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As before, when you game with game with a larger party it is sometimes not possible for them to make it to every game or players might come to the game after a couple of sessions have past. In our third session a player who had hoped to be there from the start finally made it to the game and his character had to have a good reason for joining the part

Without changing too much of his backstory I was able to get Admiral Pallaeon's character in the game right away. Sometimes it is unavoidable but it is not fun for a new player to sit there for most of a game session waiting to join in so the sooner you can get them into the action the better.   Instead of having his pilot character be stuck in the city of Skeen at the start I just worked it that Dink had helped rescue him from a previous encounter with the raiders the party fought off the last session. His character guarded the ship while Dink helped the heroes in the last game and Dink had arranged before hand that he would help him pilot the transport. So as the game started his character was introduced to the party and they were good to go.

This session started with a new scroll marking the next Episode of their adventure:

Episode 2  Dark Deal on a Darker Moon

The new GALACTIC EMPIRE
has amassed  immense power
in the short time since it's creation.
The final days of the CLONE WAR
against the  SEPARATIST are coming
to a close and will soon  leave
the EMPIRE in complete power.

The BATTLE of SKEEN on the
planet TAANAB still  rages on,
both on the ground and in space.
Both sides have intensified the conflict
and many  civilians have died.
Being equal in force there  is no sign of
who will win the conflict.

In the small town of KELLOS
a small group of  heroes on the run
are saying their final  good-byes and
are preparing to leave the planet
aboard the transport ship THE SWEETNESS
for their next destination....

After watching the scroll we were ready to start. The scroll gives a nice recap and setting of the mood and at the start of the game they were still planet side so they could make any last minute additions and role-play their goodbyes.

Episode 2 Dark Deal on a Darker Moon

Adventure 3-Journey to the Hutt Moon

Part 1 Leaving Taanab

The group finishes getting The Sweetness loaded and saying their goodbyes to the towns people they have helped and lived with for the past several days. They are joined by Nix Felleaon, a spacer who lost his fellow crew members and the ship he was serving on to the same raiders the heroes just defeated. Like them, Nix is helping haul the grain in return for passage off Taanab.

After Dink gives them a tour of the ship and introducing them to his R4 unit Y9 (which he calls Whiner and who helps run the ship's high functions in deep space) they update the computer with METOSP info for the jump to take them to their destination. The METOSP informs them that because of the current battle over and in the city of Skeen air space is restricted to military ships only.

At this time I handed out the character sheets for the ship and gave them a chance to look them over and ask any questions. I found this ship character sheet on these boards and it is are really helpful.

Shortly after take off Dink has to hand the controls over because the instruments indicate that the hold doors are open and he has to go to the back of the ship to check on it. Once they leave the atmosphere of the planet they see four Republic V-Wings coming in on an intercept course.

Knowing that they are not suppose to be even in the air, Nix opens fire before they can shot down. O'dian and Xextuss man the guns while Cluad assists in the cockpit. Ar'Ran comes out of his semi-coma and begins to help by rerouting power to the shields. During the intense fight the life support systems begin shutting down and the unusual creature Grem jury-rigs it, saving everyone's lives.

To me space combat is a huge part of Star Wars but talking to many players I have found out that many games do not have it as an element at all.   I don't have any of the SSB figs and while talking to a fellow minis player I found out that he had a bunch of the pocketmodel ships that he didn't use anymore and, for the most part, even assembled. So for five dollars I bought his collection, put them together, kit bashed several custom ships and painted the bases black. 

 

I then bought a huge piece of black poster board and splattered white paint with a toothbrush on both sides to create stars. One one side I splattered more stars and on the other I used red and purple spray paint to create some nebulous clouds. I borrowed an large straight edge from Nimzomitch and marked out 1" spaces on one side and 1.5" spaces on the other. I then used a silver Sharpie marker to draw a grid. It came out really well and with the pocketmodel ships I have the most important elements to run any space fight-ships and place for them to fight.

