Nimbala free? A Talathen Sector report

Background

At the end of the last round, the Rebel leadership met with The Red Queen of Nimbala. She is a freed slave who married a Czerka executive, poisoned him to keep him weak, and set about using his money and influence to drive Czerka off Nimbala for good.

Her plan from the start was as follows;

• Sell a large number of her shares while prices are still high
• Equip locals with weapons and training to increase disruptions
• Give the rebels information and intelligence covertly to help them cause maximum disruption to Czerka operations
• Arrange "accidents" for Czerka leadership
• Drive the Czerka Nimbala holding companies share price into the dirt through open rebellion 
• Buy up a controlling interest as the investors bail out of a dying investment
• Set herself us as benevolent ruler of the Twi'leks of Nimbala 

These three operations took place during the final phases of the plan

X-Wing - Nimbala Turkey shoot

So, we have a system that allows the rebel commanders to buy bonuses to their setup if they roll well on the planning roll. This mission they rolled phenomenally and purchased nearly every advantage they could buy.

As a result, it wasn't even remotely fair, but the mission was closer than I expected. The objective was simple. Eliminate the Czerka dignitary on his shuttle, destroy the reinforcement troop transport, and clear the skies of Czerka ships. It matched 6 rebel fighters against * scum fighters and the shuttle, plus they had to destroy the transport. But if you look at the setup below, you can see they had a good start on that by deploying on their flanks, at firing range.  

The transport (8 hull) lasted all off one round, being scuppered by 2 Proton Torpedoes each doing maximum damage.

On the left flank, the Lambda shuttle did a little better as it's fighter screen went into overdrive. And while the shuttle was ionized for a few rounds from a pre-setup ion bomb. It did try and escape

  

But the end result was a bit of a turkey shoot, with Czerka fighters being blown out of the sky before the Lambda shuttle was finally destroyed one turn before it could reach the atmosphere and escape.

The Y-wings proved their utility in this mission, killing both the Lambda and Transport with torpedoes, and ionizing fighters so the X-wings could get 4 dice blasts on them at point blank range

As you can see, maneuvering was very tight at stages.

With a major Czerka executive dead, the board was seriously rattled

Imperial Assault - Seize the control room

Phase two was a surface operation, rebel special forces under the command of Del Kern and supported by Nimbalan insurgents were smuggled into the Czerka compound. Their objective, capture the Czerka head of security and take control of the security computers. With this facility in their control, they could black out communications, lock down security doors, and generally cripple the armed Czerka response around the planet. 

After breaching the doors, the full squad marched down the main corridor and into the executives audience chamber

Fighting got very intense, with a lot of melee combat. Also, Czerka reinforcements began to arrive from the entrance area. 

The pivotal part of the battle was when the executives Mandalorean bodyguard (bottom right) joined the fray and began dishing out horrific damage. He engaged and wounded the Wookie brawler, before finally succumbing to a total of 6 melee attacks from an angry wookie over two round. 

With the Mandalorean down, resistance crumbled and the Rebels forced their way into the control room in the bottom right of the map, capturing the Czerka executive and locking down the planets security network. Open rebellion was on.  

Final act- The nano-second buyout

As the dust settled, the Red Queen put into place her plan and readied to buy the shares as the price dropped. Our elite Aurek squad (The RPG party) turned up to help oversee the transition of power and ensure that the Rebellion wasn't going to put some petty tyrant in charge.

Each of our players had a secret mission as well.

Inomo Cel'fasa, Twi'lek force aware agitator (Megapope-Republicans) was appointed as an official diplomat. It was his job to ensure the rebellions interests were preserved, but that Nimbala did not openly revolt. Nimbala is more valuable to the rebellion as an ally supplier of gas for weapons and open rebellion invites swift and terrible response.

Zorrin Vox, Human Luxon soldier and doctor (Rahana- Luxon Militia) was primarily concerned with getting Nimbala ready to contribute to the rebellion as soon as possible. Luxon needs more people fighting as they are currently being invaded, Nimbala cannot have time to lick her wounds and needs to contribute soldiers and machinery now. 

Ana Tola, Twi'lek Nimbalan Commando (The Millarnator - People movement) was from this planet, so wanted to make sure the Red Queen wasn't going to put the people back in chains.

JK (Jay), Human ex-imperial pilot (Arnvald von Kuggenstein - Guest player) was a former imperial pilot who was secretly working for the Bothan Spynet..... mostly due to blackmail. His job was to ensure that the Red Queen didn't have total control. 

