(Fistful of Lead) The Cantina Comes to Carf

For #StarWarsDay I painted up the Mos Eisley Cantina Adventure Set from West End Games, a rare occasion where I completed something in one fell swoop.  It took me until the last day in May to run a game introducing the whole list of characters into my sci-fi wormhole/vortex junk planet campaign, Death Planet Iota. 

The Premise:  The Mos Eisley Cantina, somewhere after an old man and his ward leave... and a man who shoots first and his Wookie depart, there's tremendous rumbling, as the cantina is popped out of its dimension and dropped from an unsafe height right into some neighborhood in the Survivor's town of Carf.  Patrons and staff alike clammer outside, a rare show of charity, trying to get everyone out.  

These teleportations somehow always end up in an unoccupied 

Fourteen people emerged out of the cantina, some wounded, some in shock, others walking out onto the almost-familiar sand without a scratch.  

Placement:  d12 for placement around the cantina, using a clock face.

Injuries:  d8 was the closest one (1-2 Fine, 3-4 prone and fine, 5-6 shock token and prone, 7-8 one wound and prone).    Given the number of 7's and 8's rolled, we ruled that shock and wounds would certainly affect them, but they were immune to Out of Action rolls on the Recovery table, until they fell victim to more injuries, then treat anything as per the rulebook.)

Special Rules:  All characters move 4" per turn TOTAL.  With the ensuing chaos, there's no running...

Our Characters/Objectives:  Death Planet Iota had claimed them, and it's time for all of them to slink into the shadows and time to arrive.  But old habits die hard for some.  

There are the ten classic patrons of the cantina, including the band and the bartender, Cedo Partu.

(L-R Front: Kabe, Cedo Pardu, Bith band leader, Sivrak, and Hem Dazon)
(L-R Back: Long Snoot the Garindan, Labria the Devorian, Bith Kloo Horn, Muftak the Talz, and   Kerru the Gotal)

Walking into the cantina at the absolute worst (best?) time were two Twi'lek dancers....

Lyn Me and Rystall Sant

The last two beings were more like bodies.... 

In the chaos, someone managed to drag Greedo's corpse out in the street.  (Treat his corpse as hard cover). 

The final body was a naive Rebel spy who was killed in transit.  However, everyone knew what they were carrying to a secret rendezvous, a data pad full of ways to cross-dimensions... allegedly.  They might be dead, but everyone knew when they were showing up... and even if everything was turned asunder, that sort of knowledge was power.  

The dead rebel agent, the datapad, and two characters who actively wanted it. 

Turn 1:   The Bith musicians started out together, one wounded, one in shock, both unsure where the rest of their band was...   The sand seemed... strange, but their was a dewback down the street.... but the spikey ball growing across the street was not native to Tatooine.  The Kloon Horn player tried to drag the band leader to safety.

The bartender simply dusted himself off, cursed his lucked and attempted to take care of his primary concern: No matter how crazy things were,  he needed to secure the doors of the cantina, to keep who knows what from entering. 

One door secure.... 

While Long Snoot and the Devorian knew the value of the data pad and move cautiously to it, most of the others worked their way off the board, perhaps scavenging up some treasures... avoiding problems. 

In the back alley, Muftak, the furry white Talz, was having none of that...   He was confused, he was wounded, and he didn't know where is sidekick Kabe was.  He knew getting while the gettings good was optimal, but getting loot before getting out sounded even better.

Sivrak the Snivvian was laying next to him, bleeding.  His blaster and vibro-knife way too easy to loot. 

Except that Sivrk a body, just a another wounded alien in the wreckage.  

The fight should have been quick, should have been painful, but Muftak's wounds were getting to him... 

Then Kerru the Gotal, jumped on his furry back in a rage, but he pushed him away...

(The Gotal's psychic sensitives were completely overwhelmed by the trip and the new dimension, so becomes the weakest character to have berserker rage....

Sivrak, Muftak, an angry Kerru the Gotal, and a very dead Greedo. 

Turn 2:   The scenario had a random large creature show up on Turn 3.  When both Jokers are drawn on the same turn, it was an obvious sign that the gods of this world had a sense of humor.

Tremors struck the neighborhood as something emerged from the other side of the wall....

Big Bad Monster #1 

and on the other side of the neighborhood, a Large-Medium Purple Ripper emerged from it's slumber, mere feet from Hem Dazon.

