SITHMAS 2011 - DARK SIDE - Presents from Starguard

SITHMAS 2011

Presents from Starguard

These events take place sometime in the year before Episode IV. The Dark Siders have been performing investigations into the Syphar N Kalar and maintaining their domain on Epireus. One day, they intercept a message that prompts Rand to send some of the group to figure out what it is...

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The premise of this Sithmas gift is simple- there will be a competitive element in the game that allows for a single winner! All who participate in the competition will receive 2xp. The winner, however, will receive 5xp!

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Epireus

The Dark Siders of Epireus have been terribly preoccupied with the Syphar N Kalar during the year prior to their adventure to Datura, following the open broadcast from Emperor Rivas in which he declares that he has captured Kuylen.

But Rivas' broadcast is not the only message that is intercepted by the comms room in the Epireus base. Having fixed it up after the raid on Newhaven, the comms room is more or less the Dark Siders only connection with the Galaxy around them, apart from any information they collect from their connections. Being unable to venture into the Republic and being generally disliked anywhere else, they glean what they can from whatever media reaches their sensors. Most of the time, this mostly includes daily news from within the Republic, as the Republic hosts the most successful and widely-used media provider in galactic history- the HoloNet. Otherwise, the occasional message is snatched from the airwaves from other planetary groups and the like.

Aside from the speech that Rivas gives, almost none of this information is of any importance to the Dark Jedi other than being aware of what is going on in the Galaxy. None of it directly involves them or affects them.

Except for this one-

"ATTENTION USER: TANIC STARGUARD. CONFIRMATION CODE 1211381410490. YOUR SHIPMENT HAS BEEN PROCESSED AND IS READY FOR RETRIEVAL AT THE CENTRAL SHIPPING PORT OF YARYS. ALL EXPENSES PAID, NO ALTERNATIVE FORM OF PAYMENT REQUIRED. PLEASE RETRIEVE SHIPMENT AT EARLIEST CONVENIENCE. WE EAGERLY AWAIT YOUR ARRIVAL AND HOPE YOU WILL CONTINUE TO USE OUR SHIPPING SERVICE IN THE FUTURE. VISIT THE YARYS MAIN PORT OFFICE TO LOCATE YOUR SHIPMENT. WE ARE WAITING. . . GOORIN BROTHER SHIPPING."

Tanic Starguard, for those that do not remember, was an associate of yours that rolled with you during the initial confrontation with the Bureau of Immigration and Undesirables. A roguish fellow who was scruffy and preferred comfortable but worn traveling gear, he was a talented former Jedi that worked for a criminal organization known as the Empire of Pity. He stayed long enough to see the conclusion of the Citadel debacle, but began to disassociate himself with the Dark Jedi of Epireus shortly after.

You haven't actually seen him recently, and now whomever is manning the comms office has found this being broadcast out into space publicly- anyone can pick up this message.

Nume Rand, who wants to think he is still your leader, is highly intrigued by this...

Rand is not leader, no matter what he wants to think 😊

Rianna is also intrigued because she actually kinda got along with Tanic pretty well, having known and worked with him for a bit before both of them fell to the Dark Side.

"Why would Tanic order...something, and then apparently be unreachable so that they have to try and contact him like this?" she says.

"Free stuff?" Dak is intrigued by free stuff. "We could use some supplies, or whatever's in it... and, uh, maybe Tanic will come back someday and we can give him what's left."

So where is Yarys, anyway?

"Ah, yes, just steal all the things..."

"It's not stealing," Dak counters, grinning. "It's already been paid for. We're just picking it up for our missing associate."

Knowing Yarys' location would be helpful, yes.

"Because just picking it up is all that you'd do with it?" Rianna replies.

Though she's also wondering what the heck the stuff is...

According to your Savoir-Faire rolls, you have no idea where Yarys is, nor do you know what it is.

can Rah use any of old smuggling contacts to put some feelers out to find out about Yarys?

"We're more concerned with that fact Tanic knows our location," Xavier says

"He also knows that if he ratted us out to anyone, he'd have all of us hunting him down..."

Azarl may know more about Yarys than any of these people. Knowing things is his primary schtick, and what he doesn't know he can check with his contacts about.

Rah- unfortunately, you don't have the Merits for that. Those connections were cut some time ago.

Azarl certainly knows about Yarys, but not a great deal. It is not an important place and it is the galactic equivalent of a trucker stop. Yarys serves as a refueling station and shipping depot for bulk freighters and deep-space shuttles, before they jump off to whatever their destination may be.

It is rather notably controlled by the Golden Serpent...

...oh god.

"The Serpent? Really? Well, they won't be too pleased to see some of us show up..." Rianna says.

"I never dealt with them, but I've heard your stories..."

"I would be inclined to think it's a trap, but I think the Empire of Pity is aligned with the Serpent. Still, we completely wiped out their entire leadership chain, they're not necessarily going to know us..."

The Empire of Pity actually broke ties with the Serpent when they backed your assassination of Doon. You may recall they sent their bounty hunter, Slate.

"The Golden Serpent will still know of us," Rand says. "It is difficult to forget those who obliterated their leadership..."

Rand wants this investigated, but wants to find out everything he can about the message before hand. He will forward it to the Mecrossans and ask for any anaylsis they can provide. He wants to know what they know about Yarys.

"We should be cautious, it may well be a trap by the Serpent, they are not likely to forget soon how we slaughtered their entire leadership".

"Trap or not...we should check this out. I doubt this could go anywhere near as poorly as the last time we dealt with the Serpent," Rianna says.

"Agreed we should check it out," Xavier says