February 18 recap

•The party finally meets with possible Republic ally Tarn Medon.

•Another Luk relative helps find the shipyard hiding the Sith.

•A dangerous mission leads to the rescue of several Jedi Padawans and the capture of two Sith.

The party wakes up the next day to a message left by Aluni Medon. When Devo contacts her, she provides the list of more than 20 Medons who have given their support to the Sith, and also has good news: She's arranged a meeting between the party and her more influential brother, Tarn Medon. Yvegeny, who's volunteered to take the fall for using Tarn's name to get access to Klorr and the Anti-Jedi Alliance, says he'll hang back from the meeting, and instead works on altering the security clearance card he got from Endus Piett, Sabinus Medon's security guy, in the previous session. He tests it out by going to a local business, who buys it hook, line, and sinker.

Bao asks Haesh how he got him out of jail, to which Haesh admitted that he knows Bao's banking passwords. Bao says that Haesh owes him back the money he spent, though Haesh points out that the money is a stipend from the Jedi Order and that Bao shouldn't be attached to his possessions anyway; regardless, he spent the money to get Bao out of jail, a mission expense that shouldn't have been incurred in the first place. Nevertheless, Bao is adamant. Meanwhile, Ras tells Drallon that this mission may become very dangerous, and Drallon agrees to (finally) pick up his lightsaber again.

Snivvian pilot Prinzen flies the party to Tarn Medon's floating estate, which is three times larger than Ladow Medon's and is the height of luxury. The party is met by Gen'Dai servitors, who lead them to Tarn's study. Tarn is an older Pau'an gentleman, and when he meets them, he is wearing a luxurious robe and carrying a snifter of thousand-year-old Alderaanian wine. He introduces himself to the party and offers them wine. The party introduces themselves, then explains that Yvegeny is not present because he is taking the blame for using Tarn's name falsely. Tarn explains that his name is very important to him, as it opens many doors, and it can't be used by just anyone. He's also more than amused at the situation and smirks about having "four Jedi begging for forgiveness," though he does say he's glad they arrived to apologize in person — it shows they have strong character.

Tarn says he has stayed neutral thus far because he wants to see what both sides have to offer — discretion is the better part of valor. He says he'll support the Republic if the party finds the hidden Sith fleet — thus removing their advantage in the negotiations, namely that the Medons can't rat them out to the Republic. (This is fortunate, as the party recently learned from Keane that there's a mercenary ship on the station that has been to the hidden Sith drydock.) Ras asks to borrow a Gen'Dai for the mission, but Tarn says no; if anyone spots one of his Gen'Dai with the party, they'll know he was involved and there could be repercussions. However, he does volunteer the use of one of his scouting ships — complete with cloaking device — and a pilot to fly them.

Yvegeny decides to use his security card to check out the mercenary ship, the Relevant, that Keane told the party had seen the Sith drydock — Yev suspects that it's flying supplies back and forth to the Sith. Visiting the docking bay, he finds the ship is a Citadel-class cruiser run by a female Duros. He claims to be a customs inspector from Sabinus Medon, and after quizzing him on his homeworld and birthdate, she reluctantly goes along with his inspection. She shows that she's transporting food and sundries, but she resists allowing Yev to look through her computers; she'll say where she's been (most recently Duro, Taris, and Corellia), but she's loathe to let someone go through her computer system. Yev promises to come back with an order from the dock master, then. He points out that she reminds him of another Duros he knew, Rek Luk, and checks out the Relevant's engine before heading to the dock office. There, he files for a search with Dock Master Chester, who is obviously too fat and lazy to care; Yev leaves a bribe to be able to get to it soon.

The party meets up again on the Expanse, and waits for Chester to file the search request so they can check out the Relevant. After about an hour, Yvegeny gets the call to see the ship. When the party visits the ship, the female Duros is quite suspicious, pointing out it doesn't take six people (Yev, Devo, Ras, Drallon, Bao, and Haesh) to inspect one ship — so what's really going on? Everybody decides to come clean; the party says they're looking for the Sith drydock and the Duros introduces herself as Nasha Luk. Ras points out that they used to fly a ship belonging to Rek Luk, and she says Rek's her younger brother. She's got no love for the Sith — she's been flying around on behalf of Luk Shipping to scout out a good spot to harvest irolunn gas when she happened to spot the Sith Centurion-class battlecruisers there. She'd be more than willing to show them where the Sith fleet is hidden.

The party plus Nasha goes to the ship provided by Tarn Medon — a luxurious scout ship called the Lockheed, piloted by Til the Zabrak and equipped with a cloaking device. It's a several-hours-long flight to the hidden drydock, during which Nasha points out to Yvegeny that she didn't really believe he was a customs inspector, though the forgery is otherwise pretty good.

As they get near the hidden facility, Til turns on the cloaking device so they can better approach the drydock: a large facility housing five Centurion-class battlecruisers (which look damaged, though they're slowly being repaired), and as they get in closer, they can see several captured Republic ships, which were probably tractor-beamed during the attack on Coruscant. Bao tries to pinpoint their location so they can alert the Republic where they are, but can't quite track them accurately, due both to cloud interference and Sith jamming, leaving them with no way to call in the reinforcements.

The party debates what to do: sneak aboard? Call for Republic aid? Try to blow up the station? The ship, still cloaked, docks with an emergency hatch, and Bao senses through the Force that the station and ships contain many dark Jedi, Undawai and Stragos, as well as about 40 Jedi Padawans who are being held captive. (The plan to destroy the facility goes out the window then.) This changes everything, as now they feel obligated to rescue the Padawans.

Yvegeny splits off from the rest of the party to fulfill his mission. As Ras, Bao, their Padawans, Devo, and Nasha head off to rescue the Padawans, Yev dons his stealth field generator and effortlessly sneaks past plenty of Sith troopers to get to the main power generator, setting explosive charges there. On his way to the jammer, he detonates the generator, which causes the entire station to rumble and the hallways to go to emergency lighting. Many of the Sith run for their ships while the maintenance droids scurry around.

