THE GAMBLING PALACES PROJECT

BACKGROUND AND INTRODUCTION A representative of Coridine approaches the heroes (he made an appointment to see them as soon as possible). The ambassador of Talis told him about their exploits there, and he hopes they'll be able to help him as well. He has come to ask them their help in investigating the matter (the organization behind the problem on his planet seems to have infiltrated the Police, so they need someone from off planet that isn't known to them yet). Their objective is to find out what is going on in the Gambling Palaces, and try to see who is behind it so they can be arrested). He gives them a copy of the confidential report his Police agent has given him, and fake IDs so they can work in one of the Gambling Palaces (he could only secure 2 IDs without it looking suspicious, so one will have to be a security worker, the other a maintenance worker, while the rest of the team can just check in as guests of the Gambling Palace's hotel and gambling rooms). Their only contact (the only one who knows who they are on Coridine) is Head Officer Kyley Winters. He's expecting them, and will be happy to help them if they get in trouble. He himself will get in touch with them if anything new comes up. But they'll have to be cautious and not draw attention on meeting if they do. The heroes should read the report given to them, so they know who is who and what event s have been taking place already.

STORY OUTLINE Infiltrating the Gambling Palace (GP) Heroes should start assuming their roles in the GP, and get as much info as they can. Whoever works in Security, will find out that 2 of the men (Orkis Draval of Coruscant and Sapro Keril of Gallantine) are sending encrypted messages outside the GP, and that they do not report certain activities, that they even let a man from Accounting go into a secure area for some reason unknown to them. Whoever works in the office has noticed the same man (Pert Havam of Coruscant) sneak around the other offices without trouble (he seemed to have all the codes for all the computers,

which he shouldn't have). In a storage that was broken into overnight (the room that contains the chips for bets, the GP's accounting datacards, and the personnel rosters) they'll find a small emblem of the Poenix Oranization. They should also try to follow Kara Trin for a while to see if she's hiding anything (that way, they'll get to see her "mysterious boyfriend".If the Jedi in the team is the one following her, then she'll feel a Force user nearby (it is the boyfriend who actually is a fallen Jedi). If they break into the offices' computers, they'll find some clues. Our Jedi sent her Master a message about this Force user who seemed strong, and her Master told her not to encounter him/her alone, that she is coming (she conveniently happened to be in the area. Of course, Suji was only level 1 at the time, and the Fallen Jedi was level 6, but if your Jedi is higher level, he could probably handle him anyway... At the Green Lotus The Green Lotus looks like a small building where people gather for reading sessions (it's a reading club), next to a bookstore (that belongs to the same person). There, heroes will find books, but also, at the bottom of the stairs where the sign says "personnel only", a few hidden rooms in which they stumble upon electronic equipment, uniforms ad IDs from GPs, datacards, and paperwork from GPs activity, food, medicinal plant books, 1 book about the local Militia. They eventually meet some security guys, and Gritch himself who is walking out a secret door as they walk in the room. On a computer there, they get Gritch's address and a message showing that some people are meeting there that afternoon. When the heroes uncover enough clues to worry the people who are committing these crimes, the Boss (who is none but Phoenix himself) sends his men after them to get rid of them. Heroes receive a message from (supposedly) the Investigating team(message actually says "your contact") asking them to meet to update their information. The location is an old abandoned station on the outskirts of town, that hasn't been used in years (a new one was built a few blocks away). In the abandoned station Once heroes get inside, doors lock automatically, all the windows are locked at well and cannot be opened, and any exit they might find on this floor is locked too. The only area not locked up is the downstairs waiting room that doesn't have door to get into (it's just stairs going) They've obviously fallen into a trap, but before they can go down the stairs, some droids come out for a fight.(I used the stats from the Core rulebook for the Trade Federation droids, the regular ones, not the destroyers... Those, I kept for the Master!) After they dispatch the droids, the heroes can either sit here and despair or go downstairs We'll assume, being the good, valiant heroes that they are, that they won't disappoint us and will walk down. To make sure they'll all go down, nothing should happen until they all get to the lower level (unless of course, they start heading out to the quays - which only open on the roof, since it used to be a shuttle station and the shuttle took off that way). As soon as heroes are on the lower level, all the doors shut and there are no controls on the inside (all the controls

