FUDGE Starwars: the Easiest Way ch. 6
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 6: Ringworld

Introduction

After their last mission the characters have arrived as close as they can to the important system of Kuat. This system, well known as the shipyard of the Republic, has so much traffic that you can't reach it directly through a single hyperspace jump. Instead, you have to jump to near systems and from there make mini jumps as soon as the traffic officers allow you. In fact, you waste more time waiting in the long ship queues than in the hyperspace jumps.

The PCs will find the security measures have been greatly increased since the last few months; according to their jedi or senate contacts, the separatists have a new general, someone called Grievous, who has turned the tide of war and it's the mind after the last defeats of the Republic. The Republic knew of his existence months ago but it hasn't been disclosed yet for fear of causing panic. In fact, according to secret reports from the jedi, that Grievous seems to have defeated a few jedi masters in single combat (initially with a electromagnetic staff, later with his victims' sabers), so he's a serious threat.

As soon as the PCs manage to arrive to Kuat, Neelyx feels that Eberr was there, more specifically in the orbital ring. Kuat is indeed surrounded by a huge ring of orbital yards and dry docks, where capital ships smaller ships can be built or repaired.

Ebber visited Kuat after his trip to Cloud City, following his own clues. He arrived to Kuat more or less 1 month ago with another fake identity, disguised as a wroonian captain called Rebbe; he investigated the new ship projects, talked with the main republic engineer (someone called Walex Blissex) but didn't think there was obvious leaks of secrets or signs of treason; he kept investigating other builder Houses, working lately on construction ships for clients on the Corporate sector: heavy freigthers, orbital dry docks, heavy machinery, etc, quite expensive stuff. Those requests are legal but the clients always managed to remain in an strange degree of anonimity...

Arrival

[ Soundtrack music: Return Of The Jedi, Main Title, approaching the Death Star ]

The Falcon flies right toward a huge orbital space station around the nice, natural paradise (and mostly city-free) world of Kuat. The main authorities lead them to a dock where their ship can land safely. There is a lot of small ships around, besides 3 or 4 Venator class destroyers protecting these installations. Here most of the ships of the Republic navy are built, hence the increased security. Clone fighters patrol the space, too. There are no jedi generals here, though as the PCs may find later, to their chagrin, there are too many force users on Kuat!

The orbital ring is an array of smaller modules anchored together by both physical links and tractor beam technology. It orbits slowly around 600 kilometers over Kuat. There are some small repulsor vehicles (Jumpers) you can rent for 50 credits/day to move quickly around the ring, but which can't fly on open space. Besides that there is a very fast repulsor train covering the whole ring, but as with any mean of public transportation you must follow the scheduled times and sometimes you can't get a seat in them!

The main modules are Supplies, Residential area, Military HQ, Security HQ, Offices, Shipyards of three main houses and a few minor ones, the Spaceport, Dry docks, Warehouses, Machinery shops, Factories, Apartments and Commercial Zone. This is probably the most civilized place the characters have visited in a long time, which doesn't mean it has no shaddy corners...

The Republic Main Authority controls security in the ring and its general operation, besides the construction of the military ships of the Republic. If asked for information with the appropriate credentials they have no records about jedi or ubese lately in the ring besides a rodian master who arrived yesterday, though the yards are visited by a lot of people, so he might well have been unnoticed. There is a lot of traffic from and to Cloud City, at least a dozen of recreation yachtes from the nobility and an smaller ship one month ago (a wroonian captain, apparently requesting repairs on its ship, and whose destination was the Corporate sector).

If the PCs ask for it the authority can try to locate the jedi master and will call them as soon as they talk with him. On the other hand, they'll inform him of their presence here, too, as he instructed them very seriously to infornm him abiut anything inusual.

If the PCs try to follow the clue of the wroonian, they may find out what modules of the ring he visited, and what people did he talked to. Amongst them they can find mister Blissex, a fortysomething genius of naval design which is working in the new class of republic destroyers (the Victory). Blissex attends the PCs in his office at the dry docks where his 10 years old daugther (Lira) watches them disapprovingly (she's a bit scared of jedi, who after all "kidnap" little children!), but stays here because she loves large, powerful ships and will probably become a great naval engineer herself. He remembers a very pleasant interview with a wroonian engineer who was interested on naval engineering in this wonderful place. For a few seconds he seems to think about it as if scared of having told him something he shouldn't have, but he quickly dismisses it all, after all without the blueprints little of what he told him was useful. To shrewd PCs it may be obvious that wroonian had wonderful social talents or influenced him subtly with the Force...

Besides Blissex they can find he talked with a lot of workers and foremen at the docks, mainly at places where huge construction equipment or ships are being built.

After a while they're called (through their comm links, unless they didn't give their frequencies to the ring authority in whose case a pair of security guards inform them in person) and a somewhat upset rodian (speaking huttesse initially) identifies himself as master Inquiss and emplaces them to meet him at the Spaceport as soon as possible.

