Dawn of Defiance - Chapter 9: Sword of the Empire

by Mishy

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STAR WARS: DAWN OF DEFIANCE EPISODE 9 - Sword of the Empire

Sword of the Empire is the ninth adventure in the Dawn of Defiance campaign, which will take heroes from 1st level all the way through 20th level in a continuous storyline designed to give both players and Gamemasters a complete SW5e experience. In this adventure, the heroes take their hunt for Master Denia to Prakith, an Imperial military stronghold and home to the headquarters of the Emperor’s Jedi hunters. Over the course of this adventure, the heroes will see how the Empire is quickly reshaping Prakith and will rediscover an ancient race whose support against the Empire can be gained—if only they can be made to understand the threat. Sword of the Empire is the penultimate chapter in the Dawn of Defiance campaign, and the heroes should advance to 19th level by the end of the adventure.

What is Dawn of Defiance?

Dawn of Defiance is the name given to a series of 10 linked adventures that Gamemasters can use to create an entire campaign for their players. Set in the months after the events of Revenge of the Sith, the adventures in the Dawn of Defiance campaign are designed to provide players and GMs with the iconic SW5e experience, set against the backdrop of the tyranny of the Galactic Empire. The Dawn of Defiance campaign takes the heroes all the way from 1st level up to 20th level, and features an ongoing storyline that progresses over the course of the campaign. Each adventure can also be played individually, and should provide the heroes with ample challenges to gain two levels per adventure. Gamemasters should feel free to use the Dawn of Defiance adventures either as an entire campaign or as fillers for their own home campaigns.

If you are a Gamemaster wishing to run the campaign, read the GM’s Primer, which summarizes the overall plot of the campaign and the events of each adventure.

Warning! If you will be playing in a Dawn of Defiance campaign or in a campaign utilizing its adventures, read no further.

Campaign Update

Sword of the Empire takes place only a few days to a few weeks after the conclusion of the previous adventure, The Gem of Alderaan, but the heroes will have found the interval to be a productive one. While they realize that time is of the essence in the search for Master Denia, the resources of Lady Alya Aldrete make it possible for them to prepare for what lies ahead. This is an ideal time for heroes to resupply and possibly choose a different vessel suitable for the operation. Events will move quickly from here, so it is worth communicating to players that they should use this time wisely.

Lady Alya’s support to the heroes is genuine, but they should expect limits in what she’s able to provide. Much of her aid should be in the way of giving them access to the items they need rather than in providing the items as outright gifts. Heroes might have an easier time finding what they’ve been looking for thanks to her connections, but they’ll still have to pay for what they receive.

If you aren’t running Dawn of Defiance but would like to use this adventure in your own campaign, a character relevant to your own storyline can be substituted for Master Denia, with the final rescue sequence altered to permit whatever resolution best suits your campaign.

Adventure Summary

On entering the fringes of the Prakith system, the heroes encounter Jekk Seejo, a somewhat erratic alien engineer on what will prove to be his last disastrous assignment for an Admiralty fed up with his shenanigans. Heroes rescuing Seejo may come to regret it initially, since the act results in mynocks infesting their ship, but the engineer’s friendship comes in handy when they visit Prakith, a place abuzz with Imperial activity.

Only recently surveyed by the Empire, Prakith has a much longer history than its Imperial residents are aware of. Prakith was touched by the dark side centuries ago, when it became home to the tomb of Darth Andeddu. That fact is unknown in Imperial times, and the tomb is not discovered until the Legacy era, but its foul presence is enough to give this world of cracked and ruined surfaces a feeling of genuine dread and gloom. No doubt, this ambiance was part of what drew the Inquisitorius to locate its Citadel here. Also unknown to the Empire, Prakith has a native species—or, at least, one transplanted here long ago: the Stereb, a stoic, sturdy race of stoneworkers living in the planet’s many catacombs.

More recently, the Mining Guild has sponsored a number of limited operations on Prakith, ramping them up as the Empire’s activities require ever more materials. The spaceport and military headquarters are in Prak City, atop a large plateau. Citadel Inquisitorius rises in a mountainous redoubt, more than a hundred kilometers to the west. Inquisitors are active in Prak City as well, putting Force-users in constant danger of discovery.

Direct attempts to approach the Citadel are frustrated. The cover identities the heroes arrive under might provide some mobility in Prak City and the surrounding environs, but airspace is closed around the Inquisitors’ mountain redoubt, and even masquerading as Imperial officers is unlikely to foil the security efforts of a group whose main talent is sniffing out Force-users. Local inquiries with miners provide some information (and the chance to proceed along a variant track), but the most promising lead comes from the discovery of Herdr’tui, a member of the subterranean Stereb race who is stuck aboveground. His people’s existence here is unknown to the Empire, as is the extent of their sprawling underground network.

Herdr’tui directs the heroes toward a place they’ve heard nothing good about: the Drains, a collection of vertical lava tubes used as a garbage (and recalcitrant slave) disposal by the Empire. Nothing that falls down there lives for long, thanks to an omnivorous creature that must be slain or brought to heel before Herdr’tui can be returned to his people. The Stereb, heroes learn, see themselves literally as part of Prakith—as the planet’s antibodies, in a sense, keeping its arteries clear and maintaining it as best they can. They can be rallied to resist the Empire, but only if the heroes recognize this relationship and convince the Stereb that the Empire represents a literal cancer on the body of their world. The Sterebs’ best resource is information on a secret underground approach to the Citadel Inquisitorius. But this knowledge is not gained easily; the heroes first must gain the Sterebs’ trust.

After securing the information, the heroes have an opportunity to enter the Citadel from beneath, which is possible only because the Empire did not realize that those who constructed the ruins at its base still existed. A treacherous speeder bike flight across an underground ocean under a low ceiling infested with fear moss is required first, but the problems are only beginning. Characters must make a daring night raid into the Citadel, learning the location of Master Denia and fighting past Inquisitors on their home turf. Finally, the heroes confront the new and cybernetically improved Inquisitor Draco for a battle royale. An act of self-sacrifice by Master Denia forces Draco to abandon the Citadel, but at least the Empire now knows its subjects are ready and willing to fight for their freedom.

Opening Crawl

If you wish to have an opening crawl before the adventure, consider using the boxed text below.

STAR WARS : DAWN OF DEFIANCE

Episode XI: Sword of the Empire

It is a critical moment for the first few willing to stand against the Galactic Empire. Jedi Master Denia, one of the few survivors of Order 66, has fallen into the hands of Valin Draco and the Inquisitorius, a secret division of Imperial Jedi hunters.

Setting out in search of Master Denia, a hardy group of heroes finds an ally in Lady Alya Aldrete. The resourceful Alderaanian provides the transit permits necessary for them to reach the Deep Core world of Prakith, where Denia is held captive.

But Prakith is a more complicated puzzle than it seems. Home to a major new administrative headquarters for the Imperial fleet and the Citadel Inquisitorius, the world is well manned by the Emperor’s agents of darkness. But those might not be Prakith’s only residents . . .

Part 1: The Arrival

With Lady Alya’s forged credentials in hand, the heroes craft cover identities that will permit them to enter the general workforce when they reach Prakith. With a major naval installation, burgeoning mining operations, and the Citadel Inquisitorius, there is plenty of work on Prakith for contract laborers—at least, for those with enough friends in high places to find their way there.

The heroes arrive at the edge of the five-planet Prak system without incident. A quick scan reveals that their ship is the only one in the immediate area; traffic to and from Prakith is moderate, with a few construction ships heading in and mining vessels heading out. An automated message arrives from a hyperspace buoy nearby; this is not the standard Message to Spacers (METOSP), but an abrupt speech dripping with Imperial authority:

“Attention! Attention! All work vessels immediately set course for Prakith orbit. Do not, repeat, do not deviate from a direct course to Prakith. Straying vessels will be intercepted and boarded by the Imperial Navy.

“From orbit, utilize your own judgment as to approach vector to Prak City Control, but be advised of no-fly-zone 70 miles in radius from the Magraddor mountain range. Confer with orbital buoy on arrival for specific details.”

The heroes enter the quickest course to Prakith orbit. It takes three hours to get to Prakith orbit, and along the way only a single vessel, a Mining Guild freighter loaded with ore, passes the heroes, heading out to the hyperspace lanes. Prakith might soon become a busy center for the Empire, but it is clearly still a work in progress.

Just before arriving in Prakith orbit, the heroes receive a weak distress call over subspace channels. It fades in and out but is strongest at the closest approach to the Inner Moon. Read the following aloud:

“Um . . . hello? Hello? Um, looking for some help here? Anyone?

“This is Jekk Seejo of the Good Feeling, just out of Prakith. We’re... well, we’re stuck. On the Inner Moon... Can anyone hear me? Systems are failing—power, life support... and then some of the more important stuff. Anyone out there?

“Blast. I think we’re really in trouble this time...”

A simple DC 15 Intelligence (Technology) check enables the heroes to track the signal to the Inner Moon, where the Good Feeling, a small kit-bashed “yacht” of dubious quality, sits at the center of a small crater. The ship’s gazetteer describes Prakith’s Inner Moon as having no atmosphere and gravity that is low but just enough to keep the Good Feeling from escaping in its current condition.

But the buoy was specific: No course deviations. Heroes who decide to investigate without first contacting Prak City Control will receive a sharp radio warning, followed not long afterward by a detachment of TIE fighters if the heroes fail to change course, putting a crimp in their mission very early. However, if the heroes mention Jekk Seejo’s name to Prak City Control, permission is given:

“Seejo? Again? I don’t believe that guy... Wait—yes, I do believe it. You’ve got a real live one there,” the controller says. “You’ve heard about disasters waiting to happen? Jekk Seejo is the one that already has. Well, you can tell him the Incom guys are done with him. Let him rot.

“Hold on a second—OK, I’ve just been informed he’s got some Subpro engineers aboard that they’d actually like back. He’s in luck, which is more than I can say for you. You are authorized to divert to Moon Prakith One to render aid. Over and out.

“Hey, Ervyn!” the voice says, fading. “Get this—Seejo wrecked another one...”

Thus, whether the heroes actually help Seejo or not, they are obliged to make contact with him before resuming their course.

Good Feelings and Bad

Little more than a jalopy pieced together from various bits of old ships, the Good Feeling requires only one pilot but operates best with an army of mechanics. Right now, it is occupied by Jekk Seejo and four of his associates, all engineers working at the Imperial Testing Grounds on the Outer Moon. Two are Incom subcontractors and two work for Subpro, but the important thing is that they’re all engineers, not technicians. They know a good bit about designing starships, but less about flying them— and, quite obviously, not near enough about fixing them.

Heroes who dock with the Good Feeling learn this and more. Only Jekk Seejo, a chirpy, upbeat Duros, has much spaceflight experience, although the heroes realize pretty quickly that whatever is wrong with the ship is over his bald green head—particularly since he’s left his toolkit on Prakith. It takes a DC 20 Intelligence (mechanic's kit) check to get the ship running again in short order.

If the heroes glance around while they are working on the ship or afterward, they spy one of the engineers working at a console. The console displays a ship design with which the heroes are utterly unfamiliar; it resembles a forced marriage of a large Z-95 Headhunter and an ARC-170. If the heroes ask Seejo about the ship, he begins chattering about a Deep Scout design that Subpro and Incom are jointly developing on the Outer Moon of Prakith—until one of the other engineers reminds the chatty Duros that secret does actually mean secret. “You’re hanging by a thread as it is, Seej.” Blushing—in his case, picking up a slightly bluer hue of green—Jekk coughs and chuckles.

Receiving a message from his employers, Jekk makes his apologies and escorts the heroes to the airlock with their ship. “If you’re ever in Prak City, look me up,” he says. “I do a lot of thinking at the Mother Lode Cantina. Maybe we can talk hyperspace theory sometime—and, um, you can tell me again how you got that thingie back there to do what you got it to do.”

Jekk Seejo

As an Incom employee, Jekk Seejo frequently let his enthusiasm for all things spaceworthy get out of hand. Fancying himself an amateur explorer and test pilot but without the training for either, Seejo often wheedled his coworkers into using his ship, an old clunker left over from the Clone Wars, as a guinea pig for their more outlandish concepts. By the time of the Empire, with COMPNOR beginning to purge aliens from the ranks of major defense firms, Seejo was reduced to the role of a subcontractor, finding work only when his friends in the engineering community brought him in. His happy manner frequently brings his fellow engineers along for the ride, even against their better judgments.

