Star Wars D6: Green Vipers Episode VI

Episode VI - To Free The Forgotten

Introduction:

The Long Shot campaign continues with the short one-shot mission "To Free The Forgotten" which features in the 1st Edition Rules Companion. Please note that I do not own the images contained in this adventure, they were all sourced from Google images. This is a not for profit, advert free blog. Special thanks as always to members of the Rancor Pit for their continued support and suggestions in running this campaign! 

A YT-1300 over Captivity

Spiritual Guidance: 

Music Cue: The Magic Tree (first half, minus the Vader section)

While the team have some downtime on Nowhere, Corr finds himself a quiet room on the labyrinthine ship to meditate. Clearing his thoughts, he reaches out with the force, searching for someone else who will hear his call. To his delight, he hears a response form in his mind.

I hear you. Meet me on the Martinette.

He heads down to the hangar bay where the Martinette, a heavily modified YT-1300 stock freighter that the Vipers seized from pirates on their mission to Masterhome lies. As he makes his way up the landing ramp, he feels the force draw it closed behind him. Inside, he finds General Reekeene's advisor, Santhou. Corr returns Santhou's welcoming bow. 

Santhou: You wanted to see me?

Santhou Lazith'chika 

Corr: Santhou! Thanks fur hearin' me when ah called out! As a child ah wis a member of the Jedi order, taught by Maser Yoda himsel'. Ah wis lucky no' tae have been in the Jedi Temple when Vader attacked. Ah've been in hiding fur many long years, but on mah recent mission ah wis able tae call upon the force tae aid in oor escape from the Empire. Ah want tae resume mah training tae learn more of the ways of the force. Can ye help me?

Santhou: A powerful Jedi was master Yoda. I met him on my travels some two hundred years ago - but I do not possess the same knowledge and understanding of the force that he did. Unfortunately, I am not equipped to train you. I am capable of little more than a few cheap parlour tricks, such as when I closed the entrance ramp to this ship as you entered. The fire of the Jedi has went out of this universe, extinguished by the Emperor's purge. I fear we may never see their like again. I do not believe there is anyone left to train you. However, you may be able to learn more of the force should you find ancient artefacts, or perhaps a vergence in the force. 

Corr: A vergence in the force? Dae ye know where ah can find one?

Corr Alden

Santhou: I encountered one a century ago, in the Cathedral of Mab Ashoto on Fest.

Corr: Fest..is that in the Atrivis Sector?

Santhou: The very same. But some five years ago, I had a vision of that same place. The vergence

was disturbed by two Jedi: a young woman and an old man. By unlocking the tomb which held it, they set the power free, although it rewarded them by granting some of its power. I fear a journey to Fest would be a waste of your time. Instead, you must look elsewhere for such a phenomenon. Should you be in close proximity to one, you will hear it call to you as you did to me. I advise caution, however. Only the most serious mind can unlock the mysteries of the force and I sense much impatience in you, Alden. The Emperor requires no more soldiers. I would not wish to see you become an enemy. 

Corr: Ah huv nae interest in becomin' another pawn of the Emperor. Ah will meditate and seek tae calm mah mind.

Santhou: In that, at least, I can assist you. You may join me in my quarters each day to commune together. Who knows? Perhaps instead seeking enlightenment across the galaxy, it may find us?

Corr: Aye. Thanks fur yer advice an' offer of aid.

Corr stands up and bows to the alien. As he turns away, Santhou's calls after him.

Santhou: One last thing, if I may?

Core: Of course...

Santhou: Would you mind activating the hydraulic ramp close when you exit? Closing it with telekinesis is rather tiring... 

With a nod and a smile, Corr bids Santhou farewell.

Breakfast Brawl:

Music Cue: Mouse Robot and Blast Off

Accompanied by their two droids, Kaleban and Corr attend the mess hall on Nowhere for breakfast. Skye is not joining them as she has a meeting with General Reekeene. They have not seen JiBa since he was put in the bacta tank after Kentara claimed his vengeance for the loss of his wife.