[ GM's note: master Inquiss is a middle aged rodian who acts like the jedi Internal Affairs division. He's been tracking some jedi masters who have done a few suspicious things from a long time on a cat and mouse game for a lot of worlds up to Kuat, and as soon as he was told more jedi had come he was afraid they could also be fallen jedi. He hasn't yet clear proof about the other jedi he's been "hunting" but he's almost pretty sure of their fall. Play Inquiss as a very mean jedi, who mistreats them verbally almost on the verge of anger. However, he's a pure lightsider (no dark side points at all), just bad-tempered. He questions seriously the PCs about their last activities and travels, acting with a lot of condescension; if he doesn't get the answers he seeks or doesn't trust the PCs, he raises slightly his tone of voice. Above all he doesn't tell them what is he doing, himself. It's unlikely there will be violence in this scene, but just in case Inquiss' lightsaber is purple and it's probably a swordman at least one level better than the PCs and is a Superb jedi on all the three Force skills. Besides that, with rodians, most people find their personal odor disgusting due to their natural pheromones; in the case of Inquiss, he's extremely clean, he finds dirt disgusting and is almost always impolute; however, as said, that doesn't make him being less smelly. ]

[ GM's note: actually this encounter and character are red herrings. It's included to make the PCs think he's evil and up to no good, while he's actually the good guy looking for some traitors which the PCs trusted! It was written to show the PCs how wrong their points of view can be. ]

After the bad experience of the interview with Inquiss, the PCs receive another call from the ring authority. A twilek trader called Meenk'hor (does anyone remember the Hor clan at Kirraloth?) who says has some important information about the foes they made back on Ryloth, and gives them a comm link frequency. If called, he arranges to meet on a main square on the residential area, where there will be a lot of people and he'll be able to tell them in person all that he's been told to tell them by his elders. He'll insist on the specific place because there are bounty hunters after the PCs and they wouldn't dare to act in that open place.

[ GM's note: another ambush. There are still bounty hunters after them, with that devious plan they hope to bring them to a clear area where it "should" be easy to blast them. They hope whoever is at the square as well will flee quickly, though accidents can happen. Not that they care, though. ]

The square is a large rectangular area with small hidroponic gardens and a few benches, with huge bay windows where the surface of Kuat can be seen. There are two exits on each side (6 in total) except the wall where the huge windows are (fortunately for the PCs, it's a high grade alloy of transparentsteel). There is an small balcony on the next level of the square in front of the windows, where some of the bounty hunters are hiding as snipers till the hostilities begin.

In the middle of the square a twilek waits for them. Under his regal clothes he wears body armor, though, and he carries a heavy blaster ready to fire the PCs as soon as they get near enough. An appropriate Perception or similar roll may give time the PCs to react to the ambush. Most of the innocent bystanders that dot the square will run in panic as soon as blaster fire (and grenades) start flying around. Two or three rounds after the beginning of the fight, the blast doors of the exits close with lightning speed, to minimize the damage to the module (or decompression!) after the first explosions. That also cuts the retreat of the bounty hunters, making them even more aggresive. The doors can be unlocked with a Great Superb roll, though.

If the PCs didn't meet the gotal bounty hunters on Ryloth, or they survived that encounter, they'll be here supporting the other thugs.

[ Soundtrack music: Attack of the Clones Zam the Assassin and The Chase Through Coruscant ]

Gotal bounty hunters

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

Skills: Blasters Superb, Dodge Superb, Intimidate Fair, Sneak Great, Run Good, Brawl Great, Investigate Great. All other skills Poor.

Special: they're gotal, they can feel with their hypersensitive horns the thoughts and nervous impulses of the beings around them, giving them quite an edge in combat. Besides feeling when a force user is using its power, they often know what someone is going to do before they do so. Play it as if they decided their actions after all characters have declared their actions in a round, and act upon that knowledge. Example: they might decide to attack a jedi character who used an all-attack option because they know his guard will be down, or they may decide to throw a grenade to a PC because he will protect himself from blaster fire behind a low wall.

Equipment: flak jacket FD +1, heavy blaster pistol OF +4, geonosian sonic gun OF +3 (can't be deflected with a ligthsaber!), grenades OF +4.

Twilek bounty hunters

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

Skills: Blasters Good, Dodge Good, Melee Great, Weapon parry Good, Intimidate Fair, Brawl Good. All other skills Poor.

Equipment: flak jacket FD +1, Force pike OF +4, blaster rifle OF +4, grenades OF +4.

As soon as the threat is neutralized, the blast doors open again and a Damage Control team and a group of security guards join the PCs. Besides trying to control the damage and help the wounded, there is little they will do at this point. If the PCs check the bounty hunters' items, besides their weapons they'll find little, except a datapad with the bounty offered for them. Not that they didn't already know it, did they?

