Clone Wars Campaign: Session # 45 Recap

This was another good example of a session I mostly directed by the seat of my pants, as the PCs went in an unexpected direction. It started out as I expected, with Daal trying to hack into the computer systems at the ARC to find out where Jocasta had hidden his mother. Having Sunset Cassandra be the architect of Jocasta's computer security, and Daal's virtual opponent, worked out well. The part with the Dejarik game was fun, as I found the "actual" rules online and had made a real board and cut-outs of the various monsters (it's the game that Chewbacca and Threepio are playing in the rec-room of the Millenium Falcon, with the flickery creatures on something that looks like a dart board). Daal's player turned out to a savant at the game and creamed me, quickly gaining the info he was looking for.

I had spent most of my prep time for this session on the Dejarik trap and the prison-ship where Daal's Mom was held; it was full of all kinds of cool obstacles and would have made a fun set piece. The only flaw in my plan was that I completely failed to foresee that, having worked so hard to gain the knowledge of where she was, Daal and the rest of the PCs would decide not to worry about rescuing her. The decision makes a certain kind of sense--she wasn't going to be any worse off later than now, and Jocasta had always kept her word in the past--but it meant I had to scramble when the PCs instead decided to pursue the main plot I had set up in earlier sessions.

The scene on the orbital refueling station around Reecee was a good example of one of the weaknesses I feel I have as a director: creating interesting NPCs and memorable non-combat encounters on the spot. I'm pretty good at ad-libbing when I know the settings and NPCs involved, but not so good at coming up on the spot with anything other than forgettable stock NPCs. The scenes on Arkania went a little bit better, as I ran with the idea (gleaned from a quick search of Wookiepedia) that Arkanians tend to be arrogant ass-holes.

There were some funny moments this session created by PC ineptitude with the die-rolling. Lucef's player botched a Stealth roll to open Arresta's luggage without leaving a mark, and then rolled terribly on his Disguise roll to make it seem like normal wear-and-tear by throwing it on the ground. Having the blaster inside go off was a fun result. Later, A'tel's player had the memorably crazy idea of trying to interrogate a prisoner by using the Force to squeeze the prisoner's heart. I set a fairly high DC on the check for using the Force with that much precision, and A'tel wasn't known for having a lot of skill with the Force to begin with. The predictable cardiac arrest and near death of the prisoner meant that that particular interrogation technique was never tried again in the campaign.

SESSION # 45

Just over four months ago, the corsair Jocasta and the sniper Doxen visited the Nal Hutta estate of Kordo Deshilich, Hutt Space’s most notorious purveyor of slave labor. Jocasta came away with two middle-aged Duros and 600 crewmen of a captured Republic freighter. Doxen came away with revenge for a wrong done to his people. Now, on the planet Etti IV in the Corporate Sector, each of these actions have had surprising ramifications as Daal Mordo tries to breach Jocacsta’s security to find the whereabouts of his mother, and Doxen prepares to set off to find the clansmen of the Rodian Harno, whom he so brutally murdered . . .

After Daal and A’tel are released from the medicenter, the group returns to the ARC in the early morning hours to find the remnants of the botched party. They meet the facility’s logistics droid, which informs them of the following: the decommissioning process is on schedule to finish at noon and evacuation is recommended prior to that time as the process would be ‘detrimental to organic life.’ Daal is informed that both the prisoner and his father are still on the grounds. He reluctantly decides that the safest place for his father is in the Corporate Sector, even if it means spending months in a refugee facility while Ms. Prentiss pushes through the application for asylum.

Doxen and A’tel stand guard while Daal and Arresta work to gain access to the mainframe computer’s restricted files. Finally, at 11 a.m., Daal pierces the mainframe security protocol only to be told by a recorded holoimage of Sunset Cassandra that the information he seeks can only be accessed through a secure terminal in Jocasta’s office. With only one hour remaining before the facility is destroyed, the group immediately relocates, with Doxen breaking off to remove the prisoner and Daal’s father from the building.

Inside the office, Daal takes a seat at the terminal. The face of Sunset Cassandra pops up and asks a question: Do you want to play a game? Daal selects yes and his feet are suddenly enclosed in steel bands that emerge from the chair. Over the next 50 minutes, Daal plays a high stakes game of Dejarik – a brutal game involving strategy and lethal combat. Each time Daal loses a piece, he suffers a mild electric shock. With his friends urging him on and offering tips over his shoulder though, the savvy Duro is able to secure complete victory and gains unrestricted access to Jocasta’s network (and an image of Sunset Cassandra pouting). With only ten minutes remaining before the building is shutdown, Daal dumps as much data as possible from the computer and runs outside with Arresta and A’tel. A few minutes later, the building undergoes an organized implosion. Doxen departs for the spaceport to board The Gentle Lover, bound for the planet Firrerre, where he hopes to pick up the trail of the kidnapped Senator Orelus.

