Talon Journal Entries for 10-7-11 & 10-14-11

On our ship we find a stowaway who claims to be a courier who relays a message from a possible employer. We set course for Blasa and upon landing meet the 501st… again. Negotiations take place and now we're under contract. Our first task is to transport parts, the first destination is a space station and the next is Alderaan. We meet a person of interest on Alderaan and accept another employer who grants us a bunch of immediate upgrades.

Our next mission is to destroy an Imperial installation on planet Lux. We land our ship a little ways away from the base and make way on foot. Sure enough, stealth fails and we encounter a group of Imperial scouts. We end their pitiful lives (I take four out) just in time for an AT-ST reinforcement to arrive. Kall uses his jet pack to deftly land on top of it and just as he does that I use the force to shake the massive weapon, har har. Kall loses his footing and plummets to the ground getting knocked unconscious from the impact. The sound reminds me of dropping a grocery bag containing food and metal tools, quite entertaining I might say. I use a massive amount of force power picking up the now confused and pissed off AT-ST and do some considerable damage. It's not enough and more reinforcements will be upon us so we flee the planet. This mission will have to remain pending.

Talon Journal Entry for 9-30-11

Our group agrees to head to planet Talus and we face no trouble on our journey there. Our ship needs some work and I pay for a new transponder since it's very old. We load up on some new consumables, fuel and pay for a tune-up and overhaul. Everyone decides to wander around town and the Zabrak happens to encounter an Inquisitor (not to mention the fact that he also hands the inquisitor his license!). Sometime later we meet up at a local bar and soon call it a night. In the morning I find a copy of our death report and the Zabrak's license knifed to the inside of my hotel room door. Also, for unknown reasons our food stores have been replenished completely. The head mechanic tells us that he doesn't know who did it but 6 of his mechanics have gone missing and our transponder will be free if we can find out what happened to them.

We investigate their apartment complex and knock on the doors. When we knock on the third one, we're invited in. There stands three Imperial officers, six severed heads and a bunch of snacks at a table. The officers are looking for three missing pilots (who happen to be us) and are willing to make a deal. We're to kill the inquisitor and they'll overlook our meeting, which we agree to the terms.

Following a lead we head to a warehouse and find someone tied to a chair in the center, the warehouse is empty. We let him go and as he's running out the door the poor soul gets decapitated. We battle two dark jedi and get our asses handed to us. After a short conversation with them we both determine that we're being played. The sound of troops can be heard outside so we flee into a service tunnel and escape. We carefully make our way back to the ship which is ready to go. Without further incident we depart from the Talus.

Temptation

This week I've instituted bribery for getting my players to post here.

Also, along the theme of temptation I have again attempted to bring the players into the dark side.

Talon was instructed to go to a set of coordinates in a Lambda-Class shuttle. He gathered the crew and they flew there, only to be met by an Imperial-Class ship. They then found out that the person giving him the coordinates was Starkiller himself. He pressed the group to join him and his Shadow Academy in "service" to the Empire. After giving up information on the Mandalorian attack on the Executor, Starkiller made his case. The group resisted and were given a selection of parting gifts to help tempt their resolve.

After returning, Kal was met with a familiar face, an old flame he recruited to aid the rebellion.
The group finalized their choices of star ships to fly against the Death Star and any other flight actions in the near future.

The Set Up

After getting through the first five character levels for several of our characters I thought about how I want to continue. The answer is something different than what I normally do. Normally I build a game around a single idea with a single arc. After that game I repeat. This suits me as it allows us to stop and go as needed. Since this game I am promising a full attempt to hit level 20, I am aiming for a movie trilogy approach, split into five level segments.
The first movie is a "discovery" since they're in an era and don't know of all the changes they have made. This will culminate with one of three targets. The first option was given by the Mandalorian Protectorate, which is the destruction of the Executor and Vader.
The second "movie" will focus on planning. The goal here will be determining a course of action and deciding where loyalties lie. Again, there will likely be three targets representing the three major factions at play in here.
The third and final movie will make the fate of the galaxy. There will probably be two bosses to pick from and then a final boss.
Hopefully this method of planning will be fun and easy for me, and exciting for my players. Time will tell.