On his way to the jamming station, however, Yvegeny is caught by a red-armored Sith commando; Yev bluffs that he's a technician, but the commando orders him to report to the Devastator (Talvon Esan's ship). On the way there, Yev fakes a heart problem and collapses, distracting the commando long enough for Yev to draw his blaster and shoot him dead. Yev continues to head for the jammer controls, but when he tries to hack through the system, he gets locked out, and the blast doors close around him, trapping him in the control room.

The rest of the party soon arrives at the holding area, where they find energy-walled cells guarded by Sith troopers. When the Sith approach to ask who they are, Ras uses the Force to make them run away in fear. Bao hacks the controls and opens the cells, freeing the 40+ Padawans. Ras senses that Yvegeny is in trouble, however, and they may be too late if they escort the Padawans back to the ship themselves. Ras hands off her spare lightsaber to one of the older Padawans, and Drallon and Haesh agree to lead them back to Tarn's ship. Ras, Bao, Devo, and Nasha head to rescue Yvegeny, but not before Ras stops by the backup generator and uses the Force to drain its power, which knocks out some of the emergency lighting and also should keep anyone from opening Yev's blast doors. (Incidentally, this also knocks out the jammer, though fortunately, it does not knock out the repulsorlifts keeping the facility afloat.)

Yvegeny finds himself standing alone in the dim light; frustrated, he shoots the computer panel, but nothing happens. After a few minutes of sitting with his glow rod, he notices a red lightsaber starting to cut through one of the blast doors. When the Sith realize who's in there, they stop using their lightsabers and instead blow the door down with explosives, revealing Undawai (now in white medical armor), Stragos, and a group of Sith troopers.

Not at all pleased to see him, Undawai begins strangling Yvegeny through the Force. Yev grabs a grenade to drop — just like he did when grabbed at the Temple attack on Coruscant — but Stragos appears ready to hurl the grenade away as soon as it hits the floor. It is at this moment that (fortunately) the rest of the party arrives — Devo sneaks up and prompts shoots Undawai, disrupting her concentration enough to drop Yev. Yev lobs his grenade at the Sith troopers while Ras uses the Force to hurl them away. Stragos ignites two lightsabers and engages Devo in melee, but is slowly weakened and eventually knocked unconscious. Ras faces Undawai, lightsaber to lightsaber, and finally achieves the perfect balance of her new lightsaber form. Despite Undawai's attempts to heal herself, Ras knocks her unconscious as well. Cuffing their two prisoners, the party heads back to their ship and flies away — standing room only, as they're carting 40+ Jedi Padawans — then comms the Republic, telling them they've found the shipyard.

DM's Notes:

•Between the Relevant and Dock Master Chester, I need to have more NPC names available at the ready.

•Nasha Luk is based on discussions Jake and I had months ago when we were planning a spin-off Star Wars game called "The Rek Luk Chronicles." We got to talking about whether Rek had any siblings, and Jake decided he had an older sister who was also involved in Luk Shipping. "The Rek Luk Chronicles" never panned out — it would've been a much more episodic, much less continuity-heavy campaign where the players are criminals working for the Exchange — but it did give me some ideas.

•I'm amused by the fact that I keep writing adventures that are unintentionally very similar to other story elements either within the campaign or the Star Wars saga in general. Aside from Undawai being a lot like an evil Lyta, the entire "going onto the space facility to rescue the prisoners" is very much like Luke and Han's trip to the Death Star in A New Hope.

Been there, done that

In the new book Galaxy of Intrigue, there's a new Noble talent called "Done It All." When you pick the talent, you get to pick two non-prestige class talents that you meet the prerequisites for but don't already have. Once per turn on your turn, as a free action, you can spend a Force Point to gain the benefits of one of your pre-selected talents until the end of your next turn.

So my question is, what two talents would you pick? There are plenty of different things you can try to do with this talent. (I'm reading the talent to mean that you can pick talents from any base class, not just the Noble class. Of course, you can't pick any Force talents without already being Force-sensitive.)

February 16 recap

•Ras and Yvegeny find Aya Lim is trying to turn her life around.

•A business meeting turns into a chase, where Ras and Yev learn about a Medon who supports the Sith.

Ras goes to meet with Aya Lim at the behest of her Gand friend, and comms Yvegeny to help her out. They meet at a middle-end restaurant, the Dewdrop Inn & Tavern, where they find the Gand sitting at the table nervously perusing the menu. He waves them over and says hello, then comms Aya to come in — she was concerned that perhaps Ras was there to arrest her with a contingent of guards.

Aya comes in, sits down, and begins talking to Ras, Drallon and Yvegeny. She explains that she hasn't worked with the Sith in a long time, and after her encounter with Ras, Logger, and Kelif on Myzil V, she wandered the galaxy looking for direction before meeting up with her new Gand friend. She's taken up with the Jal Shey — she wants to bring her Force abilities under control, and the Jal Shey's scholarly, intellectual approach to the Force appeals to her — and the Gand is her advisor. She thanks Ras for turning her on the path to redemption, and she admits that she has some way to go yet, but she is learning to keep her emotions in check. As for what she was doing on Coruscant, she explains that she's been using her medical expertise to try to help out the poor on Coruscant.

She says she's on Chommell Prime to try to help the Republic, having heard about their considerable presence on the planet now. She and the Gand are going to meet with a Devaronian businessman, Krek Urghey, who owns a large stake in a starship fuel facility that he is considering selling to the Republic, and Aya asks if Ras and Yvegeny would like to help. They agree. Yvegeny does a little research and finds out Krek has been courted pretty hard by Czerka Corporation, but he was once on a ship that was saved from pirates by a Jedi.

