RPG Night with Cliff - April 27 Update

Star Wars Edge of the Empire: Mask of the Pirate Queen

If you are planning to play this adventure you may wish to avoid reading these reports as they will contain spoilers.

Characters in attendance:

(Names and descriptions are my own from memory, I don't have the sheets with me)

• Heb: Jawa Engineer
• Dak Jizz: Human Scoundrel
• QT-69: Droid
• A.C.E.: Droid Pilot
• TBA-77: Droid Medical and Pacifist / Assassin Droid
• Lewie: Wookie
• Macro: Close Combat Droid
• Deltron3030: Rodian Sniper
• Bob & Dug: The Dug mercs
• Jak Spectro: Human engineer
• Wrist: Trandoshan
• Shaga'thorn: Twi'lek
• Pash: Falleen Smuggler
  
• Baelen: Bounty Hunter
• Mayko: Human Tech

This week's update was written by Philip Fenez the player of Heb.  You can visit his own blog here http://fenezfolliesfarm.blogspot.ca/ it is a great site if you are interested in farming, and wonderful fresh veggies.

With the swish of the hatch opening, Heb pushed himself as tight to the side of the docking tube as he could. Which was not enough to stop getting a few hits and causing him to cry out "Medic".
Thus started the shooting, the ship we were boarding had the lights off do to many ion blasts by the consortium ships. As the group lined up to push there way onto the Bloody Tiger they all in turn managed to make there way in and to shoot many enemy pirates. That is except for ACE who needed to get his delivery scooter, Wirst who felt he would be better off assisting people by chucking them through the antigravity environment of the docking tube and Pasch who was thrown into the side of the tube, but eventually made it.
After many many blisters were shot, shouts of mine and the lights finally were stabilized by everyone's favourite hacker Heb, it was time for ACE to make his entrance. (ACE has a programming flaw based on the person he was made to replace, that flaw is that he needs to fly with flare.)  Seeing the entrance to the ship crowded it only made sense to ACE to do a barrel role through the loading tube and manage to drive upside down over the boarding party, and he succeeded much to the relief of his ship mates.

Being blood thirsty mercenaries the group quickly located more pirates to shoot at.  They had the good fortune to come across a group of 4 that were suited up in space suits caring a large box.  After quickly dispatching these cowards the group was happy to discover there were 10000 credits inside. Macro took them back to the IS1.

Lewy the woke discovered an empty board room, he was not at his best as he was missing patches of fur from the previous encounter and was wearing a cone to prevent licking.  At least that is what TBA 77 told him it was for.

ACE drove up the stairs to discover a locked door, which Mako had a good long look at prior to actually managing to unlock. Meanwhile Doug the Dugg, decided to take the elevator to the next level by himself, muttering "mine they're all going to be mine". This caused a lot of snarling and swearing by Buggy Bob and Deltron 3030 (not an android), as they made it to the elevator door just as it closed.  Heb had found a control panel and was working hard at trying to break in, he was meeting with unusual resistance.

AT this same time 3 pirates came up from the hold via a ladder that had been quickly looked down.  They were soon taken out by Jek, Lewy, Pasch, Wirst or TBA, it was hard to tell with all the blaster fire.  Ironically they had come up right in front of Macro as he was sending the crate of credits to the IS1, but he was not quick enough to do anything but watch as others claimed the kills.

The 3 shooting fools Deltron 3030 (not a droid), Buggy Bob and Doug were fighting off pirates at the elevator doors when Mako finally opened the doors and ACE started to fly in. Just then the ship was hit with a wave of ion cannons that knocked out the gravity on the ship.  This caused ACEs usual erratic flying to become more of an arial ballet and prevented him from slamming into the wall.
The pirate made a ship wide announcement offer to pay the group greatly to stop and how impressed she was by their tenacity. There was overall silence from the group except for a couple of the droids saying they thought it was a good deal.

Heb manages to wrestle control of the computers attempting to shut down the hyperdrive and alerting the consortium to stop firing as they had control of the ships computer system. macro decided to descend into the hold to see if their were any others pirates down below. He made his way into engine room and convinced the engineers their that he was not a threat but an ally,  enough that they just kept working. Mako made his way down to help Macro.  Jek made his way over to Heb to provide assistance.

The battle on the command deck was going well for our mighty fighters when ACE spotted the pirate queen. He came up with the plan to drive through the window right by the pirate queen hopping to have her get sucked out.  Luckily Doug decided to try and hitch a ride to get past some pirates and get to the queen. This stopped ACE from succeeding and placed Doug in the perfect spot to shoot the Queen, which he did beautifully, twice.  Of course then The Pirate Queen shows why she is the head of this organization. She walks over to Doug, Yes she has magnetic boots on allowing her to move in zero gravity. She proceeds to slash him with her sabre, twice. While she has been so engaged, Deltron 3030 has taken careful aim and does what he is best at......stealing the kill.

Our (anti)heroes are meeting with V----- who hired them to do the job.  She has actually offered to double their pay! She has one last task for them to kill the traitor in the organization.  She points the finger at Porell, he in turn points the finger at her.  Macro deduces that he is lying and kills Porell, and he was actually correct. We see the group fly off in their new ship that they have decided to fix up on there own, and keep the 20 000 credits each they earned.