Necromunda

Looking at getting a Necromunda group going for some miniature war gaming fun. Looks like we'll be meeting up and getting some gangs made up and the details worked out.
This will be awesome. If this works out I'll have battle reports and pictures posted up.
Below are my friends gang that I painted a few years ago. Van Saar gang, I think that's a heavy in front with gangers and juves behind him. Custom bases modeled with green stuff and some compression fittings. It was a few (seven or so) years ago, I love the bases, like the guns but the faces kill me. Oh well.

Van Saar Gang

Base Detail

Talon Journal Entry for 9-16-11

We set out and land on Yavon 4 without trouble and upon exiting the ship we set out for a nearby temple. Shortly we encounter a Sith Apprentice who makes quick work of our group. I try to engage in lightsaber combat and am unable to successfully strike the apprentice. The Zabrak fires lightning from his hand around me only to have it collected by the hands of the apprentice and fired right back at him. My entire group is taken out without any real effort and there I stand without a scratch. The apprentice beckons me to follow so I gather up my unconscious team members and do so.

We arrive at the temple and the apprentice assures me that he will take care of my teammates and treat them with the up most respect. I go in and talk with the Sith Prophet babbles about a prophecy. He offers me gifts and training to become a Sith Master and after careful consideration I accept. I will also have the ability to designate someone as my own apprentice. After a few weeks my training is complete (later on I find out that my team was being tortured the whole time, muaha). Before we set out the Dark Prophet requests that we take him with us and we go Back To The Future! Upon his request we drop the prophet off on Yavon IV, yay for unleashing a great evil upon the universe!

Wreck Age

A Futuristic RPG and Skirmish game that looks promising. I'm holding off on it but the miniatures look awesome if nothing else (and the concept art). The game isn't out yet, but it currently has a kickstarter page that will be ending Dec 28th. It's already more than funded but they want to hit DOUBLE their original goal (offering more incentive beyond the already promised gear).
It looks cool and when I get my two (hopefully four) miniatures in a couple months I'll post pictures (hopefully before and after paint). I'm looking forward to this. I have the beta playtest rules, but no one to play with. Maybe next week.

Secrets Uncovered

So while scouting for the Mandalorians, the group met their enemies. The 501st were ready to patrol an area and the players met them. Surprised slightly that the troopers had blue bladed light sabers and were immediately on them as their shuttle landed, demanding answers. Of course the group tried to lie, which only lasted a while. They began hearing portions of history. "When Vader left the empire..." "Wait... what?!"
Slowly they found out that the Sith Prophet took over behind the scenes and made Palpatine his puppet. Yoda then came out of hiding to strike back, turning Vader back to the light side and with him came the 501st.
Starkiller survives and helps the Empire while the three Skywalkers, Kenobi, Yoda and a few others have taken residence in the Executor, creating a Jedi academy in space. Now the 501st are a group of new recruits, former 501st and many Jedi in training.
The Mandalorians have been expanding with the chaos caused by such powerful forces clashing. Taking over in the wake left by the battles. Their hit on the Executor was to be staged while the Rebels were destroying the Death Star, there by taking out a major piece of both the Empire and the Rebels.
The Rebels have a fairly large army with the atonement of Vader. The young Skywalker children have been training and are fairly competent Jedi, thanks to Kenobi and Yoda. This lets them operate in the open more than they would have been able to before. Thanks to this they will be able to make a hard hit on the Empire.
The Empire has a more overtly violent bent with Starkiller killing every Jedi he can find, which is easy thanks to the farseeing powers of the Prophet.

Thought Games

Obviously, I think about Star Wars a lot. I basically rebuilt a new timeline due to some meddling kids messing things up and changing how the past played out.
One thing I thought about was whether Palpatine knew the prophecy and guided Anakin to be trained by Obi-wan. He then sent Darth Maul to force the Jedi's hand in regards to the prophecy. Then, knowing the importance Palpatine manipulated the whole situation from behind the scenes until he was finally able to turn Anakin into Darth Vader.
Now Lucas himself has stated the balance is only Jedi, no Sith. This is because the Sith are like a cancer stealing from the force. The Jedi have a balance of give and take from the force.
Palpatine may have incorrectly believed that either the balance was equal Sith and Jedi or perhaps he thought he could change the prophecy by stealing the chosen one from the Jedi. In thinking this he took Vader as an apprentice, gave him everything to insure the destruction of the Jedi, but as we all know there was a failure to take into account Luke. So while the Sith took over and ruled for a while, the missing element came in and helped facilitate the Chosen One to destroy the Sith. Here's where Lucas says game over. Nothing happens after that. His eyes are Star Wars = Anakin's Journey.
So now what if we add in a powerful ancient Sith, capable of slowly manipulating Palpatine (perhaps only to a small degree). At the same time, someone that can act as a tool for Palpatine to maintain control of the Empire.
This all plays into the new world somehow. More on that later.

