Abq RPG Journal

So Varza had the idea to post the in-character journal I was keeping about our RPG here on the boards. I am weak-minded and susceptible to strong suggestions, so not only did I ignore the droids she obviously had with her, but I think it?s a good idea, too.

I?ll keep posting journal entries on this thread. I encourage comments by those playing the game and those not playing and wanting to do some back-seat gaming.

The journal is being kept in-character, or as best in-character as I can since I mainly do it to fill in the down times at work. Mainly it will be through his eyes, with a few Star Wars-flavored snide remarks thrown in for good measure. Each one will be time-marked by day, but those are gaming sessions, not in-game time. Figuring that out would be a headache. So Day one is the first session, etc.

I am playing an 18 year-old Devaronian fringer named Jala Siles. He is young, unscrupulous, and frequently makes bad decisions. He enjoys getting himself out of tight situations, though. He thinks its fun.

I?ll post Day One here in a bit, mostly for the sake of record. I wrote it out by hand and need ot type it up. The journal kind of changed as I kept going. At first I was kind of sparse, just recording facts. As I kept writing it got more fun to write it a bit more incharacter, so bear with me, here. Day Two is much more exciting.

 

ya!!!!

 

?Set out running but I take my time,
A friend of the Devaronion is a friend of mine.?


Day 1 ? ?There?s a Jedi up there!?

A Rodian friend of mine I sometimes do business with met up with me the other day. He told me had had some work for me. Some ship was coming in and they needed someone for some quick mods to a few weapons before they took off again. I had nothing better to do so I met up with him at the Cantina. Which was a little strange, since I wasn?t supposed to. I kept him there, figuring if this thing was going to go sour, he could ride it out with me.

The contact was late, delayed for some reason. Turns out he was some Corelian Senator, but it wasn?t him who showed up in the Cantina. It was his son. This bothered my Rodian friend, Greedo, a little. The son showed up with some bodyguards, too. I prodded Greedo and we made contact anyway, and followed them back to his ship. Greedo didn?t stick around long. He took off immediately when he saw they had a Jedi captive on board! That?s what he said, anyway.

I stuck around. I was given 20 blaster rifles to mount scopes on. It was easy work, but they didn?t know that. I charged them the sky and had them pay me half up front. Which was a good thing. Somebody ended up dropping form the ceiling yelling something about a Jedi. Things got sour real fast and I took off. I?m not sure I am welcome to come back. That?s fine by me. The ship looked like it had gone through some rough times, but still had a compliment of about fifteen heavily armed and armored security guards. The two sentry guns don?t spell ?Come Again? either.

Outside I ran into two Jedi. Apparently they?re all over the place, now. They were very interested in what I had seen. I hired myself out to them as a guide, I guess. No money yet, but you can?t beat two Jedis for protection. We were on our way to find Greedo again when we ran into some Twi?lek chick. The Jedis were really interested in her, for some reason. Well, one was, the other didn?t say or do much. I wanted to leave her in the street, but it turns out she knows the mechanic the Corelian hired to fix the ship! So she?s a part of our little group now, I suppose. Looks like she used to run with a gang or something here on Coruscant.

Odd, when we got back to the Cantina Greedo warmed up to one of the Jedis right away. Was his new best friend, or something. The other Jedi spent all his time by the ladies room, for some reason.

Turns out the Senator is a big spicerunner, and the ship is supposed to have a megaload of it onboard. They ran into some trouble, got their ship banged up, and their captured Jedi was a part of a boarding crew they fought with. Greedo doesn?t know what happened to the Senator, and seems pretty wary of his son.

The Jedis seemed confidant, but didn?t really know where to start. I figured we were going to need some muscle, so I put the word out to one of the bartenders. It wasn?t long before some tough-looking Mandalorian showed up and the Jedi hired him.

The Jedi liked the idea of stealing the ship best. They say it will mean fewer lives lost. I say whatever keeps the Jedis happy means a bigger payoff, so I?m with it. Besides the two Jedis (only one of which seems useful to have around right now), myself, the Mandalorian, and the chatty Twi?lek, we also picked up the mechanic, and some skeezy Umbarin with us. Turns out she?s the one who nearly got me into hot water back at the ship! That aside, we came up with a pretty good plan, I think. The idea of having the Corelian pay to fix his ship and then stealing right from under him really makes me laugh.

