•The negotiation team meets with an influential Medon scion, only to find he also invited the Sith to the talks.
•With the Republic stymied by the ongoing negotiations, the party begins searching for the hidden Sith fleet.
In hyperspace en route to Chommell Prime, Yvegeny leaves the cockpit in the hands of pilot droid A9G-E5 ("Aig") to go to the new Jedi training area in the Capanata and meet the new crew. Upon hearing Yvegeny's bluster about how important he is on the ship and how the Padawans need to keep themselves in line, Drallon, Ras' new apprentice, takes an instant dislike to him, and Haesh, Bao Koon's apprentice, smirks to his master that Yvegeny looks just like a bounty hunter they'd fought before on Ord Mantell. Yvegeny doesn't seem to like any of the new arrivals except for Aig, and given the rough first impression, the feeling seems to be mutual.
Ras and Drallon talk more amongst themselves about the right time to use a lightsaber, and though Drallon is still unwilling to use his lightsaber, Ras' positive reinforcement seems to be having a good effect on him. Bao tells Yvegeny that he's actually been following the crew since Myzil V — a vision through the Force told him their paths would cross in a fateful way — and he's been learning all he can about them from afar, though he didn't follow them to Naboo, so he's curious what happened to Kelif. He also intimates that he knows Yvegeny and Kazbich are the same person, having deduced as much from Yvegeny's mannerisms. Aig also meets the rest of the crew, expressing excitement to be working with the crew and explaining his origins — being an archive droid for the University of Alderaan, and being reprogrammed as a pilot by an adventurous professor who met an unfortunate end, leading to Aig's independence. He states that he considers the Capanata itself his "boss," as he's quite attached to the ship, but Ras amends that to say that he should think of the Republic as his boss now.
The ship soon arrives at Chommell Prime and meets up with the Republic fleet — 10 Hammerhead cruisers and an Inexpugnable battleship called the Honor of Coruscant. Docking with the Honor of Coruscant, the party is greeted by Jedi Master Kavar, a member of the Jedi Council. He introduces himself to Ras and Bao, but Yvegeny starts asking about how they're getting paid for this mission (as he's a "Blackwater specialist" and all) and who can work the contract out. Kavar, somewhat taken aback, replies that he can make sure that whoever on the ship is in charge of contracts can figure it out, and A9G graciously volunteers to take charge of the contract himself and figure out the expenses. After some talks, he tells Yvegeny that he'll be making 5,000 credits for helping the Republic.
Kavar leads the party to a conference room on the ship, where they meet the other two Jedi Masters in charge of the Chommell Prime mission — Jenica Vigil, who they met before on Myzil V, and Geis Choi, a pessimistic Aleena who openly wonders which of them he'll be sending to their deaths. Kavar explains that they know the Sith fleet is hidden on Chommell Prime somewhere — a Cronau scan shows their ships haven't left the system via hyperspace yet. However, they're in a holding pattern; the Medons are unwilling to let them just march right in, as Chommell Prime isn't Republic territory, so they're in ongoing negotiations. It's also known that some members of the Medon family advocate joining the Sith, while others want to follow the Republic. The party will meet up with a member of the Republic Diplomatic Corps at the estate of Ladow Medon, a young, influential scion who is undecided but carries a lot of weight. Ras Patul will take the lead on negotiations, while Bao Koon will search for clues as to the location of the Sith fleet, and Yvegeny will act as bodyguard and observer.
They are flown via Republic shuttle to Ladow Medon's private estate by Prinzen, a Snivvian pilot; Prinzen makes small talk on the way, talking about how he's got a cousin who's a Jedi, but that he's all self-righteous and a bore to be around. They soon arrive at Medon's estate — a transparisteel enclosure with gardens and an extravagant estate inside, as well as Utapau-native varactyls crawling along the inside. They dock in a landing bay on the underside, and soon they're met by Ladow Medon, two of his Gen'Dai servants, and Lokksnek, a Trandoshan member of the Republic Diplomatic Corps.
Ladow is gracious to his guests and is very interested in all the members of the party. He invites them to dinner and gives them a changing room to freshen up. In the changing room, Yvegeny and Bao spot a few recording bugs, but decide to leave them alone — if Ladow were to spot that they've been tampered with, he might think the Republic doesn't trust him. Ladow serves a gourmet meal to his guests, and makes delightful small talk over dinner to his guests, but the party notices 3 spots at the table that are empty.
Eventually, a Gen'Dai approaches Ladow and whispers that the other guests have arrived. Ladow excuses himself, leaving the party alone. They spot more recording bugs, but again decide to leave them alone to keep up appearances, at Lokksnek's advice. Ladow soon returns with his guests in tow — an Arkanian Offshoot woman in a white uniform (introduced as Dr. Undawai), a bulky Cathar man in black robes (named Stragos), and none other than Darth Malak! Ladow says they're the Sith negotiating team, and now the discussion can begin in earnest.
