Session #3

I apologize for the delay between posts. I'm trying to collect a lot of data together so I can update this website with bios and so I can get the entire campaign up to date. We're taking this week off specifically so I can recharge my GM batteries and so I can get this site up to the current situation.

GM NOTE: This session was entirely unplanned on my part, and I think it showed a little. But the party wanted to do what they wanted to do, so I went with it, and I think it was decently fun.

As our heroes watched the Iron Tower fall, they also nearly fell off their transport as it jerked to a halt. The Tower had been powering basically everything the Empire controlled across the entire planet, and with it destroyed, the Empire's grip on Ryvellia was compromised. Without a vehicle, our heroes set out on foot to the south, as Dax, the Jedi hermit (the party found this out when Dax had to heal Zed during a shootout), had promised them a hyperdrive in exchange for destroying the Tower. But before the party wanted to blow this popsicle stand of a planet, they had other things in mind. They had already passed an Empire-run mine that was using slave labor to acquire a valuable ore. And there was a prison further to the south that one of the stormtroopers had mentioned. So they decided to free both.

A couple of days of walking later, and the party has reached the gate that leads to the mining area. It was, of course, still shut. Since it was night by the time they reached the gate, they decided to climb up one of the small mountains that stood next to the gate and take a peek down into the base. They couldn't see anything besides the lights set up around the perimeter. Being a normal party, they decided to have Zed to scout the area to see if there were any items of interest. While Zed slunk through the darkness, the rest of the party headed towards a small building that they believed was the main operation headquarters of the mine. The door was shut and locked, so BG blasted a hole in it with one of his many explosives. Seemed easier than trying to rewire the door to open. As it were, there was nobody inside. Just a couple of computer consoles that were powered down thanks to the Iron Tower's destruction. BG took the hard drives of the computers (presumably to attempt to access the data at some point in the future), and once they'd finished scavenging, they received a transmission from Zed over their comlinks. He'd tripped over something in the darkness, and upon shining a light upon it, he found he'd tripped over a dead stormtrooper. The party, who had originally decided to spend the night in the base, instead chose to find out what had happened in the mine.

With that, down the mine they went. There were lamps set up every dozen or so feet, so as to provide enough light for the slaves to work day and night. They passed quite a few alien corpses and the occasional stormtrooper corpse. When the path split in half, the party split into groups of three. One group found an injured zabrak slave at the very end of one path, and Guido, our resident Jedi, was able to heal the slave of his wounds. The zabrak informed them that the slaves had heard whisperings about the Empire's main power source begin deactivated, and they hastily planned and staged a revolt the day before. Many slaves perished, but they managed to slay every stormtrooper currently stationed at the base. Those who survived headed southwest. A couple of them had heard about a village in that direction, and they all decided to head that way as a group.

The party helped the zabrak back to his feet, and they decided to head back towards the village as well. They wanted some recruits for the assault on the prison.

Session #2

This session was cut a bit short because one of our players had to leave a lot earlier than we were expecting. So we just had one major encounter for the entire session. As a result, it probably won't be terribly entertaining to read through, but I'll just try to give the highlights.

Our party wakes up the next morning ready to set out on foot towards the Iron Tower. It takes them a few hours of walking, but they see the tip of the tower on the horizon. As they near, the tower begins to loom over the desert landscape of Aridus. Finally, around late afternoon, they see the tower as a whole. It is a massive structure bolted on top of a building. The tower itself is probably eight stories tall. The building supporting it has just one door in the front, guarded by stormtroopers. Behind the tower, a tall cliff stands maybe a couple dozen feet away. Our heroes debate what exactly to do, whether to just go for a frontal assault or see if they can find another way in. They opt for the second choice, and find a vent on the back of the building (after giving the building a sufficient buffer zone). The vent is about six feet off the ground, and it takes a bit of work, but they manage to pry it up enough so that they can climb in. The ventilation ducts lead them to other vents, where they can view all the different rooms inside the structure. Probably the most difficult part was having to climb up the ducts to the second and third floors. Since there were no ladders or supports of any kind, they had to brace themselves and climb up by hand. One particularly unfortunate (and, admittedly, funny) moment was when (I believe) Baniss rolled a 1 on a climb check and came crashing down to the first floor duct. The group gave me a hard time about the reactions of the troopers that heard the crashing inside the ventilation duct. I don't remember what I said, but it was pretty foolish.

