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Epireus, Mountain Base

It is a typical day on the high-gravity world that hides you all from the rest of the Galaxy. The rain is coming down, but it never reaches the higher portion of the mountain. Instead, it fizzles against the shield that is projected over the base. It will serve you well if anyone ever tries to bombard your base from orbit (not that you are expecting anyone to), but it does mean that the mountain stays rather dry and dusty while the rest of the world is refreshed.

At the moment, Rand is communicating with the Mecrossa Order on new potential members of your Dark Sider gang. Relle Novalinda, Con Gordo, Azarl Kaal... these names do not mean anything to you. Not yet. But currently Rand, though no longer in the leadership position, has set the goal of inviting these Dark Siders, fleeing for their lives from the Republic and the Bureau, to join you on Epireus. You are going along with it, for now. It gives you something to do.

The only person not present is Galder. He is out tracking down rumors of another Dark Sider.

For now, you can do whatever you like. The lounge, with its butchered furniture, is always available for a practice duel or target practice, and you have yet to set up any civil arrangements with the Epireans, meaning the hunt is still on. Or you can chat with your fellow Darkies, either within the Brigade or without. With the exception of Galder and Rand, all the Dark Siders are in... Gallador, Takuan, Tanic, Xorn, Rah...

And... go!

Xavier is in his room pondering their thoughts, before he heads to the lounge.

Rianna is already in the lounge, having fallen asleep on one of the few non-destroyed couches there.

Dak looks around the lounge for the closest comfortable piece of furniture before nonchalantly shoving Rianna off the couch she's on and taking her place.

Rianna jumps up, instinctively pulling out her lightsabers. When she sees Dak, she glares.

"I was sitting there," she snaps at him, just a teeny bit annoyed.

Xavier sees this exchange.

So childish aren't they

"They are," Xavier says before heading to a chair to sit in.

"And I'm sitting here now," Dak replies, fixing her with his reptilian gaze. "See how that works?" He grins, reclining to cover as much of the couch as possible.

Rianna glares back for a moment, before igniting her purple lightsaber. She cleaves it through the couch, which has the effect of separating it into two pieces and dumping Dak onto the floor.

"And now you're not."

The Dog needs to learn some manners

"Yes he does," Xavier says calmy while he sees Lana take the lizard to the floor.

"That is where you belong Fido, on the floor."

Originally posted by Peach
Rianna glares back for a moment, before igniting her purple lightsaber. She cleaves it through the couch, which has the effect of separating it into two pieces and dumping Dak onto the floor.

"And now you're not."
Dak jumps up, igniting a lightsaber and glaring at Rianna. "Oh, real mature. I'm not gonna miss, though."

"I've already defeated you before, Dak. Just face it - you'll never win," Rianna replies coolly, still holding her lightsaber and keeping it ignited.

"You cheated and you know it, *****. Come on. Right here," Dak growls, bringing the tip of his saber up.

"I cheated? Hardly my fault you allowed yourself to be walked into such an obvious trap," Rianna says, wondering just how far she can push him. "I would, but...really, not worth my time."

She is just as uncivilized and crazy as the giant blue lizard

"Yes she is, which is quite strange as she was once of Jedi order."

Look who's talking. She isn't currently having a conversation with herself is?

"Touche"

Did you just admit that you just got bested by yourself?

"Perhaps"

Are they about to fight? we should watch, or join in, or both!

"No this isn't good. You two shouldn't be fighting."

"You always say that," Dak retorts, "But I think it's really because you're afraid of what will happen when you fight me."

"Lizards are things to be afraid of? That's news to me," Rianna says. "I don't recall you ever doing anything vaguely warranting me even being worried at all."

"And Xavier, stop talking to yourself. It's annoying and distracting."

Xavier puts his palm to his face.

"When talking to you two it seems like the only person who will listen to me is ourself," Xavier calmly retorts.

That is very sad indeed

Dak growls again, using the Force to nudge a smaller piece of furniture at Rianna's head from behind.

Rianna easily deflects the object coming at her with the Force, and laughs.

"Did you really think that would work?"

"No, but thinking about it hitting you made me feel better." Dak looks around before dropping into another mostly-whole seat.

