Captivity

Within the Grehollo system, situated in the Manoe sector of the Mid Rim's New Territories, lay Captivity, a minor moon. This moon was perpetually shrouded in dense, swirling clouds and mist. Its weather was characterized by intense, frequent storms and occasional rain. The winds were cold, harsh, and noisy, carrying abrasive particles. From the surface, the sky displayed streaks of blue, brown, and varying shades of gray, while the daylight appeared gray-tinged.

The surface of Captivity was battered and uneven, featuring cliffs, jagged rock formations, and towering mountain peaks, and was subject to disruptive shifting magnetic storms. These magnetic disturbances rendered starship instruments unreliable, and the combination of atmospheric and surface conditions made landing a starship exceptionally challenging.

In the early days of the Rebel Alliance, the Galactic Empire utilized Captivity as a site to exile prisoners who, for various reasons, could not face execution, including Imperial senators. Captivity's inhospitable conditions, coupled with frequent TIE fighter patrols from the nearby Grehollo station, made it an ideal prison, as starship pilots were unwilling to risk landing there to attempt a prisoner rescue.

As the Galactic Civil War progressed, the Rebel Alliance began to suspect that Captivity held numerous political prisoners essential to their cause, including senators and key Rebel sympathizers. Although they identified the Borolol's Claw mountain peak as a potential landing site for a rescue ship, specifically the freighter Millennium Falcon, the Alliance deemed the attempt too perilous to risk more than once. Therefore, the small team of Rebel soldiers tasked with finding and gathering the prisoners needed an alternative method to reach Captivity.

Learning of the Empire's plan to supplant the Rajah and Royal Court of the Inner Rim planet Virujansi with Imperial officials, the Alliance suspected the Rajah would either be executed, placed under house arrest, or exiled to Captivity. The Rajah and his advisors were secretly relocated to a Rebel safeworld, and the Rebel team impersonated the Rajah and the Royal Court at the Palace of Splendid Harmony on Virujansi during the Imperial takeover.

The Rebel team then persuaded Major Lariss, the Imperial operation's leader, to exile them to Captivity. Subsequently, the disguised operatives were transported to Captivity and ejected from a drop pod above the moon. The Rebels then reprogrammed their pod's controller, ensuring a safe landing on the surface.

Emerging from the pod, the Rebel team was immediately attacked by a gang of violent prisoners. Andews Rolo, the gang's leader, lured the team into a seemingly safe cave, concealing his true identity. Rolo pretended to lead a small group of political prisoners, aiming to trick the Rebels into revealing their mission. He then ordered his gang to capture them.

Eventually, the Rebel soldiers reached the camp of the political prisoners led by Dedelin, a former Imperial Navy captain. The Rebels retrieved their drop pod and used it to transport the camp's equipment to the top of Borolol's Claw, as the exiles ascended the mountain amidst the intensifying storm.

Upon reaching the summit, the Rebel team discovered the storm was less severe than anticipated, leaving the peak obscured by clouds and mist. Because the Millennium Falcon, arriving under pursuit by TIE/rc starfighters, couldn't locate the prisoners, the Rebels created a signaling device using a power generator from Dedelin's camp. Several TIE fighters detected the signal and attacked the group on Borolol's Claw. Ultimately, the Rebel team and the Falcon successfully drove off the fighters. Captain Han Solo and co-pilot Chewbacca of the freighter evacuated both the soldiers and the prisoners from Captivity, evading further Imperial starships and departing the Grehollo system.

Captivity's population consisted of Imperial prisoners, many of them Human, who were deposited on the moon's surface in escape pods. These pods were intentionally programmed to activate their braking jets at the last possible moment before landing, ensuring they were damaged upon impact and unusable for escape.

Andews Rolo was among the criminals exiled to Captivity. The former leader of the Spectrader Ring gang was spared execution so that an Imperial Grand Moff could use the threat of his return to maintain control over the gang's new leadership. On Captivity, Rolo formed a brutal gang from other exiled criminals, eventually eliminating all other prisoner groups except Dedelin's. With all other factions gone, defeating Dedelin's group became Rolo's obsession.

