Black Curs Blues

For other uses, see Black and Blue.

"Black Curs Blues" is an adventure for the West End Games Roleplaying Game. It was written by Peter M. Schweighofer and illustrated by Chris Gossett. It was published in the Star Wars Adventure Journal 8.

The adventure is split into three parts. In the first, a group of New Republic Intelligence operatives are dispatched to Moorja to aid Dirk Harkness and his crew in evading various Imperial forces. Harkness has just finished a reconnaissance mission as detailed in the article "Recon & Report: The Journey to Coruscant" from Star Wars Adventure Journal 2. After this mission is successfully completed, in the second part the operatives are dispatched to the planet Canyon to investigate a possible find of lightsaber crystals. It is actually a trap set by Imperial Advisor Bregius Golthan, who captures the operative Platt Okeefe. In the third part, the operatives set about rescuing Okeefe from Golthan's fortress on Voktunma.

Plot summary

The adventure consists of three role-playing scenarios, each of which is designed to be played in a single session. They could be played separately or as part of one campaign.

Storms over Moorja

The Black Curs mercenary group, after conducting reconnaissance on behalf of the New Republic in the Core Worlds, has been set upon by forces loyal to Imperial Advisor Bregius Golthan. The Curs are fleeing to the agriworld of Moorja, where they have stashed a Y-wing fighter and other equipment. New Republic General Airen Cracken assigns a team to help the Curs escape so that their valuable intelligence can be recovered and their report brought to the New Republic Fleet.

The team of operatives set out in a banged-up light freighter, the Valiant Damsel. The Damsel emerges from hyperspace in the Moorja system to see a battle going on between two Imperial fleets: one commanded by Bregius Golthan, the other loyal to a breakaway faction under a renegade Moff, Utoxx Prentioch. Prentioch, like Cracken, believes that the Black Curs' recon report will be useful in his own fight against the Empire.

The Curs' ship, the Last Chance, crash-lands in the middle of an ion storm. Both Imperial fleets send drop-ships with forces of walkers to the site. The fighting gives an opening for the Republic force to reach the downed ship and defend it while repairs are made. However, the leader of the Black Curs, Dirk Harkness, has taken the precious data file on foot, impatiently deciding to go to his starfighter alone, underground in the Crumbling Lands. The Republic agents track Harkness to a cave where he is cornered by a trio of bruwoses. After fighting them off, they reach the Y-wing fighter on the other side of an underground river. The fighter helps the Valiant Damsel and Last Chance evade the rival Imperial fleets and escape the planet.

The Valiant Damsel and Harkness's fighter rendezvous with a Mon Calamari Star Cruiser to hand over Harkness's intel report. Harkness then departs to join the Last Chance on another mission for New Republic Intelligence.

Crystal Intrigue

Aboard the cruiser, Luke Skywalker approaches the crew of the Damsel with a new mission. Guldus Bemm, the founder and administrator of a small independent mining colony on the planet Canyon, has invited him to inspect a recently-discovered deposit of crystals, suggesting that they might be a form of lightsaber crystal. Skywalker is occupied with other Republic business, but he commissions the Damsel crew to go to Canyon to represent him and bring back samples of the crystals. Platt Okeefe of the Black Curs has already gone ahead to Canyon: General Cracken had her go negotiate an agreement to obtain other minerals for the Republic fleet.

The team of operatives fly to Canyon. Administrator Bemm meets them on their landing pad and shows them to their lodgings, which are in the same building as Okeefe. He brings the team to a shuttle that flies them to the cave to see the promised crystals. Instead, they walk into an Imperial ambush meant for Skywalker. The operatives shoot their way past the Imperial forces, commandeer one of the Imperial ships, and return to the Canyon starport to recover Okeefe.

They find the city to be largely deserted except for one landing platform, where they observe Guldus Bemm greeting Imperial Advisor Bregius Golthan just after he has disembarked from a shuttle. Guards shove a captive Okeefe aboard, to Golthan's delight. The operatives try to force their way to Okeefe to rescue her, but the shuttle takes off before they can reach it. It is all they can do to reach their own ship before the local guards or the Imperial troops catch them. They return to the New Republic fleet to deliver their disappointing news to Skywalker.

Platt's Rescue

The erstwhile crew of the Valiant Damsel learn from New Republic Intelligence that Platt Okeefe is being held in Golthan's Fortress on the planet Voktunma. The facility is well defended and Mon Mothma has ordered General Cracken not to commit any resources toward rescuing Okeefe. On the Republic cruiser's flight deck, the disappointed operatives are approached by Dirk Harkness, who recruits them to join the Black Curs in an independent rescue effort. The Curs fly the team to the secret Black Curs Base in the freighter Luudrian Star.

At the base, Black Cur Tru'eb Cholakk tells the team about the plan that the mercenaries have already formed. From Voktunma starport, the New Republic team will approach the fortress on speeder bikes, which are small and low enough to pass under the shield system. They will need to make a long journey over land, climb a mountain, infiltrate the fortress, plant explosives to disable its shields and sensors, and rescue Platt from wherever she is being confined. When this is accomplished, the Luudrian Star will come with a fighter escort to attack the fortress and recover the team.

The team complete the journey aboard the Star and travel to Golthan's fortress on their speeders. They evade the defensive placements in forested land near the fortress. They begin scaling the mountain. They ambush the gunners manning a turbolaser battery carved into the mountainside, and from here they gain access to the interior. They make their way to the roof section of the fortress, where the shields and sensors are placed. They leave enough explosives to destroy them, timing them to blow just before the Black Curs' scheduled arrival.

Platt Okeefe is found weakened and chained up at the center of Golthan's audience chamber, protected by four bodyguards who wait in the shadows. As the operatives work to release Okeefe, the guards attack. The team defeat the guards, then fight their way up the fortress's winding passages to the landing pad for the pickup in the Luudrian Star. The freighter and its escorts blast their way past an Imperial fleet in orbit, entering hyperspace just in time.