are in a control room upstairs). The stairs are locked up to as a blast door comes down from the top. In this room, there are seats, an empty desks. There is an office where one can still find old files that were forgotten during the transfer to the new station. This room used to be a custom office and waiting area for immigrants, as well as a regular waiting room for people to go on trips offworld (the shuttles took them to and from the orbital station who handled the outbound and inbound ships). It doesn't take long until the room starts getting hot (a successful search check will help them locate the source of the heat. The seats in the room are all hooked up with wires that go from the floor to the part of the seat underneath. Wires run behind the seats. If heroes cut off the wires, the heat will stop and the room will become more breathable. Once the heating system is down though, a containment field will appear from the ceiling and bring everybody towards the middle of the room. Whoever tries to resist the field gets stunned until the person either stops resisting or is unconscious. As it does so, a trap door opens in the area they're heading and they are pushed in the hole. Inside this whole, it is dark, and there is not much there, except a few bugs and someone's skeleton. There is no way out but up, and there are no props to climb, but heroes can try climbing the wall made of stones. This is when the Fallen Jedi appears, Force moves their weapons up to him if he can (otherwise, he'll order them to drop them to the ground), sends a rope down and orders them to come up one by one. If anyone tries anything stupid, he'll Force push them. His only request is to have the Jedi climb first, so he can keep an eye on her. If you had the Master called, this is when he should come in (using Force stealth so that no one realized he was coming, not even his/her padawan). He was following Kara Trin to get to the Fallen Jedi and happened to be here where she captured her and hid her, after drugging her. He freed her after her captors left, and felt the Fallen Jedi nearby, as well as his padawan. The Master is in no way here to take over the mission, he'll try to turn the Fallen Jedi back to the light side before he falls to the dark side completely, and since Kara Trin needs care, they'll offer to take her to the Shamans sanctuary outside of town. But to spice things up a bit, I had him and the Fallen Jedi (who by now realized he has been set up as well) fight 2 destroyer droids while the rest of the team tries to find a way out. That's when he should depart, otherwise, it would be too easy to finish the rest of the mission...Otherwise, you can go on and have the heroes either fight him or get him to believe them and help them out of there. However they find the secret door (spot checks, search check, there's a little draft coming from the wall at that one spot and it looks a little different than the rest of it, not being exactly the same shade of gray), there is one (you can see it on the drawing of the lower level I included below), and this is now the only way out. When they open the door, a successful listen check will let them hear a click, but nothing happens right away. They walk down a corridor that takes them to the back of the station and as they walk away, the building explodes behind them. Heroes, of course, still take some sort of collateral damage from falling debris.

Back from the station Once heroes get back to town, they can try to send a message to their contact to tell them about what they found , but that probably would tip off Phoenix's men. But they definetely should go to Grich's house to see what they can find there and what he has to do with this whole thing. Grich's house Heroes will find out about a very important meeting if they go to this house. The upstairs has a meeting room being readied for a gathering, food and coffee heated up,etc... In a storage room, they'll find different kinds of uniforms (gardening company, security, cook), security codes and weapons.In an office not too far, there's a computer on which they find the following message: "To all parties involved. 512 Seffin Rd, Tuesday, D-Day. Launch operation after dark. Gritch will provide money, Hovin will provide men. I am counting on you for this operation to be a success. Meet me at our agreed upon place when all is done and I'll give you instructions then for the next part of our agreement. And DO get rid of this pesky group of wanna be heroes! I will NOT have them ruin another one of my plans". Only thing is, Tuesday is today and they only have a few hours left before that big meeting. The big meeting The house in which the mysterious meeting is taking place is teaming with security and there is a doorman letting what seem to be some important people in. There is a security room in which screens show displays of all the rooms in the house. There is a waiting room where people are talking and a droid is serving drinks and hors-d'oeuvres. There is also a kitchen in which the cook is getting everything ready for a party. Another room, noone can get in without proper codes (not even the ones the heroes might have taken from Gritch's house). One needs a special code for that, and the 2 guards in front of the door will let no one in that doesn't show proper ID codes. In the garden, there is a small door that goes into this room, but there are 2 guards by it as well. Inside this room one would find computers and electronic equipment that a team of slicers is using to take over the GPs' accounts from here, all at the same time... To the ruins This is a separate mission I added at the end, when the Jedi's Master talked to the Shamans and found out about the children's souls who needed to be freed from the old ruins, but only a Jedi could do it. I got that idea when I wrote the story about the Planet and wanted to work with that a little, just for fun. The reason only a Jedi would

do is because the person that enslaved their souls was a Darksider (made sense to me anyway...) The Master then sends her padawan on this test, becasue she feels it would be a great opportunity for her. Heroes meet the Shamans at the Sanctuary and recognize Hunter (with whom they did their first mission on Coruscant - the one from the core rulebook) who offers to show them the way to the old ruins. Once there, they have to avoid traps inside, fight a couple Necrotaurs (whose stats I had found on the Internet at the time, but don't have anymore... lost them; sorry but, I can't remember where I got them from to save my life...), then the Jedi will have to use the Force to figure out which buttons to push to release the souls from their entrapping Force field.

