It's all starting to make sense now. Kedrihm'Val's people have a lot of experience with Force spirits. He explains how powerful spirits can sometimes project their will onto their environment, wrapping themselves in a pocket realm of their own making. People who stumble across them may find themselves drawn into it, even trapped there. Perhaps this whole place is such a pocket realm. He believes that whatever happened to Dalt down in that lab tore the Force away from the Star Destroyer, so when Vader trapped the thing in the ship, it was left powerless.
Catching on, Zann figures that the visions and places that still have energy might be due to someone with a strong will imprinting their own energy on the barren background. A few people with enough strength might've held on as Force spirits. Hence, all the visions of Dalt and especially Vader. But, Ree wonders, how could a vision from the past possibly see the people observing it from the future? Well--and here's a deeply intimidating thought--Vader may have been so powerful that even the echoes of his presence possess a certain level of self-awareness.
At any rate, it's time to go check those powered-up places. Using her own life force, which tires her, Oola reactivates the databanks of the bridge to locate them. They are, perhaps unsurprisingly, Dalt's and Vader's rooms.
In Vader's room, another vision: Vader, preparing for evacuation, speaks with the Emperor. The Emperor wants him to bring Dalt to him, while Vader argues that he's too dangerous and it would be best to simply kill him. When Palpatine refuses to bend, Vader has no choice but to acquiesce and sign off. Then he throws a tantrum, trashing his rooms with the Force. Calming himself down, he goes down the hall to Dalt's room, where he uses the Force to lock away what's now in Dalt's brain, warding it specifically to prevent the Emperor from ever getting to it.
The group pauses to brainstorm. The Jedi tell what they know of the Rakata, an ancient race--perhaps the most ancient race--who enslaved nearly every sentient species in the galaxy. Strong in the Dark Side, they were known for their Force-compatible technology, a small amount of which is left scattered among the stars, still causing trouble today. Is this what Dalt absorbed: Rakata souls? They might well have done something to protect a small number of the population against their eventual destruction...
But if this is so...could it explain Dalt's often strange behavior and brilliance with interfacing the Force and technology? They'd already theorized that his erratic nature might have stemmed from sub-conscious distraction, some part of him constantly worrying at the block Vader placed on him. Dalt, though, honestly didn't seem like a particularly bad kid in those visions. He was concerned for the welfare of others. And remember his desire for the galaxy: equality in the Force to bring peace: misguided but well-meaning. Perhaps Dalt, left to his own devices, is actually not particularly evil. Yet he's also more brilliant than he seemed in those early visions. Might the Rakata be trying to bend him to their own purposes, subtly influencing him from behind the wall Vader put up?
Deciding that further speculation will get them no further, they decide to head back to the ship. Armed with a better knowledge of what's been going on, the Jedi think they might be able to use the Force to operate a generator and produce power for the Starwind.
When they hit the hold, one more vision strikes: Vader, powering up a TIE fighter with his own life force and throwing the docking bay doors open to escape with Dalt. Kedrihm'Val notices a man watching from the shadows.
As they head toward the Starwind, the men from the Thule ship come out to offer a proposition. Having figured out how some of this works themselves, they offer to work with the Jedi and loan them their life-sucking device. They figure they can drain the power from some poor individual and use it to get a ship moving. Disgusted at the thought, Ree and Zann chase them away.
While Oola starts work on the generator, the others hunker down to rest for a while. Kedrihm'Val wards the Starwind to keep the Thule officers from tampering with it. The officers come over to start trouble, but SARR bluffs them with a self-destruct button he (probably) doesn't have to drive them off.
Ree, meanwhile, meditates...but something goes wrong. She finds herself suddenly in Vader's room on the Star Destroyer, seemingly before anything happened. He wants to know how she got there, and why she's wearing a lightsaber (which he takes from her). She tries not to give much away, but warns him that something bad is about to happen, and that he needs to get down to the lab. At that moment, alarms begin to sound. He leaves, keeping her lightsaber.
The others rouse her out of the...vision or whatever it was. She notices her lightsaber is indeed gone. When the others hear her story, Zann says, "Well, that explains this, then," and hands it back to her. Asked how the heck he got it, he replies that he snatched it from Vader's room years ago, figuring that it was one of his trophies. No, not on this ship. Zann says he was never here.
After they've rested, Oola sends most of the group out to salvage some parts for her.
While they're hunting, Kedrihm'Val spots a little boy, who runs and hides behind a ship when he realizes he's been noticed, but no one else seems to see anything. The ship the child hides behind, however, contains four dead bodies: a man, a woman, and two children. It seems as though the adults killed the children, perhaps out of panic or mercy. It's easy enough to find the necessary parts, but they get sidetracked when they notice something odd further on down.
It's an ancient Jedi ship that still has power. A stasis field protects whatever is inside...which turns out to be an entirely man-like droid and three hibernating Jedi. After satisfied of their nature, the droid is willing enough to talk. It tells them that these Jedi were sent from Ossus to find the ghost ship, which had been devouring ships on the Outer Rim. The ship is a legend in the galaxy, drawn by strong feelings of pain and sorrow to targets that it devours. It has periods of great activity, and then sometimes doesn't show up for years.
While interested to hear what they've learned (and surprisingly well-informed on the subject of Darth Vader; just how old are those prophecies, anyway?), it doesn't want to wake the Jedi since the stasis field is the only thing protecting them from the ghost ship, which given enough time absorbs living things, draining them of life force until even the bodies fade away. They come to an agreement: if the crew is able to get their device up and running, they'll let the droid know so it can wake the Jedi and they can escape together. The droid agrees. Then it asks them to watch over the Jedi for a moment while it takes care of something. Confused but amiable, the crew agrees.
Oola sees a man walk out of the older section of the bay over to the Thule ship, where he proceeds to decimate the ship and the men inside. That finished, he brushes his hands off and walks away again.
The droid returns and thanks the crew for their time. They head back to give Oola the parts, and then decide to see just how far this graveyard of ships goes. Perhaps if they can locate the ship--or whatever--that all this started with, they might be able to find a way to end this mess once and for all.
The second time through, they pay more attention to the periods of the ships. It seems that from the point where Vader trapped the thing in the Star Destroyer up to the last few weeks, there was absolutely no activity. Before that, it was fairly constant, with sparse periods of perhaps a few years between the more active times.
They walk for a good two hours before the Force-users suddenly feel themselves recoiling from what feels like an invisible wall. The others turn around to stare at them in confusion. Shattering it with Force Light, they discover that the force field emanates from a ship that's approximately 40,000 years old. A Chiss man is inside. He's amiable enough in a cool sort of way, and is just as happy to have some activity. He says he set up the force field as an alarm, so that anything that came this way would rouse him from hibernation. He's been sleeping for a long time, since the last time the force field shattered. When they ask what happened, he describes Darth Vader.
