USH'S GAME EPISODE III- 'ARTIFACT'. Dark Side area

The Capital, Malastare

Three months have passed since Faylar was eliminated on Damagran. Finally you have left the Confederacy far behind you. In many ways, you have little to show for it. Your pirate allies are dead or turned against you, your base at Jaglon lost, the money all disappeared to the pirates or the Hutts, and even the great prize at Avalar was mostly denied you by Fayar, and the thrice-damned Jedi. You understand that Damagran wishes to re-join the Republic. Soon, it will be as if you never existed, there wll simply be a string of dead people and destroyed property to your name. Trying to disrupt the Galaxy can be a fruitless task sometimes.

Your names and appearances are all well-known to the authorities, even with the slow inertia of the Galaxy. Luckily in a Republic of this size you are not recognised on the streets, or anything so dramatic, but the mysterious anominity you once enjoyed has gone.

For three months you have been covering tracks, gathering all you own from secret stashes and then destroying them, severing links and moving on. You have laid low for three months until you have entirely vanished from the Galactic scene, and you have used your talents and the natural obfuscation of the Dark Side to remain hidden. There is NO-ONE who can find you now.

But what can you do, hidden? SImply waste away to nothing? Pah! Of course not. Because your plan still holds.

From Avalar you recovered plentiful navigation data. ata which could tell you the location of other Sith sites, probnably none as informative as Avalar would have been, but interesting nonetheless. Kuylen, one-time archivist at the Jedi Temple, remains as knowledgable of these things as he always was. It seems he has somewhere specific in mind.

One problem. The data is useless. As Quam discovered in his analysis last game, it seems to be so much gibberish. Even after you go through the painful process of decoding and unscrambling, what you are left eith is data that is incomplete. Trying to follow this data is like trying to navigate the seas with no idea of longitude. There is obviously more that you need but you have no idea where you could get it from.

All you know is that Kuylen has promised you guys progress- if you meet him on Malastare once your hiding time is done.

This leads to questions. Kuylen has been gone for some time- what did he find on Tatooine and Naboo? Rumours, nothing more, though it seems certain that the mighty Qui-Gon Jinn was indeed killed by a sabre user- a man like yourselves, no doubt. Kuylen would have recruited such a man but it seems a young Jedi named Obi-Wan Kenobi killed him. A waste.

But... why Malastare? One of the MAJOR Republican worlds! Why all this eoffrt to hide from the Republic to simply drive straight back into it? Stay there for long and you will be spotted for sure. There had better be a DAMN good reason! Quam, you have a suspicion, which later turns out to be right.

You have made your way, quietly, to Malastare. Your unregistered ships, should you own any, are kept in quiet docks, your possesions stored safely. You are meeting Kuylen in a back alley somewhere.

With him is Chion (of course), and that Twi'lek pilot of Kuylen's, who you see rarely. And also a new guy you have not seen before- tall, middle-aged with greying hair and a small pony tail, dressed in brown. Kuylen introduces him as Takuan Soho, a member of your team who has been working out on the Rim, but who Kuylen has now called him.

(Guys, this is Dexx. Help him feel welcome, and you may wish to fill him in on what you guys do, because Kuylen hasn't!).

Kuylen tells you what you are going to do, You are going to see a man named Kir Ascar.

Ah yes, Quam, so you thought... you have not met Ascar but you have heard of him and you knew Kuylen knew him. He is a huyman businessman who had made a fortune and moved to Malastare some years ago. But he is also a keen historian and knows much of ancient times. He is also an avid collector of Jedi memorabilia. You know it is with Ascar's help that Kuylen found Avalar. MAybe he can help you people again?

Kuylen has a warning for all of you.

"We are going to speak to Ascar. And I mean SPEAK, nothing else. We will not threaten him and CERTAINLY not use violence. Ascar is too useful to kill. He is well guarded. His security system is extreme. If we murder him on Malastare the Jedi will be on us in an instant. He has many powerful friends who would come after us. And he is harder to kill than he looks. Clear?"

SEEMS clear, but unusual for Kuylen to be so even-handed.

"We just talk."

You will get a transport there soon.

