Restless Natives
This scenario is intended to be open form, that is, there is no linear path though from start to end. The Games Master must be prepared to use his own initiative in deciding when, where and how the various competing factions interact. I’ve made suggestions and detailed the motivations of each group but once the player characters are introduced into the equation things can wind up going off at a tangent.

A brief synopsis: The characters are hired by a Twi’lek merchant who thinks he just might have received the bad end of Hutt’s scam but wants to be sure before he takes action. The scenario will unfold on Ganipres a mid rim swamp world just inside the limits of Hutt Space. The characters may be hired while on that world or may be hired else where and sent to Ganipres, the important thing is that you may have to adjust the timing of events if the characters have a long hyperspace voyage to reach their destination.

Once on Ganipres, the characters can arrange to tour the merchant’s investment, a sluice mine used to sift various useful chemicals and minerals from the swamp and investigate the increasing production delays. Of course this where complications begin the security captain is none to happy to see them, the local wild life threatens the mine and a terrorist cell makes its move. Who will the characters try to protect, and will they honour their own deal with the merchant?

Prelude: Making the Deal

The characters are hired by the Twi’lek Monda Tal a representative of the Ashur Trade Legislate that monopolises all commerce in the Ashur System and is making a bid to exploit trade links with other systems, within the Republic and in Hutt Space. Monda Tal is a canny businessman and he has specifically tried to hire troubleshooters who have no ties to Ganipres or the organised crime there, which he suspects may be in control of his investment.

How the characters get to Ganipres depends on them, if they have their own transport all well and good, if not then Monda Tal will take the liberty of providing them with accommodations aboard one of the Ashur Trade Legislates ships bound for that system. These accommodations are comfortable but not luxurious.

Scene One: Customs Inspection

The stilt city of Gamch is the arrival point for the characters, and the first problem is the customs inspectorate which secures their landing platform and demands both a docking fee and to be permitted access to the ship, cargo and passengers for a routine inspection. The customs inspector in a Gran by the name of Lorm Trot <View Character>, he presents himself as slow witted and just interested in getting all the paper work out of the way. In truth he uses this method to exasperate and bore people into making mistakes. Lorm Trot has some heavy backup if anyone wants to start anything. The inspection will take the best part of a day as Trot examines everything in minute detail and functions as a distraction while one of his lieutenants takes the opportunity to plant contraband for him to find.

There are several ways that the characters could chose to deal with Lorm Trot and his thugs, the fastest one would be the simple bribe, the more they offer the faster Lorm will dispense with the paper work. Violence is not recommended as Lorm has a number of henchmen who are looking for an excuse to break some heads. If violence overflows the landing pad then other customs inspectors are likely to take an interest. If Lorm performs his inspection and finds the planted contraband (which he will) he will fine the captain of the vessel, and tell characters that they must buy blaster permits of each of their weapons, after they have bought these permits they will be able to take them ‘legally’ through customs for an additional small administration charge. In fact Lorm will push the characters for as many small charges as he thinks he can get them to pay for.

Lorm Trot’s henchmen should use the Thug Archetype on page 355 of the Star Wars Revised Rulebook.

Once the characters have been processed through customs and are free to go about their business. Feel free to have them run into trouble or do some exploration of Gamch.

Scene Two: From A to B

Once the characters have sorted out their travelling arrangements they can head for the Sluice Mine, it’s only about an hours travel by air car or three days on foot through the dense mangrove swamps.

As the characters fly to the Sluice Mine their air car comes under attack by the Green Fringe. The air car flies only a few meters above the treetops so when the shot from a heavy ion cannon breaches the tree canopy the characters have little chance of avoiding it. If one of the characters is the pilot give him a Pilot check with a DC of 25 to avoid being hit. If the characters hired someone to fly them have them hit automatically.

If they avoid the shot they can escape, if they choose to circle and fight, a Spot check DC of 30 is required to locate the camouflaged gun emplacement. And they run the risk of being shot at again. Landing in the mangroves this dense is near impossible so the characters are limited to trading blaster fire, a situation they are unlikely win, the green fringe freedom fighters will break and scatter quickly being obscured by the dense jungle.

If on the other hand they are hit the air car suddenly loses all power and plummets into the trees. The crash will inflict 2D10 damage to Fatigue and 1D10 damage to Wounds; the characters may attempt a Fort Save to stay conscious. The Green Fringe will break from their position and retreat at this point. But the characters may have to survive for several days as they traverse the mangrove.

Scene Three: Sluice Tour

Once the characters actually make it to the sluice mine, the trouble can really start. They will be met by a small security force (either at the perimeter field fence or at the landing pad). The security force is little more than a bunch of five thugs (Use the Thug Archetype on page 355 of the Star Wars Revised Rulebook). The sluice mine security will make the characters feel very unwelcome if they cannot identify themselves as representatives of their investor, even then their safety is not assured. Gort <View Character>, the Durg security captain will warn them against wandering too far or staying to long.

Torg Jurl is the site manager for the slice mine, he is typical of the Ugnaught race, short, pig-like, balding and a preference for grunting acknowledgements rather than speaking. He will offer to provide a guided tour of ‘his’ facility, he speaks highly of Gort explaining that what he lacks in social nicety he makes up for in dedication to his job. If Torg is questioned about production delays he explains that they are having trouble with local resistance.

Torg can be a handy source of information, not only will he take considerable time to describe and explain the workings of the sluice systems and various pieces of machinery used in the mine site, he can also explain the production delays that the characters have been sent to investigate. The matter is some what embarrassing they suffer raids from jungle by the local wildlife, hence the recent investment in a perimeter field fence. Previously an old ultrasonic perimeter field was used to scare the wildlife away but recently it stopped being effective and a raid caused massive damage to sluice filters and cause many of the production delays.

