Read part two here & part three here
When I first started playing Starforged earlier this year, I wasn’t keen on just using the setting that came with the game. The beauty of Sean Tomkin’s Ironsworn system is that it is incredibly modular and easily adaptable. So, I wanted to play a science fiction-style game and did a rough sketch of the type of universe it would be. I wanted the entire toybox of popular science fiction tropes and subgenres, but all in one reality. This is what I refer to in my notes as the Megaverse. The physical distance between these places in a singular galaxy is vast, something abstract that keeps them separate enough but can allow for fun crossovers.
There are four central regions in the Megaverse. CorpSec is where you’ll find nods to Blade Runner, Alien, and Starship Troopers, with travel limited by four massive jump gates. The Trade Enclave is a sprawling conglomeration in the vein of Dune, centered around the Essence, a mystical substance that enables their FTL capabilities. The United Planetary Alliance is a socialist utopia, a coming together of many diverse alien races with some trouble coming from border empires. The ships of the StarForce fleet are equipped with advanced FTL drives powered by unique minerals mined on the fringes of UPA space. And finally, there is The Old Imperium, a region locked in an endless civil war where a ruthless monarch employs dark powers to keep her grasp tight. Every ship has some form of an FTL drive, but they need a lot of maintenance to keep running smoothly. It is in this fourth region that Abyss of Shadows is set.
To create my character, I did a series of random rolls and assembled a rough sketch of who they would be. As I clarified who this figure was, I went back and modified some of the things I randomly rolled to align more with the emerging picture. I ended up with Khol Buhari, a twentysomething smuggler who tries to make ends meet by jumping across Imperium space to sell what she can to those who need it…and can pay the price, of course. Khol was a prisoner during her formative years, a street urchin picked up after stealing food to survive. The Imperium shipped her off to some dead-end planet where she was given her ear tattoo for tracking purposes and made to salvage scrap for the military to repurpose into more warships. Khol wouldn’t put up with this forever, and when the opportunity struck, she made a break for it.
Despite her insistence that she is unphased by things that don’t affect her, Khol ultimately cares. That could be seen as she fled and decided to bring along V-32, a combat bot she had befriended during her time in the salvage colony. V-32, like all bots in the Imperium, was outfitted with a suppressor, an invention that came from the ages past when the Imperium split off from the Trade Enclave. Suppressors ensure bots cannot go against their programming or orders from a superior humanoid. The suppressor had stopped functioning, and because the mining colony was so far out on the fringes, regular maintenance was a rare event. V-32 would sneak extra rations to young Khol, developing the very beginnings of empathy in his artificial consciousness. Khol didn’t forget and brought him along as she escaped and began her life as a smuggler.
After working as part of larger criminal syndicates in the Imperium, Khol eventually earned enough to buy her ship, a light freighter named The Mutara. It’s on a mission aboard the Mutara to pick up cargo that our story begins. But this wouldn’t be a rip-off of Star Wars without an opening crawl, would it?
The civil war rages on! The Resistance has fought against the IMPERIUM and its iron-fisted rule for over forty years.
Ships full of refugees are fleeing to distant regions of space far from the EMPRESS MAHARANEE’S grasp. Her forces search high and low for the secret star maps used to avoid patrols and other hazards of deep space. She has even sent out the SKYGGE, her relentless devotees who wield strange, unnatural powers, to find this map so that she may learn the whereabouts of her traitorous daughter.
In recent months, chatter among the Resistance appears to have gone silent. Imperium forces believe there is a large-scale attack being planned, which will be used to ferry more refugees out of harm’s way. Security on the most vital worlds for weapons production has been increased, and the watchful eye of the Empress, via her acolytes, can see far and wide…
And of course, a soundtrack to accompany this first and the subsequent two parts coming soon.
Khol is headed to Stradus to pick up plasma regulators to smuggle for buyers on Nix. Stradus typically sees tiny skirmishes between natives on the planet with the Imperium forces that hold in orbit, nothing major. But it is another scrap world, lots of lucrative used & damaged ship components that everyone needs as the Imperium has monopolized the supply. There’s some chatter over the comms, but that’s normal; Khol turns the volume down to focus on doing an inventory of supplies.
