-
Going forward, links to content from Twitter (now X) will no longer be embedded. Pre-existing links should not be affected.
May The Invisible Hand Be With You - (Star Wars CK2-Style Quest)
- Thread starter Dr. Snark
- Start date
- Sci-Fi
-
- Tags
- star wars canon what canon tsundere dice ck2 quest actions have consequences all the credits all work and no play makes ciaran a dull girl best sister capitalism ho! despairing qm teetotaller society member gotta catch 'em all insanity looting off the rails sage dice approaching spicy sheev tsundere asajj
I'm doing the territory map -- @Dr. Snark hasn't threadmarked it yet, but here's the most recent map and Index.
Dr. Snark
Exactly As Planned...Probably
- Location
- Right where I want to be
- Pronouns
- He/His/Him
Hookay, let's take a look at the bases then. Same rules apply to these as actions:
Corellia/Bothawui are currently locked and Space City requires an action. Aside from that all but Arkania were planned to be available anyway.
I'm thinking it's going to be one of the two, erring towards free action (it takes time to build/test things.).
Given what you already have there I can work this, sure. No wiretapping because it's basically Space Montana; there's nothing to listen in on.
These are fine. Might rework the PR campaign though.
Don't think investing in the shipyard over Castell is viable; there's already a shitton of money going through there as it is so further investments wouldn't get good returns.
These are fine, the Revan compound is action-restricted.
Legit.
Legit.
The Administrative Center isn't viable; Zinnerman's perfectly happy with his office as it is (he's an ex-refugee, running water is practically a luxury) and if Ciaran suggested the idea to him he would be 80% certain that there would be a catch to it (and would be right) and promptly turn it down. Aside from that these are fine, I might have the second group be more of a "tech-tree" kind of thing (e.g. racing course before racing circuit...which might be an action in and of itself. We'll see). Sustained Revitalization would definitely be a thing though.
Vindi's laboratory doesn't exist in this timeline as he mysteriously vanished shortly after the Abyss Watchers heard about him arriving on Naboo. Aside from that these are fine.
These are legit.
These are fine, bonuses may/may not be reworked.
Ithorian Bio-Renewal would constitute an unacceptable security risk. Aside from that, legit.
Refit of the Invisible Hand is fine, dunno about salvager fleet. I'll have to consider the bonuses for that.
Okay, so that's done. Hopefully I'll at least have the rumor mill for the next turn up this weekend.
Corellia/Bothawui are currently locked and Space City requires an action. Aside from that all but Arkania were planned to be available anyway.
I'm thinking it's going to be one of the two, erring towards free action (it takes time to build/test things.).
Given what you already have there I can work this, sure. No wiretapping because it's basically Space Montana; there's nothing to listen in on.
These are fine. Might rework the PR campaign though.
Don't think investing in the shipyard over Castell is viable; there's already a shitton of money going through there as it is so further investments wouldn't get good returns.
These are fine, the Revan compound is action-restricted.
Legit.
Legit.
The Administrative Center isn't viable; Zinnerman's perfectly happy with his office as it is (he's an ex-refugee, running water is practically a luxury) and if Ciaran suggested the idea to him he would be 80% certain that there would be a catch to it (and would be right) and promptly turn it down. Aside from that these are fine, I might have the second group be more of a "tech-tree" kind of thing (e.g. racing course before racing circuit...which might be an action in and of itself. We'll see). Sustained Revitalization would definitely be a thing though.
Vindi's laboratory doesn't exist in this timeline as he mysteriously vanished shortly after the Abyss Watchers heard about him arriving on Naboo. Aside from that these are fine.
These are legit.
These are fine, bonuses may/may not be reworked.
Ithorian Bio-Renewal would constitute an unacceptable security risk. Aside from that, legit.
Refit of the Invisible Hand is fine, dunno about salvager fleet. I'll have to consider the bonuses for that.
Okay, so that's done. Hopefully I'll at least have the rumor mill for the next turn up this weekend.
- Location
- Australia
Hi, I'm the one that came up with the racing circuit idea. Publicola didn't include include the link to my full briefing of the action, so here it is. To put it short, it will most definitely be an action in and of itself.
