Curse of Strahd 0xA - Introductions!

And now, our group is starting a new campaign!  This time, I will be running the group through an adaptation of The Curse of Strahd, using a "13th Aged" version of the 4e DnD rules, and starting in a Victorian-era Earthish setting.  To start things out, I worked with the (nine!) players to tie their characters together...and this is what we have! 

I see omens in every action!

"Seb"

Human Malediction Invoker

Seb wase in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Or, more correctly - the church guards were in the wrong place. He wase merely doing what he was called to do - yelling his beliefs loudly at those idiots who keep ignoring him. Their doom is on their own heads!

So Seb spent a few nights in jail.  Finally, an older monk turned up to transport him out of this forsaken city, back to the cathedral.  There, Seb would stand trial for his 'annoyances', his 'disturbances of the peace'.  Pah!

As far as captors go, Brother Tomas seems a reasonable fellow - quiet, patient, and not kicking Seb every minute (yes, he's had a few of those).  But it was to be a long journey, and Seb was not looking forward to going it on foot.  So when the carriage appeared, he was more than happy to be secluded on board!  The fellows who were previously inside - some elf, and his rough barbarian of a travelling companion - weren't so excited about their change of position, but Brother Tomas convinced them - something about his share of financing of this caravan, and supply of the guards.

Most of the time, Brother Tomas sits inside with Seb, silent, cold, distant.  He doesn't engage in talk, ignores Seb's statements, and refuses to be drawn into discussion.  When he's not with Seb, Tomas is outside, interacting with the other travellers only slightly more than he does his prisoner.

I must control my emotions

"Brother Tomas"

Human Desert Wind Monk

Tomas had heard stories of the travelling crazy long before Seb wandered into his vicinity.  Sprouting out nonsense about demons and undead, and accusing anyone and everyone of vile evilness, he simply had to be removed.  Preferably, a long way, to the cathedral, to stand trial.  And for some reason, Tomas received the task of transporting him.

Normally, Tomas would have simply gone around the Svalich Woods, but he didn't want to spend any longer with this fellow than he had to; a week of rough travel was far more welcome than a month or two of listening to his loony ranting.

Finding others who were willing to go through the woods was hard - usually, large sums of money were needed, and Tomas had none of those resources.  Finding others who not only promised said money, but already had a considerable group gathered - including one Ser Luc Dubois, whom had helped protect Tomas' monastery on more than one occasion - was, simply, a blessing.

The only thing left to do was commandeer the carriage, and keep Seb away from the rest of the party.  And Tomas, where possible.

Evil runs from me!

"Ser Luc Dubois"

Human Sacrificial Cavalier (Paladin)

Ser Luc had fought in many battles, served both in his home country and abroad, fighting against those who would take advantage of the weak, the innocent.  Mostly.  At some times, his superior's opinions on who was "weak" differed from his own .  And so, he had grown tired of that way, of the army life.  Now, he ventured where he wished, taking the odd job as a guard, and able to choose whom he protected.

Recently, Ser Luc caught up with an old friend from his childhood, Naman, who is also in the 'guard' business.  The pair decided to go on a trek together for old times sake, to spend some months catching up and enjoying each other's company.  And, as luck would have it, a monk from Ser Luc's order, a Brother Tomas, was looking for some guards to help return a prisoner through the Svalich Woods.  And so, his adventure starts!

(EBR 1x04a) - A Call from the Stars

These posts are my recap of our group's Star Wars Saga Edition game. They are written as a kind of "Ship's Log", from my character (Burt Larsson)'s point of view.  

3593.06.02, Zhellday

I was really hoping to get off this backwater planet sooner, but Montag and the Jedi wanted to hang around for the proceedings.  Ah well - at least they are putting us up somewhere nice!  The view here is great, and the food, though a little strange, is plentiful, and wookie-hair free.  Ah, who am I trying to kid?  As long as I'm not having to pay for it, it's great!

