USH'S STAR WARS GAME- CAMPAIGN II EPISODE VI (LIGHT SIDE)- Missing Links

Well, a lot of stuff happens in a very short space of time. But I think I can sum up most of it when I tell you that fifteen other lightsabres just got drawn.

his puts some of you in a highly disadvantageous position. Much as you knew this already, Rast, you never expected to be on the receiving end of trying to take on a lightsbare with your fists. Only just avoiding losing both your hands in one go, the blade is at your throat at an instant.

Xeth, whilst you're hauling your heavy weapon around, one of the group draws and sabre-throws his weapon in one motion, directly at you- and you have no sabre out to block it.. You dive backwards just in time to stop it cutting your weapon in half, but that's not an ideal move whilst bearing heavy gear, and you end up on your back.

Jelena, when you try to Push your target., he raises an arm of his own and matches your power. Unfortunately he;s cheating here by being mob-handed; a person besides him pushes against you as well, and not being ready for two-on-one you are sent stumbling backwards.

Vera, when you go for your push, the less patched person intercepts you at once- with a Grip. You feel the power closing in around your throat- this is not a novice.

Gallagher- oops... NOT mooks, and that makes your Cleave look clumsy as you run into two targets. One of them draws straight into the block, countering your sabre, and then you are an open target to the other, who just raises the point to your chest, with a smirk

Wentar- your target drops his gun, being no fool, and he's drawn his sabre before you close in. You have time to come to a halt, but there's already two more with drawn sabres either side of you.

Andro, you and Argo draw, and in staying back you have done well- but it;s not the best tactical situation you were ever in...

The man with the patched armour just stands and watches.

"I hope you don't think that of all people the weapon of a Jedi was going to impress us..."

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"All listen to the command announcement!" blares out the speaker.

A hologram forms, from the sort of commercial holo-emitter they use on Nar Shadda, projecting a figure 100 feet high. He speaks with a refined and determined voice.

"As you are no doubt aware, the rebellion is over and those who are still alive are awaiting my judgement."

He is dressed in military style, an old-fashioned stiff jacket laden with embroidery, half-covered by a pelisse, a military half-cloak worn over the shoulder. A lightsabre dangles from his waist.

"It was a foolish move. I know there are those amongst you who feel we should skulk in sanctuary for all time. That is the way of the coward. The army that stays behind its fortifications is already beaten. This is not why I called you here."

His hair is styled in the elegant locks and curls of a Charnellian officer- though insignia on his cloak marks him out as more than just a person of rank, but a person of great title. A title that brings the right to rule worlds.

"I called you to survive, and to survive we must complete the vision I laid out for you. For too long we have been hunted. We were expected to be rooted out and destroyed, every one of us. This is a desperate move, because it relied on us not having the will to survive and thrive at all costs- but that is the true secret of our power. Our time will come soon. Our enemies will suffer. First, the Bureau. Then the Jedi. And then, to feel the full extent of our destructive fury, Lanzar.

"That is our destiny now."

The hologram flickers out. Larios Kuylen has spoken.

And so it is that Episode VI finally stumbles to a close. Which means we get to open an Episode VII parallel with the new films! Unexpected...

As you can see, you are in a very dangerous position. As it turns out, along with what other threats you may have expected to find here, there is an army of force users, and even you guys have to pause in the face of that threat.

Towering above them- definitely metaphoricially, maybe in other ways- is Larious Kuylen, our long lost main villain. Ha she been spending his time creating one of the most dangerous armies that could possibly be envisaged? He has the ego for it. Kuylen's original ambitions may have been frustrated but he remains unbeaten in combat; at the head of an organised army, who knows what he might achieve?

But very little is as it seems here. There is much mystery and madness to uncover. To get to the heart of it, you are going to have to survive the perils of this place. You are going to have to find a way to fit in amongst th most dangerous force you have ever met, and then from within find the way to pass through the three gates of the White Fortress that lead to the command centre, and the answers you seek.

And it's even moire complicated than that- because, currently over the other side of the city to you, the Dark Siders have landed here too in the exact same position. They seem to think somebody here wants them dead, and whilst thats not unusual on its own, they had the impression it was either someone they have never met- which is a record even for them- or it is Kuylen himself, which they are taking personally. They, then, may know more about the Kuylen angle- but they will have no idea about the scrolls or Adelmo. It seems there was even more to this than you thought.

For the first time in many years, then, we proceed with a unified episode for all players- still in your own threads, but playing two sides of the same story.

Episode VII- The White Fortress

OH MAN.

I mean, I expected A lightsaber because of the trailer... but damn.

I'm nervous to ask what color all those lightsabers are...

But good job guys! We made it to the end! And we'll probably all die in the next one.

Figures Gallagher, of all people, gets caught in a three-way mini-duel.

Better than the four way duel Wentar has found himself in. 😛

Holy crap was that unexpected and awesomely terrifying. Honestly I was starting to expect a cult and that the danger the Council sensed was a planet of fanatics after us but this is way way worse/better.

Worse. So much worse!

At least we have our army of Jedi to back us up. But we need to figure out the best time to use it and take into account the amount of time it will take them to get here.

