Gin wasn't sure why Galaxy's Most Wanted was coming to film on Listehol, but whatever was happening she wanted to be involved. While she couldn't supply accomodation, her Dudes could certainly sort out most of the other things they needed, and of course she could tip them off about two really interesting bounty hunters to follow around.
If only there had been some interesting bounties. There was one that would have been very interesting, given that the subject was apparently a 14' tall Duros with blue hair, but sadly he turned out to be entirely normal sized.
There was some interest in town outside the filming, however, with Borka the Hutt holding an auction for some creatures that were extinct save for these two frozen in carbonite. Gin wasn't particularly interested, especially since she was doing her best to avoid Borka at the moment, but Track-u-bot was involved in some kind of ego contest with another droid, Track-u-mon, over who was the best tracker. His plan was to track these rare creatures, which nobody else could do because nobody else had any.
That, and the fact that it would keep them out of the hands of rich arseholes while probably keeping Borka sweet, convinced Gin to put up enough of her organisation's money for them to win the auction.
But before they could start doing anything with their new purchases, news came that Galaxy's Most Wanted had located a felon. And even more exciting, the felon in question was a protocol droid! If Gin hadn't already been excited about the show, and getting to see Mnessas and Track-u-bot do their thing, this would have sealed it. The thought of one of those despicable droids getting taken down... It was all she could do to hold onto her Narglatch.
As Track-u-bot demonstrated his exceptional tracking skill and prepared for the take-down, they noticed something else. Rik Avor, the host of Galaxy's Most Wanted, talking into a holocommunicator regarding the pursuit and capture. It seemed the show might be just the teeniest bit...staged? Not that Gin minded. It was a great show! And if they wanted to make it look even better for the cameras, she certainly wasn't going to complain. She watched with glee as the droid was efficiently dismantled.
Of course the show wasn't all staged. The footage of Mnessas, both with and without the rest of them, was completely authentic. The cantina owner was kind enough to put up a holovid screen so that she and the Dudes could all watch the show.
There was just one loose end to tie up. The carbonite creatures. With Track-u-bot now confirmed as the superior tracking droid, he had no need of them. With plentiful bidders at the auction it wouldn't be too hard to sell them to one of the other interested parties. But there was someone else - an academic from some university who wanted to save the creatures and make sure their species was preserved, rather than the rather more unsavoury motivations of the other buyers. The only problem is that she could afford a fraction of what the creatures were worth.
Well. This had all started from one bad deal, made with her heart instead of her head. But she'd come a long way since then. She'd done some morally questionable things in that time, but she'd proved that she could get by without her family, or Khaljos Kind. She didn't need the money. Neither did Mnessas or Track-u-bot who were both very happy with their newfound fame and influence. With their agreement she made the second worst deal of her life. The galaxy's most wanted rare carbonite-frozen species went to their new, safe home.
Showing posts with label Star Wars. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Star Wars. Show all posts
Tuesday, 25 August 2020
Saturday, 15 August 2020
Last of the Sith, episode 6: Race Day
After the incident with Khaljos Kind's ship, Gin had been keeping a closer watch on what the Dudes were up to. A good thing too, or she could have ended up in some very nasty trouble after they picked up a job from a spice merchant. Fortunately they'd picked up some samples, so she could find out exactly what it was before committing to selling any of it.
What it was was pretty much what the Dudes had been told it was - except that it was extremely toxic to arcona. Not a bad deal though. She'd just have to be very cautious about who it got sold to.
Things were returning to something resembling normality on Listehol. Her preferred booth in the cantina was now being referred to as the 'Both Booth', and while she wasn't a big player, enough business was coming her way that she wasn't having to seek it out.
Then shortly before the big pod race day, Dax showed up in the Both Booth, looking for work. He needed money - doubtless something to do with his sister or his spaceship. She found just the thing for a competent engineer and slicer - a sabotage job on the Czerka Corp racing pod. Getting to the pod though - that would be the challenge. Gin called up Track-u-bot and Mnessas to help out, and got to watch as Dax suggested that perhaps Track-u-bot could help by preventing them being tracked - a sort of reverse tracking. Track-u-bot spontaneously rebooted.
The four of them together made it into the pod hanger without being spotted by either life forms or cameras. Dax got to work on the pod, while Gin took the opportunity to have a nose around. She was glad she did - someone who clearly hadn't been expecting anyone to be poking around in here had left notes about Czerka Corp's own sabotage plans. Of the two other favourites to win the race, one pod racer would be subject to a hit that night, while the other would be targeted by a sniper during the race.
It rapidly occurred to them that a) if they prevented a hit it could potentially result in some kind of reward and b) this would also give them a strong tip on who was likely to win the pod race.
They gathered at the bar where that night's target was hanging out. Not hard to spot the likely assailants - several of Borka the Hutt's enforcers. One was causing trouble over by the bar, which was no doubt a distraction. Gin ignored it and went searching for the pod racer. Acting like an excited fan keen to meet a popular racer was in no way a challenge. It might not be the real reason she was here, but at the same time it wasn't a lie. Once close enough, she whispered a warning to him, pointing out the assailants.
Over by the bar, Dax had got involved in a fist fight. Of course - the woman behind the bar who'd been the subject of the disturbance was his sister. But Gin had done her job in time, and both she and the racer had blasters ready when their booth was suddenly crowded with Hutt enforcers.
One bar fight later, in which Mnessas (now dressed in the (drastically hemmed) robes of a sith) performed some throws that seemed to defy the laws of physics, she had the gratitude of the pod racer, plus two VIP tickets to watch the race.
Race day dawned, and it was time to place bets. Betting on the racer they'd saved the previous night seemed like a safe bet, even if the payout wasn't too great. But Gin had one more piece of information about the race. Master Reshi would be competing. And Master Reshi was a champion pod racer.
Her bets placed, Gin made her way to the VIP area, accompanied by Mnessas. As expected, she saw one pod taken out by what had to be a sniper shot. The Czerka Corp pod failed in a truly spectacular fashion, with each engine pod going flying in different directions as the pod tore itself apart. Dax had more than fulfilled his contract.
And then the sniper took a second shot, this time at the one pod that remained from the three favourites. The Czerka Corp sniper - or was it Track-u-bot up there on the dusty knoll? Not that it mattered. She had bets on both her new acquaintence and Master Reshi, but the latter winning would be significantly more financially advantageous.
Reshi won!
The big race might be over, but there were still other races to enjoy, particuarly the all-comers ronto and other large riding animal race, which Mnessas and Track-u-bot were already planning to enter. Gin wasn't planning to do anything other than watch - but then she got a visitor wanting to sell a narglatch. Perhaps it was just the excitement of the day's events, but somehow she found herself handing over her entire winnings plus a bit more for this ridiculously dangerous animal.
It was an exciting race. Mnessas and Track-u-bot on their racing rontos, Dax on a bantha (she wasn't sure where that had come from) and her on her new narglatch.
Track-u-bot won, despite Mnessas attempting to influence things via a large box of fireworks strapped to the back of his ronto. The narglatch, Gin was glad to see, completely ignored the fireworks, but they did allow Mnessas to pip Dax to second place. Gin happily brought up the rear. Just getting through the race without falling off was quite enough.
What it was was pretty much what the Dudes had been told it was - except that it was extremely toxic to arcona. Not a bad deal though. She'd just have to be very cautious about who it got sold to.
Things were returning to something resembling normality on Listehol. Her preferred booth in the cantina was now being referred to as the 'Both Booth', and while she wasn't a big player, enough business was coming her way that she wasn't having to seek it out.
Then shortly before the big pod race day, Dax showed up in the Both Booth, looking for work. He needed money - doubtless something to do with his sister or his spaceship. She found just the thing for a competent engineer and slicer - a sabotage job on the Czerka Corp racing pod. Getting to the pod though - that would be the challenge. Gin called up Track-u-bot and Mnessas to help out, and got to watch as Dax suggested that perhaps Track-u-bot could help by preventing them being tracked - a sort of reverse tracking. Track-u-bot spontaneously rebooted.
The four of them together made it into the pod hanger without being spotted by either life forms or cameras. Dax got to work on the pod, while Gin took the opportunity to have a nose around. She was glad she did - someone who clearly hadn't been expecting anyone to be poking around in here had left notes about Czerka Corp's own sabotage plans. Of the two other favourites to win the race, one pod racer would be subject to a hit that night, while the other would be targeted by a sniper during the race.
It rapidly occurred to them that a) if they prevented a hit it could potentially result in some kind of reward and b) this would also give them a strong tip on who was likely to win the pod race.
They gathered at the bar where that night's target was hanging out. Not hard to spot the likely assailants - several of Borka the Hutt's enforcers. One was causing trouble over by the bar, which was no doubt a distraction. Gin ignored it and went searching for the pod racer. Acting like an excited fan keen to meet a popular racer was in no way a challenge. It might not be the real reason she was here, but at the same time it wasn't a lie. Once close enough, she whispered a warning to him, pointing out the assailants.
Over by the bar, Dax had got involved in a fist fight. Of course - the woman behind the bar who'd been the subject of the disturbance was his sister. But Gin had done her job in time, and both she and the racer had blasters ready when their booth was suddenly crowded with Hutt enforcers.
One bar fight later, in which Mnessas (now dressed in the (drastically hemmed) robes of a sith) performed some throws that seemed to defy the laws of physics, she had the gratitude of the pod racer, plus two VIP tickets to watch the race.
Race day dawned, and it was time to place bets. Betting on the racer they'd saved the previous night seemed like a safe bet, even if the payout wasn't too great. But Gin had one more piece of information about the race. Master Reshi would be competing. And Master Reshi was a champion pod racer.
Her bets placed, Gin made her way to the VIP area, accompanied by Mnessas. As expected, she saw one pod taken out by what had to be a sniper shot. The Czerka Corp pod failed in a truly spectacular fashion, with each engine pod going flying in different directions as the pod tore itself apart. Dax had more than fulfilled his contract.
And then the sniper took a second shot, this time at the one pod that remained from the three favourites. The Czerka Corp sniper - or was it Track-u-bot up there on the dusty knoll? Not that it mattered. She had bets on both her new acquaintence and Master Reshi, but the latter winning would be significantly more financially advantageous.
Reshi won!
The big race might be over, but there were still other races to enjoy, particuarly the all-comers ronto and other large riding animal race, which Mnessas and Track-u-bot were already planning to enter. Gin wasn't planning to do anything other than watch - but then she got a visitor wanting to sell a narglatch. Perhaps it was just the excitement of the day's events, but somehow she found herself handing over her entire winnings plus a bit more for this ridiculously dangerous animal.
It was an exciting race. Mnessas and Track-u-bot on their racing rontos, Dax on a bantha (she wasn't sure where that had come from) and her on her new narglatch.
Track-u-bot won, despite Mnessas attempting to influence things via a large box of fireworks strapped to the back of his ronto. The narglatch, Gin was glad to see, completely ignored the fireworks, but they did allow Mnessas to pip Dax to second place. Gin happily brought up the rear. Just getting through the race without falling off was quite enough.
Sunday, 2 August 2020
Last of the Sith episode 5: Things aren't always as they seem
Incoming call.
Gin did not have time for this right now. Track-u-bot had been in contact with T-91 Tacti-bot, who was estimating that even after the re-opening of communication lines, there was still a 91% chance of the destruction of all life on Listehol.
And then there was the transmission from one of the capital ship. Everyone knew that the sith lord Odion was dea, with the apparent exception of sith lord Odion who was demanding that Master Reshi come out and fight him. Weird, but unlikely to be a problem for Master Reshi. A quick insulting message was dispatched as a reply, and the group got on with more important things. A ride across the city by racing ronto, stopping off for a quick fight, and then the defense of the star port. They'd won a decisive victory, marred only by this incoming call.
Gin stared at the holo device, resisting the urge to throw it across the room. Accursed droid! What did it want with her? She took a deep breath, and answered the call.
"Hello, usurping bastard."
"You can't just do things like this, you know?"
She initially denied responsibility for the death of engineer LeForge, the damage to Khaljos Kind's ship, and the giant painting of human genitalia on the side, but given that her gang, presumably in an effort to please her, has added the words 'Gin sends her regards' around it, this was something she was going to have to deal with.
"If we're all still alive after this, you're going to be in serious trouble."
"Did you just call me to tell me it's in my best interests that none of you survive?"
Curse protocol droids and their artificial emotions! If it had been a human calling her that might have got a reaction. As it was she had one day to get Kind's ship spaceworthy again or a recording of this conversation would be on its way to the Baron. At least she knew who to call.
"Dax? I need help."
