Last week, I went over the first half of my Star Wars tabletop campaign, Rough Edges. This week, we’ll take a look at the second half starting with Episode IV. The PCs are working for the Rebel Alliance now, and have spent the last two years fighting the Empire. Their reputations have grown, however, which has led to trouble…

Episode IV: Rebellion and Empire

Civil war rages across the galaxy. The Rebel Alliance struggles to maintain its momentum as more and more systems resist the Empire’s tyranny.

The crew of the VALKYRIE now has a reputation as the Alliance’s problem solvers. Under the command of BEL RIOSE, they carry out missions against sensitive Imperial targets.

However, the crew has no shortage of enemies. After a failed ambush as Malastare, they find their ship pursued by the villainous MOFF VANDIN, with little hope of escape….

Synopsis

The Valkyrie is struggling to escape Imperial pursuit. With their systems damaged at Malastare, the navicomputer malfunctions while the ship is in hyperspace and dumps the crew in an unknown planetary system. Knowing that the Empire is in hot pursuit, they make for the nearest habitable planet—though it shows signs of having experienced a recent cataclysm.

On the surface, they locate a single settlement. The planet is a desert consumed by dust storms. The few people still living there tell them they’re on Jedha; two years ago, there was a terrible cataclysm at the city of NiJedha, and their world has been dying ever since. But there’s still enough scrap left to fix the Valkyrie, if the crew is willing to pay. Otherwise, the locals might give them up to the Imperials for the bounty.

Mara, Nereida, and Ma’lona sense the Force is strong on this planet, and they’re drawn to a site hidden out in the wasteland. At the base of a rock spire they discover an ancient Jedi temple, nearly buried under the dust. Inside, all four of the crew are drawn in different directions and encounter visions.

Mara faces the destruction of her family, seeing the Inquisitor return and kill her grandparents. She stands her ground and doesn’t give into her anger. She sees the Inquisitor change into Vondar, before she finds herself in a circular stone room. Heat blooms on her chest, and she discovers that the soul diamonds on her necklace have fused into a kyber crystal.

Nereida must overcome the guilt she harbors over her master’s death, when Dujah Balek told her to run rather than fight the Inquisitor when she killed him. She accepts the wisdom that Master Balek showed, that she wasn’t ready, and finds herself in a shrine. An ancient wooden chest in front of her opens to reveal a suit of armored robes, emblazoned with the crest of the Jedi Order.

Ma’lona finds herself reliving the moment a smuggler sold her mother into slavery, in order to avoid a death mark from the Hutts. She can’t help but give in to the hatred she feels, which ultimately ends with her mother’s death. She finds herself standing at the edge of a chasm, holding a faintly glowing crystal in her hands.

Rage, meanwhile, finds himself in an unfamiliar swamp. He’s approached by a small green creature, who asks if Rage is lost. They discuss what it means to be separated from their people. The creature tells Rage that his family is still alive and can be found, if he wants to go to them. Then he’s back at the entrance to the temple.

The crew regroups and heads back to the Valkyrie, realizing that they need to go to Mon Cala and talk to Zyrus. They fly out of Jedha’s choked atmosphere to find the Empire waiting for them, but they blast through several TIE fighters and make a clean jump.

On Mon Cala, Zyrus helps guide the group through their various questions. He teaches Mara and Nereida a few lessons about the Force, and he helps Mara build a lightsaber with her new crystal. It produces a golden blade. She reforges her mother’s lightsaber into an off-hand shoto.

Zyrus also tells Ma’lona that what she has isn’t a lightsaber crystal, but rather a holocron crystal. He gives her his own holocron casing and coaches her through activating it. When she does, she finds out it’s the holocron of El’orica, a female Twi’lek Jedi from over three thousand years before. El’orica was an explorer and an astrogator for the Jedi, and the holocron has special powers to seek out objects and people.

Rage uses the down time to build some droids and make contact with Silverbird again. They’ve developed a friendship in the last two years, and Silverbird explains that he actually knew Kyla Vene. They were once prisoners of a being called Trintignant, but Kyla never stopped being suspicious of Silverbird. He wanted to help keep her safe, but in the end he feels responsible for driving Kyla to break with reality. Rage forgives Silverbird for his role in the Prad Lay incident.

Armed with their latest discoveries, the Valkyrie team is dispatched by General Bel Riose to the planet Ord Gimmel to help complete Alliance operations there. While doing so, they become involved in a mystery. The queen of Ord Gimmel went missing several years ago, plunging the government into chaos. As they try to complete their mission while navigating the complicated political situation, Rage suddenly disappears.

He is captured by a pair of bounty hunters. One, Venom, is known to the group already after he tried to blackmail Wylo the Hutt, and is out for revenge. The other, called the Nightingale, wears a helmet and a vocal mask and wants the bounty on the team.

