STAR WARS RPG - A Campaign Using the Fantasy Flight System, Act 1

I want to put these campaign notes online, mostly to preserve them for future reflection and enjoyment but also to share the story with others playing these games. Due to our personal schedules, there are only two players and myself the GM. We are playing a little less than twice a month as not to disrupt our Pathfinder and Battletech RPG campaigns that are still ongoing. Fingers crossed for more players! The images seen are from Wookieepedia at https://starwars.fandom.com, many of them poorly photo shopped by me, or at the very least, 'renamed' to fit our story.  

Introduction: The Campaign & Characters

We are new to the interpretive dice system but are enjoying it immensely. Rather than play "born heroes", we decided to start out on a darker note and see where their moral compasses lead them. We begin ten years after the end of the Clone Wars, (nine years before the Battle of Yavin).

"Black Rose" played
by Scarlett Johansson

Collin’s character is "Natasha Hawthorne,” aka "Black Rose".

She is a force-sensitive human female spy/sleeper agent working as a freelance operative through an organization known as 'The Guild'. Her handler is a human who goes by the codename, 'Shadow of Eridu'. She graduated with a male Torgruta called 'Saber', a male human called 'Flame' and a Gand named Isek Nyuglioo who left the Guild mid-training. It was rumored he developed a 'deathstick' habit while trying to mimic 'vision questing' so many of the other hunters and trackers of his species perform, (though without the help of hallucinogenic drugs).  Her mother is a former pageant winner and a Coruscant debutante. Her father is a Vigo in Black Sun, a widespread, galactic criminal organization. Her brother went against family tradition and became a Law Enforcement Officer in the Capital City. He has little to no contact with the rest of the family but makes frequent attempts to lure her into colluding with the police. A security droid named Hunter protects the family's condo.

Sam is playing “Feral,” a Zabrak marauder from Dathomir. We role-played out the details of his backstory in the first chapter.

Feral, Zabrak Marauder

Chapter 1 - Escape from Dathomir

 Nightsister Shelissa has made an attempt on the Mother’s Seat for the Singing Mountain Clan but is sorely humilitated and banished from Dathomir. She informs Feral and six of his brethren to "pack lightly" and prepare to depart with her. They search for an abandoned Consular Class frigate turned freighter named Intrepid, deep in the ruins of an abandoned mining city.  A rancor hunts them as they travel and they attempt to hide. The rancor plucks two Zabrak from a shallow river and one is immediately eaten. The other, named Blade, is saved after a daring rescue by Feral who rushes the hungry beast, climbs up it's back and uses an energy pike to strike it on the top of the head, (our first 'crit' of the game)! This stuns the monster enough so that he drops the gravely injured Blade and Shelissa uses her dark side force powers to scare off the rancor. She then scolds Feral for his recklessness and for not protecting her. "Remember your place and the insignificance of your life."

They find the Intrepid and she tasks Feral to prepare the ship while she takes the remaining able bodied Zabraks and attacks a local village of the Singing Mountain Clan in a final act of revenge.  After clearing the ship’s cargo hold of venomous Bane-back Spiders, Feral begins system checks and repairs, keeping the injured Blade close by. The only Zabrak to return alive from the raid with Shelissa is a hulking brute named Killgore. The ship barely flies but they manage to make it off planet. It takes several tries to find a hyperspace route as Dathomir is extremely secluded and Feral has limited experience with plotting courses. They suffer additional indignities from Shelissa who is maddened with anger and thoughts of revenge. He realizes that she will be the death of them all. Once on the Celanon Spur hyperlane, Feral programs the drive to jump but jettisons himself, Blade and Killgore in an attempt to rescue his brothers from their cruel Master.

After four days adrift, they begin to eat the bacta shots included in a medical kit within the pod to stave off dehydration and starvation. With a stroke of luck, they are picked up by merchants, Captain Hapt, a Cathar and her human co-pilot Ido Burznen in the Action VI Freighter, Iguila. They refuse them their weapons but grant them passage in exchange for the pod. While getting resupplied at the space station “Titanus” in the Bandomeer system, Kilgore ditches them to search for his master, the Nightsister Shelissa. The merchants help Blade and Feral get 'refugee identification documents' and recommend they find work on Coruscant as hired muscle. They do well with the advice and in a short amount of time they meet a low ranking Black Sun boss named Lorenz. They collect 'protection credits' from local businesses, and are given a modest apartment and some cash. All of their immediate needs are provided for.

