1.0 - The Rescue of Hethan Romund

Kaveri moves quickly and carefully into the open atrium of the temple where the stream that begins in the temple and feeds that lack of the mountain valley below cascades quietly down upon a strange cubic form balanced on one of its corners. The falling water is quiet and contemplative -- rather than crashing and discordant. Sweeping up either side of this fountain broad staircases lead up to the assembly hall of the temple. Kaveri sees the tip of Dagger's head as he comes from the right and appears to head towards a pillar -- as he does so, his head pops back out of view.

Dagger makes it to his pillar -- eyes intent on the retreating mercenary across the way. This focus causes him to be particularly surprised (Dagger takes a setback die on his next action) when not far from his position you all hear a scream followed by "Nothing! The archive is empty! Just a bunch of useless scrolls and tablets! Where is the holocron?!" Whipping his head around, Dagger sees Hethan Romund against a pillar (the star) with another mercenary standing over her. Across the hall, a red-skinned figure with two sharp horns on his forehead strides into view and points a wicked serrated sword at Romund. "Tell me," you all hear, "or I’ll skin you alive!" Dagger sees him turn and stalk back into the archive from which you hear more screams and crashing. The voice seems unhinged, and waves of anger, fear and hatred boil off of its owner, permeating the temple.

OOC: My assumption is that Heyop isn’t quite where Dagger is, being a bit more cautious. Csillag will be assumed to be near/at Kaveri absent instructions otherwise. Malefax is occupying the archive to the left of the hall. What do you do?

(Csillag - can I get an initiative roll out of you? Malefax will take some time to take care of, assuming you can, and we should assume that we'll be in tactical time as I resolve these items).

Dagger's blaster fires and hits the mercenary squarely in the back. He slumps forward and bounces off of the pillar falling to Hethan's side, clearly dead. Heyop dashes in behind another pillar and gets a clean shot off -- releasing Hethan's manacled hands from a chain above her in a spray of rubble. Hethan, somewhat in shock stares uneasily at them as she rubs her wrists.

Malefax -- having heard the fire, radiating heat, and yelling, "If you've shot my prisoner, I will personally skin you alive an inch at a time -- and I'll make you eat every inch I remove from your useless body!" He takes several strides outside the doorway between the rows of pillars and looks a little stunned, seeing the mercenary dead and Hethan freed. "What? You! I knew you were keeping secrets from me!" He raises his sword menacingly at the stunned mentor...

Kaveri lines up a difficult shot -- between the wall and the outer pillar at the red form beyond. The shot hits Malefax… hard. It lifts him up and pushes him through the left-most pillar of the inner set -- sending bits of aged and well damaged masonry flying in a cloud of dust and stone. Malefax’s sword clatters to the ground and he hits the ground and skids into the channel of water with a splash. With a quiet, "beep", Kaveri’s blaster rifle helpfully reminds her that she is out of ammunition and it’s time for a replacement ammo pack.

Csillag hauls up the stairs after Kaveri and reaches the top just after Kaveri’s shot hits Malefax.

OOC: We’re now in Tactical Time. Order is player, player, player, player, NPCs. Whatcha do?

Key Ranges:

Csillag Hethan (Medium)
Dagger Hethan (Short)
Heyop Hethan (Short)
Kaveri Hethan (Medium)
Csillag Malefax (Medium)
Dagger Malefax (Medium)
Heyop Malefax (Medium)
Kaveri Malefax (Medium)

Dagger uses his movement to put the pillar between him and Malefax to gain some cover, he then leans around it and fires another shot off at the villain. "Hethan! Run! Get to the stairs!", I shout as another blaster shot rings out.

Popping a light side point to upgrade one of my shooting dice. Firing at Malefax after I make sure I still have cover between me and Malefax.

GM: He has the benefit of cover and is prone, so adding 2 setback dice. Additionally, I'm flipping a point back to upgrade difficulty.

1d2
( 1 ) = 1 - replacing the first difficulty die (I used the Die Roller in tools).

End result: 2 success 2 threat.

Heyop whistled with the sudden burst of blaster rounds flew past him slamming into someone sending them flying from the impact.

Glad she's on our side could have used a good sniper at... he started to muse shaking his head hearing the clattering of a sword.

Heyop couldn't hear Romund moving she was still alive but her senses seems off since she wasn't reacting.

Here's to acting stupid... Heyop thought with a sigh moving out from cover.

Sprinting past Dagger he dropped the blaster in his hand next to Dagger midstride. Getting closer to Malefax low to the ground Heyop's mouth gapped open as his face contorted snatching up the dropped sword and attempted to rush Malefax to bury it in the captor roaring as he made a diving thrust.

(OoC: Dropping blaster by Dagger as an incidental, Closing the distance for the maneuver, I'd use Quick Draw to snatch up the fallen sword, if not let me know and I'll modify it. I'd also like to pop a light side point to upgrade my skill in Melee.)

