[Star Wars] A Tad Uncomfortable...

[TheCountAlucard]

It was tons of fun; I did very little that session, but I enjoyed the hell out of that race.

Oh, and Tykoga now has his first level in Crime Lord. I'm supposed to get my minion next session. Tykoga also asked Mell to create a protocol droid for him, basing its looks and personality after his deceased little sister.

[Triaxx]

Yeah, that's not at all creepy. (Creepy rating: 7)

[TheCountAlucard]

Sorry about not posting in so long! It seems the GM wants to split the group up, as 8 players is a tad much for him. So now we're two groups of four, half of which will be playing on Tuesday nights, and the other half of which will be playing on Thursday nights.

Snake Doc, Sa'jet, V, and Lon will be having their adventures on Tuesday nights.

Tykoga, Massen, Mezgraf, and the Wookiee will be having their adventures on Thursday nights.

[TheCountAlucard]

Turns out that we're also going back just a little, to before the whole "holocron that holds back the extragalactic critters is severed from the Force" thing. In fact, that part's just not gonna happen, as the GM had only devised it as a way to challenge our massive party. With our group split up into something more managable, he has other things planned.

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My Clawdite minion arrives, taking on the form of a very tall, Nordic-looking human. Since I haven't let on to the others that he's a Clawdite, Tykoga is calling his disguise "Browson." The Clawdite's actual name means something along the lines of "Gift" in one of the more obscure languages; I thought that was vaguely interesting.

Likewise, Mell finishes work on "Kari," my protocol droid. Mell asks us to go to Dantooine, to find the Jedi Enclave; he wants more data about the holocron, and figured that it would be a good place to look. He's also sending along Baris Offee and Aayla Secura.

Oh, and since the Wookiee's player had an unexpected schedule change, we ended up not bringing him along, instead bringing along Karen, that woman from our black market adventure. Also, Mezgraf, our resident Togorian, decides to bring along his mount, a large flying reptilian creature he calls "Jasmine."

Anyway, we arrive on Dantooine, and decide to explore some sort of ruined structure, with lots of fallen marble-esque pillars. Mezgraf notices that the floor is composed of blocks of the same material as the pillars, and is supported by a metal framework. He decides to pry one of the blocks loose, and with help from Massen, discovers that underneath is a crawl space big enough for Massen to explore.

Massen does so, noting that he feels a breeze while he is down there. He crawls about for a bit, and discovers a half-buried droid blocking the path. He hauls it out for us to look at, and returns to investigating the crawlspace. Tykoga and Karen figure out that the droid is easily six hundred years old.

Tykoga begins working on the droid when it suddenly switches on, a red light beginning to blink on its chest. "All subjects found," the droid says. Tykoga continues to fiddle with it, getting better access to the droid's systems, and begins downloading information from the droid.

Meanwhile, Massen discovers that the tunnel ends at the nearby river. He also notes that the breeze from before has stopped. He brings his glowrod a little closer to get a better look... and notices that something (a friend later suggested it might've been a Hssiss) is in the water, looking at him. It is so massive that it can only get its head through.

Massen mentions this to us over the comlink, and Mezgraf responds, barreling toward the river. He leaps into the water, landing on the beast's back. It pulls its head out of the tunnel to try and deal with Mezgraf, while he rakes at it with his claws.

Well, with the beast distracted, Massen decides to use the Force to telekinetically hurl the gargantuan creature out of the water, first stretching out his feelings to find it, and then tossing this multi-ton creature straight out of the water and crashing it into a tree.

Mezgraf whistles for Jasmine to attack, and she flies down and begins scratching and biting at the creature, while Mezgraf likewise rakes at it. However, a hit from the monster devastates Jasmine, so Mezgraf tells her to retreat while he finishes it off. He then proceeds to brutalize the creature, tearing it several new hypothetical orifices with his claws until it lies dead on the ground.

Of course, Tykoga had managed to ignore all of this, working nonchalantly on the droid as though nothing was happening. While Mezgraf calls in the medic from our Corellian Corvette to patch up Jasmine, Tykoga unintentionally causes the droid to begin self-testing to see if it is operational, which includes firing off its powerful lasers in random directions. Luckily, no one was hurt by it, but the droid's display was rather impressive, so Tykoga orders it to take itself to the Corvette, hole up in one of the cargo holds, and shut itself off. It suddenly begins blinking green instead of red, and says, "TRANSMITTING ORDERS." Several more of them (eight, to be specific) stand up from out of nowhere, and begin shuffling off in the direction of our ship.