Ras points out that the Sith have committed horrible atrocities in the five months of the war so far, but Undawai (who does most of the talking) points out that the Sith aren't merely bloodthirsty conquerors — they've done good things for the planets that have joined them, and the Republic has failed its people plenty of times since the war's inception. The Sith are prepared to offer a lot to the Medon family; not only protection by the Sith military, but financial advice (Stragos is apparently a proficient seer) and medical care (as Undawai has already cured several diseases on Sith planets).
Ras asks why the Sith even need to take Chommell Prime — can't they just let the planet stay neutral? Darth Malak points out that this is a war and the objective is to deny their enemy (the Jedi) resources. Sith do not share; they take. Undawai points out that the unique fuel chemicals on Chommell Prime would be a valuable asset. Ras advocates maintaining Chommell Prime's neutrality, but Malak is adamant, going so far as to say the Sith will simply take over the planet if the Medons don't join them, and the Republic will be powerless to stop them.
Recognizing the cost of life if the Sith don't get their way, Ras pulls Ladow aside and suggests that he join the Sith simply to keep his people alive, but act as a double agent to funnel information to the Republic. Ladow is skeptical — if he were to be discovered, the Sith's retribution would be terrible — but says he will keep the idea under consideration, as he has not made his decision yet.
The dinner ends, and the delegations return to their respective ships. At a debriefing with the Jedi war council, the party recommends a variety of options. Yvegeny recommends a holding pattern, which will not provoke the Sith and will buy the Medons more time, or says they can simply leave if the Sith are willing to destroy anyone who gets in their way, as the planet is pretty much lost then. Ras says if the Medons join the Sith, the Republic can attempt to blockade the planet anyway to deny the Sith a resource, but they should continue to show trust in Ladow Medon, in hopes of using him as a Republic double agent; if the Republic uses the opportunity to attempt to assassinate Malak, the whole deal could go south. Bao suggests they explore the Expanse to learn more about the situation.
Knowing that Darth Malak, Talvon Esan (the Butcher), and Aya Lim are all on or near Chommell Prime, the party decides to do some investigating to find out where they are, by investigating the underworld on the Expanse. They take their shuttle to the Expanse, hiding their weapons to get past customs (the Gen'Dai are quite insistent about no violence on the station). Using his computer skills, Yvegeny learns a significant amount about the criminals on the Expanse; they hide on the far end of the station, near the repulsorlifts, where security is looser and the businesses a little shadier. The party heads down there and splits up.
Yvegeny and Ras go to the Togorian Tapcafe, a rough joint run by Togorians. Some human mercenaries are willing to talk with them, but they're very rude and they provide no useful information. Bao goes to The Repulsorlift, a dingy place nearby, where he strikes up a conversation with a Duros named Valik who is something of a middleman. Bao claims to be a smuggler, and Valik says he'll send some of his guys to pick up the cargo at Bao's docking bay. Eventually, they hear about Keane, an Ubese who is supposedly the big crime lord on the Expanse — and also a janitor. Yvegeny tries to talk to Keane, but he's rebuffed — Keane thinks Yvegeny will draw too much attention. After repeated inquiries by Yvegeny and Ras, he finally relents and tells them to meet him at Maintenance Closet 2A7.
DM's commentary:
•Part of my goal with this entire campaign has been to bring in some of the characters seen in the KOTOR video games in non-intrusive ways. Jedi Master Kavar, who was in hiding on Onderon in KOTOR 2, has been pretty high on that list; in the game, Canderous mentions the Mandalorians had originally thought Kavar would be leading the Jedi against them in the Mandalorian Wars, which led me to think he was a great military leader and would probably take an active leadership role in the Jedi Civil War. This session also saw the debut of Darth Malak, the main bad guy of KOTOR 1. Not only is he there to show how serious the Sith are about taking Chommell Prime, but given the negotiations there, he's playing the unusual role of "head of state."
•Another goal of mine is to expand the personalities of the Jedi NPCs beyond "stoic defender of peace and justice." As evidenced by their first meeting, Drallon doesn't like Kazbich, and Haesh is nonplussed by his bluster. We've also got Geis Choi, the Aleena Jedi Master in the Republic fleet "war council," who's very grumpy and pessimistic. My concept for him is that he's a brilliant tactician, but even this early in the war, he's seen too many of his friends go to their deaths, and that has a wearying effect on him. Also, although we've never really explored them, Jenica Vigil has some layers herself — she pushes herself to be the best, but she feels like she has the weight of the Republic on her shoulders, and this causes her to push Bastila harder than she probably should. A lot of my conceptualization of Jenica Vigil was trying to figure out what kind of Master would cause Bastila to be as full of herself as she is in KOTOR 1.
•I did not intentionally write Undawai as being Evil Lyta, but I can see a resemblance now.
No comments:
Post a Comment