FUDGE Starwars: the Easiest Way ch. 5
by Jorge Arredondo

DISCLAIMER

This article is not authorized or supported by West End Games. This conversion is unofficial and has not been reviewed by anybody at West End Games or Lucasfilm, Ltd. Star Wars (R), TM, & (C) by Lucasfilm, Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Trademarks of Lucasfilm, Ltd., used without authorization, that use isn't intended as a challenge to those trademarks.

ABOUT FUDGE

Fudge is a role-playing game written by Steffan O'Sullivan, with extensive input from the Usenet community of rec.games.design. The basic rules of Fudge are available on the internet at http://www.fudgerpg.com and in book form from Grey Ghost Games, P.O. Box 838, Randolph, MA 02368. They may be used with any gaming genre. While an individual work derived from Fudge may specify certain attributes and skills, many more are possible with Fudge. Every Game Master using Fudge is encouraged to add or ignore any character traits. Anyone who wishes to distribute such material for free may do so - merely include this ABOUT FUDGE notice and disclaimer (complete with Fudge copyright notice). If you wish to charge a fee for such material, other than as an article in a magazine or other periodical, you must first obtain a royalty-free license from the author of Fudge, Steffan O'Sullivan, P.O. Box 465, Plymouth, NH 03264.

DISCLAIMER

The following materials based on Fudge, entitled Fudge Starwars: the Easiest Way, are created by, made available by, and Copyright (C) 2006 by Jorge Arredondo, and are not necessarily endorsed in any way by Steffan O'Sullivan or any publisher of other Fudge materials. Neither Steffan O'Sullivan nor any publisher of other Fudge materials is in any way responsible for the content of these materials unless specifically credited. Original Fudge materials Copyright (C)1992-1995 by Steffan O'Sullivan, All Rights Reserved.

Note: if you are one of my players or intend to play this campaign, stop reading now!

Chapter 5: Red Death Maidens

Introduction

The characters found directions to a remote system in the outer rim whose astrogration route could only be calculated by someone with the Force. There supposedly lie some kind of device, weapon or droid (if Tangram was going to fix it, probably droids) that Count Dooku considered a good help in the war. Thus, the PCs decided to investigate and probably destroy the threat before any other separatist agent can claim the site.

Arrival to the night planet

[ Soundtrack music: Revenge of the Sith, Anakin's dark deeds ]

The hyperspace route travels through a cluster of black holes making it almost impossible (unless the Force is with you) and leads to a dark world in a half dead system. The star is a blue dwarf which barely keeps a modicum of life in the only planet around it. It is a night world, the day is little more than a permanent twilight and the night is utterly black, no star can be seen from this planet.

This planet is strong with the Dark Side, even now that it clouds the jedi's perceptions the PCs can feel it without even rolling. It's so strong that every character without at least a dark side point gets a -1 penalty to all his Force rolls (rolls, not bonuses).

From the orbit the PCs may scan and find the only building in the surface and also the only source of (artificial) power in the whole planet. It is a large building and near it it seems a ship has landed.

When the PCs land, wherever they want, they find some kind of dark swamp planet. Some ill-looking plants, twisted trees and ugly insects is the only life they find. From afar they can see the building, which seems like a large temple built with black marble, with damaged huge statues of robed warriors in the main entrance, at the sides of a large staircase.

Near the building it is a ship, some kind of light freighter which from this distance seems abandoned. If the PCs explore it, they find the lower ramp opened and lots of mud and dirt inside it. There is no power left at the ship and no signs of crewmen around. They can find, however, chewed bones, large claw marks at the panels of durasteel and blaster holes in the ship corridors, like if something large had been chasing people with energy weapons... Checking the computer core (using the memory modules on a datapad or powering the computer somehow) they can find the ship arrived here around 100 standard years, it seems it was a smuggling ship which carried a cargo of spice (useless by now). Their last hyperspace route was fumbled and their hyperspace drive was damaged after travelling too close to the black holes. They landed here hoping they could fix it but never finished it... something didn't let them.

[ GM's note: this is a 1000 years old Sith system. Here, some "heretic" sith who didn't believe in the "one master, one apprentice" teaching hid to follow their own point of view of the Force and their hatred of the jedi. Lead by a powerful sith sorcerer whose name is forgotten by now, they worked on a droid army specially built to fight jedi, using dark knowledges long lost, though they never could use more than a few at the same time. In the end when their powerful master died the remaining sith fought against each other for supremacy as usual, destroying themselves and keeping this project in oblivion for a millenia. That is an old sith legend that Dark Tyranus knew and tried to profit from. Who knows if Tangram would have been able to make the maidens work again! ]

The temple has not an specific map, as it doesn't matter actually. All force sensitives feel cold, fear and death in the air. It is a large building where the light doesn't seem to be well received. The PCs' lights don't reach farther than a couple of meters, even PCs who can see in the dark (like trandoshans) can't see farther than that. The temple seems like a maze of corridors and old rooms whose state of decay barely let you know their original use (some are even collapsed). Some rooms are larger, looking like conference rooms, others are smaller and look like rooms, stores or maintenance rooms. They can also reach the main hangar, which is absolutely empty besides old machinery out of order, debris and fallen rusted girders. The other interesting feature of the place is that many corridors have some kind of open shafts leading to the roof (no skylights, though, at least not anymore) but the walls are completely flat and almost impossible to climb.

