# Star Wars Episode 2.1q: The Fall of Eraydia (RIP)



## dpdx (Jun 2, 2003)

Starring:

- *Pbartender* as _Dobradenn_, Xexto Gunslinger and Big Game Hunter;
- *DonAdam* as _Ka Jor_, Cerean Jedi Consular and Healer;
- *maddmic* as _Pog_, Human Fringer and 'retired' Pod Racer;
- *Toric_Arthendain* as _Kerracor_, Wookiee Scout and Spacer;
- *Jaik* as _Hiru Hanachi_, Human Scoundrel and Card Sharp; and
- *eoghanbt* as _Tilon Wa-Hael_, Human Jedi Guardian and Circus Entertainer.

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*A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...*

Six months ago, intrepid Jedi Knights had confronted Count Dooku and the Separatists on Geonosis, touching off the Clone Wars. As worlds began to take sides, those loyal to the Republic scrambled hastily to repatriate innocent citizens and otherwise place them out of harm's way. Such was the case for the thirty Eraydian refugees aboard the _Sanctuary_, which left Aldera Spaceport, Alderaan in a race to their homeworld...

It is nearly the end of your three-day journey from Alderaan to the uncharted world of Eraydia. Your cargo, a diverse mix of 30 refugees, sits quietly in the main compartment as the large-screen holovid plays the documentary, "_A Traveler's Introduction to Eraydia_." A voice (most likely Ithorian, and probably female) accompanies the documentary, providing narrative to accompany the pictures of the ever shifting winds and other features of the planet.

"Eraydia also contains gargantuan flying creatures, named 'manteons'. These can be the size of a city, and in fact, natives often build cities on these creatures, who glide the air currents to stay aloft."

In the command center of the modified Corellian X-9000 Light Cruiser sit four of the crewmen: Shom Tuuko, a male Duros, who pilots and captains the _Sanctuary_; His co-pilot, Kerracor; the scanner operator, Hiru; and communications officer, Denny. In the engineering room is Pog, and helping to supervise, calm and otherwise assist the passengers in the main compartment, are the two Jedi, Ka Jor and Tilon.

Hiru notices something on the scanners. Further inspection reveals it to be two fighter-size ships, and the computer annotates the two blips as hostile, and at close range, 8 squares behind the ship.


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## dpdx (Jun 2, 2003)

[It was always going to be tough to beat the Droid Starfighter's +10 to initiative; the good news is, Hiru's spot check of 24 prevented a surprise round.]

"But many dangers exist on Eraydia, as well. Chief among them is bladegrass, a sharp plant that when activated by the ubiquitous and ever-shifting wind..."

As the holovid winks out, mere moments from your expected arrival on the planet of Eraydia, the ship lurches to a rough exit from hyperspace and alarm claxons aboard the vessel immediately begin to blare loudly. The stress-filled voice of the captain crackles to life over the intercom system as another jolt threatens to knock you from your feet.

"All hands to battle stations! All hands to battle stations! This is not a drill. All passengers should secure themselves and their belongings and remain in the designated passenger areas.”

Rushing to the nearest viewpoint, it is immediately obvious what is causing the problem: a fleet of Separatist warships surround the gray world of Eraydia, and a flight of droid starfighters are buzzing your starship amid scattered weapons fire.

Initiatives:

Droid Starfighters (2): 24
Tilon: 22
Ka Jor: 20
Pog: 20
Shom: 18
Denny: 14
Hiru: 13
Kerracor: 6
Refugees: 6

Actions?


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## eoghanbt (Jun 2, 2003)

Tilon stands up, unsnapping the clasps of his restraints as he does so, adrenalyne beginning to pump before his Master's comments about restraint and calm ringing in his ears. Sotto vocce, he turns towards Ka Jor. "Panic will make this worse, whatever it is...I will go up to see what's happening..." He turns, heading for the ladder to the service corridor.


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## DonAdam (Jun 2, 2003)

Ka Jor nods at Tilon's statement, calling after him, "May the Force be with you."

He turns his attention to the passengers, saying in a stern but calm voice, "Everyone needs to be seated and strapped immediately," while looking for any children or elderly refugees that require assistance.


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## Pbartender (Jun 2, 2003)

Wishing that the ship had some turbolaser turrets to run to, Dobradenn straps himself into his acceleration couch, in preparation for the imminently bumpy ride.  Dialing in the hypercomm's broadband emergency channels, he begins broadcasting a distress signal...

"Mayday, mayday, mayday.  This is the Republic starship _Sanctuary_.  We have just exited hyperspace in the Eraydia system.  We are unarmed and under attack by Separtist forces.  Requesting any available assistance.

"Mayday, mayday, mayday..." he continues repeating the call for help, while awaiting further orders from the captain.


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## Jaik (Jun 2, 2003)

Hiru's eyes race deperately across the scanner controls, searching desperately for the "Jam Enemy Sensors" button.  "Too many holovids, Hiru...Hey, what's this sub-menu, "Intercept Exterior Sensor Sweeps"?"  Hiru's fingers danced across the scanners' controls, trying to outwit the enemy starfighters' sensor packages.


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## maddmic (Jun 2, 2003)

Pog finds a seat in engineering and straps himself in.  He shakes his head in frustration.  _'First a dug, now droid starfighters?  This is getting to be too much.  All I wanted was enough credits to hit the tables again and win my way into a lush future.  So much for that....'_  As he is strapped in, he contacts the bridge.  "Pog here.  I'm strapped in and ready to give this flying bucket a kick should she need one."


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## Toric_Arthendain (Jun 3, 2003)

"Rrrrrrooooooooorrrrrrrr!" Kerraccor growls loudly in frustration from his position in the co-pilots chair.

He turns his head towards Shom and lets out a short series of barks and growls, asking whether the cruiser can outrun droid starfighters.  (OOC:  Not sure whether Shom or anyone else present can understand Wookiee.)

He then glances at his bowcaster, lying on the floor nearby, wishing that the cruiser was armed with ANY sort of weapon.  With a low, growling sigh, he turns his attention back to the controls in front of him.  His fur-covered fist hovers above them, ready to enter numbers into the navicomputer in the event that they have to jump to hyperspace to avoid being destroyed.

Assuming that the ship has shields, he is also preparing to angle them to protect the rear of the cruiser, or wherever the attacks are coming from.


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## dpdx (Jun 3, 2003)

*Round One:*

No sooner than the pair of droid starfighters show up on scan, they open the festivities with a pair of proton torpedoes (one each) aimed at the _Sanctuary's_ unprotected aft. The first one makes contact, and explodes for 82 points hull damage. The explosion rocks the Corellian cruiser (and accounts for the jarring mentioned earlier), but has the fortunate effect of throwing off the targeting mechanism of the second, which streams past the starboard viewport without touching (miss)...

Tilon is up and about in the passenger compartment, and with a renewed sense of purpose, moves swiftly to the base of the ladder which connects the compartment to the service corridor.

Ka Jor remains in the passenger compartment, supervising the strapping in of the refugees. His presence seems to calm them.

Pog awaits instructions [I'll consider this a readied action for orders from the bridge] in engineering. A console above his seat reports the damage the _Sanctuary_ has taken so far: 148 hull points remain from 230. The aft plating is nearly breached, but still holding (a probe-sized asteroid would do it in, looks like), and so far, no major systems have been damaged.

[Pog's initiative reset to 18, to match Shom's.]

Shom has the same display on his console, and having been given a reprieve from the second missile, raises shields (move action). The consoles update with the new information, 300 points of shields appearing on a skyblue line above the hull damage reading.

"We're not going to outrun them, and we can't jump without getting out of the grav well; our best chance is to take them into the atmosphere and hope they get hit by manteons," the captain says breathlessly over the intercom, "Pog! double shields aft! We'll beat these bastards yet!" [Dramatic license and blatant abuse of the free action to give orders.]

Shom seems to be convincing himself more than he is instilling confidence in his crew, but he nonetheless uses his remaining move action to make a break for the surface [4 squares straight ahead, ship at Cruising velocity, which is max under impulse].

Since it's difficult at best to fix hull points in space (and the _Sanctuary_ probably doesn't have an hour), Pog complies with the angling order. The display shows a double-width skyblue bar at the back of the original line.

Denny's mayday call elicits a response - but not on the emergency channel. An encrypted digital transmission comes in on Denny's earphone over one of the Republic's diplomatic frequencies. It sounds human - and young: "Join the club, Sanctuary. Nobody can get in, or out. They've got Techno Union dreadnoughts at each of the major jump points, and the big spaceports are covered with gunships. Suggest you take it to the grasslands. Watch out for ground troops. Best of luck. Falcon out."

Hiru attempts to jam enemy sensors. With Denny's help, he finds the right button, and a chirp at the console signifies his success. [+2 to Ship Defense]

Kerracor accesses the subspacer transceiver in an attempt to plot a hyperspace course back to Alderaan. He is greeted with a message in red on the console display: Astrogation data unavailable - hyperspace jump impossible from current position. A quick glance at the nav computer indicates that the _Sanctuary_ is well within the gravity well of Eraydia, 18 seconds [3 rounds] away from atmospheric entrance. Kerracor pushes the yoke forward, and the ship moves four squares closer to the planet.

The refugees have managed to strap in, the more mature ones helping the children with their seat restraints.

*End Round One*


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## dpdx (Jun 3, 2003)

*Round Two*

Initiatives:

Droid Starfighters (2): 24
Tilon: 22
Ka Jor: 20
Pog: 18
Shom: 18
Denny: 14
Hiru: 13
Kerracor: 6
Refugees: 6

The droid starfighters press the attack, matching the eight squares the cruiser traveled, and releasing two more proton torpedoes against the shield-replenished aft of the capital ship.

The first one hits, dealing 78 points of damage to the doubled aft shield.

The second one thuds against the aft shields, breaking apart without exploding - an obvious dud.

The torpedo from Round One reacquires target, and slams into the unprotected starboard hull for 86 points of damage. [Confirmed critical hit - damage directly to hull.]

The passengers and crew feel another jolt, but are uninjured.

The _Sanctuary's_ hyperdrive is now destroyed beyond repair, and is spitting sparks into the vacuum.

The console also indicates that the Sanctuary is down to 62 hull points from 230, and has 261 shield points remaining.


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## eoghanbt (Jun 3, 2003)

Tilon reaches the ladder, grabbing onto it and scrabbling up to the service cooridor, his feet swinging as the ship twists and shudders from torpedo impact. He hops, left footed, riding the next wave of convulsions as another torpedo impacts the hull, looking out the transparasteel window into space towards the planet briefly before running towards the hatch leading to the cockpit.  He mutters, under his breath, "Master didn't mention anything about /this/...."


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## eoghanbt (Jun 3, 2003)

Tilon reaches the ladder, grabbing onto it and scrabbling up to the service cooridor, his feet swinging as the ship twists and shudders from torpedo impact. He hops, left footed, riding the next wave of convulsions as another torpedo impacts the hull, looking out the transparasteel window into space towards the planet briefly before running towards the hatch leading to the cockpit.  He mutters, under his breath, "Master didn't mention anything about /this/...."


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## Pbartender (Jun 4, 2003)

Denny turns to the captain.  "Well!  I dare say, there won't be any cavalry charing in at the last minute to save our hides."  He announces, almost gleefully,  "The bloody Separtists have all the hyperjump points and starports under siege.  It seems we have the makings off a right proper adventure on our hands, what?"

One of Denny's hands switches open the intercomm channel to the engine room, "Could you use a bit of assistance, Pog?  There is a notorious lack of anyone interesting to speak with over the comm channels."  Without waiting for an answer, Denny's second hand switches his console over from the comm display to the engineering display.  His remaining two hands begin the process of shutting down power to the now non-existant hyperdrive, and shunting it to the main ion drives.

_OOC:  Assuming that he can access engineering controls from the bridge (let me know if he can't), Denny will attempt to deactivate the hyperdrive, and then re-route its power to the sub-light drive to increase the ship's speed by 1 square/turn...  Hopefully shortening the time it takes to make planetfall._


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## Jaik (Jun 4, 2003)

_"Hey, I think that worked..."_  His brow furrowed, Hiru redoubles his jamming efforts, trying to spare the shields as much as possible.


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## dpdx (Jun 4, 2003)

[OOC: Without having my books on me ATM, this is how I'm inclined to rule: Denny can do the shutdown of power to hyperdrive from where he's at on the bridge (which involves a Check, I think), but the reroute can only take place at the pilot/co-pilot's station, or in Engineering itself. The captain's going to be too busy flying the ship to deal with ship config directly.

Therefore, it's up to Pog first whether he wants to use that power on engines or shields, and Pog also serves as backup for the shutdown in case Denny can't complete it for some reason. Your failsafe is Kerracor, who will also have access to all of those controls from his co-pilot's seat.

This may change when I get a chance to look it over again - I'm also searching for a deck plan for this cruiser, so I can more effectively rule who can reach where from what seat. You _are_ seated, right, Denny? 

I'll try not to give up too much before everyone has had a chance to post, but I want to avail you all of your options, and comment that most other ships would have been hurtling toward planetside impact by now. You're doing remarkably well, and it helps, too, that you've been remarkably lucky. ]


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## DonAdam (Jun 4, 2003)

As he is helping a child get strapped in to his seat, Ka Jor thinks to himself, _"This war is worse than I thought if our mission is to repatriate these people, only to find that their planet too is under siege. I have to think of something to keep them calm..."_

Ka Jor searches his memory of what he read from the Jedi archives on Coruscant; _"That's it!"_

As he continues to help get people settled, intent on being the last to be strapped in, Ka Jor begins to speak in a loud but clear voice, "This reminds me of the tale of Damin Rebant, a Jedi explorer..."

[OOC: How many rounds until the passengers are all strapped in?"]


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## dpdx (Jun 4, 2003)

[Strapping in's a move action, which all of the refugees managed to accomplish on their turn in Round One. You now have a captive audience, of various races (a quarter human, a quarter Falleen), of various ages, in various emotional states ranging from calm to panic. You may tell your story.]


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## maddmic (Jun 4, 2003)

Pog's hands begin to fly over the engineering station.  He begins to reroute power from the inoperable hyperdrive to the main engines.  Hearing Denny come over the comlink, he replies.  "Already on that one Denny.  Perhaps you can begin to reroute power to the shields?  I'm thinking that life support is probably an expendable power source since we're screaming towards the planet right now."  That being said, Pog begins to search for more power sources that can be used in order to increase their speed, or shields.

OOC:
He will look for all other power sources that he thinks are NOT detrimental to the survival of the ship.  Lights, life support, any other niceties.  Also, having never been in a ship combat situation before, is it possible for Pog to jettison the hyperdrive in order to decrease their weight and possibly give the droid fighters something to dodge?


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## dpdx (Jun 5, 2003)

[OOC: Maddmic - This, too, will require at least a better ship spec than I have in the adventure to rule upon properly, but based on what I remember through the movies, you can't just pitch the hyperdrive out an open airlock, not that there's enough of it left to compose an obstacle larger than a basketball, anyway. 

Still, there are silver linings to losing the hyperdrive, and this is exactly the type of thinking that I alluded to in my post on the OOC thread. I think you'll be happy with the results.]


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## Pbartender (Jun 5, 2003)

"Righty-o, old bean," Denny replies to Pog, "Consider it done."  Before he gets too involved with the power grid, he hits another nearby button, and his console monitor changes again to display the deflector shield systems.

The xexto begins adjusting the shields to provide the greatest cover possible for the ship, while, at the same time, tuning the shield generator output for the maximum recharge rate.

_OOC: Ok.  At Pog's request, Denny changes tack...  He'll use one move action to angle the deflector shields toward where ever enemy attacks seem most probable.  His second move action will be spent recharging the shields.

And of course he's strapped in...  See my first post._


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## Toric_Arthendain (Jun 5, 2003)

(OOC:  Not sure what to do with Kerraccor from the co-pilot's seat.  Most everything seems to be covered at the moment...rerouting power to the shields, angling the shields, flying the ship, jamming the sensors of the enemy ships, calming the passengers.  I'm not sure that everything isn't covered.)

IC:
Kerraccor growls again as the ship rocks from the impact of a couple of direct hits.  He casts a glance at Shom, making sure the captain is still in control of the ship, ready to take over immediately if Shom needs him to.  Otherwise, he keeps an eye on the sensors, ready to try to find a suitable place to land if they get that opportunity.


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## dpdx (Jun 5, 2003)

[OOC: If it helps, I'm not sure, either, Toric, except that the minute one of the others fails a check, they're going to be damn glad to have Kerracor around. Besides, he's one of those I mentioned who's going to be a rock for the party planetside...]