The Chiss has a working generator, which they bring along in order to pull information off other ships. They learn that this thing was a Rakata ark ship, meant to bear the souls of the Rakata until they could find people to possess and live again. Nearly at the end of their journey, a journal pad tells them about some strange six-eyed people (noted as particularly arrogant and annoyingly condescending) whom the "black spectre" spoke with, thousands of years ago.
Confused, the Force-users ponder over this for a bit. They know from various experiences that time doesn't seem to be quite stable on this ship. Kedrihm'Val believes it's because they're not really "in the universe" anymore, though he's hard-pressed to explain what he means by that. He thinks that since the Force was torn away from the entire area, it stopped existing on a certain level. That doesn't really help anyone understand, either, so he gives up with, "I don't believe the normal rules necessarily apply here."
Everybody thinks about that for a moment, then they figure, well heck, it's worth a shot. With Zann holding everyone's minds together, Kedrihm'Val tying them to the present, and Ree following Vader's psychic trace (since she saw him last), they try to follow the trail. It spirals them far into the past, where they run into the strange--very strange--six-eyed beings. They're willing enough to talk, congenial in an arrogant way.
They tell about how the Rakatan ship is evil, and wants vengeance upon the galaxy. Long ago, they say, their own ancestors stole the soul component from the ship (the crystal flower) and hid it where no one would ever find it ('never' is a long time). Yes, they admit to speaking to a man in black armor, who would not listen to their warnings about approaching the First Ship. He went in, and when he came back out safely, he would not answer their questions. With a touch of prodding, it transpires that they attempted to bar his way, and he trashed them for it. When the crew suggests that perhaps the First Ship isn't simply hateful and evil, the six-eyed aliens insist almost violently that the Rakata are nothing but evil embodied and nothing good could ever come of them. Zann's skeptical that an entire race of anything could be so consumed with the Dark Side.
Pulling themselves back to their own time, they proceed onward to the First Ship. It comes out to meet them in the form of a man, and offers them seats. The ensuing conversation is odd. They tell it--him--his people were destroyed, and ask what he wants. Thoughtful, he says he has nothing he wants anymore. They point out that a branch of the Rakata species still survives, but he waves that off, scoffing, "Devolved Rakata don't interest me." Out of the blue, he asks if Vader keeps his promises. Uncertain of the point of the question, Zann answers slowly that he has never known him to lie. The First Ship dismisses it, saying, "He didn't really promise; said he doesn't indebt himself." Then he asks what the group will promise--what they'll do if he lets them go. Kedrihm'Val says they'll hunt down the one who destroyed the Rakatans...but Ree mentions that the one responsible for ordering their destruction already died. "Painfully?" asks the Ship in a wistful voice. "Oh, yes."
After a moment of silence, Kedrihm'Val asks if there's even anything to promise anymore. Thinking about it, the Ship says that it spent some time scouring the face of Aldaraan (the place those aliens were originally from). If it has no people left, it supposes it could finish that up...
Another heavy pause, before they answer that Vader destroyed Aldaraan. When the startled Ship asks how, they explain that he blew the whole planet up with a superlaser. The Ship doesn't move for a moment, then exclaims, "Huh, well what do you know." After mulling it over, he shows them a hologram of the Death Star. "Yes, like that." Considering it, the Ship shrugs it off, figuring Vader must've dug up some of the information stored on the eldest ships in the hold. Coming to a decision, he declares that he's going to stop existing, and gives them an hour to clear out.
The crew hightails it, stopping briefly to warn the Jedi droid. When they get back to the Starwind, they find that Oola spent her free time gutting the Thule ship for equipment and information.
The ship dissolves around them, all the ships in the bay cutting loose a short distance from the Alderaan asterioid field. Oola pilots them through the mess, answering the hail from the Alderaanian patrol ships, one of which takes them and the Jedi ship on board and heads back to Coruscant. The others remain behind, collecting the dead ships more or less to clean the place up.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Saturday, March 17, 2007
The Ghost Ship part 1
The Republic's next mission has the crew heading into Mon Calamari space, where they've been receiving reports of ships vanishing. Since it's not too far from Bimmisaari, they wonder whether it might be the Thule fleet causing trouble, or pirates.
Instead, they get assaulted by a cloud of darkness. It registers almost like a hole in the fabric of the universe, emanating the Dark Side--but not hatred or fear so much as sorrow and despair. Kedrihm'Val says it's haunted, calling it a cloud of ghosts. The fog surrounds them, resolving into the ghostly image of a derelict Star Destroyer with a gaping hole where one of its main engines used to be. As the Starwind settles into the increasingly solid hold, the great ship almost seeming to materialize around it (the Force-users notice a strange phenomenon: their sight seems to fade to monochrome as the image around them grows stronger), the little freighter goes completely dead...along with the majority of the crew's other electronic devices. Only small personal devices--blasters and comms--and SARR seem to be working. Using her palm-pad, Oola runs a scan, finding that while the ships around them and the majority of the Star Destroyer are equally dead, a few areas of the big vessel do have power. She detects lifeforms in two places--a Thule ship resting nearby, and a passenger liner not too far away.
With few other options, the crew equips to cross the airless hold to the liner. They've barely set foot outside the Starwind when they're set upon by several Stormtroopers. The crew finds that, when they're attacked, the armor simply collapses as if it were empty. Still, they vanquish the ghost armor easily enough...until the things start to get back up, at which point they get Force Lighted, which dispels the spectral phenomenon.
At Kedrihm'Val's query, SARR informs them that the place has breathable air. Odd, to say the least. The whole place seems...dead to physical and Force senses alike: stale, as if nothing has moved or breathed here in ages. Looking around, the Star Destroyer's enormous hold is full of ships, some of which Oola notices predate the warship's own period--circa Battle of Endor, only about 20 years ago. Has this ghost ship been sailing around, picking up every drifting craft it comes across? That's an awful lot of derelicts for only 16 years of work.
Kedrihm'Val notices that the passenger liner is shielded by a warding circle. Inside, they learn that people from the other ships gathered here for protection. Asked about the warding circle, they say that one of the passengers set that up to guard them, then went on into the ship to scout around. She hasn't come back. The crew decides they'd better have a look themselves. The guy who works for Oola's father, Sureth Fenn, is there, and comes along with them. Their first destination is the bridge. Oola wants to get a better look at the Star Destroyer's systems.
Dead bodies and debris drift through the hall leading from the hold. Artificial gravity seems to be off here, yet the crew have no trouble getting around. The first room holds a dead officer, slumped over his desk. Cause of death seems to have nothing to do with whatever attacked the ship. In fact, he seems to have been Force-choked. Searching the desk, Ree is struck by a vision: she sees the officer, alive, talking to Darth Vader on intercom. He says, "Apparently the coral from Mon Calamari was destroyed." Annoyed, Vader kills him, but as the vision ends, he turns his head to look at Ree. The officer's log, in the desk, explains that the coral was taken from Mon Calamari for experiments.
