FORCE EXPLORER

During the days of the OLD REPUBLIC

the first HYPERDRIVES were created, but

the new tech caused many ships to be lost

While they were exploring the galaxy.

One such ship was the FORCE EXPLORER, a

ship that was crewed by the great JEDI, Rensie

Pilif and his bodyguard of republic soldiers. They

took the vessel to the edge of known space.

Unknown to Master Pilif, they were followed on their

Exploration by a malevolent SITH name Darth Angron.

Darth Angron assaulted the ship and, after sending a final

transmission, the ship disappeared into hyperspace ...

EXT. SPACE
The PCs starship comes out of hyperspace above a strange planet, shrouded in the mists,
the only remains of a long dissipated Nebula. A flashing light shines from somewhere inside
the mists surrounding the unnamed planet.
INT. PCs STARSHIPCOCKPIT
The PCs sit around the pilot, looking out at the ominous sight ahead.
1st PC : There it is, that flashing light has to be the distress beacon we picked up.
2nd PC : I have a bad feeling about this, are you sure its a Jedi beacon?
3rd PC : Positive - not just any Jedi beacon, but the beacon from the Force Explorer!

4th PC : Big whoopy doo, what exactly is supposed to get me all weak in the knees about this?
5th PC : The Force Explorer was a Jedi exploration vehicle from the days of the Old Republic,
long before the formation of the Galactic Republic, much less the Empire!
6th PC : We have the opportunity to recover lost knowledge from the time of the Jedi Orders
founding!
4th PC : Consider me swooning then!
2nd PC : I dont like it though - I re-checked the star charts - that planet doesnt exist in any
Imperial survey
1st PC : That doesn't mean anything - the Empire tends to omit sensitive planets from civilization star charts - they probably did that to this one.
5th PC : Doesnt that mean the Empire knows the Force Explorer is here and might have a
presence?
3rd PC : Im not picking up any other ships or activity on the sensors, so if they do have presence here they arent home.
6th PC : Right, Im going in then, wake up Hethan and her friends, we almost there!
1st PC : I know theyre Hethans friends, but Im not crazy about the extra baggagewhy cant
we handle this on our own?
3rd PC : They were the ones who first discovered the beacon on long range scans, but didnt
have a ship capable of getting through the ionization cloud around the Explorer
4th PC : The deal was they got to come along for materials salvage after we get all the Jedi artifacts off the wreck.
2nd PC : suddenly overcome with cold shivers I have a very bad feeling about this

powerful music fills the vacuum of space with

Players, however, should stop reading this booklet
moving rhythms. Captivating text tilts toward the now. The information contained herein is for Gamehorizon, recapping prior events as it disappears into the masters (GMs) only.
void. A rumbling roar shakes the scene, announcing a
space vessels imminent approach. The star field shifts,
the soundtrack blares, a planet pans into view, and
another action-packed episode of Star Wars: Age of
Rebellion begins.
Force Explorer is a Star Wars adventure for two
to six plyers and a gamemaster. Gamemasters should
read the entire adventure before play begins so that the
action and storyline can progress naturally, without a
lot of page flipping and undramatic pauses.

n ancient era of space expansion saw the first

hyperdives take the denizens of the galaxy farther than they had ever ventured before. This travel
was not without dangers, as hyperdrive technology was
new and unreliable, sometimes causing ships to become lost in hyperspace or worse.

rupted by the evil of the Sith and with nowhere to go, it

"infected" the computer core of the ship itself, turning it
into a dark side nexus.

This computer core is now a broiling sinister mass

of hate and evil, the malevolence of the Sith mixed with
the pain, anguish and insanity of the Jedi and their alThis adventure is designed to be run in a single ses- lies after their torture by the Sith. It all combined into a
sion for spooky Halloween fun, though it could be con- single new intelligence, Caliban. Its first action was to
tinued of expanded to run many sessions in length.
make a droid body for itself so it can fulfill its need to
devour the universe. Unfortunately, as droids cant be
Many ideas came from the combined efforts of the
force sensitive, it can't control or access the power it
board members on the FFG community forums.
has once it leaves the computer core.
Its only option is to lure unsuspecting lifeforms to
the ship in an attempt to find a host for its malevolence.
The catch is that the vessel has to willingly become
one with the ship and accept this dark malevolence into
themselves. Hethan Romund and the PCs fit this profile.

The Force Explorer was the ship of Jedi Master Rensie Pilif, and was intended to explore new worlds and
hyperspace lines. He was however, followed by his
nemesis, Darth Angron. The Force Explorer in the became the site of the final battle between them and their
allies. During the fighting, Master Pilif uses the experiMeanwhile, the droid it built has achieved a limited
mental hyperdrive to try and get away, but not before sentience, and is still trying to become the vessel itself,
the Sith boarded. The hyperdrive malfunctioned, taking so it is collecting bits of flesh from where-ever it can
them all somewhere ... else ...
(and however it can) in an attempt to become less ...
All the crew died along with the Jedi and Sith during
the fighting on the way, and as they arrived in this elsewhere - their essences within the Force were cor3

Force Explorer

droid .. than it is and thus be able to become the vessel.

the need to continue in its purpose: becoming

the vessel. Its logic circuits undeveloped (as
Caliban was the intelligence intended to be
behind the droid body) it proceeded to use
the corpses of the crew and the medical supplies in the medbay to create flesh coverings
to make it more living. The unhinged droid
now searches for more ways to become a
living thing in order to serve as the vessel. If
the PCs can somehow speak to Disciple, it
will try to make a deal with the PC to lend it's
parts and processing core to become a cyborg with one of them (let it's brain core act
as a Lobot style cyber-implant) - this would
let it become the vessel (in a fashion) with the
PC losing their mind to the droid (and by extension) Caliban.