And finally, Oli Shim, Mon Calimari archaeologist with cranial computer (Ekim - Basra consortium) also had a secret mission, which i'll mention later

The Mission

As the team arrived, the Czerka compound was still in a state of open war, with laser blasts flying everywhere. Czerka forces had retreated to one part of the city and had set up formidable defensive lines, and with little disciple and training the Nimbalan rebels were stalemated. 

When they arrived at the central control tower, they were met by a very nervous junior Czerka employee who worked directly for the Red Queen. He nervously wondered if anyone who worked for Czerka would end up being hanged or worse in the aftermath. Inomo assured him that if he was helpful, that he had nothing to worry about. from that point, he was very helpful.

The Red Queen had built a secret control bunker behind the front of a beauty saloon, her cover as a shallow and venal socialite made it a logical location. Inside, she met the team and outlined the last stages of the plan. Buy up the shares as the prices bottoms out. There was one major problem, the Czerka forces were using jammers which made communication to the outside world difficult.

The control room had loads of financial readouts, as well as information from the battlefield. Seeing the issue with the Czerka defences, and wanting to fix communications Ana, JK and Zorrin set about creating a plan to reconfigure their anti-bombardment shield so that it would act as a prison. They located a means to do this and hit the streets.

Meanwhile, Oli offered his technical expertise to help improve the system, and using his expertise in computers proceeded to do so, while conducting another series of operations in secret.

Zorrin, Ana and JK got in position near the Czerka lines, but someone had to go through the lines and disable a security console so they could remote access the shield system. Ana, being a master of stealth and violence, slipped through the lines, butchering a Czerka patrol on the way with consummate ease.

Zorrin on the other hand, found himself face to face with an angry mob of Twi'leks. Fortunately, one of the older Twi'leks recognized the Luxon uniform and saw his presence as a sign the Luxon militia was helping the Nimbalans. After a quick swap of war stories from the clone wars, Zorrin got the twi'leks to run messages up and down the line, telling them to retreat from the shield and get behind cover.

Once the shield was down, the buyout began in earnest. But immediately, there were complications. A 10% share was held by a trust connected to the Moff of the sector, and he wasn't selling.

As the other share blocks came online, two other parties were buying them as well. Within 30 minutes, the vast bulk of the shares changed hands and the Red Queen was stuck with only a 38% shareholding. A second block owned 27% and a third block 25%. This mean't that the Red Queen could be blocked in her takeover.

At this point, communications came in from Korvas that an Imperial Star Destroyer had been dispatched to the region. No doubt to check on the stability of the planet and see if Imperial intervention would be needed.

At this point, the owner of 27% of the shares spoke up.

It was Oli Shim, The Basra consortium had been using the Red Queens own computer systems to buy a share in the business. The Red Queen was furious, but also grudgingly respectful at being outplayed. 

Then, a hutt cruiser and escorts appeared out of Hyperspace. Professor Hodda of the Hodda Cartel claimed to own the 25% share. Hodda reassured everyone that he wasn't a normal Hutt, and had no interest in running a slave planet. But he could offer the takeover legitimacy. The Empire would not want to interfere in a legal hutt commercial takeover of a business, especially if the supply of gas and other raw materials keeps coming.

All Hodda wants for his shares are a seat on the board, a small island on the southern hemisphere for his personal research and a 100km no-fly exclusion zone around his island for privacy.

If his terms are met, he would be willing to talk to the Imperials on behalf of the new owners, and would support the Red Queen as CEO of Nimbala. 

All partied agreed, and when Admiral Trassk arrived, Hodda assured her the takeover was legitimate business, and that no imperial help is needed.

And when the dust settled, Nimbala was free, in a way. Owned by the Red Queen, the Basra Consortiuim and the Hodda Cartel, but certainly more free than before. Nimbalan's would still have to work the mines, but they would be paid for it, and have safety gear. In order to buy Nimbalan freedom, they had to continue the pretense of being an industrial slave planet.

It will be interesting to see how this balance holds. 

The first battle of Luxon - Talathen Sector battle report

Luxon is under attack, and the rebels responded with a series of two missions.

Luxon ground operations 

First up, The luxon Militia need help taking control of a series of underground junctions, and to destroy the entry and exit points for imperial reinforcements.

They had 6 satchel charges, and need to spend an action to place them and an action to detonate them. If the Imperials were close, they could deactivate the charges. 