With no desire to go anywhere near Kind herself, she accepted Mnessas's offer of a racing ronto ride through the ground battle. Much mayhem later, the four of them were reunited, Dax bringing the good news that not only was the ship repaired, he'd managed to delete the recordings at the same time.
Track-u-bot had bad news - Master Reshi had been kidnapped by two trandoshan bounty hunters named Gar and Yolo - and good news - he had tracked them down to a Firespray that had only recently left the planet.
That freighter they'd used to get to the hyperspace station was still there. Despite a swarm of sith fighters they were pretty close to catching up with the Firespray when turbolasers disabled the ship and tractor beams started pulling both ships into the star destroyer.
Still, Gin reflected, at least it was taking them where they wanted to go.
She didn't have a plan to help the others out with, but she did have an idea. If she could just get Lord Odion to let his guard down a little... A sweet smile and some very insincere compliments didn't sound like much, but it was enough to put him off balance while the others repeatedly relieved him of his light saber, and ultimately, his head.
Track-u-bot seemed pretty sure this was not the real Odion, but an imposter, which certainly made more sense to Gin than him being the very dead real one. She was quite keen to remove his mask to reveal who he really was (with a strange conviction that his name would turn out to be Old Man Henderson) but ultimately there were more important things to worry about. Like shoving enough freighter parts into the Firespray to get it spaceworthy again and getting Master Reshi to safety. If nothing else, she might be able to explain why they had a dead fake sith lord on board.
Once they were clear of the star destroyer, Gin took care of the one remaining piece of unfinished business. Dax had done her a big favour with Kind's ship. It seemed only fair to give him his sister's missing ring.
Gin did not have time for this right now. Track-u-bot had been in contact with T-91 Tacti-bot, who was estimating that even after the re-opening of communication lines, there was still a 91% chance of the destruction of all life on Listehol.
And then there was the transmission from one of the capital ship. Everyone knew that the sith lord Odion was dea, with the apparent exception of sith lord Odion who was demanding that Master Reshi come out and fight him. Weird, but unlikely to be a problem for Master Reshi. A quick insulting message was dispatched as a reply, and the group got on with more important things. A ride across the city by racing ronto, stopping off for a quick fight, and then the defense of the star port. They'd won a decisive victory, marred only by this incoming call.
Gin stared at the holo device, resisting the urge to throw it across the room. Accursed droid! What did it want with her? She took a deep breath, and answered the call.
"Hello, usurping bastard."
"You can't just do things like this, you know?"
She initially denied responsibility for the death of engineer LeForge, the damage to Khaljos Kind's ship, and the giant painting of human genitalia on the side, but given that her gang, presumably in an effort to please her, has added the words 'Gin sends her regards' around it, this was something she was going to have to deal with.
"If we're all still alive after this, you're going to be in serious trouble."
"Did you just call me to tell me it's in my best interests that none of you survive?"
Curse protocol droids and their artificial emotions! If it had been a human calling her that might have got a reaction. As it was she had one day to get Kind's ship spaceworthy again or a recording of this conversation would be on its way to the Baron. At least she knew who to call.
"Dax? I need help."
With no desire to go anywhere near Kind herself, she accepted Mnessas's offer of a racing ronto ride through the ground battle. Much mayhem later, the four of them were reunited, Dax bringing the good news that not only was the ship repaired, he'd managed to delete the recordings at the same time.
Track-u-bot had bad news - Master Reshi had been kidnapped by two trandoshan bounty hunters named Gar and Yolo - and good news - he had tracked them down to a Firespray that had only recently left the planet.
That freighter they'd used to get to the hyperspace station was still there. Despite a swarm of sith fighters they were pretty close to catching up with the Firespray when turbolasers disabled the ship and tractor beams started pulling both ships into the star destroyer.
Still, Gin reflected, at least it was taking them where they wanted to go.
She didn't have a plan to help the others out with, but she did have an idea. If she could just get Lord Odion to let his guard down a little... A sweet smile and some very insincere compliments didn't sound like much, but it was enough to put him off balance while the others repeatedly relieved him of his light saber, and ultimately, his head.
Track-u-bot seemed pretty sure this was not the real Odion, but an imposter, which certainly made more sense to Gin than him being the very dead real one. She was quite keen to remove his mask to reveal who he really was (with a strange conviction that his name would turn out to be Old Man Henderson) but ultimately there were more important things to worry about. Like shoving enough freighter parts into the Firespray to get it spaceworthy again and getting Master Reshi to safety. If nothing else, she might be able to explain why they had a dead fake sith lord on board.
Once they were clear of the star destroyer, Gin took care of the one remaining piece of unfinished business. Dax had done her a big favour with Kind's ship. It seemed only fair to give him his sister's missing ring.
Monday, 27 July 2020
Last of the Sith, episode 4: Recontact
Listehol was in trouble. Gin might not be too popular with her family right now, but she had to try to protect them, even if they would never know about it. She wasn't sure where the ship had been borrowed from, and she didn't care. All that mattered was that they had a ship and an astrogation droid to get them to the hyperspace beacon.
Not that that part would be easy, with a swarm of sith fighters in the way. No way of talking their way past that. They were all dependant on Dax, who managed to swap their ship's signature with one of the fighters and get the ship into the hangar bay undetected. Well, except for the team of Sith troopers waiting for them.
Now she was on familiar ground. The sight of one of those accursed protocol droids was something of a distraction, and it was all she could do to resist shooting the droid instead of the troopers, but with the rest of the team on side they were soon on their way.
No unpleasant distractions when stronger opposition appeared. The way the sith kept fighting despite limbs flying in all directions was terrifying, but they clearly hadn't counted on an angry jawa with a vibroaxe. More material to bring up next time the crew needed a bit of motivation.
Dax turned the computer systems off and on again, which was enough to reactivate communications and allow Master Reshi to communicate with the Jedi Council again. And yet he didn't seem satisfied. Or maybe she was just having trouble reading his expression. Cybernetic eyes were confusing.
Back to Listehol. Back to solid ground, and she'd managed to leave the protocol droid alone on the way out. Dax was off to find his sister, and Gin wasn't about to let him wander off on his own. Mnessas and Track-u-bot both had racing rontos, and could get to Master Reshi a lot quicker than she could. It was sweet, the way Dax cared for his sister. Gin hoped she appreciated it.
With the group back together, Master Reshi updated, and the invading forces kept at bay, there was nothing left to do but watch the fireworks. And very confusing fireworks they were too. Which ship was which? Who was fighting who? Who were the bad guys, anyway? If there was one thing Gin knew about, it was deception. Maybe it was time to start looking for the truth.
Not that that part would be easy, with a swarm of sith fighters in the way. No way of talking their way past that. They were all dependant on Dax, who managed to swap their ship's signature with one of the fighters and get the ship into the hangar bay undetected. Well, except for the team of Sith troopers waiting for them.
Now she was on familiar ground. The sight of one of those accursed protocol droids was something of a distraction, and it was all she could do to resist shooting the droid instead of the troopers, but with the rest of the team on side they were soon on their way.
No unpleasant distractions when stronger opposition appeared. The way the sith kept fighting despite limbs flying in all directions was terrifying, but they clearly hadn't counted on an angry jawa with a vibroaxe. More material to bring up next time the crew needed a bit of motivation.
Dax turned the computer systems off and on again, which was enough to reactivate communications and allow Master Reshi to communicate with the Jedi Council again. And yet he didn't seem satisfied. Or maybe she was just having trouble reading his expression. Cybernetic eyes were confusing.
Back to Listehol. Back to solid ground, and she'd managed to leave the protocol droid alone on the way out. Dax was off to find his sister, and Gin wasn't about to let him wander off on his own. Mnessas and Track-u-bot both had racing rontos, and could get to Master Reshi a lot quicker than she could. It was sweet, the way Dax cared for his sister. Gin hoped she appreciated it.
With the group back together, Master Reshi updated, and the invading forces kept at bay, there was nothing left to do but watch the fireworks. And very confusing fireworks they were too. Which ship was which? Who was fighting who? Who were the bad guys, anyway? If there was one thing Gin knew about, it was deception. Maybe it was time to start looking for the truth.
Sunday, 19 July 2020
Last of the Sith, episode 3: The Eye of the Womp Rat
Metal detected.
Metal detected inside a womp rat! A womp rat! Was there nothing those force-forsaken creatures would not eat? Retrieving a small metal object from inside one had not been a pleasant experience. All the same, the ring she held in her hand was worth something. Maybe not the ten thousand credits that Dax's sister had claimed, but she reckoned she could probably sell it for half that. After letting the buyer negotiate her down, of course.
Things were getting exciting in town, with huge crowds arriving for the upcoming pod race. Mnessas had a great idea, and a prolonged game of charades and dirt sketches later, they'd come up with a plan. Unofficial pit fights were always a big hit, with off-worlders wanting to show off their skill, and nobody expected a jawa like Mnessas.
This kind of thing was certainly raising her profile, and the trouble with a raised profile is things tended to get caught on it. Like a small group of local thugs, who for some reason had chosen her as their leader. Much to her surprise they proved to not be completely incompetant, and despite a tendency to commit crimes if not otherwise directed, she had to admit she didn't completely hate having her own gang. If she ever needed to retrieve something from inside a womp rat again...
Odd things were happening in town though. While the flow of information between intra-planetary sources was unaffected, nothing was getting in or out via the hyperspace satellites. It wasn't long before word reached her that the hyperspace lane itself was closed. For the moment, Listehol was effectively cut off from the rest of the galaxy. And then Mnessas and Z1 Track-u-bot (freshly back from some firmware updates) brought news of a very unusual bounty.
A Jedi master was in town. Word on the street was that Master Reshi had turned a Sith lord to the light side by winning his heart, and once eaten someone for disrespecting her. Gin suspected that the latter must be an exaggeration. Ewoks were quite small, after all. It would take her a while to eat a whole person.
The bounty was for a quarter of a million credits, and was apparently being offered on Master Reshi by the Jedi Council. Dax smelled a womp rat, and looked into it, returning with disturbing news; not only was the bounty faked, but capital ships had appeared in the area before the hyperspace lane closed.
Trouble was coming, and the Baron needed to hear about it. There were trade deals going on for the ownership of Listehol, which was normal enough, but trade deals didn't involve capital ships. Gin accompanied Dax to one of the local haunts where the Baron's men could be found, before rejoining Mnessas and Track-u-bot looking for Master Reshi. How lucky that she taken the time earlier to follow the jedi and find out which part of town she was staying in.
Conversation with Master Reshi was going well until Gin heard a familiar voice - one of her gang. Of course, Mnessas and Track-u-bot weren't the only bounty hunters to have seen that bounty, and who wouldn't want a piece of a quarter million credits? She gave the others a quick pep talk, and prepared to not get involved in the fight.
Preparation that went straight out of the window when one of them shot Dax in the eye. She was surprised to find herself stepping straight outside to return the favour. Apparently all the target practice she'd been doing had paid off, as the blaster fire went straight through the bounty hunter's eye.
Master Reshi was safe for the moment, without having to reveal too much of what she was capable of. All the same, Gin wasn't about to relax. Something about this situation stank even worse than a womp rat.
Metal detected inside a womp rat! A womp rat! Was there nothing those force-forsaken creatures would not eat? Retrieving a small metal object from inside one had not been a pleasant experience. All the same, the ring she held in her hand was worth something. Maybe not the ten thousand credits that Dax's sister had claimed, but she reckoned she could probably sell it for half that. After letting the buyer negotiate her down, of course.
Things were getting exciting in town, with huge crowds arriving for the upcoming pod race. Mnessas had a great idea, and a prolonged game of charades and dirt sketches later, they'd come up with a plan. Unofficial pit fights were always a big hit, with off-worlders wanting to show off their skill, and nobody expected a jawa like Mnessas.
This kind of thing was certainly raising her profile, and the trouble with a raised profile is things tended to get caught on it. Like a small group of local thugs, who for some reason had chosen her as their leader. Much to her surprise they proved to not be completely incompetant, and despite a tendency to commit crimes if not otherwise directed, she had to admit she didn't completely hate having her own gang. If she ever needed to retrieve something from inside a womp rat again...
Odd things were happening in town though. While the flow of information between intra-planetary sources was unaffected, nothing was getting in or out via the hyperspace satellites. It wasn't long before word reached her that the hyperspace lane itself was closed. For the moment, Listehol was effectively cut off from the rest of the galaxy. And then Mnessas and Z1 Track-u-bot (freshly back from some firmware updates) brought news of a very unusual bounty.