On the way to the Foie Gras restaurant to meet Krek, Aya asks after the rest of the party. Ras explains that Logger found his people and went home, On-Warr was last seen taking him back to his homeworld, Kazbich is "in jail," and Kelif is helping rebuild Naboo (Aya does not remember Kelif fondly). At the restaurant, Ras inquires to Krek about the mine — the Peragus Mining Facility, in fact — and Krek says the problem is that the fuel is highly explosive, and there have been many accidents already on the facility. Ras raises the possibility that Czerka is staging accidents to pressure Krek to sell to them, to which Krek notes that they have offered him a hefty sum for his stake.

Suddenly, during the conversation, Krek is shot in the back from across the street, and Aya quickly spots the shooter, a human man who runs off. Ras, Yvegeny, and Drallon hustle after the shooter through the city streets, using their acrobatic skills to slip through crowds without getting slowed down. After a brief sprint, they catch up to the shooter, who draws his rifle and shoots; after a brief melee, Yvegeny knocks the shooter to the ground while Ras disarms him and Drallon tries to convince him to talk. The attack has drawn a crowd, though, and rather than deal with the approaching Gen'Dai guards, they drag him into an alley.

The shooter insists it was "just a job" and admits he works for Sabinus Medon — a name with which Ras and Yvegeny are not familiar. Yvegeny takes his rifle and ID — a high-security clearance card similar to the one Devo Morden has, identifying him as Endus Piett. The party lets Piett go, and he runs off.

Back at the Foie Gras, a medical team is tending to Krek, and Aya says she's stabilized him — he should survive. She seems upset that she wasn't able to act in time, but Yvegeny convinces her that it's okay and she's not all-powerful. Aya excuses herself and comms someone — both Ras and Yvegeny overhear her explaining the situation to Lokksnek, the Trandoshan diplomatic envoy from the Republic, with whom she seems to be working.

Yvegeny does a little research on Sabinus Medon — he's one of the older Medons, and pretty influential. He's a big proponent of the Medons staying important in the galaxy, and he's also a vocal proponent of joining the Sith.

Deleted Scenes

In this post, just for fun, I'm going to detail some of the plots and ideas I thought of but didn't use in the campaign, just to give a peek behind the GM's screen.

The Jedi patron who wasn't

My original idea from level 1 was to have the party working for a "patron" who would give them missions and rewards, and my intent was to use Vima Sunrider, an important character from the Tales of the Jedi comics who would be a Jedi Master by now. As the party grew in cohesion, however, I stopped feeling like it was necessary — we already had something of an arc going in Rek's quest to take down Riga the Hutt and Logger's searching for the enslaved Ewoks — so I phased it out. Likewise, Galduran Calrissian was going to be a recurring character, but I didn't really have a good handle for what to do with him and let him fade into the background.

Rek Luk, fugitive from justice

This is probably one of the biggest and most controversial things I would have done in the campaign, and I came this close to doing it. Rek Luk had it in for Riga the Hutt because of an assassination attempt as a kid, and by the time the party was on Nar Shaddaa, Rek was doing everything he could to go after Riga. In an attempt to make a more interesting villain than just another Jabba, however, I'd said Riga was more into blackmail and coercion: he'd rather tarnish your name and leave you friendless than kill you outright, and he had his hands in all sorts of governments and businesses. (I still have plans for Riga, but I don't plan to use this arc anymore, because Rek's no longer in the party.)

Anyways, in the course of the adventures on Nar Shaddaa, Rek came across a datapad from one of Riga's people, detailing some of his schemes, and intended to broadcast it to discredit Riga. Rek was smart enough to read it first and notice his own dad's name was on there (Areta Luk had made some deals with the Mandalorians during the Mandalorian Wars to try to protect his company), so he dropped his plans.

My plan if Rek had leaked Riga's data (without reading it) was twofold. The Republic learns of Areta Luk's deals with the Mandalorians, arrests Areta, and effectively suspends Luk Shipping while they're doing a full investigation. To add insult to injury, Riga frames Rek Luk for the murder of a Republic agent (there was a scene we did play out on Nar Shaddaa where Rek meets with one of Riga's people, who gives him a blaster as a "peace offering"; that blaster would've turned out to be the murder weapon), making Rek a fugitive from justice. He'd lose access to his wealth and status, and the campaign arc then would've been trying to find evidence to clear his name, while on the run from the Republic (as well as corrupt agents in Riga's pocket, who are told to "shoot him in the back and say he was resisting arrest").

Aya Lim the loyal Jedi

I did not originally write Aya Lim to be a recurring bad guy; she was On-Warr's first student before Logger, after all. When they met on Nar Shaddaa, she would've taught him some stuff about the Force and shared some general wisdom. I think I had a small arc planned involving her trying to find a cure for a disease on Nar Shaddaa (she was very much like Mordin Solus, a sort of "slum doctor"). After Aya's first appearance, however, I felt like that wasn't that interesting; I wasn't really sure what she was supposed to teach him, and it didn't really make for compelling roleplaying. So I changed it that she had become very frustrated by her inability to make a significant difference helping people on Nar Shaddaa, and so she worked with the Sith because they offered her greater resources with few strings attached. And that really became the heart of Aya Lim — that she became evil with good intentions — and made her probably one of the most morally complex characters I've ever done in a campaign. I try not to overuse her, but I do like that she is very conflicted about her place in the galaxy.

Dhiel becomes Mandalore

When Dhiel began tracking his "Mandalorian father," I had it in my head to create a big arc that would have the Mandalorians be sort-of allies, sort-of enemies — the party would visit some of their planets in the Outer Rim, and watch them struggle to adapt to their exile — and ultimately, Dhiel would find the helmet of Mandalore and become their leader. This would continue throughout the campaign, until near the very end, Dhiel would pass off the leadership to Canderous (fulfilling his role as Mandalore from KOTOR 2). Of course, Dhiel died, and the arc fell by the wayside, and I decided to go with a group of Mandalorians under a false leader instead on Naboo. As it is, the party has not really met many "true" Mandalorians; those on Naboo were wannabes, and the exiles are still out there.

