RPG Group 2013 - Session #9 (Winter Session)

Bet you all didn't see this one coming, eh? Yes, I am doing a post on the winter RPG Group meeting. Since that Caleb the GM is back from college for the holidays, we decided to gather to do a single session before picking up again in the summer (of course, then it would be "RPG Group 2014"). It was a truly memorable session, with all of the members attending save dear old Nick, who was out Christmas shopping. I myself played a large role, stepping up as leader, I believe. Natural twenties were rolled, the GM was flabbergasted, I cracked wise, and we generally had a smashing good time. But, you ask, what actually happened? Prepare to be amazed.

Starting from where we left off, Lady Andra's mountain villa was under attack by the Imperials, and we had just done a quick security check. This had in turn led to a shoot out in the art gallery, which left it badly damaged and three storm troopers dead. Also, Walt/GM (Nick's character, Walt, was co-opted by the GM for this session) and Kol/me had sustained much damage. We went into the arboretum, but stormtroopers blew out the glass ceiling and rappelled down. Instead of waiting for them all to arrive down and then getting them with frag grenades, the GM/Embar and GM/Walt charged in Leroy Jenkins style and started a firefight. Embar/GM shot one of them from below, which Caleb said was in the back, but I can think of a far more likely target. But whatever, it was only the fourth casualty in what would become a huge, bloody, XP filled battle (the first three were from last session). Walt/GM also shot at a stormtrooper, but missed. For my part, I threw a frag grenade at two of the four descending troopers (there were two others on the edge of the hole where the dome used to be) and killed them both. Unfortunately, Walt/GM was badly wounded, and we had to drag him out through the opposite entrance, into the main hall, with one stormtrooper left on the ledge.

Meanwhile, Drell/Nessa, Torin/Linnae, and Kit/Kellyn were in one of the front rooms with some of the Free Telos Movement soldiers. The Free Telos soldiers were in another shootout with the stormtroopers out front. I quickly comlinked Kit/Kellyn to inform her of Walt being knocked unconscious. Torin/Linnae, who had a medpac and was trained in Treat Injury, ran over and, after spending a few Force points on re-rolls, stabilized Walt/GM. Torin/Linnae then stood guard at the south entrance of the arboretum. I then began to take charge, ascertaining the situation. All of the Free Telos tanks had been destroyed, and the stormtroopers were guarding the airspeeders which we needed to get out of there. I ran over to the dining hall where Lady Andra and the other dignitaries were waiting, and I learned from a guard named Sareth that the most defensible room in the villa was Andra's office. I then ran back to Embar and Captain Marin (the captain of the the Free Telos soldiers) and told them that if we could get the civilians into the office, we would be able to devise a plan. I made sure that the rooms leading to the office, including the art gallery, were secured, before telling Sareth to gather up the dignitaries and lead them single file to the office. A funny thing happened on the way to the office: Torin/Linnae threw a frag grenade at two stormtroopers who were rappelling into the arboretum, killing them both, but also blew the doors off of the west entrance to the arboretum. Also, Embar/Caleb had joined the shootout at the front entrance and rolled a natural 20, critically hitting a stormtrooper right in the mask.

Anyhow, before moving the people, I got Kit/Kellyn to stand guard at the west entrance of the arboretum (there were three or four entrances; north, south, west, and possibly east) and took Drell/Nessa with me to the north entrance, to keep it secure. Sareth and some other guards began escorting the Free Telos leaders out of the dining hall and kitchen (some were in the kitchen and the dining hall, which I felt was not a safe place to be in case the stormtroopers tried rappelling in through the large windows) into the east hall. We were about to move them in through the art gallery when more stormtroopers began rappelling into the arboretum. Caleb mentioned that what with all of the grenades and blaster shots, the plants were probably on fire by now, but that mustn't of staved off the stormtroopers, because they just kept coming. Drell/Nessa and Kol/me took up positions at the north entrance, halting the line of dignitaries. I had handed Kellyn/Kit a grenade to use (I'm pretty sure it was Kellyn/Kit) at her entrance, and she threw it just as the stormtroopers arrived. I think it gave half damage, but she turned to be face to face with a stormtrooper. Luckily, Kellyn got an attack of opportunity I believe, and fired a point black shot, killing this trooper. Unfortunately, another stormtrooper shot her in the chest, severely wounding her. It must have only grazed her, because she managed to survive. Likewise, Drell/Nessa got shot in the kneecap.

