Pleh
2019-12-07, 12:26 PM
Let's not say I'm ripping off Mark Hall's idea (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?604103-Order-66-A-Short-Savage-Star-Wars-campaign) for a journal and instead say I'm inspired to share a game I've been running for some months that shares a few similarities. Go read and follow his journal, too. It looks quite promising.
Half of the point of this journal is the fun of writing and talking about this game, so I won't apologize for the length. Just be prepared for a bit of a read.
Session Zero
So, originally, the game was meant to be a one-shot to fill a gap week when one of the players couldn't make it. We decided we were tired of making level 1 characters who never get to see the higher levels of play, so I told players to make level 8 characters so they could get to really use the Prestige Class options, effectively starting the campaign at Prestige Class Level 1 (not that they were required to take prestige classes, but were certainly encouraged to do so).
Of course, the time it takes to make 8th level characters wound up taking the whole session, and I spent that time preparing the encounters, so we put the one shot on the shelf for a later date. Of course, the other player who had missed the character creation session heard about the game and wanted to play in it, too, so the "spare tire" one shot got promoted into its own campaign (before we got to session one).
One of my first thoughts as a DM is where in the SW timeline to begin, as it potentially limits which books we can use. Choosing Legacy era in theory makes all the books relevant, except then the Kotor era material feels somewhat dated.
Explaining the History and Setting
This leads to the first campaign homebrew rule: I have compressed the timeline (pray I do not compress it further). All of the relevant SW history has taken place over the last 200 or so years. Now the Mandalorian Wars are as far distant in the past as the Civil War is for America, meaning many people know relatives who were part of those events and Master Yoda has in fact lived through the entire story. In fact, the timeline itself now begins and is measured past the moment in history when the Sith broke away from the Jedi Order (an event known as The Schism). The primary idea being that the titular Star Wars now are perceived as being very likely linked directly to the Jedi Order's inability to reconcile with their own exiled faction, as reverberations through the Force sow discord throughout the rest of the Galaxy. Of course, even to the Jedi, the problem of The Schism is a Chicken or the Egg question. Is the Schism itself the problem causing all these symptoms, or was The Schism just another symptom of a much greater threat poisoning the Galaxy from the shadows?
This implies one of the other core rules of Canon in my game: events from video games and movies definitely took place in my AU, but since none of these characters personally witnessed the events, the details are unknown to them, which means the Canon can be more flexible in my view. For example, players may or may not be familiar with the name Luke Skywalker, but even if they are, he would be known as a Rebellion hero who helped bring down the Empire. The idea that he spearheaded the destruction of the First Death Star, became a Jedi Knight, and directly confronted the Emperor would be attributed to wartime propaganda and causes many people to think this Luke Skywalker person wasn't real, just a character devised by the Rebellion to inspire hope in a desperate cause. Leia Organa, on the other hand, was a Senator and is a known public figure. They have likely had the opportunity to watch her speeches on the holonet and see her engage in Senatorial debates.
No segue, it's time to talk about the second campaign homebrew rule: this is a game about Factions, similar to the Fallout Series (particularly, New Vegas). I've set the game to begin around 10 years after RotJ, partly because that avoids the problem of the Sequel Trilogy not having any content for SWSE, but also avoids having to bring in Yuuzhan Vong elements (yet). So what are the factions to be concerned with?
Well, that brings me to my third homebrew campaign rule: a Faction can't die from simply having its head cut off. It must be systematically dismantled, like uprooting a weed. That means the Mandalorians are the poster child for an Ex-Faction. They weren't just defeated, Revan and the Republic systematically dismantled them. Of course there are still Mandalorians and a few attempts over history at rebuilding them, but they have no effective structure in place through the galaxy, just the memories of the ones they used to have.