Edit: T_T 1 Advantage to heal strain; 1 advantage to give next pc a boost dice; 1 advantage on noticing a single important point around me.

GM Edit: Malefax is prone, providing a boost to Melee. However the sword Heyop grabs is a sith sword and the very act of holding it creates distraction and conflict for the light side user. Adding 2 setback dice. wow. that's a complex way to have a no-op.

Dagger’s shot clips the dark side user as he thrashes about in the running water. As he shoots -- the roof of the temple shifts slightly, accommodating a slight change in its structural support and showers bits of dust around. Some gets into Dagger’s eyes causing him to blink in irritation. Dagger suffers a setback die on his next action.

Heyop pushes through the settling dust, leaving his blaster behind with Dagger and snatches up the sword Malefax was wielding and almost instantly regrets doing so. The sword, an ancient sith artefact, radiates fear and hate, distracting Heyop as he attempts to plunge it into the prone Malefax. Distracted by the dark side of the Force, Heyop’s thrust misses. Heyop takes 2 strain.

Csillag runs across the hall, casually leaping over the channel of water and settles next to Hethan who blinks in surprise at seeing her former student. She gingerly cradles the blaster pistol handed to her by Csillag, saying, "I’m not sure I know how to shoot one of these things. I’m an academic, after all." Her tone is oddly calm -- she appears to still be in some form of shock.

Kaveri moves to a pillar and eyes the fallen mercenary next to Hethan and Csillag. His blaster pistol lies near him on the ground.

Malefax stands from the channel, injects himself with something and spreads his hands before Heyop. Heyop is gently pushed backwards, towards his friends and is dropped unceremoniously into the channel. "You disgusting weaklings. How dare you raise my weapon against me. I will kill you all." Heyop is wet, but otherwise unharmed.

OOC: GM flips a darkside destiny point to enable Malefax to use the Light side of the Force.

Range check:

Dagger Malefax (medium), Dagger Hethan (short)
Csillag Malefax (short), Csillag Hethan (engaged)
Kaveri Malefax (medium (just)), Kaveri Hethan (short) -- and to the dead mercenary too
Heyop Malefax (short, wet), Heyop Hethan (short)

Kaveri reaches the dead mercenary, screening Hethan and Csillag from Malefax. Quickly she ejects the ammo pack out of her rifle and swaps it for the pack that was powering the mercenary’s blaster pistol. It slides in cleanly with a satisfying ‘snik’ and Kaveri is locked and loaded, once more.

Dagger, distracted by the dust and the darting people starts firing of shot after shot from his blaster pistol, filling the temple with the sounds of blaster fire and bursts of stone as the bolts hit walls, rubble and pillars. Although a passable impression of a B1 battle droid from the Clone Wars, it nonetheless requires Malefax to focus on the incoming fire to ensure that he doesn’t wind up picking up another hit.

Wet and a little out of sorts, Heyop steps out of the canal, and charges in at Malefax with the sith sword, as its cold, dark hatred works against his senses. Malefax ducks and weaves Dagger’s blaster fire and adds to his choreography an impressive lean backwards as Heyop’s swing passed well above the dodging darksider.

Hethan responds to Csillag and grabs her arm as the two begin to creep outwards towards the stairs, but Hethan suggests, "Shouldn’t we get behind Dagger and all that blaster fire?" She weaves with Csillag over to the eastern side of the assembly hall and towards the corridor that Dagger and Heyop entered from, putting Dagger and his pillar behind them. "Wait, there’s another…" she starts.

Malefax springs upright after dodging Heyop’s swing and laughs mockingly. "You incompetent fool!" He sneers as his blaster pistol comes into his hand, "I will gun you down, take the sword and then end the lives of your petty little friends." He fires and at this range, it’s difficult for him to miss. His shot hits Heyop squarely who flinches with the sword -- it comes close enough to Malefax that he has to move quickly to stay out of the way. Heyop takes 7 damage (minus 4 soak means 3 wounds). Malefax suffers a setback die on his next action.

Urik wakes up with bits of rubble falling onto his face. He is located behind the dias at the northern-most part of the assembly hall. The first thing he notices is lots of noise and chaos -- and several blaster bolts flight around hitting things. He remains bound at his hands and feet, and fairly well battered from his most recent… lessons.

OOC: Ranges are basically the same -- Csillag and Hethan have moved further from Malefax and Heyop (medium), while everyone else is short to everyone else.

Csillag -- there’s nothing in particular to roll to help with the shock at this time -- roleplaying through it is sufficient.

Note - because Malefax is engaged with Heyop (range wise) ranged attacks against Malefax upgrade their difficulty one die (e.g. 1 red instead of 1 purple).