Besides that they may find tracks of some kind of animals living in the building or maybe just looking for something edible here. However, it's hard to guess if the tracks are old or fresh. According to Count Dooku, there may still be some guardians, after all!

With the appropriate equipment, like an energy sniffer, the PCs may find there is still some kind of power in the building. It seems some kind of old generator is still working, though barely, easily some kind of geothermal engine. Following the key cables, they can navigate through the building to reach the place where the power is stronger, probably where it is what they're looking for.

However, before they arrive there they're ambushed by the guardians, old sith beasts who had lived here for centuries. They are able to climb quite well, and may use the shafts to attack the PCs from the ceiling, or attack them from behind, etc. Set the ambush as scary as you can remember the darkness is almost complete a few meters away (something that doesn't seem to bother them at all).

Great Sith Beasts

Attributes: Perception Good, Strength Superb, Knowledge Terrible, all others Fair.

Skills: Climb Good, Hide Fair, Search Good, Sneak Fair, Spot Good, all other skills Poor.

Attack routines: Tentacles Great (OF +6) and Tail Great (OF +5 plus poison, make a Great Strength roll or reduce it 1dF+1 levels, rerolling -1s), or Pincers Great (OF +6) and Bite Good (OF +8).

Special: Quick Reflexes, Scale +4 (it also gives them a reach attack), tough hide DF +2 (+3 vs blaster fire)

Medium Sith Beasts

Attributes: Perception Great, Strength Superb, Knowledge Terrible, all others Fair.

Skills: Climb Legendary, Hide Superb, Search Great, Sneak Superb, all other skills Poor.

Attack routines: Claws Great x2 (OF +4) and Bite Great (OF +6).

Special: Quick Reflexes, Scale +2, tough hide DF +2 (+3 vs blaster fire)

[ GM's note: you may want to scale the beasts down if your PCs are weaker and/or there is only a jedi in the party (Neelyx!) ]

Once the corrupted beasts are defeated, the PCs may reach their goal. Behind a large blast door lie whatever the separatists deem so important. There is not enough power to open the door so they may have to force it (an effort equivalent to around 10 tons of weight, if they use brute force or move it with the Force). Behind it there is a large rectangular room (which is in a better state after all these years thanks to the large, thick doors which have kept the weather inclemencies to a minimum, and above all the temple guardians out) the door leads to some kind of balcony with a short staircase (around 5 stairs only) and beyond the railing only darkness. There are some kind of old computers in the balcony, where a tech oriented character may try to get information and / or look for light sources. It is not very difficult to unlock the light controls, which will work again gradually after 1 millenia of sleep, starting from the row of lights closest to the PCs and filling the room with a gray lighting and revealing what was stored there...

As the room is exposed to light, the PCs may see row after row of some kind of figures covered by some kind of plastic cloth as if some kind of warehouse. They look like tall humanoids, but their whole figure can't be seen. Some of the figures, however, have fallen apart after all this time, some for lack of power or just because of utter neglect. More and more rows are exposed filling a very large room. How many of those figures can be? A quick calculation shows there are around 1,000 of them!!!

[ GM's note: those are the Red Death Maidens, the last remain of the sith which lived here. They're dark side droids who fight quite ably with lightsabers and are able to detect lightsiders with ease... that technology adapted to the separatists armies could mean the defeat of the jedi! ]

The PCs may evaluate the figures or even take the plastic clothes away. They look like thin, gaunt droids made with some kind of reddish alloy and good plating, angled at shoulders and hips (thus the nickname of maidens). A single visual sensor fills their "faces". They're still wired to some powering system (probably the same geothermal engine which is still working here) so the assumption that the energy flow leading them to their goal was true after all. They also have some kind of cylinder attached to their right hands which look suspiciously like lightsabers...

As soon as any kind of lightsider gets near the droids (or if attacked, or as soon as you want), some of them start to activate when their passive systems detect them. Far where the PCs are they can hear the sound of something getting rid of the plastic sheets, soon followed by the same noise from other corners of the room. Describe it with the same sound the PCs made when uncovering one of them, if they did so.

Soon, the single eye of some of the droids turn fully red and they reactivate, bent on destroying the lightsiders and anyone who stands in their path.

Red Death Maidens

Attributes: Dexterity Superb, Strength Superb, all others Fair.

Skills: Search Great, Run Superb, Dodge Legendary, Light Superb, Parry Legendary, Brawl Superb, Lightsaber Legendary, Climb/Jump Superb, all other skills Poor (if your jedis aren't too powerful, you may want to make them a bit clumsier).

Special: Plating DF +4, attached Lightsaber OF +4, detect the Force (old sith alchemy sensors let them detect lightsiders, either jedi or other light aligned beings).