Xavier seeing Dak take a seat will plant himself on one part of the disemboweled couch which how now has become a slightly burned smelling chair.

"So what are we going to do today," Xavier says.

"Ahh, delusions. How fun those must be," Rianna snaps back, before putting away her own lightsaber and taking another of the few undestroyed seats in the room.

"You'd know," Dak snaps at Rianna, automatically.

Rianna glares at Dak again, before using the Force to throw a broken chair leg at him.

"I don't know. This place is boring. At least Rand isn't around right now," she replies to Xavier at the same time.

Dak catches the leg in his hand, barely acknowledging it. "Oh, I dunno. If he were here we could tug on his tentacles."

"He is trying to get us new recruits, hopefully they won't all be like him."

"And if they are, well, they won't be here for very long," Rianna says. "Sitting around here is boring, though. Why did Galder go rumor-chasing? The only rumors he's cared about before were anything related to Kuylen."

"That is precisely why he left."

Standing to one side of the lounge is Takuan Soho. For those who do not remember him, Takuan is a grizzled old man, having trained himself in the Dark Side before throwing himself in with Kuylen's lot. He has a tired face and thin gray hair pulled back into a ponytail, and wears a tattered and dirty brown cloak.

"What a surprise. And exactly what rumor of Kuylen did he manage to stumble upon?"

Takuan sighs.

"Rand tipped him off to some rumor that a man had been running around at the head of a militia, using a lightsaber. Rather stupid of the man, whoever he is. It is too obvious."

"And he went for that? Am I the only one who thinks that sounds like the most poorly set up trap ever created?" Rianna asks scornfully. "I know Galder is no genius, but really now."

"Yeah, I never would have trusted that," Dak agrees. "Still, it is Galder..."

"Galder is unstable," Takuan says. "He longs for the importance and power that he felt he held under Kuylen. Even though we know that the General is dead, he still jumps at any mention. But I sense... that that path is closed. Only two paths lie ahead... possibly three."

"He's more than just a bit unstable..." Rianna mutters. "And oh, yay, crypticness. So where would he have gone searching after this ridiculous rumor?"

(( Am i able to join since i am a darksider and wandering the galaxy?))

No, this is just for the three that already posted. You can ask more stuff here: http://www.killermovies.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=470758&pagenumber=9#post11405379

Originally posted by teck92
(( Am i able to join since i am a darksider and wandering the galaxy?))

The Retrospection threads are all written for a specific person (or in this case, small group of people), so no.

Also it's considered very rude to post in someone else's thread asking something like that.

((well excuse me sorry i did not know that.))

It's alright mistakes happen.

Xavier listens in while all this is going on.

Takuan just sort of shrugs.

"Not my business. Rand wants me to find someone named Azarl Kaal. Says he is passing himself off as a dark sorcerer of sorts. I'd... best get to it..."

Takuan wanders off into the rest of the base to do whatever it is he intends to do, but you can still sense the anger and fear that radiates from his mind at all times. His power is just damn scary, and it doesn't help that Kuylen trained him to be a capable swordsman.

"I don't understand why anyone still listens to Rand at all..." Rianna comments as Takuan leaves. "But who wants to bet that Galder's going to get himself tangled up in something incredibly stupid?"

"We won't take that losing bet," Xavier says.

"Are we going to like... get him back out of trouble?"

"Frankly, I care more about him possibly informing the galaxy that we're all still alive and squirreled away somewhere than anything else."

"Yeah, that would be bad," Dak sighs. "Last thing we need..."

Still, the possibility of a lightsaber-wielder leading a militia force about the Outer Rim... chances are he is not a Jedi.

And while most of you consider Galder to be pretty damn gullible after the Doon incident, it is highly unlikely that he took a tip from Rand without checking it out. Everyone knows that Galder and Rand want each other dead.

Chances are he's not up to anything good, though, whoever it is, and if it was Kuylen he'd probably be a bit less obvious about it.

How long have they been gone, anyway?

Galder left nearly a week ago. Rand is actually in the base, but refusing to talk to anyone while he works on his tracking efforts with the Mecrossans.

But apparently that has changed, because the three of you receive a message from him on your comlinks.

"Please meet me in the dining hall," Rand says. "I want to discuss something with you."

