Simple Posessions Act I Outline

Someone asked me to post a high level outline or description of what I use to run my sessions and I thought, OK. But then I got thinking about it and realized that it might be a bit harder than I thought. Reason being is that I generally GM off the cuff, on the fly, or by complete improvisation. I play off of, and react to, what the characters do in game.



With all that in mind, sometimes (meant rarely) I come up with an incredible adventure idea or story arc and want to completely flesh it out. When I do this, my intentions are to post it online somewhere for all the world to see and enjoy, but then my A.D.D. kicks in and I never get it finished (hence the title of my blog). This time, however, I have Episode 1 Act I completely fleshed out and ready to send to the webisphere! 


Bare in mind, that this was written explicitly for my group and may not work for all groups. I know what motivates my group, and generally know how they will react to situations. If they don't react the way I need them too, then I at least know how to coerce them into making the decisions I want them to, without them noticing too much.


So here goes...

A DARK BLACK PAST

Episode I

Simple Possession

Crawl

It is a time of opportunity in the galaxy. Scoundrels and smugglers, explorers and expatriates, and fringers of all types scramble to make a living on the edge of galactic civilization.  It is a hard life but these renegades have more freedom and opportunity than any citizen of the Core Worlds.

A few such renegades' have gathered on a resupply station orbiting Kesaris IV. The station cantina provides the group entertainment as they wait for an old contact, FABLAM to bring illicit information, a less-than reputable job offer or some other underworld offer.

The small station is suddenly rocked with a thunderous explosion, nearly knocking everyone off their feet. Debris and flames shatter the window separating the cantina from the adjacent hangar bay. Blaring klaxons erupt while choking black smoke rises from a newly wrecked snubfighter in the hangar...

ACT I

First Impressions

A sudden thunderous crash rocks the space station, nearly knocking all off their feet. Debris and flames shatter the window separating the cantina from the adjacent hangar bay. Blaring klaxons erupt as a choking black smoke rises from the newly wrecked snubfighter in the hangar.  The bar tender investigates the damage to the cantina windows while the security droid maintains vigilant watch over the cantina. The two other patrons of the cantina, dust covered Twi'lek miners from the planet's surface, immediately run to the hangar to investigate...

You peer through the broken glass, into the hangar to see roaring flames and thick choking smoke enveloping a tangled mess of metal that used to be two ships. It looks as though a z95 head hunter flew too fast into the hangar, with no landing gear, crashed to the floor, and careened into a docked yt-1300. First responder droids file into the hangar and begin putting out the fires. Klaxon's subside once the first responder droids begin working.

Exiting the black smoke is a hulking figure with four arms and thick heavy long coat. The figure, which you soon make out to be a Besalisk, is clearly injured as he limps in your direction. He stammers inside the cantina, frantically looks around and barks out, "Where's the back door?" The bartender cautiously points to the back and he heads in that direction. HE gets just beyond the door and you hear a loud thump.

The PC's should investigate, if they don't then the bartender looks at them and says, "Did you see the size of that guy, you go check it out."

Just beyond the door, the Besalisk lies heaped onto the floor. He tries to get up looks to you and says, "You gotta help.. Help me outta here!" 

The GM can allow a perception check (dd) to reveal few things about the Besalisk. 

·         He's been wounded by a blaster bolt in the chest and leg.

·         One of his left arms seems to be hanging limp.

·         With other arms he seems to be tightly clutching a "messenger bag"

The PCs shouldn't take too long to decide what to do. As they gather him up to help him out the back door, or if they do nothing and watch him die on the floor, the station comes under attack. Give the PC's the a few minutes to figure out what they are doing and then read the following.

With a sudden jar, the whole space station shakes while you hear a muffled explosion coming  from outside the station, then another explosion and then a third. The explosions stop for a moment then you hear the hum of an engine from the hangar. The engines are soon silenced by what sounds like a very loud blaster bolts firing. Each blaster shot is followed by more, smaller, explosions. Looking into the hangar, you see a heavily modified black yt-2400 landing just inside the atmospheric shield. It's dorsal quad-linked laser cannon is blasting into the hangar, seemingly haphazard into the walls of the hangar. The ship lands, the loading ram lowers, and six humanoid figures exit the ship. The figures begin firing various weaponry at anything that moves...

Combat: 

GM NOTE: The following combat encounter is not meant for the PC's to win. It is designed to dramatically introduce the PC's to the antagonist of the story, Hoken Talbot or as the PC's are concerned, The Cyborg.  Hoken and his pirate crew are all Nemesis characters and are way more experienced than the PC's. It should quickly be apparent that the PC's are out matched. While the NPC actions for each round are laid out below, the Beselisk will attempt to encourage the PC's to run for their lives beginning on round two.

