Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic RPG

Recap the Twenty-Second

4 October 2012

Recap of the previous adventure.

Party Crashers

After deciding that stealing the artifact skull from Revan would have to wait for another opportunity, Ish, Shagaar, Kistra, and Zeka made their excuses and headed back to their hotel to plot. After scanning the hotel room for listening and recording devices, they sat down to well and truly plan out how they would acquire the skull.

They had learned that Revan was scheduled to appear in the Arena to dispose of some "traitors" in typical Imperial fashion. While he was thus occupied, they would make their move.

There were two problems that immediately presented themselves. For one, they had all noticed that all powercells for their weapons and equipment had been completely drained, save for their earbud comm units. This indicated that there was a highly specialized energy shield over the entire house, and thus most of their weapons would be ineffective. Shagaar still had the Force, of course, but even lightsabers would be of little use if they could not be activated. Ish managed to requisition enough explosives to hopefully render that particular defense moot.

The second problem was transporting the skull itself. They would need some kind of container that would block the dark Force energy emenating from the artifact, as otherwise it could trip the sensors embedded in the doors and windows of the house, and alert Revan to the theft. The group split up to look for something decorative to present as a "gift" that would make up the outside of the container, and something dense that would fit inside the decorative cover that would fit their containment needs.

Shagaar and Ish were on containment duty. Neutronium, of course, was the densest material they could think of, but it wasn't until they were on board their ship and stripping it for parts that they realized that the Imperial-issue hyperdrive on board was the perfect size, shape, and composition - if it were hollowed out for the purpose. Of course, they would need a replacement ...

All too easy, in fact. Using Shagaar's false Agent identity, combined with Ish's false mercantile reputation, and a top-of-the-line "racing" hyperdrive was delivered and installed within days. The new hyperdrive could jump across the galaxy in a single day, a vast improvement over the old, sluggish model. The pair got to work hollowing out the old hyperdrive chassis, creating a shielded box to house the artifact.

Meanwhile, Kistra and Zeka located a nice decorative box to use as a pretense for visiting the Hero's house - they would present a gift, from the Wookie merchant to Revan, as a sign of respect.

It almost went as planned.

The front lawn of the Hero's house was packed with well-wishers and Imperial loyalists who wanted to catch a glimpse of Revan as he returned from the Arena. Never mind that the Arena bouts had barely started, and would not conclude until dark; these people had camped out, and the Alderaan police were letting them stay there. With their disguises and alternate personas intact, Shagaar was at least able to get the party to the front door with a minimal amount of pushing and shoving.

The droid that answered the front door, however, cared significantly less about Shagaar's appearance as an Agent for the Empire. No master, no entry. You can leave your gift with me, Revan's trusted servant. Eventually, Shagaar tired of the conversation and, in full view of the hundreds of citizens not ten feet away, spiked his lightsaber through the droid's head and shoved the stumbling body inside.

Subtlety was out; the party had to move fast. Forcefields dropped into place before they could get to the room housing the artifact, but Ish's ability to shape charges on the fly made short work of the walls, which were not appropriately shielded. Kistra made sure the pressure plates and other traps were not triggered until they had safely vacated the room with the artifact in hand. And then out they went, straight through the front door.

Shagaar had been thinking over the appropriate deception during the quick heist, and came up with a possible solution: he, Zeka, and Kistra would cover Ish, who would be hunched over, and they would carry their "protective detail" past the now-panicking crowd (who had seen the droid destroyed and heard the explosions inside). In the confusion, they managed to feed a line about "dangerous rebels" to the police holding position. They were so convincing in their act that the police gave them a police car to make their escape.

The docking ring demonstrated an escalated state of panic. The story about the "rebel attack" had spread like wildfire, and people started to think that the planet was going to come under attack at any moment. Even if the Imperial Hero was to get into action, the collateral damage could be horrendous. So anyone who was anyone was trying to get off the planet as soon as possible.

Worse, the police had at least partially caught on to the group's ruse and had begun pursuit. Dangerous as it was to launch without official clearance, Shagaar did it anyway.