*Round Two*

Tilon reaches the top of the ladder, but not without a struggle,  and glances out the transparisteel window to starboard. The damage to the hull is plainly visible, and the Jedi can see sparks where the hyperdrive used to be. 

As Tilon looks out the window, he sees two things of note: bits of hull trailing to aft as flotsam, and a brief flash in the great distance. An ultra-brief, but nonetheless intense disturbance in the Force accompanies the flash, and Tilon physically understands that a tremendous loss of life has taken place in that brief, distant moment.

The chamber at the top of the ladder has two lighted exits. Left is the bridge, right is Engineering. Tilon knows from an earlier tour of the ship that only Engineering has an extra strap-in chair.

In the passenger area, Ka Jor's story is interrupted by the jolt of the second proton torpedo detonation. The refugees, all strapped in, seem to become more agitated with the jolt, and old tensions rise to the surface in a few of the chairs. None of the passengers are armed, but Ka Jor notices the rising panic level through the Force...

Shom throttles the _Sanctuary_ forward as fast as she'll go; cruising speed (8/turn) to be exact. The young captain barks orders as only a high-strung Duros can: "Keep the shields doubled aft! Divert that hyperdrive feed to the engines! Stay off the life support and lights - We can't panic the passengers any more than they are!"

Pog has no trouble taking the hyperdrive feed offline (total Repair check vs. DC 15: 27) and routing that power to sublight engines [_Sanctuary_ now moves 9 squares/turn]. Smiling with satisfaction, he notices the result on his console, and awaits the next order as he hears the engines surge, ever so slightly.

Denny takes off the comm headset with one hand, pulls up shield control on his console with another, and attempts to restore shields. He does, sort of; the console readout updates to show an improvement of 3 shield points. He tries again, but the ship's computer is proving to be somewhat recalcitrant at the Xexto's ministrations.

Hiru, having identified the Targets that Won't Go Away, manages to Focus the scanners on the pursuants. The added power of this mode helps him easily maintain countermeasures on the droid starfighters.

Kerracor, having noticed the lack of improvements in shields, tries again from his console. The Wookiee is MUCH more successful (natural 20!), and the shields are back up to full power.

The refugees, as mentioned before, are a little edgier than before, but still strapped in, and for the moment are listening intently to Ka Jor's story.


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## dpdx (Jun 5, 2003)

*Round Three*

Initiatives:

Droid Starfighters (2): 24
Tilon: 22
Ka Jor: 20
Pog: 18
Shom: 18
Denny: 14
Hiru: 13
Kerracor: 6
Refugees: 6

Hull: 62/230
Shields: 300/300
Position: 15 squares from Eraydian atmosphere, 40 squares from surface.

The droid starfighter to the right of the formation, in hot pursuit, has something extra to deal with, as he jinks to avoid assorted pieces of scrap titanium left in the wake of the _Sanctuary_. He is not entirely successful, as a hyperdrive cowling (hidden behind another piece of scrap) scrapes against his fuselage and leaves a giant gash in the starfighter. 

By the time he recovers, he has lost 3 squares to the _Sanctuary_, and his proton torpedo streams toward the Republic ship, unable to gain distance at its top speed.

The remaining starfighter leans on the thruster, matching the pace, and fires another photon torpedo. The targeting mechanism, thrown off by jamming, makes the torpedo miss the light cruiser, and it swerves around to try to retarget.


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## eoghanbt (Jun 5, 2003)

Tilon blinks, eyes lidding for a moment as the uncomfortable sensation of a brief moment of fear and pain washes over him..then, taking a break, he heads back towards engineering, slamming his palm down on the OPEN DOOR lozenge...


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## maddmic (Jun 5, 2003)

Pog smiles at his success in getting the ship moving a bit quicker.  Wringing his hands, he calls out over the comm.  "Ok, you've got your speed, what else do you need done to get this hunk on the ground?"  He begins to keep an eye on the shields just in case those on the bridge need assistance in restoring their functionality.  As the door opens, he is hard at work and doesn't care who has entered.  Without looking up, he speaks out.  "Grab a seat.  It's a rough ride."


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## dpdx (Jun 5, 2003)

Scanner readout:

Hostile 1

Speed: Attack
Range: 4500m [9 squares]
Bearing: 170 degrees
*Proton torpedo launched - speed 900m/sec*
Hull: 100% Intact

Hostile 2

Speed: Cruising
Range: 6000m
Bearing: 190 degrees
*Proton torpedo launched - speed 900m/sec*
Hull: 62.5% Intact


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## DonAdam (Jun 5, 2003)

[This isn't going to be terribly inspired, but I'm trying to keep it short enough to tell within the few seconds that we have until we hit the surface. I'll be posting in what are just over 6 second increments (taking a little artistic liberty)]

"...who was stranded on a planet in the outer rim covered with swamps. His lightsaber had run out of power, he had lost his ship, and he was being pursued by two vicious K'lor'slugs."


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## Jaik (Jun 5, 2003)

[OOC: Jaik has been reading his RCR...I'm assuming that I need to use my action each round to keep up the +2 to the ship's defense.]

Hiru's fingers dance across the scanner controls, keeping the instruments focused on the pair of pursuing droid fighters.  His eyes locked on the screens, Hiru says, "Denny, Any chance of putting that shield energy into the engines?  Captain, how about dumping a cargo hold for some cover?"


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## Pbartender (Jun 6, 2003)

"Considering the torpedoes rushing up from behind, and the planet rushing up from in front, I'm not certain depleting the shields to increase our speed is the best option at this point, Mr. Hanachi."  Confident from the success of 'his' deflector shield tuning, Denny continues to adjust the shield generators for optimal performance.

"Do you know," he reminisces, "This reminds me of the time I went sightseeing on Tatooine with my cousin Gasgano..."

_Denny will use both move actions to recharge the shields, if they need it.  If someone else also recharges the shields, his attempts will amount to an Assisting them._


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## Pbartender (Jun 6, 2003)

Deja vu...


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## Toric_Arthendain (Jun 6, 2003)

Kerraccor roars in triumph after getting the shields back up to full power.  He will continue fine tuning them, either assisting Denny or with Denny assisting him, all the while keeping an eye on Shom to make sure he doesn't need any assistance piloting the ship.


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## dpdx (Jun 7, 2003)

*Round Three*

The starfighters having provided at least a momentary respite from the torpedo assault, the members of the _Sanctuary_ spring into action.

Tilon arrives in the Engineering room and takes the chair next to Pog. He has just enough time to strap in, so he does.

Ka Jor begins his compelling story about the stranded pilot, and the refugees seem to calm down. Ka Jor can't tell if this is because of his story, a fortunate Force effect, or because they haven't been hit in the recent past, but he keeps an eye on them just the same, in case their mood should change.

Shom, acting highly suspicious that they haven't been pounded in the last six seconds, de-angles the shields. The _Sanctuary_ now has 75 points to each flank, which is a good thing, because the atmosphere is quickly approaching.

As Shom flies full defense (+4 to ship defense), he spots what look like white, solid clouds, only they're not puffy like the ones on Alderaan. The captain recognizes them as _manteons_, and orders that Kerraccor proceed toward them at full speed.

"They'll help protect us from the fighters! They have an ion attack! Kerracor, take us toward them, full speed! We can't last out here much longer!"

Pog sits with Tilon, tensely awaiting a drop in shield energy, or worse, ionisation or damage.

Denny assists Hiru with the maintenance of countermeasures (+2 to Hiru's roll, who already has +6 from focus mode).

Hiru attempts to maintain countermeasures. Unfortunately, the lock cannot hold, and Hiru attempts to restablish it. He thinks it has been restablished when, the countermeasures fail once again. Focus mode, however, is still maintained, and will allow Hiru to identify from the console if anything else is happening to the starfighters.

Kerracor now takes control of the ship, thrusting it a full nine squares forward. He turns the ship slightly to the right, to take advantage of the mishap of the hit starfighter.

The passengers remain somewhat calm, unhurt and strapped in. While the children continue to listen, some of the adults begin to divert attention to each other and hold hands (or appendages) in anticipation of what might come...


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## eoghanbt (Jun 7, 2003)

Tilon settles into the couch, making sure the straps on the harness are set, then craning his neck to watch the indicators on the engines...noting that the normal christmas tree for hyperdrive is now five columns of red lights....surrounded by sparks. "Guess we'll be taking another way home..."


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## maddmic (Jun 7, 2003)

Pog is still paying more attention to the console in front of him than the person sitting next to him.  



> "Guess we'll be taking another way home..."




With that said, Pog answers hurriedly while keeping an eye on the ships systems.  "Yes, yes of course we will.  But that's not something we need to worry about just yet.  Why haven't they fired on us again yet?"


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## dpdx (Jun 7, 2003)

[Because I wasn't done rolling the hits before you two posted. ]

*Round Four*

Initiatives:

Droid Starfighters (2): 24
Tilon: 22
Ka Jor: 20
Pog: 18
Shom: 18
Denny: 14
Hiru: 13
Kerracor: 6
Refugees: 6

Speed: Cruising+ - 9sq per turn
Hull: 62/230
Shields: 226/300
Position: 6 squares from Eraydian atmosphere, 34 squares from surface.

The torpedo launched last round attempts to retarget, but the _Sanctuary_ itself, thanks to the competent flying, seems to dodge out of the way on its own. The torpedo swerves back around for another try.

The starfighter on the left matches the flying, and releases another torpedo. This one hits portside, dealing 74 points to the shields, but otherwise not harming the ship.

The trailing torpedo continues to fly about three squares behind.

The starfighter on the right, however, has gunned his thrusters and caught up to the action, and gets within range to fire another torpedo. This one so badly misses the mark, that it flies off into space, and loses a signal.

If droid pilots have feelings, this one must have been angry, however, because for the first time, it also fires a salvo from two pairs of fire-linked medium lasers, which both miss.


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## DonAdam (Jun 7, 2003)

"He began to despair, when he remembered his master's words, closed his eyes, and let the Force guide him. Not seeing where he was going, he tripped, falling flat on his face..."


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## Toric_Arthendain (Jun 8, 2003)

Kerraccor keeps the ship heading in the direction of the manteons at full speed, not making much effort to evade the enemy starfighters.  He is more interested in getting the ship near the manteons and into the atmosphere of the planet than he is in a bunch of evasive manuevers.


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## Pbartender (Jun 8, 2003)

"...It must have been about ten years ago,"  Denny elucidates.  "Gasgano had just run the Boonta Eve Classic, and was quite despondent about losing to some half-grown human child, you see.  So, to cheer him up, we decided to travel out into the dune sea and take a gander at the Great Pit of Carkoon..."

_Denny will continue recharging the shields._


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## Jaik (Jun 9, 2003)

Trying to block out the ambient chatter, Hiru focuses on his controls, trying desperately to shake the droid starfighters' sensors.


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## dpdx (Jun 9, 2003)

*Round Four*

Ka Jor continues to entertain the refugees with his story, at least, the ones who are listening. The others have helped to calm each other, and all seems well in the passenger compartment.

Shom continues to fly defensively, making minor adjustments and evasions to Kerracor's deft handling of the ship at maximum(-plus)impulse. He winces when the portside shields get depleted down to practically nothing, but he feels better as the giant sky creature begins to fill the windscreen.

Pog, with Tilon's assistance, is right on top of the shield replenishment as soon as the torpedo impacts. Together, they restore 10 points to the portside shields.

Denny also has a go at the shields. This time, he does a little better: 7 points go to the shields.

Hiru manages to reinitiate the countermeasures. [+2 to ship's defense]

Kerracor keeps it on a steady line to the manteon, as the ship breaks through the upper atmosphere.

The _Sanctuary_ manages to do a little repair work of it's own: after the shield generators replenish 8 points to the shields, the engineering computer auto-redistributes power to each shield, resulting in 62, 63, 63, and 63 points to front, port, starboard, and aft shields, respectively.

*Round Five*

Initiatives:

Droid Starfighters (2): 24
Tilon: 22
Ka Jor: 20
Pog: 18
Shom: 18
Denny: 14
Hiru: 13
Kerracor: 6
Refugees: 6
Manteon: 5

Speed: Cruising+ - 9sq per turn
Hull: 62/230
Shields: 251/300
Position: 3 squares within Eraydian atmosphere, 25 squares from surface.
Defense: 25 (+2 sensor jam, +4 flying defensively)

Droid starfighter #2 (on the right) decides to return to his post, and peels away from the dogfight, in case other ships attempt to land on Eraydia without authorization.

Droid starfighter #1 comes in with all barrels blazing, and unleashes a proton torpedo and a shot each from both laser cannon banks at the _Sanctuary_: the torpedo hits, completely depleting the portside shield. A residual of the explosion crashes against the hull, but does not penetrate the titanium-alloy shell.

The starfighter's portside laser bank misses, but the starboard side bank connects with the aft shield of the _Sanctuary_, for 26 points of damage.

In the distance, a 500m by 1km, skyblue and white ray-like creature called a manteon turns toward both ships, its nose tendrils flapping in the current. The manteon's mouth opens slightly to reveal a row of yellow bristles, and two golden horns start at its top and curl down in front of its mouth. [The manteon will act on its initiative, this turn.]


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## maddmic (Jun 9, 2003)

As he shakes violently in his seat, Pog looks at the newcomer clearly nervous.  "Now that was something else.  Looks like the port shields are completely down, that's not good.  Wanna give me a hand here?"  With that, Pog's hands begins to fly over the controls with a bit more speed and determination as he tries to replenish their only form of defense.


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## DonAdam (Jun 9, 2003)

"Opening his eyes to face his certain death, he saw his ship. The Force had guided him most
when he seemed without hope, but it chooses its methods. So too will the Force guide us, 
if we trust and remain calm."


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## eoghanbt (Jun 9, 2003)

Tilon furrows his brow, scraping his lower lip with teeth. "You'll get more efficiency if you run this algorithm..." Tilon leans to his right, unbuckling the restraint with his left hand, right reaching out to tap the shield controls, balancing sidways on the arm of the chair.

<Tilon uses his computer use skill to improve the refresh rate of the shields>


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## Toric_Arthendain (Jun 10, 2003)

Kerraccor keeps the ship at full throttle and angled towards the nearest manteon.  If possible, he'll work towards getting the ship around behind it.  Otherwise, he is ready to perform whatever function Shom needs him to.


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## dpdx (Jun 10, 2003)

*Round Five*

Tilon attempts to replenish shields, and is only slightly more successful, restoring 9 points to them. His second try is considerably more successful, and the console now indicates that 28 points have been restored.

Ka Jor continues his story. Several of the refugees begin to nod off, the others as calm as passengers could be, given that their ship is under attack.

Pog tries the algorithm suggested by the Jedi. His first try results in a 10 point improvement to shields. The second is unsuccessful.

Shom assists Kerracor with piloting. The plan is to fly right up into the face of the manteon, then bank sharply to starboard at the last moment. Hopefully, the fighter cannot dodge the manteon in time.

Denny finally gets the hang of shield replenishment, restoring 29 points to shields on his first try. His second attempt is a little too quick, despite the fact that he nailed the procedure: 4 points go to shields [4d10: 1, 1, 1, 1].

Collectively, the crew almost completely replenishes the shield output, leaving all but nine points available to shields.

Hiru notes the disappearance of one of the fighters, and maintains countermeasures on the remaining one.

Kerracor guides the _Sanctuary_ expertly at super-maximum impulse, and when the time comes to bank, the Wookiee nearly wrenches the flight wheel out of its socket. The entire ship feels a slight upward pressure in g-force as the inertial compensators struggle to keep up with the deft but abrupt maneuver of the ship.

_Which makes what happens next at a minimum, poor reward for such fine helmsmanship; at most, a legendary galactic travesty to starship pilots everywhere._

The manteon, startled by the large ship, snakes out a tendril in self defense; the tendril scrapes against the ship, and shorts out every electrical system on the cruiser.

Shields have fallen, for the heroic effort put into keeping them charged and active. Console is dead, and for the short time the cruiser will be staying aloft, the lights are out and the life support has pumped its last breath of fresh air into the cabin.

The backup generator is barely active, which is enough to keep minimal helm control, but with the sublight engines down, the _Sanctuary_ dives to the surface, assisted only (but very well) by gravity. Fortunately, it is daytime in this area of the planet, and the pilots can attempt to land visually.

