Clone Wars Campaign: Recap # 22

This was the first session with everyone back together again after a long summer break. It's also the one session during the campaign that I walked away from feeling like I just hadn't done a very good job directing--the pacing was weird, I railroaded too much, I didn't have interesting stuff prepared for moments that weren't directly plot-related, etc. (though the recap makes it appear more exciting and smoothly plotted than it was). Thinking about this session is always good motivation for me to work harder not to repeat the same mistakes.

Over the course of the summer, some of the players had idly chatted about buying a ship, which I latched on to more seriously than I probably should have by designing an adventure that wouldn't really work unless they did, indeed, buy their own ship or I gave them another "loaner" ship (which eliminates any incentive to spend their hard-own credits buying one). For some reason, I just haven't been able to make space combat an exciting and interesting part of the campaign--part of it may be the system, part of it may be my players' lack of interest in it, and part of it may just be my inexperience in creating interesting starship battles. Anyway, my idea for the story arc was to try and get a little bit of the Star Trek feeling of a ship sent outside the known boundaries of civilization, all by itself, to investigate a mysterious sector of space.


This session was the last for Zero and Natany and the first for a character named Zee (played by a new gamer, who would soon move on to playing a longer-lasting character named Doxen).

EPISODE 2.6: THE SECRET WAR

SESSION 22

Turmoil has wreaked havoc on the group of Republic operatives that originally met on Mongui. Ycram Notwal wanders Coruscant, babbling incoherently about lurking menaces. Marpa Zalon has disappeared and hasn't been seen in months, while Tarn Tamarand's public dalliance with Princess Arresta D'avilos has gone sour. Yet, new friends and old enemies are always lurking around on the corner. At a cantina on Coruscant called The Stowaway, a reunion is about to take place . . .

[AG 235]

In a Coruscant cantina called the The Stowaway, Zero and Natany meet up with Arresta for the first time in weeks to discuss the possibility of buying a starship. Arresta is accompanied by her new bodyguard, Zee, while watching the group from the corner is the formidable Anx street-fighter Krevlax Mex. As terms and proposals are traded back and forth, the cantina quickly fills with youths and street toughs wearing clothing bearing a sunburst design--the mark of Purity First, a xenophobic group holding a rally nearby. Soon members of Purity First's "Security Force" arrive: an intimidating quartet of soldiers wearing silver armor and nicknamed "Whitecloaks." Shortly after Arresta, Zero, and Natany manage to tentatively agree that Arresta will buy a ship with Zero and Natany crewing it for a share of the profits, the bartender asks the group to leave because tensions are mounting. Zee, Arresta, and Krevlax depart, but Zero and Natany stay and soon find themselves in the middle of a bar brawl. Zero gets cut by a broken bottle but, with some assistance from Krevlax, the pair of scoundrels manage to escape before serious injuries occur.

Outside the cantina, Krevlax re-introduces himself--months ago, he helped Arresta, Zero, and Natany destroy a small Purity First cell. Since then, Krevlax says, Purity First has received significant training, arms, and money from an unknown source. Krevlax was hoping to find out more about the ominous organization at the rally, but with the streets of Coruscant becoming dangerous to non-aliens, he convinces Arresta to let him help crew the soon-to-be purchased ship.

The group arrives at the nearby Kaliko Heights Small Freight & Trade Ltd., a boutique shipyard specializing in new and used transport ships. The group settles on a Ghtroc 720 and several days pass while Arresta applies for permits and Zero supervises the difficult installation of an expensive new hyperspace drive and three gun emplacements.

[AG 244]

Just when they're about to give their shiny new toy The Outcast Tiara a spin, the group hits a snag: the ship's licenses have been "Suspended by Decree." After being directed to a gray, labyrinthine skyskraper, the group finally reaches a cramped, smoky office. Inside, Arresta, Zero, and Natany are mercilessly belittled for their past performance as freelance Republic Intelligence operatives, but "graciously" given one last chance to "redeem themselves" by exploring one of the many sectors of space deleted from planetary archives by Count Dooku many years ago. The mission, as presented by the man (who never introduces himself or even offers payment), seems simple: travel to Sector Zeta-11 in the Unknown Region, stopping at Firrerre (sparsely populated) or Bakura (Separatist-controlled) if necessary, and return with a full report of what the sector contains.

After some debate, the group decides to take on some cargo and set hyperspace coordinates for Cerea.

[AG 246]

At a Cerean cargo spaceport (part of the Outsider Citadel), the group makes a small profit off-loading freight. However, no one in the spaceport cantina seems to have ever heard of Zeta-11. Zee posts a request for help on a Cerean message board and gets a possible lead to a survey operation on Firrerre.

[AG 248]

The group drops out of hyperspace near Firrerre, a planet of great natural beauty. Inquiries inside the planet's only spaceport eventually lead the group to former surveyor "Old Man Pather" in a scavenger yard on the outskirts of the capital. Pather did indeed travel to Sector Zeta-11 almost a year ago, but unknown to the group he was captured and returned to Firrerre with a "request" to store three crates and press a signalling device if anyone came around asking about the lost sector. The signalling device, pressed by Pather when the group comes by his shanty, activates three droideka battle droids programmed to destroy all intruders. The fight goes poorly until Zee blasts one droid in a critical spot and Krevlax discovers he can pass through the shields of another. The three droidekas are reduced to scrap, but not before stray blaster fire burns down Pather's home. Fortunately, Natany rescues him from the fire and the group discovers a key card to a hidden safe in the hut. Inside the safe are two crystal ingots and Pather's ship's log with usable coordinates for Zeta-11.

[AG 251]

Unknown hours away from Zeta-11, the ship is abruptly pulled out of hyperspace by a Separatist Trade Federation battleship's gravity well projector. The Outcast Tiara is ordered to power down for inspection as vulture droid starfighters approach, but Zero decides to head straight for the battleship at full speed. Krevlax manages to destroy one of the starfighters with the ship's main laser cannons, but the remaining three pepper the freighter with laser and missile fire until its shield generators are overloaded and its engines damaged. The battleship withholds fire expecting the comparatively tiny transport to finally surrender. Fortunately, Zero's crazy-seeming gambit pays off, as Natany manages to bulls-eye the battleship's gravity well projector (which, to operate, must project past the ship's shields). With the gravity well dissipated, Arresta punches the hyperdrive and the Outcast Tiara, heavily damaged but narrowly avoiding capture, returns to hyperspace en route to Zeta-11.

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