The Nightingale and Venom go after the rest of the crew, with Ma’lona recognizing the Nightingale from competing over bounties in the past. Mara gets captured, but when she’s brought back to the Nightingale’s ship, she proves to be a difficult prisoner. She and Rage escape, confronting the Nightingale while Venom battles Ma’lona and Nereida in the spaceport.

The Nightingale’s helmet comes off in the struggle, and Rage recognizes her as his long-lost sister, Ziy. She says her goal was to turn in the bounty on his so-called “friends” and then get him to safety, but Rage convinces her to stand down. They reunite with Ma’lona and Nereida, who managed to overpower Venom and knock him out. Ziy agrees to take Venom and leave, but not before extracting a promise that Rage will contact her soon.

Back on the mystery of the missing queen, the group discovers a hidden ruin under the castle on Ord Gimmel, as well as evidence that the queen knew about it. Mara, Nereida, and Ma’lona can feel a pulsing sensation through the Force, but it’s unlike the living Force they’re familiar with. El’orica has few insights, though she too can sense the pulse and remarks that very few ancient civilizations were this strong in the Force.

Before they can investigate further, they realize they’re being watched. A cloaked probe of the same make as the one that boarded their ship on Keruta has followed them, but after they capture it they realize it’s been down there ever since the queen disappeared—almost four years before now.

More probes show up, prompting the group to retreat. They collapse the chamber behind them to cut off access, reasoning that whatever sent the probe shouldn’t have access to the ruins. They report their findings to General Riose, who seems genuinely disturbed by the probe and asks the group to look into it. Rage calls Ziy and asks if she knows any droid manufacturers who might make droids that can cloak; she sends along a list.

They return to Mon Cala for more training and mentoring. Rage tells Zyrus about what they found, and Zyrus cautions Rage on being reckless. The old master has heard stories from deep in the Outer Rim, of terrors that are best left alone. But Rage is undeterred.

When the Valkyrie leaves, Zyrus sees them off, saying that he senses this will be the last time they see each other for a while.

Working down the list of manufacturers, the crew heads to Kwenn Station in Hutt Space to look into Holowan Laboratories. They meet their rebel contact, a Hutt named Jool who runs a nightclub on the station. She supplies them with the intelligence they need to infiltrate the lab. Inside, they steal information that points to a manufacturing site on Teth… though it’s not listed in Holowan’s records as one of their factories.

As they prepare to leave Kwenn Station, they’re attacked by three Force-using assassins. They kill one assassin and capture the other two. They say they were sent to kill “the scion of Balek,” who they name as their oldest enemy. Because Nereida was trained by Master Balek, that makes her and her allies the enemy of what the assassins call the Catakorizo. But they refuse to divulge any more information. The crew turns them over to the Alliance before heading to Teth.

On their arrival, things get complicated. Teth is largely unmapped, as it’s considered part of Wild Space, and people disappear frequently. Additionally, the Hutt put in charge of this world is Bolbu Desilijic Numosk, the same Hutt who bought Ma’lona’s mother after she was sold into slavery. When she goes to his palace, she’s told that her mother is not there. Ma’vida is one of Bolbu’s favorite slaves and he often takes her along when he goes off-world.

Meanwhile, Nereida meets a fellow Devaronian named Kasim, and she goes on a date with him. He’s a smuggler and has both knowledge of Teth and connections with the locals, which he’s willing to put at her disposal. After a few days, they’re able to find the facility mentioned in the data from Holowan Laboratories.

It’s a sleek black obelisk, and when the group approaches several humanoid droids appear. At first they’re hostile, but after a moment they stop attacking and get out of the crew’s way. Two more droids appear and escort the crew inside to a work area, where they’re introduced to Trintignant.

He appears as one of the droids that brought them in, albeit larger and more sophisticated. However, Mara and Nereida sense a living being inside the shell—or what’s left of one. Trintignant is soft-spoken, direct but cordial, and explains that he’s actually lightyears away. This body is an ancillary, which he can control remotely and is capable of operating independently.

Trintignant speaks to the group about the times they’ve crossed his path, first on Selonia, then on Keruta and Ord Gimmel. He’s curious about their capabilities, saying that he’s never been able to replicate the abilities of a Force user before, and invites them to become his experiments. They refuse, and he says it’s a shame, but otherwise they’re free to leave.

When asked why, he says, “Because you’ve already given me something more valuable: a way to find my wayward daughter.”

The one the crew knows as Silverbird has been trying to contact them, to warn them about Trintignant, since Ord Gimmel. However, he intercepted her transmission and used it to find her location. Now he’s almost found her and looks forward to “convincing her to return home.”