The team moved into position, two characters and some soliders for support attacking on each flank.

By the way, isn't Space Hulk 3rd edition just damned good to look at. Such nice components and perfect for the tunnel fights in Luxon

With satchel charges blowing the main corridors, the team moved in to defeat the E-Webs and officers defending the control station. The other objective was for the team to rewire the consoles, so that Luxon forces could control tunnel and gate access in the region. 

One e-web down, and the rebels close the noose. One big gun, even one that can fire three times, isn't enough to slow the rebel advance. 

With the guns down, the Rebels quickly hunt down and eliminate the imperials in the communications centre. Meanwhile, imperial reinforcements flock around to cut off the rebel escape. 












 With their escape route cut-off the rebels were forced to fight their way back down a stormtrooper infested corridor. And while they made it, two of them were badly injured and all their support troopers died.

A high price, but now the Luxon militia controls this sector, and the imperials will have to burn their way through. Which has slowed their invasion considerably. 

The Battle in Space

The Luxon groups forces need supplies desperately, so the Rebel fleet decided to smash through the Luxon blockade to deliver the desperately needed materials.

They did so easily, but as they turned away from the planet they were boxed in by a squadron of four star destroyers. They needed to blast past them, protect their transports, and make it out of the planets gravity well and into hyperspace. 

Three corvettes, an assault frigate and a Nebulon B were matched up against three victory destroyers and a gladiator. 

The rebels plan was simple, push the freighters to the side of the board and screen them with other ships. Then put the hammer down and get off the board as soon as possible. The freighters (represented by X-wing transport tokens) had 6 hull and could move speed 3. They activated after fighters. 

In what I considered a bold move, I threw the Gladiator ahead hard and fast on the first turn. I had the good fortune of acting first next turn and being in pefect range against Jaina's light, a Corellian Corvette. I got to roll many many black dice, and the corvette was blown to pieces. First blood to the Empire.

Unfortunately, the assault frigate did exceptionally well on return fire, and two turns later, the Gladiator was lost with all hands. 

The Imperial fleet split up, one Victory trying to close down the freighter on the near side of the board, while the other two close on the pair on the far side. 

Dramatically working to screen the freighter, the Nebulon-B frigate "The Pride of Luxon" under command of the infamous "Beast of Luxon" took heavy damage at point black range. But the ship kept moving and redirecting shields, and every hit it took was one the freighters did not. 

That freighter got away (with 1 hull remaining), but one of the freighters on the far side of the board was blown to pieces by the combined fire of two victory destroyers. When the dust settled, and the Rebels hit hyperspace, they had saved their fleet, with the cost of 1 corvette and 1 freighter. While taking down a Victory destroyer and a Gladiator. 

A nice, well played victory.

Next time, we will look at the Nimbala campaign. 

The Battle of Nimbala - Talathen Sector - Planning round 5

Alright, new style for doing these updates. Instead of spoonfeeding them as we are done, I will write up the whole "game round" over a week or so to help me recap the story to myself and plan for the next round.

Round 5 is in the bag, so lets start off with the planning phase.

The Situation

The war in the sector is obviously heating up and exchanges between the Rebels and Imperials are becoming more direct. 

Luxon is under full-scale invasion by the Empire, which for the Empire is not that easy a task. The Luxon people are, well, a bunch of crazy militia survivalists who are very well armed, and Luxon cities are mostly located underground.

Orbital bombardment and air superiority don't help a huge amount when the battle is conducted in tunnels deep underground. So a messy close quarters war is underway. 

Nimbala is about to enter a crisis point, and the identity of the 3rd faction was revealed to be "The Red Queen", a former Nimbalan twi'lek slave who married a Czerka executive and then poisoned him to gain his shares in the Nimbala holding company. 

She has been planning on causing conflict on Nimbala to drive the shareprice down and cause a crash of the stock, so she can buy it up and free her people (While making herself ruler). She has enlisted the help of the rebellion. 

With the rebellion destroying a Victory destroyer over Samoth that was using probe droids to search for a rebel base, the Empire has decided to raze the planet. Samoth has a low population, and this task is being conducted by a squadron of Victory class destroyers. This has forced the empire to lift the blockade on Nadir and Zenith. 

The Plan

Luxon - Under Siege

Luxon is under pressure, so considerable resources were assigned to help relieve the Luxon militia.

Special forces were dispatched to help the militia by targeting key points in the imperial logistics network. A rebel general, Kolath De'rest, was also assigned to help coordinate efforts on the ground.

