Ep 1, Chapter 1: The Pirates of Zebulon Prime

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NukeHavoc
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Ep 1, Chapter 1: The Pirates of Zebulon Prime

Post by NukeHavoc »

We started off with a training combat in the training yards of the Citadel of Kal-Jor, which is home to the Unified Force Academy.

The battle pitted the JPD-14 combat training droid (Nate's character) against three padawans.

In the combat, Damon's character -- Quest Fios -- proved himself a capable warrior, far more so than his fellow padawans. This trend continued as he demonstrated his superior skill set time and again, first by knowing how to pilot the landspeeder to Jolus (the capital city of Zebulon Beta) and then again by being able to understand Binary when spoken by JPD-14.

The others eventually hit their stride later in the night, but man, Quest was on fire. There were one or two half-serious jokes about Quest secretly being a Jedi Knight, passing himself off as a padawan to better evaluate their skills. :)

The party -- consisting of three Jedi and their JPD-14 trainer -- were charged with Jedi Knight Lornn Varri (head teacher for the academy's field instruction exercises) with their first offworld assignment: investigate the crash of the transport Surly Susanna on Zebulon Prime (the sister planet to Zebulon Beta, where the academy is located).

The academy arranged travel aboard the Dynamic-class freighter Ruby Raptor, which was crewed by Captain Korinth Cloudskimmer, a pilot and scout for Starrior Exploration Corp., and his Trandoshan first mate, Tursserk.

On the way to the Prime, the Ruby Raptor[ found itself under attack by another vessel, a Ghtrock 720-class freighter, apparently modified to incorporate a docking clamp and electronics jammers.

Rade Casa (Lance's diplomatic Jedi) attempted to talk the other ship into standing down, but when he identified them as Jedi, the other ship promised to blow them out of the sky and broke off communications.

A short starship battle ensued, with JPD-14 and Rann (Bob's Miraluka Jedi) jumping on the Ruby Raptor's laser turrets. Rann got of an exceptional shot, all but crippling the enemy ship and forcing it to withdraw from the battle.

The Ruby Raptor proceeded to the planet, following the last known coordinates location of the crashed ship's tracking beacon. They arrived to find the ship had plowed into the planet, carving out a small crater that had partially re-filled with swampy water. After hacking into the ship's computer, JPD-14 determined that from the ship's log that at least some of the crew had likely survived the crash. He also determined that the ship's gun turret was still active, and that the ship had been carrying hardware and supplies for base camps on the Prime.

The Jedi were able to find no trace of the cargo, but Rann's uncanny connection to the Force allowed him to perceive a swath of dead algae in the swamp water. He posited that some sort of heavy machinery -- a repulser sled transport perhaps -- had been here and leaking oil, which killed the algae.

He was proven right a shorttime later when he heard the sound of an approaching sled, apparently powered by some sort of jet turbines. This vessel arrived to find JPD-14 on the turret, Rann weighting in the water, and the other Jedi poised to act.

The thugs onboard the sled attempted to convince the Jedi (quite badly actually) that they were the rightful owners of the ship, and outraged that the padawans were trespassing. The Jedi, of course, saw through this. Rade Casa was able to Force compel and otherwise persuade the leader of the thugs to admit why he was really there: they were part of a band of pirates that had forced the ship down from orbit, looted its hull, captured its surviving crew of two, and then returned a second time to strip the rest of the ship's gear.

Rade convinced the thug to surrender, and he agreed, dropping his blaster and vibro-ax. He ordered his men to do the same; one obeyed but the two on the sled reached for their weapons instead. JPD-14, who had been waiting for them to take such an action, fired on the sled's jet engines. He scored a critical hit, causing both engines to explode. The sled -- and its two-men crew -- were destroyed.

After Rade persuaded the leader of the thugs that cooperating was in his best interests, the thug explained that the pirates were operating out of an ancient Zebulian stone shrine attached to a cavern complex. The front entrance was protected by a turbolaser (capable of badly damaging approaching ships) but that the rear entrance -- concealed by a large waterfall -- led to a cavern that held the ship.

The Jedi infiltrated the complex through the waterfall, disabled the ship (which was in the process of being repaired from the devastating fight in orbit) and wiped out the battledroids they encountered inside. JPD-14 was able to convince the computer system to overload the turbolaser's systems, causing it to explode (and drawing the attention of the bulk of the complex's pirate defenders; the leader of the pirates however, was apparently out on a hunting expedition, and was not there to rally his troops).

The heroes found a protocol droid that had had a astronavigation module crudely patched into its main processor; this caused the machine to act oddly, and complain greatly about the abuse heaped upon it. They were able to remove the module, convince the droid to join them, rescue the captain and first mate of the downed freighter Surly Susanna, and then flee the complex before the pirates turned their attention to the hanger bay.

Escaping on the Ruby Raptor, they hacked the astronavigation module and learned that the pirates had been fed ship travel itineraries -- including theirs -- by someone using the account of Torg Shepherdson, assistant portmaster at the Jolus starport. When confronted with this, Torg admitted to selling the data, and then blocking the distress calls from the ships he'd given to the pirates. He had given them the Jedi's transport information because he'd hoped the pirates would have destroyed them, ending the investigation, but alas, that didn't work. Now he's fearful of both the government AND the pirates, whom he effectively double-crossed by feeding said pirates false shipping information.

XP will be posted tonight.
Last edited by NukeHavoc on Wed Nov 12, 2008 10:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"Oh, I'm so sorry. Forgive me. I'll try and be a tad more quiet as I desperately struggle to break free -- and save all creation!" -- Doctor Strange
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NukeHavoc
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Post by NukeHavoc »

XP per character: 275

Looking over my adventure notes, you guys made it through four encounters, which is pretty impressive for us no matter what the system. :)
"Oh, I'm so sorry. Forgive me. I'll try and be a tad more quiet as I desperately struggle to break free -- and save all creation!" -- Doctor Strange
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NukeHavoc
Posts: 12106
Joined: Wed Jun 29, 2005 1:07 pm
Location: Easton, PA
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Post by NukeHavoc »

"Oh, I'm so sorry. Forgive me. I'll try and be a tad more quiet as I desperately struggle to break free -- and save all creation!" -- Doctor Strange
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