Marina the Republic agent

This was a rare case of me changing a story to screw with the party. On Myzil V, I was trying to get the party working for the Republic again, to give it a little bit of direction that I felt was lacking. One of the ways the Republic was going to keep an eye on the party was through Marina, Kazbich's old partner. The story was going to be that Marina had secretly joined the Republic after her caper on Taris (in Kazbich's backstory) went wrong — they offered her protection from the Exchange in return for her services — and then sent back to Kazbich in a believable way so the Republic could keep an eye on the party. However, after Marina had already been in the party for a few sessions, Jake casually mentioned that he figured Marina was probably going to betray the party at some point, since most of the NPC allies did, so to go against type, I changed her backstory to be that she'd been on the run since Taris and she wasn't working for the Republic.

I tried to think of interesting ways to integrate her into the party on Coruscant and Naboo, but I never really got a great idea for what to do with her (other than her hunt for Iego, the "treasure planet"), so she kind of fell by the wayside and I replaced her with A9G-E5, who I think has more personality anyway. I do intend to follow up on Marina at some point, but not for a while.

More Jenica Vigil

One of the first characters I thought up when I was conceiving of a KOTOR-era campaign was Bastila's master. I was interested in what kind of upbringing Bastila had that she was sort of a "Jedi princess" and acted all stuck up in the KOTOR 1 video game. I also wanted to explore Jedi personalities, because I don't want them all to be stoic, perfect know-it-alls and KOTOR is the era where the Jedi Order is a lot more liberal and less dogmatic. The answer was Jenica Vigil (whose name I got from a random Corellian name generator in Star Wars Gamer magazine), who had been a very powerful and famous Jedi Knight in her youth — a lot like Bastila herself — so she always pushed Bastila hard to be the best, but wasn't always great about acknowledging Bastila's achievements or reassuring her, and so a lot of Bastila's personality would be explained that she was constantly trying to prove herself to her Master during her training and was always trying to live up to Jenica Vigil's shadow.

I had planned for Jenica Vigil to be a more constant presence in the campaign, but I fumbled a few rolls with her during her first appearances, so the party doesn't seem to have much respect for her. I am glad I brought her back for Chommell Prime, though.

Eutix is watching you

When the group got to Coruscant, one of the recurring things was that after their encounter on Myzil V, the party was going to be constantly harassed by Eutix. It was going to be a lot of subtle things — the party always feels like it's being followed. (Gobmush's corporate contacts would've come into play here.) One scene I had written involved the party traveling somewhere by air taxi and "accidentally" being rammed by a droid-driven Eutix freighter, leading to a big skill challenge-type scene to not fall out of the sky. However, this fell by the wayside once the party got interested in going after Gaph, the Ryn crime lord. Eutix lives on, however; they were behind the beck-tori project deep underwater on Naboo, which gave some insight into some of their darker experiments — midichlorian studies.

Not related to Eutix, but one subplot idea I had for Coruscant was that the Jedi Temple was undergoing something of an upheaval, as there was going to be a group of Jedi Padawans who were planning to leave the Order to join the Sith, and they were trying to convince as many people as they could to join them. I ended up not using it — I think I just plain forgot about it — but I did acknowledge it in my recent Holonet News post, with "54 Jedi unaccounted for, believed to have willingly joined the Sith."

Always in motion is the future

While on Taris studying with On-Warr, Logger had a vision of the future, and I had intended for this to be clues to future events; unfortunately, none of these events ever happened, making me feel pretty silly. The Ewok vision I'll cover in the next bit, but two I have to touch on. One vision was Kazbich in a shootout in what looked like a museum; I had intended at some point to go to Alderaan to get involved in some royal intrigue there, but that never got past the idea stage. The other vision was Dhiel and Gobmush on a desert planet facing a Twi'lek woman on a crashed ship. Back then, half the party still worked for Gorrak the Hutt or was on friendly terms with him, so I'd originally intended him to play a much bigger role. The Twi'lek woman was from Gobmush's backstory (which I cannot find right now), a slave-turned-vigilante who had it in for Gorrak. She would've attacked Gorrak's ship, sending it crashing into a desert planet (possibly Tatooine, I hadn't decided), and Dhiel and Gobmush would've heard the distress beacon, sending them off to rescue him. As we lost Dhiel, however, Gorrak faded into obscurity.

Planets we never visited

Two planets I had fully intended us to travel to and never did were Arkania and New Plympto. Back before we had the planet design contest, I had intended for the Ewoks to be held by a corporate geneticist working for Adascorp on Arkania, using them as slave labor to look for Sith artifacts beneath the planet's surface. Once I decided Andy's planet, Myzil V, won the planet contest, however, I decided to relocate them there and change the story, using Eutix instead of Adascorp and using the Ewoks for genetic experiments instead of slave labor.

New Plympto was originally going to be the planet we traveled to after Taris. I even wrote up the first adventure (though I lost it back in the Great Hard Drive Crash of May '09). The party would've been sent by the Republic to pick up a Jedi Master on New Plympto, only when the party emerged from hyperspace, the Sith were attacking the planet. I wrote out a pretty badass encounter of the Raraza having to duck through a Sith blockade and avoid enemy fighters (I knew Jake wanted more space combat, so I'd planned to open the session with it). The Raraza would've been hit hard enough to force a landing and repairs at a small Republic camp. The party would get involved in helping the Republic and the native Nosaurian commandos hit a Sith supply convoy in the forest, but when they get back, the Raraza's been stolen. Dun dun dun! (Yes, I had the idea for taking away the Raraza, if only temporarily, as early as Myzil V. I'm so glad I finally got to on Naboo.)

