Tuesday, July 6, 2021

(Star Wars d6) #9 - Engaging the Kurabanda

Our "Heroes"
Ne'vets Aharo - an exotic animal broker, both legal and otherwise
Evus - Twi'lek former mercenary, Ne'vets' armed muscle with a tendency to shoot first.
Tarrie - Human pilot for the upcoming mission.
Frokazza -Wookie co-pilot, mechanic, and unarmed muscle.


Hostile Foliage! 
Leaving the the safety of the Ul-Mor,
Our heroes fight the flora and fauna 
Outside the desert to reach a tribe 
Of hairy mammals known as 
The Kurabanda.
But is this race friendly and helpful
Or just a bunch of morons 
Like the Ul-Mor suggested?

Moving through the razor grass of the plains, the party could spot the forest the Ul-Mor had warned them about.  As they entered a break between the tall grass and the trees, they were almost relieved to hear the civilized sound of blaster fire and scream of agony coming from above. 

Moving into the forest, they could see people about ten or fifteen meters above them, hopping from branch to branch, and in some instances, swinging from vines.   One of the smaller primate-like creature flew through the air to tackle what appeared to be a human, only for the human to shoot it and send it tumbling to forest floor.  

"Take that, you creepy little pest!"


Numerous humans seemed to be rounding up the smaller mammals for some nefarious purpose.  Picking up the maco-binoculars, Ne'vets could see one of the humans with the blaster had a with a full chest tattoo of a Devorian, the same design that was on the hovertruck they encountered in the desert.  

Suddenly the human flew back, hit a tree, and plummeted to his death. 

Evus was the first to spy a skinny, pale-skinned female in a grey cloak, very similar to the person they discovered in the caverns.  This one seemed different, however, as she wielded a sword rather than a light saber.  

"You fools, I want you to capture them so we can train them, not kill them outright!"
The group stayed hunkered down back on the ground.  "I don't think either group are going to get us off this rock," Ne'vets said out loud.

Scanning the tree canopy, the group could finally make out some camouflaged platforms, and out of those platforms another group of primates was charging in as reinforcements.

Ne'vets got a better look at the fallen primate and realized it was far closer to human than space ape.  They were wearing clothing and wielding bows and arrows and metal knives.  Ne'vets also spied some combination of vines and foot/handholds in trees that would allow them access into the trees.

The reinforcements were enough to kill five of the raiders and force the rest of them away, including the scary, sword-wielding woman before things go quiet.

The group argued their next course of action amid whispers, as to not avoid detection.  Ne'vets wondered aloud why the race built their village or outpost so high up.  What was down here?  But both he and an unlucky Wookie reinforced the significant fall that would occur if things went really bad.

Finally, the group came to a consensus that they would have to engage this race, and hopefully get information from them before moving on.  Resolved in that fact, they got up from their position to begin scaling the trees, to only be immediately met by one of the creatures standing right behind them, wielding a spear and huge grin on its face.

"It's okay, the pirates use the bridges too, we build pretty good!"

He extended his thumbs out and asked "Who you."

Ne'vets responded with his name.

"Why you come?"

"We're looking for a way home"

"Where you go to?"

"A different planet."

The creature shrugged his shoulders and began to walk off.

"Waitaminute," Ne'vets interrupted, "Who are you?"

"Lamanada," and with that, the creature extended his thumbs up again.

Ne'vets got a very vague scouting report of the pirates' locations and capabilities.

Lamanada found himself aloft, Frokazza had snuck up on the creature and picked it up with one hand.

"Why you have really big Kurabanda?" Lamanada asked them of the Wookie.

The group was beginning to wish of a tentacle based telepathic method of communication.

Lamanada agreed to show the group the nearby pirate lairs, but first they needed to meet the Big Chief.

Beneath the village proper, they were met by a squad of 20 Kurabanda with bows.   Lamanada briefed the group and offered a makeshift lift to take them to the upper village.

The group was corralled inside a single structure with ten guards, but looking out, they could see hundreds of these creatures milling amongst the trees.

After given food and water (in pottery), a very old village shaman of some sort looked in, discovered the injured members, applied a salve that did nothing, and only smiled and walked away.

In the middle of the night, a contingent of forty Kurabanda escorted them to an even higher platform with at least two hundred more of them in a military formation.  Some of the women and children to be seen trying to get a good look at the interlopers.

In the center of the platform was a very old and very fat Kurabanda sitting in a chair.  His headdress reached the floor, a dozen-odd amulets around his neck, and he was accompanied by at least a dozen female Kurabanda.

Ne'vets took the respectful lead but was quickly interrupted.

"Why you here?"

"You come from same place as demons from the sky?  We ignore each other until they began to take my people."

Tarrie attempted to convince the Chief to loan his forces to destroy the pirates, but the Chief disagreed. "Are you going to lead all my people to their deaths, Tarr-ray?"

Ne'vets took the conversation back and asked if they scope out the pirate outposts.  Again, the Chief was hesitant. but agreed to send two of his scouts, Bo'Non'as and Oopsa to guide them to their nearest location.
Bo'Non'as, Scout of the Kurabanda
The group agreed, but while they waited in their hut for the scouts to get prepared, there was great debate as to what should happen.  Tarrie and Evus were ardent to attempt to help the Kurabanda a bit to get rid of the pirates, while Ne'vets simply wanted a way to get off this rock they were stuck on.  The boss won out.

The next morning, the group and their two Kurabanda scouts left the village...

GM Notes: Trying to transcribe a recording of the gaming session to produce these Actual Plays is easier said than done, but I do end up with a few gems.  I definitely hacked part SF1 Volturnus, Planet of Mystery, to suit my own needs, but at some point after leaving the village, I needed to  "use the bathroom", i.e. review my options for the group.  The original Star Frontiers storyline was not my original intent, so to keep the objective of "getting off this rock" more direct, I needed to rewrite a scene or two.  I had left the recorder going, and I finally heard the conversation when I was transcribing.

Me: Give me five minutes, there's no way I can let that happen.

Steve: You're showering us with gold and riches?

Me: Not quite, be right back.

Jim:  What happened, something devasting was going to happen to us?

Steve: I've given Viscount to know that devasting isn't something that's going to stop him... Sure you're all level one, but here it comes.

Jim:  So it was going to kill us all.

Steve:  Or it could have been a dumb plot point that had to be rewritten.

Crap, they're finally onto me!

Next: #10 - The Mysterious Outpost.

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