Quite suddenly, the dead body makes a grab for Ree. Zann chops it apart easily enough. It doesn't resist. Kedrihm'Val notes that he doesn't feel any malice coming from it...and once he starts thinking, he notices something about the lightsabers: they're working just fine, as are SARR and Oola's droids (which, so far as he's concerned, proves something he's been wondering about droids, free will, and the Force), but the rest of the group's tech is leeching off the life energy of the wielder for power. Concerned, he points this out to the others. Z is merely disappointed that his bombs won't work. He turns and chucks one down the hall. Zann scolds him for irresponsibility. "What if we walk past that and set it off?"
Presented with the mystery of the Mon Calamari coral, they decide to detour to Science. On the way, a conversation leads Kedrihm'Val to wonder how old the ships in the hold are. Thinking about it, Oola realizes that's a very good question, so they head up to a viewing deck overlooking the hold. There, they discover that the seemingly endless chamber wasn't an illusion at all. It stretches on as far as they can see, carpeted with ships of every age and make along the entire span. Studying them, the crew realizes that these don't look at all like ships that spent decades kicking around in space. They look almost as though they've been left here in storage--dusty and moldering, but probably functional. And Oola notices that the further back her eyes travel, the older the ships get. The ones at the furthest range of her vision could easily be centuries old.
Kedrihm'Val, meanwhile, spaces out, under the influence of a vision. He sees two Imperials standing nearby, discussing that "thing" they've got down in Science and whether Vader or the "little dick" will be sent to oversee it.
Having learned all they can there, they head back down, passing through a cafeteria on the way to the Science wing. It's full of dead bodies. Kedrihm'Val is caught in another vision, watching everyone in the room collapse, dying as their shadows are torn away from them. He mentions it to the others, who notices suddenly that it's true: nothing in this room has a shadow. For that matter, nothing anywhere in the ship has cast a shadow...including them.
Approaching the labs, Ree's turn for a vision comes up again. She sees Dalt, a teenager, talking to a number of technicians, arguing over the methods they plan to use. He's concerned about safety, tries to convince them to be more careful. His concerns are dismissed.
The outer door leading to the labs they want is jammed. When they manage to get it open, they find out what jammed it: a pile of bodies pressed up against it from the other side practically bowls the group over. These people obviously died in terror. The back of the door is covered in scratches and dried-blood handprints, and their frozen faces are warped in fear. The hall leading to the lab is likewise scored with scratch marks on walls and floor, blood long-dried in the grooves--as if they'd been dragged backward into the lab while trying to flee, so panicked that they scored the metal with their bare hands. The door at the far end of the hallway--or what's left of it--is a mangled wreck, torn half-away seemingly while in the process of sealing.
The lab beyond is a disaster. A glass shielding cylinder in the center of the room is shattered. Bits of technology lie mangled, and two black handprints are seared into the metal bank of monitoring equipment encircling the central cylinder.
While the others look around, startled by the remnants of such violence, Ree is hit by yet another vision. Technicians and scientists bustle about the room, working the computers and observing equipment, while Dalt stands before the bank of monitors overseeing the central cylinder. Inside is suspended what seems to be a crystal flower, which he studies with worried eyes. As he watches, gauges suddenly spike, and people turn frantic as power waves from the crystal flower shatter the glass casing. A black wave of energy launches from the crystal into Dalt, which seemingly starts some kind of chain reaction as the Force is ripped from everything in the area and drawn into Dalt, whose body now glows with a dark light. His hands burn into the metal of the equipment bank they rest on. The people who don't manage to escape down the hallway are entirely obliterated, not even bodies remaining. Ree herself is hard-pressed not to get lost in the vortex. Then, hearing a sound behind her, she turns to see Darth Vader standing against the tide in the doorway, lightsaber at the ready.
It's easy enough to follow what happened next. Scorch marks on everything in reach mark the path of the ensuing lightsaber duel from the lab down to Engineering. A vision here shows Dalt defending frantically against Vader, who finally slams him back into a wall and tears out one of the Star Destroyer's engines to let the decompression knock Dalt out. Dalt is nearly spaced, grabbing on to the mangled metal of the hole. He screams something in a strange voice that sounds like 1000 people all speaking at once--something about 'Rakata' and 'Architects.' At that moment, almost as if in response, an enormous ship appears behind him, moving up to enfold the entire Star Destroyer.
The group heads up to the bridge, hoping they can access data to get a better look at what happened. On the bridge, a vision shows Vader standing with Dalt unconscious over his shoulder. The ship is displayed on the screen, speaking in what sounds like thousands of languages at once. Kedrihm'Val, who can understand languages, hears it ask for peace, resolution, ending. The thing looks to be a single, enormous Force spirit. The spirit of an entire ship? In the vision, Vader contends with the thing. Attempting to destroy it, but finding himself unable to do so, he instead battles it down and snares the spirit in the dying hulk of the Star Destroyer. As the vision ends, Vader looks right at Kedrihm'Val.
Instead, they get assaulted by a cloud of darkness. It registers almost like a hole in the fabric of the universe, emanating the Dark Side--but not hatred or fear so much as sorrow and despair. Kedrihm'Val says it's haunted, calling it a cloud of ghosts. The fog surrounds them, resolving into the ghostly image of a derelict Star Destroyer with a gaping hole where one of its main engines used to be. As the Starwind settles into the increasingly solid hold, the great ship almost seeming to materialize around it (the Force-users notice a strange phenomenon: their sight seems to fade to monochrome as the image around them grows stronger), the little freighter goes completely dead...along with the majority of the crew's other electronic devices. Only small personal devices--blasters and comms--and SARR seem to be working. Using her palm-pad, Oola runs a scan, finding that while the ships around them and the majority of the Star Destroyer are equally dead, a few areas of the big vessel do have power. She detects lifeforms in two places--a Thule ship resting nearby, and a passenger liner not too far away.
With few other options, the crew equips to cross the airless hold to the liner. They've barely set foot outside the Starwind when they're set upon by several Stormtroopers. The crew finds that, when they're attacked, the armor simply collapses as if it were empty. Still, they vanquish the ghost armor easily enough...until the things start to get back up, at which point they get Force Lighted, which dispels the spectral phenomenon.
At Kedrihm'Val's query, SARR informs them that the place has breathable air. Odd, to say the least. The whole place seems...dead to physical and Force senses alike: stale, as if nothing has moved or breathed here in ages. Looking around, the Star Destroyer's enormous hold is full of ships, some of which Oola notices predate the warship's own period--circa Battle of Endor, only about 20 years ago. Has this ghost ship been sailing around, picking up every drifting craft it comes across? That's an awful lot of derelicts for only 16 years of work.
Kedrihm'Val notices that the passenger liner is shielded by a warding circle. Inside, they learn that people from the other ships gathered here for protection. Asked about the warding circle, they say that one of the passengers set that up to guard them, then went on into the ship to scout around. She hasn't come back. The crew decides they'd better have a look themselves. The guy who works for Oola's father, Sureth Fenn, is there, and comes along with them. Their first destination is the bridge. Oola wants to get a better look at the Star Destroyer's systems.
