The Duel: A Legacy of the Force Story

[CSI]

Tysy: Nice chapter, Jae: Nice chapter, too.

 

@ Tysy: There is no absolute "light" and obsolute "Dark". What's a "true light" and what's a "true dark"?

 

Only Sith deals with absolutes! You are the Chosen One! You're supposed to destroy them, not to join them!

 

Therefore, I think you will be a Sith, no?

[Emperor Devon]

Saying that the Sith are absolute is in itself an absolute, rendering that statement redundant.

[CSI]

Saying that the Sith are absolute is in itself an absolute, rendering that statement redundant.

 

Yeah, right, but the point is, I didn't say that. I just cited Obi-Wan's Quote in RotS. Thanks for pointing this out.

[Tysyacha]

The next morning, Tysy awoke to a comfortable silence and a magnificent

six-course breakfast. It refreshed her body just as a good night's sleep had

refreshed her soul. She felt no fear, no apprehension about this "final test",

whatever it would be. The Force was with her, and the Padawan knew it.

 

"Tell me, Padawan," said the Presence at he sat across from her, eating

slowly. "You know where my loyalties lie, and my power. Do you wish I

was dead for trying to harm the Jedi? This Jae Onasi of whom you speak?"

 

"I don't wish you were dead," said Tysy decisively. "Far from it. I wish you

were redeemed and on Jae's side, walking the path of justice and Light."

 

"True justice is balance, young one," said the Sith Lord, "and the Light

cannot exist without the Darkness. Otherwise, how would we know what

was supposedly good for us? Good for all of life? You wish to see me

redeemed," the Presence said, "but would you sacrifice yourself to do so?"

 

Tysy paused. She had to think about this very carefully. "Of course",

she replied gently, after a very long moment. "I would do this for you.

Why would I be so selfish as to preserve only myself when you're in

danger of never becoming one with the Force that sustains you?"

 

Very subtly, almost kindly, the Presence took a hold of Tysy's elbow

and led her toward his Meditation Chamber, his home, once more.

 

"Do you see, little Syscha?" asked the Presence. "If you agree to

this test, I shall command that you to count to three. If you

want only my redemption, on 'three' you shall take my hand as if

by instinct. At that moment, all that is you will be siphoned out of

your frail Padawan's body and into my powerful yet diseased one.

By the same token, all that is me will enter your frame. Our two

souls will trade places. Then this Onasi will come, and we will duel.

 

"This will test not only your devotion to the Light, but also the

devotion of the weak one who comes, who believes only in the

Jedi Code and all of its flawed teachings. Who will she try to

strike down, to defeat and to kill? My soul within your body,

or your soul within mine? This will either prove my teachings

true or shatter them to pieces. What say you? Do you yield?"

 

"Dlya tebya," said Tysyacha. "I yield to you, and even

though I'd rather weep until I died than test Jae Onasi this

way, your soul is at stake. If this is what it takes for you to

see the truth at last, then so be it. Imprison me, and take my

frame. Use my body for this test, and know I love the Light!"

 

So he did. The Sith Lord turned to her and took both her wrists,

fragile as they were. "Count to three," he commanded her.

 

"At, said Tysy, rhyming it with "yacht". "One for me, alone."

 

"Good," said the Presence, smiling underneath his hood, his test underway.

 

"Dva," Tysy said humbly. "Two, for you and Jae, the two who'll duel."

 

"You don't have to do this," said the Presence. "I am a Sith, abhorrent

to you. If you refused this test and to say 'three', it would be natural."

 

She would hear none of it. "Tri!" Tysy grasped the Presence's hand.

 

Tysy felt her body empty itself of all but its physical insides, hollowing

itself painlessly, like it was only falling asleep. In the blink of an eye, she

felt herself being filled again, but she was herself no more. Not this time.

 

"Excellent," said Tysyacha in the dark and powerful voice of the Presence.

 

"It worked!" cried the bewildered Presence in the young girl's voice. "Oh,

by the Force, what have I done?" The Presence shivered suddenly.

 

"Selfishness is the path to the Dark Side," said Devscha. "Do not waver.

She comes, the weak one, but you must be strong. I shall prepare you."

[CSI]

That's scary...Very Scary...

 

You guys just trade your soul???

[Emperor Devon]

I've not felt this good in years, thought Devon.