Now we?re just waiting on the mechanic. I sent some money to Hakla and her children. Between the Jedis and the spice on the ship, this could be a big payoff.

 

skeezy umbarin?! ha!

 

Heh. Sweet. Can't wait for the journal from last session.

 

Day 2 ? ? . . . no match for a good blaster at your side.?

Our plan changed a little, which is fine by me. I didn?t feel like spending all day in a box, anyway. The Jedi, Lor, thought it might be a good idea to get on the ship and look around a little. I agreed. Part of met thought they wouldn?t be too happy to see me, but I decided to take the chance. The chance to get the rest of my fee was worth any excitement it might cause. Turns out I was worried for nothing. Between the guards and the guns, they like to look like they are running a tight ship, but I don?t think so. Except for the Jedi in the cage, of course.

I told them to get the job done faster I would need to bring in a droid and an assistant, since the scopes I was mounting were a bit more complicated than I first thought. They agreed, and paid me the extra credits up front.

When I came back with my ?assistant,? Lor, and this droid he dug up, they said they wanted me to work inside the ship this time. That?s where we wanted to go, anyway. It?s a big ship, capable of holding some big stuff, looks like a slaver, maybe. It?s pretty secure, too. There are cameras everywhere. Getting a look at the rest of the ship was a problem. They kept a close eye on us everywhere we went. Then, they locked us in! The room they were storing the weapons in wasn?t an armory. It was a holding cell of some kind. Well, maybe not a cell, but we couldn?t open the door from inside and had to be let out. I wasn?t too comfortable with this.

Once we were there, there wasn?t much we could do. We couldn?t get a look at the rest of the ship, that was for sure. We?d be spotted and hung out to dry in a minute. So we got started on the rifles. Lor seemed really interested in the scopes, and I soon saw why. They appear to be just high-quality auto-targeting scopes, but they can see Jedis like a light in the dark! At least, when I looked at Lor through one of them he stood out in bright blue. I am going to have to make sure to keep one of the scopes for myself. Could be very valuable.

Lor left to go talk to the others. I had nothing to do and was being watched, so I had no choice but to work with the rifles. I started mounting the scopes, but the joke?s on them. I screwed with the sighting on every one of them! Once I got the hang of the design and the interface, I made it so they couldn?t hit the hull of their ship if they were standing on it!

When Lor came back, things got really boring. The scopes were going on pretty fast, and really we were just waiting for the others. They were supposed to return with the engines to install and the pilot they hired, posing as more mechanics. When we finished with the engines and we finished with the rifles, a local gang the Umbarin in the box hired was supposed to create some type of distraction to keep the guards busy. Then we would shut off the power, shut the ship behind the guards, and mop up whatever was left. Who knows what that Umbarin, Varza?, promised the gang.

That was hours away, though. So I showed Lor how to use and mount the scopes, since he was supposed to be my ?apprentice?, or whatever. Hey, How many Jedis does it take to mount a scope on a blaster rifle? My guess, at least the whole Council.

Well, comes time to get the show on the road and nothing happens. Lor and I were just standing there like we were waiting for the droid to sing or something. Enough time went by and I started to get nervous. The last thing I wanted to do was get stuck in that room. I couldn?t stall those scopes any longer. I knocked on the door, asked to go to the common area for a sandwich. As I was being led down the hallway by a guard, I figured we had better get the show on the road or the whole plan was going to fall apart. We needed to get the ship locked down, and right then surprise was on our side.

Or my side, anyway. I was just about to take out my blaster and plug the guard in the back of his head when it happened. There was a big explosion outside and lots of blaster fire. The guard in front of me took off running. My droid starte

 

I'm loving it so far!

Sounds like you're having fun...

 

"like a jawa in a prison shower"

LMAO! I knew you'd find just the right way to describe that whole scene.

-Cheers-
<Blayne>

 

i concur Christov

 

hello!? update! hello?!

 

Day 3 ??Every Star Wars adventure I have ever played starts with everybody realizing we need to steal a ship.?