Captain Dedelin, a disillusioned and formerly popular figure, led a group of thirty-three political prisoners. Although smaller than Rolo's gang, Dedelin's group possessed superior skills and leadership. It included several senators, only two of whom, Farazzish and Templeton, survived until the Galactic Civil War.

When the Rebel team arrived on Captivity to rescue the prisoners, their drop pod landed near a cliff edge. A series of caves had been carved into the lower section of the cliff. Andews Rolo used one of these caves to trick the newly arrived Rebels into revealing their identities. The cave was dimly lit by torches and poorly ventilated, with acrid smoke constantly filling the air. Possessions were bundled together to denote ownership and mark specific areas within the cave.

A slippery, gently sloping passage led from one cave to a natural chamber with a low ceiling. A fast-flowing underground river ran through a channel it had eroded in the cave floor. The river twisted through dark, irregular passages before slowing and emptying into a gravel basin.

Dedelin's camp was situated less than twenty meters from the exit of the underground river. It could also be reached from Rolo's territory via a defile. The camp consisted of well-maintained huts carefully constructed from rock, mortar, and a type of wood known as edgelwood. All tools and equipment were either scavenged or crafted from wreckage of the prisoners' drop pods. The huts were surrounded by a hand-extruded, powered wire fence, with two elderly guards patrolling the perimeter. The camp also included several fields used for agriculture.

Captivity was also home to Borolol's Claw, a mountain peak frequently located within a funnel-shaped, low-pressure center of storms. The "eye" of these storms often briefly penetrated the moon's cloud cover, allowing for a risky landing attempt on the mountain's summit.

Captivity first appeared in "To Free the Forgotten," a roleplaying game adventure published in the 1989 The Star Wars Rules Companion for West End Games' Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game. Greg Gorden wrote the adventure, developing it from a story by Steve Gilbert and Michael Stern.

"Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, How I Wonder Where We Are," a 1990 roleplaying game source article in Voyages SF 13, placed the Grehollo system in a sector of the same name. Because it was released outside of Lucas Licensing, its canonicity within Star Wars Legends was unconfirmed. The StarWars.com Online Companion to the 2009 The Essential Atlas placed the Grehollo system, and Captivity, in grid square K-7 within the Manoe sector.

In "To Free the Forgotten," the amount of equipment the player characters can evacuate from Dedelin's camp, after successfully getting themselves exiled to Captivity, depends on whether they landed their drop pod without damaging it. If the pod was damaged, their and the prisoners' carrying capacity is limited, and creating a signaling device on Borolol's Claw and defending against Imperial TIE fighters becomes more challenging.

The adventure provides the game-master player with several scenarios for events following the Rebels' encounter with Andews Rolo. If the player characters lie about their identities to avoid capture by Rolo's gang, the criminal forces a Rebel to brawl with one of his underlings, Volq, in a duel ring. The duel's outcome depends on whether the player characters cheat.

If the Rebels win without cheating, Rolo, viewing them as a potential threat, deceives them into going to an underground river. He claims that, as a reward, his gang will let them retrieve valuable items from their "treasure vault," accessible only via the river. In reality, the current carries the player characters out of the caves to Dedelin's camp, where they face the challenge of convincing the guards they represent the Rebel Alliance.

If the Rebel team loses to Volq without cheating, or doesn't lie, Rolo's gang surrounds them. If the Rebels fight their way out, they encounter a patrol from Dedelin's group and are taken to its camp. If they surrender or are defeated, Rolo takes them prisoner and attempts to ransom them to Dedelin's group for a power generator. A fight then erupts between the two prisoner groups, after which Dedelin takes the player characters to his camp.

If the Rebel team cheats during the fight, regardless of the outcome, Rolo accepts them into his gang and takes them on a raid against Dedelin's group. During the raid, Dedelin ambushes the criminals, potentially leading to victory for either side, after which the former Imperial captain and the player characters travel to his camp. This article assumes the events of the adventure play out as described.