly away (as would be the smart thing to do) but then realized that they would be leaving the trap for the actual Heroes of Yavin, and given that those people were really important to the cause of the rebellion, it would be better if they themselves sprung the trap. (Someone pointed out again that they shouldn’t have any idea that Leia was on her way, but I reminded them that the email had said that the heroes arrived on the outpost a lot earlier than they had expected, meaning they were expecting the actual heroes, just a little bit later.)
So, the party decided to head onward to Asteroid 7785. This involved moving through a particularly dense section of asteroids. As they prepared to run the gauntlet, they were hailed by Cecil Organa who again restated his claim as King and being entitled to everything left in the palace.
The party ignored him, saying he has no idea how to find the palace, but he said that there was technology on the inside that requires members of the royal family to operate. The party suggested working together, and Cecil agreed.
With Turk as pilot and L1-NK as copilot they maneuvered the ship through the asteroids and landed on the ruins of a landing pad on asteroid 7785.
The landing pad began to shake as if it was going to swallow the whole ship, likely for parking purposes.
Sensors indicated a breathable atmosphere, so the party opened the doors and jumped out of the ship just before the landing platform descended into the asteroid. They could hear the crashing of metal coming from deep below as the landing pad ascended again.
The party was standing at the entrance of a large cave, when suddenly a volley of blaster shots came their way.
Vero, realizing that the stormtroopers were trying to get them to enter the cave, ran in and the rest of the party followed, some taking shots at the stormtroopers as they ran. Once inside the cave the stormtroopers shot at the ceiling, causing falling rocks to seal the party inside.
Using the light of Hal’s lightsaber they were able to make out a door on the other side of the cave and they entered it to find the ruins of the palace.
They began to explore. First they entered one room where Darth Vader appeared and welcomed Leia “home,” saying he would be there to capture her and her friends very shortly.
In another room Grand Moff Tarkin appeared and kept talking about the location of the rebel base, and then told unseen Death Star crewmembers that they could “fire when ready.” (A replay of the familiar scene from Star Wars. (Or A New Hope, for those who now call it that. And here I have to say these holograms were never thought to be ghosts as the module intended. The party also didn’t seem to care about what they were, and thus did not try to find any holoprojectors... as the module intended.)
The party noticed that one room looked much bigger on the outside than on the inside, and began firing at one of the walls, causing it to collapse. Behind the wall they found six imperial intelligence officers sitting at desks. Suddenly the Darth Vader and Tarkin holograms appeared and began talking over each other, as the party and the intelligence officers began shooting at each other.
A few of the officers were killed, one ran away, and the party saved one for questioning.
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