Welcome to Old Skool Gamers Dawn of Defiance Campaign!

Current Earned Action Points for Adventure Log posts…

Ash – for “The Deep”
Gongora – for ""
Vern – for ""
Woedende – for ""
Khol – for ""

This is an ongoing campaign that we took a break from to try out 4th Edition D&D

Dawn of Defiance is a Star Wars Saga Edition campaign that takes the players from 1st thru 20th level in 10 episodes (Modules). The story so far has taken the players through episode 9 – starting episode 10. The players will be 19th level, entering episode 10

Story Synopsis (latest entries at the bottom…)

More complete session write-ups (from the players) are in the adventure log…

October 26, 2010 13:01
1. The Traitor’s Gambit
The story of the Dawn of Defiance campaign opens over the Core World of Brentaal, on a little space station called Sel Zonn Station. After a brush with some agents of Bail Organa, the heroes find themselves drawn into a conflict with the Empire. Delivering vital information to the Senator on Alderaan earns the heroes his trust, and soon Bail Organa sends them on a mission of his own. It seems that a former Imperial Admiral by the name of Gilder Varth has been funneling information about the Empire to the Senator for some months now, though he has gone silent since being arrested and imprisoned on the planet Felucia.
The heroes travel to Felucia, encounter some of the natives, and locate the Imperial prison facility where the Admiral is being held. After making their way through the facility, they rescue Admiral Varth and take him to a safe location. The rescue not only cements the heroes as trustworthy agents (earning them more aid and work from Bail Organa) but also marks the first step in building a resistance against the Empire.

2. A Wretched Hive
Freed by the heroes from the Imperial prison facility, Admiral Varth once again begins revealing valuable information on clandestine activities of the Empire. In particular, he mentions that he was responsible for funneling money and resources to something called the “Sarlacc Project.” Among those he sent funds to was a Hutt crime lord named Darga, who operates out of a ruined city on Cato Neimoidia.
Traveling to the Neimoidian colony world, the heroes manage to infiltrate Darga’s palace and step into a den of vile debauchery. While in the palace, the heroes attempt to obtain more information on the Sarlacc Project while avoiding the wrath of the Hutt gangster.
The heroes’ searches lead them to a startling discovery: Darga has been keeping a Jedi Master and veteran of the Clone Wars in a coma in the dungeons of his palace. After the heroes free Master Denia, she helps them deal with the Hutt’s majordomo, a Force-sensitive criminal who has been using the Force to rise in power within Darga’s organization.
The heroes overhear a conversation between the majordomo and Imperial Inquisitor Draco, which introduces them to one of the main villains of the campaign. By the time they handle the majordomo, the Hutt has fled (not wanting to engage in direct conflict with a Jedi Master), and the heroes leave Cato Neimoidia.

3. The Queen of Air and Darkness
After dropping Master Denia off with their Alderaanian allies, the heroes learn that Darga the Hutt has fled to the famous world of Bespin—more specifically, to Cloud City. Still needing the information the Hutt possesses, the heroes travel to Cloud City only to discover that their quarry has vanished. However, in their search for the crime lord, they discover that another Imperial officer who dealt with the Hutt will be visiting Cloud City to take part in its annual sabacc tournament.
The majority of the adventure centers around the tournament. The heroes can choose to enter the tournament, work for the tournament’s administrator as hired help, or simply observe the tournament in order to get close to the dirty officer.
After a series of event-based encounters, the tournament ends and the heroes convince the Imperial officer to reveal the Hutt’s location. When they go to confront the crime lord, they discover that he’s attempting to make his getaway. The heroes face Darga in the hangar bay of his personal luxury yacht and learn the awful truth—the Hutt was using his contacts in the Tibanna gas industry to funnel large amounts of the gas to the Empire in exchange for slaves.
In fact, one such transaction was supposed to take place under the cover of the tournament, but the heroes’ involvement spoiled those plans. Now, the Empire is determined to erase any trace of the transaction by crashing a slave ship into the Tibanna gas hauler in orbit, destroying them both. The heroes, commandeering Z-95 headhunters, race against time under fire from Imperial starfighters to stop the crash and save the slaves’ lives. 3 Chapter

