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 17th 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 17th level by the end of the adventure. This is the final level-up milestone of the campaign.

Opening Crawl

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

Video Link: Opening Crawl

Credit: zeldafreak6245

Part 1: The Arrival

Inform your players that this the last chance they will have to make any significant upgrades or purchases for the remainder of the campaign. It is important to use this downtime efficiently. Any ship upgrade or installation time requirements are cut in half for these 12 weeks as Lady Alya has assigned several dozen skilled mechanics to assist the heroes.

Rarity: Advanced

• Starship Weapon (Superior) {Limit 3}
• Starship Armor (Superior) {Limit 1}
• Starship Shields (Superior) {Limit 1}
• Item Modification {Limit 3}
• Weapon (Superior) {Limit 1}
• Droid Customization {Limit 1}
• Cybernetic Augmentation {Limit 1}
• Medical Supplies {Limit 10}

Rarity: Prototype

• Starship Weapon (Improved) {Limit 6}
• Item Modification {Limit 6}
• Weapon (Advanced) {Limit 2}
• Droid Customization {Limit 1}
• Cybernetic Augmentation {Limit 1}
• Medical Supplies {Limit 6}

Rarity: Premium

• Starship Weapon (Fine)
• Item Modification
• Weapon (Fine)
• Droid Customization {Limit 2}
• Cybernetic Augmentation {Limit 2}
• Medical Supplies

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.

Travel Time: (24 hours x Hyperdrive Speed)

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:

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:

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...”

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.”

Prak City

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

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 hint 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.

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.

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!”

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.

Imperial Sovereign Protector

Medium humanoid (human), lawful dark

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

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

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• 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)

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Innate Forcecasting. The Imperial Sovereign Protector'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 Sovereign Protector 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 Sovereign Protector deals an additional weapon die of damage with its weapons (included).

Keen Striking. The Imperial Sovereign Protector 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 Sovereign Protector 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 Sovereign Protector 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 Sovereign Protector adds 4 to his AC against one melee attack that would hit him. To do so, the Imperial Sovereign Protector 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 agents to start a lot of the fights themselves. Bystanders disappear into the nearby buildings quickly. The COMPNOR agents 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 two 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.

Seejo asks about the condition of the heroes’ ship. He begs for the tedious assignment of inspecting their vessel in port, as well as overseeing ship repairs (if needed) 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 mentions that he knows all the Empire's tricks and can make sure they dont plant any bugs, bombs or any other surprises on the player's ship.

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.

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.

Curious Inquisitor

This encounter can take place only once, but may be triggered earlier in the adventure depending on the heroes' actions. Specifically, theInquisitor arrives in response to activity that suggests the presence of a Force-user.

• If this encounter was already completed before meeting Herdr'tui do not run it again when the heroes meet him. Instead, just have them follow him into the drains without any issue.

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

Purge Troopers (4)

Purge Trooper, Electrohammer

Medium humanoid, lawful dark

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

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

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• 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)

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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

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

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

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• 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)

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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.

If the heroes decided to stand their ground and fight the Inquisitor, read the following.

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]

Loot

• Electrohammer
• Electrobaton
• Electrostaff
• Doublesaber [Red]
• Code Cylinder [Inquisitor Jorad]

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 and lay low for awhile. 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. Ten minutes after the heroes defeat the Inquistor the cavalry arrives for the Empire in the form of a “Prak City Security Force” 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.)

(If Herdr'tui is present) Herdr’tui, running to the south at the opening of this encounter, encourages the heroes to enter the Drains with him before seemingly disappearing. 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.

Prak City Security Force

Swift Assault 5 Hovercraft

Propelled on an air cushion, the Swift Assault 5 Hovercraft is slower than many models of repulsorcraft but still quite useful for patrol duties in Prak City.

Swift Assault 5 Hovercraft Tactics

The hoverscout approaches the heroes’ position quickly. The side doors open just before the hovercraft reaches its destination, allowing the carried troopers to jump out and advance on their enemies quickly. The doors close as soon as the troopers have been dropped off. The hoverscout then tries to block one avenue of escape while targeting heroes with its weapons. The members of the ship’s crew can grant each other and their teammates on the ground a +2 bonus to attacks by laying down cover fire (attack versus Reflex Defense 10) or by providing current sensor information (DC 10 Use Computer check) through their helmet comlinks.

Conclusion

If the fight goes poorly for the Security Force, additional troops are called in. Reinforcements consisting of another Swift Assault 5 Hovercraft, and two more Prak City Guard Squads 5 turns after the call is issued. The initial Security Force takes cover and tries to keep the heroes pinned down until help arrives. If the heroes flee on foot, the guards gives chase. If the heroes elude the guards or flee in an air vehicle, three surveillance droids are sent out to search for them. Surveillance droids can be destroyed with one well-placed blaster shot, though doing so may alert the guards of their position. Heroes can elude pursuit permanently by sliding down one of the Drains, if one is nearby.

Captured heroes are questioned and sent to the prison level of the Citadel Inquisitorius to await rescue by their teammates. Commandeering the hovercraft won’t do much good, since it cannot broach the walls of Prak City to get down into the craggy valley.

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.

Giant Greethka

Huge beast (ooze), unaligned

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

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

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• 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)

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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.

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.

“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.”

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.”

“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.”

The Exclave

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

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.

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:

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.

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 their 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 to each passenger and destroys their speeder. 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:

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

Encounter Map

[To Be Added]

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.

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:

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.

Citadel Security Team

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.

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.

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.

Inquisitor Master

Medium humanoid, lawful dark

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

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

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• 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)

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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.

Inquisitor Knight

Medium humanoid, lawful dark

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

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

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• 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)

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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.

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 Callus and his droids are abusing Master Denia.

Loot

• Kyber Crystal (Green)
• Krayt Dragon Pearl (Flawless) [Minor, Legendary]
• Throwing Weapon Hilt (Superior) [Minor, Advanced]
• Withercasting Crystal (Mastery) [Minor, Advanced]

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]

Another Distress Call

Watching Callus 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 Callus 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.

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.

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.

>> Completing the chapter should be considered a level-up milestone. (Level 17) This will be the final level-up of the campaign.<<