3593.06.02, Zhellday

Managed to get my ship in for some much-needed modifications.  Not sure what I was doing when I let Adam talk me into all those twin cannons - it's hard enough flying the darn thing and shooting occasionally; shooting multiple weapons? Forget it!

The mechanics crew seemed friendly, even more so when I dropped a few of the Kubindi government officials' names.  (Though - not sure if that was extreme gratefulness, or a trace of fear...but as long as the work gets done, right?)

Anton's busy selling off the remaining cargo we had stocked, and picking up some interesting bits to take with us.  No one was interested in the sticks, last I heard, but he's still getting some good prices for the rest of the goods.  And me? I think it's some feet-up time, with another drink or three!

3593.06.03, Primeday

That crew worked fast!  The ship's all done, they even re-tweaked my shields for me - not that I'll have much use for it.  We're due for another elongated trip back home now, and that's mainly Anton driving.  Doubt he'll let me have a turn, not after last time... I mean, it wasn't like I destroyed the entire docking clamp.

I think the Jedi are finished their'observations', too.  Heard them chatting with Anton about their different theories on how the Force works.  Hey, as long as they do their stuff, and let me do mine, I'm ok with them believing whatever they want.

I couldn't quite get a feel for whether Montag is planning on staying with us after our return to Coruscant.  It's strange, despite there being so many more bodies on the 'Raptor, I'm kind of getting used to the noise.  Yeah, even the wookie - but I'm only saying that because no one else can read it without my bio-signature.

Anyway, we've restocked the 'Raptor, brought on new cargo, and about exhausted the government's hospitality.  A few more meals, and we'll have to be back on our way.

3593.06.03, Centaxday

Quickly - a distress beacon! We barely left Kubindi's orbit, and it was picked up.  Some medical supply ship, ambushed in a neighbouring system.  I feigned interest (to keep up my 'bad-boy' persona), and then finally went along with Montag and the Jedi once they mentioned payment.  Hah - am I really that transparent?  Anyway, gotta go and prep Burt's, seems she'll be seeing some action sooner than I thought!

(EBR 1x03b) - The Best Worst Stealth Mission Ever

These posts are my recap of our group's Star Wars Saga Edition game. They are written as a kind of "Ship's Log", from my character (Burt Larsson)'s point of view.  

3593.06.02, Taungsday

Ouch.  I still hurt - like, everywhere. And I've been in this bacta tank for at least...wait, what time is it?

I think it is safe to say, that was not one of our smoothest missions.  And it was only our second.

Things seemed to be going well - no one detected us stowed away in the crates, none of us made any noise until it was time to get out.  We all managed to extract ourselves from the storage building without tripping any alarms - Anton even hacked their system and disabled their alarms, clearly, we should have been on a roll!

But then, we went after one of the guns, the big ones that we were to set up a transponder at.  Had to kill a few guards, disable a handful of droids.  And then the alarms started.  Ralrlanna showed his worth (again!), charging with me into battle against the oncoming droids, whilst the others offered their fire support.  And sure, Anton eventually disabled the alarm, but then that noisy KH-droid of his went and alerted another guard.  Yeah, more sirens, yay.

Look, I'm not saying we did poorly - we took the enemy down when they surfaced, we caught those trying to escape, I even snuck up and silenced the one Anton was computer-battling.  Boy, was he surprised!

By the time we had squashed what, three? Four? squads of guards, and had multiple soundings of the alarm, it was pretty unanimously decided that we'd head straight for the shield generators, and wrap up the mission there.  So, of course, our 'liberated' key-card stopped working.

Ah, Ralrlanna - a delightfully straightforward fellow.  There was a door, it was blocking us, so he set about smashing the thing, trying to open it.  I don't know, but he might still be trying that, had we left him to it.  Their computer systems had already proven to be vulnerable, so Anton hotwired the door instead, and it opened to reveal a room of droids...all waiting for us.