 

It's important that in space fights that everyone has something to do. By having them create their characters with set duties in mind it helps avoid anyone feeling left out. Throwing in things like the life support going on the fritz and making the NPC unavailable to pilot his own ship helps to add to the drama and give the players a chance to take control.

Space combat can seem daunting but it really plays well with this system. I toss out some stuff that I knew we wouldn't use and don't care for the scale they use for the capital ships compared to the fighters, so I altered it for our use.  I kept the battle pretty straight forward so that everyone could get the hang of the differences and not bog it down too much.

At the same time I didn't want it to be too generic and wanted to tie it in to what was happening in the larger picture--so I added the capital ships in the distance and added the threat of more attackers coming at them.

When things look darkest for the group, more trouble arrives in the form of four Separatist Droid Star Fighters. A pair of V-Wing peal off the battle to fight them and are quickly blasted out of the air. The final V-Wing engaged with The Sweetness is destroyed and the crew prepare for a new fight with the droids when they shut down for no apparent reason.

I try to have the events of the movies and EU timed to what is happening with the game. At this point one of the players figured out the reason why the ships had shut-down--Annikin had just taken out the Separatist leaders and shut down all the droids.

Dink is quick to suggest that they can haul them in, wipe their memory and then sell them for a nice profit to be split seven ways. The group agrees and a quick plan is put into action. Working extremely well together, the group makes a four person daring space walk and load them into the empty cargo holds as Grem assist pulling in a ship with the Force and Ar'Ryn and Y9 quickly wipe the droids' programming. After a celebratory drink of vintage Corellian ale they make their first hyper space jump together.

I had printed out a full size, gridded map of the ship and used some Droid Starfighter minis I had made from a model kit for the space walk portion. The players did an amazing job figuring out how to best get the ships into the hold and worked as a tightly trained team. This section of the game was much more fun to play than I had hoped that it was going to be.

The path to their next destination involved two jumps, the first takes four days and the second takes two. During the second jump the action cuts away to the newly built Darth Vader being address by the Emperor. He is informed that he is forming a group of force powered assassins to be known as the Emperor's Hands who will not know of the existence of each other or be fully trained as Sith.

Other minor force users will be used to create an institution known as Prophets of the Dark Side who's purpose will be to instill fear and control over the masses. A final group will become the Inquistorius and this group will be formed by Jedi who are captured and turned to the Dark Side and their purpose will be to assist Vader in hunting down other Jedi and Force users and turn them over to the Dark Side or to kill them.

The Emperor and Vader then prepare to leave for the system of Dyspeare to meet with Tarkin and view their largest secret project.

Much like the timing of having the droids shut down, I wanted to include the scene of Vader being built so it made sense in our game's timeline. Like the hologram announcement in the second episode, I used this as a chance to have the Emperor appear. Because the Heroes will most likely never see these two in person and since they are the biggest baddies during this period; having scenes like this help the players tie their adventure to what it going on in the rest of the galaxy even if they are not there.

  Part 2 Arrival on Nar Shaada 

 

The Sweetness arrives at it's destination of Nar Shaada, which is the moon of the Hutt planet Nal Hutta and is known through-out the galaxy as the place of vice and corruption. Dink lands in the Corillian sector and informs them that it is the safest section on the planet. He says they can leave their gear in his ship and can stay on board for the night since he won't be heading back until he resupplies tomorrow and heads back to Kellos.

He tells them to check out the shops and ship lots in the area, try their luck in the casino and that he will meet them later that day. He drops them off and goes to unload the grain and then to find a place to sell the recovered ships. He gives them R4-Y9 as a guide and assurance that he will meet them later.

At this point I passed out a map of the fan made Nar Shaada with the rooms covered with indicators of how high the building were. I placed the actual map on the table and blocked off the gantry from the first section to the other end with steel wool fire. This forced them to explore the area in a circle and let me control what they encountered and when.

When using locations it helps to have several descriptors and to make comparisons. Where Tanaab was quite, clean and rural, this new place was loud, dirty and urban. Nar Shaado is also a good place for people on the run to get lost so it fit in with what the heroes had going on in their adventure. I chose the Corillian sector because it sets up a future game adventure hook.

