STAR WARS: RETROSPECTION- Broken

Jedi Temple, Coruscant

“Troubled, you are."

“Yes, Master Yoda.”

Myraline folds her robes around her tightly and sits, cross-legged, on the simple round seat. It is one of three occupying Master Yoda’s private meditative chambers, and the other two are taken by a pair of diminutive Jedi Masters- Master Yoda and Master Vera-Kin. The latter seems troubled herself, and has her eyes closed in quiet thought. Myraline’s tired eyes flit between the two as she sits. Though not an old woman, Myraline’s hair is already streaking with white from stress. She sighs heavily and opens her mouth to continue, but she is interrupted.

“This is not about your new Padawan, I feel,” Vera-Kin states. “Ciira has been a better match for you.”

“Yes,” Myraline admits. “I am here regarding my former student, Rianna Xi.”

“Concerned, you are,” Yoda observes.

“Yes. Rianna has always been... an emotional girl. But now that she has attained Knighthood, I feel that the control she exerted over her emotions before has now become... well, lax. Before, she had myself to answer to and avoid retribution from, but now... on her own, she is free to do as she pleases. That worries me. She was doing so well, surprisingly so after what happened at Beseedra. Furthermore, I recall Rand trying to talk with her...”

“We do not know enough to assume what I know you are assuming,” Vera-Kin says, sharply. “Rand has given in to the temptation of the Dark Side, there is no doubt of that, but we do not know how long he has been tumbling down that slope.”

“Even so... he did try to talk with her, and I am worried that this may have had some effect on her. Especially the death of Foghren... she has not taken it well. I just ask that the Council keep close watch over Rianna. I do not want to say that I think the Council made a mistake in Knighting her... but I do not want her to fall too.”

Vera-Kin grunts in annoyance, but Yoda stays her with a hand.

“Your request, the Council will take into consideration,” Yoda says. “Watch over Rianna, we will.”

“Thank you, Master,” Myraline says. She felt guilty approaching Yoda about her former student in this subtle way, as if she were betraying Rianna, but she knew that her student could possibly be a danger to herself, and wanted to avoid it. And if Rand had put ideas into Rianna’s head about the Dark Side... Myraline preferred not to think of it. “May the Force be with you.”

“And with you,” Vera-Kin responds. She watches Myraline go and waits until she has left to speak again. “She suspects what I am loathe to admit, Master Yoda. Do you really think that Rand will try to drag others down with him? He was always critical of Myraline’s training methods and mentioned wanting to train Rianna, but...”

“Tried to convert his Padawan to the Dark Side, he did, before he killed the boy,” Yoda says, closing his eyes. “Possible, it is, that Rand will seek out followers. But difficult to see he is, now that he has chosen the Dark Side. Keep watch, you will, over Rianna? Possible that he may try to contact her in some way, it is.”

“Yes, Master.”

The two sink into meditation in silence.

-

Welcome to “Broken,” an episode of the Retrospection games. As an episode of this series, “Broken” will be a very personal plotline, exploring events involving the player’s character. Going off of Ushgarak’s ever-popular Star Wars roleplaying game, these mini-episodes occur in game-play’s past. In this case, we will again take a gander at the events that caused Rianna Xi to begin her downward spiral into the Dark Side.

After a tumultuous training under Myraline Kiros, a talented Jedi but a struggling mentor, Rianna finds herself freshly coming out of her studies as a Jedi Knight herself, and a lethal one at that. Her skills in combat have only increased since the events that occurred five years prior, when she slew the mad scientist Xirdal Roch as he tried to infect his world with a biomechanical plague. However, she has embraced her newfound individuality by throwing off the yoke that Myraline had tossed around her neck, and her control over her unstable and repressed emotions is slipping. She is further thrown for a loop when her friend, the Jedi Foghren, is suddenly murdered by his teacher, Rand. As a result, Rianna has become argumentative with others that try to help her with her emotional relapse, and in general prefers to work alone.

The time period is set in 32 BBY- a few months before the Battle of Naboo and the events of The Phantom Menace, and two years since Rand left the Jedi Order and killed his student. Rianna is now a grown woman and a Jedi Knight, taking assignments on her own. At the moment, she is on a mission to bust up a drug smuggling operation, and expecting armed resistance to her efforts...

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At this point, I 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 vague but truthful 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.

Dreams can come free, in which case you roll a single d6 die to see the outcome, the power triggering if you roll a 5 or 6. Alternatively, if you spend a Force point, you get a free Dream. With Foresight (which costs a Force point), if you get a result of 3, 4, or 5, you receive a Minor Revelation that provides clues, whereas a 6 gets you a Major Revelation, which gives you foreknowledge of an upcoming event.

The power Insight ensures that you receive at least a minor vision with Foresight, while it increases your odds of getting one with Dreams. If the plot is extremely personal to the character, they will receive a bonus to their Premonition roll.