 

Finally, the terrible disease that had prevented him from reaching his potential like manacles on a prisoner was no more.

 

Or would her have been a better term? Devon had disliked the form of the body he resided in, and using Vergere's Art of the Small, had changed it become identical to his old one. He would return it to its original form supposing Jae arrived, but he had grown attached to his old body. What a strange thing for one of the Lords of the Sith.

 

Ah yes, Jae's arrival. The probability of that was minute.

 

Being able to make full use of his powers, Devon was watching the 6,000 year old battle right now. It was going poorly for the Republic indeed. Their ships amounted to only thirty, and his to one hundred. A difference of six millenia in the technology did not lend anything to Li'adin either.

 

And morale - another factor. Infusing his spirit in a young and healthy body had allowed Devon to unlock all his potential in the dark side at long last. There was a great disturbance in the Force indeed, which sapped the will of the Jedi to fight.

 

Smiling to himself, Devon abandoned such simple thoughts and threw his mind into the abyss that was the dark side. It had become even more intriguing than usual.

 

And there were no more of those annoying injections to distract him.

[Tysyacha]

Tysyacha's soul struggled within her new body. His body, that

of the fearsome Presence who was putting her through this "final

test". She felt the fluttering pulse of the half-rotten heart, the

marrow-oriented pain of the overused and decaying bones, the

supple sagging of the skin. This was true sickness, true suffering,

no matter what the Jedi said. She felt at once sad and ruefully glad

that the Presence's body was in this state.

 

Grand Master Luke, in one of his possible not-so-serene moments,

once said that everyone gets exactly what they deserve in the end.

You've proven him very true so far, whoever you are, and whoever

you were before I sacrificed my body to you, an empty shell...

 

Except it wasn't, and Tysyacha could sense that by inhabiting it, the

Presence was quickly molding it into a more comfortable essence. Making

himself at home amongst her heart, her muscles, her lungs and brain. It

was all so sickening, except wasn't self-sacrifice what all of the Jedi said

they were after, what would bring them bliss? Tysy herself felt none.

 

How can I have fallen so far, she thought, to take no joy in

my gift of possible redemption? Why do I feel scared instead of happy?

 

Suddenly the Presence, in her own body, rose up. "Come here," it said.

 

Tysyacha obeyed, noticing what freedom of movement the Dark Lord's

Sith robe gave her. Instead of her silver saber, she held a hissing ruby one.

 

"You cannot redeem a Sith Lord," said the Presence in the voice of a

young Padawan girl, "unless that Sith Lord, either consciously or not,

wishes to return to the Light. However, I know the gifts of the Light

to be nothing but parlor tricks, merely illusions to disguise the lies of

the Jedi Order. They say the Light will bring you power, but if so,

why do so many of them fall at the hands of those such as I?

 

"You will see that the weak one, if she is ever wise enough to discover

what has happened between us, will duly praise you for your sacrifice.

However, if Jae happens to win this battle and claim victory, you, my

Tysyacha, will be sent to hard labor as an exile and traitor to the Jedi

Order. They will know you voluntarily gave your form to me and were

not forced. Great will be the magnitude of your crime in their eyes.

Jae will stand with you, but not even Skywalker will be able to avail

you of your fate. That is your true sacrifice, my new apprentice!"

 

When the Sith Lord's frame shuddered, Devscha continued, more

kindly, "Do not fear, young one. Jae will never win this duel. She

is weaker than most Jedi, for only the outdated teachings of the

Old Republic sustain her. Once the duel is done, your body will be

created anew, in the same form that you were, only refreshed and

renewed. All muscular frailty in you will vanish, and you will conquer!"

 

For some odd reason, Tysy liked the sound of that, and she raised

the red lightsaber. Then, just as quickly, she sank into despair again.

[Jae Onasi]

"Get in close to their ships," Carth ordered.

 

"With all due respect, sir, won't that be suicide?" the XO asked.

 

"It'll be suicide to stay at a range where they can hit us but we can't hit them. The only way is to close on them, force their ships to risk firing on their own if they fire on us, too. Then the range advantage they have will be irrelevant," Carth said. "We have to buy the Li'adins more time. Move in now."

 

Some of the ships hesitated in following the orders. Carth pulled every one of the captains up on the holovid and looked each of them in the eye, fury burning in his own. "Explain your insubordination before I relieve you all of command."