Part of the significance of this is the fact that the PC's adventure revolves around dismantling a particular faction (which we'll get to later), but more importantly outlines my first major change to the Canon. When Anakin executed the CIS leadership at Mustafar, word spread quickly through the CIS ranks, who had already been planning for emergency retreat options as the war was in decline and the CIS began to crumble. Spies within the Republic warned that something was wrong and that clones were killing the Jedi, which was seen as a good thing at first. Then the communication with Mustafar was lost and the remaining leadership of the CIS realized the trap was closing around them. They enacted their plans and retreated to Wild Space, taking as much as they could with them, but being forced to begin rebuilding, this time knowing never again to trust the wiles of a Sith benefactor. They watched as the Empire consolidated its power, oppressing nonhuman races, and the rise of the Rebellion. They couldn't risk discovery, as the Galaxy's belief in the death of the CIS was critical to their plans to return, but they did occasionally funnel support to the Rebellion whenever it wouldn't compromise their secrecy. Slowly, over the decades between RotS and RotJ, they improved their droids, built new armies and armadas, and waited for the prime opportunity.
That moment came at the Battle of Endor, when the Emperor was killed, sending the Empire into chaos as various greedy Moffs began dividing and in-fighting for supremacy, even as the Rebellion rallied the support of various seditious star systems to begin driving the Remnants of the Empire back. This was the moment the CIS chose to return. Marching from the Northwest corner of the Galaxy in Wild Space, the CIS quickly captured Mon Calamari, in part due to help from the Quarrians, who had supported the CIS back in the Clone Wars. This gave the reforged CIS access to the MC80s the Rebellion had been using to combat the Empire's Star Destroyers. The CIS also managed to cut off the Corporate Sector from the Core Worlds, immediately constricting the power of the Core's economic structure. At first, their expansion was only slowed by competition with the Hutt Cartels, who likewise had taken the opportunity provided by the Battle of Endor to expand.
The pressure of the impending CIS invasion and the efficiency of their attack forced the Imperial Remnant to parlay with the burgeoning Republic Rebels, as neither wanted to let the CIS take over. There was no illusion that the CIS were seeking revenge and restitution for generations of unfair law and business practices that had made them feel they were second class citizens and that a galaxy ruled by the CIS would be an inverted Empire, where the racism would flow AGAINST humans (and any other races that sympathized with the Old Republic or Empire) rather than the other way around. This greatly expedited negotiations, which at first were primarily facilitated by Mon Mothma and Leia Organa, but were unexpectedly met with equal political influence by Grand Moff Roan Fel. While Mon Mothma preached the need for unity against the CIS and Leia constantly demanded the need for maintaining citizens rights and liberties even in the face of invasion, Roan Fel argued the Galaxy could not be defended only by unity and liberty. The Core Worlds needed armies and warships, which the Remnant had in abundance while the Rebellion had been on the verge of collapse at the Battle of Endor, having lost most of their last fleet in the effort to destroy the second Death Star. Over the course of the debates, Fel devised the compromise that the Imperial Senate would be reinstated and the Emperor would be subject to the Senate's will, operating primarily as the commander in chief of the military and not in command of civil matters. Ultimately, Fel crushed a Rogue Imperial cell at the Battle of Jakku, proving to the satisfaction of most in the Galaxy where his loyalties lie. The senate chose to recognize Roan Fel as the de facto emperor (against a strong protest, including Leia) until such a time as the CIS were defeated, at which time elections for his replacement would be held. Fel agreed to the terms and within 5 years of the CIS's return to the galaxy, the Fel Empire had organized whatever forces were still loyal and managed to halt the CIS expansion.
Essentially, the Empire shifted from Lawful Evil to Lawful Neutral.
Now I can explain the major factions in the game: The Fel Empire (and their terrorist offshoots: The First Order and The Resistance), the CIS, the Hutts, the Corporate Sector, and the Chiss kind of watching it all go down from a distance (I suspect Thrawn assisted Fel in the political maneuverings of solidifying the new Empire). There are a number of smaller factions, but none of them really have much a say of Galactic politics, instead operating on a much smaller scale.
