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USH'S STAR WARS GAME- CAMPAIGN II EPISODE II (DARK SIDE)- In the Coils of the Serpent
Started by: Ushgarak
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Ushgarak
Paladin
 Gender: Male
Location: Chelmsford, Essex, UK Co-Admin |
USH'S STAR WARS GAME- CAMPAIGN II EPISODE II (DARK SIDE)- In the Coils of the Serpent
“I guess you can close this case on this one, Helkin.”
A pause.
“There are no bodies.”
“Well, of course not, in an incident of that nature. Just so much stellar dust by now.”
“I didn’t think it would end that way.”
“Seems a fair operation. You chased them into an impossible position and they killed themselves trying to get out.”
“These ones were different. They aren’t like the others ones I have seen before. They’re a team. They even helped each other to get away.”
“Kuylen’s influence, I suppose. A shame he was not there, but even so. That and Rand; well guarded secret is Rand. Also a useful demonstration, that we can clear up where the Order has failed.”
“You don’t understand. I wasn’t saying it was a tough take down. I was saying… that if they are different, this is not how it would end.”
“I am not sure I understand, dear boy.”
“The Force works in strange ways. People like that… that’s not how they die. That issue has to be put to the ultimate test. They need to be taken down in person.”
“No-one is invulnerable in that sense, Helkin. Anyone can die in a botched hyperspace jump.”
“They wouldn’t have done it, not at that risk. They would have died fighting first. I’ll need a full forensic analysis.”
“That’s a lot of effort on just a hunch of yours.”
“No bodies…”
“But of course no bodies! Just like I said!” A chuckle emerged from Helkin, and he murmured something. “Sorry, what was that?”
“Eaten by a Rancor,” repeated Helkin.
“You do appear to be blathering, dear chap.”
“Kuylen. It’s how he ‘died’ On his mission to Hutt Space. Eaten by a Rancor. No body, you see? And so no questions. A few years later… there he was on Jaglon Beta. The pupils learn from the Master; that is also the way of the Force.”
“Perhaps we’ll never know.”
“The Chancellor will know. He ALWAYS knows.”
“If you’re right… this won’t look good on your career.”
“It will look even less good if I didn’t do anything about it.”
“What can you do about it? You have no trail, no leads, nothing!”
“I don’t need a trail. I know these people. They’ll be back.”
“That would be insane.”
“Exactly my point. Get me that forensic team. I’m holding onto my Hunters for the foreseeable future.”
“That is a heavy resource drain on…”
“Take it up with the Chancellor! I am certain he will agree with me. Get me that team! Helkin out.”
-
Ok folks, welcome to Episode II (Dark Side) of the second Star Wars campaign! This is a direct continuation of the previous story, which was in fact one large Episode which has now been split in two. Therefore, no actual time has passed between games; the events of the last Episode move directly into this one.
As the game opens, the players have just escaped a deadly hunt for them by the new Galactic Organisation, the Bureau of Immigration and Undesirables. This organisation is a cover, with the secret aim of exterminating the Dark Siders from the Galaxy, with as much prejudice as possible. The deadly Osokan hunters they provide with this aim in mind have proven their worth on the field and are to be feared; the Agents that command them- in this case, one Rado Helkin- intelligent and determined.
The players were pounced upon whilst answering the signal of the veteran’s old boss Kuylen, who was calling them together after a long absence. The Bureau intercepted the signal and ambushed the players- Kuylen never showed. The long chase that followed would have ended in certain death for the players, but they were rescued by an associate of Kuylen’s named Melkus Doon, a Free Trader who has a good deal in ancient artefacts- Kuylen’s favourite sort of goods for his Sith archaeology plans- and renowned troubleshooter and crisis management operative. Kuylen- escaped but isolated and in hiding- sent Doon to make sure that the players got out alive, and put them on course for Kuylen’s new plan. With the Bureau now escaped, the players now flee the Republic to Doon’s hideout to recover and prepare for the next stage.