Then Inquiss calls the characters again. He says he's talked with the jedi council about them and that they've told him the jedi PCs are also on a important secret mission. However he requests the jedi PCs (only them) to meet with him at the factories module, because he's after something important and may need their help.

[ GM's note: this, after the ambush, is meant to make the PCs nervous and suspect another ambush. Not quite true, though. Inquiss calls the PCs for help just in case the suspects he is after do try to fight... so he could defeat them without being forced to kill them, something that in single combat would be much harder. ]

[ Soundtrack music: The Phantom Menace, Qui-Gon's Noble End ]

Whatever the case, when the PCs (jedi, with or without the non jedi ones) arrive to the expected location, they find Inquiss barely alive (mortally wounded with a lightsaber) in the floor and without his own lightsaber. The ones he was going to see arrived earlier than he thought and ambushed him.

Inquiss can't be saved, he's only alive thanks to his fading connection with the Force. His last words to the PCs are: "they offered me to join them, but I refused... be careful!" and then dies.

With the appropriate Force power a jedi character can see the previous scene, in which Inquiss is surprised by two jedi the PCs have probably seen in the past, masters Rotthen and Notok! It seems Inquiss tries to interrogate the other two like he did with the PCs but in this case it seems he had been on their tail for a long time and thus has more information and complaints against them. The two masters, however, try to enlist his help in the war with arguments against a corrupted and dying republic, but he refuses. Then the masters light their lightsabers to what Inquiss replies lighting his own. The two fallen jedi fight with Inquiss for a few seconds with blinding speed but the rodian is quite able and even seems to be winning the upper hand, though seconds later Notok freezes him in place with a gesture and Rotthen slays him while the miraluka bursts out with laugther. They run away after that but not before Notok gets the rodian's saber as a trophy.

The PCs may try to locate the dark jedis in the factories module but not before they finish the separatist mission they were sent here to fulfill. With jedi skill they infiltrated the main core of the module and sabotaged the magnetic locks that hold it in place, hoping the whole array would fall apart, destroying the ship yards and greatly weakening the republic forces. After that they quickly return to their ship and flee from Kuat making good use to the Force to calculate their hyperspace route out of this overpopulated system. Nobody considered the damage that any of those modules could do to the planet if it fell from orbit!

[ GM's note: not quite unlike Inquiss, the ex-masters believed strongly in the jedi and Republic causes initially. However, the more they moved around the galaxy and the more they investigated about the separatists, the more dissapointed they become with the course of war and the true motivations of the republic. They found out the republic government was slow and corrupt, filled with fat profit-seeking bureaucrats, and the actions of the jedi looked more and more passive and weak. They also heard the rumor about a Sith Lord behind the Senate, and how the jedi did nothing about it... could the separatists be right, after all? They thought they could restore the balance with a more aggresive course of action getting rid of the true foes of the Republic and they became in the end pawns of the separatists without knowing it. Not too long after that, when they were corrupted enough, they ceased to believe the Republic could be saved and fully turned to the separatists cause. It was them who, soon after deciding to become more involved with the course of history, found Tangram and attacked him viciously for helping the separatists to build more efficient weapons of war. That single action was probably the one who marked their fall from republic grace to what they wished to defeat, and the results of that action became worse than the evil they initially hoped to destroy. ]

Twenty or thirty minutes after the PCs found Inquiss, the whole ring seems to jump and list to port like a sinking boat. The module the PCs is located in starts spinning like mad when the magnetic locks break apart and for a while all windows to the space are filled with the image of Kuat, followed quickly by the ship-crammed space of the system, times and again. The PCs are thrown with tremendous force against the walls, the G-force generators unable to compensate the spinning movement (Strength or Dexterity-like rolls to avoid being hurt, anyone? Armor doesn't protect against falling damage!) The air is filled with the sound of one hundred alarms and all blast doors are closed to reduce the loss of atmosphere. Fortunately, this situation is controlled very soon, but not before the module gets dangerously close to a Venator destroyer. The authority quickly manages to get the situation under control and through tractor beams they manage to return the lost module back into its position, though not undamaged... the structural integrity of the ring has also been damaged so the following months all production will be delayed!

Recapitulation

[ Soundtrack music: Revenge of the Sith, a new hope and end credits ]

After the ordeal, the whole system is declared on martial law and the ring is occupied by clone troopers to ensure the station isn't damaged ever again. Everyone in the system, including the PCs, is forced to stay a whole week while the situation cools down, and the senate decrees new powers for the high chancellor allowing him to declare martial law on any space station or city of strategic importance menaced by separatist agents. How appropriate.

The only ship that managed to leave the system when the ring was sabotaged took an hyperspace route near to Corporate Space, according to the ring authority... a route that another possible jedi followed one month ago.

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Jorge Arredondo
Last update: 30/October/2006