Health levels: Ok, Damaged, Out of Order (they may be powerful but are, fortunately, minor foes). A single Great hit with an OF +4 weapon deactivates one of these droids. An OF +3 weapon requires at least a +3 success degree to get the same effect.

The maidens start to swarm the PCs and probably they'll have to flee. If they were smart they could have brought with them explosives so they could have set charges in the building or try to use them as grenades (very effective in close quarters). However, the building has been neglected for a millenium, and explosives won't help to keep it in a piece. Perhaps that will be a good thing, too...!

As soon as the PCs manage to move away from the droids and flee down the corridor (at least a few meters away), the jedi PCs/NPCs suffer a vision induced by the power of the Dark Side. They each see a figure coming from the shadows armed with red lightsabers and attacking them (if there are two jedis, each of them has a foe who fights with the same style than their jedi comrade but has a different physical appearance). Describe the scene to all the PCs but give the non jedi characters a hidden note if you can ("the jedi seem to be fighting someone only them can see!"). If the PCs attack them award them a dark side point, however, if they defend themselves first and then attack, don't give them any; if a PC only defends himself, you may consider awarding him with a Force point!

After the first round a jedi may roll Superb Control to leave the vision. After two rounds the illusory sith's appearance becomes clearer and they become their respective jedi comrades (or an intimate someone else if there is only a jedi, in the case of Neelyx it would be his master Torunn), a Great Control roll allows the PCs to leave the vision now or every round after this.

Are there other force sensitives amongst the characters? A non jedi character will have it harder than the former because of their lack of training. They'll have to make Superb Willpower rolls to leave a vision. In their case, what they will see after the first round is how the jedis of the team attack himself and the other party members, while uttering something like "it's for the greater good!".

[ GM's note: in this moment a cinematic scene follows, set to introduce one of the beings following the PC's trail. It is interesting introducing this character now before the end so the characters can start to tie up the loose ends. Using an hyperdrive tracking device set on the PC's ship (have they ever thought about being followed that way?), it managed to come here through that impossible route and followed them inside the temple, though not through the same entry. ]

Two maidens jump over one of the jedis (preferably a PC if there is any), but he manages to block both attacks. A third droid moves to kill the PC while he's entangled his saber against the two others but barely a heartbeat before the saber reaches its intended target the droids' hand is blown apart in pieces and a loud shot can be heard far away in the same corridor. The PCs may look quickly in that direction but they can see nothing in the dark, however one second later they can see a second shot whose blast lights a large, featureless humanoid figure dressed entirely with black clothes with a large slugthrower. The bullet flies true and another droid loses its head in a shower of metal debris. A few shots more and the droids seem to slow down for a bit, in this moment the figure hides behind a corner and flees. The characters ought to take advantage of this pause and run!

The PCs have a round to flee in this moment while the droids regroup. Even if they try to catch their "benefactor" it is nowhere to be found. The only they can find is a pair of medium sized sith beasts like the ones they fought with previously, sliced in half with some kind of vibroblade. They may notice they're just under one of the shafts they saw earlier, with splashes of the creatures' blood dropping from it besides the large pool under the shaft. It seems the gunslinger climbed the shaft down and single handly killed two of those beasts!

Besides that there are a few footsteps of the sniper. They look large and not very human-like, but the design looks strange (leaving room for the toes to move dexterously and segmented to keep good traction and minimize the noise). A Great security roll or a similar skill lets the PCs know it seems like some kind of special sneaking equipment, also very good for climbing purposes.

[ GM's note: the sniper isn't interested in saving the PC's lifes, just on letting them leave to finish their mission. Thus, when the droids were going to kill them was forced to help. After that it banished, the Force powers can't locate it as they don't know who are they looking for and other powers have a very limited range. After that it disconnects temporarily the tracking device (just in case they try to look for such devices looking for the signal emitted) and returns quickly to its hidden ship. The PCs may just be able to see some kind of small ship get lost in the dark sky but when they manage to return to their own ship it has dissapeared. Besides being small, the ship is designed to be very hard to track. ]

Explosives in these tight spaces can be either very helpful or very dangerous, probably both. At the very least the droids couldn't follow them for a while, but the blast might cause the temple to start collapsing over the characters, forcing them to run like mad or be crushed!

Recapitulation

[ Soundtrack music: Star Wars, Imperial Attack ]

The PCs have some different options to destroy the temple, if they haven't already done so. They can use the explosives they found on Tangram's ship (if they kept them for themselves) or use the guns of the Falcon to blast the old building to kingdom come (even when the turrets aren't designed to be used against large buildings, it is quite old and a few well places shots would do the trick), both options are good to get rid of the maidens. In both cases the temple blows apart with a large orange explosion, the old building crumbles and large storms of fire emerge from its depths.

As soon as they leave the gravity field of this world, their unknown tracker reactivates the tracking device and resumes the hunt.

Their best and fastest hyperspace route after leaving the black hole cluster is to the middle rim systems of Kiffex/Kifu to reach the Corellian Run up to Kuat...

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Jorge Arredondo
Last update: 30/October/2006