Summary

• The guardian droid opened the battle by disabling Morr and Shen with a strobe grenade, but met an embarrassing end after it crippled its own leg through a critically failed defense and then critically failed a resistance roll not to get blinded by Joshua.
• Investigating the tomb of Duke Borregar, Shen, Morr and Beast got separated from the others and trapped within. Nerve gas released by the trap critically injured Shen and corroded Morr’s and Beast’s armor seals, after which they got electrified by the floor. Shen managed to blow a hole in the door to escape just in time.
• After recuperating, the party discovered a highly advanced and secure locking mechanism at the back of the tomb with a peculiar keyhole. They opted to search the tombs for the key before Shen attempted to bypass it.
• Searching the whole area took about 10 hours, but in the tomb of Duke Vongyr the party found a signet ring that fitted the shape of the keyhole.
• On their way back the party checked a tomb they skipped, and Beast got affected by some kind of sonic trap which caused him to go berserk and attack his companions. Luckily, Joshua was able to keep him at bay by using Force Push and Tariq by crippling his foot until he came to his senses.
• The session took about twelve hours in-game.

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Date: 2020-05-20

Player Characters (420 points):
789-4 (aka Beast), cyborg lasat telekinetic grappler
Hae Shen, kel dor tech-commando (NPC’d)
Joshua Wolfe, human Sorcerer of Tund
Morr Charasis, thisspiasian alchemical bioengineer/cyberneticist
Tariq Ordo, human mandalorian
Tarnem, chiss force duelist

NPCs:
Professor Flynn, human hired archaeologist

CP awarded: 2

The session started with a large guardian droid in the visage of a knight engaging the party. It fired a strobe grenade which stunned and blinded Shen and Morr, and then released a swarm of micromissiles at everyone except for Tariq, who was behind it. Beast telekinetically deflected the missiles headed for himself, Morr and Shen, Tarnem dodged, while Joshua failed at his dodge and drop but his force armor absorbed the blast. Beast and Tarnem moved to engage the droid in melee, Joshua refreshed his force armor and started getting up, and Tariq started locking his own missile onto the droid. The droid popped a smoke grenade between itself and Tariq, proceeded to spray everybody in front  with its assault cannon, and joined the melee with its sword and shield. It dodged a missile fired by Tariq after he got out of the smoke and severely injured Shen with the cannon. Tarnem jumped on top of Beast and somersaulted over the droid, attacking it from behind with rapid strikes. The droid critically failed one of its parries and crippled its own leg, and before it got to act it critically failed a resistance roll against Joshua’s attempt to blind it with the Force. The party had no trouble dealing with it then, and Tarnem could barely be persuaded into not hacking it up into pieces so there was something left to salvage.

Shen’s wounds, while severe, were not critical, and after some first aid she was able to continue. The party went to investigate the highly ornamented tomb to the north, and as Morr, Beast and Shen entered it, its blast door closed shut and separated them from the rest of the group. A toxic gas started rapidly filling the room, critically injuring Shen. She managed to stay conscious and frenetically proceeded to set up a breaching charge on the door. As she was doing that, the floor became electrified, but luckily didn’t make her injuries any worse and failed to significantly injure Beast or Morr. The gas, however, destroyed their armors’ seals. Tarnem managed to discern a weak point in the door and stuck his lightsaber into it, but then received a radio transmission from Shen to get back. She blew a hole in the door and Tariq reeled her in with his zipline just as she passed out, in time to prevent her from taking more damage from the electrified floor. Morr was not so lucky and got critically injured by the electricity, passing out as well, but Beast carried her outside. Joshua blocked the way by conjuring an atmosphere dome with the Force to prevent the gas from spreading, and it dissipated entirely after a couple minutes. He then put Shen and Morr into a healing trance after applying first aid, which cured their injuries completely.

After resting for about an hour Shen went carefully back in, managed to find the traps’ sensors and disarmed them. The party examined the tomb, which turned out to belong to a Duke Borregar, who according to the writings deciphered by Professor Flynn was credited for bringing the House out of its chaotic early years into its golden age. Morr instructed Beast to search it, and he found a locking mechanism on a large square pillar, covered in reliefs depicting the Duke’s exploits and extending out of the back wall. Taking a look at the mechanism, Shen determined it was highly advanced, very secure, and that she’d maybe be able to bypass it if given a lot of time. It had a peculiarly-shaped socket for a probable key, so the party decided to search the tomb for it before Shen attempted a bypass.