Talon Journal Entry for 9-9-11

Several days later Delora arrives planet-side and re-joins our group. Kall and the trooper rejoin us and the Zabrak is let out of the cave. We're given the option to fake our own deaths and defect from the empire, the decision is unanimous and we're free again! Our ships are left as proof of our untimely end and we escape the world on a run down transport. Something goes wrong with the hyper-space jump and everyone black out. After an unknown amount of time we awake to an empty and disabled ship so we decide to use the escape pods.

We crash land on the nearest planet and open the pod doors to a landscape of rolling grass fields where a battle just ended. We see a storm off in the distance and I have an extremely bad feeling about it so we move in the opposite direction. On the way we find a small battle scared pillbox bunker. Kall finds some new/used armor and dons it. We continue on and come upon an abandoned cargo carrier. After checking the logs we discover that we have traveled 3,000 years into the past! Kall figures out the controls and we set a course for Dantooine. After an uneventful trip we arrive in orbit and are boarded by three robed figures, one of them introduces himself as Master Yaun. We get authorization to land at the Enclave and do so. Our group is led to an audience chamber where we're told that our way home lies on Yavon 4.

Talon Journal Entry for 8-12-11 & 9-3-11

We're contacted by an Imperial Senator who wants us to investigate where some of the Imperial funds are going, some of the accounts don’t add up. Our destination is Mon Calamari. We arrive after another nice and uneventful trip, we're to investigate a company that is a manufacturer of starship components. After some investigation hear about a Steven D Johnson who is on another station, so we head there. He mentions something about a someone named Tarkin who is making another pick-up at Kashink. Our path runs cold and we learn that the Senator who enlisted our help was executed as part of a terrorist plot. To avoid any more trouble we head back to home base.

Our next mission is to disable a droid factory on a remote planet (Unnamed). We set out and before we're able to enter orbit Kall, the Zabrak and I are engaged by a few droid fighters. A fierce space battle ensues! After nearly perishing in a skirmish against a few wings of droid fighters I arrived planet-side. Calmly I wait several minutes for my subordinates to follow and then Kall lands in what looks like a scrap heap. I breath a sigh of relief and am glad to not be the only one who survived. Then I sense a dark and vile presence as the Zabrak's craft falls out of the sky to initiate a hard crash landing. Immediately it falls apart as the unrefined and eldritch energies of the Sith dissipate upon impact, my lightsaber is drawn. I'm not sure how this dark energy manifested in the Zabrak but I have an oath to uphold and must kill an ally for the greater good. Just as I was preparing to do the deed two men emerged from the forest.

One is a Jedi Master and the other is a Veteran Clone Trooper. They both lead the Zabrak to a cave and seal him in so that he may reflect on his actions and atone some of his evil. Kall goes off with the trooper to deactivate the droid factory and I stay behind to train with the master.

Talon Journal Entry for 8-5-11

We set off on our next mission which is to be the first group to arrive on New Plympto to notify the current Imperial Governor that he is no longer Governor. Our current group consists of myself, Kall, a female Jedi and the Zabrak. We're greeted by Clone Commander Vill of the 501st. Surprisingly, no shots are exchanged between Kall and the commander and we're free to go to the Governor. Our group is stopped outside the government building and only one of us is allowed to enter so we let Kall go. He goes in and is hassled by the receptionist. Kall, with his exceptional negotiation skills offers the receptionist something he cannot resist. After leading him into the bathroom Kall snaps his neck.

Since all of this is taking too long we decide to go in and find Kall. We regroup and confront the Governor who agrees to stand down with no shots fired. After this we report back to Vill who was notified about Kall's murder. He has to answer to the man in charge about his conduct and must wait a day so we decide to stay by Kall's side. The next day we're greeted by Lord Vader himself, he is not pleased. He looks over us and has me escorted to a different room. After a short while I'm brought back before the group. To prove my loyalty to the Empire Vader orders me to kill one of my teammates who are currently on their knees. I refuse and Vader gives the order to execute all of us as he leaves. Just as Kall is about to be blasted point-blank in the head I use the force to push over those troopers, saving his life. I take a few blasts which take me down, the rest of the group is in a similar situation. We're given a second chance to execute one of our own and almost instantaneously Kall and the Zabrak mercilessly blast the female Jedi. Our mission is over and we're let go, still in service of the Empire.

