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May The Invisible Hand Be With You - (Star Wars CK2-Style Quest)

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Naval Contemplation​

It was fairly common for Ahsoka to breeze into Thrawn's office. After all, she was Thrawn's unofficial protege and they often met to discuss tactics, art, games, or any number of other subjects within the galaxy at large. Nobody within the Watchers thought anything of seeing the Togruta walk in. Only a few knew how much effort it had taken to enable these casual visits to continue, and none of them were between her and her goal.

So when Ahsoka arrived to find Thrawn trawling through reports on an Acclamator's captain and uncharacteristically not already expecting her arrival...she knew what fatigue looked like, even if Thrawn would never admit it.

The modifications of the Acclamator itself caught on something in her memory, and the image of its captain brought those memories back in full. "I've met him, if you'd like a firsthand account from a trustworthy witness."

Thrawn turned in his chair, not showing surprise, his features showing intrigue. "You have my attention," he said, inclining his head towards the door so she would close it.

Ahsoka gestured with two fingers at the door and it gently closed. She thought back to the time with Torrent Company aboard the Leveler, the mission to JanFathal. "He's a good captain. Doesn't risk more than he has to. He's careful. Honest. During the time with him, we had to help extract a Republic spy. He weighed the options and decided we could do it--I heard from Captain Rex later that he'd said 'we're not equipped for this at all, but I like a challenge. Good for morale when we pull it off.' Under the circumstances, I'd say he was right on both counts. Once he decided we were going to do it...well, that was when he found out the Republic spy was, how did he say it... 'someone with whom I have an emotional relationship,' was what he told me and Captain Rex. He said it was a conflict of interest and he was rather partial to her."

Thrawn hit a few keys on the desk between them and the files he'd been examining popped up on the holo-display. "Hallena Devis. Former Republic Intelligence, retired..."

Ahsoka tilted her head. "A few days after JanFathal. About two years ago. She's more or less disappeared since then. I saw a couple of the Altisians talking to her on the Leveler before she left. They might know where she went."

Thrawn hit a few more keys. "Students of the Jedi Master Djinn Altis? I might be able to place a few comm calls and have them ask some questions. Very interesting. That should take care of my report." The display seemed to close the file and then brought up a different one, a file Ahsoka recognized. "I thought it might be good to discuss game night. If I remember properly, your priestess Usagi is about ready to enter the Moon Maiden's Champion advanced class."

Ahsoka grinned. "I don't know why, but whenever I'm playing the game, everything else falls away and I have a really great time."

Thrawn smiled. "You leave everything behind for a little while and step into Usagi's shoes. I thought it might help, so I asked PR-1 to run a game tonight."

The smile on Ahsoka's face told Thrawn that was the best thing he could have said.

A/N: So I did it anyway. Title pun, the ending with a call-back to my tabletop roleplaying omake, all of it was a lot of fun and actually a fair test of my ability to concentrate on stuff (which suggests I should be healthy enough to work Monday!) My grasp of Ahsoka and Thrawn may not be the best, but...Sorry, not sorry.
 
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Hmm, with PR-1 being outfitted with a DM mod would that make him better at lying now since he has had practice in spinning stories to tell.
 
Bass11 said:
Hmm, with PR-1 being outfitted with a DM mod would that make him better at lying now since he has had practice in spinning stories to tell.
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He's a protocol droid. He's got just enough improvements via traits to be a half-decent DM: an understanding of combat on a basic level, the ability to tell stories that don't need to be true, the ability to make people feel welcome and comfortable, and the ability to crunch the numbers involved more or less on the fly.

Throw in a vocoder, the ability to speak in a number of different alien languages (and thus being able to voice as many minor characters as necessary in whatever races the story happens to carry?) I'd be glad to play in whatever game PR-1 wanted to run.

I hadn't quite decided on what to call the game, so I avoided naming it. Twice now. Before I reference it a third time, I should probably find a name for it. Corridors and Chests? Labyrinths and Lizards? Mazes and Monsters?
 
You know, at this point the Senate is going to have to do some C-SPAN crap if my omakes were actually real.

What actually goes on in the Jedi Council Chambers? Is Master Mace Windu on deathsticks? Are they all actually playing beer-pong all day and picking Knights for missions throwing darts at a dartboard?!?

