A good thought, and I already had it But without boring everyone with a massive backstory and other details, I'll just say that one hope I had for the encounter was that the Inquisitor would twig to their ability to use the Force (all of them are Force Sensitive) and might even be able to connect the dots on another issue the Inquisitor has been investigating. If the Imperials don't make some connections, the PCs get to leverage that a little longer, which is probably better for them. This is why I'm okay with the outcome, though I'd much prefer the Inquisitor escape than be captured/killed. (Actually, captured could work very much to the Imperials advantage, as far the overall plot goes...hmmm...)

Basically, I could retrofit a "the Imperials were expecting you" plot line, but then there's a domino effect.

Yup... Have him give the party a great big smile, and "I surrender..." Moral quandaries abound, and you just know doing the right thing is going to bite you in the ass down the line.

That's the way I'd play it. And... when he turns on them in his eventual and inevitable betrayal, and your dice (hopefully) are a bit hotter, you get to drop the old "I was toying with you before... you can't possibly believe that I'd be so easy to defeat..." line.

Heck, I'd be tempted to upgrade his stats a bit, just to ensure it.

EDIT:

aaand upon further thought - it seems that he *did* in fact twig to their ability to use the Force, which is why he surrenders.

It gives him all the time he needs to study their weaknesses, and to find the levers he needs to pull to either defeat them, or seduce them to the Dark Side.

And if they just flat out kill him, then he gets to come back as a Force Ghost (hello, new Nemesis), and they get a metric butt load of Dark Karma .

"If you strike me down, I will return more powerful than you can possibly imagine..."

(but in a nasty growl, instead of a tired old teacher voice...)

A metric butt load. Is that more or less than a crapton? I can never remember.

Flip all your Dark destiny points to Light....
"The inquisitor glares up at you, leg would bleeding, an evil gleam in his eye as he reaches into a belt pouch. 'This isn't over...' he growls. A steam pipe over him bursts, blasting hot steam into your face as you recoil from the scorching mist. The metallic scrape of a hatchway opening cuts through the angry hiss of steam. 'This is FAR from over!', the Inquisitor screams. The hatchway closes with a sound like fingernails on a blackboard. A heavy metallic noise crawls towards you. Looking down, you see the grenade the inquisitor pulled from his belt pouch roll towards you from the haze...pin and handle missing... What do you do?"

And that, friends, is how your kitten-mean Inquisitor goes from 'Minor Nuisance' to 'Recurring Son of a -- well, you get the idea.

I wouldn't pull the "flips a destiny point and he runs away" too often though, because that would demean your PC's achievements quite sangificantly. The empire is a gigantic institution and the death of an inquisitor shouldn't be the end but rather the beginning of a new threat.

I wouldn't pull the "flips a destiny point and he runs away" too often though, because that would demean your PC's achievements quite sangificantly. The empire is a gigantic institution and the death of an inquisitor shouldn't be the end but rather the beginning of a new threat.

" You have no idea what you've unleashed... "

Once, my players just walked right over the intense combat encounter I had planned, killing the nemesis lightsabre guy in one turn (they rolled well, he didn't), and then running from his super tanky bodyguard when he started rolling... not so badly. In the end, they escaped after they sealed the door on him (didn't stop him, but the head start was substantial)

Well, we just finished a very satisfying and epic conclusion to the encounter. I managed to have the Inquisitor escape without resorting to DP flips or Deus Ex...the dice were suitably warm and the Inquisitor salvaged his reputation. After a brief stand-off he managed to give himself plenty of room with a Push, and escaped down a ventilation shaft.

The PCs were distracted by a couple stormtroopers arriving in a nearby elevator, and the Enforcer decided to deal with them instead of chasing the Inquisitor...which, after a boatload of successes and a Triumph, the player had great fun narrating as the elevator doors closing, sounds of clanging and a dent in the shape of a stormtrooper helmet appearing in the door, and then the doors opening as he calmly walks out and lights up a deathstick.

Meanwhile down in the hangar, a PC in a tank faced off against a shuttle, with the shuttle just squeaking out a win. Knowing the Inquisitor was now on the run, the tank pilot leaps out of his burning tank, runs over to the Inquisitor's TIE, climbs in and tries to fire it up. Mechanics roll fails, and he looks up to see the Inquisitor Force leaping across the hangar to embed his blade in the cockpit. Luckily for the player, he misses. The PC says "if I can't have this ship, you can't either", pulls his blaster and starts shooting up the controls in the TIE. The Inquisitor decides to leave (the shuttle is already angling out of the hangar), Force leaps backwards up to the open shuttle door. The PC shoots his blaster through the hole made by the Inquisitor's lightsaber, and even with the Adversary reds and extra setback, manages a solid hit and a Triumph. The Inquisitor uses almost the last of his Strain to Reflect, still takes Wounds to bring him to 1-below threshold, and... "Can I use my Triumph to make him drop his lightsaber?"

I couldn't say no. The Imperials flee, and now the players have a lightsaber

I wouldn't pull the "flips a destiny point and he runs away" too often though, because that would demean your PC's achievements quite sangificantly. The empire is a gigantic institution and the death of an inquisitor shouldn't be the end but rather the beginning of a new threat.

" You have no idea what you've unleashed... "

And besides... who says this guy is dead? If there's no body to be found, there's no proof. At this point, falling down a giant shaft is practically a 'thing.'

I mean, it certainly looks like he's dead... I'll give you that. And he's certainly defeated, so well done party.

But dead?

Only until I think of what to do with him when he comes back.

I wouldn't pull the "flips a destiny point and he runs away" too often though, because that would demean your PC's achievements quite sangificantly. The empire is a gigantic institution and the death of an inquisitor shouldn't be the end but rather the beginning of a new threat.

" You have no idea what you've unleashed... "

And besides... who says this guy is dead? If there's no body to be found, there's no proof. At this point, falling down a giant shaft is practically a 'thing.'

I mean, it certainly looks like he's dead... I'll give you that. And he's certainly defeated, so well done party.

But dead?

Only until I think of what to do with him when he comes back.

Well, in the case of the Grand Inquisitor, I don't think it was the fall that killed him, but rather the sudden reactor meltdown at the end.

or so he'd have you believe...