Star Wars (7ABY; M06, D31-D32): The Coral Vanda
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Garth, Sekar, Roger, VI-P2, Ganen, and J’Brel / [XP: 10]
Bevin didn’t play.
Month 6; Day 31 (Continued)
The PCs departed Kluistar at around 15:00 and headed for Pantolomin. Along the way, Garth shared what little he knew about Glom’s physical description.
He was a member of some cold-blooded humanoid species which nobody seemed to recognize. His skin had been described as both a blueish-green and a greenish-blue, and he had a wide mouth and thick bony eyebrows. He most commonly dressed in an armored suit of grey and black with a really big and wide collar.
The PCs made good time until they hit Palanhi, where the Empire had set up a big stop-and-search looking for something (which was never disclosed to them). It wasn’t a big deal since they had nothing to hide, but their green flags didn’t get them to the front of the line either.
When they finally got boarded, the search was quick and no questions were asked; and they were back on their way at around 05:00 the next morning.
Month 6; Day 32
The Revenant reached orbit over Pantolomin at 06:42 in the morning, and the PCs were able to pick up data feeds for the schedules of various cruise liners around the planet. The good news was that the Coral Vanda was currently in port, but the bad news was that it was scheduled to set sail in about 45 minutes. The other good news was that it would reach its next port that evening, meaning that the PCs could get on board with 100-credit day passes instead of having to pay for cabins.
There wasn’t much time to spare, but there was enough time for Ganen to replace the smoke discharger in his jet pack with his underwater impeller module. Once they disembarked, the PCs instructed R4-X7 to take the ship to a spaceport near Coral Vanda’s next destination.
While some concerns were expressed regarding weapons and armor, they were quickly assuaged when the PCs reached the docks and saw a massive Dowutin bodyguard who appeared to be decked out for total war. She was escorting a very wealthy-looking human couple who were trailed by a procession of porters.
The man appeared to be around 40 years old; 5’3” and starting to bald. He was decent but not great looking, but wore very expensive clothes.
The woman appeared barely half the man’s age; tall, blond, and attractive. She was decked out in a flashy dress and cover from head to toe in very pricy-looking jewelry; of particular note was a tacky golden medallion with a huge and perfect-looking ruby set in its center.
The PCs would eventually learn that the couple were Phipps and Eda Rosario; just married and on their honeymoon. The bodyguard’s name was Masana Tide.
The Coral Vanda was a large submersible cruise liner, with a passenger capacity of 600 and eight enormous casinos; each with a different theme and décor. The crew made no issue of the PCs’ weapons or armor, and they were able to buy day passes right on the gangplank (VI’s and Jacinta’s only costing half price).
Full wall transparisteel viewports lined the hull on most decks; offering a perfect view of the ocean water sparkling in the running lights, huge schools of brilliantly-colored fish, playful sea mammals which put on shows for anyone who cared to watch, and of course the intricate coral reefs for which the planet was most famed. The ship moved around, over, under, and through these winding forests of coral; which grow in wondrous patterns of loops and fans in a rainbow of colors.
With no particular game plan, the PCs all split up and began looking around. The only ones who moved together were VI and Jacinta; the former having decided to keep an eye on the latter.
Though the initial sweeps didn’t turn up anyone even remotely resembling Glom’s description, the PCs did run into a familiar face. With her hair down and not wearing her armor, it took a few moments for the PCs to process who it was; but it turned out to be Topaz: the former chief enforcer of the Grand Master of Taris.
Drinking by herself despite the very early hour, she was clearly in a despondent state; and seeing the PCs again certainly did not improve her mood. She visible brightened, however, when the PCs played the Grand Master’s message for her; and in exchange for helping them look for Glom, the PCs agreed to give her a lift back to Taris once they were done.
Topaz was not the only familiar face on board the Coral Vanda that day. At one point during her search, Jacinta saw someone who prompted her to suddenly stop dead in her tracks; and she asked VI to call down either Ganen or Sekar.
Ganen was the first to arrive, and Jacinta was in such a tizzy that she inadvertently called him ‘Dad’ (which he made no issue of at the time, but would discuss with Sekar later). “Behind me”, she continued; barely above a whisper. “Over by the windows; 3rd table from your right; the pretty blonde woman in the red dress. I’m not positive, but I think that’s the crazy rich girl who lived in the giant seashell with all the creepy mannequins!”