"This had better be worth our time," Xavier says.

"Ahh. Great. I wonder what he wants now..." Rianna says, rolling her eyes.

"Well at the very least what can be the harm in listening to him. It has got to be more productive then sitting around here doing nothing."

"And at the very least, it's been a while since I've felt the urge to just kill him..."

"We feel confident that will return soon enough," Xavier says without emotion in his voice.

I'm surprised her urge to kill him ever goes away

"He does have his uses every now and then." Xavier says to no one in particular.

The dining hall once held an elegant, polished banquet table that Doon kept around just for style. Needless to say it has seen better days under your possession.

Rand is sitting at the head of it, with an assortment of data-tapes and a hologram projector in front of him.

"Ah, there you are," Rand says, offering an unpleasant grin. "What kept you?"

"You only said you wanted us here a moment ago, Rand. Even a Jedi cannot move instantly," Rianna says, already annoyed with him.

Dak snickers quietly at Rianna's predictable reaction. "Get to the point, Rand."

"Yes, yes, fine..." Rand says, waving away Rianna's comment as he returns to his data-tapes. "As I'm sure you're aware, I have been using the Mecrossan network to track down individuals aligned with the Dark Side as they flee from the Bureau. Xavier is all the evidence you need of this. Now, I usually try to be sure of who our invites are going to, so that we know more about them than they of us... but recently I'd received word of a Force-user roving the Outer Rim that has gathered a following. The Mecrossans have no information that is useful... but Galder felt that it sounded Kuylen-esque."

"Have we received any word from him?"

"Galder would. So why are you telling us this?"

"No, we haven't," Rand says to Xavier. "I'm telling you this because he has failed to contact me, as we planned."

"So either Galder's being himself and has forgotten to contact you - not that I could blame him - or he's being himself and has gotten into trouble. Let me guess. You want us to find out what's going on."

"My, aren't you intuitive today," Rand says, looking up from his work. "Precisely. You see, if something has happened to him, something could happen to us."

"That is obvious. And that is why he should not have gone off by himself...do you even know where he went?" Rianna snaps back. "Though, how convenient this would be..."

"Convenient indeed. All four of us out of your slimy tentacles for good?" Dak says suspiciously. "Still... I suppose there is a threat, if he's been captured."

"Don't be stupid," Rand says. "While I am a skilled swordsman, there is no doubt that I am in need of your particular taste for carnage. I am willing to risk all this back-stabbing in order to survive the Bureau."

Rand pushes forward a holoprojector and slides a small data-tape into its side. It projects an image of a world, along with read-outs on the atmosphere and networth and so on.

"Galder informed me that he had tracked the rumors unsuccessfully until a new one came up, pointing to the world Skythros. I got nothing more out of him, but I did some research that should be useful."

"Skythros? So where's that? And what's there?"

"Skythros is an agricultural world. Not unlike Demarus, if you remember it. I learned of it in my studies as a youth in the Jedi Temple, where it served as an example of worlds beyond the Republic that flourished without the assistance of galactic government."

He brings up a display on the projector that segments the Skythros hologram into areas.

"The populace is composed entirely of human farmers. A man of Skythros works as long as he can operate the tools of agriculture. The farms they work on are immense," Rand gestures to the segmented areas, "and owned and operated by large towns. No unified government, no standing military. Skythros was originally colonized by the Republic for its fertility but they abandoned it when the pirate problem became too expensive. Too far out."

"Sounds boring. Why would rumors of Kuylen pop up there?"

"Skythros has always had a problem with pirates. The towns were forced to make arrangements with the raiders. Much like Demarus feeds the Republic, Skythros feeds the pirates. I mean, Demarus was not even worth it to the pirates because they ship wheat, but Skythros has a variety of crops, one of which can be concentrated to create illicit substances..."

Rand shuts off the projector.

"But the pirates are the main reason Kuylen might be there. Do you remember the Red Lance, Dak?"

While you have no idea what Demarus is (though Rianna can fill you in that they were first attacked by the Bureau, all part of the scheme by Doon), you do remember the Red Lance. They were pirates that worked for Kuylen, when your Master was trying to stimulate civil war in the Damagran system. You were not involved in that part of Kuylen's work, but you know they betrayed him.

