Star Wars Missions 007 - Ithorian Invasion Page 2

  The Oracle nodded, closing his blind eyes. “The child is aboard the herd ship, of course. In the old state room where Momaw Nadon housed the first representatives of the Empire. The bounty hunters await you. With the help of Momaw Nadon, you can find the child.”

  That night aboard the Tafanda Bay, General Dewes was eating dinner with his guests: Dengar (who had once saved his life), Udin, and Eron Stonefield.

  An aide entered the room. “Sir, a message from the fleet. A ship just exited hyperspace — a diplomatic vessel, carrying the Torturer, Sir Vengnar Heiff.”

  “You’re sure it’s him this time?” the general asked.

  “Positive,” the aide said.

  The general folded his hands on the dinner table, considering. “Most odd,” he said to his guests. “First we get a message that the Torturer has come, and moments later learn that he was most likely killed in a deadly crash. However, no evidence of a crash is found. Now we find that the Torturer is only arriving.”

  “Of course,” Dengar said, “I’m sure the first ship belonged to Han Solo. He’s here on Ithor. It’s time to collect our bounty.”

  “Indeed, I believe you’re right,” the general said. “Now all you have to do is find him.”

  Dengar shook his head. “He’ll come to us. Excuse us, General,” he said as he and the other bounty hunters rose from their seats at the table. “We must go set a trap. We have some Rebels to trap… dead or alive.”

  Before you proceed, you must consult the Mission Guide for the rules of the STAR WARS MISSIONS. You must follow these rules at all times.

  This is a Rebel mission.

  The Rebel Alliance has ordered you to smuggle Momaw Nadon onto the Ithorian herdship Tafanda Bay, in the hopes that he can give his people the will to resist the Empire. In addition, you know that bounty hunters have taken Grubba the Hutt to the Tafanda Bay. You need to retrieve the child so he can be used to pay off Jabba.

  You start the mission with your MP total from your previous Mission. (Or 1000 MP, if this is your first Mission.)

  Choose your character. You may take up to three weapons.

  You may use Power three times on this Mission.

  May the Force be with you.

  During the night, you sleep well-hidden in the jungle. The Oracle has picked a spot that he promises will remain free of danger until well past dawn.

  You are not so sure. Several times during the night you are wakened by the sound of TIE fighters swooping low over the trees. Deep down, you know they are hunting for you.

  At dawn, you find fruits that have fallen to the forest floor — odd gray fruits with delicious red meat. Only a few of them have fallen — just enough to feed your party. Strangely, the fruits appeared just on the edge of your camp.

  With Momaw Nadon, you leave camp in the morning, walking south. The big Ithorian is tall, but his legs are no longer than yours, so you travel at a comfortable pace. You move cautiously through thick foliage, walking through deep moss, brushing away jungle plants that bar your way.

  He leads you along a path thick with trees, and warns you, “I am not the Oracle. The jungle does not love me as much as it does him. We must take care.”

  “Of what?” you ask.

  “Many beasts in the jungle are fierce. Some plants eat meat, too. Long ago, we struggled to make peace with such creatures. Even the shadow hunters were our friends. But some animals have forgotten us now. And none will recognize you as a friend.”

  “What do I watch out for?” you ask.

  At that moment, you are walking beneath a tree with long hanging tendrils. You brush one aside, and it suddenly twists in your hand, grasping your arm. A second long creeper loops over your head, grasping you by the neck. Before you can wrench free, it pulls upward, lifting you off your feet

  “This one is called the hangman’s tree,” Momaw Nadon explains. Then he shouts at the tree, “Leave him alone! Is this any way to treat a friend?” Momaw Nadon rushes forward and lifts you a moment so that you can get a breath. Then he grabs a fallen limb. With it he rushes up to the trunk of the tree and bats fiercely against it.

  You try to tell Momaw Nadon that the tree is strangling you, but you can’t speak.