Prak City

Read the following aloud as the heroes enter Prakith’s atmosphere and approach Prak City:

If the Empire were looking for a more forbidding world to exploit, it could hardly have selected a better one than Prakith. A planet of tortured ridges, jagged canyons, and sandy gullies, Prakith could give Utapau and Tatooine a run for their money in the contest for the galaxy’s most desperately bleak world.

From the air, you see the rugged Magraddor Range far to the west and, nestled within, the towering obsidian spire of the Citadel Inquisitorius. But you can’t reach it yet; a sentry wing of TIE fighters directs your ship far to the east, and Prak City.

Seated atop a plateau offering the largest unbroken patch of land on the planet, Prak City appears to be equal portions frontier town and military base—and the military base is winning. Large Imperial vessels sit docked at the city’s large eastern spaceport, towering over smaller supply and prospecting vessels that use the same pads. Their appearance and jobs might differ, but they all have the same purpose: bending this planet to the Emperor’s dark will.

If you wish, give players a copy of the surface map detailing the locations of Prak City and the Citadel, since their descent will have given them that much information. But do not share the underground map nor intimate that such a map even exists.

Exiting the spacecraft the Station Master, a lieutenant in the Imperial Navy requires the heroes to have their ship examined by a Port Licensed Contractor before they can depart again. He’s been on the station only a few weeks, and he doesn’t want his safety record spoiled by anybody who had to interact with Jekk Seejo. If only that annoying Duros would find another planet to infest!

Contractors can be found in the Work Zone sector, the Station Master says, which is where a miserable lot like the heroes belong. It doesn’t take long for the heroes to realize that there is a serious culture clash between the burgeoning military population of the city and the workforce that’s building its launchpads and retaining walls and—further out in the canyons—digging up Prakith’s ores. Prak City might one day be limited exclusively to the military; this could be the heroes’ last chance to visit the world with even the limited freedoms they now have.

If the players cause too much trouble in Prak City for any reason, use four Imperial Sovereign Protectors from the 'Saving Seejo' encounter as a response force.

Fear the Inquisitor

The presence of Inquisitors in Prak City and the Citadel, constantly scanning for Force-users, puts Force-using characters at a severe handicap if they wish to avoid detection.

If a player uses a Force power within the confines of the overview map have the players make a DC 20 Wisdom or a DC 20 Charisma check, adding proficiency if they are proficient in the Deception skill. If they fail the check, the Inquisitors detects the Force-using hero and sends investigators to track him or her down. In Prak City and environs, this activates the “Curious Inquisitor” encounter; in the Citadel, it activates the “Citadel Security Team” encounter. This check is performed only performed once every 24 hours.

There are two exceptions on the map, both relating to underground activities. Inquisitors might sense Force-users in the Stereb cave networks, but they won’t respond in a timely fashion because the Empire does not know the caverns exist. And as “Stairway to Hell” indicates, the gray fear moss that has accumulated near the Citadel (actually, in the cave ceiling above the Underground Sea nearby) mutes Inquisitor detection until the final 2 miles of the ascent.

The Mother Lode

In contrast to the gleaming towers now going up for the military, the Work Zone of Prak City is quite a bit seamier. Ironically, this part of Prak City predates the Empire; the plateau made for a good location for mining prospectors to place their encampments. The miners are still there, but so are all the construction firms the Empire has brought in. The firms are actively taking down parts of the old city to put up a new one in its place—a city which, many of the residents in the Work Zone realize, they will not be welcome in. Their increasingly ghettoized community is an active part of its own destruction.

Destruction of brain cells is the major leisure-time activity here, and inquiries will direct the heroes to a shrine devoted to the act: the Mother Lode Cantina. Managed by a female Bothan who gets left alone because she knows where all the skeletons are buried on Prakith, the Cantina is host to a wider range of individuals than would ever be allowed to congregate anywhere else on Prakith. There are construction workers and miners here, Human and alien both, with the latter complaining of increasing harassment by COMPNOR.

The cantina’s real mother lode is information. Depending on who the heroes talk to, they can learn quite a lot.

Construction Workers

  • Environmental practices here are not particularly sound. The Empire is literally drilling holes in the giant mesa and dumping its construction debris and trash into them.

  • Most of the workers who built the Citadel Inquisitorius have been cycled off Prakith by their employers—on purpose, most suspect.

  • The Citadel has entry points at its base and a small landing platform at its top, used by Inquisitors going to and returning from Prak City.

  • Part of why the Citadel went up so fast is that they found a clearing in the mountains that was perfectly flat and sound enough for a foundation. Who cleared it, they don’t know.

Miners

  • There are four major mining operations in the vicinity of Prak City. The Asonel system is the largest, with multiple mining operations; it is to the north and northwest. To the west and southwest are more modest operations: the Geddis, Herkeath, and Rilkean mines.

  • Gems are the most lucrative resource miners get from Prakith’s crust; in some places, they’re plentiful enough to be picked from the cave wall by hand. Of course, someone still must do the work.

  • Cave-ins have plagued a lot of mines, making employees for these operations hard to come by. It shouldn’t be too hard for itinerant laborers such as the heroes to sign on with a mining operation. Curiously, at least one, the Geddis operation, is looking for hired muscle as well as miners.

  • To the knowledge of the miners here, none of the cavern systems entered by the major mining operations interconnect, and none comes anywhere near the Magraddor Range (where the Citadel is).

Aliens

  • COMPNOR agents are stepping up the pressure on construction and mining firms to get rid of their non-Human employees.

  • COMPNOR agents in Prak City itself have recently begun hassling aliens physically, with the Empire turning a blind eye.

  • It’s rumored that COMPNOR agents are literally getting away with murder—a lot of “undesirables” have been disappearing altogether.

  • There might be a native non-Human population on Prakith. Unusual characters have been seen from time to time, but they dash away as quickly as they’re spotted.

Whoever the heroes talk to, they should hear that the best source of information might be the guy who’s been on Prakith the longest, Old Man Geddis. A former miner (and the founder of the Geddis mine), Geddis is drinking his life away in the back room. He knows a lot, but heroes are warned that his liver and mind are in equally poor shape these days.

Old Man Geddis

They call him the Old Man, and one look at him shows why: Myrum Geddis looks like he’s spent much of his 70 years either lifting rocks or drilling into them. He probably looked this way at 30. But swilling his drink at a table in the back, Old Man Geddis gives no impression of having been in a mine—or having engaged in any kind of work—in the past year. His days are spent nattering about the phantom creatures he’s seen in the catacombs, and drowning his sorrows. And he has a few: As the heroes can learn by offering Geddis a drink or two, the mine that bears his name is no longer his:

  • Is Geddis mine a rich claim? “You betcha it is—though it’s tougher’n anythin’ to get the gems outta there. You gotta be real careful not to hit ‘em with the laser-borer too much or you’ll ruin the lot. It’s fine work—y’need organics for that.”

  • Why couldn’t you make a go of the claim? “I coulda! But I couldn’t afford to hire all the hands I needed t’really get at the good gem veins. And then them Impies come along, givin’ favors t’the Thaarke Corporation. Blast ‘em all!”

  • What’s wrong with the Thaarke Corporation? “They’re scum! Claim-jumpers—and that’s not all. Criminals, the lot of them. And they use slaves when they can find ‘em!”

  • What makes you think there were creatures living underground? “I seen ‘em! At th’ end of a tunnel—I could barely make ‘em out, but they was movin’. Looked for all my years like hairless Wookiees, if y’ask me.”

  • Are they looking for more miners out there? “Ye’d help them, even after drinkin’ with me? Pfah! But they’ve taken every lowlife that don’t know how t’tell a gem from a dirtball. I guess they’d take ya.”

At the conclusion of the discussion, Old Man Geddis sinks into a drunken stupor. Further inquiries about the Thaarke Corporation can be made within the cantina. Most people believe that the firm is a better and more productive steward than Geddis was; at least, plenty of gems are coming out now. Thaarke is hiring miners and security-types for the Geddis mine, and if the heroes are interested, they can visit the recruiting post in the morning. “Just don’t say that Old Man Geddis sent you!”

Seejo Again

Emerging from the cantina after dark, the heroes head up the alley and spy something rolling their way—a metal barrel, bounding down the lane. The can crashes against the side of a building, and a familiar yelp emanates from within the barrel. The lid pops off to reveal none other than Jekk Seejo, dizzy and bruised. Regaining his bearings, Seejo recognizes the heroes. He’s pleased to see them, but fearful of the halfdozen figures coming down the hill. They’re COMPNOR agents, devoted to purging non-Human influences from the Empire. “You drunks stand aside,” the first one yells. “This isn’t your affair!”

Seejo, panicking, seems to think that it is. “Don’t let them have me!” When the Good Feeling returned to port, he lost his job, his ship, and, ultimately, any protection he had against COMPNOR. They no longer want him on Prakith, and he fears that they won’t bother deporting him. The agents were rolling him somewhere when the barrel got away. “They’re going to throw me down the Drains,” he says. “Help me!”

Saving Seejo

When the encounter begins, Jekk Seejo has just tumbled down the stone stairs from the top of the map and crashed against the hovel to the south. The COMPNOR supporters descend the stairs.

Read-Aloud Text

When the encounter begins, read the following text aloud:

The COMPNOR thugs—two, four—no, six!—aren’t happy at all to have outsiders meddling with their fun. “If you like Greenie here,” snarls one, “maybe you can have what he’s having!” This situation has just boiled over. However the COMPNOR thugs do not approach as four Imperial Guard Champions drop down from above.

Compnor Suppoerters

The fanatical COMPNOR supporters—four men and two women—are the least of the threats the Empire has to offer in Prak City, but they have more official sanction here in the Work Zone, and they’re bolder about their actions and their numbers than the heroes have seen previously. The supporters are dressed like any other locals down here.

If they are attacked for any reason, have them die in a single attack and scatter immediately.

It’s hard to imagine why anyone would want to make life in the Work Zone of Prak City any harder. However, the miniature mob that’s arrived is more than happy to take out their frustrations on others in the name of the Empire.

Imperial Sovereign Protectors (4)

The newly created Imperial Sovereign Protectors are the elite of the elite Royal Guards. Consisting of Imperial Guard Champions, these particular sovereign protectors are on Prakith to receive Force training, though they have not yet received their training from the Inquisitors. When the COMPNOR agents are attacked, these guards are dispatched to help deal with the situation.

These guards look to be garbed in the armor of the Royal Guard, though large sections of their armor are painted black. Each carries a doubleblade and moves with the grace associated with a powerful melee combatant.


Imperial Guard Champion

Medium humanoid (human), lawful dark


  • Armor Class 18 (heavy exoskeleton) or 20 (knight speed)
  • Hit Points 180 (24d8+72)
  • Speed 30ft.

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
19 (+4) 16 (+3) 17 (+3) 17 (+3) 16 (+3) 20 (+5)

  • Saving Throws Str +7, Con +7, Wis +6
  • Condition Immunities Frightened
  • Skills Intimidation +9, Perception +7
  • Senses passive Perception 17
  • Languages Galactic Basic
  • Challenge 11 (7,200 XP)

Innate Forcecasting. The Imperial Guard Champion's innate forcecasting ability is Charisma (force save DC 17, +9 to hit with force powers). It can innately cast the following force powers:

At will: Enfeeble
3/Day: Fear
1/Day: Battle Meditation, Phasewalk, Knight Speed

Choreography of Belligerence. The Imperial Guard Champion has advantage on attack rolls against a creature if at least one other Imperial Guard is within 5 feet of the creature and the ally isn't incapacitated.

Imperial Training. The Imperial Guard Champion deals an additional weapon die of damage with its weapons (included).

Keen Striking. The Imperial Guard Champion scores a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20. If at least one other Imperial Guard is within 5 feet of its target and the ally isn't incapacitated, the creature instead scores a critical hit on a roll of 18-20.

Rally the Troops. As a bonus action, the Imperial Guard Champion can end the charmed and frightened conditions on itself and each creature of its choice that it can see within 30 feet of it.