A Jedi master was in town. Word on the street was that Master Reshi had turned a Sith lord to the light side by winning his heart, and once eaten someone for disrespecting her. Gin suspected that the latter must be an exaggeration. Ewoks were quite small, after all. It would take her a while to eat a whole person.
The bounty was for a quarter of a million credits, and was apparently being offered on Master Reshi by the Jedi Council. Dax smelled a womp rat, and looked into it, returning with disturbing news; not only was the bounty faked, but capital ships had appeared in the area before the hyperspace lane closed.
Trouble was coming, and the Baron needed to hear about it. There were trade deals going on for the ownership of Listehol, which was normal enough, but trade deals didn't involve capital ships. Gin accompanied Dax to one of the local haunts where the Baron's men could be found, before rejoining Mnessas and Track-u-bot looking for Master Reshi. How lucky that she taken the time earlier to follow the jedi and find out which part of town she was staying in.
Conversation with Master Reshi was going well until Gin heard a familiar voice - one of her gang. Of course, Mnessas and Track-u-bot weren't the only bounty hunters to have seen that bounty, and who wouldn't want a piece of a quarter million credits? She gave the others a quick pep talk, and prepared to not get involved in the fight.
Preparation that went straight out of the window when one of them shot Dax in the eye. She was surprised to find herself stepping straight outside to return the favour. Apparently all the target practice she'd been doing had paid off, as the blaster fire went straight through the bounty hunter's eye.
Master Reshi was safe for the moment, without having to reveal too much of what she was capable of. All the same, Gin wasn't about to relax. Something about this situation stank even worse than a womp rat.
Saturday, 11 July 2020
Last of the Sith, episode 2: The Better Part of Valour
Life back on Listehol had settled into some kind of routine.
Gin couldn't bring herself to go home. The thought of facing her family after everything she'd done was too awful to contemplate. The little jawa Mnessas had offered her space in his hut - at least she was reasonably sure that was what he was offering - and she accepted gratefully.
She needed money. Without Mnessas's more practical skills she fell back on the one thing she was sure of. Talking. People in bars talked about things they needed, and things they were planning to get rid of in a hurry, and there was always a use for someone who could fascilitate transfers of property. She wasn't the only person in the game, but a talent for discretion could get you a long way.
And now it had got her a job.
A break-in at Listehol Industries wasn't the kind of thing she'd normally involve herself in, but this job wasn't coming from the top, but from Hulo Tamii, rather lower down in the organisation. A quiet investigation, with all property returned before the Baron who owned the place learned anything about it, was what was being asked of her. And at the price offered, she couldn't afford to turn it down. She made an appointment to meet her contact at the site of the break-in that evening, and then recruited a little help.
Getting info out of people was one thing. Getting it out of machines was quite another, but if she could drag Dax away from that old wreck of a spaceship for a while he could probably handle that. You couldn't beat the new Track-u-bot droid if you needed someone followed, and it just made sense to bring Mnessas along in case of trouble.
At the appointed time she met her team at Listehol Industries and got to work. A fence cut with some kind of heat based cutter, a broken door, and a large piece of digging equipment missing its critical industrial gemstone. Four corpses wearing overalls; two shot with some kind of energy weapon, one with a slug thrower, and one riveted to the wall. All workers, not droid guards. The guards had been elsewhere dealing with a fire started by an incendiary device on the other side of the building, clearly a ruse to draw them away.
With the evidence from the bodies she was confident that the team would get the job done, especially with Z1 Track-u-bot on the case, but Dax had managed to throw a metaphorical spanner into the works. His sister had been given a valuable ring by her owner, Rica Obrik, and had managed to lose it. He managed to borrow a duplicate off another of Obrik's girls, and wanted a replacement made. Gin had done her best to negotiate with the jeweller, but ultimately couldn't convince him to drop his price.
She had more important things to worry about than the bizarre romances going on between Obrik and his girls though. Z1 had come through on finding the thieves, and some borrowed speeder bikes would soon get them there.
Things got a bit hairy in those caves - meaning, of course, that she could barely keep the rippling of her fur in check as she found herself far closer to the action that she'd intended. Only Z1's quick application of a stim-pack, almost at the cost of his own structural integrity, had saved her. But ultimately they succeeded, and returned to town with the stolen gem, evidence of the culprit's deaths, and a number of other useful bits and pieces about which nobody needed to be asking too many questions.
The job was done. Quietly, discreetly, and fast. The money was enough that she could stop imposing on Mnessas and get her own place with a slightly higher ceiling. And if Dax chose to spend all of his share on bailing out his sister, that was his choice.
Of course, that meant there was still a very valuable ring out there somewhere. Perhaps it was time to take up a new hobby as a metal detectorist?
Discreetly, of course.
Gin couldn't bring herself to go home. The thought of facing her family after everything she'd done was too awful to contemplate. The little jawa Mnessas had offered her space in his hut - at least she was reasonably sure that was what he was offering - and she accepted gratefully.
She needed money. Without Mnessas's more practical skills she fell back on the one thing she was sure of. Talking. People in bars talked about things they needed, and things they were planning to get rid of in a hurry, and there was always a use for someone who could fascilitate transfers of property. She wasn't the only person in the game, but a talent for discretion could get you a long way.
And now it had got her a job.
A break-in at Listehol Industries wasn't the kind of thing she'd normally involve herself in, but this job wasn't coming from the top, but from Hulo Tamii, rather lower down in the organisation. A quiet investigation, with all property returned before the Baron who owned the place learned anything about it, was what was being asked of her. And at the price offered, she couldn't afford to turn it down. She made an appointment to meet her contact at the site of the break-in that evening, and then recruited a little help.
Getting info out of people was one thing. Getting it out of machines was quite another, but if she could drag Dax away from that old wreck of a spaceship for a while he could probably handle that. You couldn't beat the new Track-u-bot droid if you needed someone followed, and it just made sense to bring Mnessas along in case of trouble.
At the appointed time she met her team at Listehol Industries and got to work. A fence cut with some kind of heat based cutter, a broken door, and a large piece of digging equipment missing its critical industrial gemstone. Four corpses wearing overalls; two shot with some kind of energy weapon, one with a slug thrower, and one riveted to the wall. All workers, not droid guards. The guards had been elsewhere dealing with a fire started by an incendiary device on the other side of the building, clearly a ruse to draw them away.
With the evidence from the bodies she was confident that the team would get the job done, especially with Z1 Track-u-bot on the case, but Dax had managed to throw a metaphorical spanner into the works. His sister had been given a valuable ring by her owner, Rica Obrik, and had managed to lose it. He managed to borrow a duplicate off another of Obrik's girls, and wanted a replacement made. Gin had done her best to negotiate with the jeweller, but ultimately couldn't convince him to drop his price.
She had more important things to worry about than the bizarre romances going on between Obrik and his girls though. Z1 had come through on finding the thieves, and some borrowed speeder bikes would soon get them there.
Things got a bit hairy in those caves - meaning, of course, that she could barely keep the rippling of her fur in check as she found herself far closer to the action that she'd intended. Only Z1's quick application of a stim-pack, almost at the cost of his own structural integrity, had saved her. But ultimately they succeeded, and returned to town with the stolen gem, evidence of the culprit's deaths, and a number of other useful bits and pieces about which nobody needed to be asking too many questions.
The job was done. Quietly, discreetly, and fast. The money was enough that she could stop imposing on Mnessas and get her own place with a slightly higher ceiling. And if Dax chose to spend all of his share on bailing out his sister, that was his choice.
Of course, that meant there was still a very valuable ring out there somewhere. Perhaps it was time to take up a new hobby as a metal detectorist?
Discreetly, of course.
Friday, 3 July 2020
Last of the Sith, Episode 1: Life Finds A Way
We're starting a new Star Wars campaign, set around halfway between the events of Knights of the Old Republic and the movies, which has the great advantage (to me) that I know about as much about the setting as the rest of my group, despite not having assimilated the entire sum of Star Wars extended universe material into my brain the way some of my group seem to have done.
System is Fantasy Flight Games Star Wars, funky dice and all, and we're playing on the Foundry VTT. I'm pretty impressed so far - the character sheets look good and link up well with the dice roller. I don't know if this is official or fan-made, but it's well worth a look if you're playing FFG Star Wars, as I actually prefer it to rolling real dice. As a player it's easy to access through a browser window, and it took us only a few minutes to get the hang of the tools. I'm not sure what it's like at the GM end, but the GM hasn't rage-quit so I assume it's not too bad. Actual character creation was done with the OggDude character generator, which remains vastly superior to anything I've seen on a VTT, with the information then manually copied to the character sheets.
I'm playing Gin Daalaro, a Bothan Smuggler / Charmer. We're using the obligation system rather than morality (far more fun), so my character has a backstory full of angst and betrayal that definitely won't cause any trouble down the line...
Gin didn't think that life could get any worse, but apparently life finds a way.
The transport ship that was supposed to take her back to Listehol had been suddenly wrenched out of hyperspace and boarded by Sith forces. Some of the other passengers had made a valiant attempt to fight them off but it was all for nothing. She was captured and sedated, and when she woke up she was on a shuttle, in restraints and stripped of almost all her possessions. Destined for slavery, no doubt.
She glanced blearily at her fellow prisoners. That hulking dashade was headed for the fighting pits, no doubt. What use the Sith had for the rest of them she could only guess. She mentally ran through a variety of dreadful fates, wondering if this was as bad as life could get.
And that's when the shuttle caught fire.
Life finds a way.
The tumbling ship had loosened her restraints, and if the oversized human beside her could wriggle out of them, so could she. The tiny jawa on the other side had no trouble. He'd been given additional restraints, and seeing him use them to decapitate a droid explained why someone had felt they were necessary.
They soon had the upper hand, but what use was that in a crashing ship? "If anyone knows how to fly, this would be a great time to be a hero," she called out, and it seemed the human was listening. There was some saying about good landings and walking away, and by that standard it was a good landing for her and her fellow prisoners. Except that walking away was going to have to wait, as the tracker droid was now surveying the area and apparently everything was coming up spiders.
"Guys, it would be really embarrassing to survive a ship crash, only to get eaten by spiders," she called out as the droid hauled her onto the roof of the ship, out of reach of the spiders. She'd grabbed a small pistol off one of the dead guards when leaving the ship, and was able to take out one of the spiders with it, but when everyone else's weapons started to fail she handed over the battery pack to the jawa.
Even with the spider threat temporarily dealt with, it was clear they couldn't stay put. The droid lead them through the jungle until they reached a small village of small furry sentients. The human and droid hung back, along with the still unconscious dashade. She stepped forwards, along with the jawa, and spoke with the village elder. She could only pick out a few words of his speech, but she quickly noticed his fur rippling in a way that she was a lot closer to understanding.
She negotiated medical care for the group in exchange for finding them electric lights from the crashed shuttle, and instructions on how to charge them from the ship's power cores. With everyone feeling better and with their weapons recharged, it was time to move on.
The furry sentients gave them directions to the nearby Sith base, while warning them of a large spiky monster in the jungle. Scouting the base revealed some fairly useless fighter ships initially, but further observation saw the arrival of a ship with hyperdrive engines. It didn't look like much, and it would be a tight fit, but it would be enough to get them off this planet and back to Listehol.
The jawa came up with a plan, and explained it via a series of pictures of spiders in cages. The human mentioned how useful a protocol droid would be, and she felt her heart break all over again. But there was no time for tears. Using the jawa's plan to lure the spiky monster to the base meant they had a window of opportunity while most of the Sith were distracted. A small number of guards remained on the far side of the base, but between them they were quickly taken out.
The ship wasn't going to let itself be stolen without a fight, and she soon found herself head down with the human, breaking the security systems to get the engines to fire up while the droid and jawa made sure they weren't interrupted.
And then they were airborne, with the human in the pilot's seat while the rest of them squeezed in wherever they could around the still unconscious dashade.
When she'd boarded that transport ship a few days earlier, she'd felt like her life could never get any better.
But life finds a way.
System is Fantasy Flight Games Star Wars, funky dice and all, and we're playing on the Foundry VTT. I'm pretty impressed so far - the character sheets look good and link up well with the dice roller. I don't know if this is official or fan-made, but it's well worth a look if you're playing FFG Star Wars, as I actually prefer it to rolling real dice. As a player it's easy to access through a browser window, and it took us only a few minutes to get the hang of the tools. I'm not sure what it's like at the GM end, but the GM hasn't rage-quit so I assume it's not too bad. Actual character creation was done with the OggDude character generator, which remains vastly superior to anything I've seen on a VTT, with the information then manually copied to the character sheets.