O'dian makes the suggestion to keep the droids as escort fighters but Dink informs him that he is not a smuggler, just a simple hauler, and that he will be returning to Taanab alone. The group then enters the market center and work their way through the sector. Cluad, Xextuss and Odian make their way to The Gundark's Den, a strip bar full of seedy characters and strong drinks.

After being disappointed by the cost of his weapon of choice and not wanting to risk pick-pocketing, Nix tries his hand at the casino and does rather well.

Ar'Ryn and Grem go to the Holo-Net center where Ar'Ryn attempts to contact his office of antiques only to be informed that with the creation of the Empire that his department has been taken over, his boss imprisoned and that he is to turn Grem over to them and turn in the Jedi and the rest of the group for their actions (made up actions that is) during the battle of Skeen to Imperial forces. Ar'Ryn throws them off the trail saying that they are on Corillia and makes a hasty exit from the Holo-center.

klecser saying they were on Corillia is funny in the fact that unknown to them they would soon be on the that planet. While the other players were in the bar I made sure to describe some of the other patrons and have them make note of it because of how it would effect their players later.

The group gets together and Ar'Ryn informs them of his recent contact with the ISB. After all they have been through --the Battle of Skeen, defeating the raiders in Kellos, Cluad tending to Ar'Ran while he unconscience (even with their early differences), and the trials they went through on the way to Nar Shadda--the group decides to throw in together, protect each other and avoid the new Empire that seems corrupt and power hungry.

For making it known that they were now a group that were going to travel together because they chose to instead of being thrown together they received a Destiny bonus to their rolls for the rest of the encounter.

Dink shows up and lets them know that he has unloaded the grain and has started to arrange the sale for the Droid Star Fighters. He has a claim ticket on a datapad and says that who ever holds it has the authority of the claim. He is to meet his contact at The Gundark's Den and, like most things on Nar Shaada, the Hutts have their paws in this business. He asks that they watch over the deal and cover his back, which the group agrees to do. Dink sends Odian and Y9 back to the ship to guard it.

Here's a case of a player having to leave before the session is over. It timed out nicely and we just had the character guard the ship. Not too inventive but it solves the problem nicely.

Part 3 Good Deal Goes Bad 

The group enters and stakes out places in which to watch over the deal. Dink enters and begins negotiations with an Andronian, shortly after the deal begins a Feeorin enters that Cluad, Xextuss and Odian saw in the bar earlier. He quickly exits and before the group can react the stun explosives that were planted earlier by the Feeorin go off knocking everyone in the bar out.

The heroes recover in time to see the Feeorin shooting the Andronian, grabbing the data pad with the claim ticket and fleeing from the bar.

I gave the players the chance to find the stun grenades before hand but failed perception rolls and the descriptions of what their characters were looking at and for made them miss them. It helped to start the chase in a different way than the previous one and having players fighting off debilitating effects is always fun to watch.

The heroes waste no time as they give chase. The Feeorin's fellow brutes are waiting outside the doors and give fight as he flees towards the catwalks. Xextuss blows a hole through the head of his closest attacker, Cluad and Ar'Ran give chase and take down several more and Nix fights his way through while taking some massive hits.

Grem makes a daring jump across the gap from the walkway to the catwalks cutting off the Feeorin's escape. He throws the Feeorin back across as an air speeder arrives to help the thieves make their escape. Their assistance is too late as the group quickly deals with the Feeorin and Grem takes down the speeder.

It's cool to see players making better group choices in battles as well as making insanely heroic attempts. There was plenty of both in this fight and I reward players with extra XP for really pushing their character's limits and doing bold (and dangerous) moves.

After checking on Dink and the Andronian, who are both safe thanks to a blast vest, the group is invited to the office of the bar and left alone for a minute. Dink informs them that the fight can only increase the value of their sale.