The search took many hours as the party decided to once again go through all of the areas they already visited and search them in greater detail, because the key was small and they would have likely missed the first time when they didn’t know what to look for. After not finding it, they proceeded to the previously unexplored corridors, and found another cemetery chamber. Two of the tombs connected to it were unremarkable, but in one of them, belonging to a Duke Vongyr, they found what they were looking for. The Duke’s statue included a ring which was not part of it, and the ring’s signet matched the shape of the locking mechanism’s socket perfectly.

On their way back they investigated another tomb, the last one remaining, for the sake of completeness. This turned out to be a bad decision, as some kind of a sonic trap put Beast into a berserk rage, attacking his companions. Luckily, Joshua managed to free Tariq and Tarnem from Beast’s grip by Force pushing him away, giving Tariq enough time to cripple Beast’s leg with his blaster. This, and further pushing away with the Force was enough to keep Beast at bay until he snapped out of it. Joshua put him in a healing trance to restore his leg and the group rested for a while.

Summary

• The party investigated the next “private” tomb, belonging to a Duke Zallow. It turned out the statues of the Duke and his guards were droids which activated when the group tried to remove his sword.
• Even after a couple brain hits the droids could not critically injure Beast, and they were soon defeated.
• The party looted Duke Zallow’s sword after resting.
• The final tomb around the cemetery, belonging to a Dutchess Mivayne was explored, but nothing of immediate interest was found in it.
• The group explored a corridor leading north from the cemetery hall, which itself was a smaller cemetery for the house’s retainers, leading to another large cemetery hall to the north-east.
• One of the doors from this cemetery led to the tomb of a Dutchess Lyr Bo, where the party looted the Dutchess’ power fist without any trouble.
• Approaching another door from the cemetery, apparently the resting place of the most highly esteemed noble encountered so far, caused a large droid to rise from the floor behind the party and attack them.
• The whole session took about two hours of in-game time

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Date: 2020-05-13

Player Characters (419 points):
789-4 (aka Beast), cyborg lasat telekinetic grappler
Hae Shen, kel dor tech-commando
Joshua Wolfe, human Sorcerer of Tund
Morr Charasis, thisspiasian alchemical bioengineer/cyberneticist
Tariq Ordo, human mandalorian
Tarnem, chiss force duelist

NPCs:
Professor Flynn, human hired archaeologist

CP awarded: 1

After Beast got his armor corroded last time and the party was convinced there were no hidden treasures left to find, they decided to check out the other “private” tombs around the cemetery. The entry into one directly opposite to Dutchess Crozyn’s looked the same, except without traps. Shen hacked the locking mechanism, and the party entered through the door into what looked like a depiction of a throneroom. There was a lifelike statue of an older, bearded man in highly ornate heavy armor leaning on a bastard sword standing in front of the throne, surrounded by similarly lifelike statues of many armored guards along the walls. Zooming in with their visors on the inscriptions above the throne, the party learned that the bearded man was Duke Zallow, another head of the House. Examining the room, Joshua noticed that the Duke’s sword was slightly imbued with the Force and not part of the statue, so Beast tried to remove it. However, the statue came to life and brandished the sword instead. It also turned on a force shield bracelet, along with two guard statues besides it who readied their flails. Half a dozen statues along the walls readied their pike/blaster rifle combination weapons as well.

The battle was engaged. Beast tanked while Tariq ate away at the guards’ armor with his flamethrower from in front of the tomb, Shen stuck to a corner and fired her blaster, and Morr and Tarnem sliced the guards in half. The highlight was Beast getting a nasty feint + deceptive attack combo into his corroded armor from the Duke, but it did not injure him significantly. After all-out attacking, one of the guards with flails and the Duke hit him in the skull, but that merely caused him to reel. And shortly after that, all of the guardians were defeated, turning out to have been droids. After resting and tending to their wounds for about an hour, the group took the Duke’s sword (further examination revealed it was a balanced cortosis weave dueling ornate (+2) superfine vibro bastard sword giving its wielder +1 to Leadership and Strategy) and continued on.