Watch for future episodes as our rogues raise havoc in other parts of the universe in there new ship IS2

Starting Next Thursday, we will be playing Numenera.

RPG Night with Cliff - April 20th Update

Star Wars Edge of the Empire: Mask of the Pirate Queen
If you are planning to play this adventure you may wish to avoid reading these reports as they will contain spoilers.

Characters in attendance:

(Names and descriptions are my own from memory, I don't have the sheets with me)

• Heb: Jawa Engineer
• Dak Jizz: Human Scoundrel
• QT-69: Droid
• A.C.E.: Droid Pilot
• TBA-77: Droid Medical and Pacifist / Assassin Droid
• Lewie: Wookie
• Macro: Close Combat Droid
• Deltron3030: Rodian Sniper
• Bob & Dug: The Dug mercs
• Jak Spectro: Human engineer
• Wrist: Trandoshan
• Shaga'thorn: Twi'lek
• Pash: Falleen Smuggler
  
• Baelen: Bounty Hunter

This week's update was written by Philip Fenez the player of Heb.  You can visit his own blog here http://fenezfolliesfarm.blogspot.ca/ it is a great site if you are interested in farming, and wonderful fresh veggies.

The group proceeded to leave the banquet.  They have now become rather blood thirsty and are proving that sometimes the cure is worse than the illness. The trigger happy ensured there was nobody in the way as they made their way to the elevators. Upon reaching the parking garage they discovered their stolen vehicle was missing (you just can't trust some people).  They proceeded into the street and stole 2 vehicles to get back to the I.S.1.  While on the way they messaged Vallana of the Consortium the coordinates of the consortium ship that was to be attacked and that the queen would be there. She informed them that an armada was heading to the location and they were to get themselves there.

Upon arriving at their ship, they noticed that there were blaster marks on the ship, the loading ramp was down and the droid JR12 that had been hired to guard the ship had been shot. Who shot JR?

Buggy Bob drifted the stolen vehicle 1 up to the loading ramp.  This happened to be the vehicle with most of the gun happy in it. Vehicle 2 driven by Jec Spectro came up in a regular stop (unusual for our group to be so safe).  Heb logged into the ship to find out what was going on discovered 6 beings inside 4 ready in ambush at the top of the ramp and 2 in the engine room.

While the gunslingers argued about the best way to get this trap sprung, TBA 77 threw a grenade up the ramp (which actually repaired previous damage).   The first person to stagger down the ramp was greeted by at least 6 shots being fired at them and a chorus of "mine" as he swiftly died.  The Duggs, Deltron 3030 (not a robot), Macro, Lewy and Baelen rushed up the ramp and took out the rest of the ambushers.

Heb immediately went to the engine room to discover  to discover that they had damaged the hyperdrive. He switched over to the lesser hyperdrive and off they went. Since ACE was still stuck in one of the smuggling bins it was left up to Baelen to fly the ship with the help of Jec Spectro which they did quite fine.  During the time in hyperspace TBA 77 Healed up Doug the Dugg with only the slight side effect of Dugg now being addicted to stimpacks. He also did an amazing job of healing up Lewy (woohoo).

Heb worked on fixing the hyperdrive and Jec Spectro did some major repairs to Macro.

When they got to the next jump point Heb switched the hyperdrives. He then proceeded to the sick bay to fix TBA 77, when asked to shut down to assist with the repairs TBA 77 revealed his hidden gun and explicitly said no. Heb quickly left to allow TBA 77 to converse with his 2 personalities.

The second jump did not go quite as well and the group came out in a debris field as they entered into a raging space battle.  They were immediately greeted by Jared Psyches the Fleet commander for the consortium.  He provided a Data burst of information to allow the group to know who they should be firing at. Deltron 3030 using his amazing dexterity was in one gun port while Lewy was in the other. Heb was mounting JR12........onto the ship near the loading ramp.  Thus fulfilling the name of the ship the Indentured Servant 1 (IS1).

The group was ordered to board the Renegade Blood and capture the queen. An order that was of much concern to the group as they had no intention of taking her alive (or anyone else for that matter).

As they flew over they were attacked by 2 fighter ships which were quickly dispatched. Baelen took 2 attempts to dock the to the Renegade Blood. Upon successfully docking Heb had to go unlock the door which he did...................leaving us to next weeks story.

RPG Night with Cliff - April 13th Update

Star Wars Edge of the Empire: Mask of the Pirate Queen
If you are planning to play this adventure you may wish to avoid reading these reports as they will contain spoilers.