The Andronian returns, introduces himself as Tibor and says that he is aware of who they are and that his employer would like to speak to them.  A holo-projector produces the image of an extremely old and hairy Hutt. He speaks in Huttesse in a gravely voice which Tibor translates.

He tells them that he is Zorba Desilijic Tiureone, currently wrongly imprisoned on the planet Kip. He thanks them for stopping the assassins sent by a rival "businessman" trying to harm his second in command. Since his imprisonment his competition has tried to cut into his business by any means possible. He can't pay them a reward for it since they are not bounty hunters or part of a guild but will compensate them for their troubles. Also he will give them a good price for the scrap ships they have.

But he has another proposition for them------he can not get into many details because of where he is at, in case his rivals are listening, but he can tell them that he was suppose to have some workers arrive several days ago but the crew he sent to retrieve them has not shown up.

He would like them to find out what happened to that crew and retrieve those workers.  At this point Dink informs them that he has already been hired for a job and that he needs to return to Taanab to bring back supplies and can not partake in this venture. Zorba states he understands and in that case he is willing to help the group out even further.

If they do this job for him he will not only get ahold of that footage to clear their names (the Jedi will still be wanted), pay them for the earlier services but he will offer them 9000 each in trade for a total of 54000 credits to use to buy a ship from one of his used-ship yards in exchange for the scrap with no strings attached and no further obligations to work for him in the future.

Ah, the "offer they can't refuse" meets the "deal with the Devil". This adventure and the next is basically the backstory of how they get their own ship. If the ship is to be any good then the players should have to sweat for it. Dealing with shady crime lords, deals that seem too good to be true and the offer of a better reward "if they just do one more small job" is all part of the set up to how they will get their ship and provides a back story that can be mined for further tales down the road.

The group agrees and plan to meet Tibor the next morning. They head back to The Sweetness to stay one final night aboard. Dink wishes them good luck and tells them to beware because deals with Hutts are usually always in the Hutts favor but this looks to be an honest deal, mainly because Zorba is in jail.   He also advises that once they are done not to work further for Zorba no matter how legit the work seems to be......

A little warning and some fore-shadowing can go a long way with players, if they listen to it. Another thing is asking the judge questions through NPCs. It is funny but the players had not asked Dink a single question on where it was that they were going when they left Tanaab and again they asked no questions where they were going when they started to deal with the Hutt. After the next adventure and the mess they get into that never happens again.

Important Locations so far...
Kellos-is a small agricultural town located about 450 km south-southeast of Skeen.
Nar Shaddaa-a crime ridden moon of the Hutt planet.

Important NPC so far....
Space Pilot- Dni Nhak "Dink"
Male/Gotal/53
Pilot of the freighter "Sweetness". Somewhat gruff but enjoys a good laugh. Not a fighter but will if needed. Appreciates hard workers.

Droid-R4-Y9
--/R4-series droid/15
Droid on the ship Sweetness. Has a strong link to the computer on Sweetness so much so that it is basically a part of that ships higher functions while it is flying in space.

Former Administrator of Special Committee of Antiquities (SCoA)-Lacon Gennac
Male/Adarian/58
Competent and knowledgeable in his field.

Current Administrator of Special Committee of Antiquities (SCoA)-Wullf Yularen
Human/Male/36
Just recently the the admiral in the Republic Navy, under the command of Jedi General Anakin Skywalker, and now a member of the newly created Imperial Security Bureau that now oversees the SCoA. Capable but operates under misguided orders.

Black Sun Merc Leader-Rin
Male/Feeorin/32
Mercenary for the Black Sun. Uses excessive force to get jobs done quick. Explosives expert. Has grayish-purple skin.

Mercenary-Tibor
Male/Andronian/??
Second in command of Zorba Desilijic Tiureone. All business.

Crime Lord-Zorba Desilijic Tiureone
No sex/Hutt/976
Curently serving a sentence of 45 years on the planet Kip for illegal mining. His imprisonment however is very lax and he views it as a vacation. Cunning, crafty and very old.

