Caravan Attack [Play Report]

 

I like simple concepts.  You're walking down the road and something catches your eye - things are not ok.  You feel compelled to get involved, mostly because the risk of death might be right around the corner.

So it was with the Roll20 session a couple days ago.  I was playtesting a new Cha'alt adventure that'll show up in Cha'alt After Dark, once that's completed.

I shared this link with the players because it's what I listened to throughout the game (up until Mos Eisley cantina).

PCs are walking through the hot S'kbah desert on their way to who knows where.  They spy a caravan of humanoids atop riding lizards; those lizards equipped with bulging saddlebags, as well.

I let the PCs react because this is their story.  They walk closer, intent on making contact with the caravan.  Maybe they'll rob it, maybe they'll make friends?

All of a sudden, a sand-barge full of skeever desert pirates attacks the caravan with its laser cannon.  All Hell breaks loose as the PCs battle the skeevers.  

Before we get too deep, let's describe the 2nd level PCs...

• Matt played Alahka'ar, a crystalline sorcerer.
• Prince of Nothing played Razor Kage, Federation bounty hunter (fighter, basically) wielding an M-3 Lawgiver and plasma katana.  Check out his blog!
• "Some Dude" played a droid thief named ST-33L.
• Heather played Lottie, a halfling cleric.

Turns out the skeevers were after the caravan's smoky quartz crystals that were to be sold in the city of A'agrybah.

A pitched battle sent a few skeevers to their sandy graves and the sorcerer shot his web into one of the barge's anti-grav thrusters, the malfunctioning thruster making it tilt to one side.  Eventually, the skeevers had enough and ran away with their lives and not much else.

As the barge was sputtering away, Kage fired a parting shot.  It went straight through a skeever's hand.  I told the players that henceforth, that pirate would be nicknamed "glory hole" for the rest of his days.  Everyone laughed.

The caravan folk were extremely grateful, asking the PCs if they'd like to journey with them the rest of the way to A'agrybah and also offering half of their crystals to repay their courage and heroism.  The adventurers accepted gladly.

An hour or two later, the caravan and PCs encounter 4 desperados.  They watched each other intently.  If the PCs hadn't been there, the grim looking outlaws would have robbed the caravan for sure.

Razor Kage went up to the shiftiest of the desperados, demanding his clothes.  It was a scene straight out of The Terminator.  "Your clothes... give them to me."  The interaction could have gone either way, so I randomly rolled to see how he'd react.  Poorly, was the answer.  

The outlaw fired first and missed.  Razor Kage returned fire, putting a smoldering void where the desperado's chest should have been.  Adios, hoss!

The other outlaws stayed uninvolved as Kage looted his body.  One of the looted items was a matchbook from the infamous sex club Pervert's Paradise.  A half-hour to the club or a couple more hours to A'agrybah... hmm, what to do?

After a cinematic screen-wipe with artistic acid-wash dissolve, the PCs show up at Pervert's Paradise as evening drew nigh.  This is a family friendly blog, so I won't spoil what happened, except the adventurers were hired to take out a slave trader's rival, also present at the club.

A distraction was created with a suped-up cocktail.  Remember that awful blue drink from the movie Heathers?  Yeah, it was like that.  ST-33L included some of his cyber-lubricant for good measure.

It was a bigger battle than the sand-barge.  Alahka'ar almost lost his life, and would have surely died if not for the cleric's healing hands.  

Everyone contributed greatly, as is the way with a 4-PC adventuring party.  The PCs even got a little extra hazard pay since their sorcerer almost bit the big one.

It was a good time.  The session lasted almost two hours, which seemed to be the perfect length for a virtual one-shot.  And it gave me some playtest notes to improve the adventure before its released.  Win-win!

VS