Actions

Multiattack. The Imperial Guard Champion makes three weapon attacks.

Doublesword. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5ft., one target. Hit 17 (3d8+4) kinetic damage.

Heavy Pistol. Ranged Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, range 40/160, one target. Hit: 7 (1d8+3) energy damage.

Reactions

Parry. The Imperial Guard Champion adds 4 to his AC against one melee attack that would hit him. To do so, the Imperial Guard Champion must see the attacker and be wielding a melee weapon.

Imperial Sovereign Protector Tactics

The sovereign protectors move quickly into melee so that they can use their doubleblades, trying surround players to take advantage of their bonuses from being around allies.

Encounter Map

[To be added]

Conclusion

Down here in the alley after dark, there’s a good chance that a brawl will go unnoticed; the Empire rather expects COMPNOR supporters to start a lot of the fights themselves. Bystanders disappear into the nearby buildings quickly. COMPNOR supporters will quickly try to flee once the player seem to be winning up the stairs on foot, running down a side alley or into the cantina as a last resort. They do not flee to the south, where one of the Drains is, fearing that might give an attacker ideas.

Once the heroes deal with the sovereign protectors, they will need to make haste in their departure. Though the government of Prakith expects trouble from the COMPNOR supporters, they will not take the deaths of four sovereign protectors lightly. However, the Empire’s response will likely be slow, since the local government expects the sovereign protectors to be able to handle themselves and therefore will not have reinforcements nearby.

Seejo, nearly in a panic, directs the heroes to a stinking pit near the construction site. This is one of the Drains, tubes drilled from the Prak City plateau into a recess deep underground; the Empire has been using them to dump garbage (and the odd individual who has outlived his usefulness). This is a fine place to dispose of any bodies, and the heroes will become aware of the Drains as a possible exit from Prak City. This particular tube delivers any bodies (or heroes who chance it) to Location 1 in the “Devourer in the Dark” encounter.

If the heroes deliver Seejo from the fate he feared, he invites them to his sad excuse for a dwelling. As Seejo explains, the Good Feeling returned to Prakith’s second moon infested with mynocks (the same swarm that attacked the heroes), resulting in his firing and the loss of his ship. His former employers sent him on the next shuttle to Prakith, but that was no favor. The Duros explains that the Empire has made it impossible for him to make a living, and now he’s at his wit’s end. If he can’t find employment quickly, he’ll be at the mercy of the COMPNOR thugs anywhere he goes on Prak City.

ISeejo asks about the condition of the heroes’ ship. He begs for the tedious assignment of inspecting their vessel in port over the next few days. “Trust me! I’ll have a tool kit this time! I’ll deliver your ship to you, wherever you are!” Seejo seems trustworthy enough, and the heroes know that the security system on their ship is such that he wouldn’t be able to activate the hyperdrive. If the players still turn him down, he mention that he know all the Empire's tricks and can make sure they dont plant any bugs, bombs or any other surprises on the player's ship.

If hired, Seejo grows chipper again and gives the heroes his comlink ID number before darting off toward the spaceport. (The Duros thus provides a possible means of escape later for heroes in the Citadel. If the heroes refuse his help now, they will have other options for escape from the Citadel, but they will lose the chance at a Destiny reward later.)

A Shadowy Figure

As another day begins and ends on Prakith, the heroes find their continued presence in Prak City is meeting with diminishing returns. The military areas are unwelcoming, with Inquisitors here and there keeping a watch on this important Imperial asset. Only the miners seem to have any regular access to the area between Prak City and the Magraddor Range. There are meager opportunities to defy the Empire in the Work Zone; the heroes might succeed at a sabotage attempt on a construction site once, but the area will be saturated with Inquisitors thereafter. And reports among the workers say that as more and more of Prak City is up and running, Inquisitor sweeps of the Work Zone are on the increase.

The heroes always have the feeling that they’re being followed, which is confirmed one night in the Work Zone after a successful DC 18 Wisdom (Perception) check. A shadowy figure darts from cover to cover in the alleys of the Work Zone, keeping an eye on the party. But the instant the heroes spot their follower, they realize it’s not an Inquisitor, but something else.

Spotted, a tall shadow falls back toward a construction area, diving for a crawlspace underneath a parked crane. The figure is as tall as a Wookiee and moves with about as much grace. But for all his height and evident strength, this ruddy-skinned being cowers in terror as you approach—at least, until he gets a better look at you.

“You—you!” he says in broken Basic, his sad eyes darting around to see who else is in the area. “You helped the green man. You will help Stereb—you help me!”

Herdr’tui, as he calls himself, is a member of the Stereb species, an interstellar race of cave dwellers whose presence on Prakith has been, until now, unknown to the Empire. His Basic vocabulary is very limited; there’s no telling where he picked it up, but Stereb are great mimics. He’s been lost in Prak City for several days, and he seems to have come from below. Imperial drilling on the plateau attracted his attention, as a few inquiries reveal:

  • Where did you come from? “From Prakith. From inside, where the vital air and fluids nourish the Worldflesh.”
  • How did you get stuck here? “I saw the holes where the parasites were fouling our caverns with their filth. I followed the hidden waters’ flow upward and found a passage to this place. But Prakith was weak, and the footing crumbled.”
  • How long have you been up here in Prak City? “Since I arrived.”
  • Why do you trust us? “I saw you help the green man against the people who chased me. You are not of them. Perhaps you are of the stone.”
  • Is there another way to your home? “The pits they have drilled reach there. But I know what awaits below now. I fear to go alone. But with you, perhaps . . .”
  • Why are you hiding here? “I want to go home, to return before it is too late. You cannot leave them untended. You will help me reach what I hear them call the Drains.”

If asked what cannot be left untended or what waits for him below, Herdr’tui will mention a single word: greethka. But he cannot translate it into any word the heroes understand.

Down the Drains

Before the heroes’ conversation can continue, a spotlight shines into the construction site from a ship hovering above. “Halt!” comes the call. “You there! Halt on command of the Inquisitorius!” The Inquisitors are on a routine sweep of the Work Zone for anything out of the ordinary—just to terrorize the locals and remind them the Empire is in charge—and they’ve also been hearing reports of a strange alien lurking around.

Setup

If this encounter is not triggered earlier in the adventure, the Inquisitor arrives during a random sweep after the heroes meet Herdr’tui.

Place the heroes near the cover area at the center of the map; this represents the hiding place where they find the Stereb. The Inquisitor’s shuttle lands in the slightly raised landing area to the northeast. Whether the heroes stand their ground or not, Herdr’tui immediately runs in terror into the construction site, waving for the heroes to follow him.

Read-Aloud Text

Soon after the heroes trigger an Inquisitor’s response, the shuttle flies in.

That’s something you don’t want to see—an Imperial shuttle coming in over the rooftops of the Work Zone, headed your way. You spy the symbol of the Inquisitorius on the nose of the vessel. It’s safe to say that they’re not just slumming today.

Purge Troopers (4)


Purge Trooper, Commander

Medium humanoid, lawful dark


  • Armor Class 16 (battle armor)
  • Hit Points 104 (16d8 + 32)
  • Speed 30 ft.

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
12 (+1) 18 (+4) 14 (+2) 11 (+0) 14 (+2) 11 (+0)

  • Saving Throws Dex +7, Wis +5
  • Skills Insight +5, Intimidation +3, Perception +5, Stealth +7, Survival +5
  • Senses passive Perception 15
  • Languages Galactic Basic, one other
  • Challenge 6 (2,300 XP)

Cover to Cover. Attack rolls made against the trooper on its turn are made with disadvantage.

Force Resistance. The trooper has advantage on saving throws against Force powers and other force effects.

Jedi Hunter. The purge trooper has advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks to track humanoids that can cast force powers and on Intelligence (Lore) checks to recall information about Jedi and the Force.

Surprise Attack. If the trooper surprises a creature and hits it with an attack during the first round of combat, the target takes an extra 7 (2d6) damage from the attack.

Training Inquisitorius. The purge trooper deals one extra die of damage with its weapons (included).

Actions

Multiattack. The purge trooper makes two melee weapon attacks or three ranged weapon attacks.

Blaster Rifle. Ranged Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, range 100/400 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8+4) energy damage.

Bash. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (2d8+1) kinetic damage.

Shock Grenade (3/day). The purge trooper throws a grenade, choosing a point within 35 ft. Each creature within 10 feet of the point must make a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw. A creature takes 10 (3d6) lightning damage on a failed save, or half as much as on a successful one. Additionally, on a failed save, the creature is stunned until the end of its next turn.

Reactions

Force Backlash. When the purge trooper is forced to make a saving throw against a force power, it can immediately use its reaction to move up to half its speed toward the caster. If it ends its movement within 5 feet of the caster, it can immediately make a melee weapon attack against the target as part of the reaction. This movement does not provoke opportunity attacks.


Purge Trooper, Electrobaton

Medium humanoid, lawful dark


  • Armor Class 15 (combat suit)
  • Hit Points 72 (13d8 + 13)
  • Speed 30 ft.

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
12 (+1) 17 (+3) 12 (+1) 11 (+0) 13 (+1) 11 (+0)

  • Saving Throws Dex +5, Wis +3
  • Skills Acrobatics +5, Perception +3, Stealth +5, Survival +3
  • Senses passive Perception 13
  • Languages Galactic Basic, one other
  • Challenge 4 (1,100 XP)

Aggressive. As a bonus action, the trooper can move up to its speed toward a hostile creature it can see.

Force Resistance. The trooper has advantage on saving throws against Force powers and other force effects.

Jedi Hunter. The purge trooper has advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks to track humanoids that can cast force powers and on Intelligence (Lore) checks to recall information about Jedi and the Force.

Actions

Multiattack. The purge trooper makes four melee weapon attacks.

Electrobatons. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d4+3) kinetic damage and the target must make a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw or take 2 (1d4) lightning damage and be shocked until the end of their next turn. On a success the target takes half damage and isn't shocked.

Reactions

Force Backlash. When the purge trooper is forced to make a saving throw against a force power, it can immediately use its reaction to move up to half its speed toward the caster. If it ends its movement within 5 feet of the caster, it can immediately make a melee weapon attack against the target as part of the reaction. This movement does not provoke opportunity attacks.

Parry. The purge trooper adds 3 to its AC against one melee attack that would hit it. To do so, the trooper must see the attacker and be wielding a melee weapon.


Purge Trooper, Electrohammer

Medium humanoid, lawful dark


  • Armor Class 17 (assault armor)
  • Hit Points 77 (14d8 + 14)
  • Speed 30 ft.

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
18 (+4) 12 (+1) 13 (+1) 11 (+0) 13 (+1) 11 (+0)

  • Saving Throws Str +7, Wis +4
  • Skills Athletics +7, Intimidation +3, Perception +4, Survival +4
  • Senses passive Perception 14
  • Languages Galactic Basic, one other
  • Challenge 5 (1,800 XP)

Aggressive. As a bonus action, the trooper can move up to its speed toward a hostile creature it can see.

Force Resistance. The trooper has advantage on saving throws against Force powers and other force effects.

Jedi Hunter. The purge trooper has advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks to track humanoids that can cast force powers and on Intelligence (Lore) checks to recall information about Jedi and the Force.

Training Inquisitorius. The purge trooper deals one extra die of damage with its weapons (included).

Actions

Multiattack. The purge trooper makes two melee weapon attacks.

Electrohammer. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (3d4+4) kinetic damage and the target must make a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw or take 2 (1d4) lightning damage and be shocked until the end of their next turn. On a success the target takes half damage and isn't shocked.

Shockwave (Recharge 5 or 6). The purge trooper slams its hammer into the ground, creating a shockwave that extends in a 10-foot radius centered on itself. Each creature in the area must succeed on a DC 15 Strength or Dexterity saving throw (target's choice) or be knocked prone and take 14 (3d6+4) lightning damage. On a successful save, the creature takes only half the damage, isn't knocked prone, and is pushed 5 ft. away fron the trooper into an unoccupied space. If no unoccupied space is within range, the creature instead falls prone.