Ganen’s helmet allowed him to scrutinize the woman without appearing to do so, and he was fairly certain that Jacinta was correct. When Sekar arrived a few moments later, the two PCs approached her as unthreateningly as they could manage.
Alasia seemed pleasantly surprised to see the pair again, and with little prompting launched into an explanation of how she’d managed to escape her exile on Eliad. “I had an escape tunnel that stretched for about a mile to another point on the lake”, she explained. “And I kept a bag of my most valuable valuables near the entrance. I fled as soon as you lifted off and I released my hostages; and good thing too, because the Chariot blasted my house to bits a few minutes later.”
Ganen winced for a moment; recalling that he had specifically pled for leniency to the ISB agent in charge. Apparently his pleas had fallen on deaf ears. “Anyway”, Alasia continued; “it wasn’t easy, but I was able to bribe my way off-world with someone who was able to conceal me.”
Asked what she was going on Pantolomin, she continued. “I wanted to see my real home again, so I went back to Grandine; but that had been complete demolished too. There were some extra-precious valuables which my parents had left in a subterranean vault because they were afraid the Imperials would seize them when we took exile, but they apparently found them when they disarmed the bomb and demolished the place.”
“So now I have nowhere to go and nothing to do. My parents took me to his planet on vacation once; I barely remembered it, but I decided to visit it again. Don’t know where I’ll go next.” Like Topaz, Alasia then agreed to help keep an eye out for Glom.
Roger eventually turned from just looking around to asking employees about anyone fitting the description they had. Several people said that he’d been on board for several weeks but didn’t know much about him; others said that they didn’t recognize him.
One of the people who gave a flat “haven’t see him” reply was a ship technician. After the exchange, something drew Roger’s attention back in the guy’s general direction; and he noticed that he was staring right at him and speaking into a comlink.
The tech averted his eyes as soon as Roger spotted him, then quickly exited the area. Roger attempted to follow him, but lost him when he entered the main engineering area.
After Roger reported the squirrelly technician, Sekar and J’Brel decided that it was time to pay a visit to engineering; which required both a keycard and a numeric code to enter. J’Brel was able to swipe a key card off of an employee, and Sekar was able to use the Force to acquire the code by reading the surface thoughts of another employee as they entered.
By that point it was mid-day, and the Coral Vanda began diving deep enough to create a little ear-popping and some minor hull-creaking. The sunlight rapidly diminished, then disappeared entirely as the ship entered and enormous cavern composed of the magnificent local coral. The PCs all concurred that, if someone was planning to mess with the ship, this would be the ideal time for them to do it.
Only minutes after the ship entered the cavern, Topaz radioed the PCs advising them to get to the Deston Room. A rather nervous-looking ship tech had just entered, nervously looked around, and then departed; but what had really gotten her attention was the fact that he had a rebreather strapped around his neck. Many of the ship crew carried rebreathers, but didn’t actually wear them; leaving her with the impression that this guy was planning to be underwater very soon. VI, Ganen, Roger, and Garth all headed to the Deston Room while Sekar and J’Brel proceeded into engineering.
The Deston Room: VI, Ganen, Roger, and Garth
Scanning the room upon arrival, the PCs noticed that the Rosarios were present in addition to Topaz. Moments later, an alien matching Glom’s description down to the last detail came striding into the casino. In one hand was a nasty-looking disruptor pistol, in the other was some kind of comm unit. Behind him were four members of the ship’s technical crew, all wearing rebreathers and pulling out blaster pistols.
Before the PCs could react, Glom held up the comm unit and pressed a button; and with a loud POW from above, one of the room’s big dome-shaped viewports broke away from the hull. Alarms began blaring as a massive torrent of seawater came pouring into the Deston Room.
As all of the doors on the main floor slammed shut, multiple panels on the walls and floor slid open; some revealing grates and some unfurling dozens of blaze orange hoses. Garth and VI, who had actually read the safety cards when they came on board, knew what both were for.
The grates led to pumps which were supposed to be able to pump water out faster than the loss of over half of a room’s viewports would allow it to pour in. As an additional precaution, the orange hoses were meant to supply air to anyone trapped inside.