However, at this point I was sitting on the planet contest entries, and at the very last minute (I think it was the day of game) I decided to switch to Myzil V because I didn't want to postpone going to the winning planet, and I decided Myzil V would be more about political intrigue than Sith invasion. Hence the hasty "Oh, there's a Sith Interdictor waiting for you when you get out of hyperspace" when the party arrived there so I could get in some space combat. The whole session could've used a lot more planning — I would've liked that starship encounter to be much more organic — but overall, I think Myzil V ended up being the best choice, and hey, we started doing small-group games because of that planet.

February 5 recap

•The party combines its skills to disrupt the Anti-Jedi Alliance rally and free the captive Jedi Plutara.

•Yvegeny waxes poetic with an unlikely ally.

•Bao makes an unfortunate mistake.

•Ras turns up leads on Aya Lim and the Sith.

En route to the docking bay where Plutara is being held, Yvegeny is concerned about his lack of ammo (given that he could only sneak the hold-out blaster aboard the Expanse) and buys a new energy cell, modifying it for his hold-out blaster. Bao returns from his fact-finding mission with Haesh, having learned that there's a Jedi (a Miraluka named Plutara) being held by the Anti-Jedi Alliance, and that their key speaker, a Gotal named Klorr, was the target of an attack by a "pro-Jedi assassin." The party meets up again, where Bao, Haesh, and Devo are introduced. Having surmised that the party was behind the "assassination attempt" (re: Gobmush plan) on Klorr, Haesh gets video of Ras diving out of the hotel with Klorr and grabbing onto a window washer droid and shares it with the group. Ras uses it as a teaching example to show Drallon how there are other ways to deal with problems than using a lightsaber.

When the party arrives at the transport's docking bay, it's guarded by a few idle human mercenaries who shoo them off, giving them directions to the demonstration. So the party goes down to an empty docking bay where the anti-Jedi demonstration is being held, where a crowd of about 150 is gathered. The mood is between supportive and ambivalent, and the party splits up to see what they can see. Ras, Drallon, Bao, and Haesh do their best to blend in, while Devo pushes his way near the front — a stage where some human mercenaries are keeping the crowd back — and Yvegeny runs into another observer, the Arkanian offshoot Sith doctor, Undawai. Undawai admits to being curious about the demonstration (even as she knows that the Anti-Jedi Alliance is just as militantly opposed to the Sith) and begins asking Yvegeny what he's doing there, probing about their mission; Yvegeny, wisely, doesn't reveal anything about what he's doing and Undawai eventually wanders off into the crowd.

Eventually the demonstration starts, with a speeder truck pulling up and a Twi'lek man taking the stage. More mercenaries bring up to the stage an unconscious and roughed up Plutara in an energy cage, and the Twi'lek begins his long, fanatical speech decrying the Jedi for their wars and how they have brought death and sorrow to the galaxy. He points to Plutara and waves around her lightsaber, saying they're not so tough and they're vulnerable just like anybody else. Yvegeny heckles the Twi'lek, and the crowd forces him on stage, where the Twi'lek denounces him as a Jedi supporter.

Devo talks to the mercenary leader, convincing him that having a kidnapped person (even a Jedi) on stage will not look good in the eyes of the Expanse's security, and telling them they should leave before security arrives. Just then, Yvegeny draws a hold-out blaster, prompting the Twi'lek to dare him to shoot him in front of the crowd and prove his arguments correct. Ras comms Yvegeny and feeds him some lines; Yvegeny says in front of the crowd that "they're not paying him enough" and shoots near the Twi'lek's feet. The crowd is suddenly disenchanted with the demonstration — as Yvegeny has convinced some of them that this is all staged — and then Ras uses the Force to make a wide swath of the crowd run away in fear at the shot. The Twi'lek runs for cover, screaming for help. The demonstration successfully disrupted, Devo takes the truck with Plutara aboard and rushes her to a hospital. Undawai still stands in the crowd, gives a golf clap to the party's efforts, and leaves.

The party splits up: Ras and Drallon go to the restaurant where they met Aluni Medon, Yvegeny goes to the lower levels to lay low for a while; Bao remembers giving a Duros smuggler the name of a docking bay he was (fictitiously) staying at, and goes there with Haesh to see if the Duros ever arrived. The docking bay is empty; Bao uses his technometry to access the docking bay's computers, and finds that the Duros was there for a while with two companions, but did not have any weapons. He uses the computer to see if someone (such as the Duros) is tracking him, but turns up no results.

Devo thinks about his past connection to Plutara and decides he doesn't want to be there when she wakes up, to avoid an awkward moment. He calls Ras, saying she should be with her people when she wakes up, and arranges for the Jedi to be there when she's up. Ras contacts Jedi Council member Kavar on the Honor of Coruscant and informs him of Plutara's condition. Kavar says they hadn't known she'd been captured; she was on the station to help oversee the transfer of irolunn gas from the Medons to the Republic fleet. He says he saw the holos of the rally and is glad they were able to end it nonviolently, though he is wary of Ras' companion Yvegeny, who seems like a loose cannon. Ras asks that her image be taken out of the holos, to hide that she was there. Ras then contacts Bao to let him know, and ends up talking to Haesh for a while about the Yarkora language. Haesh agrees to eventually teach Ras' translator droid the language, though it'll take a long time for him to program the droid to understand all the syntax.

While laying low, Yvegeny hides out in a dingy bar and is found by his old nemesis, Kelly. Yev is, as always, on his guard, but Kelly tells him he did good work for the Genoharadan. Kelly buys a round of drinks and they commiserate on their work as "agents of stability," as Kelly calls it. Kelly asks about Yev's having met Darth Malak and points out that if the Sith win the war, the Darths could become their new employers; the Genoharadan is not beholden to any government, merely interested in averting unnecessary bloodshed and keeping the galaxy from devolving into chaos. Yvegeny expresses that he's a believer in the Mandalorian philosophy of "the strongest survive," but Kelly points out that he's glad the Mandalorians lost their war — while they're great warriors, they'd make terrible governors. Before he leaves, Kelly buys another round and tells Yvegeny that word has reached Tarn Medon that someone used his name in the attack on Klorr, and he's not happy. They express their mutual animosity once again — both promising to kill the other — before Kelly departs.

