Incepting Wampa 4 - Absolution

Wait... which one is the real Wampa, the monster or the woman holding it in chains?

### Runtime

2:43:08

*Bota is blasted into oblivion by an AT-AT. Katira turns into a beast and angers some fleshly AT-AT and AT-STs but is later saved by Droo heroically giving her force concentration powers. Tek & Co. find an exit to the last level of Wampa's mind. They fight some acid spitting TIEs and most of the team needs to be dragged up a Ziggurat. Tek attempts to deliver a speech to turn Wampa but it ends up falling on deaf GM-ears. Katira delivers a chilling recounting of the dream so far and a touching plea for Wampa to turn a new TIE-wing. Wampa is convinced and joins the REBELLION \*ahem\* new-new-Republic and wants to train other pilots to take down Imperial pilots. Blaine takes Wampa off the spacecraft as they are en-route to deliver her over to the new-new-Reb-public.*

## **Previously**

*Having freed the prisoners inside Wampa’s mind to less fanfare than expected, the team decided to have a look around before heading deeper and discovered a few straggling stormbies to be takes care of and a book about flying TIE fighters. As the last trooper toppled to the floor, headless thanks to Droo’s sweet lightsaber, the group - and the prisoners - finally decided it was time to “head out”.*

*One level deeper in the mind of their resident psychopath, our heroes were stripped of their armor and armed with swords, crossbows, javelins, flails, and… throwing cards? They proceeded into a castle guarded by small, fleshy TIE-bats and beetle looking AT-STs and an AT-AT, where most of the team managed to make it to the doors of the keep as Bota and Katira explored a shiny rock, only to laugh at Katira’s humiliation as she became part Nerf.*

*With dream time running short, and an intimidating force of walker creatures separating the group, what will our heroes and their new pet Nerf do next?*

> "*You forgot that Callen has been riding the horse without his shirt on, and he looks like Fabio.*"
> ― Chris
>
>

> "*Oh, I’m really sorry… I missed that in my notes.*"
> ― David
>
>

## **Recap**

### **The Running of the Nerf**

Sitting safely past the bestial walkers, Tek moves ahead into the keep. Just through the entry doors, he finds an empty antechamber with a pile of miscellaneous archaic weapons scattered about. He motions for the team to follow before heading in and grabbing a longbow in case of further TIE-bat attacks.

Still back at the glowing rock, Katira looks around for some way to fix her current transformation predicament. She spots a tombstone ahead, but doesn’t get the sense that she would be able to sneak to it without drawing the attention of the walkers. Moving back toward Bota, the two decide to catch up with the rest of the team. Katira stumbles among the rubble, drawing the attention of the nearby creatures.

The rest of the team, unaware of their friend’s predicament, head into the keep with Tek. Droo takes a quick look around and decides to open an old metal door, discovering the way into the next layer of Wampa’s mind.

Hurrying back to the group, Bota notices the creatures drawing near. Forgetting that they have none of their normal equipment, he attempts to activate his jetpack. A confused Bota is caught completely unprepared as the fleshy AT-AT spits a glob of acid, vanishing into thin air in front of a terrified Katira.

Hearing the sudden pandemonium erupt out in the courtyard, Droo rushes to see what is going on. Seeing her friend in mortal danger, Droo presses her luck. Hoping that some special connection exists due to having been the one who placed Katira into the dream, Droo manages to impart her concentration through the dream (rolled 6 on 1D6 for the possibility).

> "*Katira, I’m focusing all my energy on your furry… four legs.*"
> ― Droo
>
>

> "*Maybe Droo has more of a connection now that Katira looks like an animal. “Come with me, I’ll take you to Droorassic Park.”*"
> ― Jordan
>
>

Feeling a supernatural surge of strength, Katira sprints past the approaching creatures and manages to reach cover near the team. Running past the spot where Bota vanished, Katira sees the Flight Instructor’s Manual laying on the ground, swooping the book up as she ran past - believing that Bota had transformed into the book. As Tek fires an arrow at the approaching monsters (misses terribly), Droo attempts to use the force to pull Katira the remaining distance but only manages to pull herself toward the Nerfette (2 on 2D6). Finally, Callen rides out atop Xx and manages to pull Katira on before turning around and getting back inside.