Or

?I?m a figurehead on a ship of fools.?


It took me a second to realize what our illustrious Jedi had done to himself. As much as I don?t want to admit it, I was too busy watching Blayne force the Correlian to strip naked in his cell. I wasn?t interested for any sexual reason. At least I?m pretty sure I wasn?t. I can?t speak for anyone else. When I turned around to see how Lor was attending to the Jedi captive, I found he had somehow managed to attach the inhibitors to his own head.

Seeing him lie there like a dead fish, I suddenly wondered what type of Jedi I had sold my services too. I don?t know what passes for standards among Jedi, but I don?t think Lor is going to hold a seat in the council any time soon.

As it turns out, that other Jedi isn?t even a Jedi at all! He?s some kind of ?force healer? or something. Heck if I know what that means. Aren?t Jedi?s the only one who can use the Force? Either way, the Jedi Council sent him along with Lor, maybe to wipe his chin from time to time. These guys should prove useful if things get any hairier than they all ready have. At least I hope so. I haven?t seen much so far.

Finally, someone remembered that the best place for the ship would be in orbit, and with the battle still going on outside we took off. I think it was that Twi?Lek?s idea. She?s proving more useful. I can begin to see why the Jedi hired so many people. If it weren?t for us they would still be in the cantina keeping their lightsabers company.
If I sound like I?m being a little hard on the Jedi, remember that I haven?t seen too much of this mystical magic they are supposed to posses. And on top of that, that frigging Lor destroyed all the scopes I put on those rifles! When I got back to the armory I found every single rifle cut through the middle, melting the scopes and destroying their components. I?ve only seen a lightsaber out and doing business once or twice, but from what I know it?s the only thing that could have cut through all those rifles, still in their racks, as clean as it did.

It looks like it had to have been done in one motion, too, because the Jedi got a little sloppy. I was able to salvage enough parts from what was left that I think I should be able to put together six of those scopes. They won?t be as pretty and I?ll need to find cases for them, but I can do it when I find a few free moments.

I can understand the Jedi wanting the scopes destroyed, but what would be the point? I?m sure there are more of them out there, and if he really wanted it done he should have done it right. Besides, he pocketed one. I left one on the workbench, and it was gone when I came back.

I was so angry that I went to find him as soon as I saw the armory. He was in the sick bay with the Jedi healer. He was awake and puking his guts out into a bedpan. I decided to leave it alone. That ended up being for the best. I mean, I don?t want to get on his bad side. We?re defiantly in this all together. I?ll just keep those components and build a few of the scopes on my own. I?m sure I can find some people interested. I may even be able to make a schematic of one.

Anyway, once offplanet, we all decided pretty quickly that Talus would be a god place to hide out. It?s far enough away to suit us, and as a moon of Correlia it puts us in a prime place to try and ransom off the Senator?s son, or at least find out what happened to the father. Seems the Jedi are more or less letting us run the show. If they keep that up they?re going to find us working more for the credits and less for them.

And there are a ton of credits in this little operation! Blayne and Varza and the Twi?Lek and I searched the ship. The cargo hold is full of containers, double-layered and padded and rigged for a gentle ride, filled with rods of pure spice! I knew that stuff was volatile, but you should see the lengths they went to make sure this stuff doesn?t get rattled. There must be billions of credits worth her

 

"he?s leaving tightly coiled bundles of the Force in his pants"

...genius.

 

ROTFLMAO!!!

Yes, baby that was a great day!

Oh btw, sorry about this:

Sundays session of the rpg is being cancelled.

We will reschedule for 1pm next Sunday.

 

Well, I missed last weeks due to a work conflict I could not reschedule, which sucked big time because it was a content-rich session full of laughter, love, and plenty of learning for all of us.

And I am going to miss this week's session because I am sicker than a bantha at an all-you-can-eat jawa buffet. How sick is that? VERY sick. Sicker than Luke making out with his sister. Sicker than Han Solo's secret Furry desires for Chewbacca. Sicker than a hutt eating pretzels. Sicker than Hayden Christensen's performance in the second film. Sicker than . . . well,let's just say I'm ill.