Next Time
It is time for an old fashion dungeon crawl but in Star Wars style. The group gets in over their heads all in an attempt to get a good ship from a bad crime lord...

No, been really busy but it is something I still hope to get to soon. Been busy planning and working on the game lately, in fact we are playing episode 8 tonight.

With the start of this fourth adventure we had two players missing due to scheduling conflicts. It happens, and when it does it is important to make adjustments to the challenge that the adventure presents the heroes. In this case I had planned a classic "Dungeon Crawl®" adventure so I only had to reduce the number of opponents that the group would run across to balance it out. 

At the start, while going up in the early adventures, I try to have the players advance one level every adventure or every other adventure. With people missing some games it's hard to keep them all at the same level but with the structure of advancement they will soon all be at or near the same level. As they go up in level I plan to have them advance more slowly to about a level every three adventures. Here's their stats at the start of this adventure:



Episode 2 Dark Deal on a Darker Moon

Adventure 5-The Gamorrean Complex

Part 1 Welcome to the Jungle 

Since this was the second part of the next episode I didn't create an opening crawl but just gave a quick recap of what happen last and jumped into the game. 

Dink bids farewell to the group and tells them that they made a great crew and he hopes to see them soon. They met up with TIbor and after loading supplies into his ship they take off for their destination. After a three day jump they arrive at Gamorr, a jungle planet that is homeworld to the Gamorreans, the only sentient species on the planet. After flying by one of the stone cities built by the porcine race, the party arrives many kilometers away at a temporary outpost of the crew who were suppose to collect members of a Gamorrean tribe that has pledged their loyalty and who work for Zorba the Hutt. 







I again used some images found on the web that I printed out and cut out individually to help in the description of the location. Having the locales have different climates, flora and fauna helps the players keep track of where they have been and where they are. So in the first adventures they were on a rural, plains type place, the second location was a dirty urban location and now they found themselves on a humid, dense jungle world. All of them were different and helps ground the adventure in that classic Star Wars mode.

After disembarking they see that the previous crew's ship has been destroyed, that the members of the crew have been beheaded and that there are also several dead Gamorreans. One group of Gamorreans have been hacked up and had their heads removed while a different group, which has darker olive skin tones and tribal tattoos, have only been shot. It appears that the fight between the original crew and this other group of Gamorreans took place a week or more ago do to the decomposition that has already taken place. Looking around the temporary structure they notice three small empty cages and that the communication relay is damage but repairable. 



I set up the Endor Bunker map from the Attack on Endor set and place figs whose heads I had cut off to make other customs and Gamorreans on their sides where the red Xs are. I used a different sculpts of Gamorreans and placed them on their sides where the purple Xs. Where the 1 is I described as holding pens that Grem could smell a strange scent but were empty. The 2 indicates the location of the communications relay. The 3 indicated where on obvious trail coming out of the forest was.

Not wanting to leave his ship unprotected and also to try to get the communications relay working again, Tibor has*Ar'Ryn and Xextuss stay with him and orders the others to track down the surviving Gamorreans pledged to serve Zorba and to bring back any survivors. After getting some survival equipment off the ship the rest of the party follows the several days old trail left by what appears to be nearly two dozen or more Gamorreans, those that they have to rescue and those that have taken them prisoner. 

Of course the two players who couldn't make it were picked to stay behind with the ship. This explained why they wouldn't be there as well as made sense in the story. 

The heroes make their way south for several kilometers of thick, dense jungle when they come to a 30 meter cliff face. Grem careful climbs up and realizes that the lift at the top has had several key pieces removed to keep others from using it. Using vines and rope the rest of the party makes it up the cliff and continues on. 

I had the party make several skill checks to keep following the trail and even more when it came to climbing the cliff. Use of skill checks for other things besides combat or information gathering is a way to enhance the location and to remind players that every skill is useful, not just ones that help in combat. 