I'm playing Gin Daalaro, a Bothan Smuggler / Charmer. We're using the obligation system rather than morality (far more fun), so my character has a backstory full of angst and betrayal that definitely won't cause any trouble down the line...
Life Finds A Way
Gin didn't think that life could get any worse, but apparently life finds a way.
The transport ship that was supposed to take her back to Listehol had been suddenly wrenched out of hyperspace and boarded by Sith forces. Some of the other passengers had made a valiant attempt to fight them off but it was all for nothing. She was captured and sedated, and when she woke up she was on a shuttle, in restraints and stripped of almost all her possessions. Destined for slavery, no doubt.
She glanced blearily at her fellow prisoners. That hulking dashade was headed for the fighting pits, no doubt. What use the Sith had for the rest of them she could only guess. She mentally ran through a variety of dreadful fates, wondering if this was as bad as life could get.
And that's when the shuttle caught fire.
Life finds a way.
The tumbling ship had loosened her restraints, and if the oversized human beside her could wriggle out of them, so could she. The tiny jawa on the other side had no trouble. He'd been given additional restraints, and seeing him use them to decapitate a droid explained why someone had felt they were necessary.
They soon had the upper hand, but what use was that in a crashing ship? "If anyone knows how to fly, this would be a great time to be a hero," she called out, and it seemed the human was listening. There was some saying about good landings and walking away, and by that standard it was a good landing for her and her fellow prisoners. Except that walking away was going to have to wait, as the tracker droid was now surveying the area and apparently everything was coming up spiders.
"Guys, it would be really embarrassing to survive a ship crash, only to get eaten by spiders," she called out as the droid hauled her onto the roof of the ship, out of reach of the spiders. She'd grabbed a small pistol off one of the dead guards when leaving the ship, and was able to take out one of the spiders with it, but when everyone else's weapons started to fail she handed over the battery pack to the jawa.
Even with the spider threat temporarily dealt with, it was clear they couldn't stay put. The droid lead them through the jungle until they reached a small village of small furry sentients. The human and droid hung back, along with the still unconscious dashade. She stepped forwards, along with the jawa, and spoke with the village elder. She could only pick out a few words of his speech, but she quickly noticed his fur rippling in a way that she was a lot closer to understanding.
She negotiated medical care for the group in exchange for finding them electric lights from the crashed shuttle, and instructions on how to charge them from the ship's power cores. With everyone feeling better and with their weapons recharged, it was time to move on.
The furry sentients gave them directions to the nearby Sith base, while warning them of a large spiky monster in the jungle. Scouting the base revealed some fairly useless fighter ships initially, but further observation saw the arrival of a ship with hyperdrive engines. It didn't look like much, and it would be a tight fit, but it would be enough to get them off this planet and back to Listehol.
The jawa came up with a plan, and explained it via a series of pictures of spiders in cages. The human mentioned how useful a protocol droid would be, and she felt her heart break all over again. But there was no time for tears. Using the jawa's plan to lure the spiky monster to the base meant they had a window of opportunity while most of the Sith were distracted. A small number of guards remained on the far side of the base, but between them they were quickly taken out.
The ship wasn't going to let itself be stolen without a fight, and she soon found herself head down with the human, breaking the security systems to get the engines to fire up while the droid and jawa made sure they weren't interrupted.
And then they were airborne, with the human in the pilot's seat while the rest of them squeezed in wherever they could around the still unconscious dashade.
When she'd boarded that transport ship a few days earlier, she'd felt like her life could never get any better.
But life finds a way.
Saturday, 2 November 2019
Noghri Death Squad, part 8: Celebration and Revelation
Personal log, Zatti.
No time for whiskey. Agent Flamingo got in touch to give us our orders. We only had one day before the arrival of the royal party, and we needed to be ready. Queen Stefani was going to attack her own citizens, then disappear. We had to make that happen.
We came up with a two-pronged approach, meaning that if one part went wrong we still had the other to fall back on.
Plan A was to drug the Queen. Voahk had spotted some tranq rifle darts for sale in one of the shops, and Wuzu was confident he could find out some kind of drug that would send her into a murderous rage. He went off to engage in some bribery and shopping, while Voahk went shopping, returning with the darts, but inexplicably without the tranq rifle to actually shoot them out of. Something about them being sold out.
With any attempt to insert drugged darts from close range liable to result in flat Noghris, we decided the best approach was to throw the darts from the water tower as the procession passed by. Clearly this would need practice. We got Voahk onto a suitably tall roof and he got to work. Naturally this attracted attention from the bread helmets. I was going to try to talk them into believing this was a completely harmless cultural practice, but before I got the chance, Voahk decided to talk to them. I quietly sloped off instead. They all showed up again later, so presumably they wriggled out of trouble somehow.
Plan B was to hack into the Queen's wheelchair, allowing us to control her remotely. The communications tower from where I broadcast those holovids seemed like the best place to send the hack from, as it would have high signal strength and good range, but I didn't particularly want to be there during the procession. So Aoghri and me tried to sneak in.
We proved significantly less sneaky than in the daytime, so it was quite a relief, rather than a hinderance, when the rest of the group showed up. The space port guard questioned us. Once again Voahk tried to explain himself, but I shoved him out of the way and apologised to the guard, explaining that my friends were all really stupid and I was just here to take them home.
He didn't buy it. Amazing, given the great efforts the team were making to sound like idiots, but fortunately Wuzu showed up at that point and distracted them.
"What do you mean? They can't speak."
He must have short circuited something in the guard's brain. I wasn't complaining. In fact, I was not speaking at all, while Gax made weird chattering noises.
With the guard now convinced that we were a group of brain damaged children on some kind of school trip, we were offered a tour, which Wuzu accepted. It was a very interesting tour, pointing out all kinds of exciting pieces of communication technology, which the others entirely failed to appreciate, but they did manage to cause enough of a distraction that I was able to get my remote hack installed while the guard was looking the other way.
With plans A and B both ready, there was just the small matter of getting Voahk onto the water tower without causing suspicion. I suggested bunting.
I have to admit, my team have hidden depths. Not only is Aoghri a superb artist, but it turns out Voahk has a real talent for making bunting. It was beautiful, with alternating images of bread helmets and hearts, and occasional slogans like 'We love Queen Stefani' and 'Down with Wanksy'.
The morning of the procession dawned and we got into position. I was in the shuttle, connected to the space port communications tower, with Wuzu for backup. Gax and Aoghri were positioned in the crowd, with Gax keeping an eye on the area of the water tower and Aoghri ready to follow the Queen if necessary. Voahk had his bunting and was ready to climb the water tower.
Guards showed up, wanting to know what he was doing. I'd made sure that he had the drugged dart concealed in the bunting. He handed them the other bundle of bunting to examine, and they were so impressed by his skilled depiction of their bread helmets that they bought his story and let him climb up and start decorating.
With much fanfare, the royal party arrived. Queen Stefani emerged from the ship, with her hair skillfully styled into the shape of a bicorn hat and her wheelchair gleaming. Her handmaids followed, each wearing a superbly crafted bicorn decorated with such detail that even over the remote link I was using, I think I could see the individual strands of hair.
I watched as the procession approached the water tower. The moment came for Voahk to throw the dart and...nothing. He missed! Even after all that practice! How in the name of Lord Vader did he miss?
I saw Gax bend down to pick something up off the ground and throw. And moments later Queen Stefani began frothing at the mouth.
It was really very impressive, all the things she could do with that wheelchair. As she fired rockets into the crowd, I began the hack to take control of it. Getting into the arms and primary weapon systems wasn't too hard, although disappointingly by the time I did she was all out of rockets.
Gax and Aoghri now had to dodge the derranged Queen as she activated her disruptor nipples and began firing blasts into the crowd. I was at work on the legs and secondary weapons, which proved to have a significantly more tangled architecture. All I could do to help at this point was to move the arms to cover the disruptors, incidentally making her look rather modest.
I was still wrestling for control when I realised she'd deployed yet another weapon. With Gax now facing down her crotch gun I moved an arm again to cover it, making her look even more modest. At least until she fired anyway, and shot her own arm off.
I was down to only one arm and no weapons at this point, but finally I managed to figure out what was going on with the legs and took full control. I steered her away from Gax, through the shanty town and out into the desert.
We gathered once more at the shuttle. It was time to get off this horrible little moon.
Gannis the slicer dropped by. He'd hacked the data tablet and pulled a bunch of interesting information about our home planet. He was also interested in changing ships.
Wuzu negotiated the sale. Gannis got the lambda shuttle we'd been using (with some recent repairs to the rear). We got a Firespray, and a pile of cash. We climbed aboard and took off, making only a brief stop in the desert to pick up what was left of Queen Stefani.
As we flew away we saw the lambda shuttle take off, and shortly afterwards, explode from a shot we didn't even see coming.
Having confirmed with Agent Flamingo that we had completed our mission successfully, we spaced Queen Stefani and had a decent look at the content of the data tablet. Which made me glad I still had that whiskey.
I had always believed that Lord Vader was working to restore the ecosystem of Honoghr, so that some day we could return home. On the tablet was evidence that Vader's restoration teams were really there to ensure the planet stayed poisoned, so that we would remain bound to his service.
And at that point, the strange cube that we'd picked up in Ford Harrison's office began talking to me. And what it said was one word.
Vengeance.
No time for whiskey. Agent Flamingo got in touch to give us our orders. We only had one day before the arrival of the royal party, and we needed to be ready. Queen Stefani was going to attack her own citizens, then disappear. We had to make that happen.
We came up with a two-pronged approach, meaning that if one part went wrong we still had the other to fall back on.
Plan A was to drug the Queen. Voahk had spotted some tranq rifle darts for sale in one of the shops, and Wuzu was confident he could find out some kind of drug that would send her into a murderous rage. He went off to engage in some bribery and shopping, while Voahk went shopping, returning with the darts, but inexplicably without the tranq rifle to actually shoot them out of. Something about them being sold out.
With any attempt to insert drugged darts from close range liable to result in flat Noghris, we decided the best approach was to throw the darts from the water tower as the procession passed by. Clearly this would need practice. We got Voahk onto a suitably tall roof and he got to work. Naturally this attracted attention from the bread helmets. I was going to try to talk them into believing this was a completely harmless cultural practice, but before I got the chance, Voahk decided to talk to them. I quietly sloped off instead. They all showed up again later, so presumably they wriggled out of trouble somehow.
Plan B was to hack into the Queen's wheelchair, allowing us to control her remotely. The communications tower from where I broadcast those holovids seemed like the best place to send the hack from, as it would have high signal strength and good range, but I didn't particularly want to be there during the procession. So Aoghri and me tried to sneak in.
We proved significantly less sneaky than in the daytime, so it was quite a relief, rather than a hinderance, when the rest of the group showed up. The space port guard questioned us. Once again Voahk tried to explain himself, but I shoved him out of the way and apologised to the guard, explaining that my friends were all really stupid and I was just here to take them home.
He didn't buy it. Amazing, given the great efforts the team were making to sound like idiots, but fortunately Wuzu showed up at that point and distracted them.
"What do you mean? They can't speak."
He must have short circuited something in the guard's brain. I wasn't complaining. In fact, I was not speaking at all, while Gax made weird chattering noises.
With the guard now convinced that we were a group of brain damaged children on some kind of school trip, we were offered a tour, which Wuzu accepted. It was a very interesting tour, pointing out all kinds of exciting pieces of communication technology, which the others entirely failed to appreciate, but they did manage to cause enough of a distraction that I was able to get my remote hack installed while the guard was looking the other way.
With plans A and B both ready, there was just the small matter of getting Voahk onto the water tower without causing suspicion. I suggested bunting.
I have to admit, my team have hidden depths. Not only is Aoghri a superb artist, but it turns out Voahk has a real talent for making bunting. It was beautiful, with alternating images of bread helmets and hearts, and occasional slogans like 'We love Queen Stefani' and 'Down with Wanksy'.
The morning of the procession dawned and we got into position. I was in the shuttle, connected to the space port communications tower, with Wuzu for backup. Gax and Aoghri were positioned in the crowd, with Gax keeping an eye on the area of the water tower and Aoghri ready to follow the Queen if necessary. Voahk had his bunting and was ready to climb the water tower.
Guards showed up, wanting to know what he was doing. I'd made sure that he had the drugged dart concealed in the bunting. He handed them the other bundle of bunting to examine, and they were so impressed by his skilled depiction of their bread helmets that they bought his story and let him climb up and start decorating.
With much fanfare, the royal party arrived. Queen Stefani emerged from the ship, with her hair skillfully styled into the shape of a bicorn hat and her wheelchair gleaming. Her handmaids followed, each wearing a superbly crafted bicorn decorated with such detail that even over the remote link I was using, I think I could see the individual strands of hair.