Dead bodies and debris drift through the hall leading from the hold. Artificial gravity seems to be off here, yet the crew have no trouble getting around. The first room holds a dead officer, slumped over his desk. Cause of death seems to have nothing to do with whatever attacked the ship. In fact, he seems to have been Force-choked. Searching the desk, Ree is struck by a vision: she sees the officer, alive, talking to Darth Vader on intercom. He says, "Apparently the coral from Mon Calamari was destroyed." Annoyed, Vader kills him, but as the vision ends, he turns his head to look at Ree. The officer's log, in the desk, explains that the coral was taken from Mon Calamari for experiments.
Quite suddenly, the dead body makes a grab for Ree. Zann chops it apart easily enough. It doesn't resist. Kedrihm'Val notes that he doesn't feel any malice coming from it...and once he starts thinking, he notices something about the lightsabers: they're working just fine, as are SARR and Oola's droids (which, so far as he's concerned, proves something he's been wondering about droids, free will, and the Force), but the rest of the group's tech is leeching off the life energy of the wielder for power. Concerned, he points this out to the others. Z is merely disappointed that his bombs won't work. He turns and chucks one down the hall. Zann scolds him for irresponsibility. "What if we walk past that and set it off?"
Presented with the mystery of the Mon Calamari coral, they decide to detour to Science. On the way, a conversation leads Kedrihm'Val to wonder how old the ships in the hold are. Thinking about it, Oola realizes that's a very good question, so they head up to a viewing deck overlooking the hold. There, they discover that the seemingly endless chamber wasn't an illusion at all. It stretches on as far as they can see, carpeted with ships of every age and make along the entire span. Studying them, the crew realizes that these don't look at all like ships that spent decades kicking around in space. They look almost as though they've been left here in storage--dusty and moldering, but probably functional. And Oola notices that the further back her eyes travel, the older the ships get. The ones at the furthest range of her vision could easily be centuries old.
Kedrihm'Val, meanwhile, spaces out, under the influence of a vision. He sees two Imperials standing nearby, discussing that "thing" they've got down in Science and whether Vader or the "little dick" will be sent to oversee it.
Having learned all they can there, they head back down, passing through a cafeteria on the way to the Science wing. It's full of dead bodies. Kedrihm'Val is caught in another vision, watching everyone in the room collapse, dying as their shadows are torn away from them. He mentions it to the others, who notices suddenly that it's true: nothing in this room has a shadow. For that matter, nothing anywhere in the ship has cast a shadow...including them.
Approaching the labs, Ree's turn for a vision comes up again. She sees Dalt, a teenager, talking to a number of technicians, arguing over the methods they plan to use. He's concerned about safety, tries to convince them to be more careful. His concerns are dismissed.
The outer door leading to the labs they want is jammed. When they manage to get it open, they find out what jammed it: a pile of bodies pressed up against it from the other side practically bowls the group over. These people obviously died in terror. The back of the door is covered in scratches and dried-blood handprints, and their frozen faces are warped in fear. The hall leading to the lab is likewise scored with scratch marks on walls and floor, blood long-dried in the grooves--as if they'd been dragged backward into the lab while trying to flee, so panicked that they scored the metal with their bare hands. The door at the far end of the hallway--or what's left of it--is a mangled wreck, torn half-away seemingly while in the process of sealing.
The lab beyond is a disaster. A glass shielding cylinder in the center of the room is shattered. Bits of technology lie mangled, and two black handprints are seared into the metal bank of monitoring equipment encircling the central cylinder.
While the others look around, startled by the remnants of such violence, Ree is hit by yet another vision. Technicians and scientists bustle about the room, working the computers and observing equipment, while Dalt stands before the bank of monitors overseeing the central cylinder. Inside is suspended what seems to be a crystal flower, which he studies with worried eyes. As he watches, gauges suddenly spike, and people turn frantic as power waves from the crystal flower shatter the glass casing. A black wave of energy launches from the crystal into Dalt, which seemingly starts some kind of chain reaction as the Force is ripped from everything in the area and drawn into Dalt, whose body now glows with a dark light. His hands burn into the metal of the equipment bank they rest on. The people who don't manage to escape down the hallway are entirely obliterated, not even bodies remaining. Ree herself is hard-pressed not to get lost in the vortex. Then, hearing a sound behind her, she turns to see Darth Vader standing against the tide in the doorway, lightsaber at the ready.
It's easy enough to follow what happened next. Scorch marks on everything in reach mark the path of the ensuing lightsaber duel from the lab down to Engineering. A vision here shows Dalt defending frantically against Vader, who finally slams him back into a wall and tears out one of the Star Destroyer's engines to let the decompression knock Dalt out. Dalt is nearly spaced, grabbing on to the mangled metal of the hole. He screams something in a strange voice that sounds like 1000 people all speaking at once--something about 'Rakata' and 'Architects.' At that moment, almost as if in response, an enormous ship appears behind him, moving up to enfold the entire Star Destroyer.
The group heads up to the bridge, hoping they can access data to get a better look at what happened. On the bridge, a vision shows Vader standing with Dalt unconscious over his shoulder. The ship is displayed on the screen, speaking in what sounds like thousands of languages at once. Kedrihm'Val, who can understand languages, hears it ask for peace, resolution, ending. The thing looks to be a single, enormous Force spirit. The spirit of an entire ship? In the vision, Vader contends with the thing. Attempting to destroy it, but finding himself unable to do so, he instead battles it down and snares the spirit in the dying hulk of the Star Destroyer. As the vision ends, Vader looks right at Kedrihm'Val.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Time to learn about Dalt
Dalt's gone and they have no idea where he might've gone. The more they think about it, the more they realize there's an awful lot they don't know about him. They always wanted to look into his background more, but just never got around to it.
Well. Brainstorming on where he might've gone and how he got away, they wonder if he might not have some allies. But they've got no way to find them. It does, however, occur to them that if he was the Emperor's little prodigy, chances are he had a home base lab somewhere on Coruscant. Thinking about it further, it seems likely that he probably also had a lab the Emperor didn't know about. After all, he got into quite a few things he surely didn't want the Emperor to know anything about. And where's the best place on Coruscant to put a lab you want to hide from the Emperor? The Undercity!
Some words with Kyp and with the Kaminoans, whom he worked with fairly extensively on cloning technology, get them the info they need: while he may have allies, he definitely does have a lab in the Undercity, and with they knowledge they're able to hunt it down.
Inside the lab, they find a machine that convert electricity to the Force and back. It takes a bit of looking around before they notice the droid in the corner. It's willing enough to talk to them. Explaining that he's really a hobo's brain in a robot's body, he says that Dalt keeps him around to keep house while he's away. Apparently Dalt exposits a lot, because the hobo-droid is able to explain a great deal about his theories, such as the following: "Not only is the Force the source of energy, it is all energy and therefore can be transferred and converted, blah blah blah."