Reactions

Force Backlash. When the purge trooper is forced to make a saving throw against a force power, it can immediately use its reaction to move up to half its speed toward the caster. If it ends its movement within 5 feet of the caster, it can immediately make a melee weapon attack against the target as part of the reaction. This movement does not provoke opportunity attacks.


Purge Trooper, Electrostaff

Medium humanoid, lawful dark


  • Armor Class 16 (battle armor)
  • Hit Points 98 (15d8 + 30)
  • Speed 30 ft.

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
12 (+1) 17 (+3) 14 (+2) 11 (+0) 14 (+2) 11 (+0)

  • Saving Throws Dex +6, Wis +5
  • Skills Perception +5, Stealth +6, Survival +5
  • Senses passive Perception 15
  • Languages Galactic Basic, one other
  • Challenge 5 (1,800 XP)

Aggressive. As a bonus action, the trooper can move up to its speed toward a hostile creature it can see.

Double-Strike. When the purge trooper misses with a melee weapon attack, it can immediately make another melee attack as a bonus action against the same target. Alternatively, if the trooper lands two electrostaff attacks against the same target, it can instead use its bonus action to make one additional attack.

Force Resistance. The trooper has advantage on saving throws against Force powers and other force effects.

Jedi Hunter. The purge trooper has advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks to track humanoids that can cast force powers and on Intelligence (Lore) checks to recall information about Jedi and the Force.

Training Inquisitorius. The purge trooper deals one extra die of damage with its weapons (included).

Actions

Multiattack. The purge trooper makes two melee weapon attacks.

Electrostaff. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (2d6+3) kinetic damage and the target must make a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw or take 2 (1d4) lightning damage and be shocked until the end of their next turn. On a success the target takes half damage and isn't shocked.

Reactions

Force Backlash. When the purge trooper is forced to make a saving throw against a force power, it can immediately use its reaction to move up to half its speed toward the caster. If it ends its movement within 5 feet of the caster, it can immediately make a melee weapon attack against the target as part of the reaction. This movement does not provoke opportunity attacks.

Inquisitor Jorad

Once a Jedi Guardian, Jorad was spared after Order 66 was given when he was found and turned by the Inquisitorius. Always too prideful for the Jedi Order, his conversion was not difficult. Now, on the planet that’s the seat of power for his organization, Jorad hopes to make the big arrest that will get him off patrol duty and into Citadel Inquisitorius more often.

A vision in red and black steps from the shuttle, flanked on all four sides by purge troopers. They all stop at once as the Inquisitor looks at you.

“I am Inquisitor Jorad,” he says, his nasal voice dripping with disdain. “And I am most interested in who you might be. My time away from the Citadel is seldom rewarding, but something tells me that you will make this a very interesting trip! Very interesting indeed.”


Inquisitor Jorad

Medium humanoid, lawful dark


  • Armor Class 17 (fiber armor)
  • Hit Points 143 (22d8+44)
  • Speed 30 ft.

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
11 (+0) 20 (+5) 14 (+2) 13 (+1) 16 (+3) 21 (+5)

  • Saving Throws Dex +10, Wis +8, Cha +10
  • Skills Acrobatics +10, Intimidation +10, Perception +8, Stealth +10
  • Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 18
  • Languages Galactic Basic
  • Challenge 14 (11,500 XP)

Detect Force. The inquisitor can sense the presence and direction of a creature who can cast force powers within 120 feet.

Forcecasting. The inquisitor is a 12th-level forcecaster. It's forcecasting ability is Charisma (force save DC 18, +10 to hit with power attacks). The inquisitor has 41 force points and knows the following force powers:

At-will: denounce, force disarm, force push/pull, mind trick, saber throw, slow
1st-level: dark side tendrils, fear, force jump, sap vitality, sense force
2nd-level: animate weapon, drain vitality, force sight, stun
3rd-level: improved dark side tendrils, choke, force suppression, horror, sever force
4th-level: dominate beast, drain life
5th-level: dominate mind, siphon life

Force Resistance. The inquisitor has advantage on saving throws against force powers.

War Casting. When the inquisitor uses an action to cast a force power, they can use a bonus action to make a Spinning Doublesaber attack.

Actions

Multiattack. The Inquisitor makes three spinning doublesaber attacks.

Spinning Doublesaber. Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 23 (4d8 + 5) energy damage

Dark Lightning. Ranged Force Attack: +10 to hit, range 120 ft., one or two targets. Hit: 28 (8d6) necrotic damage. The target must succeed on a DC 18 Strength saving throw or become restrained until the end of the inquisitor's next turn.

Inquisitor Jorad Tactics

Inquisitor Jorad is tasked to bring any unknown Force-users to the Citadel where they can be questioned and possibly turned into new weapons for the Inquisitorius. To this end, he tries to capture Force-users alive, using any form of trickery or subterfuge at his disposal. He is not averse to capturing weaker, non-Force-sensitive heroes to use as hostages.

Encounter Map

[To Be Added]

Conclusion

If the heroes defeat the Inquisitor, they find a code cylinder on him that assists in the entry to Citadel Inquisitorius. Dispatching Jorad, his team, or the shuttle brings a response in the form of another “Prak City Security Force” encounter, so heroes should quickly move to escape the area. Herdr’tui, running to the south at the opening of this encounter, encourages the heroes to enter the Drains with him before seemingly disappearing.. The shuttle can be commandeered, although since it has a tracking device onboard, it will not get far before TIE fighters arrive to ground it.

On closer inspection, the heroes see that this is one of the Drains, bore-holes drilled at a sharp (80-degree) angle far down through the rock. Herdr’tui’s distant holler emanates from far below, indicating that he’s slid down quickly and seemingly safely. If the heroes follow him, the tube goes to Location 2 in the “Devourer in the Dark” encounter

In the unlikely event that the heroes do not pursue Herdr’tui, the cavalry arrive for the Empire in the form of a “Prak City Security Force” encounter. Afterward, another one of the Drains beckons, going to Location 3 in the “Devourer in the Dark” encounter. Tussling with COMPNOR agents is one thing, but no one can kill Inquisitors and run for long in the Work Zone. (As a possible variant, Response Team members angered at the deaths of their fellows might toss one or more characters into the Drains as a form of execution—an effective method that has been used before.)

Part 2: Underworld

The heroes’ arrival in the sprawling underworld beneath Prakith’s tortured surface is as painful as it is sudden. The disposal tubes are bore-holes drilled at a sharp (80-degree) angle far down through the rock. The rock is sheer and slick with moisture, if the players do not have access to some way to stop their fall, have them take 70 (20d6) kinetic damage from falling so far and colliding onto the debris pile at the bottom of each of the three disposal tubes.

That event marks the heroes’ arrival in a vast cavern deep beneath Prak City. This is one of several trash disposal locations for the city and was discovered during early construction. The engineers decided that it would be far more economical to simply dump waste down into the cavern, which even at maximum use would take generations to fill. Even better, there’s a living garbage disposal down here in the form of the greethka, a massive beast that devours trash. It’s a surprisingly environmental solution, if an accidental one, and the cavern also provides the Empire with a means for the disposal of unwanted beings.

Devourer in the Dark

Setup

The heroes arrive abruptly, sliding at high speed down one of three steeply slanted (80-degree) bore-holes from above. Heroes entering from the tube at the construction site in Prak City arrive at Location 1 or Herdr’tui and heroes entering from immediately after the “Curious Inquisitor” encounter arrive at Location 2. Location 3 can be used for any if you wish. Each location features a 15-feet-high pile of garbage and other debris. Locations 1 and 2 are infested by ratlike dinkos; Location 3 is closest to the greethka’s watery lair.

If Herdr’tui arrives with the heroes, he immediately begins to retreat toward whatever cavern wall he is closest to, seeking higher ground. He wants to stay away from the giant greethka.

Read-Aloud Text

Once all the heroes enter one of the Drains, read the following text aloud:

You rocket down the slick chute before tumbling into a wet pile of garbage. It’s a painful landing, but no one seems to have followed you—nor should they, since this cavern looks like nothing more than a great stomach, with glowing bioluminescent slime dripping from the ceiling. Water trickles into the cavern off a collapsed pile of rocks to the north, collecting into a large green pool before washing out a black exit to the south. Below the ends of the chutes above lie massive hummocks of trash, waiting as if to be digested by something. Noises echo through the chamber.

Greethka (2)

Motile slimes, molds, and jellies are well suited to life in the subterranean wilderness of Prakith. Many live on the heat and energy provided by the lava and magma of the underworld, but others have adapted and evolved to take advantage of other resources, whether organic or inorganic. The gelatinous masses known to the Stereb as greethka eat everything.

Normal adult greethka grow to about 5 feet in width, a perfect size for oozing through the passages of Prakith. They vary in shape from a glistening, bulging sphere to a flat, slimy pancake, depending on what they’re digesting. In any form, they can extrude one to three 3-squarelong pseudopods from any section of their body, with which they grab and pin their food source. Wild greethka prefer to live in large placid ponds fed by underground waters, but sometimes they live in fast-moving rivers through which they swim, as fast as a fish, in a wormlike form. They are greenish-brown in color and slightly translucent; large globules (often remains of recent repasts) float at random within their bodies.

As the heroes learn later if they quiz Herdr’tui, the greethka in this cavern is an aberration. Greethka whose diets are not regulated grow uncontrollably. That’s the case with the greethka in the pond in the cavern; it’s been living off the debris dumped by the Empire.

The water in the pool glows, but it’s not just the shiny goo that’s dripping off the stalactites. There’s something organic to the way the water is shimmering.

Wait—that’s not water . . .


Giant Greethka

Huge beast (ooze), unaligned


  • Armor Class 9
  • Hit Points 483 (42d12+210)
  • Speed 30 ft., swim 60 ft.

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
21 (+5) 6 (-2) 21 (+5) 1 (-5) 15 (+2) 8 (-1)

  • Skills Perception +8
  • Damage Vulnerabilities sonic
  • Condition Immunities charmed, deafened, paralyzed, prone, stunned
  • Senses blindsight 60 ft. (blind beyond this radius), tremorsense 120 ft., passive Perception 18
  • Languages -
  • Challenge 17 (18,000 XP)

Amorphous. The Greethka can move through a space as narrow as 1 inch wide without squeezing.

Actions

Multiattack. The Greethka makes three pseudopod attacks.

Pseudopod. Melee Weapon Attack: +11 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (2d8+5) kinetic damage plus 13 (3d8) acid damage.

Slime Burst. Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, range 120 ft., one target. Hit: 28 (8d6) acid damage.

Engulf. The Greethka moves up to its speed. While doing so, it can enter Large or smaller creatures' spaces. Whenever the Greethka enters a creature's space, the creature must make a DC 19 Dexterity saving throw.

On a successful save, the creature can choose to be pushed 5 feet back or to the side of the Greethka. A creature that chooses not to be pushed suffers the consequences of a failed saving throw.

On a failed save, the Greethka enters the creature's space, and the creature takes 18 (4d8) acid damage and is engulfed. The engulfed creature can't breathe, is restrained, and takes 28 (8d6) acid damage at the start of each of the Greethka's turns. When the Greethka moves, the engulfed creature moves with it.

An engulfed creature can try to escape by taking an action to make a DC 15 Strength check. On a success, the creature escapes and enters a space of its choice within 5 feet of the Greethka.

Greethka Tactics

The greethka heads toward the nearest thing detected by their tremorsense. After feeling the item with a pair of pseudopods, they try to envelop the item.

Features of the Area

The poor lighting conditions of the cavern means that everything is considered to be in dim light.

Encounter Map

[To Be added]

Conclusion

Herdr’tui emerges from hiding and becomes more animated. He points at the greethka’s fading nucleus, still gently pulsating within the sickening ooze, and begins repeating a phrase that defies translation. Any hero making a successful DC 15 Intelligence check divines that Herdr’tui is interested in seeing the nucleus retrieved. This may not seem like a sensible act at first, especially given what’s just happened, but a hero willing to brave the guck and get his or her hands dirty by retrieving the nucleus will find the experience rewarding later on. Herdr’tui takes the nucleus—a ball the size of a Human infant—and holds it gently, murmuring softly to the thing. The nucleus begins purring and glowing more warmly.