I watched as the procession approached the water tower. The moment came for Voahk to throw the dart and...nothing. He missed! Even after all that practice! How in the name of Lord Vader did he miss?
I saw Gax bend down to pick something up off the ground and throw. And moments later Queen Stefani began frothing at the mouth.
It was really very impressive, all the things she could do with that wheelchair. As she fired rockets into the crowd, I began the hack to take control of it. Getting into the arms and primary weapon systems wasn't too hard, although disappointingly by the time I did she was all out of rockets.
Gax and Aoghri now had to dodge the derranged Queen as she activated her disruptor nipples and began firing blasts into the crowd. I was at work on the legs and secondary weapons, which proved to have a significantly more tangled architecture. All I could do to help at this point was to move the arms to cover the disruptors, incidentally making her look rather modest.
I was still wrestling for control when I realised she'd deployed yet another weapon. With Gax now facing down her crotch gun I moved an arm again to cover it, making her look even more modest. At least until she fired anyway, and shot her own arm off.
I was down to only one arm and no weapons at this point, but finally I managed to figure out what was going on with the legs and took full control. I steered her away from Gax, through the shanty town and out into the desert.
We gathered once more at the shuttle. It was time to get off this horrible little moon.
Gannis the slicer dropped by. He'd hacked the data tablet and pulled a bunch of interesting information about our home planet. He was also interested in changing ships.
Wuzu negotiated the sale. Gannis got the lambda shuttle we'd been using (with some recent repairs to the rear). We got a Firespray, and a pile of cash. We climbed aboard and took off, making only a brief stop in the desert to pick up what was left of Queen Stefani.
As we flew away we saw the lambda shuttle take off, and shortly afterwards, explode from a shot we didn't even see coming.
Having confirmed with Agent Flamingo that we had completed our mission successfully, we spaced Queen Stefani and had a decent look at the content of the data tablet. Which made me glad I still had that whiskey.
I had always believed that Lord Vader was working to restore the ecosystem of Honoghr, so that some day we could return home. On the tablet was evidence that Vader's restoration teams were really there to ensure the planet stayed poisoned, so that we would remain bound to his service.
And at that point, the strange cube that we'd picked up in Ford Harrison's office began talking to me. And what it said was one word.
Vengeance.
Friday, 1 November 2019
Two games, one genre: Star Wars
As the current Noghri Death Squad series draws to a close, let's look at some Star Wars games.
Despite not being a massive Star Wars fan, I've played a few Star Wars games. The first one was d6 Star Wars (which I think is officially called Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game) and second was Star Wars: Saga Edition. But since I only played a couple of sessions of each (I was more of an occasional cameo in that group that a regular player, due to living in a different town) I don't remember enough about them to say anything particularly useful.
More recently, I've tried a couple more.
If I ever want to know if a system is prone to being min-maxed there's one guy in the home group I can count on. I forget what type of alien he was playing. All I remember is that he took so many abilities/drawbacks/whatever Savage Worlds calls them that affected his movement speed that he could barely move. Fortunately, as a Jedi, he was able to force push himself around significantly faster than he could walk.
I had a lot of fun with this campaign, and was pretty sad when it stopped. A big part of that was the character I'd created. Min-maxing issues aside, the options presented were very helpful to me, not a massive Star Wars nerd, in creating an interesting character. While it was years ago now, I still have fond memories of Tamaga, my Twi'Lek former slave, who'd accidentally killed her owner because she didn't know blasters has a kill setting as well as stun, and couldn't read the switch on the blaster because her owner hadn't allowed her to learn to read.
The Savage Worlds rules themselves, however, I don't feel added much. They're functional, because Savage Worlds is a perfectly reasonable generic system, but unless you're particularly keen on it, there's no real reason to pick this particular version of Star Wars.
It's got a setting that's so big and complicated that I feel completely lost in it. It's got a ton of splatbooks, and massive lists of aliens with completely meaningless (to me) names. The character sheets go on for several pages. It uses my least favourite dice mechanic, dice pools. And not just any dice pools, it's the weird narrative dice that nobody liked in Warhammer FRP 3e. It only needs a ton of marginally different types of equipment to...oh look, it's got that too.
It's like someone tried to shove all my least favourite RPG things into one massive bloated monstrosity. And somehow came out with a really enjoyable game.
Zatti, my constantly stressed out Noghri thief, might not be as conceptually well realised as Tamaga, but the game mechanics are somehow serving to build her story as the game progresses. I doubt she's in any way an optimised character build, but I feel like she's got her place in the group all the same.
Part of what's making it work, I think, is the restrictions the GM has put on us. Obviously the group is mostly Noghris. He's also restricted which books we can use for buying equipment, which as someone whose head explodes when faced with the Cyberpunk 2020 Chromebooks (and not just because of the cover art) I really appreciate. He knew the story he wanted to tell, and set things up to make it work.
EotE can do pretty much anything, which could lead to trying to do everything. But so long as you know what you want to do, and can keep focused on that, you can be reasonably confident it'll do it.
Despite not being a massive Star Wars fan, I've played a few Star Wars games. The first one was d6 Star Wars (which I think is officially called Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game) and second was Star Wars: Saga Edition. But since I only played a couple of sessions of each (I was more of an occasional cameo in that group that a regular player, due to living in a different town) I don't remember enough about them to say anything particularly useful.
More recently, I've tried a couple more.
Savage Star Wars
I can't tell you which of the many fan-made Star Wars conversions of Savage Worlds we were playing. What I can tell you is that despite a sterling effort not to make Jedis overpowered, all but one of us ended up playing them anyway (although that was partly a side effect of the campaign brief).If I ever want to know if a system is prone to being min-maxed there's one guy in the home group I can count on. I forget what type of alien he was playing. All I remember is that he took so many abilities/drawbacks/whatever Savage Worlds calls them that affected his movement speed that he could barely move. Fortunately, as a Jedi, he was able to force push himself around significantly faster than he could walk.
I had a lot of fun with this campaign, and was pretty sad when it stopped. A big part of that was the character I'd created. Min-maxing issues aside, the options presented were very helpful to me, not a massive Star Wars nerd, in creating an interesting character. While it was years ago now, I still have fond memories of Tamaga, my Twi'Lek former slave, who'd accidentally killed her owner because she didn't know blasters has a kill setting as well as stun, and couldn't read the switch on the blaster because her owner hadn't allowed her to learn to read.
The Savage Worlds rules themselves, however, I don't feel added much. They're functional, because Savage Worlds is a perfectly reasonable generic system, but unless you're particularly keen on it, there's no real reason to pick this particular version of Star Wars.
Star Wars: Edge of the Empire (Fantasy Flight Games)
This is a game I absolutely should not like.It's got a setting that's so big and complicated that I feel completely lost in it. It's got a ton of splatbooks, and massive lists of aliens with completely meaningless (to me) names. The character sheets go on for several pages. It uses my least favourite dice mechanic, dice pools. And not just any dice pools, it's the weird narrative dice that nobody liked in Warhammer FRP 3e. It only needs a ton of marginally different types of equipment to...oh look, it's got that too.
It's like someone tried to shove all my least favourite RPG things into one massive bloated monstrosity. And somehow came out with a really enjoyable game.
Zatti, my constantly stressed out Noghri thief, might not be as conceptually well realised as Tamaga, but the game mechanics are somehow serving to build her story as the game progresses. I doubt she's in any way an optimised character build, but I feel like she's got her place in the group all the same.
Part of what's making it work, I think, is the restrictions the GM has put on us. Obviously the group is mostly Noghris. He's also restricted which books we can use for buying equipment, which as someone whose head explodes when faced with the Cyberpunk 2020 Chromebooks (and not just because of the cover art) I really appreciate. He knew the story he wanted to tell, and set things up to make it work.
EotE can do pretty much anything, which could lead to trying to do everything. But so long as you know what you want to do, and can keep focused on that, you can be reasonably confident it'll do it.
Conclusion
Edge of the Empire is the first game that's really made me feel excited and enthusiastic about playing Star Wars. Being a massive Star Wars nerd probably helps if you're the GM, but as a player, the system will lead you through it. It may be huge and complicated, but somehow actually playing it isn't hard. I thoroughly recommend this game.Thursday, 31 October 2019
Noghri Death Squad, part 7: Let's go with 'handmaid orgy'
Personal log, Zatti.
Operation Foment Rebellion continues. The others came up with plans that largely seem to involve wearing people's faces. While I have no problems with this, I felt that a multi-pronged approach would be more effective.
Vesk went looking for a slicer to unlock the data pad he had. I suggested he go to the bar and look for a man with long hair in a black t-shirt. Success! Once Gannis the slicer had unlocked the data pad, I paid him to create some fake holovids depicting some of the salacious rumours that 'Wanksy' had been painting on the walls.
He produced two videos. 'Spinebreaker', depicting Lord Vader doing unspeakable things to Queen Stefani, resulting in her needing the wheelchair, and 'Handmaid Orgy', fairly self explanatory. The others joked about them being for my own personal use. Honestly! What kind of pervert do they think I am? There are humans in those holovids! Gross.
I waited until dark, then stealthed my way into the communication tower, sliced into the broadcasting equipment, and deployed my holovids. All undetected! Nerve-wracking, knowing I could be found at any time and that my combat efficiency without the rest of my team is significantly diminished, but I got the job done.
The others were busy too. Aoghri did some more Wanksy graffiti, which was honestly a work of art, to the point where I was wondering if it might get some kind of preservation order put on it. The way he rendered the bread helmets of the royal guards was quite exquisite.
Wuzu went shopping, and came back with what I think was some kind of weaponised coffee grinder for Vesk. (It's possible I may not be very good at identifying tools.)
Vhoak headed out into the desert and killed some kind of large monster. Apparently you can get paid for that kind of thing. He did look a bit squished when he got back.
Tensions were high, and it was only one day before the royal visit, but we had other things to worry about. Oobidoo Abida was not happy about us killing a bunch of his people, and had sent a squad to take us out. We learned of their arrival when they exploded a hole in the back of our shuttle. Bastards!
I opened up the entry hatch, so that if anyone threw a grenade into the back of the shuttle it could roll right through and out again at the front. What it actually did was reveal a group of Oobidoo's Barabel goons.
I'm glad to say that I maintained maximum combat efficiency in the resulting fight, putting the disruptor pistol to good use and neatly dodging the Barabel's attacks. They appeared to have prepared rather badly, bring insufficient ammunition and shoddy weaponry. Not quite as badly as Voahk, who had not yet recovered from fighting giant monsters in the desert and spent most of the fight horizontal. Wuzu took a different approach, and persuaded one of the Barabels that it was in his best interests to leave before any of us got to him.
We hadn't taken on a group of this size before, and it was a very stressful experience, with blaster fire flying in all directions. Aoghri and me were constantly dodging projectiles, and throwing yourself around like that while maintaining cover is exhausting. By the time we'd made a substantial dent in the opposition, I was on the point of passing out and Aoghri was running out of working limbs. But as I was about to collapse, the lead Barabel threw a smoke grenade, shouted some macho crap about how we 'hadn't seen the last of Shank', and sodded off.
The remaining two Barabels surrendered. We promptly executed them, as is the Noghri way.
Probably shouldn't go to the bar right now, given how they feel about us doing surgery on the tables. Could really use a martini right now. Although, come to think of it, I do have a bottle of Corellian whiskey in my bag. Maybe it will be friends with me?
Operation Foment Rebellion continues. The others came up with plans that largely seem to involve wearing people's faces. While I have no problems with this, I felt that a multi-pronged approach would be more effective.
Vesk went looking for a slicer to unlock the data pad he had. I suggested he go to the bar and look for a man with long hair in a black t-shirt. Success! Once Gannis the slicer had unlocked the data pad, I paid him to create some fake holovids depicting some of the salacious rumours that 'Wanksy' had been painting on the walls.
He produced two videos. 'Spinebreaker', depicting Lord Vader doing unspeakable things to Queen Stefani, resulting in her needing the wheelchair, and 'Handmaid Orgy', fairly self explanatory. The others joked about them being for my own personal use. Honestly! What kind of pervert do they think I am? There are humans in those holovids! Gross.
I waited until dark, then stealthed my way into the communication tower, sliced into the broadcasting equipment, and deployed my holovids. All undetected! Nerve-wracking, knowing I could be found at any time and that my combat efficiency without the rest of my team is significantly diminished, but I got the job done.
