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Republic Reckoning 4.12.87

We travel north over the marsh in our flat bottomed boat. We know that we may soon confront powerful Dark Forces, so we take shifts in meditation. Quindo and Dabai stand guard while everyone else spends 3 hours in Emptiness. Unfortunately, one hour into our trip, we are approached by a military patrol boat. They are very authoratative and very twitchy. We explain that we are Jedi on an important mission and that our companions are meditating. They insist we wake them. We can't really wake them easily or reliably. The only way we know how is to wound them, which doens't really seem to be an option.

"Hello... We're Jedi... What part of Official Republic Business don't you understand? We can prove it to you if need be, but we must be on our way!" Suddenly there are a lot of guns pointed at us. Quindo is tempted to just incapacitate them all, but is concerned that he might have to kill them if it comes to a fight. We keep trying to convince them to leave us be, but Quindo's not particularly persuasive. Then they shoot us with stun guns and take us back to their base camp. When Altair wakes up 3 hours later, he is confused and unhappy. By the time everyone wakes up and Altair explains the situation to the military, we've wasted 4 hours. We finally set out again and spend the night on an island only a few hours north of the spaceport.

Republic Reckoning 4.13.87

Around midday we encounter a military patrol forcibly relocating a village. They're rounding up natives and putting them in transports and napalming the huts. Brian - "It's Apocalypse Now!" Ian - "No, it's Apocalypse A Long Time Ago In a Galaxy Far Far Away."

Altair goes to ask directions and see if he can get gasoline for our boat. He meets with the Commander and asks about Kast. Military intelligence indicates that Kast was involved in putting down an insurgency about 100 klicks north. They give us diesel and we leave. Force Senses indicate something dark ahead.

Later that day we encounter an oil platform. We decide to climb it to see if we can see north. Brojen and Altair stay with the boat while Quindo, Dabai, and Elbram climb the ladder. Somone is watching us. Altair talks to them and they welcome us. It's a family of oil barons, (pater familia = Kosh Lusp)employing natives cheaply. They treat them well. They've been here for 50 years and know Kast and her dig site. Lusp shows us maps and feeds us dinner. During dinnner we have a philosophical discussion.

He thinks that natives are ungrateful since he brings modern tech and medicine for their labor. They have a better life but they don't like outsiders etc etc. Also, he makes parallels between our trip and a philosophical journey. He claims we'll change our minds as we travel deeper into the marsh. Also, it looks like the dig site is on an island big enough to have landed on. Quindo - "Why didn't we just fly there?" Brojen - "Then we'd have missed the symbolic journey into the darkness within ourselves." Quindo - "Well, if this *were* a voyage of self-discovery you'd have a point, but we're on a voayage of why the hell aren't we there yet?"

We finally continue on.

Republic Reckoning 4.14.87

There are two island chains connected by a bridge. Two forces seem to be fighting over the bridge. Going around will take hours, so Dabai takes the conrols and guns the boat as fast as it will go, aiming to go between the islands, under the bridge. A patrol boat pulls alongside and tries to wave us away. It's too dangerous. Dabai - "What's the worst that could happen?" We pull out lightsabers and take up positions at the 4 corners of the boat. "We're Jedi, we'll be fine!" They wish us luck and pull away. We drive straight through the mess, using our lightsabers to protect the boat and each other from blaster fire and projectiles. It's surprisingly easy.

A few hours away from the dig site Altair enters Emptiness, Quindo meditates on not being angry. We're heading through a thicker jungle, open water with trees to either side. Suddenly, we're ambushed by natives with guns. We again defend the boat with our lightsabers while Dabai just tries to get us downriver faster. The boat takes a few minor hits, but nothing serious. Altair never even wakes up.

Four hours later we finally reach the temple. There are dead and not-quite-dead natives strung up in trees on either side of the river approach. Most look recently dead. We pull up to a dock and a human runs down from the temple to greet us. He introduces himself as Markre Sarkin, Kast's Assistant. He seems a little unhinged.

We demand to know what's going on and why there's a massacre in the trees. He claims that Kast did it in retaliation of some slight. Apparently, they weren't working fast enough or something. He tells us that Kast has gone into the jungle but will return in a few hours. We try sensing her, but the temple is EVIL and it's difficult to sense anything else.

The entry to the temple itself is flanked by giant statues of Natives in robes. There is an ampitheater (some kind of ritual combat arena or sacrificial stage) next to the temple. There are no Star Chambers or Ziggurats, but there are thousands of natives worshipping here. Worshipping Kast.

While we wait for Kast in rooms prepared for us within the temple, Marcus Dormammu arrives by boat. He's armed for bear and wearing striped camoflage. He informs us that the Republic Fleet is scattered and Bellisarius is on his way. Marcus wants to use the Heart of Darkness to stop the Sith. We try to convince him that it is too dangerous to be used safely and must be destroyed. We point out what has happened to Kast, who was a Jedi Guardian with no history of moral flexability until now. If she went bug-fucking-nuts trying to use it, what hope do we have?

We look around the temple and find Rel-Nor (Captain Naronne's 1st Officer) caged with his crew in back rooms. They are starved and in pain. We want to rescue them, but are worried about starting a full scale war with the thousands of worshipping natives. We try to finagle them out. Kast gave orders that they were not to be released unless she was here. Quindo has an idea. Intoning dramatically: Quindo - "Oh great and powerful Kast, if in your mercy you have decided to free these men, free them now!!"

He then uses TK to open the locks. Sarkin inturrupts to insist that Kast gave orders that she would only release them in person. Chances are that the natives will shoot us all anyway, even if we don't visibly release them. Rel-Nor agrees and asks us to leave him for now. So we Control their Pain and heal them as best we can and leave them there. Now we're just waiting for Kast.