 

Sicker than Luke making out with his sister.
Sicker than Hayden Christensen's performance in the second film.
!!!
I especially liked those two. I've been missing all the fun because of work conflicts as well. I'm just going to quit and do Star Wars geek full time.

 

I'm with you on that! Too bad there is no money in it for the first year or so.

i don't think anything is happening this week anyways. there is no floor to sit on over here.

Probably next week...

 

I bet it would be possible to get some kind of Government grant to role play. We could call it "reserach into deep insertion immersive combat and otherwise hostile environments, with pizza."

 

sounds good to me...

hopefully we will be playing on Sunday. Matt said he would let us know closer to the end of the week...

 

Day 4 ? ?Crazy Wookie?s Fur Burgers and Fish Tacos?

When we landed on Talus, my first mistake was trying some of the local food. There was a little food stand just outside the landing pad, run by someone with so much body hair he may or may not have been a Wookie. I had gotten so tired of eating sandwhiches out of the ship?s processors that I needed something, anything, for a change.

To the visitor to Talus, I strongly recommend staying away from a local food called a ?fish taco.? I spent so much time in the ships bathroom my Devaronian ass has a toilet-shaped bruise on it.

On the good side, I did have a lot of time to contemplate our situation, between the times I spent sweating and passing out. I decided what we needed was com links and transmitters that showed everyone?s relative position. The display needs a little work. People moving between elevations gives it some problems, other than that it seems to work fine so far.

I decided we needed a better way to keep track of each other because, while I was busy staring into the depths of humanoid suffering heretofore undiscovered, the other members of our little group decided to collect on some local bounties. Well, most of them did. The pilots keep to themselves, and I think I heard something about the Twi?Lek chick wanting to neuter the cats in the ship?s hold. To be honest I may have hallucinated that when my internal organs shifted toward the center of the earth.

They did set up the sale of the spice. That turned out a little more difficult than I had thought it would. I never thought about trying to sell spice in Corelia. They have so much of it around here there isn?t a market. We are waiting for a buyer from Coruscant, which will take a few days.

There?s a local slicer working on the ship now. The ship has a bounty out on it. Ships are hard to come by, and we?re all pretty fond of it, so we decided if we were going to keep it we needed to change it?s i.d. tag and signature. That will take a few days, too.

I think buying food from wheeled carts, in general, is something to be avoided. I?ve crapped out everything but my brains. Oh wait, there they go . . . .

 

(for those of you wondering, no, we did not actualy role-play severe and painful diarrehea, this is just what happens to your character when you miss a day of gaming . . . be forewarned . . .)



(oh, and the next entry is, if anything, total confirmation of our groups hack-n-slash nature and an adventure of epic proportions)

 

I love this journal!

 

(oh, and the next entry is, if anything, total confirmation of our groups hack-n-slash nature and an adventure of epic proportions)

<<< !COMPLETE WITH PICTURES! >>>

 

Day 5 ? ?Force Push him, then Force Take His Lunch Money!!?

When I finally regained my composure and the feeling in the lower half of my body, the group was ready to move forward. Sure, we have to wait a few days for our spice buyers to show up, but that just gives us some time to collect on a few more bounties. Blayne and the others had some success while I was one the galaxy?s most successful weight loss program.

We tried to get more out of the Senator?s son, but unfortunately he seems to have slipped into some kind of depression. Probably due to the embarrassment he suffered from the Mandalorian. Maybe he thought he would never be the kind of guy to roll over and say, ?Bitch!? when a Mandalorian asked him too, but then again life is full of surprises.

Turns out, his father doesn?t like him very much. No surprise there. Apparently no one does. So getting a ransom for this guy is going to be difficult. We can?t let him go yet, so we?re just leaving him in his cell.

The captured Jedi is still unconscious. Our Force Healer has disappeared. He may have jumped ship. I certainly wouldn?t have seen him go, and the pilots are keeping a close eye on the slicer while he works.

Talus has a thriving criminal element to it. It wasn?t very hard to find more bounties we could cash in on. It seems a ring of cantinas in the area was having trouble with a local swoop bike gang collecting protection money. They were collecting every night and causing enough trouble for the cantina to put up a five thousand credit bounty on the gang! That?s some serious money. We needed to get a look at the gang before we committed fully to taking care of this little problem.