Mezgraf begins skinning the dead creature, while Karen and Aayla explore one of the other sites. They find an entrance to the Jedi Enclave and call us over. We arrive and enter as a group, taking note of a grimy, dusty fountain and fallen lighting panels.

When Mezgraf opens the door on the far side of the room, he is attacked by a creature that the GM describes as, "Kinda like it has the body of a lion, but it's got less of a mane and has the head of a dog." Tykoga is the first to act, and puts a couple of blaster bolts into the creature, after which Aayla Secura and Mezgraf put rancors to shame in the game of quick dispatching.

Mezgraf takes its ear as a prize and we explore a little further, finding a ruined training area. While Tykoga attempts to slice a nearby console, Mezgraf wanders ahead into the kitchen, where he discovers "what looks to be a rat, only bigger than a Jawa," and that's where the session ended.

[WeeFreeMen]

Subdue him, and sell him into slavery. Its what you do, right? Besides, what better way for a slaver to take care of his problems.

Yeah but by doing that he sets himself up for cliche number 1.

The slave/orphan will come back to exact revenge and kill him ;)

[TheCountAlucard]

Yeah but by doing that he sets himself up for cliche number 1.

The slave/orphan will come back to exact revenge and kill him ;)

Luckily, I don't think it's a problem for me anymore; we're not in the same game anymore.

[TheCountAlucard]

Well, I guess it's time to talk about the session again, so that the few of you who pay attention to this sort of thing can get your fill of my adventures in the Star Wars universe...

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So, last session ended with Mezgraf finding a giant rat in the ancient Jedi Enclave on Dantooine. In our group was Tykoga (me), Massen, Karen, Mezgraf, "Browson," Aayla Secura, Bariss Offee, and Kari. However, since Mezgraf's player was ill and Karen's player was running late, we retroactively sent Mezgraf and Karen off to the Corvette to ensure that everything went down okay with the droids Tykoga had sliced, while Massen easily dealt with the rat. We proceeded deeper to find another dog-lion, and since Mezgraf wasn't there, Tykoga made a joke about taking a trophy from it, taking one of the ears. The party heads down a hallway to discover a lightsaber workshop, and signs that it had been used recently. Massen even discovers a half-built saber with a crystal. Massen pocketed the crystal, while Tykoga set up a hidden camera to watch for whoever had been using the area, in case he or she decided to return.

We make our way further along to find a large amphitheater/garden/meditation chamber, where six pickup truck-sized lizards are sunbathing under the light shining through a hole in the ceiling. Massen attempts to sneak through, only to get spotted by a pair of them. He makes the mistake of running for it, since it turned out that these critters had "Jurassic Park T-Rex vision" (i.e., it can't see you if you don't move), and he is attacked several times in the process. Tykoga cracks off a shot against one of the ones attacking Massen from inside the hallway, prompting two of the other lizards to attack us (the remaining four going after Massen).

Now, the GM admitted that he was using the stats for the Rancor, since he didn't have Threats of the Galaxy on him. Massen barely gets out of their way long enough to Force Thrust the critters, surprisingly knocking them down and preventing them from brutalizing him that round.

Meanwhile, Bariss Offee and Aayla Secura are simply standing at the door while Tykoga fires off a couple of shots at the reptiles heading in their direction. Why they didn't move to assist their fellow Jedi, or at least move into a better position, escapes me.

Now, lemme interrupt my little narrative to tell you guys something... to be honest, I haven't liked Karen's player for a long time. The guy swears like he got them on sale somewhere, and does it loudly enough to make truck horns jealous. He's one of the worst kinds of rules-lawyers, where he is willing to look up any rule that will give him an advantage, only to conveniently forget about those that are problematic (or at least try and word them in a way as to totally twist the intents). Not to mention the fact that he's spent a good portion of the session on his laptop, looking at humorous pictures on the Internet...

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Karen's player starts loudly berating us for our choice of actions. He then starts making Massen's player's decisions for him, telling Massen's player and the GM exactly what Massen was going to do... which was essentially using his Surge and retreating. Bariss and Aayla close the door after him. Tykoga begins thinking of a way of getting past them, and notes that the hole in the ceiling had been high enough off of the ground to make it impossible for the reptiles to reach them, and that the ceiling had more than its share of vines. Likewise, Massen (back under the control of his player) suggested taking some sort of platform, such as a table, and using the Force to levitate it over the creatures. Either way, we'd need to go back to the Corvette, so we did so.

