Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic RPG

Recap the Twenty-First

2 October 2012

Recap of the previous adventure.

Sewers and Soldiers, Heroes and Rebels

After struggling with the shielded container for a while, the party eventually decided to progress further into the network of tunnels, in the hope that another avenue of escape would present itself. The trogs kept their distance, though Zeka's sharp eyes spotted a few following along at a safe distance, apparently loathe to let their prize possession go, but wary of a deadly counterattack.

Gradually the group made their way to a derlict operations control room, which once controlled the water and power distribution around the complex. The place apparently had a military nature, as the rooms were designed for maximum defensibility while also allowing for a quick escape. One piece that especially caught the group's attention was a large tunnel dug vertically into the rock, ringed with metal spaced at regular intervals - a mass driver. It looked like the construction had been abandoned partway through, but the proper application of power could push the rest of the way through to the surface ...

Doable, but extremely dangerous. Fortunately, there was an alternate solution in the smaller-scale arrays, which looked as if they doubled as high-speed elevators or escape capsules. They, too, failed to reach all the way to the surface, but had the bonus of including a reinforced pod that could easily fit their cargo. With a few tweaks to make sure the inertial dampners would cushion the passenger, Ish declared the pod was as safe as he could make it.

The trogs were unwilling to let the container go, as they were able to sense the dark Force energy emenating from it. They used the container as a method of seeing which of their number was Force-sensitive. To appease them, Kistra tapped into the knowledge of the Val Shey and imbued a throne that Ish constructed. The throne emenated light Force energy, but the important part was that the Trogs still believed it worked.

That done, Kistra volunteered to travel with the shielded box to make sure it wasn't stolen. The others would go the long way around, back up the well, as the preparation of the pod had cannibilized all the others.

It was a nice surprise that things went according to plan. The pod was ejected, and though it hit several obstacles along the way, the worst that happened to Kistra was a forceful landing and an unwilling launch outside the pod and onto the ground. She was picked up by Shagaar and the Oonta Goonta long before heat stroke or thirst became a real danger, and they blasted into hyperspace.

Around this time, the party started reconsidering their attitude towards the rebellion. Alderaan was where the Empire's reknown hero had his residence, and it was unlikely that they would be able to retrieve the third piece of the ancient device without him noticing. So they decided to approach Admiral Song, come clean, and ask for help.

They met the Admiral at a secret base deep inside the dense atmosphere of a gas giant, safe from the prying eyes of any passing Imperial scoutships. They laid their history bare before the Admiral: the truth of their origins from another timeline, the accidental release of the Celestials from stasis, and their desire to return events to their "proper" course by preventing the Celestials from successfully counterattacking the Rakatan offensive. To that end, they were on their way to retrieve an artifact from Alderaan that was the last piece of a prototype Rakatan temporal engine, and then they would be on their way.

The Admiral was skeptical, but considered her options. The first was that this was all some kind of elaborate setup, though the end result was not immediately apparent. The second was that even if they were telling the truth, that they would likely get killed or, worse, be captured and tortured until they revealed what they knew about the rebellion. After a long conversation with Shagaar, Kistra, Ish, Zeka, and her advisors, Admiral Song agreed to help. The worst case was that these troublemakers would be killed; the best option was that they could provide an appropriate target for the struggling rebellion to rally around and demonstrate their readiness to fight to the Empire. There was nothing to lose.

With the rebellion's assistance, the group took on entirely new identities. Ish was to be a successful Wookie merchant; Zeka and Kistra, his bodyguards; and Shagaar would pose as an Imperial Agent, one of the few Force-users allowed to demonstrate their power openly. Shagaar had the white-bladed lightsaber from the Imperial Agent they had killed on Nar Shaada, and the Rebellion was able to forge identification papers to confirm his identity. Kistra was outfitted with a Force-suppression chip, so that she would not be detected as a Force-user so long as it was active. She could activate it at will, though there was a small risk (that Zeka and Ish managed to reduce further) of death each time it was turned on or off.

Properly disguised and briefed, the party headed to Alderaan. Just before reaching the system, Kistra and Shagaar shared a vision of the third artifact - a skull, sitting on an opulent fireplace mantle. Both instantly realized that this was likely in none other than the Imperial Hero's house!

Alderaan was surrounded by an artificial docking ring several kilometers wide, and tethered to the surface by a series of space elevators. Travelers to Alderaan were forbidden to land directly on the surface, but instead were made dependent on the near-relativistic trains that circled the docking bay (and thus the planet).

Ish settled nicely into his new role as a well-to-do merchant with an attitude, and the rest of the party kept their eyes open for any threats as they went through the pre-arranged schedule of appearances. Fortunately, nothing much seemed to transpire during the day. The first night, however, Shagaar recieved a personal invitation by the Imperial Hero - who was himself an Imperial Agent of the highest order - to come to dinner.

Kistra accompanied Shagaar as a silent servant, but she knew that if something bad was to happen, she would likely be powerless to stop it. This was all but confirmed when they met the Imperial Hero, and realized with a shock that he was none other than this timeline's Darth Revan.

Revan was kind and courteous, though he seemed a little bored at the simple duties he had to perform as a symbol of the Empire's might. He comisserated with Shagaar on being slaves to ceremony, and took the time to talk with him about weapons and fighting styles. All the while, Shagaar was aware that the Hero was examining him thoroughly; when Revan asked to see Shagaa's blade, Shagaar presented it, and Revan touched it physically and with the Force.

Despite the uneasy feelings Shagaar and Kistra shared over this meeting, it was all in all a pleasant meal, and they were soon on their way back to Ish and Zeka. A little unsettled, Shagaar spent a large portion of the night reviewing videos of Revan's fights in the Arena, attempting to size him up, and coming to the realization that he could not last long in a straight-up fight. If they were to take the skull from the house, it would have to be while Revan was occupied elsewhere.

The next day, there was a party hosted by the Imperial Hero, and Ish's other identity was scheduled to go. Though the press of people allowed for some degree of cover for a heist, lack of direct preparation convinced the party that they could not simply swipe the skull from its place of honor on the mantle. They would have to come back later.

The Adventure Continues ...