Whatever happens to the greethka, Herdr’tui awkwardly explains that the creature originally belonged to him. Leading the heroes through the hip-deep water where the stream exits through the southern tunnel, Herdr’tui points out a similarly dressed Stereb in the passageways up ahead. The Stereb is coaxing along a greethka only a few feet across, far smaller than the one that threatened the heroes. Herdr’tui, as his given name suggests, is a herder, charged by his people with tending to the macabre greethka. With a herder to manage the creatures’ diet, the Stereb can keep the greethkas moving slowly and consuming unwanted debris, thus performing a useful function for their society. But when Herdr’tui tracked his lost greethka to the debris cavern, he found that the creature had gorged on Imperial trash to the point where it had become wild and unruly to manage.

Leading the heroes through smooth-surfaced tunnels populated by surprised Stereb stoneworkers, Herdr’tui explains that he had worked his way alone upstream, hoping to find where the trash was coming from, when he was captured by Imperial workers sealing off that entrance to the cavern. Unrestrained, the greethka gorged on everything the Imperials could throw away. By removing the still-living nucleus from the slain greethka, the heroes will permit Herdr’tui to raise a proper-sized creature again, thus saving his livelihood. Either way, Herdr’tui owes his life to the heroes, and the Stereb civilians now gawking at the strange visitors take the long-missing herder’s presence as an endorsement of the newcomers.

The Nerve Center

Herdr’tui leads the heroes into an underground grotto. Luminescent stalagmites hang from the ceiling, dripping a greenish dew and providing light for the room. This is clearly an important area to the Stereb culture—the nerve center of this community (in more ways than one, as the heroes will see). There are eight tunnels leading into the Grotto and eight rubble piles in the center of the room. Each 5 feet high, the rubble piles include pebbles and larger fist-sized rocks.

Herdr’tui calls out into the emptiness, and, moments later, eight withered and shrunken Stereb enter, one through each of the eight entrances. That includes the entrance Herdr’tui led the heroes through; the heroes are not entirely sure how or when that particular elder female Stereb entered the tunnel behind them. Herdr’tui nods graciously to that figure, indicating his fealty to her. The aged Stereb settle atop the eight rubble piles as if they were sitting on beanbags. The piles are horribly uncomfortable for anyone else, but the Stereb seem to find this kind of furniture completely acceptable.

Herdr’tui stands before his leader, whose name is Eldr’har, and recounts recent events in the Stereb language. The exposition is drawn out and ponderous; there’s no use for speedy storytelling when you’re a Stereb with all the time in the world and no place to go. Eldr’har acts as if she’s already aware of the information somehow and addresses the heroes in broken Basic:

“You are not a part of us. Yet you have brought a part of us back to us. You are not harmful to Prakith—you have helped Prakith. There is so much illness to Prakith—we are beset with it. We hope you have come to this place to help Prakith further.”

Eldr’har speaks solemnly, always using plural pronouns; while Stereb are individuals with specialized tasks, they don’t seem to have particularly strong egos. Eldr’har invites questions from the heroes. Below are answers to some questions they might ask:

  • Who are the Stereb? “We are of the stone. We belong to Prakith, its walls, and its vessels.”

  • Have the Stereb always been here? “That’s a strange question. Where else would we be?”

  • Are you connected to the Stereb on other planets? “Other planets? There are other planets? Prakith is all!”

  • Are you in charge here? “All here serve Prakith. We all have our function. We elders know the function best.”

  • How is Stereb society constructed? “We all have our function. The Herders, like Herdr’tui, clear debris. The Hewers work the passages, keeping them open. The Feeders tend to us all. All of us are important to Prakith.”

  • What do you think of the Imperial presence above? “All that is of Prakith, belongs. That which is outside is not a part of us.”

  • What do you think of the mining activity? “There is a cancer on Prakith. We were created to protect against it. But the cancer moves too fast. We can but slow its progress.”

  • Do you know a way into the Citadel? “We do not know what you are talking about.”

Heroes who succeed on DC 22 Intelligence (Lore) check recognize that the Stereb are not local, but part of a race that has been encountered on other worlds previously. If the players roll above a 25, they additionally recall specific details of their presence elsewhere: While the Stereb have lived on the surface of rocky planets, erecting stone buildings and monuments, their true presence is underground, in the great catacombs they have hewn. It is impossible to divine the original Stereb homeworld; they do not seem to know, themselves.

Understanding the true nature of Stereb society requires a multidisciplinary approach and almost certainly requires the pooling of the heroes’ skills. A successful DC 20 Intelligence check with advantage as players pool their knowledge reveals that the Stereb consider the world they are on to be a living entity (even though, in truth, it is not). The Stereb believe that they are literally the planet’s antibodies: microorganisms living symbiotically with the rocky world, responsible for its care. That extends to clearing tunnel blockages to improve the planet’s “circulation” of air and water, keeping the effects of erosion uniform, and above all, respecting the surface environment, which seems to be the source of the “illness” Eldr’har describes. Stereb society breaks down into roughly eight different sectors, all corresponding to various imagined autonomic systems within Prakith’s planet-sized “anatomy.” Herders, such as Herdr’tui, direct their creatures to clear away foreign matter from the planet’s tunnels; Hewers keep the tunnels safe and clear; Feeders harvest the lichens to sustain the Stereb.

Any attempt to disabuse Eldr’har or the other Stereb of the notion that Prakith is a living entity, or that they are part of the planetary immune system, results in reduced cooperation, but only by a matter of degree. The Stereb are generally compliant and slow to anger, reacting only in response to an immediate threat. Words do not offend them.

Exercising a Tumor

The Stereb seem eager (eager for them, anyway) to entertain their visitors. It isn’t something they get to do very often. This is a good time for the heroes to rest and recuperate, although the toasted fungus the Stereb serve might not sit well with many stomachs.

Eldr’nol, the youngest male of the elder eight, takes a particular interest in the newcomers. Eldr’nol and his followers are responsible for the logistical needs of the tribe: keeping tabs on where the tunnelers need to go, what the lichen harvesters are doing, and—importantly for the heroes—the big picture of the surface and underworld. Eldr’nol proudly demonstrates a huge slab painted with many phosphorescent hues, which represents the Stereb map of their world as they know it. This is the petrigram, “the Worldflesh set in stone.”

Eldr’nol does not recognize references to the Citadel Inquisitorius, Prak City, or anywhere else aboveground unless the heroes provide some kind of geographic context. Human structures are basically all alike to the Stereb, but they do know what the Prak City plateau above them looks like, as well as the Magraddor Range, the mountainous area where the Citadel is. (Granted, the Stereb mostly know it from below, but enough of their kind have reached the surface for mappers to recognize its terrain.) With patience, the heroes can piece together where they are in relationship to the Stereb map and where the surface features are.

The cavern system near Prak City goes much farther than the Empire’s records or mining surveys suggest. The Prakithian crust includes large swaths of minerals that make sonic and gravitic surveys of cave systems unreliable. (Many of those same minerals are what make the planet so attractive to miners.) Importantly, the petrigram depicts a second extensive cave system to the west, near the Geddis mining operation seen from orbit. Other veins stretch even farther west from that, tantalizingly close to the Magraddor Range—and the Citadel—more than a hundred kilometers away. That portion of the petrigram is dusty and worn, as if it has not been referred to or updated in many years.

The closest approach of the Prak City Stereb Network (as the heroes might well call it) to the Geddis cave system is only a day’s spelunk away, but it might as well be light years. As Eldr’nol explains, the Stereb themselves closed the only connecting passage:

“Sister Eldr’har spoke true. A cancer has come to our Prakith. On the flesh, as with those who took our herder son, and in the flesh, as well. What you see inscribed in stone is the record of a desperate act, but an act of love, to save Prakith.

“When the parasites first arrived, we did not know what they were. We hoped they were like us—the Stereb, the greethka, all of us who are part of the whole. But when they took to burrowing, we found they were of another. Foreign bodies, with no respect for Prakith and a danger to the system.

“None alive forgets when their sound-makers and light-makers entered our world. Hundreds of Stereb were at work in what you call the Geddis caves, tending Prakith as is our purpose. The parasites took our cousins and turned them against that purpose, forcing them to join in ravaging our planet’s hide. They became part of the cancer, and we had no choice but to amputate.”

It should be apparent from Eldr’nol’s speech and the petrigram that the Stereb are referring to miners who entered the caverns and enslaved the inhabitants, forcing the rest of the Stereb to collapse the only connecting tunnel.

The Stereb elders must be persuaded that the Geddis Stereb can be restored to their society because their behavior has been only temporarily changed by their new masters. This is a DC 30 Charisma (Persuasion) check because the heroes are up against what is an article of faith for the Stereb—that their enslaved cousins have been turned into parasites ravaging the planet. Players who learned about the culture of the Strereb have advantage on this check. Additionally, if the heroes recognized the importance of the greethka nucleus to Herdr’tui and rose above their disgust to retrieve it, the herder Stereb now relates that story to the elders in their own language, lowering the DC to 25.

If the heroes succeed in persuading the elders, a workforce of 20 able-bodied Stereb escorts them the day’s walk to the westernmost terminus, where an engineered cave-in prevents access to the labyrinth under the Geddis mine. Working faster than the heroes might imagine anyone could manage with primitive tools, the Stereb clear a Humansized passage through the blockage. However, they will not follow the heroes into the unknown. The Stereb will follow only after the heroes inform them that the areas ahead have been secured. They are workers, not warriors.

If the heroes fail to persuade the Stereb to lead them to the cave-in, Herdr’tui encourages them to go it alone, using the directions they have already gleaned from the petrigram. This lengthens the trip to five days, since the heroes do not have the Sterebs’ skill at tunneling under challenging conditions. But the Stereb admire their devotion to the task, which is a matter of great merit in their society.

The Exclave

When the heroes break through the collapsed rubble separating the two Stereb labyrinths, read the following description aloud:

There is a rush of air, and you are surprised by its foulness. The Stereb labyrinth behind you had been musty, but fresh air still flowed, perhaps due in some way to the glowing lichens. Here, there is nothing but the stench of bodies living in cramped quarters with no hope of escape. A light shines up ahead, but whatever lives here must not have much of a life.

Heroes enter an octagonal room currently serving as the Stereb slave quarters. If the players were not particularly stealthy, they provoke a panicked response from one of the Stereb occupants, attracting the attention of the guards in nearby command post to the west. These guards however while willing to do anything for a paycheck are of little threat to the players and should not be treated as such, they'll fold to most arguments or threats as the players look almost exactly like the bounties placed on people who killed Imperial Sovereign Protectors and Inquisitors.

If the players prefer to be stealthy, they attract the attention of a teenage Stereb girl, Helr’ven. She is serving as a nurse for the eight Stereb under her care in the slave quarters. All of them are in pretty bad shape from overwork and mining-related injuries, and she’s taken this duty because everyone older is gone.

In the months since the Stereb blocked the passage, Helr’ven has not seen anyone enter from that direction. Her spirits, raised by the thought that her people have returned, fall immediately when she sees the heroes, whom she assumes must be more miners. Since the other Stereb won’t have followed the heroes in, Helr’ven begins the meeting with an attitude of unfriendly. The heroes must quietly move her to being friendly with them, a DC 23 Charisma (Persuasion) check, convincing her that they are not miners who have wiped out the Stereb on the other side of the divide. If she can’t be convinced, she raises an alarm that brings in the guards as mentioned above. However she will come around as the guards are unlikely to acknowledge the players and scuttle off to get significantly stronger forces to deal with them.

If convinced, Helr’ven grows tearfully happy and becomes a useful source of information, responding to questions quietly so as not to alert those to the west:

  • How many are you? “Eight left. There were fourteen working the mine but they died earlier today. We are so few now.”

  • Who is holding you? “The foreign bodies—those like you—hold us with their lightmakers and sound-makers. They destroy, destroy, nothing but destroy.”

  • How many are they? “Two just outside, I think. They come and go. They have made their station in the chamber beyond, where they send our workers out from.”

  • How many access points are there to the surface? “I don’t know anything about that, but the foreigners arrived by breaking through one of our tunnels and have since added three more.”

  • How strong are they? “Very strong. Stronger than us. They even have things seemingly made of rock that spit fire. And they have brought pestilence, large and small.”

  • Can we expect help from your people? “We are few, and so sick. They work us until we die. But we are with you in spirit.”