As the water began pouring in, Masana Tide grabbed each of the panicking Rosarios by the arm and began leading them towards the stairs to the casino’s upper tiers. The PCs also noticed Alasia (who’d been sitting off in a corner) dash to one of the bunches of orange hoses, and she was among the first to start yelling that there was no air flowing from them. And as the water rapidly rose, it quickly became apparent that the pumps weren’t working either.
Glom advanced towards the Rosarios and fired his disruptor; hitting Tide squarely in the back and sending the massive Dowutin crashing face-first onto the floor. Ganen moved to intercept him, prompting the tech crew to open fire; but their light blaster shots all either missed or glanced off of his armor, and his return fire dropped one and sent the rest into a panic.
Tough and well-armored, Glom managed to reach Eda Rosario; but now under attack from all four PCs, he was unable to snatch the medallion from her neck. When a blow from Ganen’s beskad nearly severed his arm, he attempted to flee via swimming; and being amphibious, he normally would have had a strong advantage. But with the impeller in his pack, Ganen was able to easily run the alien down and apprehend him.
Meanwhile, the Rosarios managed to get to their feet; only for Eda to find that a swarm of small, spider like droids were now crawling all over her. The PCs, however, were far more concerned about Tide; who was face down and unconscious in the rapidly-rising water. Roger, Garth, and VI had just enough combined strength to haul the heavy Dowutin to her feet; but by that point, the water was up to her chin and still rising.
Suddenly, the emergency pumps finally kicked in; and the water level began to lower. By the time it had drained down to just a soggy carpet, the tiny droids which had been accosting Eda had disappeared; but the enormous ruby had been plucked right out of her medallion.
Engineering: J’Brel and Sekar
Sneaking around someplace where they weren’t supposed to be, the PCs’ first thought when the alarm sounded was that they’d been caught. But just a moment later, they heard an announcement that there had been a hull breach in the Deston Room.
The PCs ran for the nearest terminal and were joined moments later by a young crewman, who was so rattled that he didn’t seem to pay any mind to the fact that the PCs obviously didn’t belong there. “Oh my goodness!”, he exclaimed, “the emergency pumps and air hoses are off line!”
Cycling through several screens, his eyes went even wider when he found the reason. “The breakers are open!”, he declared. “Why would someone…” Before he could complete the thought, the PCs demanded to know where the breakers were; and without any hesitation, he directed them there.
As the PCs rounded the corner to the main electrical bay, two crew techs wearing rebreathers opened fire on them with blasters. Tending to see the best in people, J’Brel assumed that they were just panicked and firing at she and Sekar because they obviously weren’t supposed to be there.
Sekar, being much less forgiving, rushed forward and knocked one of them out cold; revealing that they had actually opened the breakers and were trying to keep anyone from closing them again. The second tech was quickly dispatched, and the pumps and air hoses were turned back on.
Rendezvous
As soon as it exited the cavern, the Coral Vanda got to the surface as quickly as it could; then double-timed it towards its destination rather than taking the scenic route. Along the way, Roger took the time to make some queries about the Rosarios.
Born on Grandine (which was also Alasia Rutherland’s homeworld), Phipps Rosario (also known as ‘Phaster Phipps’) was a popular racer at the local Swoop Loop. Given the track’s notoriously ‘casual’ nature, it was never lucrative enough for him to make a living; and he frequently augmented his earnings with various odd jobs.
One such odd job was assisting with the demolition of the Rutherland estate; and after the doomsday bomb was disarmed and removed, he located a small treasure vault which the engineers had missed completely.
The authorities only allowed him to keep a small percentage of the vault’s contents, but that percentage was enough to make him a multi-millionaire.
While they couldn’t be positive, the PCs were pretty sure at this point that Alasia (whom they also knew to be a robotics expert) had deploy the swarm of tiny droids to steal the ruby (which, in her defense, was probably in fact hers). That said, they didn’t believe that she’d been in cahoots with Glom or his crew conspirators; and the whole thing was probably just a big coincidence.
The captain of the Coral Vanda paid the PCs 1000 credits for their intervention, and they returned to the Revenant around 16:00 that afternoon. Topaz quietly settled into the guest area, and the ship departed.
Heading back up the Namadii Corridor, the PCs had to again pass by Palanhi; but the Imperial blockade proved a convenient place to drop off Glom and collect the 6000 credit bounty. After that, they continued on towards Taris.
