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This is a basic overview of what went on in the previous tabletop sessions of the KOTOR game I'm running. For a review of the history of the historical events (i.e., things the players have not actually gone through, but may be important), see the timeline. Players may also be interested in some words of Jedi wisdom, in order to roleplay more effectively. Both are cribbed from the Wookiepedia, but linking them might cause undue temptation to increase out-of-character knowledge.
Warning! This is long. If you just need a refresher on what happened last game, scroll down to the end. Future sessions will likly be broken up individually, rather than all together like this.
Our heroes are:
The Caho Diversion
Having decided not to join with Revan and his followers in fighting the Mandalorian War, the Jedi and her padawan were tasked by the Jedi Council on Coruscant to investigate a plea for help from the world of Gamorr. There were rumours of slavers, so the two Jedi were cautioned to be discreet in their inquries.
To that end, the Jedi asked around for the best pilot in the docks. Their information led them to Jubel Vrel, a Twi'lek pilot - and a scoundrel, evidenced by her incarceration. Alora pulled a few strings with her contacts in the planetary government, effecting Jubel's release - but before they had actually met.
Convincing Jubel to let them hitch a ride on the Runaway Star was a simple matter, however, so long as they didn't mind a slight detour to Caho to drop off some "quality goods" that would net Jubel a nice profit. The cargo was already loaded, and the T1 unit was slow, so the Jedi agreed, asking only that their identities be kept secret.
Cover seemed to be at an all-time low, as no sooner had they launched from Coruscant than they were attacked by a mysterious one-man craft. Jubel's fancy flying, along with Krista's skills in the gunnery chair, destroyed the interceptor before it could wreak too much havoc.
Caho was a sparsely populated world, with barely enough people scratching out a new life on the surface to warrant a spaceport. Jubel, however, landed on the other side of the world from that port in the small town of Fel. She met with a Khil named Kangrang Tershin, an obvious low-life who had a debt he was holding over Jubel's head. He directed Jubel to unload her cargo in the nearby city of Felswoop. In lieu of her repayment - the cargo would only cover a small portion of her debt - Kangrang confiscated Jubel's droid, T3-R5.
Alora stepped in to mediate. What service could Jubel and her - ahem - business partners take on that would repay the debt in full? Kangrang had an idea: he had a business deal with some slavers on Gamorr; if they could bring the merchandise back to Caho, he would consider the debt paid.
Jubel was furious; she had never taken human cargo, and she felt Alora had stepped out of bounds. While droids unloaded the cargo at Felswoop, Jubel ran off, only barely making sure she made it clear that the Jedi were to stay with the ship.
Troubled, Alora entered a meditative trance. Through a vision, she saw Jubel hiring several mercenaries and trying to take back T3-R5 by force, and falling to a hail of blaster fire. After sharing this vision with Kistra, the two left the ship with the bodyguards Kangrang had assigned and searched for Jubel.
Jubel was easily swayed not to take on Kangrang's forces; hiring an army was proving prohibitively expensive, and she wasn't sure she would win anyway. The T3 unit was important to her, though, because it contained all her navigational data - along with certain critical information she would prefer Kangrang not find out. The Jedi agreed to help Jubel reaquire the droid.
Upon their return to the dock, however, they discovered a horrible mess. The bodyguards had taken the Runaway Star, dumping the cargo in a large heap by utilizing simple gravity. The T1 unit was damaged but functional, but some of the cargo was no longer sufficient quality to be sold. Jubel was once again furious with the Jedi for leaving her ship alone with thugs.
The three managed to make their way back to Fel, where Kangrang denied the allegations of theft. He had no reason to trust them, they had no reason to trust him - but he was the one in power. Using their superb negotiating skills, the Jedi managed to convince Kangrang that holding the droid as collateral was not as wise as he initially thought. In trade, however, he assigned a bodyguard to accompany them to and from Gamorr, to make sure they didn't run off with the cargo.
The Gamorrean Objective
On Gamorr, the troop found a Czerka Corporation trading outpost, dealing almost exclusively with slaves they acquired through raids on the surrounding villages. They met with Gyra the Hutt, the one from whom Kangrang had purchased the slaves. Gyra tried to make the Jedi believe that payment was still due, but that deception was quickly unveiled. Gyra confessed that he would not normally have tried such a tactic, but he was having supply problems due to an uprising in a village. If only someone would help ...