HEROES AND NPCs LIST I purposely do not put levels because everybody has different level characters and you can just make them whatever level would be a challenge for your players. Mine were level 1 at the time, so these were average encounters for them. Stats for some of these people can be found under the STATS link on the main page. The rest, I use stats from the Core rulebook. Heroes (in case you wish to hire them) * Voren * Sarrakka * Suji * Hays NPCs * Security guards * Fallen Jedi * Thugs * Security droids * Destroyer droids * Thieves

DATACARD INFORMATION * Confidential Police Report :

CONFIDENTIAL REPORT ON THE DIAMOND GAMBLING PALACE

Report number 51487

Starting date July 16th, 2001

1. On July 6th, Senior accountant (Milek Trai) brought up a disparity to his supervisor (Alavan Sirel). It appears that, over the month of June, some money has slowly and quietly been diverted from one account of the GP to another. 2. On July 8th, 1520 Dataries were wired out of the account 583 (the supply and purchasing account of the Diamond GP) and the money appears to have been wired back 2 days later. This in itself would not constitute a trouble spot if the verifications checks hadn't revealed that the owner of the store didn't actually receive any money. A bank official ascertained this fact and is willing to testify. The signatures on both wires were found to be forgeries as well. According to the Financial Investigation Team, this sort of practice has been happening in other businesses as well over the past month. 3. On July 14th, after a 2-week investigation, the Security Forces of the Diamond GP arrested a human male in connection with a big scam. He was at the time wearing a device designed to trigger the winning numbers in many machines. After being apprehended, he was taken into custody to Police Station 5 and interrogated. Evidence 1 is a summary from his confession. It is believed that as many as half he customers who won jackpots during that time had used similar devices, because the machines were checked on July 15th and their data came back with an intrusion message, meaning that they were tampered with since the last check that took place 2 weeks before. 4. On July 18th, a Diamond GP accountant (Miss Kara Trin), who had taken off 2 weeks vacations, just came back and her co-workers say that she "looks like a zombie" and they don't understand her new behavior Her good friend at the office (Miss Dreesha Naru) told me she was worried about her. She also talked about a new boyfriend Miss Trin's been seeing for the past month or so and mentioned that she wonders if he has something to do with it. She doesn't know his name, but told us he's in his mi-20s, wears loose clothing, has dark straight long hair tied in a pony

tail, green eyes, light skin, is a human about 1.85 m and of average weight. We are trying to find out who he is. 5. On July 20th, the Accounting Dept told us they have uncovered a worrisome fact while checking the books. 958,00 Dataries seem to be missing and cannot be traced at all. The Financial Investigators are looking into it. 6. July 24th. Officer Jave Ralos was found dead in his hotel bead this morning. After he didn't respond to calls from the unit coordinator, they went to check on him and found him at the hotel he was staying during the investigation. The autopsy is pending, but the Coroner seems to say that it was due to a spice overdose. His wife and children are shocked, and none of us believes this at all. On another note, it seems we might have been infiltrated and someone is on to us. We are thinking about giving the investigation to someone else, but being the only under cover team, it will be hard to relay this to another group. We might have to find someone outside of Coridine. Maybe Representative Skoll knows someone we can trust. 7. On July 25th, Miss Trin was brought in for questioning today but was not able to enlighten us about the subjects at hand. Evidence 2 is a summary from her interrogation. She did explain to her the security measures in place at the Diamond GP though. She did seem a little out of it, so I am starting to understand what her co-workers were saying about her behavior. It's almost as if she wasn't really in the room with you when she talked. I'll have to ask a specialist what he thinks about that. Maybe Warren Qua could look into it; he is our best Scientist.

CONTENT - Table 1 is a list of events given to us by the Diamond GP. It includes all the Accounting irregularities that could not be explained by either a mistake or an oversight. - Table 2 is a complete list of people who have won the jackpots since the problems started. - Table 3 is an ongoing list of suspects. - Drawing 1 is a mapping of the city with the locations of the GPs one can find here, that of the different Crime Organizations, and also several places that came up during the investigation. - Notes 1 is a copy of officer Ralos' notes as we found them in his folder.