  You must free yourself. You can fight the tree with a weapon, persuade the tree that you are a friend (with Power), or struggle for air while Momaw Nadon tries to convince the tree to let you go.

  To combat the tree with your weapon: Add your weaponry# to your weapon’s close-range# for your confront#. Roll the 6-dice to combat the hangman’s tree.

  If your confront# is equal to or more than your roll#, add the difference +2 to your MP total. The tree drops you to the ground and won’t bother you again. You may proceed.

  If your confront# is lower than your roll#, subtract the difference from your MP total and repeat this confront until you have blown the bark off of this hungry tree.

  To persuade the tree to release you (using Power)*: Choose your Persuasion Power or your Hypnotism Power. You clear your mind and whisper to the tree that you are a friend. Your charm# + your Jedi# + your Power’s mid-resist# is your confront#. Roll the 6-dice.

  If your confront# is equal to or more than your roll#, add the difference +1 to your MP total. The tree loves you, and pats you on the head with its tendrils as if to beg for forgiveness.

  If your confront# is lower than your roll#, subtract the difference from your MP total. The tree doesn’t trust you. You must struggle for breath until Momaw Nadon can save you (below).

  *Note: This counts as one of three Power uses you are allowed on this Mission.

  To struggle for breath until Momaw Nadon can release you: Your skill# + your strength# is your confront#. Roll the 6-dice.

  If your confront# is equal to or more than your roll#, add the difference to your MP total. You gulp a breath of air, and Momaw Nadon quickly convinces the tree that you are a friend.

  If your confront# is lower than your roll#, subtract the difference from your MP total. Add +1 to your confront# for your new confront#. Repeat the confront using the new confront# until you are saved.

  You massage the rope burns on your neck. The hangman’s vine gave you a good stretch, and you wonder if you’re a little taller now.

  You and Momaw Nadon continue through the jungle, climbing toward the mountains. Near noon, you come out of the jungle into the hills. The hillsides are covered with enormous vines that hold giant green forrolow berries, each almost the length of a man. The berries lay on the ground, ripening like melons. You can smell their sweet scent, like syrup covering the hillside. The sun is warm on your face.

  In the distance, near the tops of the hills, you can see the Tafanda Bay floating toward you. You identify its gleaming domes, wide gardens, and ornate towers. The top half provides the living quarters for hundreds of thousands of Ithorians. The bottom half is equipped with engine rooms and ship’s bays. A steady stream of small leaf ships trails out on the horizon, flying toward the Tafanda Bay.

  At the very lowest level of the ship are long hairlike tentacles reaching toward the ground. As these skim the treetops, sometimes a tentacle will pull upward, carrying something into the ship.

  “Those are the harvesting tentacles,” Momaw Nadon explains. “Our city never lands, but we harvest what we need when it skims low over the ground. A computer on the ship tells the tentacles what to harvest and when. If we hold onto a berry, the tentacles will lift us into the food processor.”

  You gauge the direction of the ship, and try to plan an intercept course.

  Behind you, a deep voice shouts, “Hey, what are you two doing here?”

  You turn.

  Two stormtroopers stand at the edge of the woods, cradling their weapons a hundred yards off. Behind them is a landspeeder.

  You can fight the stormtroopers, lie to them, or evade them.

  To fight the stormtroopers: Choose your weapon. Add your weaponry# to your weapon’s mid-range# for your confront#. Roll the 6-dice to combat each stor
mtrooper in turn.

  If your confront# is equal to or more than your roll#, add the difference +3 to your MP total, you have defeated the first stormtrooper. Proceed to combat the second stormtrooper, using the same confront equation. Once you have defeated both stormtroopers, you may take their landspeeder.

  If your confront# is lower than your roll#, subtract the difference from your MP total. Add +1 to your confront# for you new confront#. Continue the confront, using the new confront#, until you defeat both stormtroopers.

  To lie (without Power): You tell the stormtroopers that you are an Imperial scientist, sent to study forrolow berry populations. You ask if you can borrow their speeder, to take a sample berry to the Tafanda Bay, and you promise to return it. Your charm# +3 is your confront#. Roll the 12-dice to deceive the stormtroopers.