Into the Future

So the time line is changed. Aboard the ship they are stopped by a group of Mandalorians from the Mandolorian Protectorate. The full details of what has changed and what is coming will have to wait for a while yet.
They took a training mission to take out Jabba the Hutt, which went surprisingly easy. Or did it?
I can say however that the next five levels (6-10) are going to be a roller coaster of an adventure with twists and turns no one will expect. Perhaps they can find some way to set things right, and get back home, if they even want to.
I can't wait to show off some of the other twists I have planned, all stemming from the changes made to the timeline.

Talon Journal Entry for 7-29-11

The first mission we're given as imperials is to quell a possible uprising on the world Raxus Prime. The group of storm trooper that were stationed there have gone silent. We set out for the outpost and arrive after an uneventful trip. After landing we check in with the CO who is concerned about the patrols he sent out eight hours ago. Since the atmosphere is toxic we have to wear breath masks so our group stocks up on air filters. We head out and come across signs of the other patrol. After getting close to the time limit on our air filters we come across a suspicious debris field. We're ambushed by five combat droids! A fierce battle ensues and both the Zabrak and Kall collapse leaving me no choice but to use every bit of my power. I manage to throw tons upon tons of scrap upon the remaining foes vanquishing them. I carry both of my comrades back to the base and report our findings. The CO will be calling in reinforcements and our first mission is successful. We head back to our home base and are given commendations.

Talon Journal Entry for 7-15-11

After the incident with the old woman we find ourselves stranded on the remote planet of Dantooine which consists of many small farming communities. So we’re here, without a ship and with very few credits to spare. While my two shipmates are discussing a plan to make money, something about selling oranges (do they even have oranges on Dantooine?) my intuition tells me to leave them and head off on my own for a bit. I meet a Jedi Knight by the name of Falon who agrees to train me. I spend the next few days learning combat stances and spar with Falon. After we're finished I head back into town to check on my two other companions. I make it back and after a few hours of searching find my shipmates in one of the cantinas. We talk about the past few days and they explain that the reason their forearms are bigger is because they were helping out the local farmers. Har har.

Someone comes looking for Falon so to avoid trouble on our end I tell him where to go. A few days later he comes back and introduces himself as X2. He wants us to escort some people off-world so we agree to help since the Imperial presence here is thickening. Without incident we make it aboard an old freighter that has seen better days. During the jump into hyperspace something goes wrong and trashes the ship. We board an escape pod and launch towards the planet not knowing where we are. We crash land in the midst of a thicket of Giant Mushrooms, everyone is alright.

Being lost we wander for a while in search of some form of civilization. At one point we're attacked by a river creature and have to flee. Eventually we end up at an imperial outpost of all places. The CO is cautious and calls in for some backup while having us wait at a safe distance. It's not long before a shuttle arrives and lands behind the command building. There is the sound of battle and we decide to investigate only to find dozens of dead storm troopers. The CO and some troopers come out of the command building to talk with us. They agree to give us passage off-world if we take care of two bounty hunters which they actually hired to begin with.

We set out, find their camp site and right when we're searching it our group is ambushed. A fierce and one-sided battle ensues, eventually leading to our defeat. They agree to spare us but it costs credits and two of our team members are badly injured. We head back and report to the CO that the job has been taken care of. Our group is taken off-world and we're given the choice to work for the empire. Since two of our members are in dire need of medical attention we accept the offer and are now drafted in the imperial navy. Hurah!

Talon Journal Entry for 7-1-11

We get hired to complete another mission. It's very simple since the only thing we have to do is deliver an old woman to Dantooine. She definitely matches the description of a hag and constantly complains. We take off on what should be a cake walk of a mission and on the first day there is already trouble. Kall and the old bag get into an argument and he threatens to kill her. He decides to lock her in the cargo hold for the duration of the trip. Also during the course of the trip the Zabrak goes through the old woman's belongings and steals. We arrive in system and Dantooine asks for our transponder codes, which is a problem since the ship is stolen so we don’t send them. All the meanwhile the old hag sends out a distress call. Kall confronts her and she cries bloody murder and rape! I go to check out what's going on and their just arguing again so I go back to my room and resume meditating. Kall decides to loot and shove her in an escape pod which he launches.