Realizing that Silverbird has only been trying to help them, the crew races back to the Valkyrie. Rage manages to trace Trintignant’s signal to an asteroid around a distant star. They arrive to find an old HoloNet relay under siege by Trintignant’s forces. They fight their way inside and discover another ancillary, this one painted a chrome silver, trying to hide. She eventually introduces herself as Silverbird, and the crew gets her onto the Valkyrie.

Trintignant’s ships chase them through the asteroids, but the Valkyrie manages to make the jump away.

Behind the Screen

In stark contrast with Episode III, Episode IV—which was the same length at fourteen sessions—went by in a blur. The reason for that, I think, was because the sessions were more focused. Being in the Alliance gave the group a purpose, something to work towards when they lost the thread of other goals.

I also had a very clear arc in mind, foreshadowing the meeting with Trintignant and then wanting to end the episode with a face-to-face encounter. Granted, I thought it would be with the PCs captured, making it all the more jarring when he elects to let them go. But in the moment, the characterization of Trintignant as a flat monotone, inhabiting a tortured body while still being circumspect, gave off the appropriate air of menace.

Here’s where I should admit my influences. The ruins under Ord Gimmel were inspired by Forerunner structures in the Halo games, while the concept of ancillaries as commandeered and cyberized bodies came from Ann Leckie’s excellent Imperial Radch trilogy. The character of Trintignant first appeared to me in Alastair Reynold’s novella “Diamond Dogs,” in the form of a sinister cybernetics doctor of the same name. That villain stuck with me, though I realized later it was likely supposed to be pronounced in French (Trihn-tin-yahn) rather than with every diabolical consonant sounded out. But I liked the consonance of an American read, so I went with that.

Which leads me to another reason I was so satisfied with this arc. I was able to take decidedly non-Star Wars source material and mold it into a shape that didn’t feel out of place. This galaxy has always had ruins, cybernetics, and horrors, so my goals in this second half of the story turned out to be very doable.

That cuts to the root of why I like Star Wars and the Narrative Dice System: you can tell any kind of story you want to here.

One other thing I’m proud of is the connection between Rage and Silverbird. It hasn’t come through in the synopses because it happened over the course of a hundred little character moments, and I don’t want to bog down the summaries more than I already have. But ever since Episode II, Silverbird has been a regular influence on the group, with the players constantly debating her motives and identity. Her connection to Rage through his backstory put him central to these questions—and therefore made him the heart of this particular arc. Cody stepped into that role admirably, too. Even at that point, it was hard to reconcile the fact that he’d begun this campaign with zero experience playing in a roleplaying game.

In fact, he did such a good job that I actually consider the Silverbird reveal to be something of a failure on my part. I don’t think I was able to capture the emotional weight of the moment, and though I had practiced her characterization ahead of time (like I did with Trintignant) it got overwhelmed with the weight of everything else that was happening. Fortunately, with this arc she becomes a permanent recurring NPC, though I have mixed feelings with how that worked out. We’ll talk about that as it comes up later, though.

The other major failing I had was the character of Moff Vandin. I dreamed him up as an Imperial nemesis who would provide the more mundane threat compared to Trintignant’s mythical nature. It became quickly apparent, though, that there wasn’t much of an opportunity to put him in front of the group.

Partly, it was because of the group’s power level. A face-to-face meeting with Vandin would end in a couple of swings of a lightsaber, and so the threat would have needed to come through intermediaries. But since the Force ended up being such a strong… well, force in the story, I scrapped the Imperial assassins and replaced them with the Catakorizo and a direct tie to Nereida’s backstory with Master Balek. They’ll show up again in the future.

The end result was Moff Vandin billed as the next big threat, who… just doesn’t appear. I have notes on how he was involved with Ord Gimmel’s political situation, but that side of things was ignored when the players focused on the mystery of the disappeared queen.

And, oh man, was that ever a hole full of lint. Ord Gimmel comes from the Age of Rebellion sourcebook called Strongholds of Resistance. It has a neat modular encounter that I wanted to run the players through, and the detail about the missing queen only exists to explain why the Alliance and the Empire are on equal diplomatic footing. There’s no deeper explanation as to what happened to her.

Naturally, the PCs heard there was a missing queen and assumed their quest was to find her, despite orders to the contrary. I tried to peel them off on various other pursuits—the Nightingale’s appearance was one such attempt—until I finally gave up and leaned in. I repurposed an encounter I was designing for later, the ruined temple with the Force pulse, and put it under the palace. Then I used their obsession with finding the queen to lead them to it and the encounter with the probes, which they had already been prepared to think of as a much greater threat.

Finally, when they met Trintignant, he explained that he kidnapped the queen when she got too nosy about the ruins, experimented on her, and then turned her into one of his ancillaries. I would say that put to rest all speculation about the queen… but that would be a lie. It kept going until the bitter end.

Speaking of, next time we’ll be reviewing the penultimate arc of this campaign, Episode V: “The Dark Wolves.”

May the Force be with you.