Introduction: The PCs
Three players. Going along with the idea of doing stuff we hadn't had a chance to play with in previous games, they decided to play a group of Jedi (first time the part was ALL Jedi). Specifically, a group of Gray Jedi, neither the true believers who are pure of heart nor the sadistic serial killers on the dark side.
We have a plain Vanilla Human Jedi with a strong balance of various abilities named Torreon. He's about 50 years old and he was a padawan at the Temple during The Purge (basically the same backstory as Fallen Order, except he became a wandering drunkard for about 40 years). He struggles with the desire to live as a Jedi, being the light to others he meets, but feeling disillusioned by the memory of the eradication of his order by one of its own, so he's no longer confident in what he used to believe. His alcoholism ended up getting him sent to a hospital, where he would have probably had to stay except that a group of monks offered to take him for rehabilitation, which the hospital accepted as the old man clearly had no means to compensate them for his care.
We have a Force Sensitive Ewok named Kenket who stowed away on a starship that visited Endor, traveling the Galaxy for a few years doing for the Galaxy what he originally did for his Tribe: hunting down and eliminating threats. He's built to optimize Stealth (trained at some point with the Disciples of Twilight), particularly to Force Choke targets from the shadows and eliminate enemies without alerting their allies. Since I decided to allow custom lightsabers (within reason) as it was part of being a PrC 1 jedi character, Kenket opted for a Dual Phase lightsaber, allowing him to wield the blade with Reach (somewhat mitigating his size penalties). I was having a little bit of trouble connecting him to the narrative as the character was designed more for mechanics than story, so I gave the player the opportunity to create a few NPC Connections. The one that has become the most important so far is the Bounty Hunter Mandalorian Twi'lek named Bo Raja Skirata, who will come up in the journal later. Kenket begins his part in the story tracking a group of slavers and trying to free their captives.
Last, but certainly not least, we have Da-Ruun, a Miraluka with exceptional power in the Force. He was taken by slavers at an early age, when the Black Moon raiders attacked his village to sell them into slavery. He would likely have been sold along with his family, except that a crisis on the starship was averted by his precognitive perception through the Force. The leader of Black Moon, Mol-Terac, took notice of his incredible potential, and he was pressed into serving the slavers throughout his adolescence. A few months ago, he had an unprecedented opportunity to sneak into Mol-Terac's office while she was away and found some encrypted documents. That wasn't unusual, since she usually encrypted her personal files. What was unusual was that it was a cypher he was unfamiliar with. He had risen through her ranks to a position of relative prominence, despite still being more or less a slave, so he was accustomed to handling her personal files and even had access to some of her cyphers. The fact that this document had an extra layer of security he hadn't even known about meant it was far more precious to her than anything else was. He didn't have time to decrypt it then and there and he didn't know when he would have enough privacy to try, but he copied the (electronic) documents for later.
The Tavern Meetup
Then came the day of their disparate stories being united. Da-Ruun was serving Black Moon aboard one of their slaver freighters, the YT-2000 named, The Iron Sights. They were attacking a traveling shuttle in the hopes of slaves or at least to take its resources. Da-Ruun began to see distressing signs of Black Moon thugs going missing on patrol of the modest freighter. Nine, the network security droid assigned to protect the ship from theft, suggested there was a stowaway causing trouble and that sensor sweeps weren't finding anything. Da-Ruun could sense Kenket's presence through the Force, but wasn't exactly in a hurry to stop him from killing Black Moon thugs. That's when the ship was suddenly invaded by a large number of monks appearing out of thin air, seizing the ship. The Iron Sights had picked the wrong victim this time. It was a shuttle full of Aing-Tii monks, who simply Folded Space aboard the Iron Sights and promptly ended the attack on their shuttle. The Iron Sights was taken back to their monastery, where Da-Ruun and the others were set free (honestly, the Aing-Tii let the slavers go as well, since execution wasn't exactly their style, but they had to find their own way home as they weren't being given their ship back). Kenket came out of hiding, intrigued that Da-Ruun was able to perceive him through the Force despite his training in stealth. Torreon, coming back to his senses after weeks of rehabilitation with the monks, saw the freed slaves and particularly the Force Sensitive Ewok and was reminded of the lost younglings at the temple. He felt a desire to help the little ones understand and turn away from violence and the Dark Side, as some part of his old optimism began to return.