This is another great fan made map by armorgear that I used to represent a specific area of the jungle that the players were at when it was getting late on the planet and the sun was setting. Instead of having the move square by square and slowing down the game I find it best to just use spot specific maps when needed. I placed the glass sheet over the map and drew a river to one side, indicated which way it flowed and said that the walls represented on the map were actually thick growths of trees that were impassable. The players studied the map and decided the best place to set up camp for the night. 

Several hours since the start of the trek had passed and the sun sets, so they make camp for the night. Being aware that the jungle is full of predators, they keep a watch. It is a good thing that they do for in the middle of the night they are attacked by Masstiffs. After a ferocious fight, the heroes deduce that these creatures were most likely the beast that escape from the pens at the outpost site and that the previous crew were probably transporting them from a previous location when they stop at Gammor to pick up the Gamorreans. 



Setting up camp, keeping watch and getting attacked in the middle of the night is classic D&D rpg stuff. All the players in the group are well familiar with it but it had been a long time for many of them and my self to actually play something like that out so it was really enjoyable. The fight was dramatic and fast paced and help tie the trek in the woods back to the landing area with the use of the escaped guard Masstiffs. 

Reasoning that they might run into more danger the group decides to fully rest before heading out in the morning. Contacting Tibor and the rest of their party with the comlink provided, they find out that the other party too was also attacked in the night by some of the planet's other predators and that Tibor suffered a broken arm but otherwise they were OK. The group then heads out, following the trail further into the jungle. They soon come to a river and the trail disappears. Using the Force, Odian deduces that the Gamorreans headed upstream towards some small mountains. 

When prepping for this adventure I took some D&D dungeon tiles and worked out the entire layout of the stronghold. After several set-ups I finally got the one I thought offered all the elements I wanted to include and then took a picture of it. I printed this out and had it handy when the time time came for them to explore the structure. This is a great time saver and a great reference during the game. 

 

Part 2 Into The Complex

Following the stream for several kilometers they find the trail again as it leads to a clearing at the base of the mountains. There is a large door at the foot of the mountain and they observe a Gamorrean guard with the dark skin color and tribal tattoos leaving. Grem quickly makes his way to the open door as the guard passes and the others come up with a spur of the moment plan on how to enter. Cluad flings open the door as Odian uses the Force to throw a guard into a Force wirlwind, and Nix pretends to be a powerful shaman.

OK, sometimes players make really bad plans and they suffer for it. This is one of those time. Rushing in and pretending to be a wizard is not the best of plans but it did get the adventure inside started really quickly. 

The room is actually a great hall that the Gamorreans use as a general living and sleeping area. Several grunts rush forward as a guard starts firing with a heavy blaster rifle from behind a water trough. 

This took place in the area marked with the 1. Unlike the image the water trough and other elements were actually two squares down from the wall so the Gamorreans could get behind them for cover. 

 

Trading shots and trying to avoid damage, the group manages to take down several of the grunts. Odian takes some powerful hits and drops to the ground, while Grem uses the Force to pick up a large cauldron that is filled with a soup made from several severed heads and uses it to knock down the guard and dump the disgusting, boiling brew on a fleeing grunt. Once the room is cleared of enemies, Cluad begins emergency first aid on Odian while Nix collects the heavy rifle. 

It's the first room and already one of the heavy hitters of the group is seriously hurt. That is the result of rushing in. I never try to kill any players because I don't see RPG games as a GM trying to "beat" the players. Instead I set up the game and let the events unfold as they happen. Having a healer or tools to heal is always an important part of any good party and this proves that point. 

A stairway leading downwards is the only way out of the room, so the party makes their way down it after they recover as much as possible. At a small landing the stairs turn and head further down. Noticing that the liquid from the disgusting soup disappears at the bottom of the second stairway, and that the ceiling doesn't descend like in the first half of stairs, the group makes a careful inspection. Using his dark-light vision, Odian sees a grunt waiting to dump a large bin of rocks on anyone passing below his hidden ledge. Calling on the Force, Odian pulls the guard down from his perch. The guard attempt to grab onto the bin of rocks but it is too late. He falls first and the bin tips over after him. He hits the ground as the rocks fall down on top of him, which in turn kill him. The group carefully work their way pass the rubble and come to a closed door.