4. Echoes of the Jedi
After a bout of downtime (during which Gamemasters can insert their own adventures, should they so choose), the heroes are gathered by Master Denia. Their encounter with the slave ship over Bespin indicates that the Empire is trafficking in slaves, but the slaves were members of a species that Denia had never encountered. To discover more about these mysterious slaves (and perhaps unravel the mystery of the Sarlacc Project), She sends the heroes to the planet Almas in the Cularin System, once home to a Jedi academy. There, the heroes must retrieve a lost Jedi holocron that can teach Denia special farseeing techniques, which she hopes will lead her to the mysterious aliens.
The heroes arrive at Almas to find the academy in shambles, having been destroyed from orbit when the Empire rose. The heroes dig their way down through the ruins to reach the academy’s archives. Along the way, they discover that the dark side has grown strong in the ruins of the academy, and it has become a domain of evil—much like the cave on Dagobah where Luke fought the false Darth Vader. The heroes face dark side spirits and their own fears as they press onward into the wrecked temple.
As they approach the archives, they discover that they are not the first to explore the ruins. A small contingent of Imperial troops has arrived ahead of them and defends the archives with lethal force. Eventually, the heroes confront the leader of the Imperial contingent, Inquisitor Draco. They defeat him and retrieve the holocron, which they take back to Denia.

5. The First to Strike
The holocron taken from the ruins of the Almas academy proves helpful, and Master Denia is able to use the Force to locate the mysterious alien slaves. They were members of the Nazren species from the planet Nizon in the Maldrood Sector. The heroes travel to that world to see if they can discover more about the Nazren, but they find the planet under Imperial occupation. Even more troubling, the Empire has allowed Trandoshan slavers to harvest slaves from the planet at will, provided that they also transport some of the slaves to Imperial projects. A core resistance group of Nazren has formed, but they seem to be waiting for some kind of catalyst to begin their open opposition. The heroes are just the catalyst they need.
Working with a charismatic Nazren resistance leader in the capital city, the heroes incite a riot against the Imperial oppressors. The city erupts into violence, and the heroes assist the Nazren in overthrowing the Imperial invaders, rescuing Nazren slaves from Trandoshan slavers, preventing the riots from claiming innocent lives, and seizing Imperial facilities to help defend the planet. The heroes help the Nazren reclaim their world for their own.

6. The Core of Corruption
While on Nizon, the heroes discover Imperial transmissions regarding the Sarlacc Project. The messages indicate that the engineers of the project are in an Imperial facility on Coruscant—and that is where the heroes must go. Traveling to Imperial Center, the heroes sneak past the world’s defenses and take their first steps on the capital planet of the Galactic Empire. Under the watchful eye of the Empire, the heroes pinpoint the location of the project’s architects and travel to a massive skyscraper still under construction.
Moving up through the skyscraper, the heroes soon come face to face with the engineers of the Sarlacc Project. Unfortunately, they are all being watched by several members of the Inquisitorius, who fight the heroes to the death. When their defeat seems imminent, the Inquisitors detonate explosives at the base of the skyscraper, which begins to collapse. The heroes must fight their way back out of the collapsing building and make their way to safety.
However, the heroes finally learn the details of the Sarlacc Project. The Empire is constructing a massive new starship 12 kilometers long—many times larger than a Star Destroyer, and an early prototype (though not the final version) of the Super Star Destroyer. The new vessel will serve as the flagship of the Imperial fleet, and the Sarlacc Project nears completion.