The PCs will need to navigate this terror while resisting the power of the ship in order to deviate the
malevolent intelligence in the computer core and
cleanse the dark side nexus. Should they fail, then
the intelligence will unleash no less than hell in realspace.

Below are the primary NPCs that you will need to

be aware of;

Hethan Romund - Should the PCs have

begun their adventures using the Beginner
Game adventure Mountaintop Rescue, they
will already be familiar with their mentor. If
they havent then Hethan Romund will make
their first appearance in this module. Hethand
is an brunette with brilliant green eyes, a
master scholar who investigates artifacts of
the Force and Jedi in an attempt to rebuild
lost knowledge. This knowledge makes her
the perfect vessel for Caliban, as without
force powers herself, she is less able to resist
the malevolent intelligence when it attempts
to take her over.

Captain Anders Miller - Captain of the salvage crew that first discovered the beacon,
he and some of his men now accompany the
group for salvage rights, while the rest wait
with his ship at a safe distance from the ion
cloud. A stoic Corellian, he has dark hair and
eyes, and possessed a baritone voice filled
with authority. Along with him is his crew,
Starck, Ripley, and Dutch.

EPISODE I: THE
FORCE EXPLORER

Caliban - The malevolent intelligence at the

heart of the Force Explorer. Created by the
combined hatred, rage, and pain of all the
people who died aboard the ship, Caliban
was driven further insane by millennia of isolation and solitude. It now seeks only to
spread its malevolence across the stars and
see the galaxy brought to ruin.

The PCs will need to navigate the ion cloud and

then successfully dock with the capital ship in order to
board. Once aboard, they will need to re-establish
power to the ship, as it long ago lost power (Caliban,
as part of the dark side nexus, needs no power to
operate and Disciple has his own power source).
While exploring the powered down vessel, they will
encounter creepy scares and lose one of the salvage
crew to the predations of Disciple. Once they get the
Disciple - A droid created from spare parts power up and running, the true terror begins.
around the ship, Disciple was originally intended to be the vessel for Caliban. Once it
possessed the droid however, it realized it
was cut off from the Force, as the computer
PISODE
ELCOME
core itself was the dark side nexus and not
O ELL
Caliban itself. Retreating back into the core to
explore new options, part of its intelligence
Once the power is up, Caliban discovers that it can
remained in Disciple, who was overcome with easily access and control any system on the ship. It

II: W
T H

Force Explorer

proceeds to attempt to control and kill or possess any

PC it can as they interact with the ship. The PCs will
need to use the Discipline skill to resist the ships fear
and control as they attempt to defeat Disciple and save
Hethan and the crew, before finally discovering the
truth and confronting Caliban and the dark side nexus.

EPISODE III:
ENDGAME
With either Hethan or one of the PCs controlled
through possession by Caliban, the PCs need to act
quickly before all is lost. Will the PCs defeat Caliban,
save Hethan and cleanse the dark side nexus or will
they be forced to choose between killing their friend
and destroying all the knowledge and history aboard
the ship to save the universe?

What is a Dark
Side Nexus anyway?
A dark side nexus is a repository of the
Force that is corrupted and twisted by the
Dark Side. These places are often the scene of overwhelming evil, where acts of extreme perversion or malice were enacted.
The actions cause the natural energy field
of the force to twist and turn, knotting the
natural flow of energy into an Mobius strip
that causes this same energy to replay and
turn in on itself forever.
Like the cave on Dagobah that Luke
encounters in the Empire Strikes Back, this
dark side energy can manifest in visions of
what occurred, or create illusions of things
that could occur, even hinting at events in
the greater galaxy.
This nexus was created when Darth Angron, whose victory was achieved with the
surrender of Jedi Master Pilif, slowly went
mad while trapped in hyperspace and tortured not just his captives, but eventually
his own allies and apprentices before final5
ly killing himself.

se the script in the opening section of this adventure to familiarize the players with their situation. The script begins the game In media res describing the action just as would the opening of a Star
Wars movie, and helps your players get into their
characters. Feel free to make as many copies as you
need to give each player their own script, or let everyone read from the one included. When finished, go to
Event 1 below.

around the field provides 3 setback dice

to
any attempts to navigate it. While failure on the roll
doesnt directly damage the ship, it does mean they
do not make it through, and a ship in the ion field will
take 1 system strain each round it remains in the
field. Additionally, while the ship remains in the ion
mists, it cannot regain strain, as electrical arcs play
constantly across the hull. Superstitious characters
may notice the ion charge and electrical discharges
look almost as if it is trying to find a way inside the
ship

Should the PCs find their ship disabled, there are a

couple of methods they will find themselves in a difficult situation. Inside the ion cloud, inform the characBefore the PCs can board the ancient vessel, first ters that they cannot see stars to use as a reference
they need to clear the ion storms in the clouds of su- point for navigation, in fact, the only point they can
percharged gas that is the remains of a nebula cloud use for navigation is the blinking distress lights on the
that is suspiciously absent. Read aloud;
Force Explorer. To attempt to leave the cloud the way
they came in would be follythey could find themselves hopelessly lost in the cloud with no way to repair. The characters could use escape pods to head
to the planet below, but as the planet has been removed from galactic records it is extremely unlikely
anyone would ever come to rescue them. The could
also use the escape pods to try and board the Force
Explorer, hoping to repair the craft and then pilot it
back to their ship and pick it up on the way out.

