"Trouble on Trondar" - Star Wars: Riptide, Episode 3 Chapter 1

The crew battles their way off of the barbarous planet of Trondar!

Episode 3, Chapter 1

TROUBLE ON TRONDAR

Having made a deal with Loki, 

leader of the barbarous Trond on the ice age planet Trondar, 
the Riptide crew agree 
to transport his soldiers in an 

assault against the Dero, the enemy of the Trond.

The Crew of the Riptide

Evo Shandor - nautolan transport captain

Balin Lee - young human Jedi-in-training

Emily Wonder - human mercenary

Eggs Ledscramb - quarren bounty hunter

Ensign Frick

A Hasty Exit
Night had fallen and the crew were assigned to a stout log house to await the pre-dawn assault. Two Trond guard were placed outside the entrance to ensure their cooperation. The log house consisted of a single room lined with furs around a central fire pit and a hole in the roof.

Evo addressed the rest of the crew over the firepit in the center of the log house, "We're leaving immediately. I don't like this assault. This is the kind of thing the Empire does and we should have no part of it. We're returning to the ship immediately and leaving."

Evo Shandor

With that, the crew gathered up their equipment. Emily, admiring the furs adorning the room, took the best one and draped it over herself, keeping it as a souvenier.

The teenaged Jedi padawan Balin Lee exited the log house and addressed the two guards. With a wave of his hand he asked, "Aren't you supposed to escort us to our ship?" The guards looked at each other and nodded, "Right. Come with us." The guards led the crew back to the entrance of the Imperial compound.

Handelssted

The spaceport of Handelssted was a trading post built to conduct trade with the rest of the galaxy. It is the only spaceport on Trondar and consists of little more than an elevated landing pad, a power generator and fuel cell depot in a pre-fab dome, a potato-shaped elliptical dome containing the customs office, and homes for the skeleton crew of Imperial Customs officials under the leadership of the corrupt Ensign Frick. The spaceport and associated imperial enclave are protected by a 5-meter security wall with two gates. The gates and landing platform are each guarded by two K4 security droids. The compound interior is patrolled by a single Stiletto security droid.

A village was built around the spaceport to accomodate local Trond and Dero converging from all over the planet to sell furs, meat, and ore to visiting traders in exchange for technology, supplies, and galactic delicacies such as fish.

The two guards left to return to their post as the crew approached the gates to the imperial compound. They approached the K4 guard droids on duty and announced their intention to return to their ship. The droids replied that the spaceport was closed until dawn and that no entrance was allowed into the compound until then, then politely asked the crew to return at dawn.

After some futile argument, Emily finally opened fire, blasting the two security droids to smithereens. Evo recovered the gate key from one of the droids and gained entry into the compound.

GM Note - The K4 security droid has 8D Dodge?? REALLY??? That seems rediculous! At first I thought it was a typo but it was repeated in the core rulebook and the droids sourcebook. Plus the GX security droid also had 8D dodge, which seemed to verify the high value. In any case, I ignored the 8D dodge because they were just security droids. 

Evo strode confidently towards the lift in the main trunk pylon supporting the elevated landing platform while Emily, Balin, and Balin's astromech droid "Parts", moved stealthily along the dome-like buildings to the left.

Their efforts to be stealthy were in vain as everyone was soon bathed in the harsh light of spotlights from a Stiletto security droid patrolling the interior. The droid ordered them to drop their weapons and surrender. They responded by blasting the droid which exploded in a massive fireball!

The explosion lit up the night and was loud enough to wake everyone in the compound. The crew dashed across the open courtyard to the lift in the central pylon. Parts, true to its nickname, stopped to recover a few parts of the disintegrated security droid. Two additional K4 security droids entered the secondary gate to investigate the explosion and the outraged Ensign Frick poked came running out the door of the potato-shaped customs building.

Balin closed his eyes to concentrate on channeling the Force through his companions, enhancing their skills and coordinating their actions, as Emily and Evo exchanged fire with the security droids while they shouted to Parts to hurry up! Parts finally abandoned the debris and rejoined the rest of the crew on the lift. The lift doors closed and the crew caught their breath as they rose to the landing platform.

The lift doors opened to reveal two additional K4 security droids waiting for them. There was an exchange of blaster fire at point-blank range leaving Evo wounded and Emily on the floor with severe injury.

GM Note- These K4s used their full 8D dodge and were therefore really tough to hit. 

Eggs Ledscramb

All of a sudden, there was a blast of hot wind and the sound of point-blank blaster fire as Eggs Ledscramb descended on a pillar of rocket-pack flame to blast the two security droids to bits. The quarren bounty hunter had been asleep on the ship when the sound of the exploding Stiletto woke him up. Eggs jammed a piece of the security droids in the lift door, preventing its use. He then helped Balin carry Evo and Emily back to the Riptide.

GM Note- Eggs scored a really good "Sneak" check to land behind the droids, so I let him capture them by surprise. I ruled that he didn't even have to roll to hit at that range, just roll damage. 

They laid the unconscious Emily in an acceleration chair while the wounded Evo grimmaced as he powered up the engines. He skipped the pre-flight checks and safety protocols and launched his spaceship into the sky. The Riptide was hurled out of the atmosphere and Evo set the hyperspace coordinates to Chador, the sector capital.

To Be Continued..