Note: Session 2 was abbreviated and ended in a big cliffhanger, so the two sessions are reported to gether.
The Foes
Astanya Xakkar the Dark
Astanya Xakkar is Keleni Tyrant who is allegedly was originally a priest of Annara during the rule of Ozamanthim. His community was heavily oppressed and worked and abused to death - he was the only survivor. He attempted to get revenge, but he was captured and tortured. He eventually escaped and turned to Dark Communion and became a Tyrant, but Ozamanthim died before Xakkar was able to obtain his revenge. He has spent his time plotting and perfecting his mastery of his psionic powers and Dark Communion until the present day.
This story may or may not be true. He might be immortal, but he might have body swapped through the ages or might simply be insane (possibly with help from ancestral memory). In any case, he is powerful enough to override the Mithna Edict by becoming the new master (and applying the Path of the Devoted Slave) of individuals and taking slaves from lesser Tyrants.
He has captured the “Princesss” and has used her to activate a throne ship that he found in the Morass and take the ship “close enough” to Styx to become the heir of Ozamanthim (since it is a throne ship). He also plans to use her to activate other lost Alexian artifacts that will help him in his grand plot to overthrow Valorian and become the true galactic emperor.
Delia Khalli
I created Delia Khalli because Rosa executed “her brother” in the first session. Since Rosa’s action was sufficiently ignoble, I decided that she deserved an enemy.
Delia was sick of being ruled by the Mithna Edict. Astanya Xakkar promised freedom by becoming his slave (in addition to being able to issue orders to Mithanna). She took the princess to the throne ship while her brother (who doesn’t have a name because I didn’t plan for them to become important) finished taking care of business at the hideout on Sarai. Rosa executed Delia’s brother, so Delia desired revenge. Delia finally gained Dark Communion and the Path of the Devoted Slave by the time the heroes arrived.
Journey to the Throne Ship
The heroes contacted their employers (specifically the group affiliated with Jace Elegans). Raja knew that his previous fast talking would not survive scrutiny, so he decided to leave the room while the Rosa made the call. Rosa was played dumb when she was told that their pilot was not the correct pilot. In a real campaign, I would have pressed this more, but it was a one shot, so I let it slide. If they survive, there may be an arrest (especially if they don’t return with the princess).
Raja is Con Artist and not a dedicated pilot like a Smuggler, but he was an effective navigator. The 15 IQ helped. He rolled really well, and the heroes found the star chart, so he didn’t have any trouble navigating to the destination.
Thalline Filaments and Tractor Beams
The heroes exited hyperspace in an area with dense thalline filaments. Despite being a mediocre pilot, Raja avoided the filaments with a great roll. They traveled for a few hours before locating the target. Raja attempted approaching stealthily, but he had no real EW skills, so the heroes were located quite quickly. They tried to avoid the tractor beam, but they were captured fairly quickly.
The heroes decided to hide in the smuggling areas of the ship and pretend that their ship was uninhabited and was simply drifting. Three Tyrant’s troopers checked the ship but found no lifeforms. Rosa used Deep Scan (at default and in a twisted psionic area) to spy on the troopers. Milmeowna summoned a ghost who shot the troopers with their own blasters.
Milmeowna learned that the ghost was a member of the crew when the ship was disabled. The heroes tried to get more assistance and information from the ghost, but they quickly learned that the ghost was stuck in a loop. After a long debate, the heroes decided to use don the trooper armor and have Rosa as a “captive.”
Locating the Princess/Disabling the Tractor Beams
Raja’s great acting and telepathy got the heroes the location of the princess. He learned that the princess was allowed to roam mostly free but was wearing a locator beacon. Nathram volunteered to sneak off alone and “disable the tractor beams.”
Milmeowna and Raja took Rosa to the the princess with Raja doing all of the talking. It took a while, but they arrived with Rosa and the princess noticing each other rather easily (they are both blind and Awareness is an active sense). Milmeowna’s character misunderstood my description of Awareness and though the effect was the same as the locator beacon. They heroes explain the situation to the princess, and she reveals herself as Wren Alexus, heir to the Alexian Empire. She never revealed herself before because she had a weak claim, but now was the time to make it public.
Shortly after removing the beacon, Delia appeared and yelled at Rosa: “YOU KILLED MY BROTHER!” and hurled her force sword. Rosa avoided the attack. Milmeowna attempted to reason with Delia and offered to help her escape. Given the circumstances and her culture, Delia wouldn’t relent.
Encounter with Xakkar the Dark
Nathram ditched his disguise and made his way to the throne room. Assassinating his master’s enemy was a higher priority than disabling the tractor beams. That could come later. He arrived to find Xakkar the Dark sitting on the throne. Xakkar commended Nathram for making it to the throne room. He showed that he knew that Nathram was sent by his master and was being overzealous. He continued by reminding Nathram that he has never actually seen his master and offered to be Nathram’s new master and teach him the ways of Dark Communion.
Nathram initially refused the offer, but Xakkar’s Aspect and Dark Majesty had a strong effect on him. Xakkar sent his guard to deal with the intruder.
Nathram tried shooting the guard, but his first shot missed, and his second shot malfunctioned. After his gun stopped working, he tried throwing it, but the guard parried that without trouble. The guard approached slowly with a defensive grip. He kept Nathram at a distance for most of the fight and struck him with pain glaive and afflicted Nathram with a minor wound, terrible pain and max fatigue damage. Nathram used an IP to return to the fight. The guard attempted Reminder of Place, but Nathram critically succeeded his dodge causing the guard to lose his balance. Nathram defeated the guard with a all-out (double) dual-weapon attack. Two attacks hit, but the third missed (with a 17).
