Clone Wars Campaign: Recap # 25

This ended up being a really fun session--the escape from the Separatist Core Ship was really exciting (even though they managed to elude Asajj Ventress), as was the set-piece prelude which involved the same players but with their alternate characters. After the long summer and then this story arc, I felt that the main "mythos" of the campaign (Jocasta, the anomaly, the Forgotten, etc.) was in danger of getting lost and needed to come back in a big way--thus, the discovery of 8P's head as a teaser to my next story arc, City of Sand. The big brawl in the cantina was fun to watch as the director, though my players are perhaps too nice to each other and the amicable settlement they reached at the end certainly didn't end up benefiting Daal.


Session # 25


Hidden in the numberless rooms and corridors of the Separatist research ship Liquidator, Republic operatives Arresta D'avilos and Krevlax Mex meet to discuss the dire situation they find themselves in: within minutes the quickly ascending ship will enter hyperspace, bound for an unknown destination; but if they somehow disable the hyperdrive or escape the ship, they could become trapped in the middle of a war between the Separatists and strange invaders from the Unknown Regions. With a Ssi-Ruuk commando still unaccounted for and a companion still in a detention cell, these adventurers may face their final test of loyalty and courage . . .

And uncountable parsecs away, a pale and sweaty Tarn Tamarand awakens from a nightmare in his small room at the Jedi Temple, clutches his strange lightsaber tightly, and realizes with certainty that the Nine Forgotten Sith have finally found a chink in their millenia-old prison . . .


Seconds after it breaks through the atmosphere and into low orbit, the Core Ship of the Liquidator (a major secret research facility for the Separatists) initiates docking procedures with its cargo rings. An intraship announcement is made that the crew should prepare for hyperspace in five minutes. Asajj Ventress, having led the rest of the Separatist fleet in a desperate delaying action against the invading Ssi-Ruuk forces, returns to the Liquidator in her damaged, custom-made fanblade starfighter. Ventress is livid when she learns that at least one intruder is loose in the facility and orders a detailed, level-by-level search, crushing the ribs of two of Admiral Binth's men to emphasize her point.

Meanwhile, Arresta and Krevlax meet in a dusty, long-unused storage room to assess their options. They discuss the need to conceal themselves and perhaps recuperate from their injuries. Although their chances of escape seem slim at best, hope arrives in the form of a much-needed distraction: general alarms indicate that the Ssi-Ruuk commando has barricaded himself in the engine room and is attempting to disable the hyperdrive. With all security forces converging on that point, Arresta and Krevlax know that they either have to make a risky escape attempt now, stop the Ssi-Ruuk's sabotage and endure the impending hyperspace voyage, or help the Ssi-Ruuk and risk the danger of falling into the hands of the reptile-like alien invaders.

The Princess and the Ankh make decide to attempt escape. With the lift to the hanger deck blocked by two B-1 battle droids, they come up with a hasty plan. Securing an officer’s uniform from the dusty storeroom, Arresta talks one of the B-1’s into accompanying her into the storage unit. With much background noise to provide cover, Krevlax disables it. When the other droid comes to investigate, it too is destroyed.

Before Arresta and Krevlax can make their way to the lift, several B-2 Battle droids discover it is unguarded. Leaving one of their number to take up that position, the others depart. Krevlax sneaks out of another door and attracts the droids' attention, so that Arresta can attack it from behind. With the way clear, they make their way up to the hanger deck.

Arresta carefully slips unnoticed into the hanger and sneaks aboard a battered utility shuttle that is equipped with an ancient hyperdrive. Unfortunately, as he makes his way on board, Krevlax is spotted by one of the many droid guards. Blaster fire fills the hanger as the large Anx leaps for the loading ramp of the shuttle. Arresta begins the ignition cycle as Krevlax tries to hold back the charging droids through brute strength. The hanger's exterior blast doors begin to close, but Arresta manages to raise the ramp, engage the ship's repulsor lifts, and ram several droids in a desperate flight out of the hanger and away from the clutches of the Liquidator. In the confusion of a war zone, the small shuttle provokes little interest and reaches the temporary safety of hyperspace, bound for the sector of space that is hopefully still occupied by the Outcast Tiara.

Left behind aboard the Liquidator is Zee, two of the group's droids, and a very, very vengeful Asajj Ventress . . .

MEANWHILE……

Having recently completed her trials, Jedi Knight Lee receives confidential new orders from a senior Jedi Master. The orders instruct her to travel to the smuggler's moon Nar Shadda, where she must intercept an exchange between an Ugnaught and an unknown party. Lee is encouraged to obtain the object of the exchange at any cost as the fate of the Republic may rest in its hands.

At about the same time, half a galaxy away, Daal Mordo accepts a lucrative offer from a mysterious employer through black market connections: if he can interrupt the exchange on Nar Shadda and return with the object, a wealth of credits will be deposited in his account. Should he fail, however, his hidden employer has made it quite clear that the penalty could be fatal.

After a long hyperspace journey, Lee arrives on Nar Shadda and makes her way to a seedy watering hole named the Wretched Hive. The subterranean cantina is filled with the noxious mix of methane and ammonium gas suitable to some non-human species. After donning a breath mask and cycling through an airlock, Lee makes her way to the bar.

Minutes later, Daal arrives and scans the crowd. He manages to fend off a pickpocket and then spots his target: an Ugnaught by the name of Sipra-dorr has arrived, carrying a small bundle wrapped in cloth. Sipra-dorr makes his way to the balcony and starts negotiating when Daal makes his move. He blasts the would-be customer and tries to talk the Ugnaught into turning over the package, but they can't agree on a price and the Ugnaught begins to scurry away.

Before Sipra-dorr can get very far, however, a brightly-clad figure swings down from the ceiling on an ascension gun and yanks the package away. With a flourish of his cape, the figure introduces himself to the stunned crowd as Rycard Ryjerd, adventurer extraordinaire, and then bolts for the airlock. Before he can make it, however, another figure makes his presence known with a flurry of blaster bolts fired from a high-powered rifle: the famed Trandoshan bounty hunter Cradossk (father of Bossk) has also accepted a job to retrieve the package.

All hell breaks loose! Lee and Rycard wrestle with the airlock, until Lee impales Rycard from behind with her lightsaber, and he collapses to the ground. The force of the blow causes the package to tumble out of his hands, but Cradossk is the first to react and he manages to grab it in one large, scaly claw. Meanwhile, Daal bribes several members of the crowd to open fire on Cradossk and Lee.

Cradossk sets the package on a table in order to aim at Lee with his rifle, but Daal sprints pasts, grabs the package, and makes his way into the airlock. Lee does some fast talking and convinces Daal that the Jedi Order will pay him if he allows her to take the package with her to the Temple. The two manage to elude Cradossk in Nar Shadda's maze of streets and tunnels.

After a long journey back to Coruscant, the pair arrive at the Jedi Temple. There, they encounter Jedi Master Creen, the architect of this mission. He gives a raspy laugh when Lee asks him to turn over thousands of credits to Daal. The old Jedi walks away with the package, still chuckling to himself. Later in the privacy of his quarters, Creen unwraps the package to reveal the head of a medical droid last seen inside a strange cosmic anomaly: 8P-MD-4.

Far above the Jedi Temple, orbiting Coruscant in her ship The Sun Runner, Jocasta ponders how to deal with Daal's betrayal . . .

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