Garth, Sekar, Roger, VI-P2, Ganen, and J’Brel / [XP: 10]
Bevin didn’t play.
Month 6; Day 31 (Continued)
The PCs departed Kluistar at around 15:00 and headed for Pantolomin. Along the way, Garth shared what little he knew about Glom’s physical description.
He was a member of some cold-blooded humanoid species which nobody seemed to recognize. His skin had been described as both a blueish-green and a greenish-blue, and he had a wide mouth and thick bony eyebrows. He most commonly dressed in an armored suit of grey and black with a really big and wide collar.
The PCs made good time until they hit Palanhi, where the Empire had set up a big stop-and-search looking for something (which was never disclosed to them). It wasn’t a big deal since they had nothing to hide, but their green flags didn’t get them to the front of the line either.
When they finally got boarded, the search was quick and no questions were asked; and they were back on their way at around 05:00 the next morning.
Month 6; Day 32
The Revenant reached orbit over Pantolomin at 06:42 in the morning, and the PCs were able to pick up data feeds for the schedules of various cruise liners around the planet. The good news was that the Coral Vanda was currently in port, but the bad news was that it was scheduled to set sail in about 45 minutes. The other good news was that it would reach its next port that evening, meaning that the PCs could get on board with 100-credit day passes instead of having to pay for cabins.
There wasn’t much time to spare, but there was enough time for Ganen to replace the smoke discharger in his jet pack with his underwater impeller module. Once they disembarked, the PCs instructed R4-X7 to take the ship to a spaceport near Coral Vanda’s next destination.
While some concerns were expressed regarding weapons and armor, they were quickly assuaged when the PCs reached the docks and saw a massive Dowutin bodyguard who appeared to be decked out for total war. She was escorting a very wealthy-looking human couple who were trailed by a procession of porters.
The man appeared to be around 40 years old; 5’3” and starting to bald. He was decent but not great looking, but wore very expensive clothes.
The woman appeared barely half the man’s age; tall, blond, and attractive. She was decked out in a flashy dress and cover from head to toe in very pricy-looking jewelry; of particular note was a tacky golden medallion with a huge and perfect-looking ruby set in its center.
The PCs would eventually learn that the couple were Phipps and Eda Rosario; just married and on their honeymoon. The bodyguard’s name was Masana Tide.
The Coral Vanda was a large submersible cruise liner, with a passenger capacity of 600 and eight enormous casinos; each with a different theme and décor. The crew made no issue of the PCs’ weapons or armor, and they were able to buy day passes right on the gangplank (VI’s and Jacinta’s only costing half price).
Full wall transparisteel viewports lined the hull on most decks; offering a perfect view of the ocean water sparkling in the running lights, huge schools of brilliantly-colored fish, playful sea mammals which put on shows for anyone who cared to watch, and of course the intricate coral reefs for which the planet was most famed. The ship moved around, over, under, and through these winding forests of coral; which grow in wondrous patterns of loops and fans in a rainbow of colors.
With no particular game plan, the PCs all split up and began looking around. The only ones who moved together were VI and Jacinta; the former having decided to keep an eye on the latter.
Though the initial sweeps didn’t turn up anyone even remotely resembling Glom’s description, the PCs did run into a familiar face. With her hair down and not wearing her armor, it took a few moments for the PCs to process who it was; but it turned out to be Topaz: the former chief enforcer of the Grand Master of Taris.
Drinking by herself despite the very early hour, she was clearly in a despondent state; and seeing the PCs again certainly did not improve her mood. She visible brightened, however, when the PCs played the Grand Master’s message for her; and in exchange for helping them look for Glom, the PCs agreed to give her a lift back to Taris once they were done.
Topaz was not the only familiar face on board the Coral Vanda that day. At one point during her search, Jacinta saw someone who prompted her to suddenly stop dead in her tracks; and she asked VI to call down either Ganen or Sekar.
Ganen was the first to arrive, and Jacinta was in such a tizzy that she inadvertently called him ‘Dad’ (which he made no issue of at the time, but would discuss with Sekar later). “Behind me”, she continued; barely above a whisper. “Over by the windows; 3rd table from your right; the pretty blonde woman in the red dress. I’m not positive, but I think that’s the crazy rich girl who lived in the giant seashell with all the creepy mannequins!”