When The Mutara comes out of FTL, Khol finds she’s in the middle of a massive battle. Apparently, Resistance forces on Stradus had been planning something, and this was the day they launched their assault. If only she had listened to the comms more closely. She attempts to dodge the ships directly in front of her & blaster fire that crisscrosses her view from the cockpit. Khol avoids immediate damage to her ship with well-executed maneuvers but veers wildly off her flight path into the fray. Imperium patrol ships and Resistance fighters in their cobbled-together junk craft create a swarm of destruction. Khol shouts at V-32 to get to the mounted turret and pick off anyone that targets them.
Meanwhile, Khol makes contact with the seller, Huff, yelling at him about what the hell is going on. He explains this was a Resistance sneak attack, unlike anything he’s seen before; the Imperium is being routed on the planet’s surface, too. He sends Khol a corrected flight path, but it is still daunting. Before they sign off, she hears an explosion on his end and sees Imperium troopers swarming into his office. The push to take back the planet has made further business not worth it.
We cut to the bridge of the Dawn’s Herald, a Resistance corvette. Commander Jervada is still at the helm, ordering his crew to get to the escape pods. His salt & pepper hair is stained with blood, a cut from the debris as his beloved ship has come under massive fire. He brings up a star map on his console and runs an encryption protocol. Jervada searches ships with open channels and finds another Resistance ship on the list, The Kraken. Another blast from an Imperium destroyer rocks the Dawn’s Herald. Part of the bridge explodes, and Jervada falls dead, his hand tapping The Mutara and sending the star map to the wrong ship.
Khol gets off the call with Huff. A brilliant explosion jolts her senses. Across an expanse of ships caught up in the battle, she sees what was likely a Resistance command ship now in pieces. Poor bastards. Then, her attention is drawn to the flashing light on the comms. Encrypted data that was just sent to her ship. She checks to see where it was transmitted from, and as soon as her scans point to the now obliterated Dawn’s Herald. Things are too chaotic, and she angrily abandons the plasma converters for now, choosing to jump back into FTL and head for the nearest & hopefully calmer world – Dorix. She lets V-32 know they are making the jump as soon as she is clear of the fray. After dodging a few more ships, they reach a good spot and jump.
Interlude
The Sanik-class vessel Scimitar, a massive Imperium battle cruiser, jumps out of FTL, and a torrent of ovoid SCUL fighters pour out of its bay, purple laser fire peppering the Resistance ships, pushing back their valiant but now failed revolt. Captain Madish surveys the battle from the bridge, smirking at how quickly her fighters are ending this mess, assured of the commendations she’ll get from the Empress for her service.
The doors to the bridge mag-lift open, and she hears the familiar heavy boots of Dreng Rankor behind her. Nothing is said until he stands directly behind her. His voice, filtered through the mechanisms in his full face mask, crackles, “There was a data transfer here.” Rankor has been a long-term guest aboard the Scimitar for months now under orders from the Empress.
“We’ll sort it out soon, sir,” Madish replies. Rankor stares out the view screen; she can feel him probing the battlefield with his mind. It feels like cold fingernails sliding into your brain. Madish notices several of the bridge crew shudder, feeling the same as Rankor’s powers reach out.
“A ship. A smuggler. They received the data. And then they left. Perform scans for traces of any ships that jumped to FTL in the last ten minutes.” Rankor orders.
Madish decides to speak up: “I’ll remind you this ship is under my command.”
Rankor turns his head to face her, his eyes hidden behind the shroud of his mask. She can feel a searing invisible heat emanating from his eyes that flushes her cheeks, reminding her of the fire that almost consumed her on the family farm when she was just a little girl.
Madish continues with a quiver in her voice. “And…I will…take your advisement…under consideration.”
Rankor steps closer and lowers his voice, which unsettles Madish even further. “I am here by order of your Empress. I would encourage you to be wise in how you respond to me in the future.” Then he walks back to the mag-lift to return to his meditation chambers, where the Skygge has spent most of his time since he arrived on the Scimitar.
Madish clears her throat, then tells an ensign to begin an in-depth scan of all recent FTL departures from Stradus’ orbit.
End Interlude
Khol brings the Mutara into Nix’s orbit and finally takes a breath. V-3G emerges from the corridor leading to the turret. “Job went bust?” he asks in his electronic gravelly voice.