 

"It's hopeless, sir. We can't win," declared one of the captains.

 

Jolee watched them, stroking his chin in thought. "Carth, I think they're under some kind of Sith influence. Jae, Talin, a little Battle meditation, please." The three Jedi sat down in meditation, boosting the morale of the Republic soldiers, and making the courage of the Sith fighters flag....

 

"Move in now," Carth commanded. "They may have a few thousand years of technology on their side, but we're still the best damned soldiers the Republic has ever seen, and I intend on showing them just what good soldiers can do against their supposedly superior technology and Sith idiocy."

 

The ships moved in close, so close they could nearly reach out and touch the other ships. At point blank range, there was no advantage, and several of the Sith ships accidentally shot each other as several Republic ships feinted moves.

 

Several hundred more Republic ships blinked into normal space and joined Carth's task group.

 

"Nice of you to drop by, Admiral Dodonna," Carth grinned. "The party got started a little early, but we saved a lot of fun for you, too."

 

Dodonna smiled in spite of herself. "We're here now, and we've brought 'a few' Jedi helpers."

 

Masters of the battle meditation technique joined Jae, Jolee, and Talin, and the 3 Jedi dropped out.

 

"There's no way to keep Devon from continuing to throw everything at us, even if he's going to die soon. We aren't going to survive. We have to get to his time and stop him," Jae said.

 

"That may just be suicide," Talin cautioned, taking her hand. "I'm not too excited about losing any one of us, especially you, dear."

 

Jae smiled back at him, the love brightening both their eyes.

 

"Aw, aren't you two cute. I think Jae's right, though. We need to go forward and stop him," Jolee said.

 

The Li'adins obliged, and three Jedi arrived at Vryss in Devon's time.

[Tysyacha]

"Go out and meet them," the Presence commanded in Tysyacha's voice.

She--or he, more accurately--was becoming more accustomed by the

minute to using a younger and more flexible set of vocal cords. This

was not the case, however, for the female Padawan imprisoned in

the corpselike body of a Sith Lord. Its throat was a scarred mass

of tissue, and whatever came out of its mouth through Tysyacha

was a rasp, a growl similar to Darth Nihilus' hisses of expression.

 

Ah, well. Striding slowly but boldly outward from the heart

of the Presence's fortress, Tysy focused on her three new targets.

 

"Hello, Jedi," she began in that grisly voice. It sounded disembodied,

hollow, but she knew this was perhaps her own spirit trying to lessen

the pain. Trying to lessen the crushing sense of utter failure, of being

used and tricked. How on earth had she ever let that Sith Lord convince

her that this test would save his soul? Save hers as well, if it worked?

 

Tysy lit her red saber. The Presence's, really, but none of the three

Masters knew it. Hopefully, they never would, but who was saying

hopefully? She felt a commanding force slip into her mind.

 

Do not be afraid, Tysyacha. Your mind is weak, but unlike those of

these bumbling Masters, it has not been twisted by the Light. This is

a moment of battle, a moment of truth, but your spirit shall have to

subside. Otherwise, this duel will not be won, either by you or myself.

Yield to me, and let me guide you. Who is the true Master in this fight?

 

Again, Tysy fought, but she yielded, and let the Presence guide her steps...

[Emperor Devon]

So, they were here.

 

Within his meditation chamber, Devon's all-seeing vision focused upon the three Jedi. They had landed ten or so miles away from his citadel, the perfect spot for him to activate the intruder defense systems.

 

This planet may have been protected by a private fleet of warships from space, but on land it was arguably even better guarded.

 

Built into small mountain, the building Devon called his citadel jutted into the dark skies like a Coruscanti skyscraper amidst houses. It was a msssive building, miles high and miles wide. It was invincible, standing defiantly against the downpoars that had shaped the rest of the planet into soft fields of grass.

 

Of course, it was far from defenseless.

 

Designed to withstand sieges from countless divisions of troops, thousands upon thousands of turbolsers were built into the nigh unbreakable walls. Shield generators deep underground protected it from orbital bombardment, and a private army of droids built with Sith alchemy stood guard. Layers of walls surrounded the citadel, as well as a natural-looking river that was in reality an effective moat.

 

There was also the Sithspawn.

 

Devon had been tinkering with monsters for decades, and his many experiments had been scattered throughout the citadel as guards. Chrysalide rancors, Leviathans, Technobeasts, ever single monster the Sith had ever dreamed up was there.

