STAR WARS: RETROSPECTION- The Cursed Swarm

Aurel offers to wrap him up in his tremendous cloak (Aurel being a large man). It'll have to do! The seven of you make your way down the rock spires back to solid ground.

Dar is able to guide you to the Garans' territory. It is heavily forested with a sparse few boulders about.

You sense stirrings beneath the ground the entire time... but the bugs do not surface to attack.

'Any idea why the Bugs aren't coming out?' Iffa asks Dar

"I do not know," Dar says. "Perhaps they know you now."

'You suggest they are somehow sentient.'

"Maybe all together they add up," Dar says.

'Like a hive-mind? Do you think there is some kind of Queen?'

"I do not know," Dar says. "We know little of the Swarm's first strike. Only legends."

"Legends have origin in truth," Aurel says.

"That may be," Dar says, "but I know little of the legends myself."

"A good tale can pass the time on long journeys, Dar. Why not tell us some of these legends?"

Dar will tell you a short tale about the Swarm.

The Sith invasion was preceded by a single black rock falling from space. The Swarm was unleashed and much devastation was brought to the planet. Originally both the Bollans and the Garans stood strong against the Swarm, brought together by the strong leadership of the Vaka (Bollans) and the Hsrik (Garans) of the time.

However, the Hsrik was corrupted by power when the Sith arrived. They offered him the planet if the Garans joined the invasion forces.

The Jedi came in defense of the Bollans and a tremendous war was fought that destroyed every city on the surface of Boll-Gar, reducing it to the primitive state it is currently in.

Eventually, the Sith left but the Swarm remained, now uncontrolled and wild.

"That much is known and clear," Dar says. "The names may be lost to time but the basic history of it can be supported, if we were to look. From there, it gets... unclear."

"So the Bollans and Garans have stood together before?"

"That I'm not sure about," Dar says. "It's possible but I doubt it. In any case, THEY broke their promises, if they ever made them."

"We will need them, your Vaka told me."

"I'm sure we will," Dar says. "But we're going to have to win them over or watch our backs the entire time."

"Both, I dare say," replies Iffa, "How much further is it?"

"Not far," Dar says.

"So, was that all there was to the legends?" Aurel asks.

"No. We do not know for sure how the Swarm was defeated the first time."

"how do the legends describe it?"

"There are several versions. Some say the Jedi did it, fighting them to the last. Some say the Sith ordered them into hiding. Some say our people did it, or that the Jedi helped us do it. Or that the Sharers changed sides again. We don't know."

"Maybe the Garans have an idea," says Iffa, "we will have to see!"

"I doubt it..." Dar mutters.

"How are we going to earn their respect?" Seth asks.

"What DO they respect?" asks Iffa