Dr. Snark
Exactly As Planned...Probably
- Location
- Right where I want to be
- Pronouns
- He/His/Him
Thanks for the clarification, and my previous statement on it being locked behind more investments stands after reading it.
- Location
- america
And I just finished my survey of the Mid Rim. As always, you can find it on page 250 here. Anyway, here's a pre-'Briefing' synopsis:
These next two worlds are... interesting.
Naboo is nuts.
Now for Senex-Juvex
Isotope-5 is crazy valuable. As in, people fought wars over the stuff. To be fair, that was back in the Old Republic days, but still -- if the Old Republic (with their advanced tech) thought Isotope 5 was that valuable, wouldn't it be even more so in 'present day'? Anyway, possibilities of investment, especially if we plan on designing/creating our own droid army. (Or Makeb might just join the CNS, given how much its economy relies on trade.)
This is a pretty awesome archaeology site. I'm not sure if it's a hollowed-out mountain or an extinct volcano, but the Great Jedi Conclave site was extremely cool, and should have plenty of Force artifacts still lying around.
O hai super-ship. I'm not sure when it was decommissioned (launched in 100 BBY, saw plenty of service, but is not a good ship for military, so it may have already been refurbished as a museum-ship), so it's up to @Dr. Snark whether he wants to give Thrawn something shiny to steal (or at least, to visit...)
So this is odd. Daimar is a rival of Rodia... so its Senator hates Rodia's senator. Onaconda Farr is anti-Palpatine... so Alet Komain is pro-Palpatine. Onaconda Farr is a militarist... so Alet Komain is a pacifist? Rodia just joined the CNS... Daimar has no idea what to do with itself. Given how quickly Alet Komain became anti-Palpatine after the Declaration of a New Order, I don't imagine he'll be hard to persuade to join us. Just as long as we keep Onaconda Farr out of the picture while we conduct negotiations.
Lambda sector is nuts. Here's the HQ of one of the Separatist Council's member-corporations, in charge of the Shadowfeed and maintaining all CIS comm equipment. Fun times.
For whatever reason, Palpatine was really eager to shut down this school once he seized "unlimited power." Not sure why, but it might be worth checking out....
O hai Clawdites. This is one planet we might want to visit for recruitment...
These next two worlds are... interesting.
This is the current center of the 'Order of Dai Bendu'...
...Along with its origin world. A few points: the Order of Dai Bendu pre-dates the Jedi (it was one of the Force groups picked up by Tho Yor and brought to Tython in those pyramid ships). Dai Bendu is very definitely gray-aligned, which makes me way more curious about the creature that called itself 'the Bendu' in the Rebels TV show (I suspect that wasn't a proper name, but an identification of the creature's faction...!) Third, Dai Bendu monks are definitely our kind of people -- they study the Force, but they also like money, so a big part of what they do is organize trade fairs and markets on their homeworld... Anyway, should be worth a visit once we learn about them.
Naboo is nuts.
Besides all the canon stuff (Palpatine, Amidala, not to mention their respective childhood home!) you also get a bunch of Borvo-related stuff, plus the Plasma Refinery and Royal Palace, plus an unaffiliated black market starport, plus refugee settlements we probably helped set up... Yeah. This is the first and only planet to require three lines of text.
Two things: this is a cluster of black holes -- eerily similar to The Maw (which was Celestial made). Second, the spacetime effects of so many black holes in proximity is to generate a stasis/suspended animation field that traps and periodically released ships that venture too close. There's one ship that's trapped there and will stay for a while, but once it escapes it will bring with it a Jedi 'Force ghost'. Not sure if it's useful, but darn if it ain't interesting.
Mace Windu's homeworld. It turns out he belongs to an entire race of Force-sensitive people, of whom he was the most gifted. So there's that.
No idea how it happened, but there's a moon with a kolto-infused atmosphere -- walking around on the planet is the equivalent of taking a bacta-bath. Why this isn't a 'medical resort' world yet, I have no idea. The fact that it's even possible should give us some ideas, though...