Find out on MasterWatch! Sponsored by totally-not-SIthnet!

 
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Barondoctor said:
He's a protocol droid. He's got just enough improvements via traits to be a half-decent DM: an understanding of combat on a basic level, the ability to tell stories that don't need to be true, the ability to make people feel welcome and comfortable, and the ability to crunch the numbers involved more or less on the fly.

Throw in a vocoder, the ability to speak in a number of different alien languages (and thus being able to voice as many minor characters as necessary in whatever races the story happens to carry?) I'd be glad to play in whatever game PR-1 wanted to run.

I hadn't quite decided on what to call the game, so I avoided naming it. Twice now. Before I reference it a third time, I should probably find a name for it. Corridors and Chests? Labyrinths and Lizards? Mazes and Monsters?
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UTTS: Undifferentiated Table Top System. Yeah, it's a GURPS joke. I think a D&D joke would be a bit played out.
 
Small Nerd said:
UTTS: Undifferentiated Table Top System. Yeah, it's a GURPS joke. I think a D&D joke would be a bit played out.
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Considering the game itself is heavily based on D&D 3.5 E (Thrawn's playing a variant Paladin setup, Ahsoka's got a DMM Persist Cleric, HK's got a Warforged Ranger with Favored Enemy: Arcanists, and Ciaran...I think Ciaran's playing some form of wizard or sorcerer), it's probably going to be some form of D&D reference.
 
Barondoctor said:
Considering the game itself is heavily based on D&D 3.5 E (Thrawn's playing a variant Paladin setup, Ahsoka's got a DMM Persist Cleric, HK's got a Warforged Ranger with Favored Enemy: Arcanists, and Ciaran...I think Ciaran's playing some form of wizard or sorcerer), it's probably going to be some form of D&D reference.
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Ciaran: the character played by the DM's waifu.
 
Considering both times in my experience there's been an explicit relationship between the DM and one of the players (one time when I was another player, once when I was the DM), the player has been sniping-focused, and HK kinda already has that element locked down?

Wait a tick... =P
 
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Cultured (Canon)
  • Threadmarks
    • Cultured​


    Thrawn was a military man, but war came and went. Underneath his brilliant tactical mind was a Chiss of culture. Not merely Chiss culture either. Thrawn would not rest until he was learned in as many histories as possible. To that end, he could often be found pouring over ancient tomes in concentrated silence, occasionally walking about the room to digest what he had been reading. Most knew not to distract Thrawn with anything less than a crisis while he studied, and it was not uncommon for the room to fall completely silent.

    So the study rooms on board the Oracle being filled with noise while Thrawn was there was odd. Even odder was the origin of the ungodly racket, Thrawn himself. The Chiss scholar would sit in silence, staring at the text before him with unbreakable concentration, before uttering something in between a growl, scream, and snarl. No one dared ask the obvious question, and Thrawn offered no explanation, simply returning to his book, slightly more frustrated than before.

    "Statement: Your Tusken is atrocious, meatbag. Not that it would need to be any better. Sand people are rather antisocial in my experience. Recommendation: Stop wasting your time." Thrawn looked up to see the assassin droid.

    "It's certainly frustrating, but it must be done." sighed Thrawn. "Tusken raiders have been straying closer and closer to the Lars/Skywalker residence. In the interest of keeping Miss Skywalker alive, they'll need to be driven back."

    "Caution: That is most inadvisable. Sand people are annoyingly persistent, and all trained fighters. Total extermination would be required. Not just the men, but the women, and the children too."

    "Previous attempts to keep the sand people away from settlements and convoys has proven that much. Which is why I'm hoping to come to a peaceful solution. But to do that, I would need to understand their culture, their art, their history. And to do that I would need to speak their language, which is proving completely opaque."

    "Statement: A pointless exercise. Theirs is a culture of violence and stupidity." said HK-47.

    "You speak as if from experience. Have you studied their culture?" asked Thrawn, intrigued by the possibility that the Abyss Watchers' resident sociopathic assassin droid knew more about any given culture than himself.

    "Lament: Not by choice. My former master repeatedly prevented me from terminating a tribe of them in pursuit of knowledge of the Star Forge hidden in their history." HK-47 paused a moment. "Opinion: I still think the entire thing could have been cut short with judicious application of a blaster."