When we get back, Karen loudly berates us for our choice of actions, and says that Tykoga was probably too busy "looking at his nails" to contribute. Karen essentially proposes that we use a ton of thermal detonators and the hole in the ceiling to solve our lizard problem, and does so, leaving the garden a giant crater.

With the reptiles out of the way, we proceed deeper, until we walk into the Enclave's library, likely our sought-out destination. Standing at the far end is a Jedi... and someone familiar.

That's right! Remember the Dark Jedi that we encountered on Sullust? She's baaaack. Of course, because of the way we're positioned, she only sees Massen (to whom she bears a personal grudge), and thinking it's an easy sight, she surges and jumps all the way there. Things start going badly for her during the fight, so the Dark Jedi begins throwing around Destiny Points, making her two Force Lightnings (one normal, one quickened) crit. Massen surprisingly rolls highly enough to Rebuke the first one (although it would've been impossible for him to send it back at her), and then spends a Destiny Point to dodge the second blast at the last second. The Dark Jedi then blows her last three Destiny Points to act out of turn to attack Massen again, and then crit both times. Massen manages to block the first one, but has to take the second one. However, the Dark Jedi is looking a lot worse off than we are, and is now out of Destiny Points.

Once again I feel I must break narrative.

I'm never letting Karen's player into any of the games I'm GMing. I made that mistake once with the last half of one of my games last year, and I still regret it.

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I declare to the GM that Tykoga will attempt to get her to back down with a Persuasion check. IMMEDIATELY Karen's player calls foul, declaring that there's no way in the rules I could do such a thing. When I point-by-point prove him wrong, he counters with, "But it's (censored) STAR WARS. It's not about (censored) TALKING. You (censored) SHOOT things or slice its (censored) off with a (censored) lightsaber. If you built a (censored) character for (censored) TALKING to people, YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG."

That REALLY ticked me off. EVEN if he was right about the power of persuasion having no place in the Star Wars universe (which he wasn't, IMO ), he was entirely in the wrong for saying that to me.

Keeping my temper, I countered with, "So, Luke saying that he still believed there was good in Vader had no impact on Vader's later actions in Return of the Jedi?" Karen's player continues to swear and complain about how you shouldn't be able to use social skill checks in combat (although if you really shouldn't be able to, then why does the book bother telling you what kind of action the check is?).

Luckily, the GM agreed with me, and when Tykoga levelled his blaster pistol at the Dark Jedi and told her to get steppin' (and his Persuasion check beat her Will Defense by a whopping 20 points), she beat a hasty retreat.

So, with Karen's player still grumbling, we talk to the Jedi, who tells us about how he survived Order 66, and chose to hide in the Enclave in order to protect the information in the archives, where we now stand. Of course, given how we saved his life, he's more than willing to give us the information we desire. We contact Mell, and basically transfer the entirety of the archives to him.

All in all, a fun session, although Karen's player's actions left a very sour taste in my mouth.

[archmage45]

That sounds... unpleasant. At least your DM seems to have a good grasp of things!

[TheCountAlucard]

Exactly. He's a good GM, and he at least attempts to listen to both sides of an argument before making a decision (although it can be hard when the other person is making his "argument" loudly enough to rupture something inside your head).

And, y'know, thinking about it, I just can't find myself agreeing with Karen's player... social skills are very much a part of Star Wars, even in combat, and can be used to devastating effect (those of you who have read Jabba the Hutt: the Art of the Deal would probably agree with me).

[TheCountAlucard]

So the session got a little weird today.

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So, the Jedi found a faraway cave that they believed they'd find lightsaber crystals in. We plumbed deep into the cave, and found a little hill full of massive crystals. We start harvesting crystals, only for the hill to suddenly stand up beneath us. We're basically standing on a giant Tarrasque with crystal spikes coming from its shell, and crystals embedded in the mound of dirt on its back, and crystals lodged in between its plates, et cetera. Turns out, though, that it regards us as little more than flies, getting up and walking around. So, we're basically tickbirds on a rhino, picking crystals off its hide as it wanders around aimlessly.

We decide to head back to the Corellian Corvette, and notice something. All the life signs from a mine shaft seem to have disappeared. We decide, why not, we investigate. It's full of mining equipment and bulldozers and cranes, all up and running, but not a single living thing in the mine.

Humorously enough, we find one Gonk droid shambling about aimlessly. We keep going deeper, until we find a 90%-buried Dreadnaught-class ship. Tykoga decides to sit outside, while the others shuffle inside and try and get to the bridge. Strangely enough, however, no matter how many routes the party tries, they keep ending up in Engineering, even when going in exactly the opposite direction.