  • Do you know how to reach the Citadel in the Magraddor Range? “I’m sorry, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Helr’ven urges the heroes to take the sickly Stereb back through the eastern passage. This is a fairly complicated enterprise and requires a DC 20 Dexterity (Stealth) check, representing the players removing a Stereb, a failed check gains the attention of the guards. Helr’ven will not leave her patients and will follow them where they go.

A Path to the Past

Once the miners have been incapacitated or driven out of the Geddis mine and the elevator disabled, a happy and tearful reunion occurs between the two Stereb colonies. The Prak City Stereb widen the passageway and tend to their ailing cousins.

Now far more receptive to the heroes’ interests, the Stereb offer to share all they know about the caverns between here and the Magraddor Range, where the Citadel stands. Consulting first with a haggard survivor from the Geddis mine, Eldr’nol joins the heroes in the chamber that was the miners’ command station—a gallery of sorts, with pictograms on the walls. Removing a particular stone from the south side of the western wall, Eldr’nol opens a secret passage 15 feet wide leading off to the west. The control for the secret door is well hidden—the miners never found it—and heroes on their own would have to make a DC 25 Wisdom (Perception) check to find it. Inside the hidden chamber, Eldr’nol shows the heroes another petrigram map. A long, narrow Stereb passage leads to a network that extends close to the Magraddor Range. Eldr’nol speaks:

“You are not of Prakith, but your actions show that you are truly born anew of Prakith. Know, then, the secret kept here. The Stereb have been here longer than memory and have tended far more of the Worldflesh than outsiders know. This tunnel leads to a large system where, in ancient times, our forefolk worked far and wide, and even to the mountains you ask of.

“The way is far—many, many days’ walk—and you will find, as they did, that the waters have overtaken much of the way. Death for Stereb lies that way. I cannot know if this affects such as you, but if the peaks are your destination, you will find that we have already worked the roots.”

A relatively easy DC 18 Wisdom (Survival) check enables the heroes to evaluate the western tunnel in relation to the petrigram and realize that more than 60 miles of tunnels separate them from the Magraddor Range. With relation to other surface features, it neatly splits the area between the Geddis mining operation and the Rilkean mines, farther to the southwest. The heroes also realize that the tunnel leading ahead is wide enough to allow the passage of a single speeder bike which the hired miners often leave around speeder bikes while mining.

Eldr’nol’s knowledge comes in handy during questioning

  • Are the tunnels all as wide as this one? “If they remain open, yes. Sometimes they are wider—much wider. The Stereb lived there for a long time and expended great efforts to perfect Prakith’s flesh. Some are long and narrow, but none should be impassible.”

  • What did you mean when you said the waters had taken over? “The tale is a sad one. Prakith wept, and the tears came down from the mountains and through our passages. Prakith did not favor the work of the Stereb there, and much of our network collapsed into an underground sea. Many Stereb were swallowed in the cataclysm. Since, we have worked to do better by Prakith.”

  • Are the tunnels completely flooded? “I have not visited the place since as a boy, when the waters crested a Stereb’s height. But we know nothing of travel and water—in, under, or above it. I would fear to go.”

  • Are there exits from the tunnels? Do the tunnels reach the part of the range where the Citadel rises? “I do not know this Citadel, but the Stereb of old often dug pores to the surface within mountains to vent Prakith’s fevers and provide air for our workers. Could any be there, so far away? None can know.”

The heroes should realize that they’re on their own in any underground assault through the abandoned Magraddor tunnels, and that the speeder bikes represent the way there and across any water barrier in something less than an eternity. It seems foolish to assault the Citadel aboveground, where the skies and surface are strictly monitored and Inquisitors can sense Force-users for kilometers around. Underground, however, the heroes might have a chance.

Eldr’nol is sad to see the heroes go, but hopeful that they will find what they’re seeking. He encourages them to make their own copy of the petrigram so they won’t get lost.

The Stereb provide what meager provisions they can for your journey as you prepare to leave. Although Eldr’nol’s imagination has clearly been captured by your expedition, he can only stand by sadly and wave to his new friends. It is not for the Stereb to have adventures. Others might think of the stars, but the Stereb serve the world.

The Underground Sea

The journey to the Underground Sea is a long one—more than 60 miles to the point where the flooded chambers start. The passage is a mixture of Stereb stonework and natural caverns, containing a lot of sharp turns and abrupt changes in elevation. The tunnels have not been occupied in years, so although some glowing lichen grows naturally in spots, no attempt has been made to cultivate it at regular intervals. It’s pretty much headlights or nothing.

The trip takes two and a half hours assuming they have speeder bikes or twenty hours if they are simply walking. If they are on speeder bikes have them make a DC 20 Wisdom (Perception) check at the start of their journey to keep track of any dangerous walls or stalactites. If they fail the check, an obstacle in their way at some point during the ride causes an accident, dealing 99 (18d10) kinetic damage from the collision or accident. It is assumed that players walking there are no going fast enough to have an issue.

Once the heroes enter the Underground Sea area, they might not realize immediately that they’ve arrived. Puddles appear below, separated by higher ground. Ankle-deep water stands in another several kilometers of hallways. Then it grows darker as the sparse lichen on the walls disappears, and soon the walls and the ground disappear, as well. Read the following description aloud:

There were walls here, once, and floors. But it’s all gone now, collapsed under the weight of the floodwaters. Who knows how many Stereb chambers stood here? Now, the sea below has claimed them all, and the water is too close for comfort because the surface above remains, its irregular shape hanging like a curtain to catch speeders who come too close.

Setup

The heroes approach the Underground Sea, set them up on one side of the map in knee-deep water.

Read-Aloud Text

As the heroes cross the Underground Sea, read the following aloud:

Low ceiling above, murky water below. No light, cavern walls that close in suddenly and then widen to nothingness. Stalactites, roots— this is no place to come for a vacation. All that, plus a deep, nagging feeling of foreboding and dread.

gray fear moss clings to the ceiling in the bottleneck. Inquisitors in the Citadel do not detect any Force powers used by the party near the moss, which emits a dark Force presence over a large enough area to mask anything the heroes do. A successful DC 25 Wisdom check or DC 25 Charisma check made by a forcecasting player automatically alerts the heroes of the creature’s presence when they are within 1 mile of it.

Once the gray fear moss is within visual range, heroes can notice it by making a successful DC 30 Wisdom (Perception) check made at disadvantage due to the dim light in the cavern.

Gray Fear Moss (1)

A relative of the fear mosses living on more verdant planets, the gray fear moss has adapted well to Prakith’s subterranean environment. Prey underground is scarce, and these mosses have developed the ability to descend into a Force trance, similar to the Morichro technique practiced by some Jedi, to slow their metabolism during long periods of fasting.

Fear moss feeds off its prey’s bodily juices, being particularly fond of adrenaline and other fear-induced chemicals. Once captured in the tentacles of the moss, the prey is exposed to a mind-altering toxin that induces an extreme state of fear. The specimen in this cavern is much larger than most as a result of its exposure to the dark forces emanating from the Citadel Inquisitorius above.

As soon as the heroes perceive (or are attacked by) the creature, read the following:

A thin, grayish-white, flaky mass is spread across a large section of the ceiling. Its cryptic coloration nearly matches that of its environment, with only a slightly rougher texture to distinguish it from the surrounding stone. Five long tentacles hang down from this mass into the water below, resembling the other stalactites in the cave system.

Grey Fear Moss Tactics

The gray fear moss knows patience. It allows the heroes to approach until as many as possible are directly beneath its body mass before making grappling attacks with each of its tentacles (one tentacle per opponent). If there are more than five characters in the party, the fear moss attacks with only the outer four tentacles, leaving the fifth tentacle available to make slam attacks against any heroes who try to free other characters caught in its grapple attacks



Grey Fear Moss

Gargantuan plant, unaligned


  • Armor Class 5
  • Hit Points 705 (30d20+300)
  • Speed 10 ft.

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
30 (+10) 16 (+3) 30 (+10) 3 (-4) 16 (+3) 17 (+3)

  • Skills Perception +17
  • Condition Immunities blinded, frightened, prone
  • Senses truesight 120 ft., passive Perception 27
  • Languages -
  • Challenge 24 (62,000 XP)

False Appearance. While the gray fear moss remains motionless, it is indistinguishable from gray stone.

Killer Response. Any creature that starts its turn in the gray fear moss’s space is targeted by a tentacle attack if the gray fear moss isn’t incapacitated.

Legendary Resistance (3/Day). If the gray fear moss fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.

Actions

Multiattack. The gray fear moss can attack up to five times with its tentacles or, if it has a grappled creature, tentacle slam.

Tentacle. Melee Weapon Attack: +17 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 28 (4d8+10) bludgeoning damage plus 9 (2d8) poison damage. If the target is Large or smaller, it is grappled (escape DC 21) and restrained until the grapple ends. The gray fear moss has five tentacles, each of which can grapple one target.

Tentacle Slam The gray fear moss slams grappled creatures into itself. Each creature must succeed on a DC 21 Constitution saving throw or take 28 (4d8+10) poison damage and frightened for 1 minute. On a successful save, the target takes half the poison damage and isn't frightened. The target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.

Mental Lure. Every humanoid and giant within 300 feet of the gray fear moss that is not immune to charm must succeed on a DC 21 Wisdom saving throw or be charmed until the lure ends.

The gray fear moss must take a bonus action on its subsequent turns to continue the lure. It can stop the mental lure at any time. The lure ends if the gray fear moss is incapacitated. While charmed by the gray fear moss, a target is incapacitated and ignores the lures of other gray fear moss. If the charmed target is more than 5 feet away from the gray fear moss, the target must move on its turn toward the gray fear moss by the most direct route. It doesn't avoid opportunity attacks, but before moving into damaging terrain, such as lava or a pit, and whenever it takes damage from a source other than the gray fear moss, a target can repeat the saving throw. A creature can also repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns. If a creature's saving throw is successful, the effect ends on it. A target that successfully saves is immune to this gray fear moss's lure for the next 24 hours.

Mind Blast (Recharge 5-6). The gray fear moss magically emits psychic energy. Creatures of the gray fear moss’ choice within 60 feet of it must succeed on a DC 12 Intelligence saving throw or take 27 (5d10) psychic damage and be stunned for 1 minute. A target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.

Legendary Actions

The gray fear moss can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action option can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature’s turn. The moss regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn.

Attack. The gray fear moss makes one tentacle or slam attack.

Exert Will. One creature charmed must use its reaction to move up to its speed or to make a weapon attack against a target as designated by the gray fear moss.

Corrupting Touch (Costs 2 Actions). Melee Weapon Attack: +17 to hit, reach 15 ft., one creature. Hit: 24 (4d6+ 10) poison damage, and the target is slimed. Until the slime is scraped off with an action, the target is poisoned, and any creature, other than an ooze, is poisoned while within 10 of the target.

Encounter Map

[To Be Added]

Features of the Area

The is only 15 feet between the ceiling where the grey fear moss is and the surface of the water.

Conclusion

Escaping the fear moss, the heroes advance to the far northern end of the Underground Sea. True to Eldr’nol’s speculation, the Stereb tunnels begin to reappear, first as fixtures rising from the water, and finally as passageways leading from the destroyed underwater section. Once in the dry tunnels, the heroes find that the stonework is much more detailed than what they saw in the other Stereb tunnels. This was one of their ancient haunts, and clearly an important one.

Note: This should be considered a levelup milestone.

Twenty miles of tunnels lie ahead, and after the first 10, no further travel by speeder bike is possible. For the first time, the heroes encounter stairs, which lead up through an angling, turning passageway that no bike can navigate. Even minor Force sensitivity is enough to reveal that the passageway leads not upward to the light, but to someplace very dark: an approach to the base of the Citadel Inquisitorius, nestled in the Magraddor Range. The fear moss was attracted to the Underground Sea by the Citadel’s presence, feeding off the dark side energy. But at the same time, the moss cloaked the heroes’ approach. It’s a security flaw the Citadel certainly would do something about—that is, if the Inquisitors had any notion of the extent of the tunnels under the Magraddor Range.