“What was I supposed to do? Ask for landing clearance?” Khol is annoyed. “I think someone tried to hack us on top of it. We had this encrypted data package transferred while I was talking to Huff. Looks like it came from one of those Resistance ships. Maybe it was a virus, trying to hit an Imperium command ship but sent it to us by mistake. Poor bastards.”
VG-3 takes the co-pilot’s seat. “You know it’s a virus?”
Khol furrows her brow. “I don’t know. Yet.” She needs to know, though. She can imagine it was the final words of some fighter to his family, hoping they would somehow see it. Khol can barely remember her father; he was a drunkard & thoroughly checked out when the Imperium took her away. She’s never been sentimental about these things, which is probably why she never joined up with the Resistance. Life is suffering, she tries to convince herself, but another part of her wants to make sure these last words get where they need to.
Khol searches through the black market database and comes across the name Shaar Erach, an info-broker on Viridi. She transmits a request to him, and moments later, he pings her back. Erach says he can decrypt and clean the data for a fee. He says it is safer to do this in person and gives coordinates for a location on Viridi. Khol says she’ll meet him there tomorrow.
Erach ends the call and checks the news feeds. He highlights a red flag Imperium announcement: Rogue data related to the internal security of the Imperium has been discovered to be in the hands of Resistance scum. A hefty reward is offered to the brave souls who can provide information on its whereabouts. Erach chuckles and imagines the credits piling up.
Interlude
Dreng Rankor sits in his mediation chamber on board the Scimitar. His ornate Skygge mask sits on a featureless wooden ovoid, approximating a human head. The mask is covered in sigils and symbols that tell stories from the days of the great split between the Enclave and Imperium, of when the dark powers were harnessed, and the destiny of his kind truly began.
His uncovered face is a novel of wounds. Two holes where a nose should be. Lips singed away in an ascetic exercise, leaving him with a forever grimace of decaying & jagged teeth. Bristles of white hair attempting to spottily sprout from a fire-scarred scalp. A beep informs him of an incoming message from Empress Maharanee. Rankor picks up his mask and slides it on, clicking with the magnetic nodes implanted on the edges of his face.
He receives the message, and a holographic image of his mistress looms large before him. He bows his head in reverence.
“I see the attempted uprising on Stradus was successfully foiled, but I sense something else occurred?”
Rankor nods. “One of the Resistance ships was able to transmit encrypted data to a vessel that fled the battlefield. I ordered Captain Madish to scan for all FTL jumps during the battle. A reward was offered over the black market feeds of the Imperium monitors, and I believe we have found the data. An info-broker says he has set up a rendezvous with a smuggler, claiming she needs decryption performed. Her ship was present at the battle and was one of two dozen that made the FTL jump. I promise to have her in custody by morning, my Empress.”
The Empress allows for a slight smile. “You have done well, my faithful acolyte. Bringing me this data will allow us to finally track down my ungrateful daughter. If you can bring her to me, there will be no end of reward for you, Dreng Rankor.”
“I live only to serve you.”
“Continue with your mission.” The Empress’s image flickers away. Rankor rises, ready to entrap the unsuspecting smuggler.
End Interlude
The Mutara emerges from its FTL jump, Viridi popping up in the distance. Khol hasn’t visited before but has heard things. She wonders why anyone would settle on a planet with such a volatile ocean and tides that make the tallest skyscrapers on Andino in the Haven Worlds pale in comparison. Bringing the ship into opposition with the planet’s orbit, she finds the populated half in the northern hemisphere is in the middle of the night, light clustered on Viridi’s single continent. Shipping vessels load up with the natural gas harvested from beneath the crust, taken to fuel the far corners of the Imperium, creating orbital traffic lanes. Khol contacts a spaceport near the rendezvous point and gets the all clear to land. She slides into her spot on the civilian lanes and descends.
“How can we trust this Erach?” V-32 asks. “We can’t,” Khol replies,” But I don’t have any other avenues of cracking this data. I’m going to need you to come with me, but hang back. He doesn’t know you’re with me, and we can use that to our advantage if things go south.”
V-32 ensures his pulse carbine is cleaned and loaded, ready to provide backup when something goes sour.
Khol and V-32 find their way through the narrow streets of Concord coming to the meeting place located in the Operations district. Khol thinks this is a little dicey; it puts them near the Imperium command post and barracks. The exact spot is a food distribution hub, specifically an Orynn cafe.
“Our info-broker is a vegetarian?” V-32 wonders.