Ganen’s helmet allowed him to scrutinize the woman without appearing to do so, and he was fairly certain that Jacinta was correct. When Sekar arrived a few moments later, the two PCs approached her as unthreateningly as they could manage.
Alasia seemed pleasantly surprised to see the pair again, and with little prompting launched into an explanation of how she’d managed to escape her exile on Eliad. “I had an escape tunnel that stretched for about a mile to another point on the lake”, she explained. “And I kept a bag of my most valuable valuables near the entrance. I fled as soon as you lifted off and I released my hostages; and good thing too, because the Chariot blasted my house to bits a few minutes later.”
Ganen winced for a moment; recalling that he had specifically pled for leniency to the ISB agent in charge. Apparently his pleas had fallen on deaf ears. “Anyway”, Alasia continued; “it wasn’t easy, but I was able to bribe my way off-world with someone who was able to conceal me.”
Asked what she was going on Pantolomin, she continued. “I wanted to see my real home again, so I went back to Grandine; but that had been complete demolished too. There were some extra-precious valuables which my parents had left in a subterranean vault because they were afraid the Imperials would seize them when we took exile, but they apparently found them when they disarmed the bomb and demolished the place.”
“So now I have nowhere to go and nothing to do. My parents took me to his planet on vacation once; I barely remembered it, but I decided to visit it again. Don’t know where I’ll go next.” Like Topaz, Alasia then agreed to help keep an eye out for Glom.
Roger eventually turned from just looking around to asking employees about anyone fitting the description they had. Several people said that he’d been on board for several weeks but didn’t know much about him; others said that they didn’t recognize him.
One of the people who gave a flat “haven’t see him” reply was a ship technician. After the exchange, something drew Roger’s attention back in the guy’s general direction; and he noticed that he was staring right at him and speaking into a comlink.
The tech averted his eyes as soon as Roger spotted him, then quickly exited the area. Roger attempted to follow him, but lost him when he entered the main engineering area.
After Roger reported the squirrelly technician, Sekar and J’Brel decided that it was time to pay a visit to engineering; which required both a keycard and a numeric code to enter. J’Brel was able to swipe a key card off of an employee, and Sekar was able to use the Force to acquire the code by reading the surface thoughts of another employee as they entered.
By that point it was mid-day, and the Coral Vanda began diving deep enough to create a little ear-popping and some minor hull-creaking. The sunlight rapidly diminished, then disappeared entirely as the ship entered and enormous cavern composed of the magnificent local coral. The PCs all concurred that, if someone was planning to mess with the ship, this would be the ideal time for them to do it.
Only minutes after the ship entered the cavern, Topaz radioed the PCs advising them to get to the Deston Room. A rather nervous-looking ship tech had just entered, nervously looked around, and then departed; but what had really gotten her attention was the fact that he had a rebreather strapped around his neck. Many of the ship crew carried rebreathers, but didn’t actually wear them; leaving her with the impression that this guy was planning to be underwater very soon. VI, Ganen, Roger, and Garth all headed to the Deston Room while Sekar and J’Brel proceeded into engineering.
The Deston Room: VI, Ganen, Roger, and Garth
Scanning the room upon arrival, the PCs noticed that the Rosarios were present in addition to Topaz. Moments later, an alien matching Glom’s description down to the last detail came striding into the casino. In one hand was a nasty-looking disruptor pistol, in the other was some kind of comm unit. Behind him were four members of the ship’s technical crew, all wearing rebreathers and pulling out blaster pistols.
Before the PCs could react, Glom held up the comm unit and pressed a button; and with a loud POW from above, one of the room’s big dome-shaped viewports broke away from the hull. Alarms began blaring as a massive torrent of seawater came pouring into the Deston Room.
As all of the doors on the main floor slammed shut, multiple panels on the walls and floor slid open; some revealing grates and some unfurling dozens of blaze orange hoses. Garth and VI, who had actually read the safety cards when they came on board, knew what both were for.
The grates led to pumps which were supposed to be able to pump water out faster than the loss of over half of a room’s viewports would allow it to pour in. As an additional precaution, the orange hoses were meant to supply air to anyone trapped inside.
