Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic RPG

Recap the Thirteenth

11 July 2011

Recap of the previous adventure.

The Liberation of Chazwa: Part I: Supply and Surprise

The train captured, the party stopped the train at Dson and helped unload the cargo. It was about then that they realized that they had purposely ejected the cold adaptation tech from the train, and would need to retrieve it.

Shagaar had the foresight to have placed a tracking beacon on the container, so the group comandeered a landspeeder and headed back north. Before they got too close, they dismounted and approached the location of the beacon cautiously. Their stealth was warranted, for the Sith that the group had previously defeated had set up several tents, and were recuperating from their wounds. The team would have to act quickly and decisively.

Shagaar opted for a stealthy approach. Circling the camp, the group cut a hole on one side of the tent and called for assistance. One or two Sith would enter, and Kistra or Breaker would knock them on the head. It went on this way for some time before the Sith began to catch on to what was happening - the fourth tent captured in this way met with a frag grenade. After a brief firefight, the cold adaptation tech was theirs.

Now the group had to make up for lost time. Three cargo haulers had already headed towards the rendevouz outside of the capitol city of Iritza, but all the power cells in the galaxy wouldn't matter without the cold adaptation tech to make the tents functional during the cold winter Chazwan nights. The group elected to take the quickest route through the southern mountain pass.

This was very nearly their downfall. They ran across a minefield - which, fortunately, they had droids equipped to disarm, though it cost them precious time. The Sith had set sentries who managed to trigger an avalanche - thankfully, Kistra and Shagaar, using the Force, were able to pull the cargo haulers out of the snow. They were besieged by wolves - but they solved this by never stopping, taking turns driving the four thousand kilometers to the capitol.

There, they met the Commander of the Chazwa Defense Force, Aerex Nire. He didn't like Jedi much, either, and sought for a quick and easy way to get rid of the ranger team before they messed up his operation. Simple enough: mention that a couple of the other cargo haulers hadn't made it yet. Shagaar leaped to the bait, and volunteered the group to see where they had gone.

By taking the southern mountain route, the team had already run across one waylaid team that had come across some trouble outside of Korrado. With that option out of the way, Shagaar knew that the only other possible route would be around the Keona Ocean cape to New Herand. It was a long trip of almost two thousand kilometers, so the group took off immediately, making sure to tell Commander Nire not to start the siege of Iritza without them.

The Liberation of Chazwa: Part II: The Siege of Iritza

Fifteen hundred kilometers out, the group found their first derelict cargo hauler. Slammed into the bottom of a ravine, it carried hundreds of power cells, mostly undamaged. Using the Force and a winch, the group managed to retrieve most of the cells. They radioed their position in so that the cells could be sent back to the rendevouz point, then continued east to locate the other cargo haulers.

Each find told of disaster, whether by sabotage or direct attack. The fourth and last cargo hauler was completely empty, having broken down and systematically emptied by the remaining troop, having no notion that a simple malfunctioning repulsor lift would only be the start of their troubles.

At this point, the party was too far from the rendevouz point to make it before noon the next day. They elected to head towards New Herand, which was supposed to be Republic-controlled. As they approached, however, they were warned off by Republic loyalists, who told them that the city had been taken by Sith forces only a couple days ago.

The party took lodging in the loyalist camp. Zeka observed that a large cluster of soldiers were gathered around an audio-only comm, occasionally shouting out in elation or disappointment. As she got closer, she could hear that they were listening to a military transmission from Iritza - the siege had begun without them!

What made this particularly troubling were the rumors that the gates of Iritza were guarded by an undefeatable droid. No one knew what powered this machine, but with every attack, the droid repaid in kind. It showed no sign of slowing, or of malfunction, and its sheilds were as strong after several direct artillery blasts as at the beginning of the fight. The Chazwan defense force had thrown every tank they had in operation, along with thousands of soldiers, millions of blaster shots, and the droid didn't even have a single carbon scoring.

Shagaar was incensed. He had specifically told the commander not to engage, and here they were, stuck two thousand kilometers away from the action. He cast around for options, practially interrogating the local loyalist leader: was there any kind of transport around here? Ship, aircraft, anything?

There was, in fact, an airfield just outside of New Herand, but it was occupied by the Sith. They would have to get in, tackle whatever forces were there, steal a ship, and fly out, somehow avoiding the antiaircraft fire.

So the party went to acquire an aircraft. What choice did they have, when there were people dying?