We tried to make a stand, KH-47 and Adam packing some impressive firepower, whilst Ralrlanna took out his door-frustrations on more malleable targets, but these guys were solid. They had four...well, really big droids.  Not sure what they were called, but they were fierce, and all the little ones seemed to be linked up, allowing the big ones to gain some serious accuracy.  And when they hit - well, even Ralrlanna felt it!

Quickly deciding this was not a battle we needed to win, Anton led the charge into a lift, and we slipped upstairs, where the numbers were more in our favour.  Charges set, lifts negated (many uses for broken droid bodies!), we climbed up to the top floor, and turned to Ralrlanna once more.  His hammer shone bright, and made short work of the non-blast-door-reinforced wall.  From there, it was a simple skip, jump, or force-levitation across to our waiting vessel, and we high-tailed it out of there!  With an impressive explosion, the shields came down (as did a good chunk of the building onto those nasty droids), and we got out of there.

The job was done, the radical movement defeated...but, ouch, at what cost?  I'm pretty sure I won't be able to get the scorch marks off my jacket, and I have at least three sizeable bruises over my arms.  My ankle even feels twisted - this is serious!  If we're to operate like this, we need to make sure we know what we're in for, and that we can handle the task smoothly.

And, you know, remain undiscovered on our next stealth mission.

(EBR 1x03a) - The Kubindi Radical

These posts are my recap of our group's Star Wars Saga Edition game. They are written as a kind of "Ship's Log", from my character (Burt Larsson)'s point of view.  

3593.06.01, Taungsday

We'd been back for nearly a week when Montag with another job offer.  Good thing, too - there wasn't much to do around home.  Well, always lots of little jobs, but compared to what we got to rescue the senator's son? Wasn't worth our time!

We did try to offload those, ah, 'sticks', but still no buyers.  Some great lot of goods they were... maybe folk on Kubindi will be more interested in them?  That's right - way back out to another outer-rim world.  Good thing the mission is worth it, else we'd be paying more in fuelling the 'Raptor than in crew costs!

Clearly we impressed someone.  Montag's offer was from the "Republic Armed Forces Special Division", and it was totally our line of work: some crazed radical group - they called them a "faction", I think - is upsetting the populace.  Civil wars, uprisings, all that nonsense.  And we have been given the go-ahead - I mean, are being paid to do the job - of sneaking into their base, taking down their shields, and lighting up key locations for orbital strikes.  Man, was I ever made for this job!

Adam will do great, too, of course - he's been working hard over his latest suit upgrades.  He's nearly as silent as I am when he wants to be, and he's carrying over thirty kilos of metal in that suit!  Anyway, the two of us should be able to slip in there, plant the tracers, help KH get the charges in place, and be back to Anton and the 'Raptor in time for a smooth getaway!  Easiest stack of creds we've ever made!

3593.06.01, Zhellday

They are coming with us. Now, the jedi, I can understand (not really - but I'd make an exception: their robes are simple enough, they don't make that much noise, and their blades can cut through nearly any wall we may come across).  But on what planet did Montag think the wookie was stealthy?  He can't even say hello without alerting the entire ship!

...maybe I'm being too harsh.  If things go south, Ralrlanna will definitely be handy to have around.  Just...how many of us can really go in, and remain undiscovered?  We're a day out already - it's not like we can leave them somewhere.  Just gotta plan things around it.

Montag says he can get us codes for our transponder to get inside the base; there, we're all going to 'sneak inside' via some large crates the 'Raptor is delivering.  Crates! Like we're some sort of animal...

Montag's offered to look after the ship, which Anton didn't seem to happy about.  He's had the controls tweaked just so; someone else messing with them might take another week to reset.  At least the jedi seem to be reasonably agreeable to remaining on the ship, and standing in as guards.  Hopefully no one will try to take our ship whilst we're 'on mission', but it's never wise to totally let our guard down, especially when handing the controls over to someone else.