Since we didn't give out our codes three escorts engage us and after a couple of bad hits we're escorted planet-side. After landing we're met by three armed guards along with the old hag who claims we're rapists. Since I had nothing to do with the whole situation I'm let off with a 100cr fine. Kall successfully blames the whole thing on the Zabrak and we're let off the hook after surrendering our stolen ship.

Getting into Swing

We have our current line up going now. Black Iniquity, Edward Teach and myself. We're close to our update schedule  Monday, Wednesday, Friday  is our goal with possibly another update over the weekend as a post game.
So as we start running smoothly here we'll have less of these meta-posts about the running of the blog. Thanks for hanging in there with us.

Kal journal 9/21/2011

When we arrived on Aduba-2 all we knew was that we had to find a way to talk to a shipping magnet and to do that we had to get into a private party and we only had twenty four hours to do it. Yup our rough and tumble asses had to get into a posh party. First we needed something to wear. After looking all over the station we came up empty. Then one of our Jedi companions Delora happened to “stumble” across a suitcase on the in the hallway dropped by a careless party guest.

Now it was my turn. I went to talk to the party planner. I posed as a eccentric young person with way too much money who wanted to through a party in the near future. The party planer told me to come back in the morning and she would hopefully have some time to talk to me about it as she was really stressed about the party that she was planning for the next day. So I got a room at a nearby hotel and got some sleep for once.

The next day I returned to the party planer/lady who runs the stations office I did not know that she ran the station until she mentioned it. We talked and I convinced her to take me as her plus one to the party. As we were about to go in my Jedi friend Talon decide that he absolutely had to go to the party to and with a wave of his hand he was on the list. When we entered the party I immediately noticed a slightly rough twi'lek kickin it in the corner. After a while I drifted over to the twi'lek and tried to start a conversation but he seemed to be the most obtuse person I had ever met. About all I could get out of him was that his name was Jang Sabrick and that he worked for the shipping magnet that we were here to recruit.

That's about were we ended it for the night.

Introduction of Kal Ordo

A Little introduction and then my side of the last mission. I go by Edward Teach and I and I play the Mandalorian Kal Ordo. Kal was born to a clan living away from Mandalore. He lost both his parents in the clone wars. He is a Mandalorian scout, though he finds himself doing a lot of the repair work and slicing for the group. I will let White do back story because he takes better notes than I do.

Talon Journal Entries for 6-10-11 & 6-17-11

After order 66 I find myself aboard a space station, in a bar, waiting for my master. He's very late. Just when I'm ready to leave, a group of storm troopers enter. They go and question the shady looking guy in the corner, he looks like a merc or perhaps a soldier on leave. One of them questions him while the other has his blaster pointed at the stranger's head. The stranger makes a sudden movement towards his gun and gets blasted in the head, he's out cold. I jump behind the bar with the bartender as the shooting starts. Being a Jedi in the current situation I determine it would be a good to have all the allies that I can get so I jump out, grab the merc and take him back behind the bar. Trooper reinforcements arrive just as the bartender leads us down a secret escape route. The merc comes to and introduces himself as Kal Ordo. We both agree that we need to jack a ship to escape the station and after sneaking around a for a bit we come across an unguarded Citadel Class Cruiser. Taking the ship is easy but its condition is less than fair considering it was just going through normal maintenance. Not sure where to go we head to Tatooine.

Since funds are a bit tight we decide to hit up a local cantina hoping to find some work. We accept a job to 'take care' of some sand people. Kal and I decide that we need a little more help for this so we employ the help of a sad looking Zabrak who agrees to help us for a sandwich. So we head out to the site and find a group of sand people. The Zabrak wants to kill them all but this situation needs so degree of finesse so I talk with the leader. After careful negotiation I convince him to move his tribe elsewhere and the problem is handled without incident.

Black Iniquity - Introduction of Talon

Well, I guess I should start things off. I have been with Eventyr since it's creation and have enjoy games of many genres. In our current Open World Star Wars Campaign I play as Talon, a Jedi struggling with the choice of becoming a Sith. The following posts are from his point of view (the first few playing catch-up since the start of the campaign). I will also note that I am not an English Major so if you have a problem with spelling and/or grammar errors you should hit yourself in the head until you don’t notice any!

My posts will best be read separate from the main posts and designated with the 'Talon' Label at the bottom.