7. A Reckoning of Wraiths
After transmitting their knowledge of the project to Senator Organa’s agents, the heroes are instructed to make contact with a group of loyalists in Coruscant’s seedy underbelly. When they arrive at the meeting location, however, they discover that the loyalists are all dead. The heroes return to their safe house—only to fall into a trap set by the Empire! Fighting their way back to their ship, the heroes find the hangar being defended by a massive AT-AT. They must bring the AT-AT down (using whatever means necessary) before they can board their ship.
Blasting their way out of Coruscant, the heroes arrive at a rendezvous point where a Nebulon-B frigate (the Resurgence) waits for them. Unfortunately, when they arrive, they learn that the trap was sprung not only on them but also on their allies. As an Imperial Star Destroyer pounds on the Resurgence’s shields, the heroes board the Nebulon-B and try to rescue survivors. Battling an Imperial boarding party on the ship, they fight their way to the main launch bay just in time to see Inquisitor Draco—apparently still alive after the confrontation on Almas, and now cybernetically enhanced—dragging Master Denia into his shuttle.
As Draco blasts off, the heroes must flee the crumbling ship and make their way into hyperspace. Worse, as they blast their way free of the exploding Resurgence, they discover the architect of their betrayal: Admiral Varth. They receive a transmission from the Admiral aboard the Imperial Star Destroyer, who reveals that he has merely been trying to uncover Organa’s treachery all along. The heroes manage to escape the Empire, but only after suffering grievous losses.

7a – Interlude
While investigating the whereabouts of Master Denia and trying to gather information about the Project Sarlacc Amage and Rooster traveled to NarShadaa and have gotten lost. The party is sent to find their wayward friends. Once there they are engaged by the underworld politics of the underbosses of one of the larger crime families. Assisination attempts, double crosses and strange alliances ensure followed by a triple cross and the use of Amage and Rooster as incentives for the Jedi to surrender to the inquisitorious before more innocents get hurt. To prove they mean it Amage is executed and the party must fight for their lives against an inquisitor of amazing Dark power, easily as powerful as any Jedi they have ever met…

8 – The Gem of Alderaan
Session 8.1 – Senator Oragan hastily arranges to meet with the group for a mission that requires style grace and finesse – Not the strong suit of anyone in the party. They must arrange to meet Lady Alya Aldrete a celebutant that Bail Organa beleives might have the required Security codes to get into the Deep Core worlds… Where he beielves Master Denia is being held captive and being interrogted/Broken by Inquisitor Valin Draco. Time is of the essence and the party needs to acquire these code quickly if there is any hope to save her. Fortunately Lady Aldrete is hosting a gala event on Alderaan for the launching of her families newest toy for the super rich – a Repulsor train, the Gem of Alderaan. Bail implores the party to generate false identities and attend the party as representatives from his senate office, engage the celebutant and convince her to assist… under the nose of the imperial presensce also invite to the party…

The party successfully created false ID’s, Vern taking a modicom of revenge for Gongora’s use of him as a piniata during the final encounter of “interlude”… and successfully penetrated security checks to enter the gala… now to impress the guests, and get a meeting with Lady Aldrete!

Session 8.2 After mingling with the guests in the casino car dinner was served Much awkwardness followed… The guests were funneled back to the casino car after dinner, the “cool people” went immediately to club decadence. After a bit of negotiations the party entered as well, to find the party in full swing. Where the players found themselves to be much better party-goers than “foodies”… powning a few “players” on the dance floor, mixing a few tunes that are sure to be copied, and consuming incredible amounts of Lum, they attract the attention of all party-goers including the Lady Aldrete.

In a private room her personal assisstant greets the party and offers more refreshment. He then admits that he is curious as to who they really are, their identities having not existed until Yesterday… After a few tense moments the party comes clean as to why they are here. The assistant comes clean that the Heiress is not what she seems ans would be happy to help them, sinc eshe is essentially on the same side, and is operating an extensive spy-net in the deep core worlds.

The train shudders and the power blinks, trandoshans have boarded the train, looking for Bail Organa… who is not on board… “Mahem to follow”

8.3 Club Decadence
Aldrete’s Assitant works the security controls and computer syetems trying to restore some power and hands the party a couple of sporting pistols that he has… They make the best of them heading out into the darkened nightclub and engaging the Trandoshan boarding party.