By now, it is small consolation to our intrepid heroes that the plan worked perfectly, and in fact, the last thing Hiru saw on the scanners before they shorted out in front of him was the last red dot immediately disappear, a phenomenon that could only be ascribed to the manteon's having swallowed it.

Tilon, noticing the ship has gone dead, hastily straps back in before the massive g-force wrenches him out of his seat.

The angle of entry is way too steep to land, so Shom and Kerracor attempt to pull out of the dive. They are fairly successful, and although the speed is way too fast, they should be able to belly land.

The landscape blurs as it flashes past the windows. You catch a glimpse of a tower of some sort. The ground rushes closer. You spot a herd of animals then... BOOM! you hit the ground and begin to skid. Anything not strapped down goes flying. With a stomach churning sensation the heavier tail of the ship starts to spin out to one side…then the ship comes to rest.

Kerracor takes 4 VP damage from a flight wheel to the gut.

Everyone else, including the refugees, is unhurt.

*END COMBAT*


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## eoghanbt (Jun 10, 2003)

Tilon blinks, fingers uncurling from the arms of the chair. He turns towards Pog. "Are you alright..." He unstraps the buckles, standing on the angled floor of the engineering compartment, patting his belt and pouches making sure nothing came loose in the sudden stop. Satisfied, he peers at the engineering indicators, which have now all gone either bright blinking red or blank altogether.


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## maddmic (Jun 10, 2003)

Pog shakes his head and then unstraps himself from the chair.  He shakes the person next to him making sure that the Jedi is alive and then he begins to gather his things.  Once he has everything of his, he turns to Tilon.  "Are you ok?  Can you move on your own?  As much as I like working on these things, I would prefer to exit this ship right about now.  Y'know, just incase one of those fighters is following us to finish the job...." 

With that, the small man shuffles out into the main hallway and searches for an exit.  Upon finding the exit, the only people he lets out before him (should there be a lot of people around there) are women and children.


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## DonAdam (Jun 10, 2003)

Seeing that all the passengers look alright, Ka Jor says "Okay, for now grab whatever will not slow you down bu STAY PUT. I am going to ask the captain if it is safe to go outside."

Ka Jor then makes his way to the bridge, to find out if the passengers should stay inside, run away as fast as possible, or gather all their things and set out.


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## Toric_Arthendain (Jun 10, 2003)

"Rrrrrrroooooooooorrrrrrrrr!" Kerraccor grabs the flight wheel that caused the pain in his gut and shakes it violently.  He then unstraps himself from the seat and turns to Shom to make sure he is okay.  He then picks up his bowcaster and with a short series of barks and growls says, "I'm going to check outside the ship."

With that said, he opens the hatch and steps outside, bowcaster held at the ready.  If nothing interesting or out of the ordinary presents itself, he'll walk around the perimeter of the ship.


----------



## Jaik (Jun 11, 2003)

Hiru blinks, takes a slow, deep breath, and slowly stretches his neck and arms to release the tension from the recent chase.  "lucky one more time, Hiru, one more time..." he softly whispers to himself, then turns to survey the rest of the cabin, waiting to see what happens.


----------



## eoghanbt (Jun 11, 2003)

Tilon makes his way up the slanted passageway shielding his eyes as the hatch opens, bracing his hands on the edges of the open exit before hopping down to the ground below, looking around to get his bearings.


----------



## dpdx (Jun 11, 2003)

As the _Sanctuary_ slides to a stop, all goes quiet and dark. Soon after, the backup power thrums into existence, and dim emergency gangway lights reveal the extent of the damage: no power to any of the systems, and a mound of dirt collected up and along the ship-long crack in the bottom hull, rendering the bottom hatch, as well as the aft bay doors, impossible to pass.

The mighty cruiser has made her last voyage.

As Pog and Tilon simultaneously inquire after each other's health in the engineering room, Kerraccor retaliates against the inanimate object that viciously attacked him during the crash. The co-pilot's flight wheel surrenders seconds later, falling to the deck with a dull metallic thud.

Kerraccor announces his intentions, and to the Wookiee's surprise, Shom unbuckles himself, stands and responds to him, "Good call, and by the way, thank you. You are, hands down, the best pilot I've ever had the pleasure to fly beside."

Shom then turns on his comlink, and speaks into it on the crew frequency set by everyone before the voyage. "Okay, let's get the crew topside first, and if the coast is clear, we follow up with the refugees."

Pog stands watch at the top hatch until a large, furry arm gently shoves him aside, and Kerracor climbs out the top hatch, Shom, Hiru and Pog himself following closely behind. A moment later, Denny, Tilon, and Ka Jor join the others. The refugees await in the lobby below the top hatch, ready to climb out as soon as word is given.

From atop the wreck of the _Sanctuary_, there is an excellent elevated view of the surrounding area. The ship has left a long stretch of cleared ground in its wake, otherwise the long grass stretches as far as the eye can see. The herd of animals you saw while crashing seems to have been scared some distance away, although one particularly adventurous one does seem to be venturing back towards the ship.

You have to reach to cover your ears, as the sound caused by the wind running through the grass is like a billion knives being sharpened. From the west, you see what looks like blaster fire. 

Past the tall berm of dirt and dead grass left by your former spacecraft, you see a new variety of repulsortank slowly blasting its way through the mass of grass and advancing towards you. From behind it two Single Trooper Aerial Platforms (STAPs) pop up and begin to approach.

The crew can also make out a squad of ten battle droids marching behind the repulsortanks.

[You are all atop the _Sanctuary_. In two rounds, the STAPs will be within range of your current position. Shom reminds you that the droids piloting the STAPs will not fire unless you fire first, or do not drop your weapons when asked. The repulsortanks, as well as the battledroids, must carefully cut their way through the bladegrass, and are considerably farther behind.]


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## Pbartender (Jun 11, 2003)

"...On our way through the Tusken Wastes, we became lost and found ourselves in the midst of a pack of slashrats that had cornered an old bantha at the end of a box canyon."  Denny ceases his rambling once he notices that ship has come to a stop.

"There now," he announces cheerfully, "That was a much smoother landing than one could have possibly expected.  My compliments, Captain!  Well done indeed!"

Denny unstraps himself and makes his way back to ship's weapons locker.  He joins the others outside, with a brace of blaster pistols across his chest and a quartet of vibroknives dangling from his belt.  "Aha!  Looks like we'll have company soon enough, eh boys?  Think there's any chance we can bugger off with the passengers into the underbrush or some such?"


----------



## Pbartender (Jun 11, 2003)

dpdx said:
			
		

> You have to reach to cover your ears, as the sound caused by the wind running through the grass is like a billion knives being sharpened.




_Using his +6 Survival and his 14 Intelligence, Denny recalls the informational holo on Eraydia that had been playing shortly before they were attacked._



			
				dpdx said:
			
		

> "But many dangers exist on Eraydia, as well. Chief among them is bladegrass, a sharp plant that when activated by the ubiquitous and ever-shifting wind..."




"Then again," Denny changes his mind, "perhaps the underbrush would be a bad idea.  Sounds like we'd most likely cut ourselves to ribbons without protection."



			
				dpdx said:
			
		

> The herd of animals you saw while crashing seems to have been scared some distance away, although one particularly adventurous one does seem to be venturing back towards the ship.




"Is anyone here particularly good with large herbivores?"  he asks the others.  "If we could lure that herd over this way, we just might manage to ride out of this plain of cultery without slashing ourselves to bits, and I'm afraid I'm only really talented at attracting dangerous predators."

"By the by," Denny continues unabated, "Just where is that tower we passed on the way in?"  He shields his eyes against the sun and takes a look around to see if he can spot the tower.

_OOC: What is the current range of the STAPs?_


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## dpdx (Jun 11, 2003)

[At present, the STAPs are level with the repulsortanks and battledroids, at the edge of the bladegrass roughly 100m away. The difference is that the STAPs can fly over the bladegrass, whereas the rest of the detail must cut their way through.

STAPs also sport a fire-linked double blaster cannon.]


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## eoghanbt (Jun 11, 2003)

Tilon pauses, hands at his sides, eyes closing, tanging long, low, slow breathes, fingers curling and uncurling against his palms. His eyes snap open, calm, but focussed upon the advancing droids. "We're going to need a distraction..." He turns, dropping himself to slide, arms up for friction, off the side of the ship to the ground.






<OOC: Moment of calm is using Enhance Ability for Dex, roll away dpdx..>


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## DonAdam (Jun 11, 2003)

Taking his lightsaber into his hand, Ka Jor calmly says, "I will tell the passengers that we need to stay down and to be ready to travel light. Dobradenn is correct; we cannot outrun those killing machines as long as we have to chop our way through the grass. Our best option is probably to sieze tank and use it for transport. Leave it intact, except for the gun, if possible."

Ka Jor hops back into the ship for a moment, telling the refugees to take only what they need and stay down. He also looks for a hatch by which they can exit on side of the ship opposite the direction of the approaching tank, if the ship starts getting hit.


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## Jaik (Jun 11, 2003)

Hiru scans the approaching droids and the rest of the crew, mutters "I'll be right back," and re-enters the ship to dash to his cabin, retrieve his blaster pistol and holster and return to the hatch.  _Ah, if only I had my old swoop in the hold, this might work out soooo much better..._


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## maddmic (Jun 11, 2003)

Pog looks back and forth at each crew member.  Having never been in this type of a situation before, he instinctively grabs at his newly purchased and unused blaster pistol.  Tugging at it, he realizes that it is still strapped into it's holster.  Upon hearing that it would be good not to fire on the droids, he leaves his pistol holstered and begins to move down the side of the ship towards the ground.  Once on the ground, he makes sure that the ship is still in between him and the advancing tanks.  He peers around the ship to watch their advancement and only leave the safety of the ship should somebody tell him it's safer elsewhere.


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## Pbartender (Jun 11, 2003)

eoghanbt said:
			
		

> *"We're going to need a distraction..." *




"I have an idea..." Denny mentions off-handedly as he glances back toward the skittish herd of animals.

_OOC: How far away is the herd...  Both from us and the droids?_


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## dpdx (Jun 12, 2003)

```
[size=large]
****************S****S*****************
***************************************
***************************************
***************************************
***************************************
***************************************
***^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^**************
**^     t  k             **************
*^  (------------        **************
*^ (    d  p   |         **************
*^ (     Os    |         **************   &
*^ (           |         **************
*^  (------------        **************
**^                      **************
***^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^**************
***************************************
***************************************
***************************************
***************************************
***************************************
***************************************
***************************************
***************************************
***************************************
[/size]
```
Key:
*: Bladegrass
^: Dirt Berm
O: Hatch

S: STAPs
&: Herd Animal

t: Tilon
k: Kerraccor
d: Denny
p: Pog
s: Shom
j: Ka Jor (inside)
h: Hiru (inside)

(This is by no means to scale: it's just meant to give you a general idea of your situation. I'll do a more detailed map when it becomes necessary.)


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## dpdx (Jun 12, 2003)

As the heroes look out toward the detail, a third GAT repulsortank comes into view. Certainly, rushing one of these tanks would be suicidal.

Meanwhile, the STAPs, flying above the bladegrass, have advanced upon your position ahead of the main detail, remaining (but not for long) just outside handheld blaster range. Fortunately, even with the firepower of the tanks, the droids are making slow progress through the bladegrass. Your best estimates put the main force ten minutes away from breaking through.

To the east, the herd has moved into your sea of bladegrass, roughly 1 minute from your position. (Shom identifies these animals as 'gormaloks'.) Unaffected by the grass, they happily set to munching.  A closer look at them reveals why: their bodies are covered by a natural armor whose hardness registers nary a scratch from the deadly weeds.

A single gormalok seems intensely curious but cautious, and is approaching you at the eastern edge of the 100m x 200m clearing left by the _Sanctuary_. You believe it would probably run back into the fatal shrubbery at the first sign of violent noise.

The ship's final landing has buried it somewhat into the countryside, so that even standing atop the hatch, the Wookiee's head is the only one that rises above the surrounding berm, easily sloping 10m above the surrounding ground.

The noise of the wind through the bladegrass is deafening, or would be if you were forced to stay in it for very long.

Tilon, Pog and Kerracor have slid down the topside hull of the ship behind the berm, weapons at the ready. [Map update immediately following.]

Tilon meditates upon the Force, and feels a slight pulse through his synapses. [+2 to DEX for 10 rounds, expends 3 VP for this action.]  

Shom turns on his comlink and shouts, with some effort, "*So. Do we think we can take two STAPs, or do we surrender and look for an opening later?*"

[Majority/consensus will determine initial action, but if anybody fires, initiative is rolled (after the surprise round you'd get) and combat commences.]


----------



## dpdx (Jun 12, 2003)

*Updated Map*



```
[size=large]
****************1****2*****************
***************************************
***************************************
***************************************
***************************************
*****************************&*****&***
***^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^**************
**^     t  k p           ***********&**
*^  (------------        *********&****
*^ (    d      |         **************
*^ (     Os    |         &******&**&***   &
*^ (           |         **************
*^  (------------        ********&*****
**^                      ***********&** &
***^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^*&******&*****
************************&****&*********
***************************************
***************************************
***************************************
***************************************
***************************************
***************************************
***************************************
***************************************
[/size]
```
Key:
*: Bladegrass
^: Dirt Berm
O: Hatch

#s: STAPs
&: Gormalok

t: Tilon
k: Kerraccor
d: Denny
p: Pog
s: Shom
j: Ka Jor (inside)
h: Hiru (inside)

(Not to scale - refer to text description of ranges.)


----------



## eoghanbt (Jun 12, 2003)

Tilon continues to concentrate, reaching out with his feelings, taking in the vibrations of air, the shrieking of the grass, the crunch of the gormalak's hooves upon the soil...
  <Battlemind skill use....>

  His eyes open slowly, focussing upon the lone Gormalak, arms at his sides in a nonthreatening posture...attempting to read the gentle creature's attitude...

 <Can you /use/ empathy on an animal?>

  He says, not too loud but loud enough, "I don't think it'll run...if that grass cant' hurt it, it can't be afraid of much..."


----------



## dpdx (Jun 12, 2003)

> Can you /use/ Empathy on an animal?



[_You certainly can, but the advantage it gives Tilon to Handle Animal can't be used by him, since that's a trained-only skill.

In fact, none of the crew has Handle Animal, not even Shom. Perhaps one of the refugees can help you, provided 1) the animal comes back after all this business with the Seps; and 2) there's a nerf farmer or something similar among the refugees. _ ]

Tilon activates his Battlemind Force skill, and receives a +3 bonus to attacks for the next 10 rounds. This also costs him 5 VP.

(edit: Incidentally, this leaves him with 3 VP.)

[And oh, yes, the Empathy check Tilon reaches out with the Force toward the gormal*o*k, and manages to read its feelings of contentment and curiosity, tinged with a slight amount of confusion as it looks over the different beings in front of it, many of whom it has never seen before.


----------



## Toric_Arthendain (Jun 12, 2003)

Kerraccor growls and nods his head towards the STAPs, saying that they are the least of his worries.  He believes that they can be dealt with.  He's more worried about the repulsortanks and will vocalize this to Shom and anyone else that can understand Shyriiwook.  He holds his bowcaster with the business end pointed at the ground, but ready to bring it to bear at the first sign of trouble.


----------



## Pbartender (Jun 12, 2003)

dpdx said:
			
		

> Shom turns on his comlink and shouts, with some effort, "*So. Do we think we can take two STAPs, or do we surrender and look for an opening later?*"




"Feh!" Denny scoffs as he draws his blaster pistols, "If you'd like, Captain, I can pluck those two devils down like bottles on a rail."

Denny calls back down into the ship's  hatch, "Pog, my man, you wouldn't happen to have anything highly flammable on hand down in the engine room, would you?"


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## maddmic (Jun 12, 2003)

Pog stares at the impending doom and absentmindedly answers the wookie.  "Yes, yes, those STAPS can be dealt with easier than the tanks.  The question is do we want to deal with them though?  I mean, how bad could this situation be right now.  Maybe they'll let us go?  I doubt they'll let us go if we open fire on them or are hostile to them in any manner."  That being said, Pog nervously holsters the blaster that he tried so hard to free from it's confines.  He then shifts his belongings from one arm to the other.  

At the requet of Denny he replies without taking his eyes off the approaching STAPS.  "I don't know what's down there.  I'm sure that there's something down there which can cause a large explosion or something.  Surely not an explosion large enough to take out a tank though.  How about we let them take us to their leader and then we can parlay for our freedom?  I'm sure that they just want to ask us a few questions." 

