Howdy folks!
Sessions 24 and 25 are the rest of the module called Riders of the Maelstrom. The past two sessions were filler, because Vero's player had been unable to attend, and I was using this module to put Vero in the same room as Moff Andi Wolf, her former teacher at the Imperial academy, who was also her lover. Dating students is against company policy, and Andi, who was an ambitious Imperial officer himself, had his sights set on rising through the ranks of the Imperial military and making a name for himself.
The problem is that upon graduation Vero revealed to him that she was pregnant. Seeing how that would be damaging to his own career, Andi framed her of passing information to rebel sympathizers, and got her sent to prison. He also arranged for some of the other prisoners to beat her up to the point that she miscarried.
While she was in prison, Andi did rise to power, likely by backstabbing his superiors and using those in his circle of influence to further his ambitions.
When she was finally out of prison (either by serving the duration of her sentence or escaping) she joined the Rebel Alliance's espionage unit as an explosives expert. She has been dreaming of the day she would meet Andi again, so she can have her revenge.
So yeah, she's got it in for him, and it wouldn't have been right to go through the whole session and run her as an NPC for what is essentially closing her arc.
Well Vero's player came back for these two sessions and so now we're back on task.
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| Vero Morelock is not someone you want to see on the other side of a blaster barrel. |
Session 24
A DAGGER IN A HAYSTACK
After sneaking 20 refugees into the spaceport on Planet Doom, Delta Team must now sneak them aboard the Kuari Princess luxury cruise ship, so they can claim asylum once they are off-world.
However, the rebel group must not bring too much attention to themselves, because they are on their own mission... to find another rebel operative codenamed Dagger, who has information about a clandestine meeting between two Imperial Moffs.
Crew from the Princess descend upon the crowd of antsy passengers for pre-boarding procedures...
Inside the spaceport an announcement could be heard over the public address system.
Announcement: Attention Kuari Princess passengers. Customs officers will now begin pre-boarding procedures. Please present your ticket chips and IDs for scanning and prepare to answer customs related questions.
A customs officer, off in the distance, began scanning chips and talking to passengers. Vero estimated that he would get to them in around 5 minutes.
Jeegn 2 (npc): Well we don’t have enough tickets to go around to sneak all these refugees on board. What’s our plan?
Jeegn 1 (also npc): All of us who were already on the ship should be able to get on with the tickets we have.. Do all you anomid imposters remember the names of the people you got your tickets from?
The half of the group dressed in costumes struggled to remember. Additionally they did not have ID cards and it seemed as if the Doom spaceport customs officers were checking IDs and being more thorough than the crew of the Princess was. As they were discussing a customs officer approached them.
Customs officer: Ticket and ID please!
Hal: Um.. sir.. I seem to have misplaced my ticket.
Officer: Understood.. how many are there in your party? I can cross reference this with the passenger manifest.
Hal began waving his hand in front of him.
Hal: You will allow all of us on board. We have valid IDs and you've scanned our tickets.
Officer: No.. I have not scanned your tickets yet and I have not seen your IDs.
Hal again waved his hands.
Hal: These people are passengers on the Kuari Princess and you don't need to see their identification.
Officer: Well if they're passengers we need to see their tickets and IDs.
Edit: Once again, Hal's player was under the impression that he had the Jedi mind trick power. He's expressed a desire to learn that, and we've talked about it a lot. I've been reluctant to give it to him because it can be the solution to practically ANY conflict that can befall Hal and the party. There will be no reason for combat because Hal can simply wave his hands around and get the stormtroopers to walk away. He can also abuse it to get into any restricted area or out of any prison or persuade anyone to do anything he wants. It makes him the solution for any and every problem there is. So I've been very reluctant to give it to him... But for some reason he thought he had it.
Officer: I have no doubt they are passengers... But maybe you want to *erhm pay a small lost ticket fee, and I can just move onto the next group.
Hal began to object, but Soan stepped forward and began to negotiate. Meanwhile Vero and the others moved forward with the group of refugees into the boarding area. When all was said and done, Soan paid only a small sum to the officer, who waved her and Hal through.
Coran joined the group in the boarding area and thanked the party for their help.
He reached out to shake Hal’s hand again.
Coran: (telepathically) Master Jedi, thanks for helping my family in our dire time of need. I will lead them on board the ship and we will claim asylum once we are off-world. I am knowledgeable in the ways of the force, but I do not wish to walk the Jedi path.