Meanwhile, Da-Ruun took the weeks of Aing-Tii hospitality to learn their ability to Fold Space and to decipher Mol-Terac's secret document. His cipher was incomplete, but he was able to break the code enough to track a few words and ideas, partially by cross referencing locations in the document with Black Moon facilities he was aware of. One of them stood out as being a location he never knew Mol-Terac to have had any business with. It had to be part of whatever she was trying to hide.
Da-Ruun convinced the Aing-Tii to allow him to take the Iron Sights, informing them that his intention was to dismantle Black Moon forever. They warned him about the dangers of the path of vengeance, but when it was clear he could not be dissuaded, they granted him the vessel, encouraging him to seek his own path.
Kenket, seeing Da-Ruun about to leave on a hunt for the wicked, immediately started out to follow. Da-Ruun began to protest, but remembered how difficult Kenket had been to perceive and his effectiveness at eliminating Black Moon pirates, so he relented and welcomed Kenket aboard. Torreon was against the general idea of the mission, but truly felt these young men needed guidance as their inclination was violence and he understood the importance of taking down a dangerous organization of pirates and slavers. Da-Ruun decided to accept his help as well, seeing the lightsaber strapped to Torreon's waist. They could each sense that the Force had a purpose in their meeting and they embarked for the abandoned Imperial Outpost at Kejim, mentioned in Mol-Terac's secret documents.
This concludes Session Zero. We haven't even gotten to the part where we start playing the game. This is what we worked out before the game as the setup for the first session. That'll have to be enough for one post. I'll create another soon enough.
Half of the point of this journal is the fun of writing and talking about this game, so I won't apologize for the length. Just be prepared for a bit of a read.
Session Zero
So, originally, the game was meant to be a one-shot to fill a gap week when one of the players couldn't make it. We decided we were tired of making level 1 characters who never get to see the higher levels of play, so I told players to make level 8 characters so they could get to really use the Prestige Class options, effectively starting the campaign at Prestige Class Level 1 (not that they were required to take prestige classes, but were certainly encouraged to do so).
Of course, the time it takes to make 8th level characters wound up taking the whole session, and I spent that time preparing the encounters, so we put the one shot on the shelf for a later date. Of course, the other player who had missed the character creation session heard about the game and wanted to play in it, too, so the "spare tire" one shot got promoted into its own campaign (before we got to session one).
One of my first thoughts as a DM is where in the SW timeline to begin, as it potentially limits which books we can use. Choosing Legacy era in theory makes all the books relevant, except then the Kotor era material feels somewhat dated.
Explaining the History and Setting
This leads to the first campaign homebrew rule: I have compressed the timeline (pray I do not compress it further). All of the relevant SW history has taken place over the last 200 or so years. Now the Mandalorian Wars are as far distant in the past as the Civil War is for America, meaning many people know relatives who were part of those events and Master Yoda has in fact lived through the entire story. In fact, the timeline itself now begins and is measured past the moment in history when the Sith broke away from the Jedi Order (an event known as The Schism). The primary idea being that the titular Star Wars now are perceived as being very likely linked directly to the Jedi Order's inability to reconcile with their own exiled faction, as reverberations through the Force sow discord throughout the rest of the Galaxy. Of course, even to the Jedi, the problem of The Schism is a Chicken or the Egg question. Is the Schism itself the problem causing all these symptoms, or was The Schism just another symptom of a much greater threat poisoning the Galaxy from the shadows?