We managed to get rid of these stormtroopers through our combined efforts, and move Lady Andra and her entourage into the office. Caleb, Captian Marin, and the soldiers then pulled through the parlor into the west room thingy (it was filled with chairs and holographic displays and statuettes and stuff), where they set up a barricade. Meanwhile, Lady Andra gave us some weapons she had been storing in her office (Light Repeating Blasters, yay!) and we all got our damage healed by a medical droid/station she had in her office. It was a mighty spacious office.

We then thought how we were going to get to the dignitaries to the airspeeders and spirit them away. We knew that a straight fight against the stormtroopers would lead to disaster, but fortunately, we had a different, crazier plan. Embar/GM had actually thought of it, and Torin/Linnae had thought of it to. We would simply 1.) Destroy the window in the office overlooking a 500 foot drop; 2.) Use the grapnel feature on our guns to send pilots to the roof; 3.) Run over the room still, grapnel down from the roof, and seize a sufficient amount of parked airspeeders; 4.) Drive the airspeeders over the window, load the dignitaries onto the speeders, and get the heck out of there. Since it was the only plan we had, we decided that we might as well enact it. Unfortunately, when we player characters (with the exception of Walt/GM and the new addition of Andra's Wookiee bodyguard- Kafaka or something) managed to get out on the roof (we were lucky that the GM didn't tell us to roll a climb check, which none of us were trained in), we had to make a mad rush past a couple of stormtroopers who were still hanging out up there, plus there were other stormtroopers up on the mountain side. Fortunately, they weren't armed with blaster rifles. Unfortunately, they were armed with rocket launchers. Fortunately, since we weren't vehicles, their heat signature locking thing didn't work as well on us, being living beings, unless one of them rolled a natural 20.

Anyhow, Embar/GM and Drell/Nessa charged the two storm troopers while the rest of us ran around, off the roof up the mountain side (the villa was pressed right against the mountain). There as a bit of scuffle between Embar/GM & Drell/Nessa and the stormtroopers. They fought, and our guy and girl managed to get one and wound another, when something terrible happened, even more terrible than Embar getting a natural 1 on his charging a attack and falling flat on his face: one of the rocket launcher storm troopers got a natural 20 and hit them. Since Drell/Nessa had evade and managed to take only half damage (meanwhile, my character had unsuccessfully tried to shoot the remaining stormtrooper- Kaphaka managed to run ahead and descend from the roof) and the remaining stormtrooper was killed instantly, his body obliterated. But Embar was critically wounded. He was down to below zero. Fortunately (I know, it's getting tired), Drell/Nessa rolled I believe a 17 and managed to use Force Heal on him, stabilizing him. She then carried him to the roof top and hopped into the waiting speeder.

Each of us flying a speeder (there were four speeders with four pilots, with about 12 people to rescue), we flew past the rocket guys (they had been bombarding the roof the entire time, and now had to reload to fire at us again). I'd like to say that we managed to evade the rockets, pick up the passengers, and then flew off into the sunset and lived happily ever after, but that would not be true. I managed to evade the first missile, but Kit/Kellyn's speeder was struck, as was mine the second time around. Kellyn/Kit's was full of passengers, including Andra! Thankfully enough, the damage wasn't incredibly bad, and Kellyn/Kit managed to get into a controlled flight, as did I, and the four speeders flew away, but to where remains to been until next summer. In short, it. Was. Awesome. See you all in June! Man, we got a crud-ton of XP.