Star Wars: Legacy RPG

Recap the Fourth

6 March 2013

Recap of the previous adventure.

Pursuant Cause

Using a simple smuggler's trick, the Alora Bell jumped out of the Hutta system - and then right back in. Any direct pursuit would hopefully be too busy calculating the possible destinations of the first jump to notice the ship heading for Nal Hutta.

It was the hope of the group that ion weapons would continue to be of great help against any future Knighthunter encounters, and so they stocked up on all the variants they could find before heading back out into open space.

The question was: where to go? Perhaps a nice, simple trade run would be in order, and would keep them under the radar enough to avoid pursuit. But no matter where they turned, they could not manage to get a job delivering even the simplest of packages. A little digging later, they discovered why: the Black Sun, the premier smuggling and black market operation, had blacklisted the Alora Bell.

Listed among the infractions of her crew was the theft of ten thousand credits (which Shagaar insisted was a legitimate down-payment of services, that he had no idea how to return), and the abandonment of a shipment worth ten million credits (otherwise known as a two-ton box of lightsaber crystals). While the Black Sun showed mercy and restraint in not placing a bounty on their heads, no trader was allowed to do business with the crew of this vessel ... or else.

Everyone had a different view of what that threat meant: piracy. Higher prices in the black market. Being blacklisted themselves. Perhaps a politician bought and paid for by the Black Sun might levie an embargo on select types of shipments. No one wanted to find out. So one crew went without a job - what was the harm?

The party cast around for options, rumors, anything that could give them a hint on what to do next. Shagaar picked up a burner holo-comm and posted the contact information where the Black Sun was sure to see it, along with a message indicating that they were willing to do whatever it took to make amends.

In the meantime, Zeka picked up word of an artifact that had been found on Ossus: the Golden Blade. According to legend, this ancient lightsaber had been constructed by the Jal Shey in a pique of justice. It could only by weilded by those of "pure heart." Unfortunately, no one lived up to this high bar for very long, and anyone not of pure heart to attempted to so much as hold it would end up dead in very short order. As a powerful artifact, it was a priceless look into history. As a weapon, it was virtually useless.

But rumor had it that it had been discovered by the Sith, and was en route to Emperor Krayt. The party took off for Ossus as soon as they were able.

Ossus had seen better days. Less than a century had passed since the Yuuzhan Vong had successfully terraformed the planet; before that it had been little more than a wasteland after the Sith targeted the world with a supernova. The ruins of Jedi temples still dotted the surface, but in the modern age their use had been supplanted by the Sith temples training new acolytes in the dark arts. The cities were new, but somehow held on to the stench of decay and age of an older civilization.

The party landed on Ossus, using the fake identities they had obtained on Nar Shaddaa to enter the spaceport anonymously. Splitting into teams, they began casting about for word on the Golden Blade. They had lucked out; the blade was still on the planet. All they had to do was find out where.

The Sith were keeping the location top secret, but there were three very likely locations: the spaceport, a military outpost on the outskirts of the capitol city, and a Sith temple. The team kept a watchful eye on all three locations, and noticed that a pair of Sith stormtroopers repeatedly made the rounds between those three locations.

Before they could formulate a plan on how to intercept the soldiers, Balen sensed that the team was being followed. Ducking into an alley, they were able to get the jump on their pursuit - which turned out to be a kid, no older than eighteen. The kid had been tracking them in hopes of eventually selling the location of their ship to the Sith. He also shared that the party all had hefty prices on their heads - well over several million each - because of their encounter with the Knighthunter. The price on Balen's and Shagaar's head, as identified Force-users, was especially impressive.

The party handed the kid a couple thousand credits to keep him quiet and out of trouble, and resumed plotting on how to intercept the stormtroopers. Issh noted that the pair regularly took a shortcut through a couple of blind alleys, with tall buildings on either side. It looked like a prime spot for an ambush.

The attack went off fairly well. The stormtroopers were clearly caught by surprise, and though they did manage to get a call out for assistance, the party was able to incapcitate them quickly. One of the troopers was carrying a small box - too small to contain the Golden Blade, but big enough to contain a tripwire to activate whatever was inside.

Issh inspected the box further. It held a portable holo-comm that would activate as soon as the box was opened all the way. As a security measure, Shagaar climbed on top of the Alora Bell while Zeka flew the ship. Thus, any attempt to pinpoint their location would be hopelessly outdated as Shagaar talked to whoever was on the other side of the call.

The recepient of the call was a Sith Lord, who did not offer his name. He congratulated Shagaar on locating the decoy patrol, but regrettably informed him that in the meantime, the Golden Blade had been loaded onto a transport ship that was just about to leave for Coruscant. Perhaps next time.

Just as Shagaar entered the ship, a strange spherical ship followed the Alora Bell as it broke atmosphere. Looking over the sensor readings, Alexis expressed her surprise that she recognized the configuration: it was a Rakata scout vessel. The one she had dug up years ago while working for the Sith Empire had been partially smashed, but the structure was unmistakable. The Infinite Empire had no shortage of Force-using pilots, and found that spherical vessels with no visible means of propulsion moving through the skies were terribly frightning to their numerous slave races.

The sphere made no attempt to communicate; it just followed the Alora Bell, no matter where she went. Even after a few blind hyperjumps into the middle of open space, attempting to keep the vessel electromagnetically dark, and engaging in evasive maneuvers, still the sphere managed to find them, and follow them.

Frustrated, Shagaar opened a channel. The sphere responded: we are the Knighthunters. Prepare to be boarded.

The ion cannons had minimal effect; the sphere had no visible hardpoints, weapon systems, or thrusters to disable. It just steadily approached. Ish opened fire with the deck guns, but this was the equivalent of using a couple handguns against a tank: it scored the sphere's hull, but that was all. Finally, Zeka just leaped into hyperspace, again and again on random vectors. Shagaar hoped the backwash from the first leap unsettled the Sith, but he was unsure. At least they knew what to look for now.

After they had composed themselves, a message came in over the burner Shagaar had set up to contact the Black Sun. A droid messenger had a contract for them: take three tons of glitterspice from a thirty-ton shipment heading from Kessel to Coruscant. Transport the three tons to Tatooine instead, where a contact would meet them.

The spice smuggling trade from Kessel was infamous; many a ship had been smashed to pieces or torn to shreds attempting the Kessel Run. Looking for any sort of inside information, Alexis contacted Captain Roberts.

The Adventure Continues ...