“Well, I guess I don’t have to worry about him eating me,” Khol responds.
V-32 takes up a post about 15 meters away, keeping an eye on Khol as she enters.
A fern-like Orynn waddles over, locomoting with its vines, and asks if Khol would like a table. She says she’s there to meet someone. That’s when she notices a human male, rail thin with frizzy yellow hair, waving in her direction. Khol joins him at his table.
“How did you know it was me?” she asks.
“I’m the only human I ever see here, so when I saw you at the door, I knew it had to be my client. He grins, revealing a couple missing teeth. He scoops a spoonful of some viscous green liquid from his bowl, slurping it down. “Hungry?”
“No thanks.” Then, Erach begins prattling on about a recent injury, pointing to the brace on his left leg. His day job is on-site data collection for one of the geothermal mines. The rocks gave way, and he tumbled a couple of floors; he says how lucky he was that this was as bad as it was.
“That’s great, but can we go ahead and do this?” Khol interrupts.
Erach nods, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “Okay, okay.” He produces a bulky device from his satchel and puts out his hand. Khol hands him the disk module to which she downloaded a copy of the data; it’s backed up on The Mutara’s drives. She can tell Erach is dicking around & flashes her pistol, saying the clock is ticking.
Erach looks up, his face revealing sinister thoughts behind his eyes. “In such a hurry, pretty girl, relax, get some food.” She doesn’t trust him. He slams a knife down, pinning her hand to the table. She screams, and V-32 comes rushing forward, as do three Imperium troopers.
(I am including my moves & rolls for this fight sequence because it was the smoothest combat I’ve had playing Starforged. I found the key was knowing my source material [the tone and rhythm of Star Wars] and having played with these mechanics about half a dozen times.)
Enter the Fray
[Strong Hit: 1 + 1 + 0 = 3 vs 1 | 2]
Khol knocks over a table, takes cover behind it, and pulls her pistol. V-32 takes cover behind the bar.
Strike
[Strong Hit: 6 + 2 + 0 = 8 vs 5 | 6]
[Mark Progress: Imperium troopers attack :1 boxes]
[Mark Progress: Imperium troopers attack:2 boxes]
Khol peeks out from behind the table and fires off a volley of shots, striking a trooper in the head and sending him flying, another in the knee, dropping him to the ground. The Orynn wait & kitchen staff squeal; they run for cover in the kitchen. Erach grabs his device and attempts to head out the back door.
Gain Ground
[Miss: 1 + 2 + 0 = 3 vs 4 | 6]
[Pay the Price: A friend, companion, or ally is in harm’s way (or you are, if alone)]
Khol lunges towards Erach but is pushed back by increased fire from the troopers. She notices them focusing on V-32 even more and has to let the info-broker go.
Clash
[Weak Hit: 3 + 2 + 0 = 5 vs 3 | 6]
[Mark Progress: Imperium troopers attack :3 boxes]
[Pay the Price: Something of value is lost or destroyed]
Khol attempts to draw the fire away from V-32, which works too well; her table is being turned into shreds, forcing her to seek new cover.
React Under Fire
[Miss: 1 + 2 + 0 = 3 vs 8 | 5]
[Pay the Price: You encounter signs of a looming threat]
Khol can’t move from her increasingly dodgy cover and suddenly finds her mind unfocused. It feels like cold tendrils wrapping around her thoughts, making her unable to concentrate. She shakes it off but doesn’t want to encounter the source of it.
Clash
[Weak Hit: 4 + 2 + 0 = 6 vs 4 | 6]
[Mark Progress: Imperium troopers attack :4 boxes]
[Pay the Price: A new enemy is revealed]
Khol keeps up her fire and V-32 as well. An eerie stillness moves over the scene, and then…
Dreng Rankor emerges from the cluster of soldiers holding the cafe’s entrance. He pulls his beamsword, which lights up with a crackling purple energy. Khol knows this is not good for her.
Take Decisive Action
[Strong Hit: 6 + 4 + 0 = 10 vs 9 | 7]
[Take Decisive Action: It’s worse than you thought: Make a suffer move (-2)]
Khol can jump and leap over the bar to get to V-32. She feels the Skygge reaching into her mind, attempting to bring up fears & anxiety, but she pushes them back down. However, she notices her hand is shaking.