> "*Alright, so that would be “Beast Handling”, which Xx takes offense to.*"
> ― Jordan
>
>

> "*I also take offense in my current state.*"
> ― Katira
>
>

### **The Ziggurat**

Initially unsure as to whether they should accomplish anything in the area before proceeding further into Wampa’s mind, the group ultimately decides to move forward after considering how easily Bota was wiped out by the beasts. They walk through the doors inside the keep, and find themselves standing at the base of a spiraling pyramid. Looking up, they can faintly make out the figure of the TIE pilot atop the pyramid, looking down as she holds a chained Wampa nearby.

As the rest of the book searches for the best way to ascend the structure, Katira thumbs through the book she grabbed after Bota was vaporized. She flips through, dumbfounded to find that her friend has apparently been turned into an Imperial handbook.

> "*Guys… I don’t know what Bota’s really like, but he turned into a book about flying Imperial Starfighters.*"
> ― Katira
>
>

The team moves ahead, slowly following a circuitous path up the pyramid with no event until the path narrows coming toward the apex. Droo, Tek, and Jimmy each stumble rounding a corner and the sound of rubble falling into the abyss echos ominously for a moment before a familiar screeching can be heard approaching. Three TIE bats fly up the side of the pyramid and spit acid at the trio. As Droo and Tek dodge adeptly, Jimmy is struck and immediately collapses to the ground unconscious.

> "*Let me remind you guys that your accelerate healing is less useful than a medpack. No offense to your force powers, but…*"
> ― Katira
>
>

> "*Katira, look around this dream. You see any medpacks? No, I didn’t think so. It’s a good thing we have accelerate healing.*"
> ― Droo
>
>

Katira turns and throws her metal cards directly into two of the creatures for devastating effect, her newfound Nerf muscles adding further damage to the objects. As the third bat prepares to turn for another pass, Sparky launches right at it and tears it apart.

The team quickly continues on their trek up the ziggurat, with more of the batlike TIE creatures accosting them. As Katira continues to throw cards at incoming creatures, accentuating each falling creature with quotes like “It’s in the cards”, and “Take a card, any card.”, Droo is knocked unconscious and Callen finds himself bleeding out atop a starfish turned horse. Wondering if he will die here in a dream, Callen’s thoughts turn to his brother, Pootie, and the last time that they saw one another. Suddenly, the horse that was Xx transforms into an assassin droid wielding two crossbows. Firing off both weapons (rolling all 6’s), the droid dispatches all remaining creatures.

### **Congratulations!**

With all the attacking TIEs finished off, the team finally arrives at the pinnacle of the pyramid. Standing in front of the group is a Wampa in chains that snake back toward the manifestation of Wampa herself.

Wampa looks down contemptuously on the group, asking for what purpose they came to this place. As Droo points out that they can all choose their path each day and Tek attempts to connect through his past life as a slave, Wampa responds dismissively. She wonders how the group managed to make it this far, through the defenses that the Empire put in place long before as Droo tries to lead the team through the notes of the song she learned earlier in her subconscious.

As Wampa finally asks pointedly why the group came here, Katira decides to speak out.

> "*You don’t have to do this. You don’t have to live and serve the Empire anymore. Your father is gone, all of those troopers are free. You don’t have to hold on to all of this and live with so much hate and vengeance for… nothing.*"
> ― Katira
>
>

> "*Yeah, you can have cool friends. Look at how cool and competent we are.*"
> ― Droo
>
>

> "*Your father used you. Just like he used all the people on Yaga Minor. All he cared about was himself. All he did through you was try to gain position for himself, since he never could become a Senator in the Empire. All those pilots, everyone who died there. The war is over. The Empire is done. You don’t have to do this anymore!*"
> ― Katira
>
>

Atop the pyramid, familiar images from other levels of Wampa’s mind fade into being and encourage her on a new life. Her parents smile and gesture forward, the Imperials previously held in cells gather to applaud, and finally the pilot turns quizzically to the group and asks what she should do next. Though they know it will not result in Wampa helping them directly, the group comes to an agreement (barely) to give the Imperial Pilot’s Handbook to the pilot, encouraging her to train others with her expertise.

With the dream coming to an end, the team wakes and finds themselves back in the main bay of *Veltmoor’s Pride*. The sound of a refresher sounds as Bota Zi walks out, having woken up 30 minutes earlier, and the Ambassador asks the team what they want to do with Wampa next. They finally agree to contact Blaine in order to meet up with the cloaked *Jinxed Starhawk* to transfer the prisoner for safe keeping away from the New Republic, who they will tell that Wampa escaped by jumping out the airlock.

As the meet up is set, the group settles back into their seats in hopes of finding more peaceful rest before their arrival on the capitol planet.