He shifts his belongings again in his hands and then as a stroke of genius hits him, he drops his things to the ground.  He then throws his arms up in the air and walks slowly in the direction of the STAPS stopping once he reaches the edge of the deadly grass.  All the while shouting,  "We give up!  No reason for unecessary violence.  We did nothing wrong, but we'll be glad to answer any of your questions!"


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## dpdx (Jun 12, 2003)

From atop the berm (which serves as the 'edge' of the bladegrass), Pog, arms raised, can see the STAPs heading toward him from about 60m away. About 100m behind them, the three GATs are using their cannons to cut through the bladegrass, and a wide indent in the bladegrass about 3m in marks their slow but steady progress.

A harsh voice in Pog's comlink warns him of his precarious situation. "POG! Stay away from the grass!!"

Unfortunately, the warning comes a split second too late, as one of the taller stalks of bladegrass whisks past Pog's feet, leaving an open-toed sandal where there once was a left boot. Pog's toes, although naked to the sun, all appear to still be attached to his foot, but just barely. [Pog takes 2 VP damage.]

The droid pilots of the STAPs make no indication that they can hear Pog's entreaties over the din of the bladegrass, but the raised arms get their attention, and one of the STAPs starts to swing over toward the young human.

[edited nonsense about Pog not getting his languages. All is fine.]


----------



## Pbartender (Jun 12, 2003)

> _Originally posted by maddmic _"I don't know what's down there.  I'm sure that there's something down there which can cause a large explosion or something.  Surely not an explosion large enough to take out a tank though."




"No, no!" Denny reiterates, "Not explosive, flammable...  Something that will burn easily.  It's not for the tanks, it's for this damnable grass!"

The xexto watches, astonished as the engineer waves his arms to get the attention of the STAP-piloting droid.  "Oh, for the love of..."  Denny shifts into an oddly straight-backed blaster duel stance, ready to defend the naive human at the slightest hint of trouble.

_OOC: Denny is readying an action to shoot the STAP pilot, if any droids open fire.  If possible, he'll take a full attack to use all four pistols at +0 Atk each, otherwise, its a single attack at +6._


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## dpdx (Jun 12, 2003)

[The _Sanctuary_, for safety reasons, has nothing flammable inside as part of its engine room, which is buried underneath the surface, anyway (_Oh, but I wish._). However, weapons damage would mow it down...

So far, it looks like two PCs are preparing for combat, three are  neutral, and one has prepared for surrender. Shom will not act until there seems to be a visual consensus. Remember, the droids and tanks are roughly ten minutes away from your position. The tanks and droids cannot fire at you from where they are, and the sea of bladegrass is extensive enough that they can't really get to you in any other way except the way they are currently trying...

I'll wait for a little while longer for Ka Jor and Hiru to post actions, and then the scene will commence, with whatever decision the PCs have made.

And thanks, BTW, Pbartender, for saving me a trip to Powell's to crib out of the UAA. I was wondering how to resolve Denny's attacks.]


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## DonAdam (Jun 12, 2003)

Ka Jor, satisfied that the passengers are as safe as they're going to be, reemerges from the ship.

"Since we've got some time before the tanks get here, we can at least try to parlay with the troops on the STAP's. We won't be trapped by the tanks yet if we end up having to fight our way out.

Even if we have to surrender, I'm sure I can persuade their leader to let us go. As long as the refugees are not harmed, we do not exactly have much to lose by being captured and then set free."


----------



## Pbartender (Jun 13, 2003)

DonAdam said:
			
		

> *"Even if we have to surrender, I'm sure I can persuade their leader to let us go. As long as the refugees are not harmed, we do not exactly have much to lose by being captured and then set free." *




"Do you negotiate with battle droids often? I didn't think that they'd be program for diplomacy and etiquette.

"Did you know, that their 'leader' is actually a massive computer bank that remote controls the troops from on board an orbiting battle cruiser?  Absolutely fascinating, eh?  I'd read all about it in Galactic Astrographic magazine after the Battle of Naboo.  Turned out some human child flew straight into the command ship's docking bay, and destroyed the entire  cruiser with a single torpedo!  That's a pretty tall tale to swallow, if you ask me.  Just the same, its a shame we don't have a starfighter handy ourselves.

"At any rate, it's not the capturing, but the setting free I'm worried about..." Denny carefully tracks the STAP with his pistols,  "They don't rightly seem the type for it, if you catch my meaning."

_Denny's readied action still stands._


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## DonAdam (Jun 13, 2003)

"Surely they would take us to a human leader somewhere down the chain of command...

"Still, you are right. That might happen too late. But, even if we can fight the first few, surely we cannot handle those tanks. What do you suggest we do against them?"


----------



## dpdx (Jun 13, 2003)

> Still, you are right. That might happen too late. But, even if we can fight the first few, surely we cannot handle those tanks. What do you suggest we do against them?"



At this point, the Duro speaks up. "Run."

The green man then speaks into his comlink. "*Hiru, get out here! We're gonna smoke these two guys in the airspeeders, and then we start cutting bladegrass!*"


----------



## Toric_Arthendain (Jun 13, 2003)

> Pog stares at the impending doom and absentmindedly answers the wookie. "Yes, yes, those STAPS can be dealt with easier than the tanks. The question is do we want to deal with them though? I mean, how bad could this situation be right now. Maybe they'll let us go? I doubt they'll let us go if we open fire on them or are hostile to them in any manner." That being said, Pog nervously holsters the blaster that he tried so hard to free from it's confines. He then shifts his belongings from one arm to the other.




Kerraccor looks at Pog in puzzlement and growls softly in the back of his throat.  [Shryiiwook] "They won't let us go.  I'm not turning my 'caster over to their kind either." [/Shryiiwook]



> "At any rate, it's not the capturing, but the setting free I'm worried about..." Denny carefully tracks the STAP with his pistols, "They don't rightly seem the type for it, if you catch my meaning."




Kerraccor growls, nodding his head in agreement with Denny.  He holds his bowcaster a bit more firmly, pointing it in the general direction of the STAPs.

And to anyone listening and can understand he says, [Shryiiwook] "I'm not allowing myself to be captured by battle droids so that I'll have to rely on their charity to regain my freedom.  I'd rather take them out right now." [/Shryiiwook]


----------



## dpdx (Jun 13, 2003)

*Updated map*


```
[size=huge][color=green]
***************************************
***************************************
***************************************
******************[/color][color=orangered]2[/color][color=green]********************
************[/color][color=red]1[/color][color=green]**************************
*****************************[/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]*****[/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]***
***^^^^^^^^^^[/color][color=white]p[/color][color=green]^^^^^^^^^^^**************
**^[/color][color=white]     t  k             [/color][color=green]***********[/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]**
*^[/color][color=white]  (------------        [/color][color=green]*********[/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]****
*^[/color][color=white] (    d      |         [/color][color=green]**************
*^[/color][color=white] (    jhs    |         [/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]******[/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]**[/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]***   [/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]
*^[/color][color=white] (           |         [/color][color=green]**************
*^[/color][color=white]  (------------        [/color][color=green]********[/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]*****
**^                      ***********[/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]** [/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]
***^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^*[/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]******[/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]*****
************************[/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]****[/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]*********
***************************************
***************************************
***************************************
***************************************
***************************************
***************************************
***************************************
***************************************[/color]
[/size]
```
Key:
*: Bladegrass
^: Dirt Berm
O: Hatch

#s: STAPs
&: Gormalok

t: Tilon
k: Kerraccor
d: Denny
p: Pog
s: Shom
j: Ka Jor 
h: Hiru (at hatch, based on last stated action)

(Not to scale - refer to text description of ranges.)


----------



## eoghanbt (Jun 13, 2003)

Tilon pulls his lightsaber from his belt, left hand upon the hilt, bending down against the berm, right hand gently resting upon it, legs bent and the knees, gently rocking, listening to the approaching sound of the hovering platforms..shifting slightly left or right as they approach...


<OOC: puting myself in a position to be right infront /under/ the STAPS as they cross the berm...>


----------



## dpdx (Jun 13, 2003)

The STAPs approach to within 10m of the berm, but no closer, and hover there for a few pregnant seconds. Finally, an amplified metallic voice (so as to be heard over the bladegrass) speaking in Basic issues from the closest one:

"*Attention, Eraydian invaders! You are under arrest for crimes against the Separatist Confederacy. Put down your weapons, and surrender peacefully, or we will be forced to terminate you. Attention, Eraydian invaders...*"

The STAPs do not fire, and the script (obviously written by a Separatist completely devoid of irony) loops. [Maybe I should be asking for Sanity checks...]

To the north, beyond the STAPs, the droids and tanks have made roughly a meter of progress on their field of bladegrass. The gormaloks remain in place, grazing on bladegrass to your immediate east.

Actions?

[Okay, first, distances:

The STAPs are 10m from the berm. The berm is 10m high, and 1m wide at it's highest point, and slopes for 5m (2 per 1m square) to the ground, where there is 2m of level ground until the ship. Characters crouching beneath the berm (like Tilon) or standing on the level ground (like Kerraccor) have 3/4 cover and concealment from the STAPs at their hovering height from 10m away (15m above ground, 5m above the bladegrass).

The hatch comes out the middle of the ship's circular fuselage, at a height of roughly 7m above current ground level (remember, the _Sanctuary_ is partially buried beneath ground. From the hatch to the edge of the ship is 40m in any direction, which can be walked (2 full rounds) or slid down (move action). Because of this distance from the berm, and the slope, characters on the south side of the ship only have 25% cover, no concealment, and are roughly 90m away from the STAPs.]

Oh, and Pog, if you don't get down offa that berm, your shoes are gonna be huaraches in about 2.1 rounds.


----------



## Jaik (Jun 13, 2003)

Hiru comes racing up the corridor towards the hatch, his blaster pistol in hand.  He stops at the left side of the hatch, facing into the ship, and holds his pistol upright with both hands in front of him, ready to turn around the edge of the hatch and open fire with the benefit of cover.  He seems to be whistling absently through his teeth, something jaunty and very out of place.


----------



## Pbartender (Jun 13, 2003)

dpdx said:
			
		

> *"We're gonna smoke these two guys in the airspeeders, and then we start cutting bladegrass!" *




"Aye, Captain," Denny acknowledges.  He deftly slides down the side of the ship  to shorten the range between him and the nearest battle droid.  Landing beside Tilon and Kerraccor, he immediately resumes his immaculate posture with his blasters aimed precisely toward the hovering threat.

"I have the one on the left, Kerry," he says to the wookiee with a non-chalant calmness.

_OOC: A move action to slide down the side of the ship, and then resume the previous readied action...  He fires on the nearest droid if they fire, or if the Captain gives the order to fire.  +0 for a full (4) attacks or +6 for a single attack.  If he is lucky enough to take down the first droid before he runs out of attacks, the remainder will target the second droid._


----------



## DonAdam (Jun 13, 2003)

"Very well.  Sometimes, I suppose, we cannot avoid a fight. I'll start cutting us a path to the left [Ka Jor is facing north].  Once the repulsorlifts are down, we'll start a path to the south. 

We can't let them see which direction we're heading; they'll radio it back to the tanks, who will cut us off. Better to let them radio back false directions."

With that said, Ka Jor slides down the ship, ignites his bright blue lightsaber, and goes to work on the blade grass on the west side of the clearing.


----------



## Toric_Arthendain (Jun 14, 2003)

> "I have the one on the left, Kerry," he says to the wookiee with a non-chalant calmness.




Kerraccor growls softly in reply, finally bringing his bowcaster up to aim at the one on the right.  He turns to Shom, waiting for the Captain to give the order to fire, his finger itching to pull the trigger.


----------



## dpdx (Jun 14, 2003)

```
[size=huge][color=green]
***************************************
***************************************
***************************************
*****************[/color][color=orangered]2[/color][color=green]*********************
************[/color][color=red]1[/color][color=green]**************************
*****************************[/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]*****[/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]***
***^^^^^^^^^^[/color][color=white]p[/color][color=green]^^^^^^^^^^^**************
**^[/color][color=white]   d t  k             [/color][color=green]***********[/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]**
*^[/color][color=white]  (------------        [/color][color=green]*********[/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]****
*^[/color][color=white] (           |         [/color][color=green]**************
*[/color][color=white]j (     h     |s        [/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]******[/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]**[/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]***   [/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]
*^[/color][color=white] (           |         [/color][color=green]**************
*^[/color][color=white]  (------------        [/color][color=green]********[/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]*****
**^                      ***********[/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]** [/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]
***^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^*[/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]******[/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]*****
************************[/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]****[/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]*********
***************************************
***************************************
***************************************
***************************************
***************************************
***************************************
***************************************
***************************************[/color]
[/size]
```
Key:
*: Bladegrass
^: Dirt Berm
O: Hatch

#s: STAPs
&: Gormalok

t: Tilon
k: Kerraccor
d: Denny
p: Pog
s: Shom
j: Ka Jor 
h: Hiru (at hatch)

Shom notices that none of his crew have lowered weapons, yet no one has commenced firing. Sensing that time is running out, Shom figures it's now or never if they're going to get the drop on the STAPs. Dropping to his seat, Shom slides down to the east, screaming into his comlink, "*Oh, for Yoda's sake, what in the sithlands are you people waiting for!!??*"

Landing on his Duro butt with a thud, Shom has just enough time to start the war, by loosing a blaster bolt at the STAP to the right (#2). It flies just east of the airspeeder, causing its pilot to swerve the platform roughly a meter to the west.

[Okay, here's how we handle this: you each get a partial action, then it's initiative time. If you shoot, post who you're going to shoot at, #1 (on the left), #2 (on the right), STAP or pilot.

Those of you who are unarmed for range (Pog, Tilon, Ka Jor) may take your partial as a move action. Since the STAPs have not approached the berm, Tilon cannot attack with his lightsaber. The other unarmed combatants have one last chance to not stand directly adjacent to the bladegrass, then I get merciless.]


----------



## maddmic (Jun 14, 2003)

Pog begins running back to the ship, hands flailing wildly yelling, "Don't shoot!  Don't Shoot!  They won't hurt us!"


----------



## Toric_Arthendain (Jun 14, 2003)

Watching Pog rush past in a panic, Kerraccor roars and opens fire on the STAP pilot on the right (#2).  He is shooting at the actual pilot not the STAP itself.


----------



## Pbartender (Jun 14, 2003)

> _Originally posted by dpdx _Dropping to his seat, Shom slides down to the east, screaming into his comlink, "*Oh, for Yoda's sake, what in the sithlands are you people waiting for!!??*"




Denny takes careful aim at the STAP pilot on the left and gently pulls the trigger of the hunting pistol.

"We are waiting, Captain," Dobradenn replies calmly, "for the order to begin firing from the senior officer, or for the enemy to begin firing so that we may retaliate in self defense...  Proper protocol and all that, Captain.  The Republic wouldn't want us resorting to the same barbarism displayed by the Separtists, now would it?"

_Denny was waiting for the order to fire, his readied action doesn't kick in?  Otherwise, +6 attack on the STAP pilot on the left (#1)._


----------



## Jaik (Jun 14, 2003)

Hiru pivots around the carner, sights carefully on the leftmost STAP's pilot and lets off a shot.


----------



## DonAdam (Jun 14, 2003)

Ka Jor continues to very carefully cut the blade grass with his lightsaber, "clearing a path for the refugees."

"I desperately hope this works," he thinks to himself. "The last thing we need is a bloodbath here. But where are we supposed to go, even if we escape these tanks?"

[OOC: If cutting this grass gets dangerous or the rest of the group looks to be in trouble, Ka Jor will join the others.]


----------



## dpdx (Jun 14, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Pbartender _*
> Denny was waiting for the order to fire, his readied action doesn't kick in?  Otherwise, +6 attack on the STAP pilot on the left (#1). *



Oh, I'd say Shom's incredulous outburst qualifies your readied action.


----------



## eoghanbt (Jun 14, 2003)

Tilon grips his lightsaber tighter, hunched, waiting for the STAPS to shift, shifting closer on the other side of the berm as the blaster bolts fly overhead...