Hal: Tried to say something back telepathically but realized that he was only able to receive Coran's thoughts, not project his own.
Coran: (aloud) I’d like to give you this. It’s a present.
He handed over a box.
Coran: (aloud) I could never figure out how to use it... But I am certain it requires a certain ... supernatural expertise.. If you catch my meaning.
Hal took the lid off the box.
Coran: Hey.. don’t open it here. Open it in private.
Hal put the lid back on the box.
Some in the party noticed that people were whispering to each other and pointing at the Jeegns and Grundle.
After a while one of the senior officers of the Princess came to talk to the Jeegns.
Officer: Which one of you is the original.
Jeegns: (simultaneously) I am....
Officer: Well anyway that’s not important. We have a proposition for you. This delay has caused the talent for the band who was supposed to play the evening gala to have to cancel because they have other commitments. Could you and your band play the gala tonight? We’ll make it worth your while.
Jeegn 1: Well you’ll have to talk to my agent. Soan?
The officer negotiated with Soan and offered to rehouse the whole band in the Imperial or Kuari Suite. These are the most luxurious on the ship. In addition, the company will give 10,000 griftcoin to the band. The officer also asks if everyone is in the band. Afterall he only recognized the two Jeegns and Grundle. Who plays drums?
Golden Wheels stepped up and said he was the drummer and Turk was the bassist. Losar'Tan also said he was the band's chief of mixology and always runs the bar whenever there's a show on. The rest of the team were road crew.
Soan managed to up their compensation to 20,000 griftcoin, and demanded that they still have access to their original rooms in addition to one of the suites. The officers agreed.
Once the negotiations were done, Soan told the refugees to use their original rooms.
Announcement. Attention all passengers, we are now ready to board. We'll start with our first class passengers.
Jeegn 1: Well, that's us.
The group boarded an unmanned ferry, which took off into orbit and entered the hangar bay of the Kuari Princess.
Off in the distance, Grundle noticed that there were now now TWO lambda shuttles on board. He was pretty certain there was only one before.
The group took a turbolift to the Bazaar Deck and entered their suite.
Hal took the opportunity to open the present from Coran.
It was a strange musical instrument. It looked like two pan-flutes connected to each other by an adjustable beaded strap. The strap had the crest of Alderaan on it. It looked like the strap was meant to rest on the top of the head or on the shoulders.
Hal tried it on both ways but then the flutes would either hang below his ears or in front of his chest. Impossible to play.
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| What could this thing be? |
Grundle had seen Hal trying to wear it unsuccessfully and thought he should give it a try.
He placed the strap on his head and the two flutes dangled just slightly below each mouth. He tried to play a song.
It sounded like this (because he rolled poorly)
As Grundle was messing around with the instrument, Hal and the Ewoks decided to play around with VR headsets. A game called Jedi Trainer was available.
Maki put the headset on her and found herself in the middle of a grass field holding an ignited blue lightsaber.
Hal put his headset on. He appeared facing Maki, wearing all black and holding a red lightsaber.
Maki selected her difficulty on easy, and Hal put his on normal.
Hal tried to attack but couldn't move (because he rolled the wrong number of dice).
Maki struck his lightsaber and pulled away.
Hal tried to attack but couldn't move (because he rolled the wrong number of dice).
Maki struck his arm, causing him to drop his lightsaber.
Hal used the force and grabbed his saber again and ignited it with his good hand.
Maki zoomed in to attack. Hal tried to block but couldn't move (because he rolled the wrong number of dice).
Maki's center connected with Hal's gut and he fell over.
Edit: I decided to remove the training wheels on Hal's lightsaber combat, but use this VR game to make sure that he wouldn't really be hurt if he messed up. I told Hal's player that if he attempted to use a force power but did not know what to roll, then he would lose his action. It's been two years that we've been playing this game and it is frustrating to continually have to remind the player what he needs to roll. I wanted him to try figuring it out himself in a setting where there would be little consequence. But this first run didn't quite go well for him.
D'Wook pressed the start button and Hal respawned.
Hal found himself with a green lightsaber in his hand. D'Wook, meanwhile was dressed in black robes and had a red one.
Once again Hal attempted to attack but could not move(because he rolled the wrong number of dice).
D'Wook attacked. Hal was able to block.
Hal took a swipe at D'Wook who was able to move out of the way.
D'Wook took a swipe at Hal's legs and Hal attempted to block but was not able to move (because he rolled the wrong number of dice).
Hal lay on the ground, legs dismembered, and D'Wook drove the lightsaber through his face.
