Kel, still dressed in the Sand Trooper stolen armor, moved down the stairwell and turned to confront the Gamorrean mercenaries in rear Observation room. He engaged one of them but was suddenly surprised by a hidden one who smashed his vibro axe into Kel's head, knocking him unconscious. Xander radioed the others about this surprising development, as Ymira landed and headed toward the stairwell. Roona was covering the entrance to the lower levels, while Zavi manned the barge's deck gun, firing wildly into the distance at nothing, happy as could be. The idea was to make the below deck occupants think that there were still "pirates" attacking the main deck and being opposed, despite the fact that all the sand barge's thugs had been dealt with here on the main deck.
Xander continued with Kel's attempted deception and chastised the Gamorrean thug for his attack on an Imperial Trooper! The dim-witted hulks stopped and apologized and Xander told them to go and help the fight going on above. As the pig-like humanoids lumbered up the stairs in their heavy armor, Ymira and Roona were making their way down and came to an impromptu engagement. Ymira fired first, then Roona. The Gamorrean's heavy armor protected them from most of the blaster fire, but the leading one was hit in the knee and forced to the ground. Xander meanwhile blasted the trailer in the back, forcing him to drop his weapon. The ongoing fight found the Gamorreans blasted repeatedly with shots that hurt and wounded them but only a little at a time, like death from a thousand cuts. Eventually the first was toppled and they bracketed the other who had chased Xander back in to the observation room. The poor cook droid was caught in the cross-fire and was badly damaged and actually slammed into Ymira as it was no longer under control. The second thug fell, watched by the three wide-eyed Twileks hiding behind the bar. Ymira waved to them as Zavi came down and joined the others.
Moving further, the group saw there were more of the Gamorreans in the entertainment lounge, but fortunately they did not notice Ymira who snuck ahead, nor were they bright enough to worry about the blaster fire and commotion that had already been going on. They were more concerned with drinking, harassing the staff and watching disgusting vids on the holoprojector. That allows the quartet to explore the other rooms between them. First being the armory. Ymira replaced her blaster energy cartridge and Zavi collected some homemade explosives from a crate. Beyond that they surprised poor Donher Ty, who flinched unconsciously when the door was opened. Dohner was a poor sight, covered excessively in oil splatters on his ragged clothing. His three droids were oil-covered and barely functioning. Two were labor droids and the other was an abused and dented power droid.
After some discussion it became clearer how evil and nasty the Gamorreans had been, especially their leader, the self-styled gangster Glulgorg. It finally also gave the team a chance to realize that this sail barge was far from opulent. There were lights that were inoperable or flickeringly dim. Garbage was strewn around in places and it was sporadically dirty and dusty. This despite the best efforts of the Twilek servants. Engineer Ty confirmed this, that he had to keep the engines and his beloved droids operating with minimal resources and had to scrabble together what he could.
The next room of guards still needed to be dealt with. Ymira was planning to lure them into an ambush and Roona suggested further for Zavi to place several of the crude explosives just out of sight of the doorway that the Gamorreans would be entering to chase Ymira. The plan worked spectacularly. Ymira called out, "Hey you big uglies!" And hit the biggest of the three in the chest with a shot. They all rushed forward to bash the offending Mirialan smuggler.
Zavi struck and the plan went better than expected. He lobbed a frag grenade into the enemy and it exploded and triggered the crude explosive to also blow up. The damage nearly killed the biggest one, did kill the one next to him and closest to the trap and wounded the trailing thug. Unfortunately, it also blew a hole in the wall of the sail barge! The gathering storm ripped into the hallway, further pelting the surprised bruisers. A few more well-placed shots and these enemies were also quickly out of the action.
The next stop was a startling unveiling. They had reached their penultimate target. As Xander triggered the locked door to open, inside was none other that Glulgorg himself, the largest Gamorrean any of our protagonists had ever seen, flanked by two more thugs. Also there was an Imperial officer and a Stormtrooper sergeant. This would be the final showdown!
Glulgorg sent the two thugs forward initially, but they were quickly caught in another frag grenade from the Squib. The Stormtrooper was partially caught in the blast and this angered him and his blaster carbine rang out hitting Roona who had moved into the middle of the doorway to blast one of the thugs. A quick exchange of fire and the thugs were dropped, although one got a nasty cut in on Zavi. At this point the conflict stalled for a moment.
Glulgorg was now aware that this group of invaders was big trouble. They had fought their way through most of his guards and now had the upper hand. "Who the druk are you?" Glulgorg growled. "What do you want?"
"We are here for Momaw," the Mirialan shot back.
"If that's it, then take him and be gone!" Glulgorg shoved the Imperial Officer to the ground as she started to protest. The Stormtrooper Sergeant raised his weapon again but hesitated. Fulfilling his job duties was in direct conflict with losing his life, especially for this ridiculous alien gardener and a lout of a gangster.