Characters in attendance:

(Names and descriptions are my own from memory, I don't have the sheets with me)

• Heb: Jawa Engineer
• Dak Jizz: Human Scoundrel
• QT-69: Droid
• A.C.E.: Droid Pilot
• TBA-77: Droid Medical and Pacifist
• Lewie: Wookie
• Macro: Close Combat Droid
• Deltron3030: Rodian Sniper
• Bob & Dug: The Dug mercs
• Jak Spectro: Human engineer
• Wrist: Trandoshan
• Shaga'thorn: Twi'lek
• Pash: Falleen Smuggler
  
• Belion: Bounty Hunter

At the end of our last session, the group had gotten what information they could from Travel and knew where to find the Queen base of operation on Wurlport.  After a brief discussion about the possibility of some kind of mole with the Consortium, they decided to go ahead and contact their planet contact Jander.  He wasn't thrilled that the professional that had been brought in felt the need to call him for advice.  But, he gave them a few suggestions. Basically, go to the offices of a company that does Environmental equipment maintenance company, steal some uniforms and a truck and try and sneak into the base under the guise of doing maintenance.

During the prep Jak did a quick diagnostic on TBA-77, something has been going wrong with his program and he isn't sure what it is.  He discovered that his original assination programming was trying to reassert itself over the newer pacifist programing.  The discovery also pushed the assianation protocol more to the for front for the time.

They arrived at the Ambrae Environmental, several of the group took up firing positions around that facility.  A couple of packs of Corellian Bloodhound prowled around the yard.  Pash, Macro, and Heb made their way to the security booth. Pash stepped up as the spokesperson for the group and convinced the guard that they were legitimately there to pick up the a truck to perform a planned work order.  A mixture of his charming demeanor and Falleen pheromones were enough to have the bored security guard eating out of his hand.  The guard tossed over the keys and they were on their way.  Of course, they didn't leave the yard before collecting some extra supplies from the nearby trucks.  While this was taking place there was also some discussion about the possibility of just gassing the whole base, even some talk of just blowing the whole thing up.  In the end, they decide to follow the plan and sneak and then try and gas the whole base from the inside.

With their new found (Ie stolen, like so many other vehicles in the groups past) they made their way to the entrance to the Queen's Palace on Wurlport.  They buzzed for access and a twi'lek security guard came out of the building.  Pash had little trouble convincing the guard that they had a scheduled check of the bases air filtration systems and that they were also supposed to be doing a variety of routine maintenance on the bases air systems.  (Thanks to a triumph result) it turned out that the guard was a big believer in the importance of routine maintenance and hurried them through a lot of the security.  Then after a long elevator rides down into the base they were led through a twisting series of turns and passage ways and the trail ended in a massive maintenance room.  TBA-77 stepped up behind him and put two blasts through the twi'lek's head and another one on his chest as his body slumped to the floor.

Heb went to work hacking the bases systems, it turned out that the system was based on flag counting and was a relatively easy computer to hack in to.  The problem with this was while it would be easy to hack into the more changes he made in the system the more likely he was to get noticed.  Jek starting working on the palaces air systems, he was in them pretty quickly and had a good read on how they were going to be working.  TBA-77 two competing protocols finally had a task that would on some levels along them to work together,  They worked together to mix several of the chemicals that they brought into the base in hopes of gassing out the queen and those who work .  His attempts were for naught and the mixture started to fog up the room, so it was hooked up to the air system and hoped for the best.

As a group they left the maintenance room and made their way to what they figured was where the queen was.  They arrived to find a massive party in full swing.  The Queen was standing up on a dais with a couple of other people talking.  Once inside the group the started to spread out in the room and one of the dugs was close enough to take the shot. the energy from his blast passed harmlessly through the hologram that was the queen. The music fell silent, the partiers moved to the edges of the room leaving most of the group in the room.  Basically, she was going to have the group killed because they had been to successful in causing her problems. To do this she called out for Savrip bodyguards, unlike the savage ones they had fought in the Scraplands these ones were armed, armored, and trained to fight.  

The battle was brutal and the party took considerable damage at the hands of the Savrips.  Several of them were even lamed during the fight.  The Queen's second in command took heavy sniper fire from Deltro3030 and was awfully disfigured and killed her.  Savrips swung their hammers around crushing anything they hit.  While the groups fired back and fought as hard as they could it was a savage battle that nearly resulted in several fatalities.  In the end, they were able to defeat them.  

As the battle ended Heb decided that enough was enough and after downloading as much of the data from the Queen's systems as he could he activated the base's self-destruct system.  

RPG Night with Cliff April 7th Update

Star Wars Edge of the Empire: Mask of the Pirate Queen
If you are planning to play this adventure you may wish to avoid reading these reports as they will contain spoilers.

Characters in attendance:

(Names and descriptions are my own from memory, I don't have the sheets with me)

• Heb: Jawa Engineer
• Dak Jizz: Human Scoundrel
• QT-69: Droid
• A.C.E.: Droid Pilot
• TBA-77: Droid Medical and Pacifist
• Lewie: Wookie
• Macro: Close Combat Droid
• Deltron3030: Rodian Sniper
• Bob & Dug: The Dug mercs
• Jak Spectro: Human engineer
• Wrist: Trandoshan
• Shaga'thorn: Twi'lek
• Pash: Smuggler
  
• Unknown Name: Bounty Hunter

After taking the package from Illo the group discussed their transportation options.  A.C.E. wanted to fly their despite the near suicidal flight conditions they would encounter.  They also discussed taking a planetary train as well as renting land speeders.  Both options were rejected because they would be to costly for the credit poor group.