Another squad, who go by the name of Blue Lightning, sit in the canteen, eating their breakfast. As the Vipers enter, they watch them intently and several of them sneer at them. Other than them and the cook droids, there are two Bith engineers, a group of three Duros from Purple Squadron, and a silver-haired old man - who they don't recognise - sits on his own in a darkened corner. He has wrapped his robe tightly around him.

Blue Lightning (l to r): Tala Nor, Janoas Sobari, Uldrir Gonibar, Zuel Zeemor, Krenan Soulreaver & Bots Vridak

Sobari: Well, well, well, if it isn't the Green Vipers! After the stunt you pulled on Mycroft, Kentara should have taught all of you a lesson!

Kaleban: Pfft, Blue Lightning. Did you get a bulk discount when you to bought those fatigues?

Zeemor: Yeah, I know, you're bad. Check your food everyone, could be poisoned. This lot have a taste for killing fellow Rebels. 

Krenan Soulreaver suddenly throws his tray of food across the floor and approaches Corr. 

Soulreaver: Look at the mess you've made, Alden. Pick it up and get me some fresh food!

Corr: Naw, ah'll not pick it up! If ye want food, get it yersel'!

Soulreaver punches Corr, grazing his forehead. Kaleban leaps out of his seat and jabs back at outlaw. Corr meanwhile draws his blaster and fires a stun shot at Soulreaver, missing him. Soulreaver responds by drawing his own blaster and returning live fire back at the pilot! Fortunately the shot misses him - and Uldrir Gonibar, the leader of Blue Lightning intervenes, shouting at his man.

Gonibar: That's enough Soulreaver! Holster your gun or I'll take you out with a stun shot myself! C'mon, let's get outta here. Rebels and Vipers don't mix.

Kaleban shoves Soulreaver away and Blue Lightning exit the room.

Kaleban: Dunno what kind of dumb name Blue Lightning is anyway.

Last to leave, Gonibar pauses in the doorway and, eyes narrowing, cocks his head in Kaleban's direction. Realising Captain Gonibar is not to be trifled with, Kaleban takes a step back before the grizzled leader leaves. 

The Big Shake Up:

Music Cue: Rebel Briefing 

Lens Reekeene has once again convened the the team in the briefing room.

General Lens Reekeene

As the team gather together, they notice that Skye is not there. Fresh from his stint in the bacta tank, JiBa has returned, but, missing an arm, and heavily scarred by Kentara's raking claws, he looks a shadow of his former self. His face pales further as General Reekeene enters the room with three other Rebels, two of whom they recognise as members of Blue Lightning! The last is the silver-haired man from the canteen - who they now see is wearing an Imperial uniform!

Lens: Thank you for joining me. I know these past weeks have been trying for you all, they certainly were for me. First of all, you'll notice Skye is missing. I assure you she's fine, but she is temporarily being assigned to another squad in the Roughnecks. I know you'll miss her and I'm sure you'll share my sentiments in wishing her well with her new team.

Now, moving on to other matters, I've reviewed the situation and come to the conclusion that not only do you require some fresh blood to bolster your ranks, but firm leadership is needed to keep your more...outlandish notions of heroism in check. First of all, allow me to introduce Tala Nor from Naboo-

JiBa: Aw no, not a stupid Cathar! I want reassignment to another squad!

Lens: That's enough from you, JiBa! The Empire are xenophobes, but we're not! All are welcome under the Rebel banner!

JiBa: I'm not a xenophobe - I'm allergic! I'll be coughing up fur-balls! This is the final straw! I quit the Vipers!

JiBa leaps out of his chair and storms towards the exit.

Lens: Very well, but return in a few hours for reassignment, JiBa! 

JiBa waves a dismissive hand at the General before leaving.

JiBa

Lens: I'm sorry about that Tala... 

Tala: Not a problem...now he's gone. By all accounts, he was this squad's biggest problem. It's a relief not to have to work alongside him.

Tala Nor

Lens: Next we have Bots Vridak, a Weequay...