    "So you actually know the culture of the sand people?" asked Thrawn once more, still a little disbelieving. "I don't suppose you'd be willing to recount it and save me some time?"

    "Answer: Nothing would bring me greatest displeasure. Their history is passed on orally, in one single narrative. To tell it would take several hours I would rather spend dismantling myself." said HK-47, the distaste breaking through his monotone voice processor to make itself known.

    Thrawn blanched at that. While several hours studying a culture was nothing out of the ordinary, he usually had to break that time up across several days, or even weeks due to his quite frankly more important duties in the Abyss Watchers. "Is it possible to condense the history?"

    "Answer: The sand people hold their history as sacred, requiring a warrior to prove himself in combat before he can hear it, so that he does not recite it incorrectly. To abridge it would be heresy in their culture, punishable by death." The droid paused a moment. "I would be happy to shorten the story." said HK-47, his voice processor tinged with the sadistic glee he usually reserved for slaughter and assassination.



    AN: Been watching a Let's Play of KOTOR, and learned you can force HK-47 to listen to the history of the Sand People, which just sounded like a Thrawn thing.
     
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    • Panory said:
    "Answer: The sand people hold their history as sacred, requiring a warrior to prove himself in combat before he can hear it, so that he does not recite it incorrectly. To abridge it would be heresy in their culture, punishable by death." The droid paused a moment. "I would be happy to shorten the story." said HK-47, his voice processor tinged with the sadistic glee he usually reserved for slaughter and assassination.
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    While entertaining, is there a reason HK cannot dump the audio file onto an external device, or do a speech-to-text conversion?
     
    Considering he is a product of both Mecha-Deru and the Starforge, I'm pretty sure him being powered by spite is literal. It would certainly explain how he managed to survive everything he went through.
     
    For some reason I get the feeling that HK is going to guest-run the next game, where they fight against Sand People, because he wants to see them die in a wide variety of creative ways. They realize they need another character, so they invite Cheriss to take a bit of time out of the lab, and things go from there.

    EDIT: AHAHAHAHAHAHA. I'm sure I'm going to get either a groan, a laugh, or a nerdy high-five from Thrawn's character's name. This is going to be great.
     
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    Panory said:
    Cultured​


    Thrawn was a military man, but war came and went. Underneath his brilliant tactical mind was a Chiss of culture. Not merely Chiss culture either. Thrawn would not rest until he was learned in as many histories as possible. To that end, he could often be found pouring over ancient tomes in concentrated silence, occasionally walking about the room to digest what he had been reading. Most knew not to distract Thrawn with anything less than a crisis while he studied, and it was not uncommon for the room to fall completely silent.

    So the study rooms on board the Oracle being filled with noise while Thrawn was there was odd. Even odder was the origin of the ungodly racket, Thrawn himself. The Chiss scholar would sit in silence, staring at the text before him with unbreakable concentration, before uttering something in between a growl, scream, and snarl. No one dared ask the obvious question, and Thrawn offered no explanation, simply returning to his book, slightly more frustrated than before.

    "Statement: Your Tusken is atrocious, meatbag. Not that it would need to be any better. Sand people are rather antisocial in my experience. Recommendation: Stop wasting your time." Thrawn looked up to see the assassin droid.

    "It's certainly frustrating, but it must be done." sighed Thrawn. "Tusken raiders have been straying closer and closer to the Lars/Skywalker residence. In the interest of keeping Miss Skywalker alive, they'll need to be driven back."

    "Caution: That is most inadvisable. Sand people are annoyingly persistent, and all trained fighters. Total extermination would be required. Not just the men, but the women, and the children too."

    "Previous attempts to keep the sand people away from settlements and convoys has proven that much. Which is why I'm hoping to come to a peaceful solution. But to do that, I would need to understand their culture, their art, their history. And to do that I would need to speak their language, which is proving completely opaque."

    "Statement: A pointless exercise. Theirs is a culture of violence and stupidity." said HK-47.

    "You speak as if from experience. Have you studied their culture?" asked Thrawn, intrigued by the possibility that the Abyss Watchers' resident sociopathic assassin droid knew more about any given culture than himself.

    "Lament: Not by choice. My former master repeatedly prevented me from terminating a tribe of them in pursuit of knowledge of the Star Forge hidden in their history." HK-47 paused a moment. "Opinion: I still think the entire thing could have been cut short with judicious application of a blaster."