----------



## dpdx (Jun 15, 2003)

```
[size=huge][color=green]
***************************************
***************************************
***************************************
*****************[/color][color=orangered]2[/color][color=green]*********************
************[/color][color=red]1[/color][color=green]**************************
*****************************[/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]*****[/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]***
***^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^**************
**^[/color][color=white]   d t  k             [/color][color=green]***********[/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]**
*^[/color][color=white]  (------p-----        [/color][color=green]*********[/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]****
*^[/color][color=white] (           |         [/color][color=green]**************
*[/color][color=white]j (     h     |s        [/color][color=green]**[/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]****[/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]**[/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]***   [/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]
*^[/color][color=white] (           |         [/color][color=green]**************
*^[/color][color=white]  (------------        [/color][color=green]********[/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]*****
**^                      ***********[/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]** [/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]
***^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^*[/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]******[/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]*****
************************[/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]****[/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]*********
***************************************
***************************************
***************************************
***************************************
***************************************
***************************************
***************************************
***************************************[/color]
[/size]
```
Key:
*: Bladegrass
^: Dirt Berm
O: Hatch

#s: STAPs
&: Gormalok

t: Tilon
k: Kerraccor
d: Denny
p: Pog
s: Shom
j: Ka Jor 
h: Hiru (at hatch)

Kerraccor lets fly with his bowcaster at the pilot of STAP #2. Unfortunately, the bolt must have been jostled in the nock, and when released, goes tumbling awkwardly over the berm, where it thuds inertly into the bladegrass.

Denny centers himself behind one blaster pistol, and fires one well-placed shot into the pilot of STAP #1. The impact and damage is enough to twist the pilot's body around, and as it falls (now backward) into the controls, Hiru's blaster bolt is enough to finish him off. The droid's now lifeless chassis then tumbles into the bladegrass below, but not before the now unoccupied STAP lurches forward about 5m closer to the berm.

Meanwhile, behind the ship to the west, Ka Jor stands atop the berm and swats at the bladegrass below with his lightsaber. The impact of the lightsaber vs. bladegrass is like steel, and the jolt is enough to knock the Jedi weapon from his hand. Fortunately for the young Jedi, the weapon deactivates before it strikes him on the head [causing 2 VP damage], and tumbles down the berm to the ship behind him.

Pog's headlong retreat picks up speed until he trips over a rock and rolls down the soft dirt of the berm (no damage). Ironically, Pog ends up in the square where he now lies prone, staring directly at the equipment he discarded before his attempt at surrender.

Tilon hazards a quick peek over the top of the berm, and notes that the STAP is about halfway closer to him than it was seconds ago. Unfortunately, it is not likely to get any closer to him for a long, long time. Perhaps if he had a cable dispenser (or even a rope), he could pull it toward him.

The inquisitive gormalok seems to have headed several meters back into the bladegrass. Meanwhile, the rest of the Separatist forces have made no appreciable progress in cutting the bladegrass to get to you.


----------



## dpdx (Jun 15, 2003)

```
[size=huge][color=green]
***************************************
***************************************
***************************************
*****************[/color][color=orangered]2[/color][color=green]**********************
**************************************
*********[/color][color=silver]1[/color][color=green]********************[/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]*****[/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]***
***^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^**************
**^[/color][color=white]   d t  k             [/color][color=green]***********[/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]**
*^[/color][color=white]  (------p-----        [/color][color=green]*********[/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]****
*^[/color][color=white] (           |         [/color][color=green]**************
*[/color][color=white]j (     h     |s        [/color][color=green]**[/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]****[/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]**[/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]***   [/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]
*^[/color][color=white] (           |         [/color][color=green]**************
*^[/color][color=white]  (------------        [/color][color=green]********[/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]*****
**^                      ***********[/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]** [/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]
***^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^*[/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]******[/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]*****
************************[/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]****[/color][COLOR=sandybrown]&[/color][color=green]*********
***************************************
***************************************
***************************************
***************************************
***************************************
***************************************
***************************************
***************************************[/color]
[/size]
```
Key:
*: Bladegrass
^: Dirt Berm
O: Hatch

#s: STAPs
&: Gormalok

t: Tilon
k: Kerraccor
d: Denny
p: Pog
s: Shom
j: Ka Jor 
h: Hiru (at hatch)

*Round One*

Initiatives:

Tilon: 20
Denny: 19
Pog: 19
STAP: 13
Shom: 12
Kerraccor: 11
Ka Jor: 6
Hiru: 3


----------



## maddmic (Jun 15, 2003)

Pog shifts his body around to where he can see the approaching STAP.  Pulling his blaster out he readies it with two hands, not quite sure if using it was as easy as the dealer assured him.  In his head he heard the salesman's words over and over.  _'Just point and pull the trigger.  make sure that the round end is pointing at your enemy.'_  Pog had tested the blaster out before, but this was different.  He was sure that these targets would fire back at him.  squeezing the trigger he let a bolt fly in the general direction of the droid left on his STAP.

OOC:
If he's doing too much this round, then he'll fire next round should there be a droid left on the 2nd STAP.  Other wise, he'll still be pointing the blaster pistol in the direction that they came from.


----------



## eoghanbt (Jun 15, 2003)

Tilon does, in fact, have a cable dispenser...He grabs the squat tube from his belt, aiming and firing it at the STAP, trying to hook/grab/grapple the front railing and then PULL it hard towards himself and the top of the berm...


----------



## eoghanbt (Jun 15, 2003)

Tilon does, in fact, have a cable dispenser...He grabs the squat tube from his belt, aiming and firing it at the STAP, trying to hook/grab/grapple the front railing and then PULL it hard towards himself and the top of the berm...


----------



## Pbartender (Jun 16, 2003)

Stepping foward, Denny shifts his aim to the second STAP pilot, and fires each of his blasters one after the another, unleashing a barrage of blaster fire.

_OOC: 4 ranged attacks at +0 each._


----------



## Toric_Arthendain (Jun 16, 2003)

Kerraccor roars in irritation at his bowcaster bolt going astray.  He will fire at the STAP pilot again, if he is still standing when it is his turn to shoot.


----------



## Jaik (Jun 16, 2003)

Assuming the second STAP rider is stilla round when it comes to his action, Hiru will draw a bead on it and attempt to do it harm with his blaster.

(BTW, how tall is the bladegrass in comparison to the height of the gormaloks?)


----------



## dpdx (Jun 17, 2003)

_The bladegrass grows unevenly, with heights anywhere from 3 to 4 meters above the ground they grow on. Most of the gormaloks easily reach 1 to 2 meters above that. If you were to be able to ride one, you could easily stay above the bladegrass._

[I'll post the round so far a little later tonight.]


----------



## dpdx (Jun 17, 2003)

*Round One*

Tilon peeks over the berm and sees the STAP in front of him is now unoccupied, but still floating. Reaching into his pocket for the liquid cable dispenser, he aims it at the handlebars. The cable flies out, and just manages to catch the STAP on the front of the chassis, where it sticks and hardens. Tilon tries pulling on the cable, but the STAP doesn't budge.*

Denny rises and fires at the occupied STAP with all four barrels blazing. The shots from his upper two arms both hit the pilot in the chest, severing his head and torso and knocking it backward, where the bladegrass causes even more sparks to fly skyward.

Pog fires at the same time, and manages to hit the now unattended STAP, leaving a smoking hole in the propulsion system. Hostile #2 dips just enough to run its bottom along the tips of the bladegrass, and sparks fly. The bladegrass does not ignite, however.

Those of you with a view of the GATs and droids can tell that they've probably managed a meter or two at best in terms of progress toward your position. At this rate, it should take them another 90 rounds (9 minutes plus) minimum to break through the bladegrass to your position.

You're out of combat, but you're still on combat time, for the purposes of Tilon's augmented DEX (which still has nine rounds left), and for determining when the GATs arrive (if at all).

*Take 100 XP each for the starship combat, landing the ship, and the STAPs, plus the excellent posting. If your full stats, background and description are posted in the other thread (and I believe everyone's is), take another 100 XP for that, to make 200 total.*

Shom picks himself up off the ground, and climbs back up to the hatch of the ship. He surveys the progress of the GATs, and looks around at the layout of the bladegrass field. He then pokes his head down the hole and says to Hiru (who, inside the ship, can hear him), "Why don't you help our passengers out of the ship?"

[Those of you after Shom - Kerracor, Ka Jor, and Hiru - in the initiative count have a chance to repost your actions to befit the new situation.]

*If you're interested in how I ruled on Tilon's action, I posted about it in the other thread.


----------



## Jaik (Jun 17, 2003)

"All right, ladies and gentlemen, the ship has come to a complete stop at this time.  Please exit the craft, remembering to take any carry-on luggage.  Watch your step on the way out and we hope you enjoyed flying Crash and Burn Airlines.  Oh, stay away from the grass, please."  Hiru leads the way by hopping out of thatch and heading over to speak with the captain.


----------



## DonAdam (Jun 17, 2003)

Ka Jor retrieves his lightsaber, looking at it with interest, thinking to himself, "_That_ has never happened before."

He thumbs on the blade to make sure that it is still operational. [OOC: is it?

In either case...] Remembering that they have no time to waste, the cerean padawan clips his weapon back on his belt and begins searching the horizon to determine which direction would be the safest to travel.


----------



## maddmic (Jun 17, 2003)

Pog watches in disbelief as the STAP staggers and spits black smoke out.  He then looks at the barrel of his blaster pistol.  Shaking his head he smiles.  He then stands up seeing no other signs of immediate danger.  Looking around at the others, he holsters his blaster with an air of confidence.  He gathers his things from the ground and looks to the others.  "Now what do we do?  It won't take those tanks too long to get here.  I know I could pilot one of those STAPS and possibly ferry people out of here, but I don't know how long it will take."


----------



## eoghanbt (Jun 17, 2003)

Tilon gives the cable one more good pull, bracing his feet against the berm for leverage...


----------



## Pbartender (Jun 18, 2003)

maddmic said:
			
		

> *"Now what do we do?  It won't take those tanks too long to get here.  I know I could pilot one of those STAPS and possibly ferry people out of here, but I don't know how long it will take." *




"Likewise," Denny suggests as he holsters his blasters, "if we could capture those repulsor tanks, we could most likely ferry everyone out of this demon grass."

Denny steps over to Tilon a hand or four pulling in the lassoed STAP.

"Pog, do you think you'll be able to fix that blaster hole you put into the other speederbike?  Having two fully operational combat bikes would be considerably perferrable to one."


----------



## Pbartender (Jun 18, 2003)

Once again, Denny experiences an overwhelming sense of deja vu...


----------



## Toric_Arthendain (Jun 18, 2003)

Kerraccor climbs back onto the top of the ship next to Shom.  He'll assist any passengers in getting out of the ship that need help, while keeping an eye on the approaching GATs.  Once everyone is out of the ship, he'll re-enter to retrieve his only other possession, his tool kit.  After that, he'll be ready to assist in fixing the damaged STAP if needed.


----------



## dpdx (Jun 18, 2003)

D'oh! Crosspost!

*Round Two*

Okay, while I work on the new map, here's what happened (Initiative order has been abandoned, but will be rerolled in case combat happens.):

Kerracor moves over to lend Hiru a hand with passenger debarkment, but by the time the wookiee makes it to the hatch, the passengers seem to have it whipped. Four refugees come out between now and then, with bemused expressions on their faces, as if someone has just told a joke. A Falleen male awaits his turn to debark, and whispers conspiratorially to Hiru: "What's an _airlines_?"

Ka Jor heads down the berm to retrieve his lightsaber, none too soon as a stray 'blade' of bladegrass nearly ventilates the seat of his Jedi robe. He reactivates the Jedi weapon, and to his relief, a bright blue shaft of light accompanies the trademark "wheezhah-mroom" sound generally associated with lightsabers. [If you want a different color, Ka Jor, lemme know, and I'll edit.]

With Denny's help, Tilon (barely) manages to get the STAP moving toward him [and by that I mean, if Denny ain't helping, it ain't moving]. Now that inertia has been overcome, it should only take about 2 more rounds to get the STAP next to the berm, where Tilon (or someone) can commandeer it.

No one can hear Pog's comments about using the STAPs to ferry passengers over the bladegrass, over the bladegrass. Which is probably just as well, since the most recently depiloted one now has holes in the aerial platform and is further away than 20m of liquid cable would reach. Still, Pog is now standing, and in possession once again of his gear.

Shom has been looking around, when his eyes fix on a point southeast of the hull. Shom holds that thought until he can poke his head in the hatch yet again (this time, nearly coming face to hiney with a Bith female on her way out). Deftly dodging the sizable obstacle, he manages to squeeze off a question to the remaining passengers. Of the party, only Hiru can hear the question:

"Does anyone here have any experience with handling and/or riding Gormaloks?"

To his surprise, two hands go up: one, an older human woman, who introduces herself as Alice Chenn-Mar, who 'used to do a bit of thread-farmin' back in the day,' the other, a Falleen male who declines to give his name, but can 'ride anything.' Shom directs these folks to come to the front of the line, and the other passengers oblige. They'll come out in the next "wave" of refugee debarkments.

The Duro resurfaces, and speaks (again, loudly enough) into his comlink: "Okay, folks, we've got two choices, the way I see it. We can borrow a couple of the refugees who know a little bit to see if we can't ride those gormaloks out of here, OR, we can use our combined weaponry to blast our way out right about... there." Those who turn to look at him see him point to a spot in the southeast corner of the cleared area.

"What's everybody think?"


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## Pbartender (Jun 18, 2003)

Denny shouts back into his comlink, "Riding the gormaloks would seem the quicker route, considering the pace that three tanks a squad of droid troopers are making.  If we can get the second STAP jury-rigged into usefulness, two of us could make for a decent distraction while the rest escape.

"Pog, come over and give us a hand with this cable..."


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## eoghanbt (Jun 18, 2003)

Tilon hands off the dispenser/handle/anchor...giving instructions to "Hold it sort of steady"...before hopping /onto/ the cable and running up it to the STAP....


  <OOC: Enhanced Dex, Feat that does balance stuff, out of combat so take..20? 10? Anyway...>


<Addition: My mental picture had the STAP sort of over the berm and not the grass now....not right? Not going to run up a cable over evil grass.>>


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## Pbartender (Jun 18, 2003)

eoghanbt said:
			
		

> *Tilon hands off the dispenser/handle/anchor...giving instructions to "Hold it sort of steady"...before hopping /onto/ the cable and running up it to the STAP....
> 
> 
> <OOC: Enhanced Dex, Feat that does balance stuff, out of combat so take..20? 10? Anyway...> *




"I'm not normally one to shy away from dangerous risks," Denny warns the Jedi, "But you do realize the penalty of failure for your proposed endeavor is to fall into the midst of the mincing vegetation.

"Besides which, I don't think I'm heavy or strong enough to hold the line taught while you walk it. Give it another tug or two, and I can hop aboard."


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## Jaik (Jun 18, 2003)

Hiru huddles with the two experienced riders and asks if they'll need any equipment, such as rope, cable, saddle facsimile, whatever.  If so, he'll go rummage through the ship to find it.


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## maddmic (Jun 18, 2003)

Pog seems to be a bit confused as nobody has really answered him.  Then he realizes that the grass is way to loud for anybody to hear him.  Hearing Shom, he seems to be even more confused looking around at everybody doing their own thing.  Not wanting to ride a live animal, he heads over to the two who seem to be trying to pull in one of the STAPS.  He yells in his com link to the others.  "I may be able to fix the other one, although I won't know unless we can get to it and tow it in.  I don't much care for trying to ride one of those animal things, but I guess I'll do whatever it takes to get myself out of this mess."


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## dpdx (Jun 18, 2003)

eoghanbt said:
			
		

> *<Addition: My mental picture had the STAP sort of over the berm and not the grass now....not right? Not going to run up a cable over evil grass.>> *



In fact, the STAP is still 5m of evil grass away, and if you quit pulling, it's gonna stay there until you win another opposed Strength check. At the end of this round, assuming you pull, the STAP will be where you can possibly leap onto it, though if you miss, you will fall into the evil grass. Otherwise, at the end of next round, it will levitate over the berm (since it's not been shut off yet) and down to the level below the berm, where it will be over dirt and you can climb onto it without penalty.

Sorry if that wasn't clear.

Oh, and Tilon has 5m of cable left in his dispenser if he clips off the current cable, not _nearly_ enough to get the other STAP, which is currently 50m away through the bladegrass (which means, it is as close to the GATs and droids as it is to you). Perhaps, however, you might find a use for at least one STAP in full working order, including a pair of fire-linked, medium...


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## DonAdam (Jun 18, 2003)

Ka Jor goes to help pull the STAP into the clearing, if there is any cable left to grab onto.

When it is in the clearing, he reaches for a small pill in his med kit, thinking out loud, "This looks to be about the right dosage."

He puts his hand on Tilon's shoulder, "My master always said to not be so hasty to call upon the Force. We are still novices, and we can wear ourselves out. You may wish to be a bit more careful in the future.