One of the tombs along the cemetery was caved in, so they went to the only remaining one. It depicted a throne room similar to that of Duke Zallow, but the occupants were different. A statue of a woman wearing a luxurious gown was sitting on the throne, and many statues of what appeared to be nobles and other courtiers were spread out across the room, concentrated in front of the throne. The inscription above the throne revealed that this was the tomb of Dutchess Mivayne, who ruled in a time of stability and economic prosperity. The tomb depicted her holding court.

Having found nothing interesting, the party left the Dutchess and opened the door leading to the north of the cemetery. Beyond was a wide corridor with no illumination and many graves along its sides. They were much less decorated than the ones in the cemetery, and a brief examination revealed they belonged to retainers of the House, mostly knights and high ranking officials. It turned eastwards, ending with another door. Beyond, there was another cemetery hall very similar to the previous one, except it was larger and had three other doors, one in the middle of each wall. The graves inside were more ornate, revealing upon inspection that they belonged to the highest echelons of the house.

Deciding to check the southern door first, the party discovered that a corridor beyond it branched in two, one side being caved in and the other leading to another private tomb. It too represented a throneroom, with a woman clad in exquisite silvery armor sitting on the throne, surrounded by a couple guards and apparently holding audience with several nobles. According to the inscriptions above the throne, she was Dutchess Lyr Bo, who in her time defended the House’s lands against a great onslaught and held firm. Inspection revealed that one of the Dutchess’ gauntlets was larger than the other and actually a real gauntlet and not a part of the statue, so the party removed it. It turned out to be a cortosis alloy power fist, having all the benefits of a superfine vibro weapon, granting the wearer 4 levels of Striking ST for purposes of punching with it and having a shock generator. The statue didn’t come to life when it was removed.

Returning to the cemetery hall, the party examined the northern door with their zoomed-in visors. It was decorated with inscriptions indicating that a noble more esteemed than any encountered so far was entombed behind it. Approaching it, they heard the sound of machinery behind them, and turned around just in time to witness a large droid rising up from the floor, causing a holographic disturbance in it as it arose. It blurted out an archaic but comprehensible “Intruders! Elimitate!” in a heavily robotic voice, and we ended the session with the cliffhanger.

Summary

• The party defeated the charric-equipped drones with Joshua suffering a major wound, but that didn’t prevent him from burning a path through the room with his Force abilities
• Investigating the statues in the center of the “park” revealed they depicted high-ranking members of an unknown Great House from after the fall of Xim the Despot’s empire
• A switch hidden among the statues disabled the grabby vines
• Beyond the stone passage leading west from the “park” the party discovered a chamber serving as a cemetery, depicting early nighttime and containing many luxurious graves
• Investigating the cemetery revealed the name of the Great House: Zuur
• Shen disabled a trap in one of the corridors leading to individual tombs around the cemetery
• The tomb represented the war room of Dutchess Crozyn, a ruler of the House
• Beast looted the Dutchess’ heavy, exquisite charric pistol but got his armor corroded by a triggered trap
• The whole session took about half an hour of in-game time

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Date: 2020-05-06

Player Characters (418 points):
789-4 (aka Beast), cyborg lasat telekinetic grappler
Hae Shen, kel dor tech-commando
Joshua Wolfe, human Sorcerer of Tund
Morr Charasis, thisspiasian alchemical bioengineer/cyberneticist
Tariq Ordo, human mandalorian

NPCs:
Professor Flynn, human hired archaeologist

CP awarded: 1

We opened up after concluding the previous session in the middle of a fight against six flying sentry drones assisted by grabby vines in a large chamber decorated with synthetic plant life to resemble a verdant park.

Having gotten out of the treeline along the chamber’s walls with her lightfoil in hand, Shen spotted the vegetation ending where one of the two corridors opened up on the western “side” of the room. She beelined for the stone corridor, and once out of the vines’ reach, started taking aimed shots at the drones. Having gotten back on top of the entry platform via his autograpnel, Tariq started aiming at the drones as well. Joshua succeeded on improvising a ball lightning spell and started aiming with it, Morr continued chopping up vines around her and Beast attempted swinging toward a drone with his grapnel once more.