    "So you actually know the culture of the sand people?" asked Thrawn once more, still a little disbelieving. "I don't suppose you'd be willing to recount it and save me some time?"

    "Answer: Nothing would bring me greatest displeasure. Their history is passed on orally, in one single narrative. To tell it would take several hours I would rather spend dismantling myself." said HK-47, the distaste breaking through his monotone voice processor to make itself known.

    Thrawn blanched at that. While several hours studying a culture was nothing out of the ordinary, he usually had to break that time up across several days, or even weeks due to his quite frankly more important duties in the Abyss Watchers. "Is it possible to condense the history?"

    "Answer: The sand people hold their history as sacred, requiring a warrior to prove himself in combat before he can hear it, so that he does not recite it incorrectly. To abridge it would be heresy in their culture, punishable by death." The droid paused a moment. "I would be happy to shorten the story." said HK-47, his voice processor tinged with the sadistic glee he usually reserved for slaughter and assassination.



    AN: Been watching a Let's Play of KOTOR, and learned you can force HK-47 to listen to the history of the Sand People, which just sounded like a Thrawn thing.
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    huh..... now i am gonna have to try and make that happen
     
    Statement: I am the Game Master, Master.​

    A message pinged on Cheriss's computer from HK-47.

    "Query: Are you familiar with the updated third edition of Corridors and Chests? Statement: If you are, your presence is requested in Conference Room B in three days' time. Explanation: Typically I am a player, but for the upcoming session it was felt that given my expertise in the particular subject matter for this session, I should run the game. Exposition: The other three players are an Inspirational Paladin played by Thrawn, a Priestess of the Moon played by Ahsoka, and a Sorceress played by Ciaran. I play a Ranger whose focus is on eliminating enemy magic-users; for this adventure that character will be absent. Irritated Statement: There is no way our typical Game Master, PR-1, would be able to adequately play my character, so I will simply explain away his absence."

    Cheriss had never heard of the game, but it sounded like fun. Three days would be enough time to learn a simple game, right? She looked up the files for the game. "112 files at what size? Well. Maybe I should tell him I don't know. Who else would he ask that would actually play?" She starting going through the files. "Maybe I should do this game, just to get out of the lab for a bit."

    ----------------------------

    Three days later, the players strode into the room to see HK-47 already seated in the usual GM chair. "Greeting: I am pleased to see you arrived, Cheriss."

    Cheriss nodded, handing HK-47 the datapad showing her character file: a golem magesmith, a character whose primary skill was to instill magic in an item temporarily; with time and gold this magic could be made permanent.

    "Statement: your character is approved. Did you have a planned entry, or would you rather the players find you in town?"

    Cheriss looked at the surprised expression on Ahsoka's face. "Did you not tell them I was coming?"

    Thrawn looked to Ciaran and saw her nod ever so slightly. "There's a reason she doesn't seem like any other Togruta you've ever met, Ahsoka. She isn't one. She's a Shard, who made a body that looks like a Togruta to put others at ease."

    Ahsoka stood up from the table, circled Cheriss once. "I'm impressed. Straight through the Uncanny Valley and out the other side."

    She then sat back down. "So, where is it we're going now?"

    HK-47's photoreceptors seemed to brighten a moment. "Narrative: A settlement on the edge of the Great Empty Plains nearby has come under attack by a tribe of Grass People. Query: Do any of you possess the Lore skill related to barbarian tribes?"

    Ahsoka looked at Thrawn, shaking her head. Thrawn looked at Ciaran, who shook hers. Ciaran looked over at Cheriss. "Yes, but not at a high level. I'm discharging the Divine Insight charge off this prayer bead to gain a bonus to the check." She rolled the die. "Plus the bonus from the bead...darn, only 26. Suppose this would be a good time to introduce myself."

    "Statement: The golem in the booth next to yours at the tavern leans over the back of the bench as she overhears you." He transmitted the data to Cheriss' datapad.

    Her Togruta replica body seemed to take a deep breath and then spoke. "I couldn't help overhearing your discussion of the Grass People. They're a barbarian tribe said to have been driven mad by the vast empty abyss of nothing but hills and grass, raiding anybody who dares live within their lands or who gets too close. Their language is all but impossible to understand, much less speak; they speak no other language and understand no other language. Any peace with them would be short-lived. Perhaps I could help. You may call me Cherish."