Clash
[Miss: 1 + 2 + 0 = 3 vs 9 | 9]
[Pay the Price: You are separated from something or someone]
The bar suddenly begins shaking, and Khol notices the bolts that hold it to the floor are coming undone, an invisible mighty hand tearing it out. It lifts up and is crumpled. Rankor’s arm is extended, his hand manipulating the material.
React Under Fire
[Strong Hit: 1 + 2 + 0 = 6 vs 1 | 5]
Khol and V-32 open fire at the Skygge and his troopers; she even chucks a small grenade into the cluster of troopers, allowing her and her bot to flee out the back door.
Take Decisive Action
[Strong Hit: 6 + 4 + 0 = 10 vs 1 | 5]
Khol & V-32 rush around the back of the cafe and see Erach slipping into an alleyway. They pursue him, and he finds he’s in a dead end. Khol points her pistol at him. “The device. Now.” He chucks it to her and then pushes past to run away.
Strike
[Weak Hit: 1 + 2 + 1 = 4 vs 7 | 2]
[Mark Progress: Imperium troopers attack/Dreng Rankor :5 boxes]
[Mark Progress: Imperium troopers attack/Dreng Rankor :6 boxes]
Khol & V-32 surprise the troopers who aren’t expecting them to emerge from the alley; both get off shots that send the troopers to the ground. Dreng Rankor comes into view and charges forward with his beamsword at the ready.
Clash
[Strong Hit: 6 + 2 + 0 = 8 vs 7 | 4]
[Mark Progress: Imperium troopers attack/Dreng Rankor :7 boxes]
[Mark Progress: Imperium troopers attack/Dreng Rankor :8 boxes]
V-32 fires a carbine round into the arm that Rankor carries his beamsword in, turning the hand into a mass of pulp; the beamsword goes flying to the ground. Rankor is momentarily stunned, which lets Khol hit him squarely in the chest with a pistol blast. Rankor stumbles back, his Skygge nature not allowing him to fully feel the pain, but he has to focus on keeping it at bay.
Gain Ground
[Miss: 3 + 2 + 0 = 5 vs 10 | 5]
[Pay the Price: You waste resources]
Khol and V-32 make a b-line for the spaceport. Rankor crashes through a merchant’s stall meters behind them. Khol drops her belt of small munitions grenades, losing them but creating enough chaos to help her get some distance from the Skygge.
Clash
[Strong Hit: 2 + 2 + 0 = 4 vs 3 | 1]
[Mark Progress: Imperium troopers attack/Dreng Rankor :9 boxes]
[Mark Progress: Imperium troopers attack/Dreng Rankor :10 boxes]
Rankor reaches out, the Power flowing through him. Suddenly, canisters and debris come flying at Khol & V-32; they manage to bob and weave. When they get the chance, standing on the boarding ramp, they fire at the supports for a platform holding cargo on the second floor of the bay. It all comes crashing down, burying Rankor.
The Mutara launches and zooms off into the sky.
Once The Mutara is safely in an FTL jump, headed towards some quiet corner of the Imperium, Khol sits down with the decryption device she stole from Erach. She tries to determine if she can get it to decrypt the data.
Khol finds she has the tools to get the device working, and after a few minutes, it tells her the data is ready. She goes to the ship’s computer and plugs it in. A map of the Imperium space is suddenly projected. Little red dots begin popping up, and a line is drawn from one to the next. The destination lies far outside any area of space she’s traveled. A Resistance map? To where exactly? Khol realizes she has something perilous in her possession, something the Imperium was willing to kill her for.
There’s another file, a holovid. Khol plays it, and an older man, wearing a Resistance patch on his flight jacket, appears. “This map must get to Latia Kateen on Kurn. Her people are in dire need of a means to escape the Imperium forces at their doorstep. I trust you will ensure it gets to the right people, Commander Jervada. You are she and the Juggermari’s only hope.”
“I should erase this right now,” Khol says to V-32. He turns and looks at her. Despite the bot’s inability to have facial expressions, Khol can feel the judgment. “So, we should go to Kurn and hand this to the Resistance? Put an even bigger target on our back?”
V-32 looks back out at the expanse of stars. “This war has been going on for as long as I can remember,” he begins. “People have suffered for decades. If we can help in any way…I don’t see why we wouldn’t.”
“For a bot, you’re really annoying,” Khol retorts as she punches the coordinates for Kurn into the FTL drive.
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