The decided there best option would be to steal some vehicles to take them out into the Scraplands.  The closest option they found to the Scraplands was a garbage depot on the edge of Worlport.  There local garbage was collected and transferred to massive automated haulers that would take the refuse out into the wastes and dump it.

Deltron3030, Pash, and one of the dugs snuck into the compound after both Heb and Jak failed to hack in to their security systems. Acting as a lone wolf, Deltron3030 made his way in alone.  His over confidence in his stealth abilities were very apparent when he went straight up the middle and was spotted by the compounds security systems.  His clumsy efforts did distract the security from Pash and the Dug making the way clear for them.  (The joys of a failed Triumph roll) Pash and the dug were able to access their target vehicle with easy after deltron3030 failed efforts.

Outside the compound Heb, Lewie, and Macro headed for the Security gate in case more physical force was required. Heb went with them because he wanted another shot at the compound security systems.  TBA-77 and the other Dug took shot out the spot light that was lighting up the compounds yard and Deltron3030.  Jak Spectro distracted a pair of security guards with a bit of deception and them searching the wrong side of the yard for some children that had snuck inside.

Deltron3030 made good uses of the blaster fire and ran for his dump truck.  Pash and the dug were able to get the building sized garbage truck started up and switched over to manual control.  Heb's hacking skills got the second garbage truck up and running remotely.  The two massive vehicles made their way out of the compound and headed out in the scraplands with both standard cargo of Worlport garbage and the added cargo of the PCs.

Several hours in to the trip through the scrap land they were only a little off course when they head the sounds of slug throwers being fired as the crested a ridge of garbage.  A trio of Savrips were attacking a family of scavengers. The scavengers had taken refuge behind a massive pipe that climbed out of the ground for several meters. People on both vehicles opened fire on the savage Savrips.  Deltron and one of the Dugs double teamed and took out one of the Savrips. Macro opened fire with his light repeating blaster on the other damaging them both.  The scavengers were able to do enough damage with their slug throwers to take down one of the remaining two.  Then Pash clipped the last one with massive wheeled garbage truck.  Not to be out done A.C.E. decides to attempt to drift two story, garbage truck with wheels big enough to make a wookie feel short into the Savrip.  While the self proclaimed "Drift King" did pull off the move he intended he also clipped the pipe that was coming out of the ground.  It sent the whole truck in to a sideways tumble. The first roll crushed the remaining Savrip and sent those riding on the outside of the vehicle diving for their lives.  The truck came to a rest on its side just beyond the pipe.

The scavengers where thrilled by the rescue the group had provided and gave them a couple of rebreathers and a damaged light repeating blaster. They even provide directions to Rusty's Reach.  In exchange they got the first pick of not only a load of garbage from Wurlport but also a garbage truck.

The loaded Savrip Casino

Rusty's Reach turned out to be a quick stop over. The party arrived at the slavers compound where they exchanged the package for a data chip outside the walls. After that the turned around and headed back towards Worlport, along the way they decided to abandon the garbage truck in the scrapland and take the train back into town.

Back in town Illo played the group the audio file from the data chip, not knowing that they had already listened to it on the trip back.  It was a recorded conversation between the queen and one her aids explaining that she would kill him when she was finished with him.  He explained to them that the way to find the queen was to find her lover Micael Torval, and turn him on her.  As luck would have it Illo knew that Torval was going to be watching the fights tonight at the Loaded Savrip Casino.

The group found Micael Torval in a private box watching one of the fights, along side his bodyguard.  They tried to talk him into coming out so they could talk to him privately but the body guard was the one who answered the door.  He refused but the groups comments were enough to get Torval attention, who did reach out and opened the door.    Once the door was open there was some posturing between one of the Dugs and the bodyguard.  Perhaps to everyone's surprise blaster were not drawn on either side. They were able to talk Torval into stepping into the hall, but when Torval stepped towards the door he passed between the guard and dug.  His body guard took the opportunity to shot Torval in the back. It was pretty much his last action.  After that and hearing the recording played by the group Torval told them everything he knew about the Queen and where she was hiding and how to get in.

RPG Night With Cliff - March 30th Update

Star Wars Edge of the Empire: Mask of the Pirate Queen
If you are planning to play this adventure you may wish to avoid reading these reports as they will contain spoilers.

Characters in attendance:

(Names and descriptions are my own from memory, I don't have the sheets with me)

• Heb: Jawa Engineer
• Dak Jizz: Human Scoundrel
• QT-69: Droid
• A.C.E.: Droid Pilot
• TBA-77: Droid Medical and Pacifist
• Lewie: Wookie
• Macro: Close Combat Droid
• Deltron3030: Rodian Sniper
• Bob & Dug: The Dug mercs
• Jak Spectro: Human engineer
• Wrist: Trandoshan
• Shaga'thorn: Twi'lek
• Krack Bing: Bounty Hunter

RPG Night with Cliff Update March 30th

The group was called back to Paradise, the bar where they had originally met their employer.  Their reception was very different this time around.  Venlana, the Zann Consortium contact was clearly under some amount of pressure to get this situation handled.  She skipped over the pleasantries this time around and got right down to business.