Adversaries

At this stage in the Campaign, the NPC's are generic faces who will be developed later. Below is a breif description of the six that exit the ship. In parentheses are the adversary stat blocks (in core rulebook) I used for them:

1. A Gand Sniper (Master Hunter)

2, 3. Twi'lek twin bounty hunters, one male and one female. I used Oskara's (from the Beginner Box Adventure) image to represent the twins. (Master Hunter)

4,Human male smuggler, looks like Chris Hemsworth(spelling) as Thor. (Pirate Captain)

5, Human female mechanic/smuggler Long red hair athletic. (Swoop Ganger)

6, Weequay pirate (Ship jacker)

Initiative (Cool)

Smoke: If the GM wishes to add randomness to the smoke and fire effect on the battle GM's can add this simple mechanic. Due to the ebb and flow of smoke and fire, old and damaged exhaust vents attempting filter the smoke, or the stations fire response droids, the ebb and flow of the smoke can seriously impact the combat situation. Before each players turn have them roll a Force Die. If a Dark Side pip is rolled then the characters add a setback die to the dice pool for each black pip. If a Light Side pip is rolled the PC can choose to gain extra "cover" or ignore the effects of the smoke. Either adding a setback die  to their cover, or reducing a setback dice due to cover from the smoke. The same applies to the NPC's except the GM should only roll once at the beginning of the round and have it effect all NPC's the whole round.

For example, at the beginning of Round 1, the GM rolls a Force Die to see the environmental effects on the NPC's. He rolls a single Light Side pip. So for all the NPC's the exhaust vents kick on to help clear the room of smoke. For just a second the smoke lightens or clears in front of the NPC. The NPC can choose to ignore a setback die provided by cover, or choose to add a setback die to the next attack against them as a thick cloud of smoke rolls by.  

Round 1

The pirates exit the ship and attack anyone who exits any door. Smoke causes a setback die. Only one or two pirates focus on PC’s, others attack droids, patrons or security exiting cantina. By the end of the first round all other targets besides PC’s are dead.

Round 2

If PC's stick around, the pirates focus fire on PC’s. The last NPC slot will be the Cyborg (large hulking silhouette) exiting the ship. The PC's cannot make out any details of the Cyborg due to smoke, fire, lighting or whatever.

Round 3

In the first NPC slot, Cyborg assesses the situation then yells, "DAMN IT, SINK IT!" 3 of the pirates break off from combat and start setting detonators.

Round 4

All pirates attempt enter the yt-2400. If there are any pirates wounded, incapacitated, or otherwise unable to reach the ship, they are left behind.

Round 5

Pirate ship takes off and leaves the hangar. Characters can see a missile bank lower from the ships bottom turn and fire a salvo of missiles into the station exterior.

Round 6

Explosions rock the space station, Not only from the hangar from other parts of the station.

If the PC's leave the battle before round 5. Two of the NPC's will pursue into the cantina but not any further. Once the PC's are clear of Talbot and his crew read the following

Small explosions are heard muffled through the station halls. All of a sudden the very floor beneath your feet begins to tilt. Everything lying on the floor begins to slide down hill as you realize the station is listing. A robotic female voice softly emanates from nearly everywhere on the station. "Emergency evacuation procedures are now in effect. Everyone on board is directed to board your vessel and leave of locate the nearest escape pod."  Several small compartments along the hallway open and release re-breathers. Yellow translucent directional arrows light up on the floor and trail down the hallway leading to the escape pods. 

The PC need to find away of the station and have two options. 

1) Use the escape pods

2) Find the space stations other hangar bay and heist the remaining ship that is there.

Escape Pods

It does not take much effort for the PC's to follow the direction arrows and get into an escape pod. Each escape pod holds two-three people depending on their size. Releasing the escape pod and descending to the planet's surface does cause each player to lose 4 strain as it is a bumpy traumatic ride. The escape pods are equipped with 3 re-breathers, emergency medical, 2 stim packs, 2 emergency repair patches and 2 environmental protective suits.

PC's can make a knowledge outer rim or education to learn about the planet. The planet's surface is unbreathable to most humanoids which require all PC's to wear a re-breather.  Any Gands would/should have their own re-breathers.  The planet surface is a dark barren rocky with deep canyons and little to no water and little to no foliage. All over the surface there are small pocket mining camps. These camps do not really have much in the terms of resources and are primarily used for mining the planet's ore and shipping it to the above space station. At any given time, there is a transport freighter at the camps getting loaded with ore. The ore then goes to various points throughout the galaxy. 