Eventually Tykoga suggests that their senses might be fooling them. He recommends via scouter that Mezgraf close his eyes, get on all fours, hug the wall, and walk around until he gets to the bridge. Aayla Secura rides on his back, and Massen walks behind, holding Mezgraf's tail. Bariss Offee decides to explore Engineering, and Tykoga waits outside the ship.

...Did I mention that a wall of rock bisects Engineering in twain? Yeah. When the party gets to the bridge, it is likewise only half-available. Massen digs in with his lightsaber, and continues until he reaches the outer hull. It's as though it had somehow phased inside.

Well, while Karen finds out that the ship was one of the original Katana fleet, but was diverted to some other project (can't remember the name, sounded rather like "Kaleidoscope").

Anyway, summing stuff up, turns out that Bariss Offee somehow got hypnotized by the hyperdrive, and that's where the miners ended up. After a bit, we shut down the hyperdrive, but everyone's still standing there and staring like zombies, so we have our various droids come and haul them off of the ship.

That's when our session stopped for the night, since my ride home had to go.

[Drakefall]

Your group has the most awesome sessions, you know that? Makes me want to try getting my group to try SAGA edition after our current campaign... if I can actually find it and someone to DM it this silly country.

Question: What race and class is Mezgraf? I'm sure you mentioned it before but I'm far to lazy to go digging through old posts.

[Triaxx]

Sounds like it's time for a stealth kill. Cool sessions. Maybe I can talk my group into Star Wars next.

[TheCountAlucard]

Question: What race and class is Mezgraf? I'm sure you mentioned it before but I'm far to lazy to go digging through old posts.

Mezgraf is a Togorian Soldier/Jedi. He's a few levels behind the party, because the GM houseruled that new players start a level behind, and that in a couple of sessions where he wasn't there, we gained enough experience to level.

Also, now Karen's player is complaining about how my "Impel Ally I" doesn't list a range in its description. While I reluctantly agree that being able to spend a swift action to get an ally who's halfway across the Galaxy from you with no means of communication to move his speed sounds a little crazy, I do wish he'd shut up about it.

[TheCountAlucard]

Don't worry, friends! Alucard is still alive!

He just hasn't gotten to play Star Wars.

It started last week with the GM being unprepared, so Mezgraf's player offered to run D&D (3.5ed) that night. He only allowed PHB + DMG (for prestige classes, he had meant, but our Star Wars GM managed to finangle him into letting him play a werewolf paladin), and declared that it was an extremely low-magic world; he told us that there were an estimated 50 arcane casters on the planet. Humorously enough, each of the seventh-level characters we created was at least a partial caster of some kind: elven wizard (me), human sorceror (Massen's player), gnome assassin (V's player), werewolf paladin (SW GM), human druid (Sa'jet's player), a human cleric of Pelor (Karen's player), and a human ranger (new player).

Perhaps it's the sudden break from our Star Wars game, perhaps it's Mezgraf's player's DMing style, perhaps it's that I'm in another game with Karen's player... but I haven't really enjoyed the game so far. Most of my time playing has been me sitting around while the DM spends half the session focusing on one or two characters, or me getting creative with Prestidigitation (i.e., "I make the cleric smell and taste like warm bacon" while out of combat), or me getting complained at by Karen's player for my having decided to play a Diviner banning Enchantment.

Decided to make the last ten minutes of this last session fun, though.

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See, my wizard, the sorcerer, and the druid (both of the latter were temporarily in "he's over there" NPC limbo, due to the players not being there) were staying with the wagon, while the ranger tried to lead some mooks away from the adventuring site, and the cleric and assassin snuck into their campsite (thank you, silence!) to spike their water with knockout poison. Unfortunately, one of the guards happened to roll fairly high on his Spot check, noticed them sneaking around, and soon a fight (or hilarity) ensued.

Of course, since I was "over there, with the wagon," the DM was pretty much ignoring me. The fight was going pretty well for the cleric, thanks to divine power and fire shield and the like, but the assassin really couldn't do much with five warriors in melee with him. After the assassin got knocked into single-digit HP, I decided, "Y'know what? I'm gonna do something." Wrote up a note card, passed it to the DM with my battle plan: buff myself up a bit so that my AC is actually decent, fly, mirror image, make my way over there, and rain down death.

Yeah, I went nova. Evard's black tentacles, lightning bolt, grease hilarity on the archers, and a scorching ray or two. Would've polymorphed the assassin into a troll for the fun of it, but what I had already cast seemed to be sufficient; the remaining mooks either dropped into fetal positions or ran.