STAR WARS: RETROSPECTION- Cold War

Outside the Republic

A chill wind blew. Then again, there was always a chill wind blowing here.

“Why here?”

“It’s distant and no-one in his right mind would want to look here.”

“I’m not surprised; is there anything in this sector of space at all?”

“Small gas mine in the next system. Pretty much the only reason any ships come by at all.”

“I guess that gives us options…but we can’t stay here for long, it’s FREEZING! How do you know of this place…what was it called?”

“Hoth,” said Galder. “I came here once…long ago. It is somewhere to go if you do not want to be found.”

“Damn right…” said Takuan, shivering. The door opened, and Rah came in from outside.

“The solar heaters are fritzed,” he said. “They won’t last more than a few months and then we cannot stay here. I thought you said this was a smuggler’s base, Galder? More like a smuggler’s hut.”

“It’s somewhere to go, isn’t it? Maybe we can adjust a few things…”

“We’re just three people, Galder!” said Takuan. “Building a base here would take organization! Resources! We don’t have any of that! We cannot stay here. There must be SOMEWHERE to go.”

“Well, you’re the Force expert, YOU tell us!” said Galder. “What do you see?”

“I see...” said Takuan, concentrating for a moment. “Cold… very cold…”

“Great,” said Rah.

“And a woman with…” Takuan added, quietly.

“Sorry?” asked Galder.

“Oh nothing, nothing.”

“Back to making a life in the Republic, I suppose,” said Rah. “There is nothing for us out here. We’ll just wait a little bit for the heat to die down.” But Takuan was distracted watching the snow falling outside.

“Is this it?” he asked. “Is this all we get?” He looked down at the homing beacon Kuylen had given them all, that had summoned them to him when needed in the first place- Galder to Avalar, Takuan to Malastare, and Rah to Tartarus. It remained, as ever, silent.

Suddenly, Galder looked up to the others. “Hey, what the hell happened to Dak, anyways?”

--

Welcome to “Cold War,” an episode of the new Retrospection games! As an episode of this series, “Cold War” will be a very personal plotline, exploring events involving the players‘ characters. Going off of Ushgarak’s ever-popular Star Wars role-playing game, these mini-episodes occur in game-play's past. In this case, it will specifically explore what the bloody hell happened to Dak Kaliero, who mysteriously vanished during the Battle of Zeiton and turned up again four years later.

The smartass answer to the question “What happened to Dak?” is “His player had better things to do with his life.” But that doesn’t explain much. Dak Kaliero, a reptilian from the isolationist world of Arnia, was a skilled combatant and Dark Jedi operating under the guidance of Larios Kuylen. However, during the Battle of Zeiton, an epic conflict in which the Dark Side and Light Side clashed for control of one billion Force-sensitive beings, Dak vanished. Four years later, Dak turned up again, this time with strong Ties to his homeworld and quite a few stories to tell.

The lovable lizard is, of course, for the sake of this story, accompanied by a character we haven’t seen in several years. Not since the completion of Ushgarak’s first campaign. Wraith, Zink’s original character, vanished into the character trash bin when Ush introduced the Nemeses templates. However, in the mythos that the players have built up around our game, Wraith’s disappearance went relatively unexplained, except for Galder referring to him as a bastard once or twice.

The time period is set in 31 BBY- just one year after the Battle of Naboo and the events of The Phantom Menace. It has also been a year since Dak and Wraith fled Zeiton with Dak’s Zeitonian Lieutenant, Ker’Raos. They’ve settled back into their meaningless, violent lives as bounty hunters, an occupation they filled well before they met Kuylen. In addition, Ker’Raos is receiving much training in the ways of the lightsaber, their own twisted version of a Padawan Learner. Money is all the Force can bring them...or is it?

Remember, have fun!

-

At this point, I will need to know which, if any, predictive power the players will be using before the game starts. Once the plotline is in motion, you can’t make use of these abilities. As a reminder, your available predictive powers that 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. However, due to the shortness of this game, it is unavailable.

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.

If you have Foresight, forget using Dreams. Foresight is better. The real choice, though, is whether you’re taking the future-predicting abilities of the Cosmic Force or the here and now Living Force.

If you want to, 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 dramatically relevant to you, you get +4 to that roll, but you will not be told in advance.

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.

Darkies get an additional option- your prediction, if one is made for you, can be sent in secret. Who is receiving visions is announced in the thread, though, so even if they don’t get to read it, your fellow players will know you have one. Yay paranoia!

The Black Dawn, Docking Platform A19, Nar Shaddaa

"So here we are again."

Ker'Raos, in the main room of the decrepit freighter, clicks agitatedly at the keyboard as he scrolls through a list. It is the listings of the Bounty Hunters Guild; available bounties to prey upon.