"Take this. It is totally organic, called 'kawe-da' on Cerea. It will give you a little bit of that energy back. Kawe-da loses potency if some is already in your system though, so I will not be able to give you another dose until tomorrow at the earliest."

[OOC: Take 10 on a Treat Injury check to use my med kit to restore 4 VP to Tilon]


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## eoghanbt (Jun 18, 2003)

Gives another pull on the STAP with the cable before letting go as it hovers over the berm, wiping his brow. "I had an audience...Master seems to think I try to hard with an audience.." He grins, sheepishly.


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## eoghanbt (Jun 18, 2003)

Gives another pull on the STAP with the cable before letting go as it hovers over the berm, wiping his brow. "I had an audience...Master seems to think I try to hard with an audience.." He grins, sheepishly.


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## eoghanbt (Jun 18, 2003)

Gives another pull on the STAP with the cable before letting go as it hovers over the berm, wiping his brow. "I had an audience...Master seems to think I try to hard with an audience.." He grins, sheepishly.


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## Pbartender (Jun 19, 2003)

maddmic said:
			
		

> *Not wanting to ride a live animal, he heads over to the two who seem to be trying to pull in one of the STAPS.  He yells in his com link to the others.  "I may be able to fix the other one, although I won't know unless we can get to it and tow it in..." *




Once the STAP has been pulled within easy reach of the berm, Denny will cut off the used portion of liquid rope with a vibroknife, and coil it up to hang over one of his many shoulders.  Then, he will then clamber up onto the STAP, and rev the engines up.  He beckons to Pog, yelling, "Climb aboard, if you can find room.  I'll ferry you over to the other speeder, and perhaps we can tow it over."


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## dpdx (Jun 19, 2003)

[GM Note: There have been a rash of double, triple, and even quadruple posts on the board as a whole, caused by abnormally slow response times from the server. Try to be patient: the board will eventually process your post, so there is no need to hammer the Post Reply button. Get a beverage, then come back.]

Okay, the map, even to 2m scale, is going to be too much work to express visually, so I'm going to have to try to express the situation verbally:

- First, *any adjacent square* to the bladegrass, even the square that denotes the top of the berm, subjects you to attacks. Keep this in mind when blasting, slashing, falling off a gormalok, or even standing atop the berm to retrieve a STAP.

- Second, the GATs are making extremely slow progress toward your position -- the time estimates are accurate. They cannot "go around" the bladegrass to get to you because the sea of bladegrass between you and them extends as far as the eye can see: they're already taking the most direct route they can. This gives you time, but not too much time, to figure your own way out of the bladegrass ahead of them.

- Third, Shom's authority over the group ended when the ship 'landed'. He'll be as helpful as he can, and generally serve as my device to keep things moving when the plot itself does not, but the decisions are yours to make.

I'll post again as soon as we hear from Toric.


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## maddmic (Jun 19, 2003)

Pog climbs aboard trying to find some place to hang on to.  Before they take off, he yells to Denny.  "Take your time and don't make any sudden, crazy moves.  I really don't want to fall into that stuff if I can help it."


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## Toric_Arthendain (Jun 19, 2003)

From his vantage point atop the disabled ship, Kerraccor watches the proceedings with interest, particularly the two individuals who said that they had experience with the Gormaloks.  He also continues keeping an eye on the progress of the tanks, worried that they won't find a way out of the bladegrass trap before the tanks arrive.


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## dpdx (Jun 19, 2003)

*Round Two*

The group at the berm (which includes Denny, Pog, Tilon and Ka Jor) manages, with the extra help, to wrestle the STAP to a point directly above the berm. Pog climbs aboard with no trouble, and Denny cuts and coils the now-solid cable.

The craft is light, and the controls are simple: a stick in the middle, with a button at the end and a throttle along the grip that can be squeezed to provide thrust; and a power toggle (currently in the 'on' position). A tube juts out the front of the airspeeder, roughly 5 cm wide, slightly larger than the aperture on a blaster rifle.

Ka Jor manages to make himself heard to the other Jedi. He stands with the pill in his outstretched hand, waiting to see if Tilon will take it...

The group at the hatch (Kerraccor, Hiru, Shom) watches passengers emerge, four at a time. After the first group slides down the bowl to the clearing to the east, the second group emerges from the hatch, containing Alice, the Falleen 'cowboy', and two children. The third group pauses beneath the ladder to see if anyone large and hairy wants to come back inside to retrieve any items.

Not hearing any blaster fire, your friend the gormalok is back, appearing at the edge of the clearing. Alice sees him, and turns to Hiru (because 'the galaxy loves Hiru.'  ), and asks him, "'Zat the one you want me to try to get?"

Shom turns, interested in this conversation. "Once the passengers are out, I'm no longer the 'Captain,' technically," he begins into his comlink. "I just want you guys to know that in case I get clipped or something. So whether we're gonna try the gormaloks, or we wanna mow 10m of bladegrass over there, I'll go along with whatever you guys decide."


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## eoghanbt (Jun 19, 2003)

Tilon looks at the pill, arches an eyebrow at Ka-Jor, then takes it, popping it into his mouth and swallows.


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## Jaik (Jun 20, 2003)

Hiru nods, "Yep, that's him alright.  You need a rope or anything?"  He turns to the other potential rider.  "How about you, anything I can get you?"


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## maddmic (Jun 20, 2003)

Pog reaches down and will attempt to help Denny aboard if there's room for both of them.


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## Toric_Arthendain (Jun 20, 2003)

Kerraccor slides down into the ship when the third group of refugees waits for him to enter.  He'll get his tool kit from the cockpit and then return to the top of the ship.


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## Pbartender (Jun 21, 2003)

maddmic said:
			
		

> *Pog reaches down and will attempt to help Denny aboard if there's room for both of them. *




With Pog's assistance, Denny climbs up to find a perch somewhere on the STAP.

_OOC: If there isn't room on the STAP itself, Denny will simply ride piggyback on Pog's back, until they can reach the other speeder...  consisting of nothing but spindly arms and legs, Denny only weighs about 70 pounds, even with all his gear.  _


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## dpdx (Jun 23, 2003)

[I'm going to wait one more night for DonAdam to post Ka Jor's action, then I'll resolve the current round.]


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## DonAdam (Jun 23, 2003)

Ka Jor moves to help the refugees out of the ship, and begins lining them up with women and children at the front of the line in case they cannot evacuate the whole group.


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## dpdx (Jun 24, 2003)

*Round Three*

Tilon climbs back down from the berm, and accepts Ka Jor's pill. As he takes it, he can feel energy beginning to course back through his body (in two rounds, Tilon will gain back 4 VP).

Hiru, sliding to the bottom of the ship with the two refugees, asks the human lady if she needs some rope or anything. The woman turns to him, and says, "Well, I gotta see if he'll come to me first, and even then I reckon a rope won't do us much good. It might scare the animal."

The woman then begins to cross the large expanse of shaved soil to the east of the ship. [By next round, she'll be in a position to try and entice the gormalok to come to her.] The Falleen follows at a respectable distance, not wanting to do anything that would startle the gormalok until the woman has calmed him down, _if_ she can do that.

Shom notices the woman going over, and says into his comlink, "I'll give her three tries to get people on top of that gormalok, but if she can't do that, we start blasting. If we can't clear thirty square meters of bladegrass before the Seps can clear 800, then we deserve to rot in an CIS detention facility. But it's your call..."

Speaking of the Seps, the battle droids have helped where they could squeeze in between the GATs, and the group has made about 5m of progress through the bladegrass. It's still going to be a while before they reach your position, it looks like, but time is of the essence to figure a way to move thirty refugees plus crew to safe ground on the other side.

Meanwhile, Denny fits two-dimensionally on the STAP platform alongside Pog, but the additional weight makes it impossible to lift the airspeeder above the berm to avoid high-centering, much less stay above the bladegrass to avoid harm. For now, though, the two are safe from bladegrass, even if the STAP doesn't seem to want to move.

Kerracor slides to the bottom of the ship, and starts toward his personal locker to retrieve his toolbox. Kerracor can smell smoke beginning to drift through the pathways of the _Sanctuary_.

The refugees remaining in the ship, after having let Kerracor back in to retrieve his tools, have started again to debark, where they are met by Ka Jor at the hatch. The third group of four is now out of the hatch, and preparing to slide, while the fourth group has almost reached the top.

They seem cheery, if a little anxious to exit. Once they slide to the bottom, they stay out of the way to the east of the ship, so that Alice and the Falleen can attempt to lure the gormalok.


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## Toric_Arthendain (Jun 24, 2003)

Smelling the smoke, Kerraccor hurries to retrieve his toolkit, wondering if part of the ship is on fire or if the smoke is just that of burnt out electronic components.  Once he retrieves his tools, he will hurry back to the hatch and exit the ship.  Outside, he will tell Shom that smoke is beginning to drift through the interior of the ship and that maybe they should all get a little ways away from it.


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## maddmic (Jun 24, 2003)

Pog looks at Denny and yells, "Well, it would appear that one of us has to get off of this thing.  If you want to try to go and pick up the other STAP, the I'll jump off this one.  If you want me to try to get the other one, then I'll need you to jump off."


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## eoghanbt (Jun 24, 2003)

Tilon, after swallowing the pill, closes his eyes, feeling the effects begin to flow through his body. He takes a deep breath, then walks, quietly, over with Ka Jor to help calm and assist in an orderly progress out of the crashed transport.


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## Pbartender (Jun 24, 2003)

maddmic said:
			
		

> *Pog looks at Denny and yells, "Well, it would appear that one of us has to get off of this thing.  If you want to try to go and pick up the other STAP, the I'll jump off this one.  If you want me to try to get the other one, then I'll need you to jump off." *




"They don't build them liek they used to," mutters Denny, surprised at the lack of power behind the STAP's repulsor engines.

"I'll tell you what, old chap...  Why don't you wait here, and I'll tow the other one over this way where you can fix it in peace."  He pats the coil of rope hanging over his shoulder.


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## Jaik (Jun 24, 2003)

Hiru will make sure that the passengers are debarking safely, then climbs back into the ship.  He turns and faces out the hatch, momentarily thinking about picking off battle droids to slow down the tanks.  "No, that would probably allow the tanks to return fire, and that we do NOT want..."  Looking out the hatch, Hiru realizes that he has no clue where they've landed or where to find a friendly roof.  Hiru spins and heads to the galley, grabbing several stout-looking refugees along the way to help carry supplies they'll probably need for the trip.  Over the comlink, he asks, "Say, does anyone have a map of this place or any idea where we should be heading, aside from away from the droids?"


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## eoghanbt (Jun 24, 2003)

Tilon turns towards Hiru as he assists a woman out of the hatch. "I saw a tower structure as we came down..."


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## DonAdam (Jun 24, 2003)

Ka Jor begins asking around the passengers and crew to see if anyone is in need of medical treatment, more to assure the refugees that they will be taken care of than thinking that there are any actual injuries.


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## maddmic (Jun 25, 2003)

Pog hops off the STAP and lets Denny take it to tow the other one in.  He sits on the ground content to see what happens next.


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## Pbartender (Jun 25, 2003)

Denny sidles his speeder up next to the damaged STAP.  Using two hands for support, he uses the other to tie the rope from one STAP to the othe as a tow rope.  Once the line is secure, he gingerly tows the wounded speeder bike back to the berm, where Pog can reach it.

_OOC: I understand this may take more than one round, but that's Denny's plan._


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## dpdx (Jun 27, 2003)

*Round Four*

As Denny trundles off in the working STAP to retrieve the other one, Pog stands behind the berm with his tools, ready to attempt to repair the other one if/when Denny can bring it to safe ground.

Tilon and Ka Jor move to the hatch to assist in debarking passengers. Looking down into the ship, some of the passengers seem to be encumbered with rations from the galley in addition to their own things. A quick estimate reveals that the food would last the entire group for three days, provided you don't come across any more.

Shom and Hiru stand at the east end of the ship, watching Alice attempt to cajole the gormalok into coming up to her so that the Falleen can ride him. It's difficult for Alice to make a sound that can both be heard above the bladegrass and not scare away the gormalok, but the gormalok still seems interested in the larger herd of humanoids.

Kerracor is now back at the entryway, fully equipped. The smoke seems to have faded here, but it doesn't seem volatile; in fact, it reminds most passengers of fried electrical components, as if they shorted out during the manteon attack...

The passengers make a hole to allow Kerracor to debark. A few of them need the time, anyway, to adjust their loads and still make the climb.

The fourth group is out, making 16 of the refugees at the bottom of the column. The other 14 are still in the entryway, and in fact, the fifth group is almost out.

The GATs and droids are making slow progress. Estimates put the amount of bladegrass cut to be 6 squares deep, eight wide. This leaves approx. 94m of bladegrass to cut through in sufficient width to get them all through at once.


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## DonAdam (Jun 27, 2003)

Ka Jor positions himself so that, if Alice can tame the gormalok, he can be ready to use the Force to catch anyone falling off of it for as long a distance as possible. 

[10 meters, readied action to Move Object on anyone falling off a gormalok]


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## maddmic (Jun 29, 2003)

Pog will continue to wait until Denny can return.


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## Toric_Arthendain (Jun 30, 2003)

Kerraccor exits the ship and a emits low growl, beginning to get impatient at being trapped in a small clearing.

Looking over towards Pog, he says in Shryiiwook, "Are those things flyable yet?"  He points towards the STAPs to make sure the skittish human knows what he is talking about.  Regardless of the answer, he begins making his way over to Pog to assist with making the STAPs operational if necessary.


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## dpdx (Jul 1, 2003)

*Round Five*

[Tilon's player will be away for a short while, so I'm auto-piloting Tilon until he gets back.]

Pog and Kerracor now wait for Denny to tow the other STAP to safety. As Denny reaches the second STAP, it is nothing but fuselage and framework where the platform used to be. Still, Denny manages to loop the cable around the steering column, and begins the process of towing the STAP, which is still powered, back above the berm. With the loss of the platform, the second STAP manages to maintain enough thrust to stay above the bladegrass.

[edit: Refugees continue to come out of the hatch, each laden with their belongings and rations. Two-thirds of the refugees are now outside the ship, and in another three rounds, all will be safely debarked.]

The others stand around as Alice attempts to work her magic on the gormalok. The gormalok can hear her above the bladegrass, and seems interested, but is not yet convinced that he should walk over to her. 

"That's two...", Shom says into the comlink.

"You just hold your damn banthas, flyboy!" comes Alice's retort.

"Sithspit, I didn't know she had a comlink..."

"I heard that!"


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## maddmic (Jul 2, 2003)

Pog stands waiting patiently hoping that the STAP can still be used.  He didn't much care for smelly pack animals.  Speaking of smelly, there was a certain odor that found it's way to his nose.  It was a familiar smell that he remembered from his days of working on Sebulba's pod racer.  He finally tore his gaze from the STAP to find that the wookie had come over to him.  Not being able to hear above the noise of the grass, he speaks into his comlink.  "I'm sorry.  What was it you said?"  (Assuming that the wookie restates, Pog continues)  "One is flyable, the other I don't know yet.  Denny is towing it over to me as we speak.  Can you fix one of those things?"


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## Toric_Arthendain (Jul 3, 2003)

> "One is flyable, the other I don't know yet. Denny is towing it over to me as we speak. Can you fix one of those things?"




Kerraccor growls in response, [Shryiiwook] "Maybe.  I've never worked on one before but I'd like the chance to try." [/Shryiiwook]  Kerraccor pats his toolkit as if to emphasize what he said and then waits for the STAP's to arrive in the clearing.  He hoped that at least the vehicle weapons could be used to clear a path through the bladegrass.


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## Pbartender (Jul 6, 2003)

Denny drops the wounded STAP's tow-rope to the waiting hands of Pog and Kerry.  With his package delivered, he boosts the repulsors up to full power sending his STAP to its maximum altitude.  He swings a quick circle around the crashsite, scouting out the area.

_Denny's up there to keep an eye on things for now...  First, he's looking for the tower that was passed on the way in.  Second, he's looking for the shortest way through the blade grass.  Third, he's keeping an eye on the approaching droids._


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## dpdx (Jul 7, 2003)

*Round Six*

[In the interest of moving this along and getting to the good part, I'm going to go ahead and post. If Hiru or Ka Jor want to change their actions, I'll edit (or add) to account for it.]

Tilon, Pog, and Kerracor wait for Denny to tow the STAP where they can reach it. The towing goes slowly, as Denny can only manage to tow the other STAP 10m/round. Denny is now 30m away from the berm, with roughly 10m of cable between him and the other STAP. The airbikes manage to stay well above the bladegrass.