The others were busy too. Aoghri did some more Wanksy graffiti, which was honestly a work of art, to the point where I was wondering if it might get some kind of preservation order put on it. The way he rendered the bread helmets of the royal guards was quite exquisite.
Wuzu went shopping, and came back with what I think was some kind of weaponised coffee grinder for Vesk. (It's possible I may not be very good at identifying tools.)
Vhoak headed out into the desert and killed some kind of large monster. Apparently you can get paid for that kind of thing. He did look a bit squished when he got back.
Tensions were high, and it was only one day before the royal visit, but we had other things to worry about. Oobidoo Abida was not happy about us killing a bunch of his people, and had sent a squad to take us out. We learned of their arrival when they exploded a hole in the back of our shuttle. Bastards!
I opened up the entry hatch, so that if anyone threw a grenade into the back of the shuttle it could roll right through and out again at the front. What it actually did was reveal a group of Oobidoo's Barabel goons.
I'm glad to say that I maintained maximum combat efficiency in the resulting fight, putting the disruptor pistol to good use and neatly dodging the Barabel's attacks. They appeared to have prepared rather badly, bring insufficient ammunition and shoddy weaponry. Not quite as badly as Voahk, who had not yet recovered from fighting giant monsters in the desert and spent most of the fight horizontal. Wuzu took a different approach, and persuaded one of the Barabels that it was in his best interests to leave before any of us got to him.
We hadn't taken on a group of this size before, and it was a very stressful experience, with blaster fire flying in all directions. Aoghri and me were constantly dodging projectiles, and throwing yourself around like that while maintaining cover is exhausting. By the time we'd made a substantial dent in the opposition, I was on the point of passing out and Aoghri was running out of working limbs. But as I was about to collapse, the lead Barabel threw a smoke grenade, shouted some macho crap about how we 'hadn't seen the last of Shank', and sodded off.
The remaining two Barabels surrendered. We promptly executed them, as is the Noghri way.
Probably shouldn't go to the bar right now, given how they feel about us doing surgery on the tables. Could really use a martini right now. Although, come to think of it, I do have a bottle of Corellian whiskey in my bag. Maybe it will be friends with me?
Tuesday, 29 October 2019
Noghri Death Squad, part 6: Facilitating atrocities
Personal log, Zatti.
It was unfortunate losing BS-OJ and Gax, but fortunately we found some prisoners at the base and took them with us. Voahk is another Noghri who enjoys shooting things, and Wuzu is...actually I'm not sure what he is, but he claims to be a professional shopper, so if I ever decide to acquire things by spending money on them he'll be very useful.
We loaded the speeder bikes into the shuttle, checked it for bombs and tracking devices, and then flew away, blowing up the base behind us.
We headed for Restus, where we had no trouble landing due to being in a legitimate Empire ship that had been stolen by the rebels. Time to foment rebellion!
It was at about this point that I realised I had entirely misunderstood the mission parameters, and we were actually supposed to be stirring up rebellion against the Empire to give the Empire an excuse to come in and deal with the Naboo royal family.
Vesk and me weren't feeling too well after the fight at the base, but it turns out Voahk is slightly better at doctoring than Gax was, and he managed to get us all fixed up again. Wuzu went shopping and sold all the speeder bikes. I had a feeling that might not be the best idea, but I didn't find out until it was too late as I was off doing my own bit towards rebellion: stealing stuff and planting evidence. I got away with a digital lock pick and some Corellian whiskey.
I was right about selling the bikes being a bad idea, because while I was back at the shuttle playing with my new lock pick, the others went out for a drink and got attacked by Oobidoo Abidaa, the head of the Backstreet Magpies, and some of his gang, who wanted to know why we hadn't killed that smuggler yet and what had happened to the speeder bikes they loaned us. Fortunately the team is maintaining maximum combat efficiency and dealt with the problem effectively, although they did later get thrown out of the bar for performing surgery on the tables, as is the Noghri way.
Vesk and Aoghri got a head start on the rebellion fomenting, by doing some graffiti. Using some stencils and the pseudonym 'Wanksy' they adorned the walls of Restus with pictures of Lord Vader and Queen Stefani, with some appropriate commentary.
We came up with a plan that initially involved stealing the guards' uniforms, disguising ourselves as guards, and going and committing some atrocities in the local shanty town that we were already blaming for the graffiti. This was then refined into getting the guardsmen drunk, convincing them to go to the shanty town, and trying to spark trouble when they got there.
I went back to the bar with Wuzu, and assisted him with negotiating with the guards. They proved easily persuadable, and soon they and their bread helmets were heading for the shanty town, while I got on the dark space web to find some salacious gossip about Queen Stefani that Vesk and Aoghri could add to their graffiti.
Voahk headed stealthily to the shanty town (at least I assume that's where he went, as I certainly didn't see him go) to throw rocks and kick off a riot, which from what I heard later went very well, with plentiful acts of brutality being committed by the royal guards. Combined with the truly disgusting things written about the Queen on the walls, I think everyone is going to be appropriately pissed off when she arrives for her royal visit, and we will soon achieve our goals. Glory to Lord Vader!
...That is our goal, right?
How many martinis did Wuzu buy me?
*thud*
It was unfortunate losing BS-OJ and Gax, but fortunately we found some prisoners at the base and took them with us. Voahk is another Noghri who enjoys shooting things, and Wuzu is...actually I'm not sure what he is, but he claims to be a professional shopper, so if I ever decide to acquire things by spending money on them he'll be very useful.
We loaded the speeder bikes into the shuttle, checked it for bombs and tracking devices, and then flew away, blowing up the base behind us.
We headed for Restus, where we had no trouble landing due to being in a legitimate Empire ship that had been stolen by the rebels. Time to foment rebellion!
It was at about this point that I realised I had entirely misunderstood the mission parameters, and we were actually supposed to be stirring up rebellion against the Empire to give the Empire an excuse to come in and deal with the Naboo royal family.
Vesk and me weren't feeling too well after the fight at the base, but it turns out Voahk is slightly better at doctoring than Gax was, and he managed to get us all fixed up again. Wuzu went shopping and sold all the speeder bikes. I had a feeling that might not be the best idea, but I didn't find out until it was too late as I was off doing my own bit towards rebellion: stealing stuff and planting evidence. I got away with a digital lock pick and some Corellian whiskey.
I was right about selling the bikes being a bad idea, because while I was back at the shuttle playing with my new lock pick, the others went out for a drink and got attacked by Oobidoo Abidaa, the head of the Backstreet Magpies, and some of his gang, who wanted to know why we hadn't killed that smuggler yet and what had happened to the speeder bikes they loaned us. Fortunately the team is maintaining maximum combat efficiency and dealt with the problem effectively, although they did later get thrown out of the bar for performing surgery on the tables, as is the Noghri way.
Vesk and Aoghri got a head start on the rebellion fomenting, by doing some graffiti. Using some stencils and the pseudonym 'Wanksy' they adorned the walls of Restus with pictures of Lord Vader and Queen Stefani, with some appropriate commentary.
We came up with a plan that initially involved stealing the guards' uniforms, disguising ourselves as guards, and going and committing some atrocities in the local shanty town that we were already blaming for the graffiti. This was then refined into getting the guardsmen drunk, convincing them to go to the shanty town, and trying to spark trouble when they got there.
I went back to the bar with Wuzu, and assisted him with negotiating with the guards. They proved easily persuadable, and soon they and their bread helmets were heading for the shanty town, while I got on the dark space web to find some salacious gossip about Queen Stefani that Vesk and Aoghri could add to their graffiti.
Voahk headed stealthily to the shanty town (at least I assume that's where he went, as I certainly didn't see him go) to throw rocks and kick off a riot, which from what I heard later went very well, with plentiful acts of brutality being committed by the royal guards. Combined with the truly disgusting things written about the Queen on the walls, I think everyone is going to be appropriately pissed off when she arrives for her royal visit, and we will soon achieve our goals. Glory to Lord Vader!
...That is our goal, right?
How many martinis did Wuzu buy me?
*thud*
Sunday, 27 October 2019
Noghri Death Squad, part 5: Combat efficiency
Time to shut down this rebel base! I did a brilliant job on the
communication array, making it look like outgoing communications were
being sent, but in fact we were completely cut off from the outside.
We then made our way to the officer's quarters to see what we could find there. Gax and me took one room, while Vesk, Aoghri and a temporarily shut down and in a box BS-OJ took the other. While Gax and me were completely silent, the other group ran straight into a group of maintenance droids.
I didn't want to let a bunch of rebel droids distract me from the mission. All the same, my first attempt to open the door failed. I got it open on the second attempt, but it opened rather suddenly, and I embarrassingly faceplanted straight through the doorway, in front of the station commander Ford Harrison.
Gax opened fire, and I nimbly leapt up and shot Harrison with my sonic blaster, disorienting him and incidentally destroying the desk he was using as cover. Unfortunately he then shot me back with a disruptor pistol, which significantly impacted my combat capabilities, leading to my choice to make a tactical retreat.
Right, who said 'coward'? I'll bite your knees off!
...Ahem.
The fight with the maintenance droids didn't seem to be going too well, and I was in no position to improve it, so I slipped away out of sight and used another stim pack. After looping around I was able to meet up with Vesk again, who had just demonstrated a superb example of a stealth take-down on Ford Harrison by emerging from a ventilation shaft that he had definitely not been hiding in. He relieved Harrison of his disruptor pistol and handed it to me.
We then heard a loud noise, that sounded rather like a thermal detonator going off. It didn't seem like a particularly sensible choice to run towards the sound of an explosion, but we did anyway. There we found:
The almost obliterated remains of two droids.
A fine smear of red mist across the walls, which we assumed to be Gax.
BS-OJ, lying on the floor.
Another droid, vigorously beating BS-OJ with a shock stick of some kind.
The unconscious body of Aoghri.
I raised the disruptor pistol and disintegrated the droid. I love this pistol. Since acquiring first the sonic blaster and now this disruptor pistol my combat efficiency has improved significantly. Vesk says the pistol is illegal, but then, so are we.
Unfortunately, BS-OJ had already been smashed and electrocuted beyond repair, but we were able to get Aoghri back up again with the aid of a stim pack. Together we searched Harrison's office, where we found a glowing cube that talked. It said we should check the computer. So I did, and found some very exciting battle reports, plus some encrypted information on our home planet. Something to look at later. For now, we're going to properly loot this base, rescue any Imperial prisoners who might be locked up here, and then blow the place apart.
We then made our way to the officer's quarters to see what we could find there. Gax and me took one room, while Vesk, Aoghri and a temporarily shut down and in a box BS-OJ took the other. While Gax and me were completely silent, the other group ran straight into a group of maintenance droids.
I didn't want to let a bunch of rebel droids distract me from the mission. All the same, my first attempt to open the door failed. I got it open on the second attempt, but it opened rather suddenly, and I embarrassingly faceplanted straight through the doorway, in front of the station commander Ford Harrison.
Gax opened fire, and I nimbly leapt up and shot Harrison with my sonic blaster, disorienting him and incidentally destroying the desk he was using as cover. Unfortunately he then shot me back with a disruptor pistol, which significantly impacted my combat capabilities, leading to my choice to make a tactical retreat.
Right, who said 'coward'? I'll bite your knees off!
...Ahem.
The fight with the maintenance droids didn't seem to be going too well, and I was in no position to improve it, so I slipped away out of sight and used another stim pack. After looping around I was able to meet up with Vesk again, who had just demonstrated a superb example of a stealth take-down on Ford Harrison by emerging from a ventilation shaft that he had definitely not been hiding in. He relieved Harrison of his disruptor pistol and handed it to me.
We then heard a loud noise, that sounded rather like a thermal detonator going off. It didn't seem like a particularly sensible choice to run towards the sound of an explosion, but we did anyway. There we found:
The almost obliterated remains of two droids.
A fine smear of red mist across the walls, which we assumed to be Gax.
BS-OJ, lying on the floor.
Another droid, vigorously beating BS-OJ with a shock stick of some kind.
The unconscious body of Aoghri.
I raised the disruptor pistol and disintegrated the droid. I love this pistol. Since acquiring first the sonic blaster and now this disruptor pistol my combat efficiency has improved significantly. Vesk says the pistol is illegal, but then, so are we.
Unfortunately, BS-OJ had already been smashed and electrocuted beyond repair, but we were able to get Aoghri back up again with the aid of a stim pack. Together we searched Harrison's office, where we found a glowing cube that talked. It said we should check the computer. So I did, and found some very exciting battle reports, plus some encrypted information on our home planet. Something to look at later. For now, we're going to properly loot this base, rescue any Imperial prisoners who might be locked up here, and then blow the place apart.