## **Featured Characters**

### **Our Heroes**

* Callen Mutig
* Droo Vos
* Jawa Jimmy
	+ Sparky
* Katira Eve
* Tek Krodak

### **NPCs**

* Xx
* Wampa - core mental self

### **Mentioned**

* Bota Zi
* Blaine Hansom

## **Inventory**

* -Imperial Pilot Handbook - Instructor’s Edition (Bota)
* +Imperial Pilot Handbook - Instructor’s Edition (Katira)
* -Imperial Pilot Handbook - Instructor’s Edition (Katira)

## **Notes**

* Droo managed to conceive of passing on her concentration bonus to Katira (due to the link created in the dream because she placed Katira into a hibernation trance), and then made it a reality with a 6 on 1D6
* Callen had no idea how to dodge incoming fire while riding atop Xx, rolling 4 on 4D6
* +1cp for "Calc-you-later" joke (Tek)
* -3cp to Persuade Wampa (Katira)
* By a narrow vote, the group decided to hand over the Imperial Pilot Handbook to Wampa after convincing her to change her ways, thereby giving her the inspiration to train others.

## **Quotations**

> "*Wait, why does space baby have facial hair? That’s not right.*"
> ― Ilya
>
>

> "*All grown up*"
> ― Laurel
>
>

> "*You’re triggering me. That’s my baby. Literally.*"
> ― Ilya
>
>

> "*Whoa… That’s creepy. I tabbed back in and Space Baby is basically red eyed Jordan?*"
> ― Laurel
>
>

> "*If I touch that rock will I become a beast creature, or was that just what happened to Katira?*"
> ― Droo
>
>

> "*You become your true self, that’s what really happened to Katira.*"
> ― Tek
>
>

> "*So far literally no people have fessed up to drawing the evil baby, so I’m really creeped out. I’ve narrowed it down to Chris and David just by watching their eyes as they draw.*"
> ― Laurel
>
>

> "*It can’t be me! I don’t even know how to move my own character!*"
> ― Chris P.
>
>

> "*The more you zoom in on space baby Jordan, the more intense it gets.*"
> ― Ilya
>
>

> "*Space baby move aside, Katira’s jumping into bed with you!*"
> ― Katira
>
>

> "*Let’s… never repeat this again.*"
> ― Tek
>
>

> "*Scrub the record.*"
> ― Droo
>
>

> "*If I ever want to talk to Bota, I’ll just read these pages.*"
> ― Callen
>
>

> "*How to operate a TIE Fighter? Oh, classic Bota. Always operating.*"
> ― Jordan
>
>

> "*Guys… this book is called “Everybody Poops”?*"
> ― Droo
>
>

> "*Wait, will everything be okay if we don’t fix this area of her subconscious?*"
> ― Droo
>
>

> "*So here’s the thing… you can beat a video game without getting 100% on every part of it. You don’t have to get a platinum on everything.*"
> ― Jordan
>
>

> "*You should though.*"
> ― Jawa Jimmy
>
>

> "*Didn’t you hit on Zuda’s mom too, Tek?*"
> ― Katira
>
>

> "*Well, actually I think she hit on him.*"
> ― Jordan
>
>

> "*Yeah, I’m innocent in all this. Don’t hate me for liberating all the females!*"
> ― Tek
>
>

> "*Sparky, repair Jimmy!*"
> ― Droo
>
>

> "*Fix him. Make him stronger, faster, better!*"
> ― Jordan
>
>

> "*Sparky is a horse right now, I think he’ll just stomp all over Jimmy.*"
> ― Katira
>
>

> "*Alright, Droo how are you going to heal Jimmy?*"
> ― Jordan
>
>

> "*Positive vibes?*"
> ― Tek
>
>

> "*Why are you here?*"
> ― Wampa
>
>

> "*We wanted to get to know you better. We were worried about you.*"
> ― Droo
>
>

> "*I am what I am.*"
> ― Wampa
>
>

> "*But… we get to choose who we are every day, lady.*"
> ― Droo
>
>

> "*Do you have any stuff I can steal?*"
> ― Jawa Jimmy
>
>

> "*I think my speech convinced her. I don’t know why you had to say all that stuff, Katira. It just seems to be angering her.*"
> ― Tek
>
>

> "*Do we still think this book is Bota?! Are we giving Bota away?*"
> ― Droo
>
>

> "*You guys never thought this book was Bota. I mean… Bota never read a book.*"
> ― Jordan
>
>

> "*I just want you all to know that everyone who voted no is technically incapacitated right now. Tek and I don’t have to do anything you say.*"
> ― Katira
>
>

Back to top