Countryside, Reecee

Local law enforcement was having trouble tracing the drug supplies back to their dealers, Rianna. They were convinced that they had looked everywhere, and that they were not going to find anything. Reecee is an ordinary Republic world with a representative democracy, known for... pretty much nothing. Recently gang violence has broken out in urbanized areas due to the introduction of a Reecee-originated drug known as ‘huxley.’ You’ve seen a sample; it is a goopy purple liquid, looks almost like jelly. However, it smells like rotten eggs crossed with burnt cheese. ‘Huxley’ is a hallucinogenic hat is supposedly highly addicting and relatively cheap, with long-lasting effects. It has taken Reecee by storm and is, in general, causing wide-spread problems.

But, at long last, you have managed to find your way out into the hilly countryside where an old and long-unused farm resides. The police had been keeping tabs on the dealers, but it became obvious that they were not the right folk to watch; you kept tabs on their suppliers, ordinary folks who would nonchalantly deliver the huxley and move on. One of them led you to this farm. It turns out that when the owner of the farm passed on, the paperwork for turning it over to the government was conveniently lost and the farm remained (supposedly) untouched. It did not take you long to figure out that someone got a bribe, and you found that someone pretty quickly. He was paid off by a man named Dukar- some lowlife from off-world.

Not one to work with others, you told the police you could handle it. They warned you that these people could be armed, and armed well, if the recent gang fights were any indicator. It does not really worry you, and you are walking towards the farm now. It consists of a small rundown farmhouse, closer to the dirt road, and a barn that should be condemned, further back across the farmland, with an unused field between the two.

(psssst, if this is four years after the stuff on Beseedra, it should be in 33 BBY, not 32...😛)

Rianna will use Dreams, of course.

As she approaches the decrepit farm, Rianna will use Sense, trying to see if there is anyone in the farmhouse or the barn.

(Edited.)

There are people in the farmhouse, but the barn is too far for Rianna to sense.

Is she able to get enough of a sense to have an idea of how many people are in the farmhouse?

She'll approach it, trying to stay hidden as much as possible while doing so.

You cannot determine an exact number, but you sense it is only a handful.

Rianna decides to press up against a wall, Splinter Cell-style, just as the man on watch comes out to sit on the front porch. She makes her Intrusion roll of eight dice... and scores not a single success! Want to blow a Lucky roll already?

...only my luck. I swear. No, not going to bother, I don't think. Not yet.

Seeing only one person come out, Rianna will draw her lightsaber (but not yet ignite it).

"Drop any weapons you might be carrying, and put your hands up," she says. "Quietly."

The man starts to go for his blaster until he sees the lightsaber in your hand. Instead, he stays frozen in place for a brief second before bolting back into the house.

"We've got company!" he shouts as he disappears through the front door. "Jedi on the lawn!"

Of course, having not stayed to keep track of you, Rianna is free to do as she pleases.

Is there a backdoor to this building?

You would assume so.

Well, assuming that if whoever is inside is going to attempt an escape they would not try the exit that the Jedi is in front of, she is going to sneak around to the back of the building and enter that way.

Two succeses allows for Rianna to quietly slip around the side of the house. You hear the front door fly open once more and the pounding of boots on the wooden porch, and you sense everyone heading towards the front.

Huh. Or maybe they care more about trying to kill the Jedi, or something...

Assuming there's a door in the back, Rianna will slip inside and use the fact that everyone's rushing towards the front to sneak up behind them.

Maybe.

Rianna rolls three successes as she quietly moves in through the back door. It leads to a kitchen that does not appear to have been cleaned in years. A hallway outside the kitchen leads to a foyer by the front door, where a group of five men are standing with blasters.

"Where'd she go?" one of them shouts to the others.

This time, as Rianna walks up to them, she will ignite her lightsaber.

"Now, that wasn't very smart of you," she says, angling it into a defensive position. "I do recall telling one of you to put down your weapons. I'd advise everyone to do so."

Rianna, something is off. Normally drugged-out thugs like these would drop their guns at the sight of a lightsaber lighting up. Instead, they turn and get ready to fire. They absolutely reek of fear... and yet they are still doing this.

Your Blade Schticks, please...

Hmm. That is a bit odd...

Anyway, Orthodox Guard, Cleave, and Perfect Strike, please.

Due to her decent Intrusion rolling, Rianna is able to have first blood.

Here is the situation as it stands...

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ABANDONED FARM BUST, START OF TURN 1

Foyer

Thugs x5 (G 5): 0

Rianna (LS 12 / FP 5): 3/3/0 [Orthodox Guard/Cleave/Perfect Strike]

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Do any of them seem to stand out as any sort of leader?

Rianna will make a simple attack on the nearest thug, not tapping any powers or anything.

Rianna goes after a thug. With a Lightsaber pool of 12, boosted to 16 by her weapon's Mook Killing Power of 2, it is no surprise that she rolls eight successes in her attack. Her lightsaber tears through the first thug in a downward slash, then skims across the floor before coming up into the second thug. Two down, three to go.

They fire back frantically, and Rianna takes minor damage.

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ABANDONED FARM BUST, START OF TURN 2

Foyer

Thugs x3 (G 5): 0

Rianna (LS 12 / FP 5): 3/3/8 [Orthodox Guard/Cleave/Perfect Strike]

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