Table 1

June 250 Dataries

moved from Purchasing account to Hardware account

110 Dataries difference between a purchase and the amount shown

98 Dataries taken from Furniture account, put back the next day

152 Dataries missing from Hardware account

152 Dataries appearing on Furniture account

July 1520 Dataries wired to a seller's account

1520 Dataries wired back to Purchasing account 2 days later

958,000 Dataries found missing from the books during the month's checking session

Table 2 Maril Stelko Female 38 Store owner ("The

Blue Leaf", plants, flowers, seeds)

married Gallantine A

Feran Radit Male 44 Restaurant owner ("Feran's place", specialties from Coridine)

married Gallantine C

Kols Berun Male 26 Computer analyst and programmer ("Hardware 101")

engaged Gallantine B

Takri Vollo Male 21 Studying for business degree in Gallantine B University

single Neril

Chella Nubra Female 41 Store manager ("New Wear", clothes)

married Coruscant

Hovin Jal Male 29 Militia worker (Communications Specialist)

single Neril

Tarm Supro Male 33 Fisherman single Talis

Kip Marlan Male 40 Historian/Analyst ("The Green Lotus", book club)

single Gallantine B

Keria Halley Female 20 Studying for literature and language degree on Alderaan

single Alderaan

Sama Ponx Female 24 Studying for law degree, working part time as an intern for"Ponx and Ponx Attorney"

engaged Gallantine D

Table 3

Kara Trin According to co-workers, she's been acting very strange ever since she came back form

vacation 2 weeks ago. When asked if something has happened in her life recently, the only thing that comes up in conversations with her friends is this new boyfriend she has. Nobody knows his name; she won't talk about him and gets upset when asked. A friend told us Miss Trin used a warm, talkative person, almost like a chatterbox at times. Now, she is very secretive, drawn back and doesn't talk or even smile to anyone. Her family corroborated this fact. Her parents said they saw her 3 days before she went back to work and told us they didn't recognize her at all. Her mother's words were "she acts like a droid now". We think she is either threatened in some way, or being controlled by some sort of psychological device, or maybe drugged.

The mysterious boyfriend

Police Headquarters don't even have a file on him, so he cannot be a native of Coridine. We were told he seems very confident and appears very sure of himself, never worried about any situation. Someone at the Diamond told us that the one time they saw him, he was wearing cloak, and reminded her a bit of the Jedi she saw while on a trip to Coruscant. Then again, one can buy a cloak anywhere... Maybe the Shamans would be able to give us an idea. I don't believe a real Jedi would be here, going out with an accountant; they probably have much better things to do in the Galaxy. Unless of course he is on a mission...

Hovin Jal This individual is quite a person. He has been enrolled in the Militia since he was a teenager and is known by Police Headquarters for always trying to cause trouble and embarrass the Government. The Militia has been stepping up its propaganda lately. Even the hard liner in the Militia don't like him and he was once disciplined by his own rank for exploding fireworks into the crowd and creating a huge panic in the city 5 years ago. The Special Forces in our army have followed him closely since. He is said to be arrogant, self-confident and has a tendency towards an uncontrolled temper. He even became more bitter when his father disowned him 2 years ago after a heated discussion at home during which he threatened his mother and broke several windows in the house. His temper is renowned at work too and his fellow Militia workers call him the intimidator.

Margi Kelpan

After asserting herself as the head of the most important crime organization in town, she has surrounded herself with only trusted advisors and has cleaned up her group from the riff raff that was plaguing it for the past 2 years (we all remember all too well the thugs' war in the streets and how it almost decimated a whole area of sector C last year, during which the Police was overpowered and the Army had to be called in). Her organization, revamped or not, is still one that sells spice, creates forgeries and launders money.

Grich We all know Grich, the infamous crime lord that has settled here for what he called "retirement" 8 years ago, but has recently joined the Militia in its actions against the Government. He has voiced his disapproval of the Guilds and even openly called for a change in power. If he is doing what he's been preaching, then destabilizing the Guilds by creating confusion and loss of income would be the first step towards controlling one of them. Then again, the Militia isn't strong or large enough to do just that... That doesn't mean he should be taken for granted. He "used to be" a Crime Lord; he probably still has lots of contacts.

Drawing 1

Notes 1 1. July 9th: Met with S. tonight. His hunch is that one of the Crime Organizations is stepping up its activities. He doesn't know which one, but will keep his ears and eyes open. 2. July 12th: S. said there is a newcomer in town who has remained very hidden. People talk about it, but no one has actually seen him/her. Something's sure, he does things differently and seems to have brought his own people along (lots of new heads in the area). Really keeps to himself. S. will try to find a link between this and the Gambling Palaces' latest problems. 3. July 14th: Y. called to see me. She said this man who was arrested today has been all over town lately. She never saw him before. She told me he is supposed to be a lowly worker for a new organization. I told her to keep an eye on things for me. She sounded a little worried. 4. July 16th: S. caught up with me last night and mentionned a word that doesn't mean much to either of us, Phoenix. He heard it a few times and thought it might be important. I'll have to look it up.

