Starting Out Green 20260123
No duty triggered, so no extra juice.
We’re near the temple. Zarlo’s flying the ship into the canyon to hook up.
We have coined the phrase “right up the wombat’s alley”. A meaning has yet to be established, but one will become apparent.
We got 10XP last session. I spent 5 each on a rank in Grit (boring, but extra strain threshold will be handy) and Intimidating.
When attempting a Coercion check, the character may suffer a number of strain to downgrade the difficulty of the check a number of times equal to the strain suffered. This number cannot exceed [their] ranks in Intimidating. When the character is the target of a Coercion check, the character may suffer a number of strain to upgrade the difficulty of the check a number of times equal to the strain suffered. This number cannot exceed [their] ranks in Intimidating.
Could lead to KD being more useful in social situations
Willie fires a rock over towards the entrance to the temple, triggers another stalactite popping up. So the steps are definitely trapped. We’re looking for another way in, through some cracks in the wall maybe.
Walls are cracked, there’s one big enough for Rimer to fit through. The wall’s only about 8ft high though, we can climb it.
Willie flies over, but can’t see much inside. Bit of a feeling of dread/filth, and the encroaching darkness.
Manage to hook KD’s vision up to a datapad and Willie’s helmet, so the ‘ganic’s can see clearer in the dark, as KD’s not affected by the force related fuckery.
KD’s vision is a little bit terminator, HUD doing threat analysis etc. Mostly sees the “normal” visible spectrum, with a bit of infrared for detecting heat sources.
Rimer tries to suck his gut in and stand taller when he sees himself through KD’s eyes.
Make it over the wall, still can’t see much, we’re in a dusty hallway, there are some columns, no footprints around, or other signs of recent activity.
We try unveiling the existing artefact (Shadra Nid, the Dark Sister), but that blacks it out even worse, even for KD. Put that away real quick.
Decide to leave a glow rod where we started. Will drop em on any junctions/points of interest as we progress.
Rimer’s jonesin for a touch on the artefact. KD will slap him. He manages to resist it so far, but is feeling the (2) strain.
As we round a corner, the darkness lightens a bit, can see into a central chamber.
There’s a raised dais and a box in the centre. It’s a bigger box than the one containing the first artefact. It has clamps in place, holding the box and the lid down.
We release a recon drone towards the centre
Massive, black apparition begins to appear. The floor becomes covered in a tar pit, there’s a rancor struggling within. KD can’t see this.
The rancor is wounded, but stuck and in distress. Pit covers the entire chamber floor. It feels like we’re outdoors.
Rancor clocks us but is obviously scared.
The Recon Droids (and KD) are only seeing the room.
There is some convo about what is and isn’t there.
The bois take some strain but manage to push past the vision, and are back to seeing the standard blackness, wondering why it was trying to scare us away? With a scared rancor.
As we get further into the room, now there’s a vision of a scared child, still nothing from KD though.
Kid asks if we’re here to help. Rimer ask who he is. Kid says his name is Peter, asks for help again.
Willie’s trying to fight it again, but is tearing up.
Rimer has a theory this artefact is trying to communicate with him through the visions, it may be clues to a puzzle.
KD goes to just grab the box, but it is clamped tight. No apparent mechanical means of unlocking the clamps.
Reminder this is Shadrah Nith (the light sister). Peter doesn’t know how long he’s been here, got lost in the woods. Knows nothing about Shadrah Nith “you’re speaking weird mister”.
Kid heads towards Rimer with his grabby little hands and phases through KD without either of them noticing.
Willie’s trying to tell him he’s not real. Note to not hire him as a babysitter.
Trying to explain to him that he walked through his friend.
Rimer’s theory is that it’s a soul trap. Rancor hid after a fight with the Zakkegs, Petey just got lost.
Fusion cutter doesn’t make a dent in the clamps.
Rimer wants to try touching the artefact we already have, seeing what effect that has. Still gets darker again, but the kid is spotlighted/still visible.
Kid wants to go home, he’s scared too.
Willie tells the kid he thinks he’s dead.
Rimer touches the thing. Sense of bliss/darkness.
KD sees the clamps shift a little, then settle into place.
Rimer, still holding the box, approaches the chest. As he gets closer the clamps are trying to work, but nada.
Rimer tries thinking “open sesame” at the box.
Straining, but so much focus, shudders the box, everything’s shaking, but settles back into place.
Peter can’t see the box either.
He can see trees though.
As the kid backs up, scared, the clamps twitch.