Now for Senex-Juvex
Nebula Front is interesting. They're an anti-corporate terrorist/paramilitary group, who opposed the increasing power of the Separatist mega-corporations in the decades before the Clone Wars. At one point they 'tried' to assassinate the previous Supreme Chancellor, succeeding in their actual mission of assassinating the Trade Federation Directory. Unfortunately, this played right into Palpatine's hands, by elevating Nute Gunray and the current slate of Neimoidian leaders. So... well-intentioned, but a Sith puppet nonetheless. Interesting. This may be another one of Palpatine's 'allies' that we'll need to deal with and/or convert for our own use.
O hai blatantly evil Nazi expy.
Terr Taneel is described as 'cosmopolitan' and a good friend of the anti-Palpatine Senator Chi Eekway Papanoida (who we met this turn). OTOH, she represents Senex, which means she's responsible for opposing the 'Rights of Sentients' constitutional provision that bans slavery. Maybe. The wiki doesn't say....
I would love to see Tyro Torwin compete in the quinennial Kellermin Competition and show up every other marksman in the galaxy. Something about using the Force to correct your aim... it's hardly sporting, but Torwin was a pirate.
Another anti-Palpatine senator, another one the Sith Lord definitely has it in for.
Really really weird. So yeah, they look like teddy bears, but that's just scratching the surface. Bilars are classified as 'semi-sentient', though each one individually isn't even smart enough to qualify as that. The trick is the 'group mind', which forms when they are born. Groups of two have about the intelligence of a trained pet. Each additional Bilar in the group mind amplifies the overall sentience, to the point where they become genius-level intellects capable of outthinking Thrawn. So... yeah. That's a thing.
O hai Married Jedi #132.
And here's a number of planets who are neutral or would be interested in joining the CNS. @Dr. Snark, would you be interested/willing to roll for these for this turn, or should that wait until the end of Turn 25? (The same applies to the other neutral systems I found in my survey of the southwest Outer Rim and the Colonies region, after your earlier roll). Let me know.
Pacifist religion, CIS member world with Silver Cross refugee settlements, would prefer to be neutral... easy pick-up.
Mentioned Makeb above -- they're a commercial center near the front lines of war, and would definitely be interested in joining the CNS. Plus they're the sole source of that insanely valuable 'isotope' thing....
Space station used as neutral ground for diplomatic talks? Seems like the sort of thing that would fit with the CNS.
An already-declared neutral planet, that's also represented by an anti-Palpatine Senator? Another easy pick-up.
An already-declared neutral planet, that's the site of a massive medical space station that treats injured clones, and was (or will soon be) targeted by CIS attack? Yes please, that would be awesome. Especially since the medical station is apparently mobile, so we could theoretically move it around to where it would do the most good....
Another CIS member world with a bunch of (Silver Cross-funded) refugee settlements. Should be an easy-ish sell.
A mobile shadowport that operates on the black market and isn't willing to commit to either the Republic or Separatists? Sounds exactly like us.
Ogem doesn't like to discuss politics; they just like making money. Funny thing, so do we.
The wiki has absolutely nothing on this group, only a note saying that a Jedi (who survived the Purge) briefly considered going to the Corbett Cluster to join the Solar Guard. Obviously they're isolationist, and I interpolated to say that they're neutral, but that's up to @Dr. Snark.
The description doesn't mention that they also have major refugee settlements. Anyway, super-smart population on a planet that already professes its neutrality -- we should get their petition soon....
O hai Maz. Sorry you haven't met your 'boyfriend' yet, but Chewie is a bit busy being awesome. Anyway, it's not just her castle; the entire planet is 'neutral' in the Republic's affairs, so we should be able to persuade the planet's government to join the CNS....
They're supposedly descended from a ship full of Jedi that crashed there during the Great Shadow Crusade.
Panory
The Omake Dragon
- Location
- New York
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Speaking of Jedi Master homeworlds, good old George jokingly named Obi-wan's homeworld after renowned comedian Jon Stewart while on his show. Obi-wan is canonically from the planet Stewjon. Just though you might like to know.