Exploring, they find that the place actually is a series of labs devoted to various sciences, all involving their application to the Force.
- A biology lab is devoted to learning how to convert the human electrical field to pure Force.
- A geology lab seems to be dedicated to building the perfect lightsaber crystal. In the hobo-droid's words: "Crystal, diamond, blah, carbon, people, Force, crystal Force."
- In a nuclear lab, notes talk about converting a star's energy into Force, creating a Force generator that'll bathe a planet in Force radiation. What for? To create another Thule? Kedrihm'Val wonders in concern, "What was he doing to my planet?"
The hobo-droid has more to tell them. Dalt felt it highly unfair that not everyone is Force-sensitive. He "would go on and on about how his knowledge of the Light Side exceeded that of any of the Jedi." "The Light Side?" asks a confused Kedrihm'Val. "He called it the 'true' Light Side," explains the hobo. Then he hands over Dalt's journal.
Inside, they learn that he feels "it's good to kill people, because they join the Force and make it stronger." "When everyone's sensitive," he theorizes, "then there'll be no fear because they'll all be equal." Of course he studies the Ysalamiri, and wonders if their anti-Force bubble might have to do with the fact that they're utterly passive, antithetical to activity.
He discusses his Force-star experiment: he wants to hook it to an astrogation computer that'd create space lanes for the entire universe. He ponders a Jedi myth that where all life started, that planet had a Force-star. The non-Jedi in the group find that a bit weird, but Zan explains that he thinks it's a metaphor for the Big Bang. Still, it might be worth checking the radiation prints of stars orbited by planets hosting large numbers of Force sensitives. Maybe Force particles settled in some places more than in others? Could this "source," then, be somewhere in the Deep Core?
Dalt mentions that Palpatine, in passing, once mentioned a Force ability that could create sentient life, and that it had been used once. Wondering if this might have something to do with all the cloning, they ask Kyp, who says he'll speak with Han (he'd prefer it go through family channels). The Kaminoans say they have a myth that if brain patterns synch up perfectly with the original, a cloned body can call a spirit back to it. Kedrihm'Val asks Zan to check, since he knew...er, Anakin fairly well. Ree and Oola find records of Anakin's discovery that he had no father. Yoda notes in them that this ability to create life is a Dark Side power.
When they pass all this on, the Council is deeply disturbed. When Zan checks on the clone, it does indeed seem to be in the process of developing into Anakin.
Delving into old Imperial archives and whatever other notes they've dredged up from various places, they learn quite a bit more. Dalt rebuilt the Oracle at Pelgrin. He equated water as the representation of Force on a planet. Abindosan seemed to be a perfect place to experiment. He though if he could corrupt the coral, he could corrupt the flow of the Force through the planet and turn the whole thing into a Dark Side world...at which point he would try to blot out (hey, the Sun Crusher!) and reignite the star to create a Dark Side Force-star.
They find correspondence between him and Darth Vader regarding manufacturing artificial parts for Vader that're compatible with the Force, in return for Vader teaching him stuff. But Vader locked it all down after he taught Dalt, so Dalt doesn't even know what he knows. Zan wonders if cutting Dalt off from the Force might've broken open those seals.
Further questions to pursue:
- Does Dalt have projects the Emperor made him forget?
- Did the Emperor assign Dalt a keeper? Maybe a 'special friend' to keep him occupied (Oola: "I feel bad for that guy.")
- Did the Emperor leave more records on Byss, Korriban, Thule, or the Shadow Academy?
- Thrawn and Dalt knew each other, and Thrawn was impressed by him. Could he have snagged Dalt at some point, perhaps gotten information or inventions from him?
They decide to interrogate the Shadow Academy people, try to track down Mara Jade and talk to her, hunt up whatever else they can find from the Imperial archives, and get Erin and Master Roon to construct a timeline of Dalt's activities. Also on the list: check out the Oracle at Pelgrin, track down those "Force-stars," riffle through the Chimera's database, which SARR reveals he copied while they were visiting Thrawn (damn, how much data storage can one droid have?). And, when they've got enough material, have another chat with the Dalt-o-chron.
Well. Brainstorming on where he might've gone and how he got away, they wonder if he might not have some allies. But they've got no way to find them. It does, however, occur to them that if he was the Emperor's little prodigy, chances are he had a home base lab somewhere on Coruscant. Thinking about it further, it seems likely that he probably also had a lab the Emperor didn't know about. After all, he got into quite a few things he surely didn't want the Emperor to know anything about. And where's the best place on Coruscant to put a lab you want to hide from the Emperor? The Undercity!
Some words with Kyp and with the Kaminoans, whom he worked with fairly extensively on cloning technology, get them the info they need: while he may have allies, he definitely does have a lab in the Undercity, and with they knowledge they're able to hunt it down.
Inside the lab, they find a machine that convert electricity to the Force and back. It takes a bit of looking around before they notice the droid in the corner. It's willing enough to talk to them. Explaining that he's really a hobo's brain in a robot's body, he says that Dalt keeps him around to keep house while he's away. Apparently Dalt exposits a lot, because the hobo-droid is able to explain a great deal about his theories, such as the following: "Not only is the Force the source of energy, it is all energy and therefore can be transferred and converted, blah blah blah."
Exploring, they find that the place actually is a series of labs devoted to various sciences, all involving their application to the Force.
- A biology lab is devoted to learning how to convert the human electrical field to pure Force.
- A geology lab seems to be dedicated to building the perfect lightsaber crystal. In the hobo-droid's words: "Crystal, diamond, blah, carbon, people, Force, crystal Force."
- In a nuclear lab, notes talk about converting a star's energy into Force, creating a Force generator that'll bathe a planet in Force radiation. What for? To create another Thule? Kedrihm'Val wonders in concern, "What was he doing to my planet?"
The hobo-droid has more to tell them. Dalt felt it highly unfair that not everyone is Force-sensitive. He "would go on and on about how his knowledge of the Light Side exceeded that of any of the Jedi." "The Light Side?" asks a confused Kedrihm'Val. "He called it the 'true' Light Side," explains the hobo. Then he hands over Dalt's journal.
Inside, they learn that he feels "it's good to kill people, because they join the Force and make it stronger." "When everyone's sensitive," he theorizes, "then there'll be no fear because they'll all be equal." Of course he studies the Ysalamiri, and wonders if their anti-Force bubble might have to do with the fact that they're utterly passive, antithetical to activity.
He discusses his Force-star experiment: he wants to hook it to an astrogation computer that'd create space lanes for the entire universe. He ponders a Jedi myth that where all life started, that planet had a Force-star. The non-Jedi in the group find that a bit weird, but Zan explains that he thinks it's a metaphor for the Big Bang. Still, it might be worth checking the radiation prints of stars orbited by planets hosting large numbers of Force sensitives. Maybe Force particles settled in some places more than in others? Could this "source," then, be somewhere in the Deep Core?