As the water began pouring in, Masana Tide grabbed each of the panicking Rosarios by the arm and began leading them towards the stairs to the casino’s upper tiers. The PCs also noticed Alasia (who’d been sitting off in a corner) dash to one of the bunches of orange hoses, and she was among the first to start yelling that there was no air flowing from them. And as the water rapidly rose, it quickly became apparent that the pumps weren’t working either.
Glom advanced towards the Rosarios and fired his disruptor; hitting Tide squarely in the back and sending the massive Dowutin crashing face-first onto the floor. Ganen moved to intercept him, prompting the tech crew to open fire; but their light blaster shots all either missed or glanced off of his armor, and his return fire dropped one and sent the rest into a panic.
Tough and well-armored, Glom managed to reach Eda Rosario; but now under attack from all four PCs, he was unable to snatch the medallion from her neck. When a blow from Ganen’s beskad nearly severed his arm, he attempted to flee via swimming; and being amphibious, he normally would have had a strong advantage. But with the impeller in his pack, Ganen was able to easily run the alien down and apprehend him.
Meanwhile, the Rosarios managed to get to their feet; only for Eda to find that a swarm of small, spider like droids were now crawling all over her. The PCs, however, were far more concerned about Tide; who was face down and unconscious in the rapidly-rising water. Roger, Garth, and VI had just enough combined strength to haul the heavy Dowutin to her feet; but by that point, the water was up to her chin and still rising.
Suddenly, the emergency pumps finally kicked in; and the water level began to lower. By the time it had drained down to just a soggy carpet, the tiny droids which had been accosting Eda had disappeared; but the enormous ruby had been plucked right out of her medallion.
Engineering: J’Brel and Sekar
Sneaking around someplace where they weren’t supposed to be, the PCs’ first thought when the alarm sounded was that they’d been caught. But just a moment later, they heard an announcement that there had been a hull breach in the Deston Room.
The PCs ran for the nearest terminal and were joined moments later by a young crewman, who was so rattled that he didn’t seem to pay any mind to the fact that the PCs obviously didn’t belong there. “Oh my goodness!”, he exclaimed, “the emergency pumps and air hoses are off line!”
Cycling through several screens, his eyes went even wider when he found the reason. “The breakers are open!”, he declared. “Why would someone…” Before he could complete the thought, the PCs demanded to know where the breakers were; and without any hesitation, he directed them there.
As the PCs rounded the corner to the main electrical bay, two crew techs wearing rebreathers opened fire on them with blasters. Tending to see the best in people, J’Brel assumed that they were just panicked and firing at she and Sekar because they obviously weren’t supposed to be there.
Sekar, being much less forgiving, rushed forward and knocked one of them out cold; revealing that they had actually opened the breakers and were trying to keep anyone from closing them again. The second tech was quickly dispatched, and the pumps and air hoses were turned back on.
Rendezvous
As soon as it exited the cavern, the Coral Vanda got to the surface as quickly as it could; then double-timed it towards its destination rather than taking the scenic route. Along the way, Roger took the time to make some queries about the Rosarios.
Born on Grandine (which was also Alasia Rutherland’s homeworld), Phipps Rosario (also known as ‘Phaster Phipps’) was a popular racer at the local Swoop Loop. Given the track’s notoriously ‘casual’ nature, it was never lucrative enough for him to make a living; and he frequently augmented his earnings with various odd jobs.
One such odd job was assisting with the demolition of the Rutherland estate; and after the doomsday bomb was disarmed and removed, he located a small treasure vault which the engineers had missed completely.
The authorities only allowed him to keep a small percentage of the vault’s contents, but that percentage was enough to make him a multi-millionaire.
While they couldn’t be positive, the PCs were pretty sure at this point that Alasia (whom they also knew to be a robotics expert) had deploy the swarm of tiny droids to steal the ruby (which, in her defense, was probably in fact hers). That said, they didn’t believe that she’d been in cahoots with Glom or his crew conspirators; and the whole thing was probably just a big coincidence.
The captain of the Coral Vanda paid the PCs 1000 credits for their intervention, and they returned to the Revenant around 16:00 that afternoon. Topaz quietly settled into the guest area, and the ship departed.
Heading back up the Namadii Corridor, the PCs had to again pass by Palanhi; but the Imperial blockade proved a convenient place to drop off Glom and collect the 6000 credit bounty. After that, they continued on towards Taris.