Navigating through the eerie mists will require the

PC flying the craft to make a Piloting (Space) check
to navigate the hazard. A total of three successful
rolls are required to clear the ion field, and the crackling discharges of energy and strange rocky debris

A riskier option, but the best alternative, is to float

the ship to the Force Horizon by creating thrust out of
the aft section. A Hard
Mechanics check will
reveal that this can be done by allowing the ionized
gas to ignite a fuel pod to produce a (semi) controlled
explosion on the aft section. While risky, it would generate the thrust necessary to get the ship the required
distance. Ripley suggests this if no PC does. To succeed, once the PC who made the check prepares the
fuel pod for detonation, the PCs must send someone
outside the craft to place the fuel pod for detonation.
To properly place the pod, they must pass a Hard
Gunnery check to aim the ship towards
the beacon without placing the pod in a position
where the ship itself could be damaged. Failure on
this roll still gets the ship to the Force Explorer, but
the ship takes a critical hit, with +10 for each additional failure rolled on the check.
Force Explorer

Now that ship is so close, the PCs will be able to

scan the ship (for what its worth) and board it. ScanOnce the ship arrives outside of the Force Explorer, ning provides only the most rudimentary information; it
read the below aloud.
is currently without power (the distress beacon and
lighting are being powered by emergency power which
should have died out millennia ago), there are no significant life signs on board, and the ship appears to be
without damage (the Sith boarded the ship in an assault action).
Captain Miller bristles at the information, as his ship
received a manually sent distress call from the ship. He
explains that the image was garbled and almost impossible to understand, but that it was tight-beamed to his
ship when they passed through. If asked, the comms
officer on his ship, Starck, has a recording of the communication, and will look to Miller for permission to replay it for the PCs. Miller will initially refuse, but an Average
Social check (depending on what tack the
PCs use) will convince him to allow it (he decides the
penalty for coercing him will be rendered when they
see it). What the PCs see is in the side-bar The Last
Transmission of the Force Explorer, though if no one
specifically asks for it, Starck and the rest of Millers
crew will keep it to themselves (for obvious reasons).

The Last Transmission

of the Force Explorer
When Starck plays the transmission, an
unholy garble rips from the speakers: static
and noise and inhuman voices. Alone,
each sound would raise the hair on your
neck. Together, they are unbearable. The
sound mercifully cuts off to static.
After receiving it, Starck and the rest of
the crew couldnt forget the nightmarish
transmission out their heads, it haunted
their thoughts in the dark, and tormented
their dreams. Starck, unable to leave it
alone, has run the transmission through
countless filters in an attempt to clean up
the message. She can play the message a
second time with the filters engaged, and a
deep baritone voice can be heard, speaking a single phrase in a strange language.
Any character can make either an Average
Knowledge (Education) check
or a Hard
Knowledge (Lore) check
to recognize it as the language of the Sith.
If the PCs made the Lore check, they can
7
5
additionally translate it mean Save me. If
no PCs can, Romund will translate it.

Regardless of whether they managed to recover the

message or not, the PCs must now dock with the Force
Explorer. The sensor scan will show where the main
airlock is, though docking wont be possible due to the
ancient nature of the ship - doesnt match the designs
of the ship they currently pilot. As such, they will have
to use vac suits (which should be included in either
their ship or the escape pods) and perform an EVA to
get into the ancient Jedi vessel. This requires a Hard
Coordination check. Should a PC fail, it
means they either over shoot the airlock, and risk
heading off towards the planet. If no PC fails their
check, then when Dutch crosses, he will fail his check
and begin tumbling towards the planet below.
A character tumbling towards the planet has one
chance to be rescuedit requires both the tumbling PC
to remain calm and a heroic PC who has made their
check to attempt to grab them by making another Hard
Coordination check. Should the tumbling PC
fail in making an Average
Cool check, then the
difficulty is upgraded and gains a setback die as the
thrashing target becomes harder to grasp. Dutch will
automatically fail his check, tumbling wildly as he drifts
towards the planet below.
Each character that has made the crossing success

fully can attempt to catch the character once, and any

Force Sensitive characters will receive at least one
conflict if they fail to check, more if they refuse to try.
Once the PCs have made their checks, if the character wasnt secured they will float helplessly towards
the planet. With no propulsion methods capable of
overcoming the gravity of the planet, the poor character (and any who left the safety of the ship to come
after them) will drift off into the distance before disappearing into the mists.
Should there be a character who has mastered the
Move force power, then there is ample opportunity to show off in this scene. If the PC has purchased
enough strength upgrades to cover the PCs starship,
then they may use the power to dock with the Force
Explorer. Likewise, should they have purchased
enough control upgrades to make fine manipulations
with the power, then they can tether a line to the airlock that will enable everyone to cross with assistance, preventing the need to make any skill checks.
Additionally, should a player choose to use the
Sense force power to get an impression of living
beings within the ship, a successful activation will get
a decidedly unwelcoming response. Much like Luke
on Dagobah, the PC will get a feeling that cant be
categorized. Describe it much like Luke did, a feeling
of cold - like a chill running through character, ice in
their veins, but not living things, just the cold.

Gore and the Star

Wars Roleplaying Game
This adventure borrows heavily from the
movie Event Horizon for its feel and style.
As such, blood and gore are presented in
generous helpings, and may be too mature
for your group. If that is the case, by all
means skip as much of the text box as you
fell appropriate, as Ive tried to keep any
important information in separate paragraphs from graphic descriptions.

Give the PCs a moment to discuss whats going on

as they consider the situation. Play up the tension something obvious moved past the door, though it
was too dark to see more than a shadow more the
implication of movement than something anyone actually saw. Call for Average
Discipline checks,
as the PCs feel unnerved at the situation (in reality
the sinister presence of the nexus can affect them
now that they are inside the ship). Anyone who fails
this roll will gain 2 strain, as their hands shake uncontrollably and they feel eyes watching them. Starck will
lose it at the situation - she begins weeping uncontrollably and it takes Miller a moment to calm her
down. Hell signal the PCs to move on while he focuses on Starck.