Anyway, they scout the various rooms inside the building. They spot the usual rooms: barracks, kitchen, various computer-filled rooms, and an armory, where they plan on making their first strike. There is only one trooper inside the armory, so they feel it is the easiest spot to start. They unscrew the vent screen quietly, but not enough to have the screen fall off. Then, Jack kicks the screen off with amazing force (he rolled a 19 or 20 on his Strength check, and I responded that the screen flew across the room and smashed into the opposite wall) and the rest shot the trooper down quickly. The armory, much to the dismay of our heroes, was poorly stocked. There were a few blaster rifles, but nothing of great power. The party figures that there will likely be a patrol heading by at some point, so BG decides to set up an explosive trap (he thoroughly enjoys doing this). He sets the explosive just outside the door to the armory, and he plans to set it off as soon as he sees somebody pass by the door, which they left open. When one does walk by, BG detonates the explosive, and sends debris and stormtroopers flying everywhere. A couple are actually blown into the wall of the hallway, and several others are knocked every which way. Those that survive the blast get up and head inside the armory, where Dax, Zed, and Guido are standing and waiting. BG, Baniss, and Jack have crawled back into the vent so there is less chance of them getting shot at. Our heroes quickly dispatch the remaining stormtroopers, drag the bodies into the armory, and seal it shut.

Now that the hallways are clear, the party heads out to find a way to destroy the Iron Tower. They make their way slowly down the corridor, making sure to be very careful around corners. They pass by and open several doors which lead to nothing of importance, until they reach the last door at the end of the hallway. It's locked, but BG is able to bypass the security key and open the door. The computer technician at the console doesn't turn around and asks what took him so long to come back. Everyone has their weapons drawn, so when he does turn around, he's faced with a half dozen blasters. He freezes, and is ordered into the corner. BG hacks into the computer system and is able to find the main computer console for the tower itself. While he's there, he also finds out that there are turrets placed at the front of every elevator. He rewrites the program so that they shoot any stormtroopers who try to enter the elevators. With that done, they head to the third floor, where the tower's computer lies.

They head back down the hall, and head towards the elevator. The turrets do not aim at them as they file in and head for the third floor. When the elevator doors open, they are witness to a half dozen stormtroopers being laid to waste by the turrets just outside. Once the turret fire stops and no stormtroopers left alive, the party heads into the hall and finds the computer terminal that controls the tower. BG manages to rewrite the tower's program so that it overloads the circuits pulsing through the tower. He also finds out that there is a troop transport attached to the third floor balcony just past the computer terminal. BG figures that the overload will take a few minutes, so he has everyone else gather on the transport vehicle, then sets the program in motion. As they pull away from the building, they can see sparks fly off the tower, and eventually explosions take down the tower. They watch as it falls, slowly at first, but once the supports are gone, it crashes to the ground with a huge "WHUMP." They cheer and celebrate their victory. Now they can get off this planet. But there is a mine with slaves...and a prison to the south. What to do? Session Three will give you those answers.

First session: Part 3

Our heroes have just stumbled upon a group of stormtroopers in the heat of battle with the small, reptilian creatures known as Chubbits, and were weighing their options as to what to do. Unfortunately for them, a hot-headed NPC named Zed decided for them what to do. He charged down the sand dune, blaster rifle in hand. The others followed, though more cautiously and still riding their droffi steeds. Zed shot first and took down one stormtrooper quickly. Jack managed to pull off a sweet stunt where he reigned the steed back so it turned sideways, then leapt off it and used it for cover. Beegee was with him. Baniss also attempted a stunt where he jumped off his steed and rolled to his feet, guns blazing, but he stumbled as he hit the ground. Guido mostly hung back, as he was severely lacking in the weapons department (he had only a quarterstaff). A rather large and confusing battle ensued, where several chubbits died, and our heroes managed to avoid even a scratch. Near the end of the battle, a great cry was heard from the direction of the mountain, and the party saw a man running down the side of a rocky cliff. He charged into what was left of the battle, but by then victory was all but assured. The man finished off those stormtroopers that hadn't been killed by blaster fire, then checked on the chubbits left alive from the firefight. After making sure that those who survived would continue to live, he turned to the party and thanked them for their bravery in saving this band of chubbits.

He introduces himself as Dax, the apparent protector of the native chubbits. He informs our heroes that a terrible structure has been built that is killing off the chubbits. The Empire has built a huge tower capable of supressing the ionized atmosphere of Aridus, which up until then had been destroying equipment at an incredible pace. With the Iron Tower in place, metallic equipment broke down much more slowly, and the Empire could mine the precious resources that were discovered under the surface of Aridus. The downside was that the now un-ionized atmosphere was killing any chubbits that wandered within 20 miles of the tower, and was slowly killing the rest. He asks the party for their help in destroying the Iron Tower, freeing the chubbits of a slow and painful death and crippling the Empire's grasp on the planet. The party wants to know if he is, in fact, the same hermit who was spoken of in Aridus Trade City, the one who might have a hyperdrive they could use to fix their broken ship. He informs them that if they destroy the Iron Tower, he has one they can have, and he would be happy to fix the ship himself.

