I had a number of goals for this final plot arc, one of which was to showcase a bit more of the scope of the Extraordinary League. We had seen bits and pieces of other League members in moments of downtime, as well as in the Patreon bonus episodes, but I wanted to take this last opportunity to not only allow these supporting characters one more moment of spotlight, but also to show how our five core League members had risen to positions of prominence and leadership in the team.
After we wrapped up recording on the previous episode, I let the players know that the next five episodes were going to each center around a different mission, each led by one of the core five League characters. The other players would then get a chance to put together a team around that character to accompany them on their mission. The only caveat I gave them was that they had to choose characters that had already appeared in either a regular or bonus episode of League before—I didn’t want to start drastically expanding the cast this late into the story (Michael Jordan notwithstanding). I told them that the five missions would be:
1) A prison break on Hoth
2) A social/subterfuge mission at a Cloud City casino
3) Exploration of an ancient Jedi temple on Tython
4) A mission to destroy Doom’s time platform on Mustafar
5) A mission to hunt down the final gem/ring
The players put Stitch in charge of the first mission and everyone picked out characters to go along with it, and off we went…
The five of you stand beneath your ship, looking out over the frozen, lifeless wasteland of Hoth. The howling wind cuts through your clothing and into your skin like knives, and even the sunlight seems cold and distant. Out across the wastes, you can see your target: a squat rectangular building, dark gray against the white snow. This is the Imperial prison you’ve been sent to find, and within it are the captive members of the Extraordinary League. What do you do?
The heroes’ ship is a Sentinel-class transport. It has a single vertical fin rising from the middle of the ship and a pair of fins on either side that stick down at a 45-degree angle from the main body or fold up when landing. The cockpit is wedge-shaped, with a long dark window serving as the main viewport, protruding from the long, armored main body. Should the heroes decide to use the ship in combat at any point, they’ll need one person to pilot, one person to co-pilot and run sensors, and up to three people to perform as gunners (one for the laser cannons, with the remaining two taking either the ion cannon, repeating blasters, or missile launchers). (This didn’t end up happening, but I knew that there was an AT-AT and Star Destroyer in the future, so I figured this was a possibility.)
The Imperial facility is one story tall, constructed of gray metal with lines of red lights blinking along the edges of the roof. A large satellite dish pokes up from one corner of the roof, pointed at an angle toward the sky. A set of thick blast doors seems to be the only entrance into the base and is guarded by six stormtroopers in slightly modified armor, along with a long-barreled gun protruding from above the blast door, occasionally panning back and forth. (Call for Intuition + Perception checks—anyone who gets a Green or better also notices a set of very large footprints imbedded in the snow in this area. On closer inspection, they look like they probably come from some sort of massive robot or walker and could easily crush an SUV completely. This thing has made several circuits around the base in the past but appears to not currently be within visual range.)
Snowtroopers (6)
F: Ty
A: Pr
S: Ty
E: Ty
R: Pr
I: Pr
P: Pr
Health: 22
Blaster Pistol: 15 damage
Blaster Turret: This doesn’t have stats per se; it shoots with Gd accuracy, hits for Rm damage, and can take 60 damage before destroyed.
There is an alternate way into the base: if the heroes check the rear of the facility, they’ll notice an air vent that can be pried open with minimal difficulty that will drop them just outside of the medical bay.
Whether they enter through the blast doors or the air vent, the heroes will end up in a gray hallway lit by the occasional bank of recessed white lights in the walls. The hallway stretches from the blast doors before turning at a 90-degree angle to the right. A door nearby reads “Medical Bay” in the angular script of this universe. The hallway stretches further down, ending in a pair of doors at either end. Getting closer shows that one of them is labeled “Communications Center,” the other “Turbolift.”
Medical Bay
The medical bay features two operating tables with restraints, a handful of cabinets and tables, and three large metal cylinders on the far wall, each with a computer readout attached to the front. A single human is here, wearing a white doctor’s coat with the Imperial insignia on it. Floating nearby is a round robot that you all recognize as Cambot, although he’s been outfitted with a tray covered in medical supplies—scalpels, syringes, small bottles, etc.
If the heroes didn’t make an effort to keep quiet either in the outside hallway or entering through the door (remember, the doors audibly slide open with the push of a button), the doctor’s eyes widen as he sees them enter. He makes a quick calculation, then lunges for a nearby computer console. This causes the three metal cylinders at the end of the room to open, their top and bottom halves sliding away from each other as thick white fog rolls out. Stepping from these tubes are a trio of towering, muscular creatures covered in white fur with a pair of black horns on either side of their heads.
The doctor has been experimenting on these three wampas in an attempt to train them. He points triumphantly at the heroes and commands, “Kill the intruders, my pets!” Of course, the first wampa to act will use its turn hurling the doctor into the nearest wall in a bone-crunching crash, instantly reducing the doctor to 0 Health.
Wampa (3)
F: Gd
A: Ty
S: Rm
E: Rm
R: Fb
I: Gd
P: Ty
Health: 76
(Of course, if you’ve listened to the episode, you know that this whole plot thread never got touched on—the team managed to fast-talk their way into the infirmary and knock out the doctor before he had the chance to unleash the wampas.)