As the party (minus Yvegeny) meets up at the hospital, Ras asks Devo about his past with Plutara, noticing that he's visibly troubled by having run into her again, but he doesn't comment. Yvegeny comms Ras, saying he's heard that Tarn Medon is unhappy about being misrepresented, but he'll take the blame and lay low for a while. Haesh recommends to Bao that there's something else at work behind all this and they should make a big move soon, perhaps try to get Tarn on their side. Bao tries to set up an appointment with Tarn but is repeatedly rebuffed, even after using his Jedi credentials.

Ras and Drallon see Plutara, who recognizes Ras from her days at the Jedi Temple. Plutara recalls that she was working at a Republic docking bay when she was possibly drugged, then woke up a few times in a dark room, but doesn't remember the rally or anything. She asks after her lightsaber, and the party remembers that the Twi'lek at the rally still has it. Plutara asks how they found her, and they point to holos of the rally. She says she'll be fine and is expected to leave the hospital in a day. Devo, outside, tells the party that he worked with Plutara in the past; she was a member of his squad, but he doesn't say much more than that.

Devo contacts Aluni, asking about Tarn Medon's reaction and about the rally. She says she'll talk to Tarn and do some damage control, and points out that both Klorr's attackers and his rescuer used Tarn's name, so it can go either way. She tells Devo he did the right thing at the rally and that she'll have some actionable intelligence for him soon. Devo says he wants to know the reasons Tarn would have for potentially joining the Sith, so he can prepare a counter-argument.

Bao tries to contact Ladow Medon, but he's away from his estate and isn't answering his comm. The party meets up and decides to stay at a hotel and try again tomorrow. On the way to the hotel, they happen to spot Aya Lim talking with a Gand; Ras runs off to buy a surveillance tagger and explains who she is to Devo, while Bao tries to sneakily follow her. Aya spots him immediately and bolts with the Gand in tow. Rather than chase her, Bao decides to use the Force to track her, but soon loses the trail — she's going too fast for him to accurately follow.

After haggling with the Neimoidian working the counter at Yam's Surveillance Equipment, Ras and Devo have a surveillance tagger, but no leads on where Aya Lim is. Bao goes to a Holonet cafe to try to hack into security feeds to track her, but has no luck. He uses his law enforcement credentials to get a computer interface visor (which still works with his Kel Dor goggles) and tries again, only to be caught by security and accosted by a Gen'Dai guard. Bao insists that he's a Jedi working for the Republic, but the Gen'Dai insists that the Medons' rules are law on the Expanse. Bao says he's tracking a fugitive named Aya Lim and gives the Gen'Dai a holo of her, but the Gen'Dai still says he'll spend the night in an energy cage.

The next day, Keane comms Ras (vis-a-vis Aig) to tell her he's got some info. Bao wakes up and telepathically tells Ras he needs help. Ras contacts Master Kavar, who says it looks bad for the Republic that a Jedi was caught trying to sneak into the security feed and that they'll have to call in a few favors to get Bao out. Haesh volunteers to sneak into Bao's accounts to get the 5,000 credits of bail money he'll need, and Bao is released, though the Republic has expended some political capital to keep it hush-hush.

On her way to meet with Keane, Ras is met by the Gand who had been conversing with Aya Lim the previous day. He refers to himself as "this one" (as Gand do not take names until they have accomplished something noteworthy) and asks about Ras' reasons for being on the Expanse. The Gand says Aya Lim is concerned that the Jedi are here to arrest her. Ras suggests a meeting, and the Gand says he'll arrange it.

At the maintenance closet, Keane tells Ras that Aya Lim, the alien he described, is on the station, but now Ras already knows that. He also says that a mercenary ship has been in the lower cloud layers, far away from the corporate gas collection sites. It's possible they've been meeting with the Sith. Keane tells Ras that the ship, the Relevant, is at Docking Bay 34, and they can probably get the coordinates they need from the ship's navicomputer.

DM's Notes:

•I'd originally thought the party would just storm the transport that Plutara was being held on, and statted up some droid guards. Hahaha, shows what I know — and the party's solution worked great anyway.

•Bao first described Aya Lim as a "killer", but it bears repeating (especially for Ras, who has shown interest in Aya Lim's redemption) that she has not killed anybody that you know of.

Galaxy of Intrigue wrap-up

I've been quite slow with posting about the Star Wars books lately — I never did cover Scavenger's Guide to Droids, although I did do some extensive forum posting about it on the Star Wars RPG forums, as I was the first person to get that book. I'm a bit slow to write up that book here, as no one is playing a droid, but I might come back to it soon. However, I will write up, here and now, Galaxy of Intrigue, as that is a book that every player can potentially benefit from.

The book contains several new species: Bith, Defel, Fosh, Givin, Gotal, Herglic, Mrlssi, Neimoidian, and Umbaran. "But wait," you say, "Bith already appear in Threats, Neimoidians are in the core book, and Umbarans are in Clone Wars." Well, yes, that's true, but these versions are a little more balanced for play. I suspect WotC had second thoughts about species that got both Skill Focus *and* rerolls in the same skill (Deception for Neimoidians and Persuasion for Umbarans), as well as the Bith's ability to get an automatic natural 20 on an Intelligence check once per encounter.