Ymira's eyes narrowed as she looked to her allies. Zavi smiled a toothy grin and Roona nodded. "Forget it. You're going down, you disgusting pig!" Gamorreans generally loved vulgarity so much they rarely minded the insult. Ymira blasted the gangster leader and Zavi joined in while Roone fired away at the Stormtrooper. Ymira ended up taking a nasty cut on her leg from Glulgorg, but he was not able to stand up to the onslaught from the team and struggled though he might, finally fell. The Stormtrooper also was barely standing having taken several blaster shots to his armor. He lowered his weapon and raised one hand. Ingha Muloha, the Imperial Officer, was wide-eyed and pale at the gunfight that had just finished. They offered to halt the conflict and leave. This apprehension had spiraled way out of control and the Imperials had no more use for this endeavor. Xander and Roona escorted them to the upper deck and they absconded with the two Imperial speeder bikes that the team had taken from the Sand Troopers earlier.
Unfortunately the storm was getting worse. The wind was stronger and the sand and rocks pelted the sail barge and anyone exposed mercilessly.
Exploring the rest of the bow of the barge, the team found the cockpit. There, they threatened the single guard, explaining they had disposed of everyone else on board, including the boss. Even as unintelligent, stubborn and loyal as they were, they weren't always suicidal. The two human pilots had no intention of putting up a fight and were easily coerced to navigate the barge back toward Anchorhead. The last task was to free Momaw from his imprisonment and similarly convince that guard that leaving the barge was better than death.
Just as everyone was able to utilize some stimpacks to recover somewhat from their wounds, the team suddenly found themselves between a rock and a hard place. Quite literally. The rock, or rather rocks, were the closing storm which had started to engulf the barge and was growing in intensity. The hard place, on the other had, was a colossal reptile that emerged from the rocky soil. Nearly twenty meters long, it was a fabled krayt dragon! And the dragon seemed determined to make a meal of the barge. With a positive intercept angle the krayt dragon closed on the sail barge.
The pilots were informed of the trouble and were forced to turn further into the storm to try and escape the closing behemoth. Zavi considered a moment to fire the deck gun at the huge beast, but thought better of it and the hail of rocks and sand drove him and the others under deck again. Fortunately, even being buffeted by the great storm, the barge was fast enough to out distance the krayt dragon and then double back and move out of the storm, somewhat at least, into a portion of lesser intensity. The sail barge limped back toward Anchorhead.
Momaw was dropped off close to his grove of precious trees, but far enough away the no one would know exactly where it was located. The Ithorian thanked the party for their rescue and promised that they would be welcome any time they found themselves in the area. Baffor trees were a crystalline tree native to Ithor. They were a holy place to Momaw and Ithorians and a place of soothing presence, he explained.
The next step was to deal with the sail barge and the slaves and servants. They all had nothing to their names and nowhere to go immediately and asked the team for help getting to civilization and safety. Engineer Ty offered his skill and his droids to work for them for a modest stipend. It was decided to have the barge remain outside Anchorhead and it settled somewhat close to Tosche Station, a distance outside Anchorhead itself. That would give the team time while they tried to decide how to proceed. The storm had continued moving east and begun to engulf them. None of them had ever experienced a storm quite like this one in intensity. The biting sand was blowing at speeds in excess of one hundred kilometers per hour and still gaining strength. This was going to be a night to remember.
The weather made unloading the speeder bikes and truck difficult. Once that was managed, the group were finally forced to seek shelter as the height of the storm hit. Barely able to see in the darkness of whipping sand, the easiest place to seek shelter was a nearby building. The barge could not even be seen from their nearby vantage point in the horrific storm. Quickly the quintet burst into the building, anywhere to get away from the punishment. (everyone takes five strain from the environment)
As you pile through the door into the dimly lit interior, you see that you were not the only ones forced into here by the storm. This is the venerable Tosche Station - a combination speeder repair shop and seedy dive where the local youth like to hang out. The lounge is crowded with several locals, including several humans, an ishi tib (amphibian with beak-like mouth and eyestalks), a pacithhip (wrinkled grey humanoid with trunk and tusks), a klatoonian (strongly built humanoids with prominent brows and visible teeth), an Aqualish (hulking, bald humanoid with oversized front teeth like a walrus), a nikto (scaly green course skin with horn and spikes) and a handful of jawas.
As one of the humans shouts, "Close the door, ya blasted idgits!", the jawas scurry towards you jabbering excitedly and reaching for your gear.
- offworld-jawas.jpeg (34.54 KiB) Viewed 279 times
Everyone gained 10 XP from the mission. There are 2 more to be gained if the slaves and servants are taken to safety and possibly some other if certain loose ends are dealt with. The group has not been back to Anchorhead as yet and so has not collected the reward for rescuing Momaw.
Unused XP-
Kel 20 (◆◆critical wound)
Xander 20
Zavi 10
Roona 10
Ymira 20
Group spoils
3451 credits (-120 for transport and info)
Gear: quick sale value in ()
2x Blaster Rifle (450 ea)
1x Holdout Blaster (100 ea)
7x Laser Pistol (200 ea)
1x Heavy Blaster Pistol (300 ea)
1x Stun grenades (45 ea)
Tool Kit (175)
Glow Rod (5)
Brass knuckles (10)