Dungeon crawls are great because it enhances the feeling of not knowing what is just beyond or on the other side of the door in front of you. As the plays enter each section I lay out the tiles that define the area and describe to the best of my ability what the plays can actually see but I don't give away hidden things unless they actively search for them. Having had the snot kicked out of them in the first room the player took a lot more care in actually exploring the stronghold and it paid off every time they did so. Where section 1 was a large room, section 2 was a hallway. Having a mixture of both give the sense of an actual built building instead off just random rooms thrown together. With that the heroes prepared to enter section 3 

Staying back in the hall for cover, Odian decides that instead of rushing in, that trying to sense what lies beyond with the Force is a better course. Once they determine what lies beyond, they push the door open to a trophy/battle training room that has mounted heads on the wall and a large fur rug that covers the entire middle of the room. Two grunts rush up the sides of the room to attack the party with vibro-axes while avoiding the rug as a guard fires another heavy blaster at the end of the room. Next to the guard is the largest Gamorrean anyone in the group has ever seen. He has embellished tribal tats, wields a vibro-chain and has several severed heads hanging off his back. The party fights off the grunts and guard but before they can take down the headhunter he flees the room. 

 

Varying up the enemies encountered helps avoid the feeling of game being only "enter room, kill everything, grab booty, go to next room, repeat". For a special mini-boss like this I decided that having a custom fig to represent it was important.

Playing the enemies so that they are not just objects that move in one way and attack in the same repeated fashion but are actual characters themselves that use tactics, have a sense of self preservation and use the environment and weapons to the best of their abilities will make players respond in the same manner. 

Nix and Odian enter the room taking care not to walk on the carpet as Cluad guards their back of the party and picks up the other heavy laser rifle dropped by the guard. Grem runs across the room, on top of the carpet, and almost falls to his death into a hidden pit a couple of meters deep and with a bottom lined with spiked wooden poles. He quickly jumped out of the way and continued to the door. 

A rug over the pit is a classic trap that the player even joked as being too obvious to actually be there. Sometimes the simple things are the bast. :P  

Reaching out with the force once again to see what laid ahead, Odian senses nothing nearby so the party enters into what turns out to be a hallway.While Cluad, Nix and Odian head to the left to a closed door, Grem goes the opposite direction to open the door at that end. As the door in front of the three burst open revealing the headhunter and a fresh guard, the door in front of Grem is opened by yet another grunt. The party falls back into the middle to start fighting off both sides. As the grunt nearest Grem falls to blaster fire by Nix the guard is taken out by Cluad and Odian. Following the first guard, a second enters thru Grem's door but the small creature has backed up to the doorway leading to the trophy/training room.

By having more than one way to go the players have to make choices and leaves areas for them to worry about. 

Before the guard can attack, Grem calls on his unusual connection to the Force and lifts the guard up and drops him down the pit with spikes he almost fell into earlier. Meanwhile, Odian takes several hits from the headhunter and is about to have his head added to the hunter's collection when his destiny kicks in and a killing blow barely misses it's mark. As the other heroes help the Jedi finish off the massive Gamorrean, Grem checks what is beyond the door he attempted to open. Room 5 He finds a spiral, roughly cut stair case and after exploring a short distance he determines that no further guards are coming from that direction and joins back up with the party. 

Inventive play is always fun to see. Using the pit trap to take care of the Gamorrean was something that the group talked about well after the game was over. 

The party enters the room from which the headhunter came from Room 4 and see that it leads to another hallway Room 6. Both ends have several turns and the party heads together to one door. Again sensing what is beyond the door, Odian determines that there are a few more enemies on the other side.   The party burst into what appears to be an altar/throne room Room 7. In the center of the room is an altar with the remains of a Gammorean captive, who looks to have been sacrificed to the tribe's deity by having his head removed. There are two Gamorrean shamans/guards that the group quickly takes out. Before they can catch their breath a large female Gamorrean chieftess burst in from the opposite side of the room wielding a vibro-spear.

