Adventure 8

We got a new player for this adventure: my BFF Kelsey (although this BFF-itude only holds true in the contiguous 48 states.) She is new to D20 and the Star Wars system, but I invited her after I noticed that her cell phone plays the Imperial March when someone calls. She is playing a Kinsei named Sia. She has a last name, but it's in my book, which was stolen by Kelsey. Anyhow, she is a gun-based Kinsei, which gives the party another ranged character and a 4th member.

Five days passed after the Battle of Coruscant, allowing the battered citizens of the city-planet to recover from the daring Rebel attack. Rumors of Mandalorians hidden in the populace had been causing no small amount of uproar and paranoia in the citizenry. In the midst of all this, the Empire's protectors sought to try new tactics to counter the increasingly emboldened Rebellion.

IG-203, the Prodigy, and Nos Maliss were called into Kyle Katarn's briefing room to go over their next assignment. Their commander was impatient and still wounded from the battle (as well as an overzealous night). He first introduced them to another Kinsei by name of Sia whose partner had been killed by the Mandalorians. Sia walked in and joined the briefing, taking little time for introductions. She looked of Asian descent and had teal hair. Instead of using her lightsaber to block attacks, she used a pair of specialized bracers. This freed her hands to allow her to shoot freely with a pair of blaster pistols.

Their mission was to follow up on another report of Jedi terrorism on the planet Corulag. They departed immediately after receiving their mission briefing. On the way to their destination, Sia mulled over her dead partner. Trying to cheer her up, Maliss (possibly trying to stir up a romance to bring his dead race back to life) engaged in a shooting/deflecting session with her. He deflected most of the shots, but she caught him successfully with one and left.

Once on the planet, they sent a message to Zabbaba the Hutt, who had helped them on the last of their missions against the Sentinels. He used his underworld knowledge to point them in the direction of one of his competitors, a Twi'lek named Maan Tay'aa, who was known to sell to those elements. They easily followed the clues to his office, busted down the door, killed the receptionist as he leapt for a blaster, and entered his main office. There, he tried unsuccessfully to escape. The Kinsei team interrogated him, then executed him. With the information he had given them, they found themselves at a large warehouse.

Through the garage doors, the Prodigy reached out with the Force and felt the presence three Force-sensitives. The droid opened the doors and they prepared for battle. However, it was not the Jedi they had been seeking. Instead, it was a trio of human males who seemed happy to see them. Their leader knelt before the Kinsei, greeting them as "heralds." At their look of confusion, he cited a prophecy: "A generation after his fall, the last son and the one wise beyond his years will herald the rebirth of the True Emperor, and they will bring about the fall of the False Empire." The Kinsei realized that they were dealing with a Sith cult.

As the leader of the cult (which called themselves the "Disciples of the True Emperor") mentioned that they would be tested by the Apostles of the True Emperor, a pair of Jedi Sentinels arrived. They sought to find who had been posing as them, bringing them to the warehouse. Upon seeing the Kinsei and the Sith apparently in conversation, they ignited their yellow blades and attacked both groups. The Kinsei began fighting both groups as well, resulting in a three-way melee.

After only a few moments of battle, a fourth group joined the fray: Tellis Krath, who had been tracking the other Dashade who had severed his arm. He was joined by a trio of near-mindless Dashade clones, and had apparently replaced his arm with a robotic one. Arriving on a speeder and joining the fight by usage of indiscriminate missiles, Krath leapt off to engage Nos Maliss while the Dashade clones activated their vibroaxes and simply joined the fray.

The four-way battle resulted in injuries and death on all sides. Of the party, most of the members were injured: the droid from a stray explosive and a lightsaber slash from one of the Sith, Sia from being wedged between a Jedi and a charging Dashade clone, and Maliss from Krath simply wrestling and beating him with his great strength. The Jedi and Sith fell until only one of each remained; the Sith ran while the Jedi committed suicide rather than be taken prisoner. The party disabled the remaining Dashade clones through the Force and blaster shots. (The tough race was historically resistant to both, and the clones proved to have this as well. However, they had almost non-existent intelligence and willpower.) In the meantime, the fight between Maliss and Krath looked poorly for Maliss, who could not escape the more powerful Dashade nor use his lightsaber. As Krath choked the life out of him, the party came to his aid, blasting away at him with their remaining strength. Finally, weakened by the barrage of fire, Krath slipped his hold and Maliss was able to escape, knocking him unconscious with a final slash of his now-available lightsaber.

This was so hard to adjucate. Fortunately, I didn't roll much or even keep stats on paper unless it directly affected the party.