Let the PCs prepare for the thing on the other side
of the door however they wish. The only thing waiting
for them is the floating corpse of a long dead soldier As the PCs crack open the ancient vessel, read one of the first casualties when the Sith boarded the
the following;
ship as he was guarding the airlock when it came
under attack. The soldier was cleanly killed with a
Lightsaber strike. He has no salvageable equipment
after the many millennia.
Captain Miller will suggest the PCs to take Ripley
to engineering while he takes Starck and moves towards the bridge. The PCs can split their group however they would like, though Miller will explain that
with Starck in the shape shes in shell be no good to
anyone - he can get her to the bridge, he can get her
checking on the ships systems as a means to get her
head straight. He wont budge on this course of action, but he will accept any company that wants to
come along.
The trip to engineering will be uneventful, but dont
let the PCs know this. Play up the sparse sense of
isolation, the dark corridors which echo with strange
Force Explorer

sounds as tools and other items float in the zero gravity

and bang off walls in far sections of the ship. As they
explore the ship, Ripley will keep conversation with the
group heading towards engineering, talking about herself, how she has a daughter back on Corellia she cant
wait to see (shes having her 9th birthday soon), and
sharing other small talk with the PCs. Let them make
an Average Vigilance check. Success indicates the
feeling that they are being watched, though they cant
locate where it might be coming from.
When they reach engineering, they find the power
core still intact, but shut down due to emergency protocols. An Easy Mechanics check is all that is required to get it back on line, and Ripley will leave it to
the PCs as she checks the engineering section for salvage. As the PCs make the roll to switch on the power,
read the Cut Scene below;

Cut Away to
Ripley in Engineering
INTERIOR: ENGINEERING: The camera
rests over Ripleys shoulder as she wanders through rows of machinery, (if applicable) the PC(s) wandering the next aisle
over, their glow rods providing dim illumination. Suddenly there is a shadowed
movement to Ripleys left. She moves towards it

INTERIOR: MAIN HALLWAY: Ripley appears through the doorway, her glow rod
shining the way. As she enters the main
corridor, her glow rod fails, flickering out.
She swears under her breath and taps the
malfunctioning equipment, when movement eclipses the camera. She looks up
and squints into the darkness, unable to
see anything.
RIPLEY : Hello?
As the core thrums and the lights flicker on
with the restoration of power the camera
comes in tight on Ripleys face, whose
eyes go wide with fright and her mouth
opens in a scream CUT TO

INTERIOR: ENGINEERING: The PCs

snap their heads up at the sound of Rip7
5
leys bloodcurdling scream.

Running this part of the adventure is very fluid.

Episode 2 has a series of events that can be run in
any order, and operate off of qualifiers that signal
when they become available.
Once Episode 2 begins, the end is night. How long
the PCs have to defeat the dark side nexus depends
entirely on their actions, and the length of session
that you are running. Work out at the nights beginning what time the group wants to end the session.
Make this the countdown timer to the end scenario.
Allow the PCs as much time as they would like, run
as many of the scenarios as they activate, and generally keep the tension high, all the while waiting
Should the PCs complete all the events, then
things will move on the final episode once these are
done. Should any PC fall prey to Vignette 7: The Vessel Revealed, then immediately after it go to Episode
3. Finally, about an hour before the scheduled end of
the session, should none of the PCs fall prey to Vignette 7, then Hethan Romund does. She then becomes the vessel of the nexus.
The bridge door can now be opened, allowing the
PCs to see what happened to the crew, and begin to
piece together the history of the Force Explorer. The
thuds on the bridge come from the multiple corpses,
those soldiers, Sith and Jedi that werent otherwise
secured began floating about when the gravity failed.

Leaving the PCs in engineering to start Episode 2

is a great way to increase the tension and unnerve
the party. A great way to set this up is to focus on the
engineering group first, saying youll switch back and
forth between them and the bridge group and running
After Master Pilif surrendered to the Sith, Darth
engineering first (seemingly on a lark). Since Event 3
Angron demanded that he bring them out of hypergoes so fast, this wont leave anyone bored, and prospace. When they discovered that the hyperdrive
vide an agonizing tease to your group when you pick
wasnt responding, they began a waiting game. After
up on the Bridge with the power coming on.
the hours rode into days, Angron suspected duplicity,
The PCs along with Miller and Starck have had a and began torturing the soldiers in an attempt to get
much longer trek through the ship than their engi- the truth. After days of this, and weeks in hyperspace,
neering bound compatriots, and its not until the en- he began torturing the Jedi, and after this yielded no
tirety of Event 3 plays out that they reach the doors results, he tortured Master Pilif himself.
that allow access to the bridge. The doors themWhen all of it proved fruitless, Darth Angron and
selves, though, are locked and without power, there
his Sith began to slowly loose their minds. When they
is little they can do aside from wait - something that
ran out of food, they turned to cannibalism, and when
they didnt have to do for very long.
the soldiers and Jedi ran out, they turned on each
Start this vignette with the following;
other. Only the soldier in the airlock, long forgotten,
Force Explorer

10

was spared the cruel fate (as the Sith kept to the fore of the below out loud to them;
the ship along with their captives). When the PCs open
the door, read the following;

The most frightening discovery still awaits them

though. Let the PCs take it all in as Miller grabs Starck
and turns her around from the scene, getting her to
stare into his eyes as he motions the other characters
to enter the bridge while he calms her down.
Let the PCs decide if they post a guard with Millar
and Starck (it doesnt matter as they are quite safe
Disciple is busy with other things at the moment) and
then when the PCs actually go onto the bridge, read

11

Force
Explorer
5

This is all that remains of the great Darth Angron.

After watching the rest of the Sith descend into madness, he killed what remained of his compatriots and
then proceeded to turn himself (using the force power
Move) into this tapestry of depravity.