Vridak simply grunts before taking a seat.

Bots Vridak

Lens: Finally, this is Captain Hannah. He'll be leading you from now on...

Hannah: That's right. And the breakfast brawl I witnessed in the canteen was a disgrace to the Rebellion! I've reviewed your records and note that individually you Vipers all have impressive skills! But you lack discipline and cohesion! If you listen to my instructions, perhaps this can be the finest unit in Reekeene's Roughnecks!

Captain Hannah

Lens: I admire your ambition, Captain. Now, your next mission's a bit of a strange one. You'll be leaving the Fakir sector. R3 won't be able to accompany you as he'll be a problem where you're headed. You won't be taking weapons with you either as we need to get you impersonate the Rajah of Virujansi and his personal retinue. Intelligence states that the Imperials are going to make a move on him. Your mission is to insult the Imperials and get yourselves exiled to a moon called Captivity. There's several former senators and persons of interest on that prison planet who we believe will be sympathetic to our cause. Your task is to find them and get them to the extraction point, the mountain peak known as Borolol's Claw...

Royal Welcome:

Music Cue: The Imperial March

Disguised as the Rajah of Virujansi and his advisors, the Vipers are confronted by Major Lariss and a squad of Stormtroopers. As the Major's lieutenants demand the Rajah's compliance in accepting Imperial rule, the advisors offer the Rajah conflicting and contradictory advice, with the Wrathor and the Eye of History making highly offensive comments concerning the Empire's activities. Major Lariss threatens them with being placed under house arrest, at which point the Conciliator points out that the "big nose" has a point. Furious, Major Lariss condemns them to exile on the world of Captivity, sparking apologetic comments from the advisors as the Stormtroopers slap binders on them. Lariss is unaware that he has played directly into the Rebels' hands, instead he is blissfully delighted at the distress he has caused.

Rough Landing:

Music Cue: Inner City

As the drop pod hurtles towards Captivity, Captain Hannah realises that the braking jets have not kicked in and shouts to his team to find the controls to manually activate them. Corr locates a panel which he and C4-S0 pull at, and succeed in shearing off half the panel! Kaleban climbs over his friends in the overcrowded pod and manages to override the computer to activate the jets. The pod touches down gently and Kaleban discovers that there is fuel enough for them to fly the pod into orbit, but no further. 

They decide to emerge from the pod to check their surroundings - and discover they have landed on a ledge on the side of a cliff! Rocks are hurled at them from above by thugs who shout to stop them "getting to Rolo". Hannah orders that they retreat from the attack and make their way down to the caves below. 

C4-S0 takes a tumble as he tries to negotiate the treacherous descent - but Tala catches him! Unfortunately, as she grips on to the droid, the shelf of rock she is standing upon crumbles away! Using her claws to grip the rock behind her, she clutches on to C4's arm until both are pulled to safety by Hannah. 

C4-S0! Thank the maker!

C4-S0

As they close in on the caves, Rolo calls out and draws them inside.

Rolo: Ah my friends, you are very lucky to have landed here! Come inside and warm yourselves by my fire! It's a delight to have such esteemed guests! Those are very fine clothes you are wearing! Tell me your story while you rest your weary heads!

Andews Rolo

Captain Hannah explains that they are Rebels and Rolo suddenly calls his henchmen out of the dark recesses of the cave!

Rolo: Excellent! We'll ransom you to that fool Dedelin and his people in return for some supplies! Seize them! Tie them up!

Hannah: Now don't panic everyone - and don't resist! 

Bots disobeys his Captain as he scoops up a rock and cracks a henchman over the head. Kaleban lunges for Rolo, and manages to twist his muscular arm around the criminal's throat. At the urging of Kaleban's insistent grip, Rolo orders his henchmen to back off. Captain Hannah quietly acknowledges he made a wrong call and praises Kaleban's quick thinking. He then questions Rolo about his past. Under duress, Rolo reveals that he was the leader of the notorious Spectrader Ring who operated on over thirty worlds. He curses the Empire for imprisoning him here on Captivity.