Dalt mentions that Palpatine, in passing, once mentioned a Force ability that could create sentient life, and that it had been used once. Wondering if this might have something to do with all the cloning, they ask Kyp, who says he'll speak with Han (he'd prefer it go through family channels). The Kaminoans say they have a myth that if brain patterns synch up perfectly with the original, a cloned body can call a spirit back to it. Kedrihm'Val asks Zan to check, since he knew...er, Anakin fairly well. Ree and Oola find records of Anakin's discovery that he had no father. Yoda notes in them that this ability to create life is a Dark Side power.
When they pass all this on, the Council is deeply disturbed. When Zan checks on the clone, it does indeed seem to be in the process of developing into Anakin.
Delving into old Imperial archives and whatever other notes they've dredged up from various places, they learn quite a bit more. Dalt rebuilt the Oracle at Pelgrin. He equated water as the representation of Force on a planet. Abindosan seemed to be a perfect place to experiment. He though if he could corrupt the coral, he could corrupt the flow of the Force through the planet and turn the whole thing into a Dark Side world...at which point he would try to blot out (hey, the Sun Crusher!) and reignite the star to create a Dark Side Force-star.
They find correspondence between him and Darth Vader regarding manufacturing artificial parts for Vader that're compatible with the Force, in return for Vader teaching him stuff. But Vader locked it all down after he taught Dalt, so Dalt doesn't even know what he knows. Zan wonders if cutting Dalt off from the Force might've broken open those seals.
Further questions to pursue:
- Does Dalt have projects the Emperor made him forget?
- Did the Emperor assign Dalt a keeper? Maybe a 'special friend' to keep him occupied (Oola: "I feel bad for that guy.")
- Did the Emperor leave more records on Byss, Korriban, Thule, or the Shadow Academy?
- Thrawn and Dalt knew each other, and Thrawn was impressed by him. Could he have snagged Dalt at some point, perhaps gotten information or inventions from him?
They decide to interrogate the Shadow Academy people, try to track down Mara Jade and talk to her, hunt up whatever else they can find from the Imperial archives, and get Erin and Master Roon to construct a timeline of Dalt's activities. Also on the list: check out the Oracle at Pelgrin, track down those "Force-stars," riffle through the Chimera's database, which SARR reveals he copied while they were visiting Thrawn (damn, how much data storage can one droid have?). And, when they've got enough material, have another chat with the Dalt-o-chron.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Luke and Kyp wreck up the joint
The group's next mission is to take care of the Shadow Academy. They've finally located the damn thing. The procedure for this one is even easier than the last. The crew will allow their ship to be captured while Luke and Kyp hide on board. Once they're taken into the Shadow Academy ship, the two Masters go out and wreck up the place.
It all goes pretty smoothly. Luke and Kyp deal with the heads of the Shadow Academy while the crew cleans up in their wake. They clean out the prison (mainly full of Republic people), take out two battle droids, two dark Jedi, a robot officer, and an Imperial Guardsman. There's a close call toward the end, as Darth Maul's "Scimitar" shows up, but Oola, having hijacked the Academy Star Destroyer's controls, zeroes in with the full power of the ship's frontal batteries and blows the thing out of the galaxy...after which she has to stabilize the Star Destroyer, which was sent swinging away in reaction to the blast (much to the concern of our heroes, who for a few moments have no clue why the place is suddenly going crazy).
It's all nice and smooth...except when they get back, Dalt's gone. And they have no idea where he might have gone.
It all goes pretty smoothly. Luke and Kyp deal with the heads of the Shadow Academy while the crew cleans up in their wake. They clean out the prison (mainly full of Republic people), take out two battle droids, two dark Jedi, a robot officer, and an Imperial Guardsman. There's a close call toward the end, as Darth Maul's "Scimitar" shows up, but Oola, having hijacked the Academy Star Destroyer's controls, zeroes in with the full power of the ship's frontal batteries and blows the thing out of the galaxy...after which she has to stabilize the Star Destroyer, which was sent swinging away in reaction to the blast (much to the concern of our heroes, who for a few moments have no clue why the place is suddenly going crazy).
It's all nice and smooth...except when they get back, Dalt's gone. And they have no idea where he might have gone.
Hey, that thing is yay-big!
Having learned that a Thule ship's been taken prisoner by space pirates, the crew is sent to retrieve it for the Republic. The plan seems easy enough: sneak in with one of Dalt's stealth ships and, well, knock everybody out.
They get as far as skulking aboard, when they have a run-in with several of the pirates in a hallway. The Jedi deal with them easily enough with the old "deflect blaster bolts back at the enemy" trick. So far, so good.
Then they find a bunch of people dead in the cafeteria, of what seems to be in-fighting. They find four more guys on the bridge, about to tear into each other till the Jedi show up and intimidate them (with suspicious ease) into surrender. Then, scoping out the rest of the ship, Oola spots the other three pirates standing guard in the brig, wearing masks...and a guy who's hooked up to the engines. Oh, and something so fast that the security tapes can't catch it on film, darting through the ducts with a lightsaber.
Hey, it's in the ducts over the cockpit! Zann crushes the duct closed to capture the thing, but it chops its way out and Force Lightnings the entire electrical system. It's a catfish-man! I mean, a Sith! A half-Sith. After destroying the group's breathers, it jumps back into the ductwork. Ree chases, and it breaks her hand while attempting to destroy her lightsaber. While in there, she notices some of those Dark Side boxes Dalt's creation installed in the ventilation system, and lets Oola know.
The rest, excepting Oola, pursue on foot beneath the ductwork, following it to the prison cells. The Dark Side catfish-man tries to free the Thule prisoners, but Oola foresightfully locked down their cells so they could only be freed from the cockpit. It's able to lock the doors to the brig area, however, so Ree's stuck fighting it there till Zann can cut his way in with his lightsaber. She manages to defeat it, then, after Kedrihm'Val prevents the Thule warriors from pulling the fallen guards' blasters to them, Zann severs them from the Force.
With everyon taken care of, the group searches the ship. The person attached to the propulsion system is a Force user, a boy who's apparently being used as some sort of living power source. They have to wait to detach him till they get back to Coruscant, but in the meantime they do find a box in the Sith's room. Studying it, they realize it contains the Dark Side spirit of a Sith Lord named Marka Ragnos (here, just go read it).
And guess what? The box is about...yay big! After talking to Luke and Kyp, they take the box to an asteroid where Kedrihm'Val traps the spirit in a summoning ritual and the Force users tear it apart with Force Light. Then Zann tears the box apart.
When they get back, Dalt wants to know what happened. Oola's the first to voice the bad feeling they all share that this was too easy.
Then they go to see themselves in the movies.
They get as far as skulking aboard, when they have a run-in with several of the pirates in a hallway. The Jedi deal with them easily enough with the old "deflect blaster bolts back at the enemy" trick. So far, so good.