All of the bodies suffer from exposure to the frigid

temperatures of deep space from when power was
out on the ship. Scraps of Jedi robes and Tythonian
soldiers uniforms still cling to the skeletons, as they
were cannibalized over the many months of hyperspace travel, but the remains of the Sith are far more
complete. Evidence of self-mutilation and outright
debauchery mar the corpses, and while some have
also been the victims of cannibalism the three
freshest of the corpses were slain via Lightsaber
and then flayed. These were final disciples that Darth
Angron killed in revulsion and worship to the dark
force that overtook his own mind.

the character, and then describe them coming for the

character again - but this time make it truly ominous,
play up the sheer helplessness the PC has. Play the
scene up until the PC dies or runs - then cut the scene as if none of it was real and give the PC 2 strain.
Should a PC go over their strain threshold from this,
they succumb to the nexus, go to Vignette 7.

Once the bridge has been investigated by the PCs

that went there, it is reasonably likely the PCs in engineering will want to find out what happened in their
None of the Jedi or Sith Lightsabers can be found,
scene. Feel free to skip back to them and read the
in fact, the only piece of equipment anywhere is Darth
following;
Angrons Lightsaber, which is firmly imbedded into his
skull (the last act of a mad mind, Angron used Move
to imbed it there and then switched the activator on).
In fact, aside from scraps of clothing and the bodies
(and an exorbitant amount of blood everywhere)
there isnt anything on the bridge that isnt part of the
bridge workings itself.

This vignette is a constant danger that hunts the

players. Whenever a PC is alone, for whatever reason they might choose, the dark side nexus (now that
it has power and access its body in the form of the
ship) attempts to subvert the mind of the PC. As the
PC sits or wanders the hall isolated, have the PC
make a Discipline check with a difficulty determined
as below;

# of Run
Difficulty
Vignettes
1

Easy

Average

Hard

4+

Daunting

Should the PC fail this roll, he or she becomes the

victim in vignette 5 The Airlock. Should the PC succeed on their roll, they experience a disturbing event
from their past - something that they wish they could
have taken back or done better. Choose something
that happened in your campaign, a roll that went
spectacularly bad, or a villain or minion that defeated

Disciple has taken the rest of her body, and withdrawn into the depths of the ship before her head
even stopped rolling. No trace will be found of him at
this time.

This vignette can be run when the PCs get around

to researching the ships operating files and crew log.
The ship doesn't wish to give up its secrets easily, so
any attempt to access something other than navigation and star charts will require the PC to hack
through the dark side nexus defenses. The difficulty
Force Explorer

12

but it will have two

for this check is only Average
setback dice
to reflect the nexus interference.
Should the PC manage to crack this code, then they
can access all of the ships logs, learning the history of
what transpired through the series of holo-logs below.

Holo-log 3

Holo-log 1

Holo-log 4

Holo-log 2

Holo-log 5

The images of the final log can be cleaned up should

any of the PCs be brave enough. To do so will require
13

Force
Explorer
5

a Hard Computer
check to work through all
the distortion. Once cleaned up, the PC may well
wish they had failed the roll. Make the PC take a
Daunting
Discipline check, failure on this
roll results in the character being so shaken, that for
the rest of the Episode, all of their difficulty checks
are automatically upgraded by one. Should no PC
decipher the final holo-log, then Starck will complete
it herself just prior to the start of Vignette 7: The Vessel Revealed. Should she be the one to decipher the
video log the horror of what she sees will result in her
committing suicide at the monitor after she finishes
watching it, clawing her own eyes out and chocking
on the orbs as he stuffs them forcefully down her own
throat.

Holo-log 5 Revealed

Any character can make the same Hard

Knowledge (Lore) check as before to translate Angrons final words. Again, if no PCs can,
Romund will translate it. Now hearing the entire thing,
the PC (or Hethan) will realize that it wasnt Liberatis
Me meaning Save Me rather it was Liberatis tutemet meaning Save yourselves. The phrase translated they finally realize means Save yourselves
from Hell.

So what killed Ripley? Well, that would be Disciple,

a droid and the first attempt by the dark side nexus to
develop a body that would sustain its power and allow it to spread out into the galaxy. A failed experiment, Disciple was left with the desire to become the
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14

vessel if it can. As the nexus had correctly surmised

that only a living body could serve as the vessel, it receded its intelligence from Disciple shortly after creating him, leaving a trace of the nexus sinister intelligence behind. This intelligence refers to itself as
Disciple - a term that the intelligence would have
maintained from its Sith origins.
Realizing that it needed to become more alive in
order to be the vessel, Disciple has taken the habit of
covering itself in the flesh of the living, hoping that
should it shroud itself in the flesh of these inferior parasites that it will become a proper vessel for the nexus.
Up until this point, however, it was only ever able to
use the flash frozen flesh of the Sith and Angron, and
so it was unable to resist the temptation of taking Ripley when the opportunity presented itself.
When the PCs search the ship in an ordered fashion, they will eventually find Disciple in his quarters in
the maintenance accesses beneath the hyperdrive.
The area he resides is a collection of odds and ends,
but this is where the equipment that the previous residents of the ship went to, though its obvious that nothing remains usable - Disciple was forced to use parts
and pieces over time to repair his own body, leaving
the pile of equipment little more than spare parts. Also
in his quarters though, is the remains of Ripley, decapitated and skinned, Disciple now wears her flesh in a
mockery of human life.