Hannah: I think we all got off on the wrong foot here. We're here to free you from Captivity. I think we can get you off of this world if we just work together. We're looking for other people who may be sympathetic to the fight against the Empire. Would this Dedelin you mentioned - and his friends - be fit that description? 

Rolo: Yes, yes, Dedelin and his friends hate the Empire! But they're terrible people! They attacked poor Rolo and his friends often! They made our life a living hell! If we take you to Dedelin, he may react unfavourably. They hate us.

Hannah and the Vipers see through Rolo's lie - knowing fine well that it is Rolo who has been making Dedelin's life a misery. All the same, they strike a bargain with Rolo that if he takes them to Dedelin, they will arrange for them to escape Captivity along with everyone else. Rolo is highly suspicious and makes Captain Hannah repeatedly promise to get them off Captivity. For some reason, he finds a man's word hard to believe, but on this occasion Hannah intends no double cross.

When they are led to Dedelin's camp, Hannah orders Tala to scout the encampment. 

Kaleban: Let's hope no one throws a ball of yarn in front of her.

Kaleban Maars

Tala makes a spitting hiss in response before she and Bots - who is skilled in stalking himself - head off. With Hannah's permission, Corr heads into the camp alone. Holding his hands up and displaying he is unarmed, he quickly wins the trust of the guards and Captain Dedelin, along with the two Senators in the camp. 

The Vipers all soon enter the camp and arrange for Dedelin and his people to follow them to the extraction point at Borolol's Claw.

Climb To Freedom:

Music Cue: Hyperspace

Despite Tala and Bots identifying the safest route up the mountain, C4-S0, Corr and Bots - the latter of whom is laden down with a makeshift blaster cannon from Dedelin's camp - all struggle to climb to the peak, but with the help of their friends, eventually manage it. The mountaintop is clouded in mist, and when they hear a freighter closing in, realise that they can't be seen! The screech of TIE fighters pursuing the freighter can be heard. Bots quickly hooks up the makeshift cannon and opens fire! He scores several hits, ionising a TIE fighter which drops from the sky and crashes across the mountainside! Bots and Kaleban reposition the weapon just in time as another TIE strafes the area of ground where they'd just stood! 

Keying in on their blaster bolts, the freighter lands and its captain rushes out. A Wookiee's shout can be heard from behind him. The ship is the Millennium Falcon, and its pilot, Han Solo. 

Han: Glad you could make it! But we're a little rushed for time, so if you'll just get on board, we can get out of here.

Corr is first into the ship and rushes in to the cockpit, throwing himself into the pilot's seat. Chewie roars at him from the co-pilot's chair. Solo enters the cockpit and scowls at the pilot.

Han: Let's get one thing straight: only one person pilots this ship. Me!

Corr: Hey! Ah'm no' such a bad pilot mahsel'!

Corr reluctantly gives way to Solo while Kaleban and Bots grab the gunnery chairs. The Falcon quickly fills up with the remaining Vipers and Dedelin's people, but Hannah, with C4-S0 following closely behind, insists that Solo pick up Rolo and his people.

Hannah: I made an oath, Captain Solo, an oath! And I don't intend to break it!

Kaleban and Bots shoot down several pursuing TIEs in the flight down the mountain, buying enough time to pick up Rolo and his reprobates. By the time everyone is on board, the Falcon's holds and corridors are filled with Captivity's denizens!

Solo guns the Falcon into the sky and out of Captivity's atmosphere. Ahead of them, a Star Destroyer closes in!

C4-S0: We'll never outrun that! We're doomed!

Han: Oh yeah? Watch this!

Han and Chewie

The Falcon makes the jump to hyperspace - and escapes! The journey is cramped and unpleasant with the foul odour of Captivity's unwashed former prisoners filling the freighter, but a week later, they return to the Fakir Sector. Solo drops off Rolo's people on Tsukkia before landing on Nowhere. He waves the Vipers goodbye from the landing ramp.