The consortium technicians have been able to trace the last signal they received from the Veiled Sority.  The signal came from the planet Ord Mantell.  There seemed to be no question on the part of the group that they would continue to hunt for the Queen. In fact they didn't even push for more money, they only pushed for more money upfront.  Venlana agreed to cover the groups docking and refueling fees as well as advance everyone 1,000 credits.  She also advised them that information had been sent to a local agent who would help them on planet.

Once the negotiations were completed a the rest of the first hour of game was spent shopping and restocking for their trip and future adventure.  One thing that was noting as it was outside of the normally shopping is the group did visit a local ship junk yard to find materials that would help them to set up a small sick berth on the ship.

The trip to Ord Mantell was uneventful.  TBA took the time to look after some lingering injuries the group had received during the battle in the pirates layer.  Ord Mantell traffic control directed them to a docking berth when they landed and made contact with their their local connection.  Jander, is a brisk, unpleasant Toydarian who apparently has enough contacts on the planet to make his demeanor worth putting up with.

Jander informed the group that he had touched base with a few of his local contacts and found someone who would likely have a line on where to find the pirate queen.  Illo Vandin lives in the high security Jewel sector of the city, the group would need passes to access it, which Jander would have waiting for them near the gate. 

Some in the group recognized the name Illo Vandin He is well known on the gambling circuit as someone who had come from nothing to make a name for himself.  Now a days he is well off and acts as something of a promoter for various gambling events.

A quick cab ride took them through the city of Worlport and dropped them off at one of the gates that leads into the Jewel sector.  Armored security guards stood at the gate inspecting anyone who entered the sector.

 

True to his word Jander had a man wait for the group near the gate.  He provided the group with the passes that they need to enter the high security of the Jewel Sector.  The passes would get them through but not without some amount of attention from the security guards.  Jak Spectro was caught with some blaster blue, a known street drug. A few credits along with taking the blue was enough to grease the  palms of the guards and get passed.

Illo Vandin home was guarded by two men at its own gate, openly armed with blasters.  His home was more of an aquarium and the man himself was literally a whale of man or to be more precise a Helgric of a man.  The seemed to already have a sense of what the group was there to discuss and what it is that they wanted.  He told the group that he would give them the information that they wanted if they would do one little job for him.  He was even generous enough to give them their chose of possible jobs that they could do for him.  Fix a fight, or deliver a package.  There was a bit of discussion about which one to take Macro, the Battle droid, wanted to fix the fight.  In the end they decided that they would take is package to where he wanted it. I guess they felt it would be the easier of the two jobs, only time will tell.

 

 

RPG Night with Cliff - March 16

Star Wars Edge of the Empire: Mask of the Pirate Queen
If you are planning to play this adventure you may wish to avoid reading these reports as they will contain spoilers.

Characters in attendance:

(Names and descriptions are my own from memory, I don't have the sheets with me)

• Heb: Jawa Engineer
• Dak Jizz: Human Scoundrel
• QT-69: Droid
• A.C.E.: Droid Pilot
• TBA-77: Droid Medical and Pacifist
• Lewie: Wookie
• Macro: Close Combat Droid
• Deltron3030: Rodian Sniper
• Bob & Dug: The Dug mercs
• Jak Spectro: Human engineer
• Wrist: Trandoshan
• Shaga'thorn: Twi'lek
• Krack Bing: Bounty Hunter

The night opened up with dealing the aftermath of the crash.  Everyone had to make athletic checks to not get hurt in the crash.  There were a variety of results the worst injuries was suffered by Wrist who not got slammed around pretty badly but also had the heavy crate the group had stolen and the ASP serious labour droid smash into him as well.

After the initial crash, everyone was quick to act.  Lewie and Krack Bing both jumped off the crashed ship.  Heb rushed to the side the of his newly acquired ASP droid, it had been mostly destroyed in the crash.  A.C.E. was still in the control seat and tried to restart the damaged ship, it was a nearly impossible task but somehow Ace pulled it off.  Others did what they could for the injured and tried to put out some of the smaller fires on the ship. A few opened fire on the laser turrets that were coming online at the pirate base.

The ship jumped and lurched with the sudden power surge that A.C.E. had initiated.  Everyone jumped on board just as the ship raced off flying low through the jungle canopy. They made it back to their own ship in record time.  People off-loaded what was recoverable.  A.C.E. spotted something racing away from the pirate base in Skip Ray Blast Boat.  There was a little debate about what to do next some wanted to head back to the city, others wanted to go after the Blast boat.  The discussion and debate ended when someone checked the credit account. They found not only was the money they had been given by the pirate queen was gone but so was any savings they had.

The chase was short-lived and bloody. Fire from the group's vessel the Indentured Servant made short work of the Blast Boat.  The pirate queen was flying solo and didn't put up much a of a fight, she just didn't have the manpower to make use of all the ships guns.  The final hit was enough to destroy blast boat and blew the cockpit section off the main body of the hull.  As they collected the remains Queen six other ships were detected on an intercept course.  