With that, the even larger party takes the few unscathed sets of Stormtrooper armor (only three of the six sets avoided heavy damage from the battle) and take the still-running troop transport vehicle up north, where the Iron Tower is located. Jack, Zed, and Baniss don the armor, and plan to act as though they captured Guido and Dax and were taking him to a prison. They pass two checkpoints without much trouble (thanks to a couple of good Bluff rolls by Jack and poor Sense Motive rolls by yours truly), and after a few hours of travel, they arrive at one of the mines. Instead of a small checkpoint manned by one or two stormtroopers, this is occupied by no less than a dozen soldiers and many alien slaves wearing shock collars. The officer in charge of the gate asks them why they're taking prisoners up north when the prison is to the south. Jack can't come up with a very good explanation for this, and shortly thereafter, nearly a dozen soldiers surround the transport. Thinking that escape is a better plan than capture, Jack guns the transport in reverse and they flee backwards, blaster shots flying all about them. Thankfully, these are stormtroopers who are shooting at them and not anyone with any real training, so they escape unscathed.

Dax informs them that there is another way to get to the Iron Tower, but it could be almost as dangerous. There are a series of lava beds to the northwest, and they may be able to cross over one of the small rock bridges that have formed over the years. They decide to head that way, and make a wide berth away from the mine. Upon reaching the lava beds, they find that these pathways that Dax mentioned are too small for the transport vehicle to cross, so they ditch it by driving it straight into the lava (nobody was on it, mind you), and headed over the beds. It was dark by the time they reached the other side, so they decided to make camp for the evening and strike out for the Iron Tower the next day.

And so ends our first session. The next session was much shorter, as one of our players had to leave fairly early. But rest assured, it was action-packed and full of excitement, so stay tuned for Session Two!

The First Session! Part Two

GM Note: I'm attempting to write this with some very loud mariachi music blaring from somewhere, and it's very distracting and irritating, so I'll try my best to keep this entertining without making it sound overly angry.

When we last left our ragtag group (which had just really met for the first time when boarding Zed's ship), they had dropped out of hyperspace far sooner than expected. A TIE Fighter had managed to get a shot at the ship, and got lucky in hitting their hyperdrive just as they were starting their hyperspace jump. So they aren't threatened by Empire ships, but where they are is a mystery. They travel at sublight speeds for a few hours, during which they attempt to get acquainted. The scanners pick up a small planet just a few hours' away. With no other options in sight, they decide to set down on this planet, called Aridus.

Upon setting down in the only major city on the planet, rather imaginatively named Aridus Trade City, they promptly look for anyone who sells hyperdrives for a Corellian YT-1300 Transport ship. Unfortunately, Aridus is...well, it's a backwater planet. It isn't on any major trade routes, so starship parts don't exactly arrive very often. One repairman informs them that they could order the part and it would arrive in a few weeks...or there's always the hermit who lives up in one of the mountains. People say he's strange and eccentric, but he's also apparently pretty good with mechanics and he might have a salvaged a hyperdrive from an Empire ship. With the plot hook dangling directly in front of them, they take the bait and decide to head out.

Luckily for the party, there's a man who lives on the outskirts of the city who rents out Droffi steeds to anyone who needed to go anywhere on the planet other than Aridus Trade City. Zed, being the most loaded with credits, pays for all five steeds, and the group sets out east. Several city folk have mentioned that there's a small village near the mountain that the hermit lives on, and the people who live there will probably know better where he lives.

So the party sets out eastward. The trip is mostly uneventful, with one exception. About halfway to the village, the party comes across a large field of rocky terrain. Thousands of rocks of all sizes are strewn across the desert that covers the landscape otherwise. As they near the rocks, one or two can hear hissing emanating from the direction of the rocks. They decide to head around instead of ploughing through. It takes them an extra day to venture around the field of rocks, and sometime during the evening, a large amount of small lizards find their way to the party and, needing warmth during the cool Aridusian night, decide to sleep on several of the party. They awake that morning to find themselves covered in lizards, which nobody can consider a normal occurrence. After that odd night, they make their way to the village and proceed to ask around about the hermit.

I hadn't actually planned any further for the first session, since I'd thought character creation and the opening scene would take longer than it did. I actually rushed the opening scene in the cantina and the ensuing escape, so I kind of screwed the pooch there. I've learned from my mistakes (at least as far as that's concerned) and I've slowed the pacing down to a more manageable pace. I mostly improvised the rest of the session, only stopping to write down basic stats for the enemies that they were about to face.

The villagers inform the party that the hermit does, indeed, live up in the mountain they can see in the distance. However, finding his cave will provide to be quite difficult without a guide. They find Timmy, a 10 year old who often plays out in the desert and sometimes visits the hermit (I never said these were good parents, mind you. They're a good deal more backwoods than the citizens of Aridus Trade City). Timmy hops on one of the droffi steeds and they head off towards the mountain.