Daal eagerly reviews the data and determines that his mother, Bai Du, is being held on a lightly-armed transport which spends the majority of its time in hyperspace. The transport only drops into real-space at specified times in a three-stop circuit (Coruscant, Etti IV, and Nal Hutta). When the ship appears, if a signal is not transmitted within ten minutes, the ship departs again. Because the signal is not included in the downloaded data, and believing that a forced rescue would require intense planning and more resources, Daal decides that his mother is probably safer where she is for the time being.

Daal also learns that Jocasta has ordered the mad Kaminoan scientist Gemma Vous to direct a massive cloning program of the power-giving creature encased within the lightsaber found within the anomaly.

Meanwhile, Arresta contacts Lucef and arranges to depart that evening. She informs Daal and A’tel that she will meet them at The Flaming Halo but that she intends to spend the day with her family. Before heading off, she tells A’tel that her intelligence network shared with her that another ship, of the same configuration as A’tel’s, landed recently in an auxiliary spaceport about 200 kilometers away from Monnder.

While Daal drops his father off with Ms. Prentiss and Arresta heads home, A’tel boards a commuter mag-lev train toward the auxiliary spaceport. After spending some time investigating, A’tel finds to his way to a small hanger where an Aethersprite is parked. An older Lurmen Jedi named Loo Mae Wyn is waiting there and confronts A’tel with the fact that Wyn had followed him from the Majestic and was eavesdropping the previous day when A’tel instructed his astromech to leave a false trail. Wyn tries to convince A’tel to remain with the Order and not to be swayed by his attachment to his friends, arguing that “they do not feel bound to you the way you feel bound to them.” A’tel explains that he can no longer believe in an order that sends Clone ‘children’ in to fight wars for them and that there are better ways to comprehend the nature of the Force than that chosen by the Jedi Order. Wyn sadly shakes his head and says he will not try to stop A’tel from leaving, but that the now-former Jedi should turn over his lightsaber. A’tel accedes and then returns to Monnder.

When Arresta returns to her townhouse, she finds the household already preparing for departure. Since he is aware that she is leaving, Stefan has decided that there is little point to him and Allegra remaining on Etti IV. He suggests to his wife that since the Corporate Sector is rather clinical and the Republic is in the midst of a bloody civil war, the Hapes Consortium or the Centrality may prove better places to raise Allegra. Arresta is pleased with the idea, but does not like the idea of her husband and daughter beginning such a journey without her. She tries to convince Stefan to wait for her, but he has already made up his mind. Instead, he agrees to leave word for her with shared contacts on both Tannab and Coruscant so that when her journey ‘to help her sick Uncle’ is over she can rejoin her family. Arresta agrees and while Stefan supervises the packing, she checks on the baby and investigates the expensive mobile that Stefan purchased. As far as she can tell, it is perfectly ordinary. The Cassadine family spends their last day together for some time as a family, sending Arresta’s trunks over to The Flaming Halo with two of Stefan’s guards so that they can put off their parting for as long as possible.

Lucef receives Arresta’s luggage and attempts to surreptitiously unlock one of the trunks to see what’s inside. However, his attempt to pick the lock not only fails, it leaves deep grooves etched into the metal. In an attempt to cover his tracks, Lucef hoists the trunk over his head and throws it down hard on the deck plating to try and make it look like the trunk was damaged during transport—an idea that might have worked, except for the fact that the force of the impact sets off one of the hold-out pistols inside and the resulting blast blows a large hole in the side of the trunk. Lucef decides to slide the damaged side of the trunk against a wall in Arresta’s quarters and hope for the best.

Meanwhile, Daal and A’tel decide to interrogate the man they caught attempting to steal data from the ARC. They douse him with liquor and take him to a hotel, pretending that their prisoner is a drunk friend. After bribing the desk clerk not to call the Espos to investigate, A’tel and Daal are able to get a room. A’tel decides that it would be best to use intimidation on the non-cooperative prisoner. The former Jedi attempts to frighten the prisoner into compliance by massaging his heart with the Force, but such a risky technique fails in a predictable way: the man goes into cardiac arrest! With no medical kit and little training in cardiopulmonary resuscitation, they decide that the only way their prisoner is going to survive is if they call for emergency medsupport. Daal is frustrated and departs immediately, while A’tel stays around and makes sure that the man receives assistance. He successfully conceals his identity from the Espos and then makes his way out of the hotel.

