Simple Possession Act 1 (pt 1)

The anticipation has been building and building within my group for weeks now and finally the campaign gets underway. All but our Wookie Pilot were present (which ended up hindering the group just a bit). Everyone seemed to have a great time, there was one person in the group that didn't play during my beta of Edge of the Empire campaign. He picked up on the mechanics quickly and enjoyed the systems as much as the rest of us...

Below is a narrative of what happened through the eyes of our Twi'lek Doctor.

Occasionally I may add GM notes if it's something significant to the mechanics of the session. If so, they will be indented white text with gray background.

Here we go...

It happened so fast...

I think there were seven of us enjoying drinks in the cantina; me, Knosh, Tabo, Skleet, Simms, and two humans, who I think were miner's from the planet below. Then all hell broke loose.

First, the explosion. Thick black smoke filled the hangar and cantina choking us all. We waited for just a second to see if the smoke would clear and to see what was happening. When the alarm klaxons began blaring, my medical training kicked in and I ran to see if anyone was hurt. A few followed me into the hangar ,Simms and the miners. The rest just hung back.

The scene in the hangar was a chaotic mess of metal, smoke, and fire. It looked like an old z-95 headhunter tried to land in the hanger but instead of a normal hover landing it just slammed  to the floor and skidded. The path of the z-95 left crumpled metal and black lubricating fluid all over the floor. The fighter then slammed into a docked yt-1300 resting at the other end of the hangar. Both ships were mostly destroyed by the impact and explosion.

Then I saw him, I hulking mass of a figure exiting the Z-95 and hobbling my way. He was wearing a thick brown heavy trench coat, had 4 think meaty arms, grey mottled skin and what looked like a bone crest. Clearly a Besalisk and clearly injured.


He reached the cantina entry when I reached out to grab him to maybe help stabilize his walk. Before I could touch him one of his thick hands grabbed my shoulder and another the small of my back turning me back toward the cantina. With panicked expression he said, "The back... Where's the back door boy!?!" I didn't really know what to do. I just froze. His booming voice snapped me back, "HELP ME GET OUTTA HERE BOY!"

With two of his massive arms around me, I helped the wounded pilot into the cantina. I yelled at the bar tender to tell me where the back entrance is. He pointed to a door at the end of the bar.. It took all my strength to help this wounded pilot to the door leading to the cantina storeroom. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Skleet, cautiously watching me and the pilot, his three clawed hand carefully positioned on the blaster at his side.

I don't remember what Knosh and Simms were doing, but I seem to recall Tabo yelling something in Gand that I think equated to him helping put out the fire. Response droids had been dispatch to the hangar but were highly ineffective. The old and ill-repaired exhaust vents, meant to clear out airborne toxins, was barely working. It only kicked on every few seconds or so. I even think that at one point it was pushing air into the hangar instead of venting the smoke out. Tabo went to computer terminal and started fiddling around. I don't know how that was supposed to help put the fire out.

The wounded pilot was so heavy and I was having such a hard time leading him through cantina. As soon as we clear the door to the storage room, he collapsed. I checked for life signs and he was still alive. I pulled out my emergency medkit and was attempting to revive him when I heard more explosions.

From the cantina storeroom, I couldn't see what was going on in the hangar. So, what I write next is based on what Knosh and the others have shared with me.

Tabo was trying to hack into the computer systems to get the droids working more efficiently and/or see what was wrong with the ventilation systems when a solid black, heavily modified YT-2400 swooped into the hangar. Before doing so, the freighter just lit up the exterior of the station with laser cannon fire. As the freighter landed, its dorsal and ventral laser cannon's kept firing indiscriminately into the walls of the hangar.

The boarding ramp lowered and out came four heavily armed individuals. The first two were twin blue skinned tattooed twi'leks, one male one female both armed with heavy blaster rifles. The next one was a what appeared to be a Gand with a sniper rifle. The final one was a scruffy looking human with long blonde hair and tattoo down the left side of his face. All seemed dressed in typical spacer/pirate clothing. At this point, Knosh decided to take cover under a table in the cantina, while Simms ran out into the hangar. Skleet hung out in the cantina trying to keep an eye on me and what was going on in the hangar.