    Ahsoka nodded. "I'm Usagi, and if they're going after people who are just trying to pass through or live without bringing violence to them, then I'm sure the Maiden of the Moon will approve driving them back. Ahh, what do you think, Mithrawndir?"

    The Chiss seemed unmoved. "I'd like to negotiate with them, if possible. Barring some sort of Plains-wide kill-on-sight arrangement that would probably start a war nobody could win, fighting them will only start a cycle of revenge."

    "We can certainly win any given battle, but if they return in greater numbers...there are limits, even to what the great Robin Corrin can do with magic," Ciaran agreed.

    "Query: How do you plan to negotiate when none of you speak their language?" HK-47 asked.

    Cheriss smirked. "As we travel towards the village, I begin crafting a magical circlet that allows the ability to understand and speak any language while worn. You'll notice my Expert Magesmith, Legendary Magesmith, and Exceptional Magesmith reduce the required gold, experience, and time quantities down such that it can be done easily in travel time. I'll only have the one. I doubt mine's the silver tongue in the room, so who should I be giving it to?"

    "Negotiations, by their nature, need to be done within speaking range," began Thrawn, vocal mannerisms vaguely akin to a morning-cartoon-hero. "That's definitely within archery shooting range. That makes it me, even if Lady Corrin and I are approximately equal at the skill, because I'm more likely to survive getting shot at if it goes badly. Also, I can prepare the Arrow-Proof spell to improve my defense against missile attacks, which I don't think is something Robin's picked up just yet."

    Cheriss began doing rolls for crafting and discussing what of her many crafted magic items might be of help with Thrawn. Thrawn kept up his side of that discussion while scanning through his spellbook for what spells he would want for that negotiation.

    "All right. I've got my spell preparations here, Cherish has her travel time accounted for, looks like we're finally about ready to begin that negotiation," Thrawn announced.

    Ahsoka looked over at the wall chronometer. "Uhhh, guys? With the new security measures, Jedi Temple curfew is in about ten minutes, which means I gotta run. I'll be back next week?"

    Thrawn yawned and stretched. "Yes. Perhaps it would be wise to call it a night and proceed to the actual negotiations next time."

    Cheriss tilted her head. "Strange. It seems like we only just got started and that was...six hours ago?"

    "It...happens with this game," Ciaran agreed.

    Thrawn nodded. "One time we played for about twelve hours straight without realizing it. After that we agreed to start scheduling things in more manageable amounts."

    A/N: Anybody who's ever played a tabletop game knows the feeling of preparations taking forever and players having real life commitments limiting the amount of time you actually get to play. Part three in what is apparently starting to become a series of hero characters playing it's-not-D&D-don't-sue.
     
    Barondoctor said:
    A/N: Anybody who's ever played a tabletop game knows the feeling of preparations taking forever and players having real life commitments limiting the amount of time you actually get to play.
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    And anyone who's run a game will be used to everything taking longer than it has to because some idiot decided to go looking for a pit fighting ring or something equally stupid instead of getting on with the actual plot. In my experience that's usually the reason for everything running until five in the morning the next day...
     
    Then you ask people to stunt it, then they go into an half an hour (or more) explaination of every detail of whatever is going to happen in the next few minutes.
     
    Sceptic said:
    And anyone who's run a game will be used to everything taking longer than it has to because some idiot decided to go looking for a pit fighting ring or something equally stupid instead of getting on with the actual plot. In my experience that's usually the reason for everything running until five in the morning the next day...
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    A Game I Ran said:
    GM: An Imperial factory is testing a material generated by Sith Sorcery, somewhere on the planet. You notice that the wildlife seems to be changing colors and using Dark Side Force Powers on each other over in this region--
    Player: We want one.
    GM: You what?
    Player: We want to capture one.
    GM: Okay then. Let me just change out the Star Wars music I'd been playing for something a bit more appropriate...like this.

    Approximately an hour and a bunch of damage later, they collected two of the afflicted birds and started searching for the factory in earnest.
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    My players have a particularly severe case of Bethesda Syndrome, where a background detail becomes more interesting than the main plot because SHINY. They started learning when I made one of those details a load-bearing-pillar holding up the structure keeping a galaxy-ending-parasite-plague contained.
     
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