The Bith are similar to the Threats version, except +2 Charisma, no Perception reroll, and the Evolved Intellect ability: every time they spend a Force Point for any reason, they also gain a temporary Force Point which must be used for an Intelligence-based skill check. Neimoidians can potentially get both Skill Focus (Deception) and Skill Focus (Persuasion), which is pretty nice, though I do notice their stats are lower than the core book version, and again, no Deception reroll. Umbarans are the most different from their original version; they get +2 Dex, +2 Wis, -2 Con, darkvision (not light sensitivity), a Stealth reroll, and they get Skill Focus (Gather Information). I will be allowing Jake to continue to play his character "as is," however, because to make him change to the new stats would require him to completely rethink his character concept.

The other species are quite nice too. Defel can gain total concealment very easily (no more of this "invisible" stuff like in the old Revised rules, which was pretty broken). Fosh are great medics because of their healing glands, and they're always considered to have a medpac or medical kit (no need to carry medpacs around, although they're still limited to the "one first aid per day" restriction on Treat Injury), plus they get a Deception reroll. Givin have damage reduction, can survive in vacuum, and can reroll all of their Knowledge checks. Gotals can read a target's emotions by making a Perception vs. Will roll, and they can also use Use the Force untrained to Sense Force and Sense Surroundings. Herglics are very strong (+4 Str) but take a -4 Dex penalty, plus they're Large size, they get a bonus to their second winds, and they get Skill Focus (Gather Information). Mrlssi get Mechanics as a bonus class skill, they get any one Knowledge as a free skill at first level, and they get Skill Focus (Persuasion).

On to classes. Every class but Jedi gets some new talents, and nobles make out the best. Nobles get three, count 'em three, new talent trees. The Master of Intrigue tree is all about manipulating your allies, in a good way: You can trade Initiative rolls, let them move as a free action, and force them to stand back up when they're unconscious. The Skill Challenge talent tree gives some new options in skill challenges; the book emphasizes that if your DM isn't running skill challenges, don't take any of the clearly labeled Skill Challenge talents or feats.

Then comes the Superior Skills tree, which is my favorite of the trees. Do you love skills? Do you have a particular skill you really want to pimp out? Then this is your tree. Assured Skill lets you pick a skill; you can lose any competence bonuses on it (i.e. Skill Focus) to be able to roll twice and keep the best die. Exceptional Skill lets you pick a skill; whenever you roll a 2-7 on it, it's treated as an 8. Reliable Boon lets you reroll 1s on Force Points. Skill Boon adds one die step to your Force Points when used with a particular skill. Skillful Recovery lets you pick a skill; whenever you fail a skill check with that skill, you gain a temporary Force Point which can only be used to add to a later skill check with that same skill. There's also Critical Skill Success, which adds to your other skill checks whenever you roll a natural 20 on a skill, and Skill Confidence, which boosts off of that and makes it 19-20, and gives you bonus hit points equal to your Charisma modifier whenever you get it.

Scoundrels get the Revolutionary talent tree, which is all about being a rebel. Bomb Thrower lets you make frag grenades from scratch as a full-round action. Make an Example hurts the attack rolls of any target whose damage threshold you beat; conversely, For the Cause gives you and all of your allies bonuses to attack and damage rolls whenever one of you takes damage beating your threshold. Revolutionary Rhetoric lets you use Persuasion to keep an opponent from making standard actions.

Scouts get the Espionage talent tree, which is focused on stealth and making a quick getaway. Fade Out lets you use Stealth, not Deception, to create a diversion to hide in combat. Keep Together lets you move as a reaction whenever you are hit or missed in melee, as long as you end next to an ally. Prudent Escape lets you move yourself and two allies immediately after knocking a target to 0 hit points or unconscious. Reactive Stealth lets you try to move and stay concealed if you're attacked while you have concealment. Sizing Up gives you a bonus to attack and skill rolls against a target of your choice.

Soldiers get some new Brawling and Commando talents, all of which have a "bodyguard" feel. The Brawling talents are primarily focused on grabbing and grappling, with one, Disarm and Engage, giving you more incentive to disarm. The Commando talents all require Harm's Way, from the core book, as a prerequisite, and they all go a long way to keeping a target protected. Between these and the Elite Trooper talents in the Legacy book, you could build a Soldier/Elite Trooper whose sole function is to protect other people from damage.

Prestige classes get a few talents, as well. Ace Pilot gets a few talents, most of which work to defend the ship you're piloting. Bounty Hunter gets some "detective"-type talents that make it easier to track targets with Gather Information; in particular, the Electronic Trail talent lets you follow a target's "electronic trail," which consists of the amount and location of any credits spent, the routes of any public transportation taken, and the sites viewed on the HoloNet while the target was logged in using its primary identity. Players beware! Crime Lord gets two new talents, including Attract Superior Minion, which is a nonheroic minion whose level equals yours. Gunslinger gets two new talents, including the awesome Pistol Duelist, which, among other things, lets you once per encounter aim and shoot as a single action.

The book does not include any new prestige classes, and it took a little flak on the Star Wars RPG forums for not having a "Senator" prestige class or anything like that. To which one of the designers got on and said that really, they couldn't think of anything new for a Senator to do that existing prestige classes can't do (nor did they want to add a new prestige class just for the sake of doing so), and players should feel free to file the serial numbers off Crime Lord or Corporate Agent and call it a "Senator" class or whatever Noble-based prestige class they feel is lacking. Which I happen to agree with, not that we have players in the campaign lining up to be senators or anything.

Next come feats, which are across the board pretty good, and I'll touch on the highlights here. Adaptable Talent lets you sub out one talent for another; although it sounds broken, you can only do it at the start of the day, it has to be a talent from a class you possess (and that you meet the prereq's for), and this feat is not a bonus feat for any class, so you're spending one of your good feats to get a talent you will only use half the time at most anyway. Cut the Red Tape lets you sub Knowledge (bureaucracy) for Gather Information. Fléche lets you, once per encounter, when you charge, turn a natural roll of 17+ into a critical hit. Grazing Shot lets you shoot two targets at once, for reduced damage. Master of Disguise gives you bonuses to make disguises or forge documents, and lets you do it quickly, too. Recurring Success lets you pick any talent or feat you can use once per encounter; you can now use it twice per encounter. Stand Tall lets you, once per encounter, let all allies make an attack out of turn. Wookiee Grip is just like the old D&D Monkey Grip; you can grip a two-handed weapon in one hand, at an attack penalty.