This implies one of the other core rules of Canon in my game: events from video games and movies definitely took place in my AU, but since none of these characters personally witnessed the events, the details are unknown to them, which means the Canon can be more flexible in my view. For example, players may or may not be familiar with the name Luke Skywalker, but even if they are, he would be known as a Rebellion hero who helped bring down the Empire. The idea that he spearheaded the destruction of the First Death Star, became a Jedi Knight, and directly confronted the Emperor would be attributed to wartime propaganda and causes many people to think this Luke Skywalker person wasn't real, just a character devised by the Rebellion to inspire hope in a desperate cause. Leia Organa, on the other hand, was a Senator and is a known public figure. They have likely had the opportunity to watch her speeches on the holonet and see her engage in Senatorial debates.
No segue, it's time to talk about the second campaign homebrew rule: this is a game about Factions, similar to the Fallout Series (particularly, New Vegas). I've set the game to begin around 10 years after RotJ, partly because that avoids the problem of the Sequel Trilogy not having any content for SWSE, but also avoids having to bring in Yuuzhan Vong elements (yet). So what are the factions to be concerned with?
Well, that brings me to my third homebrew campaign rule: a Faction can't die from simply having its head cut off. It must be systematically dismantled, like uprooting a weed. That means the Mandalorians are the poster child for an Ex-Faction. They weren't just defeated, Revan and the Republic systematically dismantled them. Of course there are still Mandalorians and a few attempts over history at rebuilding them, but they have no effective structure in place through the galaxy, just the memories of the ones they used to have.
Part of the significance of this is the fact that the PC's adventure revolves around dismantling a particular faction (which we'll get to later), but more importantly outlines my first major change to the Canon. When Anakin executed the CIS leadership at Mustafar, word spread quickly through the CIS ranks, who had already been planning for emergency retreat options as the war was in decline and the CIS began to crumble. Spies within the Republic warned that something was wrong and that clones were killing the Jedi, which was seen as a good thing at first. Then the communication with Mustafar was lost and the remaining leadership of the CIS realized the trap was closing around them. They enacted their plans and retreated to Wild Space, taking as much as they could with them, but being forced to begin rebuilding, this time knowing never again to trust the wiles of a Sith benefactor. They watched as the Empire consolidated its power, oppressing nonhuman races, and the rise of the Rebellion. They couldn't risk discovery, as the Galaxy's belief in the death of the CIS was critical to their plans to return, but they did occasionally funnel support to the Rebellion whenever it wouldn't compromise their secrecy. Slowly, over the decades between RotS and RotJ, they improved their droids, built new armies and armadas, and waited for the prime opportunity.
That moment came at the Battle of Endor, when the Emperor was killed, sending the Empire into chaos as various greedy Moffs began dividing and in-fighting for supremacy, even as the Rebellion rallied the support of various seditious star systems to begin driving the Remnants of the Empire back. This was the moment the CIS chose to return. Marching from the Northwest corner of the Galaxy in Wild Space, the CIS quickly captured Mon Calamari, in part due to help from the Quarrians, who had supported the CIS back in the Clone Wars. This gave the reforged CIS access to the MC80s the Rebellion had been using to combat the Empire's Star Destroyers. The CIS also managed to cut off the Corporate Sector from the Core Worlds, immediately constricting the power of the Core's economic structure. At first, their expansion was only slowed by competition with the Hutt Cartels, who likewise had taken the opportunity provided by the Battle of Endor to expand.