In space, the full might of the rebel fleet and it's logistics division were assigned to punch a hole in the blockade and deliver heavy munitions and supplies to the militia.

 
Nimbala - The Red Queens Gambit

For the first time in the campaign, three seperate elements were assigned to one planet on a joint task.

Special forces were to liaise with the local resistance and capture the Czerka security command station and arrest their security chief. With the security command under their control, they could lockdown the facilities and limit Czerka troop movements.

Fighter command was employed to stop Czerka troop reinforcements and to assassinate the board member who was coordinating them. Thanks to the Red Queen's inside information, they knew when these reinforcements were to arrive.

Finally, Aurek squad was assigned to the Red Queen as personal security and advisers, and to ensure that the Rebellions interests were looked after during the transition. 

Sa'moth- Busy being leveled

The people of Sa'moth are being wiped off the face of the planet, but the rebellion simply cannot help them at this time due to issues on Luxon and Nimbala. 

The only response was to send a HWK electronic warfare ship to observe and record the bombardment for use in propaganda videos later. 


Elsewhere 

Due to various reasons, the alliances played little part in this rounds planning. The hutts, Bothans and wookies were either exhausted from previous engagements or occupied in their own schemes. 

Selano, in the face of seeing the Empire fail to establish a presence, and with concerted diplomatic pressure from the rebellion has become considerably more friendly the the rebellion. 

Korvas continues to build up it's defences, Nadir and Zenith breath easier with the blockade lifted. Cahn has asked for help dealing with an internal political issue and probe droids have arrived on axamar to scan for the rebel base. 

Plenty happening in Talathen Sector, battle reports and the "Nimbala buy out" story coming soon. 

Talathen Sector - End phase round 4

Personal Update

Well, this last month or so has been an unpleasant one for my group and I.

My sister lost her battle with cancer just after New Years, one of my other players has had to deal with a major family crisis, and another the death of a friend.

All in all, 2016 started off horribly for my friends and I and Talathen Sector takes a fair bit of work on my part, and focus from my players. This is something we have been without, so when we have met up, we have played games like roborally and Blood Bowl Team Manager instead. And that's been fine.  

Things are starting to calm down a little, so i'm going to write up our last session from last year. Hopefully, next week we will be focused enough to get back into it. 

Final mission

Just a few words on this one as it was a purely narrative mission, designed to introduce a plot point more than be an actual challenge for the players

It was set on Nimbala, with the rebels dispatched to capture a member of the Czerka board who had been located on Nimbala. 

This board member was revealed to be "The Red Queen", a character introduced in the first RPG mission, a former Twilek slave from Nimbala who had married a member of the Czerka board.

She revealed that her plan has been to destabilize Czerka on Nimbala, buy up shares in the subsidiary as the price nose dives, then purchase a controlling interest, kick Czerka out, and liberate her people while placing herself as a self-appointed ruler.

Viewing this as the far lesser of two evils, the rebels have agreed to help.

Mission reports

• Luxon - Wookies deployed to assist the Luxon militia facing a full scale invasion. This mission was a success and generated +1 rebel support, +5 heat, and blocked some of the Empires potential gains
• Holonet Hack - To counter imperial propaganda on the Holonet, the rebels hacked it and uploaded footage of the rebel fleet destroying the shipyard at Korvas. Massive success, blunts Imperial PR campaign. 
• Nimbala Diplomacy - Massive success, opned up the "Red Queen" mission on Nimbala
• Kronos - Diplomatic mission sucessful, initial reports of Imperial favour found to be untrue. Kronos is displeased with the empire. 
• Samoth - Attacking a star destroyer that was launching probes to find the hidden rebel base. Major success, lots of heat in Samoth. Deliberately done to draw imperial attention away from other sites.
• Selano - Asteroid base raid, major success, +2 rebel support, massive heat. 
• Cahn diplomacy - Meeting with the devourer cult, who need help with an internal issue. 
• Nadir and Zenith - Draw, no relief  to blockade, but lessens effect of imperial action. 

Bidding

A lot of characters up for bid and a minor faction as well. After meeting the Bothan Spynet in the last RPG, they have become available. it's worth noting that the Chief of Staff NPC does not like Bothans, and all Bothans have the "shady" negative to represent his antipathy for them. 

First up for bid was Nayr Bwa'tu and the Bothan Spynet, a powerful alliance that adds considerable grunt to the intelligence pool and comes with a powerful leader.  