Shen landed the first hit on one of the drones. Smoke started pluming where her blaster hit, and the drone plummeted down to the ground. Upon impact, it exploded in a blast similar to that of a thermal detonator. Tariq was a bit less lucky in that he got hit by the drones and knocked down by the force of their charric guns, but avoided any of their stunning effects. In the end, Shen took down most drones with Tariq coming close behind.

Joshua got attacked by two drones before they were taken down, and had to waste his aim with ball lightning to defend. One of the shots hit him and was absorbed by his force armor, but knocked him down to the ground. There he was grabbed by a vine which started cutting into him, causing severe injury. Having previously hardcore improvised a spell, he was left without an active one and couldn’t switch to any because of not being able to concentrate while grappled. His cries for help were answered by Morr, who was able to make it to him and hack up the surrounding vines before it was too late.

Meanwhile, Beast swung towards a drone and missed it, but grabbed it during the reverse swing. After establishing some more control he ripped its gun out which caused the drone to explode. Beast managed to put some distance between the blast and glided down to the floor with his wings.

After receiving first aid, Joshua burned away the synthetic plantlife in a path from the entry platform to the cluster of statues in the center, as well as from there to the western passage where Shen was waiting. The group gathered around the statues to investigate them. Shen found a hidden switch which deactivated the grabby vines. This convinced Professor Flynn to join the group from the safety of the entrance tunnel. The statues themselves represented high ranking members of a Great House from the time after the collapse of Xim the Despot’s empire but the party couldn’t identify it because its heraldry didn’t match any of the Houses surviving to this day.  There was a plaque in front of the statues written in an early version of Galactic Basic so everyone could make out a couple words, but the Professor deciphered it fully as “From chaos we have created order, and brought prosperity to our people”. Having found nothing else of interest here, the group decided to check out the western stone corridor.

It wasn’t long, and ended in a security door. It wasn’t as thick as the trapped one leading into the entry chamber, so Beast cut a section out of it using his trophy lightsaber. Beyond there was another hall, somewhat smaller than the entry chamber. It too had an illuminating surface as its ceiling, this one depicting an early night sky. The room itself was a cemetery, containing numerous graves of various construction; stone, metal and synthetic materials. All of the graves were luxurious, with large, intricate headstones, statues and other decorations. Along the walls and between the graves synthetic trees and other plants were tastefully arranged, completing the ambient in stark contrast with the planet’s parched surface.

The party investigated the graves and found that they belonged to members of the Great House of various ranks, mostly major nobility but also some of minor nobility and gentry. The Professor was amazed by this find, and from the epitaphs and other inscriptions he was able to discern the name of the House: Zuur. Nobody in the group ever heard of it. There were five corridors (aside the one they entered through) leading out of the cemetery, and Joshua noticed something in one of them while exploring the area with a See Secrets spell active. The corridor seemed to be the entrance of a tomb belonging to a noble of very high rank, and on one of its walls there was a hidden panel. Shen carefully opened it, and found visual and chemical sensors behind it. She also found some small holes in the walls, and deduced that the sensors trigger a trap that shoots something at whoever passes through the corridor and matches certain criteria. She disabled the trap by disconnecting the sensors.

There was a keypad beside the door to the tomb; Shen cracked the locking mechanism it was connected to and opened the door. There was a single room beyond, a bit larger than 10 by 10 yards. It represented a war room. There was a large holotable in the center surrounded by lifelike statues of military officers. Various video screens, mock furniture and banners were along the walls and there were a couple statues of armed and armored guards as well. One of the officers was depicted much more vibrantly than the others, and her uniform also bore more ornate decorations. Inscriptions on a memorial wall indicated that it represented Dutchess Crozyn, ruler of the House in her time, known as the “Scourge of Ronnel”. Searching through the tomb, the party noticed that the Dutchess’ heavy, exquisitely made charric pistol was not actually a part of the statue but was instead a real weapon. Beast grabbed it, and after a few moments several party members noticed beeping and rolling sounds. Beast was not among them, and four hand-sized metallic balls rolled out from underneath the furniture and jumped at him, exploding and covering him in a corrosive chemical. A couple seconds thereafter, the same thing happened again, and Beast once more failed to notice them. Morr was able to stop one of the balls with her sword, but the rest of them found their mark. Beast was not injured, but his armor was noticeably corroded – DR reduced by 20. That’s where we stopped.