Chapter 2 - A Messy Business

On Coruscant, a Falleen Black Sun Vigo named Agiatoz, calls fellow Vigo, Rodundo Hawthorne for assistance with a 'situation'. Lorenz, who is a son of one of Agiatoz's Lieutenants, was sent to the Super Nova Hotel and Casino Resort to negotiate a meeting with a Hutt named Dagiz Besadii Sadeen over some disputed drug marketing territories around the Senate Spaceport district. Both sides want an amicable, bloodless agreement. The Hutt shows up with a Gossam Lieutenant named Tixir, and three Trandoshan bodyguards. Lorenz brings two human thugs, a Besalisk named Babo and Feral, (our player’s Dathomirian Zabrak). He also is being escorted by two Twi'lek dancers from the Starlight Casino who Lorenz likes to employ as 'arm candy' while doing business. Everything is going great with negotiations until one of the human bodyguards accidentally discharges a heavy blaster into the pretty green head of the Twi'lek dancer, splattering brains on the wall and making a pool of blood on the floor. None of the gangsters dare to leave without cleaning up the mess as security cameras would easily place them at the crime scene when the body is discovered later by hotel droids. Lorenz calls Vigo Agiatoz who in turn seeks help from Natasha Hawthorn's Vigo father who sends her to fix the problem. He instructs that her priority is Lorenz's life, (despite being a spoiled playboy who seems to frequently create difficult situations for the organization).

Dagiz Swallows the Evidence

Tensions are running high in the meeting room, the Trandoshans are hissing among themselves and the Gossam Tixir fears they will make a break for it. Everyone is keeping their fingers on triggers. Natasha arrives and calms everyone down. She sends the Besalisk Babo out for matching paint and cleaning supplies. They cut the carpet out, relieved the blood didn't soak through. Rose begins working on the window to see if it can be opened wide enough to allow them to get the corpse into a hover car or some other transportation out of sight of security cameras. Feral talks up Dagiz the Hutt who eventually agrees to eat the dead Twi'lek as long as Feral can provide a bottle of Shuura Fruit Sauce to help the poor thing go down. Feral 'strong-arms' the item from a nearby restaurant and Dagiz gobbles the evidence in a gut wrenching display of mastication. The section of carpet is removed, and the walls painted with the supplies procured by Babo. Everyone departs except for Rose who hangs back and slices the security systems of the Hotel to delete the last few hours of camera footage. Everyone goes their separate way. No body, no crime.

That night, Natasha confronts her feelings and a strange, growing sense of 'energy' within her. As a child, she fantasized about being able to make things float with her mind. Now, that power has come to fruition and she moves a glass of wine from the table into her waiting hand. Frightened, she confides in the one person she trusts the most: her father. "Never do that! Never do that again, especially here in Coruscant." He advises. "I know of this power, and beings that use it are taken away in the night by Imperials. Even I will not be able to protect you."

Chapter 3 - Two Heads Aren't Better Than One

Shadow summons Natasha Rose to meet in a shady back room of one of the many casinos in the Super Nova Hotel and Resort (coincidentally, the establishment is also under Black Sun protection). He offers her an assassination job of a peculiar nature: she must kill ONLY one of the heads of a certain Troig nammed Kevessu-Timmult, and must guarantee the safety and survival of the other. She accepts the contract for 15,000 credits and visits a medical doctor on the Black Sun payroll to discuss options. She procures an amputation sleeve and researches her victim's profession and residence. 

The Troig is Kevessu-Timmult, and works as investment bankers, however, Natasha quickly discovers that one of the personalities has a severe gambling addiction. Furthermore, the Troig stands to inherit a large sum of family money which is currently being withheld in the courts by other family members due to gambling debts with the casino, loan sharks and Black Sun.

Troig, Kevessu-Timmult

For four-thousand credits, Natasha employs the Besalisk Babo as additional security for the job and seeks to gain the Troig’s trust. She entertains them at the Casino and is able to negotiate a peaceful resolution with some Black Sun debt collectors looking to break one (or four) of the Troig's arms. She joins them for after dinner drinks at their estate in the suburbs of Coruscant’s Senate District and is greeted by a large security droid, not much unlike ‘Hunter’, a droid she grew up with at her father’s estate. Once she locates the security recorders in the estate, she calls in Babo, neutralizes the security droid and stuns the Troig to unconsciousness. The medical sleeve is put in place around Timmult's neck and she shoots him in the head with her blaster.