And the Imperial guy with a disturbing lack of faith that Vader choked in A New Hope? Named after Conan O'Brien.
Family(?) Bonding (Currently Non-canon)
Panory
The Omake Dragon
- Location
- New York
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Family(?) Bonding
"I swear, they couldn't make the trip more uncomfortable if they tried." bitched Silas, rubbing his shoulder as he entered the lounge area reserved for Ciaran's most elite. Grabbing the first thing with a lot of alcohol he saw, the old scoundrel sat down across from Thrawn.
The Chiss looked up over the edge of the documents he was perusing skeptically. "I'll bite, but I'll have you know it's only because the art of the Jeby is beginning to hurt my eyes, a feat I did not think possible. What trip?"
"My most recent mission!" exclaimed Silas, taking a long drink. "Those ships are the most uncomfortable things in the galaxy. You know what I'm talking about, right?"
"Ah, a pain I have rarely had the displeasure of sharing." said Thrawn. "The vast majority of my missions are tactical in nature, and find me at the head of capital ships. My mission to Onderon required a more covert entrance for obvious reasons, though I hardly minded the chance to brush up on my piloting skills. Luckily, I now have the Invisible Hand, so I doubt I will need to experience any impersonal transports like you've described."
"The what?" asked Silas in confusion.
"The Invisible Hand." repeated Thrawn. "Surely you've noticed the new capital ship that's been added to our fleet."
"Ciaran got you a capital ship?" asked Silas incredulously. "Damn it, I told her buying capital ships would be too expensive. I thought she had enough sense to realize that."
"Oh no, the Invisible Hand is a spoil of war. It was difficult, I'll admit, but leaving Sev'rance'tann stranded on Onderon was immensely satisfying." Thrawn actually chuckled at the memory. "And now her personal ship is my personal ship. And Sev'rance'tann enjoyed a bit of luxury."
"You stole a ship?" A grin slowly spread across Silas' face. "Son of a Toydarian whore, how did I not think of that?! You really are a genius, Thrawn, I just want you to know that." The old man hurried out of the room with a speed the belied his age.
XXX
"Look old man, I can't impersonate someone if I don't know what they look like, and even if I do, personality doesn't come with it. Anyone who knows the guy is going to see through the ruse like that." Oki snapped to emphasize her point as Silas dragged her through Coruscant's Upper City.
"I'll tell you when we get there. Just get in the mindset of authoritative asshole and you'll have the majority of the personality down pat." said Silas, before quickly pulling Oki into an alcove as they entered some hanger. "Alright, there's the target."
Oki peeked out from behind the wall, and found herself looking at a Personal Luxury Yacht 3000, guarded by two Red Guards. "You want to steal that, are you crazy?"
"Most likely." admitted Silas. "Now I assume you know what Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine looks like?"
Oki's eyes widened n understanding. "No. No way. Absolutely not. When you invited me to 'steal some stuff' I thought you meant like pickpocketing shoppers or something, not robbing the most powerful man in the galaxy."
"We're working on changing that last part, and the first thing you need to learn about the Abyss Walkers is that we never do anything halfway. If you want a more applicable life lesson from your more experienced grandpa, listen up." said Silas, raising a finger. "If you're going to steal anything, there's a chance you'll be caught. So make it something worth stealing."
"Blessed banthas, you're serious about this." said a slack jawed Oki. "You actually want me to impersonate the Supreme Chancellor of the Republic and steal his yacht."
"I'll teach you how to fly it later. But right now, you're Sheev Palpatine looking for a quick ride to the other side of the planet to make a meeting on time and I'm your pilot." Silas looked at her quizzically, as if wondering what the holdup was. "Do you need a picture of him or something?"
"What? No, I know what..." Oki hesitated a second, just now processing what Silas had actually said. "…Sheev, seriously?"
"It's a dumb name, everyone in the galaxy either agrees or doesn't know what his first name is yet." nodded Silas. "Now are you game for this or not?"
Oki licked her lips nervously. "Okay, fine, I'll do it." The Clawdite's features began to shift until Silas found himself looking at Sheev Palpatine, albeit one who behaved like a nervous girl. "Happy now?"
