Ree's new lightsaber. And dinner.

Finally, Ree built her lightsaber. Her uncle gave her the parts for a masterwork handle, and she found some great crystals to build the blade with. Turned out to be a snazzy silver weapon with a dual-phase stun blade, increased crit range, and a hidden compartment in the handle.

The others went with her. Some of them were curious as to this whole lightsaber-building schtick, and others just wanted to get away from the craziness for a little while. She spent about a week at it, and things were fairly quiet.

Since they had nothing better to do, Kedrihm'val told them what he'd turned up with research in the last few weeks. He'd found out that an old legend about his planet was true, about fish people who lived in the oceans and supposedly carried off people--sort of like fairy stories. They were actually another sentient race that lived in the oceans of the planet, and all of them were Force-sensitive. The Emperor had apparently believed that the land-dwellers were merely a second, incidental branch off the species, and had been very interested in the fish people. Dalt had hinted that one of his Dark Side weapons might've been planted in the ocean there from the Chimaera, tested by Grand Admiral Thrawn and Darth Vader.

That prompted an explanation about his planet and his people. Abindosan is an uncultivated, forested world; one of the most backwater places in the galaxy. People live in clan settlements, and mostly hunt and gather for food, though they practice very limited agriculture to supplement their foraging. Clan elders are in charge, and the world's Force tradition, called Ailhan (of which he was one, and that's what those tattoos are), act as mediators, advisors and protectors of the people. Force-sensitives (the planet produces an unusual number of Force-sensitives) get kicked out of their clan when they're discovered and taken on by an Ailhan as an apprentice, because they're supposed to use their abilities for all their people without bias. There's one "city" on the planet, which is basically a large interclan settlement stashed in the remnants of the old Imperial base. It's where clanmembers go to learn how to use technology, and each clan has a representative there as the rough sketch of a diplomatic station. The Abindosani are quite basic and shy of technology. They didn't really have any until about thirty years ago, when the Empire showed up on their doorstep. Since then, they've adopted it cautiously, using only what they truly needed and appointing individuals among each clan as the main operators and caretakers of equipment. It's because of their (what passes for a religion).

The Abindosani believe that everything has a spirit, and that light and darkness exist in everything. The natural tendency of the light is to spread, while the natural tendency of the dark is to gather. So when someone does something good, that positive energy is shared, enriching everyone. When they do something evil, then evil flows into them from those they harm, tainting the individual more. But technology, they've found, really doesn't have a spirit, and so it blocks an individual's ability to reach out to others. So when someone uses it to help others, the benefit is decreased because their positive energy can't flow out and be shared. When you use technology to perform evil, however, the darkness in those you harm can still come to you. This makes the Abindosani wary of technology, and unwilling to become reliant on or abuse it.

So, Ree finished her lightsaber. The group got back and, except for Zan (who gloated about how he was a spy and it'd blow his cover), everyone was embarrassed by the medal ceremony and fancy parade--courtesy of Han Solo, who apparently wanted this new batch of do-gooders to be as embarrassed as he had been, way back when. He's an evil, evil man.

Afterward, they had dinner with the Solos and friends. Solo put his boots on the table and quickly dispelled any ideas of this being a formal and proper dinner. Han asked Ree "So, you're a Jedi, right? What do you think Luke should cultivate: the 'creepy, black-cloaked master of the Force' image or the 'farmboy turned hero' image?" She said "I think Master Luke should portray himself however he wishes." Which Han scoffed at as the "typical Jedi answer." Kyp thought that was funny.

They discussed the goings-on that the crew was involved with. Han offered to send a probe to scope out Kedrihm'val's planet, and shared some information about the Hutts, who they believed were having dealings with the Imperial Remnant. Ree found out that the holovid star, Karina Sevv, really wanted to make a movie about her. She was quite horrified, but the Jedi at the table seemed to think it might be a good idea--which horrified her even more. Luke discussed the apparent infestation of Dark Side-users...and also moisture-farming, when Kedrihm'Val asked him what that was. Eyes across the room glazed over (except for Oola and Kedrihm'val). SAR stage-whispered death threats to C-3P0, whom he took a loathing to as "that poncy droid." And he said that R2D2 was a potty-mouth. There was a lot of ragging Luke (mostly not from the crew, but Kyp picked on him a lot).