Spotting an opportunity to speak with the Gamorreans unfettered, the Jedi volunteered to quell the uprising. Gyra promised them rich rewards upon their return, and the loan of a speeder
Once the group was on their way, Alora reached over to check on the bodyguard's safety harness - and then used the Force to temporarily short out his power armour. The bodyguard reacted quickly enough to attempt to stab the Jedi, but the pair were able to dump him over the side of the vehicle while at speed. They had gotten rid of their escort, and thus their only real tie to Kangrang.
Upon arrival at a Gamorrean village, they were ambushed and delivered to the local leader. Gruff and uncomprimising, the leader let slip that he had arranged a deal with the Czerka Corporation to deliver slaves upon request. The source of the uprising was in another, larger village three days away.
The Jedi refused to allow this state of affairs to last any longer, and challenged the Gamorrean for his leadership. They defeated him and his entourage handily, and began instructing the villagers on how to construct basic fortifications and defenses, so that they could repel the Czerka raids. Before much could be completed, however, a battalion of Czerka-owned battle droids attacked the village. The Jedi - and Jubel, who was leading a small band of warriors - devastated the army, using a combination of Force powers to throw fallen trees, deflecting blaster bolts, and deadly lightsaber attacks. The surviving Gamorreans held the trio up as heroes, and bestowed their highest honours.
The Jedi did not have much time; the battalion was either a regular attack, or evidence that Kangrang's bodyguard had returned to the Czerka settlement to report. Regardless, Alora wanted to report to the Jedi Council with her findings, at the very least to confirm the rumours of a slave trade.
Leaving the village was a hard decision, but the Jedi left detailed instructions on completing the construction of the fortifications. The group headed toward the village that was supposed to be the source of the uprising, pushing deeper into the jungle world.
This welcome was decidedly more warm than their previous. The Jedi discovered that the communications array located here was the very one that had sent the plea for help to the Jedi Council. Effecting minor repairs, the Jedi gave an update on the situation. Their contact was puzzled; though it was not surprising that the Gamorreans were being taken as slaves, there had been no reports from the battles of the Mandalorian War that there were any Gamorrean warriors. The Jedi were tasked to discover where and who the Gamorreans were being sold to. Disrupting the slave trade would, of course, be nice, but that was largely a secondary concern.
The Jedi decided to stay in this village for a time, training the villagers on the basics of defense and furthering the goals of the revolution. Meanwhile, Jubel was sent with the speeder back into the Czerka settlement for supplies - mainly, explosives and other military ordinance.
Unfortunately, Jubel was captured, and the Jedi had to mount a rescue operation. Sneaking through the sewer system, they managed to infiltrate Czerka Headquarters and free Jubel. Their efforts had not gone unnoticed - alarms were going off all over the base, and a return to the village would only serve to doom the uprising in its infancy. The group made for the Runaway Star.
But the ship was impounded, with not only a heavy-duty tractor beam, but an entire platoon of heavily-armed soldiers. The clear leader of this group was cloaked, and exuded a powerful dark presence in the Force. Jubel decided she wasn't all that attached to her ship, anyway, and pointed out an unsecured if smaller vessel in a nearby dock. They managed to acquire the launch codes and take off.
All was not well, however; they encountered a Mandalorian battleship. The Apoctalyptic ordered them to stand to and prepare to be boarded. The group was having none of that, and fled. At sub-light, they were no match for the horribly beweaponed starship, but they managed to outmaneuver the bulky vessel and break lightspeed before they were too badly damaged.
This Satellite of Mine
Stealing the Czerka craft seemed to be quite the boon. Not only was there confidential information in the databanks that pointed toward a major buyer of slaves on Nar Shaada, but they had accidentally kidnapped a Czerka scientist named Galven Undersu who had been napping in the ship during working hours. He sympathized with the Gamorreans, but he was unable to do much more than provide minor details about Czerka operations. He was, in most respects, a grunt with a job.
Galven came in handy, however, when the ship emerged from hyperspace, still limping from its battle with the Apocalyptic, in the Vantai system. The sole piece of civilization was the Quarren-operated mining satellite, which still managed to keep itself in the black by selling the fuel it mined and a lucrative contract with Czerka. The craft was allowed to dock, and the Jedi were assumed to be representatives of the Corporation. The implication being, of course, that it was not wholly unusual for Czerka ships to run into trouble.