"Of course," Dak answers, tail lashing. "They betrayed Kuylen."

"So Galder said. According to him, their leader, Pelloran, hadn't been finished off because Kuylen had more important business to attend to... anyways, the pirates that recently preyed on Skythros were associates of the Red Lance, unimportant goons. However, rumor had it that a highly skilled swordsman laid waste to their raiding forces and they fled the system. Galder thought maybe it could have been related."

"Seems like strenuous evidence at best, but from our short time here I've had the impression that Galder doesn't care about that kind of thing when it comes to Kuylen." Xavier speaks lightly.

"If only you knew," Rand sighs. "He could have saved us a great deal of trouble if he were not so blinded by his fanaticism, but he hasn't learned."

You really have no idea what most of this chatter is about, Xavier. Apparently Galder and Dak followed some guy named Kuylen who was an effective leader with a plan that failed. It is because of people like Kuylen and Galder that you had to flee the Bureau.

"Perhaps someday I shall know," Xavier mentions passingly. "So is anything special about this force that has attacked the pirates?"

"A man with a lightsaber fights off a pirate raiding force... you tell me," Rand says. "He also has followers."

"How many and have they been identified yet?"

"Of course Galder would be interested in that. What I'd like to know is how someone supposedly leading a force like that would manage to stay completely hidden for however long."

"That is what you are going to discover," Rand says. "If this is going to be a problem for us, we want to know what we are dealing with. Think of it as threat assessment."

"Great. Sounds like this should be a ton of fun." Rianna says sarcastically. "At least it's a change of pace and we'll be out of here for a while."

"Yeah, might as well be bored somewhere with a new view," Dak agrees.

"Well if we go the possibility of seeing Galder dead is intriguing," Xavier says calmly.

"As is the possibility of killing him ourselves."

"Aww, but I kind of like our friendly neighborhood murderous psychopath."

"Precisely," Rand says. "I'm giving you free reign on this one. Take your ships, take Epireans, etcetera. Just do not return without confirming that the location of Epireus is safe. If Galder is simply failing to respond to hails just because he doesn't like me, I should think that for wasting our time you could rough him up a bit... but if he isn't, if anyone has gotten something out of Galder about our existence and our location, kill them. If you can't rescue Galder, kill him, too."

"Hmm the glory that would come from killing Galder is very tempting but,"
His saber would add nicely to our collection

"He is a valuable resource to our group. Perhaps we should go retrieve him."

"Well, personally, I'm not going to be afraid to kill him if need be," Rianna replies to Xavier, before turning to leave the room. "Let's go, then. Sooner we're gone, the better. Rand, you had better not get up to anything while we're gone..."

Xavier turns and follows Rianna, "Of course if it comes to killing him, if we must we must. we would do that to anyone who crosses us," Xavier says making sure Rand understands he means him as well.

"So, who's flying?"

"Trax can fly us. I wouldn't want any blue lizards to fly us into an asteroid."

Rand just shakes his head and returns to whatever it is he was researching.

The New Beginning, then? If there is any other prep work you want to do before going, please feel free. Contacting allies, getting any relevant information, recruiting some Epireans for the joy ride, etc.

Rianna can't think of anything; she doesn't care if they bring along any Epireans, so long as they stay out of her way.

Epireans are fine.

Only information I can think of is more about the planet and what we can expect to find there.

Ten Epireans will accompany you, then. As a reminder, they have a Strength of 9, Combat of 7, and their primitive axes do Strength +4 in damage. But they are only mooks, so make them last.

Not much else besides what Rand told you. Skythros was colonized by the Republic, terrorized by pirates, abandoned by the Republic, bargained with pirates, survived without the Republic. Each small city across the globe operates a massive tract of farmland to produce enough food for itself and for donation to the pirates. The Skythrosians are simple and pacifistic, so whomever fought off the pirates did not do so with their help.

I can not think of anything else to do.

Firak, the tribal leader nearest the mountain, lends six of his Epirean warriors to your cause. The smelly brutes can stay in the hold of Xavier's ship when you don't need them.

And so the three-being expedition can commence. The New Beginning, with Trax at the helm, ascends from the hidden mountain base and takes its leave of Epireus, shooting off into hyperspace once you have left the gravity well of your secret world.