Edit: Once again I decided after this session that I'm again houseruling lightsaber combat to be on whenever Hal ignites his saber. I think the complexity of the calculations is stressing Hal's player out. I also houseruled that if he makes a mistake, rather than robbing him of a turn, we'll instead rob him of an action, and then I can help him to do it correctly at a -1D penalty (on top of whatever other penalty there is).
After they were done playing, the party decided they better go look around the ship for Dagger. They exited the suite and walked around the various decks. Jeegns 1 and 2, Golden Wheels, Turk, and Losar'Tan decided to stay in the suite (because their players were not present.)
Edit: Okay this might be a problem with the module or a problem with the map of the ship, but simply throwing a map in front of them and telling them to decide themselves where they want to go the first time we were on this ship didn't really work. I printed the map out on six pieces of paper and taped them together. But the print is too small to read effectively and the rather large group of players couldn't all look at it at the same time. So instead of this I suggested that they simply walk the whole deck and I would explain what they were passing. If they wanted to stop in they would say stop and check it out.
They decided to check out the weapons shop. It seemed odd to them that a cruiseliner would have a weapons shop, but the shrewd merchants said everything was souvenirs. For example, they sold souvenir thermal detonators without firing pins, but also sold firing pins. They also sold supplies of first aid equipment and other battle necessities. The party notices a friggin sweet gun mounted on the wall, and the GM strongly hinted that Turk would want it. The price was 40,000 griftcoin. The shopkeepers explained that it was a Senate guard ceremonial blaster rifle, a relic of the Clone Wars and this particular model isn't made anymore.
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| It's friggin sweet! |
Edit: I'm going to only breifly explain what happened after this point because this was a while ago and I don't exactly remember.
Vero passed by a snobby first class passenger who turned up her nose and complained that they allow everyone on board these days. This made her angry and she took a swing at her. The rich lady called for security.
Posh passenger: She hit me! Arrest her at once!
Maki's player: Wait a minute, she? Vero is a woman?
GM: YES! VERO IS A WOMAN! (sigh)
Edit: Vero's player is male so I'll give her a pass, but Soan and Maki's players have been playing with us for a little over six months. During that time Vero's gender never really came up except for during the trial. Soan was the lawyer so I am sure she knew that Vero is a woman, but Maki's player missed a few sessions and Maki wasn't a part of the trial itself, so maybe she was zoning out. Still though... this blog continually refers to Vero using the pronoun "she."
Eventually they encountered some passengers in a bar called Xerrol's place who were complaining about not being able to tour the engineering section and noticing a large amount of stormtrooper activity there.
That made them suspicious.
As they were walking the halls a group of stormtroopers walked past them, and they overheard on the comlink orders to this group patrolling that they would be part of the half of the forces that would keep an eye on the passengers during the gala.
It became obvious to the group that the best time to go into engineering would be during the Gala, when half of the stormtroopers would not be in engineering.
Fast forward to the gala:
The "new lineup" of the Ice Pirates took the stage.
Vocalist: Jeegn 1
Guitar: Jeegn 2
Harmonica: Grundle
Bass: Turk
Drums: Golden Wheels
Bartender: Losar'Tan
The crowd was going wild as they played song after song, switching it up now and then for some slow dances. Grundle noted that a large number of stormtroopers surrounded the crowd, and some would periodically enter it to question passengers, as if they were looking for someone. They had computer generated holograms showing an Ithorian, an Ewok, and two humans, one carrying a lightsaber (the group that escaped the forests on planet Aris namely Grundle, Hal, Losar'Tan and D'Wook.)
Beads of sweat rained down Grundle's face as he continued to play song after song.
Meanwhile...
The other half of the group (D'Wook, Vero, Hal, Soan, Maki and L1) snuck around in engineering, silently killed a few stormtroopers and snuck into an office that had a picture of Lira Wolf on a desk, as well as a computer terminal. They correctly deduced that this was Moff Wolf's office.
Vero got to work hacking and was able to uncover information about Wolf and Gideon's meeting
1. Moffs Wolf and Gideon control sectors of the galaxy that were adjacent to the Alderaan sector prior to its destruction. When the planet was destroyed, they each absorbed space in the Alderaan sector into their own territory, with the border being the Graveyard of Alderaan.
2. The area has seen increased levels of piracy since Alderaan's destruction. And both moffs have had Imperial convoys intercepted by pirates in their half of their new territory.