Cambot has a restraining bolt attached to him that prevents him from taking any meaningful action without a direct command from an Imperial officer, but the bolt can be removed with a successful Reason + Technology check. Once freed, he’s immediately ecstatic to see the Leaguers here.
Cambot can tell the heroes that their friends are being held in the detention block, which is in the basement level of the facility. The more powerful ones are being kept in a chemically-induced coma; thankfully, Doom doesn’t seem to be using any Phyrexians on this plane other than the white Praetor (he uses the Imperials native to this universe to do his dirty work), so none of the captured Leaguers are at risk of being infected.
Communications Center
Most of this room is taken up by banks of blinking lights and glowing computer monitors, both along the walls and in a semicircular station in in the center. There are four humans here, each wearing a gray Imperial uniform with a shiny, slanted black helmet, moving around and working at the control panels.
The Imperials here will attempt to trigger a base-wide alarm if they notice the heroes.
Imperial Comm Operator (4)
F: Gd
A: Gd
S: Ty
E: Ty
R: Ty
I: Ty
P: Ty
Health: 32
Blaster Pistol: 15 damage
Any of the heroes giving a cursory glance over the monitors here will see that a message came in just moments ago:
Priority 1 Message:
Prepare selection of non-sedated extraplanar prisoners for interrogation. Super Star Destroyer will be arriving with Praetor within one standard Hoth day/night cycle.
End Transmission
The heroes can use the equipment here to check the status of the detention block. They can see a semicircular monitoring station just past the turbolift doors, followed by a long hallway lined on either side with metal doors leading into various cells. At the far end is a storage room that seems to contain the equipment taken from the prisoners. This station can also be used to communicate directly with the detention block, allowing the PCs to potentially misdirect or mislead the guards downstairs should they feel so inclined.
Detention Block
This area is as described above. Just past the turbolift doors is a small room featuring a chest-high, semicircular monitoring station, followed by a hallway lined on either side with metal cell doors.
At the moment, the warden of this place (Captain Phasma) is here along with several security droids.
Captain Phasma
F: Rm
A: Rm
S: Ex
E: Ex
R: Gd
I: Ex
P: Ex
Health: 100 Karma: 50
Chromium Armor: Gd vs physical, Rm vs energy
Blaster Rifle: 25 damage
Command Staff: Str+15 damage
KX Security Droids (4)
F: Ex
A: Gd
S: Gd
E: Ex
R: Ty
I: Ty
P: Fb
Health: 60
Stun Claws: Ex electrical damage
The cell doors can either be opened one at a time (by hacking into them directly or by forcing them open/destroying them), or en masse by accessing the control station. None of these should require a check if the heroes are doing so out of combat (otherwise have them make a Reason + Technology check or whatever seems appropriate based on their approach).
About a dozen Leaguers here are awake, alert, and able (Kasumi, Ranma, Michonne, James Bond, Sir Didymus, Max Rockatansky, Arya Stark, Samus, Beatrix, Jack Bauer, Austin Powers, Gimli, Rosa Diaz, Ash Ketchum, Rorschach, Esme Squalor, and Blasto). The other two dozen or so are kept unconscious in secured bacta tanks, reminding the heroes of their own brief time as prisoners of Phyrexia. The control panel on the bacta tanks can be used to revive them, but most of them will be too drowsy and disoriented to engage in intensive physical activity like combat for a time. They’re still capable of speaking and moving under their own power.
One of the Leaguers who needs to be revived from a bacta tank is Zelda. If she is brought to consciousness, she will unsteadily tell whoever revived her that they need to be sure to grab the gear that the Imperials confiscated and put into their storage room at the end of the detention block hallway. All of the prisoners’ equipment can be found there—anyone paying attention to Zelda will note that she takes special care to grab a plain-looking satchel.
Outside
Once the heroes emerge back out into the blinding white brilliance of Hoth, they can make a clean break for their ship… or rather, they could, if it weren’t for one small complication. It looks like the thing that made those gigantic footprints from earlier has come back and is now standing between them and their ship: a gigantic, four-legged metal war machine, with large swiveling guns mounted on either side of its gray head. The AT-AT will immediately open fire on any escaping prisoners it spots and will attempt to shoot down the heroes’ ship if it takes off.
AT-AT
F: Gd
A: Ty
S: Un
E: ShY
R: Gd
I: Ty
P: Ty
Health: 416
Body Armor: Gd
Heavy Laser Cannons: Am damage to one area, and the AT-AT may fire its Blaster Cannons
Blaster Cannons: Rm damage to one target
Space
Hoth begins to shrink away behind your ship as you rocket toward the stars, but before you can hit the hyperdrive, a ship of immense size suddenly drops out of hyperspace directly in front of you, going from impossibly fast to a slow drift in the blink of an eye. You’ve seen the Star Destroyers of the Empire before, and while this one has a similar dagger-like shape, it is many, many times larger and exudes a menace palpable even from thousands of kilometers away. What do you do?
Darth Vader is aboard the Super Star Destroyer and will use the Force to hold the heroes’ ship in place while the Imperials work to get a tractor beam lock on it. If the heroes don’t come up with a way around this, Zelda will reveal that she’s carrying Majora’s Mask and suggest to Stitch that they use its dark power to destroy the Star Destroyer.
So that was the first of these five vignettes showcasing the League in action in the Star Wars universe… as well as revealing the final Praetor!
Smash Fiction 