 

This fortress could withstand whole armies. What good would three Jedi do?

 

Caution never hurt. Devon descended to his throne room, and along the way ordered guards. Twelve of his monsters, the match for over one hundred and forty-four of the old ones Jae had fought, stood at attention.

 

The Dark Lord sat upon his throne, and turned it about to look out the window. Miles below, three Jedi could be seen trudging forward amidst the torrental rain and harsh winds.

 

His current form and clothing were that he had worn before switching bodies. Should the duel turn against his favor, though, he would assume Tysy's form.

 

But then again, would it even start?

 

Devon activated a comlink on his throne, and spoke into it. "Seal all entrances and exits. Activate all force fields, and power up the weapon systems. I want the experiments released from the pens, troops at the walls, and above all, no possible way to enter or leave the citadel."

 

The orders were carried out. How could Jae and her friends stand against such odds?

 

All the same, the twelve guards would remain in this room. Devon fingered the igniter of his real lightsaber, which had not pressed in decades. He could never be too careful.

[Jae Onasi]

Gee, thanks, Emperor Devon. Here I was hoping to finally get to the duel itself, and you have to send out monsters and moats and God (and you) only knows what else. Yeesh.

Yeah, below is probably the shortest chapter of the entire RP, but I'm wiped out from a weekend in Memphis for meetings (and a very fine trip to Beale Street and a little too much 'celebrating' there .). This is the only idea I have for the moment, though I'm sure more will come later....

 

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

 

"Tysacha?" Jae called out to the girl. "We're here. We're on Vryss, and we're in your time now. Help us find you and help you."

[Emperor Devon]

Gee, thanks, Emperor Devon.

 

You're welcome, Jae Onasi.

 

Here I was hoping to finally get to the duel itself, and you have to send out monsters and moats and God (and you) only knows what else. Yeesh.

 

Let's see Jae and company get through those.

[Tysyacha]

Tysyacha, or at least her physical body and her possessed voice, responded

to the call. Before it did, however, it snarled a directive to the tall, disfigured

Sith Lord clutching a red lightsaber for all it was worth, as if it were a life raft.

 

"Silence, thrall," Devscha commanded, "or this test will be over and I'll strike

you down. Your soul will become one with the Force, but what will you

do then? You are nowhere near as skilled in its manipulation as were Qui-

Gon Jinn or Obi-Wan Kenobi. If you perish now, your soul will not return."

 

The Sith Lord nodded, saying nothing but bowing its head humbly.

 

"Good." Through the Force, the calculating Devscha sent out a plea:

 

He's here, Master Onasi! The Sith Lord we all fear, whose name is

Emperor Devon. He's holding me captive, a prisoner. Please come and

kill him before he does something to me! I'm scared. What was it you

said about fear being a path to the Dark Side, or was that Grand Master

Luke? Anyway, I'm in the central chamber of the Vryss fortress. Hurry!

 

Devscha smiled. His trap was more cunning and clever than he'd imagined.

[CSI]

Good chapters, guys. Keep up.

[Emperor Devon]

Thanks. The actual duel should come up fairly soon.

[Tysyacha]

((Speaking of the duel, I'd like to start it, so here goes...Emperor Devon,

you will be controlling Tysyacha in your body, and your body has your stats.

Your soul is in Tysyacha's body, however, which has far weaker stats. In

Tysy's body, you command Tysyacha's soul in your body. But she's got...

...something up her sleeve. She's looking for a fight in the worst way.))

 

Tysyacha, in the rapidly decaying shell of the Presence's body, suddenly

had an idea. It was more like a flash of an idea than a full-fledged thought,

but it was enough. She was tired of traps and illusions, all these obstacles

that kept her from facing her Masters and enemies. She had once heard

Grand Master Luke tell of an Echani maiden devoted to dueling, who spoke thus:

 

"In battle, all the words are swept away, leaving us open to pure expression.

Vengeance, mercy, anger, fear--these are at their clearest during a fight."

 

So be it. Clasping the hilt of the ruby saber the Presence had been holding

(or was it?), Tysyacha, in a guttural hiss, commanded the barriers to vanish.

 

"Uidtye!" Sensing her almost palpable anger, the monsters and the

troops that the Presence had ordered to guard the citadel all cowered,

retreating to their posts. Good. How in the Force would they know that

the spirit inside the body was that of a girl and not of their lord and Master?