The trip to Skythros is uneventful and short. It is a fairly green world from all the bountiful farmland, speckled with small bodies of water, but most of the surface is hidden by clouds. They turn out to be rain clouds, which you figure out once you enter the atmosphere and find it raining lightly across most of the surface.

One of the towns, we'll call it Oldbark, hails you. The starport controller is wonderin' what in tarnation your big ol' ship is doing above their farming fields. Trax never responds to these damn things any more, he knows that someone might drive a lightsaber through him if he says the wrong thing.

Xavier doesn't trust the others to speak.

He speaks into the comm," We are merchants looking to buy food."

"Merchants?" Rianna hisses at Xavier.

Xavier doesn't even notice Rianna's remark as he awaits for their response.

The controller does not really seem to care, just asking out of habit and duty.

"Good enough for me! So long as you're not looking for trouble. Welcome to Oldbark of Skythros. Happy landings, fellas."

He gives you clearance and designates you to land in the docking bays... the docking bays being a strip of dirt field.

"You got lucky..." Rianna says to Xavier.

"I hate how that always works," Dak grumbles. "Why are we always merchants?"

"Doesn't he always?" Trax responds to Rianna, glumly, as he sets The New Beginning down in dirt field. It is mostly devoid of ships; you're guessing that Skythros does not get many visitors, let alone a weary place called Oldbark.

"We do not need luck, we have ability," Xavier says.

"Or maybe the people you talk to are just stupid."

"We'll agree to that," Xavier says AS HE TALKS TO DAK.

The lizard is quite annoying sometimes isn't he?

"How about we just land the ship?" Rianna says, irritated.

"Very well Trax land us."

Trax just shakes his head and puts down the landing gear. The ship drops onto the field with a clunk, and you're down.

"I'll wait here," Trax says. "As usual."

"Well, we're here. Now what?" Rianna asks. "We have no idea exactly where he is. And somehow I doubt this place keeps any sort of decent records."

"Well, we could try asking somebody," Dak says, "'Hello, sir, have you seen a raving lunatic with a couple lightsabers recently?'"

"Yes, I'm sure that will go over well," Rianna replies, rolling her eyes.

Despite usually leaving that sort of talking thing to Tanic or Gallador, asking around might be a good way to find out more about the militia that fought off the pirates, and what Galder got up to.

Well, may as well go check out the town and places we can ask around, then.

Xavier follows Rianna making sure she won't do anything too foolish.

Does Xavier want Trax to come with or remain with the ship? And are the Epireans tagging along or staying on board?

Leave the Epireans behind for now, I think. We can always go back to the ship for them if we need to.

Xavier can decide where Trax is when he posts.

The three (or four) of you go ambling into the Oldbark township. There seems to be only the main street that runs through towns, everything else being narrow alleyways. On either side of the street, it is apparent that the architects had it in mind to stack everything on top of each other. The rickety buildings are in the style of buildings of the 'Old West,' but rise higher and higher the further along the street you go. It looks risky and uninviting above the first or second story, and you swear that some of the towers even lean.

Dak (being the only one with Savoir-Faire) can know that the Skythrosians build like this because they do not want to expand outwards. Farming land is valuable and they'd rather use it for farming than for housing. They add more floors as the population increases, as the township government requests.

Main Street (marked by street signs as such despite there being no other streets to mark) is bustling with activity as the people return from the fields or head out to them, vendors on either side of the streets, donkey-like creatures with beaks tugging hovering carts. There is no superior race apparent here, so Dak being a giant blue lizard does not matter much.

However, you are better dressed than most people on this street. Tattered rags and a poncho and maybe an odd hat seem to be the norm, all in rustic tones, so Rianna's red cloak stands out brilliantly in a crowd.

What are you looking for when you come into Oldbark?

Heh, yay for easily standing out...

Well, we tend to info-search at bars and places like that, so it sounds like a likely place to start.

Having headed in at the outskirts, you discover that most of the buildings are living quarters. It is further down the main street that you find a set of towers across the street from one another, connected by wooden bridges every other floor. The sign above either entrance reads 'Two Brothers Salloon.'