More scared kid=looser clamps
Willie’s working on him with his angry dad voice, getting all threatening. One of the clamps releases, and Peter fades away. A breakthrough!
This is the light sister. Rimer thinks the dark is securing it, so being nasty gets the dark on our side.
Stepping away from the altar again, the rancor reappears. The plan at the moment is to kill it.
Rimer goes for his blaster, but we confiscated them before he grabbed the box. He’s mad about it
Willie starts blasting.
Rancor goes down, another clamp released.
We’re getting concerned about Rimer and the box, so wrestle it away from him. He is PISSED. Proper Bilbo face.
A village fades in, they’re looking for Peter, worried parents etc. Willie tells them he killed Peter, no messing. They are distraught, village fades away, and another clamp lets go.
Dais reappears, Rimer starts to feel calmer, and walks towards the box.
KD pulls it out of the last clamp with brute force and ignorance, the other clamps try to re clamp it but fail.
Now we have a box.
Willie wants to cover it, Rimer wants to open it.
Swaddling the box dispelled the darkness, but we decided to open the box. FOOLS.
Unwrapping it, the darkness comes back. Pop the lid and everything brightens up. But TOO MUCH. KD sees a white cube inside, basically the opposite of the other one. The box it was in is trying to combat it though.
Rimer’s getting all of the emotions flashing through him. Willie too but lesser.
Rimer wants to combine the boxes here.
We think Zarlo should be consulted first.
Rimer wants to touch it. As he does. Gently this time though, less grabby, it’s not exerting as much of a pull as the other one did.
If the other box made him bad, this one might make him good. Gently does it
Rimer gets all righteous, doesn’t know how Willie can live so badly.
Too far the other way! They’re very divisive, total opposites.
SO we are combining the cubes. KD pops the white one down, places the nasty one gently on top. There is a sizzlepop and they begin to merge. The blinding white fades, into a grey, still very bright.
The cubes merge completely, then shatter into fragments. Crystalline shards, muted grey, neither black nor white.
KD sweeps them up, back into the OG box we had NOT the scary dark one.
The bois have a chat about their feelings. Waves of everything from bliss to despair.
Less ominous music kicks in.
Willie takes a seat, is catching his breath.
We have more of an explore now that everyone can see again. The temple is hexagon shaped, there are some pillars, another exit to the east. Sith engravings on the walls, no statues. Columns n carvings.
Have a recce, spot a secret compartment in the dais containing some platinum plates, hexagonal disks, four of em. They get yoinked. Like a stone tablet, but metal.
We can’t read em though, but they do look Sith.
Use the recon drones to scan/record the walls so we’ve got them to refer to for later analysis.
We’re hearing some snuffling, near the entrance, so head AWAY from that to jump the wall opposite the one we came in over. There’s that pavilion out back we want to check out.
Spot another Zakkeg. There’s a bit of cover around.
Playing it safe, Willie flies to the pavilion out back to check that out. The guys are wussing out, not wanting to fight.
Pavilion looks dilapidated, not much in there other than benches.
One zakkeg is following Willie around as he zooms. Zarlo bring the ship in, not gracefully though. Willie flies in to the open hatch to help get the ship in a better position. Rimer and KD climb aboard just as a zakkeg charges the wall we were stood on, bringing it down.
Return to Whisper Base!
No one died.
Gav’s pleased to see us but is confused by the box of bits we brought back, agrees it’s probably for the best though.
I spose we should be concerned about potential retaliation. Palpatine will not be pleased that we broke his toy.
Plates are a combined 6lb of platinum. Worst case we can melt em and turn em into credits. Unless we get a better idea. Platinum’s worth 15-25 cr a gram so about 40k if we go that route.
Should deffo make copies before anything else. They could be worth more to a collector.
Will do a trip into town and see if the library has anything useful in decoding them.
At the base though, we have some data goggles/lore modules, Rimer’s having a look with some help. Start to pick out some repeated words saying something about a sword made of light, bits about manufacturing one, and the glory of the dark side.
Our intrepid heroes aren’t super sure what it’s about though, they wouldn’t be familiar with lightsabers. Worked out it’s some sort of weapon though. Is it literal or figurative? Nothing else yet without additional resources.
If it is about creating a weapon, the bois aren’t super keen on selling them intact, and what that could unleash on the galaxy.
Plans afoot to either delve into what Zarlo’s up to, and/or dig more into the Sith research.
So far all we really know is the Sith sound like a bad time, but we’d want to decrypt the plates 100% before getting rid of them, and base a decision on that.
Our efforts today have earned us 20XP and 10 duty each