Should the PCs hear him out, he will attempt to

make a deal with the PC to lend it's parts and processing core to become a cyborg with one of them
(letting it's brain core act as a Lobot style cyberimplant) - this would vastly increase the PCs Intelligence characteristic, and give it complete access to the
history of both the ship and the nexus. If asked why he
would do this, Disciple will explain that he only desires
to become a living organism, so that he can experience
the Force for himself. If asked how he knows of the
Force, he will claim to be a droid that was in service to
Jedi Master who was on this ship, and when it was attacked, he was left unbothered, but over time without
maintenance or memory wipe he will acquiesce that his
programming has gotten a little skewed. This is of
course, all a ruse - Disciple knows exactly what he is
doing, though he will attempt to play the PCs sympathies.
Should a PC accept this offer they will know of Caliban, the intelligence within the nexus, however the PC
will meet a bad end as the addition of Disciples
memory core allows the Caliban to possess the character, turning the PC into the Vessel. Go to Vignette 7:
The Vessel Revealed.

Depending on how long it takes for the PCs to go on

a droidhunt for Ripleys killer, they will encounter Disciple differently. Should the quickly (if not immediately)
search room by room for the killer, they will find Disciple in his quarters putting the final touches on his new
body before he realizes he has failed even with the
new coverings. Should this be the case, he will be considerably more violent in nature, angry that they would
interrupt his ascension to become the vessel with their
petty concerns for a single fleshling.
If they dont immediately hunt for him, and instead
get embroiled in the other vignettes first, then Disciple
will have time to realize that merely covering himself in
skin and flesh isnt enough, and he must become more
of a living thing to fulfill the need that the nexus has. He
will then be far more willing to seek parley with the
PCs, though he will happily mow through them if they
turn violent (he is, after all the creation of a dark side
nexus who was in turn the creation of the most vile and
debauched of Sith).

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the Disciple

Disciples

Cruel Blades

After a PC fails their Discipline check to resist the

ship's control while alone, they make their way to the
airlock, and the rest of the PC's receive word that the
airlock has been engaged. When the PCs arrive, they
find the entranced PC inside the airlock without a suit,
and the countdown to purge process already running.
As it is an external facing door (even the interior
one as the airlock counts as both an interior space
and exterior space at the same time, the wall possessing the inner airlock door is just as heavily built
as the exterior walls are as a safety measure) the
PC's would need a Lightsaber as blasting the door
open won't be possible in time. If the PC's do have a
Lightsaber, (such as Darth Angrons) then it will take
time to cut through. Set the countdown timer for the
purge to be one less round than it will take the average damage the Lightsaber wielder (s) would get to
breach the hull door - meaning the PC's life hinges on
the Lightsaber wielder (s) doing above average damage - and if you want to really step up the danger,
factor the average damage off the PC(s) spending a
Destiny Point. Even if they cut through in time, they
will still then have an airlock door that is wide open as
the outer airlock opens and vents the ship into space.
The only way to reasonably save the PC is to have
one of the PCs slice the door controls. In order to do
so, then they will first need to fight Caliban for control
of the airlock doors. This requires clearing security
gates that Caliban is creating in the system first to
access the deep systems and thus the door controls.
Make it so that each round the PC slicing the door
has to successfully pass a Computer check with a
difficulty & setback dice exactly equal to their own
Computer skill (they aren't really slicing against
security gates, they are really trying to work through
the haze of Caliban and it's evil mind affect). Should
the PC spend a Destiny Point to upgrade, then Caliban spends a Destiny Point to upgrade a difficulty die
to match. For every boost die that a PC receives
from their Talents, add a setback die and for every setback die that a PC removes, add an additional
setback die to the base difficulty before the roll - the
idea is that after the PC has removed all the dice and
added their PERSONAL boost dice, they should find
they have a dice pool exactly equal to the difficulty
pool. The trick comes if any PC's assist them, the
boost dice that get added ARE NOT matched by setback dice. The goal here is to give the players hints

that what is going on is in the slicer's mind, and not

actually a real thing at all. If players do assist the slicer, describe to the assisting players that they aren't
slicing alongside the PC so much as talking the PC
through doing really simple things - "press enter on
the datapad, Bail ... No, not that one ... the Enter button!" Once the PC's figure it out, let the slicer make
an Average
Discipline check each slicing
attempt. If they succeed, then the difficulty pool becomes normalized based on a challenging difficulty
for their skill level, but it won't be matched to their
actions or talents anymore. The number of successful
slicing rolls to open the door should be set to match
the countdown timer (assuming the slicer's skill
against the normalized difficulty - this represents the
fact that if the slicer doesn't defeat Calibans mindcontrol, there is little chance they'll save the character
in time).
As all of this is going on, skip around to each PC,
ask what each one of them is doing each turn. Describe the situation each time, narrating the actions of
the previous PC's but not as the calm cool collected
action the PC described, but instead as the panicked,
twisted distraught version of it the PC sees (it's easy
to say "I assist Bail in slicing the door controls" but
the next PC in line would see "Padme screams at
Bail to hit the enter button, repeating 'the enter button'
over and over like a mantra, becoming more panicked with each repetition as Bail, sweat beading on
his forehead fumbles with his datapad as the pressure of the moment mounts"). At some point, once
you as GM see it's clear that the PC's won't make it
time, or you see that your difficulty was too low and
they will stop the airlock from opening, have the PC
that is in a trance awaken - distracting the group as
they ask what is going on. Build up the confusion that
they PC has, they last remember being in another
part of the ship, and not knowing how they got there,
or what is going on. Describe to them that the airlock
door controls are locked out of the system for some
reason (in reality they locked control of it themselves
under Calibans influence and that is now what the
slicer is attempting to undo).
If the airlock opens, the PC will have to make repeated Hard
Resilience checks until the
others can mount a rescue ... or the PCs give up and
let their friend float into the void of space. If this occurs, feel free to be generous with conflict.