The queen's remains were delivered to the Consortium, and the group was advised payment would be available in 24 hours.  Within a few hours of that, the Sorority had captured a Consortium ship, wiped out its crew and left a message that the true Pirate Queen wouldn't be so easily captured.

That ended the first section of the adventure.

RPG Night with Cliff - March 9th Update

Star Wars Edge of the Empire: Mask of the Pirate Queen
If you are planning to play this adventure you may wish to avoid reading these reports as they will contain spoilers.

Characters in attendance:

(Names and descriptions are my own from memory, I don't have the sheets with me)

• Heb: Jawa Engineer
• Dak Jizz: Human Scoundrel
• QT-69: Droid
• A.C.E.: Droid Pilot
• TBA-77: Droid Medical and Pacifist
• Lewie: Wookie
• Macro: Close Combat Droid
• Deltron3030: Rodian Sniper
• Bob & Dug: The Dug mercs
• Jak Spectro: Human engineer
• Wrist: Trandoshan
• Shaga'thorn: Twi'lek

Picking up from where we left off last week the group decided to make the split and a couple of them headed back outside to scale the wall and the rest decided to make their way up in the elevator.

Outside the pirate base a the group used a clone troop grapple blast attachment that they had taken from one of the clone troopers.  A destiny point was flipped to retroactively have found the attachment.  It made the climb that much easier for everyone.  I was honestly surprised that the adventure didn't include a difficulty rating for making the climb, it felt to me like something PCs were likely to try and do.

Macro, Wrist, and Lewie got to the bases landing platform and found the blast door to the hanger sealed.  Wrist hurried forward to get the door open.  The results of the roll were the type of result that I generally dislike about the Fantasy Flight Star Wars System,  it was a failed check with a Triumph showing.  The Triumph effect isn't cancelled out by the failures so something good is supposed to happen, but sometimes that just doesn't make sense.    I ended up electrocute Wrisk for the strain and letting the door open a foot.  He would have been able to slide through without difficult but the Wookie was going to have to make an athletic check and droid wasn't going to be able to get through until it open further.

Inside they found a clone war era republic troop transport that had been painted powder blue and a few pirates who had been assigned to guard the hanger.  The Wookie was the first to enter,  Is strength allowed him to not only under the doors but push them up higher to allow Macro the chance at access, a well-timed triumph. Pirates on duty in the hanger put up some limited resistance but were really no match for the three of invading members of the group.  Wrist headed straight to the air speeder and disabled it.

At the elevator, some time passed to although none thought to use that time to heal up.  Heb commanded the elevator down to their level and inside was a pirate on his knees at the back of the car with his weapons at the front of the car.  Clearly the pirate knew his only hope of survival was to surrender.  One of the dugs just blasted him while other group members tried to question him about the location of the Queen.  But they did receive confirmation from a second source that the Queen was upstairs.

Crowded inside the elevator, A.C.E. held the newly deceased pirate.  The plan was to throw him out of the doors as soon as they opened, in hopes of throw off any would-be attackers.  A.C.E. claims to have been made to be the greatest pilot in the galaxy.   That might be the case but he certainly wasn't made to be the greatest body tosser in the galaxy.  The body barely made it past the doors of the elevators.  As it landed it triggered a booby-trap that had been quickly set up.  Several of fragmentation grenades blasted apart the body and the PCs alike.  The damage it did was considerable and it took out several members of the group.  Those remaining exchanged deadly fire with pirates at the opposite side of the blast range.  Both sides took considerable damage, but the PC's won out in the end despite 4 of their number falling.

The two separate groups met up and in the warehouse behind the pirates flight deck and after clearing it our took some time to heal up and recover from the fighting before moving on.  While the healing was happening TBA-77 rolled a despair on one of his checks.  The effect of the despair is still unknown to the group, so I won't go into details at this point. Heb took advantage of this break to let out his natural Jawa tendencies and took control of one of the ASP Heavy lifter droids. The mindless droid was then used to open the doors and check for more traps left behind by the pirates.  None were found.

The same droid was used to quickly explore the hallway and discover that the two doors both lead to the same hallway that had two doors leading from it.  Hebs new toy was used to open the door to what they discouvered was the control room.  Inside were 5 pirate bodyguards and the Pirate Queen.  Before the shooting could even start the Pirate Queen made the group and offer.  She would match their pay and they would leave.

Surprisingly this gave the group some amount of pause.  Perhaps in part because of Hebs encouragement that they take the deal.  Which at least in part was because of Graff's blaster being pressed against the little Jawa's side, and his kind words of encouragement that the deal be accepted.  Graff was in the perfect position thanks in part to the decisions made by the players about where they were, apart from Heb no one could see him.

This caused tensions to escalate quickly within the group and Macro leveled his repeating blaster at the dugs to keep them from opening fire in to the room.  They in turn pointed at Macro.  The arguement continued but in the end they took the credits offered by the Pirate Queen.  Credits were transfered to accounts and the group was encouraged to leave.  They did so, but not before locking the door to the control room to buy themselves some time to get away.