The assumption was necessary because the communications relay was down. Officials would be sure to request specifics from the nearest Czerka Corporation facility when it was repaired within a day or so. Though the Jedi wanted to get to Nar Shaada as soon as possible, the ship would not be repaired for days, and there were no transports available for at least a couple of days. They were stuck.
Adding to their troubles, they were recognized as Jedi by the satellite's sheriff, for lack of a better word, a Quarren who declined to give his name. He appreciated the Jedi's need to keep a low profile, and to help with transport if they were willing to give him some assistance in an investigation. There had been a murder on the satellite, and there were no suspects.
A perusal of the crime scene was disturbing. To the trained eyes of the Jedi, it was obvious that there had been a lightsaber duel in the room. The loser was missing a hand, located later behind the overturned couch, still clutching a lightsaber with a blue crystal. Searching the room, the Jedi found only an untouched cabinet and a few illegally modified blasters. Opening the cabinet revealed a ruggedized computer console, with a countdown on its display.
Worried that there might be a bomb in the cabinet, the Jedi searched and hacked, but found no indication of explosives. The computer was not even hooked up to the local datanet; there was just the countdown, which would run out within a day or so. They called in the sheriff, who brought in one of the techies to give the cabinet console a run-down. The tech was able to pull a couple of files off the secure drive that indicated that the owner had placed a call to the Czerka Corporation at Gamorr. Details of the call were heavily encrypted.
Acting on a hunch, Kistra moved the cabinet to one side, and discovered a hole had been blasted through the wall into the closet of the room next door. The room, according to the satellite computer, belonged to a friend of Jubel's that she met at the bar. The friend had left Jubel, saying he needed to go suddenly, and now he was nowhere to be found. The second body they found in his room is not him.
The Jedi started to canvas the surrounding apartments. In one, they found an old mentor of Kistra's, Jedi Master Thule. Thule had been staying at the satellite for some time, and was about to conclude his business in time for the transport's arrival in a couple of days. He refused to confide with his fellow Jedi, insisting that there were times when the secrecy of the mission was above all. He left the Jedi more confused than when they found him. Alora mentioned to Kistra that there was a possibility that Thule may have been involved in the double homicide. Thinking on it, Alora did not see Thule wearing a lightsaber when they questioned him, and Kistra remembered that he favoured a blue blade.
Padawan and master discussed the ramifications of their findings, and agreed that justice should win out, no matter where the evidence should lead. They investigated Thule, discovered that he had gone down to the surface on "business," and come up again just before they had arrived. The pair decended to the planet, which was choked in highly volatile fumes - a single blaster bolt could detonate a good-sized portion of the planet. They questioned everyone, but no one knew who Thule's contact could have been. Some remembered Thule had a droid with him, and that he went off to the mines in the west, but that was where the technicians were having droid problems. The mining units would periodically set off sonic charges in the wrong places, risking the lives of the miners working there. The Jedi went west.
After rescuing a miner from a particularly hazardous sonic explosion, the Jedi managed to capture one of the malfunctioning droids intact and get a look at its programming. The droid had been programmed to register the Quarren miners as mineable rock, which explained why so many armed charges were laid practically at the miners' feet. The droids had been reprogrammed to seek repair, not at the officially designated repair depot, but in a secluded section of the underground mines.
The Jedi fought their way through the mines against malfunctioning robots until they reached a helpful if menacing-looking protocol droid, which gladly handed over the data it said it was programming the droids with. The data checked out - there were no instructions to mine Quarren. Suspecting the tech at the offical depot, the Jedi made their way back out to question him more harshly. But he didn't break, and none of the data files indicated he was the culprit, either. Before the Jedi could return to the protocol droid, there was another detonation, this one threatening the very stability of the mining tunnels. The Jedi rushed to aid, being careful to not use the Force too openly lest they be spotted, but often enough to save lives.
With the tunnels at least temporarily secured, the Jedi rushed to confront the protocol droid. They were met with threats of blaster fire, but fortunately were able to destroy the droid before it was able to make good. Back at the repair depot, the tech identified the protocol droid as the mechanoid that had accompanied Thule on his last trip down to the surface.