The airfield was lightly guarded. The most trouble came from the squad commander, who managed to sequester himself with the dock computer, and took the trouble of inputting a nine-thousand bit encryption sequence on the locking mechanism. What he hadn't counted on, however, was Shagaar's skill in technometery, and the computer spilled all its secrets almost immediately. Not only were full access and control codes available, but also a full list of all Force-using Sith on Chazwa. Kistra took note of the twelve known operatives in Iritza, and then the party flew off.

The trick to avoiding anti-aircraft fire is to fly very low and very fast. Fortunately, this kind of aeronautic trick is what smugglers and other low-lifes are good at, so Breaker and Shagaar were able to hug the surface of Chazwa, no more than ten meters off the ground, at supersonic speeds. The snow shuddered as the air cracked and boomed around the aircraft, but all Chuurga and Zeka could think was: what next? What do we do once we get there?

Getting to the ground was not a problem, it was all a matter of how quickly one wanted to hit it. The party leaped out of the aircraft, Breaker and Zeka using jetpacks while carrying Chuurga and Shagaar, and Kistra simply trusted in the Force to cushion her fall.

They dropped in the middle of a very one-sided firefight. Only a few tanks remained on the field, emptying shell after shell into the resilient, undefeatable droid. The party attempted to lend their own weaponry to the fight, but it was all to no avail. For every blaster bolt the droid took, it only seemed to become more powerful. Realizing this, they ceased fire and goaded the droid into firing at them. Battery reserves depleted, the droid collapsed in a heap. Kistra made sure it was disabled by tearing out some vital-looking wiring.

Shagaar heaped insults and invectives upon Commander Nire's head, along with a solid right hook. To Shagaar's mind, the Commander had needlessly thrown away thousands of lives for no appreciable benefit. Shagaar made a point to memorize the names of the three soldiers in the tank that he personally felt responsible for, and then put the Commander out of his mind forever.

The Liberation of Chazwa: Part III: City, Fire, and Shadow

While the penultimate droid had been disabled, and the gates virtually unguarded, the army could not just open the gates and take the city. There were too many unknowns. If Commander Nire had been in the Sith's position, he would take a large garrison and station them just inside the gates to blast away at anyone attempting to enter. They needed an alternative.

Fortunately for the Commander, the Ranger team provided that alternative. They flew over the domed city and entered through a maintenance hatch along the top. Dropping in, they could access the tallest tower in the city, make their way to the surface, and perform some much-needed reconnaissance.

While on the ground, the party discovered that the governor was tucked away in the city hall, which was currently undergoing a siege of its own. Penatrating a hole in the Sith blockade, they made their way inside to rescue the governor - only to find out that the whole thing was a setup by the Chazwan Defense, as the governor was a decoy!

Fortunately, there were secret naturally-formed tunnels underneath the entire city that were used in times of trouble. The party located a guide, who could direct them through the tunnels to the governor's current location.

Deep underneath the city, the party emerged into a large, incredibly warm cavern. Off in the distance, they spotted what appeared to be molten rock, and the main geothermal power station that provided electricity to the entire city. However, Zeka noticed that the power station was oddly constructed for geothermal energy; there was no need for a thermal rod to actually enter the lava, for instance. Kistra noted that there was a general feeling of a being in pain, and remembered that someone had mentioned that fire snakes were a common problem in the tunnels. And, finally, Chuurga observed that the molten rock, while extremely hot, did not move like molten rock at all - more like flesh. A few test shots with a blaster rifle confirmed his suspicions.

Cursory examination of the computer console revealed nothing, aside from the fact that the console had not been touched in well over a century. The party elected to move on to another chamber.

Here was something else interesting: a large library, stacked to the ceiling in Sith artifacts and holocrons. Most disturbing was the fact that the people learning from the holocrons seemed to be growing in Force sensitivity by the second - at this rate, the Sith could outfit every squad with at least one powerful Force user, making them more than a match for the Republic and Jedi counterparts.

The governor was discovered in consultation with a representative of the Sith, attempting to broker some kind of deal. The party would have none of that: they defeated all comers, planted explosives in the library, and sent the whole area crashing around the ears of any who had managed to avoid them.

Questioning the governor about fire snakes got them nowhere. Getting him out of the city limits, thankfully, was easier: they just followed their guide through the tunnels to the outside world. They had to wait to be dug out by the loyalists outside, but that was a minor matter. Now the loyalist army had a way to infiltrate the city without being immediately gunned down by the Sith.

The Adventure Continues ...