The results of player on player threats has lead to some interesting after game discussion about player on player action.  But I think I will be writing something about that as a seperate post.

On the way out they got greedy and helped themselves to the ASP droid, a heavy create from the warehouse and the republic troop transport.   The airspeeder didn't make it past the 50 meter kill zone before the someone activated an explosive device one the transport.  A flipped destiny point limited the damage done but it brought down the group and allowed the game to end with a wonderful firery explosion.  

RPG Night with Cliff - March 2nd Update

Star Wars Edge of the Empire: Mask of the Pirate Queen
Characters in attendance:

(Names and descriptions are my own from memory, I don't have the sheets with me)

• Heb: Jawa Engineer
• Dak Jizz: Human Scoundrel
• QT-69: Droid
• A.C.E.: Droid Pilot
• TBA-77: Droid Medical and Pacifist
• Lewie: Wookie
• Macro: Close Combat Droid
• Deltron3030: Rodian Sniper
• Bob & Dug: The Dug mercs
• Jak Spectro: Human engineer
• Wrist: Trandoshan
• Shaga'thorn: Twi'lek

Tonight's session of RPG Night with Cliff picked up exactly where the last weeks had ended.  The Destiny pool was restored from the previous week as well.  The only major change between the two weeks is in the characters that were there.  A few players had to miss the game this week due to illness, and prior commitments.

It was an odd night overall when it comes to dice rolls.  A lot of blank faces came up for people all around the table.  It affected both PCs and NPCs alike and resulted in some funny moments. 

Initially, there was some confusion about what the group would do next. Some felt they should clear the pirates out of the other barracks that had been locked down before moving on.  Others wanted to push on and leave them locked up.  That group won out in the end. 

Lewie did a quick search of the barracks that he been cleared out of pirates but came up empty.  TBA77, the groups medical IG unit offered healing to some of the fresh wounds suffered by the group while Heb focused on some quick repairs to the droids.  While Deltron3030 crept forward down the main corridor in hopes of surprising anyone who might be waiting around the corner.

Jak and Shaga'thorn questioned and interrogated the captured pirate.  Their technic was an odd mix of threats of physical violence and more traditional negotiation.  The pirate seemed more afraid of the Pirate Queen then he was of the party members with blasters pointed at him.  That fear wasn't enough to stop him from spilling the beans that she was in the base and could likely be found on the second floor in the comm centre.  He was thanked for sharing that information by Shaga'thorn with a stun blast.  [GM's comment: he was lucky it was Shaga'thorn most of the group seems unaware that their blasters have stun settings.]

Heb did what Heb does best and ignored the combat (Unless there is a droid he can shoot with his Demp gun he isn't interested) in favor of slicing information out of the base's security system.  He already had total control of the bases doors within a limited range.  Now he went after floor plans and came up with a map of the main floor.

When Deltron3030 [remember not a droid] rounded the corner at the end of short all he was greeted by three pirates who were about to come around the corner themselves and attack. In doing so he also discovered the location of the final room and the elevator to the second floor.   It was a very Han Solo running into a room of Stormtroopers moment. Sadly for him, he had used his actions in rounding the corner and the pirates were about to get off the first shot.  [A group of minions can certainly be harmful to a characters health.]

Macro the super destroyer styled battle droid rushed to Deltron's aid and round the corner with his newly acquired light repeating blaster and opened fire.    This was one of those wonderful moments when the dice came up mostly blank.   The poor droid was not prepared for the recoil of such a large weapon and his fire splashed across the ceiling. 

Shaga'thorn was alone with the stunned prisoner after Jek had rushed off to joining the fighting.  He took the time to perform a strip search of the prison and discovered a commlink hidden on his person.  He turned it on to listen to the base chatter and learned that the group was being monitored and that reinforcements were on the way down.  Which promoted Heb to lock down the elevator.

Deltron3030 took a successful parting shot before pulling back to the groups medical droid.  Lewie and A.C.E. attacked the group from the opposite hallway pinning the pirates between 2 groups of PCs.  Lewie attack swung wide [His attack role also came up all blank]  A.C.E., on the other hand, proved himself somewhat valuable in combat and killed one of the minions. 

The last remaining pirate pulled back into the bases rec room.  He hoped to lead the PC's into an ambush from the pirates he knew were waiting inside.  It only sort of worked, the PCs blasted him down before he got too far into the room.  The person who killed him had a triumph that he used to declare he was noticing something out of the ordinary in the Rec room which gave away the pirates ambush positions.

Two pairs of pirates opened up from opposite corners of the room.  One of the groups shots went very wide while the other group missed the PCs but blasted apart the a counter top covered in alcohol starting a small fire right in the door which hindered the groups access to the room.  Macro the destroyer droid moved through the flames, ignoring the damage that it caused and opened fire with the light repeating blaster again.  This time, around the other members of the team, had boosted Macro so when he spray fired at the pirates behind the bar he was able to take them both out.  Lewie rushed across the rec room and took out one of the two pirates and disarmed the other.  Another party member took down the last one.