We staked out one of the cantinas, the one farthest from the center of town. Blayne got up on the roof to watch the gang approach while the Twi?Lek, Varza, Lor, and myself sat inside. The gang gathered up by where the road heads into the treeline, then approached the cantina together. There were about ten or fifteen of them, and they were pretty well equipped. The three who actually came into the Cantina to collect from the bartender had weapons and armor. The gang leader had a full suit and blaster rifle, and looked like he meant business. They collected and took off. The cantina we were in was just the first stop for the night.

We figured we could take care of them. We talked to the cantina owner about using his cantina as an ambush point. He wouldn?t have anything to do with it. The guy thinks he can put up a bounty and then act like he isn?t involved? I see how it is. I didn?t like him. Put up a bounty if you want someone taken out, then act like you?re innocent. Sorry pal, you?re just as responsible as the rest of us. More so, the way I see it.

He kept saying that he and the other cantina owners just wanted the gang to leave them alone. As long as we got them to do that, we could collect. Well, I hope by ?leave them alone? he meant ?blow the gang to Hell and gone,? because that?s pretty much all we were interested in.

I think we briefly considered a diplomatic approach. I wondered about Lor. I would think a Jedi would want to do things that way, be he didn?t argue much. I guess that would have been a good idea. A gang as well-equiped as that one usually has local backing. We haven?t been here too long, but we certainly do like to make some noise. Making enemies is almost unavoidable. I don?t care. Why coast through life when you can make some waves? I may have tried to live a little under the radar before, but since I?ve put my neck out I?ve been able to secure some serious money. I say bring on the action. I?ve got a family at home to feed.

Short of feeding the swoops a few of those fish tacos, blowing them sky-high was all I could think of. Blayne seemed eager to finally break in his gear. Varza is up for getting the job done, so she was down. The Twi?Lek . . . well, she seems pretty distracted most of the time. She?s always excited and interested in something, but it never seems to be the same thing everyone else is interested in. Either way, she

 

Day 6 ? ?Cleveland Steamer Carpet Cleaning Service?

We collected that hefty bounty from the cantinas no problem. They were so grateful we all get free drinks whenever we show up. That bartender even put that severed hand in a jar behind the bar! Looks like he has more sand than I thought he did . . .

He knew about the cantina that was listed on that business card I found. It?s some place called ?The Dirty Sanchez? on Corelia. The only connection it has to Talus is that it is owned by the same guy who owns a local Swoop Bike shop here in town. The place is called ?Hot Carl?s Swoops,? and we thought it might be to our advantage to show up on our rides and have a little chat with Hot Carl himself.

Hot Carl wasn?t in, but he runs a pretty nice shop. He sells custom made and Merc swoops. One of the rather heavily armed and armored swoops caught Blayne?s eye. That?s one Mandalorian who loves his ordinance. I was beginning to wonder about him, but he started a rather intimate conversation with the local telnet operator the other day. He apparently set up a date or something. I don?t know how desperate you would have to be to hit on the telnet operator, but it has something to do with why you just don?t see that many Mandalorians around any more . . .

Anyway, Blayne traded in his captured bike for one with a lot of guns on it. The staff at the shop was a little taken back when we swooped up on our rides. No one said anything, though. We tried to set up a meeting with Hot Carl, but all we did was waste our time with a protocol droid. I guess we got our message across, though. It won?t be long before they figure out their favorite swoop gang won?t be riding up any time soon.

We tried to keep an eye on the shop ourselves. Balyne?s recon and that Twi?Lek?s dubious placement of Varza?s camera didn?t net us too much. With nothing better to do we decided to go look up tat one bounty we had heard about.

After sitting in the cantina and drinking our free drinks, the woman whose bounty it was finally showed up. Seems she shows up at the cantinas the same time every day asking if anyone was interested in looking for her lost brother. She?s not very interested in keeping this subtle. She?s some upperclass teenager, with more fashion sense than common sense, who just wants her brother back. She?s paying eight large for him, so we bit.

