Saturday, February 17, 2018

[Star Wars] Guardians of Peace, Episode 9: "Gathering Strength, part 2"

After the failed coup attempt and attack on the crystal minds of Glom Tho the SHADOW WING has retreated to the hidden reaches of the Unknown Regions. Biding their time, the priates gather strength and make new plans.

In one of the craters on the pitted moon Sathizaar is the monastery of the Stellite Monks. The Antarian Rangers Ren & Den Secura infiltrated the sanctuary to search for information about the SHADOW WING, while the Jedi Taanar Ryl and Nema Secura confront Master Frowd...

As eight yellow-painted TIE fighters swooped toward the ship carrying Jedi Taanar Ryl and her team, Renpoji Secura was at the controls. Ferb Skywalker and the droid FE worked frantically to fix the shields damaged by the TIE fighters' attack. During this action, Gleemo, the Rodian bounty hunter the team had rescued from the pockmarked moon Sathizaar, spoke into his wrist communicator. But no one had any idea who he was communicating with.

While Ren struggled to dodge the fighters' attacks despite the ship's damaged systems, his brother Denpoji plotted a course to the planet Glom Tho. Gleemo took over the weapons after completing his mysterious communication. The ship was affected by a power surge and the lightning flickered. Sparks burst from the control panels. Ferb was yelling, but there was too much noise inside the Fortune of Greepo for his words to be understood. The disabled vessel began to tumble helplessly.

Unexpectedly, two of the pursuing TIE fighters exploded! Two more followed in quick succession. Then the Fortune was grabbed by a tractor beam and both it and the ship pulling it went to lightspeed.

As the two ships traveled through hyperspace, the airlock doors opened and a mouse droid carrying sensors entered the Fortune. A voice called out in the Rodian language, which none of the team members understood. Gleemo began to make a sound that they quickly recognized as laughter. Then two humans, a man and a woman, appeared from the vessel that had grabbed the Fortune. The man tossed a jacket to Gleemo, who put it on. The two people introduced themselves as Glin Lokin and his wife Jade, and explained that they and their Rodian comrade, whose real name was Rydu, were representatives of the New Republic Special Intelligence forces. They had been tracking the hostages to Sathazar while Rydu went undercover.

The team from the Fortune were invited to join the Special Intelligence agents aboard their ship, the Jade Zephyr, while the Fortune underwent repairs. They explained that the monks of Sathazar had been blackmailing a Republic senator, which had led to Rydu's undercover mission. As the Jedi and Ranger team explained what they'd been doing on Sathazar, the topic of conversation turned to the darts that Veema Montari had thrown at Ren and Den. The agents' droid suddenly squirted some lubricating fluid on one of the darts. When placed under UV light, the fluid revealed a message inscribed on the projectile. The message was Veema Montari's name and a brief description of her current situation as a captive of the Shadow Wing organization.

Jade and Ferb then joined forces to analyze the data that had been acquired from the monks. Taanar was presented with a code cylinder to use to contact the agents later. One of the hostages rescued from the monks was revealed to be the sister of a Populist senator, who was being blackmailed into voting with the hard-line, anti-Imperial Centrist faction.

When repairs on the Fortune had been completed to the point that the ship could safely fly, the Jedi team took their leave of the Jade Zephyr with the confident knowledge that they had new friends in New Republic security. They then traveled to Glom Tho. There they were met by the Ranger cruiser Stellar Flare. During a meeting in the Flare's security briefing room, Ferb revealed that analysis of the data extracted from the monks' database showed a connection between the monks and Shadow Wing. The assembled group listened to a recording of a conversation between Master Frowd and a woman, discussing how disturbed he was that the Jedi were on Sathazar. They suspected that the woman was someone high in the ranks of Shadow Wing, but who was she?

It was decided that the Fortune of Greepo would go to Canyon City to have the repairs completed and rendezvous there with the Stellar Flare, after which they would return to Sathazar for further investigation. During that time, Ren and Neema learned that the venom applied to Veema Montari's darts came from space slugs, a common pest - but the slugs produced more venom when they ate slime slick, which could be found in abandoned industrial areas. That gave them a clue to the kind of places where the Shadow Wing pirates might be hiding their prisoner. Taanar Ryl sent some of this information to their Imperial contact, Magda Insco.

The Fortune was issued a new transponder code for the trip to Canyon City, where it would land under the name Alpha Star. The Stellar Flare would be just outside the Balthazar system in hypertransciever range as reinforcements. The team also learned that the Stellite Monks had a monastery in Canyon City and acquired its location. They planned to observe the monastery to see if Master Frowd made an appearance there and follow him in the hope he would lead them to Shadow Wing. They took up position at a Biscuit Baron location that faced the monastery for their stakeout.

After an hour of observation, they were rewarded by the sight of Frowd and five acolytes heading toward the city's lower levels, where the docks were located. Their pursuit led them into a seedy area. Ren noticed that there were other people watching the acolytes. Then Taanar spotted the Herglic Shadow Wing member they had run into twice before. This time the Herglic carried a heavy blaster. He was in the company of a Devaronian. There were also more Stellite acolytes hiding in the alleys.

Abruptly the Herglic and the Devaronian began to blast the acolytes. Ren overheard the Herglic telling the Devaronian to kill Frowd, who had entered a nearby building. The Jedi team quickly decided that they didn't want Frowd dead. Den contacted the Alpha Star and then fired on the Herglic. Ren crept surreptitiously into the hall. Moments later the interior lights went out.

Taanar headed toward the hall, but as blaster fire filled the alleys she took cover. The pirates spotted and recognized Den. Inside the hall, Ren hid as he heard the sound of someone falling. Suddenly Master Frowd appeared on the roof of the building. He spotted Taanar in the alley below and exclaimed, "You! I knew you were here!" Taanar attempted to use the Force to grab him but he deflected the attempted and retaliated with a move that knocked her off her feet. Den fired on him.

Meanwhile Neema disarmed a pirate and began firing on the Herglic. Frowd said, "I've had enough of you Jedi interfering!" and knocked Neema down forcefully. Without getting up, Taanar thrust him back across the rooftop. Ren, who had just climbed up the ladder to the roof, was hit by Frowd as he hurtled across the roof and knocked partway back down the ladder. Ren climbed back up to find Frowd lying spread-eagled on the roof. As he popped his head out of he opening he fired at the Stellite master, saying, "We'd like you to assist us in our investigation!" Frowd began choking Ren. Taanar vaulted onto the roof. When she saw Frowd choking her Ranger cohort, she slashed him with her lightsaber. Frowd collapsed, dropping Ren.

Down in the alley, Neema and Den had continued fighting with the Shadow Wing members who were trying to wipe out all the Stellite acolytes. Seeing that the fight wasn't going their way, the Herglic fled. Den and Neema took down one of the pirates. Then sirens began to sound as the Canyon City security forces arrived.

(Glin Lokin, Jade, and Rydu were characters played by in a previous campaign by the players currently playing Den and Neema and another player not participating in the Guardians of Peace campaign. The other campaign was set in the 'canon' Star Wars universe of the movies, but the characters appearing here are alternate versions.)

Next: Episode 10: "Gathering Strength, part 3"

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