Friday, 25 October 2019
Noghri Death Squad part 4: Womp rat day
Personal log, Zatti.
Woke up, feeling great! Why are the speeder bikes still running? Oh no, giant monsters! BS-OJ has got in a box. Giant monsters are bullet proof and have knocked over a speeder bike. I'm going to pick it up and leave. Dammit, giant monsters have crushed the speeder bike. Best bet is to make like Aoghri and try to get picked up as Vesk drives past.
Personal log, Zatti.
Woke up, feeling great! Why are the speeder bikes still running? Oh well, time to continue fomenting rebellion for the glory of Lord Vader. Oh no, giant monsters!
Personal log, Zatti.
Woke up, feeling great! Why are the speeder bikes still running? Everyone is keen to get on them. Oh no, giant monsters!
Personal log, Zatti.
Woke up, feeling great! Why are the speeder bikes still running? Everyone is keen to get on them. Let's get out of here!
Personal log, Zatti.
Woke up, feeling great! We've made it to the city and I'm ready to make trouble! Except that filthy droid, MX-XP is back in a new body, along with a friend. Mass shooting occurred. I failed to hit either droid with my speeder bike guns, but did inspire the others to perform better before switching to my new sonic blaster. We smashed those droids to bits, as is the Noghri way.
...Huh? Glass? Bacta?
Personal log, Zatti.
Woke up, feeling great! Why are the speeder bikes still running? I appear to be alone. Bastards are having a laugh at my expense. Just because I couldn't steer a jetpack. I'm a lot better at driving now. Oh no, giant monsters!
Personal log, Zatti.
Woke up, feeling angry!
Resisted the urge to smash my way out of the bacta tank, as is the Noghri way (as already demonstrated by some of my colleagues) and activated the emergency exit functionality. Spilled out in a massive puddle of bacta and threw a punch at one of the filthy rebels. Missed, but did inspire the others to beat him to death.
BS-OJ was on a table, missing his limbs. GET YOUR FILTHY HANDS OFF MY DROID I didn't say, because I was being shot by a Twi'lek, but fortunately Vesk and Aoghri had things well in hand. Once all but one of the rebel scum were dead we were able to convince him to put BS-OJ's limbs back on.
Gax did some doctoring, but was pretty rubbish at patching up 'shot by Twi'lek' wounds and I had to resort to stim packs again.
So here we are at Whisper Base, ready to take out their communications and hopefully deal with MX-XP once and for all. If I get my hands on him I'm reprogramming him into a toaster.
Woke up, feeling great! Why are the speeder bikes still running? Oh no, giant monsters! BS-OJ has got in a box. Giant monsters are bullet proof and have knocked over a speeder bike. I'm going to pick it up and leave. Dammit, giant monsters have crushed the speeder bike. Best bet is to make like Aoghri and try to get picked up as Vesk drives past.
Personal log, Zatti.
Woke up, feeling great! Why are the speeder bikes still running? Oh well, time to continue fomenting rebellion for the glory of Lord Vader. Oh no, giant monsters!
Personal log, Zatti.
Woke up, feeling great! Why are the speeder bikes still running? Everyone is keen to get on them. Oh no, giant monsters!
Personal log, Zatti.
Woke up, feeling great! Why are the speeder bikes still running? Everyone is keen to get on them. Let's get out of here!
Personal log, Zatti.
Woke up, feeling great! We've made it to the city and I'm ready to make trouble! Except that filthy droid, MX-XP is back in a new body, along with a friend. Mass shooting occurred. I failed to hit either droid with my speeder bike guns, but did inspire the others to perform better before switching to my new sonic blaster. We smashed those droids to bits, as is the Noghri way.
...Huh? Glass? Bacta?
Personal log, Zatti.
Woke up, feeling great! Why are the speeder bikes still running? I appear to be alone. Bastards are having a laugh at my expense. Just because I couldn't steer a jetpack. I'm a lot better at driving now. Oh no, giant monsters!
Personal log, Zatti.
Woke up, feeling angry!
Resisted the urge to smash my way out of the bacta tank, as is the Noghri way (as already demonstrated by some of my colleagues) and activated the emergency exit functionality. Spilled out in a massive puddle of bacta and threw a punch at one of the filthy rebels. Missed, but did inspire the others to beat him to death.
BS-OJ was on a table, missing his limbs. GET YOUR FILTHY HANDS OFF MY DROID I didn't say, because I was being shot by a Twi'lek, but fortunately Vesk and Aoghri had things well in hand. Once all but one of the rebel scum were dead we were able to convince him to put BS-OJ's limbs back on.
Gax did some doctoring, but was pretty rubbish at patching up 'shot by Twi'lek' wounds and I had to resort to stim packs again.
So here we are at Whisper Base, ready to take out their communications and hopefully deal with MX-XP once and for all. If I get my hands on him I'm reprogramming him into a toaster.
Wednesday, 23 October 2019
Noghri Death Squad, part 3: Wheeee!
Wheeeeeeee!
Oh yes, personal log, Zatti.
Out of that horrible little town. Feeling a lot better. And we're going to do what we came here to do - head to the city and foment rebellion!
Message from Agent Flamingo. Strange goings on at a nearby base. Advised to stay away. Gax wanted to investigate, but Vhesk and me are feeling unusually strong willed, and refused. We had a job to do.
Looking at a map, we could see the quickest way to the city was to get on our speeder bikes and drive them along the river.
Wheeeeeee!
We set off with Gax taking the lead, closely followed by Vhesk, Aoghri and me. (I have no idea where the diplobot got to, after Aoghri found his restraining bolt, but doubtless he'll show up again eventually.)
Gax took an early lead through the rapids, while Vhesk made solid progress ahead of me. Aoghri collided with an overhanging branch, but somehow managed to style it out, performing an apparently effortless somersault over the branch and landing perfectly back on the bike. Unfortunately I wasn't quite so lucky, slamming straight into a branch, which left me...well, let's just say that after surviving both being shot by own of my team and light sabered by a jedi, it would have been very embarrassing if I'd happened to collide with any more branches.
But I didn't. Instead I stylishly took the next turn with immaculate form and balance, slapping a stim pack into myself with one hand and gunning the throttle with the other. Round the corner I could see Gax using the speeder bike weapons to gun down some filthy rebels who were attempting to shoot at us from the top of the gorge, performing a perfect 360 as he trained the guns on them.
Aoghri shot past me and up the side of the gorge, executing a spin that lined him up to rejoin us, while Vhesk vanished from sight as he sped up the opposite bank. I took the next turn at speed, spraying water in a sparkling fan as I caught sight of Gax again.
Vhesk reached the top of the cliff and slammed his bike straight into one of the remaining rebels, who plummeted off the cliff as Aoghri rejoined us from the other side. Moments later, Vhesk flew off the cliff, executing a perfect landing at the front of the group.
Wheeeeeeeeee!
Further down the river and closer to the city we stopped for a rest and to allow Gax to patch up his speeder bike, which had taken some damage from the rebels' gunfire. But we soon realised we had company incoming. Vhesk and me built a barricade using our speeder bikes, while Aoghri dived into some bushes.
Down a slope came a gang of filthy rebel scum on speeder bikes, accompanied by a droid that we recognised at once as MX-XP.
The filthy rebel scum proved basically irrelevant as Aoghri, now completely hidden from side, lobbed a bunch of grenades out of the bushes and took out all of them. The droid was more of an issue.
Gax and me fired from behind our speeder bike cover, with Gax effectively taking out the droid's own speeder bike. Vhesk lept out to engage him in combat. He promptly broke both his molecular shiv and his vibro-knife on the droid's shielding, and had to resort to using his Noghri teeth and claws. The rest of us kept firing, despite the disorienting noise from the droid's sonic blaster. Gax slammed rifle fire into him. I managed one perfectly aimed shot and disoriented him right back, although I did get knocked over by the blaster's kick back.
We took him down. An X-wing was hovering overhead, and as he was about to break we heard him begin to upload himself from his body into the X-wing. Vhesk jumped into action to disrupt the upload. We saw the X-wing stop, hovering in the air for a few moments, spin round a couple of times, then fly away.
On to the city now, to spread stories of how the evil rebel droid MX-XP brutally slaughtered a group of innocent people and how only the might of the Empire can protect them from such atrocities.
We might need the diplobot for that. I wonder if I can reprogram him a bit?
Oh yes, personal log, Zatti.
Out of that horrible little town. Feeling a lot better. And we're going to do what we came here to do - head to the city and foment rebellion!
Message from Agent Flamingo. Strange goings on at a nearby base. Advised to stay away. Gax wanted to investigate, but Vhesk and me are feeling unusually strong willed, and refused. We had a job to do.
Looking at a map, we could see the quickest way to the city was to get on our speeder bikes and drive them along the river.
Wheeeeeee!
We set off with Gax taking the lead, closely followed by Vhesk, Aoghri and me. (I have no idea where the diplobot got to, after Aoghri found his restraining bolt, but doubtless he'll show up again eventually.)
Gax took an early lead through the rapids, while Vhesk made solid progress ahead of me. Aoghri collided with an overhanging branch, but somehow managed to style it out, performing an apparently effortless somersault over the branch and landing perfectly back on the bike. Unfortunately I wasn't quite so lucky, slamming straight into a branch, which left me...well, let's just say that after surviving both being shot by own of my team and light sabered by a jedi, it would have been very embarrassing if I'd happened to collide with any more branches.
But I didn't. Instead I stylishly took the next turn with immaculate form and balance, slapping a stim pack into myself with one hand and gunning the throttle with the other. Round the corner I could see Gax using the speeder bike weapons to gun down some filthy rebels who were attempting to shoot at us from the top of the gorge, performing a perfect 360 as he trained the guns on them.
Aoghri shot past me and up the side of the gorge, executing a spin that lined him up to rejoin us, while Vhesk vanished from sight as he sped up the opposite bank. I took the next turn at speed, spraying water in a sparkling fan as I caught sight of Gax again.
Vhesk reached the top of the cliff and slammed his bike straight into one of the remaining rebels, who plummeted off the cliff as Aoghri rejoined us from the other side. Moments later, Vhesk flew off the cliff, executing a perfect landing at the front of the group.
Wheeeeeeeeee!
Further down the river and closer to the city we stopped for a rest and to allow Gax to patch up his speeder bike, which had taken some damage from the rebels' gunfire. But we soon realised we had company incoming. Vhesk and me built a barricade using our speeder bikes, while Aoghri dived into some bushes.
Down a slope came a gang of filthy rebel scum on speeder bikes, accompanied by a droid that we recognised at once as MX-XP.
The filthy rebel scum proved basically irrelevant as Aoghri, now completely hidden from side, lobbed a bunch of grenades out of the bushes and took out all of them. The droid was more of an issue.
Gax and me fired from behind our speeder bike cover, with Gax effectively taking out the droid's own speeder bike. Vhesk lept out to engage him in combat. He promptly broke both his molecular shiv and his vibro-knife on the droid's shielding, and had to resort to using his Noghri teeth and claws. The rest of us kept firing, despite the disorienting noise from the droid's sonic blaster. Gax slammed rifle fire into him. I managed one perfectly aimed shot and disoriented him right back, although I did get knocked over by the blaster's kick back.
We took him down. An X-wing was hovering overhead, and as he was about to break we heard him begin to upload himself from his body into the X-wing. Vhesk jumped into action to disrupt the upload. We saw the X-wing stop, hovering in the air for a few moments, spin round a couple of times, then fly away.
On to the city now, to spread stories of how the evil rebel droid MX-XP brutally slaughtered a group of innocent people and how only the might of the Empire can protect them from such atrocities.
We might need the diplobot for that. I wonder if I can reprogram him a bit?
Monday, 21 October 2019
Noghri Death Squad, part 2: Bad few days
Personal log, Zatti.
Bad few days.
Long walk. Tired.
Trail of destruction through the jungle. Looked promising. Followed. Splattered corpse. Certainly looked like my team's style. Tracked them to a cave that was about to be attacked by space bats. Lacking equipment, attempted to punch a bat. Failed. Not a problem, as the others emerged and stabbed them up, getting covered in neurotoxin in the process.
Not a problem for me, anyway.
---
Feeling much better after getting some rest and my stuff back. I'm ready to break locks, infiltrate facilities and hack computers! Except we're still in the jungle and the only electronic thing around is BS-OJ, and after the way he's been oiling himself I don't want to touch him.
It seems I ran into the team in the middle of carrying out another task on our list: finding a rogue Jedi. There's something weird going on at a nearby village, so I stealthed my way down to take a look at the medical centre. Comparing notes afterwards it was clear something was badly wrong here, with villagers acting peculiarly and sometimes disappearing entirely.