New players are welcome. New Dark Siders are associates of Master Nume Rand, leader of the group at this time, an ex-Jedi who has tried to round up other Dark Siders into his group. Earlier parted from your Master, Doon has managed to get you to rendezvous with his ship Scorpio en route to his hideout, so you can meet Rand again and integrate into the group.
Whatever Kuylen had planned, he knew he couldn’t do it alone. Therefore, what is to come must be dangerous and difficult. Be warned- there are no easy times on the Dark Side. The big difference in this episode though is that before you were always reacting to events. Now, you are on the offensive, as it were. You must plan and execute your own operations without it all being laid out for you- you will have a situation, and objectives, and that is it. A tryout of such a scenario in the Epilogue of the last Episode has proven successful. The team is working- keep that up, and glory and success beckon.
Indeed, power is your aim, and this Episode is one with a substantial reward at the end should a victory be won. It is hard, but worth it. There is all to play for.
As before, there is no prohibition on seeing what the Light Side are doing. Even if you don’t like doing that in general, they are still pursuing their own unconnected plot, so there really is no risk at all.
At this point, I need to ask everyone what, if any, predictive power they wish to use before the game starts. I’ll need to know it pretty quickly because once the plot gets underway you are forbidden from using them. As a reminder, the predictive powers you may have taken are:
Dreams. Using this gives you a small chance that the Force will have given you insight into what is to come in the upcoming story, giving you a chance to better react and deal with these events.
Foresight. This is better than Dreams- it represents you actually spending time to navigate the future to deliberately try and get warning of upcoming events. It can give far more clear and comprehensive visions than Dreams.
Manifest Destiny. Basically a Dark Side twist on Foresight. Whilst not literally better than Foresight, if you have it you will probably find it more useful. Manifest Destiny means that your future predictions become subjective rather than objective, and show you how you personally can increase your power, and become better than you are. It is how Palpatine creates his labyrinthine plans. A successful use of Manifest Destiny will give you information on what you should do to become more powerful. Normally this will, of course, be of relevance in the coming story- though Foresight talks more directly about story events. Manifest Destiny is very much focussed on you alone.
Instincts. The power of the Living Force gives you no warning about the future at all, but makes you more likely to do things right once you get there. A successful use of Instincts will give you a certain amount of re-rolls to use during the story, which you can use whenever a die roll goes badly to get a better result.
So, if you have Foresight, don’t use Dreams, Foresight is simply better. So if you have a choice, chose between either Cosmic Force prediction in advance, or Living Force sense at the time. And if you have Manifest Destiny, you have a choice between broad help from Foresight, or personal help from Destiny.
If you wish, you may reduce your force rating by one for the story to get +1 on your prediction roll. The Force power Augury also gives a bonus to these rolls. If the upcoming storyline is drastically relevant to you, you get +4 to the roll, but I will not tell you that in advance.
Note- Last story, Rah spent a Force point and made a successful prediction, which I never gave him (because it related to later events that were now shifted into this Episode; as a side note, Darth Sidious’ use of Obfuscate meant that Foresight did not warn you about the Osokans- Manifest Destiny would have helped though.)
Actually, I never took that point away from Rah, so he didn’t lose out. Instead, Rah gets no choice of a Predictive power this time; instead, he automatically succeeds a Foresight roll, with no need to spend a Force point.
Choose one; I shall make the roll and tell you the result. Bear in mind that the rolls are not easy and if you get a result you have been lucky.
As Dark Siders, you get an additional option- if you wish, you may receive your Prediction, if any, in secret, by PM. Bear in mind that I will tell everyone the results of the rolls, so if you do choose to get it in secret, everyone will know that. Well, anything to increase paranoia, eh?
Normally at this point you would also choose whether to use powers like Corruption or Domination. Due to the nature of the start of this Episode, however, that option is not available to you this time.
Good luck folks; the next post I make will be the starting situation.
__________________
"We've got maybe seconds before Darth Rosenberg grinds everybody into Jawa burgers and not one of you buds has the midi-chlorians to stop her!"
"You've never had any TINY bit of sex, have you?"