  If your confront# is equal to or more than your roll#, add the difference +10 to your MP total. The stormtroopers believe you, and offer the use of their speeder.

  If your confront# is lower than your roll#, subtract the difference from your MP total. The guards don’t believe you, and you must either fight (above) or evade (below).

  To lie (with Power)*: Choose your Persuasion Power or your Deception Power. You tell the stormtroopers that you are scientists studying the berries, and that you would like to use their landspeeder to take a sample to the Tafanda Bay. Your charm# + your Power’s mid-resist# + your Jedi# is your confront#. Roll the 6-dice to deceive the guards.

  If your confront# is equal to or more than your roll#, add the difference +8 to your MP total. The guards lend you their speeder.

  If your confront# is lower than your roll#, subtract the difference from your MP total. The guards don’t believe you. “Shoot him!” the leader shouts. You must fight (above) or evade (below).

  *Note: This counts as one of three Power uses you are allowed on this Mission.

  To evade the stormtroopers (without Power): You and Momaw Nadon run into the trees. Your stealth# + your skill# +3 is your confront#. Roll the 12-dice to evade the stormtroopers.

  If your confront# is equal to or more than your roll#, add the difference +10 to your MP total. The stormtroopers quickly lose sight of you in the trees. While they chase you, you race to their landspeeder.

  If your confront# is lower than your roll#, subtract the difference from your MP total. The stormtroopers shoot blindly at you in the trees. Add +1 to your confront# and repeat the confront until you evade the troopers.

  To evade the stormtroopers (with Power)*: Choose your Evasion Power or your Camouflage Power. You and Momaw Nadon run into the trees. Your Jedi# + your Power’s low-resist# + your stealth# is your confront#. Roll the 6-dice to evade the stormtroopers.

  If your confront# is equal to or more than your roll#, add the difference +9 to your MP total. The stormtroopers quickly lose sight of you in the trees. While they chase you, you hop into their landspeeder.

  If your confront# is lower than your roll#, subtract the difference from your MP total. The stormtroopers shoot blindly at you in the trees. Repeat the confront until you evade them completely.

  *Note: This counts as one of three Power uses you are allowed on this Mission.

  You have defeated both troopers and gained a landspeeder. Reward yourself with 15MP (30MP for Advanced Level players).

  You and Momaw Nadon take the landspeeder and fly over the hills until you near the Tafanda Bay. The enormous ship is heading right toward you. The sound of its giant repulsor-lift engines shakes the earth.

  Thousands of enormous tentacles reach down beneath the ship. They are copper-colored, yet remind you painfully of the vines from the hangman’s tree.

  The tendrils grasp giant forrolow berries, then tenderly pluck them and carry them up to the ship.

  Momaw Nadon rushes to a giant fruit and grabs onto its stem. “Here,” he shouts. “Hold on, like this.”

  You grasp a berry. He shouts, “Not that — a ripe one.”

  The one you have is not as deep a green as his, so you go to a nearby vine.

  The ship flies over you, and suddenly the great copper tentacles dangle all around you.

  One grasps your berry, and lifts it into the air.

  To hang onto the giant berry: Your strength# +1 is your confront#. Roll the 6-dice.

  If your confront# is equal to or more than your roll#, add the difference +5 to your MP total. You kick your feet out and swing wildly, enjoying the easy ride up.

  If your confront# is lower than your roll#, subtract the difference from your MP total. You hang on for dear life and must pull yourself to a more stable position. Repeat the confront until you successfully hang on.

  The tentacle lifts you higher and higher, a hundred yards in the air, until it pulls you through a large hole, into the Tafanda Bay. There are no overhead lights here, only the light shining up through the floors. There is a tremendous noise of engines whirring, and the clank of metal as the giant tentacles work.