The round was blind bidding and the Bothans went to the Republicans for a surprising low 15 clout

Next up, was the unusual Pell family. As a married couple, these two characters come as a set, with Leeto being a smuggler and Jorda being a gunslinger. 

The peoples movement picked them up for 22 clout, 11 each which seems pretty reasonable. 

Manny Bothan's, Bothan super spy and generally all around powerful agent. Manny is phenomenal at spying missions and the most powerful spying character in the sector.

The downside of him is that he is doomed to die before the end of the campaign. After all, he needs to find the plans to the 2nd death star, so Mon Mothma can say "Manny Bothans died to bring us this information"

Yes..... the entire character is based on a bad pun :)  A whopping 27 points to the Republicans, who have loaded up on Bothan spies this round. 

Mak Eshka'rey is next, a truly useful character who can fight in Imperial assault squads, work as an intelligence officer, or be sent off on solo assassination runs.

22 points to the Luxon militia, I must say I was surprised at this, but clearly the players have plans and want the right people to fufil them. 

Laila Jaxon becomes the first human for hire this round, in a round dominated by Bothans. 

As a Wes Jansen ace, she has excellent pilot skill and in game abilities, while being an ok squadron leader. 

14 points to the Peoples movement, who continue to stockpile military characters

Kolath De'rest is next. Another utility character who can be a good officer, imperial assault squad member, intelligence operative, or any form of command role. 

13 points to the Basra consortium. This was the Basra consortium only acquisition this round, and they finished the round with 26 move clout saved than anyone else. I expect big moves next round.

Kryth Thu'wan is next, a solid leader character, but not a fighter. He could be a real asset in many fields, but probably not combat ones.

Stolen for only 10 clout by the Luxon Militia. And while i though they overpaid for Mak, this cheap deal more than overcompensates for that.

Finally, Goran Alarno, a Torgruta solidier with the uncommon "instructor" special ability.

Goran could move into training immediately, or he could be deployed to the special forces teams who are in need of a 2nd commando. 

Final scores

As this is round 4, glory scores per event have gone up by 25%, and will do so every 3 turns until the end of the game. The People's movement nearly top scored this round, and are closing the gap to the Luxon Militia and Republicans, while the Basra Consortium continues to play a long game. 

I'm making a choice - A Talathen Sector battle report

Some games are good, some games are bad. And rarely, you play an amazing session where everything works and people will talk about it for years to come.

This battle was one of those sessions, a genuine nail biting fight that came down to the wire and had every player nervous about which way it would go. 

The objective was the seize control of the asteroid bases engineering command centre, set the reactor to overload, and get out in time.

The mission rules were as follows. 

• Imperials on half reinforcement points until alarm sounds. 
• Reinforcements come from off screen. 
• When the Alarm sounds, doors are locked and can only be opened by Imperials. But can be blasted open. 
• There are three consoles in the main control room. Imperial officers can access them, and the players can "hack" them using their characters mental and hacking skills. 
• Each terminal allows the players to make one choice. Take control of security doors, kill the alarm, set the self destruct timer on the base for a number of turns they choose. 
• Finally, make it back to the shuttle before the timer reaches zero and the base explodes. It costs an action to board the shuttle. 

Things started off hot for the Rebels, as they dealt with the initial outlying guards easily and the Alarm was not raised until they made it into the control room. 

The first console hacked locked the security doors and allowed the Rebels to control access. They then killed the 3 officers in the control room to ensure they couldn't override the controls. This left 2 officers in the complex, one of which was near the shuttle, the other behind multiple security doors. 

The alarm was shut off, and then the team set the self destruct for 5 turns. 

Gaxx (Brawler) and Gooda (Gunsligner) briefly engaged the advacing stormtroopers, allowing Hallarn (Commander), Keel (Sniper) and Fenn (Commando) to try to secure the ship. 

The officer near the shuttle was cut down, and the other one never did make it past the security doors in time to shut off the self destruct. The Imperials fought a rear guard action, blocking access to the shuttle. 

Here is the board position with 1 turns to go. Storm Troopers have secured the ship access, Finn, Keel and Hallarn have enough movement to get to the shuttle ramp and use an action, but stormtroopers are blocking their access. They do not have enough actions to take a shot this turn, and Gooda had already boarded. 

The only option, that allowed the maximum number of Rebels to escape was for Gaxx to take both his actions as attacks, deal "cleave" damage to as many imperials as he could, and then use his last endurance to occupy a spot by the ramp so the Rebels couldn't be blocked leaving.