 

"Praviy!" This word, even colder and more imbued with passion,

meant "Right!" Tysyacha, deep in her soul, felt herself well up with pride.

She found that she liked giving orders instead of merely obeying them.

She would become a powerful Sith once she got her body back, and--wait...

 

Would she be a Sith? Would she get her body back, or would the Presence

decide that he preferred the younger, more fragile and non-infected shell?

 

"Chto dela'yu ya?" Suddenly panicked, she cried, "What am I doing?"

 

No time for reflection was this, however, for the three Jedi approached.

"Finally have the guts to face us, do you?" asked Jolee. "Come on, Sith."

 

Tysy ignited her lightsaber, but only at the command of the other dark soul...

[Emperor Devon]

Devon scowled. How annoying. He'd never actually felt true anger in decades, though this was coming awfully close to it.

 

Fool! he hissed. Do you have any idea what your arrogance might cost me? Perhaps the Jedi will teach you humility, assuming you survive! Thank the Force you are not entirely useless to me, or I would end your life for this disobedience!

 

But there was still time to prepare, still time to create barriers. For all his martial prowess, Devon so hated to have to employ it. That was servant's work.

 

A flick of several buttons, and the emergency blast doors near the throne room slammed shut. Force fields were activated, and all available troops were called to defend their master at once.

 

That's at least eight of the blast doors. They should hold for a while, I made them after all, Devon mused.

 

The troops should arrive in time. I can still have my heir. And I know the Jedi can't defeat an army.

 

All the same, he called his twelve guards closer to his side.

[Tysyacha]

If Tysy had been in her own body at the moment her master's savage

reprimand came to her through the Force, she would have wet herself

if not worse. The Presence, she was sure, could feel the stomach-

churning wave of fear that was threatening to overwhelm her.

 

However, humility was not what spurred Tysy to action at this

particular moment. There was the matter of the insolent Jedi,

Jolee, who had dared to taunt her--taunt both of them--like an

ordinary schoolchild. Neither the apprentice in the Master's body

nor the Master in the apprentice's body would tolerate this insult.

 

Tysy plunged herself into a combat stance. "Chto znayesh' ty--"

 

This was only what she thought in her mind as she struck, however.

What she hissed was, "What know you?", with the you being arrogant

and disrespectful. Dismissive, as a Sith Lord would be to all of his inferiors...

 

((Emperor Devon, this is your initial move. What is Devscha's first attack?))

[Emperor Devon]

We'll actually need Jae to do the stat-related stuff. I figure that won't need to happen until she posts a chapter, and the fictional Jae gets through Tysy. You can decide what happens for now.

[Tysyacha]

((If Devscha gets a 12 out of 18 on a 3d6, her Power Attack lands.))

 

*Goes to Dungeons and Dragons' Dice Roller for ONE SINGLE ROLL*

 

*Gets an 11 out of 18 on a 3d6. Her Power Attack fails.*

 

"What do I know?" asked Jolee, a small smile gracing his lips. "Quite a bit

for a Jedi, and certainly enough to know how to deflect the first blow in

battle." He immediately prepared for a counterattack upon the Sith Lord,

or at least upon the Sith Lord's wrathful frame.

 

*Returns to D and D's Dice Roller to compute Jolee's first counterattack roll*

 

*Gets a 12 out of 18 on the attack, but this one had no special feats.

Thus, he hits Devscha successfully, doing damage.*

 

"Akh!" Within the body of the Presence, it was Tysy's soul that felt the

slash. She felt Jolee's lightsaber cut into gray, diseased flesh, although not

fatally. This was a warning blow, although still very painful to have to endure.

[Jae Onasi]

The three Jedi were somehow transported from the cold, wet surface of Vryss into the austere fortress that housed the presence of the Emperor.

 

Devscha met them, red lightsaber extended, and dropped into a combat stance. Jae, Jolee, and Talin ignited their sabers in turn.

 

The hooded Devon sneered, "What know you?" He threw the first blow of the duel, and Jolee stepped to the side to evade it. He attacked in return, and the blow struck, cutting into the wretched flesh.

 

"Aah!". The Sith Lord grunted audibly. But Jae heard Tysyacha's psychic pain.

