STAR WARS: RETROSPECTION- Teachings of the Shaman

Vudes, long ago

A green world hangs spinning in space, pristine and perfect at this distance. The stars are fewer this far out in the Galaxy. Clouds curl about the orb, above dense jungles and sparkling seas. A world untouched by pollution.

Suddenly, in a flash, something appears in space above the world. It is an enormous starship, a dreadnought of sorts. It has been damaged in battle, and the lightspeed escape has done it no favors. It is breaking up and it is going to crash. It dives into the atmosphere of Vudes, engulfed in flame as it reenters.

It trails smoke into the atmosphere of the planet and, with an epic explosion, crashes into the jungles, just beside one of the planet's great seas...

-

Welcome to "Heroes of Old," a game from the Retrospection series. These games are meant to provide a fun plot based upon the backgrounds of player characters, while giving players themselves a chance to gain experience- both in points and in practice with the system. This time, Retrospection takes a look at Azarl Kaal, a man who views the Force as simply an exertion of will from a powerful mind.

Before his time staying on Epireus with the other Dark Jedi, Azarl was once a great hero and powerful warrior on a planet that knew nothing of the Republic, or the Jedi. His strange powers would normally have made him an outsider, as so often happens to those discovered with the Force so far from Coruscant.

But in the case of Azarl, he had a mentor...

Vudes

Azarl- you awake from your dream in a sweat. This is getting ridiculous- you have dreamed of a vessel falling from the sky almost every night this week! You do not know what it means or why this dream keeps coming to you. The Shaman has not taught you such talents.

You are currently in bed, laying on your reed-stuffed matress in the wooden homestead that you live in with your mother. It is a warm, balmy night in your village, but you feel cold from head to toe.

Oh hey.

Azarl will rise from his bed, wiping away the sweat from his forehead. He contemplates what he saw and then goes outside of the homestead to take a walk in the night air.

He will make sure his lightsaber is with him.

Your what whosit? Azarl has been outcasted by the warrior community because of either his unwillingness or inability to learn to use melee weapons. You can use a shield just fine, but in a tribe that prides itself on their spearsmanship, you are a sore thumb.

The Kaal Tribe is one of the smallest of the many tribes that live on Vudes. The village in which they live is located around the Rock of Kaal, the holy landmark from which they derive their name. It has long been forgotten by most why it is named such. The Shaman has promised to tell you, but the time has not come yet.

The night is warm and the sky is clear. Stars are few and constellations almost nonexistent; the Vudans don't really look to the stars for answers anyway.

Azarl will look skyward regardless, having kept seeing a ship falling from it the last few nights. Is anyone else about?

Azarl will walk toward the rock.

Only the nightwatchmen, on the lookout for enemy warriors or dangerous animals.

The Rock of Kaal is an enormous rock that juts from the earth at an awkward angle, probably part of some greater mass of stone that has been bared over the centuries. It is underneath the Rock's overhang that the Shaman has built his hut.

He has a fire lit within, and a thick aromatic smoke is drifting from it over the village.

Azarl will go to the Shaman's hut, then, treading quickly through the village.

The Shaman is sitting just inside, deep in meditation beside the fire. He sprinkles some herbs and salts from a bag into the fire, causing it to crackle brightly and emit more aromatic smoke.

"Can you not sleep?" the Shaman asks, not opening his eyes.

"No," Azarl says. "I had the dream again. About the starship falling from the sky in flames. That IS what you called it, right? A starship?"

"Yes," the Shaman says. "That is what it is called."

The Shaman is Salcazar Kaal- for all intensive purposes, he is the leader of the the Kaal tribe. Though he is a frail old man, he leads the highly religious tribe in their rituals, and has managed to keep the warriors under his control.

He has a very strong Will, and is teaching you more about your own and how to use it.

You may need to make some changes now!

"What is their purpose and why do we not have them?" Azarl asks, curiously. "Such a thing seems fantastic and impossible, but if they exist, surely we can make our own."

Your story is not much changed, and we'll carry on in Basic for simplicity.

"What interest would you have in such things?" Salcazar chitters.

Okay.

"I have dreamed about it all week," Azarl says. "I just makes one ponder such things."

Azarl looks up at the stars.

"Where would it have come from?"

"It could have come from anywhere," Salcazar says. "It is irrelevant."

"If I am dreaming of such things, then it is hardly irrelevant," Azarl claims. "It is not normally something I am prone to doing."

"No, I have not taught you such," Salcazar says simply. He has not opened his eyes yet. You can sense his Will strongly, though you cannot read it. You never could.

"When will you?" Azarl asks. "So far, much of what I have learned about my own Will is exerting it against my surroundings or using it to push myself beyond my normal limits."

"When your time comes," Salcazar says.

The Shaman is often cryptic with you like this.

Azarl is annoyed by this, but decides to join the Shaman in meditation.

"What do you see, then, when you dream?" Azarl asks.

Salcazar smirks, and opens his multitude of eyes.

"What good would it be for me to tell you what I have Willed?" Salcazar says.