Once on the surface, the PC's will see the space station burning through the atmosphere and crashing to the surface way in the distance. It does not take much for the characters to find any other pods that have landed. They all land close to one another. Characters can make an upgraded average (dc) survival check to locate a nearby mining camp. IF the GM wishes they can add environmental factors such as dust storm, deep canyons, or heavy cloud cover to add b to the dice pool.

s - The characters have found a mining camp.  More s the faster they find the mining camp.

a - Faster time to find the camp; Travel is not a treacherous as originally thought and recover 2 strain; The PC finds local resource that can replenish the characters recovering 1 wounds.

x - Just over the hill is the mining camp. The PC's are so excited they recover all strain loss. In addition they can locate a vital piece of information that could give them an advantage when attempting to acquire a ship.

t - It takes the players longer than expected to find a camp. Characters lose strain due to the exhaustion of the trek. More threat mean more strain.

y When the players reach the closest mining camp they realize there is no freighter there to get transport off the planet. Since the Space Station is no longer orbiting, there will not be another freighter land for who knows how long. The PC's must try and find another camp. This time, they can add a boost die to the pool. 

Once the PC's find a camp they will find a yt-1300 freighter on a landing pad. 

At this point, the GM should refer to the stealing the Krayt Fang encounter in Escape from Mos Shuuta adventure to work out the details. In order to make the FFG encounter fit into this adventure there need to be a few different changes.

1. There are no security droids monitoring the situation that the players need to get past.
2. If the GM wishes Trex does not have to be present at all. He has left his ship for whatever reason and hasn't returned by the time the PC's get to the ship. In my game, I left the ship empty and Trex out of the picture. I then told the PC's that if they take the ship, then they will acquire either criminal or bounty obligation. As there are other ways to get to safety. 
3. The GM can have Trex be present and the PC's need to figure out a way to take the ship leave the planet.
4. The Docking clamps are still on the ship and require an average (dd) mechanics or computer check to disable. Setback die can be added due to the stress of having to perform the check under duress.

Once the pilot is ready to take off there is no skill check needed to fly out of the atmosphere and into space. Continue to The End.

The Space Station

The PC's may deduce that there is another hangar bay in the space station. There are a few different ways the characters can find the other hangar, Computer skills, Knowledge skills, or just dumb luck (Destiny Point).  Traveling through the space station is going to be a dangerous chaotic trek. The space station is now slanted nearly 45 degrees and is steadily heading toward the planets surface. The GM should explain in a cinematic way how difficult the run to the other hangar is, but it's not horribly difficult. Once the PC's reach the hangar they will find a lone YT-1300 in the bay.

At this point, the GM should refer to the stealing the Krayt Fang encounter in Escape from Mos Shuuta adventure to work out the details. In order to make the FFG encounter fit into this adventure there need to be a few different changes.

1. There are no security droids monitoring the situation that the players need to get past.
2. If the GM wishes Trex does not have to be present at all. He has left his ship for whatever reason and hasn't returned by the time the PC's get to the ship. In my game, I left the ship empty, and Trex out of the picture. I then told the PC's that if they take the ship, then they will acquire either criminal or bounty obligation.
3. The GM can have Trex be present and the PC's need to figure out a way to take the ship and leave the planet.
4. The Docking clamps are still on the ship and require an average (dd) mechanics or computer check to disable. Setback die can be added due to the stress of having to perform the check under duress.

Once ready to take off, the pilot needs to navigate out of the hangar. Due to the space station now heading toward the planets surface.  The pilot must make an upgraded average (dc) piloting check to leave the hangar undamaged. The GM could add a b or bb due to the pilot having to fly under duress and a sinking space station.

Once out of the hangar continue to The End.

The End

Once the characters are on a freighter, either one stolen from the space station or from a mining camp, the adventure is basically over. The PC's need to decide where to go to next and that depends on what the GM has in store for them. While they are deciding, the GM can trigger the events of the Krayt Fang as described in the first part of The Long Arm of the Hutt adventure. The GM just has to modify the adventure a bit to fit their needs.

Or the GM can simply end this part of the adventure with the PC's ready to jump to hyperspace. The astrogation check to make the jump is average (dd) with any applicable modifiers based on the GM's plans for their game. Once made the ship jumps to hyperspace, stars turn to starlines and the adventure is over.

Epilogue

I triggered the events in A Long Arm of the Hutt adventure with the only real modification was that the HMRI had not been fixed yet and there was only one jump left in the ship. So, once my mechanic figured this out, it made the choice of where to go an important one.

I also left in, B'uran, the Twi'lek prisoner. I just changed his background a bit (which I'm not going into in case my group reads this).