Then they find a bunch of people dead in the cafeteria, of what seems to be in-fighting. They find four more guys on the bridge, about to tear into each other till the Jedi show up and intimidate them (with suspicious ease) into surrender. Then, scoping out the rest of the ship, Oola spots the other three pirates standing guard in the brig, wearing masks...and a guy who's hooked up to the engines. Oh, and something so fast that the security tapes can't catch it on film, darting through the ducts with a lightsaber.
Hey, it's in the ducts over the cockpit! Zann crushes the duct closed to capture the thing, but it chops its way out and Force Lightnings the entire electrical system. It's a catfish-man! I mean, a Sith! A half-Sith. After destroying the group's breathers, it jumps back into the ductwork. Ree chases, and it breaks her hand while attempting to destroy her lightsaber. While in there, she notices some of those Dark Side boxes Dalt's creation installed in the ventilation system, and lets Oola know.
The rest, excepting Oola, pursue on foot beneath the ductwork, following it to the prison cells. The Dark Side catfish-man tries to free the Thule prisoners, but Oola foresightfully locked down their cells so they could only be freed from the cockpit. It's able to lock the doors to the brig area, however, so Ree's stuck fighting it there till Zann can cut his way in with his lightsaber. She manages to defeat it, then, after Kedrihm'Val prevents the Thule warriors from pulling the fallen guards' blasters to them, Zann severs them from the Force.
With everyon taken care of, the group searches the ship. The person attached to the propulsion system is a Force user, a boy who's apparently being used as some sort of living power source. They have to wait to detach him till they get back to Coruscant, but in the meantime they do find a box in the Sith's room. Studying it, they realize it contains the Dark Side spirit of a Sith Lord named Marka Ragnos (here, just go read it).
And guess what? The box is about...yay big! After talking to Luke and Kyp, they take the box to an asteroid where Kedrihm'Val traps the spirit in a summoning ritual and the Force users tear it apart with Force Light. Then Zann tears the box apart.
When they get back, Dalt wants to know what happened. Oola's the first to voice the bad feeling they all share that this was too easy.
Then they go to see themselves in the movies.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
About yay-big.
The possible hijacking of the Cabal's space station is not to be, much to Oola's disgruntlement.
When the group lands on Coruscant, transporting their prisoners back, they split up. Ree goes to the Jedi Temple to report while the others hie off to take care of various things. The Temple, however, is oddly...empty. The door, normally open, allows her passage but closes again when she enters. Various details quickly add up to the certainty that something has gone massively wrong. She finds Dalt out of his cell and trying to crack some of the locks, and he helps her save some of the Temple's children ("Oh, what the hell, I'm going to die anyway," he says). Following a path of scorch marks along the walls and floor leads them to the Council Chambers, which Dalt breaks them into.
Inside, they find a possessed, black-eyed Luke with lightsaber drawn, being confronted by the Anakin clone, with most of the Masters lying dead around their feet. "This would never have happened if you hadn't brought that back," grumbles Dalt, gesturing vaguely with his hands to indicate something of maybe a cubic foot or so.
And then the Force-users wake up, safe on the ship and wildly uneasy. They call Kyp, but there's not much help to be had. None of them quite know what they saw...only that it portends something about as massively bad as they can imagine. They are able to identify the spirit shape they saw behind Luke as a Sith--a real Sith, as in the extinct evil Force-sensitive species. According to their impressions, there might've been a lot of them in there.
When they get to Coruscant, everybody goes to the report session together. Kyp tells Luke about the premonition privately, and they don't bring it up in the meeting. Afterward, following a hunch, Kedrihm'Val goes down to visit Dalt, who has little but complaints to offer, though he's a bit more satisfied now that he's able to cook (turns out he's a gourmet chef as well as a mad scientist). Kedrihm'Val waits to see if he'll say anything, and finally Dalt's curiosity overcomes him: "You didn't find anything about...yay-big, did you?" Yes, he had the vision too. No, he doesn't miraculously have his Force powers back. When Kedrihm inquires, he reluctantly admits that he built a Force-powered farseeing gizmo--from what, no one can figure out. "You're not going to let me keep it, are you?" he mumbles. Still, unwilling to allow his enemies to think he's gone soft, he insists, "Only way I'd save those kids is for later consumption."
"Sith eat babies?" Kedrihm'Val asks.
Later, annoyed with people constantly coming and going in her room, Ree enlists Z's help in wiring the place with better security. He's...a little overzealous about it. Just a tad. They're pretty sure pigeons landing on her balcony won't set anything off. They also discover that Lydia's going to be getting a teacher. She's decided to become a Jedi.
That's it for the good news. They're soon summoned back by the Council to be handed another mission, this time on Bothaui, the infamous center of the galaxy's espionage industry. Agents from Thule will be meeting someone there, and the group is to learn the details.
To that end, it's undercover time! They pose as filthy rich tourists and, erm, "shipping" industrialists. Ree gets to play a spoiled brat, which revolts her since that's exactly the kind of person she grew up loathing. She does her best, but proves incapable of being bitchy enough, so they do the next best thing: they assign SARR as her attache-droid. Oh, yes, this is going to be fun.
Upon arriving in their ludicrously expensive hotel suite, SARR begins layering on the complaints: "My mistress finds the bed too small." "They're very slow." "The servants should go before they break something." As he sees them out at the door, he passes them a credit chip, whispering, "Help me, she beats me!"
Kedrihm'Val and Oola, meanwhile, pose as, well, wealthy smugglers. To do this, they're told to dress extravagantly and throw money around like it's going out of style. So long as they don't get ridiculous, of course. The Republic's picking up the tab. Still having little clue as to how one handles large sums of money, Kedrihm'Val asks for clarification: "How much money is 'ridiculous?'" "You don't ask that kind of question," replies Kyp helpfully. "Just don't go buying starships or something."
On their first day of sight-seeing, Ree discovers to her surprise that she apparently finds public bathrooms distasteful. "Do you have any non-Zoo themed restrooms?" SARR asks of a passing employee.
"This is probably the worst day I've ever had," moans Ree when she gets back to her room. "Oh, we're just gearing up, honey," replies SARR. "Tomorrow's breakfast!" But her evening isn't over yet. Apparently Ree caught someone's eye, because someone named Jek Zillar sends up an invitation to dinner along with a thoroughly expensive ring. SARR claims that he earned the ring, so she tells him he can have it. Reading the invitation, Ree find that apparently he found her 'delightful wit' to be 'perfectly charming.' She's appalled.
Still, occupying the young man at dinner will buy the others time to sneak into his rooms and investigate, so she's stuck with the onerous duty. "Do I have to wear that ring?" she asks mournfully. Not necessarily, but "you might not want to tell him you have your droid wearing it," replies Zan. "It's mine," say SARR.
Over dinner, the following witticisms were heard:
"Sir, my mistress would like you to take several steps away from her table, as the stench of your failure is interfering with her meal."
"Pick that up, as I'm sure that, like the rest of your family, you d your best work on your knees."
"Meatbag! MEATBAG!"