BtVS
Last edited by Ushgarak on Jan 9th, 2005 at 01:56 PM
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Jan 3rd, 2005 06:08 PM |
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Ushgarak
Paladin
Gender: Male
Location: Chelmsford, Essex, UK Co-Admin |
Part One- The Ghost Citadel of the Golden Serpent
The Planet Epireus
It was a long journey out this far. Doon came a long way to get you, and this is a fair way from where the action is.
A sensory anomaly in this sector means that precious few people know that this star has a habitable planet in its system. This is not unique; lots of smugglers and other small time operations in the Galaxy live on such worlds; only probes directly sent into the system could tell anything different. But no-one would bother sending a probe out the Republic to Epireus. Not without cause.
You arrive on Scorpio. Doon explains that his security sensors would go nuts if a load of authorised ships come near, and whilst he doesn’t have any orbital defences, the landing area would seal off. He will need to programme your ships to be cleared.
Scorpio is quite large. It’s not huge, it’s not even big, but for the smuggling type such as Doon, it’s larger than you would have thought; a class larget than any of your ships. Reminiscent in design of a Star Destroyer, though a kind of rusty brown colour, it has its own bridge, in an SD style bit sticking out of the top. It’s not a massive bridge, but it is a bridge, with control panels and six different chairs- three in a raised area behind and above the other three- where crew members can sit and operate sensors, weapons, navigation etc. independently. Doon seems to run around operating stuff himself a lot of the time, as he is clearly a talented flyer but any of you with Pilot and/or Fix-it scores can help crew this vessel. There is room to walk around, and a scanner screen to show what is outside. Like everything with Doon, things all look a little used, a little worn- but customised, well-maintained and in good shape.
Sitting at the Sensors chair, Rah, you are a little alarmed by Epireus, for two reasons. First of all, it is a very high pressure world. The atmosphere is too thick for you. Secondly… it’s inhabited! By intelligent life- there are signs of civilisation! Doon calms your fears on two counts.
“I’d hardly call it intelligent,” he said. “Big ugly chaps with large muscles, as you would expect on a high pressure world, but stuck in the bronze age; real dawn of civilisation stuff. Just discovering how to build water pipes, that kind of thing. Usually each part of the world is busy warring with its neighbours. Barely worth consideration.
“And yeah, don’t hang around most of the world too long; the pressure is bad for you., But Epireus has tall mountains- VERY tall mountains. The air up there is much thinner; perfectly tolerable for us. The Epireans never come near.”
Scorpio makes a perfect orbital insertion. As it approaches the mountainside, there is a brief alarming wobble. Galder, you cock your head to one side as you recognise the feeling. A fixed-emplacement orbital deflection shield! Strong enough to deflect any bombardment. Doon has a shield generator- serious hardware!
“Better than that,” says Doon. “The geothermals on this world are a gift from the Gods; wasted on the natives. The whole mountain gives me enough power to run that shield continuously. Man like me learns to make precautions in case some guy with a battlecruiser has a grudge against me; this way, they have to come and do the job personally. Which suits me.”
Scorpio’s landing is hair raising- it actually flies INTO one of the mountains, where the hangar is built into. Only that’s not the end of the matter; having landed, it is in fact on a huge lift, which draws the ship down to its resting place in the mountain. This is no tiny hideout; it is a full-scale base. Doon must make a lot of money running his goods.
You emerge through a considerably large security door into what looks like a living room; warmly furnished, with soft chairs all around.
“I’ll get some refreshments,” says Doon. “You guys can relax now.”
A good time to talk over, discuss things, and introduce new players.
__________________
"We've got maybe seconds before Darth Rosenberg grinds everybody into Jawa burgers and not one of you buds has the midi-chlorians to stop her!"
"You've never had any TINY bit of sex, have you?"
BtVS
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Jan 3rd, 2005 06:09 PM |
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Ushgarak
Paladin
Gender: Male
Location: Chelmsford, Essex, UK Co-Admin |
And as the first note... Takuan has passed a Manifest Destiny roll...