 

"What do I know?" Jolee asked the hooded Sith, a small smile gracing his lips. "Quite a bit for a Jedi, and certainly enough to know how to deflect the first blow in battle."

 

Jae's mind raced. Something was wrong, very wrong. She sifted through the memories and 'heard' Tysy's plea in her mind again....

He's here, Master Onasi! The Sith Lord we all fear, whose name is

Emperor Devon. He's holding me captive, a prisoner. Please come and

kill him before he does something to me! I'm scared. What was it you

said about fear being a path to the Dark Side, or was that Grand Master

Luke? Anyway, I'm in the central chamber of the Vryss fortress. Hurry!

 

Jae said to Jolee and Talin, their eyes still on the Sith Lord, "Something's wrong, though. Tysyacha would never ask us to come and kill Devon--it's not the Jedi way. And Devon cried out physically, but Tysyacha screamed her pain as well. What are we fighting, Jolee?"

 

---------

We actually need to roll 1d20 for attacks, but this works for this chapter. If you're actually calculating damage this round, Jolee's lightsabers did the following points damage (rolled on real dice, thank you, because I'm a purist and have to have my dice ):

Main saber--Energy: 26 Physical vs. DS (darkside): 2 Unstoppable: 5

Off-hand--Energy: 24

I broke it down so you can calculate any resistances appropriately.

I'll post the combat calculations shortly, but this should get us going.

 

If I'm a bit slow, it's because the ceiling cracked and then part of it crashed down into our kitchen, courtesy of a leaking upstairs toilet. It's a huge mess and we have a fair amount to repair, and it's going to eat a lot of time. Ugh.

[Emperor Devon]

Although behind many doors and surrounded by his guards, Devon saw the duel taking place perfectly well. Jae might be catching onto what was really happening, but it mattered not. The first platoons of his soldiers were mere doors away from her, thankfully. The Lord of the Sith may have been powerful, but he hated to do the dirty work himself.

 

-----

Jae, about when was it your celing cracked? Sounds like you've been busy for a while.

[Jae Onasi]

The ceiling cracked last Thur and broke free on Friday. We had a ton of stuff to clean up after that, and Jimbo had to cut the hole wider and square so my stepbro could put up the drywall. Of course, this meant that even more vermiculite fell out. We almost got our snow shovel out to shovel it up.

 

Combat:

Step 1--roll initiative to determine who gets to go first in battle. We roll a 1d20 for each character/minion, Tysy gets to do any monsters or minions or characters she controls. The highest score goes first. In case of tie--highest dex breaks the tie. If Dex is the same, the players re-roll. Since Tysy's thread/duelmaster, she gets to make the list of who goes in what order to keep track of who goes first, next, and so forth, unless you all want me to.

Step 2: The attack. Pull out the excel sheets I sent you because I'm going to refer to specific cells so this all makes more sense.

Roll a 1d20 to attack. A 'natural' 20 (what actually turns up on the die itself) is an automatic hit, regardless of your opponent's defense, and is also a critical hit. A natural 1 is an automatic miss, even if your attack exceeds your opponents defense.

Let's say I roll a 12 for Jae. She's attacking with her lightsaber, a melee weapon, so we use the melee weapon attack bonus in cell F25, which is 33. Jae's using the Makashi form against Devscha, who is also using a lightsaber, so she gets an additional +3 to attack. So, Jae's total 'to hit' is 48. This number has to be equal to or greather than her opponents' defense scores.

Devsha's total defense is listed in F19. Let's pretend it's 39. Since Jae's 'to hit' is higher than Devsha's def (48 is greater than 39), Jae hits. In actuality, any dice roll that put Jae's 'to hit' at 39 or higher is good.

Step 3: calculate the damage. And I'll edit that in later because I'm falling asleep while typing this and writing some really quirky stuff that I've had to erase.

[CSI]

Eh...Interesting...But you started the dueling stats? Looking forward to actual duel.

[Jae Onasi]

Well, after erasing some complete nonsense that I wrote in my earlier post about Halloween, apparently, while trying to explain combat, I decided to defer more of an explanation to (later) today.

Anyhoo, the combat's based on the Star Wars RPG revised core rulebook, chiefly because I can't find my old what I think is the D6 version from (mumbly) years back.

 

IIRC, we're ignoring some of the conventions that would be used normally in a campaign because we're just doing a duel, so I'm going to leave out attacks of opportunity, concealment and cover, stuff like that that really doesn't have a bearing on the duel itself or would make it more complicated than we really want. This might make the D&D purists cringe a bit, but what can I say.