Scene Four: Tribal Trouble

The night after the characters arrive the Grappa Tribals mount another assault on the compound, they are trying to recover Sol Tou-Kour, but have no idea where he is. The small force will consist up to ten Grappa <View Archetype>. They will leap from surrounding mangrove trees to make it over the security cordon. They will use stealth to investigate the sheds first; once the alarm has been raised they will try to escape by deactivating the security fence. They are primitive but they understand fire can cause a big distraction if the filter vats are ignited. Security will not pursue the Grappa in to the mangroves once they are repulsed, those that have pursued in the past have never returned.

Asking questions after the attack can yield small pieces of information. The attacks are a recent thing; they are becoming more frequent and desperate; there were to attack prior to that scout coming though here; the scout returned two miners who had become lost in the mangroves; the scout also got into a bit of trouble while he was here and got into a fight; the scout was killed in that fight; the scout beat up a member of security so Gort shot him; no one is sure where the body is probably at the bottom of the swamp. No one except Gort knows that the scout is still alive and in a security cell. This information is progressively harder to learn because all the miners are scared of Gort and don’t want to end up on his bad side. How you choose to release this information is up to you, an over heard conversation, talking to a minor round the back of one of the machine sheds etc.

The object of this scene is to convey to the characters that the natives are restless and evidently looking for something. These attacks have become nightly and increasingly desperate. Once the Grappa are repulsed the characters have the opportunity track the Grappa back to there settlement.

Scene Five: Heart of the Problem

Once the characters find the Grappa settlement, there are several courses of action, they can try to talk to the Grappa, or be captured by the Grappa and hence get the opportunity to speak with their Spirit Talker or they can simply start a fire fight. Talking to the Grappa and getting to the heart of their grievance is only way to find out what is really going on.

The Grappa settlement is based on a series of small rafts that can be lashed together to form a small township or broken apart for easy movement through the mangroves. They have small cooking fires which are carefully controlled to prevent damage to their huts. The central hut and raft is that of the Spirit Talker, a Grappa Force User.

The plight of this Grappa Tribe is simple; their Spirit Talker is old, very old and dieing, only a few days away from death. Without a replacement Spirit Talker the tribe dies too. Sol Tou-Kour was a human scout who had been taken in by this tribe, his Force talents nurtured and trained by the Spirit Talker, though he was an outsider his status as an apprentice was more important. Sol Tou-Kour was the future hope for the tribe, now he as disappeared the tribe are desperate for his return before their aged Spirit Talker passes into the other realm.

The return of Sol Tou-Kour would be a matter of celebration for the tribe, and would earn the characters immense respect. The morning after Sol Tou-Kour returns to the tribe they break camp and move on through the mangroves, likely never to be encountered again.

Appendix One: The Sluice Mine

The Sluice Mine compound contains the following buildings to be incorporated into the tour and or to be investigated later by the characters.

Administration Building: The administration building includes Torg’s office, a canteen and bunk rooms for the fifteen miners, five security thugs and Torg (Gort lives in the security tower). The canteen is little more than a collection of tables and a galley, the miners take shifts (by rota) to run the galley, some see it as a blessing others a curse, in fact there is sub-culture grown up around who runs what and who gets to eat first.

Chemical Storage: Once the mangrove slit has been sluiced and filtered the harvested chemicals are stored in vast chemical vats to await transport. Chemical storage is highly volatile and will explode if hit by blaster fire.

Filter Vats: Once the mangrove silt has been sluiced it is permitted to settle in vast open topped filter vats. This permits various chemical layers to form that are then stiffened off and given additional filter or chemical treatments prior to storage. Filter vats may be ignited by blaster fire.

Landing Pad: A small landing pad large enough to land two air cars and associated garage. The mine only has one air car unless the characters arrived in one. Behind the garage and machine sheds is one of the places that miners go when they want to imbue certain flammable substances (the mine rules prohibit this, because of the volatile chemical stores).

Perimeter Field Fence: A security cordon consisting of 7m tall obelisks (spaced about 20m apart ) that generate a force field to keep wild life out of the compound, flying creatures can just fly over but ground based predators cannot climb it. In order to pass though the cordon two adjacent obelisks must be deactivated (this will sound an alarm in the security tower).

Security Tower: Not exactly a tower, the security station is a single story building like all the others but upon the flat roof has been constructed a tall hide on wooden stilts high enough to see over the whole compound. There is no ladder, it must be climbed (no problem for Gort, this is where he will go in an emergency; it gives him a clear field of fire). The security tower also has a basement with four underground cells, usually where problem miners sleep off what ever intoxicating chemical they have taken. Sol Tou-Kour currently occupies one of these cells, he is alive but badly beaten (Gort believes that he's a Green Fringe agent).

Sluice Dam: A long thin dam arrangement that channels the mangrove run offs into the first line of filters prior to settlement in the filter vats.

Storage Out-Houses: There are also numerous tool and storage sheds.

Appendix Two: Extended Plots

To kill a profit: Every month or so a tanker craft makes the trip to pick up the chemicals produced by the sluice mine. It’s a huge zeppelin like monstrosity that hangs low over the mangrove trees and uses several large hoses to clean out the chemical stores. The Green Fringe launch an attack intended to destroy the tanker. Or they may attempt to hijack it and sell the valuable cargo to their smugger allies in return for weapons and supplies.

In need of aid: Some time after the events of Restless Native the characters are sought out again by Sol Tou-Kour. He beseeches those who aided his tribe once to help them again. The game hunting operation has captured or killed almost the entire tribe and will shortly be exporting them as slaves to various markets around Hutt Space, this must be stopped before his adopted people are decimated.