 

All the players are huge Star Wars fans and a large part are fanatics (as am I), so when preparing for adventure I do a lot of research on wookiepedia for background information. This is important so that what you invent elements that they don't conflict in a major way with what the players have read, seen or know about the Star Wars universe. With the Gamorreans, they have female leaders and I wanted to make her the major boss of the dungeon and made a custom fig to represent her. 

Nix and Cluad take shots at her, while Odian and Grem avoid her attacks. Odian uses the Force to lift her off the ground and pin her to the wall but she in turn throws her spear at him, which he in turn cuts in half with his lightsaber in mid flight. Taking a final massive hit drops her and Cluad quickly tends to her so she will not die. 

Entering the room Room 8 she came from they find the holding pen Room 9 containing the captured members of the other Gammorean tribe. They free them but before they can stop what happens next, the freed prisoners extract their revenge on the fallen chieftess. With the freed prisoners in tow, Nix explores the last room Room 10 they didn't enter and finds a store room with furs and other Gamorrean items. Grem checks out the spiral staircase Room 5 again and when he reaches the top he finds a lookout tower and the missing pieces to the lift located at the cliff in the jungle. 

Players tend to want to get their hands on everything they can. In this case they wanted to collect the Gammorrean whip chain and spear. Having an explanation instead of just telling them no is always wise. Telling them that they felt evil to the touch, were rusted, and seem ungainly in non-Gammorrean hands did the trick.

Part 3 A Warm Welcome Back 

The party makes the trek back through the jungle to the outpost over the next two days without incident. Using the missing pieces they are able to get everyone down the cliff in short order. With the help of*Ar'Ryn and Xextuss, Tibor has the communications relay working again and they help loading the Gamorreans on to the ship. The quarters are cramped with so many aboard, several fights break out amongst the Gamorreans but no one is seriously hurt. The smell by the end of the three day jump is almost unbearable but somehow the group of heroes make it through. 

As the enter the sky above Nar Shaadda the traffic is heavy and air is dirty. Suddenly, three small fighters start shooting at them. Tibor is not able to fly his own ship because of his broken arm so Nix deftly pilots his way through the traffic avoiding most of the damage. The rest of the heroes do what they can during the battle, manning guns and boosting shields as the fighters close in and try to cut them off while they use the traffic lanes to try to pin them in. 

To keep things simple and since this was only the second space battle they player were in, I just used the same stats from the ship Sweetness (see above post) for Tibor's ship. Unlike the first space battle I placed ship mins in horizontal and vertical lives across the map to represent the flight lanes. This provided a challenge for them to fly around and through. The battle was quick and different enough from the previous one that it remained exciting. 

Over the com they pick up that the attackers are thugs of the Black Sun trying to disrupt the business of Zorba once again. Having learned much from the first air battle against the four trained and battle seasoned pilots of the Imperial V-Wings, Nix and the crew are more than a match for the three thugs. In short order they are taken out and they land safely back in the docks of the Corellian Sector. Tibor tells them that they can stay in Zorba's hotel above the casino, get cleaned up and some rest, that he will have food sent up and that he will contact Zorba and meet with them tomorrow. With that he leads the new batch of Gamorreans away for their life of near slave labor......... 

Important Locations from this Episode...

Nar Shaada-The moon of the planet Nal Hutta. Known as a center of vice, corruption and crime through-out the galaxy. 
Gamorr-The home world of the Gamorreans that is mostly dense jungle with a few stone, small cities.   

Important NPC this Episode....
Mercenary-Tibor
Male/Andronian/??
Second in command of Zorba Desilijic Tiureone. All business.

Next Time So now they have done the dirty work it is time for the players to finally have their own ship. What kind of clunker will they get? What lies on the horizon for our adventures and what is their fate in this Dark Time galaxy? Find out next time.....

Not at all. It's the reason why I have put all of this up. Just pick and choose what you want to use and do with it whatever you like.