  Momaw Nadon shouts. He is being carried toward a huge hopper. The hopper has wheels that let it roll along a track. The tentacle drops him and his berry into the hopper. Momaw Nadon tries to get up, but immediately another tentacle drops a huge green fruit on him. The forrolow berry knocks Momaw Nadon down. Other fruits quickly pile on him. You have to save him!

  Your own tentacle whips you toward the hopper, and you land into the green fruit with a splat. Momaw Nadon is somewhere beneath you. You have to dig him out.

  To dig Momaw Nadon out: Your skill# +2 is your conflict#. Roll the 6-dice.

  If your confront# is equal to or more than your roll#, add the difference to your MP total. You plunge your hand down until you feel Momaw Nadon, and then slide him up through the oozing berries.

  If your confront# is lower than your roll#, subtract the difference from your MP total. Repeat this confront until you find Momaw Nadon.

  The hopper of berries begins whirring down a track. Weakly, Momaw Nadon says, “We must get out of this vessel at once. We don’t want to get dumped into the cookers.”

  Ahead, along the track, you see a light There is a machine up there, with an entrance like an enormous tunnel. Steam belches from the entrance. Above it is an observation platform equipped with an enormous spotlight that shines down on the rolling hoppers of berries. Two stormtroopers with heavy blasters stand next to the light, suspiciously studying the contents of each shipment and guarding a large door.

  “Quickly,” Momaw Nadon hisses. “Jump before we reach their light.”

  You look over the side of the vehicle. It is moving very fast — this isn’t going to be easy. You leap from the fruit hopper to the tracks.

  Up above, one of the stormtroopers shouts, “Hey, I’m pretty sure I saw something down there. Help me aim this light better.”

  He reaches up to pull a lever.

  You realize that the only way out of the hold is to climb the ladder that leads to the guards. You can’t simply evade them. But the spotlight they are using runs an electric current through a container of gas that is under high pressure. If you shoot the light, it will explode!

  To shoot the light: Choose your weapon. Add your weaponry# to your weapon’s far-range# +4 for your confront#. Roll the 12-dice.

  If your confront# is equal to or more than your roll#, add the difference +3 to your MP total. It’s a perfect hit. The light explodes, throwing both stormtroopers from the platform. You may now proceed.

  If your confront# is lower than your roll#, subtract the difference from your MP total. The stormtroopers are on to you! Subtract +1 from your confront# for your new confront#. Repeat this confront with your new confront# until you hit the light.

  You run to the ladder that leads to the observation platform where the guards were posted.

  Momaw Nadon looks down at the fallen stormtroopers thoughtfully. “I wonder why guards are here at all. Do you think they were expecting us?”

  “It’s doubtful,” you say.

  At that moment, you hear a dull noise from one
of the stormtrooper’s helmets. A tinny voice says, “Station 114, this is Control. We have a report of possible blaster fire in your area. Report in. Check.”

  You fumble for the helmet. If these dead guards don’t report in, someone will come looking for them.

  You can lie to the control officer without Power, or you can lie to him with Power.

  To lie (without Power): You tell control that you shot at a giant bossuk roach that you saw among the berries. Your charm# +1 is your confront#. Roll the 6-dice.

  If your confront# is equal to or more than your roll#, add the difference +5 to your MP total. The control officer tells you, “Okay, but keep it down to a dull roar.”

  If your confront# is lower than your roll#, subtract 4MP from your MP total. The control officer shouts at you, “You know its against the regs to discharge your firearms without authorization. Next time, let the bugs go.” You offer lame apologies. Add +1 to your confront# for your new confront#. Repeat the confront with your new confront# until you have satisfied the control officer.

  To lie (using Power)*: Choose your Persuasion Power or Deception Power. You tell the control officer that a giant bossuk roach attacked you. Your Jedi# + your Power’s low-resist# + your charm# is your confront#. Roll the 6-dice.

  If your confront# is equal to or more than your roll#, add the difference +5 to your MP total. “AII right,” the control officer says. “I hate them roaches.”