__________________
"We've got maybe seconds before Darth Rosenberg grinds everybody into Jawa burgers and not one of you buds has the midi-chlorians to stop her!"
"You've never had any TINY bit of sex, have you?"
BtVS
Last edited by Ushgarak on Jan 3rd, 2005 at 07:04 PM
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Jan 3rd, 2005 06:59 PM |
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Peach
mordrem
 Gender: Female
Location: verdant brink Moderator |
I'll use Dreams, in a PM, I guess....
__________________
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Jan 3rd, 2005 07:03 PM |
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REXXXX
Networking
 Gender: Male
Location: San Diego Moderator |
(I too shall use Dreams, also via PM.)
(And Huzzah for Takuan...)
Galder leaves the Scorpio and stretches his limbs, then cracks his neck, as is his habit.
"Well, pretty good set-up you have here, Doon. I take it you are well payed for...whatever you do."
Galder hangs around to see where everyone else plans to go.
(What's around Galder?)
__________________
Last edited by REXXXX on Jan 3rd, 2005 at 11:38 PM
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Jan 3rd, 2005 11:36 PM |
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General Zink
Bane
 Gender: Male
Location: Evil high-backed chair |
Rand steps off the ship with an eccentric wave of his cape.
"And now we can breath the air without the putrid stench of those unhuman monster of piggish death," Rand says, with a dark tone in his voice. "You hear that? Not one crackle of an Osokan whip, or a cry of pain as one of us is struck..."
(Rand will use Manifest Destiny, with the Augury bonus added to that, and a Force point used...)
__________________
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Jan 4th, 2005 12:03 AM |
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Ushgarak
Paladin
Gender: Male
Location: Chelmsford, Essex, UK Co-Admin |
"The service industry pays well," says Doon.
There are actually other people around here, Galder, doing little jobs; maintenance, stock control etc. (he has a huge cargo area). They've been expecting you., But around here- just a living area, wine cabinet, some electronic recreation units (i.e. games) and so forth.
__________________
"We've got maybe seconds before Darth Rosenberg grinds everybody into Jawa burgers and not one of you buds has the midi-chlorians to stop her!"
"You've never had any TINY bit of sex, have you?"
BtVS
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Jan 4th, 2005 12:07 AM |
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Ushgarak
Paladin
Gender: Male
Location: Chelmsford, Essex, UK Co-Admin |
You know, Rand... something about you automatically likes this place.
(It's your megalomania. Secret mountain bases appeal to it)
__________________
"We've got maybe seconds before Darth Rosenberg grinds everybody into Jawa burgers and not one of you buds has the midi-chlorians to stop her!"
"You've never had any TINY bit of sex, have you?"
BtVS
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Jan 4th, 2005 12:08 AM |
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General Zink
Bane
Gender: Male
Location: Evil high-backed chair |
Rand takes one look about and rubs his hands together.
"Doon, if you ever consider giving away this wonderful place," Rand says. "I would be delighted to declare it under new management soon after..."
Rand wanders to the wine cabinet. "Mind if I confiscate a bottle, Doon?"
(Oh, and I would like that Premonition in a PM. I actually want to succeed in my Premonition this time...)
__________________
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Jan 4th, 2005 12:11 AM |
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REXXXX
Networking
Gender: Male
Location: San Diego Moderator |
"You are strange," Galder says lightly, passing Rand.
"Care to take me on in a game?" Galder asks him, examining the recreational systems that Doon has installed.
__________________
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Jan 4th, 2005 12:14 AM |
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General Zink
Bane
Gender: Male
Location: Evil high-backed chair |
"Depends on what there is..."
__________________
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Jan 4th, 2005 12:15 AM |
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Ushgarak
Paladin
Gender: Male
Location: Chelmsford, Essex, UK Co-Admin |
Damn thing is locked, Rand! He opens it up for you though. In fact he is now providing refreshments in general.
You'd be hard pressed to fail, to be honest, Rand And... you haven't. I'll get it done soon. Takuan already had his, but you know what his ones are like; he'll be all year figuring it out.