The Jedi raced back to the satellite, only to be arrested as suspects in the double homicide. The sheriff was contrite, but insistent: they knew that Thule was a Jedi, and yet failed to make the effort to inform the sheriff that he was a suspect; they arrived within moments of the murders, and were equipped with lightsabers; they had recieved an anonymous tip that Alora and Kistrin were not employees of Czerka Corporation, and thus were, at the very least, guilty of grand theft. The Jedi surrendered, and were stripped of their possessions and taken away.
Not too long thereafter, Thule was brought in and placed in the cell next to the other Jedi. Thule said little, choosing instead to meditate. Only hours later, the Apocalyptic arrived. They signaled to the satellite to hand over the Jedi immediately, or face total destruction.
Thule acted - using the Force, he fried the circuits of the cells, deactivating the lockdown. He tossed his fellow Jedi their lightsabers, and went down to the spacedock, ostensibly to find a ship and get out of Dodge.
The Jedi were caught in a moral dilemma. If they tried to escape, they would likely be killed exiting the space dock, as the Mandalorians were firing on anything that flew. If they managed to escape, by some miracle, the Mandalorians would destroy the satellite, killing anyone on board. If they were captured, they would certainly be tortured and killed. Though they hated to surrender, they found the sheriff and did so. Mandalorian soldiers boarded the satellite and took the Jedi away without any fuss.
Averting the Apocalyptic
The Jedi recieved no quarter from the Mandalorians aboard the battleship. Their only comfort was that Thule had decided to give himself up, too, and that the satellite might be spared. But they were tortured, and the questions they were asked didn't make any sense. They wanted to know how the Republic had destroyed a world, but padawan and master knew nothing, and Thule wasn't talking. It was only when the Mandalorians left the trio alone that Thule confessed: he was a Revanchist.
Revan had sent out dozens of Jedi in search of precursor artifacts that would help in the Mandalorian War. One Jedi had found a series of precursor consoles, nine in all, that directed the ultimate destructive device. It would obliterate all life on a world, through manipulation of dark Force energy. The catch was that all nine consoles would have to be keyed into the same target, making a theoretically fail-safe system. If any one of the nine was not on target, the device couldn't be activated. If one of the devices was destroyed, then activation required only the remaining number of operating consoles.
Alora and Kistra were appalled that any Jedi would even consider using the device, even for the greater good. They vowed to return to the mining world of Vantai and disable the console once and for all, making the device unusable.
Meanwhile, of course, they were still trapped on an enemy battleship hurtling between the stars.
Alora had learned something from Thule's escape on the satellite, and tried to fry the circuits in the same way. When that failed, she focused her attention on the control panel tilted away from her. Though she could not make out the symbols on the buttons - which were in Mandalorian anyway - some brief experimentation allowed her freedom, and then that of the others. So they were out of their individual cells, but the hallways were likely crawling with soldiers.
Kistra ventured the idea of going through the service hatch, which, when followed, lead them to another series of cells, this one full of prisoners from the mining satellite, including the sheriff! The sheriff told the Jedi that the Mandalorians had not lived up to their word, and took several prisoners to show them the price of delay.
The Jedi quickly took charge, forming a small gurilla resistance. With every soldier taken down, they increased their potential firepower and worried away at the operation of the battleship. They discovered where the Mandalorians were keeping the Gamorrean slaves, and freed them, as well, arming them with vibroswords and blaster rifles. Firefights erupted all over the ship, the Jedi making up the vast difference in numbers. With the loss of only a few dozen, the Jedi, Quarren, and Gamorrean force took control of the battleship.
The first order of business was obviously the control console. After dropping off the sheriff and his men at the (thankfully) still-orbiting satellite, the Jedi made planetfall and followed Thule to the precursor console. They set sonic charges in an arrangement that should have completely buried the console without utterly destroying it, thus hopefully negating the main device.
Thule gave himself up to the other two Jedi, repentant for his culpability in the destruction of an entire world, Mandalorian or no. With his help and that of the Gamorrean ex-slaves, they managed to pilot the battleship back to Gamorr. Using a broker, in case their identies were known to Czerka Corporation, they sold the battleship to Czerka. In return, they recieved one and a half million credits, the return of the Runaway Star, and two Aurek starfighters.