Takuan is seen walking slowly thru the small dark alleys. He was wearing a dark brown robe wich allowed his saber to be seen hanging inside. A few moments later he hears voices and sees few people.
This must be the meeting place! Soho goes towards them...

Gald listens to Kuylen's orders and nods. "Okay Master Kuylen, no use of violence," Gald says, thinking to himself Darn, that's my favorite part of negotiations. He conceals his red lightsaber in a pouch, next to the blue lightsaber he had contructed.

He cocks his blaster pistol and holsters it, keeping it loose just in case. On his belt he has a few grenades and two blaster pistols. Slung across his back is the repeater he had picked up on Damagran 3 months ago, shortly before Faylar's death. His two lightsabers sit in an open pouch next to his holster.

He turns to greet Takuan. "Hello Takuan. A pleasure to have your services," he says in greeting. "I am Galder Welptet. Just call me Gald."

(btw, now I have a blue lightsaber to go with the red one, since Lance destroyed the green lightsaber in REVENGE)

Takuan, now trying to assimilate the new faces, turns to Gald so he can return the greeting.
"Hello....Takuan Soho."

Gald shakes Takuan's hand and leans close to give him advice. "If you turn on us," he whispers, "you die, and if you stay, you'll get power like you've never seen before. Beware of Jedi and your home free."

Gald looks to Rura Ta, Gald's Kaminoan friend. "Rura Ta," he says quietly, then shakes Takuan's hand.

"Nice to meet you all"
Gald's remark left compleetly no remark over Takuan.
he then slowly stepped away, thinking about the mission...

Well, Dexx, you have in front of you two huge aliens, one unpleasant looking guy with a lot of guns, one smaller alien with a tommy blaster on his side, a young woman, Kuylen, and his pilot. It's you guys against the universe.

Quite a team. Notes to self: I hope they fight better than they look.

(Oh, we fight much better. btw, I'm having de javu. I could have sworn I've read Dexx's last message b4)

Gald turns to Kuylen. "Should we be going then? I'm ready to go," he says.

"So long as everyone understands..." he says.

The transport is taking you to the rich, downtown area of the capital, where wealthy Gran businessmen in suits enjoy the pleasures that a civilised society has to offer. Humans are among them, but far more rare than you are used to. There is a short walk from where you are dropped off to where you are headed, and you walk somewhat self-consciously through the sophisticated area of town.

Until you get tp where you are going- a humongous skyscraper to rival Coruscant or Nar Shadda. All Ascar's own, apparently.

"Ascar is more than just a businessman, he's one heck of a gambler, too," says Kuylen. "He deals with the Hutts regularly, virtually as an equal. There are a string of Republican regulations that should stop a man building such an Empire on gambling proceeds but a man like him knows the ways around them. It's with his fortune that he acquired his collection, and it's his collection we are interested in."

Kuylen walks towards the foyer.

"Gamblers...just my type..."

"Maybe not in the way you mean," says Kuylen. "Ascar makes his money from gambling but rarely directly. He RUNS bests, and there is a lot of money to be made there, even though Malastare has legal limits on gambling. With the pod races and all."

"well....some just seem to have the money" says Takuan getting closer and closer to their target.

"That's why I cheat. There was a gambler that lost most of his money to a Dark Jedi from because the Dark Jedi used the Force to manipulate everything, from flipping a coin to playing sabacc." Gald holds up a pouch and shakes it, and credits jingle inside. "Credits from a few rounds of sabacc I won in the past 3 months."

"great!...we should play" says Takuan in a monoton voice as they approached the building.

The lower area of the building is really more of a garage than a reception area. There are well-armed guards around- some Grans, some Dugs, and some human- but they seem to ignore you as you walk in. Air speeders are lined up around, and a number of officers are nearby. Kuylen is heading for the lifts.

"No trouble, remember?" he says.

"Yes Master, I remember," says Gald.

Um, queeq? I'm not entiely sure if the garage I just described fits the gambling hall that you just did! We'll proceed on my description, folks...

Kuylen invites everyone to the lift; he is pushing the button for the top floor.

Gald wraps his black robes around him to conceal his weapons. "First time in awhile that I've been on a working lift," says Gald, thinking back to the lifts in Faylar's old base.