Upon sucessfully quelling them the Assitant indicates that he has Lady Aldretes personal locator working and it indicates she’s near the front of the train. He also indicates that he is going to try and futz with the repulsor fields to try and send some sort of distress signal but the only way to regain control of the train is from the engineering car at the front…

8.4 Unlikely Allies
The Group decides to head forward and after gettign past the passenger cars to disconnect them for the rest of the train so that they can be rescued. When they reach the next car though that are greated by more of the boarding party, and receive some unexpected assitance form the Imperial Governor and his body guards. Together they take out a war droid and some fairly frisky lizard men…

8.5 More fun in the dining car
The heroes make their way forward and encounter more trandoshan’s in the dining car. They have rounded up a lot of the guests and placed them onto the lower level grouped in at the far end (forward). The fight becomes a bit hairy as an axe weilding melee specialist starts making serious headway against the doctor, who is treating a character that was greiviously wounded after a botched tactical entry into the dining car.

8.6 Wreckage
After successfully rescueing the hostages the heros must deal with another challenge… starfighters pounding the train car in front of them. Lady Aldrete’s assistant informs them that the lady is in the engine car at the head of the train according to her personal tracking device. Between here and there is a dangerously damaged train car that is likely going to derail the train and kill all aboard.

8.7 Top Dog (Or lizard)
After s tragic mishap that caused the doctor to be thrown from the train the heroes press on to try and rescue Lady Aldrete. They find a marksman of their own calibre in the form of Vril Thrakath – the very same Tradoshan marksman that assisted in the death of Chirappa Nor on Nizon… He’s got the lady and is trying to escape with her… After a feirce gun battle in the engine compartment the fight moves to the roof of the engine car where everyone must battle the ferocious winds created by the speeding train

9.0 Sword of the Empire 2/27/2011
The heros are charged with Rescuing Master Denia. After procured the help of Lady Alya Aldrete, they can proceed. Prakith is newly occupied by the Empire, but has been selected as the new site to host the Citadel inquisitorious as well as act as the mani base for the imperial fleet. Getting into the Citadel won’t be easy, gettin out alive will be even that much harder.

9.1 Seejo… and Curious Inquisitors… 3/13/2011
Getting to Prakith was no problem with Lady Aldrete’s pass-codes. However arrival there is when the trouble starts. On the way to Prakith the heros encounter a stranded ship on the inner moon. Onboard is Jekk Seejo, a Duros pilot for hire, who is dealing with a malfunctioning ship and no toolkit. The Heroes offer their assistant and in fairly short order repair his ailing vessel. Jekk offers to buy them drinks at the Mother Lode cantina, and thanks them for their generocity. Shortly after Jekks departure Mynocks swarm onto the Star Tripper (the recently re-named everstar) causing minor damage.

Landing the heroes are met by a officious and overly cautious port official that insists that the ship be inspected and checked by a certified mechanic before they are allowed to leave… something about a perfect safety record. The players agree (begrudingly) and head off to the Mother-Loade to sell their cargo of correllian ale and Alreraanin food stuffs. they find the cantina full of workers, construction Miner, Aliens, and Old Man Geddis. Working the cantina to uncover any local informaton about recent goings on, the construction of the citedel etc. they learn a few items of miner interest, but leave the Mother-Lode without any solid leads on how to penetrate the hundres of miles between here and the citadel. ON their way to a location where they can find accompanyment for the night and a clear holonet connection the heros encounter a barrel rolling down a long flight of stairs clanking to halt at their feet. Shortly after a group of humans being lead by military COMPNOR agents come down the stairs to finsh what they begain… Jekk Seejo emerges from the barrel and pleads, “Help me they are going to throw me down the drains… PLEASE”. At first the COMPOR agents pretty much ignore the party until they notice Gongoras blue skin, Mahem ensues, followed by some force use, which is quickly followed up by an inquisitor response…

9.2 – thugs, COMPNOR and Inquisitorious Oh MY!
The party proceeded to split up and work the room. talking to miners, Aliens and Construction workers, and finally Old Man Geddis. The picture was pretty dim… the imperial built the citadel and shipped all of those invvoled off world. Nobody but the imperials know whats inside, but there is a landing platform and some ground entrances neat the base of the mountain.