"Almost. You're a cocky, in-charge asshole, not some schoolgirl trying to confess her feelings for a boy. Act like those Red Guards wait for your command to breathe, because they do." Silas gave his maybe granddaughter a second to take a deep breath and steel her nerves.
"Okay, follow me, pilot." Said Oki, striding out into the hanger before Silas could answer. As Oki approached, the Red Guards snapped to attention, making their previous state of alertness look downright lazy by comparison.
"Supreme Chancellor, sir." Oki didn't even bother looking at them, but stopped anyways. She'd need to think of some reason they wouldn't be allowed on the ship, otherwise this heist would be awkward to say the least.
"Has my pilot arrived yet?" Oki asked, still not looking at the Red Guards. For all she knew what the Supreme Chancellor looked like, she had actually forgotten exactly what color his eyes were. She mentally berated herself for not taking up Silas' offer of a reference.
"No sir, there's no one in the ship yet." said the Red Guard. "I suspect they'll be along shortly however."
"I would suggest you go find them then, I cannot afford to be kept waiting. My time is very valuable." said Oki, narrowing her eyes both to intimidate and obscure the randomly guessed eye color.
The Red Guards saluted. "Of course, sir. I'll go locate them immediately." said one, moving out of the hanger as quickly as he could while still looking dignified.
"I shall wait inside the ship then. Do not keep me waiting." warned Oki, saving her exhale of relief until she was safe on board the yacht.
Seeing his opportunity, Silas sprinted around the corner towards the ship. His disguise was more mundane, a pilot's uniform with the hat pulled down to slightly obscure his face. "Am I late?" he gasped as he approached the Red Guard.
"The Chancellor is already inside." said the remaining Red Guard. As Silas entered, the Red Guard followed him inside. The old smuggler had been hoping to do this completely covertly, but not everything could go perfectly he supposed.
Silas dropped a communicator out of his pocket, walking several more steps before seeming to notice it's absence and turning around. "Blast, could you get that for me? Need it to calculate some of the hyperlanes." He said with a helpless shrug.
"No problem." The Red Guard knelt down to pick the disc up, staring at it for a second, no doubt noticing the number of differences between Silas' communicator and any official model. "Say, what is this exactly?"
Silas decided to trigger it instead of answering. Convulsing with electricity, Silas decided to answer him. "Vulkar stun grenade I jury rigged into a communicator. Sorry about that." He quickly found Oki, gawking at the interior of one of the yacht's many ornate rooms. "I'm going to fire up the ship. When I give the go ahead, dump the body at the bottom of the ramp."
"Body?!" exclaimed Oki, losing any composure he had as Palpatine. Silas had to admit, watching the Abyss Watchers' mortal enemy panic was cathartic. "You killed someone?!"
"No, the Red Guard is unconscious." comforted Silas. "Now let's hurry, he'll wake up eventually, and I want some serious distance between us when he does. But cameras will pick up his body getting thrown out, so we need to take off immediately once we dump him."
Silas rushed to the cockpit of the yacht, firing up the systems and getting it ready for takeoff no different, though perhaps a bit faster than usual. "Ready! Toss him now and raise the ramp!" he shouted down the halls of the ship to Oki. Waiting a few seconds, he disabled the trackers built into the ship and took off.
Oki joined him and shifted back to her own appearance as he flew out of Coruscant's atmosphere. "Where are we going? The base is back on the planet. Is the dementia setting in, old man?" snarked Oki.
"Hardly." deadpanned Silas. "We're not taking this ship to the base on Coruscant, it's too suspicious there and someone might recognize it as the Chancellor's stolen ship. But there are only Abyss Walker men with the Oracle fleet. We'll stash it there for safekeeping until the heat dies down a bit."
"You really had this whole thing planned out, huh?" asked Oki, impressed at how smoothly this had gone off. It really had no right to be this easy.
"Along with several contingencies, yes." nodded Silas, punching coordinates into the navigational computers of the yacht. "But it would have been a hell of a lot harder without you there. You did good work kid." Silas patted Oki on the head affectionately and laughed. "Now I just can't wait to rub it in Thrawn's face that the ship I stole came directly from the top instead of three steps down."