As the heroes climb higher and higher through the dark staircases, it becomes increasingly important for Force-users to shield their thoughts. Three kilometer-long underground staircases stand between the heroes and a Stereb-constructed stone “pore,” not far from the foundation of the towering black spire of the Citadel, but reaching the pore undetected will be challenging. At the beginning of each staircase, Force-sensitive PCs must make a Wisdom or Charisma check to avoid being detected by an Imperial Inquisitor, adding proficiency if they are proficient in the Deception skill. DC 20 for the first staircase, DC 25 for the second, and DC 30 for the third. The increasing difficulty reflects the heroes’ proximity to the Citadel and their distance from the underground field of fear moss. A failed check results in a welcoming party appearing when the heroes emerge—an early activation of the “Citadel Security Team” encounter, listed in Part 3.

Part 3: Into the Citadel

When the heroes get their first glimpse of Citadel Inquisitorius from nearby, most likely when they emerge from the catacombs, read the following text aloud:

It is night in the Magraddor Range, which is appropriate, since the Citadel Inquisitorius is a thing out of nightmares. A towering spire rises into the Prakith sky, a black-on-black vision of dread. Faint lights glow weakly from the higher levels. This is a place of dark acts, where the only light employed is that necessary to advance the Emperor’s aims.

In contrast to the obsidian monolith above, the plaza around the Citadel seems almost organic. Ancient. That’s impossible, given the recent arrival of the Empire, but nonetheless, it is so. Cracked and dusty pavement surrounds the Citadel base, punctuated at the sides by eight intricate stone columns a three hundred feet high. Dwarfed by the much taller Citadel at the plaza’s center, these ornately decorated cylinders seem mystical in their arrangement, like an ancient sundial. One of Prakith’s moons shines above, half eclipsed by the Citadel. This is a place for things of the night.

If the heroes came through the Stereb tunnels, they emerge from an overgrown, crumbled opening just below the base of one of the stone columns. These are the “pores” of which Eldr’nol spoke: Each of the Stereb columns rises from deep underground, and, if the heroes saw them from the air, they’d recognize the columns as something akin to smokestacks. The Stereb built the circle of columns here centuries ago, and Imperial architects took advantage of the paved clearing within the mountains to build the Citadel. Aesthetics played a role, as well; locating amid the ancient ruins appealed to the architects’ dark side sensibilities. (Indeed, there is a remote chance that Darth Andeddu brought the Stereb to Prakith as enslaved builders in the first place, centuries ago, although this is only a possibility.)

It is not difficult to scale the building-block stonework to the surface of the plaza, and the approach by night is a lucky break. The plaza is not the source of much activity even in daytime. Because of the Stereb columns, most larger transports serve the Citadel from a platform near the top of the spire. A circular colonnade surrounds the base, with access points to the Citadel underneath the obsidian canopy, but in the dark it’s hard to determine the best route inside. There is some cover available for anyone who tries to approach the Citadel’s base on foot, but with occasional patrols and meditating Inquisitors, the heroes will need to make an important decision.

A fast dash under the colonnade requires a single DC 30 Dexterity (Stealth) check; failure initiates the “Citadel Security Team” (CST) encounter and puts the Citadel on high alert. If the heroes make the check or if they defeat the defenders, they must then make a DC 23 Intelligence (Technology) check with advantage if they have an Inquisitor’s code cylinder to activate the elevator. A failed check brings another CST encounter; a success allows the heroes to advance to Route 1 under “Reaching the Top”. This is the least ideal method of entry, but it’s the cost of impatience, to a degree. (It’s an administrative entrance, and it hits the most chokepoints on the way to Master Denia.)

Pausing to reconnoiter puts the heroes in the position of making a DC 20 Dexterity Stealth check, this covers surveying the area and advancing, which might trigger a security team. But a success gives the heroes the option of two more points of entry.

Prisoners’ Entrance: The first point is an intimidating-looking archway that leads through a gargoyle-decorated passage toward an elevator. This is the “perp walk” route for new prisoners, and while it offers the most direct route to the top (Route 2), it’s designed to look very threatening. To enter this way, the heroes must make a DC 23 Intelligence (Technology) check with advantage if they have an Inquisitor’s code cylinder.

Service Entrance: The second point of entry, not too far away, is what appears to be a seldom-used service elevator with a control panel. This elevator leads to Route 3, which takes the heroes past the training center. To enter this way, the heroes must make a DC 26 Intelligence (Technology) check with advantage if they have an Inquisitor’s code cylinder.

Heroes cannot activate the elevators until any outstanding CST encounters triggered by their actions are resolved. The Citadel will not put the elevators into lockdown while they’re still running Response Teams downstairs. This is new to them—nobody’s ever been crazy enough to assault the Citadel before.

Citadel Security Team

Setup

Citadel Security Teams monitor the grounds outside the base of the Citadel and make periodic sweeps. The plaza outside is wide and flat with columns nearer the entry to the Citadel, so Game Masters can use any map, establishing cover as desired.

The Citadel Security Teams monitor the supply shipments and vehicles going in and out from the base of the Citadel and handle periodic ground sweeps. With Prakith becoming more important to the Empire and Imperial Sovereign Protectors being trained here, they are being used to scare any potential escapees or people attempting to smuggling things in.

Conclusion

If the Security Team faces defeat, it attempts to fall back to the Citadel, where they try to upload a holorecording of the fight to the Citadel.

Imperial Sovereign Protector (4)


Imperial Guard Champion

Medium humanoid (human), lawful dark


  • Armor Class 18 (heavy exoskeleton) or 20 (knight speed)
  • Hit Points 180 (24d8+72)
  • Speed 30ft.

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
19 (+4) 16 (+3) 17 (+3) 17 (+3) 16 (+3) 20 (+5)

  • Saving Throws Str +7, Con +7, Wis +6
  • Condition Immunities Frightened
  • Skills Intimidation +9, Perception +7
  • Senses passive Perception 17
  • Languages Galactic Basic
  • Challenge 11 (7,200 XP)

Innate Forcecasting. The Imperial Guard Champion's innate forcecasting ability is Charisma (force save DC 17, +9 to hit with force powers). It can innately cast the following force powers:

At will: Enfeeble
3/Day: Fear
1/Day: Battle Meditation, Phasewalk, Knight Speed

Choreography of Belligerence. The Imperial Guard Champion has advantage on attack rolls against a creature if at least one other Imperial Guard is within 5 feet of the creature and the ally isn't incapacitated.

Imperial Training. The Imperial Guard Champion deals an additional weapon die of damage with its weapons (included).

Keen Striking. The Imperial Guard Champion scores a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20. If at least one other Imperial Guard is within 5 feet of its target and the ally isn't incapacitated, the creature instead scores a critical hit on a roll of 18-20.

Rally the Troops. As a bonus action, the Imperial Guard Champion can end the charmed and frightened conditions on itself and each creature of its choice that it can see within 30 feet of it.

Actions

Multiattack. The Imperial Guard Champion makes three weapon attacks.

Doublesword. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5ft., one target. Hit 17 (3d8+4) kinetic damage.

Heavy Pistol. Ranged Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, range 40/160, one target. Hit: 7 (1d8+3) energy damage.

Reactions

Parry. The Imperial Guard Champion adds 4 to his AC against one melee attack that would hit him. To do so, the Imperial Guard Champion must see the attacker and be wielding a melee weapon.

Reaching the Top

Citadel Inquisitorius is a maze of elevators, with levels devoted to different purposes. Lower levels include living areas and offices for basic support functions; higher levels deal with the duties that the Inquisitorius was created to perform, such as keeping tabs on Force-users and imprisoning and torturing suspects.

As such, the Citadel was designed with various communities of occupants in mind, not for the convenience of anyone trying to zoom to the top quickly. Multiple elevator shafts run only partway up the tower, forcing the heroes to transit floors to reach the next required elevator. This results in a series of chokepoint encounters, including:

  • Citadel security teams on generic levels (A) for you to label as desired;

  • The training center (B), populated by Inquisitors learning their craft; and

  • The prison level (C), the last stop for a hapless Force-user on the way to the torture chamber.

Depending on the route the heroes take into the building, they will run through the encounter in one of the possible sequences based on the entrance.

  • Route 1 (administrative entrance): A-A-B-A-C-A

  • Route 2 (prisoners’ entrance): A-A-C-A

  • Route 3 (service entrance): A-B-A-C-A

If the players struggle or are not being challenged enough and you want to deplete resources, you can run as many or as few of the encounters as you want.

Setup

(A): Office Level Use Map A (page 41) or any generic interior map with two elevators at either end. Place the heroes in one elevator, with their opponents set up as you desire. The Imperial complement for the office level consists of:

  • Death Trooper (4)

  • Inquisitor Master (1)


Death Trooper

Medium humanoid (Human), lawful dark


  • Armor Class 16 (weave armor)
  • Hit Points 97 (15d8+30)
  • Speed 30 ft.

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
14 (+2) 19 (+4) 15 (+2) 11 (+0) 13 (+1) 11 (+0)

  • Skills Perception +7, Stealth +10, Survival +4
  • Senses truesight 15 ft., blindsight 30 ft., darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 17
  • Languages Galactic Basic, Death Trooper Encryption
  • Challenge 6 (2,300 XP)

Skirmish. The trooper can use Disengage as a bonus action.

Precise Shot (3/Day). As a bonus action before making a ranged weapon attack, the trooper can take aim at a vital point of a target causing an extra 7 (2d6) energy damage on a hit.

Enhanced Sensors. The trooper has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on hearing or sight.

Enhanced Weapons. The troopers weapon attacks are enhanced.

Stealthy. The trooper can take the Hide action as a bonus action.

Surprise Attack. If the trooper surprises a creature and hits it with an attack during the first round of combat, the target takes an extra 10 (3d6) damage from the attack.

Actions

Multiattack. The trooper makes two melee attacks or four ranged attacks.

Blaster Rifle. Ranged Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, range 100/400 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (1d8+4) energy damage.

Techblade Melee Weapon Attack:* +7 to hit, range 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d6+4) kinetic damage.

Volley (Recharge 5-6). The trooper shoots a rain of deadly blaster bolts in a 30-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw, taking 22 (4d8 + 4) energy damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.


Inquisitor Master

Medium humanoid, lawful dark


  • Armor Class 16
  • Hit Points 110 (20d8+20)
  • Speed 30 ft.

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
11 (+0) 18 (+4) 12 (+0) 13 (+1) 12 (+1) 20 (+5)

  • Saving Throws Dex +5, Wis +5
  • Skills Perception +5, Stealth +5, Survival +3
  • Senses passive Perception 15
  • Languages Galactic Basic, Binary
  • Challenge 8 (3,900 XP)

Forcecasting. The Inquisitor is a 10th-level forcecaster. It's forcecasting ability is Charisma (force save DC 16, +8 to hit with force attacks). The inquisitor has 35 force points and knows the following force powers

At-will: denounce, force disarm, force push/pull, mind trick, saber throw, slow
1st-level: dark side tendrils, force jump, sap vitality, sense force
2nd-level: animate weapon, drain vitality, force sight, stun
3rd-level: improved dark side tendrils, choke, force suppression, sever force
4th-level: drain life

Force Resistance. The inquisitor has advantage on saving throws against force powers.

War Casting. When the inquisitor uses an action to cast a force power, they can use a bonus action to make a Double Saber attack.

Actions

Spinning Doublesaber. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 17 (3d8 + 4) energy damage.

Doublesaber. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (1d8 + 4) energy damage.

Dark Lightning. Ranged Force Attack: +8 to hit, range 120 ft., one or two targets. Hit: 14 (4d6) necrotic damage. The target must succeed on a DC 16 Strength saving throw or become restrained until the end of the inquisitor's next turn.

(B) Training Level Use Map B or any generic map with two elevators on the same side but on different ends. The heroes can enter through either elevator (your choice) and must reach the other one. The Imperial complement for the training level consists of:

  • Inquisitor Knight (4)
  • Inquisitor Master (1)

Inquisitor Knight

Medium humanoid, lawful dark


  • Armor Class 15
  • Hit Points 81 (18d8)
  • Speed 30 ft.