I'm making sure all my ammo clips are fully charged - packed a few extra clips for the slugthrowers, just in case any of the droids pop up with some shields.  Who knows how this will go down?  But, no - I'm confident.  We can do this, it's easy enough.  Sneak in, plant the devices, sneak out - what could go wrong?

(EBR 1x02d) - The Rescue!

These posts are my recap of our group's Star Wars Saga Edition game. They are written as a kind of "Ship's Log", from my character (Burt Larsson)'s point of view.  For something different, I stylised Burt's shaken nature after the mission by using the great XKCD SimpleWriter to pen it.  I allowed some exceptions - names - but aside from that, this entry has been simplified!

3593.05.07, Centaxday

Well.

So - that happened.

It's all a clouded memory, now, it all happened so fast, and was over before we knew it. But we got away, with<CLASSIFIED> and with our lives.  That's got to be a win, right?

Let's see what I can remember of it...we reached the edge of the trees in the early afternoon.  There were guards, watching the place. Not the trees. Just around the buildings, and some buildings more than others.  Oh, and the ships. They could prove to be a problem.

KH-74 went and checked them out - he couldn't get close enough to them, but he left a 'gift' in the trees close to the ships. Just in case.

We waited until it was dark before moving forward.  Adam and I moved forward quietly, listening at the doors, and looking into windows - not that there was much to see.  Most of the people were asleep, and only a few kept watch.  We decided on a few buildings that were most probably where <CLASSIFIED> was being kept, and sent Darossk and Taeko out to cut through their walls.  Adam gave them cover with his smoke clouds, and the rest of us just shot at anything that moved.

After three empty rooms, Darossk finally found <CLASSIFIED>, and we made our way out quickly!  Well, with a few pauses to thin The Facebook's numbers.  One even shot me in the back! My guns did not like that - they took his smile right off his face!  Too bad  they couldn't hit anything else...like, ever...

There was a mad run back into the woods, trying to find the spot KH-74 and Anton had set up too meet.  Then, when we were back on board the 'Raptor, we took to the skies, and left the smelly simple rock behind.

So now we're headed back home, to get our big pay, and work out what to do from here.  Will the others hang around with us?  Is there more the Republic want us to do?  Will they keep their watch-dogs on us, or send us in alone? How long will there be hair filling the auto-vacs?

(EBR 1x02c) - Through the Jungle

These posts are my recap of our group's Star Wars Saga Edition game. They are written as a kind of "Ship's Log", from my character (Burt Larsson)'s point of view.  

3593.05.06, Primeday

The past few days have been strange, and a little awkward.  I can't help but shake the feeling that the new folk might be holding me partially responsible for the rodian's death...like any of them would have found the hidden capsule and removed it safely!  And it wasn't even as if they were poisoned for that long.

Anyway, I used the down time to work on the speeder bikes we took from Tatooine.  Sadly, those Apple Gangers didn't take good care of their vehicles - sand through every joint, and parts deteriorated badly.  Most will be little better than scrap, but I might be able to find a spare part here and there.  Even if I do, by the initial scan of the planet(-oid?), our bikes won't be any use for this trip.  Jungle everywhere, and whilst some might be able to pilot through it, the going would be slow, and the others would still have to walk.  Anton says we can't even take our transport down, as anything flying close to their settlement (a clearing in the middle of the jungle) would be picked out, and set off whatever warnings they had.  For some reason, direct bombardment of their ships was voted against, too.

So it looks like we have a forced march on our hands.  Three days, maybe four, through heavy foliage and treacherous trees.  And probably some level of indigenous creatures - who knows what lives in there, but it must be fearsome to have kept settlers away!

3593.05.06, Taungsday

Jungle, jungle, jungle!  Trees and more trees, mossy creeks, and then some sharp, stinging vines.  I'm sure I spotted some moving on their own, but no one believed me.  Kept my mask on, just to be sure.  The jedi are taking it in turns leading the way, the group deciding that a more forceful (heh - get it?) approach was needed.  Their lightsabers cut through the foliage and clear a path for others.  The noise and light was deemed more useful than sending scouts on ahead.