Han: Well, I guess this is it. We'll get Dedelin and his people to Alliance High Command, then we're headed on to Ord Mantell. I think thing'll be less eventful there. See you around...and may the force be with you.

With Dedelin and his people still on board, the Falcon then takes off and, as the Vipers watch from the hangar bay, disappears in a flash of light. 

Closing Reflections:

Another great session with a lot of excellent roleplaying from my players! It was at the request of one of the players that the Green Vipers be disliked by other Rebels on Nowhere as a consequence of their being responsible for the destruction of Bronze Squadron. It proved a good suggestion both in terms of making life on Nowhere far more interesting and in giving me an excuse to introduce a rival team and new NPCs for the Vipers to bounce off of when they are on base. It does mean that even on home turf the Vipers cannot fully relax!

The new characters were all a lot of fun, and all had some moments to shine. Bots Vridak - a Weequay - was suitably gruff and keen to fight rather than surrender, while Tala put her claws to use to save C4-S0 and hissed when Kaleban indirectly compared her to a cat. Both worked together to scout Dedelin's camp while Corr distracted the sentries - clearly the PCs are being slightly more cautious after the M13 debacle! A former Imperial Captain, Hannah was clipped and suitably pompous which is making for a fun an interesting dynamic. He did concede to his team that they were right not to surrender to Rolo and his thugs, but it'll be interesting to see how he will deal with matters if there is continued insubordination, particularly as he has been parachuted into the team to install some order following JiBa's chaotic leadership (same player btw!). Leadership is a really tricky role for any player because the other PCs always have their own ideas and will usually act as they see fit, particularly if what is being ordered goes against their character's personality. It'll be interesting to see how that relationship develops! I'm looking forward to finding out more about all of the new characters, but on initial evidence we have an interesting mix of personalities in the Vipers now!

The opening of the published adventure isn't set out particularly well - the whole objective and reasons for impersonating the Rajah and his advisors are quite poorly explained and, the concern I had when reading over the adventure was realised: I had to provide the team with clearer information than is provided in the text. That said, once they understood their roles and their turns, the exchanges between the advisors and Lariss were a lot of fun and had a lot of great improvisation from the players. I wish I could have remembered it all to set it out here!

The rest of the mission was fine, though lightweight, as shown by the fact that it was completed in a single session. What was most interesting was to see the team dealing with a mission without blasters at their side. They did well and confounded expectations as usual! There was no situation covered in the scenario for offering Rolo and his criminal friends safe passage, but as I believe GMs should, I rolled with their plan! It seemed fitting that the Rebels might even save criminals - and also provides me with the opportunity to reintroduce Rolo at a later date...Will be he an ally or an enemy though?

Note: bizarrely, no stats are provided for Andews Rolo, a major NPC, yet they are included for Major Lariss and Captain Dedelin who the PCs are less likely to fight against!

There were a few fun complications to throw into the mix from "1" results on the Wild Die: the panel in the pod shearing in two and the cliff shelf Tala was standing on while saving C4-S0 crumbling were fun examples of these being put to use! It's not always possible to come up with unique complications, but I feel they always add a bit of unpredictable excitement to sessions when they arise!

One final note: The reference about the two Jedi finding the vergence in the force is a reference to connect the current campaign to the previous one we ran which covered the period 5BBY to 0BBY. The  two Jedi mentioned, Anka and Magnus, were the ones who discovered the vergence in a former Jedi temple. Along with the rest of the party, they ended up so powerful that they managed to survive Vader on two occasions. We agreed that the party had become such a thorn in the Empire's side that they would be the central focus of the Emperor's machinations - so the Rebels sent them out of the galaxy for bringing too much heat on their fledgling Rebellion. I may at some point retell those adventures on this blog as well as publish the adventures (most were homebrew). For anyone interested in reading those adventures, please join the Star Wars Green Vipers Group on Facebook and look at the Photo Albums: all 52 episodes in that campaign are summarised there.

Thanks as always for reading!