Eww, Dark Side goo.

Back in civilized lands once again, the Council gave Ree the go-ahead on whatever she felt like doing next. However, they said they were keeping Zan for something, although the crew could take Drath.

Oola came back with more infformation from her well-conneccted family.

The trade between the Hutts and the Imperial remnant is facilitated by a criminal organization called the Bloody Spiral. The Bloody Spiral is run by Tura Hutt, who's famously unstable and rumored to be addicted to Spice. What's more, the Bloody Spiral has become aware of the group! Bounties have been leveled upon various members:

Erin, Onna, and Z are wanted for 50,000 credits alive, or 25,000 dead.
Kedrihm'Val and Lydia are worth 100,000 alive, or 50,000 dead.
SARR the droid has a bounty: 275,000 credits.
Ree's bounty is 800,000 alive or 500,000 dead, and Drath is wanted for 500,000--dead only. I guess Drath's reputation has gotten around.

Z was offended when he found out he was on the lowest rung (especially when he learned the droid's price was higher). He wanted to go right after the Bloody Spiral and get his price up. Drath was a bit annoyed that his wasn't higher, as well, but apparently was mollified by the 'dead only' part. Some of the crew were impressed by the balls it must take to put out a bounty on a New Republic investigator.

Zan's and Oola's names were notably absent. Presumably, Zan has managed to keep a low profile, but the reason Oola doesn't have a bounty turns out to be that her family runs a scary criminal empire that the Spiral doesn't want to cross. Who knew? Though she's done pretty well at keeping a low profile, too; as much damage as she wreaks, most of the flashy stuff has been the doing of others.

Oola's family also told her about a strange ship that's been seen floating around the Outer Rim--an Ithorian herdship that people have taken to calling the "Haunted Jungle." No one knows anything about it; everyone who has gone to look never came back. Well, this caught the group's attention. They wanted to head for the Rim anyway to learn more about the Spiral, and Oola suggested they go to Ryloth first to modify the ship (to make it less traceable by enemies) and to get more information from her family.

On the way, Oola told them about Ryloth, the Twilek homeworld. Spice and slaves are its biggest exports. Her family is known to be big in the Spice trade, but in reality they use it as a cover for anti-slave trade activities. Her parents supported the Rebellion during the war, and still have contacts in many corners of the galaxy. No one crosses her parents and gets away with it (seriously, they don't; the GM told us their stats).

On the way to Ryloth, Ree was awakened in the middle of the night (that happens a lot, doesn't it?) with a vision of Kedrihm'Val killing her in her sleep. Kedrihm'Val was awakened with the same vision...as were Drath, Lydia, and Tia. After a few rounds of "Are you okay?" with a side order of suspicion (and a call from Zan, who had apparently gotten the same thing), Drath planted himself outside their rooms for the rest of the night.

The next morning, they explained to everyone what had happened. Nothing seemed out of place with the ship or with Kedrihm'Val, so SARR spent the day running medical tests on him. Turned out, he'd been injected with some of that Sith poison that he'd narrowly dodged at the coastal settlement on Abindosan. The witch must've done it after she captured him. SARR also removed a molecular tracker from his blood that seemed to be more of Dalt's handiwork, but he couldn't do anything about the poison. That stuff is virulent. The only thing the crew could think of to do was wait it out and hope he could fight it off. Ree didn't cheer anyone with her story of Ulic Qel-Droma, who'd gotten poisoned and couldn't be healed until he'd been severed from the Force.

Drath took to crashing outside Kedrihm's room as a precaution, which Kedrihm didn't mind at all. He was a bit shaken about the whole thing, and didn't want to hurt anyone. The next night, he had another vision. He stood in a room watching Dalt and the Force witch argue about a spy that they had in the Jedi temple. Dalt said that the spy would be a Master on the Council soon, and it was the perfect time, while the woman insisted it would be idiotic to activate the spy now. She counselled him to be patient. Dalt slapped her and said, "That's White Force talk!" She slapped him back and said, "The Dark Side is not synonymous with stupidity." Then Darth Maul, in the corner, cleared his throat and said that now indeed was not the time, and after that he walked over to Kedrihm'Val, said "Go home," and shoved him back into his body.

Which bounced off the bed and hit the floor, prompting Drath to come in and check on him. Kedrihm'Val woke up to see a Zabrak leaning over him and struck out on reflex, so they got into a bit of a fight. Luckily, Drath didn't hurt him before they could clear it up.

The next morning, they shared the story. Everyone was a bit at a loss as to what to do. Drath suggested that this was too sensitive to just send a message. Besides, the context was important, but how could they explain the details of the vision without sending a long missive? They decided to wait till they reached Oola's family and see if they could do something.

Oola's family did indeed have an idea. Her father, a tall, intimidatingly powerful Twilek man, called in a Caamasi--a member of a species that could save and communicate memories with others--who shared Kedrihm'Val's memory, took the messages the group wanted to send, and headed off to Coruscant to meet General Solo.

Well, come on. Who else would keep in touch with a whole family of anti-Imperial Twilek crime lords?

Oola's family gave their ship an overhaul while Oola gave everyone the grand tour. Kedrihm'Val spent some time at a very soothing floating rock garden, where he meditated for a while and tried to regain his equilibrium. Instead, he got another vision (which made him nauseous). This time, he found himself on a swampy planet, where he found an evil cave and a tiny little hut with some Force-strengthening herbs growing in a garden patch outside. When he came out of the trance, he vomited, and was helped out by some kind passing Twileks.

Hmmm, wonder where he landed.

Yes, yes, okay. Ree recognized it immediately. Kedrihm thought that he might be able to make a helpful medicine out of those plants, so Oola got a shuttle they could use to land on Dagobah, since the ship certainly wouldn't be able to. They headed out that way (Kedrihm'Val apparently had another "incident," but no vision), and arrived to find that Darth Maul was apparently camping out in the Dark Side cave.

Well, they wanted to avoid that anyway, and he didn't bother them while they harvested some of the plants (Kedrihm took some cuttings to grow more) and got the heck out of there. Back at Ryloth, it took a few tries (and more nausea), but he got the medicine to work and he coughed up the viscous black goo. Blech.

"I kind of figured it'd be black," said Drath.

Speaking of black, Oola's family also turned up the dirt on that black Twilek witch. Black is an unusual color for a Twilek to be, and there aren't many Force-sensitive Twileks to begin with, so it wasn't too hard. Her name is Koyi Ziveri Sinya, and she was sold as a slave while young. Must've found her way to the Dathomiri, who noticed she was Force-sensitive and trained her up. Oh, joy joy. More lightsaber-wielding bad guys! How come everyone seems to weild lightsabers these days?