3. The stats look bad. If Emperor Palpatine were to find out that piracy is at higher than unacceptable levels, it would be both their hides.
4. The purpose of the meeting is to come up with matching fake piracy numbers to report to the Empire, and also to formulate a plan to fight against the pirates.
5. Moff Wolf notes that he believes there are two factions of pirates. One faction specifically targets only the Empire's ships, whereas the other targets everyone, including innocent civilian cruiseships, for example.
6. They wanted to meet in a clandestine location so that word of their meeting would not reach other moffs, who might want to backstab them. Hence they chose the Kuari Princess.
Edit: The meeting is supposed to be clandestine, but the two moffs arrived in separate lambda shuttles, easily identifiable large Imperial ships that are completely out of place in the Princess' hangar. Then they send uniformed stormtroopers to patrol the ship regularly and close off the entire engineering section. So much for clandestine. If they wanted to meet in secret, they should have disguised themselves and boarded the Princess with only a small security detail as paying customers. Now everyone on the ship is at least aware of an Imperial presence. This particular module is decently written but it just seems to be too obvious that the Imperials are on board. I am now deciding to improvise a bit and am retroactively adding more information from this computer.
7. Moff Wolf and his stormtroopers boarded prior to the Princess arriving Moff Gideon boarded from Planet Doom, a non-scheduled port of call. The reason the Kuari Princess stopped at Doom was because of a problem with life support systems. The problem was actually just sensors that were damaged by operatives of Moff Wolf, who had boarded prior to the Princess' first port of call. A large number of soldiers boarded at Aris, as they had reason to believe some fugitives suspected to be rebel spies might try to escape Aris on the Princess.
Edit: I find it odd how so many of these modules depend on a player with "computer programming" skills to hack into computer terminals. Cybersecurity in this galaxy is pretty awful.
Meanwhile, back at the Gala, Grundle noticed a protocol droid enter the room and awkwardly dance in the crowd. Thinking this might be DM/C3, who had previously told him to "stay sharp," he whispered to the Jeegn on vocals to work in the word "dagger" into the next song. Meanwhile he'd play a secret series of notes on his harmonica that is identifiable to other rebel spies, and incorporate it into the song.
Grundle played the notes, and Jeegn sang "when you left me it was a dagger to my heart... a dagger a dagger a dagger to my heart baybee!
The protocol droid stopped dancing and stared directly at Grundle, gave him the thumbs up and proceeded to the bar.
Grundle told Jeegn to start playing stuff from their unplugged album so that he could take a short break. Turk and GW also took five as the Jeegn duet sang a few songs with just the one guitar.
Grundle went to go talk to DM/C3 at the bar, but when he got there the droid had already left. Lo'Sar Tan handed him a message he had written on a datapad that said the meeting between the two moffs was currently taking place in the engineering section. It warned that there was a huge batallion of stormtroopers also there.
Jeegn figured he ought to warn the others so he got on the comlink....
Grundle: "Guys.. you gotta get out of there .... there's a whole batallion of stormtroopers there!"
It was at that point that Jeegn called Grundle back to the stage. Jeegn said he needed to end the concert because his voice was getting sore. They'd already been playing for about three hours.
Grundle realized that he needed to keep as many stormtroopers out of engineering as possible, so the concert had to go on. He told the Jeegns to switch places. The one on guitar would now be on vocals, and the one on vocals would be on guitar.
They switched it up and began the concert anew.
Meanwhile... back in engineering ... the team left the office and did some more sneaking around. They opened a door leading to another office, and could hear shouting coming from a door inside the office.
They opened a door to a huge conference room.
Inside were two moffs, arguing with each other about pirates. There were about 50 stormtroopers in the room.
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| Not many images of these two actors together exist, but imagine them both younger and in imperial uniforms.... So... yeah, nothing like this. Here.. let me try an AI Image. |
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| Better. Just imagine them wearing uniforms that look more like Tarkin's |
Moff Wolf: Get them!
The stormtroopers all shot at the door as the team, except Maki dived out of the way.
Grundle: (over comlink) Guys.. you gotta get out of there .... there's a whole batallion of stormtroopers there!
Maki screamed something fierce and began shooting her flamethrower through the door. She was shot several times, and Soan flipped in, pulled her out of harms way, and flipped out.
Vero tried to open the door to the hallway, but it wouldn't budge.
Moff Wolf: Cease fire! Set blasters to stun! I want these intruders taken alive. It's nice to see you again after all these years, Vero. I've been waiting for this for a long time...
<to be continued>
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