STAR WARS: RETROSPECTION- Teachings of the Shaman

Azarl tries to adopt a defensive posture, pulling out his shield when the skeleton moves, wondering if he simply disturbed it with his climbing or if he should expect danger.

You roll Dexterity to maintain your hand-hold and pull out your shield while on the steep floor/wall. One success means you're sluggish in pulling out your shield, or you let yourself fall. Which would you prefer?

I'll opt for sluggish shield grab. I don't know what falling will do to me here. Azarl keeps his grip on the computer banks and clumsily grabs for his shield.

Use Dodge & Weave (not a tap) to defend if whatever this thing is gets close enough to attack.

Aside from turning to face you, the "skeleton" does not move from its chair. Now that you look at it, it does not appear to be a skeleton at all, but some sort of humanoid metal figure. While its face remains expressionless, you have the distinct sensation that it is glaring at you with its glowing lamplight eyes.

It raises its arm and points in your direction.

Azarl will raise his shield and try to get out of the way! Any cover here?

You're committed to bringing up your shield, leaving you no time to find cover.

The metallic humanoid emits a series of harsh tones before a slot on its arm pulls back and a cylindrical tube emerges. You sense the deadly flash of light before you see it, and try to move away. The light lances from the tube toward you and explodes into a computer bank. It crackles with heat and burns the air around you. It missed you.

But it quickly produces another bolt of lethal light from the tube, once you have the shield up. This time, it rolls one success on five dice (reduced by Dodge & Weave). The bolt strikes your shield and burns through it, before burning across your side.

The Armor provided by your shield and exoskeleton prove ineffective against it. You take four damage (for a total of 54 damage accumulated).

It emits a series of harsh noises again, its arm still raised.

Can Azarl understand what the noises mean? Is it talking?

Azarl realizes that whatever this awful light weapon is, his shell and his shield won't stop it. He resolves to stop the metal man using it, summoning his spear with his Will and hurtling it forward with Bombard.

Four successes on your Language roll identifies that not only is it talking, but it is speaking in a language you've heard before. Not your own native insectoid Vudan language, but one you studied under the tutelage of Shaman Salcazar.

The metallic humanoid is speaking the ancient Sith language.

The spear comes to your hand when you Will it, and then launches forward far faster than had you thrown it. You roll three successes on your Bombard. The spear strikes the metallic humanoid solidly in the chest and becomes lodged there, inflicting 9 damage.

It burbles in the Sith language- something close to "Ow!"- then pulls the spear from its chest.

Can Azarl try to communicate with it in Sith language? That is, can Azarl speak any of it? He will try to tell it to stop what it's doing.

At the same time, Azarl pulls the spear back to him while tapping Dodge & Weave, avoiding the next shot.

You try to Pull the spear away from the metal man, but it keeps the shaft clamped in its grip.

You shout "Stop!" at the thing trying to kill you... and that actually seems to work (since you, again, rolled well on a Languages roll). It cocks its head quizzically, as if listening.

Azarl will repeat the command to stop, tell him he does not want to fight, and ask the metal man who and what he is. All in Sith, if Azarl can manage it.

Stringing all that together will require... oh, four successes, meaning you manage to deliver the command, the statement, and the inquiry all smoothly.

"I find your dialect curious," the metal man responds... in Vudan, your native tongue. It speaks tersely, sharply, condescendingly. "You speak the Sith language imperfectly. You have not practiced with a primary speaker. You sound like a textbook. Your accent is noticeable. I could have determined your origin and native tongue without a visual of your biology. Vudan: sentient insectoid species from Vudes."

He cocks his head to the other side.

"Continue to speak, bug, or I will incinerate your exoskeleton, peel it off, and study your organs."

Azarl did not expect the metal man to talk back so much, and actually gets annoyed by the insulting tone despite the dangerous situation. But he keeps talking.

"Who are you?" Azarl asks, this time in Vudan. "WHAT are you?"

(Does Azarl know about robots?)

Azarl's Savoir-Faire is a point higher when it comes to Vudes, and he gets four successes. Rumor has it that one of the big northern tribes has artificial intelligent beings for skilled labor. You have never seen them, but this robot fits their description in a general sense.

In any case, the robot elaborates in his grating voice, like jagged rocks scraping against metal.

"I am J7, droid interpreter and interrogator under Darth Dajjal, Lord of the Sith. I am fluent in over six million forms of communication, as well as countless methods of torture. I do not place quantitative value on my ability to torture, as my programming permits that I operate creatively."

His circular, glowing photoreceptors appear to refocus, oscillating in his metal skull with a quiet whir and recreating the imagined glare you perceived a moment ago.

"QUITE creatively."

The robot pauses.

"You utilize the Force as Darth Dajjal once did. How did you come by such training? Sith presence on Vudes terminated eons ago. YOU WILL TALK NOW."

Azarl is not sure what to make of this J7 robot. He half expects the thing to keep trying to kill him.

"The Force?" Azarl asks. "Do you mean my powers? I call upon the strength of my own Will to exert itself upon my surroundings, physical and metaphysical. I learned how to use my Will from the Shaman of my village. Why do you call it the Force? Who is Darth Dajjal?"

"Darth Dajjal was a Sith Lord. He helped conquer your puny, insignificant backwater world in order to make use of its durable inhabitants, insectoids evolved due to high levels of radiation emitted by this world's sun."

His eyes 'narrow' again.

"You label your abilities incorrectly," J7 intones. "But it is not my function to debate heresies and theologies. Enjoy your ignorance, semi-intelligent cockroach."

He makes a buzzing noise, and something inside him whirs.

"Inquiry: Do you rely on emotional outbursts for to inspire your 'Will' to function as you see fit?"

Azarl will respond that he does rely on his emotions to lend strength to his Will when he needs to.

"Nothing can overcome my Will when I put my mind to it," Azarl says. "Obstacles only frustrate me, and that frustration can boil over into anger."

Really, Azarl probably uses Fear more than anything. He is not very strong in battle, and he is still learning how to use his Will.

"I deduct from your confused statements that you utilize the energy field known as the Force, not as the Will or whatever you call it, in a manner not dissimilar to the Dark Lords of the Sith."

J7 snaps the shaft of your spear in his robotic hands, then tosses the pieces away.

"You will not need this. Now, tell me about yourself. Speak clearly and concisely, or I will fry your innards promptly."

Azarl flinches when J7 snaps the spear apart, rendering the weapon useless. He might need it when he leaves.

"What do you want to know?" Azarl asks. He tries not to show any fear when talking to the creatively lethal droid.

J7 disagrees, clearly.

"EVERYTHING."