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The final vignette of the Episode begins when either

one of the PCs succumbs to Calibans influence
through Disciples bargaining, time, or going over their
strain threshold while battling the nexus in private.
Should neither of these situations come to pass before
all the other vignettes have been run, then Hethan
Romund is the one who falls to the control of Caliban,
her knowledge of the Force providing a pathway for
Caliban to enter her mind.
In either case (PC or Romund) Captain Miller is the
unfortunate sacrifice used to seal the communion between the Vessel and Caliban, and the PCs are quickly
summoned to the frightening scene below;

Give a moment for each player to state what they

are doing (which will probably be to get to engineering)
then read the below once the PCs reach the entrance
to the hyperspace chamber.

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(cont)

physically intimidating or especially potent with the

Force, Calibans horrific nature has gone to considere we are, the end of the millennia long jour- erable lengths to bolster any shortcomings.
ney of the Force Explorer. For ages, the dark
To begin, consider the possessed character to
side nexus known as Caliban has waited and
have Force Rating 8, representing the fact that Calischemed to birth itself into the physical, and now it
ban is a physical manifestation of the Force itself
has achieved all of its plans. The PCs face the unen(albeit a twisted and totally evil manifestation). Next,
viable task of defeating Caliban, though how they will
Caliban knows all Force powers, with all upgrades. In
do it may seem like a mystery to them. There does
combat (should the PCs frontally attack him) he will
exist a way to both banish Caliban and save their
use these powers in the following ways;
friend, though it will not be easy.
He will commit 2 Force Dice through EnThere are three possible conclusions to the advenhance to increasing the Brawn and Agility
ture;
of his vessel by 1 each (leaving him 6 Force
The PC's abandon their compatriot to the preDice for powers)
dations of Caliban and run to their ship
He will attack with Bind, allowing him to deal
The PC's fight their friend and slay them,
1 wound for each
spent on the power
sending Caliban back to the nexus where it
(ignoring soak) and hitting additional targets
draws power from. They then blow the Force
for 2
each in addition to immobilizing all
Explorer up while Caliban searches for a new
targets
way out, hopefully destroying Caliban in the
He will increase his defenses with Foresee,
process
increasing his Melee and Ranged defense by
The PC's break their friend free of Caliban's
2 in the first round, and spending
to get
influence and then either retreat to their ship
additional successes on the initiative check
or blow up Force Explorer
and a free maneuver

With so many combinations of outcomes at this

point, this final episode is broken down in parts that
can be mixed and matched to produce different results and a climactic ending that can be built in response to the actions of your players!

Caliban has completed his aims at gaining a vessel

capable of taking his evil outside of the Force Exporer, but he hasn't necessarily understood the dangers
this form accepts. As a being of flesh and blood, Caliban is vulnerable to the attacks of the PCs and could
quickly find himself attacked.
Luckily for him, being an extension of the dark side
of the Force, he is a considerably intimidating opponent. Though the body he possesses may not be

Once he has committed his Force Dice for

Bind, hell use Harm to additionally attack
(this will be at 4 Force Dice after all his commitments)

Hell use Heal to restore his vessel as its injured

Hell use Influence to strike characters close

to their strain threshold, dealing 2 strain for
each
spent on the powers activation as he
rends their mind with nightmarish visions of
the dark side

Once in each fight, he will use Protect to reduce the damage of a powerful attack

Hell commit 2 Force Dice to allow him to

twice each round use Sense to upgrade the
difficulty of an attack against him twice and
upgrade his own attacks twice

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18

The PCs will quickly find that Caliban is a deadly foe, her continued presence in the campaign and her spethe stats below are to be used if the vessel was Hethan cific role in it.
Romund, but if the vessel turned out to be a PC, use
their characteristics instead, adding the above and replacing the Willpower with a score of 6.
Darth Angrons Lightsaber stands as a direct link to
the actions that created the dark side nexus, and
through its attunement with Darth Angron, acts as a
tether to the consciousness that created Caliban. This
link still connects the Sith weapon to the evil intelligence, and can be used to battle the dark side nexus.
Unfortunately, the ancient blade has long since run
out of power. In order to get it working again, an industrious PC will need to make a Hard
Mechanics
check to convert a power cell from and existing
weapon and attach it to the ancient blade. Once operating, the blade will provide protection to those holding
it. Immediately, the character holding the blade will feel
the oppressive and terrifying presence of the ship ease,
and will no longer have to make Discipline checks
when alone against Calibans influence.

Should the PCs defeat and kill the vessel that Caliban is housed within, his essence will return to the central computer core, and he will need to begin preparing
a new vessel to contain his essence. If the vessel took
Disciples deal, this will prompt Caliban to begin the
process by one again building a droid to serve as Disciple as he had once before, other wise, Caliban will not
repeat that mistake.
Should the PCs vanquish Caliban by using the relic
(see Part 2: The Relic), then his essence will be
trapped within the computer core until it can regenerate, as the wounds received will follow Caliban as system strain to the Force Explorer. Almost immediately,
the ships power will fluctuate, evidence that the dark
side nexus was damaged as they expected it would be.
Hethan Romund (or the PC) will be free of Calibans
input, and as the last of Calibans presence fades, she
will use what little remaining connection to the Force
she has to perform a Heal power check on Captain
Miller - with the Mastery upgrade unlocked, she will
return him to life before finally losing her grip on the
Force. Whether she goes on to become Force Sensitive from this encounter you can determine based on
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Should a character use the Foresee force power to

get hints or direction about how to defeat the dark side
nexus, all their visions lead them back to the Lightsaber. Hethan Romund (before she becomes possessed) can explain that once a Jedi or Sith attuned
the crystal within a Lightsaber, it was always tied to
them. She explains that it is possible that the Lightsaber could be used as a sympathetic focus to undue the
nexus. Should one of the PCs be the Vessel, she can
explain that a direct hit from the blade should force Caliban from the PCs body and free the control (in this
case, immediately upon a critical hit or reaching his
wound threshold, Caliban will leave the PCs body,
which itself will not suffer the critical - in effect the critical result on Caliban was exorcism)
Should the PCs already be in Episode 3 and Hethan
already be possessed, another character can gather
same information as Hethan by making a Hard
Knowledge (Lore) check.
To use the Lightsaber as a sympathetic focus to
clear the nexus, the PCs will need to use it to destroy
both itself and the root of the nexus. Any character that
has viewed the ships logs can make an Easy Perception check to realize that the focus of Darth Angrons hatred and rage was the hyperdrive. From there,
it the PCs are at a loss to identify the source of the
nexus, an Easy Mechanics check will confirm that