Once out of the freighter, the pirates (for lack of a better word) just started unloading on everyone and everything. First the miners were killed, then droids started dropping. Hearing this, Simms ran into the hangar while Skleet ran to just the edge of the cantina to use the destroyed door/walls as cover. When there were no other targets the pirates turned to our group The first of us to get really hit was Skleet, The female Twi'lek shot him right between the eyes dazing him for a bit.

GM NOTE: The female Twi'lek hit Skleet with a Blaster Rifle with 4 successes and a Triumph, consequently critting him with a "Head Ringer" result.

It was at about this time when I revived the Besalisk. He took in a deep breath and started to mumble something. All I could really make out was that he was scared and kept muttering, "Don't let him have it... Can't let him have it"

After Skleet was shot, another figure emerged from the freighter, This guy was just about as large as the Besalisk. Due to the lighting and the smoke, no one could really make out any detaield about the figure other than that he may have some sort of mechanical leg, and a sybernetic, glowing red eye.

Speaking of smoke, Tabo kept frantically getting the ventilation system to work correctly. Due to the fluctuating air current caused by the ventilation system the smoke was almost alive and always seemed to worsen at the most inoportune moments. It seemed to always thicken just as one of our group was trying to fire on the pirates and then waft and clear a bit when the pirates fired on us. Eventually, Tabo got the vents to work correctly and the smoke began to clear hindering us no longer.

GM NOTE: I wanted a random effect of smoke. Smoke is random as it is but I also wanted to add a bit more to the effects of the smoke based on the random, intermittent workings of the ill-repaired ventilation system. So, what I did was have each character in the hangar roll a Force Die before they acted. If dark side pips were rolled then the character had to add that many Setback dice to their roll. This represented a sudden surge of think black smoke wafting over them. The smoke choked them, got in their eyes, caused created difficulties in seeing or concentrating or whatever. At the same time, any Light side pips rolled allowed the characters to ignore effects of the smoke or ad Boost dice. This represented the exhaust vent kicking in at just the right time to allow the character to act unhindered by the smoke. Maybe their target was too reliant on the smoke screen and when the smoke cleared they were in the open. The effect worked sort of well. I think out of all the turns the PC's really only rolled 1 or 2 Light side pips the entire time. Which made for a very one sided combat. 

Watching Skleet get shot, Knosh ran into the hangar, arms raised, and attempted to beg for his life. He tried to tell them that we didn't want any trouble and that the guy they were looking for was in the store room. His words must have meant something to some of them. For a moment they seemed to stop, look at the pirate captain, then gain their resolve and begin firing. Except for one, the long haired scruffy looking one said something like, "I'm not doing this" and ran back to the ship.

GM NOTE: Another example of a Triumph. Knosh rolled it on his negotiation roll. It was his only success. So while it didn't cause all of them to rethink their actions, I did allow one of them to leave the scene.

With shaking hands, the Besalisk reached into an inside pocket and pulled out a small orb. The orb was about twice the size of my fist, covered in a dark leather, and tied around with a primitive twine like chord. He looked up at me with scared eyes and with failing breath told me, "Beware... the...Cyborg.... BEWARE...THE....CYB...." He collapsed to the floor never to breath again.

I put the orb into my medical kit and rant to the hangar. I placed a hand on Skleets shoulder and yelled to everyone, "I'M GETTING THE $#^& OUTTA HERE!" Then ran back through the storeroom looking for another way out.

Just before Knosh, Tabo, and the others fled the hangar, Tabo noticed that the pirate captain yell to his crew, "Sink this rock." and walked back onto the ship. The engines of the ship ignited and the ship began to take off. Just before leaving the hangar, a missile pod lowered from teh bottom of the freighter and fired two missiles into the rear of the hangar. When the ship exited the hangar, it fired it's remaining salvo into different (most likely deliberate) exterior locations of the space station.

As if things weren't bad enough. The ship started listing. Alarm klaxons blared and preprogrammed voiced echoed over the PA system. "Emergency protocal"...something or other..."evacuation procedures in efffect. T minus 3 minutes before emergency orbital re-entry. All hands make your way a departing vessel or nearest escape pod...."

To be continued in part 2.