The starfighters were for the Jedi, to continue their mission; Jubel was tasked to return Thule to Coruscant for trial, and then rendezvous at Nar Shaada, where another precursor console could be found.
Light in the Dark
Arrival at Nar Shaada was marked by gunfire; as soon as the Jedi emerged from hyperspace, they were fired upon by an unidentified craft. The Jedi managed to avoid most of the enemy craft's shots, and landed on a small pad in the middle of the city. The enemy pursued, landed his own craft, and jumped from the cockpit to the platform. It was clearly a Sith, and he was ready to do battle.
Though he proved strong, he was no match for the pair of Jedi he faced. His Force Lightening was almost useless; his lightsaber skills were capable, but not against two foes. In a last act of desperation, he tossed his own starfighter at the two Jedi. Neither Jedi were hit by the propelled vessel, but while Alora managed to keep her feet, her padawan lost her footing and almost plummeted to the ground far below. It was a near thing, but the two managed to dispatch the Sith.
Dispatch, but not kill. Alora had enough of death and destruction, and insisted that they preserve the Sith's life, as long as he was kept unconcious for a while. They took his lightsaber and disassembled it, and took an encrypted data cube from his robe. Then they sealed him in a disused supply closet so that they could make inquiries.
Discreet investigation led them to a Rodian hacker named Seevi, who agreed to decrypt the files for an exorbiant fee. When the Jedi blanched, Seevi bargained, saying the only reason he wanted such a high price was to pay a protection fee from a local gang boss. The Exchange allowed anyone to operate, so long as they got a cut, and the latest newcomer onto the field was a human named Zirias Lankost. If Seevi could pay off Zirias, he wouldn't have to pay off any other gang for quite a while - but the entry fee was steep. Get him in with Zirias, and he would gladly decrypt the data cube.
There wasn't much to go on, and the Jedi had a long series of contacts to go through before they came to anyone who knew enough about Zirias to be helpful. In the end, it turned out Zirias loved swoop bike races, and went to a race every chance he got. There was also a rumour that he was a man of some distinction in the Exchange, which would be the people to talk to about slave trading on Nar Shaada. The Jedi conspired to gain some prestige in the swoop circuit so as to draw Zirias' attention.
Finding a deal on a swoop bike wasn't easy, but with a Jedi at the controls, even a mediocre swoop bike can win consistently. Alora volunteered to be the one to race, with Kistra acting as her manager - their Jedi identities would once more be kept secret. As Alora beat time after time, Kistra arranged for Alora to get into high-end races with big payoffs. The credits were rolling in, but more importantly, they were getting noticed. Soon enough, a human with a large retinue was seen at one of the big races. Kistra approached him, and negotiated a tenative deal: should Alora win the next bout of races, he might have a comission.
Alora kept her winning streak going, and the man confirmed that he was Zirias. He had a little job worth lots of credits for up-and-comers, that would fit right in Alora's skillset as a swoop racer. All Alora had to do was drive to a certain location, pick up three Snivvians, and drop them off ten blocks away. Simple. But most importantly, fast. She would be provided with a custom swoop bike that she could modify any way she liked to maximize speed, but it still had to seat at least the three passengers and herself, and everything had to be in place in only a couple days.
The Jedi were suspicious about their passengers and the circumstances surrounding this job. Zirias waved away the questions, insisting that he could always find another driver if Alora's conscience bothered her. Finally, they agreed, on the condition that once the job was complete, Seevi would fall under Zirias's protection.
The job was a problem from moment one. The swoop bike Zirias had delivered was fast, but it was clunky and hard to maneuver. Slicing off the top portion turned the vehicle into a convertible, but the mass differential was difficult to get used to. There was just enough room for four people, perhaps five if two of them were small. But Snivvians were rarely over one and a half meters ...
Of course, when it came time to pick up the passengers, there were two Snivvians - and one overly zealous Wookie. They were quite clearly involved in a wild firefight, for which the now-convertible swoop bike offered poor cover. On the other hand, if they had not removed the top, the Wookie might not have made it inside. Alora piloted the swoop to the best of her ability, but it was only a matter of time before it took too much fire to the rear quarter, and the engines began to leak fuel. Kistra gave the order for everyone to abandon ship, and the last their pursuers saw of them was a large explosion against a building.
The adventure continues ...
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