The Search for Shiv: Planetside

I keep forgetting I have this blog until it's time for my promised Wednesday post. I've got to get back in the habit of doing this. Here we go:

When we last left our heroes, they had just crash landed on the blockaded world of N'zoth and the ship was now missing a stabilizer (in this case, it’s kind of like a wing on an airplane, except it's movable). His backstory establishes that Drev loved his ship. He insisted they repair it instead of finding a new one. Drev decided to stay with the ship on guard duty instead of venturing out on the mission. Not realizing that Yossa hates droids, he ordered Sparky to follow Yossa’s commands. Sparky had the specs for the necessary part. Just before landing, a message arrived from their prospective ally indicating the city he was hiding in. It looked to be a 2-3 day walk through the forest to the city Yossa’s friend, Saban, indicated.

En route, they encountered a group of vorpacks. Our GM described them as “Star Wars Tribbles”. They swarmed the party as the group tried to sleep. All they really did was go “Eep!” When a Tiss’shar gobbled one down, the rest scattered.

This concluded the December session. We didn’t get to play for over a month after that.

The next session, the group arrived at the town to find stormtroopers conducting a door-to-door search. The locals were unhappy, and it appeared a riot would break out at any moment. Remember, this is N’zoth. The locals are incredibly xenophobic. An AT-ST clanked as it walked in the distance. Zin was sent in to scout while Val, the sniper, found a place in a tall tree on the edge of the forest. The sneaky Zin managed to sneak into an apartment complex that the Imperials were searching. I don’t know why the player thought that would be a good idea. Zin got ahead of the patrol sweeping the place and went room-to-room. At some point, Zin shut the door right behind a group of stormtroopers that had just gone into a room. After much fruitless searching by both Zin and stormtroopers, Zin misstepped and made a noise. A trooper called it in. Zin then heard the words she dreaded: “Yes, sir. Switching to thermal imaging.”

Zin sprinted outside and down the hallway to the only exit where she found two stormtroopers holding the crowd back from entering the complex. On the bright side, Zin had skill points spent in jump, tumble, and several other relevant skills. She charged down the stairs before leaping through the doorway. The troopers never expected to see someone coming out of the building! When Val saw Zin dashing through the doorway into the street, she let loose a shot at one of the troopers. Critical hit! He’s down! As Zin turned down the nearest alley, Val fired off a couple more shots before climbing down from the tree. She didn’t want to risk anyone tracing the shots back to her present location. Zin continued to zig-zag through alleys. Suddenly, an arm reached out and hauled her into one of the buildings! Once inside, a shadowy figure dragged her down a hatch in the floor. “Yousa stirring up a lot of trouble. I should have expected nothing less from the great Yossa Fel.” It was Saban. Finally, we had the entire party in play! After waiting some time for things to cool down, Saban used Zin’s comlink to contact Val (Yossa doesn’t own a comlink). She handed it off to Yossa. Saban told him to meet at “the drinking spot we used to go to when we were off duty.” Yossa groaned. They were to meet outside a cantina just off the base! That was where the session ended.

Next time, join us for the grand meet-up!

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Rebooting the Search

It's been 8 months since the first session of this rebooted campaign and two months since the end. It also went on hiatus for quite awhile. For those reasons, I'm just giving the details. I can't remember much of the dialogue.

When we last left our heroes, um... they were all dead. Yossa needed to assemble a new team to take down Shiv.

Both my brother and I missed the first session after are restart (I'm playing the pilot, Drev, and he's playing Sparky, a mechanic/medical droid). The two of us had to pick a starting world. We chose Borleias. The GM laughed. "That's where everyone is meeting!"

We took the call from Yossa about the job. Unfortunately, we were low on starting cash. Most of it went toward the ship. The group was meeting on the other side of the planet and we couldn't pay our docking fee! How could a blockader runner, er, legitimate business man be so short on credits? It was decided Drev and Sparky came to pick up a cargo. When they arrived, the job offer was suddenly rescinded. Those two don't have the force to lodge a significant enough protest.

Yossa came over via commercial transport. The Tiss'shar, Val and Xin, were already on planet for some reason. I missed the session where that was explained. Xai Sho, the Nagai, crash landed her small ship in the wilderness. Any landing you can walk away from, right? It was only there to provide transport to the staging area anyway.

I can't remember if Yossa payed the docking fee so we could go to the rest or they took a transport to us. I just remember he tried to haggle the price down and failed. The group met without anything of note happening, besides Drev never spotting Xin, the infiltration expert.

As we took off, both the GM and Yossa's player started laughing. "Do you realize that he gathered all of you without telling you why you were going after Shiv?" The GM said.

It was then Yossa realized we didn't have any computer expert amongst the group. (Sparky didn't count in his eyes because Yossa hates droids.) The only trustworthy slicer he can think of is an old army buddy. After a quick explanation of the situation, his friend agrees to help. The only catch is that we must pick him up. He's stuck under an Imperial blockade. On N'zoth. In Yossa's words, "Right after we rescue him, I'm going to punch him."

This ended the session.

In our next session, the group left for N'zoth. Sparky briefed Drev on what to expect from the locals: death. The Yevethan natives are highly xenophobic. Due to the added risk, Drev elected not to take on any cargo bound for their destination.

Once in hyperspace, Yossa explained who the target of his wrath was: a highly dangerous Bothan computer/droid expert. Val disclosed what she knew of him as well. Her mother had worked alongside Shiv (in a previous campaign). That group managed to hijack a Star Destroyer from an Imperial shipyard and Shiv was the main component in that theft!

Until they arrived, the passengers amused themselves by playing holochess repeatedly. Drev joined in occasionally, but couldn't win a match (or even come close). "Why do I even have this thing?" he grumbled as he headed toward the cockpit. Experience told him there would be a hyperspace interdiction field around the planet. The ship would be pulled out of hyperspace upon arrival.

The interdiction field cut the Rodent's Bane out of hyperspace a fair distance out from the system. An approach through an asteroid field hid the ship's approach. I had bragged about Drev being able to perform any maneuver at full speed. I was wrong. As I approached the planet, Drev missed his pilot check to avoid hitting a Star Destroyer. The GM waved it off, saying Drev barely dodged it. "But be careful."

The run to the planet was uneventful, until it came time to land. My bragging came back to bite me. A natural 1! The ship scraped a stabilizer against the overhang Drev was trying to park under. The ship crashed to the ground. Sparky went out to check. The whole stabilizer was gone. Without that part, the group would be unable to get off the planet!

More to come next Wednesday.
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