Here is the review of the forth session of my ongoing Star Wars campaign. This week my players explore their new home.
The session starts out with Ben transporting SHADE to the Cracked Rock Saloon to check for any return messages from the xeno-biologist they sent a courier to at the end of last session. On the way they notice some kind of probe spying on their new base. The probe quickly flies away and they are able to follow it for some time before loosing it in the asteroid field. They decide to worry about this later and continue on to the Saloon, where they are able to retrieve the return message as well as some environmental protection gear.
The notes from the xeno-biologist, Professor Chodo Moomo, tell them that similar bug like creatures have been seen throughout the system and tend to congregate around ancient ruins, but that the one’s the party has encountered appear to be a new variety. These creatures seem to be divided into purpose specific sub-species with varying environmental and dietary requirements. The species that Moomo is investigating at the moment seem to be specialized at transporting materials, but do not seem to know what to do with the materials when they arrive, instead simply moving the materials back and forth between two locations. Modern science has so far been unable to explain how these creatures could evolve this way and some believe that they may have been engineered as servant creatures by the ancients. The most direct advice that Moomo is able to give the party is that the bugs are generally not aggressive unless attacked or obstructed and that the party may be able to take advantage of the local bugs likely dependence on an acidic atmosphere.
The Party enters the mine, watching for evidence of the bugs and looking for anything that may be useful to them. On the first level of the mine they find a large ore processing plant and geology lab which both show evidence that the bugs took various pieces of equipment. They note that the bugs seem to be sampling the various types of technology available here and are not just collecting specific materials. They proceed to level two and find that it is mostly made up of storage for unprocessed ore. They also manage to find a stash of weapons that they had learned about from hacking one of the computers in the forward area of the mine. They find that the bugs have seemed to not spend much time on the first two levels of the mine, but that the atmosphere is getting progressively more acidic as they continue deeper.
As they approach the shaft to level three they notice that a large piece of machinery seems to have been pulled down the shaft. going down they find that is is a mining vehicle that has had its drilling laser torn off. As they investigate the area immediately around the shaft they find a line of small bugs ferrying small chunks of rock down a tunnel. following the tunnel they arrive at the final shaft down where they find two larger bugs making something out of the gathered material. The party is unable to determine what the bugs are creating but can tell that each bug has integrated pieces of equipment into its body, one has some kind of pump sticking out of its carapace and one has replaced a claw with a hand held rock drill. After a few minutes a third large bug comes up the shaft and collects one of the items being crafted and carries it below.
The party decides that it would be best to leave the bugs as they are for now and to seal the main shaft between level levels two and three so that they can clear out the acidic atmosphere, leaving just a small personnel turbo-lift to access level three. They use their newly repaired cargo lifter robot to and some hoists to transport some of the equipment back to level two then begin work on installing some observation equipment and capping the shaft.
That is all for this week. Hopefully I’ll find some time to write something other than a session review article, but I’ve been finding myself relatively busy with various home projects as of late.
A Robot Hermit's Journal 