Charming.
Meanwhile, Zan and Kedrihm'Val sneak into Zillar's room, where they find Z. He tells them Zillar is here to meet Darth Maul, but before they can do much else, two Massassi walk in on them. It's a fight! But it doesn't stay in Zillar's room for long. Z blows the floor out from under them, and all five combatants fall into the dining room below, landing on Ree's table. Z hooks a landmine onto one, while the second one gets staked. Jek takes Ree hostage, muttering something about how it's a shame, because he quite liked her. Irritated, she goes along obligingly, hoping to get him to spill the beans and then planning to subdue him. This he does, going on in true villainous monologue fashion about Dathomir, meeting Darth Maul, and dealing with the Shadow Academy. Then Kedrihm'Val, having followed along, ambushes him.*
Dusting herself off, Ree quips, "So much for my first date. The attention was nice, but the insults were a bit much." "Maybe we can do it again sometime," replies the irrepressible rogue, as he's led away by the authorities.
* I am here contractually obliged to note that a spectacular fight scene was stolen away from Ree's player by said ambush.
When the group lands on Coruscant, transporting their prisoners back, they split up. Ree goes to the Jedi Temple to report while the others hie off to take care of various things. The Temple, however, is oddly...empty. The door, normally open, allows her passage but closes again when she enters. Various details quickly add up to the certainty that something has gone massively wrong. She finds Dalt out of his cell and trying to crack some of the locks, and he helps her save some of the Temple's children ("Oh, what the hell, I'm going to die anyway," he says). Following a path of scorch marks along the walls and floor leads them to the Council Chambers, which Dalt breaks them into.
Inside, they find a possessed, black-eyed Luke with lightsaber drawn, being confronted by the Anakin clone, with most of the Masters lying dead around their feet. "This would never have happened if you hadn't brought that back," grumbles Dalt, gesturing vaguely with his hands to indicate something of maybe a cubic foot or so.
And then the Force-users wake up, safe on the ship and wildly uneasy. They call Kyp, but there's not much help to be had. None of them quite know what they saw...only that it portends something about as massively bad as they can imagine. They are able to identify the spirit shape they saw behind Luke as a Sith--a real Sith, as in the extinct evil Force-sensitive species. According to their impressions, there might've been a lot of them in there.
When they get to Coruscant, everybody goes to the report session together. Kyp tells Luke about the premonition privately, and they don't bring it up in the meeting. Afterward, following a hunch, Kedrihm'Val goes down to visit Dalt, who has little but complaints to offer, though he's a bit more satisfied now that he's able to cook (turns out he's a gourmet chef as well as a mad scientist). Kedrihm'Val waits to see if he'll say anything, and finally Dalt's curiosity overcomes him: "You didn't find anything about...yay-big, did you?" Yes, he had the vision too. No, he doesn't miraculously have his Force powers back. When Kedrihm inquires, he reluctantly admits that he built a Force-powered farseeing gizmo--from what, no one can figure out. "You're not going to let me keep it, are you?" he mumbles. Still, unwilling to allow his enemies to think he's gone soft, he insists, "Only way I'd save those kids is for later consumption."
"Sith eat babies?" Kedrihm'Val asks.
Later, annoyed with people constantly coming and going in her room, Ree enlists Z's help in wiring the place with better security. He's...a little overzealous about it. Just a tad. They're pretty sure pigeons landing on her balcony won't set anything off. They also discover that Lydia's going to be getting a teacher. She's decided to become a Jedi.
That's it for the good news. They're soon summoned back by the Council to be handed another mission, this time on Bothaui, the infamous center of the galaxy's espionage industry. Agents from Thule will be meeting someone there, and the group is to learn the details.
To that end, it's undercover time! They pose as filthy rich tourists and, erm, "shipping" industrialists. Ree gets to play a spoiled brat, which revolts her since that's exactly the kind of person she grew up loathing. She does her best, but proves incapable of being bitchy enough, so they do the next best thing: they assign SARR as her attache-droid. Oh, yes, this is going to be fun.
Upon arriving in their ludicrously expensive hotel suite, SARR begins layering on the complaints: "My mistress finds the bed too small." "They're very slow." "The servants should go before they break something." As he sees them out at the door, he passes them a credit chip, whispering, "Help me, she beats me!"
Kedrihm'Val and Oola, meanwhile, pose as, well, wealthy smugglers. To do this, they're told to dress extravagantly and throw money around like it's going out of style. So long as they don't get ridiculous, of course. The Republic's picking up the tab. Still having little clue as to how one handles large sums of money, Kedrihm'Val asks for clarification: "How much money is 'ridiculous?'" "You don't ask that kind of question," replies Kyp helpfully. "Just don't go buying starships or something."
On their first day of sight-seeing, Ree discovers to her surprise that she apparently finds public bathrooms distasteful. "Do you have any non-Zoo themed restrooms?" SARR asks of a passing employee.
"This is probably the worst day I've ever had," moans Ree when she gets back to her room. "Oh, we're just gearing up, honey," replies SARR. "Tomorrow's breakfast!" But her evening isn't over yet. Apparently Ree caught someone's eye, because someone named Jek Zillar sends up an invitation to dinner along with a thoroughly expensive ring. SARR claims that he earned the ring, so she tells him he can have it. Reading the invitation, Ree find that apparently he found her 'delightful wit' to be 'perfectly charming.' She's appalled.
Still, occupying the young man at dinner will buy the others time to sneak into his rooms and investigate, so she's stuck with the onerous duty. "Do I have to wear that ring?" she asks mournfully. Not necessarily, but "you might not want to tell him you have your droid wearing it," replies Zan. "It's mine," say SARR.
Over dinner, the following witticisms were heard:
"Sir, my mistress would like you to take several steps away from her table, as the stench of your failure is interfering with her meal."
"Pick that up, as I'm sure that, like the rest of your family, you d your best work on your knees."
"Meatbag! MEATBAG!"
Charming.
Meanwhile, Zan and Kedrihm'Val sneak into Zillar's room, where they find Z. He tells them Zillar is here to meet Darth Maul, but before they can do much else, two Massassi walk in on them. It's a fight! But it doesn't stay in Zillar's room for long. Z blows the floor out from under them, and all five combatants fall into the dining room below, landing on Ree's table. Z hooks a landmine onto one, while the second one gets staked. Jek takes Ree hostage, muttering something about how it's a shame, because he quite liked her. Irritated, she goes along obligingly, hoping to get him to spill the beans and then planning to subdue him. This he does, going on in true villainous monologue fashion about Dathomir, meeting Darth Maul, and dealing with the Shadow Academy. Then Kedrihm'Val, having followed along, ambushes him.*
Dusting herself off, Ree quips, "So much for my first date. The attention was nice, but the insults were a bit much." "Maybe we can do it again sometime," replies the irrepressible rogue, as he's led away by the authorities.
* I am here contractually obliged to note that a spectacular fight scene was stolen away from Ree's player by said ambush.
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