Battle At The Coral Moon

Clone Wars Episode 1

Lieutenant Thire, later Commander Thire in Revenge of the Sith, and pals

The scenario titled “Ambush” was designed so that the Player Characters (PCs), on the side of the Galactic Republic, set down on the moon known as Rugosa in a diplomatic mission. Rugosa’s terrain was a thick forest of a multitude of hard, gigantic coral structures. If there was a sea once, it probably had dried out a long time ago. Tiny airborne subspecies of the neebray, like little sparrows, flit between the coral branches. Quite an exotic setting described by the Game Master (GM).

The PCs task was simple: Land on Rugosa and make the planned rendezvous with the Toydarian King Katuunko, then persuade the good king to actively support the Republic in the war against the Separatists.The lead PC was Yoda, a Jedi Master with a fair amount of dice in his Force skills. He was aided by a trio of clone troopers, Thire, Jek and Rys.

However, the GM made sure that the main enemy NPC, the treacherous Sith Adept known as Asajj Ventress under orders from the Sith Lord Count Dooku has arrived ahead of them, turning the mission into bigger challenge.

First encounter was in orbit where a Separatist blockade prevents the PCs ship from landing. The PCs had to use a lifepod to reach the planet’s surface. Thankfully the GM random dice roll to target the lifepod caused an unmanned decoy lifepod to blow up, instead of the one the PCs were using.

The King with two bodyguards

The remainder of the adventure required that the ground-bound PCs try to reach King Katuunko while a brigade’s worth of Separatist B1 and B2 battle droids, destroyer droids and Armored Assault Tanks (AAT) were deployed into the coral forest to stop them. The coral’s Strength attribute was tough enough to stop AATs. But even with one PC armed with a formidable Z-6 rotary blaster they were overwhelmed by the sheer number of the NPCs. During one of the firefight, one of the clone trooper PCs failed a dodge roll and was wounded by a B2 droid. They used their hide skill to hole up in  cave, giving them time to recuperate.

Then, Yoda cleverly engaged the droid army in a ravine, which constricted the droids’ movements. Spending a Force Point, Yoda managed to defeat a platoon of battle droids using Telekinesis, Enhance Attribute and a fantastic series of lightsaber skill rolls. The clone troopers finally helped by rolling a missile weapons skill, firing a rocket into the ravine wall, causing a rockfall that finished off the destroyer droids.

Successfully rolling their stamina skill, the PCs exert themselves to make their way to King Katuunko who was just about to be betrayed and murdered by Ventress. Yoda’s Alter roll was high enough to telekinetically prevent this, while the clone troopers’ blaster skill rolls made short work of her battle droids.

However, the sneaky Ventress executed her exit strategy. A well-placed charge, with a good demolition skill roll, caused an avalanche of rocks and coral debris. Yoda had to spend another Force Point for a successful Alter roll which allows him to shield the PCs and the Toydayrian NPCs from certain death. This however allowed Ventress to escape by fleeing upon her ship.

Aftermath and Coda

King Katuunko thanked the PCs for their arrival and with Ventress’s betrayal and attempted assassination of him, and without a need for a persuasion roll, his royal highness decided to side with the Republic just as a Venator-class Star Destroyer arrived in Rugosa atmosphere.

This was quite a short, simple but enjoyable scenario. The PCs had a great time with all the encounters in the coral forest and firefights with the droid army, even if there weren’t any monsters hiding behind the rocky structures. Let’s hope in the next scenario, we get a more complex storyline to play with.

With monsters.