Chapter 2 is Skill Challenges. Now I know D&D 4th Ed. has skill challenges, and our success with those has been mixed. But this chapter is pretty good — it talks about how to run them, how they can be broken up, how they're not a substitute for actual roleplaying, and provides a lengthy example with commentary. It also talks about what is and isn't a skill challenge, how to build them, and has a handy table of DCs. They also have Challenge Effects. Challenge Effects differentiate Star Wars skill challenges from D&D skill challenges; they're different things you can apply to skill challenges; for example, the Recovery effect makes it so a player who succeeds on a roll by 5 or more can remove a failure instead of accruing a success. Not only is it very nice to codify and write all this stuff out, but there are also feats and Noble talents that can interact with skill challenges by adding or removing these challenge effects.

The chapter then includes various skill challenges, a lot of them directly based on the movies: Breaching the Bunker, The Podrace, Asteroid Field Escape, Covert Infiltration, Interrogation, Investigation, Negotiation, Overland Travel, Searching the Debris Field, Slicing the HoloNet, Smuggling Contraband, Speeder Bike Chase, Tactical Leadership, Traversing the Minefield, and Sabotage Mission. These incorporate a wide variety of skills (Negotiation lists as primary skills Deception, Knowledge (galactic lore), Knowledge (social sciences), Persuasion, and Use the Force) and also use the different Challenge Effects to different degrees. For example, the Podcasting challenge changes from lap to lap, requiring some different skills on the part of both the racers and the "pit team," while the Overland Travel challenge requires every hero to get 3 successes to pull their weight, lest they drag their party down.

I'm sufficiently impressed with skill challenges and I plan to run them in the future; my goal is about one per game from here on out. However, I do need to emphasize that this will require some participation from you guys. I plan to have every individual player act in skill challenges in some meaningful way; for example, a negotiation challenge will not involve the entire party watching Jake roll Persuasion over and over again (not putting down Jake, but I don't want him inadvertently monopolizing the action). I will be looking at character sheets to see how I can use at least one skill every player has in each challenge. (For example, when I wrote up the skill challenge for convincing Keane to provide information, I wasn't sure if Devo would be in the party yet or not, so I included Knowledge (tactics) as an option, as Keane had made pretty clear that he cared a lot about maintaining his secrecy and keeping his operation running smoothly.)

Chapter 3 is Equipment. There are a few weapons: the wrist blaster (disguised as a bracelet, and fires only one shot), the darter, the snare pistol, and the Xerrol Nightstinger (which fires invisible shots, but is very rare and very expensive). There are also a few poisons, which range form the annoying to the deadly. The book also features a lot of equipment: the antitoxin patch, the earbud comlink (which I quite like), the flash suppressor/silencer (for your slugthrowers), the holo converter (for disguising yourself over holo transmissions), panic ring, redirection crystal (which redirects a blaster shot that hits it, for use with the Xerrol Nightstinger), a shield cage, surveillance detector, surveillance tagger (for following somebody), toxin detector, veridicator (basically a bracelet-like device that can determine if someone is lying), and a vid-vox scrambler (which scrambles nearby active recording devices). There is also a new Scum and Villainy-type upgrade, compartmentalization, which lets you break down an item into smaller components, which makes them easier to hide.

There are also quite a few ships, which I won't get into, but which are mostly either stealth recon ships or ships for the nobility. The book also includes a few vehicles, as well as a few droids: the 5-BT Threat Analysis, the NR-1100 Slicer, 3D-4 Administrative, M4-Series Messenger, FIII Footman, BL-Series Battle Legionnaire, and B4J4 Security droid.

Chapter 4 is Campaigns, which talks quite about how to make a campaign that focuses on intrigue and secrets. It discusses how heroes might join together and the common elements to these sorts of campaigns (and emphasizes that these don't have any less action than other campaigns). It provides a few campaign models, then discusses how to write compelling bad guys and encounters (even including a sidebar about having a Jedi be the villain; not even a Dark Jedi, but just one who's meddling where he doesn't belong). All in all this was a pretty good chapter, discussing misdirection, plot twists, trust, and so on.

Chapter 5 is Factions and Organizations. This just discusses some of the intrigue-based groups out there and how they interact with heroes and the rest of the galaxy: Core World Nobles, Droid Equality Foundation, the Firebird Society, the Galactic Alliance Guard, the Hapans, House Korden, Imperial Intelligence, Kashyyyk Resistance, Naboo Resistance Movement, New Republic Intelligence, the Praetorite Vong, the Tagge Company, and Tapani Nobles.

Chapter 6 is an original planet, Nyriaan, which makes use of a lot of the intrigue ideas in the book. It's got a rare material useful in hyperdrives, which has attracted all sorts of corporations to it and created a large miner slave operation. It gives plenty of adventure ideas, details major locations, gives a timeline dating back to the KotOR era, and stats out a lot of NPCs. Chapter 7 is Intrigue Encounters, which are a bunch of mini-adventures that include maps and NPCs, and which can be dropped into any campaign (similar scenes appear in Scum and Villainy and Galaxy at War). Chapter 8 is a small campaign, The Perfect Storm, which is based on Nyriaan and makes use of the intrigue ideas in the book. My only complaint about The Perfect Storm is it doesn't seem to say what level it's designed for, and it looks like somewhere between 2 and 4.

All in all, I think this is a great book, and I plan to make use of a lot of this material — like I said, I plan to make skill challenges a regular thing, and intrigue has been a big part of my campaign from the beginning. I think it's pretty solid if you're playing a noble and I highly recommend it.