This mean't that Gaxx chose to stay behind until the last possible moment to allow the rest of the team to escape, knowing full well he would likely die as a result. 

Hallarn "Gaxx, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"
Gaxx "I'm making a choice"

Gaxx turns, force pike in hand and engages the stormtroopers in brutal melee combat, the ramp of the shuttle closing behind him as he is finally pulled down by sheer weight of numbers. 

As shown here, we rolled the "red dice of despair" to determine Gaxx's fate, this result is a "captured" one. Being captured on a space station that is going nuclear is not ideal, so sadly, Gaxx is dead. 

We've lost characters before in the campaign, due to misadventure and the happenings of war. But this was the first really "cinematic" death, where a grumpy anti-social weequey thug, who no one really knew or understood why he was fighting for the rebellion, nobly laid down his life to cover his teams escape.  

That's the wonder of narrative games and playing stories. You not only get a good game out of it, but you get some really defining moments like this.

Overall, the tension of the count down timer, the imperial reinforcements and the constant pressure in this scenario made for a great experience. Good times.

One more mission for this turn and then the end phase. 

We're Back! - Talathen battle sector report

Well, its been a while since we updated for numerous reasons. A few people have been away on business trips or personal holidays, and our one of our players is also a new dad since the last update! So a heap happening in "real life" and that's more important than the fate of Talathen sector :)

Things will be getting back to normal in the next few weeks, so I thought I would write up the battle reports that have been sitting around idle for a few months. 

I'll do some very short write ups for the first 3 missions, and a lengthier one for the finale. (I didn't have my camera for some of these, so less photos than normal)

Bombing Runs on Luxon


With Luxon now under invasion, the Rebels made some efforts to slow the attack down. A unit of wookies were deployed to support the resistance, and one of the Headhunter squadrons was assigned to interdict bombing runs made on Luxon positions. 

This scenario was as follows. Each bomber had a total of 3 bombs/missiles. Each unused bomb or missile that made it off the board was a VP for the Empire, each bomb/missile used by the Empire or unused when the bomber was killed was a VP for the Rebellion. 

This was a great little battle, with the Headhunters dueling with the Tie Fighter screen while the Bombers tried to push through. 

One pair of bombers were annihilated in short order after using their missiles once ganged up on, giving the Rebels 6 VPs. But the second pair flanked right and went full speed for the edge, covered by a pair of ties. While the Headhunters pursued and landed some hits on them, it wasn't quite enough to stop them. 6VP's to the Empire and a tied scenario. A nice close game. 

Harassing the blockade of Zenith

With Zenith under blockade, the X/Y wing squadron was deployed to hamper it's effectiveness. To this end, they targeted a group of deep space "hyperjump scanners" that would notify the Imperials of incoming ships from Hyperspace. 

The Rebels were over matched in this fight, 3 Y's and an X vs 4 interceptors and Snattercat, the local Tie Advanced Ace (A fully kitted out ace with vaders card).

In a smart move, the Rebels ignored the Ties and focused on their objectives. Going full speed for the transmitters, they destroyed them easily, although after exposing their flanks to the Ties they did suffer some causalities. 2 Y-wings shot down, but 100% mission goals completed. 

One of the things with scenario play is that you can have overwhelming odds if the objectives are finite enough and it's still winnable. 


Distraction of Samoth 

One thing that concerned the rebels during this rounds planning was the actions of a Victory Star Destroyer in Samoth. It was launching probe droids in the area and appeared to be searching for a hidden rebel base. 

Instead of just letting this happen, the rebels decided that if they attacked the Star Destroyer, it might intensify search efforts on a planet where the rebels have no bases or major support.

The plan was to hit the Victory with 4 correlian corvettes in a drive by attack. Unfortunately, I forgot I only have 3 Corvette models and forgot to ask my players to bring a 4th, so we subbed in a Neb-B from the fleet for the other 2 corvettes. 


This battle was quite interesting, with the rebels harassing the Victory but staying clear of it for the 1st half of the battle. That changed when the Victory surprised the Rebels by quickly turning and accelerating to escape. 

Of course, it wasn't fast enough to escape the engagement zone before taking too much damage, and in a final effort turned back to engage the corvettes with a broadside.

And yet again, a Victory destroyer is rammed to death by Corvettes. 

Mission sucessful, although the Victory did put a fair amount of damage onto the attacking ships in the process. This will certainly get the Empires attention.

