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!