AN: Originally Palpatine showed up and we took a detour that intersected with Obi-wan's ongoing diplomatic adventures, but writer's block does not want me writing about sentient biscuit monsters.
UbeOne
Daydreaming CPU
- Location
- Philippines
- Pronouns
- She/Her
*raises eyebrow in curiosity*
I love this. Everything about this omake, including the name-drop of the rainbow-colored race from planet Rainboh... yeah, all of it was perfect.
Now to see if we can't make it canon...
Apparently you missed the random bit of trivia from a few pages back. Here you go.And link:
Yeah. So, turns out the EU has a planet in the Outer Rim known for a particular incident. An off-world trader from Sullust, bringing in a shipment of a popular breakfast snack, discovered that exposing the biscuits to the planet's atmosphere caused them to mutate into an giant omnivorous amoeba-monsters that seek to consume all living things.
Naturally, this ravenous biscuit-monster could only be defeated by... squirting it with blue bantha sauce, a popular condiment.
Yeah, this is definitely a 'burn it with fire' Wookiepedia entry. This is one that won't be showing up on my next galaxy survey.
Last edited:
Panory
The Omake Dragon
- Location
- New York
- Pronouns
- He/Him
What @Publicola said. I've had "The Ongoing Diplomatic Adventures of Obi-wan Kenobi" half written for like a week now. I've written like three other omakes for various quests while trying to hash it out.
You inspired this one btw. I've been trying think of what Silas and Oki could steal together, and it just sort of clicked when you wrote Silas complaining about how terrible the ship rides were. I figured Thrawn wouldn't need to deal with it since he had just stolen his own.
Also, I headcanon that everything pertaining to Rainboh, from documents to art is done exclusively in multi-colored crayons.
Last edited:
Are you referring to this ship? Because it turns out that Lando Calrissian managed to steal the thing in canon, and now I'm cracking up that our suave smuggling ladies-man managed to beat canon's version to it.
- Location
- A trench being shelled.
I did not know this was a thing and now I have to catch up on EVERYTHING.
Panory
The Omake Dragon
- Location
- New York
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I had this one in mind, since it mentions that Palpatine had one, and I wasn't really willing to put a ton of effort into research. Though interestingly enough Lando had one of these too.
I'll leave it up to @Dr. Snark which one we wind up with. Reading the wiki, the Imperialis would make more sense as Palpatine's personal ship, and while the Sith artifacts might be a little much on top of Silas getting a ship and Oki's Intrigue bonus, it's not unbelievable that Sheev wouldn't have them on board yet since he still has a cover to maintain.
ConfusedPotato
Unverified Verifier
- Location
- Australia
I am starting to think that a large part of the Abyss Watcher's success comes from our understanding and subsequent use and abuse of the Refuge in Audacity trope.
A good thief will get all the money from a vault, a great thief will take everything of value from a vault, an Abyss Watcher will skip all that nonsense and take the entire vault, as well as a chunk of the surrounding wall just to be sure
Last edited:
- Location
- Sweden
And then it turns out they didn't need to steal anything, because Ciaran had already Naboo'd the planet.
Dragontrapper
Homeless Draconis
- Location
- A Tower in the middle of nowhere
So basically we're an entire faction of Carmen Sandiego's?
Last edited:
Carmen. Sandiego.
Get it right when you speak of the Great One.
- Location
- somewhere over there.
- Pronouns
- They/It
Unless it's one of those things where tech has regressed enough that we don't even have things that needed it, and it's just a useless if rare thing.
Looking over the link, it seems like it might be old enough that that is it's proper name, and the faction named themselves after a giant moose man with superpowers.
We should get some of their ocean monsters for our obligatory villain aquarium.
I agree with most of your ideas, but I feel like I should point out that in this case the station presumably belongs to the Republic, so I doubt we could do much with it.
Dragontrapper
Homeless Draconis
- Location
- A Tower in the middle of nowhere
Fixed, happy?
Edit: Actually, we should totally get a giant red fedora and trench coat.