After the terrible results of Zeiton, after Ker'Raos informed you of impending Zeitonian rebellion against Kuylen's control, after Wraith told you that the Mausoleum was a waste of time, you returned to your old life, Dak.

Your old...average...life.

"Using our talents for the mundane..."

How dull, you think. After something so spectacular as your time with Kuylen, thinking you were meant to be something amazing, a galactic overlord of sorts, the Lizard King, it turns out that you're just a reptile who enjoys stabbing things and does it proficiently.

Still, might as well put your talents towards something. And there's something that everyone in the Galaxy always needs more of...

Money.

You can obtain it easily. Bounty hunting is a non-issue for you. Must be said, you take the 'Wanted Dead' contracts more often than not.

"Found one."

Ker'Raos brings up a file.

"R4-S6."

Ready...go!

Wraith will be using Foresight.

"An astromech droid?" Wraith sighs. "We're hunting a trashcan?"

The fearsome armor that Wraith used to wear is gone, replaced by a black long-sleeve shirt, a brown leather vest, and combat pants. He still wears the armor-plated boots, however. His lightsaber and vibro-axe hang from his belt, and his heavy pistol is holstered on the left side.

Dak won't be using any premonition powers as he doesn't have any... ermm

Dak looks at the file. "Money is money, Wraith. It being a droid just makes this... disgustingly easy."

Wraith folds his arms, looking cross.

"Can't you find something better, Ker?"

Very true, Dak.

Wraith, Foresight is noted.

"The contract is pretty high," Ker'Raos says, indicating the prices on screen. "Absurdly so."

He scrolls down the page.

"Wanted for...mass murder. Not much else other than he's been modified by previous owner. Said person is dead. Yeah...that's all."

He turns towards you two. As a reminder, Ker'Raos is a Zeitonian, with bulbous froggy eyes and the like. He still wears the uniform of a Council Member; his lighstaber hangs from his belt at all times.

"Currently the highest bounty. I think we should go for it."

Dak nods. "I agree. An R4? Even if it's been tagged for mass murder, come on. This'll be a cakewalk."

He gives Wraith his rather scary, toothy reptilian grin.

"Seems too easy."

"Oh, don't talk like that. Whenever someone talks like that it stops being easy and becomes a big stupid chore."

"I just don't like going in without knowing what we're up against," Wraith replies. "You know that. Remember the LAST time? Hmm?"

Dak groans. "Listen, no one could have expected four dozen armed guards were going to be there! And, I would like to remind you, you said 'seems too easy' then, too!"

"Alright, so we should be expecting four dozen armed guards, then," Wraith says. "Good, we'll be all set."

Ker'Raos rolls his eyes.

"Let's not bring that one up again," he says. "Anyways, R4's file doesn't give me much else. Several thousand credits, wanted in pieces, and he's actually holed up in an abandoned warehouse on the other side of this district."

He gets up and grabs his kinetic rifle.

"Let's get going?"

Dak checks his wristguards, making sure his sabers are in place. "Right. Other side of the district? We'll be back before it's time to steal dinner."

He opens the Black Dawn's main hatch and heads out, forcibly ending any further arguments Wraith might have.

Wraith will shrug and follow Dak out into the night.

Off we go!

The Black Dawn is docked in a lower section of Nar Shaddaa. It's a dangerous neighborhood, but you guys know the area ridiculously well by now, having been bounty hunters in this place years before you struck any deals with Kuylen. Not to mention you're damned scary people. No one is going to give you trouble.

Nar Shaddaa is a city planet, like Coruscant, but the layout is overall different. Coruscant is a high city, where the buildings are stacked atop each other, higher and higher. Nar Shaddaa is a low city, where the buildings are being put lower and lower into the ground. There hasn't been much construction in recent years, unlike Coruscant, always building.

In any case, the warehouse that Ker'Raos spoke of, while being on the otherside of this district, is also high above you and takes a bit longer to reach.

You still get there, though. The warehouse is pretty big, but nothing notable.

At this point, I'd like a reminder of what weapons you're all carrying?

Dak has his pair of sabers, and his Arnian knives, which I think count as melee weapons, Strength +2 damage.

Dak stops in front of the warehouse, examining it. "You know, I like it better when our quarries hide in nice buildings." The reptilian looks to Wraith and Ker'Raos. "You ready?"

Wraith's got an orange lightsaber, a heavy pistol, and a vibro-axe, Strength +3.

"Nar Shaddaa doesn't have nice buildings," Wraith replies, drawing his pistol. "Ready. How are we doing this?"

"How? What, you mean like a plan?" Dak considers this for a moment. "Does running in and killing whatever's in there except for our little mechanical friend count as a plan? Then we'll chop its legs off or something."

"Yes, let's commit mass murder," Ker'Raos says. "Splendid. I'll just go turn myself in now."