"We'll be resting here for a day or two," says Doon (during which time you can have your premonitions), "but I'll fill you in on the plan as soon as everyone is comfortable."
__________________
"We've got maybe seconds before Darth Rosenberg grinds everybody into Jawa burgers and not one of you buds has the midi-chlorians to stop her!"
"You've never had any TINY bit of sex, have you?"
BtVS
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Jan 4th, 2005 12:16 AM |
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General Zink
Bane
Gender: Male
Location: Evil high-backed chair |
(Good, I want to achieve things this time...)
Rand grabs a bottle of wine, pops the cork with one of his long knives, then examines it thoroughly to 1) make sure it is good wine and 2) make sure it isn't poisoned.
Satisfied with his findings, he calls a wine glass to him with the Force and pours himself a glass.
"Go ahead, Galder, play a game, and maybe I'll become interested..."
__________________
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Jan 4th, 2005 12:22 AM |
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REXXXX
Networking
Gender: Male
Location: San Diego Moderator |
"Suit yourself!" Galder says, not allowing himself to add any derogatory statements.
Galder selects a shooting game and picks up the false gun, blowing away a few holographically generated Gungans before putting the game up a notch to Very Hard.
__________________
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Jan 4th, 2005 12:29 AM |
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Ushgarak
Paladin
Gender: Male
Location: Chelmsford, Essex, UK Co-Admin |
It's pretty good wine actually. Doon has a certain luxury taste. You wish he dressed better though; he looks like a mechanic, mid-job.
__________________
"We've got maybe seconds before Darth Rosenberg grinds everybody into Jawa burgers and not one of you buds has the midi-chlorians to stop her!"
"You've never had any TINY bit of sex, have you?"
BtVS
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Jan 4th, 2005 12:32 AM |
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Trickster
True KMC Jester
 Gender: Male
Location: United Kingdom |
Um, Tanic is waiting for a chance to talk to Doon alone - no doubt he'll have that sometime during the stay - about Doon's recognition of him.
Til then, he moves over to Galder, unsure of how well he will be accepted, and wary of the man's skill.
"I'll take you on, if you're looking for a partner," he says firmly, not showing his thoughts.
__________________
"If clowns warred on monkeys, and the monkeys had guns, and were trained to use them, who would win?"
Death only gives another set of choices.
He who dies with the most toys. Still dies.
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Jan 4th, 2005 12:51 AM |
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Bespin Bart
Buggy
 Gender: Male
Location: Everywhere |
(Kicks BB in the face) - REX
__________________
THIS IS WHAT WE'VE WAITED FOR
THIS IS IT, BOYS, THIS IS WAR!
Last edited by Bespin Bart on Jan 4th, 2005 at 12:59 AM
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Jan 4th, 2005 12:56 AM |
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Trickster
True KMC Jester
Gender: Male
Location: United Kingdom |
Having a brief look at the gun, Tanic took hold of the grip and started shooting, aiming, when he could, to take Galder's kills.
(BTW, I'll be taking MD... In secret, since noone else is doing it publicly!)
__________________
"If clowns warred on monkeys, and the monkeys had guns, and were trained to use them, who would win?"
Death only gives another set of choices.
He who dies with the most toys. Still dies.
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Jan 4th, 2005 12:58 AM |
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REXXXX
Networking
Gender: Male
Location: San Diego Moderator |
"Certainly, though you know I'll win!" Galder declares, confident in his skills with the blaster.
He tosses one of the game's blasters to Tanic and goes back to shooting his opponents, now in the form of very large Rancors.
(Speaking of Rancors, now we know what happened to Kuylen! Sort of...)
[rams post where "BB's post" is]
__________________
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Jan 4th, 2005 01:00 AM |
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REXXXX
Networking
Gender: Male
Location: San Diego Moderator |
"Hey, don't take my kills, dammit!" Galder says, then starts trying to outshoot Tanic with his trained hand.
__________________
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Jan 4th, 2005 01:34 AM |
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