the only system advanced enough to develop intelligence is the nav computer housed inside it.
From here the answer should be obvious - by using the Lightsaber to destroy the nav computer, the
dark side nexus can be dissipated. Rigging the
Lightsaber to overload and explode will require either
another Easy Mechanics check or an Easy
Gunnery check once the characters are
ready to detonate it. If the Lightsaber is first activated
and driven into the hyperdrive, then the resulting explosion will dissipate the dark side nexus permanently
but it will also destroy the Force Explorer in the
process.

When the PCs are ready to leave, its time to run

Part 4: Getting Outta Dodge. This may be because
theyve rigged the hyperdrive to detonate and destroy
the nexus, or it could be because theyre cutting their
losses and just want to go home. In either case, the
PCs will be fleeing through the ship as either explosions rock the Force Explorer or Caliban chases after
them, unleashing lightning and hell in their wake.

To get from engineering (where they find Caliban

and Miller initially and where the ancient Hyperdrive
intelligence exists), they will need to navigate through
certain key areas that, when moving quickly, are very
Caliban will do everything in his power to stop this
hazardous.
from happening, including sending Disciple to kill the
PCs (should he still be around). If dissipated and sent
First up is the oscillating hallway. This hallway, deback to the core, there isnt a lot that Caliban can do signed to act as a magnetic field generator to contain
directly, but if theyve been hiding from Caliban in the the hyperdrive as it powers up, is pictured on page
Vessel (see Part 3: Hide and Seek) then the proposi- 17. As the ship begins to destabilize, the gears that
tion may be more difficult.
generate the magnetic field lose their cohesion, and
the magnets themselves begin attracting each other
and causing a chaotic mess of spinning blades and
metal shards. Characters moving through here must
make a successful Daunting
Coordination
If the PCs get caught aboard the craft, do not elim- check or suffer a critical hit, with +10 being added
inate Caliban, and are forced into hiding, then the for each failure in excess of the first as metal shards
Hide and Seek scenario is appropriate. In this scenar- and bladed supports fling about the area. Characters
io, the PCs will need to navigate around the ship us- can stop and help those that have fallen, but every
ing side tunnels and maintenance corridors in an at- round they remain in the area, they need to make a
tempt to either get off the vessel, or plan an attack to new check, and if something is following them (either
blow it up or defeat Caliban somehow.
an explosion or Caliban) they have
Caliban is susceptible to this tactic, as he is now
mortal and no longer ephemeral. While he has the
capacity to wield the Force on a more physical level,
he isnt able to access the omnipresence that he
could as the dark side nexus. He will attempt to use
the Sense force power to locate the PCs as he
searches for them, but he must still use his normal
skills to find them once in the right area. This grows
increasingly frustrating for him, and should be expressed through your descriptions of his searching.
PCs on the other hand can totally blind Caliban if
they have access to the talents that make invisible to
Force Powers. If not, then they can still hide successfully using Stealth checks, as Caliban (unless in a
PC) doesnt have either Perception or Vigilance.
Should Caliban catch the PCs, then see Part 1: Caliban Ascended for details on how to run the combat.

The ancient hyperdrive of Rakatan and Duron design

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20

Once they clear engineering, they have the long

neck that leads to the mid-ship airlock that is closest
to their ship. The danger in this area isnt necessarily
that they are facing direct danger, but rather that whatever is chasing them has no care for how long the run
is. They must a Hard
Resilience check or become so tired and winded that they fall behind. A character can declare they are falling behind to assist a
winded character (thus allowing a second check) but
should the character fail this second check, both characters fall behind, and unless both make a second
check immediately, they both are overcome by their
pursuer.
Finally, at the airlock, unless the characters are already in vac suits, theyll need to suit up in order to exit
the ship and get to their own craft safely. This requires
one of the two rolls; they can either make an Average
Coordination check, or they can make an Average
Pilot (Space) check, as pilots are well used
to getting into and out of flight suits quickly. Characters
have two chances on this roll, failure on both results in
their being caught.
In the case of Caliban, this means that the characters are forced to face him and you should refer to Part
1: Caliban Ascended. In the case of the explosion of
the ship, then the characters are unfortunately consumed in fire.

By this time, the story of either Darth Angron or your

PCs should have reached its end, and while some
questions may remain, well discuss what happens

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here under the assumption that the evil didnt win.

For escaping the nightmarish ship, grant each player
15 experience. For each member of Captain Millers
salvage crew that survived, award an additional 5 experience, as it will be very tricky to keep them alive. For
each member of the salvage crew that died, assign 1
conflict to any Force Sensitive PCs.
Should Hethan have survived, award another 5 experience, but if she died (or worse) then assign 5 conflict to any Force Sensitive PCs as the loss of their
friend and mentor will be a heavy blow.

A few things still exist in regards to the Force Explorer. For one, the planet that she orbited is unlisted, and
surrounded in mists. Many story possibilities exist here;
was the planet removed from Imperial records
(indicating they were here themselves), was the planet
from some other place (as the mists of a nebula that
didnt exist suggest) that got pulled here when the ship
exited hyperspace?
And there is always the possibility that the consciousness of Caliban wasnt destroyed - it might have
dissipated into the energy field of the nebular mists,
ready to haunt the PCs in a future adventure!

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