Thankfully, Hem hightailed it out of there....

The Devorian quickly found the data pad and... stayed hidden by the entrance.

Muftak still couldn't regain enough strength to get, so he continued to feebly wail on Sivrak the Snivvian, with the Gotal comically charged at the large alien in a rage, only to be knocked back.. again.  The Gotal is wounded, laying on Greedo, and out of the corner of its eye, it sees a much bigger threat coming at it. 

With strange new monsters on the board, the others hid behind corners, found cover, or were simply high-tailing it through the streets, hoping they wouldn't get caught.


Turn 3:   Garindan just knows that someone is hiding around the corner, but the rebel operative is right there, and the cursed noises of the Ripper behind him...

In a terribly savage flurry of blows, Muftak finally finishes off the Sivrak the Snivvian, taking his spoils.  They're grateful the raging Gotal is there down the alley, as they are quickly devoured by the monster.

RIP: Crazy Gotal... and the corpse of Greedo

Turn 4:   The Ripper comes charging at Garindan, forcing them to flee down the street with an obvious trap.  Labria the Devorian does step out, smashing the Long Snoot with an empty bottle of Jawa beer...  Garindan staggers...

The bartender had been  holed up for awhile, burrowing monsters to the left of him, Rippers to his right, stuck in the middle.   But with the Ripper preoccupied, he snuck down the side of the cantina, and surprisingly squeezed himself through a window/crack in the wall to try and lock up shop.  The smoke was horrible and toxic, but he pushed forward. 

And the surviving Bith musicians?  The band leader finally recovered and the were NOT shot as they accessed a building, to, at least, temporary safety.  

Turn 5:   With his overmatched foes dead, and a giant monster only a few meters away, Muftak summoned all the strength he could and stumbled away, into the grumpy confrontation with the dewback. 

Why hello there! 

Labria discovered that day, the old Devorian adage, "Some days, one does not need to be the strongest, or the smartest, or the greatest warrior.... just the fastest.   He moved as fast as he could, passing the Garindan as the Ripper fell upon him...

The bartender did manage to reach the door, and lock it from the inside...  and worked his way back to the same window/crack without succumbing to the smoke.

Turn 6:   A quick turn, as many had already fled the board, and some were dead.

The Devorian turned a little too close the strange ball with spikes and a portion of it exploded.  Thankfully, it was only stunned... 

Muftak managed the soothe the beast, and started walking away, unsure of the dewbacks' former ownership. 

I think that we are gonna be friends....

A few of the characters simply managed to avoid conflict and simply fled off the board, the luckiest (in many ways was Hem Dazon, who simply attached himself to the quietly fleeing Twi'lek dancers. 

AI Disclaimer:  When I started this idea, I took a the picture of the Star Wars d6 stats from the miniature box set and told it to stat them out for Fistful of Lead and set the parameters I wanted for a scenario.  

The results were horrible and almost useless.  A few of the personal objectives, the Gotal's berserker rage, and the Jawa beer-bottle, survived personal revisions.  

That was a disaster, although some of the flavor text, like the alleged "Jawa beer bottle" survived.  

Death Planet Iota Campaign: I've been playing games in Death Planet Iota, using Fistful of Lead for rules, and loosely tying them into a campaign for awhile now.    You may have noticed numbers on the bottom of some of the figures.  With this game, I've decided to track all the figures that make appearances in the game, accumulating fame and xp, rolling post battle results for those who were taken out of action.  

Our winners?  

• Muftak - The big hairy fella was separated from his sidekick, Kabe, but pulled out a pile of sweet loot. 
• The Twi'lek dancers have their freedom, even if is in another dimension.  Of course, they have that creepy Arcona following them. 
• Labria the Devorian - They didn't get off the board with the data pad, but I did roll for recovery on mythical Turn 7, and they would have gotten off the board.  
• Honorable Mention: The bartender and his focused devotion to the cantina. 

Losers?

• Kerru the Gotal (RIP) - Thankfully I've painted up other Gotals.
• Long Snoot and the Sivrak the Snivvian somehow survive, although worse for wear.  

I'll be going back through the few games we have on the world (including some of the Historicon games we ran last year), adding to the spreadsheet, building alliances, and running another project to keep me from being productive.  Fun!