Looking for Seejo and not finding him to buy them a drink they decide to try and find a clean holonet connection adn see what they can dig up that way. on the way to a local hotel (using the term loosely) they encounter a group of COMPNOR agents and some local human thugs mistreating a creature in a barrel… Jekk Seejo! A fight ensuse and the guys try to save Jekk – he owes them a drink afterall… during the fight Gongora attempts to mind trick one of the COMPNOR agents to defend him… failing utterly, and in the process is detected by the inquisitorious. in short order a theta class shuttle drops into the fray and adds inquisotor Jorad and his personal squad of stormtrooper brutes… thats when it started to get hairy…

9.3 – piles of goo
After Saving Jekk Seejo the group rushed off to Jekks house to hole up for a while. Jekk told his story of how he got attacked by Mynocks on the way back from the moon and was fired upon setting down. as luck would have it he’s a certified mechanic and can certify the Star Tripper “clean” so that the group can leave. Ash performed surgury on Gongora but he is still in bad shape. but they decided that staying put was not a good idea. Jekk went off to work on the Star Tripper, and the party went off to find a clean holonet connection. as they went into the city they realized that they were being followed by a large creature. they cornerd it in a construction yard under a crane and eventually coaxed it out. The creature spoke very broken basic and didn’t all the words for everything. Ash identified him as a stereb, a species that lives primarily underground on a dozen or so worlds. as they were figuring out that the creature wanted them to help it get home, the inquisitorious showed up and a gun fight ensued. thier new friend decided to brave the drains (giant trash dumps that the empire had created by drilling deeply into the planets crust and dumping all their trash down). after the gunfight was over Vern took a leap into the hole after thier new friend. the rest looted the troopers and followed. below they found packs of dinkos that attacked on the slightest provocation, but while distracted by the dinkos a giant Greethka emerged from the polins water and atttacked. An amorphous blob with three large pseudopods the greethka tried to envelope the party…

9.4 Where’s Graff when you need him?
So Herdr’Tui lead the essemblage through semi water filled tunnels. Along the way more of his race were encountered, cleaning the tunels keeping them free of debris, and growing mushrooms, and other activities that seemed invovled in keeping the environment working in a clean and efficient manner. Communication continued to be a serious problem but through slow and sometime painful attempts Herdr’Tui took the players to his leaders who after much more strained communication communicated that there was a large area of the world that had been amputated, to save the rest. A History of the stone was presented to the party, that iondicated all manner of geological catastrophe, Stereb cartaking and finally the Cancer invading the stone, followed by amputation. Of particular use was the history of the stone’s hand drawn mapping of the underground tunnels. Much time was spent mapping their overhad maps of the mines Prak City and the citedel to the underground maps. eventually a map was created that seemed to indicate a path far reaching and perhaps too the citedel via underground routes.

A 20 stereb strong work crew head out with the party to open the hole to the amputated section. The Stereb were primitive but very good workers and after several hours had cleared a man sized passage into the amputated area. Found there wre stereb slaves being worked literally to death by miners/slavers… That just cannot stand!