 

Let's go back to the attack.

 

Jae's just rolled a successful 'hit' of 48 against Devscha's defense/AC (Armor Class) of 39. Now I roll damage for the primary lightsaber. This is in cells C30 and D30:

2d10+13,+3vsltsbr energy, +15 vs DS, Phys 1d8, sneak 1d6.

So with 2d10 I rolled 8 and 9, with 1d8 I have a 6. I don't have a sneak attack so I don't roll the 1d6. I am fighting against someone with a lightsaber so I get the +3.

So it's 17+13+3+15=48 points of energy damage and 6 points physical damage.

 

Since Jae has 2 weapons, she can attack with the other one in the same round. I am ignoring the half-strength modifier in this case for ease of calculation. If you all want to say that the second weapon /2nd side of a double weapon has a melee attack bonus of only half the strength modifier, that's fine, we just need to be consistent. It's one less calculation if we ignore it, but it'll be more hits for everyone, too.

So I roll 1d20 for that weapon and get 7. The 'to hit' with the melee weapon is in F25, which is 33 (man, these guys are powerful at level 18. ). Add in the attack bonus/penalty (I incorporated the 2-weapon penalty here) listed in B32. We're fighting lightsabers so the +3 is included.

In this case, the to-hit for the second weapon is 7+33+-1+3=42. Devscha's AC/Defense is 39, so it's a hit.

Now I roll damage using the information in cells C32 and D32, which is:

2d8+10,+3vs ltsbr energy, Fire 2d8, sneak 1d6

There's no sneak attack, so I don't roll the 1d6. We're fighting lightsabers so I get the +3 damage for that.

For the 2d8 of energy I rolled 3 and 3

For the 2d8 fire I rolled 8 and 4

So, it's 3+3+10+3=19 points energy and 8+4=12 points fire damage.

 

With double weapons, you make the extra attack as if you're fighting with 2 weapons, and the 2-weapon penalties apply, but it's as if the off-hand weapon were light/balanced.

 

Now, the critical hits....

Jae's weapon gets a critical threat anytime I roll 17-20. Let's say Jae's sneaky and attacks Devscha when he's busy with Talin and Jolee, so she gets in a sneak attack.

So, let's say I make an attack roll of 17 for Jae's main lightsaber and an attack roll of 19 for the offhand saber.

For the first saber, the 'to hit' is 17+33 (melee attack, cell F25) + 7 (weapon attack bonus cell B30) +3 for fighting against someone with a lightsaber (cell B30). Total is 60 vs. Devscha's AC of 39. Yeah, that's a good hit....

With lightsabers, the damage is double if you roll a cricital hit. How do you roll a critical hit? Roll the 1d20 again, and you must roll a 'hit' again with all your normal modifiers. I roll for Jae: 15, so the critical hit is 58 vs. Devscha's 39. So, Jae also gets the critical hit and does double damage.

Let's do the damage now:

2d10+13,+3vsltsbr energy, +15 vs DS, Phys 1d8, sneak 1d6

47 pts energy, 15 pts energy vs. the darkside, 6 pts physical, 6 pts of energy for the sneak attack. Since I also rolled the critical hit, the damage is doubled, _except_ for the sneak attack. So, total damage is 124 pts energy, 12 points physical, and 6 more points energy for the sneak attack. Jae's just done 142 points of damage.

For the off-hand saber:

19 +33 (melee attack, cell F25) + -1(weapon attack bonus cell B32) +3 for fighting against someone with a lightsaber (cell B32)=54, vs. Devscha's 39 AC. Yep, this one's good, too, and since I rolled a 19, it's a critical threat, (or threat for a critical hit). Now, I roll a 1d20 a second time to see if I make the critical hit to do double damage. This time, I rolled a 1, which is an automatic miss. So I don't get the critical hit to do double damage. However, I still roll damage as if it's a normal hit:

2d8+10,+3vs ltsbr energy, Fire 2d8, sneak 1d6

Total damage is 16 energy, 8 fire, and 4 energy for the sneak attack. Kind of measly, but damage is damage.

 

----

 

Jae looked at the diseased monstrosity in front of her, pointing her saber at his chest, the tip mere centimeters away. "What have you done to Tysyacha?"