We're going to take a group trip into the village to try to get some clear answers.
---
With hindsight, perhaps going to the village like that wasn't the best idea, but something had happened to my brain that was stopping me making good decisions, and I have no reason to believe the same thing wasn't happening to the others. I'm a bit confused about what happened next. I think I wanted to go to the temple but wasn't allowed. The next thing I'm clear about was being strapped to a chair, which isn't normally the way round that kind of thing happens, but I was feeling like myself again so I wasn't going to complain.
Clarice, the woman in the medical centre wanted someone to find her missing husband. Naturally we had more important things to concern ourselves with than hunting for missing persons, but I had a hunch that we might end up finding him anyway.
With only 24 hours until we risked having the medical treatment wear off and succumbing to brain rot again, we had to work fast. The temple seemed like the best place to look for a rogue jedi, given that all of us who had fallen victim to brain rot had wanted to go there. Taking advantage of disease to strengthen filthy Jedi mind tricks sounded like just the kind of thing a rogue Jedi might get up to.
Realising that I'd been the victim of disgusting non-Vader-sanctioned use of the force made me very angry, so after stealthing into the temple and seeing the jedi converse with BS-OJ I was ready to kill.
Ready, but not able, as the strange chitinous carapace he had grown was deflecting my blaster fire. Gax demonstrated some excellent shooting and shot his light saber right out of his hand, but that did nothing to affect his force powers. I saw him hover in the air and shortly afterwards heard the clang of Noghri on droid as he used his jedi mind tricks to turn one of our own against us. But I didn't have time to think much more about that, because another jedi had arrived.
I realised straight away who it was. Clarice's husband. I didn't have time to say anything though, because he attacked me with his light saber, and moments later I realised that Gax had also succumbed to jedi mind tricks as he turned his rifle on me.
I woke up some time later under the influence of a stim pack, struggling to focus on anything with two massive wounds still visible on me. There were some dead people in the basement, from some kind of experimentation, presumably the work of the rogue jedi given how many of them had chitinous carapace parts. The other jedi had a necklace with pictures of Clarice and her child, so I was right about who he was.
After that we went back to the village, where Aoghri killed Clarice and her child. I wasn't expecting that, but the child was clearly a potential jedi so needed removing. All the same, I've realised just how poorly briefed I was on this mission.
Another item ticked off the list, but I don't think we've done much to foment rebellion, and I can't see anyone in this village being willing to listen, even to our diplobot, after what just happened.
I hate this planet.
What use am I with nothing to slice?
Maybe if I ask nicely BS-OJ will let me look at his circuits.
I can still see where Gax shot me.
I hate jedi.
Foment rebellion. Then we can leave.
Bad few days.
Bad few days.
Long walk. Tired.
Trail of destruction through the jungle. Looked promising. Followed. Splattered corpse. Certainly looked like my team's style. Tracked them to a cave that was about to be attacked by space bats. Lacking equipment, attempted to punch a bat. Failed. Not a problem, as the others emerged and stabbed them up, getting covered in neurotoxin in the process.
Not a problem for me, anyway.
---
Feeling much better after getting some rest and my stuff back. I'm ready to break locks, infiltrate facilities and hack computers! Except we're still in the jungle and the only electronic thing around is BS-OJ, and after the way he's been oiling himself I don't want to touch him.
It seems I ran into the team in the middle of carrying out another task on our list: finding a rogue Jedi. There's something weird going on at a nearby village, so I stealthed my way down to take a look at the medical centre. Comparing notes afterwards it was clear something was badly wrong here, with villagers acting peculiarly and sometimes disappearing entirely.
We're going to take a group trip into the village to try to get some clear answers.
---
With hindsight, perhaps going to the village like that wasn't the best idea, but something had happened to my brain that was stopping me making good decisions, and I have no reason to believe the same thing wasn't happening to the others. I'm a bit confused about what happened next. I think I wanted to go to the temple but wasn't allowed. The next thing I'm clear about was being strapped to a chair, which isn't normally the way round that kind of thing happens, but I was feeling like myself again so I wasn't going to complain.
Clarice, the woman in the medical centre wanted someone to find her missing husband. Naturally we had more important things to concern ourselves with than hunting for missing persons, but I had a hunch that we might end up finding him anyway.
With only 24 hours until we risked having the medical treatment wear off and succumbing to brain rot again, we had to work fast. The temple seemed like the best place to look for a rogue jedi, given that all of us who had fallen victim to brain rot had wanted to go there. Taking advantage of disease to strengthen filthy Jedi mind tricks sounded like just the kind of thing a rogue Jedi might get up to.
Realising that I'd been the victim of disgusting non-Vader-sanctioned use of the force made me very angry, so after stealthing into the temple and seeing the jedi converse with BS-OJ I was ready to kill.
Ready, but not able, as the strange chitinous carapace he had grown was deflecting my blaster fire. Gax demonstrated some excellent shooting and shot his light saber right out of his hand, but that did nothing to affect his force powers. I saw him hover in the air and shortly afterwards heard the clang of Noghri on droid as he used his jedi mind tricks to turn one of our own against us. But I didn't have time to think much more about that, because another jedi had arrived.
I realised straight away who it was. Clarice's husband. I didn't have time to say anything though, because he attacked me with his light saber, and moments later I realised that Gax had also succumbed to jedi mind tricks as he turned his rifle on me.
I woke up some time later under the influence of a stim pack, struggling to focus on anything with two massive wounds still visible on me. There were some dead people in the basement, from some kind of experimentation, presumably the work of the rogue jedi given how many of them had chitinous carapace parts. The other jedi had a necklace with pictures of Clarice and her child, so I was right about who he was.
After that we went back to the village, where Aoghri killed Clarice and her child. I wasn't expecting that, but the child was clearly a potential jedi so needed removing. All the same, I've realised just how poorly briefed I was on this mission.
Another item ticked off the list, but I don't think we've done much to foment rebellion, and I can't see anyone in this village being willing to listen, even to our diplobot, after what just happened.
I hate this planet.
What use am I with nothing to slice?
Maybe if I ask nicely BS-OJ will let me look at his circuits.
I can still see where Gax shot me.
I hate jedi.
Foment rebellion. Then we can leave.
Bad few days.
Saturday, 19 October 2019
Noghri Death Squad, part 1: Is this some kind of game?
My Thursday group are playing Star Wars: Edge of the Empire. It's about as bonkers as our Thursday games normally are...
Honestly, I don't know what the others are complaining about. If
they looked after their electronics properly they wouldn't have these
problems. I mean, mine works and look what just happened to it! Bunch
of technophobe...
...Oh yes, personal log, Zatti.
Having completed a training and assessment exercise, Agent Flamingo has given us our next assignment. And when I say 'assignment', I mean a loosely connected set of different jobs, which all just happen to be on the same planetary system, plus a few extra jobs from various people. What do they think this is, some kind of game?
We contacted the Backstreet Magpies to arrange transfer of our equipment to Rori while we flew in a completely legitimate and non-suspicious way to Naboo.
Job list:
Find out if Queen Stefani's handmaiden Amazonia is still a loyal spy or if she's leaking information.
If she is leaking information, deal with her and frame the Alderan ambassador for it.
Find Gosk, some loser member of our tribe who's failed his mission, and deal with him.
Arrange discreet transport to Rori
Put a stop to Darius Scrive's smuggling operation.
Find a rogue Jedi on Rori.
Foment rebellion on Rori.
Was that all? I think so. I hope so.
We split up to get some of the grunt work done. BS-OJ the diplobot went looking for Amazonia and found she was leaking secrets to the ambassador. Shortly afterwards they both died of poisoning. I was going to try to plant some fake news to make the ambassador look bad, but thanks to some video BS-OJ took, everyone is sufficiently embarrassed already.
We did a bit of shopping, in my case without any transfer of funds being involved, and went after Gosk.
Why this involved crawling down a searing hot ventilation duct I'm not sure, but we successfully got into the prison where he was being held, at the cost of feeling extremely stressed about it. Fortunately there were a lot of blast doors between him and us, and after spending some time hacking the electronic locks I felt a lot better.
I did fail to open the second door, but BS-OJ deployed his fusion cutter and we weren't slowed down for long - just long enough to shoot the guards who found us. Between some more hacking, shooting, stabbing and fusion cutting it wasn't long before we'd retrieved Gosk and were on our way out.
Back to the task list. I was able to tick off several items, which was excellent.
I broke into Darius's house along with Aogrhi, and got shot by a booby-trapped blaster for my trouble. We had a good look around, but unfortunately his datapad turned out to be extremely well protected. Fortunately Aoghri already had plenty of good intel, and after dragging BS-OJ back from another shopping trip to do some negotiation for us, we had transport to Rori arranged on Darius's ship. He was charging far too much, but of course we could always kill or blackmail him later.
We broke atmo on Rori and donned our jetpacks to make our way down to the planet's surface. I was initially descending with the rest of the group in a controlled fashion and on target for the landing zone. And then we hit turbulence.
One moment I was swapping hand signals with the rest of the team as we helped guide each other down. The next I was veering off out of control. Initially I thought I could pull it back together, with some help from the others, but with the descent speed and turbulence getting worse, I ended up losing sight of them and the landing zone entirely.
I've now crashed landed somewhere in the jungles of Rori. I'm in pain, I've no idea where I am, I don't know how to find the rest of the team, and all the gear I've got is what I was carrying during the drop. I don't even know which way to walk to get out of this.
All the same, I've started walking. The team are going to need me back soon. Plus, there might be people in this jungle. I've got a rebellion to foment.
...Oh yes, personal log, Zatti.
Having completed a training and assessment exercise, Agent Flamingo has given us our next assignment. And when I say 'assignment', I mean a loosely connected set of different jobs, which all just happen to be on the same planetary system, plus a few extra jobs from various people. What do they think this is, some kind of game?
We contacted the Backstreet Magpies to arrange transfer of our equipment to Rori while we flew in a completely legitimate and non-suspicious way to Naboo.
Job list:
Find out if Queen Stefani's handmaiden Amazonia is still a loyal spy or if she's leaking information.
If she is leaking information, deal with her and frame the Alderan ambassador for it.
Find Gosk, some loser member of our tribe who's failed his mission, and deal with him.
Arrange discreet transport to Rori
Put a stop to Darius Scrive's smuggling operation.
Find a rogue Jedi on Rori.
Foment rebellion on Rori.
Was that all? I think so. I hope so.
We split up to get some of the grunt work done. BS-OJ the diplobot went looking for Amazonia and found she was leaking secrets to the ambassador. Shortly afterwards they both died of poisoning. I was going to try to plant some fake news to make the ambassador look bad, but thanks to some video BS-OJ took, everyone is sufficiently embarrassed already.
We did a bit of shopping, in my case without any transfer of funds being involved, and went after Gosk.
Why this involved crawling down a searing hot ventilation duct I'm not sure, but we successfully got into the prison where he was being held, at the cost of feeling extremely stressed about it. Fortunately there were a lot of blast doors between him and us, and after spending some time hacking the electronic locks I felt a lot better.
I did fail to open the second door, but BS-OJ deployed his fusion cutter and we weren't slowed down for long - just long enough to shoot the guards who found us. Between some more hacking, shooting, stabbing and fusion cutting it wasn't long before we'd retrieved Gosk and were on our way out.
Back to the task list. I was able to tick off several items, which was excellent.
I broke into Darius's house along with Aogrhi, and got shot by a booby-trapped blaster for my trouble. We had a good look around, but unfortunately his datapad turned out to be extremely well protected. Fortunately Aoghri already had plenty of good intel, and after dragging BS-OJ back from another shopping trip to do some negotiation for us, we had transport to Rori arranged on Darius's ship. He was charging far too much, but of course we could always kill or blackmail him later.
We broke atmo on Rori and donned our jetpacks to make our way down to the planet's surface. I was initially descending with the rest of the group in a controlled fashion and on target for the landing zone. And then we hit turbulence.
One moment I was swapping hand signals with the rest of the team as we helped guide each other down. The next I was veering off out of control. Initially I thought I could pull it back together, with some help from the others, but with the descent speed and turbulence getting worse, I ended up losing sight of them and the landing zone entirely.
I've now crashed landed somewhere in the jungles of Rori. I'm in pain, I've no idea where I am, I don't know how to find the rest of the team, and all the gear I've got is what I was carrying during the drop. I don't even know which way to walk to get out of this.
All the same, I've started walking. The team are going to need me back soon. Plus, there might be people in this jungle. I've got a rebellion to foment.
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