5. July 19th: I contacted Y. to ask her if she knows anything about this Phoenix thing; she doesn't. She did hear someone talk about it last night, but can't remember where. I still haven't been able to find out much either. 6. July 22nd: I put my contacts on this Phoenix mytery. Maybe it is a code name or a location. I think it might be the link to this new organization... Gotta find proof. 7. July 23rd: M. was found dead today. I kinda feels responsible for this in a way.He had called to tell mehe might have found something interesting, but couldn't tell me on the phone. He sounded very nervous, and said to be extra careful on my way. I probably should've offered to meet him right away and protect him, if not for that HQ meeting. I'm afraid his probing might have tipped someone off. If they found him, they might know about me as well, maybe even about some other team memebers. I've got to tell the others to watch their backs too. Gotta have Lin and the kids watched after too. But what is this Phoenix?

Evidence 1 Mr Marlan was taken into custody after being caught in The Diamond Gambling Palace wearing a device that triggered the slot machines he was playing, thus giving him the jackpot. He was equipped with a truth machine after his Sollicitor arrived. According to his own description of his job, here is what he does: ..."I am a historian, but right now, I work as an analyst for the Green Lotus. I read reports, books and such, and give them a synthesis and an opinion." Mr Marlan would not tell us how he got into possession of the device right away. He was afraid for his safety and didn't think we could protect him. He did say it was given to him for testing, but that he was told it was legal. He got it that same day, mid-morning. He hasd never met those people before, and when asked how he knew he could be in danger by talking about them, he told us because they looked dangerous. He was then asked why he took an unknown device from complete dangerous strangers because they wanted him to test it, he only said that yes, it might have been stupid but he did it anyway. He had nothing else to add

Evidence 2 Miss Trin was called into Police HQs, along with other co-workers. During her interview, she gave short answers and did not offer any more than what was asked of her. She did however tell us about security checks. Miss Trin told us she didn't notice anything out of the ordinary at the office since she came back from vacation. No one can get in without a pass, which is inserted in the machine at the employee entrance.Outside each office door, there are voice

recognition devices, and out of the lifts, one can find hand machines. We talked about security inside the office. Employees are to sign on their computers when they arrive (they use a password, which is different in every office). Miss Trin did not like to talk about her family or friends; she told us her co-workers just didn't understand her behavior, and left it at that. At first, she said no friend came to visit at work, because it's not allowed, but when confronted with the fact that her boyfriend had come one day, she mentionned he was volunteering. She also said he doesn't like to talk to people much, when we asked if we could talk to him, and that he was out of town anyway. She wouldn't even tell us his name. We then gave up trying to ask her about private things and finished the interview on whether or not there are security checks on the way out of the office. She told us she signs off the computer, then swipes her pass throught the machine to get out of the building. There are no voice recognition or hand verification systems going out.

ENCOUNTERS AND MAPS Here you'll find the maps of where the encounters take place. Gambling Palace Office Level 1

Gambling Palace Office Level 2

Gambling Palace Office Level 3

Old abandonned station (main level)

In our mission, the droids came from the side of the ticket booths. Before they came, all the doors shut themselves (it was a trap obviously). Old abandonned station (lower level)

Same here... All the doors lock up (controlled by a system outside the room). Then after a while, heating trap starts (it can be stopped by cutting wires connected to the ground underneath each seat in the room). If your party doe not have anything to cut wires with, then maybe you can say that there is a way to turn it off from the office room... Hidden trigger for the secret door is beneath the last seat, on the wall, at ground level. A stone is a little different there, and your heroes might spot it while they are looking to cut the wires... Green Lotus (main level)

Green Lotus (hidden level)

Gritch's house (upper level)

Take over meeting place

The High security clearance door is strictly for authorized personnel. No one will let the heroes in, no matter what kind of passes they have. They'll have to find a way around. That room is where all the equipment is with which the Phoenix people have linked to Gambling Palaces' control systems. They are about to take over 4 GPs, unless the whole thing is dismantled (I gave extra 25 XPs to one of my players who actually shot at the equipment during the fight, with his blaster rifle, in order to disable it).

Old ruins (upper level)

Old ruins (lower level)