While in route to the secret rebel base, Kistra took the time to examine the stolen artifact. It was not actually a skull, but an artificial construct made up of the ground-up bones of a Rakatan. It was fairly hefty, indicating it was not as hollow as a real skull, and it had a square indentation where the neck would be, indicating something - perhaps a holocron - attached there. Then Kistra was reminded of the Rakata datacron they had left on Nar Shaada that had pointed out these three locations, and cursed. They would have to return to the smuggler's world.

First, though, they retrieved their artifacts from the rebels. All three artifacts would begin to move towards one another until properly secured in the hold, but no one wanted them to self-assemble until the datacron was retrieved. And so they zoomed to Nar Shaada.

Their parade through the streets of Nar Shaada had apparently garnered some attention, as there was a lot more official Imperial presence than before. Still, they were able to fight or bluff their way past all obstacles until they reached the ancient Rakata temple. Inside, they found an Imperial Agent sorting the datacron library into "likely useful" and "useless" piles. Shagaar grabbed the datacron they were looking for, and headed upstairs to assemble the Rakata temporal engine.

Putting it together was easy, since the rebels had been kind enough to have a Human unbox everything for them. They just had to put the pieces on the ground and watch as the dark Force energy pulled everything together. The engine took the form of a giant gear, with the skull and its datacron seated in the middle. The guardian of the datacron informed them that they had two options: they could create a portal to the desired time period right now, or they could take the engine apart and reform it on a Celestial gate.

The party balked at the idea of capturing a Celestial gate, or at least getting on board a fully staffed and operational gate for long enough to assemble the engine. The guardian said that co-opting a Celestial Gate was the only way they could be guaranteed a return portal to their own time, but the decision was still no.

In that case, the guardian said, a sacrifice would be needed. The Rakatan temporal engine demanded blood to oil its gears - preferably a Force user, and unwilling. They had tested other models on this design before, and unwilling sacrifices fed the dark Force energies powering the portal the best.

Kistra balked. Capturing a Celestial Gate didn't seem that difficult, especially if she and her companions trusted in the Force. Sacrificing someone for their own selfish desire to correct their mistakes seemed wrong. Shagaar, Ish, and Zeka disagreed, however - there was an Imperial Agent down on the very next floor, and surely it would be easy ...

While Kistra continued to protest, Shagaar lured the Agent upstairs and attempted to throw the Agent into the temporal engine. But the Imperial Agent fought back. That allowed Kistra enough time, as blaster bolts flew and lightsabers clashed, to ask the Agent a few key questions. To the guardian: does it have to be an unwilling host? That's all that's worked in our tests. To the Agent: where was the nearest Celestial Gate? On its way to envelop Nar Shaada.

We have options, Kistra cried. No, we must sacrifice the Agent so that we can leave this acursed timeline, said the others. There's a better way, said Kistra, and she stepped into the gear.

Her body was torn apart by the temporal engine, caught between the visible now-spinning gear and the fifth-dimensional gears of the rest of the engine. But Kistra had left her body behind the instant she had stepped forward; she had become one with the Force, and used all of her Will and newfound power to shape things towards the light.

The first step was eliminating the dark Force energy that surrounded the temporal engine. The Rakata knew only pain and power, but that was not the Force. The Force was life, and Kistra poured hers into the machine. She banished the guardian of the datacron into oblivion, and overwrote the programmed protocols. Unwilling sacrifice indeed; that could be adjusted, worked around. The Force was more powerful than that. And with a thought, she spun the gear faster and faster, until a portal in time was not ripped open, as the Rakata design would intend, but was convinced to open, of its own accord. Naturally, with the ebb and flow of the universe, she would position the other end of the portal not where the party wanted to go, but where they needed to be.

Shagaar knew none of this. As soon as he saw Kistra's body torn apart by the gear, he went a little mad. He used that anger and madness, and began to crush the life from the Imperial Agent. It wasn't until Kistra spoke to everyone, through the datacron, that he realized (at least in part) that death was not the end. "Enter the portal," she said, and they did.

The Adventure Continues ...