9.5 – Who’d thought Moss was so dangerous…
the party finished off the miners found some speeder bikes and found the correct tunel to the take them to what they hope will be within striking distance of the Citadel. The trip invovles riding speederbikes through a maze of stalagmites, andover an underwater sea that contains an unexepected challenge gray fear moss that has large tentacles that are preactically indistinguishable from real stalagmites… and they pack quite a punch…

9.6 – The Citadel inquisitorious
It turns out that getting to the citadel was the easy part… fighting their way to the interrogation room / torture chamber for the Grand inquisitor Draco proved to be a not insignificant task. Accessing the citadel through the service entrance they make their way…

9.7 – Draco Redux…
After intense meditation augmented by the slow sacrifice of his formaer Jedi Mentor Denia Draco has steeped himself fully inthe Darkside energie of this new citadel inquisitorious… the short lived alarms of the citadel guard, and several of the inquisitorious sending slight ripplpes through the force as they quickly died informing Draco that his old friends were coming for Denia, but would only find him waiting… Alive like never before the anticipation is almost too much… Ah there it is the opening of the elevator door, the comforting creak and squeal of the elevator platform making its slow decent to the lower level… time to show them the power of the dark Side.

10 – Jaws of the Sarlacc
Meeting up with the General Crakken the players are infoirmed that they are just in time for the assault on the Super Star Destroyer. No time to repair the EverStar the plan is simple the players lead an assault on the Golan Space station protecting the SSD and turn the main weapons on the SSD while Crakken’s and Aldrete’s force lures the SSD’s ship defenses off away. What could go wrong… the station is protected mostly by droids…?

10.1 Strike force lands after litte resistance from the space fleet the lure is working to perfection… Upon landing they are great not by droids but by a couple of elite stormtrooper units and some Super large mutant humaniods every bit of 15 foot tall. they weild super sized vibro axes and are melee specialists. the overly large hangar bay works in the players favor as they use the distance to their advantage to whittle them down as they all close. some quick hacking yeilds the plans for the Golan’s layout, and the path to the Main Bridge. When suddenly the voice of Draco comes over the speakers and starts taunting the players… on the way to the main bridge the players need to overcome an obstacle – the security locked down turbolifts… a 20M descent is complicated by 4 security droids fitted with Heavy repeating blasters and skilled at multi attack and advanced critical techiniques…

10.2 Assault to the main bridge is anti climatic as Draco was not there – in fact not a living soul was there – nor droid for that matter. The Bridge has been left empty all controls rerouted to auxilary control (Ash fights the urge to say “I told ya so”)….Strange in the middle of an assault. Draco continued his taunting via the intercoms. On the bridge feirce fight could be seen off to the right while the impressive Super Star Destroyer dominated all views to the left. After destroying the bridge to make it useless should Draco want to continue this game by coming back to this bridge. Using the datapad Vern id’s the auxiliary bridge near the Reactor core, and a path there… through another turbo lift shaft… they left the room into the long security corridor that leads up to it. About 100M away a lone stromtrooper manning an e-Web heavy repeating blaster is seen… the blast door behind closes with a curious Ker-thunk. Skinny Jeans and Kohl rush the machine gunner, while Gongora breaks out the Heavy blaster rifle… and starts taking careful shots… Draco Starts Cackling over the intercom.

Long story short upon arriving at the end of the corridor Vernon triggers all of the readied actions for the other combatants down there, taking a butt-load of damage. Kohl arrives to get behind the machine gunner and try to commandeer the weapon. Gongora uses the force long range to remove the gunner from his perch behind the blast shield… Mayhem ensues.

Turbo lift encounter went similar to the last time only a pitiful deception was attempted to try and fool the droids that “dead bodies were being force floated across the chasm… " the droids were not fooled and waited until Vern was in a bad spot before dropping in on him and lighting him up for 107 points of damage. Gongora finished levitating him across and was subsequently also lit up for 110 points. Vern then displayed his knack for droid killing as he and Kohl went on a shooting spree dropping all 4 droids in 2 additional rounds Kohl’s condition track damage becoming critical in that success making it a lot easier for Vern to hit…

So after the entire session that had a lot of great banter, the party is essentially exactly where there were at the end of the previous session – on the way to great Draco… after a torturous Turbolift encounter… minus the detonite.

20th level…!

10.3 – Draco redux “vu ja da”, all over again ???