After Nathram defeated the guard, Xakkar told him to kill him. Nathram did it, and Xakkar offered Nathram to take the guard’s place. This time, Nathram considered the offer. He asked what the Xakkar would do to the princess. Xakkar said that he wouldn’t harm her and only needed her to activate certain “mystical artifacts.” Nathram also asked to be allowed to not harm his companion. Xakkar agreed, and Nathram to make Xakkar his new master. Xakkar performed a ritual to break Nathram’s oath to his former master while Nathram made the oath to his new master. Xakkar ordered Nathram to bring him the princess unharmed.
Escape Attempt
While Nathram was “disabling the tractor beams,” the other heroes tried to escape.
Arrival of the Tarvathim
While Milmeowna attempted to convince Delia to leave her master, Delia called the troopers to her location. Milmeowna’s attempts failed. The heroes heard marching and smelled the stench of dead flesh, and one player remarked “When did space zombies become a thing?” The players suspicions were largely correct. A half dozen Gaunt troopers appeared.
The Gaunt troopers who arrived were not terribly heavily armored (otherwise Milmeowna’s pistols would be entirely useless), but they were still incredibly tough. Delia started chanting, and Milmeowna and Wren ran (Raja’s player didn’t make it for session 3). The Gaunt troopers laid cover fire to let Delia finish her prayer (none of the characters knew anything about Communion).
Rosa vs Delia
Since Delia was insistent on killing Rosa, Rosa ran to start the attack. Delia switched to a defensive stance, and Rosa made her attack. Delia parried with TK-Grab. She released her hold and attacked with her force sword (also with TK-Grab). Rosa’s Combat Sense allowed her to defend against the attack from behind. They fought for a while, and Rosa was forced to spend an IP. Rosa finally got a lucky critical hit and finished the duel.
The Chase
The chase started with Milmeowna trying to defeat the Gaunt troopers. She defeated most of them with plasma grenades and fully unloaded, dual wielded pistols, but many more troopers appeared. Trying to fight them all would be pointless.
Milmeowna was far more dexterous than the Gaunt, but Wren (a Mystic) made the chase difficult for the heroes. Milmeowna’s Serendipity helped a lot. It caused old ventilation to fall and a missed shot to close the blast doors blocking the pursuer’s paths. Communion defended Wren with Armor of Communion, and Broken Communion defended Milmeowna with Shroud of Broken Communion.
They Betrayal
Nathram asked some troopers where the others were, and they gave him directions. When he arrived, he saw Milmeowna and Wren (and Raja in the background). He tried to convince them that Xakkar was actually a good guy and was only trying to overthrow the Empire. The truth was the Xakkar believed what he was doing was moral (Megalomania and Tyrannic morality), and he was trying to overthrow the Valorian Empire (and create his own utopia). Milmeowna was confused but got a sense that Nathram was under some sort of psionic influence (critical success on perception).
After Rosa finished her fight, she arrived and was able to confirm signs of some sort of psionic interference. Wren tried commanding Nathram with her psionic abilities, but Nathram got a critical success on his resistance. I let the player choose if it applied to breaking free from Xakkar’s influence (although he was still bound by an oath) or resisting Wren. He chose resisting the princess.
Troopers were on their way, and there was no time to lose, so Milmeowna tried to wrestle Nathram (which would have been difficult if she ever hit since Nathram was quite strong and Ranathim). Nathram tried grabbing Milmeowna and draining her energy (to subdue her with minimal injury). Their defenses were both too high, and nothing really happened.
This is where things began going comically wrong.
Rosa tripped and fell while trying to escape. Combined with the fact that the princess was a Mystic, this meant that capture would be inevitable.
Milmeowna tried running, but Nathram was faster and would catch her easily. She tried to drop a tangle grenade to catch both of them, but Nathram dodged, and she only caught herself. She tried a stun grenade which almost worked and with blaster set to stun, but she wasn’t able to hit in time.
The heroes were surrounded by troopers and captured (except for Nathram of course).
The Retrospective
What Went Well
Raja’s player was engaged with all of his con artistry.
Despite being an action heavy segment, there were opportunities for dialog and problem solving.
I gave some of the lore information before the third session started while waiting for the last player to arrive.
Despite the comical failures at the end, it was fun. Everyone laughed.
Nathram got to make some interesting and important choices. He did a great job at roleplaying his character and had fun.
What Went Poorly
We never really started on time (which is normal), and session two had to be abbreviated. That led to a little rushing.
Milmeowna’s player isn’t proficient at dialog, and she got stuck in a position where she was forced to do the talking. I like giving players the opportunity to exercise their skills, but I don’t like to make them too uncomfortable.
Session three was supposed to be the end, but crazy circumstances necessitate another one to reach a conclusion.
The reporting to base scene was unsatisfactory. It hoped Raja would have made an excuse for not reporting or something.
Ideas and Improvements for Next Sessions
The galaxy (or at least Humanity) might be doomed. I did not plan for this, and I need some time to think.
Other Thoughts
The Pain Glaive was quite effective against the Force Sword/Force Blade combination. It would have been easy for agony to end the fight against Nathram. In a fight to the death, it is basically the same as dying (it is the same for unconsciousness, so it makes sense).
I think throwing a force sword is probably a common enough trick to be worth some detail on the wiki. In Delia’s case, it was more of a trap anyway, so getting the specifics correct didn’t really matter.
I expected that Nathram might betray his master, but I didn’t anticipate that he would turn into a “he’s actually a good guy” fanatic. I also didn’t expect the rest of the party to be captured so easily (or comically).
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