Yeah, headed for our usual location of a bar.

Seeing as they are just wondering around looking for Info right now, Xavier will let Trax come with them. He doesn't get much of a chance to get out often.

Dak will swagger carelessly into the saloon, acting as if he owns the place.

Xavier follows closely behind appearing as intimidating as possible.

Rianna just walks in, looking around and using Sense.

Trax seems genuinely surprised when he is allowed to tag along for more than piloting. With his ragged get-up and green pruney face, he blends into the crowd pretty well. He also has his heavy assault rifle slung over his back.

So, three Dark Jedi and a pruney fellow walk into a bar. Nobody really pays you mind as you enter. The bottom floor has a bar along the left wall and tables everywhere, people drinking jovially as you would expect, maybe a few hushed discussions in the far back of the room.

Nothing particularly interesting, Rianna. You feel odd, but mostly you just sense all the drunkedy minds in the area.

Dak goes straight for the bar and asks for a bottle of Flamin' Wookiee.

Xavier looks the bar over a few times.

It's time for a drink

"No drinking makes one illogical, and can lead to problems."

So what, who cares we're only looking for Galder right now. We can take our time, and I want to be let loose for a little bit.

"Fine," Xavier says calmly. He walks up to the bar asks for the bottle of strongest stuff they have.

"We're supposed to be finding out what's going on here..." Rianna comments, deciding to take a table near the back of the room.

"Think about it. We have just been given the opportunity to not have to deal with Rand, Gallador, and the rest of that bunch. Are you really in that much a hurry?"

"And you trust them to be left to their own devices for any period of time without Rand coming up with some sort of plan to get us under his thumb and take control of the group again?" Rianna snaps back.

"Rand couldn't even if he tried. And if Galder's still alive, he can stand a few more hours. Come on, Rianna, have some fun." Dak takes a swig from his bottle.

"That hardly strikes me as fun. And I don't know about you, but I have a bad feeling about this."

"Drink something. The feeling will go away," the lizard replies nonchalantly, leaning back.

The bartender wordlessly breaks out the Flamin' Wookiee, red bottle and all.

Seated at the bar, you chat amongst yourselves for a bit. Trax joins you.

"It has been awhile since we could relax, Xavier," Trax says, ordering some shots. "Not since you fell."

"Yeah I agree with the Fido this time. You always have bad feelings anyways," Xavier says taking a shot of whatever the bar keeper brought him.

"Yes Trax it has been awhile."

"And my bad feelings tend to turn out to be something. So deal," Rianna snaps back, already annoyed.

"Oh, relax, Rianna. Here, I'll even buy you something. You just need to stop acting like you're still stuck in that Temple."

Trax takes his shot, some of his drink dripping down his chin, into the cracks and prunes of his face.

"Too long," Trax says, wearily. "Ever since you stopped being a Jedi, no peace at all..."

He takes another shot.

So, what is the plan for info-hunting?

Screw info-hunting. We're getting drunk.

"That was the price for our mistake," Xavier says to Trax taking another shot.

"How have you been holding up with the new living conditions?"

Rianna just glares back at Dak.

And info-hunting...well, whenever they decide they've drunk enough, someone should mention that we'd heard about pirate problems that suddenly cleared up

Trax just sighs and takes another shot in response, Xavier. He isn't happy, you can tell that much.

How drunk are we talking, Dak?

Xavier senses Trax is not happy. He turns away and takes another drink.

Enough to be jovial, but coherent, and possibly to start a fight.

Rianna's already restless enough to want to start a fight without drinking

"Well I don't think we'll be going anywhere for awhile, Rianna," Xavier takes another shot just starting to feel the first one a bit.

"Oh, joy," Rianna mutters sarcastically, leaning her head on her hand.

Mildly drunk, then.

During your small-time drinking binge, Rianna's odd feeling does not fade, whether she is drinking or not.

A man sits at the bar next to Dak, thumping a very heavy looking blaster rifle down on the bar. Which causes you to double-take, remembering vaguely that everyone on Skythros is supposed to be pacifistic...

After drinking quietly, Trax tugs on Xavier's arm while looking over his shoulder.

Xavier takes another shot when Trax pulls on his arm, "What is it Trax." He say looking over in that direction.