We closed out the game for the night with Heb having taken control of the elevator.

 

The final map of the night.

RPG Night with Cliff - Feb 24 Update

Star Wars Edge of the Empire: Mask of the Pirate Queen
Characters in attendance:

(Names and descriptions are my own from memory, I don't have the sheets with me)

• Heb: Jawa Engineer
• Dak Jizz: Human Scoundrel
• QT-69: Droid
• A.C.E.: Droid Pilot
• TBA-77: Droid Medical and Pacifist
• Lewie: Wookie
• Macro: Close Combat Droid
• Deltro3030: Rodian Sniper
• Bob & Dug: The Dug mercs
• Jak Spectro: Human engineer
• Wrist: Trandoshan

One of the rules with RPG Night with Cliff games is that if a player isn't at a given game it is assumed that their character just fades to the background and hangs around with the characters without experiencing any of the danger or being able to assist the characters in any way.  While it is more than a little unrealistic it is the best solution for a rotating player base.

The players have arrived Black Wind crater and dealt with what remained of a squadron of clone troopers that had been assigned to guard the base.  They may have been able to talk their way through the encounter had one of the group's droids not been built out of the body of an old super destroyer battle droid.

Arriving at the research station the group was a more than a little nervous about a pair of turreted blaster cannons that looked out over a large 50-meter wide kill zone that surrounded the main blast doors that lead into the research station.  Daltron 3030 dressed in his new acquired clone armor made his way across the cleared kill zone, without being killed and then a few other group member followed suit.  Those that made their way across in the second group pretended to be prisoners in case anyone was watching.

Heb the groups Jawa engineer and slicer made quick work of the main door and sliced it open without setting off any alarms and even opened the door soundlessly (Triumph). Another door was sealed at the end of the corridor.  Jek Spectro called out to the empty corridor "Hello?" A poor pirate who was down one of the side corridors poked his head out to reply and was burned down by the two Dugs and Deltron3030 in a hail of laser fire.  Afterwards, Heb sliced open the second door (Double Triumph) and was able to determine the codes that would control any of the doors in the pirate's base (Aka the Research facility) for his efforts a pirate stationed in one of the unexplored passageways blasted Heb.  At that point, the lights in the station went from normal lighting to a red alert lighting.

The rest of the group entered the facility and split into three prongs; the first took out the pirate that had shot Heb, the second group check out the unexplored corridor and ended up capturing a pirate while the final group head into the new corridor.  They encountered a group of pirates in one of the bases two barracks preparing to fight.  They were far from prepared and no match for the group.  From the opposite end of the hall, a couple of pirates did get off a few surprise shots at the group.  Heb was able to make use of his new-found control of the bases doors to shut and lock the pirates in the room.

We ended the game there for the night, a picture was taken of the Battle Map and the destiny pool.  Next week we will be continuing from where we left off.

Encounters, to RPG Night with Cliff

About 7 years ago my wife and I were interested in checking out the latest addition of Dungeons and Dragons (4th edition).  We made a few calls to the local game stores and discovered that Wizards of the Coast was just about to launch their Encounters program.  Which was basically a on going adventure that was provided by them and broken into weekly installment.  The program was great and by the end of my first adventure I found myself as one of the DMs running the weekly events.

It has been a long time since those early days of Wednesday night gaming.  Looking back I've got to say it has been one of the best experiences of my life.  I've made some amazing friends over the years.  A few of which I basically consider family at this point.  People I never would have met if I hadn't committed to running all these games. 

A lot has changed over the years.  D&D Encounters, has changed to a different program, I'm not involved with it any longer.  The players who used to be with me when I ran Encounters have joined me for the last two or threes playing in what has become known as "RPG Night with Cliff"  We no longer play D&D 4th or even 5th edition for that matter.  We get together to play a variety of Role-playing games.  With special attention to the games that don't often get the attention they deserve.  Here is a list of some of the RPGs we have done to date: Fate, Dragon Age, Fiasco, Star Wars, Numenera, Savage Worlds Dead Lands, Cosmic Patrol.

We will play a game for several months in order to complete a single adventure and then move on to a new system.  This model has worked great for the store where we play because of my players pick up at least the core rule book.  They have also been very accepting of me running the occasional game of a system that is old or that they can't get in. 

Right now we are playing the Star Wars RPG produced by Fantasy Flight Games.  This is a returning system that we have played before.  As a group we are working our way the the published adventure "Mask of the Pirate Queen."  I'll be trying to post more about our on going adventure at this blog.  I want to make this somewhere people will come back to visit and check out. 

***The Following will contain adventure spoilers, if you are playing in the adventure please don't read this for your own enjoyment.***

A quick bit of background

The PC's have been hired by a large crime family and tasked with the job of bringing in the Pirate queen that has been targeting them.  The crime family was able to provide the group with three separate leads that they hoped would lead them Sorority (that is the name of the pirate band)  All of the leads have been explored and that has lead the group a crater valley elsewhere on the planet.  Last week they forcefully dealt with some of the pirate security and they are about to arrive at their strong hold

Our next game is Wednesday the 24th.  So expect an adventure update then.