Alice makes a few loud, low sounds (similar in pitch to blowing one's nose) and gestures toward the gormalok, and it closes the distance between itself and the human woman. The Falleen steps forward and climbs atop the large herbivore, and Alice plus two more of the refugees also climb aboard without any problems. The Falleen turns the animal toward the others in the herd, and begins to start toward them.

Another group of refugees slides down the fuselage of the _Sanctuary_, where they meet the assembled group in the clearing to the east of the ship. Only eight remain in the ship, including four gathering supplies with Hiru.

Shom, looking upon the gormalok scene with wonder, begrudgingly holsters his blaster.

Hiru and his scavenging party are in the galley/pantry, and manage to come up with five medpacs, a medikit, three glowrods, and about 5 days worth of rations for one person, all of which they manage to load aboard a transparisteel cooking sheet about 1m square.

[Denny/Tilon: the tower is barely visible to the east.]

The GATs continue to make slow but steady progress toward your position.


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## DonAdam (Jul 7, 2003)

[OOC: Sorry, I was just assuming that Ka Jor was holding his action. If he can be within ten meters of the gormalok riders he'll stay there to try to catch anyone that falls, otherwise he'll just be tending to the refugees until something changes.]


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## dpdx (Jul 7, 2003)

[Yeah, I figured Ka Jor's action would still stand.]

Ka Jor watches over the riders from a safe, respectable distance. He dares not follow them into the bladegrass, where they will be next round.


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## maddmic (Jul 8, 2003)

Pog waits patiently for the disabled STAP to be towed to him.  He will begin to repair the machine in his head.  Going over what could possibly be wrong, and what could possibly be salvaged.  He's also thinking about what he can do with the parts in order to clear out some blade grass.  (Using the weapons to create a bomb or something.)


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## Toric_Arthendain (Jul 8, 2003)

Kerraccor will also wait, somewhat impatiently, for the STAPs to get towed to the berm.  Once there, he will assist Pog in repairing it.  (OOC:  I believe Pog has a slightly higher Repair skill so I will assist him with aid another.)


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## dpdx (Jul 11, 2003)

[Ah, yes, what was that I said about getting to the good part?]

*Rounds Seven through Twelve*

Roughly a minute later, Denny has successfully towed the damaged STAP back over the berm where it can be repaired safely.

Denny, Pog and Kerraccor can see plainly what is wrong with the airbike: the 'platform', where normally a soldier would stand, is now two bars extending from the chassis. You'd have to weld something to them in order to ensure that the pilot didn't fall off the STAP when flying.

In addition, it looks like Pog's shot has pierced the manifold, and ruptured a cooling hose. As a result, the airbike smokes when idle (as it is now), and cannot generate enough thrust to carry a pilot. It could, however, be fired from the ground, and pushed along, at least for a little while, if you didn't think it was feasible to repair it.

You estimate that done right the first time (that is, welding something sturdy onto the bars, finding and replacing a hose of sufficiently small gauge to be taped, clamped or melded on: A DC 15 [moderate] repair), it might take five minutes to make the airbike suitable for piloting, provided you could find the right parts, and even then, that doesn't leave you with a very large window to cut bladegrass before the GATs and droids arrive.

Meanwhile, Hiru and the rest of the passengers have emerged with their scavenged goods, and are distributing them amongst the 26 refugees still waiting for a way out of the bladegrass. The transparisteel cooking sheet is left to lean against the side of the ship.

The remaining four, including Alice, the Falleen, and two other passengers, have ridden the curious gormalok out into the middle of the herd, and to Ka Jor's relief, managed to stay mounted. The group manages, after a time, to coax their gormalok next to another, and Alice jumps onto it, which doesn't seem to faze it in the slightest. She manages to turn it, with some effort, and it begins to lumber back toward the waiting group.

The Falleen manages, afterward, to move the original gormalok toward a wide-enough clearing through the bladegrass, in the direction Shom pointed out you should be blasting, in case you need to. (You estimate he'll get there in two rounds.)

Shom, Tilon, Hiru and Ka Jor take a closer look at the path beyond the bladegrass. Shom suggests that in case the Gormalok Express is too slow, or enough of them can't be wrangled, that a 10m by 3m swath through the grass at the indicated point would easily and safely link their current position with the natural path the rest of the way out of the grass. He further suggests that should such greenskeeping need to be done, that it would be best to use ranged weaponry. 

[It would also be diagrammed by your GM, and be much more fun to run. But don't let me influence you. ]

Meanwhile, the Separatists have had a very rough time cutting their way toward you, as two of the GATs have had overheating problems. You notice a disruption in the rhythm of their blasting.

[At the end of twelve:

- Pog and Ka Jor are missing 2 VP each from bladegrass dodging. 
- Tilon has received the full benefit of kawe-da, and is now only down 4 VP. The effects of his Force Skills have long since ended.
- Everyone else is at full Vitality, and no one is wounded.

- The Separatists have gone roughly 15m into the bladegrass. 
- They still have about 80-85m to go.

- 2 of the refugees are on their way to the 'rally point.'
- Alice is on her way back to pick up more refugees on a separate gormalok.
- The Falleen will, once he's dropped off his two passengers, head through the indicated pathway on his gormalok to collect more passengers.
- You expect Alice and the Falleen to arrive at roughly the same time.
- 26 refugees remain in the clearing area. ]


----------



## maddmic (Jul 11, 2003)

Pog begins to clear out the destroyed materials.  While doing so, he mentions to the wookie over the comlink, "Ok, while I start on this if you want to help, I need some sort of light scrap metal to use as a platform.  Then I'll need a hose of some type much like the one in here.  If I can't get this right the first time, it may be more advantageous to rip the weaponry out and try to set up some sort of explosive device so that we can clear out a large section of the blade grass."  Pog then begins to clear off the two bars so that he can get a clean weld.  He then begins to remove the hose after shutting down the STAP.


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## Toric_Arthendain (Jul 12, 2003)

Kerraccor grunts in response to Pog and then goes back over to the ship.  He'll look for a piece of metal on the outside or inside of the ship that will serve the purpose that Pog described, going so far as to tear metal from the ship if he finds something that looks like it will work.


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## Jaik (Jul 12, 2003)

(Assuming Hiru heard all of Pog's message over the comlink)  "There's a big metal cooking sheet propped against the side of the ship that might work for the platform.  If I spot a hose, I'll give you a shout."  Any chance a first aid kit would have a hose the right size?


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## dpdx (Jul 12, 2003)

Hiru pops open the medikit, but can find nothing resembling a hose. Instead, there are bandages, bacta ointments, tweezers, pain pills, and a medical tape dispenser system [similar to packing tape, with it's own cutter on the end].


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## DonAdam (Jul 13, 2003)

Ka Jor figures out where Denny would have to start blasting the bladegrass with the STAP's weaponry, and then proceeds to direct the refugees to the other side of the clearing so that they will be clear of any "shrapnel."


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## Jaik (Jul 13, 2003)

On his tour through the ship, Hiru grabs a sheet off of a bunk to carry the medical supplies and another for the rations, since he hasn't spotted a decent backpack among the supplies.


----------



## dpdx (Jul 17, 2003)

Hiru heads back inside to grab a sheet on the way to his search for hoses. [Let me know where in the ship you want to look.]


----------



## Jaik (Jul 17, 2003)

I assume that the cabins would have bunks with sheets on them, but I think Hiru will have to ask Pog for suggestion son where to find the hose.


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## Pbartender (Jul 19, 2003)

Denny continues circling the clearing 20 meters above as a lookout, until the way is clear to start blasting the bladegrass.


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## dpdx (Jul 22, 2003)

*Round Thirteen*

As Pog preps the STAP for welding, Kerracor ambles over to the ship and locates the transparisteel cooking sheet. After putting most of his weight on it, the Wookiee determines that indeed, this would work for a riding platform.

Hiru's question re: where to find hoses crackles over the comlink. Shom turns around, and answers: "Try engineering - it's a right at the bottom of the ladder as you come up it." Hiru, carrying a bedsheet, heads that way.

Denny, on the working STAP, circles above the crash site with an eye on the approaching forces. At 20m altitude, this gives him a clear shot at the GATs and droids, _and vice versa,_ but at least at this time, they're too busy cutting their way through the bladegrass to notice that the pilot, 80m away, is not a battledroid.

Two of the gormaloks now have riders: the Falleen's is heading toward the next clearing with two other refugees, and Alice, riding alone atop another, is headed toward the gaggle of refugees, who by now have been herded (with Ka Jor's able assistance) towards the side with the STAP repair.

Shom turns to Tilon, and says without benefit of comlink, "*We don't want to open fire on the grass just yet; it'll spook the gormaloks, and they'll be wanting to walk right through this path, anyway.*" He pauses to indicate the shortest path through the bladegrass, about 10m long. "*And I'm no math whiz, but at the rate of two gormaloks carrying three refugees apiece, plus crew, that works out to about 10 minutes to get everybody. Somebody has to go out there and get extra gormaloks, so we can ferry more people. Otherwise, we might as well start blasting now! Deactivating a Sep droid is, minimum, five years in a penal colony, they told me back on Alderaan. Thank God they haven't taken Kessel!*"

[Everyone's health status is the same as last time. This is only one round, so relatively little time has elapsed. Neither rider is at their destination yet.]


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## DonAdam (Jul 22, 2003)

Ka Jor scratches his chin, getting an idea. He retrieves the rope from the STAP that is being repaired, and heads over to where he can meet Alice as she reaches the clearing.

When she arrives, he holds up the rope and asks, "Can you use this to tie one gormalok to another to speed this up? If not, we're going to have to start blasting."


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## Toric_Arthendain (Jul 25, 2003)

Kerraccor will return to Pog with the transparisteel cooking sheet.  His impatience growing by the minute, he growls loudly at Pog, trying to get the kid to hurry up in getting the STAP repaired but probably only causing the skittish human to be even more nervous.


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## maddmic (Jul 25, 2003)

Pog begins doing his work and shakes his head as the wookie's growls intensify.  "Calm down, calm down.  Are all of you wookies so impatient?  Nice platform you got here, but it's not gonna do us a lick of good without that hose.  If you want to holler at somebody, I suggest you yell at the person looking for my hose." 

OOC:
Should the wookie explode and grab the slight man, he will shudder and cower away from the beast.  Only to return to his work at hand once he is let go.


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## dpdx (Aug 1, 2003)

*Round Fourteen*

Alice holds up a hand, smiling at the Jedi Consular as she speaks into her comlink. "S'ok, darlin'. Rope would prolly spook the poor thing. Maybe you could use it on the airbuggies, though."

With that, she disappears with her gormalok into the bladegrass. Halfway into the 10m path she meets the Falleen, and with a series of hand signals, manages to get him to turn around and follow her back out to the clearing!

"This just ain't gonna work, folks. Lemme just get these poor fellas out of the way..."

She never gets a chance to finish her thought before the unmistakable accent of a Duros comes streaming over the comlink at full volume: "*Okay, you heard her, boys, let's get going!*"

And indeed, the gormaloks seem to move a little faster as Shom's blaster bolt saws off some bladegrass immediately between him and them.

"*Hey, Denny! Bring that thing down here! We're -*"

"Dammit - hold on a second!"

"Shut up and move out, human! We got refu - more of YOU! - to get out of here! Okay, I need all armed hands that aren't otherwise busy with something important - that means you, Jedis - to join me on the firing line. Aim where I aim, and let's get to chopping! Blasters only, this stuff's been known to saw off a lightsaber, and you can't stand close enough to use it, anyway!"

---------

Meanwhile, Pog of the repair 'team' has managed to start to hyperweld the replacement platform securely to the rail of the wounded STAP [Roll was successful, three more rounds until completion]. 'Helping', Kerraccor awaits the replacement of the hose.

Inside the hold, Hiru finds engineering, and pulls back a loose panel to reveal approximately 10-20 hoses of three standard diameters: 1cm, 2 cm, and 5 cm.

----------

The Separatist force continues to plug away at their own pathway. They still seem oblivious to Denny's presence above them, even though a shot in their direction would probably wise the battle droids up enough to return fire.


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## Jaik (Aug 1, 2003)

"What size hose do you need, big, little or middle?"  While waiting for a rteply, Hiru starts pulling the hoses out as far as possible, removing the slack, and draws his dagger from his boots, ready to cut several hoses of the proper size at one end and then the other quickly, since these hoses are probably in use already.  "Oh, and how much length do you need?"


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## Pbartender (Aug 2, 2003)

Denny hovers above the cleasring just long enough for everyone to clear the way.  "Ready or not, here I come!" he whoops as he dives the STAP toward the ground, swooping low over the heads the refugees and his comrades.  He lines up the combat speeder's blaster cannons on a patch of blade grass that looks particularly defiant, and closes in for an attack run on the fiendish foliage.

_Once the coast is clear, Denny is attacking the most appropriate bit of bladegrass.  +6 attack, not counting speed, fire control or range._


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## maddmic (Aug 2, 2003)

Pog takes a break from the welding to answer Hiru.  "Bring all three.  I may need to use something smaller in order to force the remaining fluid through more quickly."  With that, he begins to work again.  Absentmindedly, he asks the wookie.  "THink you can find some coolant?  May need some depending on how much was lost."


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## Jaik (Aug 2, 2003)

Hiru quickly grabs a handful of hoses and slashes at one end, pulls them out of the panel to get as much length as possible, then slashes the other end, stashes his dagger, and heads for the hatch at maximum speed.


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## DonAdam (Aug 5, 2003)

Ka Jor, lacking any way to help with blasting the grass, simply goes back to the refugees, explaining to them what the plan is and trying to get them ready so that the evac will go as quickly and smoothly as possible.


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## maddmic (Aug 10, 2003)

When Hiru arrives with the hose, Pog smiles.  "Ahh, this should do nicely.  No, I need one of you two to go back into engineering and look for anything that resembles coolant.  I don't know that you'll be able to use the resvoir for the hyperdrive as it was probably lost when it was destroyed.  You may be able to find some in the ion drives.  Just make sure it's not something flamable as I don't want the rider to become a fireball on this thing.  Oh, and remember where you got it, that way I can tell if it'll work or not." 

At this time Pog remembers that there is no way that this STAP will carry more than one person, even if the scond person is slight of stature like him.  Once the platform is secured, he'll begin looking at the repulsers and drive engine to see if he can increase the output so that ths STAP can be used to ferry people out of the crash site.


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## Jaik (Aug 19, 2003)

"Ion drive coolant.  Right."  Hiru turns and runs back to the ship, keeping an eye out for a suitable container on his way to the ion drives.  "How much do you think you'll need, Pog?"


----------



## maddmic (Aug 20, 2003)

Pog answers while continuing to work.  "Let's start with a couple gallons.  No telling how much we lost."


----------



## Jaik (Aug 20, 2003)

Gallons.  Hiru rolls his eyes, slides around a corner, bounces off a wall and keeps running deeper into the ship.  "Say, anybody know if this bladegrass stuff burns at all well?"  Hiru realizes that if the ion drives require coolant, then the ship probably has extra coolant for refilling and that the extras would either be near the drives or in a maintenance storage area and decides to check nea r the actual drives first.


----------



## maddmic (Sep 3, 2003)

I'm guessing this game is dead?


----------



## dpdx (Sep 3, 2003)

Actually, no, I still have the materials, and I'll continue to run this if the majority are still interested.

It would appear that at least one of our Jedi can't find time. I'll probably NPC him until a convenient plot point.


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## Pbartender (Sep 4, 2003)

dpdx said:
			
		

> Actually, no, I still have the materials, and I'll continue to run this if the majority are still interested.
> 
> It would appear that at least one of our Jedi can't find time. I'll probably NPC him until a convenient plot point.




_OOC: I'm still here..._


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## dpdx (Sep 5, 2003)

Okay! We continue!

*Round Fifteen!*


```
***
***
***
***
***
***
***
***
***
*.*
```

As Shom fires again, Denny unleashes a bolt from the blaster cannons. Both find the mark, and in the space of an instant, a 1m patch of bladegrass is leveled, and made safe to walk. Only 29 sq. meters of bladegrass to freedom!

As Ka-Jor contains the remaining refugees directly behind the eastern berm, Tilon walks over next to where Shom is standing, and fires his holdout blaster. It misses high.

Meanwhile, as Pog and Kerracor affect the final welds to the new platform on other STAP, Hiru finds himself deep in the bowels of the _Sanctuary_, the smell of fried circuitry evident in the air. Rounding the corner of a service corridor, he almost misses the cabinet marked "S PPLI S." Opening it, he finds a canister marked "Coolant". The canister contains roughly 1 liter. A datapad sits next to it on a shelf.