She then calls emergency medical services to save Kevessu, steals the security hard drive and makes a hasty get-a-way before police droids can respond. She receives payment from Shadow and (as she suspected), learns that surviving head, Kevessu, is the one who took the contract out.

Chapter 4 - Skeletons of the Past

Black Rose’s father bought some property on planet Duro. The area had been decimated due to orbital bombardment by a star destroyer after the city Qintepid was determined to be ‘infested’ with rebel supporters and hidden cells. He tasks Natasha and Feral to pick up two recovered shipping containers on Duro, and transport them to Bestine V to a contact, “Fourtu” (spelling?), who is to meet them in the Red Hills Saloon. They are given a ship to use, Typhoon, an old G9 Rigger and bring Feral's brother Blade with them as an additional gunner and to act as ship security.

In the Duro system they are scanned by Imperial TIE fighters who question them and ask them for their itinerary. The party is followed to the surface, but the TIEs break off without further complications. Heavy rains and weather do little to slow them and they acquire the two shipping containers which they discover are each filled with 32 B1 battledroids, spare parts and weapons for the droids. The containers are listed as 'destroyed' and the contents can now be sold on the black market.

"Typhoon" the party's G9 Rigger, landed on Bestine V

Bestine IV is a well known water world turned into a Imperial manufacturing center. Much of the population keeps getting displaced for expanding starship research and construction of the Acclimator Class assault ship. There is a orbital facility called Kestic Station on the outer part of the system that supports miners and gas scoopers that work the area.

Bestine V is a cold rocky world with only trace atmosphere but agreeable gravity. It is also the location of a crashed Lucrehulk Droid Control ship left over from the Clone Wars in 21 BBY. The giant structure suffered major damage but scrappers and salvage teams were able to seal and re-power much of the hulk, developing it over the last 12 years into a massive habitat for the human, H’Kig and other alien inhabitants who have called it “New Jahnae City”. The entire ground floor has  been agriculturally developed, using Bestine V's natural soil and fertilizers purchased from Bestine IV’s oceans. They can support half the population with these vegetable and yogurt crops. The upper levels have been restructured to create living and work stations and manufacturing sections for the population as well as parks, markets, restaurants, etc. Outside, several deep and lucrative mining shafts provide employment for the locals. The senior administrator is a follower of the H’Kig religion a belief in meditation and transcendence, chimes and contemplative glyphs. The population nears 22,000 with approximately half of them H’Kig.

New Jahnae City on Bestine V,  Built from the Ruins of a Crashed Lucrehulk from the Clone Wars Era

They land on platform two, outside New Jahnae City and are greeted by  C-9 is a blue protocol droid and his excitable GONK droid partner. Both droids wear restraining bolts. They are given a brief overview of the crashed ship turned boom-town. Inside, they observe the strange meditative practices of the H'Kig and then head to the Red Hills Saloon where they meet Cilla Joy, the owner and operator of the finest bar in the Bestine System.

A socially awkward man wearing a cybernetic brain implant is asking Cilla out on a date, though it becomes evident she has refused him several times already. The characters 'shoo' him off and befriend Cilla. She explains that he is Darvin Wright, head engineer and safety coordinator of New Jahnae City. All construction or modifications to the Lucrehulk must be examined and cleared by him.

"4-2" projects a hologram of the Aqualish pirate Drell Mar

They ask to meet 'Fortu', only to discover that it is short for R4-R2, a former astromech droid turned waiter at the Red Hills Saloon. The droid brings them in a back room and says that he he works for the dread pirate Drell Mar and that he can receive the delivered goods upon inspection.

Before leaving the saloon, they meet a Quarren pilot and trader named Frizgna who tells them that he has heard that Drell Mar is an Aqualish pirate who has been plaguing Bestine for several years. He is rumored to be hiding out in a hidden base in the vast asteroid belt that surrounds the outskirts of the system, preying on the occasional mining crew. He has never encountered Drell Mar, but any spacer will tell you that those who have are never seen again.