The pressure of the impending CIS invasion and the efficiency of their attack forced the Imperial Remnant to parlay with the burgeoning Republic Rebels, as neither wanted to let the CIS take over. There was no illusion that the CIS were seeking revenge and restitution for generations of unfair law and business practices that had made them feel they were second class citizens and that a galaxy ruled by the CIS would be an inverted Empire, where the racism would flow AGAINST humans (and any other races that sympathized with the Old Republic or Empire) rather than the other way around. This greatly expedited negotiations, which at first were primarily facilitated by Mon Mothma and Leia Organa, but were unexpectedly met with equal political influence by Grand Moff Roan Fel. While Mon Mothma preached the need for unity against the CIS and Leia constantly demanded the need for maintaining citizens rights and liberties even in the face of invasion, Roan Fel argued the Galaxy could not be defended only by unity and liberty. The Core Worlds needed armies and warships, which the Remnant had in abundance while the Rebellion had been on the verge of collapse at the Battle of Endor, having lost most of their last fleet in the effort to destroy the second Death Star. Over the course of the debates, Fel devised the compromise that the Imperial Senate would be reinstated and the Emperor would be subject to the Senate's will, operating primarily as the commander in chief of the military and not in command of civil matters. Ultimately, Fel crushed a Rogue Imperial cell at the Battle of Jakku, proving to the satisfaction of most in the Galaxy where his loyalties lie. The senate chose to recognize Roan Fel as the de facto emperor (against a strong protest, including Leia) until such a time as the CIS were defeated, at which time elections for his replacement would be held. Fel agreed to the terms and within 5 years of the CIS's return to the galaxy, the Fel Empire had organized whatever forces were still loyal and managed to halt the CIS expansion.
Essentially, the Empire shifted from Lawful Evil to Lawful Neutral.
Now I can explain the major factions in the game: The Fel Empire (and their terrorist offshoots: The First Order and The Resistance), the CIS, the Hutts, the Corporate Sector, and the Chiss kind of watching it all go down from a distance (I suspect Thrawn assisted Fel in the political maneuverings of solidifying the new Empire). There are a number of smaller factions, but none of them really have much a say of Galactic politics, instead operating on a much smaller scale.
Introduction: The PCs
Three players. Going along with the idea of doing stuff we hadn't had a chance to play with in previous games, they decided to play a group of Jedi (first time the part was ALL Jedi). Specifically, a group of Gray Jedi, neither the true believers who are pure of heart nor the sadistic serial killers on the dark side.
We have a plain Vanilla Human Jedi with a strong balance of various abilities named Torreon. He's about 50 years old and he was a padawan at the Temple during The Purge (basically the same backstory as Fallen Order, except he became a wandering drunkard for about 40 years). He struggles with the desire to live as a Jedi, being the light to others he meets, but feeling disillusioned by the memory of the eradication of his order by one of its own, so he's no longer confident in what he used to believe. His alcoholism ended up getting him sent to a hospital, where he would have probably had to stay except that a group of monks offered to take him for rehabilitation, which the hospital accepted as the old man clearly had no means to compensate them for his care.
We have a Force Sensitive Ewok named Kenket who stowed away on a starship that visited Endor, traveling the Galaxy for a few years doing for the Galaxy what he originally did for his Tribe: hunting down and eliminating threats. He's built to optimize Stealth (trained at some point with the Disciples of Twilight), particularly to Force Choke targets from the shadows and eliminate enemies without alerting their allies. Since I decided to allow custom lightsabers (within reason) as it was part of being a PrC 1 jedi character, Kenket opted for a Dual Phase lightsaber, allowing him to wield the blade with Reach (somewhat mitigating his size penalties). I was having a little bit of trouble connecting him to the narrative as the character was designed more for mechanics than story, so I gave the player the opportunity to create a few NPC Connections. The one that has become the most important so far is the Bounty Hunter Mandalorian Twi'lek named Bo Raja Skirata, who will come up in the journal later. Kenket begins his part in the story tracking a group of slavers and trying to free their captives.