The Seps continue to make progress toward your position, and can now fire at anything high enough in the air...

Shom's voice trails out over the comlink: "*Hey, Denny! Just park that thing over here and fire, no use getting shot!*"

Meanwhile, the gormaloks are all safely away from the commotion, and Alice and the Falleen stand in the clearing you're trying to get to.

Actions?


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## Jaik (Sep 5, 2003)

Hiru grabs the coolant and fires up the datapad, scanning it to see if he needs to go further in the ship or is free to race back to the repair site.


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## Pbartender (Sep 5, 2003)

dpdx said:
			
		

> Okay! We continue!
> 
> "*Hey, Denny! Just park that thing over here and fire, no use getting shot!*"




"Harrumph!  That takes all the fun out of it."  Denny brings the STAP to what would be a screeching, had it had wheels, halt just above the short path that's been cleared through the bladegrass.  He continues strafing the vile vegetation, slowly creeping the speeder forward as the bladegrass succumbs to the delicate ministrations of his blaster cannons.


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## eoghanbt (Sep 5, 2003)

<OOC: Have access to enworld again, yay...>


   Tilon grimaces, aiming again, bringing the holdout blaster lower and using a two hand grip.


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## dpdx (Sep 7, 2003)

*In the interest of moving this along...*

*Round Sixteen*


```
***
***
***
***
***
***
***
***
*%*
..*
```
* intact
. leveled (safe for travel)
% partially cut down

As Denny, aboard the STAP, joins the rest of the grass-clearing party, the guns of Shom and Tilon ring out another salvo.

The blaster cannon on the airspeeder connects with a thwack, and bladegrass remnants fall down around a patch in the middle, leaving it at about half size.

Shom's blaster responds with a click and a warning light (_roll: 1_), indicating that the power pack has been completely depleted. Undeterred, Shom fishes through his uniform, finds a replacement, and reloads.

Tilon's strategy of concentrating and aiming low pays off, as the square of grass immediately to the left of the path falls down like timber (_roll: 20, 14_). 

[I'm houseruling that on a confirmed critical, you get the whole square. Otherwise, it's 50 pts at DR 2 to level a square. And you need to clear a meter on either side of where you walk to avoid AOO from the bladegrass, thus the 3m wide.]

Meanwhile, back at the other STAP, the platform has been welded, and Pog and Kerracor are forced to stand around and wait for Hiru to show up with the repair items.

Hiru, in the bowels of the ship, switches on the datapad to reveal:

Supply Log, 0129345: Replenished Stock of All-Purpose Coolant in Station Four, Republic Starship Sanctuary.

Stuart Climer
Mechanic's Assistant
Main Spaceport, Alderaan

Figuring that this probably confirms that he's got the right material, Hiru hurries back to the exterior, and the wounded STAP. [_Hiru - do you wish to keep the datapad?_] (Hiru will return to the STAP in three rounds.)

The refugees are getting a tad restless at the lack of progress on the bladegrass [failed Command check DC 10], and begin to ask tough questions of the Jedi in their midst (that would be you, Ka Jor) in irreverent tones. Specifically, they wonder why only three people are firing away.

The Separatist forces soldier on, cutting bladegrass at a superior rate to the Republic. They are now about 75m from the near berm.


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## Jaik (Sep 7, 2003)

Hiru will scan the datapad's screen, double-check his location, grab the coolant, throw the datapad over his shoulder and for the outdoors at full speed.


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## maddmic (Sep 7, 2003)

Pog waits for the coolant to arrive.  While waiting he is still trying to figure out if there is a way to increase the power so that the STAP can carry 2 people.


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## eoghanbt (Sep 8, 2003)

Tilon half chuckles, shifting his aim across to the adjacent patch of gently waving, insanely sharp grass. "That seemed to work..."


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## dpdx (Sep 10, 2003)

[_I'm going to wait a little longer for anyone that hasn't posted this round to do so if they want to move off the default action; otherwise, it's default actions for another round. At this rate, with the other STAP pitching in as soon as possible, you just barely might avoid me laying major hurt on characters..._]

While he waits, a quick trip down memory lane reminds Pog that airspeeders, especially mass-produced, droid-driven knockoffs like these, generally would need a different engine entirely to provide enough thrust for more than one person. It looks like the main benefit to that STAP right now is the double blaster cannon mounted on its fuselage...


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## Pbartender (Sep 11, 2003)

Denny continues blazing a trail through the fatal flora with STAP's blaster cannons.

_OOC:  I think at this point, that unless the situation changes significantly, Denny will keep blasting his way through the blade grass.  Besides, I'm running out of alliterative descriptions for those wicked weeds. _


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## dpdx (Sep 17, 2003)

*Round Seventeen*


```
***
***
***
***
***
***
***
***
*.*
..%
```

 intact
. leveled (safe for travel)
% partially cut down

______

Shom, Tilon, and Denny (in the STAP) continue to fire at the bladegrass. While Denny finishes off the patch in the middle, Shom and Tilon have the same thought, and concentrate on the right side of the trail. Both hit, and roughly half of the bladegrass in that square has been subdued.

Hiru, finding his bearings, is on his way from the ship with the coolant and hoses.

Ka Jor assures the refugee crowd in soothing tones (such as can be heard over the bladegrass) that everything will be fine, and to be ready to move in single file once the trail is cleared. The crowd seems to placate, somewhat, and arranges themselves, women and children first, in a line.

Pog and Kerracor continue to wait for Hiru to arrive.

The Separatists advance, surely but slowly. They remain roughly 75m from the near berm.

Alice, the Falleen, and two others wait on the far side of the grass, in the clearing area.

[I'm just going to fast forward a couple of rounds, based on default actions.]


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## dpdx (Sep 17, 2003)

*Round Nineteen*


```
***
***
***
***
***
***
***
***
...
...
```

* - intact
. - leveled
& - partially down

By the time Hiru arrives at the broken STAP with the materials, the blasting crew has managed two salvos at the bladegrass, and managed to make tremendous progress. Tilon's strategy of aiming low has paid off again, leveling the entire square immediately in back of the one on the right. Shom and Denny concentrate on the partially-cleared square in back left, and manage to trim it down entirely.

Pog notices a hose that looks suspiciously similar to the one that ruptured on the STAP, and selects it for making the repair. While he does that, Kerracor takes the jug of coolant, and pours it into the intake located underneath the manifold especially for that purpose. The wounded STAP now seems to have enough, in the team's estimation, to turn over without overheating. [Pog and Kerry will complete the repair next round.]

The refugees on both sides of the bladegrass expanse seem to have settled down, yet they anxiously await result of the bladegrass chopping. One or two are heard by Ka Jor to remark that they'd be happy to join in, if only the Republic hadn't confiscated their weapons at the Aldera spaceport.

The bladegrass itself, once cut down, gives off a silvery glow, and those close enough to fire at it also notice small flecks and droplets of red among the blades, as if the grass itself were bleeding...

The Separatists continue as before. What's more, no help for them seems to be arriving. Perhaps the central computer that controls the droids has more important things to look after with them...

[Okay! Actions?]


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## Jaik (Sep 17, 2003)

Hiru draws his blaster, assumes a formal shooting stance and starts leveling bladegrass.


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## Pbartender (Sep 17, 2003)

dpdx said:
			
		

> The refugees on both sides of the bladegrass expanse seem to have settled down, yet they anxiously await result of the bladegrass chopping. One or two are heard by Ka Jor to remark that they'd be happy to join in, if only the Republic hadn't confiscated their weapons at the Aldera spaceport.




Denny reluctantly drops his brace of blasters, four sporting blasters in total, to the crowd below, exhorting them to "Pass them around and don't waste your ammunition!"

He continues firing the STAP-based blaster cannons at the gruesome grass.


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## Toric_Arthendain (Sep 18, 2003)

Kerraccor will either fire at the bladegrass from the newly repaired STAP or will attempt to locate a spare blaster so as not to waste his bowcaster ammunition.  If he finds a blaster or is allowed to use the STAP, he will fire low, just like the others.


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## dpdx (Sep 18, 2003)

*Round Twenty-One*

[I'll be out of town from tomorrow afternoon until Sunday night. I'll resolve the next round when I return. In the meantime, we seem to be missing the players of our Jedi; I'll put a bug in eoghantodd's ear, as I'm dropping off my cat to him, but if someone knows or can get hold of DonAdam, can someone let him know the game has started up again?]

Pog finishes attaching the hose, closes the manifold, and tries the starter on the formerly-wounded STAP. It turns over on the first try, and before anyone else can speak up for the ride, Pog climbs on, and starts over toward the bladegrass [Pog can begin firing next round]. The STAP seems to be good as new; perhaps even the Ion Engine Coolant is a better fluid than the petrol-electric airspeeder is normally used to.

But since the STAP still doesn't seem gutsy enough to carry a Wookiee, Kerracor heads over toward the bladegrass along with Hiru, his bowcaster very obviously sheathed. It is unclear how he is going to chop down bladegrass (perhaps with brute strength?) until four sporting blasters, safeties on, come flying out of the first STAP, courtesy of Dobradenn.

As the refugees look expectantly at their leader, Ka Jor, and he nods his assent, a pair of them, one a Twi'lek, the other human, sort out from the pod and amble over to them. They appear to be all gone until the Twi'lek looks back and sees Kerracor striding toward the grass, unarmed. 

He reaches out a hand to stop the human, who was about to grab a second pistol, and he too looks back and sees the Wookiee. Smiling, he leaves the second one on the ground, as did the Twi'lek, and as they walk off, sporting blasters in hand, the lek'ku of the Twi'lek spread out slightly as if to say 'need a weapon? Here you are.'

Not one to pass up the use of a regular powerpack for the savings of a caster bolt, Kerracor scoops up a sporting blaster, tossing the other one back to Denny, and closes the distance to the others.

It's getting a little crowded on the firing line, as the new mowers fan out to avoid problems with unobstructed lanes. The cumulative effect of two rounds of firing is not as impressive, which includes Tilon missing the grass entirely in an effort to get the One Central Stalk, another couple of misses from Shom and the Twi'lek, and yet another refugee (the human) forgetting to take his loaned weapon off safety. Only a powerful couple of salvos from Denny results in any clearage, with the other forward squares looking battered but not broken.

The sporting blasters seem to be scant power against bladegrass, in particular, but you do see progress, even discounting the fire-linked twin blaster cannons. With this many people firing, and hopefully hitting, you should clear the path in time to get well away from the Separatists, who close in at the rate of a sleeping bantha. They may even give up if they can't catch you.


```
***
***
***
***
***
***
***
%.%
...
...
```

[Once everybody's firing who's gonna fire, I'll resolve it all the way through to End Combat Time, or drop you right back in if you don't knock it down in time, so no posts are necessary if you're just going to fire, and not, say, smack a refugee who's being dumb. ]


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## maddmic (Sep 18, 2003)

Pog nods with approval at the finished creation.  Seeing that the wookie realizes that the STAP isn't powerful enough to carry him, he shrugs his shoulders.  "Sorry big guy.  I guess I'll have to test her out."  With that, he jumps on the STAP and swings it around towards the group assembling in front of the path.  He then fires the blasters at the blade grass trying to help the group clear a way through the natural hell in front of them.


----------



## dpdx (Sep 22, 2003)

```
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
```

*Round Thirty-Six: End Combat Time!*

Roughly 14 salvos, 2.5 minutes, and 3 of Denny's blaster packs later, Hiru applies the finishing touches on your route through the bladegrass. You can easily herd yourselves, the refugees, and your equipment single file through the path to the clearing on the other side, and everyone is together again.  The STAPs are too wide for the path. STAP riders, if you go above the path, you may be susceptible to opportunity fire.

[Denny: the refugees went through the powerpacks on three of your blasters. The only blaster you have with shots still left is the one Kerracor borrowed from you. If you have extra powerpacks, you may reload them.]

[Tilon: you also had to go to your spare powerpack, as it ran out toward the end.]

At this point, let me know if you're still around. 

Most of you remember the tower you flew over before you crashed. A path leads to your north in the direction of the tower.


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## Pbartender (Sep 22, 2003)

Denny retrieves and holsters his blaster pistols.

Then, he guns the STAP, and flying just high enough to avoid the blade grass, he zips off at full speed to scout ahead.

_OOC: Denny's moving on ahead as fast as he can to make certain no bad guys are waiting for them out of sight.  If he draws enemy fire, he'll start flying defensively._


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## Jaik (Sep 23, 2003)

Once the bladegrass is cleared, Hiru will set a fine example of the techniques for properly fleeing an advancing enemy.


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## dpdx (Sep 26, 2003)

Denny leading the way, with Pog behind him in the STAPs, the group manages to make their way to where Alice and the Falleen are standing in single file through the mown bladegrass. Once there, they discover that a wide enough path to avoid bladegrass attacks continues out the end of the clearing.

The Separatist droids seem to have been called away, and no warning shots fly over the heads of the STAP pilots, even as they soar to height above the bladegrass. Still, Shom recommends that they continue along the path, as it seems to lead at least away from the orbital drop the Separatists must have deployed from.

"Be watchful, folks. There aren't just Seps and grass to watch out for!

In the distance, most of you can make out the silhouette of the tower you passed on the way down.


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## maddmic (Oct 2, 2003)

Pog continues to pilot the STAP above the bladegrass along the path.  "Do you want me to fly ahead a bit and see what's ahead of us?"


----------



## Pbartender (Oct 2, 2003)

maddmic said:
			
		

> Pog continues to pilot the STAP above the bladegrass along the path.  "Do you want me to fly ahead a bit and see what's ahead of us?"




"What say we race to that tower up ahead?"  Denny challenges.  Assuming Pog accepts the challenge, Denny pops the STAP into full throttle and rockets off toward the distant landmark.


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## dpdx (Oct 3, 2003)

_As the herd travels onward, Denny and Pog in their STAPs roughly 50 yards ahead of the group, Kerracor notices a huge bird-like creature swooping down from the skies. Crouched on its back is what appears to be some sort of humanoid. With a whoosh of air the creature passes overhead, and you get some sense of its size -- it's bigger than the STAPs that Denny and Pog are riding! The creature flies a little further, and then seems to land somewhere between the main group and Denny and Pog._

[Denny and Pog do not notice this yet, but everyone else sees the giant flying creature land ahead of them.]

Shom gets on his comlink: "Hey, fellas: we've got company back here."

[I need marching order. The refugees will put themselves in the middle of the group, unless a majority indicates otherwise.]


----------



## maddmic (Oct 5, 2003)

Pog is too caught up in the race to notice the giant bird creature.  Upon hearing the comlink though, he looks to Denny.  I'm heading back.  This STAP's got some decent firepower.  With that, he banks the STAP and screams back towards the flying creature while charging up the vehicles weapons.


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## Jaik (Oct 7, 2003)

Hiru will be at/near the front of the group, as he was giving an excellent demonstration on how to run away.


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## dpdx (Oct 11, 2003)

[I'm going to move this along, so that people don't lose interest as fast. That way, whoever wants to jump in and play their character can do so, the rest will be on autopilot.]

As the creature lands, Pog and the group on foot get a closer look at it, and its rider. The rider dismounts the flying beast, facing Pog's STAP, his back to the main group. As he puts his arms up in surrender, you notice that they're not quite arms - more like wings, with feathers an iridescent blue-purple color throughout his body. When he speaks, it sounds like a hawk screeching, but those who can hear him (in the main group) still recognize the pidgin Basic as that of a average Eraydian.

"Please no shoot! I no harm! I help you keep away droids!"


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## maddmic (Oct 16, 2003)

Pog calls into te comlink.  "He appears to be friendly.  I'm going to still cover him though until somebody gets up to talk to him."


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## maddmic (Nov 17, 2003)

OOC:
This game dead, or still looking for more players?


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## dpdx (Nov 17, 2003)

I'm going to open up recruitment pretty soon.


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## Jaik (Nov 18, 2003)

Darn it, I knew I should have posted an action...


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## dpdx (Nov 19, 2003)

After further review, I'm going to do the merciful thing and pump a slug into this game. I can't even get my friend to post in it, and we've had like two posts in two months.

Thanks everyone who initially showed some interest, and tolerated my fledgling attempts as a SW GM. I screwed up, you tolerated me (or not). I appreciate it, and I'll come back much improved, and with a better campaign.

I'm sorry it didn't work out, but a lot of games die, and I'm sure others will start. Good luck in your future PbPs.


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