Even after we were ambushed by some...strange ape creatures (Takeo suggested that they were related to the Gundark, though they didn't seem as ferocious as those on Vanqor.), we continued with the jedi in front.  At least, after their attempted ambush, we were all much more aware of what was happening, and fought the other creatures off with ease.  They stopped bothering us after a while - clearly, concerned with losing too many of their number.  Maybe they aren't as dumb as their distant cousins?

From one of the treetops, Adam managed to spot the camp - it didn't appear to be alerted yet, and he was confident that we would reach its perimeter by tomorrow afternoon.  Hopefully, we'll all be back on the 'Raptor by dinner time - it will be good to sleep in a bed again!

(EBR 1x02b) - Meeting a Rodian

These posts are my recap of our group's Star Wars Saga Edition game. They are written as a kind of "Ship's Log", from my character (Burt Larsson)'s point of view.  

3593.05.05, Centaxday

I managed to find a sturdy rifle for the droid - "KH-74", he claims was his preferred name - and together we disembarked on Duro to track down this Stapleton.  We only had the name of an establishment, not much to go on, really, but Adam - I mean, Nighthawk - did some neat work on the 'Raptor's terminal before we landed, and managed to find a reasonably close hangar.  

Splitting up momentarily, Adam and I set to scouting out the general location around her dive (which wasn't that 'dive-y' after all), whilst Montag worked his officer-mojo on the desk clerks.  He didn't find anything, really, so we all rejoined outside the Rainbow Unicorn, and discussed the plan - pretty simple, really.

Ralrlanna was too hard to disguise, the jedi were a dead giveaway (how come they never pack disguises?), and Elizabeth had already taken pot shots at Anton and myself - there was a chance she'd recognise us.  So it was down to the others: Nighthawk, the "looking-for-work" bounty hunter; and Montag, shadowed by his droid "bodyguard".  They scoped out the bar, asked questions, and generally kept an eye out.  The others waited nearby in one of our hired speeders, and I perched atop a building opposite.

Well, she came by, predictably enough.  Bought the line Adam gave her, and offered a meet-up somewhere "with less eyes".  Heh, if only she knew... We were all waiting for her; me up high once again, Montag on top of a dumpster, whilst KH hid inside a second one.  Taeko and Darossk stayed with Ralrlanna in the speeder, having shadowed Elizabeth to her home and back again.  And Nighthawk, his armour all polished and intimidating, stood waiting.

There were some words exchanged, but the whole thing basically boiled down to "Blah blah blah, hidden dart to the face!!"  Well, it would have, if Adam had spent more time practising his suit's armaments, and less time cleaning the darn thing.

So, we all have to leap in to help out - the jedis using their training blades, the wookie even pulling out some nasty pike thing!  Our new droid friend seems to only know "kill" (I can approve of that, normally), so decided to take his frustration out on Elizabeth's speeder.  Ah, then she made the mistake of declaring "You'll never take me alive!"  Really, who does that?

And, yeah, then we took her alive.  And totally nothing interesting happened afterwards.  No one stuck their fingers in her strange, rodian mouth, checking for a suicide pill.  No one triggered said suicide pill.  No one released a burst of toxic gas onto those others around the unconscious, definitely alive, definitely taken, Elizabeth.

Suffice to say, we didn't get any further information from her...directly.  And, no one was in a particularly good mood with me afterwards.

Her docket led us back to her ship, and with a little work, we had Adam sitting in front of her travel logs.  Apparently, just after leaving Tatooine, she had stopped off at an unnamed, uninhabited planet.  Suspicious, and annoying - we had to go all the way back out to the outer rim...  At least the planet only had one settlement, and it looked pretty temporary.  <CLASSIFIED> was bound to be there.

Oh, and looks like I wasn't the only one messing it up today: Adam tripped some nasty self-destruct thing, and we all barely made it out of the hangar before the entire ship erupted in flames.