Damn you Ush. Damn Damn Damn.
I'm supposed to be working on things like Racial Contract Theory and Quantitative Political Analysis and other grad-school-y things but now I'm lying away thinking about Star Wars.
And in retrospect it makes so much sense.
OF COURSE Kuylen would be interested in the SnK. Why wouldn't he be? Especially after the Astrolabe was a failure? Why was Saar keeping an eye on Adelmo? Because of goddamn Kuylen. Should have seen something like that so much earlier.
Kuylen must know about the radiation for the same reason we do: Saar. So he is after the same thing. This isn't a coincidence.
Also, Roan is thinking that if Kuylen is actually on the planet, he's calling in the cavalry and anything else.
Who where the force user/gang/people that Kuylen used last time? I want to say their name started with a J? (Not the Zeitonians.)

The cavalry can't make it through that force field...

Well that gives us a clear goal to work towards early on. I doubt we'll be able to look for the scrolls while Kuylen still has control of everything.

Unless he already has the Scrolls and has worked out what the next step is before us or Adelmo.

Sorry there, folks- meant to do this yesterday but my timing got all knackered by a friend dropping in.

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So! Sections for this story:

1. Tracking down Lennah

1 xp you played this section at all and another if you made a reasonable contribution all the way through (I am sure you can judge this for yourself but I think, for example, Roan could not clam all of the 'all the way through' bonuses n this game in all good conscience)

1 xp for finding Lennah, but there are bonuses here for anyone who contributed towards doing this faster. It wasn't that quick so no 2xp bonus but everyone who contributed skills or contacts towards tracking him down scores an extra xp.

1 xp available for meaningful interaction with Saar. Scored for all that exchanged words with him (or described in detail why they refused). Gosh, RPing xp... that's starting to stretch things...

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2. Secret Sith Base of Doom

The same participation score- 1 for turning up, another 1 for making a reasonable contribution throughout the section.

If you made a contribution towards discovering Darth Kazan's base, score an xp

If you made any contribution to the fight, score another 2 xp. If you dropped out you still score this so long as you did a reasonable amount before dropping. If you were still standing at the end of the fight, score another xp. This fight also ended successfully- despite you guys doing it the hard way by completing both objectives (stealing the data and shutting down the base) when only one was needed. That scores a bonus xp, but that one I am afraid you can't score if you dropped out from the fight (being downed is fine- only stopping playing removes the bonus)

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3. Shooting Sith in a barrel and the Robine investigation

3 xp straight for everyone who was there for the Dark Side shoot-up, even if you couldn't actually do anything. It was all dramatic and fun enough.

1 xp for being present on Robine; another xp for anyone who made a useful skill contribution. No extra xp for finding bonus info I am afraid.

Count it up and no cheating!

Okay, let's see if I get this right. My first time doing this.

Tracking Lennah, I think Rast contributed enough to be considered present but didn't really help too much. 3 xp for being around, for finding Lennah, and for using Survival on the swamp world to help narrow down Lennah's hideout spots.

Sith Base, Rast fought all the way through, helped get things done, and stayed standing. So 5 xp for this. I didn't really help find the base.

Sith in a barrel. 3 xp for riding along.

Robine, Rast showed up and I think I made use of Observation to examine some of the carnage in the casino. So 2 xp.

So 13 xp for Rio Rast.

Since I went back and checked, those who stayed up at the end of the Sith base fight: Rast, Xeth, Andro, Jelena, Vera.

1. Jelena gets 5xp. Present and active throughout, I exchanged quips with Saar and talked to Elzair.

2. Jelena gets 6xp. Present and active throughout. Found the base but didn't contribute much in the way of skills. Fought, stayed standing, AND nabbed the info we needed.

3. Jelena gets 5xp. Shooting at the Dark Jedi from her ship, investigating on Robine, and using her technical skills on the computers. Just didn't go the distance to get anything more.

16xp for Jelena.

1. 5xp. Gallagher helped find Lennah using the Force to guide his group and he talked to Saar.

2. 4xp. Gallagher participated actively but got shot down toward the end of the fight.

3. 4xp. No major skill contribution aside from chatting with the Supervising Agent.

Gallagher = 13xp.

I. 4xp for Xeth! Just didn't help us find him very quickly.

II. 6xp for Xeth! Stayed standing and blew everything up.

III. 4xp for Xeth! I helped out in the casino but by way of R3 unit so I don't think that counts.

All told, 14xp for Xeth.

I think I did pretty well for myself this episode!

Tracking Down Lennah - 4xp, I chalk most of finding Lennah up to those techies that figured out his message system or whomever talked to Elzair, I didn't do much and so don't get the credit, but participated otherwise.

Sith Base - 7xp! Vera helped track down the base in addition to everything else by using the Force to narrow down options for looking. And stayed standing!

Robine - 5xp, for sitting aboard a ship but then helping ID the Osokans and talking to the Supervising Agent and such.

All told, 16xp for Vera-Kin.

And I'm sure Ush will correct us if we're going overboard or forgot something. 🙂

Actually I think I've been a touch too generous on the middle section- I've given the same xp for turning up rather a lot. Take away the 1 point for finding the base- we'll roll that into 'turning up'. Those who contributed skills to base finding still score the 1 there.

But that still leaves lots of xp there- Gallagher still gets 4 (1 for turning up, 1 for sticking it out, 1 for being in the fight, 1 because the fight was successful). For clarity- the bonus point for the successful Sith base fight is for everyone who didn't drop out; it was a team effort.

However, the basic rule is that a section is worth 6 points done straight, 5 if scraped and 7 if done well, so I'll find another criteria for a middle section point.