Her brother has been missing for a month. Both their parents are dead and her brother started hanging out with the wrong crowd. So she decided to get him in martial arts. She enrolled him in some new school that teaches some type of Wampa fighting style, called Wampa Wallup. Well, she?s worried that the school is more of a cult than a martial arts academy. Her brother loved it, though, and started spending all of his time there. He dressed in what they told to dress, started acting all weird, and then one day about a month ago never came back from class. She hasn?t been able to find him since.

We agreed that Lor and Varza should check out the class while Blayne, the TwiLek, and me went to the girl?s apartment to check out the kid?s room. We didn?t find anything unusual, the normal room for an 11 year old, I guess. There were some weird crystals growing in a case on his shelf. His sister said he started that hobby right after joining Wampa Wallup. I can?t imagine what a Wampa does with crystals, but what do I know? I don?t even know why Blayne keeps snickering every time I mention ?Hot Carl?s cantina The Dirty Sanchez.?

After not finding much we were going to go meet up with everyone at the Wallup or when Varza called us on the com link. Lor never showed up. We all went back to the ship to see if he was there, and chew his robe-wearing butt out for not letting us know what was going on.

He left! He left us a note saying thanks for helping out and may the force be with our asses, and he left 1,000 credits for us to split. The unconscious Jedi and the Senator?s son were also gone. I guess he thought he had beter places to be. I suppose it if for the best. I don?t think collecting boun

 

Day 7 ? Droid Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Make Chris shoot Root Beer out His Nose


We searched the ship to make sure Lor didn?t try to screw us or anything. Nothing was missing and everything was in its place. I guess he just didn?t think he fit in. Whatever. We needed to get back to the issue at hand. Varza and that Twi?Lek chick went back to the Wampa Wallup to enroll as new students, see what they could find out. Blayne had a date to make with that operator girl, said he was going to the ?Happy Mandalorian? bar or something. I?ve heard some things about that bar. He might be surprised at the clientele when he gets there.

I took my swoop in to get painted and get the bodywork fixed. The looks I kept getting at Hot Carl?s made me think I might want to draw a little less attention. I picked an out-of-the-way paint and body shop and dropped it off, decided to paint it flat black. I also sent some more money home.

I figured I should ask around about this Wampa Wallup school. I found three other schools that teach the same style, but the are all part of the same organization So I started asking around at some other fighting schools and gyms. I had the best luck at a Teras Kasai school near one of the Walups.

The guys there were friendly, but rather excited. They kept shouting and hitting things, talking about ?finding the red line? and stuff like that. I spoke to the head of the school and confirmed a lot of our suspicions about the Wallop school. He said that their ?art? was all crap, that he had never heard of any Wampa form until they showed up. The schools don?t participate in any local tournaments, they don?t talk to any other schools. He said they acted more like a cult than a school. The Wallops love to attract wealthy students, and spend more time on that than anything else he can see. He even had a student of his join their school for a month before he quit and came back.

I found the student punching a heavy slab of bantha in the back. He said when he was there all they did was chant and bow, they treated him badly and shoved him around a lot, never really answered any of his questions, no fighting ever happened. How could you run a martial arts school and never fight? That just seems wrong to me.

Anyway, he also said the school had a retreat in the forest, and it was run more like a work camp than anything else. He said that there are caves they mine crystals from. If anyone disappeared from their school, we should start there.

The boy was growing crystals before his disappeared. Hm. I talked to the others and they agreed we should have a look at this ?camp? of theirs. Varza and the Twi?Lek chick didn?t learn much. They spent al day at the school and just got new uniforms and learned some cheesy customs. Half the class they saw was doing some type of strange exercises with the Force, they said, but that was al. The Twi?Lek seemed pretty pissed she wasted her time.

The camp is located pretty far from town, deep in the Monster Wood that borders the city on the north. I was busy creating new and dark forms of life the last time everyone went out into the forest, but they didn?t go that far. To take us to the camp we would need a guide. None of us wanted to take on the Monster Wood by ourselves. We were going to need help.

We went to a local outfitters to see if we could find a scout to hire. There was a bulletin board in the shop with a lot of flyers and advertisements, but I don?t think we need an Enema Droid and I certainly don?t think we are going to find who we need at Dial-A-Boy-Scout. Maybe we came to the wrong place. Just what is that R2 unit doing to that ewok, anyhow . . ?