Conclusion

Good to be back typing this up, next time, the dramatic assault on the Imperial Asteroid base orbiting Selano, and the amazing climax to the best battle of the campaign to date. 

The Song of Solitude - A Talathen sector rpg report.

The Song of Solitude

This is a hard one to write up as a mission report in the normal format, so I’m just going to write it out as it comes to mind. So please bear with me if this seems more rambly than usual

Part One – Overture

Solitude X is a remote ice world of apparently little or no strategic value, or that’s what we thought at least. The sum total of our knowledge of the planet was that it was cold, strange monks lived there, they had a representative called the “speaker”, and that they produced crystals.

When we discovered that the Empire had taken an interest in the world, we were a little surprised. When we found out the Empire was bending over backward to placate the natives and treating them with courtesy and respect, we were extremely concerned.

Jah, resident diplomat and Ithorian mystic had been dispatched to Solitude X to set up a diplomatic post. It wasn’t initially a high priority to command, but continued reports of Imperial activity escalated that. His initial reports were unsettling as well as confusing. He mentioned that the Imperials were working with “the Speaker”, a Talz who represented the mystics of Solitude and that they were exporting some kind of crystal. For what purpose, he could not say. He also spoke in riddles about “the song, the choir and the discord”, something to do with his mysticism, but nothing that made any sense to anyone reading the report.

Aurek Squad was sent immediately to pose as a diplomatic team and get to the bottom of this mystery. Their objectives were to seize the crystals if possible, get the monks to stop trading if possible, or destroy the crystals if necessary.

Immediately the mission took on a strange tone, as the crew discovered a message on the cockpit dashboard of their ship, cheerfully saying “Welcome to Solitude, See you soon”. This was a secret mission after all, and no one should have known about it.

Part two – The song

Arriving out of hyperspace the crew witnessed a Gladiator class star destroyer leaving orbit at high speed before eventually entering hyperspace. What wasn’t immediately obvious, but what was discovered later, was that this ships registration and ID does not exist, at least not in imperial records that have been recovered.

The squad landed at the diplomatic station, and while flying in noted the arrangement of multiple stations around the monastery as shown in this map.

From there they met their support team, three Bothan’s, one female, two male, who managed the diplomatic station. When asked why they had taken this posting, “they said no one else would do it” and that their boss said that the cold wouldn’t be a probably as they already had fur coats.  Among the crew was Markin, a buck toothed socially awkward Bothan tech specialist. Markin proved to be helpful in setting up surveillance on the Imperials.  

Not long after arriving and surveying the station, and Imperial officer and two snowtroopers arrived under a white flag. He spoke on behalf of “the speaker” and said that no weapons were to be carried in the city, and that the rebellion officials had diplomatic privilege and the Empire would not interfere with their actions and that the speaker would meet them in 4 hours.  After a cordial chat, he left and no one could remember exactly what he looked like and everyone felt slightly nauseous.

Checking the surveillance footage, the team discovered that the camera couldn’t focus on his features either. There was something seriously wrong about him. The team then retired to rest before meeting with the Speaker.

During this rest everyone dreamed of a beautiful choral piece of music with soaring themes and emotive sounds, marred by the odd mistimed note that seemed out of sequence.

Part Three – The Chorus

The team visited the central Monastary and were taking through a series of winding corridors and chambers by a pair of snowtroopers. After a long walk they were led into a massive antechamber, with a table covered in food and drink, five humble seats, a throne, and a dozen snowtroopers standing guard around the perimeter.

He sat with them at the small table, asked them to enjoy some food, ate some and welcomed them to Solitude X.  After the formalities were finished, he rose from the small table, sat on the high throne and discussed business. The Rebels assured him that they were not looking for conflict and that peace was their goal. He spoke strongly about the Empires respect and commitment to Solitude X, but after accepting the rebels at their word of peace, dismissed the Snowtrooper bodyguards.

Then his entire demeanour changed, his eyes glazed over and he started speaking in abstract terms and not full sentences. He spoke of “quiet”, “peace”, “security” and “safety”. He wanted the Rebels assurance that they would not harm anyone on Solitude while they were there. The rebels also tried to convince him that the Empire was malicious and that they were the ones fighting for good.  After getting that reassurance, the Rebels were dismissed and given a protocol droid to take them on a tour of the Monastery.