Daal and A’tel separately travel to The Flaming Halo and retreat to their separate quarters. Shortly before the scheduled departure, Stefan and Allegra escort Arresta to the docking bay. Arresta is emotional and Stefan’s attempts to soothe her by telling her to hurry so she doesn’t miss too much of Allegra’s babyhood twists the knife in her heart. She kisses her husband good-bye and heads off on her secret mission to rescue her former lover.

After receiving clearance to depart Etti IV, the group consults with Captain Sen Diablo and decide that Arresta’s intuition about where Tarn is located is not precise enough to risk a direct jump. Instead, the ship will take several smaller jumps to get closer and gauge the accuracy of her insight.

[A.G. 1030]

Five days in hyperspace pass quickly, punctuated only by Arresta’s conflicted emotional state, as demonstrated by her bursting into tears when A’tel casually notes that, given the time-jump they experienced while searching for Tarn last time, she could return to find her daughter a grown woman. Daal examines the blaster and the harness taken from the ARC spy. He determines that the harness is beyond repair, but that the blaster fires silent, invisible bolts and has enough power left for six shots (fuelled by a rare gas from Orto Plutonia).

The Flaming Halo drops out of hyperspace near Reecee and docks at a run-down orbital refuelling station. Lucef goes in search of supplies requested by his passengers, who mostly stay on board out of fear they will face arrest by Republic agents. A’tel borrows several thousand credits from Arresta in order to find the necessary parts to build a new lightsaber. Unfortunately, the only crystal he is able to find is a cracked, synthetic gem that would only power a lightsaber intermittently. The former Jedi also spends a few credits to buy a dubious star map of the Arkanian Nebula from a pick-pocket.

[A.G. 1037]

The next stop is the planet Arkania itself, a world covered in tundra and ice. The ship sets down in the capital city Adascopolis and the crew is able to stretch their legs and briefly explore a planet know for technological innovation, the high cost of goods and services, and a culture that openly and arrogantly believes it is superior to all others. Arresta connects to the planet’s intranet, where she is able to track down a masterwork jeweller who is willing to act as a consultant for a substantial fee. The haughty jeweller is able to confirm Jocasta’s claim that the bracelet, when activated will provide a short (5-10 minute) energy shield and will also send a distress call to a pre-programmed signal. After an additional exorbitant payment is rendered, the jeweller is able to isolate the signal built into the bracelet Arresta wears and add Stefan’s comlink frequency. A’tel takes advantage of the jeweller’s presence to purchase another potential lightsaber crystal. Noticing this, Arresta buys another crystal and asks A’tel to manufacture a second lightsaber, which she intends as a gift for Tarn.

Later that same day, The Flaming Halo lifts off and enters hyperspace on a course which they hope will take them into a small “eddy” in the massive Arkanian Nebula, a massively-dense and unchartable collection of ice, rock, and corrosive gases that has proven historically impenetrable to explorers.

[A.G. 1042]

Five days into the voyage, disaster strikes. The combination of Arresta’s intuition and Daal’s vague memories is not precise enough and the ship is yanked out of hyperspace by a terrifying gravity well: a black hole! Fortunately, the ship is far enough away from the black hole’s center that it is easily able to escape the event horizon. Still, The Flaming Halo’s hull has buckled in several places and extensive repairs are required.

[A.G. 1043]

With Daal having patched things up as best he can, the ship resumes course. A’tel is able to complete construction of a new lightsaber for himself and a spare lightsaber for Tarn.

[A.G. 1047]

This time the ship drops safely out of hyperspace and into a small “clearing”, with the swirling Arkanian Nebula all around. Arresta’s lingering connection with Tarn is sufficient for her to point out a small planet in the distance. Before the ship can reach it, however, strange clumps of spinning, metallic orbs appear and head on an intercept course for the The Flaming Halo. Sen Diablo manages to temporarily outrun the orbs by diverting all energy to the ion drives and flying straight through corrosive tendrils of the Nebula. With clever piloting (and orbs still in pursuit), The Flaming Halo breaches the outer atmosphere of a small rocky planet and skims the surface of a black, jagged, blasted landscape.

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