The party travels for a day or so, and around midday they crest a large sand dune directly just a few hundred meters away from the mountain. When they reach the top of the dune, they spot a group of stormtroopers standing on a transport vehicle, trying to fend off a large group of small, lizard-like creatures. The lizards-like creatures (which the party later finds out to be chubbits, the native species of Aridus) are using what appear to be crude blasters, but despite their larger numbers, they are losing to the stormtroopers. The stormtroopers' superior firepower and armor are leading to several chubbit deaths. Zed sees this, leaps off his droffi steed, and charges down the dune, blaster rifle in hand. The rest of the party seems confused at Zed's actions, but decide to follow him down (but still riding their steeds). By the time they've decided this, several troopers have gotten off the transport and are firing at the chubbits still. Zed takes a couple of shots and downs one of the troopers on the transport. The rest follow suit, only with more style and intelligence.

And so begins the party's first big battle. I don't quite remember or have all of the details with me at the moment, so I'll post them once I've got them. Stay tunes for part three!

The First Session

You may want to have this playing in the background for the beginning of this entry, just to get into the flavor of the setting:



We begin our story in a cantina on the planet Ryvellia. The Galactic Empire is gaining further control over the galaxy, and the people are nearly powerless to stop its takeover. There are small groups of rebels, but none have begun to organize themselves in any way. The rest of the population tries to go about its daily business like it always did, just with a brutal overlord instead of a democratic system.

Our heroes are positioned around the cantina, doing what they feel like doing. Sitting at the bar are Jack Starkiller, a former soldier of the Empire (and possibly related to Bendak Starkiller) and Baniss Keeg, a Duros repairman who hopes to build his own landspeeder for racing one day. Off in one corner is Jack's droid companion, BG-Y1, a medical droid with a few interesting quirks. And sitting at a table off to another side is Guido the Slick, a Cerean with a clouded past.

NOTE: All of these characters will receive their own entry once their full background is written and an image of them is created so as to give you a better mental image of said people.

While Jack and Baniss are enjoying their drinks in quiet solitude, a loud man with a large smile walks up to the bar, sits down at the stool between them, and tells them, "Guys, the next round is on me!" Jack and Baniss seem perfectly fine with this, as there is no argument. He informs them (a fair bit more discreetly) that he just cheated a group of Gamorreans out of all their money playing sabacc. As he calls the bartender over, four large figures appear over his shoulder. He (the gambler) turns around to see the four Gamorreans staring down at him, their breath pungent as you would expect a Gamorrean's breath to be. One of them grabs him by the collar and accuses him of cheating them out of their money. The man, who understands Gamorrean, tells them that he won fair and square and that they shouldn't feel bad about losing their money to him. The Gamorrean grabbing him winds up to punch him out, but the man pulls out his stun baton and stuns the Gamorrean into submission. Baniss and Jack dive behind the bar, while Beegee claws at one of the attackers. Guido observes, but is ready to try to help stop the fight if necessary. The man manages to put down two more Gamorreans with his stun baton before the last one turns and runs away. Beegee and the man decide to pull the three knocked out Gamorreans out of the cantina and proceed to get that drink the man promised earlier. He thanks the droid for his help and asks who his owner is. Jack informs him that he is Beegee's owner. The man, who calls himself Zed Malevek, thanks Jack for his droid's help and promises him another round for the help he received.

Just as Zed pulls the credits from hi pocket, a man, disheveled and clearly worried, bursts through the doors and informs the people that the Empire has found out that there is a group of Rebels in the city and they're coming to blow the city off the face of the planet. People start streaming out the doors. The bartender starts yelling for them to pay their tabs, then thinks better of it, grabs several bottles of very expensive booze, and runs out the door. Zed informs the four remaining people that he has a starship at the docks and he can get them to safety. They agree and follow him to the docks. Around them, TIE bombers have begun their mission, dropping explosives across the city. Buildings are being destroyed everywhere. The group spots the bartender heading for the docks. A bomb lands just behind him and he's thrown several feet into the air. All of his alcohol smashes on the ground. More destruction rains from the skies as the party heads into Zed's ship, and they take off, preparing for a jump to hyperspace. But just as the hyperdrive is firing up, a TIE fighter blasts the ship and the hyperdrive fails immediately after the jump, resulting in the ship falling out of hyperspace far sooner than expected. They're out of range of the Empire, but they have no idea where they are...

Stay tuned for Part Two of the first session!

The first post!

What you will be reading is an account of a Star Wars D20 campaign run by myself and played by four very willing players. I will attempt to tell the story while also describing the game itself. There may be audio clips from time to time, depending on if it's easier to convey a moment through audio rather than text. The first actual post will be soon. Enjoy!