The tour went on for hours, through many art displays and installations using crystal and light to create complex scenes and feelings, from giant stained glass displays through to crystal arranged to create dramatic lighting effects.  While the art was impressive, after three hours of mind blowing visuals and dull protocol droid narration, the Rebels were a bit over-awed.

From there they went to the primary crystal chamber, deep underground via a turbolift. The chamber was kilometres long, and high, and filled with a massive variety of crystals of different colours and shapes. But what caught everyone attention was that they could now physically hear the song they had dreamed of early. The crystals were vibrating in such a way as to create the music.

The protocol droid informed them that the crystals were in fact a silicon based life form, similar to carbon based plants. The monks of the Monastery tended them as a gardener would, and the crystal art on display throughout the Monastery was made from Crystals that had died. The monks honoured them by turning them into art in death. The Monastery was, in fact a mausoleum for these creatures. They also saw many of the robbed and masked monks, but none of them interacted with them.

Part four – The discord

After the crystal cavern, the Rebels went to the “Hall of Commerce” and observed a large amount of jewelry and art works for sale, at a modest price. There were no sales people, just automated sales machines. Among the pieces, they discovered an unusual ring, it was a clear crystal, but more importantly, it seemed to bend light around it, making the finger within the ring completely transparent.

Seeing the military applications of this crystal, the Rebels purchased it and reported back to rebel command.  Rebel Command issued an order to seize the crystals if possible, or destroy them if necessary.

The Rebels scouted out the neutral platform to their south and located at least one Snowtrooper observing their platform, although he did not appear to have spotted their approach. The cold conditions meant the rebels had to wear sub-zero thermal suits and full survival gear.

Pondering their next move, Markin informed them that a large group of monks were waiting outside the Rebel platform. They spoke in the abstract terms used by the speaker, they now saw the empire as corrupt, and causing discord in the song. They wanted them gone, but as a non-violent species could not act to cause harm. The Rebels said that the clear crystals were the only reason that the empire was on Solitude. Reluctantly, the Monks said they would destroy those crystals if the rebels would remove the Empire from their world.

The monks then summoned a snow storm and led the rebels to the southern crystal caves that housed the cloaking crystals. They said they would do what was necessary and pointed the rebels to the Imperial transport that was ready to leave with a shipment of crystals.

Sneaking past the guards, the Rebels entered the transport only to be captured in a ray shield. The officer they met earlier appeared and informed them they were prisoners and would be taken to his master. He then left for the bridge, leaving four snowtroopers to guard them inside the ray shield.

One by one, the Snowtroopers were distracted and dispatched by an unseen force. Markin appeared, removed his false “buck teeth” and introduced himself as Manny from the Bothan Spynet. He had been on assignment to uncover the threat of the crystals and to establish contact with the Rebellion in this sector. He freed to rebels from the ray shield just as the Imperial Officer turned up.

The all hell broke loose as the officer pulled a lightsabre and proceeded to attack the rebels with alarming speed and ferocity. All the rebels were wounded by either sabre cuts or re-deflected blaster bolts before they finally overwhelmed him with sheer volume of fire. His final words were “my master knows you, he is coming for you”.

Manny seized control of the ship and took it to a rendezvous with another freighter from the spy net. He would hand all the crystals over to the rebellion, if they would bring the Spy-net into the fight and give them a position of authority within the rebel command. The rebels agreed.

Intelligence onboard the ship indicated that the Empire had already received dozens of freighters worth of the crystals, and that the gladiator class destroyer they encountered earlier was not part of the Navy in this sector or any nearby.

Part Five – The reprise

A few days after returning to Axamar, the force sensitive member of the crew had dreams, calling him to return to Solitude X. Upon landing there, they were met by a group of monks, who were saddened by what they had to do to the clear crystals, but gladdened that the “discord” was now gone. Using their abstract language, they conveyed that the crystals are in tune with the force, and that the presence of the unnamed Imperial officer was creating discord, presumably because he was a dark side adept.

They gifted each of the rebels a small potted crystal, one that would be attuned to them and respond to their personality and behaviour. For example, the scientist/doctors crystal has a tendency to reshape itself, so when analysed each time it is different, as that is triggered off his scientific curiosity. They also communicate to them and sing to them while they sleep.

Conclusion

A weird little story that one, but a nice change of pace. That’s the second “force” story in the campaign, but I wanted to explore the force through “non jedi/sith” eyes and introduce some pretty alien concepts, as well as the “paradigm shifting” technology that the players requested at the beginning of the campaign. A good story, but a pain to write up.