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
11 (+0) 16 (+3) 10 (+0) 13 (+1) 12 (+1) 18 (+4)

  • Saving Throws Dex +5, Wis +5
  • Skills Perception +5, Stealth +5, Survival +3
  • Senses passive Perception 15
  • Languages Galactic Basic, Binary
  • Challenge 4 (700 XP)

Forcecasting. The Inquisitor is a 5th-level forcecaster. It's forcecasting ability is Charisma (force save DC 14, +6 to hit with force attacks). The inquisitor has 18 force points and knows the following force powers

At-will: denounce, force disarm, saber throw, slow
1st-level: dark side tendrils, fear, force jump, hex, sense force
2nd-level: force sight, stun

Force Resistance. The inquisitor has advantage on saving throws against force powers.

War Casting. When the inquisitor uses an action to cast a force power, they can use a bonus action to make a Double Saber attack.

Actions

Spinning Doublesaber. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (2d8 + 3) energy damage.

Doublesaber. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d8 + 3) energy damage.

(C) Prison Level Use Map C or any generic map that features two elevators that are opposite each other and prison cells. The heroes can enter through either elevator (your choice) and must reach the other one. The Imperial complement for the prison level consists of:

  • Death Trooper (3)
  • Inquisitor Knight (1)
  • Inquisitor Master (1)

Prisoners found here are in bad shape—too bad to travel (although rescuing them might be worth some ad hoc experience) or give much information beyond the fact that Denia was here, but has been taken upstairs to be tortured.

Conclusion

After concluding the encounters, the players gain access to the torture chamber.

Torture Chamber

Following the last encounter in “Storming the Tower,” the heroes hear a familiar voice in agony: the wretched cries of Master Denia, coming from the top of a stairwell. Ascending the stairs, they find an octagonal atrium that is 100 feet from ceiling to floor. Suspended high above the center is a platform where Inquisitor Draco and his droids are abusing Master Denia.

Setup

The heroes emerge from the elevator into an octagonal room, the torture chamber. This two-level area, at the peak of the tower just below the landing pad level, has an atrium below and a space meters above where Valin Draco and his droids are torturing Denia.

Read-Aloud Text

The heroes enter the lower level of the torture room through an elevator located in the central pillar. This pillar supports a disc 15 feet above them where the torture apparatus is located. The disc extends another 10 feet past the central pillar on all sides, so unless someone on the disc walks to the edge and peers underneath, the heroes have total cover in the space immediately adjacent to the pillar.

How is it possible to feel hot and cold at the same time? Yet that’s how it feels here in the dragon’s maw, Draco’s torture chamber. You can hear Denia’s screams from above. She doesn’t have much time.

Upon exiting the elevator, the heroes must make DC 26 Dexterity (Stealth) checks so that Draco does not hear them enter the area. Across from the elevator, two elevating platforms—scaffoldlike ledges on a hydraulic lift— run up to a catwalk that extends 15 feet out from the wall around the perimeter of the room. The catwalk has a 3 feet high railing around it; the railing does not provide cover, but it might help prevent someone from being pushed off the side.

Two openings exist in the railing across the room from each other. These are where the catwalks can be extended outward to reach the central platform. Currently, each accessway is retracted into its niche under the perimeter catwalk, isolating the platform. The control panels to extend and retract the accessways are in the perimeter wall across the catwalk from each accessway opening. A third control panel exists on the torture platform at the foot of the examination table. No skill check is needed to activate a control panel, unless someone at another panel is trying to send a counter-command. If this occurs, both characters must make opposed Intelligence (Technology) checks. The command of the successful check will be followed.

The torture apparatus on the central platform consists of a 3-feet tall examination table in the center of the platform. Master Denia is strapped to the table. Standing next to it are two T0-D interrogation droids on their wheeled chassis; Draco stands at Denia’s feet. The torture platform has no railing.

When the heroes are recognized, read the following text aloud:

Denia looks up, beaten and broken, and recognizes you. “I knew . . . you . . . would come.”

Draco stands and looks down. He’s changed—cybernetically. “I knew you would come, too. I don’t know how you made it here, but I’m better than I was before. This time, things will end differently!”

Inquisitor Valin Draco

Decked out in heavy duty armour, Valin Draco looks different from when the heroes last saw him. He’s been cybernetically enhanced, with a glowing eye giving him a more evil look than before, if that’s possible.

Inquisitor Valin Draco Tactics

When he becomes aware of the heroes, Draco taunting his foes and uses his Force powers aggressively, trying to whittle the heroes down at a distance before engaging them in melee combat. He tries to knock the heroes off the catwalks or into the walls using telekinetic force powers, or damage them directly. He attempts to disarm opponents of their most powerful weapons and takes out any character who he knows possesses the capability to damage his cybernetics.

Conclusion

If Draco is reduced to 0 hitpoints, instead is reduced to 1 hitpoint and he turns to the heroes and says, “You may have defeated me today, but you’ll not win your prize!” Then he turns toward the near-comatose Master Denia and hits her with Force lightning. However, Denia has one last act left within her; with valiant effort, she reflects the lightning back upon her foe. As the lightning arcs back and forth between the combatants, Denia collapses onto the examination table. Draco, obviously weakened further, glares at the heroes, then runs or leaps up the ramp to the floors above with the Force.

If, on the other hand, it appears that one of the heroes is going to perish in this battle against Draco, Master Denia summons one last rush of energy and attacks Draco with the Force. Reflecting the Force energy back at one another, both Denia and Draco are seriously wounded. The Jedi collapses while Draco escapes (as described above).

Features of the Area

The control panels for the accessways can be destroyed. Destroying a control panel freezes the accessway in its current position.

Note: The map shows where the catwalks would be when extended, even though both catwalks are retracted at the beginning of the encounter.

Encounter Map

[To Be Added]



Valin Draco

Medium humanoid, lawful dark


  • Armor Class 20 (Heavy Exoskeleton + Cybernetics)
  • Hit Points 276 (29d8+145)
  • Speed 30 ft.

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
22 (+6) 16 (+3) 20 (+5) 18 (+4) 20 (+5) 24 (+7)

  • Saving Throws Str +13, Con +12, Wis +12, Cha +14
  • Skills Athletics +13, Acrobatics +10, Intimidaion +14, Lore +14, Perception +12
  • Damage Resistances kinetic and energy damage from enhanced weapons
  • Damage Vulnerabilities lightning
  • Damage Immunities kinetic and energy damage from unenhanced weapons
  • Condition Immunities charmed, frightened
  • Senses passive perception 22
  • Languages Galactic Basic
  • Challenge 23 (50,000 XP)

Legendary Resistance (3/day). If Valin Draco fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.

Forcecasting. Valin Draco is an 18th-level forcecaster. Valin Draco’s forcecasting ability is Charisma (power save DC 22, +14 to hit with force attacks) and it has 87 force points. Valin Draco knows the following force powers:

At-will: affect mind, denounce, feedback, force push/pull, necrotic charge, saber reflect
1st-level: force jump, improved feedback, sap vitality, wound
2nd-level: darkness, drain vitality, force sight, force throw
3rd-level: choke, force lightning, force scream, knight speed, sever force
4th-level: drain life, force immunity, improved force camouflage, shroud of darkness
5th-level: greater feedback, improved force scream, improved phase strike, telekinesis
6th-level: crush, force chain lightning
7th-level: force lightning cone, ruin
8th-level: death field

Force Resistance. Valin Draco has advantage on saving throws against force powers.

Pinpoint Power. When Valin Draco casts a power that allows it to force creatures in an area to make a saving throw, Valin Draco can instead spend 1 force point and make a ranged force attack against a single target that would be in the range. On a hit the target suffers the effects as though they failed their saving throw.

Quickened Power. When Valin Draco casts a power that has a casting time of 1 action, it can spend 2 additional force points to change the casting time to 1 bonus action for this casting.

Cybernetic Enhancements. Valin Draco wears armor reinforced by cybernetic enhancements. Valin Draco is immune to damage from unenhanced sources, and has resistance to damage from enhanced weapons. If Valin Draco takes ion damage, this trait does not function until the start of its next turn.

Regeneration. Valin Draco regains 25 hit points at the start of its turn if it has at least 1 hit point. If Valin Draco takes ion damage this trait does not function until the start of its next turn.

Actions

Multiattack. Valin Draco makes four melee attacks, or casts a power and makes a melee attack.

Martial Lightsaber. Melee Weapon Attack: Melee Weapon Attack: +13 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 19 (3d8+6) energy damage.

Legnedary Actions

Valin Draco can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action option can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature’s turn. Valin Draco regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn.

At-Will Power. Valin Draco casts an at-will power.

Move. Valin Draco moves up to its speed without provoking attacks of oppurtunity.

Forcecasting (1 legendary action per power level). Valin Draco can cast a force power by spending a number of legendary actions equal to the power level.

Deathblow (Costs 3 Actions). Valin Draco makes a melee attack. If the attack hits, Valin Draco deals maximum damage, and the target cannot regain hit points until the end of its next turn.

Another Distress Call

Watching Draco depart from the landing platform atop the Citadel, the heroes realize that their journey is at an end, in more ways than one. A few hours of darkness remain, but the Citadel is alight with activity below—everyone they might have missed on the way up is now working to secure the facility.

The most likely means of escape comes from Jekk Seejo. After contacting the heroes, Seejo waits an appropriate amount of time in orbit and places another distress call. But this call is fake. It announces that his ship is out of control and heading for the surface. Somewhere, Imperial controllers, recognizing Seejo’s voice, engage in headslaps. Not again!

The heroes see their ship approaching from the sky at high speed, only to level out in midair near the top of the Citadel just before striking the mountains. Unable to land on the platform that Draco departed from—the winds are high, and Seejo isn’t great in the landing department—the Duros brings the ship to a position just beside and below a jutting surface of the platform. Each hero must make a DC 15 Strength (Athletics) check to jump the 15 feet down, taking falling damage against the ship’s roof if they fail.

Comlink chatter should indicate some degree of confusion; the Empire is at a loss for procedures to deal with an attack on Citadel Inquisitorius. It assumed that Prak City’s military functions would be a likelier target for sabotage, and that the Inquisitors, safe in their secluded mountain retreat, would be the ones moving to the city’s defense. Regardless, there is no point in staying on Prakith a minute longer, and heroes who choose to linger find the skies quickly filling, first with Imperial speeders and then with fighters attempting to prevent their escape. Gamemasters can turn this into an optional extended encounter, but after escaping the Citadel Inquisitorius, the heroes should be quite ready to hit the skies.

Variant Methods for Citadel Escape

Since Jekk Seejo is not entirely reliable, the heroes might make alternative plans for their escape from the Citadel. However events progress, the characters have a very narrow window for getting out, and their plans should address that.

Leaving a hero (instead of Jekk Seejo) in Prak City with the ship causes events to proceed more or less the same, only without the award for bringing Seejo into the resistance.

As another option, the heroes can try to bluff their way out of the Citadel. Considering that they probably caused a good deal of chaos while moving up through the tower, they might be able to descend in disguise if they also engage in a little sabotage along the way. If they manage to flee the Citadel, their best move is to retreat down the Stereb staircase, obtain the speeder bikes, and look for another exit farther into the cracked wilderness. Completely backtracking to the Stereb civilization, while possible, runs the risk of revealing the creatures’ existence to the Empire. The Citadel’s builders currently believe that whoever built the ruins around and under the Magraddor Range are long gone and have no connection with the Stereb found by the Geddis miners.

Concluding the Adventure

Jumping to hyperspace puts some welcome distance between the heroes and Prakith, but their news about Master Denia’s fate is understandably troubling to their allies. Speaking holographically, Bail Organa reassures them that their efforts have not been in vain, and he asks them to return to Lady Alya Aldrete.

“I know things look dark to you now, having lost Master Denia. But things have looked dark for the galaxy before, and good people have always come back—good people like Denia, who have helped us pour sand into the Imperial war machine and hopefully, some day, push back the darkness.

“You have come a long way in the short time that I have known you. The end of the journey is in sight; the final steps lie ahead. I ask that you rendezvous with Lady Alya, who even now is working on leads to find Draco and put an end to the Sarlacc Project once and for all. Go, and may the Force be with you.”

Once the heroes meet back up with Lady Alya, they can begin Jaws of the Sarlacc, the final adventure of the Dawn of Defiance campaign.

 

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