Last, but certainly not least, we have Da-Ruun, a Miraluka with exceptional power in the Force. He was taken by slavers at an early age, when the Black Moon raiders attacked his village to sell them into slavery. He would likely have been sold along with his family, except that a crisis on the starship was averted by his precognitive perception through the Force. The leader of Black Moon, Mol-Terac, took notice of his incredible potential, and he was pressed into serving the slavers throughout his adolescence. A few months ago, he had an unprecedented opportunity to sneak into Mol-Terac's office while she was away and found some encrypted documents. That wasn't unusual, since she usually encrypted her personal files. What was unusual was that it was a cypher he was unfamiliar with. He had risen through her ranks to a position of relative prominence, despite still being more or less a slave, so he was accustomed to handling her personal files and even had access to some of her cyphers. The fact that this document had an extra layer of security he hadn't even known about meant it was far more precious to her than anything else was. He didn't have time to decrypt it then and there and he didn't know when he would have enough privacy to try, but he copied the (electronic) documents for later.
The Tavern Meetup
Then came the day of their disparate stories being united. Da-Ruun was serving Black Moon aboard one of their slaver freighters, the YT-2000 named, The Iron Sights. They were attacking a traveling shuttle in the hopes of slaves or at least to take its resources. Da-Ruun began to see distressing signs of Black Moon thugs going missing on patrol of the modest freighter. Nine, the network security droid assigned to protect the ship from theft, suggested there was a stowaway causing trouble and that sensor sweeps weren't finding anything. Da-Ruun could sense Kenket's presence through the Force, but wasn't exactly in a hurry to stop him from killing Black Moon thugs. That's when the ship was suddenly invaded by a large number of monks appearing out of thin air, seizing the ship. The Iron Sights had picked the wrong victim this time. It was a shuttle full of Aing-Tii monks, who simply Folded Space aboard the Iron Sights and promptly ended the attack on their shuttle. The Iron Sights was taken back to their monastery, where Da-Ruun and the others were set free (honestly, the Aing-Tii let the slavers go as well, since execution wasn't exactly their style, but they had to find their own way home as they weren't being given their ship back). Kenket came out of hiding, intrigued that Da-Ruun was able to perceive him through the Force despite his training in stealth. Torreon, coming back to his senses after weeks of rehabilitation with the monks, saw the freed slaves and particularly the Force Sensitive Ewok and was reminded of the lost younglings at the temple. He felt a desire to help the little ones understand and turn away from violence and the Dark Side, as some part of his old optimism began to return.
Meanwhile, Da-Ruun took the weeks of Aing-Tii hospitality to learn their ability to Fold Space and to decipher Mol-Terac's secret document. His cipher was incomplete, but he was able to break the code enough to track a few words and ideas, partially by cross referencing locations in the document with Black Moon facilities he was aware of. One of them stood out as being a location he never knew Mol-Terac to have had any business with. It had to be part of whatever she was trying to hide.
Da-Ruun convinced the Aing-Tii to allow him to take the Iron Sights, informing them that his intention was to dismantle Black Moon forever. They warned him about the dangers of the path of vengeance, but when it was clear he could not be dissuaded, they granted him the vessel, encouraging him to seek his own path.
Kenket, seeing Da-Ruun about to leave on a hunt for the wicked, immediately started out to follow. Da-Ruun began to protest, but remembered how difficult Kenket had been to perceive and his effectiveness at eliminating Black Moon pirates, so he relented and welcomed Kenket aboard. Torreon was against the general idea of the mission, but truly felt these young men needed guidance as their inclination was violence and he understood the importance of taking down a dangerous organization of pirates and slavers. Da-Ruun decided to accept his help as well, seeing the lightsaber strapped to Torreon's waist. They could each sense that the Force had a purpose in their meeting and they embarked for the abandoned Imperial Outpost at Kejim, mentioned in Mol-Terac's secret documents.
This concludes Session Zero. We haven't even gotten to the part where we start playing the game. This is what we worked out before the game as the setup for the first session. That'll have to be enough for one post. I'll create another soon enough.